The Board of Panevezio statybos trestas AB proposes the following draft resolutions to be adopted at the Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders to be held at 10:00 on 29 April 2020, at Puzino Str. 1, Panevezys:

1. The conclusions of the audit regarding the Financial Statements and Annual Report of the Company for the year 2019 .

The shareholders have familiarized themselves with the information.

2. The Annual Report of the Company for the year 2019 .

The shareholders have familiarized themselves with the information.

3. Approval of the set of Financial Statements of the Company for the year 2019.

To approve the Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements of Panevezio statybos trestas AB for the year 2019, prepared in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union and issued together with the independent auditors opinion.

4. Appropriation of profit (loss) of the Company .

To approve the following appropriation of profit (loss) of Panevezio statybos trestas AB:

Unappropriated profit (loss) of the previous financial year at the end of the accounting financial year  26,656,711 EUR;

Dividends paid  0 EUR;

Net profit (loss) of the accounting financial year  590,332 EUR;

Profit (loss) of the accounting financial year unrecognized in profit (loss) statement  133,420 EUR;

Transfers from reserves  745,069 EUR;

Contributions of shareholders to cover the loss of the Company (in case of the shareholders decision to cover all or a part of loss)  0 EUR;

Total profit (loss) available for appropriation  28,125,532 EUR;

a part of profit to the legal reserve  0 EUR;

a part of profit to the reserve for the acquisition of own shares  0 EUR;

a part of profit to other reserves  0 EUR;

a part of profit for dividend paying  0 EUR;

a part of profit for bonuses (tantiemes) for the members of the Board and Supervisory Board, premium pays for employees and other purposes  0 EUR;

Unappropriated profit (loss) at the end of the accounting financial year transferred to the next financial year  28,125,532 EUR.

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5. Election of the members to the audit committee.

To elect the following members to the audit committee:

Drasutis Liatukas (as an independent member);

Irena Kriauciuniene (as an independent member);

Egle Grabauskiene.



6. Approval of Remuneration Policy of the Company.

To approve the Remuneration Policy for Top and Middle Management Staff of Panevezio statybos trestas AB (attached) according to Subparagraph 1 Paragraph 3 Article 37 of the Law on Companies of the Republic of Lithuania.

Taking into account the situation regarding the spread of COVID-19 and the timing for the extension of the quarantine announced by the resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania No. 264 dated 25 March 2020 On Amendment of the Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania No. 207 dated 14 March 2020 on Announcement of the Quarantine in the Territory of the Republic of Lithuania, the Company kindly requests all shareholders of the Company to use the opportunity of voting in writing at the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders by filling in the General Ballot Paper.

Dalius Gesevicius

Managing Director

Panevezio statybos trestas AB

Information

Phone: (+370 45) 505 503

Attachments
The environmental scientists and healthcare researchers have reportedly linked the high COVID-19 mortality in the northern region of Italy with air pollution. In the research published in the scientific journal Environmental Pollution, scientists demonstrated the link between the 12 per cent mortality rate in the Lombardy and Emilia Romagna region of northern Italy with a higher level of air pollution, which may have led to complications in health of the patients.

According to a scientist, Dario Caro from the Department of Environmental Science from Aarhus University in Denmark, and health researchers Bruno Frediani and Dr. Edoardo Conticini from the University of Siena in Italy, several underlying factors such as prolonged exposure to the air pollution particulate, weakened the immunity system of patients with the COVID-19 in the region. Speaking to the media, Caro said that many factors other than just the disease had altered the course of patients' illness. He said that there have been studies to find the links and explanations of the mortality rate variation across different countries in the world.

Read: Italy Fiscal Police Loads Up Aid For Virus Hotzone

Read: Coronavirus Outbreak: Germany Could Face Italy Like Pressure, Warns Health Officials

The virus had long arrived in Italy

Caro emphasized that the research stated that important co-factors such as the old age of the Italian population, various differences in the Italian regional health systems, the capacity of ICUs and the parameters to report the infection and deaths have a pivotal role in the lethality of the COVID-19 disease. The data accumulated via NASA Aura satellite reportedly demonstrated extremely high levels of air pollution across the two northern regions with the highest death toll.

According to Flavia Riccardo, a researcher in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Italian National Institute of Health, the virus had long arrived in Italy and was circulating way before the government discovered the first case, a media outlet reported. This happened around the time when the country was facing a peak of influenza, and citizens were showing influenza symptoms, he added.

Read: Fact Check: Was Prince Charles Cured Of Coronavirus By Ayurveda And Homeopathy?

Read: Coronavirus Spain: Barcelona Have Reportedly Agreed To Furlough Staff Amid COVID-19 Crisis
For weeks, Andrew Iavarone has stayed in his Delaware County home with his family, prisoners to the coronavirus pandemic. Hes spent much of that time in isolation wondering why the man who killed his son, Joseph, has been allowed to do the same after months in a jail cell.

Its a hard thing to live with right now, Iavarone said. To me, this was murder. Joes punishment was being shot and killed, and whats this guys punishment? To go home to his family?

John Ballas, 50, shot Joseph Iavarone, 44, once in the head last Memorial Day after an argument. Initially charged with first- and third-degree murder, Ballas sat in the county jail for months, denied bail as his case worked its way through the court system.

But on March 23, as the Delaware County Courthouse was shuttered except for a few emergency functions, Ballas, of Aston, quietly pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, a significantly less serious charge than those he originally faced. He was released on unsecured bail the same day, and is free until his June sentencing.

Now, Iavarones friends and family are fuming at that outcome, frustrated at its timing and leniency. County prosecutors, meanwhile, defend the decision as appropriate, if not difficult, given the facts of the case.

District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said in an interview this week that the prosecutors didnt think they would be able to successfully argue at trial that Ballas acted with malice and therefore was guilty of murder.

Stollsteimer said that decision was made after senior staff members in his office reviewed the case. He called involuntary manslaughter the most just charge.

We are prioritizing gun cases, and every gun case that comes into the office is given a special look, Stollsteimer said. In this case, veteran prosecutors in our office reviewed it and found we could not sustain the charges.

Ballas attorney, Mark Phillip Much, did not return a request for comment Tuesday. At Ballas preliminary hearing in July, Much argued that the murder charge was not appropriate and said Ballas had acted in self-defense.

This man came to my clients home at 3 a.m. screaming, yelling, and damaging his property, he said. There was no specific intent to kill.

The gunfire came at the height of an argument between the two men, sparked when police say Iavarone walked the few yards separating his front door from Ballas and started screaming, demanding to see Ballas son.

Ballas threatened to shoot Iavarone if he didnt leave, and followed through on that threat amid protests from Iavarone, according to an affidavit of probable cause for Ballas arrest.

Ballas wife had called 911 to report that someone had broken a flowerpot on her property, police said. She later told police that after making that call, she and Ballas were inside their house when they heard Iavarone continue to scream outside, and that Ballas went to retrieve a .38-caliber handgun from his closet. Ballas only fired the weapon, he told officers, after Iavarone charged at him on his front lawn.

The crime stuck with David Bytheway, a longtime friend of Iavarone.

There was no reason to get a gun, load a gun, threaten to shoot him, and then shoot him, Bytheway said. Thats thought out. Thats a process there, thats not impulse.

He argued that if Ballas truly felt threatened, he should have stayed inside his home and waited for the police to arrive. And he worries that with this guilty plea, the full scope of the fatal encounter will never be revealed.

I really wanted a trial, not for a specific outcome, but just to get the story, Bytheway said. Theres two people who know what happened that night, and now the only one who can talk never will.
Undocumented immigrants challenging their deportation orders are entitled to a hearing for possible release on bond after six months in custody, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, with an appointee of President Trump casting the deciding vote.

The 2-1 ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco applies to immigrants who have been arrested or turned themselves in after entering the United States and claim they would face persecution or torture in their homeland. Lawyers said the case applies to hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of migrants held in prolonged custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the circuits nine Western states.

The appeals court issued a similar ruling in 2013 requiring six-month bond hearings for a larger group of unauthorized immigrants, those locked up while awaiting deportation hearings or rulings on whether they could legally enter the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned that decision in 2018, ruling 5-4 that federal immigration law allowed those migrants to be detained indefinitely until their cases were decided. The justices told lower courts to consider whether the immigrants had a constitutional right to a bond hearing, an issue that remains unresolved.

Tuesdays case involved a different immigration law. The appeals court said another panel of the court had interpreted that law in 2011 to require a bond hearing before an immigration judge if release or removal is not imminent. Bond is required unless the government proves that the migrant is dangerous or likely to flee.

The Supreme Courts 2018 ruling did not affect the 2011 decision, which remains binding, Judge Milan Smith said in the majority opinion. Smith, appointed by President George W. Bush, was joined by Judge Eric Miller, a former corporate attorney and Justice Department lawyer appointed by President Trump in 2018.

In dissent, Judge Ferdinand Fernandez, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, said the courts conclusion was irreconcilable with the Supreme Court decision.

The lead plaintiffs in the class-action suit are two Mexican men who entered the U.S. separately in 2017 and were held in detention despite findings by federal asylum officers that both had a reasonable fear of persecution or torture if deported.

Both men spent more than eight months in detention before being released in 2018, after a federal judge ruled that they were entitled to bond hearings. Both live in the East Bay with their families, and one man has won the right to remain in the country legally, their lawyers said.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The ruling may not take effect any time soon, as the Trump administration is likely to seek Supreme Court review. But Martin Kaufman, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who argued the case, said it was still a timely decision while people in custody could be at grave risk because of COVID-19.

San Francisco attorney Marc Van Der Hout, who also represents the plaintiffs, called the ruling a tremendous victory for immigrants and all those fighting for the rights of immigrants.

In a separate case, another panel of the appeals court ruled March 28 that immigrants who present a credible case for U.S. asylum are entitled to a prompt bond hearing.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- What started as a text from a daughter asking her father if he could make a protective face shield for her friends who are nurses in New York has grown into an effort to make 30,000 in a matter of weeks.

Tim Luke owns RecreTec, a custom raft frame shop out of Corvallis, and he said he and four other businesses joined together to mass produce face shields for those who really need them.

"We started networking as businesses - as people and everybody just wanted to help," he said.

The shields offer full mobility and visibility.

Luke said that these face shields will be shipped all over the country, free of charge to hospitals that are under duress.

For larger, better funded hospitals, he said he will sell them at a very discounted price, using the money to continue to make more.

"What started out as we might be able to make a few hundred of these maybe a thousand, by the grace of God and I give the glory to Him, He's provided all these people all these resources and just used me as a tool," Luke continued.

It's not just health care workers who will receive the protection.

"I've already told our WinCo we'll give them a couple hundred," he said.

Luke said he has 500 volunteers ready to assemble the masks and different businesses that volunteered labor and machinery, he's just waiting on the materials which he said were supposed to come Monday.

When it does arrive, he said his crew is more than ready.

If you would like to donate to the effort, check out his GoFundMe.
China must do more to help ease the debt burden of African countries facing economic calamity as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Ghanas finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta said on Monday.

According to Ken Ofori-Atta, Europe may also need to offer special drawing rights  a form of foreign exchange reserves managed by the International Monetary Fund  to shield Africa from commercial debt defaults.

There are now more than over 10,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the continent, with a number of African countries imposing a range of prevention and containment measures against the spread of the pandemic.

Mr. Ken Ofori-Attas call comes a week after finance ministers from African countries, most of them teetering towards debt default, called for US$100 billion in bailouts and debt relief to help them cope with the devastating effects of the outbreak.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), seven of the 35 low-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are in debt distress and a further nine have a high risk of debt distress. It says China is the largest lender to African countries.

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), a regional agency of the United Nations, has warned that the pandemic could cut the continents GDP from 3.2 per cent to below 2 per cent as the crisis disrupts global supply chains.

The ECA has estimated that export revenues will fall US$101 billion, including US$65 billion for the oil-producing countries including Angola and Nigeria, as crude oil prices continue to tumbl

China is estimated to hold about a fifth of the total debt in Africa, according to London-based Jubilee Debt Campaign, which is pushing for the debts of the poorest countries to be cancelled.

China advanced more than US$143 billion to African countries between 2000 and 2017, according to figures from the China Africa Research Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.
WASHINGTON - The private-equity industry is pressing members of Congress and senior Trump administration officials, including President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, to help them gain access to billions of dollars of stimulus funds to protect their riskier investments.

The rush of behind-the-scenes jockeying by the powerful financial sector has raised the prospect that an industry often known for slashing workforces could tap into the program designed as a life raft for small businesses.

The intense appetite among private-equity firms to get a bigger piece of the stimulus windfall has put a spotlight on the numerous ties between wealthy industry figures and Trump and his family - raising questions about potential conflicts of interest as the Treasury Department writes the rules for handing out billions of dollars in loans and grants.

One significant connection to the industry is through Kushner, a top White House official whose family real estate company received millions in loans from Apollo Global Management, a New York-based private equity firm.

Two weeks ago, a partner at Apollo sent a personal email to Kushner suggesting steps the administration should take to ensure that companies with private-equity investment get access to stimulus loan programs, according to two people briefed on the correspondence, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private communication.

More for you Kushner puts self in middle of virus response

More broadly, top private-equity leaders have given Trump counsel as the coronavirus pandemic has shaken the economy. Days before the passage of the $2 trillion stimulus package, an elite group of financiers - including the heads of two major private-equity firms Blackstone Group and Vista Equity - offered advice to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on a conference call, according to people familiar with the discussion.

The private-equity industry is pushing to qualify for various pots of stimulus funds, arguing that companies with investors should not be left out of the relief effort.

Some private-equity firms want their companies to be able to tap the stimulus' loan program for small businesses, which is limited to companies with fewer than 500 employees. Many also want their companies to be eligible for other loans aimed at larger businesses, even though some of those businesses are at higher risk for defaulting.

Drew Maloney, director of American Investment Council, the industry's trade group, said private-equity firms simply want a level playing field for the companies they back and are not lobbying for special treatment.

"What we've highlighted is our employees are suffering just as much as those in any sole proprietorships and public companies," Maloney said. "The virus is not discriminating against businesses based on ownership structures."

In the past week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, have blitzed Treasury Department and Small Business Administration officials with letters on behalf of companies backed by private equity or venture capital funds.

The lawmakers have called on the administration to waive a rule that would normally disqualify "equity-backed" companies, such as ones receiving private equity or venture capital funding, from winning small business stimulus funds, because it treats multiple businesses controlled by a single investor as one entity.

An aide to Pelosi said the House speaker's letter was intended to help venture capital-backed companies, which are particularly prominent in her San Francisco district, and that private equity representatives had not approached her about waiving the rule.

Khanna said he is concerned that start-ups backed by venture capital will be left out.

"This rule change is needed to protect thousands of workers," he said in a statement. "It has nothing to do with equity interests."

On Friday, the financial industry secured a modest victory: The Treasury Department issued guidance waiving the rule for a small subset of small businesses backed by private equity and venture capital, to include those in the accommodations or food service industries, as well as franchisees.

Treasury Department officials did not reply to requests for comment.

Critics say the federal government needs to prioritize taxpayer money for small businesses that are not controlled by major financiers and for companies that are more likely to pay back their loans to the government.

"We're going to have our radar up on how private equity is going to try to maneuver this whole issue," Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in an interview last week. "Our argument is that private-equity companies shouldn't be trying to milk the small business side."

Some of the private-equity industry's most influential executives have long-standing ties to key members of the administration, including Kushner and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a former investment banker.

In late 2017, Apollo loaned $184 million to Kushner's family real estate company, Kushner Companies, to help it refinance the mortgage on a Chicago skyscraper.

It was one of the larger real estate loans Apollo had made at the time, according to information the company provided to Congress, and it allowed Kushner to refinance a purchase he'd made at the peak of the real estate bubble. Kushner had resigned from the company when he joined the White House, but he retained stakes in dozens of subsidiaries of Kushner Companies, over the objections of ethics experts.

Kushner had also discussed a possible White House job for Apollo co-founder Josh Harris soon after Trump's inauguration, the New York Times reported in 2018. Harris became an outside adviser to the White House on infrastructure policy, but never joined the administration.

Two weeks ago, Apollo co-found Marc Rowan emailed Kushner, arguing for expanded access to a new Federal Reserve loan program, a move that would benefit his company. The email was first reported by NBC.

Rowan urged that the Federal Reserve overhaul its program, known as Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility or TALF, to loan money to even those companies with higher risk of defaulting on their loans - all to get money moving through the economy again.

Kushner forwarded Rowan's email to the White House team working on the stimulus, according to an administration official.

White House deputy spokesman Hogan Gidley said Kushner's practice is to simply pass on any such suggestions.

"Sec. Mnuchin, Larry Kudlow and Chief of Staff Meadows led the negotiations along with all of the Senators and Congressmen who speak to and get input from many people," Gidley said in a statement. "When Jared receives suggestions from industry experts he shares them with the economic team as appropriate."

Apollo spokeswoman Joanna Rose said Rowan emailed many people his ideas for the bailout package, including Kushner. "He didn't have any further conversations with Jared to my knowledge," she said. She said Harris had not spoken to Kushner about the stimulus and that she was not aware of any conversations he had with other administration officials.

Rose said the firm has not received any special access or treatment from the administration because of the company's support for Kushner Companies.

Private-equity firms represent some of the wealthiest players in the financial industry, and invest money for other large financial players, including pension funds and college endowments. Sometimes they invest in small and promising companies. The firms also often buy distressed companies at bargain prices, like Toys R Us, then cut wages and benefits and lay off workers to make the most profit.

One of the biggest figures in the industry, Blackstone Group chief executive Stephen Schwarzman, has been a frequent guest at Trump fundraisers and White House events, and a top adviser to the president on China.

Since 2017, Schwarzman has given $250,000 to Trump's inauguration committee and about $700,000 to a joint fundraising committee supporting Trump's reelection campaign, federal filings show.

On March 24, Schwarzman joined other financial chiefs on a call with Trump to discuss how the novel coronavirus was affecting the economy and the need for Congress to support both the major financial sectors, as well as small and midsize businesses, according to people familiar with the discussion.

On the call, which had been arranged by Pence's office, Trump asked several questions about what was driving volatility in the market, how the credit markets were faring and how Federal Reserve actions were being received, the people said.

In addition, Blackstone has ties to Kushner's family company. In 2016, it financed a $340-million Kushner purchase in Brooklyn, according to loan documents filed with the city. In all, it has provided the company with more than $400 million in financing, according to a 2017 Bloomberg News tally.

A company spokesman said the firm's principals are not lobbying the administration to adjust stimulus rules for private equity.

No one "from Blackstone has spoken to the Administration about including PE-owned companies" in the stimulus package, said Blackstone spokesman Matthew Anderson.

However, Blackstone is a prominent member of the American Investment Council, which is actively involved in the push and has sought support from lawmakers.

Critics say the private-equity model often leads to more unemployed workers because firms are focused on ruthless efficiency and the investors' bottom line, rather than long-term growth and workers.

One 2018 study found companies bought by private equity lost 4 percent of their workers, on average, within two years of the purchase; large public companies bought by private equity lost far more workers, an average of 13 percent of jobs lost.

"The idea is that, if there is some labor or employees who do not fit with the new vision of the firm and private-equity firm, they can be let go and find a job somewhere else," said Amit Seru, finance expert at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a senior fellow at Hoover Institution. "In the process their hope is that the firm creates more value for their investors and the economy. The vilified nature comes typically from the fact that there are, many times, employees that get fired."

Private-equity leaders argue their companies are an increasingly large part of the economy. An industry-commissioned report said private equity generated $1 trillion for the U.S. economy and employed 8.8 million people in 2018. The industry says that 12,000 of the companies it backs are small businesses.

Currently, most small companies in a private-equity firm's portfolio don't qualify for stimulus funds provided through the Small Business Administration under what is known as the "affiliation rule."

Businesses must report if they have major investors, and they are blocked from the program on the theory that they can borrow money from their larger and deep-pocketed private-equity backers, rather than taxpayers. The purpose is to make sure that businesses truly owned and operated by individuals can benefit from the loan, rather than opening the funds to companies that must answer to the interests of shareholders and parent companies, experts said.

"The Small Business Administration needs to focus on small businesses. Firms controlled by private equity aren't really small businesses," said Joshua Sewell, senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense. "The private-equity firms have access to resources, financing vehicles, technology and the like that small mom-and-pop companies don't."

Private-equity firms say many of their small businesses will have the same struggle to get cash, regardless of who invests in them.

Other stimulus programs will make loans to much larger businesses. But some economic experts fear that companies backed by private equity often have a higher risk of failure and defaulting on loans, and taxpayer money shouldn't be risked on these investments.

The Institutional Limited Partners Association, the trade group for companies owned by private equity or venture capital funds, urged the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department in an April 2 letter to be more flexible in allowing companies in danger of defaulting to apply for loans.

Companies that are rated to be higher risk represent more than 5 percent of the gross domestic product as the corporate sector has taken on more debt over the years, and a significant percentage of them are backed by private-equity firms, the group wrote.

But some economic experts warned about using stimulus loans this way.

"They are basically asking the Fed to think about investing in junk-grade debt, because that is where a large chunk of investments in the economy are currently," Seru said.

- - -

Tom Hamburger, Ashley Parker and Erica Werner contributed to this report.
Authorities arrested a 29-year-old man accused of viciously assaulting and robbing a person at an MBTA station in Boston over the weekend, police announced Tuesday.

Glen Villareale is suspected of attacking the victim around 11:10 p.m. on Sunday at the State Street T station. Authorities said he then forced the person to withdraw money from an ATM, according to a statement from MBTA Transit Police.

The Boston resident was arrested at Park Street station Monday and taken to transit police headquarters for booking, the statement said.

Authorities did not say what Villareales charges were nor when he was expected to be arraigned.
(Newser)  Celebrity doctor Drew Pinsky has apologized for a series of statements unspooled in a recent video where he downplayed the coronavirus and suggested it was a "press-induced panic." In a video posted over the weekend, Pinskyaka Dr. Drewsaid, "I wish I had gotten it right, but I got it wrong." Pinsky's apology was prompted by an online video that put together clips from a series of appearances he made over a two-month period. The video collects clips of Pinsky on his online show Ask Dr. Drew," his podcast Dr. Drew After Dark, and other media appearances. He repeatedly suggested the coronavirus would be not as bad as the flu, at one point saying the probability of dying of coronavirus was less than being hit by an asteroid.

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On KTLA-TV on March 2, he said he was angry about the "press-induced panic" caused by the disease. The Pinsky video surfaced on Twitter, posted by someone who goes by the name "DroopsDr. The AP was not able to establish the person's identity. In his apology, Pinsky noted he was "part of a chorus" that was equating coronavirus to the flu. He said he didn't understand the ferocity of the illness and had been primarily looking at the number of influenza cases. While he did not say the clips had been edited in a deceptive way, he noted that in most of his appearances, he also directed viewers toward the guidance of Dr. Anthony Fauci and the CDC.

(Read more Drew Pinsky stories.)
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A patient at a Planned Parenthood clinic for a checkup.

Getty

As abortion clinics across the US shut down, the ones remaining open are instituting new rules.

Intakes are happening over the phone, support people are no longer allowed to be present for the procedure, and providers might wear gloves, gowns, and masks.

There is a renewed interest in medication abortions, instead of in-clinic abortions, and some clinics are now offering abortion via telemedicine.

Many women are panicking about the possibility that they will not be able to access abortion care in the future.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

On March 26, Dr. Jamila Perritt performed an abortion. It was a few weeks into America's coronavirus outbreak, and one-in-three Americans were under orders to stay home and shelter in place. Over 80,000 Americans had been infected with the new coronavirus, Congress was debating a trillion dollar stimulus bill to boost an economy that had come to a screeching halt, and only workers deemed essential were going to work.

That included Perritt, a doctor who provides abortion care in the Washington, DC, area. Her patient had an ultrasound weeks prior, revealing that the fetus had a genetic abnormality. The woman was trying to schedule an appointment at a DC hospital to have it handled, but hadn't been able to get in.

"For her, in the context of a pandemic and limited access to abortion in hospitals, that meant she really had some decisions to make," said Perritt. "She was afraid that she wouldn't be able to get in to see us, either."

Perritt says she's seen many women express similar fears, as clinics across the country shut down. There's been an uptick in women calling to inquire if the clinics Perritt works at are still open. Traveling across state lines has always been something some women in America have had to do for abortions, but with new travel restrictions, that is impossible.

"People are afraid they'll be forced to carry a pregnancy that they don't want to term," said Perritt. "Folks are afraid they're not going to be able to get in tomorrow, or next week, or next month if they need to."

Story continues

In Texas, Ohio, and Oklahoma, patients have reported being turned away from clinics, citing the coronavirus abortion ban, in which six states  Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas  have prohibited abortion. According to the New York Times, one woman drove 250 miles to a Texas clinic, where she camped out, waiting for the clinic to figure out a way to see her.

Telabortion has never been an "easy" solution  18 states require abortion pills to be taken in front of a provider, the FDA mandates that providers be on a registry, and that patients sign extra forms. But with a national push to limit human contact, providers are now having to confront these hurdles to provide their service.

Clinicians and lawmakers are urging the government to lift a ban on mail-order abortion pills so women don't have to travel for care

Abortion pills are heavily restricted by the FDA.

Phil Walter / Getty

Since the pandemic reached the US, Perritt's clinics have been doing intake sessions on the phone, there is a ban on support people being present during abortions, and providers wear gowns, masks, and gloves at all times, even if the patient has no symptoms.

But their focus is, increasingly, on understanding how to provide remote treatment.

"What we're seeing during this pandemic is people are talking about medication abortions and thinking about it more often, because of the decreased need to be in the health center for a longer period of time," said Perritt, adding that all the restrictions make medication abortion challenging. "As a provider it's particularly frustrating that we can't practice medicine based on the evidence that's out there," she said.

While there aren't a lot of studies on telabortion, there is plenty of evidence that the health risks of medical abortions are low. One 2019 study found that the outcomes were equivalent to those who had in-clinic treatment, and a 2018 study saw similarly positive results.

However, under FDA rules, mifepristone and misoprostol, can't be sold by brick-and-mortar or mail-order pharmacies.

It's a barrier to care that, according to 21 attorneys general who sent a joint letter to the Trump administration on March 30, could "force women to travel at a time when many States and the federal government are urging people to stay home to curb the spread of COVID-19."

A demonstrator holds up an abortion flag as justices hear a major abortion case on the legality of a Louisiana law that imposes abortion restrictions, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 4, 2020.

REUTERS/Tom Brenner

How a telabortion works

Carafem, a reproductive healthcare provider in Maryland, Georgia, Tennessee, and Illinois, is exempt from some of the FDA restrictions around sending abortion pills in the mail, as one of a handful of centers participating in an FDA-approved telabortion research study.

While trying to continue providing in-clinic care for those who need it, COO Melissa Grant believes it is high time the spotlight was shone on telabortion.

"In some ways, coronavirus has pushed innovation," Grant told Insider. "We think that this is a great opportunity in order to expand care."

At carafem, telabortion intakes, in which a patient's medical history is collected, happen on encrypted video conferences. The patients are directed to local medical facilities where they can get ultrasounds, pelvic exams or blood tests, if needed.

Once consent forms are signed, pills and pain medication are sent in the mail, along with a phone number where a carafem staffer is available 24/7. After a final follow-up the process, which costs $350 out-of-pocket, is over.

"When you look at the way medications are provided in the health care center and you look at the way that it's provided over telabortion, there is very little difference," said Grant. "I take that as a hopeful indication that maybe at some point we can expand the use of telabortion to provide medication to people in remote areas or who can't travel."

Disruptions to the supply chain during the pandemic may also threaten telabortion access



Though telabortion can help to replace the service for many patients, there are concerns the pandemic could also impact the production of abortion pills, and other necessary medicines.

"We may see shortages of medicationssuch as contraceptives, antiretrovirals for HIV/AIDS and antibiotics to treat STIsdue to disruptions in supply chains overall," Zara Ahmed and Adam Sonfield wrote in a paper for the Guttenberg Institute.

Chris Purdy, CEO of DKT International, one of the world's top providers for abortion tools and medications, told Insider the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the active pharmaceutical ingredients, manufactured in China, that are used in the abortion pill.

While not currently a major concern in the US, it will be if the pandemic continues to disrupt society as it is doing well into the rest of the year and 2021.

"We are concerned about what's gonna happen in the coming weeks and months around the availability of these products around the world," Purdy said. "And on the ground what we're seeing is doctors, and in some cases midwives, just closing their clinics and hunkering down."

An exam room at the Planned Parenthood South Austin Health Center.

REUTERS/Ilana Panich-Linsman

Abortion providers are determined to provide care for as long as they can

Marie Stopes International, a global reproductive health provider, estimated that a loss in abortion services could result in 11,000 deaths and 2.7 million unsafe, self-administered abortions.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, too, has issued a rallying cry for abortion to be recognized as essential, time-sensitive healthcare.

"To the extent that hospital systems are categorizing procedures that can be delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic, abortion should not be categorized as such a procedure," ACOG said in a joint statement with a number of medical boards, adding that a delay of even a few weeks can make it inaccessible.

As the coronavirus spreads across the US, Perritt knows that there is an increased likelihood that someone may have the virus at one of the clinics she works at. "The risk is there, but we show up," said Perritt. "This is what I'm supposed to do." She added that she is lucky enough to have PPE (personal protective equipment) to protect herself at work.

Perritt says the woman who got an abortion on March 26 left the office sad, but relieved. "It was a desired pregnancy for her, as they are for many of the folks we care for," said Perritt. "She was relieved that she didn't have to carry a pregnancy and deliver a baby that she knew would die soon after birth. But she was still sad, because it's hard."

Ultimately, Perritt says, people will continue to make choices about their lives and their bodies, and it's essential that medical professionals can help them do that safely.

"People deserve to make decisions about how their lives play out and abortion services are part of it," Perritt said.

Have you been trying to get an abortion during the Covid-19 shutdown? If you had an abortion, what was the process like? We want to hear your stories. Please email sfeder@businessinsider.com to tell your story.

Read the original article on Insider
Here are the latest developments in Asia related to the coronavirus pandemic: - Wuhan outbound travel ban ends - Outbound travel from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the novel coronavirus first emerged in December, resumed early Wednesday, after a more than two-month ban. Thousands of travellers flocked to catch departing trains, passenger cars lined up as road blocks were dismantled, and outbound air travel was set to resume. The further easing of travel restrictions came after China reported no new coronavirus deaths for the first time since it started publishing figures in January. Cases on the mainland have been dwindling since March, but the country faces a second wave of infections from overseas. However, there are suspicions -- denied by China -- that Beijing continues to intentionally under-report the real number of deaths and infections. China also announced all nationals returning from the US, Italy and Iran will have to provide daily updates on their health to a WeChat app for up to two weeks before their flights or be denied boarding. - Japan declares state of emergency - Japan declared a month-long state of emergency over a spike in coronavirus cases, ramping up efforts to contain infections but stopping short of the strict lockdowns seen in other parts of the world. The move allows governors in seven affected regions including Tokyo to ask people to stay indoors and request that businesses close, but there are no enforcement mechanisms and no penalties for those who fail to comply. The government has come under mounting pressure to tackle an outbreak that remains small by global standards but has raised concerns among Japanese medical experts, with warnings that health care systems are already overstretched. - Stranded Afghans storm home - Afghans stranded in Pakistan by the virus shutdown stormed a border crossing after the lockdown on the common border was briefly lifted. Thousands entered Afghanistan without being screened, sparking fears they may introduce more cases of the coronavirus into a war-weary country already overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of migrants returning from hard-hit Iran. - 'Pandemic bonds' - Indonesia will issue some $27 billion in so-called "Pandemic bonds" to finance efforts to deal with the health crisis and its economic impact. Factory activity in Southeast Asia's biggest economy hit a record low, with Japanese automakers Suzuki and Honda becoming the latest firms to announce temporary production suspensions at their plants in the archipelago. The government has slashed annual growth projections and warned the economy could even contract in a worst-case scenario. It will spend an extra $25 billion to mitigate the economic impact of the virus. Meanwhile, the rupiah earlier dropped to a near-record low and is one of Asia's worst-hit currencies. - Philippines extends quarantine - The Philippines has extended the home quarantine order covering roughly half its population -- around 55 million people. The lockdown, due to end next week, will be prolonged to April 30 as confirmed infections hit 3,660 with 163 deaths. Schools, public places and most businesses have been shuttered since mid-March, with residents told to remain at home except for food shopping and medical visits. - Cambodia cancels public holiday - The much-anticipated Khmer New Year public holiday next week has been postponed, Cambodia's strongman premier said, due to coronavirus fears. Hun Sen, who in February played down the severity of the virus, urged people to celebrate where they were rather than return to their home provinces. - Mask up, or make one - Citizens in Indonesia's Padang city on Sumatra island face a unique punishment if they go out in public unmasked. Violators must produce -- with the help of an online instructional video should they need it -- two cloth masks as a fine, one for themselves and another for a person in need. The consequences if they can't produce a mask on the spot were unclear. - 'Idiot' Kiwi minister - New Zealand's health minister described himself as "an idiot" for breaking lockdown restrictions, but kept his job coordinating the South Pacific nation's coronavirus response. Health Minister David Clark -- whose resignation to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was not accepted -- revealed he took a 20-kilometre (12-mile) drive to the beach with his family. burs-rub-fox/st/sst Passengers wear hazmats suit as they prepare to board the first trains to leave virus-hit Wuhan in more than two months Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus crisis Indonesia has one of the lowest virus testingrates among nations with a 50 million population or above Schools, public places and most businesses have been shuttered since mid-March in parts of the Philippines Cambodia's Hun Sen had played down the severity of the virus Citizens in Indonesia's Padang city on Sumatra island could be facing a unique fine if they go out in public unmasked
A total of eight new cases of coronavirus were reported in Punjab on Tuesday, taking the total count of positive cases to 99, according to the state Health Department.

Earlier in the day, Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu had said that the state government is planning to buy 10 lakh rapid testing kits and added that 15 Tablighi Jamaat members, who had attended the event in Delhi and had then come to the state have tested positive for the infection.

"We have planned to buy 10 lakh rapid testing kits. 468 Tablighi Jammat attendees came to Punjab out of which 448 have been traced and 15 have tested positive, with 119 test results awaited," Sidhu told ANI here.

Punjab Health Department had today given a 24-hour deadline to all Jamaat participants of the Delhi Nizamuddin Markaz event, who were hiding in the state, to report to the nearest police station, or else face criminal prosecution, according to the Information and Public Relations Department of the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A man from central Vietnam has been fined for going fishing during home quarantine for prevention of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic.

The Peoples Committee in Tam Thanh Commune, Phu Ninh District, Quang Nam Province on Monday imposed a VND2 million (US$85) fine upon L.V.H., 26, for violating regulations on epidemic prevention.

H. traveled from Ho Chi Minh City to his hometown in Tam Thanh Commune on March 25 and made a commitment to local authorities that he would undergo home quarantine for 14 days as a precaution, as the southern metropolis is considered an epicenter of COVID-19 in Vietnam.

With 53 cases confirmed to date, Ho Chi Minh City has the second highest number of COVID-19 patients in the country after Hanoi, which has recorded 107 cases as yet.

Quang Nam authorities require that anyone returning or coming to the province from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City be isolated either at home or in collective zones to stall any possible community transmission.

On April 5, the eleventh day of his home quarantine period, H. left his house and went fishing with four other men in the neighborhood.

He was eventually caught by competent agencies.

Aside from the VND2 million penalty, H. was also fined for using electricity to catch the fish.

Although the exact value of the fining was not announced, illegal electrofishing is punishable by a fine worth VND3-5 million ($128-214), according to Vietnamese law.

The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 1.34 million people and killed more than 64,600 globally as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

Vietnam has announced 245 COVID-19 patients so far, with 122 having recovered.

No fatality linked to the disease has been reported in the country to date.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
JK Tyre said it is extending support to government officials, police department and government hospital employees with packed food and drinking water with the help of NGOs.

New Delhi: In a bid to support the country's fight against COVID-19, JK Tyre and Industries Ltd on Tuesday said is providing food supplies to over 10,000 daily earners and migrants in every region, besides organising health camps in 25 villages in the vicinity of its manufacturing facilities across India.

The company, in a statement, said it is extending support to government officials, police department and government hospital employees with packed food and drinking water with the help of NGOs.

Already, more than 50 plus medical camps have been set up in several villages to conduct first-level screening for COVID-19 symptoms among citizens and awareness drives were conducted for 5,000 truck drivers, suppliers and vendors.

Additionally, district health departments have been provided with ambulance, safety materials, masks, soaps and hand gloves. Isolation wards have been created near the plants and infrastructure support is being provided at primary health centers, it added.

Further, the company has also set up a corona task force to undertake measures for supporting the needs, health and well-being of colleagues, partners, and their families.

Initiatives like virtual training sessions and interactive webinars with medical experts are being organised to help them cope with the impact of COVID-19, it added.

We all are faced with an unprecedented challenge and the world has become as one community in its efforts towards arresting the spread of COVID-19," JK Tyre and Industries chairman and managing director Raghupati Singhania said.

While the company is ensuring the safety of employees, there is a large section of society that remains deprived of basic facilities, he said adding that JK Tyre is humbled to play its part in the relief efforts aimed towards the marginalised communities.

Among other steps, the company said it has fumigated nearby villages covering more than 25,000 people, distributed more than 20,000 hand sanitisers and masks, created awareness about safety precautions in more than 150 villages through door-to-door visits, banners and posters at prominent locations and public address systems.
WFSJ-COVID-19-Briefing is an online hub where science journalists can find scientific information about the COVID-19 crisis and share best practices on covering this type of subject.

The role of science journalists has never been more important than it is today. The site is entirely curated by science journalists and is intended to show only the most trustworthy information". Milica Momcilovic, President of the WFSJ and TV Anchor (RTS, Serbia)

Built and launched in only 8 days, the site is a collaborative effort of science journalists. It includes scientific papers and analysis of science as well as many links to sources of information. in a central, searchable database. It also provides information and fact-checking sites for false and fake news, as well as advice from experienced journalists.

The managing editor is Mandi Smallhorne, Vice-President of the WFSJ and President of the South African Science Journalists Association. "Our idea was to provide a kind of one-stop-shop, a place where you can find the basic info, sources and evolving science without having to spend hours trawling the net as you race to cover this pandemic," she says. "We'd also like to showcase good work, so we invite science journalists to share any excellent articles they come across - as well as great new science, new contacts and new sources. Contact me at [email protected]"

"Misinformation about COVID-19 is spreading at an alarming rate" said Christophe Bourillon, Executive Director of the WFSJ. "The WFSJ COVID-19 Briefing is a tool to ease the job of science and other journalists so they can concentrate on reporting".
Even as Joe Biden offers some grudging praise for President Trump, the Democratic candidate who already lost to Trump, Hillary Clinton, just can't get over it.

More than three years after her stinging loss, she's still at it, sniping from the sidelines against Trump's leadership in the coronavirus crisis on Twitter:

It took 70 days for Trump to treat the coronavirus not as a distant threat or harmless flu strain well under control, but as a lethal force poised to kill tens of thousands of citizens.



Replace this man in November. https://t.co/zs1TWhYMqv  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 6, 2020

This is nonsense. Hillary's latest sniping, citing an old Washington Post story that editorializes way too much throughout its anonymously sourced "investigation," is wrong. Crisis leadership, as she knows, is hard, and with many moving parts and competing interests, there are always a few missteps. What's important is that the course is corrected, which is where project management leadership comes in. Axios has a real interesting piece out today detailing just how early members of the Trump administration were on to the coronavirus crisis, with White House adviser Peter Navarro miles ahead, foreseeing the pandemic, which Trump's shutdown of travel from China, in the midst of the impeachment imbroglio, signaled that he heeded.

Clinton's tweets come against the widely praised public response to President Trump's leadership on this crisis, even from members of Clinton's own party, with Trump's handling of the crisis giving him the highest approval ratings of his presidency.

This suggests that these bitter little tweets are nothing more than bitter, festering jealousy that Trump is the one taking the lead instead of herself.

Holed up in Chappaqua or someplace, irrelevant as can be, this is far from Hillary's only bitter tweet. Hours earlier, she came up with this preposterous projection:

Let's be clear. Trump does not have the power to cancel or postpone the November election. https://t.co/OKQyAq5g80  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 6, 2020

Memo to Hillary: Joe Biden's the only one calling for any delays  in his case, of the Democratic Party's nominating convention. Where'd that fevered lunacy come from?

Here's more useless sniping from a few days earlier, this time to a problem that's already been solved:

Two shocking facts of this administration's failures to lead on COVID:



1. The Pentagon offered HHS 2,000 ventilators but haven't been told where to send them

2. The DOD offered 16 labs for processing tests two weeks ago, still not in usehttps://t.co/Co5emWg5oU  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 1, 2020

As she carps about Trump, looking for that magic word-bullet that can slay him, we know she's got to be furious that the person making the decisions and taking charge of the vast crisis is Trump, not herself. She was the one who was entitled to the presidency, not he. How can it be that he's succeeding? Trump being Trump, she can see that he's the quintessential crisis manager, the hotel chief who can put out one fire and explosion after another  and is doing it in front of her eyes.

Hillary, by contrast, has only Benghazi, and all those 3 A.M. phone calls she ignored as a U.S. diplomatic compound burned to the ground, killing four Americans, as her crisis management record. It must eat at her, the coulda, shoulda, woulda hindsight, because now she's taking in what real leadership looks like.

Helplessly at the sidelines now, she snipes, like an irritable old lady in a rest home who can't be pleased.

She's beclowning herself. Most Democrats are smart enough to pay lip service tributes at least to Trump's leadership just to avoid looking out of touch with the public. Hillary has no need to please the public, those deplorables, her term, and true to form, she never has. That's an even bigger reason why she's not president.

Image credit: U.S. Department of Defense, public domain.
The Institute of Cost Accountants of India has contributed Rs 2.5 crore to the PM-CARES Fund to help the government in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund has been set up for dealing with any emergency situation such as the one posed by the coronavirus infection and provide relief to the affected.

In a release on Tuesday, the institute said it made a contribution Rs 2.50 crore to the fund to supplement government's efforts towards scaling up the public healthcare infrastructure in the country in combating COVID-19.

The institute, headquartered in Kolkata, has four regional councils, 107 chapters in the country and 10 overseas centres.

More than 5,000 people have been infected by coronavirus and over 150 people have died.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Across the health care workers are first responders and frontline warriors in the battle against COVID-19, however in Pakistan, it is a different story altogether.

Police in Pakistan have arrested doctors and medical personnel who are protesting inadequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and other medical equipment in their battle to contain the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus infection.

According to Pakistan's Young Doctors Association (YDA) president Dr Yasir Achakzai, YDA and paramedical staff in Balochistan staged a protest on Monday against the unavailability of PPEs in their fight against coronavirus, reported Dawn.

They were later baton-charged by security forces and dozens of them were arrested near Red Zone, he alleged.

Razzaq Cheema, Quetta deputy inspector general police, confirmed that police had arrested dozens of protesting doctors which looks like an act of high-handedness.

Following this, YDA announced the withdrawal of services from government hospitals. Khan said, "We suspend all our services following highhandedness of police."

A video allegedly from the protest scene has also emerged as a proof of the arrests.In a tweet, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan announced that he met YDA doctors and assured them of his government's full cooperation in their battle against COVID-19 and in meeting their demands.

He tweeted, "I personally gave a sitting and met YDA doctors...and assured we shall solve their contract employees issue, new posts advertized and rest..and assured we are serious in solving rest matters. But, it's inappropriate to lock MS offices and put locks on them."

Khan was joined by PML-N President and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif in condemning police behaviour.

He tweeted, "Strongly condemn the torture & arrest of the doctors & paramedics in Quetta. It belies logic how those at the front lines of the fight for our collective well-being and survival are being humiliated merely for demanding protective kits. Truly shameful behaviour!"

PPP co-chair Bilawal Bhutto Zardari termed the act as "state thuggery" and lashed out at the Imran Khan-led PTI government for the violence against the doctors.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Pakistan on Monday soared past 3,600 with the maximum number of COVID-19 cases being reported from its Punjab province.132 fresh cases have been confirmed on Monday in the Punjab province, taking the provincial tally to 1,816.

Sindh reported 932, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had 405, Balochistan, 202, Gilgit-Baltistan, 210, Islamabad, 82, and 15 cases were reported in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Earlier this year, scientists warned that the Great Barrier Reef could be on the brink of its most widespread bleaching event ever recorded. That fear has been realized.

Surveys conducted by scientists at Australia's James Cook University and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority show that a summer of extreme heat has caused the reef, which is a World Heritage Site, to suffer a mass bleaching of unprecedented scale. Corals from the far north to the southern tip of the 1,400 mile-long ecosystem are experiencing severe impacts.

It was also one of the reef's worst mass bleaching episodes in terms of intensity, second only to 2016, which killed half of all shallow-water corals on the northern Great Barrier Reef.

Unlike the summer of 2016, when an intense marine heat wave coincided with one of the strongest El Nino events on record, this past summer brought a bleaching event without any assistance from the Pacific climate oscillation.

El Nino events can elevate ocean temperatures in that part of the world, making bleaching events more likely. To scientists, this is another clear sign that human-caused climate change is the primary driver behind these devastating events.

Mark Eakin, coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Watch program, described the rate of recurrence of these events as "truly disturbing." Bleaching from the 2016 event was followed by a recurrence in 2017, when there was also an absence of an El Nino.

"In 2016 and 2017, the Great Barrier Reef had their first back-to-back bleaching events. Now we have the third bleaching event in five years," Eakin wrote in an email.

"That is unprecedented on the Great Barrier Reef."

Bleaching is a response to heat stress that occurs when corals spend too much time in water that's too hot for them to handle. Exposure to prolonged heat causes the reef-building animals to temporarily evict their zooxanthellae, symbiotic algae in which the corals shelter in exchange for food.

Because these algae also give corals their vibrant colors, mild bleaching causes corals to grow pale. Severely bleached corals turn bone white, and if their algal partners stay away for too long, they can starve to death.

As heat built across the reef in February, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority began reporting pockets of bleaching in the far north toward the end of the month. By early March, vast swaths of the ecosystem had accumulated eight or more "degree heating weeks," a metric scientists use to describe recent cumulative heat exposure.

At this threshold, reef scientists expect to see widespread bleaching and mortality from thermal stress, according to NOAA.

Researchers decided to conduct aerial and waterborne surveys to assess the extent of the damage. The surveys, which took place during the last two weeks of March, quickly confirmed the reef has undergone its third mass bleaching event in the past five years.

Now, more details about the extent and severity of the event are emerging. A new map produced by Terry Hughes, director of the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, confirms what scientists with NOAA and Australia's Bureau of Meteorology predicted: This year's bleaching was more widespread compared with 2016, which hammered the reef's northern third, and 2017, which struck the reef's midsection hardest.

This year, some 35 percent of the 1,036 reefs the scientists surveyed experienced moderate bleaching, while a quarter were severely bleached. Scientists saw severe bleaching on coastal reefs from Torres Strait in the far north to the southern border of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, at levels only eclipsed during 2016.

"For the first time, the south was hot as well as the middle and the north," Hughes said. "After 2016-17, when the north and middle went, I said to somebody our worst nightmare is if the next region to bleach is the south."

That's because the south, having escaped the previous two events, is relatively unaccustomed to bleaching and contains large numbers of heat-sensitive Acropora corals, including branching and table-shaped species that give the reef its three-dimensional structure and provide habitat for fish.

In the northern and central Great Barrier Reef, these corals were largely annihilated by bleaching in 2016-17, transforming vast swaths of the reef into a "highly altered, degraded system," according to a 2018 paper in the journal Nature.

Now the south seems poised to slide into a similar ecological disrepair. Hughes cautioned that bleaching doesn't necessarily lead to mortality and said he would be conducting repeat surveys in about eight months to see which corals survived and which ones didn't.

"I have to admit, I'm devastated to learn that the southern reefs are taking such a hit right now, as they were a rare bright spot during the 2016 mass bleaching event," said Kim Cobb, a coral reef and climate scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology who was not involved in the new survey.

Hughes is expecting less mortality in the north this year, because many of the heat-sensitive corals have already been killed. But reefs that bleached this year in addition to three or four years ago are likely to be set back in terms of recovery, he said.

"Underwater and even from the plane, we could see very many small corals that have recruited to the reef since the previous bleaching . . . so that recovery, which was in its early phases, has been interrupted by this new bleaching event," Hughes said.

Mass bleaching events have often been associated with El Nino, a recurring climate pattern characterized by above-average sea surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific, which leads to shifts in ocean heat distribution, atmospheric circulation, and weather patterns around the world.

Across the Great Barrier Reef, changes in local weather patterns related to El Nino, including higher than average air and ocean temperatures, clear skies and lots of sunshine, can help fuel bleaching.

But while the first recorded mass bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef in 1998 and the most intense mass bleaching event on record coincided with El Nino, mass bleachings in 2002, 2017 and now 2020, did not.

This, along with the fact that the gap between severe bleaching events is shrinking, suggests that as summers grow warmer due to climate change, the reef will suffer heat stress more regularly regardless of whether the tropical Pacific is in a favorable state. It is telling, Hughes said, that February 2020 brought the highest monthly sea surface temperatures ever recorded across the Great Barrier Reef, with no El Nino to assist.

"It's now clear that we can have major bleaching events caused by global climate change alone with no tropical forcing," Eakin said, adding that we may be seeing "early signs" of a world where the reef bleaches on a near-yearly basis.

Lesley Hughes, a professor of biology at Australia's Macquarie University, agreed that the prospect of annual bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, something climate models predicted could occur in the 2030s, is getting "closer and closer."
New York, April 7 : While India has lifted its ban on exports of hydroxychloroquine to the US, President Donald Trump has said that he would be surprised if Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not allow it.

"I would be surprised if he does (ban its export to the US), because, you know, India does very well with the US," he said on Monday at the COVID-19 Task Force briefing at the White House.

Trump had called Modi on April 4 and asked him to allow the export of hydroxychloroquine to the US to use it against the coronavirus epidemic.

Modi tweeted after the call that they "agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight COVID-19".

Trump is promoting the use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment and preventive for COVID-19.

The medicine is used to treat malaria and lupus and trials are underway in New York to test its efficacy against coronavirus.

While the decision to allow the exports to resume had already been reportedly taken by India, a reporter asked Trump if he was worried about retaliation for his "decision to ban export of medical goods like Indian Prime Minister Modi's decision to not export hydroxychloroquine to the US and other countries".

Trump sounded surprised by the claim and said: "I don't like that decision, if that's (been taken); I didn't hear that was his decision." "So I would be surprised if that was his decision. He'd have to tell me that.

"I know that he stopped it for other countries. I spoke to him yesterday. We had a very good talk and will see whether or not that's his (decision). I would be surprised if he does, because you know India does very well with the US." In the midst of his preoccupations with the pandemic, Trump had apparently lost track of the day of his call to Modi.

On April 3, Trump had invoked the Defence Production Act to ban the export of N95 respirators, surgical masks, gloves and other personal protecting equipment that are in short supply in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected 366,614 people in the country as of Monday night and claimed 10,783 lives.

But India had imposed the ban on hydroxychloroquine on March 25, long before the US ban.

Trump said: "I spoke to him Sunday morning and I said, 'We'd appreciate your allowing our supply (of hydroxychloroquine) to come'. If he doesn't allow it to come out, that would be OK. But, of course, there may be retaliation, why wouldn't the be?" (Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
A group with C.O.V.I.D., Citizens Outraged Voters in Danger, protest wearing masks outside the State Capitol during a special session regarding the spring election in Madison, Wis., on Saturday. Read more

WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court on Monday night split along ideological and partisan lines to stop a plan for extended absentee voting in Tuesdays Wisconsin primary, turning aside pleas from Democrats that thousands of the states voters will be disenfranchised because of disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The ruling was 5-4, with the court's conservatives in the majority.

The decision followed a familiar pattern on the court. But it was striking that in a case with partisan implications in the midst of a national crisis, the court could not find a way to overcome its usual differences.

In its brief order, the court majority said a plan ordered by a district judge and approved by an appeals court to extend absentee voting for a week was "extraordinary relief and would fundamentally alter the nature of the election."

A "critical" point, it said, was that the relief was more than had been asked for by Democrats and liberal groups.

The unsigned opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch said Brett Kavanaugh granted a request from the Republican Party to put the plan on hold.

The lower court's decision "contravened this court's precedents" and violated the Supreme Court's repeated instruction that "lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election."

All of the court's conservatives were nominated by Republican presidents.

The court's liberals  Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, all nominated by Democratic presidents  objected sharply.

"This court now intervenes at the 11th hour to prevent voters who have timely requested absentee ballots from casting their votes," Ginsburg wrote.

She said it "boggles the mind" that the court majority was trying to apply the court's usual rules in an unprecedented time of national turmoil.

"While I do not doubt the good faith of my colleagues, the court's order, I fear, will result in massive disenfranchisement," Ginsburg wrote. She noted delays in a crush of applications for absentee ballots.

"A voter cannot deliver for postmarking a ballot she has not received."

Ginsburg said the majority had misplaced its priorities.

"The concerns advanced by the court and the applicants pale in comparison to the risk that tens of thousands of voters will be disenfranchised," she wrote. "Ensuring an opportunity for the people of Wisconsin to exercise their votes should be our paramount concern."

 FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered.

Lower courts had said voters should have another week  until April 13  to return absentee ballots, because the state was unable to accommodate in-person voting.

The Supreme Court had not been asked to review the other legal wrangling in the state, as the governor moved to postpone the election, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled he lacked authority.

Instead, the justices were considering legal victories Democrats and liberal groups won last week in federal court.

U.S. District Judge William Conley declined to postpone in-person voting, but extended absentee voting until April 13, and a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit on Friday upheld much of Conley's ruling.

On Saturday, Wisconsin Republicans and the Republican National Committee brought the issue to the Supreme Court.

Lawyers for the Republicans said the appeals court's decision "creates a fundamental unfairness that undermines the integrity of the election" and would encourage gamesmanship.

"Absentee voting should not be a procedure that gives some voters dramatically different incentives and information than others, permits advocacy groups to strategically chase down ballots that were not cast on election day, and otherwise disrupts Wisconsin statutes that aim to separate cleanly the time for ballot casting and ballot counting," lawyers said in their brief.

But lawyers for Democrats said that not recognizing the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the election would be irresponsible.

The plans devised by the lower courts are "reasonable remedies for the extreme, unprecedented circumstances that tens of thousands of Wisconsin voters are likely to face: either they venture out to vote in person and risk their health and the health of others, or they forfeit the right to vote through no fault of their own," their brief said.

They said judges have the power to demand that local officials not announce any results from the election until April 13, which would contain Republican concerns about gamesmanship.
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Deputies who were dispatched to a home in Lockport Township to conduct a welfare check Thursday discovered the bodies of Patrick Jesernik, 54, and Cheryl Schriefer, 59, the Will County Sheriffs Office said in a news release. The two, whose bodies were found in separate rooms in the residence, had each been shot once and a gun was near Jeserniks body.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The record start to the year for Ohios casino and racino industry came to a crashing stop with mid-March closings because of the coronavirus, and now revenue reports released Tuesday show a dropoff of $112.3 million gambling revenue.

This is the money won by the casinos and racinos after paying out winnings. A third then goes to the state in the form of taxes and fees.

Gambling revenue for March at the four casinos and seven racinos was $71.9 million, down 61% from $184.2 million March 2019, reports released Tuesday by the states Ohio Lottery and Casino Control commissions showed.

The industry had been off to a roaring start in 2020, with monthly records of $167.5 million in January and $171.4 million in February.

The facilities had remained open during the early days of coronavirus-related restrictions on gatherings imposed by Gov. Mike DeWine. That changed with a directive on March 13 to close or present a plan on how to remain open while keeping the total number of workers and patrons in the buildings below 100.

All 11 facilities were closed by the next day, Saturday, March 14. This left the industry for the month with just one full weekend, normally their busiest times.

The gambling revenue reported by the lottery and casino control commissions does not include money from horse racing that comes under separate regulations. Horse racing continued, without fans, until stopping on March 20.

In the Greater Cleveland area, gambling revenue was:

* $9.6 million at MGM Northfield Park, down from $24.5 million in March 2019.

* $7.6 million at JACK Casino Cleveland, down from $19.8 million.

* $5.6 million at JACK Thistledown Racino, down from $13 million.

Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner. Follow casino coverage at cleveland.com/casino.

Below are details for each Ohio casino and racino. Ohio casinos

Statewide March. 2020 March 2019 Revenue $30.9 million $81.1 million Table games $9.9 million $25.3 million Slots $21.1 million $55.8 million JACK Cleveland Casino Revenue $7.6 million $19.8 million Table games $3.6 million $9.5 million Slots $4.0 million $10.3 million Slots payout 92.1% 92.2% JACK Cincinnati Casino Revenue $7.2 million $19.9 million Table games $2.7 million $7.2 million Slots $4.5 million $12.7 million Slots payout 92.4% 91.7% Hollywood Toledo Revenue $7.7 million $19.8 million Table games $1.3 million $3.3 million Slots $6.3 million $16.5 million Slots payout 90.9% 90.4% Hollywood Columbus Revenue $8.4 million $21.5 million Table games $2.2 million $5.2 million Slots $6.2 million $16.3 million Slots payout 92.2% 91.9% Source: Ohio Casino Control Commission Ohio racinos Statewide March 2020 March 2019 Slots $41.0 million $103.1 million Pct. payout 90.9% 90.8% JACK Thistledown Racino Slots $5.6 million $13.0 million Pct. payout 90.4% 90.4% x-MGM Northfield Park Slots $9.6 million $24.5 million Pct. payout 90.7% 90.9% Hollywood Mahoning Valley Slots $4.8 million $11.9 million Pct. payout 90.4% 90.0% Scioto Downs Slots $6.9 million $17.4 million Pct. payout 90.9% 90.6% Miami Valley Gaming Slots $6.6 million $17.4 million Pct. payout 91.7% 91.7% Belterra Park Slots $3.1 million $7.9 million Pct. payout 90.6% 91.1% Hollywood Dayton Slots $4.3 million $10.0 million Pct. payout 91.1% 90.1% Source: Ohio Lottery Commission

Read related coverage

Essential Ohio Lottery sales will continue, lottery commission announces

Ohios casinos, racinos break another record with a big February

Ohio casinos, racinos hit jackpot in smashing January gambling record

Ohio casinos, racinos set record with $1.94 billion in gambling revenue in 2019

Ohio coronavirus: these 5 graphics show some encouraging trends

Mapping Ohios 4,450 coronavirus cases, increase slows
A personnel of the Special



Operations Group (SOG), Odisha Police's anti-Naxal force, was killed and two others were injured in a grenade explosion during a training programme on Tuesday, police said.

Thirty four-year-old Havildar Prakash Sahu, a resident of Bargarh district, was killed in an explosion while imparting training to cadet sergeants to lob grenades, at the SOG Training and Resource Centre in Chandaka area, a police statement said.

"Today (April 7) afternoon while practice was going on under the supervision of trainer Havildar Prakash Sahu, one grenade accidentally exploded in the mid-air causing grievous injuries to the trainer and a cadet sergeant, and minor injuries to another cadet sergeant," it said.

The trio was shifted to a private hospital, where Sahu succumbed to his injuries while the condition of the cadet sergeants is stable, the statement said.

Director General of Police Abhay condoled Sahu's death, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Natural News) As densely populated cities like New York City and Madrid suffer significant losses from coronavirus, people are increasingly heading for more remote areas to help reduce their odds of catching the deadly illness.

Data provided by Redfin shows that daily searches for rural properties were 125 percent higher during the first three weeks of March, with searches spiking by 364 percent over the previous year on March 7.

The president of a North Carolina real estate company specializing in rural land called Retreat Realty, John E. Haynes, told Reuters that the current outbreak has caused people to realize they should have invested in a bugout property a long time ago.

Hes seen a large uptick in business thanks to the outbreak, with sales of rural properties climbing significantly in recent weeks. He said many of those buying these properties had already been contemplating such a move for some time, and the virus prompted them to finally take the leap.

All this interest in rural areas is causing those already living in such places some concern, however. Places like Door County, Wisconsin, have issued advisories asking people with seasonal or second homes in the area to stay away. Half the countys population is made up of elderly people, and they only have a small, 25-bed hospital.

Sixty percent of the properties and second homes there are owned by residents from out of state, many of whom are now headed to the area looking for safety. The county isnt enforcing the advisory, and they say lots of people have been arriving there, exhausting resources in grocery stores.

Some areas are taking a stronger stance, like Dare County on North Carolinas barrier islands. Visitors and non-resident property owners have been prohibited from entering to protect the communitys public health and safety.

Growing interest in survival retreats and underground bunkers

Survival retreats and underground bunkers are also reporting big surges of interest. The survival community Fortitude Ranch, for example, has seen a tenfold rise in interest in joining the survival retreats they offer during the pandemic.

The companys chief executive, Drew Miller, said that many people hes heard from are concerned that if the virus mutates or the quarantines arent successful and the economy collapses, food distribution could be disrupted and law and order would break down.

Rural areas may not be the coronavirus respite some people believe

While its true that viruses can spread more easily in densely populated areas, outbreaks in rural communities are on the rise in the U.S. Many hotspots are popping up in rural areas, especially in the south, and the numbers can be quite alarming when you adjust for population size. There are also higher death rates in some areas of Louisiana, Alabama, and northern Mississippi than were seeing in urban settings.

One big reason these areas are seeing so many problems is the fact that people are leaving cities to ride it out in rural areas and bringing the virus with them. Theres also the fact that the states that have been slow to adopt official social distancing policies could be putting their rural populations at risk and sending the public mixed messages in terms of how dangerous this disease really is. Theres also a strong sense of community in rural areas, where people often have big gatherings with family and friends.

As far as the elevated death rate in rural areas goes, these communities tend to see higher rates of many chronic health conditions as well as reduced access to medical resources. There tends to be more obesity, high blood pressure and cigarette smoking, which is a recipe for disaster when combined with poverty and less access to healthcare.

Whether you live in a big city or a rural area, it remains essential during this pandemic to practice social distancing and wash your hands frequently. Its also a good idea to start learning some survival skills if you havent already  they just may prove useful sooner than you think!

Sources for this article include:

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Although we may be finely attuned to California's daily coronavirus numbers, it can sometimes be hard to conceptualize how California's infection rate compares to other states.

We know New York is the epicenter of the American COVID-19 outbreak, but how much worse are things in New York than in California?

In short, staggeringly worse: New York has 710 cases per 100,000 residents. California has 41. The death rate is also much higher: 28 per 100,000 in New York compared to 1 per 100,000 in California.

Of course, individuals confirmed to have coronavirus don't encompass the full picture. It's certain that many more people have or had the coronavirus but had mild or moderate symptoms and did not get tested or hospitalized.

It's also interesting to note, however, that California recorded its first positive test in January; almost every other state didn't get its first positive until March.

To give a clearer picture of how California compares to other states fighting the coronavirus right now, we pulled numbers from the 10 states with the most positive coronavirus cases in the nation, according to the Johns Hopkins database. From there, we calculated the approximate cases and deaths per 100,000 residents.

New York



Population: 19.54 million

138,836 cases

710 per 100,000

5,489 deaths

28 per 100,000

First case reported: March 1

New Jersey



Population: 8.9 million

41,090 cases

462 per 100,000

1,003 deaths

11 per 100,000

First case reported: March 4

Michigan



Population: 9.996 million

17,221 cases

172 per 100,000

727 deaths

7 per 100,000

First case reported: March 10

California



Population: 39.56 million

16,429 cases

42 per 100,000

397 deaths

1 per 100,000

First case reported: Jan. 26

Louisiana



Population: 4.66 million

14,867 cases

319 per 100,000

512 deaths

11 per 100,000

First case reported: March 9

Florida



Population: 21.3 million

14,504 cases

68 per 100,000

283 deaths

1 per 100,000

First case reported: March 1

Massachusetts



Population: 6.9 million

13,837 cases

201 per 100,000

260 deaths

4 per 100,000

First case reported: Feb. 1

Pennsylvania



Population: 12.81 million

13,206 cases

103 per 100,000

179 deaths

1 per 100,000

First case reported: March 6

Illinois



Population: 12.74 million

12,264 cases

96 per 100,000

308 deaths

2 per 100,000

First case reported: Jan. 24

Georgia



Population: 10.52 million

8,821 cases

84 per 100,000

294 deaths

3 per 100,000

First case reported: March 2

---

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One of my favorite rituals takes place on Sunday mornings in my tranquil little suburb of Menlo Park here in California. We have a lovely once-a-week outdoor farmers' market abounding with stalls filled with fresh vegetables, fruit, and greens galore, plus specialty items: nuts and nut butters; dates; chicken, duck, and quail eggs; fresh flowers; flash-frozen grass-fed beef; fresh breads; and quiches, cakes, and cookies from an outstanding artisan baker  not to mention the bounty from our fisherman, who takes his boat out from Half Moon Bay at the end of the week and brings us fresh salmon, sole, halibut, and crab in season.

There's always live music at one end of the row of vendors' stalls, whether jazz or folk or ethnic. And as there's a large church nearby, many people come to the market after services dressed in their Sunday best, adding to the colorful and festive atmosphere of our beloved farmers' market.

Until today.

This morning, the whole parking lot area where the market takes place was roped off. You could enter only on one end, and you had to stand in line, six feet apart from the person in front of you, and wait for permission to enter the now practically dead farmers' market. Once admitted, you had to stand in line again at each of the stalls where you wanted to make a purchase. God forbid if you touched a head of lettuce and put it back!

Otherwise ordinary people were wearing N-95 surgical masks  the kind that doctors in hospitals need but can't get due to panicked healthy individuals who stockpiled them  and sterile gloves. Across the street at Trader Joe's, there was a long line of similarly masked and gloved folks waiting in line  six feet apart  to buy their groceries.

By the way, officials of the city of Menlo Park, an affluent suburb of some 30,000 people, ordered police enforcement of this insanity to "protect" us! In the entire county of San Mateo, in which our city resides, there has been to date only one death from this virus. One! In the entire county!

Every year, tens of thousands of Americans die of "flu-related" illnesses  mostly those in their '80s and '90s whose immune systems can no longer fight off pathogens. People age and eventually weaken. This is reality. We have never shut down our entire productive economy or hijacked people's freedom over it. Avian flu, SARS, and Ebola had death rates of 20% to 40%  much worse than COVID-19 (AKA the Wuhan virus or the Chinese Coronavirus) with its mere 1% or even less, but they never got the remarkable publicity this microscopic critter has managed to snare. You can't turn on a TV or fire up your computer or gaze into your iPhone without seeing that prickly red ball that is out to get you.

Why didn't we see blown-up artist-rendered images of these other flu viruses? Or is that a question we shouldn't be asking?

Here are a few more questions that perhaps we shouldn't be asking.

Should Californians passively stand by and follow the draconian, business-killing, joy-killing, life-killing lockdown measures that Governor Newsom and our local officials suddenly feel emboldened to thrust upon us? Should citizens across the nation meekly accede to the bizarre, out-of-proportion measures being mandated by out-of-control state officials, who seem to be unaware of burgeoning unintended consequences, or else may actually want to feed the fires of destruction? Isn't it time to call out our city councils, county supervisors, all the way up to our governors?

Remember these prescient words from Founding Father Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Whether or not they "deserve" neither, they will surely get neither. Giving up liberty is a surefire road to tyranny.

Recall the world-changing lines penned by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. Then ask yourself what has happened overnight to our God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that are the birthright of every American citizen. Consider that the usurpations being visited upon us today are far worse than those our Founders faced from the policies of King George III. And those "usurpations" prompted the American Revolution.

Have we become so cowardly that we readily cede our liberty out of fear of a virus from which 99% of people recover? Where is Patrick Henry when we need him?

Yes, we want to protect our frail elderly from this virus, as from any flu. But what about the rest of us? Have we turned into a nation of paranoid hypochondriacs? This virus isn't a death sentence! But that's more than can be said for our "non-essential" small businesses: our restaurants, dry cleaners, hair salons, bookstores, movie theaters, camera stores, nail salons, tailors, repair shops, and hundreds more  the backbone of our local economies and the providers of the goods and services we need and want in our towns. These are beloved and essential parts of our communities that are dying before our eyes.

At this moment, there is an unprecedented threat to our liberty and our way of life in America, but it's not from the Chinese virus. The danger we face is a return of the debilitating and demoralizing Great Depression, and the rough beast of socialist oppression and totalitarianism advancing upon our nation.

Wake up, America!
Boeing (NYSE:BA) announced yesterday that it is suspending operations at its South Carolina 787 Dreamliner manufacturing facility. The shutdown will begin Wednesday and no restart date was announced. This comes a day after competitor Airbus (OTC: EADSY) announced the temporary closing of its Alabama plant where it makes A220 and A320 aircraft.

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are widespread in the airline industry. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the trade association for the world's airlines, has estimated that passenger airline revenue could fall up to $252 billion, depending on how the coronavirus outbreak and recovery progress.

Boeing had previously suspended operations at its facility in Washington, and updated that announcement this week, saying that plant shutdown will be extended until further notice. The company said it is assessing the conditions in both Washington and South Carolina to ensure the health and safety of its employees. It is also monitoring the affects of the pandemic on its supply chains and, in South Carolina, the impacts it may have on the 787 program.

Boeing workers will receive paid leave for 10 working days while production is halted, which is double the existing policy. After that, employees can choose between using existing paid time off benefits, or filing for unemployment benefits.

The company will continue benefits throughout the shutdown, it said, regardless of which option employees choose to pursue.
Shocking footage has revealed how gowns designed to protect against coronavirus have been falling apart as nurses at one French hospital tried to put them on.

Staff at a children's hospital in Marseille filmed themselves attempting to dress in the gowns on Sunday, only for the material to disintegrate in their hands.

The videos began circulating on social media just hours before the country posted its largest daily death toll - with 833 confirmed dead from the virus on Monday.

Nurses at a hospital in Marseille have revealed how hundreds of protective gowns they were sent disintegrated as they tried to put them on before treating coronavirus patients

France is now among the worst-affected nations in Europe, after Spain and Italy both started reporting falling infection rates and death totals.

Marseille health officials said it appears the gowns - which came from France's national stockpile - had degraded after not being stored properly.

In one of the videos, which was initially published to a staff chat group before being leaked, nurses can be seen taking gowns out of a box in a hospital corridor.

'Be careful, we received the new blouses, the Americans didn't want them on the tarmac,' she says, in reference to another story about the US buying protective supplies before France could receive them.

'I take it delicately, you never know what's going to happen, and hello, hello, my hand has gone through.

'This is how I will get into a COVID room,' she adds.

A second, similar video, shows a pile of torn coats on the floor as one nurse attempts to put another one on.

'The new blouses are tearing, it's normal,' she says, before adding: 'This is the third box.'

A spokesman for Public Assistance - Hospitals of Marseille, which controls hospitals in the region, said an immediate investigation into the gowns was carried out.

Staff at the hospital said at least three boxes of protective equipment they were sent turned out to be faulty (left, a gown rips as a medic puts it on, and right a pile of ripped gowns)

The official told French station 20 Minutes that the probe had concluded the gowns degraded after being stored in a 'too humid environment', with evidence of water damage on the boxes.

They denied that the supplies had been bought recently from China, saying they were part of France's national stockpile that was put together before the coronavirus crisis began.

Of 20,400 gowns distributed that day, around 300 were found to be defective, officials added.

Audrey Jolibois, head of a local medical worker's union, said: 'We are told that this is an isolated case.

'For now, we want to believe them. Now, we remain very vigilant that this does not happen again.'

France has suffered a total of 8,911 coronavirus deaths, the third highest total in Europe after Italy and Spain.

But while authorities in Rome and Madrid have announced that they have passed the peak of infection, those in Paris admit the crisis will keep getting worse.

France is now one of the hardest-hit countries in Europe with coronavirus, after recording 833 deaths on Monday alone - the largest single-day rise so far (pictured, a patient in Paris)

French Police officer checks the authorization at 'Saint Michel near Notre Dame during a nationwide confinement to counter the Covid-19, in Paris, Monday

'We have not reached the end of the ascent of this epidemic,' Health Minster Olivier Veran said on Monday.

'It is not over. Far from that. The path is long. The figures that I have announced show this,' he said. 'Stay at home and continue this confinement effort.'

France has been under nationwide lockdown since March 17.

The total number of cases, combining hospital and nursing home statistics, increased by 5,171 over the last 24 hours to 98,010.

Giving a glimmer of hope, Veran added that the rate at which new infections is being reported is also falling - which is key to easing pressure on health services.

Without social distancing and lockdown measures, the average coronavirus patient infects 2.5 people.

Veran said that rate is now falling towards 1 in most French regions, and had dipped below it in several places.

A figure below 1 means the virus has effectively stopped circulating and will begin to die off.

'We see that the confinement has a palpable impact. In France we are beginning to feel it,' he said.
Conservation experts say the pandemic is a watershed moment for curbing global wildlife trade.

Conservation experts say the coronavirus pandemic, which likely originated at a market selling wild animals in China, is a watershed moment for curbing the global wildlife trade, which can drive extinction and spread disease.

When Adam Peyman walked into a restaurant in Vietnam to order a meal he was shocked to find wild animals, including threatened species, on the menu, alongside traditional rice, noodles and seafood. Sting ray, porcupine, softshell turtle, wild pig and wild goat were all on offer.

"It was a bit of a surprise to see these foods," says the wildlife manager for the animal welfare organisation, Humane Society International. "But, these kinds of wild foods are considered something of a luxury."

Feasting on exotic game has become a sign of status and wealth in some Asian countries. The desire for wildlife as food or medicine drives a trade in wild animals, some procured illegally, creating a breeding ground for disease and the chance for viruses to leap to humans.

"The consumption of wild animals, especially wild mammals, which can carry diseases that can cross the species barrier, does pose a real threat to human health," says Mr Peyman. "It's hard to tell whether these animals are taken from the wild legally or not, some of them could have been smuggled in and then sold on these wet markets, as they're called."

Wet markets

Wet markets have become a familiar sight in many countries in Southeast Asia, particularly mainland China. Selling live fish, chickens and wildlife, as well as fresh fruit and vegetables, they get their name from the melting ice used to preserve goods, as well as to wash the floors clean of blood from butchered animals.

Wet markets can be "timebombs" for epidemics, says Prof Andrew Cunningham, deputy director of science at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). "This sort of way that we treat... animals as if they're just our commodities for us to plunder - it comes back to bite us and it's no surprise."

Leap to humans

The current coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, likely originated in the Wuhan seafood market. Despite its name, the market was selling a lot more than fish, including snakes, porcupine and deer, according to one report.

After an initial cluster of cases connected to the market, the virus began spreading dramatically inside China, before reaching much of the world. The origins of the novel virus are unknown, but it most likely emerged in a bat, then made the leap to humans via another wild animal host.

Scientists have for decades been drawing attention to outbreaks of human diseases that have originated in animals, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) and Ebola.

The message from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society is clear: ban live animal markets that trade in wildlife, stop illegal trafficking and poaching of wild animals.

"Not only will this help prevent the spread of disease, it will address one of the major drivers of species extinction," says the society.

In the wake of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China introduced a ban on all farming and consumption of live wildlife, which is expected to become law later this year. Thousands of wildlife farms raising animals such as porcupines, civets and turtles have been shut down. However, loopholes remain, such as the trade in wild animals for medicine, pets and scientific research.

Then there is the traditional Chinese medicines industry, which also uses wildlife products. Only recently, the Chinese government appears to have approved the use of an injection - ironically as a coronavirus treatment - that contains bear bile.

Campaigners worry these exemptions could pave way for illegal trade on wildlife meat, as it did in the past with, for instance, tiger and leopard body parts. So pangolin meat could still be available as the animal's scales can be used for medicine and its nails as ornaments.

All eyes, therefore, are on the soon-to-be amended wildlife protection law - whether and how it would address those loopholes.

In neighbouring Vietnam, the government is rushing through legislation to clamp down on illegal wildlife trade at street markets and online. But some say it won't be easy to change cultural attitudes or to enforce bans, when wet markets are part of the local culture, with the belief that the meat sold there is fresh and cheap.

Supply and demand

Prof Dirk Pfeiffer of City University of Hong Kong says the real issue is demand. "The people who are providing them, whether that's farmed wild animals or animals from the wild, that's an important source of income for them. Pushing it underground, that's not the solution, so it needs to be a phased process."

This isn't the first time a pandemic has put the spotlight on wildlife trade. The 2002 Sars outbreak, which started in China and claimed more than 700 lives, was linked to bats and mongoose-like civets, although the source was never confirmed.

Prof Cunningham says if we're to stop another pandemic in the future, we must focus on causes as well as effects. At the root of the problem is the destruction of nature, bringing animals and humans into conflict.

"Even in protected forests, the forests are still there, but the wildlife's gone from within them because they have ended up in markets," he says. ".And it's easy to finger point, but it's not just happening in China, it's happening in many other countries and even in the western world. We like to have exotic pets and many of those are wild caught and we ought to be putting our own house in order too." BBC
Washington: 211 countries of the world have come under the grip of coronavirus infection. But there are also some countries where not a single case of corona infection has been reported so far. One of them is Turkmenistan. Experts believe that the local government may be hiding the truth, which may shock the efforts to deal with this epidemic.

As most countries in the world are battling the Corona epidemic and are facing a complete lockdown to prevent the spread of infection, a bicycle rally is being held in Turkmenistan on Tuesday on the occasion of World Health Day (WHD) . This Central Asian country has claimed that not a single case of coronavirus has been reported so far. But can the figures given by the government discussed for centership be believed?

Professor Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who studies the Turkmen Healthcare System, says that "the health statistics released officially by Turkmenistan cannot be believed at all." He said that, "Turkmenistan had also claimed in the last decade that not a single patient is infected with HIV / AIDS there." This data is also not reliable.

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Staffing and equipment shortages and other issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic add to the long-standing challenges to reduce burnout among nurses, physicians and other healthcare professionals.

A study published in Critical Care Nurse (CCN) identifies six self-care strategies to combat burnout. Based on interviews conducted in 2017 and 2018, the research may offer guidance for healthcare teams responding to the coronavirus. Among the findings:

Finding Meaning in Work: Nurses and physicians alike responded that being able to care for others made them feel that their work was purposeful and meaningful. Remembering one's initial sense of purpose may renew individuals and motivate them to do what they have a passion for and love.

Nurses and physicians alike responded that being able to care for others made them feel that their work was purposeful and meaningful. Remembering one's initial sense of purpose may renew individuals and motivate them to do what they have a passion for and love. Connecting With an Energy Source: Energy sources may include one's initial inspiration for becoming a healthcare professional, family support, social connections and spiritual beliefs. Helping patients and families feel better can be a driving force for healthcare providers.

Energy sources may include one's initial inspiration for becoming a healthcare professional, family support, social connections and spiritual beliefs. Helping patients and families feel better can be a driving force for healthcare providers. Nurturing Interpersonal Connections: Developing trusting and enjoyable work relationships can be fundamental to creating a caring and healing environment and reducing work-related stress. Giving and receiving help from co-workers and from leadership teams is key to a caring work environment and high-quality patient care.

Developing trusting and enjoyable work relationships can be fundamental to creating a caring and healing environment and reducing work-related stress. Giving and receiving help from co-workers and from leadership teams is key to a caring work environment and high-quality patient care. Developing an Attitude of Positivity: An optimistic outlook can help healthcare professionals face difficult situations and shift their thoughts to see the good in the overall picture.

An optimistic outlook can help healthcare professionals face difficult situations and shift their thoughts to see the good in the overall picture. Performing Emotional Hygiene: Strategies to address psychological well-being include self-reflection, mindfulness, prayer, time with family and friends, adequate sleep and moderate exercise. Setting boundaries between home and work contributes to a healthy work-life balance.

Strategies to address psychological well-being include self-reflection, mindfulness, prayer, time with family and friends, adequate sleep and moderate exercise. Setting boundaries between home and work contributes to a healthy work-life balance. Recognizing One's Uniqueness: Every member of the healthcare team is needed to provide high-quality care to patients and families. Appreciating one's own strengths and contributions can help individuals find inner strength and power during difficult times.

Principal investigator Holly Wei, PhD, RN, CPN, NEA-BC, is a faculty teaching in the Graduate Nurse Leadership Concentration, College of Nursing, East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.

A common issue in nurses and physicians, burnout has long regarded as a potential hazard to healthcare quality and patient safety. Developing effective self-care strategies helps promote physical and psychological well-being and reduce burnout." Holly Wei, principal investigator

The findings are based on face-to-face individual interviews with 20 physicians and nurses from the pediatric intensive care unit and intermediate care unit at a U.S. children's hospital.

As the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses' bimonthly clinical practice journal for high-acuity and critical care nurses, CCN is a trusted source of information related to the bedside care of critically and acutely ill patients.
Fellow Anguillians, I am Pam Webster, Leader of the Opposition in Anguilla.

I wish to respond to the latest COVID-19 update, released by the Governor and the Premier on Monday 6th April 2020. Allow me to briefly refresh your memory of a press statement that I issued to all media on Friday 3rd April 2020. In that press statement, I raised the issue of the fishermen in District One and elsewhere who were being prohibited from fishing in our waters by the Royal Anguilla Police Force. My inquiries into this matter included several calls to the Governor, Ministers responsible, the Fisheries Department and a detailed review of The Public Health (Temporary Restriction on Movement of People and Public Gatherings) Order which was gazetted on 27th March 2020. I called on the government at that time to provide an exemption for our fishermen to be able to carry out their work to maintain the supply of fresh fish to the local market, inclusive of households, supermarkets, and restaurants. In that press statement, I noted the regulations implemented in Turks and Caicos Islands and Trinidad and Tobago, which classified fishermen and farmers as essential workers; recognizing the critical role that they play in food security, particularly at this time where global food chains have been affected by the COVID-

19 pandemic.

I am somewhat disappointed in the governments decision to restrict all our fishermen and their vessels from fishing in Anguillian waters. This restriction will come into force from April 8th to April 21st  a 14 day period. This decision will place an additional financial strain on fishermen and their families, particularly during this economic crisis we are facing. Likewise, this decision may negatively impact our food security. At this time, with much uncertainty about when our tourism sector will be fully active in a post-COVID-19 environment, we must rely on and invest heavily in our ability to feed ourselves.



The government, in its latest statement issued on 6th April 2020, suggested that their actions to restrict all fishermen from fishing in our waters was to ensure that resources designated to protect our borders were not being stretched. In the past five (5) years, I have made several representations to this government concerning the need to invest more in border patrol and our search and rescue capabilities, to no avail. Now, this particular chicken has come home to roost and has become a serious impediment to our fishermen, who are essential to us at this time.

The release from the government was also deliberately vague concerning any compensation package for our fishermen, who will be out of work for two weeks at least. Last night I spoke with several fishermen in my District and these new restrictions greatly concern them, as they should. I also see no evidence of any real and tangible consultation with the fishermen before the decision was taken.

I also attended a meeting earlier today with the Government and several of our licensed fishermen, in which our fishermen made excellent representations and suggested alternative approaches  all reasonable. In light of this, I am calling on the Governor and the Premier, going forward, before considering any extension of the

14 day period, to take into account the following:

1. Ensure that all our fishermen are encouraged to be part of the solution, by soliciting their assistance in reporting unknown vessels in our waters and increase our surveillance in this area.

2. Instead of making a unilateral decision to stop our fishermen from practicing their trade, please consider, as one fisherman suggested today, a system by which we can allow them to operate on specific days and at specific times to ensure that they are still able to function, albeit with some limitations.

3. Hold additional consultations with our fishermen during this 14-day restrictive period to develop a system for continued fishing in our waters that will satisfy all stakeholders involved.



4. I am calling for a detailed package of compensation for our fishermen for the loss of income they are now forced to endure.

5. I was given the assurance by the Government that The Public Health (Temporary Restriction on Movement of People and Public Gatherings) Regulations, 2020 would be amended to classify our fishermen and farmers as essential workers. I urge them to ensure this is done swiftly in order to lay the framework for their incorporation into our essential services going forward.

6. After the restriction is exhausted, we need our fishermen to enjoy every freedom to help us survive the post-COVID-19 era.

To all Anguillians at home and abroad, from the beginning, I have maintained, and I continue to maintain, that the health, safety, and wellbeing of our people is my number one priority. And yes, this requires us to make difficult decisions. However, good governance requires proper and effective consultation with all stakeholders, to better inform our process of decision making. In this instance, I believe that patrolling our waters and making provisions for our fishermen can be solved through effective negotiation and cooperation from all stakeholders. We must always seek to do right by our people. After all, they are the ones who elect us to work in their best interest. I continue to pledge my full support to the government and our people during this difficult time and it is my hope (and I am encouraged by the Premier including me in today's meeting) that we will communicate more effectively on such issues in the interests of our people.

Thank you. God Bless you and May God Bless Anguilla, always

Office of the Leader of the Opposition

THE HON. PAM WEBSTER
Beef cattle listings on DoneDeal have surged 32pc year-on-year in the wake of the suspension of normal trading at livestock marts.

The figures come as Carnaross Mart yesterday became the first mart in Ireland to use Livestock Live - video on-line technology that allows farmers to view and bid on livestock being sold in local marts.

Mart manager, Padraig McElroy, said he has had a lot of inquiries from farmers, across all age groups.

"It's another angle to try and get farmers as much as possible for their cattle as we can't have anyone around the mart due to the restrictions," he said.

Sellers book livestock in ahead of the sale, and drop them off at the mart, without leaving their vehicle.

The technology has been on trial for over two years.

Meanwhile, a number of online platforms are offering farmers other outlets to sell livestock.

Husband and wife partnership Peter and Taeko Lowe, based in Drumkeeran, Co Leitrim, are offering farmers a free online platform, www.onlinemart.ie, to list their cattle.

Nenagh-based Tim Harty runs Livestock.ie and pairs buyers with sellers.

"Set up your profile with your requirements, and the system scans its database for matches, pairing buyers and sellers using breed, age, quality assurance etc," Tim said.

"Then I contact both parties and arrange a sale if both are agreeable."

He also said transport and weighing can be arranged.
LONDON - Prime Minister Boris Johnson headed into his second night in an intensive care unit, where he was being given supplemental oxygen on Tuesday, as Britain reeled under a pandemic that has confined its exuberant leader to a bed reserved for the very sickest.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is carrying out the prime minister's duties in his absence, said Johnson was "receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any assistance. He's not required any mechanical ventilation."

Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, can inflame the airways and make it difficult to breathe. Some patients go on to develop pneumonia, which can lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome, an often fatal outcome.

Johnson, 55, has no known underlying health conditions. His official spokesman said the prime minister was not suffering from pneumonia, but persistent cough and fever. The spokesman said, "The prime minister's condition is stable and he remains in intensive care for close monitoring. He is in good spirits."

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said Tuesday that the government "will ensure the country is updated" on Johnson's status. Before the transfer to the ICU at St. Thomas' Hospital in London on Monday evening, government officials evaded questions about his condition and what tests and treatment he was receiving.

Later on Tuesday, Gove said he himself would have to go into isolation at home for 14 days, after a family member began to display mild symptoms of coronavirus infection.

Asked at a news conference Tuesday evening who would make tough decisions with Johnson in ICU, Raab downplayed his role, stressing that "normal Cabinet collective responsibility" would apply.

The foreign secretary said there was "total unity" and "total resolve" among cabinet members, who had been given "very clear instructions" by the prime minister to continue with their plan to fight the pandemic.

He suggested the country's lockdown would not be relaxed next week, when the government has scheduled its first formal review of the effectiveness of its stay-at-home order.

Britain has confirmed 55,242 coronavirus cases and reported 6,159 deaths. The country, like the United States, expects those numbers to continue to surge for days and maybe weeks.

Johnson's illness has stunned Britain, sparking an outpouring of support for the prime minister and fear of what might come next.

Headlines of newspaper tabloids read: "Sick Boris Fights for Life" and "Still Conscious and Battling."

Queen Elizabeth II sent a message on Tuesday to his family and fiancee, Carrie Symonds, who has been self-isolating with coronavirus symptoms and is pregnant with the couple's first child. "Her Majesty said they were in her thoughts and that she wished the Prime Minister a full and speedy recovery," according to a palace statement.

"I'm confident he'll pull through," Raab said, "because if there's one thing I know about this prime minister, he's a fighter."

Raab is not a well-known politician in Britain. He lost a Conservative Party leadership contest to Johnson last summer, and he lacks the prime minister's gift of elocution, his humor and his bombast. Raab, who has a black belt in karate and law degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, briefly served as Brexit secretary under Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May. He was roundly mocked for saying he hadn't quite understood" how reliant Britain's trade was on the Dover-Calais crossing.

Johnson became one of the first world leaders to test positive for the coronavirus, on the night of March 26. He was admitted to the hospital on Sunday evening. Until he was moved to the ICU, his staff maintained that he was leading the country from his bed.

"His general air of vigorousness means that many people are shocked that he should be struck down," said Andrew Gimson, author of "The Adventures of Boris Johnson."

Gimson said Johnson was "one of the very few British politicians who can enter a shopping center or mall on a rainy Wednesday afternoon when nothing else is going on and completely change the atmosphere. He has an ability to connect with people."

He said Johnson "has always regarded illness as something you work through, rather than taking to your boudoir and lying in the dark until it all passes, you carry on in a tough energetic way."

That attitude may have kept Johnson from resting more during the early days of his illness.

It is also in keeping with the outlook of his idol, Winston Churchill. In December 1941, during a trip to Washington, Churchill had a minor heart attack. His doctor told him he was just overworking. Churchill continued on his way to Ottawa to address the Canadian parliament.
On Monday 6 April Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to the intensive care unit at St Thomas' Hospital, London, as his coronavirus symptoms worsened. His pregnant fiance Carrie Symonds is unlikely to be permitted to visit him, despite having recovered from Covid-19 herself. Sue Martin, 49, from South Wales knows how that feels  her husband Mal, 58, has been in intensive care with the virus since 29 March. She is at home with their children, Hana, 16, and Wiliam, 13, unable to see him as he gets sicker by the day. Here she tells Sophie Gallagher her story.

There is almost zero chance of survival for my husband now. His body is not coping with the virus.

If Mal was going to recover, doctors would have expected to see an improvement by now, they tell me. But they reassure me they will do all they can  for as long as they can  to give him a chance. Every day that passes I expect to lose him, but I am also holding on to any hope that he might pull through.

Mal and I got married in September 1996, weve been together for 28 years. He has been in my life longer than he hasnt. He is the loveliest man. It sounds like something we all say about our loved ones, but truly everyone who knows Mal loves him. Silly, funny and kind, he is always doing some sort of dance or singing songs to make us all laugh. He is the life and soul of the party, first and last on the dance floor.

Hes also one of the most selfless people I know. He lives for his family; his children and I are his world and everything he does is for us. He would talk to anyone who will listen about how proud he is of Hana and Wiliam. He rings his dad every day to check in.

Now, he has been on a ventilator for 10 days, deteriorating daily.

Mal is a type 2 diabetic and suffered a heart attack four years ago but has since been fine and lives a healthy life. He first started feeling unwell on the evening of 19 March, like he was coming down with a cold. Then a sudden change: the following morning, he couldnt get out of bed, he had a dreadful cough, a headache and a temperature of 38.8C  all the main symptoms of Covid-19. He was in bed from that moment onward.

 Coronavirus: The hospitals being built to deal with the pandemic

Straight away we followed the guidelines. Mal began to self-isolate in the house and I wiped down the bathroom with anti-bacterial wipes after he used it. I kept an eye on him from a distance, popping into the room he slept in to drop off drinks and paracetamol. How I wish now I had spent more time with him now.

I wasnt allowed to go with him to hospital or to hug him goodbye when he left..."

After a week his cough was getting progressively worse. I couldnt get through to 111 so I rang our GP who prescribed him antibiotics. Two days later, on Sunday 29 March, his breathing became very rapid and I phoned an ambulance.

I wasnt allowed to go with him to hospital or to hug him goodbye, but I assumed after a few days being looked after by doctors that my husband would be home with me again, the whole ordeal over.

But within two hours of being admitted to hospital, he texted us to say he was to be taken to the intensive care unit (ICU) to go on to a ventilator. When the nurse rang to tell me more, I begged to be able to visit him, but obviously that wasnt possible. My world fell apart at that point.

Coronavirus: London on lockdown Show all 29 1 /29 Coronavirus: London on lockdown Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man walks down a deserted Camden High Street Photos Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Goodge Street Station is one of the many stations closed to help reduce the spread Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown An empty street in the heart of Chinatown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown People in masks in Chinatown a day after the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A near-empty Piccadilly Circus during the first week of lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Sonja, my neighbour, who I photographed while taking a short walk. It was nice to briefly chat even from a distance Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple sit on the empty steps of the statue Eros in Piccadilly Circus Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Making sure I stay two-meters apart  DArblay Street, Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A mannequin behind a shop window. UK stores have closed until further notice Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A notice displayed on a shop window in Camden Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown As part of the lockdown, all non-essential shops have been ordered to close.Image from Camden High Street Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A skateboarder wearing a mask utilises his exercise allowance in the Camden area Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Communities have been coming together in a time of need Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman stands alone in a deserted Oxford Street. Up until a few weeks ago, on average, half a million people visited the street per day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple walk hand in hand down a street in Soho, a day before the stricter lockdown was announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown During the first week of March, shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities ahead of a countrywide lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Many supermarkers are operating a queuing system to make sure only a limited amount of customers are allowed in at anyone time Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Stay Safe  Curzon cinemas are temporarily closed under the new measures Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Pubs, restaurants and bars were ordered to shut as part of the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street There are fears that coronavirus could lead to permanent closure of struggling shops Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden Town is eerily silent on a normal working day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Shops and supermarkets ran out of hand sanitisers in the first week of the lockdown. As we approach the end of the second week most shops now have started to stock up Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty streets around Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A noticeboard on Camden High Street urges the public to stay at home Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street, one of Londons busiest tourist streets turns quiet Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Thriller Live confirmed its West End run ended in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty and eerie Soho streets after stricter rules on social distancing announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman pauses for a cigarette on Hanway Street, behind Tottenham Court Road Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man steps outside onto Hanway Street, that sits behind what is usually a bustling retail hub Angela Christofilou

We managed to FaceTime him before he went into the ICU. All four of us cried, looking at each other through the small phone screen, knowing we might not all be together again. Afterwards, he texted me to say he loved me, that he'd be back soon and for me to be strong for the kids. I told him I wished it was me there instead of him. Then he was put to sleep and straight onto a ventilator. He must have been so scared and I couldnt be there, that haunts me.

On 5 April, we were told the prognosis was very bad, that it was almost a zero chance he would survive. I begged to see him.

One of the nurses stayed two hours after her shift to enable us to visit (the NHS have been amazing throughout). We were dressed in full personal protective equipment and were allowed 10 minutes with him. Not being able to hold his hand or touch him and with the barrier of the hot, stuffy suit was beyond heartbreaking. I could hardly breathe.

My children said their goodbyes to their dad who, just a few short weeks ago was absolutely fine..."

All three of us stood around his bed. My children said their goodbyes to their dad who, just a few short weeks ago was absolutely fine. Id give anything for another few years with him for him to watch the kids grow up. I never thought I could feel this much pain. My father is unwell too and not being with my parents has made the whole situation that much worse.

Yesterday we thought it might have been the end for Mal but incredibly there was a slight improvement. His lungs and kidneys have failed now, but there was a slight increase in his blood pressure. We still know to expect the worse but are clinging on to any glimmer of hope.

Words cannot express how incredible all of the doctors and nurses have been  our GP and all the ICU ward staff. A consultant has rung me every day with an update however minor and has answered all my questions no matter how long it takes. They have all done everything they can in a horrendous situation and are risking their lives everyday to save my husbands life and I am so, so grateful to them.

If Mal could talk to me now hed probably say how much he loves us, how proud he is of his children, and how we have to look after one another.

For now, though, all we can do is wait. The house feels empty without him and the days stretch on. We are just existing. I so desperately want Mal to get through this, I dont want him to be a faceless statistic, he is so much more than that. He is, and will always be, our world.

I know there are a lot of people who are still wondering what all the fuss is about around coronavirus, but if anyone manages to get through this time without losing a loved one, they are extremely lucky. At the moment, it's pure Russian roulette who lives and who dies. People are moaning about being bored or fed up at home, but to them I say: Id give my anything to be bored again.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 06:13:27|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic is giving a rise to some unexpected spending at the United Nations and the world body's liquidity crisis is continuing, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said Monday at the daily virtual news briefing.

"The COVID-19 is giving a rise to some unexpected spending, including supply chain distribution, construction-related costs that will have to be managed. Officers are still assessing these," said Dujarric.

"Our liquidity crisis is continuing as, unfortunately, arrears at the end of 2019 had hit an all-time high and those arrears have only been cleared partially," he noted.

Talking about the austerity measures, the spokesman said that the top UN executive body has "asked managers to prioritize spending and also to halt any new recruitment."

"The bottom line for us is that we have to continue to keep expenses to a minimum to ensure cash, there's cash for salaries and invoices, both for the regular budget and for peacekeeping. And we're continuing to speak to member states at all levels to get greater certainty on their payments," he said.

On the payment of this year's regular budget operations, Dujarric said "the collections for 2020 for the first quarter are, unfortunately, trailing behind estimates that we had and we're still awaiting confirmation from a number of member states about their timing of their payment."

The UN accords its members 30 days from the beginning of the calendar year to pay their dues. But only 34 of the 193 member states settled their tabs within the 30 days allotted. As of April 3, only 78 member states had paid their dues, said the spokesman.

The secretary-general said last week in his letter to all member states that unpredictable cash inflows, exacerbated by the global crisis posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, seriously threaten the UN's ability to do its work.
The Descendants of the Sun actress Song Hye Kyo has put her luxurious stand-alone single house up for sale for the amount of nearly $7 million USD. The house is located in Samsung-dong, one of the most high-end neighborhoods in Seoul.

The stand-alone house consists of two floors with a basement. The property is actually considered to be in the best spot within the small complex full of glamorous houses. Having prestige aspects of the house, the real estate agent reveals that it was priced at a lower cost than what it's actually worth.

One of the real estate agents said that you can consider that it's been put up as an emergency sale.

Song Hye Kyo has plenty of projects and schedules so she is required to travel around the world often. However, even if she is offered a lot of possible roles, she has not confirmed her next project as of yet.

Along with the fact that her single-family house was released for sale for 8.2 billion won, interest in her current situation and upcoming work is growing. As of the moment the actress is communicating with her fans through continuously posting photos and videos on her SNS.

On an interview done with an endorsement for a luxury brand, Song Hye Kyo expressed that she likes it during the evening since she can enjoy a relaxing time with her heart's content. She was also asked if she ever changed anything since childhood, the famous actress responded that the people close to her have never changed since she was young, and up to this day they are still by her side.

The actress actively participates in voluntary work, most especially with animals. She joins in activities related by KARA regularly. Song Hye Kyo is famous for her frequent and large social donations.

Song's agency stated that since the actress has traveled more often for work, she has become more aware of how important it is for tourists to be able to read the information in their own language. As a result of Song Hye Kyo's partnership with professor Seo Kyung-duk of Sungshin Women's University, decided to donate brochures or information in Korean to various historic Korean sites, art galleries, and museums in the world. Professor Seo commended the actress who is supporting her country in her very special way.

Song Hye-kyo's last show that was released in Korea is the tvN drama titled 'Boyfriend' that was broadcasted in the year 2018. In this particular drama, she played the character as Cha Soo-hyun, the representative of Donghwa Hotel, and breathed in with his opponent Park Bo-gum. More expectations are rising that Song Hye-kyo will choose to comeback accepting a Korean film project.
He also has to forfeit 25 properties in Oregon and California and more than $16 million in Tesla stock. Here's how much time he'll serve.
Voters line up Tuesday at Riverside High School in Milwaukee, where only five of 180 polling sites were open for Wisconsin's primary election. (Morry Gash / Associated Press)

The country may be in lockdown, but Cheryl and Terrence Moore  black natives of the Deep South  felt there was no more important place to be Tuesday than their polling site, in surgical masks and latex gloves, voting in Wisconsin's fiercely disputed primary.

"After the poll taxes and the poll tests, the lynchings and attack dogs, our ancestors dying and people putting their lives at risk at every opportunity, not to do our part because of a virus?" said Terrence Moore, 50, a pastor and business development coordinator at a Milwaukee neighborhood chamber of commerce.

"I would betray that legacy by staying home," said the former South Carolinian, who waited 2 hours with his wife to cast their ballots at the city's Riverside University High School. "It would be a dishonor not to honor them in this capacity."

Gloved, masked and determined, Wisconsin voters lined up a socially distanced six feet apart to defy a stay-at-home order and cast ballots in the Democratic presidential race and other contests. There will be no results announced until Monday at the earliest, just one oddity of an election unlike any other.

Cheryl and Terrence Moore wait to vote at Milwaukee's Riverside University High Schoo. They voted in person after their absentee ballots failed to arrive in the mail. (Terrence Moore)

National Guard troops helped staff polling stations, and volunteers  including the Republican House speaker, in full protective gown  wiped down surfaces, handed out disposable writing implements and took other steps to avoid the spread of the novel coronavirus while giving citizens the chance to exercise their franchise in the balloting booth.

Many were not pleased.

"Welcome to the S Show!" the state's lieutenant governor, Democrat Mandela Barnes, said on Twitter. "Todays episode has been produced by the Supreme Court and directed by the incomparable Speaker and Senate Majority leader duo. Buckle up, this ones sure to disappoint!"

The snide commentary reflected the raw politics surrounding Tuesday's vote.

After equivocating amid several days of legal wrangling, the state's Democratic governor, Tony Evers, sought Monday to postpone the primary until June. His effort was overturned by the GOP majority on the state Supreme Court; a separate ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court blocked extension of the deadline for voting by mail.

Story continues

At bottom, the dispute amounted to a partisan power struggle: One of the stakes in Tuesday's election is a seat on the state Supreme Court, and a lower turnout was thought to benefit the conservative incumbent.

President Trump showed his partiality in a tweet: "Wisconsin, get out and vote NOW for Justice Daniel Kelly. Protect your 2nd amendment!"

Nearly lost in all the skirmishing was the Democratic presidential contest between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.

Biden enjoys a nearly insurmountable lead in delegates, and polling ahead of Tuesday's primary suggested the former vice president would add substantially to his lead over the Vermont senator, his sole remaining rival for the nomination.

Sanders was among those calling for a delay. "Let's be clear: Holding this election amid the coronavirus outbreak is dangerous, disregards the guidance of public health experts, and may very well prove deadly," he said in an election eve statement. "For that reason, our campaign will not be engaged in any traditional [get out the vote] efforts.

Some effectively voted with their feet, choosing to stay home.

Naryan Leazer, a 55-year-old financial advisor who lives in the predominantly black north side of Milwaukee, said he, his two daughters and a son-in-law all voted absentee. But the ballot of his wife, Vera, never arrived in the mail. On Tuesday, Leazar said, she made the difficult decision not to participate in the primary.

"We just don't think it's worth the risk of her to stand in a long line to go vote," Leazar said of his spouse, who is 52.

Although more than a dozen other states have postponed their contests, Wisconsin became the first to hold a primary in three weeks  a time when cases of the novel coronavirus have exploded and life has turned upside down. As such, it serves as a test case should the disruption extend into the fall campaign, when Wisconsin will be a major presidential battleground.

The Moores said they weren't the only ones who considered it their responsibility to turn out Tuesday, pandemic or no.

The diversity of those in line with them  black, white, Latino, Asian American, young, old, Democrat, independent, Republican  showed they were undeterred and united in purpose. "No one talked about what side they were on," said Terrence Moore.

Voters line up at a Milwaukee polling site Tuesday. Some reported waiting more than two hours to cast a ballot. (Morry Gash / Associated Press)

As of Tuesday, Wisconsin had reported more than 2,500 COVID-19 infections and at least 85 related deaths.

Wisconsin state Rep. David Bowen, a Milwaukee Democrat, recently recovered from the virus after spending two weeks sick at home. It is a shame that people have to choose between voting and participating in democracy, something that is their right to do, and their health and the health and well-being of those around them, said Bowen, who stood in line for two hours to cast his ballot.

But state Republican Party Chairman Andrew Hitt downplayed health concerns. Wisconsin voters are pretty determined," he said, noting that residents are still going to the supermarket, the liquor store and even boating stores classified as essential businesses. I can't really think of something more essential than voting.

Even so, disruption was widespread.

Milwaukee, the state's most populous city and a Democratic stronghold, had just five polling places, compared with the usual 180.

An election worker cleans voting booths Tuesday at the Kenosha Bible Church gym in Kenosha, Wis. (Kamil Krzaczynski / AFP/Getty Images)

By election day, nearly 1.3 million absentee ballots had been sent to voters across the state, a record. More than 400,000 still had not been returned by election day, and the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the window for them to count.

Rejecting Democratic pleas for an extension, the court said absentee ballots must be hand-delivered by Tuesday evening or postmarked by Tuesday, although they can arrive at election offices as late as April 13. Wisconsin officials said the Supreme Court decision left intact a provision of a lower-court order that no results could be reported before then.

Democrats said that failure to extend absentee balloting in effect disenfranchised a substantial number of voters.

Evers issued a buoyant Twitter message praising "the bravery, resilience, and heroism of those who are defending our democracy by showing up to vote, working the polls and reporting on this election."

Others were less sanguine.

"It's been a common theme," Leazer said of the dilemma posed by an election held amid the coronavirus epidemic. "Everything is just a mess. The main sentiment is, why are we having this election?"

Times staff writer Arit John and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Delhi High Court has dismissed the plea of Christian Michel James, an alleged middleman arrested in connection with the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam cases by the CBI and ED, seeking interim bail on the ground of the risk of contracting coronavirus in Tihar jail.

Justice Mukta Gupta, who conducted the hearing through video conferencing, said the apprehension of Michel that because of his vulnerable age and overcrowding in jail he is likely to contact COVID-19 which may be detrimental to his health, is unfounded.

The probe agencies opposed the interim bail plea.

The 59-year-old Michel claimed that his health condition was critical and incompatible with the current prison status, especially to cope with the risk of contracting COVID-19 infection which could have a lethal effect on him as he is already suffering from serious pathologies.

Michel, extradited from Dubai, was arrested by the ED on December 22, 2018.

On January 5 last year, he was sent to judicial custody in the ED case. He is also in judicial custody in another case registered by the CBI in connection with the scam.

Michel is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the case by the ED and the CBI. The other two are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Newser)  Parisians who want to get some exercise outside will now have to do it at night or early in the morning. After a weekend that saw large groups of people jogging in the city's parks, authorities have banned outdoor exercise between 10am and 7pm, reports the BBC. Mayor Anne Hidalgo and city police chief Didier Lallemen said in a joint statement that the measure, which takes effect Wednesday, will restrict outdoor exercise to "when the streets are quietest."

story continues below

France has been under strict lockdown orders for nearly a month and hundreds of thousands of people have been fined for violating the rules, one of which is that they have to exercise within a kilometer of their home. The country's coronavirus death toll surged to more than 10,000 Tuesday after authorities added deaths in nursing homes to the total, France24 reports. Reuters reports it's the fourth country to pass that mark; Italy, Spain, and the US have also done so. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
President Donald Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook speak to the press during a tour of the Flextronics computer manufacturing facility where Apple's Mac Pros are assembled in Austin, Texas, on Nov. 20, 2019. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Apple Producing 1 Million Face Shields a Week for Health Care Workers

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said the company plans to ship 20 million face shields around the world to assist hospitals reporting shortages of medical equipment due to the CCP virus pandemic.

The tech giant aims to produce at least 1 million face shields for medical workers per week, Cook said in a video on April 5.

Weve launched a company-wide effort, bringing together product designers, engineering, operations, and packaging teams, and our suppliers to design, produce, and ship face shields for health workers, Cook said.

Cook said the company had sourced the equipment through its global supply chain and that it was working continuously and closely with governments at all levels to distribute the face shields where they are need most urgently, in what he described as a truly global effort.

Were sourcing materials and manufacturing in the U.S. and China, he said. We plan to ship over 1 million by the end of this week, and over 1 million per week after that.

The first shipment was delivered to Kaiser Hospital in Santa Clara Valley, California, last week, Cook said, adding that the feedback from doctors was very positive.

We hope to quickly expand distribution beyond the U.S., he said, adding that the tech giant has been pushing to meet the essential needs of caregivers urgently and at a scale the circumstances require.

For Apple, this is a labor of love and gratitude, and we will share more of our efforts over time.

President Donald Trump on April 6 praised the company for ramping up its production facilities to produce critical supplies amid the outbreak of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

I want to thank Apple, one of the many great American companies that have leapt into action, Trump told reporters at the White House. Today Apple announced that it is now producing plastic face shields for health care workers at the rate of 1 million per week.

These are shields that you see on television quite a bit. They are the highest level of quality and safety.

It comes as the U.S. death toll from the CCP virus surpassed 10,000 on April 6, with more than 368,000 confirmed cases, according to a tracking map from Johns Hopkins University that collates official government data.

American health care workers are appealing for more protective gear and equipment as they face a surge of patients.

Doctors are also especially concerned about a shortage of ventilators, breathing machines needed for those suffering from COVID-19, the pneumonia-like respiratory disease caused by the CCP virus.

Beijing has been accused of hoarding billions of critical medical supplies, such as masks, as well as hundreds of tons of others globally amid the escalating pandemic, and shipping them back to China.

Reuters contributed to this report.
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New Delhi, April 7 : The Indian Army is preparing to take over the medical screening at Delhi's Narela camp set up for the coronavirus suspects, sources said on Tuesday.

This will be the first civilian setup that may come under the Army control.

Sources said several requests have been made for Army to take over the medical screening setup. An Army medical team is currently working along with civil medical professionals as part of the process of taking over the screening duties.

"In the interest of smooth running of the facility, it is being ensured that the takeover will be gradual," an Army source said.

Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat had on Sunday visited the COVID-19 camp in Narela.

Since Friday, Indian Army medical teams have been deployed at the quarantine centre in Delhi's Narela, where a number of suspected COVID-19 positive Tablighi Jamaat members are also kept. This, according to the sources, is the first time that the Indian Army is deployed to assist the civil administration in Delhi in the fight against coronavirus.

In Narela, the unoccupied flats of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) were converted into the quarantine rooms in March after the influx of Indians from foreign nations.

Two medical teams with support staff were deployed at Narela after the authorities made a request to the Ministry of Defence.
By Express News Service

BALANGIR/PARADIP : Amid the Corona gloom, inspiring deeds by ordinary men from the nook and corners are giving strength to the battle against the great enemy, In Balangir, a tea seller donated his years savings of Rs 20,000 to the Red Cross fund on Monday to help those affected by the pandemic. The seller Rupdhar Kumura of Chuadapali village met the District Emergency Officer and handed over the cheque to him. We all have to do our bit to help humanity recover from this crisis. I did my part by donating whatever I saved last year, said the vendor, whose business has been severely hit by the ongoing lockdown.

Similarly, Jagannath Mishra, a resident of Rameswar Nagar in Balangir town, donated Rs 50,000 to Being Human Foundation which has been providing cooked food to the destitute since March 23.A senior citizen of Paradip also donated Rs 1 lakh from his pension to the Chief Minister Relief Fund (CMRF) to assist the Government in its fight against coronavirus.

Seventy five-year-old Pravakar Sahoo, a retired employee of the Marine department of Paradip Port Trust, handed over the cheque to chairman of Paradip Municipality Basant Biswal. Paradip Truck Owners Association also donated Rs 5 lakh to the CMRF. Similarly, Jagannath Truck owners Association contributed Rs 3.01 lakh for the purpose.
Publishers of licensed books tend to rely more on distribution through mass merchants than childrens publishers at large, whose sales skew more toward trade channels. This fact has helped mitigate the sales declines that have accompanied the spread of the new coronavirus. On the other hand, publishing licensees are dealing with the unique challenges that come with releasing tie-ins to feature films that are being postponed indefinitely or being watched online instead of in theaters.

We sell an awful lot of licensed books in mass merchant accounts like Target and Walmart, and theyre still open because they sell food, says Jon Anderson, president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing. So we havent seen quite the impact in licensed books as weve seen in some other categories.

Coloring and activity titles in particular have been selling well during the crisis. Our coloring and activity and preK2 workbooks are doing very well as a category, says Ben Ferguson, CEO and president of Bendon. There are 57 million kids at home who are looking for in-home, quiet activities, and thats driving our product tremendously. The sell-through is better than weve ever seen.

Bendons books have a strong and consistent presence in the planogram at mass and discount retailers. Theyre still open and are increasing their orders, Ferguson says. We have five million planogram pockets in mass, discount, and drug stores, and business is up, plus there have been some opportunity buys in mass and drug.

Random House has also seen a boost in licensed coloring and activity book sales. Parents are seeing their kids on their screens all day as they do their schoolwork at home, so theyre looking for things that give them a break from the screen, says Chris Angelilli, v-p, editor-in-chief, and executive director of licensed publishing at Random House Childrens Books.

Educational, drawing, and crafts titlesanything that keeps kids occupiedare also selling. Samantha Schutz, publishing director of brand, licensed, and tie-in publishing at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, reports that sales of the companys already strong-selling Fortnite: How to Draw were up 75% in the third week of March compared to the second.

While mass channels have helped licensed titles, tie-in publishers are still feeling the impact of store closures in trade bookstores and other venues. A fair portion of our customers are just not in business, Ferguson says. Weve had products that we were making, or had already made, or were on the dock ready to ship, and the orders were canceled. And some of our customers are asking for extended terms that were just not able to give.

Phoenix International Publications, best known for its licensed sound books and interactive formats, is facing a similar situation. Weve seen a drop in sales due to store closures, reduced hours, and foot traffic being down, says John Russell, v-p of global licensing. The Targets and Walmarts of the world are open and sales are pretty stable, and drug and grocery stores are still doing fairly well. And weve seen a huge uptick in Amazon. Russell reports that sales through the latter in March of this year were double the level in the same month of 2019. The channel had already been growing at a fast pace, he says, but this March exceeded our forecasts by 40% to 50%. That said, he adds, any increases in these channels dont outweigh what were losing.

The coronavirus closures in the U.S. coincide with the Easter selling season, an important window for licensed titles. Licensing is really core at the major holidays, Schutz says. She checked sales numbers on five key licensed backlist Easter titles and each is down from 15% to 55% this year compared to last. Theyre usually really stable from year to year, she says.

Film Schedules on the Move

Aside from shuttered retailers, licensed publishers are dealing with scheduling uncertainties. Our biggest challenge has been how the pandemic has affected theatrical release dates, says Angelilli of Random House, which has five licensing programs tied to theatrical films on its schedule. They need to be shipped by a certain date, and thats changing as licensors have adjusted their release strategies.

There has not been much disruption yet, however. We are reacting to schedule changes on a case-by-case basis, if necessary, says Mark Searle, publisher, licensing, at DK. Though many theatrical release dates have shifted, we have seen minimal changes to our schedules and our licensed publishing remains largely unaffected by this crisis.

Were still shipping big numbers, Ferguson adds. As of April 1 we are probably at 90% of our shipments. Very little has been canceled or postponed.

A number of films have been affected by the crisis, however. Pixars Onward was released theatrically and then online shortly thereafter, as theaters attracted low attendance in the first weeks of the movies run and then shuttered entirely. Publishers say they are shipping their full programs on schedule for Trolls World Tour, which is set to release simultaneously both theatrically (in markets where that is possible) and on video-on-demand. In the U.S., the date is April 10. This day-and-date strategy is a first for a Universal movie (and for a major studio).

On April 1 it was announced that Minions: The Rise of Gru, which had previously been delayed indefinitely, will release July 2, 2021, almost exactly a year later than originally scheduled. The film, fifth in the Despicable Me franchise, is being animated at a studio in France, where the Covid-19 lockdown occurred before the movie was finished. Rise of Gru licensee LBYR has published tie-ins for all four films over the past 10 years, selling 4.3 million books. This was one of our most anticipated programs of the summer, Schutz says.

Theres a significant feeling of being in limbo, she adds. LBYR also is publishing tie-ins to the first two Bill & Ted films, timed to the release of the new movie, Bill & Ted Face the Music, currently scheduled for August. Were watching summer and fall releases to see what happens, says Schutz, who is also facing delays in trying to acquire publishing rights for a movie initially scheduled for 2021 but now uncertain.

Other than release dates, the licensing pipeline is continuing as normal for most publishers, with new acquisitions being considered and development and approvals taking place at a typical pace. As of right now its business as usual, Angelilli says. We have a bunch of new things coming out and Im looking at five proposals for new properties.

Publishers contracts call for minimum guaranteed royalties to be paid to licensors, no matter what actual sales are, with the amount of the guarantee based on forecasts. While it is far too early for any revisiting of contracts, that may occur in the future if sales are much lower than expected thanks to Covid-19. Im sure licensees are all checking the usually overlooked force majeure clause to see if it will offer any contract relief in a pandemic like this, Russell says. If not, there may be some difficult conversations when it comes time for the minimum guarantee payments.

One concern in the early days of the global pandemic, in January and February, was the impact on the supply chain as Chinese factories were shut down for a long stretch. We use lots of different vendors in China, says Sophie Partridge, v-p and publisher at Phoenix International Publications. The printers came back online pretty quickly. We use a lot of smaller companies to make components, and those have been slightly slower to get back. But things now are pretty much back to normal. She fears delays in the future if the crisis lasts for a while, however. Retailers are making commitments to programs later, closer to the release date, while licensors may provide assets even later than usual due to shutdowns. This makes it difficult to get tie-ins printed and shipped in time.

Fan events and festivals, which have become extremely important as promotional vehicles for tie-in programs, are being canceled due to the pandemic, requiring a pivot to new forms of marketing. LBYR is doing more advertising with online retailers, for example, as well as participating in virtual versions of fan events, such as YALLSTAYHOME in April, the virtual version of the canceled YA fan festival YALLwest.

Licensors and licensees are particularly concerned about the fate of San Diego Comic Con, which organizers are hopeful will remain scheduled for July 23 to 26. San Diego is the extreme opposite of social distancing, and if Comic Con is canceled, that will be big, Schutz says. Our new list has a lot of titles appropriate for that demographic. Ill really be bummed out about losing the Con.

Licensed characters can be a good way to help children with their emotions or get them through difficult times. We have been looking at our backlist to identify titles that address topics relevant to the pandemic so we can bring them forward and make sure theyre available for anyone looking for information or an easy way to talk to kids about difficult issues, says Rich Thomas, v-p and publishing director, HarperCollins Childrens Books.

Licensing is a business of relationships, and that is truer than ever in the current climate. We all need to keep the lines of communication open and remain flexible and forgiving, Partridge says. Theres a sense that were all in it together.
She is rumoured to be dating retired Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke following his split from wife Kyly last year.

And on Tuesday, Pip Edwards raised eyebrows by sharing a racy photo to Instagram while in self-isolation inside her Bondi Beach home.

She coincidentally posted the image, which showed her in a white mini dress and fur-lined boots, just hours before Kyly made her debut as a judge on House Rules.

What a coincidence! Pip Edwards raised eyebrows on Tuesday by sharing this racy photo to Instagram of herself just hours before Kyly Clarke's debut on House Rules

The P.E Nation founder, 40, is self-quarantining at home with her 13-year-old son, Justice, during the coronavirus pandemic.

'If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,' she captioned the photo.

Pip received glowing praise for her saucy outfit, with fans leaving comments such as 'sizzling', 'you look hot' and 'beautiful'.

New romance? Pip (left) is rumoured to be dating retired Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke following his split from wife Kyly last year

Meanwhile, Kyly made her debut on House Rules: High Stakes on Tuesday, replacing departing judge Wendy Moore.

But she received a mixed response on Twitter, with some viewers saying the former WAG wasn't qualified for the position of interior design expert.

'Missing Wendy Moore tonight. Is Kyly Clarke the best we could do?' a fan tweeted.

Big debut: Kyly made her debut on House Rules: High Stakes on Tuesday, replacing departing judge Wendy Moore

Reaction: She received a mixed response on Twitter, with some viewers saying the former WAG wasn't qualified for the position of interior design expert

Another viewer added: 'Judge Kyly is a model and ex to Michael Clarke and I guess now an interior designer.'

But it wasn't all negative, as one supporter tweeted: 'I definitely prefer Kyly.'

The Clarkes ended their marriage six months ago but didn't announce their separation until February. They share custody of four-year-old daughter Kelsey Lee.

Splitsville: Kyly and Michael ended their marriage six months ago but didn't announce their separation until February. They share custody of four-year-old daughter, Kelsey Lee (pictured)

Nothing to see here! In February, Pip (left) denied rumours she was dating the retired sportsman, telling Daily Mail Australia the claims were 'absolutely unfounded and untrue'. Pictured right: Kyly Clarke in a promotional image for House Rules

Missing Michael? The P.E Nation founder, 40, is self-quarantining at home with her 13-year-old son, Justice, during the coronavirus pandemic

In February, Pip denied rumours she was dating the retired sportsman, telling Daily Mail Australia the claims were 'absolutely unfounded and untrue'.

However, friends say the pair aren't ruling out the possibility of a romance in the future.

A source told The Daily Telegraph last month: 'They've got nothing to hide. They're really good friends... who knows what will happen?'

Talk of the town: Sydney's eastern suburbs have been abuzz with rumours about Pip and Michael in recent months, but they both insist they are just friends
Couples are often told to prepare for anything when it comes to their wedding, but a global pandemic isnt typically something to consider.

Now that most Americans have been ordered to stay at home and avoid nonessential travel to slow the spread of the coronavirus, many couples  including those who were only days or weeks away from getting married  have had to abruptly postpone their special day, while many others are in limbo, unsure of how to proceed.

Postponing our wedding has opened up an entire different category of stress that I didnt know was possible, says Allison Hayes, a newly unemployed hairstylist in Ohio who delayed her May wedding.

The scale of postponements is also unprecedented for vendors and planners.

Weve never seen such major sweeping postponements in the wedding industry, says Renee Dalo, owner and lead wedding planner of Moxie Bright Events in Los Angeles. Dalo has already rescheduled six weddings and expects that number to grow.

It was a lot of stress in a really short amount of time, says Elliott San, a Los Angeles-based screenwriter who moved his March wedding to November. It felt like 48 hours of crisis management response.

In addition to the logistical headache of moving a tightly coordinated event at the eleventh hour, there are also potential financial implications for couples. Some may lose deposits with vendors; others are suddenly without jobs and are juggling wedding payments with other bills.

Here are a few things to keep in mind if you and your partner are in a similar predicament.

Look for ways to pare back

If the pandemic has had an impact on your wages, the wedding will likely need to take a back seat to more pressing needs.

The hair salon where Hayes works has been shuttered temporarily, so she is also feeling anxiety about paying for the wedding.

My partner and I had been budgeting and saving our money to pay for a significant portion of our wedding costs, but we just lost the weekly payments my income was putting into our wedding account, she says.

If your job has been affected, take steps to get control of your finances in the short-term. Look into expanded unemployment benefits as a way to help cover things like rent or groceries. Your bills should take priority over wedding plans. If money is an issue, Dalo suggests contacting vendors directly to see if you can split up payments moving forward.

If a client came to me asking to make smaller, more spread out payments, I would be 100% on board with that, she says. Were all doing what we can to stay afloat and navigate the crisis together.

Regardless of your current job situation, its a good time to reevaluate wedding costs that havent already been paid and see where you could scale back, if necessary.

Hayes now plans to cut back on decorations. She had been holding off on purchasing them and has decided to have fewer since shell have less time to decorate on her new date.

I was financially confident at the beginning of wedding planning, but I work in freelance and have lost a lot of opportunities, says Katy Colloton, an actress and screenwriter in Los Angeles. Colloton says she was originally planning to go all-out with things like table favors, bridal party gifts and welcome bags, but will adjust her approach if the job market continues to decline.

Contact your venue

Vendors, planners and couples all agree that if youre in the process of postponing, your first call or email should be to the venue.

Get in contact with the venue first since that is the biggest investment, then get in touch with vendors to see how everything aligns, says Laura Yap, who runs a floral business in Austin, Texas.

Dalo echoes this advice, but notes that venues may have different approaches depending on their contract and schedule.

One private club is switching the wedding to another Saturday with no fees, while another venue has asked for a $7,000 surcharge to keep it on a Saturday, she says. It really depends on the venue.

San says his Palm Springs venue was understanding and accommodating, while Hayes laments that hers had only two days open for the rest of 2020  and one was the day after Christmas.

Start those conversations with your venue as soon as possible and try to be realistic. If youre set on not paying any more than you already have, you may have to make some trade-offs.

Some venues cant give you another Saturday, but theyll give you a Friday or Sunday, Dalo says. I think thats a good compromise.

Start prioritizing vendors

While many vendors are trying to be flexible, the reality is that they may not all be available on your new date, especially as more weddings are rescheduled for fall and winter.

We have paid nonrefundable deposits for all of our vendors, and the most stressful part is trying to either line all of them up or choose which ones to take a loss with and potentially hire someone else, Hayes says.

Delia Turner, a criminal attorney in Missouri, wasnt able to keep her photographer and hair and makeup artist. The photographer is a good friend of mine, but she wasnt available. She will subcontract someone for me. I also lost a $100 deposit on a hair and makeup artist.

As you begin the postponement process, prioritize the vendors that matter the most to you as you work with your venue to find a new date. Cost could be a factor  replacing a videographer will likely be more expensive than finding a new hair and makeup artist  but also keep in mind that your vendors are dealing with personal and professional upheaval now, too.

Remember that everyone is human. Small-business owners have already invested so much work, and half of that work is administrative, says Yap, who is temporarily pivoting to weekly flower deliveries to maintain a positive cash flow. Spring is my largest season. I had ramped up with staffing and invested time into planning, so Im figuring out how to make that all work.

Check out wedding insurance

Our biggest regret is not purchasing wedding insurance, says Crystal Ramirez, whose New Orleans wedding was postponed a week before she and her fiance lost their jobs. (She was an industrial insulator and he worked at an oil refinery.)

If your wedding is several weeks or months away, you may have time to get wedding insurance. There are two main types of coverage, liability insurance and cancellation or postponement coverage, and you can get one or both. Some venues already require liability insurance, but Dalo recommends taking the extra step of getting cancellation insurance as well.

However, be sure to read the fine print and consult your insurance provider. Whether cancellation coverage will reimburse events postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak may depend on city and state restrictions.

One of my clients cancellation coverage kicked in once the shelter-in-place order became mandatory. A recommendation from the local government wouldnt cover it, but a mandate did, she says.

Continue to keep an eye on restrictions in the location where youre getting married and contact your insurance providers directly with any questions.

Keep things in perspective

Its upsetting to have to reschedule an event youve been planning for months or even years, but make sure youre giving yourself mental space to concentrate on your day-to-day needs.

For San, that means shifting focus to his fiancee, Emily, who is returning to her job as a nurse after taking some time off for their now-delayed wedding.

Once the dust settled and we rescheduled, we pivoted to being more concerned about her going back to the hospital. I have something new to worry about besides this wedding, he says.

Ultimately, it also helps to maintain some perspective and know youre not alone. Some couples are finding comfort in realizing they have a lot to be thankful for.

Remember whats important: your health and your family and friends health, Colloton says. A wedding is a special day, but its one day and one party. This seems so small compared to what is happening in the world.

More From NerdWallet

Valerie Lai is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: vlai@nerdwallet.com.
Lindsay Duplinsky went for a walk recently with her family and their dog, and when they got home, they saw the back door was open.

Somebody had broken into their Pittsburgh home in the middle of the day, she told WPXI. Besides her watch, they didnt steal money, jewelry or what would normally be considered valuables.

Whoever broke in stole the familys hand sanitizer, disinfectant and other essentials that are much needed, but in short supply, during the coronavirus pandemic.

They even stole the toilet paper.

This is where our kids lay their head at night, this is their home, thats the concerning part, she told WPXI.

Her daughter has asthma, and her inhaler was stolen, too, she said.

She called the police, who have not yet made an arrest.

The family of six donates regularly to area food banks, and they have supplied their neighbors with essentials, when needed, over the last few weeks. She said this doesnt deter her, and she will continue to help the community.

Its a tough time but if they needed something, even if we didnt know who they were, all they had to do was ask, especially for toilet paper, Duplinsky told the station.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

By Nargiz Ismayilova - Trend:

Some 394 million manat ($231 million) will be allocated in the social sphere to protect the population, Azerbaijani Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Population Sahil Babayev told reporters.

Babayev made the remark in Baku at the press-conference on the execution of the presidents order dated March 19, 2020 "On measures taken to support employment and social welfare of the population", Trend reports.

"Ten measures are planned to be taken in four spheres, which will cover 1.9 million people, the minister said.

According to the minister, 100 million manat ($58 million) out of 394 million manat ($231 million) to be allocated for social protection of the population account for the state budget funds, 203 million manat ($119 million) - the Social Protection Fund, and 91 million manat ($53 million) - the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

Along with the state budget, the funds of the corresponding state structures are also used to solve the problems, Babayev said.

"In connection with the spread of coronavirus and the introduction of special quarantine regime in Azerbaijan, staff reduction is not allowed in Azerbaijan, the minister said. The minimum number of employees is involved in the structures having vital importance."
Civic authorities have ordered



sealing of borders of the Kalyan and Dombivali cities here in in Maharashtra with immediate effect to check the spread of coronavirus.

In an order issued on Monday, Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Commissioner Dr Vijay Suryavanshi said it was absolutely essential to seal the borders of the two cities.

Police personnel have been deployed to ensure strict implementation of the directive.

The order will not be applicable to the essential and emergency services, the commissioner said.

Till Monday, the Thane region, which includes Kalyan and Dombivali cities, reported 85 coronavirus cases and nine deaths.

A total of 175 surveillance teams are pressed into service in the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation area to identify clusters for containment. The number of such teams in Thane and Navi Mumbai is 214 and 178, respectively, an official earlier said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Social Democrats say they will look at any proposal for coalition government produced by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.

But co-leader Roisin Shortall says there are fundamental policy differences between her party and Fine Gael in particular.

The Dublin North West TD says she is waiting to see the proposals.

"We will look at that document when it has been finalised, it's not clear when that will be but I think they are still in the early stages.

"From our point of view there is a big policy gap between Fine Gael and ourselves in particular and there is no point being involved in the coalition if you fundamentally disagree."

Ms Shortall said there is a "democratic deficit" emerging because the Dail is not meeting regularly to hold ministers to account.

The Dail's business committee agreed yesterday that ministers would take questions at a restricted sitting after Easter.

Committee members also asked Oireachtas officials to examine using the Convention Centre in Dublin for a socially-distanced sitting of the full house.

"It is really important that opposition TDs can engage with ministers and the Taoiseach and get answers and establish that element of democratic accountability.

"It's a halfway house. It's not ideal but it's better than we have had so far."

The Cabinet will meet later as the focus turns towards the possible extension of the current coronavirus lockdown.

The measure, which includes the closure of schools, pubs and non-essential retail stores, is due to expire on Easter Sunday.

Government ministers will be briefed later on the latest developments around Covid-19 and will discuss advice on further tackling the spread of the illness.

The current restrictions, some of which were imposed almost four weeks ago, are due to expire this coming Sunday and will likely be among the topics raised.

Several ministers have indicated in recent days the measures will likely be extended.

However it is unlikely a decision on that will be made until later in the week.

The meeting comes as an unprecedented numbers of people avail of social welfare.

700,000 are now receiving supports after the number accessing the special Covid-19 unemployment payment jumped to more than half a million.

It also comes as new Garda powers are finalised.

The regulations, due later this week, will see officers able to make people return home if found not to be following health advice.

[snippet1]987600[/snippet1]
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump has removed the lead watchdog overseeing the $2 trillion coronavirus package, just days after the official, Glenn Fine, was appointed to the role. The move came as Trump pursued similar action in recent weeks against independent inspectors general across the federal government. Fine had been the acting Pentagon inspector general until Monday afternoon, when Trump abruptly removed him from his post. "Yesterday, the President nominated Mr. Jason Abend for the position of DoD Inspector General," said Dwrena Allen, a spokesperson for the Defense Department's Inspector General, in a statement to CNBC. "The same day, the President also designated Mr. Sean W. O'Donnell, who is the Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General (EPA IG), to serve as the Acting DoD IG in addition to his current duties at the EPA," Allen said. "Mr. Fine is no longer on the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee," Allen said, and he now "reverts to his position as the Principal Deputy Inspector General." Fine had been chosen March 30 to lead the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee by his fellow inspectors general, who were tasked by the new law to select a chairman for their committee. By removing Fine from his Pentagon job, Trump effectively eliminated Fine from the oversight committee, since only sitting inspectors general can serve on the committee. Speaking at a press conference Tuesday evening, Trump said he had never met Fine, but suggested he was a Democratic appointee. "We have a lot of IGs from the Obama era, and I left them, largely. But when we have reports of bias, and we have different things coming in." In fact, Fine was first confirmed by the Senate to be an inspector general in 2000, during the George W. Bush administration. After 11 years at the inspector general of the Justice Department, Fine returned to the private sector in 2011. In 2015, he came back to government as a deputy inspector general for the Pentagon.

Not the first time

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee is one of two new entities charged with ensuring that the $2 trillion relief and stimulus package is administered responsibly and transparently. The other oversight entity is a dedicated inspector general for the $500 billion corporate bailout fund. A week before Trump removed Fine from the accountability committee on Monday, he took separate but equally unprecedented steps to undermine the inspector general for the corporate bailout fund.

The position of Special Inspector General for Pandemic Relief, or SIGPR, was created in response to concerns that there would be little transparency as to which companies got the billions in taxpayer funded relief, and why. As part of their job, the SIGPR is required to deliver independent reports to Congress on how the money is being spent. They are also required to inform Congress if the White House ever tries to block their requests for information about what's happening to the funds. When Trump signed the $2 trillion package on March 27, he issued what's known as a signing statement, or a declaration of how a president intends to interpret the new law he is signing. In it, Trump wrote that his administration would not be "permitting the [the Inspector General] to issue reports to the Congress without the presidential supervision." Essentially, Trump was trying to assert control over what the SIGPR would be permitted to report to Congress and what they would not. This undercuts a fundamental part of the SIGPR's job, namely, to ensure that Congress can effectively oversee what the Trump administration is doing with the $500 billion bailout.

Bipartisan pushback

At least one powerful Republican appeared to publicly disagree with Trump's decision to remove Fine shortly after it was first reported. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley tweeted Tuesday that the president should view inspectors general as assets who help Trump to hold the federal bureaucracy accountable and fulfill his campaign promise to "drain the swamp." GRASSLEY TWEET Democrats, however, had much harsher criticism for Trump's decision. "This is a major problem that I'm very concerned about on a whole series of levels," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., said on a call with reporters Tuesday. "I think we all understand President Trump, very clear and, frankly, on his first day in office: He wants people who are loyal to him. Who will praise him. First and foremost, that is what he wants in every position that he can control. He's going to try to expand what he can control. Theoretically, IGs are not simply subject to the whims of presidents," Smith said. "The president is not bringing talent to the challenge. He is bringing suck-ups to the challenge," he added. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Trump of corruptly using the global pandemic to punish honest government employees. "President Trump is abusing the coronavirus pandemic to eliminate honest and independent public servants because they are willing to speak truth to power and because he is so clearly afraid of strong oversight," Schumer said in a statement after news broke of Fine's removal. "President Trump's corrupt action to sideline Acting Inspector General Glenn Fine, who was newly-appointed as chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, only strengthens Democrats' resolve to hold the administration accountable and enforce the multiple strict oversight provisions of the CARES Act," said Schumer.

Trump's war on IGs
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The TV remote didnt seem to work, and the web pages on our laptops froze. We checked our phone line: Dead. One Saturday evening in March, as my husband and I were settling in to watch Goodfellas for the fifth time, our triple-play bundlecable, internet, and phone servicefailed.

As residents of Westchester County, N.Y., just north of the states coronavirus pandemic epicenter, we were into our third week of working from home, minimizing grocery shopping trips, and avoiding face-to-face contact with others. Now, suddenly, our lifeline to the outside world was gone.

I was wary of rebooting or unplugging anything without guidance. On my smartphone I typed the problem into Verizons self-help bot but didnt find an answer. I located the companys chat line but found it unresponsive. I reached a representative Monday morning, when live help resumed for the week, and was told wed need a service calland that the technician would come the next day. So on Tuesday morning, the company dispatched a worker to get our system up and running again.

In the prepandemic world, hosting a repairperson, handyman, or contractor would have meant checking ID at the door, asking the pro to wipe his feet before entering, and talking face-to-face about the issue at hand. But in the new reality of the coronavirus, there was so much more to think about.

What if the stranger who entered our house was infected with COVID-19 and spread the dreaded virus to us, baby boomers on the cusp of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention labels a vulnerable group? Or what if we were unknowingly infected and spread the virus to the worker? In the face of an invisible and still mysterious threat, a simple service call or appliance installation feels fraught with risk.

You could drive yourself crazy, but its a reasonable concern, says Normadeane Armstrong, Ph.D., an associate professor at the Barbara H. Hagan School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Molloy College in Rockville Centre, N.Y., who specializes in epidemiology and public health. Theres so much unknown about this virus.

Story continues

Nonetheless, the principles that the CDC has been stressing throughout the pandemic that we all need to follow to prevent the viruss spreadsocial distancing by at least 6 feet, frequent and thorough hand-washing, appropriate cleaning of potentially affected surfacesall apply to home service calls as well. Here are simple strategies to protect everyone involved, before, during, and after the visit.

1. Scheduling the Visit

Be honest about your exposure. The Verizon rep I initially reached asked whether anyone in our household had been diagnosed with COVID-19 or was being quarantined for potential exposure to the virus; a text on the day of the service call asked the same. I truthfully answered no. If youve been exposed or diagnosed, you may be tempted to withhold that information; that not only is unfair to the worker but also could backfire on you.

If an employee doesnt feel comfortable entering a home, we ask them to reschedule the delivery for another date, says Jon Abt, co-president of Abt Electronics, which sells and installs major appliances, as well as electronics and home goods, and is based in Chicago.

On the flip side, you may wonder whether the worker coming to your door might not be disclosing his or her own virus exposure (perhaps because the person has no paid sick leave). Theres no guarantee the person is virus-free, but its worth noting that the $2 trillion Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act, signed into law last Friday, mandates that all workers, regardless of employer size or occupation, are eligible for two weeks of emergency paid sick leave and 10 weeks of paid family and medical leave, among other measures.

Request a touch-free transaction. One study has shown that the coronavirus could remain on some surfaces for hours or even days. To avoid contact with potentially tainted surfaces, ask in advance whether documentation and sign-off can be done without exchanging paper or writing implements. Lowes, for one, told us it is temporarily allowing customers to leave receipts unsigned.

Ask about precautions. You could, for instance, ask the representative on the phone what the company mandates that its service workers do when entering the home to maintain a 6-foot distance. You also could ask to have the service person call or text you before arriving to go over precautions.

In certain cases, our technician will have the customer open the door and then walk away from it to maintain social distance, says David Moreno, chairman and co-founder of Liberty Home Guard, a home-warranty company, based in New York City, that sends independent contractors to make repairs for policyholders. Moreno has himself been at home with COVID-19 since March 14. There have been a lot of takeaways from this situation, personally and professionally, he says.

You might feel the need to ask in advance whether a companys service personnel will wear a face covering. I felt better having masks, left over from a dusty home improvement project, on hand for me, my husband, and the Verizon worker. (The CDC now recommends the use of cloth, nonmedical face coverings in public to help contain the spread of the coronavirus.)

And any time a repairperson or installer touches a tool and leaves it on a surface in your home, theres a chance for a virus he may unknowingly be harboring to remain. So when youre making your appointment, ask whether the worker will use an appropriate disinfectant to clean tools and other supplies in your home, before and after use. The retailer Abt says it requires that of its personnel, among other precautions. A Home Depot spokesperson told us: Were limiting the number of installers in the home and sanitizing job sites while working.

On a COVID-19 FAQ page for consumers, Verizon says it is minimizing in-home installation work to keep employees and customers safe, but it doesnt mention service visits. In an email, spokesperson Adria Tomaszewski told me that for critical service needs, Verizon has asked all employees to report to the company if they do not feel well and to stay home until they are better. We also reach out to customers who have an appointment scheduled to let us know if they are quarantined, she said. In the event they are, we reschedule the appointment. Any customer that has an appointment and does not want one of our technicians to enter their home for any reason, we reschedule the appointment.

(The companys COVID-19-related web page for employees, updated April 6, says that washing bare hands offers more protection from catching COVID-19 than using nitrile, surgical gloves but offers best practices if employees want to wear them. It also cites the CDCs recommendation to all Americans to wear face coverings whenever in a public setting in which social distancing is difficult to maintain.)

2. Preparing Your Home

Chart a path. Plan how youll direct the person through your home, and where to suggest she put her tools. Youll want to make sure that she doesnt go into rooms or touch items in your house unnecessarily and that her own items touch a minimum of surfaces. (My husband and I agreed in advance, for instance, that he would handle the remotes if the Verizon guy needed to test the system.) Proactively moving items that block access to the ailing appliance also will ensure that the worker touches less and spends less time in your home, says Bryan Bennett, president of AdvantaClean, which does residential air duct cleaning and mold remediation services and is based in Huntersville, N.C.

Prepare the work area. Amna Husain, M.D., a pediatrician at Pure Direct Pediatrics in Marlboro, N.J., recommends precleaning the area where the worker will be based, with a cleaner known to kill the virus. That protects the service pro in the event the virus is in your home, even if youre not aware of it.

You can also lay floor protection: disposable paper or plastic, or a washable sheet on which the worker can walk and place her tools. You can clean under there afterward. Theres no scientific evidence that the virus is spread by walking on a floor or fabric, but that kind of barrier could limit exposure, says Armstrong, the nursing professor.

Have hand soap and cleaners ready. You can offer them to the service worker before and after the job is done. (Youll want to disinfect the wash basin afterward.)

3. During the Visit

Stand 6 feet back. The 6-foot rule and hand cleaning form the basis of all good COVID-19 hygiene, the CDC says. Our Verizon worker arrived early while I was out for a walk; my husband sat across the room from him while he worked. The worker accepted the mask he was offered but had no glovesostensibly because they would have made it hard to work with the wires he needed to touch. If the contractor in your home doesnt have gloves, ideally he will wash his hands or use hand sanitizer before and after doing his work.

Protect your hands. If you have to hand something to the worker, use nonpermeable, disposable nitrile gloves or a paper towel to cover the item when you pass it. Then wash your hands vigorously, for good measure. If you must sign something, use your own pen or stylus (for touch screens).

Tip with care. If youd like to thank the worker this way, put the money in a sealed envelope and place it on a surface for her to pick up. You can also ask for the workers name so that you can write a compliment on social media or on a follow-up communication with the company.

If you want to use a mobile peer-to-peer payment app, such as Apple Pay or Venmo, to tip someone, do it while the person is in your presence and confirm every detail before you send the money to make sure that it goes to the right person, recommends Christina Tetreault, senior attorney at Consumer Reports. (CR doesnt recommend paying strangers this way because it can lead to scams and fraud, though the risk is greater with strangers youre not dealing with face to face, Tetreault says.)

4. After the Visit

Wash your hands again. You can never do this too much. It always goes back to hand hygiene, Armstrong says.

Clean where the contractor was working. Ideally, clean 6 feet around the repairpersons path, Armstrong says. See CRs list of household cleaning products you can use to kill the virus.

After the Verizon worker left, we realized wed used the last of our Clorox wipes. So I used paper towels and rags soaked in isopropyl alcohol, wiping down counters, chairs, and tables that he passed. I hesitated before wiping down a wooden table; I was concerned about the effect on the finish. I did it anyway, and yes, it left some faint, white streaks. I wondered what I could have done differently, and whether it was necessary at all. And I realized too late that I missed a glass table and didnt wash down the wood floor.

Those kinds of conundrums are now part of everyones everyday life, Armstrong says.

If we knew more about exactly what the virus does, how it spreads, wed have more answers about what to do, she says. Everything is new. Were all learning from our own mistakes.

What I did learnand what many people in the U.S. are learningis that were going to have to approach daily life differently for the foreseeable future. Thankfully, I can research what to do with more ease now. We have our internet back.





More from Consumer Reports:

Top pick tires for 2016

Best used cars for $25,000 and less

7 best mattresses for couples





Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright  2020, Consumer Reports, Inc.
April 7, 2020: Oslo, Norway; PGS will release its first quarter 2020 results on Thursday, April 23, 2020 at approximately 08:00 am Central European Summer Time (CEST).



The earnings release and the earnings presentation will be published on www.newsweb.no and on PGS web site www.pgs.com .

President & CEO Rune Olav Pedersen and EVP & CFO Gottfred Langseth will host an audio webcast the same day at 9:00 am CEST. To join the audio webcast, copy and paste the link below into your browser, or go to PGS website www.pgs.com .

Audio webcast link: https://channel.royalcast.com/webcast/hegnarmedia/20200423_5/



A replay of the audio webcast will be made available on www.pgs.com shortly after.



FOR DETAILS, CONTACT:

Bard Stenberg, SVP IR & Corporate Communication

Mobile: +47 99 24 52 35

****

PGS ASA and its subsidiaries (PGS or "the Company") is a focused marine geophysical company that provides a broad range of seismic and reservoir services, including acquisition, imaging, interpretation, and field evaluation. The Company MultiClient data library is among the largest in the seismic industry, with modern 3D coverage in all significant offshore hydrocarbon provinces of the world. The Company operates on a worldwide basis with headquarters in Oslo, Norway and the PGS share is listed on the Oslo stock exchange (PGS.OL). For more information on PGS visit www.pgs.com .

--END--




COVID-19 pandemic has put immense strain on the medical supplies across the world. Hospitals are running out of ventilators to treat patients with acute cases of COVID-19.

Reuters

Various companies have chimed in to create ventilators to help the patients breathe, and one of those companies was Tesla.

Theyve been working on their own version of the ventilator for a while now, and now they have finally revealed what the final device would actually look like.

People have been criticising Tesla from reinventing the wheel instead of adopting existing designs. However, an engineer in the video answers this concern stating, We wanna use parts that we know really well, we know the reliability of, and theyre available in volume.

Tesla

The video reveals how its ventilators share several components from its Tesla cars, including lithium-ion batteries from its cars as well as Model 3s infotainment system to display the condition of the patient, among several other components.



Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been surrounded by multiple controversies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, he called the coronavirus panic dumb. He has even gone ahead and told his employees that they had a higher chance of dying in a car crash than dying from COVID-19, in an internal memo.

He had even kept its manufacturing facilities open, even after authorities asked for them to be shut down.

Reuters

Even though the prototype seems promising, it is still in its early stages and not quite ready to save lives yet, since it will have to undergo a strict series of tests lined up by the FDA to get finally approved for use.



Tesla, however, isnt the only car company to make ventilators to fight shortage amidst COVID-19, Ford and GM motors are working on it too, however, they havent really displayed any prototype yet.
Many people are presently confined to their homes contemplating life and wondering what's coming next, but for farmers life goes on as normal.

It's case of early to rise and late to bed; cows must be milked, cattle, pigs and poultry fed, sheep lambed, and crops sown. On farms, the show must go on.

Life has now been divided into 'essential' and 'non-essential' services. Farmers are unquestionably on the essential services side of the fight against Covid-19.

Greenhouse gas levels have dramatically fallen, food availability trumps food preference and , farming is one of the economic sectors operating as closely to normal as possible.

But farmers like everyone else must first consider family and those around us, particularly the elderly and those in vulnerable groups. Most farmers are fit hardy people and well able to withstand whatever the virus may fire at them, but the best advice during this crisis has been to assume you have the virus and do not risk passing it on. This is the best defence against the virus attacking yourself, your family and your farm business.

However, taking a step back from the frontline it is time to recognise and celebrate the robustness and resilience of our agri-food industry.

We are often told to appreciate the simple pleasures in life.

Well, who would have thought taking a walk around the farm alone would be a sought-after luxury or that cow's milk, beef and bacon and cabbage would trump sushi, falafels and avocados.

Farmers can rest assured the fruits of their hard work are required and much sought after. One thing for certain in this country is that thanks to their efforts we will not go hungry.

During the last recession which started in 2008 and lasted until 2014 in this country, the agri-food industry was one of the few shows in town.

It was a time when we figured out our strengths, natural advantages and focus on what we do well. It also boosted government finances and supported / created jobs and now is its time to shine again.

The supply chains for delivering food from farm to fork appear to be holding up well in this crisis.

Hauliers are a sector often forgotten about and not appreciated, but their role in ensuring food leaves farms and gets to processors, distributors, retailers and ultimately on consumers' tables, is now centre stage.

The biggest risk to the food chain appears to be if an outbreak of the virus occurs among workers in a meat plant or milk processing facility.

I understand processors are putting in place crisis management measures such as splitting workers into different teams so that if one team goes down another is ready to step in.

It appears most healthy people who get the virus are back on their feet again after two weeks, and an unexpected benefit on farms has been the availability of new labour. With so many people losing their jobs due to the crisis, farmers have been receiving calls from laid-off workers who would rather work and earn 500 plus in their hand per week, rather than sit at home for 203 to 350 in state supports.

Losing jobs

Maybe this will have a lasting effect and the security of jobs in the agri-food sector will be taken into account by employees when applying for new jobs in the future.

There is some concern about the price or beef, sheep, pork and milk.

For example, fast food chains closing their outlets will disrupt the beef supply chain and it may take some time to redistribute this beef through supermarkets.

This is where I expect the EU to reintroduce measures such as intervention and private storage which were in vogue during the 1980s, the era of food mountains and milk lakes.

Finally, people confined to home are now appreciating the value of a routine and the importance of getting out of home for work, sport and socialising.

Instead of complaints about being tied to farming 24/7, farmers are appreciating the physical and mental health benefits of being their own bosses.

Our healthcare workers deserve all the plaudits for their frontline battle during this crisis; we would be lost without them, but farmers and those in the agri-food industry should be equally proud of their efforts to feed the people of this nation and beyond.

Farmers should hold their heads high as feeding our nation trumps all other wants and needs.

Mike Brady is managing director at Brady Group agricultural consultants and land agents; mike@bradygroup.ie
New York, 5 April 2020 (SPS) - The diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat (ID), has offered its deepest sympathy and condolences to the Sahrawi people, the Frente POLISARIO and Emhamed Khadads family, on his passing. ID described Emhamed Khadad as a tireless defender of the rights and liberty of the Sahrawi people.



The following is the ID condolence message:



In Memoriam: Emhamed Khadad (1954-2020)



Emhamed Khadada tireless defender of the rights and liberty of the Sahrawi people passed away earlier this week. Ambassador Khadad was a cherished partner of Independent Diplomat and a towering figure within the leadership of the Frente POLISARIO. He led his peoples struggle for self-determination while serving as the Frente POLISARIOs coordinator with MINURSO, its Chairman of external relations, and a member of its negotiations team during UN-led peace talks.



Ambassador Khadad was beloved by all who knew him. An expert in diplomacy and international strategy, he will be remembered for his tenacity, moral courage and unflagging commitment to justice. As Independent Diplomats longest-standing partner, we were privileged to learn from him; we were honored to work with him. We will miss him greatly.



It is a grave injustice that Ambassador Khadad will not get to see the referendum on independence promised to the Sahrawi people almost 30 years ago. But Sahrawis commitment to righting this longstanding injustice will no doubt continue undiminished. The staff of Independent Diplomat offers our deepest sympathy and condolences to the people of Western Sahara, the Frente POLISARIO and Ambassador Khadads family. (SPS)



062/SPS
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sincerely Ghana Limited, producers and marketers of Sincerely Sanitary Pads, Mrs. Menaye Donkor Muntari has presented 2000 pieces of Sincerely by Menaye sanitary pads to needy women in the country.

The donation was made through the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection at the weekend.

The gesture, according to Mrs Muntari, was in response to the national call to individuals and organisations to support the vulnerable in society to cope with the social crisis engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Miss Universe Ghana 2017, Ruth Quarshie, on behalf of Mrs. Muntari, presented the items to the sector Minister, Mrs. Cynthia Morrison.

In a brief remark from Mrs. Muntari delivered by Ms Quarshie, she said she believed in women empowerment, adding that their sanitation was also very important to her.

Mrs Muntari, who is Miss Universe Ghana 2004 and also the current National Director of Miss Universe Ghana said, The 2000 sanitary pads are to empower the vulnerable women and make them feel confident about themselves in these times of crisis.

She pointed out that her Sincerely by Menaye feminine hygiene brand was established to create quality sanitary pads complemented by sincere menstrual health and hygiene education throughout Ghana.

I felt the need to support kayayei by providing them with my top quality sanitary pads because Ive always been a firm believer in giving back to society.

Especially now that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about so much hardship, it is important to not only be kind to ourselves but also to others, she said.

The Minister of Gender Minister, Mrs. Morrison said it was amazing to see young ladies like Menaye Donkor Muntari doing things that indicated that they were thinking about the vulnerable in society.

Menaye called me with passion and I could see that she sincerely wanted to help. The 2000 sanitary pads will go a long way to help the beneficiaries, Mrs. Morrison emphasized.

The Minister thanked the management and staff of Sincerely Ghana Limited for the kind gesture and pointed out that this is the time for individuals and organisations to give to the needy because if the donations come at a later time the expected positive effects may not be felt so much.
FILE PHOTO: A Canadian dollar coin, commonly known as the "Loonie", is pictured in this illustration picture taken in Toronto

By Fergal Smith

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar strengthened to an 11-day high against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday as hopes rose that the spread of the coronavirus pandemic was slowing and the greenback lost ground against a basket of major currencies.

At 4:20 p.m. (2020 GMT), the Canadian dollar <CAD=> was trading 0.9% higher at 1.3990 to the greenback, or 71.48 U.S. cents.

The currency touched its strongest intraday level since March 27 at 1.3945, while the one-month rate for bankers' acceptances, a measure of Canadian financial system stress, was lower for the eighth straight day at 0.8%.

"We have seen a little bit more positive risk sentiment in the marketplace," said Amo Sahota, director at Klarity FX in San Francisco.

Also helping the loonie has been "rotation out of the big U.S. dollar into other currencies," Sahota said.

World stock markets <.WORLD> rose, although Wall Street gave up its earlier gains, and the U.S. dollar weakened as signs of progress against the coronavirus in both Europe and the United States and some more liberal helpings of stimulus supported risk appetite.

Canada runs a current account deficit and is a major producer of commodities, including oil, so the loonie tends to be sensitive to the global flow of trade and capital.

U.S. crude oil futures <CLc1> settled 9.4% lower at $23.63 a barrel in the face of swelling crude supplies and weak fuel demand because of the coronavirus pandemic, while investors also grew cautious over expectations that the world's biggest producers would quickly agree on output cuts.

Canadian purchasing activity contracted at a pace that was much weaker than expected in March, Ivey Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) data showed, in the latest sign of the damage to the economy from the coronavirus pandemic.

Many Canadian small businesses reeling from losses due to the coronavirus outbreak may be ineligible for federal government and bank aid designed to help them survive, industry experts say, with several already shuttered or rapidly running out of cash.

Canadian government bond yields were higher across a steeper curve in sympathy with U.S. Treasuries. The 10-year <CA10YT=RR> rose 5.9 basis points to 0.822%, having touched its highest intraday level since March 27 at 0.857%.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Paul Simao and Peter Cooney)
MEMBERS of Parliament (MPs) have pushed for more health facilities in rural areas to improve access to health services.

Speaking in the National Assembly in Dodoma yesterday, Tunduru North MP Ramo Makani (CCM) and Special Seats MP Rose Kamili (Chadema) said Bassotu, Nakapanya and Matemanga wards and Tunduru District were facing a health challenge as existing facilities hardly coped with high demand.

The CCM MP said Tunduru District Hospital needed quality health services and support facilities at Nakapanya and Matemanga clinics were overwhelmed.

"We need to know the governments strategy to increase health centres and dispensaries in wards and villages in compliance with the national health policy and the CCM election manifesto."

For her part, Ms Kamili in her basic question noted that there had been an increase in social and economic activities such as mining, fishing, agriculture and business which in turn attracted more people, thus posing a health threat such as an outbreak of communicable diseases.

Thus, she wanted to know when the government would offer funds for the construction of children and maternity wards as well as health workers houses at Bassotu Dispensary.

Deputy Minister in the President's Office (Regional Administration and Local Government) Josephat Kandege told Parliament that health guidelines were clear on dispensaries.

He said: "Considering that the health facility is 55km away, the government will conduct an assessment to improve the dispensary's infrastructure," he said. "The plan will be to make it a health centre."

Mr Kandege explained that the government had released 140m/- to construct two wards at Tunduru Hospital.

"We spent over 500m/- on the rehabilitation of Matemanga Health Centre and we have released at least 200m/- to construct a children and maternity ward and a surgical room at Nakapanya Health Centre," he said.

The deputy minister noted that the government recently handed over an ultrasound machine at Tunduru District Hospital as well as a medical store to help improve health services in the area.

At least 1.3bn/- was spent on the construction and renovation of three health centres in Tunduru District, the House was told.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

Trend:

Turkmenistan has exported 2,000 car batteries to Afghanistan, Trend reports with reference to Turkmenportal information portal.

All the exported car batteries have been produced by Turkmen Kokchi economic society since the beginning of 2020.

Last year, the company produced more than 40 thousand batteries. Their power, depending on the purpose, is from 60 to 190 amps. Japanese and Turkish equipment is used in the production of batteries, the report said.

The company's products are sold under the brands Kuwwat, Yyldyrym and TM Power. The batteries are designed for cars and trucks.

The company was set up in 2016 and it currently employs 80 specialists.
WINNIPEG - Manitoba health officials reported a third death from COVID-19 Tuesday, along with 13 new cases.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba chief public health officer, speaks during the province's latest COVID-19 update at the Manitoba legislature in Winnipeg Tuesday, March 31, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

WINNIPEG - Manitoba health officials reported a third death from COVID-19 Tuesday, along with 13 new cases.

The latest fatality was a Winnipeg man in his 60s who had an underlying condition, Dr. Brent Roussin, the province's chief public health officer, said.

With a total of 217 probable and confirmed cases to date, Roussin said he expects Manitoba's numbers to continue to climb.

"We're certainly, in my opinion, not at our peak right now," Roussin said.

"I think we're going to see many, many more cases here in Manitoba, but we're going to ... escalate our efforts if necessary."

The Manitoba government issued a public health order last month that limited public gatherings to 10 and forced non-essential businesses to close.

Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The province has also urged people to practice social distancing by staying home as much as possible and maintaining a space of at least two metres from others while going out.

Roussin said the public health order is to expire next week, and may be toughened when it is renewed.

"We're going to be looking at what will be in a subsequent order. Certainly, we're not at a place right now where we will be ending our social distancing strategies."

The province announced new financial aid for students and recent graduates Tuesday to cope with the economic fallout from the pandemic.

Repayments on provincial student loans are being suspended for six months until Oct. 1. The move mirrors a similar decision recently announced by the federal government.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2020
Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates: No COVID-19 cases in Goa on Tuesday, the total number of positive coronavirus cases in the state stands at seven, the state health department said.

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Further, 28 deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours. With this, the total number of deaths in the country has crossed the 100-mark.

The Union government on Monday said that there has been an increase of 704 COVID-19 cases taking the total number to 4,067 in the last 24 hours, the biggest rise so far in India.

A health bulletin said so far 256 persons in the state have tested positive for COVID-19 and 151 of them are from Indore.

These patients were already suffering from asthma, diabetes, high BP and other ailments before getting infected with COVID-19, he said.

Three men and a woman have died in the last five days in different hospitals in Indore and their test reports received on Monday revealed they were infected with COVID-19, an official of the government-MGM medical college said. Indore alone now accounts for 13 deaths.

Four more persons succumbed to the dreaded coronavirus in the city, taking the toll to 18 in Madhya Pradesh on Monday, a health official said.

According to the Union health ministry update, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in India has reached 4,281. While 111 people have died, 318 patients have been cured.

The government said 11 deaths have been reported due to COVID-19 in the state, so far.

"30 more persons have tested positive for the coronavirus in Telangana, while 12 patients have been cured/discharged, today. There are 308 active cases," state health department bulletin said.

Telangana on Monday reported 30 new positive coronavirus cases, taking the total number of active cases to 308 in the state.

Banerjee also urged people not to "indulge in politics" with the figures related to COVID-19 infection and deaths.

Most of these 61 people have either returned from abroad or came in contact with someone who is a foreign returnee, she said.

"Till Monday noon, there were 61 active COVID-19 cases in West Bengal. Out of these, 55 belong to seven families," Banerjee told reporters.

So far, there are only three COVID-19 related deaths in the state, Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said 12 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the state since Saturday evening, taking the total number of active cases to 61.

The prime minister has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is the First Secretary of State, to deputise for him where necessary," the spokesperson said.

Over the course of this afternoon (Monday), the condition of the Prime Minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the ICU at the hospital, a Downing Street spokesperson said.

Johnson, 55, asked UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab to deputise for him as he was moved on Monday to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at St Thomas' Hospital in London, a move Downing Street said was a precaution should he require ventilation to aid his recovery.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was in the hospital due to persistent coronavirus symptoms, has been taken into intensive care after his condition worsened, Downing Street has said.

Vijayan said the nurses have requested that necessary steps be taken to separate people who are diagnosed positive for Coronavirus and those who presently have no symptoms.

"I request that the concerned state governments may be advised to urgently look into the facts and circumstances... and provide due care, attention, and necessary precautions so that the standard health protocols are followed and utmost protection is given to the health personnel who are rendering valuable service to our society," Vijayan said in the letter.

He said, five nurses at Delhi's prestigious Cancer Institute have been infected with the virus amid complaints regarding lack of PPE across the country.

In a press meet after the evaluation meet on COVID-19, Vijayan said 46 nurses from Kerala working in Mumbai have contracted the deadly virus and more than 150 nurses are under observation there.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written a letter to Modi seeking his "attention to the situation", an official said.

The Kerala government on Monday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to look into reports of nurses from the state getting infected with COVID-19 in Delhi and Maharashtra allegedly due to lack of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).

Meanwhile, the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has asked all zoos across the country to monitor the health of kept animals as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of COVID-19 after a tiger in a US zoo tested positive for the virus.

Among other precautionary measures include food provided to the animals being disinfected, the official said. "Only 50 percent of Lucknow Zoo's staff are working and they are maintaining high standards of hygiene. We are disinfecting food before providing it to animals. We have also made a quarantine ward for animals possibly infected by the COVID-19 if the need arises," said Zoo Director, Rajendra Kumar Singh.

Director of the Lucknow Zoo on Monday said the Zoo was taking additional precautionary measures for animals and its staff amid coronavirus outbreak.

Hydroxychloroquine tablet is used to prevent and treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, among other ailments.

I would be surprised if he would, you know, because India does very well with the United States, Trump told reporters during a press briefing at the White House on Monday.

Last week Trump said that he has sought help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the sale of Hydroxychloroquine tablets ordered by the US to treat the growing number of coronavirus patients in his country, hours after India banned the export of the anti-malarial drug.

US President Donald Trump has said he would be surprised if India did not allow the export of Hydroxychloroquine tablets to the United States despite a request made to New Delhi over the subject.

On 6 March, Union Minister of State for Shipping, and Chemical and Fertilizers, Mansukh Mandaviya had said that the government has imposed short term restrictions on some active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) with regards to coronavirus preparedness.

The notice said APIs and formulation made from these APIs are made free for export, with immediate effect. Restrictions on paracetamol have however not been lifted yet.

A notice issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry highlighted the 24 pharma ingredients and formulations. These include Tinidazole, Metronidazole, Acyclovir, Vitamin BI, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin B12.

The Central government has removed restrictions on the export of 12 Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and their formulations, the Union Commerce and Industry Ministry said on Monday.

Nurses are particularly lacking across Africa, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Venezuela, it added.

There is still a global shortage of nearly 6 million nurses, mainly in low- and lower-middle-income countries, where the number of new recruits barely keeps pace with population growth, the report said.

The worlds 28 million nurses, 59 percent of all health workers, were overstretched before the crisis began, the WHO, the Nursing Now campaign, and Geneva-based council said in the first State of the Worlds Nursing Report.

Some 100 medical workers are reported to have died from the disease so far, including many nurses, Howard Catton, CEO of the International Council of Nurses, told a news briefing.

Authorities must protect nurses and other health workers from harassment and attacks compounding the already heavy toll they are paying in the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) and top nursing officials said on Tuesday.

Last week, Special Envoy from Dominican Republic to UN Ambassador Jose Singer and President of Security Council for April said that a Council meeting on the coronavirus situation had been requested by five or six ambassadors and the Dominican Republic was working to schedule the discussion.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will participate in the session on Thursday afternoon as a briefer. It remains to be seen whether any press statement on the COVID-19 situation is issued after the meeting.

Council President for the month of April, the Dominican Republic, said it has formally scheduled a closed video-teleconferencing (VTC) "regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the issues that fall under the UNSC mandate".

The United Nations Security Council will hold a closed session on Thursday to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, the first time the powerful UN organ is holding a meeting on coronavirus that has killed more than 74,000 people and infected over 1.3 million globally.

British prime minister Boris Johnson is in hospital for tests after suffering persistent symptoms of the coronavirus, but he continues to lead the government and work on official business.

On the International platform, Air India will be operating dedicated scheduled cargo flights to China for the uplifting of critical medical equipment as per the requirement. The statement said domestic cargo operators; Blue Dart, Spicejet and Indigo are operating cargo flights on a commercial basis.

"With support from Air India, Alliance Air, IAF and private airlines, medical supplies of more than 184 tons have been delivered to date during lockdown period," a release of Ministry of Civil Aviation said.

Under Lifeline UDAN initiative of Ministry of Civil Aviation, 132 cargo flights have been operated so far across the country to transport medical cargo including to remote and hilly areas, said an official statement on Monday.

"The decision follows a telephone conversation between Trump and Narendra Modi on Saturday", claim reports.

There are currently no approved treatments, or preventive vaccines for COVID-19, the highly contagious, sometimes deadly respiratory illness caused by coronavirus.

Last month, India had banned the export of hydroxychloroquine and formulations of the malaria drug while experts test its efficacy in helping treat COVID-19 patients.

Amid rising global pressure to allow exports of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol which is being tested on patients infected with coronavirus, the government is likely to clear the move after calculating sufficient stocks for the country, sources have told CNBC-TV18.

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in India has risen to 4,421, according to the Union Health Ministry's latest data. The reported active cases of currently stands at 3,981, while the toll from the novel coronavirus pandemic has reached 114.

"There are a total of 26 coronavirus positive cases in Assam so far. We have tested 2,000 samples till date. The reports for 165 samples are pending and are expected to come by this evening," Sarma said during a press conference at NHM office.

State minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said that over 2,000 samples have been tested in the state, out of which 26 tested positive for coronavirus so far.

"1,182 people have been arrested and 504 cases registered so far in Assam for violating the coronavirus lockdown," said GP Singh, Assam Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order.

As many as 1,182 people have been arrested and 504 cases registered so far in Assam for not following the lockdown restrictions imposed in view of the coronavirus outbreak, an official said.

In New York, the epicenter of COVID-19 in the US, the fatalities on Monday increased to 4,758 and confirmed cases to 130,000, with officials saying that new cases and deaths have now slowed down in the Big Apple.

Globally it has infected more than 13 lakhs people and resulted in the death of more than 74,000.

By Monday, more than 10,800 Americans died due to the deadly coronavirus and over 366,000 tested positive, to which top American scientists are racing against time to develop either a vaccine or a successful treatment.

The death toll in the US from the coronavirus crossed the 10,000-mark on Monday as the country entered the most difficult phase during this pandemic with officials stating that there are encouraging signs in the fight against the dreaded disease mainly due to the aggressive implementation of the mitigation measures.

The sample collection kiosk can be mounted on a vehicle and transported to any location, he said. The model can also be useful for collecting samples in COVID-19 hotspots and border checkpoints, the official said, adding that each model costs about Rs 15,000-20,000.

"The phone booth COVID-19 sample collection centre is a unique, low-cost and portable unit. It ensures the safety of health workers while collecting sample from a suspected patient," the official said.

The unit looks like a public telephone booth and will reduce manpower needed for collecting samples for coronavirus tests, he said.

In a bid to ensure safety of health workers, the West Singhbhum administration in Jharkhand has introduced an innovative portable unit for collecting samples from suspected coronavirus-infected persons, an official said.

The Prime Minister further threw light on the importance of personal fitness to stay healthy. Modi has been continuously encouraging people to show support to the doctors and paramedical staff for their selfless work during the COVID-19 threat.

On the occasion of World Health Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said we should show gratitude to the healthcare staff who are braving all odds to fight the coronavirus crisis.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus, police personnel in parts of the country have been coming up with novel ideas to spread information about the deadly viral infection and urging people to follow the lockdown and social distancing properly.

The policemen have been repeatedly telling people that if they unnecessarily step out of their houses, they may carry the virus back home along with them.

To make people aware about the severity of the viral infection, they laugh like devils and call themselves "corona demon". They have been going around the town wearing red body suits with coronavirus-like spikes on it, and warning those violating the lockdown protocol.

Two policemen in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district have been moving around streets wearing coronavirus-themed outfits to make people aware about the lethality of the disease and urging them to strictly follow the prescribed guidelines to stay protected.

All the four who tested positive were from Tissa area of Chamba district and had attended the Jamaat event in the national capital, he said.

Additional Chief Secretary (Health) R D Dhiman said 83 samples were collected in the state on Monday and the report of 81 was out, of which four tested positive, two samples will be tested again and the rest came out negative.

Four Tablighi Jamaat members who attended a religious congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin have tested positive for coronavirus in Himachal Pradesh, a senior health official said. With this, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state rose to 19.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be announcing a five-point strategy to counter the spread of COVID-19 in the national capital at 1.00 pm today, reports suggest. The strategy may include randomised testing in hotspots and quarantine centers being set up in large numbers.

On the other hand, Bajaj Finance was the sole loser.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty soared 347.95 points, or 4.30 percent, to 8,431.75. IndusInd Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, surging up to 15 percent, followed by Mahindra and Mahindra, HCL Tech, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Infosys.

Equity benchmark Sensex rallied over 1,300 points in early trade on Tuesday led gains in bank, IT and auto stocks amid recovery in global equities. After hitting a high of 28,963.25, the 30-share BSE barometer was trading 1,127.57 points or 4.09 percent higher at 28,718.52.

The overall confirmed cases on the mainland have reached 81,740 by Monday, including 1,242 patients still being treated, 77,167 patients discharged after recovery, and 3,331 people died of the disease, the NHC said.

China's National Health Commission (NHC) on Tuesday said that no death was reported on Monday. The official death toll in China is 3,331. It is a landmark in China's over two-month-long fight against the deadly virus as the country continued to report coronavirus deaths till Sunday, especially from the epicentre Hubei province.

China on Tuesday reported no new deaths from the deadly coronavirus for the first time since it started publishing figures in January but the number of imported infections increased to 983 with 32 new confirmed cases, health officials said.

With 120 new cases of COVID-19, the total number of confirmed cases in the state increased to 868 on Monday, Maharashtra Health Department informed in the daily media bulletin.

In the last 24 hours, four people have tested positive for COVID-19 out of which three are close contacts of persons who attended the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi.

Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra has a total of twenty-five COVID-19 positive cases, as per the local administration. Twenty-one out of these twenty-five patients includes Tablighi Jamaat returnees and their close contacts.

He said the total number of coronavirus positive cases in the state has risen to 325.

While there were nine cases in Jodhpur, Jaisalmer saw 7 cases. Banswara recorded 4 cases, Jaipur (3) and Churu (1).

"24 new cases have come up today, including in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Banswara and Churu districts. All have contact and travel history," Additional Chief Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said.

The virus has so far claimed six lives in the state. However, officials maintain that deaths occurred due to co-morbidity, more than one illness or disease occurring in one person at the same time.

Rajasthan recorded 24 more cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, taking the total number of virus cases in the state to 325, an official said.

Two more cases of the novel coronavirus disease have been found in the Dharavi area of Mumbai, Maharashtra. The cases have been reported in Dr Baliga Nagar. They are the father, 80, and brother, 49, of the second case from the area. The total cases in the area now stand at four.

She advised that the zoos/deer parks in the state remain on "highest alert" and watch animals on 24x7 basis using CCTV for any abnormal behaviour/symptoms.

State Principal Chief Conservator of Forests R Sobha in communication on Monday to officials, said the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) informed about the confirmation of COVID- 19 in a tiger housed in a zoo in New York, USA.

The Forest Department in Telangana has asked zoos and deer parks in the state to be on "highest alert" while issuing a set of directives to its officers after a tiger in a New York zoo tested positive for coronavirus.

The MEA further said: "We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic. We would, therefore, discourage any speculation in this regard or any attempts to politicise the matter.

In view of the humanitarian aspects of COVID-19 pandemic, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Tuesday announced that India has decided to licence Paracetamol and Hydroxychloroquine in appropriate quantities to all its neighbouring countries which are dependent on its capabilities.

"Our colleague nurses and the doctors identified as COVID-19 positive are presently being treated. The hospital is currently declared containment zone by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and we are closely working with the authorities," Wockhardt Hospital said in a statement.

Several of our healthcare professionals tested positive for COVID-19 at a South Mumbai facility, ANI reports. The source of the infection is identified as a 70-year-old patient who was admitted on March 17 for a cardiac emergency. Later, he tested positive for coronavirus, said Wockhardt Hospital.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 75.92, then gained ground and touched 75.87, registering a rise of 26 paise over its previous close. On Friday, rupee had settled at 76.13 against the US dollar. The forex market was closed on Monday on account of Mahavir Jayanti.

Forex traders said a higher opening in domestic equities supported the local unit, while sustained foreign fund outflows and concerns over coronavirus outbreak weighed on the local unit.

The Indian rupee appreciated by 26 paise to 75.87 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday tracking positive opening in domestic equities.

Hundreds of suspected illegal migrants, many of them Muslims, are lodged in the detention centres in Assam after they did not figure in the controversial updated National Register of Citizens.

He also purportedly said the living conditions there were worse than those at the detention centres.

An audio clip containing a telephonic conversation purportedy between Islam and another person was doing the rounds on social media where the lawmaker was heard talking "disparagingly" about the quarantine facilities and hospitals.

Aminul Islam, the All India United Democratic Front (AIDUF) legislator from Dhing constituency was apprehended early in the morning after preliminary interrogation, state police chief Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta told PTI.

An opposition MLA in Assam was arrested on Tuesday for making "objectionable" remarks about the condition of quarantine facilities and hospitals treating COVID 19 patients, calling them worse than detention centres, police said.

"Anchors and reporters working in news channels are being specifically targeted through social media platforms like WhatsApp, TikTok and Twitter," the statement said.

This particular trend has been noticed after the electronic media recently exposed the Tablighi Jamaat link in nationwide spurt in coronavirus cases and subsequent deaths.

The news broadcasters' body said it views with "grave concern" the tendency among people belonging to a certain section of society resorting to abuses and threats against anchors and reporters working in news channels.

The NBA, in a statement released by its president Rajat Sharma, said videos are circulating on social media in which some religious preachers are naming some TV news anchors and threatening attacks on the reporters of those channels.

The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has expressed "grave concern" over the tendency among people belonging to a certain section of the society in resorting to threats against news channel journalists after the electronic media "exposed" the Tablighi Jamaat link in the nationwide spurt in coronavirus cases.

The second was a 60 year old man who had returned from Dubai but had showed no symptoms since. Both patients were tested because their contact and travel history pertained to known hotspots of the virus.

Two asymptomatic persons who finished 14 day quarantine period tested positive in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala, News18 reported. Kerala has been asking the high-risk category patients to be on quarantine for 28 days so both were under quarantine, according to health official. The first person is a 19 year old student who had returned from Delhi's Nizammudin area considered a local hotspot after the Tablighi Jamaat event.

Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of cases in India. With 23 new patients in the last 24 hours, the total number of positive cases in the state rises to 891. In the last 24 hours, Sangali has reported one new case, Pune four, Anagar three, Buldhana two, Mumbai 10, Thane one and two cases.

The Congress leader observed that India should help all countries in need in the time of pandemic, but adequate quantity of the drug should be made available to Indians first. The context of his tweet was MEA's previous order of a blanket ban on a malaria drug touted to be effective against coronavirus, and a partial roleback later, after Trump threatened of a retaliation, in case exports were not opened up for the US.

Out of the total 268 coronavirus cases in the state, maximum 151 have been reported from Indore. So far, 18 people have died, including 13 from Indore, two from Ujjain and one each from Khargone, Chhindwara and Bhopal.

With this, the total number of coronavirus cases in the state capital has gone up to 74. Two persons from Bhopal have so far been discharged after recovery, he said.

Among the new patients, seven are police personnel and their family members, and five are health department employees, Bhopal's Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr Sudhir Kumar Deharia said.

Twelve more coronavirus cases have been found in Bhopal, taking the number of such cases in Madhya Pradesh to 268, a health official said on Tuesday.

Cases under relevant sections of the law have been registered against all of them and further investigation has been initiated, they said.

Similarly, the officials said, in the jurisdiction of police station Khanyar, police arrested five persons for violating the restrictions.

In the jurisdiction of police stations RM Bagh and Nowgam, police arrested nine persons and also seized eight vehicles for violating the government prohibitory orders, they added.

Police arrested three persons, including a shopkeeper, and seized a vehicle for violating the prohibitory orders in the jurisdiction of police stations Nishat and Harwan.

Strict restrictions on the movement of people in Kashmir to contain the spread of coronavirus remained in force for the twentieth consecutive day on Tuesday, even as police arrested 17 persons for defying the lockdown orders here, officials said. Acting tough against violators of prohibitory orders, police on Monday arrested the 17 persons.

Bihar government Tuesday sought an explanation from 76 Health Officials after they were found to be absent from duty. They've been asked to submit their replies within 3 days explaining why action should not be taken against them under Disaster Management Act-2005 & Epidemic Disease Act-1897. Bihar government is also taking action against 122 other health officials of the state who were found to be absent from duty.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday has ordered that all accused involved in assaulting three policemen on duty amid the coronavirus lockdown in Madhya Pradesg will be booked under the National Security Act (NSA). Some youths in the old city had attacked cops with knives after they were asking locals to follow lockdown orders in Bhopal on Monday.

He was said to be suffering from Type-2 diabetes and died on April 3, according to the state nodal officer Arja Srikanth. The person, who died tested positive for coronavirus, the official said.

The 45-year old person in Kurnool did not have any travel history but was admitted to the government hospital with symptoms of COVID-19 on 1 April.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the state has now touched 304 while the active cases remained at 294, according to the bulletin issued by the Medical and Health Department on Tuesday.

A 45-year old person died of coronavirus in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, taking the toll to four even as one more case of COVID-19 was reported overnight.

The business information company tracks unemployment data on a weekly basis. According to its estimates, unemployment has risen from 8.4 percent in the week ended March 22 to 23.4 percent as of the week ended 5 April, reports moneycontrol .

Initial estimates of job data show that the coronavirus pandemic could have caused unemployment to rise to 23.4 percent, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) stated.

If a user receives a frequently forwarded message  one which has been forwarded more than five times  under the new curbs, they will only be able to send it on to a single chat at a time, reports The Guardian .

WhatsApp is set to impose a strict new limit on message forwarding as the Facebook-owned chat app seeks to slow the dissemination of fake news, the company has announced on Tuesday.

According to the officials, Punjab has 1,918 cases, Sindh 932, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 500, Gilgit-Baltistan 211, Balochistan 202, Islamabad 83 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 18.

The total number of patients who died due to COVID-19 has reached 54. As many as 429 have recovered while 28 were in critical condition, it said.

The Ministry of National Health Services, in an early morning update on its website, reported that four patients died of coronavirus in the last 24 hours.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan has sharply increased to 3,864 with more than 500 fresh infections while the death toll reached 54, the health officials said on Monday.

Arvind Kejriwal briefed the media about his 5-step programme to curb the pandemic in the National Capital on Tuesday. "We have to stay three steps ahead of the coronavirus. Hence, we have decided to implement a five-step plan to tackle the outbreak in Delhi"

Delhi chief minister that the world has seen how mass-testing has helped many countries such as South Korea. "If we dont test, we will not know who is getting infected. There was an issue with getting testing kits, that situation is now easing. We have ordered testing kits to carry out rapid testing on one lakh people in hotspots."

Arvind Kerjirwal says that the plan is in 5 parts which can be called the '5-T's'. The first is testing, the second step is to enhancing tracing, said Delhi chief minister. He said, "We will self-quarantine, monitor and seal areas based on tracing."

The third T in our plan is treatment, announced Delhi chief minister on Tuesday. He said that the government has converted a few hospitals only for treatment of COVID-19 patients. "We have enough patients right now to handle 30,000 active cases in the national capital. We will convert more hospitals if and when we need," he said.

"The fifth T is tracking. I am tracking everything that is happening in Delhi right now." he said.

He also added that the Delhi government has already calculated as to how many PPE kits, ventilators and other medical equipments will be required at which stage.

He said, "I am glad that everyone is working like a team  Centre, Delhi government and all other state governments. Doctors and nurses are the most important part of this team. We have to keep them safe at any cost. People in the country must stay at home."

The fourth T in the 5-tie plan is teamwork, said Arvind Kejriwal during the briefing on Tuesday. He noted that everyone in the country, from centre to state government and Opposition parties are working 'like a team.'

"We have submitted 2,000 numbers of the Markaz members to the police, based on the tracing of these numbers we will seal and lock down affected areas," he said. "We are increasing COVID-19 treatment centres, LNJP and GB Pant are corona hospitals and no other treatments are going on there, we have over 2400 beds."

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said that the government had a team of doctors and healthcare workers who were tracing people who had come in contact with positive cases, and that the police was also helping in the task.

The Mumbai Police on Monday requested the Tablighi Jamaat members to approach the BMC and inform it about their travel details or face action.

The Tablighi Jamaat's congregation in Delhi has emerged as one of the major COVID-19 hotspots in the country.

The offence was registered on a complant lodged by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) at the Azad Maidan Police Station, he said.

Mumbai Police have registered an FIR against 150 people who attended the religious congregation of Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in New Delhi last month for alleged negligent act during the coronavirus outbreak, an official said on Tuesday.

The order will not be applicable to the essential and emergency services, the commissioner said. Till Monday, the Thane region, which includes Kalyan and Dombivali cities, reported 85 coronavirus cases and nine deaths.

In an order issued on Monday, Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Commissioner Dr Vijay Suryavanshi said it was absolutely essential to seal the borders of the two cities. Police personnel have been deployed to ensure strict implementation of the directive.

Civic authorities have ordered sealing of borders of the Kalyan and Dombivali cities in Maharashtra with immediate effect to check the spread of coronavirus.

Among the 12 new cases, four (one from Bagalkote, two from Bengaluru city and one from Bengaluru Rural) had attended Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Delhi from March 13-18; while three from Mandya are contacts of patients with history of attending the Jamaat congregation.

"Twelve new positive cases have been reported from last evening to this noon...Till date 175 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed. This includes 4 deaths and 25 discharges," the department said in its mid-day situation update.

Twelve new positive coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Karnataka, taking the total number of affected in the state to 175, the Health department said on Tuesday. Of the 175 positive cases, 25 have been discharged, it said.

A 45-year old man tests positive in Bhubhaneshwar in Odisha. This brings the total reported cases of coronavirus in Odisha to 22. Among the total people infected as on date, two have recovered and none have passed away.

The prohibitory order would be effective until 14 April, in addition to the already existing regulatory order issued earlier for the lockdown, the DC said in his order.

The order was issued on Monday evening by Capital Complex Deputy Commissioner Komar Dolom as people have considerably violated the protocol of total lockdown on the ground.

The Capital Complex administration in Arunachal Pradesh has imposed prohibitory order under section 144 CrPC on movement of people from Tuesday evening till 14 April.

The suggestions came after Modi reached out to several opposition leaders, including Gandhi, on Monday.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggesting five measures to conserve money for the fight against COVID-19, including a complete ban on media advertisements by government and PSUs for two years and suspending the Central Vista beautification project.

The man was from Jharpada and had been admitted to AIIMS Bhubaneswar on 4 April complaining of respiratory distress and had a history of chronic hypertension. Later, he was tested positive for coronavirus. He died on 6 April, reported ANI.

Odisha has reported its first COVID-19 death after a 72-year-old man being treated for the coronavirus died at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, said Health department on Tuesday.

India's tally of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 4,421, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday.

Mewat Civil Surgeon confirmed to ANI that 16 returnees from the Tablighi Jamaat event held recently in Delhi, tested positive for coronavirus, in Haryana on Tuesday. With 16 new cases, the tally of positive cases in Mewat stands at 30.

The bench also said it cannot take a "better policy decision" at this stage and moreover, it also does not want to interfere with the policy decisions for the next ten-fifteen days.

"We do not plan to supplant the wisdom of the government with our wisdom. We are not experts in health or management and will ask the government to create a helpline for complaints," the bench said while fixing the PIL for further hearing on 13 April.

A bench comprising Chief Justice SA Bobde and justices S K Kaul and Deepak Gupta, through video conferencing, was hearing the plea filed by two civil rights activists seeking enforcement of fundamental right to life for migrant workers and payment of wages to them as they have been left without work or food following the lockdown.

The Supreme Court Tuesday said it was not an "expert" body on dealing with health and management issues of migrant workers arising from the 21-day nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic and would rather ask the government to set up helpline for the needy.

The 21-day nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 March and it came into force on 25 March.

He also appealed to the people to abide by whatever decision is ultimately taken by the government and cooperate with the same spirit that has so far been evident "even if it meant to continue with some degree of hardship still beyond 14 April".

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday said the final week of the ongoing lockdown is "critical" for evolving an exit strategy as data regarding the spread of coronavirus will have a bearing on the decision to be taken by the government.

Ahmedabad has reported the maximum cases at 77, followed by Surat- 19, Bhavnagar-14, Gandhinagar-13, Vadodara- 12, Rajkot-10, Patan-five, Porbandar-three, Kutch, Mehsana, and Gir Somnath- two each, and Chhota Udepur, Anand, Sabarkantha, Jamnagar, and Morbi- one each.

Anand and Sabarkantha districts reported their first cases on Tuesday. With this, coronavirus cases have now been reported from 17 districts out of the total 33 in the state.

Out of 19 new cases, 13 have been reported from Ahmedabad, three from Patan, and one each from Bhavnagar, Anand and Sabarkantha, Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi said.

The number of coronavirus cases in Gujarat jumped to 165 on Tuesday, with 19 more people testing positive for the viral infection in the state, an official said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday declared a state of emergency to fight new coronavirus infections in major population centres and unveiled a stimulus package he described as among the world's biggest to soften the economic blow. His cabinet will also finalise the stimulus package worth 108 trillion yen ($990 billion) - equal to 20 percent of Japan's economic output.

A lot of state governments, as well as experts, are requesting the Central Government to extend the lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic in India. The Centre is considering this decision, say government sources, reports CNN-News18.

Earlier on Monday, the BMC declared the city's Wockhardt Hospital a containment zone after three doctors and 26 nurses tested positive for coronavirus within a span of one week.

Sources also told ANI that along with the tea seller, four more people residing in his building have been put into a quarantine facility by the authorities.

The civic body has also put up posters informing the same near the government guest house. According to Mumbai police sources, the Maharashtra Chief Minister's security personnel deployed at Matoshree, who were the frequent visitors to the tea stall, have been kept in isolation as a precautionary measure.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) sealed off the Kalanagar area in Mumbai's Bandra East after a tea seller was suspected to have contracted COVID-19 near a government guest house, located near Matoshree, the private residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Among the accused, 42 were arrested, while three were released on bail, he said. The incident took place in Karampur Chaudhary area in Izzatnagar when two policemen had gone to enforce the lockdown and were attacked.

"An FIR was registered against 150 persons on Monday night under relevant sections of IPC for attacking policemen and trying to set ablaze police outpost," Superintendent of Police, City, Ravindra Kumar said.

An FIR was registered against 150 people for allegedly attacking a police team trying to enforce lockdown in Izatnagar area here, police said on Tuesday. Forty-two people were arrested in this connection, out of which three women were released on bail.

"An inquiry by a sitting or retired Supreme Court judge should be conducted in the Nizamuddin episode to make clear who all are responsible. Those who are at fault should be booked and punished. It will also make clear whether there was any mistake on part of the administration," Gehlot told PTI.

He said questions should not be raised on the ground of religion because any person from any caste or community can commit a mistake and only those at fault should be punished.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday demanded an inquiry by a sitting or retired Supreme Court judge to fix responsibility for the Delhi congregation of Tablighi Jamaat.

Taking note of it, an FIR has been registered against 40 people for violating lockdown norms, he said, adding that a strict action will be taken against those found flouting the government orders.

"While people across the country lit earthen lamps and candles on the prime minister's call, some people in Tulsipur Bazar here came out on the roads in large numbers," ASP Arvind Kumar Mishra.

Millions of Indians across the country switched off lights at their homes and lit candles and diyas or turned on mobile phone torches on Sunday night, responding to Modi's appeal to show the nation's "collective resolve and solidarity" in its fight against coronavirus.

A case has been registered against 40 people in this district of Uttar Pradesh for defying lockdown norms and coming out on the roads despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's request to lit lamps indoors, police said on Tuesday.

"The approved one will be used for making this overall by other workshops.Facilities are being geared up in Railways to make up to 1,000 such protective overalls for railway doctors and paramedics every day. Around 17 workshops would be striving to contribute to this exercise."

The Ministry of Railways on Tuesday said that the Indian Railways has taken up the production of a personal protective equipment-type 'overall'. An overall produced by Jagadhari workshop was recently cleared by a DRDO lab.

SpiceJet operated Indias first cargo-on-seat flight, carrying 11 tons of vital supplies in passenger cabin and belly space from Delhi to Chennai. B737 passenger aircraft to do five rotations on Tuesday carrying crucial supplies, the airlines said.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Assam government on a plea seeking the release of people from detention centres in the state who have completed more than two years to avoid spreading of coronavirus, "as centres are overcrowded", ANI reported.

"Screened five crore people out of around 7.50 crore population. 15,000 tests have been done in different districts. Rs 25 crore incentive planned for doctors and health workers," he said.

"We held meetings with all political parties,doctors, Army, IAF, Railway, CRPF, CISF, and medical universities. We've somewhat managed to keep cases under control,though they are still coming. We've made control rooms at state level for monitoring. I'm also personally monitoring.

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said that the state government had taken immediate precautions in the state to control the coronavirus pandemic "from the beginning".

Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of cases in India. With 23 new patients in the last 24 hours, the total number of positive cases in the state rises to 891. In the last 24 hours, Sangali has reported one new case, Pune four, Anagar three, Buldhana two, Mumbai 10, Thane one and two cases.

Three deaths have been reported in Pune on Tuesday, the district magistrate said. All patients were COVID-19 positive and are cases of comorbidity. Toll in Pune has risen to eight.

The Union health ministry on Tuesday said that so far, 326 coronavirus patients across the country have been discharged after recovery. There are 4,421 COVID-19 positive cases in the country, including 354 cases in the last 24 hours.

The Union health ministry on Tuesday, in its daily briefing on the coronavirus pandemic situation in the country, said that the Centre has been "adopting a strategy for cluster containment and for outbreaks that are amenable to management. This strategy is producing positive results, especially in Agra, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Pathanamthitta, Bhilwara and East Delhi," said Lav Aggarwal, Union Health Ministry.

"They are making 375 isolation beds daily and this is going on across 133 locations across the country," said Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry.

The Indian Railways has prepared 40,000 isolation beds in 2,500 coaches, the Union health ministry said in its briefing on Tuesday.

"The status of essential goods and services is by and large satisfactory. The home minister conducted a detailed review of the status of essential commodities and lockdown measures, he gave directions to take appropriate measures and ensure hoarding and black marketing is not done," said PS Srivastav of the MHA.

The Union health ministry said that the COVID-19 care centres for those with mild symptoms or suspected cases, while the COVID-199 health centres are for those at the clinically moderate stage.

The Union health ministry quoted an ICMR study as saying that if someone doesn't follow social distancing then in 30 days a single infected person can infect 406 people. 2.5 persons will be infected if social distancing maintained by a single individual, Joint Secretary Lav Aggarwal said.

ICMR's R Gangakhedkar said that 1,07,006 tests have been conducted for coronavirus so far. Currently, 136 government labs are working and 59 private labs have been given permission.

Nepal on Tuesday extended the ban on international flights till 30 April, whereas, the ban on domestic flights to remain in effect till 15 April.

In light of the coronavirus outbreak, students of classes 1 to 9 of the Jammu division in Jammu and Kashmir are to be promoted to next class and all examinees, who appeared in the Class 11 examination falling under will be promoted to Class 12, the Jammu school education department said.

He also said that the pharma ministry is monitoring the situation, adding, "...assure you we have sufficient quantity (of the drug)."

Lav Aggarwal, health ministry joint secretary, said that the hydrochloroquine drug is being used only in particular cases for critical patients and health workers.

The Delhi government has given the phone numbers of 1,950 people connected to the Tablighi Jamat event to the Delhi Police, a statement said.

According to reports, they said that the Uddhav Thackeray governemnt should look at the way Kerala is handling the crisis to understand why the mortality rate in Kerala is low.

In a meeting of the Maharashtra cabinet on Tuesday, state ministers expressed concern over the high mortality rate in COVID-19 patients in the state. The state is the worst-hit, with the toll touching 50.

Reports said that in a meeting of the Maharashtra cabinet on Tuesday, ministers said that the decision on whether the lockdown over coronavirus should be extended in the state is still to be taken and that a call will be taken depending on the state's position in the coming days.

In a meeting on the situation, the Maharashtra cabinet also reportedly discussed the issue of migrants stuck in the state.

BMC commissioner Praveen Pardeshi on Tuesday made a presentation before the state cabinet about the situation of coronavirus in Mumbai.

He also said that of the new cases, four people had returned from abroad, two are attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi and three people were affected from contact.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that nine people tested positive for coronavirus in the state on Tuesday, of which four are from Kasargod, three are from Kannur, one each from Kollam and Malappuram.

Tamil Nadu health secretary Beela Rajesh said that 69 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the state on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases to 690. Of the new 69 new cases, 63 cases are related to the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi, which has become one of the hotspots for coronavirus in the country.

"For this purpose, a central database of clinical and laboratory parameters of hospitalised COVID-19 cases is being created. All hospitals currently managing COVID-19 patients are invited to become partners in the network," the statement added.

"Its goal is to enhance clinical understanding of COVID-19 to develop specific clinical management protocols and further research and development for therapeutics," the ICMR said.

The ICMR on Tuesday said that the national task force set up to tackle the coronavirus pandemic in the country has recommended establishing an 'India COVID-19 Clinical Research Collaborative Network which will be coordinated by ICMR.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the toll due to coronavirus rose to five in the state on Tuesday, after two more patients passed away. Eight new active cases were reported on Tuesday, taking the number of active cases to 69 in the state.

"All those coming inside the state after lockdown is removed will first be kept in quarantine... I would rather call these centres "safe houses" instead of quarantine centres," she added.

Mamata Banerjee said that if the complete nationwide lockdown over coronavirus is "abruptly removed" in West Bengal, migrant workers stuck outside the state will start pouring in and people will violate social distancing. "It will create health hazards," she said.

The Haryana health department said that 33 new coronavirus positive cases have been reported in the state on Tuesday. Total coronavirus positive cases in the state stand at 129, which includes two deaths and 17 people who have now been discharged.

He added that of the 468 Tablighi Jamaat attendees who came back to Punjab from Delhi, 448 have been traced and 15 have tested positive for COVID-19.

Punjab health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said that the state government has planned to buy 10 lakh rapid testing kits, adding that the total cases of coronavirus are 99 in the state as of Tuesday, after eight more cases were reported.

He also wrote to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, seeking her personal intervention to revive manufacturing and loading at the jute mills in her state against the pending indents for gunny bales placed by Punjab government, a statement by the Punjab CMO said.

Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said that it has set up a control room for the coordination and for providing logistic support during the upcoming wheat harvesting and marketing season, which is set to begin on 15 April under tight security and safety measures to ensure smooth operations amid the coronavirus lockdown.

The Union health ministry said that 508 more COVID-19 positive cases and 13 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. India's positive cases rise to 4,789 (including 4312 active cases, 353 cured/discharged/migrated people and 124 deaths).

The statement also said that 10,317 Isolation beds are ready and available and 2,666 ICU beds are available.

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday said that currently there are 3,02,795 N-95 masks available in the state, and 41,400 personal protective equipment (PPEs) are available.

The BMC said that 100 new COVID-19 cases and five new deaths have been reported in Mumbai on Tuesday, the toll in the city rose to 40. The total number of positive cases in Mumbai stand at 590.

Reports said that the BMC is likely to disallow vegetable vendors in containment zones in Mumbai, which are 241 where COVID-19 positive patients have been found. Because people have not adhered to the guidelines of the lockdown to go to the market, the BMC said it had decided that streetside vegetable vendors won't be allowed in the zones

The Assam government on Tuesday announced a 30 percent cut in the salaries of the chief minister, ministers and MLAs for one year to save money for fight against COVID-19, PTI reported.

But his condition rapidly deteriorated over the next 24 hours, and he was moved on Monday to an intensive care unit, where the most serious cases are treated, in case he needed to be put on a ventilator. He was still conscious, his office said.

Johnson, 55, was admitted to St Thomas Hospital across the River Thames from the House of Commons late on Sunday after suffering persistent coronavirus symptoms, including a high temperature and a cough, for more than 10 days.

British prime minister Boris Johnson was stable in intensive care on Tuesday after receiving oxygen support to help him battle COVID-19, while his foreign minister led the governments response to the outbreak.

Karnataka health minister B Sriramulu said that 100 Ola cabs and 100 Uber cabs will be used for medical emergency in Bengaluru.

US president Donald Trump criticised the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s action plan over the coronavirus pandemic and said the "largely US-funded organisation" was being "very China-centric".

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that in the last 24 hours, 25 new cases of coronavirus and 2 deaths have been reported in the National Capital.

The National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune has validated seven antibody-based rapid tests for coronavirus and found them to be satisfactory, ANI reported on Tuesday.

He added, "After 1 March, whoever visited Markaz Nizamuddin should inform their concerned police stations. If they don't do so it will be considered as concealment of facts and legal action will be taken against the violators."

Delhi Police PRO MS Randhawa said that all hospitals must inform the police, the Delhi health department the COVID-19 authorized hospitals if they admit any COVID-19 positive patient. "If this is not followed it will be considered as concealment of facts and legal action will be taken," he said.

ANI reported that taxi drivers in Bengaluru said that they are struggling to pay for their loans with no income amid COVID-19 lockdown. Sunder Kumar said, "I don't have any work currently. How will I pay EMIs in coming months? Banks also continue to add interest on EMIs. The government should help us."

The Delhi government issued an order on Tuesday to provide a compensation of Rs 1 crore for doctors, nurses, and sanitation workers if the death will occur due to COVID-19.

"Restrictions are applicable in the areas which fall in jurisdiction of police stations such as Kondhwa, Swargate, Khadak, and Faraskhana. These areas were sealed by Pune Municipal corporation yesterday. Restrictions to be imposed from 7 pm on Tuesday to 14 April," the statement said.

Pune Police on Tuesday imposed restrictions in several areas of the city to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Shops related to essential services (excluding medicals and hospitals) to remain open from 10 am to 12 pm (for 2 hours only), the police said.

The Maharashtra health department said that 150 more COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the state on Tuesday, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 1,018.

The Gujarat government said that 19 COVID-19 positive cases and two deaths have been reported in the state on Tuesday. Both the deceased had comorbidity condition. Total positive cases in the state stand at 175.

The Jammu and Kashmir government said that 125 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Jammu and Kashmir as of 6 pm on Tuesday. This includes 118 active cases, four recovered patients and three deaths.

No COVID-19 cases in Goa on Tuesday, the total number of positive coronavirus cases in the state stands at seven, the state health department said.

For the first time, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has issued guidelines for sample collection sites for COVID-19 testing. Few state governments had suggested establishing sample collection sites, over which ICMR said it has no objection and released an advisory.

A 14 month old chil who had tested positive for coronavirus in Gujarat's Jamnagar, passed away on Tuesday evening, reports said .

Behind every one of those numbers is an individual. Theres a family, theres a mother, theres a father, theres a sister, theres a brother. So a lot of pain again today for many New Yorkers, he said.

The deadliest terror attack on US soil killed 2,753 people in the city and 2,977 overall, when hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on 11 September, 2001. New York state recorded 731 new coronavirus deaths, its biggest one-day jump yet, for a statewide toll of nearly 5,500, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

New York Citys death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed the number of those killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11, health officials said Tuesday. At least 3,202 people have died in New York from COVID-19, according to the count released by the city.

The Delhi government said that 51 fresh cases of coronavirus were reported in the National Capital in the last 24 hours.

The thinking in the government is that schools and colleges will more less remain shut till end of June as the summer vacation will start from middle of May.

A meeting of the GoM chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and participated by Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman concluded that religious centres, shopping malls and educational institutions must not be allowed to resume normal functioning at least for four weeks from April 14 when the current lockdown ends.

A Group of Ministers on COVID19 on Tuesday recommended extension of closure of all educational institutions and restricting all religious activities having public participation till May 15 irrespective of whether the government extends the 21-day lockdown or not, PTI reported.

A DRDO made disinfectant chamber was today deployed at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. The chamber uses a solution that is known to kill COVID-19 and will help in controlling the spread of coronavirus.

Two more villages (Gund-Jehangeer and Naidkhai) in Bandipora district were declared as red zones and their surrounding villages as buffer zones to prevent the spread of coronavirus after two persons from these villages had tested positive for COVID-19 in past 2 days, the Jammu and Kashmir government said.

For the first time, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has issued guidelines for sample collection sites for #COVID19 testing. Few state governments had suggested establishing sample collection sites, over which ICMR said it has no objection & released an advisory. pic.twitter.com/GsmtWgTf01

For the first time, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has issued guidelines for sample collection sites for COVID-19 testing. Few state governments had suggested establishing sample collection sites, over which ICMR said it has no objection and released an advisory.

A 14 month old chil who had tested positive for coronavirus in Gujarat's Jamnagar, passed away on Tuesday evening, reports said .

Behind every one of those numbers is an individual. Theres a family, theres a mother, theres a father, theres a sister, theres a brother. So a lot of pain again today for many New Yorkers, he said.

The deadliest terror attack on US soil killed 2,753 people in the city and 2,977 overall, when hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on 11 September, 2001. New York state recorded 731 new coronavirus deaths, its biggest one-day jump yet, for a statewide toll of nearly 5,500, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

New York Citys death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed the number of those killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11, health officials said Tuesday. At least 3,202 people have died in New York from COVID-19, according to the count released by the city.

The Delhi government said that 51 fresh cases of coronavirus were reported in the National Capital in the last 24 hours.

The thinking in the government is that schools and colleges will more less remain shut till end of June as the summer vacation will start from middle of May.

A meeting of the GoM chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and participated by Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman concluded that religious centres, shopping malls and educational institutions must not be allowed to resume normal functioning at least for four weeks from April 14 when the current lockdown ends.

A Group of Ministers on COVID19 on Tuesday recommended extension of closure of all educational institutions and restricting all religious activities having public participation till May 15 irrespective of whether the government extends the 21-day lockdown or not, PTI reported.

Another COVID-19 case has been reported in Assam, reports said, adding that the patient is from the Hailakandi district with a travel to Saudi Arabia. The total number of COVID-19 patients in Assam now stands at 28, said Assam Mminister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Figure of action taken across the state of Assam #lockdown by @assampolice till April 7th, 2000 Hrs @DGPAssamPolice @CMOfficeAssam pic.twitter.com/AWPHjMuvUW

#WATCH A DRDO made disinfectant chamber was today deployed at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. The chamber uses a solution that is known to kill #COVID19 & will help in controlling the spread of coronavirus. (Video source - DRDO) pic.twitter.com/Qx6wNlq1Vd

A DRDO made disinfectant chamber was today deployed at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. The chamber uses a solution that is known to kill COVID-19 and will help in controlling the spread of coronavirus.

No new cases were found in Noida Sector 8. Only as a precautionary measure of 'cluster containment' where previous cases have been found, people have been shifted and will be put under observation for welfare of them and their surroundings. Request you to dispel rumours, said Gautam Budh Nagar DM.

Two more villages (Gund-Jehangeer and Naidkhai) in Bandipora district were declared as red zones and their surrounding villages as buffer zones to prevent the spread of coronavirus after two persons from these villages had tested positive for COVID-19 in past 2 days, the Jammu and Kashmir government said.

Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST Updates: No COVID-19 cases in Goa on Tuesday, the total number of positive coronavirus cases in the state stands at seven, the state health department said.

The Delhi government issued an order on Tuesday to provide a compensation of Rs 1 crore for doctors, nurses, and sanitation workers if the death will occur due to COVID-19.

US president Donald Trump criticised the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s action plan over the coronavirus pandemic and said the "largely US-funded organisation" was being "very China-centric".

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday said that currently there are 3,02,795 N-95 masks available in the state, and 41,400 personal protective equipment (PPEs) are available.

The statement also said that 10,317 Isolation beds are ready and available and 2,666 ICU beds are available.

The Union health ministry said that 508 more COVID-19 positive cases and 13 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. India's positive cases rise to 4,789 (including 4312 active cases, 353 cured/discharged/migrated people and 124 deaths).

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the toll due to coronavirus rose to five in the state on Tuesday, after two more patients passed away. Eight new active cases were reported on Tuesday, taking the number of active cases to 69 in the state.

Ministers of the Maharashtra government on Tuesday discussed the need for more aggressive testing of coronavirus in the state. According to reports, the government is likely to seek more labs for testing.

In a meeting of the Maharashtra cabinet on Tuesday, state ministers expressed concern over the high mortality rate in COVID-19 patients in the state. The state is the worst-hit, with the toll touching 50.

According to reports, they said that the Uddhav Thackeray governemnt should look at the way Kerala is handling the crisis to understand why the mortality rate in Kerala is low.

ICMR's R Gangakhedkar said that 1,07,006 tests have been conducted for coronavirus so far. Currently, 136 government labs are working and 59 private labs have been given permission.

The Union health ministry on Tuesday said that so far, 326 coronavirus patients across the country have been discharged after recovery. There are 4,421 COVID-19 positive cases in the country, including 354 cases in the last 24 hours.

A lot of state governments, as well as experts, are requesting the Central Government to extend the lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic in India. The Centre is considering this decision, say government sources, reports CNN-News18.

Odisha has reported its first COVID-19 death after a 72-year-old man being treated for the coronavirus died at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, said Health department on Tuesday.

Civic authorities have ordered sealing of borders of the Kalyan and Dombivali cities in Maharashtra with immediate effect to check the spread of coronavirus.

Arvind Kejriwal briefed the media about his 5-step programme to curb the pandemic in the National Capital on Tuesday. 'We have to stay three steps ahead of the coronavirus. Hence, we have decided to implement a five-step plan to tackle the outbreak in Delhi'.

WhatsApp is set to impose a strict new limit on message forwarding as the Facebook-owned chat app seeks to slow the dissemination of fake news, the company has announced on Tuesday. WhatsApp is to limit sharing of frequently forwarded messages to only one chat at a time.

Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of cases in India. With 23 new patients in the last 24 hours, the total number of positive cases in the state rises to 891. In the last 24 hours, Sangali has reported one new case, Pune four, Anagar three, Buldhana two, Mumbai 10, Thane one and two cases.

In view of the humanitarian aspects of COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Tuesday announced that India has decided to license Paracetamol and Hydroxychloroquine in appropriate quantities to all its neighbouring countries which are dependent on its capabilities.

Two more cases of the novel coronavirus disease have been found in the Dharavi area of Mumbai, Maharashtra. The cases have been reported in Dr Baliga Nagar. They are the father, 80, and brother, 49, of the second case from the area as total cases in Dharavi stand at four.

As many as 1,182 people have been arrested and 504 cases registered so far in Assam for not following the lockdown restrictions imposed in view of the coronavirus outbreak, an official said.

Amid rising global pressure to allow exports of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol which is being tested on patients infected with coronavirus, the government is likely to clear the move after calculating sufficient stocks for the country, say reports.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday hinted at a possible retaliation if India does not lift its hold on the export of Hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug used in the treatment of coronavirus patients.

While India has lifted restrictions on the export of 24 pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines made from them, it is not clear what prompted the move. However, Reuters has quoted Indian government sources as saying that the bans had prompted intense pressure from the United States.

The Union government on Monday said that there has been an increase of 704 COVID-19 cases taking the total number to 4,067 in the last 24 hours, the biggest rise so far in India.

Further, 28 deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours. With this, the total number of deaths in the country has crossed the 100-mark.

The total number of positive cases in India includes 3,851 active cases, 318 cured/discharged/migrated people and 111 deaths.

Out of the total deaths, 73 percent of deaths were of males, and 27 percent were of females, the health ministry said in a media briefing. Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the health ministry, also said that 63 percent of deaths were of people aged 60 years and above, 30 percent were of people between 40 and 60 years, and seven percent were of people below 40 years of age.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with Union ministers through video conferencing, and asked them to prepare a list of ten major decisions and 'ten priority areas of focus' once the lockdown ends. Modi said that Central ministries should prepare a business continuity plan and asked all departments to maintain an objective index on how their work will promote 'Make in India.'

The Cabinet has approved an ordinance amending the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act, 1954, which will result in the reduction of allowances and pension of the politicians by 30 percent from 1 April, 2020 for a year.

State-wise figures

The number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra rose to 781, with 33 people more people testing positive for the disease on Monday, a health official said.

Among the new cases, 19 were reported from Pune city, 11 from Mumbai and one each from Satara, Ahmednagar and Vasai (in Palghar district), said the official.

"The state health department on Monday received reports of 33 people testing positive for coronavirus. With this, the state tally increased to 781, he said.

The state has so far reported 45 deaths due to the viral disease.

Gujarat reported 16 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of such cases in the state to 144, a health department official said.

Ten of these new patients have direct or indirect link to religious congregation organised by Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in Delhi last month, Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi said.

Of the 16 new cases, 11 are from Ahmedabad, two from Vadodara, and one each in Mehsana, Patan and Surat.

Tamil Nadu health secretary Beela Rajesh said that 50 new COVID-19 positive cases have been reported in the state on Monday, taking the total cases to 621. 48 of the new cases are connected to the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi, 570 of the total COVID-19 cases are Tablighi Jamaat returnees.

Follow LIVE updates on the coronavirus outbreak here

The Karnataka government said that as of 5 pm on Monday, 12 new coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of positive cases to 163 in the state. Additionally, the state has reported four deaths while 20 people have recovered.

The health bulletin said that the government is still trying to get details of whether the COVID-19 cases in Mysuru with travel history to Delhi are connected to the Tablighi Jamaat event, adding that one of the 12 new cases from Bangalore Rural attended the event and returned on 20 March.

In Delhi, cases of coronavirus rose to 532 after 20 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said. Of the new cases, 10 are attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in the Nizammudin area of the National Capital.

Additionally, he said one patient had died in the last 24 hours and 25 others are on ventilators. The total number of deaths is at 7 now.

Administrative measures

The Delhi Police shifted 17 pregnant women to different hospitals in the national capital amid the lockdown imposed to combat the coronavirus threat, officials said on Sunday.

"The PCR vehicles of Delhi Police shifted as many as 17 women, who were in labour, to various hospitals in the city," Deputy Commissioner of Police (PCR) Sharat Kumar Sinha said.

Four calls about pregnant woman going into labour were received from west Delhi, three from outer-north, three from Dwarka, two from east Delhi, two from outer part of the city, one from northeast, one from northwest and one from south Delhi, the DCP said.

In Bengaluru, the South Western Railways said that a 50-bedded hospital for COVID-19, with six ICU beds, has become fully operational at Divisional Railway Hospital.

In Goa, the fisheries department has decided to allow sale of fish in the state from Monday, with certain riders, including strict implementation of social distancing guidelines the curb the spread of coronavirus.

Fish is a key kitchen staple of people in the coastal state and its sale was banned since the enforcement of lockdown last month.

Goa Fisheries Minister Philip Neri Rodrigues told PTI that the stock of fish caught before the imposition of ban is lying at different cold storages in the state.

However, the traditional fish markets will continue to be closed to contain the spread of coronavirus, he said, adding that they are trying to work out modalities on how to allow people to buy fish without the markets being opened.

Global picture

The number of the coronavirus cases in Pakistan reached 3,277 with the infections in the worst-hit Punjab province approaching 1,500 despite government claims that the ongoing lockdown in the country has slowed down the spread of the deadly virus.

Ministry of National Health Services said that 50 patients have so far died of the disease, while 257 people have recovered.

Punjab recorded 1,493 cases, Sindh 881, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 405, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) 210, Balochistan 191, Islamabad 82 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 15.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that he will declare a state of emergency for Tokyo and six other prefectures as early as Tuesday to bolster measures to fight the coronavirus, but that there will be no hard lockdowns.

Abe also told reporters Monday that his government will launch a 108 trillion yen ($1 trillion) stimulus package  Japans largest ever and nearly twice as much as expected  to help counter the economic impact of the pandemic, including cash payouts to households in need and financial support to protect businesses and jobs.

Abe said experts on a government-commissioned task force urged him to prepare to declare a state of emergency, with the COVID-19 outbreak rapidly expanding in major cities including Tokyo, and hospitals and medical staff overburdened with patients. He said the state of emergency will cover Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and four other hard-hit prefectures, and will be in effect for about a month.

With inputs from agencies
Advertisement

Railways stretch for more than a million kilometres (620,000 miles) around the world.

And some of the tracks take in some pretty jaw-dropping scenery - as these incredible pictures show.

They feature in new book Rail Journeys, by David Ross, which celebrates with 200 photos the most unusual, romantic and remarkable landscapes in the world that can be discovered by train.

Open its pages and you can gaze upon pictures of the world's highest viaduct, in Argentina, a fascinating spiral bridge in Switzerland, a scenic railway that climbs the highest mountain in England and Wales and spectacular lines in North America that wind their way through the Rockies and Alaskan vistas.

David wrote: 'There is always a sense of adventure when going on a rail journey. Whether it is aboard the Orient Express from London to Istanbul, or travelling the Rocky Mountaineer through the Canadian Rockies to the Pacific coast.'

Scroll down to steam through MailOnline Travel's pick of the images from the tome, which serve as self-isolation eye-candy - and inspiration for post-lockdown adventures.

Alaska Railroad

The Alaska Railroad's Coastal Classic runs on the north shore of the Turnagain Arm waterway, which connects with the Gulf of Alaska and has the most massive tides in the U.S - sometimes hitting 40ft. The railroad is owned by the State of Alaska and is one of the few non-Amtrak lines to operate regular passenger services, the book says

Cumbres & Toltec Railroad, Colorado/New Mexico

This is a 914mm (3ft) gauge railway linking Antonito, Colorado, and Chama, New Mexico. Originally constructed by the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad in 1881 to serve the mining industry, the book explains, it was reconstituted as a heritage railway in 1970, operating its services with vintage steam locomotives like this Baldwin-built 2-8-2 from 1925

Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway, Colorado

Locally known as The Cog, this is the highest railway in North America, the book says, reaching the 4,302m (14,115ft) summit of Pikes Peak. It opened in June 1891 using specially-designed locomotives and a central cogged rack to assist climbing and prevent runaways. Currently undergoing refurbishment, it will reopen in 2021

Mount Washington Cog Railway, New Hampshire

Opened in 1869, this cog railway climbs to the lofty 1,916m (6,288ft) summit of Mount Washington. Nowadays worked by biodiesel locomotives, it retains two veteran steam locos. The worlds first cog railway up a mountain, it is still among the steepest, with a maximum grade of 37.41 per cent

Rocky Mountains, Canada

The Canadian runs from Toronto via Jasper to Vancouver and here, stainless steel roofs and awesome mountains make the view from a vista dome car as it climbs a grade in the Rockies. The 4,466km (2,791-mile) journey involves four nights on the train

La Polvorilla Viaduct, Salta Province, Argentina

La Polvorilla Viaduct is the worlds highest. This curving structure stands 20.7m (70ft) high at an altitude of 4,182m (13,720ft) - the loftiest point on the route of Argentina's 'Train to the Clouds' (Tren a las Nubes). The train carries oxygen cylinders and medical aid for cases of altitude sickness, the book reveals

Abra la Raya, Peru

This incredible picture shows the Puno-Cuzco train pausing at Abra la Raya, the summit of the line at 4,350m (14,271ft), to enable tourists to take photographs of the jaw-dropping Andes vista and perhaps visit the local market. Streams on one side descend to the Amazon and on the other to landlocked Lake Titicaca, according to the book

Aguas Calientes, Urubamba Province, Peru

In Aguas Calientes, the main street is the railway line. This is where the trains bringing visitors to Machu Picchu terminate, though the line goes on beyond the village

The Serra Verde Express, Curitiba, Brazil

Expensive fabrics, plush leather, inlaid wood, wall lights and framed pictures give a classic club-car atmosphere to this carriage on the Serra Verde express, the book says  a vivid contrast to the wild nature of the landscape traversed by the train

Nariz del Diablo, Guayaquil & Quito Railway, Ecuador

The Devils Nose is a double switchback on the Guayaquil & Quito Railway, where the train reverses direction twice in order to gain height on a precipitous slope, the book says. Special runs to negotiate this spectacular feature are made from Alausi station

Ribblehead Viaduct, North Yorkshire

Built to provide a direct connection between the Midlands and Scotland, the railway between Settle and Carlisle crosses some of the wildest parts of England, and is popular for steam excursions. The Ribblehead Viaduct (pictured), completed in 1874, is the longest on the line at 400 metres (1,312ft)

Snowdon Mountain Railway, Wales

Since 1896, trains have trundled up and down Snowdon, the highest mountain in England and Wales (1,085m/3,560ft) on this rack-and-pinion operated railway. Both steam and diesel traction are used. This view shows a train climbing upwards beyond one of the crossing loops on the line

Rhaetian Railway, Valposchiavo, Switzerland

Winding its way down from St Moritz into Valposchiavo, the Bernina Express from Chur, Switzerland, to Tirano in Italy runs on the highest transalpine railway, reaching an altitude of 2,253m (7,392ft). The spectacular 122km (76-mile) ride on the metre-gauge line takes four hours. Pictured is a train negotiating one of the most fascinating features on the line - the amazing 360ft-long Brusio spiral viaduct in Brusio, Switzerland

ZermattGornergrat Railway, Switzerland

Breathtaking views of the Matterhorn are had from the train on the 33-minute journey between Zermatt and the Gornergrat terminus at 3,089m (10,134ft). This was the worlds first fully electric rack railway, using the Abt cog-wheel system, when it opened in 1898

DiakoftoKalavrita Odontotos Railway, Greece

Odontotos means toothed: a reference to the central rail of this rack and pinion railway, a 750mm (29.5in) gauge line through the Vouraikos Gorge and up to Kalavrita. Three rack sections help the train on the steepest grades. Opened in 1891 and first worked by steam, it is now operated with diesel-electric railcars

Trans-Siberian Luxury Train

A bedroom set up as a day room on the luxury version of the Trans-Siberian, which operates on the line between Moscow and Vladivostok - the longest in the world at 9,289 kilometres (5,771 miles)

Victoria Falls Bridge, Zambia/Zimbabwe

Spanning the Zambesi River just below the Victoria Falls, this bridge has been a spectacular viewpoint since 1905. Built in England and shipped to Africa in parts, the book explains, it was intended to be a vital link in the railway linking Cape Town to Cairo. A vintage train headed by ex-Zimbabwe Railways Garratt locomotive No. 512 stands on the bridge in this picture

KandyBadulla Line, Sri Lanka

Classic British-type signal posts and signal cabin at a junction on the KandyBadulla Line in Sri Lanka. Passing through lush rainforest country, the route is one of many which claim to be the worlds most scenic railway

Train Street, Hanoi, Vietnam

Known to visitors as Train Street, this thoroughfare in Hanois Old Quarter sees a long-distance train squeeze past twice daily. It is the train from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, running 1,600km (990 miles) on the single metre-gauge track between the two cities

HueDanang Line, Vietnam

Between the Annamite Mountains and the sea, a northbound train from Danang to Hue runs above Lang Co Beach on its way towards the Hai Van Pass through the mountains. The journey takes around three hours
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Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 19:45:55|Editor: huaxia

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To alleviate the shortage of medical supplies in Africa, the Chinese government and private sector have stepped up cooperation with African countries.





ADDIS ABABA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Solomon Ayele, a nurse at an Ethiopian hospital, is defying fear on the frontline of the war against COVID-19, while Africa is bracing for its most difficult time.

On Tuesday, confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus surpassed 10,000 in Africa, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally, and a more troubling crisis looms due to a lack of medical supplies on the continent.

Fortunately, leaders of African countries have already proactively implemented prevention and control measures such as allocating funds, locking down cities and mobilizing medical resources to slow the virus spread. And the international community has also stepped in to help.

More and more medical supplies from China and other countries have been distributed to health workers like Ayele to help them fight the common enemy and safeguard their shared future.

A worker pulls a consignment of medical supplies, donated by Jack Ma and Alibaba Foundations to Kenya, at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, March 24, 2020. (Photo by John Okoyo/Xinhua)





UNIFIED EFFORTS

"African countries are fighting the coronavirus against all odds," Ayele said, emphasizing that COVID-19 prevention and control "greatly requires adequate financing and well-built capacity."

A lack of medical equipment and experience had restricted his capacity to deal with the increasing caseload.

As a major transit hub in Africa, Ethiopia is among more than a dozen countries the World Health Organization considers as top priority for preparedness against COVID-19.

Since the first confirmed case was reported last month in the country, Ethiopian health authorities have been increasing epidemic response coordination, surveillance, diagnosis and public health education.

The government has also set up quarantine centers and equipped Eko Kotebe Hospital in the capital Addis Ababa where Ayele works to house COVID-19 patients. Ayele is among some 350 healthcare personnel recently trained to help respond to the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

To alleviate the shortage of medical supplies in Africa, the Chinese government and private sector have stepped up cooperation with African countries.

A staff member unloads Chinese medical supplies from an airplane at the Kotota International Airport in Accra, capital of Ghana, April 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Xu Zheng)

China's Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation announced on Monday that they had sent the second batch of aid to Africa including ventilators, and the shipment is expected to arrive in Addis Ababa soon.

With the help of the Ethiopian government, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and World Food Programme, these supplies will be delivered to each of the 54 African nations.

The first donation, including masks, test kits, protective suits and face shields and guidelines on tackling COVID-19, was distributed to Ayele and his colleagues two weeks ago.

Ayele hailed the help of the Chinese government and the foundations, saying the critical medical supplies will greatly contribute to Africa's fight against the coronavirus.

"The materials would help fill the existing gaps in terms of the pressing shortage of preventive materials and testing kits in Ethiopia and beyond, while the guideline will also help us respond to the epidemic with latest knowledge based on China's experience," he said.

Staff members unload the medical supplies from China at the airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 22, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Shoubao)

Ethiopian Airlines, the continent's largest carrier in terms of passenger turnover, will distribute the much-needed donation across the 54 African countries.

Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group, said that the Chinese donation is an exemplary move, demonstrating collaboration and joint efforts in the battle against the epidemic.

"The message is very important. It is a very good example for all over the world that feel panic and blame is not the answer. The answer is organizations, countries, institutions, and governments bringing their resources together to team up to provide this kind of medical supplies for the protection of the people. So, this is a very good example," Gebremariam said.





SOLID SUPPORT

Although China has made progress in containing the COVID-19 epidemic, its medical supply remains tight. However, its government and people believe that it is imperative to extend a helping hand to friends in Africa to help them overcome their difficulty.

Liu Hongjun is running a clothing factory in China's eastern Zhejiang Province, which has turned to manufacture medical equipment such as masks and protective suits.

Not long ago, Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation contacted Liu. "I know how important these materials mean to African people, thus I accepted it without any hesitation," he said.

"Two shifts have been arranged for key posts, such as protective clothing and mask production lines, in order to ensure the delivery and the quality of the protective materials," Liu added.

A medical expert from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University communicates with Kenyan counterparts via a video call in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 22, 2020. (Photo by Gao Xiang/Xinhua)

Tens of thousands of miles away, Ayele and hundreds of Chinese doctors are using the masks and protective suits produced by Chinese factories like Liu's to help African patients.

According to China's National Health Commission, there are almost 1,000 Chinese medical personnel working in Africa and the agency has directed them to help local health organizations stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Since last month, Jiang Yuandong, a member of the Chinese medical team in Zimbabwe, has trained more than 140 health workers and introduced China's experience in containing the outbreak. He also gave a lecture to Zimbabwe's ministry of health officials and medical personnel to improve their understanding of the disease.

"By sending medical experts and medical supplies to other countries to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, China has proved to be a friend in need," said Kitojo Wetengere, a consultant professor of economic diplomacy and former lecturer with the Tanzania-Mozambique Center for Foreign Relations in Dar es Salaam.

Officials and experts from Kenya's Ministry of Health participate in the China-Africa Video Conference on COVID-19 in Nairobi, Kenya, March 18, 2020. (Chinese Embassy in Kenya/Handout via Xinhua)





CLOSE BOND

On Monday, another batch of Chinese medical supplies arrived in Accra, capital city of Ghana, and will be delivered to 17 other African countries within a few days.

"This effort shows China's firm commitment to the China-Africa relations and further strengthens the strong historical bonds between China and Africa," Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Wang Shiting said at the Accra airport.

Since the coronavirus was spreading in Africa, China has overcome its difficulties to actively assist the African Union and African countries with anti-epidemic supplies, and organize video conferences for medical experts to share experience.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has deployed a senior technical advisor to Africa CDC to closely work with local experts. More Chinese health experts are on their way to various African countries.

Senior officials from Zimbabwe's Ministry of Health and Harare City Council participate in the China-Africa Video Conference on COVID-19 in Harare, Zimbabwe, March 18, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuliang)

In a phone conversation with Namibian President Hage Geingob on Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China will continue to step up assistance for African countries in combating the COVID-19 epidemic.

During the most difficult period of China's fight against COVID-19, African countries provided China with valuable support, which will be engraved in the hearts of the Chinese people, Xi said.

Chinese enterprises and non-governmental organizations have also extended a helping hand to African countries, he added, pointing out that all these are true manifestations of the China-Africa community with a shared future.

Leaders of African countries have expressed their gratitude for China's help and confidence in their victory over COVID-19.

Noting that China is the best friend of Namibia and of Africa, Geingob said he deeply appreciates the Asian country's timely and precious assistance and support to African countries in their fight against the disease.

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa spoke highly of "the true act of friendship" that is crucial to Africa's fight against the virus.

"With unity, discipline and cooperation, we can prevail," Mnangagwa said.

(Video reporters: Liu Ruijuan, Wang Shoubao, Shiferaw Tadesse; Video editor: Wu Yao)
: Noted film-theatre actor



Sasi Kalinga, who immortalised a number of significant characters both on stage and silverscreen and known for his characteristic humorous expression, died here early Tuesday, family sources said.

The 59-year old actor was battling liver-related ailments for some time and was admitted to a private hospital in this north Kerala district.

Though his real name was V Chandrakumar, the actor had been known as Sasi Kalinga throughout his decades-long acting career.

Before trying his luck in films, he had acted in over 500 dramas of various theatre groups in the past 25 years.

Though the actor made his debut in Malayalam cinema in 1998 in the movie "Thakarachenda", he couldn't find a deserving space in the glamour world.

But his second movie innings through the Mammootty- starrer, "Palerimanikyam Oru Pathira Kolapathakam", gave him a handful of good characters, majority of them humorous roles, in Mollywood.

Sasi, who had acted in over 250 movies in a short span of time, would be specially known for his characters in "Pranchiyettan and the Saint", "Kerala Cafe", "Indian Rupee", "Amen", "Vellimoonga", "Adaminte Makan Abu", "Amar Akbar Antony" and others.

Condoling his death, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan hailed the contributions of the actor in film and theatre.

Sasi, who had excelled in theatre for over a quarter of a century, carved a niche in the world of films also, Vijayan recalled.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A case of wine has been delivered to the monastery where Cardinal George Pell is expected to spend his first night of freedom after more than a year in jail.

The cheeky delivery at the Kew monastery, just outside of Melbourne, was captured on video by news crews camped outside on Tuesday.

The delivery man, dressed in high vis, a mask and protective gloves, was seen dropping the case on the driveway of the Carmelite Monastery as a nun stormed towards him.

A nun collects a case of wine that was dropped off outside a Kew monastery on Tuesday. Cardinal George Pell is expected to be a guest there on Tuesday night

Cardinal George Pell as he is whisked away from Barwon Prison on Tuesday. He was expected to spend his first night of freedom at a monastery just outside of Melbourne

The delivery man can be seen jumping out of the way of the large iron gates as they close upon him.

The video was posted on Twitter by Channel 9 reporter Sam Cucchiara just after 2pm - prompting a tirade by Pell's detractors.

Cardinal Pell was driven out of Barwon Prison, about 68kms south of Melbourne, just before midday in a three-car convoy.

He had spent 405 days behind bars after being wrongly convicted of the sexual abuse of two choir boys.

The High Court decision overturned an earlier ruling by the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, Justice Anne Ferguson, president of the Court of Appeal Justice Chris Maxwell, and Justice Mark Weinberg.

'Choke on it,' one person posted under the video.

'Puke I am so disgusted and sickened by this whole affair and now he gloats,' another wrote.

George Pell: A courier has just delivered a box of wine to the Monastery in Kew where the former Cardinal is staying @9NewsAUS @9NewsMelb @ACurrentAffair9 pic.twitter.com/3dRjd1GC0B  Sam Cucchiara (@SamCucchiara9) April 7, 2020

Special delivery: A man drops off a case of wine at the monastery where Cardinal George Pell was expected to spend his first night of freedom

The delivery man was wearing protective gear and almost got caught by the large gates that protect the monastery

Cardinal George Pell was taken away from jail in a three car convoy. He had spent more than a year inside

Reporters were camped outside Barwon Prison with more staking out a Kew monastery where Cardinal Pell was expected to reside on Tuesday night

Cardinal Pell has been widely condemned on social media from all walks of life, including journalists and politicians.

Some of the abuse directed at Cardinal Pell under the wine video went even further.

'Now i know where he is staying you will get yours pell pay back time,' one person posted.

'Hope its a bomb,' another stated.

'Send a infected person with #coronavirus around so he can heal them! Hopefully he gets the virus and it takes the prick out!' yet another wrote.

Some believe Cardinal Pell could probably use a good drop of red after months of bread and water.

'And? What is that a crime now?' a person responded.

'If Id just been released from 400 days in isolation, and had my convictions quashed, Id want more than a case of wine,' another man wrote.
Even if it is Covid-19 that's driving him towards a bipartisan approach, some good would have come even out of catastrophe

In one fell swoop, the prime minister seems to have closed the communication gap that featured a major part of his six years in office. His Sunday phone conversations with leaders of various political parties, as well as former presidents and prime ministers, in a touching gesture to protocol, was an uncharacteristic outreach to the whole spectrum of Indian politics outside of his ruling BJP. Call it the Covid-19 effect but it is true that the virus crisis has propelled the prime minister into bipartisan mode as seen first in his videoconference with CMs of states, including those not ruled by the BJP.

Often derided for selective comments on pressing national matters and a reticent silence on burning issues like lynching, Narendra Modi has been a paradoxical prime minister, as well-captured by Shashi Tharoor in his purple prose. "We should forget about paksh and vipaksh (government and opposition) and think about issues with nispaksh (impartial) spirit," Modi would implore in the customary all-party meetings before Parliament sessions. The deep divide in Indian politics would quickly surface in acrimonious debates.

It would again be contradictory if the worst existential crisis man has faced in the new millennium should have brought about this change of heart in the leader of an illiberal party whose retrograde elements have bristled against every principle that brought their prime minister to power twice. His public appearances tending more to show than substance, his selective appearances in Parliament and hermit-like shunning of media conferences as opposed to his eloquence in public speaking at chosen fora have made this image of a prime minister reluctant to speak except in controlled settings.

The sceptics may fear this new nationalistic and regional approach in reaching out to SAARC nations in the face of the pandemic is likely insurance against a backlash in the event of failure. But if Covid-19 has indeed driven the leader into an empathetic mode capable of understanding differing points of view, some good would have come even out of catastrophe.
Due to the combined global effect of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing oil price war, the American oil and gas industry is stepping heavily on the brake pedal and is reducing drilling at record speed, Rystad Energy research shows, putting the horizontal oil rig count on track to fall by about 65% from mid-March levels.

The rig count is widely considered to be one of the most important indicators of investment appetite by E&Ps. It not only represents the actual drilling activity in the market but is also a key metric of consumer confidence, closely related to price developments.

From a peak of about 620 rigs in mid-March 2020, the oil rig count is forecast to free-fall to a potential bottom of around 200, Rystad Energy estimates, interpreting updated guidance from exploration and production (E&P) companies. Most of the anticipated decline will come already by the end of April. The horizontal rig count has so far dropped to roughly 500, falling by 19% from the recent apogee just three weeks ago.

The speed of this decline exceeds the initial post-oil-price-crash expectations. This is for sure a much faster industry reaction than during the previous US land rig down cycles, and we will likely see continuous downward adjustments of similar magnitude throughout the next couple of months, says Rystad Energys Head of Shale Research Artem Abramov.

The horizontal oil rig count declined by almost 15% over the past two weeks. In the previous down cycles of early 2015 and early 2016, two-week declines peaked at 11% and 9%, respectively. Over a three-week period since peak activity level, horizontal oil drilling is down by 19%. In the down cycles of 2015 and 2016, it took 10 to 16 weeks after the peak to see the same magnitude of decline.

Rig counts also fell throughout all of 2019, though this should be attributed to a change in the industry business model rather than a real down cycle. That time, it took around nine months for the decline to reach 20% magnitude.

Related: Russia To Cut 1 Million Barrels Per Day, But Under One Condition

Rig count declines are now happening everywhere, with total SCOOP & STACK activity approaching 20 horizontal rigs, a level never seen in the modern unconventional era (since 2011). Almost 25% of rigs recently active in Eagle Ford are already gone, bringing Eagle Ford drilling to February 2017 levels. Bakken rig activity remains more robust in relative terms, but rig counts are also already down to the low 40s  a level last seen in May 2017.

Among major oil basins (excl. Permian), DJ Basin activity remains similar to the level of the last six months, but we anticipate some additional declines to materialize in the current quarter, potentially pushing the DJ horizontal rig count into the single digits.

Permian horizontal drilling is also declining in all core sub-basins; however, the rig activity in core oil-rich parts of the Permian (Delaware NM and Midland North) has not yet declined towards multi-year lows. Rig activity in these two sub-basins is still little changed since the start of the year. Meanwhile, rig activity in gassier sub-basins (Delaware TX and Midland South) is already down to a level last seen in early 2017.

Rig activity in the US will inevitably extend its decline into the second quarter of 2020, regardless of how the global macro environment evolves in the short term. This downturn is the real test of US Land industry endurance, concludes Abramov.

By Rystad Energy

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
A federal judge on Monday rejected fraud convict Jack Holdens motion for compassionate release in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, finding the 79-year-old hadnt exhausted other administrative steps through the warden of the federal prison in Sheridan.

U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown said she cant rule on the merits of Holdens request until the warden of the prison has 30 days to consider it. Holden has 21 months left on his sentence of seven years and three months for his 2016 conviction on mail and wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy charges for his role in a fraudulent biodiesel scheme that spanned three continents.

Browns decision comes days after two other federal judges in Portland rejected the renewed release requests of three Gypsy Joker Outlaw Motorcycle Club defendants, Earl Deverle Fisher, 50, Joseph Duane Folkerts, 62, and Chad Erickson, 49. All three face racketeering conspiracy charges stemming from the June 2015 torture-style killing and kidnapping of Robert Bagger Huggins, 56, in an alleged revenge slaying.

Each argued that theyre also at a heightened risk of becoming ill or dying if they contract the coronavirus while in custody. They described themselves as medically compromised and susceptible to COVID-19.

The judges, though, found that the coronavirus pandemic didnt change their conclusion that the three men remain a danger to the community and pose a risk of not returning to court if released.

The release requests are among a growing number of motions by federal defendants for release in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

On Friday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr ordered the Federal Bureau of Prisons to prioritize the early release of some high-risk prisoners to home confinement from federal prisons in Louisiana, Connecticut and Ohio, where inmates or staff have tested positive for the new coronavirus and have died. Federal prisons also last week were placed on lockdown nationwide to help stem the spread of the virus.

In federal prisons across the country, 196 inmates and 63 staff have tested positive for COVID-19.

In Oregon, an inmate from the state Santiam Correctional Institutional in Salem tested positive for COVID-19 and two sheriffs deputies at the Marion County Jail tested positive.

No one is known to have tested positive for the virus in Oregons sole federal prison in Sheridan or in Multnomah Countys jails, prosecutors pointed out.

In Holdens case, Brown didnt rule on the merits of his argument that hes at higher risk of contracting the virus due to his age and poor health.

The judge said she cant rule on Holdens motion to reduce his sentence until 30 days has passed since he made a formal request to the prisons warden, which occurred on either March 24 or 25. Brown said Holden can return to the court once 30 days have passed.

A defendant seeking a reduction in his terms of imprisonment bears the burden to establish both that he has satisfied the procedural prerequisites for judicial review and that compelling and extraordinary reasons exist to justify compassionate release, Brown wrote in her ruling.

Holden is housed at the federal prison camp at Sheridan in a dormitory setting and the inmates are still released for showers, education and use of the commissary, said his lawyer, Oregon Federal Public Defender Lisa Hay.

Assistant Federal Public Defender Elizabeth Daily, who also argued for Holdens release, asked the court to excuse the 30-day requirement due to the national emergency. "The 30 days is simply too slow, she said.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Claire Fay said Holden should wait his turn by following prescribed procedures. Hes asking the court to ignore the statute, Fay said. He wants to jump to the head of the line.

Of about 175,000 inmates in federal prison, about 11,000 are 60 years or older, Fay said. She said there are most likely other inmates awaiting "administrative action who have various health issues that are very dire.

Hay said Monday that she was disappointed by Browns ruling. The government is "averting their eyes, when we should be trying to avert catastrophe,'' Hay said.

"We are examining a possible appeal, but of course this would take time away from our work to assist other vulnerable clients being held at (Bureau of Prison) facilities around the country. We feel we are racing the clock against unwarranted death sentences.''

The denials by U.S. District Judges Michael W. Mosman and U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie F. Beckerman in the Gypsy Joker cases came last week. Fisher and Folkerts are at the Multnomah County Detention Center; Erickson is at the countys Inverness Jail.

Prosecutors successfully argued that the coronavirus pandemic didnt reduce their danger to the community and called each of the defendants arguments about the risk of the virus outbreak in jail speculative at the moment.

Fisher pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit racketeering and awaits sentencing. He asked to be released to home detention with electronic monitoring. Since an on-the-job accident in 2007, Fisher is partially paralyzed, blind in one eye and has just one functioning kidney, his lawyers wrote.

Erickson, who suffers from hypertension and diabetes, is housed in dormitory style, or open bed housing and sleeps only a few feet away from several other inmates, his lawyers argued in court papers. Erickson also shares bathing and dining facilities with dozens of other inmates at the same time, according to his lawyers. Charges remain pending against Erickson.

Folkerts questioned how the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office, which couldnt protect him from an assault behind bars, could keep him safe from the coronavirus.

Folkerts asked how the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office, which couldnt protect him from an assault behind bars, could keep him safe from the coronavirus.

On Feb. 21, Folkerts was attacked without provocation while eating lunch in a common area of the Inverness Jail and suffered severe bruising and a possible fractured nose, according to his lawyers. Folkerts suspects, they said, that other inmates wrongly perceived and identified him as a cooperating witness in the Gypsy Jokers case.

His accused attacker, Anthony Kronus Swift, co-founder of a violent prison and street gang known as the The Brood, or Rude Krude Brood, appears to have targeted Folkerts, Folkerts lawyers said. Members of The Brood have in recent years provided muscle-for-hire to outlaw motorcycle gangs, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Folkerts lawyers pointed out.

Folkerts suffered severe bruising and a possible fractured nose, according to his lawyers.

After the assault, Folkerts asked to be placed in protective custody and was moved to the downtown jail, where he is allowed out of his cell for only 2 to 2  hours a day and then is in close contact with three to eight other inmates who often are coming from or returning to other jails, his lawyers said. Folkerts suffers from hypertension and post-traumatic stress disorder, they said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Bolstad countered that Folkerts was beaten because he and other inmates were trying to get Swift removed from the jail because of his odd behavior,  and there was no evidence Swift targeted Folkerts due to speculation he was a cooperating witness. Folkerts is now housed in his own cell where hes more isolated and less exposed to germs, the prosecutor said. Charges are also pending against Folkerts.

Bolstad also told the court the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office has taken steps to safeguard inmates and staff: It opened an additional dorm at Inverness Jail on Friday to allow for better social distancing; has enhanced screening of arriving inmates for coronavirus symptoms and asks them about their travel and contact history; and has staff clean more frequently.

The defendants lawyers all argued that those measures arent sufficient.

It is impossible in the jail to follow the guidelines promulgated by medical professions to keep 6 feet apart, to wash ones hands regularly, to wear face coverings or to self-quarantine after exposure, Lynne B. Morgan, one of Fishers lawyers, wrote to the court.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.

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Facing reduction in demand due to the lockdown in the country, steel makers SAIL and Tata Steel have reduced their output by about 50 per cent, according to sources.

State-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and private player Tata Steel both contribute about 20 per cent to India's total steel production.

As per industry sources, SAIL and Tata Steel have scaled down production by about 50 per cent.

The companies have taken the decision because of the reduced demand in the market after the lockdown, which has impacted logistics movement, the sources said adding that buyers are also reluctant in placing orders.

Most of the staff of the companies are working from home and only important sites like blast furnaces and coke oven batteries etc at the plants, which can not be closed, are running.

Tata Steel had earlier said as the outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted its business and operations, the company's integrated steel facilities in Jamshedpur and Kalinganagar and subsidiaries Tata Steel BSL and Tata Steel Long Products have started reducing production levels while operations in the downstream facilities have been suspended and put on care and maintenance mode.

The company had however not provided any figures with respect to reduced production levels.

While a SAIL official confirmed reducing output by about 50 per cent over phone, an e-mail query sent to Tata Steel remained unanswered.

SAIL has five integrated steel plants in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Tata Steel has two plants in Odisha and Jharkhand.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
EBA: Absence of Ukraine's energy minister further deteriorates crisis in energy sector

16:55, 07.04.20 1794

The minister of the systemically important sector of Ukraine's economy has not been appointed yet.
Bankruptcy claim against notorious Moscow confectionary to be heard in July

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

12:38 07/04/2020

MOSCOW, April 7 (RAPSI)  The Moscow Commercial Court set a bankruptcy claim against Moscows confectionary Menshevik, whose ex-owner Ilya Averyanov had been acquitted in a guard murder case, for July 14, according to court records.

Earlier, the confectionary announced in court a possibility of the debt repayment to an applicant.

Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Moscow, a subsidiary of Russia's oil giant Gazprom, filed a bankruptcy petition against Menshevik confectionary in May 2019 but later signed a claim assignment agreement with DHA company.

Moreover, in April 2018, the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals upheld dismissal of another bankruptcy claim against the confectionary.

Criminal case against ex-owner of confectionary

Investigators claimed that on December 27, 2017, a conflict arose between former and current owners of the factory. Ex-owner Averyanov allegedly took out the gun and shot several times, fatally wounding a guard. The defendant insisted that he used the gun for the purposes of self-defense, and a shot was fired recklessly.

On January 29, 2020, jurors acquitted Averyanov of killing a guard during the shooting on the factorys premises in 2017 and beating a passerby, who burnt up poplar wool near the factory in 2016. Thus, Averyanov was found not guilty of intended infliction of severe bodily harm and murder.

On February 10, the Moscow City Court issued a judgment of acquittal of Averyanov.




Researchers at Australias Monash University have discovered that Ivermectin, a widely-available anti-parasitic drug, has been discovered to be an effective killer of the coronavirus. Part of a family of drugs called antihelmintics, it works by paralyzing and killing roundworms and related infections in people with impaired/weakened immune systems.

Satoshi Omura of Kitasato University, Tokyo and William C. Campbell of the Merck Institute for Therapeutic research are attributed with the discovery of the avermectin family of compounds, from which it is chemically derived.

According to a ScienceDaily report, researchers found that Ivermectin could stop the virus from growing in cell culture. "We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it," said Doctor Kylie Wagstaff who led the research team.

In vitro (meaning outside a living body, like in a test tube, petri dish, etc.) testing of the drug has earlier shown it to be effective against a broad range of viruses including HIV, dengue, influenza and zika virus. And this latest test was also done in-vitro. And therein lies the problem of dosage.

While safe for its anti-parasitic problems, for which it is widely used across the world, we dont know if the same dose could tackle the coronavirus. Nor do we know the indications for a higher dose. Nor do we know the nature of its attack on the virus, which could potentially have a different set of consequences for the human body.

Clinical study on humans is therefore the logical next step. This could take 6-8 months. Since its a medication rather than a vaccine, it doesnt train the body to take on the invaders before they attack, but to cure the disease after it has already attacked.

While this is good news for therapeutics, its far from a done deal. The government has cautioned against people self-medicating with it to treat the coronavirus, given that self-medications of other compounds have already cost lives both in the U.S. and Iran.

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Recommendations

While many pharma/biotech companies look like good options in the current environment, the ones with greater resources at their disposal are likely to weather the storm better. So recommendations for today include Eli Lilly and Company LLY, Innoviva, Inc. INVA and AbbVie Inc. ABBV.

Innovivas valuation is reasonable at 8.4X forward twelve months earnings, which is below its median level and the S&P 500 average. Its revenue and earnings growth have been relatively steady over the past year. Its debt-cap is reasonable at 52.4% and on a declining trend. It also looks like net cash per share could go positive in the current quarter.

At 19.7X its forward 12 months earnings, LLY is trading well below its one-year high of 22.8X. While its revenue has moved around a bit in the last few quarters, earnings growth has been significant. One risk is its high-debt cap ratio of around 84%.

Through the acquisition of Allergan, AbbVie added higher-margin revenue, which is positive for the earnings fall-through. But an offsetting factor is the acquired debt, which also pushed up its interest levels. AbbVies valuation at 6.8X forward twelve months earnings is however well below its one-year median and the S&P 500, which makes it a buy.

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The mayor of a southern Illinois city said his wife was among a group of people who violated the state's stay-at-home order to hang out at a local bar.

On Sunday morning, police in Alton, near the Missouri border, broke up a gathering at Hiram's Tavern that was "clearly disregarding the executive order and public pleas for compliance," the police department said in a news release.

Police did not say how many people were at the bar and did not name any of the violators. But Mayor Brant Walker said in a Facebook post Monday that his wife, Shannon Walker, was among those who got in trouble.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

"I was made aware that my wife was in attendance at this prohibited social gathering. I instructed the Police Chief to treat her as he would any citizen violating the 'Stay At Home' order and to ensure that she received no special treatment," the mayor wrote, saying he was embarrassed by the incident.

Image: Brant Walker (John Badman / The Telegraph via AP file)

"My wife is an adult capable of making her own decisions, and in this instance she exhibited a stunning lack of judgment," he said. "She now faces the same consequences for her ill-advised decision as the other individuals who chose to violate the 'Stay at Home' order."

Walker said he told police Friday to begin more strictly enforcing the governor's order after he received reports that people in Madison County were continuing to gather. The mayor apologized for his wife's actions.

"My first and most important priority is the safety and well-being of the citizens of Alton. We are in the midst of a national public health crisis, and I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure that your health is protected, including enforcing the Governor's statewide 'Stay At Home' order," he said.

Police said they had received several complaints that Hiram's Tavern was continuing to operate on the weekends. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order March 20 and said all nonessential businesses must cease.

Story continues

Officers had previously investigated the bar but found no unauthorized activity. On Sunday, a group had gathered inside the bar "in an area outside public view," police said.

Officers issued criminal complaints for misdemeanor reckless conduct. Each person at the bar Sunday will be summoned to court later, police said.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts about the coronavirus outbreak

Two of the people, including owner Hiram Lewis, had warrants. Lewis, who had an arrest warrant stemming from a domestic battery incident, was arrested and taken to jail.

"If members of our community will not protect each other, and will be so brazen as to gather in public places, we will be forced to take action like we did this weekend without hesitation," Police Chief Jason Simmons said in a statement.

There are more than 12,200 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Illinois, according to the state Public Health Department. Madison County has 52 cases.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 11:11:06|Editor: Liu

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WASHINGTON, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Even though official statistics still indicates that fatalities related to COVID-19 across the United States are on an escalating course on a daily basis, those counts have understated the real death toll, according to a recent report by The New York Times.

The Times said in a report published Sunday that "the true death toll is likely much higher" than what has been reported, citing concerns expressed by hospital officials, doctors, public health experts and medical examiners from a wide array of localities in the country.

"The undercount is a result of inconsistent protocols, limited resources and a patchwork of decision making from one state or county to the next," the report said.

The combination of the absence of a "uniform system for reporting coronavirus-related deaths" and "a continued shortage of tests" has been attributed to what the report said was some states and counties having "improvised, obfuscated and, at times, backtracked in counting the dead."

"We definitely think there are deaths that we have not accounted for," Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

U.S. President Donald Trump in recent days has been using the White House Coronavirus Task Force news briefing as an occasion to boast his country's second-to-none total COVID-19 tests.

Yet, U.S. media, such as The New York Times, have offered another angle to look at the issue: Given its relatively larger population, the country has tested far fewer people than other countries on a per capita basis.

Johns Hopkins University has been closely tracking real-time data regarding confirmed cases and mortalities not only in the United States, but also around the globe country by country.

While noting public health experts have stressed that an accurate death count is essential to understanding the evolution of a disease outbreak, the report said that the federal government "does not expect to produce a final tally of coronavirus deaths until 2021, when it publishes an annual compilation of the country's leading causes of death."
Married At First Sight star Natasha Spencer had a mental breakdown and was rushed to hospital on Friday after she was viciously trolled online ahead of the show's finale.

The 26-year-old told Daily Mail Australia she suffered a number of panic attacks as a result of her high-functioning anxiety.

The financial analyst was taken to Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital in an ambulance under a section 22 medical hold.

'They thought I was a danger to myself': Married At First Sight star Natasha Spencer had a mental breakdown and was rushed to hospital on Friday, after she was viciously trolled online ahead of the show's finale

'I had anxiety a week leading up to it [Sunday's finale]. I was at home and had a breakdown. I got taken under a section 22, a medical hold,' Natasha explained.

A hold or involuntary hospitalisation often occurs when patients need urgent medical care, or so that doctors can determine their mental state.

Patients can be held in hospital if it is best for their wellbeing and safety, or for someone else's safety.

'They had me psychologically evaluated and I was there for two or three hours. I have high-functioning anxiety I deal with every day... I had been having panic attacks and this was too much.

'They thought I was a danger to myself,' Natasha said. She left the hospital later Friday night.

Scary: The 26-year-old told Daily Mail Australia she suffered a number of panic attacks as a result of her high-functioning anxiety. The financial analyst was taken to Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital in an ambulance under a section 22 medical hold

Natasha said that the staff at the hospital were 'fantastic' and looked after her well.

Channel Nine told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday that they take the health and well-being of MAFS stars 'extremely seriously.'

'Nine and Endemol Shine takes its obligations in respect to the health and well-being of the participants of this program extremely seriously. All participants have access to the show psychologist during filming, during broadcast and once the program has ended,' a spokesperson said.

'Nine also have an additional service for participants should they like or need further individual and confidential psychological support.

'This service gives participants access to psychologists who have been specifically engaged to support those involved in the program in relation to their experiences.'

'This service is available to all participants for as long as they need it, it does not end.'

Natasha said she is now doing 'alright' and is taking a 'positive approach to the breakdown.

'Saving graces': She said she is currently receiving support from her castmates, including Stacey Hampton, her 'ex-husband' Mikey Pembroke (pictured), Tash Herz and Poppy Jennings

'It's a big thing to come out of,' Natasha said.

'I'm not completely back to myself, but I'm trying to take on a positive approach, trying to put on a strong face I guess.'

She said is currently staying a hotel to have a break and has been practicing self-care, including 'meditating, watching movies and sitting in the sun.'

She is seeing a new psychologist next week and has a plan in place to address her mental health.

Natasha was the target of heavy trolling after her appearance on MAFS and said that she couldn't believe that her co-stars were still 'putting each other down.'

Mental health support: Natasha also claimed that Channel Nine contacted the cast on Monday to give them access to a mental health hotline and to offer them each six sessions with external psychologists

She is currently receiving support from her fellow castmates, including Stacey Hampton, her 'ex-husband' Mikey Pembroke, Tash Herz and Poppy Jennings and she called them her 'saving graces.'

Speaking about the mental health support received on the show, Natasha said there was a female psychologist called Teresa, who she claimed 'broke her patient and doctor confidentiality.'

Natasha also claimed that Channel Nine contacted the cast on Monday to give them access to a mental health hotline and to offer them each six sessions with external psychologists.

Natasha 'married' Mikey Pembroke on the show, but the pair have since split.

If you or anyone you know is struggling, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.
While the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic dominates headlines and officials race to slow the spread of the virus, the issue on tobacco use is sadly relegated to the sidelines even as it remains a public health challenge.

The number of annual deaths from tobacco-related diseases now stands at eight million, according to WHO. Moreover, the burden of tobacco use extends beyond health and undermines the social and economic development of nations.

Consider how the global economic cost of smoking was estimated to have been US$1.4 trillion in 2012 and how low and middle-income countries shouldered 40 per cent of the cost.

Progress on the global epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) will not depend on waiting for new breakthroughs, but on insights gained from tried and tested solutions such as WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world's first public health treaty and which came to effect in 2005.

A high proportion of premature deaths from NCDs is caused by one single preventable risk factor  tobacco use. If governments are to make progress on non-communicable diseases prevention, they will need to reduce tobacco use.

The number of tobacco smokers is projected to remain at around 1.1 billion until at least 2025, with 80 per cent of the world's smokers living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

According to the WHO, the numbers of smokers is "continuing to grow in the African, Eastern Mediterranean and South-East Asian regions".

The tobacco industry is known to systematically undermine controls while aggressively marketing cigarettes.

A recent industry watchdog report indicates that a large tobacco firm "continues to contest and challenge evidence-based tobacco control measures, heavily market cigarettes, introduce new cigarette brands and acquire new cigarette companies".

The facts speak for themselves and the world must focus on reducing tobacco use if it is to make any headway against premature deaths from NCDs such as cancer, cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases.

Public investment in tobacco control is lagging behind other health issues and the world may miss a narrow window of opportunity for significant progress in public health.

Tobacco control action is often fragmented because of the lack of adequate coordination by and between stakeholders. So, on the occasion of World Health Day (7 April), governments should recommit to reducing tobacco use by:

Stepping up national coordinating mechanisms to deliver robust multi-sectoral collaboration and protection of tobacco control policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry. Strengthening national tobacco control plans through the adoption of stronger price and tax measures.

One bright spot is that many lower- and middle-income countries, with support from civil society organisations, philanthropic organisations, international and funding agencies are taking action on price and tax measures aimed at decreasing tobacco use.

Some Asian and African countries have recsently passed landmark tobacco taxation laws.

In Chad, the 2020 Finance Law introduced a 30 per cent rate of excise duty and a US$0.16 specific tax on each cigarette pack, with 30 per cent of the revenue allocated to the National Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug Control Programme.

Nigeria's 2019 National Tobacco Control Fund draws from licensing fee. Ethiopia  where cigarettes were among the cheapest in the worldpassed legislation in February to introduce a specific excise rate of US$0.25 on each cigarette pack, in addition to a 30 per cent tax on production.

In the Philippines, a recent law requires an increase in "cigarette taxes" of US$0.95 this year, and new taxes on electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products. While in Cambodia, tobacco tax measures have been strengthened in recent years.

More could be done by the international community to increase the percentage of Development Assistance for Health allocated to tobacco control in low and middle-income countries. The way forward is to quicken the pace and broaden the scale at which governments implement the FCTC.

As they convene in the Netherlands this November, parties to the FCTC are in a unique position to take leadership in moving towards a world without non-communicable diseases and advancing sustainable development.

They should have a frank conversation about the specific areas where urgent action and investment will yield the greatest impact.

Tobacco control is at a crossroads: governments can continue to merely work through obstacles at their own pace, or they can focus on accelerating action through the Global Strategy to Accelerate Tobacco Control.

At the end of January, Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, the outgoing head of the Secretariat, WHO FCTC and the Protocol, called for the tobacco control community to "keep working towards a better world" and for civil society to "continue to advance the treaty's implementation agenda despite the efforts of the tobacco industry and other commercial interests that put profit before people's health and human rights".

Echoing the sentiment behind the call, the tobacco control community should in turn recommit to supporting governments in their efforts to adopt, implement and enforce proven tobacco control laws and policies, in line with their obligations under the FCTC.

To prevent non-communicable diseases and move towards a healthy, sustainable world, it would be wise to refocus efforts and attention on what works.
Port restrictions and canceled flights are straining the ability to replace seafarers on board ships, further weakening global supply chains already snarled by the coronavirus pandemic.

Hubs like Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Shanghai have halted most crew transfers, while global lockdowns have complicated travel from the Philippines, which supplies about a quarter of the world's seafarers.

At risk is the flow of goods like food, medicine and energy via commercial shipping, which accounts for about 80% of global trade. While unseen by most consumers, restrictions on crews are among the unprecedented challenges wrought by the virus, which has ground major economies to a halt.

"Most ports have stopped crew changes as part of a concerted effort to prevent the spread of the virus," Philippine Transmarine Carriers Chief Executive Officer Gerardo Borromeo said. "Our problem is trying to solve a complex logistics issue of getting crew onto limited flights to countries that will allow such changes at their ports."

About 100,000 seafarers each month need to be changed over from ships to comply with maritime rules that regulate safe working hours and crew welfare, according to a March 19 letter from the International Chamber of Shipping. If changeover restrictions continue there could be fewer available ships and higher freight costs, said Dario Alampay, chairman of the Filipino Shipowners Association.

Countries and ports should consider exemptions for seafarers similar to those granted to airline and health workers, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Essential medicine and equipment is already being held up in several ports in Europe, it said.

"You do not want to risk working with a fatigued, overworked crew," said Alampay. Exhausted seafarers are more prone to distress and lack of focus, which can lead to accidents, he said. The longest seafarers should be on board a ship is 11 months, according to the Maritime Labor Convention.

The Philippines has about 300,000 seafarers for cargo ships and roughly 200,000 of those are currently out at sea and the rest are onshore, according to an estimate from Doris Magsaysay-Ho, president of A. Magsaysay Inc., a Manila-based shipping and manning company.

Industry and government should work together this month to establish protocols that include temperature checks and 14-day quarantines for crew changes, said Borromeo. This will likely increase shipowners' costs, he said.

Another option is for shipowners to drop off and pick up crews in Manila. Some foreign ship owners are already looking at this option, according to Alampay, who said deviating on a route that runs from Japan or Singapore to Australia to change a crew in Manila could add an extra three days and drive up costs by as much as $15,000 a day for a Supramax vessel.

Luis, a seafarer who asked only that he be identified by his first name, was supposed to disembark at Egypt's Suez port last month from a vessel he's been on for more than nine months. Travel restrictions in Egypt prevented him from leaving and management has told him all crew changes are suspended until mid-April, although that's subject to change.

Typical rotations on cargo vessels last between 3 and 9 months and seafarers often work 12-hour days, six days a week.

"The risk of being too long on a ship is mental and physical stress," Luis said in a message. "I'm worried about my family, and when I can go home. I'm worried if I can go home safely. I'm really tired, but I have no choice."

In China, substitution of maritime crews is limited in some ports and forbidden in others, according to a list of restrictions from marine insurer The North of England Protecting & Indemnity Association Ltd. Abu Dhabi has prohibited crew changes for three months and Singapore disallowed crew changes for the time being, though it has recently allowed some exemptions.

The 80% of global trade transported by commercial shipping include food, energy and raw materials, as well as manufactured goods and components, according to UNCTAD.

Volumes at port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc., which has terminals in nearly 20 countries, likely fell 10% to 15% last month and are expected to decline further in April, Chairman Enrique Razon said Tuesday. Terminals in Latin America are the hardest-hit, while those in Australia and Africa are holding steady, he said.

"It's important to keep sea trade flowing," said Jim Aquines, 36, a chief engineer who was supposed to be deployed this month from the Philippines but remains at home. "Restrictions will cripple not only seafarers but countries who rely on overseas supplies."
With just two months to go before he retires, a longtime criminalist with the state police in New Hampshire is being credited after using an old school technique that led to a breakthrough in a 50-year-old unsolved killing.

The New Hampshire Attorney Generals Office announced Monday that  after several failed efforts over the years  the human remains found in a water-filled pit off Interstate 93 in Salem on Aug. 7, 1969, had finally been identified. They belonged to Winston Richard Morris, a Vermont man known as Skip who was 30 years old when he was killed by several gunshot wounds to his head, officials said.

Mr. Morriss remains were identified not through genetic genealogy, which has helped solve a number of high-profile cold cases in recent years, including those tied to the so-called Golden State Killer. Rather, it was through the manual plotting of the details of one of the victims fingers, which was done by Timothy Jackson, a criminalist at the New Hampshire State Police Forensic Laboratory since 1999.

Previous attempts at identifying the remains through fingerprinting or DNA were unsuccessful, officials said.
Love keeps no record of wrongs. 1 Corinthians 13:5

What do you think of as you read that Bible verse? Do you feel a little defensive, wondering if Im about to point my finger at you and force you to forgive somebody who hurt you? Does it feel like relief because blame and shame has been nipping at your heels for years? Is it just plain confusing? Or youre not exactly sure how this scripture applies to you?

Join the club. The verse is used all over the place. Its thrown in for good measure in sermons that champion forgiveness and getting along with each other. Its spoken liberally in support groups, where members stumble beneath the burden of self-loathing and pain.

1 Corinthians 13:5 written on bathroom mirrors and bulletin board note cards as reminders for us all. Its an amazing verse! But what does it actually mean as we attempt to put it into practice?

The Word is inspirational, but its also meant to be carried out with the help of Holy Spirit. Its alive and active, and if we dont find a way to take action, then were no better than the man who looks at himself in the mirror, who walks away, and who immediately forgets what he looks like.

Before we can figure out how to show our love, or erase any sort of record of wrongs, we need to understand what the scripture means, and who it was intended for in the first place. Then we can brainstorm ways to show it to our spouse and families. So lets dive into the meaning of love keeps no record of wrongs from 1 Corinthians 13:4-5, and ideas for ways to act on it:

What Is the Meaning of This 1 Corinthians 13:5?

Is love really blind? Does love actually make the world go round? What is love anyway, and what does the word mean to you?

Love for a spouse, a friend, or a favorite moviewe use the word in so many different ways. Our understanding of the idea can be vast, based on our life experiences too.

The writer of much of the New Testament was communicating to the church of Corintha city located on the northeastern coast of the Peloponnese peninsula of Greecewhen he penned the letter containing this verse. Heres the breakdown of what Paul wrote, according to Strongs:

Love (agape) is patient, love (agape) is kind...it keeps no record (logizomai) of wrongs (kakos).

In this instance, Paul is using the word agape. This type of love isnt infatuation or romance, but it means to love, to wish well to, take pleasure in, or long for. Reading further, we discover that agape love keeps no record (meaning to count, charge with, decide, think, conclude, or suppose) of wrong (bad or evil in the widest sense).

Imagine what that type of acceptance could look like among believers!

It can seem like an impossible task, since its the same kind of affection were supposed to practice while loving our neighbor. Thats easier said than done sometimes. Were only human, so theres good news for us tucked away in 1 John 4:16. The sentence is short, sweet, and to the point, and it provides the solution to the problem of messy humanity.

God is love

...and can you guess what kind of love He is? You got it, Agape!

To finish the sentence from 1 John, we read, God is love, and the one who abides (remains) in love, remains in God, and God abides in him. Mind. Blown.

Now Ill admit, this is a little bit of a geek out in Greek, and I realize that not all of us think in those kinds of terms, so maybe we can imagine it reading it together like this:

I, God, am patient and kind...I wont suppose that youre evil or count you as bad. (1 Cor. 3) I am the One who wishes you well, and takes pleasure in you. And when you stay in Me, I stay with you too. (1 John 4:16)

That sounds a little less threatening than our arms being twisted into a sort of forgive-them-or-else submission, right? When we look at the Greek, it comes across as more of an invitation than a demand.

What Is the Context of This Verse?

So why did Paul remind the Corinthians of Gods capacity to remain patient and kind, and to make sure that they werent counting one another as generally evil or bad? The short answer was that they were fighting with one another.

The church in Corinth had become deeply divided over a number of issues within their faith, and instead of hiding, Paul got straight to the point.

If hed been a modern-day influencer, I picture it sounding something like, Hey you! Stop sinning, and seriously, no more accusing everybody who doesnt agree with you of being terrible and wrong. Lets get on the same page according to God, not our opinions.

It was pretty simple back then, just as it is today. We argue. We mess up. We fall short. And its up to us to either stick close to (abide in) the Lord, or to rely on our own plans and logic.

Here are some ways to apply the scriptural concepts of loving well, and keeping no record of wrongs.

Photo Credit: Unsplash/Tyler Nix

1. Assume the Best of Others

I hope Ill get to meet Paul someday in heaven. Not only was the man a phenomenal writer and teacher, but he was also no-nonsense about the fact that he, himself, was a mess. He complained about his flaws, just like we do. Heres a paraphrase of his admission from Romans 7:15:

I dont understand what I do. I do things that I dont want to do, and then hate it. I want to do good, but I cant follow through.

Dont we all?

To stop assuming the worst, means believing that others are doing the very best they know how to door at least, theyre doing the best theyre capable of, within their current heart condition. Thats true of most of us, especially those who claim to know Christ.

We dont mean to mess up...but we inevitably do.

How might those people around us step into freedom if we approached them as folks who mean well, instead of discounting them or supposing theyre just bad? How much faster might we unite, connecting in both our broken humanity, and strength in Christ?

I dream of such a world.

2. Wish Others Well, Regardless of Circumstance

But I dont want to

I dont want to wish the guy/girl that hurt me well anymore.

I dont long to be around my coworker, or take pleasure in my spouse who acted unkindly.

I know. It doesnt always feel safe to love like that, does it? Thats because its not.

And actually, some agape love is best done from afar, trusting that Holy Spirit will bridge the gap. Sometimes our best acts of love happen through intercessionpraying that somebody will step into wellness, along with wishing them well. Its not a perfect system, but its about remaining in God and trusting that He is in control.

We can practice wisdom without lording others shortfalls over them, or expecting them to make it up to us. We can also wish them well, while understanding that it may not be our role to walk with him or her throughout a particular season.

Thats still love.

3. Focus on What We Have in Common, Not Our Differences

God, I pray that we could suffer short memoriesof our mistakes and differences, that is. Despite societys best efforts at blaming and separating humans based on money, skin color, gender, etc., the truth is that we have much more in common than not.

We bleed. We hurt. We cling to one another when life gets hard. And we have a God who is love incarnate, regardless of whether we choose to acknowledge Him.

We all run the race, just at different speeds.

So its strange to me that, while there are people asking for help to tie their shoes, many of us are screaming from the finish line, fixated on our stopwatches. Why arent they getting here faster? we sigh and roll our eyes.

But how much joy could we experience if we returned to our humble beginnings and walked together? If we realized that many of us are simply scared and insecurewondering if running is even possible?

Were offered the opportunity to unite every single day...online, at work, at home, in marriage, and while parenting. But will we? I desperately pray that we do, because only in Agape do we find the true acceptance we all seek.

God I thank You that, as far as the east is from the west, Your memory is separated from our mistakes. You are agape itself. Please help us to stay in You, while You stay close to us. Because apart from you, were lost and lonely creaturesprone to fear, judgment, and holding grudges against those who are so much more like us, than we could ever be different. Help us to be there from one another, not assuming the worst, but seeing Your creative blueprint within every precious soul we encounter. Thank you for your son, Jesus. Its in His name we pray. Amen.

Photo Credit: Unsplash/Kelly Sikkema

Meg Gemelli is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and the founder of theMakingofaMarriage.com. Along with polishing her Crossfit participation trophies, she can be found Pinterest-failing in the kitchen, glamping with the fam, or reading a great book oceanside. However flawed, she practices faith over fear every single day.
I have known of Dark Dan all my life. A blind holy man who travelled down our valley. In bare feet he was led from house to house by a child.

He collected for Lough Derg. My grannys brother Wee Eoghan Flaxi told me that as a child he led Dark Dan, testing him by walking his bare feet over rough ground, to see if he would flinch. This must have been in the late 1890s. Eoghan as a young man went to America; then to Alaska, and of all places New Zealand. He described his travels to me I went as far as civilisation would take me and then I walked. I was so influenced by all the talk of Dark Dan that I wrote of him in my novel, but it was only last summer's television programme about Lough Derg that focused him and the penitential island in my thoughts. My mother went to Lough Derg and so did my wife. Thats how I have second hand knowledge of the experience.

The sleep deprivation, the fasting, the Lough Derg tea, going round The Beds in your bare feet; and the final euphoria of the boat trip off the island with everyone singing Hail Glorious Saint Patrick. And my reflections drove me to send an email to Lough Derg telling of my oral history and asking had they any records of a blind holy man who had travelled our country (above Rostrevor) promoting their cause.

And they were kind enough to email me back saying they had looked through their records and nothing was found. Crest fallen I called at the parish offices of the churches in Newry where my enquiries were met with the good humour of those who thought me a galvanised fool---- and I could understand that.

Reconciling myself with the thought that the 1890s was a difficult gig for a blind man. The Workhouse simply awful. Travelling the country an alternative. Collecting for Lough Derg give him an authority. His soothsaying and prayer appealing in the tradition of missionary preachers everywhere. It afforded him food and shelter, and there was nothing wrong with that.

Then just before Christmas when I had more or less forgotten all about Dark Dan an alarming thing happened. In a determined attempt to clear out some of the rubbish in my attic a little crumpled page came to hand.

It was in the bottom of a small slim wooden box suitable for holding envelopes and was addressed to the elderly lady who many years ago lived next door. It was from her brother in America. It reminisced about Dark Dan, how he would overnight in my great grandparents home in Drumreagh and how he was buried in Massforth Cemetery in Kilkeel. Even to describing the location of his grave. Such a thing to land on me. I was taken aback. I had in my mind a firm thought of Dans itinerary as west.

Through the upland townlands to Newry and perhaps to Armagh; it had never struck me that he would go east. In the parish office of St. Colmans Catholic Church (Massforth), I related my story and was knocked right back on my pasterns when the lady put the name Dan McCauley --- to the only term Id ever heard ---- Dark Dan. (Id always assumed Dark Dan was a gentle way of saying he was blind.) Further than that she told me that quite recently a headstone had been erected by the parish St. Vincent De Paul in conjunction with

The Newry Maritime Association. Out into the graveyard I went. The headstone is along a path twenty yards south of the church. A solid marble stone three feet high flanked by two similar sized granite stones. It reads McCauley, Dan, The Blind Pilgrim, Died Kilkeel Workhouse, 31st December 1909, Age 86 Years. I note there are flowers at his grave.

The Vincentian News, Winter edition 2018 has a report on the dedication of the stone. It states that the story came to light during research by John McDaid for the Newry Maritime Association and that they contacted The Saint Vincent De Paul. It confirms that Dan did indeed spend his summers at Lough Derg and surprising for me that he had a residency with The Marist Priory in Dundalk. He was returning there when he took ill. And why the Marists? A teaching order?

A further email to Lough Derg and they were kind enough to tell me there is no connection there. For my part I am content to find that all I ever heard about Dark Dan was true. He was a holy man who led a life of prayer and pilgrimage, and was respected.

And yet I still ponder --- when he crossed The Lough from Greencastle to Greenore did he go to Dundalk by Omeath or Cooley? Did he travel to Lough Derg through the less favoured lands of The Border? and did he arrive in our country by horse and cart ---- cadging a lift in the limestone quarries above Dundalk?
Ousted US intelligence inspector Atkinson calls on others to defend whistleblowers

Iran Press TV

Monday, 06 April 2020 8:56 AM

Michael Atkinson, the outgoing intelligence community inspector general fired by President Donald Trump on Friday, has called on others to speak out and defend whistleblowers.

On Saturday, Trump defended his decision to fire the top watchdog of the intelligence community, calling Atkinson a "total disgrace" for the way he handled a whistleblower complaint that led to the president's impeachment.

"He took a fake report, and he brought it to Congress," Trump said during a briefing on the novel coronavirus pandemic at the White House.

In a statement Atkinson sent to reporters late on Sunday, he said he believed the president sacked him for carrying out his "legal obligations" as an impartial watchdog.

"It is hard not to think that the president's loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial inspector general, and from my commitment to continue to do so."

Atkinson also called on his former colleagues to continue working independently, saying, "I have faith that my colleagues in Inspectors General Offices throughout the federal government will continue to operate effective and independent whistleblower programs, and that they will continue to do everything in their power to protect the rights of whistleblowers."

"Please do not allow recent events to silence your voices," he pleaded.

Atkinson, a key figure in the run-up to Trump's impeachment, reported to Congress a credible complaint from a whistleblower within the administration that the president had abused his office by soliciting Ukraine's meddling in the 2020 US election in exchange for military aid.

Trump complained that Atkinson should not have submitted what he described as a "fraudulent" whistleblower complaint to Congress. "I thought he did a terrible job. Absolutely terrible," the president said.

Atkinson's firing comes as US inspectors general, who have independent oversight of federal agencies, were recently tasked with broad surveillance of the federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed over 9,600 people across the US so far.

Congressman Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, charged that the president's conduct was "unconscionable."

The California Democrat accused Trump of "decapitating" the leadership of the intelligence community "in the middle of a national crisis."

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Normally, we would be celebrating the 10th birthday of Morgans Wonderland, and that will happen one of these days, but right now, all of us are confronted with an invisible storm that threatens San Antonio, our state and our nation.

To reduce the storms damage as much as possible, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff have mobilized the COVID-19 Community Action working groups. In making the announcement, Nirenberg said these groups will act as strike teams focused on immediate areas of impact within the community.

Theyre charged with identifying measures to mitigate the challenge (posed by the pandemic), recommending measures for long-term recovery, and identifying local, state and federal resources to assist the community, he added.

This is a commonsense, methodical approach to pinpoint critical issues and determine the resources needed to address them. Its my honor and privilege to lead this process and coordinate among five working groups of leaders in our community:

Federal and state government advocacy: Every state and municipality is going to seek governmental funding, so its absolutely essential we specify what financial assistance our community will need and make sure we have a seat at the table.

Philanthropy: This doesnt mean the establishment of a new fund to provide community assistance. Rather, its a process to inform existing foundations and philanthropists as to how they can play a role for either a specific purpose or a common purpose.

Food security and shelter: Suddenly, the San Antonio Food Bank is being called on to feed 120,000 families, twice the normal number, so securing enough food for those in need is of critical importance. Likewise, we must deal with shelter issues - thousands who will be delinquent in paying their monthly rents and thousands of homeless people living on our citys streets.

Business and employment: This working group is involved in helping small businesses survive the economic downturn and retain their employees, and it also concentrates on helping these businesses get re-established once the storm passes.

Social services: Its important the demands on the so-called safety net are being met. This includes helping those with special needs, the elderly and children in low-income families who need care so their parents can attempt to earn a living.

Weve just begun, but already Im greatly encouraged with the enthusiastic response of residents from all over San Antonio and Bexar County eager to lend a hand. Im also very impressed with the dedication and determination of our health care providers and first responders. In the midst of the health emergency, Ive never seen a better opportunity for greater San Antonio to come together for the common good.

As we move forward, I ask that you continue to heed the guidance of health professionals, volunteer to help your neighbors in need through entities such as the San Antonio Food Bank and Haven for Hope, and keep the well-being of our community in your prayers. Working and cooperating together, we will survive the COVID-19 storm and get back to living life to the fullest in the city we love.

Gordon Hartman is founder and CEO of the Gordon Hartman Family Foundation.
Precious Metals Are About To Reset Like In 2008  Gold Bugs, Buckle Up!

For years, many Gold Bugs (investors whove been advocating buying Gold and Silver at low prices as a hedge against future global economic risks) were shunned as conspiracy theorists and nuts. How could these people believe Gold and Silver were solid investments when the Global equities markets were rallying 5% a year consistently  what could go wrong?

Over the past two weeks, I have personally received multiple phone calls and emails from friends and associates asking how these people can suddenly buy physical metals. In one case, this individual was purchasing Airline and Food Services stocks in late February thinking this move would be short-lived and telling me how the airlines would recover quickly after this is all over. Now, that person wants to know my secret contacts for buying physical metals.

If you know any Gold Bugs, you know weve built relationships with suppliers, friends and other Gold Bugs throughout the year. Believe it or not, I can still buy physical metals from a few of my closest associates in the industry. Eric Sprott is a fan of my precious metals forecasts and talked about my work a few times publicly. Eric owns SprottMoney.com. the other source is SDBullion.com. Both of these are my most trusted sources for buying physical gold and silver, I have never had any issues with them and customer support is top-notch!

Yes, the prices have begun to skyrocket a bit  Silver especially. But I can still buy physical metals because I have a deep resource of friends and suppliers.

Whats going to happen over the next few weeks is that more and more average people are suddenly going to realize they should have been buying metals as security against risk. Paper metals are going to explode as well, but physical metals will demand a premium that is much higher than paper/spot price. Right now, one ounce of Silver is going for about $21 to $25 per ounce in physical form (depending on my sources). The current SPOT price of silver is $14.50. That means the premium for physical Silver is between +45% to +75% right now in the open market.

Before we continue, be sure to opt-in to our free market trend signals before closing this page, so you dont miss our next special report!

Daily Gold Chart

This Daily Gold chart highlights the upside Fibonacci price targets using our Adaptive Fibonacci Price Modeling system. We believe the next upside price target for Gold is $1825. A higher upside price target is visible on this chart near $1950 and we believe Gold prices will reach this level eventually. But we believe the current $1825 level is the immediate target. This would represent an immediate +10 upside price advance and would establish NEW HIGH prices for the past 9 years.

Silver Daily Chart

This Silver Daily chart also highlights our Adaptive Fibonacci Price Modeling system and shows an upside price target of $17.25. Remember, the current physical demand for Gold and Silver has skyrocketed over the past 2+ weeks. The Spot price is really not indicative of the open market price of physical at the moment. If Spot Silver moves to $17.25 as we predict, that would be a +19% upside price advance. If Silver advances to $18.25, that would be a +26% upside price advance.

You should also take a look at our silver chart from 1999 and what happened then, and should happen again now as well.

Silver Bugs are loving the setup right now because they know the pattern that sets up in the Metals market when a crisis hits. First, Gold begins to rally faster than Silver and the Gold to Silver ratio spikes higher. Then, once the shock-wave of the market crisis subsides, the metals begin a fairly usual price advance where both Gold and Silver advance  in unequal forms. This is when the real fun for Gold & Silver Bugs begins.

Gold to Silver Weekly Ratio Chart THE SILVER LINING

Take a look at this Gold to Silver Weekly Ratio chart. This chart measures how much one ounce Silver it takes to purchase one ounce of gold at current prices. Notice that spike in the ratio back in 2008? That was the spike in gold prices relative to Silver prices as the top formed in 2008 and the shock wave struck global investors. What happened? Everyone tried to pile into the Gold trade and ignored Silver for about 6+ weeks.

Then what happened to the Gold to Silver Ratio? It COLLAPSED from levels near 85 to a bottom hear 31. That means the price of Silver advance almost 3x faster than the price of Gold over that span. In order for the ratio to fall from near 90 to levels near 30, that indicates a very expansive price increase in the price of Silver.

Now, take a look at what has happened just recently in the Gold to Silver Ratio another massive price spike. This time, the spike reached levels near 120 (Yikes). Can you guess why Gold and Silver Bugs are so excited right now? If another price advance takes place in precious metals which is similar to the 2008~2011 rally, Gold may see a 300% to 500% rally and Silver may see a 450% to 900% rally over the next 2 to 3 years.

View chart by TradingView.com

This is no joke. Physical metals are why Gold and Silver Bugs believe the value of having it in your hands is much better than owning an IOU from a broker or bank.

Get ready for some incredible price moves in the metals markets and congrats to all the Gold and Silver bugs out there. Our analysis says our patience and accumulation of physical metals will soon pay off in a big way.

As a technical analysis and trader since 1997, I have been through a few bull/bear market cycles. I believe I have a good pulse on the market and timing key turning points for short-term swing traders.

If you are a more active trader and swing trader visit my Active ETF Trading Newsletter. If you are a long-term investor looking for signals when to own equities, bonds, or cash, be sure to look into my Long-Term Investing Signals.

Ride my coattails as I navigate these financial markets and build wealth while others lose nearly everything they own during the next financial crisis.

Chris Vermeulen

www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

Chris Vermeulen has been involved in the markets since 1997 and is the founder of Technical Traders Ltd. He is an internationally recognized technical analyst, trader, and is the author of the book: 7 Steps to Win With Logic



Through years of research, trading and helping individual traders around the world. He learned that many traders have great trading ideas, but they lack one thing, they struggle to execute trades in a systematic way for consistent results. Chris helps educate traders with a three-hour video course that can change your trading results for the better.



His mission is to help his clients boost their trading performance while reducing market exposure and portfolio volatility.



He is a regular speaker on HoweStreet.com, and the FinancialSurvivorNetwork radio shows. Chris was also featured on the cover of AmalgaTrader Magazine, and contributes articles to several leading financial hubs like MarketOracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: Nothing in this report should be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any securities mentioned. Technical Traders Ltd., its owners and the author of this report are not registered broker-dealers or financial advisors. Before investing in any securities, you should consult with your financial advisor and a registered broker-dealer. Never make an investment based solely on what you read in an online or printed report, including this report, especially if the investment involves a small, thinly-traded company that isnt well known. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report has been paid by Cardiff Energy Corp. In addition, the author owns shares of Cardiff Energy Corp. and would also benefit from volume and price appreciation of its stock. The information provided here within should not be construed as a financial analysis but rather as an advertisement. The authors views and opinions regarding the companies featured in reports are his own views and are based on information that he has researched independently and has received, which the author assumes to be reliable. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content of this report, nor its fitness for any particular purpose. Lastly, the author does not guarantee that any of the companies mentioned in the reports will perform as expected, and any comparisons made to other companies may not be valid or come into effect.

Chris Vermeulen Archive

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




Brazil austerity fervour threatens fight against coronavirus FILE PHOTO: Brazil's Economy Minister Paulo Guedes speaks during a press conference to announce economic measures due the coronavirus outbreak in Brasilia

By Jamie McGeever

BRASILIA (Reuters) - The fiscal reforms championed by Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes may be dead, but the austerity-bound thinking behind them is alive and well, and could tie Brazil's hands in tackling its looming economic and public health crises.

While countries around the world rip up their budget rules and throw trillions of dollars at mitigating the damage from the coronavirus pandemic, some observers say Brazil's emergency spending plans are far too cautious and limited.

The reason for that is largely political. President Jair Bolsonaro, who took office in January 2019 promising an economic turnaround, has repeatedly blamed media "hysteria" for causing panic around what he dubs "a little flu." He has called the virtual shutdown of commerce across many states a "crime."

Bolsonaro's scepticism surrounding coronavirus is matched by the Economy Ministry's reluctance to cool its ardour for austerity and do whatever it takes, in fiscal terms, to limit the economic damage.

"Guedes and his team seem totally detached from the economic consensus on what needs to be done to fight this impending crisis," said Julia Braga, associate professor of economics at the Universidade Federal Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro state.

The government has proposed fiscal measures worth around 180 billion reais ($36 billion), or 2.24% of gross domestic product, according to JP Morgan, while Goldman Sachs reckons the "multi-pronged package of scal and quasi-scal support measures" is worth more than 3.0% of GDP.

They include tax breaks for households and companies, corporate tax deferrals, bringing forward social assistance payments, and making it easier to access workers' severance funds.

Many developed countries have taken much bolder fiscal steps, pumping hundreds of billions of dollars directly into households, guaranteeing up to 80% of workers' wages, and ramping up spending on health and other services.

Story continues

Guedes said this weekend that overall, the measures add up to as much as 5% of GDP. But that includes some actions taken by the central bank, and what's more, only a small part of the government proposals comprises new spending.

Calls for Brazil to loosen its purse strings are growing louder by the day.

"Their reforms are based on fiscal austerity, and this agenda is absolutely incompatible with the situation the country finds itself in," said Marcelo Ramos, federal lawmaker from the centre-right Liberal Party.

"There is no point in saving the economy if we don't have a country any more. It's time to save people," he said.

Economists at Citi estimate that, in general, governments need to take fiscal measures worth at least 5% of GDP to compensate the drag on growth, calm financial markets and avert a sluggish recovery and rising inequality.

STILL NO 'WAR BUDGET'

The Economy Ministry's plans this year for major tax reform, privatisations, trimming the public-sector payroll and revamping the framework for state and federal finances have been dealt a fatal blow by coronavirus and the likely economic downturn.

Ministry officials have said repeatedly in recent weeks that despite the magnitude of the crisis, Brazil cannot afford to put its long-term fiscal targets at risk.

They insist any crisis-fighting spending will only apply to this year and be done in stages. They use words like "caution" and "prudence" in relation to spending, while reaffirming their zeal for reducing the public deficit.

Economic Policy Secretary Adolfo Sachsida also said in early March that the best vaccine against coronavirus would be to "press ahead with economic reforms," putting Brazil on sounder footing for a strong recovery.

Officials admit the government will miss its 2020 primary budget deficit goal of 124 billion reais. The projected shortfall is now over 350 billion reais as tax, oil and privatisation revenues slump while spending is likely to rise.

But they insist that a constitutional budget cap is sacrosanct, limiting government spending growth in each year to the previous year's annual inflation rate.

With 90% of the federal budget devoted to non-discretionary spending such as social security, education and public sector salaries, room for manoeuvre is virtually non-existent.

To get around this, Rodrigo Maia, speaker of the lower house of Congress, proposed that Brazil spend between 300 billion and 400 billion reais in emergency funds, creating a "war budget" under which ordinary fiscal rules do not apply. He floated the idea on March 22, but a bill has yet to be submitted.

"They seem very reluctant to take the big steps necessary, and are only doing so under pressure. But there is no doubt they will have to do more," said UFF's Braga. "This will be much worse than 2008-09."

(Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Christian Plumb and Grant McCool)
The government of Niger has announced the award of a 4G licence to operator Zamani Com.

The award of the 15-year licence for the establishment and operation of a 4G network to Zamani Com, the new owner of mobile operator Orange Niger, makes it the second operator in Niger, after Airtel, the local subsidiary of Indian giant Bharti Airtel, to plan to offer 4G in the country.

The announcement also notes that Zamani Coms existing 2G and 3G licences have been renewed for a further 15 years.

According to local press reports the total cost will be around $19.7 million for the new 4G/LTE licence. The 2G and 3G renewals will cost around $47 million.

Orange completed the sale of its entire 95.5 per cent stake in Orange Niger to Zamani Com in November last year. Zamani Com is wholly owned by Mohamed Rissa of Rimbo Invest and Moctar Thiam of Greenline Communications, both minority shareholders of Orange Niger. The companys services were to continue to be marketed under the Orange brand during a transition period.

In its press announcement at the time, Orange said that the Africa and Middle East region remained a strategic priority for the Orange Group. However, it added, the market environment in Niger has led Orange to make this decision responsibly, prioritising business continuity for the benefit of the companys customers and protecting the interests of the women and men working at Orange Niger.
Michael Gove has gone into self-isolation after a family member showed symptoms of coronavirus, it was revealed today.

The Cabinet Office minister said he was following the official guidance by going into quarantine for 14 days, but was not himself feeling ill.

Posting on Twitter, Mr Gove said: 'In accordance with the guidance, I am isolating at home after a member of my family started to display mild symptoms of coronavirus on Sunday.

'I have not displayed any symptoms and am continuing to work as normal.'

Despite the reassurance, the news will heighten concerns about paralysis at the heart of government.

Boris Johnson was dramatically moved into intensive care last night, with concerns he faces at least weeks out of action amid the country's biggest crisis for a generation.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been 'deputised' to fill in for the premier, but there are questions about whether he will have the full powers of a PM over national security. In a sign of the febrile atmosphere, alarm was raised at images of Mr Raab coughing as he left the Foreign Office this morning.

In a round of broadcast interviews from home earlier, Mr Gove played down concerns that the government will be paralysed with the leader out of action, insisting that Mr Johnson had already been on a 'stripped back diary' for days and 'Cabinet is the supreme decision making body',

However, he dodged questions about whether Mr Raab has been given crucial national security responsibilities such as control of the nuclear deterrent and military.

Michael Gove revealed today that he has gone into self-isolation after a family member started showing coronavirus symptoms

In a round of broadcast interviews from home earlier, Michael Gove said Mr Johnson was getting the 'best care'

Images show the Prime Minister's changing appearance as his battle with coronavirus continued from (top row left to right) March 27 and 28 and (bottom row left to right) April 1 and 2

Downing Street infection timeline March 10: Health minister Nadine Dorries became the first MP to test positive for coronavirus, shortly after attending a Downing Street reception. March 27: Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock both release Twitter videos saying they have coronavirus and are self-isolating. Hours later, chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty revealed he was self-isolating with symptoms. March 30: The PM's top adviser Dominic Cummings was revealed to be self-isolating with coronavirus symptoms. April 2: Matt Hancock returns to work after seven dies in isolation and making a recovery. April 3: Boris Johnson releases a video from his Number 11 flat saying he is continuing to self-isolate as he is still suffering a temperature. April 4: Carrie Symonds, the PM's pregnant fiancee reveals she has been self-isolating at her Camberwell flat. April 5: The PM is taken to St Thomas' Hospital as a precaution. April 6: The PM is moved to intensive care after his condition spiralled. April 7: Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove reveals he is in self-isolation after a family members showed symptoms. Advertisement

New Prime Ministers usually write 'letters of last resort' to nuclear submarine captains, setting out instructions if government is wiped out by an enemy strike.

But No10 said Mr Johnson's existing letters will continue to apply, rather than Mr Raab writing new ones.

MPs have raised alarm that hostile states such as Russia - which has already been accused of spreading disinformation about Mr Johnson's condition - could try to exploit Britain's 'weakness'.

General Sir Nick Carter, chief of the defence staff, said the armed forces 'work straight through to the Prime Minister', although he suggested the National Security Council (NSC) will now fill the gap.

Asked who will be in control of the nuclear deterrent and armed forces, the PM's spokesman said: In relation to national security matters the First Secretary of State and the Cabinet have the authority and the ability to respond in the Prime Ministers absence.

The Queen is being kept informed about Mr Johnson's condition, but she will not grant audiences to Mr Raab while he is standing in for the premier. The monarch appoints the PM, choosing the individual who is best placed to carry a majority in the Commons.

Asked about Mr Raab's authority and whether he would have the same power as the PM to hire and fire people in Cabinet, Mr Gove replied: 'The Prime Minister always remains the Prime Minister but I don't think there's any suggestion of anything other than a great team spirit in government as we all work together at this time.'

Mr Gove said he could not comment about national security matters when asked if responsibilities connected to nuclear attack had been passed on to Foreign Secretary Mr Raab.

'Dominic is in charge. I won't go into the details of the different national security decisions and protocols that there are but there are appropriate ways in which decisions can be taken in order to keep this country safe,' he said,

'The ultimate decisions are always taken by politicians and in this case the PM has asked Dominic to deputise for him, so it's Dominic as Foreign Secretary who's in charge.'

He also said any decisions about the lockdown would be 'taken collectively following appropriate advice', dismissing the idea there would be a delay.

Mr Raab raised concerns as he was seen coughing leaving the Foreign Office to go to Downing Street this morning

Dominic Raab: Karate black belt and relative Cabinet novice The MP for Esher and Walton worked as an in-house lawyer for the Foreign Office in 2000, before returning to the department in Boris Johnson's post-election reshuffle. The former grammar school boy, born to a Czech Jewish father who fled the Nazis in 1938 to Britain as a refugee before the Second World War, helped bring war criminals to justice in The Hague during his first stint in the Foreign Office. Mr Raab is a karate black belt and former boxing blue at Oxford University in 1995. The 45-year-old is married without any children to Erika, a Brazilian-born marketing executive who was wheeled out for photoshoots in his leadership campaign. He has described how his father Peter fled the Nazis and came to Britain aged six. His father learned English, worked for M&S as a food manager and met his mother Jean, who was from Bromley, Kent. He died when Dominic was 12 after losing his battle with cancer. The appointment to Foreign Secretary was a major promotion for Mr Raab, who up to then had just four months experience in the Cabinet after a stint as Brexit Secretary last year. Last summer he stood in the Tory leadership race on a hardcore Brexiteer ticket even harder than Mr Johnson. But after being knocked out he quickly backed his former rival and supported him in his campaign. Advertisement

He told Good Morning Britain: 'No it won't be delayed. It will be the case that we will take that decision collectively as a Cabinet.

'The person who will chair that Cabinet, the person who will make the final decision of course is, as I mentioned earlier, the Foreign Secretary.'

On the issue of a national government he added: 'I don't think anyone is talking in those terms, no.'

Conservative MP and defence committee chairman Tobias Ellwood underlined the concerns about the nuclear deterrent.

'It is important to have 100% clarity as to where responsibility for UK national security decisions now lies. We must anticipate adversaries attempting to exploit any perceived weakness,' he tweeted.

Mr Gove said Mr Johnson was getting the 'best care'.

'As we speak the PM is in intensive care being looked after by his medical team receiving the very, very best care from the team in St Thomas' and our hopes and prayers are with him and with his family,' he told BBC Breakfast.

He said Mr Johnson's plight should demonstrate the need to follow social distancing rules, as the virus 'has a malevolence that is truly frightening'.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump revealed he has offered to send Mr Johnson experimental drugs to treat his coronavirus.

It is not immediately clear what would happen if Mr Raab also became incapacitated, with the UK not having a formal system of succession like other countries, for example the US.

Mr Raab's status as the person waiting in the wings reportedly sparked furious rows within the government a fortnight ago, with other ministers adamant Mr Gove, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, should be the one to take over.

But Number 10 is likely to face intense pressure in the coming days to set out exactly what would happen if Mr Johnson and other senior ministers can no longer work.

If Mr Johnson is forced to resign, the Cabinet would in the first instance choose a successor.

They would need to carry the support of the Conservative MPs and potentially the party members - although it is unlikely anyone would force a full leadership contest at a time of massive crisis.

Self-styled 'tough guy' with just one year's Cabinet experience: Ex-Foreign Office lawyer Dominic Raab is a relative new kid on the block - but is no stranger to controversy

Dominic Raab is now the UK's de facto prime minister after Boris Johnson was hospitalised, with the running of the country placed in the hands of a man who has just one year of Cabinet experience.

Mr Johnson has asked the Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State to deputise for him while he fights coronavirus in a London intensive care unit.

The elevation of Mr Raab to the top political job in the country completes what has been a meteoric rise for the former Foreign Office lawyer, karate black belt and Oxford University boxing blue who is no stranger to controversy.

Dominic Raab, pictured in Westminster today, is now the de facto prime minister after Boris Johnson was hospitalised with coronavirus

Mr Raab's bulging muscles and athletic frame leap out of a photo taken during his days as an Oxford University boxing blue in 1995

Westminster was stunned last July when Mr Johnson became Prime Minister and chose to select Mr Raab, a self-styled Tory 'tough guy', as his future stand-in.

Many were expecting the 46-year-old to be rewarded with a big job after he backed the PM in the Tory leadership contest having seen his own bid fall flat.

But few had anticipated Mr Raab being awarded one of the four great offices of state while even fewer predicted he would be designated Mr Johnson's deputy.

However, the appointment made political sense for the new premier given Mr Raab's hardline Brexit credentials.

Mr Raab was one of the most vocal supporters of the UK leaving the EU and his appointment to the highest echelons of government reassured Eurosceptic Tory MPs that the PM was not going to go soft on Brussels after winning power.

Becoming Foreign Secretary represented a massive step up for Mr Raab in terms of government responsibility having only held one Cabinet role prior to his major promotion.

Mr Raab, first elected as the Conservative MP for Esher and Walton in 2010, had to wait five years before getting a proper ministerial job.

And after slowly climbing the Whitehall ladder he finally broke into the Cabinet in July 2018 after receiving the call from Theresa May to be her new Brexit Secretary following the resignation of David Davis.

However, he would only last until November of the same year as he also quit in protest at the then-PM's Brexit plans - just like his predecessor.

Having entered the Tory leadership contest in late May 2019, he was quickly eliminated but swiftly announced he was supporting Mr Johnson's candidacy.

He was then subsequently appointed Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State on July 24, 2019.

That means that as of today, Mr Raab has just over one year of Cabinet experience under his belt - eight months in Mr Johnson's administration and five in Mrs May's.

The designation of Mr Raab as Mr Johnson's deputy has not been without controversy with some ministers unhappy at the prospect of the Foreign Office chief being put in charge.

Some members of the government had recently been pushing for Michael Gove, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, to be given the responsibility.

Mr Raab, pictured with his wife Erika in June 2019 during his Tory leadership run, was first elected as an MP in 2010

Mr Raab, pictured alongside Mr Johnson in the House of Commons in December last year, will now be tasked with overseeing the UK's coronavirus response

One minister said a few weeks ago that 'a lot of people think that Michael should be running the show' if Mr Johnson became incapacitated and that 'one of these people is Michael, of course'.

But Downing Street has been clear for weeks that Mr Raab would take over if the situation demanded it.

Mr Raab has dealt with a number of political controversies since becoming an MP and later a Cabinet minister.

Upon being appointed Foreign Secretary, Mr Raab was soon thrust into handling the Transatlantic fall-out over the death of British teenager Harry Dunn, who was killed when his motorbike crashed into a car outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on August 27 last year.

The fact Mr Dunn's parents tried to heckle Mr Raab at a constituency hustings event was indicative of how well the family felt he dealt with obtaining justice for their son as the government tried and failed to persuade the US to extradite the teenager's alleged killer.

Mr Raab also had to manage the thorny issue of repatriating children of British jihadis.

Early on in his parliamentary career Mr Raab sparked a furious row after he wrote an article in which he argued 'feminists are now amongst the most obnoxious bigots'.

He refused to apologise and stuck by his comments, defending them last year when he was challenged on them during the Tory leadership battle.

He said he stood by what he had said because he believed it is 'really important that in the debate on equality we have a consistency and not double standards and hypocrisy'.

Mr Raab, who is married to a Brazilian called Erika who he has two children with, has also said he is 'probably not' a feminist.

He found himself again at the centre of a storm of controversy in May 2017 after claiming that people who use food banks are not typically in poverty but have an occasional 'cashflow problem'.

The Foreign Secretary first made it to the Cabinet in 2018 when he was appointed Brexit Secretary. He is pictured with Michel Barnier in Brussels in August of that year

Critics labelled the remarks 'stupid and deeply offensive'.

He also got into hot water last year after he said he would keep open the option of suspending Parliament in order to prevent MPs blocking Brexit.

His past comments, and his hardline stance on Brexit, have not endeared Mr Raab to his political opponents.

At the 2019 general election he was relentlessly targeted by the Liberal Democrats in his Surrey constituency and came relatively close to being ousted.

He had previously held the seat with majorities of more than 20,000 votes but in December he held on with a majority of just under 3,000 as the Lib Dems surged, capitalising on the pro-Remain vote.

Mr Raab has sought to create something of a 'hard man' image in Westminster, with his website boasting that he 'holds a black belt 3rd dan in karate and is a former UK Southern Regions champion and British squad member'.

He captained the karate club at Oxford University where he studied law and was also a boxing blue.

Mr Raab is clearly proud of his time as a university boxer, having previously handed a picture of him in his shorts and vest to a TV company to use for their profile of him.

He still trains at a boxing club in Thames Ditton and has a poster of Muhammad Ali in his Commons office.

In 2006, he was appointed chief of staff to fellow Tory Mr Davis. The former Special Forces reservist said Mr Raab's karate black belt impressed him more than his two Oxbridge degrees - the second came in a form of a Masters from Cambridge.

Mr Raab said karate helped him cope with the premature death of his father, who had fled to the UK from Czechoslovakia at the age of six in 1938 to escape the Nazis.

Mr Raab was just 12 when his father died. 'Sport helped restore my confidence, and that hugely benefited my attitude to school and life,' he said in May last year.

'There were strong role models, camaraderie and an ethos of respect. I take the discipline and focus I learnt from sport into my professional life  and I believe that approach is vital to making a success of the Brexit negotiations and delivering a fairer deal from Brussels.'

Despite his karate black belt, Mr Raab is known for his courtesy and was upset when civil servants who worked for him as Brexit Secretary anonymously described him as a bully.

Mr Raab, who previously worked at the Foreign Office as a lawyer, denied claims, made by his former diary secretary, that he insisted on the same Pret a Manger lunch every day.

The 'Dom Raab special' apparently consists of a chicken Caesar and bacon baguette, superfruit pot and a vitamin volcano smoothie.
The Forbidden City was shut down on January 25 as authorities closed tourist attractions and took other extraordinary measures to contain the virus, including locking down an entire province

Here are the latest developments in Asia related to the coronavirus pandemic:

- Wuhan outbound travel ban ends -

Outbound travel from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the novel coronavirus first emerged in December, resumed early Wednesday, after a more than two-month ban.

Thousands of travellers flocked to catch departing trains, passenger cars lined up as road blocks were dismantled, and outbound air travel was set to resume.

The further easing of travel restrictions came after China reported no new coronavirus deaths for the first time since it started publishing figures in January.

Cases on the mainland have been dwindling since March, but the country faces a second wave of infections from overseas.

However, there are suspicions -- denied by China -- that Beijing continues to intentionally under-report the real number of deaths and infections.

China also announced all nationals returning from the US, Italy and Iran will have to provide daily updates on their health to a WeChat app for up to two weeks before their flights or be denied boarding.

- Japan declares state of emergency -

Japan declared a month-long state of emergency over a spike in coronavirus cases, ramping up efforts to contain infections but stopping short of the strict lockdowns seen in other parts of the world.

The move allows governors in seven affected regions including Tokyo to ask people to stay indoors and request that businesses close, but there are no enforcement mechanisms and no penalties for those who fail to comply.

The government has come under mounting pressure to tackle an outbreak that remains small by global standards but has raised concerns among Japanese medical experts, with warnings that health care systems are already overstretched.

- Stranded Afghans storm home -

Afghans stranded in Pakistan by the virus shutdown stormed a border crossing after the lockdown on the common border was briefly lifted.

Thousands entered Afghanistan without being screened, sparking fears they may introduce more cases of the coronavirus into a war-weary country already overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of migrants returning from hard-hit Iran.

Story continues

- 'Pandemic bonds' -

Indonesia will issue some $27 billion in so-called "Pandemic bonds" to finance efforts to deal with the health crisis and its economic impact.

Factory activity in Southeast Asia's biggest economy hit a record low, with Japanese automakers Suzuki and Honda becoming the latest firms to announce temporary production suspensions at their plants in the archipelago.

The government has slashed annual growth projections and warned the economy could even contract in a worst-case scenario.

It will spend an extra $25 billion to mitigate the economic impact of the virus. Meanwhile, the rupiah earlier dropped to a near-record low and is one of Asia's worst-hit currencies.

- Philippines extends quarantine -

The Philippines has extended the home quarantine order covering roughly half its population -- around 55 million people.

The lockdown, due to end next week, will be prolonged to April 30 as confirmed infections hit 3,660 with 163 deaths.

Schools, public places and most businesses have been shuttered since mid-March, with residents told to remain at home except for food shopping and medical visits.

- Cambodia cancels public holiday -

The much-anticipated Khmer New Year public holiday next week has been postponed, Cambodia's strongman premier said, due to coronavirus fears.

Hun Sen, who in February played down the severity of the virus, urged people to celebrate where they were rather than return to their home provinces.

- Mask up, or make one -

Citizens in Indonesia's Padang city on Sumatra island face a unique punishment if they go out in public unmasked.

Violators must produce -- with the help of an online instructional video should they need it -- two cloth masks as a fine, one for themselves and another for a person in need.

The consequences if they can't produce a mask on the spot were unclear.

- 'Idiot' Kiwi minister -

New Zealand's health minister described himself as "an idiot" for breaking lockdown restrictions, but kept his job coordinating the South Pacific nation's coronavirus response.

Health Minister David Clark -- whose resignation to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was not accepted -- revealed he took a 20-kilometre (12-mile) drive to the beach with his family.
Police in Massachusetts are searching for a woman who allegedly sprayed Lysol in the eyes of a cashier at Walmart after the woman was told there was a product limit on her purchase.

Leicester police said the incident happened on March 27. The cashier told the woman there was a limit on the number of Lysol disinfectant cans that she was trying to purchase.
Cancun, Riviera Maya record more positive coronavirus cases

Cancun, Riviera Maya, Q.R.  UPDATED: Positive coronavirus figures continue to increase around the state with new numbers showing a rise in the last 24 hours. The new increase in numbers were primarily in Cancun and Solidaridad, whose figures have doubled in the past 48 hours.

On April 5, the municipality of Solidaridad, which includes populated areas such as Playa del Carmen, Paamul and Puerto Aventuras, reported 15 cases. On April 6, the state health agency updated those numbers to 28 with three deaths and then again on April 7 with 31 positive cases.

In Cancun, April 5 positive coronavirus numbers were reported at 58, a figure that rose to 75 24 hours later with four deaths and then again to 92 on April 7. According to the Secretaria de Salud del Estado de Quintana Roo, a new case has also been detected in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, who now have one positive case.

There has also been another positive case detected in the municipality of Tulum and one for Puerto Morelos, the municipalitys first. The new case for Puerto Morelos is that of a 51-year-old female resident who, upon her return from Europe, was found to have the virus at a Mexico City airport filter. She remains in isolation in Mexico City.

After learning of the news, mayor Laura Fernandez explained that the case was recorded in Puerto Morelos because it is a resident of our municipality, which must be clarified. She has not been in the town since her return from Europe and since her positive diagnosis.

Fernandez stressed It is essential to stay at home. There is no need to leave if it is not strictly necessary. We are in a critical stage of the pandemic in which we should not go to crowded places. It is in our hands to stop a wave of infections that could prevent us from returning to normal life soon.
Mumbai, April 7 : A few days after "Bigg Boss 13" contestant Paras Chhabra hinted that he was missing Mahira Sharma amid the COVID-19 lockdown, a "wedding card" of the two is going viral now.

Paras and Mahira have always maintained that they are friends but their close bond has often been the topic of discussion among their fellow contestants and viewers of the controversial reality show.

Paras also broke up with his girlfriend Akanksha Puri, and many felt that it was due to his bond with Mahira.

Apart from featuring in a music video together, the two often take to Instagram to post photos of the two having a good time.

Now a wedding card is going viral on internet but it might just be a fan made card as it was posted on on a fan's page.

Meanwhile, in a cryptic video that he recently posted on TikTok, Paras is seen talking about long-distance relationships. He explains how such an arrangement can work among two people.

Addressing his fans in Hindi, he says: "What is the problem? Long distance? Silence speaks when one is mum. People fall in love, even if they cannot meet." The bunch of hashtags in the caption -- particularly #pahira -- is what caught everyone's attention.

"This is for you... #paraschhabra #abrakadabraparaschabbra #biggboss13 #pahira," went the caption written by Paras with the video.

Ever since he posted the video, fans have been speculating if Paras is truly missing Mahira. However, it is not sure to whom the video is dedicated as he has used the popular #Pahira -- which stands for Paras and Mahira Sharma.
North East Wales field hospital to be named Rainbow Hospital Deeside

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Apr 7th, 2020

A temporary 250 bed hospital which will be housed within Deeside Leisure Centre is to be named Ysbyty Enfys Glannau  Rainbow Hospital Deeside.

Three temporary hospitals have been renamed after the rainbow symbol of hope which has become synonymous with North Wales response to the outbreak of COVID-19.

The temporary hospitals at Venue Cymru Llandudno, and Bangor University have been renamed Ysbyty Enfys Llandudno (Rainbow Hospital Llandudno), and Ysbyty Enfys Bangor (Rainbow Hospital Bangor).

The three sites have been handed over to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to provide a combined 1,000 additional beds to help meet increased demand over the coming weeks and months. BCUHB is working in partnership with local authorities and military planners to rapidly establish the hospitals so they can begin providing care for patients by the end of April.

The Health Board has also enlisted the help of Integrated Health Partnerships  who are leading on the development of the Nightingale field hospital in Manchester  to support the delivery of the temporary hospitals in Deeside and Bangor.

Mark Polin, Chair of BCUHB, said: Its entirely fitting that our temporary hospitals should reflect the symbol of hope and solidarity with NHS staff and other key workers that has become so synonymous with the regions response to COVID-19.

Our staff have been incredibly moved by the outpouring of support from the general public, including the many images of rainbows displayed in the windows of homes across North Wales.

We have also been inundated with very generous offers of help from partner organisations, businesses and members of the public.

By working together we can meet the challenges of the difficult few weeks and months ahead.

The three rainbow hospitals have been established to reduce occupancy in BCUHBs main hospitals so that they can focus upon the care of the patients at greatest need.

As well as preventing admissions to BCUHBs three acute hospitals, the rainbow hospitals will also help patients who have received treatment at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Glan Clwyd Hospital and Wrexham Maelor Hospital to recover in order to return home.

Patients receiving care in the temporary hospitals will not require intubation, so ventilators will not be required, but BCUHB is already sourcing all necessary additional medical equipment.

Significant work is also underway to increase the Health Boards workforce capacity in order to staff the temporary hospitals.

The Health Board has processed hundreds of applications to join its staff bank. It is also recruiting former and retired health service staff and providing student nurses and doctors with paid NHS roles.

Many staff currently working in non-clinical areas have joined a database of employees who can be redeployed to support clinical areas when needed.

Local residents in the immediate vicinity of the three temporary hospitals are being reassured that there is no risk to their health and that they should continue to follow the Welsh Governments stay at home guidance.

Work began at the Deeside Leisure Centre (DLC) over the weekend dismantling the skate park and clearing the inside in preparation for teams of contractors to fit out the emergency hospital.

Flintshire council says the site has been selected as its best available to serve the Eastern area of North Wales due to location and accessibility by road; its size and internal layout; the availability of utilities and facilities such as accessible toilet and washing facilities.

DLC also has the advantage of being able to have extended bed capacity beyond the initial 250 target if needed.

The site was chosen last week by a team of partners including a multi-disciplinary professional team from the Health Board, the Council as the landlord, the Ambulance Service, the Fire Service and the Military, and in consultation with Aura Wales as the tenant.

The council said: The decision to demolish the skate park equipment was taken as the most time-efficient option to enable the principal contractor, who will fit-out the hospital, immediate access to DLC from today, Monday 6 April.

The local authority says: We now have the important task of transforming DLC into a temporary hospital by the end of April in readiness for the expected peak in demand for hospital admissions.

There will be two main ward spaces, the sports hall and the skate park hall, the ice rink, which is currently in a dry condition with no ice covering, is a third space held in reserve.
NEW YORK, April 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vision Sensor Market Research Report: By Type (Monochrome, Color), Application (Inspection, Gauging, Code Reading, Localization), Industry (Automotive, Food & Beverage, Electronics, Packaging, Pharmaceutical) - Global Industry Trends and Growth Forecast to 2030







Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05879078/?utm_source=PRN







In 20172018, automobile production in Indonesia recorded an increase of 10.3%. Seeing the burgeoning demand for vehicles in the country, Toyota Group plans to invest $2 billion between 2019 and 2024 to expand its business here. The automotive sector of several other developing countries shows a similar trend of vehicle manufacturers expanding their production capacity. With the surge in the number of vehicles being produced around the world, the sale of vision sensors will also increase, as such devices are used for localization, inspection, and identification.



Thus, the vision sensor market would witness a robust growth in its revenue, from $2.5 billion in 2019 to $9.2 billion by 2030, at a 12.7% CAGR during 20202030 (forecast period). Such devices are widely used for gauging, inspection, localization, and code reading applications, which are of high importance in numerous industries. Other applications of such components in the automotive sector are detection of a hole in a camshaft, differentiation of cylinder blocks, checking for faulty components in a car stereo, detection of missing balls in a bearing, differentiation of various types of tires and gear types, and verification of correct nut assembly.



Apart from automobile manufacturing, vision sensors are also widely integrated in product packaging lines. Here, these devices perform the all-important function of inspecting the text, logo, and code on labels, foil wrapping seams, checking bottles in the packaging box, and detecting the position of the label to determine if it is correctly placed. The packaging sector is expanding swiftly in developing countries, including China and India. This is a direct result of the growth in the pharmaceutical and food and beverages sectors. Further, the export of products requires sturdy and resilient packaging, which is another reason for the sector's prosperity.



Two kinds of vision sensors are used in industries: monochrome and color. Of these, monochrome sensors are more preferred among manufacturers and packaging firms, as they are technically better than the color variants. Further, monochromatic vision sensors consume less electricity, which results in their higher adoption. In the coming years though, the adoption of color sensors would witness a rapid surge, as the visual appeal of products is becoming increasingly important for marketing purposes, which is why determining that the color is just right is becoming the need of the hour.



Around the world, the largest vision sensor market is Asia-Pacific (APAC), with the escalating demand of the booming population for consumer electronics and automobiles. Additionally, with the strong government support for electric vehicles in the region, in the form of tax rebates and purchase subsidies, the usage of vision sensors would continue surging. In several regional nations, such as India, Thailand, and China, manufacturers are automating their processes to meet the rising demand for various products. Vision sensors are an important aspect of industrial automation, as they remove the requirement for human product inspectors.



With the rapid advancements in the cloud, big data, and artificial intelligence technologies, smart vision sensors have made it to the manufacturing process of several firms. Another reason for the growing popularity of smart sensors is the quick adoption of internet of things (IoT). By equipping these instruments with deep learning, a reference data picture set can be studied for defects. The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) of Taiwan has begun using smart vision sensors in garment production, to automatically inspect the color, shape, quality, and location of the wearables.



Thus, with manufacturers focusing on product quality and process automation, vision sensors will witness an even wider application in the coming years



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05879078/?utm_source=PRN



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New Delhi, April 7 : The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that in 578 districts of the country, a solid network of state governments and Union Territories along with NGOs is operational to implement relief measures for the people, including migrant workers, affected by the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Various governments have given food to over 54 lakh people in addition to over 30 lakh others served by NGOs across the country.

The Centre submitted a status report in response to a PIL filed by activists Harsh Mander and Anjali Bhardwaj on the plight of migrant workers after the nationwide lockdown was announced.

The Centre submitted the facts in a chart, saying it is duty-bound to fully satisfy the apex court on various issues concerning migrant workers.

According to the report, the number of workers given shelter and food by employers/industry where they were working is 15, 05107. The number of persons given food by the governments is 54, 15458, and the NGOs in various governments provided food to 30,11051 persons.

The total number of persons housed in relief camps is 63, 1119 by various governments. The number of such persons looked after by NGOs is 40, 5908. The total number of food camps organized by various state governments is 7,848 and by NGOs 9,473. The number of active relief camps and shelters run by various governments is 22,567 and by NGOs 3,909.

The status report said in Kerala, the number of persons in relief camps and shelters is 302,016, which is the highest among states and UTs, followed by Uttar Pradesh with just over one lakh people.

The Haryana government has provided food for over 22 lakh persons followed by Delhi, which has provided food for over 12 Lakh persons. Over 3 lakh persons in Maharashtra were given shelter and food by employers/industry. This is followed by Gujarat (2.82 Lakh workers) and Haryana (over 2 lakh workers).

The Centre criticized Mander's plea, saying "the petitioner, in complete ignorance of a huge exercise going on by the Central government as well as the state governments, resorted to giving merely vague assertions and piecemeal suggestions without any factual foundation," said the Centre.

The Centre said all state governments and UTs are doing their best, strategizing all resources to come out of the unprecedented global crisis.

"It should be pointed that when the country is facing such an unprecedented crisis, filing of such petitions and attempting to sit in appeal over all actions taken by the respective governments by a few individual needs to be discouraged as it diverts energy and attention of the statutory functionaries", said the Centre in the report.
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GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemala said Tuesday that a third deportee has tested positive for the coronavirus after being flown home by the United States.

The report came a day after authorities announced they were suspending deportation flights from the U.S. over concerns about spreading the virus.

The Health Ministry said the latest positive case was a 37-year-old man who was deported March 26 from Mesa, Arizona, and had been in quarantine since his return.

Two other deportees, ages 29 and 31, from the same flight already tested positive. The plane had carried 41 Guatemalans, including 10 children.

The topic of deportations has become even more fraught than usual in Guatemala and other countries in the region as governments close borders and some hesitate to accept even their own citizens, fearing they could be infected.

Upon arrival the migrants were isolated for a day at a Guatemalan air force installation. One person who arrived sick and tested positive for COVID-19 disease was put in isolation, but the rest had been released and asked to quarantine themselves in their homes without supervision.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry on Monday announced the suspension of deportation flights from the U.S. during Holy Week. It said Guatemala also asked the U.S. government that when the flights resume, each plane only carry 25 passengers, not the usual 100, and said they should be certified as showing no coronavirus symptoms.

On at least two earlier flights, six deportees arrived with severe coughs and high fevers, raising concerns, authorities said. Those people were isolated as were government personnel who had contact with them.

As part of measures to slow the virus spread in Guatemala, authorities have prohibited travel between the countrys departments, or states. So they also asked the U.S. government to only deport Guatemalans only from the department that includes the capital.

Guatemala has reported 74 positive cases nationwide and three deaths.

In Mexico, Gov. Miguel Angel Riquelme of the northern border state of Coahuila, said Tuesday that in a meeting with Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero he made an energetic complaint about Mexican and Central American migrants returned or shut out from the United States who have accumulated in his state. He asked the federal government to move them quickly to their home countries or states, while recognizing that closed borders have made that more complicated.

The fear is that migrants turned back across the border by the U.S. government will carry the virus and infect border residents. The U.S. has reported more than 370,000 infections and more than 11,800 deaths, while Mexico lists more than 2,400 cases and at least 125 deaths.

Speaking at a news conference while wearing a protective mask, Riquelme said that there isnt capacity in his state to face the problem and complained that the concerns of governors in Mexicos northeast had gone unanswered while their migrant shelters were packed.

Mexico has been working for days to lower the number of migrants in the country, especially by deporting migrants from its detention centres where there have been protests over fears of the virus.

Sanchez Cordero said Monday that several Mexican air force planes had carried Central American migrants back home and that the government was encouraging more to return to their countries.

___

Associated Press writer Maria Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.
ATLANTAIn late March, as Atlantans were being urged to stay put and the mayor was drafting a stay-at-home order, the parking lot at Tallulah Gorge State Park in Rabun County was bursting at the seams.

Some 1,700 visitors paid to park that weekend to see the spectacular waterfalls and walk across the swinging bridge. They were lined up cheek by jowl to descend the 750-step staircase that drops to the bridge from the rim. It was on a par with a July 4 weekend, said Kim Hatcher, public affairs co-ordinator for Georgias State Parks and Historic Sites.

Gov. Brian Kemps shelter-in-place order, which closes gyms, theatres, live music venues and amusement parks but leaves open state parks and beaches, may increase the pressure on such recreation areas. On the day of Kemps announcement, Sweetwater State Park was bustling, with some visitors ignoring the six feet of separation rule.

The decree also may inadvertently promote more travel. Georgians are being encouraged to stay close to home, but past experience shows that might not happen.

After North Carolinas governor ordered residents there to stay at home last week, plenty of cars with North Carolina tags continued to cross over the border to recreation spots at nearby Clayton, Georgia.

Last week Rabun County resident SarahRuth Owens was headed to a fairly secluded spot near Warwoman Dell, and there were three cars with North Carolina tags, plain as day, she said. They started pulling all their camping gear out, and I thought, what are they doing here? Arent they supposed to shelter in place?

The Great Shutdown has left us with a lot of time on our hands. People tired of watching Tiger King have flocked to hiking trails in state and national parks in unprecedented numbers.

We went down to Panther Creek last week, and saw at least 80 to 100 cars parked along the road, said Owens, and there was a sign up that said they were closed.

The crowds are pushing people to lesser-known spots, and even those are crowded, said Sandra Marra, president and CEO of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. These are the unrecognized consequences of suddenly millions of people being home from school or work.

Recently Cloudland Canyon was maxed out. I have never seen so many people on that trail, visitor Billy Rosenbalm told the Chattanooga Times Free Press. There was no way to keep yourself safe in that place.

A map published by the New York Times analyzed anonymous cellphone data from 15 million users to demonstrate the travel patterns of the country. The map showed that much of the country had heeded advisories to stay close to home, and had stopped travelling more than three kilometres a day  except in the Southeast.

Its going to keep happening, said Marra.

On March 16 the Conservancy warned its section hikers and through-hikers to think twice before getting on the trail. Then, at the end of the month, it plainly asked all hikers to stay away.

The U.S. Forest Service closed most access trails to the Appalachian Trail, along with developed campgrounds, group recreation sites and restrooms.

Despite these limitations, large gatherings of visitors continue to congregate in dispersed camping corridors, Day-Use Areas, and trailheads, wrote Steven Bekkerus, public affairs officer for the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. This level of public use and non-essential travel is outside the current CDC guidelines.

Bekkerus said Kemps order would not compel the Forest Service to open sites that had been closed, as it has some beaches.

The overuse presents problems for rangers who are charged with managing these Forest Service sites, which, though closed, are still being visited by recreationists who leave garbage in the overflowing trash bins. Rangers arent going to clean restrooms or empty the trash without protective equipment.

We have to assume the trash cans are filled by somebody whos infected, said Bekkerus.

The state said it would send rangers to enforce social distancing at parks and lakes that draw crowds.

With the metro area parks already crowded and some National Forest sites closed, there is likely to be more demand on state parks.

Kim Hatcher, state parks spokesperson, said rangers intervened to maintain social distancing at Red Top Mountain State Park on Lake Allatoona this past weekend, closing off some parking and roads.

Some recent visitors to the closed Panther Creek site had their cars towed, but not by Forest Service personnel. Lt. Matthew Wurtz with the Habersham Sheriffs Department said cars that were towed had their wheels in the roadway, on the wrong side of the solid white line.

But Wurtz understands what draws the visitors. People are confined to their house, cant go to work, and everybodys getting cabin fever, said Wurtz. I hate it; its gotten to me too.

Ironically, the explosion of interest in hiking hasnt benefited local outfitters, who have had to shut down their retail facilities.

Our revenue has fallen off overnight to the tune of about 80-90 per cent, said Josh Brown, co-owner of Wander North Georgia in Clayton. Wander is trying to make up for it with internet orders, but thats producing only a trickle of income.

Eric Champlin, co-owner of Trailful, in Hiawassee, said after the Appalachian Trail Conservancy asked hikers to get off the trail, he saw a 75 per cent drop in traffic.

Though their businesses depend on people who love the outdoors, the outfitters were concerned that the current rush to the trails could be unhealthy to people, as well as damaging to the parks.

What I hope people realize too, is that its not just standing in the middle of a river fishing. Or having a picnic in front of a waterfall, said Brown. Its the stopping for gas. Or stopping for fishing bait. Or stopping for food. Getting outdoors and staying six feet away from someone is easy. The ecosystem of what is needed to get outdoors and to a location is the hard part.

Hikers should understand that the trail is not a magic refuge. The trail is not a separate safe place protected and removed from the rest of the world we live in, said Marra, of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Whatever can happen to you in Walmart can happen to you going on the trail.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 10:25:30|Editor: huaxia

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WUHAN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- No new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported Monday in central China's Hubei Province, the Health Commission of Hubei said Tuesday.

The province saw no new death of the disease on Monday.

The commission said Hubei had 690 asymptomatic patients under medical observation, after 33 cases were ruled out while 18 new patients were reported on Monday.

Fifty-nine COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospital after recovery Monday. Among the 518 patients being treated in hospital, 111 were still in severe condition and 73 others in critical condition.

Hubei has so far reported 67,803 confirmed COVID-19 cases in total, including 50,008 in Wuhan.
[April 07, 2020] Plus3 IT Systems is Awarded a General Services Administration Multiple Award Schedule Contract

RESTON, Va., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Plus3 IT Systems, LLC (Plus3 IT) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract! This five year contract with a five year option period allows Government-wide access to Plus3 IT's expertise under the Information Technology Professional Services Special Item Number (SIN) code. Services included are: Cloud services; Cognitive computing; Conversion and implementation support; Database planning and design; Internet of Things (IoT); IT project management; Migration services; Network services; Programming; Resources and facilities management; and Systems analysis, design, and implementation. "Plus3 IT is excited to offer customers a streamlined way to access our services through the MAS contract. We look forward to winning work and expanding our contract portfolio via the GSA MAS. This contract is a critical step in our company growth." said Jeanine Callahan, Plus3 IT VP, Corporate Operations. MAS is a crucial part of GSA's modernization efforts and simplifies the buying and selling experience for customers and acquisition professionals. For more information about GSA MAS contracts and how to buy through GSA, visit How to By Through GSA .



Plus3 IT is a privately owned small business, headquartered in Reston, VA. As an expert-level cloud services firm, Plus3 IT supports mission requirements through the delivery of cloud adoption, cloud security, cloud native application development, and cloud enabled data analytics. Plus3 IT has proven and documented success supporting the Department of Defense (DoD), Intelligence Community (IC), and Federal customers in all things related to cloud. Visit our website: https://www.plus3it.com

Follow Plus3 IT Systems news on LinkedIn , Facebook , and @Plus3IT on Twitter.

For GSA MAS Contract inquiries: [email protected]

For general inquiries: [email protected]

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/plus3-it-systems-is-awarded-a-general-services-administration-multiple-award-schedule-contract-301036109.html SOURCE Plus3 IT Systems

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In areas around the world where Christians are a religious minority, Christians are more likely to face discrimination when trying to receive food and medical care.

According to Fox News, the coronavirus pandemic is making life even harder for Christians and other religious minorities in countries around the world.

Open Doors USA, a Christian watchdog group, reported that at least 25 countries with positive cases are among the worlds worst persecutors of Christians.

Their situation is going from bad to worse, David Curry, CEO of Open Doors, said in a statement.

In places like North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan, Christians are already seen as second-class citizens, traitors, and infidels," Curry added. "Now, as COVID-19 ravages the health and livelihoods of all people in these countries, Christians are especially in need of emergency relief."

Open Doors also said that the second most common form of persecution toward men in the Middle East and North Africa is economic discrimination, where men are denied jobs and support.

In China, a former chef reported to China Aid, another watchdog organization, that he had faced job discrimination for being a Christian and the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic had also impacted his job hunt.

Now due to the virus, many restaurants are closed, it has become harder for me to find a job, Ruan Haonan said. Two days ago, I went to a factory (to look for employment), but they claimed that I have a criminal record and I am part of a cult. If I were to return to my hometown, the local police would ask me where I went and whether or not I am proselytizing. With little options left, I can only find a job that doesnt require registration of ID, which pays little, he added.

Curry said he hopes Christians in America will reach out to help persecuted Christians around the world.

As many churches worldwide are canceling services or holding them online, more Christians are experiencing what its like to worship in isolation," Curry said. "In this newfound reality, Christians in the United States have a unique opportunity to connect with the ongoing experience of persecuted Christians who are worshipping in secret.

Related:

China Bans Churches from Streaming Services, Even during Pandemic

Fulani Herdsmen in Nigeria Kill More than 60 Christians in Five Weeks, Sources Say

Police in Nepal Falsely Charge Pastors with Violating Coronavirus Lockdown, Sources Say

Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Stevan Ovicigor

Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.
She may just be 15, but Gracie Mae Barr has always had a thing for the horses. The teenager from Thamesford, Ont. grew up watching her parents, Scott and Bethany, work in the harness racing industry.

There is no chance that I wasnt going to be into the horses, Barr has stated. My parents are into harness racing  my dad trained full time and my mom works the London Selected Yearling Sale. The day I was born (March 8, 2005), my dad raced two horses, Coyote Sam and Future Honey, at Western Fair Raceway and they both won! For me, I think its just meant to be.

Though its been a lifetime of horses for Gracie Mae, its only been over the last few seasons that shes been attending the races in London.

My first actual memory of The Raceway was when my dad took me in to see a mini pony race. We went to watch and cheer on our friend, Travis Moore, who was racing his pony, Wally, she said. And now I enjoy watching and cheering on many who race in London. Sue McNeight and the Horner Stable, Lorne House, Paul Chapman, Brent Belore, the Reibelings, and theres lots more. Pretty much anyone than can get me to the track on race days, Ill cheer them on, too.

So seeing as though she is relatively new to the backstretch, Gracie Mae was asked if there was a horsewoman that she has noticed and now looks up to on race nights.

Its Teesha Symes  no question, Gracie Mae said. From watching her, I can tell shes a hard worker and I can see that she cares a lot for her horses, too. Shes always smiling, so she must love what she does, and her horses always look great when they walk into the race paddock  everything just looks so professional.

Barrs favourite racehorse this meet in London has been Hidden Potential  a former top-class pacer who found his form with the seniors pace events.

Hes a really nice horse to be around, except in the winners circle, Barr noted. He has knocked me over in there, but other than that  as long as he has his chew chain and carrots  hes a happy boy.

Another Raceway favourite for Barr this racing season would be her victory with Family First. He was my first win, paddocking by myself, for trainer John Pentland, she said. John is a family friend that weve known for years. I started going to his barn with my dad on the weekends, and now, with school shut down, Ive been busy working at his stable. My parents are okay with it as long as my grades dont suffer.

And in her spare time, Gracie Mae  like so many others in the business  has a retired racehorse to ride. His racing name was Nospeednofeed, but I call him Buddy. My dad used to race his mother, Tenacious Dream.

Another connection for Barr and Pentland has been the impressive filly Lauras Love. The duo share ownership on the lightly-raced daughter of Betterthancheddar.

She didnt race as a two-year-old because she was a little on the immature side and John wanted to take things slow with her, Gracie Mae explained. That way she could maybe have a strong three-year-old season, and so far she has.

Indeed she has.

Lauras Love went onto debut at Woodbine Mohawk Park on January 23, 2020. She finished sixth at the Campbellville, Ont. oval, but her strong :26.3 final quarter indicated that she may be good to go next time out. And, just one week later, she definitely was.

When she won that night, as she crossed the finish line, there may have been a few tears; not only because it was my first win as an owner, but because it was our first win together. Ill also never forget Ken Middleton giving me the shout-out in the winners circle. It was just a real special night!



Lauras Love and her connections smile for the camera after her January 23, 2020 victory at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Lauras Love and her connections smile for the camera after her January 23, 2020 victory at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Now a winner of four of her five career starts, Lauras Love gets some downtime to freshen up as Ontario and the rest of North America awaits the return of harness racing.

Im just beyond proud of what she has accomplished, Barr said. I knew last year that she had some talent, but I had no idea she would go out and win four in a row. Shes the first horse that Ive officially owned and theres no other horse Id rather own than her. Shes super goofy, with a lot of personality, but shes just meant for me.



Lauras Love, pictured victorious at the wire on January 23, 2020 at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Lauras Love, pictured victorious at the wire on January 23, 2020 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

And the future plans for Lauras Love? Is there any chance that shell be seen at The Raceway going forward?

Im not sure where else shell race other than at Woodbine Mohawk Park, Barr reported. Its completely up to her trainer to decide. And Ill trust that hell do whats best for her  hes been right so far!

(Shannon Sugar Doyle for The Raceway at Western Fair District)
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Linkedin Tri Indah Oktavianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 17:54 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd057a92 1 City COVID-19-Jakarta,Greater-Jakarta,domestic-violence,domestic-abuse,KDRT,kekerasan-dalam-rumah-tangga,LBH-Apik,Komnas-Perempuan Free

Greater Jakarta has seen an uptick in domestic abuse reports in the first month of home-quarantining for the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation of the Indonesian Women Association for Justice (LBH Apik) said it recorded 59 cases of domestic violence, rape, sexual assault and online pornography from March 16 to 30.

Seventeen of the 59 cases involved domestic abuse.

"This is the highest number of domestic violence cases weve ever recorded [in a period of two weeks]," LBH Apik's director Situ Zuma told The Jakarta Post.

She added that 14 of those cases had been handed over to the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) on March 27.

Read also: In Italy, support groups fear lockdown is silencing domestic abuse victims

The figure has tripled because normally, LBH Apik would refer five cases per day to Komnas Perempuan, she said.

"The violence ranges from physical abuse to psychological [and verbal abuse].

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged governments to include the protection of women in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The call came after reports of domestic violence surged globally in the wake of massive quarantines.

India reported double the usual number of domestic abuse cases in the first week of its nationwide lockdown. In France, domestic violence rose by a third in the week after the country's lockdown.
A Georgia man says that God healed him after he was hospitalized with COVID-19. He recently came home from eleven days in the hospital after an experience where the Lord was blowing breath into his lungs.

Clay Bentley believes he contracted the coronavirus at his church in Cartersville. Bentley said, On March 1st, I was singing in the choir. Thats where I got it. Thats where I contracted it at church. There were at least 45 to 50 people in that church in that one meeting that caught the coronavirus, and two died.

One of the church members who died, Elizabeth Wells, was standing close to Bentley in the choir. He told Fox5, Ive been grieving over her, said Bentley. I think she was standing next to me. We had choir practice on Wednesday night and she was standing next to me. Breaks my heart to know that other people in the church are sick and I cant do anything. I stayed up nights just praying for them. Im still praying for the ones who are still in the hospital. Im just praying they get the same relief I got.

Bentley started experienced symptoms within hours of getting home from church. After experiencing shortness of breath, he went to a local urgent care and then later to the emergency room. He told CBN News that the doctors in the emergency room diagnosed him with walking pneumonia and sent him home with an antibiotic.

Bentleys condition deteriorated over the next week, but he believed that God was encouraging him through his struggle. He was admitted to the hospital on Friday, March 6th with what the doctors believed was double pneumonia. The doctors also administered a test for COVID-19, which came back positive.

Bentley said that the Lord provided him continuing encouragement throughout his time in the hospital, especially when the outlook was dark. He said, The doctors came in and said, Youre not getting better, as a matter of fact, youre in worse shape today than when you came in the hospital.

However, Bentley said another voice was speaking to him as well. I heard the Spirit of God starting to tell me, No, youre getting better. Youre getting better. And he began to ask me Who are you going to believe. Whose report will you believe?

Clay told CBN that something incredible happened to him about 3:00 am one morning. I felt the Lord, I felt his presence, he recalled. I felt him blow breath into my lungs and I took a deep breath and I knew it was the Lord blowing in my lungs and when I took a deep breath it was like it all cleared out. He went home two days later.

Bentleys wife Suzy was a constant encouragement to him through his time in the hospital. She quoted Scripture to him even though she was afraid that she might lose him. She lost her mother on March 17 a few years ago and feared he might die on the same day. Instead, that was the day he left the hospital.

Bentley is grateful for the Lords kindness to him and has his fellow church members who are suffering on his heart. He said, "There's members who have been in critical condition  and I still haven't talked to all of them. I don't know how everyone is doing. I've been in isolation, so I don't know, but I am praying for them."

Scott Slayton writes at One Degree to Another.

Photo courtesy: GettyImages/gorodenkoff

Scott Slayton writes at One Degree to Another.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is reportedly in talks with Essel Groups Jalesh Cruises Mauritius Limited for temporarily using its MS Karnika cruise ship as a quarantine facility.

The cruise ship has been docked at the Mumbai Port Trusts harbour since March after the operations were suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak.

When it came from Dubai last, the ship was not allowed to come inside the port due to quarantine issues, a Mumbai Port Trust official said as per a report by The Hindu BusinessLine.

The BMC could use the 2,000-seater cruise ship as a floating quarantine facility if the number of cases continues to rise.

We have established a tie-up between BMC and a cruise vessel having accommodation for 2,000 persons on board to serve as floating quarantine facility, the Mumbai Port Trust said as per the report.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Maharashtra is currently the most-affected state in India with 868 reported cases of coronavirus, with nearly 500 being from Mumbai and regions nearby at the time of writing.

Coronavirus India News LIVE Updates

The Mumbai Port Trust has, on its end, separated its hospital into two  a COVID-19 hospital and a non-COVID-19 hospital. It has developed a COVID-19 (suspected) ward and a COVID-19 (positive) ward, each having its own ICU. Mask and gloves are compulsory even in non-COVID-19 hospital and all necessary equipment such as PPE, mask, gloves and medicines have been purchased in large quantities, including seven new ventilators, a Port Trust official said.

The Port Trust also has quarantine wards at three locations across the city. Further, it has tied up with Sailors Home, Wadi Bunder, (500 beds) for use as a quarantine facility.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
For weeks, with the exception of Rush Limbaugh, public voices were terrified to question health experts' predictions of apocalyptic high coronavirus deaths. Everyone knew he had better embrace the total shutdown of America or be accused of wanting to sacrifice lives for money.

The good news is that we are seeing cracks in fake news media's wall of doomsday corona reporting. Why? Because the predicted catastrophic numbers of corona deaths have not happened. Of the 40 million people living in California, only 250 have died of the virus, equaling three per million. A 104-year-old WWII veteran recovered from the coronavirus.

The majority of people who catch the coronavirus make a full recovery. And yet, practically every COVID-19 news report leads with fear inducing words like "staggering," "skyrocketing," and "deadly."

Pundits and politicians are beginning to acknowledge that coronavirus models could be wrong.

Meanwhile, fake news media gleefully reported that 10 million Americans applied for unemployment and 700,000 jobs have been lost. Fake news media created corona-madness to crush our economy to prevent Trump's re-election. They do not care about the consequences. Suicide hotlines are spiking because of corona-madness. That is sad and shameful.

Some folks fear that Trump is being manipulated by his health experts. I think not. Remember, Trump authored the book The Art of the Deal. Corona-madness is still wreaking havoc. Trump is champing at the bit to reopen America but realizes that the timing must be right.

My wife Mary said that even Trump-supporters on Facebook are battling each other. Some are furious that Trump has not reopened America. Others demand a longer shutdown with more unconstitutional restrictions.

I pray that God will tell Trump when to reopen America. The right time may come sooner than expected.

Already, more Americans appear fed up with house arrest. They are realizing that the high predicted deaths were exaggerated. Also, Americans don't like overlords with political agendas deciding whose job is essential, dictating who can and cannot earn a living. This is reminiscent of Obamacare, in which bureaucrats decide who receives medical treatment, dictating who lives and who dies.

Rush Limbaugh is calling for government to give us a date for when the shutdown will end. People need hope. The Bible says that without vision, the people perish.

Life has taught me that sometimes God gives us good gifts wrapped in ugly wrapping paper. We are receiving remarkable gifts wrapped in coronavirus. Not in my lifetime has an evangelist (Franklin Graham) run commercials on TV boldly encouraging people to surrender their lives to Jesus.

A new poll says millions believe that coronavirus is a wakeup call to turn back to God. Turning back to God is turning back to our roots. Founding father John Adams said, "Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Democrats and fake news media twisted the meaning of "Separation of Church and State" to purge God from our government and culture.

It was thrilling to hear megachurch pastors who never comment about the culture cautioning people not to consume too much of the media's doomsday coronavirus reporting.

In the Bible, Joseph's brothers hated him and sold him into slavery, which remarkably led to Joseph becoming a ruler of Egypt. Without malice, Joseph told his brothers, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good."

Driven insane by their obsession with destroying Trump and dispiriting his voters, Democrats and fake news media nuclear-bombed America with corona-madness. They meant it for evil, but God is using it for good. Did I mention that the invasion of illegals from Mexico has pretty much stopped?

More pundits and politicians are saying it is insane to allow corona-madness to destroy everything people have worked for their entire lives. This could empower Trump to put us back to work much sooner. Stopping the insanity by April 30 or sooner would be a wonderful miracle!

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American

Help Lloyd Spread the Truth

https://www.trumptrainusa2020.com/

http://LloydMarcus.com
By Mario Cavolo

The worst crisis in our lifetime has allowed the world to see the best of China's governance system, compared with the worst of supposedly free Western democratic approaches, which mocks freedom itself and has resulted in chaos and confusion.

Incompetence, inaction, corruption and utter disregard for the common people have caused the decline of the middle class in the United States over the past two decades. The selfish "neoliberal freedom" that ruins and abuses others, while technically within the law, seems the most shameful source of pride for wealthy self-serving Western policymakers.

I am an American and have spent the past 21 years living overseas, watching China's middle-income group rise step by step, while the American middle class plunged into helplessness thanks to self-serving government leaders, and corporate and banking plutocrats.

Disappointing to still see hypocrisy and duplicity

What did the US' behemoth corporations do with the billions of dollars they saved because of the tax cuts? Did they share the wealth with their underpaid employees to improve their lot or make US society more equitable? No. Instead, they once again used the bulk of the money they saved in the tax cuts to buy back more asset-inflating stocks. It is indeed disappointing to see more of the same duplicity, the same hypocrisy, deep state chaos and incompetence.

This is a crucial juncture, though, which raises hope that common sense values such as civic duty would prevail. A global crisis like the novel coronavirus pandemic requires a competent leader to lead the world in paving the way to a better future. What we saw instead was the US administration and some media outlets launching an anti-China campaign at the beginning of March.

Although weeks later, the US president stopped using the racist term to describe the novel coronavirus, the damage had already been done as confirmed cases had begun rising rapidly because US officials ignored, even trashed, the warnings given by China and the World Health Organization regarding the virus.

Only the incompetent look for scapegoats

Stress gives rise to frustration, which leads to blaming others for one's mistakes. The greater the stress and higher the stakes, the more one needs to find a target, a scapegoat, to lay the blame on. If it's a "small" issue, people try to resolve it to relieve the stress. But if the issue is big and the stakes very high, they look for a bigger scapegoat, especially if they have not fulfilled their own responsibilities or are incompetent.

The fact is that the US government, like any other government, is made up of humans so one can understand its mistakes, delays, missteps and misunderstandings. Yet none of those should prompt it to blame China for the novel coronavirus outbreak in the US any more than it should lead China to blame the US for the H1N1 pandemic, which killed between 284,000 and 575,000 people across the world.

It's not about the racist term, which some US politicians continue to use reflecting their ignorance, but about the deeper connotation such terms carry. It's also about the sense of arrogance and moral superiority that many Western politicians have developed.

Sense of duty behind success in largely containing virus

At a time of crisis, what we should instead be looking for is a sense of sacrifice, a commitment to civic duty, for that is exactly what united the Chinese people and the government and helped them to largely contain the virus.

In contrast, the lack of discipline and unity in neoliberal governance, and the societal trends in the West reveal the worst sides of human natureselfishness, individualism and a sense of superioritywhich means the common man can't be asked to stay home and the billionaires can't be expected to help stabilize the very society where they made their wealth.

Examples of malfeasance in the West are endless. For instance, one of the themes for this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of conservative activists just south of Washington, was "The Present Danger: China", a xenophobic, politically charged rallying cry if there ever was one.

Yet the chaotic, uneven response to the global health crisis shows, as one friend recently put it, "China is the only adult in the room."

Instead of good medical service, people in West get frustration

Where the West needs to find civic duty and unity, it fails. Instead we find stories like The Walking Dead actor Daniel Newman saying, on Instagram, that he spent $9,116 to be tested for novel coronavirus and couldn't even get the result. This is what US citizens get even almost three months after China informed the world about the outbreak.

And what does the US administration do to help? It pumps $1.5 trillion into Wall Street to boost stocks and only discusses how to help the people who may soon be jobless and out on the streets joining the more than 500,000 homeless people across the country.

The American Medical Association reports that US doctors are hoarding medicines touted as possible treatment for novel coronavirus by writing prescriptions for themselves and their family members.

In a recent interview, entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban said it appears the whole of US is stressed out because of the shortage of face masks and subsequent price gouging by distributors. He also quoted New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as saying that they were paying $7 a mask rather than the 85 cents before the outbreak. "Somebody is price gouging in a national emergencythat's criminal," Cuban said.

Senator Rand Paul recently said he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Yet he is still out in the public and even went to the gym.

How could the gym let him in and endanger others? Is this what Western freedom is about?

By blaming China for all their ills, Western politicians cannot excuse themselves of incompetence and casualness. They should identify the facts and act responsibly, instead of blaming China for everything.

China now helping other nations fight the pandemic

The truth is, after virtually containing the virus at home, China is helping other countries with medical supplies and sharing the experience it has gathered in the fight against the virus. Everyone commits mistakes but only the wise and conscientious correct, or try to correct, them.

And now, the most important thing is to fulfill your civic duties, especially if you claim to be a representative of the people, toward your country, toward society and toward your fellow human beings.

The author is an Italian-American freelance writer and commentator. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
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Linkedin Apriza Pinandita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 06:30 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd020c87 1 National Freeport-Indonesia,shooting-incident,armed-criminal-group,Timika,New-Zealand-citizen,Papua,OPM Free

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for an independent investigation into the recent murder of a New Zealander Freeport employee by members of an armed group in Mimika regency, Papua

Graeme Thomas Wall, an employee of gold and copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia, was shot dead by gunmen in Timika last week.

Two of Wall's colleagues, Jibril Wahar and Yosephine, were admitted to Tembagapura Hospital with serious injuries, while four other people sustained minor injuries and were treated in the office.

HRW researcher Andreas Harsono said that while Indonesian police should investigate the attack and bring the perpetrators to account, he was worried about a potential violation of the rights of ordinary Papuans.

The New Zealand police should offer to send a team to help the Indonesian investigators. A criminal investigation in a place such as Timika, with numerous competing political and business interests, is best carried out by an independent investigative team removed from local issues, Andreas said.

As well as investigating this latest killing swiftly, Andreas said that the Indonesian government should also allow independent journalists, including from New Zealands media, to enter Papua without the regions highly restrictive travel permit, so that they can freely investigate and report on this crime, he added.

Although the Papua Police initially focused their investigation on an armed gang commanded by a person named Joni Botak, separatist group the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) has claimed responsibility for the shooting.

Papua has been the hotbed of separatism for years and armed groups, which authorities say operate in several regencies in the province, are reported to have been behind numerous violent incidents in the region.

Earlier this month, the police said some 790 people fled their homes in mountainous areas around the Freeport mining site to take refuge at the Tembagapura Police headquarters in Timika over fears of an armed criminal group, which had reportedly terrorized the villagers.

Security authorities previously reported that armed groups had been shooting at Indonesian Military (TNI) and police guard posts. The residents access to basic needs, such as food and health care, had reportedly been restricted by armed men who blocked roads.

Authorities also claimed the locals were still traumatized from their previous encounter with the armed group in November 2017, when its members blocked access into and out of several villages.
Maharashtra Home Department has issued an order that there will be no inquest panchnama done by policemen in coronavirus-related suspicious death cases till provisions of the Epidemic Act, 1897, and the Disaster Management Act, 2005, are in place in the state.

According to the order, this is being done to avoid the potential threat of police personal being infected with COVID-19.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra has climbed to 1,018, state Health Department said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




1. Adding a measure of patient frailty to Medicare payment model could lead to fairer reimbursement for clinicians

Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M19-3261

Editorial: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M20-0873

URL goes live when the embargo lifts

Researchers identified a way to measure frailty using patients' medical claims that more accurately predicts costs-of-care, especially for clinicians with disproportionate shares of frail patients. Adding this measure to Medicare's value-based payment models could lead to fairer reimbursement for clinicians who care for patients with greater needs. Findings from a retrospective cohort study are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Medicare currently does not adjust for patient frailty in its value-based payment models that reward Medicare clinicians for keeping patient costs-of-care low despite the fact that frail patients are known to have more complex needs and cost more to care for. This means that clinicians who care for a disproportionate share of frail patients, such as geriatricians, may be unfairly financially penalized for caring for vulnerable frail patients.

Researchers from the College for Public Health and Social Justice at Saint Louis University, as well as the Washington University School of Medicine and the Harvard University School of Medicine, used the annual Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) linked to respondents' fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare claims and administrative data for 2006 to 2013 to determine whether adding a claims-based frailty index (CFI) measure could improve Medicare cost prediction. They found that incorporating CFI data into cost prediction for annualized Medicare costs (AMCs) improved on the standard Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Hierarchical Condition Category (CMS-HCC) model on average, especially among frail and dually enrolled Medicare beneficiaries. Using this data for reimbursement decisions could improve the accuracy, fairness, and equity of current methods. However, the authors caution that because individual-level cost prediction remains poor under even the augmented models, ongoing advancements in methodology are needed.

The authors of an accompanying editorial from Dalhousie University and Nova Scotia Health Authority support the authors' suggestion that providing care to vulnerable populations and being compensated fairly for it is a matter of equity. Discouraging providers could negatively affect vulnerable groups, thereby worsening health equity. Because incorporation of the CFI improved model performance in predicting cost, value-based payment models could reward providers, nonarbitrary, for rendering services to frail patients.

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF please contact Lauren Evans at laevans@acponline.org. To speak with the lead author, Kenton Johnston, MD, please contact Carrie Bebermeyer at carrie.bebermeyer@slu.edu.

2. Overlapping buprenorphine therapy could help patients reduce opioid use without significant withdrawal symptoms

Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/L19-0725

URL goes live when the embargo lifts

Researchers from Yale School of Medicine have observed that overlapping buprenorphine therapy with long-term opioid therapy may help to avoid significant symptoms of opioid withdrawal in outpatients without opioid use disorder. A case series report is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Buprenorphine is a well-established treatment of opioid use disorder and is now being prescribed for patients who need to reduce opioid use but may not meet the diagnostic criteria for an opioid disorder. However, guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommend cessation of full agonist opioids before buprenorphine therapy can be initiated, which induces significant enough withdrawal symptoms that patients may be unwilling to try it.

Clinicians at Yale School of Medicine developed a novel approach to initiating buprenorphine therapy that proved effective for patients at their clinic without inducing significant withdrawal symptoms. They first tried the protocol on a 62-year-old man whose regimen of controlled-release oxycodone was ineffective for his back pain and impaired his mental acuity. Attempts to lower the dose were unsuccessful because he had significant insomnia. The clinicians designed a protocol where buprenorphine was overlapped with the patient's opioid therapy for 4 to 5 days. The patient continued his therapy at home and on day 5 of the protocol, the patient did not report opioid withdrawal symptoms. On day 7, he noted night sweats and mild anxiety, prompting an increase in the buprenorphine dose. At 1 month, he reported feeling "overall better, clearer" with unchanged pain intensity but improved work performance. The experience was successful enough for the clinicians to consider this protocol for all patients referred to their clinic. They report that to date, all patients opting for this method have done so successfully, without opioid withdrawal symptoms.

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF please contact Lauren Evans at laevans@acponline.org. To speak with the lead author, William C. Becker, MD, please contact Brita Belli at brita.belli@yale.edu.

Also new in this issue:

Hyperthyroidism

Michael T. McDermott, MD

In the Clinic

Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/AITC202004070

Should You Treat This Acutely Ill Medical Inpatient With Venous Thromboembolism Chemoprophylaxis? Grand Rounds Discussion from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Zahir Kanjee, MD, MPH; Kenneth A. Bauer, MD; Anthony C. Breu, MD; and Risa Burns, MD, MPH

Beyond the Guidelines

Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M20-0347

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Ronaldinho has been released from prison in Paraguay and placed under house arrest following his fake passport scandal.

The Brazil legend, 40, was thrown behind bars for allegedly trying to enter the South American nation with forged documentation.

But he has now been allowed to leave prison on the condition he stays within the boundaries of the hotel he will be forced to stay in.

Ronaldinho will be placed under house arrest at the Hotel Palmaroga, in Paraguayan capital city, Asuncion.



The former Barcelona star, along with his brother, was released from prison after just 32 days of what was meant to be a six-month sentence.

Reports claim the pair were only released after paying a 1.3million bond.

They had met with Judge Gustavo Amarillo earlier on Tuesday for a sentencing review hearing.

It was there Ronaldinho and his brother were informed of their house arrest.

On March 6, the pair were held in Paraguay on suspicion of entering the country with a false passport.

Both he and his 49-year-old sibling Roberto deny entering the country with doctored documents.

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Patna: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday directed all district officers to keep a close eye on coronavirus relief camp across the state where patients are under mandatory quarantine or are being treated for the virus symptoms.

Kumar, in a released statement, said that the state government was working round-the-clock to provide relief to coronavirus victims in every which way possible including financial and medical assistance to ease the pain of the patients and their family members.

While kicking off a special coronavirus assistance program, the Chief Minister directed the officers to ensure the money allocated for the relief of COVID-19 victims were not misappropriated and reached the intended family in the fastest possible manner.

Kumar urged Biharis living outside Bihar to remain at their respective places as the government prepared to offer them financial relief from the Chief Minister's Fund. The government has already handed over Rs. 100 crore from the CM Fund to the Disaster Management to disperse among those needing relief immediately.

In a memo, the administration said the maximum number of applications received for Rs. 1000 government handout came from Biharis living in Delhi (55, 264), followed by Haryana (41,050), Maharashtra (30,576), Gujarat (25,638), Uttar Pradesh (23,832), Punjab (15,596), Karnataka (15,428), Tamil Nadu (11,914), Rajasthan (11,773), and West Bengal (9527). Biharis living in 16 other states have also filed for the relief fund.
[April 07, 2020] Kudelski Security Hires Seasoned Leader for US Security Services

CHESEAUX-SUR-LAUSANNE, Switzerland and PHOENIX, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Kudelski Security, the cybersecurity division within the Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S), today announced that Ernie Anderson will join the company as its head of professional services for the Americas. Anderson brings nearly two decades of cybersecurity consulting experience to Kudelski Security, having worked most recently as an associate partner and leader of IBM's Data and Application Security Practice for North America. In his new role, Anderson will lead Kudelski Security's portfolio of professional and consulting services, including advisory consulting, technology and staff augmentation. These teams today support clients through project engagements and long-term support agreements that help define security strategies, deploy and optimize technologies, and provide skilled subject matter expertise. Under Mr. Anderson's leadership, these services will be centrally managed, providing clients a more comprehensive, solution-focused portfolio. "We're excited to have Ernie join our U.S. management team and take the reins of a growing portfolio of cybersecurity services," said Kudelski Security CEO Andrew Howard. "Now more than ever, organizations are struggling with cybersecurity, business continuity and staffing challenges stemming from the rapid increase in remote work Ernie's long tenure in management consulting and his rare combination of both broad and deep cybersecurity expertise brings immediate value to clients to address those challenges and help businesses who are increasingly relying on us as their partner across a range of service-based solutions."



"Over the past four years Kudelski Security has helped hundreds of CISO clients define and execute a more strategic approach to their cybersecurity business," said Mr. Anderson. "The proprietary tools, and a deep bench of experienced consultants, technicians and analysts, represent an incredible opportunity to expand our impact with clients and help them navigate the modern threat landscape with greater confidence." Prior to IBM, Ernie Anderson was at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he led a commercial cybersecurity team, among other roles, and at Ernst & Young as an information technology risk transformation manager. He has a proven track record of working with Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) to deliver a diverse set of services and ensure efficient and effective outcomes, results and reporting. Anderson is a Certifications Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and he received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business Administration.

About Kudelski Security Kudelski Security is the premier advisor and cybersecurity innovator for today's most security-conscious organizations. Our long-term approach to client partnerships enables us to continuously evaluate their security posture to recommend solutions that reduce business risk, maintain compliance and increase overall security effectiveness. With clients that include Fortune 500 enterprises and government organizations in Europe and across the United States, we address the most complex environments through an unparalleled set of solution capabilities including consulting, technology, managed security services and custom innovation. For more information, visit www.kudelskisecurity.com . Media Contact John Van Blaricum

Vice President, Global Marketing

+1 650 966 4320

[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kudelski-security-hires-seasoned-leader-for-us-security-services-301036577.html SOURCE Kudelski Security

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In June 2018, large wildfires broke out on Saddleworth Moor and Winter Hill Saddleworth Moor in the northwest of England. The fires burned for roughly three weeks, 100 firefighters and the army attended and smoke from the fires spread widely across the northwest of England.

In a new study, published in Environmental Research Letters, researchers led by the University of Leeds used computer simulations to calculate the effect of the fires on air quality and the resulting impact on health.

Their findings include:

The fires caused poor air quality over a large region (including Bolton, Wigan and Southport).

4.5 million people were exposed to PM2.5 above the recommended level set by the World Health Organisation (24-hour guideline of 25 g m-3) on at least one day, between 23rd and 30th June.

One of the measures of the impacts is 'deaths brought forward', this is a measure of unfulfilled life expectancy i.e. deaths which occurred earlier than they would have without the pollution from the fires. This can be calculated because exposure to PM2.5 pollution has been shown to be associated with increases in mortality from diseases such as heart disease and stroke.

The calculated health impact indicates that PM2.5 from the fires accounted for 9 deaths brought forward.

The PM2.5 pollution from the fires increased the number of deaths brought forward by up to 165% (Saddleworth Moor) and 95% (Winter Hill), compared to if there were no fires.

The authors estimate the economic impact of the fires to be 21.1 million

The authors said: "It's clear from this study that the pollution from wildfires can have a significant effect on public health. The smoke contains very high levels of toxic particulate matter aerosol, which can be transported long distances. When this smoke passes over urban areas it adds to an already polluted environment and can cause very poor air quality."

"We should be aware that the smoke from wildfires can travel long distances, and can damage people's health, even far from the fires."

"Although people may not have been able to smell smoke, particulate matter was very high in areas far away from the fires, such as Southport and Wigan."

"Particulate pollution from the fires substantially degraded air quality over the north-west of England, leading the pollution levels much above the recommended levels."

The study used a computer model of the atmosphere to investigate the impacts of particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution from the fires on the population in the north-west of England. In the model two scenarios were considered: 1) a scenario with no wildfires and 2) a scenario in which pollutants from the fires are included.

The scenarios allowed researchers to investigate the difference in pollution that occurred as a result of the fires. From this, they calculated the effect of the fire on air quality and then attributed how many deaths were brought forward due to PM2.5 pollution from the fires directly.

Large wildfires are relatively rare in the UK, and few have occurred close to urban populations, so there is little knowledge of the potential impacts of wildfires on public health. However, climate change scenarios predict that UK summers will become both hotter and dryer, which means wildfires are likely to become both more common and thus the impact of wildfires on health is likely to become increasingly important.

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Further information

The paper Impact on air quality and health due to the Saddleworth Moor Fire in Northern England is published open access in Environmental Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab8496

Full list of authors: Graham A.M., Pope R.J., Pringle K.P., Arnold S., Chipperfield, M.P., Conibear, L.A., Butt, E.W., Kiely L., Knote, C. and McQuaid, J.B.

For additional information or to arrange interviews please contact University of Leeds press officer Anna Harrison at a.harrison@leeds.ac.uk or +44 (0)113 34 34196
The Philippines has suffered over 150 covid19 deaths so far and has about 3,500 known cases of the virus. The government has ordered a nationwide lockdown to halt the spread and make it easier to treat those who have it. So far so good.

Covid19 does not appear to have spread to the thousands of Chinese living on existing and artificial islands in the South China Sea that China has claimed and is holding by force against international law and international court decisions affirming the Chinese occupation is illegal. China has offered to assist the Philippines in dealing with covid19 as long as they dont call it the Wuhan virus. China is currently trying to suppress news of the disease inside China, where many locals report their government is not reporting the continued presence of the virus and the growing number of infections and deaths. China is trying to shift blame for the virus to the United States. People in Wuhan find this hard to believe because it was a local doctor who first noticed covid19 in December 2019, raised the alarm and was promptly silenced by the government for spreading rumors. The doctor later died of the virus and has become a folk hero to local Chinese.

Diseases similar to covid19 are common in China and scientists found 80 percent of it was identical to the earlier (2003) SARS, a less-lethal covid-type type virus that also originated in China. Filipinos dont trust China, especially given the way the Chinese have handled the outbreak of the Wuhan virus and its subsequent spread.

While the Philippines has been able to deal with Moslem separatists, Islamic terrorists, leftist rebels, drug gangs and corruption, China persisted and has become a major threat to the Philippines.

April 3, 2020: In the south (Mindanao) four NPA (leftist rebels) members surrendered because they were hungry and tired of hiding from the security forces.

April 2, 2020: China has announced that it is establishing scientific research stations on Subi (Zamora) Reef and Fiery Cross (Kagitingan) Reef. Both of these locations are in the South China Sea. Subi Reef is Filipino because it is within 22 kilometers of Pagasa Island, which is Filipino sovereign territory. China also occupies Mischief Reef and Mckennan Reefs which are both on the Filipino continental strength and, according to international law, part of the Philippines.

April 1, 2020: In the South China Sea Chinese coast guard ships are patrolling Second Thomas Shoal, First Thomas Shoal, and Half Moon Shoal, all within the Filipino EEZ but now claimed by China. The Philippines EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone, waters 380 kilometers from the coast) in the South China Sea is where Filipinos have been fishing the reefs and other shallow waters for centuries, long before there was a Philippine state and without interference from Chinese fishermen, who only occasionally showed up. Thats because fishing boats with refrigeration, a 20th century invention, only recently made it possible for Chinese fishermen to scour the entire South China Sea for fish to profitably catch, refrigerate and carry back to China. The 20th century also meant the possibility of finding oil or gas deposits in the South China Sea as well as controlling key shipping routes via the Malacca Strait.

March 29, 2020: Malaysia has been warned that a group of Abu Sayyaf pirates had recently left Jolo Island in the Philippines and crossed the Sulu Sea towards Sabah, a Malaysian territory long menaced by Abu Sayyaf pirates and raiders. Currently, Abu Sayyaf only has a few hundred active members and is short of cash, local support and new recruits. Kidnapping used to be a good source of cash, especially if a foreigner could be taken. That has become more difficult and risky because the Filipino and Malaysian military has increased the number and effectiveness of its land and naval patrols. Thats one reason most of the recent pirate attacks have occurred in Malaysian waters. Abu Sayyaf also considers itself part of ISIL but that association is second to keeping the Islamic terrorist group operational and that requires cash.

March 28, 2020: In the north (Rizal province) troops were attacked by about 30 NPA gunmen. One soldier and one communist rebel were killed. Two soldiers and several NPA men were wounded as the leftist rebels fled. The government criticized the NPA for violating its own ceasefire that started on March 19th.

March 24, 2020: In the south (Jolo Island), a kidnapped doctor escaped his Abu Sayyaf captors when the gunmen were spotted by some soldiers and closed in. The Abu Sayyaf men fled without trying to take their elderly captive with them. The doctor had been kidnapped from his local clinic on February 4th and the Islamic terrorists were demanding a ransom of $59,000, which his family had not been able to raise yet. The troops caught up with his kidnappers, who escaped after a brief gun battle. Some of the Abu Sayyaf men may have been wounded.

March 21, 2020: In the south (Surigao del Sur province), NPA gunmen murdered two tribal elders. It is unclear why but the reason was probably intimidation, to compel locals to cooperate with the communist rebels.

March 19, 2020: The NPA declared a ceasefire, until April 15, so that everyone can deal with the covid19 epidemic.

March 16, 2020: In the south (Lanao del Sur province), a BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters) member (a low-level leader) surrendered to the police. Elsewhere in the south (Sultan Kudarat province) an NPA member was arrested.

March 14, 2020: In the south (Maguindanao province) over a dozen soldiers were wounded during a series of clashes with BIFF Islamic terrorists.

March 13, 2020: In the north (Luzon), police in Baguio City located and went to arrest three wanted CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) officials. The three were armed, resisted and died in a gun battle. The dead included the head of the NPA. Another of the dead was a member of the CPP executive committee. The CPP has lost the broad support it had fifty years ago when their rebellion began. The NPA is falling apart and a growing number of factions have gone gangster.

March 6, 2020: In the south (Maguindanao province), troops clashed with a BIFF Islamic terrorists several times over the last four days and killed about 14 of them while even more of them were wounded and got away. Only five BIFF bodies were recovered but local villagers who reported the Islamic terrorist presence later reported the larger number of dead from airstrikes and artillery fire. Troops captured some abandoned camps that had been hit by airstrikes or artillery and confirmed that blood trails indicated heavy casualties. Weapons, ammo and other supplies were captured. BIFF considers itself part of ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) and has been under constant heavy attack since late 2018. Only fewer than a hundred members remain active and this clash reduces that number considerably. BIFF was originally formed to oppose BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao), the autonomous Moslem region because they considered it insufficient. Since it was finally created in early 2019 BARMM has proved very popular among Moslems and that meant much less support for groups like BIFF.
The Nigeria Correctional Service (NCS) lied when it claimed that the inmates killed during a riot at the Kaduna prison were condemned inmates and not those awaiting trial, findings by PREMIUM TIMES have shown.

The NCS had earlier claimed that no inmate was killed. It was forced to admit the killings after a PREMIUM TIMES report naming those killed.

Rather than provide details of the dead inmates, a statement on Saturday evening signed by the controller of the Kaduna correctional centre, Sanusi Danmusa, said those who died from injuries sustained during the incident were condemned inmates and not those awaiting trial.

That claim has now been found to be false.

Profile of dead, wounded inmates

PREMIUM TIMES has obtained the profile of some of the deceased and critically injured inmates including what they were being tried for and the courts they were being tried at.

According to reliable sources within the Kaduna centre and the NCS but who do not want to be named for fear of victimisation, the slain victims include 25-year-old Hammed Abdullahi, who was awaiting trial for a murder case at the Kaduna State High Court 5. He reportedly died on the spot when shot by an unknown security operative during the crisis.

Also, 24-year-old Lucky Ujokama, who was reportedly awaiting trial for a rape case at Barnawa Magistrate Court 17, Kaduna, and Yahu Salisu, who was appearing before Magistrate Court 21 on Ibrahim Taiwo Road, Kaduna, for a yet to be confirmed case, died on Wednesday from gunshots sustained in their buttocks.

Another deceased inmate, 37-year-old Ibrahim Abubakar, an awaiting trial inmate for armed robbery and popularly called Baba Lolo, had been appearing at Court 3 of the Kaduna State High Court before Justice Kurada.

Further investigations have also revealed that two condemned convicts, Ogume Osarome and Oluchukwu Oche, are currently in critical condition, and our sources are worried something untoward could happen to them as authorities allegedly intensify efforts to change the narrative.

Meanwhile, Wisdom Felix, whose case is being handled by the Kaduna State High Court 3, and who was allegedly beaten to coma, is yet to recover.

Also, Samuel Sunday, who was appearing before Justice Zakka of High Court 13, on Bida Road, is said to currently have a bullet stuck in him and requires surgery.

Plot to Manipulate Evidence

PREMIUM TIMES has also learnt from NCS sources that the management of the Kaduna Maximum Custodial Centre is currently making efforts to alter the centres records as part of strategies to justify its new narrative about the pandemonium that rocked the centre last week.

The protest by inmates, over the fear of the spread of coronavirus disease and the governments plans to decongest the custodial centres, turned violent, which left not less than four inmates dead.

PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported the centres denial of the fatalities recorded during the riot. It had insisted that no life was lost.

However, following this newspapers Saturday report on the death of five inmates and injuries sustained by 16 NCS officers during the crisis, the management made a volte-face, declaring that only four inmates died.

Thus, to justify its new position as against the PREMIUM TIMES exclusive reports, especially on the death of inmates who were awaiting trial, the centres management is moving to obtain fresh statements from the provosts of various cells, sources at the NCS told this newspaper.

These sources also confirmed that some innocent inmates are now being threatened to write letters of apology.

According to these sources, the management, which is very furious about PREMIUM TIMES report, has also retrieved prison warrants of some of the deceased inmates possibly intending to wipe out their records at the centre.

NCS denies allegation

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Custodial Service has denied the allegations, describing them as lies.

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Speaking through its spokesman, Austin Njoku, the service said it is more concerned about the report of the ongoing investigations on the matter, and that rather than speculating, the public should patiently await the report.

He said; these are lies that should be discouraged. Whoever is giving this kind of information is a liar. It is through that I am not in Kaduna but the headquarters monitor things perfectly. All I can tell you now is to await the report of the investigations.

CSOs warn against manipulation

Meanwhile, the Prisoners Rights Advocacy Initiative (PRAI), has added its voice to other groups demanding for justice on the matter, urging thorough investigation into the matter and prosecution of whoever is found guilty.

The groups executive director, Ahmed Adetola-Kazeem, who likened the development to the death of some inmates at Ikoyi custodial centre about five months ago, said failure to release a report of investigation conducted on the matter would not be tolerated.

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In a statement issued on Sunday, Mr Adetola-Kazeem called for the investigation of the murder of the inmates through an independent inquest, dismissal of all officers found culpable and their trial for murder, and adequate compensation of the deceased families.

The statement reads in part: I had predicted in a series of interviews I have granted since the outbreak of COVID-19 that if the government does not do massive decongestion of the custodial centres, there is bound to be resistance from the inmates due to fear of being infected by the virus. This is the case in many Prisons across the world.

He demanded an apology from the NCS for saying those who died were condemned inmates. Assuming they were, does the law provide that they should be killed in this manner?

Similarly, Funke Adeoye of Hope behind Bars Africa said as long as a death sentence has not been carried out in accordance with the provision of the law, the death of an inmate while in the custody of the NCS due to negligence and not natural reasons is a violation of their right to life.

She demanded details of the inmates and that their families be notified, adding that NCS admission is a testament to what could happen in other custodial centres if the government fails to quickly decongest the custodial centres.

In a statement shared with PREMIUM TIMES, Ms Adeoye said; Countries all over the world have found ways to release minor offenders to prevent an outbreak of the pandemic in prison. In Nigerias case, holding minor offenders is illegal according to Parts 44 and 45 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (2015) and Part 2 of the Nigerian Correctional Service Act (2019) which already makes provisions for the utilisation of non-custodial measures for petty/minor offences.
Boris Johnson remains in hospital following his admission on Sunday with continuing coronavirus symptoms, as ministers resisted pressure to set out an exit strategy from the lockdown.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the Prime Minister remained in charge of the Government despite remaining under observation at St Thomass Hospital, London.

But at the daily Number 10 news conference, he faced repeated questions as to how Mr Johnson could cope with demands of the premiership if he was sick enough to require hospital treatment.

Earlier Downing Street, which had previously described his symptoms as mild, switched to describing them as persistent.

Last night, on the advice of my doctor, I went into hospital for some routine tests as Im still experiencing coronavirus symptoms. Im in good spirits and keeping in touch with my team, as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe.  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) April 6, 2020

They included a cough as well as a continuing high temperature, 10 days after he first tested positive for the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the latest official figures showed 5,373 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Sunday  and increase of 439 on the previous day.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said Mr Johnson had been taken to hospital on the advice of his doctor and as a precaution, and that it was not an emergency admission.

The spokesman said that he remained in touch with colleagues in Number 10 and that he was continuing to work from his bed on official papers delivered in his ministerial red box.

Mr Raab, who as First Secretary of State stood in for the Prime Minister at the Governments daily coronavirus war cabinet, said his team were continuing to work full throttle to ensure his instructions were implemented.

Hes in charge, but hell continue to take doctors advice on what to do next, he said.

Expand Close Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Mr Johnson remains in charge of the Government (Pippa Fowles/Crown Copyright/10 Downing Street/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Mr Johnson remains in charge of the Government (Pippa Fowles/Crown Copyright/10 Downing Street/PA)

I spoke to the Prime Minister over the weekend. He is being kept abreast of all the relevant developments.

In a tweet, Mr Johnson confirmed he was still showing symptoms of the virus but said he remained in good spirits.

Last night, on the advice of my doctor, I went into hospital for some routine tests as Im still experiencing coronavirus symptoms, he said.

Im in good spirits and keeping in touch with my team, as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe.

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In other developments:

 MPs have called for social media companies to be held to account for the spread of conspiracy theories online linking 5G technology to the coronavirus outbreak;

 The Local Government Association warned councils will be forced to shut parks if people keep breaking social distancing rules;

 The Foreign Office has announced further flights to repatriate British nationals stranded in India, Nepal, the Philippines and South Africa;

 A detachment of 40 soldiers from the Scots Guards is helping expand St Marys Hospital on the Isle of Wight to provide an additional 200 beds for Covid-19 patients.

Meanwhile, Mr Raab rejected calls for ministers to set out an exit strategy from the lockdown amid mounting concern at the economic devastation that is being wrought.

Expand Close Professor Chris Whitty said it would be a mistake to discuss exit strategies until the peak had passed (Pippa Fowles/Crown Copyright/10 Downing Street/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Professor Chris Whitty said it would be a mistake to discuss exit strategies until the peak had passed (Pippa Fowles/Crown Copyright/10 Downing Street/PA)

New Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called on the Government over the weekend to spell out how it intended to lift the restrictions as the outbreak receded.

However, Mr Raab warned it was essential not to distract from the need to maintain social distancing as the epidemic approached its peak.

The risk is if we start taking our eye off the ball, of tackling the coronavirus, stopping the spread and getting through the peak, we risk delaying the point at which we could in the future take those decisions on easing restrictions, he said.

His comments were echoed by the chief medical officer for England  Professor Chris Whitty making his first public appearance since ending his self-isolation  who said it would be a mistake to discuss exit strategies until it was clear the peak had passed.

The key thing is to get to the point where we are confident we have reached the peak and this is now beyond the peak, he said.

At that point, I think it is possible to have a serious discussion about all the things we need to do step-by-step to move to the next phase of managing this.

He acknowledged, however, that in deciding when to ease the restrictions, the economic damage caused by the lockdown would be a factor.

Anything that has an impact on the socio-economic status, particularly of people who are more deprived, will have a long-term health impact as well, he said.

We have to, in our exit strategy, balance all of these different elements which can be in tension.
Wuhan, in central Chinas Hubei province, has significantly improved its medical waste handling capacity and achieved total treatment of newly-added waste within 24 hours.

A worker disinfects garbage bins containing medical waste in Wuhan. (Photo/Xinhua)

By March 28, Wuhans daily medical waste disposal capabilities have improved to 265.6 tons from 50 tons before the COVID-19 outbreak, while that of the province to the current 667.4 tons from the previous 180 tons.

The medical waste and medical sewage in the whole province are handled in an orderly manner, with no environmental problems caused by the prevention and control of the epidemic, said Lyu Wenyan, head of Hubei provincial department of ecology and environment, at a recent press conference.

Together with nine other central departments, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment released a plan on disposal of medical waste on Feb. 24. The ministry has deployed 46 mobile medical waste treatment facilitates and 65 transport vehicles to the province, including Wuhan. The ministry also sent 140 professional medical waste handlers to the city.

Under the overall coordination of the central government, within 14 days a new medical waste disposal center, with a capacity of 30 tons, was build in the city.

Local governments have also launched a raft of measures to enhance its handling capability. Wuhan built 17 temporary warehouses for storage of medical waste across the city, covering an area of 15,000 square meters, according to Yan Zhongning, head of the citys bureau of ecology and environment.

The urban cleaning department has arranged vehicles and waste incineration power plants to transfer and dispose of some medical waste.

The bureau of ecology and environment strengthened environmental monitoring to ensure safe disposal of medical waste, including assigning a team to monitor over the 150 hospitals designated for treating COVID-19 patients, Fangcang makeshift hospitals, isolation facilities, medical waste treatment facilities, and sewage treatment plants in the city on a daily basis.

To assist Wuhan in handling medical waste, Hubei also sent teams from cities including Xiangyang, Huangshi and Xianning to the city.

Such achievements are inseparable from the correct guidance of the central government.
Whether or not the coronavirus turns out to be as deadly as stated  and I certainly think its ravages are blown horrifically out of proportion  there will have to be a cogent plan to pick the economy up after this societal shutdown. The economy may be in critical condition  and that condition will have been self-inflicted.

Some suggestions:

A TARIFF ON OIL  Some major world oil-producing nations have decided to get into a price war. Such a war has the potential to do severe damage to America's growing oil production from fracking. This has been aggravated all the worse by the corona panic, where there is a fear that an oil glut will force some producers to actually pay customers to take excess oil off their hands.

There is no way that America should sacrifice its burgeoning oil wealth to this crisis. A tariff on any crude oil that comes into the U.S. that is under $55 a barrel should be instituted. Crude oil was roughly $53 a barrel on February 21, 2020, before this national overreaction to the coronavirus occurred. Fifty-five dollars is a reasonable cutoff price.

Any monies earned should go to paying off part of the horrendous debt that has been incurred.

A CALL TO RELOCATE FOREIGN MANUFACTURING  This cannot be done overnight, but there should be a call to return manufacturing back to America, or at least to non-authoritarian countries that play by the rules.

No one believes China's coronavirus numbers. It is folly that we vest so much production there. Now is the time to get those factories out. Tax incentives can be used.

From ASME:

An increasing number of American manufacturers are coming back to the U.S. from lower-cost countries  a trend known as reshoring. They recognize that the cost advantages of manufacturing in a foreign country are diminishing as other risks are increasing, including unstable supply chains, poor product quality, shipping delays, and potentially long-term global trade wars.

China is going to be severely hit by this crisis. Production will move to India, Vietnam, even Africa, etc. Some of those manufacturers should be encouraged to come to the USA.

A LESSENING OF CLIMATE CHANGE IDIOCY  Already government interference in life has prompted calls for a similar approach to climate change. These Chicken Littles will get away with it if someone does not speak up.

Now is the time to nip this in the bud, before the public gets used to this much control.

It should be stated clearly that climate change is a hoax and that any attempt to enforce a Green New Deal will only worsen the recovery. If the decision is placed before the public of JOBS vs. CLIMATE HOAX, the public will be in a mood to finally ditch this idiocy. Now is the time to put paid to this stupidity.

Finally, and most controversially ...

OUR MONETARY SYSTEM HAS TO BE REVAMPED  There are those  myself included  who feel that a large part of our systemic debt problem was started in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank  which, despite its name, is a private institution. Contrary to common opinion  and what I was taught in school  the Federal Reserve is not a benign moderator of the economy.

I am of the opinion  and I am not the only one  that World War I could never have reached the horrible levels of destruction that it did had not the Federal Reserve Bank been created a year earlier. It cushioned the risks of American loans to European powers, which were handed out so liberally that American prosperity became unwisely conditioned on an Allied victory.



Without those loans, Britain and France would have been faced with bankruptcy soon into the war, as American credit would have dried up. No one would have assumed the risks. The British and French would have been forced into negotiating a peace with Germany rather than insisting on a total victory over the Kaiser as they did. Fewer lives would have been lost. Germany and Eastern Europe would not have collapsed into catastrophic decay. Hitler could not have risen to power under the "stabbed in the back" slogan.

No Nazis. No communism. No World War II.

Yes, the Kaiser was a loopy autocrat. But what replaced him was worse. Before the war, the Germans had been starting to liberalize, and a negotiated victory  returning the world to the status quo ante  would have been preferable to the chaos that ensued.

Germany would have still been faced with a growing Polish militancy for independence. Austria-Hungary was already on the verge of centrifugal collapse into competing ethnicities. And the Ottoman Turks already had issues with the Arabs  especially the Lebanese  who were already restless. There was a Pan-Arab Congress held in 1913.

A negotiated peace would have left Germany, Austria, and the Ottomans in unenviable positions. By comparison, on the Allied side, the only issue was Irish separatism, which Britain might have conceded had there not been recalcitrants in Ulster. The Irish finally revolted in 1916 when it became apparent that the British were more interested in placating the Ulster minority than treating honestly with the Irish.

That being said, a negotiated peace in 1916 would have left Western civilization wounded but still strong and intact. The authoritarian Central Powers were far more internally weak than the Allies and would have eventually liberalized. Germany was already well along the path. There was no need to destroy them.

The only downside to that negotiated peace would have been no Balfour Declaration in 1917, but Israel would have come about anyway in another, arguably less problematic, fashion. Zionism was established before WWI and did not really need Balfour's declaration to begin with.

Such destruction of Europe could not have occurred without the Federal Reserve propping up the Allies. Moreover, the Great Depression of the 1930s would not have occurred without the Feds tightening currency.

I don't have enough space to go into the 2008 disaster.

Rather than incurring more debt, may I suggest that President Trump do what Lincoln did and issue the equivalent of greenbacks? European bankers wanted Lincoln to take out atrocious loans, but he did not want to submit Americans to debt slavery as the price to keep the Union together. Rather, Lincoln printed greenbacks  to the horror of European bankers. Moreover, at the end of the war, the North refused to honor Southern debts, and the Europeans were stuck with the bill for the insurrection.

A century later, President Kennedy temporarily issued United States Notes, and this is what President Trump should do. These can be slowly withdrawn from circulation as the economy picks up. They would be debt-free.

Economic classicists will howl that this is just printing money! But isn't that what the Constitution authorized the government to do  rather than the private Federal Reserve?

While the United States Notes are in circulation, Federal Reserve bankers could be put on notice that their currency monopoly is on limited time while a new system is being set up. The U.S. government should not be paying interest to borrow its own money. Perhaps, instead of withdrawing U.S. Notes, Federal Reserve notes should be slowly taken out.

If done wisely, the economic shock of this present overreaction could be strongly attenuated.

President Trump, who acts outside the box, should consider it.
Seven-time Grammy winner Gloria Estefan urged her 2.2M social media following to 'put on your mask' in a two-minute reimagining of her 1989 hit song Get On Your Feet for the coronavirus era.

'They say stay home / Please don't go outside / There's no use dying / Each time someone comes within six feet / We feel like crying,' the Cuban-American 62-year-old sang on Saturday.

'I know it's true / We are going through this nasty virus / We understand, if we wash our hands, we can survive this / Put on your mask / When you go out in public / Put on your mask / Help save the world from COVID.'

'Help save the world from COVID!' Seven-time Grammy winner Gloria Estefan urged her fans to 'put on your mask' in a two-minute reimagining of her 1989 hit song Get On Your Feet for the coronavirus era

The Cuban-American 62-year-old sang on Saturday: 'They say stay home / Please don't go outside / There's no use dying / Each time someone comes within six feet / We feel like crying'

In the catchy PSA, Gloria dons a colorful array of 'fabulous' $20 masks designed by Jeanne Nugent, whose Etsy shop is called Endora's Closet.

While referring to missing her 'friends and our relations' pictures of Estefan's two children - son Nayib, 39; and daughter Emily, 25 - as well as her husband Emilio Estefan, Jr. flashed on the screen behind her.

The One Day at a Time guest star, who's in quarantine at her lavish Star Island mansion in Miami Beach, revealed the idea for the music video came from her real-life Dr. Aileen Marty.

She continued: 'I know it's true / We are going through this nasty virus / We understand, if we wash our hands, we can survive this / Put on your mask / When you go out in public'

Amazon isn't the only one selling masks! In the catchy PSA, Gloria dons a colorful array of 'fabulous' $20 masks designed by Jeanne Nugent, whose Etsy shop is called Endora's Closet

'Friends and our relations': Pictures of Estefan's two children - son Nayib, 39; and daughter Emily, 25 - as well as her husband Emilio Estefan, Jr. flashed on the screen behind her

'I wanted to contribute something': The One Day at a Time guest star, who's in quarantine at her lavish Star Island mansion in Miami Beach, revealed the idea for the music video came from her real-life Dr. Aileen Marty (pictured Monday)

'I wanted to contribute something that would put a bit of humor into a very serious situation because that's what has helped me get through the toughest moments in my life,' Gloria explained.

'I hope I make you smile while imparting an important message! Stay healthy, my people...and to those suffering from this vile plague or those that have lost loved ones, you are in my prayers and thoughts continuously. We will get through this! I love you!

Estefan, her daughter Emily, and her niece Lili will next star in producer Jada Pinkett Smith's Red Table Talk spin-off series The Estefans set to premiere later this year on Facebook Watch - according to Deadline.
President Donald Trump was lobbied to use the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus during an Oval Office visit from Fox News host Laura Ingraham and two doctors who are frequent guests on her show.

And, it was revealed, Trump has a financial stake in a French firm that makes the drug.

The president came out of Ingraham meeting full of enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine, which has shown some promise but has not undergone rigorous testing for its treatment of COVID-19, The Washington Post reported.

And Trump has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French company that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine, The New York Times reported.

President Donald Trump was lobbied to use hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus during an Oval Office visit from Fox News host Laura Ingraham

Laura Ingraham brought two doctors who frequently appear on her show with her to the Oval Office meeting to talk to President Trump about hydroxychloroquine

But the investment is part of the Trump family's larger stake in a mutual fund whose largest holding is in Sanofi. The French drugmaker also manufactures many other drugs and there is no suggestion that Trump is motivated by personal gain and may even be unaware of the investment.

Sanofi does not market hydroxychloroquine in the United States or in the United Kingdom, according to the company.

Trump repeatedly has advocated for hydroxychloroquine to be used as a treatment option for the coronavirus even as many medical officials - including Dr. Tony Fauci, who sits on the White House Coronavirus Task Force - have urged a more cautious approach, noting the lack of reputable scientific studies on hydroxychloroquine.

But the president's focus on the drug comes from a combination and optimism, sources told the newspaper, as Trump looks for a magic bullet to make the pandemic go away and let the economy reopen in time to recover before November's election.

'The president lives in a world of wishes and hope,' one person said.

'It's the only thing anyone has held out as offering an immediate reprieve from what's become his greatest challenge - and political threat,' said a former senior administration official. This official described Trump's 'overwhelming desire for a silver bullet to make it all go away.'

Trump has given his own reasons for advocating the drug.

'I want people to live and I'm seeing people dying,' he explained Sunday during his daily press briefing.

'What really do we have to lose?' he asked after announcing his administration had bought 29 million doses of the drug to combat the virus.

'But what do I know? I'm not a doctor,' Trump conceded. 'I'm not acting as a doctor. I'm saying, do what you want.'

Ingraham has promoted hydroxychloroquine on her 10 p.m. Fox News show.

When she met with the president, she brought with her two of the guests she refers to as her 'medical cabinet': Ramin Oskoui, a Washington D.C.-based cardiologist, and Stephen Smith, a New Jersey-based infectious disease specialist.

Ingraham brought to her Trump meeting two of the guests she refers to as her 'medical cabinet': Ramin Oskoui, a Washington D.C.-based cardiologist, and Stephen Smith, a New Jersey-based infectious disease specialist

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn was in the room as well at the president's request.

Smith, a graduate of Yale Medical School who is a former fellow at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, gave the president a presentation about hydroxychloroquine based on his own experiences and studies, two White House officials and a person familiar with the meeting told The Post.

Smith told the newspaper he walked Trump through a spreadsheet and other documents about how the drug works.

'I'm a guy who looks at data,' Smith said. 'I came as a scientist and physician. I trained under Dr. Fauci and respect him a lot.'

And he told Ingraham on her show Wednesday night: 'I think this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic. I'm very serious.'

He also told her that none of his coronavirus patients who have been on a hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin regimen for five days or more has had to be intubated.

Oskoui, meanwhile, advised Trump on health care policy during the 2016 campaign. And, in 2018, he wrote an op-ed for LifeZette, the conservative news website founded by Ingraham where he's listed as a senior health care adviser, arguing that school shootings could be prevented by taking teenagers off of certain anti-depressants.

He advocated for hydroxychloroquine on Ingraham's show last week.

'We don't have time to do beautiful, randomized clinical trials. We know these drugs have a very good safety margin,' Oskoui said. 'These drugs are clearly effective and safe. They're cheap and they're easy to access. The biggest problem with hydroxychloroquine may be getting enough of it.'

The American Medical Association's president, Dr Patrice Harris, told the Associated Press she personally would not prescribe the drug for a coronavirus patient, saying the risks of severe side effects were 'great and too significant to downplay' without large studies showing the drug is safe and effective for such use.

Harris pointed to the drug's high risk of causing heart rhythm problems.

'People have their health to lose,' she said. 'Your heart could stop.'

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has been procuring hydroxychloroquine and got into a heated fight with Dr. Anthony Fauci about the effectiveness of the drug

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has urged caution when it comes to the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus

In a heated Situation Room meeting of the White House's coronavirus task force Saturday, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro challenged Dr. Anthony Fauci over his concerns about recommending the drug based only on unscientific anecdotal evidence.

Navarro, who has no formal medical training, erupted at Fauci, raising his voice and claiming the reports of studies he had collected were enough to recommend the drug widely, a person familiar with the exchange told Axios.

Fauci has repeatedly said current studies provide only anecdotal findings that the drug works. In response, Navarro told CNN on Monday, 'I would have two words for you: 'second opinion.'

Navarro has been trying to source hydroxychloroquine from around the world as part of his role as coordinator of implementing Defense Production Act policy.

Trump announced last Thursday that he was invoking the Defense Production Act to help clear up supply-chain issues with manufacturing ventilators and producing additional N95 face masks.

The president put Navarro in charge of coordinating those efforts.

During an impromptu White House press briefing Sunday evening, Trump stopped Fauci from answering a question from a reporter about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine.

When reporters tried to get Fauci's opinion on the drug  after he previously warned against seeing the malaria medication as a wonder drug  Trump stepped in and stopped the question.

'We're starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. And hopefully in the not-too-distant future we'll be very proud of the job we all did,' Trump said, instead of letting Fauci answer.

Fauci has warned Americans not to consider it a 'knock out' drug when it comes to the coronavirus.

'Weve got to be careful that we dont make that majestic leap to assume that this is a knockout drug. We still need to do the kinds of studies that definitely prove whether any intervention is truly safe and effective,' he told 'Fox & Friends' on Friday.

Hydroxychloroquine pills: President Trump and his administration kept up their promotion of the malaria drug not yet officially approved for fighting the new coronavirus

Hydroxychloroquine is officially approved for treating malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, not COVID-19. Small, preliminary studies have suggested it might help prevent the new coronavirus from entering cells and possibly help patients clear the virus sooner. But those have shown mixed results.

Doctors are already prescribing the malaria drug to patients with COVID-19, a practice known as off-label prescribing.

Research studies are now beginning to test if the drugs truly help COVID-19 patients, and the Food and Drug Administration has allowed the medication into the national stockpile as an option for doctors to consider for patients who cannot get into one of the studies.

But the drug has major potential side effects, especially for the heart, and Fauci has said more testing is needed before it's clear that the drug works against the virus and is safe for such use.

Some limited studies have been conducted on the use of hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic azithromycin in concert to treat COVID-19, but they have not included critical control groups that scientists use to validate the conclusions.

Researchers in China, for instance, reported that cough, pneumonia and fever seemed to improve sooner among 31 patients given hydroxychloroquine compared with 31 others who did not get the drug, but fewer people in the comparison group had cough or fevers to start with.

Many questions have been raised about another study in France. Some of the 26 people given hydroxychloroquine in that test were not counted in the final results, including three who worsened and were sent to intensive care, one who died a day after later testing negative for the virus and one who stopped treatment because of nausea.

The French study was published in an International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy journal. The society's president wrote on its website that the report 'does not meet the society's expected standard.'
A Sacramento couple who thought they'd taken a trip to "the safest place in the world" from COVID-19 were surprised to return from their trip and test positive for the coronavirus.

Well-known Sacramento defense attorney Bill Portanova and his wife Shauna told the Sacramento Bee they may have contracted the virus sometime during their Antarctic trip in March. The couple's four-week trip started in February (for reference, the first COVID-19-related death in California happened on March 4) and took them on a luxury cruise on the M.S. Roald Amundsen. They said the ship had a "few hundred" other passengers.

We were in the safest place in the world literally, Bill Portanova told the Bee.

Of course, it's highly unlikely the Portanovas came into contact with the virus in Antarctica itself. They told the Bee they were in the small Falkland Islands town of Stanley on the same day as the Holland America cruise ship Zaandam. The Zaandam had a widespread coronavirus outbreak with at least 250 passengers reporting symptoms and four dying on board, two linked directly to COVID-19. It was denied port by multiple countries before finally docking in Florida last week.

After a 14-day quarantine aboard the Roald Amundsen, the Portanovas said they made it onto a flight out of Chile in late March. The flight took them to JFK Airport in New York, Los Angeles International Airport and, finally, Sacramento. Bill told SFGATE that the entire return trip took 46 hours and he felt "certain" they picked up the virus on that long journey home.

They initially chalked up their virus symptoms to jetlag, but a test showed Shauna has COVID-19; doctors told Bill to presume he is also infected.

Nonetheless, the Portanovas are grateful for their experience aboard the ship and the care they received from the crew.

"The Hurtigruten ship and crew were incredible, and they took the best care of us, treating us like guests even though we ended up staying onboard almost twice as long as scheduled," Bill told SFGATE. "In fact, the captain and crew received standing ovations from the passengers for their commitment and professionalism throughout."

To read the full story  it's outside of the paywall  visit the Sacramento Bee.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

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This is an unprecedented time for all of us here in D.C. and around the world, she said in a statement. The severe economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have unfolded at an incredibly rapid pace, requiring all of us to work together and demanding the highest levels of strategic and creative thinking to solve our problems in the long-term. We are grateful to the musicians of the NSO for partnering with us and that, together, we have found a way forward.
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Global COVID-19 death toll crosses 74,795, total cases over 13 lakh



Globally, the death toll surpassed 74,795 and the number of infections rose to 1,348,257. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care in hospital after his coronavirus symptoms "worsened". The number of Covid-19 cases in the US, meanwhile, has seen a steep spike. So far, 367,004 are infected in that country and 10,871 have died from the highly contagious disease. Spain's tally is at 136,675, Italy 132,547, Germany 103,374 and 98,010. Japan, which had seen a more or less flat growth in its number of cases, has also seen a major spike, with 515 new cases being reported in one day. Japan PM Abe declares state of emergency over coronavirus. Russia's daily rise in coronavirus cases tops 1,000 for first time



There was a sigh of relief in Italy this weekend as its daily Covid-19 toll fell to its lowest in two weeks, leading the authorities in Rome to declare that the containment restrictions in place might be eased soon. There have been over 15,000 Covid-19 deaths in Italy so far, a number second only to that of China, where the pandemic originated. The situation was so grave at one point that medical staff were reportedly prioritising treatment for those with better odds of survival.



Struggling against the pandemic, Italy announced a series of stringent measures aimed at controlling the spread of Covid-19. The national lockdown announced on 9 March banned everything from shops (except pharmacies and food markets) to strolls in the parks and all non-essential economic activity. Violators faced jail time of up to three months and heavy fines.
Photo credit: Maksym Kaharlytskyi - Getty Images

From Delish

You might describe fortified wines the same way you would your dream partner: full-bodied, strong, warming, durable, ages well. They're the bottles you probably associate with drinking before or after a mealthink: Sherry, Port, Madeira, Marsala, or Vermouth. These hefty wines are created by adding a neutral grape spirit to a base wine to boost the booze content and give it a longer shelf life. Historically, this was done so that wines could withstand expeditions across the sea. Today, that Ruby Port youre sipping on might not have only traveled to you from the banks of Douro in Portugal but has been aging for decades, just waiting for the moment you decided to pair it with a slice of decadent chocolate cake. You're *literally* drinking history. Wanna learn a bit more?

What is a fortified wine?

Fortified wines are incredibly diverse. They can be dry, sweet, or anywhere in between. While some are delicate, others are syrupy. Some are nutty or fruity, others bitter. They come from all over the globe and from a multitude of different grape varietals. If you get into the nitty gritty with an enthusiast, he or she can even describe the types of soil that each grape grows on, the name of the wind that blows through a given region, and what size barrels the wines are aged in. Seriously.

So let's keep it simplewhat unifies this style of wine is that it's all bolstered with a distilled spirit to increase the alcohol content to between 15 and 22 percent.

Each type of fortified wine is very distinguishable from the other because strict regulations ensure winemakers adhere to practices that result in accurate representations of the desired style. These include rules about alcohol by volume, grapes used, the type of spirit added, aging requirements, and resulting sugar content. Regionality is essential, too. Port's gotta come from Portugal, Sherry from Spain, and so on and so forth.

How is fortified wine made?

Story continues

Fortified wine production starts similar to any other winegrapes are harvested, pressed, and then fermented. Fermentation uses yeast to convert the grape sugar to alcohol. If the neutral spirit (generally between 50-70% abv) is added before fermentation then it prevents those sugars from converting, resulting in a naturally sweeter but definitely boozier wine. The longer the winemaker waits to add the spirit throughout the process of fermentation, the drier the resulting wine. The driest wines will be created if the spirit is added after fermentation has completed.

How is fortified wine aged?

The short answer is in wood. Sometimes with additional aging in bottle. For many years.

The long answer involves humidity, yeast, attics, and fractional blending, so we'll just skip that. Just like each style has different restrictions for grape use and when fortification occurs, they also differ greatly in aging requirements and methods.

Photo credit: Bruce Yuanyue Bi - Getty Images

What are types of fortified wine?

Let's run through some of the more popular kinds, shall we?

Sherry: Sherry wears many hats. In its driest and most delicate hat, it's called a Fino. When it's wearing its richest and most robust hat, it's an Olorosso. But there are hats in between, too. (Okay, enough of the hat chat.) All styles will come from Andalusia, Spain, and are fortified after fermentation. They are aged using the solera system, in which younger sherries are added to older sherries. Because in life, some years are better than others.

Port: Port comes from Douro River Valley in Portugal. There are two basic styles (Ruby and Tawny), with sub-styles in between. Ruby port finishes its aging in bottles, resulting in a more fruit-driven wine. Its raspberry, cherry flavors couple perfectly with chocolate anything. Tawny port matures completely in wood. As oxygen seeps through the wood into the wine, it creates nutty, caramelized characteristics. Play it safe and mirror flavors when pairing or let opposites attract and pair it with a cheese plate.

Madeira: This "cooked" wine comes from the Madeira Islands of Portugal. It first developed its sense of style centuries ago while making sea voyages for months at a time. The wine was exposed to repeated heating and cooling leading to basically indestructible wines. Madeira producers mimic these voyages during the aging process using hot steam from coils, or naturally and gently in sun-warmed attics over years.

Marsala: Marsala is a white fortified wine from Sicily, Italy, that ranges from dry to sweet. When dry, it's typically served as an aperitif (a before dinner drink to whet the appetite). Sweet madeiras are more commonly cooked with than sipped. Did I hear someone say Chicken Marsala?

What is aromatized wine?

Aromatized wines are fortified wines that have been spruced up with spices, herbs, or other natural flavorings.

What are types of aromatized wine?

We'll cover the basics:

Vermouth: Vermouth is composed of a dry white wine that's fortified with brandy and aromatized with wormwood and other goodies. Confusingly, Italian vermouth usually refers to the sweet version and French vermouth refers to its dry counterpart, though both styles can be produced in either country.

Quinquina: These are flavored with quinine, a bitter compound found in chichona bark. Some even believe quinine to have medicinal properties.

Barolo Chinato: This one has a base wine of Nebbiolo from Barolo. It's aromatized with quinine thus making it an Italian quinquina.

How should you store fortified wines?

When considering how to store these wines, think of a wine cellardark and cool. Once you open the bottles, they should be enjoyed rather quickly (darn!), especially the more delicate ones, like fino sherry. Others can last for a few months in the fridge post bottle poppin'. When in doubt, look into proper storing for that particular style, as they all vary slightly.

How should fortified wines be served?

Each type will vary in recommended serving style, chilled or room temp, in a coupe or in a cocktail...or chugged straight from the bottle. Play around and see what you like best! It might differ from the way your cute, local bartender prefers it.

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Millions of surgical masks have arrived in Canada from China, the federal government confirmed Monday.

The shipment comes at a time when front line medical workers dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic say there is a real risk of running out of personal protective equipment.

Heres what we know about the shipment.

What did the shipment consist of?

According to Cecely Roy, press secretary for Anita Anand, the minister of public services and procurement, a flight landed in Toronto Monday morning containing millions of surgical masks that had been procured from Chinese suppliers, as well as gear that had been ordered separately by the provinces of Quebec and Nova Scotia.

How are the masks being distributed?

The hope is to deliver the masks to provinces and territories as soon as possible through a new distribution arrangement the government set up with Amazon and Canada Post, Roy said. But before that can happen, the masks need to be assessed by the Public Health Agency of Canada, she said.

Is there an issue with the masks?

Roy said there is nothing unique about this shipment. It is routine for health officials to check that items meet requirements before distributing them, she said. Health officials were unable to say how long it will take to assess the masks.

In recent days, international media reports have indicated problems with some masks manufactured in China, which has ramped up its production of medical supplies. According to the BBC, the Dutch health ministry announced it had recalled 600,000 face masks because they did not fit and their filters did not work, even though they had a quality certificate.

China said the manufacturer made clear the masks were non-surgical, news agency Agence France-Presse reported.

How dire is the need for masks in Canada?

Even with all the measures that are being taken to flatten the curve, we are still at real risk of using up all the supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), Dr. Atul Kapur, an emergency physician at The Ottawa Hospital and co-chair of the public affairs committee of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, wrote in an email. So everything we can do to reduce the demand and increase the supply is vital, including this shipment.

Kapur added: From what were hearing, everyone is being careful about using PPE appropriately, in anticipation of increased need.

If the masks are cleared for use, how will they be divvied up?

The Star asked federal health officials for a breakdown of needs by province, but they said they needed time to compile the information.

Why does Canada need to source masks from China and are there plans to import more?

Roy said China is a major mask-manufacturing hub, along with Europe and the United States.

She said Ottawa is working on procuring more shipments from abroad but wasnt able to provide further details Monday, citing the fluidity and fragility of the global supply chain.

She added that Canada is looking to boost its ability to produce medical equipment domestically, citing a recent announcement that Ottawa had signed contracts with three Canadian companies to ramp up production of surgical masks, testing kits and ventilators.

With files from Nicholas Keung

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A MAN is due in court this Tuesday after he was charged in connection with a number of burglaries in Limerick, including one at a pub.

The suspect was arrested in the early hours of Monday after garda responded to reports of a break-in at a pub at John Street in the city centre,

Detectives and uniformed gardai from Roxboro Road carried out a patrol of the area and located a man, aged in his 30s, who was found in possession of alcohol that was believed to have been stolen from the bar, said a garda spokesperson.

The man was arrested and brought to Henry Street garda station where he was detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

While in custody, the man was also questioned in relation to a number of other offences that occurred in across Limerick over the last two months.

These include four burglaries and two attempted burglaries at business premises as well as three incidents of criminal damage and one theft from car.

The suspect has since been charged in relation to these ten incidents and is due to appear before Limerick District Court later.
On March 17, San Francisco Mayor London Breed ordered shelter-in-place for her city and county.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo rejected New York City Mayor Bill de Blasios call for a similar measure that same day.

I dont think you can really do a policy like that just in one part of the state. So I dont think it works, he told CNN. As a matter of fact, Im going so far that I dont even think you can do a statewide policy.

As of Monday, New York City had 2,475 COVID-19 related deaths and the state was approaching 5,000. Nationally, total deaths were nearing 11,000.

As for San Franciscos effort, Cuomo said, There are policies that sound good, and then there are policies that are good and sound.

He got that terribly wrong.

While Cuomo is a rising star in Democratic politics with news conferences citing his attempts to procure ventilators and protective gear for health-care workers, the proof is in comparative fatalities.

San Francisco had just nine COVID-19 deaths by Monday.

Breeds shelter-in-place order allowed for essential services including health care; public transportation and sanitation; groceries; restaurant pickup; pharmacies; banks; hardware stores; plumbers, electricians and the like; child care; laundries and pet supplies.

People could leave home, but had to practice 6 feet of social distancing.

Its not so different from what Gov. Kim Reynolds has done in Iowa, although the state is usually depicted as a shelter-in-place holdout, along other states led by Republicans.

Reynolds closed schools and non-essential businesses and encouraged social distancing.

Granted, some essential choices are head scratchers. Department stores are closed, but craft stores remain open. But she expanded the list Monday to include a wide variety of sites not included in her original declaration, everything from malls to indoor recreational outlets to social clubs to playgrounds to campgrounds.

The eight-member Iowa Board of Medicine, though, wants an order for Iowans to shelter at home preferably until the threat of this virus is contained, but for a period of a minimum of two weeks, or until we are confident that our health care system can accommodate the publics needs as the virus continues to spread.

The Iowa Medical Society  6,300 physicians, residents and medical students  wants Reynolds to implement a more stringent shelter-in-place order for a period of at least two weeks, citing a shortage of personal protective equipment  a two-day supply in some instances  and critical equipment.

Iowa physicians live each day in fear that we are unnecessarily exposing ourselves and our families to illness as a result, it stated. We know that additional resources are on the way and we commend the State for its efforts to speed supplies to practices with the greatest need as quickly as it can, but greater efforts are needed.

But Reynolds is committed to using obtuse metrics first. The Iowa Department of Public Health developed a 12-point scale involving four categories: percentage of the population greater than 65 years old; percentage of identified cases requiring hospitalization; infection rate per 100,000 in the past 14 days; and number of outbreaks in long-term care facilities.

Points dont kick in until topping 15% in a category. Ten points are needed for her to order shelter-in-place.

Hypothetically, the Des Moines Register reported, 17% of a state could be greater than 65 years of age; 14% of the COVID-19 cases could have resulted in hospitalization; the rate of infection could be 35 per 100,000 within 14 days; three long-term care facilities have reported outbreaks. But the matrix still doesnt advise shelter-in-place.

Eli Perencevich, a University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine professor, said the scale relies too much on outbreaks in long-term care facilities or hospitalization.

Instead of tracking the spread of disease to protect older Iowans, we are using them like a canary in the coal mine to determine how bad things are, he said. We have to wait for older people to die before implementing maximum protective measures.

Yet the medical community isnt monolithic on the issue.

The University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics and Mercy Hospital in Iowa City recently held a news conference opposing an order, contending it would disrupt local supply chains and create a panic.

Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie and Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague implored the governor to issue an order, yet Cownie allowed municipal golf courses to remain open.

Reynolds has instituted most of the shelter-in-place conditions. But as her Monday order revealed, too much has been  and still is  incremental.

When and if questionable essential businesses are finally closed, the next step will be implementing enforcement, including fines for violators. San Francisco waited until last weekend. One person got a ticket; five businesses were admonished. It didnt devolve into a police state.

Reynolds should ditch the matrix  a crutch public health officials have difficulty explaining. She will know soon enough when common sense dictates issuing an order.

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Amid the heightened tension due to an alarming surge of COVID-19 cases across the world coupled with increasing number of deaths by the hour, the UN Security Council is said to hold its first meeting on the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, after weeks of no consensus among its five permanent members, diplomats said Monday. The meeting is to be held behind closed doors at 3:00 pm (1900 GMT), and comes after China vacated the rotating presidency of the top body at the onset of April, having purportedly blocked the Coronavirus discussion through March.

However, the UN General Assembly last week consensually adopted a resolution calling for "international cooperation" and "multilateralism" in the fight against COVID-19 -- the first text to come out of the world body since the outbreak began.

After much back and forth among the permanent members including between the United States and China leading to the council's paralysis, nine of the 10 non-permanent members formally requested a meeting featuring a presentation by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

READ | UK PM Boris Johnson Moved To ICU Amid COVID-19 Treatment: 10 Downing Street

READ | UN Chief Warns Of Violence At Home, Japan Nears Emergency

Formal request by non-permanent members

The nine countries that requested the meeting are Germany, which initiated the effort, followed by Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Indonesia, Niger, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam. The only non-permanent South Africa did not support the move, stating that the council's purpose has always been peace and security, not health and economic issues.

The United States has demanded that for any meeting to proceed it must specify that the virus first emerged in China, which has been opposed by the latter. Diplomats said on Monday that opposition to holding a council meeting was coming from the Chinese and the Russians.

On the other hand, France has been hesitating to hold the Security Council meeting with a view of first having the five permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the US on the same page in order to hold a consolidated meeting with non-permanent members.

READ | UN Chief Says 'horrifying Global Surge In Domestic Violence' Amid COVID-19 Lockdown

READ | China No Longer Chairing UNSC, United Nations To Finally Discuss Coronavirus Pandemic

For those nine countries, it's "really irresponsible to block" a council meeting and to "paralyse" the institution since the start of the crisis, a diplomat from one of them said.

The deadly pandemic has taken the world hostage as the number of COVID-19 positive cases and deaths is increasing at a massive rate. As on April 7, the total number of infected cases is nearing 1.35 million while the number of deaths is nearing 75,000 mark posing a threat to humanity and economies across the world as the developed countries are also helpless and struggling to contain the pandemic.

(With PTI inputs)
The L.A. City Council urged the city attorney to push in court to immediately stop the Ellison in Venice from being used as a hotel, citing the coronavirus risk to longtime tenants. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles City Council is urging the city attorney to push in court to immediately stop a Venice building from being used as a hotel, arguing that a revolving door of travelers puts longtime tenants there at risk amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

An emergency motion, introduced Tuesday by Councilman Mike Bonin, says that as people try to stay at home to protect themselves and others from the virus, "the Ellison has continued booking rooms on a short-term basis, cutting rates to attract tourists and even young local partiers," many of whom "continue to socialize day and night, disregarding social distancing requirements, and causing elderly and sick longtime residents to fear for their health."

In light of the coronavirus, the motion states, "the threat to the health and safety of the long-term residents of the Ellison is imminent and ongoing, would lead to adverse and irrevocable harm, and demands immediate relief."

The council voted unanimously to approve the motion Tuesday asking the city attorney to seek urgent action.

Thomas Nitti, an attorney representing the building owners and management, called the move "a public relations stunt." Other buildings are being cited for renting out units for short stays, Nitti said, not being singled out by the council for action.

Bonin "is just using the coronavirus as an excuse to shut down the building," Nitti said. "He's been trying to do that for five years  and this is the newest excuse."

The city has already sued over the Ellison, accusing landlord Lance Jay Robbins and two companies tied to the Venice building of illegally operating the building as a hotel. The 58-unit building still has a dwindling number of longtime renters, who have complained of noise and other nuisances from night-to-night guests.

Tenants there say that renting out rooms by the night has now become a health threat, putting residents at higher risk of contracting the novel coronavirus. Among the longtime tenants at the building is a 71-year-old man who uses an oxygen tank and complained in an email that he had to share the elevator with "an ever-changing stream of tourists."

Story continues

In a legal filing last month, the city pushed for a preliminary injunction to stop the Ellison from being used as a hotel, arguing that it had resulted in "the loss of valuable and much-needed rent-stabilized and affordable housing in Venice." But that motion is not scheduled to be heard in court until May, spurring Bonin to press for swifter action.

Robbins and Nitti have argued that the city is retaliating for their own lawsuits against the city, which argue that the Ellison was historically rented out for short stays and wrongly categorized by the city as an apartment house. Building operators also contend that special steps have been taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus to guests and tenants, including providing hand sanitizer and by deep cleaning units.

The health issues posed by the Ellison are "no different than any hotel or apartment building in the city," Nitti said. It's "following the industry standards  the same things that any Hilton or Marriott is expected to do."

Brian Averill, a longtime tenant at the building, disputed those claims and said he and his neighbors were grateful that the council had pushed for action, hoping it will put a stop to the "health hazard" outside their doors.

"There's no reason for this revolving door of kids coming in here to party," Averill said. "You can't put people at risk."
The black church has been the one institution where African Americans traditionally turned for supportive fellowship and spiritual sustenance in times of crisis. It is not a place unfamiliar with concern over racial disparities and economic injustices. Even so, Lee said the inequalities exposed by the pandemic have been as much a cause for despair by some as the virus itself.
The commerce ministry has terminated an anti-dumping investigation against a chemical, used in polyester fibres and films, imported from Saudi Arabia following a request from Reliance Industries Ltd.

In December last year, the ministry's investigation arm - Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) - initiated the probe into an alleged dumping of Mono Ethylene Glycol originating in or exported from Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Singapore, following a complaint by the company.

"In view of the request made by the domestic industry, Reliance Industries Ltd...the designated authority hereby terminates the investigation initiated on 9th December 2019 against the imports of Mono Ethylene Glycol (or Ethylene Glycol)' originating in or exported from Saudi Arabia," the DGTR has said in a notification.

It has also clarified that as the domestic industry has requested for termination of the investigation only in respect of the imports from Saudi Arabia, the investigation would continue against Kuwait, Oman, UAE and Singapore.

It added that Reliance Industries Ltd in its letter dated February 21 has requested to terminate the investigation against Saudi Arabia.

In the probe, the DGTR would determine the existence, degree and effect of alleged dumping, and consequent injury to the domestic industry.

If established that dumping has caused material injury to domestic industry, the directorate would recommend the amount of anti-dumping duty.

Countries carry out anti-dumping probe to determine whether their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in cheap imports.

As a counter measure, they impose duties under the multilateral regime of the World Trade Organization.

The duty is aimed at ensuring fair trade practices and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers.
Countries part of the OPEC+ group are discussing the idea to implement oil production cuts for at least three months from May to July, Russian news agency TASS reported on Tuesday, citing two sources at OPEC.

Three months. I believe the deal can be made from May because April deliveries have already been scheduled, a high-ranking source in OPEC told TASS, while another source noted that a potential production cut would be definitely longer than until June.

Russias energy ministry has received an invitation from OPEC to take part in Thursdays video conference, and Russia confirms it will take part in that meeting, an official at the energy ministry told TASS on Tuesday.

The leaders of the OPEC+ group, Saudi Arabia for OPEC and Russia for non-OPEC, are reportedly ready to negotiate a massive global production cut amid sinking demand, despite a bitter weekend spat between the former allies about who ditched whom in the OPEC+ talks.

A video meeting between Saudi Arabia, Russia, and other major oil producers, including representatives from the U.S., was slated to be held on Monday. However, the meeting was postponed for Thursday after the Saudis and the Russians accused each other of dumping the other in the OPEC+ alliance that had tried to manage oil supply and oil prices for the past three years.

Both producers are now signaling that they are ready to talk but are pointing out that any massive cut, 10 million bpd-15 million bpd, as touted by U.S. President Donald Trump, should involve the United States, too. Related: Big Oil Raises Debt To Ride Out Price Crash

OPEC hasnt asked President Trump to find a way to ask U.S. oil companies to collectively cut production, the President said on Monday.

I think its happening automatically but nobodys asked me that question yet so well see what happens, President Trump said at a press briefing, referring to U.S. oil production.

Analysts say that even if a larger so-called OPEC++ group  involving OPEC+ plus the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Norway, and other producers not part of OPEC+, were to agree to a huge cut of 10 million bpd, this will still be much lower than the demand loss expected in Q2 and will not go far to prevent global storage filling to the brim by mid-May.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
YEREVAN.  In case of ratification of the agreement submitted for discussion, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) will provide a loan of 13 million 400 thousand euros to Armenia.

Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Suren Papikyan stated this Tuesday, during the discussion of the sitting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs on the ratification of the Second Additional Financing to the Lifeline Road Network Improvement loan agreement between Armenia and the IBRD.

According to the Minister, with these funds it is planned to repair 65 km of roads in the country. The Minister added that after the ratification of this agreement, a tender will be announced for the selection of a road construction company that will carry out these works.

Papikyan also mentioned that these works will be completed either by this year or the beginning of next year. "The first tranche of the loan under this program amounted to 170 million euros," he added. "[A total of] 211 km of roads have been repaired within the framework of this program."

After some debates, the aforesaid committee gave a positive conclusion to this loan agreement.
What weve really seen from the beginning of this pandemic, going back to January, is a disconnect between whats happening at the federal level from the executive branch to what we have to execute and implement here in the localities," Lightfoot said. "I think it would do well for the task force to have this kind of bipartisan geographically diverse group of mayors because were on the front lines. Were the people who have to implement all of the edicts that come down from the federal government and having our voice in the mix I think is incredibly important.
Naason Joaquin Garcia, the leader of the Guadalajara-based La Luz del Mundo church, listens to a court interpreter as he appears in Los Angeles County Superior Court in June. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

The criminal case against the leader of a Mexico-based megachurch on charges that included child rape and human trafficking was ordered dismissed Tuesday by a California appeals court on procedural grounds  a decision that will resound heavily with church followers worldwide who have maintained their leader's innocence.

Naason Joaquin Garcia, known among La Luz del Mundo's members as the apostle of Jesus Christ, had been in custody since June following his arrest on accusations involving three minors and one adult between 2015 and 2018 in Los Angeles County, with counts that took place in 2019 later added.

He had denied wrongdoing and was held without bail in Los Angeles.

While in jail, he had remained the spiritual leader of La Luz del Mundo, which is Spanish for "The Light of the World." Garcias arrest sparked emergency prayer services throughout the congregations of his Guadalajara-based church that has claimed more than 5 million followers worldwide. Since then, the organization, which was founded by Garcia's grandfather, had continued to support the "apostle."

The appeals court ruled that because Garcia's preliminary hearing was not held in a timely manner and he did not waive his right to one after an amended complaint, the complaint filed against him must be dismissed.

This is a long overdue recognition that the government has violated Mr. Garcias constitutional right to a speedy trial and reasonable bond, Alan Jackson, Garcias attorney, said in a statement. In their zeal to secure a conviction at any cost, the attorney general has sought to strip Mr. Garcia of his freedom without due process by locking him up without bail on the basis of unsubstantiated accusations by unnamed accusers and by denying him his day in court.

It was not clear when Garcia would be released.

The attorney general's office, which has the ability to re-file charges against Garcia, said that it was reviewing the court's ruling and that the appellate decision would not be final for 30 days from when it was issued.

Story continues

The ruling "did not address the merits of the case and does not limit our ability to pursue it further, which we fully intend to do," the agency wrote in an email.

The appeals court ruling states that the Los Angeles County Superior Court must dismiss more than two dozen felony charges that range from human trafficking and production of child pornography to forcible rape of a minor. It was not immediately clear how the case of his co-defendants, Susana Medina Oaxaca and Alondra Ocampo, would be affected. A fourth defendant, Azalea Rangel Melendez, remains at large.

The case came as a result of a tip to a Justice Department website that was created to help people report abuse by clergy. Prosecutors have described how women allegedly helped procure and prepare young girls for Garcia's pleasure. They have said that the victims were told that if they went against any of Garcias desires or wishes as the apostle they were going against God. Garcias defense team has disputed that account.

Ocampo had been accused of being the groomer and recruiter of the young women who were allegedly sexually assaulted by Garcia. Prosecutors have said that Oaxaca was Garcias assistant.

In a 2019 hearing, a witness for prosecutors testified that pornography had been found on digital devices that had been seized from Garcia. A state law enforcement officer and forensic examiner had testified that a video on an iPad depicts the defendant having intercourse with a woman while she performs oral sex on an underage male. The officer also said that a video found on an iPhone shows four females of a very young age lying nude on a bed performing oral sex on one another.

Garcia's legal team at the time had said that the officer had inadequately relied on a Jane Doe witness to identify one of the people in the alleged threesome  who wore a mask  as an underage male.

In February, a Southern California woman who is a former member of La Luz del Mundo filed a federal lawsuit against the church and Garcia. The civil complaint, which names La Luz del Mundo, Garcia and a dozen other high-ranking church members, seeks damages for involuntary servitude, forced and unpaid labor, human trafficking, racketeering and sexual battery. The church has denied the allegations in the lawsuit.

In a statement following the appellate court decision, the church invited congregants to give thanks to God at home in a special consecration.

"Let us be prudent, and wait on legal proceedings, trusting that the awaited day will come, because the church is confident in the honorability of the Apostle of Jesus Christ," officials said in the release.

Parishioners celebrated the court decision. Upon hearing the news, Alma M. Schutt, a member of the church who lives in San Antonio, was momentarily speechless.

"Oh my goodness, praise God," she said. "That's wonderful news. It just seemed so unfair for him to be there."

Schutt has been part of the church since she was a little girl, which she said had made it very difficult for her to believe the accusations against Garcia.

"He was being punished  it was a great injustice," she said. "Im so happy. It makes me want to cry."

Robert Pelegreen, a retired military officer and a member of the church who also lives in San Antonio, said justice had come after the media had "dragged the reputation of the church in the mud."

The arrest of the apostle had furthered tensions between many former church members and their families. As the church had aggressively backed Garcia, former parishioners had wrestled with the news of his arrest. Many had said they had felt validated in their decision to leave the faith.

A 25-year-old former youth minister of the church who lives in Los Angeles said he was concerned that the church would use the court decision as evidence of the so-called apostle's innocence.

"Im worried that the church will perceive it as hes innocent and they couldn't find anything against him," said the former member, who did not want to be identified because he feared backlash. "Members of the church are so entrenched in their belief that theyre going to make this a victory and wont see it any other way."
Auckland International Airport Limited (NZX/ASX:AIA) ("Auckland Airport") is pleased to announce that it has successfully completed the bookbuild for its NZ$1,000 million fully underwritten placement, announced on 6 April 2020 ("Placement"). The Placement was strongly supported, attracting bids well in excess of the NZ$1,000 million total offer amount from existing institutional and other select investors in both local and offshore markets. The company commented that its overarching policy was that existing institutional shareholders who bid for their pro-rata allocation of the offer were allocated at least that amount of new shares.

The Placement was fully subscribed at the price determined in the bookbuild of NZ$4.66 per share. This represents a discount of 7.5% to the last close price of NZ$5.04 on 3 April 2020 and a discount of 9.5% to the 5-day VWAP of NZ$5.15 (assessed from 30 March 2020).

Chief Executive Adrian Littlewood said he was very pleased with the level of support from investors, which would help to strengthen Auckland Airports balance sheet during this period of strict border controls and significantly reduced passenger numbers.

Auckland Airport has been materially impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19 with a rapid decline in international and domestic passenger numbers. We remain optimistic about our long-term future, but the near term trading conditions remain uncertain and like many organisations we will continue to face challenges. This placement is another significant step towards securing our future and being well positioned for recovery.

Settlement of the Placement is expected to occur on 14 April 2020 for the ASX and on 15 April 2020 for NZX, with allotment and commencement of trading on NZX and ASX expected to occur on 15 April 2020. The new shares to be issued under the Placement will rank equally in all respects with Auckland Airports existing ordinary shares.

As announced on 6 April 2020, Auckland Airport is also undertaking a NZ$200 million share purchase plan ("SPP"). The SPP offer booklet, together with an application form, will be sent on 9 April 2020 to eligible retail shareholders as at the record date of 3 April 2020 with a registered address in New Zealand or Australia and will also be made available online at www.aucklandairportshares.co.nz from 9 April 2020.

Key dates relating to the SPP are set out in the Appendix to this announcement.

Auckland Airports New Zealand and Australian legal advisers are Russell McVeagh and King & Wood Mallesons, respectively.

Source: Auckland International Airport Limited

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Our time begins at the New Jersey National Guard Armory in Bordentown Township, where Brienne Zilinski, of Middletown, is adding stars to the "Welcome Home" message she has written on the back window of her husband Matthew's pickup truck.

Matthew is a Howell police officer, but he's also Army Maj. Matthew Zilinski, and within the hours he would be returning home after an 11-month deployment as part of peace-keeping operations in Kosovo.

- Photos by Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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Howell and Middletown police were on hand to lead a motorcade from the armory in Burlington County to the Middletown Municipal Building, in Monmouth County.

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Matthew Zilinski's father, Dennis, left is reflected in a mirror waiting to see his son.

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A Howell police officer documents the scene at the armory.

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Brienne Zilinski waits.

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There he is.

Major Matthew Zilinski, left, smiles broadly as he exits the building.

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The Zilinski's embrace.

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Matthew Zilinski greets a fellow Howell police colleague.

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Brienne Zilinski, left, offers hand sanitizer to her husband.

She's equipped with disinfectant wipes too, she said. "I brought everything because I knew you were going to touch everybody," she said to her husband.

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A memorial on the pickup truck of Dennis Zilinksi, the father.

His son, Lt. Denny Zilinski was killed in action at the age of 23, in Bayji, Iraq 15 years ago.

On this day, Dennis Zilinski welcomed home his other son, Matthew Zilinski.

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Still at the armory, Tina Lathrop, of Bordentown, has a likeness of her son, Sgt. Joshua Lathrop, on her windshield while waiting with husband James for their son's return from a tour of active duty overseas.

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Matthew Zilinski's fellow Howell police officers, as well as police from his hometown of Middletown, were on hand to provide a police escort from Bordentown to the Middletown.

The motorcade picked up pairs of other police officers along Interstate 195 and passed under a bridge filled with police and fire vehicles and a huge American flag.

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Arriving in Middletown, the Zilinskis were met by Mayor Tony Perry who presented a flag that was flown over town hall.

"We got a ride home for you today," the mayor said, pointing to the firetrucks.

The couple then climbed aboard one and took the three-mile drive to their home, the route sprinkled with more enthusiastic supporters, growing denser as they approached the Zilinski's neighborhood.

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Brienne Zilinski smiles at her husband in the back of a firetruck which would take them to their home.

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Children hold signs along the motorcade route.

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Neighbors line a street in Middletown.

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Finally back at home for the first time in close to a year, Matthew Zilinski hugs daughter Elliette, 7. (The couple has three daughters.)

At right, Brienne Zilinksi holds daughter Piper, 3.

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Matthew Zilinski is welcomed home by two of his daughters, Quinn, 5, left and Elliette, 7, right.

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Matthew Zilinski, right, is interviewed outside his home. Standing next to him is his wife Brienne, holding their daughter, Piper.

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Brienne Zilinski holds her daughter, Piper.

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A family reunited.

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A basket on their doorstep - with toilet paper and cleaning supplies, signs of the times.

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Matthew Zilinski talks with friends and neighbors outside his home, properly social distanced.

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The Zilinski family, with Matthew Zilinski's dad, Dennis, and mom, Marion.

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Coronavirus made parade impossible. N.J. Army Major still got loving welcome home.

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Three Michigan communities will receive nearly $1 million combined from the federal government for projects and equipment.

Michigan is among 14 states receiving a total of $65 million in federal investments in the community facilities in rural areas, The Associated Press reports. Munising, St. Ignace and Beaverton will receive $965,000 in loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Beaverton, in Gladwin County, will get $545,000 to repurpose a vacant library. It will become the new city hall.

In the Upper Peninsula, the St. Ignace Building Authority was awarded $250,000 toward constructing a new fire station. Also in the U.P., Munising will get $170,000 to buy a loader that will help with snow removal and other public works operations.

The USDA investment funds are going to 38 projects nationwide, and are expected to benefit 600,000 rural residents with upgrades or construction of schools, libraries, clinics and public safety facilities, which are critical for growth and prosperity in rural communities, Bette Brand, the USDAs deputy undersecretary for rural development, said in a statement.

READ MORE:

Tuesday, April 7: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

In unusual session, Michigan lawmakers OK 23-day extension of coronavirus state of emergency

This weeks full Pink Supermoon will be biggest, best of the year
WASHINGTON  The Navy's top civilian issued an apology Monday night after ridiculing a captain whose letter pleading for help amid a coronavirus outbreak on a U.S. warship was leaked.

"Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid," wrote acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly in a statement. "I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship."

"I also want to apologize directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused," he added.

The latest revelation came hours after Modly made a surprise speech aboard the coronavirus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier in Guam.

"If he didn't think that information was going to get out into the public in this information age that we live in, then he was, A, too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this," Modly told the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt over a loudspeaker.

"The alternative is that he did it on purpose," he said, adding that he stood by his decision to relieve Crozier of his command.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic period, Huawei, a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, is providing the means for education to continue by delivering free online lectures that will be available for all students.

The lectures will focus on the role of 5G networks combined with other smart digital technologies such as cloud computing, Internet of Things and data analysis in strengthening the UAEs healthcare system to keep up with the rapid demands during crisis.

Huawei is inviting all university students in UAE to take advantage of this opportunity. On April 9, students can tune into the first of these Huawei Open Tech Talk sessions from 1:30-3:00pm, and interested students can contact [email protected] to access the lecture and receive instructions for how to participate on PC or via smartphone.

The lecture will be delivered by Zhu Binghui, a 5G Technology and Application Senior Trainer at Huawei. David has 17 years of experience in the telecom industry, during which time he has successfully delivered hundreds of consulting and training projects. There is no better time to learn about the applications of next generation technology to further enhance the healthcare system, he said. This lecture is a unique opportunity for university students in the UAE to join me online to discuss the value and potential of 5G in building the smarter, more intelligent healthcare system that increasingly connected world needs.

Students can expect to cover three key topics in the 5G+Smart Healthcare lecture: understanding the challenges and network performance requirements of the medical system; introducing 5G-enabled smart healthcare applications and the 5G+MEC/IoT solution, and analysing smart healthcare use cases applied today and in the future.

Huawei Open Tech Talks will continue throughout April with a lecture on 5G+UAV scheduled for April 16, and 5G+Cloud VR on April 23.

Wu Saixin will lead the 5G+UAV lecture, which will be held from 1:30-3:00pm on April 16. Daniel, a 5G Technology and Application Senior Trainer at Huawei, has 12 years of experience on telecom network evolution, 5G industry application and 5G bearer network. During the lecture, he will discuss keeping up with global industry progress and the policies of civil UAV, as well as understanding the value of 5G+UAV in industry applications and the 5G+UAV solutions used by telecom carriers. He will also showcase successful use cases of 5G+UAV in industry.

On April 23, the 5G+Cloud VR lecture will be led from 1:30-3:00pm by Zhang Guangqing. A 5G Technology and Application Senior Trainer with Huawei, Zhang has more than 13 years of experience in the ICT domain, and is responsible for 5G Network Trend and ICT Network Evolution Training. The 5G+Cloud VR lecture will enable students to understand the practical cases of Cloud VR, know how 5G Cloud VR technology is developing, and learn the latest VR industry trends and the advantages of Cloud VR.

This series of lectures which are available for free to all students is a continuation of Huaweis ongoing commitment to fostering young ICT talents, who represent the future of the industry and will become the innovators of tomorrows digitally-driven world. -- Tradearabia News Service
The United States has so far repatriated around 1,300 Americans from India but a considerable number of them are developing cold feet in flying back home, a senior US official has said.

"About 1,300 American citizens have been brought back as of last night, and we have five additional flights scheduled this week. It's difficult to say with any certainty how many Americans intend or need assistance in repatriating to the US. We have had over 7,000 register with the US embassy and consulate," Alice G Wells, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, said during a teleconference here on Monday.

While Wells did not give a clear idea on why rest of the Americans had developed cold feet to return back home, it can. Till Monday, over 360,000 people have tested positive with coronavirus and the fatalities have crossed the 10,000 in a matter of weeks. be seen in the context of the US emerging as the hot spot of coronavirus in the world.

Wells said Americans in India were needed to make a decision.

Members of the White House Task Force on Coronavirus have projected between 100,000 and 200,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US in the next several weeks.

Ian Brownlee, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, said a large number of Americans in India have cancelled their intent to travel to the US even after the US Government made arrangements for their flights.

"We had multiple thousands who, when we put  in India when we put the call out for expressions of interest in a flight, and yet over this weekend, our staff in India literally cold-called 800 people asking if they wanted to get on a flight today. We got 10 positive responses," Brownlee said.

Since January 29, the US has brought home over 43,000 American citizens including those from countries like Peru, India, Egypt, Nepal, and Burundi.

The US is currently working on over 80 flights worldwide, Brownlee said.

Of these, the US organized 13 flights from South and Central Asia, including special flights home for about 2,900 US citizens from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. PTI LKJ RUP

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa (right) addresses a press conference after donating his salary to the Chief Minister Relief Fund on April 1, 2020. (PTI)

Bengaluru: With Covid-19 cases in Karnataka continuing to increase, albeit more moderately, chief minister B S Yediyurappa is inclined towards extending the current lockdown in the state till April 30.

Doctors and top bureaucrats are advising him to extend the closure for another 15 days beyond April 15.

The chief minister had not been too keen. However, health and family welfare officials and top doctors cautioned him that Covid-19 cases may spurt again once the lockdown order is lifted. In particular, the Covid-19 cluster in Nanjanagudu may pass into the community.

Even the Centre has advised caution after it assessed the fallout of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin in Old Delhi. Neighboring Tamil Nadu has been the worst hit with Covid-19 cases in that state crossing 650, and therefore is likely to extend the lockdown till the end of May. Considering the movement of construction and migrant workers from Tamil Nadu, the state government may extend the lockdown till the month end, said a senior minister in the Yediyurappa Cabinet.

The chief minister himself has said the success of the lockdown in Karnataka has only been 75 per cent. Now full powers have been given to the police to register cases against people who violate the lockdown order.

The National Disaster Management cell too has suggested to the Centre to extend the lockdown for one more month.

The Karnataka Disaster Management cell has suggested that continuation of a cluster-wise lockdown in the state may not work out. Earlier state government has decided to continue clusterwise lockdown in some part of the state where more number of cases have been reported.
A New Jersey-based generic pharmaceutical company, co-founded by two Indian-Americans has donated millions of hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets to Louisiana, New York and Texas to help COVID19 patients.

Amneal Pharmaceuticals has pledged to donate 400,000 hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets to the State of Louisiana to help respond to the COVID-19 health emergency, according to a press release dated March 30 from Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.

However, the US government's top infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci has been vocal about his concern that there is not enough evidence to suggest that Hydroxychloroquine is the drug that cures COVID19.

The release said that the large donation will go toward clinical trials and patient treatment in Louisiana.

Hydroxychloroquine, an old and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria, is seen as a viable therapeutic solution by President Trump to coronavirus that has so far killed more than 10,000 Americans and infected over 3.6 lakh within weeks.

Bridgewater, New Jersey-headquartered Amneal was founded in 2002 by Chirag Patel and Chintu Patel, who are also the Co-CEOs.

Amneal has donated millions of hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets in total to states other than Louisiana, including New York and Texas, and stated they will provide more as needed. The company also announced donations of products directly to hospitals across the country, the release added.

The press release from the Louisiana Attorney General quoted Chirag and Chintu Patel as saying that all of us at Amneal are committed to supporting our communities in the global fight against COVID-19. We are working with urgency to assist the hardest hit states and hospitals around the country to benefit as many patients as possible during this critical time."



Amneal's hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets are approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat malaria, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, childhood arthritis, and other autoimmune diseases.

Hydroxychloroquine is not FDA-approved for the treatment of COVID-19; but it has been identified as a possible treatment for COVID-19, and the US Government has requested its immediate availability, the release said.

Landry thanked Amneal for the donation and said it is important we all work together to help solve the COVID-19 crisis.

The Louisiana State University School of Medicine is working to launch two different clinical trials using hydroxychloroquine in relation to COVID-19. One trial will utilise hydroxychloroquine on those who have significant COVID-19 disease. The other trial protocol will use and test the drug as a preventative measure for those healthcare workers on the front lines battling the epidemic. Trials will be conducted at the University Medical Center in New Orleans and at the LSU Medical School locations in Baton Rouge and Lafayette. Dean of LSUHSC School of Medicine Steve Nelson said the donation will allow them to conduct clinical trials examining how hydroxychloroquine may help clear the virus from the lungs of infected patients and to potentially help shield healthcare workers who are on the front lines treating patients. "The hydroxychloroquine donation by Amneal comes at an important time. The Louisiana Board of Pharmacy has noted serious concerns over the availability of this drug and has issued specific guidance on the dispensing of the drug, including its March 25th guidance noting that it should be dispensed for COVID-19 when the prescription bears a COVID-19 diagnosis, the release said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a fighter who has what it takes to recover from his COVID-19 affliction, Britain's envoy to Canada said Tuesday.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, left, welcomes Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during official arrivals for a NATO leaders meeting at The Grove hotel and resort in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019. Britain's envoy to Canada says Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a fighter who has what it takes to recover from his COVID-19 affliction. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Francisco Seco

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a fighter who has what it takes to recover from his COVID-19 affliction, Britain's envoy to Canada said Tuesday.

Johnson was in intensive care in a British hospital and has become the first major world leader to be hit that hard by the novel coronavirus.

High Commissioner Susan le Jeune dAllegeershecque said the fact Johnson was breathing without a ventilator was a good sign.

"He's stable. The good thing is he's not getting any worse. He's having oxygen but he's not on a respirator," le Jeune d'Allegeershecque said in an interview. (Generally, a mechanical breathing device is called a ventilator and a respirator is a type of filtration mask, but ventilators used to be called respirators in some places.)

"He's a fighter; the guy has got huge energy and great determination. We're all hoping and confident that he's going to recover."

She reiterated what Johnson's "temporary" replacement, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, has said: that the 55-year-old prime minister is in good spirits.

She described Johnson's affliction as "unsettling" and "disturbing" but said the plan Johnson put in place for Britain to fight COVID-19 before he needed to be hospitalized will carry the country through.

"Dominic Raab has been very clear that his role is to implement the decisions on a country-wide basis. The direction was very clearly set before the prime minister had to go into hospital."

Le Jeune d'Allegeershecque said Canada is co-operating closely with Britain on the crisis and the two countries are speaking with one voice against any country that espouses protectionism.

That has includes taking the U.S. to task over reports of critical medical supplies not being shared, she said.

"We both agree that this crisis must not be used as an excuse to impose unnecessarily protectionist measures to shut down free trade," she said.

"When we have both had issues, we have engaged right at the highest levels of the U.S. to explain we do not think that important vital supplies or whatever equipment or goods it is, should be held up."

Keeping global supply chains operating has been key to combating the crisis and le Jeune d'Allegeershecque said Canada and Britain have been doing their part by keeping air cargo links open for transatlantic trade.

Britain is receiving a lot of Canadian grain, which she said is vital for its ability to make bread.

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And she said pharmaceuticals from Britain continue to flow unimpeded to Canada.

Britain's planned exit from the European Union that is to take place at the end of the year has not been derailed by COVID-19 but it has been slowed down, said le Jeune d'Allegeershecque.

"We haven't stopped because this remains important, but I think other things are taking slightly higher precedence," she said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has posted on social media that his thoughts are with Johnson and his family.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and former prime minister Stephen Harper also sent their wishes for a speedy recovery.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 7, 2020.
A coughing tiger that tested positive for the novel coronavirus at a New York zoo is raising concerns among Louisiana veterinarians and federal officials who say people should take precautions to avoid spreading it to their pets.

UPDATE: First Louisiana dog tests positive for coronavirus; officials warn owners not to abandon pets

Seven lions and tigers at the Bronx Zoo recently developed a dry cough, a telltale sign of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. On Sunday, one of the tigers, a 4-year-old Malaysian named Nadia, tested positive for the illness and marked the world's first known case of a tiger catching the illness, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Despite big cats sharing similar biology as their domestic counterparts, experts believe the likelihood of spreading the coronavirus from animals is low. An even lower likelihood is a sickened pet passing the disease on to humans.

"Just because an animal can become infected doesn't mean they'll serve as a big source of infection," said Dr. Mark Mitchell, director of the LSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Most humans are getting infected through community spread."

LSU caretakers avoiding direct contact with Mike VII 'in case cats are susceptible' to coronavirus Mike the Tiger's caretakers at LSU are taking extra precautionary measures to ensure the health and well-being of the university mascot during

Aside from the infections of the New York tigers, which officials believe stemmed from an asymptomatic zookeeper, veterinarians have observed very few cases of human-to-animal transmissions with no cases of people getting sick from their pets.

A pet cat in Belgium whose owner tested positive for the coronavirus reported that her cat exhibited symptoms for the disease, but the symptoms cleared up in about nine days, Mitchell said.

A study in China, which hasn't been peer-reviewed, suggests the virus can be spread to cats and ferrets through respiratory droplets, similar to how health officials believe humans spread it to each other. There have been no examples of dogs contracting the coronavirus, though veterinarians say the virus may survive on their coats.

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The long-term effects and risks of introducing the coronavirus to an animal are unknown, prompting the USDA on Monday to urge people to wash their hands after interacting with their pets and find someone to care for them if the pet owners are sick.

Tiger at NYC zoo tests positive for coronavirus; Audubon steps up protection of its big cats Audubon Zoo said Sunday night that it will implement safety precautions and new protocols for some of its animals following news that a tiger 

We should always exercise common sense strategies around our pets," said Dr. Sarah Hicks, a veterinarian at the Companion Animal Alliance in Baton Rouge, the parish's largest animal shelter. "We should always be careful. There are diseases that animals can give to human beings."

Research of the coronavirus that caused the 2002-03 outbreak of SARS, a respiratory illness thats similar to COVID-19, found cats and ferrets could also be infected. The virus that caused SARS, or, severe acute respiratory syndrome, emerged from bats in 2002 before transferring to civets, a mammal related to mongooses, and then humans.

The animals at the Bronx Zoo appeared to be recovering from the illness and were not seriously ill.

Following reports of those cases, animal handlers at BREC's Baton Rouge Zoo have started wearing masks and gloves when handling animals, the zoos Deputy Director Jim Fleshman said.

Take a first look: Lion cubs born at Audubon Zoo less than a year after opening of new lion habitat The Audubon Zoo is now home to two African lion cubs, the latest editions to the zoo's new lion habitat that opened early last year.

Mike the Tiger's caretakers at LSU had stopped direct contact with the university mascot more than three weeks ago "just in case it turned out that cats were susceptible to infection with COVID-19," a spokeswoman said.

The Baton Rouge Zoo has been closed to the public since March 17, and no animals, including the three tigers and several other big cats that live at the zoo, have shown symptoms or tested positive for the virus, Fleshman said.

Though he was initially surprised about the big cats in New York, Fleshman pointed to instances of animals contracting SARS from humans, as well as other coronaviruses that cause the common cold.

The key would be what type of mutation allows it to make that jump, Fleshman said. Thats the biggest mystery to infectious disease.
Knowledge engagement company Bloomfire announced today that Jordan Slabaugh has joined its leadership team as Vice President of Marketing. Slabaugh is joining Bloomfire after nearly four years as Senior Vice President and digital practice lead regionally at global marketing consultancy Edelman. She previously served as the Vice President of Marketing at Wayin, overseeing the companys strategic marketing and reporting directly to CEO Scott McNealy, and Director of Marketing at Spredfast, where she helped create and successfully scale marketing across brand, demand, and strategic communications.

Were thrilled to have Jordan joining our leadership team, says Mark Hammer, CEO of Bloomfire. Jordan brings a unique mix of experience, from her work at a top marketing and public relations firm to her efforts developing the marketing function at a fast-growing technology startup. She has both creativity and an analytical mindset, which we value. Im looking forward to working with her to develop new audiences for our software. Jordan comes at a particularly interesting time, as companies seek technologies like knowledge engagement software that helps connect their sometimes-remote teams.

"Im excited to join the Bloomfire team, said Jordan Slabaugh. Bloomfire is clearly leading the knowledge management space, and their proven track record of growth, customer-centricity, and innovation is both impressive and unique. Theres never been a time when knowledge management has been more critical for companies. Im looking forward to strengthening our brand and overall market presence to better connect businesses with the solution they need to thrive in todays evolving work environment.

Slabaugh brings an interest in brand storytelling, creative campaign development, and performance marketing to her role as VP of Marketing at Bloomfire.

About Bloomfire

Bloomfire is the leader in knowledge engagement, delivering an experience that connects teams and individuals with the information they need to excel at their jobs. Our cloud-based knowledge engagement platform gives people one centralized, searchable place to engage with shared knowledge and grow their organizations collective intelligence. For more information or to schedule a demo, visit http://www.bloomfire.com.
I watch the news today and am reminded how precious life really is. Another record number of coronavirus deaths.

But I am also reminded that members of Congress, in their hate-filled rage against our president, specifically forbade his familys companies from receiving any type of assistance from the $2 trillion federal stimulus bill. They said to the employees of the Trump organization, we hate you too, hope you die. That is how I interpreted it. I know that the Democrats generally detest American success in business, but it is also sad how dark their hearts are in this time of American crisis.

I watch the daily briefings and watch some in the leftist media try to ask gotcha questions. It is sad. Now I have to see leftist political ads trying to condemn our president, as record numbers of people die.

There is a time for politics. Now is not that time. I am saddened to see that the House once again wants to investigate. They wish to try again at removing the president. I will pray for their souls and wish them no harm. I do not believe that the House speaker is sincere when she says she prays for the president. Ill remember it again in November.

Gregory Labelle

Bethlehem
By Trend

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 23 times, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry on Apr. 7.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Chennai, April 7 : The DMK President M.K. Stalin on Tuesday said the Central government's decision to suspend the Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) Scheme for two years instead of allocating additional funds for Covid-19 relief work is not a democratic decision.

In a statement issued here Stalin said MPLAD scheme is not an allowance for MPs but allocation of funds for projects that are needed by the people in a constituency.

Instead of allocating additional funds towards relief works for Covid-19 affected constituencies, withdrawing the existing funds puts the MPs in a spot and is not democratic act.

Stalin also questioned the reason for Central government allocating just Rs 510 crore for Tamil Nadu towards Covid-19 relief work.

He said while Uttar Pradesh with 234 Covid-19 patients got Rs 966 crore, Tamil Nadu with 621 patients got only Rs 510 crore.

Stalin said the Tamil Nadu government had requested a total sum of Rs 12,200 crore from the Central government for Covid-19 relief.

He said this clearly shows the Corona politics is being played by the Central government.
Journalists for Human Rights trains local journalists to cover human rights. We work in places where access to basic services ranges from challenging to non-existent.

In such environments, journalists work to provide reliable information on how to stay safe and where to access care. This can mean the difference between life and death.

Never has this been more needed than in fighting COVID-19.

In Canada, both Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Quebec Premier Francois Legault have praised local media for their role getting public health messages out about the virus. In Ontario, media is now an essential service.

JHR staff are no strangers to covering pandemics. Two of the co-authors of this op-ed, senior trainer Mustapha Dumbuya and media literacy trainer Amara Bangura, both worked with local journalists to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014.

As we watched Canadas response to COVID-19 slowly unfold, we realized one of the challenges, paradoxically, is Canadians relative lack of direct experience with pandemics.

In response, weve put together some pointers of what worked when fighting Ebola, and what local journalists and the general public can learn from such front line experience.

In a pandemic, authorities struggle to catch up with the viruss rapid spread. Changing information about its behaviour causes public confusion on how to respond. Acting on the wrong information can be deadly.

The outbreak of Ebola in 2014 in Liberia and Sierra Leone sparked many irrational beliefs. Many believed that bathing in salt water could protect them from Ebola. In DRC in 2018-2019, people believed Ebola was a lie spread by Western health agencies to get funding.

Such ill-informed responses only put people at greater risk. Access to timely, accurate information becomes a crucial element in protecting communities.

In 2014, Dumbuya and Bangura covered the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. The team worked with local community journalists for months to ensure they had the information needed to cover the crisis.

For Bangura and Dumbuya, the fight against Ebola was personal.

Both lost a significant number of relatives and friends to the virus. The impact is still being felt today.

When Ebola first broke out in Sierra Leone, local and international media prioritized counting the infections and deaths.

We see a similar pattern in coverage of COVID-19. Headlines are dominated by a count of the ill and dying, paired with stories profiling the latest public figure to test positive.

While it is important to document the pandemics spread, a lack of sufficient corresponding coverage on what communities and individuals must do to protect themselves only perpetuates paranoia. In a climate of fear, misinformation thrives.

Further, in a pandemic, people also need hope.

Publishing information about people who survived the virus, and what their lives were like afterwards, helps quell stigma and allows people to envision a future.

In West Africa, local media worked to educate the public about the virus, influence behaviour change, and bring the spread under control.

Supported by JHR partner BBC Media Action at the time, Dumbuya and Bangura worked on a new radio show called Kick Ebola na Salone or Kick Ebola out of Sierra Leone. It was distributed to about 40 stations across the country. Through it, Sierra Leoneans received the latest reliable public health information on how to stay safe.

The team fact-checked outbreak statistics and tackled rumours and misinformation head on. One group produced public service announcements using familiar voices from all sectors: local authorities, religious leaders, women leaders, youth, even the security sector.

The segments Rumour of the Week, addressed misinformation about Ebola directly. The team engaged citizens spreading rumours on social media and by word of mouth, and took their concerns to health officials to be addressed or debunked.

In a health emergency, people bombarded with information about the crisis experience message fatigue. In Sierra Leone, we saw a trail of psycho-social problems which included traumatized orphans and stigmatized Ebola survivors. Months in, Sierra Leoneans were exhausted and needed hope.

In response, the team introduced a segment called Survivor of the Week. These stories aimed to reduce public fear, destigmatize those with the virus, and give hope to Sierra Leoneans that if they sought help early, they could get treated and be well again.

As COVID-19 wreaks havoc in Canada, a public education campaign that understands and prioritizes working with local media is critical.

But what is most crucial is transparent and honest information.
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India is the biggest manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug that is being touted as 'game-changer' in the fight against COVID-19 and is being aggressively sought by US President Donald Trump.

The country has the capacity to quickly ramp up the output of hydroxychloroquine.

Days after it added the drug to the list of more than two dozen APIs that cannot be exported while officials get a handle on how much will be needed for COVID-19 outbreak in the country, India on Tuesday agreed to lift the ban after Trump sought supplies for the US.

India manufactures 70 per cent of the world's supply of hydroxychloroquine, according to Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) secretary-general Sudarshan Jain.

The country has a production capacity of 40 tonnes of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) every month, implying 20 crore tablets of 200 mg each. And since the drug is also used to auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, manufacturers have good production capacities that can also be ramped up.

Ipca Laboratories, Zydus Cadila and Wallace Pharmaceuticals are top pharma companies manufacturing HCQ in India.

Jain says the production capacity is sufficient to meet the current demand and if the need arises, the companies are committed to ramping up production.

Recently, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had reportedly placed an order for around 10 crore tables of HCQ with Ipca laboratories and Zydus Cadila.

The drug is not manufactured in developed nations such as the US because of non-existent malaria.

Hydroxychloroquine is very similar to chloroquine, one of the oldest and best-known anti-malarial drugs, but with lesser side-effects. It can be bought over the counter and fairly inexpensive.

But its purchase and use has been severely restricted as it was selectively used in the treatment of coronavirus because of its antiviral properties.

India gets the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) that is used to manufacture HCQ from China and supplies so far have been steady.

As much as 70 per cent of all the APIs needed by India to manufacture drugs come from China.

After Trump stated that the US could "retaliate" if India does not release stocks of the drug, Indian officials said exports of hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol will be allowed depending on availability of stock after meeting domestic requirements and existing orders.

Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) partially lifted a three-year-old 'import alert' on Ipca's two plants to import the medicine. Zydus Cadila has also received an order from the US.

Pharma industry officials said the country has enough stock of HCQ and companies were ready to ramp up the capacity to meet domestic requirements as well as exports.

On March 25, India had banned export of HCQ and added it to a list of more than two dozen APIs that can no longer be exported.

India is the largest exporter of the drug.

Officials said India would export the drug on a case-by-case basis after meeting all the domestic requirements.

"The Government has withdrawn the restrictions on 12 products and its formulations. Various scenarios are being assessed and it will be the endeavour to meet both the domestic demand and export obligation for Paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine," Jain said.

The objective is to minimise speculative buying and hoarding in these trying times and ensure balance in the distribution for patients and segments who need them, he added.

In a similar vein, Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association (IDMA) Executive Director Ashok Kumar Madan said: "India needs around 24 million tablets per year as on date for the three indications --- malaria, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis, it was being used".

India currently has an annual installed capacity of around 40 metric tonnes of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) of hydroxychloroquine. With this capacity, "we can make around 200 million tablets of 200 mg", he added.

So this indicates that India currently has spare available capacity. Now, "we have to see how much would the country's requirements for the drug would grow for both treatment and prevention of COVID-19. The companies have already started ramping the capacity."



The major API makers for the drug in the country are Zydus, Ipca and Mangalam Drugs. The major formulation makers of hydroxychloroquine are Ipca, Zydus, Wallace Pharmaceuticals, and Cipla, Madan said.

India exported hydroxychloroquine API in April-January 2019-20 period worth USD 1.22 billion. During the same period exports of formulations made from hydroxychloroquine were at USD 5.50 billion.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recommended HCQ be used as a preventive medication for COVID-19 high-risk group.

It has also recommended the use of the drug for those involved in the care of 'suspected or confirmed cases of the coronavirus and for asymptomatic household contacts of laboratory-confirmed patients, apart from healthcare workers who are involved in the treatment of COVID-19'.

Ipca is the drug's top manufacturer globally.

Each COVID-19 patient reportedly needs 14 tablet course and so the 10 crore pills ordered by the government can potentially treat over 71 lakh people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The first pandemic  coronavirus

On January the 30th, 2020 the World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern. Since then we have not only seen the steady influx of new diagnoses globally but also the increase in mortality.

We wait with bated breath as the disease encroaches closer and closer to our homes. Wondering, is there more that we should be doing to protect ourselves and our loved ones from this deadly disease.

The second pandemic  xenophobia

It has been fascinating to observe the social response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Amongst the widespread international fear of deadly disease, and the intense human desire to hold someone to blame, we have lost our minds. Confronted by this fear, deep-rooted racism and evil of the human heart has been put on full display.

Prompting the question - is xenophobia contagious?

Wherever this pandemic goes, xenophobia closely follows suit. Since the news of a novel coronavirus was released from the Chinese city of Wuhan in early January, we have borne witness to the accompanying pandemic of xenophobia.

This outbreak of social disease has spread faster than the accompanying COVID-19. Before COVID-19 had reached our shores, videos of bat-soup had gone viral in international media  prompting curt giggles from school children through to professionals.

The stories of both national and international racial abuse targeted at the Chinese and wider Asian communities are horrific. However, many incidences of xenophobia are under-reported or brushed over lightly in the media  with the media at times deeming the incidences as humorous.

In Australia, on the 26th of January 2020, Sydneys Daily Telegraphs headline read China kids stay home. Additionally, at a Woolworths supermarket, a person reported an incident whereby a member of the community of Asian descent was refused entry into the supermarket.

In New Zealand, we have seen an online petition signed by more than 18,000 people to prevent people from China entering the country.

Additionally, we have seen an influx in vitriolic slurs targeted towards Asian communities and people of Asian descent. With a reported incidence including that of an Auckland, doctor told to Go home to China after she sneezed on a bus.

It appears that our white-washed society would prefer to spend more time cultivating racist and prejudice belief systems than confronting these beliefs and curing social disease.

The third pandemic  madness

Here in New Zealand, there have been a few interesting responses to COVID-19 to make note of. Namely, our obsessive toilet paper hoarding.

Supermarket shelves around the country have been stripped toilet paper bare. Amongst the social hysteria, kiwis have been bulk buying the item that they fear most of running short on  toilet paper.

However, this is madness.

The humorous fact is, that although many kiwis may be preparing for the incoming toilet paper apocalypse, we produce toilet paper right here in New Zealand. Hence, we can rest assured that our days are to be filled with an ample supply of this necessary item.

However, simply presenting society with the facts is not simply enough. Statements have been released from New Zealands major toilet paper production companies urging kiwis to stop the shop. Yet, the preparation for the COVID-19 toilet paper apocalypse continues.

Hence, prompting the question - is this madness contagious?

A Christian response to pandemic

COVID-19. Xenophobia. Madness.

Three pandemics. One source. Sin.

As Christians, we hold to the understanding that we live in a disease-ridden, sinful and crazy world. The intense desires of the human heart are ultimately selfish  we care about ourselves and our own.

However, through the death of Christ on the cross we can receive salvation and our minds are transformed. Thus, the sin which our human nature once loved we now despise.

Although we may not actively be participants in the xenophobia and madness surrounding COVID-19, we can become default subscribers.

When we witness an act of racism yet do nothing. When we giggle at videos of bat-soup. When we adamantly wash our hands of confronting social madness, we become contributors to the pandemic.

Although COVID-19 is contagious, xenophobia and madness are not. It is time for us to stop pretending like they are. Time to get our hands dirty and confront this social disease.
Walmart Customer Sprays Cashier in Eyes With Lysol Over Pandemic Limit: Police

Police in Massachusetts said they are trying to find a woman who allegedly sprayed a Walmart employee in the eyes with Lysol.

Leicester police wrote on Facebook Monday that the woman, who hasnt yet been identified, became angry after a worker told her there was a limit on the number of cans she could purchase amid shortages caused during the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus outbreak. She then sprayed the employee.

The incident is believed to have taken place at the Leicester Walmart along Soojian Drive on March 27, according to police.

She then completed her purchase and left in what is believed to have been an Uber, the Leicester Police Department said in its statement. The female responded by spraying the cashier in the eyes with the Lysol requiring a response from EMS. She then completed her purchase and left in what is believed to have been an Uber, police said.

Police did not say what charges the woman could face.

Massachusetts, which was one of the first states to report a COVID-19 case in February, has more than 13,000 confirmed CCP Virus cases along with around 260 deaths, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

The United States has more than 360,000 cases and more than 10,980 deaths, say researchers from Johns Hopkins University, which runs a tally based on data from various health organizations. The U.S. surpassed 10,000 deaths from the CCP virus on Monday, while more than 20,000 people have recovered so far.

Anyone with information about the Walmart incident can contact Officer Matthew Soojian at (508) 892-7010 ext. 2066 or soojianm@leicesterpd.org.
Apple acquires AI startup Voysis in order to improve Siri.Voysis system taps into Wavenets, which is an AI-based method for creating computer speed that sounds more natural. Voysis also converts a companys database to artificial intelligence that users

It looks like Apple is not resting on its laurels when it comes to its digital assistant Siri. According to a report by Bloomberg, the Cupertino-based company has acquired Voysis, an Irish company that aims to make it easier for computer systems to understand natural language. The report does not mention the financials behind the deal but it does quote an Apple spokesperson saying that the company buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.

As per the report, Voysis system taps into Wavenets, which is an AI-based method for creating computer speed that sounds more natural. The companys webpage (now removed) stated that it was said to be able to convert a database to artificial intelligence that users can talk to. This system could prove invaluable for certain companies and apps.

This isnt the only recent acquisition by Apple. The company recently bought Dark Sky, a popular weather app on iOS and Android. With that set, it also pulled the plug on the Android and WearOS versions of the same. The report also notes that it will cease support for websites that had embedded the data on their pages. It is not yet known how Apple plans to use Dark Skys, but will most likely cherry-pick pieces that will be integrated into its own Weather app. The new features might be introduced in iOS 14, which is the next version of the iOS platform. Apple generally unveiled the new OS at WWDC events that are held in June, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 Coronavirus, this years event will be an online-only event.
Islamabad, April 7 (IANS) Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has reshuffled the federal cabinet by changing portfolios and making fresh appointments in different Ministries and Ministerial Departments, his office said.

According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister Office on Monday night, Khan has appointed Muhammad Hammad Azhar as Federal Minister for Industries, who was earlier serving as Minister for Economic Affairs, reports Xinhua news agency.

Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar who was serving Minister for National Food Security has replaced Azhar as Minister for Economic Affairs while Syed Fakhar Imam has replaced Bakhtiar in his previous portfolio.

The Prime Minister also accepted the resignation of Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui as Federal Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunication, said the statement, adding that Syed Amin Ul Haque has been appointed as Federal Minister for Telecom.

In addition to the above-mentioned changes, Khan also made some replacements and appoints in his advisors and bureaucracy, including the appointment of Babar Awan as an Advisor to the Prime Minister for Parliamentary Affairs.

The statement however, did not disclose the reason behind the reshuffle.

However, local media quoted sources close to the premier as saying that the changes were made in the backdrop of an inquiry into the sugar crises which caused high rates and shortage of the commodity in the country.

But there were no official confirmations on te claims.

In a tweet on Sunday, Khan said that has made the preliminary reports into sudden price hikes of sugar and wheat public which would lead the country to transparency, promising that "no powerful lobby will be able to profiteer at the expense of our public".

The reshuffle came at a time when the country is running a nationwide campaign to fight against the COVID-19.

Pakistan has reported 3,861 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 54 deaths so far.

--IANS

ksk/
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced today that the United States and Iraq will convene next month to hammer out several thorny issues, including the status of US troops who remain stationed in Iraq.

As a force for good in the nation and as [Iraqs] closest friend, the United States has proposed a strategic dialogue with the government of Iraq to be held in the middle of June, Pompeo told reporters at the State Department. With the global COVID-19 pandemic raging and plummeting oil revenues threatening an Iraqi economic collapse, its important that our two governments work together to stop any reversals of the gains weve made in our efforts to defeat [the Islamic State] and stabilize the country.

Pompeo noted that Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale will lead the US delegation to discuss the future presence of United States forces in that country."

Why it matters: The Iraqi parliament voted to kick out US forces in January following President Donald Trumps assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani. However, most Sunni and Kurdish parliamentarians boycotted the vote, which was nonbinding and took place under the auspices of a caretaker government.

The Soleimani strike accelerated Iraqs status as ground zero in the feud between the United States and Iran. Irans proxy militias such as Kataib Hezbollah has since launched several attacks on US forces stationed in Iraq, and the United States has in turn bombed the militia. Several rockets landed near a site maintained by the US oil company Halliburton on Monday, and the Saudi-Russian oil price war has joined forces with the coronavirus pandemic to exacerbate Iraqs economic crisis.

Whats next: In the middle of all this, Baghdad continues to struggle with forming a government as protests continue against the Iraqi political elite in the capital despite a coronavirus curfew. Iran opposes Prime Minister-designate Adnan al-Zurfi, the former US-appointed governor of Najaf in the wake of the American invasion. A group of Iran-backed militias have vowed to increase attacks against US interests in Iraq, deriding Zurfi as a US intelligence candidate.

Know more: Hassan Ali Ahmed has the inside scoop on how Iranian Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani visited Baghdad last week to unite Shiite parliamentarians against Zurfi  only to have it blow up in his face. Both Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr refused to meet him, and the trip may have even bolstered support for Zurfis proposed government.
Armenian authorities have started accessing and using personal data from peoples mobile phones to fight against the coronavirus epidemic, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Armenias parliament controversially allowed them to track movements, phone calls and text messages of people infected with the virus as the number of COVID-19 cases in the country spread rapidly last week. Opposition lawmakers as well as civic activists condemned the move, questioning its effectiveness and voicing concern about privacy violations.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinians government has repeatedly ruled out using smartphone tracking for political purposes. It maintains that the extraordinary measure will make it easier for the authorities to trace people who have come into contact with COVID-19 patients.

Such people are to be identified by an electronic system using phone location and usage data.

According to an aide to Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, who coordinates the governments response to the epidemic, the new monitoring mechanism has already been launched.

All personal data remains on mobile phone operators servers, the official, Bagrat Badalian, told RFE/RLs Armenian service. We send them a phone number which is of interest to us; namely a patients phone number. The special software then determines the circle of their contacts.

When that circle is determined we receive the phone numbers of only those individuals who have potentially been in contact with the patient, he said, adding that they are then ordered to self-isolate.

If they leave their self-isolation sites information about that automatically goes to the police, which either telephones them or send a special group of officers to find out the reasons for their departure, explained Badalian.

The isolated persons, the official went on, are also monitored by epidemiologists who may refer them to policlinics for coronavirus tests. If a person is in serious need in terms of food supplies  that information is collected and passed on to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs so that it supplies them with food, he said.

Badalian did not say how many Armenians exposed to infected persons have been identified through phone tracking so far.

The daily numbers of new coronavirus cases registered in Armenia have fallen in the last few days. The Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday that 20 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases to 853.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced on Monday that as part of their efforts to stem the spread of the virus the authorities are also planning to significantly expand COVID-19 testing. He said the daily number of such tests, which has varied between 200 and 400 in the last two weeks, will like reach 1,000 by the end of this week.

Medics hailed these plans, saying that the more extensive testing will ascertain the current incidence of the disease and the effectiveness of a nationwide lockdown and other measures taken by the authorities.

A larger number of tests will show what is really happening in our country and whether or not its worth continuing mass testing, said Arman Badalian, an epidemiology lecturer at Yerevan State Medical University.

Hasmik Ghazinian, a senior doctor at Yerevans Nork hospital treating the largest number of coronavirus patients in Armenia, agreed. I welcome that decision because thats how we can first and foremost determine how many infected people we have, she said.

Government officials say that 60,000 test kits purchased from China will be delivered to Armenia later this week. The authorities also expect to receive thousands of more test kits from Russia.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda



Sonowal on Tuesday called up three former chief ministers, senior BJP leaders, and leaders of opposition parties to apprise them of the state governments efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak in the state.

Sonowal dialled former chief ministers Tarun Gogoi and Bhumidhar Barman of the Congress, and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta of the Asom Gana Parishad(AGP), alliance partner of the BJP- led government in the state.

The others leaders he reached out included Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia of the Congress, AIUDF Legislature Party leader Hafiz Bashir Ahmed (Qasimi), former Union ministers Bijaya Chakrabarty, Kabindra Purkayastha, Rajen Gohain and Paban Singh Ghatowar.

The chief minister also spoke to state senior citizen welfare board chairman Harekrishna Bharali, and president of Sadou Asom Mukti Jujaru Sanmilan Krishna Lahkar, among others.

Sonowal informed them about the various measures undertaken by the state government like setting up of a quarantine facility with 1,000 beds for COVID-19 patients at Sarusajai Stadium here, making the medical colleges capable of handling coronavirus patients, plans for setting up five prefabricated COVID-19 hospitals at Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Lakhimpur, Silchar and Bongaigaon, and making arrangements for training doctors and para medical staff.

The senior politicians were apprised of the steps taken by the state government to provide free rice to 58 lakh families of Assam under National Food Security Act (NFSA) during this crisis.

Assuring the leaders of the success of the Assam governments initiatives for containing coronavirus outbreak, the chief minister told them that the Assam government is fully prepared to tackle a spike in coronavirus infections in the near future.

The views of the leaders were also taken about the prevailing situation, a CMO press release said.

In his call with the senior leaders, the chief minister requested them to ask their supporters to maintain social distancing and other protocols during the lockdown period.

Sonowal also enquired about their health during the telephonic talks.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Queen has won a battle against conservationists to build a private road at Balmoral so she can fell trees as part of sustainable forest management.

Representatives for the monarch lodged plans to build the road for lorries to transport them once they have been chopped down.

However, concerns were raised that the proposals could impact protected bird species including hen harriers.

There are only 617 breeding pairs of the rare birds of prey left in the UK.

The Queen (pictured during her address to the nation on April 5) has won a battle against conservationists to build a private road at Balmoral so she can fell trees as part of sustainable forest management. Representatives for the monarch lodged plans to build the road for lorries

The 760m-long private road will be built on 50,000-acre Balmoral estate (pictured) for the lorries to transport felled trees

The North East Scotland Biological Records Centre noted that the species had habitats within 100-metres of the proposed road.

The green light for the road has come just a week after Her Majesty won planning permission to build a green hydroelectric turbine.

The Balmoral Estate said in planning documents: 'The application is to build a new forest private way for the purpose of timber haulage.'

'Many millions of tonnes of timber are hauled each year in the UK.

Plans showing the Balmoral Estate and the road that will be built highlighted in red

'Hauling timber is an essential part of sustainable forest management, which delivers major economic, social and environmental benefits.

'The UK's forest industries directly support over 160,000 jobs and home-grown timber is especially valuable in terms of reducing 'timber miles' by substituting for imports from around the world.

'In some cases, timber haulage involves using roads that were not designed for traffic of this nature.'

More than a sixth of the 50,000-acre Balmoral estate is covered by trees, with almost 3,000 used for forestry, yielding 10,000 tonnes of wood a year.

Picture from a survey of protected species like the Hen Harrier in the location of the proposed new road

Prince Charles also recently revived the traditional method of horse logging on the estate.

Using horses is regarded as a more environmentally friendly practice than using heavy logging machinery.

The local council approved the 760m-long road after the estate submitted revised plans.

Deciding the application, a planning report said: 'The proposed development is not considered to raise any issues of significance to the collective aims of the National Park.'

Plans detail how the hydroelectric turbines work to power the estate while surplus electricity can be sold on to the National Grid

Meanwhile the hydroelectric turbine, a two-megawatt generator, will be built on the River Muick and will generate up to 650,000 of power a year, which will power the estate, and surplus electricity could be sold on to the National Grid.

Plans for the turbine were also opposed by environmentalists who feared it would be too noisy for woodland creatures living nearby.

Aberdeenshire Council's Environmental Team also objected to the proposals.

Spokeswoman Louise Cunningham said in planning documents: 'Typically, hydropower turbines can emit significant amounts of noise.

'The noise information currently provided in the Environmental Statement offers no measurements of the current background noise nor any site specific predictions.'

The plans will see the two-megawatt generator built on the River Muick, which runs through her 50,000-acre Balmoral estate in Scotland

Consequently, the plans were 'called in' by the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) in order to further scrutinise the environmental impact of the idea.

But the authority recently approved the plans along the river. It comes after a similar hydropower scheme began on the Gelder Burn, a stream that also runs through the area.

Richard Gledson, on behalf of Balmoral Estates, said of the plans: 'Balmoral Estates has already developed a hydro scheme on the Gelder Burn, which was commissioned in 2014.

'Following on the success of this project, and with a view to increasing the economic and environmental sustainability of Balmoral Estates, a study was carried out in 2013 into the potential for additional hydro generation.'

Plans show the front of the building where the generator will be situated  the turbines will be the fourth and fifth installed there

Outlining the decision, the CNPA ruled that it would jar with the national park but stressed that no work should be undertaken during the nesting bird season between February and August.

The hydro scheme will provide electricity to the Balmoral estate to help provide a focus on green energy.

The turbines will be the fourth and fifth installed there.

The first was supplied to provide electric light to Queen Victoria in 1898.

The Balmoral Estate is a working estate and covers 50,000 acres.
SPRINGDALE, Ark., April 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tyson Foods, Inc. (TSN) today issued the following statement from CEO Noel White about the companys efforts to address the COVID-19 situation in the U.S., as well as the impact of the virus on operations:



Were working hard to protect our team members during this ever-changing situation, while also ensuring we continue fulfilling our critical role of helping feed people across the country.

Weve been taking the temperature of workers at all of our locations before they enter company facilities. Were mostly using temporal thermometers but at a few locations were beginning to implement infrared temperature scanners. In addition, weve stepped up deep cleaning and sanitizing of our facilities, especially in employee breakrooms, locker rooms and other areas, to protect our team members. This additional cleaning sometimes requires suspending at least one day of production.

Were also coordinating with federal agencies to emphasize the need for personal protective equipment to support our team members as we remain open. Were working to secure an adequate supply of protective face coverings for production workers and have implemented interim protocols for temporary protective coverings, while observing food safety.

We continue to explore and implement additional ways to promote more social distancing in our plants. This includes erecting dividers between workstations or increasing the space between workers on the production floor, which can involve slowing production lines. Were also creating more room in non-production areas. For example, at some locations, weve set up tents to create outdoor break rooms.

Our meat and poultry plants are experiencing varying levels of production impact, due to the planned implementation of additional worker safety precautions and worker absenteeism. For example, out of an abundance of caution, we have suspended operations at our Columbus Junction, Iowa, pork plant this week due to more than two dozen cases of COVID-19 involving team members at the facility. In an effort to minimize the impact on our overall production, were diverting the livestock supply originally scheduled for delivery to Columbus Junction to some of our other pork plants in the region.

Story continues

While these are challenging times, we remain committed to protecting our people while continuing to meet the needs of our customers and consumers across America.

About Tyson Foods

Tyson Foods, Inc. is one of the worlds largest food companies and a recognized leader in protein. Founded in 1935 by John W. Tyson and grown under three generations of family leadership, the company has a broad portfolio of products and brands like Tyson, Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Wright, Aidells, ibp and State Fair. Tyson Foods innovates continually to make protein more sustainable, tailor food for everywhere its available and raise the worlds expectations for how much good food can do. Headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas, the company has 141,000 team members. Through its Core Values, Tyson Foods strives to operate with integrity, create value for its shareholders, customers, communities and team members and serve as a steward of the animals, land and environment entrusted to it. Visit WWW.TYSONFOODS.COM .

Contact: GARY MICKELSON , 479-290-6111

Category: IR, Newsroom
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) says no fewer than 1,739 foreigners have been evacuated from Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, since the evacuation exercise began about 10 days ago.

The Regional Manager, South-West Airport of FAAN, Victoria Shin-Aba, made this known to journalists on Tuesday in Lagos.

She said since the evacuation exercise commenced with the transportation of French and European citizens by Air France late March, several airlines, including two Nigerian carriers have participated in movement of foreign nationals out of the country.

She said, Delta Airlines from the United States (today) on Tuesday afternoon evacuated 200 Americans at the airport in continuation of the exercise.

Statistics provided by Mrs Shin-Aba indicated that Air France had evacuated 399 French and European nationals; Lufthansa- 238, six Air Peace crew); Middle East Airline (MEA) 140; Ethiopian Airlines- 148, 137 (Canadians), 375 (U.S); Jed Air- nine (Liberians and crew); Air Peace- 87 and Delta with 200 Americans.

She said the evacuation exercise had been going on smoothly with little or no hitches at all.

Mrs Shin-Aba said FAAN, in collaboration with other agencies, would continue to carry out its duties with utmost caution and professionalism.

So far, the activities have been okay and well-coordinated. Since the closure of the airport, we have had about 10 evacuations with different nationals.

We have had from Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, Middle East Airline (MEA) with the Lebanese; Ethiopian Airlines has been on with Americans and Canadians.

The conditions are that you have to get an approval from the Federal Ministry of Aviation, when the ministry gives the approval, it is sent to FAAN, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

Then, we send the approval to all the security agencies too. Most importantly, there is a procedure in place for the Covid-19 virus pandemic, which has to be followed.

For instance, Port Health Service has to check everyone that is going out, at times, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) will be on ground.

Even, to access the terminal, there is a checking by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and others. It has been smooth sailing.

Though, we had a cancellation some days ago, but that was not due to anybodys fault. It was due to logistics of the flight plan.

Apart from today (Tuesday), we have had 1,539 evacuations through the Lagos Airport alone.

READ ALSO:

Today, the United States is having another 200, another batch of Americans will be airlifted tomorrow (Wednesday) and next week, we are having South African Airways and Air France too.

They can come up with any plan in the course of the week. That is why we are essential workers.

We have to ensure that there is smooth running of operations. Nothing is compromised, she added.

On prevention of essential workers from contracting the disease, Shin-Aba said the agency had adopted social distancing practice, deploys metal detectors for security checks, rather than the initial pant down, encouraging use of hand gloves and face masks.

She said sanitisers were positioned in strategic and open areas of the airport.

Mrs Shin-Aba, however, decried that the revenue generations of FAAN had been impacted in the past weeks.

She said on average, the terminal handles 23-28 flights delay, but had dropped drastically to just 10 flights in 10 days.

The regional terminal manager further assured that the aerodrome would once again scale the hurdle of NCAA certification later in the year.

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She noted that all hands were on deck to make the exercise a huge success.

(NAN)
Justin Theroux pulled out all the stops for his special lady Kuma, who he adopted in 2018 in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Harvey.

The 48-year-old Leftovers star, who was once married to Jennifer Aniston, proved he's a doting dog, as he served her some decadent treats, including soup, bread and three different types of butter.

Theroux shared footage from their candle-lit meal to his Instagram Story, which showed her sauntering into her seat, at the table, and immediately digging into the first course on Monday.

Candle-lit dinner: Justin Theroux pulled out all the stops for his pup Kuma, who he adopted in 2018 in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Harvey, on Monday

For the date night, the menu from Blue Hill Farm included soup, bread and a variety of three salted butters.

As the beloved Pit Bull mix licked her bowl clean, Theroux sweetly pushed two pieces of bread toward her next.

While his four-legged friend surely enjoyed the decadent meal, the actor shone a light on the restaurant for also 'donating incredible meals to EMS and hospital workers on the front lines.'

Dog dad: Theroux shared footage from their date night to his Instagram Story, which showed her sauntering into her seat and immediately digging into the first course on Monday

'Support your local health workers,' he urged with another snapshot of Kuma with her nose adorably under a white bowl. 'And if they are open...your local businesses'

'Support your local health workers,' he urged with another snapshot of Kuma with her nose adorably under a white bowl. 'And if they are open...your local businesses.'

His post praising essential workers marks the second night in a row he has documented an elaborate dinner sitting across from his pooch.

On Sunday night he gave a glimpse of their 'date night' and called his canine a 'dainty lady.'

While remaining under coronavirus lockdown in his NYC apartment, it appears the hunky animal activist is using his time to spoil his fur child.

Big heart: While remaining under coronavirus lockdown in his NYC apartment, it appears the hunky animal activist is using his time to spoil his grateful girl

She first caught his eye after her picture was posted online with a message about needing a forever home.

At the time, Kuma was named Sylvia, and was suffering from multiple medical issues that caused her fur to fall out, revealing the pink skin underneath, according to The Dodo.

Ultimately, the local shelter got a message from the president of the Austin-based shelter Austin Pets Alive that a VIP client was interested in the dog, who was left homeless in Conroe, Texas.

Date night: His post praising essential workers marks the second night in a row he has documented an elaborate dinner at the table for his pup

Quarantine buddy: On Sunday night he gave a glimpse of their 'date night' and called his canine a 'dainty lady'

The VIP turned out to be Justin, who was in Texas at the time and made the multi-hour drive to visit Sylvia, whom he'd rename Kuma, which means 'bear' in Japanese.

The two have become inseparable since then, and the actor is regularly spotted out walking her.

She's also a visible symbol of his commitment to dogs and their rights, particularly Pit Bulls.

Needy: He barely got in two reps of push-ups, before Kuma leaned in to lick his face as he moved up and down

Last week, the Lady and the Tramp voice star filmed another hilarious set of Instagram Stories, as Kuma interrupted his workout.

He barely got in two reps of push-ups, before Kuma leaned in to lick his face as he moved up and down.

Eventually, the American Psycho actor stopped what he was doing to let her jump up on her hind legs for a hug and petting.
'India is a pharma dada. We can manufacture enough for our people and for the world.'

IMAGE: Doctors check patients at the Government Medical College hospital in Jammu. Photograph: PTI Photo

"This is an absolutely unnecessary controversy. The government should have right away allowed the export of hydroxychloroquine because it is a commodity drug and does not require high-end knowhow," says Dharmesh Shah, chairman and managing director, BDR Pharma, a Mumbai-headquartered pharmaceutical company.

"India is a pharma dada. We can manufacture enough for our people and for the world, so what's the fuss over it?" asks Shah.

The controversy over the export of hydroxychloroquine, a drug needed to fight coronavirus, turned into a big issue after United States President Donald J Trump 'warned India of retaliation if it did not allow the drug's export.

India had temporarily banned the export of hydroxychloroquine following the sudden rise of COVID-19 cases within the country.

But the Indian pharma industry is amazed that such a "commodity product" for which experienced companies can develop the capacity overnight can become an issue between any two countries.

On Tuesday, April 7, morning the ministry of external affairs issued a statement, 'In view of the humanitarian aspects of the pandemic, it has been decided that India would license paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in appropriate quantities to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on our capabilities.'

'We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic,' the MEA added.

However, the drugs 'will be kept in a licensed category and their demand position would be continuously monitored,' the MEA added.

'After having confirmed the availability of medicines for all possible contingencies currently envisaged, the restrictions have been largely lifted,' the MEA stated.

The government has been flooded with demand for hydroxychloroquine from Nepal, Mauritius and SAARC countries, as well as from South Africa. So it was not just America's demand that was under consideration in New Delhi.

All the countries with COVID-19 patients need the drug. China, which is in a position to export the drug, has been approached by more than 60 countries.

IPCA Labs, Zydus Cadila and Wallace Pharma produce hydroxychloroquine tablets. Two pharma giants are currently working overtime to meet the order from the government.

India has a capacity to produce more than 200 million pills a month.

According to BDR Pharma's Shah, there are compelling reasons to lift the ban on the exports of hydroxychloroquine.

"This drug is not difficult to make, more than 20 companies are manufacturing it in the country," says Shah. "The government should just ensure that big export companies keep a sensible stock for domestic consumption and accept only a reasonable export order. It is not difficult to control the ratio."

"Second, this drug was never in short supply and is unlikely to be so in the future, so why such a scare?" asks Shah.

Shah fears that what should be to India's legitimate advantage will go to China because of the "unnecessary controversy" over the issue.

"The pharma industry is one of the biggest foreign exchange earners," Shah points out. "This is the time to build bilateral relations with more than 50 countries around the globe which need this drug."

"We should increase our capacity overnight and enter a win-win situation with lifting of the export ban."
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By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 07, 2020 | 03:09 PM | MARSHALL COUNTY





The accident occurred at the 41-mile marker on I-69 in Marshall County.







Kentucky state troopers said 35-year-old William Nelson of Dexter, and 22-year-old Asia Sledd of Murray, were on a motorcycle when they struck a deer and were thrown from the motorcycle.







A car driven by 25-year-old Kermit Peck of Camden, Tennessee, struck Nelson. Another vehicle driven by 67-year-old Michael Martin of Gilbertsville, struck Nelson as well.



Nelson was pronounced dead at the scene. Sledd was taken to the Marshall County Hospital by EMS, and was later airlifted to Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville.







The northbound lanes of I-69 were closed for around five hours.

A motorcycle crash claimed the life of a Calloway County man on Monday.
A majority of online South Africans are confident that the national government is effectively addressing the threat posed by the spread of the coronavirus, even as lockdowns and closures force millions to isolate themselves. They also expressed their confidence in international institutions in handling the crisis.

not

Purchase metrics and purchase intentions



Social issues and response to actions



Incidence of counter-measures



Behavioural and attitudinal measures



Responsibility and credibility



Long-term outlook

The poll results show that about six in every 10 online South Africans expressed confidence in the South African government (61%) dealing with the spread of the pandemic. SA businesses are not (yet?) viewed with confidence regarding Covid-19 as only slightly more than half (52%) expressed confidence in the institutions that should play a key role in keeping our economy going. However, with more and more businesses taking bold and active steps to support communities during these difficult times, this result might change rapidly in the weeks to come.On the other end of the scale, the South African border control authorities are viewed rather negatively regarding their handling of the crisis, as half (50%) indicated that they areconfident in the actions taken by the SA border control authorities to curb the inflow or outflow of possibly infected people into (or out of) the country.Ipsos has been conducting a global tracking survey since early February 2020, aiming to monitor and understand drivers of change in six broad areas:The global tracking survey has been conducted in the high-risk and heaviest-hit countries. However, in South Africa, the first wave has just been completed, but the survey will now be conducted regularly. Given the rapidly evolving nature of circumstances and the spread of the virus, questions in the survey get adapted regularly.When analysing results and reporting on findings it was possible to do some comparisons between South African results and the results of similar questions asked in other parts of the world. The results show that  in the majority of the countries participating in this study  citizens expressed confidence in their respective governments efforts to contain the spread of the virus.Across the world, Chinese (97%), Vietnamese (94%) and Indians (85%) expressed the most confidence in their governments. They are followed by citizens from Canada (74%), Italy (66%), South Africa (61%), Australia (60%), the UK and Brazil (both at 59%), France, the USA and Russia (all at 50%). Looking at the bottom of the list, less than half of citizens in Germany (49%), Japan (48%) and Mexico (45%) expressed confidence in the way their national governments are handling the crisis situation around the coronavirus.A question was asked about the magnitude of the threat posed by the coronavirus to the world, and the citizens country, local community, family and to them personally.The results for South Africa show that online citizens believe that the biggest threat is to the world as a whole (94%), as well as to South Africa as a country (90%).Similarly, most global citizens appear to be fairly concerned about the threat that the coronavirus poses on different levels (personal, family and community), but there is a much higher perceived threat at a national and global level. This view of coronavirus (and Covid-19) as a global threat is prevalent across the different countries surveyed.Vietnamese (62%) and Italians (56%) perceive the virus to be a threat to them personally, while citizens in the USA (29%), Australia (28%), Japan (26%), Canada (25%) and Russia (17%) are least likely to agree that the virus poses a threat to them personally. (Again, this might be one of the measures changing rapidly in weeks to come, depending on the spread of the virus to new territories, more people testing positive for Covid-19, more deaths registered and the scarcity of equipment  like PPE, ventilators and ICU beds  becoming more and more evident).The following question on the confidence in sources of information was posed to citizens in different countries:This question was posed to citizens in other countries during the fieldwork round of 26-30 March and to South Africans during our first round of 24-27 March 2020. As these fieldwork period overlap, Ipsos is confident in making these comparisons.Almost nine in every 10 (89%) online South Africans say that they have confidence in the accuracy of information provided by the South African health authorities. Confidence in health authorities is also very high in China (83%), Vietnam and Italy (both at 81%). On the other side of the scale, citizens in Russia (29%), Japan (31%) and Mexico (45%) are least confident in the information they receive from their local health authorities.Online South Africans also trust the government (77%) and the news on television (85%) as sources of information. Television news enjoys a high level of confidence as a result of its visual impact and immediacy.Confidence in the information distributed by the government can probably be attributed to the strong leading role played by the president and the cabinet since the coronavirus outbreak. On 15 March 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared the National State of Disaster, instituting a partial travel ban, travel advisories, discouraging public transport, the closing of schools and prohibiting gatherings of more than 100 people. On 23 March 2020, the president announced a national lockdown lasting 21 days from 26 March to 16 April 2020.Apart from the fact that online South Africans expected the coronavirus to have a profound influence on international sporting events, they also hold a few other strong opinions about the time after (or during) the current crisis.Online South Africans strongly expect that the coronavirus will leave a negative legacy in terms of travel and tourism and potentially also create civil unrest in high-risk countries.On the upside, they think that trust in global health authorities will increase (60%) and the crisis will enhance citizens willingness and/or likelihood to adhere to national disaster measures (57%).Looking forward to the testing and distribution of possible vaccines or medicine that can fight the effects of the virus, 56% think that public perceptions of pharmaceutical companies will become more positive. In addition, six in every 10 (60%) think that, in future, trust in global health authorities will improve.Almost two-thirds of online South Africans (65%) believe that there will be civil unrest and riots in the high-risk countries due to a failure to contain the spread of the pandemic.Almost seven out of every 10 (69%) online South Africans expect trade disruptions between the country and high-risk countries.Owen MandaDirector of Public Affairs, Ipsos South AfricaMobile: +27 82 886 7707Mari HarisDirector and Political Analyst, Ipsos South AfricaMobile: +27 82 557 5058Ezethu MandlelizeService Line Manager: Public Affairs, Ipsos South AfricaMobile: +27 74 617 8023These are the results of an Ipsos South Africa survey conducted from 24 to 27 March 2020 on Ipsos South Africas Online platform, with a sample of 1,008 adults aged 18-65.The global study used to compare with South African results was conducted from 26 to 30 March 2020 and is Wave 6, conducted on the Ipsos Global Advisor online platform among 28,000 adults aged 18-74 in Canada and the United States and 16-74 in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.Globally, at the start of Wave Four of the international study, sample sizes were adjusted from 1,000 to 2,000 per country, with the exception of Vietnam staying at 1,000 interviews, the same as South Africa.The samples in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US can be taken as representative of these countries general adult population over age 16 or 18 (as above) and under the age of 75. The sample in South Africa, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia, and Vietnam is more urban, more educated and/or more affluent than the general population and should be viewed as reflecting the views of the more connected segment of the population. The data is weighted so that each markets sample composition best reflects the demographic profile of the adult population according to the most recent census data.In South Africa, Ipsos weighted and projected the results to the online population: those who have internet access at home or on their smartphones.Where results do not sum to 100 or the difference appears to be +/-1 more/less than the actual, this may be due to rounding, multiple responses or the exclusion of don't know or not stated responses. The precision of Ipsos online polls is calculated using a credibility interval with a poll of 1,000 accurate to +/- 3.5 percentage points. For more information on the Ipsos use of credibility intervals, please visit the Ipsos website ( www.Ipsos.com ).Ipsos is the worlds third-largest market research company, present in 90 markets and employing more than 18,000 people.Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts and scientists have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide the true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees. We serve more than 5,000 clients across the world with 75 business solutions.Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos is listed on Euronext Paris since 1 July 1999. The company is part of the SBF 120 and the Mid-60 index and is eligible for the Deferred Settlement Service (SRD).ISIN code FR0000073298, Reuters ISOS.PA, Bloomberg IPS: FP www.ipsos.com
New Delhi, April 7 (IANS) The government has been advocating strict social distancing norms and work for home, for a month now in wake of the coronavirus outbreak. As of Tuesday, India has surpassed 4,400 coronavirus cases with 114 deaths at least. While 133 crore Indians remain locked down inside and most of the urban workforce working from home, how is the government of India and its top ministers running the show from their home, themselves?

Amit Shah, Home Minister:

Number two in the government and considered the most trusted person of the Prime Minister in the Union Cabinet, Shah's core team has been significantly slashed. In normal time, he has a core team of around 40-42 officers working for him at the North Block. But now, he has limited his visits to the ministry and retained less than one fourth of his workforce.

Since the lockdown, his Krishna Menon Marg residence which previously was late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's house has been turned into a temporary office. All real time updates from concerned departments are sent to this office.

Shah has visited the Home Ministry four to five times since the nationwide shutdown was imposed. Whenever he visits North Block, he ensures only the bare minimum staff, whose presence is absolutely unavoidable, is present, say sources.

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla brief Shah on a regular basis about the steps being needed to adopt to contain the spread of Covid-19. Most of Shah's coordination happens through phone, while at home, say sources.

Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister:

Rajnath Singh, who has been chairing the GoM on Covid-19, has been one of the sincerest followers of work from home. One of his aides says: "He can go to South Block. But that will mean coming in contact with at least a dozen people everyday, at the bare minimum. When you have the technology available to avoid that, why not use it?"

He is known to be a wide user of Zoom video. However all government interactions take place through secured video transmission lines. On a heavy work day, le holds nine to ten video conferences a day, while on a lean day that can be one. For instance, there hasn't been any such interaction at all this Sunday.

Even while meeting his ministerial colleagues like when he had to chair the GoM on Tuesday, he instructed his staff to use a bigger room so that each chair can be placed a safe distance of one metre.

Prakash Javedekar, I&B Minister:

Javadekar has been one of the busiest ministers ever since the shutdown was enforced, having to take decisions of three key ministries that come under his purview -Information & Broadcasting; Environment, Forest & Climate Change; & Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises.

He is also tasked to brief the media on cabinet decisions like the one that suspended MPLADS for two years on Monday. However, he steps into the National Media Center for such briefings.

Being the I&B Minister makes him the point person to ensure fake news regarding COVID-19 is curbed for which a small team working from him liaisons with the ministry and keeps him informed. Fake news from passing on old fire as a result of candle burning at the call of PM Modi this Sunday to attaching communal undertones to the Tablighi Jamaat controversy in Delhi's Nizamuddin, Javadekar has to ensure they are curbed and do it from his home.

For most of his ministerial works, Javadekar prefers to call up and talk with his Secretaries and Joint Secretaries than going into a video conference.

The Maharashtra leader' work doesn't end there. He also is being given party assignments that can be done from home in the last three weeks. For instance, every BJP member needs to encourage 40 others to donate to PM-CARES. Ministers too are expected to do that.

A source said that Javadekar starts his day with yoga to stay focussed amid juggling many roles.

Ram Vilas Paswan, Food & Public Distribution Minister:

At a time when 133 crore Indian are locked inside, the one ministry apart from health that becomes extremely vital is that of food and public distribution. Paswan also heads the consumer affairs ministry and has to ensure essential food items like rice, wheat, pulses are available aplenty and reaches each Indian, not hoarders.

Paswan has not been entirely functioning through home. He has been visiting his ministry regularly, and attending GoMs. Sources say, one of the reasons for the minister to increasingly step out, even for a short while, off late is because PMO is believed to have directed that quality of video transmission with PM Narendra Modi cannot be compromised. In other words, Skype or Zoom are not options. Hence ministers are increasingly visiting their ministries for better video conference facilities.

While home, Paswan prefers to coordinate with his ministry officials and other related office bearers like that of NAFED through phone.

He also has curtailed the number of staff that generally move with him like shadows.

Narendra Tomar, Agriculture & Farmer Welfare Minister:

With 70 per cent of its rural households still dependent primarily on agriculture for their livelihood and about 83.3 crore people living in rural areas, Tomar's role as Agriculture Minister becomes extremely crucial when the farmers are confined in their homes while their harvest is left unattended in fields.

What makes Tomar's job tougher is it is the beginning of the Rabi harvest season. There have also been spells of unseasonal rains destroying a certain part of the wheat, mustard and chana crops.

Tomar has been one of the very few ministers who have been relatively regular in going to his ministry even in this time of total shutdown. Tomar was there in his ministry on Monday, and Tuesday too. Sources say, he has another meeting through a video conference with different states planned for Wednesday, which will go live from his ministry.

However, he has ensured the staff present at his ministry during the shutdown remains minimum. He is also the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister - ministries that affect millions. Tomar prefers to be in touch with his officials through text services and sometimes calls as well. His day ends at 1 a.m. on an average everyday, said a source.

It is not just the urban salaried class or the corporate honchos who wake up, eat breakfast and start working from their home, switching on their laptop webcams - Narendra Modi's cabinet is pretty much doing the same.

--IANS

abn-sk-rak-pj-kamlesh/vd
Appointment

7 April 2020

In his previous role, Pankaj was General Manager at Radisson Blu Pune Hinjawadi. He brings with him 22 years of hospitality experience and has been represented at ITB-Berlin and WTM London several times in recent years along with participation in commercial RHG workshops across SE Asia & China Road Show 2019.

Having done a Diploma in Business Administration also holds a Bachelor's degree in Hotel Management from Mangalore University. He also served in Exe Committee as Vice President 2011-12 Hotels & Restaurant Association of Andhra Pradesh, India affiliated with FHRAI. Radisson Blu Mumbai International Airportis located in close proximity to Mumbai Airport with 206 uniquely designed Rooms / Suites & Spa having Fiona - All Day Dining Coffee Shop overlooking the courtyard along with close to 1200 sq. mt. of Meeting & Events.
Gijigijigaaneshinh

Ivy and I were in the living room when we heard a bird hit the window. I have stickers on the windows to prevent that, but they dont always work. I went outside and found an injured chickadee on our front step. I carefully shut the door behind me and I was just a couple of feet away from him. He was close to the red willow I had gathered to make apaakozigan (traditional Ojibwe tobacco) and he was rightfully and wisely afraid of me.

He was stunned, but he was standing on both feet and he was watching me carefully. He had a loose feather over one eye and he had feathers sticking out from several other places.

I knelt down and moved closer and stopped when he tried to move away. I talked to him softly. Are you OK? I dont want to pick you up. Ill stay here until youre better. We stayed on the front step and he stayed still and continued to watch me. I carefully took my asemaa from my pocket. I poured some into my hand and held it out to him, then put it on the concrete as close to him as I could.

Boozhoo, gijigijigaaneshinh. Daga odaapinik nidasemaam. (Hello, chickadee. Please accept my tobacco). I introduced myself to him in Ojibwe and told him my Ojibwe name, my clan, where my tribe was and my deceased mothers and deceased fathers names.

I didnt really have anything more to say and we were quiet again. He was watching me intently and he wasnt showing any signs he was going to fly.

I talk to the chickadees when I fill the bird feeder, but mostly to tell them Im bringing food and inviting them to eat. They fly close to me sometimes if I take too long to fill the feeder.

Arne Vainio, M.D., receives the Physician of the Year from the Association of American Indian Physicians during the organization's annual conference in Shawnee, Oklahoma, on July 28, 2017. Photo courtesy Ivy Vainio

Gijigijigaaneshinh, I have noticed there are less of you in the past few years and I see less birds in general. Last year I was worried because I didnt see any bees until much later than usual and there were not as many of them. The climate is changing and there are huge storms and floods and fires and the oceans are rising due to glaciers melting. Insects dont hatch at the right time to support birds that are migrating. I know that makes it difficult for you to survive.

An elder told me birds protect the sky and we were put here to be a part of creation and respect the earth and everything on it. We have not been respectful of that relationship and this is an enormous responsibility for you to bear alone. We learned to extract things from the earth and we forgot to take only what we need. Most of the time we dont even look up and notice the sky and we dont listen to your songs. Our creation stories tell us each of us has a purpose and we are interdependent on each other.

I have been told whenever someone comes to bring us a message or to help us change, the one sent has always been imperfect. Maybe we were expecting someone bigger and seemingly more important. Now I see you as a very small, but very timely messenger. You risked your life to carry this message and this shows courage out of proportion to your size.

A great sickness has been visited upon us as human beings. This happened to us as Native people a long time ago and it devastated us and killed us by the millions. It took our elders and our babies alike and there was nothing we could do.

This new sickness affects all people from all over the world. It takes our elders and those most vulnerable. It takes people with cancer and heart disease, it takes people with diabetes and other chronic diseases. It spreads quickly and easily between people. It spreads at funerals and birthday parties and all public places and it can be spread by someone with no symptoms at all. It spreads at the places we should feel the safest, at our ceremonies and in our churches. Gathering together should be our strength, but with this sickness it is our downfall.

We are having difficulty convincing people this is coming and people still gather. I worry for my elders and I worry for the people I work with.

I want to tell you I am sorry and I ask your forgiveness. I was told that all things in the natural world are trying to tell us something and that we need to listen to find out what that is. I thought I was listening, but you wouldnt have hurt yourself if I was. We have lost our way from our creation stories.

I would ask you to go and tell your brothers and sisters I hear your message. I will do the same.

He fluffed his feathers and brought them back in and he was less damaged and he only had a few loose feathers. I waited quietly and he fluffed his feathers again and hopped a few short hops, but he didnt fly.

Miigwech, little messenger. I will remember you in my prayers.

He fluffed himself one more time, took a short hop and he was flying. He flew straight and true and easily and he landed in the tree closest to me and he started to sing.

I have been listening to the chickadees sing since I was five years old. My Finnish grandmother told me they change their song in the spring and she called them spring birds. I listened to him sing and I was listening for the difference in his message to his brothers and sisters.

I didnt hear it. His song was the same as it has ever been and I realized he was giving the same message hes been giving all along. Its me who needs to change and its me who needs to carry his message.

I took a break from writing when News from Indian Country stopped publication last August and it felt good to be free of deadlines for the last six months or so. I appreciate the forum I have here and I still have something to say.

Stay safe everyone. Wash your hands. The Coronavirus has an oily membrane surrounding it and soap and water tears the virus apart. Keep our elders and our most vulnerable safe. Dont gather. Church services and ceremonies will allow this virus to spread. You can still be spiritual and prayerful at home. Use technology to stay in touch with those you love. Call an elder. They are alone and they are afraid. Teach them to use Skype or Zoom or other platforms and talk to them every day. Respect each other and cut each other some slack. Everyone is stressed, lives are changed, medical systems are overwhelmed and we have never seen anything like this. Any public gatherings endanger those we care about and are connected to. We can slow the spread of COVID-19 by sheltering in place.

And remember. We are a part of creation, but only a part of it. Everything in the natural world is trying to tell us something. We need to listen to those messages to find our way back.

Arne Vainio, MD is an enrolled member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and is a family practice physician on the Fond du Lac reservation in Cloquet, Minnesota. He can be contacted at a-vainio@hotmail.com

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Oil prices rebounded Tuesday on fresh hopes an OPEC-led meeting this week will reach an agreement to reduce oversupply and shore up the market.

Prices have fallen sharply since expectations for a quick deal to cut output levels were dashed, but the rescheduling to Thursday of a meeting of major crude producers boosted sentiment.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 3.83 per cent to USD 27.08 a barrel in Asian morning trade.

A barrel of Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading 2.81 percent higher at USD 33.98.

Prices fell to 18-year lows last week as the market wallowed in oversupply arising from a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, which have ramped up production.

"Prices recovered some of the early losses, as both Russia and Saudi Arabia suggested they would be willing to cut production but only if the rest of the world followed suit," ANZ Bank said in a note.

"The stumbling block appears to be the US, which is reluctant to join an agreement."



But with US Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette holding talks with Saudi Arabia and Russia, "the market is hopeful of some sort of agreement", the bank added.

OPEC is the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries of which Saudi Arabia is the biggest producer, while Russia is not an OPEC member.

"Ultimately there is hope that cooler heads will prevail, and producers will reconcile and formulate a response that puts a floor under oil prices," said AxiCorp global market strategist Stephen Innes.

"Still, the challenge remains to the extent which producers are willing to cut.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A freethinker group that represents atheists and agnostics has sent a letter to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey complaining that she used her announcement of a stay-at-home order on Friday to preach and advance Christianity.

In a letter dated April 6, the foundation wrote that multiple concerned citizens reported that you used this official government event to promote your personal religious beliefs. In the middle of your speech you suddenly started preaching.

They complained Ivey quoted from the Bible during her announcement.

The good Lord reminds us in Isaiah 43: 1-3, and I quote, Do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous hand, Ivey said on Friday.

The letter of complaint also mentions she then invited the Rev. Cromwell Hand from Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church to speak. Reverend Handy delivered a 9-minute long sermon, during which he recited many different Bible verses and referred to the pandemic as an opportunity given by God to pause and reflect on His glory.

Ivey then asked Handy to lead a prayer to God Almighty asking for his blessings.

Handy then led all of the government officials present in a lengthy formal prayer in Jesus name.

The letter is signed by Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker, co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wisconsin.

These actions amount to an endorsement of religion, specifically Christianity, in contravention of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, they wrote.

The decision to preach and to invite a reverend to pray as part of a state press conference sends an unfortunate official message of endorsement of religion over non-religion by the highest executive office in the state  a message that inevitable excludes many of your constituents and has a proselytizing intent. A message to encourage safety and show governmental concern in a time of hardship could have been effectively conveyed without prayer and the unnecessary entanglement of government and religion. Therefore, we urge you in the future to refrain from promoting religion in your official capacity as governor of Alabama.

Iveys office responded this morning.

The governor has never shied away from her faith, and whether you are a person of faith or not, everyone is given the right of freedom of religion or freedom of speech under the first amendment, said Press Secretary Gina Maiola. She believes that faith and hope is never needed more than now in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Doctor Nguyen Trong An  coordinator for the Non-Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control (NCDs Vietnam) talks on the countrys resolve to protect wild animals from hunters.

As a medical expert, how do you respond to a report saying that COVID-19 is likely to have come from bats?

Following his visit to China, a representative from the World Health Organisation said there was a lot of evidence indicating the original roots of the coronavirus which has caused COVID-19 came from bats in Wuhan seafood market, a city of Hubei Province, China.

Doctor Nguyen Trong An.

I have read quite a lot of stories relating to COVID-19 and have discussed with Professor Dr Nguyen Huy Nga, former Director-General of the Preventive Health Department, under the Ministry of Health, on what was the main cause leading to COVID-19. We agreed that COVID-19 came from the wild Wuhan bats  the Rhinolophus species.

Besides that, according to Peter Daszak, President of the Ecohealth Alliance  a US non-profit organisation, some 15 years ago, many scientists detected that many bats living in caves in southern China had carried various virus species which were similar to the new coronavirus and the viruses which caused SARS and MERS.

According to Daszak, one of the 500 coronaviruses at that time were similar, up to 96 per cent, to the coronavirus circulating now.

This piece of information has further consolidated our assumption that the root cause of the COVID-19 which has led to the infection of more than 300,000 people and the death of thousands was wild animals, particularly the Rhinholophus bats. However, if we want to confirm Rhniholophus bats as the culprits, we need more time for scientists to conduct more research.

So besides COVID-19, do wild animals pose other dangers to human health?

More than a decade ago, people living in the Central Highlands and the southwestern region talked about a story that three or four local people died after eating the meat from a python with nine nostrils. Ten years later, scientists found out the main cause of the death of those people was poison from the python. According to scientists that giant snake had nine noses.

Recently, the American CDC and EcoHealth Alliance have issued many publications on the danger of eating wild animals and recommend people not eat wild animal meat.

So what action should we take now?

My advice is that all scientists in the world, including Vietnamese scientists and lawmakers, should work together to come up with legal documents to prohibit people from killing wild animals for eating or to sell the meat.

Besides legal documents, how else can we protect wild animals and human health?

We should raise the peoples awareness of the need to protect the wild animals while advising wild animal hunters give up wild animal hunting.

In addition, we should create a hotline to let people inform forest rangers if they detect people hunting wild animals.

It is good news that in early March, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and other concerned agencies to work on a ban of buying and selling wild animals. PM Phuc also set the deadline that the document must be on his table before April 1.VNS

Coronavirus: China wildlife trade ban 'should be permanent' China should apply a permanent ban on the wildlife trade in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Vietnam to keep close eye on wildlife import, sale The Vietnam Administration of Forestry has instructed province and city agriculture departments around the country to carefully monitor wildlife imports amid the public health emergency caused by the new strain of coronavirus.
Hali Fisher, 24, waits in line to vote at Riverside High School, 1615 E. Locust St. in Milwaukee on Tuesday, April 7, 2020. The Wisconsin primary is moving forward in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic after Gov. Tony Evers sought to shut down Tuesday's election in a historic move Monday that was swiftly rejected by the conservative majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court by the end of the day.

A day before Wisconsin's scheduled primary election, Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, issued an executive order to suspend in-person voting in an effort to reduce voters' exposure to coronavirus.

Later that day the Republican-led legislature challenged that decision and the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Evers' executive order. In a separate case, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 along ideological lines to reverse a lower court order to extend Wisconsin's deadline for absentee ballots.

On Tuesday, voters lined up to cast their votes for Democratic challengers former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected at least 378,289 Americans and killed at least 11,830, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Also on the ballot is a state Supreme Court seat that could have implications for the presidential election.

The state has reduced the number of polling stations and offered drive-by voting options at several locations. Social distancing measures have been enacted to allow voters safe access to the polls.

As Wisconsin votes, there is growing debate on how to conduct future elections safely in a year that still has several upcoming primaries and the 2020 presidential election.

The following photos show voting in Wisconsin amid the coronavirus outbreak:
The special committee on the board of The We Company, which operates office-sharing startup WeWork, filed a lawsuit against its largest shareholder SoftBank Group Corp on April 7, challenging its decision to terminate a $3-billion tender offer.

Earlier in April, SoftBank said it had terminated the tender offer for additional WeWork shares agreed last year with shareholders, plunging the startup further into crisis.

In the lawsuit, which was widely expected after the tender offer fell through, the special committee called SoftBank's decision to terminate the tender offer "wrongful" and alleged that SoftBank had breached its obligations under the master transaction agreement (MTA).

"SoftBank's failure to consummate the tender offer is a clear breach of its contractual obligations under the MTA as well as a breach of SoftBank's fiduciary obligations to WeWork's minority stockholders, including hundreds of current and former employees," the special committee said in the statement.

The tender offer, which would have mostly benefited a select group of shareholders, including ousted co-founder Adam Neumann, had been agreed in October as part of a bailout plan by SoftBank after WeWork's IPO plans imploded.

Investors have been concerned about the company's losses, Neumann's leadership style and a business model that involves taking long-term leases and renting out spaces for a short term.

"The Special Committee is seeking specific performance requiring SoftBank to complete the tender offer or, in the alternative, compensatory damages for SoftBank's breaches of contract and fiduciary duty," the special committee said.
S pain's coronavirus-linked deaths rose again on Tuesday, after dropping for four straight days.

The number of people who died in the past 24 hours after contracting Covid-19 was 743, a slight increase from the 637 who died the previous day, the health ministry said.

Nearly 14,000 people have died in Spain after testing positive for the virus.

Confirmed cases topped 140,000 on Tuesday, up from around 135,000 the day before.

Medical staff from La Princesa hospital react as neighbours applaud from their balconies in support for healthcare workers, amid the Covid-19 outbreak, in Madrid / REUTERS

But Spain's health minister Jose Maria Sierra said that the up-tick in deaths was for administrative reasons.

He told a press conference: "What happens is normal, that there are oscillations after weekends, where reporting is not so punctual.

"The important thing is to see the trend and the accumulated figure of several days...you have to keep watching and see what happens in the week. "

Spain has been one of the worst-affected countries by the coronavirus pandemic so far.

Madrid on lockdown / AFP via Getty Images

Only the US has had more confirmed cases and only Italy has reported more virus-related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The Spanish Government ordered a lockdown several weeks ago to slow the spread of the virus, in a similar move to many other countries.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said last week he would ask parliament to extend the quarantine until 26 April, arguing that the move was "saving lives".

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez / AP

He added: We are at the start of the decrease in the epidemic. We are stronger than we think but we have to endure. With sacrifice, resistance and the spirit of victory.

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Dolors Sala Carrio, the mother of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was among recent coronavirus-related deaths in Spain.
Karl and Jasmine Stefanovic recently began renting a $7.3million waterfront mansion on Sydney's lower north shore as they prepare to welcome their first child next month.

And the couple have since purchased a $3.6million beachside property in Noosa, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

After their baby daughter arrives, the Today host and his shoe designer wife plan to spend a lot of time relaxing at their holiday home, according to The Courier Mail.

Hot property! Karl Stefanovic (right) and Jasmine Yarbrough (left) have bought a $3.6million holiday home in Noosa, after moving into their rented Sydney mansion worth $7.3million

Baby pad: After their baby daughter arrives, the Today show host and his shoe designer wife plan to spend a lot of time relaxing at their beachside property (pictured)

The expansive house overlooks Sunshine Beach and has four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a three-car garage and a swimming pool.

It features a spacious living room that connects to an outdoor entertaining area with views of the beach.

All four bedrooms have water views while the master bedroom also has a large ensuite with a bath and a double vanity sink.

Luxury living: The home features a spacious lounge room (pictured) that connects to an outdoor entertaining area with views of the Sunshine Beach

The swimming pool has a waterfall feature and see-through glass, which means that the beach is always in view, even when underwater.

The house is just 200 metres away from the dog-friendly Sunshine Beach, where the couple can walk their pooch, Chance the Yapper.

It is also less than 30 minutes from Sunshine Coast Airport for when Karl needs to jet back to Sydney to film Channel Nine's Today show.

Hey, big spenders! The house was listed for sale in July 2019 and purchased for $3.6million on January 29. Karl and Jasmine are expecting their first child in May

The house was listed for sale in July 2019 and purchased for $3.6million on January 29. Karl and Jasmine are expecting their first child in May.

The Stefanovics have strong links to Queensland and celebrated New Year's Eve with their families in Noosa.

Karl studied journalism in Queensland and started his career in Rockhampton. Meanwhile, Jasmine's family still lives in Brisbane.
SPRINGFIELD - Baystate Health announced that another 26 people have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to just under 500 positive cases.

Through Tuesday afternoon, Baystate had 497 positive cases, an increase from 471 on Monday.

Since the testing began at the start of the emergency, Baystate Health has tested 2,285 people, and found 1,696 did not have COVID-19. That works out to 74 percent.

There are another 92 test results that are pending.

Through Tuesday, Baystate has admitted 168 people with confirmed COVID-19 symptoms, and another 11 who are suspected of being infected. Of the 168 confirmed cases, 34 patients are being treated in critical care units.

Baystate Health is not providing additional details on patients, such age, gender or residence to maintain patient privacy.

Through Monday evening, Massachusetts was reporting 13,837 cases statewide, an increase of 1,337 since Sunday. There were 29 additional deaths since Sunday, bringing the statewide total to 260.

Massachusetts updates its totals each day at 4 p.m.
The Union Ministry of Textiles has announced a new regulatory framework for the production of personal protective equipment (PPE) units after reports emerged that Indian manufacturers, who failed laboratory tests, have sold their rejected products to a section of private hospitals.

The ministry has laid down new norms, which require a Unique Certification Code called UCC-Covid19 and a tamper-proof sticker in indelible ink specifying details of the manufacturer.

The ministry issued a notification to this effect on April 6, saying that the code would apply to both PPE garments and fabric that pass the laboratory tests, as stipulated by the South India Textile Research Association (SITRA) and the Defence Research & Development Establishment (DRDE). The code will record the type of garment, its test procedure and also the date of the test. The certification will be valid for a fixed time frame and both SITRA and DRDE will preserve the sample sent by the manufacturer, said the notification, accessed by HT.

The move, ministry officials said, was to tighten the production of PPE units by Indian manufacturers in line with the specifications of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). Approvals have been given by the Coimbatore-based SITRA, an autonomous body under the ministry, and Gwalior-based DRDE.

The notification stated that in case of coveralls a manufacturer needs to print in indelible ink or in tamper-proof sticker detail such as the name of the maker, code, test standard, batch number and order details.

A ministry official, on condition of anonymity, told HT that the move was prompted by media reports that some manufacturers, whose products were rejected by SITRA and DRDE, were found to be supplying their units to a section of private hospitals. The ministrys directive has been sent to states as well.

Nihar Ranjan Dash, a joint secretary in the ministry, said that the certification primarily concerns coveralls and fabric provided by certain manufacturers of PPEs. The directive doesnt concern masks, as theyre certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards. We relied on imports of masks for all this while, and their specifications were of international standards, said Dash.

The tightening of norms would help Indian manufacturers prepare for the global market, he added. The current capacity of the Indian industry is to manufacture 10,000 PPE units per day, but Dash said that in about three months, the country is likely to produce three lakh units.

An official of one of the testing agencies told HT on condition of anonymity that the two specific tests that are applied are the synthetic blood penetration for overalls and bacterial efficiency as far as masks are concerned. A severe shortage of N-95 masks has been a cause for concern, as there are just a handful of manufacturers in the country, said the official.

Since India began domestic production of PPE in March owing to the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), these two testing agencies have approved 18 manufacturers to produce PPE units with non-woven textiles such as masks and coveralls. Later, the agencies approved 20 more manufacturers of the fabric. Only 50% of the manufacturers passed the test at the outset, the official said. However, the success rate has come up to 80% now, he added.

M Rajaa of Coimbatore-based Saastha Textiles, one of the approved manufacturers of waterproof, laminated thermoplastic polyurethane and thermoplastic elastomers fabric in knitted, woven and non-woven fabric used in PPE units, told HT that the fabric needs to have a certain type of lamination to ensure that blood and virus do not contaminate a health care worker. We also need to use only polypropylene virgin material to ensure that the material is protective and some manufacturers are also using reprocessed materials, said Rajaa.

Parag of Sai Synergy, another manufacturer of PPE units, said that the Indian Navy has ordered their products earlier and they always carry a sticker. The sticker has to be put during the manufacturing process and cannot be put thereafter, he added.
Anyone trying to stay happy while the novel coronavirus pandemic shelter-in-place orders remain in place across the Bay Area may find a free livestreamed discussion Tuesday by two University of California professors insightful.

At noon at commonwealthclub.org, University of California at Berkeley professor Dacher Keltner and UCSF professor Marina Tolou-Shams will talk about "The Science of Happiness During COVID-19."

Keltner is the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center and the professor at UC Berkeley behind the university's popular course "The Science of Happiness."

Tolou-Shams will moderate the discussion. She is a professor in the psychiatry department at UCSF and a division director of infant, child and adolescent psychiatry at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

The California Judicial Council on Monday approved 11 temporary emergency rules for state courts, including reducing bail to $0 in misdemeanor and lower-level felony cases, in response to the coronavirus crisis.

The San Francisco-based council, which sets rules for state courts, took the action in a teleconference meeting.

Trial judges must now usually set bail at $0 in misdemeanor and lesser felony cases. The purpose of the rule is to "safely reduce jail populations" amidst the pandemic, the council said.

The zero-bail rule does not apply to cases of violent felonies, domestic violence, child abuse and stalking.

The council also suspended the entry of default judgments in most cases of tenants who can't pay rent, and suspended most court-ordered foreclosures on property with unpaid mortgages. Exceptions to those rules are allowed to protect human health and safety.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic and the statewide stay-at-home order that severely restricts the amount of people going to work, BART announced Monday that it will make deep cuts to its service until further notice.

Starting Wednesday, the transit system that once averaged up to 400,000 daily riders will cancel every other train during its weekday hours of operation, which were reduced to 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on March 23.

The new cuts mean that weekday trains will run every 30 minutes, a reduction that BART officials say will still allow for proper social distancing on trains since ridership is now at 7 percent of normal.

Weekend service remains unchanged for now, with the system operating from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced on Monday the city will begin providing expanded coronavirus testing for frontline workers like law enforcement and health care workers.

The expanded testing will take place at Pier 30-32 and operate as a drive-thru testing site starting Monday.

The new testing aims to further protect police officers, firefighters, sheriff's deputies, 911 dispatchers, nurses, physicians and other city employees against COVID-19.

"They can't always, in their capacity, practice social distancing. They are taking care of us so it's important we take care of them and one of the basic things we can do is to ensure they have access to testing," Breed said during a briefing at the city' emergency operations center.

Breed said the expanded operation will allow for some 200 city workers and first responders to be tested daily.

San Jose lawmakers are pushing hard this week for millions in funding for emergency housing resources for people affected and infected by the coronavirus.

The City Council on Tuesday will discuss allocating over $17 million toward immediate emergency housing for residents infected with COVID-19 in a proposal from San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, Vice May Chappie Jones and councilmembers Raul Peralez and Dev Davis.

The more than $17 million is state funding that is tied to the $150 million in aid Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in March. The proposal also asks the San Jose City Manager to define what the city can and can't do regarding emergency housing construction.

Hoping for partial reimbursement from state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the city's lawmakers are hoping to move quickly on building new units to house infected people who may be housing insecure or homeless as the COVID-19 outbreak continues.

The University of California said it will provide $2 million in seed funding to scientists across the state to help jump-start high impact research projects and accelerate urgently-needed breakthroughs to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The university said it administers funding through three statewide research grants focused on breast cancer, tobacco-related disease and HIV/AIDS, among others, and will support the new projects on COVID-19 research.

"Given that people who suffer from breast cancer, HIV and tobacco-related diseases are also among those who are most vulnerable to COVID-19, it made sense to begin urgently directing some of that research funding to this global pandemic," Theresa Maldonado, UC's vice president of systemwide research and innovation, said in a statement.

Maldonado said, "Our goal is to seed work in areas that can have a big impact in a short amount of time and to help the California communities that need it most."

UC said awards of up to $25,000 are available immediately.

At least one person was transported to a hospital after crashing into a Contra Costa County Fire Protection District fire engine on a state Highway 24 off-ramp in Lafayette late Monday night, according to fire officials.

The engine struck was part of a team of firefighters still working an earlier traffic collision, Fire Captain George Laing said. It was hit at about 11:33 p.m. Monday by a Honda Accord just east of Acalanes Road, per the California Highway Patrol.

At least one person from the sedan was unconscious after the collision and was transported to a hospital, according to Laing. A firefighter did ride along with the injured motorist to the hospital, but wasn't hurt in the collision.

A Contra Costa County Fire Protection District hazmat crew was also called to the scene for a fuel spill.

The original call was reported at 9:07 p.m., Laing said, when a four-door sedan crashed into a big rig. Four ambulances were called to the scene, but no serious injuries were reported, per the CHP.

As of 12:40 a.m. Tuesday, all lanes of the westbound freeway were blocked as the CHP investigates the collision and fire crews clean-up the scene.

Tuesday will be partly cloudy. Highs will be in the mid 50s to lower 60s. Northeast winds of around 5 mph will increase to northwest winds at 10 to 20 mph in the afternoon.

Tuesday night will be mostly clear in the evening, then becoming partly cloudy. Lows will be around 50. West winds will be 10 to 20 mph.

Wednesday will be mostly cloudy in the morning, then becoming partly cloudy. Highs will be in the mid 50s to lower 60s. Southwest winds will be 5 to 15 mph.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Bangkok Post newspaper quoted the firms Chairman and President Sanan Angubolkul as saying that it will splash out THB450 million (US$13.64 million) this year to expand its business in Vietnam.

Of the total, about 300 million baht is to install new machines to increase production capacity of its PET preform and closure products at its two factories in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

The remaining 150 million baht will be used to build a new melamine factory in HCM City and install new machines at this factory.

The construction of the new melamine facility is scheduled to start in 1-2 months, with operations commencing in the first quarter of next year.

The new factory will serve the demand from Vietnam's domestic market.

Upon the completion of the new factory, the company will have four in Vietnam: one is a PET preform and closure factory in Hanoi, another in HCM City and two melamine factories in the southern hub.

With the market facing a host of negative factors, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic, Sanan expects sales to stand at THB8.62 billion this year, 2.6% lower than last year's THB8.84 billion.

Despite the huge demand for food and beverage packaging for the delivery channel, the company foresees sales in the first quarter of about 10 million baht lower than its earlier expectation. But the bottom line is likely to improve as the baht weakens from last year's rate, Sanan said.
In a partial relief, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, who was detained under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), is being shifted to her official residence that has been converted into a subsidiary jail where she would continue to be in detention.

Mufti, who heads the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that was in alliance with the BJP till June 2018, was detained on August 5 last year when the Centre abrogated the special status of the erstwhile state and divided it into two Union Territories.

Initially, she was taken into preventive custody. Later on February 6 this year, she was slapped with the PSA along with another former chief minister Omar Abdullah, who was released recently.

According to an official order issued by the home department of the Union Territory, "The government hereby orders the change of place of lodgement of Ms Mehbooba Mufti... to subsidiary jail, Fairview, Gupkar Road, Srinagar, with immediate effect."



Mufti, who has completed eight months in detention, was lodged at a government bunglow on Maulana Azad Road near Lal Chowk. Fairview is the official residence of Mufti, which is located on the high-security Gupkar Road.

Reacting to the development, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abduallah said that his political rival should be released and the PSA slapped on her should be revoked.

In a tweet, he said, "Mehbooba Mufti must be set free. Shifting her home while continuing to keep her detained is a cop out."



Mufti's daughter Iltija had moved a habeas corpus petition before the Supreme Court in February challenging her mother's detention.

A three-judge bench had issued a notice to the Jammu and Kashmir administration seeking its response on the plea and posted the matter for a hearing on March 18. However, the petition was not taken up for hearing due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Habeas corpus is a writ seeking production of a person supposed to be in illegal detention before a court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin Daniel Bosque (Agence France-Presse) Barcelona, Spain  Wed, April 8, 2020 03:06 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd060854 2 World Barcelona,Spain,hospital,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,COVID-19-death-toll,health,global-crisis Free

There is an eerie silence in the corridors of Barcelona's biggest hospital and angst inside the intensive care units, where all efforts are being directed to fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

Where once the Vall d'Hebron hospital treated 50 different types of ailments, it now funnels 90 per cent of its resources into the battle against COVID-19, which has claimed almost 14,000 lives to date across Spain, even if officials see a "downward trend" emerging.

With 56 beds in the state-of-the-art intensive care unit (ICU) opened in 2018 not proving enough, beds and ventilators have been moved into unfamiliar spots, including classrooms which once hosted university seminars.

"We ended up having two consecutive days with 24 patients admitted per day. Every hour we had to intubate a patient, connect them to a ventilator and admit them to the ICU," explains the head of the service, Ricard Ferrer.

"We still have one or two very critical weeks ahead of us... The ICU battle will be long," Ferrer said surveying a large control screen displaying clinical data of all the patients admitted to his ward.

They include people of all ages, struck down by a vicious disease that can progress quickly to symptoms of suffocation.

"Sometimes there were only a few hours between the time we assessed them in the hospital and the moment they were admitted to the ICU," says Ferrer.

'Like a bereavement'

Antonio Alvarez, a 33-year-old nurse, dons his coat, shoe covers, glasses and a highly-protective mask before starting his shift in the ICU.

A ventilator is not enough for some patients, and doctors have resorted to a new technique: they artificially oxygenate blood by extracting it with a machine and then returning it into the body.

"Instead of putting it in the lung, we directly oxygenate the blood," explains Alvarez, adding that he experiences the pandemic "like a bereavement.

"I've had my phases of anger, of denial, you go through all of them.

"Now we are still a little overwhelmed but it is better. Fewer patients are dying," he says.

Hospital metamorphosis

Since February, the hospital has been preparing for what was then a remote epidemic.

"We have transformed a 50-specialism hospital into a single-specialty hospital," said its healthcare director, Antonio Roman.

The hospital created six new intensive care units and collected old ventilators used for teaching and research.

Soon, they expect to receive new models produced at the nearby SEAT car factory.

"We have tripled the capacity of ICU beds," explains Ferrer, with about 170 currently occupied.

Inevitably, the use of protective equipment and medicines "has multiplied a lot," he added, to the point where masks have to be reused and doctors have to switch drugs since "we've run out of some of them.

"Material is lacking, but it is a global problem. Under normal conditions it would be unacceptable but given the situation, you have to adapt and manage," says Mari Angeles Moreno, a nurse and union delegate at the hospital.

Green shoots'

Yet after three weeks of lockdown in Spain, "there are some green shoots," says Roman.

A week ago, the number of hospitalized patients began to decline and the emergency department received fewer cases.

The entrance to the hospital is unusually calm. "It is a place of peace and tranquility like never seen before," insists the care director.

More good news comes from the ICU, where Xavier Roges, a 30-year-old doctor, puts on his protective overalls to attend to one of the few patients awake.

After having a tracheostomy, the man is recovering and is expected to return to a regular ward.

"He is breathing well, eats well, feels hungry," Roges says.

"These should be a given -- but in these times it feels like an achievement."
Last week, we had told you that the makers of Allu Arjun's next will be announcing the title and revealing the first look poster of their film on the actor's birthday, which happens to be on April 8. While we can't wait for the official announcement, reports are already doing the rounds that Allu Arjun's film, co-starring Rashmika Mandanna, has been titled Pushpa.

According to a report in cinejosh.com, Allu Arjun's character in the film is named Pushpak Narayan and he is fondly called Pushpa by his loved ones. Because of this very reason, the movie has also been titled Pushpa. Yes, we know it's not a very appealing title but it totally makes sense, right? Especially, if the film majorly revolves around the male lead character.

Initially, it was being said that Allu Arjun and Rashmika starrer was titled Seshachalam. However, the makers soon clarified and revealed that they haven't finalized any name for their film yet. Also, superstar Mahesh Babu was supposed to do the film originally, but the actor backed off from the project due to creative differences with the makers. And that's how the Vedam actor landed the offer.

Touted to be a full-blown action-entertainer, Pushpa is being helmed by Sukumar and bankrolled by Mythri Movie Makers. Since the entire country is currently under lockdown, the shooting of the movie will only begin once the Corona situation subsides. Set in the backdrop of Seshachalam forest, Sukumar's directorial venture is about a lorry driver who smuggles red sanders.

Apart from Allu Arjun and Rashmika, AA20 also features Vijay Sethupathi, Prakash Raj and Jagapati Babu in important roles.

ASLO READ

Official Title Of Allu Arjun's Next To Be Announced On Stylish Star's Birthday
Two homeless people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Multnomah County, bringing the virus to one of the most vulnerable populations in Oregon.

The county public health department confirmed the cases Tuesday, but did not provide details about when the results were reported. There have been 276 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Multnomah County so far.

Salem reported Oregons first case of coronavirus in a homeless person on March 26, according to the Salem Reporter. Across the state, homeless people make up less than 1% of all coronavirus cases, according to the Oregon Health Authority.

The housing status of coronavirus patients is important because people who live outside in harsh conditions are more likely to die from the virus. And, if they test positive, homeless people dont have anywhere to go that is safe and isolated to recuperate.

People with little to no income and no place to cook are also more likely to be in large gathering spaces to get food and other services -- a tinderbox for spreading the virus.

Multnomah County Public Health declined to say where people were living when diagnosed, but officials have also worried that the virus could move through homeless shelters quickly.

Multnomah County has opened nearly 400 beds in community centers and the Oregon Convention Center to spread out residents and allow social distancing in shelters.

Outreach workers have distributed hygiene kits and the city of Portland has installed hand-washing stations around the city.

A shelter for homeless people experiencing symptoms of coronavirus but who havent tested positive opened last week in the Jupiter Hotel with 12 people. Officials said they expect to eventually use all 81 rooms.

The city-county Joint Office of Homeless Services also plans to open a shelter for people who tested positive for COVID-19 but dont have a place to recover.

The county did not disclose where the two positive cases were currently staying, but hospitals and homeless service providers have been given broad authority and funding to pay for hotel rooms for people who are not sick enough to stay in a hospital but need a safe place to recuperate.

-- Molly Harbarger

mharbarger@oregonian.com | 503-294-5923 | @MollyHarbarger

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
KABUL - The Taliban halted prisoner swap negotiations with the Afghan government Tuesday after accusing leaders in Kabul of refusing to comply with a key part of the U.S. peace deal - a major setback to what many hoped would be start of formal talks between the two Afghan sides.

Representatives of the Taliban and the Afghan government were negotiating the release of more than 100 prisoners. The U.S.-Taliban peace deal called for thousands of prisoners to be released within days of its signing, but the Afghan government quickly objected to that timeline, citing logistical constraints.

The release was already weeks behind schedule, and when the two sides finally met in Kabul, negotiators quickly hit a snag. Taliban representatives wanted their senior leaders included in the first round of releases, while the Afghan government balked at releasing anyone who had helped orchestrate large-scale attacks.

The repeated delays to the start of formal talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government are threatening to upend the fragile U.S.-Taliban peace deal. Since it was signed in late February, violence in Afghanistan has escalated and a power struggle over the Afghan presidency has deepened.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday dismissed the impasse over the prisoner releases as "posturing" and said the United States expected issues to arise as the two sides move toward formal talks.

"There was no doubt that there would be steps forward and steps backward," Pompeo said in a news conference, adding that some progress had been made since the agreement was signed last month. "But we see them posturing in the media."

Pompeo traveled to Kabul on March 23 to broker a deal between President Ashraf Ghani and his rival, Abdullah Abdullah. Ghani was declared the winner of the September election by a slim margin; Abdullah decried the result as fraudulent and has threatened to set up a parallel government. After Pompeo's visit failed to resolve the crisis, he threatened to cut $1 billion in U.S. aid to the country.

Statements from Pompeo's senior diplomats suggest the Trump administration has increased pressure on Afghan leaders in recent days.

"Donors are frustrated and fed up by personal agendas being advanced ahead of the welfare of the Afghan people," said Alice Wells, the State Department's top official for South and Central Asia, in a statement posted to Twitter on Monday.

Afghanistan needs billions in foreign aid every year to provide its citizens with basic services, and expert projections estimate the country will remain dependent on aid for years to come. That dependence is expected to be exacerbated if the coronavirus outbreak in Afghanistan worsens. Afghanistan has more than 400 confirmed coronavirus cases and 14 deaths, but the officials warn the true number could be much higher, as testing has been limited.

Hopes were high when a Taliban delegation arrived in Kabul last week. The visit came after Ghani announced the creation of a negotiating team and a subsequent statement from Abdullah expressing his support for the team. The Afghan government and the Taliban had also agreed on a compromise: The prisoner releases would occur in smaller batches rather than all at once.

The peace deal signed by the United States and the Taliban called for up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners to be released in exchange for 1,000 members of the Afghan security forces and government employees in Taliban custody.

But after days of talks, the Taliban issued a statement Tuesday announcing the group would no longer participate in "fruitless meetings" and accused the Afghan government of "just wasting time." Hours later, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen announced in a tweet that the Taliban delegation would return to Doha, where the group has a political office.

The Afghan government said the Taliban's move "indicates a lack of seriousness about peace," according to a statement from Javid Faisal, spokesman for the Afghan national security adviser's office.

Faisal said discussions "had entered an important phase" before Taliban officials backed out. Regardless, he added that the Afghan government remains open to continuing talks.

But as peace talks with the Taliban are repeatedly delayed, violence in Afghanistan has spiked. On Sunday, the Taliban accused the United States of violating the terms of the peace deal by carrying out attacks on Taliban fighters and drone strikes on Afghan civilians.

The Taliban statement warned that continued violations would "create an atmosphere of mistrust that will not only damage the agreements, but also force mujahideen to a similar response and will increase the level of fighting."

U.S. military spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett denied the Taliban allegation, saying U.S. forces in Afghanistan are upholding the terms of the agreement and that "any assertion otherwise is baseless."

Leggett said the U.S. military will continue to come to the aid of Afghan forces and said the Taliban must reduce violence.

The U.S. military is continuing to draw down its forces from Afghanistan, as mandated by the peace deal with the Taliban. The United States began reducing the roughly 12,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan in March and is on track to bring down the number to 8,600 by early July, within the 135-day time period stipulated by the peace deal.

- - -

George reported from London. The Washington Post's Carol Morello in Washington and Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
Two criminal cases have been registered by Delhi Police against members of the Tablighi Jamaat for their conduct at quarantine centres in the national capital, a top Delhi Home Department official on Tuesday.

In one case, the police filed an FIR against two Jamaat members, residents of Uttar Pradeshs Barabanki district, for defecating in front of their room at a Narela quarantine centre.

In the second, officials at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan hospital in central Delhi complained that some Covid-19 suspected patients were spitting in the premises.

It was reported that some Covid-19 suspected persons who have been quarantined on the third floor of the hospitals Emergency building were spitting on the southern side towards the operation theatre, a senior LNJP doctor said.

The incident is purely a health hazard issue and should be simply treated as such, the doctor said.

Hindustan Times has reviewed the FIRs.

Also Watch | Half of UPs Covid-19 cases linked to Tablighi Jamaat

A senior Delhi Police officer said formal cases had been registered against the inmates for their actions that could help spread the disease. The FIRs (First Information Reports) have been filed under the penal code and the Epidemic Diseases Act that was invoked last month by the city government.

They had been evacuated from the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in Nizamuddin Basti, which has emerged as the largest hot spot of Covid-19 in Delhi and across the country.

Nearly 30% of the 3,900 Covid-19 infections across the country have been linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month that was attended by thousands of its members. After a massive operation to trace the Jamaat workers across the country, the government has placed 21,200 people and their contacts under quarantine.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had to intervene last month after the Tablighi leadership refused to let the authorities vacate the headquarters. Of the 2,000-odd people who had been put up in the Tablighi headquarters called the Markaz, 24 had already tested positive by then and 200 more showed symptoms. They were all sent to hospitals or quarantine centres across the city, depending on their condition.

By Monday evening, 329 of them had already tested positive. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told reporters that 62% of the 525 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Delhi were linked to the Tablighi Jamaat. Not everyone has been tested yet.

Government officials told Hindustan Times that the task to track down possible contacts of the Jamaat members had become a lot more tedious after it emerged that some Jamaat members from outside Delhi were accompanied by women when they came to the city who stayed with their relatives in Delhi. This means there is a possibility that the Jamaat infection may not be limited to the workers and their immediate family but may have spread to some pockets in Delhi, a senior government official said.

In Delhi, the official said, the confidence of the government that it had been able to isolate all Jamaat members and their contacts would be critical to the decision on the lockdown in Delhi on April 15.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the 21-day lockdown on March 24 in a televised address to the nation. After PM Modi last week told states to start discussions on how the lockdown should be eased, some states such as Maharashtra and Telangana have called for its extension. The Centre hasnt taken a call yet.

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C300 BHPian

Join Date: May 2009 Location: Pune, Melbourne Posts: 755 Thanked: 870 Times

Birds of Himalayas - Sattal and Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary



We visited Devbhoomi Uttarakhand last month in search of these mountain beauties. Spent couple of days at foothills of Sattal before visiting the higher altitude forests of Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary. Spotted more than 100 species during the expedition including some rare and exotic birds endemic to the region.



Sharing few pictures from the trip:



Himalaya - Abode of Gods.











Pristine forest of Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary







Some fun with fresh snow







Now the Beautiful Birds.



Himalayan Rubythroat portrait







Common Green Magpie...very rare and uncommon bird















The beutiful Himalayan Monal male on the snow. Its the state bird of Uttarakhand and National Bird of Nepal







Monal female with Rhododendron tree in the background. Its state tree of Uttarakhand.







A perfect camouflage







Yellow bellied fantail.. always on the move and difficult bird to photograph











Alpine Accentor..Loves high mountains











Russet sparrow..Male and Female















Red-billed leiothrix.. a colourful small bird







The mighty Himalayas is a special place for Bird Watchers. The lush green forests with mountain streams is a perfect refuge to numerous birds and wild animals. Despite high altitude and cold winters, its a global biodiversity hotspot.We visited Devbhoomi Uttarakhand last month in search of these mountain beauties. Spent couple of days at foothills of Sattal before visiting the higher altitude forests of Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary. Spotted more than 100 species during the expedition including some rare and exotic birds endemic to the region.Sharing few pictures from the trip:Himalaya - Abode of Gods.Pristine forest of Kedarnath Wildlife SanctuarySome fun with fresh snowNow the Beautiful Birds.Himalayan Rubythroat portraitCommon Green Magpie...very rare and uncommon birdThe beutiful Himalayan Monal male on the snow. Its the state bird of Uttarakhand and National Bird of NepalMonal female with Rhododendron tree in the background. Its state tree of Uttarakhand.A perfect camouflageYellow bellied fantail.. always on the move and difficult bird to photographAlpine Accentor..Loves high mountainsRusset sparrow..Male and FemaleRed-billed leiothrix.. a colourful small bird Last edited by C300 : 3rd April 2020 at 18:13 .
The Ukrainian side accused Russia of the absence of progress at the talks

The agreements on the disengagement of forces at three new areas of Donbas are still not reached, as ND media outlet reported, citing Ukraines representative on security issues at Trilateral Contact Group, deputy commander of Joint Operation Forces Bohdan Bondar.

At the next session of this subgroup, which took place in the regime of the video conference, Bondar accused the Russian side of the absence of progress at the talks.

There is particular progress but it is blocked by the Russian side to disrupt the fulfillment of the decision of the previous Normandy Format summit on December 9 and prevent the prospect of the new meeting of the format leaders, he said.

According to Bondar, the Ukrainian and Russian sides offer their own variants of the areas for disengagement but on farfetched reasons the Russian side refuses to consider the position of Ukraine.

We say that we are ready to consider the position of Russia but the compromise is not reached yet, he specified.

Bondar underlined that the main obstacle for the reaching of agreements is the reluctance of Russia to recognize itself as the side of the conflict in the east of Ukraine.

The main message of the Russian side: there is one Ukraine; the second is the representatives of separate areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. They are saying that you should agree on your own and we (Russia, - 112.international) will support it, he said.

Ukraines representative doubts that heads of the delegations will succeed to agree on the disengagement of forces during the video conference on Wednesday.

It is very difficult to agree with the heads when there are no agreements in the subgroups at the level of experts, Bondar explained.

Earlier, the Trilateral contact group for the solution of Donbas conflict (Minsk talks group) agreed on the creation of an advisory board. It will comprise of representatives of Ukraine and self-proclaimed 'republics' of Donbas (ten from each, with the right for decisive vote), Germany, France and the OSCE (one from each, with the right for conciliatory vote).
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday chaired a meeting of Group of Ministers on COVID-19.

Home Minister Amit Shah, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar, Minister for Textiles and Women and Child Development Smriti Z Irani, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan were among the Union Ministers present at the meeting.

A meeting of Group of Ministers was held at Singh's residence on April 3 as well.

India's tally of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 4,421, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday. Out of the 4,421 cases, 3,981 are active cases while 325 have been cured or discharged and one has migrated. The total death toll stands at 114.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chester County is at the forefront of a new approach to managing the COVID-19 pandemic: testing essential workers blood to see if they have developed immunity to the coronavirus, a sign they can safely go back to their jobs.

County officials announced Monday that they had purchased test kits from local firm Advaite, which promises to detect disease-fighting antibodies to the coronavirus. Testing will be launched this week, starting with workers from the county prison, a long-term health-care facility, and the county youth center. A system for testing first responders is in the works.

While the approach is promising, Renee Cassidy, public health physician with the Chester County Health Department, readily acknowledged that the accuracy of such serology testing is unclear. Whats more, she noted, numerous countries have invested in tests that turned out to be unreliable.

Serology testing is very much in its infancy" for the coronavirus, Cassidy said. Its a little experimental.

In theory, serology tests  so called because they examine the blood serum  could not only identify people who could safely go back to work, but also could answer questions about the transmissibility and lethality of the virus. Experts hope serology tests can play a role in diagnosing COVID-19 and even in treating critically ill patients. The idea, not yet proved, is that antibody-laden plasma from recovered patients could be given as a therapy.

Unlike the laborious, time-consuming molecular tests used to diagnose the coronavirus, serology tests can be done in clinics or doctors offices and provide results in less than an hour.

Because of the potential benefits, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is allowing serology tests to come to market without review or emergency authorization. However, the tests may be used only to measure antibodies, not as the sole diagnostic test for sick patients. Some companies are seeking the FDAs blessing, though they dont have to; the first emergency authorization for a serology test was granted last week to North Carolina-based Cellex.

Advaite is also seeking FDA emergency authorization, but in news releases, the firm says its product is for rapid diagnosis  a use the FDA explicitly forbids. The company did not respond to a request for clarification.

In Chester County, where there have been 304 confirmed cases and three deaths, serology will not be used for diagnostic purposes.

This test is supplemental to the coronavirus testing that we have already been doing and will continue to do, said Jeanne Casner, Chester County Health Department director. It is not a replacement test for confirming cases. We are undertaking the antibody blood test as another weapon in the fight to control coronavirus. Knowledge of who has developed antibodies to the virus can help us tremendously in our strategy to respond to emergencies, treat patients and care for the elderly.

China has been doing serology testing for months, and numerous Chinese companies have exported hastily developed kits to countries around the globe. But data from such efforts are not yet published, and accuracy is a problem. The governments of Spain and the United Kingdom have reported buying Chinese tests that didnt work.

One reason for this is that looking for secondary evidence of a disease-causing germ is tricky. Timing matters; if there arent enough antibodies to be detected, that can undermine accuracy. Or, if the test isnt precise enough in probing for a protein, it may detect antibodies to the wrong virus, a problem called cross-reaction. Other coronaviruses that cause common colds can cross-react with tests for the new virus.

Advaites website says, In testing at a provincial blood bank in China, the Advaite diagnostic test demonstrated accuracy of over 94% in blood samples obtained from COVID-19 infected patients."

Nathan Anderson, whose company, Hindenburg Research, specializes in forensic financial research of biotech companies, said, Advaite looks like a very small company in a sea of other companies offering these rapid antibody tests. Given the failure rate of these types of tests internationally even from larger manufacturers, it is difficult to get a sense of whether the claimed accuracy is realistic.
Check out the companies making headlines after the bell.

Pinterest  Shares of the social media company soared 14% in extended trading after Pinterest released preliminary results ahead of its first-quarter earnings call in May. The company expects revenue ranging from $269 million to $272 million in the first quarter. It anticipates 365 million to 367 million global monthly active users in the first quarter as well. Pinterest also said it ended the first quarter with a strong balance sheet of $1.7 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and no financial debt. However, the company did say it experienced an impact on global advertising revenue from the COVID-19 pandemic and withdrew full-year 2020 guidance because of the virus.

Levi Strauss  The clothing company's stock was up 3% in extended trading after Levi Strauss posted a double beat on earnings and revenue in the first quarter. The company said it had earnings of 40 cents per share excluding some items on revenue of $1.51 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv expected earnings of 35 cents per share on revenue of $1.47 billion. Levi Strauss also announced that it has withdrawn its annual guidance and will not be providing further guidance at this time because of the uncertainty caused by COVID-19.

Square  Shares of the mobile payment company fell more than 1% in extended trading after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey set aside $1 billion worth of Square equity to fund coronavirus relief through an LLC called Start Small. Dorsey announced his decision through a tweet and said the Square equity represents approximately 28% of his wealth. After the pandemic is over, Start Small will shift its focus to girls' health and education, as well as universal basic income, according to Dorsey.

American Airlines  The airline saw its stock rise 2% after the market closed. The Department of Transportation gave airlines final approval Tuesday to reduce service to minimum flights as travel demand plunges during the coronavirus pandemic.

Carnival  Shares of the cruise line rose more than 1% after the closing bell. Carnival stock jumped more than 20% earlier on Tuesday after the Saudi sovereign wealth fund disclosed an 8.2% stake in the company. Carnival is currently struggling as the coronavirus batters the travel industry.
Connecticuts overall economic activity crawled forward in 2019 faster than previous years but still the second lowest rate in the Northeast, according to new federal estimates that will be overtaken by declines from the coronavirus crisis in 2020.

Gross domestic product, the total value of goods and services, increased 1.6 percent last year in the state to just under $289 billion, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Tuesday. GDP figures are adjusted for inflation.

Connecticuts GDP growth last year, which is subject to revisions, was triple the rate of 2018 and the highest for the state since 2015.

But it fell short of the economic activity in most nearby states. In 2019, Rhode Island and New Hampshire led the Northeast with 2.7 percent GDP growth, with Massachusetts at 2.5 percent. Texas led the nation with a 4.4 percent increase in GDP, with Nebraska last at 0.6 percent.

Connecticut was sandwiched between New Yorks 1.8 percent growth and New Jerseys 1.5 percent rate.

Estimates for the declines states will see in the first two quarters of 2020 vary. But initial unemployment claims in Connecticut have now topped 280,000, the state Department of Labor reported, or about 15 percent of the number of residents who said they were working in February.

Connecticut continues to lead the nation in personal income, at more than $79,000 on a per capita basis according to BEAs most recent estimates, about $4,000 more than the next closest state Massachusetts.

After taking office in January 2019, Gov. Ned Lamont had pledged to reinvigorate Connecticuts business climate while simultaneously putting the state onto a debt diet to ratchet back future amounts due bondholders. Lamont did not issue a statement Tuesday on the GDP estimates.

Connecticuts economy had entered the final three months of 2019 with momentum, before stalling out as the year came to a close. GDP rose at a 0.9 percent annual rate in the final quarter of 2019, BEA estimated, amid moribund real estate activity and a slight decline in the restaurant and leisure sectors.

For all of 2019, Connecticut generated its best growth in the big professional services sector and the smaller niche of information services, but saw a slight contraction in output by its historically significant financial and insurance sector.

For now, the governor and his staff are focusing on measures to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 and prioritize assistance for state residents.

With large swaths of the state and U.S. economy waiting out stay-at-home emergency orders to limit the spread of the virus, immediate planning could shift from a focus on job sectors offering the best growth potential to economic triage in an effort to save as much as the existing jobs base as possible with any infusion of federal aid.

Exiting March, a Boston economic analysis firm projected the Connecticut economy would lose some $15 billion in economic activity in the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic.

The average recession is about a year long  this one I think is going to be at least nine months long, [and] the last one was 18 months, said Donald Klepper-Smith, an expert on the Connecticut economy with DataCore Partners. The question right now comes down to, what is the response of government going to be? What is the response of the business sector, and what is the consumer response? We need to keep an eye on consumer spending [and] ... confidence. We need to keep an eye on housing metrics, and we need to keep an eye on the stock market.

Dan Haar contributed to this report.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
(Natural News) A 63-year-old farmer, who allegedly threatened village officials and police officers, was shot dead in the Philippine province of Agusan del Norte, authorities reported Saturday. The farmer, identified as Junie Dungog Pinar, was believed to be drunk when he threatened officials manning the coronavirus checkpoint in the town of Nasipit.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that a local health worker stopped Pinar at the checkpoint for not wearing a protective mask. According to a police report, the suspect got angry, uttering provoking words and eventually attacked the personnel using a scythe.

Police Staff Sgt. Rolly Llones, who was assigned at the location, attempted to stop Pinar from assaulting other people, but the suspects actions prompted the officer to shoot him.

This incident is the first reported case of police shooting a civilian after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered state security forces to shoot any violators dead during the governments community quarantine measures, in a bid to quell the spread of coronavirus.

Shoot them dead

Despite the stringent measures, many residents from a Manila slum took to the streets on April 1 to protest a lack of supplies and argued that they have not received any food rations since the enhanced community quarantine began on March 16. Officers clashed with the protesters, which led to the arrest of 21 individuals after they refused to go back to their homes. Authorities also filed various criminal charges against the people arrested.

FLASH REPORT: Mga residente ng Sitio San Roque na nag-rally dahil sa umano'y kakulangan ng relief packs sa QC, pinag-aaresto na ng QCPD | via @dzrh5 Val Gonzales #DZRHat80 #COVID19Alert pic.twitter.com/kIdPZlalz8  DZRH NEWS (@dzrhnews) April 1, 2020

Later that day, Duterte delivered a televised address stating that cooperation is crucial for slowing down the pandemic and preventing the countrys health system from being overwhelmed. However, he warned violators of the lockdown measures that they would be shot dead if they cause a commotion.

I will not hesitate. My orders are sa pulis pati military, pati mga barangay na pagka ginulo at nagkaroon ng okasyon na lumaban at ang buhay ninyo ay nalagay sa alanganin, shoot them dead, Duterte stated.

(I will not hesitate. My orders [to] the police and military, as well as the barangay, if there is trouble and in the event that [violators] put up a fight, putting your lives in danger, shoot them dead.)

Naintindihan ninyo? Patay. Eh kaysa mag-gulo kayo diyan, eh di ilibing ko na kayo, he added.

(Do you understand? Dead. Instead of causing trouble, Ill send you to your grave.)

Netizens slammed Duterte for giving a shoot-to-kill order, as well as the Philippine governments overall approach to contain the pandemic, which has left families starving and unable to cope with the quarantine measures. However, Duterte defended his statements in another televised address aired on Friday, April 3, where he said that the Filipino public must realize how dire the situation is.

Without these restrictions, this will not end, he said. So if you dont want to follow, then I will finish you to protect the lives of the innocent who dont want to die. (Related: Coronavirus death rate higher in America due to rampant obesity.)

Quarantine extension in the Philippines

The Philippines currently has 3,764 cases of COVID-19, with 177 fatalities. To minimize the spread of coronavirus, Duterte put millions of residents from Luzon, the countrys largest and most populous island, under strict lockdown.

Originally ending on April 14, the lockdown  or as the government calls it, enhanced community quarantine (ECQ)  has been extended, as per recommendation by the countrys Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) on the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease.

Philippine Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, in a virtual briefing on Tuesday, announced that the ECQ is hereby extended until 11:59 p.m. until April 30.

According to a report by ABS-CBN News, the Philippine government is delaying the peak of their fight against COVID-19 to 2021. However, the government is also eyeing to start mass testing by April 14, as authorities begin to fast-track the accreditation of laboratories with coronavirus testing capabilities.

As of writing, the Philippines only has 10 accredited coronavirus testing centers, which are struggling with the marginally increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

Nograles said that the government is making use of this quarantine extension to maximize the countrys testing capabilities, increasing the number to around 20,000 tests per day with a 24-hour turnaround time for test results by the end of April.

Head over to Pandemic.news for the latest updates on the global coronavirus pandemic.

Sources include:

Mirror.co.uk

NewsInfo.Inquirer.net

AlJazeera.com

CNNPhilippines.com

Rappler.com 1

Rappler.com 2

Coronavirus.JHU.edu

PhilStar.com

News.ABS-CBN.com
Actor Chris Evans mother, Lisa, has said in a new profile that he was hesitant about taking on the role of Steve Rogers/Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, and she had to convince him to do it. Lisa Evans told Esquire that her son was afraid of losing his anonymity.

His biggest fear was losing his anonymity, Lisa said. He said, I have a career now where I can do work I really like. I can walk my dog. Nobody bothers me. Nobody wants to talk to me. I can go wherever I want. And the idea of losing that is terrifying to me.

He would call and ask for my advice, she added. I said to him, Look, you want to do acting work for the rest of your life? If you do this part, you will have the opportunity. Youll never have to worry about paying the rent. If you take the part, you just have to decide, Its not going to affect my life negativelyit will enable it.

Evans first played Captain America in 2011s Captain America: The First Avenger. He reprised his role in two further sequels, and four Avengers films, before seemingly retiring from the role in 2019s Avengers: Endgame. Marvel president Kevin Feige had previously said that he was hesitant about casting Evans in the part, because the actor had already played a superhero in the ill-fated Fantastic Four films. We thought, OK, well, hes that character. Lets keep looking, Feige had told The Hollywood Reporter.

Also read: Chris Evans could return as Steve Rogers if the two Captain Americas theory is true. Heres proof it is

Evans had previously told THR that hed turned down the offer twice. Hed said, Getting the offer felt to me like the epitome of temptation. The ultimate job offer, on the biggest scale. Im supposed to say no to this thing. It felt like the right thing to do. You see the pictures, and you see the costumes, and its cool. But Id now woken up the day after saying no and felt good, twice.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Container Shipping Industry in Crisis as China Demand Caves

News Analysis

Moodys Investors Service downgraded the container shipping industrys solvency to negative and warned that cash flow may fall by 30 percent as China demand caves.

As the world continues to sink deeper into a potential viral pandemic depression, the Baltic Dry Index has plunged by 76 percent from a high of $2,518 in September 2019 to $616 in March. The London-traded Baltic Dry Index tracks the average daily cost to ship an ocean-going container.

Despite the SinoU.S. trade war still raging, Moodys on Oct. 22, 2019, upgraded the outlook for APM-Maersk, the worlds largest container ship operator, to positive. On Dec. 20, Moodys praised the Danish conglomerate again for achieving greater cost efficiencies. Maersk moves an average of 12 million containers, with 768 vessels through 300 ports in 130 countries each year.

But as New York University professor Nouriel Dr. Doom Roubini told the World Economic Forum on April 6, Macroeconomic and financial outcomes of the coronavirus have materialized in just three weeks, in comparison to the three years this took for the 2008 financial crisis.

Stock markets have crashed, credit markets have seized up, and credit spreads have spiked to 2008 levels, he said.

Financial firms such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley expect U.S. second-quarter GDP to fall by 24 to 30 percent. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned that unemployment could hit 20 percent.

The U.N. trade and development agency said the COVID-19 pandemic may cost the world $1 trillion.

Allied Shipbrokings research chief George Lazaridis told the Wall Street Journal on April 6 that with about 900 million people in Western nations under lockdown, ocean shipping demand is caving, and supply chains are in distress. He added, Nobody knows when restrictions will be lifted, and the industry is in a battle for survival.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has relied upon economic growth to maintain its legitimacy and rule over 1.4 billion citizens. Thats also the reason why its important for the CCP to preserve the narrative that its authoritarian Iron Fist defeated the COVID-19 epidemic and resuscitated the nations economy.

Chinas official Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), which tracks sales activity at 3,000 state-owned manufacturers, showed a contraction of a record low of 35.7 in February. However, the National Bureau of Statistics reported the PMI index rebounded with an expansionary reading of 52 in March.

The CCP leadership claims all of its ports are open and the nation is back to business as usual. But with a 30 percent global market share, China would have to be back to 715,000 container movements a day, and the shipping industry would be booming.

China, as the largest importer of coal, iron ore, wheat, and other commodities, is also the biggest customer for oceangoing bulk ships. But demand in the sector is so weak that the average daily freight rate for large bulkers stands at around $8,000 a day, substantially below the industry break-even of about $13,000 a day.

About half of the container ship sailings from China were canceled in the first quarter, but the industry assumed the volume would recover after the nation went back to work.

But Copenhagen-based SeaIntelligence Consulting CEO Lars Jensen told the Wall Street Journal that hes currently seeing a 37 percent drop in demand for this quarter.

Despite APM-Maersk starting the year with $4.8 billion in cash, Moodys downgraded the companys container shipping unit from stable to negative. Moodys warned that demand is still falling due to factory closures and protectionist actions spreading around the world.
Going for a drive around the neighbourhood is not a good reason to be out this long weekend, as authorities tell NSW holidaymakers they are unwelcome in regional and rural communities.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller told ABC Radio the Easter long weekend was not an excuse for people to travel anywhere and people should not be going for a drive, even if they had no intentions of getting out.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller says going for a drive with no intentions of getting out of the car is not a reasonable excuse to be out. Credit:Kate Geraghty

"It is not a reasonable excuse," he said of driving. "If you don't really need to do it, then stay home and stay safe."

Exemptions to the rules include travelling to work, getting food, medical assistance, or to exercise. On Sunday, a Victorian learner driver received a $1652 fine when she and her mother went for a driving lesson. The fine was later revoked.
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned on Tuesday, a day after leaked audio revealed he called the ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt 'stupid' in an address to the ship's crew.

Modly's resignation comes a little more than a week after Capt. Brett Crozier, the then-commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, sent a memo warning of coronavirus spreading among the sailors on the aircraft carrier. The memo leaked and Modly subsequently removed Crozier from command. The former acting secretary flew to Guam to address the ship, insulting Crozier to thousands of sailors who had given their former captain a standing ovation as he left the ship days before.

The audio of that address was leaked to media outlets and the uproar over Modly's remarks -- calling Crozier 'too naive or too stupid' to be in command of the aircraft carrier and saying that going outside of the chain-of-command with his memo represented a 'betrayal' -- quickly made his position untenable.

In his resignation letter, Modly did not mention the controversy but later apologized to the whole of the Navy for the incident in a memo.

'More than anything, I owe every member of the Navy and Marine Corps team a lifetime of gratitude for the opportunity to serve for them, and with them, once again. They are the reason why I will forever remain inspired by the call of service. They are the ones who lift our nation, heal our divides, and make this country the greatest in the history of the world,' Modly wrote in his resignation letter.

'That is why with a heavy heart, I hereby submit my resignation, effective immediately. The men and women of the Department of the Navy deserve a continuity of civilian leadership befitting our great Republic, and the decisive naval force that secures our way of life. I will be forever grateful for my opportunity, and the blessing, to be part of it.'

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a letter that he accepted Modly's resignation Tuesday morning, confirming CNN's earlier reporting that Modly had resigned.

'He resigned of his own accord, putting the Navy and Sailors above self so that the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt and the Navy, as an institution, can move forward,' Esper wrote. 'His care for the Sailors was genuine. Secretary Modly served the nation for many years, both in and out of uniform. I have the deepest respect for anyone who serves our country, and who places the greater good above all else. Secretary Modly did that today, and i wish him all the best.'

READ: Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirms resignation of acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly

Undersecretary of the Army James McPherson -- who served on the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the 1980s -- has been tapped to succeed Modly, Esper wrote. McPherson is a retired rear admiral and was the former judge advocate general of the Navy.

'A betrayal'

Modly relieved Crozier of duty late last week after a memo the captain had written to Navy officials leaked to the press. Crozier wrote of the challenge of trying to contain a coronavirus outbreak aboard the ship and urgently requested that sailors be allowed to quarantine on land.

Modly told the crew that Crozier had to go, citing loss of confidence and a failure to adhere to the chain of command. It was a 'betrayal of trust, with me, with his chain of command,' he said in remarks that were piped over the vessel's public address system.

Modly also suggested Crozier leaked the memo on purpose or was 'too naive or too stupid' to be in command if he didn't think that sending it to over 20 people would not result in it getting out to the public.

'If he didn't think, in my opinion, that this information wasn't going to get out to the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either a) too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this,' Modly said. 'The alternative is that he did this on purpose.'

At least 230 sailors aboard the Roosevelt had tested positive for coronavirus as of Tuesday morning, an increase of 57 cases since the day before, a US Navy official told CNN.

Officials at the Pentagon are split about whether Crozier should have been relieved, but most feel the situation was badly handled and is now causing additional problems at an already difficult time.

The situation quickly escalated and Trump was asked about Modly's comments during Monday's briefing from the White House coronavirus task force.

'I haven't heard it exactly, I heard they heard,' Trump said, referring to the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. 'I heard they had a statement that was made, if that were the statement, it's a strong statement.'

Trump added that he 'may just get involved.'

Shortly afterward, Modly moved into damage control mode, but his apology still insinuated that Crozier had deliberately leaked the memo himself.

'I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship. I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused,' he said.

Modly also apologized directly to Crozier for 'any pain my remarks may have caused.'

'(Crozier and his family), and the entire Navy, have my full commitment that I will continue to help get the TR back to full health and back to sea where we can move forward beyond this unfortunate situation,' he said.

'I lost situational awareness'

After he resigned on Tuesday, Modly again apologized for his comments about Crozier and his familiar tone, telling the Navy in a memo that -- upon getting on the ship -- 'I lost situational awareness.'

'When I walked on the quarterdeck of the TR I lost situational awareness and decided to speak with them as if I was their commander, or their shipmate, rather than their Secretary,' Modly wrote. 'They deserved better, and I hope that over the passage of time that they will understand the words themselves rather than the manner in which they were delivered. But what's done is done. I can't take it back, and frankly I don't know if I walked back up that quarterdeck today if I wouldn't have the same level of emotions that drove my delivery yesterday.'

Modly said he now recognized that the 'crew deserved a lot more empathy and a lot less lecturing' during his remarks. He said that he regretted how quickly his words spread through the press and insisted that his true meaning was lost.

'I had hoped to transmit a message of love, and duty, and mission, and courage in the face of adversity,' Modly wrote. 'Those words are in there, but they are now lost, because of me, and I will regret that for the rest of my life. But, I am not a football head coach, or a master chief, or even the ship's own CO, I am the Secretary of the Navy and you, and they, should expect more out of me. I own it.'

Trump, during Tuesday's briefing from the White House coronavirus task force, said Modly 'didn't have to resign.'

'I had no role in it. The whole thing was very unfortunate,' Trump said. 'I've heard, I don't know him, but I've heard he was a very good man, and it was a, the whole thing was very unfortunate.'

The President again criticized Crozier, saying the captain 'didn't have to be Ernest Hemingway' by writing the letter. Trump said he recognized that Crozier's decision to send the letter was a 'very unselfish thing for him to do.'

'He made a mistake, but he had a bad day, and I hate seeing bad things happen. Man made a mistake. But you know, he shouldn't have been writing letters.'

This breaking story has been updated to reflect Undersecretary of the Army James McPherson has been named as Modly's successor after he resigned.
Tuolumne County Jail View Photo

Update at 4:30 p.m.: Following the California Judicial Councils directive yesterday to reduce the bail amount for lower-level offenders to zero, Tuolumne County Sheriff Bill Pooley had stated that 40 inmates would be released before April 13th. This afternoon Sheriffs spokesperson Nicco Sandelin relayed an update on the number of inmates to be released due to gathering further/newer criteria information, which he provided and can be found here. Sandelin shares, After a thorough review of inmates meeting the criteria, only 14 will be released.

As reported here last month, ten inmates were released and all were within 14 days of their sentencing completion to comply with Gov. Gavin Newsoms call to reduce jail populations. Further details on the new releases are below.

BJ Hansen wrote the story below.

Original post at 11 a.m.: Sonora, CA  The California Judicial Council issued a directive yesterday to reduce the bail amount for lower-level offenders to zero.

It is a statewide effort to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19 among prisoners at county jails.

In response, Sheriff Bill Pooley told the Tuolumne County Supervisors this morning that an estimated 40 inmates will be released from Tuolumne County Jail before April 13. It will be phased out over the next week as the paperwork for each impacted inmate is completed.

After those inmates are released, an estimated 60-70 higher level inmates will remain at the jail.

In addition, we reported yesterday on the latest Tuolumne County Public Health Directive yesterday regarding the need to reduce non-essential gatherings. Tuolumne County is making a push to encourage residents to practice social distancing and is asking all visitors to refrain from coming to the county over the coming weeks.

Sheriff Pooley noted that his office has spent the past several weeks working to inform the public about the rules and directives. He warned, After this Friday we will have done three weeks of outreach to the public. Im telling you that the Sheriffs Office will at that point transition from education to enforcement, and we will be out proactively enforcing the doctors order, up to, and including, citations for those who refuse to obey the order.

He clarified that his comments are primarily geared at people who are going into closed recreation areas. Sheriff Pooleys new blog, with more details, is here.

Well have more information from todays supervisors meeting in later stories.
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Linkedin A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 17:29 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd0565a3 1 National mining-law-revision,environment,house-of-representatives,Prolegnas,business,law,politics Free

The House of Representatives narrowly escaped public scrutiny last week after it shelved a plan to deliberate a contentious mining law revision amid physical distancing measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, but activists remain unconvinced that lawmakers wont revive the plan again in the future.

The Office of the House Secretary General issued Friday a letter announcing that a virtual work meeting between House Commission VII overseeing energy and Cabinet ministers in charge of the energy, home affairs, law, industry and finance portfolios, originally scheduled for April 8, would be postponed until further notice.

Commission VII deputy chairman Gus Irawan Pasaribu, a Gerindra Party lawmaker, confirmed the postponement of the meeting on Monday.

Yes [the meeting has been postponed]. This comes as a request from the government, in view of its current focus on addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, Irawan told The Jakarta Post.

Since coming back on March 30 from an extended recess period due to the COVID-19 outbreak, lawmakers have resumed their duties in the same way that most Indonesians have done over the past few weeks  through daily teleconferences in place of the usual physical meetings at the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta.

Activists have previously slammed House lawmakers for attempting to resume talks on a number of controversial bills, including proposed changes to the 2009 Mining Law, under the protective cover of government-mandated physical distancing measures, which has allowed both politicians and government officials to go about important decision making processes without supervision.

Siti Rakhma Mary Herwati, head of the information management division at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), said that the process of deliberating the proposed revisions had so far not been transparent, whether at the commission level or at the working committee (panja).

All this time, the deliberation of the mining law revision has been closed to the public; us civil society groups were not involved in discussions, let alone the people most affected, Rahma said.

Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) activist Merah Jahansyah urged both the government and the House to focus on controlling the pandemic instead of passing bills that the public still deems controversial. Its not that the 2009 Law is without problems, but the question is, will the revision [guarantee] no more problems? Merah said during an online discussion on Sunday.

The plan to revise the mining law makes clear that the government will prioritize economic growth at the probable expense of its environmental commitments, with activists raising questions on the plans impact on natural disaster mitigation and coal consumption.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry plans to loosen several restrictions to boost downstream mining industry growth. Notable relaxations include quadrupling the maximum size of traditional mining zones (WPR) to 100 hectares, erasing minimal concession sizes for mining firms and revoking a 40-year mining limit for mining companies that build smelters. There is also a revision that would allow mining activity in rivers and the sea, which Jatam has criticized as being an oversight in policymaking.

Mining zones rarely take into account the ecological carrying capacity of the local environment, Merah said, citing a case of flooding earlier this year in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, allegedly caused by mining activities at the mouth of the Karang Mumus River, which flows into the city.

Carrying capacity has never been part of the governments consideration, especially in the mining law revision, he said, referring to the maximum population size that a local environment can sustain without destroying it.

Meanwhile, AURIGA Nusantara activist Iqbal Damanik said that any deliberation of the proposed revision this year would coincide too much with the expiry of several contracts of work (KK) and coal contracts of work (PKP2B) held by major mining companies.

These include PT Adaro Indonesia in 2022, PT Arutmin Indonesia in 2020, PT Berau Coal in 2025, PT Kideco Jaya Agung in 2023, PT Kaltim Prima Coal in 2021, PT Multi Harapan Utama in 2022 and PT Kendilo Coal Indonesia in 2021.

According to Article 169 of the mining law revision draft, contracts of work that have yet to be extended can be subject to an extension as a special mining permit (IUPK) for up to 20 years over two periods.

If this bill is passed into law, then it is done in the interests [of the companies], Iqbal said, suggesting instead that the House commission should inspect whether these firms have held their end of the bargain.

In addition to the proposed mining law revisions, the House is expected to continue deliberations on the omnibus bill on job creation, which has been widely protested against for being too pro-business.

As it relates to mining, the bill centralizes the issuance of permits to provide certainty for the big firms, while removing environmental protections such as the requirement to get environmental permits, and streamlining the process of obtaining an environmental impact analysis (Amdal).

This of course will cause chaos and legal uncertainty, said Publish What You Pay (PWYP) activist Aryanto Nugroho, adding that it was not too late to take the contentious bills off the 2020 National Legislation Program.

 Norman Harsono contributed to the story.
President Uhuru Kenyatta Monday announced an enhanced raft of measures to combat the spread of Covid-19. One of the new directives requires all Kenyans to wear face masks while in public to curb the spread of the deadly virus that has claimed the lives of six patients in Kenya, as of Monday, 6 April.

Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi on Sunday also urged members of the public to acquire a mask even as they wait on the government to begin distributing them.

This has seen a boom in the trade of masks, with some hawkers selling them for as low as Sh30-50.

However, there are concerns that the market might be saturated with masks that are not ideal for COVID-19. So, what should Kenyans look out for when acquiring a mask?

According to Kenya Bureau of Standards MD Bernard Njiraini, a good mask is determined by the design; it must be 3-ply.

Speaking on Monday, Njiraini said the outer layer should be waterproof, ie hydrophobic.

The middle layer is supposed to filter in the micro-organisms and the inner layer is supposed to absorb some moisture. All these layers have some functions, he said.

Trade and Industrialisation CS Betty Maina added that there are masks for medical personnel and there are general masks that anyone can wear when they go out.

Three-ply can be utilised by the health professionals but is also good for you. So if you go out to buy ensure you can be able to detect that it has got three plies.

There is the inner layer then the darker part is the outer layer for gathering dust but there should be a filter inside it. So that is something that medical personnel can wear and all of us.

She added: There are simple dust masks that can be worn by everybody including our boda boda riders just for dust purposes.

Maina noted that masks woven from cloth cant protect against coronavirus.

It may protect you against dust and other particles in the air but it will not protect you against this disease because it doesnt have the inner filter.

The call for Kenyans to wear masks comes after scientists in the US discovered that coughs can travel as far as six metres and sneezes up to eight metres and not one metre as previously claimed.

The State had asked healthy members of the public to leave masks only for health workers and sickly people.
I suppose it's possible that, if one searches the deepest, dankest corners of the internet, there will be creepy sites dedicated to sexual fantasies about Donald Trump or either one of the Bush presidents, pere et fils. What's a certainty, though, is that you will not find those thoughts in any mainstream conservative publication or blogs, nor will you find people sharing those ideas on social media. When it comes to Trump, his supporters admire his abilities, his intelligence, and his values. He's not a sex symbol; he's just a leader.

Things are different on the left, at least when it comes to how women and gay men view their political idols. Surely you remember way back in February 2009, shortly after Obama's inauguration, when the New York Times ran a long, fairly graphic opinion piece discussing women's sexual fantasies about Barack Obama:

Many women  not too surprisingly  were dreaming about sex with the president. In these dreams, the women replaced Michelle with greater or lesser guilt or, in the case of a 62-year-old woman in North Florida, whose dream was reported to me by her daughter, found a fully above-board solution: "Michelle had divorced Barack because he had become 'too much of a star.' He then married my mother, who was oh so proud to be the first lady," the daughter wrote me. There was some daydreaming too, much of it a collective fantasy about the still-hot Obama marriage. "Barack and Michelle Obama look like they have sex. They look like they like having sex," a Los Angeles woman wrote to me, summing up the comments of many. "Often. With each other. These days when the sexless marriage is such a big celebrity in America (and when first couples are icons of rigid propriety), that's one interesting mental drama."

Eleven years have passed, and I still feel unclean when I read that.

Nor was the Times alone in that. A few months later, Glamour magazine ran an "I want sex with Barack Obama" edition. (Apparently, it did the same with Bill Clinton, back when he was a newly minted president.) And there was that time during the 2008 presidential campaign when female reporters were riveted by Obama's crotch. Ick.

With Biden doddering into the November election, the Democrats are looking to Andrew Cuomo to save the party. Is it any surprise, then, that women are starting to looking at Andrew Cuomo with a sexual gleam in their eyes?

Just two weeks ago, Rebecca Fishbein wrote an article for Jezebel entitled "Help, I think I'm in Love with Andrew Cuomo??" (Yes, the double question marks are in the original title.) After admitting that she wasn't a fan of Cuomo before COVID-19, Fishbein now assumes a flirtatious attitude toward the governor:

[T]he less contact I have with other humans, the more I start to think of Cuomo as my only friend. I've started laughing at his little jokes. I catch myself touching my hair (not my face!) when he talks about an increase in testing capacity. I swooned when he told a reporter he had his own workout routine. I have watched a clip of him and brother Chris Cuomo bickering about their mother at least 20 times. I think I have a crush??? [snip] It's not just me. Suddenly, everyone loves Andrew Cuomo. Ben Smith, the New York Times's new media columnist, wrote a column this week headlined "Andrew Cuomo is the Control Freak We All Need Right Now." Politico ran a profile on him that digs into his past (and present?) presidential aspirations. Reporters I trust and respect keep talking about how this is Cuomo's "finest moment." There is also some intense discussion online over whether or not Cuomo is hot. I say yes. Sandra Lee, please let me have him.

The passion for Andrew Cuomo escalated on Monday, when Randy Rainbow released a video parody of the song "Sandy," from Grease, along with the new hashtag "Cuomosexual." The video, which has been viewed at least a million times, is clever, well produced, deeply hostile to Trump, and truly adoring:

Suddenly, the hashtag #Cuomosexual was trending. While most just saw it as a cute gimmick to support the newest shiny object, several people ran with the sexual inuendo. Here are some examples of that latter category:

Guys. Look. I dont know what to say other than no tweet Ive ever tweeted before is more important than this one. You must watch it because I feel @RandyRainbow really captures everything about our new boyfriend/leader/hero @NYGovCuomo so perfectly it HURTS. #cuomosexual https://t.co/WJaIFbG4UT  Brooke Hammerling (@brooke) April 6, 2020

It's hard to know whether to tell these people to get a life or get a room.

Not everyone liked this new reverence for Governor Cuomo. The negative tweets may explain why Cuomo, so far, has stated that he will not run for president. This tweet is representative:

I do not like being an Andrew Cuomo awareness account but during #COVID19, he has:



- cut Medicaid

- ignored cancelling rent

- ignored releasing prisoners

- rolled back bail reform



Explain to me why #Cuomosexual is trending again?



(I know why I just can't understand WHY). https://t.co/T88TLv5GJ5  Winn Periyasamy (MPH, She/Her) (@WPeriyasamy) April 6, 2020

The world will be a better place when leftists stop obsessively sexualizing everything, including Andrew Cuomo.
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The South Korean Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday said a citizen recently returning from Vietnam has consistently tested negative for the novel coronavirus after initially testing positive, requesting that Vietnam lift quarantine imposed on 15 South Korean nationals and a company related to the case.

The 15 people in question had been in direct or indirect contact with L.K.N., a South Korean man who was said to have tested positive for the coronavirus last week.

L.K.N. entered Vietnam on January 31 and worked at a South Korean-invested cutlery factory in the southern Vietnamese province of Binh Duong, around 45 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City.

He left for Ho Chi Minh City and boarded a flight from there to come back to South Korea on March 31. He arrived in his home country on April 1.

His first test with nose and throat samples returned positive for the novel coronavirus on April 2.

The 15 South Korean nationals, including seven in close contact and eight having indirect interactions with L.K.N. during his two-month stay in Vietnam, have thus been placed in isolation at different quarantine facilities in Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong since April 4.

Besides the 15 South Korean, 39 other people have also been quarantined for the same reason.

Those in Ho Chi Minh City are quarantined at a field hospital in Cu Chi District and a university campus in District 7, while the others in Binh Duong are isolated at a provincial military school.

Regarding the seven South Korean citizens in close contact with the man, four people who are living in Ho Chi Minh City had tested negative for the virus as of Sunday.

In a diplomatic note sent to the Department of External Relations of Ho Chi Minh City on Monday, the South Korean Consulate General said that two more tests with L.K.N.'s nose, throat, and bronchi samples came back negative on April 3 and 5 so he was in fact virus-free.

With these latest testing results, the South Korean man will soon be discharged from the hospital in his home country, the Consulate General said.

The Consulate General thus requested the Department of External Relations in Ho Chi Minh City to consider ending the quarantine of the 15 related South Korean citizens in Vietnam.

The municipal external relations department forwarded the document to the citys Center for Disease Control on Monday.

A quarantine order imposed on the Binh Duong plant where L.K.N. worked  which resulted in around 800 company employees being temporarily suspended  is also asked to be lifted.

The South Korean Consulate General said the business interruption has caused a big loss for the company in question.

Vietnams Ministry of Heath has reported zero new COVID-19 case on Tuesday, with the countrys tally remaining at 245.

The Southeast Asian country has confirmed 245 COVID-19 cases so far, with a total of 122 having been released from hospitals.

No fatality associated with the disease has been recorded in the nation to date.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Defense Secretary Mark Esper told the Navy's top civilian leader to apologize for a controversial and divisive speech he gave to a ship's crew after firing their commanding officer, Military.com has confirmed.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly was directed to issue a statement about his recent comments on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, a defense official said. That prompted a sudden reversal just hours after Modly had doubled and tripled down on his statements, saying he was standing by every word.

Modly made headlines Monday after flying to Guam, where he addressed the Roosevelt's crew days after removing their commanding officer from his position. Capt. Brett Crozier was relieved for sending a letter pleading for help in dealing with fast-spreading novel coronavirus cases among his crew.

The letter was sent through unclassified channels to several people outside Crozier's chain of command, prompting Modly to tell the crew that their former leader was "too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this." That was after videos showed hundreds of Crozier's crew members applauding for him and chanting his name as he left the carrier following his relief.

Related: Modly Apologizes to Fired Captain and Carrier Crew After Trump Hints at Intervention

CNN first reported Tuesday that Modly was told to apologize for his remarks. The directive came from Esper's office.

Modly issued his apology Monday night, less than 12 hours after the acting secretary defended his speech.

"Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid," he said in a statement. "... I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused. I also want to apologize directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused."

Sailors on the Roosevelt have spoken out about Modly's speech. In a recording of the address, obtained by Military.com, people can be heard swearing in response to Modly's comments about Crozier being "naive" or "stupid."

One crew member told Task & Purpose on Monday that Modly showing up and making that speech after firing their captain was "like disrespecting someone who has passed away at their wake."

Modly's leaked speech caught the attention of more than the defense secretary. Lawmakers have called for his removal, and President Donald Trump on Monday indicated he might intervene in the situation.

It's not clear whether Esper ordering Modly to apologize came before or after Trump's remarks.

Being relieved of command is typically a career-ending situation for military officers that will prevent them from being promoted to the next rank.

"[Crozier] made a mistake," Trump said. "And maybe we're going to make that mistake not destroy his life."

-- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins.

Read more: President Trump Says He Might Intervene in Fired Navy Captain's Case
A YOUNG man was seriously injured in a stabbing incident in Cork.

The incident erupted at Pearse Square in Ballyphehane on Cork's southside shortly after 9pm on Tuesday.

The incident is believed to have followed a dispute between a number of young men in the area.

One man in his early 20s was rushed to Cork University Hospital (CUH) by ambulance after paramedics were called to the scene.

He is said to be in a serious but stable condition.

The man was scheduled to undergo surgery for his injuries.

Gardai attended the scene and began door-to-door inquiries in a bid to determine the precise circumstances in which the man sustained the stab and slash injuries.

No arrests were made.

The scene was preserved to allow for a full forensic examination by garda technical experts on Wednesday.

Anyone who was in the area at the time and witnessed the incident or suspicious activity is asked to contact Togher Garda Station.
HOUSTON, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE: GPI), ("Group 1" or the "Company"), an international, Fortune 500 automotive retailer, today announced that effective immediately, it is suspending its cash dividend and canceling its prior share repurchase authorization.

"Due to the dramatic impact of the COV-ID 19 pandemic on the auto retail market and the associated temporary displacement of so many of our valued employees, the Group 1 Automotive Board of Directors has decided to suspend the quarterly dividend and cancel our existing share repurchase authorization at this time," said Earl J. Hesterberg, Group 1's president and chief executive officer. "In addition, we have reviewed our planned capital expenditures and are making significant reductions to this year's planned spending. These actions will further strengthen our balance sheet and provide additional resources during this period of market disruption," added Hesterberg.

ABOUT GROUP 1 AUTOMOTIVE, INC.

Group 1 owns and operates 186 automotive dealerships, 242 franchises, and 49 collision centers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil that offer 31 brands of automobiles. Through its dealerships, the Company sells new and used cars and light trucks; arranges related vehicle financing; sells service contracts; provides automotive maintenance and repair services; and sells vehicle parts.

Investors please visit www.group1corp.com, www.group1auto.com, www.group1collision.com, www.facebook.com/group1auto, and www.twitter.com/group1auto, where Group 1 discloses additional information about the Company, its business, and its results of operations.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are statements related to future, not past, events and are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding our business, the economy and other future conditions. In this context, the forward-looking statements often include statements regarding our goals, plans, projections and guidance regarding our financial position, results of operations, market position, pending and potential future acquisitions and business strategy, and often contain words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "should," "foresee," "may" or "will" and similar expressions. While management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made, there can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will be those that we anticipate. Any such forward-looking statements are not assurances of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, (a) general economic and business conditions, (b) the level of manufacturer incentives, (c) the future regulatory environment, (d) our ability to obtain an inventory of desirable new and used vehicles, (e) our relationship with our automobile manufacturers and the willingness of manufacturers to approve future acquisitions, (f) our cost of financing and the availability of credit for consumers, (g) our ability to complete acquisitions and dispositions and the risks associated therewith, (h) foreign exchange controls and currency fluctuations, and (i) our ability to retain key personnel. For additional information regarding known material factors that could cause our actual results to differ from our projected results, please see our filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after the date they are made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Investor contacts:

Sheila Roth

Manager, Investor Relations

Group 1 Automotive, Inc.

713-647-5741 | [email protected]

Media contacts:

Pete DeLongchamps

Senior V.P. Manufacturer Relations, Financial Services and Public Affairs

Group 1 Automotive, Inc.

713-647-5770 | [email protected]

or

Clint Woods

Pierpont Communications, Inc.

713-627-2223 | [email protected]

SOURCE Group 1 Automotive, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.group1auto.com


Facing reduction in demand due to the lockdown in the country, steel makers SAIL and Tata Steel have reduced their output by about 50 percent, according to sources

New Delhi: Facing reduction in demand due to the lockdown in the country, steel makers SAIL and Tata Steel have reduced their output by about 50 percent, according to sources.

State-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and private player Tata Steel both contribute about 20 percent to India's total steel production.

As per industry sources, SAIL and Tata Steel have scaled-down production by about 50 percent.

The companies have taken the decision because of the reduced demand in the market after the lockdown, which has impacted logistics movement, the sources said adding that buyers are also reluctant in placing orders.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

Most of the staff of the companies are working from home and only important sites like blast furnaces and coke oven batteries etc at the plants, which can not be closed, are running.

Tata Steel had earlier said as the outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted its business and operations, the company's integrated steel facilities in Jamshedpur and Kalinganagar and subsidiaries Tata Steel BSL and Tata Steel Long Products have started reducing production levels while operations in the downstream facilities have been suspended and put on care and maintenance mode.

The company had however not provided any figures with respect to reduced production levels.

While a SAIL official confirmed reducing output by about 50 percent over the phone, an e-mail query sent to Tata Steel remained unanswered.

SAIL has five integrated steel plants in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Tata Steel has two plants in Odisha and Jharkhand.
After two sessions of steady decline, the bulls managed to push the Indian market above crucial resistance levels on April 7 as signs of progress against the coronavirus in both Europe and the United States lifted sentiment.

The Sensex rallied more 2,400 points to reclaim 30,000, while the Nifty50 also reclaimed 8,700 for the first time since March 17.

The market recorded its best single day gain in percentage terms since May 2009, CNBC-Tv18 reported. The rally was the biggest ever single-day gain in absolute terms.

Lets look at the final tally on D-Street: the Sensex rose 2,476 points, or 8.97 percent, to 30,067 while the Nifty rose 708 points to close at 8,792.

The rally was fierce and was seen in all sectors, with the Bankex and Energy gaining more than 10 percent each.

Hopes of inflows of over $1billion added to investor sentiment. Morgan Stanley expects MSCI India's weight in EM to rise by 55bps and India's FIF to rise from 0.39 to 0.42.

We estimate slightly lower than a third of current constituents will see an increase in their stock weights whenever MSCI considers this particular rebalancing. In our estimates, this would imply passive inflows of US$1.3bn, the report added.

The top five beneficiaries of this change are L&T, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance, Nestle India, and Diviss Laboratories.

''Even as the GoI chose to save lives at the cost of livelihood, markets showed no mercy and finally, the bulls took the bears to task today with a salute of more than 700 points on the Nifty," S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities told Moneycontrol.

"MSCI changes, under ownership in pharmaceuticals and support from financials, culminated the stellar day in favour of the bulls," he said.

Investors wealth rose by Rs 8 lakh crore in a single trading session as the average market capitalisation of the BSE-listed companies rose from Rs 108 lakh crore recorded on April 3 to Rs 116 lakh crore on April 7.

Indian market witnessed a relief rally on D-Street but it will be difficult to say that the market will head in single direction and that is on the upside. It is a holiday-shortened week and news about rise in coronavirus cases could lead to more volatility on D-Street.

Investors are also awaiting an ease in lockdown procedures so that companies can get down to business but initial reports suggest that the lockdown could be extended.

If the momentum continues, the Nifty50 may head towards 10,500 and investors should use dips to get into quality stocks with an investment horizon of three years.

Indian equities are significantly up today following positive cues from global markets, consecutive days of decline in intensity of COVID-19 cases and reports from banking sector on healthy growth in advances as well as comfortable deposit position, Amar Ambani, Senior President and Head of Research Institutional Equities at YES Securities, told Moneycontrol.

However, this big up move is on a smaller base vis-a-vis where markets were around three months back. A rally on the Nifty to 10,500 is possible in the next four weeks, where it will face still resistance.

Ambani further added that the year 2020 will continue to see high volatility even in the aftermath of the health crisis. It will be a great time to lap up stocks with a three-year horizon but only after sufficient liquidity is kept aside for emergencies.

Technically, the index closed just a shade below 8,800 with gains of nearly 9 percent forming a bullish candle on the daily chart. The initial resistance is seen at 9,000, and in case the index manages to close above this level, then the outlook could change from negative to neutral.

The index has a strong resistance near 9,000-mark once the Nifty managed to surpass the 9k level, we may see some change in momentum from negative to neutral, if failed to hold above 9k mark then we may again see pressure towards immediate support of 8,550-8,400 zone, Rohit Singre, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities told Moneycontrol.

The Nifty Bank closed a day with gains of nearly 11 percent forming a small bullish candle after continuous red candles, immediate support for the Nifty Bank is coming near 18,500-18,000 zone and resistance is coming near 19,450-19,700 zone, he said.

Sectorally, the S&P BSE Bankex rose 10 percent followed by the S&P BSE Energy, which was up 10.02 percent, and the Auto Index rallied 9.49 percent.

A volume spike of 100-400% was seen in stocks like SAIL, Bharat Forge, Godrej Properties, M&M Financial Services, and Bandhan Bank.

Long buildup was seen in Godrej Properties, Chola Finance and Ramco Cements.

Short buildup was seen in stocks like Cummins India, Bandhan Bank, and Bharat Forge.

The volatility index India VIX fell nearly 6 percent to 52.06, a positive indication for the bulls.

There are more than 30 stocks on the BSE, which hit a fresh 52-week high. It includes Nestle India, GSK Consumer Health, Dr Reddys Laboratories, HUL, Torrent Pharma, and Ipca Laboratories.

Godrej Properties: The share rose 15 percent after the company reported 100 percent sequential growth in its Q4FY20 booking.

IndusInd Bank: Shares surged 22 percent after the bank reported robust business operations for the quarter ended March.

JSPL: The share surged 28% after promoters announced to repay loans and get pledged shares released.

Dr Reddy's Lab: The share was up 14% after the government lifted partial ban on exports of hydroxychloroquine medicines.

HDFC Bank: The share jumped over 10 percent after the bank's advances aggregated to approximately Rs 9,930 billion as of Q4 FY20, a growth of around 21 percent as compared to Rs. 8,194 billion as of 31 March 2019, it said in a regulatory filing.

: The share was up 10 percent after the company partnered with Dunzo, an online delivery platform, to deliver its range of biscuits, croissants, ghee and dairy whitener, among others to its consumers.


From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

The world is experiencing a major health crisis.

As the new coronavirus spreads, many countries are limiting their citizens activities. Travel has been restricted. Many schools are closed. In major cities around the world, restaurants and other businesses are shut down.

Public emergencies bring out a certain type of person  the panic shopper. Some people fear not being able to find basic needs for survival. So, they buy everything off supermarket shelves in preparation for the days to come.

Bread is often among the first products to disappear in emergency situations.



So, if you have never made bread, now may be good time to learn. Bread making is a survival skill. With very few simple things -- such as flour, salt and yeast -- you can bake a fresh loaf of bread for your family, neighbors or coworkers.

Baking is not just a useful survival skill. It can make you feel better at stressful times. In fact, baking and cooking have been used to treat people with mental health issues.

Julie Ohana is a social worker. She offers what she calls culinary therapy to her patients in New York City.

I say therapy because to me cooking is so therapeutic. And therapeutic really means something that makes you feel good, something that is helpful and beneficial to the person doing it ...

Julie Ohana uses culinary therapy to help people overcome many kinds of issues. She explains that culinary therapy works on many levels.



Baking requires mindfulness.

So when youre in the kitchen  whether youre cooking or youre baking  it really requires a certain level of mindfulness, of being present in the moment. Specifically, when youre baking. And baking really requires step-by-step, following a recipe, being more precise. Kneading the dough or rolling something out, you really get the full benefit of being present in the moment and being able to relax and put aside all the other thoughts and just focus on the here-and-now. And there really are very strong benefits of being able to do that, to be able to relax, to decompress, destress, and really increase ones level of life satisfaction.

Baking is a labor of love.

Ohana also says baking is a process filled with love. It not only makes you feel good, it produces something tangible -- something you can touch and eat! Ohana calls baking a labor of love.

And when you bake, you go through this whole process and it really is a labor of love  and you end up with this finished product that - not only is it tangible - but its edible and its delicious.



Baking is emotional.

Often our food experiences are tied to family memories and stories. We remember meals our grandmothers made. We teach our children important recipes for family favorites.

Ohana says something that all bakers know -- giving delicious, baked goods makes the giver feel as good as the receiver. So, she calls baking a win-win.

To be able to pass that on to someone else certainly can make the day for the person receiving it. But Its also just as powerful for the person whos giving the baked goods. Its a win-win. Its not just something purely that you do for the other person. The baker, the cook really gets to benefit from the act as well.

And thats the Health & Lifestyle report. Im Anna Matteo.

Are you a baker? Let us know how baking makes you feel in the Comments Section.

Anna Matteo wrote this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

Quiz - Baking Is Good for Mental Health Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

shelf  n. a flat board which is attached to a wall, frame, etc., and on which objects can be placed

stressful  adj. full of or causing stress : making you feel worried or anxious

culinary therapy  n. using food production to heal mental issues

beneficial  adj. producing good or helpful results or effects

recipe  n. a set of instructions for making something from various ingredients

precise  adj. very accurate and exact

knead  v. to work and press into a mass with the hands

relax  v. to stop feeling nervous or worried : to spend time resting or doing something enjoyable especially after you have been doing work

delicious  adj. appealing to one of the bodily senses especially of taste or smell
Oil plunged Tuesday to the weakest level since the start of the month as investors weighed whether the worlds biggest producers will be able to strike a deal that cuts enough output to offset an unprecedented demand loss from the coronavirus outbreak.

Futures in New York sank over 9%, reversing an earlier gain. Saudi Arabia and Russia are hammering out terms to a production agreement with OPEC+ talks planned for Thursday and a G-20 meeting of energy ministers set for Friday, according to people familiar with the matter.

There is a concern an OPEC+ deal is not enough or fast enough to prevent storage fills, said Rebecca Babin, senior equity trader at CIBC Private Wealth Management.

Its also unclear if the U.S. will implement mandatory production cuts. The Energy Information Administration cut its oil production forecast for this year by more than 1 million barrels a day and trimmed its 2021 output estimates by 1.6 million barrels a day.

The EIA report today demonstrates that there are already projected cuts of 2 million barrels per day, without any intervention from the federal government, according to an agency official. The private sector and the free market are driving those cuts.

Also, investor funds are rolling over their positions into the forwards months by selling the prompt futures contract. The largest oil ETF, United States Oil Fund, started its five-day roll period Tuesday, and this will end on April 13.

OIL AGREEMENT: Oil negotiators race for pact; U.S. role in the balance

The fund is selling the front month to buy the next three months, Babin said, noting that the fund accounts for 10% of the open interest in the prompt contract.

The May-June West Texas Intermediate spread widened to a $5.06-a-barrel discount, the weakest since 2009. Supplies at the key Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub are the highest since November and are set to grow as the virus continues to destroy demand.

An effective supply deal will require all of the three top producers -- the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Russia -- to participate. While Riyadh and Moscow are set to cut output significantly, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations, Washington is more likely to offer up gradual reductions. The G-20 may be a more acceptable forum to bring on board the U.S. and other big producers outside the OPEC+ alliance, such as Canada and Brazil.

Even if a production-cut deal is reached, the bigger question is whether reductions would be enough to offset a demand meltdown spurred by the Covid-19 outbreak.

The industry-funded American Petroleum Institute reported a 11.9 million barrel increase in weekly nationwide crude stocks, according to people familiar with the matter. Thats above analysts expectation for a 9.25 million barrel rise. The industry group also reported a 6.8 million barrel jump in oil stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma hub, which would be the largest in data going back to April 2004 if the EIA confirms that in its report Wednesday.

For transportation fuels, API reported a 9.45 million barrel increase in gasoline stocks, and a modest decrease in distillate inventories for the week ending April 3, people familiar with the matter said.
ARLINGTON, Va., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed into law American Diabetes Association-supported legislation capping monthly copayments for insulin at $30 for a 30-day supply. House Bill 207 (HB 207) also includes an emergency refill provision that will allow people without an up-to-date prescription to get insulin immediately rather than waiting until they are able to get a refill authorized by a physician, as well as a provision directing the Utah Department of Insurance to issue a report that includes a summary of insulin pricing practices.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is encouraged that the Utah governor and legislature have put the more than 206,000 people living with diabetes in Utah at the forefront in this difficult time.

"Right now, Americans with diabetes are facing unprecedented financial challenges as the country responds to the coronavirus crisis," said LaShawn McIver, MD, MPH, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs & Advocacy for the ADA. "The high cost of insulin can have devastating consequences, often forcing those living with diabetes to make hard choices that can lead to devastating health complications. Starting January 1, 2021, this new law will remove one of the burdens faced by many people with diabetes in Utah who need insulin to live. We are grateful to Governor Herbert and the Utah legislature, including bill sponsors Representative Norman Thurston and Senator Deidre Henderson, whose dedication to helping those with diabetes thrive made House Bill 207 possible."

"The diabetes community in Utah has won a major victory now that House Bill 207 has been approved. The new law provides several provisions that help to ensure that no one in Utah will ever have to leave the pharmacy without their insulin," said Representative Thurston.

"Diabetes in Utah is a growing concern. The costs of prescription drugs like insulin have skyrocketed in recent years. Many Utah residents with diabetes have been forced to limit their insulin use because they simply cannot afford to fill the prescription," said Timothy J. Staley, Utah Advocacy Chair for the ADA. "I am proud of our state for being at the forefront in taking legislative steps to help in combating this disease."

For more information about this legislation, please contact Representative Thurston at [email protected].

While this co-pay cap is a step forward in the fight for affordable insulin, the ADA recognizes that people with diabetes need relief now more than ever to stay healthy and out of doctor's offices, emergency rooms, and hospitals. To address the immediate needs of people with diabetes in Utah during the coronavirus pandemic, the ADA has urged Governor Herbert to eliminate all cost-sharing for insulin in state-regulated health insurance plans and revert to the $30 co-pay cap when the crisis passes. The ADA also urged state governors to ensure continuous access to health care for residents with diabetes who have lost their jobs due to the economic impact of the pandemic.

The ADA continues to be the driving force in federal and state efforts to ensure that insulin is affordable and accessible for all people who need it. Take action today at diabetes.org/advocacy/platform.

If you are struggling to pay for insulin or know someone who is, the ADA has resources to helpvisit InsulinHelp.org.

About the American Diabetes Association

Every day more than 4,000 people are newly diagnosed with diabetes in America. More than 122 million Americans have diabetes or prediabetes and are striving to manage their lives while living with the disease. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is the nation's leading voluntary health organization fighting to bend the curve on the diabetes epidemic and help people living with diabetes thrive. For nearly 80 years the ADA has been driving discovery and research to treat, manage and prevent diabetes, while working relentlessly for a cure. We help people with diabetes thrive by fighting for their rights and developing programs, advocacy and education designed to improve their quality of life. Diabetes has brought us together. What we do next will make us Connected for Life. To learn more or to get involved, visit us at diabetes.org or call 1-800-DIABETES (1-800-342-2383). Join the fight with us on Facebook (American Diabetes Association), Twitter (@AmDiabetesAssn) and Instagram (@AmDiabetesAssn).

Contact: Alex Day, 703-253-4843

[email protected]

SOURCE American Diabetes Association

Related Links

http://www.diabetes.org


No Time To Die wont be re-edited despite its release date being pushed back due to the coronavirus outbreak, director Cary Fukunaga has said.

The James Bond film, which will be Daniel Craigs final outing as the secret agent, was due for release in April but was delayed to 12 November by the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, when asked on Instagram whether hed be trimming and polishing the movies final cut in the meantime, director Fukunaga has insisted to fans that the film is great as it is and wont be worked on between now and the autumn release.

Some people have asked me this and although more time would have been lovely, we had to put our pencils down when we finished our post-production window, which was thankfully before Covid shut everything else down, he said.

Although Bond is a big movie, we still have to weigh cost with value.

And like anything, you could tinker endlessly. The movie is great as it is, hope yall will feel same too when it comes out [sic].

It comes as Craigs co-star Lea Seydoux gave her first review of the new film.

Theres a lot of emotion in this Bond, she told the Daily Mail.

Its very moving. I bet youre going to cry. When I watched it, I cried, which is weird because I am in it.
The agency is likely to recommend that people who can consistently wear N95 or KN95 masks, rather than cloth masks, should do so.

Coming Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. ET
Boris Johnson spent Monday night in the intensive care unit (ICU) at a London hospital in a move Downing Street said was a "precaution" should the British Prime Minister require ventilation to aid his recovery from the COVID-19.

Johnson, 55, was taken to St. Thomas' Hospital in London, a specialist infectious diseases National Health Service (NHS) facility, on Sunday night for "routine tests" after persistent coronavirus symptoms, including a high temperature and a cough. His condition "worsened" during the course of Monday when his doctors decided to shift him to the ICU.

"The Prime Minister is not on a ventilator. He has received oxygen support and one of the reasons of being in intensive care is to ensure that whatever support the medical team consider to be appropriate can be provided," said UK Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove on Tuesday morning.

Johnson had tested positive for coronavirus 12 days ago and had continued to lead the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic via video conferencing from his Downing Street home.

On Monday night, he asked his First Secretary of State, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, to step in for him and the minister will be chairing his second daily COVID-19 meeting in place of the UK PM on Tuesday.

The government's business will continue. The Prime Minister is in safe hands with that brilliant team at St. Thomas' hospital, and the focus of the government will continue to be on making sure that the Prime Minister's direction, all the plans for making sure that we can defeat coronavirus and can pull the country through this challenge, will be taken forward, said Raab.

Raab said he would be deputising for Johnson where necessary while he is in hospital.

"There's an incredibly strong team spirit behind the Prime Minister, and making sure that we get all of the plans the Prime Minister's instructed us to deliver, to get them implemented as soon as possible. And that's the way it will bring the whole country through the coronavirus challenge that we face right now, said the senior Cabinet minister.

The team spirit was on display as ministers of Johnson's top team took to social media to wish him a speedy recovery and support to his pregnant fiancee Carrie Symonds.

My love and thoughts are with Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds and the Prime Ministers family. Praying for you and thinking of you," said UK Home Secretary Priti Patel in her Twitter message, alongside an image of her alongside Johnson at a temple in London on the campaign trail from the past year.

Fellow Indian-origin senior Cabinet colleague, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak, echoed the message: My thoughts tonight are with Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds. I know he'll be getting the best care possible and will come out of this even stronger.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the world leaders who sent out their messages of support to the UK PM.

Hang in there, Prime Minister Boris Johnson! Hope to see you out of hospital and in perfect health very soon, said Modi in his Twitter message.

US President Donald Trump said Americans "are all praying for his recovery" as he described Johnson as "a very good friend of mine and a friend to our nation" who is "strong" and "doesn't give up".

French President Emmanuel Macron said he sends "all my support to Boris Johnson, to his family and to the British people at this difficult moment".

UK's newly-elected Opposition Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described it as "terribly sad news".

"All the country's thoughts are with the prime minister and his family during this incredibly difficult time," he said.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted that St. Thomas' Hospital in London had "some of the finest medical staff in the world" and that the Prime Minister "couldn't be in safer hands".

Buckingham Palace said that Queen Elizabeth II, who has been holding her customary weekly audiences with the Prime Minister over the telephone at Windsor Castle during the current coronavirus lockdown, is being kept informed about Johnson's health.

On Monday night, Downing Street said Johnson was conscious and receiving excellent care, for which he thanks all NHS staff for their hard work and dedication.

In some COVID-19 cases, patients experience breathing difficulties as the body's immune system struggles to cope and pneumonia is among the signs of the most serious cases.

Earlier in the day on Monday, Johnson had messaged from his hospital bed to say that he was in good spirits and staying in contact with his ministers to oversee the UK's coronavirus fightback despite his hospitalisation.

He was last seen in public applauding the NHS and other key workers just outside his flat in Downing Street last Thursday and posted his last Twitter video message on Friday in which he looked quite unwell as he said he was still displaying minor symptoms.

His hospitalisation comes as the number of coronavirus hospital deaths in the UK reached 5,373 and the UK's Department of Health said there were now 51,608 confirmed coronavirus cases.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-08 02:12:39|Editor: huaxia

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RIYADH, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi G20 Presidency announced on Tuesday a G20 energy ministers' virtual meeting will be held to discuss how to stabilize energy markets, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The meeting will be held on April 10 to foster global dialogue and cooperation to ensure stable energy markets and enable a stronger global economy, said the report.

The energy ministers will also act, along with invited countries, and regional and international organizations, to alleviate the impact of COVID-19 on energy markets, it added.

This meeting comes at a time as the Saudi G20 Presidency focuses on mitigating the effects of the virus' spread on people's health and global economy.
Sydney councils are shutting their childcare centres because of a federal promise to make the crucial service free for families within days of the new measure coming into force.

In a letter to parents on Monday, Cumberland City Council general manager Hamish McNulty said the council had been "left with no option" but to suspend its childcare services because the scheme left the local government sector, which doesn't qualify for JobKeeper payments, with a budget hole.

"This anomaly in the way the childcare relief package has been designed leaves council, and all local government providers of childcare services, in a position where it is no longer viable to provide childcare services without incurring significant loss," Mr McNulty said.

Georges River Council advised residents on Tuesday that it would close two childcare centres while reducing the days of a third, with the operations of all its centres under review.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 15:27:21|Editor: Yurou

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British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (C) arrives at 10 Downing street for the COVID-19 committee meeting in London, Britain, April 7, 2020. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was taken to intensive care on Monday night after his coronavirus symptoms worsened, Downing Street said. Johnson has asked British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputize for him, a Downing Street spokesman said. (Photo by Tim Ireland/Xinhua)

LONDON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is not on a ventilator but has had some oxygen support, said Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove on Tuesday.

"He's not on a ventilator no ... The prime minister has received some oxygen support and he is kept under, of course, close supervision," Gove told the London-based LBC radio, adding that if Johnson's condition changes the government will make an official statement.

Johnson was taken to intensive care on Monday night after his coronavirus symptoms worsened, Downing Street said.

Johnson has asked British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputize for him, a Downing Street spokesman said.

The prime minister, 55, was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in London with "persistent symptoms" on Sunday night, 10 days after testing positive for coronavirus.

The spokesman said the prime minister was moved on the advice of his medical team and is receiving "excellent care."
South Korea is donating one of its recently retired Pohang class corvettes to South American nation Colombia. Another Pohang was donated to the Philippines and was delivered in 2019. A second retired Pohang will also be given to the Philippines. These transfers are largely good-will gestures to nations that are or might become customers for South Korean products, in particular weapons.

While the Pohangs were built for anti-submarine warfare, they were only really effective against the 20 or so larger ocean-going North Korean subs. These are all elderly, noisy boats, which rarely went to sea. Most of North Korea's 90 subs are much smaller than the ocean-going ones and operate along the coast. These shallow waters have more currents and a lot more underwater noise. The Pohang's sonar, while adequate on the high seas against noisy older boats, is very inadequate close to the shore. Even before a Pohang was sunk in 2010 by one of these smaller North Korean subs, there were efforts to find and install more powerful sonar in the Pohangs. No suitable sonar system could be found that would fit. And even if a new sonar did fit, it would weigh so much more that it would unbalance the ship.

The Pohangs are small ships built in the 1980s. They are only 88.3 meters (290 feet) long and displace 1,200 tons. The crew of 95 operates a large number of weapons. There are four Harpoon anti-ship missiles, two 76mm cannon, two twin-40mm autocannon, six torpedo tubes (each with a Mk46 324mm/12.75 inch anti-submarine torpedo), and twelve depth charges. Max speed is 59 kilometers an hour, cruising is 28 kilometers an hour. Endurance is about ten days.

Between 1983 and 1993 24 Pohangs were put into service. One Pohang was retired and turned into a museum ship. Another was sunk by a North Korean torpedo. So far three others have been donated. Seven ships are in reserve and most of these will be scrapped unless other countries are interested in a retired corvette. The remaining twelve Pohangs are wearing out and are all due for retirement by 2030.

FFX class frigates are replacing the Pohangs, but these are only being built at the rate of one or two a year. Twelve Pohangs still in service. Because of that, an attempt has been made to provide better anti-torpedo defenses. This involved installing devices that can detect the sound of incoming torpedoes, along with acoustic (noise-making) decoys that can divert the aim of some types of torpedoes. These defenses are of limited effectiveness. For the moment, the Pohangs are as vulnerable as they were in 2010.

Giving away retired Pohangs to the Philippines came after the Philippines ordered two South Korean frigates in 2016. These will cost $169 million each and are smaller versions of the South Korean FFX (Incheon class) frigate. The first FFX entered service in 2013 and six are now active. The FFXs are 3,200 ton ships and are each armed with a 127mm gun, eight anti-ship or cruise missiles, three torpedo tubes, a RAM anti-missile/aircraft launcher, and a Phalanx anti-missile gun system. There is space aft for two helicopters. The ships are highly automated, requiring a crew of only 140. Top speed is 61 kilometers an hour. Range is 8,000 kilometers. Most of the equipment (including electronics) and weapons are locally built. South Korea planed to build 18-24 FFXs. The six FFXs cost about $233 million and another eight are planned. The second, and additional batches, will be improvements over earlier ones.

South Korea planned to export the FFX to many navies who want high quality, low cost, warships. Meanwhile, South Korea has also developed a slightly larger FFX II frigate and subsequent FFXs will be this version. But for export customers, South Korea will make smaller versions as it is doing for the Philippines. This approach was pioneered by European shipyards and later adopted by Russia. The United States had always done this but mainly because the U.S. usually built larger numbers of each class ship over a longer period. In many cases, construction went on for decades with dozens of ships built. It was inevitable that there were lessons learned from the earlier ships already in service and, based on these, modifications to the initial design were made.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 05:49:47|Editor: huaxia

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BRUSSELS, April 6 (Xinhua) -- A gloomy picture of European economies sliding into recession, forecast by industry associations and government officials alike on Monday, delivered a one-two punch to the coronavirus-ravaged continent.

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the eurozone and the European Union (EU) was likely to decline by 3 to 5 percent in 2020, while global GDP would fall by between 0.5 and 3 percent, the Federation of German Industries (BDI) said on Monday.

During the past 50 years, the last time that global economic output had fallen was in 2009 -- down by 1.7 percent, according to the BDI.

In her first public appearance on Monday following her home quarantine, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the EU is facing the "biggest test since its foundation."

The pandemic has produced a "symmetrical shock" and all countries are "equally affected," said Merkel.

The BDI foresaw that GDP in the U.S. would decline by 2 to 4 percent and in Japan, by 1 to 3 percent.

"A strong recession in the United States, Europe, and Japan is unavoidable this year," said BDI Director General Joachim Lang.

In the EU, much would depend on "how quickly the tough health policy measures" in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and many smaller economies would take effect, the BDI noted.

The industry association forecasted that Germany's GDP would decline by 3 to 6 percent in 2020.

In France, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire warned on Monday that the growth would likely record its worst post-war downturn.

"The worst growth figure that has been made by France since 1945 was in 2009 after the financial crisis of 2008: it was at -2.2 percent," the minister said. "We will probably be at more than -2.2 percent this year."

Smaller economies in Europe are also expected to feel the pinch.

Latvian central bank's latest forecast suggests that the Baltic state's GDP might shrink by 6.5 percent this year.

But its governor Martins Kazaks said on Monday that he didn't rule out an even more severe contraction.

"Current data shows that each month reduces the economy by around two to three percentage points," Kazaks said, stressing that the level of uncertainty is very high.

If the battle against the virus drags on, the Latvian economy might suffer even higher losses, he said.

In Denmark, the GDP would fall by 3.5 percent to 5.5 percent this year, according to a report released by the Danish Economic Council on Monday.

In the council's most optimistic scenario, the Danish economy will return to normal levels relatively quickly after reopening after Easter, but GDP will fall by 3.5 percent.

However, in a pessimistic scenario, if another wave of contagion follows the Easter reopening of society, it would result in a second shutdown and a further new relief package that would contribute to a GDP decline of 5.5 percent.

"Both scenarios involve large government deficits and an increase in the public debt ratio," said the report.
A retired NYPD sergeant was found dead on the street of coronavirus in front of the Upper East Side hospital where he was diagnosed with the deadly bug just an hour prior.

Yon Chang, 56, was diagnosed with COVID-19 at the Lenox Hill Hospital early Tuesday.

He was reportedly 'frustrated' with the care he received at the hospital and left but he collapsed on the very same block near Park Avenue and E. 77th Street shortly after around 6.05am and died at the scene, according to the New York Daily News.

An autopsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of his death.

Retired NYPD sergeant Yon Chang, 56, died early Tuesday an hour after he reportedly forcibly discharged himself from Lenox Hill Hospital on the Upper East Side of New York where he was diagnosed with COVID-19. Pictured left above in this Twitter tribute

File image of the emergency room at Lennox Hill Hospital pictured on April 2

'Its tragic. We extend our sympathy to his family. Its almost like a science-fiction movie. This isnt ending, and the impact of coronavirus is hitting the people who are closest to us,' Ed Mullins, the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said on Chang's passing

Chang 'forcibly discharged himself' from the hospital because he was unhappy with the care he received, sources said to the New York Post.

Chang was appointed to the NYPD in February 1994 and promoted to sergeant in December 2006. He retired from the force in February 2014.

'Its tragic. We extend our sympathy to his family. Its almost like a science-fiction movie. This isnt ending, and the impact of coronavirus is hitting the people who are closest to us,' Ed Mullins, the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said on Chang's passing.

'This is a sergeant who was at the point where he was retired, and he should be enjoying himself,' he added.

In the US, there are more than 400,000 cases of COVID-19 and 12,000 deaths.

New York is the epicenter of the outbreak with more than 138,000 cases and 5,000 deaths in the state as of Tuesday. In New York City, there are more than 77,000 cases and 4,000 deaths.

Tuesday marked another devastating day for the country as the coronavirus continues to claim lives.

In Louisiana, an elderly mother and her three sons all passed away from COVID-19 within days of each other last week.

Antoinette Franklin, 86, from New Orleans along with her sons Herman Franklin Jr., 71, Anthony Franklin Sr., 58 and Timothy Franklin, 61, all died from the disease between March 20 and 30.

'My uncle passed, my grandmother passed, my dad passed, then my other uncle passed,' Anthony Franklin Jr. said to NBC News.

It is not clear if they were tested for COVID-19 before or after they died and their underlying causes of death have not been revealed, however all four of them became ill at the same time.

'I want the world to know if it happened to the Franklin family it could happen to any family,' Jacqueline Franklin, wife of Anthony Franklin Sr., told WDSU.

Antoinette Franklin, 86, from New Orleans died from coronavirus along with her three adult sons within days of each other. Anthony Franklin Sr. (right) was 58 and passed away on March 26

Timothy William Franklin was 61, left, while his brother Herman Franklin was 71, right

'Let's take this serious. My children have to bury their father, their precious grandmother and their uncles.'

New Orleans has emerged as one of the early U.S. hot spots for the coronavirus.

The death rate in New Orleans is almost twice that of New York, with doctors and public health officials blaming the Big Easy's high levels of obesity and related ailments.

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, the Brighton Rehabilitation & Wellness Center nursing home has announced that it should be assumed all residents and staff have COVID-19, after at least 13 people at the facility have died in connection to the deadly bug.

In Pennsylvania, more than 14,850 cases had been confirmed as of Monday afternoon and there were 179 related deaths. But within Beaver County, it's believed the number of cases and deaths are worse than it seems.

There are 96 cases at Brighton Rehabilitation Centre with 13 of them staff. However the home started to 'shift away from test results' last week and now assumes all 750 residents and employees have coronavirus

On Friday a source told the Times Online that at least eight people at the nursing home with 450 residents - staffed by 300 people - had died from COVID-19. By Monday an insider said the number of deaths had leapt to 13.

The number of cases on Friday was 42 but as of Monday it was 96. Union officials said 13 of them were employees.

The total number of cases at the care home amounts to more than 82 percent of the confirmed cases in Beaver County, which was only reporting six deaths as of Tuesday, according to John Hopkins University data.
After changes to the regulatory process at the FDA level, the Huntsman Corp. of The Woodlands is now producing hand sanitizer in the United States for distribution domestically.

The effort follows the companys production of hand sanitizer in Switzerland that has been distributed in other countries around the world.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Coronavirus live updates: Recession imminent, comptroller says; 2 Texas prisons on lockdown

According to a press release from the company, Huntsman is working in conjunction with LyondellBassell, which makes a key ingredient  isopropyl alcohol  that is needed for the sanitizer. LyondellBassell agreed to donate the alcohol ingredient to Huntsman to make the sanitizer, which also includes assorted other inert ingredients. Although a global company, LyondellBassell has its headquarters in Houston.

At (our) Alabama plant, Huntsman typically produces high-performance specialty chemicals used in aerospace and other industries. After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently published temporary guidelines permitting Huntsman to produce hand sanitizer at the site, the company quickly mobilized to develop a manufacturing process to produce the sanitizer, company officials stated in the release. Huntsman will donate free of charge the first 5-ton shipment of hand sanitizer to Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) and the associated medical facilities at the University of Utah to help protect health care workers treating COVID-19 patients.

MORE FROM JEFF FORWARD: Villager Q&A: Peter Huntsman discusses firms efforts to make hand sanitizer

Peter Huntsman, chairman and CEO of Huntsman Corp., said the global firm that employs more than 1,000 staff at its headquarters in The Woodlands as well as thousands more around the world is happy to help battle the COVID-19 novel coronavirus in any way the company can help. He also noted that Huntsman Corp. is either donating the supplies for free or providing them at a severely reduced cost that only covers the expenses to make the sanitizer.

We have two facilities that make specialty chemicals for the aerospace industry, one in Switzerland and one on Alabama, they are sister facilities. We got approval in Switzerland from the health authorities to be able to use that manufacturing platform to be able to make sanitizer in Switzerland, Huntsman said in a telephone interview. In the aerospace industry, you obviously dont need FDA approval to make products. Using that same equipment to make and blend hand sanitizer, you need to get FDA approval. Which typically for us would take several months. In this case we were able to get it in a matter of weeks. Kudos to the FDA for moving much quicker than wed ever anticipate.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Houstons Gulf Coast Distillers manufacturing hand sanitizer amid COVID-19 threat

The sanitizer is transported to another facility which places it into 5-gallon containers and then it is distributed to medical facilities in Utah. There are a series of hospitals in Utah that will receive the sanitizer and it may be shipped to other locations if more sanitizer can be produced.

Seventy-five percent of sanitizer is a product called IPA or isopropyl alcohol. It is the stuff you would use to remove make up. It is an antiseptic, it smells like a doctors office. That is isopropyl alcohol. We do not make that product, Huntsman explained. Lyondell does make it, and it is obviously in high demand right now. They were able to help us with a supply of that and the other ingredients that are inert. It is the isopropyl alcohol that actually kills the membrane of the virus cellthat is why it is so effective. We started making it (on March 31). We make it and a third party puts it into 5-gallon containers.

There are a series of hospitals in Utah which are receiving the product now and Huntsman said the firm hopes to produce more of the hand sanitizer to distribute to other regions of the nation, including Houston. According to the press release, the University of Utah is the home of HCI, a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. It was created with a major donation from the late Jon M. Huntsman, founder of Huntsman Corporation.

Theyve been a charity that our company has supported for a number of years. If we are able to secure the raw materials, more products may be (distributed) here locally. We have enough (supplies) to make the 5 tons right now, he said.

Securing the isopropyl alcohol is key to making the sanitizer, he noted, and the cost of the product has skyrocketed in recent weeks as the need for hand sanitizer increased with the development of the pandemic around the world.

The price of it has gone up about 400 to 500 percent in the last 30 days or so, because it is the main ingredient in sanitizers. The Swiss government has come to us and asked us to continue to do this for another six months, Huntsman added. I would note, this is a product we will most likely be donating or giving it (to facilities) at cost. Id be pretty uncomfortable if we as a company were profiting off a product like that.

jeff.forward@chron.com
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Hundreds of Australians have left their enforced quarantine in the five-star Sydney Swissotel for the first time in two weeks - but many were still complaining about conditions inside.

There were mixed opinions among the first returned travellers who were allowed to leave their Sydney hotel room after 14 days in quarantine to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

A total of 288 passengers from the Norwegian Jewel cruise ship were cooped up inside the hotel, after being ferried home from Hawaii on an emergency Qantas flight on March 26.

Eager guests began filing out of the Swissotel from about 1am on Wednesday, after undergoing a final round of coronavirus checks by a doctor.

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Pictured: Ashleigh (front) and Emily Meuwissen (back) leave the Swissotel in Sydney on Wednesday morning. Hundreds of Australians have left their enforced quarantine in the five-star hotel for the first time in two weeks

Many of the group given their freedom from the confines of the Swissotel on Wednesday morning were clutching what appeared to be a doggy bag

Returned travellers wearing face masks leave the Swissotel on Wednesday morning. Some of the group made their own way home while others made their way onto a bus

Ashleigh's younger sister Emily was all smiles as she walked out to freedom. Her mother Jayna said it was 'really difficult' to be separated from her by a hotel room wall

Ashleigh Meuwissen put on a beaming smile as travellers inside the Swissotel took in their first fresh air in two weeks on Wednesday

Jayna Meuwissen refused to criticise their treatment inside the hotel though during the two-week quarantine period. She said: We were looked after really well, I have no complaints.

Free at last: Ashleigh and Emily Meuwissen leave the Swissotel on Wednesday morning, while a man behind them appears to be holding a doggy bag. A total of 288 passengers from the Norwegian Jewel cruise ship were cooped up inside the hotel

The two weeks were particularly hard for Gold Coast mother Jayna Meuwissen, who told how she was separated from her youngest daughter by a hotel room wall.

That was really difficult, a tearful Ms Meuwissen said. But we were looked after really well, I have no complaints.

We all got a final temperature check this morning and a look over to check we were OK. Its certainly a holiday we wont forget though.

The federal governments strict quarantine laws meant anyone returning from overseas was forced to spend two weeks in isolation in whatever city they arrived in  regardless of where they were from.

It means that while some returned travellers will be allowed to go straight home on Wednesday, others are now only halfway through their quarantine period.

One man who boarded a bus to the airport said he would now have to spend a further two weeks in a hotel in his hometown of Darwin  but he did not complain.

A return traveller in a multi-coloured dress leaves the Swissotel after mandatory self-isolation at the luxurious Market Street hotel

Guests in quarantine are seen departing the Swissotel beside a policeman overseeing the process near the hotel's doors

Were doing the right thing for the country, we need to isolate so I dont have a problem with it at all, he said.

Were off to Darwin so we have to isolate for another two weeks  but well just keep watching Tik Toks like we have been.

But not all agreed that being forced into isolation was a fair decision by the government.

Some holed up at the Swissotel described the entire quarantine process as 'very disorganised' and a 'bit crazy'.

A returned traveller freed at last waves from inside a bus taking guests away from the Swissotel in the Sydney CBD

'I felt a bit like I was in a nursing home, some days things wouldn't turn up, like our food, other times it'd all be on top of each other. There wasn't much we could do about it,' Cheryl Gjoni said of her 14-day stay in the hotel.

She and her husband were on the red-eye bus to Sydney domestic airport, eager to get home to Melbourne as soon as possible after the disastrous holiday.

'It will be good to get home,' she said.

The first returned group of travellers have been released from their 14 day hotel quarantine.'I just couldn't leave the room, so that was the worst,' one man wearing a face mask said

'This was a very ill-conceived plan, very poorly executed,' one traveller (pictured) freed on Tuesday night told reporters

As a woman and her husband left the hotel on Wednesday, she told waiting media: How would you like it being locked in a bedroom and an ensuite for 14 days?

Wollongong man David said there was initially some discontent among the travellers about Prime Minister Scott Morrison forcing them into quarantine, and feels it came as a result of the Ruby Princess debacle.

For a start the Australian government didnt put us on a plane to bring us back  the Norwegian cruise line did that, he said.

We were the first ones back after the Ruby Princess so they had to do something, we were forced to go into isolation and we were a bit of a guinea pig in that way.

But it will just be nice to feel the wind in my hair and the sun on my face again.

One of the freed travellers - among the first group released at midnight on Tuesday - hit out at the Australian government's mandatory measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

'This was a very ill-conceived plan, very poorly executed,' she told the Today show.

Michelle (pictured) joked she was 'coming out of this dead or divorced,' while speaking to Daily Mail Australia early on Wednesday morning

Another traveller said all she wanted to do was be outside after being cooped up in quarantine in the luxury hotel for two weeks.

'It was claustrophobic,' she told the Today show. 'All I want to do is breathe air.'

'It was a bit monotonous, and I just couldn't leave the room, so that was the worst,' another told the waiting media after leaving the hotel on Market Street in the CBD.

Married couple Michelle and Terri rushed out of the building at about 1am on Wednesday, eager to make the four-hour trip home to Port Macquarie.

Married couple Michelle and Terri rushed out of the Swissotel about 1am on Wednesday, eager to get home to Port Macquarie

A couple prepare to leave the luxury hotel after being stuck indoors for 14 days after returning from Hawaii

Cheryl Gjoni and her husband were on the red-eye bus to Sydney domestic airport, eager to get home to Melbourne as soon as possible after their disastrous holiday

A returned traveller in coronavirus quarantine at the Swissotel is seen on a bus moments after he was allowed to leave the building for the first time in 14 days

A man in a face mask leaves the Swissotel on Wednesday morning after completing his two week quarantine

'We were itching to get out of there. We're surprised there wasn't a stampede. We were just so ready to leave,' Michelle said of choosing to leave in the dead of night rather than wait until morning.

'It was really difficult in there. It really was,' she said.

'Government departments weren't communicating with each other, and just being stuck indoors. The food, the whole process. It was difficult.'

Rachel Deering and her husband were two of the first people who were free to leave the Swissotel on Wednesday morning, heading straight toward public transport to make the journey home.

Three children are rushed from a coronavirus quarantine hotel in Sydney to hospital on Tuesday night

Ms Deering told Daily Mail Australia the couple were itching to get home after their two weeks in mandatory isolation but she said she had no issues with her stay at the luxury hotel.

'Australians need to wake up. This is real,' she said.

Ms Deering said she was most excited to visit her grandson in Canberra when this whole ordeal ends.

A convoy of ambulances arrived at the Hilton resort in the city's CBD at about 10pm on Tuesday to transport the patients

'We all just need to put in a little extra care over the next few months,' she said.

At least 12 police, military personnel and hotel staff were waiting out the front ready to help people into their cars.

One man, who left the building with a woman wearing pink sweats, shrieked three times as he stepped outside for the first time in 14 days before leaping into the taxi.

Before leaving, he said: 'It's just so good to be outside.'

A police source old Daily Mail Australia the children were being transported to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital for COVID-19 treatment

Pictured: Australia's coronavirus infection rate between February 27 and April 7

The complaints came as three children down the road at the Hilton hotel were taken from quarantine to hospital on Tuesday night.

A convoy of ambulances arrived at the Hilton hotel in Sydney's CBD at about 10pm on Tuesday, with paramedics rushing inside and returning with three sick children on stretchers, all wearing protective face masks.

A police source old Daily Mail Australia the children were being transported to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital for COVID-19 treatment.
UB partner KSL Biomedical is advancing COVID-19 diagnostics

The Western New York-based biotech firm is looking to raise funds and accelerate deployment of these vital innovations

Experience has shown us that we need good information  accurate, high capacity tests  to manage the COVID-19 outbreak and help people safely return to the workforce. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  University at Buffalo partner company KSL Biomedical has developed diagnostic tests and is moving forward with clinical validation of prognostic tools that could improve patient care during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The company receives support from UBs Buffalo Institute for Genomics and Data Analytics (BIG), part of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos economic development effort to advance the Buffalo Niagara region as a center for bioinformatics and life sciences research.

KSL has been engaged with the COVID-19 pandemic for months, with its senior management team traveling to China in January 2020 to work on projects there.

Experience has shown us that we need good information  accurate, high capacity tests  to manage the COVID-19 outbreak and help people safely return to the workforce. BIG has provided essential resources, positioning KSL to deliver practical solutions in New York State, says KSL Biomedical CEO Kevin Lawson. With the right partners, we can take these technologies further and help stem the outbreak wherever it spreads.

The company first deployed diagnostic technologies in the outbreak in China, and is seeking funding for deployment and scale-up in the U.S. as soon as possible, Lawson says.

KSL Biomedical is conducting regulatory studies in its clinical laboratories to support launch of products and services in the United States and international markets. This includes:

Testing for active COVID-19 infections. BIG funding was used to purchase sophisticated testing equipment that is facilitating this work. The company has optimized its testing system to run up to 1,300 specimens a day, Lawson says. Once ready, such technology would help to increase availability of tests and contribute to faster diagnosis of patients with active COVID-19 infections.





BIG funding was used to purchase sophisticated testing equipment that is facilitating this work. The company has optimized its testing system to run up to 1,300 specimens a day, Lawson says. Once ready, such technology would help to increase availability of tests and contribute to faster diagnosis of patients with active COVID-19 infections. Antibody tests to identify people with immune response against COVID-19. These laboratory methods can detect antibodies when the COVID-19 virus is present and long after infection is resolved, says KSL Chief Scientific Officer Long Shen, PhD. Antibody tests are particularly useful because people who have had coronavirus but are no longer sick may be able to return to work or safely leave their homes. Widespread antibody testing could also help scientists understand what percentage of the population has already been infected. Additional instrumentation funded by BIG has the capacity to run more than 400 tests per hour at the KSL Diagnostics clinical lab in Western New York, Lawson says.





These laboratory methods can detect antibodies when the COVID-19 virus is present and long after infection is resolved, says KSL Chief Scientific Officer Long Shen, PhD. Antibody tests are particularly useful because people who have had coronavirus but are no longer sick may be able to return to work or safely leave their homes. Widespread antibody testing could also help scientists understand what percentage of the population has already been infected. Additional instrumentation funded by BIG has the capacity to run more than 400 tests per hour at the KSL Diagnostics clinical lab in Western New York, Lawson says. Tests to aid health care workers in assessing COVID-19 patients at high risk of progressing to serious respiratory complications. Work on prognostic biomarkers is proceeding with validation in clinical populations, Lawson says. The company hopes these tests will help doctors make better predictions about which patients are likely to require intensive care and access to a ventilator, and which patients can recover safely at home.

These tools will increase COVID-19 testing capacity, afford better management of patients, and yield critical data to flatten the curve and aid in the recovery from the pandemic, Shen says.

The company pitched the technologies to potential investors on April 3 in Innovate to Ventilate, an event hosted by the Business Incubator Association of New York State.

KSL Biomedical has strong ties to UB. In addition to partnering with BIG, the companys chief medical officer is Lakshmanan Suresh, DDS, PhD, clinical professor in the Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences in UBs School of Dental Medicine.

Funding from BIG enables UB to leverage research expertise and equipment to collaborate with industry partners in Erie County to bring new or expanded medical products to the market and support job growth in Erie County.

KSL is a Western New York-based company advancing translational medicine and improving the delivery of personalized medicine through the development of novel genomic- and proteomic-based diagnostics for cancers and immunological diseases. The company has a robust pipeline of proprietary products and services targeting the United States and the rest of the world.
John Swanton, farmer, section 12, Edenville Township was born in Toronto, Canada and is the son of John and Elizabeth Ann (Aikens) Swanton. His father was born in Ireland, in 1807, and died in Pickering, Can., in March 1847.

His mother was born in Ireland, and is now the wife of Thomas Gransden Sr., of EdenvilleTownship. The parents emigrated to Canada in 1819, and the father made the first brick used in the construction of the celebrated Gorebank building at Toronto.

On the death of his father, Mr. Swanton became an inmate of the family of Augustus Simons, with whom he remained until he was 11 years old. They removed to Erie Co., PA. Mr. Simons was a man of unsteady habits and finally abandoned his family, and Mr. Swanton was placed under the charge of a farmer in Erie County,named John Melhorn, with whom he resided until the age of 18 years.

In 1860 he went to the township of Walsingham, Can. where he worked one year as a farm assistant. At the end of that time here turned to Pennsylvania and spent several months of the year 1862 in the employ of Mr. Melhorn, with whom he had previously resided.

He became interested in the issues of the Civil War and determined to risk the fate of asoldier. He enlisted Aug 15, 1862 in Co. A 145th Pa. Vol. Inf., Col. H.L. Brown and was mustered out of the United States service Aug. 9,1865 at Baltimore. The command was assigned to the Second Army Corp, First Division, and was attached to several brigades. It was a part of the Army of the Potomac during the engagements at Antietam, Fredericksburg,Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.

In the fall of 1863 Mr. Swanton was wounded near Bristow Station, during the retreat from the Rapidan. He became disabled by a wound in the hip from a fragment of shell, was captured by the rebels and sent to Belle Isle. After five months he effected his escape by strategy and made his way to Annapolis.

He rejoined his command at Cold Harbor and continued inactive service until June 16 1864,when he was wounded by a grapeshot, in an attempt to capture a rebel battery near Petersburg. He was sent to Lincoln Hospital at Washington, D.C. and two months later was transferred to the Haddington Hospital at Philadelphia. In the spring of 1865,he was transferred to the Invalid Corps and sent to Jarvis Hospital,Baltimore, where he was mustered out of the service.

He returned to Erie, PA, and went to work for his former employer, Mr. Melhorn, with whom he remained until April 1867, when he came to Edenville Township in Midland County. He worked during the summer on a farm and through the winter in the lumber woods.

He returned to Fairview Township, Erie Co., PA, and was married June 9, 1868 to Catherine,daughter of Christian and Catherine (Fry) Brown, a native of Wurtemburg, Germany. Her parents were also born and died there and at the age of 13 years accompanied by a sister three years older, she emigrated to America and joined two brothers in Erie Co.,PA. They landed in the city of New York in 1877. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Swanton were born in Edenville Township as follows: Ida May Aug. 7, 1869; Alma Edith July 12, 1872; Otto C.B. May 12,1878; Katie Mercedes, July 14, 1881.

Mr. Swanton served his township five terms as township clerk.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Midland County Historical Society is partnering with the Midland Daily News for "A Window to Midland's Past," which will feature historical pieces in print and online at ourmidland.com. This particular piece was taken from The 1884 Portrait and Biographical Album of Midland County and supplied to the Midland County Historical Society by Gary F. Skory, then-director. The story originally was published Nov. 19, 1992.
The Smith Agri team getting 50 acres ready for sowing seed oats at Donore, Bagenalstown, Co Carlow last week. Photo: Roger Jones

Over 155,000ha of spring barley and spring wheat is being planted for this year's harvest, a 50pc increase on the area sown last year.

The vast majority of the crop has been planted at this stage, with farmers and tillage advisors reporting spectacular progress in the fields over the last fortnight as soils finally dried out.

The IFA estimates that total sowings of winter crops has halved for this year's harvest, dropping from 155,000ha to just 80,000ha.

The area of winter barley is back from 80,000ha to 45,000ha, with the area of winter wheat falling from 58,000ha to 30,000ha, while winter oats dropped from 16,000ha to 6,000ha.

The shortfall in winter sowings has now been filled by a massive switch-over to spring barley and spring wheat.

Spring wheat sowings have jumped from 3,600ha in 2019 to over 12,000ha this year. Meanwhile, sowings of spring barley are likely to increase from 95,000ha to more than 140,000ha.

The area sown to beans is also up, increasing from 7,500ha to 10,000ha.

The total area of cereals sown is expected to hold at close to 260,000ha.

Atrocious

Michael Hennessy, head of crops knowledge transfer at Teagasc, said the ongoing difficulties in the beef sector, and the uncertainty in dairying, meant that remaining in tillage was the best option for the vast majority of cereal growers - despite a poor harvest last year and atrocious sowing conditions for winter crops.

Mr Hennessy also rejected suggestions that barley prices this autumn could take a hit because of the increased area sown to the crop.

He pointed out that Irish grain prices are primarily influenced by international market trends, and that significantly higher areas of barley were grown by Irish farmers in the past.

Meanwhile, IFA grain chairman Mark Browne has welcomed the decision by the Department of Agriculture to allow farmers to apply for a derogation on the three-crop rule.

He said the extension would alleviate some of the pressure on farms during this difficult time.

With many parts of the country having experienced the wettest February on record, the IFA had requested that the Department of Agriculture extend the process to allow all farmers seek a derogation on the three-crop rule.
[April 07, 2020] MixMode Raises $4 Million in Series A Round Led by Entrada Ventures

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- MixMode, Inc., an AI-driven cybersecurity intelligence platform, today announced it has closed a $4 million Series A round of funding led by Entrada Ventures. The round included participation from existing investors including Keshif Ventures and Blu Venture Investors. The new funding will be used to expand MixMode's AI-powered network traffic analytics platform and to fuel the growth of its worldwide network of customers and partners. "Large enterprise security teams urgently need a solution to identify zero-day threats," said John Keister, CEO at MixMode. "Our predictive analytics platform is solving this massive problem for clients today. We are excited to continue our growth path and we are fortunate to be working with an experienced partner like Entrada on our journey." According to a report by the Ponemon Institute, over 75% of successful cybersecurity attacks on organization endpoints are due to zero-day attacks. By definition, these emergent attacks cannot be identified by threat intelligence feeds (that focus on lists of historical threats) that most security platforms rely upon. MixMode's AI is built to baseline a network in seven days and surface zero-day, non-fingerprinted attacks in real-time. MixMode's cybersecurity platform is designed to be a single pane of glass for security analysts. The MixMode platform brings in multiple streams of data including network data, public cloud data and feeds from existing security tools such as endpoint, firewall, and SIEM. The MixMode Network Traffic Analytics platform is the first cybersecurity platform to leverage "Third Wave" AI (as defined by DARPA), utilizing an advanced unsupervised learning model to address major security issues facing cybersecurity teams today. The platform's ability to leverage AI to build a network baeline and to predict the network's future activity make it uniquely powerful in identifying emerging threats.



MixMode's CTO and chief scientist, Dr. Igor Mezic , created MixMode's patented technology based on 20 years of experience developing advanced AI technology that has been used for projects with DARPA, the Air Force, Army, CDC, and many others. Unlike AI used in other cybersecurity solutions, MixMode's Unsupervised AI acts autonomously, requiring no human training or tuning. MixMode creates a network baseline and delivers zero-day detections within just seven days versus typical ML/AI systems that take anywhere from 6-24 months to train in data, configure and tune. MixMode also constantly refreshes that baseline without manual intervention so it's always current and relevant. MixMode is a quantum leap forward for companies that want to leverage AI to improve their security programs and it can be implemented up to 100x faster than other systems. "We believe MixMode's team is uniquely positioned to deliver AI-based solutions to the cybersecurity market," said Eric Kanowsky, general partner at Entrada. "With world-class, patented AI technology and a growing footprint of customers, we believe MixMode has tremendous potential."

The platform uses MixMode's patented context-aware AI to reduce the number of false-positive alerts and automate the threat identification process through intelligent correlation. MixMode recognizes point-in-time events, correlates those events across environments and filters the alerts based on impact to the organization. "MixMode is more than a generation ahead of the adversary. To our knowledge, MixMode is the only Third Wave AI network security monitoring tool currently available," said Peter R. Stephenson, Ph.D., an AI researcher at the University of Leicester. In addition to Keister, and Mezic, MixMode is led by Bryan Elliot, VP of Engineering. Mezic was a founder at other AI-based startups in addition to his work on AI projects for DARPA and the DOD. Previously, Elliot was co-founder and CTO at Ping Identity and an engineering leader at Citrix and LogMeIn. To learn more about MixMode, visit MixMode.ai or follow @mixmode on Twitter. About MixMode MixMode is a revolutionary AI-focused cybersecurity company using patented Third-Wave AI originally developed for projects delivered for DARPA and the DoD. MixMode's Multi-Stream Cyber Security Monitoring Platform provides deep network visibility and predictive threat detection capabilities, enabling security teams to efficiently perform real-time and retrospective threat detection and visualization. SOC teams and breach response teams worldwide can integrate MixMode's software-based solution into their playbooks, SIEMs, or utilize MixMode on a standalone basis to dramatically reduce investigation time, cost and expertise required to respond to persistent threats, malware, insider attacks, and nation-state espionage efforts. The company is based in Santa Barbara with an additional office in San Diego. Media Contact

Lisa Sheeran

Sheeran Communication

[email protected]

510-710-1004 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mixmode-raises-4-million-in-series-a-round-led-by-entrada-ventures-301036550.html SOURCE MixMode

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Princess Diana nearly didnt go to the Vanity Fair ball where she wore her revenge dress according to her former butler Paul Burrell.

The late Princess of Wales attended the party, at the Serpentine in Hyde Park, as Prince Charles spoke publicly about his affair with Camilla, then Parker-Bowles.

The dress was auctioned off in 1997 and fetched $3.25 million.

Burrell, 61, shared a video on Instagram in which he said the picture of her arriving at the event in 1994 was one of his favourite of the princess.

Diana, Princess of Wales, at the Vanity Fair party at the Serpentine Gallery in 1994. (Getty Images)

He also revealed she nearly didnt go, and that he was the one to choose the dress and send her out on her way.

He said: This was my favourite dress. I remember this evening well, the princess turned to me and said I'm not going, I can't face the world. Not after Prince Charles has just been on national TV discussing his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.

He says he told her she was going because they were expecting her, to which she replied: Ive got nothing to wear.

Read more: Harry and Meghan reveal new organisation name - and inspiration for calling son Archie

Burrell, who is from Cheshire, continued: So I went to her wardrobe, pulled out this dress, zipped her up and the finishing touches were the pull choker and high heels.

As she left I said to her Remember to say this to yourself: I am Diana, the Princess of Wales, I am here to stay and I am the mother of the future King of England.

He concluded by saying: She did it, and I was so proud of her.

Read more: Harry and Meghan 'house hunting in same area Diana hoped to live' as they start California life

Paul Burrell was Princess Diana's butler. (Getty Images)

Dianas dress that evening became known as the revenge dress as she wowed partygoers in Kensington despite the focus on her former husbands interview.

Charles was confessing to Jonathan Dimbleby that he had been unfaithful with Camilla, who he eventually married in 2005.

Story continues

British fashion journalist and stylist Alex Longmore told HuffPost in 2018: It was the first time people had been introduced to the new Diana, the one who didnt need the royal family, especially Prince Charles.

In that minidress, she oozed confidence, an air of happiness and independence.

Dianas former stylist Anna Harvey said the princess dug the necklace out of her closet at the last minute, having been ready to wear something else that night.

Harvey said the former royal had wanted to look a million dollars.

Read more: Meghan Markle 'taught me so much about mental health' says duchess's former hairdresser

Burrell worked for the Queen and then Diana for 10 years, and has written a memoir and spoken extensively about his relationship with the late princess.

Paul Burrell travelled extensively with Diana after she left her royal position. (Getty Images)

He worked with her both while she was a senior royal and after she stepped back when he marriage broke down.

Burrell says she described him as the only man she ever trusted but its only his own writing which backs that up.

He recently defended Prince Harry and Meghan Markles decision to step back from senior royal duties too, telling Good Morning Britain that is a very strange family to marry into.

---Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK---
Saudi Arabia will host a virtual meeting on Friday of energy ministers from the Group of 20 major economies in a bid to ensure "market stability" amid a coronavirus-led slump in crude prices.

The video call will follow an emergency meeting on Thursday of OPEC and other oil producers to address the virus-sapped demand for crude and a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

"The Saudi G20 presidency will hold an extraordinary G20 energy ministers' virtual meeting on Friday... to foster global dialogue and cooperation to ensure stable energy markets," said a statement released on Tuesday by the Saudi hosts.

"The G20 energy ministers will also act, alongside invited countries, and regional and international organisations, to alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the energy markets."



Crude oil prices collapsed to 18-year lows last week owing to a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, which have ramped up output despite weak demand.

The global markets will closely watch whether OPEC and other major producers led by Russia reach an agreement to reduce oversupply in talks on Thursday.

Ten oil producing nations from outside the wider OPEC+ alliance including the United States have been invited to the meeting, Russian agency TASS reported on Tuesday.

The meeting will come a week after US President Donald Trump claimed that leading producers Russia and Saudi Arabia will slash output to boost tumbling prices.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly resigned on Tuesday after drawing condemnation for insulting a naval officer who had written a letter of concern about the service's handling of a coronavirus outbreak on an aircraft carrier.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who accepted Modly's resignation, said in a memo that he had "the greatest respect for anyone who serves our country, and who places the greater good above all else."

"Secretary Modly did that today, and I wish him all the best," Esper said.

The decision comes after Modly traveled from Washington to Guam on Monday to give a speech to the 5,000-member crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, whose commander, Capt. Brett Crozier, Modly removed last week.

In profanity-laced remarks over a loudspeaker, Modly assailed Crozier's character, accusing him of either leaking a letter about his concerns to the news media or of being "too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this."

Modly's comments, leaked to reporters within hours in written and audio form, angered many of the sailors on the ship, where 230 people have tested positive for covid-19 as of Tuesday, and their relatives, and triggered calls for his resignation from several Democratic lawmakers.

By Monday night, Modly had released a statement apologizing for insulting Crozier, who has also tested positive for the virus, but insisting that the captain had written the letter to cause a stir.

"Captain Crozier is smart and passionate," Modly said. "I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of it getting into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship."

Esper referenced the imbroglio in his memo, saying that Modly "resigned on his own accord" and that his decision would allow the aircraft carrier and its sailors to "move forward."

Esper had asked Modly to apologize on Monday, hoping that would be sufficient to move beyond the controversy, according to a senior administration official. But instead the pressure for Modly's resignation increased, including among other players within the Defense Department, the official said.

President Donald Trump, asked at the White House about the resignation, said he had no role in it and did not know Modly, but would not have asked him to resign.

"He did that, I think, just to end that problem," Trump said. "I think . . . really in many ways, it was a very unselfish thing for him to do."

Modly, in a memo released Tuesday night, said the Navy was placed in a negative spotlight "largely due to my poor use of words" on the aircraft carrier.

"You are justified in being angry with me about that," he wrote. "There is no excuse, but perhaps a glimpse of understanding, and hopefully empathy."

He added that the crew "deserved a lot more empathy and a lot less lecturing," and that he was sorry.

Taking Modly's place will be Army undersecretary James McPherson, who was confirmed last month as the Army's No. 2 political appointee. McPherson previously served in the Trump administration as the Army's general counsel and in the Navy as a lawyer before retiring in 2006 as Judge Advocate General of the Navy.

McPherson is expected to serve in an acting capacity until Trump's nominee for the position, the U.S. ambassador to Norway, Kenneth John Braithwaite II, is confirmed by the Senate.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the minority leader of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement released Tuesday that Modly had notified him of his decision.

"I stressed to him that the health and safety of our sailors is paramount and that naval leadership must make it absolutely clear the decision to relieve Captain Crozier is in no way interpreted as inhibiting any commanding officer from taking necessary steps, through their chain of command, to protect fellow sailors and Marines," Reed said.

The turmoil marks the latest challenge for a Navy that has struggled in recent years with broader leadership upheaval. Modly's resignation comes after his predecessor, Richard Spencer, was fired in November amid a scandal over Trump's intervention in a Navy SEAL war crimes case, leaving the service without a political appointee at its helm for months.

Separate crashes in 2017 of the guided missile destroyers USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain led to 17 deaths among the sailors on board and raised further questions about Navy leadership. Even before those incidents, a scandal over a Malaysian defense contractor nicknamed "Fat Leonard" who bribed Navy officials with cash, prostitutes and other incentives tarnished many officers who had been seen as leading candidates for top service posts.

The result left Modly - a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and Harvard Business School who didn't have a particularly personal or close relationship with the president - in the hot seat atop the service at a time when the leadership was under intense scrutiny and the Navy was dealing with a public health crisis.

The son of Eastern European immigrants who moved to the United States after World War II, Modly was raised in Cleveland, according to his official Navy biography. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1983 and served as a helicopter pilot before leaving active duty in 1990 to attend business school.

Modly worked as an executive at multiple companies, including most recently at the consulting firm PwC, where he handled the NATO account, before being tapped in 2017 as undersecretary of the Navy under former defense secretary Jim Mattis.

With his resignation, Modly has gone from being a little-known behind-the-scenes official, who worked as his service's chief management and chief information officer, to the public face of one of its most explosive military scandals in recent years. It pitted a captain praised for sacrificing his career in service to his crew against a Trump administration already facing criticism for a sluggish and haphazard response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The incident has raised questions about how much transparency the military should display when faced with a public health crisis and how top leaders should balance the need to safeguard the well-being of service members with the imperative to continue military missions.

Upon becoming public, Crozier's letter fed into the very narrative that the White House was looking to dispel about leadership in Washington failing to take serious enough steps in early days to contain the outbreak.

His firing has been seen among the aircraft carrier's crew as an attempt to muzzle any leaks of information about the situation on the vessel that could become politically inconvenient for top officers and civilian appointees in Washington. During his trip to Guam, Modly warned the aircraft carrier's crew not to speak to the news media.

A spokesman for Modly did not respond to a request for an interview.

Trump initially supported Modly and attacked Crozier's letter as terrible. But the president moderated his stance after news of the acting Navy secretary's controversial remarks broke.

At a news conference Monday, Trump maintained that Crozier should not have sent the letter but said he had been hearing good things about the captain and his career before that. "So I'm going to get involved and see what is going on there, because I don't want to destroy somebody for having a bad day," Trump said.

Though both the Pentagon and the White House have said Trump was not personally involved in the decision to fire Crozier, the specter of drawing the president's ire drove Modly's decision act quickly to fire the captain before conducting a thorough investigation.

In an interview with Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, Modly said what happened to his predecessor, who got "crosswise" with the White House over Trump's intervention in the war crimes case of Navy SEAL Edward "Eddie" Gallagher, was fresh in his mind when he decided to fire Crozier. Modly essentially said he took such swift action to prevent a personal intervention by Trump.

"I didn't want to get into a decision where the president would feel that he had to intervene because the Navy couldn't be decisive," Modly said. "If I were president, and I saw a commanding officer of a ship exercising such poor judgment, I would be asking why the leadership of the Navy wasn't taking action itself."

Modly said he was aware his predecessor lost his job because the Navy "got crossways with the president," and said, "I didn't want that to happen again."

At the heart of the debacle are questions about what a military leader should do when faced with a chain of command he thinks is making decisions that are imperiling the health and well-being of service members.

After the first three coronavirus cases emerged on the ship, Crozier and his superiors struggled to reach a consensus about what steps should be taken, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

Crozier wanted a more aggressive effort at the start to protect the crew's health, even if that meant taking near-unprecedented steps, such as a 90 percent evacuation of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier operating in the Pacific as a signal to China of American military might. His immediate superiors favored smaller mitigation efforts, which Crozier felt were insufficient to ensure that sailors did not become seriously ill.

The captain said the carrier could set sail immediately if it were a matter of war and would be prepared to win a conflict despite the outbreak on board. "However, we are not at war, and therefore cannot allow a single Sailor to perish as a result of this pandemic unnecessarily," Crozier wrote.

He pointed out that it was impossible for him to follow the social distancing guidelines the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had released because of the close quarters and shared facilities for the crew aboard the carrier. Crozier noted that even crew members who tested negative for covid-19 were later showing up with symptoms, meaning the only solution was large-scale isolation.

Crozier requested that the Navy provide off-ship lodging that complied with the CDC guidelines for more than 4,000 sailors in his crew to isolate them and return them to the ship virus-free after a period of quarantine. In the meantime, he said, the ship should be disinfected and 10 percent of the crew should remain on board to run the nuclear reactor plant, sanitize the ship and ensure security.

Ultimately, the Navy has begun a large-scale evacuation of the ship to facilities in Guam, but so far the action has not been quite as extensive as Crozier suggested.

In recent days, the controversy has moved on from whether it was appropriate for Crozier to send his March 30 letter to whether it was appropriate for Modly to fire the captain without an investigation and subsequently visit the carrier to make disparaging remarks about Crozier, even as the man battles covid-19 himself.

Peter Feaver, a Duke University professor who studies civilian-military relations, said Modly's speech to sailors from the Theodore Roosevelt was ill-advised because of the possibility that it, like Crozier's memo, could make its way into the public arena, and because Modly appeared to have spoken extemporaneously for at least part of the address, using profanity and denigrating Crozier.

"It was risky for him to go out there," Feaver said. But if that was the decision, Feaver said, he would have counseled the acting secretary to "stick to your talking points."

- - -

The Washington Post's Missy Ryan, Philip Rucker and Julie Tate contributed to this report.
If you've always wanted to do some exercise in the mornings, now is the time. If you always wanted to try your hand at making a healthy meal, this is the time. If youve wanted to connect with old friends and never could, this is the time to do it. Try to make a schedule, he said. Reducing isolation is important.
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BJP parliamentarian Gautam Gambhir on Monday said he has procured 1000 PPE kits after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that not money, but the availability of protective equipment for healthcare personnel was a problem.

Gambhir had accused the Delhi government of not accepting Rs 50 lakh from his MPLADS fund to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

In a tweet, Gambhir, an East Delhi MP, had said the "massive egos" of Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia did not allow them to take Rs 50 lakh from his Local Area Development fund.

"CM @ArvindKejriwal & his Dy say funds are needed. Though their massive egos didn't allow them to take 50 L from my LAD fund earlier, I pledge 50 L more so that innocents don't suffer! 1 CR would at least solve urgent need for masks & PPE kits for days. Hope they prioritize Delhi," Gambhir tweeted.

Responding to it, Kejriwal said, "Gautam ji, thank u for ur offer. The problem is not of money but availability of PPE kits. We wud be grateful if u cud help us get them from somewhere immediately, Del govt will buy them. Thank u."

Gambhir answered back saying he has procured 1,000 PPE kits and asked where could they be delivered. He also told Kejriwal that this is no time to talk but act.

"Arvind ji, first ur deputy claims shortage of funds. Now u contradict him & say there is shortage of kits. Anyway, procured 1,000 PPE kits. Please let me know where they can be delivered. Time for talks is over, it is time to ACT. Eagerly waiting for ur response #DelhiNeedsHonesty," Gambhir tweeted.

Separately, in a letter to Kejriwal, Gambhir said it was stated by Sisodia that funds were needed to meet the growing demand of medical equipment in Delhi government hospitals.

"In addition to Rs 50 lakh which I had pledged two weeks ago, I would further like to pledge Rs50 lakh from my MPLAD to your kind office with the hope that the said amount would be used in procurement of equipment of medical staff as well as treatment of COVID-19 patients," the BJP parliamentarian said.

Earlier Gambhir accused the AAP government of "shedding crocodile tears" and playing the "victim card", saying he had offered Rs 50 lakh for PPE kits and masks to it but did not receive any feedback.

Kejriwal on Saturday said his government has asked for PPE kits from the Centre but none were received. He, however, said on Monday that the Centre has allocated 27,000 PPE kits to Delhi and hoped they would be available to his government within 2 days.

Sisodia had demanded a disaster fund from the Centre to fight coronavirus outbreak, saying Delhi was the third most-affected state in the country.

In a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, he said the Centre released over Rs 17,000 crore to states from the disaster fund but not "a single rupee" was given to Delhi.

"I have demanded disaster fund for Delhi also in a letter to the Central government. The Centre released Rs 17,000 crore to states to fight the corona from the disaster fund but Delhi was not given a single rupee from it.

"The country should fight as one at this hour. This discrimination is unfortunate," Sisodia tweeted.

Coronavirus cases in Delhi have crossed 500 and seven deaths have been reported due to the virus.
Among the resources available at the CUNA/American Association of Credit Union Leagues (AACUL) COVID-19 Response Page are several to assist with business continuity from Quantivate, CUNAs partner for the Credit Union Compliance Management System. The resources can be found under the Business Continuity and Pandemic Response tab on the COVID-19 Response Page.

Those include a free on-demand webinar on how to prepare for a pandemic, a template to use when creating a pandemic preparedness, response and recovery plan and a business continuity plan checklist.

The webinar includes tips and recommendations for decisions surrounding personnel, policies and plan implementation, including:
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The government on Monday informed that 76 per cent of those who have contracted Covid-19 infection are men while women constitute just 24 per cent of the total number of patients. The government also said that of those who died 73 per cent are male while rest are female. At the time of the daily press briefing, there were 4,067 confirmed corona cases in India with 109 deaths of which 30 were reported on Sunday alone.

The government also said that of total patients, 47 per cent are below 40, 34 per cent between 40 and 60 and 19 per cent are above 60 years. 63 per cent deaths have been reported in people who are 60 years or above and 30 per cent in people from 40-60 years and 7 per cent death among those who are below 40 years, informed Agarwal. Adding that 86 per cent of those who died had co-morbidity like hypertension, diabetes, asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

The official also said that 1,445 cases out of 4,067 cases are now related to the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi. The health ministry also informed that supply lines from abroad opened up on Monday with the receipt of 1.70 lakh Personal Protection Equipment coveralls from China. Along with domestic supplies of 20,000 coveralls, a total of 1.90 lakh coveralls will now be distributed to hospitals. A total of 2.94 lakh PPE coveralls have been arranged and supplied by the Centre.

In addition to this, 2 lakh domestically produced N95 masks are also being sent to various hospitals. A major portion of the fresh supplies is being sent to states with a comparatively higher number of cases such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Rajasthan. Supplies are also being sent to central institutions like AIIMS, Safdarjung and RML hospitals, among others.

There was a meeting of the Council of Ministers on Monday in which discussion took place on the plan of action regarding COVID-19 challenges. A detailed guideline has been released by the Health Ministry in which we have focused on signs, symptoms and segregating cases, said Agarwal.`1,100 crore has already been released from the National Health Mission Funds for the States. Also, an additional amount of `3,000 crore has been released on Monday, he said.
The Federal Government has reacted to a comment made by founder of Christ Embassy, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome that the lockdown of Lagos and Abuja was to allow government secretly install 5G and not for Coronavirus.

Speaking in a TV interview recently, the cleric said 5G is the reason the Federal Government has to lockdown Abuja and Lagos so the 5G could be installed. And there are other cities planned for and as I said before, what killed people in Wuhan, China is not the virus, it was the 5G. If you say it is not, tell us how you discovered yours.

However, the National Orientation Agency, NOA, has described Pastor Oyakhilomes comment as disheartening and unfortunate.

NOAs spokesman, Paul Ogenyi said Oyakhilomes claim that the lockdown ordered by the Federal Government in Lagos and Abuja was a mere ruse to lay fibre optic cables in preparation for the launch of 5G technology, was disheartening.

Ogenyi was quoted by PUNCH as saying, It is very unfortunate that in this sensitive time some of our religious leaders are beginning to behave like they are uninformed. The Vatican has issued a directive that there should be no gatherings. The same has happened in Saudi Arabia.

Read Also: Daddy Freeze Slams Pastor Oyakhilome Over Comments On 5G Network

Nigeria has witnessed five deaths and many infections. So, I appeal to religious leaders to seek information if they are not sure of the facts.

I am actually surprised that Pastor Oyakhilome is making this statement despite repeated clarifications by the Nigerian Communications Commission that 5G has nothing to do with coronavirus.

Is he saying the lockdown in the US and China is also because they want to lay 5G cables? If that is what he said then he is not informed and he needs to be educated. Nigeria needs to come together to fight this pandemic. It is real and we must fight it. If this kind of information continues to be disseminated, we will be the worse for it, he lamented.
WASHINGTON  Coronavirus patients in areas that had high levels of air pollution before the pandemic are more likely to die from the infection than patients in cleaner parts of the country, according to a new nationwide study that offers the first clear link between long-term exposure to pollution and Covid-19 death rates.

In an analysis of 3,080 counties in the United States, researchers at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that higher levels of the tiny, dangerous particles in air known as PM 2.5 were associated with higher death rates from the disease.

For weeks, public health officials have surmised a link between dirty air and death or serious illness from Covid-19, which is caused by the coronavirus. The Harvard analysis is the first nationwide study to show a statistical link, revealing a large overlap between Covid-19 deaths and other diseases associated with long-term exposure to fine particulate matter.

The results of this paper suggest that long-term exposure to air pollution increases vulnerability to experiencing the most severe Covid-19 outcomes, the authors wrote.
We've all been excited about this movie right since it was first titled Dhaka and Chris Hemsworth was in India shooting for it and had the full desi experience, which included getting stuck in traffic.



But, after seeing the trailer for Extraction, I can honestly say that it deserves all the hype it has been getting.

I mean, most desi people are probably waiting to watch the movie just because it has Chris Hemsworth in it, who is playing such a badass role by jumping off of buildings and fighting people on the streets in India and Bangladesh, but the trailer itself is so great that everyone should watch it.

Basically, the movie follows Chris' character Tyler Rake, a black-market mercenary who has to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned international crime lord . But of course, things aren't as simple in the murky underworld of weapons dealers and drug traffickers.

Along with Chris, the movie also stars David Harbour, Manoj Bajpayee, Marc Donato, Fay Masterson, Randeep Hooda, Pankaj Tripathi and Derek Luke.

While the entire trailer is full of action and kickass moments, we still decided to pick some of our favourite ones that are making it unbearable to wait till 24th April for the movie:

1. That Insane Dive From A Cliff Into A River

 Netflix

Now, this is how you f*ucking start off a trailer!



Something so insane right off the bat is a sure-shot way of making literally everyone excited for the entire trailer. Also, Chris Hemsworth being the one doing the jumping is just the cherry on top.

2. Chris Hemsworth Having His Own Aquaman Moment

 Netflix

Jason Momoa, who? (Sorry, we still love you man)



But, this does seem like the perfect crossover - Thor is now Aquaman and Marvel and DC fandoms are finally at peace. I'm just kidding but it doesn't look such an incredible shot.

3. Pankaj Tripathi Looking Menacing AF

 Netflix

But, when does he not, tbh? This movie will be the perfect desi-videshi crossover and that should be enough to get all the Indians excited to watch it as soon as it comes out.



4. Chris Hemsworth Channeling His Inner Fast & The Furious

 Netflix

Have you wondered how Fast and the Furious would look like if it was set in India? Well, thanks to Chris, we know that now. And turns out that it's just a lot of dust and broken windows.



5. Every Single Moment Between Chris & The Kid

 Netflix

I know it's weird to say that about a movie like this, but it's so wholesome. They both seem to have great chemistry and 'protective dad mode' Chris is the best Chris.



6. Randeep Hooda Taking On Chris In Beech Sadak

 Netflix

If a few months ago you told me that we would get a movie where Chris freaking Hemsworth would be fighting Randeep Hooda on the streets of India - or Bangladesh - I would have never believed it. But, here we are and it looks awesome.


At least 50 prisoners at a jail in Pakistan's worst-hit Punjab province have tested coronavirus positive, an official said on Tuesday.

"The total number of prisoners infected with the coronavirus in Punjab has reached 50 so far. Some 525 prisoners have been quarantined in separate cells of the province," Inspector General Prisons Shahid Baig told PTI.

He said some 20 cases have been reported in the camp jail Lahore and the remaining in others.

Baig said the outbreak stemmed from a Pakistani citizen who was arrested over narcotics smuggling in Italy and handed over to Pakistan last month. He was diagnosed on March 23.

"He was kept at the camp jail Lahore where he had infected several others. As soon as he tested positive, we immediately quarantined him and others suspected corona inmates, he said.

The authorities have shifted some 800 prisoners from the camp jail to other prisons in Punjab, he added.

The official said the home department also banned visits of prisoners' relatives in all 41 prisons of Punjab.

Meanwhile, the number Tablighi Jamaat infected members on Tuesday spiked to 540 in Punjab province.

According to officials, some 400 preachers quarantined at the Raiwind Tablighi Markaz (headquarters) tested positive for coronavirus.

"A total of 540 Tablighi Jamaat members have been infected across Punjab so far," said an official of the Punjab health department.

Similarly, the total number of infected Shia pilgrims who had arrived in Punjab from Iran last month has reached 577. They are quarantined in Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Faisalabad districts of Punjab.

On Tuesday, the total number of COVID-19 cases spiked to 4,000 with 54 death. Punjab has more cases (2,000) than other provinces of the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Beijing, April 7 : China reported no coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, the first time since it started publishing daily figures in January following the emergence of the virus in Wuhan city last December, according to the country's National Health Commission.

The Commission said it had 32 confirmed cases, down from 39 on Monday, reports the BBC.

All of the confirmed cases were imported, it added.

Total number of coronavirus cases in China as of Tuesday was 82,697, while the death toll stood at 3,335.

Although other countries like the US and Italy have surpassed China in terms of both cases and deaths, the Asian giant was concerned that a second wave of infections could be brought in by foreign arrivals.

It has already shut its border to foreigners including those with visas or residence permits, the BBC reported.

International flights have been reduced with both Chinese and foreign airlines only allowed to operate one international flight a week.

Flights must not be more than 75 per cent full, according to the government.

On Wednesday, Wuhan, where the pandemic originated in December 2019, is set to allow people to leave the city for the first time since the lockdown began on January 23.

Officials have said that who has a "green" code on a widely used smartphone health app will be allowed to leave the city.

Some people in "epidemic-free" residential compounds have already been allowed to leave their homes for two hours.

But Wuhan officials revoked the "epidemic-free" status in 45 compounds because of the emergence of asymptomatic cases and for other unspecified reasons.

Asymptomatic refers to someone who is carrying the virus but experiencing no symptoms.

China began reporting asymptomatic cases at the beginning of April. More than 1,033 asymptomatic patients are under medical observation.

With a total of 368,376 confirmed coronavirus cases, the US on Tuesday accounted for the highest number of infections in the world. Its death toll stood at 10,993, according to figures by the Washington-based Johns Hopkins University.

Italy has the highest death toll globally with 16,523 fatalities, while in terms of infections it was the third highest with 132,547 confirmed cases.

Spain ranked second highest in terms of both deaths and confirmed cases at 13,341 and 136,675, respectively.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Michael Atkinson.

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general whom President Donald Trump dismissed last week, said he was "disappointed and saddened" by the decision and urged whistleblowers not to "allow recent events to silence your voices."

In his resignation letter, Atkinson said it was "hard not to think" Trump's decision "derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial Inspector General."

Atkinson infuriated Trump when he alerted Congress to a whistleblower's complaint accusing the president of soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 election.

The complaint was the catalyst for Trump's impeachment.

In his resignation letter, Atkinson expressed gratitude for officials who publicly supported him.

He closed the letter by reminding future whistleblowers the American public is "counting on you to use authorized channels to bravely speak up  there is no disgrace in doing so."

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Michael Atkinson, who was ousted as the intelligence community inspector general (ICIG) last week, said on Sunday that he is "disappointed and saddened" by President Donald Trump's decision to fire him and urged future whistleblowers not to "allow recent events to silence your voices."

Trump informed the Senate Intelligence Committee of Atkinson's dismissal, which will be effective in 30 days, on Friday evening, telling the chairman and vice chairman Atkinson was removed because he no longer had Trump's "fullest confidence."

In his resignation letter, Atkinson said "it is hard not to think that the President's loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial Inspector General, and from my commitment to continue to do so."

Atkinson made headlines last year when it surfaced that he alerted Congress to a whistleblower's complaint against Trump that accused the president of violating campaign finance law and soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 election.

Story continues

Atkinson submitted the whistleblower's complaint to then acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire on August 26 after determining it was credible and a matter of "urgent concern."

Federal law mandates that the DNI transmit to Congress any complaint deemed urgent and credible, but Maguire did not do so after consulting with the White House and Justice Department lawyers. DOJ officials told Maguire that he was not required to submit the complaint to Congress because its subject  Trump  did not fall under the DNI's purview.

After Maguire refused to turn the complaint over, Atkinson informed Congress himself on September 9.

"As Inspector General, I was legally obligated to ensure that whistleblowers had an effective and authorized means to disclose urgent matters involving classified information to the congressional intelligence committees, and that when they did blow the whistle in an authorized manner, their identities would be protected as a guard against reprisals," Atkinson wrote in his resignation letter.

He went on to emphasize that he acted "without regard to partisan favor or political fear" throughout his 17-year career as a public servant.

"Those responsible for writing the laws on whistleblower rights and protection made it clear that this was not a partisan issue, but a nonpartisan priority," Atkinson's letter said. "I testified under oath that I would 'encourage, operate, and enforce a program for authorized disclosures within the Intelligence Community that validates moral courage without compromising national security and without retaliation.' I did what I said I would do."

The whistleblower's complaint against Trump became the catalyst for a congressional investigation and impeachment inquiry that charged the president with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Trump was later acquitted by the Senate on both articles of impeachment.

Atkinson became a target of Trump's ire after it was publicly revealed in September that he informed Congress about the whistleblower's complaint. The New York Times reported in November that Trump had repeatedly discussed firing Atkinson because he blamed the official for the impeachment inquiry.

According to the report, Trump didn't understand why Atkinson had alerted Congress about the complaint and believed it showed Atkinson was disloyal. The president also attacked Atkinson publicly and in the middle of his impeachment inquiry.

Atkinson expressed gratitude for "the many individuals who spoke publicly in support of the ICIG's actions in administering the Whistleblower's disclosure" in his letter.

He also noted that 67 inspectors general across the federal government warned of the risks of second-guessing independent determinations from IGs reviewing whistleblower complaints. Such actions can prevent whistleblowers from coming forward in the future and would be a "grave loss for IG oversight" and American taxpayers, Atkinson wrote.

He continued, urging other inspectors general to "do what we promised to do, no matter how difficult and no matter the personal consequences."

Atkinson closed his letter with a plea to government employees and contractors who have witnessed or learned of "unethical, wasteful, or illegal" conduct in the federal government.

He wrote: "The American people deserve an honest and effective government. They are counting on you to use authorized channels to bravely speak up  there is no disgrace in doing so. It is important to remember, as others have said, that the need for secrecy in the United States Intelligence Community is not a grant of power, but a grant of trust. Our government benefits when individuals are encouraged to report suspected fraud, waste, and abuse. I have faith that my colleagues in Inspectors General Offices throughout the federal government will continue to operate effective and independent whistleblower programs, and that they will do everything in their power to protect the rights of whistleblowers. Please do not allow recent events to silence your voices."

Got a tip? Email ssheth@businessinsider.com or sonamsheth@protonmail.com.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Fight erupts at White House over drug Trump suggests for COVID-19

Iran Press TV

Monday, 06 April 2020 4:51 AM

A fierce fight broke out at the White House over the weekend about the use of Hydroxychloroquine President Donald Trump has touted as a treatment for COVID-19.

During a press conference on Sunday, Trump contradicted one of his top health officials on coronavirus task force, Dr. Anthony Fauci, saying that the drug can cure the fatal disease.

"We have stockpiled 29 million pills of the hydroxychloroquine," Trump said, noting that the government is using federal resources to make it available. "And they're not expensive. What do you have to lose?"

"What do I know, I'm not a doctor. But I have common sense," Trump added.

A day earlier, economic adviser Peter Navarro went for Dr. Fauci over the antimalarial drug at a White House meeting, Axios reported.

"This drama erupted into an epic Situation Room showdown," Axios said citing four sources.

It was near the end of the meeting when Commissioner of Food and Drugs Stephen Hahn mentioned the drug with Navarro bringing over "a stack of folders" and dropping them on the table.

"People started passing them around," Axios said in its report on Sunday.

"And the first words out of his (Navarro's) mouth are that the studies that he's seen, I believe they're mostly overseas, show 'clear therapeutic efficacy,'" one of the sources said. "Those are the exact words out of his mouth."

Dr. Fauci then explained that the research on it, which is being carried out in China and France, is not enough and only anecdotal.

"That's science, not anecdote," according to another source who recalled Navarro as saying.

He even went further to blame Fauci for the current problems in the US.

"You were the one who early on objected to the travel restrictions with China," Navarro shouted.

Fauci, who has actually praised the travel restrictions since Trump enacted them, looked confused, according to someone in the room.

The Trump administration has come under fire from medical experts and Democrats for downplaying the threat and mishandling the crisis.

The global new coronavirus outbreak, which first began in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, has so far affected more than 1,270,000.

The United States is the country hit hardest by the coronavirus. More than 336,000 have tested positive so far across the country and over 9,600 have died there.

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This story was originally published by ProPublica

In 2006, then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a pandemic preparedness plan that warned the city would need up to 9,500 ventilators. Despite the alarming prediction, only 500 were acquired amid budget cuts. But even that stockpile is gone, with the lifesaving machines breaking down because the city was unable to afford maintaining them. Now, 14 years after the plan was released, the city is experencing a surge in deaths, with more than 3,500 people dead from coronavirus, and with predictions the city will run out by Sunday, the shortage threatens to push that toll even higher.

In July 2006, with an aggressive and novel strain of the flu circulating in Asia and the Middle East, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a sweeping pandemic preparedness plan.

Using computer models to calculate how a disease could spread rapidly through the city's five boroughs, experts concluded New York needed a substantial stockpile of both masks and ventilators. If the city confronted a pandemic on the scale of the 1918 Spanish flu, the experts found, it would face a 'projected shortfall of between 2,036 and 9,454 ventilators.'

In 2006, then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a pandemic preparedness plan that warned the city would need up to 9,500 ventilators. Despite the alarming prediction, only 500 were acquired amid budget cuts. 14 years after the plan was released, the city is experencing a surge in deaths, with more than 4000 people dead from coronavirus, and Mayor Bill de Blasiopredicting the city will run out by Sunday, the shortage threatens to push that toll even higher

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he was authorizing the state's National Guard to seize ventilators from less overwhelmed hospitals to be used where they are more urgently needed. He is pictured in front of medical equipment at the Javits Center, which will now be used for coronavirus patients

The city's department of health, working with the state, was to begin purchasing ventilators and to 'stockpile a supply of facemasks,' according to the report. Shortly after it was released, Bloomberg held a pandemic planning summit with top federal officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, now the face of the national coronavirus response.

In the end, the alarming predictions failed to spur action. In the months that followed, the city acquired just 500 additional ventilators as the effort to create a larger stockpile fizzled amid budget cuts.

Even those extra ventilators are long gone, the health department said on Sunday. The lifesaving devices broke down over time and were auctioned off by the city at least five years ago because the agency couldn't afford to maintain them.

Today, 14 years after the pandemic plan was released, the death toll from the novel coronavirus is climbing by the hundreds daily, and the shortage of ventilators threatens to push it higher still. On Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the city, which entered the crisis with around 3,500 ventilators, would run out of the machines this week. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he was authorizing the state's National Guard to seize ventilators from less overwhelmed hospitals to be used where they are more urgently needed.

On March 24, a stockpile of 400 ventilators arrived at the New York City Emergency Management Warehouse for distribution to hospitals that need them the most

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, discusses the arrival of a shipment of 400 ventilators with Dr. Steven Pulitzer, the Chief Medical Officer of NYC Health and Hospitals, at the city's Emergency Management Warehouse

A patient is taken into the emergency room of Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. The city's network of 11 public hospitals, which includes Elmhurst and Bellevue in Manhattan, regularly operates at a large deficit and in recent years has relied on city funding to fill the gap. The network is a vital provider of health care to many poor New Yorkers

A healthcare worker stands at the entrance to a tesing center at Queens' Elmhurst Hospital. Nearly 70% of patients who use the public hospitals are uninsured or on Medicaid

A coronavirus patient is taken into the emergency room at the Maimondes Medical Center in Brooklyn

A patient is brought into Mt Sinai Hospital in Manhattan

Early hopes that the federal government could use its Strategic National Stockpile to adequately supplement New York's supply of ventilators have faded amid revelations that key federal agencies were themselves woefully underprepared for a pandemic. The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the national stockpile as poorly maintained by the Trump administration and far too small to meet the competing demands that have predictably poured in from many states as the pandemic hurtles across the country. Indeed, some of the ventilators in the stockpile suffered from the same problem faced by New York  they fell into disrepair.

On Friday, President Donald Trump faulted New York and said he could not assure the state of more ventilators. 'No,' he told reporters. 'They should've had more ventilators at the time. They should've had more ventilators.' (Trump himself has been widely criticized for ignoring early warnings and downplaying the threat of the virus in the face of mounting global evidence of its lethality.)

New York City, with its plan 14 years ago, recognized that the nature of a pandemic  striking in many places in rapid and devastating succession  would mean that the city, in many ways, would be on its own.

'Since the pandemic will be widespread in the United States, the supplies from the federal Strategic National Stockpile may not be available and local caches will need to be relied upon,' the 2006 report said.

In a newspaper interview that year, Dr. Isaac Weisfuse, then a deputy commissioner at the health department involved in pandemic planning, said the city could not count on the federal government. 'We do understand that New York City will be responsible for New York City in terms of dealing with any pandemic,' he said.

Refrigeration trucks are being used at temporary morgues outside Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan

First responders carry a patient on a stretcher from a house in Queens before transporting them to a local hospital

First responders are seen treating the patient before carrying them to the ambulance in Queens

More than 3,500 people have died from coronavirus in New York City as of Tuesday afternoon

The story of New York's ventilators, as with many of the pre-crisis pandemic reports that have come to light at the federal level, is one of grave vulnerabilities that were made plain by experts but never were made budget priorities by policymakers.

The city health commissioner who spearheaded the 2006 pandemic planning effort, Thomas Frieden, left three years later to run the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and key elements of the plan had not been implemented. Frieden, who now leads a public health philanthropy, has emerged as a prominent critic of the country's inadequate preparations, writing in January that 'we are living the consequences of being underprepared for the next big global epidemic.'

Another prong of the Bloomberg pandemic plan  the mass distribution of masks to the public  has not happened either, even as experts are now reversing earlier guidance and urging everyone in hot spots like New York to cover their faces. Instead, de Blasio last week advised residents to use a scarf, a bandanna  something 'real homegrown.' The city's hospitals still need over 3 million masks just to safeguard health care workers, he said.

In interviews with ProPublica, other former city health officials said they were also worried about other threats and that there simply wasn't enough money to fully prepare for every possibility.

'It's easy to say in retrospect we should have spent all our money on pandemic influenza, but at the time you just don't know what was going to happen, and there were other threats,' said Weisfuse, who worked under Frieden and led the city's disease control division until 2012. 'I feel good about what we did, but obviously for this situation it was not enough.'

This map shows the states considered hotspots for coronavirus. New York state has the highest number of inections, with more than 138,000 cases, and more than 5,400 deaths

The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the national stockpile as poorly maintained by the Trump administration and far too small to meet the competing demands that have predictably poured in from many states as the pandemic hurtles across the country

Last week, White House adviser Jared Kushner claimed that the stockpile was not for the use of the states at all, contradicting a government website

Following the avian influenza scare and the pandemic planning of the mid-2000s, the city faced its first major test when H1N1 swine flu arrived in 2009.

Officials feared it would become a major outbreak. Some schools were closed and there were high-level discussions about shortages of supplies. But the disease abated, with a substantially lower death rate than the coronavirus, and the city turned much of its attention back to the aftermath of the recession that had devastated New York's economy.

'We learned the wrong lesson, I think, from swine flu,' Dr. Douglas Ball, former medical director of the city health department's Bureau of Emergency Management, told ProPublica. He compared it to the London Blitz during World War II: 'When people got missed by a bomb that hit nearby, they thought they were safe. When really they should have thought, 'Wow, we were so lucky.'

Years of budget cuts to the city's health department followed, limiting the city's ability to prepare, even as planners still feared a major pandemic.

In 2014, Nicholas Cagliuso, a top emergency management official for the city's public hospitals, told participants in a pandemic training session that cost-cutting had hobbled the hospital system's preparation, in particular its ability to amass a stockpile of emergency equipment.

Instead, the hospitals had taken to holding just enough to meet day-to-day needs. It was a practice that was antithetical to preparing for a pandemic, which requires emergency supplies to be in easy reach, Cagliuso said. 'If a resource is not available by foot, it does not exist.'

In a statement on Sunday, Michael Lanza, a spokesman for the city's health department, said pandemic preparedness efforts had been undermined by the loss of federal aid.

'These plans depend on ample federal assistance, and Congress has not appropriated enough funding to state and local jurisdictions to adequately prepare for emergencies,' he said. 'Annual federal public health and health care preparedness funding levels are not sufficient to prepare for an emergency of this scale and scope.'

As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 383,000 people across the United States have been infected with coronavirus

As of Tuesday afternoon, 12,000 people have died from coronavirus across the United States

The number of coronavirus cases in the United States has escalated, with 383,260 people across the United States infected as of Tuesday afternoon

Despite the warnings in the 2006 plan and the initial efforts to build a stockpile, de Blasio spokeswoman Avery Cohen said in a statement on Monday that cities 'do not typically stockpile ventilators and that such emergency reserves are the responsibility of state and federal government.

'Despite our best efforts to stretch our resources, there was no foreseeing a crisis of this magnitude.'

Michael Bloomberg took office just a few months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The planning-obsessed mayor wanted to be better prepared for the next crisis. 'Mayor Bloomberg wanted there to be every plan for every disaster you have: coastal storm, pandemic, terrorist attack  and make sure it was up to date and we were going to drill it,' said Edward Skyler, the city's former deputy mayor for operations.

And then, across the globe, lethal strains of the flu began to spread. In 2002, SARS emerged in southern China, and then in 2005, avian influenza swept across several countries in Asia.

Frieden, Bloomberg's first health commissioner, believed the city needed a pandemic plan. A committee of experts was assembled and the 266-page plan was published in July 2006. New York City, Frieden wrote in the introduction, is 'uniquely vulnerable to infectious disease threats.'

The document's assumptions are prescient: a future pandemic could have a 2% fatality rate, a 30% citywide infection rate and a delay of many months waiting for a vaccine, which could place an enormous strain on health care workers and supplies.

In 2005, the city's health department had begun to survey nearly all of the public and private hospitals to understand the equipment needs they would face in a pandemic. It found New York's hospitals had roughly 2,700 ventilators, far from what would be needed in a severe outbreak.

Even though the plan stressed that purchasing, storing and maintaining ventilators was a large endeavor, the city began to take steps to form a stockpile. It was vital because in a pandemic, cities and states would be competing for supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile. (Last week, White House adviser Jared Kushner claimed that the stockpile was not for the use of the states at all, contradicting a government website.)

Then NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg's 2006 pandemic planning summit included Dr. Anthony Fauci, now the face of the national coronavirus response.

Medical workers wearing protective equipment take bodies to a refrigerated trailer that serves as a makeshift morgue at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center on Monday

A temprorary morgue built by military personnel sits outside Bellevue Hospital, where many patients who do not have access to medical aid are treated

In 2006 and 2007, following the release of the pandemic plan, the city purchased a few hundred 'disaster-ready' ventilators. The $1.76 million contract went to a New York-based company called VersaMed.

Jerry Korten, the CEO of VersaMed at the time, recalled city officials understanding that, in case of a major pandemic, the ventilators would not be enough, he told ProPublica.

'New York knew they would need a lot more ventilators,' Korten said. 'It's a very sad situation that no one invested in what was needed when it was needed. It's just too late now.'

By 2009, the city had trained some of its hospitals on how to use the new ventilators, in case they were needed to increase capacity. The training was intended to help the health department evaluate the ventilators, and after the training, the city stored the devices in a warehouse for future use.

'The idea of this warehouse is something that we could send trucks to and load ventilators or other equipment and ship them right to hospitals quickly,' said Weisfuse, the former deputy commissioner, who is now an adjunct professor at Cornell University Public Health. 'They were on site, and it was just a matter of getting them to the right place.'

But after 2009, the effort to create a large ventilator stockpile petered out. 'We tried to fill in the gap as best we could,' Weisfuse said. 'That's where we left it. We also had to spend money to fill the gap for other problems too, like bioterrorism.'

VersaMed was acquired by GE Healthcare in 2008 and the company discontinued the line of ventilators New York had bought, Lanza, the city health department spokesman, told ProPublica. 'This was beyond our control but had a direct impact on cost and viability of maintaining a stockpile.' Annual maintenance costs for the 500 VersaMed ventilators, which includes replacing batteries and degrading parts, ran over $100,000 per year, Lanza said, adding that the ventilators were ultimately auctioned off by the city. It's not clear who bought the devices and for how much. GE did not respond to questions related to the VersaMed ventilators, but a spokesperson said the company 'provide[s] maintenance on any equipment that is under a service contract with GE.'

Hospitals were also reluctant to spend money to store machines and protective equipment that they did not need for day-to-day operations.

Over the past few decades, cuts in Medicaid reimbursement and other fiscal pressures have reshaped the hospital industry, leaving the city's public and private medical centers with, collectively, thousands fewer beds.

A staff member closes the door of a makeshift morgue in New York. The death toll across the United States has skyrocketed past 12,000

Refrigeration trucks are seen outside Bellevue Hospital. They will be used as temporary morgues as the death toll in the city continues to escalate

The city's network of 11 public hospitals, which includes Elmhurst Hospital in Queens and Bellevue in Manhattan, regularly operates at a large deficit and in recent years has relied on city funding to fill the gap. The network is a vital provider of health care to many poor New Yorkers. Nearly 70% of patients who use the public hospitals are uninsured or on Medicaid.

With federal grant funding, the city had also planned to purchase 1.1 million face masks for use in a pandemic. But after funding was reduced, the city instead bought only 216,000 masks, spending roughly $84,500, a state comptroller audit later found.

Asked about the masks, the department said it 'did purchase N95s in quantity but eventually all expired, and it became cost-prohibitive to replace them in any meaningful quantity.' The department said that it did, however, acquire over 20 million surgical face masks prior to the coronavirus pandemic, millions of which have been distributed to health care and front-line workers.

Asked about the pandemic plan, Frieden said in a statement that 'any health department in the world would be challenged by an outbreak of this severity and scale.' He declined to answer specific questions about the fate of the ventilator and mask plans.

After the 2008 financial crisis hit, tax revenues dried up. Over the next five years, the city health department's budget was slashed by about $290 million, or 17%, and federal preparedness funding plummeted.

Some health department spending, such as services for developmentally disabled children, was mandated by law and could not be cut. So the agency had to look for other areas to cut, and infectious disease work was vulnerable.

In 2009, swine flu arrived in New York, the first pandemic scare since the Bloomberg plan was published. Hundreds of students became ill at a high school in Queens, and city officials were worried that the disease could overtake the city.

'There was some discussion that if it were as bad as projected we would be short of ventilators at that time,' a former top city health official recalled. There was no time to buy the machines during the outbreak, and the disease ultimately receded more quickly than expected.

The health department did not receive any requests for ventilators from its small stockpile, said the former deputy commissioner Weisfuse. The possible shortfall of ventilators during a pandemic, once a key issue, again faded.

In the later Bloomberg years, the health department was focused on planning how to distribute huge volumes of Tamiflu, in case of a flu pandemic, or antibiotics, in case of anthrax, according to the former top health official. 'To the extent people were thinking about a ventilator shortage, that was a secondary or tertiary issue,' the former official said.

In a statement, Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser said: 'Our Administration was among the first governments in the country to comprehensively plan for a pandemic health crisis, and key parts of our program were implemented successfully and harnessed in our effective H1N1 virus response in 2009, which itself became a national model for public health emergency planning.'

Pandemic planning continued under de Blasio, who took office in 2014.

The number of deaths in New York state has escalated to 5,489 as of Tuesday morning

There are 138,836 positive cases of coronavirus in New York state as of Tuesday morning

That year, the New York-New Jersey office of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a Wall Street trade group sponsored a series of pandemic training sessions online attended by a couple of hundred corporate executives and government officials.

Cagliuso, then the assistant vice president for emergency management for the city's public hospital system, gave a presentation warning of the difficulty obtaining supplies during a crisis.

'Supply chain breaks are a very real issue. Much to the detriment of those of us in emergency management, we have moved to just-in-time supply chains,' Cagliuso said at the time, referring to hospitals' practice of limiting stockpiles of medical equipment to save money. 'So I had some very spirited discussions with my supply chain leadership. But nonetheless I also realize the business and the way that we are moving.'

Cagliuso, who still works for the hospital system, did not respond to a request for comment.

But massive cuts in federal funding hampered the city's ability to act on experts' warnings. At an infectious disease conference in 2012, Dr. Jay Varma, then the city's deputy commissioner for disease control, warned that 'the age of austerity' was 'hitting infectious disease programs hard.'

Three years later, Marisa Raphael, then the deputy commissioner of the office of emergency preparedness and response, repeated this warning while testifying before Congress. 'The greatest danger to our progress is the decline in federal emergency preparedness funding,' she said. Critical CDC programs had lost over a quarter-billion dollars in funding since 2005, and Raphael said the department had to cut almost half of its public health preparedness workforce.

The supply-chain issue surfaced yet again in 2018 when the public hospital system participated in a pandemic exercise with Johns Hopkins University on the 100th anniversary of the 1918 flu. Cagliuso and several colleagues produced a paper in an academic journal about what they learned.

In short: New York City would likely be on its own in case of a pandemic.

'State and federal stockpiles of medical supplies exist [that] can be rapidly distributed, but a pandemic scenario is likely to complicate resource allocation on local and sub-national levels because of competing areas of similar need, limiting the allocation and deployment of these resources,' they wrote.

Their proposed solution was not to beef up the city's stockpiles. Rather, they called for creating a technological fix, a dashboard that would 'automate the presentation of data to decision-makers.'

A spokesperson for the hospital system did not respond to requests for comment.

In 2015, the state updated its guidelines on ventilator allocation during a possible influenza pandemic and calculated that the state had about 7,250 ventilators available in acute care facilities, including in New York City, with an additional state stockpile of 1,750 machines. The state recognized that if a pandemic swept across multiple regions at the same time, it could not rely on the federal stockpile to fill the gap.

'The State's current approach to stockpiling a limited number of ventilators balances the need to prepare for a potential pandemic against the need to maintain adequate funding for current and ongoing health care expenses,' the report stated. In a severe pandemic scenario, 'New York will not have sufficient ventilators to meet critical care needs despite its emergency stockpile.' The report lays out guidelines on how to decide which patients should be placed on ventilators if hospitals are forced to ration resources, withholding devices from patients with poorer odds of surviving. The report did not specifically address the needs or current resources in New York City.

The roughly 3,500 ventilators in New York City hospitals had going into the coronavirus crisis compares to a total of 2,688 ventilators the health department counted in a 2005 survey  an increase, to be sure, but a fraction of what it expected to need if faced with a serious pandemic.

The mayor has repeatedly said the city will need 15,000 ventilators from the federal government, but the city has so far received only 2,500.

While de Blasio has cautioned that ventilator needs change by the day or hour, he said on Friday that New York City projects it requires at least another 2,500 to make it through this week. 'The ventilators to me are one of the clearest examples of life and death,' the mayor explained. 'If we're going to save every single life we can save, we must have the ventilators we need exactly where we need them, when we need them.'
Airbus said it is pausing production at its A220/A320 manufacturing facility in Mobile in the US state of Alabama and temporarily adapting commercial aircraft production and assembly activity at its German sites in Bremen and Stade.



These actions are being taken in response to several factors related to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic including high inventory levels in the sites and the various government recommendations and requirements which impact at different stages of the overall industrial production flow. Airbus remains committed to meeting customer demand.



Commercial Aircraft production and assembly activities in Bremen will be paused from April 6 until April 27 inclusive, with key business support services continuing on the site. Airbus in Stade will pause production and assembly from April 5 to 11, with some additional pause days in the weeks that follow in selected production departments. Key business support services will also remain active on the site.



In Mobile, the pause in production begins this week and is expected to last until April 29. Certain activities will continue on site, including building and installation maintenance, aircraft maintenance, some critical product safety and customer driven operations, receipt and control of materials and components, critical administrative support and preparation of activity restart.



All ongoing work in Bremen and Stade in Germany and Mobile, Alabama US will be done in adherence to the required hygiene measures and social distancing.



Airbus is supporting efforts globally to tackle the COVID-19 crisis and has carried out extensive work in coordination with social partners to ensure the health and safety of its employees. This has been achieved by implementing stringent health and safety measures, while securing business continuity across the company.



During the past two weeks, Airbus paused production and assembly work in France and Spain for four days to implement the necessary stringent health and safety measures. Production and assembly in France has resumed gradually since March 23.



Commercial aircraft wing production operations in the UK and commercial aircraft production activities in Spain and Canada have been temporarily paused reflecting stock levels and latest government restrictions.  TradeArabia News Service
There's a lot of misinformation floating around about Coronavirus. Should you wear masks (Yes, but you should know how to use them correctly.) or should you donate your masks (Only if they are N95 surgical masks.)? What's the deal with hydroxychloroquine? Does it actually cure Coronavirus? (It's a drug still in the early stages of testing. As of now, there is no definitive proof that it is effective.)We shouldn't even call this Coronavirus, right? Isn't it COVID-19? Or is that just the disease it causes? (Well, actually, the virus itself is called SARS-CoV-2. The sickness you get from it is Coronavirus's Monster. Wait, that's not right.)

See, there's a lot of confusing messages being put out there. Good thing we have had a President whose only role has been to further exacerbate this problem. The White House press briefings have been a clusterfuck of word vomit, with Dr. Anthony Fauci (the expert on infectious diseases) and Trump (the guy who used to try to sell you steaks at The Sharper Image) contradicting each other at every turn.

When the CDC tasked Trump with telling the American public to wear masks outside, he chose to immediately undermine those recommendations by declaring he wouldn't wear a mask. When asked about hydroxychloroquine, Trump effectively prevented Dr. Fauci from answering. Fauci has repeatedly stated that the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine on treating coronavirus patients is purely anecdotal. Trump, meanwhile, is promoting the drug full stop to the point where Lupus patients (the disease hydroxychloroquine is actually intended to cure) can no longer get it. The messaging has gotten so confusing that some people are even buying chloroquine formulations over eBay and one man in Arizona died from ingesting it in an attempt to prevent Coronavirus.

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The press briefings have devolved into a shitshow of the highest order with some media outlets even questioning whether to cover them. Instead of addressing the confusion and providing clear answers to the various questions up top (we're now almost 100% sure it is indeed referred to as Coronavirus's monster) Trump has used these briefings as a platform to explain away his failures and rally his base. They are essentially Dumpster Fireside chats, and god help us do we need something better.

Top Image: Executive Office of the President of the United States
The foreign secretary said there was "total unity" and "total resolve" among cabinet members, who had been given "very clear instructions" by the prime minister to continue with their plan to fight the pandemic. He suggested the country's lockdown would not be relaxed next week, when the government has scheduled its first formal review of the effectiveness of its stay-at-home order.
New Delhi: A CRPF jawan was martyred on Tuesday (April 7) and another injured in a grenade attack by terrorists at a patrolling party in south Kashmir's Anantnag district. According to official sources, suspected terrorists lobbed a grenade at Goriwan chowk of Bijbehara on Tuesday evening, killing head constable Shiv Lal Neetam in the attack.

Neetam, who had received severe injuries in the attack, was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment. Doctors at the local hospital referred the injured trooper for specialty treatment to the nearby Anantnag town where doctors declared the injured trooper as dead on arrival.

Soon after the incident, a police team rushed to the site and cordoned off the area. According to reports, the terrorist managed to flee from the spot after carrying out the attack.
Rating agency Icra on Tuesday downgraded the outlook on the long-term rating of Indiabulls Housing Finance (IBHFL)to negative due to the heightened risk from its investment in Yes Bank's additional tier 1 bonds and loans given to companies belonging to the former promoters of the bank.

Last month, the Reserve Bank of India had imposed a moratorium on the private sector lender and announced a scheme of reconstruction for the bank. Under the scheme, the RBI said the additional tier 1 bonds would have to be written down permanently. The moratorium on the bank was lifted on March 18.

The revision in the outlook for the long-term rating reflects IBHFL's increased risk profile, given its investment in Yes Bank's additional tier 1 (AT1) bonds and loans to companies belonging to the erstwhile promoters of the bank, Icra said in a report.

Last month, Rana Kapoor, former MD and CEO of Yes Bank, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The domestic rating agency said the bank is likely to face challenges in resource mobilisation, given the increase in risk aversion and the widening credit spreads in the market.

The company's fund-raising ability, which was impacted by legal proceedings (public interest litigation admitted in the Delhi High Court) against the company, could get impacted further as a result,Icra said.

The outlook revision also factors in the likelihood of an increase in the company's credit costs, while the recoveries during the quarter could partly offset the impact, it said.

Given the challenges in fundraising and the increasing cost of funds, IBHFL's growth prospects and ability to maintain the profitability are expected to remain constrained over the near to medium term, it said.

The company's immediate term plans to raise sizeable equity capital and funds from divestment of non-core investments aggregating to nearly Rs 10,000 crore, which, if materialised, is expected to significantly improve its access to funding and ability to absorb losses, in case required, it said.

The rating agency said the challenges in resource mobilisation by the company have constrained its disbursements over the past five quarter. There was disbursement of Rs 7,500 crore in Q1 FY20, Rs 7,000 crore in Q2 FY20 and Rs 6,400 crore in Q3 FY20 compared to Rs 10,000 crore in Q1 FY19 and Rs 11,000 crore in Q2 FY19.

The housing finance company, however, has tied up with a public sector bank for the co-origination of retail loans, a focus area for its future growth and is in the process of tying up with a few more banks for co-origination and on-lending loan arrangements, the report said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The federal government has explained how it plans to conduct its Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programme across the country despite the nationwide closure of schools.

Schools across Nigeria have been shut for about three weeks to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

President Muhammadu Buhari last week while addressing Nigerians on the coronavirus instructed the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, to develop a strategy on how to sustain the school feeding programme.

In her reaction, Ms Farouq insisted that the programme would be implemented despite the closure of schools nationwide, a statement criticised by many Nigerians on social media, questioning how the Buhari administration aims to execute such a plan.

But in a statement signed by the programmes Assistant Director, Rhoda Iliya, on Tuesday, Ms Farouq said the school feeding would be using a door-to-door voucher distribution system to feed the pupils.

She said the programme will give priority to Lagos, Ogun and FCT but will extend to all states currently participating in the programme for a period of 30 days.

Although many states have imposed restriction of movement on residents, Lagos, Ogun, and the FCT are under a presidential lockdown, all to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Lagos and the FCT are the states most affected by the coronavirus, while Ogun was added to the lockdown due to its proximity to Lagos.

The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has concluded plans with State Governments to continue the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme using a door-to-door voucher distribution system.

The programme will give priority to Lagos, Ogun and FCT but will extend to all states currently participating in the program for a period of 30 days.

Vouchers will allocate collection time to avoid overcrowding. The vouchers will be redeemed at designated distribution sites, Ms Farouq said.

Ms Farouq noted that the aggregators will provide the food items.

She also explained that the distribution of the food would be situated within the communities.

Existing aggregators will provide the food items. Distribution sites will be situated within the communities and in some states within the achools by hand washing points. Safety and hygiene precautions will be observed, she said.

The aggregators are companies contracted by the government to provide protein supplements like fish, beef, eggs, fruits and vegetables.

However, PREMIUM TIMES understands that not all states have the aggregators initiative. Some states like Katsina prefer to give their cooks money to buy the foodstuff themselves and cook the food.

In some states, the food items are purchased and supplied to the vendors by the state governments, through the aggregators. Under such an arrangement, the cooks are only paid salaries as their role is to just cook and serve the meals.

School Feeding

The HGSF programme was introduced in 2016 as part of the Social Investment Programme of the Buhari administration. It was projected to provide 1.14 million jobs across the country, including community women who would be engaged as cooks.

The programme, with the partnership of state governments, aims to support states to collectively feed over 24 million primary school children, which will make it the largest school feeding programme of its kind in Africa. The goals include tackling poverty and improving the health and education of children and other vulnerable groups.

According to a 2019 government document titled Investing in Our People, the programme is feeding over nine million pupils in 52,604 schools across 30 states and has empowered 101,913 cooks with bank accounts.

PREMIUM TIMES July last year published a report on how the programme has impacted rural women in Katsina State.

A survey done by this newspaper revealed that many of the HGSF programme beneficiaries never had bank accounts before. Many also narrated their vulnerability before they found placement in the programme.
Wiggens said there are kids in her subsidized complex who, with no computers or Internet, spend much of the day playing outside. Shes torn. She wants the children to complete their assignments, but she doesnt want to allow them into her apartment, potentially exposing her family to the coronavirus. So each day, she said, at least two children in the building sit in the hallway with her to use her computer and WiFi and complete their school work.
A federal judge in Washington has turned down a request to release dozens of detained immigrant families due to the threat of coronavirus. Also, the judge ordered that immigration authorities come into compliance with federal guidelines for preventing transmission of the virus in places like the Pennsylvania and Texas detention centers where those families are held.

U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg Issued the Order Monday

This decision is in response to a lawsuit filed earlier this month, arguing that the families were in grave danger due to the simplicity with which the virus can spread.

Boasberg said he is prepared to police issues like checking temperatures of detainees, making sure there are supplies and soap adequate, and adequate space in the facilities to allow for some social distancing. Still, he said calls for him to force immediate releases went too far - at least for now.

Boasberg, an appointee of President Barack Obama, demanded a detailed report from the government in seven days about whether it's in compliance with guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control for "congregate" facilities, like jails. He also said authorities must turn over videos showing how closely packed in detainees are actually at the centers at issue, that is located in Dilley, Texas, Karnes City, Texas, and Berks, Pa.

Near the outset of the hearing, the judge told a lawyer for the families, Susan Baker Manning, that the request for immediate release seemed like a change from the pleas in the suit for more humane conditions taking account of the viral pandemic.

Manning said she sees no way that the detention centers can comply anytime soon with suggestions from the CDC, like those calling for folks to remain six feet apart.

ICE Declares They are Taking Necessary Steps

A Justice Department lawyer representing ICE, Vanessa Molina, said the facilities are taking appropriate steps, like taking temperatures of incoming staff, having non-essential staff telework, and releasing some detainees to lower the headcount at the centers.

The scope of releases of detained immigrants as a result of the pandemic is unclear. Officials have been vague about this process. President Donald Trump has reportedly expressed anger over news reports that immigration enforcement was being lessened due to the virus.

Molina asserted that the so-called family residential centers are complying with the CDC guidelines. Still, she said they do not give concrete answers about what is required to reduce the risk of infection to an acceptable level.

While serious illness in kids as a result of the virus is rare, Manning noted that probably the smallest sometimes get grave cases.

The suit before Boasberg covered approximately three dozen families at the time it was filed March twenty. Since that time, several of those listed have been released, while lawyers have sought to add others to the suit.

U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee, an Obama appointee, also ordered the Department of Human and Health Services to step up the efforts of its to release kids to suitable guardians wherever possible.

READ MORE: Detained Migrants Requested Release as the Pandemic Intensifies
In this article KER-FR

BOSS-DE

Hong Kong's popular nightlife district, Lan Kwai Fong is mostly empty amid the Coronavirus outbreak Uptin Saiidi | CNBC

HONG KONG  On a weekday morning in the ground floor mall of Hong Kong's International Finance Center, office workers dressed in business attire are sparse but not uncommon, as shops ranging from Hugo Boss to Gucci prepare to open their doors. While it may look relatively desolate for a place like Hong Kong, where thousands of morning commuters are usually seen rushing during peak hours, the subdued activity in the Asian financial hub is already considered a rare sight. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, cosmopolitan cities like New York and London have been virtually locked down and streets are empty, but Hong Kong has managed to avoid a complete lockdown even though there's been a steady rise in cases over several months. Hong Kong reported its first coronavirus case on Jan. 23. Despite the city's high density and a population of more than seven million, it has recorded 914 cases of coronavirus to date, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. By comparison, that's less than half of the 2,100 confirmed cases in Finland, which has a population of around 5.5 million. Still, more and more restrictive measures have been in place. Many employees have already been working from home and schools have been suspended, but restaurants and bars have mostly operated as usual  at least until recently.

Hong Kong's popular nightlife district, Lan Kwai Fong is mostly empty amid the Coronavirus outbreak Uptin Saiidi | CNBC

Second wave

A surge in coronavirus cases in late March, driven by the return of residents from Europe and the U.S., has spurred new government measures, including a ban on foreign visitors, a two-week closure of gyms and bars, and a capacity limit of 50% at restaurants. Many businesses were hoping the city would return to normal again after nearly one year of social unrest, followed by months of the coronavirus outbreak. But the new wave of cases and subsequent government regulations that followed have dealt another devastating blow for business owners like Imran Shawkat. "Our costs are so high and we keep losing business and money since last July," the cofounder and managing director of Al Dente Group, which runs six restaurants in Hong Kong, told CNBC by phone. It's been the most challenging time in his 19 years since starting the business, he said.

We hope everything goes back to normal and we reopen. We thought we can survive. We were hoping it would go away but then this government social distancing started. Imran Shawkat Owner of restaurant chain

Shawkat said restaurant sales have plummeted about 70%, starting with the slowdown last summer when more people stayed indoors and tourists arrivals fell drastically over safety concerns in Hong Kong due to the social unrest. "We sent an email to the landlord for help. We asked for one rent cut for the month of April," Shawkat said, adding that he was still waiting for a response.

Social distancing

In February, Hong Kong's government announced more than $15 billion worth of measures to help a battered economy that was already reeling from the impact of pro-democracy protests. According to Hong Kong Monetary Authority, close to 9,000 applications from small- to medium-sized businesses have already been approved for relief loans or repayment terms, worth more than $57 billion Hong Kong dollars (nearly $7.4 billion). Shawkat said he had received 200,000 Hong Kong dollars ($25,800) for each of his restaurants last month, but that will hardly help. Besides, the relief measures were announced before the government's most recent guidelines which imposed further social distancing measures that include restricting crowds in restaurants. On March 27th, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam asked restaurants to cut capacity in half, limit gatherings to four people, and require tables be five feet apart. Meanwhile, establishments that tend to draw large crowds, like cinemas and gyms, were asked to close for 14 days. Shawkat's Italian restaurant, Al Dente, seats no more than 28 people in a small space. He said turning a profit would be nearly impossible at half capacity, and decided to shut the restaurant down for now. "We hope everything goes back to normal and we reopen," he said. "We thought we can survive. We were hoping it would go away but then this government social distancing started."

Hong Kong's Lan Kwai Fong nightlife district closed due to the coronavirus outbreak Uptin Saiidi | CNBC

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong's nightlife district, Lan Kwai Fong, signages that urge customers to drink responsibly have been replaced by signs to "wash your hands" and "wear face masks." The industry has come under pressure as more than 60 coronavirus cases have been linked to bars in recent weeks. Late last week, establishments mainly used for the sale of alcohol were mandated to close for at least 14 days, which has presented new challenges for bar owners like David McEwan. "Last year was a bad enough of drain, the last couple months were hard, but the last weeks around the ambiguity has caused more fear to the customers and the workers," said McEwan, owner of Bobby's Rabble, a bar in Hong Kong's central district.

Since the protests, tons of restaurants have been closed. How can they withstand six months plus of hardship? ... I can't see Hong Kong sustaining all of this. Vivian Gu Food blogger
What happened

Right now, the commercial aerospace sector is tied to the health of the airlines, which in turn is tied to the progress made containing the COVID-19 pandemic. The headlines on the pandemic front of late have had a hint of optimism, pushing airline shares higher and offering some relief to the aerospace sector.

Shares of Boeing (NYSE:BA), TransDigm Group (NYSE:TDG), Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX), and Heico (NYSE:HEI) all soared at the opening Tuesday before giving up some of their gains as the day went on.

So what

Boeing and its supply chain have enjoyed an unprecedented surge in new plane sales over the past decade, fueled by healthier airlines looking to grow in a fuel-efficient manner. That surge was likely on its last legs even before the pandemic struck, but the outbreak and its impact on global travel have effectively brought new plane sales to a halt.

Airlines have been hit hard by the pandemic, with revenue in some cases expected to be down 90% year over year in the second quarter. They're responding by cutting costs as quickly as they can, including grounding jets and cutting capital expenditures. That means fewer sales of planes, components, and spare parts. Boeing has temporarily halted production of planes in South Carolina and Washington State, and many suppliers have also temporarily furloughed employees.

The damage is done. The only question now is how severe the downturn is for the airlines, and how long it will last. Boeing has leaned on its massive commercial arm for years to prop up what has been at times an underwhelming defense business, while Heico and TransDigm generate a significant portion of their earnings from supplying components to new plane manufacturers and the aftermarket.

Raytheon Technologies, recently formed from the merger of Raytheon with United Technologies, owns the Pratt & Whitney aviation engine business and Rockwell Collins aircraft interiors.

We still don't know how long the pandemic will last or if the U.S. economy will fall into a deep recession, but equity markets have rallied on Monday and Tuesday on a sense that in key hot spots like New York, the number of new cases is decelerating. As soon as the pandemic is contained, airlines can attempt to rebuild their schedules, and we will have a better feel for what will happen to demand for new planes and spare parts in the quarters to come.

Now what

The first thing to note is that despite two risk-on days, the pandemic is far from over, and headlines about a fresh outbreak or another round of poor economic numbers could send stocks heading in the opposite direction. Even if the shelter-in-place orders are lifted soon, I expect airlines to emerge from this period cautious, and it seems unlikely Boeing's full order book will be intact no matter what happens in the weeks to come.

Low oil prices are also weighing on the sector. Cheap gas eliminates some of the reason airlines buy newer, more-efficient jets, and it makes it easier for airline management teams to defer new airplane purchases.

For long-term thinkers, I don't believe the pandemic will alter the multi-decade trend of more global travel, and Boeing and its supply chain likely have a bright future. But the next few years could be rocky. I'd avoid shares of Boeing no matter how low they get, but a case can be made for investors able to weather near-term turbulence to take a hard look at buying shares of TransDigm, Heico, or Raytheon.
It is groundless to accuse China of covering up COVID-19 outbreak information, Minister Ma Hui from the Chinese Embassy in Britain stressed during an interview with SKY News on Monday.

When asked whether China deliberately covered up information about the outbreak at its beginning and the allegations that China hindered other countries' ability to respond to COVID-19 infections, Ma noted that since the outbreak, China has been sharing information on COVID-19 in an open, transparent and responsible manner with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the international community including the U.S. and the UK.

Ma pointed out that a rigorous scientific process and time were needed to identify the novel coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease.

The minister recalled what happened in the initial stage in Wuhan saying after detecting cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in late December, the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Wuhan Municipal Health Commission and National Health Commission have worked together to identify the pathogen of the epidemic.

Related research at that time has evaluated the potential human-to-human transmission and the high-level expert team headed by Chinese respiratory specialist Zhong Nanshan confirmed human-to-human transmission of the COVID-19 after their field investigation in Wuhan, he added, denying the anchor's accusation that China covered up the human-to-human transmission potential of COVID-19 at first.

Minister Ma Hui from the Chinese Embassy in Britain has a live news interview with the SKY News in London, UK, April 6, 2020. /Photo via Chinese Embassy in Britain website.

Regarding the question of whether Doctor Li Wenliang was unfairly treated for the early warning of the epidemic, Ma said he was surprised that Western media repeatedly hyped Dr. Li's case. Ma clarified that Dr. Li is not a "whistleblower" but Doctor Zhang Jixian is however, as she first spoke out about the epidemic and reported it to relevant authorities. Li is an eye doctor not a respiratory doctor, Minister Ma said and added when he shared incomplete and inaccurate information on his own WeChat group, the related departments in China at all levels had begun to deal with the epidemic and conduct on-site investigations. The minister also corrected the anchor's claims that Li got arrested. "Doctor Li was not arrested but was admonished and the admonition was withdrawal," he said. 'You can't blame China' In response to the question about why the Chinese government shut down Wuhan's outbound road traffic but didn't stop outbound international flights, Ma responded explaining that the closure of Wuhan, in Hubei Province, had stopped issuing passports to Hubei residents and called on people not to leave the country unless necessary. On the other hand, other countries have the absolute right to strengthen their own border control, such as temperature detection and virus infection screenings for inbound visitors, he pointed out. The minister noted that on February 2, the U.S. government closed its borders to all Chinese citizens and foreigners who had been to China in the past 14 days. "You cannot blame China for other governments' inaction," Ma said.

Minister Ma Hui from the Chinese Embassy in the UK gives a live interview with SKY News in London, UK, April 6, 2020. /Photo via Chinese Embassy in Britain website.
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Linkedin Kang Jin-kyu (Agence France-Presse) Seoul, South Korea  Tue, April 7, 2020 10:48 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd030566 2 Business Samsung-Electronics,profit,cloud-based,data,chip Free

Samsung Electronics expects higher first-quarter profits, it said Tuesday, as millions of people working from home in coronavirus lockdowns turn to cloud data services, pushing up demand for its chips.

The pandemic is wreaking havoc across the global economy -- Samsung itself had operations suspended at 11 overseas assembly lines as of Tuesday -- and is widely expected to cause a recession.

But changing behavior patterns among the vast numbers of people forced to stay at home around the world have generated a silver lining for the world's biggest smartphone and memory chip maker.

In the first three months, operating profits inched up 2.7 percent from 2019 to around 6.4 trillion won ($5.2 billion), Samsung Electronics forecast in an earnings estimate.

The figure was ahead of expectations, and was based on sales of 55 trillion won, up five percent year-on-year.

"There has been high demand for memory chips for data servers as an increasing number of people are now working from home due to the outbreak," said Tom Kang, an analyst at Hong Kong-based market researcher Counterpoint.

"We are also seeing a hike in demand for laptops because we have many companies that are not fully ready for working digitally."

Samsung Electronics is crucial to South Korea's economic health.

It is the flagship subsidiary of the giant Samsung group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates known as chaebols that dominate business in the world's 12th-largest economy.

Samsung Electronics shares were trading up 1.7 percent on Tuesday, having fallen nearly 20 percent from a record high in January amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic and its economic repercussions.

Global recession

But the wider picture for the firm is more mixed with Fitch Ratings forecasting the global economy to contract 1.9 percent this year, with steeper 3.3 percent negative growth in the United States, triggering layoffs and dampening consumer demand.

Global smartphone sales dropped 14 percent in February year-on-year with China seeing nearly a 40-percent decrease, according to Counterpoint.

"Semiconductor earnings look set to increase on the back of memory chip price hikes," Greg Roh, senior vice-president at HMC Securities, told Bloomberg News.

But the consumer electronics and IT and mobile divisions "will likely see their earnings decline", he added.

One industry source who asked not to be named said increasing uncertainty going into the second quarter would "exacerbate troubles".

Samsung's key sales regions of North America, Asia and Europe are among the hardest-hit by the virus, said James Kang, an analyst at market researcher Euromonitor.

"With suspended retail businesses, reduced shipments and weak consumer sentiment, sales in those regions could plunge dramatically in the second quarter," he said.

"A new lineup of premium products will play a key role in how successful Samsung will be in cushioning the blow."

Adding to Samsung Electronics' challenges, its vice chairman and de facto leader Lee Jae-yong is currently being re-tried over a sprawling corruption scandal that could see him return to prison.

He is not being held in custody during the proceedings, but a guilty verdict could deprive the firm of its top decision-maker.

Samsung withholds net profit and sector-by-sector business performance data until it releases its final earnings report, expected later this month.
India: Fishermen dump wild-caught seafood into the sea due to lockdown

by Toan Dao

April 07,2020 | Source: Seafood Source

Fishermen from a western state in India had no other choice but threw away their wild-caught seafood due to the adverse impacts of the current lockdown, The Hindu Business Line reported on 30 March. Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the lockdown, which entered into force at midnight on 24 March for a 21-day period, in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the worlds second-most populous country. Industrial establishments have been shut down, except for manufacturing units of essential commodities. Businesses that have needed to keep continuous operations have sought approval from local governments. Transport services, including air and rail, have been suspended, except for those dealing with essential goods.



A ban on most forms of transportation and the shutdown of ice factories, fishing ports, and processing plants as a result of the lockdown have made it impossible for fishermen to sell or stock their output. Therefore, fishermen in the Raigad district of Maharashtra state had to dump around 100,000 metric tons (MT) of wild-caught seafood back into the sea. Among the species thrown away after their 15 days fishing were mackerel, tuna, squid, ribbonfish, catfish, and prawns.



The Raigad fishermen had not been aware of the lockdown in advance and initiated their fishing before the strict measures were imposed. We are also helpless to respond to their call as the lockdown has hindered all cargo movement, All Kerala Fishing Boat Operators Associations General Secretary Joseph Xavier Kalappurackal said. The lockdown affected not only fishermen, but also the workforce in fish landing centers, ice factories, and traders in many parts of India, industry sources told The Hindu BusinessLine.



The fishing community in the country is hoping the central government will consider including seafood products in the list of essential food items under the Essential Commodities Act, so that processing, transportation, and marketing of seafood can reopen and operate during the lockdown. Fishermen in the southern state of Kerala did not have to dump fish into the sea as their peers did in Maharashtra. But lower output and the shutdown of markets and cold storage facilities were affecting supply in the region, causing fish prices to hike, the newspaper reported. Indias government has prioritized the fisheries sector in its 2020 annual budget, setting the target for fisheries production at 20 million MT by 2022-2023, News 18 reported on 1 February. That would represent an increase of 50 percent from 13.34 million MT in 2018-2019.
GlaxoSmithKline plc (London, UK) and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. (San Francisco, CA, USA) have entered into a collaboration to research and develop solutions for coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The collaboration will use Virs proprietary monoclonal antibody platform technology to accelerate existing and identify new anti-viral antibodies that could be used as therapeutic or preventative options to help address the current COVID-19 pandemic and future outbreaks. The companies will leverage GSKs expertise in functional genomics and combine their capabilities in CRISPR screening and artificial intelligence to identify anti-coronavirus compounds that target cellular host genes. They will also apply their combined expertise to research SARS-CoV-2 and other coronavirus vaccines. GSK has also entered into a vaccine development agreement with Chinas Xiamen Innovax Biotech which is developing a COVID-19 XWG-03 vaccine candidate technology based on a series of truncated S (spike) proteins which will be screened during the pre-clinical testing and a lead candidate will be determined by immunogenicity data. GSK will provide Innovax with its pandemic adjuvant system for preclinical evaluation of the vaccine.Vir is a clinical-stage immunology company focused on combining immunologic insights with cutting-edge technologies to treat and prevent serious infectious diseases. Vir has assembled four technology platforms that are designed to stimulate and enhance the immune system by exploiting critical observations of natural immune processes. It has a robust method for capitalizing on unusually successful immune responses naturally occurring in people who are protected from, or have recovered from, infectious diseases. The platform is used to identify rare antibodies from survivors that have the potential to treat and prevent rapidly evolving and/or previously untreatable pathogens via direct pathogen neutralization and immune system stimulation. Vir engineers the fully human antibodies that it discovers to enhance their therapeutic potential. This platform has been used to identify and develop antibodies for pathogens including Ebola (mAb114, currently in use in the Democratic Republic of Congo), hepatitis B virus, influenza A, SARS-CoV-2, malaria, and others.Using CRISPR-based functional genomics, computational biology and machine learning, Vir identifies key host factors necessary for a pathogens survival and the protective effects of the innate immune system. Vir then identifies product candidates that may be able to safely target host proteins to block pathogen replication or induce innate immunity to control infection.Due to the urgent patient need for COVID-19 solutions, the initial focus of the collaboration between GSK and Vir will be to accelerate the development of specific antibody candidates identified by the Vir platform, VIR-7831 and VIR-7832, which have demonstrated high affinity for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and are highly potent in neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 in live virus-cellular assays. Subject to regulatory review, the companies plan to proceed directly into a phase 2 clinical trial within the next three to five months. The collaboration will also utilize Virs CRISPR screening and machine learning approach to identify cellular targets whose inhibition can prevent viral infection. Additionally, the companies have also agreed to conduct research into SARS-CoV-2 and other coronavirus vaccines by coupling GSKs vaccines technologies and expertise with Virs ability to identify neutralizing epitopes that are present across entire viral families. These efforts will be additive to other initiatives GSK is advancing to develop a potential vaccine for COVID-19.Virs unique antibody platform has precedented success in identifying and developing antibodies as treatments for multiple pathogens, and it is highly complementary with our R&D approach to focus on the science of immunology. I am very excited that the talent and passion of our two companies will come together to develop solutions for multiple diseases, including the very promising antibody candidates targeting COVID-19, said Dr. Hal Barron, Chief Scientific Officer and President R&D, GSK.It is becoming increasingly clear that multiple therapeutic approaches, used in combination or in sequence, will be necessary to stop this coronavirus pandemic. It is likely that the current coronavirus outbreak will not be the last. These insights are informing our scientific approach and we are pleased to join forces on the execution of this strategy with GSK, who have a like-minded R&D strategy, a deep expertise in vaccines and an impressive global reach to bring medicines to people around the world, said George Scangos, Ph.D., CEO, Vir Biotechnology.
Jon Savage is an industry veteran and a conceptualiser/developer of inBroadcast (together with Carl Booysen), a division of HaveYouHeard, who is innovating the broadcast media and branded content spaces in response to the many different and cost-efficient opportunities that are emerging to challenge the traditional broadcasters' role.

Jon Savage, conceptualiser/co-developer of inBroadcast, a division of HaveYouHeard.

In a world of Netflix and Spotify, why do you think radio still has such strong staying power as a mass medium and as a channel for advertising?

What do you think is key for brands to remember when connecting with audiences via audio?

Integrated content is the most powerful space for both radio stations, audiences and brands because it is truly organic and can be driven by a familiar DJ and so can worm itself into the hearts of radio listeners. Radio listeners are habitual listeners, so if brands can create psychological affinity through content strategy, they can truly win customers.

How do you think the 4th industrial revolution will influence jobs in radio?

What are some of the trends you see happening in the industry, for 2020 and beyond?

List a few things you think the industry can improve on.

What do you love most about what you do?

What is next for you? Any exciting plans you can tell us about?

For our April feature on radio and podcasting, I chatted to him and asked him to elaborate on the strong staying power of radio as a mass medium and channel for advertising and to mention a few things brands should remember when connecting with audiences via audio.I'm a huge fan of both of these streaming platforms and use them both on a daily basis, but they quench a different thirst that is unique to radio and content. I refer to them as neutral emotive entertainers in that Netflix is like having all the best TV channels in the world in one place, and Spotify is like having all the greatest records ever made in one place.Radio, on the other hand, is like having a good friend who is providing you safety, security and familiarity. I think it's important to recognise this when you are advertising on radio; that it is a fundamentally different environment to the other platforms you mentioned. It requires more care and better insights because you are able to get right up close to your customers and build affinity in an organic way that is only possible in radio and content.As discussed above, it is important to have a deep awareness of how close you can get to your audience and that - in my opinion, somewhat controversially - traditional advertising is wasted on FM and online radio. At inBroadcast, we've seen tremendous success with integrated campaigns on radio from Xperia Mashlab (5FM), to Hunter's Start Something (Metro) to Ampd by Old Mutual (both digital and FM).That's a great question  I'm in the thick of it and it's very exciting. 4IR can only be positive in my opinion. I am a genuine and hardcore lover of radio in general but am frustrated by some radio stations inflexibility and willingness to commit to finding more ways to get deep and dirty and change with the times.I think the 4IR is going to start forcing many radio stations to become a bit more agile because it is becoming easier for anyone to start their own station. I'm hoping that we are on the brink of a radio revolution, and I hope we are a part of it.I think we are going to start seeing more independent content creators coming to the fore and creating more powerful platforms (like Slikour or Mac G). Up until now, there's been a divide between what is considered as "radio" and these emerging content powerhouses. I hope to see this gap close and to see a lot more integration and the ability to open up radio to more fresh ideas and younger players.From an on-air perspective:One of the biggest trends in social media and online content is the ability to be vulnerable and yourself while you are on-air. We throw this word "authenticity" around but that is essentially currency in the new world. I feel that South African radio still relies too heavily on big personality radio DJs with radio voices. I think this could be at least partially responsible for the decline in radio listeners. I think there is space for younger, hipper, "raw" DJs on radio.From a commercial perspective:I think many stations are now starting to understand the importance of digital and embrace it. Not a lot of people know this, but some of our big commercial radio stations online listenership is bigger than their on-air radio listenership. However, advertisers are still looking largely at the on-air audience and not paying attention to the online audience, except as a value add. I think there are a large number of incredible opportunities in this space and brands should start digging here.I love working in the trenches of radio and content, getting my hands muddy, and creating opportunities for brands that actually make a difference in the world. It's a very different space than working in the powerful offices on the top floors. I feel like I work with audiences and not with radio stations (even though I work with both). It sounds corny but that really is my job and how could anyone complain?We've just launched an online monetisation platform into the South African music space to help local musicians monetise their online streams, called Busqr . It has already gone bananas. At the end of the day, it's all content. Very exciting times!
Health experts have urged smokers to quit and cigarette companies to stop producing and selling tobacco products to help reduce the risks from COVID-19.

The best thing the tobacco industry can do to fight COVID-19 is to immediately stop producing, marketing and selling tobacco, Gan Quan, a public health specialist and a director at the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, said in a statement.

The group, which links international respiratory and lung specialists, officials and health agencies, said it is deeply concerned about COVID-19s impact on the worlds 1.3 billion smokers, in particular those in poorer countries whose health systems are already overburdened.



Smoking is known to weaken the immune system, making it less able to respond effectively to infections. Smokers may also already have lung disease or reduced lung capacity which would greatly increase the risk of serious illness.

Quan said governments around the world had a moral imperative to advise smokers to stop. This is the absolute best time to quit smoking, Quan said.

The Unions statement cited emerging evidence from preliminary studies of COVID-19 patients in China and elsewhere that suggest smokers infected with the new coronavirus become more severely ill and suffer more serious complications such as breathing difficulties.

It said a study of more than 1,000 COVID-19 patients published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February found that smokers  both past and present  fared poorly, with smokers comprising more than 25% of those that needed mechanical ventilation, admission to an intensive care unit, or who died.

The World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention have also warned that smoking can expose people to serious complications from COVID-19.

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Anna Orso of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Cynthia Fernandez of Spotlight PA

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HARRISBURG  As cities begin to report alarming racial disparities in coronavirus cases, Pennsylvanias top health official said the state is facing challenges collecting that information, but will release it at some point.

Health Secretary Rachel Levine said Tuesday health care systems dont tend to put in racial data about COVID-19 cases, a limitation that has hampered collection efforts.

But we are looking at different ways that we might get that information, and when we have that information we will release it, she said at a news briefing.

Nate Wardle, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health, said the labs responsible for reporting cases receive limited information from physicians, which often might not include race or ethnicity.

Last week, health officials in Philadelphia released racial data for less than a third of the citys cases. While most early cases were among white patients, new cases overwhelmingly affected black residents, raising fears the virus will compound existing inequities in employment, housing, and health.

While state officials have not released municipality-level data, Philadelphia health officials broke down cases by zip code. Nearly every zip code where at least 30% of patient tests were positive are majority-minority communities, the data showed.

Other cities and states  such as Chicago, Louisiana, and Maryland  have seen more people of color impacted by COVID-19, even after those numbers are adjusted to the states particular demographics. In Michigan, black patients have accounted for 40% of deaths despite African Americans making up only 14% of the total state population, according to ProPublica.

The president of the American Medical Association, Patrice Harris, on Tuesday called on health practitioners to collect race and ethnicity details from patients to make sure we have a thorough understanding of the pandemics impact on every community.

Experts say demographic data is vital in the early stages of a public health crisis, because it informs government entities on where to allocate resources.

If we dont have data thats linked to race, thats linked to economics, thats linked to geography, we wont know where to really direct resources and what the structural drivers are, said Sharrelle Barber, an assistant research professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Drexel University.

Barber said the disproportionate impact in black and brown neighborhoods can be attributed to structural inequities, including lower access to quality health care. She also said communities that have experienced disinvestment are more likely to be made up of service industry workers who have customer-facing jobs.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Jake Wheatley (D., Allegheny) is working on a bill that would require health and human services agencies to work with doctors and labs to collect better data.

These underserved neighborhoods were impacted greatly before the pandemic, and if they are being impacted more than other communities, our response should be similar, Wheatley said Tuesday. We should be crafting policies to help those who are most impacted and use data to think about how we will provide relief and recovery.

Health care professionals and advocates are also concerned that information isnt reaching vulnerable communities.

Dr. Kathy Reeves, senior associate dean of Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Temple Universitys Lewis Katz School of Medicine, said in late March she and her colleagues had seen a preponderance of COVID folks that were Hispanic.

We have probably one of the highest concentrations of Latinx individuals, Reeves said of the community in north Philadelphia she serves.

Her team started a media campaign to reach people who are not proficient in English after noticing that most information released by health officials was not translated into Spanish.

Rosamaria Cristello, president of Pittsburgh-based Latino Community Center, said people who do not speak English have faced issues getting accurate information and preparing for the pandemic.

While everyone else who understands English was able to go to stores and get supplies ready, our families were not, she said in early April. I started getting texts and calls from families saying that there was no toilet paper. We had about 30 families that were in urgent need of food. ... Its that lag time in receiving that information that everyone else gets in English that has serious consequences.

RELATED: Pennsylvanians may get more time to pay their municipal and county property tax bills

RELATED: Paris bans daytime outdoor exercise because of coronavirus: Today in Pa.

Wheatley said many people in communities of color rely on word of mouth to get information, which has been severely limited since the statewide stay-at-home order was implemented.

A lot of folk in these communities are not connected on social media and are not paying attention to the news, so I am concerned about the transmission of information and how thats being handled now that we are limiting person to person contact, Wheatley said.

100% ESSENTIAL: Spotlight PA provides its journalism at no cost to newsrooms across the state as a public good to keep our communities informed and thriving. If you value this service, please give a gift today at spotlightpa.org/donate.
Experts predict that once the COVID-19 epidemic is under control, recruitment needs will rapidly increase. Ngo Thi Ngoc Lan, Regional Director of Navigos Search, talks about the situation and how workers and employers need to prepare for the future.

Ngo Thi Ngoc Lan, Regional Director of Navigos Search

What are the current difficulties and challenges in managing, hiring and employing employees?

Due to stalled business activities, recruitment has also been affected by the pandemic.

As observed by Navigos Search, the three areas that have seen the most significant impacts are services, tourism and hotels, manufacturing, and commerce.

In the field of tourism, restaurants, hotels have been closed and tours have been forced to cancel due to insufficient numbers of guests, festivals and events, cutting tourists from other countries.

In this situation, small companies in the tourism industry, restaurants and hotels have had to place half or one-third of their temporary employees on leave. Some companies have to reduce personnel. Large companies are still sending employees to work. However, if the epidemic does not end soon, the revenue at big companies will be affected, leading to an inability to pay current salaries.

Many businesses have had to cancel recruitment plans they set before the Tet holiday, or postpone new recruitment.

As for manufacturing, China is known as the world's factory for goods. The closure of the border to prevent the disease spreading has affected imports of materials from China to Vietnam. Some factories, due to the availability of raw materials or back-up sources from other countries, are able to operate normally. However, many others have been forced to halt production activities because they cant import components from China, forcing workers to take temporary leaves.

In addition, companies wishing to recruit and expand; to shift production lines from China to Vietnam, or set up new factories in Vietnam have also been delayed.

It is impossible to predict the scale and development of the pandemic, so businesses are having difficulties determining when they will resume production. For the SARS epidemic in 2003, it took at least a year for businesses to recover and go back to normal. It may take longer for large-scale epidemics.

Currently, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs is tightening licensing for foreign workers in Vietnam as an effort to prevent the COVID-19 epidemic. How does this affect recruitment? Is this an opportunity for Vietnamese workers?

According to Navigos Search, for new recruits, many candidates refuse to come to work where there is an epidemic. We note there are cases where candidates have asked for resignation at companies with working locations in the epidemic area. Candidates from China, Hong Kong and even Taiwan cannot come to Vietnam for interviews or work. Employers are also forced to cancel interviews because it is unclear when the disease will clear. Many companies' recruitment plans are being reviewed or postponed.

However, not being able to hire foreign workers is not really an opportunity for Vietnamese workers, because the rate of job competition with foreign candidates in Vietnam is not really high. Many occupations still prefer local people because labour costs are more reasonable, and workers are more knowledgeable about Vietnamese culture and market.

In contrast, some professions still need foreign experts because domestic candidates do not meet the requirements. The creation of a diversified labour market in terms of nationality and culture also promotes global thinking and enhances productivity. In my opinion, once the disease is under control, the licensing of foreign workers will return to normal.



Do you have any advice for workers on how to cope with the sudden fluctuations in the labour market?

If workers are in industries affected by the epidemic, it is necessary to find a proactive solution. For businesses that have normal operation plans, or a plan to restructure their human resources departments, employees should consider continuing to work because the company always needs talent after fluctuations to help businesses recover.

In contrast, for companies that have shut down indefinitely, workers may consider looking for part-time jobs, independent jobs or moving to related industries. In addition, if they decide to switch to a new career, workers should actively learn new skills through short-term courses and online learning.

For companies, despite the negative impact of the epidemic, businesses can still take advantage of this low time to train employees, build and improve their work processes and effectively devise solutions to accelerate after the epidemic is over.

Once the epidemic is under control, the recruitment demand will quickly increase again because before the Tet holiday many recruitment plans were delayed, especially in the manufacturing industry. VNS/VNA

Vietnam tourism industry prepares post-epidemic plans Vietnams tourism industry will diversify products and find new markets after the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreaks roll back.
If Jeremy Corbyns leadership showed the Labour left at its most craven, the election of Sir Keir Starmer marks the return to a business-as-usual Blairism shorn of any socialist pretensions.

Starmers campaign sought to trade heavily on his early career as a Doughty Street lawyer, defending human rights and trade union casesthe aim being to spin out of these efforts to hold capitalism to its own laws a radical persona.

Political commentator Paul Mason, in his absurd campaign to paint the Labour Party in socialist colours, has even tried to give Starmer a Trotskyist background. In his younger days in the 1980s, Starmer, Mason recounts, edited the Socialist Alternatives magazine. What this really shows is that even Starmers youthful radicalism only extended to backing a faction of the Pabloite United Secretariat that had repudiated any pretence of a connection to Trotskyism and supported the creation of a broad left movement or party. One of his articles for the magazine was an interview with Labour grandee Tony Benn.

The real measure of Starmers politics is the fact that this youthful flirtation with the pseudo-left was no obstacle to his acceptance by the security services into the highest echelons of the British state, becoming Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in 2008.

Once appointed, this millionaire radical lawyer fitted seamlessly into the state apparatus and the defence of its crimes. Three years earlier, on July 22, 2005, the Metropolitan police had killed electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent man, with seven shots to the head in an underground train carriage. He had been misidentified as a terrorist in the aftermath of the July 7 London bombings. In 2006, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), under the leadership of DPP Sir Ken MacDonald, refused to prosecute any officer involved.

After the polices account of what happened on the day was comprehensively demolished, a 2008 inquest jury into Menezess killing returned an open verdict, refusing to rule that the police acted lawfully. They had been barred by the coroner from reaching a verdict of unlawful killing. Starmer, as the new DPP, nonetheless approved the decision not to prosecute any of the police officers involved.

He tried to do the same in 2011 in the case of Ian Tomlinson, a father of nine who was brutally attacked by police officer Simon Harwood in 2009. Harwood hit Tomlinson, who was walking with his hands in his pockets in the other direction, across the back of the legs with a baton. Tomlinson was unable to break his fall, causing fatal internal bleeding to his liver shortly afterwards.

Fifteen months later, Starmer announced that Harwood would not be prosecuted. The CPS was forced to proceed a few months later when an inquest jury found that Tomlinson had been unlawfully killed.

In 2011, Starmer was in court to witness the collapse of a trial of environmental activists after the involvement of undercover police officer Mark Kennedy was revealed. The case began the Spycops scandal, which has since exposed the extensive, long-term infiltration of left-wing and environmentalist groups by police agents, who grossly abused the rights of campaigners and perverted the course of justice in countless court cases. The CPS is suspected of having been closely involved.

As DPP, Starmer refused to pursue the matter. Referring to an in-house CPS investigation, he accepted the manifestly untrue: If Sir Christopher Rose had found systemic problems, then I would quite accept perhaps a retrospective look at all the cases. But he didnt, he found individual failings.

Starmer was no less reliable on the crimes of British imperialism. Under his direction, the CPS refused to prosecute MI5 and MI6 personnel in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The agents were suspected of participating in CIA extraordinary rendition programmes and the torture of detainees in Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan.

Most infamously, in 2013 the CPS pressured Swedish prosecutors into maintaining a fraudulent investigation into WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, as a pretext for securing his arbitrary detention in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Uncovered emails show Starmers department writing to their Swedish counterparts, Dont you dare get cold feet!

The new Labour leader also proved himself a pliant tool of the coalition and Tory governments during their reign of austerity. After major student demonstrations in 2010 against the planned trebling of tuition fees were met with a brutal police crackdown, Starmer implemented new guidelines to encourage the prosecution of protestors. They read:

Prosecutors should have particular regard to whether there is evidence that a person had come to the protest equipped with clothes or mask to prevent identification, items that could be considered body protection, or an item that can be used as a weapon

The terms were kept deliberately vague to allow virtually any hand-held object or face covering to be used as a pretext for an arrest. His guidelines were designed to prepare the state for the implementation of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat governments vicious spending cuts and the mass opposition they would provoke. Explaining his actions, Starmer told the Guardian at the time, There's a potential for a number of protests over the coming years that may be quite large

Following the London riots in 2011 and the rubber-stamp sentencing of over 1,000 young people, Starmer praised the efforts to rush defendants through the courts: For me it was the speed that I think may have played some small part in bringing the situation back under control. He visited Highbury Magistrates Court in North London in the early hours of the morning to boost the morale of the prosecutors and praise their efficiency.

In 2013, after Tory Chancellor George Osborne launched a gutter-press campaign against benefits cheats, Starmer issued guidelines for the CPS allowing those accused of improperly drawing social security to be charged under the Fraud Act. This allowed for sentences of up to 10 years. He also removed the financial threshold on sending cases to Crown Court, meaning even the smallest offences could be punished with long-term jail time.

In 2014, Starmer was granted a knighthood for his services. A year later he was elected to the safe London Labour seat of Holborn and St Pancras. The same pro-capitalist, pro-state politics has characterised his parliamentary career.

In 2015, Sir Keir abstained from the vote on the Tory Welfare Bill, which left 13 million of the most vulnerable people in society an average of 260 a year poorer. The year after, he voted for retaining the Trident nuclear weapons system, against an Investigation into Contrasts Between Public Statements and Private Policy in the Iraq War, and for the Investigatory Powers Billbetter known as the Snoopers Charter. As shadow home office minister, Starmer spearheaded what he called a constructive engagement between Labour and the Tory government to get this mass surveillance law on the books.

The same year, Starmer joined the likes of Hilary Benn in resigning from the front bench to begin a coup of Labour MPs against the newly elected leader of the party, Jeremy Corbyn. During the subsequent leadership election, Starmer backed Blairite nonentity Owen Smith. Starmers leadership team includes Matt Pound, the head of right-wing pressure group Labour First, born out of the witch hunt of left-wing party members in the 1980s.

After the 2016 leadership challenge, Starmer made full use of Corbyns prostration before the right and appeals for party unity to take up the role of Shadow Brexit Secretary. He used this position to champion a policy for maintaining British capitalisms relationship with the European Union, working in alliance with pro-EU sections of the Tory Party.

Now Labour leader, he has signalled his readiness to join a full-blown government of national unity with the Tories, in response to the coronavirus crisis.

Starmers shadow cabinet appointments have already won the praise of their Tory counterparts, with new Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds posting on Twitter: My first act as Shadow Home Secretary has been to speak to [Home Secretary Priti Patel] this evening about the public health emergency we face and the constructive dialogue that is going to be needed in the days and weeks ahead.

Other shadow cabinet appointments include former leader Ed (austerity lite, controls on immigration mugs) Miliband and arch-Blairites Rachel Reeves and Lord Falconer. Corbyn loyalists Richard Burgon, Dawn Butler, Barry Gardiner, Ian Lavery and Jon Trickett were removed, and Corbyn, John McDonnell and Diane Abbott jumped before being pushed. The political chameleon and loyal flunkey Rebecca Long-Bailey as Shadow Education Secretary is the supposed flag-bearer of the left.

Corbyn spent the best part of five years strangling a popular movement against austerity and war, in a stated attempt to prevent the total collapse of a discredited party of third-rate, right-wing politicians. The fruit of his labour is the election of a backroom state functionary to the Labour leadership. Starmer will make a fitting figurehead for the partys final descent into political oblivion.

See also:

New UK Labour leader Keir Starmer offers national unity with Tory government
A family have used Christmas lights to decorate their house with a huge tribute to NHS workers battling the coronavirus pandemic.

Gary Woodman and his family spelt out the letters NHS with their lights to show a "little bit of respect" to those working on the front line.

It comes as the UK continues to see increasing numbers of coronavirus cases with 55,242 people testing positive as of 9am on Tuesday.

Mr Woodman, from Hampshire, put up the lights after realising that a member of the ambulance service lives opposite him in Chandler's Ford, near Southampton.

Christmas lights are used to show appreciation for the NHS on a house in Hampshire / PA

He said it was "only right" to show his appreciation.

The tribute saw the letters written inside a heart with blue and white lights on the outside of the family home.

The light display is one of many tributes members of the public have shown to NHS workers since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak - with the most widespread tribute the weekly round of applause for key workers.

Two nationwide rounds-of-applause have taken place on March 26 and April 2 to show support for healthcare staff.

A 10-year-old girl called Sophie Tinger sang Vera Lynn's classic We'll Meet Again to help boost morale for NHS staff after it was referenced by the Queen in her address to the nation on Sunday.

Mr Woodman said it was "only right" to show his appreciation to the NHS / PA
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A doctor went on Donald Trumps favorite propaganda network on Monday and slammed the president for promoting the anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, as a treatment for coronavirus.

Its sad to me that people are promoting that drug, said Dr. William Haseltine, chair and president of Access Health International. In any situation, there are always going to be people who promote one kind of quack cure or another, and there are Lazarus effects.

The doctor warned that some people could face life-threatening consequences if they use the treatment without a prescription from their doctor.

It is irresponsible to promote this drug at this time, he said.

Video:

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

Dr. Haseltine said:

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

Its sad to me that people are promoting that drug. We know already from studies: at best it will have a very mild effect, at very best. There are studies that conflict a little bit one from the other. One concludes it has no effect, the other concludes it has a mild effect. The net result is whatever effect it has, it will be very mild. That drug has been used for years against many other viruses to no effect. The thing that makes me sad about that story is some people may take it who are on other medications, who have other underlying conditions, and may have very serious  even life threatening  consequences. It is not something to take unless a doctor prescribes it.  That is nonsense. Complete and utter nonsense. And in any situation, there are always going to be people who promote one kind of quack cure or another and there are Lazarus effects. In every epidemic Ive ever looked at it, its always the case. Let me just repeat: We know that at very best this drug will have a very mild effect on changing the course of the disease, if it has any effect at all. That is what the data has shown so far and I am convinced that thats what further studies will show. And its not without adverse consequence. It is irresponsible to promote this drug at this time.

Meanwhile, Trump and Giuliani continue to promote the quack drug

While medical experts call hydroxychloroquine a quack treatment that could cause death in some cases, Donald Trump and his personal science adviser, Rudy Giuliani, have been promoting it as a miracle cure.

In his coronavirus briefing on Sunday, Trump even told the American people that they should go out and get a prescription for the drug. That comes as Giuliani has been privately pushing the treatment in one-on-one phone calls with the president.

At the end of the day, the American people should tune out these daily clown shows at the White House and listen to the medical experts.

Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter
Although social media companies are acting against spreading misinformation and fake news, any request to remove content needs to come via proper legal notice, industry body IAMAI said on Tuesday.

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), whose members include Facebook, Google, Tiktok, Sharechat etc said that social media platforms do not create content but onus of creating misinformation lies with their users.

"While the platforms have taken positive steps to restrict the spread of fake news, any form of the takedown of content will still have to come via proper legal notices as determined by existing legal provisions. The platforms on their part are often actively engaging with such relevant authorities to facilitate a more co-operative mechanism in this regard," the IAMAI said in a statement.

Last week, a report by the open-source intelligence and fact-checking IT firm Voyager Infosec bulk videos are being posted on social media platforms like Tiktok, Youtube, and Twitter to influence Muslims in India against following safe practices to contain coronavirus infection.

The firm found that videos have been shot in both foreign locations and India and are being primarily posted on Chinese mobile video app Tiktok with religious instigations against health advisories and fake information regarding coronavirus.

These videos are further shared on other platforms like Whatsapp, Twitter and Facebook," the report said.

The report submitted to India Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, claims to have analysed over 30,000 videos within period five days, said that most of these videos have been created with professional video editing softwares and originally uploaded accounts are being deleted after circulating them to other social media platforms.

The industry body said that social media platforms are collaborating with organisations like WHO, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, local Administrative officer etc for spreading correct information.

It said that the platforms have also deployed "fact-checking mechanisms for verifying authentic and also allowing and encouraging users to report which is suspected of being dubious" and "running campaigns amongst their users against unverified and misinformation to raise awareness against fake news on their platforms."



According to the IAMAI, most platforms are also monitoring advertisements and organic post-based promotions to safeguard users from dubious products and claims of cure or relief during this crisis.

"the content on these platforms is not created by the platforms, the liability of creating/generating misinformation lies with social media users and not the platform themselves," the



The association said that the association has communicated to the Ministry of Information and Technology and Ministry of Home Affairs with details of measures taken by its member social media platforms over misinformation during present times of crisis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In Silicon Valley, the entire ecosystem is aligned around one thing: the cultivation of unicorns  startups valued over $1 billion. Unicorns were once a rare breed, but in recent years, the stable of billion-dollar thoroughbreds has grown to about 350 unicorns around the world.

In todays world, unicorns represent more than a valuation. Rather, they represent a philosophy, an ethos and a process of building startups. When being a unicorn is the objective, very rapid growth is the method. The tools are abundant venture capital, a deep and ready talent pool and a supportive startup ecosystem. This approach has worked well in Silicon Valley for some time. But in the wake of failed IPOs, the pushback against tech models and the range of social ills plaguing the Valley, the approach is losing its luster. And for the 99 percent of entrepreneurs outside the valley, where capital is far less abundant, and context is night-and-day, the objective was never practical to begin with.

Related: Mark Cuban's 12 Rules for Startups

An alternative playbook is increasingly coming from what I call the frontier  those ecosystems operating outside Silicon Valley and other major centers like New York, London and Shanghai. At the frontier, the growth-at-all-costs model does not translate to the realities of the emerging startup ecosystems outside of Silicon Valley.

For these startups, camels are the more appropriate mascot. Camels adapt to multiple climates, survive without food or water for months, and when the time is right, can sprint rapidly for sustained periods of time. Unlike unicorns, camels are not imaginary creatures living in fictitious lands. They are real, resilient and can survive in the harshest places on Earth. While the metaphor may not be as flashy, these startup camels prioritize sustainability, and thus survival, from the get-go by balancing strong growth and cash flow.

Here are four key lessons to learn from these sturdy creatures:

Dont subsidize.

In Silicon Valley, entrepreneurs are willing to subsidize their product because they have the capital and are judged based on the growth of their customer base, with less attention paid to costs or paths to profitability. Yet this approach can backfire.

Entrepreneurs working in tougher, less-developed markets dont share Silicon Valleys obsession with offering free or subsidized products in service of growth. They charge their customers for their products. Grubhub, a food delivery startup born in Chicago, took an opposite path as its more profligate Silicon Valley peers and today is a multibillion-dollar publicly traded company. As Mike Evans, a co-founder, explained the dynamic succinctly to me: I am building a business, not a hobby. Businesses make revenues, and hobbies dont.

Related: 5 of the Coolest Startups We Found at CES

Camels understand that a products price is not a barrier to adoption, but rather that it reflects its quality and positioning in the market. In emerging markets, incumbent solutions are either nonexistent or so dysfunctional that customers are willing to pay  often even a premium  for reliable, safe and efficient products. Despite lower incomes, customers are not looking for free products. To draw customers, innovators have to offer a solution worth paying for, and they will be rewarded if they do.

Manage costs.

The best innovators at the frontier manage costs through the life cycle of their companies and do so to better sync with their growth curve. New hires need to be justified by increases in revenue and operations. Investments in marketing need to be scaled at an appropriate pace. Spending levels are modulated so that the business doesnt go too far down the cost curve hole. As Jason Fried, founder of Basecamp, a successful Chicago-based company, explained it to me, There are few excuses to not be profitable as a startup. A big part of this is managing your cost structure. Yet managing costs is not something you hear enough about. If you are not managing costs, youre not building a business. You are building a financial instrument, which is not healthy.

It also helps that Frontier Innovators often enjoy an important cost advantage. For startups, the largest cost is people, particularly in the early days. The current cost of hiring a software developer in Silicon Valley is double Torontos average salary, seven times Sao Paulos, and eight times Nairobis. Rent and other operational costs are also much cheaper in these latter cities.

Related: 9 Sales and Marketing Tips for Startups

The combination of leveraging this cost advantage and managing spending levels means that for a similar investment, a startup in a lower-cost area has a longer runway. This gives them more time to grow revenues and build sustainability, and it increases their resilience to shocks.

Raise only the money you need

Venture capital is a powerful tool (full disclosure: I am a venture capitalist). However, it doesnt work for every type of entrepreneur, and not every company needs venture capital. Nor is venture capital the right tool at every round, and some startups are leveraging alternative tools, including revenue sharing models, instead.

Even when camels raise venture capital, they raise appropriate amounts for specific purposes. As a result, entrepreneurs can maintain a greater control of the business and have a larger share of the pie at exit. Qualtrics, for example, was founded in 2002 in a Utah basement as an online research company. To fund growth, the founders used the companys profits. While many venture capitalists approached them, they declined investments as the company scaled. They did eventually raise venture capital a decade later, but they did it on their terms when they were already a multibillion-dollar company.

Of course, this is not meant to suggest entrepreneurs should avoid venture capital. Indeed, the vast majority of camels depend on outside investment. However, camels are afforded the luxury of choosing whether, from whom and on what terms to raise capital.

Take a long-term view.

Founders at the Frontier understand that building a company is not a short-term endeavor, and in fact, some of the biggest breakthroughs for companies occur later in their life cycle. Survival is the number 1 strategy. This gives time to evolve the business model, find a product that resonates with customers and develop a machine that can deliver at scale. There may be competition. The race is not always about who gets to market first. It is about who survives the longest.

A longer-term outlook decreases the trade-off between growth and risk and allows for resilience. As Mike Evans of Grubhub notes, It took us 10 years to IPO. We could have shrunk that to eight by prioritizing growth over profitability. But we would have increased risk by seven times. We chose sustainability. Grubhub took longer than it otherwise could have to get to an exit but did so with higher resilience; the company was able to absorb risks and challenges along the way.

Of course, building a sustainable business does not mean that frontier innovators avoid growth. However, their scaling trajectory may not have the same do-or-die exponential growth curve to which Silicon Valley startups aspire. The cash curve does not dip as deeply, and camels mitigate what some call the valley of death where companies reach the most negative point of their cash flow. Instead, with a balanced growth strategy, camels grow in controlled spurts, choosing to accelerate and invest in growth when the opportunity calls for it. The key distinction here is that camels preserve the option to modulate growth and head back to a sustainable business if needed.

Camels of course still grow at impressive rates when the time is right, but at the same time are strategically managed to last longer and withstand market shocks. By adapting to their harsh environment, they have steeled themselves for tough times, and Silicon Valley startups can learn from their strategic approach. The world needs more camels.

Related:

The Zero-Sum Mindset: How to Avoid Toxic Thinking in Moments of Crisis

Forget Unicorns. Startups Should Be Camels.

3 Big Questions to Sharpen Your Decision-Making Skills



Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
To add to the drama, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday evening to overturn a lower court decision made last week to give Wisconsin voters more time to send in mail-in absentee ballots in the chaotic election. Under the ruling, ballots most be postmarked by Election Day or dropped off at a polling site in person by 8 p.m., despite the fact that election officials across the state were still in the process of mailing out thousands of the ballots.
Terminator star Michael Biehn has reprised his role as Sergeant Kyle Reese to tell people to stay at home during the coronavirus outbreak.

In a video posted online, Biehn recreates a famous scene in hit 1984 sci-fi flick The Terminator during which he warns Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton, about Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 killing machine sent by Skynet to terminate her.

Wearing a black mask over his face, Biehn channels his former character resistance fighter Reese, changing up the words of the speech just enough to match the current threat facing the world.

'Listen and understand, that virus is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or shame, and it absolutely will not stop until we stay at home,' the 63-year-old barks, before stating his character's name: 'Kyle Reese... I'm out.'

The video, which is sure to be a huge hit with fans of the Terminator movie franchise, was posted on Facebook by Biehn's wife Jennifer on Saturday and is being shared across the web.

Terminator star Michael Biehn has reprised his role as Sergeant Kyle Reese to tell people to stay at home during the coronavirus outbreak

In a video posted online, Biehn recreates a famous scene in hit 1984 sci-fi flick The Terminator during which he warns Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton, about Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 killing machine sent by Skynet to terminate her (pictured)

And in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Biehn says he made the clip as a bit of fun but posted it online to get a 'serious' message out there.

'When you think about it, the Terminator is very similar to the coronavirus, in the sense that it's an unknown killer which took the world by surprise and it won't stop and I'd like to get the message out to all the people to stay at home,' he said.

'Can you imagine if the coronavirus was like the flu and children were getting it, it's really scary to think.

'I don't know exactly how you can contain this virus unless you can contain people. Everyone needs to stay at home.

'We've been pretty locked down here for at least two weeks wearing first of all scarves and then we were able to get some masks that I ordered online about a month ago.

'We've been very, very wary of it, but until it hits you in the face, it's hard to imagine. It just gets scarier and scarier.'

Wearing a black mask over his face, Biehn channels his former character resistance fighter Reese, changing up the words of the speech just enough to match the current threat facing the world

And in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Biehn (pictured in the film the Terminator) says he made the clip as a bit of fun but posted it online to get a 'serious' message out there

Biehn says he improvised the video after a walk around the block with his wife and five-year-old son Dashiell.

'I'm a gregarious person and was just riffing and having fun and for some reason it just came to me and I basically did those lines and threw coronavirus in there,' he said.

'And my wife Jennifer videoed it and was like "oh you've gotta put that online". I was gonna send it to a small circle of friends and family members as a bit of fun, but now it's being picked up everywhere.

'I would like to think I can make a serious message, but to be honest I thought I'm just Michael Biehn, I'm not Cher or Lady Gaga, I'm not that relevant really anymore, so I'm surprised people are taking so much of an interest.'

The 63-year-old, who is semi-retired but still works as an actor, has five sons from three different relationships, his youngest being five-year-old Dashiell with current wife Jennifer.

The 63-year-old, who is semi-retired but still works as an actor, has five sons from three different relationships, his youngest being five-year-old Dashiell with current wife Jennifer (pictured together)

He spends most of the year at his home in Bizbee, Arizona but is currently in lockdown in his second house in Thousand Oaks, California.

The veteran actor, who starred in The Terminator movie in 1984 directed by James Cameron, as well as the sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment in 1991, says he's mostly worried about his 88-year-old mother, who is currently quarantined away from the family.

'I don't know where this is going to end, as in the enforcement of people staying at home,' he said.

'I don't know any more than you do but I'm guessing we're locked down until at least the end of July.

'July 31st is my birthday so it would be nice if everybody felt comfortable going out and going to work around then, I just don't know if that's going to be the case.'
As with many other industries around the globe, the dairy industry has a lot to lose amid the coronavirus pandemic.

We were doing [business at] a lot of universities and restaurants, and that has all disappeared," said Craig Stearns, whose family has owned and operated Mountain Dairy in Storrs for over 10 generations. "I know a lot of the other dairies are dumping their milk.

In Michigan, dairy farmers are being advised to simply "quit" the business as the uncertainty of the coronavirus rocks the globe, a local news channel reported. And in Wisconsin, some dairies are being forced to dump as much as 220,000 pounds of milk as the product has been deemed unsellable, USA Today reports.

Though, as the dairy industry gets pummeled, the Stearns family has come up with a creative solution - bringing back their milk trucks.

We had talked about restarting [the home delivery service]," said Stearns. "There was a need with the pandemic going, and our customers are staying indoors.

According to Stearns, Mountain Dairy is delivering upwards of 300 orders a day, six days a week, to residents in 27 towns across northern Connecticut. Mountain Dairy has also been delivering eggs and hopes to add bacon and sausage to their ever-growing product catalogue.

Oakridge Farm in Ellington is also looking to ramp up their milk delivery service; even posting help wanted adds for positions as milkers and milk delivery drivers. And in Newtown, Ferris Acres Creamery will start allowing for limited curbside pickup for tubs of their famous ice cream as well as any cake orders.

Stearns was quick to note that home delivery is only making up for some [lost business]," and was unsure exactly when and what a new normal may look like for the Connecticut dairy industry, or the dairy industry as a whole.

Click through the slideshow above to see a list of local dairies you can support during the pandemic.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister



Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday announced Rs 50 lakh insurance cover for police personnel and other state government employees engaged in the fight against coronavirus.

In a message on the official government Twitter handle, Chouhan said the Centre had announced Rs 50 lakh insurance cover to health workers, while the state government will provide the same to the police and officials of revenue, urban administration and other departments.

As many as five health workers, seven police personnel and their family members tested positive for coronavirus in Bhopal on Tuesday, a public relations department officer said.

Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister spoke to policemen on field duties, asking them to ensure that the lockdown was strictly imposed in the coronavirus-affected areas, an official said.

Meanwhile, Chouhan and Madhya Pradesh governor Lalji Tandon announced that they will contribute 30 per cent of their salaries to relief funds.

Chouhan said he will contribute 30 per cent of his salary to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund for the next one year and his MLA's fund will also be spent for the health crisis.

The governor will also donate 30 per cent of his salary, which is around Rs 1 lakh per month, to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund till the health crisis abates, a public relations officer from Raj Bhavan said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The COVID-19-hit Ruby Princess cruise ship docked in Port Kembla, on the south coast of New South Wales, on April 6 as state police launched a criminal investigation into the disembarkation of its passengers when some were carrying the coronavirus.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the investigation would determine if national biosecurity laws or state laws were broken when the passengers were released.

The Ruby Princess was the single largest source of COVID-19 cases in the Australian state as of April 7, with more than 620 cases and 11 deaths linked to the vessel, according to local media.

The ship was still carrying more than 1,000 crew  one-fifth of whom were exhibiting coronavirus symptoms  when it docked at Port Kembla to take on fresh supplies, reports said. It was not clear how the crew would be repatriated to their home countries. Credit: @kaylahlenhart via Storyful
Honda and Nissan are among the latest companies to furlough thousands of workers at their US operations - as hospitals across the country start letting go of staff amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The two car manufacturers said on Tuesday the pandemic, which has so far claimed 11,000 Americans and infected 370,000 others, had slashed demand for cars across the US.

A spokesman for Honda, which employs about 18,400 workers at plants in Alabama, Indiana and Ohio, said the Japanese automaker would guarantee salaries through Sunday after suspending operations on March 23. Honda's plants will be closed through May 1.

Nissan said it was temporarily laying off about 10,000 hourly workers in the US effective April 6.

It has suspended operations at its US manufacturing facilities through late April. Operations at Honda's Powersports plant in South Carolina, which makes ATVs, have been suspended since March 26.

Honda, which employs about 18,400 workers at plants in Alabama, Indiana and Ohio (above), said the Japanese automaker would guarantee salaries through Sunday after suspending operations on March 23

Automakers are facing a dramatic drop in sales in the United States, the world's second-largest car market, after some states barred dealers from selling new cars while 'stay-at-home' orders are in place. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV on Monday extended its shutdown of U.S. and Canadian plants until May 4.

Toyota Motor Corp has halted its US and Canadian production through April 17. A Toyota spokesman said it has not furloughed full-time US employees.

Meanwhile, health care workers across the country are also being furloughed as hospitals are forced to cancel non-emergency medical appointments and elective surgeries due to lockdowns and increased pressures on hospital systems.

Hospital job cuts are being reported across the entire country - even in states that are coronavirus hot spots like New York and Michigan.

Oneida Health Hospital, which is located in hard hit New York, is putting up to 30 percent of its staff on involuntary furlough. Doctors and senior staff are taking a 20 perent pay cut.

'We're in trouble,' the hospital's chief executive Gene Morreale told the New York Times. 'We've been here 121 years and I'm hoping we're still there on the other side of this.'

Elsewhere in other parts of the country, Michigan's Trinity Health is planning to furlough 2,500 workers and Boston Medical Center has announced it is furloughing 700 staffers after losing roughly $5 million a week during the pandemic.

Cincinnati's Bon Secours Mercy Health will furlough 700 employees from nex week and freeze wages for nonclinical employees.

The Connecticut Children's Medical Center is furlouging 400 employees, while Tennessee's Williamson Medical Center is furloughing 200 health care workers.

Health care workers across the country are also being furloughed as hospitals are forced to cancel non-emergency medical appointments and elective surgeries. Nurses protested in New York on Monday

A group of nurses gather for a strike in New York on Monday about their lack of personal protective equipment amid the coronavirus pandemic

The job cuts are an emerging problem for hospitals that must earn income amid a national health crisis.

It comes as a CNBC/Change Research poll of six states - Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - showed a growing number of Americans were worried about losing their jobs or taking pay cuts amid the pandemic.

The poll, which was released on Tuesday, found that 65 percent of Americans say they have serious concerns about losing wages and 39 percent said the same about potentially losing their job.

In the retail sector, REI said it would keep its 162 retail locations closed and furlough some of its roughly 14,000 employees without pay for 90 days.

CEO Eric Artz, who announced the decision in a blog post, said he and the Washington based company's board would go without compensation for six months.

Senior executives will take a 20 percent pay cut and forgo any 2020 bonuses while other corporate staff will see their pay cut 25 percent. Furloughed employees will continue to receive health benefits during the 90-day period, according to the company.

The effects of the pandemic are almost sure to leave a mark on the way people work, shop and socialize - perhaps permanently shifting the way many service industries operate.

Even when the threat of the virus is gone, consumers will think harder about the health implications of squeezing into crowded restaurants and movie theaters. More businesses will accept the effectiveness of employees who work from home, and the move to online shopping will accelerate.

'We've never had a crisis where we couldn't socially gather with people,' said John Gordon, founder of Pacific Management Consulting Group in San Diego, which advises restaurants.

Up until March, service workers - from dishwashers to real estate agents - had been enjoying a record winning streak in the job market and US service jobs had risen for a decade.

The sector appeared almost immune to blips in the economy and not even low-wage competition overseas or automation seemed to threaten service jobs that require direct contact with customers.

When the virus arrived, it upended the service economy, which accounts for 84 percent of US private-sector employment. It wiped out 659,000 service jobs in March - 94 percent of the jobs that vanished last month as the US economy plunged into recession.

New claims for unemployment benefits rose to 6.65 million in the latest week from the 3.3 million the previous week. It means that 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the two weeks that the coronavirus started rapidly spreading across the country. Janet Yellen told CNBC second-quarter GDP could decline by 30 per cent and unemployment is already at 12 per cent and 13 per cent amid the coronavirus outbreak

New claims for unemployment benefits rose to 6.65 million in the week ending March 28. In the same week of last year, only 211,000 people requested benefits for the first time

More than 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the last week of March, according to figures released by the Department of Labor. About 50 people lined up (above) outside an Arkansas unemployment office last Monday

Last week, the coronavirus dealt a swift end to the nation's 50-year-low unemployment rate with employers reporting hundreds of thousands of job cuts in March.

The Labor Department's employment report released last Friday details the worst job loss since the depths of the global financial crisis in March 2009 and the biggest single-month jump in the jobless rate in more than 45 years.

The true picture, though, is far worse, because the government figures do not include the last two weeks when nearly 10 million thrown-out-of-work Americans applied for unemployment benefits.

Economists say the April report is set to be dramatically worse with a double digit unemployment rate and as many as 20 million jobs destroyed, which would blow away the record 800,000 tumble in March 2009.

One sign of how painfully deep the job losses will likely prove to be: During its nearly decade-long hiring streak, the US economy added 22.8 million jobs. Economists expect the April jobs report, which will be released in early May, will show that all those jobs will have been lost.

Some economists have now forecast that the unemployment rate could go as high as 15 percent within the next month - a rate that hasn't been seen since the Depression in the 1930s. During the Great Recession in the 2000s, unemployment peaked at 10 percent.

Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Monday the real unemployment level could be far higher than officially recorded as she warned of a depression.

Yellen told CNBC second-quarter GDP could decline by 30 per cent and unemployment is already at 12 per cent and 13 per cent amid the coronavirus outbreak.

She warned the downturn is 'absolutely shocking', adding: 'If we had a timely unemployment statistic, the unemployment rate probably would be up to 12 or 13% at this point and moving higher.'

With a labor forced of 165 million that means up to 21 million Americans unemployed by Yellen's calculations.

'This is a huge, unprecedented, devastating hit, and my hope is that we will get back to business as quickly as possible.'

On whether the economy can recover quickly with a sudden 'V' upturn, she warned: 'I think a 'V' is possible, but I am worried that the outcome will be worse and it really depend to my mind on just how much damage is down during the time that the economy is shut down in the way it is now.

'The more damage of that sort is done, the more likely we are to see a 'U,' and there are worse letters like 'L' and I hope we don't see something like that.'

Two Walmart stockers in Chicago and a Trader Joes worker in New York die from coronavirus - as workers strike across the country after dozens fall ill from coronavirus

Top supermarket chains across the country have reported their first employee deaths from the coronavirus after at least four staffers at retailers like Walmart and Trader Joe's died.

Two Walmart employees at the same Chicago-area store, a Trader Joe's worker in New York and a greeter at a Maryland Giant grocery store have died in the last two weeks.

Uncertainty amid the coronavirus pandemic has fueled stress among workers afraid of contracting the disease from customers and unexpected store closures.

Meanwhile, workers manning the frontlines amid worldwide coronavirus lockdowns continue to strike across the country.

Staff at an Amazon delivery facility in Chicago, Illinois protested on Saturday, looking for more protections as they work. Police who broke up the vehicular picket were told they should be 'ashamed' of themselves, Patch.com reports.

Their colleagues in New York City - where one worker was fired after protesting last week - are also planning more walkouts after dozens of employees are said to have been hit with the virus at the Staten Island facility.

In Massachusetts, 10,000 construction workers planned to strike Monday.

And in California, McDonald's staff walked out after their colleague contracted the virus - but say bosses did not tell them.

Pictured: Cashier Baby San wears a face shield and gloves as she scans items at grocery store Super Cao Nguyen, in Oklahoma City, due to concerns over the COVID-19 virus.

Some stores have aded plexiglass sneeze guards to cash registers to keep employees safe during the pandemic

Grocery workers - many in low-wage jobs - are manning the frontlines amid worldwide lockdowns, their work deemed essential to keep food and critical goods flowing.

They are insisting employers pay them more and provide masks, gloves, gowns and access to testing. In a handful of states - Minnesota and Vermont were the first - have given grocery workers a special classification that allows them to put their children in state-paid child care while they work.

Unions in Colorado, Alaska, Texas and many other states are pressing governors to elevate grocery workers to the status of first responders.

'The government's responsibility is to step up in these moments,' said Sarah Cherin, chief of staff for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union in Seattle, the first U.S. epicenter of COVID-19.

The union, which represents about 23,000 grocery workers and 18,000 health care workers, won early concessions for higher pay.

'We have always been a group of people who come to work when others stay home,' Cherin said. 'Our workers need the same protection others get.'

Whole Foods workers called for a recent 'sickout' to demand better conditions, including double pay.

A group of independent contractors for the Instacart grocery delivery service walked out to force more protections.

Staff at an Amazon delivery facility in Chicago, Illinois protested Saturday, looking for more protections as they work. Police who broke up the vehicular picket were told they should be 'ashamed' of themselves, Patch.com reports

Workers take part in a drive-thru ''strike'' at a McDonald's restaurant on Sunday in Los Angeles

A view of a Amazon Prime delivery van in Amazon hub, Woodside, a day after protest in Staten Island Borough in New York City amid Coronavirus Pandemic on April 1

Some of the biggest employers in the US are now responding.

To alleviate the concerns of some their workers Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, said it is rolling out face masks and temperature checks at all its US and European warehouses by next week.

The company has also been in contact with the CEOs of two coronavirus test makers as it considers how to screen its staff and reduce the risk of infection at its warehouses, according to internal meeting notes seen by Reuters.

Kroger, the nation's largest grocery chain, said it will give all hourly employees a $2-an-hour 'Hero Bonus' through April 18. That follows temporary $2 pay bumps by Walmart, Target and others. Walmart's raise is just for hourly employees in distribution centers, but its also giving bonuses to full- and part-time workers.

Walmart, the nation's largest private employer, and Target will provide masks and gloves to front-line workers and limit the number of customers in stores. Walmart is taking the temperatures of its nearly 1.5 million employees when they report to work.

Jake Pinelli, who works at a ShopRite in Aberdeen, New Jersey, said customers don't stay 6 feet away from others and typically don't wear masks or gloves. Staffers have protective gear, but the younger employees often give it to older co-workers or those they know have health conditions.

'Most of us are terrified,' Pinelli said. 'I have not only bills to pay, but it's the only way right now I feel like I can do anything for my community and help out,' Pinelli said.

At the Organic Food Depot in Norfolk, Virginia, cash is no longer used. Customers can't bring reusable bags. Children under 16 are banned.

'If somebody fell sick in the store, the store is most likely going to shut down,' manager Jamie Gass said.
Boxes with medical equipment and masks to help fight the CCP virus (COVID-19) are seen on board a Russian military transport plane on April 1, 2020. (Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via Reuters)

China Accuses Australian Media of Disinformation for Reporting the Truth

The Chinese embassy in Australia is accusing the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian newspapers of spreading disinformation for reporting that local Chinese companiestied to the Chinese Communist Partyhad stockpiled and shipped essential medical supplies to China in February.

On April 6, the embassy issued a press release titled Aussie Medias Disinformation, in which it doesnt dispute the reporting, but defends the purchases saying, the procurement by the Chinese business was just to help China overcome difficulties. It then chastises the media for characterizing the purely humanitarian move as a scandal.

The embassy statement is the latest prong of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)s own global propaganda campaign to deflect blame for its now obvious failures to handle the pandemic.

Chinese Regime Allows Virus to Spread

In February when the procurements were taking place, China was dealing with a full-blown epidemic of the CCP virus, commonly known as the coronavirus. Meanwhile, other countries were just starting to see their first clusters of COVID-19, mostly connected to travellers coming from Wuhan, the epicenter of Chinas outbreak. Australias first case was identified in late January.

We now know that by at least mid-December, the CCP was aware that human-to-human transmission was occurring, making the virus ripe for spreading. Yet, the CCP did not admit this until Jan. 20, after over 5 million people had left Wuhuan.

Another three days passed before Chinese authorities finally implemented the first containment measures for Hubei provincebut it was too late. The disease had already spread around the country and overseas.

The seriousness of the virus was known to the [Chinese communist] regime, which is why they got their operatives in Australia to purchase all the personal protective equipment they could and ship it to China. A particularly reprehensible activity, Liberal National Party Senator Eric Abetz told The Epoch Times.

We are paying the heavy price of a communist regimes failure to live up to its moral and ethical duty in initially informing, and advising, and then in helping other countries deal with the epidemic, Abetz said.

Gordon Chang, China analyst and author of The Coming Collapse of China, said the CCPs decision not to warn the world meant other countries did not have time to take the necessary precautions they could have.

So the culpability here is real. You could say its reckless, you could say its intentional, he said. They could have warned the world, they didnt do it. Matter of fact, they tried to put the world off, said Chang in a recent episode of American Thought Leaders.

Lying about the outbreak meant the worlds defenses were down, said Australian One Nation Party Senator Malcolm Roberts. That contributed to the rapid spread around the world. It gave people little time to be ready.

People are angry at the secrecy and misinformation from the CCP, Roberts said.

Moving Needed Supplies Out of Australia

Meanwhile, throughout January and February, Greenland Australia had been mustering the full resources of its Chinese regime-backed company to organise shipments of medical supplies to send to China. This story was reported by Sydney Morning Herald on March 26.

SMH reported that a whistleblower from Greenland Australia had told them that the company had been instructed to put their normal work on hold and source bulk supplies of essential items to ship back to China.

Greenland addressed the media coverage in a statement the next day, confirming it had shipped 10,000 surgical masks, 68,000 disposable gloves, 400 protective goggles, 30,000 medical protective gowns, 1,800 forehead thermometers, and 300 shoe covers.

These items were sent in February to the Greenland Groups global head office in Shanghai as a donation to provide support at the frontline of the virus.

By March, Australia had its own frontline against the CCP virus and was in need of medical supplies as well.

On March 19, in an interview with 2GB Radio, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said he was coming after people caught hoarding supplies like hand sanitizer and selling them. Later in early April, it was announced profiteers will face up to five years in jail for sending essential medical supplies overseas.

On April 1, mining magnate Andrew Forrests Mindaroo Foundation announced they had put forward AU$160 million (US$98.3 million) and utilised their close connection with the CCP to purchase 90 tonnes of medical supplies, which arrived in Perth on April 1, with further shipments on April 3 and 4.

Australia, alongside hundreds of countries, is suffering the severe public health and economic impact of the CCP virus pandemic sweeping the planeta virus that might have been contained in Wuhan, China, had the Chinese communist regime not covered it up.
Mahahual mayor dies after vehicle riddled with bullets

Mahahual, Q.R.  Obed Duron Gomez, the mayor of Mahahual, has died after being shot several times while traveling in a van.

According to the police report, the mayor of Mahahual was traveling in the company of other people in a white van en route to the community, but before reaching the junction, the van was intercepted by a Jetta from where he was shot.

The attackers fled toward the federal highway, while the mayor was transferred alive to a private clinic but died shortly before he could undergo surgery.

Ministerial Police, along with elements of the National Guard and Mexican Navy, declared a Red Code and carried out area search operations, however, they were not successful in finding those responsible.

The vehicle in which he was traveling was hit numerous times by the gunfire.
The widow of PC Andrew Harper has left a heartbreaking message for her husband on his birthday.

Lissie Harper said she could feel her loved one with her in spirit as she laid flowers at their favourite spot.

The Thames Valley Police constable died after he got caught in a strap trailing behind a car on a country road in Berkshire.

Lissie Harper said she could feel her loved one with her in spirit as she laid flowers at their favourite spot

The 28-year-old had only been married to Lissie Harper for a month when he was killed in August.

The couple had been together for 10 years, and were waiting to go on their honeymoon when the officer died in the line of duty.

And on what would have been the police officer's 29th birthday, Mrs Harper left a heart breaking message for her loved one.

The Thames Valley Police constable (pictured) tragically died after he got caught in a strap trailing behind a car on a country road in Berkshire

She said: 'Oh my lovely boy, I can't believe I'm spending this day without you. I walked at our favourite spot, I sat in the sun and I remembered all of your special birthdays we did spend together.

'I know you were there with me and will always be in my heart forever more. My love is yours always.'

Mrs Harper posted a beautiful picture of the young couple, from Wallingford, Oxfordshire, with flowers she laid.

The pair got engaged in Italy in May 2017, and had their 'dream wedding' at Ardington House near Oxford last summer.

The 28-year-old had only been married to Lissie Harper for a month when he was tragically killed in August

She put up the heartfelt tribute on March 22, just a day before the trial against PC Harper's alleged killers collapsed due to the coronavirus.

Mr Justice Edis was forced to halt the trial at the Old Bailey after three jury members had to self isolate.

The judge said he considered a case of 'this importance' should be decided by a jury with more than nine members.

He said he was 'deeply sorry' to 'those who loved' PC Harper for his decision.

The court had heard PC Harper and a colleague were responding to a report of a quad bike theft near Sulhamstead, Berkshire.

Henry Long, 18, (pictured ) from Mortimer, Reading, and two 17-year-olds, who cannot be named for legal reasons, all deny murdering the Thames Valley Police officer

A man attempting to get into a Seat car after it was stopped by PC Andrew Harper and PC Andrew Shaw who were responding to a burglary in progress near Stanford Dingley

The brave officer became entangled in a tow rope, and was dragged for more than a mile suffering 'catastrophic, unsurvivable injuries'.

Henry Long, 18, of Mortimer, Reading, and two 17-year-olds, who cannot be named, are charged with PC Harper's murder. All three deny the charges.

Mr Long has admitted manslaughter and conspiracy to steal a quad bike.

The two 17-year-olds pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal a quad bike. The pair deny manslaughter.
(Newser)  Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa moved to Belgium after leaving office in 2017and a court judgment Tuesday makes it unlikely that he will soon return to his homeland, let alone return to politics. A court found Correa, first elected in 2007, guilty of corruption and sentenced him to eight years in prison, the AP reports. Correa can appeal the judgment, but he will face arrest if he goes back to Ecuador, reports the New York Times. Prosecutors said Correa and 19 other politicians and business leaders, including former vice president Jorge Glas, accepted $8 million in bribes for public contracts as part of a "structure of corruption."

story continues below

Correa will have two chances to appeal the ruling, but if it becomes final, the former left-wing ruler will be barred from holding office, reports Bloomberg; the Times notes he had spoke of a potential 2021 run. The National Court of Ecuador also gave eight-year sentences, the maximum allowed, to another 17 defendants, with two who pleaded guilty receiving reduced sentences. Interpol has refused to arrest the 57-year-old Correa, who has called the charges a political "witch hunt." After Tuesday's verdict, he tweeted that the court had ignored the lessons of history. "With this persecution they hurt in the short term!" he said. "But in the long run they only make us invincible. They will not be able to change the course of history." (Read more Rafael Correa stories.)
Yves here. It is very depressing to see how many parties are making very effective use of Covid-19 to advance their agendas, such as gutting public education. One of the reasons to be skeptical of online education as a mainstay, as opposed to a supplement to classroom based teaching, is the findings of Nobel Prize winner James Heckman on GED certificates. His work over decades has consistently found that recipients of GED degrees, who are high school dropouts who typically prepare for and pass a test that certifies that they have received a high school equivalent education, in fact perform only marginally better than dropouts, even after GED reforms. From a 2012 paper:

GED recipients perform in the labor market, post-secondary schooling, the military, and, in general, society at a level very close to that of dropouts and below that of high school graduates.

Heckman hypothesizes that going to school is not just about assimilating information and passing tests. It also requires learning to show up every day on time, and acquiring social skills like handling a variety of non-parental authority figures and peers. Those cant be conveyed online.

By Lynn Parramore, senior research analyst at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking website

Economist Gordon Lafer, author of The One Percent Solution: How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time, has delved deeply into the highly-orchestrated political activities of corporate-backed groups set on changing the American education system in ways that he believes are detrimental to the countrys future. Lafer, who teaches at the University of Oregon Labor Education and Research Center, is a member of the Eugene School District Board and once served as senior policy advisor to the Education and Labor Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. He sees the Covid-19 crisis as the perfect opportunity for companies far more interested in the bottom line than student learning to seize Americas education system and turn it into a robotic, one-size-fits-all program where teachers eventually disappear from the scene and students, especially the most vulnerable, get left behind. He joined the Institute for New Economic Thinking for a conversation about whats at state in online learning and how technology, if properly guided, can be good for students, teachers, and parents.

Lynn Parramore: This crisis differs from previous ones in the abrupt movement to online learning that is affecting so many people. Many are cheering tech companies for providing education platforms during school closures. Yet your work issues a cautionary message  warning that Big Business and corporate-backed groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have coordinated in the past to undermine public education through things like lowering accreditation requirements for teachers, replacing public schools with privately run charters, and  here we come to the Covid-19 moment  to move students to online learning. Is this crisis an opportunity to further their agenda?

Gordon Lafer: I think theres no question that they view it as a huge opportunity. As you know, I was elected to the board of education in Eugene last year. When the pandemic hit, right away we got a list of all these technology companies that make education software that were offering free access to their products for the duration of the coronavirus crisis. They pitch these offerings as stepping up to help out the country in a moment of crisis. But its also like coke dealers handing out free samples.

I can see this in my own school system, where you have pressure from everybody, from students and parents who are saying, okay, seniors need to graduate, and kids need to learn whatever theyre supposed to learn. The easiest thing, the laziest thing to do, is to just get some outside apps and put everybody on that. Well, thats great for those technology companies and their investors. But its terrible for education, partly because so much of education depends on the personal relationship between teachers and students.

LP: Surely that is even more true for the less advantaged students?

GL: Thats right. The kids who are most needy are most in need of an adult point of contact, which is harder to get with online learning. The truth is  and weve been talking about this here in Oregon  if we would take the time, and put more work into it, were at a point where technology allows much more creative forms of online education than what tech companies are offering.

Parents want somebody who pays attention to their kid. Maybe the kid is shy or has anger problems, whatever it is. The learning platforms the tech companies want arent interested in that. They only want to see how fast you do the problem. Thats not going to work for the kids from the most marginalized communities who are not getting education support at home, who come from various kinds of trauma. They, more than anybody, need to be taught by a skilled teacher who knows them as an individual. I think, to some degree, that may be what every parent wants, but teachers will have to take the initiative to create these models.

What makes sense for investors in tech companies, first of all, is uniformity and a product that is scalable. Second of all, they do not want to be dependent on teachers. But online learning doesnt have to be this way. Technology offers many ways to do it. Unfortunately, the software companies want to do it in this one way that is actually a one-pedagogy-fits-all approach.

In some ways, we may be in a race against the education technology industry, which is just going to try to roll their programs out as fast as they can. In light of that, we really need to work through these better alternatives so we can say, look, this is what we can do instead. We can do something which is much better for everybodys kids.

LP: What might those creative platforms look like? How might they benefit teachers and students?

GL: There are some interesting ideas that Ive been talking to people about and that teachers here have been investigating. Suppose you needed to learn seventh-grade English. There might be a teacher who teaches it through poetry. Another teacher might look at it through science fiction or memoir-writing. You could really have more choice for kids, right? Instead of just having your one teacher, you could say, here are three different ways you could learn this material. You can choose because the teachers are online.

Maybe somebody is going to teach elementary school math from the textbook. Another is going to teach it by drawing and allow kids to draw interactively online. Yet another might teach it by saying, Id like you to go walk around your house and find a shoebox and an egg and a cup, and we can talk about shapes and the relationship of shapes to each other.

Weve even discussed a possibility where, lets say a social studies teacher has four classes a day and theyre teaching the same thing four times. Well, they could decide that part of the class  the part that is just repeating a presentation  could be done just once. Everybody could watch that part whenever they want, and that frees up time for the teacher either to have more individual time for phone calls with students or small groups through Zoom chats. You end up with much more personal interaction.

The ironic thing is that were at a point where the technology actually enables a lot creative, engaged, teacher-driven education that still maintains, and maybe even strengthens, the personal relationship between teachers and their students.

LP: What is at stake for our kids and the countrys future if we go the one-size-fits all, less engaged route that many tech companies and their investors would prefer?

GL: Well, some kids would do ok with it, but a lot of kids wont. They wont be able to learn, and their experience will be one of failure. You can kind of tell how it would happen. While other kids are advancing to the next level, theyre not. And the response to failure provided by the tech company software may not be adequate to that situation. Instead of a teacher helping a student to find a book that makes reading fun while theyre learning phonemes, you might have a program that just offers more drilling. Which is probably not going to help.

You also have to realize that kids, even high school kids, are not going to spend six hours a day sitting in front of a screen doing classes. Some will just stop doing it. In the short-run, I think youre going to see a lot of problems with that kind of disengagement.

Theres also a huge inequity issue of who has access to Wi-Fi and computers. In the long-run, I think what these companies really want is to say, look, our platforms worked during the crisis, so this is what we should do going forward. We should get rid of teachers. Theyll promote all the reasons why they think its better not just for now, but long after the crisis has passed.

LP: Get rid of teachers altogether? How would they get the public to accept that?

GL: One of the things that will help them make that argument is budgets. Assuming were in a serious recession for a year or more  that means everybodys budget is going to get cut. Here in Eugene, the school funding is based on income tax. Whether its based on income tax or property tax, you can be sure budgets are going to go down, which means that youre going to see cuts. Then the tech companies are going to come and say, well, instead of spending $10,000 for a kid to be educated in a classroom, you could spend $7,000 per kid to put them online. The tech companies will be happy, still able to make a 20 percent profit. When you have budget cuts, some people will find this sort of thing becoming more attractive.

LP: In your book, you described ways in which the U.S. public education system has been weakened through corporate lobbying both to fix problems that dont exist and offer inappropriate solutions to those that do. If Covid-19 allows corporations to drive education, could our public education system end up in worse shape? What does this mean to a democratic society and how can Americans push back for a better outcome?

GL: I think it is true that the public education system could end up in worse shape. Its definitely a moment to try to be creative, and that can mean a lot of things. Something interesting about this particular social issue is that public education is almost the only thing left in America that almost everybody thinks you have a right to just by virtue of living here. Partly because of that, schools have taken on certain kinds of responsibilities that would not obviously be theirs. One of the most obvious ones is feeding kids. So, a lot of kids only get breakfast and lunch because theyre in school. A lot only get mental health counseling or see a nurse because theyre in school. Thats why during the pandemic, youll see that a lot of school systems, like my school system, are figuring out ways to keep on providing some of those things, especially meals.

Some schools are designating a spot where kids can come to pick up a bag lunch or something like that, where theres very little contact to protect against spreading the virus. But we could be thinking about ways to provide food not just for the kids, but for all the neediest families. Maybe through that point of contact we could be distributing assignments that could be followed up by calls from the teacher. Were thinking through all of these possibilities.

As many people have said, this is uncharted territory. The pandemic reveals class divisions in a very stark way. I dont know whats going to happen. If we end up with 20 percent unemployment and a lot of people are homeless because theres no work, its going to be chaotic. These moments can go in a lot of different directions. Unlike most European countries, the whole governmental public system for taking care of people has been so dismantled in the U.S., including education. Stuff gets overwhelmed when lot of people are jobless. Increasingly, the super-rich have plans to isolate themselves from the fallout of these disasters. I would like to think that everybodys going to organize in a progressive way and make progressive demands on the government, but I dont know. Lets hope so.
Only two living people in the world really can be certain of what happened in the sacristy of St Patricks Cathedral in Melbourne on that fateful day in 1996. Ive met plenty who are disturbingly convinced that Cardinal George Pell did or did not assault two choirboys, but that is often the nature of sexual abuse cases: only the accuser and the defendant really know.

The High Court has overturned the conviction by the County Court jury, upheld by the Victorian Court of Appeal, and has freed Pell. Reassuringly, the Australian legal system has operated throughout as it should.

Pell walks free, yet some many battles may lie ahead. Credit:Andrew Dyson

No fair-minded person would want Pell in jail if he didnt commit the crime  or, as the court found, there is reasonable doubt. But it is hard to claim he has faced an injustice, at least in the technical sense that he was granted every opportunity the legal system provides, including some of the finest barristers and appeals right up to the High Court  a privilege not granted to many.

Pells travails have unfolded before several different audiences, who have reacted differently.
Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai: Actor Ratna Pathak Shah has said that she thinks of herself as middle class and behaves like Monisha Sarabhai in real life. She also recalled objecting to stressing on the word 'middle class' in the show.

As the 90s much-loved family show Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai returns to the small screen amid coronavirus lockdown, Ratna Pathak Shah, who played Maya Sarabhai in the show, has made a big revelation that will amuse all Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai fans. In a recent interview with a news portal, Ratna Pathak Shah said that she thinks of herself as a middle class person and does things that her on-screen daughter in law Monisha Sarabhai does in real life to save money.

For the unversed, Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai derived humour from the silly fights between Maya Sarabhai and Monisha Sarabhai on being middle class. Maya Sarabhai (Ratna Pathak Shah), who lived in a up-scale apartment in Mumbai with her family, often taunted her daughter in law Monisha Sarabhai (Rupali Ganguly) for being so middle class)

In the interview, Ratna Pathak Shah also revealed that she often asked the writer of the show Aatish Kapadia that is it so important to ridicule the middle class. Arent they being too harsh or is it even fair because they are themselves middle class. However, when she looks and observes people around herself today, she realises that they actually did less of it. The show was much ahead of its time and the world is now turning into a crazy mess that the show talked about.

Also Read: Coronavirus: Sumeet Vyas, Ekta Kaul are not stressed about delivery despite lockdown, heres why

Rupali Ganguly also opened up about her character Monisha and revealed that she is very much like the character in real life. She recalled that when her father saw the show for the first time, he asked if the makers had installed a camera in her house. Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai now airs on Star Bharat at 10 am.

Also Read: Coronavirus Lockdown: Sana Khan vents her anger while washing dirty sheets, watch video

Also Read: Maahi Vij expresses her desire to get back in shape after sharing throwback workout pictures with Jay Bhanushali

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We have resolved to encourage the police to do their job properly. We appreciate all Nigerians who have encouraged our 94-year-old Leader in this troubling season. It is our prayer that criminals will not go unpunished again in our country.
A 23-year-old man who was swimming with friends near the Great Barrier Reef in Australia was attacked and killed by a shark, the police reportedly informed about the case of casualty on April 7. As per reports, the police said that the man named Zachary Robba had sustained several serious injuries on his entire body and breathed his last on April 6 after being taken to the hospital in Queensland state.

On briefing further about the investigation, the police officials reportedly said that the shark attacked the man around 5.30pm on April 6 as he swam near a charter boat off North West Island, in the Great Barrier Reef. This is not the first time, incident of shark attacks have happened in the popular tourist region in the past two years. The attack on April 6 came as Australia was under strict rules that prohibit group activities as an initiative to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease.

Read: Sea Of Sharks Swimming Around Florida Surfer Surfaces On Internet: Watch

Read: Sharks Sign College Free Agent D Brinson Pasichnuk

According to reports, Robba was a wildlife ranger and was happily enjoying working at his 'dream job' on the southern Barrier Reef with a group of other rangers until he was attacked. After hearing about the demise of their ex-student, Robba's former school, Iona College in Brisbane, paid tribute to him and reportedly said that he was in love with his job and embracing all that it entailed.

A family friend of the deceased reportedly told a media outlet that Zachary was much dedicated to his work and he was also a down-to-earth legend. He was someone who was loved by all and will be remembered always. The friend added that every time the gang met, Robba would eventually bring laughter on their face

Sea of Sharks

Sometime back, drone footage captured by a Florida surfer showed several sharks swimming around him while he surfed on a US beach on February 18. The original video was posted by Florida surfer Jeremy Johnson on his Instagram handle, which showed him surfing on the New Smyrna Beach along with a sea of sharks approaching dangerously towards him enveloping him from all sides. The 33-year-old surfer reportedly told the media that he had been worried about surfing through the waves that morning as he saw many fishermen in the vicinity, which indicates the presence of fish.

Read: Scientists Say Australia's Great Barrier Reef Suffers Worst-ever Coral Bleaching

Read: Australian Court Dismisses Cardinal's Sex Abuse Convictions

(Image credit: Pixabay)
The news that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, a qualified doctor, is to spend one day a week working again in the health service as Ireland does battle with the coronavirus has been met with cynicism in some quarters.

Of course it has. Such are the times we live in. There are even some people who believe that Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who's suffering from Covid-19, deliberately got so sick that he had to be taken to hospital over the weekend in order to boost Tory poll ratings. These people should be ignored for the fruit-and-nut cases that they are.

Far from being a PR exercise, the Irish leader's decision to return to front line medical duties is a timely reminder of what a huge value there is, in this age of uncertainty, in having practical, hands-on skills and how few of those at the top in modern politics have them, as a quick glance down the list of ministers at Stormont will attest.

First Minister Arlene Foster is a law graduate. Michelle O'Neill, the Deputy First Minister, has spent her whole life in politics, save for a brief period training to be a bookkeeper. Finance Minister Conor Murphy... well, we all know what he used to do.

Economy Minister Diane Dodds is a former history and English teacher. Nichola Mallon, who's in charge of infrastructure, studied politics and economics. Health Minister Robin Swann has a certificate in management. Education Minister Peter Weir is yet another lawyer.

Right now they deserve everyone's full support for tirelessly working to keep Northern Ireland as safe as possible, even the ones who are self-indulgently questioning their fellow ministers' commitment to the same, shared goal.

Most of those who serve on the Executive probably wouldn't make the cut

I'm just saying that, if they ever were stranded on a lifeboat with a group of fellow castaways and the less-useful members had to jump overboard to give the others a better chance of survival, then most of those who serve on the Executive probably wouldn't make the cut.

There are many things needed in a crisis, but being a former borough councillor or lord mayor probably isn't one of them.

There are some exceptions to the rule, it should be said. Edwin Poots, the Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Minister, is a farmer. His skills would be essential once the people on that imaginary lifeboat found a desert island on which to land.

Alliance Party leader and Justice Minister Naomi Long is a qualified structural engineer. She should also be first in line for one of the lifejackets.

Rarely, though, do politicians have what you'd call practical skills that could be transferred into the real world. That goes for those on the national stage, too. Boris Johnson is a former journalist. So is Michael Gove, the current Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (whatever that is).

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has a BA in jurisprudence. Brandon Lewis, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, was something to do with commercial law before entering politics.

It would also be unfair to accuse them all of living in a bubble of privilege

Chancellor Rishi Sunak worked in the City of London as a hedge fund manager, which does have a connection with his current role, but probably wouldn't be much use in the early days on that hypothetical desert island.

Again, that's not to knock them. They have their jobs to do. While a startling number of Cabinet members are multi-millionaires, it would also be unfair to accuse them all of living in a bubble of privilege.

Ben Wallace, Secretary of State for Defence, is a former captain with the Scots Guards. The chief whip used to be a dairy farmer.

Still, the days when a man such as Aneurin Bevan could rise from working in the Welsh coal mines to become Prime Minister are long gone.

His latest successor as Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer, is already a knight of the realm and, yes, another barrister.

Most of us at the moment are in the same position. We may not be Jacob Rees-Mogg, with an estimated personal fortune from various investments of over 100m, but we're spending the lockdown wondering if what we do is all that useful at a time when the normal world has ground to a halt and the definition of an "essential worker" has ruthlessly separated the sheep from the goats.

Doctors and nurses are keeping us alive. Supermarkets are keeping us fed. The police are on the streets 24/7 to ensure public order is maintained.

If there's one thing we should take from this crisis, it's that the people who can actually do things are invaluable.

Our homes are ticking over thanks to oil, gas, electricity and sewage workers still being at work. Charity workers are helping those who fall through the net.

If there's one thing we should take from this crisis, it's that the people who can actually do things are invaluable.

There are also many people stuck at home, who are using their own money and time to make much-needed personal protection equipment, including face masks using 3D printers and donating it to hospitals.

Thousands of others have been enlisted into making scrubs for nurses so that they don't have to wear the paper clothing currently being provided by many NHS trusts as part of a campaign organised online by an A&E nurse.

It will never be enough to plug the gap. The shipment of five million PPE units which arrived in Northern Ireland yesterday will, fingers crossed, ultimately be what makes the difference; but at least ordinary people are doing what they can.

Many politicians are being exposed, instead, for what they can't do and discovering that an ability to talk is no substitute for action.

Increasingly our rulers have become a class of their own, separated from ordinary people

It goes back to the perennial argument about who we really need at the top in politics - those who have some real-world experience, or those who've spent their entire working lives sitting on committees and in think tanks, going to endless meetings, making speeches.

Increasingly our rulers have become a class of their own, separated from ordinary people.

Ireland's young Health Minister Simon Harris never even finished his degree in journalism and French before switching to full-time politics. He was first elected to the Dail when in his mid-20s.

Harris has received plenty of praise for his handling of the Covid-19 crisis, but is it really healthy to spend decades in that narrow world?

Perhaps if politicians mixed a bit more with normal people they wouldn't have been so naive as to think the PPE and coronavirus testing kits coming from China would be up to scratch.

Years of buying things on eBay have taught most of us to be wary of ordering stuff from Chinese sellers, because it doesn't exactly come with Kitemarks.

A degree in law is all very well, but some cop on is worth having, too.
She has been committed to her role as a radio presenter alongside her Breakfast Shot co-hosts Roman Kemp and Sonny Jay amid the coronavirus crisis.

And Sian Welby appeared in high spirits as she debuted her new pink locks as she left the Capital FM studios in central London on Tuesday morning.

The radio host, 33, recently admitted she was left 'reaching for the hair dye' out of isolation boredom, while revealing her new hair colour on Instagram.

Stepping out: Sian Welby appeared in high spirits as she debuted her new pink locks as she left the Capital FM studios in central London on Tuesday morning

Sian teamed her vibrant new locks with matching co-ords, which consisted of a ribbed cropped pink jacket and skintight trousers.

She kept her look relaxed with a pair of chunky white Reebok trainers, while carrying her essentials in a chic black padded Gucci rucksack.

Sian carried her cream padded jacket over her arm while strolling in the sunshine, while also carrying a canned drink and her work pass.

Think pink! The radio host, 33, recently admitted she was left 'reaching for the hair dye' out of isolation boredom, while revealing her new hair colour on Instagram

Debut: Sian first posted a snap of her new look on Instagram on Saturday, posing for a selfie to share with her 59,7000 followers

The pretty star accentuated her features with soft touches of make-up, while styling her freshly-dyed locks in glamorous loose curls.

Sian first posted a snap of her new look on Instagram on Saturday, posing for a selfie to share with her 59,7000 followers.

She captioned the shot: 'Day 12 of isolation: dyed my hair pink. (so did a mini photo shoot, obvs) anyone else reaching for the dye out of sheer boredom???'

Sian has worked with Channel 5 and the BBC and is also known for presenting on Heart Radio.

Sunshine: Sian teamed her vibrant new locks with matching co-ords, which consisted of a ribbed cropped pink jacket and skintight trousers

The TV star has previously spoken about the gender pay gap, saying there are 'more opportunities' than before for female presenters.

She told the Mail on Sunday: 'I have definitely noticed a shift in attitudes towards female presenters as people become more aware of the gender pay gap.

'I think there are more opportunities than there used to be. When I got my own show I felt such an amazing sense of freedom.

'Heart gave me control and told me to talk about what I wanted to. It has been wonderful.'
To prevent the spread of the coronavirus, schools have been closed, forcing students to engage with distance learning, but this is not an option for all writes Baladi News.

The situation in northern Syria is no different from that in countries all over the world in terms of the preventive measures that were taken against the coronavirus and how it affected education. Schools and universities were shut and education through distance learning began.

Up to 500,000 students were affected by the crisis and are distributed as follows: 90,000 in Aleppo, 400,000 in Idleb and 7,000 in Lattakia, according to initial statistics issued by The Syria Response Coordinators team.

To meet the challenge, several donors supporting the educational sector such as Violet Syria have worked to devise modern methods to facilitate distance learning, especially for students in northern Syria.

Distance learning relies mainly on the internet since teachers and students would have to communicate with students over social media platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram.

Distance learning is inapplicable at this stage due to the lack of a proper electricity supply and stable internet, in addition to the absence of a strategic vision regarding this method, mainly in the western countryside of Aleppo and northern Idleb, one teacher told Baladi News on condition of anonymity.

Distance learning is limited to using Skype, WhatsApp, and Telegram, she said, criticizing the unorganized process.

Many teachers did not interact, while many students pulled out of the e-educational groups because they failed to adapt to the new method. Only a few students were able to keep up with the new tool because they have proper internet and stable power, however, these are only a few, she added.

For his part, math teacher Muhammad al-Qasim expressed satisfaction with distance learning, saying the new method is better than not being able to learn at all.

However, we do face challenges like poor internet and the fact that some students do not have their own electronic devices to review their lessons later on, he noted.

Qasim said the Directorate of Free Education should organize e-tests and technical programs that could save students efforts and help them in finishing the curriculum, in case the preventive measures continued for a long period.

The Syrian interim government had taken a series of precautionary measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus by shutting down schools and universities, in addition to closing crossings that link its areas with areas under the control of the regime and the Syrian Democratic Forces.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
State of California, County of Los Angeles Partner with Dignity Health, Kaiser Permanente to Open Los Angeles Surge Hospital

Facility to treat expected surge of patients with COVID-19 in LA region

Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the establishment of the Los Angeles Surge Hospital, a temporary facility in Los Angeles that will expand access to additional beds and expand ICU capacity for patients who contract COVID-19. Dignity Health and Kaiser Permanente will partner with the State of California and the County of Los Angeles to open the facility, which will be located on the campus of the former St. Vincent Medical Center in central Los Angeles.

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Last month, under his Declaration of State Emergency and Executive Order, Governor Newsom authorized the leasing of facilities to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the recently closed St. Vincent Medical Center. The hospital will create additional inpatient capacity in the community to treat the expected surge of patients with COVID-19 in the coming weeks. The facility will operate as a dedicated referral hospital and will not have an emergency room or accept walk-in patients. The County of Los Angeles Department of Health Services will play a critical role in coordinating intake and transfer requests from hospitals across the County.

The Los Angeles Surge Hospital is expected to open April 13. It will open in phases, ramping up to accept more patients as physicians and staff are hired and supplies and equipment are secured, up to a projected capacity of 266 beds when fully operational.

The State of California will fund the hospital and its operations and will be responsible for obtaining all federal and state permits, licenses, and waivers to operate. The State is also responsible for procuring critical equipment and supplies, such as personal protective equipment and ventilators.

Dignity Health and Kaiser Permanente, two of Californias largest not-for-profit healthcare systems, are providing expertise in establishing the Los Angeles Surge Hospital and will oversee management at the facility. Operational support will not diminish either healthcare systems existing frontline capacity.

LA County has the largest concentration of confirmed COVID-19 cases in California. A time like this demands leadership, partnership, and collaborationand I applaud my fellow leaders and our community partners who have risen to that challenge with aplomb, said L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. Gov. Newsoms swift effort to utilize the space at St. Vincents, and the collaboration of our private partners to operationalize this along with the Department of Health Services, is a true testament to the strength of our community here in Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles Surge Hospital is one component of our countys comprehensive effort to respond to the need for surge capacity as we come together to serve our community.

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I applaud Gov. Newsoms bold and decisive action to temporarily transform the St. Vincent Medical Center into a surge hospital that will help individuals exposed to COVID-19, said L.A. County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis. Under my direction, the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services will provide transportation, referrals and other support in tandem with Kaiser Permanente and Dignity Health to expedite the opening of this temporary hospital on the St. Vincent campus. Once operational, the facility will serve the region with the primary mission of increasing hospital capacity to care for patients with COVID-19 and helping slow the spread of this pandemic. This facility, located in the heart of my Supervisorial First District, will address our urgent health care needs through this unique public-private partnership among the State of California, LA County, Kaiser Permanente, and Dignity Health. No one stands alone in this critical moment, and I thank each partner for coming together to treat COVID-19 patients and for ensuring our communities remain safe and healthy.

The opening of this COVID treatment facility speaks to the power of partnership at a critical moment, united in our shared mission of service to our communities as we confront this pandemic, said Dr. Christina Ghaly, Director for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS). We are grateful for the vision and support of the State of California, and the ingenuity and commitment of Kaiser Permanente and Dignity Health to open this medical facility at lighting speed, bolstering the resilience of our Countys healthcare system and our ability to meet the medical needs of those impacted by this terrible virus.

As we confront an unprecedented public health crisis, we are honored to be able to continue our legacy of service as part of this unique public-private partnership to expand access to additional beds as the COVID-19 threat continues to evolve, said Lloyd H. Dean  CEO of CommonSpirit Health, which includes Dignity Health hospitals. More than ever, this is the time for our communities to come together to care for people affected by this disease. We have worked with each of these partners over time, and this groundbreaking collaboration will help meet the urgent demand for health care services in California.

Beating this pandemic requires all of us to work together, nimbly and creatively, and there is no better proof of that than our collective work to stand up this surge hospital in a matter of days, said Greg Adams, Kaiser Permanentes chairman and CEO. This temporary hospital will add much needed resources to help us safely meet the needs of an expected surge of patients affected by this pandemic. We are proud to be able to help launch it, and appreciate Californias leadership and collaboration as we look to leverage every resource available to fight COVID-19.

Julie Sprengel, President of Dignity Healths Southwest Division, will serve as acting CEO. David Quam, MD, who served in multiple leadership roles for Kaiser Permanente, will be the Chief Medical Officer. Jason Black, RN, formerly of Dignity Health, will be the Chief Nursing Executive. Additional leaders will be selected in the coming days.

Executive Bios:

Julie Sprengel, MBA, RN, Chief Executive Officer

Julie Sprengel, MBA, RN, will serve as Chief Executive Officer of the Los Angeles Surge Hospital. Julie currently oversees Dignity Healths Southwest Division, which encompasses nine acute care hospitals in Southern California and Nevada: California Hospital Medical Center, Community Hospital of San Bernardino, Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center, Northridge Hospital Medical Center, St. Bernardine Medical Center, and St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, and three St. Rose Dominican facilities in Nevada. With nearly 20 years of progressive health care management, Julies experience includes operations, strategic planning, financial analysis, and clinical integration. She holds a nursing degree from LAC+USC School of Nursing, a bachelors degree in management, and an MBA from Pepperdine University.

David Quam, MD, Chief Medical Officer

David A. Quam, MD, has accepted the role of chief medical officer for the Los Angeles Surge Hospital. The former medical director and chief of staff of Kaiser Permanente San Bernardino County, Dr. Quam most recently served as an assistant executive medical director overseeing the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Laboratory System and the Regional Genetics and Pathology Departments. In addition, he was instrumental in the planning of the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine and participated in Kaiser Permanentes program-wide Precision Medicine/Genomics efforts. During his career, he has planned and opened multiple medical office buildings and two large hospitals.

Jason Black, RN, DNP, MBA, Chief Nursing Executive

Dr. Black has been named chief nursing executive for the Los Angeles Surge Hospital. Most recently, Dr. Black served as Chief Operating Officer at Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital, where he was accountable for day-to-day operations of the 334-bed facility. Dr. Blacks breadth of experience spans acute care, sub-acute care, and ambulatory care in community medical centers and public hospitals. Previous experience includes serving as chief nursing officer at the West Anaheim Medical Center and as senior director of clinical operations and performance improvement at San Diego-based Scripps Health. Dr. Black holds a doctor of nursing practice from Case Western Reserve University, a master of business administration and a masters in nursing leadership from the University of Southern California, and a bachelors in nursing from Loma Linda University.
A Tim Hortons coffee cup is seen on the ground outside a shop near Times Square in New York

By Hadeel Al Sayegh and Saeed Azhar

DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai-based private equity firm Gateway Partners has acquired a 40% stake in the Gulf franchise of coffee and breakfast chain Tim Hortons, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Gateway Partners, which is led by former Standard Chartered banker Viswanathan Shankar, paid about $50 million for the holding, the sources, who declined to be named, said.

Gateway declined to comment.

The franchise is owned and managed by Dubai-based fashion and lifestyle retail conglomerate Apparel Group.

Apparel's chairman Nilesh Ved confirmed Gateway's investment, which he said would be used to grow the business, but declined to discuss the value or size of the deal.

"We are going to take it to Egypt and India and expand in the Gulf," Ved told Reuters by telephone.

Gateway Partners made the investment through its Gateway Fund 1 in February, information contained on its website shows.

The website describes the Tim Hortons regional business as the chain's leading franchise outside of North America, with 141 stores as of the end of last year across the Middle East.

Cafes and restaurants have been closed for eating-in across the Gulf after a lockdown to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

Ved said six or seven Tim Hortons outlets remain open for deliveries to customers in Dubai and 15 are doing business in Saudi Arabia, through the use of third party delivery apps.

"At this moment no-one knows exactly what's happening. People are just tired of sitting at home. It will take some time, but eventually people will want to go out for that coffee and go to the mall," he said.

Prior to the coronavirus crisis and rules that restrict movement of people across the Gulf, Ved said Apparel had planned to open another 300 Tim Hortons outlets in the next three years.

"It's a competitive market, but there's still room for good players to grow," he said.

(Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by Alexander Smith)
The police authorities in Chhattisgarhs Janjgir-Champa district have developed a mobile application in collaboration with a Noida-based start-up Mobcoder, which is being installed on every persons cellular phone, who are quarantined at home for 14 days, in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Each quarantined person has been asked to upload a selfie on the app on an hourly basis. The surveillance mechanism ensures that the persons location can be traced, as the app sends out an alert to a local police station if s/he moves out of the stipulated limit of 200 metres from h/his home.

The state government has issued a press release, which stated that about 7,000 people are under home quarantine in Janjgir-Champa district. Many of these people have recently returned from abroad or from other Covid-19 affected states in the country.

A special team has developed a new mobile application. If the home-quarantined people turn off their phone or location or internet connection, the app sends out an alert to a local police station, the release said.

Police personnel and medical teams have been trained to use the app to track suspected Covid-19 patients.

We are planning to extend the use of this mobile application to other districts in Bilaspur range, Dipanshu Kabra, inspector-general of police, Bilaspur range, told Hindustan Times.

We want to respect the privacy of the people who are quarantined at home. The tracking will automatically end after their quarantine period ends, said superintendent of police (SP) Janjgir Champa.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ritesh Mishra State Correspondent for Chhattisgarh. Reports Maoism, Politics, Mining and important developments from the state. Covered all sorts of extremism in Central India. Reported from Madhya Pradesh for eight years. ...view detail
The timing of Illinois March 17 primary could hardly have been worse. It took place the day after the state recorded its first death from the new coronavirus and the same day schools were closed statewide by order of Gov. J.B. Pritzker. But he declined to postpone the election, citing uncertainty about arranging a later date.

Some poll workers didnt show up out of fear of contagion, and voter turnout was low. It was probably the best that could have been done under the unexpected and unfamiliar circumstances, but it was less than ideal.

Wisconsin, with an additional three weeks to figure out a solution, made poor use of the time. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers waited until Friday before proposing to move the election to May and make it vote-by-mail  and got nowhere with the GOP-controlled Legislature. On Monday, citing the public health risk, he issued an executive order postponing the election until June 9. Then the Wisconsin Supreme Court hours later reversed his order. The U.S. Supreme Court then blocked an extension on absentee voting.

The hot mess confirmed what the head of Milwaukees board of elections had said earlier: We are over our heads in chaos right now. The confusion could have been avoided had elected officials not dithered so long.


Fixing supply chain, re-shoring also urged for survival in post-pandemic world



By Kim Bo-eun



Supply chain disruptions triggered by the coronavirus have raised critical questions for manufacturers, which are afflicted by halted production lines.



This comes amid developments in recent years to upgrade supply chains into intelligent systems that react swiftly to unexpected disruptions.



Enhancing digital capabilities is the top priority manufacturers should be thinking about, according to an expert with a global consulting firm.



"The difference between companies that have set up an agile environment and those that have not will become clear at times of crisis," Oh Sung-hoon, Deloitte Korea's clients & industries leader, told The Korea Times in an email interview.



"The digital transition of manufacturers is an essential strategy to boost crisis response capabilities and efficiencies."



Some key tasks manufacturers of today face include establishing online sales channels and improving the consumer experience. They must also work towards R&D decision-making processes that can keep up with swift changes in the market, flexibility in production processes and staffing efficiencies.



A digital transition can help achieve these tasks effectively, Oh said.



"A smart factory based on a cloud system, by improving management of inventory and production and boosting efficiency of equipment and manpower, can contribute to heightening cost competitiveness and market response capabilities," Oh said.



Supply chain management



Car manufacturers such as Hyundai Motor, which has key production bases in China, were hit as factories halted operations following the outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan. Manufacturers around the globe face production shortages, based on their dependency on China as a low-cost base.



China accounts for 29 percent of global manufacturing and produces 80 percent of equipment needed in global automotive production.



The virus has spread to the rest of the globe, stopping production in other regions as well, but the damage has already been done. This has served as a wake-up call for businesses with supply chain management issues.



Supply chain diversification has been a difficult decision for businesses, which seek efficiency and cost-competitiveness. As the current structure came about over decades, changing it has been considered a great burden due to the associated costs.



However, with the backdrop of COVID-19, as well as other major factors that affected companies here in recent years, better management of supply chains, possibly by diversification or re-shoring manufacturing, has become something to consider.



"Japan's export restrictions that went into effect last July, the trade war between the U.S. and China and production disruptions based on the coronavirus have served as opportunities to reflect on the importance of the management of stable supply chains," Oh said.



"Strategies for business continuity that secure alternative purchases in advance when a supply chain shock strikes is essential. There also needs to be review of sufficient inventory."



As a means to boost efficiency and reduce waste, some businesses adopted a "just in time (JIT) inventory" strategy by receiving goods only as they are needed in the production process. But this strategy has exposed businesses to vulnerabilities at times of supply chain shocks.



Oh noted a reshoring strategy could also be a way to manage risks.



"The government continues to unveil large-scale expansionary fiscal policies and financial assistance plans to counter the crisis stemming from COVID-19. However, a re-shoring policy based on government funds and social consensus will not only alleviate supply chain risks for local businesses, but also increase jobs," he said.



"Fostering a local ecosystem of core industries can lead to national competitiveness."



Offline retail, travel industries



Offline retail and travel industries are among the sectors hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.



Department stores and discount retailers are estimated to have seen 10 percent and 12 percent year-on-year falls in sales in the month of February. Considering the surge in confirmed cases came in mid-February, offline retailers are expected to see greater losses in March.



Offline discount retailers and outlet malls had been seeing falling sales already, based on the growth of online channels.



"We expect to see retailers boost online channels, take onmichannel strategies and reinterpret the role of offline stores," Oh said.



An onmichannel strategy is a holistic approach toward customers utilizing all channels.



Digital transition is also an urgent task for retailers, the expert noted.



"Retailers are already in an environment that is difficult to survive," Oh said, "if there is no cycle of swift planning, design, purchasing and selling based on real-time data analysis."



Meanwhile, the lockdown of the global population is wreaking havoc on air carriers and other businesses in the travel industry that have been caught off guard by the sudden coronavirus-triggered shock.



"Liquidity crises for these businesses can lead to bankruptcies and they will need large-scale financial assistance," Oh said.



According to the Korea Association of Travel Agents, 50 agencies filed to shut down their business in February, and 1,592 agencies applied for payroll subsidies. The Asian Development Bank estimates that the Korean tourism industry will see over 3.7 trillion won in losses if the coronavirus pandemic lasts for six months.



"We expect restructuring and active M&As," Oh said. "Based on the assumption that global travel will recover to pre-coronavirus levels once the pandemic passes, we expect there will be many investors seeking to turn the current crisis into an opportunity."


Major supermarket chains are beginning to report their first coronavirus-related employee deaths, leading to store closures and increasing anxiety among grocery workers as the pandemic intensifies across the country.

A Trader Joe's worker in Scarsdale, a greeter at a Giant store in Largo, Md., and two Walmart employees from the same Chicago-area store have died of COVID-19 in recent days, the companies confirmed Monday.

Though more than 40 states have ordered nonessential businesses to close and told residents to stay home to stem the spread of the virus, supermarkets are among the retailers that remain open. Thousands of grocery employees have continued to report to work as U.S. infections and death rates continue to climb, with many reporting long shifts and extra workloads to keep up with spiking demand. Many workers say they don't have enough protective gear to deal with hundreds of customers a day. Dozens of grocery workers have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent weeks.

Industry experts say the rise of worker infections and deaths will likely have a ripple effect on grocers' ability to retain and add new workers at a time when they're looking to rapidly hire thousands of temporary employees. Walmart, the nation's largest grocer, is hiring 150,000 workers, while Kroger is adding more than 10,000. Many are offering an extra $2 an hour and promising masks, gloves and hand sanitizer. But finding workers willing to work on the front lines for little more than the minimum wage could be an increasingly tough sell, according to supermarket analyst Phil Lempert.

"One of the biggest mistakes supermarkets made early on was not allowing employees to wear masks and gloves the way they wanted to," he said. "They're starting to become proactive now, but it's still going to be much tougher to hire hundreds of thousands of new workers. We're going to start seeing people say, 'I'll just stay on unemployed instead of risking my life for a temporary job.'"

Some companies have begun installing plexiglass sneeze guards and requiring customers to stand 6 feet apart in line. The country's two largest grocers, Walmart and Kroger, are beginning to check employees' temperatures at the beginning of each shift.

The added precautions come amid a wave of worker strikes and petitions aimed at getting employers like Amazon, Trader Joe's and the grocery delivery service Instacart, to take additional steps to protect workers. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Those efforts are likely to take on new urgency, analysts said, as supermarket workers across the country begin to see colleagues fall ill. More than 356,000 Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus as of Monday afternoon, and nearly 10,500 have died.

A Trader Joe's employee with underlying health conditions died Monday morning, spokeswoman Kenya Friend-Daniel said. The Scarsdale store where the employee worked is closed until Thursday to give workers "time to process and grieve," Friend-Daniel said. Employees will continue to be paid during the closure, and will receive an additional two days of paid leave, she said.

Trader Joe's stores in Brooklyn and Philadelphia also were temporarily closed Monday, for additional cleaning and sanitizing.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

In Illinois, Walmart employees Phillip Thomas, 48, and Wando Evans, 51, both of whom worked at a store in Evergreen Park near Chicago, died in late March, according to labor advocacy group United for Respect.

A Walmart spokesman said the company is heartbroken. The grocery giant has hired an outside company to sanitize "high-touch" areas, such as front entrance, carts, registers and bathrooms. It has also started installing sneeze guards at cash register and begun limiting the number of customers who can shop at one time.

In Maryland, Leilani Jordan, 27, a greeter at the Giant's Campus Way South store in Largo, died last week.

"She said, 'Mommy, I'm going to work because no one else is going to help the senior citizens get their groceries," her mother, Zenobia Shepherd, told The Washington Post. "She only stopped going to work when she could no longer breathe."

Her last day at work was March 16, according to Giant spokesman Daniel Wolk. Jordan tested positive for the coronavirus in late March and died Wednesday.
21:34

The ongoing countrywide lockdown to combat coronavirus is likely to be extended by the government beyond April 14, the Congress indicated on Wednesday after a meeting of floor leaders of various political parties with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.





Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said over 80 per cent of the leaders from various political parties, who interacted with the prime minister through video-conferencing, favoured extension of the lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19.





He said the prime minister told the meeting that he has received several requests to extend the lockdown, but will take a call on it only after consulting experts and the chief ministers of various states.





"The prime minister said he is receiving requests for extending the lockdown, but he will talk to chief ministers and experts before taking any decision in the best interest of the nation," Azad said.





Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandopadhyay also said that the PM dropped enough hints of extending the lockdown as experts and several states are in favour of it.





"The TMC and many other parties asked the prime minister whether the lockdown would be extended, as people are keen to know about it. In his reply, the prime minister said lifting the lockdown at one go is not advisable as several experts and states have suggested extending it. He said he will discuss the issue with the chief ministers before a decision is taken," Bandopadhyay told PTI.







Azad said Modi also told the meeting that he will try and implement the suggestions put forth by various leaders to tide over the health crisis.





"It is likely that the government may extend the lockdown," Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told PTI after the meeting.





He said his party put forth certain suggestions with regard to the crisis in the farming sector.





Azad also called for increased and free testing for COVID-19 as India is currently lagging behind in conducting tests for the fatal disease.





Azad suggested to the prime minister to set up a task force comprising Union ministers and chief ministers of various states to recommend the way forward and help people tide over the crisis.





He also suggested setting up of a multi-party working group to help the government tackle the issues arising out of the pandemic.





"The prime minister told the all-party meeting that he is happy that political parties have risen above politics and come together in national interest in this hour of crisis," the Congress leader said.





Azad said the Congress has called for a special financial package for the states most affected by the coronavirus outbreak.





The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, who was the first to initiate the discussion at the meeting, said the centre and states should together find a solution to the woes of the poor and labour class, who are reeling in the absence of money due to shutting of all economic activity.





"The time has come for a targeted and sector-wise plan to tackle COVID19, and the focus should be more on those areas most affected by the virus," he said, adding that stress should be laid on phsyical distancing of people in such areas.





Azad also called for immediate insurance of all frontline health workers, including doctors and nurses, and making provision of personal protection equipment to them.





"The PM and officers at the meeting informed that money will be distributed to construction workers from the welfare fund meant for them and we thanked them for doing so, as this was one of the suggestions given earlier by the party leaders," he said.





The Congress leader also called for provision of immediate relief, including ration to around 45 crore workers in the country who are facing hardships due to no work and money.





He called for forming committees at block and tehsil levels in this regard. An increase in MSP rates for rabi crop and ensuring proper procurement is also the need of the hour as the crop is about to be harvested, he said.





To ensure that MGNREGA workers get work, he suggested that they be deployed for crop harvesting which will help provide them with work.





He also asked the government to involve MPs and MLAs in relief work in helping out the most affected poor and marginalised sections.





Azad said the attention of the government was also drawn towards ensuring the supply chain for industry so that production of essential commodities is not disrupted. -- PTI


Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 6, 2020) - Spacefy Inc. (CSE: SPFY) ("Spacefy" or the "Company"), the sharing-economy marketplace for inspiring space rentals targeting the creative industry, announced today that, given the challenges posed by COVID-19, it has made changes to its personnel.

Mr. Michael Bradley, Chairman of the Board, has been appointed by the Board as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company effective immediately as Russ Patterson has stepped away from his roles as CEO and board member, and the Board thanks Mr. Patterson for his service and dedication to the organization. Judeh Siwady, a founder of the Company, shall leave his role as Chief Operating Officer & VP, Marketing of the Company, however, he will continue provide advisory services to the Company as needed and shall remain on the Board of Directors.

Given the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and at the Board's direction, the Company has decided to dismiss all other staff positions and will outsource personnel as required.

The Company continues to pursue enhancements to its digital platform and will be pursuing synergistic acquisitions and partnerships to drive growth and revenue.

Management and the Board of Directors continue to be committed to the growth and development of Spacefy and will remain available for contact with its stakeholders during this unprecedented period of worldwide business closures and social distancing. We look forward to coming out of this period positioned to support our community with space rentals for their productions, projects, classes, events and more. In the meantime, please stay safe.

About Spacefy

Spacefy is a marketplace that connects creative professionals with spaces for their projects, productions, and events. Harnessing the power of the sharing economy, Spacefy gives creative professionals access to unique and underutilized spaces while enabling property owners to further monetize their space.

Contact Information

Spacefy Inc.

Michael Bradley

Chairman

michael@spacefy.com

Jay Bedard

Investor Relations

jay@spacefy.com

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future, including but not limited to speculation that Spacefy will receive ongoing advisory services from Judeh Siwady and utilize other outsourced personnel and also will be pursuing synergistic acquisitions and partnerships that will drive growth and revenue. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements, including risks related to factors beyond the control of the Company. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Spacefy Inc. disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to a U.S. Person unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54204
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Sandia National Laboratories has announced a new, fast-track licensing program to rapidly deploy technology to a marketplace reeling from the effects of COVID-19. The move is designed to support businesses facing widespread, often technical challenges resulting from the pandemic.

"In light of the national emergency, we're making technology transfer as simple as possible," said Mary Monson, Sandia's senior manager of technology partnerships and business development. "The Rapid Technology Deployment Program is an effort to streamline deployment of potential solutions to our partners in industry."

Under the new program, more than 1,000 Sandia-patented technologies are temporarily eligible for any U.S. person to use commercially for free. People can visit Sandia's Rapid Technology Deployment Program page to apply for free licenses valid through Dec. 31, 2020. The fast-track licenses are nonexclusive, meaning more than one person can hold a license to use the same technology. The website contains information on which patents are available to license, as well as information about patents formerly held by Sandia that now are in the public domain and do not require a license to use.

Sandia's new Rapid Technology Deployment Program will:

Enable licensees to invest their full resources into combating the pandemic and its economic effects.

Expedited transfer of intellectual property by eliminating fee negotiations, transferring intellectual property in days instead of months.

Enable licensees to invest their full resources into combating the pandemic and its economic effects.

"This isn't just a public health crisis; it's also an economic crisis," said Susan Seestrom, Sandia's chief research officer. "Companies need new ways of doing business. They need cybersecurity tools so they can operate remotely. They need advanced manufacturing techniques to produce goods that are in high demand. If Sandia intellectual property can help, we want to lower barriers to people getting it."

As a multipurpose engineering laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, Sandia invents technologies for research purposes and maintains patents under nine categories: bioscience; electromagnetics; energy and environment; information and computer systems; manufacturing and assurance; materials, chemistry and nanoscience; microelectronics and microelectromechanical systems; security and defense; sensors and detectors. Sandia routinely grants licenses to businesses, universities and individual entrepreneurs to use these technologies for other commercial purposes.

The free, temporary licenses come with minimum restrictions. Technologies cannot be exported, so applicants must be legal U.S. residents, and businesses must legally be able to contract with the U.S. government.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. Sandia Labs has major research and development responsibilities in nuclear deterrence, global security, defense, energy technologies and economic competitiveness, with main facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Livermore, California.

###
The F? OMG!!! Some hungry residents of Oke Odo LCDA, Lagos state have allegedly broke into their Chairman;s office and made away with COVID-19 relief materials.

A Facebook user who broke the news and shared the video captioned it;

Oke Odo LCDA, Opposite Jubilee bridge Abule Egba, Lagos state.



Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
Regulatory News:

Within the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Verallia (Paris:VRLA) today provides an update on its business activities and reviews the measures implemented by the Group to address the situation. From the outset of the crisis, Verallia has immediately undertaken all necessary measures to guarantee the safety and health of its employees worldwide and ensure business continuity. Adaptation plans have been implemented at Group and country levels to ensure the following priorities are met:

Employee safety

Verallia immediately put in place all required health precautionary initiatives to prevent the spread of the virus at its production sites. In addition, remote work has been swiftly rolled out in all possible cases.

Business continuity and production

As a key supplier to the food industry, the Group has managed to maintain all of its production sites running, adapting its production volumes, and thus serve its customers to the fullest extent possible. In Northern Europe, Italy and Iberia, the plants continue to operate at a sustained level. France and Latin America are more impacted due to the workforce available on-site and the decline in demand from certain customers.

Strong financial structure

Verallia benefits from a very solid balance sheet structure: the leverage ratio at December 31, 2019 was 2.6x the adjusted EBITDA, a level far below the maximum leverage ratio set out in Verallia's Group financing documentation which is at 5x. The Group has no significant debt maturities before 2024 and enjoys a strong liquidity.



The Group has drawn down 200 million euros of its 500 million euros Revolving Credit Facility on the 20th of March 2020. As of Friday April 3rd, 2020, Verallia had 535 million euros in liquidity1

Verallia: united and responsible

Given its financial strength and resilience, Verallia does not intend to apply for the financial support offered by the French government (public loans or guarantees, deferrals of tax or social charges payments,) in order to allow businesses that need them the most to benefit from those financial measures. Only after having used employees' holidays, banked hours or RTT (reduction of working hours) to the highest extent possible did Verallia apply for partial unemployment, in the most responsible and restricted manner.

The management recognizes the remarkable commitment and responsiveness of all the Group's employees, as well as the teams' spontaneous movements of solidarity towards the local communities where the production sites are located, such as donations of hospital equipment, hydroalcoholic gels, protective clothing or masks.

In addition, Michel Giannuzzi, Verallia's CEO, has decided to contribute to the Group's collective effort by foregoing his 2020 variable compensation, which represents 50% of his total annual compensation. All other Executive Committee members also participate in this joint effort by renouncing 15% of their total annual compensation. This amount will be dedicated to additional donations at local level.

Outlook

Given the unprecedented nature of the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding lack of visibility, the Group withdraws its 2020 annual guidance announced on February 20, 2020. Verallia will provide a detailed update at the time of its first quarter results announcement on April 28, 2020.

About Verallia Verallia is the leading European and the third largest producer globally of glass containers for food and beverages, and offers innovative, customized and environmentally-friendly solutions.

The Group posted 2.6 billion in revenue and produced 16 billion bottles and jars in 2019. Verallia employs around 10,000 people and comprises 32 glass production facilities in 11 countries.

Verallia is listed on compartment A of the regulated market of Euronext Paris (Ticker: VRLA ISIN: FR0013447729) and is included in the following indices: SBF 120, CAC Mid 60, CAC Mid Small et CAC All-Tradable. For more information: www.verallia.com

Financial calendar

28 April 2020: financial results for Q1 2020 Press release after market close and conference call the same evening.

financial results for Q1 2020 10 June 2020 : Annual General Shareholders' Meeting.

: Annual General Shareholders' Meeting. 30 July 2020 : financial results for H1 2020 Press release after market close and presentation/ conference call the following morning.

: financial results for H1 2020 29 October 2020: financial results for Q3 2020 Press release after market close and conference call the same evening.

Disclaimer

Certain information included in this press release are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current beliefs, expectations and assumptions, including, without limitation, assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which Verallia operates, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results or performance of Verallia to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In addition to the impact of the current sanitary crisis, these risks and uncertainties include those discussed or identified under Chapter 3 "Facteurs de Risques" in the Registration Document dated 4 September 2019, approved by the AMF under number I. 19-031 and available on the Company's website (www.verallia.com) and the AMF's website (www.amf-france.org). These forward-looking information and statements are not guarantees of future performances.

This press release includes only summary information and does not purport to be comprehensive.

1 Calculated as the Cash Undrawn Revolving Credit Facility Outstanding Commercial Papers.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200406005758/en/

Contacts:

Verallia Investor Relations

Alexandra Baubigeat Boucheron - alexandra.baubigeat-boucheron@verallia.com

Press

Verallia Marie Segondat marie.segondat@verallia.com

Brunswick Benoit Grange, Hugues Boeton verallia@brunswickgroup.com +33 1 53 96 83 83
The number of coronavirus cases broke the 1,000 barrier this week, though few expect a more stringent lockdown in response, reports Gamal Essam El-Din

Government officials dismissed rumours this week that more stringent lockdown measures are in the works to help contain a possible mass outbreak of coronavirus infection.

Minister of Information Osama Heikal said in more than one TV interview that a stringent lockdown will come into effect only if the number of coronavirus infections reached the point of 1,000 per day.

Minister of Health Hala Zayed told MBC Masr that though the number of new infections in Egypt increased from 40 per day in the sixth week to 80 and 100 in the seventh and eighth weeks, we are still in the second phase, and far from the third phase of infection.

On Monday Egypt announced 149 new positive coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 1322, as well as 7 new fatalities, giving a total death toll of 85. According to Zayed 88 per cent of the cases were mild and only two per cent were sever cases.

Earlier this week Zayed said the number of infections in Egypt was reassuring when compared with other countries in the Middle East.

The minister said increases in the daily case rate in Egypt in the seventh week are in line with expected rates for each week. Egypt still has one of the lowest rates of infection globally in terms of population size, said Zayed. She blamed the increased rate of infections in the seventh week on the lack of commitment by some returnees from abroad to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Mohamed Al-Amari, head of parliaments Health Committee, told Al-Ahram Weekly that while the increase in infection rates was slow in the first five weeks, registering between 10 and 20 cases per day, it moved faster in the sixth and seventh weeks, increasing from 40 to 60 to 85 and then, on Friday, to 120.

Al-Amari expects the government to extend the curfew hours which came into effect on 25 March for another two weeks.

I do not expect a lockdown scenario like the ones in Italy or China, or even in Iran and Turkey. We remain far from such a scenario.

John Jabbour, WHO representative in Egypt, said in a TV interview on Sunday night that Egypts coronavirus outbreak is not insignificant but it is still under control The higher figures in Egypt in the seventh and eighth weeks were expected as this is the scenario which the virus took in many countries, said Jabbour.

Egyptians should follow simple instructions on social distancing, washing hands and staying at home as much as possible so that Egypt can avoid the third phase  that is the most difficult phase, said Jabbour.

By 5 April the number of reported infections in Saudi Arabia had reached 2,465  more than 1,000 higher than Egypt  though deaths in Saudi Arabia stood at 34, compared to 78 in Egypt. Algeria topped the list of Arab countries in terms of new infections and fatalities. By 5 April, the number of coronavirus cases in Algeria had reached 1,320 and deaths surged to 152. In Israel the number of infections dramatically climbed to 8,611, with 51 deaths. In Iran and Turkey things are far worse. The total number of infections in Iran had risen to 65,000 and 3,739 deaths by 5 April. In Turkey the number of infections reached 24,000 and deaths topped 500.

By 6 April Egypt ranked fifth among 22 Arab countries in terms of the number of infections, trailing Saudi Arabia (2,465), the United Arab Emirates (1,798), Qatar (1,354) and Algeria (1,320). Egypt, however, comes next to Algeria in the number of fatalities. While Algeria recorded 152 deaths, Egypt saw 78. The death toll in Saudi Arabia is now increasing by almost 10 per day, rising from 25 on Sunday to 34 on Monday. Morocco saw a surge in coronavirus numbers this week, reaching 1,113 infections and 76 deaths. Iraq saw a spike as the number of infections broke the 1,000 barrier on Monday, with the death toll rising to 61.

The figures, said Jabbour, suggest Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world (100 million), is faring well in terms of both infections and deaths.

The figures are fluctuating in a moderate way, but this should not lead people to ignore rules and precautions because this could lead to the third phase  that is the scenario in Italy and the US, said Jabbour.

Presidential Spokesman Bassam Radi said in a TV interview on Saturday that the figures show that Egypt is faring well in the face of the outbreak compared to other Arab and Middle Eastern countries.

The number of Egyptian patients recovering from the virus is increasing. The Health Ministry said the total number of patients who fully recovered increased from 179 to 241 between 1 and 4 April.

Heikal told Al-Arabiya Al-Hadath on Saturday that in light of the reasonable figures regarding the infection rate in Egypt and in comparison with neighbouring countries we are not at the point of imposing a full lockdown which would place the economy in a state of complete paralysis.

On Saturday President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi decided to postpone the opening of mega national projects scheduled for 2020 to 2021. They include the New Administrative Capital, the Grand Egyptian Museum and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation. Minister of Transport Kamel Al-Wazir, however, said the postponement does not mean construction work will stop.

These projects will continue. It is just the opening ceremonies which have been postponed because foreign guests cant be invited at the moment, said Al-Wazir.

A number of leading businessmen have urged the government to relax curfew hours, arguing that the virus is under control. In a tweet on 4 April, business tycoon Naguib Sawiris said there is no evidence that curfew hours and social distancing can stem the tide of the virus.

Sawiris also told Al-Arabiya Al-Hadath that if the government decided to extend the curfew hours for another two weeks it will be devastating for the economy. The billionaire businessman also urged Egyptians to celebrate Sham Al-Nessim on 20 April by eating huge quantities of salted fish as usual.

Alaa Arafa, another businessman, told Al-Arabiya Al-Hadath on 31 March that curfew and social distancing hours should be limited.

Extended curfew hours are too much for the Egyptian economy, said Arafa. He argued that curfew and social isolation measures did not stop the virus in many countries and the Egyptian economy cannot afford to toe the line of advanced countries which stopped production.

Merchants in Obour, Cairos biggest retail vegetable and fruit market, also voiced concern that the long curfew, particularly on Fridays and Saturdays, is harming both the economy and citizens.They urged the government to reduce curfew hours in the next two weeks to prevent over-crowding and hoarding.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 9 April, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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[April 07, 2020] AccessLex Institute Selects BenchPrep to Deliver Comprehensive, Affordable Bar Exam Prep

CHICAGO, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BenchPrep , the configurable cloud-based learning platform for nonprofits, corporations, and training organizations, today announced its partnership with leading legal education nonprofit AccessLex Institute to collaboratively deliver Helix Bar Review by AccessLex, an all-new bar exam preparation program that will offer aspiring lawyers a superior product at a price that will rationalize and reset the market. This collaboration will allow AccessLex to offer study materials for the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE), Multistate Essay Exam (MEE), Multistate Bar Exam (MBE), Multistate Performance Test (MPT), Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE), and four state-specific bar courses.

From assisting students in choosing the right law school to preparing students for their best financial future, AccessLex has worked for nearly 40 years to build confidence into every step of the legal education experience. Developing an affordable comprehensive bar review program like Helix furthers their scope of impact along the bar success continuum. And by partnering with BenchPrep and leveraging their advanced online learning platform to deliver this resource, AccessLex will be offering a top-of-the-line learning experience thats personalized, all-encompassing, easily accessible, and affordable. The guiding principle in our development of Helix is to bring to market a top-quality bar review program that offers all the information, tools and other resources needed for law school graduates to efficiently and effectively prepare for the bar exam during te bar study period, and to simultaneously challenge the notion that such a program must come with an exorbitant price tag attached, said Christopher P. Chapman, President and Chief Executive Officer of AccessLex. BenchPreps adaptive learning paths, comprehensive analytics, and ability to facilitate all types of bar prep content will help Helix inject a new level of innovation and competition into an entrenched marketplace. We are excited to leverage their expertise in learning experience and program delivery in the legal education space.



BenchPreps award-winning advanced online learning platform helps organizations increase learner engagement, improve outcomes, and drive learner success. The technology delivers streamlined content management and instructional design, along with advanced educator tools, analytics dashboards, and reporting, in one comprehensive solution. The missions of AccessLex and BenchPrep are so closely aligned, with both organizations desiring to put the learner first and give everyone the opportunity to access high-quality learning programs, said Ashish Rangnekar, co-founder and CEO of BenchPrep. Were thrilled to be working with AccessLex to help ensure students of all means can achieve their dreams of becoming lawyers with an excellent bar prep experience.

Helix will be launching its initial series of new bar exam prep courses in January 2021. About AccessLex

AccessLex Institute is a nonprofit organization committed to helping talented, purpose-driven students find their path from aspiring lawyer to fulfilled professional. In partnership with its nearly 200 Member law schools, improving access and positively influencing legal education have been at the heart of the Company's mission since 1983. AccessLex Institute has offices in West Chester, PA, and Washington, D.C., with a team of accredited financial education counselors based throughout the United States. Learn more at AccessLex.org . About BenchPrep

BenchPrep is a configurable cloud-based learning platform that delivers the best learning experience and drives revenue for corporations, training companies and nonprofits (credentialing bodies & associations). With an award-winning learner-centric platform, BenchPrep increases learner engagement, improves long-term learner retention, and reduces dropout rates. Many of the largest credentialing bodies, associations, and training organizations in the world now deliver learning programs through BenchPrep, including ACT, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), CFA Institute, CompTIA, Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HR Certification Institute, Richardson Sales Training, Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM), American Institute of Architects (AIA), Relias, National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), ProLiteracy, Hobsons, McGraw Hill Education, and OnCourse Learning. More than 6 million learners have used BenchPreps platform to attain academic and professional success. To discover more about BenchPrep, please visit benchprep.com . Media Contact:

Jon Aderson

Director of Marketing

BenchPrep

312-650-5135

[email protected]

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Penneys has overtaken Guinness to claim the title of Irelands most valuable brand.

The clothing giant climbed two spots in the ranking, also overtaking AIB, after recording a 9% rise in brand value to 2.4 billion.

AIB has taken second position, with a brand value down 18% to 1.9 billion but jumps ahead of long-standing leader, Guinness which fell 24% to 1.9 billion.

2019 marked a strong year for Penneys, with the brand celebrating 50 years in business. Penneys/Primark continued to defy the high streets gloomy slow down with strong sales performances and consistent store openings throughout the year. The brand now has 370 stores, across 12 countries.

However, the company has a turbulent time ahead with its stores shut due to Covid-19. This is expected to equate to a 705 million monthly loss in net sales for the brand.

Ryanair is Ireland's fourth biggest brand followed Smurfit Kappa, Bank of Ireland, Baileys, DCC, Jameson and packaging firm Ardagh Group ending the top ten list.

Brand Finance who prepared the report also said the top 25 most valuable Irish brands stand to lose up to 14% of value following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Top Ten Most Valuable Irish Brands
Stormont Assembly speaker Alex Maskey has announced he is to self-isolate at home for 12 weeks for health reasons.

The Sinn Fein MLA said his health trust had written to him advising him to stay at home and avoid face-to-face contact for at least 12 weeks because of his cardiac history.

In a letter to MLAs Mr Maskey said: "While I admit to feeling conflicted about doing this while fulfilling my duties as speaker, I have concluded that it is important to follow the guidance provided by those who, under the wider authority of the Executive and the Assembly, are tasked with giving such advice to our community.

"I will therefore be staying at home for at least the next 12 weeks."

Mr Maskey, who represents west Belfast, suffered a heart attack in 2005.

He added that his self-isolation will not prevent him from conducting the majority of his responsibilities as speaker but from now on he will conduct business from his home.

"I have been in frequent contact with my office every day, who are also working remotely when the Assembly is not sitting, and I have had a range of virtual meetings with senior officials. I will continue to work in this way," he said.

Deputy speaker Christopher Stalford is standing in for Mr Maskey in the chamber today.

The deputy speakers will rotate in the chamber during Mr Maskey's absence.

Mr Maskey added: "I made clear last week that we can probably not express enough from the Assembly are gratitude to those in the health service and all the public services who are demonstrating tremendous commitment and courage, all in the common cause of saving lives in our community. It is incumbent on all of us to do what we can to protect our own health, reduce the risk of infection to others and thereby reduce the burden to our health service."

First Minister Arlene Foster sent her best wishes to Mr Maskey as he self-isolates at home.
Yemeni forces take areas in eastern Jawf, uncover Daesh prisons

Iran Press TV

Monday, 06 April 2020 10:10 AM

Yemeni army and popular committees have purged areas in eastern al-Jawf Province of Takfiri militants and uncovered homes-turned-prisons that were run by the Daesh terrorist group.

Yemen's al-Masirah TV channel released footage that uncovered prisons run by Daesh, and the cooperation between the terrorists and the Saudi-led coalition against Yemen in al-Jawf.

The video showed that Daesh terrorists had turned homes in al-Marwan district in eastern al-Jawf into prisons. It showed the basements where women and children had been tortured.

According to the report, Saudi Arabia conduced 15 airstrikes on factories used by al-Qaeda terrorists to make explosive devices and booby-trap cars shortly after the area was seized by the Yemeni forces in order to remove evidence and hide plans hatched against the Yemeni people.

One civilian killed, two injured in Hudaydah

On Monday, a civilian was killed and two others were injured in shelling of residential homes by Saudi mercenaries in the province of Hudaydah.

According to Yemeni media outlets, Saudi-led militants violated the ceasefire in the province 108 times on Sunday. The violations included 32 artillery and rocket attacks.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in order to bring former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past five years.

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New Delhi, April 7 : The Union ministers have been on their toes since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an unprecedented nationwide lockdown on March 24 to contain the spread of Covid-19.

In this situation, Union minister Prakash Javadekar is also using his time at his official residence conducting meetings with his colleagues, overseeing functionaries of his ministries and exploring technologies to monitor all the work being carried out.

He is holding regular conferencing and telephone calls with the top officials of the three ministries -- Heavy Industries, Environment and Information and Broadcasting.

The minister is also monitoring central government schemes in Maharashtra to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Apart from this, Javadekar is also devoting his time to answering queries from the states and other ministries throughout the day.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
April 07 : When the whole world has come to a standstill due to spread of Coronavirus, Being Positive is the only mantra to survive this tough time. Amidst this difficult time, to spread the ray of hope is a song 'Muskurayega India' presented by Akshay Kumar and Jacky Bhagnani which got released yesterday on 6th April, 2020.

The video was shared by Khiladi Kumar on his social media account where he wrote, "Muskurayega India: All we need is a united stand. Aur phir #MuskurayegaIndia! Do share with your family and friends. @jackybhagnani @vishalmishraofficial #CapeofGoodFilms @jjustmusicofficial"

The song starts with a snippet from PM Modi's address to the nation where he can be seen saying that we are together in this and we will fight this pandemic and emerge victorious. Post his speech, various bollywood celebrities feature in the song with snippets of normal people of the country.

Apart from Akshay, stars like Tiger Shroff, Kartik Aryan, Rajkummar Rao, Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar , Siddharth Malhotra, Tapsee Pannu, Ananya Pandey, Vicky Kausal, Rakul Preet Singh, RJ Malishka, Shikhar Dhawan, Kiara Advani and Jacky Bhagnani are a part of the song and all the actors shot their parts in their respective houses. The song has been sung and composed by Vishal Mishra and has been presented by JJust Music and Cape of Good Films.

It is a film of unity and togetherness. The song is a ray of hope and motivates everyone that we are all together in this and soon we will all emerge victorious out of this.

Akshay is trying to do his best to help the country and the citizens at this dark hour. He earlier donated 25 crores to PM CARES Fund and now through this song he has tried to bring back smile to the face of the people of the country amidst this crisis.
A young man coughed on police when he was told to leave Bondi Beach is begging not to be banned from the suburb because it reminds him of his late mother.

Clayton Ede ignored signs that warned the world famous beach had been closed on March 23 to the public because of COVID-19 laws.

The 21-year-old told lifeguards he would 'wait for police' to force him to leave before he was eventually arrested on Sunday at 9am.

As Ede appeared before Sydney's Central Local court, he begged magistrates not to ban him from the beach as his mother's ashes are scattered there.

Clayton Eade (pictured with police officers) has been banned from the iconic Sydney beach after he coughed on police when he was asked to leave on Sunday

Eade (pictured leaving Waverley Police Station) was released on Monday with $300 fine, an intensive corrections order and a strict community corrections order

The 21-year-old spent the night behind bars and pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a council notice, failing to comply with a police order and resisting and intimidating police

Ede spent the night behind bars and pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a council notice, failing to comply with a police order and resisting and intimidating police.

He was released on Monday with a $300 fine, an intensive corrections order and a strict community corrections order, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Eade appeared via video link before Central Local Court on Monday with his right arm still in a thick cast with a sling.

During his sentencing he continuously begged not to be banned from Bondi Beach, saying his mother's ashes were spread there.

'After my mother died  we spread her ashes at Bondi Beach,' he told the court.

'It's very close to my heart. I won't go on the sand, I won't break the law. Being able to see the ocean at Bondi, it reminds me of my mum.'

Images of the arrest showed Eade being pinned to a metal railing by police at Bondi Beach

Lifeguards at Bondi Beach alerted police before Eade was cautioned for failing to comply with the signs

The 21-year-old's lawyer, Paul Johnson, said Eade's hand got caught in the lining of his pocket and may have looked like he tried to resist arrest.

When asked about coughing on police, Mr Johnson said it was not 'fake' and Eade did not mean to intimidate the police officer.

'What? I don't have coronavirus,' Eade said to police.

Eade was filmed leaving the court on Monday and when approached by reporters said he did not regret walking on the beach.

'Am I sorry for walking on a free beach? No I'm not,' he said, Nine News reported.

During the arrest police claim Eade coughed at an officer and claimed to have COVID-19. It was later confirmed that he did not have the virus

He was sentenced to an eight-month intensive corrections order for coughing on the police officer, an 18-month community corrections order and fined $300 for resisting arrest.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Images of the arrest showed Eade being pinned to a metal railing by police before he was removed from the beach. His right arm was in a cast with a sling.

He has now been banned from stepping foot east of Campbell Parade for the next three months.

Magistrate Clare Farnan said it was clear he showed a level of remorse but said it was a 'mystery' as to why he did not leave the beach when asked.

Magistrate Farnan described the behaviour as 'foolish' and said the 21-year-old put 'his own selfish desires' before the interest of the community.

Beaches in Sydney have been closed indefinitely in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

NSW Police have been patrolling Bondi Beach on horseback, approaching anyone who was sitting down in the grass and asking couples and families to move along back to their homes.

The number of positive coronavirus cases across Australia has reached 5,882.
DETROIT, MI  Ford Motor Co. says it has manufactured and shipped over 1 million clear plastic face shields to hospitals and first responders all over the country, the Associated Press reports.

Ford sent the 1 millionth protective shield to New York City as part of a shipment of more than 30,000 shields, spokeswoman Elizabeth Kraft said.

The company began designing the shields on March 19 after getting a request from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. About 260 employees represented by the United Auto Workers union are now producing at a rate of 225,000 shields per day on two shifts.

Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota, Volkswagen and other automakers and parts suppliers have mobilized to build face masks, respirators to help protect people from the novel coronavirus.

Ford and GM also plan to build ventilators.
Banks' lending rates are on a downward spiral, first with consumption-led slowdown and now due to coronavirus-induced inactivity. As per the recently released RBI data, lending rates of scheduled commercial banks on fresh rupee loans touched 66-month low of 9.26 per cent in February 2020.

Lending rates have been constantly declining since August last year on a monthly basis. Fresh loans witnessed a skimpy rise of 7 basis points (bps) in January, but resumed the downward trend in February with a month-on-month (m-o-m) decline of nearly 10 basis points. In fact, fresh lending rates are on a decline since January 2019. It gradually reduced from 9.97 per cent to 9.26 now. However, four months saw a rise in lending rates, on a m-o-m basis, during this period.

Earlier this month, the central bank had announced a massive 75 bps cut in repo rate coupled with 100 bps reduction in cash reserve ratio to mitigate the impact of coronavirus pandemic on the economy. The reverse repo rate too was slashed by 90 bps to reduce financial stress on banks and encourage them to lend more to businesses. The RBI has reduced the repo rate five times since the beginning of 2019.

The deposits rates on outstanding rupee term deposits were flat at around 6.5 per cent, during the month of February.

With the 210 bps decrease in repo rate since January 2019, lending rates are likely to soften. "For repo-linked loans, we believe the spread between the repo and deposit rates will drive NIM outlook, which at this time is still quite high, given the sharp reduction in the repo rate from the last policy meeting," a Kotak Institutional Equities report said.

Public sector banks witnessed a noteworthy m-o-m decline of around 20 bps while private sector banks' fresh lending rates increased by nearly 10 bps to 8.6 per cent and 10.3 per cent, respectively in February. According to the report, currently the gap between fresh lending rates of private banks and public sector banks is approximately at 1.6 per cent - a level not seen in the past five years.

Lending rates on outstanding loans were flat m-o-m at 10.1 per cent in February 2020, having declined nearly 20 bps since August 2019. "Banks have started cutting MCLR rates in recent months. Both private and public sector banks have cut rates by nearly 50-60 bps over past 12 months. Lending rates are likely to see further declines going forward, on account of continued MCLR cuts," the report added further.

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DANBURY  Ezra Zimmerman says he was just doing his job.

But when the owner of the Ridgefield-based EZ Moving company arrived in Danbury with four ventilators from Kentucky, he was met with a police escort and an estimated 75 people cheering and holding signs outside Danbury Hospital to thank him.

It was pretty amazing to see all these health care workers that are on the front lines greeting us, Zimmerman said. I feel they are the real heroes. We were just doing our job.

The hospital had purchased 10 used ventilators for about $200,000 each through community donations. This equipment has been hard to come by in Connecticut and is needed to treat patients who are seriously ill from the coronavirus.

Ordinarily, it would have taken seven to 10 days for the ventilators to ship from Kentucky.

That was going to be beyond when we needed them for our peak, said Sharon Adams, president of Danbury and New Milford hospitals.

One of Zimmermans customers is an anesthesiologist at the hospital and reached out to the mover to see if he could pick up the equipment as soon as possible.

Zimmerman immediately said yes and left the next day (Sunday) for Kentucky. He and an employee picked up the first four ventilators on Monday and returned to the hospital on Tuesday.

It felt like the right thing to do, he said.

Zimmerman will deliver the other six ventilators, which were not yet ready for pickup, to the hospital on Saturday.

Zimmerman was paid for the delivery, but said he charged a discounted price.

It was an honor to be have been hired by the hospital to do this, he said. Its a big deal that we were able to help the first responders in this time of need.

Mayor Mark Boughton praised the work of the hospital workers and the delivery of the ventilators.

Its four more than we had yesterday, he said. Every little one helps. Every little act of kindness helps.

Danbury Hospital has roughly 70 ventilators, but this number fluctuates as more come in or leave for other hospitals in greater need within the Nuvance Health network that Danbury is a part of.

Weve been so fortunate in the last couple days because of outreach and because of the state doing some work for us, that our numbers have been changing, not only for Danbury, but for our Nuvance system, Adams said.

The latest ventilators are used, but will undergo the hospitals standard inspection and are expected to work just as well as new ones, Adams said.

She said she does not expect the ventilators to be needed right away, in large part because practices such as social distancing and staying home are working to slow the spread of the virus.

At the moment, I dont see us using them immediately, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't be using them in a week from now, Adams said.

The U.S. Surgeon General said Sunday the nation should prepare for the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans lives, forecasting deaths on the level of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor.

But Adams said she expects Danburys surge to come in a week or two. Then, the hospital may start using the 25 beds it set up outside in a tent, or the 219 beds at Western Connecticut State University.

What we are being is optimistic that we are seeing the numbers leveling a little, she said. That is giving us time, as we had been hoping for, to be sure we can continue to prepare and have the equipment we need, the beds, continuing to have the staff available to meet these needs.
St. Lukes University Health Network said Tuesday it is among the first institutions worldwide to use a new device able to track a patients coronavirus infection from anywhere.

St. Luke's in Fountain Hill began March 30 using the Masimo SafetyNet to track in-hospital patients diagnosed with COVID-19, the illness caused by the viral pandemic.

St. Lukes says it plans to use the Masimo SafetyNet tether-less sensor and cloud-based surveillance system to monitor upwards of 2,000 hospitalized patients and lower acuity cases in the home. These may also include staff and patients who are quarantined at home with the virus. St. Luke's has also begun using the device to monitor non-COVID-19 patients in general medical-surgical units.

Masimo, based in Irvine, California, and St. Lukes jointly announced the new technologys use in the Lehigh Valley area in a news release. The technology is also in use at University Hospitals, one of the largest health systems in northeastern Ohio, the company says.

The tele-medicine device uses a wearable, single-patient-use sensor to monitor patients' oxygen levels. It pairs via a secure Bluetooth connection with a patients Android or iOS smartphone or smart device to offer clinicians an accurate snapshot of a patient's health, helping to speed decisions on potentially life-saving intervention.

In the COVID-19 battle, the SafetyNet is designed to help manage surges in patient populations while maintaining the safety of other patients and providers and allowing hospitals to expand patient remote monitoring into alternative care spaces, including overflow locations, emergency recovery facilities and home care settings, St. Luke's says.

This technology is game-changing in light of the crush of demand on our hospitals during this COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Aldo Carmona, St. Lukes senior vice president of clinical innovation and chairman of the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, said in a news release. With this wearable device, we can create temporary, pop-up respiratory monitoring units as needed to meet the changing patient volumes and track employees health in their homes if they have been exposed to COVID-19, the flu or any other serious illness.

The list of illnesses the Masimo SafetyNet can help monitor includes COPD, heart failure and oncology, according to the release. The system uses Masimo CarePrograms that can be updated through the cloud for maximum flexibility, and can be configured to actively notify patients to answer questions such as, Are you having trouble breathing? and What is your temperature? while pushing patient responses along with the monitoring data to clinicians for evaluation.

We know that continuous physiologic monitoring with Masimos Patient SafetyNet improves outcomes and saves lives, Carmonoa says in the release. "The ability to extend that capability to patients in non-traditional settings and at home during this crisis with Masimo SafetyNet is transformative. Only through our relationship with Masimo could this have been possible.

For more information on the coronavirus, including what you can do, consult your state health department at health.pa.gov or covid19.nj.gov and the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover or a personal story you want to share.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
The director general of the World Health Organization has denounced as racist the remarks of two French doctors who suggested a potential vaccine for be tested in Africa.

During the organizations coronavirus briefing on Monday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was appalled by the comments from the scientists at a time when there was need for global solidarity to defeat the march of the pandemic. The comments, made during a discussion on French television last week, were centered on the launch of trials in Europe and Australia to see if a tuberculosis vaccine could be used to treat the virus.

If I can be provocative, shouldnt we be doing this study in Africa, where there are no masks, no treatments, no intensive care? Jean-Paul Mira, head of intensive care at Cochin hospital in Paris, said. A bit like as it is done elsewhere for some studies on Aids. In prostitutes, we try things because we know that they are highly exposed and that they do not protect themselves.

Camille Locht, research director at Frances national health institute, Inserm, agreed, saying: You are right. We are in the process of thinking about a study in parallel in Africa.

On Monday, Mr. Tedros called those comments a disgrace and condemned them in the strongest terms possible.

Africa cannot and will not be a testing ground for any vaccine, he said. We will follow all the rules to test any vaccine or therapeutics all over the world using exactly the same rule.

The hangover from colonial mentality has to stop, he said.

A health official from the Democratic Republic of Congo last week stirred controversy after saying the country would participate in any future vaccine tests.
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Modly reportedly flew to Guam and on Sunday addressed those stationed on the USS Roosevelt and had served under Crozier. In his remarks aboard the aircraft carrier, Modly said  among other things  that Crozier should have known his letter voicing urgent concerns about the virus aboard his ship would leak to the media. He said if Crozier didnt think this would be the result, he was too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this.
I think a lot of people in Philadelphia were waiting to hear that he had died, she said. He became part of the citys consciousness in an ugly way.

In 1972 he began a five-year relationship with Ms. Maddux, who was from Tyler, Texas, and had graduated from nearby Bryn Mawr College. Her family never liked him, considering him a bully, and in 1977 she left him and moved to New York.

He was furious and demanded that she come back to Philadelphia to retrieve her belongings, saying he would throw them into the street if she didnt. She came back. And then she vanished. She was 30.

Mr. Einhorn denied any involvement in her disappearance, saying she had gone out to the local co-op to buy some tofu and sprouts and had never returned.

It was a measure of his ability to make important connections that after he was charged with murder, his lawyer was Arlen Specter, the citys former district attorney who was then in private practice and who went on to become a United States senator.

Mr. Specter managed to get Mr. Einhorns bail reduced to $40,000. To be released from custody, Mr. Einhorn had to put up only 10 percent, or $4,000. It was paid by a Canadian socialite, one of several well-off people who supported him financially and who doubted he could have been involved in murder.

Ira Samuel Einhorn was born on May 15, 1940, in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1961 with a major in English.
The body of Robert F. Kennedys granddaughter was found on Monday by Maryland authorities, four days after she and her eight-year-old son disappeared in a canoe in Chesapeake Bay.

Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, was found dead in 25 feet of water just after 5.30pm on Monday by the Charles County Dive and Rescue team, authorities said.

The search for her eight-year-old son Gideon will continue Tuesday as authorities presume he is dead.

Maeve, a public health and human rights lawyer, was found about 2.5 miles south of the Shady Side, Maryland home of her mother, former Maryland lieutenant governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

Maeve is one of granddaughters of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and a great-niece of former President John F. Kennedy.

The body of Robert F. Kennedy's granddaughter Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, who went missing in a canoe Thursday in Chesapeake Bay was found by Maryland authorities Monday night, but the search for her eight-year-old son Gideon continues

Maeve and husband David McKean are pictured with their three children, Gideon, Gabriella and Toby in a recent Facebook snap

Maeve and David with their three children in a recent photo

Neighbors and members of the DC community left cards to Maeve and her young son on a tree outside their Washington DC home following news of their disappearance

The mother and son disappeared on Thursday as they were canoeing in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.

They climbed into the canoe to retrieve a lost ball from a waterfront home, when they failed to return to shore.

Both McKean and her son were seen struggling to return to shore during a canoe trip near Herring Bay, Washington, DC.

A search conducted by the US Coast Guard ended for the two on Saturday but state Natural Resources police continued it.

The family had moved out of their Washington DC home into the Shady Side, Maryland home of Maeve's mother to escape the coronavirus outbreak.

Maeve was a public health and human rights lawyer who serves as executive director of the Georgetown University Global Health Initiative. She graduated from the prestigious Washington, DC college with a law degree.

Maeve married her husband David McKean in 2009 and together they shared three young children  Gideon, eight; Gabriella, seven; and Toby, two and a half.

Maeve and David were spending time with their three children at the family lakehouse in Shady Side, Maryland (above) when the tragedy occurred

The family is usually based in Washington DC, but had moved to a family lakehouse in Shady Side amid the coronavirus crisis

The Maryland State Police, US Coast Guard, and local police and fire departments all joined the search the the mother and son over the weekend

McKean's mother, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, is the eldest daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy and niece of the late President John F. Kennedy. Kathleen and Maeve are pictured above in 1995

Over the weekend McKean shared a heartbreaking Facebook post paying tribute to his wife after she and Gideon were assumed to be drowned.

In his Facebook post, David explained that he and Maeve had decided to take their children to a family lakehouse in Shady Side, Maryland to give them more space to play during the coronavirus lockdown.

'Maeve and Gideon were playing kickball by the small, shallow cove behind the house, and one of them kicked the ball into the water. The cove is protected, with much calmer wind and water than in the greater Chesapeake. They got into a canoe, intending simply to retrieve the ball, and somehow got pushed by wind or tide into the open bay,' David stated in his post.

About half an hour later, the mother and son were spotted far from the shore by a neighbor, and the police were promptly called.

'After that last sighting, they were not seen again. The Coast Guard recovered their canoe, which was capsized and miles away, at approximately 6:30 yesterday evening,' David somberly stated.

Authorities said at the time that their boat appeared to have been 'overtaken by the strong winds' that day.

David remembered Maeve as his 'best friend' and 'soulmate'.

'You could hear Maeve's laugh a block awayand she laughed a lot. She was magicalwith endless energy that she would put toward inventing games for our children, taking on another project at work or in our community, and spending time with our friends,' he stated.

David McKean confirmed on Thursday that his wife, Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, and son Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean (center right) were missing

Kathleen's brother, Robert F Kennedy Jr, announced on Instagram that the rescue operation had been called off

David shared his heartbreaking post to Facebook after the Coast Guard called off the search for his wife and young son

On Sunday Robert F Kennedy Jr shared an Instagram post showing over 100 members of the extended Kennedy family in a Zoom video conference prayer meeting following the loss of Maeve and Gideon

Tributes have poured in for Maeve and her son, many from the extended Kennedy family still reeling from the death of another one of Robert F. Kennedy's granddaughters Saoirse Kennedy Hill who died of an overdose at the age of 22 last year.

Saoirse, who was the daughter of Courtney Kennedy Hill, is Maeve's cousin.

Maeve's mother is Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who served as Maryland's sixth lieutenant governor from 1995 until 2003.

Kennedy Townsend released her own statement about the presumed death of her daughter on Friday night.

'With profound sadness, I share the news that the search for my beloved daughter Maeve and grandson Gideon has turned from rescue to recovery'.

Meanwhile, Maeve's cousin and Massachusetts Senate hopeful, Joe Kennedy III, also released a statement.

'We love you Maeve. We love you Gideon. Our family has lost two of the brightest lights,' he wrote on Twitter, fearing the worst.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was married to Maeve's aunt, Kerry Kennedy.

On Saturday, Governor Cuomo's daughter, Michaela Kennedy Cuomo, also shared her personal tribute.

'Maeve (my cousin) and Gideon (her son) had smiles that burst through their eyes and bought joy to all those around them,' 22-year-old Michaela wrote.

'Not being able to hold loved ones close and be together is crushing.'

On Sunday Robert F Kennedy Jr shared an Instagram post showing over 100 members of the extended Kennedy family in a Zoom video conference prayer meeting following the loss of Maeve and Gideon.

The disappearance comes less than a year after Saoirse Kennedy Hill (above), another of Robert F Kennedy's granddaughters, died from an overdose at the age of 22. Saoirse, who was the daughter of Courtney Kennedy Hill, is Maeve's cousin
Gov. Tom Wolfs decision to close down what his administration has decided are businesses that arent life sustaining has revealed a sharp divide among Republican and Democratic legislators over whether that was an appropriate move.

In a House State Government Committee discussion Monday, lawmakers debated two bills that sought to roll back portions of the governors business closure order. Republican lawmakers argued that shutting down many small businesses and the construction industry is creating unnecessary hardships for consumers and harming the states economy.

But Democrats defended the governors action. Democrats countered by saying the GOP-sponsored legislation that would allow those businesses to reopen puts company profits above human lives.

Both bills passed the committee on 15-10 party-line votes with most of the members voting remotely. Many of those who were present wore masks and gloves. The measures are now in the pipeline for full House consideration.

On March 19, Wolf ordered all non-life-sustaining businesses to close but provided for a waiver process for those businesses to seek an exemption from the closure order.

The waiver process, which ended on Friday, drew criticism from lawmakers and the business community over its lack of clarity and transparency. The Wolf Administration refused to release the list of waiver recipients. That frustration, coupled with the hardships it was creating, spurred the introduction of bills the state government committee considered.

Rep. Joseph Hohenstein, D-Philadelphia, said the solution to lawmakers concerns about Wolfs closure order was "to go directly to advocate with the governor and [the Department of Community and Economic Development] to provide a better process. We dont gain anything if we simply open floodgates to construction and retail activity that cannot be conducted safely.

But Republican lawmakers have argued their calls and emails to the governor seeking to resolve issues drew no or dismissive responses.

The state government committee approved a bill sponsored by House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny County, that would allow public and private construction activity to resume. Those companies would have to adhere to the Centers for Disease Control and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency COVID-19 specific guidelines.

Another bill, sponsored by Rep. Brad Roae, R-Crawford County, would allow retail businesses identified by the governor as not life sustaining to open. Those retailers would only be allowed one customer and one employee in the store at a time.

Rep. Kevin Boyle, D-Philadelphia, along with other Democrats, voiced strong opposition to both bills. He said reopening the economy at a time when Pennsylvanians are dying from the contagious virus is irresponsible. He said the time will come when it is appropriate to talk about a phased reopening of the economy but doing it now would only blunt the states COVID-19 mitigation response.

I could not possibly urge members more to please, please reject this bill, Boyle said. Lets not be national news for all the wrong reasons.

Committee Chairman Garth Everett, R-Lycoming County, said the committees passage of the bills was just the start of the legislative approval process and more work to refine them could occur later.

About the bill allowing small retail shops to open, Everett noted the governors order allowed big box stores to operate while handicapping small businesses by not allowing them to be open.

There has to be a balance," Everett said. This is a bill that will search for balance.

Others said businesses would not be required to open but those that meet the requirements that the legislation imposed could if they so chose.

As for restarting the construction industry, a Democratic member argued it would be impossible for workers on construction projects that share a portable toilet and do work that requires them to stand less than six feet apart to adhere to CDC guidelines.

Republican Rep. Dawn Keefer of York County said all the states around Pennsylvania are allowing some type of construction to continue on. Some of them are following CISA workforce guidelines and others are following a version of CISA so they are doing it. ... There is a medium ground here and I believe we can do it.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at a press conference about the impeachment inquiry of President Trump, at the Capitol in Washington on Oct. 2, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Pelosi: House Will Shift to Electronic Floor Documents to Combat the Spread of Virus

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that the House will move to a digital system to submit Floor documents in order to prevent representatives and staff from catching the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

In a letter sent to her House colleagues on Monday, the senior Democrat said leaders are looking to take the necessary precautions so lawmakers can continue to serve the public.

During this time of crisis, House leadership and institutional staff continue to examine all possible steps to protect the health and safety of members and our staffs, so that we are best able to serve our constituents, said Pelosi.

In that spirit, in consultation with the Rules Committee, Committee on House Administration, Office of the Clerk, and Office of the Parliamentarian and in accordance with current social distancing guidelines, the House will soon take additional action to reduce the physical presence of members and staff in the Capitol, by formalizing a new system for submission of documents related to Floor action, she continued.

The new system will be implemented Tuesday, and staff will submit all floor documents electronically, including bills, resolutions, co-sponsors, and extensions of remarks.

This upcoming weeks pro forma (brief) sessions will be held Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. ET and Friday at 9 a.m. ET. Pro forma sessions for the remainder of the month are expected to follow a similar schedule, Pelosi wrote. Later today, the Clerks Office will send out detailed guidance on where and how to submit materials.

The new rule is expected to remain in effect through April 19, but Pelosi suggested that it could be extended if continued disruption of House operations remains necessary due to the pandemic.

Normal practice for Floor submissions will resume once the House returns full-time to the Capitol for regular business, she wrote.

The House is on recess after passing a third CCP virus relief package, but top Democrats are eyeing a phase 4 bill.

Besides shifting to electronic documents during House business, many lawmakers have previously suggested House and Senate votes happen remotely.

In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) March 23 called on the Senate to support his bipartisan resolution with Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), to amend the Standing Rules of the Senate to allow senators to vote remotely during a national crisis. At that time five lawmakers had tested positive for the CCP virus.

What Sen. Portman of Ohio on the Republican side and what I have introduced with him on the Democratic side is an effort to establish a verifiable technology and procedure so that members can voteonce the decision is made that were in a time of emergencyand not be physically present on the floor of the Senate, Durbin said.

Its time for us to have this conversation about how to protect members and their families, staff and their families, in the way that we vote on the floor of the Senate when were facing a public health crisis such as the one that we have at this moment.

As of April, six members of Congress were known to have tested positive for the CCP virus, one senator and five members of the House of Representatives: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Rep. Joe Cunningham, (D-S.C.), Rep. Mike Kelly (D-Pa.), Rep. Nydia Valazquez (D-N.Y.), Rep. Ben McAdams (D-Utah), and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.).

Pelosi appointed House Rules Committee Chairman Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) to research the legal issues around voting remotely. In his report McGovern offered the option of voting by proxy, something that would require a change in the Houses rules and a vote of approval.

We would have to change our rules to do that. If one person objected, we would be forced to have a vote and everyone would have to come back and cast a vote, he said.

Some people are suggesting remote voting, others are suggesting maybe proxy voting. To do that we have to address, we have some constitutional challenges, logistical challenges and security challenges. Even though some of these things sound simple and a matter of fact, in real life its pretty complicated.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) rejected any possibility of distance voting but did emphasize reducing numbers of legislators that gather at one time during sessions.

Well not be doing that. There are a number of different ways to avoid getting too many people together, McConnell told members of the press. We can deal with the social distancing issue without fundamentally changing Senate rules.

Pelosi said that establishing an efficient system for remote voting during a crisis is not realistic.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has ordered over one million kits for member states to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The new order, according to the sub-regional body, is to supplement its ongoing distribution of other kits and medicines including Chloroquine and Azithromycin.

A statement issued by ECOWAS on Tuesday, re-affirmed its solidarity with member-states as well as its support.

The sub regional body said it had already given financial support to member-states, distributed kits and drugs and additional kits as well as ventilators for distribution.

To address the emergency at hand, ECOWAS has immediately made available financial support from its own resources, in addition to assistance from international partners, for the purchase of medical supplies and equipment essential for the fight against the pandemic.

WAHO has already purchased and dispatched to the 15 Member States: 30,500 diagnostic test kits; 10,000 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and 740,000 prescription tablets (Chloroquine and Azithromycin).

Orders have been placed to acquire for Member States, the following items:

240,000 diagnostic kits; 240,000 extraction kits; 250,000 viral sample transport equipment; 285,100 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE); 268,100 masks for medical personnel, 120 ventilators and several thousand litres of alcohol gel and disinfectants.

WAHO is also working, in close collaboration with the specialised services in Member States, to deploy personnel and epidemiological surveillance and data collection tools, strengthen the capacity of reference laboratories and train technical personnel, the statement said.

According to ECOWAS, it is working with its health organisation West African Health Organisation (WAHO) to continue both internal and external resource mobilisation, with a view to increasing the availability of medical materials and equipment.

It said that the effort of ECOWAS is to complement its intervention as part of a Short and Medium Term State Assistance Plan (humanitarian assistance and support for economic recovery).

The body thanked all their partners for their financial and technical support to the Community, especially during the difficult times.

The ECOWAS Commission is taking this opportunity to urge people to continue to implement the measures recommended by the Health Authorities, and to comply with the prescribed hygiene guidelines.

(NAN)
Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Tuesday urged citizens to stay home and safe as he warned that the next two weeks are critical for the country in the fight against the novel coronavirus that has so far infected nine persons in the Himalayan nation.

In his televised address to the nation on Tuesday, Oli urged one and all to stay home to remain safe from this greatest challenge of the present times.

"Lets maintain physical distancing. Let's stay home safely," he urged the people.

"Federal government is coordinating with local and provincial levels to prevent and contain novel coronavirus across the country, remarked Oli adding that the government has arranged quarantine facilities for 30,566 people across the country.

Similarly, there is provision of 3,259 isolation beds. At this time, 9,168 people are in quarantine and so far nine people have been tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

As the third week of lockdown started in Nepal on Monday, Oli said that the next two weeks are critical for the country in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

On Monday, the Nepal government extended the ongoing nationwide lockdown by another eight days till April 15 to contain the spread of the virus in the country.

He also urged all foreign returnees to stay in quarantine for at least 14 days.

"We have made arrangements for those who have been living in neighbouring countries," he added.

During his address, he also extended his heartfelt condolences to all the Nepalese who have lost their life abroad due to this deadly disease and wished for speedy recovery of all who have been infected.

He also informed that he had started holding talks with head of states/governments to take stock of Nepalese nationals in various countries.

Oli also said that the government is introducing a new tracing application soon, to trace the contacts in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19.

He also urged media to disseminate positive and information to encourage people to be strong enough to cope up with this disease.

"Let's not spread fake or rumour".

The government will also provide double allowance to the health workers and security personnel working in the front line to prevent and contain novel coronavirus, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
I brought it in one night, and the next morning some guy called me and said my car had been stolen, Klein said. His vehicle was found in an alley in early February, without its license plates.
Swedish central government payments resulted in a deficit of SEK 42.1 billion in March. The Debt Office's forecast was a deficit of SEK 12.0 billion. The deviation is mainly due to the fact that foreign currency loans to the Riksbank were refinanced earlier than expected and loans to Swedish Export Credit Corporation. Tax income was in line with forecast.



The primary balance was 4.6 billion lower than expected. Tax income was SEK 0.3 billion lower than forecasted. At the same time, payments to local governments were SEK 2.5 billion higher as a result of extra support to strengthen welfare, which was decided by the Riksdag on 19 February following a committee initiative. In addition, the payments were higher from, among others, the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency and the universities.

The economic downturn due to the outbreak of covid-19 is expected to have a clearer impact on the central government's budget balance as of April.

The Debt Office's net lending to government agencies etc. were SEK 27.3 billion higher than calculated, this was due to temporarily higher lending to the Riksbank and lending to Swedish Export Credit Corporation. Loans in foreign currency to the Riksbank equivalent to SEK 20.5 billion maturing in April were refinanced already in March. When the original loan matures in April, lending to the Riksbank will decrease by the same amount. Swedish Export Credit Corporation borrowed SEK 10.0 billion, within its borrowing limit of SEK 200 billion.

Interest payments on central government debt were SEK 1.8 billion lower than forecast. This was due to lower capital losses in switch auctions of bonds in SEK than estimated.

For the twelve-month period up to the end of March 2020, central government payments resulted in a surplus of SEK 64.0 billion.

Central government debt amounted to SEK 1,118 billion at the end of March.

The outcome for April 2020 will be published on 8 May at 9.30 a.m.

The virus outbreak will lead to large deficits during the forecast period, 2020-2021

The outbreak of covid-19 will have serious consequences for economic development both in Sweden and the rest of the world. A number of different economic measures have been taken to mitigate the effects. Processing times and the extent to which decided economic measures will be used make it uncertain how quickly and how much the central government budget balance will be affected. The measures are expected to have impact on the central government budget balance as of April. In addition, income for companies and employees will be lower than previous forecasted as a result of the economic downturn. Expenditure is also expected to increase in addition to the economic measures presented.

In the short term, a lower budget balance will primarily be managed within the liquidity management, as the Swedish National Debt Office communicated on March 16. This is in line with the Debt Office's usual strategy of first increasing the short-term borrowing and then gradually adjusting the long-term borrowing as needed. This means that the previously communicated plan for bond borrowing applies until further notice.

The Debt Office intends to return on 19 May with an overall assessment of the economic development, forecasts of the central government budget balance and borrowing in the report "Central Government Borrowing - Forecast and Analysis 2020:2".

Contact

Press Secretary, +46 (0)8 613 47 01

Budget balance and central government net borrowing requirement1 (SEK million) Outcome Mar. Forecast Mar. Deviation Mar. Acc. Dev2 Outcome 12-month Budget balance -42 074 -12 005 -30 069 -16 724 63 960 Net borrowing requirement1 42 074 12 005 30 069 16 724 -63 960 Primary balance3 12 533 7 890 4 643 -9 241 -53 103 Net lending to agencies etc.4 25 553 -1 712 27 265 27 943 -35 288 Interest payments on central government debt 3 988 5 827 -1 839 -1 978 24 431 - Interest on loans in SEK 1 240 3 865 -2 625 -2 566 15 898 - Interest on loans in foreign currency -191 -130 -61 -146 -483 - Realised currency gains and losses 2 939 2 092 847 734 9 016 1 The net borrowing requirement corresponds to the budget balance with opposite sign. 2 Sum of monthly forecast deviations since last forecast (February 2020). 3 Net of the state's primary expenditure and income. 4 The net of government agencies etc. deposits and loans in the state's internal bank. The net lending includes both current government operations and temporary occurrences which can be decided on short notice. The net lending affects the net borrowing requirement and central government debt, but are not covered by the Central government expenditure ceiling.

More data on the borrowing requirement and government debt:

https://www.riksgalden.se/en/statistics/statistics-on-central-government-borrowing/

The monthly outcome of the central government net borrowing requirement is included in the official statistics of Sweden.

Attachment
Police have lodged 52 cases and arrested 172 people for attacking police and doctors. They have also registered 113 cases for the foul posts leading to communal disharmony through social media. State home minister Anil Deshmukh said that the state government will take stern action against 50 people with the link of Tablighi Markaz, for not coming forward to report to the authorities.

Deshmukh said that maximum of the 1,400 people who had attended Tablighi Markaz event last month at Delhi, have been traced. There are 50 to 60 such attendee have still not reported to the authorities despite of the repeated appeal. If they do not cooperate the authorities, we will take appropriate action against them, he said.

The home minister said that the police have been directed to seize the two and four wheelers of the people who come out of their homes without any reason. He said that 4,000 such vehicles have been seized across the state. He said that that 172 people have been arrested in 52 cases in the state for attacking police and doctors.

The police have also registered 113 cases against the people for posting the messages spreading communal disharmony and wrong message during the challenging times amid Kovid-19 outbreak. Of them highest cases (15) are in Beed district followed by 11 in Pune, 9 in Mumbai.
The health officials in Brazil who are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic have released a stark caution about the lack of testing devices, masks, hospital beds, and even trained health workers across the largest nation of Latin America.

In a report which the Health Ministry issued on Friday, it indicated that Brazil could presently give roughly 6,700 COVID-19 tests each day.

However, it will need to have between 30,000 to 50,000 tests processed every day, during the pandemic's peak, forecasted to take place in June.

The public healthcare system's latest assessment has raised serious questions regarding its capacity to deal with the outbreak in Brazil of almost 210 million.

More so, the assessment has called to maintain quarantine standards in states hit the hardest by the pandemic, challenging the more laid-back approach of President Jair Bolsonaro to COVID-19.

Reports have it that the president has compared this pandemic that's been sweeping the world for a couple of months now, to a "little flu" and attacked in public, the governors of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, who introduced the quarantine standards. The clusters are two of Brazil's most significant.

As of this writing, the country's health ministry had already reported more than 11,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 480 deaths in Brazil.

Despite the vast numbers, the outbreak, health officials said, is still in its first stages, and the hospitals in the country are not that ready yet to manage the peak.

READ: Beyond Trump's Wall: The American Backpackers Riding Out COVID-19 in Latin America

Lack of Trained Health Workers

Additionally, the officials also pointed to a lack of trained health workers to handle the "ventilation equipment, advanced nursing care" and respiratory physiotherapy for patients who are critically ill. The intensive care units and hospital beds are also inadequate.

The assessment, which complies with the directives of the World Health Organization (WHO), indicated logistical problems prevented hospitals from obtaining adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), positioning the staff in an essential risk group.

Moreover, authorities seek an alliance between the private and public sectors to address the scarcities in testing capacities.

However, such arrangements would not have a result to address the need for at least another couple of weeks, said the health officials.

Relatively, past research on influenza, as well as the climates of Brazil, means this pandemic is likely to spread and be at the peak in many different regions at various times of the year, making it quite more challenging for both government authorities to get ready with a national plan.

READ NEXT: From Liquor to Antiseptics: How a Venezuelan Distillery Is Responding to COVID-19

Varying Perceptions about COVID-19

Many people believe that COVID-19 causes moderate or mild symptoms like cough and fever that clear up in 14 to 21 days. Others, specifically the older adults and those with existing health conditions, believe, the infectious disease can lead to more severe illness, which includes pneumonia and even death.

Even the Brazilian president himself, has politically isolated himself by maintaining that economy and jobs must prevail and that this country cannot stop.

His messages, as well as his appearances in public with his supporters, are contrary to Luiz Henrique Mandetta, the Health Minister's recommendations.

READ MORE: Companies Urged by Mexico's President to Pay Workers and Avoid Usury During COVID-19 Crisis

Tensions between these two officials have increased as Mandetta appeared as a "reassuring figure" amid the public crisis. Incidentally, the minister has gained support among Brazilians along with every day updates on COVID-19, filled not just with best practices and technical details, but also recommendations coming from reputable authorities like the World Health Organization.
More than 8,000 Pakistani students, studying in various universities of Kyrgyzstan, are stranded in that country after the outbreak of Covid-19

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Apr, 2020 ) :More than 8,000 Pakistani students, studying in various universities of Kyrgyzstan, are stranded in that country after the outbreak of Covid-19.

The students, through various messages and videos posted on the social media, have appealed to the Government of Pakistan to bring them back to their motherland as they are confronted with a lot of problems, including financial and medical, following the lockdown of the country in the wake of coronavirus.

They said they could not go outside from their flats to draw money from the banks,which had been closed. They were now short of money to buy even edible items and to pay their apartments rents, they added.

The students, in their messages, said there was also shortage of medicines and masks at the medical stores. They were living in a constant fear as in case of emergency they would not be able to get medical treatment there.

The students have appealed to the Government of Pakistan to arrange special flights to repatriate them to the motherland.

It is pertinent to mention here that Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday said the Federal Government was taking necessary steps to ensure the repatriation of Pakistani citizens stranded in other countries.

The foreign minister, during a sudden visit of the Crisis Management Cell, was briefed on the performance of various sectors of the cell.

Qureshi reviewed complaints received and expressed satisfaction over the Cell's performance. He reiterated the importance of national unity to overcome the challenges arouse due to the pandemic.

Last week, the foreign minister maintained that bringing back Pakistanis stranded at airports across the globe was a top priority.

He added that the foreign ministry had established the Crisis Management Cell on an immediate basis, which was in constant contact with Pakistani embassies all over the world and had complete statistics of overseas Pakistanis.
A cannabis industry market research company on Tuesday predicted that the marijuana market in Massachusetts will reach $1.35 billion in 2024, however, that estimate comes before anyone can know what impact will be seen from the halt of adult-use operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BDS Analytics, headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, said in a news release that it projects Massachusetts marijuana sales to exceed $745 million in 2020, based on sales projects modeled from point-of-sale transaction records.

So far in 2020, there has been $157 million in reported marijuana sales in the state, according to data from the Cannabis Control Commission.

But, responding to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Gov. Charlie Baker last month announced the closure of all non-essential business. While the governors order allows medical marijuana dispensaries to continue operating, retail shops had to close their doors until at least early May.

BDS Analytics said its prediction that the Massachusetts market will reach $1.35 billion in 2024 is driven by new store openings, increasing consumer demands and new product form factors.

Headwinds still exist including multi-layered regulatory structures and tax burdens from state and local government. Even so, the first full year of adult-use sales experienced consistent month-over-month growth. Continued growth is expected throughout the forecast period, the company wrote in a news release.

BDS Analytics said it is conducting research for a July 2020 forecast update based on retail sales, government data and consumer surveys in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Massachusetts is the largest eastern state to fully legalize cannabis, both for medicinal and recreational use, said Roy Bingham, the co-founder and CEO of BDSA. The successful roll-out of the legal cannabis program across one of the founding states represents a major shift in New England politics and is likely to accelerate the legalization initiatives in other major markets, including New York, as regulators and politicians grow more comfortable with the cannabis industry and face extreme budget pressure caused in part by the financial impact of COVID-19 mitigation measures.

At the end of 2019, the Cannabis Control Commission reported $420 million in sales for the year.
(CNN)  Officials in China are hoping the threat of public shaming will prevent tourists from defacing the country's most famous iconthe Great Wall.

The popular Badaling section of the Great Wall reopened on March 24, after being closed for two months due to the coronavirus outbreak. That very same day, a visitor was reportedly caught on camera defacing the historic site with a key.

The news quickly went viral, enraging Chinese netizens. The hashtag #, which translates to "Great Wall vandalized the first day it reopened," became a trending topic on Weibo, China's most popular social media platform.

"How could such uncivilized behaviors happen repeatedly?" asked Weibo user Wuhan Luyoujia on a discussion board."I think these people should be arrested and locked away for five days so they would remember the lesson."

In response, the Great Wall Office, which is responsible for the administrative and public affairs within the Badaling special tourism zone, has implemented a series of new disciplinary measures against vandalism starting from April 6.

According to the Yanqing County Badaling Special Zone Office's Weibo account, it "will impose administrative penalties on seven types of vandalism towards cultural relics including carving and other intentional damages."

Misbehaving tourists will be added to a blacklist that will be announced to the public regularly to "increase awareness and apply pressure [on tourists] with public opinion."

Offenders will reportedly face restrictions when they attempt to purchase online tickets to the Great Wall in the future, though the announcement doesn't specify what those are.

Meanwhile, the Information Office of the Beijing Municipal Government said Yanqing County is considering banning blacklisted tourists from entering other tourist attractions in the district. If they've committed a criminal offense, violators will also be handed over to law enforcement agents.

Both netizens and media welcomed the new regulations.

"The epidemic has already 'injured' the tourism industry greatly, making the defacement of the Great Wall even more unbearable," said an opinion piece on the state-run Beijing Youth Daily.

"Increasing exposure to the tourist blacklist will put more pressure on the offenders with public opinion, putting a tight chain on the tourists who ignore the rules," commented another state-run media outlet, Beijing Daily.

Around 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Beijing, Badaling is the most popular section of the wall for tourists. According to the Information Office of the Beijing Municipal Government, the vandal was found and confessed to carving the wall with a key.

It isn't the first time China has created a tourist blacklist.

Parks in Beijing have also blacklisted "uncivilized visitors" and used face scanners to bar those visitors from entering the park last year during the annual Tomb Sweeping Festival.

This story was first published on CNN.com, China to release tourist 'blacklist' after Great Wall vandalized on re-opening day
By Trend

Azerbaijani Ministry of Taxes registered SOCAR-STP LLC, which was jointly established by SOCAR and Sumgait Technology Park (STP) LLC, on April 3, Trend reports.

The authorized capital of the company is to 1.7 million manat ($1 million).

According to the report, the new company has the same legal address as PASHA Holding: 153 Neftchilar Avenue, Baku, Nasimi district, Azerbaijan.

The new joint venture will manage the manufacturing of heavy cranes and a large workshop of mechanical equipment in the Commonwealth Independent States (CIS).

The main activity of the joint venture will be maintenance and repair work of heavy cranes, gushing, Advanced Parts Solution (APS), drilling equipment and well completion.

Sumgayit Technologies Park is part of Azerbaijani Azenco company, which is engaged in the construction of facilities in the energy sector. The area of the park is 250 hectares. STP was created with the objective to implement large infrastructure projects in the industrial sector of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani State Oil Company SOCAR and Sumgayit Technologies Park have signed an agreement on the establishment of SOCAR-STP joint venture on February 20.

STP's residents include 12 plants and 30 production sites.

($1 = 1.7 manat on Apr. 6)

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
German chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to the media to announce further measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus and COVID-19. (Clemens Bilan/Getty Images)

German chancellor Angela Merkel said ahead of a finance meeting of the Eurogroup this week that it was in the interests of Germany that other EU countries could be financially supported during and after the coronavirus crisis.

From my point of view, the European Union is facing its greatest test since its founding, Merkel said at a press conference in Berlin on Monday 6 April. Germany, too, will only do well in the long run if Europe is also doing well.

She said that members have been asked to put forward their suggestions at the meeting on how the EU can face the crisis.

Merkel, who is under pressure from Spain, France, and Italy, to support so-called corona bonds which would see EU-wide debt mutualisation, said several financial mechanisms were on the table to help, including the European Stability Mechanism, which offers credit lines with low-levels of conditions, and the European Commissions new fund to support short-time workers to prevent job losses.

Merkel said that Germany is also ready to contribute to an economic recovery programme once the crisis was over. Merkel and her finance minister Olaf Scholz have expressed strong opposition to the idea of Germany assuming debt for other EU countries.

Asked about the ongoing lockdown in Germany, and when she thought restrictions could be lifted, Merkel said that hers would be a bad government if it didnt think day and night about when it would be possible to ease the nation-wide measures, but it would be just as bad if it were to lift restrictions too soon and endanger lives.

She said that the federal government had agreed with the states that people who live in Germany and have been abroad for more than a few days should be quarantined for two weeks upon their return to Germany. However, no quarantine is likely to be required for commuters and service technicians who have to travel in and out of the country briefly for work.

Merkel returned to the chancellery in central Berlin at the end of last week, after two weeks in self-quarantine to undergo tests as she had seen a doctor who later tested positive for coronavirus.

Story continues

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), which is in charge of Germany's coronavirus monitoring said on Monday that the number of infections had risen by 3,677 in the past 24 hours to Monday morning, marking a drop in new infections for the fourth day in a row. RKI data puts the German confirmed coronavirus cases at 95,931, and death toll at 1,434.

RKI statistics tend to be a little lower than those of Johns Hopkins University due to data-collection methods. Johns Hopkins reported just over 100,000 cases and 1,584 deaths in Germany as of Monday.

Face mask fracas

German finance minister Olaf Scholz said on a Sunday talkshow that the government is increasing its efforts to buy face masks. "We need unbelievable amounts of masks. Our entire effort is going towards procuring them, he said.

A row blew up between the US and Germany last week, after Berlins interior minister Andreas Geisel said a German order of 200,000 3M masks for the Berlin police force from China had been confiscated in Bangkok, Thailand and presumably diverted to the US.

"We consider this an act of modern piracy," Geisel said in a statement. "This is not how you deal with transatlantic partners. Even in times of global crisis, Wild West methods shouldn't rule."

The US company 3M denied the accusation, saying in a statement that: 3M has no evidence to suggest 3M products have been seized. 3M has no record of any order of respirators from China. We cannot speculate where this report originated.

"The United States government has done nothing to redirect 3M shipments destined for Germany, nor did we know anything about such shipments," the US embassy in Berlin said.

The accusation from Berlin highlights the pressure governments face trying to find and buy enough protective medical supplies for hospitals and others in the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic.
Yannick Ngakoue knows what he is looking for in a trade destination this offseason.

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Ngakoue, who was given the Jaguars franchise tag in March, has publicly made it known that he wants out of Jacksonville. He has teased his departure through social media with regularity, posting Instagram pictures of legendary players from other teams and outright claiming he wants a change of scenery on Twitter.

Ngakoue joined ESPNs NFL Live on Tuesday to discuss his offseason outlook. He said he doesnt have an ideal team to which hed like to be traded, but he does have preferences when it comes to the makeup of his next franchise.

A team with great culture, Ngakoue said. I really want to be part of a team that has a great culture and winning is a habit. I dont want to be part of a team where losing is a norm or anything of that nature. I want to be part of something special. Also, I just want to go to a place where the community -- I can make a great impact in the community -- and just reach out to younger people that look up to me.

That description sure seems to fit the Eagles. The teams locker room is seen as one of the strongest in the league, and Philadelphia has made the playoffs in each of the last three seasons. The Eagles also have one of the more dedicated and passionate fan bases in the league.

Ngakoue, who just turned 25, has produced 37.5 sacks and 14 forced fumbles during his four-year career in Jacksonville. He is commanding market-setting money due to his youth and production while in Jacksonville.

Ngakoue said he wants to be traded because the Jaguars failed to lock him up long-term last offseason. He is currently set to make $17.8 million on the franchise tag this season.

The Jaguars are seeking a trade package greater than a 2020 first-round pick for Ngakoue, a person with knowledge of the situation told NJ Advance Media last week. The Eagles arent likely to part with a Day 1 pick, as the team has consistently noted that they want to infuse the roster with young, cheap talent.

EAGLES FREE-AGENT MOVES: Hassan Ridgeway re-signed | Javon Hargrave signed | Nate Sudfeld re-signed | Jalen Mills re-signed | Malcolm Jenkins option declined | Rodney McLeod re-signed | Acquired Darius Slay in trade | Jatavis Brown signed | Will Parks signed | Nickell Robey-Coleman signed

The Eagles are also set to be $25 million over the cap next offseason, according to Over The Cap. Adding Ngakoue on a record deal would only make matters significantly worse from a cap perspective.

While its certainly possible that the Eagles have interest in Ngakoue, the likelihood of his arrival -- via trade -- to Philadelphia isnt great at this point.

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Follow Mike Kaye on Twitter: @Mike_E_Kaye. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
REDDING, Calif. - One local business is getting behind our frontline workers battling the coronavirus pandemic.

Sign Creations is spreading a positive message throughout the community, thanking those putting their own safety at risk. This all started after people reached out to the Redding design shop asking to send those workers a message.

Sign Creations started printing out signs that said: "Thank You Frontline Heroes, We Are in This Together".

The company says it can't go out and deliver groceries for people but still wanted to show the frontline workers they are appreciated.

It's encouraging to see people who want to put these signs up, they have a way to show their support that people that are still out, said Joseph Fredrick who works at Sign Creations. For people to see that people are out there still doing things that are productive. 

Sign Creations pushes out about 100 to 200 hundred yard signs a day.

Each sign costs $20, and all the money collected will go towards United Shasta and other organizations in Shasta County. To learn more, Click Here
L orraine Kelly found herself tearing up after interviewing her daughter Rosie on todays Good Morning Britain.

The 60-year-old was speaking to Rosie, 24, about how Singapore is coping with the coronavirus crisis, as her daughter has lived there for the past four years.

As she bid her daughter goodbye, Kelly found herself a little overwhelmed.

Its so good to talk to you baby, its so good to see your wee face. I do miss you, she said.

Rosie responded: I know, but well talk later.

Wiping away tears, Kelly said: We sure will. Stay safe, love.

As the popular presenter found herself getting emotional, Dr Hilary Jones was forced to interrupt, quickly adding: Good to talk to you Rosie, Im sure youll catch up on the personal stuff later.

Celebrities make a show of thanks for frontline NHS key workers 1 /9 Celebrities make a show of thanks for frontline NHS key workers Daniel Craig and Phoebe Waller-Bridge were among stars featuring in celebrity show of thanks to the NHS NHS/Twitter PA PA PA PA PA Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge was among stars who join in a show of thanks for NHS workers on the frontline of the Covid-19 crisis NHS/Twitter

Earlier in the show, Rosie was discussing Singapores hugely strict measures as the country is in lockdown.

She explained how those breaking quarantine in Singapore risked a $10,000 (5,600) fine or a six-month prison sentence.

Rosie added that foreign workers like herself and the majority of her friends could see their working visas revoked, which will mean they would have to leave the country within 30 days.

Previously, Kellys husband, who is Rosies father, had flown out to visit her, as cinemas and restaurants were still open as usual.

Celebrities reacting to coronavirus - In pictures 1 /34 Celebrities reacting to coronavirus - In pictures Gigi Hadid with boyfriend Zayn Malik and sister Bella during her quarantined 25th birthday celebration Instagram / @gigihadid Joe Jonas and Sophia Turner have turned their isolation boredom into hilarious TikTok content TikTok Kylie Jenner and best friend Stassie have been very active on TikTok TikTok Gigi Hadid celebrated her 25th birthday with family while in quarantine Instagram / @gigihadid Chrissy Teigen and John Legend have been able to enjoy time with their kids Instagram / @chrissyteigen Katy Perry recorded herself for American Idol in a life sized hand sanitizer bottle Instagram / @katyperry Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were the first celebrities to have a confirmed case and kept us updated on their recovery journey on Twitter and Instagram Instagram / @tomhanks Demi Moore and Bruce Willis in matching pajamas with their daughter and her boyfriend Instagram / @buuski Kaia Gerber adopted a puppy to keep her company Instagram / @kaiagerber Helena Christensen has been having her son take glam Instagram photos for her Instagram Brooklyn Beckham in quarantine with his girlfriend Nicola Peltz Instagram Matthew McConaughey played virtual bingo with seniors The Enclave at Round Rock Senior Living/Facebook Kim Kardashian on a flight wearing a face mask and gloves @kimkardashian Naomi Campbell preparing for a flight @naomi Gwyneth Paltrow wearing a facemask during a plane ride @gwynethpaltrow Bella Hadid wearing a face mask on a plane @bellahadid Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas @sophiet Sebastian Stan on a plane in protective gear @sebastianstan Naomi Campbell preparing for a flight @naomi Nicole Scherzinger with Thom Evans @nicolescherzinger Idris Elba announced on Twitter that he had tested positive for coronavirus @idriselba Robbie Williams greets fans with elbow bumps Getty Images Kylie Jenner and best friend Stassie have been very active on TikTok TikTok Kylie Jenner and best friend Stassie have been very active on TikTok TikTok Joe Jonas and Sophia Turner have turned their isolation boredom into hilarious TikTok content TikTok Katy Perry has taken to dressing up in outlandish costumes Instagram / @katyperry

However, things are now far more stringent, with Rosie saying people werent willing to break the rules.

People are generally very well behaved here, she said. Its not worth the risk.

Kelly added she believed her daughter was safer out in Singapore compared to the situation in the UK.

Singapore currently has 1375 cases of coronavirus, with six people having died of Covid-19. The UK has over 51,000 cases and 5373 people have died.

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Clinical trial to assess potential treatment for COVID-19-related respiratory failure

Boston, Mass. - While the majority of people with COVID-19 won't require hospitalization, those who do are likely to seek medical help as a result of acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, a severe lung injury common in patients with critical illnesses. At present, there is no effective treatment for ARDS other than supportive care with mechanical ventilation.

A team of physician-scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) -- part of Beth Israel Lahey Health -- are now enrolling patients in a clinical trial to evaluate a common anti-clotting drug for the treatment of COVID-19-positive patients with ARDS. The newly launched trial follows a special report the team published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery that suggested the use of a drug called tPA could reduce deaths among patients with ARDS as a complication of COVID-19.

Epidemiological models predict that thousands of Americans will require mechanical ventilation in the coming months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, far exceeding the estimated 200,000 ventilators currently available in the United States.

"As the global pandemic of COVID-19 begins to oversaturate the world's medical capacity to accommodate a surge of patients with ARDS, it's critical we consider how existing therapies that are widely available may be of use in this unprecedented public health emergency," said the special report's lead author and clinical trial investigator, Christopher D. Barrett, MD, a senior surgical resident at BIDMC and a research fellow at MIT.

"If effective and safe for the treatment of ARDS in patients with COVID-19, tPA could save lives by reducing recovery time and freeing up more ventilators for other patients in need."

An anticoagulant naturally produced by the body, tPA was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1996 for use in patients experiencing heart attack, stroke and pulmonary embolism. Researchers have considered the use of anti-coagulant drugs to reduce ARDS-induced death for two decades. Though the approach has never been widely adopted or formally FDA-approved, a clinical observation made about a subset of patients with COVID-19 induced ARDS made the idea seem newly relevant.

"We're hearing anecdotally that a subset of patients with COVID-19 induced ARDS are clotting abnormally around their catheters and IV lines," said senior author, Michael B. Yaffe, MD, PhD, an attending surgeon in the departments of Acute Care Surgery, Trauma, and Surgical Critical Care, and in Surgical Oncology at BIDMC. "We suspect these patients with aggressive clotting are will show the most benefit from tPA treatment, and this new clinical trial will reveal whether that's the case."

Led by Yaffe, Barrett, and colleagues from BIDMC's Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, including Shahzad Shaefi, MD, and Department Chair Daniel S. Talmor, MD, MPH, the tPA clinical trial is now open and enrolling patients with COVID-19 induced ARDS admitted to BIDMC. Next steps will include identifying biomarkers -- measurable characteristics such as blood levels of clotting factors -- to help more accurately determine which patients are most likely to respond to tPA as a treatment for ARDS, said Yaffe, who is also a Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The collaborative research was facilitated by Beth Israel Lahey Health COVID-19 Innovation Hub -- an effort led by Gyongyi Szabo, MD, PhD, Chief Academic Officer at Beth Israel Lahey Health -- to address the emerging challenges related to the pandemic.

Since the publication of the special report on March 23, Barrett and Yaffe have already heard from physicians across the country eager to try tPA for the treatment of COVID-19 induced ARDS. Because the medication is an FDA-approved drug already in widespread use for patients who have had heart attacks or strokes, doctors are permitted to prescribe it for off-label usage.

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In addition to Barrett and Yaffe, co-authors on the special report included: Daniel S. Talmor, MD, Chief of the Division of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at BIDMC; Hunter B. Moore MD, PhD, Ernest E. Moore MD, Peter K. Moore, MD, and Robert C. McIntyre MD, of the University of Colorado; Frederick A. Moore, MD, of the University of Florida, Gainesville.

About Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School and consistently ranks as a national leader among independent hospitals in National Institutes of Health funding. For more information, visit http://www. bidmc. org .

BIDMC is part of Beth Israel Lahey Health, a new health care system that brings together academic medical centers and teaching hospitals, community and specialty hospitals, more than 4,000 physicians and 35,000 employees in a shared mission to expand access to great care and advance the science and practice of medicine through groundbreaking research and education.

This story has been published on: 2020-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Louisiana's diagnosed cases of coronavirus increased to 16,284 and the number of reported coronavirus-related deaths increased to 582 on Tuesday.

The 1,417 new diagnoses account for a nearly 10% increase in cases. The 70 new reported deaths account for a nearly 14% increase since the previous report from the Louisiana Department of Health.

The number of hospitalized patients increased by 15, but the number of patients needing a ventilator dropped by 33. There are now 1,996 hospitalized coronavirus patients in Louisiana. 519 of those patients are on a ventilator.

(Editor's Note: The Louisiana Department of Health updated its Monday numbers for hospitalized patients and patients on ventilators. Those corrections impacted the number changes between Monday and Tuesday.)

+7 Coronavirus disparity in Louisiana: About 70% of the victims are black, but why? Roughly 70% of the people who have died from coronavirus in Louisiana are black, a striking disparity for a state where African-Americans make

This is at least the second time that the number for ventilator usage has declined between LDH reports. The number dropped by 10 between Saturday and Sunday.

It was not immediately clear what contributed to the change.

Governor notes the state saw a drop in the number of patients on ventilators decreased today. He says people aren't staying on ventilators as long as they originally thought they would. #lalege #lagov  Sam Karlin (@samkarlin) April 7, 2020

Governor John Bel Edwards said Monday that it appeared Louisiana could be seeing the "beginning of flattening the curve." He cautioned, however, that officials still needed more days of data.

He told residents not to stop complying with the stay-at-home order in the meantime.

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We are hopeful were starting to see the beginning of flattening the curve, Edwards said Monday. We have to keep doing everything weve been doing to have the best possible outcome.

The Louisiana Department of Health releases updated coronavirus data every day at noon here.

This report will be updated.

Louisiana could be seeing start of 'flattening the curve' for coronavirus, John Bel Edwards says Gov. John Bel Edwards on Monday delivered his most optimistic assessment of the states trajectory yet since the coronavirus began ripping thr

MORE DATA BELOW

LOUISIANA CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS AS OF TUESDAY (NOON)

(increase from Monday in parentheses)

Diagnosed cases: 16,284 (up from 14,867)

Known coronavirus-related deaths: 582 (up from 512)

Hospitalized coronavirus patients: 1,996 (up from 1,809)

Hospitalized coronavirus patients on ventilators: 519 (down from 563 )

Parishes with diagnosed cases: 63 of 64 (up from 62 of 64)

Total state tests completed: 4,609 (up from 4,510)

Total commercial tests reported: 70,046 (up from 64,656)

DEATHS, CASES ACROSS NEW ORLEANS METRO AREA AS OF TUESDAY
A number of countries around the world have been lockdown for weeks in an effort to "flatten the curve" and reduce the spread of coronavirus. Flattening the curve does not necessarily mean seeing a decrease in total cases right away; it would first produce a decline in the number of new cases, which should result in fewer hospitalizations and death in the weeks that follow.

By flattening the curve, officials hope to ensure that the health care system doesn't become overwhelmed and unable to help those who need it. With some of the most affected countries like Spain and Italy on lockdown for weeks, many are wondering if their efforts are actually working.

Here's what data from Johns Hopkins can show us:

Italy - lockdown since March 9

Italy has been under a nationwide lockdown for about four weeks and the country has begun to flatten the curve. Italy hit its apparent peak in daily cases on March 20, with more than 6,000 new cases that day. On March 29 and 30, Italy saw a drop in daily cases for two consecutive days.

Since then, the number of daily cases has stayed between 4,000 and about 4,800. When looking at the growth of the virus over time in Italy, it appears the curve is flattening.

italy-curve.jpg

A chart of Italy's daily new coronavirus cases (top) and a logarithmic graph, as of April 4, show the daily increase in cases has slowed, and the country seems to be "flattening the curve." There are still over 4,000 new cases each day, but there has not been a massive spike in new cases in recent days. Johns Hopkins Spain  lockdown since March 15

Spain now has more confirmed cases than Italy, with over 135,000. A peak in daily cases occurred on the March 24, with more than 9,000 cases reported that day. However, the daily increase has continue to drop in recent days. Starting on April 1, Spain saw a drop in daily cases for four consecutive days.

Similar to Italy, when looking at a graph of the virus' spread over time, it appears Spain is starting to flatten the curve.

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spain-curve.jpg

A chart of Spain's daily new coronavirus cases (top) and a logarithmic graph, as of April 4, show the daily number of new cases has slowed, although there are still more than 5,000 new cases per day, and the country seems to be "flattening the curve." Johns Hopkins France  lockdown since March 17

France has been on lockdown for about the same amount of time as Spain. The growth of the virus has been steady recently, except for a spike on April 3, which could have been caused by new reporting measures. Last week, the country also saw a spike in deaths after the health ministry began including nursing home fatalities in its data, according to Reuters.

After the spike on April 3, the number of daily cases dropped substantially, with just about 3,000 new cases on April 4. If this steady number of daily cases continues, the country will flatten its curve.

screen-shot-2020-04-06-at-9-31-38-am.png

France's curve has not completely flattened (as of April 4) but the daily increases have started to slow, save for April 3 when the number of new cases jumped, possibly due to a backlog of cases being reported. Johns Hopkins China  partial lockdown since January 23

China saw a huge spike in new cases on one day, with over 15,000 new cases on February 12. However, the growth significantly slowed after that. Hubei province, where the virus originated, went on lockdown at the end of January. More and more areas of the country were later locked down, but restrictions in some areas have already been lifted.

Wuhan's lockdown is set to be lifted on April 8, nearly two and a half months after it was imposed.

There has been doubt raised by President Trump and health officials around the world about whether China is releasing accurate data on its number of cases.

screen-shot-2020-04-06-at-9-39-54-am.png

China, where the virus originated, has been locked down the longest. Although the country did flatten its curve, it has been under a lockdown much longer than most countries. Johns Hopkins Austria & Germany

Austria has managed to prevent a huge spike in daily cases since March 29. The country has been shut down for about three weeks and its government says that may be enough. Austria plans to start reopening shops next week, although it will require residents to wear masks, according to Reuters.

"We reacted faster and more restrictively than in other countries and could therefore avoid the worst. But this fast and restrictive reaction now also gives us the possibility to come out of this crisis more quickly," Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said.

Like Austria, Germany plans to reopen soon. The country has been under a lockdown since March 22 and became the fourth country to top 100,000 cases. Still, officials hope to return to normal life on April 19  that's just under a month of lockdown. According to Reuters, Germany would implement a list of steps including mandatory mask-wearing in public and limits on gatherings.

United States - first statewide "stay at home" orders began March 19

The earliest statewide "stay at home" order began in California on March 19 and New York soon followed. The majority of states have since done the same, although a few governors are still holding out.

U.S. health officials predict the peak lies ahead, with President Trump warning of a "hell of a bad two weeks" to come.

The U.S. has more cases confirmed than any other country, with over 337,000 as of Monday, according to Johns Hopkins. Only some parts of the country, like California, have showed evidence of flattening the curve.

"Right now the California Department of Public health reports 10,000 cases since early March and 237 deaths, and it looks like the numbers of new cases right now is actually pretty steady," Dr. Jeffery Klausner, UCLA Professor of Medicine and Public Health, told CBS Sacramento.

In New York, the current epicenter of the virus, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on April 2 that the state's apex, or "battle of the mountaintop," could come this week or next, CBS New York reported. On Monday, Cuomo said the number of new cases appears to have leveled off in the last few days.

"It could still go any way. We could still see an increase," Cuomo said Monday. "It still depends on what we do."

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In the pantheon of great Oscar missteps, few are as egregious as the 2006 Academy Awards. That evening, Crash won Best Picture and went on to be one of the most divisive picks in Oscar history. The film many agree should have walked away with the nights top prize? Brokeback Mountain.

Ang Lees romantic drama centers on a love story behind cowboys Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal). Brokeback Mountain did win three Oscars, including Best Director for Lee. But the academy was still apparently willing to take some cheap shots at the movie, a plan Ledger put a stop to.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger at the Screen Actors Guild Awards | M. Caulfield/WireImage for Turner

Brokeback Mountain was a game-changer for Hollywood in 2005

Nowadays, the LGBT community has taken huge strides. Same-sex marriage is widely recognized, and LGBT characters and storylines are slowly permeating the mainstream. But in 2005, Brokeback Mountain was a bold effort at telling a forbidden love story between two men, especially within a traditionally hyper-masculine genre like the Western.

In many ways, Lees film proved Hollywood could tackle these subjects in an earnest, heartfelt way. More than just a hit with critics, Brokeback Mountain earned a worldwide total of $178 million. Remarkably, the $14 million production earned roughly half of that from its domestic release.

Brokeback Mountain also elevated the careers of Ledger, Gyllenhaal, and Michelle Williams. All three stars were already firmly on the rise to A-list status, but their Oscar-nominated turns in Lees film legitimized them as dramatic leads. Ledger, of course, went on to win a posthumous Oscar for The Dark Knight, while his co-stars have gone on to acclaimed careers.

Jake Gyllenhaal reflects on making the mystery of making the movie

Apparently, making the movie turned out to be as impactful as watching it was for Oscar voters in 2005. In a recent interview with Another Man magazine, Gyllenhaal said he still hasnt been able to go back and watch it. Despite the fond memories behind the scenes, Brokeback Mountain feels like a singular experience for the actor.

There are things youre chosen for  a quality, an essence  and Ang did that, Gyllenhaal told Another Man. And its still a mystery to me. And something that Heath and I shared: that it was a mystery to us at the time.

For both Ledger and Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain proved to be a creative challenge. Yet, the actors committed wholeheartedly to the work, and the finished product speaks for itself. But back in 2005, the movie was limited by the less evolved mindset toward stories about the LGBT community.

The actor also revealed how Heath Ledger once defended the film

In some circles, Brokeback Mountain became reductively known as the gay cowboy movie. But those involved knew they were working on something special, a powerful story that transcended this glib description of its central romance. In fact, in the midst of awards season, Ledger was forced to step up and defend the film.

I mean, I remember they wanted to do an opening for the Academy Awards that year that was sort of joking about [the movie], Gyllenhaal told Another Man. And Heath refused. I was sort of at the time, Oh, okay whatever. Im always like; its all in good fun. And Heath said, Its not a joke to me  I dont want to make any jokes about it.'

Looking back, Gyllenhaal recognizes just how right Ledger was in taking such a stance. In the years since Brokeback Mountain hit theaters, culture has certainly started to catch up to such sensitivities, particularly regarding the LGBT community. So fans of Brokeback Mountain and Ledgers work no doubt will be happy to hear the late actor took so much pride in the film.
One of the most frustrating aspects of fighting COVID-19 in the United States is the nationwide shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). Gloves, gowns, surgical caps, and especially face masks are essential for healthcare workers on the front lines of the crisis, but theres simply not enough to go around. And now that experts say the general public could also stand to benefit from masks, the problem is likely to grow  unless we can ramp up domestic production of these items ASAP.

South Sea Outdoor Living & Oasis Home employees hard at work making DIY face masks to help the American people fight off COVID-19.

North Carolinas High Point-based furniture and bedding industry is ready to do just that. But first, they have to wait for approval from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration. Led by Tim Dolan of TDI Worldwide, the effort has already earned the support of state senators and congressional representatives looking to fast-track approval of the facilities and materials.

President Trump recently issued an order of more than 600 million masks to be produced by 3M, Honeywell International, and Hanes Brands, but they, too, are mired in red tape.

Our concern is that these masks might not be made and distributed fast enough to get to the front line groups and individuals who need them most  our first responders and caregivers  and we want to help accelerate the production if possible because our industry might have the capabilities to do it, says Dolan.

One of the companies aiming to help is South Sea Outdoor Living & Oasis Home, which typically makes outdoor patio furniture. Theyll be sewing masks using tightly woven, 100-percent cotton fabrics. While they dont possess the protective capability of N95 masks or surgical masks, theyll still be double-layered with a built-in pocket for disposable masks or filters. These masks will be priced at $4 each with a minimum order of 20, and the company expects to be able to produce hundreds per day.

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A finished DIY face mask from the South Sea Outdoor Living & Oasis Home HQ.

Other companies who have expressed interest in helping include Ashley Furniture, Serta Simmons Bedding, Fusion Furniture, Corinthian, Creative Ticking, and more.

We have commitments from companies ready and waiting to assess the specifications and requirements of these masks and, if approved, they are willing to use their domestic and international resources and contacts to produce them and get them out into the medical system, Dolan says. There is a maze of mandatory processes and approvals to get through, and we are very grateful to have the support from government officials across multiple states to help us.

We encourage and welcome any additional support within our industry to further strengthen our efforts. These are challenging times for all Americans. The furniture and bedding industries and their suppliers want to do our part, however we can, to help support our first responders and medical staff in this great country.

Throughout February and most of March, experts like the Centers for Disease Control downplayed the potential for masks to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus among the public. Once it was clear that a shortage was imminent, any remaining masks needed to be directed to healthcare workers first. But that guidance is now under review, especially since its clear that asymptomatic spread is a factor. Masks can also help protect against spread of the disease through droplets or vapor (breath).

In response, many people have begun making their own DIY face masks. Theres little research about the effectiveness of homemade masks, and they certainly cant replace social distancing. But when used alongside other safety measures, they certainly wont cause any harm. JOANN Fabrics has even shared a couple video tutorials if youd like to give it a shot.
But many of the people who cause problems are likely the ones who could benefit from a long-term city partnership with a mental health service provider.
Zimbabwes largest opposition party led by Nelson Chamisa has dismissed reports that some of its members have seized the Movement for Democratic Changes headquarters in Harare.

MDC chairperson, Thabitha Khumalo, dismissed as cheap propaganda reports in the state-controlled Herald newspaper that MDC member, Douglas Mwonzora and his friends, are now in control of the Morgan Richard Tsvangirai House.

 That is nonsense, there is nothing like that. The Morgan Richard Tsvangirai House still belongs to president Nelson Chamisa and the MDC Alliance. Its business as usual. The enemy is being defeated and getting desperate everyday. Lets remain strong.

Mwonzora allegedly told the Herald newspaper that he is now in control of the MDC headquarters following a Supreme Court order that declared Chamisa an illegitimate leader of the MDC.

He was not responding to calls on his mobile phone.

The MDC Alliance claims that the Supreme Court ruling is being backed by the ruling Zanu PF party as Chamisa has refused to recognize President Emmerson Mnangagwas election in 2018. The court ordered the MDC to conduct fresh internal elections based on old party structures.

Mwonzora allegedly backs the Thokozani Khupe group, which claims that she was supposed to be the president of the MDC-T after the death of Morgan Tsvangirai in 2018.

Chamisa claims that he beat Mnangagwa in the 2018 presidential election. The Electoral Court ruled that Mnangagwa won the poll.
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Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano and Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 13:45 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd03fa73 1 City COVID-19,coronavirus,virus-corona,virus-korona-indonesia,social-aid,social-assistance-funds,staple-food,Joko-Widodo,social-safety-program Free

The government is set to distribute social aid for low-income families across Greater Jakarta affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, which is putting the regions underprivileged at a higher risk of slipping into extreme poverty during the crisis.

The aid, comprising social assistance funds for 3.7 million poor families and 200,000 staple food packages, will be provided by the central government and Jakarta administration.

President Joko Jokowi said on Tuesday that the central government would prepare the funds for 2.6 million families, while the Jakarta administration would distribute money to the remaining 1.1 million.

[The social aid] will be provided for two months, in line with the state of emergency period announced by the governments COVID-19 task force, the President said during a virtual limited Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Read also: Jakartas poor at risk as city drags feet on COVID-19 social assistance

Jokowi added he had instructed the Social Affairs Ministry to distribute staple food packages to Greater Jakarta residents.

He went on to emphasize the importance of the program for the people.

[This] has to be right on target. The beneficiaries should be determined by their name and address, so it will be precise and accurate, Jokowi said, adding the government should involve regional administrations and neighborhood and community units in the distribution.

The President also demanded that the assistance be distributed as soon as possible.

Use practical methods that dont hinder the process. Micro, small and medium enterprises [MSMEs] should be reached, as well as traders in traditional markets and ojek [motorcycle taxi] drivers.

Read also: Government to reduce mudik travel by disbursing social aid

The social assistance is a part of the governments social safety net programs valued at Rp 110 trillion (US$6.7 billion). A portion of the funds will also be distributed to 10 million families in the Family Hope Program and 20 million others covered under the staple food program.

Jokowi said the government would speed up the distribution of assistance under both programs, as well as increase it by up to 25 percent for the Family Hope Program and 30 percent for the staple food program.

The social safety net programs also include free electricity for 24 million households under the 450-volt ampere (VA) category and a 50 percent discount for 7 million customers under the 900 VA category for three months starting April.

The government has also increased funds allocated for the pre-employment card program to Rp 20 trillion from the initial budget of Rp 10 trillion, covering 5.6 million laid-off workers, informal workers and MSME owners.
In yet another example of the irrational state of the for-profit US health care system, many hospitals across the country are responding to the COVID-19 crisisnot by increasing services and bringing on more staffbut by raising rates for patients on procedures ranging from surgery to childbirth in an effort to offset lost revenue due to an onslaught of COVID-19 patients.

Along with banning temporarily elective procedures, hospitals have been furloughing skilled, essential staff, including:

* Trinity Health, based in Livonia, Michigan, laid off 2,500 employees.

* Boston Medical Center eliminated 700 staff members or 10 percent of its workforce.

* Bon Secours Mercy Health, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, cut 700 jobs and instituted a wage freeze of all nonclinical workers.

* Essentia Health in Minnesota cut 500 nonclinical staff.

* Connecticut Childrens Medical Center eliminated 400 workers.

* Kansas-based Clay County Medical Center cut 25 percent of its workforce.

Maryland hospitals get go-ahead to raise rates

As of Monday, confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease in the state of Maryland numbered 4,045, up 436 cases from Sunday, with a death count of 91. Seventeen cases have now been confirmed in the Maryland prison system, ranging from inmates, to contractual workers and correctional officers. The state has a confirmed COVID-19 case in every county.

On Saturday evening, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinating official of the White House coronavirus task force, told news reporters that the Washington, DC region, which includes significant portions of the state of Maryland, could become a hot spot for infections as the number of cases increase.

In addition to expanded medical staff and affordable services for vast numbers of the afflicted, health centers will need extra beds, ventilators, masks, intensive care units and personal protective equipment (PPE) as more and more people report positive diagnoses of COVID-19.

However, funds to purchase necessary health equipment and increase operating capacity will come by raising the already extortionist rates for procedures and medicine, while telling those individuals who want elective care they will have to wait, potentially causing a life-threatening situation.

Hospitals in Maryland will be allowed to temporarily raise rates charged to all patients as a means of funding emergency and ongoing care for patients during the coronavirus pandemic, the Baltimore Sun reported last week.

Some regulatory and licensing barriers have been removed by other state agencies to add much needed beds at hospitals, with plans being announced by Mercy Medical Center and Northwest Hospital, in Baltimore and Randallstown, respectively. State officials are also scrambling to be approved for federal funding, according to Maryland health secretary Robert Neall.

Hospital prices are regulated in the state of Maryland by the Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC), which was created in 1971 for rate regulation to ensure profitability and thus stability. It oversees 47 acute general hospitals, three specialty and three private psychiatric hospitals, with regulated revenue above $16 billion annually.

On Monday, March 30, Maryland belatedly issued a shelter-in-place order. Republican Governor Larry Hogan said that in the coming weeks scenes in the state and region could be identical to those in New York City, the current epicenter in the US and globally, in which doctors and nurses lack even the most basic supplies to keep themselves safe and bodies of loved ones have been laid on the streets waiting to be loaded into refrigerated trucks.

Following Hogans order, the Maryland National Guard hastily erected a 250-bed field hospital in the Baltimore Convention Center to provide emergency basic care for coronavirus cases. The state still is unable to test everybody who has symptoms or those in close contact with an individual who has tested positive, as tests are limited to those who have a referral from a doctor.

Before the catastrophic COVID-19 pandemic, Baltimore, the largest city in the state, was already experiencing a public health crisis, which will only be exacerbated under current conditions. The city has never recovered from deindustrialization and the Great Recession. Over 300 Baltimorians have been victims of homicide for each of five consecutive years.

Lead contamination has barred many public school students from drinking fountain or tap water. Mold, asbestos and bed bugs infest public housing, while many buildings and complexes are abandoned in almost every neighborhood and are on the verge of collapsing. According to Baltimore mayor Bernard C. Young, a Democrat, the city will end the fiscal year with a $42.3 million deficit.

Nashvilles HCA Healthcare puts some workers on pandemic pay

Nashville-based HCA Healthcare Inc. announced plans Tuesday to cut costs in an effort to avoid layoffs.

Nashvilles public radio station WPLN reported: Over the past few weeks, we have experienced significant drops in patient volume as a result of COVID-19, CEO Sam Hazen wrote in a letter to employees. Many of our outpatient facilities, clinics and departments have closed. These circumstances have created situations where we do not have enough patients to support our workforce.

Last week, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee banned elective surgeries.

HCA is not laying off workers, but those who cant be put in a new role within the company will be eligible for pandemic pay, which gives them 70 percent of their base salary through mid-May, when the hospital chain expects to restart elective procedures, the Nashville Business Journal reported.

NBJ added: To pitch in, senior leaders are taking a 30 percent pay cut until the pandemic passes. Directors have also given up their compensation for the year. And Hazen, who made nearly $27 million last year, said he plans to donate all of his compensation for the next two months to the companys charitable fund that supports HCA employees.

What does that mean? What do the glowing reports of sacrifice by senior leaders mean?

Senior leaders are making seven figures in total compensation a year. Even with a 30 percent pay cut they would be left as multimillionaires.

Based on a salary of $27 million reported for last year by the NBJ, Hazen was making roughly $2.25 million a month, $560,000 a week, or $11,000 a day in a five-day week, at $1,400 an hour during a 40-hour week. His two-month pay cut of $4.5 million will leave him only about $22.5 million to live on.

Pity the poor rich.

It is worth noting that last year the NBJ pegged Hazens 2018 starting salary at $21.4 million after he took over from the HCAs previous CEO Milton Johnson. That would suggest a $5.5 million pay raise in two short years. The median income for HCA employees then was almost $56,000 a year, meaning one of HCAs average workers would have to work almost 100 years just to equal the raise Hazen received in two years!

In terms of the ratio of CEOs compensation to median worker pay for Nashvilles major employers, HCAs was freported as ourth highest, at 383 to 1. HCA is the countrys largest hospital company and Nashvilles largest publicly traded company. Last year it managed 185 hospitals and 119 freestanding surgery centers in the US and the UK.

What does the promise of pandemic pay mean for workers who, despite what the company says, are effectively laid off? They will receive 70 percent of their base salary through the middle of May. No promise of a return to work at full pay, only that HCA expects to begin elective procedures again. That is only about $39,000 in a city that requires twice that much to live.

HCAs gesture to its workers is particularly obscene if one knows a little history of the healthcare giant and its crimes and gluttony at the public tax spigot.

After receiving tens of millions of dollars from Nashville in tax breaks, in 2003 the corporation paid over $2 billion in criminal fines and civil penalties for systematically defrauding federal health care programs, according to Justice.gov. Fortune Magazine referred to the investigation as the longest and costliest investigation for health care fraud in US history.

In 2018, when Nashville teachers were battling for a tiny raise and basic classroom necessities, the WSWS reported this local news story:

Among the incentives Metro provided HCA to move three of its subsidiaries into a headquarters building downtown was $1 million for the company to buy office furniture, CBS affiliate NewsChannel 5 reported recently. But less was said about the $66 million incentive package Metro gave HCA to build the headquarters for three of its subsidiary companies.

The furniture the city paid for with money that could have gone to the schools was a premium wood finishes table for $8,321.25, a Guitar Pick Table (Nashville is also known as Music City) for $4,190.18 and, for the executive lounge, a Tuxedo Sofa for $6,540.45.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper said because of COVID-19 and last months tornado there will be a huge increase in the citys property tax and cuts in social services It will be Nashvilles poor and working class who will pay to save the rich in the It city.
Kerala CM writes to counterparts in Delhi, Maharashtra on plight of nurses

India

oi-PTI

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 07: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has shot off letters to chief ministers of Delhi and Maharashtra to ensure the safety of nurses from the state working in those states following reports of para- medical staff being affected with Covid-19.

At a press meet on Monday after the evaluation meet on Covid-19, Vijayan had said 46 nurses from Kerala in Mumbai have been infected by the virus and more than 150 nurses were under observation there.

Coronavirus outbeak: Kerala breathes sigh of relief after Karnataka opens border roads

He had also said that five nurses in Delhi's prestigious Cancer Institute have been confirmed with coronavirus and there were complaints regarding lack of PPEs across the country.

"We are receiving frantic telephone calls from them (nurses). Many of them are informing us that there is lack of adequate precaution to prevent the contagion of the disease," Vijayan said in letters to his counterparts Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi and Uddhav Thackeray of Maharashtra.

Vijayan highlighted the plight of nurses in separate letters to the two chief ministers.

"I need not remind you that a vast majority of the nursing community serving within India and abroad belongs to Kerala. The services rendered by them have been lauded by one and all. In this hour of crisis, the nation needs to stand with them and give them the confidence which they have been giving all along to others," Vijayan said in the letter.

Fake News Buster

He had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested that the state governments concerned may be advised to urgently look into the facts and circumstances and provide due care, attention and necessary precautions so that the standard health protocols are followed and utmost protection given to the health personnel.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, April 7, 2020, 16:13 [IST]
Two Armenian students, Alex and George Dazvaryan, have joined forces in London to overcome the coronavirus crisis.

Together with their friend Finlay White, they have turned their school into a temporary workshop and are manufacturing protective gear to help in the fight against the coronavirus.

They use their school's 3D printers to create face visors for healthcare workers.

They provide the visors for free, while raising money so that they can cover the costs of raw materials and expenses.

George hopes that large companies and major manufacturers in the UK can start doing this.

Sky News and the BBC have covered the activities of these young people.

Above is a video of the respective Sky News report.
As protests continue to erupt in the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and across the world in outrage against the horrific shooting of Jacob Bla Read more
However, with Johnson remaining conscious, it remains unclear as to whether his most significant powers, such as issues of national security, had been transferred to Raab. Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab leaves a meeting in Downing Street, London. Credit:PA Leading the daily Downing Street press conference on Monday afternoon, Raab said that a team of ministers and Whitehall officials were working "full throttle" to carry out the instructions of Johnson from his hospital bed at St Thomas's, central London. But when asked whether he had taken over Johnson's "security responsibilities" Raab declined to comment. "We are getting on with all of the various strands of work to make sure at home and abroad we can defeat the virus and pull the country through coronavirus and the challenges that undoubtedly we're facing at the moment," Raab said.

Earlier, Raab said he had not spoken to the Prime minister since Saturday but it is understood the pair communicated shortly before Johnson was taken into the ICU when Johnson asked Raab to deputise. Sign up to our Coronavirus Update newsletter Get our Coronavirus Update newsletter for the day's crucial developments at a glance, the numbers you need to know and what our readers are saying. Sign up to The Sydney Morning Herald's newsletter here and The Age's here. The UK's undefined chain of command stands in contrast to the United States, where it is set out in the constitution. The powers and responsibilities of the US vice president are clearly defined, whereas in the UK the office of deputy prime minister has not been used since Nick Clegg entered into the coalition with David Cameron in 2010. Even before the Prime Minister's admission to hospital, the confusion had already given rise to reports of infighting among Cabinet ministers, with allies of Michael Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, suggesting that he was next in line.

As the coronavirus outbreak escalated, Downing Street foresaw the potential constitutional dilemma and began drawing up a "designated successor" plan" with Raab nominated as first recipient. Loading But even last night, the extent of his powers remained uncertain, with Dr Catherine Haddon, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government, indicating that some powers could be distributed to a number of Cabinet ministers. "The power would derive from the Prime Minister saying who he wants ministries to respond to," she told The Daily Telegraph. These could include authority over the UK's national security apparatus, such as control of the nuclear launch codes. "Certainly in the Cold War and the years after, prime ministers would authorise nuclear deputies who were named Cabinet ministers, who in the event of something happening would then be called upon if the prime minister was in that moment unavailable.

"It's not so much like America where they have to carry the nuclear codes around, it's just making sure there is a chain of command if the Prime Minister were not available at that moment." Loading Dr Haddon also indicated that oversight of Britain's intelligence agencies could become a shared ministerial responsibility. "MI5 reports to the Home Secretary, MI6 and GCHQ report to the Foreign Secretary, so there are still lines of communication," she said. "The Prime Minister deals with them all directly and gets daily intelligence briefings, but so do other Cabinet ministers, who also have some degree of oversight powers. The Prime Minister is the ultimate authority, but that doesn't mean he's the only one he engages with them."

Who is Dominic Raab? Raab, 46, ran against Johnson to become leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister in 2019. During that campaign he criticised Johnsons bluff and bluster over Britains exit from the European Union. Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab shelters from the rain in Sydney, in February, at a visit to the British-Swedish multinational biopharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca. Credit:AP Raab was eliminated midway through the contest and then endorsed Johnson. He was appointed as foreign minister in Johnsons first cabinet after the prime minister took office in July 2019. Raab is a hardline eurosceptic, who has long campaigned for Britain to leave the EU.

The son of a Czech-born Jewish refugee who fled the Nazis in 1938, Raab was brought up in the southern English region of Buckinghamshire and studied law at Oxford University before becoming a lawyer working on project finance, international litigation and competition law. Loading Before entering parliament in 2010 Raab also worked for Britains diplomatic service including a posting in The Hague working on bringing war criminals to justice. He also advised the government on the Arab-Israeli conflict and counter-terrorism. A karate black belt, he served briefly as Brexit minister under then-prime minister Theresa May before quitting in protest at her proposed deal to leave the EU. While Brexit minister he was derided for saying that he hadnt fully realised how reliant Britain was on the Dover-Calais ferry crossing for trade. The route is one of Britains busiest and most important links with continental Europe.
Farmers have been discovering which wheat varieties perform best without chemical inputs in the second year of an Innovative Farmers field lab.

The farmer-led research tested 22 different wheat varieties in plot trials on organic land to discover which types have traits most suitable for farming without chemical inputs.

The group came together after they identified a knowledge gap in the wheat seed market since most commercial variety trials do not take place under organic conditions.

The field lab, run through Innovative Farmers, brought farmers together with the Organic Research Centre to codesign the practical on-farm research. The trial is primarily taking place on Bradwell Grove Estate in Oxfordshire.

For the second year, popular conventional varieties like Zyatt and Skyfall did not perform as well as other varieties when compared within the trials organic conditions.

According to the group, this demonstrates the importance of organic testing to discover the varieties with genetic traits suitable for a non-chemical farming regime.

Assessments included disease susceptibility, protein levels, yield and growth characteristics, which provide valuable insight to farmers on variety choice.

Some farmers in the field lab group have used the plot trials to inform decisions on trialling new varieties at field-scale.

Adrian Hares, of Roundhill Farm, trialled three of the varieties on his own farm at field level so he could assess them when using farm-scale equipment.

He said: The advantage for us in being involved in this field lab is that its a trial on our own ground, on our own soil type, with our own weed burden and control regime.

"For example, one of the varieties was very tall which a lot of people like, but actually we need to be able to top weeds above the height of the crop because of our specific machinery."

He added: "It is interesting to see what qualities apply to our situation. Collaboration is the way forward  standing in someones field and seeing what theyve done is really valuable and we also use that time to compare techniques."

The trial is now in its third year and will continue to test wheat varieties in organic conditions to provide insights for any farmer looking to avoid or reduce inputs.

What are the key findings of the field lab?

 Evolution, Costello and Revelation were the highest yielding in this year of the trial, but they also had the lowest harvested protein yield.

 The European variety Mortimer, which has recently been dropped due to a lack of interest from the non-organic sector, performed well for a second year in both grain and protein yields.

 Results can be used to identify those varieties that might outperform the yield protein trade-off, also known as the grain protein deviation, e.g Mv Fredericia for milling wheat and Costello for high yielding feed wheat. Hallfreda  a new Swedish variety with bunt tolerance  was tested for the first time this year and showed good potential as it gave high grain and protein yields, showed good resilience to disease and had a good canopy which appealed to the farmers in terms of weed competition.

 Heritage wheat variety Maris Widgeon performed as well as commonly grown varieties like Skyfall, both in terms of yield and protein levels.

 Ehogold, Edelmann, Mv Fredericia (AWC1) and Skyfall showed the most susceptibility to yellow rust, which remains the most damaging foliar disease for organic farmers. However, the 2019 season was particularly bad for this disease and most varieties in the trial had resistance scores reduced compared to the previous year.
A romance mystery writer charged with murdering her chef husband is asking a judge to let her ride out the coronavirus pandemic at an undisclosed guest house in the Portland area, court records show.

Lawyers for Nancy Crampton Brophy, 69, claim their clients age and history as a diabetic require her immediate transfer from the Multnomah County Detention Center to what they described as alternate confinement, according to recent court filings.

The attorneys, Lisa Maxfield and Kristen Winemiller, also filed a habeas corpus petition against Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese, alleging the conditions in the jails he oversees create a medically dangerous environment and threaten the defendants life.

Ms. Crampton Brophys age and poor health  combined with the lack of medically necessary sanitation and separation at the jail  expose her to an unreasonable, unacceptably high risk of fatal infection if the jail becomes an incubator for the coronavirus, as health experts predict it will be, court records claim.

Once the defendant is attacked by the virus, medical staff will have virtually no means to save her: the battle will be waged between the virus and her 70-year-old, diabetic immune system. Steps must be taken now, immediately, to avoid exposing her to the virus.

Crampton Brophy has been behind bars since September 2018 after police say she gunned down Daniel Brophy, her husband of 27 years, in a kitchen at the Oregon Culinary Institute that June. Daniel Brophy had been a beloved instructor at the school in downtown Portland.

The case became international news after The Oregonian/OregonLive revealed Crampton Brophy once wrote an essay titled How to Murder Your Husband. Her self-published titles include The Wrong Husband and Hell On The Heart.

Crampton Brophy is among a growing number of inmates in Oregon and around the U.S. seeking release from local, state and federal custody amid the coronavirus epidemic, which public health experts say can spread more aggressively within jails than the community at large.

Multnomah Countys two jails, which can hold up to 1,200 inmates, have yet to report a known COVID-19 case among jail staff or the general population.

But according to court filings, jail staff have rejected Crampton Brophys requests to create social distancing at the Multnomah County Detention Center, such as having protein shakes and medication delivered to her cell.

Crampton Brophys lawyers also claim she fears mingling with inmates in the cafeteria line and is worried about contracting COVID-19 from the jails food workers, who travel in and out of the facility each day.

Her only means to minimize trips outside her cell  other than starvation  has been to purchase food through the jail canteen service, the court filings read. However, the healthiest food available through the jail canteen, orange juice, makes her diabetic condition more volatile.

To save Crampton Brophy from what her lawyers called imminent death, they have proposed their client stay in a guest house that belongs to longtime Oregon residents in the Portland area. Court records do not identify these residents or the precise location of their guest house.

Crampton Brophy would be placed under GPS monitoring and not allowed to leave the home, her lawyers said. Food and groceries would be brought to her. Only medical professionals or Crampton Brophys attorneys would be allowed to visit.

Multnomah County prosecutors have rejected the proposal outright, records show, and have argued that the court should hold a release hearing to determine whether Crampton Brophy is eligible for bail. Crampton Brophy has previously waived her right to have one.

Self-confinement in an undisclosed location, supervised by undisclosed individuals, while wearing a passive GPS monitor is not a program conducted by the Department of Corrections and is clearly not a suitable alternative to being confined in the jail, wrote Shawn Overstreet, a deputy district attorney.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632

Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday talked extensively about the recently-launched coronavirus tracker app Aarogya Setu during a meet with party workers via video conference to mark BJP's 40th foundation day. He asked BJP workers to encourage more people to use the app.

What is Aarogya Setu app?

The central government of India launched Aarogya Setu on April 3 to track the spread of COVID-19 in the country. The app, launched in public-private partnership, helps people assess the risk of catching the virus. App users can also alert authorities if they come in close contact with a person infected with the virus.

Also read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: Delhi govt to do random testing in Delhi-NCR; country's active cases at 3,981

Since its launch, over one crore people have download Aarogya Setu. The app has largely received positive reviews on the Play Store. In fact, it has become No.1 free app in the Indian mobile application market.

However, some users have reported problems while using the app. An Android user said, "When I try to open the app, I just get the pop-up that my device is rooted". Privacy advocates have raised concern about possible misuse of data. Journalist and digital privacy expert Nikhil Pahwa stated, "The privacy challenge we are facing is balancing the health of many, these are unprecedented times, unprecedented measures are being taken, however, it's important that the app be open-sourced, so that it can be tested for privacy".

However, the government has said that personal data collected by the app was encrypted using state-of-the-art-technology and stays secure in the user's mobile phone. K. Vijayaraghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the government said, "All communication from the app, whether to another device or server, are secure and anonymised, and cannot be brute-forced, the app has been thoroughly and rigorously tested for security vulnerabilities by leading academic and industry experts".

How to use the app?

Aarogya Setu uses the Bluetooth and location-generated social graph to track if the user has come across any COVID-19 confirmed person or those suspected of coronavirus. Here's how you can download the app:

Step 1: Go to Play Store and search Aarogya Setu

Step 2: Click on Install

Step 3: Once the app gets installed, select the language

Step 4: Switch on Bluetooth and location

Step 5: Set "location sharing" to always. Location data is sent to the government.

How does the app work?

The user carries out self-assessment test through chatbox on the app. The bot asks gender, age, foreign-travel history, and symptoms.

This data is used to identify risk and alert other users if they come across anyone suspected of coronavirus.

The app is available in 11 languages-English, Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia.

Aarogya Setu is based on Singapore's successful community tracing app "TraceTogether". Other countries are also developing similar kinds of apps to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Also read: Coronavirus: Japan PM Abe set to announce emergency, finalise $1 trillion stimulus package

Also read: Coronavirus impact: India withdraws export ban on 12 essential medicines
Due to the popularity of Office 365, 1-grid has recently launched an Email for Business Product following a unique per mail box service.

With calendar sharing, collaboration tools and a clean webmail client, businesses will be able to connect with their customers and colleagues seamlessly.

We upgraded our email product to this model due to the configuration uniqueness in comparison to the traditional way that email hosting is provided. Considering the unprecedented times that we are facing due to COVID-19, businesses will be working remotely via VPNs. Teams will be encouraged to collaborate online more so now than ever. We are certain our solution will provide businesses with the ease of doing the above says 1-grid CEO, Thomas Vollrath.

What does the 1-grid Business Email Service offer?

The model includes a Basic or Pro package with extensive product features, namely:

Sending and receiving messages via internet browser webmail application

Robust HTML editor that allows you to type distraction-free emails and add styles and formatting easily

On demand content filtering providing you with the ability to discard or reroute mail as you wish

Domain-level and custom signatures to add that pro touch to your email

Remote access on multiple devices

Share Contacts, Calendars, Tasks and Notes with your colleagues

Anti-virus protection

No complications with Mail Exchanges

Advantages of the 1-grid Business Email Services:

Feature rich

The product enables teams to have collaborative workspaces that include an instant messenger; synced calendars and video call functionality.

The product is responsive across mobile and desktop clients which means that you can access your email from any location with connectivity.

The dedicated storage per mailbox allows for individuals to send and receive more information with additional cloud-based storage. The tool allows for reporting enabling accountability and productivity.

Affordability

The per mailbox structure allows you to purchase according to the number of individuals in your business.

This allows administrators to manage costs better and scale according to a businesss growth.

Ad free

Certain email products may infringe on your privacy with numerous advertisements. The 1-grid product does not include advertisements therefore your email experience is not interrupted.

The pro email service includes a free .co.za domain registration upon purchasing so that companies can link their new domain to their email product.

The Business Email Product joins 1-grids ever growing list of diverse products geared towards the SME business market, namely:
The in-person interactions that inform every aspect of the non-digital design processfrom networking to nabbing clients to that blissful final walk-throughis, for the foreseeable future, on hold thanks to the unfolding coronavirus pandemic. Its a crisis that has many pros asking whether they should join the growing ranks of designers and companies bringing design entirely onlinefrom design-in-a-box packages popularized by startups like Modsy and Havenly, to Kelly Wearstler (now teaching a MasterClass on the subject) and Kathryn Ireland, who has launched her own star-studded digital design package. AD PRO consults the expertsbranding gurus, marketing mavens, and, most importantly, the designers who have done it themselvesfor their tips on taking your work (almost) fully remote.

How to decide if digital design is right for you

Katie Saunders, who runs Pop and Grey, a North Carolina branding strategy firm for designers, has a key question: Is e-design an element of your business youd like to keep after the crisis has passed? Spend a lot more time and effort if its something you are interested in weaving into your services permanently. If its just a way to weather the times so that you can scrap it as soon as you can, most likely your messaging and marketing is going to feel pretty inauthentic and fall flat, she cautions. (If its not a fit for you, use the time to improve the businesss backend, and reach out to great past or current clients individually to see how they can best serve them instead.)

If, before this, you were basically working locally and living on referrals, she says, its really overwhelming to feel like you suddenly have to be splashed all over the internet. You dont! Start small, and consider integrating small digital changes into your existing offerings first. Susannah Charbin, founder of the Beaux Arts Digital, an agency catering to Nate Berkus, Poliform, Adam Hunter, and others, says that, despite the temptation to launch a fully baked component on day one, designers neednt necessarily add full functionality. For designers struggling with how to bring a personal touch to existing projects, I would recommend they create a private login area on their website for their clients to access. They can use this area to share install photos, mood boards, elevations, design presentations, and timelines. This can give their services a much more immersive, elevated, and personalized feel, instead of simply sending out Dropbox links.

Story continues

How to develop a digital offering

Are you offering finishing-touch-only styling, room-by-room redesigns, or all that and everything in between? If youre adding to existing services, consider New York designer Megan Hopps strategy; she has long offered a flat-rate remote design package, but within the last few weeks launched a new virtual service: an hourlong consult for an affordable flat rate. In the past, due to a demanding schedule and considerable amount of time spent on work sites, I was never able to accommodate smaller design projects. With the work-from-home mandate, she says, a new opportunity has arisen to work with individual clients on their homes in these smaller increments of time.

Houston designer Paloma Contreras, who previously offered a digital design package called Design Concierge, is now reinstating the service. It was born out of a need that we identified a while ago. People would call about smaller projects and werent necessarily candidates for full-service design, but still wanted a piece of mefor their homes to be executed using my eye, my guidance, and my recommendations. We developed a turnkey service, which is sold by the room. And New York designer Ariel Okin, who recently launched a digital offering, says that her packages are built around what the client is asking for, because we are open to a range of scopes right now, but typically our most popular option has been a package of design boards and floor plans, along with purchasing, but obviously no install.

Whatever the projects scope, Brooklyn-based designer and stylist Justin DiPiero suggests adhering to a singular format: It starts with a consultation: 30 minutes to discuss your project and what you want to achieveand give me a quick visual tour of the area. If the client agrees to continue with my services, I offer as close to an in-person experience as I can. This includes drafting floor plans if necessary, selecting furniture, fixtures, and materials, creating shopping lists, research, correspondence, and preparing proposals using digital tools like G-Suite, Adobe, and Zoom. Projects can be as small as some virtual styling help to make your quarantine more comfortable, all the way up to a full home refresh with new furniture, fixtures, and lighting.

Design by Justin DiPiero Claire Esparros

How to brand in a hurry

If you dont already have a strong, consistent digital branding, now is the time to develop and implement a style guide that applies to all of your communications. It doesnt need to be pretty, and nobody needs to see it but you and your team, but it will provide guardrails for communicating your message and creating visuals for all of your channels, says Saunders, noting that it should include a couple of fonts and a handful of color formulas that complement your overall brand, all versions of your logo, a hierarchy of font header styles, any graphic elements, patterns and icons you use, and guidelines for how to use all the above. Even with only a couple of fonts, if you are constantly switching up how you use them, it can look messy fast, says Saunders, pointing out that its easy to start to veer from your base when you are trying to create excitement around new services.

If youre starting from scratch, opt for consistency and simplicity when pulling together your digital brand in a hurry. Visually, being consistent is the most important communication tactic, says Saunders, who suggests that designers use no more than two fonts that contrast well, and limit the use of hand. Making sure that your visuals are reinforcing what your copy is saying is essential. Make sure all of your social channels and website have a consistent look and voice. Check all of your bios on these channels and make sure its conveying the same thing.

Design by Ariel Okin Seth Caplan

How to reach clients, old and new

Most digital design startups, like now-defunct Homepolish, were launched as an entree into design for aficionados with more restricted budgets than those accustomed to in-person services. They are definitely different customers. E-design clients are seeming to be clients who might be ready for your [in-person] services in 5 or 10 years, but maybe love your style and are really engaged and passionate about working with you. This might be the first time theyve ever worked with a designer, and they arent familiar with how commission works, so you have to explain that piece. In-person clients are typically much more seasoned, in a much different budget range, and all around are coming at the product from a different set of more experienced eyes, explains Okin.

Hopp found a new niche clientele online. I updated my website, of course, and then I took to Instagram and put together what I like to call my own feature film, laying out what virtual services I am now offering and how those different design experiences would suit different clients with varying types of needs. I was blown away by the responseI booked 10 consultations in the first night. I knew there was a market for people wanting a small amount of a designers time, but I didnt realize just how on board people would be right off the bat.

Technology can help make design a more approachable option for previously untapped clientele. If you plan to market your services to first-time buyers who havent hired an interior designer before, then remove the intimidation factor of the first interaction and make it easy for them to schedule an appointment or introduction call with you. Integrating scheduling software such as Calendly into your website can help with this, suggest Charbin, who is using the software now to help her longterm client 200 Lex get its showroom appointments online.

Existing clients may also be interested, if they can be convinced that the service is applicable to them. Saunders suggests pinpointing clients pain points and addressing them accordingly: Use social media to talk about the issues everyone is facing right now and how you can help. Many families have two parents working from home and multiple children homeschooling all under one roof. They are noticing the downfalls of their home every day. Maybe they are realizing they need a dedicated play space. Suddenly their white walls are closing in on them. They are wishing they had a beautiful outdoor space to escape to. Use what your customers may be feeling as social media content and copy surrounding your online service.

Ideally, a streamlined online offering may build a new clientele that lives on beyond the current climate. We are very lucky to still have almost all of our full-service projects moving forward at this time and my plan is always to focus on my in-person business, Contreras says. Given the challenges we are currently facing as a society, my hope is that offering a different service online will be helpful to those who cant work with us in a full-service capacity.

Design by Justin DiPiero Claire Esparros

How to handle pricing

There is no one-size-fits-all figure that will work for every designer and, with the greater reach afforded by the web, versus, say, your immediate referral network, your services will be accessible to an even larger range of clients. E-design services sometimes run the risk of attracting a client who might not be the right fit for you, points out Charbin. Cut off would-be ill-fitting clients at the pass: Create a questionnaire on their website for interested clients to fill in. This can help to establish budget expectations and scope upfront. You can see an example we built for Christopher Architecture here, says Charbin.

Professional opinions vary on pricing. Okin says her fees are absolutely less than in-person. Weve been charging a flat fee plus a commission on net pricing. For that, clients get an idea of how to set up the pieces in their space, a design board that illustrates what everything will look like in the room, and video conferencing with us. Contreras offers a flat-rate package, implement[ed] according to their timeline and budget. Each package includes a design-concept board, detailed floor plan, and a customized shopping list, as well as swatches and finish samples. DiPiero is offering a quarantine special: free half-hour consultations, and a 20% discount on his hourly rate during the work-at-home order.

Others, like designer Sara Barney of Austin, Texas, opt to keep pricing the same, online or off: We are keeping pricing steady regardless of if its in-person or virtual. Our time is our time, and isnt worth less just because we are not in person. Dallas- and Seattle-based Pulp Design Studios principals Beth Dotolo and Carolina Gentry also arent offering a discount on services but, instead, are dedicating their fee toward keeping their small business afloat and helping crisis responders: We are donating half of the cost of the initial consult to the front lines fighting this health crisis. The bonus is that the other half goes to our small business to support us maintaining our staff during the economy crisis. We see it as a win/win.

Design by Paloma Contreras Kerry Kirk

How to keep moving forward

When in-person interactions are flat-out banned, youll need to rely even more on some technical tools to fill the gaps. Okin explains, We have to get that much more detailed and creative in our digital presentations. We have been using a lot of SketchUp, Revit, and mood boards, to help clients envision these spaces coming to life in 3D as well as providing clients with measurements for placement so they can execute at home. Clients have been pulling their own weight, too. Dotolo and Gentry have asked customers to partner on site measurements and photos. Theyre stuck at home, anyway! We are providing a guide for measurements and photography that our clients can use to document each room.

When moving into this largely new territory, be ready to pivot when necessary to make the most of your time. Shares Hopp, While I already had a framework for my e-design service, I was able to piggyback off that using those directions and guides to send to my new virtual consultation clients. Initially I had intended to spend the entire hour on a video chat, verbally working through a clients space and design questions. However, I realized pretty quickly that what is more valuable than a full hour of conversation is a small sampler or sourcing. As such I adjusted the service pretty quickly so as to spend half of the hour on a video chat and half of it pulling together a few key ideas and piece suggestions to send along as a follow-up. Contreras concurs, pointing out how important it is to share as realistic a timeline as possible. Like with anything else, you must clearly set expectations up front regarding how long it will take to deliver your design, whether or not any edits are included and so on.

The groundwork you set todaywhether you launch a single service or a bevy of themcan serve your business even after the immediate crisis has passed, as the industry will continue to adapt to new ways of working, just as clients adjust to new ways of living. There are obviously some essential components to a designers job that cannot be done remotelyconstruction administration, for examplebut there is a large amount that we can still do, reflects designer DiPiero. Its amazing what we can do from our own homes these days.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
'Some will ask are we alone in this great vastness and may even be moved to contemplate the meaning of life itself.' (Stock photo)

As a perfect antidote to cocooning, or cluthairiu as Gaeilge, on a clear night just take a step outside your door or balcony and look to the heavens.

You will observe the wonders of the night sky in its infinite majesty even with the naked eye, or better still with binoculars or a basic telescope. Dont be fazed by light pollution as the eye soon becomes accustomed to the conditions.

Ponder the beauty of our nearest neighbour the moon, as it serenely waxes and wanes across the sky and see its mountains and craters, evidence of a violent past. Say hello to the man on the moon.

Contemplate our amazing solar system with many of its planets in full view at the moment whizzing around our Sun; Venus shining brightest of all, high in the western sky; Saturn with its beautiful rings; Jupiter, the gas giant, many light years away, with its violent storm patterns and many moons clearly visible; Mars, the red planet, also makes its entrance; Mercury, closest to the Sun, a little more difficult to spot low in the sky but well worth the effort. And then look to the numerous constellations, galaxies and their stars famed in folklore and mythology by our ancestors. To name just a few, the Plough is currently high in the sky overhead and trace the now-redundant Polaris, or North Star, a vital friend to mariners and travellers through the ages. Orion, the hunter, stands proud with its prominent three-star belt. Gemini, the twins, are close to the moon at the moment.

Many of what we see as stars are giant galaxies like our own magnificent Milky Way. Those who are religious will believe that such limitless wonders were created by a divine power, while others will say that it all started with the Big Bang and can be explained by the laws of physics and gravity.

Some will ask are we alone in this great vastness and may even be moved to contemplate the meaning of life itself.

John Leahy

Wilton Road, Cork

Revolving Taoiseach position would wreck our credibility

One aspect of the government formation talks which have taken place between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail is that the margin of seats between the parties is so minimal that a revolving Taoiseach position might be one condition on which the two parties would enter government.

While the idea of a revolving Taoiseach seems acceptable, in reality it would not be tenable. The unprecedented nature of such a position would decrease the credibility of the Irish Government globally, while simultaneously taking from the prestige of the office. It would also create and harbour systemic division within the heart of government. While a grand coalition between the two parties may enable government at a time when it is required, a revolving Taoiseach cannot be part of it.

Cillian Boggan

Co Wexford

Varadkars got enough to do without volunteering for more

What in the name of God is Leo Varadkar up to? Does he not think that he has enough on his plate with his day job?

RJ Hanly

Screen, Wexford

America is put to shame by the response of other nations

As the Covid-19 pandemic travels from person to person and country to country, we are witnessing the best and possibly the worst of people. China sends medical aid to Ireland, Greece and Germany, Russia sends aid to Italy, Iran and America, and Cuba sends doctors to any nation that needs help.

We see once-geopolitical and ideological enemies come together in global solidarity, aiding humanity to defeat an invisible deadly viral assassin that knows nothing of geopolitical or ideological distinctions.

Contrast these global olive branches with the actions of the self-declared leaders of the Free World. America stands accused of hoarding medical aid bound for its Nato allies. It strengthens sanctions on Iran and offers a multi-million dollar bounty  like some bad wild west B movie  on the democratically elected leader of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, on some trumped-up charges of narco-trafficking. There have been assaults on Asian-Americans as a result of people referring to Covid-19 as Chinese Flu. America is the land of the brave and the home of the free and the loudest promoter of the free-market doctrine. America, where anyone can become the president (if you are a multi-millionaire). Lets put people first.

Fra Hughes

Address with editor

Arresting times for those in lockdown as inmates freed

Does the release of prisoners because of Covid-19 have a connection with my house-arrest for the same reason?

Robert Sullivan

Bantry, Co Cork
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Some Staten Island cemeteries have needed to close their gates to visitors during the coronavirus pandemic.

Out of concerns related to the virus, multiple cemeteries, including Resurrection Cemetery in Princes Bay, Ocean View Cemetery in Oakwood, and Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp, have needed to disallow visitors.

Cemeteries are listed as essential businesses by Gov. Andrew Cuomos office, so they remain in operation. However, they cannot take visitors.

Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, confirmed all cemeteries operated by the diocese, including Resurrection Cemetery, will not be accepting visitors during the outbreak.

This is an unfortunate, but necessary, step that our cemeteries were forced to take in order to insure that we did not face any large gatherings of people, and to protect the health and safety of our cemetery workers who must be on-site, he said.

This is particularly difficult at this time of year, since the days leading up to Easter, and, if this crisis continues, potentially, Mothers Day, Memorial Day, Fathers Day, etc. are times when people wish to visit the graves of their loved ones, leave flowers, say a prayer, and just visit and remember, he continued.

Moravian Cemetery did not return a request for comment by the time of publication. Frederick Douglas Memorial Park also did not return a request for comment.

An employee who answered the phone at United Hebrew Cemetery in Richmond said their cemetery remains open.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

As the outbreak has progressed and more New Yorkers have died, concerns have been raised about whether the citys cemeteries will be able to handle the peak of the crisis.

On Monday, the office of Mayor Bill de Blasio denied reports from Manhattan councilman that the city is considering using city parks as temporary burial sites, but said it is considering the use of Hart Island, which has served as the citys public cemetery for decades.

City Council Minority Leader Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island) said the use of city parks for burials is obviously not something we want to do, but that it has to be considered as a last resort.

Though we are not near that point yet, some funeral directors are starting to share their concerns with me about our capacity to handle the sheer number of burials this borough may need. In the interim, the administration must do all it can to ensure these difficult procedures are undertaken with the utmost respect and sensitivity to the families who have suffered loss during this crisis," Matteo said.

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Following the mass lockdowns implemented by many countries across the globe in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak, numerous governments have found themselves running to the dreaded International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help.



Last week, the IMF reported that about 50 low-income countries had already approached the fund for relief assistance as the lockdowns continue to bring economies to their knees.



The African Union is predicting 20 million job losses in Africa by year-end. This is the flip side of the lockdown life-saving measures that many governments now have to battle with.

Rwanda has already obtained a E2.05 billion, loan from IMF after a lockdown brought the countrys economy to a halt, creating an urgent balance of payment needs.



Eswatini has also adopted the world-wide approach of a lockdown, albeit partially without fiscal relief, which has literally turned off the life support of thousands of small and medium enterprises and their dependants who are now without jobs or any means of livelihood while stuck indoors with almost nothing to eat. With no cure or vaccine for the outbreak in sight, the lockdowns are set to continue for months. At what cost to our livelihoods? We are only in the first phase of the COVID-19 infection curve that has taken hard-hit countries more than four months to flatten. So what do we do?



Do we run to IMF or rethink our lockdown strategy. South Africa has not been stubborn in reconsidering trade in the informal sector; spaza shops and the transport industry because the situation on the ground warranted it. Renowned economist Ricardo Hausmann has asked the question; At the limit, people will have to decide between a 10 per cent chance of dying from the virus and 100 per cent chance of starving to death. Unsustainable situations cannot last so you will eventually need to resume production, but how?



If government can state when we are likely to resume production and answer the how with a sustainable economic recovery strategy that can save lives and avert austerity measures that come with IMF bailouts, then by all means it should put it on the table for all to see. If not, we need to consider investing our meagre resources into getting the life support up and running while strictly monitoring that the businesses adhere to hygiene practices to ensure that we save lives and not destroy our livelihood.
On March 21, the first identified Houston-area coronavirus patient returned home 18 days after he was first admitted to the hospital.

He wrote a letter to the Houston Chronicle about his experience fighting COVID-19. Then, on Monday, he heard President Donald Trump quoting his words.
Ministers in the UK have insisted the business of government will carry on after Boris Johnson was admitted to intensive care following a worsening of his coronavirus symptoms.

The British Prime Minister was transferred to the intensive care unit at St Thomas Hospital last night as what was said to be a precaution in case he needed to be put on a ventilator.

The senior British Cabinet minister Michael Gove said that he had received oxygen support but was not on a ventilator.

He is kept, of course, under close supervision,  he told LBC radio.

By being in intensive care if there is further support he needs it is there at hand.

But the Prime Minister has not been on a ventilator.

In Mr Johnsons absence, Dominic Raab, the UK's Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State, is standing in for him where necessary.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will deputise for Mr Johnson when necessary (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

There was a palpable sense shock at Westminster and beyond at the speed of his apparent decline following his admission to hospital on Sunday.

Downing Street said at the time the move was a precautionary step as his symptoms of a cough and high temperature were continuing to persist after 10 days in self-isolation.

Initially he was said to have been continuing to work from his hospital bed and that he was receiving his ministerial red boxes.

But by 7pm yesterday the decision was made to transfer him to intensive care so that a ventilator was close at hand if required.

The Cabinet was informed shortly afterwards and the move was made public in an announcement by No 10 shortly after 8pm.

Mr Gove said that he was receiving the very, very best care and insisted that the government machine was continuing to function.

Were all working together to implement the plan the Prime Minister set out in order to try to ensure that we can marshal all the resources of government, indeed all the resources of our country, in the fight against this invisible enemy, he told BBC Breakfast.

The work of government goes on.

We have a superb civil service and they have ensured that the machinery is there for decisions to be made by ministers, by medical and scientific experts and for those decisions to be followed through in a way which enables us to help those at the frontline.
It is eerily quiet around the Winnipeg Free Press building on Mountain Avenue. The parking lot is mostly empty, few people walk the halls, and employees keep their distance from one another.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is eerily quiet around the Winnipeg Free Press building on Mountain Avenue. The parking lot is mostly empty, few people walk the halls, and employees keep their distance from one another.

The silence is deceiving, however: the people behind the newspaper are working harder than ever in this new reality to keep readers informed about the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on their lives, and what they need to do to stay healthy.

Reporters work from makeshift newsrooms in their homes; photographers take pictures of people standing behind windows; carriers stay in their vehicles and pick up papers in a drive-through lineup; customer service representatives answer phones in a thinned-out call centre; accounting staff make crucial moves to meet our financial obligations; press operators show up every night  and have vowed to get the paper out, even if they have to wear full protective gear to do so.

Inside workers at the Free Press have voted to accept 20 per cent or 12 per cent pay cuts. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press)

Their lives have changed profoundly, but their devotion to delivering the news has not.

I thought nothing could make me prouder, but I was wrong. Employees of the Free Press and Canstar community newspapers have now agreed to reduce their wages to ensure the company has enough funds to make it through the next few difficult weeks.

The temporary cut will be 20 per cent for most staff, and 12 per cent for others in some reduced wage categories.

Unionized employees, who are members of Unifor, voted in favour of the reduction Sunday. Managers will also take a 20 per cent cut; some have volunteered to take more. I will be taking a 50 per cent salary reduction.

The goal is to keep enough money in the bank to pay the bills until the company's position improves. Free Press advertising has declined significantly due to the lack of activities amid the COVID-19 restrictions.

Other newspapers have closed or implemented massive layoffs. Last week, four community newspapers in southwestern Manitoba shut down for the foreseeable future.

To practise social distancing, Winnipeg Free Press photographers have been taking lots of pictures of subjects through windows and doors.

At the Free Press, we have stubbornly stuck to the belief our work is needed now more than ever  in digital and print formats  as we bring updates around the clock on a pandemic that is changing lives on an hourly basis.

Help is on the way for the Free Press and other businesses. The federal government has announced a very generous emergency subsidy program that could pay 75 per cent of the wages of workers for companies with revenues that have fallen by 30 per cent.

Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

However, the program is moving at the speed of government, not the speed of business. The earliest the Free Press might get any money is the middle of May, if it qualifies. There are a lot of payrolls to meet between now and then, and you cannot pay employees with government promises.

The Free Press has also calculated it is eligible for more than $1 million for 2019 under the federal journalism tax credit program. However, that program has not paid out any money yet to any recipient  and that is unlikely to change any time soon.

The bottom line is the Free Press had to take action to deal with the real-time business challenges, which meant asking employees for another sacrifice.

Its hard to do when you see other companies giving raises to staff playing a role in the battle against COVID-19. I had to say: "Your work is crucial. Now please take a pay cut."

Their answer was yes. They understand their work is important, so important they will do it even if their salaries are cut.

Readers of the Winnipeg Free Press could not ask to be served by a more dedicated group of people.
The Member of Parliament who doubles as Deputy Health Minister, Hon. Tina Naa Ayeley Mensah today April, 6, 2020 led a team of constituency executives to distribute lunch packs to over 1,000 people in 7 communities.



The lunch which was served in no particular order contained 500 packs of Kenkey with fish and 530 packs of jollof with chicken.



The communities which received the lunch include _Ayigbe Town, Azumah, Kokroko, SCC, Riverside, Mallam Abease and Borla Road_.



In a short speech, the ever generous and hardworking lawmaker who is also a Deputy Health Minister cautioned constituents against the threat the covid-19 virus poses to the their lives.



She said, constituents should practice regular hand washing, use hand sanitizers regularly and avoid hand shakes, among others to stay healthy and safe.



She pleaded on constituents in other communities to be patient since all beneficiaries will be served their portion of the meal.



The lunch distributed today is in fulfillment of the President statement that meals will be served to people in the lockdown period.



The team is expected to wide their scope tomorrow to enable a lot more to be served with the lunch packs.

Source: peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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George Pell has spent his first night of freedom in a Melbourne monastery after the High Court ordered his immediate release from jail in one of Australia's most contentious cases.

The country's seven most senior judges voted unanimously to quash all of Cardinal Pell's convictions for child-sex abuse, ruling there was a "significant possibility" an innocent person had been convicted.

George Pell was released on Tuesday. Credit:Jason South

Cardinal Pell, 78, spent more than 400 days in jail after a County Court jury in 2018 found him guilty of five charges related to allegations he sexually assaulted two choirboys in 1996 in St Patrick's Cathedral in East Melbourne. He was Archbishop of Melbourne at the time and later became the church's third-highest ranking official as Vatican treasurer.

Pope Francis, who did not mention Cardinal Pell by name, made this pertinent statement on Twitter following his daily Mass on Tuesday: "In these days of #Lent, we've been witnessing the persecution that Jesus underwent and how He was judged ferociously, even though He was innocent.
"Post Reports" is the daily podcast from The Washington Post. Unparalleled reporting. Expert insight. Clear analysis. Everything you've come to expect from the newsroom of The Post - for your ears.

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In this episode:

Aaron Gregg discusses how small businesses can get loans under the new stimulus law. Nicole Dungca reports that the federal government lagged for months in helping local officials respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Karin Bruilliard explains that the plight of tigers around the United States goes beyond what's in the Netflix documentary "Tiger King."
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" " Turkish coffee is made in a special pot called a cezve, also known as an ibrik, with extremely finely ground coffee powder. Douglas Sacha/Getty Images

She knew this could make or break her engagement to be married. Swirling in the small copper pot on the stove, the dark, powder-like grounds would need to produce the perfect brew, an art that's been passed down for centuries. As she stood waiting with anxious confidence, the water began to rise and the requisite layer of foam appeared, signaling it was time to act.

Quickly pouring the thick elixir into the tiny porcelain cup that would carry her fate, she felt her heart racing in anticipation of their reaction  her potential husband-to-be and his parents were seated outside, waiting to taste her Turkish coffee. Her suitor's willingness to drink his with salt instead of the customary infusion of sugar would prove his worthiness, and his mother's favorable opinion would help seal the pending union.

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Steeped in Tradition

The oldest method of preparing a cup of joe, Turkish coffee doesn't just fuel a unique marital tradition, it embodies a deep cultural history  uniting people through conversation, painting fortunes in leftover grounds, educating the illiterate, causing sultans to hire spies and even energizing men as they whirled in search of religious ecstasy.

The strong flavor and velvety feel distinguish it from the filtered coffee most of us wake up to  or even the double shot we grab from our modern-day coffee empire. By boiling a mix of water, coffee that's been ground so fine it could pass as cocoa powder and a bit of sugar, you get an unfiltered brew that brings clarity to the famous Turkish proverb: "Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death and sweet as love."

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Coffee as a Cultural Connector

Melis Aydogan, a first generation Turkish-American and founder of Ruya, a pop-up Turkish coffeehouse in Cincinnati, Ohio, says the essence of Turkish coffee is connection. For more than 500 years, the historic brewing method has paved the way for people of all ages and backgrounds to unite through conversation. "Coffeehouses are truly a welcoming space for our culture," says Aydogan.

One beloved ritual  fortune telling  brings a little mystery to the table. After tipping your leftover, sludge-like grounds onto the saucer, a friend, family member or even professional can read your fortune from the resulting shape. Aydogan shares that her mother and grandmother read the family's fortunes after meals, and "people use the custom to reflect on what they want resolved and what they're looking forward to. The whole idea is to come together and connect. Fortune telling is just the vehicle," she says.

This meaningful foundation of friendship and hospitality, coupled with the brew's uniquely layered history, has even earned it a spot on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage List. That's no small feat for 2 ounces (59 mililiters) of liquid.

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The History of Turkish Coffee

One of most powerful dynasties in the world, the Ottoman Empire ruled huge areas of the Middle East, Eastern Europe and northern Africa from the 14th to the early 20th century. And its denizens played an equally large role in the culture  and popularity  of coffee drinking.

When coffee first arrived in Yemen in the early 15th century, whirling dervishes, practitioners of a mystical sect of Islam, began drinking the boiled beans to fuel their meditative, whirling dances.

But the real boom began when two traders brought the coffee to Istanbul in 1555. The Ottoman sultans fell head over heels in love and employed their own royal coffee makers. Public coffeehouses sprung up all around, creating what would become pivotal cultural spaces for men to socialize, share news and stories with the less educated, and discuss politics.

By the mid-17th century, sultans got suspicious, sending in spies to monitor conversations. Luckily, the sultans' attempts to close the coffeehouses failed. Today they continue to form a vital part of the cultural fabric. But of course, families brew it at home too.

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How to Brew Coffee Like a Turk

It's more accessible than you might think. Aydogan encourages us to "breathe easy  you don't have to be a coffee nerd to get it right. It's an art, not a science."

The only must-have: Very finely ground coffee.

A highly-recommended tool: A cezve, also known as an ibrik  a specially shaped, tiny pot with a long handle. If you don't have one, you can still get your brew on; just use the smallest pot you've got.

Add cold water to your ibrik, leaving a bit of room at the top

Thoroughly mix in 2 teaspoons of super-fine coffee grounds

Mix in the sugar; Turks never add it after brewing

Put your ibrik on medium heat and let it boil up and rise. No need to sir. Just one boil is recommended, allowing the crucial foam (crema) to reach the top. Because as the Turks say , "Sleep cannot be without blanket, coffee without foam."

Pour the coffee into a small espresso-like cup, letting the grounds settle

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Turkish Sand Coffee

Making Turkish sand coffee is very similar to making regular Turkish coffee. The only real difference is that Turkish sand coffee involves using a large cooking vessel filled with sand that is heated on a stove or over an open flame to a very high temperature. This method is said to impart an evenness in the cooking and a more consistent taste. The deeper the cezve goes into the sand, the hotter it gets  and the coffee is considered to have been baked, not boiled.

However you drink your Turkish coffee, take care not to drink the grounds  and not just because they're tough to swallow. They can grant you a glimpse into your future, or at least bring you closer to your fellow coffee drinkers. After all, it doesn't matter where you call home, Turkish coffee is connecting people cup by cup, conversation by conversation.

Now That's Delightful Turkish coffee is traditionally served with a glass of water and a small plate of Turkish lokum  a sweet, jelly-like candy. Known to most of the world as Turkish delight, it's also said to have been loved by a few historical giants: Pablo Picasso ate it daily to boost concentration and Winston Churchill frequently used it to satisfy his sweet tooth.

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Originally Published: Apr 7, 2020
Warehouse, Broker Products; Webinars Everywhere on Everything; Mr. Cooper's Early Forbearance Figures

Is there good news out there? You bet! Ying Ying and Le Le mated. That aside, Day 98 of captivity. Weve all found out that really hot water and sudsy soap break down the protective outer layer of the virus. And I found out I have the most loving wife: Last night I woke up while she was holding a pillow tightly over my face to protect me from Covid-19! And this morning I saw a neighbor talking to her dog. It was obvious she thought her dog understood her. I came into my house, told my cat Myrtle.... we laughed a lot. Yes, the home life has changed, and video conferencing has entered our homes in a big way. The question, Is the call audio, or video too? is common. Here's a helpful Zoom pie chart. What could possibly go wrong with live feeds and children, right? A Norwegian school quit using video calls after a naked man guessed the meeting link. More below on Zooms security, or lack thereof, and continued coronavirus-driven changes in our industry.



Lender Services and Products

Union Home Mortgage Corp. TPO recognizes this time of uncertainty for our Partners and their families. We are here for you. In our Wholesale and Non-Delegated Correspondent production channels, we are offering the following products: FNMA, FHLMC, FHA, VA, USDA and affordable housing products. We will continue to adapt to changes, keep you informed, and do our personal best to fund all loans on time as expected. Weve made changes to our workflow and technology to create Raving Fans. Thank you for your business and partnership. Stay well. Were an organization dedicated to providing world-class service at competitive prices. Contact Jim Wickham, Vice President - Third Party Origination at (248) 318.8553.

OptiFunder Warehouse Management System reported a record month in March, surpassing $1.5 billion in fundings to 18 different warehouse lenders. What started as a warehouse optimization engine has quickly become a critical piece of the mortgage originators toolkit helping lenders navigate ever-changing funding criteria. OptiFunders Warehouse Management System, winner of HousingWires 2020 Tech Award, provides automatic optimized warehouse decisions based on current conditions, warehouse capacity and eligibility on the fly. Lenders can rest assured they achieve the lowest cost of capital and better manage the impact of margin calls. For more information click here or contact COO Brian Abbott (404-271-8941).

Do you need to train repurposed talent or train new retail or consumer direct loan officers, processors, loan officer assistants or support professionals to meet the capacity challenge in the market? Click here for a special message from XINNIX CEO and Founder Casey Cunningham on ways to get the talent you need market-ready in as little as 10 days. XINNIX offers four training solutions that produce market-ready talent, fast: SOAR for New Processors; ORIGINATOR ASSIST for New LOAs; ORIGINATOR DIRECT for New Consumer Direct Loan Officers; and ORIGINATOR for New Retail Loan Officers. Schedule a call with a XINNIX Account Executive today for more information.



Events and Training (From the Comfort of Your La-Z-Boy)

Developments driven by the pandemic have upended correspondent lending. Everyone agrees about the importance of supporting borrowers during this time of crisis, but actions thus far have created uncertainty, reduced options for potential borrowers, and may seize up the mortgage market, all completely antithetical to the goal of assisting borrowers. Does it have to be this way? Join MCT on Wednesday, April 8th at 11AM Pacific for a public webinar, Challenges & Solutions for Correspondent Lending in Crisis. Topics to be covered include unresolved systemic issues, actions taken by GSE's and aggregators, the impact on originators and pricing, and the path forward. Click here to register.

Join in to hear the latest information on Mortgage Fun, Freebies, and Forbearance. Register for the Tuesday, April 7th Webinar; David Luna and Rob Chrisman will discuss the latest news and whats behind it.

Compass Analytics (Black Knight) and Phoenix Capital offer up Retaining Servicing  Part II: Deeper Dive on Execution, and Forbearance Cash Flows and Value.

Discover Easy Options for Virtual Meetings with Homebuyers. Arch MI created a new webinar to help leverage the latest technology to connect with customers where theyre most comfortable right now: at home. With a decade of experience hosting virtual training events, mortgage banking expert Ginger Bell will share key strategies. There are two Webinar sessions available. Tuesday, April 7th from 23 p.m. ET and Thursday, April 9th from 11 a.m.Noon ET.

The Franklin American Mortgage April 2020 Wholesale Customer Training Calendar is now available. This months calendar offers a variety of training opportunities such as: Mortgage Fraud, Working Virtually, Amazon and Googles Impact on Todays Borrowers, Pump up the Gram: A Guide to Instagram Marketing in 2020 and Loan Officers Checklist for Success.

Join Offit-Kurman for a webinar on April 7th at 12 pm ET. Register for Responding to the Economic Challenges of COVID-19 on Lenders.

Join the MBA/MW Webinar on Thursday, April 9th: The Coronavirus, Data Security & Cybersecurity, and Avoiding Common Pitfalls.

James Brody, Johnston Thomas' Mortgage Banking Practice Group Chairman, will discuss navigating regulatory requirements and remaining resilient during the pandemic, including new FLSA exemption changes, loan originator compensation & the LO Comp Rule, EPD & EPO adjustments, consumer privacy and data security, and vendor risk management best practices. Thursday, April 9 from 1:30 - 2:30 PM ET / 10:30 - 11:30 AM PT.

On April 15 and 16, the Mortgage 2020-Live Virtual Conference brings together dozens of top mortgage industry leaders and thousands of mortgage professionals for a two-day interactive summit that will tackle the toughest production, legal and compliance issues facing us today, all designed to help you better navigate the new mortgage origination, servicing and technology challenges. Learn the latest from HUD, the GSEs, the MBA and ABA and more, direct from featured speakers such as Dave Stevens, HUDs Brian Montgomery, me, Flagstars Kristy Fercho, MBAs Chief Economist Michael Fratantoni, Jay Brinkmann, and others. Presented by Firstline Compliance, The Knowledge Coop and Shred Media. Conference passes are available now. Every attendee receives access to two days of live and recorded content and interactive Q&A, multiple conference tracks including production and compliance, which will remain available on the conference website for 30 days for all attendees.

Altisource is hosting a one-day virtual summit on how Covid-19 is impacting the mortgage industry. The Mortgage Industry Pandemic Summit will take place on May 6 featuring 28 of the most influential leaders in Originations, Servicing, Vendor Management and Government discussing the operational challenges facing mortgage and real estate companies as a result of the pandemic. There is no cost to attend and registrants can select the all-access option for all sessions or choose individual sessions that interest them the most.

Even during uncertain times, efficient compliance must still be a priority. October Research will host Mayer Browns Kris Kully and ARMCOs Kacey Olson on the Streamlining the HMDA Process webinar 2 p.m. May 7th. They will share their experience on innovating the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) process to make it easier to stay compliant. Address the recent changes to the HMDA regulations without overwhelming your staff and even improve your business.



Corona Changes

Videoconferencings Zoom is all the rage. Just be careful what you say on it. It allows users to access meetings with a specialized URL but Zoom URLs use a meeting ID with 9 to 11 digits, and by randomly guessing IDs within that realm of digits, hackers can obtain access to unprotected meetings. This has led to hackers and pranksters entering conferences and wreaking havoc. This is a pretty glaring security issue: a simple software program designed to sniff out different Zoom URLs was able to find 100 meetings per hour. It might not even require sophisticated software be used: a random digit dialing can produce a one-in-seven party crashing success rate. Zooms responded by making passwords the default on future meetings, but thats not going to solve the problem for meetings that are necessarily open. Like AA, which more and more mortgage bankers appear to be headed toward.

Mr. Cooper says it placed 86,000 customers (2.5 percent) on forbearance plans in the first week after Congress approved a bailout and relief package intended to help consumers through the coronavirus pandemic. The nations largest nonbank mortgage servicer said forbearance volumes ranged from 8,000 to 22,000 a day through Friday.

The Federal Reserve will establish a facility to facilitate lending to small businesses via the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by providing term financing backed by PPP loans. Additional details will be announced by the Federal Reserve later this week.

The Mortgage Bankers Association brought together industry leaders and affordable housing advocates in a public statement to draw attention to the need for a liquidity facility for residential and multifamily mortgage servicers. Its needed. Simply put, howd you like to be an independent mortgage banker with $20 million in the bank and possibly have to come up with that much every month to cover the borrowers in your servicing portfolio not making their payments?

Redwood Trust turned heads Friday effective immediately: for loans already submitted to Redwood for review, but for which purchase price and terms letters (PPTLs) have not been executed by Redwood and the seller, all funding and purchase decisions will be assessed on a case-by-case basis prior to execution of a PPTL. For loans for which PPTLs have been executed by Redwood and the seller, Redwood will fund the purchase of those loans on the PPTL funding date; and Redwood is not accepting new file deliveries for purchase requests.

I have received many questions about Wells Fargo Fundings jumbo product ceasing. One can check out this write up mentioning the regulatory asset cap imposed by the U.S. Government. To be blunt, and simple, if Wells can only hold so many assets, and a jumbo loan is an asset, well, thats that. Every organization, including Wells Fargo, must carefully evaluate how we serve customers and manage risk, while also maintaining balance sheet discipline in this environment.

Dont forget PennyMac is aligning with the direction outlined by F&F regarding forbearance, and therefore, any loan in forbearance or for which forbearance has been requested is not eligible for purchase by PennyMac. PennyMac also stated, Additionally, any loan that is in forbearance or for which forbearance has been requested up to 15 days post purchase by PennyMac may result in a repurchase.

Caliber Home Loans sent, Effective with Commitment Confirmations issued on or after April 7 we will be updating the Caliber Government and Government High Balance Loan Level Price Adjustments (to be) reflected on the rate sheets published on April 7. As you can imagine, the focus is on low credit score products as it is with so many other investors.

Fremont Bank told brokers, regarding F&Fs appraisal policies, The temporary flexibilities apply to Conventional Conforming, High Balance and Super Conforming loan products only and do not apply to Portfolio ARMs, HELOCs, Gold Jumbo, Diamond Jumbo or FHA loan products. Brokers cannot currently order Exterior Only or Desktop appraisals via MORRIS and will need to order a Traditional Appraisal on our website. We have implemented a process in which each appraisal order will be reviewed and then modified to the temporary appraisal type based on transaction type and the GSE Permissible Appraisal

Keep in mind that the U.S. government has stepped in to offer homeowners financial relief during this unprecedented time with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Government-sponsored agencies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will offer forbearance agreements with protections for those homeowners in need where there is an agreement between a homeowner and their mortgage servicer to suspend payments for a period of time. The homeowner does not incur late fees or other penalties during the forbearance.

The devils in the details, as they say. Look for servicers ensuring payment relief by providing forbearance for up to 12 months. Waiving assessments of penalties or late fees. Halting of foreclosures and evictions of borrowers living in homes owned by the mortgage servicer until at least May 17, 2020 (Freddie Mac). Suspending the reporting to credit bureaus of past due payments of those in forbearance due to the COVID-19 emergency. Offering loan modifications for payment relief to keep mortgage payments the same after the forbearance period. Borrowers are eligible regardless of whether their property is an investment, second home, or owner-occupied.



Capital Markets

Heres a very short telling video of the current unemployment situation.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread globally and with the number of cases in the United States having roughly one quarter of the world-wide cases, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases encourage more aggressive social distancing measures to limit the virus' spread. Stay-at-home orders are the norm, limiting activity to varying degrees of 'essential' business operations. Like alcohol. The increased limits on social activity will continue to weigh on economic activity, accelerating the pace of decline. The decline in March unemployment is merely the beginning and lower response rats to the Bureau's survey likely point to significant revisions in the coming months. 701,000 jobs lost in March is already near the monthly peak of the 2008 - 2009 financial crisis which saw 21 months of job losses, the largest of which was 802,000 in March 2009. Given the recent weekly unemployment claims numbers, April's net job losses could potentially number in the millions. It is widely expected that many, if not all, of the economic releases in April will show unprecedented declines due to the severe and sudden halt to much of the global economy.

U.S. Treasuries pulled back to open the week, including the 10-year yield ending Monday +9 bps to 0.68 percent, as risk tolerance improved amid signs that some countries are reaching, or have reached their peak in coronavirus cases and fatalities. For the day, the NY Fed Desk purchased $20.92 billion MBS, up from $19.86 billion on Friday, of the $25 billion tentative maximum. Separately, the Federal Reserve announced the establishment of a facility that will purchase small business loans from banks.

Today contains three releases: Redbook same store sales for the week ending April 4, February Job Openings and February Consumer Credit. All are due out later this morning. The Desk is scheduled to conduct a repeat of yesterdays six FedTrade operations. Additionally, the afternoon sees the sale of $25 billion U.S. 10-year Treasury notes. We begin the day with Agency MBS prices worse a few ticks and the 10-year yielding .73 percent.

Business Opportunity

As certain aspects of the mortgage market freeze up due to growing market volatility and disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, are you looking for strategic ways to navigate the new reality? Are you considering large staff reduction or exiting certain channels of your business? Do you need to dramatically reduce operating costs but are worried about reputational risks and the potential of re-building? Whatever your challenge during these uncertain times, we can support you as a strategic partner, providing tangible results over the short, medium as well as long term. Contact Chrisman LLCs Anjelica Nixt to learn more.
Sheryl Pabatao could hear machines beeping furiously through the phone when she told her hospitalized mom Susana that her husband of 44 years died from the coronavirus. Lying in a bed floors away in the same facility, Susana was waiting for her own COVID-19 test results.

I could hear her vitals going down," Sheryl Pabatao said of the March 26 phone call. Then, the line went silent.

A half-hour later, Sheryl Pabatao said her 64-year-old mother called her back sounding defeated. Doctors put Susana Pabatao on a breathing and feeding tube later that night and she fought for four days before dying.

Even though my parents were in the same hospital, they werent able to see each other, Sheryl Pabatao said. I dont know how that feels to lose the love of your life of four decades.

As COVID-19 sweeps across the country, entire families have been hit by the illness. One New Jersey family from Freehold ravaged by the virus lost four members, while 19 others were tested and quarantined.

Sheryl Pabataos parents, both health care workers from Palisades Park who had underlying conditions including diabetes, began feeling sick about three weeks ago. The weekend prior, the family had a small gathering after an uncles death, and a majority of the 12 people at the service ended up ill, Sheryl Pabatao said.

On March 17, Sheryls father, Alfredo Pabatao, 68, started experiencing a fever that reached 102 degrees. He went to his doctor two days later, who told him to go to an emergency room. He admitted himself that night to Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, where he works as a transport aide, walking patients from room to room.

That night, Susana Pabatao, an assistant nurse at a nursing home, started experiencing symptoms too. She had a fever that fluctuated, but hovered around 103 degrees. So Sheryl Pabatao and her mother tried to get tested.

For three days in a row, the pair woke up at 7 a.m. to wait in line at the Bergen County Community College test site. Her mother, tired, fought through her illness while waiting for hours in their car. But the site hit capacity each time, and they were turned away.

Sheryl described the experience as frustrating and helpless.

Susana Pabatao waiting on line at the Bergen County Community College coronavirus test site before being turned away. "It's frustrating," her daughter said.

By March 23, with her husband still hospitalized and on a ventilator, Susana Pabatao had trouble breathing and swallowing. Her fever reached a high of 103.9 degrees. Finally, Sheryl Pabatato was able to convince her to also go to the hospital where her father was.

She said she didnt want to go because she didnt want to be alone, Sheryl Pabatao said.

At the hospital, Sheryl Pabatao said her mother was doing well until her father died on March 26.

When Sheryl Pabatao told her mother the news, she tried to calm her down. But Susana, sounding resigned to the illness, asked her daughter to find her parents life insurance and 401K paperwork. Susana also asked Sheryl to locate her Do Not Resuscitate order because she wanted to sign it.

She said I cant do this anymore. Im having such a hard time breathing... I dont want any tubes on me, Sheryl Pabatao said. I said Mom, I know youre sad. But please dont say this. Youre not going to die. I was just trying to put positivity on her.

That night, Susana Pabatao had a rapid decline in vital signs, and doctors intubated her.

Susana and Alfredo Pabatao met as neighbors in the Philippines and immigrated to the U.S. in 2001. They died four days apart from each other in the same New Jersey hospital.

Sheryl and her siblings debated whether they should ask the physicians to remove the breathing tube at their mothers wish, but ultimately decided to let her fight the virus.

Four days later, she died. Alfredo Pabatao tested positive for COVID-19 about six days after being swabbed, but the family is still waiting for Susanas results.

She tried to fight. But she had no progress or regression. We were probably just keeping her alive," Sheryl Pabatao said.

Her parents met in their early 20s, when the two were neighbors in the Philippines each dating different people. Both broke up with their significant others, and gravitated toward each other, Sheryl Pabatao said. After dating for seven months, they got married and immigrated to the U.S. in 2001.

She says shell remember her parents as simple people, who loved going on walks together, shopping and traveling.

Sheryl Pabatao hopes her parents story pushes others to take social distancing guidelines to heart.

My parents went from 0 to 100, Sheryl Pabatao said. I think people need to take this seriously. We all need to care for each other at this point. This is the time to care for our community and our neighbors."

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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[April 07, 2020] Genetron Health Announces Its Novel Coronavirus Nucleic Acid Detection Kit Is CE Marked and FDA-EUA Application Accepted, with Three Laboratories Passing NCCL's COVID-19 EQA

Genetron Holdings Limited ("Genetron Health"), a China-based precision oncology company that covers full-cycle cancer care, announces that its independently developed Detection Kit for Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) RNA (PCR (News - Alert)-Fluorescence Probing) has been issued CE marking and had its application accepted by FDA-EUA. Based on the test kit, three of Genetron Health's clinical laboratories have passed the COVID-19 External Quality Assessment (EQA) by China's National Center for Clinical Laboratories (NCCL). This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005572/en/ EU CE-IVD Marking Certification (Photo: Business Wire) In addition to CE marking and FDA-EUA application acceptance, Genetron Health's nucleic acid detection kit has also performed excellently in a verification project held by the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control. The kit enables comprehensive, accurate, efficint, and safe testing for larger-scale samples. Additionally, Genetron Health's new aerosol particle sampler for lower respiratory tracts has also applied for medical equipment approval and clinical verification, in hopes to help control the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.



Moreover, the GENETRON S5 (China National Medical Device Registration 20193220820), semiconductor high-throughput sequencer, and supporting instruments have been donated to Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital. As currently Huoshenshan Hospital's only next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform, it can perform accurate molecular test of clinical samples to yield comprehensive genomic data. Such data is acutely instrumental in current and future clinical and epidemiology research in battling the disease, monitoring mutations of the coronavirus as well as in continuous management and prevention of the COVID-19 outbreak (including formulation of preventive measures, research and development of related diagnostic kits, vaccines and drug treatment). GENETRON S5 sequencing platform also effectively and efficiently complements the current PCR test, thus enhances reliable testing for weak positive cases using a substantially shorter time. In addition, it can aid diagnosis of any co-infections and support follow-up precision treatment.

About Genetron Health Genetron Health is a leading and fast-growing precision oncology company in China that aims to provide one-stop genomic profiling solutions for multiple scenarios covering early screening, diagnosis and monitoring, and biopharmaceutical services. The company collaborates with over 400 hospitals and dozens of biopharmaceutical companies and research institutions and has developed a large proprietary genomic database. Genetron Health has established R&D centers in both the United States and China, two manufacturing facilities with both ISO 13485:2016 certification and ISO 9001:2015 certification in China and five clinical laboratories in Beijing (CLIA accreditation and CAP certification), Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chongqing and Guangzhou. The R&D capacities of Genetron Health are supported by a best-in-class research and development team led by scientists at the forefront of cancer genomics research. The company has published many research papers in highly influential worldwide peer-reviewed scientific journals, such as Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, Cell Research and PNAS. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005572/en/

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Security experts are warning that a once-in-a-century pandemic devastating both Iran and the United States has exacerbated rather than eased hostilities between the two countries, increasing the possibility of an armed conflict.

The outbreak of coronavirus has prompted unprecedented health and economic crises in both nations, sapping each of resources and manpower. Despite the disasters, both Washington and Tehran are escalating their years-long conflict. The US has upped sanctions and moved two battleship carrier groups into the Persian Gulf. Irans allies in Iraq and Yemen have increased attacks on Americans and their regional allies.

They both seem to be doing the same thing and perceive opportunity here, said Douglas London, a former CIA clandestine services official who now teaches at Georgetown University. The leadership in both countries see a weakness they can leverage.
Were forced, suddenly, to make explicit what we do all the time  make cost-benefit decisions about how to allocate scarce resources. Economists call such choices decisions about marginal utility. What value do we get for the next dollar we spend? What do we forego by spending that dollar on one thing rather than another?

Everyone does this. All the time.

We call it rationing when medical resources are insufficient to meet the demand for care. Physicians make decisions about who should get scarce care. In wartime, thats called triage. Sure, in an ideal world, a world of unlimited resources, each soldier would get all the care necessary to enhance the chances of survival. But resources are rarely unlimited.

As we brace for the COVID-19 pandemic, were talking publicly about rationing.

We dont just ration, or allocate, scarce resources in medical care.

Were having a semi-coded discussion about prisoners just now. Should we release them all before the COVID-19 roars through a prison?

If not all, then what subset of prisoners? Who decides? Based on what principles?

What we ration in this case are life chances. To those we choose to release, we arguably give an enhanced chance of survival. To those we refuse to release, we give a lesser chance of survival.

Yes, there are differences between access to medical treatment and life chances for prisoners.

In an affluent society, letting someone die because we lack adequate medical supplies feels wrong, scandalous even. Refusing to release to the community a violent offender who shows no regard for society doesnt feel the same.

Distinguishing these two classes of rationing sheds light on our values. We weight, in the allocation of resources and life chances, a vision of what kind of society we choose to live in. We want access to quality care for all; we also want all to be protected from predators who show no regard for others.

What then of the lockdowns, the shuttering of the economy? Is that a wise allocation of our resources?

Physicians say it is. It flattens the curve, after all.

But what is the cost of that in terms of the quality of life for all? Does there come a point in which there are diminishing returns for maximizing the fight against the spread of the virus?

When President Trump suggests as much, he is accused of putting the stock market about the welfare of the common man.

This is political tripe. Remember, we all make calls about marginal utility all the time.

I was relieved this week to see the cover piece in The Economist frankly discuss whether the the cost of distancing might outweigh the benefits. Yes, in a pandemic, many become ill, and some die. But the overwhelming majority of folks survive. And survival requires jobs, education, production of good and services, and institutions capable of making it possible for all of to live together. Weve shuttered the country to satisfy New York Governor Andrew Cuomos mandate  saving every possible life at any possible costs.

Thats less adult good sense than Sunday school ethics.

In 1665, a plague roared through London, killing 20 percent of the population; as many as 7,000 Londoners died a week, when the plague was at its height. Those ill were quarantined, forced to remain in their homes. But the city went about its business as best it could.

And it survived.

Of course, London didnt have the internet, or CNN. It lacked the ability to stoke mass hysteria 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There was fear aplenty, as Daniel DeFoe so aptly recounts in his A Journal of the Plague Year. But death was understood as a part of life.

Ill sit sequestered in homy me awhile longer. Ill take a federal loan to help pay my employees. With luck, stimulus checks will arrive in homes soon enough to maintain order and prevent looting. But how long will this holding pattern obtain? And how long will it take us to repay the debt we now assume?

Life is strife, Theodore Roosevelt once said. It is risky, too. No one gets out of here alive. At some point, well have to face our fears and return the business of living.

Norm Pattis, a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer with offices in Bethany and New Haven, blogs at www.pattisblog.com.
Some Muslim clerics and scholars have appealed to the members of the community to avoid visiting graveyards on Shab-e Bara'at on Wednesday to pray for their ancestors, but pay their respect to them while staying at home in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Shab-e Bara'at, Muslims visit the graveyards of their departed relatives to pray for them. It falls on Wednesday, April 8, this year.

The appeal has been issued on behalf some well-known Muslim clerics and scholars of the country, including Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan, President, Muslim Ittehad Parishad; Maulana Syed Mahmood Madni, General Secretary, Jamiat Ulama-e Hind; Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan Azhari, Chairman, Delhi Minorities Commission; and Maulana Mufti Muhammad Mukarram, Shahi Imam, Fatehpuri Masjid.

They have also urged people to maintain social distance on this occasion.

Coronavirus has evolved into a dangerous epidemic which has engulfed the whole world and thousands have lost their lives, while over a million have been infected, they said in a press statement.

In the country, the virus has infected over 4,000 people and as a safeguard, the whole country is under lockdown at present. As a result, congregational and Jumu'a prayers in mosques have been curtailed and people are offering their prayers at home, it stated.

"We appeal to all Muslims to spend Shab-e Bara'at at home offering prayers, reciting the holy Quran and doing zikr and du'a. Muslims should not visit graveyards but pray for their departed relatives while staying at home.

"We appeal, in particular, to our youth to completely refrain from going out of their homes during this night. We appeal to them: stay at home, offer prayers and make du'as, and pray to Allah the Almighty in particular to safeguard all our compatriots from this epidemic," it stated.

Muslims every year observe vigil at night at mosques on the occasion of Shab-e Bara'at, offering special prayers, reciting the holy Quran and visiting graveyards.

"An effective way to protect ourselves from this virus is to observe social distancing and people should not assemble in any place. It is part of wisdom and expediency that same is observed during the Shab-e Bara'at," says the appeal.

Syed Saadatullah Husaini, Amir, Jamaat Islami Hind; Maulana Asghar Ali Imam Salfi, Amir, Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e Hadees; Hazrat Muhammad Tanveer Hashmi, Sajjada Nasheen Khanqah Hashimiya, Bijapur, Karnataka; Hazrat Muhammad Mueen Miyan, Peer-e Tareeqat, Mumbai; Mujtaba Farooq, secretary general, All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, have supported the appeal, said the statement.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A London school is advising pupils to view the lockdown as a summer holiday camp to improve their mental health.

Reframing the quarantine as Camp Corona could help pupils who are feeling trapped and bored, according to advice from Sydenham High School.

The private girls school for pupils aged four to 18 is urging children to shift their perspectives.

It published a blog by its counsellor Fiona Gray with tips on having a successful Camp Corona and maintaining mental health. Ms Gray, a psychotherapist, said: Instead of seeing it as a quarantine, what if we were to reframe it as a summer holiday camp  say Camp Corona. When kids go off to summer camps it is often incredibly fun, there are new rules and a new normal is created.

So lets introduce Camp Corona, which has a slightly different vibe. We are going to have to be intentional about creating a new way of being in this climate. Lots of events are cancelled. Some people are going to be feeling more anxious or get cabin fever.

She suggested families write their own camp rule. The theme of her own camp at home is fun and connection. She said if children are feeling afraid and hopeless it might help them to go through their wardrobe and donate clothes or send a letter to a friend. If children are bored she suggested they write a list of activities they like but do not normally have time for.

She also advised pupils to get dressed, create a specific area to work in, and to try not to spend too much time reading the news or using a screen.
Taliban Warns Peace Deal At Risk Amid 'Repeated Violations' by US Airstrikes

Sputnik News

21:01 GMT 06.04.2020

The Afghan Taliban militant group has warned that the peace deal signed with Washington in Doha, Qatar, is at severe risk by "repeated violations" of that agreement in the form of US airstrikes. However, the Pentagon has denied its responsibility for the attacks.

A Taliban spokesperson told Spanish news agency EFE in Kabul on Sunday that the peace deal signed with the US in February and adopted in early March was placed at serious risk by US airstrikes against the militant group, as well as the failure of the Afghan government to live up to promises made by Washington.

"We seriously ask the American side to respect the provisions of the agreement and encourage its allies too to fully respect the provisions of the agreement," the Taliban said, according to the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).

"If such violations continue, it will develop an atmosphere of distrust and will not only harm the agreement, but will force Mujahidins [Taliban fighters] to react and respond that will increase the level of violence" in the country, the statement continued.

The statement named "several evident violations" of the Doha peace accord, including in southern Helmand, Kandahar, western Farah, northern Kunduz, Badakhshan, Balkh and eastern Nangarhar and Paktia provinces, IANS reported.

However, the group also noted that it did not sign a peace agreement with the Afghan Security Forces, with whom it has continued to exchange fire even as the grounds for peace talks with Kabul become shakier by the day.

"As per the signed agreement, until there is a separate agreement with the Afghan sides [government] and a comprehensive ceasefire is agreed upon, until that time the Islamic Emirate can carry out attacks against all military facilities and bases of the Kabul administration, both in urban and rural area[s]," the Taliban statement said.

US Army Col. Sonny Leggett, the spokesperson for US Forces - Afghanistan (USFOR-A), tweeted on Sunday that US forces have continued to uphold their end of the agreement, adding that "any assertion otherwise is baseless. USFOR-A has been clear - we will defend our ANDSF [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] partners if attacked, in compliance with the agreement."

"The TB [Taliban] must reduce violence," he continued. "A reduction in violence is the will of the Afghan people & necessary to allow the political process to work toward a settlement suitable for all Afghans. We once again call on all parties to focus their efforts on the global pandemic of COVID-19."

While the Pentagon has admitted to no attacks on Taliban forces since early March, Afghan airstrikes have continued. On Monday, Khaama Press News Agency announced that "a series of airstrikes" in Uruzgan and Zabul provinces had killed or wounded dozens of Taliban fighters, just the latest exchange of fire between the two forces.

The Taliban, however, has attributed this attack to US forces, Sputnik reported.

Peace talks were expected to begin between the Taliban and Kabul government shortly after the US-Taliban peace deal was signed, but they have since stalled. The Taliban, overthrown by the US invasion in 2001 that installed the present Afghan government, believes that government to be illegitimate and has for the past 19 years refused to negotiate with it.

The release of 5,000 jailed Taliban fighters in exchange for 1,000 ANDSF prisoners was supposed to be a precondition for the beginning of those talks, but the administration of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has wavered on that promise, instead offering a slow release of Taliban prisoners in batches.

 Sputnik

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As leaders in their respective industries, The Coca-Cola Collection serves up a refreshingly fun take on premium quality tech accessories. The special edition collection features Coca-Cola's iconic logo and signature pantones adapted to CASETiFY's best-selling styles, in addition to all new products released in time for the collaboration.

Consumers around the globe will be able to spot Coca-Cola's logo on many of the collection's key designs, with the latest series introducing a multilingual art direction inspired by the vibrant cultures who enjoy Coca-Cola everyday. Additionally, The Coca-Cola Collection reinterprets the tech accessory brand's signature motifs like CASETiFY confetti and logo-based tape, appearing on CASETiFY classics like military grade strength Impact Cases, and custom reflective Mirror Cases. The range of tech accessories expands to cases supporting iPhone, Samsung, AirPods Generation 1, 2, and Pro, as well as wireless charging pads, MacBooks, iPads, and more.

"We're eager to announce Coca-Cola as the next brand to join our Co-Lab program," said CASETiFY CEO and Co-founder Wes Ng. "As a Millennial and Gen Z brand, we can't imagine a time in our lives where we haven't seen Coke's refreshing beverages around us. Not only are we an international company, operating from two offices across the globe, but we're also proud to offer a product that resonates in so many markets and diverse cultures. This collaboration speaks to the global connection that technology brings with it, as well as a brand partnership strongly aligned through shared values of happiness and the spirit of individuality."

The Coca-Cola Collection will be the first collaboration introduced by the two brands, as it officially joins the creative program CASETiFY Co-Lab. Through the global creative program, CASETiFY has introduced co-branded accessories with industry leaders and international tastemakers over the years. These collections have launched to waitlists in the hundreds of thousands, with popular products selling out within hours.

The Coca-Cola Collection will release a waitlist on April 6, 2020 for consumers to sign up and join priority access to shop the collection hours before global release. For more information on the collection, and the brand CASETiFY, visit www.CASETiFY.com/coca-cola.

About CASETiFY

Founded in 2011, CASETiFY is recognized as the first and largest global platform for creativity and customization, connecting individuals through their tech accessories. Today, CASETiFY serves as the leading Gen Z brand, delivering stylishly slim and drop-protected cases to millions of customers around the world in 180 countries.

Over the years, CASETiFY has expanded through three key channels: celebrity partnerships, retail channels, and brand design collaborations. Past highlights include launching both Sarah Jessica Parker and Pharrell William's first tech accessories collections, unique in-store activations with Colette, Nordstrom, and Anthropologie, online partnerships with REVOLVE.com and ShopBop.com, along with tech capsule collections with Saint Laurent, Moncler, Vetements, DHL, The Pokemon Company, streetwear label BAPE, and global K-Pop group BTS.

SOURCE CASETiFY

Related Links

http://www.CASETiFY.com


The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has told banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) that all borrowers should get the three-month moratorium and can opt-out if they choose, the Economic Times reported.

Banks had chosen to either make the moratorium a given (with an option to opt-out) or had asked borrowers to opt-in to defer payment of loan interest and principal.

Follow our LIVE Updates on the coronavirus pandemic here

The new email communication on April 6 has made it mandatory for all banks and financial institutions to consider all customers under moratorium by default, the paper said.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

1. EMI moratorium: ICICI Bank vs HDFC Bank vs Axis Bank - all you need to know

2. Moratorium: Skipping three EMIs? Be ready to pay 16 more instalments 3. RBI moratorium: Postponing credit card dues will mean paying exorbitant interest costs 4. No-cost loans: Dont postpone dues unless strapped for cash Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

The new directive would make things difficult for banks that lean more on credit deposits to keep cash flow steady, and would not see much inflow from the lower cash reserve ratio (CRR) and bond sales.

Bankers have told the paper this is not in line with the Match 27 circular which asked banks to conduct the moratorium as per board-approved policies and, in effect, left it up to individual banks to decide.
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A senior minister in Gilgit Baltistan government has accused Islamabad of not providing monetary aid and the required healthcare equipment to deal with COVID-19 in the occupied region.

Shams Mir, Information Minister of Gilgit Baltistan said in a press conference that the region has not received its share of the USD 200 million in aid received by Pakistan from the Bank to deal with the pandemic.

"The high-handedness of the federal government is that Bank extended aid to help Pakistan fight coronavirus, which should be distributed equally to all provinces and regions. However, Gilgit Baltistan has not yet received its share. This is very unfortunate", Shams Mir told media in a recently held press conference.

Gilgit Baltistan has reported 211 COVID-19 positive cases and there are rising fears that its healthcare system is not well equipped to deal with the situation.

Shams said, "There are red zones declared in Gilgit Baltistan and we use to start sampling in those areas. But, the required resources like medical equipment, testing kits and labs are not sufficient. Only one small laboratory is operating in the entire region".

Part of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan has been under Pakistani occupation since 1947 and it still lacks basic health infrastructure because of Islamabad's negligence.

Gilgit Baltistan borders China and a large number of Chinese workers, engineers and security guards are working here on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. This also raises concern about the possibility of the rapid spread of the coronavirus in the region.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan has sharply increased to 3,864 with more than 500 fresh infections while the death toll has reached 54.

The Ministry of National Health Services, in an early morning update on its website, reported that four patients had died due to coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
They say the spreading coronavirus and collapsing oil prices weigh increasingly on the Kremlin.

In the midst of the damage to public health and the global economy, the COVID-19 crisis could present an unexpected opportunity both to resolve the only hot war in Europe and to address Russian President Vladimir Putin's assault on international norms of behavior.

As the spreading coronavirus and collapsing oil prices weigh increasingly on the Kremlin, the United States and its allies should offer to lift international sanctions against Russia if Putin will end his military incursions into Ukraine. President Trump and Congress can advance America's interests, and the world's, with a bold step to encourage an end to this war. The Trump administration and Congress should seize this opening, former U.S. ambassadors to Ukraine William B. Taylor, Steven Pifer, and John Herbst wrote in an opinion article for NPR, a U.S.-based non-profit media organization.

Read alsoEU says Russia sanctions no hindrance to coronavirus aid

Since Russia invaded Ukraine's Crimea and Donbas regions in 2014, Russian forces and their local proxies have killed 14,000 Ukrainians in Ukraine's eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk. The Russian-led forces periodically escalate the fight, most recently in February. The war continues to damage Russian interests, European and Western security  and a world governed by laws rather than by force of arms.

The international community opposed Moscow's assaults with economic and other sanctions that have helped to depress Russian economic growth by 1% annually since 2014. The price of crude oil, a mainstay of Russia's economy, has now hit an 18-year low. Fossil fuels account for over 60% of Russian exports.

The looming global recession will deliver another blow to the Russian economy. Now more than ever Russia needs a break from sanctions. Indeed, Putin used his speech to last week's Group of 20 virtual summit conference to urge a halt to all international sanctions. He called sanctions relief "a humanitarian issue" in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors said.

As bipartisan U.S. policy has made clear, Russia's withdrawal from its costly war in Ukraine is the way to get sanctions lifted. A withdrawal agreement would free up resources in both Russia and Ukraine to fight the virus.

While years of diplomacy to end the Ukraine war have stalled, a high-level push now from the United States could break that deadlock. The coronavirus crisis could provide the Kremlin a rationale to agree.

Read alsoRussian COVID-19 numbers as dangerous propaganda  think tank

In close cooperation with the leaders of Germany, France and Ukraine, President Trump should propose to President Putin an end to the fighting, the return of Donbas and the international border to Ukrainian sovereignty, and the removal of the sanctions imposed on Russia for its Donbas intrusion.

If Putin were willing to withdraw from Crimea, the other sanctions imposed against that illegal annexation could be lifted as well. But the major penalties are directed against Moscow's aggression in Donbas, and the West can lift those while maintaining sanctions on Moscow for its seizure of Crimea.

According to the experts, the essentials of a deal  if not the order in which to apply them  have been set in the so-called Minsk negotiations among Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. They are a cease-fire, OSCE-verified withdrawal of Russian-led forces, return of the border to Ukrainian control, local elections and some measure of decentralized decision-making for all Ukrainian administrative regions.

To ensure security in Donbas during the process, one idea is to have joint patrols by national Ukrainian police and local police still now working in occupied Donbas. That arrangement could be overseen by the OSCE and  to help ensure fair, secure elections  should be buttressed by an international peacekeeping mission. That peacekeeping force would be authorized by the United Nations Security Council and led by a neutral nation. A key requirement would be for the Ukrainian international border with Russia to be controlled by the peacekeepers rather than, as now, Russia's military, the officials stressed.

In Washington, President Trump would need congressional support to remove the sanctions on Russia, and many in Congress are rightly skeptical that the Kremlin would act in good faith. But the bipartisan consensus that imposed those sanctions in the first place should permit their carefully conditioned removal.

Read alsoU.S. debunks Russia's "humanitarian aid" claims, says medical supplies fully paid for

President Trump, with support from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, should be able to persuade Congress to remove the Donbas sanctions, with the explicit understanding that they would be re-imposed if Putin reneges on agreements.

Those same conditions would need to underpin a consensus among the United States, its European partners and NATO allies. With bipartisan and transatlantic support, President Trump would be able to engage directly with President Putin.

The looming health and economic threats of the coronavirus pushed Ukraine's parliament last week to advance controversial land-sale and bank reforms needed to qualify for crucial loans from the International Monetary Fund. Russia, which for months has played down the virus threat, followed other nations in tightly restricting people's movements out of their homes.

Especially during a pandemic, it is insanity for Russian-led forces and Ukrainians to be killing each other. The Kremlin's aggression must be ended. All nations need to focus now on fighting the coronavirus, not their neighbors, the authors added.
If you ask anyone for recommendations on local seafood, they'll probably suggest Paradise Catfish Kitchen in Ball. For decades, the restaurant has seen a steady stream of business. But now, the COVID-19 outbreak is taking a toll.

"It's a hard outlook, when you go from a really strong business, to take-out only," said Angela Finger, the restaurant's owner.

Finger has worked at Paradise Catfish for more than a decade and said the customers are just like family. On Friday, that family gave her a big surprise.

It makes me cry happy. Thank you, everyone, who continue to support us. We have NEVER ran outta fish on a friday, until tonight! Posted by Paradise Catfish Kitchen on Friday, April 3, 2020

For the time, the restaurant sold out of its sought-after catfish.

Fisher said the recent sell-out could be thanks to locals helping locals during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 outbreak.

"That's the only way we will survive," she said. "Big companies and conglomerates have a lot of money to play with but local businesses don't."

The Stay at Home Order forced the restaurant to make adjustments to their hours of operation.

"It's a strain and our local people see that," she said.

Ball Alderman, Marc Mercer, said he's seeing support for local businesses spike.

"It's absolutely critical in times such as these that we continue to patronize our friends businesses and even more so now," Mercer said. "Together we can overcome any obstacles, including health emergencies by being diligent and proactive"

HOURS:

Pickup and curbside on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday from 4:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. Friday's hours are 11:00 A.M. - 8:00 P.M.
The Delhi High Court has rejected the bail plea of former Fortis promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh in a case related to alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL). Justice Mukta Gupta turned down the plea saying that he does not fulfil criteria to be released.

On April 3, Shivinder had moved the Supreme Court for interim bail citing Covid-19 infection risk. The apex court had directed the Delhi High Court to look into the matter.

Justice Mukta Gupta, in her order, denied bail to Shivinder, saying he was allegedly involved in more than one offence which were punishable with more than 7 years sentence and "hence does not qualify to be released pursuant to directions of the High Powered Committee". The high court also noted that Singh, who has been in judicial custody since December last year, is also allegedly involved in a money laundering case underPrevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Shivinder Singh, his brother Malvinder, former CMD of Religare Enterprises Sunil Godhwani, Kavi Arora and Anil Saxena were arrested by Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police in October last year over charges of fund siphoning filed by Manpreet Singh Suri of Religare Finvest. The complaint alleged that the accused had taken loans while managing Religare Finvest, but had invested these funds in other companies.

Singh, in his plea, had applied for interim bail for eight weeks in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, claiming that with over-crowding of jails, no social distancing could be maintained. He claimed there were chances he might get infected.

He also claimed in his bail plea that considering the kind of experience he has in the health sector, he should be given an opportunity to do community service as his efforts can result in an all India outreach. He said he would be able to initiate utilisation of available infrastructures with the Government and the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) after interacting with officers of various ministries and hospitals including private hospitals. He also cited example of his experience in handling Uttarakhand floods.

Shivinder's bail plea was opposed by the Delhi police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and the Enforcement Directorate, with both agencies contending that the petition was not maintainable.

Also Read: Religare Finvest case: Delhi court rejects Shivinder Singh's bail plea

Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra and advocate Chaitanya Gosain, appearing for EOW, told the court that Singh was not entitled to interim bail as he does not fulfill the relevant criteria set by the committee. EOW said that Singh was not eligible for the relief as he was "facing trial for offences punishable under section 409 IPC (criminal breach of trust) punishable up to life Imprisonment or ten years imprisonment".

"Secondly, the petitioner (Singh) is facing trial in more than one case and in all the three cases, he is not on bail... and thirdly, the petitioner is facing trial in offences relating to the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act," it had also said.

Mehra also informed the court that Singh was lodged in a cell where he is alone and hence, "as far as social distancing is concerned, the same is adequately taken care of in case of the petitioner".

The court, after hearing both sides, said since Singh was in isolation, therefore social distancing was being maintained. Court said he needed to maintain social distancing while using common facilities, like rest room or cafeteria, and he could also take steps like washing his hands to avoid getting infected.

By Chitranjan Kumar
A symbol for our times

She is the Badass Nurse. A meme, yes, but also a symbol, a face of the nurses and doctors fighting on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak. As coronavirus cases mount in North Carolina and across the nation, as citizens panic-buy groceries and avoid their neighbors, Cindric wears scrubs like body armor, with a walkie-talkie on her belt. To many commenting on the photo online, Cindric represents the heroism of medical professionals putting themselves between the public and the pandemic.

It represents something bigger, Cindric said. Its good that people are starting to see doctors and nurses out here in the middle of everything, doing this work. Were all putting ourselves in harms way to stop this.

Battling a pandemic is not what Cindric imagined nursing would be like. The UNCG grad has been a nurse for four years, the last two spent in UNCs emergency room. She said she got into nursing to help the community and jumped in the emergency room for its variety.

As an emergency room nurse, youve signed up to do anything, Cindric said. The task changes all the time. Its a little bit of everything, and you have to kind of be a jack of all trades.
And Trump has continued to flout guidance from medical experts, saying he wont wear a face mask even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention formally recommended that all Americans wear them in public to help prevent spreading the virus. Trump also joked when asked by a reporter why he does not cut off in-person contact with Pence to ensure the continuity of government that could be severely disrupted if they both were to contract the virus.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is learnt to have asked social media platforms like Tiktok, Helo and Facebook to remove rogue messages spreading misinformation and weakening government's effort to fight against the coronavirus.

Social media companies have also been asked to save details of uploaders of such malicious content which can be shared with law enforcement agencies when required.

"MeitY has said that a large number of fake/false and misinformation based audio and video clips are being circulated on social media platforms especially TikTok, Helo and Facebook. It said that such false and misinformation based messages have the potential for creating panic and other online harms," according to a source aware of the development.

The ministry in separate communications asked social media companies to remove the content as it weakens the government effort to fight against coronavirus and the Supreme Court has also taken serious note of such content while hearing a matter on the subject on March 31, 2020.

"The ministry has said that the rogue messages effectively weaken the all-out effort being made by the India government for containing the spread of coronavirus," the source said.

The communication from MeitY follows after a report submitted by open-source intelligence and fact-checking IT firm Voyager Infosec stated that several videos are being posted on social media platforms like Tiktok, Youtube and Twitter to influence Muslims in India against following safe practices to contain coronavirus infection.

The firm found that videos have been shot at both foreign locations and in India and are being primarily posted on Chinese mobile video app Tiktok with fake information about coronavirus and religious instigations against health advisories.

These videos are further shared on other platforms like Whatsapp, Twitter and Facebook," the report said.

The report submitted to India Cyber Crime Coordination Centre claims to have analysed over 30,000 videos within a period of five days. It further said that most of these videos have been created with professional video editing softwares, and originally uploaded accounts are being deleted after circulating them on other social media platforms.

"MeitY has asked social media platforms to work closely with each other so that messages, including audio and video messages, are identified and removed as soon as possible. It has asked social media companies to submit daily reports on measures taken by them," the source said.

The ministry has asked social media companies to ensure that the rogue messages do not go viral and at the same time also save information of all those people who create or upload such messages. The details of content uploaders can be shared with the law enforcement agencies as and when required, it added.

When contacted, Tiktok spokesperson said, "We are actively working with the government to support them in their efforts to fight misinformation and proactively also working to elevate credible information related to covid-19 on our platform."



Email query sent to Facebook elicited no immediate reply.

Earlier, industry body IAMAI, whose members include Google, Facebook, Tiktok etc, said any request to remove content needs to come via proper legal notice.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Coronavirus chaos might have delayed almost everything else in production, but it has brought forward the third series of Killing Eve. The programme was originally scheduled for the summer. Instead, we get it in early April. The BBC would say that this is a gift to viewers thirsty for Jodie Comer-based distraction. Killing Eve, killing evenings. A cynic might wonder if it knows its flagship thriller is a bit iffy these days, and wants to get it out while the entire western world is under house arrest, glued to their TV.

Either way, here it is. Season two finished on a cliffhanger, but only in the sense that you wondered whether it would be a year until the next series came out, or six months. Glamourpuss assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer) shot British spy/rogue agent Eve (Sandra Oh) in Rome. There was no way she was dead. When the BBC has a hit in America and Britain, as Killing Eve is, it doesnt give it up without a bloody scrap (literally, in the case of Jeremy Clarksons Top Gear). It will keep this going as long as possible, which cant be forever. Comer, in particular, is due a role that will let her display depth as well as range.

The series was created by Fleabag mastermind Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who adapted Luke Jenningss novellas. She wrote the early episodes herself and her fingerprints were obvious. The script had wit and soul and style, and was so much more fun than the average spy thriller that Daniel Craig recruited her to spruce up the new Bond script. Comer and Oh circled each other warily across glamorous European cities, as Comer bumped off a succession of targets in imaginatively gruesome ways. You were never quite sure whether they would fight or get off with each other, less cat and mouse than cat and cat, and their energy propelled the whole series. Some of the supporting performances were entertaining, like Fiona Shaw as spook boss Carolyn, and Kim Bodnia as Villanelles handler, Konstantin, but they were little more than cutouts.

Emerald Fennell took over writing duties for the second series, and the same elements somehow added up to less. Partly, this was second album syndrome, but you cant discount the Waller-Bridge effect. At its best, Killing Eve was a high-wire act, which banked on providing enough amusement that its ridiculous plots and cartoonish characterisation didnt matter.

Fennell handed over to yet another writer, Suzanne Heathcote, who previously worked on Fear the Walking Dead. Her zombie experience might come in handy. Where Killing Eve had a vitality, it now feels tired to the point of lifelessness. Eve Polastri is not dead but living only half a life. No longer an agent tracking down horrible murders with incompetent male colleagues, she is working as a chef at Han in New Malden, listening to the romantic travails of her junior male colleagues while she hacks up meat. You cant imagine Waller-Bridge letting herself get away with that kind of metaphor. Eve is estranged from her husband Niko (Owen McDonnell), who is rehabilitating.

Her old co-worker Kenny (Sean Delaney), Carolyns son, has a new job, too, as a journalist. In one of Killing Eves many departures from plausibility, he is underworked in his new role, and has enough time on his hands to check on his former boss at her flat, with mixed results. Villanelle is suffering from a similar ennui. She has contrived to marry a wealthy Spanish woman. Its unclear why, other than to provide an opportunity for a punch-up with former boss Harriet Walter. Before long, she is sucked back into her old ways, and onto Eves radar.

But who cares? Once fresh and thrilling, Killing Eve has grown stale and predictable. Its 2020, and phones still click and whoop when texts are sent. The humour is weary. I groaned when Carolyn told Kenny he was working for a website and he corrected her by saying he was working for an online publication. Comer remains watchable, but she could film herself opening her post and it would be better than a lot of whats on TV.

Killing Eve has already been renewed for a fourth season, so criticism is probably pissing in the wind, but the truth is that beyond Comer, it doesnt have much left to offer. Sometimes killing can be a mercy.
Spain has seen an increase in its daily coronavirus death toll and the rate at which new cases are being reported, putting an end to several days of straight decline.

The country reported 743 deaths on Tuesday, up from the 637 reported Monday and 674 on Sunday. The total number of deaths now stands at 13,798, up from 13,055.

Meanwhile the number of new infections also rose by 5,478 on Tuesday, from 135,032 to 140,510. The rate of new infections jumped to 5.7 per cent from 5.1 per cent, the first time it has increased in two weeks.

However, the country's health director Maria Jose Sierra insisted the country is still on the right track and put the figures down to a backlog of cases and deaths from the weekend that had filtered through into the system.

Spain reported 743 new deaths from coronavirus on Tuesday, an increase on the 637 reported Monday and 674 on Sunday which puts an end to four straight days of decline

Spain also saw 5,478 new infections confirmed on Tuesday, bringing the total from 135,032 to 140,510. The rate at which infections increases also jumped to 5.7 per cent, ending almost two weeks of falling numbers

The country's health minister insisted the rises were simply a blip in the data caused by a weekend backlog, and that hospitals are reporting that the pressure has eased (pictured, an ICU unit in Barcelona

'It is still a downwards tendency,' she insisted, adding: 'The regional health authorities tell us theyre starting to see a reduction in the pressure on hospital intensive care units.'

Overall, Spain's figures are showing a strong downward trend - which has led ministers to declare that the peak of the outbreak has passed.

The number of cured coronavirus patients in Spain is 43,208. Just over 7,000 people are still in hospital intensive care units.

Spain's infection total overtook Italy at the weekend and remained higher Tuesday, though Italy's death toll is still the largest in the world.

Both countries have been under full lockdown since early March, but have started plotting routes back to relative normality as the crisis has eased.

Spains Parliament is expected to approve a two-week extension of the state of emergency to April 26 on Thursday.

Hard right-wing party Vox has said it will refuse to back PM Pedro Sanchezs attempt to extend the countrys four-week lockdown by voting against it or abstaining.

Spain has the second highest number of coronavirus cases in the world having overtaken Italy at the weekend (pictured, a medic on a coronavirus ICU ward in Barcelona)

A healthcare worker wearing a protective suit gets ready to attend to a coronavirus patient at the Intensive Care Unit of the Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona

Medics review scans of patients' lungs at an intensive care unit in Barcelona as officials say pressure on Spanish hospitals is easing

But two mainstream opposition party leaders, including Pablo Casado who heads the right-wing Popular Party, have already said they will support it.

Mr Sanchez has asked the presidents of the countrys 17 autonomous regions to send him a list by the end of this week of private and public centres that could be use to house Covid-19 patients who do not need hospital treatment.

It is unclear at this stage whether government ministers will be able to force people to quarantine in the buildings, which are expected to include hotels which would normally have been housing tourists at this time of the year.

Discussing the lockdown extension on Sunday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Spain is 'close' to defeating the virus and would begin to make a transition to 'recover some of our economic and social life'.

He added that the extension was needed 'in order to give time to the health system to recover'.

It marked the second time the lockdown has been extended since coming into force on March 14.

Madrid, the capital, has recorded the highest number of deaths from coronavirus in the country, at 4,941, followed by Catalonia, which has recorded 2,637 deaths.

Andalusia, which includes the Costa del Sol, has recorded 8,301 cases and 470 deaths.

Spain recorded its highest number on Thursday this week, at 950.

Health chiefs say although the actual number of coronavirus infections is stabilising, the situation could worsen if confinement orders were lifted.

A hygiene worker disinfects the streets of Madrid as Spain prepares to extend its lockdown until at least April 26

Ambulance workers put on protective equipment as they prepare to examine a suspected coronavirus patient at a home in Barcelona

The government's current strategy aims to lift the restrictions after the Easter holidays, reports El Pais.

Spain has recorded the second highest number of deaths from coronavirus in the world, with its numbers only being surpassed by Italy.

The Prime Minister needs the support of Spain's lower house, the Congress of Deputies, to extend the alarm but Pablo Casado, the leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP) has been increasingly critical of the government's handling of the crisis.

He recently accused the Socialist leader of 'improvising' and said his way of dealing with the coronavirus crisis was an 'explosive cocktail of arrogance, incompetence and lies'.

Spain is also working on new advice and measures, including advising all Spaniards to wear face masks when outside.

At the moment, however, there are insufficient stocks to give to the entire population.
[April 06, 2020] Hagens Berman: Law Firm Turns Resources to Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses in COVID-19-Related Event Cancellation and Business Interruption Insurance Claims

Leading plaintiffs' rights law firm Hagens Berman is turning its national resources and legal expertise to supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses suffering from sudden unforeseen loss of business, supply chain interruption and event cancellations due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The award-winning firm is offering no-cost consults to those affected by event cancellations and interruptions to their business and supply chains now. "Fifty percent of small businesses have reported that they could shutter after three months of a COVID-related shutdown. It's no secret businesses across the nation are suffering in a way never before seen," said Steve Berman, managing partner and co-founder of Hagens Berman. "Wewant to do everything in our power to support small businesses against insurance bad faith, and uphold their rights under business protection policies."



"We're certain that right now, insurance companies are building their own legal defense against claims brought from small businesses," Berman added. "We want to level the playing field and give entrepreneurs a fighting chance to save their livelihoods, their passions and their futures." What Options Exist for Businesses Affected by COVID-19 Under Insurance Claims?

The firm is seeking to assist business owners who had the foresight to protect against risks of this nature and are now being denied on the very coverages they paid extra for to protect them in times like this. Owners who have yet to file claims, or who have already begun their insurance claim under event cancellation or supply chain interference insurance should contact the firm for a case review at no cost. "In many instances, business owners may not fully understand the conditions of coverage that exist for them under their policies," said Rob Carey, partner and head of the firm's Phoenix office. "We want to be sure they know fully the protections they are entitled to before filing their claims." Hagens Berman's attorneys are assisting those with policies in reviewing their rights and assessing if they were denied a claim or underpaid. "Many times insurance companies will shortchange small business owners," Carey added. "That's something we highly anticipate given the large number of business claims that will likely be filed this year due to coronavirus-related business loss and government-mandated shutdowns." Pitfalls for Businesses Making COVID-19-Related Insurance Claims Attorneys say that business owners should be aware of whether their insurer agreed to pay benefits for their canceled events, and if it paid the proper amount for all losses covered by the owner's policy. Business owners need to understand their policy's coverage conditions and limitations. Carey added that oftentimes entrepreneurs and small business owners may have purchased supply chain and business interruption insurance policies, but don't understand the scope of the coverage, especially during unforeseen circumstances like a pandemic or related government-mandated shutdowns and closures. "How do the pollution and containment exclusions operate? Does the policy require actual contamination," he said. "These are the fine print details that we're here to sort out with businesses in a consultation." About Hagens Berman Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP is a consumer-rights class-action law firm with nine offices across the country. The firm's tenacious drive for plaintiffs' rights has earned it numerous national accolades, awards and titles of "Most Feared Plaintiff's Firm," and MVPs and Trailblazers of class-action law. More about the law firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200406005885/en/

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By Trend

Seven working groups set up under the leadership of relevant structures in the spheres of activity of the commission created to fulfill the tasks arising from the Azerbaijani presidents order N1673 dated December 5, 2019 "On measures for the implementation of pilot projects in the field of use of renewable energy sources" continued their activity during the first quarter of 2020, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Energy.

During the reporting period, a working group considering the allocation of land plots with the participation of representatives of the relevant structures carried out the field trips to so-called Area-60, where the solar energy project will be implemented, and Area-1, where the project on the use of wind energy will be implemented, the message said.

The working group discussed the preliminary schemes for integrating pilot projects into the power system, determined the requirements for international standards for managing the power system, transmission of electric energy, relay protection, automation and forthcoming work to strengthen the network, said the ministry.

An agreement on a joint solar power plant scheme presented by Azerenergy company was discussed and reached during the meeting held between the representatives of Abu Dhabis Masdar company and Azerbaijans Azerenergy OJSC, the message said.

Currently, the work is underway to specify the configuration of the territory in connection with the project on the use of wind energy, the implementation of which is planned to be carried out by Saudi Arabias Acwa Power company, the message said.

Upon the completion of the coordination work, the corresponding scheme will be submitted to Azerenergy company, the message said. "The activity of the working group on legal and institutional issues was underway during the quarter.

After submitting White & Case LLPs comments to the commission of a working group, the preliminary draft agreements on the purchase of electricity, an agreement on connecting power plants to electric grids, an agreement on state guarantees for the implementation of projects and other required contracts were prepared, the ministry added.

These projects were submitted to the relevant working groups with the aim of holding discussions before the meeting with the representatives of White & Case LLP, expressing relevant opinions on the documents, a position on conceptual issues, the message read.

The representatives of White & Case LLP intend to visit Baku in the second quarter of this year to discuss the economic, financial, commercial and technical issues," the message said.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Wuhan Lifts Quarantine as More Virus Patients Are Detected

As Wuhan, ground zero of Chinas epidemic lifts all travel restrictions beginning April 8, locals report that many are still infected with the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus.

More asymptomatic carriers are detected; meanwhile, Wuhan hospitals are discharging COVID-19 patients before they fully recover. Some China analysts worry that a larger outbreak may be unavoidable after quarantine measures are eased, particularly as Wuhan authorities encourage people to go back to work.

Businesses closed on Jan. 23 when the city was placed under lockdown to prevent the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus from further spreading.

Residential Compounds

The Wuhan government issued a notice on March 7, stating that areas with no new infections for the past 14 days are designated virus-free.

Residents in virus-free residential compounds can leave their homes for essential needs. One member of each household can go outside their residential compound for two hours per day.

Those who live in the residential compounds without the virus-free title arent allowed to step out the door.

State-run media Xinhua quoted the Hubei provincial government on April 6, stating that 70 residential compounds lost their virus-free title after authorities detected asymptomatic carriers living there by the end of the day. Also, 87 neighborhoods, two villages, and 11 towns in Wuhan lost their virus-free titles. Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province.

On April 5, at least five residential compounds in Wuhan issued notices about people found to be asymptomatic carriers. For example, the Huanong Xiyuan residential compound in Hongshan district found that two residents from different buildings were diagnosed as asymptomatic carriers on April 2 and 4 after they visited the hospital for other ailments.

For several weeks, the central government has reported zero to single-digit new domestic infections in the whole of China. For example, for April 6, it reported no new domestic infections and 21 new domestic asymptomatic carriers.

But interviews with Chinese citizens and internal reports obtained by The Epoch Times revealed that local authorities frequently underreport cases. A dataset from Wuhan health authorities showed that the city tested 16,000 patient samples on March 14, with 373 showing up positive. But authorities only publicly recorded four infections for that day.

A Wuhan netizen whose mother works at a local hospital also shared the current situation in an online video: [My mother] told me that at present, her hospital receives several new COVID-19 patients a day. But the government does not allow the hospital to report it.  Lots of people loosened their vigilance [about social distancing] because no reported new infections are allowing the virus to spread quicker.

Some authorities are also cautioning city residents not to take the situation lightly. State-run Yangtze Daily quoted Wuhan traffic police saying on April 7: Lifting the traffic ban does not mean the outbreak is over. Wuhan people should try their best to stay at home if they dont need to leave Wuhan nor return to work.

Meanwhile, U.S.-based China affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan told The Epoch Times that resuming work and production was also part of Beijings political task.

The Wuhan model [of locking down a city]  cut off the economy. It hurt the countrys financial system, and thus is a big loss of power, Tang said. The Chinese regime is eager to restore its economic system and create the illusion [that things are back to normal].

But as people return to work, Tang is concerned about the possibility of another outbreak. With more people traveling around the city and even around the country, the next larger-scale outbreak cant be avoided.

Forced Discharge

Gu Xiangpeng, 69, is a retired teacher and pianist. He developed symptoms of the CCP virus on Jan. 24 and was sent to the Wuhan Tongji Hospital for treatment.

After Gu tested negative in a nucleic acid test, on April 6, he was discharged from the hospital and sent to the Maternal and Child Health Hospital, which had been converted to a quarantine center.

The following day, Gus daughter posted on Weibo, a Twitter-like Chinese social media platform, that Gu had a tracheostomy after the virus damaged his trachea. He needs one sputum suction every hour. Part of his brain had dead tissue as a result of insufficient blood to the area. One side of his body cant move nor feel, and he also couldnt eat, she wrote.

After Gu was moved to the quarantine center, nurses there said they had no experience treating someone like Gu and couldnt perform the sputum suction.

The Maternal and Child Health Hospital: issued a medical crisis notice to my father quickly, maybe because they knew they couldnt treat my father, Gus daughter wrote. This type of notice is usually for informing the patients family members about the possibility of death.

Gus daughter tried to send Gu to a hospital, but none were willing to receive him. The hospital treating COVID-19 patients rejected him because his diagnostic kit test was negative. A non-COVID hospital refused to treat him because he was just released from a COVID hospital, the daughter said.

On April 7, Gus wife, Xie, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that after the social media post gained attention, Gu was allowed into Tongji hospital.

RFA cited insiders who said hospitals are now required to discharge their COVID-19 patients to comply with the authorities desire to declare that the virus had been successfully contained.
A Group of Ministers on COVID19 on Tuesday recommended extension of closure of all educational institutions and restricting all religious activities having public participation till May 15 irrespective of whether the government extends the 21-day lockdown or not, official sources said.

A meeting of the GoM chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and participated by Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman concluded that religious centres, shopping malls and educational institutions must not be allowed to resume normal functioning at least for four weeks from April 14 when the current lockdown ends.

The thinking in the government is that schools and colleges will more less remain shut till end of June as the summer vacation will start from middle of May.

The GoM recommended that activities of all religious organisations should not be allowed till May 15 as a precautionary measure to check spread of coronavirus infection, the sources added.

The GoM has been tasked with monitoring the overall situation in the country arising out of the coronavirus pandemic and make recommendations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The GoM also briefly discussed possible scenarios after end of the current spell of the lockdown.

It recommended that the inputs of the states are crucial in taking specific decisions on measures to contain the pandemic.

The GoM also recommended measures to enhance testing facilities for coronavirus infection in medical laboratories, the sources said.

Opposition leaders as well as leading healthcare experts have been pressing the government to ramp up infrastructure to increase coronavirus tests across the country to have a realistic assessment of the situation arising out of the pandemic in India.

The meeting was also attended by several key members of the Union Cabinet including Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani and Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat were also among those who attended the meeting.

The GoM also recommend monitoring of the public places like religious centres and malls through surveillance drones, the sources said.

Thousands of Tablighi Jamaat members gathered at its headquarters in Nizamuddin last month, ignoring warnings by the government against large gatherings.

A number of people who attended the congregation were found to be having coronavirus infection.

A sizeable number of people among them travelled to different states, spreading the infection of the virus.

Hundreds of people wered from the headquarters of Tablighi in Nizamuddin.

According to official figure, India has recorded a total of 4,789 positive cases of coronavirus and 124 deaths.

The GoM also expressed gratitude to thousands of health professionals, security personnel and countless others involved in ensuring smooth operation of essential services and supply chain of food and medicines since the 21-day lockdown came into force on the midnight of March 24, the sources said.

The GoM appreciated the decision of Union Cabinet to suspend the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) for two years to facilitate additional resources to fight the pandemic.

In a series of tweets, the defence minister said the GoM held an extensive discussion on the prevailing situation.

He said the ministers "shared their insights on how we can overcome the situation and help the people to stay motivated, determined and vigilant in the battle against COVID-19".

The ministers were briefed that supply of essential goods was continuing smoothly and no concerns were reported in this regard, the sources said.

Over the past few days, the government has received various suggestions from stakeholders, including experts and states on the strategy to be adopted when the lockdown ends.

Sources in the government said, most of them suggested that exit from the lockdown should be in a staggered manner.

Other suggestions included opening primary schools at a later stage and not immediately when the lockdown ends, restricting inter-state movement, plying of public transport for limited time and restricted access in offices where public footfall is high.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shutting schools has little impact on stopping the spread of coronavirus, a new study has claimed.

The team at University College London (UCL) said data on the benefit of school closures during the ongoing pandemic is limited but the impact is likely to be small.

However, Professor Neil Ferguson, whose scientific modelling has informed government thinking, insists school closures play an important role in controlling the spread of the deadly virus.

Schools are in their third week of lockdown, but can still be open to look after the children of key workers. The government is expected to review the decision after the Easter break.

Burbage Primary School in Buxton, Derbyshire, which was forced to close after a pupil's parent tested positive for the novel coronavirus in late February

The new research was released just a day after Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, played down the prospects of a swift lifting of the coronavirus lockdown.

It comes after droves of people went out and enjoyed the sunshine at the weekend in defiance of the lockdown measures imposed by the Prime Minister.

Academics at UCL looked at 16 studies, some based on the spread of coronavirus, and others based the SARS outbreaks in China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The findings of the research, published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, suggested that school closures could have an impact during an influenza outbreak, but the same may not apply to coronavirus.

It also said that recent modelling of Covid-19 would only prevent 2 per cent to 4 per cent of deaths.

Professor Neil Ferguson (left) said the new research does not take into account the school closures alongside other measures. Professor Whitty (right) yesterday played down the prospects of a swift lockdown

Professor Russell Viner, one of the report's authors, said: 'We know from previous studies that school closures are likely to have the greatest effect if the virus has low transmissibility and attack rates are higher in children. This is the opposite of Covid-19.'

'Data on the benefit of school closures in the coronavirus outbreak is limited, but what we know shows that their impact is likely to be only small.

'Additionally, the costs of national school closures are high - children's education is damaged and their mental health may suffer, family finances are affected. Policymakers need to be aware of the equivocal evidence.'

But Professor Neil Ferguson said the research does not take into account the school closures alongside other measures.

He said: 'While this new paper reviews some of the modelling our group undertook of school closure for less intensive mitigation, it did not include our results for school closure in combination with other lockdown measures.'

Prof Robert Dingwall, Professor of Sociology, Nottingham Trent University said: 'This is an important study that confirms what many of us suspected, namely that the public health benefits of school closures were not proportionate to the social and economic costs imposed on children and their families.

'It also underlines how the assumptions used in modelling the COVID-19 pandemic may rest on very flimsy foundations in terms of scientific evidence.'

It comes after an extensive new survey released by the teachers union NASUWT, found that a significant number of teachers did not have the facilities or information to keep themselves and other safe while working in schools.

The teachers union asked their members if they had been asked to volunteer for any of the following things. Nearly all teachers surveyed have been asked to help during the Easter holidays

Nearly a third (32 per cent) said there was not adequate provision of soap and hot water for handwashing in their school.

Nearly one in four (39 per cent) said they had not been provided with appropriate guidance on maintaining school distancing by their employer and nearly half (48%) reported a lack of adequate arrangements to frequently clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces and objects in their school.

The survey also showed that 98 per cent of teachers said they had been asked to attend school during the Easter holidays.

And that 91 per cent of schools were only partially closed, with only 4 per cent completely closed.

More than two-thirds, 67 per cent, of teachers said they were required to mark work for children who are not in school.

The survey also showed that most members said their school was only partially shut down, rather than fully closed

Chris Keates, NASUWT Acting General Secretary said: 'At this time of national emergency, teachers are in the frontline of keeping schools open for the children of key workers and vulnerable children whilst also to provide ongoing learning and support for children who are learning at home.

'It is pleasing to see that the majority of teachers feel they have been treated fairly by their school in the arrangements they have made.

'However, it is deeply concerning that a smaller, but still significant proportion of schools are failing to protect the health and welfare of their staff.'

She added: 'One of the mantras to emerge from this period is that 'we are all in this together' but the callous and reckless actions of some employers demonstrate that this message is little more than an empty slogan for too many teachers.'

At yesterday's press conference Professor Chris Whitty said that discussions about moving on to the next stage of the response to the pandemic would be premature until the nation has passed the peak number of deaths.

He downplayed reports that this figure could be reached this weekend as he returned to fronting the daily news conference, following a week in self isolation.

The survey responses indicated that a large proportion of teachers are still required to plan and mark work for children who are not in school

Flanking Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab he also warned people not to expect too much, too soon, from antibody tests that could give those who have had coronavirus and built up immunity, a way to return to normal life.

He said: 'The key thing is to get to the point where we are confident we have reached the peak and this is now beyond the peak and at that point I think it is possible to have a serious discussion about all the things we need to do step-by-step to move to the next phase of managing this.

'But I think to start having that discussion until we're confident that that's where we've got to, would I think be a mistake.'

The UK has declared 439 more deaths caused by the coronavirus today, taking the total to 5,373, and 3,802 new positive tests have pushed the number of patients up to 51,608.

The vast majority of teachers think they have been treated fairly by their employer

Officials have reportedly bought test kits from the Chinese companies Wondo and Alltest but found that they are not accurate enough for official use

He added: 'We've got to remember, just from the health point of view and clearly there are wider social and economic issues as well, that there are at least four different kinds of mortality and ill health we need to take into account over the period of this epidemic.

WHAT IS AN ANTIBODY TEST? An antibody test is one which tests whether someone's immune system is equipped to fight a specific disease or infection. When someone gets infected with a virus their immune system must work out how to fight it off and produce substances called antibodies. These are extremely specific and are usually only able to tackle one strain of one virus. They are produced in a way which makes them able to latch onto that specific virus and destroy it. For example, if someone catches COVID-19, they will develop COVID-19 antibodies for their body to use to fight it off. The body then stores versions of these antibodies in the immune system so that if it comes into contact with that same virus again it will be able to fight it off straight away and probably avoid someone feeling any symptoms at all. To test for these antibodies, medics or scientists can take a fluid sample from someone - usually blood - and mix it with part of the virus to see if there is a reaction between the two. If there is a reaction, it means someone has the antibodies and their body knows how to fight off the infection - they are immune. If there is no reaction it means they have not had it yet. Advertisement

'There's the direct effects of people dying from coronavirus, there's the indirect effects of the NHS, if it were to become overwhelmed and therefore unable to provide emergency care for either coronavirus or other areas, and all the activities we're doing at the moment are to make sure that both of those are minimised.

'But it is really important also to remember that there will be effects from the fact that some healthcare has had to be postponed to make room for this within the NHS and of course anything that has an impact on the socio-economic status, particularly of people who are more deprived, will have a long-term health impact as well and we have to, in our exit strategy, balance all of these different elements which to some extent can be in tension.'

In a glimmer of hope after a dark week for Britain, the number of people dying of COVID-19 has now fallen for two days in a row and today dropped 30 per cent from 621 yesterday.

Today's death count is the lowest since March 31, last Tuesday, when it was 381, and marks a 39 per cent fall from the UK's worst day so far, Saturday, when the deaths of 708 people were recorded.

The number of new cases is also lower than it was for almost all of last week, with the 3,802 new positive tests 2,101 fewer than 5,903 yesterday and only the second time since March that the number has been below 4,000.

England accounted for 403 of the fatalities while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland declared 36 more deaths between them over the past day.

Discussing the antibody tests, which would show if someone has has a minor case of the infection and recovered, he said they would will be more effective 'later in the epidemic'.

How Europe is planning to lift the lockdown: Austria will open small shops next week, Denmark wants 'staggered' return to work and Germany could re-open schools if infection rate stays low As Britain and America start to draw up plans for life after the lockdown, they may look for inspiration from European countries where the coronavirus crisis has already showed signs of peaking. Austria today became the first country to set out detailed plans for ending the standstill, with smaller shops re-opening on April 14 and larger ones on May 1. Denmark also plans to start lifting restrictions after Easter, but wants people to 'work in a more staggered way' to avoid crowding into trains and buses. Meanwhile Germany is willing to re-open schools on a regional basis and allow a limited number of people into restaurants if the infection rate stays sufficiently low. In Italy, which has been under lockdown longer than any other European country, officials are talking about a 'phase two' where society learns to 'live with the virus' by wearing masks and carrying out more tests. Italy and Germany are among the countries looking at smartphone tracking, which could allow them to jump on new outbreaks without sending everyone back inside. All of those countries, along with Spain, have seen signs of improvement in their recent figures which offer hope that the crisis is past its peak. That moment is still to come for Britain and America, which are bracing for one of their bleakest weeks. However, health officials across Europe warn that life cannot go back 'from 0 to 100' immediately and many lockdown measures will remain in place for several more weeks at least. Advertisement

Because of the slow way antibodies are generated and the relatively small percentage of the population likely to have caught coronavirus so far, the tests are currently of limited use, he told the daily press conference.

It came after another top scientist checking the tests for the Government said it could be a month before a workable one is available.

Professor Sir John Bell, from Oxford University, said the testing kits he has examined so far 'have not performed well' and 'none of them would meet the criteria for a good test'.

Addressing the public this afternoon Prof Whitty, an epidemiologist, said: 'At this point in time we would expect quite a small proportion of the population has probably got antibodies.

'There's two reasons for that. There's the proportion actually infected and then there's a period of time between somebody getting an infection and antibodies being routinely detectable.

'And it depends which kind of antibody you're talking about how soon that is.

'Most of the labs that have looked at this would say 21 to 28 days would be the kind of timescale you'd be talking about.

'They do tend to be more effective later in the epidemic.'

Downing Street said today it will seek refunds from companies that cannot improve the failed antibody tests ordered by the Government.

'No test so far has proved to be good enough to use,' the PM's official spokesman said, raising accuracy concerns.

'We continue to work with the testing companies, we're in a constant dialogue with them and we give feedback to them when their products fail to meet the required standards.

'If the tests don't work then the orders that we placed will be cancelled and wherever possible we will recover the costs.'

The head of testing at Public Health England also said none of the tests it had evaluated were good enough for public use.

Professor John Newton, director of health improvement at Public Health England, said the tests were not accurate enough on people who had only had mild illnesses.

Addressing the public this afternoon after completing his own coronavirus self-isolation, Prof Whitty, an epidemiologist, said: 'At this point in time we would expect quite a small proportion of the population has probably got antibodies

The tests are considered to be crucial to ending Britain's nationwide lockdown because they will give authorities a clear picture of how many people have caught the virus already and shaken it off.

Currently, statistical guesswork is the only way of working out how many people might already be immune and therefore potentially safe to return to normal life.

Estimates suggest up to five million people could have been infected to date.

Number 10 tonight confirmed that Boris Johnson had been moved to intensive care in St Thomas' hospital after being admitted for tests last night as a precaution.

A spokesperson said Dominic Raab would deputise for him as his 'persistent' coronavirus symptoms worsen.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 15:30:06|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, April 6 (Xinhua) -- A pilot study published on Monday has suggested the feasibility of convalescent plasma (CP) therapy for treating COVID-19 patients.

In the study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, researchers explored the feasibility of CP therapy for 10 severe COVID-19 patients, aged between 34 and 78.

The enrolled patients received transfusion of one dose of 200 milliliters CP derived from recently recovered donors, containing high levels of SARS-COV-2 neutralizing antibody. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.

Within three days of CP transfusion, clinical symptoms, such as fever, cough, shortness of breath and chest pain significantly improved, and patients exhibited increased lymphocyte counts, improved liver and lung function and reduced inflammation, according to the study.

Neutralizing antibody levels increased or remained high after CP transfusion.

Within seven days of transfusion, varying degrees of reabsorption of lung lesions were observed on chest CT scans, according to the study. In addition, no serious adverse reactions were observed after CP transfusion.

The results, though preliminary, suggest that CP therapy might be a safe and promising treatment for severe COVID-19 patients and support further investigation in randomized controlled clinical trials, according to the authors.

The authors include Zhu Chen of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, and Xiaoming Yang of the National Engineering Technology Research Center for Combined Vaccines in Wuhan, China.

Currently there is no specific antiviral treatments for SARS-CoV-2, creating a need for alternative treatment strategies.
OTTAWA, April 6, 2020 /CNW/ - The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is concerned that a new distribution deal may be rewarding Amazon Canada for creating stressful, precarious jobs; ignoring workers' demands for health and safety; and interfering with their right to unionize.

On April 3, the Government of Canada announced its intention to work closely with the tech giant to manage the distribution of personal protective equipment and supplies, purchased by the Canadian government. The announcement was made without consultation of postal workers.

"We have urgent questions and serious concerns about the deal," says Jan Simpson, CUPW National President. "Amazon is notorious for relying on precarious employment  where workers' schedules and status are fundamentally uncertain and unstable."

As the COVID-19 crisis continues, healthcare workers and service workers must have access to personal protective equipment.

"Oversight is going to be crucial," says Simpson. "How will the public be assured that worker rights are respected the way they should be by a federal contractor? How will we be assured that they're really doing this 'at cost?' We certainly don't need anyone using this crisis to line Jeff Bezos' pockets any more than it is."

The government's decision will put further strain on workers who are already not properly protected. Amazon uses numerous subcontractors throughout its delivery operations. Warehouse workers are at risk of losing their jobs, or of being pressured to continue working, even when they get sick.

"I want Amazon workers in the fulfilment centres to know that CUPW will be fighting for all workers in this arrangement's supply chain," adds Simpson.

"Now that the federal government has hired your employer, they must not wash their hands of violations of your rights, and conditions that endanger you. CUPW has been fighting to confront abuses of workers in the gig economy. CUPW has been able to improve health and safety at Canada Post during this crisis, and it is your right to work in a healthy and safe environment, and to have a collective voice to improve your work conditions."

CUPW is writing to the government to detail our concerns relating to labour rights, health and safety, and data protection and privacy. CUPW is to participate in a federal briefing on the arrangement and will learn more in the coming days.

SOURCE Canadian Union of Postal Workers

For further information: Ibtihal Yaaqoubi, CUPW Communications, at 613- 882- 2742 or at [email protected]

Related Links

www.cupw-sttp.org


Indonesia, RoK agree to sign FTA, illustration photo

During a videoconference with Indonesian Trade Minister Airlangga Hartarto, RoK Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee said the international community must join forces to sustain the global supply chain, according to the RoKs Yonhap news agency.

In line with efforts to overcome the economic jitters, the two countries agreed to hold a signing ceremony of the much-awaited Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) at the earliest date possible after the situation is stabilised, reported Yonhap

The two countries struck the deal in November last year with a goal of holding an official signing ceremony in the first half of 2020 to pave the way for the official implementation.

The CEPA is equivalent to a free trade agreement but focuses on a broader scope of economic cooperation. The two resumed their FTA negotiations in 2019 after a hiatus of five years.

On the occasion, minister Yoo requested Jakarta to lend hands to RoK businesses based in Indonesia that are suffering from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Controversial cross-dresser, Idris Okuneye, popularly known as Bobrisky, took to his social media space to express his gratitude to Dubai based big boy, Mompha.

Bobrisky revealed he got a beautiful surprise from Mompha

Sharing a photo of the Beureau de change operator via the photo-sharing app, the self-acclaimed male barbie penned an appreciation message.

The cross-dresser wrote;

I woke up to a beautiful surprise from @mompha. Thank you so much dear I really appreciate!!! Love u 

Read Also: COVID 19: God Said I Am The One Who Will Heal Nigeria  Kemi Olunloyo

See the post below:
A Novi convention center will be converted into the second temporary field hospital for COVID-19 patients, bringing more beds to the hardest-hit region of Michigan.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi will serve as the second alternate care facility, accompanying TCF Center in Detroit to assist hospitals in Southeast Michigan. Up to 250,000 square feet at the Novi facility, normally used as an exposition and conference space, will provide enough beds to accommodate 1,000 patients diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Additional locations across Michigan are up for consideration to serve as alternate care facilities while the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continues to grow. As of Monday, the state reported 17,221 confirmed cases and 727 deaths, though public health experts say there are likely many more cases that havent yet been identified.

Novi is located in Oakland County, home to nearly 20% of Michigans COVID-19 cases. Most of those 3,391 cases are located in the southeast part of the county closest to Detroit, according to the Oakland County Health Department.

A majority of the coronaries cases (68%) have been found among residents of Oakland and Wayne counties. The city of Detroit accounts for 29% of Michigans cases.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and Michigan National Guard partnered with FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assess the site and coordinate federal funding for the new beds at TCF Center and Novi.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has performed 26 site visits across the state, according to a press release. The visits help determine the necessary steps to convert buildings into alternate care facilities.

The situation in Michigan continues to evolve and the Corps of Engineers will surge resources to meet the anticipated need, said Lt. Col. Gregory Turner, district engineer for the Detroit District. This work that we are doing through FEMA to support the people of Michigan, especially enabling the local hospitals, is a mission that we are ready for.

MDHHS requested FEMA provide alternate care facilities at various locations two days after the request to use TCF Center was submitted, according to a state document shared with MLive.

Whitmer said Monday that patients will begin moving into the 1,000-bed, 250,000-square-foot facility at TCF Center on Friday. The release did not state how soon patients will be accepted at the Novi facility.

The decision to increase bed space in Southeast Michigan is a proactive measure in anticipation of additional need as the response to COVID-19 continues, according to a press release. Blair Bowman, owner of the Suburban Collection Showplace, said she feels it is important to provide the state resources in these times of need.

This is more good news for Michiganders in our fight against COVID-19, Whitmer said in a release. Having access to more medical facilities and more space for health care professionals to perform their life-saving work means we are more able to slow the spread of COVID-19."

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus.

Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

Read more on MLive:

Tuesday, April 7: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Its been four weeks since Michigans first confirmed coronavirus cases. We mapped its spread through the state

Michigan coronavirus timeline: Its been four weeks since states first confirmed case

The eerie streets of a deserted downtown Detroit amid the coronavirus stay-at-home order

Michigan police relax enforcement of speeding, other minor violations during coronavirus pandemic

Conoravirus upends Michigans Class of 2020: This isnt the senior year that anyone wanted'

MichMash: Medical supply shortage has businesses stepping up amid coronavirus pandemic

Second Michigan legislator confirmed positive for coronavirus




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BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr.7

By Nargiz Sadikhova  Trend:

Kazakhstan is ready to provide other Central Asian countries with humanitarian aid if governments of these countries submit a request for it, Kazakhstans President Kassym Jomart Tokayev said, Trend reports with reference to the press office of the president.

Tokayev made the statement during his visit to Continental Logistics transport and logistics center in Nur-Sultan city, where over 6,000 tons of food items are kept.

Overall, seven logistics centers the total area of which is 222,000 square meters, as well seven vegetable storages which are meant for 37,000 tons of product operate in Nur-Sultan.

During the visit, Tokayev got acquainted with measures on provision of the capital and countrys regions with food items, on measures taken to regulate prices on socially significant food items, and on the supply of vegetables, wheat and flour to the local market and abroad.

Tokaev ordered countrys government, akims (governors) of regions and cities, to prevent food prices from increasing, to suppress speculation, and to replenish countrys stabilization funds. He emphasized that special attention is required to establish uninterrupted supplies of products amid an emergency state in the country.

Tokayev also said that Kazakhstan is ready to provide Central Asian countries with necessary humanitarian assistance if their governments submitted requests to receive it.

We are ready to provide humanitarian air to neighbouring Central Asian countries. Kazakhstan is a leader in the region, and this obliges us to help countries that need it right now, Tokayev said.

The first two cases of coronavirus infection were detected in Kazakhstan among those who arrived in Almaty city from Germany on March 13, 2020. The latest data said that the total number of coroanvirus cases in Kazakhstan is 685.

By a decision of State Commission on Provision of Emergency State under the president of Kazakhstan, quarantine regime has been introduced in Kazakhstans Nur-Sultan and Almaty cities at 00:00 (GMT +6) on March 19, 2020.

The outbreak of the coronavirus began in the Chinese city of Wuhan (an international transport hub), at a fish market in late December 2019. The number of people killed by the disease is nearing 75,900. Over 1.3 million people have been confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, over 291,900 people have reportedly recovered.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.

---

Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh
RTHK: Trump, Biden hold call on virus response

US President Donald Trump spoke to likely Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Monday about the government's handling of the coronavirus crisis, according to two people familiar with the phone call.

Biden, the front-runner for his party's nomination to face Trump in the November 3 election, volunteered to speak to Trump after offering criticism of the president's handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Trump accepted that offer last week and earlier on Monday posted on Twitter, "what ever happened to that phone call he told the Fake News he wanted to make to me?"

Biden replied, "Happy to discuss anytime."

The full contents of the call were not immediately available.

Earlier on Monday, Democratic Governor Tony Evers moved to postpone Wisconsin's primary election from Tuesday until June 9, citing health risks from the coronavirus pandemic, but Republicans said they would challenge the order in the state Supreme Court.

The late postponement came after the Republican-controlled legislature rejected Evers' call last week to cancel in-person voting on Tuesday and extend the time to return absentee ballots into late May.

"Absent legislative or court action, I cannot in good conscience stand by and do nothing. The bottom line is that I have an obligation to keep people safe, and thats why I signed this executive order today," Evers said in a statement. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2020-04-06. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Across the United States there is even less consistency. New York is listing cases by age bracket, gender and borough despite calls for more localized reporting. Connecticut lists data by town. Florida provides its residents with a wealth of data on the pandemic. The states Department of Health has a detailed dashboard and reports showing the spread of the virus  rich with data on the cities affected, the number of people tested, the age brackets of patients, whether they are Florida residents, and the number of cases in nursing homes.
The coronavirus pandemic has turned the lives of people upside down. With all gatherings canceled around the world, many are now asking about how they can continue with their plans like giving birth.

Birth during the pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a lot of pregnant women's birth plans up in the air and it leads to some health officials to opt for home births. Some pregnant women has opened up about the prospect of having to give birth alone, or of being unable to have the Caesarean section that they were hoping for. For others, it is a case of not being able to have the baby in a midwife-led birth center, but in a hospital or even at home.

Some health officials are clamping down on home births because of the virus, while others are planning to deliver babies wherever it is medically safe. Health experts say that as of now, people do not need to plan a home birth if they were not ready.

According to Denise Jamieson, chair of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Emory University School of Medicine, COVID-19 should change women's choices about where the safest and best place to deliver is. Hospital systems are taking appropriate measures to make sure that the patients are safe.

A lot of uncertainties around coronavirus are changing everything about pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period, from how doctors test blood pressures to what role family members play during delivery. Doctors, nurses, health officials, and hospitals are stepping in to make sure pregnant people and new parents have as much support as possible.

Despite the uncertainty, there are some hopeful signs. Jamieson said that there is no evidence that pregnant women are either more susceptible to coronavirus or are more likely to have severe disease. However, women who are pregnant right now are having a new and unprecedented experience, even if they won't be delivering for months. Prenatal appointments are now done remotely as blood pressure cuffs are being sent to people's homes and they are trained on how to use them since hypertension is a major cause of maternal illness and mortality in the US.

Also Read: Should You Disinfect Your Groceries? Experts Warn Against Dangers of Washing Produce

Funerals during the coronavirus pandemic

The death rate is now climbing higher than ever because of the deaths connected to COVID-19. People who have lost their loved ones will still have to maintain social distancing, thus robbing them of the chance to give a proper send-off.

As part of the lockdown, funerals can still go ahead to prevent a backlog building up, but with attendance limited to immediate family. They can only see the dead once they have been embalmed or cremated and they can't be by the bedside of their loved ones during their final moment. This is to prevent the other family members from catching the virus.

Deaths are usually registered by a family member who attends the registrar's office in person. But to allow flexibility as pressures on the system increase, and to help curb the rate of virus transmission, the government allows funeral directors to register deaths and for documentation to be submitted electronically.

Currently, the number of coronavirus cases has reached 1,289,194, with 70,607 death and 272,074 recovered.

Related Article: Spain Passes 10,000 Deaths Due to COVID-19, But Curve is Stabilizing

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
An asthma sufferer sent a final tragic text message to her sister saying 'I'm scared' shortly before she died of coronavirus.

Lindsay Marshall, 44, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, died on Saturday at The Royal Oldham Hospital, after developing symptoms of Covid-19.

The 44-year-old, who also had a thyroid condition, had self-isolated for one week but on March 22, she started to feel unwell and was taken to Fairfield General Hospital in Bury.

Three days later, she was sedated and transferred to the intensive care unit at The Royal Oldham Hospital.

Just before the sedation, she sent a text message to her sister, Karen - this was the last time they spoke.

Lindsay Marshall, 44, (pictured) from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, died on Saturday at The Royal Oldham Hospital, after developing symptoms of Covid-19

Karen Marshall said: 'She had been self-isolating at home for a week on antibiotics and on the Friday before she went to hospital, she said she was feeling better.

'On the Saturday I dropped some shopping off on her doorstep and stood back and we had a chat.

'On Sunday morning she was struggling to breathe and was taken to Fairfield Hospital.' On arrival, Lindsay tested positive for coronavirus.

Mother-of-three Karen, 42, said: 'On Tuesday evening, she said she was going to be sedated and that she was scared.

'I told her everything was going to be alright and that was the last message she sent.'

Lindsay had worked two jobs, as a senior care coordinator at Go To Doc for seven years and a sales ops analyst at ADI for nine years.

Lindsay Marshall, 44, from Rochdale, pictured left with father Alan, and sister, Karen

Lindsay, who grew up in Bacup, Lancashire, leaves behind her father, Alan Marshall, her mother, Glenys Marshall, her partner Roger, and her sister Karen.

She will also be missed by Karen's children - 15-year-old Charlie, 10-year-old Lewis and eight-year-old Georgia.

Her mother Glenys said: 'Lindsay will be sadly missed and she was well-loved by mum, dad, Karen, Roger, Gareth, Charlie, Lewis and Georgia.'

Karen described the last fortnight as the 'worst two weeks of her life' and is struggling to accept that her sister has gone.

However, she has said she wants to celebrate her sister's life rather than dwell on what killed her.

Karen said: '[I] didn't think in a million years that at the age of 42 I'd have to be writing about my sister no longer being with us, I wouldn't have even thought about this two weeks ago before this awful virus took over.

The 44-year-old died at the Oldham Royal Hospital (pictured). The family will be arranging a memorial when the lockdown is lifted

'Anyway I'm not going to dwell on the thing that stole her away, I'm going to celebrate all the amazing people Linzi was lucky enough to have in her life.

'I have had the loveliest messages and conversations off the loveliest people in what has been the worst two weeks of my life and I want to thank each and every one of you for the beautiful, kind words you have said.

'Linzi was truly blessed to have you all and we as a family were blessed to have her for her short 44 years, especially her nephews and niece who loved Auntie Linzi to bits.

'She was a kind, caring sister and auntie who would do anything for anybody..' Karen is encouraging members of the public to stay at home, in order to avoid other families losing loved ones to the virus.

Karen said: 'When we all get through this lockdown we will come together and celebrate her life, until then, please all stay safe, I don't want any of your families to go through this heartache.

'I need to add that the nurses and doctors on the ICU at Oldham were amazing I couldn't have asked for more. Thank you to all who work for the NHS.'

Although the nature of the virus often means that families are unable to say goodbye to their loved ones, NHS staff made this possible for Lindsay's family.

Karen said: 'She was sedated and she didn't know she was on her own.

'Staff kept taking the phone to the bed so we could talk to her. One nurse brushed her hair and plaited it.

'They looked after her. On the day they turned the machine off, staff took the phone over and we were each given the chance to say goodbye.'

Lindsay's family will be arranging a memorial service once lockdown is lifted, where family and friends are invited to celebrate her life.

A GoFundMe page has been set up in Lindsay's memory to raise money for NHS Charities Together.

If you would like to donate, visit: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SomeoneSpecial/LindsayMarshall7
Azerbaijan and Turkey sent a request to UNESCO for inclusion in the 2021 List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the tea tradition as a symbol of hospitality and social contacts. Head of the National Culinary Association and the National Culinary Center of Azerbaijan Tahir Amiraslanov told Vestnik Kavkaza about the Azerbaijani culture of drinking tea.

- What is the reason for the attempt to add the Azerbaijani tea culture to the UNESCO list?



- Even in times past, people came to the territory of modern Azerbaijan for salt and oily liquid (which is now called oil), as well as to worship fire. Many fire-worshipers arrived here, because historically Baku is Baguan, the city of fire. Merchants came here from China, where they had tea already in the 1st century AD, and brought drinks with them. Since then tea was imported into Azerbaijan.

Teahouses as catering enterprises were mentioned in the 10th century in the book of Samak-e ayyar. Samak ayyar, hiding from law enforcement officers in Tabriz, hides in a teahouse that served tea (among other things). In the 14th century, Pir Budag, before becoming the head of Tabriz, liked to sit in teahouses, which had become a common practice to hang out by that time. Both ordinary people and those in power gathered in teahouses. These facilities played the role of socio-political centers, where ideas were born, urgent problems were discussed. Azerbaijani public figures had also been engaged in discussions in teahouses in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In Azerbaijan, a teahouse is not just a catering enterprise, but a place that has determined our behavior, our consciousness for centuries. This is one of our core traditions.

- In Azerbaijan, they used to brew herbs before tea was imported, did they?



- Hundreds of types of herbs. The "ancestor" of modern samovar was found during excavations in Sheki, Azerbaijan. It was 3700 years old. The principle of its operation is based on a change in the air-water environment. Such samovars were used to cook soup for a long time (there are modern restaurants where soups are cooked in ancient samovars of a special shape), but then they began to brew herbs in them. We have 25 species of thyme, with 18 of them in Lahic, three species in Nakhichevan, and the rest in all regions. We have thyme with a taste of lemon, with the smell of a rose and so on.

After tea was imported from China, it was probably also brewed in a samovar. Samovar tea traditions have appeared in Azerbaijan a long time ago: "demchi" is put on the top of a samovar to keep the warmth. Drinks are served in one or two teapots, along with sweets.



Japan has a different tea culture: first, they eat sweets and then drink tea. In Azerbaijan, we drink tea with sugar, lemon, honey, pekmez, doshab, baklava, sekerbura, gatlama, and jam.

- Azerbaijan is famous for its sweets ...



- The Azerbaijan Culinary Association held tea festivals in Baku several times. The international jam festival was held five times in Gabala, and the traditional sweets festival was held in Sheki. All events have one context - in fact, all these are tea festivals, because jam and sweets are not served without tea. We have a lot of national sweets and preserves, pekmez and dried fruits, kishmish and so on.



There's a tradition: guests to someone's house are served tea. Before meals, with meals, after meals; morning, evening and lunch. Tea has become a traditional national drink in Azerbaijan, both among the poor and the rich. We have many legends and songs about tea.

- How is the country's tea production organized?



- Mostly we drink black tea. The best plantations of May tea are located in the Lenkoran and Astara regions. Azerbaijani tea is well exported now, it is sold in Russia, Iran and other countries. My friends always ask to bring Azercay products as a gift. This is a brand, because Azerbaijani tea is of very high quality and very tasty.

We serve tea at weddings, funerals and celebrations, which has become an integral part of ritual, ceremonial, and festive cuisine. When matchmakers come to the girl, if her family agrees to the marriage, then two-color tea is served: first, sugar is dissolved in water, then sugar syrup is poured and some tea leaves are placed on top. Sugar symbolizes the girl, because it is sweet, and the young man is tea. Matchmakers mix both layers with a spoon, and if the tea is sweet, it means the parents agree to marry their daughter off.

A special glass called Armudu was created in Azerbaijan. It slightly resembles a female figure, therefore tea is usually served in such glasses when matchmakers come. By the way, the drink is cooling more slowly in them.



The context of folk traditions, the history of tea, the history of a samovar, an armudu glass and their role in our everyday life predetermined Azerbaijan's application to add tea culture to UNESCO Intangible Heritage List.
Spring has arrived in California's idyllic Napa Valley. The buds emerging from dormant vines signal the beginning of a new vintage. The scene looks normal, except that vineyard workers are careful to stay 6 feet apart. Despite the global pandemic of COVID-19, there will still be grapes for this year's cabernets.

That's the good news.

But the novel coronavirus is having a huge impact on this tourism mecca, with wineries to restaurants to hotels suffering. The glitzy Auction Napa Valley, held annually since 1981, has been canceled for the first time.

"It's the cloud of unknowing. I'm not even sure that I'll have all the supplies needed for bottling in four months," says winemaker Philippe Langner, owner of Hesperian winery on Atlas Peak. In 2017, Langner lost his house in the wine country fire.

The big worry is how the region's almost 500 wineries will cope financially. Most depend heavily on visitors - 3.9 million in 2018 - to stop by their tasting rooms, snap up bottles and join their wine clubs. California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered tasting rooms closed on March 20, though the wineries themselves are classified as essential businesses.

"Normally on a spring day, we're bustling with guests. But now it's a ghost town," says Diana Hawkins, owner of Pope Valley Winery.

Many vintners have discovered that their insurance for business interruptions, meant to replace lost income to cover operating expenses, has a fine print clause that specifically excludes damage due to viruses and infections.

The spill out for wine lovers: good deals and rare wines directly from the source and, even better, the chance to support the wineries you love and forge a more personal connection with them.

"People still want to drink," says Rob McMillan, senior vice president of Silicon Valley Bank's wine division, "but now online sales and social media are critical for Napa wineries. Most don't have a lot of cash, only enough for 90 to 120 days."

He points out that Napa vintners sell about 30% of their wines through tasting rooms and 20% to restaurants, but those channels have dried up.

For example, Jill and Steve Matthiasson, whose eponymous brand is a hot favorite of somms (and me), sell in 40 states and 17 countries, but only 15% of their sales are online, mostly to wine club members who've signed up at their tasting room. "I'm busting my butt to sell wine," Jill says.

To boost online sales, they put together the same bottles you can sample in the tasting room (6 for $249) with a virtual tasting. "Some folks are purchasing the pack as gifts and doing online group tastings with their friends in separate locations," she says.

Bigger wineries with a long track record, such as Heitz Cellar, purchased in 2018 by Tennessee-based billionaire Gaylon Lawrence, also expect a hit to revenue. Chief Executive Officer Carlton McCoy says projects and equipment purchases have been put on hold but the winery is keeping all employees. He's trying to expand online sales, and says they're exploding. Wine lover loyalty has surprised him.

Lesser-known names have a tougher time. Brian Brakesman of Summit Lake Vineyards is making phone calls to club members to keep connections alive.

To fan personal connections - and, of course, sell more wine - dozens of Napa wineries are hosting virtual tastings on Zoom or streamed through their winery Instagram or Facebook pages. More are starting daily. This is a great chance to meet famous Napa winemakers and ask questions, and so far the sessions are wildly popular. Last week, Cade Estate held one that drew 500 viewers.

Some helpfully post their tastings on the Napa Valley Vintners website. One public relations professional has put together a website on which her winery clients will be listing tastings and deals.

Many tastings are free, while others are more exclusive and require the purchase of specific bottles to be tasted and discussed. Bouchaine Vineyards in Carneros has gone all-out offering by-appointment virtual tastings and experiences with Napa Valley chefs and musicians, as well as streaming vineyard walks with winemakers talking about the 2020 growing season. Email for schedule.

Deals include everything from free shipping to rare cuvees and older, now unavailable vintages, sometimes at discounted prices.

Pott Wine, the label of star winemaker Aaron Pott and his wife, Claire, is offering wines on its website that usually go to restaurants, as well as one that it wasn't even planning on releasing at all - even to members of its wine club - the bold, exuberant 2016 Infinite Improbability Drive cabernet blend for $95, with only 96 cases made.

Luckily, it's not harvest season. Pott, who consults for a number of wineries, says it's easy to maintain distance for the work in the vineyards. He's alternating teams of workers in wineries so they, too, can stay 6 feet apart. Cleanliness has always been essential, but now it's the main thing, with workers sterilizing surfaces and even the levers of forklift trucks.

One immediate challenge is getting wine into bottles. Cain Vineyard, on top of Spring Mountain, is working at half-speed with fewer people to maintain proper social distancing. An additional problem for the cash-strapped, says winemaker Chris Howell, "is we can no longer carpool."

Luxury hotels such as the new Archer and Meadowood have closed. Linsey Gallagher, president and CEO of Visit Napa Valley, emailed that "preliminary Smith Travel Research (STR) data for the week March 15 to 21 showed hotel occupancy was at 13%." She didn't want to predict how vast the financial fallout might be.

Like restaurants around the world, those in Napa are also trying to keep afloat by offering takeout food and wine.

Matt Stamp, co-owner of my favorite Napa wine bar, Compline, says it's delivering food daily to a lot of winemakers. For a $20 donation, you can buy a meal for a health care worker.

"Comfort wine for me," Stamp says, "is good wine that doesn't need to be the center of attention that comes from winemaker friends who are struggling, too. If we can all help each other out right now, that's comforting."

And on the charity front, Napa-based online discounter Last Bottle held a massive marathon sale that ended on Friday, with $1 per order going to two valley organizations helping those in need. On Thursday, they sold 3,000 bottles of cabernet in two minutes.

Winebid.com is launching online weekly wine auctions of donated bottles of Napa wines such as Harlan and Screaming Eagle, as well as less expensive stunners like Lorenza rose to benefit restaurant workers. It kicked off on Sunday.

Visit Bloomberg News at www.bloomberg.com

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PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-07 17:49:03

AM Best Affirms Credit Ratings of Sun Hung Kai Properties Insurance Limited

Jason Shum

Associate Director, Analytics

+852 2827 3424

jason.shum@ambest.com



Christie Lee

Senior Director, Analytics

+852 2827 3413

christie.lee@ambest.com



Christopher Sharkey

Manager, Public Relations

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159

christopher.sharkey@ambest.com



Jim Peavy

Director, Public Relations

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5644

james.peavy@ambest.com

AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of a of Sun Hung Kai Properties Insurance Limited (SHKPI) (Hong Kong). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

The ratings reflect SHKPIs balance sheet strength, which AM Best categorises as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

SHKPIs balance sheet strength is underpinned by its risk-adjusted capitalisation being at the strongest level, as measured by Bests Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). This result mainly reflects its strong liquidity, high quality of capital and appropriate reinsurance program. However, SHKPIs investment portfolio shows an appetite to invest in higher-risk assets, which exposes its overall earnings to considerable market and credit risks. These risks are mitigated partially by the companys significant level of excess capital.

SHKPIs strong operating performance, demonstrated by a five-year weighted average return on equity of 18%, has been driven by solid underwriting results and consistent investment returns. The company has demonstrated good underwriting performance across its key lines of business, with a five-year average combined ratio under 70%. Operating performance is supported further by stable investment income, with a five-year average net investment return of approximately 4%, excluding capital gains or losses.

SHKPIs business profile is neutral, due in part to its affiliation with Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited (SHKP), one of the largest and most well-established property development and investment conglomerates in Hong Kong. As a member of the SHKP group, SHKPI benefits from SHKPs established business profile in Hong Kong, which provides SHKPI with opportunities to underwrite a large volume of business from its group and related parties. The book of business sourced from SHKP and its related entities has provided SHKPI with a stable presence in Hong Kongs non-life insurance market, particularly in the employees compensation segment.

The stable outlooks reflect AM Bests expectation that SHKPIs operating performance will remain at a strong level, underpinned mainly by its continued focus on profitable underwriting, low acquisition costs and positive investment returns. Negative rating actions could occur if the company experiences material and continual deterioration in its risk-adjusted capitalisation or experiences an unfavourable trend in operating performance.

Ratings are communicated to rated entities prior to publication. Unless stated otherwise, the ratings were not amended subsequent to that communication.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Bests Credit Ratings. For information on the proper media use of Bests Credit Ratings and AM Best press releases, please view Guide for Media - Proper [..].

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2020 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005
The active coronavirus



cases in Kerala rose to 263 with nine new cases on Tuesday as an expert task force pitched for a 'phased' and 'calibrated' lifting of the 21-day national lockdown restrictions, saying the pandemic was an "unprecedented" public health crisis in recent history.

Of the new cases, four of them had returned from abroad, two had attended the Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi and the rest contracted the virus through contacts with infected people, the state government said.

Continuing to restrict large scale movement of people across international and state boundaries is "critical" and relaxing it should not be considered unless and until the situation was under control in every state, the task force, appointed by the government to evolve a strategy for easing the restrictions, suggested in its 39-page report.

"The Expert Committee assessed that the time is not yet ripe for full withdrawal of the lock down on April 14th, 2020. The Committee recommends a withdrawal strategy that should be gradual, phased and calibrated to ensure that the case load is always kept below the (surge) capacity of the healthcare system to deal with it," it said in the report submitted to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday.

Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday after a COVID-19 review meeting, Vijayan said samples of 12 infected people have returned negative, indicating their recovery.

He said the total number coronavirus cases in the state touched 336 with 263 being the active patients.

At least 1,46,686 people in the state are under observation out of which 752 are in isolation wards. The state has till now sent 11,232 samples for testing.

"Out of the 12 persons cured, five are from Kannur, four are from Ernakulam and one each from thiruvananthapuram, Kasaragod and Alappuzha," Vijayan said.

The chief minister also said the state had reached an agreement with neighbouring Karnataka, which will open its border road at Talapady check-post and allow critically ill non-COVID-19 patients to cross the border for treatment in Mangaluru.

"The chief secretaries of both the states have held a discussion and finalised a protocol to allow the patients to travel across the border after the Supreme Court direction", he said.

The patients need to have a certificate from a local doctor that he need to be treated at a specific hospital at Mangaluru and should specifically mention that it was not possible to travel all the way to Kannur for treatment.

However, television channels showed visuals purportedly of an ambulance carrying a sick child waiting for hours at the border on Tuesday and later being turned away.

Amid high alert sounded for keeping a vigil on animals after a tiger in New York tested positive for coronavirus, Vijayan said zoos in the state will be disinfected and urged the people to clean living spaces of their pets.

The state government will take necessary steps to make available books to children as the libraries across the state were closed due to lockdown, he said.

"The state government has decided to allow the mobile shops to open on Sundays and the vehicle workshops on Thursdays and Sundays. The spare parts shops can also open along with that," Vijayan said.

Kasaragod, from where the maximum number of positive cases had been reported, a covid care centre has started functioning and eight patients have been admitted, the health ministry said.

Vijayan lashed out at state Congress chief Mullappally Ramachandran for his criticism of the Left front government for holding discussions with non-resident Keralites on COVID- 19 situation.

Ramachandran said the government was discussing matters only with the "ultra-rich" and was not even considering the Congress in the decision making related to Covid-19 matters.

"We have held the discussion with the representatives of NRKs comprising commoners, businessmen, professionals, the organisation leaders etc. In the first phase, we had asked the members of Loka Kerala Sabha to intervene in the matters of Keralites abroad," Vijayan said.

He also said video conference was held with over 40 representatives from over 20 countries including Italy, Haiti, Bangladesh, Australia, Canada, UK, Bahrain, Ukraine.

As per the latest report, Kasaragod has the highest number of COVID-19 patients -- 131, followed by Kannur 46.

As of now, Kozhikode has 21,934 people under observation, the largest in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
All India Hindu Mahasabha national secretary Pooja Shakun Pandey, who had called for shooting the members of Tableegh-e-Jamaat (TJ) for what she alleged 'spreading' the coronavirus in the country, was on Tuesday arrested.

According to the police sources here, Pooja and her husband Ashok Pandey were arrested from their residence in Aligarh town, about 400 kilometres from here, on charges of promoting communal hatred.

Pooja, who had been embroiled in controversies earlier also, had written a letter to prime minister Narendra Modi demanding that the TJ members be 'shot', as they had 'spread' the coronavirus in the country.

A case was registered against her and her husband in this regard earlier.

Pooja had earlier hit the headlines after she had fired bullets at an effigy of Mahatma Gandhi on the latter's death anniversary last year. She had also got the act video recorded and later posted it on the social networking sites. The saffron leader was later arrested.

Many other saffron and BJP leaders had made controversial remarks after the recent religious event attended by hundreds of TJ members at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi.

BJP MLA from Ghaziabad Nand Kishore Gujjar has demanded that TJ chief Maulana Mohammed Saad be hanged. A shooter Vartika Singh has announced a cash reward of Rs. 51 thousand for whosoever helped in the arrest of Saad.
New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - April 7, 2020) - HempAmericana, Inc. (OTC PINK: HMPQ) ("HempAmericana" or the "Company"), an emerging leader in the CBD products market, is pleased to provide shareholders with an update as the Company scales up its CBD-based product operations.

Salvador Rosillo, CEO of HempAmericana, commented, "After confronting a series of obstacles and falling behind our outlined schedule, we have mapped out a path to drive improved performance in the months ahead. We believe we will be able to mobilize multiple factors to boost our footprint in terms of potential customers we can reach, distribute to, and retain over time."

New initiatives underway at HempAmericana include:

Alibaba B2B Onboarding: The Company has begun the process of onboarding onto the Alibaba B2B platform. Management will release further details over the very near-term about this partnership. But the Company believes this relationship represents a powerful catalyst for its positioning in the CBD-based products marketplace.

Affiliate Marketing: The Company has recently acquired over 400 prominent and relevant domains to point toward its ecommerce site. As a result, HempAmericana has already seen a tangible increase in traffic to its new ecommerce site at HempAmericana.store.

Targeted Customer Database: HempAmericana has begun to build a defined database of current and potential customers for the purpose of targeted marketing operations as the Company strives to amplify near and intermediate term sales growth now that its ecommerce payment acceptance system is fully operational for major payment methods.

Improved Customer Service: The Company is working diligently to improve its ability to build lasting relationships with its customers through a number of new customer service strategies. Management will release more details about its customer service strategies in coming communications.

Product Pricing: The Company is currently in a position to offer its CBD-based products at a 20% discount to participate in the marketplace at ultra-competitive pricing both in order to maximize its market and brand positioning and to offer exceptionally affordable pricing for those experiencing hardship and undue stress as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

Management notes that the Company will discuss these initiatives in greater detail in coming communications.

"We understand the terrain in this market probably a lot better than most of our competitors at this point because we have been through a battle to get to this point," continued Rosillo. "It hasn't been ideal. But that process has also equipped us with hard won knowledge capital while the long-term CBD growth thesis remains completely intact."

About HempAmericana, Inc.:

HempAmericana is an emerging leader in the CBD products market. The Company owns and operates a high-capacity, state-of-the-art CBD extraction and processing facility located in Augusta, Maine. This facility is armed with a supersized supercritical CO2 extraction system, centrifugal partition chromatography refinement technology, and a mechanized fully-automated CBD bottling system. The Company's CBD oil business uses the brand designation, "CBD Oleum". HempAmericana also researches, develops, and sells products made of industrial hemp, including a popular brand of hemp rolling papers marketed under the brand name, "Rolling Thunders". See more at HempAmericana.com.

Safe Harbor Provision. Cautionary statement for purposes of the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Information in this news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of the Company and its consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the execution and performance of contracts by the Company and its customers, suppliers and partners. Please also review Hemp Americana annual and quarterly financials for a more complete discussion of risk factors. The Company disclaims any obligation to update or revise statements contained in this news release based on new information or otherwise. This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state in which such solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification of these securities under the laws of any such state.

Corporate Contact:

HempAmericana.com

Salvador Rosillo

HempAmericana, Inc.

Phone: (888) 977-7985

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54182
Day cares, schools, offices, and non-essential businesses are closed. Thanks to coronavirus, were all jammed at home trying to carve out some semblance of normalcy from the strange conditions that have been thrust upon us. For many parents, that means somehow trying to balance the demands of working from home with child care, home schooling, and the other responsibilities that come with raising kids. How are dads handling it? Some are being pushing to their breaking point; others have figured out ways of making it work but are still balls of stress and exhaustion. Almost all are feeling burned out or unsure of how much longer they can keep this up. Were in this weird purgatory where were not giving our full attention to either work or kids, said Derek, one of a dozen dads we spoke to about how theyre balancing work and child care right now. Perhaps one solace is that everyone is in the same position and trying their best to figure this out together. Heres what they said about balancing kids and work during the coronavirus crisis.

Im Out of my League

My wife is a nurse, so shes on the front lines. Shes amazing. But that leaves me at home with my job  Im in IT and two toddlers. To be honest, I could do the IT stuff in my sleep. But the childcare aspect is just brutal. Going from having kids in school and daycare all day, to having them in your face is like going 0-60 right into a brick wall. Plus, when my wife comes home from the hospital, we have to spend so much time cleaning, disinfecting, and being cautious that theres really not a single minute of downtime. Even when were falling asleep, its basically just turning over in my head what Im going to have to do to survive the next day. Ethan, 36, Texas

I Take Calls in My Car

Its got better acoustics than the bathroom, which I did try. But I was told it sounded like I was trapped in a broom closet. The car is great. My kids are old enough that I can scurry out and not be bothered for at least 10-15 minutes. If Im having a really rough day, Ill sit through a few songs on the stereo, too, to cool down and reset. Funny thing, we have a neighbor down the street who we dont really talk to that much. He also has two kids. I see him jumping in and out of his car randomly throughout the day, too. I bet hes figured out how well this works.  Brandon, 38, Connecticut

Story continues

I Let the iPad Babysit

I know its probably not the best parenting method out there, but it works. And, at this point, during this craziness, I have absolutely no problem firing up some games or videos to babysit my kids for an hour or two while I crank through work. Its absolutely not ideal, and if I found out their teacher was doing something similar, Id probably be really pissed. But, given where we are as a society right now, and the fact that I need to prioritize providing for my kids by keeping my job, Ill have to swallow the hypocrisy and go with it until I figure out something else.  Max, 37, New Jersey

I Hired Help

My next door neighbor is a teaching student, meaning shes about to get her teaching license to become an elementary school teacher. The school where she was doing her student teaching is closed, so I asked her to teach my kids during the day. I know were supposed to be shut in, but my wife and I have no other choice. We just can work with the kids around. Its too much. I know Im not shy to admit Im in over my head, and I imagine my wife feels the same way. We need the income, and this is just how it has to be for now.  Jonah, 34, Pennsylvania

Im on the Verge of Tears Every Day.

I dont know how weve lasted this long, and its only been, like, three weeks. This is easily the hardest, most daunting situation my wife and I have ever faced. She lost her job because of this, and Im struggling to keep things together. Child care is completely nebulous and fluid. What works one day might not work the next day. Or the next hour. Or the next minute. Its just a constant state of adaptation and hoping things get better.  Manny, 34, Florida

Its Working. But, Shit, Is It Exhausting

My wife and I are both working while caring for the kids. Luckily our children are a bit older  I dont know what wed do if we had very young kids at home  so were able to give them a bit of structure. Theyre 5 and 7, so they follow, and actually crave, structure. But what were doing now is that I get up at the ass crack of dawn and do a few hours of work, then I shift into dad mode and do breakfast and home school stuff until about 2. Ill answer some calls during that time but for the most part Im with them. Then I dig into work at 2 or 2:30 and work until six, have dinner, and finish up whatever I have to do at night. Its working out fine right now but, shit, is it exhausting.  Ken, New York City

I Love It.

Honestly, I fucking hate my job. Working from home has been great, because I dont have to see any of the assholes I work with, or spend time in that soul-sucking office. When I need a pick me up, my kids  son is 4, daughter is 2  are right there doing something funny or cute. My mother-in-law used to come babysit for us, but shes at risk now, so she cant. Ill admit, Im an eternal optimist, so I probably have my rose-colored glasses on. But Im enjoying every second of being home and able to spend the time with my wife and kids.  Mark, 30, Tennessee

I Cant Give My Full Attention to Anything  and Its Taking a Toll.

I dont know how to do it. I dont know how to know how to do it. We have a two year old and a four year old and weve tried everything: breaking the day into two hour shifts, plopping them in front of iPads when were in meetings, giving them activities and classwork. Theyre good kids, but theyre kids. And they need to be occupied or soothed or entertained or held. Ive gotten maybe 1/3rd of my work done over the past week and that required staying up until midnight or later.

Its the same for my wife, whos also working from home. Were trying to organize conference calls, computer usage we have two laptops and one iPad. With four people thats not exactly easy. Were trying our best but were not giving kids our full attention and were not giving work its full attention. Were in this weird purgatory where were not giving our full attention to either. Our bosses have noticed. But, worst of all, our kids have noticed, too. Theyre safe and fed and relatively happy during the day but theyre picking up on the fact that things are different and that mom and dad cant devote their full time to them. It made me cry the other night I was just so exhausted by the news and parenting and work and not sleeping much. Were trying new tactics every day, so hopefully well figure out a better way.  Derek, 38, Boston

Im Fine. For Now.

Im actually really good at multitasking. So, while it took me a bit to get the hang of playing three different roles  Dad, teacher, and provider  I think Im nailing it. I check my e-mail early in the morning to put out fires. Then I set the kids up for a school lesson. Sometimes its iPad or computer stuff, but sometimes Ill look for easy things I can do with them at home like word games or math puzzles. Then they do classwork while I put out more fires. Its true, there really isnt any time to spare, but the routine and the combination of school and work makes the days fly by super fast. Hopefully I can keep it up and not burn out before this is all over.  Jerad, 37, Ohio

Im Running Damage Control

We have a middle schooler, and a high school senior. For the senior, our daughter, this has just been devastating. Prom is cancelled. The SATs were either cancelled or postponed  I forget. Shes missing the end of her senior year. At first, I was tempted to roll my eyes at the drama, but its starting to sink in. This really sucks for her. Shes being deprived of something that, while not necessarily life-defining, is really important to her spot in life right now. So, Ive tried to put on my empathy hat. My wife is better at it. But, Ive been trying to reassure our daughter that better things are coming. Neither of us can make up for those lost experiences, though, which is sad.  Brian, 44, Ohio

Ive Adjusted My Hours.

A lot of my work is responding to requests that need to be taken care of within 48 hours, or so. Im pretty much on my own concerning time management, and when I choose to get things done. So, I spend most of the morning teaching and working with the kids on schoolwork, and I just push my work responsibilities back to the afternoon or evening. Im burning the candle at both ends, and Im definitely not sure how long Ill be able to keep this up. But, one day at a time, I guess. Right?  Alex, 36, Nevada

I Bring My Kids to WorkVirtually.

I work for a pretty small company, and we have morning check-ins over Zoom. Everyone who has kids just brings them to the meetings to say hi, and make them a part of things. I think it really helps the kids understand that Im working, when they see me on the computer during the day. Theyre able to recognize that Im not just watching videos or playing games like they do. They see the people I work with, and the fact that most of them also have kids who are in the same situation. Its been a really helpful process while were all still getting used to this.  Jon, 37, Arizona

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TEL AVIV, Israel, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Agritask , a leading global developer of a holistic agronomic operations platform, in collaboration with Royal Exchange , General Insurance company limited, Nigeria's premier insurance group in Nigeria, announced today the launch of a unique joint initiative digitizing crop and livestock insurance with a social KPI to underwrite 1 million small holder farmers by 2025. The initiative involves a variety of stakeholders in the agricultural sector and beyond, including banks, cooperatives, ag-consultants, input distributors, ag-buyers etc.

Currently, agricultural insurance penetration levels remain very modest in developing countries. In particular, uninsured smallholder farmers can be severely impacted by variable forces of nature, with little financial means to manage such risks. This protection gap may potentially amplify poverty, hunger, enhance various forms of inequalities within societies and ultimately introduce a burden on the economy and challenge the stability of the country. Sustainable risk mitigation mechanisms and advanced technologies are required to tackle the preceding obstacles.

Towards the accomplishment of such an objective, Royal Exchange and Agritask embarked on a project to create a solid foundation for digital crop-insurance framework in Nigeria by utilizing Agritask's well-structured and accurate data infrastructure facility. The infrastructure is capable of combining diverse sources of data on one platform in an unprecedented resolution, including the mapping of farmers, their field locations, crop types, weather, soil and topography, among others. This foundations allow for accurate risk modeling and the design and pricing of suitable insurance policies.

Importantly, the data infrastructure, once in place, can be utilized by a number pf stakeholders. After seeing the initial results, those in the Nigerian agricultural ecosystem such as banks, cooperatives and input distributors expressed an interest to participate in the project. Building on one database, each stakeholder can have customized tools tailoring to their positioning in the ecosystem. This creates new business opportunities as well as greater empowerment of smallholders, who will benefit from better reach and higher-quality products.

"Farming in most of the world is comprised of small-scale farmers who face the very same risks and challenges large commercial operations do: Bad weather, low yields, and supply chain challenges. However, they do not have the resilience that larger commercial operations have; that's why there is a huge need for greater risk management abilities in this segment," said Ofir Ardon, Agritask CEO. "Because we work with the entire ecosystem, we can provide economies of scale for growers, both at the individual farmer level, as well as for all other players in the ecosystem."

"There are many regional impact projects in Nigeria, but most of them struggle to reach hundreds or thousands of farmers, simply because they do not have the technology required to manage and optimize an operation of this scale. Therefore, many times, when the project funding ends, the impact vanishes," said Chukwuma Kalu, Head of Agribusiness & Business Development, Royal Exchange General Insurance Company Ltd. "Working with Agritask, we have a great opportunity to develop a more sustainable model. We believe this kind of sustainability can, and should, become a reality across Africa. With Agritask's technology, we can level the playing field and get them to operate with the same resilience as larger commercial entities."

About Agritask

Agritask is a holistic ag-operations platform, designed to enable fact-based decision making for agricultural businesses. To fulfill this vision, Agritask integrates a wide-array of agronomic technologies, tools and data sources into one single platform that analyzes the data and produces alerts, recommendations, and actionable insights. Data sources vary from sensors and machinery, aerial images, forecast data, and more. Agritask's platform is extensive and rich in its capabilities, yet built in a modular, flexible way that allows it to grow with customer needs, while facilitating a more advanced use of ag-technologies, making them accessible via one single platform. Agritask is being successfully licensed in more than 20 countries, with a broad spectrum of clients ranging from large growers, multi-farm corporations, private equity managers, ag-buyers, food conglomerates, ag-financing and insurance companies, to governments and NGOs.

Agritask is headquartered in Israel and has various satellite offices around the globe. The company employs dozen of engineers, agronomists, developers and other agriculture and farming experts. It is backed by strategic investors.

For media inquiries only, please contact Lilach Bar-Tal at [email protected].

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Linkedin Kamil Krzaczynski (Agence France-Presse) Milwaukee, United States  Wed, April 8, 2020 01:06 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd0601b7 2 World US,presidential-election,election,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,health,Wisconsin Free

Wisconsin controversially held its presidential primary as planned Tuesday despite a state-wide stay-at-home order and concern that the election could expose thousands of voters and poll workers to the coronavirus.

Democratic officials had sought to postpone the election but were overruled by the top state court, and the US Supreme Court stepped in to bar an extension of voting by mail that would have allowed more people to cast ballots without going to polling stations.

Both courts have conservative majorities.

With the Midwestern state ignoring calls to postpone the primary over health fears, as 15 other states have already done, many Wisconsinites were being forced into an agonizing decision: risk their health to fulfill their democratic right, or stay safe by staying at home.

In Milwaukee, voters' options have been drastically reduced due to a lack of personnel to staff the polling stations, and voting is expected to be light.

The city of 600,000 normally has some 180 polling locations open, but that number reportedly has been reduced to just five, prompting long lines in an era of social distancing.

Wisconsin's chief election official Meagan Wolfe called on voters to be "careful and patient" at the polls.

"If you are ill and still need to vote on Election Day, curbside voting options are available," she said in a statement.

With the new precautions in place and most polling stations closed, wait times in Milwaukee were soaring.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel showed one mask-wearing woman in line to vote at a high school holding a cardboard sign bearing a message summing up voting during a pandemic: "THIS IS RIDICULOUS."

More than 2,400 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Wisconsin and 77 have died, the state's health department says. The nationwide death toll has topped 11,000.

'Be safe'

President Donald Trump urged voters to "be safe," as he encouraged them to support a Republican candidate for the state's Supreme Court.

"Wisconsin, get out and vote NOW for Justice Daniel Kelly," he tweeted.

But Tuesday's higher profile contest is between the two remaining candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination: former vice president Joe Biden, the frontrunner, and leftist Senator Bernie Sanders.

Sanders, 78, opposed holding the primary as scheduled, saying people should never have to choose between voting and staying safe.

"Let's be clear: holding this election amid the coronavirus outbreak is dangerous, disregards the guidance of public health experts, and may very well prove deadly," Sanders tweeted.

The 77-year-old Biden likely sees Wisconsin, where he tops Sanders in polling, as an opportunity to extend his lead. He has refrained from publicly calling for the primary's postponement, saying it was up to local officials to decide.

In the city of Kenosha, voters wearing masks and gloves lined up at the Journey Church, where polling personnel also were wearing protective gear.

Inside, voters stood behind a plexiglass barrier as staff checked them in, and National Guard personnel cleaned voting machines and helped maintain order.

Wisconsin forged ahead with its primary after the Democratic governor's bids to delay the election were thwarted by the Republican-led state legislature.

When Governor Tony Evers sought to postpone in-person voting to June 9, the state Supreme Court overrode the order.

Evers then moved to expand absentee voting by allowing mail-in ballots to be postmarked several days after the election. But in an 11th-hour ruling, the US Supreme Court voted 5-4 along ideological lines to require all ballots be postmarked by Tuesday.

The decision sparked claims by Democrats of massive disenfranchisement because thousands of voters had yet to receive their mail-in ballots.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 15:23:15|Editor: xuxin

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BUJUMBURA, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Burundian citizens on Monday commemorated the anniversary of the death of former President Cyprien Ntaryamira, who was killed 26 years ago in a plane crash.

Burundian leaders, including President Pierre Nkurunziza, and Ntaryamira's family also attended a ceremony to commemorate the late president, who died at the age of 39.

On April 6, 1994, Ntaryamira died with then Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana when the Rwandan presidential jet they were boarding was downed near the Kigali International Airport.

Ntaryamira was a farming engineer and ruled Burundi for only two months after being sworn in as president of the then transitional government.
TheAIIMS authorities on Tuesday saidall healthcare workers involved in the treatment of coronavirus-infected patients at the premier institute can get Hydroxychloroquine tablets from their respective departments.

"It is for the information of all concerned that requisite quantity of tablets Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been issued to all departments (for faculty and residents) and to all in patient wards (for nurses, technical and all other staff) from wheresoever requisition was received," an order issued by Dr DK Sharma, Medical Superintendent at AIIMS said.

The administration has asked all departments and inpatient wards who have not sent their requisitions so far and want to get HCQ tablets issued for use by employees and officials at risk to send their requirement for approval and subsequent issue by the hospital store.

"All other individual employees (serving/ retired) or dependent EHS beneficiary patients who have been/ are being advised Tablet HCQ by respective treating doctors including EHS CMO's can get required medicine issued from EHS Pharmacy against prescription," the order said.

The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has recommendeduse of the drug as preventive medication for healthcare workers andhouseholdcontacts looking after a positive case. Besides, theUnion Health Ministry has also recommended use ofHydroxychloroquinein combination with Azithromycin by thoseseverely suffering from COVID-19 who require ICU management.

The death toll due to novel coronavirus rose to 124 and the number of cases in the country climbed to 4,789 on Tuesday, registering an increase of 508 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry.

However, a PTI tally based on figures reported directly by states showed at least 143 deaths across the country, while the confirmed cases reached 4,998. Of them, 414 have been cured and discharged.

There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures, compared to the numbers announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The administrators at Sunset Ridge saw my vision of what we could do to help, and so even though our building is closed, they allowed me to safely grab the 3-D printers out of my classroom, Albright said.
[April 07, 2020] Pennington Fund Publishes 1Q-2020 Growth, and Announces 1Q-Dividends

Pennington Fund is pleased to announce its First Quarter Dividends for 2020. Dividends and Earnings, 1Q-2020: 1Q-REIF Dividends equaled 1.33% and 1Q-REIF Earnings were 7.14% 1Q-CommFund Earnings 5.65% 1Q-Growth Fund Earnings 2.50% 1Q-Bond Fund Earnings 2.03% The Pennington Real Estate Investment Fund (REIF) grew 7.14 percent during the First Quarter of 2020, and dividends were distributed April 06, 2020. The Pennington REIF is a Fund-of-Funds that invests in Asian REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts). The Pennington REIF was designed to give investors the opportunity to profit from the Asian real estate market. The current portfolio is comprised of over 60 REITs in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia. These REITs invest in commercial properties in their respective countries. The Pennington REIF has consistently yielded high returns since its inception in 2009. See the REIF Fact Sheet:

http://www.pennington-trading.com/confidential/Fact_Sheet_Pennington_REIF.pdf See the REIF Data Sheet:

http://www.vanguardprotected.com/pages/reif2743.html The typical investment is $25,000-USD for a Full Position in the REIF. The Pennington Commodities Fund gre 5.65 percent during the First Quarter of 2020.



The Pennington Commodities Fund is an actively managed hedge fund involved in managed futures and commodity trading. It invests directly into commodities such as precious metals and crude oil, as well as companies that cultivate these commodities, such as mining and offshore drilling companies. The Pennington Commodities Fund has expanded rapidly since its inception in 2010.

See the Commodities Fund Fact Sheet: http://www.pennington-trading.com/confidential/Fact_Sheet_Pennington_Commodities_Fund.pdf See the Commodities Fund Data Sheet: http://www.vanguardprotected.com/pages/comm3538.html The minimum investment is $25,000-USD for the Pennington Commodities Fund. About Us: Pennington Fund is an Asian-based industry leader in both multi and single-strategy hedge fund investments with over two billion USD in total assets under management allocated between 6 sub-funds and our managed trading platform. Operating as a self-contained entrepreneurial group for over 20 years, we maintain strong partnerships with various Asian government sovereign funds and pension systems. NOTE: Pennington accepts only Accredited/Qualified Investors who are approved after submitting this online application form: http://www.pennington-trading.com/application_form.php Related Links: Pennington Trading Website: http://www.pennington-trading.com/ Pennington Fund Website: http://fund.pennington-trading.com/ Pennington Fund EurekaHedge Listings: http://www.pennington-trading.com/pages/listing.html View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005008/en/

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President Donald Trump speaks to reporters following a meeting of his task force on the CCP virus in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington on April 6, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Trump Asks Hong Kong Phoenix TV Reporter If She Works for China

On Monday at a White House press briefing on the CCP virus, President Donald Trump asked a Chinese reporter from the pro-Beijing television network, Hong Kong Phoenix TV, whether she was working for China.

Who are you working for, China? Trump asked the reporter.

No, Im working for Hong Kong Phoenix TV, the female reporter, Youyou Wang, responded.

Who owns that, China? the president asked. Is it owned by the state?

Its based in Hong Kong, she said.

No, is it owned by the state? Trump said, appearing to refer to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

No, its not, its a privately owned company, the reporter said.

Okay, good, Trump replied and continued to respond to the reporters original question.

Phoenix TV is based in Hong Kong, where media have the legal right to operate independently of Chinese censorship. However, the station has long been known as a de-facto mouthpiece for Beijingand specifically, a faction within the CCP loyal to former leader Jiang Zemin, who was the party boss from 1989 to 2002.

Pro-Beijing Agenda

The television station presents itself as an independent voice, concealing its pro-Beijing agenda by occasionally reporting on topics taboo in mainland China, such as food safety scandals. Its founder and CEO, Liu Changle, was a former Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) propaganda officer. He later worked at the Communist Partys official radio station.

Since Liu founded Phoenix TV in 1996, the broadcaster has consistently carried out the agenda of former leader Jiang, including aiding in Jiangs propaganda campaign to smear Falun Gong and turn public opinion against the group. Falun Gong is a spiritual meditation practice that has since grown in popularity to be practiced worldwide since its introduction to the public in 1992. The Epoch Times has identified multiple television segments aired by Phoenix since 1999 that defame Falun Gong.

China expert Sarah Cook, of the Freedom House human-rights group, said in a 2017 U.S. congressional testimony (pdf) that Phoenix TV is an example of a Chinese propaganda outlet not directly owned by the Beijing government. At the time of Cooks statements, the Chinese state broadcaster, CCTV, had a 10-percent stake in Phoenix.

Liu is also known to be a close friend to Bo Xilai, a core member of Jiangs faction and the former Chongqing party chief, who dramatically fell from power in 2012. In 2011 Liu brought a team from Phoenix TV to Chongqing to give Bo positive media coverage.

During the 2014 Umbrella Movement, the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong that dominated headlines around the world, Phoenix TV portrayed the protesters as meddlers who intentionally clashed with police and caused disruption to the city.

Phase One Trade Deal

When initially picked by Trump to ask a question, the reporter, Youyou Wang, first noted how the CCP had provided medical supplies to the United States.

Wang said that there were multiple flights coming from China full of medical supplies last week, where companies such as Huawei and Alibaba have been donating some 1.5 million N95 masks  medical gloves, and much more medical supplies to the United States.

Sounds like a statement more than a question, Trump interjected.

Wang continued, saying that overnight, the Chinese ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times calling for cooperation with the United States. In the opinion article, Cui said the CCP had provided medical aid to the United States and other countries during the CCP virus pandemic.

So are you personally working directly with China on medical supplies and also fighting with the virus? the reporter asked Trump. Are you cooperating with China? she later repeated.

The president did not address the situation with the CCP virus directly but responded that the United States and China have just kickstarted a phase one trade deal that the two countries reached in January.

The trade deal had gone into effect several days ago, Trump noted earlier in the conference. As you know, as of April 1, the China trade deal, $250 billionthey purchased $250 billion from us, if not more, he said. Trump added that about $4050 billion is expected to be spent on agricultural products, which he said: should have a huge impact on our farmers.

I hope theyre going to honor that trade deal. If they dont honor the trade deal, then Ill tell you a different answer, but I think they will, Trump told the Chinese reporter. Theyre going to spend billions of dollars for agriculture. Theyre going to spend billions of dollars for different things.

Chinas never spent money in our country, he added. We spent money; we had a deficit, a trade deficit with China for years of $500 billion, $400 billion. We had the biggest trade deficits in the history of the world with China. Now Chinas going to spend a lothas agreed to spend $250 billion, many billions of dollars in our country. Much of it going to farmers and manufacturers. So Ill let you know. I hope theyre going to honor the deal. Well find out.

Its time for them [China] to help us, Trump later said. Its time right now for China to help us. And hopefully, they do, and if they dont, then thats okay too. But we signed a deal, and it was signed with great goodwill and spirit. And its time that our farmers benefited and that our manufacturers benefit.

The phase one trade deal meant that the United States scrapped its planned tariffs on roughly $156 billion of Chinese consumer products. The United States also halved tariffsfrom 15 percent to 7.5 percenton about $120 billion of China-made consumer goods.

The deal maintained 25 percent of import taxes on about $250 billion of China-made industrial goods and components used by U.S. manufacturers.

Under the deal, the Chinese regime committed to buying over the next two years at least an additional $200 billion of U.S. goods and services, over a baseline of $186 billion in purchases in 2017. This includes purchases of manufactured goods, such as aircraft, pharmaceuticals, and industrial machinery, which will increase by $77.7 billion over the two years.

The deal includes an agreement for Beijing to purchase an additional $32 billion of farm goods over the next two years, including soybeans, cotton, grains, and meat. It also pledged to strive to buy an additional $5 billion of agricultural products annually. Also, the regime agreed to allow more market access to U.S. meat, poultry, dairy, pet food, and agriculture biotechnology.

Zhang Xianyi, Sunny Chao, and Cathy He contributed to this report.
The coronavirus epidemic has led to an immediate and complete shutdown of the live music and festival industry, and those working in the sector need immediate support to avoid going bankrupt, according to an analysis by Music Hungary Association and Hetfa Research Institute.

According to the research, the shutdown of the live music industry affects some 36,000 people. The lack of events means that most of them are left without a source of income for the upcoming months.



While the amount of loss largely depends on the length of the outbreak, the industry is set to lose some HUF 13 billion of income. About HUF 4-5 bln of the total loss will be missing from the wages of Hungarian musicians and experts working in the field.



The research says that, on average, Hungarian musicians earn more than 60% of their income through live performances. Another important source of income (more than 15%) is the royalties received after songs played at catering establishments and concerts. However, most public places are now closed, taking away this source of income as well.



Due to these difficulties, musicians are set to lose more than 70% of their income in the upcoming months.



Music Hungary Association has hence sent the government a list of recommendations to ameliorate the situation.



Proposals include the extension of employer contribution suspension until the end of the year, decreasing the VAT of activities related to live performances to 5% until the end of 2021, making royalties tax-free in 2020-21, increasing the Hungarian music quota of radio stations by 10-15 percentage points, as well as support for virtual concerts and appearances on digital platforms such as YouTube and Spotify.
Even Before $2 Trillion-Plus in CCP Virus Recovery Costs, US Finances Looked Grim

Federal officials representing both major political parties in the United States added more than $8 trillion on the wrong side of the countrys financial ledger in 2019, according to a Chicago-based accounting foundations analysis.

The federal governments overall financial condition worsened by $8.16 trillion in 2019, Truth in Accounting (TIA) stated in its latest Financial State of the Union annual report. Nearly $7 trillion of the increase is due to unfunded Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Our elected officials have made repeated financial decisions that have left the federal government with a debt burden of $113.27 trillion, including unfunded Social Security and Medicare promises, the report stated.

That equates to a $737,000 burden for every federal taxpayer. Because the federal government would need a vast amount of money from taxpayers, it has received an F grade from Truth in Accounting.

Unlike the annual financial statement prepared by the Department of Treasury, the TIA report looks at net federal assets versus net operational costs and liabilities in the current year and those promised for the future, mainly under Social Security and Medicare.

While most people focus on the annual budget deficit of $984 billion, the overall decline in net position presents a better picture of the governments financial decline, the TIA report stated.

The Treasury Department only includes $173.70 billion of Social Security and Medicare liabilities on the federal balance sheet because, according to government documents, recipients do not have the right to benefits beyond the benefits currently due, and laws to reduce or stop benefits can be passed at any time.

Overall, the TIA report includes $52.72 trillion in unfunded Medicare benefits and $37.60 trillion in unfunded Social Security benefits.

The value of all the federal governments assets is $3.99 trillion. That means for every $1 trillion in assets controlled by the U.S. government, it must fund nearly $30 trillion in debt and promised benefits.

The $3.99 trillion in assets includes the value of the 640 million acres of U.S. land that are currently owned by the federal government, TIA founder and CEO Sheila Weinberg told The Epoch Times on April 7.

Federally-owned properties represent 28 percent of the countrys total land area, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The federal government spends nearly $20 billion annually maintaining its lands, which are mainly in Alaska and 11 Western states.

Asked by The Epoch Times how the government can fund so massive an imbalance between assets and obligations, Weinberg wasnt optimistic.

To repay debt, the U.S. government would have to run true surpluses, but instead, even before the current crisis, we were expected to run $1 trillion yearly deficits as far as the eye could see, she said.

History has shown that every few years, there is a crisis, like World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the 2007 housing market crisis, plus earthquakes, floods, hurricanes.

The United States has traditionally relied on bonds to generate funds needed to repay debt, but Weinberg said the government should instead accumulate asset reserves.

Instead of planning for these crises by having reserves, we sell bonds, and the debt continues to climb. How long will the U.S. government be able to continue to borrow? It is scary to think about when the lending market says enough, and we cant borrow, she said.

Weinberg cited the Greek financial crisis in 2010 as a warning to U.S. policymakers of the dire consequences of running large deficits and accumulating massive long-term debt.

She pointed to a 2015 analysis by TIA Research Director Bill Bergman that identified six key factors in the Greek crisis that resulted in massive anti-government demonstrations, dramatic cuts in government-funded benefits, and loss of critical public services.

The most significant of the six factors was a long period of what Bergman described as accounting chicanery, with debts and deficits being systematically underreported by officials.

The main factors leading to the crisis are linked by the manipulation of accounting reports used in the governance of Greeces participation in the Eurozone, Bergman wrote.

Accounting chicanery helped grease the wheels for Greeces unsustainable growth in the 2000s, and the unmasking of that charade led to the outsized exposure of Greece to the Great Recession of the late 2000s internationally, he wrote.

I think we check all of those boxes, Weinberg said.

Contact Mark Tapscott at Mark.Tapscott@epochtimes.nyc
While the Bombay high court (HC) can grant permission for medical termination of pregnancies having crossed the statutory limit of 20 weeks, it recently stressed that it cannot stretch the legal limit for an unreasonable period. The HC said as much while rejecting a plea for medical termination of a 30-week-long pregnancy of a 19-year-old rape survivor.

Undoubtedly this court can exercise its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution and grant permission for medical termination of pregnancy even if the pregnancy has crossed the statutory limit of 20 weeks, said the bench of justice KK Tated and justice Sarang Kotwal.

But, this power can be exercised only in exceptional cases and in conformity with the basic requirements of the MTP (Medical Termination of Pregnancy) Act, 1971, said the bench, adding that, the outer limit of 20 weeks laid down by MTP Act cannot be stretched to an unreasonable period.

The 19-year-old woman had moved the HC seeking permission for an MTP, claiming that she was forced to carry the unwanted pregnancy and it was causing her huge mental and physical agony. She further claimed that if she was compelled to deliver the baby, the child would also have to carry the stigma and face harassment as it would not be accepted in society.

Acting on her petition, the bench had sought a report from the medical board established at Sir JJ Group of Hospitals. The board submitted its report on March 6, stating the foetus suffered from a serious cardiac anomaly and could be allowed to be terminated.

The bench, however, refused permission, primarily because the pregnancy had advanced much beyond the statutory limit.

The bench also took into consideration the fact that though the rape survivor realised she was pregnant in August 2019 and lodged a complaint with the Wai police in Sahara district only on January 18, 2020. She approached the HC a month later, on February 28.

The rape survivor had claimed that two persons gave her a drink laced with sedatives and took turns raping her. When she discovered she was pregnant she approached one of her rapists, who offered to help get the pregnancy terminated. She approached the police on January 18, only after the accused started threatening her.

The bench said the delay could have been easily avoided if the petitioner had taken steps for her examination immediately after becoming aware of her pregnancy. Even taking into account the reluctance of rape victims to seek help, the delay on her part, in this case, is quite unreasonable, the court said.

It has now directed that this being an exceptional case, the state government shall bear the expenses for the medical treatment of the rape survivor and shall also look after her child.
Hyderabad, April 7 : A special relief flight of Air India on Tuesday airlifted 99 US citizens stuck in Hyderabad.

The flight, which took off from Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), carried the US citizens to Mumbai, from where they will be further connected with Delta Airlines from Mumbai to their final destination in the US.

An airbus A 320 aircraft landed here from Mumbai at 3.12 P.M. and departed for Mumbai with the US-bound passengers at 4.15 P.M.

The flight was operated from the main passenger terminal building of RGIA, airport operator GMR said in a statement.

In coordination with the US Consulate and the Telangana State government, a group of 98 adults and one infant US-bound passengers arrived at the airport from various parts of Hyderabad. All these passengers were serviced through the fully-sanitized main passenger terminal building, which has been kept ready for evacuation operations.

To meet this emergency requirement, a select group of personnel from GHIAL Terminal Operations, Airside Operations, Airport Operations & Control Center, Air Traffic Control, IT Team, Central Industrial Security Force, Landside Security and others were present.

Special screening and safety measures were in place during the flight's handling to protect against the COVID-19 threat including thermal screening prior to terminal entry, mandatory social distancing enforced through special queuing arrangements at all passenger processing points.

The airport, shut for regular commercial operations from March 22, has so far handled three evacuation flights.

On March 31, it handled a group of 38 German nationals who flew by a special flight of Air India which ferried the passengers from Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai to Frankfurt.

The airport on March 28 serviced a special medical evacuation flight of IndiGo, which dropped its eight crew members bound for Hyderabad and departed to Chennai with five stranded IndiGo crew members.

RGIA's cargo terminal is also fully operational to keep the vital link of essential supplies completely alive. The cargo is working round the clock in close coordination with various agencies to keep rolling the critical chain of essential supplies like medicines, vaccines, medical equipment, pharma raw material and defence goods.
Carl Beach has rarely strayed far from the place hes grown up.

Born in Rawlins and residing now in Ryan Park near Saratoga, the University of Northern Colorado graduate has remained rooted to Wyoming even when his job has taken him halfway across the globe. For the last 15 years, Beach has split his time between Wyoming and his job as an educator working abroad. Still in 2016, Beach was active enough in local politics to participate in the last presidential caucus held in Wyoming, when he supported Sen. Bernie Sanders.

He took a break from politics for a while, but the 44-year-old eventually thought he might try and run for something himself. A position in local government, perhaps, or maybe even the state legislature. But a run for Congress? That, Beach said in an interview last week, was not on the table.

Until recently, that is.

To be honest with you, I really thought itd be more on the local or state level to start with, Beach said. But as I watched this year kind of unfold, I didnt really see anyone rising up to challenge the sort of Republican establishment. And it really just came down to like, if not, if not me, then whos going to do this?

Beach  who registered with the Federal Elections Commission earlier this year but waited until Tuesday to formally launch his campaign  is not the first Democrat seeking the partys nomination to run against Congresswoman Liz Cheney this November: that honor goes to perennial candidate Carol Hafner, who ran numerous, losing political campaigns in several states before filing paperwork with the FEC allowing her to run in Wyoming.

Beach is running as a Democrat against a candidate who won her last election by more than 30 points and  as arguably one of the more powerful Republican politicians in the country  has the connections and resources needed to help fund the next one. Shes proven popular statewide too: after emerging from a broad field in the 2016 Republican primary with a 17-point lead over her next closest opponent, Leland Christensen, Cheney has won both of her elections since by more than 30 points, and heads into the Republican primary with momentum from one of the strongest years of her political career.

For all the early disadvantages, Beach believes he has a message that can resound with the average Wyoming voter and, at the very least, gain him the support of most Democrats in the primary and a fair share of voters in the general: the simple belief that things in America can work better. In his time overseas, Beach said hes seen the ways other countries have tackled problems like monopolized industry, workers rights and  center to his platform  universal access to health care, and thought of how similar systems could be implemented in the United States.

In a state like Wyoming, we have a large percentage of working class people, said Beach. And we need to align ourselves with them and really help to ensure that they retain the benefits and that they get to live healthy, fruitful lives.

The biggest key to getting there, he said, is by breaking down the misconceptions around his ideas and how they can work. The current coronavirus pandemic, he noted, has helped to underscore a number of the positions hes advocated for, including a sustained social safety for workers and universal health care.

Right now were seeing that health care here really struggles when its put under pressure, he said. Having a better, more universal supply chain and funding that is backed by a larger entity will definitely benefit all of us here in Wyoming. And of course, its going to benefit people across the United States. Were currently under-insured, or not insured at all.

Beach says he also understands issues important across all of the West, incorporating concerns over state control, individual liberty and conservation into his platform. However, those positions come with nuance: with individual liberty comes the rights of everyone, including support of non-discrimination legislation; and with conservation comes balance, including the opposition of regulations that could increase pollution in favor of an expanded renewable energy sector and sustainable farming practices.

I think growing up on the edge of National Forest definitely impacted how I see public lands and the benefits that they offer, and how much of an amazing resource they are to our state, he said. So, for me, that goes all the way back to like Teddy Roosevelt, you know, that legacy of establishing the national parks and the National Forest Service. And its an amazing legacy and one that we should really hold dear. Its kind of uniquely American, and its, you know, been influential around the world.

Kicking off a campaign against a powerful incumbent, especially in the age of coronavirus, is no small task, even for a native Wyomingite. Still, Beach is going to try, planning out an aggressive social media campaign and a strong phone banking effort to get his message across and sell Wyoming on the change he believes is possible in the Cowboy State.

I think I can offer progress and change without losing our identity and our roots, Beach said.

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After 277 deaths associated with COVID-19 since the first Connecticut fatality in mid-March, including a 6-week-old baby girl in Hartford, the state doesnt have a firm grasp on how many are the direct result of the pandemic.

All 277 had the infection at the time of their deaths. The question, for anyone who died, is whether and to what degree COVID-19 can be assigned as the cause. The infant, for example, may have died of a different cause and happened to have the infection; the state Medical Examiner has not yet said.

Doctors say patients are dying from a cascade of bodily failures, with physicians in hospitals filling out death certificates that list COVID-19 after the fact. For some, the disease is just one of multiple causes.

Dr. Michael Parry, chief of infectious diseases at Stamford Hospital, said Monday that physicians treating patients in hospitals record the date and time of death, plus a cause.

Sometimes the death certificates are a little bit arbitrary, Parry said.

Typically, the direct cause of death could be respiratory failure, but it might be due to COVID-19, Parry said in a phone interview. Or it could be from heart failure that caused a heart attack and then death. It might be COVID-19, or it might be something else.

In fact, Parry said, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner only rules on cases of people who die in their homes, public cases like homicides and vehicular crashes, or the infant in Hartford who was recently brought to the hospital unresponsive, died and was found to have the disease by the medical examiner during an autopsy.

That means some may have died of other causes. On the other hand, Parry couldnt rule out the possibility that some patients who are not on the list of 277 deaths may have died from complications of COVID-19 prior to the March 18 announcement of an 88-year-old Ridgefield mans death.

Its pure speculation, but it wouldnt be outlandish to say that, Parry said. In January, it was in China, Parry said. Could there have been someone who died in Connecticut in February or early March? It wouldnt be outlandish to say that.

In New York, some media outlets have reported that the actual COVID-19 death toll is higher than listed, because the medical examiner does not test all people who die in their homes.

Without comprehensive testing, no state can know how many, if any, COVID-19 deaths occurred prior to March 18. It could mostly be an academic exercise at this point, as the number hospitalized in connection with the coronavirus pushes to over 1,300  though many of those have recovered and gone home.

The 6-week-old girl died in Hartfords St. Francis Hospital. The cause of death is pending an expected multiweek investigation, but it has been listed by Chief Medical Examiner James Gill as COVID-19-associated.

For public health surveillance, laboratory-confirmed COVID-19-associated deaths are defined as patients who tested positive for COVID-19 around the time of death, Gill said. This is not a determination of the cause of death.

Gill said that at least one other death that is COVID-19-positive may not actually be a coronavirus fatality. It is a suspected intoxication death, so we have not certified it yet, Gill said.

The active investigation into the Hartford infant includes a variety of tests, including toxicology, the study of nervous system tissue, microbiology and metabolic testing of the body, he said.

We have not determined if COVID-19 caused the infants death, but the death would certainly meet the definition for an associated COVID-19 death, Gill said.

On March 26, Hartford police were notified that an unresponsive infant was brought to the hospital, said Police Lt. Paul Cicero. Detectives arrived to conduct an investigation to make sure there was no trauma or injuries, he said, noting that the parents said the baby was fussy the day before. There was no sign of trauma or injuries, so the investigation was turned over to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The Hartford police were unaware that the child had COVID-19 until the test results came back, Cicero said. Police are waiting for a full report from the medical examiner before determining if further investigation is needed. Police are not releasing the parents names because there is no criminal aspect to the investigation at this time.

Dr. Matthew Cartter, chief epidemiologist for the state Department of Public Health said last week that his agency and the medical examiner have different roles.

Cause of death is determined by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Cartter said. Public health surveillance is very different. Our purpose is to try to identify people who test positive for COVID-19 so we can implement control measures. We define laboratory confirmed COVID-19-associated deaths as anyone who has symptoms of COVID-19, and tests positive on a COVID-19 test before or around the time of death.

Cartter noted that in his 35-year career in the agency, working with a series of medical examiners, it is often hard to determine an exact cause of death and can sometimes take weeks to months.

Lisa Backus contributed to this report.
VANCOUVER - Government medical professionals say Canada's jails and prisons don't meet with physical distancing guidelines for COVID-19 and they want as many inmates as possible to be released.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Bowden Institution medium security facility near Bowden, Alta., Thursday, March 19, 2020. Government medical professionals say Canada's jails and prisons don't meet with physical distancing guidelines for COVID-19 and they want as many inmates as possible to be released. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

VANCOUVER - Government medical professionals say Canada's jails and prisons don't meet with physical distancing guidelines for COVID-19 and they want as many inmates as possible to be released.

In an open letter to the federal, provincial and territorial governments, more than 100 doctors, nurses and other health professionals say inmates are already medically vulnerable and are likely to have infectious diseases, such as hepatitis C and HIV.

The letter calls on the governments "to stop admitting people to jails and prisons unless absolutely necessary." The medical professionals who work for the governments also want assurances that inmates who are released get the housing, food and health care they need in the community.

Ontario, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories have freed some inmates because of the pandemic.

Kristy Denette, a spokeswoman the Ministry of the Solicitor General in Ontario, said the government has been working with the courts and police to reduce the number of people in custody while ensuring public safety isn't compromised.

Since March 16, the population at all facilities across Ontario has dropped from 8,344 to 6,148, she said. Nine low-risk offenders close to the end of their sentences were also released under temporary absence passes, she added.

In B.C., 95 inmates have been granted early release under a temporary absence, which can be rescinded if necessary, said the Public Safety Ministry.

Justice Minister Caroline Wawzonek of the Northwest Territories said seven inmates have been granted temporary absences. Prisoners on intermittent sentences have also been given temporary absences.

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair has asked the commissioner of the correctional service and the chair of the Parole Board to determine if certain offenders could be released early, says a statement from his office released Tuesday.

"Our greatest responsibility is keeping Canadians safe. That includes all correctional staff, inmates and the Canadian public. We know the unique risks inherent to prisons," it says.

The correctional service is taking steps to restrict the spread of COVID-19, the statement says.

Iulia Pescarus Popa of the Parole Board said it is steamlining its processes to respond to the pandemic.

The board is processing exceptional cases as quickly as possible for those offenders who are terminally ill or whose physical or mental health is likely to be affected while in prison, Popa said in a statement.

She said when making conditional release decisions, the board considers all relevant information related to an offender's case, including the gravity of the offence and the individual's health.

Figures from the correctional service show 21 inmates in federal penitentiaries have tested positive for the virus as of Monday: 12 in Quebec, seven in Ontario and two in B.C.

The letter from the medical professionals says if people in prison become infected, it would be essentially impossible to stop the spread of COVID-19 in a correctional facility.

Conditions are crowded, prisoners share cells, they must be frisked and handcuffed by officers, line up daily for medication, share common spaces and dining halls, and use the same telephones and washrooms, it says.

"They also lack access to some of the critical supplies people in the community are using to keep themselves safe, such as hand sanitizer, cleaning products and sometimes soap."

The Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, which represents federal prison guards, said last week that it has put measures in place to protect its members and limit the spread of the virus.

"The release of a few inmates would not solve the potential spread of COVID-19 in our facilities; it would only increase the risk for Canadians," the union says in a statement.

One inmate has also tested positive for the virus in a provincial jail in B.C.

Stephanie Smith, president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union, said her members have concerns about the safety of themselves and the inmates.

She said the union, which represents about 1,700 guards in provincial jails, is doing a risk assessment and has called for a ban on the double bunking of inmates.

 With files from Bob Weber in Edmonton.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2020.
LONDON, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- While many are grappling with the IR35 tax changes, start-up company Colnort has taken an innovative approach by creating a disruptive business model to cope with the new legislation. With advantages for both contractors and businesses, the new model offers a stress-free way of managing the tax reforms to keep all parties compliant outside the scope of IR35.

Changes to IR35 have sent ripples through the private sector. From 1st April 2021, new tax regulations will apply to contractors who work through Personal Service Companies (PSCs) and the businesses that employ them, adding to the burden of those who are already battling the consequences of the spread of COVID-19.

Drawing on 30 years' experience in the consulting industry, Colnort has created a new service model that takes the stress of IR35 away, while benefiting contractors and companies alike.

How does it work?

In short, Colnort's 'outside IR35-friendly' solution allows both companies and contractors operating their own limited companies (PSCs) to work within a fully compliant service framework verified by the UK's leading IR35 expert lawyers. Colnort becomes the service provider, taking on the IR35 burden and absorbing all liability.

Colnort's model enables contractors to continue operating their businesses. Meanwhile, companies can migrate or onboard contractors under pre-defined, outcome-based service agreements. Onboarding is fast and efficient, thanks to Colnort's seamless and fully automated process. Working with trusted partners, each engagement will be thoroughly assessed to ensure outside IR35 status, and we provide ongoing service management to keep it that way.

Making contractors' lives easier

Contractors affected by IR35 may be resigned to choosing between an umbrella company or permanent employment. Colnort's model offers a third solution where contractors can continue as before, but on deliverable and outcome-based service agreements. What's more, contractors are paid within 48 hours of their work being approved.

Colnort's co-founder, Michael Cleavely, said, "While these features make Colnort's model highly attractive for contractors, the seamless on-boarding process and free IR35 tax insurance make it a special and unique offering. We've worked tirelessly to make this simple, flexible, cost effective and painless for contractors and continue to work to find ways to improve our offering further."

Boosting performance for businesses

The Colnort model brings major benefits for businesses too. Chris Jones, co-founder and director, describes how Colnort's managed service solution can help companies get their affairs in order before April 2021:

"Now is the time to prepare. Companies must think about doing things differently - adapting their processes and engaging contractors in the correct way. We have seen companies taking the step of banning PSC contractors altogether, but there's a far less drastic option. Colnort removes the burden of IR35 and helps companies to attract, retain and on board the very best contractor talent through outcome-based service contracts.

"Colnort's outcome-based agreements help drive greater productivity and results for our clients, allowing companies to maintain a competitive edge through an agile and flexible workforce. We also manage compliance, contractual governance and invoicing, allowing companies to focus on their core business."

Colnort's business model has been verified by the UK's leading IR35 expert lawyers to ensure all contracts and working practices are fully compliant and in accordance with legislation.

NOTE TO EDITOR

About Colnort



With over 30 years' experience of delivering talent and project services to SMEs and major global enterprises, Colnort recognises the incredible value contractors bring to businesses. Our team of experts has a deep understanding of the consultancy world and strives to help clients manage onerous paperwork, complex compliance issues and deliver critical projects.

We offer those affected by IR35 a mutually beneficial engagement model to take the worry, expense and complexity out of their IR35 arrangements. Truly unique, Colnort has been established as a dedicated solution to help both clients and contractors overcome the IR35 challenge by doing things differently and thinking forward.

SOURCE Colnort

Related Links

https://colnort.com


(Newser)  Grocery store employees are on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemicand now they're dying. The Washington Post reports that at least four have died from COVID-19 in recent days, and many more have tested positive. The deaths include:

A Trader Joe's employee in Scarsdale, NY, with underlying health conditions who died early Monday. The store is closed until Thursday. Other Trader Joe's locations in Brooklyn and Philadelphia closed Monday for cleaning and sanitizing.

A 27-year-old greeter at a Giant in Largo, Md., who died last week. "She said, Mommy, Im going to work because no one else is going to help the senior citizens get their groceries,'" her mother recalls. Her last day at work was March 16.

Two employees, ages 48 and 51, from the same Chicago-area Walmart. Both died late last month.

story continues below

The family of one of the Walmart employees, Wando Evans, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the store, CNBC reports. Family members say Evans told store managers he had coronavirus symptoms, but they disregarded those symptoms. He was sent home from work March 23 and found dead in his home two days later. The second employee, Phillip Thomas, died four days after that. The mayor of Evergreen Park, where the store is located, has ordered an investigation into the deaths and suspended the store's liquor license, WGN reports. The Post notes that while many grocery workers expressed dissatisfaction with safety measures their employers were taking early on in the crisis, many stores have since stepped up protective measures. But with the deaths, pressure is likely to increase that even more be done, and experts say grocery stores will likely struggle to retain workers and hire new ones. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
Health official: 'Regardless of variant, the protective measures are the same'

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Samantha Moreno used to feel self-conscious about the itchy, dry skin on her hands. When a friend brought her a jar of Restore tallow from Flying Cow, she tried it even though she was initially skeptical.

My hands would bleed and burn like fire, Moreno said of her dry skin. After using tallow, my skin was smooth, moisturized and the redness and burning pain went away.

Moreno, a nutrition club owner in Lubbock, is planning a trip to Midland with the friend who brought her the tallow to try on her hands. The womens first stop in the Tall City will be at Flying Cow, a new retail store in northwest Midland specializing in skincare products made from cow tallow.

Morenos experience with tallow doesnt differ much from Flying Cow owner Britney Arceneauxs story. In 2014, Arceneaux suffered from severe cystic acne after having her fourth baby. After trying several other products, Arceneaux tried tallow at the recommendation of a friend. When her skin cleared up, she decided to make the product herself using essential oils.

Her recipe made more of the product than she needed, so she shared some of the tallow with friends. A few months later, one of Arceneauxs friends asked if she would make more. Money was tight at the time, and Arceneaux said she would need to wait a few weeks before buying the supplies to make another batch. She recommended that her friend look at other cow tallow skin products available online.

She texted me back and was like, No, Ill wait. Ill wait for yours, Arceneaux said. In that moment I was like, Maybe there is more to this. If shes willing to wait a month for something that I make, then maybe theres something to it.

Arceneaux decided to give tallow a try and opened an online shop through Etsy.

I took $50, which was a lot of money for us at the time  grocery money  and I bought some supplies, she said. The first week I sold three things and I was so excited. And then it just turned into three a day and then it escalated really quickly.

Arceneauxs first recipe used cow tallow and peppermint oil. Tallow is rendered beef fat that is solid at room temperature and has an extended shelf life. Natural skin care enthusiasts have embraced it as a base for chemical-free moisturizers and balms. With texture similar to a fluffy cake frosting, essential oil fragrances such as lavender and frankincense and modern packaging, the tallow products Arceneaux makes and sells at her store attract a market accustomed to high-end skin care products. Prices range from $10 to $75 for various size jars of tallow.

She sources the tallow from an organic farm in Minnesota and gets ideas for fragrances and products from online research, customer suggestions and the rare quiet moments when the mother of five can sit and think. With the shop open and staffed, Arceneaux has more time for the fun stuff like marketing and coming up with new products. She homeschools her children and says she comes to the shop only a few times a month because her manager and staff handle all day-to-day operations.

Arceneaux said it took her and her husband, Joshua, several years to get to that place where they could balance their work and family life. For five years, Arceneaux ran the tallow business out of her home. She would work on the products before the children woke up in the morning and after they went to bed. In addition to her online sales, she sold tallow at the Midland Downtown Farmers Market. When the couple decided to open a storefront, they started the process of hiring and training staff.

Arceneaux hosted weekly Tallow Tuesdays after the children went to bed to teach new employees how to make the product. That progressed into training on shipping and customer relations.

2019 almost killed me. Id have homeschooling going over here, a toddler tearing up stuff over here, people shipping stuff and making stuff. Helping a first-grader with math. Britney, what do I do with this customer? she said. Its so worth it now, but it was a lot going on in our house.

Flying Cow opened in November 2019 in the shopping center on the southwest corner of Midland Drive and Wadley Avenue. When the shop opened, Arceneaux already had a trained staff and a healthy customer base from her online shop.

It was just such a smooth transition in November when we opened, she said. It was like they just took off running.

When the shop first opened, Arceneaux intended to sell only her tallow products. Plans changed, however, because of her desire to support other creative entrepreneurs. Now she also carries candles from a Texas-based company, chocolate she discovered on a vacation in Napa Valley and other products made by business owners around the country.

Supporting other companies is a big part of our hearts, Arceneaux said. I thought that wed just sell tallow but when we opened the store we thought, Why dont we just have some fun and share some stuff that we love.

Looking toward the future, Arceneaux said she hopes Flying Cow continues to grow slowly.

This has been so fun, so I just want it to grow organically. We just want to make sure we can keep up with the quality.
[April 07, 2020] Mercato Gets Independent Grocers Online and Delivering Within 24 Hours as Consumers Searching for Grocery Delivery Increases Amid COVID-19 Crisis

Mercato, the online grocery e-commerce platform for independently owned grocery stores, is working to have stores online and delivering groceries within 24 hours for center aisle staples and produce, and 72 hours for most meat, dairy and prepared food items upon receiving their inventory file. Mercato.com's online grocery platform is growing by about 50 stores a day, resulting in a 5,000% spike in consumer orders over the past month. Independent grocers are flocking to the e-commerce platform as millions of consumers, practicing social distancing and shelter-in-place orders from state officials, are now searching online for products large chain stores cannot fulfill due to panic buying and delayed shipments. About 31% of U.S. households (roughly 40 million) have used home delivery and pickup grocery services over the past month, according to research from Brick Meets Click and ShopperKit. Monthly order volume among users surged 193% and order rates were up 19% compared to August 2019. Out of the online grocery shoppers surveyed, 26% said they used an online service for the first time. "From addressing the needs of seniors and medical professionals, and those simply more cautious about multiple trips to the store during the coronavirus crisis, independent grocers are scrambling to get online and serve the needs of their communities. Their customers need fresh groceries they eiter can't find at supermarket chains or can't wait for until national grocery delivery windows to open," says Bobby Brannigan, Mercato Founder and CEO. "We have expanded our onboarding team and are working around the clock to get these independents up online and delivering within 24 hours."



Through its partnerships with the leading courier networks, Mercato has the ability to provide 100% delivery coverage across the nation, from high-density cities to rural communities. Russ Greenlaw, Vice President of Operations for Adams Hometown Markets' 11 locations in Massachusetts and Connecticut, says, "Even with everything going on right now, the Mercato team was a huge help in getting our 50,000+ products online in just 24 hours. We are fortunate to be able to help our customers get the essential foods that they need during this hectic time."

Independent grocers are struggling to stay afloat as their in-store traffic continues to decline. Mercato is helping merchants increase online sales in the short term, and many merchants see selling online as part of a long-term business strategy. Mercato's e-commerce technology increases incremental sales and customer loyalty, provides access to customer and product data, and utilizes online marketing campaigns to drive traffic to their online store. Mercato also integrates with every POS system, enabling a faster and more seamless setup. "Mercato's technology solution will allow us to stay innovative and relevant for many years to come," says Greenlaw. Mercato is waiving all setup fees for independent store chains that sign up with Mercato by April 30. To get started, sign up for a no-obligation demo at www.mercato.com/merchant. "Not only are we delivering fresh food within hours of customers ordering, we are enabling them to order from local, independently owned stores right in their community versus big box stores and national supermarket chains," says Brannigan. "This helps their local community's economy, which is more important than ever." About Mercato Mercato offers e-commerce and same-day delivery of high-quality groceries and specialty foods from more than 1,000 independently owned stores across the country. Bobby Brannigan, an entrepreneur who grew up working in his parent's grocery store in Brooklyn, NY, created Mercato to level the playing field by bringing online shopping and delivery to independent grocers and their valued customers. For more information, visit Mercato.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005247/en/

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With all kinds of business activities coming to a standstill and autorickshaws, taxis and rickshaws off road and movement stopped due to Covid-19 outbreak, thousands of labourers and daily-wage earners struggle, looking for help in this hour of unprecedented crisis across the state.

While the government has made arrangement for such people at different places, these are often not enough due to the magnitude of the problem. This has brought in some good Samaritans to provide much needed help to the needy as part of their social responsibility.

One of them is SD Sanjay, additional solicitor general of India, Patna High Court, who has taken it upon himself to feed as many needy people as he could with the help of his dedicated team - which includes his lawyer wife Sushila Agarwal and junior Parul Prasad. The team has grown with each passing day, as businessmen like Rajesh Surekha and Ashok Chaudhay, advocates, doctors and persons associated with other walks of life cutting across caste and creed have also joined in.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, I thought of extending a helping hand and just shared my idea by making a WhatsApp group. Initially we in the family planned to distribute 100 packets, but it soon met with huge response and many people got attached, including the entire apartment I am living in. Humanity is alive and kicking. Now, we are providing food packets as well as dry ration to over 1,000 people each day with the help of various police stations, Railway Protection Force (RPF) and others like India Oil Corporation (IOC), said Sanjay.

Last week, Sanjay was among the few persons associated with social service organisations that Rajya Sabha member Vinay Prabhakar Sahasrabuddhe interacted with under the aegis of Indian Social Responsibility Network to get feedback about how they were helping the poor and what more needs to be done.

Sanjay said that what started with few localities in Patna has now extended to some other districts also due to active involvement of the team members, but theres still lots to be done.

I am truly overwhelmed to see how people join hands for a good cause just for the sake of humanity, nothing else. At the Mahila thana in Gardanibagh, the SHO and others make it a point to distribute packets to the needy and also send us pictures. Many other police stations have also helped us reach to the really needy, viz. labourers, auto-drivers, rickshaw-pullers, etc. It is a different image of the police that has come out during the crisis, he added.

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An Airbus A320-212 operated by Delta Airlines takes off from JFK Airport on August 24, 2019 in New York City.

Graham said he was unsure whether that would be "early, mid or late June."

"My feeling is, and this is in places like Southeast Asia, Australia, North America, the domestic side of things will start picking up, start returning to normal, mainly on government dictates, in June," he said Tuesday.

International travel, meanwhile, could be on hold for another six months, Flight Centre's Graham Turner told CNBC's "Street Signs."

Domestic travel within North America , Australia and Southeast Asia could be on course to return to normal by June if current efforts aimed at curbing the coronavirus outbreak are successful, according to the CEO of Australia's largest travel agency.

"But the more international side of it we think it's probably going to be more September, October, which is, you know, six months away," he added.

The travel CEO noted, however, that any rollback of travel restrictions  which have halted the majority of international travel for the best part of a month  would depend on governments' ongoing response to the pandemic.

Graham said he expects to see "a lot of change in the way governments work in the next few weeks."

Flight Centre is among the countless international travel companies to have been hit hard by the virus.

The Brisbane-headquartered company announced this week it would be closing 800 stores on top of the 6,000 jobs culled in March as part of a 1.9 billion Australian dollar ($1.16 billion) cost-cutting strategy. The business is also hoping to raise 700 million Australian dollars to help it ride out the downturn.

Graham said he hopes, where possible, to take advantage of government subsidies to retain the remainder of its some 20,000 staff until the travel industry gets back on its feet.

"There will certainly be lots of opportunities when things return to relative normal," said Graham, citing offline, online and corporate business lines.
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday (April 7) questioned the government's decision to export hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol to United States and said that life saving drug should be made available to the country first. The Wayanad MP also commented on United States President Donald Trump's warning of retaliation if the Indian government did not allow the export of anti-malarial drugs.

"Friendship isnt about retaliation. India must help all nations in their hour of need but lifesaving medicines should be made available to Indians in ample quantities first," the former Congress president tweeted.

Gandhi's reaction came after the Ministry of External Affairs said that India would export anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to several countries, including those in the neighbourhood, on a case by case basis in sync with its commitment to the international community to fight the pandemic.

Hydroxychloroquine is an old and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria.

The decision to partially lift the ban on hydroxychloroquine came to the fore hours after US President Donald Trump warned of retaliation if India does not heed to his request to supply the drug, cited by him as a viable therapeutic solution to fight coronavirus infection. In a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 5, Trump sought supply of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to the US.

On March 25, India had imposed a ban on the export of hydroxychloroquine in the midst of views in some quarters that the drug could be used to fight COVID-19. India is the largest exporter of the drug.

It is learnt that high-ranking officials of India and the US were engaged over the issue of supply HCQ to the US by certain Indian companies following telephonic conversation between Modi and Trump and the decision to ease restrictions on export of the drug was result of a process.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Down Dog, the highest-rated app for practicing yoga at home, releases an app dedicated to Prenatal Yoga that will be available for free until May 1.

This release follows the announcement last month that Down Dog made its Yoga, Yoga for Beginners, High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), Barre, and 7 Minute Workout apps completely free until May 1, and until July 1 for all healthcare professionals, students and teachers (K-12 to university).

Down Dog

"Over the last four weeks, more than three million people claimed their free membership to our Yoga and Fitness apps. We've seen tremendous engagement from the community all around the world and given the volume of people asking for Prenatal Yoga, we decided to put all our resources to support women during their pregnancy and offer them a safe alternative to take care of themselves and their baby during the COVID-19 outbreak," said Carlos Ormachea, co-founder of Down Dog.

Prenatal Yoga will offer the same benefits as all of Down Dog's fitness apps - extremely customizable workouts from 5-90 minutes with a new workout every time the app is used - with proper adjustments for every trimester. Prenatal Yoga will be available on iOS, Google Play, and Web in 10 languages.

About Down Dog

Down Dog is the highest-rated app for practicing yoga at home. Headquartered in San Francisco, Down Dog offers a suite of fitness apps, where you'll never get the same workout twice.

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Carlos Ormachea

[email protected]

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 20:35:23|Editor: huaxia

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XIAMEN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Truckloads of bulls imported from New Zealand on Tuesday were transported from Xiamen on east China coast to northwest Chinese regions after they finished a 45-day quarantine, according to local sources.

The imported bulls, about 3,500 head in total, which were aimed at improving beef and dairy cattle in China, are expected to arrive at their designated places one week later, said a source of Xiamen Customs.

Starting April 5, business people from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, two key animal husbandry bases in the country, flocked to the quarantine site in Xiamen for bulls selection, said the source.

In 2019, about 6,955 imported bulls were quarantined at the site, accounting for 10.7 percent of the total imports of the species in China.
/ -- 42Gears Mobility Systems Pvt. Ltd. has partnered with POSIFLEX Technology India Pvt. Ltd. (PTIPL) to enable remote management of POSIFLEX PoS devices and peripherals. 42Gears, a Gartner Magic Quadrant vendor, is a leading provider of Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) tools. The company's feature-rich UEM offering, SureMDM, is known for its robustness and reliability, and is being used by businesses across sectors to manage, monitor and secure their mobile endpoints.

Through this partnership, PTIPL, a leading manufacturer of peripherals and PoS devices, intends to offer improved PoS and peripheral management capabilities to its customers using SureMDM. 42Gears in-band and out-of-band device management capabilities. This will help PTIPL's customers lower the total cost of ownership by enabling remote device management and troubleshooting.

Abhay Koranne, Senior Vice President at 42Gears, said, "This partnership will enable PTIPL and 42Gears to serve their customers better. Our product will complement the offerings from PTIPL. We provide security and reliability to the endpoints. We look forward to our partnership serving customers in the PoS and peripheral management market segment."



In addition to the device management capabilities, 42Gears' SureMDM will provide to end customers of other POSIFLEX devices, it will also enable advanced remote management of Intel AMT vPro-enabled POSIFLEX devices. Through out-of-band management, the solution will help IT admins gain full remote control of devices, remotely recover devices from security incidents, and power ON or power OFF devices (or schedule the same) remotely from a centralized web console..

"We are excited to partner with 42Gears to offer a comprehensive remote management solution to our valued customers to manage their POS and KIOSK assets remotely. This will reduce support costs and provide better visibility into asset health, thereby increasing profitability," said Baskaramoorthy D., VP-Sales at PTIPL.

To know more about 42Gears' UEM offering, SureMDM, please click here.

About 42Gears



42Gears is a leading Unified Endpoint Management solution provider, offering SaaS and on-premise solutions to secure, monitor and manage all business endpoints, such as tablets, phones, desktops, and wearables. 42Gears products support company-owned as well as employee-owned devices built on Android, iOS, ipadOS, Windows, macOS, Wear OS, VR and Linux platforms. 42Gears products are used in various verticals, such as healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, education, and retail. 42Gears products are trusted by over 10000 customers in more than 115 countries.

For more information, please visit https://www.42gears.com.

About POSIFLEX



Posiflex has designed and manufactured world-class POS solutions for more than 30 years. Since 2016, the company has acquired KIOSK and Portwell, further expanding into self-service and embedded PC offerings. The global Posiflex Group is in place to provide world-class B2B Serviced IoT solutions.

Posiflex Group Press Contact: Brad Chou, marketing@posiflex.com.tw



Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/517153/42Gears_Mobility_Systems_Logo.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
HALLHUBER Hones in on Time-to-Value with Centric PLM Centric is constantly developing new product features and effective growth strategies we can benefit from.

The home of unique ready-to-wear items, shoes and accessories for fashion-loving women in Germany has chosen Centric Software as a long-term PLM partner to eliminate non-value added tasks, prioritize more strategic product-related activities and transform operational efficiency, ensuring beautiful products arrive to market quickly and efficiently. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to fashion, retail, footwear, outdoor, luxury, consumer goods and home decor companies to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

HALLHUBER GmbH was founded in Munich in 1977. At the time, the concept of young, trend-conscious brands was still scarce. Today, HALLHUBER is one of the most important vertical fashion brands for self-confident and sophisticated women in Germany, with an internationally connected design team producing up to 26 new collections every year. HALLHUBER sells its range in over 380 stores and sales areas in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, the Benelux countries, Poland, Great Britain, and Ireland as well as its own online platforms in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. The company has consistently pursued its market position in the Bridge-to-Premium category over the past 40 years.

With a new collection every two weeks at HALLHUBER, the margin for production error is small in a retail world where there is a growing consumer demand to be on-trend and on-time. Felix Gross, Head of Project Management says an outdated PDM solution was creating internal inefficiencies and hindering the ability to make the strategic decisions required for fast-paced collections.

We were mainly using spreadsheets, email and a very old-fashioned PDM. None of these systems spoke to each other, so there was a growing need to reevaluate and streamline our design processes in order to save time and minimize mistakes. We wanted to reduce the number of tools we were working with to just one. Thats where Centric stepped in.

By incorporating information from previous collections, Centric PLM saves teams hours usually spent searching for crucial data. Increased visibility and efficiency at every stage of product development maximizes time to value, ensuring quantities and quality are on track to meet promised delivery and fulfillment commitments.

Commenting on Centrics position as Fashion PLM market leader, Felix Gross says, The single most important metric for us is time to value, ensuring that our teams spend more time on using their talents so we can explore new ideas and expand into new categories, while making smarter, more strategic product decisions. Its transformational for us to build this partnership. Centric is constantly developing new product features and effective growth strategies we can benefit from.

We are very excited that HALLHUBER has chosen to partner with Centric, says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. We look forward to supporting their progress, designing and delivering beautiful products for an increasingly dynamic and competitive female fashion industry.

Request a Demo

Learn more about Centric Fashion PLM

HALLHUBER (http://www.hallhuber.com)

HALLHUBER GmbH was founded in Munich in 1977 and is now one of the most important vertical fashion brands in Germany. HALLHUBER offers a unique selection of ready-to-wear items, accessories, bags and shoes to create individual looks. The design team is internationally connected and, with great attention to detail, designs up to 25 collections that are always in tune with the current mood.

Environmentally conscious action and the continuous expansion of sustainable paths is part of the company philosophy. HALLHUBER works every day to have the products sourced and manufactured responsibly. 50 percent of the goods are already produced in Europe. The company commits its suppliers to production under ethically and ecologically correct conditions, relies on a reliable, globally established supplier network and, thanks to the vertical business model, can guarantee fast and smooth processes.

HALLHUBER sells its range in approximately 380 retail spaces (as of January 1st, 2020) in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Benelux, Poland, Great Britain and Ireland as well as on hallhuber.com in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. In the financial year 2018/19 (01/11/18-31/10/19), sales were 197.5 million euros. Managing directors are Rouven Angermann and Torsten Eisenkolb.


Jaipur, April 6 (IANS) Amid all the Covid-19 gloom, a Great Indian Bustard (GIB) chick born at the Desert National Park in Jaisalmer a week ago, has been named Corona.

Corona was hatched at an especially developed hatchery, described by forest officials as the make-shift maternity-ward for this critically endangered bird species. Only 150 Great Indian Bustard are reported to be surviving today. Of them, 98 per cent are confined to this desert park.

Its an ex situ conservation project to breed Great Indian Bustard to save this bird from extinction. Close vigil is kept on male and female birds courtship in this grassland habitat. As the mating gets over, the vigil shifts to their nests, according to Harsh Vardhan, an environmentalist.

As the nest is made on open ground, it invites predators. Crows, kites, foxes, monitor lizards and even snakes are potential threats in this region, says Harsh Vardhan.

Through powerful spot-scopes, experts keep round the clock watch over the nest. The egg is picked up soon after its laid. It is rushed to the maternity-ward located by side of Sam village and placed in the designed hatchery. Most modern facilities have been pooled to ensure hatching of the egg.

Corona, the 10th chick to be born in the ex situ conditions, is the first for the 2020 season. Other nine were hatched during the 2019 season, with first chick coming out of the egg in February 2019.

Interestingly, Corona is born to the female GIB, collared with a satellite transmitter several months ago. Two females GIBs had been fitted with the device to ascertain their movement from one habitat to another, and to allow experts to study their behaviours, said Harsh.

The conservation project, launched in January 2019 through the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

However, the Rajasthan Forest Department had kept sitting over the proposal for years. It moved only after a lot of hue and cry globally as experts questioned the delay by the state Forest Department in launching the captive breeding of this species.

The WII had invited on-field expertise of the Abu Dhabi-based agency, known as National Avian Research Centre (NARC), to help in the GIB conservation breeding in this park. The NARC team handled most critical aspects of the project and also trained many Indian scientists in techniques, which were alien to Indians for GIBs captive breeding.

Some Indian scientists were also sent to Abu Dhabi to learn advanced techniques of breeding protocol.

The project is funded by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest. the fund is channelised through the Rajasthan Forest Department.

If the project runs for a decade, it will help create a decent GIB gene pool. The initial chicks, hand-imprinted, will be kept at large aviaries. But the next lot will not be hand-printed and released in the wild keep the rare bird species alive, says Harsh.

Y. Jhala, WII Dean, is the head of the captive breeding project, and Arindam Tomar, Rajasthans Chief Wildlife Warden, the administrative head of the initiative. In fact, Tomar had strived hard to turn the initiative into reality.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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Delhi Police personnel moved 33 pregnant women, including a Finland national, to various hospitals across the national capital in 24 hours amid the ongoing lockdown to combat the coronavirus outbreak, officials said on Tuesday.

Since the lockdown began on April 25, PCR staffers of the Delhi Police have admitted 211 women in labour pain at various hospitals, they said.

"In the last 24 hours, PCR staffers have shifted as many as 33 women in labour pain, including a Finland national living in South Delhi, to various hospitals," Deputy Commissioner of Police (PCR) Sharat Kumar Sinha said around 4 pm on Tuesday.

Responding to the call about a foreign national facing pregnancy-related medical complications, a PCR team reached the spot within three minutes and rushed her to Sita Ram Hospital in the Qutub Institutional Area, he said.

Giving district-wise breakup of the distress calls, the officer said eight calls were received from South, six from Southeast, three each from Dwarka and Shahdara, two each from Outer, Outer-North, North, East and Rohini, and one each from Central, West and South-West, the DCP said.

Of the total 33 calls, five were received at odd hours between 11 PM and 5 AM, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NEWS FLASH

Latvias airBaltic has decided to cancel nearly 50% of its scheduled flights until November 2020 due to the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic, which will affect its planned seasonal operations to Croatia. The airline, which was to inaugurate new services from Vilnius to Dubrovnik and Rijeka this summer, has suspended the two routes. Based on its existing schedule, the airline will reduce its seasonal service between Riga and Rijeka from two to one flight per week, while operations from the Latvian capital to Split will continue to operate at three times per week, as was the case last year. airBaltic has scheduled April 15 as a tentative date for the resumption of its operations, with the carrier to initially run flights from Riga to twelve European cities.
Informal cross-border trade (ICBT) forms a significant part of intra Sub-Saharan African (SSA) trade. It contributes income, provides jobs and empowers women in some of the most fragile and impoverished communities on the continent. For this reason, any threat to ICBT in SSA is a threat to the most vulnerable and needs to be taken very seriously. Such a threat has now arisen in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic: a global economic retreat of nations and shutting of borders and social contact.

The table lists some of the measures adopted by a selection of SSA countries at time of writing (5 April 2020), according to the Al-Jazeera news agency. This is not an exhaustive list and does not take into account restrictive measures that may be adopted over the coming months and weeks, as nations assess the threat from the pandemic on an ongoing basis. Of the countries listed, nine of them have closed land borders, most of them as blanket closures. This situation, and the potential development of increasing restrictiveness over the next months, forms the backdrop of this blog.

Country Restriction Botswana No visa on arrival and no non-resident arrivals from certain countries allowed Burkina Faso International airports closed Cameroon Land air and sea borders closed indefinitely Congo, Rep. Borders and airports closed Cote dIvoire The countrys borders have been closed since March 25 Djibouti On March 15, Djibouti said it was suspending all international flights Ethiopia Land borders shut to nearly all human traffic Gabon Entry banned for non-residents for list of countries Gambia Border with Senegal closed for 21 days Ghana Closed all borders from March 22 Rwanda Closed borders on March 22, except for cargo and returning citizens Sudan Closed all airports, ports and land crossings on March 16 Zimbabwe All borders closed on March 22, except for returning residents

The definition of ICBT is rather loose, due essentially to the nature of the practice itself. The definition is intended to capture trade that happens outside of the formal channels, which would be those of customs authorities. This could be trade in raw or processed goods, and entry, exit or both could be illegal. In other words, the goods could exit the source country legally and enter the target country illegally, or vice versa, or both border crossings could be illegal.

There have been several attempts by researches to estimate the magnitude of ICBT flows. One study[1] estimated that ICBT amounted to 30-40% of total intra-regional trade in the SADC region and 40% in the COMESA region. The volume of ICBT flows vary by country. In Uganda, informal exports flowing to its five regional neighbours were estimated at 86% of its official exports to these countries in 2006[2]. There are however, countries where this proportion is markedly higher and exceeds 100 % of formal exports. In Rwanda, for example, the Ministry of Trade and Development estimated that informal exports to neighbouring countries were more than 50% higher than formal exports in 2011[3]. It has also been argued that ICBT is especially important to fragile and conflict-affected states (FCS)[4], for example the Central African Republic. This is as a result of the ability of ICBT to offer traders a market outside of the fractured and possibly failed domestic market.

Those individuals and firms that make up the market for ICBT are divided into individuals, informal businesses and formal businesses. The most vulnerable are the individuals and informal businesses. Of these, as has already been pointed out, the majority of traders are women (60-70% as estimated by the African Development Bank[5], although other sources estimate this at an even higher level[3]). In addition, women are especially vulnerable as traders since they are exposed to gender-specific risks and headwinds. In general, ICBT traders lack formal education as well as capital, and have to fund their trading activities from their own capital.

The types of goods that are traded in ICBT are varied. Across Africa, low quality locally manufactured and re-exported goods from Asia, with values not greater than US $1000, are commonly traded in ICBT. Among the items that are re-exported are contraband items such as counterfeit goods, fuels and pharmaceuticals.

There is some variation in locally traded non-processed goods, with agricultural goods and foodstuffs being prominent in all regions. In central Africa, jewellery and minerals are also traded; and in Southern Africa  handicrafts.

Why is ICBT so predominant in many SSA countries? A parallel tralac blog will explain the economic rationale behind this trade, based on the existence of optimal market sheds and time to market considerations[6]. However, even where these arent a consideration, the costs of formal clearance for informal traders can be prohibitive, due to regressive duties structures and complex clearance procedures. In addition, a particular problem faced by small-scale traders, as a consequence of their relative disempowerment, lack of education and lack of political power, is their vulnerability to exploitation by corrupt officialdom[3].

The drivers of IBCT are varied, and policy makers have of late begun to respond to the needs of small scale cross border traders by implementing simplified trade regimes[7]. However, the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent closure of borders in SSA threatens to throttle these informal markets at a time of general global economic malaise.

One of the countries that has closed its borders  Cameroon  has communities that are heavily reliant on ICBT. Bouet cites an estimate for ICBT in 2008 which puts its value at about 96% of official trade[8]. The main destinations for these exports are Equatorial Guinea, Chad and Gabon. However, whilst the communities bordering Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are not predominantly impoverished, the communities bordering Chad have 60-80% of the population living below the poverty line[9].

Data for Rwanda estimates that ICBT to its four neighbours (Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi) is about 59% of total exports to these countries, while informal imports total to a much lower figure  just 4% of the total.[8] This underscores the relative reliance of Rwandan small scale cross border traders relative to their neighbours. Yet now Rwanda has closed all its land borders. In addition, unlike with Cameroon, all of the communities on Rwandas borders live on the 60-80% or worse poverty threshold. In particular, communities bordering DRC and Burundi have 80-100% living below the poverty threshold.

The countries cited above are just two examples of fragile and vulnerable communities now facing existential threats due to the measures taken to combat the spread of Covid-19. Although the pandemic itself is a cause for serious concern, policy action needs to be nuanced to take into account the very strait conditions under which many rural and informal SSA communities live. To fail to do this will ensure that the economic impacts of the response to Covid-19 threaten to far outweigh the direct threats of the disease.

[1] Nshimbe, C. and I. Moyo (eds.), 2017. Migration, Cross-Border Trade and Development in Africa: Exploring the Role on Non-State Actors in the SADC Region. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan

[2] Lesser, C. and E. Moise-Leeman. 2009. Informal Cross Border-Trade and Trade Facilitation Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa. OECD Trade Working Paper No. 86

[3] Bugingo, E. 2018. Empowering Women by Supporting Small-Scale Cross-Border Trade. ICTSD Bridges Africa

[4] Brenton, E. and C. Soprano. 2018. Small-Scale Cross-Border Trade in Africa Why It Matters and How It Should Be Supported. ICTSD Bridges Africa

[5] Guy, J. and G. Ajumbo. 2012. Informal Cross Border Trade in Africa: Implications and Policy Recommendations. Africa Economic Brief: African Development Bank

[6] This blog, which is part of the same series as the current blog, is entitled Hitting where it hurts  pandemic border closures and SSAs most vulnerable informal cross-border traders.

[7] Fundira, T. 2018. Informal Cross-Border Trading  Review of the Simplified Trade Regimes in East and Southern Africa. tralac Trade Brief No. US18TB03/2018. Stellenbosch: tralac

[8] Bouet, A. et al. 2018. Informal Cross-Border Trade in Africa  How Much? Why? What Impact? Washington: IFPRI

[9] The World Banks poverty headcount includes all population living on or below US$ 1.9 per day. These figures for Cameroon were drawn from Signorelli, S. and C. Azzarri. 2016. Poverty and Climate in Africa South of the Sahara: an Empirical Analysis. Washington: IFPRI
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 7

By Jeyhun Alakbarov  Trend:

Medical masks that are being produced in Azerbaijan, will go to pharmacies in a week, Director of Baku Textile Factory LLC Sakina Babayeva said at a press tour at the enterprise for the production of medical masks, Trend reports on April 7.

The enterprise was opened in Sumgayit city on April 6.

"The cost of masks will be determined in the next two days. The company plans to satisfy 30-40 percent of populations daily demand in mask in the next 15 days. The latest adjustment work in the production process is undergoing," Babayeva said.

The enterprise for the production of medical masks set up by Baku Textile Factory LLC is provided with an appropriate place in the territory of the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park. The enterprise is assigned the resident status of the industrial park. This status allows the company to take advantage of the benefits provided to industrial parks.

Modern equipment was delivered from Turkey and installed in a short time for the production of medical masks. Over 30 new jobs were created in the company.

The production process is carried out in three shifts. Using raw materials that comply with ISO international standards, the company will initially produce 120,000 medical masks daily. After packing the masks, they will be further sterilized with usage of special equipment.

In the coming days, another production line will be launched.

At the second stage, the daily production will double and reach 200,000-250,000 medical masks. The company's products will primarily be aimed at meeting the needs of the domestic market.
India allows limited exports of anti-malaria drug after Trump warns of retaliation Fake blood is seen in test tubes labelled with the coronavirus (COVID-19) in this illustration

By Neha Dasgupta and Sanjeev Miglani

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India, the world's main supplier of generic drugs, said on Tuesday it will allow limited exports of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine that U.S. President Donald Trump has touted as a potential weapon in the fight against the coronavirus.

The Indian government had put a hold on exports of hydroxychloroquine as well as on the pain reliever, paracetamol, saying stocks were depleting because of the hit to global supply chains after the coronavirus emerged in China late last year.

But Trump spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the weekend seeking supplies and on Monday said India may face retaliation if it didn't withdraw the ban on exports.

India's neighbours, including Nepal, have also sought the anti-malaria drug.

"It has been decided that India would licence paracetamol and HCQ in appropriate quantities to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on our capabilities," said Indian foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava.

"We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic," he said.

Use of hydroxychloroquine has soared as the United States has quickly become the epicentre of the pandemic, though doctors prescribing it have no idea whether it works.

U.S. fatalities from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, hit 10,902 on Monday, rapidly closing in on Italy and Spain, the countries with the greatest loss of life to date, according to a Reuters tally of official data.

In addition, the Indian government said it was lifting curbs on the export of 24 pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines made from them that includes several antibiotics, such as tinidazole and erythromycin, the hormone progesterone and Vitamin B12.

"After having confirmed the availability of medicines for all possible contingencies currently envisaged, these restrictions have been largely lifted, " foreign ministry spokesman Srivastava said.

(Reporter Neha Dasgupta; Editing by Neil Fullick and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
NJ church holding drive-thru Palm Sunday worship, offering branches to homebound members

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A church in New Jersey is offering Palm Sunday branches and cards with Psalms written on them to drivers and is also delivering these spiritual items to homebound members.

We hope that the Palms and Psalms will provide the comfort and strength that the Cross and Word of God offers in the present crisis situation, the Rev. Joseph Hein, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church of Middletown, told The Christian Post.

The One Hour Drive-through Palms & Psalms event is being held after its 10:00 a.m. online Palm Sunday service. Volunteers wearing Personal Protection Equipment will also deliver palm crosses in packets that have been sanitized to some of their homebound elderly members.

Hein said that the event was born of Westminsters strong evangelical faith and emphasis on local mission work.

By placing the Cross and The Word of God in our members and neighbors hands, we seek to comfort and strengthen. The cross and resurrection is a reminder that God has defeated death on the Cross and that love and life lives at the center of the universe.

For the event, local residents and church members alike are welcomed to drive slowly through the churchs U-shaped driveway and receive a palm cross and a card with a Psalm written on it, while remaining in their vehicles.

Volunteers wearing PPE will also visit a nearby hospital in order to distribute the sanitized palm crosses and Psalm card packets, as a way of encouraging healthcare workers and their patients.

Hein told CP that he considered the Palm Sunday events as part of his congregations history of giving comfort to the neighborhood during times of crisis.

As an example, he spoke about how volunteers helped the community after Hurricane Sandy, also called Superstorm Sandy, hit the region in 2012.

Seventy-five Westminster volunteers entered local neighborhoods the morning that the storm ended, praying with our neighbors and providing hot coffee and soup from the back of our SUVs, explained Hein.

Our disaster-relief response continued as a congregation for 18 months, strategically visiting the most affected local neighborhoods to set up tables where we prayed with residents and distributed literally tons of relief supplies generously provided by the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Agency.
Boris and Carrie Johnson have enjoyed a date night at one of London 's most exclusive private members' clubs. The Prime Minister and his wife were photographed walking out of Oswald's in Mayfair last Thursday night at about 9.30pm accompanied by a security detail of six people before getting into a waiting Range Rover. Mrs Johnson, 33, was wearing a 695 Wiggy Kit black Marais midi dress made from cotton canvas with velvet panelling and white embroidery, accompanied by a 413 Anya Hindmarch eyes beaded shoulder bag. Earlier that day, Mr Johnson had visited a vaccination centre at Moulton Park in Northampton and said anti-vaccine campaigners who spread 'mumbo jumbo' and 'nonsense' on social media are 'completely wrong'. Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi was also said to have visited Oswald's on Albemarle Street last week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is believed to have been there last Wednesday. The exclusive club, which has a ground floor inspired by the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, is known for its fine wines - with members also allowed to cellar up to 12 of their own there and no corkage fees applied. The club has aimed to attract female members as well as couples and is owned by entrepreneur Robin Birley who named it after his grandfather, the portrait artist Sir Oswald Birley who painted Winston Churchill.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7) Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla said Region 4A or Calabarzon can expect a huge spike in COVID-19 cases within the next few weeks as the province's own testing center gears up for operations.

Remula told CNN Philippines that the facility at the De La Salle Health Sciences Institute is already one step away from full accreditation, with the local government expecting to receive the green light by the end of the week.

"Best efforts according to De La Salle Health Sciences is maybe Friday or Saturday," Remulla said in an interview with The Source on Tuesday.

Remulla said once the facility begins its services, all patients under investigation (PUIs) in Cavite will be tested in around three days. Afterwards, the center will begin to branch out and collect tests from the nearby provinces south of Manila.

"After that, we'll include everyone from Rizal, Quezon, Batangas, and Laguna. We will test their PUIs as well. So you have to expect the curve in Calabrzon to have a spike from now that we have maybe 400 amongst the four provinces, it will spike up to maybe 3,000 in one week," he added.

As of Tuesday, Cavite has recorded 75 cases of the highly-contagious disease.

In total, the whole of Southern Tagalog has logged over 300 positive cases of COVID-19.

Nationally, the Philippines has reported 3,660 cases of the infectious disease, including 163 fatalities and 73 recoveries.

The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa conducts the most number of coronavirus tests in a day. Select government-run institutions and private hospitals in other parts of the country have also been tapped to test samples.
A male model on the run from justice has finally been arrested 6,000 miles away in Cambodia, after mocking police with pictures of his playboy lifestyle.

Fugitive Terrence Murrell, 31, fled Britain to Bali before he was due to be sentenced for dealing illegal steroids.

But instead of keeping a low profile, Murrell taunted police with constant updates on social media.

Murrell had been due to appear in court to be sentenced for dealing illegal drugs. Instead, he fled to Bali where he regularly posted lavish shots on social media profiles

Murrell has finally been caught in Cambodia where he will be extradited back to Britain once the coronavirus pandemic has subsided

He regularly posted pictures on Facebook and Instagram pages with smirking shots in the sunshine.

He captioned one picture with friends: 'The baddest men in Bali.'

He also posed for pictures in an infinity pool, regular body shots of himself working out in a gym and using his laptop in a four-poster bed.

Many of the snaps were captioned: 'Boss life.'

He was jailed for 37 months in October 2018 for his part in a plot to import illegal drugs from China but fled before sentencing was passed.

Murrell was arrested in Bali in July 2019 and deported after a series of court hearings.

He had been due to attend a court hearing in Caernarfon in Wales last month but managed to make his way to Cambodia, The Daily Post reported.

Murrell eventually admitted supplying class C drugs but failed to turn up for his sentencing hearing

He is now being held in custody and will be transported back to face justice as soon as the coronavirus pandemic is over.

A court heard Murrell was a leading member of a 2million steroid gang who shipped drugs from China to sell in the UK.

He told police he bought the drugs for himself because he 'wanted to look his best as a male model'.

Instead of keeping a low-profile, Murrell would regularly snap provocative and luxurious shots of himself

Prosecutor Sarah Badrawy said bank accounts showed Murrell had pocketed more than 220,000.

Drugs worth almost 2million had been seized and the gang were thought to have made 1.2million profit in two years.

Murrell later admitted supplying class C drugs in North Wales via websites but he failed to turn up for a sentencing hearing at Caernarfon Crown Court.

A court heard that Murrell had been part of an extensive criminal operation which imported drugs from Hong Kong and China

John Lyons, defending, said: 'He has been prevaricating about his pleas for some time. He was always going to admit the offences but kept putting off the evil day.'

In his absence the court heard he was on the run in Indonesia.

Judge Huw Rees said: 'He is living in the lap of luxury.'

He said that Murrell was part of 'a very extensive criminal operation' which imported the drugs from Hong Kong and China.

He added: 'It is well known that anabolic steroids have been widely abused in sport, especially where an increase in muscle mass is required.

'The administration of steroids often produces unwanted side effects, mood swings, over confidence, aggression, loss of libido and liver toxicity.'

Instead of serving time behind bars, Murrell has been flaunting his lavish lifestyle on social media

A North Wales Police spokesman said officers are aware that Terence Murrell has been arrested in Cambodia.

He said: 'We are currently working with colleagues from both the National Crime Agency and the Crown Prosecution Service to bring him back to the UK to serve out his sentence.

'Due to the current situation with the coronavirus pandemic, this will happen as soon as it is safe to do so.'
Williams College Senior Wins Watson Fellowship

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  Williams College senior John "Jack" Romans has been named a Thomas J. Watson Fellow for 2020-2021.

Winners of the fellowship receive a stipend of $36,000 for 12 months of independent study and travel outside of the United States.

Romans joins 46 other students selected as Watson Fellows who hail from eight countries and 20 states. Selected from private liberal arts colleges and universities across the United States, Watson Fellows will travel the world exploring a diverse range of topics and disciplines.

A theater major from West Saint Paul, Minn., Romans will use the fellowship to pursue a project titled "Never Growing Up: Learning from Children's Theatre Practices." Working with artists, theater companies, and festivals around the world, his project aims to explore ways in which theater practices for young audiences teach us about universal storytelling.

"As an aspiring director, much of the personal growth in this project will come from the risk of mingling my own artistic ideas and craft with the unique works of international companies," said Romans, who participated in a student-run theater company at Williams and also served as a director, stage technician, and teaching assistant. "But there will also be moments like learning how these companies present their shows across cultures that will become incredibly influential for my own work."

Romans' research will take him to Australia, South Africa, The Netherlands, and Indonesia, where he will work with various children's theater companies, including the Papermoon Puppet Theatre, an Indonesian puppet company that is one of the most active international puppet companies from the Asia Pacific region. He will conclude his year of study and travel in Cape Town, South Africa, where he will work with the Magnet Theatre Company, supporting its mission to tell stories through dance and puppetry.

"Researching the work of these companies and others like them has already impacted the ways in which I make [art], especially as a writer and director," said Romans, who spent a semester in 2019 at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and has worked in productions of the MNOpera, Children's Theatre Company, NYU Tisch, and Ordway Center. "However, the real growth of an artist requires immersion, getting my hands dirty and putting myself into real work."
Theres no better motivator to start Marie Kondo-ing your home than learning that Marie Kondo will be visiting your home. Though of course, in the age of the coronavirus, visiting means connecting over Zoom for 30 minutes.

The ostensible object of our visit is for me to ask Kondo questions about her new book, Joy at Work, and to get feedback on tidying my workspace  a 500-square-foot apartment that I share with my boyfriend, Chad. But in truth, Im already pretty proficient at tidying. Before I took a job at this magazine, I freelanced from home for two years, which gave me near infinite opportunities to obsess over every surface and crevice of our abode. These days, while I have my procrastination hotspots  a jumbled shelf of pots and pans, a drawer of Chads derelict possessions, a stack of unfiled tax documents, a box of beauty products under the bed  Im still pretty tidy.

My real fantasy is that Kondo (accompanied, as she generally is for interviews with English-speaking press, by interpreter Marie Iida) would spark our quarantine with some much-needed life-changing magic. Co-working and co-existing indefinitely in a tiny apartment is a bit like navigating an otherwise pleasant minefield. Chad and I are allies, but small inanimate enemies lie in wait: coffee grounds on the counter, beard trimmings in the sink, a hanger on the floor, a crumpled tissue by the bed, putty earplugs mindlessly impaled on a favorite pencil. The inevitable explosions have an existential ring to them. But why, why??!

So all I really want is for Marie to come over and gush: Youre doing a beautiful job in pandemic life! Youre cute and your home is clean and youre going to be fine! Were all going to be fine!! Ahead of the interview, I shamelessly stage-manage. I dust, windowsills, vacuum, mop and pick out a fuzzy turtleneck for Chad (who, without my prodding, has even trimmed his beard). I want Marie to have some conspicuous yet inoffensive targets for critique, so I plant a pile of papers under the desk, leave out a few trinkets, and add a cord or two to a nest of electronics.

Related: Exclusive: Marie Kondo's Advice for People, Like Steve Jobs, Who ...

At the appointed time, Marie arrives. A copy of Joy at Work hovers on a shelf over her right shoulder, and she looks fresh and minimal in a white crew neck sweater. I say that her press tour is probably going a little differently than planned. Yes, this is certainly new for me, she replies. Im at home right now, and my children are playing in the other room. Im home the entire day, so I make three meals for them and in between. I think she says something about work and a dog and health, but some feedback fuzzes up the connection.

Joy at Work is Kondos fifth book, co-written with Scott Sonenshein, an organizational psychologist. While Kondo says that the act of tidying physical and digital workspaces is important, she emphasizes, For me, the goal was to create a book that allows you to think about how you want to work in the first place, and what your ideal is when it comes to your career. I think this book really gives people an opportunity to listen to their hearts.

My heart is open as we set off on our tour of my quarantine. I show her my strategically placed messes: the desk with its baubles, the stack of papers and cords, and, just a few feet away, the kitchen island that doubles as a standing desk. We note the printers home behind the TV. Then I take her into the bedroom, where Chad is perched on the side of the bed with his laptop on a barstool.

Heres where I keep my coffee mug! he says, pointing to the sill of our cell-like bedroom window. Later, reviewing his cameo, Chad says I should have introduced him as the hulking hairy animal in the dim back room. But Kondo is not deterred. She tucks a shiny, dark lock of hair behind her ear and leans toward her computer to get a closer look. I notice some other knickknacks Chad has placed on the sill alongside his mug, unbeknownst to me: a picture of us at a wedding and a small, creepy wooden doll of unknown origin. Oookay! I say, swinging the computer around. I shut the bedroom door on an enthusiastic Bye, Marie!

Back at my desk, we recount her observations from our visit. I'm so happy that you shared your specific work area with me, she says. From what I see, it's not as if you have too many things, or too much clutter in your home or, or anything like that.

My quarantined heart sings!

It will just take a few tricks of storing to make it a lot better, she continues, hitting her stride. Around your desk, the first things I saw were a few small accessories. Just having a little tray, like the one I showed you just now  or any small boxes that you like  can really clear space on your desk. The electric cords I saw underneath your desk  if you don't need to keep them all connected to a power source, it might be helpful to designate a spot to store some of them. As for that pile of documents I saw below your desk, it's amazing how much difference it makes to store them vertically in a file folder. It really allows you to always keep track of what you have and how much you have.

My pre-production planning is paying off.

In regards to the bedroom, she says, I think it's very important to demarcate when you're using the bed for work and when you're using it to relax and sleep on. So disconnect the cords when you're done at the end of the day and put all of them in a box at the foot of your bed or anywhere you'd like, but just make sure that you're clearly shifting gears. Anything that allows you to move from work mode to relaxation mode is very important.

Related: Organization Guru Marie Kondo's Netflix Show Transforms People's ...

Throughout our conversation, Kondos voice rises and falls with the same warm, expressive timbre thats endeared her to millions of fans. But I am struck most when I watch her in the somewhat awkward interludes of translation. While she waits and listens, her expression is immaculately attentive. She smiles just enough to make you comfortable, but not enough to be ingratiating. Shes perfected the art of inhabiting in-between space  of inserting herself and then staying present in the waiting.

It occurs to me that much of the work she does with families and individuals on her show, Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, involves teaching and then stepping back and waiting for her pupils to master the method themselves. She trusts them to have revelations on their own. Her expertise, it seems, is in knowing when to give up control and in helping others take control of their lives by giving up control, too. In letting go of their excess stuff, she helps them leave behind the narratives theyve told themselves about who they are  about their time and habits and material possessions.

I think about my own flailing bids for control. In periods of my life when the onslaught of fear and anxiety about the unknown has been especially relentless, I have used tidying as a salve. But too often, Ive decluttered to distract, or procrastinate. Or Ive cleaned and micromanaged to grasp at affirmation for my efforts  from Chad, or even from Marie Kondo. I forget that the point of all this tidying is to clear time and space for our future selves to be better. To be more creative, more kind, more grateful, more relaxed, more productive, more present.

Its hard to find a spark of joy when the bad news comes in tidal waves. So I ask Kondo if she has any words of wisdom for the millions of people who have lost jobs or loved ones. Or are waiting to lose jobs and loved ones.

I completely understand, she says. She bows her head and closes her eyes for just a second, like a passing meditation. I know this is a time where a lot of people have anxiety about the future and what's ahead for us, but I do feel that now is precisely the moment to reflect on how precious the things are that we already possess.

Its a statement that, while seemingly obvious, sums up the crux of Kondos entire self-care philosophy. My method is founded on the idea of choosing what sparks joy for you from among the things that you already own, she continues. "So this time allows you to reflect on how much you already have  from your home itself to the clothes that you wear to the things that inspire you. So the question of what sparks joy for you right now allows you to shift your perspective a little bit and foster gratitude for why you do what you do and the people and things that you do have in your life. Even the odd hanger on the floor.

Related: Want to Do a 'Marie Kondo' on Your Messy Social Media Accounts ...

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Deprived of customers such as supermarkets, restaurants and schools due to the coronavirus outbreak and resulting lockdown, British farmers are throwing away thousands of litres of milk. Coffee shops and office blocks, also shut because of COVID-19, are no longer receiving their early morning deliveries, although there has been a hike in the amount of milk being dropped off at people's homes in time for breakfast, according to the publication FarmingUK. Dairy farmer Robert Mallett, based in Wiltshire, western England, recently tweeted about dumping "17,000 litres down the drain", while Winterdale Cheesemakers, based in the southeast of the country, showed a video of discarded milk flowing rapidly from a pipe. "Rough times for artisan cheesemakers... but now the devastation continues -- our milk was not collected today and sadly ends up down the drain and on top of that we have still not been paid for February?s milk!!," added Winterdale. And going forward, producers can expect to be paid less. Freshways, one of the largest milk wholesalers in Britain, is already slashing the prices it is prepared to offer to farmers. Dairy analysts Ian Potter Associates said "there is suddenly oceans of surplus milk desperately trying to find a home". "The milk market has all changed very quickly," it added in a recent client note. "The panic buying of dairy products with retailers restricting milk purchases has reversed as demand plummeted." While "stockpiling has stopped and consumers freezers are full of milk and dairy products", it noted also that "restaurants, pubs, hospitality businesses have been rushing to offload unwanted stock and cancelling orders". - Government help? - The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers on Tuesday called on the government "to help fund a short-term financial support scheme for dairy farmers whose businesses have been severely affected as a result of coronavirus and to avert a larger crisis in the industry". About 300 dairy farmers, together producing around one million litres of milk daily, could be eligible for reimbursement, the Association said. Tom Tugendhat, an MP for the ruling Conservative party, has described the treatment of UK farmers generally as "appalling", putting pressure on the government to act. The National Farmers Union meanwhile on Tuesday voiced concern about there being a lack of workers for the next harvests. "Growers that rely on seasonal workers to grow, pick and pack our fresh fruit, veg and flowers are extremely concerned about the impact coronavirus restrictions may have on their ability to recruit this critical workforce this season," said NFU Vice President Tom Bradshaw. It is a concern repeated abroad, with asparagus producers in France and strawberry farmers in Spain recently speaking out. Coffee shops and office blocks in England, also shut because of COVID-19, are no longer receiving their early morning deliveries, although there has been a hike in the amount of milk being dropped off at people's homes in time for breakfast About 300 dairy farmers (cheesemaking at a dairy in Hampshire pictured February 2019), together producing around one million litres of milk daily, could be eligible for federal reimbursement
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency on Monday announced the 17 core bus routes that will remain in service this week while the rest of the city's routes are temporarily discontinued due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

More than 40 percent of Muni operators are expected to be out this week in self-quarantine, so the SFMTA is planning to run just its most-used lines that provide service within one mile of all San Franciscans.

The changes won't start Monday, although the agency said staffing levels may lead to missed runs and delays. On Tuesday, service will be discontinued on the 2-Clement, 3-Jackson, 5-Fulton, 7-Haight, 10-Townsend, 21-Hayes and 31-Balboa lines because of low ridership or nearby lines.

On Wednesday, the service will be further reduced to the 17 core lines: buses along the N-Judah, L-Taraval and T-Third light-rail lines that were previously halted because of the coronavirus, as well as the 1-California, 8-Bayshore, 9-San Bruno, 14-Mission, 14R-Mission Rapid, 19-Polk, 22-Fillmore, 24-Divisadero, 25-Treasure Island, 29-Sunset, 38-Geary, 38R-Geary Rapid, 44-O'Shaughnessy and 49-Van Ness/Mission lines.

The SFMTA says those lines will allow continued access to the city's medical facilities and focuses on equity to ensure people most reliant on transit can access it.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday that the state is modifying Sacramento's Natomas Arena and multiple Bay Area sites into medical facilities to support the state's surge in cases of the novel coronavirus.

The state has secured more than 4,500 additional beds at the arena as well as a hotel in San Carlos, California Pacific Medical Center's Pacific campus in San Francisco, the Fairview and Porterville developmental centers and eight federal medical stations across the state.

The San Carlos hotel will offer a maximum of 120 beds while the CPMC Pacific campus can offer an additional 291 beds, according to state officials.

The state plans to secure some 20,000 beds in total to support overwhelmed medical facilities across the state. Hospitals are also expected to expand their number of beds by some 30,000. All told, the surge in beds will expand the state's number of beds from 75,000 to 125,000, according to Newsom.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and community partners on Monday opened a COVID-19 coronavirus testing site for direct service providers, such as health care workers, grocery store and food bank employees, homeless outreach workers and others who work directly with the public.

The new drive-through testing site in the parking lot of the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center at 10 10th St., near Lake Merritt, supplements the testing for first responders and Brown & Toland physicians that the city began on March 20.

Schaaf said the tests for direct service providers are important because, "We must take care of those who are taking care of us."

The mayor said such workers have an extra risk of contracting COVID-19 because they have direct exposure to dozens of people daily.

The city of Daly City announced Monday that it will donate hundreds of pieces of personal protective equipment to Seton Medical Center, which is caring for novel coronavirus patients.

The city will donate 500 surgical gowns from the North County Fire Authority and 750 gloves and 100 protective masks from the reserves of its Department of Water and Wastewater Resources to the medical center, one of many across the state and country struggling to keep up with demand for protective equipment as cases of the virus surge.

The state leased the facility last month as coronavirus cases began to spike. Verity Health System, the facility's owner, filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and had announced plans earlier this year to shutter the facility. Verity Health is now operating Seton Medical Center on the state's behalf and can accept up to 220 patients at a time.

Santa Clara County provided an update to the public Monday on what the county is doing to help its homeless population, with 191 intensive care unit beds, 1,438 beds for a surge of patients, and 535 ventilators available throughout its health care system.

Supervisor Dave Cortese said he is "very proud" of how the county is handling resources and outreach for unsheltered people in the county, but "like with everything with COVID-19, we've got a long way to go."

The county also said as of Sunday, about 602 additional shelter beds were opened for homeless individuals to access.

That number includes beds at the Gateway Pavilion at the county fairgrounds, beds at San Jose's Parkside Hall and assorted hotel and motel rooms purchased by the county, according to Ky Le, the county's Office of Supportive Housing director.

Unlike the Internal Revenue Service and state of California, which gave three-month extensions for filing 2019 tax returns due to the novel coronavirus, Bay Area counties have not changed the deadline for the final installment of the current fiscal year's property tax, due in full on Friday.

But according to the Contra Costa County tax collector's office, beginning Saturday taxpayers unable to pay on time for reasons related to COVID-19 may request that late fees and penalties be waived. After July 10, taxpayers will be allowed to set up a payment plan if they cannot pay their taxes all at once.

According to county auditor-controller Bob Campbell, of the estimated $2.1 billion in property tax billed by Contra Costa County to property owners this fiscal year, about $238 million was allocated to the 19 county municipalities and was included in their financial projections.

But even having secured their theoretical property tax allocation for the year, public entities will be forced to cut spending if actual collections fall short, or when additional shortfalls materialize in sales tax, fees, fines and other revenue sources.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, on Monday defended U.S. Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, who was dismissed from duty last week for alerting Navy officials about the spreading COVID-19 coronavirus on his aircraft carrier docked at a harbor in Guam and calling for their quick evacuation from the ship.

In a letter to his superiors, Crozier, a Santa Rosa native, called for the removal of more than 4,000 sailors from the USS Theodore Roosevelt where an estimated 150 sailors tested positive for COVID-19, according to news reports.

Senior Navy officials argued Crozier should have directed his complaints and concerns up a formal chain of command instead of sending his concerns to more than two dozen people in a message that was leaked to the media, according to news reports.

Thompson said he wrote to President Donald Trump, Department of Defense Inspector General, the Acting Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of Defense and others demanding a further explanation into the Navy's decision to relieve Crozier of his command.

A 29-year-old man has been charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, leaving the scene of an accident and other charges for a collision in East Oakland last week in which he allegedly killed one pedestrian and injured three others.

The charges against Miguel Rodriguez weren't made public until Monday, but he was charged and arraigned last Tuesday and returned to court Friday for a plea hearing.

Rodriguez, who is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin in lieu of $380,000 bail, didn't enter a plea on Friday but is scheduled to do so at a hearing on Tuesday.

Oakland police Officer Alwin Luu wrote in a probable cause statement that witness statements indicate that Rodriguez was speeding west in a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu in the 5400 block of Bancroft Avenue at 6:51 a.m. on March 29 when he swerved left to pass a vehicle in front of him and then swerved back into the westbound lanes.

Desmond King, 29, of Oakland, was pronounced dead at the scene and the other three men were transported to a hospital to be treated for severe injuries, police said. Rodriguez was arrested near the scene a short time after the crash and the three surviving victims identified him as the suspect, Luu wrote.

A 32-year-old Seaside man died after his truck went off state Highway 1 in Monterey County and crashed 400 feet down a cliff on Sunday morning, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The crash occurred around 9:30 a.m. south of Willow Creek Bridge. The man, whose name isn't yet being released, was driving a maroon 2001 Toyota Tundra north on the highway and ended up rolling over and going down the cliff, CHP Officer Jessica Madueno said.

A county search and rescue team recovered the man from the vehicle, which will be retrieved Tuesday when the weather is clear, Madueno said.

A passenger died in a crash involving a possibly drunk driver in Hercules early Sunday morning, according to police.

Officers responded around 2 a.m. to the area of San Pablo and Sycamore avenues and arrived to find a vehicle had crashed into a tree off the roadway and caught fire.

A 28-year-old man was in the center median with burns to his body and a broken leg. Officers determined he was the registered owner of the vehicle and smelled alcohol coming from him. Fire crews extinguished the car fire and found a male dead in the front passenger seat, police said.

The driver was taken to a hospital to be treated for his injuries and police were not yet releasing his name. The Contra Costa County coroner's office has not yet identified the passenger who died as of Monday afternoon.

San Francisco's iconic Transamerica Pyramid will begin lighting the building's crown jewel beacon nightly in order to show solidarity with health care workers, the building's managers announced Monday.

The 6,000-watt beacon that sits atop the 853-foot-tall building, located in the city's Financial District, will also be lit to provide the Bay Area with hope during the novel coronavirus pandemic. When lit at night, the beacon can be seen as far as the East and North bays.

In addition to the beacon, the building's managers have also donated a box of about 350 N95 masks to first responders to protect themselves from COVID-19 amid a nationwide shortage. The masks were recently found sitting around in an emergency supply room.

The masks will be delivered to San Francisco Fire Department Station No. 13, which is located just next door to the Transamerica building.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Let the light in

Re: Immigrants keeping America running in crisis, Other Views, Thursday:

As the coronavirus spreads, were seeing the many ways it affects different aspects of our lives. An Australian native is returning to her home country to give birth because she doesnt trust our health care system, and columnist Esther Cepeda points out how immigrants are essential to keeping our country running.

I believe our system is the best in the world but hope this situation will illuminate some of its weaknesses. Most of all, I hope well emerge from this equal-opportunity pandemic with the realization that were all in this together and move away from the polarization, which has plagued us.

To quote the late Leonard Cohen: There is a crack in everything ... Thats how the light gets in.

Ed Farmer

On ExpressNews.com: Cepeda: Immigrants are keeping America running

Calm leadership

Thank you, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, for lending clarity and sanity to the public over COVID-19 concerns.

Their straightforward answers, calm demeanor and knowledge have been helpful in understanding the variables of the pandemic.

With so much misinformation circulating, it was good to hear from people who lend some stability to the news we are hearing daily. I have also appreciated the levelheaded approach of Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff here in San Antonio: no theatrics or blustering.

Hopefully, people will cooperate and follow guidelines, and not congregate in the parks over Easter weekend.

H.M. Henderson

Blaming doesnt help

Re: While China burned with virus, the House impeached, Rich Lowry, Other Views, Wednesday:

A new line of attack on the presidents opposition is to blame the impeachment effort for the nations COVID-19 unpreparedness, starting with Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Funny, I dont remember hearing the president complain once that he was unable to take proper action because of the distraction. Instead, he discounted the virus, calling it a hoax. The reality is he is unable to manage a crisis in which truth is essential.

Even now, unlike nearly every other leader of a nation, he has marshaled only minimally the powers of the government in the interest of his own citizens. Instead, the states are competing with each other and FEMA for lifesaving equipment, thus driving up the price. This is not leadership, and passing the blame on to others does not help the sick.

Richard S. Pressman
As of April 6, Ghana had recorded 214 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and five deaths, out of a global count of 1.34m infections and 74,600 fatalities.

The government has responded comparatively quickly to the global pandemic: on March 17 it barred entry for all travellers  excluding Ghanaian nationals  who had visited a country with more than 200 confirmed Covid-19 infections.

A mandatory 14-day quarantine for all travellers was instituted at the same time, with 1030 people isolated and tested regularly, 10% of whom tested positive during this period.

On March 22 the country closed its land borders, while on March 30, when the number of confirmed cases stood at fewer than 200, Ghana imposed a two-week partial lockdown in the two major metropolitan areas of Accra and Kumasi.

These lockdowns allow residents of the affected areas to go to food markets, petrol stations, and banks, but notably, provide no exemption for religious services and include a ban on mass gatherings for funerals.

The country has been exposed to epidemics in the recent past, including several cholera outbreaks and a successful effort to prevent the spread of Ebola between 2013-16.

This is widely thought to have contributed to Ghanas ability to conduct enhanced testing and screening at points of entry, and has likely sensitised the population to the severity of the current outbreak.

Economic impact and response

Keenly aware of the economic risk the crisis poses to the country, the administration of President Nana Akufo-Addo and the Bank of Ghana has quickly responded with a host of monetary and fiscal measures.

On March 18 the central bank was the first in sub-Saharan Africa to cut the monetary policy rate, which it reduced from 16% to 14.5%. This was accompanied by other measures to boost liquidity, including a lowering of the reserve requirement and the reduction of capital adequacy rates.

The country has also requested support from the IMF and the World Bank, as officials attempt to close a looming financing gap in the 2020 budget.

Given that Ghanas economy is exposed to current demand fluctuations in the oil and tourism sectors, and that exports such as gold and cocoa have also been negatively affected by the pandemic, the government is likely to authorise withdrawals from the state's oil-funded Ghana Stabilisation Fund.

Healthtech tackles Covid-19

As the fight against the virus continues, a number of domestic and Pan-African health care start-ups have built on recent innovations to help tackle new challenges posed by Covid-19.

In the pharmaceutical retail space, Ghanaian start-up mPharma, which last year acquired Kenyas second-largest pharmaceutical chain, Haltons, has been using technology to address inefficiencies in supply chains, with the aim of lowering drug prices.

As Covid-19 began to cause global disruptions in drug supply chains, subsequently threatening the supply of important medicine in Ghana, in mid-March mPharma launched a price control programme called Mutti Keep My Price.

The initiative allows patients in need of chronic disease medication to continue paying the same price for their prescriptions for up to six months, regardless of market prices.

Elsewhere, the nascent telemedicine space  which allows for the distribution of health-related services via electronic and telecommunication methods  is also expected to see increased demand as a result of Covid- 19.

In 2016 the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service, in conjunction with the Swiss Novartis Foundation, began setting up a series of teleconsultation centres as part of its e-health strategy.

Since then, other private players have entered the space.

Talamus Health, active in Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa since 2018, provides a platform for patients to connect with health care providers. The company is currently offering video appointment services for free as the major cities remain in lockdown, and has experienced a spike in activity as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.

We have had a lot of new facilities sign up with us to leverage our telemedicine feature and deliver healthcare to the general public. This includes those under the government-imposed partial lockdown, as well as those in self-isolation  all of whom need access to health care, Joshua Owusu-Ansah, country lead of Talamus Health Ghana, told OBG.

Another e-health player, Redbird, a start-up with a focus on rapid testing, has also been able to use its technology to help minimise patient interactions.

In late March it launched the COVID-19 Daily Check-in App and Symptom Tracker, which allows patients to self-report potential virus symptoms to health care professionals. The app is expected to alleviate pressure on hospitals and provide remote triage.

Meanwhile, medical drone delivery company Zipline has also been able to adjust its model to suit the immediate needs of communities and health care specialists during the pandemic.

The drone delivery service was initially tailored to emergency blood and anti-venom deliveries in remote areas, but the company has been able to work with local authorities to provide supportive treatments including antibiotics, hydration, and fever and pain relief to reduce Covid-19 related mortality, with plans to deliver vaccines and test kits as they become available.

As a result, the service has helped to prevent overcrowding at hospitals and has bolstered attempts to enforce effective social distancing.

Post-pandemic prospects

Established industry players in Ghana have also become aware of the potential for disruption caused by technology, and have already adjusted their plans accordingly by investing more in digital infrastructure.

In January a merger of three of the countrys pharmaceutical companies  Dannex, Ayrton Drug Manufacturing, and Starwin Products  resulted in the establishment of DAS Pharma, now the largest drug company in Ghana.

Talking to local media at the time of the merger, CEO Daniel Apeagyei Kissi emphasised the importance of taking advantage of new technological trends in the industry.

Consumer and customer needs are changing, industry players are integrating vertically, dealer-owned brands are appearing on the market and technology is manifesting in online pharmacies, electronic payment, online health care systems [and] online doctors, he said.

Agreeing with the sentiment, Owusu-Ansah believes that e-health solutions should experience significant growth moving forward.

Covid-19 highlights the inefficiencies in the health care sector, largely run by the government, and for a long time seen by technology enthusiasts as an unattractive sector to venture into, he told OBG. Given the scale of this pandemic  and its direct and indirect impact on the global economy and daily life  I expect it will encourage more to venture into healthtech.
RICHMOND, Va., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, more than 112,000 Americans are in need of a life-saving organ transplant. That's why the United Network for Organ Sharing is encouraging people to give blood and register to be organ donors this April during National Donate Life Month.

During the current COVID-19 crisis, it is more important than ever that people continue to donate blood and register to be organ donors

"Nearly 40,000 lives were saved last year through organ transplantation. None of that would be possible without generous organ donors, and in many cases blood donors as well," said UNOS Chief Medical Officer David Klassen, M.D. "The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a severe blood shortage that could make some transplants impossible. Please consider giving blood now. "

There are many ways everyone can help:

Become an organ, eye and tissue donor

Sign up to be an organ, eye and tissue donor at registerme.org and encourage your friends and family to do the same

Give blood

Blood is essential for many organ transplant procedures, which could be cancelled if the blood supply isn't adequate. There is an urgent need and donating blood is considered essential under state stay-at-home orders. Visit rcblood.org/appt to find a blood center or drive near you

Share on social media

Explain why you're an organ or blood donor and encourage others to be organ and blood donors too



Recognize and thank health care professionals who are making these lifesaving donations possible



Post a photo showing your blue and green spirt on April 17 for National Donate Life Blue & Green Day

for National Donate Life Blue & Green Day

Use the hashtag #DonateLifeMonth

Become a UNOS Ambassador

When you sign up, you become an advocate in your community for organ donation and transplant

Stay healthy and safe

Stay home as much as possible and practice social distancing

United Network for Organ Sharing is a non-profit, charitable organization that serves as the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network under contract with the federal government. The OPTN helps create and define organ allocation and distribution policies that make the best use of donated organs. This process involves continuously evaluating new advances and discoveries so policies can be adapted to best serve patients waiting for transplants. All transplant programs and organ procurement organizations throughout the country are OPTN members and are obligated to follow the policies the OPTN creates for allocating organs.

SOURCE United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)

Related Links

www.unos.org


The Union government has discovered a new use for the Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs) designed for the Smart Cities Mission -- surveillance and monitoring of Covid-19 affected districts across the country.

According to government officials familiar with the matter who asked not to be named, these centres have been converted into war rooms for real-time data monitoring and to provide the latest information through a central dashboard. Their mandate is to track suspected cases, monitor people under quarantine, and keep an eye on clusters and containment zones.

The Smart Cities Mission was launched in 2015 to modernise 100 cities by 2020. Under the mission, setting up of integrated command and control centres (ICCC) for each city is a vital step. The ICCCs are designed to enable monitoring of amenities and utilities in real-time.

States with a high number of Covid-19 cases such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan are using these centres for CCTV surveillance of public places, geographic information system (GIS)mapping of Covid-19-hit areas, and GPS tracking of health care workers.

The Centre is coordinating with the states through our central command centre at Nirman Bhawan in New Delhi, a government official said on condition of anonymity.

Nirmal Bhawan houses the offices of the urban development ministry which oversees the smart city initiative. The official added that the states are also using the centres for predictive analytics .We are also doing real-time tracking of ambulances and disinfection services.

In every city with such a network, the Centre has found that it is a good way to collaborate with the district administration and city administration.

States are also using the system for providing virtual training to doctors and health care professionals as well as medical services through video conferencing. Leveraging technology, the smart cities are collaborating with medical practitioners... to provide online medical consultations to citizens.

In Maharashtra, the Pune Smart City Development Corporation Limited (PSCDCL) has collaborated with the Pune Municipal Corporation to develop an integrated Covid-19 data dashboard. Each [Covid-19] case in the city has been mapped using geospatial information systems and the city administration is monitoring the [affected] areas and creating buffer zones, said a second official familiar with the mater who too did not wish to be named.

Using heat-mapping technologies and predictive analytics, the city administration is developing a containment plan , with the containment zones get reflected on the dashboard.

Smart City dashboards also monitor quarantine facilities and tracks the health of patients and their contacts placed under home quarantine.

Tamil Nadu has deployed teams of doctors at its Smart City centre to monitor people under quarantine. In Chennai, 25 doctors are engaged in the ICCC. They have been assigned 250 people in quarantine each ..., the second official said.

In Uttar Pradesh, the command centres are being used for tracking the delivery of health services across the state. The ICCC is being used as a helpline and tele-counselling centre for citizens. Medical officers are stationed at ICCCs in different shifts to assist during any situation.

 In centres like Kanpur Smart City, Aligarh, Varanasi, etc., health services are being tracked from the ICCC. Telemedicine is offered through the video conferencing facility launched by the city administrations. In Aligarh, doctors are deployed at Aligarh Smart City ICCC from 11am to 8 pm to enable telemedicine and video conferencing facility through a dedicated Whatsapp number, the official said.

Smart cities were designed with inbuilt emergency healthcare support in the modules. The command centres have been designed keeping emergency scenarios and that can be used with some customisation for battling Covid-19. Features of the command centres including data analytics and artificial intelligence can be leveraged with additional pandemic data from the health ministry. It already has a multi-layered GIS map of various districts and wards ready which can be used to zero down on specific localities, said Arindam Guha, partner and lead government and public sector, Deloitte India.
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Boris Johnson faces between one and two months off work even if he makes a full recovery, scientists warned ahead of the coronavirus-stricken premier's third night in hospital.

Experts said a 'period of inactivity' in intensive care would result in the Prime Minister suffering a significant loss of muscle mass and strength.

They forecast Mr Johnson would be physically drained from fighting the virus, for which he has received oxygen in St Thomas' Hospital in central London.

Survivors who have been discharged from critical care also braced Mr Johnson for weeks of bed-rest to recuperate from the energy-sapping disease, drawing on their own 'horrendous' experiences of the road to recovery.

Such an extensive period out of action would see him watch from the wings as Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab steers the country through its critical phase of the UK's epidemic as cases peak.

Mr Raab, who is deputising for Mr Johnson in his senior role as first secretary of state, yesterday confirmed a further 786 people have lost their lives, taking the death toll to 6,159, while cases rose by 3,634 to 55,242.

Downing Street reassured the 55-year-old PM's condition was stable and he 'remains in good spirits', while not currently in need of ventilation.

And Mr Raab said he was confident his 'boss and friend' would pull through, branding him a 'fighter' who was in 'safe hands'.

The Queen yesterday led an outpouring of goodwill towards Mr Johnson, wishing him a 'speedy recovery' and sending a personal message to his pregnant fiancee Carrie Symonds and his wider family.

As the PM spent a second night in intensive care:

The Government's chief scientific adviser pointed to 'signs of hope', with new infections and hospital cases 'flattening off';

Ministers rallied round Mr Raab, with one saying he would not face factionalism;

The Chief Medical Officer conceded the Government had 'a lot to learn' from Germany and its mass testing policy;

Dr Richard Leach, senior clinician at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, was revealed to be overseeing the PM's recovery;

AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline joined forces to create a laboratory at Cambridge University to boost testing capacity;

Mr Raab suggested there would no early relaxation of the lockdown;

Almost one in ten care homes have had cases of the virus with families urged not to put their loved ones in residential homes;

The PM's chief aide Dominic Cummings remains in self-isolation more than a week after developing symptoms;

Downing Street clari fied Mr Raab's powers as the Prime Minister's temporary deputy, saying that he had the authority to order th e military defence of the UK;

e military defence of the UK; Pressure grew on ministers to reopen schools after a study by University College London found they made little difference to the spread of the virus;

The Road Haulage Association warned the industry may need to be nationalised;

Vicars were urged to stop live-streaming services in case it encouraged visits in person to church;

The equivalent of 195million global jobs will be lost in working hours, according to the International Labour Organisation;

One in 20 deaths in England and Wales is now linked to coronavirus.

The Prime Minister (pictured on Thursday evening), who was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in London last night, was taken to intensive care at 7pm this evening

Such an extensive period out of action would see him watch from the wings as Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (pictured at Tuesday's No 10 briefing) steers the country through its critical phase of the UK's epidemic as cases peak

Mr Johnson would be physically drained from fighting the virus, for which he is still being treated in St Thomas' in central London (an ICU is explained)

Glimmer of hope as coronavirus cases flatten Hospital admissions for coronavirus continued to increase in many parts of the country today but the rate did fall in the North East and Yorkshire The UK's top scientist today offered the public a glimmer of hope that the strict coronavirus shutdown is having an effect after official statistics revealed the number of new coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 24 hours - 3,634 - was the lowest for a week. Sir Patrick Vallance said that the sharp fall in newly diagnosed cases, from a peak of 5,903 on Sunday, suggested that efforts to 'flatten the curve' were starting to bear fruit. But both the chief scientific adviser and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is standing in for the Prime Minister, urged caution, suggesting it will be another week before experts know for sure whether the battle is being won, and said everyone must continue to follow rules on staying at home and social distancing. 'Taking our foot off the pedal', Mr Raab said, would be the 'worst thing' the country could do at this stage in the outbreak. Today was Britain's darkest day yet in its coronavirus crisis with 786 more fatalities confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 6,159 victims. Talking about newly diagnosed cases as he flanked Dominic Raab at the daily news conference, Sir Patrick said: 'There is not that big upswing of growth that we talked about that the beginning. There is a fairly steady increase in numbers - it is possible that we are beginning to see the beginning of change in terms of the curve flattening a little bit.' Advertisement

At yesterday's Downing Street press briefing, Mr Raab declared: 'I'm confident he'll pull through because if there's one thing I know about this Prime Minister, he's a fighter and he'll be back at the helm leading us through this crisis in short order.'

Mr Johnson's high temperature, which he had struggled to shake off by Sunday when he was admitted to hospital, is now falling, the Times reports.

But, with Mr Johnson heading for a second night in intensive care with coronavirus, senior Tories privately remained cautious about predicting a speedy return to the frontline.

One said: 'It still feels like a very dangerous moment. I don't think any of us will be able to relax until he is out of intensive care and clearly on the mend.'

When Mr Johnson began self-isolating with symptoms 13 days ago, he resolved to remain at the helm of government from his Number 11 flat.

But scientists last night extinguished the notion of him instantly resuming charge of government upon his discharge from hospital.

Professor Paul Hunter, an expert in infectious diseases at the University of East Anglia said: 'If you have been sick enough to go on intensive care and you survive  and only about half of patients survive  clearly you will need some time to recover.

'I would expect most people who were that ill, to need at least a month or possibly two to be sufficiently back and to be able to function.'

Professor Mike Grocott a consultant in critical care medicine at the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and vice president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists said: 'On average a person who spends a while in intensive care on oxygen therapy alone, but basically immobile, would have a decrease in physical function for a period of time, that was likely to extend into weeks.

'A period of inactivity will have an effect on physical function, typically characterised by a loss in muscle mass and strength.

'It depends on how bad the duration and magnitude of illness was and it also depends on the quality and amount of time invested in rehabilitation.

'We underestimate the value of just getting up and walking around and activity in normal life.'

Critical patients who have been treated in an ICU and are recovering weighed in behind the experts to describe how the disease made them exhausted.

Matt Dockray, 39, who was treated in intensive care for the disease, mapped out recovery path awaiting Mr Johnson on his discharge from hospital.

The father-of-one from Marlow, Buckinghamshire, told Good Morning Britain: 'There's still a long road of recovery, it takes about six to eight weeks, but you can sit here and tell the tale and fight this.'

Describing his own personal battle with the virus, Mr Dockray said: 'There was a point where you sort of started to lose hope and thought that was it, because you've seen this on the TV, you've seen the pictures of Italy.

'In my head that was the time to say "you've just got to fight as much as you can".'

And survivors have also told of emotional bruising which takes a while to fade, with fears of infecting loved ones.

Downing Street's press conference tonight was led by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (centre), who is standing in for the ill PM, England's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty (left) and the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance (right)

Matt Dockray, 39, who was treated in intensive care for the disease, mapped out recovery path awaiting Mr Johnson on his discharge from hospital

Scientists have not yet established how long it takes for patients to fully recover from Covid-19. Some have seen symptoms linger for as much as eight weeks, according to reports.

Prof Duncan Young, Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, University of Oxford, said that the recovery period of intensive care patients generally can be much longer than a month.

He said: 'In the UK the average hospital ward stay after a patient is discharged from an ICU (not COVID-19 related) is about 15 days but there is a very wide range and a quarter stay 48 days or more in the hospital after ICU discharge.

'In general the time in hospital depends on what co-morbidities a patient has, what the acute illness is that required ICU treatment, and the duration and intensity of ICU treatment.'

It was last night revealed that Mr Johnson's course of intensive care treatment is being steered by one of the UK's most distinguished lung doctors.

Dr Richard Leach, senior clinician at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, is responsible for the Prime Minister's coronavirus recovery and has visited his bedside, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Dr Nathalie McDermott, a clinical lecturer at Kings College London, questioned why Mr Johnson was in intensive care rather than a ward or High Dependency Unit if he only needed standard oxygen therapy.

She said: 'Downing Street are saying he's not requiring anything other than oxygen which I find interesting because someone requiring oxygen wouldn't normally be on intensive care.

'They might be on a High Dependency Unit, they might have two to one or one to one nursing, but normally you go to intensive care when you need additional breathing support. It's difficult to know.'

She said if the PM did need to go on a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machine, which is more intense than a standard oxygen mask, or even a ventilator, it would increase his recovery time further.

But the fact Mr Johnson hasn't yet been put on a ventilator, particularly in the first 24 hours of his admission to intensive care, has greatly improved his prognosis.

Research has found that 84 per cent of patients in intensive care who only require basic respiratory support leave the unit alive.

This compares to just 33 per cent of those who need advanced respiratory support  such as ventilation  according to data from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre.

Figures collated by multiple sources, and published at the Downing Street press conference tonight, show how the UK's death toll is accelerating in line with outbreaks in other countries, such as Italy and Spain

The latest government statistics also show that an increase in motor vehicle usage has now decreased after ministers urged motorists to stay at home

Patients who didn't go on a ventilator for the first 24 hours had approximately a 70 per cent chance of pulling through compared to fewer than 35 per cent of those who needed ventilation within the first day.

The INARC data is based on the outcomes of the first 2,621 patients admitted to intensive care units with coronavirus. Among those who are no longer receiving care, 50 per cent died and 50 per cent made a full recovery.

The average length of stay was a week although some patients are on the units for three weeks. Scientists also say the Prime Minister's age, he is nearly 56, as well as his sex had left him more susceptible to complications of the virus.

As we get older, our immune systems become less efficient at producing antibodies, proteins which help defend our bodies from viruses or bacteria.

Our lung capacity also declines with age and if coronavirus worsens this further, it has a much bigger impact compared to a younger patient.

Furthermore, men have worse immune systems than women which is likely to be because they only have one X chromosome, women have two, which contain genes to fight viruses.

This and the protective impact of some female hormones is why there is some truth in the notion of men getting 'man-flu'.

Professor Philip Goulder an expert in immunology at the University of Oxford said: 'It is becoming increasingly recognised that there are substantial differences in the immune system between males and females and that these have significant impact on outcome from a wide range of infectious diseases.

'Several factors contribute to this, but these include the fact that females have two X chromosomes compared to one in males, and a number of critical immune genes.'

Why the Prime Minister I know believes he is Mr Invincible: Pushing boundaries has been the hallmark of his entire political life, but now Boris Johnson faces a different challenge, writes STEPHEN ROBINSON

By Stephen Robinson for the Daily Mail

Having observed Boris Johnson as a journalistic colleague over more than 30 years, I cannot think of anyone less temperamentally suited to the strictures and isolation of life in this lockdown.

It goes without saying that his period of quarantine before being forced into hospital on Sunday evening, was an extreme and unusual punishment for this most gregarious soul.

Confined to his Downing Street flat with meals left outside the door of his bedroom, and with anxiety flowing from his enforced separation from his pregnant fiancee Carrie Symonds, it is emphatically not what the young Boris had in mind when he dreamed of being crowned 'King of the World'.

His recent transfer to an intensive care ward will have only compounded his sense of helplessness and frustration.

Having observed Boris Johnson as a journalistic colleague over more than 30 years, I cannot think of anyone less temperamentally suited to the strictures and isolation of life in this lockdown. Pictured: irrepressible Boris and fiancee Carrie on election night

After all, this is a man who landed himself a column reviewing high performance cars for a men's magazine so he could impress women and enrage his fellow Tory MPs by turning up to party meetings in country hotels behind the wheel of a turbo-charged Bentley.

Few politicians  let alone a future Prime Minister  could get away with having boasted, as he did in the Spectator magazine, of driving at 160mph up the M40.

Most men telling that story would be accused of exaggeration, but knowing Boris, I am sure it is true. Indeed, as Mayor of London, he almost had me killed when I recklessly opted to cycle with him across London after Tube drivers went on strike.

He took every opportunity to cut up turning lorries, run red lights and shimmy along the inside lane. In fact, as a footnote to what we all hope will be a brief medical crisis, he now finds himself in the same London hospital  St Thomas'  where he was taken in 2006 after he was knocked off his bicycle for the third time in seven years.

Mary Wakefield, a former journalistic colleague who is now married to No 10 adviser Dominic Cummings, once said of Mr Johnson's uniquely reckless cycling style: 'He tests his invincibility.'

It goes without saying that his period of quarantine before being forced into hospital on Sunday evening, was an extreme and unusual punishment for this most gregarious soul. Pictured: a young 'King of the World' with dad Stanley

And that testing of bounds has been the hallmark of his entire political life. Boris can get away with gaffes, affairs, and catastrophically ill-conceived photo opportunities that would destroy other men's careers.

He is the man of the big picture painted in broad strokes, but not of detail. This explains why he was almost certainly the only politician who could have carried the Brexit referendum over the line.

That is why he was so suited to leading the Conservatives to an 80-seat majority in the December General Election. But it also explains why his current situation will appear so alien to him. After all, this is a man who, say his friends, has never taken a sick day in his life. Indeed, Boris has always despaired of health faddists.

As a junior politician in 2006, he torpedoed David Cameron's nannyish healthy eating campaign by telling a Tory fringe meeting: 'If I was in charge, I would get rid of Jamie Oliver and tell people to eat what they like.'

For his part, when Boris puts on weight it tends to be a reflection of a troubled state of mind. Perhaps that's why he started filling out when he became Prime Minister in July last year  though it became particularly obvious as the coronavirus crisis took hold in Britain.

Of course, having had to give up cycling for security reasons cannot have helped his waistline either. Yet it's hardly surprising that he was left feeling perturbed by his struggle to tackle the minutiae inherent within the campaign to defeat coronavirus.

Few politicians  let alone a future Prime Minister  could get away with having boasted, as he did in the Spectator magazine, of driving at 160mph up the M40. Pictured: Boris during a test drive in Tokyo

There is quite literally no one better than Boris at writing 1,200 words of superb journalism, something he usually manages in about 45 minutes. It comes so easily to him it is ridiculous. But life in No 10 runs on a different wavelength.

When he sits in the most powerful office in the land, he pulls the levers and nothing happens. How can it be that the NHS  with its vast armies of staff, its almost limitless purchasing power and the reverence in which it is held by the nation  cannot order sufficient face masks for its staff, or testing kits for the population?

Indeed, I believe this weariness and dismay at the limits of what any prime minister can actually achieve in the face of institutional paralysis goes some way to explaining why he allowed his sickness to become so acute.

He simply couldn't give up. For the time being, those questions that exasperate him will have to be put to one side. All that matters now is that the Prime Minister is justified in always trusting his invincibility.
Before every pandemic of the last 150 years, there was a quantum leap in the electrification of the Earth.

Thats the thesis statement of a YouTube video with the innocuous title Dr. Thomas Cowan, M.D. Discusses the Coronavirus. The 10-minute video features a man lecturing in front of a whiteboard. It looks like any other low-budget conference video, but that thesisthat pandemics are linked to the electrification of the Earthgot certain peoples attention. The video, which was posted March 18, has now been watched more than 660,000 times and has inspired a rather curious, rather dangerous conspiracy theory: New 5G mobile networks are causing the spread of COVID-19.

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5G mobile networks promise faster transmission speeds and lower latency. Theyve been the centerpiece of commercials from various mobile carriers, and they have become a battleground for technological dominance between the United States and China. In 2019, the Trump administration announced their plan for winning the race for 5G, and tech sources bemoaned that the United States had fallen behind China in 5G development. Some of the first 5G networks were activated in 2019, and that newness is how 5G somehow got linked to COVID-19 in some peoples minds. But while the circumstances of this specific conspiracy are unique, the links between mobile networks and disease are a prime example of how history repeats itself. Almost every new wireless infrastructure gets linked to disease in one form or another.

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Before going through the history of communication infrastructures and health fears, its first worthwhile to trace how we moved from a few random social media posts to where we are now, when the U.K. has threatened to fine broadcasters that blame 5G networks for COVID-19 and some individuals have threatened broadband engineers who work on 5G. As many sources, ranging from USA Today to Reuters, have pointed out, there are no actual links between COVID-19 and 5G networks. The conspiracy doesnt hold even a kernel of truth. But its roots are illustrative of how conspiracies spread more generally: People took two phenomena occurring at roughly similar times and made up causal links between the two. Large-scale adoption of 5G networks began in late 2019; the first identified cases of COVID-19 happened in late 2019. From there, certain groups were off to the races, with one common rumor stating that Wuhan, China, was both the first place to have an identified coronavirus case and the first city to turn on wide-scale 5G networks. (The latter likely isnt true.) The conspiracy then spread, with more and more claims using simple correlation to argue that 5G was causing COVID-19. For example, one conspiracy that went semiviral compared a map of COVID-19 hot spots in the U.S. to places that had tested 5G networks. The map showed a clear overlap, but it really just showed major metropolitan areas. Regardless, the existence of 5G in places COVID-19 had been diagnosed was enough to fan the flames.

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Almost every new wireless infrastructure gets linked to disease in one form or another.

From there, the conspiracy spread. A Facebook post was shared a few thousand times. The YouTube video I mentioned earlier is getting close to 700,000 views. Voice memos and posts about the conspiracy were shared on platforms like WhatsApp and Nextdoor. The conspiracy even made it onto Woody Harrelsons Instagram. By the beginning of April, the conspiracy seemed to be everywhere. People in the U.K. have even started burning down 5G towers because of COVID-19 fears.

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While the 5G COVID-19 conspiracy does seem to have almost come out of nowhere, it makes a certain amount of sense when placed within the history of wireless infrastructures. In the Cowan video at the center of the conspiracy, he links pandemics to one development after another in wireless networks. His lecture starts by talking about the 1918 flu, which he argues was caused by long-range radio. (Heres a good thread debunking that theory.) He then uses his electrification thesis to move through the 20th and 21st centuries (while getting some dates wrong) to the activation of 5G networks and the spread of COVID-19 in 2019. The history he tells of new wireless infrastructures leading to new pandemics was picked up all over social media and became a key part of the spread of the conspiracy. Take the tweet below as just one of many examples:

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1916 - emergence of Radio Waves

1918 - Spanish Flu outbreak



2003 - 3G introduced to the world

2003 - SARS outbreak



2009 - 4G introduced to the world

2009 - Swine flu outbreak



2019/20 - 5G introduced to the world

2019/20 - Coronavirus outbreak #WWG1WGA #COVID19 #5G #5GRollout  Tiffani Cyr (@TiffaniCyr) April 2, 2020

I dont want to flippantly equate concerns about cancer and wireless infrastructure with conspiracies about COVID-19. Most research shows wireless infrastructure is safe, but some scientists disagree and argue our exposure guidelines are too lax (though that has nothing to do with causing viruses). Regardless, what is notable about the public relationship to these infrastructures is that the concerns flare up again and again every time a new infrastructure is developed. 5G will eventually win out and be widely deployed, and some day we will likely move to a sixth-generation mobile infrastructure. The protests about cancer and radiation levels and the conspiracies about wireless infrastructures and disease will then start over again. With 5G, we see history repeating itself in real time.

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The human brain searches for patterns. Sometimes that helps us spot viable concerns and react accordingly. But sometimes our desire to link phenomena gets us in trouble. It leads to conspiracies that see causation where there is only the weakest correlation. 5G COVID-19 conspiracies are a prime example, and the conspiracies are more than a cute curiosity; they have real consequences. For one, part of the conspiracy is that radiation causes the virus to spread, not human-to-human contact. People who take the conspiracy seriously may not take social distancing precautions because they dont believe humans are contagious. Secondly, these conspiracies present a straightforward solutionstop the spread of 5G to stop COVID-19to an existential threat that has no easy solution. Finally, the conspiracies sow distrust in a technology that, like it or not, will be a major site of national investment in the coming years. Journalists have already shown how Russian intelligence agencies have spread rumors about 5G on social media to get people to distrust the technology. It wouldnt be shocking if Russia played a role in boosting the 5G COVID-19 conspiracy as well.

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Finally, it is worth asking why these links come up again and again. Is there something about wireless communication infrastructure that lends itself to concerns about everything from mind control to cancer to pandemics? Maybe there is. Maybe the fact that radio waves are all around us, invisible and intangible yet so consequential, elicits a fear in the unseen. We may never know for sure. But we do know that the 5G COVID-19 conspiracies are only the newest in a long line of concerns about wireless infrastructure, and this will not be the last time we see people trying to link a new wireless infrastructure to some kind of deadly disease.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
By automatically generating the code to create microservice-based APIs that can be deployed anywhere, OpenLegacy helped them minimize complexity, lower total cost of ownership, and improve API speed and performance.

OpenLegacy, the leader in delivering microservices-based API integration and management for core and legacy systems, is speeding digital transformation of one of the United States largest banks by seamlessly integrating its mainframe into its new digital platform.

The bank is part of the fifth biggest banking group in the world, offering personal, business, commercial, and private banking services in branches across California, Washington, and Oregon.

OpenLegacy takes any core system to the web, mobile, or cloud by connecting directly to the legacy system, automatically generating APIs, and then enabling rapid deployment virtually anywhere using microservices.

Incorporating significant mainframe workloads into their new Kafka-based, event-driven architecture was the biggest obstacle in the banks digital transformation journey. Due to complex layers of middleware, the project was expected to take months.

The OpenLegacy technology changed the mainframe from a business burden into a business enabler by streamlining communication initiated both inside and outside the legacy system, completely bypassing the middleware. OpenLegacys platform includes unique new functionality called the API Caller that allows the mainframe to initiate calls to digital services. Within two short weeks of the pilot, five different use cases were already up and running.

With OpenLegacy, the bank was able to bypass its out-of-date, hard-to-work-with middleware stack to connect its legacy system to its new digital platform, said Zeev Avidan, OpenLegacy Chief Product Officer. By automatically generating the code to create microservice-based APIs that can be deployed anywhere, OpenLegacy helped them minimize complexity, lower total cost of ownership, and improve API speed and performance.

OpenLegacy supported the banks new architecture in record time, with complete adherence to agile and DevOps principles. It also maximized the value of existing hardware, helping the bank attain lower processor and memory consumption than other solutions offered.

About OpenLegacy

OpenLegacys Digital-Driven Integration enables organizations with legacy systems to release new digital services faster and more efficiently than ever before. It connects directly to even the most complex legacy systems, bypassing the need for extra layers of technology. It then automatically generates APIs in minutes, rapidly integrating those assets into new and exciting innovations. Finally, it deploys them as standard microservices or serverless functions, giving organizations speed and flexibility while drastically cutting costs and resources. With OpenLegacy, industry-leading companies release new apps, features, and updates in days instead of months, enabling them to truly become digital to the core. http://www.openlegacy.com.

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Port Neches police are searching for two people suspected of stealing a truck on South Avenue Saturday.

Security camera footage shows the suspects stealing a 2014 white Dodge Ram 2500 with the license plate LCD1793 at approximately 3:17 a.m., before driving away towards Nall Street.

Police are asking anyone in the area to check their video cameras for Saturday at 3 a.m., to see if they have any information that could lead to the arrest of the suspects.

If you have video from that night of the suspects or suspect vehicle, please contact Detective Thompson at 409-719-4239, PNPD said in a news release. A copy of the video will be requested. A thumb drive can be dropped off to you and picked up at a later time or you can e-mail the video to sthompson@ci.port-neches.tx.us.

Anyone with information on the suspects or stolen truck can call their local police department or contact Crimestoppers at 409-833-8477.

chris.moore@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/chris_moore09
Just like Oliver Twist the National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress is asking for more freebies from government during the countrys partial lockdown in the fight against deadly Coronavirus.



His comment follows President Akufo-Addos address to the nation on COVID-19.



In his 5th update to Ghanaians on the novel Coronavirus on Sunday,



Government absorbs water bill for 3 months



Ghanaians will not pay water bill for the next three months - this will be for the months of April, May and June 2020.



The move is expected to lessen the negative economic impact of government's two-week lockdown on individuals and businesses due to the coronavirus outbreak.



According to President Akufo-Addo, government is absorbing the water bills for all Ghanaians for the next three months.



At the same time, water tankers, both publicly and privately owned are also going to be mobilised to ensure the supply of water to all vulnerable communities, he added in a televised address to the nation on Sunday, 5 April 2020.



GHS350k insurance for each frontline health worker



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo also announced a GH350,000 insurance package for each health personnel and allied professional at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus outbreak after recoded 214 cases of the outbreak.



According to him, an insurance package, with an assured sum of three hundred and fifty thousand cedis (GH350,000) for each health personnel and allied professional at the forefront of the fight, has been put in place, with a daily allowance of one hundred and fifty cedis (GH150) being paid to contact tracers.



Government has also decided that all health workers will not pay taxes on their emoluments for the next three months, i.e. April, May, and June. Furthermore, all frontline health workers will receive an additional allowance of fifty percent (50%) of their basic salary per month, i.e. for March, April, May, and June.



The March allowance will be paid alongside that of April. The Ministry of Transport is also making available, for free, Aayalolo buses to convey health workers in Accra, Tema, Kumasi, and Kasoa to and from work, along specific routes, for the entire duration of the restrictions.



Government feeding 400k homes in vulnerable communities in lockdown areas



The government will also be feeding some 400,000 individuals and homes in vulnerable communities in Accra, Kasoa, Tema, and Kumasi through the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP).



The areas under the programme are the affected areas the Government has locked-down and restricted movement to prevent the spread of COVID-19.



According to the President, the food distribution has begun in Accra on Sunday and will begin in Kumasi on Monday, 6 April.



Great Move



Sammy Gyamfi in an interview with NEAT FMs morning show Ghana Montie commended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his outstanding measures during the lockdown period but noted that more can be done to make it a solid and comfortable lockdown for the citizenry.



Government paying water bills, giving free transport, distributing foods are brilliant ideas. We [NDC] support all measures by the President in these times, he said.



Asking for more



According to Sammy Gyamfi, Ghanaians in recent times need more than what the President has given.



He was emphatic that, electricity which is largely used by Ghanaians should be absolutely free for the next three months.



Even locked-down Togo with less recorded cases of COVID-19 are enjoying free water and electricity. So why cant you [President Nana Addo] give the people electricity for free? Good, water is essential but how many people have flowing taps in their homes? But the majority have lights so give them electricity for free, he said.



Adding that, The telecommunication companies must be forced to at least reduce their charges if they cant give us free data in this period.



Plagiarizing



The outspoken NDC National Communication Officer told NEAT FMs morning show host, Kwesi Aboagye that their flagbearer and former President, John Dramani Mahama has already recommended that government should give free electricity to the people.



"Indeed, most of the newly announced interventions, such as free water, distribution of free food to deprived communities in lockdown areas, provision of insurance to our frontline health workers, local production of PPEs among others, were first canvassed by H.E John Dramani Mahama. We are glad that at long last, President Akufo-Addo is beginning to adopt these recommendations," he said.





Watch Video Below





Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the event (Photo: VNA)

During a teleconference with permanent Government members on April 6, the PM highlighted the need to continue implementing the Directives No.15 and 16 on COVID-19 prevention and control, as well as stay alert as reinfection has been seen in some parts of the world.

He lauded the army, medical staff and public security forces for raising their sense of responsbility as frontline workers in the fight, with fewer infections and more recovery cases in recent days.

The PM also hailed good deeds by philanthropists nationwide, thus inspiring solidarity to join hands against the epidemic under the Party leadership and State management.

According to him, the epidemic remains at dangerous level and could break out again anytime, thats why ministries, agencies and localities must continue following the PMs Directive No.16 on social distancing more strictly.

Specifically, the leader ordered tracing down F0 cases and those related to two hotbeds in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, enhancing prevention and control at places of worship, supermarkets and high-risk areas.

He asked for preparing plans for field hospitals while the Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control must pool resources, improve localities health care capacity and use modern technology in the effort.

If physical distancing to prevent COVID-19 from spreading in the community is conducted well, there will not be the peak of epidemic in Vietnam, he said.

Epidemic-hit localities were asked to increase testing for local residents and oversee prevention and control at production facilities.

The leader said the Government will issue a ventilator production scheme, thus creating favourable conditions for businesses in the field.

He suggested protecting reporters working amid the pandemic, making it easier for them to fully cover local lives and prevention work in the country, as well as enhancing global cooperation in the COVID-19 fight, boost economic activities, including controlled export of rice, masks and software for countries in need.

The PM also proposed establishing a group of medical experts to monitor the situation and offer suggestions to the Steering Committee and the Government.

Further attention should be paid to help Vietnamese people, especially vulnerables, youths and patients stranded abroad, to return home, he said, adding that the Government has outlined a scheme to tackle difficulties facing the poor as well as step up public capital investment.

Though COVID-19 has resulted in economic loss, it also offers opportunities. Therefore, departments and people should renew working methods, develop new services, especially using information technology for the development of digital Government and economy, production and export of preventive medicine goods for major markets such as Europe and the US, he said.

As of 12pm on April 6, 91 out of 214 infection cases in Vietnam recovered. Four serious cases have become better while 58 others tested negative more than once.

Among 150 patients under treatment, 123 are Vietnamese and the remaining are foreigners, mostly from the UK, Brazil and France. Only 14 have other diseases.
Cases in mainland China have been dwindling since March, but it faces a second wave of infections from overseas.

China reported no new deaths from the coronavirus on Tuesday, for the first time since authorities began publishing figures in January.

Cases in mainland China have been dwindling since March, but the country faces a second wave of infections brought in from overseas, with health officials reporting nearly 1,000 imported cases in total.

The National Health Commission said there were 32 new cases nationwide at the end of Monday, all of which were imported.

There were also 30 new asymptomatic infections, health officials said, bringing the national total to 1,033. About a quarter of the current total of asymptomatic cases were also imported from overseas.

With mainland China well past the peak of infections in February, authorities have turned their attention to imported cases and asymptomatic patients, who show no symptoms but can still pass on the virus.

China closed its borders to foreigners as the virus spread globally, although most imported cases have involved Chinese nationals returning from overseas. International flights have been reduced to about 3,000 a day in April from the tens of thousands previously.

It also started testing all international arrivals for the virus this month.

Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province where the infection first emerged late last year, has reported only two new confirmed cases in the past 14 days.

It is due to allow people to leave the city on Wednesday for the first time since it was locked down on January 23 to curb the spread of the virus.

The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China stood at 81,740 as of Monday, while 3,331 people have died, according to the authority.
Queen Elizabeth spoke for just four-and-a-half minutes in her broadcast on Sunday. She offered no revelations, made no accusations, provided no startling phrases. Yet she commanded her countrys attention. Plenty of people in Canada and the United States were also paying attention. It may be worth the time of political leaders to notice how she did that.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Queen Elizabeth spoke for just four-and-a-half minutes in her broadcast on Sunday. She offered no revelations, made no accusations, provided no startling phrases. Yet she commanded her countrys attention. Plenty of people in Canada and the United States were also paying attention. It may be worth the time of political leaders to notice how she did that.

Her remarks were short and to the point. She was there to speak to and for a nation and a larger world audience. She was not there to demand attention, but to draw people together in spirit. She said no word that anyone could reasonably disagree with.

She began by defining the moment in sober, measured terms  a time of disruption, of grief for some, of financial difficulty for many and enormous changes in the daily lives of everybody. She thanked all health workers on the front lines of the battle against the coronavirus epidemic and all the people who are staying home so as to slow spread of the disease.

She exhorted people to comply with the official hygiene advice, but she did so without threatening or lecturing anyone. She hoped everyone would be able to look back with pride on the role they had played  a tactful way of telling scofflaws, coughers and party-goers to get with the program.

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She said nothing about how clever she is or how much praise she deserves. She offered no opinions on medical or epidemiological questions that are beyond her expertise. She praised the qualities of British people  self-discipline, quiet good-humoured resolve and fellow-feeling  that had seen Britain through tough times in the past and are now exhibited once again.

The Queen has the advantage of being 93 years old. British leaders love to compare each national trauma that comes along to the dark days of the Second World War, which they know about from books and movies. Queen Elizabeth was there, and she was able in her Sunday broadcast to refer with the authority of a witness to the difficult but necessary decisions that had to be made in those wartime years. City-dwelling children were separated from their parents, sent to the countryside safely away from air-raid targets.

With that context, she could use the line, "We will meet again," quoting a wartime song everybody still knows, and evoke the well-grounded hope and expectation that better days lie ahead. It doesnt take inflated hyperbole or puffed-up superlatives; it takes well-chosen words and thorough knowledge of a peoples shared experience.

Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip  seen here in 2018  are self-isolating together in Windsor Castle. (Alastair Grant / The Associated Press files)

The Queen also has the advantage that she has no role in the gritty details of government. No one expects her to defend her prime ministers administrative decisions  why was this step not taken sooner, or why were some people left out of that program? This left her free to talk about what makes British people pull together. She could sail right past the things that pull them apart.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has given himself a monarch-like role in his daily 15-minute addresses to the nation from the front door of Rideau Cottage. He leaves it to the follow-up briefing by ministers and officials to get into the details. Its not quite the same as the Queens role, because Mr. Trudeau is answerable  at least in theory  for everything his government does. But its well that someone is defining the shared values that can hold this country together.
Roseanne Barr has an interesting theory about the coronavirus.

Norm Macdonald called up the former Roseanne star for the latest episode of his YouTube Series Quarantined With Norm Macdonald and it was as off the rails as one might expect.

During the 15-minute chat, the Saturday Night Live veteran, 60, and Barr, 67, tackled the coronavirus, Bill Cosby and Kevin Spacey among other subjects.

Barr lives in Hawaii where she said theres only been one positive case of COVID-19 "on the island". Its unclear which island shes on, but according to the State of Hawaii's Department of Health, there are 371 reported cases of COVID-19 as of Sunday.

Ninety-nine percent of the Hawaiian people are sequestered and doing exactly what they were told to do, she said Sunday night. Theres a military base here as well.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Live: Follow all the latest updates from the UK and around the world

Fact-checker: The number of COVID-19 cases in your local area

Explained: Symptoms, latest advice and how it compares to the flu

Do you feel like you were ahead of everybody else on being a social isolate? Macdonald asked.

F*** yeah, Barr replied.

Roseanne Barr says the coronavirus is a ploy to get rid of boomers. (Photo: Getty Images)

Somebody was saying hey, you know, when people talk about the climate change and they go, oh, we cant change our whole lifestyle. And the Earth is like, Yeah  heres a virus, Macdonald joked.

Well, you know its all connected in my head because Im on the autism spectrum, Barr said. So everything has to fit perfectly or else I go insane. So Im always trying to put things together, but its all interrelated. I think were being forced to evolve.

Read more: The One Show hit with complaints over lockdown haircare advice

Barr added: You know what it is, Norm? I think they're just trying to get rid of all my generation. The boomer ladies that, you know, that inherited their, you know, are widows. They inherited the money so they got to go wherever the money is and figure out a way to get it away from people.

Story continues

The actress never elaborated on who they are.

Norm MacDonald, Roseanne Barr, Keenen Ivory Wayans on Last Comic Standing. (NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

Because theres so many boomers that have money and do no work, Macdonald joked. So if you got them out of society  yeah, that would be a good thriller.

Macdonald then shifted the conversation telling Barr, We, who have the luxury to be at home during this, can never forget how valuable that is.

I know. Solitude, Barr noted. To be able to think about how youre going to sue everyone on the f***ing  you know, Hollywood,

I was thinking of the virus getting to you, but that also, Macdonald quipped.

I mean, I have the time now to research and come up with the perfect lawsuit," Barr explained.

What is the perfect lawsuit? Macdonald asked.

The lawsuit Im going to wage against Hollywood, Barr replied.

What do you mean by Hollywood? Specifically, your studio, right? Macdonald asked.

Roseanne Barr takes part in a special event and podcast taping at Stand Up NY in 2018. (AP)

In 2018, ABC cancelled the popular Roseanne reboot after the comedians racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett. Macdonald was one of the few people who publicly defended Barr after the controversy.

No. My situation that happened to me in Hollywood, Barr said. Im devising the perfect lawsuit and I am so blessed to have that time to sit here and be able to compile my thoughts. You know, be introspective. So I can figure out how to f*** over everybody in the f***ing world over there.

A few minutes later, they discussed Bill Cosby, who is behind bars on sexual assault charges. Barr said she never met the comedian, adding: But I talked to him on the phone all the time, you know.

Read more: Alec Baldwin and wife Hilaria expecting another baby

He would be giving me advice, but then it would slip into something weird, Barr said, clarifying that Cosby never sexually said anything to me.

What about Kevin Spacey? That guy was a great actor, Barr added. Isnt it weird how things turn weird?

Catch the full conversation in the video below.
Los Angeles, April 7 : The Rachel Brosnahan-starrer blockbuster series, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" is in for legal trouble. An author, who claims the concept of the hugely popular series has been copied from her book, has sued Amazon Studios, the streaming service hosting the show.

Author Jodi Parmley claims that the crux of the series was taken from her 2014 novel "F.I.F.I. Financial Infidelity F**k It: The Mistress of the New Millennium", reports dailymail.co.uk.

In her lawsuit, the author said that Amazon Studios stole a number of creative elements from her book, including the plight of the main character, the stand-up comedy, general plot points and character traits.

Set in 1950s Manhattan, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" tells the story of Midge Maisel (Brosnahan) who is trying to find her own voice after her husband leaves her. With music and lighter tones, the show by Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, puts the spotlight on gender issues, and the disparity. It also stars Michael Zegen, Alex Borstein, Marin Hinkle, Tony Shalhoub and Kevin Pollak.

In the documents obtained by TMZ, Parmley said she wrote her book and then adapted a screenplay from it. She then went to different studios pitching her idea and says many were interested in her idea.

Parmley didn't name any specific executives she met at Amazon, but did imply that word got out to them about her book and screenplay.

After seeing the premiere of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" in 2017, Parmley, who lives in New Orleans, believed that much of the storyline, like the struggling lead character seeking financial independence and leaving her husband, was taken from her book.

Now, Parmley is suing for the profits Amazon has made from the show. The exact figure is not known -- but it is likely to be a huge amount considering the critical and commercial success that the show got during its three seasons to date.

The period comedy-drama has already been renewed for a fourth season.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
He first attracted notice for shooting supermodels in famous ad campaigns for the likes of Estee Lauder; his fame grew with a photo series of famous actors, each in an enormous black turtleneck first worn by Orson Welles. His cool factor skyrocketed with the series of elegantly provocative semi- and nude portraits he did as posters for the Chicago International Film Festival.  Chicago Sun-Times
Families, be careful because theres a man from Madrid who lives on Azahin street whos got the virus. This was the first sentence from a voice message sent via the WhatsApp messaging service last weekend by a resident of Cazalla de la Sierra, in Seville province.

The message, which turned out to be a hoax sent out by a local man, claimed that the municipal police had confirmed the contagion, and that the Madrid patient had been taken to his second residence in Cazalla because he had mild symptoms and the hospital was full.

The voice recording was quickly shared in this municipality of no more than 5,000 inhabitants nestled in the mountains of Seville province, where the mayor recently explained that everyone is keeping close tabs on who goes in and out of town, and reporting any suspicious movements to the police.

They show up here, thinking this is a virus-free zone because we are in the middle of the mountains Mayor Sotero Martin of Cazalla de la Sierra

Although Mayor Sotero Martin has since made a statement stressing that the WhatsApp message is a fabrication, the hoax did nothing to improve the mood in a village that is angry at the fact that many Madrilenos initially fled to their holiday homes to escape the main epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic in Spain.

On March 14, the Spanish government declared a state of alarm and confined people to their homes. The police have since stopped scores of Spaniards attempting to drive to their second residences in various parts of the territory.

Like Cazalla, many villages in Andalusia  and elsewhere in Spain  that once welcomed visitors are now taking unilateral steps to keep out unwanted outsiders. This includes erecting physical barriers on access roads.

The situation has calmed down, but the arrival of Madrilenos during the state of alarm has created a lot of concern, explains Cazallas mayor, Sotero Martin.

A truck creating a roadblock to keep visitors out of Setenil de las Bodegas, in Cadiz province.

They show up here, thinking this is a virus-free zone because we are in the middle of the mountains, but we are subjected to the same rules as everyone else, he adds. Measures have been taken and there are increased road checks to stop travelers coming from Madrid.

Martin says that before the confinement orders were issued, some Madrid residents had already shown up in town. These included an elderly couple who came because the husband, a native of Cazalla, thought the mountain air might be good for his wife, who was experiencing respiratory problems. She has since passed away, although there is no confirmation of whether she had the coronavirus.

We have nothing against people coming here from Madrid; many of them have relatives here, and we need them because we are part of Spains underpopulated areas, but they also need to understand that we want people to act responsibly, says Martin.

More hoaxes

The fear of Madrilenos is spreading. Another hoax involving an alleged family from Madrid whose members are ill has made the rounds in Turre, in Almeria province. The mayor, Martin Morales Fuentes, was forced to to issue a statement on Facebook admitting that some neighbors had filed a complaint over an occupied holiday apartment. The statement added that both the Civil Guard and local police are investigating how long the occupants have been there, and asked government authorities to either expel them or ensure they remain confined and under tight control. The mayor has denied that the occupants of this apartment have tested positive for the coronavirus.

And in Aguilar de la Frontera, in Cordoba province, a message made the rounds last week claiming that a well-known family from Madrid was in town. The mayor, Carmen Flores, was forced to make a statement and apologize to the family, whose members are in fact in Madrid, observing the confinement orders  and now also considering whether to take legal action against the individuals who started the rumor.

English version by Susana Urra.
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Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham has stepped down.

She stepped down as White House press secretary today to return to the East Wing as chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump, according to a White House statement.

Grisham spent less than a year in the post without ever holding a news briefing.

Her predecessor, Sarah Sanders, scrapped the regular briefings that had been customary to the job throughout Republican and Democratic presidential administrations dating back to Herbert Hoovers, according to historian Martha Kumar.

Grisham is expected to begin her role with the first lady immediately, according to a statement from Melania Trump that announced the change.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 19:01:54|Editor: huaxia

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BEIRUT, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's number of COVID-19 infections increased on Tuesday by seven cases to 548, while the death toll remained at 19, the National News Agency reported.

Lebanon is expecting the arrival of four flights on Tuesday repatriating Lebanese from Kinshasa, Istanbul, Paris and Madrid.

All passengers will take COVID-19 tests at Beirut's airport upon their arrivals and then go to hotels in Beirut waiting for their tests results.

Those who are found as positive will go to hospitals while others will be self-isolated at home for 14 days.
UPDATE: A database error caused a coronavirus patient to be incorrectly classified as a newborn child, First Selectman Chris Kervick said Tuesday. Read story here.

WINDSOR LOCKS  A newborn child tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Windsor Locks First Selectman Chris Kervick.

We received notice from our Health Director this morning that the Connecticut Department of Public Health has confirmed an additional positive test results for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) involving a Windsor Locks resident. The case involves a newborn child, Kervick said in a statement on Sunday.

Kervick said no further information on the newborn would be released.

The positive test result brings the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Windsor Locks to eight.

In light of the diagnosis, Kervick took to Facebook to warn residents that he fears the community has entered a period of sustained community transmission of COVID-19.

It would be unreasonable to assume that these eight people are the only persons afflicted with COVID-19 in town. With regard to precautions to slow the spread of COVID-19, residents should already be following the guidance provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Connecticut Department of Public Health, Kervick said.
Youtube grab

Gilgit/IBNS: Journalists have protested against police action in Pakistan occupied Kashmir's Gilgit Baltistan region after cops allegedly tortured a scribe who was reporting from the ground amid the COVID-19 lockdown, media reports said.

The region has been under lockdown to prevent spread of coronavirus.

Despite a lockdown, the government issued special passes for the media to report and perform their duties.

While protesting one of the journalists was quoted as saying by ANI news agency: "Targeting media personnel like this is an unjust act by the administration and it should be stopped. When passes have been issued by the authorities then there is no sense that the ACP comes and shows brutality on the journalist. After all, unless media functions properly, both the administration and the governments can't."

Another scribe told the news agency: "Some of the passes were also torn by the authorities. If these incidences continue then they may think about the last options as well. Despite the permission granted by authorities, several incidences of police brutality and incorporative behaviour have been reported in the region."

They also demanded an apology from the Assistant Commissioner of Police.

Pakistan has witnessed massive spike in the number of COVID-19 cases over the past couple of weeks.

So far, 4000 people have been infected by the disease and 55 deaths have been reported from the country.
>>> PM requests preparing scenarios for second wave of coronavirus infections

>>> Medical suits donated to front line medical workers

>>> Deputy PM grateful to the public for support against COVID-19

As of 6 am this morning, Vietnam entered the third consecutive morning without any new cases of COVID-19 to report, keeping the national count of 245 unchanged from the figure reported on Monday night (April 6). Among them, 153 people returned from abroad, accounting for 62.4%.

The latest reported cases (patients No. 242 to 245) were confirmed on Monday afternoon, including three returning from abroad who were timely isolated upon entry to Vietnam.

Also, on Monday, four patients were declared to have recovered (patients No. 117,118, 122 and 154) and discharged from hospital in Da Nang, Can Tho and Tay Ninh, raising the total of recovery cases in Vietnam to 95.

Among the remaining patients, a total of 32 cases tested negative for the novel coronavirus for the first time, and 30 others showed negative results for the second. Many of them are expected to be given the all-clear later today. There are currently three people in serious condition in hospitals, but one is showing signs of improvement.

* On Monday evening, Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee held an online briefing meeting on the prevention and control of COVID-19 in the city.

Speaking at the meeting, Politburo member and Secretary of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan urged local authorities to continue reviewing the contacts of COVID-19 patients and those going in and out of the citys gateways to control the spread of the disease in the community. He also asked local businesses to ensure safety in production activities.

The same day, Hanoi Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Combat met, in which Municipal People's Committee Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung requested local authorities to strictly implement measures to prevent epidemics, especially those related to social distancing.

Also on the day, Hai Phong City People's Committee met with local functional agencies to discuss measures to support locals in difficulties due to the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic. Delegates praised the meaningful activities that have been deployed to support local people in overcoming the difficulties from the current nationwide social distancing, like the donation of rice and essential necessities for households in difficult circumstances in the districts of Do Son and Le Chan.

* On April 6, more social resources were sent to the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) in response to a call from the Party, Government and the VFF to fight the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

A representative from the Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group donates VND2 billion to support the COVID-19 fight, Quang Ninh Province, April 6, 2020. (Photo: NDO/Quang Tho)



According to preliminary statistics, the amount of money donated through the National Humanitarian Portal has reached over VND128 billion (US$5.4 million), while more than VND750 billion in cash and kind has been sent to the VFF Central Committee.

On Monday, President of the VFF Central Committee Tran Thanh Man received VND100 million from the Party Central Committees Commission for Internal Affairs, in addition to funding of VND105 million and VND335 million from Doan Ket Company Limited and AOE Community in Vietnam, respectively.

The same day, at the headquarters of the VFF Central Committee in the South, Heineken Vietnam presented VND10 billion to support the COVID-19 fight.

Also on April 6, the VFFs chapter in the northern province of Hai Duong received support worth over VND4.6 billion (including VND3 billion in cash and the remainder in essential goods, food and medical equipment) from many businesses in and out of the locality to prevent the pandemic.

The VFF Committee of Da Nang received more than VND1 billion on the same day. So far, more than VND4.6 billion, 1,000 antibacterial face masks, 10 tonnes of rice and 100 bottles of hand sanitiser, among others, have been donated via the municipal VFF Committee.

On April 6, Quang Ninh Provincial authorities received over VND6 billion plus medical supplies to support frontline units to prevent and fight the epidemic.

Tay Ninh, Thanh Hoa and Hau Giang Province also received valuable donations on Monday to facilitate the fight against COVID-19.
Twitter user Lalarstein (@silver_eel) recently stunned his followers with an insanely realistic 3D-printed mask of his own face, perfect right down to the tiniest detail.

Lalastein, a self-described professional 3D scanning expert and professional camera man who has appeared in the credits roll of many Japanese films, unveiled his insanely realistic 3D-printed on Twitter last month, and the photos went viral almost instantly. Thats not exactly surprising considering how incredibly realistic his creation turned out. As he is holding the mask next to his face, you can tell that it is nearly perfect, right down to the hairs on his eyebrows and the tiny moles on his cheeks.

Photo  Lalarstein (@silver_eel)

The 3D-printing enthusiast didnt go into detail about the making-of process, but he did reveal that he used a Super Scan Studio Face Rig 3D scanner and a Stratasys J750 3D printer to pull off the job.

Photo  Lalarstein (@silver_eel)

Japanese social media was in awe of the lifelike mask, with most people praising @silver_eel for a job well done, and others asking him if it works with the facial recognition lock on Apple and Android phones. Apparently, the masks creator tested it with some iPhone models, but it couldnt full the software.

Photo  Lalarstein (@silver_eel)

Lalastein said he usually puts on the masks for online video meetings and conferences, allowing him to catch some shut-eye without offending anyone. And in a time when working from home is so popular, you can understand why the mask got so much attention

Photo  Lalarstein (@silver_eel)

Interestingly, this isnt the first ultra-realistic 3D-printed face mask weve seen come out of Japan. Back in 2011, startup REAL-f made international news headlines for making realistic face mask and selling them for about $4,000 a piece. But that was almost a decade ago, and 3D-printing technology has become a lot more affordable.
After news broke out about corpses of COVID-19 victims lying on streets, authorities in Ecuador are now distributing cardboard coffins for the bodies left on the streets and to families who were forced to keep the dead bodies of their loved ones in their homes.

The country's authorities also created a helpline so that those families who need assistance in removing the corpses would be able to reach them.

At the moment officials say that Ecuador is still rushing to order thousands more of the cardboard coffins to cope with the high number of COVID-19 victims to avoid a repeat of having corpses left on the streets to rot.

In the port city of Guayaquil which is considered as a regional hotspot for coronavirus in the country, mortuaries and hospitals have been overwhelmed with the number of coronavirus cases and deaths. In relation to this, local producers have already donated at least 2,000 pressed cardboard caskets.

The city has also announced that they are ordering even more in order to help the local cemeteries which have been snowed under with dead bodies amid the crisis.

In addition to the cardboard caskets, the port city with a population of more than 2 million has also acquireed refrigerated trailers in order to aid in the storing of the dead which has piled up in number in city hospitals.

Ecuador's President, Lenin Moreno also announced that there are already plans of putting up a "special camp" where the estimated number of probable coronavirus deaths of 3,500 would be buried.

Read also: Children Seen in Dog Cages, Forced Marriages As Coronavirus Risk Kids for Homelessness, Human Trafficking

Hospitals look like war zones

One of the doctors in one of the city's largest medical facilities, Teodoro Maldonado Carbo hospital, compared the current situation of the country to a war zone.

He also said that the condition of the hospitals is comparable to those in horror films, adding that his wife did not even want him to go to work anymore. However, he insisted to go thinking of the patients that could die in his absence.

Meanwhile, the health ministry of the country has registered at least 172 deaths caused by COVID-19 where 122 of them were in Guayas Province. However, due to the low testing rate, this figure is said to be relatively lower than the real scenario.

According to a regional politician, Carlos Luis Morales officials in the country have been instructed to not reveal any statistics about the death toll in Guayas and Guayaquil. However, he gave a sneak peek to the real situation by telling CNN en Espanol that on April 2, there were 480 death certificates that were issued and at least 150 bodies are being collected daily.

Government has faced criticism for COVID-19 response

As the hotspot of the pandemic in South America, Ecuador has faced a lot of criticisms on their response to the COVID-19 outbreak including their failure to strictly implement quarantine measures in the country.

According to Morales, when the virus first emerged in China, they did not think that it would reach their country, thus they were lenient in the response.

The country's vice president, Otto Sonnenholzner, even released a televised apology after images of the dead bodies in Guayaquil rotting on the streets circulated on the internet. He also gave his word that he is doing everything he can in order to save the most number of lives as possible.

Related article: Corpses Left Rotting on Streets, Health Minister Resigns as COVID-19 Overwhelms Ecuador

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC) in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East will soon commence COVID-19 laboratory investigations for rapid release of test results for the Region.



Dr Winfred Ofosu, the Upper East Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said this at a press briefing in Bolgatanga following the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the Region.



He said the Centre had all the relevant equipment to test for the virus.



He said the Presidential Committee on COVID-19 had asked Engineers from the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) to set up a testing unit at the NHRC, So if that is done, I believe in the next two weeks, we will have a testing site in Navrongo.



He said if the site was set up, it would save the Health Services the stress of transporting samples for investigations at the KCCR for COVID-19 which often took about three days for the results to be released.



Dr Ofosu indicated that part of the issues rounding the confirmed case of the virus in the Region was because of the delay in getting the results, it took almost a week after taking the specimen to get the results, if we had gotten the results within 24 hours, some of these slips would not have happened.



The Director said about 25 percent of people infected with COVID-19 virus were usually asymptomatic but had the virus that could be transmitted, saying these are the people at our workplaces, we meet them in the market, at shops and other places.



Touching on the issues of the confirmed case of the 33-year-old pregnant woman in the Region, Dr Ofosu said: In fact this lady I am sure if she were not pregnant she may not have come to the hospital because most times the symptoms subside after two or three days, and she would have been walking about with us.



He said even though investigations were not conclusive, preliminary investigation showed that Some of the symptoms started manifesting here before she travelled, which means that she probably got the infection here in Bolga. If that is the case, it means that the virus is in circulation.



Dr Ofosu said the woman who was diagnosed would not necessarily be the one to spread the disease in the Region, From the evidence we are gathering, it is likely that the virus was already circulating here before this case popped up.



He said contact tracing had begun and stressed the need for the media to intensify education on the GHS protocols such as keeping social distance of about two metres, frequent handwashing with soap under running water among others, adding that stay home if you have no urgent business in town.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Death claim settlement due to coronavirus cannot be declined by insurers

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Apr 07: The Life Insurance Council said all the insurers are duty-bound to settle claims if a death occurs due to covid-19.

All life insurers, both public and private, are committed to process any death claim pertaining to covid-19 at the earliest, the Council said in a statement.

It said the clause of Force Majeure' will not apply in case of covid-19 death claims.

#Stayathome and send us your selfie

Force Majeure is described as an event or effect that can be neither anticipated nor controlled.

This step was taken to reassure customers who had reached out to life insurance companies seeking clarity on this clause in their contract as well as to dispel rumours to the contrary, it said.

Fake News Buster

All life insurance companies have also communicated to their customers individually in this regard.

Life Insurance Council Secretary General S N Bhattacharya said that the spiralling global and local impact of covid-19 pandemic has emphasized the fundamental need for life insurance in every household."

India between Stage 2 and 3 of Coronavirus pandemic: Health Ministry

"We reiterate that all life insurance companies stand by their customers in these difficult times and the customer should not be swayed by misinformation or misrepresentation,he added.
West Bengal Chief Minister



Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said her government has identified seven COVID-19 hotspots in the state and was taking necessary measures to break the cycle of transmission.

Banerjee also said that the death toll in the state has risen to five, while the number of active cases stands at 69. On Tuesday, eight new coronavirus cases were reported.

"We have identified seven COVID-19 hotspots in the state. We are taking appropriate action," Banerjee said without divulging the names of the vulnerable areas.

The chief minister also said that she was weighing the option of providing "limited relaxation" on the work front for unorganised sector workers, who were among the worst hit by the lockdown.

"We are mulling the idea of allowing limited relaxations in some unorganized sectors. We will also allow Kisan Mandi to operate but everyone has to adhere to the social distancing norms," she added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India has decided to partially lift the ban on export of paracetamol and anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine in sync with its global commitment to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, officials said on Tuesday.

On March 25, India banned export of hydroxychloroquine in the midst of views in some quarters that the drug could be used to fight COVID-19. India is the largest exporter of the drug.

In a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, President Donald Trump sought supply of hydroxychloroquine to the US to treat coronavirus infected people.

On Monday, Trump warned India that the US may retaliate if it did not export hydroxychloroquine despite his personal request.

Hydroxychloroquine is an old and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria. India is the largest producer of the drug globally.

Officials said India would export the drug on a case-by-case basis after meeting all the domestic requirements.

"India has always maintained that the international community must display strong solidarity and cooperation. This approach also guided our evacuation of nationals of other countries," Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivastava said.

"In view of the humanitarian aspects of the pandemic, it has been decided that India would licence paracetamol and HCQ (hydroxychloroquine) in appropriate quantities to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on our capabilities," he said.

The MEA spokesperson was responding to media queries on the issue.

"We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic," said Srivastava.

India is learnt to have received requests from at least 20 countries including its immediate neighbours Sri Lanka and Nepal for supply of hydroxychloroquine.

"Like any responsible government, our first obligation is to ensure that there are adequate stocks of medicines for the requirement of our own people," the MEA spokesperson said.

In order to ensure this, he explained, some "temporary steps" were taken to restrict exports of a number of pharmaceutical products. He said a comprehensive assessment was carried out about possible requirements of various drugs under different scenarios.

"After having confirmed the availability of medicines for all possible contingencies currently envisaged, these restrictions have been largely lifted," he said.

He said the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has notified lifting of restrictions on 14 drugs on Monday.

"With regard to paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine, they will be kept in a licensed category and their demand position would be continuously monitored," Srivastava said.

"However, the stock position could allow our companies to meet the export commitments that they had contracted," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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WFH for Private offices in Delhi, restaurants & bars to be shut as Omicron-led to sudden rise in Covid cases

Covid-19: Govt asks Tiktok, Facebook to remove rogue content, keep details of uploaders for probe

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Apr 07: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is learnt to have asked social media platforms like Tiktok, Helo and Facebook to remove rogue messages spreading misinformation and weakening government's effort to fight against the coronavirus.

Social media companies have also been asked to save details of uploaders of such malicious content which can be shared with law enforcement agencies when required.

"MeitY has said that a large number of fake/false and misinformation based audio and video clips are being circulated on social media platforms especially TikTok, Helo and Facebook. It said that such false and misinformation based messages have the potential for creating panic and other online harms," according to a source aware of the development.

The ministry in separate communications asked social media companies to remove the content as it weakens the government effort to fight against coronavirus and the Supreme Court has also taken serious note of such content while hearing a matter on the subject on March 31, 2020.

"The ministry has said that the rogue messages effectively weaken the all-out effort being made by the India government for containing the spread of coronavirus," the source said.

The communication from MeitY follows after a report submitted by open-source intelligence and fact-checking IT firm Voyager Infosec stated that several videos are being posted on social media platforms like Tiktok, Youtube and Twitter to influence Muslims in India against following safe practices to contain coronavirus infection.

The firm found that videos have been shot at both foreign locations and in India and are being primarily posted on Chinese mobile video app Tiktok with fake information about coronavirus and religious instigations against health advisories. These videos are further shared on other platforms like Whatsapp, Twitter and Facebook," the report said.

The report submitted to India Cyber Crime Coordination Centre claims to have analysed over 30,000 videos within a period of five days. It further said that most of these videos have been created with professional video editing softwares, and originally uploaded accounts are being deleted after circulating them on other social media platforms.

"MeitY has asked social media platforms to work closely with each other so that messages, including audio and video messages, are identified and removed as soon as possible. It has asked social media companies to submit daily reports on measures taken by them," the source said.

The ministry has asked social media companies to ensure that the rogue messages do not go viral and at the same time also save information of all those people who create or upload such messages. The details of content uploaders can be shared with the law enforcement agencies as and when required, it added.

When contacted, Tiktok spokesperson said, "We are actively working with the government to support them in their efforts to fight misinformation and proactively also working to elevate credible information related to covid-19 on our platform." Email query sent to Facebook elicited no immediate reply. Earlier, industry body IAMAI, whose members include Google, Facebook, Tiktok etc, said any request to remove content needs to come via proper legal notice.
Cleveland, Ohio  Iceland has tested about 5% of its 360,000 residents for coronavirus, according to CNN.

The founder of DeCODE, a biotech company which has done about 9,000 of these tests, told the news site that about 50 percent of positive cases are asymptomatic.

Keep in mind that fewer than 1 percent of the 9,000 tests came back positive. Iceland is offering free coronavirus testing of the general, non-symptomatic, non-quarantined population through DeCODE.

The rest of the testing occurs at National University hospital of Iceland in Reykjavik for patients showing symptoms.

The comment from DeCODEs founder sheds some new light on the testing situation. The DeCODE testing is separate from the numbers released by Icelands government on March 25, which showed 737 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Iceland. Of those, 52 were positive without symptoms  about 7 percent.

The country is claiming that it is testing the highest percentage of any country in the world. For comparison, Ohio has tested less than 1 percent of its cases, according to numbers from covidtracking.com.

Ohio is planning for population-based testing to assess the reach of the virus, Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton said in a briefing on Saturday. The team would start with a random sample of 100 asymptomatic people.

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Maintaining the flow of information about the crisis is a critical task for network and cable news, which have seen their audience levels surge. But it has also forced journalists to confront the danger posed by outbreak of the highly contagious virus, especially in New York, which has become the epicenter of the crisis (the number of coronavirus cases in New York state hit 130,689 on Monday). Two people in the network TV news ranks have died after contracting the virus, while a growing number of personnel including CNN anchors Chris Cuomo and Brooke Baldwin have tested positive.
Former chief minister's residence designated as a subsidiary jail

Mehbooba Mufti has been in detention for more than eight months. (PTI)

Srinagar: The authorities in Jammu & Kashmir on Tuesday shifted incarcerated former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti to her residence in Srinagars Gupkar area.

However, she will continue to remain in detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA). Only her place of lodgement has been changed through a fresh order issued by Shaleen Kabra, principal secretary (home) to the J&K government.

For this purpose, Fairview, her official residence on the foothills of the Zabarwan here, has been declared a subsidiary jail.

Mehbooba Mufti is among several hundred politicians of J&K who were taken into preventive custody before or immediately after the Centre stripped the state of its special status and split it up into two union territories on August 5, 2019. Many of them including Mufti and two other former chief ministers, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, were subsequently formally detained under the PSA.

Under the PSA, introduced in J&K in 1978 initially to deal with timber smuggling but later used by successive governments against their political opponents, a person can be detained for a period of six months to two years without the authorities seeking a formal trial.

Though many of the detainees including the Abdullahs were released recently, others including half a dozen leaders of the PDP and National Conference and former IAS topper Shah Faesal continue to be incarcerated.

The authorities have over the past couple of weeks also released nearly a 100 detainees -- about twenty of them on Monday -- to decongest the jails across the union territory and some more lodged in outside prisons in view of the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 threat.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres had on Monday called for a very close look at the continued incarceration of Kashmiri prisoners amid the growing threat of COVID-19. Also, six leading international human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Forum-Asia, International Commission of Jurists, CIVICUS, World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and International Federation for Human Rights (fidh) jointly demanded their immediate release.

These organizations said that while recent steps taken by the Indian authorities to decongest prisons in an effort to control the COVID-19 outbreak are welcome, the government should release all unjustly detained prisoners as a matter or priority. They said, The fate of hundreds of arbitrarily detained Kashmiri prisoners hangs in the balance as the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in India passes the 4,000 mark and many more are likely to remain undetected or unreported.
U.S. Secretary of State also mentioned the joint efforts of the State Department and Zelensky to hold Russia accountable for humanitarian conditions in Donbas

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised the recent phone conversation with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. Pompeo shared his impressions of it on his Twitter page.

Good to speak with @ZelenskyyUa today. I thanked him for #Ukraine's assistance getting #AmericansHome, including more than 200 @PeaceCorps volunteers. Together we continue to focus on reform and holding Russia accountable for humanitarian conditions in the Donbas, Pompeo wrote.

Their conversation took place on April 6. The questions about potential loan guarantees from the United States to Ukraine were raised. According to Zelensky, that will allow stabilizing Ukraine's economy.

President of Ukraine also thanked the USA for the continued support of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a sanctions policy on Russia.

As we reported earlier, according to the head of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax, and customs policy Danylo Hetmantsev, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) might provide Ukraine with the first tranche in the sum of four billion dollars right after it adopts the law on the banking.

We have received the official letter, the statement from the IMF that there two conditions, if they are fulfilled, the funds will be transferred to Ukraine, to the state budget. According to our calculations, it should be about $4 billion of loan, Hetmantsev reported.
ALBANY  One of New York's largest public labor unions is urging the state Department of Health to reverse a policy that calls for employees with suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases to return to the workplace in the event of staff shortages.

"Agencies across the state, whether facility-based or not, will use the guidance to prematurely return workers to work sites and greatly increase the spread of the virus," Public Employees Federation President Wayne Spence wrote in a letter dated April 3 to state health Commissioner Howard Zucker.

In a public statement issued late Tuesday, Spence reiterated the concerns of the state's second-largest public labor union.

"We are vehemently opposed to permitting confirmed or suspected COVID-19 employees to return to work until they have completely recovered or are confirmed negative," he said. "Especially without vigorous control measures desperately needed to protect those who care for some of the most vulnerable people in New York."

The health department recently released new guidance for employees returning to work from quarantine or isolation, specifically targeting health care practitioners, law enforcement officers and others deemed "essential" workers.



According to PEF, the plan intentionally returns people who are suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19 back into the workplace with few controls to protect the workforce or the public.

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"The expanding shortage of health care workers and frontline workers should not cause the state to rush the return of COVID-19 positive employees to work," Spence said. "That approach can only backfire as more people will be exposed, causing more illness in the workforce, which will make the shortages only get worse."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

The guidance has been issued as multiple members of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's press office have been in quarantine for nearly two weeks after another staff member tested positive for the infectious disease.

Spokespersons for the health department and Cuomo's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The union contends it's dangerous to end their employees' quaratines early and return them to duty when there are already shortages of personal protective equipment available to the general public.

"New York state should not knowingly send its infected employees onto public transportation while at the same time encouraging citizens and the sick to stay home, Spence said.
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly apologized on Monday night after his speech to sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier leaked, revealing he had lambasted the former captain of the ship for his handling of a coronavirus outbreak onboard.

While Modly had initially said he stood by every word of his speech, in which he said Captain Brett Crozier made a naive or stupid decision to widely circulate a letter asking the Navy for help that eventually leaked to the press, he released a subsequent statement reversing himself.

I want to apologize to the Navy for my recent comments to the crew of the TR, Modly said in a statement. Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid. I think, and always believed him to be the opposite.

In the speech to the crew of the ship, currently docked in Guam, Modly slammed Croziers decision-making, and suggested he had written the letter with the intention of it leaking to the media.

Crozier has reportedly tested positive for coronavirus since being relieved of command. Footage of the captain leaving the ship showed sailors cheering his name.

The apology also comes after President Trump said he would get involved in the Navys decision to fire Crozier, adding that the letter shouldnt have been sent, but that Croziers career prior to that was very good.

Im going to get involved and see exactly whats going on there, because I dont want to destroy somebody for having a bad day . . . you have two good people and theyre arguing, and believe it or not Im good at settling arguments, the president said at the daily White House coronavirus briefing on Monday.

More from National Review
Representative Image

Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) seems to be another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic with various projects getting stuck as the world battles the deadly outbreak, the Economic Times has reported.

Thousands of workers are unable to re-join work, with Chinese citizens facing a travel ban in 130 countries. Project in Asia and Europe and even along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor have come to a standstill, said the report.

Cambodias Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone and works in Malaysia, Myanmar and Indonesia were among the other projects that had halted, sources told the paper.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

The Belt and Road Initiative is the modern Silk Road that aims to link China with the rest of Asia, Europe and beyond through is a network of rail, road and ports.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The projects run the risk of remaining incomplete or being abandoned, the newspapers said, citing "What the Covid-19 Pandemic May Mean for Chinas Belt and Road Initiative", a report by the US-based think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). COVID-19 is the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus.

BRI is Chinese President Xi Jinping's pet project and the country has lobbied with Pakistan and South Pacific island states to lift travel bans and resume influx of Chinese workers to complete projects, sources added.

Follow our LIVE Updates on the coronavirus pandemic here

The outbreak has disrupted Chinas manufacturing supply chains and since most of these projects source their material from that country, lower outflow has increased the risk of the Asian giant running a trade deficit for January and February 2020, the report added.

Besides exports, Chinas factories are still shut and workers in quarantine, truckers need to be brought back into gear, supplies of raw material have to be restored and shipping ports opened.

The pace of resuming these projects would depend on how effectively the virus is contained and Chinas broader economic recovery, the CFR report said.
So long, DualShock. Sony has taken the wraps off its PlayStation 5 controller and it wont be clinging onto the branding that has adorned controllers through the last several consoles. Instead, the latest peripheral is called the DualSense, and Sony has at last revealed what it actually looks like beyond patent applications.

It has a two-tone design instead of the traditional all-black look for base PlayStation controllers. Sony has also moved the light bar from the back of the DualShock 4 to the border of the touchpad, giving it a slightly larger look and feel.

Sony's DualSense controller for PlayStation 5

The DualSense has a built-in microphone array, so you can chat with your friends without needing a headset. The DualShock share button is no more, with a Create button taking its place. Sony will spell out exactly what youll be able to do with that in the coming months. A closer look at the rear, meanwhile, suggests that the DualSense has a USB-C charging port.

The company previously teased some details about the controller, such as its adaptive L2 and R2 triggers and that itd have haptic feedback. Sony suggests that the DualSense, along with the consoles Tempest 3D AudioTech, will deliver a new feeling of immersion to players.

The PS5 is still on track for a holiday 2020 release date, so itll only be six months or so before we find out how true that statement is, as well as whether the DualSense is as comfy as it appears. However, weve still no idea what the console itself looks like. Fingers crossed therell be more details on that front soon.
Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that the VVIP police security detail, posted at Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's residence would be tested for Covid-19.

Mumbai: Covid-19 continued to march north in Maharashtra on Tuesday claiming 12 more lives to total 64 deaths and 150 new cases, taking the number of positive cases to 1,018 according to officials.

The precautionary measure was announced a day after a tea-seller outside the Thackeray home, 'Matoshree' tested positive.

On Tuesday, 6 Covid-19 patients died in Mumbai, three succumbed in Pune and one each in Thane, Nagpur and Satara.

They include 2 women and 10 men, who were also suffering from various other serious ailments.

Among the new Covid-19 cases are: Mumbai 116, Pune 18, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Ahmednagar 3 each, Thane and Buldhana 2 each, and one each in Satara, Sangli, and Ratnagiri.

The fresh deaths and new cases came a day after 'Matoshree' -- the residence of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray -- and two major private hospitals, one in Mumbai and one in Pune being sealed after around 130 staffers were found Covid-19 positive.

The tea-seller, who was in business till March 22, has been admitted to the Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Medical College & R.N. Cooper Hospital in Juhu, and efforts are on to trace his contacts even as Kala Nagar -- the area around 'Matoshri' -- has been sealed since Monday.

In another concern, officials said that around 4 dozen persons who attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi are untraceable as their phones are switched off.

The Mumbai police yesterday issued an appeal to all such persons who went for the Delhi Jamaat programme to voluntarily come forward with their health status.

Of the total 64 casualties in the state, Mumbai alone has recorded 40 deaths.

So far, 34,695 people are in home quarantine and 4,008 in institutional quarantine, while 79 who are fully cured have been discharged.

In a major move, the health authorities have sealed off at least two major residential localities in 'mass quarantine' in view of the high incidence of Covid-19 positive cases from those areas.

They include the localities between Kondwa, Maharshinagar to RTO in Junya Peth, which have been placed under total curfew since midnight (of April 6-7), though essential supplies will be made available there.

In a significant move, the state government has decided to extend the economical 'Shiv Bhojan Thali' scheme right down to 'taluka' levels for the next three months.

The meals will be available for Rs 5 at extended service hours from 11 am-3 pm, which will prove beneficial to thousands of stranded migrants all over the state, said Thackeray.

The state health authorities continue to comb for the Tablighi Jamaat attendees in all districts and civic bodies in the state where so far 23 such positive cases have been found.

They are 8 from Latur, 6 from Buldhana and four from Pune, two from Ahmednagar and one each in Hingoli, Jalgaon and Washim, who had attended the Delhi event in March.
Congressman John Lewis has endorsed Joe Biden for president and called on him to pick a woman of colour as his running mate.

Mr Lewis is a representative for Georgia and is well known for his civil rights activism in the 1960s, where he was one of six leaders who organised the 1963 March on Washington.

Ahead of his endorsement announcement on Tuesday, Mr Lewis told reporters that we need his voice, while referring to the former vice president.

He said that Mr Biden is a man of courage, a man of great conscience, a man of faith, and said he will help us regain our way as a nation.

The 80-year-old, who revealed in December 2019 that he is receiving treatment for pancreatic cancer, endorsed Mr Biden in the video on Twitter, saying that Joe Biden has no delusion about this nations past, but he knows who we can be at our best.

Recommended Prominent civil rights activist diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

Mr Lewis narrates the video, depicting his civil rights activism, and says I know hatred when I see it. I have felt it. I have stared down the deepest and darkest forces in this nation.

As clips of far right protests are played, he claims that over the past four years I have seen the same kind of evil rear its head again. You judge the character of a man by how he chooses to respond to that moral obligation.

Mr Lewis adds that Vice president Joe Biden has never stopped speaking up for his fellow man. Joe Biden and I both believe that we are in a fight to redeem the soul of America.

Mr Lewis also told reporters before the announcement that it would be good to have a woman of colour as the US vice president.

In a live TV debate with Bernie Sanders in March, Mr Biden pledged to pick a woman as his running mate if he is chosen to be the Democratic candidate for president.

If Im elected president, my cabinet, my administration, will look like the country, and I commit that I will in fact appoint and pick a woman as vice president, he said.

There are a number of women who are qualified to be president tomorrow, he added.

The endorsement comes ahead of the Democratic Georgia primary, which has been rescheduled from 24 March to 19 May, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, upwards of 383,256 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 12,021.
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is working on a measure that would allow businesses to reopen, trumping Gov. Tom Wolfs order to close businesses that arent life sustaining to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The legislation, approved by the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday on a party-line vote, would apply to any type of businesses conforming with a federal list of essential critical infrastructure. Under the bill, those businesses would still have to comply with the recommended guidance for mitigating exposure to COVID-19 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It is unclear at this time how soon the House would vote on the measure.

Dr. Rachel Levine, state health secretary, has voiced her opposition to the measure. She said it would be premature and undermine the integrity and effectiveness of the commonwealths collective response to the novel coronavirus.

To date, 14,559 Pennsylvanians have been diagnosed with the coronavirus and 240 have died, according to the state Department of Health. Cases have now been found in all of Pennsylvanias 67 counties.

The legislation comes in response to complaints lawmakers have heard from businesses and consumers alike about the hardships caused by the governors order to shut down businesses. Businesses and trade groups have derided what they call a lack of clarity and transparency associated with the Wolf Administrations waiver process that has allowed some companies to remain open.

House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Montgomery County, said during a phone call with reporters late Tuesday afternoon the goal of the measure the House is offering is to standardize the types of businesses that can be open at this time.

He pointed out inconsistencies exist that allow big box stores to be open while forcing small businesses that sell some of the same products to be closed.

Were going to take that into consideration as we move forward on that proposal, Cutler said. In working with their counterparts in the House and Senate and the governor, he said they are going to try and figure out what makes sense in terms of the data, the projected peak, the impact going forward" as the state looks to get people safely back to work.

Do I think that additional business could in fact be open? It would depend on who chooses to do so because it would be their individual choice if their workers can safely return to work, Cutler said. What were looking for is to strike that balance to make sure individuals who can safely do so and want to can safely go back to work.

Republican lawmakers have made the argument that Pennsylvania has been the only state in the nation to not adopt or use some version of the March 28 advisory identifying essential workers during the COVID-19 response issued by the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

They said the governors sweeping closure order, which took effect just hours after it was announced on March 19, is why this state leads the nation in the number of unemployment compensation claims. This week, those claims surpassed 1 million.

We want everybody to be safe in this state in the way they operate, said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Stan Saylor, R-York County, during the committees consideration of the bill. The key is to do this in a way that keeps our citizens safe while keeping them off the breadlines and not being homeless which the current governors guidelines do."

The governor will review the legislation if it reaches his desk, said Lyndsay Kensinger, a spokeswoman for Wolf.

House Democratic Appropriations Committee Chairman Matt Bradford of Montgomery County called the measure reckless and unwise.

During the meeting, he read a letter from the states health secretary voicing her opposition. She called it irresponsible to approve the legislation at this time.

The only way to shorten the length of time we need to weather these conditions is through aggressive social distancing, Levine wrote. That is to say in order to bend the curve and assure we can adequately and equitably care for our friends and neighbors during this pandemic, people need to stay home. Encouraging increased social movement of Pennsylvanians at this time by reopening a significant amount of businesses would be reckless and irresponsible.

Her letter went on to say: Before we can save livelihoods, we need to save lives.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

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This article is part of the Debatable newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it Tuesdays and Thursdays.

For all of modern medicines advances, the immune system is still largely on its own when it comes to viruses: Of the 200 or so types that are known to infect humans, only about 10 have approved treatments, according to the science journalist Matthew Hutson.

The race is now on to make the coronavirus the 11th: With a vaccine at least a year away, an effective treatment may be the countrys best hope for making a recovery before next year. But how close are researchers to finding a drug that works? Heres a look at where things stand.

The old drugs on the block

For weeks, President Trump  against the advice of public-health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci  has been endorsing hydroxychloroquine as a treatment. Sold under the brand name Plaquenil, hydroxychloroquine has been used for decades to treat malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. (Mr. Trump himself has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that produces Plaquenil.) But the truth is we dont know yet whether hydroxychloroquine has any treatment value for Covid-19.

While one new study suggests the drug may speed the recovery of mild cases, as Denise Grady reports for The Times, it has yet to be peer-reviewed. Earlier studies were limited, inconclusive or seriously flawed.

Fortunately, there is a nationwide clinical trial underway at the University of Minnesota that may help clarify the matter in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, hydroxychloroquine should not be promoted lightly, Olga Lucia Torres writes for The Times. The hype Mr. Trump created around the drug has caused healthy people to hoard it, putting people like Ms. Torres, who depends on it to keep her lupus in check, at even greater medical risk during the pandemic. Whats more, hydroxychloroquine can have serious side effects: heart and retinal damage and even permanent blindness.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 7, 2020) - DXI Energy Inc. (TSX: DXI) (OTCQB: DXIEF) ("DXI" or the "Company"), an upstream oil and natural gas exploration and production company operating projects in Colorado's Piceance Basin and the Peace River Arch region in British Columbia today announced that its Board of Directors has decided the Company needs to exit the energy space immediately, given current affairs beyond the Company's control.

The 99% owned Woodrush multi well production facility, owned by a wholly-owned subsidiary, has been formally shut in. The asset is to be sold. The Kokopelli multi-well gas production property (15% WI) in Colorado is also to be sold. Sufficient funding to continue the conversion of the Woodrush production facility to a methanol plant in NE BC simply did not materialize despite the efforts of the Company's senior management and its financial advisors. The Calgary office will be closed immediately. All funds received from the sale of assets will be applied to satisfy prioritized payables, and fund, as possible, the costs required to maintain corporate affairs and the search for a new business.

Effective March 31, 2020, the company's contracts with all senior personnel including Chairman and CEO Simon Raven and CFO David Matheson have been terminated. Mr. Raven subsequently resigned as Director and Chief Executive Officer of DXI and all wholly-owned subsidiaries. The Company wishes to thank Mr. Raven for his service and wishes him all the best in his future endeavors. The Company is very thankful that Mr. Matheson will continue to assist the Company in the sale of assets and filing of obligatory financial statements over at least the short term.

Three additional members of the Board of Directors (all independent from the USA) resigned following the Company's recognition that funding for the Company's current project did not materialize at a meeting held March 31, 2020. The Company wishes to thank Messrs Sean Sullivan, Stan Page and Ed Aabak for their years of valuable advice and substantial contribution on behalf of all Company stakeholders.

The remaining Directors will use their best efforts to secure a new path of opportunity for the Company's stakeholders. This may take several months given current global issues, the pursuit of new business, capital reorganization (e.g. prudent consolidation, mandatory secured and prioritized share for debt settlement) and new financing.

The Company will respond proactively to the TSX listing policies (and the US OTC exchange) in the near future and prepare to apply for listing on a junior exchange, yet to be determined, subject to satisfying that exchange's listing policies.

Delay in Filing under CSA Instrument Governing Relief under Covid-19 Duress

Pursuant to CSA Instruments BC Instrument 51-515 and Ontario Instrument 51-502, due to circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the British Columbia Securities Commission and other Canadian Securities Administrators granted "Issuers" in the Canadian securities industry up to an additional 45 days, from March 30, 2020 through May 14, 2020, to complete year-end statutory filings. Accordingly, as required by CSA Instruments BC Instrument 51-515 and Ontario Instrument 51-502, the Company's management and other insiders will be subject to a trading black-out that reflects the principles in Section 9 of National Policy 11-207 until its financial statements are filed, the Company will file its' audited financial statements and interim financial statements for the year and three (3) month period ended December 31, 2019, together with its "Annual Information Form", by May 14, 2020, and other than as previously disclosed by the Company, including the information herein, there are no other material business developments since the date of the Company's most recent filing of its interim financial statements and management discussion and analysis.

The Company looks forward to reporting to all stakeholders as we move through this period of reorganization.

Signed: The Board of Directors of DXI Energy Inc.

About DXI ENERGY INC.

DXI Energy Inc. maintains, to date, offices in Calgary and Vancouver, Canada and has been producing commercial quantities of oil and gas since 2008. The company is currently publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (DXI.TO) and the OTCQB (DXIEF).

Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains statements about oil and gas production and operating activities that may constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation as they involve the implied assessment that the resources described can be profitably produced in the future, based on certain estimates and assumptions. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the future plans of the Company, the completion and final amount raised in the financing, the final use of proceeds and that all necessary final approvals will be obtained. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections that involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by DXI Energy and described in the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to, adverse general economic conditions, operating hazards, drilling risks, inherent uncertainties in interpreting engineering and geologic data, competition, reduced availability of drilling and other well services, fluctuations in oil and gas prices and prices for drilling and other well services, government regulation and foreign political risks, fluctuations in the exchange rate between Canadian and US dollars and other currencies, as well as other risks commonly associated with the exploration and development of oil and gas properties. Additional information on these and other factors, which could affect DXI Energy Inc.'s operations or financial results, are included in DXI Energy Inc.'s reports on file with Canadian and United States securities regulatory authorities. We assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions change unless otherwise required under securities law.

The securities offered have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold to persons in the United States absent registration or an exemption from such registration requirements. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

The TSX does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54225
Hannaford is donating $180,000 to organizations in New York to help people struggling during the coronavirus pandemic.

Every day, we are learning more about the impact of this virus and responding together as a community to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Hannaford President Mike Vail. Our company and our associates are working hard in our grocery stores to meet the most-basic needs of our community during this difficult time: food and medicine. We hope that this donation also will help the most-vulnerable of our neighbors meet their fundamental needs of staying fed and healthy, during this difficult time.

The following New York organizations will receive funding:

Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York: $120,000

The Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York will use the money to hire staff to help meet growing needs in their efforts to collect and distribute food to nearly 1,000 charitable agencies across 23 counties in New York.

Homeless and Travelers Aid Society: $30,000

The Homeless and Travelers Aid Society (HATAS) provides shelter, food and clothing to homeless individuals, as well as long-term affordable housing and sustainable employment, in Albany County and the surrounding Capital Region. HATAS is currently working to move homeless individuals and families out of shelters and into temporary housing to help limit the spread of COVID-19.

Salvation Army, Empire State Division: $25,000

The Salvation Army, Empire State Division provides a host of services to individuals and families with varying needs, including homelessness. The organization operates 43 homeless shelters across the state, including locations in Albany, Schenectady, Hudson and Kingston. The Salvation Army also provides emergency supplies and assistance, including a food pantry, food delivery and meal preparation sites, for homeless individuals.

Food Bank of Central New York: $5,000

Food Bank of Central New York is a non-profit organization working to eliminate hunger in the counties of Cayuga, Chenango, Cortland, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, and St. Lawrence.

Overall, Hannaford is donating $750,000 to food banks and organizations that work with homeless people across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York and Massachusetts.
Gov. Kristi Noem drafts bill limiting 'action civics'

This legislation prohibits colleges and schools from directing, requiring or compelling students to protest or lobby as part of a grade or a class.
On March 30, Skokie police responded to a call of a suspicious person inside of a vehicle in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven in the 7900 block of Crawford Ave., police said in a news release.
Pakistani peoples line up to pay utility bills in a bank during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus in Rawalpindi on March 30, 2020. (FAROOQ NAEEM/AFP via Getty Images)

Concerns Rise Over Beijings Use of Pandemic to Advance Its Agenda Overseas

WASHINGTONChina has lured many countries into a debt trap through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in recent years, and now there is a growing concern in Washington that Beijing could exploit the ongoing pandemic to further expand its geopolitical influence through predatory practices.

Chinas BRI, also referred to as One Belt, One Road or the New Silk Road, is one of the worlds most ambitious and controversial development programs. Since its launch in 2013, Beijing has poured billions of dollars into emerging countries to help build massive infrastructure projects.

In recent years, the BRI has come under scrutiny, as most of the projects are financed through Chinese state-controlled lenders with a lack of transparency, leaving borrowing nations distressed by massive debt burdens. Beijing has come under fire for setting a debt trap to seize control of strategic assets in emerging countries.

Sri Lankas Hambantota port has been cited as a classic example, as a Chinese state-owned firm took control of the port on a 99-year lease after Sri Lanka defaulted on its loans.

The Trump administration has voiced a hard line against Chinas ambitions to grow its footprint in emerging markets, and the CCP virus outbreak has amplified these concerns.

These emerging market countries are going to be in a world of hurt, a senior administration official told The Epoch Times.

The official said theres an urgent need for debt relief in these countries.

In recent years, the Chinese regime has fostered its debt trap diplomacy with the concept of building a community of common destiny for mankind, the official noted.

If China is really promoting a community of common destiny, then they should jump on the bandwagon for debt relief.

But chances are theyre going to fight that tooth and nail. And well be able to use that to call them out consistently on their bad practices in emerging markets.

U.S. foreign policy and financial assistance are directed toward making emerging countries self-reliant, the official said.

However, China is not interested in the self-reliance of these countries. China, the PRC, is interested in perpetuating dependence.

The World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund in March urged all official bilateral creditors to suspend debt payments from the worlds 76 poorest countries and allow them to redirect funds toward fighting the pandemic.

World Bank President David Malpass, during the Group of Twenty (G-20) finance ministers conference call on March 23, raised this issue and asked the G-20 economies including China to provide immediate debt relief to the 76 countries.

This crisis will likely hit hardest against the poorest and most vulnerable countries, Malpass said on the call. Many were already in a difficult debt situation, leaving no space for appropriate health and economic response.

The World Bank could provide up to $35 billion and identify additional resources for these countries. However, these resources shouldnt go to pay creditors, he added.

Fixing Supply Chains

The pandemic has awakened many advanced economies to the real danger of being overly dependent on the Chinese regime for vital products such as medical supplies and life-saving drugs.

The Chinese supply chain is the single point of failure in the global response to the coronavirus outbreak, the senior administration official said.

The U.S. government is now speaking with counterparts in the Group of Seven (G-7), as well as countries such as Mexico and India, the official said, about the need to reexamine global supply chains.

The U.S. government has criticized Beijing for using the pandemic to advance its agenda overseas. China has been engaged in a wide-reaching propaganda effort on social media, portraying itself as a compassionate global superpower assisting Western countries.

Speaking at a press briefing on March 26, James Richardson, director of the Office of U.S. Foreign Assistance Resources, said the Chinese regime shouldnt exploit the pandemic.

I would just say that the Chinese Communist Party has a special responsibility to provide no-strings-attached assistance around the world and take responsibility for what everyone realizes is the result of the coverup that happened in Wuhan, Richardson said.

We cant burden financially difficult countries facing this pandemic in addition to their economic conditions. We should not ask them to take on more debt to keep their people healthy.

Experts and media reports claim that the regime has deliberately masked the total number of COVID-19 cases in China in a bid to safeguard its image both nationally and internationally.

Chinese officials and state-run media have attempted to shift the blame for the regimes failure to contain the virus by pushing conspiracy theories targeting the United States as part of an aggressive global disinformation campaign.
The North Shore Senior Center in Northfield and the Levy Senior Center in Evanston began online classes in late March. The activities range from current events discussions to physical fitness classes. They are designed to help members deal with the sense of isolation that can come from the states stay-at-home order.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is continuing to stress social distancing in New York state and warning people who refuse to comply.

PIX-11 reports Cuomo said hed seen reports of increases in social activity over the weekend, including at funerals and parks, and urged police to be more aggressive in shutting them down.

Now is not the time to play frisbee with your friends at the park. Now is not the time to go to a funeral with 200 people, Cuomo said Monday during a press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic.

I want to be, frankly, more aggressive on the enforcement... The localities have the legal right and responsibility to enforce the law. Just do your job.

Cuomo increased the maximum fine for social distancing violations from $500 to $1,000. All schools and non-essential businesses are closed, and non-essential workers have been ordered to stay at home until at least April 29; exceptions are allowed for buying groceries and medicine, but people must stay at least six feet apart while going out and are advised to wear masks to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Its not really about the fine. Nobody wants the money, Cuomo said. We want the compliance. We are serious.

Now is not the time to be reckless.



Now is not the time to play Frisbee with your friends in the park.



Now is not the time to slack off on #SocialDistancing. pic.twitter.com/bexkTQMg4e  Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 7, 2020

People magazine reports NYPD broke up crowds at multiple funerals within the Hasidic Jewish community in New York City on Sunday. Concerned citizens contacted police, who told mourners they must leave.

The NYPD needs all New Yorkers to cooperate with the ban on social gatherings in order to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. It is important to note that the vast majority are following all guidelines, an NYPD spokesperson said in a statement. The NYPD will continue to enforce social distancing and any large gathering  including services  put both members of the public and officers at risk. These gatherings must cease immediately.

The NYPD will aggressively shut down dangerous funerals where crowds of mourners pose risk, Mayor de Blasio said.



He will speak with members of the Hasidic community again after cops had to break up a crowded Brooklyn funeral.https://t.co/2lRvYqO1a1  New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) April 6, 2020

Cuomo said Monday that the number of daily deaths and hospitalizations has begun to flatten over the past two days, but warned that the curve could continue trending upwards if people dont continue social distancing.

We get reckless, we change or were not compliant on social distancing, you will see those numbers go up again. We underestimate this virus at our own peril. Now is not the time to slack off on what were doing," the governor said. Theres a real danger in getting over-confident too quickly. While the numbers look like they may be turning and its yay its over. No, its not. Other places have made that mistake. Hong Kong and South Korea... we are not going to make that mistake.

Its not about your life; you dont have the right to risk someone elses life.

New York state has more than 130,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of Monday; 4,758 have died from COVID-19 or complications related to the disease caused by coronavirus.

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Alaska Airlines is donating its freighter fleet to help supply large numbers of face masks in support of the 100 Million Mask Challenge.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) launched the nationwide initiative in late March to secure masks for physicians, nurses and caregivers who are treating coronavirus patents. The initial effort is aimed at getting masks to Providence, a non-profit Catholic healthcare system operating 51 hospitals in seven states.

Providence has engaged Kaas Tailored, a Washington state furniture manufacturer that has agreed to produce personal protective equipment and share design specifications with other manufacturers.

Last Wednesday, Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE: ALK) carried materials to make 210,000 hospital-grade masks from Seattle to Dallas, Phoenix and Los Angeles, where thousands of masks are being assembled each week.

Providence spokesman Mark Gross said the most urgent need for replenishment is at facilities in Washington, Oregon and California, but that the masks are being produced for all hospitals, including ones in Alaska, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon and Texas. Once the masks are made, they will flow into Providence's regular supply chain that utilizes trucks, rail and airfreight.

"For years, Alaska Airlines has helped us fly doctors, nurses and other medical personnel up and down the West Coast. Now more than ever, it's mission-critical to get protective equipment to caregivers, who are caring for millions of people in the communities we serve," said Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, chief clinical officer for Providence, in a statement. "We are heartened by all the great companies stepping up to the 100 Million Mask Challenge and hope more will join our efforts to protect our country's caregivers."

More information on how to support the "100 Million Mask Challenge" is available at aha.org/100millionmasks.

The AHA said it is striving to scale up the campaign and match providers in need of masks and manufacturers with capacity to produce them.

Story continues

Alaska Airlines is the only domestic passenger airline to operate dedicated, all-cargo aircraft, which have added importance moving essential goods because airlines dismantled much of their passenger networks when people stopped traveling because of the coronavirus. On Monday, Alaska Airlines announced it will reduce capacity by 80% in April and May.

Alaska Air Cargo said its three Boeing 737-700 freighters are being used heavily to ship tons of groceries, medical supplies and other items to, from and within the state of Alaska, which relies on ocean and air transport from the Lower 48 states for basic staples and other goods.

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A Central Texas city has reversed its position that a local store selling CBD oil and vaping products did not qualify as an essential business under restrictions intended to keep the COVID-19 virus from spreading.

In an email sent Tuesday afternoon, the City of Beverly Hills, a small municipality surrounded by Waco, told Fattys Smoke Shop it could reopen so long as its clerks followed social distancing best practices.

Beverly Hills police had issued Fattys a citation last week after officers disagreed with owner Jesse Singhs argument that customers use CBD oil to treat various medical ailments so his shop qualifies as an essential health care business. Despite the ticket, which could bring a fine up to $1,000, Singh remained open, only to have police return and forcibly close the store two days later.

In response to a letter from Fattys lawyer, however, the city changed its mind. Referencing McLennan County Judge Scott Feltons March 23 emergency order, City Secretary Angel Nevarez wrote, After review of the Order that is in place Fattys may remain open, however, there will have to be a curbside service. Only workers should be in the store.

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Nevarez did not respond to a phone message and email seeking additional comment.

The flipflop highlights the difficulty in reconciling competing economic and public safety interests in the countrys response to the novel coronavirus, as officials trying to limit social contact to slow its spread bump up against businesses desperate to stay afloat.

The decisions have not been immune from at least the appearance of politicking. After firearms-rights advocates protested the determination of several jurisdictions that gun shops were non-essential, Attorney General Ken Paxton last week issued an opinion that in Texas they are. Paxton also has ordered the states abortion clinics closed, saying their medical equipment and personnel need to be directed to the COVID response.

Different jurisdictions have made varying determinations on whether stores selling CBD oil may stay open as essential health care providers. Among major cities and counties, apparently only Travis County and Austin have orders that specifically identify the shops as non-essential and thus they must remain closed. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins made the same determination via Twitter.

FOR THE LATEST: Interactive maps, charts show spread of coronavirus in Texas

The CBD back-and-forth in Beverly Hills comes as Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday issued a new order that attempts to further clarify what businesses may remain open and which must stay closed. It identified 17 categories of essential services as defined by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as well as religious services in houses of worship.

The only businesses it prohibits by name, however, are hair salons, gyms, massage establishments, tattoo and piercing studios, and dine-in restaurants. Business owners who arent clear if their companies qualify as an essential service may submit their plea to the Texas Department of Emergency Management.

Seth Christensen, a spokesman for the agency, said a panel will consider the requests and make a determination as quickly as possible and post it on the agencys website for public reference. Were looking for, if they dont qualify, why they should be open now? he said.

Christensen said most of the questions so far have been easily answered, with some of the businesses clearly qualifying as essential, while others - hair salons, primarily, he said - being reminded that they are non-essential under the order.

He added that the emergency management agency had been asked about CBD shops and would make a statewide determination soon.

In the meantime, Craig Greening, one of Singhs lawyers, said he plans to contest Fattys citation in court.
By Julia Cheever

Bay City News Service

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Three conservation groups and the U.S. Agriculture Department reached a settlement in federal court in San Francisco Monday that will restrict a program for killing wildlife that could harm farms, livestock and people in the North Bay and Sacramento area.

The restrictions will last until the department completes a new Environmental Impact Statement by the end of 2023 on plans for its Wildlife Services program in 10 counties in the agency's Sacramento District.

The three groups that sued the department last year are the Center for Biological Diversity, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and Project Coyote. The settlement was filed together with a request for dismissal of the lawsuit, which was signed Monday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler.

The settlement bans the use of body-gripping traps, such as steel leg-hold traps and strangulation snares, in wilderness areas and national parks within the 10 counties. Any traps that are set elsewhere in the region will be checked daily.

The agreement also prohibits the use of a bird-killing poison in areas occupied by the tri-colored blackbird, which is listed as a threatened species under California law. It forbids the use of lead bullets except when the wildlife killed can be retrieved from the environment. The pact also ends most beaver-killing in waterways where endangered wildlife depends on beaver-created habitats.

Collette Adkins, a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity, said, "This victory will save hundreds of animals that would have needlessly suffered and died in traps set by Wildlife Services over the next several years."

The Wildlife Services program, operated under contracts with other federal agencies, local governments and private landowners, is intended to prevent wildlife from damaging agriculture, industry and people. Animals killed include bears, wolves, foxes and coyotes.

The settlement states that neither the conservation groups nor the Agriculture Department admit to any of the facts or claims at issue in the case. The dismissal order provides that the court will retain jurisdiction for the purpose of enforcing compliance with the settlement.

The 10 counties affected by the agreement are Colusa, El Dorado, Lake, Marin, Napa, Placer, Sacramento, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties.

Marin County dropped out of the federal program in 2000, however, and instead uses a county-administered program that emphasizes nonlethal approaches such as fencing, the use of dogs and llamas as guard animals, night corrals, lamb sheds and noise and light devices.

The Agriculture Department's Wildlife Services division, formerly called Animal Damage Control, is part of its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Photo: Robert Couse-Baker/Flickr

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Goods bound for North Korea at a customs checkpoint near the border in Dandong, China, in a file photo.

Authorities in North Korea executed without trial three high-ranking officials last week on charges of treason, for allegedly stealing food from the countrys strategic supply and selling it on the open market amid skyrocketing prices resulting from the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, sources within the isolated country told RFA.

According to sources familiar with the situation, the food was part of a large emergency shipment from China that was allowed to come through despite trade between the two countries having been shut down to prevent the spread of the virus.

The portion that was sold on the market was high-quality food intended to be used in celebrations for national founder Kim Il Sungs birthday on April 15, a holiday referred to as the Day of the Sun.

A trader in North Pyongan province told RFAs Korean Service Sunday said that authorities temporarily reopened the Dandong-Sinuiju customs office on March 23 to accept the shipment. It had been completely shut down since January.

Even with the coronavirus going on, they opened up [the customs office] and quickly brought those supplies in, said the source.

Three executives stole [some] of these imported strategic supplies on the local market and were shot dead without a trial a few days ago on charges of treason, the source added.

The source described in detail how the theft occurred, saying, About 10 trucks and freight cars came through [from China] with the strategic supplies, food for the big wigs to celebrate the Day of the Sun.

The supplies were quarantined and disinfected before they entered a logistics warehouse. As they were being separated for distribution in amounts designated by the Central Committee [of the Korean Workers Party], a senior official at a food factory bribed one of the logistics officials to receive five tons more soybean oil than what should have been allotted, and sold it in the local markets, said the source.

But the soybean oil was easily detected as being of Chinese origin and linked to the strategic supply.

An investigation was conducted after the Central Committee received a report that all the soybean oil sold in the local markets in North Pyongan were part of those supplies coming from China, the source said.

The investigation uncovered that the warehouse manager, the supplier that made the delivery and the person receiving the goods had conspired to steal from the strategic supply, the source added.

According to the source, the execution may have been ordered by Kim Jong Un himself.

The results of the investigation were included in a No. 1 report, the source said, using a term that means the report was intended for the countrys supreme leader.

I understand that they were shot to death in accordance with the No. 1 policy to treat the case as national treason because they stole emergency goods imported by the Central Committee, said the source, adding that it was unknown when and where the execution took place.

Another source, also from North Pyongan told RFA Monday that the goods the officials sold on the market had been scarce for months.

Since the end of January, when they blocked off the border because of the coronavirus, foods like imported sugar and soybean oil have become scarce in the Sinuiju market and prices have soared, the second source said.

The price of soybean oil jumped from 15,000 won to 18,000 [U.S. $1.87 to $2.25] per kilogram due to the lack of goods, said the second source. The 20 percent increase seems relatively small by Western standards, but in a country where the government-issued monthly salary amounts to less than $5, and where most people need to find a side gig to supplement their incomes, the increase is huge.

With the price of soybean oil so high, it seems that the officials were trying to take a cut out of the oil that was brought in for emergencies, the second source said.

As a result of their crime, the price of soybean oil went down to 13,000 won ($ 1.62) per kilogram.

But people who bought it have strangely also reported it to the Central Committee, said the second source.

Its good for the people that the prices at the local markets have gone down, but if they reopen trade with China, they would be able buy soybean oil at a much cheaper price, the second source said.

The people are openly criticizing the authorities for blaming others while they block normal trade activities, the second source said.

Executions common

RFA reported in late February that the state warned in a decree that it would issue stricter penalties, including the death penalty, for smuggling amid the coronavirus crisis. This followed a report in South Koreas Dong-a Ilbo that said a Pyongyang executed a trade official who broke quarantine by utilizing a public bath.

Public executions in North Korea are relatively common, depending on which particular crimes the government wants to focus on at any given moment. These have ranged from executions for infractions as mild as consuming foreign media, to those in large-scale political purges.

Reported by Hyemin Son for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Ivermectin has been shown to be effective in vitro against a broad range of viruses

Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institutes Dr Kylie Wagstaff, who led the study, said the scientists showed that the drug, Ivermectin, stopped the SARS-CoV-2 virus growing in cell culture within 48 hours.

We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it, Wagstaff said.

Ivermectin is an FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug that has also been shown to be effective in vitro against a broad range of viruses including HIV, Dengue, Influenza, and Zika virus.

Dr Kylie Wagstaff

Dr Wagstaff cautioned that the tests conducted in the study were in vitro and that trials needed to be carried out in people.

Ivermectin is very widely used and seen as a safe drug. We need to figure out now whether the dosage you can use it at in humans will be effective  thats the next step, Wagstaff said.

"The use of Ivermectin to combat COVID-19 would depend on the results of further pre-clinical testing and ultimately clinical trials, with funding urgently required to keep progressing the work."

times when were having a global pandemic and there isnt an approved treatment, if we had a compound that was already available around the world, that might help people sooner. Realistically, its going to be a while before a vaccine is broadly available."

Although the mechanism by which Ivermectin works on the virus is not known, it is likely, based on its action in other viruses, that it works to stop the virus dampening down the host cells ability to clear it, she said.

Royal Melbourne Hospitals Dr Leon Caly, a senior medical scientist at Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) at Doherty Institute where the experiments with live coronavirus were conducted, is the studys first author.

As the virologist who was part of the team who were first to isolate and share SARS-COV2 outside of China in January 2020, I am excited about the prospect of Ivermectin being used as a potential drug against COVID-19, Caly said.

Dr Wagstaff made a previous breakthrough finding on Ivermectin in 2012 when she identified the drug and its antiviral activity with Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institutes professor David Jans, also an author on this paper.

Professor Jans and his team have been researching Ivermectin for more than 10 years with different viruses. Wagstaff and Jans started investigating whether it worked on the SARS-CoV-2 virus as soon as the pandemic was known to have started.

The use of Ivermectin to combat COVID-19 would depend on the results of further pre-clinical testing and ultimately clinical trials, with funding urgently required to keep progressing the work, Wagstaff said.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) London, United Kingdom  Tue, April 7, 2020 10:06 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd02ed20 2 World Boris-Johnson,UK,Prime-Minister,hospitalized,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,health,world-leaders Free

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's admission to intensive care with coronavirus prompted an outpouring of well-wishes from world leaders on Monday.

Here are some of the global figures who wished the British leader a quick recovery:

US

President Donald Trump said he wanted to "send best wishes to a very good friend of mine and a friend to our nation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson."

"We're very saddened to hear he was taken into intensive care this afternoon, a little while ago. Americans are all praying for his recovery," Trump told a press conference.

"We'll see if we can be of help. We've contacted all of Boris' doctors and we'll see what is going to take place. But they are ready to go."

EU

The European Union's top officials all sent public messages wishing Johnson a "full recovery".

"My thoughts are with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his family this evening," European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen tweeted.

European Council President Charles Michel expressed a similar sentiment, tweeting: "Get well soon, Boris."

The EU's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, who is recovering in quarantine after also testing positive, tweeted that "my thoughts are with you and your family."

The best wishes from the European Union's top officials underlined the setting aside of political tussling after Johnson took Britain out of the bloc in January.

France

French President Emmanuel Macron gave his "full support to Boris Johnson, his family and the British people at this difficult time".

"I hope he will rapidly overcome this ordeal," tweeted.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had earlier told BFMTV: "I know his strength, I am convinced he will draw from his resources, which are great, the capacity to overcome this ordeal. It's also symbolic of the seriousness of this crisis, which affects everyone."

Spain

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted: "My solidarity and wishes for a speedy recovery for Prime Minister Boris Johnson. These are difficult days for our countries, but it is through strength and unity that we can win this battle."

Italy

Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio tweeted in English that "the Italian people is with the UK in these difficult times. We are one for each other. Get well soon Boris Johnson!"

WHO

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "thinking of my friend Boris Johnson tonight, and sending my and WHO's heartfelt good wishes as he battles the coronavirus."

"I know the NHS and its dedicated health workers will be looking after you," he tweeted.

Canada

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose wife tested positive last month, wished Johnson a full and speedy recovery. "My thoughts are with you and your family right now. Hope to see you back at Number 10 soon," he tweeted.

The Netherlands

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that "on behalf of the Dutch cabinet, I wish Boris Johnson, his family and the British people lots of strength during this difficult time."

"I hope to be able to speak to him soon in good health," Rutte tweeted.

NATO

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said his thoughts are with his friend. "Lots of strength, Boris, and get well soon!" he tweeted.

Poland

President Andrzej Duda tweeted: "My thoughts are with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his family at this testing time. I wish him a full and swift recovery."

Czech Republic

Czech President Milos Zeman tweeted: "I wish you strength and endurance in your fight with the disease to overcome it and win over it."
FRANKFURT, GERMANY  German airline group Lufthansa said it was permanently removing some of its large aircraft from service and reducing capacity for the long term, saying it will take years for demand for air travel to return to levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic.
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WASHINGTON  Trump campaign press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is set to replace White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who announced Tuesday she will step down to return to the East Wing as chief of staff to the first lady, according to a senior administration official.

Alyssa Farah, a Pentagon spokeswoman and former press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence, will also join the White House communications team, the official said, as part a wider shake-up in the West Wing under President Donald Trump's new chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Grisham, who previously served as Melania Trump's communications director and later her deputy chief of staff, announced her departure to rejoin the first lady's staff in a White House statement Tuesday.

McEnany, a 31-year-old Fox News fixture and former CNN contributor, served as the Republican National Committee spokeswoman before she was named as the Trump campaign's national press secretary in 2019.

As Trump's third press secretary, Grisham spent less than a year in the post without ever holding a news briefing. Her predecessor, Sarah Sanders, scrapped the regular briefings that had been customary to the job throughout Republican and Democratic presidential administrations dating back to Herbert Hoover's, according to historian Martha Kumar. The first televised news briefings took place under Bill Clinton's administration.

In this file photo Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (R) makes remarks as moderator Kayleigh McEnany (L) listens during a discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor, Maryland, February 23, 2017.

Meadows, a former North Carolina Republican congressman, assumed his new post last week and was expected to bring some of his allies to the West Wing. Farah served as the communications director for the conservative House Freedom Caucus when Meadows served as chairman.

Grisham is expected to begin her role with the first lady immediately, according to a statement from Melania Trump. She added she would remain in the West Wing "to help with a smooth transition for as long as needed."

The East Wing statement said the first lady's previous chief of staff, Lindsay Reynolds, resigned this week to spend time with her family.

Story continues

Grisham has been absent from the administration's response to the coronavirus outbreak, self-quarantining after coming into contact with members of a Brazilian delegation who tested positive for COVID-19 at the president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. The president has instead functionally served as his own press secretary as the administration confronts the ongoing coronavirus crisis, appearing at daily briefings that sometimes last two hours

Stephanie Grisham attends a meeting of President Donald Trump's Cabinet at the White House on Oct. 21, 2019.

Grisham dismissed media reports last week that Meadows considered replacing her with McEnany or Farah.The reports came as White House deputy communications director Jessica Ditto announced her departure from the West Wing to join the private sector.

"Sounds like more palace intrigue to me, but Ive also been in quarantine," she told Axios. "If true, how ironic that the press secretary would hear about being replaced in the press.

Trump named Grisham as his third press secretary last June, replacing Sanders, who returned to her home state of Arkansas.

Sanders weighed in on Twitter later on Tuesday, calling McEnany and Farah "smart and capable women who have been loyal fighters" for the president.

.@kayleighmcenany and @Alyssafarah are smart and capable women who have been loyal fighters for @realDonaldTrump. Both are great additions to the WH press & comms team and their promotions are another example of the President empowering strong women to senior roles in his admin.  Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) April 7, 2020

Grisham, an Arizona native, has a long history with the Trump family and is known for her loyalty to them, particularly the first lady. Shes one of the few remaining White House staffers who worked on Donald Trumps presidential campaign in 2016.

After Trump was elected, she went to the White House to work as a deputy to Trumps first press secretary, Sean Spicer.

On the campaign trail, Grisham helped arrange political stops for Trump around Arizona and the Southwest, a role that expanded to include Trump rallies around the country. Grisham worked on Mitt Romneys campaign for president in 2012.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kayleigh McEnany to replace Stephanie Grisham as White House press secretary
The University of California said it will provide $2 million in seed funding to scientists across the state to help jump-start high impact research projects and accelerate urgently-needed breakthroughs to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The university said it administers funding through three statewide research grants focused on breast cancer, tobacco-related disease and HIV/AIDS, among others, and will support the new projects on COVID-19 research.

"Given that people who suffer from breast cancer, HIV and tobacco-related diseases are also among those who are most vulnerable to COVID-19, it made sense to begin urgently directing some of that research funding to this global pandemic," Theresa Maldonado, UC's vice president of systemwide research and innovation, said in a statement.

Maldonado said, "Our goal is to seed work in areas that can have a big impact in a short amount of time and to help the California communities that need it most."

UC said awards of up to $25,000 are available immediately.

The university said the goal is to help researchers begin work as soon as possible because COVID-19 continues to affect thousands of people globally.

UC said it will evaluate research proposals as soon as they are received.

Priority will be given to proposals that meet three criteria: a strong potential for impacting the pandemic in the near term, the ability of researchers to start work right away and a research focus that will help California's most vulnerable populations.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Nigerias leading retail financial services institution, Access bank plc has introduced a Dual Transaction Service (DTS)  an enhanced debit card service that provides access to credit at the same time.

The Dual Transaction Service (DTS) is a bundled service designed to allow pre-approved customers access a credit line through their existing debit card. This is the first time any bank in Nigeria will be providing this kind of combined essential service to its customers. We have been encouraging our customers to stay safe and connected by going cashless while using our various digital channels. We know these are trying times and our customers may need an extra boost during this period so rather than have them go through the rigorous process of applying for a credit card, we will give them access to more funds using their existing debit cards.

This service is available to all Access bank customers who earn from N20,000 and above. Customers can also access 3 times the value of their salary during this period of restricted movement. This is a remarkable feat and we will continue to promote digital transactions and discourage branch banking until we are completely come out of the pandemic times says Victor Etuokwu, Executive Director, Retail Banking, Access Bank Plc.

To activate this service, all our customers need to do is dial *901*14# from the comfort of their homes, choose credit as account type on any POS or ATM terminal during any transaction to access the credit line through their debit card.

The dual card service from Access bank Plc is the first-of-its-kind on the continent. The features of the dual transaction service represents another milestone in our mission to transform banking and demonstrates how far we have come in such a short time he added.

Access Bank recently donated N1Billion as part of its contribution to fight coronavirus in Nigeria. The Bank has also reached out to its customers via several communications (SMS, Emails) to go cashless by using the Access Bank electronic and digital platforms during this period of the pandemic to remain safe.

To activate for the dual transaction service, simply dial*901*14# or click HERE to learn more.
World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sent his best wishes Monday to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was moved into intensive care after his COVID-19 condition worsened.

"I am thinking of my friend Boris Johnson tonight, and sending my and WHO's heartfelt good wishes as he battles the coronavirus," the UN health agency's director-general said on Twitter.

"I know the NHS and its dedicated health workers will be looking after you."



Johnson has been suffering with COVID-19 and was taken to a National Health Service hospital in London on Sunday. His condition worsened on Monday and he was moved to the intensive care unit.

Earlier Tedros gave a virtual press conference in which he spoke about the pandemic, which has infected more than 1.3 million people and killed more than 70,000.

"The COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a heavy toll on families, communities and nations the world over," he said.

"But it's also giving rise to incredible acts of generosity, solidarity and cooperation.

"We're all in this together, and we can only succeed together.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Short film 'Family' which spreads awareness about Coronavirus outbreak, released on Sony TV on Monday and it has been trending ever since.

The film, which talks about the importance of staying indoors in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, got a big shout out from filmmaker Karan Johar, who went on to "salute" team Family on social media.

The made-at-home short film features various actors from across India, Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Rajnikanth, Chiranjeevi, Mammootty, Mohanlal, Ranbir Kapoor, Diljeet Dosanjh, Priyanka Chopra, Sivraj kumar, Alia Bhatt, Prosenjit Chatterjee and Sonalee Kulkarni.

it revolves around Amitabh Bachchan's misplaced pair of dark sunglasses and everyone's attempts to find it. Every actor shot their part of the film at their homes, respectively.

At the end of the short film, Amitabh Bachchan called the Indian film industry a "family" and said that the film fraternity would make donations to daily wage workers of the film industry, who are most affected by the coronavirus lockdown.

Sharing the video, Amitabh Bachchan tweeted

T 3493 - When you see that the cause is greater than the idea you dreamt of .. there is just immense joy and gratitude for all my colleagues and friends in the making of this historic effort !



WE ARE ONE and WE SHALL OVERCOME ! Jai Hind ! https://t.co/WoquwkSyqT  Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) April 6, 2020

Prasoon Pandey has virtually directed 'Family' in collaboration with Sony Pictures Networks India, Kalyan Jewellers and Amitabh Bachchan. The funds collected through this film shall be used to help the daily wage workers in the film industry whose livelihoods are deeply affected due to the lockdown.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

By Jeyhun Alakbarov - Trend:

The coronavirus pandemic in the world creates big problems for the economy, social conditions and the population, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Economy Niyazi Safarov told reporters.

Safarov made the remark during a press tour at the medical masks manufacturing enterprise that opened by Baku Textile Factory LLC in the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park on April 6, Trend reports.

In such a situation, maintaining macroeconomic and financial stability and ensuring employment is of great importance, deputy minister said.

In accordance with the presidents instructions, the meetings were held with the representatives involved in various spheres of activity, greatly affected as a result of coronavirus, Safarov added. The wishes and proposals of entrepreneurs were heard."

To address them, four working groups were created, said the deputy minister.

One billion manat [$588.2 million] was allocated to improve the economic situation of students and other citizens and to support economic entities upon Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs instructions, Safarov said.

The conducted analysis showed that these funds are not enough, so the funds are expected to be increased to 2.5 billion manat [$1.5 billion]," the deputy minister said.

Safarov added that the assistance will be rendered to 600,000 entrepreneurs.
Former Kaduna central lawmaker, Shehu Sanni has described the food given out as palliatives by leaders during the COVID-19 period as low quality.

Speaking via his official Twitter handle, he further stated that the kind of food being distributed is not of the quality consumed in the houses of the leaders.

Read Also: Alleged Extortion: Shehu Sanni Refuses To Take Lie Detector Test

The critic stated that the quality either represents what the country can afford at the moment or what the leaders feel the people deserve.

The type of food given to you by your leaders in this #COVID19 times is certainly not the type they consume at home with their families and maids; The quality either represents what the economy can afford or what they feel you deserve.
People light candles and switch on torches as instructed by prime minister Narendra Modi at 9 pm on Sunday, April 5, 2020 to mark the country's fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. (AP)

On the night that prime minister Narendra Modi used the global Covid-19 pandemic to teach another lesson in obedience training to a comatose Indian middle-class, Indias positive cases of the coronavirus crossed the 4,000 mark and the death count jumped by 32  the highest single-day increase so far.

Modi had asked citizens to turn off their lights and light lamps (or use the torches on their mobile phones) for nine minutes starting at 9 pm, and the sheep complied, without wondering what switching off the lights had to do with social distancing or other population-wide measures adopted to contain the spread of the coronavirus. There was no power shortage; this was just another maha-aarti ordered by the boss to show everyone who was boss.

Promptly came, the morning after, a list from the resident doctors association of Safdarjung Hospital in the heart of New Delhi, asking the public for donations so that they could buy 50,000 PPEs (hazmat suits), 50,000 N-95 masks, three lakh triple-layer masks, and 10,000 500-ml bottles of hand sanitiser.

The government itself estimates India will need 1.5 crore PPEs, 2.7 crore N-95 masks, 16 lakh diagnostic kits amd 50,000 ventilators in the next two months. One supposes that lighting a lamp is cheaper than donating to those in the trenches against the coronavirus.

It is clear that the crisis is not abating, whatever the crackpot astrologers may tell us about the significance of the dates that have passed. For example, a Mumbai hospital has become a containment area after two-dozen nurses and three doctors tested positive.

It seems unlikely that the lockdown will be lifted on April 15, despite the plans being made by airlines and railways. The government may float news stories that 80 per cent of the cases are in 62 districts  but as the example of the Tablighi Jamaat showed us, we have to worry just as much for the remaining 20 per cent. And Indians should note that while they were lighting lamps, China registered an uptick in positive cases, after a period of declining Covid-19 case growth. This microbe is dangerous and unpredictable, which makes this mini-Diwali ordered by the PM not just premature but also dangerously shortsighted.

People reported that the nine minutes were also marked by fireworks. A BJP leader from UP fired her gun in the air. One absurdity trumps the next. Blind devotion to the Great Leader, processions, banging pots and pans, and lighting lamps  a BJP MLA led a crowd in chanting China virus go back  these are the lobotomised middle-class answer to a pandemic.

Modi is unlikely to inculcate scientific temper in Indians, for that would be too Nehruvian a thing to do. However, we urge him to give up announcing these self-serving image-building exercises. Instead, his government ought to be giving people not a false assurance that their lives will resume at a time around the corner, but preparing them to grit their teeth for a long haul.
The district administration of Nuh on Monday declared Umrao village in Nagina as a buffer zone  banning the entry and exit of people in the village to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), said officials. Six more people tested positive for Covid-19 in the district on Monday, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 14, said officials. The police said 13 of them had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin in Delhi last month.

The superintendent of police, Nuh, Narender Bijarniya, said that they have declared a three-kilometre area around the residence of a 50-year-old truck driver, who had recently returned from Gujarat and tested positive last week, as a buffer zone and locals have been asked to remain indoors and take care of their health. The residents of this village will remain quarantined at home. They can only come out to buy essentials between 8am and 10am, he said.

The police said if more cases are reported from the village, they will declare it a red zone. In the red zone, the entire village will be isolated and samples will be collected from each house. There will be no movement of any person and essentials will be provided by the district administration. However, in a buffer zone, people are allowed to move to get their essentials but not allowed to move out of the village, said Bijarniya.

Bijarniya added the area has become vulnerable with regard to the further transmission of Covid-19 and it was necessary to halt further transmission of the disease in the villages. We are taking precautionary measures to ensure the virus does not spread; therefore we have declared one village as a buffer zone as only one local case was reported positive from here. We are discussing with the district administration and chief medical officer the next steps to declare a few villages as red zones. It has become imperative to take stringent precautionary measures like declaring some villages as containment zones and surrounding areas as buffer zones, he said.

The police said there would be no vehicular movement from these villages and people would stay within their homes to ensure complete lockdown.

Virender Yadav, chief medical officer (CMO), Nuh, confirmed that six people tested positive on Monday. All of them had allegedly attended the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz in Delhis Nizamuddin last month. Two are from Sir Lanka, one each is from Thailand, Indonesia, South Africa, and Jammu and Kashmir, he said.

The samples for nearly 300 people had been collected by Monday, said officials.

We have admitted more than 300 people to Government Polytechnic college in Malab and Shaheed Hasan Khan Mewati Government Medical College, Nalhar, Nuh. More than 400 people are home quarantined, he said.

Seven more people tested positive for Covid-19 in Faridabad on Monday, bringing the total count to 21. Nine more people, all of whom had attended the Nizamuddin Jamaat, tested positive in Palwal on Monday. The officials said the number of positive cases in Palwal has reached 25, the highest among any district in Haryana.

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VENICE - A call for projects was launched on Monday for the 8th edition of the "Final Cut in Venice" workshop, which will take place from September 5-7 as part of the Venice Production Bridge at the 77th Venice Film Festival.

Since 2013, Final Cut in Venice has provided concrete assistance for completing quality films from Africa, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria.

A maximum of up to six working copies of films underway will be presented, and they will be given the opportunity to find financing for post-production through meetings with producers, buyers, distributors, and festival selectors.

Talents discovered through the workshop include Syrian director Soudade Kaadan in her first appearance at the Venice Film Festival with her documentary Obscure, in 2016.

In 2018, Kaadan won the Venice Film Festival's Lion of the Future award.

Libyan director Naziha Arebi brought her first feature-length film Freedom Fields to Final Cut in 2017, and the film went on to win a BAFTA.

French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis brought his film Felicite to Final Cut in 2017, and it subsequently won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. Over the past seven years, Final Cut in Venice has received more than 400 work-in-progress films during its selection process, and it has selected and presented 40 at the film festival.

To submit a film, participants must fill out a pre-selection form online at www.labiennale.org, and send materials to the email address finalcut@labiennale.org by June 12, 2020.


[April 07, 2020] NNT & Greenbone Networks Team Up to Provide Free-of-Charge Vulnerability Management to Essential Service Providers

NAPLES, Fla., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- New Net Technologies (NNT), a leading global provider of enterprise security and compliance software, and Greenbone Networks, a vulnerability management specialist today announced they are giving away 1,000 Greenbone Community Edition (GCE) software licenses to all essential service providers globally helping them to boost the resilience of their IT infrastructures as they focus on fighting the spread of COVID-19. Businesses across the world are being forced to shut their doors in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, with cyber criminals looking to take advantage of these organizations through various COVID-19 themed email and web based cyber-attacks. In fact, research released last week found that 80 percent of today's threat landscape is using the coronavirus as the theme of their cyber-attacks. While other businesses have been forced to closed, businesses that provide "COVID-19 Essential Services" remain open and on the front lines battling potentially devastating cyber threats. These services include medical professionals and caregivers, law enforcement and first responders, food and agriculture workers, energy and utility providers, transportation workers, and more. One industry that is particularly vulnerable during this time is the healthcare sector. Hackers are already leveraging the spread of COVID-19 in order to make money and wreak havoc. On March 16, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services was targeted by a DDoS attack designed to slow down its systems, while a number of European-based hospitals have also reported they have been targeted by criminals. Greenbone Networks and non-profit newsroom, ProPublica, conducted an investigation last year that uncovered a serious lack of security controls across medical images and health data belonging to millions of Americans. It was found that X-rays, MRIs and CT scans, are sitting unprotected on the internet and available to anyone with basic computer expertise.



Dirk Schrader, Cyber Resilience Architect at Greenbone Networks said: "Our research last year identified 187 servers in the U.S. that were unprotected by passwords or basic security precautions, with some servers running outdated operating systems with known security vulnerabilities. We recognize the significant cybersecurity risks in this sector and want to do all that we can to help healthcare organizations and other essential businesses protect highly sensitive data." Up to 1,000 free 12-month GCE software licenses are being made immediately available to global essential services providers which need help improving their cybersecurity posture and achieving compliance. These organizations can use GCE to automatically scan for and patch vulnerabilities in the own IT infrastructures.

As Schrader explains: "Data breaches are often the result of unpatched vulnerabilities, so identifying and eliminating these security gaps reduces the number of attack vectors open to the hackers. In addition, cybersecurity compliance regulations such as National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) emphasize vulnerability scanning to protect sensitive data and exposure of this data could violate these regulations." Mark Kerrison, CEO at NNT explains: "As workers in essential services and workforces face increased vulnerabilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, vulnerability management is needed now more than ever before to help keep the hackers out. NNT is pleased to be working with Greenbone Networks to help these organizations to defend against threats which could potentially risk the safety of patients and consumers." Essential service providers can request a 12-month license of the GCU vulnerability scanner here. About New Net Technologies (NNT):

NNT is the leading provider of SecureOps. SecureOps combines the essential, foundational security controls as prescribed by all leading security frameworks such as CIS and NIST with the operational discipline of change management. By ensuring you have the prescribed essential security controls in place combined with the ability to correlate changes within your environment with an approved ticket or set of intelligent rules, organizations are able to prevent and protect themselves against all forms of breach as well as gaining full control of changes for both security and operational peace of mind. For more information, visit www.newnettechnologies.com

About Greenbone Networks:

Founded in 2008, Greenbone Networks is a leading, global provider of vulnerability management solutions. Based on open source software, the Greenbone Security Manager (GSM) analyses IT network devices - including desktop computers, servers, software applications, routers and VoIP devices - identifying security vulnerabilities, providing detailed reports and instructions to resolve security issues before attackers are able to exploit them. The solutions include a daily, automatic security update. Greenbone's vulnerability management solutions are deployed in more than 30,000 installations and integrations across a broad range of industries and company sizes, and its vulnerability management software has been downloaded more than 2.5 million times. Greenbone is headquartered in Osnabrueck, Germany. Media Contact:

Lulu Dowell

VP of Marketing

New Net Technologies

Tel: (844) 898-8351

Email: [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nnt--greenbone-networks-team-up-to-provide-free-of-charge-vulnerability-management-to-essential-service-providers-301036450.html SOURCE New Net Technologies (NNT)

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NPHET is meeting on Tuesday to discuss restrictions but will not make a final call until Friday (Niall Carson/PA)

The Health Minister has said a sudden departure from the current coronavirus restrictions when they are due to expire on Easter Sunday is unlikely.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) has yet to make a formal recommendation to extend the measures but Simon Harris said the measures are working and need to stay in place.

NPHET is meeting on Tuesday to discuss restrictions but will not make a final call until Friday.

Speaking in Dublin on Tuesday, he said: Well get the formal advice later in the week but I believe in being truthful and honest with people in this regard.

I think that any kind of sudden departure from the existing restrictions is highly unlikely, particularly when we know theyre working.

We are not going to do anything as a government that will in any way jeopardise the lives and wellbeing of Irish people. We have got to stay the course.

More than 850,000 people are claiming unemployment benefits due to the coronavirus crisis which has left many business struggling across Ireland.

Figures shows hundreds of thousands of people are receiving the new Covid-19 pandemic unemployment benefit as well as those who are registered for the wage subsidy scheme.

Tanaiste Simon Coveney said that the country is facing extraordinary challenges.

I think its clear that the aftermath of Covid-19, Ireland post-crisis will be a different place, Mr Coveney said.

The role of community will be different, the role of the State in terms of its relationship with the private sector will be different.

Nobody should fool themselves that actually recovering from this is going to be easy.

Revenue has published updated FAQs in respect of the Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme. Click here for further details: https://t.co/ZNl3vTZNyy  Revenue (@RevenueIE) April 7, 2020

There are 730,000 people today without a job.

Theres 130,000 people today with the State paying 70% of their wages and all of that has happened in the space of about three weeks.

We have never faced anything like this as a country before, so its not going to be easy.

We have to find a way of rebuilding an economy, doing that in a way that doesnt isolate people or disadvantaged people because of their circumstance, we have to make sure that the rising tide that will start later on in the summer, I suspect, will lift all boats and that wont be easy.

Mr Coveney also said the Department of Foreign Affairs has helped some 4,600 Irish citizens return home.

The department has assisted just under 500 Irish citizens home on rescue flights or charter flights that were organised by other EU member States or by the UK.

National Public Health Emergency Team will meet this morning on its ongoing work on #Covid19 #coronavirus. As it meets I want to thank them, led by our @CMOIreland for its tireless work. Following their expert advice, every single one of us is helping save lives. Lets keep at it  Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) April 7, 2020

We will continue to work with Irish people right across the world, he told RTEs Sean ORourke show.

Our call centre has taken over 16,000 calls. The aviation industry has been turned on its head.

The Tanaiste also said not every Irish citizen who wants to come home will be able to do so, but added that his department will work with them to try and arrange a flight.

He said a lot of Irish citizens remain in Australia and New Zealand.

It comes as the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) will meet to discuss childcare provisions for healthcare workers on Tuesday.

Creches and schools were closed last month, leaving many healthcare workers with no childcare.

On Monday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government is working on childcare for healthcare workers during the emergency, but it needs to be cleared by the NPHET.

There are essential workers in the economy and in the health service who are struggling and want to get to work but cant because childcare is not available to them.

Important news for children: Many of you contacted me & asked me to if the Easter Bunny was allowed work this weekend. I have checked with our top doctors & the good news is he can. But he has been contacted to remind him about washing his hands regularly & keeping his distance  Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) April 7, 2020

While we are ready to push the button in terms of providing childcare for essential workers, we need clearance from the public health team, and that it in itself does not become a public health risk or allow the virus to be spread.

The coronavirus death toll in Ireland is 174, with 16 further deaths reported on Monday.

There were 370 new confirmed cases, taking the overall total to 5,364.

Government ministers will also be briefed on the latest developments on Covid-19 at a Cabinet meeting, and whether restrictions can be lifted.

Chief medical officer Tony Holohan said a formal recommendation will not be made until Friday.
A United Nations investigation has concluded the Syrian government or its allies was likely responsible for attacks on a school, a hospital, and two other civilian facilities, but the probe avoided specifically blaming Syria's main military sponsor, Russia, drawing rebukes from rights activists.

Human rights groups criticized the report, whose executive summary was released on April 6, as well as the United Nations for restricting the investigation to a narrow line of inquiry.

The inquiry produced "a "mealy-mouthed' report, all to avoid offending Russia, the prime offender along with Syria," Kenneth Roth, the head of Human Rights Watch, said on Twitter.

Rights groups have long pushed the world body to investigate alleged war crimes committed during the nine-year conflict, which has devastated Syria and killed hundreds of thousands.

The executive summary of the 185-page confidential report said that four civilian facilities -- a child-care facility, a hospital, a school, and a health-care center -- were targeted, and it was "highly probable" that the Syrian government's forces, or its allies, were responsible.

It was "plausible" that a separate attack on a second health center was also carried out by the Syrian government or its allies, the report found.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed a board of inquiry nearly two years ago, authorizing it to investigate incidents in Syria's northwest after Russia and Turkey agreed to establish a "de-escalation zone" in Idlib on September 2018.

At the time of the board's establishment, Russia called the war crimes accusations "a lie." Syria also disputed the allegations.

Rights groups have repeatedly accused Syrian government forces of committing wide-scale war crimes, purposely targeting civilians. Rights groups have also focused attention on Russia, which is Syria's main economic and military sponsor.

Russia's intervention, in September 2015, turned the tide of the war to the advantage of Bashar al-Assad's forces. The northwestern Idlib Province is currently the last rebel stronghold holding out.

Last year, The New York Times published an in-depth investigation of Syrian civilian facilities purposely being targeted.

The report, which included recordings of radio communications among Russian fighter pilots, directly incriminated Russia in attacks on civilian hospitals.
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Linkedin Eisya A. Eloksari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 14:06 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd04164c 1 Business ikea,donation,COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,hospitals,coronavirus,retail-store Free

Sweden-based furniture store IKEA has donated household items to the Indonesian Hospital Association (PERSI) to support COVID-19 referral hospitals.

The company handed out bed sheets, blankets, towels and trolleys to five hospitals in Banten and Sentul in Bogor, West Java, namely Permata Pamulang Hospital, BUN Kosambi Maternity Hospital, MISI Lebak Hospital, An Nisa Cibodas Hospital and EMC Sentul Hospital.

IKEA Indonesia public relations head Ririn Basuki said the hospitals were among the first to receive COVID-19 positive patients in their respective areas.

Hospitals play a crucial role in testing and treating COVID-19 patients and IKEA will support the medical personnel who are on the frontline combating this pandemic, she said in a written statement on Monday.

Read also: Were all in this together: Companies join hands to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic

The furniture giant also donated hygiene kits to people in Jakarta as an initiative to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

As of Monday, the Health Ministry announced 218 new confirmed cases, bringing the total number of infections nationwide to 2,491 with 187 cases in Banten and 263 cases in West Java. While 11 more deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to 209. (eyc)
COLUMBUS, OhioTom Noe, the central figure in the 2005 Coingate scandal, is among the 200-plus Ohio prison inmates Gov. Mike DeWine is recommending for early release because of the coronavirus threat.

Noe, 65, is currently in year 14 of his 18-year sentence for looting a $50 million rare-coin investment portfolio he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation. Hes incarcerated at the Marion Correctional Institution, where five inmates and a number of staffers have tested positive for the coronavirus as of Monday.

The Ohio Parole Board previously voted three times not to recommend clemency for Noe.

Noe is one of 26 inmates flagged by DeWine to send to the Ohio Parole Board to consider for early release. All 26 are aged 60 or older, have served at least half their sentence, and have an underlying medical condition that makes them particularly in danger of dying if they contract the virus, the governor said.

It just seemed to me fair to everybody to treat everybody the same in that group, send them off to the Parole Board, see what the Parole Board does, and see where we go in the process from there, DeWine said, who added later: We wouldnt have done this without the coronavirus, frankly.

DeWine said the Parole Board will begin meeting Friday to consider whether to recommend that the governor grant clemency to each of the 26 inmates.

Noe was once a rising Republican star, chairing the Lucas County Republican Party and serving on the Ohio Board of Regents, which oversees the states public colleges and universities.

He was convicted of racketeering, money laundering, aggravated theft, forgery and tampering with records. The jury estimated he stole $1.1 million from the state.

Read more Ohio coronavirus coverage:

Gov. Mike DeWine recommends releasing 167 Ohio prison inmates due to coronavirus crisis

Ohio restaurants now able to sell take-out alcohol, Gov. Mike DeWine says

Ohio confirms 167 coronavirus deaths, 4,782 infections: Gov. Mike DeWines Tuesday, April 7 briefing

Nothing changed in here: Detainees at private Ohio prison talk fears amid coronavirus

Ohios tax revenue hit hard by the coronavirus crisis, new numbers show
ProLiteracy - Adult Literacy Education: The International Journal of Literacy, Language, and Numeracy ProLiteracy is thrilled to be able to partner with an outstanding editorial team to continue to produce Adult Literacy Education, a true peer-reviewed research journal with new resources for the adult literacy field, says ProLiteracy President and CEO, Kevin Morgan.

ProLiteracy, the largest adult literacy and basic education membership organization in the United States, announces the release of Volume 2, Issue 1, of the online research journal, Adult Literacy Education: The International Journal of Literacy, Language, and Numeracy (ALE).

This special issue, Broadening the Lens on Adult Literacy Education Outcomes, explores research, policy, and practice that looks at adult literacy education through broader and longer-term lenses. This peer-reviewed, free, online research journal is published twice per year. The purpose of the ALE journal is to publish research on adult basic and secondary education and transitions to career and college. Research will reflect best practices in adult education in order to inform practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and funders.

ProLiteracy produces this new journal in partnership with Rutgers University. The journal editorsAlisa Belzer, Amy Rose, and Heather Brownare seasoned researchers. ProLiteracy is thrilled to be able to partner with an outstanding editorial team to continue to produce Adult Literacy Education, a true peer-reviewed research journal with new resources for the adult literacy field, says ProLiteracy President and CEO, Kevin Morgan.

The Adult Literacy Education journal is available at https://www.proliteracy.org/ALE-Journal. Author guidelines and a submission form are available for writers to submit research manuscripts for future issues of the journal.

This journal is part of ProLiteracys expanded initiative to conduct and share primary and secondary research with a wide adult-education audience in the United States and internationally. In the United States, federal funding for adult literacy education has been focused on short-term results. This special issue offers research with the focus of longer-term transformational changes that adult education can make possible, Kevin Morgan says.

About ProLiteracy

ProLiteracy is the largest adult literacy and basic education nonprofit organization in the nation. ProLiteracy works with adult learners and with local and national organizations to help adults gain the reading, writing, math, computer, and English skills they need to be successful. ProLiteracy advocates on behalf of adult learners and the programs that serve them, provides training and professional development, and publishes materials used in adult literacy and basic education instruction. ProLiteracy has 1,000 member programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and works with 50 nongovernmental organizations in 34 developing countries. For more information, visit ProLiteracy.org.
In 2010, he was elected to Parliament in an ultra-safe Conservative seat in Surrey, a county close to London where he lives with his wife and their two sons. He quickly became known as a rising star in the Conservative Party, attracting attention for his productivity, competency on foreign policy, and for writing a book, along with four other Conservative lawmakers, about their vision for the party. In 2011, he won Newcomer of the Year at the Spectator magazines parliamentary awards.
LOS ANGELES, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. health officials say Americans should wear masks in public to combat the coronavirus. Financial support by CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) is helping two California apparel makers create masks that protect with style.

Sanctuary Clothing and Karen Kane, both Los Angeles-based clients of CIT's Commercial Services business, have rolled out stylish face masks that can be worn by consumers to provide another layer of protection against COVID-19 transmission when out in public. Both clothing companies are using proceeds from sales of fashion masks to help finance donations of masks to hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

"Supporting our clients is central to how we do business," said Darrin Beer, western regional manager for CIT's Commercial Services business. "We're thrilled to provide financing that helps Sanctuary Clothing and Karen Kane bring protective masks to the medical community and the public, while also keeping their businesses moving forward."

Masks for medical use and daily wear

As the virus threat grew, Ken and Debra Polanco of Sanctuary Clothing saw opportunities to leverage their supply chain to both import medical-quality masks and also develop stylish versions for everyday wear.

Backed by CIT financial support, they recently took an order from the California Department of Public Health for 500,000 surgical masks, which are expected for delivery this week, with more to follow. At the same time, Debra Polanco began creating the "Essential Lifestyle Masks" line for consumers.

"We've been a loyal CIT customer since 1987," Ken Polanco said. "It takes all of us using our expertise to make something like this happen and CIT's factoring expertise is a big part of that."

Mask sales support donations

At Karen Kane, the company's leadership saw potential as mask-wearing proliferated in medical settings and on city streets. They quickly identified sources of fabric and then began crafting masks for their own employees and contributions to local hospitals and consumer products.

Proceeds from mask sales to the public support mask donations to the medical community, with CIT financing helping make it all possible.

"We feel privileged to be able to do something to help people stay healthy at this critical point in the COVID-19 crisis," said Lonnie Kane, who co-founded the business with his wife Karen. "The financing we get from CIT is vital to making it all possible."

Beer said CIT's Commercial Services business is actively working with its many clients as they navigate the challenges posed by the economic impact of the coronavirus. Commercial Services provides financial support to consumer product companies that sell apparel, furniture housewares, electronics, toys, hardware and more.

"Agility is critical when business conditions shift rapidly, as they are now," Beer said. "We're focused on helping our clients successfully adapt to the economic changes in the short term and look forward to helping them flourish when the current crisis recedes."

About CIT

CIT is a leading national bank focused on empowering businesses and personal savers with the financial agility to navigate their goals. CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) is a financial holding company with over a century of experience and operates a principal bank subsidiary, CIT Bank, N.A. (Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender). The company's commercial banking segment includes commercial financing, community association banking, middle market banking, equipment and vendor financing, factoring, railcar financing, treasury and payments services, and capital markets and asset management. CIT's consumer banking segment includes a national direct bank and regional branch network. Discover more at cit.com/about.

MEDIA RELATIONS:

John M. Moran

212-461-5507

[email protected]

SOURCE CIT Group Inc.

Related Links

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American Airlines Group AAL will be cancelling more flights to and from New York City area airports due to rapidly evaporating" travel demandas COVID-19 cases increase in the region. About a week ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an advisory warning against all non-essential travel to and from New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.



American Airlines will now operate only 13 daily flights from New York's JFK and LaGuardia airports and New Jersey's Newark airport between Apr 9 and May 6. This is a massive reduction from the April 2019 average of 271 daily flights across all three airports.



Following the CDC warning and the extensive spread of the coronavirus in New York and New Jersey, United Airlines UAL last week announced a temporary suspension of approximately 90% of all flights in and out of Newark and LaGuardia. The suspensions are expected to continue for three weeks.

American Airlines Group Inc. Price

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Schools across six Bay Area counties will remain shuttered through the rest of the academic year, officials announced Tuesday.

The decision officially confirms what state and local officials already said was all but inevitable given the ongoing rise of coronavirus cases across the region and the need to continue to shelter in place.

We know that social distancing is the most powerful weapon in slowing the spread of COVID-19, said Dr. Chris Farnitano, health officer for Contra Costa County, in a statement. As hard as it is to extend school closures, we know that it is critical to protecting the health and safety of all residents of Contra Costa County and the Bay Area in general.

The announcement applies to all public schools in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties, with nearly 1 million students affected.

Oakland Unified was among the first districts to announce that schools would not reopen in May.

Most, if not all, districts across the state are expected to remain closed this school year, continuing to teach students online or through other means of distance learning, including phone calls and paper packets.

I want to be clear: The 2019-2020 school year has not ended, said San Francisco Superintendent Vincent Matthews. Learning will continue to the greatest extent possible through both digital and non-digital interactive teacher-led learning.

The state has allocated $100 million to help districts upgrade or purchase technology, and private companies like Comcast, Verizon and Google are offering free Wi-Fi access.

But what that looks like in each district already varies greatly. In Santa Clara Unified, 98% of students were participating in distance learning last week via either videoconferences or other contact with teachers. The district started ramping up online learning in mid-March after the district closed schools.

Other districts, however, have been negotiating with teachers unions to determine what will be expected of teachers, while also launching teacher-training webinars to help get educators up to speed on technology.

Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco expect to start formal distance learning Monday, with distribution of Chromebooks and other technology continuing this week.

In many districts, teachers have provided students learning opportunities or even optional assignments but have not necessarily started teaching the curriculum or grade-level academic content.

Some have organized class video conferences or have recorded lessons on YouTube or other platforms for students to watch on their own time.

Yet not all children have computers at home or internet access, meaning they havent been able to participate in online learning. District and state officials have said students should not be penalized on report cards for not doing schoolwork during the entirety of the closure.

We want to make sure every child has a device and has access to the internet, said San Francisco school board President Mark Sanchez. Im sure that will be our biggest challenge.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Districts across the Bay Area had hoped to reopen schools this week after closing in mid-March, with the reopening date then pushed to May 4.

But last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond acknowledged that given the safety and health concerns, schools would not be able to reopen.

The state announcement was not a directive, with each district required to make the determination individually. Several districts quickly announced that schools would not reopen. Others waited several days before making the same announcement.

The long-term closure will have a significant impact on grading and curriculum as well as rites of passage for high school seniors, including postponement or cancellation of in-person graduation ceremonies and proms.

And how much students learn during the rest of the school year will vary greatly by school and district, Sanchez said.

I anticipate it will be not nearly as much as students would normally get in a classroom setting, Sanchez said. Its going to be all over the map.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Jilltucker
State-run Bank of Baroda on Tuesday said it will provide financial assistance of up to Rs 1 lakh to women self-help groups (SHGs) to help meet their funding demand amid the COVID-19 crisis

Mumbai: State-run Bank of Baroda on Tuesday said it will provide financial assistance of up to Rs 1 lakh to women self-help groups (SHGs) to help meet their funding demand amid the COVID-19 crisis.

The bank has also announced an emergency credit line for farmers producer organisations (FPO/FPC) to deal with any liquidity mismatches.

Under the Additional Assurance to SHGs-COVID19 scheme, the bank will provide support to existing SHGs' facilities in the form of cash credit or overdraft or term loans.

"The minimum loan amount is Rs 30,000 per SHG and maximum loan amount granted under the scheme is Rs one lakh per member, repayable in 24 months," the bank said in a statement.

The repayment for this scheme would be on a monthly or quarterly basis and the moratorium will be for a period of six months from the date of disbursement.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

For FPO/FPC, a limit of 10 percent of the combined limits will be sanctioned with a maximum amount of Rs 5 lakh with the tenor of 36 months. The moratorium period is for a maximum of six months.

For borrowers in the dairy and fisheries segment, the lender will provide instant credit to the farming community to meet emergent funds requirement for farm maintenance and other farm-related activities due to COVID-19.

"The limit stands at 10 percent of other agriculture sanction limit (i.e. minimum Rs 10,000) and maximum Rs 50,000 for existing regular investment credit agriculture accounts," it said.

The lender will also give an instant credit to crop loan borrowers for the requirement in agriculture and related domestic purposes.

The loan limit under the scheme is 10 percent of KCC sanction limit -- minimum Rs 10,000 and maximum Rs 50,000 -- for existing regular KCC holders.
Nadine Garner is one of the countrys best and hardest working actors. But soon she expects to be lining up for welfare, along with most of her colleagues, after falling through the cracks of the governments coronavirus support package.

With JobKeeper about to be set in statute the federal government has confirmed the lifeline payments will not be available to freelancers and casuals on short-term contracts, or who have worked for a series of employers in the last year.

Actor Nadine Garner lost her most recent job when MTC's Emerald City production was shuttered just days into its six-week run. Credit:Justin McManus

And thats pretty much the definition of acting work.

Its going to hurt, says Garner, a single mother with children aged 10 and 14.
How ironic that Bill DeBlasio, New York Citys mayor, who designated his city a sanctuary city, and Governor Andrew Cuomo, who designated New York a sanctuary state, both in defiance of federal orders, have blamed the federal government for not supplying all of their hospital and other state needs. These two, among other prominent Democrat mayors and governors who for many years virtue-signaled and put the rest of the country in jeopardy --- claiming it is not the fed's business what they do in their states --- suddenly have relinquished city and state responsibility for the conditions in their jurisdictions. Virus protection is the federal governments obligation, they bellow.

These same mayors and governors who proudly stood in the way of ICE, the federal governments agency for protecting our borders and citizens from illegal immigrant criminality, were blithely willing to endanger the rest of the country by arrogating to themselves all power. Suddenly, they take no personal blame for the lack of preparedness and supplies, or the absence of a game plan in their districts, where heretofore they claimed absolute power and independence.

Some questions: Why hadnt they stockpiled masks, gowns, gloves, and ventilators? Some have held office for almost ten years. It seems they were not focused on nuts and bolts but exotic projects and trendy politics. Their city and state health departments have budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars. We now see they are all boast but no toast. Instead of serious governing, they have spent the last three years trying, through the courts, do defy President Trump. Who do they blame for whats happening now in their city and state? Trump and the federal government.

When Trump outlawed the flights from China, DeBlasio immediately accused Trump of racism. His enlightened NYC policies have routinely been formulated to be the opposite of Trump. He brags about it, and New Yorkers have cheered him on by crowing about who we are. So, while Trump was closing us down with China and acknowledging that a virus was on its way, DeBlasio was making light of it. He defiantly kept mass subway and bus travel open, declaring the City could handle this minor problem, and was unwilling to close the public schools. Even after Pennsylvania and New Jersey had closed their schools, DeBlasio did not. It was New Yorks governor who finally intervened and closed them down. No doubt, it was DeBlasios unending war against Trump, Trump the racist against the Chinese, that blinded him and inwardly compelled him to be AWOL on Corona until a mere couple of weeks ago. And, the City suffered.

As is known, on Jan. 31 President Trump wisely outlawed flights from China coming into the United States. He did so because China was, and is, the source of the deadly virus. Always playing identity politics and swift to malign and do the opposite of what President Trump enunciates, Nancy Pelosi told people to come to San Franciscos Chinatown. There is nothing to worry about, she confidently said on a widely distributed video. She, like most Democrats, including Joe Biden, implied the president was guilty of anti-Chinese bias, racism. Similarly, the head of NYCs Health Dept, Oxiris Babot, a well-known identity politics operative, contrasting NYCs policy from that of Trump, told people to travel the subways, go to Chinatown, and mingle as New Yorkers do. This harmful activity by DeBlasio and Babot is yet another consequence of Democrat Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Early on, many of the liberal mouthpieces invoked science to tell us that this was not a virus that passed easily between human to human. In one of their oft-used refrains, liberals accused Mr. Trump of denying science by shutting down flights from China and later Iran and Iraq. Trump, they said, was motivated by prejudice, for science did not see harm in air travel from other countries. But now that the virus has become devastatingly infectious, Democrats are accusing Trump of being against science for not shutting down the country even earlier, asking, ironically,why he didnt shut it down at the very moment they were telling everybody not to worry and keep the country open and fluid. Theirs is a science that is malleable according to how they want to politically exploit it. It is the science of expediency.

In fact, the Democrat governors of Nevada and Michigan initially outlawed, in great public fanfare, the use of chloroquine. Propelled by TDS, they did this as opposition to Trumps suggestion that hydroxychloroquine could possibly offer great hope. The press and many Democrats belittled and maligned as unscientific the presidents hope in the ameliorative affects of the drug, which has now shown bright successes. Many who would have benefited from chloroquine were denied their chance because of TDS.

In one of the most contemptuous interviews in American history, Nancy Pelosi, on Meet the Press, accused President Trump of accelerating the deaths of the American people by not restricting more severely early on. She despicably said: The president fiddles while people are dying. But, it was she who was inviting Americans to visit Chinatown at the moment the president was already closing us off from China. The people in Chinatown, be it in San Francisco or Lower Manhattan, were the most likely carriers, traveling back and forth to see family in China. It is Pelosi who should assume guilt. It was her policy of always being contrary to Trump that ended up infecting more people. Adam Schiff will open up an investigation of President Trump and his administration with the hope of damaging the president. Actually, it is Pelosi who should be investigated!

It was Schiffs and Pelosis zeal last December to destroy Trump that previously distracted and bottle-up the administration throughout the first murmurs of the impending coronavirus arrival. They bottled up Congress as well. They forced everyones gaze elsewhere. They are now doing the very same thing again; not only blaming the president for what they are guilty of, but, once again, distracting him and his administration from focusing on ending the coronavirus spread. It is a form of evil, of putting their power and politics above everything else, including above the American people. But they did so and will do so again to the detriment of the American people due to their zombie-like intoxication with TDS. Some are even hoping for impeachment, ready to halt in mid-stream the gains being made by the president who is rescuing the American people. But, TDSs loyalty is not to the American people or the sick, but to its ambitious and mind-crazed plotters.

Throughout our countrys ordeal, death and pain, Hillary Clinton has steadily been a criticizer only, not a helper. She is demoralizing the country. Her goal is not to help, but bring down her nemesis, Mr. Trump, no matter the consequences to the country. Like an ambulance chaser, she is exploiting Americas tragedy for her own personal gain and satisfaction. Her comments are a torrent of criticism of the president, portraying him as doing little. This, of course, is the lie of all lies. The fact is just the opposite. Clinton demands that the president lead. Well, thats exactly what he is superbly doing.

The country has never seen a president so absolutely focused, bringing together in record time every facet of our private and public sectors, displaying a stupendous grasp of numbers, statistics and theories regarding every subject, a leader immediately able to answer just about every question posed by the press. His business experience and acumen have been crucial to the management he is minute-by-minute executing. He is at the top of his game and understands the interconnectedness of the entire retail and wholesale economic mosaic .and we are the beneficiaries of it.

As the coronavirus escalated here in America and we began exceeding other countries, Hillary Clinton callously and sarcastically tweeted: Trump did promise America First. Who can fathom such a twisted psyche? Who can grasp such self pre-occupation and density to others? Evidently for Clinton there is only one worthwhile first: Hillary First. Pelosi and Clinton are obsessed with nothing else in life but their stardom and being the center of powerand revenge, the likes of which most of us have never seen. It is vile.

Instead of Mrs. Clinton throwing fuel to the fires, why doesnt she, for the good of the country, just control herself? Why doesnt she donate hundreds of millions of dollars from her vast Clinton Foundation, which is supposed to be a charitable foundation. After all, people donated to her we assume for precisely these purposes. Not a pledge, but an actual bank check of $200-300 million toward people now suffering in America, and for the procurement of masks, gowns, gloves and ventilators, and for paying overtime to all our health care workers. That would be a way for her to lead.

Our country is under attack. Can anyone imagine FDR being attacked in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor by politicians accusing FDR of not leading, of politicians constantly demoralizing the country in her moment of peril, of politicians calling for investigations and impeachment of FDR while trying to lift us out of the ashes of Pearl? Thank God there were no Hillary Clintons, Pelosi, Schiff, Chuck Schumer, Rob Reiner, Bill Kristol or Cher during WW II. Tokyo Rose was enough.

There were people back in 1941 who thought FDR had allowed himself to be caught off guard, that there were ample signs FDR should have seen of an impending Japanese attack. But no decent politician tried to bring down the President for it. They let the President do his job.

Actually, there was a case in American history where the president and secretary of state were indeed aware of an unfolding tragedy and attack in front of their eyes and yet did nothing, purposely did nothing, and let Americans be murdered and tortured so as to save their own political skins. It was Benghazi! The president was Barack Obama, the secretary of state was Hillary Clinton, and the minority leader was Nancy Pelosi.

Rabbi Aryeh Spero is president of Caucus for America and author of Push Back.
A day after President Donald Trump accused him of always complaining, Gov. J.B. Pritzker kept up his critique of federal efforts to provide states with the gear needed to protect health care workers and treat patients in a pandemic that has now claimed more than 300 lives in Illinois.

To anyone who wants a response to some of the blame-shifting coming out of the White House, all I have to say is, Look at the numbers here in Illinois,  Pritzker said Monday at his daily coronavirus news conference in downtown Chicago.

The state has received only a small fraction of the masks, gowns, goggles and other gear it has requested from the federal government, Pritzker said. That includes 300 of the 4,000 ventilators Illinois has asked for and about 368,000 of the more than 10 million N95 respirator masks requested, according to figures provided by the state and the White House. The city of Chicago has received 150 additional ventilators for its stockpile from the feds.

If we had relied upon the White House and its obligation to fulfill our needs from the (Strategic National Stockpile), our state and nearly every state in the United States would come up short and could not protect our health care workers and our first responders, Pritzker said. But heres the good news: We havent trusted what we were told by the White House.

Instead, he said, his administration has been working on its own to secure needed equipment. Pritzker said hes spoken with the representatives of companies that are developing ventilators, including General Motors and Ford Motor Co., but that today were doing OK with regard to ventilators.

State officials on Monday announced 1,006 more cases of the new coronavirus and 33 additional deaths, bringing the number of known cases statewide to 12,262 and the death toll to 307 since the outbreak began.

As of Monday, 3,680 patients with COVID-19 were being hospitalized across the state, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Of those, 1,166 were in intensive care and 821 were on ventilators.

"We have to watch the number of hospitalizations, watch the number of people going to ICU beds, and thats kind of a progression that  if you see that increasing, you know that your ventilator needs are going to increase, Pritzker said. So were watching it every day and keeping count.

As officials project Illinois to reach the peak of the coronavirus outbreak later this month, Pritzker said the masks and other disposable equipment Illinois has received from the federal government would last only days. While the state has received nearly 368,000 of the N95 masks from Washington, it is using up roughly 1.5 million every 10 days, according to the governors office.

"As you can see when you compare our federal shipments to our burn rate, the product that weve received from the federal stockpile will last only a handful of days in this multimonth battle, Pritzker said.

Pritzker acknowledged the assistance Illinois is receiving from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies, some of which have been involved with opening a field hospital at McCormick Place. The first 500 of 3,000 planned beds opened Friday.

These are all people who are fighting like hell for Illinois, he said. Even with one hand tied behind their backs by the White House.

Pritzker said he received word Monday afternoon that some military medical staff would be assigned to assist Illinois, but the details were still being worked out.

After saying Sunday that the federal government had to help Illinois with the McCormick Place hospital facility because Pritzker couldnt do his job," Trump said at his daily White House briefing Monday that his administration has worked well with all of the governors.

Vice President Mike Pence had a nearly two-hour call Monday morning with governors from across the country and there wasnt a negative person on the call, Trump said. Even Gov. Pritzker from Illinois is happy."

"He may not be happy when he talks to the press, but hes happy. Hes a very happy man, Trump said.
Hyderabad, April 7 : Veteran Telugu actor and producer Mohan Babu and his actor son Vishnu Manchu have adopted eight villages in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district for the lockdown period.

They will provide food twice a day to poor families of eight villages in Chandragiri district.

Mohan Babu, who is known for his philanthropic work, is already supplying daily eight tonnes of vegetables for the poor.

The veteran actor, who was born in Chittoor district, also runs Sri Vidyaniketan group of educational institutions in the same district.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 03:45:10|Editor: huaxia

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DAMASCUS, April 6 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. officer, along with two Kurdish fighters, was killed on Monday in an ambush in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour, state news agency SANA reported.

The ambush, carried out by an unknown group, targeted vehicles of the U.S.-led coalition and fighters of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the village of Sur in Deir al-Zour's countryside.

The slain U.S. officer was transported to the Shaddadi base, which is run by the U.S. forces, in the southern countryside of the northeastern province of Hasakah, SANA said, providing no further details.

The U.S. forces and Kurdish-led fighters control areas in Deir al-Zour and Hasakah after dislodging Islamic State (IS) militants in battles in 2018.

However, IS sleeper cells are believed to still be active in the region.
Veteran actor Ratna Pathak Shah, who immortalised the role of Maya Sarabhai in the popular sitcom Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai, recently said that she was once skeptic if the writers had depicted the middle class too harshly. The show is being re-telecast on television from April 6th amidst the coronavirus lockdown.

In an interview with Times of India, Shah was asked if she personally related to her character or that of her daughter-in-law Monisha, played by Rupali Ganguly.

"Of course, Maya Sarabhai it has to be her. Tauba I don't relate to Monisha at all in real life. And in today's time definitely with Maya Sarabhai. I remember when we started shooting for the show, I often asked our writer Aatish Kapadia, kya middle class ko itna lataadna zaruri hai... (do we need to be so cruel towards the middle class). Aren't we too harsh on them and is it fair after all we all are middle class.

"I definitely think of myself as a middle class person and I do things that Monisha does in real-life to save money. But when I see people around doing things, I feel hum ne shayad kum he kiya (We should have been more harsh). As Deven Bhojani said earlier the show was much ahead of its time, the time has caught up with it. The world I feel is turning into a crazy mess that Sarabhai talked about," Shah said.

Rupali likewise said that she related to her own character as she grew up in a middle-class household herself. Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai also starred Satish Shah, Sumeet Raghavan, Rajesh Kumar, Mallika Sherawat and Mandira Bedi in pivotal roles.

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The government of Taiwan has banned the popular video conferencing tool Zoom from being used for all official state business.

In a statement issued by Taiwan's cabinet, the government directed all of its agencies and workers to 'not use products with security concerns, like Zoom.'

Instead, the government suggested agencies that needed video conferencing software for remote workers use products from Google of Microsoft instead.

Taiwan has announced a government-wide ban on using Zoom for official business and instead directs workers to products from Google or Microsoft

The government typically encourages its workers to use software that has been developed locally, but due to 'special circumstances' imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, software developed outside of Taiwan will be acceptable.

Taiwan's ministry of education followed up shortly after by announcing they would be ban Zoom from being used for virtual classroom sessions in all of the country's schools, according to a report from the CBC.

In early April, the Canadian government issued similar guidance advising workers against using Zoom.

'The security aspects of Zoom have not been assessed by the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, and it has not been approved for any government discussions that require secure communications,' Ryan Foreman from Canada's Communications Security Establishment said.

The app has also been banned by New York City officials, who had previously allowed schools to use it for virtual classes.

Zoom has also been banned from official use by the Canadian government, the Australian Defence Force, the New York City Department of Education and more

The Australian Defence Force also banned the tool, citing concerns that 'hostile foreign actors' could use it to gain access to valuable defense information after a comedian hacked into an air force meeting as part of an online comedy sketch.

WHAT SECURITY MEASURES DOES ZOOM HAVE? Users of the Zoom video-conferencing app are given a code to enter the meeting 'room'. This number of between nine and 11 digits can then be shared with those the meeting host wish to join them. But things can get out of hand if people share these codes online on social media, allowing something called 'zoombombing', where mass groups of people can join a meeting as a joke or to disrupt it if they receive the code. However, there are additional steps that can be taken to block this. Private groups can also be set up so that they require an additional password to join. This means that even if the room code is shared accidentally, as in today's case, it is not possible to join the room. Additionally, a meeting can be set up so that no-one can enter before the organiser or chair. This means pranksters cannot 'sit' in a room waiting for others to log in. The chair of the meeting has the power to kick uninvited guests out of the room once they are in it. Advertisement

Zoom had initially seen huge user growth as the COVID-19 pandemic drove many companies to shift to telecommuting, seeing more than 200 million daily users at its peak in March.

Since then, reports have confirmed a range of security flaws with the software that's made it a target for hackers.

Over the last 10 days, the company has lost close to a third of its market value as reports of security flaws have circulated.

In a blog post on the company site, Zoom CEO and founder Eric Yuan apologized for the security issues and admitted that trying to adapt to the enormous scale of demand has been challenging for the company.

'We also feel an immense responsibility,' he wrote. 'Usage of Zoom has ballooned overnight  far surpassing what we expected when we first announced our desire to help in late February.'

Yuan remained upbeat, however, and said the company would use its current difficulties to make longterm improvements.

'We appreciate the scrutiny and questions we have been getting  about how the service works, about our infrastructure and capacity, and about our privacy and security policies,' Yuan wrote.

'These are the questions that will make Zoom better, both as a company and for all its users.

The company says it will suspend development on all new features and focus exclusively on solving its security issues.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on April 7 wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggesting five measures to conserve money for the fight against COVID-19, including a complete ban on media advertisements by government and PSUs for two years and suspending the Central Vista beautification project. The suggestions came after Modi reached out to several opposition leaders, including Gandhi, on April 6.

In her letter to the prime minister, Gandhi also called for ordering proportionate reduction of 30 percent in expenditure budget (other than salaries, pensions and central sector schemes) for the government of India.

All foreign visits of the president, prime minister, Union ministers, chief ministers, state ministers and bureaucrats must be put on hold, she said.

The Congress chief called for transferring all money under the 'PM Cares' fund to the 'Prime Ministers National Relief Fund' to ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability.

Asserting that the need of the hour is austerity measures to divert funds to the fight against COVID-19, she said, "Impose a complete ban on media advertisements - television, print and online - by the Government and PSU's for a period of two years."

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Gandhi also called upon the PM to suspend the Rs 20,000 crore Central Vista beautification and construction project forthwith. I am certain that Parliament can function comfortably within existing historical buildings, she said.
A crew member of the US Navy hospital ship sent to New York City to help relieve hospitals during the coronavirus outbreak has tested positive for the disease.

The USNS Comfort crew member tested positive on Monday and is being isolated, according to a Navy statement. The positive test will not affect the hospital ship's overall mission to receive patients.

The Comfort has only treated about 40 non-Covid-19 patients since arriving in the city last week, prompting complaints it was doing little to help overburdened hospitals in the area.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that he agreed to take Covid-19 patients aboard the ship after speaking with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Governor Cuomo announced his intention to ask the president to change the ship's mission during his daily briefing on Monday.

Federal officials say emergency patients will now be seen on the ship, whether or not they have the virus, though the ship can only isolate only a small number of patients.

In Tuesday's press briefing, Governor Cuomo said that the capacity of the ship would drop to 500 patients in order to appropriately isolate those being treated.

On Monday, New York City had 68,776 cases and 2,738 deaths out of statewide totals of 130,703 cases and 4,758 deaths.
Police said in a statement that a cause of death had not been determined, but they do not believe it was related to covid-19. The statement said Eckenrode is survived by his wife and three children.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Bexar County rose to 456 as new criteria is making it easier for people to be tested, officials said at the daily city/county briefing Monday.

The number of deaths stood unchanged at 12.

Were still climbing up the curve of this pandemic here in San Antonio, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said, adding that Metro Health is now recommending that anyone out in public older than 5 should cover nose and mouth with a cloth, such as a mask or bandanna.

Even a scarf could work, County Judge Nelson Wolff said. Just dont let it give you a false sense of security, he cautioned.

The best preventive if you must be outside your home is still keeping the 6-foot social distance from others, the two leaders said.

GOOD NEWS: Because we need more of it, submit your story and we may feature it in an upcoming article

Medical-grade masks should be left for healthcare workers and first responders, they emphasized.

Wolff also said he had extended the county stay-at-home order through April 30 and Nirenberg said the City Council will consider doing the same at its meeting Thursday.

In updating the numbers, Nirenberg said 91 of those confirmed to have the virus are hospitalized, 52 are in intensive care and 35 are using ventilators. On the positive side, the number of patients who have recovered rose by 10 Monday to a total of 77.

Nirenberg said the local medical community has worked to postpone elective surgeries and procedures, and as a result, we have plenty of hospital beds and ventilators tonight.

On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus and a tracking map of U.S. cases

The largest cause category among the confirmed cases is close contact with someone who had the disease, with 153 getting the infection that way. Another 139 cases have been linked to community transmission  non-specific spread, possibly through the air or contact with a contaminated surface, while 115 cases are traveled-related. Forty-nine are under investigation.

As community transmission increases, officials are taking additional steps to try to slow the spread of COVID-19. Late Monday, Metro Health issued an advisory, Nirenberg said, in accordance with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, recommending all people older than age 5 wear a cloth face-covering over their nose and mouth when theyre in a public place where its difficult to maintain a physical distance of at least 6 feet from others.

The covering can be a homemade mask, scarf, bandanna or handkerchief, he said. But use of medical masks or N95 respirators are discouraged, since theyre a needed resource for health care workers and first responders.

He emphasized that everyone should stay home as much as possible, as directed by the city and county stay-at-home orders, but wear face coverings when they must venture outside for essential purposes.

On ExpressNews.com: City, county issue parallel stay-at-home orders after first COVID-19 death

Wolff said he had extended a county stay-at-home order to April 30 that, among other restrictions, prohibits evictions, mortgage foreclosures and price-gouging and encourages pretrial release from the Bexar County Jail of nonviolent offenders who are no threat to the community.

Noting the news this week of a third employee at the jail testing positive for COVID-19, Wolff said officials remain concerned about the potential for an outbreak at the jail similar to those that have occurred on cruise ships and nursing homes.

Its important that we manage our jail population right, Wolff said, noting the third employee was a deputy who was part of a graduating class who didnt go into the jail.

No inmates have tested positive.

Bexar County is now in its third week under city and county stay-at-home orders. Local authorities have said they will revoke certificates of occupancy of non-essential businesses that continue to operate in violation of the orders.

The criteria for testing was recently eased, which means there likely will be more confirmed cases but that also will provide a clearer picture of the situation in the San Antonio area.

Residents still must have symptoms of the virus  fever, cough, shortness of breath  to be tested, but a physicians referral is no longer required. Call the San Antonio COVID-19 Testing Center at 210-233-5970 for more information.

Wolff said the number of confirmed cases could possibly reach a high point next week, followed by a slowdown in the increase.

Nirenberg said the city plans to release data showing that what were doing with the social distancing requirements is working.

On ExpressNews.com: COVID-19 cases rising in Bexar County

. I think we have to stay the course, and hopefully we can get out of this sooner rather than later, he said.

In neighboring Guadalupe County, officials warned Monday of possible COVID-19 exposures at businesses in Seguin. Someone who has since tested positive was at Walgreens Pharmacy, 1357 E. Court St., between 8:30 and 9 a.m. on April 1; and Walmart, 550 South 123 Bypass, between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday.

swhuddleston@express-news.net

Twitter: @shuddlestonSA
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday urged Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to take protective measures to ensure the safety of nurses from the state who have tested positive for the coronavirus in the capital.

"Unfortunately we are now hearing the news that some nurses have tested positive for the COVID-19 in Delhi. I would like to draw your attention to a situation which has been reported to us regarding the plight of nurses in Delhi," Vijayan wrote in the letter.

In the letter, Kerala chief minister further requested for immediate action for the health workers treating COVID-19 patients.

"I request that immediate action may be taken to alleviate concerns of nurses from Kerala working in Delhi. Concerned officials may be directed to urgently ensure that utmost protection is given to them," he said.

Vijayan had earlier raised a similar concern for health employees working in Maharashtra and requested Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to provide basic necessities to health workers hailing from Kerala.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rajasthan recorded 42 more cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, taking the total number of infected people in the state to 343, an official said.

According to officials, the virus has so far claimed six lives in the state. However, they maintain that deaths occurred due to co-morbidity -- more than one illness or disease occurring in one person at the same time.

"Forty-two new cases have come up today, including in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Banswara and Churu districts. All have contact and travel history," Additional Chief Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said.

Among the fresh cases, 13 were detected in Jaisalmer; nine in Jodhpur; seven in Banswara, six in Jaipur (6); three each in Bikaner and Bharatpur; and one in Churu.

Kumar said the total number included 36 people evacuated from Iran last month.

Jaipur has the maximum 106 cases followed by Jodhpur (30), Bhilwara (27), Jhunjhunu (23) and Tonk (20).

No fresh case has been reported from Bhilwara in the past two days.

In Jaipur, the Ramganj area has emerged as a major coronavirus hotspot from where the maximum number of cases have been reported.

Rajasthan Health Minister Dr Raghu Sharma on Tuesday said the state government has decided to step up screening of people through rapid testing kits in the areas hit by coronavirus infection.

The rapid testing, a kind of blood test which gives quick results in comparison to the current swab-based examination.

The minister said the 'Bhilwara model' of intensive screening will also be replicated with improvements and local requirements in the virus-hit areas.

Dr. Sharma said of the 343 positive patients till date, 32 people have been discharged from hospitals.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Anushka Sharma, on Tuesday took to Twitter to share a new post about the importance of family. In the photo with the post, she can be seen playing the board game Monopoly with husband Virat Kolhi and her parents.

Its from our primary care givers - family that we learn how to tread the journey of life, how to walk, how to eat, how to socialize & then face the world, Anushka wrote, adding, This forms our initial conditioning that has a lasting impact on us. In the world we inhabit today, there is a lot of uncertainty and Im sure a lot of you have found that solace & sense of familiarity with your families.

Stay at home to take care of everyone precious in your lives. And also make the most of these moments ... smile, laugh, share, show affection, clear misunderstandings, develop stronger/healthier bonds, discuss life and dreams and pray for a better tomorrow. We all have been moved deeply, we all have been affected deeply and hopefully we will carry forward these lessons in the days to come. And hopefully, we have all conditioned ourselves to relook at the world we inhabited before all of this happened...P.S. : It was a super close game of Monopoly and the competitive side of everyone was out there. Any guesses who won??

She then asked all to stay at home and take care of ones precious ones.

The celebrity couple, Anushka and Virat, have been at the forefront of creating awareness about coronavirus among Indians. On Sunday, they enthusiastically took part in the light a diya a call given by PM Modi. Sharing a picture, Anushka had written: I light a diya every day for many years now. And as I light the diya, I seek guidance, asking for the darkness in me to be dispelled. For many days since the turn of the recent events across the world, I have prayed to God to end the suffering of so many who are losing their lives without their families beside them, for the less fortunate and the needy whose lives have turned upside down completely, for all the healthcare professionals who are working tirelessly & bravely to protect the lives of other beings, for those who are uncertain about their jobs and future, she said in her message.

Like many other celebrities, they too pledged to donate to various charities to fight coronavirus. The couple said they would donate to both, Maharashtra Chief Ministers relief fund and Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES).

Virat and I are pledging our support towards PM-CARES Fund & the Chief Ministers Relief Fund (Maharashtra). Our hearts are breaking looking at the suffering of so many & we hope our contribution, in some way, helps easing the pain of our fellow citizens #IndiaFightsCorona, Anushka said.

(With agencies inputs)

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Days after the 2020 Indian Market postponed until 2021, the Traditional Spanish Market has followed suit.

The Spanish Colonial Arts Society, which puts on the event, informed hundreds of artists about the decision in a letter sent Monday.

The 2020 event was scheduled to take place July 25-26 at the Santa Fe Plaza.

In the letter, Rob Coffland, president of the Spanish Colonial Arts Society, wrote that the board of directors decided to postpone the event until July 24-25, 2021, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision was very difficult, but it was made in the interest to protect the health of the artists, your families, your collectors, and our community, Coffland said in the letter.

The 2020 event would have marked Traditional Spanish Markets 69th year. The two-day market brings in around $9 million in lodging and $25 million to the city of Santa Fe, organizers said.

The world-renowned market brings together more than 200 artists working in the over 400-year-old Spanish Colonial style.

Media include bultos, retablos, colcha embroidery, tinwork, straw applique, woodcarvings, jewelry, metalwork, furniture and weaving, as well as incredible art that is a true expression of New Mexico history.

Coffland said the postponement will not be reflected in the artist database as a missed year or as a participated year; it will merely show as a skipped year.

He said those artists who successfully juried into specific art categories for Traditional Spanish Market in 2020 can assume that they are automatically accepted into the 2021 market.

SCAS is presently considering a digital platform where artists can sell their artwork as a means to soften the impact of lost income at the July event, Coffland said in the letter. We recognize how important Spanish Market sales are to your livelihood, and we are considering several options to assist you with promoting your art.
New Delhi, April 7 : As the Delhi government schools started online classes for students entering class 12 from the new session, it has initiated talks with the 'Khan Academy' to explore an elaborate learning program for the students in the higher classes.

The Education Department said the talks are on for classes above nine, with an aim to expand the availability and accessibility of the educational resources, particularly in Maths and Science.

"More than 9,000 students have already signed up for the online classes that started on Monday, and the government is looking to design ways to help students continue with their learning during the nationwide lockdown," an official from the Education Department said.

Delhi schools are shut because of the nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus. To compensate for the loss of education, the government has started e-classes for Class 12, while activities are being assigned to students up to class 8 through SMS or recorded calls.

To design an easy and well-structured learning plan for the students of other classes as well during the period of lockdown, the Delhi government is planning to tie up with the Khan Academy -- an educational non-profit organisation.

The Khan Academy, which offers interactive learning materials for students, has been working to introduce guided self-learning ways for the school students with its own instructors.

"The government is aiming to utilize the content and resources offered by this educational portal to include it in addition to the already rolled out online classes for Class 12 students. The idea is to effectively continue with the academic cycles of the students, and not let the lockdown hamper their learning." Also, the official said there is also a possibility that the government may also start rolling out teacher training programs with the help of the Khan Academy.

"The area of focus of this tie up is on introducing a guided self-learning plan with Khan Academy instructors. Students will be provided with audio/video based content along with self-assessment exercises. Special doubt-clearing sessions on important topics will be held for students." The team would be instrumental in facilitating live discussions, and ensuring feedback from across all the corners.

"The government is also planning to start training mentor teachers with the help of Khan Academy so as to equip them to effectively conduct follow-up sessions for students right before the academic session starts."
Hi mbaburneraccount Thank you for your post. This is a little difficult to size up completely without knowing your actual GRE score (or even the splits). Generally speaking, you seem to have strong technical experience in your field, good international experience, a nice academic feather in your cap by finishing as the Gold Medalist, and an interesting personal touch with the band experience. Now, as I repeat here ad nauseam, many of these experiences are "nice" in and of themselves, but how EFFECTIVE they become within your application can vary in a big way depending on what you (and your recommenders) do with them.That means how good of a job you do presenting them; how good of a job you do unpacking the lessons, growth, and impact of the experiences; how good of a job you do introspecting and breaking down the key professional and personal experiences that have shaped your motivations and values; and then weaving all of this into a specific and compelling narrative about how who you are and what you've done to this point (i.e., the SPECIFIC knowledge, skills, and experience you've gained to this point) PLUS what you'd gain for the MBA (i.e., the SPECIFIC knowledge, skills, and experience you're missing) EQUAL or LEAD to your SPECIFIC post-MBA goals. This narrative should include a deep understanding of how each program to which you apply specifically fills the gaps of what you're missing. You can read more about to approach these cornerstone application here: https://www.avantiprep.com/blog/the-mos ... on-process . (And don't just say what you'll get from each program -- be sure to share how you can uniquely contribute as well. But be SPECIFIC about your intended contributions and how they align with or fit with each program's offerings, culture, community, etc.)School-wise, you seem to be thinking about things correctly from a tier perspective (at least directionally so), but the GRE result and your aforementioned application execution are going to be huge X factors. In general, but especially when applying from such a crowded and competitive demographic, two applicants with identical scores and profiles can experience wildly different outcomes based on the quality of their applications, essays, resume, recommendations, interviews, etc. None of the schools you've listed will be easy. Depending on where your score lands, you might consider building in a couple of schools from the next tier, though you are on the slightly younger side for an Indian applicant (who tend to fare better with a little more experience than you will have at the point of application), so you might be better off not yet including that next tier, seeing how you do with schools like this (assuming your GRE comes in at the right kind of level), and then making any necessary adjustments if you don't have any luck this year.I hope this helps and wish you the best of luck. If you would like to further this conversation, please feel free to sign up for a Free Consultation here: https://www.avantiprep.com/free-consultation.html Best Regards,Greg_________________
Skeletal remains discovered on a river bank in Co Dublin may date back to the 15th century.

Local people found what is believed to be an ancient burial in Swords on Monday evening.

The remains were discovered on the banks of the Ward River close to River Valley Park.

Gardai were called to the scene at around 6pm. They sealed off the area and requested an anthropologist to attend.

A Garda spokesman said: The skeletal remains were examined this evening by a forensic anthropologist and deemed to be ancient, dating back to roughly the 15th century.

This is no longer a Garda matter and the scene has been lifted. The National Museum of Ireland will decide on their next course of action.
Following the death of a patient at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, UITH, without disclosing his ailment, strong measures have been taken.





UITH

The Chief Medical Director of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, UITH, Professor A.D. Yusuf, Tuesday disclosed that all staff of the hospital who had close contact with the deceased COVID-19 patient on the night of his admission or his corpse have been ordered to proceed on self-isolation.

Besides, the A and E wards and the ambulance used to convey his corpse to Offa had been promptly fumigated, he told a press conference in Ilorin, the state capital.

Professor Yusuf also confirmed that Professor A.K Salami, who managed the deceased patient, had been placed on immediate suspension for his unethical conduct.

We were fed with the information of a suspected food poisoning as the cause of the death of the patient, until we got another lead to the likely cause of the death of the deceased.

In fact, it was shocking to us that the wife of the deceased patient had tested positive for the deadly virus as announced Monday by the Kwara State COVID-19 technical committee, the CMD added.

Professor Yusuf said despite the level of preparedness and precautionary measures taken by the hospital, We were taken aback to discover how a very senior consultant of this hospital had facilitated the admission of a suspected case of COVID-19 at the Accident and Emergency section of the hospital on the night of Wednesday, April 1st,2020.

He said the UITH management has constituted a medical investigation committee on the COVID-19 suspected case with Professor E.O. Afolayan as the Chairman to investigate among others, the process of admission, management and eventual release of the corpse.

The committee is to submit its report within one week from the date of its first sitting.
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PHOTOS: Historic Shah Cheragh shrine in Shiraz, Iran turned into workshop for coronavirus masks

03/29/20

Photos by Reza Ghaderi, Islamic Republic News Agency

The historic mausoleum of Shah Cheragh in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz has been temporarily turned into a workshop for local women to produce protective masks amid the outbreak of coronavirus in the country, as seen in footage shot on Monday.

The Shah Cheragh shrine, which translates to the "King of the Light", has switched its long lines of pilgrims for a masks production line in an effort to meet the medical supplies demands in Iran amid the COVID-19 outbreak.



Shah Cheragh in Shiraz, Iran

(Diego Delso, delso.photo, License CC-BY-SA)
































































Kenya will soon have to contend with the second wave of locusts invasion thats expected to be 20 times bigger than the first one.

This is according to experts who predict that the new swarms, descendants of the first generation, will hatch in May.

The first generation of locusts is now breeding, theyve laid their eggs; theyll be hatching into nymphs and hoppers, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) representative to Kenya Tobias Takavarasha told Thomson Reuters Foundation News.

So this is the time to harness or control them before they start flying or before they start to affect the coming planting season.

Scientists further warned that the swarms in East Africa will be 400 times bigger by June if successive generations are not eliminated.

Worse still, FAO indicated that the rains that fell late last month could boost the breeding of the desert locusts.

At the moment, new swarms and hopper bands are forming in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, with the Desert Locust Control Organisation for Eastern Africa (DLCO-EA) warning that new swarms, particularly from Somalia, could soon enter Kenya.

The scientists warned Kenya could be worst hit, with more first-generation immature swarms also forming throughout the northern and central counties.

They are expected to lay eggs from within the coming week and continue to May. This reproduction coincides with the onset of the long rains(planting season) thus posing a big threat to the regions food security.

DLCO-EA director Stephen Njoka assured they are doing all they can to have the situation under control.
Many Italian companies and academics are pressing the government to reopen factories to prevent an economic catastrophe, as the world watches how the first Western country to impose a lockdown can extricate itself from the unprecedented measures.

The same debate is being held around the globe: how long and stringently can bans to combat the coronavirus pandemic be held in place before irreversible damage is wrought, with businesses sunk and swathes of the population jobless?

Italy faces among the most pressing dilemmas, not only because its lockdown has been in place longer than most nations and it has the world's highest death toll, but because the novel coronavirus has hit hardest in the northern industrial heartlands that generate a third of its economic output.

"How can I pay wages if I do not make money? How can I keep American clients if I am not in the position to respect any contracts?" said Giulia Svegliado, CEO of Celenit, a producer of industrial insulating panels with 50 employees in the northern town of Padua.

About 150 Italian academics have published a letter in Italian financial daily Il Sole-24 Ore, owned by the Italian business lobby Confindustria, urging the government to unblock the economy.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

"The social and economic consequences would risk producing irreversible damage, probably more serious than those caused by the virus itself," the letter said.

More than two weeks after the government ordered a shutdown of non-essential factories, Italian businesses are calling for the ban to be quickly lifted to avoid jobs being lost.

Rome imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 9 when the new virus, which emerged in China, had already killed more than 460 people. Two weeks later, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced that non-essential businesses, including car, clothing and furniture production, would have to close until April 3.

The death toll has risen relentlessly and now stands at more than 16,500. The government extended the restrictions last week until April 13 and is widely expected to extend them again, for another three weeks.

However, the smallest daily rise in COVID-19 deaths for nearly two weeks on Saturday, and the first fall in the number of patients in intensive care, have fed hopes that the epidemic might have reached a peak in Italy and focused attention on the next phase in the crisis.

WHAT'S THE PLAN?

Most businesses appreciate the need for lockdowns to safeguard public health. After all, if bans are lifted before the spread of the virus is curbed, people may not have confidence to leave their homes and engage in commerce.

The World Health Organization on Tuesday urged countries not to lift restrictions prematurely.

Also read: COVID-19 pandemic: Looking for coronavirus testing centres near you? Heres the list

"One of the most important parts is not to let go of the measures too early in order not to have a fall back again," said spokesman Christian Lindmeier. "It's similar to being sick yourself if you get out of bed too early and get running too early you risk falling back and having complications."

What worries many in Italy, and elsewhere, is the apparent lack of authoritative plans on how to safely lift measures, as governments wrestle with an unforeseen, invisible and unfamiliar foe and scientific guidance evolves on a weekly basis.

Companies in the euro zone's third-largest economy are pushing for the government to come up with a strategy for a gradual exit from the lockdown.

"I expect government to set strict rules on security and then give us the possibility to go back to work," said Stefano Ruaro, founder of Sertech Elettronica, a producer of electro-mechanical, electronic and software components in Vicenza.

So far, officials have said that work restrictions would probably be lifted on a sector-by-sector rather than geographical basis. Social distancing, wider use of personal protection devices such as face masks and strengthened local health systems have also been spoken about.

Testing and "contact tracing" would be extended, including with the use of smartphone apps and other forms of digital technology, following the South Korean playbook.

'INCALCULABLE DAMAGE'

Vicenza and Padua are part of Veneto, one of the worst affected regions of Italy along with Lombardy and Emilia Romagna. The high density of factories and strong economic ties with China have been put forward as possible reasons behind the epidemic there.

"We say this very loudly to the authorities: 'Hurry up'," said Cesare Mastroianni, vice president of Absolute, a luxury yachts producer of Piacenza, Emilia Romagna. "The shutdown has already done incalculable damage."

Trade unions have threatened to strike unless the government keeps non-core activities down. Protect health over wealth, they say - and while many companies are pushing the government for a plan to reopen factories, they won't risk their staff.

"I am full of orders but I cannot reopen as long as there is a risk that employees may get sick. I will reopen when the responsible bodies decide that it can be done," said Gaetano Bergami, founder of BMC, a producer of air filters for the motorcycle and automotive industries with 100 employees.

With Italy's gross domestic product expected to fall by 6% this year according to Confindustria's forecast, public debt spiking towards 150% of GDP and thousands of people asking for state-backed income support schemes, pressure is growing on Conte to come up with a detailed blueprint for recovery.

"We can't wait for everything to pass. If we stay closed people will starve," former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, leader of the centrist ruling party Italia Viva, told bishops' newspaper L'Avvenire.

ANTIBODY TESTS

Authorities in northern Italy have begun testing health workers for antibodies that may help identify individuals with immunity to the coronavirus. The aim would be to allow authorities to issue "licences" for individuals with proven immunity to the virus to return to work.

Franco Locatelli, the head of Italy's Higher Health Council, said a reliable antibody test to find out who had already contracted the coronavirus, and likely have developed immunity, would give a better picture of the extent of Italy's epidemic.

However, it would probably then take another month before the health authorities are able to roll out recommendations on a plan for nationwide testing, Locatelli said.

Some industrialists said they would be happy to spend their own money to test employees if that would help speed up a gradual reopening of their activities.

Roberta Mantovani, chairwoman of Mantovanibenne, a producer of excavator buckets in Mirandola, in the Emilia Romagna region, said that she was in favour of employers ensuring staff were checked out.

She is not alone.

"I would be glad to foot the bill," said Celenit CEO Svegliado. "Rather than contracting coronavirus in the workplace the real risk is to be pushed out of the market."
(Doubleday)

If this were a normal author profile written during an ordinary time, Id probably lead with some details about how Robert Kolker looks, what he wore, whether he ordered avocado toast at the Brooklyn coffee shop where wed arranged to meet. Id have laid my phone on the table to tape our conversation, notebook at hand to jot down anything particularly personal, or funny, or revealing.

But the coronavirus changed that plan. Instead, we spoke over the phone from our respective homes amid the tight quarters, ambient noise and potential interruptions caused by teenaged children. Sharing workspace with one of them, Kolker quips, my daughter and I are sort of colleagues now. Its a fittingly unpretentious setup for talking to a writer whose superpower is relatability.

I called to talk to Kolker, a journalist and author, about  Hidden Valley Road . Kolkers second book tells the true story of the Galvins, a huge brood of 12 children, six of whom were diagnosed with schizophrenia; its part multi-generational family saga, part medical mystery, written with an extraordinary blend of rigor and empathy. The reporter in Kolker seeks accuracy above all, but theres a notable lack of judgment in the book that feels remarkable in light of the stigma long felt by those who have the condition in their families.

Kolker first learned of the Galvin family through its youngest member and second daughter, Lindsay (the first 10 children were boys). Lindsay and her sister, Margaret, had decided to ask an independent journalist to help them tell their familys story. A mutual friend recommended Kolker, a former colleague at New York Magazine, whose 2013 book  Lost Girls  chronicled the families of five victims, prostitutes who were found murdered by a still-unknown killer.

He knew that I had a track record of writing about ordinary people who are undergoing extraordinary situations, which is really what I ended up doing a lot of at New York magazine, said Kolker. As opposed to interviewing mayors and movie stars and fashion designers, I was writing about people who never imagined that they would get media coverage.

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Talking to Lindsay and Margaret, he was stunned at the enormity of the trauma. I couldnt believe that all of this could happen to just one family, he said. Its not just schizophrenia, theres also child abuse, and theres a murder-suicide  theres so much going on.

He was doubtful that the book would be possible, he said, because if just one family member objected, it would be very difficult to proceed. So Kolker offered to speak on the phone for one hour with each surviving family member, beginning with their mother, Mimi, then in her 90s. (The father, Don, and three of the brothers had already died.) And lo and behold, he said, everybody was on board.

Robert Kolker, the author of "Hidden Valley Road." (Jeff Zorabedian)

After a year of conversations, he had gotten to know the family but not the illness. Where I was really at zero was at understanding schizophrenia, he said. And that was the exciting part, as a reporter, to learn something from scratch, which was really mind-blowing.

He talked with researchers, some of whom had studied the Galvins, and then it became time to engage with the history of science. I ended up reading very old psychiatry texts about schizophrenia just to get what people were talking about at the time. It turned out those books were very easy to find for a dollar fifty or two dollars, because the science in them is wrong.

Hidden Valley Road, which has been earning raves culminating in its selection by Oprah's Book Club Tuesday, braids together the timelines  one chronicling the Galvin familys growing horror as son after son succumbed to mental illness, the other tracking the scientific controversies over the origins of the illness itself. It really became a history of debates, all centering on  nature versus nurture, said Kolker. Is it genetics or is it trauma  or in another era, Is it brain chemistry or is it bad parenting? Its always the same debate, but it just shifts a little in each generation.

Mimi Galvin raised her children during the baby boom, an era when psychiatrists spoke of  schizophrenogenic mothers  who caused mental illness through bad parenting. You could certainly argue that she made some pretty big errors along the way, but its also true that she was really unjustly vilified, Kolker said. After all, he added, she kept the family together. One reason why there arent other families like the Galvins being studied is because any other family like this wouldnt be a family. Theyd be off living in the streets, or half of them would be dead at a young age.

For Kolker, reporting on a family in trauma was nothing new. After studying history in college, he took a different approach to journalism than some of his peers. People in my generation thought about Woodward and Bernstein, he said. That was never anything that personally appealed to me. Instead, he found himself drawn to non-famous characters. I wasnt just doing rip-roaring crime yarns; I was looking at issues bubbling up under the surface of these crimes, he said. I was the person you would send to interview the grieving family.

It was a skill he grew into, influenced perhaps by his mothers work as a psychiatric counselor. There must be something about her training of listening and such that I picked up on. I come in as a listener. Some of that comes naturally and some of that came through practice.

Part of the difficulty of writing about the Galvins lay in the familys sheer size. I wanted to make sure everybody in the book was a person  not just the well people but the sick people too, he said. The challenge and the pleasure of writing nonfiction about a family is that you get everybodys perspective and  try to get at a larger truth. It was a chance to write something like a family saga, like 'East of Eden' or something like that.

In writing the scientific half of the saga  the story of our attempts to understand schizophrenia  Kolker found reason to be optimistic. I do think theres hope. I think in general, when it comes to this illness, every so-called breakthrough gets people a little bit closer to agreeing on what the nature of the illness actually is. After years of debate over nature versus nurture, researchers tend to view both as crucial. Early intervention has become the watchword now. If the Galvins were born decades later there would be less of a stigma and more of a watching out for early warning signs that would have limited the number of psychotic breaks. Whereas before, it was, lets sweep it under the rug, lets institutionalize them, lets shock them.

The book ends, too, on a hopeful moment, not only for future generations of the Galvin family, but for the larger project of understanding and treating schizophrenia. After Lost Girls, which is such a very sad book, it was delightful to find little shards of hope in there at different times, Kolker said. I hoped the book would help a lot of people and make people still feeling the stigma feel a little less alone.

And its true  despite the lonely battles fought by both patients and researchers, Kolkers Hidden Valley Road is at heart a book about how progress, personal or scientific, can never be achieved on our own.

Tuttle is a freelance writer and the interim books editor at the Boston Globe.
WASHINGTON  Hospitals across the country face dire shortages of vital medical equipment amid the coronavirus outbreak  including testing kits and thermometers  and fear they can't ensure the safety of health care workers needed to treat patients with COVID-19, according to an internal government watchdog report released Monday.

The alarming findings, based on interviews conducted from March 23 to March 27, represent the first government assessment of how the country's hospitals are coping with the outbreak and confirm previous media reports and warnings from health workers that the medical system is under unprecedented strain.

Hospital administrators also said conflicting guidance from federal, state and local governments on how to use personal protective gear and other issues has led to "a greater sense of confusion, fear and distrust among staff that they can rely on hospital procedures to protect them," according to the report from the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Despite the bleak outlook conveyed by the inspector generals report, President Donald Trump on Saturday said hospital administrators speaking to his administration were thrilled about their situation.

Many hospital administrators that we've been in touch with, even in the really hotspots -- you know what they are  are communicating directly with us that their level of supplies are meeting essential needs. And at the current time, they're really thrilled to be where they are, Trump told reporters.

The report, which is based on interviews with administrators from 324 hospitals and hospital networks of varying sizes, said that equipment provided to hospitals from the federal government fell far short of what was needed and was sometimes not usable or of low quality.

Image: Harborview Medical Center in Seattle (Ted S. Warren / AP)

According to the report, one hospital received two shipments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency with protective gear that had expired in 2010. Another hospital system received 1,000 masks from federal and state governments, even though it expected a much larger delivery, and "500 of the masks were for children and therefore unusable for adult staff," the report said. Elastic on N95 masks from one state government reserve had "dry-rotted" and could not be used, it said.

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NBC News found its own examples of problems with the federal government's emergency national stockpile similar to those detailed in the report.

State officials in Alabama, South Carolina and Pennsylvania said they had received expired medical supplies.

In Michigan, hospitals were surprised to have made orders with suppliers only to find that they were diverted to the national stockpile, according to Ruthanne Sudderth, senior vice president for the Michigan Health & Hospital Association. "Vendors have told us that they need to send whatever they have to the national stockpile," Sudderth said.

'Unable to take employee temperatures'

According to the inspector general's report, hospitals told investigators that thermometers were in short supply, undermining hospitals' ability to check temperatures of staff members and patients for indicators of the coronavirus.

One hospital resorted to screening patients, staff members and vendors at random because it did not have enough thermometers, according to the report. Another hospital with more than 700 staff members reported having one or two thermometers and therefore was "unable to take employee temperatures," the report said.

Ann Maxwell, assistant inspector general for HHS, said she was startled by what she heard from the hospital directors and the findings detailed in the report.

"It is unprecedented," Maxwell said in an interview.

"I think one moment that stands out for me is when I was talking to a hospital administrator and he told me that he had staff in the hospital out trying to procure masks and gloves from auto part shops, from home supply stores, from beauty salons, from art supply stores," Maxwell said.

"I was just taken aback."

In that example, she said, "you could see both the desperation of the challenges they are facing and the ingenuity they were putting forward in trying to solve these problems so they could provide good patient care and save lives."

Image: Nurses' protest in Orange, Calif. (Mario Tama / Getty Images)

Diagnostic testing kits to identify patients or staff members with the virus were also in short supply, according to the inspector general. Hospitals said they were struggling with "a severe shortage of test kits," limiting their ability to monitor the health of patients and staff members, the report said. There were also problems with incomplete testing kits missing nasal swabs or reagents to detect the virus.

"Across the industry millions are needed and we only have hundreds," a hospital administrator was quoted as saying.

The shortage of testing kits was aggravated by delays in testing results, straining hospital resources and bed capacity as doctors waited for the results, the report said. One hospital reported test results' taking as long as eight days, it said.

Hospitals said that presumptive patients waiting for test results took up bed capacity needed for other patients, according to the report, and that staff members were forced to use personal protective equipment, or PPE, as a precaution because of the slow pace of test results, wasting precious resources.

"Hospitals reported that when patient stays were extended while awaiting COVID-19 results, this depletes PPE capacity by the same number of days," according to the report.

Hospitals said they were concerned that supplies of protective equipment would run out quickly if they faced a surge in patients. "One hospital administrator stated that before COVID-19, their medical center used around 200 masks per day and that they were now using 2,000 per day," the report said.

One of the biggest challenges, hospital officials told the inspector general, was securing ventilators, given the machines' necessity in treating COVID-19 patients. With the supply of standard ventilators uncertain, some hospitals reported jury-rigging other equipment  including anesthesia machines  to serve as makeshift ventilators. In other cases, ventilators were adapted to serve two patients instead of one.

Because of shortages of medical supplies, hospitals were "using new, unvetted, and non-traditional sources for equipment, but were concerned about quality, price gouging and fraud," it said.

Chaun Powell, vice president of preparedness for Premier, a group purchasing organization for hospitals, told NBC News that the federal government or another independent organization needed to help vet products sold to hospitals.

"Someone needs to say these have been tested and validated. They [sellers] request a material deposit on purchases frequently exceeding millions of dollars, and there is no current process for buyers to even know if the product that they are receiving is valid, fraudulent or faulty," Powell said.

The disruption in the global medical supply chain and a spike in demand meant health care providers and various government agencies were competing for a limited pool of resources, the report said. "We are all trying to pull from the same small bucket," said a hospital administrator cited in the report.

Apart from equipment shortages, hospital administrators also reported concerns about a lack of specialized health workers to meet the anticipated patient surge, including infectious disease specialists, respiratory therapists and doctors and nurses who can provide intensive and critical care.

"You can build thousands of ventilators, but you need an army to manage the equipment and care for those patients," a hospital administrator said in the report.

Lack of clear guidance from government

Hospital directors said federal, state and local authorities had failed to provide clear guidance on the criteria for testing, on defining which nonemergency or elective medical procedures to delay or on supplies from the national stockpile and the use of personal protective gear.

Hospital chiefs also told the inspector general's office that the federal government needed to offer advice on how to handle difficult ethical decisions about treating patients with limited resources and the potential legal liability for doctors.

"For example, one hospital administrator described concerns about the liability embedded in decisions regarding which patients would receive assistance from a ventilator and which would not," the report said.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts about the coronavirus outbreak

The administrator told the inspector general: "Government needs to provide guidelines on ethics if health resources are limited and decisions need to be made about which patients to treat. Are physicians liable for their decisions if that happens?"

Hospital directors voiced concerns about staffing for medical centers that already operate with stretched workforces with little or no surplus manpower, according to the report, and administrators at rural hospitals with small staffs are particularly worried.

"One small, rural hospital explained that if one of its patients had tested positive for COVID-19 they would have had to put 16 staff members in quarantine, which the hospital said would essentially halt its operations," the report said.

In a statement, an HHS spokesperson said: "HHS, alongside other federal agencies, has been working day and night to support local communities and take actions to help our healthcare system respond quickly and effectively. Secretary [Alex] Azar has already taken action on a recommendation in this report, requesting, among a series of proposals, that governors allow licensed healthcare providers to practice across state lines."

"We appreciate valuable feedback from those on the frontlines of this pandemic, and we will continue to support [hospitals and other health care providers] in every way possible to defeat it."

'A world of hurt'

In the aftermath of the Ebola outbreak in 2014 in West Africa, HHS required hospitals to submit preparedness plans for how they would handle the emergence of a serious infectious disease.

In a sign that the hospitals could not imagine the magnitude of what they are facing now, 86 percent of hospital administrators told the HHS inspector general in October 2018 that they felt "prepared" for an infectious disease outbreak. More than 90 percent had purchased additional supplies, including personal protective gear.

But hospital chiefs at the time said they were not focused as much on dealing with an emerging infectious disease because they were focused on the possibility of an active shooter or a natural disaster. One official noted the difficulty of "budgeting funds for the 'what ifs' when there is only so much money available and there are other priorities you know will happen."

Another administrator told the inspector general in 2018, "We are prepared and have our processes in place, but if we were really hit with the large-scale influx of an [emerging infectious disease], we would be in a world of hurt."
A day after the first COVID-19



positive patient was detected in Tripura, a total of 108 people including her family members, relatives and neighbours who came in contact with her were placed under quarantine, a minister said on Tuesday.

Doctors and nurses who attended to her earlier and an ambulance driver who brought her to a hospital were also quarantined, Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath who is also the cabinet spokesperson said.

"Their samples were sent for testing. The results are yet to come. However, four of them are suspected to be of high risk," he said.

While 42 people including doctors, her family members and relatives are in institutional quarantine, 66 others are on home quarantine.

A 44-year-old woman tested positive for coronavirus on Monday, making it the first case in Tripura.

The woman, who is from Udaipur town in Gomati district, is currently undergoing treatment at the GB Pant Hospital in Agartala.

She was admitted to a private hospital in Agartala a few days back with cough, fever and breathing problem and later she was shifted to the government facility.

Gomati District Magistrate TK Debnath said the administration would cordon off one km radius area around the house of the woman.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
I once had a litigation funding client who'd asked for $100,000 to fund the costs of an appeal regarding proceeds from her family business. A year went by after wiring her the money with no word of the case.

I needed to drive past her town for another meeting, so I arranged for us to meet over dinner. There, she sobbed and babbled on of all the catastrophes which had come up, draining away the funds.

"Look," she said through tear-stained eyes, "what do you want me to do?"

Let me preface this by admitting that every female I've shared the story with has castigated me for it.

"Here's what I want you to do: I want you to shut up and say, 'Thank you.' Because my partner and I are going to step in, hire real counsel, and fix this for you!"

Through her tears, she blinked and nodded in agreement. Then she smiled and asked if I cared to go dancing with her. Knowing that I could have been the Harvey Weinstein of the legal funding industry, I begged off and went back, alone, to my hotel.

I think of this interchange each time I listen to President Trump's updates on preparations for dealing with the coronavirus crisis. The personal protective equipment and ventilators his team members are assembling for distribution to the various states. The field hospitals his Army Corps of Engineers is building in New York, Chicago, and Louisiana. The financial package his Treasury Department negotiated through Congress in less than a week. The emergency approval his FDA has granted for off-label usage of hydroxychloroquine and other possibly life-saving therapies.

And so on.

Despite these advances on so many fronts, there are always several journalists in the crowd who come loaded only with gotcha questions. Does your son-in-law know what he's doing? Shouldn't you have reacted to this earlier? It's the same questions, from the same folks, day after day.

If he were more eloquent, he might drive home the point that New York is woefully short of ventilators because it chose to spend the state and city treasuries on other matters.

If I were at the podium, I'd look these so-called journalists in the eyes and say, "What do I want you to do? I want you to shut up and say 'Thank you.'"

Perhaps I missed it, but not one of these highly paid gatherers of facts asked the governors of New York and Michigan why they had sharply limited the use of hydroxychloroquine or failed to stock sufficient quantities of ventilators.

I, too, was a journalist for the first ten years after completing a Master's degree in economics. Once I spent several days traveling with the re-election campaign of Ted Kennedy. This was after the tragic death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick. I could have asked him what had really happened that night and whether he felt as if he had taken responsibility for it.

I didn't do that because I didn't want to spend two or three years working nights writing minor obits.

In case you're wondering about the woman and her case, my partner and I hired first-rate counsel, covered the cost of a forensic accounting of the business's books, and got an excellent settlement for her and a similar return on our investment.

It's productive some times to tell a counterpart to just shut up and say thanks.

Image: Ninian Reid via Flickr.




Ogbonnaya Onu

The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure has produced the first made in Nigeria ventilators, according to Punch.

The development is aimed at combating the COVID-19 disease in the country.

Ventilator is a vital equipment in the treatment of coronavirus patients.

NASENI has equally produced mobile sprayers, which are to be used to disinfect Nigerian cities and homes.

A notice by NASENI spokesman, Segun Ayeoyenikan, on Monday, disclosed that Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, would unveil the devices on Tuesday (today).

The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Finance, recently begged for ventilators from an American billionaire.

The government eventually withdrew the plea, which was widely seen as a national embarrassment.

Nigeria reportedly has just a few ventilators, a development which has been attributed to the neglect of the countrys health sector over the years.

Some of the countrys major health institutions, including the high profile State House Clinic, located in the Presidential Villa, the seat of power, lack basic equipment and drugs, even though they receive billions of naira in allocations annually.

The global nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and its severe impact in most of the advanced countries, has forced Nigerian leaders who contracted the disease to seek treatment in the country.
As coronavirus spread through Louisiana about two and a half weeks ago, forcing hospitals to respond to a surge in patients, Dane Caro tinkered with his 3D printer.

Caro, a programmer, had co-founded Anvil 3D. He hadnt opened the company yet, but he had the means to print personal protective equipment for health care workers. Caro consulted his wife, Dr. Uyen Caro, a hospitalist at Baton Rouge General Medical Center.

The couple wanted to help doctors and nurses as the U.S. faced a dwindling supply of protective equipment. Hospitals around the country had already reported shortages in masks, gowns and eye gear.

Together, the Caros developed a printable face shield. They found help from local organizations, including Cub Scout Pack 15, and have produced more than 300 copies, distributing the face shields to clinics, nursing homes and hospitals across Baton Rouge.

+6 Without definitive answers, coronavirus lingers for those who have recovered Experts dont yet know how long people remain contagious or if they can catch coronavirus again, so people who have recovered continue to play it safe.

I'm looking at my nurses and my staff, said Uyen Caro, who works in the COVID-19 wing. Now we're all masked up all the time.

When Dane Caro began developing the face shields, staff at Baton Rouge General had started conserving and reusing masks. They braced for more patients, which are expected to come this month.

Caro found designs online. As he printed masks, he showed his wife the prototypes. She tried them on, testing for possible leaks. They printed N95 masks, but each one needed to be individually customized. The couple picked face shields, the most efficient PPE for mass production.

There are tons of face shields online that people are working together to perfect, Dane Caro said. We went through them systematically and found the best one that could be the most effective.

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Once they settled on the design, the Caros partnered with local organizations to help produce the face shields. They found people online who owned 3D printers, and the school board in St. Mary Parish donated 2,600 transparent projector sheets.

Dane Caro organized a small network of 3D printers, sending the owners directions and printer filament. Cub Scout Pack 15 had bought a printer to make prosthetics appendages for children. The pack contributed about 40 face shields.

Caro collected the headbands while making more than 200 face shields with his own printer. He and his wife snapped transparent sheets of plastic onto the headbands. With administrative approval, she distributed them throughout Baton Rouge General. She also delivered face shields to employees at clinics, small hospitals, nursing homes and dialysis centers. She brought some to Ochsner St. Mary in Morgan City.

The shields have provided another layer of protection against coronavirus. Covering the entirety of one's face, the lightweight shields prevent healthcare workers from touching their goggles or adjusting their masks, which reduces the spread of germs.

Baton Rouge region braces for coronavirus apex after recording deadliest day The coronavirus killed more people in the Baton Rouge area in a 24-hour span than any previous day, according to state and local officials who

It's another barrier to protect us and have us wash our hands before we adjust or put any hands to our face, Uyen Caro said.

As coronavirus continues to spread through Louisiana, Uyen and Dane Caro plan to produce more face shields. Dane Caro ordered more filament for his network of printers, and the couple started producing mask expanders to alleviate the discomfort of rubber latex straps worn during 12-hour shifts.

Whatever they make in the coming weeks, the Caros want to help prevent PPE shortages in hospitals and clinics around Baton Rouge.

When a doctor marries a 3D printer and a pandemic occurs, Uyen Caro said, laughing, this is what you get.

To reach Dane and Uyen Caro, visit www.anvil-3d.com/contact.
COLLEGE STATION, Texas, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, national nonprofit Wreaths Across America (WAA) announces the kick off to its 2020 Stem to Stone Race Tour. The first event will take place VIRTUALLY with a 5K in Texas on Sunday, April 19. The series, which is in partnership with event management and timing company CompetitorME, was announced earlier this year and features eight 5K road races throughout the year. Due to COVID-19, and the CDC's recommendation for large gatherings, this race has been moved to a VIRTUAL event.

Registration for virtual participation will be open until Friday, April 10 at 10:59 pm CDT. To register, please visit www.competitorme.com/wreaths-across-america or click here .

"The goal of this race series is to build community awareness and understanding of the organization's yearlong mission to Remember, Honor, Teach," said Karen Worcester, executive director, Wreaths Across America. "However, in light of the current health crisis, we feel these races have taken on even more meaning by providing the opportunity for people to safely participate in something healthy and fun, while supporting and giving back in their own community during this uncertain time."

As such, each individual virtual race registrant can designate a local WAA sponsorship group, such as Health for All (WAA ID: TX0494p) during check out, which will provide $5 back of each $15 wreath sponsored to this community-based free clinic. Virtual registration also sponsors a fresh balsam veteran's wreath that will be placed on the headstone of an American hero on December 19, 2020, as part of National Wreaths Across America Day at a participating WAA location, including College Station, Bryan and Brazos Valley Cemeteries .

Virtual participants will receive personalized racing bibs and commemorative finisher medallions, with event t-shirts being provided to the first 200 people to register, via the mail before race day!

About Wreaths Across America

Wreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992. The organization's mission  Remember, Honor, Teach  is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as at thousands of veterans' cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond.

For more information or to sponsor a wreath please visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org

About CompetitorME

CompetitorME is a proud, Maine-owned event management and timing company with clients in New England. We are about inspiring athletes and connecting communities. It is our pleasure to work with clients to direct safe, fun, and fair events for all ages, with a focus on creating a memorable participant experience. Our portfolio of events has expanded to include those honoring and remembering our Nation's Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, or Nation's Fallen Heroes and their Gold Star Families. The CompetitorME team also serves on a committee for the Maine Gold Star Family Memorial to be built in Augusta, Maine.

For more information please visit www.competitorme.com .

Press contact:

Amber Caron

Wreaths Across America

(207) 513-6457

[email protected]

SOURCE Wreaths Across America

Related Links

http://www.WreathsAcrossAmerica.org


WFH for Private offices in Delhi, restaurants & bars to be shut as Omicron-led to sudden rise in Covid cases

NCW takes note after neighbours assault doctor for treating COVID-19 patients

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Apr 07: The National Commission for Women has directed the Gujarat police to conduct a thorough probe into the alleged harassment of a woman doctor in Surat for being in close proximity to coronavirus patients.

The matter came to the fore after a purported video showing the doctor working in Surat Civil Hospital being physically assaulted by her neighbours, went viral.

Death claim settlement due to coronavirus cannot be declined by insurers

Considering the gravity of the matter, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has written to Shivanand Jha, IPS, Director General of Police, Gujarat to probe the matter.

"NCW directs for a thorough investigation on the matter of the incident to be taken up immediately and also provide protection to the woman. A detailed action taken report be sent to NCW," the women's rights body said in a statement.

Fake News Buster

"The Commission is disturbed by the reported incident, and is concerned about the safety of doctors who are the frontline workers in the period of distress prevailing worldwide due to coronavirus pandemic," it said.
Newfoundland and Labrador nurses say they are deeply anxious about a plan to sterilize and reuse masks at health-care facilities as the province prepares for a possible surge of COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks.

Without a guaranteed supply of masks, the largest health authority in the province has begun collecting used masks to sterilize them with vaporized hydrogen peroxide.

"It's increased anxiety in our members," said Debbie Forward, president of Registered Nurses' Union Newfoundland & Labrador.

Mark Quinn/CBC

"I had many, many emails. Lots of posts on our members-only website with concerns because, apparently, this is a very new process. Research on it has only been done very recently."

A letter was sent to all Eastern Health employees Friday, telling them bins would be set up around hospitals for them to place their masks in after they were no longer safe to use.

Supply chain 'in turmoil'

Eastern Health says its concerned about supplies, especially after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered 3M, which makes a large quantity of N95 respirators, to stop exporting them to Canada.

"We've been challenged, of course, by the recent decision coming out of the U.S. with the direction from the president around 3M," said Eastern Health president and CEO David Diamond.

"A lot of the masks that we would normally use in our supply are from 3M, and so the whole supply chain has been in turmoil since last week and we just want to make sure we have as many contingencies as we can."

There is nowhere in North America that has unlimited access to unlimited testing. - Health Minister John Haggie

The process of preparing masks for reuse  using something called a Sterrad sterilizer  is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The manufacturers of the mask have also approved the process.

"We're waiting for Health Canada approval for this process at this point. So we are collecting the masks but not sterilizing them at this point, mostly as a backstop so if we find that the supply of masks dries up we will have a supply that we have here so people will still be safe," said Diamond

Story continues

He said sterilizing and reusing masks comes at the behest of the federal government, and he understands why it might make some nurses anxious.

"We've been directed to do this by the federal government. It's not something we have taken upon ourselves. I would say that I had the same reaction [as nurses] when the idea was brought to me. It seemed like an odd thing to do and, of course, it's not something we have ever seen," he said.

"This won't be put anywhere in our supply chain until first of all we get Health Canada approval and we have a confidence level that we can do this safely."

Nurses want Health Canada approval

The province's nurse's union hasn't agreed to support the plan yet.

"We understand that [Eastern Health] is still waiting for Health Canada approval, which obviously would be critical for myself as an advocate for the health and safety of my members and I know is something that our members are concerned about as well," said Forward.

"The assurances that I have given my members is that we would never support a process that we didn't believe was safe for our members, and obviously a big piece of that is approval from Health Canada."

Forward expects facilities in all of the province's regional health authorities will begin collecting and reusing masks if Eastern Health does.

Government of Newfoundland and Labrador/YouTube

At Monday's provincial government briefing on COVID-19, Health Minister John Haggie said the province expects to hear from the federal government soon regarding reusing masks.

"The federal government have invested an enormous amount of time and effort in trying to identify ways these masks can be safely sterilized and reused and my understanding is that they will be coming out with recommendations about how to do that in the next day or two," he said.

Haggie also said Newfoundland and Labrador, with help from the federal government, is expecting a shipment of 94,000 masks from Hamilton, Ont., this week.

Haggie urging health workers to prepare for shortage

At a news conference on Sunday, Haggie said health-care providers and public health officials have to act like the next supply of person protective equipment will not arrive.

With an unsteady supply and an overwhelming global demand for masks and gloves, it's not unrealistic to assume the next shipment won't show up.

"Until they actually land in our warehouses, there is no guarantee that any of suppliers will actually be able to deliver," said Haggie, who has warned that a surge of new cases is likely in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Testing also limited by supply

The same strain and strategy also applies to testing in the province.

On Saturday, chief medical officer of health Janice Fitzgerald announced the province would open up the guidelines on testing, to allow people who work with vulnerable populations to get tested.

People across the province experiencing flu-like symptoms have reported being unable to get tested. Newfoundland and Labrador has the second-lowest per-capita rate of testing in the country with about 684 tests done per 100,000 people, surpassing only Ontario.

Shared Health/Province of Manitoba

Haggie said the same attitude for masks has to be applied to testing swabs as well.

"There is nowhere in North America that has unlimited access to unlimited testing," he said.

"What we are doing is using those [supplies] wisely on the basis that tomorrow, our next batch delivery of swabs, [personal protective equipment] or masks may never arrive. Because if we don't, we are not being the best custodians of the public interest."

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador
Railways, which has got a nod from the DRDO for making personal protection equipment (PPEs), has now set a target of manufacturing around 1000 of them in its 17 workshops every day.

The PPE overall will offer much needed protection to railway doctors and paramedics working on the front line of COVID care at hospitals of Railways.

"Facilities are being geared up in Railways to make up to 1000 such protective overall for railway doctors and paramedics every day.Around 17 workshops would be striving to contribute to this exercise," the national transporter said in a statement.

Railways is also considering to supply 50 per cent of the innovated PPE garment to other medical professionals of the country.

Material for all the overalls is being procured centrally at Jagadhari which is located near many big textile industries in Punjab.

It has been decided to source raw material from a Yamunanagar-based vendor approved by the Textiles ministry.

"In the days to come, the production facilities can be further ramped up. The development of this overall and innovation by Indian Railways is being welcomed by other Government agencies engaged in the war against COVID.

"Technical specifications of these PPEs are now ready, and material suppliers are in place. Now the production can start in right earnest. This development is big boost to equip our doctors and paramedics on the front line of this battle against COVID-19," it said.

The government estimates that the country's medical fraternity and other workers will require some 1.5 crore coveralls by June.

These suits are incinerated after each use and are the most critical component in the Personal Protective Equipment kit which is in significant shortage in India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Officials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro have divided public opinion by preparing more than 600 graves for coronavirus victims ahead of anticipated deaths.

The Dnipro mayor's spokeswoman Yulia Vitvitska told AFP the city had dug 615 graves and readied 2,000 body bags in preparation for COVID-19 fatalities.

At least 100 new plots could be seen in a large field surrounded by forest at a cemetery lined with orthodox crosses outside the city.

Ukraine has confirmed 1,462 coronavirus cases and 45 deaths, according to official statistics.

Dnipro has reported 13 infections and no deaths.

"We are preparing for the worst," mayor Borys Filatov said on his Facebook page last week.

Filatov said medical workers will be prohibited from carrying out autopsies on those believed to have died from the virus.

Instead, patients who die will be placed in sealable body bags and buried in closed coffins after being disinfected, he said.

Ivan Krasikov, a local activist, said the mayor's comments had stirred anxiety among residents.

"It all intensifies the panic," he told AFP.

But Yan Valetov, a 56-year-old writer from Dnipro, said the mayor "made the right psychological move", one which will encourage residents to be more cautious.

Filatov responded to criticism in another Facebook post, saying: "This is not panic, but logistics." "God forbid" we will need the graves and body bags, he wrote.

The ex-Soviet country of 40 million people has 3,900 ventilators, a number the health ministry has said is not enough for the intensive care beds in its infectious disease hospitals.

Officials estimate that between seven and 22 million Ukrainians will be infected with COVID-19.

Ukraine's economy has been hit hard by its conflict with Russian-backed separatists in the east and is reliant on international aid.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Press Release

April 7, 2020 De Lima pushes anew for systematic release of qualified PDLs Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima reiterates her recommendation to decisively release qualified PDLs (Persons Deprived of Liberty), after reports that a detainee in the overcrowded Quezon City jail, who was suspected of contracting the novel coronavirus, has recently passed away. De Lima again asked the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-IED) to consider her previous proposal after reports came that 15 detainees sharing the same cell with the deceased PDL were supposedly traced and isolated. "I again call upon the IATF-IED to consider the immediate release of qualified PDLs. Hindi na po totoo na '100 percent safe' ang ating mga kulungan mula sa COVID-19," she said. "The silence of our leaders regarding the dire situation of our PDLs is almost deafening. Ano pa ba ang hinihintay natin? Na dumami pa ang magpositibo sa COVID-19 sa mga bilangguan?", she added. Last April 1, De Lima addressed an open letter to the IATF-IED, recommending for arrangements to decongest jails and prisons through a systematic release of qualified PDLs based on humanitarian grounds, with permission and approval from the Supreme Court. The detainees or inmates to be released, she said, must fall under certain criteria, such as those 70 years old or older; with serious sickness or disability; detained pre-conviction of minor, non-violent cases; and convicted for non-violent crimes. De Lima also emphasized though that those who have been detained or convicted of heinous crimes, should not be included for consideration for early release. The former justice secretary's earlier recommendation was in accordance to preventive measures made by many governments around the world who made similar arrangements to release detainees, adhering to calls of human rights organizations, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She advised that a staggered release of detainees and inmates, from the most overcrowded detention facilities can be implemented in areas most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the National Capital Region (NCR). "Kung hindi pa kaya ang pagpapakawala sa mga kwalipikadong mga preso sa lahat ng mga detention facilities sa buong bansa, maaari natin simulan sa mga city jails sa NCR," De Lima said. "Marami sa kanila, tulad ng mga preso sa Quezon City Jail, ay mahihirap. Many of them are supposed to be out already, but they aren't because they cannot afford bail," she added. The health and economic crisis brought by COVID-19 pandemic has halted the normalcy of life of millions of people around the world. As of this writing, over 1.1 million people globally has contracted the novel coronavirus, with more than 62,700 deaths or a mortality rate of 5.54%. As of April 6, the Philippines have recorded 3,660 confirmed cases of infections, leaving 163 dead with 73 recoveries. De Lima also reminded the IATF-IED that the whole-of-nation approach in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic should not set aside or ignore the situation of hundreds of thousands of PDLs, considered to be wards of the State. "Malinaw ang hangad natin: Maiwasan o maagapan ang pagkalat ng sakit sa mga bilangguan kung saan matagal nang problema ang labis na pagsisiksikan at napakataas ng posibilidad ng pagkahawa-hawa," she said. De Lima, a human rights and social justice champion, has continually sought for comprehensive reforms in the country's prison and correctional systems, including upgrading its current facilities and improving the reformatory programs for the inmates. It can be recalled that in July 2019, she filed Senate Bill Nos. 180 and 181, known as "Prison Reform Act," and the "Unified Corrections and Jail Management System Act," respectively, in order to legislate the standards of human treatment of the inmates.
An assisted living home in Lancaster has reported six of its residents have died over the last two days apparently due to the coronavirus.

Mennonite Home Communities reported the death of two residents at its facility today. The organization said one patient had tested positive for the coronavirus and the other patient was presumed positive for COVID-19. The home said the two residents who died on Monday had underlying health conditions.

The news comes a day after the facility announced four residents had died at the home and had tested positive for the virus, according to its website.

--Read all of PennLives coronavirus coverage by clicking here--

Our hearts and prayers are with the family members of these residents during this difficult time, the website read.

Since March 26, the facility has been struggling with the coronavirus outbreak. Between March 26 and April 4, there were reports of 18 Mennonite Home residents who had tested positive for the coronavirus and nine staff members. Additionally, three residents at Woodcrest Villa  the residential living at the facility  and two staff also tested positive.

Between Sunday and Monday, the facility reported eight staff members and two residents at Mennonite Home, and one staff member from the Woodcrest Villa have tested positive.

Throughout the pandemic, Mennonite Home has said it has been working with the Pennsylvania Department of Health to try to contain the spread of the virus. It said on its Sunday update that it has received support from the Department of Health, leading nursing home and hospital associations, a public health specialist with the Bureau of Epidemiology, local and state health departments, as well as medical experts to manage the spread of exposure.

On March 31, it announced the steps it would be taking to reduce the spread of the virus. It canceled all non-essential visitation and screens all visitors at the entrance to the facility; deliveries are being made for food, mail, news and trash pickup; housekeeping and transit to the grocery stores are canceled; staff are checked before and after shifts for any symptoms; staff are asked to wear masks at all times; residents are being called daily for wellness checks; and more daily programming has been added to the house channel to assist with the social isolation.

Since March 25, the website has provided continuous updates on the status of the retirement home and has said it will continue to update throughout the pandemic.

Text PennLive to 717-745-7532 to sign up to have breaking news and essential updates about the coronavirus delivered right to your mobile device. Data and messaging rates may apply.

-- Follow Ed Sutelan on Twitter, @EdwardSutelan

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
A 10-year-old girl has sung "Well Meet Again" in a bid to lift the spirits of NHS workers battling through the coronavirus pandemic.

Sophie Tinger, from Hertfordshire, performed Dame Vera Lynns 1939 classic to cheer up those on the frontline.

Ms Tingers cousin Andrew Tenzer posted the short clip to Twitter on 5 April and it has since been viewed hundreds of times.

Hi everybody, I hate this isolation and quarantine thing so Im going to cheer you up by doing a nice song called Well Meet Again by Vera Lynn, Ms Tinger says at the beginning of the video.

Anyone whos watching from NHS I just want to say I really appreciate your work. Thank you so much for looking after us.

Dame Veras song, one of the most famous anthems of the WWII era, shot up to 22nd spot on the iTunes download charts on Monday after Queen Elizabeth cited it in her address to the nation the previous day.

We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again," said Queen Elizabeth II in a televised broadcast.

Well Meet Again struck a cord with many Britons during the war who had been separated from loved ones.

Ms Tinger told Mirror Online she had initially learnt the song to perform for residents living in carehomes in Hertfordshire.

She said: This song means a lot to me because I would like to meet my friends and family again, but I dont know where and when and gives people joy and hope like it did in the war.

I think they are so brave and bold to go to work where they could catch coronavirus.

Ms Tinger said she was grateful to NHS staff for working around the clock to help those most in need during the Covid-19 crisis.

She added: I think they are amazing how they not only take care of the sick people but save their lives.

While we are just staying at home, they are working day and night and I am so grateful to them.

This time is sad but I try to remember that being inside is saving lives and it gives me time to think and be grateful to the NHS and all the people working to help us.
New Delhi, April 7 : The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday said the strategies adopted by the government to contain coronavirus are yielding good results in many parts of the country.

Speaking to media, Joint Secretary Health and Family Welfare Lav Agarwal, however, cautioned that if one person does not follow the lockdown and other social distancing measures, then the infection would spread very fast.

"The affected person can infect more than 400 people in 30 days. The analysis is based on a mathematical model of coronavirus transmission done by the Indian Council of Medical Research," said Agarwal.

"The strategy for cluster containment which are amenable to management and adopted by the government are showing positive results, especially in Agra & Gautam Buddh Nagar (Uttar Pradesh), Pathanamthitta (Kerala), Bhilwara (Rajasthan) and East Delhi. The same strategy has been adopted in Mumbai and other districts also," he said.

"Lockdown is a very important intervention in terms of management of COVID," said Agarwal.

The Joint Health Secretary said 4,421 confirmed corona cases have been reported across the country. "As many as 326 people have recovered and have been discharged and 354 new cases and 8 new deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours. Total number of casualties is 117 deaths," said Agarwal.

Dr Raman Gangakhedkar, Chief Scientist of ICMR, said 107,006 tests have been conducted so far. "As many as 11,795 tests have been conducted in 24 hours, of which 2,530 have been done in private labs. As many as 136 government labs are working and 59 private labs have been given permission," Khedkar said.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
'Two days notice for the Janata Curfew.'

'Two-and-a-half days notice for lighting candles, but a mere four-hour notice for the lockdown without taking state governments into confidence.'

IMAGE: A migrant worker sleeps next to a railway track in Mumbai during the national lockdown. Photograph: Prashant Waydande/Reuters

Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, is worried and angry.

He is worried because he feels that even though India had the time to prepare for the fight against the coronavirus, the Centre didn't plan and prepare for the long battle ahead.

He is angry because the government hasn't take the right steps to protect the people of India against this pandemic.

Speaking to Syed Firdaus Ashraf, Yechury, below, believes that symbolic gestures (such as applause and lighting diyas) won't help the situation and says, "If we had taken precautionary measures earlier and locked down those areas where COVID-19 cases were reported, the national lockdown could have been avoided."

In the fight against coronavirus, we saw the nation switch off its lights following a call from the prime minister. Earlier, too, we had the nation applauding for doctors and healthcare workers. What is your take on these mass actions?

These are all symbolic gestures and such symbolic eventss cannot be a substitute for the real decisions to be taken by the government as it involves the lives and deaths of millions of Indian people.

First of all, we have to make arrangements so that people do not die of hunger or starvation.

This lockdown by Prime Minister Narendra (Damodardas) Modi was in a completely unplanned manner. Prime Minister Modi gave two days notice for the Janata Curfew. Now two-and-a-half days notice for lighting candles, but a four-hour notice for the lockdown without taking state governments into confidence.

But...

(Interrupts) Lakhs and lakhs of migrant workers left the cities, so the entire objective of social distancing was defeated.

Now to tell the states that they have to take care of these workers and provide them with food should have been done prior to the lockdown.

The tragic part is that people died and many walked thousands of kilometres due to the lockdown because there was no transport.

Once they reached their respective villages, what should be the plan for their isolation?

All these problems could have easily been overcome if we had actually done some homework earlier.

The first case of COVID-19 surfaced in India on January 30, 2020, and the first case in the world was reported on December 1, 2019. Now we had nearly two months to prepare after it was reported, and two months after the World Health Organisation called it a pandemic in January.

We had the time, but we did not equip our health workers with protective equipment.

Poor health workers, we salute them for their heroic job and they have to be given adequate equipment to fight coronavirus immediately. Also, ventilators need to be acquired immediately.

Another place where the government failed was to allow large-scale gatherings. On March 13, the government announced that there could be no large-scale gathering of more than 200 people and then we had the irresponsible act of the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi.

We then also had Shivraj Singh Chouhan's swearing-in ceremony as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh during this kind of crisis.

At Ayodhya, too, we had gatherings and Parliament sessions were being held too. So, I feel many more people need to be tested for COVID-19.

Our testing is very low compared to the world. It is 250 times lower than South Korea.

During this lockdown period, with widespread testing, the areas where the spread is rampant, they must be located and those areas must be locked down for a longer time.

The lockdown has disturbed the supply of commodities all over the country and there are shortages all over the country.

There is no clarity on movement of trucks carrying essential goods at state borders. These are concrete problems.

Now the government is saying employers must pay employees. However, they in turn are asking how will they pay as all businesses have collapsed.

And then for the middle class, the government announced a moratorium on EMIs, but you pay more eventually because the interest is still being charged; there should have been an interest-free moratorium.

Lighting candles is not going to solve problems and cannot be a substitute.

You mentioned in a statement that the Modi government has spent more on public relations, bullet trains, statues in the last six years and so it is no surprise that the health infrastructure is crumbling under his government.

Precisely, we spend the lowest percentage of GDP on health.

The central government is spending around 1 per cent and state governments spend little over 2 per cent of GDP on health. And the minimum they should spend is around 14 to 16 per cent of GDP on health.

It is time that there has to be a proper universal healthcare system in our country.

Now look at the situation at major hospitals, they have stopped treating regular patients for other diseases.

In Delhi, people with dialysis and cancer patients are not being treated because major government hospitals are only dealing with coronavirus. And now 95 per cent of the people of Delhi do not have money to go to private hospitals.

Countries like Spain have nationalised private health facilities. Here, now at least you give an order that private hospitals will have to keep aside so many beds for so many patients. Some norms have to be issued to private health operators in these times.

But what do you do when doctors and nurses at private hospitals are being detected with coronavirus; that's the reason they are not admitting patients, isn't it?

That is what I am saying, lack of protective equipment, and we had a forewarning of two months.

When this broke out in China, they didn't know what was it. It took WHO and the whole world to come up with the formulation calling it COVID-19.

Till then you were going new coronavirus, novel coronavirus or whether it was some variety of Nipah virus.

The world was trying to understand it, but we had the advantage as WHO announced how this transmits and what needs to be done. We were privy to this information and we should have been better prepared but that did not happen.

The whole month of February we were busy with 'Namaste Trump' and various other activities and events. If we had taken precautionary measures earlier and locked down those areas where COVID-19 cases were reported, the national lockdown could have been avoided.

We would have been able to identify areas where it happened and locked down those areas. Like China did with Wuhan or South Korea did or Singapore did as none of them went for a national lockdown.

IMAGE: Medical staff hold placards as they stand outside a hospital in Kolkata to show solidarity with people who are affected by the coronavirus and with doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers from all over the world during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to slow the spreading of the disease. Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters

But India has fewer cases than the United States and most other nations.

That is because -- what is our level of COVID-19 testing? Our testing is lowest in the world today.

When one raises such questions and criticises PM Modi for not being prepared to take on COVID-19, you are called names. The one criticism that is being levelled against the Opposition parties is for questioning the government in such difficult times.

That is very unfortunate. From February I have been saying, so has the Congress and other major parties, that there should be an all-party meet.

The fight against COVID-19 is the fight of all of India and all of the Indian people.

The government should mobilise everybody in this fight with them, discuss ideas, give ideas and give directions. This has not happened till date.

As of Sunday, some Opposition leaders were approached by the prime minister while some others leaders have been approached by the home minister and then some by the parliamentary affairs minister. And what are they doing?

Digital conferences with the floor leaders of Opposition parties of Parliament. Not the political parties.

Naturally, we have our point of view as I told you about the problem of migrant workers and we have also seen lack of food for them.

We have set up camps and distributed rations for people in need. All of us could have jointly worked with government agencies under the government's directions.

But when we point out these problems, how can we be branded? These issues all are pro-Indian people and to protect the whole of India and these are the problems that cannot be brushed aside.

If the situation is so dire, then there should be a great angst amongst the people and they should revolt over the lack of food.

But on the ground, Indians are showing tremendous restraint and it looks like they believe in Prime Minister Modi's leadership and also the fact that they are happy he has been able to put money in their Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana accounts.

All the good. If people are satisfied, then it is very good. But the question is are they really? That is the issue and that is where the difference of opinion comes in.

Why, in a state like Kerala they could take care of lakhs of migrants in 600 camps so well. They cooked non-Malayali food for them by giving them materials and facilities when they asked for. These things should have been arranged prior to the lockdown for which there was no planning from the central government.

Since you mentioned Kerala, there has been severe criticism saying because they don't have good hospitals the people want to go to Karnataka so much so Karnataka has blocked its borders so the people from Kerala don't cross over in big numbers.

The people going to Karnataka are those who stay at the border of Kerala-Karnataka. There are more people who come to Kerala from Karnataka for medical treatment.

Those people who are going to Karnataka stay at the border as it is faster to reach Mangalore. And they are the rich patients who want to travel to Mangalore for private hospitals.

On your Twitter timeline you have mentioned the fact that the PM-CARES Fund raises many questions about transparency and accountability and compared it to the Bharat Ke Veer fund which was set up after the Pulwama attack.

There is lot of apprehension on that score as you already have the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund and this was a fund established statutorily in 1948 even before our Constitution was adopted. This is a fund that is transparently audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General and auto-generated receipts are given to people.

In the PM-CARES Fund nothing of this sort exists and when you already have one PM National Relief Fund, why open another one? That defies logic. What is the meaning of it?

And why should it be 'PM CARES, and not 'India Cares'?

There is the infodemic, fake news, irrational cures which the WHO says is as important to manage as the pandemic. How would you rate India is doing on this front?

We have seen a lot of prejudice at play, both at the global and domestic level -- against the Chinese, health workers, foreign-returnees and latest, and worryingly, Muslims.

Yes, this is very worrisome and I think counterproductive.

Our Constitution, amongst the duties of every citizen, mandates the promotion of scientific temper. This must begin with the government.

Unfortunately there is the patronisation of godmen, promotion of obscurantism, and promotion of unscientific methods of protection or cure.

If invoking the supernatural can protect us, why are the pilgrimage centres shut down? They are correctly to prevent community transmission.

The Tablighi organisers were very irresponsible. But to target and stigmatise the entire Muslim community is counterproductive in our fight against the pandemic.

Likewise, health workers are stigmatised in their residential areas as carriers of the virus.

Government and people must promote empathy, not criminalising people, particularly patients. Stringent curbing of fake news is essential.

World history teaches us that social stigma produced while fighting a pandemic is not only counterproductive, but has a long afterlife, promoting social strife.

India cannot afford this.
The Taliban has accused the United States of violating the peace agreement that was signed between the two in late February this year. The Taliban alleged that the United States is pushing the deal towards a breaking point by carrying out drone attacks on civilians. The Taliban in a statement said it would escalate attacks on the US and Afghan government installations if they continue their alleged violation of the peace deal.

Read: 'Pakistan Taliban Not Completely Finished' Claims Absconding Malala Yousafzai's Shooter

The US Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A) spokesperson Col Sonny Leggett took to Twitter to deny the Taliban's allegations. Leggett wrote, "USFOR-A has upheld, and continues to uphold, the military terms of the US-Taliban agreement; any assertion otherwise is baseless. USFOR-A has been clear- we will defend our ANDSF partners if attacked, in compliance with the agreement."

The TB must reduce violence. A reduction in violence is the will of the Afghan people & necessary to allow the political process to work toward a settlement suitable for all Afghans. We once again call on all parties to focus their efforts on the global pandemic of COVID-19.  USFOR-A Spokesman Col Sonny Leggett (@USFOR_A) April 5, 2020

Read: Taliban To Release 20 Afghan Forces In Exchange Of 100 Of Their Fighters

US-Taliban deal

The United States and the Taliban signed the peace deal after 20 years of war and 18 months of negotiations. The deal which was signed in the presence of leaders from Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan would see the gradual withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan under a timeline of 14 months. The deal also requires Afghanistan to guarantee that their land will not be used as a launchpad that would threaten the security of the United States and its allies.

Read: Taliban Refuses To Negotiate With Afghan's New 21-member Delegation

The deal was reportedly signed by US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar with Mike Pompeo as a witness. As per reports, more than 1,00,000 Afghan citizens have lost their lives or wounded since 2009 when the UN Assistance Mission began documenting casualties, while the US has lost over 2,000 personnel to the war since 2001.

Read: Taliban To Release 20 Afghan Forces In Exchange Of 100 Of Their Fighters

(Image Credit: AP)


Companies looking to hire international talent will now have access to virtual interviews, salary benchmarking and in-country expertise

BOSTON, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Globalization Partners Inc., which provides a comprehensive solution for companies to hire identified candidates in over 170 countries, today announced it is providing a range of new free support services to customers and prospective clients planning to hire talent internationally during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new services have been launched to help businesses plan for future talent needs in order to help them come out stronger on the other side of this unprecedented crisis. To that end, Globalization Partners has launched the following:

Virtual Interviews : access to an online interview platform so companies can safely screen top candidates

: access to an online interview platform so companies can safely screen top candidates Salary Benchmarking : compensation analytics to ensure your offers are on target

: compensation analytics to ensure your offers are on target In-Country Expertise : for answers to questions about hiring international talent

: for answers to questions about hiring international talent Support for Finding Top Talent: help from qualified, experienced, professionals that provide expertise in your target global location

"Though we may not yet be able to predict the breadth or depth of the impact of COVID-19, we do know the global business community is resilient," saidNicole Sahin, CEO of Globalization Partners. "Providing this support is an effort to help business leaders move forward more easily with hiring plans when they are ready."

Globalization Partners realizes that having the right information can make an enormous difference in helping companies successfully navigate the challenges associated with managing a global workforce. For more information on everything from individual country updates to practical advice about working remotely please visit: COVID-19 Your Global Team is Our Priority.

To learn more about these new services, please click here.

About Globalization Partners

Globalization Partners' comprehensive solution makes it easy for companies to expand internationally across six continents and into more than 170 countries without the hassle of setting up local branch offices or subsidiaries. We enable companies to hire employees throughout the world without having to navigate complex international legal, tax, and HR issues. You identify the talent, and we put your team member on our payroll. Whether it's to test a new market or expand your talent pool, Globalization Partners is the most trustworthy solution in the market. We have dual U.S. headquarters to serve you in Boston and California, and regional hub offices located worldwide in the UK, Germany, the UAE, India, Shanghai, Singapore, Brazil and Mexico.

Globalization Partners is Privacy Shield certified for HR Data. To find out more, please visit: globalization-partners.com or connect with us via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or check out our Blog.

Contact:

Karen Pantinas

Kpantinas@globalization-partners.com

617-729-4466

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Apr 2, 2020 - More than 38% of Agilex Biolabs' biotech clients already come from the APAC region - primarily from China and South Korea. APAC clients are particularly attracted by Agilex' FDA-inspected status, and the more than 40% rebate on clinical trial spend that applies in Australia.Agilex Biolabs specializes in bioanalysis of small molecules and biologics for PK, immunogenicity, biomarkers and immunological pharmacodynamics assessments, and the only FDA-inspected lab of its type in the region, is located in Adelaide, South Australia in a science and biotech specialist hub.Dr Popper was first appointed to the Agilex Biolabs Board in July 2019.Agilex Biolabs CEO Jason Valentine said:"We are extremely pleased Dr Popper accepted the Board Chair role and we look forward to an exciting phase of growth under her guidance." "Dr Caroline Popper is a medical doctor, pathologist, health economist, medical consultant and experienced company director, with over 20 years of hands on experience in the healthcare, medical devices and drug discovery fields.She has managed a wide range of diagnostics, device and drug discovery businesses in both Fortune 500 and start-up settings, at amongst others, Becton Dickinson, bioMerieux, and MDS." Dr Popper said:"My clinical experience enables me to help interpret relevant market forces, develop strategies and create partnerships that thrive in the global and fast changing and challenging health care landscape." "Agilex Biolabs is a stand-out leader in the pharma services space and I look forward to taking on this significant role and being part of the next phase of growth for the company, leveraging its position in the important APAC region." "The Aglilex Biolabs team of scientists and specialist PhDs is quite exceptional making it well positioned to rapidly deliver bioanalytics for biopharma clients running clinical trials in Australia, Asia and the US, and the EU." The company specialises in bioanalysis of small molecules and biologics for PK, immunogenicity, biomarkers and immunological pharmacodynamics assessments utilising LC-MS/MS, immunoassay (Mesoscale, Gurolab, Luminex) and flow cytometry (BD FACSymphony A3, 20 colour cell analyser).Agilex also offers pharmacodynamics services that include immunobiology services using the latest state-of-the-art technology to support immunology, cell biology and mode of action assays, including:- Immunophenotyping- Receptor occupancy- Cytokine release assays (whole blood or PBMC stimulation assays) and cytokine/biomarker profiling- PBMC assays and cellular mechanism of action assays (eg: ADCC)CEO Jason Valentine said:"Our FDA-inspected facilities have more than 65 dedicated laboratory staff, and annually support more than 80 clinical trials. This year we will analyse more than 60,000 samples for pharma/biotechs from US, Europe and APAC." "By combining specialised expertise, technological innovation and a 20-year track record, we have supported hundreds of preclinical and clinical trials around the world." "Our world-class bioanalytical facilities have OECD GLP Recognition with NATA (Australian Government OECD GLP Compliance monitoring authority) and ISO 17025 Accreditation for global recognition." Learn more about Agilex Biolabs in this Video: https://youtu.be/3lyodiqqM_k About Agilex BiolabsAgilex Biolabs began as a group of academic scientists providing clinical trial and bioanalytical services to the local Australian pharmaceutical industry in the 1980's, and has now grown into a global business for early phase clinical trials. In our 20 years of performing regulated bioanalysis of small and large molecules, we have accelerated hundreds of preclinical and clinical trials around the world. Today, our clients include many of the leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in Asia, Europe and the USA. Call +61 8 83028777 or +1 800 247 1909 or visit https://www.agilexbiolabs.com/ Agilex Biolabs is built upon four core values that drive our performance:- Scientific excellence and technological innovation- Customer focus- Data integrity and quality assurance- Timeliness/speedSee us featured in Endpoints https://tinyurl.com/uqmkzcu Media Contact:Team@ DMGPR.Com David JamesAU: +61 2 8218 2144USA: +1 415 951 3228Asia: +65 3159 3427
Loading Such bans should include both wild-caught and captive-bred wildlife, it says. It also calls for mechanisms to help those whose livelihoods are based on the wildlife trade. "Animal-based diseases (zoonoses) account for an estimated 73 per cent of all emerging infectious diseases affecting humans," the paper says. "Wildlife markets of the type linked to both SARS and COVID-19 ... provide ideal circumstances for the spread of zoonoses. These include diseases caused by coronaviruses transferred to humans through a range of intermediate host species."

Loading About 10 million dogs and cats are brutally slaughtered for consumption in Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia every year, Katherine Polak, veterinarian and head of Four Paws Stray Animal Care in south-east Asia said. "The rampant trade and live animal markets are ticking time bombs. If governments do not act now and shut down these cruel markets, we are not protecting ourselves against the next global pandemic," she said. China has been making some moves to close down its markets because of the COVID-19 loss of life as well as damage to its economy and reputation. 'If governments do not act now and shut down these cruel markets, we are not protecting ourselves against the next global pandemic.' Katherine Polak, veterinarian, Four Paws chief

On January 23, three administrative agencies under the Chinese premier jointly issued a ban on trade and consumption of wildlife, Peter Li, China policy specialist at HSI said. Loading But this ban was contradictory to the Wildlife Protection Law that allowed the use of wild animals for breeding and commercial purposes, Dr Li said. On February 24, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress elevated the ban to the level of national legislation by imposing a comprehensive ban on the trade and consumption of wildlife by temporarily freezing the Wildlife Protection Law. The ban only applies to the consumption of wildlife as food.

It does apply to some farmed wildlife but not all. It also does not apply to wildlife consumed for all purposes. For example it does not include consumption for traditional medicine or the fur or exotic pet trade, Dr Li said. Loading But for the ban to become permanent, the People's Congress still needs to amend the Wildlife Protection Law, he said. Last Friday, Anthony Fauci, head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Fox News's Fox & Friends the world community should pressure China and other nations that run "wet markets" to shut them down, The Washington Post reported. "[They] should shut down those things right away," he said. "It just boggles my mind that how when we have so many diseases that emanate out of that unusual human-animal interface that we don't just shut it down. I don't know what else has to happen to get us to appreciate that. I think there are certain countries in which this is very commonplace. I would like to see the rest of the world really lean with a lot of pressure on those countries that have that, because what we're going through right now is a direct result of that."

Last week, the southern city of Shenzhen passed a landmark law to ban the consumption and production of dog and cat meat, the first city in mainland China to do so. Loading "Dogs and cats as pets have established a much closer relationship with humans than all other animals, and banning the consumption of dogs and cats and other pets is a common practice in developed countries and in Hong Kong and Taiwan. This ban also responds to the demand and spirit of human civilisation," the city government said. Shenzhen's initial rules, first proposed in late February, appeared to also ban the consumption of turtles and frogs.

But the city government said this had become "a hot point of controversy" and clarified that both could still be eaten. There have been media reports of wet markets reopening in China. The reports mentioned the slaughter of dogs and cats at a meat market in Guilin, south-west China. They also claim a vendor was selling bats and scorpions at a market in Dongguan, southern China. HSI says that, while this is repugnant and unsanitary, it is not in breach of the ban. It says there is confusion because the ban applies only to the sale of wildlife for human consumption and not livestock. HSI investigations suggest that compliance with what has been banned is generally good. However, to address the grave public health risks, as well as animal suffering, wet markets where any live animals are slaughtered on site should be shut down, it says.

"The current COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated just how deadly the wildlife trade can be, not just for the wild animals involved, but also for people throughout the world," Teresa Telecky, vice-president of wildlife at HSI, said. "COVID-19 has killed thousands of people and will likely have lasting negative impacts on local and global economies. "It is a tipping point that governments globally must not ignore. Wildlife markets worldwide are a petri dish for the next global pandemic, so governments across the globe must do everything they can to prevent this from happening again, and that means banning this dangerous trade and helping those traders involved find alternative livelihoods as quickly as possible." Gilbert Sape, head of the Wildlife Not Medicine campaign at World Animal Protection, said: "We all commend the WHO's efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. Given this pandemic is believed to have originated at a wildlife market, were calling on the WHO to unequivocally state the proven link between these markets and the serious threats they can cause to human health. "The WHO can help prevent future pandemics by excluding the use of wildlife from their endorsement of traditional medicine. This could help save lives in the future and help protect millions of wild animals that are unnecessarily and cruelly farmed or poached from the wild to supply this industry. Plant based alternatives are recognised and available."
The daughter of a New Milford nursing home patient says she had no idea there was a coronavirus outbreak in the home until after her father was already gravely ill.

Russell Giacomarro, 75, lived in the Woodcrest Health Care Center, owned by CareOne, in New Milford, for the past 18 months. Thats where he caught the coronavirus, about three weeks before he died in a nearby hospital, daughter Shane Gerardi, of Paramus, told NJ Advance Media.

There was absolutely no contact with anyone from the home, Gerardi said, frustrated with the lack of communication. Her family first learned of the outbreak when five deaths at the facility were reported by NJ Advance Media. They should be shut down. It is unimaginable what they did," she said.

Its not clear if Giacomarro is the only patient to have died since the April 1 statement issued by CareOne. A CareOne employee referred all questions to the state Department of Health, which in turn referred questions to the New Milford Department of Health.

A local department of health employee declined to provide specific numbers for the nursing home, and referred all questions to CareOne.

Giacomarro started feeling sick the weekend of March 13, Gerardi said. Her mother, Beverely Giacomarro, noticed a slight cough during a lunch visit and asked the nurses to keep an eye on him.

Russell Giacomarro got sicker as the next week began; he had no fever at first, and was treated for a cold with a decongestant, Gerardi said.

But by the end of that week, his fever had spiked to 102 degrees, and Giacomarro was tested for the flu and the coronavirus, Gerardi said. The nursing home told Gerardi that there were no cases of COVID-19 currently in the home, but said a few other patients on his floor were sick with other ailments.

CareOne said in a statement some patients first started showing signs of the coronavirus in mid-March, and the third floor was dedicated to those patients care. Giacomarros room was on the second floor, Gerardi said.

Giacomarro was sick enough to be taken to Hackensack University Hospital for further treatment around March 19, Gerardi said.

Gerardi said her mother asked CareOne employees why they waited to test Giacommaro instead of testing him at the first sign of symptoms.

They said, word for word, Do you know how short-staffed we are? Gerardi said. As of April 1, six staff members have tested positive for the virus, the company said.

The positive results for coronavirus did not come in until Giacomarro was already fighting for his life, Gerardi said. He died on Saturday, April 4, from complications of COVID-19.

Even after his death, Gerardi says the nursing home never called the family to notify them of an outbreak. She says an employee in the finance office told them March 31 that she only knew of two possible cases, the day before the first published reports of a large outbreak.

Giacomarro, who was in the nursing home because he had dementia, was otherwise healthy, Gerardi said. His most serious ailment was seasonal allergies.

The hardest thing for us is just knowing he was alone at the end. We are almost hoping he didnt know what was going on, because I cant imagine, Gerardi said. She last saw her father over a month ago because of strict restrictions on visitors during the pandemic.

This was the first time the family had any issues with the nursing home, Gerardi said, and they were otherwise happy with the care her father received.

The union representing the nursing home has also criticized its handling of the situation. Milly Silva, executive vice president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, said employees first alerted them of an outbreak on March 26, about a week before the public was informed.

This lack of transparency and communication to caregivers is unacceptable," Silva said in a statement. "It is essential for nursing facilities and state officials to be fully transparent to health care workers, residents and their families about the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes.

Nursing homes have been hit particularly hard in New Jersey during the coronavirus pandemic. At least 93 of New Jerseys 375 facilities have reported at least one case of COVID-19.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieKausch. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.
YEREVAN.  The term of arrest of Narek Sargsyan, the nephew of third President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, has been extended for another two months. Narek Sargsyan's lawyer Artur Pivazyan informed Armenian News-NEWS.am about this.

The court has denied Pivazyan's appeal, and he stated that he had not yet received the court's respective decision.

On June 26, 2018, a criminal case was initiated by the National Security Service under the Criminal Code articles on illegally acquiring, selling, possessing, carrying, transporting, or possessing weapons, ammunition, explosives, or explosive devices, and of narcotics, psychotropic, and psychotropic substances for the purpose of selling or preparing for illicit circulation or for the purposes of illicit sale thereof.

On July 6 of the same year, Narek Sargsyan was declared wanted, and on July 24, he was declared wanted at an international level. Police, as well as the Interpol National Bureau in the Republic of Armenia, in cooperation with law enforcement agencies and Interpol in a number of European countries, had found Sargsyan on December 6 of the same year, in Prague.

Narek Sargsyan was extradited from the Czech Republic to Armenia on December 21, 2019.

And on December 24 of last year, the motion to re-establish arrest as Sargsyans pretrial measure was granted.




Haiti - Health : Quarantine missed for 180 Haitians repatriated from the Tuks-and-Caicos Islands





Sunday, 180 Haitian boat-people intercepted last week by the authorities of the Turks-and-Caicos Islands with the assistance of the American Coast Guard were repatriated in 2 military planes at the airport of Cap-Haitien.



Upon arrival, our compatriots were placed in a temporary shelter in Cap-Haitien, in the Petite-Anse area while awaiting quarantine for 14 days, according to the words of Kerwing Augustin, the Regional Director of the National Office for the Migration (ONM).



However, due to lack of means, resources and isolation sites, the ONM was unable to make this quarantine effective. Barely a few hours after their arrival, most Haitians had left the temporary shelter to disappear on the streets of Cap-Haitien, without any intervention from the police...



Some Haitians who remained in the temporary shelter were still there in the evening, without food, without drinking water and without toilets, fearing to venture into the city and expose themselves to the stigmatization of the population, believers infected with Covid-19...



In addition, agents of the Haitian National Police arrested 4 people accused of having organized the clandestine trip of 225 Haitians in two small boats bound for the Turks and Caicos Islands.



PI/ HaitiLibre


















Pandas at a zoo on lockdown in Hong Kong have successfully mated for the first time.

The pandas at Ocean Park Zoo in Hong Kong 'succeeded in natural mating at around 9am this morning' for the first time ever, the zoo said in a statement on Monday.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, Ocean Park had been closed to the public since late January.

The pandas at Ocean Park Zoo in Hong Kong 'succeeded in natural mating at around 9am this morning' for the first time ever, the zoo said in a statement

The two animals, named Le Le and Ying Ying, arrived at the park in 2007 and had not mated since attempts were made to unite the pair in 2010.

Earlier attempts by zoo keepers to bring about natural mating had been fruitless. 'Since Ying Ying and Le Le's arrival in Hong Kong in 2007, and attempts at natural mating since 2010, they unfortunately have yet to succeed until this year,' said Michael Boos, executive director of zoological operation and conservation.

Mr Boos added that the latest development was 'extremely exciting for all of us'.

'The successful natural mating process today is extremely exciting for all of us, as the chance of pregnancy via natural mating is higher than by artificial insemination,' he said.

Mr Boos added that the latest development was 'extremely exciting for all of us'

The press statement continued: 'Since late March, Ying Ying began spending more time playing in the water, while Le Le has been leaving scent-markings around his habitat and searching the area for Ying Ying's scent.'

Staff are now closely monitoring Ying Ying's body and behavioral changes to see if she could be pregnant.

Pandas are considered a vulnerable species and there are just 1,864 giant pandas alive in the wild, according to World Wildlife Foundation predictions.

It comes as Whipsnade Zoo in London is hoping for an elephant pregnancy.

Asian elephant Ming Jung mating at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire. Staff at Whipsnade, the UK's biggest zoo, are monitoring its female elephants for signs of pregnancy after their first meeting with a recently-arrived male went better than expected

Staff at Whipsnade, the UK's biggest zoo are monitoring its female elephants for signs of pregnancy after their first meeting with recently-arrived male Ming Jung went better than expected.

Ming Jung arrived at Whipsnade from Antwerp, Belgium last year. The 12-year-old has since been introduced to the herd's females, and keepers said Ming Jung was 'obviously smitten'.

Elephant pregnancies last about 22 months, according to National Geographic
Pope Francis establishes an emergency fund to aid those being tragically impacted by the Covid-19 virus.

By Vatican News

On Monday, it was announced that Pope Francis has established an emergency fund at the Pontifical Mission Societies. The revenue contributed to this fund is destined to aid aid of those people and communities who are being tragically impacted by the spread of COVID-19.

The statement issued on Monday by Agenzia Fides, the Information Service of the Pontifical Mission Societies, went on to say that the money will directly go to mission countries through the Churchs structures and institutions.

Cardinal Tagle, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, had this to say about the creation of this fund:

In her task of evangelization, the Church is often on the front lines of major threats to human well-being. In Africa alone, there are over 74,000 religious sisters and over 46,000 priests operating 7,274 hospitals and clinics, 2,346 homes for elderly and the vulnerable, and educating over 19 million children in 45,088 primary schools. In many rural areas they are the only providers of healthcare and education. The Holy Father is calling upon the Churchs entire vast network to face the challenges ahead.

Pope makes first contribution

Pope Francis has not only opened the fund, he is also the first to contribute to it. The initial contribution made by the Pope is 750,000 USD. He appeals to all Church entities and individual who are able and desirous to help, to contribute to this fund through the Pontifical Mission Societies in each country.

In explaining the aim of the fund, the President of the Pontifical Mission Societies,

The fund's purpose

Archbishop Dal Toso, said:

This fund has the aim of supporting the presence of the Church in mission territories, which also suffers the consequences of Corona Virus. Through the Churchs activity of preaching the Gospel and of practical aid through our vast network, we can show that no one is alone in this crisis. In this sense, the Churchs institutions and ministers play a vital role. This is the Holy Fathers intention in establishing this fund. While so many are suffering, we remember and reach out to those who may have no one to care for them, thus showing forth the love of God the Father.

I call upon our network of Pontifical Mission Societies, present in every diocese around the world, to do what they can to support this important initiative of the Holy Father.

The Pontifical Mission Societies

Through the Pontifical Mission Societies, the Pope is able to support more than 1,110 dioceses. They are located for the most part in Asia, Africa, Oceania and part of the Amazon region.

How to contribute

Contributions can also be made via bank wire transfer to:

IT84F0200805075000102456047 (SWIFT UNCRITMM) for:

Amministrazione Pontificie Opere Missionarie,

indicating: Fund Corona-Virus
A team of medical workers in southern Spain applauded as a four-month-old baby suffering from coronavirus was finally taken off his ventilator, in a touching moment.

The infant was taken to the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella, on March 17, but was then rushed to the Malaga's Maternal and Infant Hospital in a critical condition.

Following nearly three weeks spent on the paediatric intensive care unit, he has made a miraculous recovery, with medics removing his ventilator at the weekend.

Nervous staff who had cared for him for nearly a month were filmed cheering and clapping as they watched the heartwarming scene from a window, as the small boy had his breathing tubes taken out.

The video was shared on Twitter, alongside a post which said: "Its not all bad news  we have some joy to share.

"On this occasion, it was extubating a very special patient  a four-month-old baby who was admitted to the Materno Infantil Hospital, in Malaga, with coronavirus," explains head of the paediatric ICU, Jose Camacho.

In a recorded statement, Mr Camacho said the infants condition had progressed in a "satisfactory manner" and staff were able to remove his ventilator.

He added that, fortunately, such a severe case of Covid-19 in an infant is "exceptional" but the boy is now "very stable".

Spain's lockdown has been extended by fifteen days to allow the healthcare system to recover / Getty Images

The doctor said positive cases such as this "fills [medics] with strength to continue fighting this disease."

The heartwarming moment comes as the coronavirus death toll in Spain slows for the fourth consecutive day, with 637 patients dying overnight, bringing the overall number to 13,055.

Likewise the number of newly confirmed cases is the lowest for two weeks at 4,273, reaching a total of 135,032.

The country's lockdown was extended at the weekend by an extra 15 days until April 26, to try and help the health system recover.
Russia imposes lockdown in capital due to the outbreak

The country has already banned the entry of foreign nationals and closed air and land traffic.

As the coronavirus outbreak has wreak havoc on the world the Russian capital Moscow was almost empty on Monday due to a mandatory lockdown.

Nearly 12.5 million residents of Moscow were told to stay indoors in order to slow the spread of coronavirus.

AUTHORITIES HAVE CONFIRMED 1,836 DEATHS

At the heart of the capital, a never before seen sight - Red Square, and the esplanade by the Kremlin, normally bustling with tourists and locals, have been silenced.

The streets and the iconic Moscow metro were almost empty as well.

The number of people diagnosed with the new coronavirus in Russia surged to 1,836 with 302 new cases, with 11 deaths.

Several regions, including second-largest city St. Petersburg and the capital Moscow, were put on lockdown on March 30.

People are only allowed to leave their homes for buying groceries, medicines, walking pets within 100 meters (328 feet) from home and disposing of garbage.
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Staten Island was once again left out of the citys latest plans to brace for the coronavirus surge in the citys hospitals.

This time, the Island did not receive any of the 291 military medical personnel the city deployed to its public hospitals, part of the Health+ Hospitals network, over the weekend, which Staten Island is not a part of.

Mayor Bill de Blasio last week called for 1,000 nurses, 150 doctors and 300 respiratory therapists by Sunday from the federal government.

Over the weekend, City Hall announced the federal government sent 291 military medical personnel to the citys public hospitals from its initial request.

The recent deployment of federal medical personnel to the citys public hospitals comes as Mayor Bill de Blasio has called on hospitals across the city, including the Islands two private hospitals -- Richmond University Medical Center and Staten Island University Hospital -- to increase their intensive care unit capacity constantly.

However, a RUMC spokesman has said the North Shore hospital needs more staff in order to expand.

Though not providing a breakdown of exactly how much more medical staff it would need, the RUMC spokesman said they recently asked the city for more nurses and respiratory therapists.

Right now were hopeful of the request that weve put in for additional nurses and respiratory therapists that [the city] will help us with that, said RUMC spokesman Alexander Lutz.

But City Hall did not return requests for comment on why it did not send any military medical staff to Staten Island or whether the Islands hospitals would receive any of the 1,000 nurses, 300 respiratory therapists or 150 doctors from the federal government the mayor had called for.

A SIUH spokeswoman said the hospital currently has adequate staffing. However, she cautioned that the staffing challenge would arise as the patient surge grows.

Were reaching out to staffing agencies to hire more nurses, recruiting for retired doctors and nurses, reaching out to per diem physicians and nurses, the SIUH spokeswoman said.

The amount of staff needed was not specified.

The latest omission of the Island from the citys surge planning for the outbreak comes as the Islands two private hospitals could be at about half of their capacity.

The mayor said last week that the city would need a total of 45,000 clinical staff. He said about 7,500 would be needed in the citys traditional hospital buildings, while the other 37,500 would staff non-traditional hospitals that are being created across the city -- like the field hospitals and hotels.

Last week, the Island was left out of the citys public hospitals surge plan because the borough is not part of the Health + Hospitals system.

Under that plan, the city announced it would add 3,000 more ICU beds by May 1, equip them with more than 2,500 doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians and free Covid-19 testing for its staff at their request, all at the citys public hospitals.

De Blasio said Friday he predicts 5,000 coronavirus patients in New York City will need to be in intensive care unit beds by early this week.

Under the citys current approach, the mayor said that hospitals would be converted to ICU beds and then additional facilities like field hospitals, hotels and other venues would be built out for additional capacity.

The mayor has vowed in recent days to look for every additional opportunity to build more hospital capacity on Staten Island during the coronavirus outbreak.

He has also said the city has given supplies to the Islands two private hospitals.

But the Department of Health does not provide a breakdown of the supplies the city distributes to local hospitals and the Islands two private hospitals have not detailed how many of those supplies it has received from the city to date.

Last week, the mayor said he selected a hotel on Staten Island to use to house healthcare workers who have been exposed to the coronavirus so they can safely stay away from their families. He said those hotels could also be quickly turned into de facto hospitals.

However, the city has avoided saying which hotel on Staten Island it selected.

On Tuesday, the South Beach Psychiatric Center will open its doors to coronavirus patients. The facility will include 262 hospital beds.

The Island is set to get another 1,030-bed field hospital at the College of Staten Island. However, details about that site remain unclear.

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Oil prices fell yesterday after Saudi Arabia and Russia delayed a meeting to discuss output cuts which could help reduce global oversupply as the coronavirus pandemic pummels demand.

Brent crude fell more than $3 when Asian markets opened but recovered some ground, with traders hopeful a deal between the top producers was still within reach.

In London at lunchtime yesterday, Brent was down 81 cents, or 2.4pc, at $33.30 a barrel. US crude was 65 cents, or 2.3pc, lower at $27.69 a barrel, off a session low of $25.28.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, a group known as Opec+, is expected to meet on Thursday instead of yesterday to discuss cutting production.

"Perhaps it is best that the meeting was delayed for producers to cement a minimum of common ground before the actual discussions take place on Thursday," BNP Paribas analyst Harry Tchilinguirian said. He noted initial disappointment at the delay had driven down prices in Asian business.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was ready to co-ordinate with other oil exporting countries to help stabilise the market and that the Opec+ meeting was delayed for technical reasons.

Opec+ is working on a deal to cut production by about 10pc of world supply, or 10 million barrels a day, in what member states expect to be an unprecedented global effort.

But Rystad Energy's head of oil markets, Bjornar Tonhaugen, said even if the group agrees to cut up to 15 million barrels a day "it will only be enough to scratch the surface of the more than 23 million barrels a day supply overhang predicted for April 2020".

Sentiment was lifted by Saudi Arabia's decision to delay releasing its official crude selling prices to Friday, pending the outcome of the Opec+ meeting.

United States President Donald Trump has said he would impose tariffs on crude imports if needed to protect US energy workers from the oil price crash.

Investor morale in the eurozone fell to an all-time low in April and the bloc's economy is in deep recession because of the coronavirus, a survey showed yesterday.

"Wherever you look, the narrative is the same: the global economy is in a painful recession," Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM said.

"As Opec+ ponders fresh supply curbs, you can't help but think that the oil market will continue to be at the mercy of the virus pandemic."

Reuters
Whataburger is laying off or furloughing an unspecified number of employees due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The reduction affects workers at the San Antonio fast food chains corporate offices and in field support across the 10 states where it operates restaurants. The companys dining rooms remain closed but it is still filling drive-thru and pickup orders.

Like many companies, Whataburger is managing the best it can through this global pandemic, president Ed Nelson said in a statement. We call our employees family members, and we have built a very caring culture here  so the decision was not easy. It is, however, essential to streamline in a way that best positions us to make it through this current crisis and help ensure long-term success for our restaurants and brand.

A spokesperson for Whataburger didnt immediately respond to an inquiry about the number of employees affected by the decision.

Jobless workers will receive packages that include compensation, medical benefits and transition aid, the company said. They can also file for unemployment insurance.

These next few months will be challenging, Nelson said. But I believe this crisis will pass, and I look forward to the days when our communities can gather in our dining rooms again and share their special occasions with Whataburger.

The company operates more than 800 restaurants in the U.S., nearly 700 of them located in Texas, according to its website.

Last year Chicago-based BDT Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in Whataburger and the groups said they would begin exploring expansion plans. The Dobson family, the chains founders, kept a minority position in the company.

madison.iszler@express-news.net
Kanye West looked stone-faced as he headed to his office in Calabasas on Monday for a meeting.

The 42-year-old rapper tried to stay dry in a raincoat on the rainy spring day after taking a break from social distancing at home with his family.

The day before, his wife Kim Kardashian shared a sweet family photo from their time together at Paris Fashion Week.

Rainy day: Kanye West, 42, tried to stay dry and he drove to his office in Calabasas for a meeting on Monday

Kanye was covered up in a large olive raincoat with a coat, along with light blue jeans covered in flower-like designs.

He paired those items with tan boots and a red hoodie.

Though he was out in public, the Flashing Lights rapper seemed to be on his own and practicing proper social distancing by staying at least six feet from others.

The CDC recently recommended that Americans wear cloth face masks when going out, though he didn't stick with that bit of advice.

Protected: Kanye was covered up in a large olive raincoat with a coat, along with light blue jeans covered in flower-like designs, tan boots and a red hoodie

Keeping his distance: Kanye has previously been practicing social distancing at home with his wife Kim Kardashian, though he made sure to remain at least six feet from others

Kim shared an incredible image of herself on Monday to her SKIMS page, wearing a fitted tank top and thong bottoms.

She wore the Smooth Essentials Tank and Dipped Thong in Onyx - launching on Wednesday at 9 am PST exclusively at SKIMS.com in five tonal shades and in sizes XXS-4X.

Earlier on Sunday, Kim shared a sweet family photo from the couple's time together during Paris Fashion Week.

Wow factor: Kim shared an incredible image of herself on Monday to her SKIMS page, wearing a fitted tank top and thong bottoms

Kanye flashed a soft smile while wearing a simple blue hoodie and large plastic frame sunglasses.

Kim was squeezed into a pale pink latex Balmain suit from the fashion house's Fall 2020 collection, and she rocked her natural blunt cut bob.

The parents were also joined by the oldest daughter North, six, who wore an orange top and matching pants.

'Flashback': Earlier on Sunday, Kim posted a cute photo from the family's trip to Paris Fashion Week featuring Kanye with a soft smile while sipping on a cocktail at a restaurant

Style icon: The reality star was squeezed in a pale pink latex Balmain outfit from the fashion house's Fall 2020 line

Shiny look: Kim must have been a fan, because she wore multiple different outfits in the same style during her trip

'Flashback,' wrote the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star in the caption.

Kanye has previously been spotted taking a break from isolating at home for a run to McDonald's.

Otherwise, he's been at home with Kim and their four children: North, Saint, four, Chicago, two, and Psalm, 10 months.
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Linkedin Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, April 8, 2020 06:00 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd061ca8 1 National COVID-19,mudik,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,Tjahjo-Kumolo,civil-servants,PNS,exodus,Idul-Fitri,idul-fitri-exodus,Idul-fitri-holiday Free

The government has prohibited civil servants from participating in the annual Idul Fitri mudik (exodus) to their hometowns, in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

In a circular issued on Monday, Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said that civil servants and their families were prohibited from going on mudik until the country is free of COVID-19.

He also asked the staff development officers of ministries, agencies and regional administrations to ensure that their civil servants stayed in their respective regions and did not participate in the mudik. The officers were also asked to formulate a COVID-19 relief policy for civil servants and their families.

If civil servants have to travel outside of their region, they have to acquire permission from their supervisor, the circular said, adding that civil servants who violated the regulation would be subject to disciplinary sanctions.

Civil servants were also asked to urge their neighbors not to participate in the mudik or to go out of town during the COVID-19 outbreak period and to heed the governments appeal to keep a distance in social interactions and adopt a healthy lifestyle.

The government has not prohibited the mudik for the general public, citing economic considerations.

Many public health experts have advised against the practice as it risks further transmitting the disease to regions with low healthcare capacity. Two of Indonesia's largest Islamic mass organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, have also advised people against participating in the mudik.

According to 2019 data from the National Civil Service Agency (BKN), there are 4.28 million civil servants across the country.

According to the official government count, there were 2,738 cases of COVID-19 in the country as of Tuesday, with 221 deaths.
HICKORY - The Catawba Valley Community College Small Business Center will host a no-cost Preparing for a Business Loan webinar on Wednesday from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. The program will be in a webinar format, allowing participants to access the program from their computers.

Are you thinking about applying for a business loan? First Citizens Bank and the Small Business Center will review the information that you need to assemble for your business loan application, including information on requirements for the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses.

There is no charge to attend this webinar, but pre-registration is required. To register or for more information contact the CVCC Small Business Center at 828-327-7000, ext. 4117 or visit http://sbc.cvcc.edu to register online.
Some Texas prisoners are staying busy this week crafting thousands of cloth masks for Texas Department of Criminal Justice employees and offenders in quarantine, the agency has announced.

The move comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week recommended that everyone wear cloth face masks where social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. AFSCME Texas Corrections, the union which represents TDCJ employees, last month also called for increased protective measures for staff, said executive director Jeff Ormsby.

As of Tuesday, 29 TDCJ employees or contractors have tested positive for Covid-19, along with 26 offenders.

TDCJ started producing face shields from one of its own factories about a week before the CDC recommendation but later broadened its effort to 10 prison factories throughout the state, where offenders will produce up to 20,000 cloth masks each day, seven days a week. The agency over the weekend had already distributed 50,000 masks .

Agency spokesman Jeremy Desel said the masks will be distributed to all employees but are only required for those working inside prison units. The growing number offenders in medical restriction  more than 10,600 on Tuesday  will get masks. So will more than 100 offenders in medical isolation with positive or pending tests, he said.

Admittedly, our biggest risk is from our own people, said Desel, emphasizing that the masks are not intended to protect the wearer, but rather people around them.

TDCJ operates dozens of warehouses, factories and other facilities as part of its Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Logistics Division. There, inmates make products like furniture, clothes and mattresses.

The inmates producing the masks already had been assigned to make flags, clothes and other fabric-based products, Desel said. He did not know how many inmates were assigned to the factories, but they will not be paid for the work. Texas is one of five states that does not pay inmates for regular prison jobs, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit focused on educating people about mass incarceration.

Ormsby called the move a start in the right direction but said hes still concerned about the mask material, 100 percent cotton cloth.

We still want to make sure our staff is being provided the proper N95 masks for those who are working in a cell block with inmates, he said.

TDCJ could make medical-grade surgical masks and gowns, Desel said, but those materials have been difficult to procure . A nationwide government survey recently found the most common equipment shortages were for N95 respirator masks, surgical masks, face shields, gowns and gloves, USA Today has reported.

Mask production at TDCJ is expected to continue at least for the next several weeks, or as long as the CDC keeps the recommendations in place.

In addition to masks, TDCJ has implemented other measures to slow the spread of Covid-19 based on CDC guidelines. Offender movement has been restricted to limit the number of people in one area. Visitation has been suspended at all facilities. All units are regularly cleaned, and anyone entering the unit has their temperature checked. Those with a fever of 100.4 degrees or higher are sent home to self quarantine.

The agency created two levels of quarantine for inmates who may have been exposed or tested positive: medical restriction and medical isolation. Inmates are placed in medical restriction if theyve been exposed to a confirmed case or someone showing symptoms of the virus. The inmates are restricted to one part of the unit, and medical staff checks on them twice a day.

Inmates are sent to medical isolation, in which they are placed in a single cell in another part of the unit, if they test positive or show symptoms of the virus. They are given a face masks, and nurses regularly check their respiratory status, officials said.

Offenders in both medical restriction and medical isolation are locked down  a measure that Ormsby hopes will expand to the entire Texas prison system.

This will be one way to limit the exposure, if theyre in their cell for 23 hours a day, he said. If were going to control this pandemic then we need to get serious about what were going to do.

By Tuesday, three Texas prison units  Jordan, Murray and Beto  were completely locked down after most of the inmates were placed in medical restriction.

At the federal level, the director of the Bureau of Prisons last week ordered inmates in every institution to be secured in their assigned cells or quarters for two weeks to decrease the spread of the virus, with some exceptions. Desel said TDCJ has tried to cut down on large gatherings in the general prison population by staggering the times they can visit common areas, such as dining halls or day rooms.

He said prisons havent been placed on a statewide lockdown because its not been necessary, emphasizing that the CDC recommendations have guided their emergency response.

Also last week, two inmates in the Wallace Pack Unit, a geriatric prison northwest of Houston, contended in a federal lawsuit that the agency has not allowed inmates access to hand sanitizer, though the CDC has recommended it and prisoners in New York are producing it.

The suit also says the agency has not done enough to limit gatherings, reduce movement and educate inmates on symptoms, as recommended by health officials. The prisoners attorney on the case, John Keville, could not be reached to comment on the agencys mask production efforts.

Desel said he could not comment on pending litigation.

Jeremy Blackman contributed to this report.

julian.gill@chron.com
Kansas City Biz Desperately Seeking Cash

Kansas City's Small Business Owners Anxiously Await Coronavirus Emergency Loans Nicholas and Kristen Rowell became owners last October of the Little Monkey Bizness children's play space in Shawnee, Kansas, and had parties and playdates booked solid through April. Then coronavirus hit; they shut down the business on March 16. Now the Rowells are among the hundreds of thousands of small business owners seeking emergency financial relief because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

KCMO Car Turnabout

KC tow lot to sell vehicles online Kansas City's impound lot will be selling vehicles online this month."We're going to sell about 500 to 550 cars," said Nathan Pare, of the city's impound lot.From BMWs to pickups to smash ups, even motorcycles to Mazda, the city's tow lot has got a lot of nearly everything."There's a variety

More Deets On Hobo Hotel Housing For Pandemic

Nonprofits, city leaders seek housing options for people experiencing homelessness For some in the Kansas City area, "sheltering in place is not an option," according to one nurse practitioner. "Many of our patients live on the streets, under a bridge, in a tent... they truly don't have a home to go to and the idea of sheltering in place is not an option," said Jaynell Assmann, a nurse practitioner who founded Care Beyond the Boulevard.

Sentimental Biz Move

Hallmark temporarily cutting staffers' hours; CEO to take 20% pay cut Hallmark says the COVID-19 pandemic is having major effect on its business.The company announced that it will temporarily cut staffers' hours at Hallmark Global, Crown Center and at its corporate offices.

Hottie Promo Explained

Lindsey Pelas Sizzles In Revealing Crocheted Swimsuit For Sexy Instagram Video Lindsey Pelas treated her 9.1 million Instagram followers to a sexy update recently in which she rocked a scandalous swimsuit. The advertisement was for the beverage company Bang Energy, which Lindsey mentions in her bio. She started off the video in a crocheted swimsuit with a zippered top layered over it.

American Juxtapostion

U.S. reports 1,200 coronavirus deaths in one day as China lifts lockdown At the start of what is expected to be the deadliest week of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, the White House tried to offer some hope that measures to contain the spread were working. The virus killed 1,264 over 24 hours in the U.S.

Prez Trump Talks Navy Fight

Trump scolds ousted USS Theodore Roosevelt commander for coronavirus letter; Navy boss apologizes for reaction President Trump said he would "get involved" and review the decision to fire the captain of the Navy's USS Theodore Roosevelt, even as the Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly berated the former captain in an audio recording leaked on Monday.

#MeToo Double Take

Alyssa Milano explains silence on Joe Biden sexual assault allegation, says men deserve 'due process' Alyssa Milano is defending her decision to stay silent in the wake of a recently surfaced allegation against former Vice President Joe Biden by former Senate staffer Tara Reade, who claims he sexually assaulted her in 1993.

Speaker Nancy Doubles Down On More Stimulus

Pelosi: Next round of coronavirus relief will top $1 trillion In a conference call Monday with more than 180 House Democrats, Pelosi said the last relief package - a historic, $2.2 trillion infusion adopted less than two weeks ago - is insufficient to help the medical workers, businesses and employees affected by the fast-spreading pandemic.

Allegation Local Cleric

Kansas City-St. Joseph adds priest's name to abuser list KANSAS CITY, MO (AP) - The Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese has added a 25th name to its list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors. The diocese said on its website Sunday that allegations against the late Rev. Peter Clement Vatter were substantiated by the diocesan ombudsman, the diocese's independent review board and Bishop James V.

Kangaroo Curve Switched

UMKC implements credit/no credit grading option for spring 2020 UMKC students now have the option to convert their spring semester letter grades to credit or no credit, according to a decision from Interim Provost Jenny Lundgren on Friday. Lundgren described the change as "empowering students to choose an option that best fits their academic needs this semester" under the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tuesday Hotness

June-like afternoon ahead with temps reaching 80 Hide Transcript Show Transcript NICK: SHE IS GOOD. THE KIDS WILL PLAY IN THE YARDS TODAY, THAT IS FOR SURE. THE CLOUDS WE SEE -- ICU, MOON. CLOUDY TO START BUT THEY WILL BE OUT OF HERE THIS AFTERNOON. IF YOU GO OUTSIDE, YOU MAY NEED TO SLAP ON SOME SUNSCREEN.

We start this morning with a consideration ofalong with pop culture, community news and info from across the nation.Checkit:is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . .
YEREVAN, APRIL 7, ARMENPRESS. Russian Armed Forces specialists have arrived in Armenia for assisiting the coronavirus prevention measures, ARMENPRESS reports spokesperson of MoD Armenia Shushan Stepanyan wrote on her Facebook page.

''In the sidelines of the bilateral cooperation between the Armed Forces of Armenia and Russia, according to the agreement between the Defense Ministers of Armenia and Russia Davit Tonoyan and Sergey Shoygu, the specialists of the Russian Armed Forces have just arrived in Armenia for assisiting the measures of preventing the spread of the novel cornavirus'', Stepanyan wrote.

The spokesperson noted that the team has the possibility of conducting COVID-19 infection research with mobile laboratory and disinfection system, adding that those measures will greatly foster the effectiveness of anti-epidemic measures.

For the first time since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Armenia the number of recovered patients is more than that of the new cases: 25 patients have recovered and 20 new cases have been confirmed in one day. As of this moment the total number of COVID-19 confirmed cases in Armenia is 853, and that of the recoveries is 87. 8 people have died.

On March 16 Armenia declared a 30-day state of emergency to battle the spread of COVID-19. The state of emergency is effective until April 14, 17:00.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
A Sacramento couple who thought they'd taken a trip to "the safest place in the world" from COVID-19 were surprised to return from their trip and test positive for the coronavirus.

Well-known Sacramento defense attorney Bill Portanova and his wife Shauna told the Sacramento Bee they may have contracted the virus sometime during their Antarctic trip in March. The couple's four-week trip started in February (for reference, the first COVID-19-related death in California happened on March 4) and took them on a luxury cruise on the M.S. Roald Amundsen. They said the ship had a "few hundred" other passengers.

We were in the safest place in the world literally, Bill Portanova told the Bee.

Of course, it's highly unlikely the Portanovas came into contact with the virus in Antarctica itself. They told the Bee they were in the small Falkland Islands town of Stanley on the same day as the Holland America cruise ship Zaandam. The Zaandam had a widespread coronavirus outbreak with at least 250 passengers reporting symptoms and four dying on board, two linked directly to COVID-19. It was denied port by multiple countries before finally docking in Florida last week.

After a 14-day quarantine aboard the Roald Amundsen, the Portanovas said they made it onto a flight out of Chile in late March. The flight took them to JFK Airport in New York, Los Angeles International Airport and, finally, Sacramento. Bill told SFGATE that the entire return trip took 46 hours and he felt "certain" they picked up the virus on that long journey home.

They initially chalked up their virus symptoms to jetlag, but a test showed Shauna has COVID-19; doctors told Bill to presume he is also infected.

Nonetheless, the Portanovas are grateful for their experience aboard the ship and the care they received from the crew.

"The Hurtigruten ship and crew were incredible, and they took the best care of us, treating us like guests even though we ended up staying onboard almost twice as long as scheduled," Bill told SFGATE. "In fact, the captain and crew received standing ovations from the passengers for their commitment and professionalism throughout."

To read the full story  it's outside of the paywall  visit the Sacramento Bee.

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Total number of coronavirus cases in India was inching towards the 5000-mark with a total of 4789 cases registered till late Tuesday evening, including 124 deaths, eight of them coming in the last 24 hours, as per the latest data available with the ministry of health.

Maharashtra also became the first Indian state to register over 1000 positive cases as the state administration put the total at 1,018, including 116 fresh cases recorded in Mumbai alone, however, the central governments figure for the state was still 28 short of a thousand.

In some good news, the health ministry said governments containment efforts in worst-affected clusters was bearing fruit, notably in Agra, Noida, Bhilwara, East Delhi and Pathanamthitta due to the proactive measures taken at the ground level. The health ministry officials also highlighted the importance of the lockdown and social distancing measures in the overall strategy to contain the spread of the pathogen by citing a recent study by ICMR, which in lay mans terms says that a coronavirus-positive person could have ended up infecting over 400 others had the restrictions not been in place, which have the potential to limit the spread per infected person to 2.5 people.

However, there is still no decision on a possible extension to the three-week nationwide lockdown in the light of requests by states like Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka favouring an extension. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab are also said to be in favour of maintaining the restrictions beyond April 14.

In other important developments, the Centre said it had issued guidelines to states to streamline coronavirus disease management by dividing the health facilities into three categories-- Covid Care Centres, Covid Health Centres and Dedicated Covid Hospitals to segregate the management of mild, moderate and severe cases respectively.

The countrys testing capacity has also witnessed a gradual increase and the total number of samples tested now stand at 1,07,006 including 11795 samples that were tested between Monday and Tuesday.

One hundred and thirty six government labs and 59 private laboratories are authorised to test for Covid-19 at the moment even as rapid tests involving antibody testing have begun and the first set of results ratified by the Pune Lab.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has indicated that his government will ramp up testing along with tracing, treatment, teamwork, and tracking. He cited South Koreas example to say that mass testing was required to contain the disease before it exploded like in other urban centres in Europe and America. The Delhi government has ordered conventional kits to test 50,000 people and rapid test kits to test 100,000 people and announced that random testing at hotspots will begin soon.

According to Worldometre, a website that tracks the total number of coronavirus cases across the world, India has the lowest rate of tests per million102-- of the population among the top 34 countries battling the coronavirus.

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Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu decided to follow Centres lead as the former slashed the salaries of all public representatives including MLAs and ministers by 30% for the year and also merged the MLA local area development fund for the next two years with the state funds earmarked for Covid-19 containment efforts and the latter ordering the utilisation of Rs one crore from the MLA fund for purchasing medical equipment, drugs and for funding other prevention initiatives against coronavirus.

Coronavirus live updates

In other important news, states continued to encourage Tablighi Jamaat participants from the March event in Delhi to contact authorities to aid in effective containment measures with the Punjab government giving them (Tablighi workers) a 24-hour deadline to approach the nearest police stations and the Delhi police also issuing a similar order. Authorities in Maharasthra complained that around 50-60 attendees of the event have switched off their phones and were trying to hide in the state.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  The mayor of Ormoc City in Leyte attributed the COVID-free state of the area to the local governments early and strict implementation of lockdown.

As early as March 22, the city government has been strict in allowing entry to Ormoc, mayor Richard Gomez said in an interview on CNN Philippines.

The only people that could enter Ormoc City are its residents, people coming from other municipalities who work in Ormoc, or those delivering goods to other places, Gomez said.

The mayor added that facilities have already been set up in case coronavirus infections are to be reported in the city. These include a diagnostic center which can house at least 30 people.

Rooms in Ormoc hospitals, as well as covered courts in barangays, have also been prepared to accept COVID-19 patients, according to Gomez.

While the city is under lockdown, Gomez said they have already provided a sack of rice for each of the 65,000 homes in Ormoc.

The mayor also urged everyone to comply with the stay-at-home order to help slow the spread of the viral disease.

I wish everybody well. I hope that nobody will get sick. But I think the best way really is to isolate people, so I ask for the patience of everybody to stay at home, he said.

Nationwide, the health department has so far recorded 3,764 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The death toll stands at 177, while 84 patients have now recovered.
Hidden Valley Road

By Robert Kolker

Doubleday. 377 pp. $29.95

---

It was Thanksgiving eve, 1972. Mimi, the matriarch of the Galvin family, had labored over a flawless meal for her husband and the 11 of her 12 children who had converged for the holiday. If a stranger had glanced inside their home, he or she would have noted a seemingly idyllic scene, punctuated by the gingerbread house Mimi had made and placed on display ahead of what she'd hoped would be a beautiful night. But it was not to be. For starters, her eldest son, Donald, picked up the dining room table and threw it at his brother Jim, sending the pressed linen, plates and silver everywhere.

"There may have been no better, more precise manifestation of her deepest fears than this ... that everything good she had done, all the work, all the attention to detail and love, yes, love, for her family was in pieces." So relates Robert Kolker, journalist and author of "Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family," his nonfiction rendering of how 12 siblings - half of them schizophrenic - and their parents navigated illness, unspeakable violence and the crushed promise of the American Dream.

Kolker's telling of the Galvin trials is at once deeply compassionate and chilling. He gives as much voice to the schizophrenic siblings - who, one after another, had psychotic breaks, were heavily medicated with debilitating drugs, and were in and out of largely unsuccessful inpatient treatment - as he does to their relatives, many of whom suffered tremendous psychological and sexual abuse from being in their orbit. Interwoven with the harrowing familial story is the history of how the science on schizophrenia has fitfully evolved, from the eras of institutionalization and shock therapy, to the profound disagreements about the cause and origins of the illness, to the search for genetic markers for the disease. Along that path, Kolker notes, "families like the Galvins, meanwhile, continued to live at the mercy of a mental health profession still caught up in a debate that came nowhere close to helping them."

The book draws from hundreds of hours of interviews Kolker conducted with the Galvins, their friends and their therapists, as well with the scientists who studied the Galvins' genetic material to form the foundation for the National Institute of Mental Health's current research into the genetics of schizophrenia. The latter include Lynn DeLisi, a psychiatrist who, in visiting their home, thought, "This could be the most mentally ill family in America."

In exploring their story, Kolker finds that, growing up, the healthy Galvin kids were equally tortured by their lineage. "How much longer, they wondered, before it would overtake them, too?" They include the family's only girls, Margaret and Mary Galvin, each of whom were prey to the brutish roughhousing of their schizophrenic brothers, Donald, Peter, Matthew, Joseph, Jim and Brian. Beyond the bullying, Kolker shares the sisters' childhood memories of a host of disturbing scenes. Donald looms particularly large initially, as he is the eldest and the first to show signs of the disease.

Mary would come home from school, for example, to find Donald "transplanting every last piece of furniture out of the house and into the backyard, or pouring salt into the aquarium and poisoning all the fish. ... Sometimes he is sitting in the middle of the living room quietly, completely naked." Kolker is particularly sensitive in broaching the sisters' conflicted feelings about their family - what he chronicles as a tortured tangle of hate, guilt and love that they ultimately struggle to confront throughout their lives. Despite how traumatic the effects of their illness were for Margaret and Mary, the sisters also recalled the many meaningful attributes of their brothers as individuals: for example, Matthew's talent as a ceramic artist, Brian's career as a rock guitarist, Joe's sense of humor and poignant understanding of his illness.

Kolker, author of "Lost Girls," about the murders of four sex workers, plies his craft as an investigative journalist and explorer of the less-traveled corners of humanity to individually chronicle the lives of all 14 Galvins. He takes the reader through the family's history, beginning with the refined Mimi, a daughter of Texas aristocracy who was raised in New York, and her husband, Don, a handsome, all-American military man who taught political science and held domestic diplomatic posts. Between 1945 and 1965, they raised their 10 boys and two girls in Colorado, much of that time in a cul-de-sac on the unpaved Hidden Valley Road.

Mimi had longed for an urbane and intellectual life in the heart of New York City, but her husband's career took them to Colorado Springs. So she sublimated her dreams into painstakingly creating and molding a perfect family that was initially envied by the community. As the years pass, Mimi becomes less successful in explaining away the growing chaos in her home that invariably spills into the streets of her neighborhood. Meanwhile, her husband grows more emotionally and physically remote with each child they have together.

The most complicated character in this story may be Mimi - who is at turns sympathetic and blameworthy. While tending to all of her ill children and doing what she thinks is best to keep them out of institutions, she simultaneously avoids even acknowledging their erratic behavior. As Kolker says, from her daughter Mary's perspective, "To do anything else would be the same as admitting that she lacks any real control over the situation." Mimi clearly loves her children but is also unyielding in their pursuit of excellence. She is deemed something of a drill sergeant by many of the siblings. Such personality traits led medical professionals of the day to negatively brand her a "schizophrenogenic mother" - a now-discredited theory that so-called domineering mothers were to blame for their children being schizophrenic.

The book gives much space to how difficult the disease has been to diagnose and treat. Yet it ends in 2017, as a story of hope. Kate, one of the Galvin grandchildren, who is interested in neuroscience and schizophrenia, takes a much-coveted undergraduate internship in the University of Colorado laboratory of Robert Freedman. On her first day in the lab, Kolker notes, "she stood near where the data from choline trials on little children were studied for signs of schizophrenia - tests that could change everything for a future generation, thanks to six of her uncles."

---

Tucker is a Brooklyn-based freelance journalist who writes primarily about health, genetics and cultural politics.
[April 07, 2020] Tyto Care Raises $50M to Expand Its Telehealth Exam and Diagnosis Offering Globally

NEW YORK, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Tyto Care, the healthcare industry's first all-in-one modular device and telehealth platform for on-demand, remote medical examinations, today announced that it has raised $50M in an oversubscribed round co-led by Insight Partners, Olive Tree Ventures, and Qualcomm Ventures LLC with participation from previous investors, bringing the company's total funding to over $105M. The additional funding comes as Tyto Care experiences surging demand with rapid global telehealth adoption, having witnessed 3X growth in sales in 2019 alone. The funding will allow Tyto Care to continue to expand commercialization throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia as well as to introduce new advanced product capabilities including AI and machine learning-based home diagnostics solutions and other patented technologies. Tyto Care has experienced double-digit telehealth utilization, over 10 times higher than standard virtual care programs, which see less than 5% utilization on average. In the wake of COVID-19, hospitals and health organizations around the world are further expanding their use of Tyto Care's telehealth solution to remotely examine quarantined patients in hospitals and isolated patients at home. Tyto Care's solution enables remote medical exams of the lungs, heart, throat and ears, among other exams and vitals, allowing healthcare organizations to protect providers and avoid exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also enables families and the general population to receive care without entering medical facilities, preventing the spread of the virus and significantly reducing the increased burden on already overworked health organizations. To meet the skyrocketing demand, Tyto Care is currently expediting production to fulfill three times more devices than originally forecasted for the coming quarters. "Over the past two years, Tyto Care has increased momentum faster than ever before and is playing a leading role in changing how peope receive healthcare. Telehealth is heeding the call of the COVID-19 pandemic and we are proud that our unique solution is aiding health systems and consumers around the world in the fight against the virus," said Dedi Gilad, Co-Founder and CEO of Tyto Care. "This new funding comes at a pivotal moment in the evolution of telehealth and will enable us to continue to transform the global healthcare industry with the best virtual care solutions. We look forward to further expanding the reach of telehealth and introducing new solutions as demand for remote care continues to soar."



"The on-demand era has finally reached healthcare," said Jeff Horing, co-founder and Managing Director at Insight Partners. "Adoption of telehealth is at an all-time high and as the only solution on the market with diagnostic capabilities that can deliver clinic-quality remote care, Tyto Care is significantly disrupting the health ecosystem. As a partner that empowers fast-growing ScaleUp software companies transforming daily life, we are excited to work with Tyto Care to help usher in the next generation of healthcare." "Olive Tree Ventures, a digital health fund, is ecstatic to partner with Tyto Care to accelerate the adoption of global telehealth solutions. We experienced first-hand the value of Tyto Care's solution in the Israeli market. As digital health investors, we strongly believe in the promise of telehealth and are excited to collaborate with the visionary management at Tyto Care," said Amir Lahat, General Partner, Olive Tree Ventures.

Tyto Care witnessed threefold growth in 2019 and is working with hundreds of hospitals and over 100 health organizations including health systems, payers and strategic partners, primarily in North America, Europe and Israel. The company served hundreds of thousands of patients and performed over 200,000 telehealth exams in 2019 alone, a testament to the growing adoption of its virtual medical exam solution as an efficient, convenient and high-quality means of delivering primary care. About Tyto Care Tyto Care is transforming primary care by putting health in the hands of consumers. The telehealth company, co-founded by Dedi Gilad and Ofer Tzadik in 2012, seamlessly connects people to clinicians to provide the best virtual home examination and diagnosis solutions. Tyto Care's solutions are designed to enable a comprehensive medical exam from any location and include a hand-held, all-in-one tool for examining the heart, lungs, skin, ears, throat, abdomen, and body temperature; a complete telehealth platform for sharing exam data, conducting live video exams, and scheduling visits; a cloud-based data repository with analytics; and built-in guidance technology and machine learning algorithms to ensure accuracy and ease of use for patients using the device at home. The platform also allows for simple integration with electronic health records systems, third party exam tools, and other telehealth platforms. To watch a demo video, click here. For more information, please visit www.tytocare.com. Press Contact

Allison Grey

Headline Media

[email protected]

+1.323.283.8176 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tyto-care-raises-50m-to-expand-its-telehealth-exam-and-diagnosis-offering-globally-301036842.html SOURCE Tyto Care

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Diplomats in Washington are working overtime to repatriate stranded citizens worried about the accelerating coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

Its frantic, said Gabriel Issa, Lebanons ambassador to the United States. His embassy in Washington, DC, has set up hotlines to collect the names of Lebanese citizens who want to return home, and a skeleton staff is manning the phones.

A lot of times we cant even answer all the phones at the same time, Issa said. We are overloaded but trying to do our best.

Amid tightening restrictions on travel in their home countries and the continued cancellation of flights in the United States, the phone lines at many Middle East embassies in DC are ringing off the hook with expats desperate for the latest information on possible return flights. Staff who are typically assigned to nonconsular services are pitching in, answering calls and facilitating travel.

We see all hands on deck, said Elad Strohmayer, spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in DC. There are people who on a regular basis dont deal with these issues and now theyre helping if needed.

The only remaining direct flight to Israel is operated by United Airlines out of Newark, New Jersey. Strohmayer said his embassy is encouraging any Israelis who wish to leave to do so while they still can.

Those from elsewhere in the region are caught in travel limbo with passenger flights to their countries canceled entirely.

Its just endless, the stories, said a Jordanian official not authorized to speak to the media. Some of them you really want to help out, but you dont know how because theyre stuck.

With 364,000 cases of COVID-19 and a death toll exceeding 10,000, the United States surpassed China and Italy to lead the world in coronavirus infections.

New York City, which is home to a number of Middle Eastern immigrant communities, is now the epicenter of the US outbreak with more than 5,400 dead. On Tuesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced 731 more patients died in what marked the biggest single-day increase in deaths since the virus emerged in the state last month.

At the Embassy of Oman, the worsening pandemic prompted diplomats to pull an all-nighter last month, staying overnight at the embassy to coordinate return trips for hundreds of citizens. On March 30 and 31, two government-chartered planes picked up 660 Omanis who wanted to fly back.

Weve been working around the clock, said Qusai al-Mahrouqi, the embassys assistant information attache. It wasnt easy because we have thousands of Omanis all around the United States.

Of particular concern for many embassies are the international students unsure whether to leave the United States in the middle of their schooling. Some students fear they will be unable to return to their schools once travel restrictions are lifted. Others worry they will be penalized if they overstay their visas while waiting out the virus in the United States.

They are panicking and they are calling us every day with the same question: I want to leave, but what about my I-20?, said Hamad al-Muftah, deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Qatar in DC.

Muftah said the Qatari Embassy has sent anxiety-ridden students an email reminding them if they want to leave to first check with their sponsor and the overseas office at their universities.

At the Lebanese Embassy, Issa said hes directed his staff to start calling US officials to see what the formal guidance is for students and other travelers whose visas may expire during quarantine.

A spokesperson for US Citizenship and Immigration Services told Al-Monitor it can extend the stay of those impacted by circumstances out of their control, as well as provide special consideration or expedited processing for those who may need it on a case-by-case basis.

Embassies are in the meantime trying to alert all remaining citizens of changes via email, phone and social media. At the Jordanian Embassy, staff have compiled a database with the names of hundreds of students and other travelers who wish to go home.

Diplomats are dealing with issues as they arise, but so much is out of their hands, the Jordanian official said.

We say in Arabic hta esh'ear akhr: until further notice. Its a common thing thats being said.
A longtime security officer who surveilled bags and briefcases at the entrance to Houstons federal courthouse and stood guard at trials died of suspected COVID-19, officials said.

Brian Magee, 66, died early Monday at his home in Spring, according to the Harris County medical examiners office. His symptoms were consistent with the disease caused by the new coronavirus, although test results have not come back yet.

Just to see him brightened so many of my days, said Sen. U.S. Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court. I will miss him.

Several other Courthouse Security Officers are awaiting test results and some have self-quarantined due to symptoms or possible exposure, according to Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal. Several officers are confirmed to have COVID-19 and a few others are suspected to have it but, with one exception, none have acute symptoms.

Magee worked as a CSO, the blue-coated emissaries whose job it is to ensure federal court buildings are safe. They also handle an endless number of questions from the public and act as the front line of defense in association with the U.S. Marshal Service. Many CSOs are retired police officers.

The U.S. Marshal was not immediately able to comment.

Prior to his job at the courthouse on Rusk Street, Magee worked for the Precinct 4 Constables Office in the northwest part of Harris County. He retired a decade ago as a lieutenant after 25 years with the department, said Constable Mark Herman.

Herman said Magee had symptoms for about a week and on Sunday had a test for the virus. He woke up with symptoms Monday and his wife called 911, but he succumbed before aid arrived.

Herman called him an excellent and compassionate officer who led by example, adding that hell be dearly missed.

Those in the legal community recalled him as friendly and devoted to the job, with kindness for everyone he encountered.

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison remembered Magee as someone I looked forward to seeing every day.

He was devoted to the welfare of all who sought justice, Ellison said. Even during the most trying times, he was a complete gentleman.

U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick said Magee spent over 35 years in uniform in law enforcement for Harris County.

He knew he had a calling to wear the badge and protect the community and he did it with honor, Patrick said. His service was not in vain, and my prayers are with his wife and his U.S. Marshal and Constable Precinct 4 family.

We express our deep sympathies to his family, said Rosenthal, the chief jurist in the sprawling 43-county district. He was an effective and effective officer with a long history of public service. We will miss him.

David Adler, a defense lawyer who has tried cases in the building for decades, said the role of the CSOs is vital even though it appears low key.

All of those men and women at the security checkpoint have a tough job, Adler said. Theyre there to protect everyone who comes to the courthouse.

Im sure the job gets very boring at times and then when a problem erupts its probably instant terror.

gabrielle.banks@chron.com
Eleven days ago, Boris Johnson, Britains prime minister, announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. In an upbeat video message posted to social media, Johnson described his symptoms as mild, and said he would continue to lead Britains response to the crisis from quarantine, thanks to the wizardry of modern technology. Last week, Johnson posted several more videos on Twitter; on Thursday, cameras in Downing Street captured him standing in his doorway clapping for his countrys caregivers, part of a coordinated, nationwide round of applause. As of Friday, Johnson had been in isolation for seven days; he should, at that point, have been allowed out, according to his governments guidance, but he informed the country that he was still showing one minor symptom of COVID-19a feverand so would have to stay put. Speculation started to swirl among British journalists that all was not as well as it seemed; The Guardian, for instance, reported hearing last week that Johnson was more seriously ill than either he or his officials were prepared to admit, and that doctors were worried about his breathing. Late Sunday, Johnson was taken to the hospital. His aides insisted he was admitted for precautionary tests and was fine to keep running the countrybut reports trickled through that Johnson had received oxygen, and stayed in hospital overnight.

In Britain, skepticism about the official word on Johnsons condition reflects more than journalistic impulse. Johnson has a notoriously fraught history with the truth, dating back to his days as a journalist for conservative newspapers; as prime minister, a post hes held since July, his relationship with the press has been rocky. Ahead of elections late last year, Johnson dodged tough interviews, and officials with his Conservative Partywhich ended up winning a thumping victorypulled a range of dirty tricks. Since then, his advisers have been accused of Donald Trump-like tactics, including an attempt to ban disfavored reporters from a government briefing, a move which sparked a brief media boycott. Dominic Cummings, Johnsons controversial top aide, has been accused of establishing a network of mafia-style snitches to catch officials accepting free meals from journalists. Encouraged, reportedly, by Cummings, Johnson has waged war on the BBCbanning his ministers from appearing on some of its shows, and entertaining reforms that would undermine its public-funding model.

ICYMI: The infinite scroll

Since the coronavirus crisis took hold, weve seen something of a detente. A few weeks ago, Johnson established formal daily briefings at which he, alongside other ministers and medical experts, has fielded journalists questions. Still, some tensions have persisted. Some outlets complained that favored competitors got preferential access to public-health information prior to the briefings being instituted; in the weeks since, their usefulness has been called into question. (Last week, even the Telegrapha conservative newspaper that used to employ Johnson, and is typically fiercely supportive of himsplashed the damning headline Questions without answers.) As such, it came as no surprise when, at yesterdays briefing, Dominic RaabBritains foreign minister, who was standing in for Johnsonfaced barbed questions about the true state of the prime ministers health. Tom Newton Dunn, a reporter with right-wing tabloid The Sun, asked Raab how Johnson could both be sick enough to be taking a valuable hospital bed, but well enough to be running the country? Online, commentators, including Piers Morgan, took a similar tone.

Then, last night, the tone softened. Around 8pm, UK time, we learned that Johnson had been transferred into intensive care. Suddenly, the New York Times reported, Britain was keeping a tense vigil hoping for the best and experiencing, together, the frightening mysteries of COVID-19. This morning, Britains newspapers, normally known for their pithy, scathing headlines, all led with simple variations on the factsthe facts we know, at any rate. Johnsons status still isnt entirely clear; his government has been quick to confirm major changes in his conditionhis move into the ICU, for instancebut hasnt revealed many details. (Britains political situation is a little unclear, toounlike with the US presidency, there isnt an established line of prime ministerial succession. For now, Raab, Johnsons de facto deputy, seems to be in charge.) Overnight, we got some reporting on Johnsons condition: The Times of London spoke with hospital sources who said he was not on a ventilator, and that hed needed less oxygen than the normal threshold for ICU transferral. This morning, Michael Gove, a senior minister, confirmed on television that Johnson isnt on a ventilator. But speculation has been the dominant journalistic mode. Various newspapers and TV networksincluding, in the US, CNNasked medical experts to comment on what Johnson may or may not be going through. Others shared statistics about patient survival rates at various stages of COVID-19 treatment.

Such speculation isnt very helpful. We lack specific information about Johnsons case, and extrapolating insight from general statistics is fraughtboth because coronavirus data is deeply flawed, generally, and because the context here is so unique. (Its hard to be sure, at this stage, whether Johnsons ICU admission reflects normal procedure or an abundance of caution.) It feels invasive, too, to be demanding the finer detail of another human beings suffering. Still, we should expect a certain level of clear, timely information about our leaders health as a matter of public interest, and theres no doubt that, to this point, the updates about Johnson have painted a confusing, contradictory picture.

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Last nights shocking developments may have changed the tenor of news coverage, but the dissemination of information at times of crisis always has a broader context. In the UK, the strained relationship between Johnson and the press, and his poor record with the truth, is an unavoidable prism for his current illness. It calls to mind Trumps visit, last year, to Walter Reed Medical Center, for reasons that remain murky. The stakes were lower for Trump, as far as we know; still, as Jack Holmes wrote at the time for Esquire, because this administration has lied so relentlessly, about things big and small it is impossible to take anyones word at face value when it really matters. When it comes to dishonesty, Trumps administration exists on a different plane to Johnsons. But both have made a habit of withholding and distorting facts, leaving vacuums that speculation has rushed to fill.

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Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
Below is the full text of the judgment summary from the High Court of Australia published on Tuesday morning.

Today, the High Court granted special leave to appeal against a decision of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria and unanimously allowed the appeal. The High Court found that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant's guilt with respect to each of the offences for which he was convicted, and ordered that the convictions be quashed and that verdicts of acquittal be entered in their place.

On 11 December 2018, following a trial by jury in the County Court of Victoria, the applicant, who was Archbishop of Melbourne at the time of the alleged offending, was convicted of one charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16 years and four charges of committing an act of indecency with or in the presence of a child under the age of 16 years.

This was the second trial of these charges, the jury at the first trial having been unable to agree on its verdicts.
Of late, we had reported about Prabhas' next film, #Prabhas20's post-production work continuing at a brisk pace amid the 21-day nationwide lockdown. For now, the movie, as well as the makers have grabbed the headlines for all the wrong reasons. A few days back, there were rumours that the first look poster of the movie, likely to be titled O Dear, might be unveiled on the special occasion of Ugadi, but that didn't happen!

Eventually, fans who were eagerly waiting for the poster were disappointed with the makers. Responding to it, production company of the film, UV Creations have tweeted assuring fans that more updates of the movie will be out after the current situation of Coronavirus pandemic ends. The makers also urged everyone to stay home and safe.

We are amidst a global pandemic and many lives are at stake due to the current situation. Owing to the current situation, we have paused all our activities. After all this is over, we promise to come up with many more updates. We urge everyone to stay home & stay safe! #Prabhas20  UV Creations (@UV_Creations) April 7, 2020

Earlier, the fans had taken to their respective Twitter handles to manifest their protest against the UV creations with #BanUVCreations for not updating about the film. It is to be noted that the production had earlier bankrolled Prabhas' Saaho (his last outing). Saaho starring Shraddha Kapoor as the female lead had also disappointed the fans earlier, thanks to its Dubai schedule being postponed to 6 months, working day release and the delay in its Hindi print release. The producers were highly slammed for making the fans wait for long. Many Twitterati also called the UV Creations the 'worst' production house in India. Few have requested them to stop producing films and become an independent broker-dealer. The makers had even failed to release pictures of the pooja ceremony of the film.

Here are the Tweets:

Helmed by Radha Krishna Kumar, the Prabhas 20 is produced on a high budget. Pooja Hegde will be essaying the female lead in the movie touted to be a romantic entertainer. On a related note, it is said that 70% of the shoot has been completed and the core team is on a spree to wrap up the editing by working from home amid the lockdown.

Post-Production Work Of Prabhas 20 Goes On Amid COVID1-19 Lockdown
RICHMOND  To help protect members and staff from COVID-19, the Virginia Senate will trade its clubby confines at the state Capitol for the state science museum when the legislature returns to Richmond for its spring session April 22.

Unlike the House of Delegates, which announced last week it would convene outdoors, possibly on the Capitol grounds, the Senate will meet indoors at the Science Museum of Virginia.

The General Assembly will act on Gov. Ralph Northams proposed revisions to bills passed this winter. Lawmakers will also decide whether to accept or overturn any Northam vetoes.

Susan Clarke Schaar, Senate clerk, alerted the states 40 senators in an email Monday that the museum  about 4 miles west of the state Capitol in a former train station  would be the venue for their meeting later this month.

The Senate will convene in the Thalhimer Pavilion, a tented space that incorporates former train platforms.

Because the House and Senate would not be meeting in the same building, they will use technology, Schaar said, to communicate with each other. That apparently will include email.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 22:12:10|Editor: huaxia

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NANNING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- A team of Chinese medical experts aiding Cambodia in the fight against COVID-19 has returned home Tuesday after finishing their mission.

The team consisting of seven medical experts arrived in the airport of Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on Tuesday afternoon.

In Cambodia, they inspected the designated hospitals and virus testing labs and exchanged views with their Cambodian counterparts on the diagnosis and treatment procedures, selection of antiviral drugs and disinfection of hotels used for concentrated quarantine.

In addition, the experts offered training for Cambodian medics on personal protection, installation and use of lab equipment, as well as treatment of COVID-19 patients in severe and critical conditions.

A remote consultation system was also established, according to Ai Xiang, head of the medical team.

The experts specialize in various areas, including respiratory, public health, infection control and traditional Chinese medicine. The team arrived in Cambodia on March 23. It was the first Chinese medical team sent out to ASEAN countries for COVID-19 prevention and control.
The CBI has alerted all the state police about cyber criminals increasingly targeting hospitals and other vital health installations, which are tackling coronavirus pandemic, using ransomware after an Interpol notice red flagged global patterns, officials said on Tuesday.

The CBI has written to all the Interpol Liaison Officers of state police about the increased activities of cyber criminals prowling on Internet looking to hack into systems of hospitals by planting ranswonware through emails to block access to vital files and documents and demanding ransom for their release, they said.

"Cyber criminals are using ransomware to hold hospitals and medical services digitally hostage; preventing them from accessing vital files and systems until a ransom is paid," the Interpol has said.

The CBI is national central bureau of India solely tasked to coordinate with Lyon-based Interpol.

The Interpol has issued a purple notice alerting all its 194 member countries about such activities, they said.

Purple notice is issued by the Interpol to seek or provide information on modus operandi, objects, devices and concealment methods used by criminals.

The International police organisation has red flagged a ransomware which is being spread using email camouflaged as information or advice regarding coronavirus or COVID-19 from a government agency, luring the recipient to click the infected attachments.

Once the attachment is opened, it blocks the recipient's access to the system till a ransom in paid, they said.

The Interpol has said that globally hospitals are at the "highest risk" of becoming victims of such emails in the wake of the pandemic, the officials said.

The body has recommended that all important files should be properly backed up and hardware and software systems should be updated by hospitals to ward off any possibility of coming under such cyber attack, they said.

Meanwhile, the Interpol said it is also working to collate a "list of suspicious Internet domains related to COVID-19 and undertaking further analysis and evaluation" to take further action with the countries where they may be located.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
ALBANY  As four more deaths due to the novel coronavirus were recorded in the Capital Region on Monday, officials expressed hope that a new mobile testing site in Albany would help paint a clearer picture of how widespread the virus is and when cases in the area might peak.

The shuttering of local hospital-based community testing two weeks ago had left officials worried they would be unable to monitor the spread, and made it difficult to forecast when COVID-19 cases might peak here or start to plateau.

But a new mobile test site  which opened Monday at the University at Albany with the help of the university, Albany Medical Center, St. Peter's Health Partners and Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office  has given them new reason to hope. The site was expected to draw 400 people on Monday. Once it ramps up to full capacity it should be able to handle 1,000 people a day, said County Executive Daniel McCoy.

"Having the ability to do community testing is a real great shift for us," said county Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen at McCoy's daily briefing. "To date, we have not been able to look at this from any meaningful epidemiological perspective of knowing where we are in the curve. And this data that we look forward to getting in the next week is going to be really key for us to see where we are."

The site, located in the universitys Colonial Quad parking lot, will be open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. No walk-ins will be allowed. Anyone who wishes to get tested must call 888-364-3065 to be screened. Those who are most at risk will be prioritized and given a PIN number, which will provide them access through security checkpoints at the site.

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More than 4,200 county residents have been tested to date, according to state records.

On Monday, McCoy reported 300 residents have tested positive for COVID-19 so far. Officials were happy to report no new deaths, but noted that 41 residents are hospitalized, which translates to just over a 13.6 percent hospitalization rate for confirmed coronavirus patients in the county. Fifteen adults were in intensive care.

More accurate case counts will start to pour in by the end of the week, McCoy said.

"This week is going to be telling for us," he said. "By the end of the week were either going to be up around 800 or close to 1,000 or did we plateau? But we dont know. We dont know."

Whalen said it's unlikely that cases have peaked in the area. She said the percentage of people testing positive in the county has been low  around 7 to 8 percent, compared to about 40 to 60 percent in communities that have widespread testing and whose hospitals are nearing capacity.

"As we get more people tested, the data becomes more meaningful," she said. "We are able to get a better picture of where we are in the community."

Rensselaer County officials were also looking forward to better data as a result of the new test site. More than 1,300 residents had been tested as of Monday, according to state records.

We will be expecting a spike in our cases, said Mary Fran Wachunas, the county public health director. We havent done any testing in two weeks.

Whalen said social distancing remains essential to slowing the virus' spread. The next two weeks will be "very important," she said  a reference to the timetable in which officials expect cases to peak in New York. As the weather gets nicer, she expects more people will be yearning to get out of their houses and urged people to stay six feet from others if they do.

"We are hopeful that we will not be as hard hit as some of the downstate counties, but we don't know that yet," she said. "And we have to act like we're trying to avoid those situations. So please consider this and remember the importance going forward."

Rising death toll

Four more deaths due to the novel coronavirus were reported in the Capital Region on Monday, bringing the region's known death toll from the pandemic to 26.

Saratoga County said Monday that it had lost three more residents to the deadly virus, marking the county's fourth known death.

Two Clifton Park residents in their mid to late 80s died after being treated at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, and a 59-year-old Ballston Spa resident died after being treated at Saratoga Hospital. All three were men.

We are saddened to learn of the passing of these Saratoga County residents who had tested positive for COVID-19, said town of Day Supervisor and Board of Supervisors chairman Preston Allen in a statement. Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of these residents. Together, we must continue to stay strong as a community, and do our part to prevent the spread of this virus.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

The county Department of Public Health said the state has reported one other death in the county, but that it is still investigating that report.

Rensselaer County officials reported their second death due to COVID-19 on Monday, an 81-year-old Pittstown man. The person had underlying medical conditions when they were stricken, said Rich Crist, the county's director of operations. Family were notified Monday afternoon.

The county recorded its first known death from the disease last week.

As of Monday, 26 residents across 11 Capital Region counties were known to have died from the novel coronavirus. Eight were from Albany County, seven from Schenectady County, four from Saratoga County, three from Columbia County, two from Rensselaer County, and one each were from Montgomery and Washington counties. The Times Union compiles fatality numbers directly from the counties, which sometimes differ from those reported by the state Department of Health, which is now publicly reporting deaths by county of residence.

More than 800 residents have tested positive for COVID-19, with most of the cases recorded in the region's more populous counties. As of Monday there were 300 lab-confirmed cases in Albany County, 163 in Saratoga County, 138 in Schenectady County, 78 in Rensselaer County, 70 in Columbia County, 27 in Greene County, 25 in Warren County, 18 in Washington County, 17 in Montgomery County, 15 in Schoharie County and 11 in Fulton County.

The recent lull in widespread community testing means these numbers are likely suppressed.

More downstate transfers to region

Albany Medical Center, which is coordinating the transfer of patients from overwhelmed New York City hospitals to the region, said Monday that local hospitals have accepted 82 transfer patients since last Tuesday.

About 37 have gone to Albany Med, and the rest were distributed across St. Peters Health Partners, Ellis Medicine in Schenectady, Saratoga Hospital, Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson, and St. Marys Healthcare in Amsterdam.

These people desperately need the help and were glad to provide it, said Albany Med President and CEO Dennis McKenna.

Ellis accepted 10 of the patients, with two arriving via helicopter on Sunday to a landing area at Schenectady High.

While it is rare for Ellis to accept transfers via air transport, this is part of our normal operations planning and also part of our Emergency Operations Plan, said hospital spokesman Philip Schwartz. These plans call for helicopters to land at Schenectady High School before being transferred to the hospital.

Albany Med said another 13 transfers were on their way to the area Monday, though local hospitals may take as many as 30 more into the region.

As of Monday, the hospital was treating 61 patients for COVID-19, up from 45 reported Friday. Seven of the new arrivals are from local communities, McKenna said.

That number, thankfully, is not going up a lot, he said, adding that that is one of the reasons the hospital has capacity to take in downstate transfers.

While the number of people being hospitalized each day due to COVID-19 continues to increase across the Capital Region, hospital leaders reported Friday that the rate at which new people are being admitted appears to be slowing.
In recent weeks, several small l and Big L liberal pundits have heaped praise on Ontario Premier Doug Ford. And rightly so. I first saw some of the attributes the premier is now being lauded for years ago when he was a Toronto city councillor.

Discipline: I met then-councillor Ford in 2012 when his late brother Mayor Rob Ford was planning a trade mission to Chicago.

The mayor put three people in charge of it: Porter Airlines CEO Robert Deluce, McDonalds Canada Founder George Cohon, and Doug Ford. I was invited to join their planning committee.

I knew of Deluce and Cohon by their sterling reputations as innovative, visionary entrepreneurs. Not surprisingly, during our meetings, they were both exceptionally bright, buttoned-down and business-like, yet very warm and amiable. But so too was a relative unknown to me at the time: one Doug Ford. I found Councillor Ford to be focused, disciplined, results oriented, yet very likeable and friendly.

Connector: He knew Chicago, where his familys label company had operations, well. He was a great ambassador for Toronto and for the companies along on the trade mission. He stood out among that group of successful business people as a natural networker and a convivial connector.

During the current crisis, hes reached out to the business community and has worked with people like Flavio Volpe, president of the Auto Parts Manufacturers Association, on what we all hope will be the greatest peacetime pivot of Ontarios auto manufacturing sector.

Empathy: A year later, a few of us gathered in Mayor Fords office to mark the one-year anniversary of the Chicago trade mission, which led to the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two cities.

Councillor Ford pulled me aside and asked me to speak to Mayor Ford, who was alone. Mayor Ford, who was clearly feeling the strain of the unfolding scandal, began to tell me about a visit to Toronto Community Housing (TCH) earlier that day.

With an unforgettable combination of a bright twinkle and tears in his eyes, he told me it just wasnt right that people lived in squalor in TCH, and he was determined to do something about it. The brothers Ford left me with an indelible impression that evening: Rob cared very deeply for and identified with the vulnerable, and he too was vulnerable. And Doug was a big-hearted guy who loved his younger brother.

Last week, that same big-hearted guy loaded donated masks into the back of his own pick-up truck to help distribute them.

Calm: Premier Ford had a rocky first year in office. But he seemed to find his groove after the past federal election. With a minority government in Ottawa and some legitimate regional tensions resurfacing, Premier Ford emerged as a constructive voice of calm and reason. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, his no-nonsense straight-talk has been reassuring.

Clarity: During the trade mission, he was relentless in pushing a single message: Toronto was open for business. During the current crisis, he has spoken to all Ontarians as an authentic and transparent leader who cares about them, feels their pain, and wants to do right by them.

He has been magnanimous  surprising many by praising this newspaper, and rightfully so. At the same time, hes been characteristically tough. When he saw price-gouging, he took out his Louisville Slugger and started swinging hard. And to protect hospitals from becoming overwhelmed, he didnt shy away from releasing sobering modelled projections for novel coronavirus related infections and deaths.

Good nature: After a reception for the trade mission hosted by Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the Chicago White Sox, at his teams stadium, Doug Ford took to the diamond and playfully ran the bases at a pretty good clip for a guy who is built like a linebacker. We saw that same friendly good nature when he praised the American Sign Language interpreter at his daily briefings as a rock star.

Ontario has always played a leadership role in our federation. During my lifetime, Ontario premiers, regardless of party, have been strong bridge-builders on the federal-provincial scene.

COVID-19 represents the toughest acid test of leadership in decades. Love him or loath him: theres no denying that Premier Ford is acting not only in his provinces interest, he is acting in the greater national interest.

Paul Deegan is CEO of Deegan Public Strategies and was Deputy Executive Director of the National Economic Council in the Clinton White House. @DeeganPS

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Lucknow, April 7 : BJP MP from UP's Kannauj parliamentary seat, Subrat Pathak, allegedly assaulted a 'tehsildar' in his house.

The MP accompanied by about two dozen supporters barged into the house of Arvind Kumar and beat him up.

The official claimed that the MP had been pressurising him to sanction some works that were not according to rules.

The supporters of the MP have denied the incident and said that they had merely gone to discuss some developmental projects with Arvind Kumar.

The revenue official has filed a report and the District Magistrate and Superintendent of police said that action, if needed, would be taken after initial investigations.
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The Gujarat government has



roped in state-based private companies to manufacture personal protective equipment and N95 masks required by health staff who are at the forefront of the battle against coronavirus.

A private company from the state has already manufactured low cost ventilators and will be supplying them soon to government-run hospitals, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said a few days back.

The state government feels it will be better prepared to fight the disease if local manufacturers provide such vital equipment, chief minister's secretary Ashwani Kumar said on Monday.

"Chief Minister Rupani has called upon industries of the state for local production of items essential to tackle the viral infection," Kumar said.

As part of the initiative, the Rajkot-based Jyoti CNC has started production of ventilators after getting necessary approvals, he said.

"Twoother companies -Arvind Mills in Ahmedabad and Sure Safety in Vadodara - will soon start production of personal protective equipment (PPE)," he said.

The state government got technology transferred from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur for N95 masks, he said, adding that Ahmedabad-based Cellulose Products will manufacture 25,000 such masks per day.

Both the PPE and N95 masks are very useful in protecting the medical staff who are on the frontline of the fight against coronavirus, the official said.

Rupani recently announced that private company Jyoti CNC has developed low cost ventilators and it will provide 1,000 such machines to the state-run hospitals soon.

"When we have talent and the industry which can produce equipment required to fight the coronavirus, we should encourage local production," he had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
What if you get stuck on the highway in a storm? Here are some tips
Cashew exports are expected to surge in the latter half of the year once the COVID-19 pandemic dies down.

But the cashew industry will still have to lower its export target of US$4 billion for this year.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development, exporters shipped 86,000 tonnes of nuts in the first three months of the year for $609 million, down 4.7 per cent year-on-year in value despite an 8.2 per cent rise in volumes.

The US, the Netherlands and China remained the countrys top three biggest import markets, it said.

The pandemic outbreak in most of their cashew importing countries has caused difficulties for Vietnamese firms exporting the nuts.

Pham Van Cong, chairman of the Viet Nam Cashew Association, said the industry was unlikely to achieve its export target for the year of $4 billion.

The association was conducting a comprehensive assessment to make appropriate adjustments to the target, he said.

Enterprises in the industry need to be careful in doing transactions at this time. Besides, to help keep the area under cashew in the country, businesses need to keep buying raw cashew from farmers.

The ministrys Agro Processing and Market Development Authority said there had been good progress in controlling the pandemic in China, and exports to the market had shown signs of improvement.

Analysts said exports would recover after the pandemic is contained, and so enterprises would need to make plans to boost exports in the latter half of the year.

They said the EU would be a promising export market.

Germany had for instance high demand for small and medium-sized cashew nuts for use in the food industry, and Vietnamese firms were competitive in these varieties, they said.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has forecast cashew exports to Germany to rise in the second half of the year when the pandemic is controlled and the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) comes into effect.

Its import-export department said businesses should closely monitor the disease situation to make plans, including purchasing raw cashew, selling processed nuts and stockpiling raw materials and finished products.

They also would need to enhance trade promotion activities online and connect businesses online now so that they could quickly revive exports as soon as the pandemic is controlled, it said.

Vietnamese enterprises imported 161,000 tonnes of raw cashew for $246 million in the first three months of the year, a year-on-year decrease of 29.5 per cent in volume and 37.9 per cent in value.

Tanzania, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Ivory Coast, and Nigeria were the biggest suppliers.  VNS

VN cashew market hard to forecast due to coronavirus outbreak The cashew industry has just overcome a long crisis cycle from 2017 to early 2019 with serious impacts but the developments of the Covid-19 outbreak have caused the industry to enter a period containing many risks.
Lunch with Dame Joan Collins and drinks with Jools Holland are among the prizes going under the hammer at an auction to benefit the NHS (Ian West/PA)

Lunch with Dame Joan Collins and drinks with Jools Holland are among the prizes going under the hammer at an auction to benefit the NHS.

Bonhams is conducting a not-for-profit digital auction with pledges from some of the countrys leading actors, musicians and artists.

Money raised will go towards the NHS Charities Covid-19 Urgent Appeal, organisers said.

Expand Close Drinks with Jools Holland are on offer (Ian West/PA) / Facebook

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Among the prizes up for grabs include lunch at Claridges with Dame Joan, her husband Percy Gibson and actor Christopher Biggins.

Holland will invite a lucky fan for drinks behind the scenes at one of his shows, while artworks by Anish Kapoor, Julian Opie, and The Connor Brothers are also up for grabs, as is a visit to Grayson Perrys studio.

Jeremy Paxman is inviting two families to have a round of University Challenge, and there is the ultimate Call The Midwife experience on offer.

Up to four people will visit the set of the popular BBC period drama and go through hair and make-up before playing a walk-on role.

This will be followed by lunch or tea with the cast.

Patrick Masson, Bonhams managing director for the UK and Europe, said: The NHS staff and volunteers are heroes to us all.

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We at Bonhams are honoured to host this initiative and to donate the skills we have at our auction house to support those who are working so hard for us on the front line.

The auction will be hosted at bonhams.com and run for three weeks from 9am on April 8 until April 29. More information is available at bonhams.com/theblueauction.
Nasdaq100 (NQ) Trying to Bounce Off Weekly Chart Upchannel Support Tradable Patterns - 7 minutes ago The Nasdaq100 (NQH22) is consolidating yesterdays reversal off downchannel support (on the 4hr and daily chart), but remains vulnerable in todays European morning. Significantly, although NQ is... NQH22 : 15,610.00 (+0.01%) QQQ : 380.11 (+0.07%)

US Mint begins shipping quarters honoring Maya Angelou AP - Mon Jan 10, 6:14PM CST WASHINGTON (AP)  The United States Mint said Monday it has begun shipping quarters featuring the image of poet Maya Angelou, the first coins in its American Women Quarters Program. $SPX : 4,670.29 (-0.14%) $DOWI : 36,068.87 (-0.45%) $IUXX : 15,614.43 (+0.14%)

Cotton Closes Black on Monday Barchart - Mon Jan 10, 4:48PM CST Cotton futures were off their high at the closing bell on Monday, but were still 10 to 40 points in the black. New crop cotton also bounced on Monday, ending the session 40 to 76 points firmer. The Seam... CTH22 : 115.69 (+0.41%) CTK22 : 113.50 (+0.38%) CTZ21 : 111.55s (+0.25%)

Wheat Markets Close Mixed Barchart - Mon Jan 10, 4:48PM CST Mondays wheat market ended with winter wheat gains to HRS weakness. Spring wheat futures ended the session a nickel to 9 cents in the red. March MPLS wheat has posted losses in 9 in the last 11 sessions... ZWH22 : 759-0 (-0.39%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.2051 (+0.47%) KEH22 : 776-2 (-0.26%) KEPAWS.CM : 7.5951 (+0.45%) MWH22 : 915-4 (+0.14%)

Corn Weakens out of Weekend Barchart - Mon Jan 10, 4:48PM CST Mondays corn trading session left prices 5 1/2 to 7 cents weaker. May futures were able to hold above the $6 mark, while Marcha and July closed less than a penny under. New crop futures were fractionally... ZCH22 : 601-0 (+0.21%) ZCPAUS.CM : 5.8670 (-1.13%) ZCK22 : 602-2 (+0.17%) ZCZ21 : 588-6s (+0.77%) ZCPZ21US.CM : 5.7930 (-0.49%)
State police have issued two citations and eight warnings to date for violating a statewide stay-at-home order issued a week ago by Gov. Tom Wolf, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. Scott Price said during a press call Tuesday.

As time goes on  we will be continuing to encourage compliance, but the intent is if folks dont comply then we will begin issuing more citations and enforcing the violations, Price said. The other concern obviously is that weve had some nice weather the last day or two, weather is improving, and its potentially somewhat more of a concern that folks are out and about, and in violation of the stay-at-home orders going forward.

None of the warnings or citations was issued by the Troop K Media Barracks overseeing Delaware County.

Law enforcement is focused on ensuring residents are aware of the stay-at-home order and informing the public of social distancing practices, and while the order is mandatory, voluntary compliance is preferred, said state police Commissioner Col. Robert Evanchick in a release. Troopers maintain discretion to warn or issue citations, and their decision is specific to the facts and circumstances of each particular encounter.

Price said troopers are not stopping cars coming into the state at the borders or pulling over cars to enforce the order, but warnings or citations might be given during an unrelated vehicle accident or traffic stop. Both citations that were issued came from that context.

Weve taken the posture that were warning, were encouraging, were educating, said Price. But eventually, if there is continued non-compliance, then we will move more into more of an enforcement posture.

Price also gave an update on enforcing an order that all non-life-sustaining businesses close their doors in the midst of the pandemic. As of Tuesday, he said, there had been 541 investigations due to business complaints and 178 warnings issued, but no citations.

Typically, Price said that complaints are made by residents. Once received, troopers will check to ensure the business is not listed on a waiver registry maintained by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. If the business is not on the list, he said, troopers might go out in person to talk with the owners or call them, as all non-emergency situations are being handled over the phone as much as possible.

Price added that licensed establishments falling under the purview of the state polices Liquor Control Enforcement are a bit higher. For that category, Price said there had been 14,000 investigations, six citations and 56 warnings under the purview of the liquor code.

Overall, though, Price said mitigation efforts to stem the spread of coronavirus across the state appear to be having an impact, even as Wolf announced Tuesday that the virus is now present in all 67 counties of the commonwealth.

Price pointed to traffic volumes on the Pennsylvania Turnpike as one piece of tangible data indicating residents are taking the orders seriously. Non-commercial traffic volume is down 76.5 percent and commercial volume is down 27.5 percent over the past two weeks, according to Price.

Were relying on all Pennsylvanians to look out for one another, to help us meet the mandates of our public safety mission, said Price. At the end of the day, though, for all of us, this is a public safety mission. Its an unconventional one, its a position we havent been in before. Were learning every day and we hope were getting better every day to keep the folks of the commonwealth safe.
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Australia's highest court has overturned the conviction of Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic cleric ever to be convicted of child sex abuse.

He was sentenced to six years in prison in March 2019, but Monday's ruling will free him.

The High Court found that the unanimous jury that convicted him in 2018 "ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant's guilt with respect to each of the offences for which he was convicted," and it ordered that verdicts of acquittal be entered.

Pell was convicted in December 2018 of abusing two choirboys while he was archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.

The decision means he was released from Barwon Prison outside Melbourne after having served 13 months of the six-year sentence. Images captured the cardinal being driven from the prison, NBC News partner 7News in Australia reported.

Judgment has been delivered in Pell v The Queen https://t.co/TzjVX0RLXh  High Court of Australia (@HighCourtofAus) April 7, 2020

Pell who has always maintained his innocence said Monday that he had suffered a "serious injustice."

"I hold no ill toward my accuser, I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough," he said in a statement to Australian media after the high court's ruling.

"However my trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church; nor a referendum on how Church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of paedophilia in the Church," Pell said in the statement. "The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not."

The High Court found that the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria, which upheld Pell's sentence last year, "failed to engage with the question of whether there remained a reasonable possibility that the offending had not taken place."

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Pell was convicted of assaulting the 13-year-old boys after he caught them swigging sacramental wine in a rear room of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne in late 1996. The jury also found Pell guilty of indecently assaulting one of the boys in a corridor more than a month later.

He has denied the allegations.

Image: Cardinal George Pell (Michael Dodge / Getty Images file)

Pell was largely convicted on the testimony of one of the choirboys, now in his 30s with a young family. He first went to police in 2015 after the second alleged victim died of a heroin overdose at age 31. Neither can be identified under state law.

Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd told the High Court last month that the surviving choirboy's detailed knowledge of the layout of the priests' sacristy supported his accusation that the boys were molested there.

Pell's lawyers argued that Pell would have been standing on the cathedral steps chatting with churchgoers after Mass when his crimes were alleged to have occurred, that he was always with other clerics when dressed in his archbishop's robes, that he could not have performed the sexual acts alleged while wearing the cumbersome garments and that he could not have abused the boys in the busy priests' sacristy without being detected.

The High Court ruled that unchallenged evidence from a witness was inconsistent with the alleged victim's account, including Pell's practice of greeting congregants on the cathedral steps after Mass and the "continuous traffic in and out of the priests' sacristy" for 10 to 15 minutes after the conclusion of the procession that ended Mass.

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The High Court found that even if it found the alleged victim's account to be credible, the evidence from the other witness "nonetheless required the jury, acting rationally, to have entertained a reasonable doubt as to the applicant's guilt in relation to the offences involved in both alleged incidents."

The Victoria state Court of Appeal rejected Pell's appeal in August by a 2-1 majority ruling. The High Court decided in November to hear Pell's appeal, which was his last chance to overturn his convictions.

Victoria Police said in a statement that it respected the decision of the High Court "and continue to provide support to those complainants involved."

"Victoria Police remains committed to investigating sexual assault offences and providing justice for victims no matter how many years have passed," police said in the statement, adding that it acknowledged the "thorough work on this case" by task force investigators.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said in a statement that the court outcome would be welcomed by those who believed in Pell's innocence, but that it will be "devastating" for others.

Bishops Conference president Archbishop Mark Coleridge has just issued this statement responding to the High Court's judgment pic.twitter.com/0Vv3LdUoL0  Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (@ACBC1) April 7, 2020

"The result today does not change the Church's unwavering commitment to child safety and to a just and compassionate response to survivors and victims of child sexual abuse," Coleridge said. "The safety of children remains supremely important not only for the bishops, but for the entire Catholic community."

Coleridge said that anyone with allegations should go to the police.
Local nonprofits hit hard by pandemic-related cancellations



Journal Staff Reporter By LYNN PORTER Journal Staff Reporter

Segal

Several local nonprofits involved in architecture and historic preservation have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seattle Architecture Foundation has refunded all tour revenue for March and April, canceled a special event and put on hold other events in the works.

Everything we do is on hold, said Stacy Segal, executive director of the foundation, which educates the public on the architecture, design and history of Seattle.

Historic Seattle and the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation have also been adversely affected.

SAF has delayed for one month its tour season, which it plans to start in June.

About 30% its tourgoers are typically from out of state, so we're definitely expecting smaller groups this year, Segal said.

Also, many of its after-school programming offerings, field trips and workshops for schools have been canceled.

Segal said SAF appreciates the support it has received from the architecture, engineering, construction industry as that is what is carrying us through and allows us to remain a viable organization.

Since the pandemic started, she said, SAF has asked some industry partners to continue their support, but we realize everybody is stretched right now. It is encouraging other donors to give.

In the near-term, SAF recognizes it will have to change the way it works, with more virtual programing and online activities, and hopes to take advantage of the skills of its volunteers to help create that.

It is working on educational curriculum it can put online and be taught by parents and educators, such as workshops for children on housing or building a healthy community. It plans virtual tour-guide training this year, and is investigating online lectures and continuing to work on developing a free new mobile architecture app that people can use on their own.

It really is another way to serve the community, Segal said.

SAF still plans its big events, such as the architectural model exhibit, but like the tour season, they may involve smaller groups and take a different form. We realize all these things may look different, Segal said.

West

Naomi West, director of philanthropy and engagement at Historic Seattle, a historic preservation nonprofit and public development authority of the city of Seattle, said we've been trying as best we can to take it one day at a time.

The organization's buildings  all historic  host more than 255,000 visitors each year and offer below-market rents for 26 nonprofits, and have 48 affordable apartments in them.

In March and April, Historic Seattle has lost nearly $50,000 from canceled events in the buildings it had to close because of the pandemic and from non-housing-related rental income, West said.

It hopes to get $5,000 from a $1 million pot of money from 4Culture. And it has received $10,000 from the city's arts and culture emergency relief fund. But, put in perspective, that $10,000 covers its short-term rental losses at its Good Shepherd Center since the pandemic, West said.

She said Historic Seattle is committed to paying the salary and benefits for it staff of 15 through April 30, and to prevent the displacement of the nonprofits and housing tenants. Our greatest commitment in all of this is to the people who sustain our community, but the longer this goes on the more hard choices we have to make.

That's where donors and the government come in.

The organization recently began a fundraising campaign different from what it's done in the past. It is letting potential donors know Historic Seattle is about more than just saving old, beautiful mansions,  that is sustains a community of artists, and nonprofit and affordable housing tenants, West said.

This is the first time we are actually asking our supporters to help people ... instead of trying to save a particular place, she said.

She said it is trying to plan for the future, which is challenging given that COVID-19 has no end date to it.

Chris Moore, executive director of the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, an advocacy organization, said its major fundraiser of year, scheduled for May 9, was canceled, although it hopes to hold it later in the year.

Moore

And all third-party events, such as weddings, to be held at the Stimson-Green Mansion in Seattle, the trust's headquarters, have been canceled, causing the trust to lose revenue.

Just recently an event the trust planned to host this week was canceled, a statewide conference on historic preservation and downtown revitalization. The event is part of the trust's management of the Washington State Main Street Program.

Everything between now and pretty much the end of May is canceled, Moore said.

He said it is fortunate his organization is somewhat diversified unlike some other cultural heritage nonprofits. The Main Street Program is backed by some state dollars available through the end of the biennium. Moore said the program is important, because, given COVID-19, the switch has been turned off, if you will on Main Street communities in the state.

Moore said the trust is working on a deferred payment plan for two tenants at the Stimson-Green Mansion who can't pay April rent.

Like other nonprofits, it is feeling the impact of the pandemic on fundraising but it's still too early to know how it might affect membership, recruitment and sponsorship. The trust is trying to determine what elements of the $2 trillion federal relief package it can participate in, Moore said.

One thing is certain, he said, No one is coming out of this unscathed.





Lynn Porter can be reached by email or by phone at (206) 622-8272.




Chinas ambassador to the United States has called on the two countries to avoid blaming each other for the novel coronavirus outbreak and instead lead international efforts to fight the Covid-19 pandemic that has so far infected over 1.3 million people and killed more than 74,000 globally.

In an opinion piece published Sunday in The New York Times, Ambassador Cui Tiankai acknowledged that there has been unpleasant talk between our nations about this disease, but said this is not the time for finger-pointing.

At a time when solidarity is essential, we need to keep cool heads and clearly say no to the folly of fanning racism and xenophobia, and to scapegoating other countries or races, Cui said.

Such acrimony will not only undercut cooperation between our nations, but also sow seeds of suspicion and confrontation that could put our peoples  and even the world  in grave danger from this runaway virus and the economic fallout it is causing, he continued.

Cuis comments came after Chinese and American officials traded barbs over the origin of the virus, which was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

Last month, Zhao Lijian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, took to Twitter to stoke the unfounded theory that the virus actually originated in an American military laboratory, a claim Cui has repeatedly rejected.

There are people who are saying that these virus are coming from some  military lab, not of China, maybe in the United States. How can we believe all these crazy things? Cui said during a Feb. 9 interview with CBS.

In addition, U.S. President Donald Trump previously referred to the pathogen as the Chinese virus, a term that has angered Beijing and drawn accusations of racism.

Striking a conciliatory tone in the article, Cui, who has been Chinas top official in the U.S. since 2013, said the two countries need to lead international efforts in collaborative research into treatments and vaccines, and explore the sharing of pharmaceutical technologies among nations.

China is sending test kits, protective masks, and medical supplies to overwhelmed American hospitals and sharing updates about the disease in a responsible manner, Cui said. Embattled Chinese technology company Huawei, which Washington has sanctioned over espionage fears, has donated tens of thousands of personal protective items to New York and Washington, D.C., he added.

Additionally, Cui called on China and the U.S. to strengthen coordination of macroeconomic policy to stabilize markets rocked by the pandemic, safeguard economic growth and peoples livelihoods, and maintain the stability and security of worldwide supply chains.

China reported no daily virus-related deaths for the first time since January on Tuesday. The country has officially logged more than 83,000 Covid-19 cases and 3,340 deaths, according to the National Health Commission. The U.S. has so far recorded more than 368,000 Covid-19 cases  more than any other countrys official count  as well as nearly 11,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Contact reporter Matthew Walsh (matthewwalsh@caixin.com)
Howrah: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee along with Education Minister Partha Chatterjee attends a meeting with Left leaders Biman Bose and Surjya Kanta Mishra regarding Coronavirus during the nationwide lockdown in the wake of COVID 19 Co Image Source: PK

Kolkata, April 7 : The coronavirus death count in West Bengal rose to five on Tuesday while the state now has 69 active coronavirus patients, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday.

Till Monday, the state government had claimed the death toll was three. Unofficial sources, however, put the death figure to at least 11.

"The number of deaths is five. Now there are 69 active coronavirus patients", Banerjee said. She did not give any figure for the cumulative positive cases.

The Central government has, however, put the cumulative affected figure at 91.
AKRON, Ohio  A 13-year-old boy is recovering after he was wounded in a shooting in East Akron, police say.

Police were called to the 1100 block of Milton Street at 6:40 p.m. Saturday. There they found the teen male with unspecified gunshot wounds. He was taken to Akron Childrens Hospital and his injuries do not appear to be life-threatening, police say.

The teen told police he was shot by two unknown masked suspects in a gray vehicle. No other information was released and police are continuing to investigate.

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The European Unions top officials have sent public messages to wish the UKs Boris Johnson, suffering from the coronavirus disease, after he was placed in an intensive care unit in London.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Monday wished Boris Johnson a full recovery.

My thoughts are with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his family this evening. I wish him a speedy and full recovery, she tweeted.

The EUs Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier tweeted that my thoughts are with you and your family. Barnier is recovering in quarantine in his native France after announcing March 19 that he, too, had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Wishing Boris Johnson all the best and a speedy recovery. My thoughts are with you and your family, Barnier tweeted.

Also read: UK Covid-19 death toll likely to be between 7,000 and 20,000, says epidemiologist

European Council President Charles Michel also expressed a similar sentiment.

Get well soon, Boris, Michel tweeted.

The wishes from two of the European Unions top officials underlined the setting aside of political tussling that had characterised the pre-virus relations with Johnson.

Britain left the EU at the end of January this year as a result of its Brexit decision, but thorny negotiations are meant to continue for the rest of this year to define future ties.

Johnson has insisted those talks will not go on beyond the end of December, in line with a law his government has passed, even though a Brexit agreement between both sides allows an extension of up to two years.

Boris Johnson was moved to the St Thomas Hospital in London on Sunday night, 10 days after testing positive for coronavirus.

His condition worsened on Monday and he was moved to the intensive care unit as a precaution, Downing Street said on Monday evening, adding that he remains conscious.

Officials said the British prime minister is in ICU as a precaution should he require ventilation to aid his recovery.

(With agency inputs)
A man poured fuel over himself, set himself alight and ran at officers before they shot him dead in Brisbane's southside on Monday, according to police.

The incident began with police officers responding to reports of a disturbance about 9pm involving a man pouring fuel over himself and a house in Sunnybank Hills.

When officers arrived at Wynne Street, the man had already fled the scene.

However, an hour later, police found the 43-year-old man in a carpark on McCullough Street, about two kilometres north of the original location related to the emergency services call.

Police said the man set himself on fire and ran towards officers, before one of the responding officers shot him. Police extinguished the man and rendered first aid, but he died a short time later.
The legal regulator has told solicitors they could face misconduct investigations for ignoring correspondence.

The warning came as a new report revealed the Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) received more than 600 complaints about lawyers in just five months.

Over half of these alleged misconduct, while almost one-in-ten related to alleged overcharging.

The report provides the first really comprehensive picture of complaints the regulator has received since taking control of disciplinary matters for solicitors and barristers last October.

LSRA chief executive Brian Doherty said one overarching theme to already emerge was the issue of communication.

Time and time again the complaints made to us include allegations of poor communication, infrequent communication or no communication on the part of a legal practitioner, he said in the report.

Indeed, many of the complaints made to us to date may well have been avoided altogether had correspondence from clients been replied to in a timely fashion.

In one case highlighted in the report, solicitors in Australia acting for a client who had not been paid money due to them from a relatives estate had been writing to the Irish solicitors responsible for administering the will since early 2019 without reply.

Within a month of a complaint being made to the LSRA the matter was resolved and the payment was made. In the report, the LSRA warned that ignoring or failing to respond in a timely fashion to correspondence could be deemed to be a misconduct issue.

A total of 636 complaints were received in the five months from October 7 last year. Three complaints related to barristers, with the remaining 633 relating to solicitors.

Over half, 342 complaints, related to alleged misconduct, which includes an act or omission involving fraud or dishonesty, or which is likely to bring the profession into disrepute.

A further 238 complaints alleged the legal services provided were inadequate, while 56 related to alleged overcharging. Some 14 complaints involved issues related to alleged criminal activity. The majority of these were allegations made against what is suspected to be a bogus law firm. These were referred to An Garda Siochana.

The report said 187 complaints had been closed to date with a balance of 449 remaining under consideration.

Mr Doherty said he hoped there would be a reduction in the level of complaints about excessive costs following the introduction last October of new regulations requiring that clients be provided with notices clearly setting out the costs that will be incurred in their matter. Clients must also be informed if any factor arises that would make the legal costs significantly greater than first indicated.

The report said the Legal Services Regulation Act requires the LSRA to invite parties to resolve matters informally if possible and 36 complaints were resolved before their admissibility had been determined.

An analysis of inadequate service complaints showed 28pc of these related to the administration of estates.

Among the many issues we have seen, the noticeable features are allegations that solicitors have not prioritised this work, have drafted wills poorly, or have gotten involved in potentially quite complex matters without the necessary expertise, the report said.

In some cases, firms have inappropriately delegated this work to staff who are not sufficiently experienced.

Another issue of concern highlighted in the report related to outstanding undertakings, which accounted for 11pc of misconduct complaints.

An undertaking is a formal commitment by a legal practitioner to do something which is binding and these are routinely given by solicitors when dealing with their clients affairs, particularly in conveyancing.

The most common example is an undertaking given by a sellers solicitor to pay off their clients mortgage from the proceeds of a house sale.

Failure to comply with an undertaking is a professional conduct issue, and therefore something that can give rise to a complaint of alleged misconduct, the report said.

It went on to say the LSRA was concerned at the length of time some undertakings are alleged to have been outstanding.

Many are over a decade old, so there is a risk that the undertaking may not now be complied with, it said.

Delay on the part of some financial institutions in making these complaints is one issue, but the fact that solicitors may have left their clients purchases unregistered for so long is something that still has to be addressed.

The report also said barristers have made complaints to the LSRA about not getting paid by solicitors.

In Ireland, barristers cannot act for a client in contentious litigation without being engaged by an instructing solicitor. Fees due to the barrister have to be paid to the solicitor first before being passed on to the barrister.

If a client does not pay, the solicitor has an obligation to take reasonable steps to seek to recover the fees for the barrister, but they are not strictly and personally liable for the barrister's fee.

The LRSA report said that a number of these complaints have been resolved at the pre-admissibility stage.

Solicitors, of course, have a responsibility to ensure that the barristers they instruct are paid, but should also ensure that they communicate with counsel as soon as possible should any issues arise rather than simply leave fee notes unpaid, the report said.

The Irish Independent has previously reported how in a submission to the LSRA, the Bar Council said barristers who quit the profession pinpoint difficulty in getting paid as one of their main reasons for leaving.

The Law Society has said that where it has received complaints against solicitors over non-payment of barristers in the past, the overwhelming majority of cases were ones where the solicitor had not been paid either.
London, United Kingdom  Prisoners across England and Wales are being confined to their cells for almost 24 hours a day, with some doubled-up in cells built for one person, as institutions try to halt the spread of coronavirus. For those behind bars, the reality of life under lockdown is bringing unprecedented risks.

Social distancing is impossible in already overcrowded institutions, and hygiene measures are difficult to enforce, making prisons a petri dish for the virus, experts have warned. And prisons will increasingly be forced to cope with fewer staff, making it harder to safely enable time outside the cell.

In March, an 84-year-old sex offender with underlying health conditions was the first British inmate to die after contracting the virus. As of Sunday, two more prisoners had died, and 88 had tested positive across 29 prisons, prompting urgent calls to release inmates to try to slow the rate of infection.

We have a higher percentage of people who could die from it than [in] the general population, Andrea Albutt, head of the Prison Governors Association (PGA), told Al Jazeera.

Last month, the National Audit Office revealed prisoners are being held in unsafe and crowded conditions, many being forced to double-up in cells built for one. The report also found that prisoners are being held without access to the services they need. It is feared this will become worse with the COVID-19 restrictions.





Jails are required by the government to enforce social distancing measures and lockdown procedures; visits have been cancelled, and daily routines suspended.

Other than essential work, such as in kitchens or laundry, there are no off-wing activities at all, said Albutt: Only a small number of prisoners can come out of their cells at any one time in order to do the necessities  clean the cell, have a shower, make phone calls, time in the open air. Albutt believes this is happening daily, but warned it could change as staffing levels continue to deplete.

Were at a point where the government has to make a decision now; the virus is getting a grip in our prisons. If we dont reduce the kind of prison population through early release schemes now, this week, well have too many cases and it wont make a difference, said Albutt.

Pregnant women in custody who do not pose a high risk of harm to the public will be temporarily released from prisons in England and Wales within days, while up to 4,000 low-risk prisoners will be released on temporary licence, the Ministry of Justice announced this week. It follows moves in Northern Ireland to release up to 200 individuals coming to the final three months of their sentences. The Scottish government has proposed emergency legislation to give ministers the power to release inmates early if staffing numbers fall below safe levels.

The move has followed urgent calls from prison governors and campaign organisations including the Prison Reform Trust and Appeal to lower prison numbers and try to control the spread of the virus across a justice system that has the highest incarceration rates in Western Europe.

Al Jazeera understands that inmates inside HMP Thameside, a private prison managed by Serco, are being kept inside cells for more than 23.5 hours at a time, with only 20 minutes exercise outside. One prisoner at Thameside, who suffers from severe PTSD from his time inside, tweeted recently: There is no greater test than when faced with solitude. Serco, which manages six adult prisons in the UK, including HMP Thameside, told Al Jazeera they were following the Ministry of Justice guidance on social distancing.

But the reality of this is de facto solitary confinement.

200204094001147

The sickness levels of prison officers are increasing at a pretty exponential level. Theres going to be fewer and fewer staff looking after more and more difficult prisoners, said John Podmore, a former prison governor who is now professor of applied social sciences at the University of Durham and a freelance criminal justice consultant.

A prolonged lockdown will exacerbate mental health problems. The word unprecedented doesnt even come close to describing where were at, he added. If you imagine yourself in enforced solitary confinement in a large toilet, with an unscreened lavatory and someone youve never met before, the mental health implications are huge, he said.

People in prison are more likely to suffer mental health issues than those in the community, yet prisoners are less able to manage their mental health conditions because most aspects of their day-to-day life are controlled. And during these unprecedented times, the little control they did have will be almost non-existent.

Some prisoners will find it easier to cope than others, if theyre avoidant they might prefer to be on their own, initially, said Naomi Murphy, a consultant clinical and forensic psychologist and clinical director of The Fens OPDP Service at HMP Whitemoor, a Category A high-security prison. But a sizeable part of the population will seriously struggle with extended lock-up  it could lead to health anxiety and apathy, but also self-harm and suicide.

Prisoners who are already vulnerable will be hit particularly hard. Those suffering from paranoia will find it difficult to connect with the real world and they could find themselves in a spiral, says Murphy. Some people will struggle a lot with extended lock-up, and it will be difficult to get back on track potentially; for some, this could be really quite dire.

I have seen prison officers in a new light. Inmate, HMP Nottingham

Being locked up in cells for extended periods will also have an effect on immune health, and less access to daylight and free movement will make sleep more difficult, says Murphy. To mitigate this, staff at HMP Whitemoor have been introducing yoga and wellbeing packs to prisoners. And while the kind of face-to-face mental health support previously offered will no longer be possible, staff are making use of talking to prisoners during exercise hours, at a safe distance, and are offering open letterbox contact through cell doors.

Other measures are being put in place to help prisoners stay connected with friends and family. Free daily 10-minute phone calls are being offered at HMP Doncaster, for example.

One prisoner at HMP Nottingham wrote a letter of thanks to staff who they said had gone above and beyond the call of duty. I want to thank all A Wing staff for getting up each morning and despite your own fears and worries to come into work to help us prisoners to have time out of our cells and keep us updated and for treating us like equals, they wrote. I have seen prison officers in a new light.

The Ministry of Justice said its utmost priority was to protect life during the outbreak. We have flexible plans in place to keep all staff and prisoners as safe as possible, and are issuing secure phone handsets to help offenders keep in touch with their loved ones.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said: This is an unprecedented situation because if coronavirus takes hold in our prisons, the NHS could be overwhelmed and more lives put at risk.

All prisoners will face a tough risk assessment and must comply with strict conditions, including an electronic tag, while they are closely monitored. Those that do not will be recalled to prison.
Lalitha Ranjani By

Express News Service

Lalitha RanjanRAMANATHAPURAM: The two sons of the septuagenarian, whose samples were reported as testing positive for COVID-19 two days after his burial at Keelakarai, have been booked by Keelakarai police under various sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act, Tamil Nadu Public Health Act and Disaster Management Act for "suppression of facts".



The 70-year-old resident of Chennai had travelled to Dubai. On April 2, he was taken to Stanley where he died purportedly of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). While his samples were taken for COVID-19 testing, his body was released to the family that very day.



Stanley administration claimed that his body was wrapped as per COVID-19 protocol and handed over with the warning that the patient might have had COVID-19.



The mans sons, however, told Express they had not been told any of this and that the body was just wrapped in green cloth. They also said they had received a transit pass from the Stanley Resident Medical Officer. The family conducted his funeral as per their customs in their native Keelakarai in Ramanathapuram district, with the body being washed, kept for homage and buried.



FOLLOW COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES HERE



Several people attended the funeral including Ramanathapuram MLA and former minister M Manikandan. Health secretary Beela Rajesh on Tuesday said 200 people had been quarantined as a result. After the mans result came back positive on Sunday, the Directorate of Public Health issued fresh guidelines on handling bodies of SARI patients.



Keelakarai Village Administrative Officer (VAO) Marimuthu lodged a complaint against the sons and Keelakarai police registered a case against them on Monday. According to police sources, the case was booked since the two brothers acted in a manner that could spread coronavirus infection, despite knowing that their father was a patient of coronavirus infection and despite the prohibitory orders that are in place.



"The case has been booked for suppression of facts. The duo did not disclose that their father was admitted to the coronavirus ward at Stanley Medical College Hospital and that he was suspected to have COVID-19 at the private hospital in Chennai where the deceased man was taken before he was taken to Stanley Hospital where he died," Ramanathapuram Superintendent of Police V Varun Kumar said.



ALSO READ: Amritsar family refuses to claim COVID-19 victim's body; admin performs last rites



However, the elder son told Express that the family had cooperated with the police and the district administration from the start and had nothing to hide or suppress. As a matter of fact, it was Stanley Hospital that suppressed facts, he alleged.



"Around 7.15 am on April 2, I took my father, who had fever and fatigue, to the private hospital near our house by foot. Stating that no doctor was available at that time, we were asked to take him to Stanley. They did not mention anything about COVID-19, the mans younger son told Express.



At Stanley, they took an X-ray and he was admitted to the general ward. My father, who was speaking well at the time, asked us to leave saying that he only needed to rest. It was around 11 am that we received a call from the hospital that he died due to breathlessness after being shifted to the ICU when his condition became critical. We are not aware if it was a coronavirus ward as the doctors, who treated my father, were dressed in plain clothes, he said.



According to the sons, as they had no idea their father might have had COVID-19 they took the body to Keelakarai in an ambulance the same night, with the family following the ambulance in two cars. On reaching Keelakarai in the early hours on Friday, the body was kept at the residence for homage for a few hours, until he was buried around 10.00 am, local jamaat members told The New Indian Express.



The brothers were booked under Sections 188, 269, 270, 278 of Indian Penal Code read with Section 51 (b) of Disaster Management Act, 58(4) and 134 of Tamil Nadu Public Health Act and Section 3 of Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.
Dhaka, April 7 : Police in Bangladesh Bangladesh on Tuesday arrested a man convicted of killing the country's founding President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, often addressed as the "father of the nation".

Law Minister Anisul Huq confirmed to Efe news that sacked army captain Abdul Majed, convicted and sentenced to death in 2009, had been arrested in Dhaka.

Huq, who heads a special task force that had been formed to find the six absconding killers of Mujib, did not give further details.

Five of the 12 military personnel sentenced to death for the 1975 murder were executed on January 27, 2010, a year after his daughter, current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, came to the power for her second term.

One of the accused had died in Zimbabwe in 2001 while six others were convicted in absentia and declared fugitives.

The execution of five killers - including the alleged chief conspirator Lieutenant Colonel Syed Faruque Rahman - took place nearly 35 years after the crime against Mujib, who was assassinated along with several members of his family during an Army coup on August 15, 1975.

The military-backed junta and subsequent governments provided immunity to those responsible for plotting and carrying out the assassination.

However, in 1996, Mujib's daughter Hasina, - who was abroad when her father was assassinated - was elected prime minister as the leader of the Awami league and soon opened a judicial process against the accused.

Mujib is widely regarded as the "father of the nation" for leading Bangladesh through its independent struggle from Pakistan.

At midnight on March 26, 1971, Mujibur issued a unilateral declaration of independence in a radio message, after years of political activism against alleged linguistic and regional discrimination of East Pakistan - as the region was known at the time - by governments based in Islamabad and rising atrocities by the military.

Following the declaration, a war broke out between pro-independence groups in East Pakistan, and the military of West Pakistan, which ended with the independence of Bangladesh.

Mujib ruled the country as provisional president and later as prime minister with an iron hand, - during a period of high political and civil unrest - until his death.
Amidst the coronavirus chaos, there proceeds the same comfort in laying to rest and honoring the deceased in prayer or remembrance. These traditions are being upended as governments across the globe impose strict social distancing orders, forcing people to find new ways to grieve.

President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles Jay Sanderson encouraged the communities of faith to adapt to the social distancing and stay-at-home orders. Technology would provide a space for families to grieve over lost loved ones, Sanderson said.

He recalled spending days on Zoom calls. "I see the world through a 'Brady Bunch' screen."

For many families, these traditions give a sense of closure to the deceased. Without it, bereavement might take longer, and healing from the grief will be delayed.

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Faith in practice

Various faith leaders are calling on families to make compromises during the quarantine, especially since the gathering of people in large numbers is banned per protocol. Sometimes ritual is so crucial, the practice of it often supersedes the need to stay home and prevent any further health risks.

In the city, Islamic and Jewish traditions allow the body of the deceased to be cleansed according to certain rites, and then the body is covered with a shroud during the funeral. After this, prayers are delivered, and the body is buried.

Death doula Mariam Ardati says, "There's a communal prayer that's offered for the deceased, and that's when the whole community comes together."

She explains that in Islam, cremation of the body is believed to be a desecration of the deceased. After the rites, the body must be buried directly onto the earth. This is called the janazah.

During the coronavirus pandemic, people are asked to seek alternatives to these traditions. These rites are often being revised or forgone altogether.

On April 1, Hasidic Jews held a congregation to mourn the death of a local rabbi, as seen in a video circulating online. They carried a casket of their dearly departed as they marched along Avenue N on a procession.

Last Sunday, a funeral was held by members of the Orthodox Jewish community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They were then told by the New York Police Department to maintain a 6-foot distance during the ceremony in a video posted on Facebook.

On that same day, other Hasidic Jews assembled for a funeral procession hours after the first incident. The response of the NYPD was to contain the ceremony. Although there were no arrests issued in both incidents, the police asked the members to be considerate of the general welfare of the public.

Dealing with the dead

As New York City's death count from the global pandemic COVID-19 swelled to 3,485, health workers on the frontlines are struggling with how to deal with the dead.

One nurse in Elmhurst, Queens, says, "We had to get a refrigerated truck to store the bodies of patients who are dying."

She is referring to the refrigerated trailer their hospital is using as a temporary morgue for deceased COVID-19 patients.

"We are scrambling to try to get a few ventilators." The nurse adds that the emergency department in the hospitals does not have enough tools to take care of the patients.

Bronx funeral director Joseph Lucchese first raised doubts over the pandemic but was utterly overwhelmed by the flood of bodies turning up at the funeral homes. In New York, as of yet, no more than ten people are allowed at a funeral.

"In between every family, we'll clean and disinfect every funeral home," he adds, to reduce chances of cross-contamination.

Chair of the New York City health council committee, Mark Levine, shared on Twitter plans to build trenches in the city park to bury bodies of COVID-19 patients. He added that soon, they would start "temporary internment," where trenches will be dug for "10 caskets in a line".

However, Gov. Andrew Cuomo admitted in a daily press conference with NBC News to not having caught on the news about the city burying people in the park.

Similarly, spokeswoman for the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Aja Worthy-Davis claimed Levine's plan was raised in a possible scenario. She includes, "But at this point in time, there is no plan to inter at city parks. We currently have adequate space for decedents."

The derisive detachment that used to come with death has diminished, now that the danger is disguised as an undetectable disease.
A police officer has been put under quarantine after travelling from Nairobi to Homa Bay county.

The officer who now being monitored by the county health officials in his house at Kandiege, Rachuonyo North Sub-county arrived in the county on Friday, April 3.

READ ALSO: Kirinyaga Woman Rep Purity Ngirici lights up internet with incredible don't rush challenge

Health officials screen of passengers entering Homa Bay from Nairobi county. Photo: Lolwe TV.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Homa Bay: Community Health Volunteers to get KSh 30,000 airtime allowance monthly

Confirming the incident to press, Homa bay County Director of Preventives and Promotive health Adell Ottoman said the officer was self quarantined since he had travelled from a county which has been labelled as a hotspot fo COVID-19.

We have placed him under self quarantine because he traveled from Nairobi and as we all know that the capital City is now experiencing high positive cases of the Covid 19 Ottaman said.

Mass screening of persons in Homa Bay county by health officials. Photo: Lolwe TV.

Source: Facebook

Ottoman added a team of medics who were sent to the officers home last evening had already taken samples to Kenya Medical Research Insititute.

The samples are already taken to Kemri CDC in Kisumu for test, we are just waiting for the result to know if he is positive of the virus or not, he said

The director further revealed that one suspect who was tested for COVID-19 in Ndhiwa Sub-county turned out negative.

The middle-aged man had also travelled from Nairobi.

At least 13 COVID-19 suspects have been tested in Homa Bay since the outbreak of the virus in the country and all the results have turned negative.

Story by Naomi Akoth - TUKO.co.ke

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As the Centre designs 'Cluster containment model' for four cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Bhilwara, and Agra, where a large number of Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases have been reported, the 'Bhilwara model' from Rajasthan has gained attention of the Centre. Bhilwara - a Rajasthan district about 250 kms away from Jaipur has seen no cases for the past week. While no COVID-19 cases were reported on March 18, 26 cases were reported on March 30 - 17 of which have been cured. Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot has said that the state will start rapid testing in the state within a week after ordering10 lakh testing kits from China.

Sensex gains 2476 points, Nifty up by 708 as India lifts export ban on 26 pharma drugs

What is the Bhilwara model?

Explaining the 'ruthless containment' adopted by district officials, Harinder Kumar - the SP Bhilwara has said that the police adopted Nakabandi at the district border, city areas - effectively sealing the district from the state after 26 cases were detected by March-end. He added that one of the hospitals were 17 health officials were detected positive for COVID-19, was sealed and the staff was put under isolation. Taking extreme steps, he said that the state government which had deployed 3000 health workers to the district underwent rigorous testing of almost 2816 people for COVID-19, with only 27 testing positive.

Next - effective supply of food items at houses. Kumar said with the effective coordination between various govt depatrments, 100% lockdown has been ensured along with sanitisation of the police personnel and other officials on duty. He said, "Beat constables have been making list of supplies needed for people. No person has been allowed to stay hungry," adding, " When the numbers of positive cases were on hightest, Curfew was imposed and other measures also taken." Reports state that government delivered supplies and even cooked food for people as all shops were closed.

COVID-19: Centre readies 'Cluster containment strategy' for Delhi, Mumbai, Bhilwara, Agra

Moreover, to ensure no movement across district borders, Kumar said that the DMs and SPs were briefed about the same. With the onset of several Markaz attendees testing positive, he said that the district officials have been screening every person entering the area. Currently, the third round of survey is being done in the district, he added. Talking about testing asymptomatic cases which later turned positive, he said that the curfew across city limits have been extended till April 13. Reports state that currently, over 950 people are in quarantine and 7620 people in home quarantine in six hotspots identified within the district.

Coronavirus: Rajasthan reports 3 new cases; CM apprises about rapid testing in the state

Coronavirus crisis in India

As of date, 3981 positive cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) - 325 have been discharged and Maharashtra reported the highest at 868. 114 deaths have been reported till date. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries. The Prime Minister has issued a 21-day countrywide lockdown starting from 23 March to April 15 and the Finance Minister has announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore package under the 'PM Gareeb Kalyan Scheme'.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Centre mulls extending lockdown post-April 14; cases at 4421
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 12:04:43|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- China's response to the coronavirus outbreak has been responsible, with especially a good job of information and experience sharing, which makes a significant contribution to the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, according to experts.

Most notably, on Monday, in information and experience sharing, China released "Timeline of China releasing information on COVID-19 and advancing international cooperation on epidemic response", which chronicles the main facts and measures it has taken.

Christine Bierre, editor-in-chief of France's Nouvelle Solidarite magazine and an expert at Schiller France Institute, described China's attitude in its coronavirus response as "very responsible," and "exemplary," citing a rapid and continuous information sharing on the virus containment and treatment, which contributed to international cooperation and global fight against the virus.

"I think the attitude of China during this pandemic was very responsible," Bierre commented. Firstly, she said, China transmitted the virus' genome sequence to the main global health agencies "less than 10 days after the start of the epidemic," "so that everyone can cooperate in finding solutions."

"Then, its senior health officials, such as Zhong Nanshan, held numerous video conferences with specialists in Europe or other countries, to share their accumulated experience on screening tests and treatments," she noted, including the "continuous exchanges" between France and China regarding vaccines.

Moreover, the French expert praised China for providing assistance for other countries to support their anti-virus efforts.

After the COVID-19 pandemic was brought under control in Hubei province, she said, "China quickly began to send aid to many countries in Asia, Africa, and of course, Europe and the Americas."

"From March 1 to April 4, it exported a total of 3.86 billion masks to the world! France alone has ordered nearly 2 billion masks, most of them from China, as well as screening tests and respirators," she said.

"I think China's attitude has been, in fact, exemplary," the French expert noted.

"The Chinese government has been very forthcoming with information and keeping us updated day to day," said David E. Persse, public health authority and physician director of emergency medical services in the major U.S. city of Houston, when speaking of China's information sharing.

The U.S. expert has also described China's anti-virus effort as "unprecedented."

Commenting on China's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jon R. Taylor, professor and chair of the political science and geography department at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said, "China's central government was diligent by pursuing measures that were designed to protect people's lives."

"The central government made a hard decision, one that has had a profound impact on both the country and the world: temporarily shelving portions of the nation's economy in order to prevent the further spread of the virus," he noted.

The U.S. professor hailed the frontline Chinese medical workers as "heroes," without whose sacrifices, including the ultimate sacrifice of their lives, "the world could very easily be in the grasp of a health crisis of absolutely epic proportions."

"Their heroism will rightly be celebrated by a grateful country and planet," he said.

Francesco Maringio, president of the China-Italy Association for the Promotion of the Silk Road, regarded the release of the "timeline" as China's further contribution to international cooperation in the global fight against the coronavirus.

The principle of sharing is key to any medical or technical achievement in future in the global anti-virus efforts, he said, hailing the Chinese move as "a valuable input in the direction of crisis management by countries that are 'further behind' in terms of the spreading of the disease."

"It is an important contribution in information sharing," he noted.
It's no news that the transgender community in our country has faced ostracisation and social stigma enough times to lose count. Sadly, they are excluded from various welfare programs, jobs, and were once, even excluded from simple government forms.

So imagine such a community's plight at a time when a pandemic has left us stuck where we are. But like a prayer answered, to make sure that the often neglected trans community does not face problems, The Lalit Group has been carrying out drives to distribute essentials and rations to transgender communities in the country.

Journalist Faye D'Souza wrote about it on Instagram, During this lockdown @TheLalitGroup has been distributing ration to the Transgender Community who are otherwise left out of most welfare programmes. Thank you for looking out for our trans brothers and sisters @keshavsurifoundation.

The initiative to help the trans community has been taken by Keshav Suri Foundation.

In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, FICCI's Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion has made a representation to the government on the impact of ongoing health emergency on LGBTQ+ community and People with Disabilities which may be 'particularly vulnerable' to Coronavirus pandemic, the official page wrote in their Instagram page.

The transgender community on its part has also been helping in all ways they can. In UP, 50 members of the community have been providing food to about 100 people each day.

"There are several families who are daily wage workers and they depend on daily earning for food. We are serving food to them because we feel that serving humanity is the best service," Prema, a transgender reportedly said.

The Delhi government last month announced that doctors and nurses at the frontlines of the COVID-19 battle will be paid to lodge at five-star hotels if they want to self-isolate.

The Lalit Hotels is one of the chains offering rooms to doctors and nurses if they wish to isolate themselves from their families. The official handle of the hotels shared a video of the staff welcoming medics with applause.

Not all superheroes wear capes.. Applauding our COVID-19 warriors as they are welcomed to their abode at The LaLiT New Delhi! #TheLalitHotels #WeCare #DoingOurBit pic.twitter.com/wcjgcYzmkH  The Lalit Hotels (@TheLalitGroup) April 5, 2020

Doctors of LNJP and GB Pant hospitals in Delhi will be put up at The Lalit where 100 rooms are booked by the state government.

In Maharashtra, Tata group is being hailed for offering Taj hotels to doctors and nurses to self isolate in times when some of the medics are facing social stigma owing to their profession.

At a time when the country is in crisis, it is imperative that everyone come together, especially for people facing social stigma, for the most pathetic reasons.

Fb Image credit: Faye D'Souza
By Trend

The coronavirus pandemic in the world creates big problems for the economy, social conditions and the population, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Economy Niyazi Safarov told reporters.

Safarov made the remark during a press tour at the medical masks manufacturing enterprise that opened by Baku Textile Factory LLC in the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park on April 6, Trend reports.

In such a situation, maintaining macroeconomic and financial stability and ensuring employment is of great importance, deputy minister said.

In accordance with the presidents instructions, the meetings were held with the representatives involved in various spheres of activity, greatly affected as a result of coronavirus, Safarov added. The wishes and proposals of entrepreneurs were heard."

To address them, four working groups were created, said the deputy minister.

One billion manat [$588.2 million] was allocated to improve the economic situation of students and other citizens and to support economic entities upon Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs instructions, Safarov said.

The conducted analysis showed that these funds are not enough, so the funds are expected to be increased to 2.5 billion manat [$1.5 billion]," the deputy minister said.

Safarov added that the assistance will be rendered to 600,000 entrepreneurs.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
FLINT, MI -- Ruben Burks, who got his start with General Motors as an assembler at a Fisher Body plant in Flint and rose to become the secretary-treasurer of the UAW International Union, has died at age 86.

The UAW announced Burks death in a news release Monday, April 6, more than 60 years after he first became a member of the union, and a spokesman confirmed his death was tied to COVID-19.

It is never easy losing a member of the UAW family, and it is especially hard when it is someone like my union brother Ruben Burks, who gave so much to members and the union that he loved, UAW President Rory L. Gamble said in a statement issued by the UAW. He was a gentleman, and a fighter for what is right and just. I am forever thankful for his leadership and his friendship.

Burks was a member of UAW Local 598 in Flint and in 2017, the union local rededicated its hall to honor him.

He steadily rose through the ranks of that local, serving in various leadership posts, including shop committeeperson and executive board member. In 1970, then-UAW President Walter Reuther appointed Burks to be an International Representative in what was then Region 1C.

By 1989, he was the director of Region 1C and held that position for three terms.

The UAW credited Burks with restructuring the unions Community Action Program to emphasize issue education and recruiting and training UAW members to work as volunteers in campaigns in the region.

In 1998, he became the first black International UAW secretary-treasurer, a post he held until 2002.

While in Flint, Burks became the first labor leader to chair the Board of Trustees of the United Way of Genesee and Lapeer counties in 1991.

Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley was among those who praised Burks Monday for a lifetime of advocating on behalf of working people.

In 1936, on behalf of workers everywhere, the UAW sat down. Decades later, Ruben Burks stood up, continuing to fight on behalf of workers near and far," Neeley said in a statement released by the city. "He was a champion of the people, whose legacy will be celebrated through our continued commitment to justice in America.

As this virus continues to claim the lives of our heroes, family, and friends, we all must be proactive in our actions. I ask everyone to please observe all warnings and precautions to help slow the spread of this deadly disease," Neeleys statement says.

Burks death comes on a grave day in the spreading coronavirus emergency in Michigan.

Across the state, the number of COVID-19 cases increased from 15,718 to 17,221 -- an increase of more than 9 percent -- and statewide deaths rose at an even faster rate from Sunday, April 5, to Monday -- up from 617 to 727 or nearly 18 percent in just 24 hours.

Speaking at the rededication of the Local 598 union hall in 2017, Burks spoke of a strike that started in 1969 at the Fisher Body plant where he started -- a walkout that lasted 136 days -- three times as long as The Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936-37.

We stood tight, Burks said in recalling the strike at Fisher Body No. 2. What keeps me going, I meet people almost every day ... and they say to us, Ruben, you dont know what you did for us. Im able to retire now because of what happened in 1970. Thats something that we all can be proud of. This union stood together.

During his time as a labor leader in Flint, Burks was also director of the Flint Urban League, director of Goodwill Industries of Flint, an advisory board member of the University of Michigan-Flint, and a leader with the UAW-General Motors Community Health Care Initiative, according to the UAW.

He was also involved in the Special Olympics, March of Dimes, Red Cross and Easter Seals. He received an honorary degree in Community Development from Mott Community College in recognition and appreciation of his contributions to the Flint community.

"Ruben Burks will always be here in spirit, UAW Region 1D Director Steve Dawes said in a statement issued by the union. He was a soft-spoken man who was always here when we needed him. He was full of wisdom and never stopped fighting for active and retired UAW members and all working people.

8 more people dead from coronavirus in Genesee County

UAW Local 598 will rename union hall to honor Ruben Burks
Once home to 3,000 sugar workers, the abandoned Houston sugar estate has gradually been absorbed into the suburban sprawl of Georgetown. About 100 families still live in the uniform one-story cottages built by the state sugar company for workers in the 1960s. For them, the recent changes have brought opportunity.

Like most of Houstons residents, Ms. Harishas ancestors came to Guyana as indentured laborers from India in the late 19th century to replace enslaved Africans on the sugar plantations after the British, who then ruled Guyana as a colony, abolished the slave trade.

When the Indian laborers contracts expired, some stayed, becoming Guyanas largest ethnic group and helping shape a unique, vibrant culture, which looks outward to the Caribbean rather than to its Latin American neighbors.

While the effects of the giant oil discoveries off Guyanas coast are most obvious in and around Georgetown, they are now beginning to extend a little farther beyond the capital, too.

In a brick shack on the edge of the jungle 15 miles away from Houston, Jason Bobb-Semple, 25, is making his own big bet on oil.

With a $3,000 government loan, he built a small poultry farm and bought 4,000 chicks to meet what he expects to be a booming food demand in a rapidly developing country.
These excluded workers include tens of thousands of immigrant families and other workers, the letter states. These people make D.C. work, but their work is sometimes invisible. They care for children and grandparents so others can go out of the home to work, they clean hotel rooms to make our hospitality sector strong, they power our new development by constructing our buildings, they keep our offices clean overnight, they wash dishes and keep bars stocked so we can enjoy our cocktails and D.C.s fine dining.
A suspect is behind bars in connection with the March fatal shooting of a man in Phenix City.

Phenix City police on Monday announced the arrest of 24-year-old Jaquandre Shyontex Bowen. He is charged with murder in the March 14 slaying of Keon Dontavious Simmons, 27.

Jaquandre Shyontex Bowen (Phenix City Police)

The shooting happened about 4:30 a.m. that Saturday at 35 Abercrombie Road. Authorities at the time said a large party was taking place.

Investigators identified Bowen as the suspect in the case and have been searching for him since then, said Phenix City Capt. Darryl Williams. About 10:30 a.m. Monday, the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force took Bowen into custody at a Columbus, Ga. apartment complex.

He is being held in the Muscogee County Jail pending an extradition hearing.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 22:36:14|Editor: huaxia

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MOSCOW, April 7 (Xinhua) -- A snap check carried out by the Russian Defense Ministry has shown that the country's Armed Forces are ready to combat COVID-19, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday.

The check carried out between March 25-28 involved military control bodies, formations, units of the Western and Central Military Districts, Aerospace Forces, Strategic Missile Forces, units of radiation, chemical and biological defense, engineering troops and individual medical support units.

"In accordance with the government's instructions, the defense ministry has deployed an emergency operations headquarters to prevent the import and spread of the new coronavirus infection into the Armed Forces," Shoigu said at a conference call attended by top brass.

He said the ministry had formed 49 mobile sanitary-epidemiological groups to identify virus carriers and organize a prompt response.

Shoigu said that currently, the most important task was the construction and commissioning of 16 multi-functional medical centers in the western, southern, central and eastern military districts.

Contractors have already begun work on all construction sites, with the facilities expected to be put into operation between April 20 to May 15, he said.

Shoigu said he had also instructed the commanders of the Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet to raise the capacity of the Irtysh hospital vessel to 450 beds.

The upgraded ship will be able to accommodate uninfected patients, to unload medical facilities of the Defense Ministry in the Far East and prepare them for possible admission of patients with signs of coronavirus infection, he said.
(Alliance News) - Atalaya Mining PLC on Tuesday reported a drop in profit for 2019 due to a decline in revenue as copper was sold at lower prices despite higher production.

For the year, pretax profit dropped by 11% to EUR36.9 million from EUR41.5 million the year before, on revenue that dipped by 0.8% to EUR187.9 million from EUR189.5 million.

Copper production from the Proyecto Riotinto open-pit mine in Spain was 44,950 tonnes, up 6.7% from 42,114 tonnes in 2018 and in line with guidance between 44,000 and 45,000 tonnes.

Copper concentrates produced rose by 8.0% to 195,072 tonnes from 180,661 tonnes the prior year, however they were sold at an average realised copper price of USD2.73 per pound from USD2.95 in 2018.

The all-in sustaining cost for the year averaged USD2.14 per pound, down from USD2.26 the year before.

Looking ahead, Atalaya has set its production guidance for 2020 within 55,000 tonnes to 58,000 tonnes of copper, with all-in sustaining costs guided in the range of USD2.20 to USD2.30 per pound.

In terms of Covid-19, operations at the Proyecto Riotinto mine were suspended at the end of March, following a Royal Decree suspending all operations not considered essential.

However in early April, further clarification was received on the Royal Decree, which re-included mining on the list of permitted activities, allowing Proyecto Riotinto operations to restart.

"The company's financial performance over 2019 withstood decreasing copper prices and minor operational interruptions caused by the integration of the expansion to deliver an improved Ebitda on the previous year. The impact of the Covid-19 virus necessitated a short-term shutdown at Proyecto Riotinto which we expect to make up over the coming months," said Chief Executive Officer Alberto Lavandeira.

"We shall continue to monitor the situation in line with Spanish government guidelines as the wellbeing of our employees is our primary concern. We will also continue to keep shareholders updated as to the effect of these guidelines may have on our operations," Lavandeira added.

Shares in Atalaya Mining were up 9.7% at 107.50 pence on Tuesday in London.

By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Nepal has reportedly extended the lockdown measure for at least a week to stem the spread of the COVID-19 disease across the country. The decision was made post a cabinet meeting held by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli at his residence. The government has extended the lockdown until April 7, which was due to lift by March 31, according to an agency report. A Government Coordination Committee, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal Ishwar Pokhrel, decided to keep the social distancing and lockdown measures in place in the initial stages of the outbreak.

Pokhrel told a news agency in a video statement, This war (against COVID-19) is not solely of the central government or state mechanism. It is to be fought by people in a collective way. It is a war against the protagonist of human civilisation, prosperity and against the progress of human upliftment and development. To fight against it, unity among all is important. We all should go hand-in-hand. I request all the people from various backgrounds to come jointly against it.

Read: Countries Using Drones To Disinfect Public Places Amid Coronavirus Scare

Read: Kartik Aaryan Dreams About Finding Coronavirus Vaccine; Fans Wish For It To Come True

French national first COVID-19 patient

Nepal has recorded over nine cases of the novel coronavirus, and reportedly one patient has recovered from the disease. It has, however, imposed drastic measures for the containment of the deadly disease already. The committee led by Pokhrel had also made a decision to extend the ban that was imposed earlier on international air travel. The revised protocol banned the flights overseas until mid of April, as per the media reports. Nepal government had declared the total lockdown on March 24, after it detected the first COVID-19 patient, a 19-year-old France national that entered the country on Qatar flight. The tourist showed symptoms for flu and later tested positive to the coronavirus after he was quarantined for 14-days, confirmed media reports.

Read: India's First Mobile Sanitisation Unit To Protect Police From Coronavirus Infection

Read: Amir Khan Believes Coronavirus Is A Deliberate Pandemic Linked With Building Of 5G Towers
Coronavirus-related economic disruption and uncertainty could yet slow the pace of 5G deployment in the U.S.  but for now, the major carriers say they're moving full speed ahead.

Why it matters: The pandemic has highlighted the importance of connectivity as businesses shift to remote work and schools move classes online, making network performance more vital than ever.

What's happening: The major wireless carriers say the coronavirus has not altered the pace of their 5G rollouts, but industry observers and federal officials question how long that will remain true.

"As a logical matter, I would expect a slowdown," said former Federal Communications Commission official Blair Levin, now a policy adviser for New Street Research.

Levin cited concerns about construction crew members working close to each other; disruptions to supply chains; and consumers' ability and willingness to pay for pricey 5G plans and new phones amid staggering unemployment rates.

Companies may say they're moving ahead, Levin said, "but were really early into it, and the notion that consumers are going to pay a premium in an economic downturn is counterintuitive to me."

There may also be fewer 5G-ready devices as a result of the pandemic.

Only a tiny fraction of the phones bought last year supported 5G networks. This year, most new high-end phones were (and still are) expected to support 5G. But with fewer people buying new phones amid the pandemic, that could still mean fewer 5G-ready devices this year.

The big wild card is Apple. The company had been gearing up to launch a 5G phone this year, but things could yet change, says industry consultant Chetan Sharma. The largely Chinese-based supply chain should be ready for the usual fall launch, but Sharma said Apple might decide to delay things if it doesn't see a big enough market for a 5G-capable iPhone.

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said she's pleased that U.S. carriers are moving forward with their 5G plans right now.

"But we need to keep in mind that a mix of factors  delayed standards, deferred [airwaves] auctions, and supply chain issues  could slow this in the future," Rosenworcel said in a statement. "Still, for the long haul Im optimistic because this crisis is accelerating the digitization of everything and we are counting on connectivity for so much more in modern life."

The FCC pushed back the start of an upcoming wireless spectrum auction to July due to the pandemic.

What they're saying: The carriers insist it's business as usual for their 5G plans.

AT&T noted that federal guidelines have identified telecom workers as essential, and the company is on track with its plans to launch 5G nationwide before July. "Were still marching down the path weve been talking about," AT&T's Scott Mair, president of technology & operations, told Axios.

T-Mobile and Verizon both said they are moving ahead with 5G build plans, with Verizon recently projecting that it will spend up to $500 million more on capital expenditures this year than originally anticipated.

"Theyre just plugging along with the deployment schedules," said wireless analyst Roger Entner. "I think this crisis shows how important telecommunications is."

Between the lines: Some carriers may be in a better position than others to keep moving forward. Sharma noted that for T-Mobile, for example, only a software update is required to add support for Sprint's mid-band 2.5GHz spectrum.

Many of the carriers, he said, are trying to get masks and other protection gear to ensure workers can continue installing new equipment where needed.

Where things could get slow, Sharma said, is in places where operators need to add new cell sites, given those typically require city approval, which could be harder to get during the shutdown.

Yes, but: The picture is more mixed internationally.
Boris Johnsons most senior aide is facing fresh allegations he flouted lockdown rules by taking a sightseeing trip on Easter Sunday.

The prime minister is facing mounting calls to sack Dominic Cummings amid claims he made several trips to see his family in County Durham, while the country was being told to stay at home.

Ministers vociferously defended Mr Cummings after it emerged he had made the 260-mile journey, insisting he had obeyed the rules by staying in one place while there.

However, an eyewitness told The Observer and the Sunday Mirror he had seen Mr Cummings on 12 April, 30 miles from Durham in Barnard Castle.

Another eyewitness said they saw the prime ministers most trusted aide in Durham on 19 April, days after he had been photographed returning to Downing Street.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 30 December 2021 Sunrise at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 29 December 2021 The Very Revd Dr Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, looks at Becket, a six month old red-billed chough as he visits Wildwood Wildlife Park in Kent on the anniversary of the murder of Thomas Becket PA UK news in pictures 28 December 2021 Troops of the Household Cavalry are seen reflected in a puddle during the changing of the Queens Life Guard, on Horse Guards Parade, in central London PA UK news in pictures 27 December 2021 A pedestrian walks past a winter sale sign outside a John Lewis store on Oxford street in London Getty UK news in pictures 26 December 2021 Riders take their bikes through the snow near Castleside, County Durham PA UK news in pictures 25 December 2021 Patrick Corkery wears a santa hat and beard as waves crash over him at Forty Foot near Dublin during a Christmas Day dip PA UK news in pictures 24 December 2021 People stand inside Kings Cross Station on Christmas Eve in London Reuters UK news in pictures 23 December 2021 Christmas shoppers fill the car park at Fosse Shopping Park in Leicester PA UK news in pictures 22 December 2021 The sun rises behind the stones as people gather for the winter solstice at Stonehenge. Getty UK news in pictures 21 December 2021 People take part in a winter solstice swim at Portobello Beach in Edinburgh to mark the solstice and to witness the dawn after the longest night of the year PA UK news in pictures 20 December 2021 An auction employee displays poultry to buyers and sellers attending the Christmas Poultry Sale at York Auction Centre in Murton PA UK news in pictures 19 December 2021 Joao Moutinho of Wolverhampton Wanderers looks on during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea at Molineux Getty Images UK news in pictures 18 December 2021 Freight lorries queuing at the port of Dover in Kent PA UK news in pictures 17 December 2021 Newly elected Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, bursts 'Boris' bubble' held by colleague Tim Farron, as she celebrates following her victory in the North Shropshire by-election PA UK news in pictures 16 December 2021 Brussels sprouts are harvested by workers as they prepare for the busy Christmas period near Boston in Lincolnshire PA UK news in pictures 15 December 2021 Lewis Hamilton is made a Knight Bachelor by the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 14 December 2021 The Royal Liver Buildings surrounded by early morning fog in Liverpool PA UK news in pictures 13 December 2021 People queue outside a walk-in Covid-19 vaccination centre at St Thomas's Hospital in Westminster Getty Images UK news in pictures 12 December 2021 People take part in the Big Leeds Santa Dash in Roundhay Park, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 11 December 2021 People arrive at a Covid-19 vaccination centre at Elland Road in Leeds, PA UK news in pictures 10 December 2021 Stella Moris speaks to the media after the US Government won its High Court bid to overturn a judges decision not to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange PA UK news in pictures 9 December 2021 Camels are lead around Salisbury Cathedral during a rehearsal for the Christmas Eve Service PA UK news in pictures 8 December 2021 Margaret Keenan and Nurse May Parsons, a year after Margaret was the first person in the UK to receive the Pfizer vaccine PA UK news in pictures 7 December 2021 Snowfall in Leadhills, South Lanarkshire as Storm Barra hits the UK with disruptive winds, heavy rain and snow PA UK news in pictures 6 December 2021 A person tries to avoid sea spray on New Brighton promenade in Wallasey as the UK readies for the arrival of Storm Barra Getty UK news in pictures 5 December 2021 People release balloons during a tribute to six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes outside Emma Tustin's former address in Solihull, West Midlands, where he was murdered by his stepmother PA UK news in pictures 4 December 2021 People walk through a Christmas market in Trafalgar Square Reuters UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 2 December 2021 Duchess of Cambridge inspects a Faberge egg at the Victoria and Albert Museum Getty UK news in pictures 1 December 2021 Meerkats at London Zoo with an advent calendar PA UK news in pictures 30 November 2021 Workers put the finishing touches to the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree ahead of the lighting ceremony later in the week PA UK news in pictures 29 November 2021 Home Secretary Priti Patel is greeted by a police dog at a special memorial service for Met Police Sergeant Matiu Ratana Getty UK news in pictures 28 November 2021 Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City battles for possession with Aaron Cresswell of West Ham United during a match at the Etihad during snow Manchester City/Getty UK news in pictures 27 November 2021 Residents clear branches from a fallen tree in Birkenhead, north west England as Storm Arwen triggered a rare red weather warning AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 An aerial picture shows a worker using a quad bike and trailer to transport freshly harvested trees at Pimms Christmas Tree farm in Matfield, southeast England AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 26 November 2021 A shopper browses Christmas trees for sale at Pines and Needles in Dulwich, London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 November 2021 A murmuration of hundreds of thousands of starlings fly over a field at dusk in Cumbria, close to the Scottish border PA UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 24 November 2021 Migrants are helped ashore from a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) lifeboat at a beach in Dungeness, on the south-east coast of England, on November 24, 2021, after being rescued while crossing the English Channel. AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 23 November 2021 The coffin of Sir David Amess is carried past politicians, including former Prime Ministers Sir John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May, Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the requiem mass for the MP at Westminster Cathedral, central London PA UK news in pictures 22 November 2021 The scene in Dragon Rise, Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset where police have launched a murder probe after two people were found dead Tom Wren/SWNS UK news in pictures 21 November 2021 London-based midwife Sarah Muggleton, 27, takes part in a 'March with Midwives' in central London to highlight the crisis in maternity services PA UK news in pictures 20 November 2021 Police officers monitor as climate change activists sit down and block traffic during a protest action in solidarity with activists from the Insulate Britain group who received prison terms for blocking roads, on Lambeth Bridge in central London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 19 November 2021 A giant installation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson made from recycled clothing goes on display at Manchester Central, as part of Manchester Art Fair, in a 'wake-up call for the Prime Minister to tackle textile waste' PA UK news in pictures 18 November 2021 The scene at a recycling centre in Stert, near Devizes in Wiltshire after a large blaze was brought under control. The fire broke out on Wednesday night the fire service has said and local residents were advised to keep windows and doors shut due to large amounts of smoke PA UK news in pictures 17 November 2021 The sun rises over South Shields Lighthouse, on the North East coast of England PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2021 ancer Maithili Vijayakumar at the launch of 2021 Diwali celebrations at St Andrew Square in Edinburgh PA UK news in pictures 15 November 2021 Forensic officers work outside Liverpool Women's Hospital, following a car blast, in Liverpool Reuters UK news in pictures 14 November 2021 Wreaths by the Cenotaph after the Remembrance Sunday service in Whitehall, London PA UK news in pictures 13 November 2021 Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is ending his hunger strike in central London after almost three weeks. Ratcliffe has spent 21 days camped outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London without food. He began his demonstration on 24 October after his wife lost her latest appeal in Iran, saying his family was caught in a dispute between two states PA

Earlier, Downing Street had described the first trip as essential, saying Mr Cummings needed his familys help to care for his young son because his wife was sick with coronavirus and he feared he was next.

Cabinet ministers lined up to defend Mr Cummings, saying he had put his family first and accused critics of trying to politicise the issue.

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, used the daily Downing Street press conference to suggest that Mr Cummings had not broken lockdown rules because he had stayed put upon arrival in Durham.

But Robin Lees, 70, a retired chemistry teacher, told the papers he had seen Mr Cummings in Barnard Castle on Easter Sunday.

Mr Lees compared him to Catherine Calderwood, Scotlands former chief medical officer, who stood down after visiting her second home twice during lockdown.

Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP have written to Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, calling for an inquiry into Mr Cummingss decision to travel from London to Durham.

They want the probe to include when the prime minister was made aware Mr Cummings had left the capital.

Senior Tories also expressed concern that Mr Cummings's behaviour could encourage others to flout the rules, jeopardising the governments plans to gradually lift the lockdown.

The Independent can reveal that senior MPs are set to question Mr Johnson over Mr Cummings later this week, as pressure grows on the prime minister to explain what he knew about the trip under lockdown.

Parliament is in recess until June, meaning Mr Johnson will not have to face MPs at Prime Ministers Questions.

But members of the Commons Liaison Committee, which is made up of the chairs of other select committees, said they expected Mr Johnson to be questioned about Mr Cummings when he makes his first appearance before them later this week.

Pete Wishart, an SNP MP who sits on the committee and is a member of the "quad" which organises its business, said: If nothing has changed and Dominic Cummings is still in post by Wednesday, it would be very surprising if this was an issue that was not raised.

Another member of the committee said: Im sure one of my colleagues will crowbar the Cummings question in.

In a statement defending Mr Cummings, Downing Street said his trip had been essential to ensure his young son was properly cared for. After an offer of help from his sister and nieces, he travelled to a house near to but separate from his extended family.

A spokesperson for No 10, said: "Yesterday [Friday] the Mirror and Guardian wrote inaccurate stories about Mr Cummings. Today [Saturday] they are writing more inaccurate stories including claims that Mr Cummings returned to Durham after returning to work in Downing Street on 14 April. We will not waste our time answering a stream of false allegations about Mr Cummings from campaigning newspapers."

There was confusion about the involvement of police, however. No 10 also said that at no stage was Mr Cummings or his family spoken to by the police.

On Saturday night Durham Police took the unusual step of confirming they had spoken to Mr Cummingss father.

Steve White, the police and crime commissioner for Durham Police, a former head of the Police Federation in England and Wales, said it was "most unwise" for Mr Cummings to have travelled when "known to be infected".

The SNP accused No 10 of a "cover up" after reports some in Downing Street knew Mr Cummings had made the 260-mile journey during lockdown.

Former Tory cabinet minister David Lidington, Theresa Mays de facto deputy prime minister, told Newsnight: "There's clearly serious questions that No 10 are going to have to address, not least because the readiness of members of the public to follow government guidance more generally is going to be affected by this sort of story."

Professor Neil Ferguson, the epidemiologist whose modelling prompted the lockdown, quit as a government adviser for flouting the rules when he was visited at this home by his lover.

At the time Mr Hancock, the health secretary, said he was "speechless" and that he backed any police action against Mr Ferguson.

Sir Ed Davey, acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, called for Mr Cummings to quit over the allegations, while a spokesperson for Labour said: "The British people do not expect there to be one rule for them and another rule for Dominic Cummings."

Asked by reporters on Saturday if he had considered his position, Mr Cummings said "obviously not".
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(Kitco News) U.S. President Donald Trump took a major step for all the wannabe space miners out there this week by signing an executive order that supports the exploration and the use of space resources by the U.S. citizens and businesses.

This Executive Order establishes U.S. policy toward the recovery and use of space resources, such as water and certain minerals, in order to encourage the commercial development of space, Scott Pace, deputy assistant to the president and executive secretary of the National Space Council, said in a statement on Monday.

The order, titled Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources, gives Americans the the right to engage in the commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space.

The State Department also wants other countries to pursue a similar approach. U.S. policy contradicts the 1979 Moon Treaty, which America has not signed. The treaty says that all non-scientific use of space resources be governed by an international regulatory framework.

The executive order gives companies operating in space the right to any resources mined there. Outer space is a legally and physically unique domain of human activity, and the United States does not view it as a global commons, the order stated.

That is not a new idea. The U.S. Congress already passed a law in 2015 that allowed individuals as well as companies to use the moon and asteroid for its resources.

Mondays executive order comes as NASA published its long-term Plan for Sustained Lunar Exploration and Development, which envisions a base camp on the moons south pole.

NASA is also preparing for its Mars 2020 mission in July during which it plans to send its Perseverance Rover to the red planet to collect samples and conduct a number of scientific experiments, including producing oxygen out of the CO2.

The U.S. has already received support from Canada, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and China, CNBC reported citing a senior White House official.

But not all countries are reacting positively. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that any kind of attempt to privatize space in one form or another - and I find it difficult to say now whether this can be seen as an attempt to privatize space - would be unacceptable.

Russias space agency Roscosmos also released a statement Tuesday criticizing the move. Attempts to expropriate outer space and aggressive plans to de facto seize the territories of other planets will hardly encourage other nations to participate in fruitful cooperation, said Sergey Savelyev, Roscosmos deputy director responsible for international cooperation.

Roscosmos is also planning to build a long-term base on the moon in the next two decades.
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With air travel down dramatically amid shutdown measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, airlines are storing unused planes by the hundreds in a California 'boneyard' where the dry climate minimizes the risk of rust.

Stunning photos from the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville show row upon row of planes owned by Southwest, FedEx and other major commercial and cargo carriers sitting idly under the desert sun.

Due to pandemic lockdowns across the country, air travel has plunged precipitously to levels not seen since the aftermath of the terror attacks on September 11, 2001.

On Monday, a record low of 108,310 travelers passed through Transportation and Security Administration checkpoints nationwide, a decline of 95 percent from the same day last year, the agency said.

Southwest Airlines 737 Max 8 airplanes are stored at the Southern California Logistics Airport on Saturday. Commercial aircraft are being parked at the remote desert airport about 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles as demand for travel plunges

Row upon row of planes owned by Southwest, FedEx and other major carriers sitting idly under the desert sun on Saturday

This chart shows the number of daily air travelers in the US (blue) as well as that number's change from a year ago (red), based on data released by the Transportation Security Administration

'Exactly one year earlier, 2,384,091 individuals were screened at security checkpoints across the country,' said TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein in a tweet. 'You have to wonder: will there be a day it dips below 100,000?'

As demand for air travel has plunged, airlines have responded by slashing routes and putting planes in storage.

The major U.S. carriers all still vow to maintain a minimum level of domestic service, however, citing the need for medical personnel and other essential workers to move about the country to fight the pandemic.

While operating on a skeleton route schedule, airlines have turned to the logistics airport in California, an a similar one in Marana, Arizona, to store hundreds of unused planes.

The dry climate of these storage facilities helps reduce the risk of rust, minimizing the maintenance required to bring the planes back into service when the pandemic nightmare ends.

The Victorville facility in California is a decommissioned Air Force base. Last year, Southwest Airlines began storing its fleet of Boeing 737 Max jets there after the airplane was grounded following two fatal crashes.

Now, Victorville is the temporary home to more than 200 jets, and has the capacity to store up to 500, according to the company that manages the facility.

SCLA in Victorville is the temporary home to more than 200 jets, and has the capacity to store up to 500

The dry climate of the Victorville facility helps reduce the risk of rust, minimizing the maintenance required to bring the planes back into service when the pandemic nightmare ends

Southwest Airlines was already its fleet of Boeing 737 Max jets at SCLA after the airplane was grounded last year

Commercial aircraft are being parked at the remote desert airport about 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles

Around the world, taxiways, maintenance hangars and even runways at major airports are being transformed into giant parking lots for more than 2,500 airliners.

At Pittsburgh International Airport, one runway has been shut down for the duration of the crisis and is being used to store 88 American Airlines planes.

American Airlines is cutting nearly 90 percent of its international flights in April and May. The airline is reducing overall flights by about 70 percent this month and 80 percent next month, according to Vasu Raja, American Airlines' senior vice president of Network Strategy.

Still, the largest U.S. airline has no plans to halt U.S. flights entirely, noting medical workers and others who must travel, sometimes for urgent medical reasons.

'We are making no plans for the cessation of flying,' Raja told Reuters. 'The important thing is to provide a minimum level of essential service to customers ... but we do it in such a way where we don't burn an excessive amount of cash.'

At Pittsburgh International Airport, one runway has been shut down for the duration of the crisis and is being used to store 88 American Airlines planes during the pandemic shutdown

Some of the 88 American Airlines planes stored at Pittsburgh International Airport sit idle on a closed taxiway

As airlines cut more service, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pittsburgh International Airport has closed one of its four runways to shelter in place 96 planes, mostly from American Airlines

Around the world, airlines are on track to lose $252 billion in revenue for the year due to the pandemic, according to the International Air Travel Association.

In its latest warning, IATA said global air travel slumped by 70% at the beginning of the second quarter, and its Director General Alexandre De Juniac said airlines could not afford to issue refunds. He said customers should accept vouchers.

"The key element for us is to avoid running out of cash so refunding the cancelled ticket for us is almost unbearable financially speaking," De Juniac told reporters on Tuesday.

IATA highlighted the loss of jobs and the impact on the world economy if governments let airlines collapse.

Three months of severe travel restrictions plus lower traffic over 2020 could put 25 million jobs at risk, IATA warned, adding that about a third of 2.7 million direct jobs in the airline sector had either been lost or were furloughed.

Closed United Airlines check-in counters are seen on Monday at San Francisco International Airport, due to the outbreak of coronavirus and COVID-19, in San Francisco, California

On Monday in San Francisco, closed pre-security check-in line at the domestic terminal at San Francisco International Airport.T he number of people flying has significantly dropped as airlines are forced to reduced routes and cancel flights

An airline pilot walks through Reagan National Airport during the coronavirus outbreak in Washington DC on Sunday

Airlines are burning through their cash reserves as they try to stay afloat, IATA said, and providing refunds for cancelled flights, as rules in many parts of the world such as EU261 in the European Union, require them to do, was not possible.

Consumer groups are angry at airlines for ignoring those rules and say hard-up passengers need the cash just as much as the airlines.

IATA said about $35 billion of tickets were due for refund at the end of the second quarter, and vouchers or a delayed refund was all airlines could offer. IATA has approached governments to ask them not to force airlines to provide cash refunds.

But the U.S. Transportation Department has told airlines they must refund tickets for flights that they cancel, or make a significant schedule change that passengers do not accept, following a rising number of consumer complaints and inquiries.

In the United States, a passenger filed a class-action lawsuit on Monday against United Airlines for refusing to pay a refund after his familys flight was cancelled.
Chennai: Reflective of the unprecedented complexity the country is facing in the wake of the Covid-19 new coronavirus pandemic, actor-politician and leader of the Makkal Needhi Maiyam (MNM), Kamal Haasan, slammed the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi for the sudden nationwide lockdown, but wrapped it with political niceties and courtesies for the senior BJP leader.

In a three-page long letter to Mr. Modi which he shared on Twitter on Monday, he termed the instant lockdown as being worse than the Prime Minister's announcement of the demonetization of high value notes in November 2016.

Kamal Haasan said though he initially trusted Mr. Modi's demonetization move, time proved him wrong when none of its objectives was achieved.

"Today, there is probably no other world leader with such a massive following," he said of Mr. Modi. "You Speak, they follow and we will comply to your wishes and orders," said Kamal Haasan in a back-handed compliment as it were. "But our compliance must not be confused with subjugation," the actor added.

"Please pardon my lack of etiquette if any. My biggest fear is that the same mistakes of demonetization is being repeated, albeit at a much bigger scale. While demonetization led to loss of savings and livelihood of the poorest, this planned lockdown is leading us to a fatal combination of loss of both life and livelihood," wrote Kamal Haasan in his open 'Chitti' to the Prime Minister.

Taking pot-shots at the 'PM dias call' on Sunday, to switch off electric lights and asking people to light lamps and candles to express solidarity in fighting the Covid-19, Kamal Haasan said, "on the one hand, you are asking the more privileged people to put up a spectacle of lights, while on the other the poor man's light is itself becoming a shameful spectacle."

In the very next paragraph, Kamal Haasan says he should not be misunderstood for "I am not suggesting we ignore the middle class. In fact, I am suggesting the exact opposite....I would like to see you doing more to ensure everybody's fortress, and that nobody goes to bed hungry."

On the Covid-19 crisis handling per se, Kamal Haasan said, "India's first case was reported on 30th of January and we had seen what happened to Italy. Yet we did not learn our lessons early enough." He attributed the Prime Minister ordering a nationwide shut down "within four hours" to what he thought was "failure of Modi's vision" in this instance.

"This is the time to listen to voices who truly care," said Kamal Haasan, even as he underscores with sarcasm in another part of his letter that the "poor have nobody to look up to, except you Sir." The contributions of the poor people to the national GDP are being systematically ignored, he wailed.

The MNM leader rounds off his letter saying, "we are angry, but we are still on your side," after asserting that nobody could dare call him an anti-national. ends.
Japan's government is set to compile an emergency economic package of 108 trillion yen, or about one trillion dollars, to fight the impact of the coronavirus epidemic in the country.

The scale of the package is equivalent to 20 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

The government presented its draft economic plan to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito on Monday. The plan is expected to be decided on Tuesday after being approved by the parties.

The package includes securing enough of the anti-flu drug Avigan by the end of next March to treat 2 million people. There is some evidence the drug can help cure COVID-19.

The package also includes payment of about 2,800 dollars to each household whose income has fallen to a certain level due to the epidemic. Applicants must file requests for the cash handout program.

The government also plans to increase the child allowance by about 90 dollars per head to support families receiving the benefit.

A campaign to distribute coupons to boost the tourism and event industries when the epidemic is over is also included.

The government plans to provide cash benefits of up to around 18,000 dollars to small- and medium-sized businesses, and up to about 9,000 dollars to freelancers, when their businesses are hard to continue due to a sharp fall in sales.
Carter County, Missouri, does not have a single hospital, hospital bed or ventilator for any of its 6,200 residents. Of the six counties on its boundaries, only one  Butler County  has any intensive care unit (ICU) beds. The other five have no hospital beds at all.

The nearest hospital is 45 minutes away, said Michelle Walker, administrator at Carter County Health Center, a small outpatient facility, but I couldnt say how many ICU beds there are there.

The fear of the impending health crisis for rural areas of the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic is laid bare in Carter County and dozens, if not hundreds, of counties in similar situations across the country.

While the coronavirus pandemic in the US has spread quickest in urban centres, the countrys rural regions appear wholly unprepared for a large-scale medical emergency. Thirty-eight percent of counties in Kansas have no hospitals, while more than half have no ICU beds, according to data analysis by Kaiser Health News. More than 100,000 residents of Idaho have no hospital beds in their counties.

Around 60 million Americans  almost 20 percent of the US population  live in rural regions.

Rural hospitals have been left understaffed and under-resourced since long before the coronavirus pandemic arrived. A report published in February by the Chartis Center for Rural Health, a research group, found that 120 rurally-based hospitals closed over the last decade, with 2019 seeing the highest number, at 19 closures.

States in the Southeast and lower Great Plains have borne the brunt of the closure crisis, the report finds. Almost one in four are still at risk of closing. Many are states that chose not to expand the Medicaid programme that dates from the era of US President Barack Obama  an initiative almost entirely paid for by the federal government. Whats more, predominantly rural states such as Maine, Alaska, Wyoming and Vermont have to deal with some of the highest monthly health insurance premiums in the country.

A car pulls up to a registration table at a drive-through coronavirus testing station set up in the car park of Taos High School, New Mexico [Andrew Hay/Reuters]

Rural residents may also be more likely to have jobs without paid sick time, or to be self-employed, which may increase pressure to work when there arent sheltering orders in place, says Erika Ziller, director of the Maine Rural Health Research Center at the University of Southern Maine.

Though sparsely-populated states have broadly been reporting lower infection rates until now, they also have some of the weakest healthcare infrastructure. Missouris Carter County Health Center relies on a staff of five full-time workers, including Michelle Walker, and three part-time employees. As of March 31, just 25 people had been tested there for COVID-19, with three test results returning positive. Last weekend, the county reported its first coronavirus-related death. Walker preferred not to comment on what she thinks the state or federal governments should be doing to help under-resourced countries such as hers, but she noted the biggest challenge health workers are facing is local residents not taking physical separation seriously.

A clerk at the Maupin Market in tiny Maupin, Oregon, wipes down the ice cream case to protect customers from the new coronavirus [Gillian Flaccus/AP Photo]

Home to about 10,000 people spread over an area larger than the island of Cyprus, Sublette County in western Wyoming reported just one COVID-19 infection as of Tuesday. Statewide, there have been only 212 cases, and as of this week, Wyoming is the last in the country without a reported COVID-19-related death.

But while exposure levels in Sublette County have been low, if an outbreak was to take hold, the consequences for its residents could be dire. The county has a public health facility and a rural clinic, but no hospitals or beds. The nearest ICU is in the city of Jackson, 124km (77 miles) across the Gros Ventre mountain range to the north. Jacksons Teton County, however, has recorded the second-highest number of coronavirus cases in the state and serves 24,000 residents, including the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, which see millions of visitors a year.

[Rural communities] are not necessarily at greater risk because it is a lot easier to socially distance ourselves compared to an individual in a city, so our chance of exposure is very low, said Emily Ray of the Sublette County Rural Health Care District. But another aspect of that is that we are the only county in the state without a hospital. If all other surrounding hospitals were full or unable to take a very sick patient in need of a hospital for a long period of time, we cannot keep them here and provide the proper care that they need to survive.

In April 2018, the county was denied a $28m loan by the US Department of Agricultures rural development division to build a critical access hospital in Pinedale, with the agency citing the scope of the project as being too big.

Some rural hospitals have also abruptly shut their doors in recent months, citing financial difficulties and a lack of support by the medical community.

The recently closed Pickens County Medical Center in Carrollton, Alabama [Jay Reeves/AP Photo]

Others, however, have sprung into action, anticipating a possible crisis in their communities. Sublette County pooled its public health, emergency management and sheriffs office resources two months prior to its first COVID-19 case to ready itself to respond. Jay says volunteers from the community have gone above and beyond in helping health workers and elderly residents. And while nationwide there are about 46,500 medical ICU beds, a similar number could be deployed in an emergency situation, making for one bed for every 3,660 residents.

Worst yet to come

Experts say, however, that the worst is yet to come for rural areas.

Analysis of activity tracked through peoples mobile phones by Unacast, a location data platform, shows that Wyoming residents have been doing particularly poorly at social distancing, coming last of all 50 US states in average mobility, or distance driving, and other key indicators.

People in Montana and Idaho have also been slow to curtail their movements. Missouri, seen as being one of the states slowest to react to the crisis, only ordered a statewide stay-at-home order on Friday, which started this week. Missouri has more than 2,800 coronavirus cases and 65 deaths.

There needs to be some centralised planning, said Ziller, to make sure that rural places are not ignored or underserved during the distribution of essential resources like PPE [personal protective equipment], testing supplies, and ventilators.
LOS ANGELES  The National Rifle Association failed to convince a federal judge that the temporary closures of California gun shops prompted by the spread of the coronavirus was unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte in Los Angeles on Monday denied the NRAs request for a temporary restraining order to prevent L.A. County from treating gun stores as non-essential businesses during the pandemic.

The judge said the city and county of Los Angeles didnt overstep their authority given the significance of their aim to reduce the spread of the coronavirus and the appropriateness of store closures to achieve that aim.

Todays decision recognizes that the public health interest in curbing Coronavirus requires extraordinary measures to be taken to protect our public health and well being, Kris Brown, president of Brady, a group advocating for gun control, said in a statement.

In Pennsylvania, gun sales are permitted if they follow certain guidelines.

The county had said the NRAs legal challenge was already moot because Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva had allowed firearm stores to reopen March 30. The sheriff reversed his decision to treat the stores as non-essential under state and local government orders after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an advisory that guns and ammunition businesses are part of the U.S.s essential critical infrastructure.

The judge said it was necessary to rule on the NRAs request because L.A. County might reverse course again.

Because Sheriff Villanuevas shift in policy could easily be abandoned or altered in the future, plaintiffs Second Amendment claim against the county order has not lost its character as a present, live controversy, the judge said.

Representatives of the NRA didnt immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

By Edvard Pettersson, Bloomberg News (TNS)
Gerardo Torres poured his savings into opening the Mesquite Grill, his first restaurant, after decades as a busboy and waiter.

Torres and his two partners held a grand opening on Feb. 29 for the Tex-Mex eatery off NASA Parkway, which did brisk business for two weeks. Then the unthinkable happened: Harris County on March 17 restricted restaurants to takeout and delivery to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in crowded dining rooms.

It was like a nightmare, Torres said. We saw the (order) come down and it was like oh, we never expected this.

The Mesquite Grills receipts plummeted by 75 percent, Torres said. He said without an infusion of cash, the trio will have to close the restaurant by the end of April.

Torres hopes Harris County can provide that lifeline. Commissioners Court is poised to approve a $10 million fund on Tuesday for no-interest, forgivable loans of up to $25,000 to small businesses harmed by the pandemic.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia, who proposed the program, said he hopes Harris County will more quickly be able to provide aid than the federal government. Since Friday, hundreds of thousands of small businesses have applied for loans funded by the stimulus package approved by Congress in March, and banks have struggled to handle the volume of requests.

Garcia said if approved by Commissioners Court Tuesday, the program will go live Wednesday and cut checks to businesses within 30 days.

Thats how fast people can start applying for it and getting the money that they need almost immediately, Garcia said. I want this to be a shot in the arm.

Forty-one percent of Greater Houston Partnership member businesses with 500 or fewer employees said they could survive the coronavirus slowdown for four weeks or less, a survey by the nonprofit said. A third reported reducing their workforce.

Several business groups and chambers of commerce have signed up to speak in favor of the loan program at Tuesdays virtual Commissioners Court session.

Garcia said he modeled the proposal after a similar program for small businesses affected by transportation projects he helped create as a Houston city councilman. To be eligible, businesses must have existed for at least one year, be in Harris County and in good standing with the tax assessor, have a net worth of less than $15 million and annual average net income of less than $5 million over the past two years, he said. Sexually oriented businesses and liquor stores are excluded.

Firms can borrow up to $25,000, which can be forgiven through county tax breaks over five years. The funds only may be used for certain purposes, including payroll and day-to-day expenses. If the borrower violates those conditions, the business would become ineligible for loan forgiveness and would begin repayment following a three-month grace period.

The criteria make no distinction between firms classified as essential or non-essential under the stay-at-home order, though businesses must demonstrate they have been harmed by the pandemic. The program, which will be administered by the Houston Galveston Area Council, will award loans on a first-come, first-served basis.

Garcia said he would seek to expand the program if the initial $10 million tranche is exhausted quickly, and urged the city of Houston to contribute. Mayor Sylvester Turner said Monday he would consider the idea.

Adriana Gonzales, president of Camara de Empresarios Latinos de Houston, said some local businesses need Harris Countys program because they are less likely to receive federal loans. Since the federal small business loan program gives preference to firms that have existed for more than two years and have high credit scores, she said the county program would be attractive to newer companies.

Some of the small spas, small beauty salons, the restaurants that opened a year ago  those are the ones that are really going to benefit, she said. And the self-employed, the painters and the plumbers and the construction side.

The Mesquite Grill is eligible for a county loan because Torres and his partners, Enrique and Alex Torres, incorporated the business in April 2019. He said a loan from the county would help pay vendors and their nine remaining employees.

Otherwise, were just going to have to leave the place, Torres said.

Construction is classified as an essential industry, though Remodel HTX owner Eddie Mendoza said many clients have postponed jobs, fearful of having workers in their homes.

Eighty percent of Mendozas business is residential, and he is struggling to find enough work for his 10 employees. Mendoza said he is considering a county loan after hearing about the program through the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

A loan would help us with payroll and any overhead to keep on running, he said. Were trying to avoid laying people off.

Leo Coronel, chef and owner of Near Northside Italian restaurant Roccos, said he has done his best to shift the business to takeout. Loyal customers have helped Coronel keep about two-thirds of his normal volume, though he said he may still need help. Aid from the federal Small Business Administration, he worries, may take too long to arrive.

SBA, theyre saying, could take months to roll out this money for businesses, Rocco said. If business doesnt go back to normal soon, I dont think a lot of us have months.

zach.despart@chron.com
The coronavirus is infecting and killing black people in the United States at disproportionately high rates, according to data released by several states and big cities, highlighting what public health researchers say are entrenched inequalities in resources, health and access to care.

The statistics are preliminary and much remains unknown because most cities and states are not reporting race as they provide numbers of confirmed cases and fatalities. Initial indications from a number of places, though, are alarming enough that policymakers say they must act immediately to stem potential devastation in black communities.

Three people, in far-flung cities and born in different decades, signal the worrying trend amid the nations health emergency.

Donnie Hoover, a judge from Charlotte, North Carolina, could not shake a dry cough that arrived in March. A few weeks later, LaShawn Levi, a medical assistant who rides the bus to work each day on the South Side of Chicago, turned to tea and cough syrup  everything your grandma taught you  to treat a headache and a cough. Not long after, Glenn Tolbert, a union leader for Detroit bus drivers, was coughing so much that he got tested.

This is a call-to-action moment for all of us, said Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago, who announced statistics of the outbreak in her city this week. African Americans account for more than half of those who have tested positive and 72% of virus-related fatalities in Chicago, even though they make up a little less than a third of the population.

Those numbers take your breath away, they really do, said Lightfoot, who is the citys first black woman elected as mayor. She added in an interview that the statistics were among the most shocking things I think Ive seen as mayor.

In Illinois, 43% of people who have died from the disease and 28% of those who have tested positive are African Americans, a group that makes up just 15% of the states population. African Americans, who account for a third of positive tests in Michigan, represent 40% of deaths in that state even though they make up 14% of the population. In Louisiana, about 70% of the people who have died are black, though only a third of that states population is.

North Carolina and South Carolina also have reported a ratio of black residents to white residents who have tested positive for the virus that well exceeds the general population ratio. Black people are overrepresented among those infected in the Las Vegas area and among people who have tested positive for the virus in Connecticut. In Minnesota, black people have been infected with the coronavirus at rates roughly proportionate to their percentage of the states population.

For many public health experts, the apparent disparities are unsurprising, the result of long-standing structural inequalities that make African Americans less likely to be insured, and more likely to have existing health conditions and face racial bias that prevents them from getting proper treatment.

Initial indications are that doctors are less likely to refer African Americans for testing when they visit a clinic with symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. Since the disease can progress quickly, researchers say, a disparity in testing can lead to considerably worse outcomes. A lack of early communication about the threat of COVID-19 and confusing messages that followed left an information vacuum in some black communities that allowed false rumors to fester that black people were immune to the disease. Some places ended up behind in taking measures to slow the spread.

Sharrelle Barber, an assistant research professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Drexel University, said the effects of government redlining policies that began in the 1930s linger. Many black residents live in segregated neighborhoods that lack job opportunities, stable housing, grocery stores with healthy food and more.

High levels of segregation in large urban counties lower the life expectancies of African American residents but have little effect on the life expectancies of white residents, according to an analysis of the County Health Rankings by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Before the pandemic hit, officials had calculated that white Chicagoans had an average life expectancy of 8.8 years longer than black residents.

These communities, structurally, theyre breeding grounds for the transmission of the disease, Barber said. Its not biological. Its really these existing structural inequalities that are going to shape the racial inequalities in this pandemic.

One glaring difference, experts said, is that black Americans disproportionately belong to the portion of the workforce that does not have the luxury of working from home during a health crisis. That places them at high risk for contracting the highly infectious disease in transit or at work.

Levi, the medical assistant from Chicago who fell ill, thinks that her daily bus ride to work could have been the source of her exposure. Or, she said, she could have picked it up in the hospital where she works, at the grocery store, or from food served to her.

Im just not sure, said Levi, 45, who has asthma and high blood pressure.

Work also kept Tolbert, 54, who drove a Detroit bus for 24 years before becoming president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 26, from staying home as the virus spread.

All through March, Tolbert said, he proceeded with his responsibilities of checking on the well-being of drivers at the bus depot and on passengers along city routes.

On April 2, Tolbert was coughing so much during a meeting with Mike Duggan, the mayor of Detroit, that Duggan suggested he get tested. He was one of the first people in the city to take a rapid test and got his results back in 15 minutes.

I was social distancing  at least I thought I was, Tolbert said. I dont know where it happened.

The death toll has been particularly devastating among African Americans.

Whats really important is who is succumbing to the infection, said Dr. Phillip D. Levy, associate chairman for research in the department of emergency medicine at Wayne State University. That gives you an idea of the severity of the illness and the impact on the community.

One factor that might make the coronavirus more devastating for African Americans is that they experience high levels of stress-mediated wear and tear known as weathering, said Arline Geronimus, a professor of public health at the University of Michigan who studies the concept.

Stresses like exposure to toxins, lack of sleep and racial discrimination, Geronimus said, can cause a kind of accelerated aging. The coronavirus is most lethal in people over 65.

Watching news reports of coronavirus racial disparities this week, Geronimus said she had found herself shouting at her television. Theyre saying, We dont know why,  Geronimus said, and Im standing there saying, Its weathering! 

Medical experts, community activists and policymakers are pushing for greater transparency on racial data.

Officials who are reporting racial data are doing so only for cases in which the patients race is known. For a large percentage of total cases in some places  sometimes more than 40%  no racial information is available.

And officials in many states, including those hit hard by the pandemic  California, New Jersey, New York and Washington state  have not provided statewide information about the race of patients.

That has raised anger in some corners. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey have demanded that the Trump administration collect race and ethnicity data on coronavirus testing and treatment. And Jumaane D. Williams, the public advocate for New York City, sent a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio calling for the release of a breakdown of cases by race.

In Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, where black residents are overrepresented in the number of positive tests, George Dunlap, chairman of the county commission, said he was skeptical of the data. He said he believed that African Americans in that county, which includes Charlotte, were overrepresented because the group was being tested at a higher rate, according to information he said he received from county health officials.

But North Carolinas top health official said the disparities aligned with historical trends.

This current crisis lays out what we have known for a long time, which is that your ZIP code is often a determinant of your health outcome, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Hoover, the Mecklenburg County Superior Court judge who has tested positive for the virus, is 70. His wife, Josephine, has also tested positive. He was receiving chemotherapy for multiple myeloma and she has diabetes, underlying medical issues that put them at higher risk of severe illness.

While Hoover recuperated in their condominium in downtown Charlotte, Hoover, a retired math teacher, was hospitalized for two weeks. Even now, they are staying at least 6 feet apart in their home.

I am assuming that I picked it up in the courthouse and gave it to her, he said. We were so scared. And we are still scared because we do not know for sure if we are out of the woods.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Three weeks after a judge in New Orleans overturned the double-murder conviction of a man based on new DNA evidence, defense lawyers and prosecutors are sparring over whether he should be freed while the coronavirus spreads through Louisiana prisons.

Darrill Henry's attorneys said he should be released now before he contracts COVID-19, while prosecutors have stood fast on their position that he should stay locked up.

The courthouse was still open on March 12 when ad hoc Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Dennis Waldron tossed Henrys convictions in the pre-Hurricane Katrina killing of an elderly seamstress and her daughter.

The slayings happened at 89-year-old Durelli Wattss house in the 1900 block of Duels Street on June 15, 2004. Watts was stabbed, and her house was set on fire. Her daughter Ina Gex was shot on the front porch as she raced to her mothers aid. There was evidence Gex's purse had been rummaged through.

The coroner collected samples of biological material from Wattss fingernails during an autopsy, but there wasnt enough for a DNA analysis before the 2011 trial. Relying on eyewitness evidence, jurors convicted Henry on two counts of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to life.

Subsequent advances in DNA technology allowed for the detection of traces from a man who wasnt Henry.

DNA under fingernails revives appeal for man in elderly New Orleans woman's murder Eight years ago, a New Orleans jury convicted Darrill Henry of stabbing a prominent 7th Ward octogenarian to death and fatally shooting the da

A defense expert argued that it must have come from the person who attacked Watts. Prosecutors countered the DNA evidence was still too minute to be reliable and Watts was too frail to fight back.

The judge sided with the defense  but his decision hasnt resulted in Henrys freedom yet. Prosecutors are appealing Waldron's order for a new trial, which means the decision isn't final.

Late in March, Henrys lawyers at the national Innocence Project filed a motion asking the judge to set bail so their client could go free ahead of a new trial, pointing to their fear that the 44-year-old could contract coronavirus behind bars.

Five inmates in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, as well as 17 inmates in Orleans Parish Sheriffs Office custody, tested positive for the novel coronavirus through Tuesday, according to official figures.

Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaros office has held to its position that Henry should stay in prison, however. The office declined to comment on the case while it's pending.

Orleans Parish jury spares life of man convicted in twin 7th Ward killings An Orleans Parish jury this morning opted to spare the life of Darrill Henry, whom the jury convicted late Wednesday on two counts of first-de

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On Thursday, Waldron held a special teleconference hearing where he set the bail at $400,000. Henrys supporters were poised to free him when prosecutors filed an emergency appeal.

As of Tuesday, the state Supreme Court was deciding whether to let Waldrons ruling stand or take another look.

Henry's lawyers wrote in a motion to the high court this week that "Henry has gone from an innocent man with the opportunity to use new DNA evidence to prove his innocence at trial to an innocent man whose chance to prove his innocence may be taken from him because he is imprisoned within an epicenter for this deadly and highly contagious virus."

Waldrons decisions have awakened long-held feelings.

In a telephone call on Friday, Las Vegas obstetrician Gregory Gex lamented the possibility that the man he still considers to be his mother and grandmothers killer might walk free pending a new trial.

Gex said his grandmothers hygiene was poor in her final years, which might explain why she had DNA from someone other than her killer under her fingernails.

7th Ward double homicide witness is grilled about his own charges The capital murder trial of a man accused in the 2004 slayings of an elderly woman and her daughter took an odd turn Wednesday, when an eyewit

Our entire family is devastated, and feel in no way that this is justice, Gex said. If hes let out, this (appeals process) could take years. With the coronavirus, everything is going to be different now. It may take a long time.

Meanwhile, four of Henrys aunts, his uncle, two of his sisters, a daughter and a son wrote letters to the court supporting his release.

Henry will stay with his aunt, Sheryl Henry-Batiste, if he is released.

I know from my many visits and phone calls with Darrill that his faith is very important to him. Darrill would be welcome to attend church with me, she said. I have been attending his court appearances to support Darrill throughout his incarceration and will continue to do so until he is able to clear his name.
President Donald Trump and his administration are promoting an anti-malaria drug not officially approved for fighting the new coronavirus, even though scientists say more testing is needed before it's proven safe and effective against COVID-19.

Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro championed hydroxychloroquine in television interviews Monday, a day after the president publicly put his faith in the medication to lessen the toll of the coronavirus pandemic.

'What do I know, I'm not a doctor,' Trump said Sunday. 'But I have common sense.' In promoting the drug's possibilities, the president has often stated, 'What have you got to lose?'

Trump held out promise for the drug as he grasps for ways to sound hopeful in the face of a mounting death toll and with the worst weeks yet to come for the U.S. The virus has killed more than 10,000 in the U.S., and measures meant to contain its spread have taken a painful economic toll and all but frozen life in large swaths of the country.

But medical officials warn that it's dangerous to be hawking unproven remedies, and even Trump's own experts have cautioned against it.

The American Medical Association's president, Dr. Patrice Harris, said she personally would not prescribe the drug for a coronavirus patient, saying the risks of severe side effects were 'great and too significant to downplay' without large studies showing the drug is safe and effective for such use.

President Donald Trump listens to a question from a reporter as he speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Monday, April 6, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

This Monday, April 6, 2020, photo shows an arrangement of hydroxychloroquine pills in Las Vegas. President Donald Trump and his administration kept up their out-sized promotion Monday of an malaria drug not yet officially approved for fighting the new coronavirus, even though scientists say more testing is needed before it's proven safe and effective against COVID-19. Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro championed hydroxychloroquine in television interviews a day after the president publicly put his faith in the medication to lessen the toll of the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Harris pointed to the drug's high risk of causing heart rhythm problems.

'People have their health to lose,' she said. 'Your heart could stop.'

In a heated Situation Room meeting of the White House's coronavirus task force Saturday, Navarro challenged the top U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, over his concerns about recommending the drug based only on unscientific anecdotal evidence.

Navarro, who has no formal medical training, erupted at Fauci, raising his voice and claiming the reports of studies he had collected were enough to recommend the drug widely, according to a person familiar with the exchange who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the blow-up.

Fauci has repeatedly said current studies provide only anecdotal findings that the drug works. In response, Navarro told CNN on Monday, 'I would have two words for you: `second opinion.'

Hydroxychloroquine is officially approved for treating malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, not COVID-19. Small, preliminary studies have suggested it might help prevent the new coronavirus from entering cells and possibly help patients clear the virus sooner. But those have shown mixed results.

Doctors are already prescribing the malaria drug to patients with COVID-19, a practice known as off-label prescribing. Research studies are now beginning to test if the drugs truly help COVID-19 patients, and the Food and Drug Administration has allowed the medication into the national stockpile as an option for doctors to consider for patients who cannot get into one of the studies.

But the drug has major potential side effects, especially for the heart, and Fauci has said more testing is needed before its clear that the drug works against the virus and is safe for such use.

Navarro told Fox News Channel's 'Fox & Friends' that doctors in New York hospitals are already distributing the drug to COVID-19 patients and that health care workers are taking it in hopes of being protected from infection.

Asked about his credentials for pushing the drug, Navarro cited his doctorate in social science and said that 'in the fog of war, we might take more risks than we otherwise would.' He added, 'Id bet on President Trumps intuition on this one.'

Administration officials say Trump's embrace of the drug stems from his desire to provide 'hope' for the American people as the death toll mounts and he looks to avoid political consequences from the outbreak.

Some limited studies have been conducted on the use of hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic azithromycin in concert to treat COVID-19, but they have not included critical control groups that scientists use to validate the conclusions.

Researchers in China, for instance, reported that cough, pneumonia and fever seemed to improve sooner among 31 patients given hydroxychloroquine compared with 31 others who did not get the drug, but fewer people in the comparison group had cough or fevers to start with.

Many questions have been raised about another study in France. Some of the 26 people given hydroxychloroquine in that test were not counted in the final results, including three who worsened and were sent to intensive care, one who died a day after later testing negative for the virus and one who stopped treatment because of nausea.

The French study was published in an International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy journal. The societys president wrote on its website that the report 'does not meet the societys expected standard.'

At least one other world leader has also promoted the drugs. Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro has touted the benefits of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, saying he's heard reports of 100% effectiveness when administered in the correct dosages.

Trump's interest in the drug was piqued in part by coverage on conservative media.

On March 16, Fox News ran a segment on a small French study promoting the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in treating the coronavirus. Hours later, attorney Gregory Rigano appeared on a prime-time show and said evidence suggested it could rid the body 'completely' of the virus.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro speaks during an interview at the White House, Monday, April 6, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

A pharmacist shows a bottle of the drug hydroxychloroquine on Monday, April 6, 2020, in Oakland, Calif. President Donald Trump and his administration kept up their out-sized promotion Monday of an malaria drug not yet officially approved for fighting the new coronavirus, even though scientists say more testing is needed before it's proven safe and effective against COVID-19. Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro championed hydroxychloroquine in television interviews a day after the president publicly put his faith in the medication to lessen the toll of the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens as President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Monday, April 6, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Almost instantly, just as the projections of the virus impact on the nation grew more dire, the drugs promise bounced around the echo chamber of the conservative media. Just three days later, Trump himself made the first mention of the drug.

Among the loudest voices in the president's ear has been Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal attorney, who has spoken to Trump about the drug and advocated it in interviews and his new podcast. He has had, as guests, several experts touting the drug and made a few late-night phone calls to the White House residence.

'I discussed it with the president after he talked about it,' Giuliani said. 'I told him what I had on the drugs. Others around him believe it too.'

The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., on Friday tweeted a link to an article about the drugs' possible success and added: 'Waiting for others to write this up. The Democrats and the media must be really upset because they tried to destroy @realdonaldtrump for being hopeful that this would be the case.'

Across Europe, there has also been a recent spike in demand for the drugs even as regulators caution against their unlicensed use.

Last week, the European Medicines Agency warned doctors that since there is no proof yet of the drugs' effectiveness, they should be used only in clinical trials or under emergency use provisions.

The jump in demand for the drugs has meant in some instances that patients who rely on hydroxychloroquine for lupus or other conditions are seeing their supplies diverted for COVID-19.

If hydroxychloroquine is proven to work well against COVID-19, its sales would jump, but pharmaceutical analysts say they dont know of any company or individual that stands to make a windfall. Thats because theres so much competition and the vast majority of prescriptions filled are for generics.

For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
"I hold no ill will toward my accuser. I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel. There is certainly hurt and bitterness enough." The end of criminal proceedings clears the way for the federal government to publish previously redacted royal commission findings into Cardinal Pells conduct in Ballarat, a centre of historic church sex abuse. Cardinal Pell and the church are also facing a fresh wave of civil legal action by abuse survivors. The High Court decision does not repudiate Cardinal Pells accuser, a former choirboy who testified that he and a friend were indecently assaulted more than 20 years ago by Cardinal Pell, who was archbishop of Melbourne, at St Patricks Cathedral. Cardinal Pells senior counsel, Bret Walker, SC, and Victorias Director of Public Prosecutions, Kerri Judd, QC, agreed in their submissions to the court that the choirboy was a credible, believable witness.

Rather, the decision exposes flaws within the rest of the prosecution case; evidence given by other witnesses who were at St Patricks at the time which raised doubts about whether Cardinal Pell had an opportunity to commit the crimes he was accused of. The High Court found this evidence should have caused a jury to have reasonable doubt about Cardinal Pells guilt. It should also have caused the Court of Appeal majority, Chief Justice Anne Ferguson and Court of Appeal President Chris Maxwell, to have misgivings about the jurys verdict. "While the Court of Appeal majority assessed the evidence of the opportunity witnesses as leaving open the possibility that the complainant's account was correct, their Honours' analysis failed to engage with the question of whether there remained a reasonable possibility that the offending had not taken place," the court found. The botched decision of Victorias highest court extended by seven months Cardinal Pells time in jail.

Supreme Court Justice Mark Weinberg, in a lengthy dissenting judgment, described the testimony of the "opportunity witnesses" as "a significant body of cogent evidence casting serious doubt upon the complainants account". The former choirboy first told police in 2015 that he and a fellow chorister were indecently assaulted by Cardinal Pell in 1996 after he caught them drinking altar wine in the priests sacristy shortly after Sunday mass. The second choirboy died of a drug overdose in 2014, having previously denied to his mother that he was abused by Cardinal Pell. Cardinal Pell was convicted in December 2018 on one charge of sexual penetration of a child and four charges of an indecent act against a child. He was sentenced to six years in jail, with a minimum of three years and eight months.

Separate criminal proceedings against Cardinal Pell, based on allegations by multiple witnesses that he sexually abused them at a Ballarat swimming pool nearly 50 years ago, were discontinued by the DPP. Cardinal Pells case before the High Court was that it was not open to a jury, on the whole of the evidence, to find him guilty as charged, and that the Victorian Court of Appeal majority erred in law by upholding the verdict. Loading Mr Walker told the court that the approach taken by justices Ferguson and Maxwell, in weighing the testimony of the choirboy against other evidence in the case, had the effect of reversing the onus of proof.

This argument was rejected by Ms Judd, who submitted that the Court of Appeal majority properly reviewed the evidence and had left no question of law for the High Court to resolve. Ms Judd submitted to the court that, in the event of a successful appeal, the case should be remitted back to the Court of Appeal to be heard again. Instead, the High Court ordered Cardinal Pell's conviction be quashed. Cardinal Pell learned of the decision from inside his isolation cell at Barwon Prison, home to some of the states most dangerous murders and terrorists. "My trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church, nor a referendum on how Church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of paedophilia in the Church," he said.
A Pennsylvania man who was 16 when he participated in the brutal murder of a woman known as The Avon Lady received justice when he was resentenced to 50 years to life in prison, a state Superior Court panel court has ruled.

Anthony Jones, now 56, had been serving a life prison sentence for the November 1980 slaying of 48-year-old Emily Jones at a housing project in Chester.

Investigators said Jones and a co-defendant, Leroy Evans, lured Leo to Jones familys apartment by saying they wanted to buy some of her Avon items. The two intended to rob Leo, police said, but ended up brutally beating her.

Jones and Evans thought Leo was dead, so they stuffed her into a trash can. When she showed signs of life, Jones finished Leo off by throwing bricks at her head, police said. A witness saw him doing that.

Leo left behind a disabled husband who was confined to a wheelchair and for whom she was providing around-the-clock care.

Leos murder was the cause of one of two life sentences Jones had been serving. He received the second one when he was 29 and nearly stabbed a fellow inmate to death over a romantic dispute involving another man.

Jones life term for Leos murder was reduced under a 2012 edict from the U.S. Supreme Court that bans the imposition of automatic life without parole sentences on killers who are younger than 18.

In his failed appeal to the Superior Court, Jones complained that his 50-year-to-life term is still too long. He wont even be eligible for parole on that sentence until hes 66, in 2030, he wrote.

The state judges gave his appeal the thumbs-down in an opinion by Judge Victor P. Stabile, who backed the resentencing by Delaware County Judge James P. Bradley.

Stabile rejected Jones contention that he was still serving an illegal de facto life term. He also nixed Jones claim that Bradley didnt consider all of the required factors in choosing his new punishment.

The factors outlined by Bradley included that Jones was the eldest of his mothers seven children to five different men, that he grew up with little in the way of positive adult supervision, and that he saw his mother being beaten by her boyfriends. Bradley noted that as a child Jones had to steal to provide food for his family.

Jones was in a juvenile detention facility for several months before Leos murder and was released against the advice of the staff, the county judge wrote. Bradley cited Jones claims that he has been the target of threats from other inmates because he testified against Evans during Evans trial in 1981. Jones has claimed a recantation he issued of his testimony against Evans was made under pressure of those threats.

Evans case has drawn considerable attention in recent years with calls for a reevaluation of his first-degree murder conviction and life prison term. His supporters contend that Jones, not Evans, was solely responsible for Leos murder. Last May rapper and actor ICE-T called for DNA testing that backers claim could exonerate Evans, who was 23 when Leo was killed.

After Evans backers rallied outside the county courthouse in September, District Attorney Katayoun Copeland issued a statement. Evans is not a victim; he is a dangerous, heartless killer who mercilessly murdered a helpless, innocent woman, Copeland said.
By Trend

If the restrictions introduced due to the quarantine in Azerbaijan are met until April 20, there will be no need to extend it, Chief Infectiologist of the Ministry of Health Jalal Isayev told Trend on April 7.

He said that this period is set taking into account the incubation period of the disease of 14 -20 days.

If the population voluntarily follows the established restrictions, then the spread of infection can be stopped. Even in the Chinese city of Wuhan with a population of 11 million people, the epidemic was stopped due to people abiding by such restrictions. So, we can prevent an outbreak of the disease by strictly observing the quarantine rules, Isayev stressed.

The movement restriction has been imposed in the country within a special quarantine regime which is introduced to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).

The Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan has made a decision on the movement restriction in the country from 00:00 (GMT+4) April 5, 2020 to 00:00 April 20, 2020 to protect life and health of the population, ensure uninterrupted operation of state structures and life support facilities, as well as activity of economic entities in the current situation at the appropriate level.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Cardinal George Pell, the most senior member of the Catholic clergy ever found guilty of child sexual abuse, has had his conviction quashed by the Australian High Court.

The former Vatican treasurer walked free on Tuesday after a full panel of seven judges ruled unanimously that he should be released.

Pell, 78, had served 13 months of a six-year sentence. He was convicted in 2018 of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in Melbourne in the 1990s, when he was the citys archbishop.

In a statement after his conviction was overturned, Pell said: I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice.

The seven High Court judges agreed unanimously that the jury in the cardinals original trial acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to his guilt.

It was the cardinals final appeal, after the Victorian state Court of Appeal upheld the jury verdicts in a 2-1 majority decision in August. The High Court found that ruling was incorrect.

Much of the two-day High Court hearing focused on whether the jury should have had a reasonable doubt about Pells guilt and whether he could have time to molest the boys in five or six minutes immediately after a Mass.

During the hearing, Pells lawyer Bret Walker said all that the prosecution had had to do at his trial and appeal court hearing was prove that Pell being left alone while robed or not talking with congregants after Mass was possible, to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

That... is a grotesque version of the reversal of onus of proof, if all the Crown has to do is to prove the possibility of something, he said.

Pell said he hold[s] no ill will towards his accuser, in a statement shortly before he was driven away from the maximum security Barwon Prison. I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough, he said. He was taken to a monastery in the Kew suburb of the city, where a courier later delivered a box of wine.

Pells accuser, one of two boys the archbishop was alleged to have assaulted, had said the offences took place shortly after Sunday masses, in the priests sacristy and corridor of St Patricks Cathedral in Melbourne, while Pell was robed. The accusers lawyer said he would be issuing a statement in due course.

The second alleged victim in the case died in 2014 of a drug overdose. His father, who is pursuing a civil case against Pell, said through his lawyer Lisa Flynn that he was in shock and was furious that a conviction by a unanimous jury had been overturned.

George Pell convicted of sex abuse Show all 5 1 /5 George Pell convicted of sex abuse George Pell convicted of sex abuse Cardinal George Pell makes his way to the court in Melbourne on 27 February Getty Images George Pell convicted of sex abuse Lawyer Robert Richter QC leaves the County court during a break in Cardinal Pell's trial EPA George Pell convicted of sex abuse The front pages of Australia's major newspapers reporting the conviction Getty Images George Pell convicted of sex abuse A Police van is seen as it leaves Melbourne County Court after Cardinal George Pell was remanded in custody Getty Images George Pell convicted of sex abuse A statue stands on the grounds of St Patrick's College, where Cardinal George Pell attended school, in Ballarat, Australia Reuters

Our client says he is heartbroken for [his sons friend] who stuck his neck out by coming forward to tell his story, Flynn said.

The Vatican had no immediate comment on a verdict that comes in the middle of Holy Week, the period leading up to Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian calendar.

Pope Francis, who appointed Pell to overhaul the Vaticans vast finances in 2014, said previously he would comment only after all avenues of appeal had been exhausted.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap) said it was dismayed and heartbroken by the outcome.

This is a disappointing ruling that only exacerbates the mistrust survivors feel, Snap Australia said in a statement.

Dan Andrews, the premier of Victoria state which brought the original charges against Pell, wrote on Twitter: I make no comment about todays High Court decision. But I have a message for every single victim and survivor of child sex abuse: I see you. I hear you. I believe you.

Additional reporting by agencies
Kendrick-Taylor was found at 11:10 p.m. Oct. 22 on the ground near his house in the 1300 block of Liberty Street in Hammond with at least one gunshot to the chest, police said at the time. Officers also found a handgun next to Taylor, the Post-Tribune previously reported.
[April 07, 2020] Quantum Workplace Appoints Julie Norquist Roy to Its Board of Directors

Quantum Workplace, a leading provider of comprehensive employee engagement software, announced today the appointment of Julie Norquist Roy to its Board of Directors. The newly created Board role brings the total number of Board members to four, with this being the first independent seat. Roy brings more than 20 years of technology, talent management and software marketing experience to her new Board role at the Company. Most recently, she served as chief marketing officer at Chrome River/Certify (now Emburse), a global leader in invoice and expense management software solutions. In this capacity, Roy built the company's marketing and business development functions and aided in growing its pipeline, elevating brand awareness, increasing market share and developing and implementing the company's international growth strategy. She also is credited with managing Chrome River through its successful merger with competitor Certify in early 2019, in a transaction valued at more than $1 billion. K1 Investment Management became a majority stakeholder in the new company, and went on to merge six different expense management brands into its new portfolio of related companies. Roy served as chief marketing officer of the new portfolio. Prior, Roy was chief marketing officer at SaaS (News - Alert) treasury software provider and market leader Kyriba, from 2012-2015. In this position, she was credited with building out the global marketing and business development functions and positioning Kyriba as the brand leader in the segment. For more than five years, Roy served as vice president of marketing at Cornerstone OnDemand, a cloud-based learning, employee performance and talent management software provider. In this role, she built the marketing and business development functions, which significantly contributed to the company's exponential global growth. She was part of theexecutive team that led the company to its initial public offering in March 2011.



Earlier in her career, Roy was a founding member and vice president of marketing of InStranet, a developer of customer service-focused software, which was acquired by Salesforce in 2008. "We welcome Julie to our Board, and are excited about the valuable guidance and deep knowledge she can provide our fast-growing organization. Julie's decades of experience -- particularly the years she spent in the learning and talent management space -- will bode well for our advancement. We believe her expertise in the space, coupled with her marketing and business development acumen, will help fuel our future growth. We look forward to the contributions Julie will make to our Board and the impact she will have on our business and the nearly 9,000 organizations we serve today," explained Greg Harris, co-founder and chief executive officer at Quantum (News - Alert) Workplace.

Roy commented on joining the Board: "Quantum Workplace was among the first providers in the employee experience segment nearly 20 years ago. Greg and the founding team are truly pioneering and helped shape an industry that has since morphed into a major focus of nearly every corporation today. Quantum is on the cutting edge of innovative technology that drives employee engagement and workplace culture, and continues to enhance and evolve its solutions. I look forward to being part of this thriving enterprise and to helping Quantum Workplace enter its next phase of expansion." Roy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in social sciences with a focus on international relations from the University of California, Berkeley and an International Master's degree in Business Administration from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. Previously, she served as an advisory board member to software providers FloQast, a developer of close management software for finance teams, and OpenSesame, a provider of corporate e-learning software solutions. A resident of Los Angeles, Roy lived in Paris for nearly 20 years and is fluent in French. She began her career there, working in broadcast journalism. About Quantum Workplace Quantum Workplace, a human resources technology provider, delivers modern tools for employee success that high-performance organizations have come to rely upon. Nearly 20 years ago, the Company pioneered some of the earliest employee engagement and performance software, and has since partnered with thousands of organizations to elevate employee, team, and business success. Quantum Workplace helps leaders connect the dots between engagement and performance with intuitive and user-friendly tools including comprehensive and automated employee surveys; goal setting and tracking tools; peer-to-peer recognition; real-time feedback; continuous one on one conversations; smart talent reviews; and, robust people analytics. With 9,000 organizations surveyed annually, Quantum Workplace has grown into North America's largest database of employee engagement data-through its core engagement and performance platform and nationally recognized Best Places to Work program. To learn more, visit www.quantumworkplace.com or connect with the Company on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005216/en/

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Gladys Berejiklian has warned that relaxing restrictions means more people will die from coronavirus - but said she will consider lifting them in two weeks.

The New South Wales Premier said she would consider removing restrictions every month if the infection rate continues to slow - but warned the consequences could be dire.

'When you do lift any of the restrictions, it does mean that more people will be admitted to our hospitals and more people who will succumb to the virus. That's a fact,' she said.

Nonetheless, Ms Berejiklian said some aspects of lock down could be lifted in just two weeks.

Gladys Berejiklian has warned that relaxing restrictions means more people would die

'If the advice in a couple of weeks is that there might be a couple of aspects that we can tweak to provide relief to our citizens, well then, we'll take that advice,' she said.

Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said officers will patrol caravan parks and country roads this weekend to make sure nobody is on holiday over Easter.

'Over the next couple of days, NSW Police will be out on our roads, making sure that people adhere to the orders around the Easter holidays,' Commissioner Fuller said.

'We've heard the warning from our Premier and the Prime Minister. We will be going through caravan parks early, issuing warnings to people who may think that they can get around these laws.'

There were 48 new cases in NSW on Tuesday, and no new deaths.

Police will patrol caravan parks this weekend to make sure no-body is on holiday

Australians leave a Sydney hotel after 14 days of isolation since returning from abroad

On Tuesday Scott Morrison told Australians to stay at home this Easter to save lives even though the country is 'flattening the curve' and the number of new coronavirus cases is decreasing every day.

'This Easter weekend will be incredibly important. Stay at home,' the Prime Minister said.

Government data showed the number of new daily cases spiked at 460 on 28 March and has been decreasing since. On 6 April there were 104 new cases.

But Mr Morrison warned that people who flout social distancing rules could cause the rate of increase to pick up once more.

Scott Morrison (right today at a press conference) has told Australians to stay at home this Easter to save lives

Data presented today shows how Australia's new coronavirus cases have been decreasing since 28 March

'Failure to stay at home this weekend would completely undo everything we have achieved so far together - and potentially worse,' he said.

One of the scientists who worked on new modelling released on Tuesday suggested Australia has passed the peak of the infection rate but faces an 'explosive resurgence' if restrictions are relaxed.

Professor James McCaw of Melbourne University's Doherty Institute warned: 'We expect to see a further decline in cases... [but if we] went back to normal we would see a rapid and explosive resurgence in epidemic activity.'
He posted 'Wanted' and $10, 000 reward photos featuring his former pal's face

Duped over painting he and Philbrick bought with another dealer two years ago

A society art dealer has alleged he was duped into a multi-million dollar art scam led by his friend of seven years.

Kenny Schachter, 58, from New York, claimed he is the 'only fool who's admitted his closeness' to the disappeared dealer Inigo Philbrick, 32, who has been accused of multi-millions of pounds' worth of art fraud.

Inigo, who is in a relationship with Made in Chelsea star Victoria Baker Harber, has had his assets frozen across the globe and his alleged actions have left the likes of Jay Jopling and the Reuben brothers infuriated.

'He was cute, he was funny, he charmed the pants off me, and he knew the difference [between a good painting and a bad one],' said Kenny, speaking in the May edition of Tatler.

Kenny Schachter, 58, from New York, has alleged he was duped into a multi-million dollar art scam, which was led by his friend of seven years, Inigo Philbrick, 32. Pictured, at the Kenny Schachter Masterpiece inLondon 2010

Inigo, who is in a relationship with Made in Chelsea star Victoria Baker Harber (pictured, together), has been accused of multi-millions of pounds' worth of art fraud

Kenny alleges he lost $1.67 million (1.35 million) of his own money over a painting he and Philbrick bought with another dealer two years ago.

However, just like Philbrick, he claims the expensive piece of art vanished.

Now, Kenny has agreed with those accusing Philbrick of deception, and has even published both 'Wanted' and $10, 000 (8, 091) reward photos featuring his former friend's youthful face.

He goes on to say he believes he and Philbrick have had private conversations on Instagram - with the latter posing under different pseudonyms.

Kenny Schachter (pictured) is convinced he has had private conversations on Instagram - with the latter posing under different pseudonyms

Kenny Schachter and Allen Jones attend Galerie Gmurzynska with Baur Au Lac Present Art in the Park on June 12, 2010 in Zurich, Switzerland

Speaking of one instant, the correspondent he believes to be Philbrook, wrote: 'If he's smart enough to do it in the first place, he's smart enough to make good on it.'
Today is National Beer Day!

On April 7 1933, the Cullen-Harrison Act went into effect, which made selling and consuming low-alcohol beverages like beer and wine legal in the U.S. after 14 years of beer and wines being prohibited. So, today marks the 87th anniversary of the act going into affect.

And even with many retailers closed due to the government shutdown of non-life sustaining businesses that was announced on March 19, beer distributors remain open because the government says they are life sustaining.

Most beer distributors provide more than beer  they provide water, soda and some food/snacks, and may be the only nearby option for those items in some areas of the state, Casey Smith, the communications director for the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development, said in an email to PennLive last month. Allowing beer distributors to remain open will potentially limit the people visiting grocery stores where we hope to have people able to easily access life-sustaining food.

However, many have taken different paths than their typical service. Some are open regular hours, while others are open modified hours. Some offer curbside pickup as a side, and others offer it exclusively while shutting down their store to customers. Some have added delivery. Some stores are only taking payments by credit and debit cards. And even though they are permitted to stay open, some have decided to close.

Below is a list of beer distributors that are open in central Pa., including stores in Dauphin, Cumberland, Perry, Lebanon, York and Lancaster counties.

Obviously not every store is on the list. If you are an owner or manager and would like your store to be added to the list, e-mail the name of your store, address, hours, and any other pertinent details from a business e-mail address to business@pennlive.com. Please place beer distributor in the subject line.

Here is our list:

Beer Centre

19 N. Progress Ave., Susquehanna Township.

The store is open noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Beverage Express

1021 Ritner Highway, Carlisle

The store is open regular hours.

Big Mikes Beer N Cigars

465 W. Penn Ave., Cleona

The store is open regular hours.

Blossers Brew-Thru

222. E High St., Carlisle

The stores drive-thru is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday though Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Bradford Village Beer & Soda

7011 Allentown Blvd., West Hanover Township

The store is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Brass Rail Beverage

2828 Horseshoe Pike, South Londonderry Township

The store is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The store is offering curbside service and is limiting the amount of customers to four at a time. The store announced on its Facebook page on March 20 that it was temporarily closing. On April 1 it announced it was opening back up on April 3.

Breski Beverage

1170 Eisenhower Blvd., Swatara Township

Breski Beverage is no longer allowing customers inside its building and will go provide curbside service only until further notice. The store is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Beer Zoo

6301 Grayson Road, Swatara Township

The store is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The store will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Brewskees of Shiloh

The store is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, the company announced on its Facebook page on April 4. It had previously been temporarily closed.

English Bros.

62 Hershey Road, Mount Joy Township, Lancaster County

The store is only offering curbside service. The hours are noon to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Fifth Avenue Beverage

700 S. Fifth Ave., South Lebanon Township

The store is open regular hours.

Fox Beverage

3621 Carlisle Road, Dover Township, York County

The store is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.

Glenn Millers Beer & Soda Warehouse

1029 Market St., Lemoyne

The store is open temporarily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday though Thursday and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, according to its website.

Golden Brew Distributing

3995 N. George St. Ext., East Manchester, York County

The store is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon on 5 p.m. on Sunday. Only 10 people can be in the store at a time. The store was previosly closed from March 16-March 30.

Hummelstown Beverage

659 E. Main St., Hummelstown

The store is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, the company announced on its Facebook page on March 23.

L&N Beverage Distributors

600 N. Mountain Road, Lower Paxton Township

The store is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

READ MORE:

Lykens Valley Beverage

20 Main St., Lykens

The store is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Mechanicsburg Beverage Distributor

101 N. York St., Mechanicsburg

The store has a drive-thru and also delivers.

Newport Beverage

14 Newport Place, Howee Township , Perry County

The store said on its Facebook page it will maintain normal business operations.

North York Beverage

1848 Susquehanna Trail, Manchester Township

The store will be open from 9 a.m. to 8/8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, the store said on its Facebook page on March 18.

Oakhurst Beverage

4418 Oakhurst Blvd., Susquehanna Township

The store is open regular business hours.

Perry County Beer Company

42 South Main St., Penn township, Perry County

The store is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 9 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, the store announced on its Facebook page.

Red Land Beer & Soda Outlet

601 Old York Road, Fairview Township

The store is open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.

Rossville Beverage Distributor

7495 Carlisle Road, Warrington Township, York County

The store is operating during normal business hours.

RT 15 Beverage Express

9 Tristan Drive, Carroll Township

The store is providing curbside service only from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Shrewsbury Beer & Soda

606 Shrewsbury Commons Ave., Shrewsbury Township

The store is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 am. to 5 p.m. Sunday, the store said on its Facebook page on March 23.

Silver Spring Beverage

6485 Carlisle Pike, Silver Spring Township

The store is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, the store said on its Facebook page.

Stans Beverage

75 Ashland Ave., Carlisle

The store will close at 9 p.m. daily and is offering a delivery service from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

Valley Green Beverage

20 Newberry Commons, Newberry Township

The store is operating under normal business hours, according to its Facebook page.

Westys Beer Distributor

420 St. Johns Church Road, Hampden Township

Westys Beer Distributor is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, according to its Facebook page.

Wet Your Whistle Beverage

12th and Walnut Sts., Lebanon

The store is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

The store is still open to customers and offering home delivery.

Yorkco Beverage

2314 W. Market St., West Manchester Township, York County

The store is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday

And below are two stores that have decided to close temporarily:

209 Beverage Warehouse

Route 209, Elizabethville

Beer N Soda Plus

100 S. 4th St., Halifax

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Countries in Latin America are facing up to a sharp rise in violence against women as a consequence of restrictions to contain the new coronavirus pandemic.

In Argentina, 12 women have been murdered since President Alberto Fernandez imposed mandatory quarantine on March 19 up until April 2, according to a survey by the femicide observatory of the non-governmental organization Casa del Encuentro.

The government has reinforced the staff to attend a hotline for domestic violence which has seen an increase of 30% in calls at a national level during the quarantine.

But in Buenos Aires province the increase has been as much 60% said Mariela Belski, executive director at Amnesty International Argentina.

The pandemic "presents us with multiple challenges, among them the possible increase in domestic violence," said Chilean Minister of Women and Gender Equity, Carolina Cuevas, in a press conference on Monday.

Chile's government reported a 70% increase in calls made to a domestic violence hotline during the first weekend under quarantine.

It has published a contingency plan which reinforces the telephone service and keeps the shelters and legal advisors operational.

Meanwhile in Mexico it is still too early to have official data, but Ana Yeli Perez Garrido, a legal advisor for the National Citizen Observatory on Feminicide, said there were signs domestic violence was increasing with shelters at "maximum capacity".

Isolation measures are voluntary in Mexico so quarantines have not yet begun to have the same effect as in other countries.

However the federal government's spokesman for the pandemic warned the current phase of isolation could "exacerbate" family violence.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Albuquerque Public Schools will prioritize at-home technology for high school students, especially seniors, in the coming days.

Starting this week, the district will pass out laptops  after it made an emergency $6.4 million order of Chromebooks  to households that otherwise wouldnt have access to a computer while schools are closed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

APS Chief Information and Strategy Officer Richard Bowman said 70% of APS 80,000 students have devices to learn at home, citing a survey that went out to families recently.

The district will try to fill in the gaps for the other 30% with the Chromebooks, which will be limited to one per family; some households have multiple APS students.

We do anticipate being able to meet the need of every family that does not have a device, Bowman said.

New Mexico Public Education Department Secretary Ryan Stewart said that schools will stay closed for the rest of the academic year due to the spread of the novel coronavirus and that students will keep up with learning outside of the classroom.

APS and districts across the state have been working on a strategy to make that happen. APS spokeswoman Monica Armenta said the district is expected to unveil its plan this week. We have been working diligently over the last few weeks to try and move from your traditional brick-and-mortar school approach to the distance learning, Armenta said during a virtual news conference Monday.

While details on the distance learning plan werent shared Monday, the disbursement of technology was framed as the first step in the process.

APS has more than 8,000 Chromebooks, with 10,000 more on the way.

Seniors will be first in line to get one to ensure theyre on track to graduate.

Distribution will look similar to APS free grab-and-go meal sites, with drive-up stations to allow students to check out a device with a student ID.

The Chromebooks will be given out at comprehensive high schools, starting with Learning Zones 1 and 2  which cover Southeast and Southwest Albuquerque  on Wednesday and Thursday.

Learning Zones 3 and 4, or the Northwest and Northeast areas, will check out devices on April 13 and 14.

Students who go to magnet schools will be asked to check out a device at a nearby comprehensive high school.

Grade-level pickup times are at aps.edu.

Students will be expected to return the laptops, which can be used only with an APS login, at a safer time later in the year, according to Bowman.

After getting laptops to high school students, the district will look at getting devices to middle and elementary school students.

The next hurdle to overcome will be internet access.

Bowman said a plan is also in the works to secure internet for families who need it, but he wasnt able to provide details on Monday.

According to APS data, about 12% of students dont have access to high-speed internet at home.
India has lifted an export ban on two dozen drugs and their ingredients including potential coronavirus treatment hydroxychloroquine after Donald Trump threatened 'retaliation' if the country held up supplies.

The government had banned the export of 24 drugs last month as the country went into lockdown to ensure domestic supplies.

Foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said Tuesday that India now has sufficient supplies for its needs, so export restrictions 'have been largely lifted.'

India has largely lifted an export ban on drugs including hydroxychloroquine after Donald Trump threatened 'retaliation' if Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) held up supplies

The White House has been championing hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, even though it hasn't been proven effective against the disease.

The drug is officially approved in the U.S. for treating malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, and experts warn it can cause heart rhythm problems.

Trump has said that he spoke to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week about lifting the ban, and in a news conference Monday said that he would be surprised if Modi didn't comply.

'I don't like that decision, I didn't hear that that was his decision,' he said.

'I know that he stopped it for other countries. I spoke to him yesterday, we had a very good talk and we'll see whether or not that's his...

'For many years, they've been taken advantage of the United States on trade. So I would be surprised if that were his decision. He'd have to tell me that.

Hydroxychloroquine, typically used to treat malaria, is thought to be effective against certain viruses because it blocks them from replicating and dampens harmful immune responses

'I spoke to him Sunday morning, called him, and I said, we'd appreciate you allowing our supply to come out. If he doesn't allow it to come out. That would be OK. But of course, there may be retaliation. Why wouldn't there be?'

According to Bloomberg, India - the world's largest manufacturer of generic drugs - accounts for roughly 47 per cent of America's supply of hydroxychloroquine.

The country has recommended that healthcare workers take the drug, which is typically used to treat malaria, as a preventative measure against coronavirus.

Governments in Europe, South Korea and China have also recommended the drug as a possible treatment alongside other drugs.

India had restricted the exports of 26 ingredients and medicines on March 3, the New York Times reported.

Export restrictions have now been lifted on 24 of those drugs, with the exception of paracetamol and its formulations.

India banned the export of 26 drugs and their ingredients on March 3 as the coronavirus crisis escalated, but has now lifted restrictions on 24 of them after ensuring it has enough supplies

The drug is a common painkiller which has been in short supply in countries affected by coronavirus after a warning was given about another common painkiller - ibuprofen - amid fears it could make symptoms worse.

In a matter of weeks, the decades-old anti-malaria drug that President Donald Trump has persistently promoted as a potential weapon against COVID-19 has become a standard of care in areas of the United States hit hard by the pandemic.

However, with much still to be learned about coronavirus and how the virus affects the boy, doctors prescribing it have little to no idea about whether it works.

Scientists have detailed biochemical properties of chloroquine that indicate it could be used against some viral infections, as it blocks some viruses from replicating.

It can also suppress production and release of proteins involved in inflammatory complications of several viral diseases.
I have been here (Nigeria) for a while. I was stuck in the hotel for about two weeks. All my money had been depleted. I thank the U.S. government for coming to our aid. I am glad to be going home. From Washington Dulles International Airport, I hope to fly to Los Angeles where I live, he reportedly said.
Metrion Biosciences Limited (Metrion), the specialist ion channel CRO and drug discovery company, today announced it has contributed to two new peer-reviewed papers under the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) CiPA (Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay) initiative.

Image Credit: Sisacorn/Shutterstock.com

The papers, in Nature Scientific Reports1 and Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology2, focus on the application of improved cardiac safety testing protocols and recommendations for best practice for the drug discovery industry.

The CiPA Initiative (www.cipaproject.org), which began in July 2013 following a workshop at the US FDA, has the objective to revise and enhance the regulatory framework assessing the cardiac safety of new chemical entities.

Under current guidelines, new therapeutics undergo an initial assessment of proarrhythmic risk by measuring activity against the hERG cardiac ion channel, before progressing to studies in preclinical animal models and ultimately, a Thorough QT interval study in the clinic.

The CiPA initiative aims to extend the use of advances in early electrophysiology-based cardiac ion channel screening, in silico predictive modeling, and human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes to improve the accuracy and reduce the cost of predicting the cardiac liability of new drug candidates.

Metrions research forms part of the first stage of the proposed harmonization work, to provide clarity on how to standardize cardiac ion channel assays to ensure they deliver consistent data for in silico models of clinical cardiac arrhythmia risk.

The first paper1, published in Nature Scientific Reports on 27th March 2020 by an international group of authors drawn from 20 different commercial and academic laboratories, including Metrion Biosciences, was coordinated by the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI). It reviews data from a multi-year, multi-site collaboration across industry, academia and the FDA regulatory agency to optimize experimental protocols and reduce experimental variability and bias.

The goal of the study was to guide the development of best practices for the use of automated patch clamp technologies in early cardiac safety screening. High quality in vitro cardiac ion channel data is required for accurate and reliable characterization of the risk of delayed repolarisation and proarrhythmia in the human heart and to guide subsequent clinical studies and regulatory submissions.

The second paper2, to be published formally in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology paper on 1st May 2020 but currently available online, uses automated patch clamp data from the CiPA consortium to address the lack of statistical quantification of variability, which hinders the use of primary hERG potency data to predict cardiac arrhythmia.

The consortium establishes a more systematic approach to estimate hERG block potency and safety margins. Dr. Marc Rogers, CSO, Metrion Biosciences, said: The Metrion team has been a participant in the international CiPA Initiative since inception and we are now pleased to be able to announce the publication of our data from this global collaborative scientific effort. We believe these projects will make a significant contribution to the eventual revision of cardiac safety testing guidelines by the FDA and other international regulatory agencies. They also contribute to deepening our knowledge of the underlying causes of proarrhythmia, which will help prevent early attrition of potentially promising drugs.

Contributing organizations to the Nature Scientific Reports CiPA study include Charles River Laboratories; Bayer AG; Sophion Bioscience A/S; Nanion Technologies; GlaxoSmithKline PLC; Pfizer; Sanofi R&D; Astra Zeneca; BSYS GmbH; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Eurofins Discovery; Merck; Metrion Biosciences Ltd.; Natural and Medical Science Institute at the University of Tubingen; Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago; Roche Innovation Center Basel; Novoheart; Health and Environmental Sciences Institute, Washington, DC; AbbVie.

Contributing organizations to the Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology hERG study include Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration; Eli Lilly and Company; AstraZeneca; CiPA LAB; NMI-TT GmbH; Sophion Bioscience A/S; B'SYS GmbH; The Ion Channel Company; F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG; Eurofins Discovery; Bristol-Myers Squibb; Merck & Co., Inc; Metrion Biosciences Ltd.; Nanion Technologies; Charles River Laboratories; Bayer AG; University of Nottingham; Universite de Lille.

1.Cross-site and cross-platform variability of automated patch clamp assessments of drug effects on human cardiac currents in recombinant cells, Nature Scientific Reports

2. A systematic strategy for estimating hERG block potency and its implications in a new cardiac safety paradigm, Toxicology, and Applied Pharmacology

For more information on Metrions fully integrated Cardiac Safety Screening / CiPA Screening service, please visit: https://www.metrionbiosciences.com/services/cardiac-safety-screening/

Merion Biosciences comprehensive cardiac safety testing White Paper The changing landscape of cardiac safety will also be available on the Companys website from 13th April 2020.
The logo of Qatar Petroleum is seen at its headquartes in Doha

By Rania El Gamal

DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar Petroleum (QP) is pressing ahead with foreign as well as domestic expansion despite the global market turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic, its chief executive told Reuters on Monday.

Saad al-Kaabi, who heads the energy portfolio of the world's top liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier, also said the company could seek to raise debt next year for its domestic North Field LNG expansion.

Qatar, a tiny but wealthy country is one of the most influential LNG market players with annual production of 77 million tonnes. It plans to increase its LNG production to 126 million tonnes a year by 2027.

Kaabi told Reuters QP will postpone the start of production from its new gas facilities until 2025 following a delay in the bidding process, but is not downsizing the world's largest LNG project, the North Field expansion.

"We are still going to expand externally. We have always focused on upstream assets and... we are still interested in going ahead abroad," Kaabi said in a video conference interview.

ExxonMobil <XOM.N>, Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L>, Total <TOTF.PA> and ConocoPhillips <COP.N> are long-standing partners in Qatar's LNG plants.

Some of these have signed deals over the last year to give Qatar stakes in their oil and gas projects.

Energy companies worldwide have cut spending as oil prices plummeted to 18-year lows, dragging gas prices down with them, after a producer supply pact collapsed in March just as the impact of lockdowns to limit the spread of the new coronavirus destroyed demand.

Qatar Petroleum is majority owner of the Golden Pass LNG terminal in Texas, with Exxon holding a small stake.

Kaabi said the Golden Pass project was on schedule.

"The Golden Pass is proceeding... that's our major expansion outside Qatar regarding our LNG portfolio," he said.

"We don't have a project that is on the table that we are taking off the table. We are always looking for opportunities."

Exxon and Qatar Petroleum made a final investment decision to build the project in February and expect the project to begin production in 2024.

Story continues

Golden Pass is designed to produce around 16 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG, equivalent to about 2.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas.

Kaabi said the company was looking at opportunities to reduce its operating costs and capital expenditure, but that would not impact the major projects it is working on.

"QP is in a very good position financially. We have reduced our debt tremendously over the past years. We can weather the storm very easily," he said.

Although the company was not looking to raise debt for now, Kaabi said some of its foreign partners ask QP to raise debt for their own project finance.

"We will look at it at the right time... We could be looking at it for next year," he said.

(Reporting by Rania El Gamal; editing by Barbara Lewis)
The US has been relying on emergency air shipments of masks from China and other countries to help meet demand.

President Donald Trump said his administration reached a deal with manufacturer 3M Co. to produce about 55.5 million masks a month for U.S. health-care workers and others fighting coronavirus.

So the 3M saga ends very happily, Trump said at a White House news conference on Monday.

Trump has said he invoked the Defense Production Act to ban the export of supplies needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic  triggering a fight with 3M and allies including Canada. Hes used the act and his public pulpit to excoriate companies he sees as not fully cooperating with the governments efforts to fight the virus.

3M didnt immediately respond to a voicemail seeking comment.

The company initially pushed back against a request from the administration to halt exports of protective face masks, saying the move would cut off critical supplies for neighboring countries and raise significant humanitarian concerns.
T aste of London, the capitals largest food festival, has cancelled its summer edition in Regents Park amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The announcement was revealed via an email to exhibitors at the upcoming festival, with the organisation saying it made the decision with heavy hearts.

A source close to the Standard shared the email, which reads: Due to restrictions and advice from the UK government in light of global health concerns regarding COVID-19 (coronavirus), it is with heavy hearts that we have determined it is no longer possible for us to proceed with Taste of London 2020 at Regents Park on 17-21 June. We will therefore be sadly cancelling the event this year.

This decision has been made in consultation with Public Health England and reflects our commitment to the health and safety of you and everyone involved in the festival, the statement continues.

We are all very disappointed and know how much hard work all our partners as well as our team have put in preparation for the 2020 edition.

The summer food festival is among the many food festivals and events which have been cancelled or postponed following the UK outbreak of the virus, including the London Coffee Festival and the delay of Tom Kerridges touring Pub In The Park.

The email also said that Taste of London expects its Festive edition to go ahead as planned in November, where it says it hopes everyone can celebrate coming together again.

Last years summer edition saw some 40 restaurants showcase more than 100 dishes at the festival to more than 50,000 visitors, with exhibitors including Brigadiers, Lina Stores, Kyms and Bao.
CLINTON  Steve Adkins talks about his first five days at Yale New Haven Hospital as his darkest moments fighting COVID-19, and what was just the beginning of his 20-day battle.

Youre in an isolation room, he said. Youre in a single and all your can do is sit there and think of how bad you feel, he said.

Adkins brush with the coronavirus started on March 12 with a fever. It was over the next five days that Adkins experienced a severe sore throat, fever and fatigue.

On March 16, he had the coronavirus test at the Long Wharf testing site in New Haven on the recommendation of his primary care physician, Dr. Jill Banatoski.

Tuesday, I got the fatigue, he recalled. I couldnt walk up the stairs anymore. I hadnt had the fatigue yet, I still felt like its just the flu, doc. I still got my lungs.

Well, I got the fatigue and she said, Pack a bag, go to the ER, now, he said.

He was admitted to the hospital on March 18 and remained until March 31.

An important decision

Adkins is a well-known figure on the shoreline  he grew up in Madison and moved to Clinton recently. He is the harbormaster for Madison and also is president of Madison Fireworks.

He has worked as a Realtor the past 16 years, currently with Madisons Berkshire Hathaway.

Banatoski, a Shoreline internist, spoke with the ShoreLine Times with permission from Adkins, her patient. The doctors interaction with Adkins was when her office was just beginning to limit office visits and move towards telemedicine.

He was actually my first video visit with a patient, she said.

Its so much better than a phone call because you gain so much information by being able to see a patient, see what they look like, see if they look fatigued, what their breathing pattern is like, she said.

Banatoski admits that treating patients during this time is challenging.

It can be a very unsettling time, right? she said. We cant bring people into the office as often. We cant see them face to face. We cant listen to their lungs, so you have to ask lots of questions and utilize all your other resources the best you can.

It was Adkins shortness of breath that really concerned Banatoski.

The fact of the matter was Steve was becoming more short of breath and he was finding it more difficult to do his regular (activities)  like go up and down the stairs or do regular activities, so thats what prompted us, she said.

And he was having persistently high fevers that were becoming more difficult to control, she added.

The decision was made on March 17 to admit Adkins to Yale. While in the hospital Banatoski kept up to date with his care on a daily basis.

A dark place

It was from March 17 through March 22 that Adkins felt his worst. His fever spiked to 103.5 degrees.

I got in a bad place there, I, all of a sudden I realized I might not make it, he said.

Ive got to tell you, thats the scariest thing you can imagine.

Youre alone, youre in a dark place, youre in a hospital and nobodys comforting you, he added, talking by telephone two days after spending two weeks at Yale New Haven Hospital.

Yale now has a strict no visitors policy for all patients, with certain exceptions for extenuating circumstances.

So, while Adkins received care in the hospital, his wife, Rita, remained at home.

Im glad Stevens home, so that makes me feel better because alone for 20 days and worrying about him was horrible, exhausting, the 62-year-old said.

Rita Adkins also tested positive for the coronavirus. While her temperature didnt spike, she had a scratchy throat and a cough that persists today.

No one knows for sure how the Adkins contracted COVID-19. The couple at first speculated about a Valentines Day cruise aboard Celebrity Cruises to San Juan, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

I think anything is possible  if I am correct it would have been about 21 days since he left the ship. So that is a bit far from exposure but possible, said Banatoski.

While Rita Adkins had daily contact with her husband, she is just learning how sick he really was during his hospital stay.

Obviously he wasnt telling me everything, so I wouldnt be upset, she said. But I guess thats OK, too, because I probably would have been really upset, especially being here alone and not being able to go out or do anything.

It was scary for Atkins while he was in the hospital, with doctors and nurses entering his room, covered head to toe with personal protection equipment, including full body gowns and two masks, he said.

You feel like youre contagious, and I was, obviously, he said. You feel like youve got something that theyre scared of  and they are.

High fevers, a headache and labored breathing, plus difficulty sleeping plagued the 67-year-old.

You get in a fit where youre coughing and you cant catch your breath and you cough more and you cough more and you cough more and you get out of breath and you keep coughing, he said. Theres nothing you can do for it except sit upright and wait for it to pass.

While these lasted minutes, It seemed like, when you cant catch your breath and youre coughing more, thats when you think, Geez, youve got to stop this, Im going to lose consciousness.

He talked about receiving a natural sleep aid to help.

One night they gave me melatonin and I had hallucinations on the melatonin. It was amazing, it was bizarre.

I woke up not knowing where I was, not recognizing the room and having a panic attack, he added. Needless to say, I didnt have melatonin again.

On March 21 or 22 Adkins doctors suggested a cocktail or concoction of medicine . At that point Adkins was willing to try anything.

I feel bad, what are you going to give me thats going to hurt me? he said he told the doctors, laughing.

While he is unsure of what was in the IV bag, he fell asleep after receiving it and woke up no fever, no headache.

I felt renewed. I felt alive, he said. I felt cured. I felt fantastic.

I dont know what was in the bagIm not going there, they concocted something, its theirs, its proprietary, he said. It saved my a.

The cocktail was a clinical trial protocol at Yale, according to Banatoski.

The care

Yet, this wasnt the cure-all for this patient. He struggled a bit with his oxygen saturation levels and was sent to the intensive care unit where he spent another five or six days.

While he mentally began to feel better, he still had to work hard to stay off a ventilator, something that scared the... out of me.

I forced myself to breathe through my nose, he said. Ive got a deviated septum, which means I dont breathe well from my nose, but the nose breathing is what they want for saturation levels.

So, I forced myself, he said. I just practiced deep breaths through the nose, which wasnt easy, but, hey, it got it done and I got my saturation levels back up and thats what got me out of the ICUand thats what ultimately got me out of the hospital.

Both Adkins and Banatoski stress that he had no underlying health conditions.

Over 25 years ago Adkins had a bout with pneumonia and it was 25 years ago that he quit smoking.

I am an active bike rider, sailor, he said. I did my exercise every week, got my aerobics up, so I went in healthy and it almost killed me.

For Banatoski, early intervention and hospitalization was key in Adkins recovery.

The real success in the whole thing is that he got really great care at Yale New Haven Hospital and he sought care in an appropriate time interval, we had frequent check-ins and so when we knew he really needed to escalate his level of care and treatment we were able to do that, she said.

For Adkins, a good nights sleep is what is helping him with his recovery. With the pneumonia, brought on by the coronavirus, sleep has been difficult.

This morning I was able to get flat and on my right side and a decent couple hours, he said, after being home for two days.

I feel great, better every day, said Atkins.

This avid boater is looking forward to sailing his 33-foot Crowther Trimaran on the Sound.

Meanwhile, he has a warning for everyone.

You do not want this disease, he said. This can kill you.

Stay home, stay safe, he stressed. Dont risk it. Dont risk getting this, because it can kill you.

Flatten the curve, do what theyre telling you to do, he said. Follow what people are telling you, stay in.
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Two Upstate New York bars have had their liquor licenses suspended for violating the order that they stop serving alcohol and food on premises during the coronavirus outbreak.

Both bars are in Erie County: Swannie House at 170 Ohio St. in Buffalo and AJs at 10250 Main St. in Clarence. Both were also ordered closed by the Erie County Health Department.

In both cases, as many as a dozen patrons were seen gathered inside the bars in violation of the executive order issued March 16 by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, according to the State Liquor Authority.

Under the order, bars can serve alcohol and food for pick-up or delivery, but can not serve customers inside the premises.

The State Liquor Authority board suspended the two bars today in an emergency meeting conducted online. The owners of the two bars can appeal the suspensions.

The SLA had previously suspended the licenses of two other bars for violating the coronavirus order, one in Queens and one in the Bronx. The two bars in Erie County are the first Upstate establishments to be cited.

The action against the two Erie County bars followed incidents that occurred on March 27.

In Buffalo, Erie County health officials had received a complaint that Swannie House was continuing normal daily operations despite restrictions to combat the coronavirus, the liquor authority said. The complaint included a video showing about 12 people inside the bar consuming alcoholic beverages.

At 8:30 p.m. on March 27, an Erie County health inspector arrived at the bar and found about 12 people inside. When Erie County Sheriffs deputies arrived a half hour later, they found the front door locked and saw patrons leaving through a rear door.

On the same day, Erie County health officials received a complaint that AJs in Clarence was operating in violation of the emergency shutdown order. That night, a county health inspector conducted surveillance of the bar for about 30 minutes, and saw eleven patrons inside.

Sheriffs deputies and health inspectors then entered the bar and were met by the owner, who told them he could not prevent patrons from mingling and consuming alcohol inside the premises, the liquor authority said.

In addition to the liquor license suspension, the two bars remain closed by order of the county health department.

Continuing to operate business-as-usual during this crisis demonstrates a dangerous indifference to the health and safety of others, and the SLA will not hesitate in taking immediate actions to shut these businesses down, SLA Chairman Vincent Bradley said in a statement. We understand suspending dine-in service has caused a major, though necessary economic disruption for our licensees, and we thank the overwhelming majority of businesses who are prioritizing the publics best interest in our cooperative efforts to stem the tide of the coronavirus.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

New York state announces new graduation rules after cancelling Regents exams due to coronavirus

Syracuse man to family before dying of coronavirus: Pray I make it

Coronavirus in NY: Cuomo extends school, business closures until April 29

Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com

Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.
Australian Year 12 students have been told they will be able to graduate this year despite the disruption to their studies caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

Federal education minister Dan Tehan on Tuesday confirmed the states and Commonwealth agreed students will still proceed to finish high school this year.

'For all those students out there, for all those parents out there, there will be no year 13, there will be no mass repeating. You will get your leaving certificate this year,' he said.

The federal education minister said Year 12 exams and assessments may be weighted to take into account some students studying from home

The announcement followed a phone meeting between state and federal education ministers this week to discuss the impact the COVID-19 pandemic upon studies.

Mr Tehan also said the government did not want those students studying from home for part of the year to be left behind when assessments roll around, and grades may be adjusted to account for the disruption.

'When it comes to how the ATAR is calculated and assessed, the Commonwealth is going to do further work with the university sector, with the vocational education sector and will come back to the Education Council in May,' he said.

'What we all are going to do is to endeavour to make sure that this year's ATAR scores are the same as last year's ATAR scores... But we will take into account those students who have to learn from home, those who might not be able to access the technology like others do.'

While most schools lack the capacity to have a year level repeat, universities are also eager for a new batch of undergraduates to start in 2021, particularly given the predicted sharp reduction in the number of international students due to COVID-19.

Secondary schools around the country are currently on the Easter break, with some states having brought forward the holidays as schools began to urge students to stay at home.

It is likely when term two begins later this month most or all states would maintain the option of distance learning as lockdown measures continued across the country.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews already confirmed students in Victoria would be advised to study from home when classes for term two begin next week.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, extending her partys support to the governments decision to slash salaries of Members of Parliament (MPs) by 30%, while also listing five suggestions to fight the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Her suggestions included suspending the Rs 20,000-crore Central Vista beautification and construction project and transferring all money under the PM-CARES fund --- set up last month to fight the pandemic --- to the Prime Ministers National Relief Fund (PM-NRF).

Gandhis letter comes in response to the Prime Ministers Sunday call seeking suggestions in the wake of the fast-spreading infection caused by the Sars-CoV-2 virus.

Watch: 5 points Sonia Gandhi raised in letter to PM Modi on battling COVID-19

I am writing to convey our support for the decision taken by the Union Cabinet to reduce salaries for MPs by 30%. Austerity measures which can be used to divert much-needed funds to the fight against Covid-19 are the need of the hour. In this spirit, I am writing to offer five concrete suggestions. I am certain you will find value in them, she said.

Gandhi demanded a complete ban on media advertisements --- television, print and online --- by the government and public sectors undertakings (PSUs) for a period of two years, with the exceptions being advisories for Covid-19 or issues relating to public health.

Given that the central government currently spends an average of Rs 1,250 crore per year on media advertisements (not including an equal or greater amount spent by PSUs and government companies), this will free up a substantial amount to alleviate the economic and social impacts of Covid-19, she added.

The Congress chief also sought immediate suspension of the Central Vista project. At a time like this, such an outlay seems self-indulgent to say the least. I am certain that Parliament can function comfortably within the existing historical buildings. There is no urgent or pressing requirement that cannot be postponed until this crisis is contained. This sum could instead be allocated towards constructing new hospital infrastructure and diagnostics along with equipping our frontline workers with personal protection equipment (PPE) and better facilities.

In her third suggestion, Gandhi sought a proportionate reduction of 30% in the expenditure budget (other than salaries, pensions and central sector schemes) for the central government as well.

This 30% (Rs 2.5 lakh crore per year approximately) can then be allocated towards establishing an economic safety net for migrant workers, labourers, farmers, MSMEs and those in the unorganised sector, she added.

The Congress president also urged Modi to put on hold all foreign visits, including that of the President, the Prime Minister, Union ministers, chief ministers, state ministers and bureaucrats. Exceptions can be made in case of special emergency or exigencies in national interest to be cleared by the PM. This amount (which is around Rs 393 crore for just the Prime Minister and Union cabinets trips in the last five years) can be utilised extensively in measures to combat Covid-19.

In her fifth suggestion, Gandhi demanded transfer of all money under PM-CARES fund to the PM-NRF. This will ensure efficiency, transparency, accountability and audit in the manner in which these funds are allocated and spent. It seems like a waste of effort and resources to have and create two separate silos for the distribution of funds. I understand that Rs 3800 crore approximately are lying unutilised in the PM-NRF (at the end of FY2019). These funds, plus the amount in PM-Cares, can be utilised to ensure an immediate food security net for those at the very margins of society, she said.

Gandhi further wrote, Every single Indian has made great personal sacrifices to fight this disease. They have complied with every suggestion, instruction and decision taken by your office and the Central Government. It is time that the Legislature and the Executive reciprocate this trust and good faith. Please be assured that you have our unwavering support in meeting the grave challenge of Covid-19 facing the country.

This is Gandhis fifth letter to the Prime Minister since March 23.

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President Muhammadu Buhari has sent his message of solidarity to UKs prime minister, Boris Johnson who was rushed into intensive care after suffering serious coronavirus symptoms on Monday, 6th April.

Buhari, in his message, urged the prime minister to recover quickly and get back to a healthy state.

Read Also: COVID-19: Buharis Daughter Reunites With Family After 14 Days In Isolation

A copy of the statement was made public by Lauretta Onochie, the presidential aide on social media.

Statement below:

PRESIDENT BUHARI SENDS MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY TO UKS PM JOHNSON

On behalf of the government and people of Nigeria, President @MBuhari wishes Prime Minister @BorisJohnson, a quick recovery and restoration to full health.

Pres Buharis
A couple in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district has named their newborn son as "Lockdown" to celebrate the "collective resolve" shown by people of the country to defeat coronavirus on the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The boy was born to Raghunath Mali and his 24-year-old wife Manju, both residents of Bachheri village in Sheopur district, at a private hospital on April 6.

When asked about the reason behind naming his son as "Lockdown", which evokes feelings of anxiety among people in view of the ongoing three-week restrictions on movement, Mali, a farmer, said it would forever remind them about this unprecedented period.

"My wife gave birth to a boy on Monday. When it comes to mention his name on birth certificate, I and my wife decided to name him 'Lockdown'," Mali said.

The farmer also said that his wife eagerly agreed to the idea.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a call for a 21-day lockdown to protect the country from coronavirus. The entire country is united in this time of crisis and to make this event memorable, we have named our son 'Lockdown'," the couple said.

Around four days back, a couple from neighbouring Chhattisgarh had named their newborn twins as 'Corona' and 'Covid'.

The couple had said the names symbolises triumph over hardships. The twins - a boy and a girl - were born during the ongoing novel coronavirus-enforced nationwide lockdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New York, NY - April 07, 2020 - Today, the American Thoracic Society announced that Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., donated $500,000 to support the ATS COVID-19 Crisis Fund, a newly launched initiative to develop and disseminate research, education and scientific recommendations to providers in the pulmonary and critical care communities, as well as other clinicians in need of expanding their skill set during this emergency. Boehringer Ingelheim is the first to make a donation to the Fund.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed significant challenges for pulmonary and critical care specialists worldwide. As a membership society of health care professionals committed to improving lung health, the American Thoracic Society is a leading voice in the discourse on initiatives to counter the spread of the coronavirus and provide support to those on the frontlines treating those who are sick. In order to fulfill its mission to the greatest extent possible as COVID-19 ravages individuals and medical infrastructures worldwide, ATS is seeking industry support.

"On behalf of the entire ATS community I want to thank Boehringer Ingelheim for their incredibly generous support," said ATS President James Beck, MD. "Everyone in the respiratory community - health care providers at all levels, government and industry - are working shoulder to shoulder to manage the incredible challenges surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. This gift will go a long way in helping the ATS pursue its mission of enhancing patient care at a time when resources are stretched so thin. Thank you!"

"Supporting the needs of the pulmonary and critical care communities is what Boehringer Ingelheim has stood for throughout our company's history and we are proud to stand with the ATS to make a critical difference to help slow the spread of COVID-19," said Thomas Seck, MD, senior vice president, Medicine & Regulatory Affairs, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. "This donation is one of several steps that our company is taking to provide assistance to healthcare professionals and patients facing this crisis."

It is the ATS's hope that this donation is the first in what will be a larger effort from industry to share their resources in helping to address the significant needs arising from the COVID-19 crisis.

For more information about making a donation to the ATS Crisis Fund, please contact the ATS Office of Development at dev@thoracic.org.

###

About the American Thoracic Society

Founded in 1905, the American Thoracic Society is the world's leading medical association dedicated to advancing pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. The Society's 15,000 members prevent and fight respiratory disease around the globe through research, education, patient care and advocacy. The ATS publishes four journals, the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, the Annals of the American Thoracic Society and ATS Scholar.
Sanitation and Water Resources Minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah has urged all landlords to stop charging their tenants water bills for the next three months.



Speaking at a press briefing organized by the Ministry of Information in Accra today, Madam Abena Dapaah noted that the landlords will not pay bills for the months of April, May and June and so must ensure their tenants access water for free.



She stressed that by virtue of President Akufo-Addo's intervention that the Government of Ghana will absorb the water bills, it behooves the landlords to comply with the directive by the President for all Ghanaians to receive uninterrupted water supply in these critical times of the COVID-19 pandemic.



Please, with all due respect, the water should be given to all tenants for free because the landlords will not be paying water bills for April, May and June, she emphasized.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Rick Jamieson is riding an adrenalin rush.

The Guelph-based brake pad manufacturer  who calls himself the chief energizing officer of a new consortium called Ventilators for Canada  scrambled for two weeks to nail an actual deal.

Now, he is pretty sure the first of about 30,000 new made-in-Canada ventilators ordered by Ottawa will be rolling off a Baylis Medical assembly line by mid-May.

It will be a slow start, he says, maybe just 125 at first.

But if Canada can indeed quickly crank up domestic production, it will ease a countrys mind during a tense global race to secure the critical machines.

Ventilators breathe for and provide life-saving oxygen to COVID-19 patients whose lungs are swimming with fluids, and right now the machines are in high demand around the world. So are respirator masks, medical gowns and other personal protective equipment for health workers.

The federal government tried to reassure Canadians on Tuesday that help is on the way. It has ordered:

30,000 new ventilators through four companies and organizations, on top of 1,000 announced last week.

More than 230 million surgical masks. More than 16 million have already been delivered.

About 75 million N95 respirator masks, which block most virus-laden particles, are on order. Ottawa expects to receive roughly 2.3 million masks by the end of the week.

More than 113,000 litres of hand sanitizer, most of which is expected to be delivered this month. Some 20,000 litres have already been received and 10,000 litres are expected later this week.

The scramble is real and high-stakes.

Ottawa leased a warehouse in Shanghai, and has dispatched embassy personnel and three charter cargo flights to China to secure deliveries.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that his call last month for help to ramp up production of much needed medical supplies led to an avalanche of more than 5,000 offers from Canadian manufacturers, engineers and scientists.

The federal government signed onto an early batch of deals that it hopes will produce the 31,000 new ventilators and millions of protective medical gowns produced in Canada.

There are currently about 5,000 ventilators in Canada, federal officials have said.

Rick Jamieson says Toronto-based Baylis Medical, which specializes in making cardiac and spinal devices, will switch production to make 10,000 of the new ventilators.

Jamieson wheeled and dealed for two weeks, first trying to persuade a leading British ventilator company to licence its design to be made here through the group that Jamieson and Jim Estil, of Danby Appliances, assembled.

Jamieson says the British group backed out at the last minute, fearing theyd now face new and tough competition for parts that are harder and harder to buy in the global market.

Jamieson tried and failed to persuade Dyson to license its design and tried a few other routes, before Baylis  which buys most of its materials in southern Ontario  encouraged the group to use an open-source design provided to the world by medical manufacturing giant Medtronic.

The federal government continues to look at other proposals as well, said Innovation, Science and Industry Minister Navdeep Bains in an exclusive interview with the Star, and is moving quickly on ventilators

Were trying to build as many as possible, he said. If we have more solutions coming in the next few days and we can scale it, we will do that.

Its buy, buy, buy, build, build, build, Bains said.

Trudeau said the order for 30,0000 ventilators is a big number but doesnt necessarily reflect the governments projections for how many Canadians will need them.

We certainly hope we do not get anywhere near that number, he said, but we need to be ready for any circumstances, including the need to help other countries.

Other suppliers are Thornhill Medical, which had already agreed last week to supply 1,000 machines (plus 40 to Ontario); the Canadian aerospace and defence supply and training company CAE; and a group led by StarFish Medical, a Victoria-based medical device and technology company, working with auto parts maker Linamar.

Bains signed deals with Intertape in Nova Scotia which makes construction housewrap, and AutoLiv of Tilbury, Ontario which makes car airbags. They will switch to producing protective material for medical gowns.

The federal government signed 22 letters of intent with Canadian apparel manufacturers like Arcteryx and Canada Goose to make medical gowns using those materials.

Medical gowns come in a range of materials to prevent infection transmission, and those materials have generally come from outside Canada, said Bains.

The money for all this is to come out of a $2 billion pool that Ottawa set aside to mobilize domestic production of medical supplies, testing kits, and vaccine research in the fight against COVID-19.

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In a long and informative post, actor Purab Kohli opened up about his and his family's battle with COVID-19 in London. The outbreak of Coronavirus has toppled down several countries and continues to take lives.

Instagram

For actor Purab Kohli, who is still in London with his family, this battle wasn't an easy one but he for sure wants to aware people.

Instagram

Purab took to his social media accounts and recollected how his son, wife and he were diagnosed with coronavirus and were under self-quarantine.

However, after a battle, he, his wife and his 5-year old daughter are completely free from the infection now. In an elaborate and informative post on Instagram, Purab wrote,

Instagram

"Hey guys, weve just had the flu and given our symptoms our GP says we were down with COVID 19. Pretty similar to the regular flu with a stronger cough and a feeling of breathlessness. Inaya got it first and very mild. A cough and a cold for two days. Then Lucy got it more in the chest, quite similar to the cough symptom everyone has been talking about. Then me, I got a solid cold for one day which was horrid then it vanished and this irritating cough set in for 3 days. Three of us had only mild 100-101 temperatures and fatigue. Osian got it last with a 104 fever for 3 nights. Also a runny nose and a slight cough. His fever disappeared only on his 5th day. We were constantly in touch with the GP on the phone."

He further added, "Apparently everyone in London is getting it and it is rampant here, and a few people we know have gotten it. I just wanted to share it with you if it helps reduce the panic a little to know someone who has had it and is fine. On Wednesday last week, we were out of self-imposed quarantine and are not contagious any longer. We were doing 4 to 5 steams and saltwater gargles a day, ginger Haldi honey mixtures to soothe the throat really helped. Also, warm water bottles on the chest really helped relax the chest. Hot baths helped the fluie feelings.

Instagram

And of course lots and lots of rest even now after two weeks we can feel our bodies still recovering. Please stay safe. I hope none of you get it but if you do, know that your body is strong enough to fight it. Seek proper advice from your doctors as the intensity of each case is different as was in my household alone. And please stay home and rest the body as much as possible. Lots of love. #CoronaVirus #Covid19 #Recovery #DontPanic #Breathe #Calm."



Purab Kohli married long-term girlfriend Lucy Payton in 2018. The couple have two children Inaya and Osian and both got symptoms that suggested they had contracted COVID-19.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun has asked the international community to help shore up his coronavirus-struck country as it plunges deeper into economic crisis.

We welcome any international assistance from the friends of Lebanon, Aoun said at the presidential palace in Baabda during a meeting of the UN-created International Support Group.

Specifically, Aoun asked donor governments to free up some $11 billion in aid pledges made during a conference in Paris in 2018. The $10.2 billion in loans and $860 million in grants were conditional on Lebanon making long-overdue reforms and public-spending cuts that donors say Beirut has not yet implemented.

Given the danger of our current financial situation, and its significant economic impact on nationals, residents and refugees, our reform program will need external financial support, Aoun said of Lebanon, one of the worlds most indebted countries.

The coronavirus pandemic has compounded the countrys financial crisis. The economic downturn  considered Lebanons worst in decades  was brought on in 2019 by dwindling dollar reserves, a plunge in the currencys value and a sharp decline in foreign investment. On April 2, the World Bank announced it had approved a $40 million loan to help Lebanon fight COVID-19.

Nationwide anti-government protests over perceived government corruption, high youth unemployment and a lack of basic services erupted in October. Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab, who has promised to address the concerns of the protesters, pledged a wide-reaching rescue plan that his office says will include commitments to long-stalled reforms.

During Mondays meeting, Aoun also pointed out that since 2011 Lebanon has taken up to 1.5 million refugees from neighboring Syria, who, along with tens of thousands of Palestinians, have put additional strain on the countrys finances. Aoun warned of a humanitarian disaster should the coronavirus reach Lebanons overburdened refugee camps.

This story contains reporting from Agence France-Presse.
As airlines continue to slash flights amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, a police officer from Minnesota is suing United Airlines over a rejected ticket refund claim.

MORE: Navy will remove 2,700 sailors from aircraft carrier hit by coronavirus

Passenger Jacob Rudolph filed the lawsuit in Chicago federal court on Monday after he claims the airline refused to refund three tickets he purchased in January totaling $1,521.45. Rudolph says the airline cancelled his April 4 flight between Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

He then requested a refund several times, "but like so many other passengers, United denied that request," the lawsuit said. According to Rudolph, United offered to rebook his flight or issue him a ticket credit for travel within one year of the issue date. Over the weekend, United announced they were extending voucher expirations for up to two years.

The class action suit was filed just three days after the Department of Transportation (DOT) told the airlines that they remain obligated to provide a prompt refund to passengers whose flights were affected by COVID-19.

"The Department is receiving an increasing number of complaints and inquiries from ticketed passengers, including many with non-refundable tickets, who describe having been denied refunds for flights that were canceled or significantly delayed, DOT said in a statement. "In many of these cases, the passengers stated that the carrier informed them that they would receive vouchers or credits for future travel."

MORE: US airlines prepare for possibility of domestic travel shutdown, but don't believe one is imminent

United said in a statement to ABC News that they have not been served with the complaint and therefore cannot comment on it. United said that "eligible travelers on domestic flights -- and customers with international tickets" can request a refund online or may call United's contact centers if their flight has been "severely adjusted" or "service to their destination" was suspended either due to government mandates or the airline's schedule reductions.

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PHOTO: Closed United Airlines check-in counters at San Francisco International Airport, due to the outbreak of coronavirus and COVID-19, in San Francisco, April 6, 2020. (John G. Mabanglo/EPA via Shutterstock)

"The need for monetary refunds over travel vouchers is pressing now," the lawsuit says. "Travel vouchers provide little security in this public crisis, particularly where many individual Americans need money now to pay for basics like food and rent, not restrictive, temporary credits towards future travel."

A little over a week ago, nine Democratic senators sent letters to all the major U.S. airline CEOs urging them to issue customers full cash refunds.

U.S. airlines secured almost $60 billion in the stimulus package comprised of both cash grants and loans. The airlines agreed to refrain from laying off employees through September, place limits on executive compensation for two years, and eliminate stock buybacks for at least a year.

MORE: Airline execs seeking $58 billion warn Congress 'time is running out'

"It would be unacceptable to us for your company to hold onto travelers payments for canceled flights instead of refunding them, especially in light of the $25 billion bailout that the airline industry just received from Congress," the senators wrote to airline CEOs.

Senators asked the airlines to respond by April 7.

What to know about coronavirus:

How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained

What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptoms

Tracking the spread in the U.S. and worldwide: Coronavirus map

As flights are canceled amid coronavirus, officer sues United Airlines for refund originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Despite federal health recommendations, thousands of Wisconsin voters waited hours in long lines outside overcrowded polling stations on Tuesday so they could participate in a presidential primary election that tested the limits of electoral politics in the midst of a pandemic.

Thousands more stayed home, unwilling to risk their health even as Republican officials pushed forward with the election amid a stay-at-home order. But many of the potential voters who remained in their homes complained that the absentee ballots they had requested never showed up.

Pregnant and infected with the coronavirus, 34-year-old Hannah Gleeson was still waiting Tuesday for the absentee ballot that she requested last week.

"It seems really unfair and undemocratic and unconstitutional," said Gleeson, who works at an assisted-living center in Milwaukee. "I think it's voter suppression at its finest."

Polls closed Tuesday night, but a court ruling appeared to prevent results from being made public earlier than next Monday to ensure absentee ballots are counted.

Joe Biden hopes the state will help deliver a knockout blow to Bernie Sanders in the nomination fight, but the winner may be less significant than Wisconsin's decision to allow voting at all. Its ability to host an election during a growing pandemic could have significant implications for upcoming primaries and even the fall general election.

The chaos in a premiere general-election battleground underscored the lengths to which the coronavirus outbreak has upended politics as Democrats seek a nominee to take on President Donald Trump. Democrats complained that the state was risking the health of its citizens by not postponing the election. Republicans insisted that the election should go on as scheduled.

After several hours of voting, there were signs that the Wisconsin test was not going well.

Milwaukee, the state's largest city, operated just five of its 180 traditional polling places, forced to downsize after hundreds of poll workers stepped down because of health risks. The resulting logjam forced voters to wait together in lines spanning several blocks in some cases. Many did not have facial coverings.

 FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered.

The election complications had a racial component, as well.

Milwaukee is home to the state's largest concentration of black voters, a community that has been hit harder than others during the pandemic. Reduced minority turnout would benefit Republicans in a series of state and local elections.

Michael Claus, 66, was among the many voters who risked their health to vote. Claus, who is black, wore a protective mask and a Tuskegee Airmen cap.

He said he tried to vote absentee and requested a ballot in March, but it never showed up. His only option was to vote in person. He blamed the Republican-controlled state legislature.

"They could have delayed the election with no problem," Claus said. "They decided if they can suppress the vote in Milwaukee and Madison, where you have a large minority presence, you can get people elected you want elected. And that's sad."

Democrats in and out of Wisconsin pressed for the contest to be postponed, yet Republicans  and the conservative-majority state Supreme Court  would not give in. The fight over whether to postpone the election, as more than a dozen states have done, was influenced by a state Supreme Court election also being held Tuesday. A lower turnout was thought to benefit the conservative candidate.

Trump on Tuesday broke from health experts who have encouraged all Americans to stay home by calling on his supporters to "get out and vote NOW" for the conservative judicial candidate, Daniel Kelly. He later said Democrats were playing politics by trying to postpone the election.

"As soon as I endorsed him, the Wisconsin Democrats said, 'Oh, let's move the election two months later,'" Trump said. "Now they talk about, 'Oh, safety, safety.'"

Wisconsin has reported more than 2,500 coronavirus infections and 92 related deaths  49 of them in Milwaukee County, where the voting lines were longest.

The unprecedented challenge created a chaotic scenes across the state  and a variety of health risks for voters and the elected officials who fought to keep polls open.

They included Robin Vos, the Republican speaker of the state Assembly who joined more than 2,500 National Guard troops dispatched to help staff voting stations. While many voters standing in lines for more than an hour did not have protective equipment, Vos donned a face mask, safety glasses, gloves and a full protective gown.

In Madison, city workers erected plexiglass barriers to protect poll workers, and voters were encouraged to bring their own pens to mark the ballots.

State GOP Chairman Andrew Hitt downplayed the health concerns, noting that Wisconsin residents are still going to the grocery store, the liquor store and even boating stores classified as essential businesses.

"This isn't New York City," he said.

Still, voters said they endured an unusual experience.

Christopher Sullivan, a 35-year-old high school teacher from western Wisconsin, said two police officers greeted voters outside his polling site in Holmen, while two members of the county health department instructed him to wash his hands in a makeshift sink inside.

In another room, Sullivan was told to take one of the pens on a table spaced 6 inches apart and not give it back. He was given his ballot by "an elderly lady wearing a mask and gloves sitting behind a glass wall."

"I have voted many times in my life (and at this location) and have never experienced something so eerie," Sullivan said.

Peoples reported from Montclair, N.J. Associated Press writers Gretchen Ehlke and Carrie Antlfinger in Milwaukee and Amy Forliti and Doug Glass in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
Russian researchers studying the East Sea issues have opposed Chinese coast guard ships hitting and sinking of Vietnamese fishing vessel QNg 90617 TS in the waters of Vietnams Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago,

saying that that the international community will support Vietnam.

Grigory Trofimchuk, Chairman of the Expert Council of the Eurasian Foundation for Support of Scientific Research (Photo: Trend.az)

Talking with Vietnam News Agency (VNA) correspondents in Russia, Chairman of the Expert Council of the Eurasian Foundation for Support of Scientific Research Grigory Trofimchuk said such inappropriate acts of Chinese vessels have been condemned by the public, but China has still deliberately ignored.

He said China should exercise self-restraint and avoid similar acts, and stay calm to properly settle existing issues through peaceful measures.

According to the expert, the incident occurred amid rising uncertainties across the world, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which could worsen the East Sea issue.

He noted that as the number of similar incidents is increasing steadily, researchers will pay attention to and condemn them at international seminars and forums on the East Sea issue.

In every circumstance, Vietnam is not alone in the East Sea issue, he stressed, expressing his belief that the international community will raise their voice to support Vietnam.

Trofimchuk suggested that Vietnam should take full advantage of its international tools, including its non-permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council, as well as cooperation mechanisms within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), especially when the country holds the blocs chairmanship this year.

Sharing the same opinion with Trofimchuk, Prof. Vladimur Kolotov from the Saint Petersburg State University said China is making corrupt use of the time when many countries worldwide, including Russia and the US, are pooling resources to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, to increase its influence in the East Sea.

He recommended regional countries to stay alert against a new wave of escalating tensions in the East Sea, amid the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in the world.

Earlier, while answering to reporters queries about the incident, spokeswoman of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Le Thi Thu Hang said on April 3 that Vietnam has sufficient legal grounds and historical evidence affirming its sovereignty over Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos in accordance with international law.

Such an act by the China coast guard ship violates Vietnams sovereignty over the Paracel islands, causing damage, threatening the safety of life and the legitimate interests of Vietnamese fishermen.

It also went against the common perception of senior leaders of the two countries on the humane treatment of fishermen and the Vietnam-China agreement on the basic principles guiding the settlement of maritime issues, and in contrary to the spirit of the Declaration of Conduct of the Parties in the East Sea (DOC), which complicates the situation and is not conducive to the bilateral relations as well as the maintenance of peace, stability and cooperation in the East Sea, she said./.VNA
OraSure Technologies, the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based tech company that gained notoriety years ago with its rapid HIV test, has been awarded a $710,310 federal contract to develop an in-home coronavirus test, the company announced Monday morning.

The contract comes from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It will enable OrasSure to file for special authorization from the FDA allowing the in-home test to debut in the U.S. market.

OraSure is billing the tests development as a possible breakthrough in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Once its developed and the necessary approvals are obtained, the test would help alleviate the pressure on over-burdened healthcare systems, a news release from OraSure says.

Healthcare providers, retailers, and online vendors could ship tests directly to an individuals home, eliminating unnecessary trips to hospitals, doctors offices, and testing facilities, the release says. This would help maintain social distancing and curb the spread of coronavirus through symptomatic and asymptomatic transmission. Rapid in-home testing could also ease the burden on lab-based testing.

OraSure envisions a rapid development cycle of approximately four to six months prior to seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration Emergency Use Authorization, the authorization necessary to get it out to the U.S. Market.

Lives and global economies are at stake. Its crucial that we understand just how many people are infected with SARS-coronavirus, OraSure President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen S. Tang says in a statement. In-home self-testing will dramatically increase the capacity for SARS-coronavirus testing and give our healthcare systems and labs some much-needed breathing room.

"We believe that the development of an easy-to-use device that delivers accurate results to individuals in their homes can play a significant role in impacting infection rates. We are proud to bring our expertise with quality, rapid, oral fluid self-tests to the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

OraSure, which has its headquarters at 220 E. First St. in Bethlehems Southside, has worked with the federal government in the past on developing testing for ebola and on other public health initiatives. OraSure got its start in 1987 as Solar Care Technologies at the Ben Franklin TechVentures business incubator at Lehigh University. Its focus back then was developing sunscreen towelettes.

Its OraQuick HIV Self-Test is a rapid, point-of-care test that allows an individual to detect antibodies to both HIV-1 and HIV-2 with an oral swab, with results in as little as 20 minutes.

Pennsylvanias number of COVID-19 cases had climbed to 11,510 with 14 new deaths, including a Lehigh County resident, in the 24 hours preceding Sunday afternoon. The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 1,493 new cases of the coronavirus, including 121 more positive test results in the Lehigh Valley, in its Sunday afternoon briefing.

We need to put tests into peoples hands to know their infection status and protect their loved ones,' BARDA Director Rick Bright says in a statement. We know that people can spread COVID-19 without showing any symptoms, and with rapid at-home testing people could take immediate action to prevent the spread of the virus.

Nick Falsone may be reached at nfalsone@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickfalsone. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 05:39:23|Editor: huaxia

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TRIPOLI, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Spokesman of the east-based army of Libya Ahmad al-Mismari said on Monday that the army repelled an attack of the UN-backed government's forces in the south of the capital Tripoli, killing 15 troops of them.

"Armed Forces Units managed to repel an attack of the terrorist militias (UN-backed government's forces) supported by Syrian mercenaries and Turkish military vehicles in Ain Zara (southern Tripoli)," the spokesman said in a statement on his official Facebook page.

On Sunday, the east-based army announced killing of 41 troops of the rival UN-backed government in southern Tripoli.

Since April 2019, the east-based army has been leading a military campaign in and around Tripoli in an attempt to take over the city and topple the rival UN-backed government.

According to the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), at least 356 civilians were killed and 329 other were injured since the outbreak of the armed conflict.

The armed conflict also displaced nearly 150,000 people from their homes, and 345,000 civilians remain in frontline areas, while an estimated 749,000 others live in areas affected by the clashes, according to UNSMIL.

Despite recent announcements of both parties to the conflict of accepting international calls for cease-fire to allow authorities to fight the COVID-19, the fighting and targeting of civilians in Tripoli continues.
Citywide

Photo: Terry Beswick/Facebook

Stymied by a lack of support from the mayor's office and the city's Human Services Agency, a group of San Francisco supervisors have struck out on their own to usher unhoused people into city-leased hotel rooms, in order to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

For the past two weeks, supervisors Matt Haney (District 6), Aaron Peskin (D3), Dean Preston (D5), Hillary Ronen (District 9) and Shamann Walton (D10) have called for as many homeless people as possible to be housed in San Francisco's largely empty hotel rooms, in order to prevent the spread of the virus.

On March 31, the full Board of Supervisors unanimously passed non-binding legislation to that effect.

Today, the same group of supervisors introduced an emergency resolution to house the homeless, expressing frustration with inaction from Mayor London Breed's office.

They say Breed and the Human Services Agency have only been willing to provide hotel rooms to homeless people who are officially diagnosed with COVID-19, or in quarantine after exposure to known patients.

That group is currently comprised of just a few hundred of the city's more than 8,000 homeless people  even though one recent study says that homeless people are twice as likely to be hospitalized and two to three times more likely to die of COVID-19 than the housed.

In the past week, three residents at San Francisco homeless shelters were diagnosed with COVID-19, and dozens of others may have been exposed both in shelters and on the streets.

Yesterday, Breed dropped plans for new congregate shelters at Moscone Center West and the Palace of Fine Arts after an outcry over the potential for COVID-19 exposure, led by Street Sheet editor Quiver Watts.

Two unhoused people at SoMa's MSC South shelter tested positive for COVID-19 this week. | Photo: St. Vincent De Paul Society of SF



The proposed emergency ordinance is currently set for a vote before the full Board of Supervisors next Tuesday, and requires a two-thirds majority to pass.

If it passes, it will officially mandate that 7,000 rooms be provided for preventative sheltering of homeless individuals by April 26, in addition to the rooms already provisioned by Breed's office for patients and medical first responders.

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The supervisors say they're hoping Breed won't make them wait that long. But in the meantime, two of the supervisors sponsoring the legislation have already moved ahead to secure private funding for sheltering handfuls of homeless people in hotels.

Through a Gofundme campaign, Sup. Preston's office has raised over $70,000 to preventatively move 39 Providence Foundation clients into a District 5 hotel.

And late last week, Sup. Haney announced that the United Methodist Church had donated $100,000 to shelter clients of the Tenderloin's Hospitality House in hotel rooms. According to Mission Local, 17 Hospitality House residents are now living in a vacant Polk Street hotel; the remaining six are able to socially distance at Hospitality House.

This is a ticking time bomb," Hospitality House executive director Joe Wilson told Mission Local. "We cannot wait until it explodes.

Shelter residents exposed to COVID-19 patients have also been moved. Paul Monge, Sup. Ronen's legislative aide, said that 33 people from Division Circle Navigation Center, the site of the city's first recorded shelter case, had been moved into hotel rooms last Friday to self-quarantine.
Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang, a lecturer at the University of Ghana, is looking for new ways to carry on teaching his students.

He has no other choice. Ever since Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo ordered last month the indefinite closure of all schools to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, many of the countrys higher educational institutions began exploring options in online learning.

I plan to use WhatsApp and Zoom to make the classes more interactive, said Opoku-Agyemang, who teaches literature courses at the Accra-based universitys Department of English. I will also be having guest artists and guest lecturers join in. The artists will use Instagram Live, while the guest lecturers will probably use Zoom.

Yet, it wont be easy. Stable electricity  we had an extended power cut yesterday; reliable internet; student engagement, said Opoku-Agyemang, listing some of the challenges threatening the success of the move online.

Stark inequalities

Ghana confirmed its first case of coronavirus on March 12 and has since reported a total of 287 infections and five deaths. In a bid to keep the rapidly spreading virus at bay, the government has announced a series of sweeping measures including banning mass gatherings and shutting down all borders and schools.

But the coronavirus pandemic has revealed the stark regional, social and economic inequalities in Ghanas educational system.





Closing schools indefinitely has long been the reality for many high school students in northern Ghana, where educational facilities operate with limited infrastructure compared to those in the more affluent south. This has often manifested in high schools inability to resume classes on time due to a shortage of teachers, delays in feeding grants and a lack of building facilities which, on occasions, have resulted in children having to study under trees.

Beyond regional disparities, social class has also been a determining factor in the quality of education. Many wealthier Ghanaians send their children to private schools (primary and junior high) given that public schools are often resource poor.

Homeschooling as an alternative

Since the shutdown of schools on March 16, some parents have opted for homeschooling to mitigate the effect on their childrens education. But many are quickly realising that this is not as easy as they anticipated, despite receiving support from schools to facilitate homeschooling

There are many distractions. Some days she wants to watch TV only, said Nora Akemson Avicor, an Accra-based parent of a four-year-old girl based in Accra. Some days I am super busy with the business and we dont even get time to do anything at all.

While parents who have formal education can actively manage their childrens learning via homeschooling, this is not an option for those who are not formally educated, especially in the countrys north.

The shutdown will affect the pupils drastically. Many children will not have the chance to learn while at home, said a basic school educator in Tamale, northern Ghana. They think they are on holiday. Even in the community, you see children roaming about and it looks like they dont even know that they are supposed to stay at home.

An educator at a junior high school in the Sagnarigu municipality added: Many of the children only learn at school, they dont study at home. Since we have been home, if you ask many of the students, they will tell you that they havent opened a book. And these are students preparing to write the BECE.

BECE, or Basic Education Certificate Examination, is the standardised exam junior high school students have to take to get into senior high schools, while WASSCE, or West African Senior School Certificate Examination, is the exam taken by senior high school students to get into universities and colleges. Although the WASSCE has been suspended indefinitely, the Ghana Education Service is currently in serious discussions with the West African Examinations Council about the conduct of the BECE.

To address the situation, the Ministry of Education on April 3 launched TV learning for senior high school students. State broadcaster GBC will also begin airing TV lessons for primary and junior high schools on April 13, and there are plans to produce similar content for radio learning.





Struggles in higher education

At the same time, higher educational institutions have begun training lecturers in online instruction as they actively turn to web-based alternatives.

So far, the University of Ghana has worked with Vodafone to make SIM cards available to students to enable them to access the colleges digital learning platform, Sakai.

But according to a student of the university, the cards 5 gigabytes of monthly internet data are hardly enough to cover their needs. Students have been told they will still be able to use their SIM cards to access learning platforms even after they have run out of data, but some of them are not confident that this will happen until they actually witness it.

Although some universities are using built-in, already existing learning platforms such as Sakai to facilitate learning, others have to turn to services such as Google Classroom, WhatsApp, YouTube and Zoom.

In one class at the University for Development Studies in Nyankpala, class sessions are currently being run on WhatsApp.

The WhatsApp is purposely for discussions pertaining to the course  and its not all that effective, Abdul, a student, said. And not everyone is on the platform. Some dont have smartphones and others cant afford a bundle [internet data]. So they usually tell you some areas to learn on your own and if you have any problems you can raise it in the class group chat and then we can discuss it.

At the same time, many students worry about the effectiveness and feasibility of online pedagogy since lecturers who are not technologically literate may find it difficult to manage online teaching.

I only have confidence in two of my lecturers being able to teach online, said Titi, a student at the University of Ghana. The rest, God will provide.

A lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Eliasu Mumuni, said he expected technical issues, especially with the grownups.

It will take some time to orient people to it, he added. The students are feeling like its time to rest but we are here pushing them to learn in an environment that is not conducive.





Digital divide and alternatives

Despite recent efforts by the Ghana Education Service and various higher educational institutions to move pedagogy online, there is a wide digital divide that will make the goal of online learning difficult to achieve in a country where less than half of the population is believed to have mobile phone internet access.

On March 30, the Ghana Education Service announced that it had developed an online study platform for all senior high schools and that plans were in place to develop and make available a learning platform for basic schools. People who have attempted to use the platform for senior high school students have already began reporting challenges in accessing and using it.

Once fully operational, these platforms will only be available to those who have access to internet data, smartphones, tablets and computers, which leaves out a large number of students who lack access to these technologies. Even with students with them, high costs of internet data can mitigate their access to learning.

As a result, many students at the higher educational level who have little to no access to digital tools will find themselves stuck at the periphery of the educational system while their more privileged colleagues continue to learn.

Looking ahead, it is important to consider how the most marginalised will be affected by moving education online.

Telecommunications companies should also step up collaboration with higher educational institutions to facilitate access to free unlimited data to students to participate in digital learning.

Parents should explore ways to teach their children by drawing on Ghanas indigenous knowledge systems This type of pedagogy can take the form of storytelling in indigenous languages; teaching children folksongs; helping children improve their indigenous language proficiency; teaching children about indigenous gastronomy and nutrition; sharing family, ancestral, ethnic and national oral histories among others.
The 21-day coronavirus lockdown has badly hurt India's economy, and now everyone is looking at how the Modi government plans to normalise it after April 14. To strategise an exit plan, Prime Minister's 11 empowered committees, which are headed by the home secretary and continuously seeking feedback and assessments, will meet today and decide the next course of action. The committee comprises officials from railways, civil aviation, pharmaceutical, commerce, health, DEPT officials and representatives from businesses.

Besides, the central government has also sought feedback from states. Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with chief ministers via videoconferencing and asked them to submit suggestions -- as per the situation in their respective states -- for a staggered exit after April 14. Here's how the current picture on coronavirus pandemic in India looks like:

SO WHAT'S THE PLAN?

The indication from the government is that there's going to be no blanket lifting of the lockdown and that the country could be headed for a staggered exit, the final plan for which is yet to be drawn. A senior minister told India Today that the Centre was planning a "rational lockdown", a micro-managed exit in a staggered manner.

A major reason for this is the government's belief that lockdown has proved to be effective in curbing community spreading. But opening the economy was the need of the hour for the lockdown had already caused irreparable damage to the economy.

IS ANOTHER LOCKDOWN VIABLE OPTION?

India's daily GDP stands at $8 billion. The 21-day lockdown will cause around $168 billion loss and 30-day lockdown around $250 billion. At this juncture, the government might not be in a position to extend the ban as another lockdown could push the economy beyond recovery, a senior bureaucrat said. However, the process of lifting the lockdown could be slow as states are working on different strategies. Reports from the states are expected to reach the Prime Minister's Office this week.

DIFFERENT STATES, DIFFERENT PLANS

Some states like Punjab, Haryana and UP have started harvesting wheat and other crops. These states are planning to announce major relaxations for labourers. Moreover, states are staring at huge financial losses which will impact various state-level welfare schemes. A longer lockdown means extra burden, which will force them to knock at the Centre's door for financial aid.

Reports suggest areas with high coronavirus cases may stay under lockdown, while those with no cases may see relaxation.

Also read: Coronavirus Live Updates: Delhi CM Kejriwal announces 5-T plan to combat COVID-19

ROAD, AIR, SEA TRANSPORT MAJOR HURDLES

Among all the hurdles, road, railways, air and sea transports are the biggest challenges. States are still not in favour of interstate movement. This implies bus transport is unlikely to open up , neither railways which needs states' consent. Private transport may also stay under curbs until the situation normalises.

WILL AIRLINES RESUME OPERATIONS?

The decision on resuming airline operations will be a difficult one for the government. Air India has already stopped booking till April 30, while other airlines are awaiting the Centre's response.

INDIA INC FACING LOSSES

The biggest worry among all is privately-run large industrial units, which employ crores. The lockdown is hurting their balance sheets and will subsequently destroy their financial sustainability. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the meeting with all the stakeholders, could chalk out an exit strategy for the industry as well.
By PTI

BEIJING: China said on Monday that the novel coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan in "late December 2019" where the infection was listed as "pneumonia of unknown cause", but skirted the key question about its origin in an official timeline of coronavirus detection and control published by Beijing for the first time, amid international criticism of cover-up.

Since the coronavirus outbreak, the pandemic has killed 3,331 people in China with the number of infections rising to 81,708 by Sunday, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Monday.

A total of 1,299 patients are still being treated, while 77,078 patients have been discharged after recovery.

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The deadly COVID-19 has spread rapidly throughout the world, killing more than 70,500 people and infecting over 1.2 million across over 180 countries and territories, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

In India, the COVID-19 death toll has gone up to 111 and the number of cases stands at 4,281, according to the Health ministry figures.

In late last December, the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention in central China's Hubei province detected cases of "pneumonia of unknown cause", state-run Xinhua news agency reported, citing the 38-page timeline document.

On December 30, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission issued an urgent notification to medical institutions under its jurisdiction, ordering efforts to appropriately treat patients with pneumonia of unknown cause, it said.

On December 31, the municipal commission released a briefing on its website about the pneumonia outbreak in the city, confirming 27 cases and telling the public not to go to enclosed public places or gather.

It suggested wearing face masks when going out, the document said, adding that commission started releasing the briefings on the pneumonia outbreak from the next day.

While the document listed day-by-day account of how China handled the fast spreading virus, it was conspicuously silent about the emergence of the deadly infection from Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan which was subsequently shut down.

China has faced criticism over COVID-19 crisis and Beijing has been accused of using its "propaganda" to hush-up coronavirus cases.

China and US had a lengthy spat over origin of the virus.

While US President Donald Trump called COVID-19 as China virus and Wuhan virus, Beijing said such allegations amounted to stigmatising China.

Beijing said the origin of the COVID-19 can be determined only by scientific and professional views.

"The world is paying a big price for what they (China) did and the world is paying a very big price for not letting them (information about coronavirus) come out," Trump said last month.

His remarks came after the National Security Council had tweeted that the Chinese Communist Party suppressed initial reports on the coronavirus and punished doctors, causing Chinese and international experts to miss critical opportunities to prevent a global pandemic.

The timeline document did not mention Li Wenliang, the "whistle-blower" doctor in Wuhan who was reprimanded by police when he warned about the virus in social media on December 30.

He later died due to the infection.

"The novel coronavirus disease epidemic is a major public health emergency that has spread the fastest, caused the most extensive infections and been the hardest to contain since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949," said the document, which listed developments till March 31.

The US has accused of China of delayed action resulting in the pandemic spreading to other countries, an allegation Beijing vehemently refuted asserting that it was working with the international community in an "open and highly responsible manner" to contain the global crisis.

While China imposed a lockdown on Wuhan on January 23, officials said over five million people from the city of 11 million had already left the city for Chinese New Year holidays.

The document said the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention received the first batch of samples of four patients from Hubei Province and began pathogen identification.

The National Health Commission (NHC) came up with a set of guidelines on early discovery, early diagnosis and early quarantine for the prevention and control of the viral pneumonia of unknown cause, it said.

Starting January 3, China has been regularly informing the WHO, relevant countries and regions and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan about the pneumonia outbreak.

China began to inform the US of the pneumonia outbreak and response measures on a regular basis, it said, refuting allegations from Washington that Beijing has not shared the required data.

On January 5, laboratory test results ruled out respiratory pathogens, such as influenza, avian influenza, adenovirus, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, as the cause, it said.

On the same day, China informed the WHO about the outbreak updates and the UN health body released its first briefing on the issue.

Two days later, the China CDC succeeded in isolating the first novel coronavirus strain, the document said.

China also informed the WHO about the epidemic, sharing with the UN health body the initial progress in determining the cause of viral pneumonia.

A high-level expert team headed by Zhong Nanshan later confirmed human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus and called on people not to go to Wuhan except for extremely important reasons.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global nitrobenzene market size is projected to reach USD 14.3 billion by 2027, registering a revenue based CAGR of 5.6% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The demand is anticipated to grow significantly owing to rising consumption of nitrobenzene in the production of synthetic rubber.

The automotive sector is considered to be the largest end-user of rubber manufactured from nitrobenzene. It is used to produce automotive tires, tubes, covers, belts, mats, steering wheel covers, and other accessories. According to Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA), the global vehicle production grew from 90.8 million units in 2015 to 95.6 million units in 2018. Rising automotive sales is also expected to boost its aftermarket, in turn, propelling the demand for synthetic rubber.

Key suggestions from the report:

Aniline production was the dominant application segment in 2019 and is expected to witness a revenue based CAGR of 5.7% from 2020 to 2027

Synthetic rubber manufacturing is anticipated to lead the market in China with a revenue-based CAGR of 6.5% from 2020 to 2027 due to its wide usage in the automotive Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and aftermarket sectors

Construction and automotive industries are the major end-use markets for nitrobenzene due to high demand for aniline in different applications. These industries consumed 82% of the total nitrobenzene volume globally in 2019

The demand for MDI in Europe has led to companies investing in the production of aniline, thus driving the nitrobenzene market in the region with a revenue-based CAGR of 4.6% from 2020 to 2027

Nitrobenzene manufacturers are focusing on forward integration in order to strengthen their market position.

Read 115 page research report with ToC on "Nitrobenzene Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Application (Aniline Production, Synthetic Rubber Manufacturing), By End Use (Construction, Automotive), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/nitrobenzene-market

Consumption of nitrobenzene across the globe is largely affected by fluctuating raw material prices. This is due to the fact that major raw materials used in manufacturing are petrochemical derivatives and are obtained by the synthesis of crude oil. Besides, the prices are largely affected by currency fluctuations, as the global production of the product is concentrated in China.

North America is the third-largest market after Asia Pacific and Europe. The growing demand of aniline for methyl diisocyanate (MDI) in the region is anticipated to drive the nitrobenzene market over the forecast period. Bayer acquired the aniline production facility of DuPont, in Baytown, Texas, in 2014, in order to support the growing demand and strengthen its position in North America. The facility also produces MDI, toluene diisocyanate (TDI), and polycarbonate, thus having a forward integration.

BASF expanded the production capacity of its Verbund site in Geismar, Louisiana, in 2016, owring rising demand for MDI in North America. The facility initially produced 300,000 tons of MDI annually and currently has a capacity of 600,000 tons. These factors are anticipated to drive the production of aniline, in turn boosting the demand for nitrobenzene in the region.

Grand View Research has segmented the global nitrobenzene market on the basis of application, end use, and region:

Nitrobenzene Application Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

Aniline Production



Pesticide Additive



Synthetic Rubber Manufacturing



Paint Solvent



Others

Nitrobenzene End-use Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

Construction



Agriculture



Pharmaceutical



Automotive



Others

Nitrobenzene Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

North America



U.S.





Canada



Europe



Germany





U.K.





France





Netherlands



Asia Pacific



China





India





Japan





South Korea



Central & South America



Brazil



Middle East & Africa

Find more research reports on Organic Chemicals Industry, by Grand View Research:

Allantoin Market - Rising product demand for the manufacturing of various personal care products including conditioners, shampoos, mouthwash, and toothpaste, is expected to propel growth over the forecast period.

Rising product demand for the manufacturing of various personal care products including conditioners, shampoos, mouthwash, and toothpaste, is expected to propel growth over the forecast period. Ammonium Nitrate Market - The increasing demand for the product in fertilizers as a nitrogen source is expected to propel the market growth.

The increasing demand for the product in fertilizers as a nitrogen source is expected to propel the market growth. Soda Ash Market - Global market is supposed to observe demand recovery over the forecast period after witnessing negative year-on-year growth for the past few years.

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About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead.

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NEW YORK, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --



Get an in-depth analysis of COVID-19 impact on the global peripheral catheters market.



The peripheral intravenous catheters market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 4% during the period 20192025.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05881129/?utm_source=PRN



The global peripheral intravenous catheters market is growing at a steady rate due to the rising incidence of trauma cases (accident and burn cases), the growing prevalence of chronic diseases, and increasing hospital-acquired infections. The market growth is also driven by the rising volume of hospitalization and the demand for chemotherapy procedures requiring intravenous catheters to deliver medicine, nutrition, and fluids to the patient. The use of safety PIVCs is one of the major factors driving growth. Although safety needles are more expensive than conventional needles, their price is likely to decline during the forecast period due to government initiatives that promote the use of safety needles. Vendors are partnering with distributors for the bulk supply of PIVCs to end-users.



Another major driver influencing the growth of the peripheral IV catheters market is the demand for midline IV catheters. They are unique vascular access devices, which are inserted in the peripheral veins of the upper extremity. They terminate in the peripheral veins without extending into the central veins. Hence, the incidence of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) is minimal with the usage of midline IV catheters. Many healthcare settings prefer using them to avoid CLABSIs. Midline PIVCs also offer significantly better hemodilution than conventional ones placed in smaller, more distal veins because of the placement of the tip in one of the larger veins of the upper arm.



The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the peripheral intravenous catheters market during the forecast period:

 Growing Popularity of Midline Peripheral IV Catheters

 High Focus of Vendor on Product Bundling Strategies

 Increasing Demand for PIVCs from Emerging Economies



The study considers the present scenario of the peripheral intravenous catheters market and its market dynamics for the period 2019?2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The study offers both the demand and supply aspects of the market. It profiles and examines leading companies and other prominent companies operating in the market.



Peripheral Intravenous Catheters Market: Segmentation

This research report includes a detailed segmentation by products, technology, end-user, and geography. With the steady demand for safe short PIVCs, vendors are focusing on manufacturing IV catheters, with non-irritant, flexible, kink-resistant, and user-friendly materials such as polyurethane. The market is growing at a fast rate due to the rising awareness of needlestick injuries and bloodborne infections among patients. As there is a rise in the number of hospitalizations, the demand for short PIVCs is growing as they are used for a short duration of around 7296 hours, thereby decreasing contamination chances. Moreover, advances in minimizing the infection rate will generate lucrative opportunities for key players, thus boosting the growth in upcoming years.



The increasing hospital admissions for more than one week are driving the demand for midline PIVCs market. Patients do not need to strike multiple times for frequent IV restart while using midline PIVCs. Besides, there are several advantages, which include avoiding repeated venipunctures and decreasing the incidence of catheter-related infections. Moreover, extended hospital stay requires durable and safe PIVCs. Therefore, vendors offer a wide range of midline catheters that are safe and avoid associated complications.



The transformation in the healthcare sector has led to the use of a diverse range of IV catheters in hospitals. The purchase is higher in hospitals and other medical facilities. The bulk purchase helps in the procurement at discounted rates. Hospitals have tie-ups with distributors and vendors for the supply of medical products. Private clinics and practitioners usually procure PIVCs from distributors, as they face difficulties in establishing direct contacts with manufacturers because of their low volume purchases.



The ambulatory care settings (ACS) segment is expected to dominate the market. This growth can be attributed to the use in surgery care settings as PIVCs help to supply drugs, nutrients, and blood during surgeries. A lot of patient population prefers ACS due to same-day surgery and high-class treatment availability. The growing incidence of surgical site infections (SSIs) has forced ACS to implement safe injection practices to minimize the spread of blood-borne infections. The increasing patient preference in ASCs to perform surgeries has led to high demand for PIVCs.



In 2019, the conventional segment was growing at a significant rate, and the trend is likely to continue during the forecast period. The growth of the segment is majorly due to the high preference for low-cost affordability in emerging economies and the lack of awareness of safe needles practices in the population. Moreover, the easy availability of conventional catheters is driving the segment in developing economies. Also, the high prevalence of chronic diseases is contributing to the usage of conventional PIVCs. However, the high inclination toward safe catheters is likely to decrease the market segment.



The Safety PIVCs market is growing at a rapid growth rate. The increase in the patient population and the growth in hospital admission are driving the segment worldwide. Vendors are increasingly focusing on offering diversified safety PIVCs to provide safe patient care and avoid infections. In Germany, the adoption of safety needles for IV catheters is high due to the presence of stringent medical safety regulations. The healthcare system in Germany follows the EU directive legislation for the medical safety of patients and medical professionals during medical procedures. This is projected to play a significant role in propelling the growth in the coming years.



Market Segmentation by Products

 Short PIVC

 Midline IV Catheter

Market Segmentation by Technology

 Conventional PIVC

 Safety PIVC

Market Segmentation by End-user

 Hospitals

 Specialty Cardiac Centers

 Others



Insights by Geography

North America is a major market due to the growing incidence of chronic diseases and an efficient distribution network of medical devices. The region has advanced hospital infrastructure and facilities with the focus on avoiding infections and cross-contamination and providing high patient safety by opting for safe closed/integrated IV catheters and midline ones. As there is high awareness regarding PIVCs and associated complications, the adoption is increasing rapidly in the region. The US is the major revenue contributor to the North America PIVCs market. Canada is also likely to experience healthy growth during the forecast period. This growth is mainly attributed to the increasing incidence of chronic diseases.

The European market is experiencing at a slower rate than APAC, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa regions; however, the region is the second-largest market. Medical devices, including PIVCs, are subjected to general safety requirements prescribed by regulatory bodies. The healthcare system in the region is advanced, highly regulated, sophisticated, and evolved with a standard reimbursement structure. The rise in chronic diseases is the major factor for market growth. In addition, the rising demand for the use of retractable and safety needles are propelling the growth in Europe.

The APAC market is growing at a significant rate, which is expected to continue during the forecast period. The healthcare system in the region is undergoing rapid transformations with favorable support from government organizations. China, Japan, India, South Korea, and Australia are the major revenue contributors in the APAC region. Countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia are also expected to witness increased demand due to improving quality of life and growing healthcare expenditures.

The Latin America region is experiencing healthy growth in the healthcare sector, including medical devices, due to the growth in overall GDP in several countries. The overall GDP of Latin America grew to 3.7% in 2016 from 2.9% in 2014. The availability of advanced healthcare infrastructure is expected to increase the usage of advanced medical devices such as PIVCs to avoid infections, thereby contributing to the growth in the region. Brazil is the largest market in Latin America due to the high incidence of chronic diseases and needlestick injuries, which has contributed to the increased demand for PIVCs over the past few years. Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina will be a few potential markets in Latin America during the forecast period.



Market Segmentation by Geography

 Europe

o Spain

o Germany

o Italy

o France

o UK

 North America

o US

o Canada

 APAC

o South Korea

o China

o Japan

o Australia

o India

 Latin America

o Brazil

o Argentina

o Mexico

 MEA

o Turkey

o Saudi Arabia

o South Africa



Insights by Vendors

The global peripheral intravenous catheters market is highly competitive and characterized by the presence of a few key players and a significant number of other prominent players offering a wide range of advanced and innovative cardiac prosthetic devices. The market is witnessing rapid technological advancements and is significantly affected by new product launches. Abbott, BIOTRONIK, Boston Scientific, Edwards Lifesciences, and Medtronic are the major players with dominant shares in the market. The dominant presence of major players is attributable to their strong presence and endorsement for their products due to the availability of abundant clinical data/evidence regarding safety and efficacy.



Key Vendors

 BD

 Smiths Medical

 Vygon

 Braun Melsungen

 Teleflex

 Terumo

 Shanghai Puyi Medical Instruments

Other Vendors

 Argon Medical Devices

 Delta Med

 Greiner Bio-One International

 Retractable Technologies

 Nipro Medical

 Medline Industries

 Dukwoo Medical

 AngioDynamics

 EXELINT INTERNATIONAL

 Access Scientific

 ICU Medical



Key Market Insights

The analysis of the peripheral intravenous catheters market provides sizing and growth opportunities for the period 20192025.

 Provides comprehensive insights on the latest industry trends, forecast, and growth drivers in the market.

 Includes a detailed analysis of growth drivers, challenges, and investment opportunities.

 Delivers a complete overview of segments and the regional outlook of the market.

 Offers an exhaustive summary of the vendor landscape, competitive analysis, and key strategies to gain competitive advantage.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05881129/?utm_source=PRN



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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A Bafta-winning Syrian photographer and filmmaker has temporarily changed careers to spend his time disinfecting Covid-19 wards at his local hospital.

Hassan Akkad, who moved to London four years ago, said he wanted to give back to the NHS during the pandemic, and so took the minimum-wage job as a way of contributing.

He wrote on Twitter: I am honoured to join an army of cleaners.

Thank you for all the love! It would mean a lot to me if you can donate some money to the hospital I clean. They launched a Covid-19 appeal and need a bit of help during this tough time. Link below. Thank you again xxxhttps://t.co/UcD1DLhurF  Hassan Akkad   (@hassan_akkad) April 7, 2020

London has been my home since leaving Syria and the least I can do is make sure my neighbours and the amazing NHS staff are safe and sound.

The tweet quickly went viral with many praising his attitude.

Mr Akkad, 32, told the PA news agency: I can clean  the benefit of having a Syrian mum is I know how to clean really well.

He did not know when he was applying that he would be working on Covid-19 wards, but said when he was told: I knew I was willing to do it.

Honoured to join an army of cleaners disinfecting Covid wards our local hospital after receiving training. London has been my home since leaving Syria, and the least I can do is making sure my neighbours and the amazing NHS staff are safe and sound. #StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/7XkBwSiXW8  Hassan Akkad   (@hassan_akkad) April 7, 2020

Mr Akkad arrived in the UK in late 2015, filming all 87 days of his perilous journey from Syria  a film that would later go on to win a Bafta and an Emmy.

However, after the UK was placed into lockdown, future work and projects began to dry up.

He said: I know there is a risk, but I am not treating patients, I am merely a cleaner and disinfecting the ward. But I know my job makes a difference because I know as cleaners we are looking out for the NHS staff.

I just went out on my lunch break and was blown away by how lovely, supportive and kind you all are. Thank you so much. I would love it if you could donate to @chooselove Covid appeal as well, they are doing such important work



Link: https://t.co/ym3QeRHPIH  Hassan Akkad   (@hassan_akkad) April 7, 2020

It was overwhelming to see the reaction to the tweet. But I dont want all the credit. I am only doing this temporarily and there are people out there who are the actual heroes because they do this for years.
ATLANTA and MIAMI, April 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP, a closely held biotechnology company, and Drug Innovations at Emory (DRIVE), LLC, a not-for-profit biotechnology company wholly owned by Emory University, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an Investigational New Drug application by Drug Innovation Ventures at Emory (DRIVE), LLC, wholly owned by Emory University, for an orally available antiviral compound, EIDD-2801, exclusively licensed to Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, LP (Ridgeback), a closely held biotechnology company. This action by the FDA allows Ridgeback to initiate human clinical testing of EIDD-2801 in the United States.

"We are thankful to FDA Commissioner Dr. Steven Hahn and his team at the Anti-Viral Division for the unprecedented speed in reviewing our submission, the guidance and the highly collaborative process that ensures this promising drug can advance into the clinical development as fast as possible," said Wendy Holman, Chief Executive Officer of Ridgeback. "We also appreciate the guidance we have received from the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response (ASPR), including discussions that occurred months before COVID-19 first emerged, to help Emory/DRIVE advance the development of EIDD-2801 as quickly as possible to address this global pandemic."

EIDD-2801 prevents the replication of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and has shown potent activity against SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV in animal models of infection. In addition to coronaviruses, EIDD-2801 has broad spectrum activity against a number of diseases of public health concern, including influenza, chikungunya, Ebola, and equine encephalitis (VEE and EEE). The antiviral is orally available and, in addition to COVID-19, is being developed for the treatment of seasonal and pandemic influenza under a contract awarded to Emory Institute for Drug Development by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and for Venezuelan and Eastern equine encephalitis virus (VEEV and EEEV) by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).

"FDA's prompt approval of our IND allows us to initiate human testing for EIDD-2801 as quickly as possible," says George Painter, Ph.D., director of the Emory Institute for Drug Development (EIDD) and CEO of DRIVE. "We are grateful to our collaborators for helping us to assemble this application quickly, and to the FDA for expediting the process. An orally available antiviral medication would be a critical weapon for fighting COVID-19."

Ridgeback and DRIVE have established a partnership to advance EIDD-2801 through clinical development and to optimize availability during the current COVID-19 pandemic. EIDD-2801 was exclusively licensed to Ridgeback in March 2020.

"We look forward to our continued work with the highly experienced drug development team at DRIVE and the dedicated medical, public health and governmental personnel who are on the frontlines of this pandemic  in the United States and abroad," says Wendy Holman, CEO of Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. "The ability to deliver promising treatments to patients in need is what makes us excited to come to work every day. Ridgeback brings its unique perspective, honed by our success developing an Ebola therapeutic during the 2018-2020 outbreak in the DR Congo, to help advance EIDD-2801 for the treatment of diseases that are critical to pandemics and global health."

About EIDD-2801:

EIDD-2801 is an orally bioavailable form of a highly potent ribonucleoside analog that inhibits the replication of multiple RNA viruses including SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. In animal studies of two distinct coronaviruses (SARS-CoV1 and MERS), EIDD-2801 has been shown to improve pulmonary function, decrease body weight loss and reduce the amount of virus in the lung. In addition to activity against coronaviruses, EIDD-2801, in laboratory studies, has demonstrated activity against seasonal and bird influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, chikungunya virus, Ebola virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, and Eastern equine encephalitis virus. The development of EIDD-2801 has been funded in part with Federal funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under contract numbers HHSN272201500008C and 75N93019C00058, and from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), under contract numbers HDTRA1-13-C-0072 and HDTRA1-15-C-0075.

About Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP:

Headquartered in Miami, Florida, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics is a privately held, majority woman-owned biotechnology company focused on orphan and infectious diseases. Initial funding for Ridgeback Biotherapeutics originated from Wayne and Wendy Holman; two individuals committed to investing in and supporting technologies that will make the world a better place. The team at Ridgeback is dedicated to working toward finding life-saving and life-changing solutions for patients and diseases that need champions. Ridgeback is in the process of completing a Biologics Licensing Application with the Food & Drug Administration for mAb114 (ansuvimab) for the treatment of Ebola. Ansuvimab development has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under Contract No. 75A50119C00059 and 75A50120C0009.

About DRIVE:

DRIVE is a non-profit LLC wholly owned by Emory University and started as an innovative approach to drug development. Operating like an early stage biotechnology company, DRIVE applies focus and industry development expertise to efficiently translate discoveries to address viruses of global concern. DRIVE's mission is to discover and develop antiviral drugs for emerging infections, pandemic threats, and biodefense (e.g. COVID-19, swine flu, bird flu, dengue, chikungunya, Ebola, Zika, and viral encephalitis). Because these diseases are major threats, antiviral drugs are critically needed to treat them; however, they are generally not profitable enough for industry to pursue, and thus are considered neglected diseases. DRIVE is unique in that it brings industry expertise to the assets of a leading research University to develop potential antiviral drugs to a de-risked value inflection point that substantially increases the probability of the potential drug being licensed by industry and developed for the ultimate benefit of the public. DRIVE's executive team, led by George Painter, has over three decades of drug development experience within both large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including leading the development of multiple FDA approved antivirals to treat HIV and Influenza, among other viral diseases, including AZT and Relenza.

About Defense Threat Reduction Agency:

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) was formally established on October 1, 1998. DTRA enables the Department of Defense, the United States Government and International partners to counter and deter weapons of mass destruction and improvised threat networks. As a Combat Support Agency and a Defense Agency, DTRA's mission is to counter the threats posed by the full spectrum of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), including chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives; counter the threats posed by the growing, evolving categories of improvised threats, including improvised explosive devices, car bombs and weaponized consumer drones, as well as the tactics, technologies and networks that put them on the battlefield; and ensure the U.S. military maintains a safe, secure, effective and credible nuclear weapons deterrent.

SOURCE Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP

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Noida, April 7 : Its 3 p.m. and about 50 women are braving the sun as they wait for the food and ration to be delivered to their doorstep or in their colonies by the near the Atta market area in Sector 18 here by the state government or the police . But it seems the luck today is not in their favour, as no one has come.

The group sometimes runs towards the road after it finds any minivan or any other car arriving on the street, believing that it must be the government supply van or some donor coming to provide food or ration. But soon their hopes are shattered.

As the group runs on the streets and people coming out together, the police, on number of occasions, chases them away from the streets to ensure that the nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) is not broken.

Most of the women are having their children along with them with no face mask and they are also not maintaining social distancing.

While these women keep on waiting near the streets with hopes of getting the food or ration to feed their families at home, the children, however, are luckier as the passersby, oncars and scooters. give them packets of biscuits.

Speaking to IANS, Chanchala Devi, who resides behind the Atta market said, "I am coming on the street for the last three days in hope of getting the ration. But I am yet to get it." She said that the government is sending the ration, but "I am completely unaware about the timing when the ration comes in our area and so I have not got the ration for the last two days." Another women standing next to her, echoed her complaints. "Only few people are getting the ration from the government. And when we go to collect the ration from the police, we are chased away by them," she alleged.

Rita, who worked a security guard in a nearby mall, said that she has not been paid her salary.

"Following the lockdown the work in the mall stopped. And I have not got my salary even," she said, adding that now she was dependent on the ration and food supplied by the government.

"However, for the last three days I am unable to get the ration," she said.

She also accused the police of not behaving with the women properly and alleged that they threaten to hit the people with their batons. Other women supported her claims.

Meanwhile, the police officials deployed in the area said that the police was distributing all the rations supplied to it by the administration or by the NGOs.

A police official wishing not to be named said: "When we get the ration items with us, we ensure to provide the ration the people. While distributing the ration to the needy, we also noted down the mobile numbers of the people receiving a kilo of wheat flour, rice and pulses." He also claimed that there are number of such women in the group, who even after getting ration or food, immediately comes out of their home to collect more ration.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 23 announced 21-day nationwide lockdown from March 24 to April 14 to cut the transmission of Covid-19. Even before the lockdown, shops, malls, factories and markets were closed since then forcing the people to depend on the ration and food provided by the government.

(Anand Singh can be contacted at anand.s@ians.in)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged citizens against attending packed religious gatherings ahead of the upcoming Christian and Jewish holidays.

DeSantis said during a roundtable event on Monday that Floridians should remember to maintain social distance as religious festivities approach in April. It comes after the governor issued a stay-at-home order last week that exempted essential activities including religious gatherings, reported The Hill.

We want people during this to be spiritually together, but to remain socially distant, DeSantis said. Please keep God close, but please keep COVID-19 away, he added, referring to the disease the CCP virus causes.

DeSantis said that religious leaders in the state were contacted to discuss the activities they plan to hold during the upcoming religious holidays.

I think that that will ultimately be something that matters a lot to people, but we also pointed out the risks of having, you know, a packed gathering right now given what were going through, DeSantis said.

The Florida governor pointed to a funeral in Georgia as an example of the dangers of large gatherings amid the CCP virus pandemic.

They had a big funeral and that really spread throughout the folks there, so it would be a potential to have a super spreader, and that would eventually have really serious health consequences to folks, DeSantis said.

He also pointed to activities that some places of worship have adopted to maintain social distance, such as online church services and outdoor services where people remain in their cars.

The stay-at-home order is effective from April 3 until April 30, but may be extended depending on the situation with the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus.
Punjab police have come up with a novel concept with the launch of a specialised unit comprising 19 constables trained in all types of emergency responses linked with coronavirus, including making first contact with positive Covid-19 cases, enforcing quarantine, isolation and hospitalisation. The programme is presently being tried out in Mohali district in the state and has aptly been named Covid Commandos.

The district will have 19 Covid Commandos designated as Covid-19 emergency response team to spearhead coordination and response to persons and areas affected by Covid-19 within Mohali district, said Kuldeep Singh Chahal, senior superintendent of police (SSP) Mohali.

The chosen members of the Mohali police who will serve as Covid Commandos are physically fit and self-motivated constables who have themselves volunteered to take up the onerous job of Covid-19 control in this moment of extreme exigency, said Chahal.

The commandos will be ready for deployment in a short span of 30 minutes within the entire district, he added.

The deployment of Covid Commandos will safeguard the rest of Mohali police from coming in direct and first contact with Covid-19 positive cases and thereby reduce the chances of police personnel getting infected in the field.

The Covid Commandos have been provided with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and training on its proper usage, including removal and disposal. They have also been given Go-Bags carrying first aid supplies for a response to emergency situations.

They are trained and motivated to meet the requirement of an on-scene police presence along with health department staff. They have also been trained for handling a non-cooperative positive patient as per the standard operating procedure in place, added Chahal.

Coronavirus live updates

Covid Commandos will respond to requests for assistance from the health department and community at large to deal with Covid-19 related cases including, but not limited to, transportation to hospitals, wellness checks and delivery of critical items like medication.

Officers may be required to enforce revised local or regional public health ordinances, such as mandatory quarantines, isolation, or travel restrictions. They may also be required to provide testing and coordinate treatment to limit the spread of COVID-19 within the district, said Chahal.

Click Here for Latest Reports on Coronavirus
While antitrust laws prohibit US oil producers from taking steps to push up oil prices, curbing output would be legal if state regulators or the federal government set lower production levels, antitrust experts said

Dubai/London/Moscow: Major oil producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia are likely to agree to cut production at a Thursday meeting but only if the United States joins the effort, aimed at coping with the disastrous effect of the coronavirus on fuel demand, three OPEC+ sources told Reuters on Monday.

Worldwide oil demand has dropped by roughly 30 percent, or about 30 million barrels a day, at the same time that Saudi Arabia and Russia have been flooding markets with extra supply.

Last week, in response to a weeks-long market rout, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, started talking about cutting production, but want other non-OPEC nations to participate, particularly the United States.

Without the US, no deal, one of the sources said.

Two OPEC sources said Thursdays meeting would be held by video conference at 1400 GMT.

The United States has not committed to taking part in any deal, which US President Donald Trump has said could take 10 percent to 15 percent of world supply off the market. US companies cannot coordinate production due to antitrust laws.

The White House has said it was encouraging talks between the other countries, instead. Major US oil companies and industry groups are opposed to mandated cuts, which would be an extraordinary step in the United States.

On Friday, G20 energy ministers and members of some other international organisations will hold their own video conference, hosted by Saudi Arabia, a senior Russian source told Reuters. Efforts to get the United States involved in the production cut deal will be on the agenda, the source said.

Russia and Saudi Arabia have long been frustrated that curbs by OPEC and others have left a gap that has been filled by shale oil firms in the United States, which became the worlds biggest producer.

That frustration led in part to Marchs collapse of an OPEC+ supply deal that has propped up oil prices for three years.

US Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said on Fox Business Network on Monday that US production was already starting to fall due to the plunge in crude prices.

In the United States we have a free market and the industry will adjust on its own, he said. US Energy Department officials did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Following the collapse of the OPEC+ deal, Riyadh and Moscow blamed each other and launched a battle for market share, sending oil prices to their lowest in two decades. That has strained the budgets of oil-producing nations and hit higher-cost producers in the United States.

Scrambling to secure a bigger market share, Saudi Arabia raised crude output to 12.3 million barrels per day (bpd) on April 1 and said it planned to export more than 10 million bpd. With by far the worlds biggest reserve of extra capacity, Riyadh has insisted it will no longer carry what it considers an unfair burden of cuts.

Antitrust issues

While antitrust laws prohibit US oil producers from taking steps to push up oil prices, curbing output would be legal if state regulators or the federal government set lower production levels, antitrust experts said.

The US authorities have yet to indicate what, if any, action they might take.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said OPEC+ cuts could amount to around 10 million bpd, or some 10 percent of global output. Russian production reached 11.29 million bpd in March.

A Russian government and an industry source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 10 percent might not be enough to steady the global oil market given the weakness of demand.

I think the whole market understands that this deal is important and it will bring lots of stability, so much important stability to the market, and we are very close, Kirill Dmitriev, one of Moscows top oil negotiators, who also heads Russians sovereign wealth fund, told CNBC.

Dmitriev was the first to make a public declaration last month about the need for an enlarged supply pact, potentially involving producers outside the OPEC+ group.

The Russian energy ministry did not respond to a request for comment.


LEGAL NOTICE

NOTICE OF PROPOSED CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT

Hornbeck, et al. v. Orscheln Farm and Home, LLC, et al.,

Case Number 18-00941-cv-W-BP (W.D. Mo.).



READ THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS ARE AFFECTED WHETHER YOU ACT OR DO NOT ACT.

A settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit that alleges the following 303 Tractor Hydraulic Fluid ProductsCITGO-manufactured MileMaster 303 Tractor Hydraulic Fluid; CITGO-manufactured H-K 303 Tractor Transmission Hydraulic Fluid; Orscheln Premium 303 Tractor Hydraulic & Transmission Fluid; and/or CITGO-manufactured SuperTech 303 Tractor Hydraulic Oildid not meet the equipment manufacturer specifications stated on the label. The Defendants deny they did anything wrong and state further that the labels were truthful and adequate. The Court has not decided who is right. Instead, the parties agreed to a proposed settlement to avoid the expense and risks of continuing the lawsuit.

You are Settlement Class Member if you have purchased, not for resale, one of the following products sold in the United States during the stated Class Period:

Product: MileMaster 303 | Size: 3/2 gal. | Start Class Period: Jan. 23, 2017 | End Class Period: Present

Product: MileMaster 303 | Size: 5 gal. | Start Class Period: May 25, 2013 | End Class Period: Present

Product: MileMaster 303 | Size: 55 gal. | Start Class Period: May 25, 2013 | End Class Period: Present

Product: H-K 303 | Size: 3/2 gal. | Start Class Period: May 25, 2013 | End Class Period: April 30, 2016

Product: H-K 303 | Size: 5 gal. | Start Class Period: May 25, 2013 | End Class Period: March 21, 2019

Product: Orscheln 303 | Size: 5 gal. | Start Class Period: September 3, 2014 | End Class Period: August 16, 2017

Product: SuperTech 303 | Size: 5 gal. | Start Class Period: February 17, 2016 | End Class Period: February 10, 2018

The settlement establishes a $18,825,000.00 Class Settlement Fund that will be paid to Settlement Class Members as: (1) cash awards of up to 100% of the purchase price paid for the 303 Tractor Hydraulic Fluid Products and (2) reimbursement for the costs of any repairs, parts, and specific equipment damage that a Settlement Class Member claims resulted from, in whole or in part, the use of the 303 Tractor Hydraulic Fluid Products during the Class Period. You may need to submit a Claim Form to receive your award, which can be obtained at http://www.303settlement.com or by calling 866-742-4955. The deadline to submit a Claim Form is August 31, 2020. Class Counsel will seek an incentive payment of $5,000.00 for each of the Class Representatives. Class Counsel will ask that the Court award up to $5,900,000.00 in attorneys fees and expenses. This amount will not be paid from the Class Settlement Fund.

If you do not want to be legally bound by the Settlement, you must exclude yourself from it by August 31, 2020. If you do not exclude yourself, you will not be able to sue Defendants for any claim relating to the lawsuit. If you remain a Settlement Class Member, you may object to the settlement by August 31, 2020. The Court will hold a hearing on October 13, 2020 to consider whether to approve the Settlement and a request for attorneys fees and expenses. This date may be moved, canceled, or otherwise modified; see http://www.303settlement.com for more information. This notice only summarizes the proposed settlement. For additional information, including the precise terms and conditions of the Settlement, please see http://www.303settlement.com or call 866-742-4955.

A Federal Court authorized this Notice. This is not a solicitation from a lawyer.


RACINE  Racine's mayor and public health director have both issued statements expressing relief that the governor has postponed Tuesday's in-person election; although that postponement is being challenged by Republican leaders in the state Supreme Court.

I have been advocating for cancelling in-person voting for weeks. It is by far the safest thing we can do to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, Public Health Director Dottie-Kay Bowersox said.

Mayor Cory Mason and Bowersox were among the 36 Wisconsin public officials who co-signed a letter over the weekend, requesting the election be postponed in the interest of public safety.

I applaud the governors decision to side with public health officials from around the state in saying that the best course of action for this election is to delay in-person voting and give municipalities more time to do absentee voting by mail. I want to be clear about this  his decision will save lives, Mason, a former state representative, said.

Mason also called on the Legislature to mail absentee ballots to every Wisconsin registered voter who has not already requested a ballot, a request Mason made of state leaders last week when he first asked for the election to be suspended.

State Rep. Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, said in her own statement that she supports the postponement of in-person voting.

"As elected officials, it is our responsibility to protect the lives of our constituents and the integrity of our democracy," she said. "Forcing voters to decide between their health and their right to vote is not free or fair. The choice to delay an election is not easy, but it was necessary in the midst of this unprecedented crisis."

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 19:54:40|Editor: huaxia

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Nurses hold hands to cheer up for Wuhan at the makeshift Huoshenshan (Fire God Mountain) Hospital in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, March 20, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Yuguo)

BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Up to 28,600 of the total 42,600 medical workers assisting virus-hit Hubei Province are nurses, and 40 percent of the nurses were born in the 1990s, said a Chinese health official Tuesday.

High-quality nursing service had made great contributions in reducing the death rate of the pandemic, said Guo Yanhong, an official with the National Health Commission at a press conference.

Guo said that authorities will strengthen the protection over nurses' rights and interests, and intensify the training of nurses to further improve their professional skills.

China had 4.45 million nurses nationwide by the end of 2019, an increase of 350,000 over 2018, Guo said. 
Prosecutors to weigh fight against coronavirus in Russian regions

 Moskva city news agency, Sergey Kiselev

17:55 07/04/2020

MOSCOW, April 7 (RAPSI)  Prosecutors in Russian regions will check the efficiency of measures taken to fight the coronavirus epidemic and availability of medical goods and drugs in hospitals, the Prosecutor Generals Office reports on its website Tuesday.

Prosecutors are to weigh the taken actions preventing the spread of COVID-19, including peoples compliance with the self-isolation regime.

Also, prosecutors are to examine the pricing policy of food products and vital and essential drugs, the statement reads.




Goldman Sachs Group Inc must face a shareholder class action accusing the bank of hiding conflicts of interest, including behind-the-scenes dealings with a prominent hedge fund manager, when creating risky subprime securities before the 2008 financial crisis.

In a 2-1 decision on Tuesday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Goldman failed to overcome a presumption that shareholders relied on its alleged misstatements, including that client interests "always come first" and "integrity and honesty are at the heart of our business," when buying the bank's stock.

The Manhattan-based court also rejected Goldman's argument that allowing class actions based on "general" statements about companies' businesses would turn securities fraud claims into "a form of investor insurance," exposing companies to a flood of baseless litigation.

"We are not blind to the widespread understanding that class certification can pressure defendants into settling large claims, meritorious or not, because of the financial risk of going to trial," Circuit Judge Richard Wesley wrote. "But our law already beats back this parade of horribles."

Goldman spokeswoman Maeve DuVally declined to comment. Lawyers for the shareholders did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The case arose from several collateralized debt obligations including Abacus 2007 AC-1, the centerpiece of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission probe that led to a $550 million Goldman civil settlement in 2010.

Goldman admitted it was a "mistake" not to disclose that it had allowed hedge fund manager John Paulson to choose some mortgages to include in Abacus, and that he bet against the CDO through short sales. Paulson made a roughly $1 billion profit at the expense of the CDO investors.

The lawsuit led by three pension plans said Goldman fraudulently overstated its ability to manage conflicts, and that shareholders from Feb. 2007 to June 2010 lost more than $13 billion as Goldman's misconduct became known.

Wesley rejected Goldman's claim that only in "special circumstances" could a court find that if the revelation of bad news caused a company's stock to fall, it could infer that the price had previously been inflated by the same amount.

Circuit Judge Richard Sullivan dissented. He said the class should be decertified because Goldman had offered "persuasive and uncontradicted" evidence that earlier disclosures of its alleged conflicts did not affect its stock price.

The case was returned to U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty in Manhattan, who certified the class action in August 2018.

The case is Arkansas Teacher Retirement System et al v. Goldman Sachs Group Inc et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 18-3667.

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In this series for T, the author Reggie Nadelson revisits New York institutions that have defined cool for decades, from time-honored restaurants to unsung dives.

SoHo looks like it did 40 years ago, says Sasha Noe, the owner of Fanellis, one of the neighborhoods oldest and most amiable watering holes. The bar, which sits at the corner of Prince and Mercer Streets, is where I often eat breakfast. Until recently, it served bacon and eggs in the morning, and burgers and chili later in the day. But on March 15, when the city mandated that restaurants could offer only takeout and delivery service, it closed. Through 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy, the bar had remained open, its neon sign a welcoming beacon; now, like nearly everything else in SoHo, its shut. Even the glamorous stores  Louis Vuitton, Fendi and the others  that normally provide a glittering backdrop to the neighborhood are boarded up to protect the handbags.

We never really did takeout, says Noe, who, when hes not watching his three kids, has spent the past couple of weeks fixing things around the place, conferring with his suppliers, sending whatever remains in the stockroom to the Bowery Mission and working out a way to pay his whole staff  which he intends to do for as long as he can. A couple of blocks west along Prince Street, Raouls, where New Yorkers have been eating steak au poivre since it opened in 1975, has also locked its doors. Its owner, Karim Raoul (son of the original Monsieur Raoul), who lives above the restaurant, tried to keep takeout going but doesnt want to endanger his employees. Also, he could no longer get the right burger buns. Its always about the buns, he says. Then, too, as I write this hes just come back from the hospital with his wife and their new baby.
In another incident of health



staff involved in coronavirus containment facing trouble, two ASHA workers were allegedly manhandled at Kudachi in Belagavi district in Karnataka on Tuesday while undertaking a survey following detection of four COVID-19 cases with Tablighi links in the area, police said.

The district authorities have intensified door-to-door survey in Kudachi after four people who had attended the Tablighi jamat religious conference in New Delhi last month tested positive for coronavirus in nearby Raibagh.

"Today when two ASHA workers went to Kudachi, some miscreants snatched away their phones. We are investigating whether they were beaten up also," a police officer investigating the matter told PTI.

A few days ago, four ASHA workers here were manhandled when they went for a door-to-door survey and police have arrested five people from a minority community. They have been remanded to judicial custody by a court.

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda had on Monday condemned incidents of attacks on doctors and health department workers and sought protection for them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Six border officers in Arizona have tested positive for the coronavirus, Customs and Border Protection said this week.

The Arizona cases include three CBP employees in Tucson and three in Nogales, according to statistics posted Sunday on the CBP website. Across the country, 160 CBP employees tested positive for the coronavirus, including 52 in New York, 17 in Miami, and 10 each in Newark, New Jersey, and Los Angeles.

The agency had more than 61,000 employees as of 2019.

The information on the CBP website did not include how, or when the employees were infected. It also provided no demographic information about the employees. Nor did it say whether any migrants taken into custody by CBP had tested positive for COVID-19.

The CBP office in Arizona declined to provide more information about the cases in the state, such as whether the employees worked as agents in the Border Patrol, as customs officers at ports of entry, or in another capacity.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, migrants apprehended by Border Patrol agents often were sent to detention centers run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under a new policy, Border Patrol agents quickly expel migrants through ports of entry with Mexico as a precaution against the coronavirus. The Border Patrol has not said how many migrants have been expelled or sent to detention centers.

ICE reported 11 employees at detention centers tested positive for the coronavirus, but none in Arizona. The employees worked at facilities in Colorado, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, and Louisiana.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 10:32:10|Editor: Lu Hui

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WASHINGTON, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The United States should not externalize the blame on China for its own failings in coping with COVID-19 which has claimed over 10,000 American lives by Monday, said an expert.

"China's initial response to COVID-19 cannot be blamed for the high death toll in the U.S. when the equivalent numbers in East Asia are so much lower," Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, told Xinhua on Monday.

Gupta said it is worth noting in this regard that just as the first imported case of COVID-19 was recorded in the United States on Jan. 22, the first imported cases in South Korea were recorded on Jan. 20 and Singapore on Jan. 23.

Yet two and a half months later, South Korea has less than 200 deaths and Singapore's death toll is in the single digit, while the U.S. death toll meantime hit 10,000 and counting, he said.

"U.S. politicians and opinion-makers now are externalizing the blame on China. The blame at the U.S. end fundamentally resides on the U.S.' shoulder, and because of its inability to fully come to terms with its own extreme shortcomings," said Gupta.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 350,000 with 10,389 deaths as of 3:30 p.m. local time Monday (1930 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
The cloud-based simulation platform reduces time investment for pedestrian wind comfort studies

SimScale today announced platform enhancements to enable compliance with the Wind Microclimate Guidelines for Developments in the City of London. The features allow urban engineers who are planning new development proposals within London to meet the required guidelines with minimal time investment and reach optimal designs through iterative design and testing.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005399/en/

Wind velocity streamlines from southwest (SE) direction showing downdraft effect against The Shard facade (The highest skyscraper in London) (Source: SimScale simulation using AccuCities CAD model).

Published in August 2019, the guidelines describe the required studies to assess a planned structure's impact on the comfort and safety of nearby pedestrians and cyclists. Within the guidelines, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is among the recommended approaches for buildings 25 meters or higher and is a requirement for buildings 50 meters or higher. Further, the guidelines encourage developers to address wind impact early in the design process and require that multiple scenarios are studied.

Urban designers, architects, and engineers using SimScale can now:

Directly use the exact wind statistics data as defined in the guidelines

Run wind analyses for 36 wind directions

Assess pedestrian wind comfort and safety according to the London LDDC criteria on an annual, seasonal, and also worst-case scenario

Analyze the transient wind flow patterns around the buildings using streamlines, velocity vectors and much more.

"SimScale's workflow makes it possible for engineers to comply with the CFD requirements of the Wind Microclimate Guidelines for Developments in the City of London quickly and easily," said Richard Szoke-Schuller, product manager at SimScale. "Developers are guided by SimScale's workflow to enter parameters and perform needed calculations. Because SimScale is cloud-based, multiple simulation scenarios can be run in parallel. All of this not only saves time, but allows for design validation to happen early and iteratively."

To learn more about the new features, visit SimScale's blog.

About SimScale:

Founded in 2012 with offices in Munich, New York, and Boston, SimScale is the world's first production-ready SaaS application for simulation. By providing instant access to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA) to over 150,000 users, SimScale has moved high-fidelity physics simulation technology from a complex and cost-prohibitive desktop application to a user-friendly cloud application accessible via a subscription-based pricing model.

For more information, visit www.simscale.com/.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005399/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Jenifer Silverstein

Vice President of Marketing, SimScale

+49 89 809 1327 xt 65

jsilverstein@simscale.com
As he prepares to celebrate Passover this week during a global pandemic, a Winnipeg rabbi sees parallels to the story of the very first celebration.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As he prepares to celebrate Passover this week during a global pandemic, a Winnipeg rabbi sees parallels to the story of the very first celebration.

"They were not allowed to exit their homes until morning," explains Rabbi Shmuel Altein of the Jewish Learning Institute of how the Hebrews  as told in the story of Moses  faced the death of their first-born if they ventured out, which was the last of the 10 plagues, and the one that convinced the Pharoaoh to free the enslaved Israelites.

"Its definitely a time to pause and reflect what is important to humanity and life."

Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew, begins at sundown on Wednesday, April 8 and runs until sundown on Thursday, April 16. The traditional dinner, called a Seder, includes Matzah, an unleavened bread, and bitter herbs, and other foods symbolizing the story of Moses and the Jews enslaved by Pharaoh.

JESSE BOILY / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Rabbi Boruch Heidingsfeld at Chabud-Lubavitch of Winnipeg with seder kits that many are using for at-home meals during passover this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Community Seders are cancelled this year due to social distancing and public health concerns about the transmission of the coronavirus, and Winnipegs Jewish community has made accommodations to hold virtual seders or celebrate in their own households on the first two days of the holiday.

"This year for the first time there are so many people who have never led a Seder before and they have to learn how to do Seder," explains Altein, who distributed a guide to hosting a the tradition Passover dinner online as well as a flyer insert in the Jewish Post and News. "Were here to help people celebrate at home."

Chabad-Lubavitch Winnipeg, where Altein works, has an extensive explanation of Passover on its website https://www.chabadwinnipeg.org/ and sells Seder-To-Go kits packed with the symbolic foods and other necessary items for $50. It also sells handmade Matzah, flown in from New York.

For the first time ever, members of Congregation Etz Chayim can host virtual Seders from their home, inviting friends and extended family members to join them through an electronic platform, explained Rabbi Kliel Rose.

"Its pretty remarkable for a congregation that until Wednesday, March 18, did not have an interactive online service," said Rose about the swift move to technology of his North End Conservative congregation because of the current restrictions on gathering in groups.

Saving a life makes every other legal requirement less important.  Rabbi Kliel Rose

Last week, Canadas chief public health officer wrote religious leaders to ask for cooperation in ensuring people maintain proper distance from each other and not to host gatherings in their home, even for religious events such as Passover or Easter.

"I urge you to use your leadership role to discourage these gatherings, in order to protect the safety and health of your congregants and community," Dr. Theresa Tam wrote on April 3.

A member of the Rabbinical Assembly, Rose connects with his rabbinical colleagues frequently about how to adapt Jewish practice during pandemic times, as well as checking in with the rabbis in his family, including his father Rabbi Neal Rose, a former University of Manitoba professor now living in St. Louis, Mo.

"When Jewish law is central to how you live your life, how do you interpret traditions and precedents from 1,300 years ago and apply them to this particular moment," Rose says of adaptations for public health during the COVID-19 crisis.

"Saving a life makes every other legal requirement less important."

JESSE BOILY / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Passover begins at sundown on Wednesday, April 8 and runs until sundown on Thursday, April 16.

During Passover, one of those legal requirements is to sell or physically hand over all leavened grains or grain products, called Chametz in Hebrew, but this year members can do that online by submitting a form, said Rose.

"Theres this tension. On one hand we want to honour this tradition we think is valuable, but we also want people to know they are staying within the (public health) framework," he said.

Across the city, Rabbi Anibal Mass will invite up to 100 households from Congregation Shaarey Zedek into his south Winnipeg home for a virtual and live First Seder with his family at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 8.

The former computer programmer turned rabbi will haul up his sound equipment from his basement recording studio into his dining room to lead his congregation through the rituals, meals and liturgy, asking them to follow along with the illustrated Haggadah on the synagogues website.

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"Everything is going to be on screen if you are not computer savvy," said Mass, who will lead the Seder along with his six-year-old son Ronen, his wife Adrienne Meyers, and her mother. "We are trying to make it accessible for everyone."

Mass plans to use multiple platforms for the virtual seder, enlisting his wife and mother-in-law to check comments and questions on Facebook and YouTube so he can interact with participants in real time.

He said this year the story of the how the Hebrews enslaved to Pharaoh were freed to follow God becomes even more relevant in this time of global uncertainty and heightened anxiety.

"When you leave Pharaoh behind and start serving God, you start listening to another voice that says you can do so much more," Mass said of the similarities to the current crisis.

"It may be uncomfortable and you may spend 40 years in the desert."

faith@freepress.mb.ca
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What is the coronavirus?

A coronavirus is a type of virus which can cause illness in animals and people. Viruses break into cells inside their host and use them to reproduce itself and disrupt the body's normal functions. Coronaviruses are named after the Latin word 'corona', which means crown, because they are encased by a spiked shell which resembles a royal crown.

The coronavirus from Wuhan is one which has never been seen before this outbreak. It has been named SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. The name stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2.

Experts say the bug, which has killed around one in 50 patients since the outbreak began in December, is a 'sister' of the SARS illness which hit China in 2002, so has been named after it.

The disease that the virus causes has been named COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019.

Dr Helena Maier, from the Pirbright Institute, said: 'Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that infect a wide range of different species including humans, cattle, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats and wild animals.

'Until this new coronavirus was identified, there were only six different coronaviruses known to infect humans. Four of these cause a mild common cold-type illness, but since 2002 there has been the emergence of two new coronaviruses that can infect humans and result in more severe disease (Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronaviruses).

'Coronaviruses are known to be able to occasionally jump from one species to another and that is what happened in the case of SARS, MERS and the new coronavirus. The animal origin of the new coronavirus is not yet known.'

The first human cases were publicly reported from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where approximately 11million people live, after medics first started publicly reporting infections on December 31.

By January 8, 59 suspected cases had been reported and seven people were in critical condition. Tests were developed for the new virus and recorded cases started to surge.

The first person died that week and, by January 16, two were dead and 41 cases were confirmed. The next day, scientists predicted that 1,700 people had become infected, possibly up to 7,000.

Where does the virus come from?

According to scientists, the virus almost certainly came from bats. Coronaviruses in general tend to originate in animals  the similar SARS and MERS viruses are believed to have originated in civet cats and camels, respectively.

The first cases of COVID-19 came from people visiting or working in a live animal market in Wuhan, which has since been closed down for investigation.

Although the market is officially a seafood market, other dead and living animals were being sold there, including wolf cubs, salamanders, snakes, peacocks, porcupines and camel meat.

A study by the Wuhan Institute of Virology, published in February 2020 in the scientific journal Nature, found that the genetic make-up virus samples found in patients in China is 96 per cent identical to a coronavirus they found in bats.

However, there were not many bats at the market so scientists say it was likely there was an animal which acted as a middle-man, contracting it from a bat before then transmitting it to a human. It has not yet been confirmed what type of animal this was.

Dr Michael Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London, was not involved with the research but said: 'The discovery definitely places the origin of nCoV in bats in China.

'We still do not know whether another species served as an intermediate host to amplify the virus, and possibly even to bring it to the market, nor what species that host might have been.'

So far the fatalities are quite low. Why are health experts so worried about it?

Experts say the international community is concerned about the virus because so little is known about it and it appears to be spreading quickly.

It is similar to SARS, which infected 8,000 people and killed nearly 800 in an outbreak in Asia in 2003, in that it is a type of coronavirus which infects humans' lungs. It is less deadly than SARS, however, which killed around one in 10 people, compared to approximately one in 50 for COVID-19.

Another reason for concern is that nobody has any immunity to the virus because they've never encountered it before. This means it may be able to cause more damage than viruses we come across often, like the flu or common cold.

Speaking at a briefing in January, Oxford University professor, Dr Peter Horby, said: 'Novel viruses can spread much faster through the population than viruses which circulate all the time because we have no immunity to them.

'Most seasonal flu viruses have a case fatality rate of less than one in 1,000 people. Here we're talking about a virus where we don't understand fully the severity spectrum but it's possible the case fatality rate could be as high as two per cent.'

If the death rate is truly two per cent, that means two out of every 100 patients who get it will die.

'My feeling is it's lower,' Dr Horby added. 'We're probably missing this iceberg of milder cases. But that's the current circumstance we're in.

'Two per cent case fatality rate is comparable to the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 so it is a significant concern globally.'

How does the virus spread?

The illness can spread between people just through coughs and sneezes, making it an extremely contagious infection. And it may also spread even before someone has symptoms.

It is believed to travel in the saliva and even through water in the eyes, therefore close contact, kissing, and sharing cutlery or utensils are all risky. It can also live on surfaces, such as plastic and steel, for up to 72 hours, meaning people can catch it by touching contaminated surfaces.

Originally, people were thought to be catching it from a live animal market in Wuhan city. But cases soon began to emerge in people who had never been there, which forced medics to realise it was spreading from person to person.

What does the virus do to you? What are the symptoms?

Once someone has caught the COVID-19 virus it may take between two and 14 days, or even longer, for them to show any symptoms  but they may still be contagious during this time.

If and when they do become ill, typical signs include a runny nose, a cough, sore throat and a fever (high temperature). The vast majority of patients will recover from these without any issues, and many will need no medical help at all.

In a small group of patients, who seem mainly to be the elderly or those with long-term illnesses, it can lead to pneumonia. Pneumonia is an infection in which the insides of the lungs swell up and fill with fluid. It makes it increasingly difficult to breathe and, if left untreated, can be fatal and suffocate people.

Figures are showing that young children do not seem to be particularly badly affected by the virus, which they say is peculiar considering their susceptibility to flu, but it is not clear why.

What have genetic tests revealed about the virus?

Scientists in China have recorded the genetic sequences of around 19 strains of the virus and released them to experts working around the world.

This allows others to study them, develop tests and potentially look into treating the illness they cause.

Examinations have revealed the coronavirus did not change much  changing is known as mutating  much during the early stages of its spread.

However, the director-general of China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Gao Fu, said the virus was mutating and adapting as it spread through people.

This means efforts to study the virus and to potentially control it may be made extra difficult because the virus might look different every time scientists analyse it.

More study may be able to reveal whether the virus first infected a small number of people then change and spread from them, or whether there were various versions of the virus coming from animals which have developed separately.

How dangerous is the virus?

The virus has a death rate of around two per cent. This is a similar death rate to the Spanish Flu outbreak which, in 1918, went on to kill around 50million people.

Experts have been conflicted since the beginning of the outbreak about whether the true number of people who are infected is significantly higher than the official numbers of recorded cases. Some people are expected to have such mild symptoms that they never even realise they are ill unless they're tested, so only the more serious cases get discovered, making the death toll seem higher than it really is.

However, an investigation into government surveillance in China said it had found no reason to believe this was true.

Dr Bruce Aylward, a World Health Organization official who went on a mission to China, said there was no evidence that figures were only showing the tip of the iceberg, and said recording appeared to be accurate, Stat News reported.

Can the virus be cured?

The COVID-19 virus cannot be cured and it is proving difficult to contain.

Antibiotics do not work against viruses, so they are out of the question. Antiviral drugs can work, but the process of understanding a virus then developing and producing drugs to treat it would take years and huge amounts of money.

No vaccine exists for the coronavirus yet and it's not likely one will be developed in time to be of any use in this outbreak, for similar reasons to the above.

The National Institutes of Health in the US, and Baylor University in Waco, Texas, say they are working on a vaccine based on what they know about coronaviruses in general, using information from the SARS outbreak. But this may take a year or more to develop, according to Pharmaceutical Technology.

Currently, governments and health authorities are working to contain the virus and to care for patients who are sick and stop them infecting other people.

People who catch the illness are being quarantined in hospitals, where their symptoms can be treated and they will be away from the uninfected public.

And airports around the world are putting in place screening measures such as having doctors on-site, taking people's temperatures to check for fevers and using thermal screening to spot those who might be ill (infection causes a raised temperature).

However, it can take weeks for symptoms to appear, so there is only a small likelihood that patients will be spotted up in an airport.

Is this outbreak an epidemic or a pandemic?

The outbreak was declared a pandemic on March 11. A pandemic is defined by the World Health Organization as the 'worldwide spread of a new disease'.

Previously, the UN agency said most cases outside of Hubei had been 'spillover' from the epicentre, so the disease wasn't actually spreading actively around the world.
The MTN Ghana Foundation as part of its commitment to support Governments efforts in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic is donating five million Ghana cedis (GHS 5million) to go to the procurement of medical supplies including personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essentials to support frontline medical staff.



Commenting on the Foundations support, the CEO of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh, said, COVID-19 is, unquestionably, testing our societys fortitude and we all have a role to play in helping our country to overcome this global challenge. From the onset, we made a commitment to provide the needed assistance to help the country, businesses and the entire society stay connected to their work and loved ones. Our support to date has been in that

direction. This phase of our commitment is to help us directly combat the disease and to help the medical teams provide the needed care to our fellow Ghanaians. We believe that we are good together as a people especially in these times when we all must pitch in to fight this pandemic. We are confident that together we will overcome this challenge.



MTN Ghana Foundation in consultation with the Ministry of Health is procuring the following

items:



- Virus Sampling kits - 10,000

- N95 Masks - 10,000

- Gloves - 10,000

- PPEs (Overalls) - 7,500

- PCR Machines for testing - 4

- RNA Extraction Kits  3,000

- Infrared thermometers- 500

- Disposable bedsheets - 3,000



Mr Adadevoh said, we are in difficult times and MTN continues to review its support to the country. We continue to monitor the global situation closely and we continue to urge our employees and customers to strictly adhere to the recommendations of the World Health Organisation, Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service.



The Board Chairman of the MTN Ghana Foundation Prof. Franklin Manu said, the MTN Ghana Foundation has been at the forefront of Corporate Social Investments in the country.



We believe the situation at hand needs the intervention of all Ghanaians and we are very happy to support with the purchase of these much-needed medical supplies as we complement Governments efforts in the fight against Covid-19.



Following official confirmation of COVID-19 cases in Ghana, MTN took a series of precautionary measures to ensure continuity of services and the safety of its stakeholders including employees, customers, communities and suppliers against potential infections. Other measures that the company has taken include: Protective measures for Employees and Customers - Key among the measures include the positioning of alcohol-based sanitizers at vantage points across branches and experience centers for use by customers and employees; the deployment and use of temperature guns,

personal protective equipment and practicing of social distancing.



Network resilience for Business continuity - MTN Ghana has also put in place measures to ensure that the MTN network remains resilient and supports round-the-clock connectivity as Government Agencies, Businesses and individuals resort to social distancing measures such as working from home. The company has offered extra capacity for functions such as videoconferencing and better connectivity for healthcare workers.



Free Internet connectivity to education sites - MTN has also zero-rated over 50 educational online sites (public and private) to sustain research and learning during the period. This supports a total of over 114,000 customers, consuming over 2,674 GB per day for educational purposes. MTN Ghana has also provided Ghs10,000 worth of free data to all University students on its MTN Bright Scholarship scheme.



Providing connectivity for Government portals  To support the facilitation of remote working by government agencies, MTN is collaborating with the National Information Technology Authority (NITA) to zero-rate Government of Ghana Smart Workplace Portal to enable Government workers work from home. In addition, MTN Ghana has already zero-rated several informational Government websites that are providing health and other related COVID-

19 information such as the Ghana Health Service website and others.



Protecting the customer through the provision of critical health information - MTN has also provisioned shortcode 311 information center to facilitate information flow on covid-19/ and 0555311311 for the Ministry of Information to be used for social media services. MTN Ghana is also assisting with the circulation of safety tips received from the Ghana Health Service and promotion of the 112 national emergency line.



Free MoMo transfers and revision of MoMo wallet limits - Financial services remains critical in this period and is central to the fight against COVID-19. To this end, MTN MoMo has removed charges for transactions of GHS100 and below per day, simplified registration for merchant and Person-to-person wallets and purchases from e-commerce and other platforms.



There has also been an increase in daily transaction limits and balances for the various wallet types to promote customer safety through non-cash transactions.



Mobile money merchant accounts have been deployed as collection conduits to support Government institutions like the Ministry of Finance and the First Ladys fund mobilization for COVID -19.



Support with Contact tracing - MTN Ghana has also brought to bear its leadership in the technology space by supporting the infection monitoring and contact tracing team based on the requisite legal procedures. To support this further, MTN Ghana has initiated the provision of 800 SIM Cards with 10GB data on each card to National Security and 10 Turbonet devices with 225GB data to COVID-19 RESPONSE Team for use by contact tracers.



MTN Ghana would like to assure the public that it will continue to update its measures as the situation evolves to ensure business continuity, customer safety as well as staff well-being.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
A man wearing a mask walks past a mural in Echo Park. The "Coronavirus in California" podcast will explore how the pandemic is affecting Californians throughout the state. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles Times is launching a new podcast, as part of our mission to chronicle California. Its called Coronavirus in California: Stories From the Front Lines, and Im the host. Every weekday, our podcast will give listeners dispatches from Californians who are in the thick of this pandemic. To let residents know whats going on now, and tell everyone else about the state of whats next. Were a worldwide leader in the good and the bad  the eternal cycle of boom-and-bust. And coronavirus and COVID-19 will magnify this truism like few other moments in our history.

Over the next couple months  and hopefully no longer than that  this podcast will bring you the stories and people on the front lines of this crisis that you need to hear from  the artist, the farmworker, the teacher, the doctor and so many more folks. Our podcast will tackle tough questions like, whats actually going on in our hospitals and neighborhoods right now? How is life changing because of COVID-19? What can we do to help? Well also ask listeners to share their experiences by calling in to a hotline  (213) 986-5652  and then well play parts of their stories on the podcast.

As Californians, we always complain few things unite us besides a love for the late, great Huell Howser. Well, heres coronavirus to bring us together, from Crescent City to Chula Vista, from Bishop to Buena Park.

The first episode of Coronavirus in California premieres Wednesday, April 8. Subscribe today, wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you, and stay safe.

Credits

The team behind our Coronavirus in California podcast includes reporter and host Gustavo Arellano, producers Paige Hymson and Stan Lee, senior producer Rina Palta, executive producer Abbie Fentress Swanson and engineer Mike Heflin. Our theme song was composed by Andrew Eapen. Special thanks to Julia Turner, Clint Schaff, Lora Victorio, Matt Wilhalme, Mary Kate Metivier, Alison Farias, Brandon Sides, Hector Becerra, Shelby Grad, and Jeff Glasser.
michael barbaro

From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[music]

michael barbaro

Today: For decades, the United States has feared the consequences of running out of oil. Because of the pandemic, it now has far too much of it. Reporter Cliff Krauss on the energy crisis that nobody saw coming. Its Monday, April 27. Cliff, tell me about this moment when oil prices collapse.

cliff krauss

So, it was late at night, Im about to go to bed, but I put on Bloomberg television.

archived recording And in terms of how far down these moves are going to go, I mean, what are your expectations?

cliff krauss

Because Im a wonky guy. [LAUGHTER]

archived recording Oil really getting hammered today, hitting an 18-year low.

cliff krauss

And I see, suddenly, the oil prices are collapsing.

archived recording 1 Its at $14 and change  archived recording 2 Touched around $10. $10  archived recording 3 Oil today falling all the way to a penny a barrel  archived recording 4 I mean, we just saw crazy historic drops in U.S. crude today. What on Earth is going on?

cliff krauss

And I write a quick note to my editors, saying, youre going to see this. Its weird. But this is a technical issue. Its a contract. Its a futures contract thats going to roll over in 24 hours. It may not mean much.

michael barbaro

Mhm.

cliff krauss

Then I get up in the morning, and were in negative territory.

archived recording At the top, I talked about the craziness of the oil patch. Then we watched as the price of West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery went from the high teens to less than zero, just in one session.

cliff krauss

Which had never happened before.

archived recording Oil falling below $0 a barrel for the first time ever.

cliff krauss

Just a few years ago, we had $147  thats a plus  barrel oil. And its bounced around in recent years between 40 and 60. But negative 37?

archived recording The week begins with U.S. crude oil trading at minus $37.63 a barrel.

cliff krauss

Negative $37. Negative $37. Never happened before.

archived recording You probably think that couldnt happen. How do we make sense of this?

cliff krauss

Never. Preposterous.

michael barbaro

Right. I remember hearing this news the next morning, after you had flagged it to your editors, Cliff, and being genuinely confused by this. I mean, how can oil be worth less than $0? Right? Like, not just worthless, but somehow having a negative value.

cliff krauss

Well, since this had never happened before in history, everybody was confused. But nobody wanted the oil. So people had to actually pay to get rid of it.

michael barbaro

Hmm. I mean, why is it that people would need to pay to get rid of what we regard, universally, as the most precious commodity on Earth?

cliff krauss

Well, it gets very technical, and I dont want to get into the technicalities of this. But basically, these were futures contracts that rolled over. And so this was a phenomena that occurred over a 12 to 24-hour period. So theres something a bit artificial about it. But it does reflect something thats real. Nobody wants the oil. It is not a precious commodity right now because people are not driving, people are not flying, cruise ships are not cruising, and industry is not burning as much fuel as it was. And yet the world is still producing this oil.

michael barbaro

What youre saying is that the pandemic basically destroyed the normal demand for oil across the world?

cliff krauss

Thats right. So now the world is roughly producing 30 million barrels a day more than were consuming.

michael barbaro

Wow.

cliff krauss

So the world is awash in oil. Were flooded.

archived recording An incredible sight at the port of Long Beach: 24 oil tankers are anchored offshore. Thats four times the number normally waiting to unload crude from Mexico or Alaska.

cliff krauss

This problem, which is an immediate problem, the seeds of it go back many, many years.

michael barbaro

What do you mean?

cliff krauss

Well, there have been a series of traumas, perhaps three major ones that go back to my college days, actually, in the 1970s.

[music]

archived recording Good evening. It is an all-out war.

cliff krauss

In 1973 

archived recording Thats how Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dyan describes an invasion of the Golan Heights and the East bank of the Suez by Syria and Egypt.

cliff krauss

During the Arab-Israeli War, the Yom Kippur War, as some still call it 

archived recording All day today, Israeli reservists have been heading for their units. The streets have been full of military traffic.

cliff krauss

Arab countries were attacking Israel and almost overran Israel until the Nixon administration 

archived recording (henry kissinger) We will, in this crisis, as we have in other crises 

cliff krauss

At the last minute 

archived recording (henry kissinger)  not hesitate to take a firm stand.

cliff krauss

 decided to send Israel a massive amount of weapons.

archived recording Kissinger hinted that the U.S. has begun to resupply Israeli military losses.

cliff krauss

Which, of course, made many of the oil-producing countries that we were becoming dependent on in the Middle East quite upset. And all they could do in retaliation was 

archived recording The oil producing countries of the Arab world decided to use their oil as a political weapon.

cliff krauss

 to inflict an embargo, an oil embargo on the United States and other Western countries that were aiding Israel.

archived recording They will reduce oil production by 5 percent a month until the Israelis withdraw from occupied territories.

cliff krauss

And this was a trauma for Americans, causing long lines at the gas pump.

archived recording (richard nixon) Our supply of petroleum this winter will be at least 10 percent short of our anticipated demand. And it could fall short by as much as 17 percent.

cliff krauss

Certainly, people of my generation recall this. I was in college. I had a new, sporty, red Capri. [LAUGHTER] And I loved tooling around. And then suddenly 

archived recording Gasoline shortages are spreading across the country. Odd-even service, gasoline lines, and closed gas stations are becoming increasingly common.

cliff krauss

 you had to wait on line. I was in college in Poughkeepsie, New York, at Vassar.

archived recording So they waited three hours and there was no gas.

cliff krauss

I remember that I would wait as long as possible, till I was almost on empty, to fill up the tank.

archived recording Were all out of gas! Tomorrow morning! [LAUGHTER] Were all out!

cliff krauss

It was a real bother to do that.

archived recording 1 Now, after waiting two hours, and were not sure if I can make it. archived recording 2 Make it in what way? archived recording 3 Well, if theres any gas left.

cliff krauss

Now my problem was small compared to people who had to rely on their cars to get to work every day and drive long distances.

archived recording 1 Ill betcha theres no gas. archived recording 2 I heard this morning  archived recording 3 Well, you get the gas down here. archived recording 4  the Commissioner of Energy from Washington. And they claim theres gas. archived recording 5 We cant make a living. What about this? archived recording 6 I mean, this is ridiculous. archived recording 7 I have to travel.

cliff krauss

So that was a trauma. And it was a political problem and an economic problem for the country. Prices skyrocketed. The economy was badly damaged. Wed just lost the war in Vietnam. And now we dont even have a secure supply of energy. And were dependent on countries such as Saudi Arabia, far away. We barely understand these countries. And theyre not friendly.

michael barbaro

Mhm.

cliff krauss

Were in trouble.

archived recording (richard nixon) Let me conclude by restating our overall objective. It can be summed up in one word that best characterizes this nation and its essential nature. That word is independence.

cliff krauss

And so from that pain comes a dream: energy independence.

archived recording (richard nixon) What I have called Project Independence 1980 is a series of plans and goals set to ensure that by the end of this decade, Americans will not have to rely on any source of energy beyond our own.

cliff krauss

And the leadership of the country 

archived recording (gerald ford) With a comprehensive plan to make our country independent of foreign sources of energy by 1985.

cliff krauss

 basically, Nixon, Ford, Carter 

archived recording (jimmy carter) The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us. But it will if we do not act quickly.

cliff krauss

 over those years made energy independence a, basically, keystone to all of their policies. The dream is that we can produce our own energy supply so that we dont feel this vulnerability anymore. That was the dream.

michael barbaro

And what do we start to do to achieve that dream?

cliff krauss

Those three administrations did several things.

archived recording (gerald ford) It is in that spirit that I have decided to sign the energy bill just passed by the Congress.

cliff krauss

There was the establishment of a strategic petroleum reserve in 1975.

archived recording (gerald ford) It will enable us to set up a strategic oil storage system.

cliff krauss

So we would have a reserve when there would be a war or a natural catastrophe.

archived recording Starting in 1977, oil will begin flowing through the pipeline, across Alaska, and then by tanker to the lower 48 states.

cliff krauss

We built the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.

archived recording (jimmy carter)  in a new energy department.

cliff krauss

The Department of Energy was created.

archived recording (jimmy carter)  to bring order out of chaos.

cliff krauss

We started to use more coal to burn for power.

archived recording Ready for war, sir. Ready for war.

cliff krauss

We went to war 

archived recording Well, at this hour, Iraq remains in firm control of the tiny oil-rich country of Kuwait.

cliff krauss

 years later, in the Middle East 

michael barbaro

Right.

cliff krauss

 over the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.

archived recording And now sirens, air raid sirens, are beginning to sound over Baghdad.

cliff krauss

In part, not just to liberate oil fields in Kuwait, but to defend our gas station, Saudi Arabia.

archived recording (george h.w. bush) Much of the world is even more dependent upon imported oil and is even more vulnerable to Iraqi threats.

michael barbaro

Because suddenly, those foreign sources of oil that we still needed, because we werent quite energy independent, they were at risk of being overtaken by Saddam Hussein?

cliff krauss

Thats right. So all of those things were done. But all that was accomplished, and it was something, was to stem the bleeding. And that brings us to the second trauma, which is the early years of the current century. When suddenly, our production is in decline again. China is growing by leaps and bounds. India is starting to grow by leaps and bounds. A middle class is growing around the developing world. So demand is going up, like, 5 million barrels a day around the world. And the Middle East is suddenly more unstable. And so prices skyrocket between the years of about 2004 and 2007.

michael barbaro

And when you say skyrocketing, what do you mean?

cliff krauss

I mean, prices skyrocket to as high as $147 a barrel.

michael barbaro

Hm. Correct me if Im wrong. This is the point where U.S. gasoline prices at the pump reach $5 a gallon.

cliff krauss

Yes.

michael barbaro

And I remember how upsetting that was to consumers and to voters.

cliff krauss

Yes. It was very, very upsetting. And for those of a certain age, it was a reminder of the 1970s.

michael barbaro

Huh.

cliff krauss

We were right back in the same problem, dependent on foreign oil, which was very expensive. But then something big happened. There was a Texas oil man named George Mitchell. And for years and years, he had been experimenting with hydraulic fracturing, which is basically splitting up shale, hard, shale rock which had been useless when drilled vertically. George Mitchell came up with the idea of drilling horizontally through these layers of rock and unleashing the oil in the rock by basically exploding the rock and then introducing sand and water to keep the cracks open, releasing the oil.

michael barbaro

Fracking.

cliff krauss

Fracking.

archived recording Consider this a eureka moment for the rest of the world, the biggest energy innovation of the decade.

cliff krauss

Suddenly, they were able to release enormous amounts of oil in fields that big companies had given up on years before.

archived recording The so-called shale revolution has spawned boom towns in the Dakotas. Thats a lot of money. Its life-changing money. Its a dream.

cliff krauss

We were able to do it in North Dakota, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, a few other places.

archived recording Thanks to fracking technology, the U.S. now producing about 9 1/2 million barrels a day, a 70 percent jump from just five years ago.

cliff krauss

And its occurring because the price of oil was so high. That incentivized innovation.

michael barbaro

And Cliff, what does fracking for oil mean for this still quite unfinished American dream of energy independence?

cliff krauss

Well, it means that we actually, at least momentarily, seem to almost reach that independence. Because American oil production more than doubled in about five years.

michael barbaro

Wow.

archived recording (barack obama) Last year, we relied less on foreign oil than in any of the last 16 years. archived recording Its changed the whole world and the economy of the whole world. Its changed our dependence on foreign oil. Its changed our alliances in terms of their value to us.

cliff krauss

The United States became an exporter of oil for the first time in many years. And last year, actually leapfrogged over Russia and Saudi Arabia as the biggest oil producer in the world.

michael barbaro

So this seems like a pretty good problem to have, right? I mean, too much American oil for the first time, basically, in our history.

cliff krauss

Economically speaking, no question about it. By 2014, we were bringing down gasoline prices for consumers. It was part of our recovery from the recession. And all of this American production puts the United States in a extremely powerful position economically, employing millions of people and producing revenues for state and local governments across much of the country. Also giving the United States the freedom to act in foreign policy in ways that would have been unheard-of years before, such as putting pressure on Iran without endangering our energy supply. It was basically the culmination of the dream from the 1970s. And it was hard to imagine, just a few months ago, what could happen that could undercut that dream.

michael barbaro

Like a pandemic?

cliff krauss

Like a pandemic that would suddenly destroy the demand for oil and kneecap the American oil industry that had produced all of this oil in the first place.

michael barbaro

Well be right back.

[music]

michael barbaro

So Cliff, when this third trauma arrives, the pandemic, the world at this point, and the United States, in particular, is awash in oil. And from what youre saying, demand for that oil has instantly plunged. So whats actually happening to all of this overproduced oil?

cliff krauss

So the oil has no place to go. And its rapidly filling up tank farms, strategic reserves around the world. Refineries are running out of space to put the oil. And so the inventories are building to a point where therell be no physical space to put the oil. You now have tankers which, you know, used to ship oil from place to place, just storing the oil and sitting out off of the shores of Los Angeles, for instance, and other places. And these are the people who are making a lot of money. Theyre getting paid to just hold the oil.

michael barbaro

So this explains those negative oil prices, right? Theyre producing so much oil that they have nowhere to store it. So they end up having to pay people to take it.

cliff krauss

Exactly.

michael barbaro

Cliff, maybe this is a bit of a stupid question, but why dont oil producers, knowing that theres just way too much oil, and that, if they keep producing it, theyre going to hurt their own ability to command meaningful prices, just stop pumping or fracking oil? Just leave it in the ground.

cliff krauss

Well, thats beginning to happen, but its a cumbersome, complex process. First of all, you have thousands of producers in the United States. We dont have a national oil company which is taking orders from the government, such as in Saudi Arabia. And then there are complications that go along with shutting in wells. Its an expensive process. You can actually damage the resource to the point where, when you restart the oil, youll actually pump less oil out. And then, you have all of these companies that, even when theyre losing money, they need cash flow. They need cash flow to meet their payroll, to meet their debt responsibilities. So what oil companies prefer to do, you let the well, basically, slowly decline.

michael barbaro

So if we cant easily turn off the pumps, and we cant suddenly overnight create enough storage for all this oil, what can  and I guess what is  the U.S. doing about this glut of oil?

cliff krauss

Well, there are a number of things that are being considered, such as stopping imports from coming in, particularly imports from Saudi Arabia that are on their way in tankers.

archived recording 40 million barrels of Saudi oil is already on its way to the United States. Shipping 

cliff krauss

But there are probably American refiners who have already paid for it.

archived recording President Trump is facing pressure to stop Saudi crude oil imports in an effort to save the American oil industry.

cliff krauss

And so you would be hurting American refiners. Thats not something that the administration would like to do, Im sure. So they dont have a lot of options. But meanwhile, small oil producers are in dire straits and on the verge of bankruptcy. And that could be the future, especially if our demand is going to be depressed for a long time.

michael barbaro

So Cliff, how is this new reality of the glut and the small producers struggling within that glut, how is that starting to look on the ground in Americas biggest oil towns, including, Im sure, yours, which is in Texas?

cliff krauss

Well, thousands of people are losing their jobs. Others are being furloughed. Probably, its only going to get worse. You have oil states that rely on whats called severance taxes, which is dependent on the price of oil. So that will have an impact on state and local services. And it will have an impact on people who actually earn money because oil is coming out of fields on their private property. So theres going to be a big macroeconomic impact in these oil-producing states.

michael barbaro

Cliff there are going to be people who hear this and think, this is what happens when a country like the United States becomes overly focused in this discussion of energy and dependence on old line forms of energy, on oil, rather than on newer, greener forms of energy. And what do you say to that?

cliff krauss

So there are definitely going to be a lot of people who will celebrate the demise of the American oil industry.

michael barbaro

Mhm.

cliff krauss

And there is a strong argument to be made that we need to diversify our energy supply. And we have done that successfully when it comes to power. We are now using wind and solar. But not for our cars. The electrical age, the electric cars, theyre coming. Theres no question about it. But its going to take decades. Because the average car today is on the road for 10 years. So it takes a long time to change the transportation fleet. And our transportation fleet is overwhelmingly dependent on gasoline and diesel.

michael barbaro

Right. Which comes, of course, from oil.

cliff krauss

Exactly.

[music]

michael barbaro

Cliff, whats so interesting about the history that you have described here is that it feels like every decision the United States has made about oil was about avoiding a single scenario, which is that we would run out of oil and we would be beholden to our adversaries to get that oil. And it feels like we never really prepared for the opposite scenario, which is the situation were in now.

cliff krauss

Thats right. Nobody anticipated a pandemic that would destroy demand. And no one is to blame for this, but we are now facing an entirely new set of problems.

michael barbaro

Right.

cliff krauss

And of course, if we had anticipated this problem, we would not have solved the problem that we had being dependent on producers in the Middle East and other unfriendly powers.

michael barbaro

Mhm.

cliff krauss

So my big takeaway, and it may be obvious to everyone, is the idea of energy security is simply an illusion.

michael barbaro

Hm.

cliff krauss

We are not energy secure when we have little oil. And were not energy secure when we have a lot of oil. Its hard to get it just right.

michael barbaro

Thank you, Cliff.

cliff krauss

Thank you.

michael barbaro

Well be right back.

[music]

michael barbaro

Heres what else you need to know today. On Sunday, the head of the White House task force on the coronavirus, Dr. Deborah Birx, said that social distancing rules would likely remain in place throughout the summer, even as some states begin reopening their economies. During an interview on NBCs Meet The Press, Birx was asked about President Trumps unproven claim, made last week, that an injection of a disinfectant like bleach could combat the virus.

archived recording Dr. Birx, help me understand what happened with the suggestion that the president made that the task force study disinfectant injection. Do you have any more information? And are you concerned that people might take bleach because of what the president said? archived recording (deborah birx) I think I made it very clear in how I interpreted that. I also made it very clear, and so has Dr. Fauci and everyone associated with the task force in their clarity around, this is not a treatment. What was meant 

michael barbaro

The presidents statement was widely condemned and prompted local health officials, and the makers of cleaning supplies, to warn Americans not to ingest or inject their products. As of Sunday night, the coronavirus had infected more than 938,000 Americans and has killed at least 50,000 of them.

[music]
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Linkedin Kyoungwha Kim (Bloomberg)  Tue, April 7, 2020 09:49 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd02d58c 2 Business COVID-19,coronavirus,US-dollar,rupiah,Foreign-exchange,foreign-exchange-reserves,central-bank,emerging-economy Free

Emerging-market currencies beaten down by COVID-19 fallout may face a fresh round of selling ahead of the foreign-exchange reserves data that are expected to show big drawdowns.

Mexicos weekly data is set to come out on Tuesday, along with figures from Indonesia, Taiwan, the Philippines, China, Malaysia, South Africa and Russia. That comes on the heels of a US$9 billion slump in South Korea last month and a $6 billion decline for India since the end of February.

Central banks in emerging economies are tapping reserves to stem a decline in their currencies as the coronavirus pandemic induces a rush into the US dollar as a haven. The sliding stockpiles highlight the quandary they face trying to bring stability amid capital outflows, while ensuring they have ammunition for future actions.

Read also: Bank Indonesia in talks with US, China on currency swaps

I expect more weakness ahead for EM currencies as demand for dollars will remain strong, said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Singapore We can expect to see reserves decline further as central banks continue to smooth FX moves and provide liquidity to the market.

While most emerging-market central banks have greater reserves than they did during the Asian financial turmoil of 1998 and global financial crisis of 2008, the macro economic outlook remains uncertain. The Federal Reserves swap lines and a new facility through which developing nations can secure dollars using Treasury holdings will help ease some pressure.

Mexicos monetary authority planned to auction up to $5 billion in dollar-denominated credit using the Feds swap line. Its peso is among the worst emerging-market currency performers this year, having lost more than 20 percent of its value.

The nations reserves remain near a record high as officials appear reluctant to tap them, while Brazilian and Turkish stockpiles have been sliding.

Read also: Rating agencies downgrade Indonesian companies on debt repayment concerns amid COVID-19

Capital flight

Expectations the pandemic will cause a global recession are keeping the risk of capital flight elevated in the weakest links of emerging markets. Global funds have scaled back stock investments in South Korea, Brazil and Turkey, while selling off bonds in countries such as India and Indonesia.

The faster-than-expected erosion in Russian reserves also clouds the picture for the ruble given oil prices remain vulnerable to the market-share war with Saudi Arabia. Indias central bank has already been using its record foreign-currency arsenal to defend the rupee.
Welcome Guest! You Are Here:
PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-07 17:48:04

Votes cast exclusively through the independent proxy in line with COVID-19 Ordinance 2 of the Swiss government to combat the pandemic



Increase in the dividend from CHF 2.10 to CHF 2.20 per share

Lukas Braunschweiler, Heinrich Fischer, Oliver Fetzer, Lars Holmqvist, Karen Huebscher, Christa Kreuzburg and Daniel R. Marshak re-elected as members of the Board of Directors

Lukas Braunschweiler confirmed by shareholders as Chairman of the Board

Christa Kreuzburg, Oliver Fetzer and Daniel R. Marshak confirmed as members of the Compensation Committee

Amendment to the Articles of Incorporation on renewal of the authorized capital approved

All proposals relating to compensation approved

Mannedorf, Switzerland, April 7, 2020  The Annual General Meeting of the Tecan Group (SIX Swiss Exchange: TECN) endorsed all motions proposed by the Board of Directors on April 7, 2020.

The Annual General Meeting was thus held on the announced date but at the headquarters of the company, without personal attendance by shareholders. Voting rights could only be exercised through the independent proxy in line with COVID-19 Ordinance 2 of the Swiss government to combat the pandemic. Shareholders were informed of the procedure by Tecan on March 23, 2020.

Shareholders approved the Annual Report, the financial statements and the consolidated financial statements, and granted discharge to the Board of Directors and the Management Board. They agreed to an increase in the dividend from CHF 2.10 to CHF 2.20 per registered share. Half of the dividend, i.e. CHF 1.10, will be paid out from the available capital contribution reserve and is therefore not subject to withholding tax. The payout will take place on April 15, 2020.

All members of the Tecan Board of Directors were confirmed by the shareholders for a term of one year: Heinrich Fischer, Dr. Oliver Fetzer, Lars Holmqvist, Dr. Karen Huebscher, Dr. Christa Kreuzburg, Dr. Daniel R. Marshak and Dr. Lukas Braunschweiler. Lukas Braunschweiler was re-elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors. The shareholders also confirmed Christa Kreuzburg, Oliver Fetzer and Daniel R. Marshak as members of the Compensation Committee.

Amendment to the Articles of Incorporation on renewal of the authorized capital approved

The Annual General Meeting also approved an amendment to the Articles of Incorporation to renew the authorized capital. The shareholders had most recently approved the creation of authorized capital at the Annual General Meeting on April 17, 2018, with validity for the two years up to the 2020 Annual General Meeting. At this year's Annual General Meeting, the Board of Directors proposed the extension of the authorized capital to April 17, 2022. Subscription rights will be ruled out for just under 10% of the newly issued shares only. As a general rule, extending the authorized capitals enables Tecan to retain additional entrepreneurial freedom and flexibility to exploit external growth opportunities.

Other proposals also approved

The shareholders voted on the conditions governing the compensation of the Board of Directors and Management Board for the following fiscal year, according to the Ordinance Against Excessive Compensation in Listed Stock Companies of the Swiss government (OaEC). They made a binding decision to endorse the proposed maximum total amount of compensation for fiscal year 2021 and also, for the Board of Directors, for the period until the 2021 Annual General Meeting. The 2019 Compensation Report, which was submitted for an advisory vote, was also accepted by shareholders.

Ernst & Young AG, Zurich, was reappointed as the statutory auditors for fiscal year 2020.

Shareholders approved the motion proposed by the Board of Directors to appoint Proxy Voting Services GmbH, Zurich, as the independent proxy for the period up to the close of the Tecan Group 35th Annual General Meeting in 2021.

Key upcoming date

Tecan will publish the 2020 Interim Report on August 12, 2020.

About Tecan

Tecan (www.tecan.com) is a leading global provider of laboratory instruments and solutions in biopharmaceuticals, forensics and clinical diagnostics. The company specializes in the development, production and distribution of automation solutions for laboratories in the life sciences sector. Its clients include pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, university research departments, forensic and diagnostic laboratories. As an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), Tecan is also a leader in developing and manufacturing OEM instruments and components that are then distributed by partner companies. Founded in Switzerland in 1980, the company has manufacturing, research and development sites in both Europe and North America and maintains a sales and service network in 52 countries. In 2019, Tecan generated sales of CHF 637 million (USD 643 million; EUR 574 million). Registered shares of Tecan Group are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange (TECN; ISIN CH0012100191).

For further information:

Tecan Group

Martin Brandle

Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications & IR

Tel. +41 (0) 44 922 84 30

Fax +41 (0) 44 922 88 89

investor@tecan.com

www.tecan.com

Attachment
Today we know Antarctica as an extreme environment containing ice and snow. But new research provides evidence that the area was very different in the past.

The evidence was found inside a piece of Earth sediment collected by researchers from under the seafloor off the coast of Antarctica. In the sediment, they found forest soil estimated to be about 90 million years old. This would have been in the Cretaceous Period, when dinosaurs were the main land animals.

The sediment was removed by scientists on the research icebreaker RV Polarstern in the Amundsen Sea near the Pine Island Glacier.

Johann Klages is a geologist with the Alfred Wegener Institutes Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research in Germany. He was the lead writer of a study on the findings, published in the journal Nature.

He said the sediment was collected from a depth of about 30 meters below the ocean floor. Klages said an examination showed that the material formed on land, not in the ocean.

The researchers estimate that the area  about 900 kilometers from the South Pole  had average yearly temperatures of about 12 to 13 degrees Celsius. During the warmest summer months, average temperatures likely reached between 20 to 25 degrees Celsius.

The average yearly temperature in that area is about 40 degrees below zero Celsius.

The examination process included the use of X-ray imaging technology. Those results showed a dense network of roots that spread through the entire soil layer, the Helmholtz Center said in a statement. The condition of the soil was in such good condition that the researchers could see individual cell structures.

The dark brownish-gray soil included fine dirt particles and hard clay, as well as substances linked to at least 65 different kinds of plants, the study found.

If you would go to a forest near you and drill a hole, it would probably look pretty similar, Klages told the Reuters news agency.

He added that the plants included trees, ferns and flowering plants. While no animal remains were found, Klages said there were likely dinosaurs, flying reptiles and many insects in the environment.

The research represents new evidence of the major climate changes Earth has experienced in the past - and is currently undergoing today. The soil dates back to the planets warmest period of the past 140 million years, with sea levels about 170 meters higher than today.

The researchers said that the rainforest environment in Antarctica was especially surprising because each year, the area experiences a four-month polar night when there is no sunlight to fuel plant life. Klages said no ice sheets were present during the time, but seasonal snowfall was likely.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Reuters reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English, with additional information from the Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research. Caty Weaver was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

sediment  n. a solid substance that forms a later at the bottom of a liquid

geologist  n. a scientist who studies the history of the earth and its life, especially as recorded in rocks

preserve  v. keep something the same or keep it from being damaged or destroyed

network  n. an interconnected or interrelated chain, group, or system

clay  n. a heavy, sticky material from the earth that is made into different shapes and that becomes hard when it is baked or dried

drill  v. make holes in hard materials with a machine
A woman was repeatedly punched in the head on a bus in Melbourne's CBD last month after asking a man to remove his feet from her seat, police say.

The woman, 20, from Footscray, was on a route 220 bus from Sunshine to the city when another passenger put his feet on her seat about 10.30am on March 12.

She asked the man to remove his feet, police say, before he stood up and punched her in the head repeatedly while the bus was driving down Footscray Road.

The man got off the bus at the intersection of Dudley Street and Wurundjeri Way in Docklands.

The woman had minor injuries.
Let us not squander away the gains: Next few days crucial to lifting lockdown restrictions

India partially eases restrictions on export of hydroxycloroquine

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Apr 07: India has partially eased restrictions on the export of the anti malarial drug, hydroxycloroquine and paracetamol amidst the outbreak of the coronavirus. Orders from other countries would be cleared only after the domestic requirements are met.

On March 25 the Indian government had banned the exports of hydroxycloroquine to ensure that there was adequate domestic supply. Last week, India further tightened the rules by barring exports of hydroxycloroquine and formulations made from it from special economic zones and export oriented units.

Fake News Buster

A report in the Hindustan Times, while citing sources said that there has been a partial lifting of the ban. The exports of hydroxycloroquine and paracetamol will continue to be restricted, The existing orders would be cleared depending on the availability of stocks and after meeting domestic requirements. The department of pharmaceuticals and Ministry of External Affairs will decide on such allocations depending on the humanitarian situation related to the coronavirus.

Export of anti-malarial drug hydroxycloroquine banned by govt

The Indian Council of Medical Research had said that hydroxycloroquine is found to be effective against coronavirus in laboratory studies and in vivo studies. Its use in prophylaxis is derived from available evidence of benefit as treatment and supported by pre-clinical data, the ICMR also said.
Sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder on the floor of a crumbling, windowless room, prisoners in Indonesia fear an outbreak of the deadly coronavirus inside its walls is a "disaster waiting to happen". "It will be a breeding ground for the virus, should it get into any prison," said Brett Savage, locked inside Kerobokan prison known as "Hotel K" -- on the Indonesian island of Bali, where 1,500 prisoners occupy blocks built for 350 people. Overcrowding, poor ventilation and deficient health, hygiene and sanitation conditions will favour the rapid spread of infectious diseases -- making prisons around the world a flashpoint for the new disease. Prevention measures used in wider society -- such as social distancing and frequent hand washing -- are often impossible to enforce, leaving authorities with tough choices. And panic is proving especially dangerous inside. In Thailand unrest led to a group of inmates escaping after rumours a fellow prisoner had tested positive, while 23 died in riots at a Colombian facility amid tensions over the virus. US jails confined all detainees to their cells, with most visits and transfers cancelled, after dozens were infected with COVID-19, while a string of states have planned to release non-violent prisoners. Rights groups have warned of a race against time to protect inmates, calling on all countries to relieve the pressure on packed prisons through early release rulings. Savage, a South African nine years into a 20-year sentence for trafficking crystal meth, described an environment where masks are unavailable for prisoners, contractors are still regularly allowed free access and health advice is non-existent. "The majority of the people have no idea about basic hygiene, plenty of people are blowing their nose onto the floor and spitting everywhere," he told AFP. "If they can't manage on the outside, how will they manage when it gets into the prison system?" Nearly 1,800 people have been infected and 170 have died in Indonesia, but rates of testing are low and experts fear the true figures are far higher in the country of more than 260 million people. The country has released more than 30,000 inmates, amounting to some 10 percent of the country's prison population, and was quick to ban relatives from visiting during the crisis. But even a release on this scale leaves prisons still operating over capacity. Meanwhile, the Philippines -- where prisons cram in up to five times the number of inmates they are built for -- has not indicated they will release anyone early, despite calls from international human rights organisations to do so. - 'No perfect choice' - The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned prisons are likely to see a higher mortality rate from an outbreak because inmates are often already in poor health and care facilities are less efficient than in general society. Pakistan is already struggling to contain a small cluster of 49 confirmed cases at a Lahore jail, where a prisoner arriving from Italy tested positive in March. Rabia knows only too well the dangerous health risks posed in Pakistan's overcrowded prisons. Her son Sajjad, who is serving a sentence in Lahore, is now paraplegic after contracting life-threatening meningitis after poor treatment by prison medical staff. "I have no idea what condition he's in, how he is surviving," said Rabia, unable to visit or contact Sajjad since Pakistan was hit by COVID-19. "I pray that this disease doesn't spread in the jail, but if it does will we even find out? We won't," she added, asking AFP to not use her real name. Several high courts in the country ordered the release of hundreds of people awaiting trial or sentenced for petty crimes to ease the burden on creaking systems. But the country's Supreme Court abruptly put a halt to the move last week. In neighbouring Afghanistan, the president ordered 10,000 women, young offenders, critically ill patients and older inmates released to "safeguard the health of people". So far only a few thousand have been freed. India has already released thousands of inmates, after the Supreme Court advised prisons to free those awaiting trial for crimes with punishments of seven years or less. Harsh Mander, a social activist in India, admitted authorities face difficult choices, running the risk of permitting the virus to spread as released prisoners make long journeys home, some to far-flung villages. "There is of course a trade off ?- there is a question of them carrying the virus. There is no perfect choice here," he said. burs-ecl/rbu Rights groups have warned of a race against time to protect inmates, calling on all countries to relieve the pressure on packed prisons through early release rulings The country has released more than 30,000 inmates, amounting to some 10 percent of the country's prison population India has already released thousands of inmates
Five years have past; five summers, with the length

Of five long winters! and again I hear

These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs

With a soft inland murmur. - Once again

Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,

That on a wild secluded scene impress

Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect

The landscape with the quiet of the sky.

The day is come when I again repose

Here, under this dark sycamore, and view

These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,

Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,

Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves

'Mid groves and copses. Once again I see

These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines

Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms,

Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke

Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!

With some uncertain notice, as might seem

Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,

Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire

The Hermit sits alone.

These beauteous forms,

Through a long absence, have not been to me

As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:

But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din

Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,

In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,

Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;

And passing even into my purer mind,

With tranquil restoration: - feelings too

Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,

As have no slight or trivial influence

On that best portion of a good man's life,

His little, nameless, unremembered, acts

Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust,

To them I may have owed another gift,

Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,

In which the burthen of the mystery,

In which the heavy and the weary weight

Of all this unintelligible world,

Is lightened: - that serene and blessed mood,

In which the affections gently lead us on, -

Until, the breath of this corporeal frame

And even the motion of our human blood

Almost suspended, we are laid asleep

In body, and become a living soul:

While with an eye made quiet by the power

Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,

We see into the life of things.

If this

Be but a vain belief, yet, oh! how oft -

In darkness and amid the many shapes

Of joyless daylight; when the fretful stir

Unprofitable, and the fever of the world,

Have hung upon the beatings of my heart -

How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,

O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the woods,

How often has my spirit turned to thee!

And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,

With many recognitions dim and faint,

And somewhat of a sad perplexity,

The picture of the mind revives again:

While here I stand, not only with the sense

Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts

That in this moment there is life and food

For future years. And so I dare to hope,

Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first

I came among these hills; when like a roe

I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides

Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,

Wherever nature led: more like a man

Flying from something that he dreads than one

Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then

(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days,

And their glad animal movements all gone by)

To me was all in all. - I cannot paint

What then I was. The sounding cataract

Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,

The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,

Their colours and their forms, were then to me

An appetite; a feeling and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm,

By thought supplied, nor any interest

Unborrowed from the eye. - That time is past,

And all its aching joys are now no more,

And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this

Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other gifts

Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,

Abundant recompense. For I have learned

To look on nature, not as in the hour

Of thoughtless youth; but hearing often-times

The still, sad music of humanity,

Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power

To chasten and subdue. And I have felt

A presence that disturbs me with the joy

Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime

Of something far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,

And the round ocean and the living air,

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:

A motion and a spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still

A lover of the meadows and the woods,

And mountains; and of all that we behold

From this green earth; of all the mighty world

Of eye, and ear, - both what they half create,

And what perceive; well pleased to recognise

In nature and the language of the sense

The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,

The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul

Of all my moral being.

Nor perchance,

If I were not thus taught, should I the more

Suffer my genial spirits to decay:

For thou art with me here upon the banks

Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend,

My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch

The language of my former heart, and read

My former pleasures in the shooting lights

Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while

May I behold in thee what I was once,

My dear, dear Sister! and this prayer I make,

Knowing that Nature never did betray

The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,

Through all the years of this our life, to lead

From joy to joy: for she can so inform

The mind that is within us, so impress

With quietness and beauty, and so feed

With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,

Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,

Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all

The dreary intercourse of daily life,

Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb

Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold

Is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon

Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;

And let the misty mountain-winds be free

To blow against thee: and, in after years,

When these wild ecstasies shall be matured

Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind

Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,

Thy memory be as a dwelling-place

For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then,

If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,

Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts

Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,

And these my exhortations! Nor, perchance -

If I should be where I no more can hear

Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams

Of past existence - wilt thou, then forget

That on the banks of this delightful stream

We stood together; and that I, so long

A worshipper of Nature, hither came

Unwearied in that service: rather say

With warmer love - oh! with far deeper zeal

Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget

That after many wanderings, many years

Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,

And this green pastoral landscape, were to me

More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!
CEO urges all groups researching nucleic acid-based vaccines or exploring the use of antivirals for treatment to contact them

GUILDFORD, England, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SiSaf Ltd, is the creator of Bio-Courier technology that leverages the unique properties of elemental silicon (14Si) to overcome the limitations of traditional drug delivery technologies. Today, CEO Dr Suzanne Saffie-Siebert, PhD, announced it is making its technology available for compatibility and feasibility studies on a not-for-profit basis to help overcome the major hurdles of developing nucleic acid-based vaccines, CD8 peptides and antiviral treatments for COVID-19. The lead candidates in the race for a vaccine are nucleic acid based (including RNA and DNA vaccines). However, the significant challenges to the translation of these into vaccines include the fact that their high molecular weight and high negative charge density impair the permeation across cellular membranes, resulting in extremely low absorption and cellular expression. In addition, nucleic acid-based molecules are inherently unstable and highly prone to enzymatic degradation. SiSaf's silicon-based hybrid system delivers molecules in intact and unmodified form to target cells, maximizing efficacy and minimising side effects. It also facilitates administration by transdermal, intranasal or oral routes to reduce the burden on health care professionals and maximise coverage. Scaled production and access to a global manufacturing footprint through SiSaf's strategic partners further accelerates time to patient access.

Within SiSaf's advanced pipeline, Bio-Courier technology has demonstrated significant improvements in the stability and targeting of nucleic acid-based therapies including siRNA, mRNA, CRISPR gene editing, as well as multiple peptides and small molecule drugs.

CEO, Dr Suzanne Saffie-Siebert, PhD, said, "I'm keen for SiSaf to fulfil its public health obligation in addressing the coronavirus pandemic in as many ways as possible. SiSaf's R&D team is uniquely positioned to support groups and help accelerate their programs, not only nucleic acid-based vaccine developers, but also groups exploring the use of antivirals and CD8 peptides for treatment. We welcome collaboration with all groups in this race. Time is of the essence, so I urge relevant health organisation and research groups to contact us. Then we can rapidly assess whether our technology can help and make our resources available on a not-for-profit basis. We believe that the more approaches we explore, the better our likelihood of success to check the coronavirus challenge and prevent or manage future pandemics."

About SiSaf Ltd.

SiSaf is a pioneer of silicon-based hybrid technologies. Built upon a decade of research and patented technological innovation, SiSaf's platform is changing the way therapeutic molecules target disease, helping to make tomorrow's precision medicines a reality. SiSaf is a commercial stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Guildford, UK, with fully integrated state-of-the-art research labs, manufacturing and bio-analytical facilities to fast track development.

About Bio-Courier Technology

SiSaf's first-to-market Bio-Courier platform technology leverages the unique properties of bioabsorbable silicon, lipids and amino acids to address the significant challenges of stability, solubility, targeting and controlled release of complex therapeutic molecules.

Its customizable design and fabrication provide unparalleled flexibility with respect to therapeutic molecule type and target cell location. Bio-Couriers degrade to the bioavailable form of silicon, eliminating the accumulation of potentially toxic or immune-activating material and supporting cell health. Cost-effective, scaled manufacturing provides unequalled capacity to address both rare diseases and large patient populations.

SiSaf owns the intellectual property of several technologies that address the significant challenges of stability, solubility, targeting and controlled release of complex therapeutic molecules.

Contact details

info@sisaf.com

To learn more, please visit www.sisaf.com
Many of us were looking forward to seeing popular science fiction that became real in 2020. But 2020 has been surprising us since it started and in the third month of the year, it continues to surprise us. We are now in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, thanks to our rapidly evolving scientific technology. And with this rapidly changing technology, we are continually trying to reach the point where we can fight off the viruses that keep taking our lives.

Meanwhile, there have been many other scientific inventions in 2020 that are ready to go off the shelf. Either those inventions have been developed, or they are in the process of designing, or they are just plain laughable.

Do not forget though, the imaginations we laugh at today, end up surprising us in future when they become real.

So here are some of the promising scientific inventions for 2020 that everyone hoped would become real in 2020, have a look and find out how many of them are ready to go off the shelf.

The List of Promising Scientific Inventions for 2020

1. Japan's Robotic Moon Base

Japan has been planning to build a robotic lunar outpost for quite some time now, and now is the time when they finally release some news about it. There is no reason, at least not technologically, that Japan would not be able to make this possible. If any country can, its Japan - build a robotic base for robots by robots. However, some economic obstacles might come in their path.

2. China's Beijing-London Rail Network

One of the most ambitious plans of China - get 17 different countries to get on board for the idea of linking the western world with the eastern one with a high-speed rail line. No, we are not talking about linking Easter and Western China by Rail, we are talking about linking London and Beijing. How likely are the countries to trade their natural resources and human rights in exchange of infrastructure developments? 2020 is here to tell us that.

3. Driverless Cars

Ah, the future of the automobile industry has been staring them in the face for quite some time now. These automated self-driving cars have been everyone's objective from Google to Tesla to GM and Toyota. However, there are still big hurdles in the path, and the first one is, getting all these heterogeneous cars from different companies to talk to one another. And frankly speaking, we still don't have the infrastructure to link all our vehicles, not just to each other but with the traffic too.

4. New competition: Biofuels and Fossil Fuels

Well, it's about time this happens; its pure happiness, seeing companies moving towards a sustainable future. The US military pledged in 2010; they would be using half of their energy from renewable sources by 2020.

5. Cars will fly

JK Rowling might have made the Ford Anglia fly back in the early 2000s, the rest of the muggle world is still waiting for that magic to trickle down to the rest of us. However, as promising as this invention sounds like in 2020, technologically, logistically and economically, we still cannot reach there.

The US Military might have created something that looks and sounds like a flying car, its called 'Flying Humvee' and it is but a prototype. But the rest of us folks still have to wait for this 2020 invention to turn up. Nonetheless, at least one car is airborne, that should count as an achievement.

6. Control devices using brains

A human brain is this universe's most fascinating, unconquered creation. While a lot of people have imagined harnessing its raw power to do something extraordinary, it still won't be able to be one of the most promising inventions of 2020. However, it was a very promising promise by Intel.

Yes, but what is possible right now includes a chip in the brain that can respond to the gross neural activity. However, we still don't know our brain so well to create an interface that can let you surf the channel without you putting any manual effort.

If you think there are some more out-of-the-world inventions that were promised to us in 2020, mention them in the comments! Share this article with your friends and let them know what we should keep expecting. Do not give up on 2020 just yet.
Tata Motors shares climbed over 5% in the early trading session today, despite the company reporting a massive decline in its total sales.

Share price of Tata Motors reported a 82.69% year-on-year drop in its total sales to 12,924 units in March, compared to 74,679 units in the same month last year.

Amid the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, Tata Motors' domestic sales were down by 84% in March 2020 to 11,012 units from 68,727 units on a yearly basis.

Despite fall in sales, Tata Motors share price hit an intraday high of Rs 69, rising 5.67% on BSE. Earlier, the stock opened with a gain of 5.59% against the last closing value of Rs 65.30.

However the share price of Tata Motors was trading close to its 52-week low of Rs 63.60

Tata Motors' Passenger vehicle sales in the domestic market fell by 68% to 5,676 units on a monthly basis.

"Sales were affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent nationwide lockdown," said Passenger Vehicles Business Unit President Mayank Pareek.

Auto major's total commercial vehicle sales were down by 87% to 7,123 units, on a month-on-month basis.

Total JLR UK sales slipped 30.9% to 17,175 units compared to the same period last year, Tata Motors said.

In another update, S&P Ratings downgraded Tata Motors' rating to B from B+, citing weaker-than-expected credit metrics owing to the disruptions and economic impact from the coronavirus pandemic.

The rating agency, however, changed Tata Motors outlook to 'stable' from 'negative'.

"The impact of COVID-19 on the global automotive market will make a large dent in the recent good progress that JLR''s management has made in steering the business back to profitability and improving credit metrics. In turn, this would delay the improvement we had expected in Tata Motors'' credit profile," S&P said in a statement.

Share Market LIVE: Sensex climbs 1,300 points, Nifty at 8,400; JSW Steel climbs 5%

Wall Street indices climb 7% each on hopes of slowing coronavirus death toll

Investors gain over Rs 4 lakh crore as Sensex attempts recovery amid falling coronavirus cases globally

Stocks in news: HDFC Bank, Lupin, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank and more

(with agency inputs)
One of the six pillars of the Chester County Historic Courthouse on North High Street will shine in blue light on January nights beginning Tuesday evening in recognition of National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.
Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner has scolded Brisbanites who are taking advantage of the city's relaxed parking guidelines during the COVID-19 outbreak.

"While it is generally working well, I have been receiving reports that a small number of people have been parking in bus stops and parking all day in loading zones and in clearway zones," Cr Schrinner said.

"And that is just not the intent of the approach.

Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner. Credit:Tammy Law/Fairfax Media

"You might be able to get out and get to your workplace easily, but if you are parking in a bus stop you are stopping the public transport network from safely operating.
A hole has opened in the ozone layer over the Arctic due to a 'polar vortex' causing unusually freezing temperatures in parts of the atmosphere.

The European Space Agency backed Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) has been following the 'unusual ozone hole' since it first formed.

It comes as record-breaking low levels of ozone are recorded over the northern most part of the Earth at about 11 miles above the surface - the lowest levels since 2011.

The hole over Antarctica in the southern hemisphere forms annually but a hole over the Arctic is a rare occurrence, according to CAMS.

Holes do occasionally appear over the Arctic, but this is the largest discovered to date and it is due to a colder than usual 'polar vortex' in the stratosphere.

These images show the ozone over the Arctic in April and March, revealing the lower than usual levels recorded by Copernicus satellites

CAMS say atmospheric conditions were to blame for the new new - causing by an extremely strong polar vortex mixing with post-winter sunlight.

HOW IS THE HOLE IN THE OZONE FORMED? Chlorine and bromine-containing substances accumulate within the polar vortex where they stay chemically inactive in the darkness. Temperatures in the vortex can fall to below -108 degrees Fahrenheit and ice crystals in Polar stratospheric clouds can form, which play an important part in the chemical reactions. As the sun rises over the pole, the suns energy releases chemically-active chlorine and bromine atoms in the vortex which rapidly destroy ozone molecules, causing the hole to form. SOURCE: CAMS Advertisement

The new Arctic hole is a fraction of the size of the Antarctica one and is expected to close up again by the middle of April.

'Our forecasts suggest that temperatures have now started to increase in the polar vortex', comments Vincent-Henri Peuch, Director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.

'This means that ozone depletion will slow down and eventually stop, as polar air will mix with ozone-rich air from lower latitudes,' he said.

'It is very important to maintain international efforts for monitoring the annual ozone hole events and the ozone layer over time.'

Levels of ozone over the Arctic are at a very low level - the last time it was this bad was during the Spring of 2011 and this year looks set to be worse, CAMS said.

'While we are used to ozone holes developing over the Antarctic every year during the Austral spring, the conditions needed for such strong ozone depletion are not normally found in the Northern Hemisphere,' the CAMS team wrote.

The ozone hole over Antarctica is primarily caused by human-made chemicals including chlorine and bromide that migrate to the stratosphere.

This is a layer of the atmosphere around 6 to 30 miles above sea level.

These chemicals accumulate inside the strong polar vortex that develops over the Antarctic every winter where they remain chemically inactive in the darkness.

Temperatures in the vortex can fall to below -108 degrees Fahrenheit and polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) can form.

These clouds play an important part in chemical reactions involving the human-made chemicals that lead to ozone depletion once sunlight returns to the area.

'This depletion has been causing an ozone hole to form annually over the last 35 years, but the 2019 Antarctic ozone hole was actually one of the smallest we have seen during that time,' the team wrote.

The graph shows the ozone column over the Arctic for the past year, with comparisons per decade with the black line showing 2020 levels at a record-low rate

The Arctic stratosphere is usually less isolated than its Antarctic counterpart because the presence of nearby land masses and mountain ranges disturbs the weather patterns more than in the Southern Hemisphere.

This explains why the polar vortex in the Northern Hemisphere is usually weaker than in the Southern Hemisphere, and temperatures do not fall so low.

In 2020 the Arctic polar vortex has been exceptionally strong and long lived with temperatures in the Arctic stratosphere dropping low enough for several months at the start of 2020 to allow the formation of PSCs.

'Ozone depletion over the Arctic in 2020 has been so severe that most of the ozone in the layer between 80 and 50 hPa (an altitude of around 11 miles) has been depleted,' the CAMS team wrote in a blog post.

Measurements from satellites are combined with computer models of the atmosphere in a similar way to weather forecasts to monitor the ozone layer.

Monitoring the ozone hole is important as the stratospheric ozone layer acts as a shield, protecting all life on Earth from potentially harmful ultraviolet radiation.
Welcome to the new look of The Morning After. With some changes to the backend here at Engadget, weve adjusted how we do things in a way that should hopefully make our daily newsletter look and feel even better. Expect to see more changes soon, and let us know if anything is broken or even just bent.

Hopefully, the changes leave you in a better mood than Bubba Wallace, the NASCAR driver who logged out 11 laps into the Food City Showdown from Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday night after another driver hit him. Sure, its just a game er iRacing esports simulation, but because this one was being broadcast live on Fox, his sponsor responded by dropping Wallace. The driver was already back in action Monday night with a different sponsors logo on his Richard Petty Motorsports #43 stock car.

 Richard

UK carriers would like people not to set fire to its cell towers

They're urging a stop to attacks based on false 5G coronavirus conspiracies.

Several arson attacks on phone masts in the UK have led to all of the country's major phone carriers issuing a joint statement. They have urged people not to set fire to cellular masts, threaten engineers or spread conspiracy theories falsely linking 5G to COVID-19. As the companies reiterated, cell networks are critical in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, providing essential connectivity to emergency services and the National Health Service. Continue reading.

Boeings Starliner will make another uncrewed test flight

Take two.

In December, Boeings Starliner failed to reach the correct orbit and dock at the International Space Station. In light of that issue and other glitches, the company is now planning a second uncrewed flight for its Commercial Crew Program vehicle, instead of moving forward to a crewed flight. In a statement, Boeing said, We have chosen to refly our Orbital Flight Test to demonstrate the quality of the Starliner system. Flying another uncrewed flight will allow us to complete all flight test objectives and evaluate the performance of the second Starliner vehicle at no cost to the taxpayer. Continue reading.

Nintendo lets Japanese gamers build their own Joy-Con color schemes

Customers can pick a Switch console, specific controller colors and more.

Nintendo

Nintendo Japan is letting new Switch customers create their own made-to-order color scheme bundles with a bunch of new color options. This will help gamers achieve the style they want without forcing them to buy extra Joy-Cons, perfect if youre chasing that Evangelion aesthetic with some purple accent. Within the scheme, there are also some exclusive Joy-Con strap colors. Continue reading.

Pixel 4 adds an 'eyes open' check for using face unlock

So now your family won't unlock your phone while you're sleeping.

Google took its time about it, but several months later, you can finally enable face unlock on your Pixel 4 without worrying that someone will access your phone while you get some shut-eye. Google has rolled out a much-needed April security update that adds the promised require eyes to be open optional setting. Enable it in the Face Unlock menu and youll have to be awake and at least vaguely lucid to get into your phone. Continue reading.

Review: Samsung Galaxy Chromebook

That 4K screen comes at a major cost.

Engadget

Google has been selling expensive, high-end Chromebooks for years now. But last year, the company changed tactics. The Pixelbook Go was only $650, a far cry from the $1,000-plus the company asked for its previous Chromebooks. But if youre after the fanciest of Chromebooks, then Samsung is where you should be looking. According to reviewer Nathan Ingraham, Samsungs new Chromebook does a lot of things right -- the keyboard is great and the screen is beautiful. But for $999, its poor battery life is almost impossible to forgive. Continue reading.

The best games for PS4

Our first update of 2020.

With a lot of us still in our homes, its a good time to tackle that backlog of games. Let Engadget make that list even longer! Were updating our best games guides this week, starting with the PS4. New additions include Control, which is very good and occasionally on sale on the PlayStation Store, depending on your region and timing. Continue reading.

But wait, theres more...
The finance ministry is set to release Rs 20,000 crore in pending goods and service tax (GST) compensation to states soon, Business Standard has learnt. This will not be from the compensation cess, but from the Consolidated Fund of India, and comes days after the Centre disbursed Rs 17,287 crore to states as devolution and disaster funds.

The finance ministry and the Prime Ministers Office are also working on another stimulus package, which is expected to be announced soon. There is no definitive number yet on the quantum of the package, which will again be aimed at the ...
This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy.

The United States national security system is the best funded, best equipped, and most powerful the world has ever seen. In the years since the Sept. 11 attacks, if a terrorist group anywhere in the world posed a potential threat to Americans, eradicating that threat became an immediate national priority. And yet, here we are today, contemplating the likelihood of more than 100,000 American lives lost to COVID-19. This disconnect has revealed that our national security priorities have been completely wrong. It is past time to rethink what national security should mean.

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After 9/11, the United States embarked on an unprecedented global mission to eradicate international terrorist threats to the country and its allies. Countering terrorism had long been part of the overall U.S. national security picture, but it only became the central mission after 2001. The first step was the decision to launch a war to eradicate terrorist safe havens used by al-Qaida in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden was believed to be living, and from where he planned the attacks.

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The law passed by Congress on Sept. 18, 2001 authorized the president

to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

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What followed was a radical reorientation of the U.S. national security apparatus and American foreign policy around countering the threat of terrorism. Once the terrorist camps in Afghanistan were destroyed, the Taliban government defeated, and a U.S.-supported government installed, the mission was far from over. The 2001 law became the framework for a global counterterrorism campaign that has now lasted almost two decades and extends today, according to one recent study, to 39 percent of the worlds countries.

This counterterrorism program did not come cheap. A 2018 study by the Stimson Center put the cost at $2.8 trillion during fiscal years 2002 through 2017. Spending on counterterrorism made up nearly 15 percent of the $18 trillion in federal discretionary spending during that period.

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But how many American lives were really saved by this program? Terrorism does pose a real threat to life, of course, and those threats can be devastating. But in most years, there have been comparatively few terrorism deaths worldwide. (Its true that the U.S. counterterrorism effort may have suppressed attacks against Americans and U.S. allies, but the trendline does not show a big dip in terrorism deaths post-2001. If anything, they have increased as a share of total deaths.) The 9/11 attacks, which killed 3,000, was the worlds most fatal terrorist event of recent times. But overall, terrorism deaths are relatively rarenot just in the U.S. but around the world. They are most common in Iraq, where 4.3 percent of all deaths were due to terrorism in 2017, followed by Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia, where over 1 percent of deaths were due to terrorism. Globally, however, they account for just 0.01 percent of deaths.

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As devastating as the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were, the death toll of COVID-19 is already higher in New York state alone, where more than 4,000 had reportedly died as of April 5. The overall U.S. death toll from coronavirus is now close to 10,000. Estimates suggest that the final death toll could be well over 100,000. Indeed, President Donald Trump recently suggested that 100,000 American deaths would mean we all together have done a very good job.

If one believes, as I do, that the fundamental goal of a national security program should be to protect American lives, then we clearly have our priorities out of place. Just as the 9/11 attacks led to a reorientation of national security policy around a counterterrorism mission, the COVID-19 crisis can and should lead to a reorientation of national security policy. There should be a commission styled on the 9/11 Commission to assess the failures of the U.S. government, both federal and local, to respond to the pandemic and to chart a better course forward. Until then, a few key steps that we should take are already clear:

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First, we should spend less time and resources on counterterrorism efforts abroad. The endless wars that began after 9/11 should finally come to a close. The Islamic State, al-Qaida, and associated terrorist groups, are primarily focused on local and regional aims in countries where bad governance and systemic conflict enable them to thrive. We should reassess which of our programs are actually making Americans safer or are essential to other important foreign policy goals. The argument that we should spend less on counterterrorism is far from new. End the endless wars has now become something of a Democratic rallying cry.

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Political Scientist John Mueller made the argument that the odds of an American being killed by international terrorism are microscopic in his 2009 book, Overblown; anti-war advocates have long argued that the U.S. counterterrorism program is counterproductive; and many have argued that the programs are not only ineffective but have led to loss of innocent civilian lives. The COVID-19 crisis lends these arguments even greater force.

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Second, that money should be redirected in part to global health programs and rejuvenating international institutions capable of responding to global threats like COVID-19. One clear lesson of this crisis is that when it comes to a pandemic, no nation can protect itself on its own. International cooperation is essential. The World Health Organization has played an important role in battling the virus. But it has been hobbled by limited funding, and its busy fundraising to support its work even as its trying to undertake ambitious programs. The United Nations Security Council, meanwhile, has been mostly absent from the conversation. The pandemic is global and it requires a global approach. But these international institutions have not had the funding or the international support to play the role they should have in coordinating a quick global response to the spread of the virus. When this crisis is over, it will be essential to evaluate how to coordinate a faster, more effective global response when the next pandemic arises.

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Third, we should recognize that U.S. national security is put at risk by our inadequate healthcare system. As Jacob Hacker and I wrote last month, its now clear that universal healthcare is a national security issue. Americans are at risk of dying at higher numbers in this pandemic than in any war since the Civil War. Some Americans may have delayed seeking care in the early days of the pandemic by worries that they could not afford health care. And now that millions have lost their jobs in the midst of the pandemic, our employment-based health care system seems more obviously unjust and dangerous.

Last, we should broaden the lens of national security to think about all serious global threats to human life. Terrorism should be a part of the conversation, but it should be considered next to other, more pressing threats to American lives, including pandemics, other public health threats, and climate change. The assessment of threats should be based on scientific assessments of real global threats that require serious global solutions. Thats what national security must mean in the post-COVID-19 world.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Flex Logix Technologies, Inc., the leading supplier of embedded FPGA (eFPGA) IP, architecture and software, today unveiled key benchmarking information around its new nnMAX architecture, showing how it can effectively be used for DSP acceleration for key functions. For FIR (finite impulse response) filters, nnMAX is able to process up to 1 Gigasamples per second with hundreds and even thousands of "taps" or coefficients. FIR filters are widely used in a large number of commercial and aerospace applications. Cheng Wang, Flex Logix's senior VP engineering and co-founder, disclosed these benchmarks and more at today's online Linley Processor Forum in a presentation titled "DSP Acceleration using nnMAX." His full presentation can be viewed at this link.

"Because nnMAX is so good at accelerating AI inference, customers started asking us if it could also be applied to DSP functions," said Geoff Tate, CEO and co-founder of Flex Logix. "When we started evaluating their models, we found that it can deliver similar performance to the most expensive Xilinx FPGAs in the same process node (16nm), and is also faster than TI's highest-performing DSP  but in a much smaller silicon area than both those solutions. nnMAX is available now for 16nm SoC designs and will be available for additional process nodes in 2021."

About nnMAX

nnMAX is a general purpose Neural Inferencing Engine that can run any type of NN from simple fully connected DNN to RNN to CNN and can run multiple NNs at a time. It has demonstrated excellent inference efficiency, delivering more throughput on tough models for less $, less watts.

nnMAX is programmed with TensorFlow Lite and ONNX. Numerics supported are INT8, INT16 and BFloat16 and can be mixed layer by layer to maximize prediction accuracy. INT8/16 activations are processed at full rate; BFloat16 at half rate. Hardware converts between INT and BFloat as needed layer by layer. 33 Convolutions of Stride 1 are accelerated by Winograd hardware: YOLOv3 is 1.7x faster, ResNet-50 is 1.4x faster. This is done at full precision. Weights are stored in non-Winograd form to keep memory bandwidth low. nnMAX is a tile architecture any throughput required can be delivered with the right amount of SRAM for your model.

About Flex Logix

Flex Logix provides solutions for making flexible chips and accelerating neural network inferencing. Its eFPGA platform enables chips to be flexible to handle changing protocols, standards, algorithms and customer needs and to implement reconfigurable accelerators that speed key workloads 30-100x compared to processors. Flex Logix's second product line, nnMAX, utilizes its eFPGA and interconnect technology to provide modular, scalable neural inferencing from 1 to >100 TOPS using a higher throughput/$ and throughput/watt compared to other architectures. Flex Logix is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Kelly Karr

Tanis Communications

[email protected]

+408-718-9350

Copyright 2020. All rights reserved. Flex Logix is a registered trademark and nnMAX is a trademark of Flex Logix, Inc.

SOURCE Flex Logix Technologies, Inc.

Related Links

https://flex-logix.com


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Amid panic-selling that has caused benchmark indices to plunge, multinational companies (MNCs) continue to do better than other competitors, according to a Business Standard report.

The Nifty and the Sensex saw massive drops in February and March due to fears about the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Follow LIVE updates on the COVID-19 outbreak here

MNCs now account for a combined 14.6 percent market capitalisation (m-cap) of all listed companies in India, the report said. This is their highest ever share of m-cap in six years, and an increase from the 10.9 percent recorded at the end of March 2019.

Dhananjay Sinha, head of research, Systematix Group told Business Standard that most large listed MNCs are in the consumer space, providing food, personal care products, and pharmaceuticals.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

"The space is currently preferred by equity investors because it offers steady growth and few downside risks arising from macroeconomic or policy surprises, Sinha told the publication.

Also read: 'COVID-19 will pass, why should one let the opportunity pass?'

After excluding banking and financial services companies, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle India, Maruti Suzuki India , Siemens, Bosch, ACC, and Ambuja Cement, and other companies contribute to one-fourth of the m-cap of 813 companies, the report said.

The report said the analysis is based 898 companies from multiple sectors sectors that are part of the BSE 500, BSE MidCap, and BSE SmallCap indices.

The report said 74 Indian subsidiaries of MNCs are now doing better than state-run firms and are almost as big as institutionally-owned independent companies such as Housing Development Finance Corporation, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Larsen & Toubro, and ITC.

The 74 Indian units have a combined m-cap of Rs 13.8 lakh crore, the report added.

Follow our full coverage here
The enemy did not attack Ukrainian positions from 00:00 to 07:00 Kyiv time on April 7.

Russia's hybrid military forces on April 6 mounted eight attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine.

"The armed forces of the Russian Federation violated the ceasefire eight times on April 6," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in a Facebook update as of 07:00 Kyiv time on April 7, 2020.

Read alsoDonbas war update: 13 enemy attacks, one WIA on April 5

The enemy opened fire from proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, weapons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, an anti-tank missile system, grenade launchers of various types, and heavy machine guns.

Under attack were Ukrainian positions near the towns of Krasnohorivka and Avdiyivka, and the villages of Pavlopil, Kamianka, Starohnativka, Novozvanivka, and Novo-Oleksandrivka.

According to intelligence data, one member of Russia-led forces was wounded on April 6.

No Ukrainian army casualties were reported over the period under review.

The enemy did not attack Ukrainian positions from 00:00 to 07:00 Kyiv time on April 7.
"Honoured and privileged to take over as the Official Spokesperson of @MEAIndia. I look forward to working closely with all to fulfil my responsibilities in this new role," he tweeted.

New Delhi: Senior diplomat Anurag Srivastava, on Monday, took charge as the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, succeeding Raveesh Kumar.

Srivastava, a 1999-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, was serving as India's Ambassador to Ethiopia.

Before he was appointed as Indian envoy to Ethiopia, Srivastava was helming the Finance Division of the MEA which is tasked to administer it's annual budget of about USD 2 billion.

Srivastava served at the India's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva where he dealt with work related to human rights, refugee issues and trade policy. He also served in the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division of the ministry at its headquarters.

Srivastava has degrees in engineering and business management and had a brief stint in the corporate sector before joining the Indian Foreign Service. He also has a postgraduate diploma in Diplomatic Studies from the Oxford University.
National Organizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sammi Awuku has lauded Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund for their continuous support to the vulnerable in society amidst the lockdown.



The Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund is an Association playing instrumental role in cushioning the vulnerable population of the country.



Sammi Awuku, who joined the team to distribute food, water and other essential items to the poor, homeless and head potters known in Ghanaian parlance as "kayaye'', expressed his gratitude over the philanthropic gesture to the underpivileged in society as government stays committed to the fight against COVID-19.



Read his Facebook post below:



Great Spirit!



Love the passion!



Good job to the Ghana COVID 19 Private Sector Fund on your support to the poor, Kayayo and the homeless!



Thanks for complimenting Governments efforts in these difficult times!



#WeAreInThisFightTogether.











Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Channel 4 has commissioned of a four-part DIY and homecraft series featuring Escape to the Chateaus Dick & Angel Strawbridge as part of its Under the Lockdown Academy banner.

Dick & Angels Make, Do & Mend (w/t) will see the Strawbridges offering tips and tricks for families looking for imaginative ways to solve their DIY dilemmas using what they have to hand.

Dick & Angels Make, Do & Mend (w/t) will be made by Two Rivers Media in a collaboration with Chateau Television, Dick and Angel Strawbridges independent production company. The series has been commissioned for Channel 4 by Sean Doyle, Deputy Head of Features & Formats with Executive Producer Lizi Wootton for Two Rivers Media.

With France also under lockdown measures, the series will be filmed entirely by the Strawbridge family at the chateau. There they will communicate online with families from across the UK looking for practical advice and bespoke solutions for a home project of their own. Dick & Angel and their children will also be tackling their own dream projects and trying out new pastimes to keep their family entertained.

Dick and Angel Strawbridge say: Its humbling that our audience wants to see more of us and our adventures. Between the pair of us we have nearly a centurys worth of make do and mend experience and so we are really excited to be making this brand-new series. Capturing our life at the Chateau has grown out of a fantastic creative relationship with Lizi Wootton, who we have worked with for over 4 years. Its fantastic to be partnering with such an experienced and dynamic team.

Alan Clements, Managing Director, Two Rivers, says: This collaboration is a major move for us as a growing, ambitious indie. Dick and Angel are highly respected presenters and we are very excited to be working with them. Two Rivers ambition is to make programming which is creatively exciting and commercially successful. Dick and Angels Make, Do & Mend (w/t) is the first step in what we hope will be a long and successful relationship with Dick and Angel. We are already in advanced discussions about other projects beyond this initial commission.

Lizi Wootton, Head of Popular Factual, Two Rivers, says: Dick and Angel are some of the most popular talent on-screen today. Ive worked with them since the beginning of their Chateau journey, when Escape to the Chateau was little more than an idea. We built the series over nearly five years, developing the on-screen brand and creating something extraordinary together. Now, not only are their Chateau programmes in demand all over the world, but their audience wants to see and learn more about Dick and Angels adventures. I am thrilled to be collaborating with them again.

Channel 4, Deputy Head of Features and Formats Sean Doyle adds: We are delighted that Dick and Angel will be sharing their homemade handiwork with the nation at a time when many of us are taking the opportunity to make fixes around the house and embark on those creative projects weve always wanted to do. In these unprecedented times, they will bring great joy, warmth and know how into the sitting rooms, sheds, attics and cupboards across the country.

After Bake Off, Escape to the Chateau was the highest-rating 8pm origination on Channel 4 in 2019, growing from a short commission into a major TV brand, with series 1 of the daytime DIY spin-off series delivering the highest daytime ratings for a new launch in the slot in a decade. It has sold to over 40 territories, from Australia to Angola; Canada to China .

Dick and Angels Make, Do & Mend (w/t) was commissioned by Sean Doyle, Commissioning Editor, Features and Formats, at Channel 4. A Two Rivers/Chateau Television co-production, it is Exec Produced by Lizi Wootton for Two Rivers Media.

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This is an opinion column.

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.  Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Maybe because the new enemy is unseen.

While seen enemies lurk just outside the front door. Or make themselves at home.

Enemies like poverty. Like hunger. Like shamefully inadequate healthcare. Like health disparities and conditions that should make all of us cringe. Like crime. Like distrust.

Lifelong enemies. Generational enemies.

Unlike this new, unseen enemy: COVID-19.

Maybe thats why not everyone in Birmingham and other parts of Jefferson County seems to be listening. Why someway too manyare still not heeding the loud, dire warnings to practice social distancing, limit gatherings to very small groups, and most dire, stay at home unless youre doing something deemed essential by health officials.

Why some are still treating this strange new Bizarro Worldhome school and remote work, or, sadly, for increasingly more each day, no work at allas a corona-cation. Pull out the grill, grab the family, friends, and neighbors, and lets chill outside like its July Fourth!

Except its not. Dangerously not. And those gatheringsjust being real herecould kill someone.

The obliviousness happens on both sides of the mountain. In parks, around lakes, anywhere folks can congregate and these beautiful, and visibly harmless, spring days.

My gravest concern, though, is for our neighbors in our poorest neighborhoods. In our public housing communities.

Places without Chromebooks or closets crammed with hoarded toilet paper and hand sanitizer.

Places without countless livestream services or a kitchen stuffed with enough food for a week.

Places without multiple floors from which to social distance.

Places often without sidewalks, for goodness sakes.

Places where this coronavirus crisisthis unseen enemypales in shadows of the crisis of life.

Places where for too long residents have had limited-to-no access to the kind of quality healthcare most of the rest of us enjoy. Places too long neglected by those with the power to affect change. In chronic illnesses. In infant mortality.

Those with the power to care.

A crisis reveals preexisting flaws, Dr. Selwyn Vickers, senior vice president of medicine at UAB and dean of the UAB School of medicine, told me. When you ignore those parts of your world that suffer the most, it eventually comes back and affects you.

On Tuesday, the Alabama Department of Public Health finally revealed the grim results of our own longstanding disparities. African Americas represent 27 percent of the population statewide. However, of 2,007 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in the state, 36.6 are African American (almost half are white).

Among deaths the news is worse: 43.6 percent (17 people) of the 39 Alabamians whove been verified to have died due to coronavirus were black, the exact same numbers as whites.

Mobile and Jefferson counties maintain their own data. On Monday, Mobile reported 71 of 128 coronavirus cases were African Americana staggering 55%. Blacks make up just 33% of the countys population. Its data also revealed the two most frequent underlying conditions among those whove died from COVID-19 were diabetes and cardiovascular disease, ailments that overwhelmingly affect African Americans.

Jefferson County has yet to provide its demographic data. It should release it. Now.

Given what we are seeing enough from other parts of the country, those results, too, will likely confirm that COVID-19the invisible enemyis pounding African Americans harder than others.

Much harder. Mike Tyson harder.

Last Saturday, Dr. Vickers revealed these disheartening stats during an informative virtual town hall hosted by the Housing Authority Birmingham District: In Milwaukee, a city where 25% of the population is African American, 50% of those testing positive for COVID-19 are African American, and a stunning 80% of those whove died from it were black; in Michigan, with a black population of 14%, blacks comprise 35% of those testing positive and 40% of deaths.

On Monday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot shared that 50% of COVID-19 cases are African American, 72% of deaths. Just 30% of the citys residents are African American.

I am not surprised.

Neither is Dr. Vickers. Not at all, he shared. Those cities are characterized by large high-rise areas where people cant help but interact. Like being on a cruise ship in the city.

Or living in a public housing community.

There are nearly 10,000 public housing and Section 8 families in the Birmingham metro area, about 30,000 people.

The 14 HABD communities are home to 5,000 families; 94 percent of the residents are African American. Scores more live in similar communities in cities throughout Jefferson County.

Officials and health authorities are concerned, rightly so, that those communities might be living, breathing Petri dishes unknowingly incubating COVID-19.

I worry, adds Dr. Vickers. Theres no evidence African Americans, Latinos or poor white people are any less susceptible than anyone living over the mountain. But the nature of public housing, its density, puts them at risk. Physical separation is not as easy to do. Testing in those areas is not done as well, either.

Most of our residents live in close quarters, that is concerning to me, says Cardell Davis, chair of HABDs Board of Commissioners. Were trying to use every tool in the toolbox to let residents know the full seriousness of COVID-19."

Among the tools are hundreds of calls daily to residents to screen for symptoms or other medical issues, prolific notices on social media, text message alerts (although only 60 residents have signed up for it), mailings and yard signs reminding residents to wash their hands regularly, practice social distancing and avoid all-but-small groups.

A HABD spokesperson said the agency is not aware that any resident has tested positive, though there are protocols in place should it (all but inevitably) happen.

And it will. Especially if residentsjustifiably concerned about the everyday enemies in their livesdont better respect this invisible enemy, too.

During our chat, Dr. Vickers evoked the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, pulled from the historic Letter from Birmingham Jail:

In a real sense, all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be...This is the interrelated structure of reality.

What Dr. King said is so true, we are inextricably linked, Dr. Vickers said. If the most vulnerable communities in our state become true hotspots for this crisis, it usually dictates the direction for our state. Look at New Orleans, New York, Detroit, and others. To ignore certain populationsthe rural and urban poor with limited access to healthcare and suffering their effectsaffects you.

It also defines you.

The column was updated Tuesday with demographics from the Alabama Department of Public Health.

A voice for whats right and wrong in Birmingham, Alabama (and beyond), Roys column appears in The Birmingham News and AL.com, as well as in the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register. Reach him at rjohnson@al.com and follow him at twitter.com/roysj
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced a complete lockdown across Israel in order to control the country's growing coronavirus outbreak.

So far there have been 58 deaths because of the virus across the country and 8,904 confirmed cases.

The lockdown will have an impact on the upcoming Passover holiday and residents will be unable to leave their homes.

Mr Netanyahu has stopped all travel between cities from Tuesday at 4pm until Friday at 7am after Purim gatherings at the beginning of March helped spread the virus.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured above on March 14) has announced a complete lockdown across Israel in order to control the country's growing coronavirus outbreak

The entrances to the Israeli city of Hebron were guarded yesterday to help control the spread of the virus

The Prime Minister did however say he may lift restrictions after the week-long festival.

It comes after leaders of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt said they were suspending Easter celebrations because of the coronavirus.

Israel had already implemented restriction of movement because of the outbreak.

People across the country have only been able to leave their homes to shop for essentials and for other essential activities such as exercise.

In a national address, Mr Netanyahu said the government was further restricting movement for Passover, which begins Wednesday evening with a festive meal known as the 'Seder.'

Workers in Hebron are spraued down with coronavirus disinfectant yesterday

The workers were sprayed as they returned from Israel through the Tarqumiah crossing

'Every family will sit down for Seder night on its own. Celebrate only with the immediate family that's at home with you now.

'On Purim, the virus spread. Im telling you now clearly, Passover will not be Purim.

'When speaking about health and your lives, it is forbidden to take shortcuts,' he added.

The Prime Minister said similar travel restrictions would be in place for the upcoming holidays of Easter and Ramadan later in April.

At the same time, he said 'there are positive signs on the horizon' and that preparations were already underway for a possible easing of movement restrictions after Passover.

A woman walks past graffiti as she wears a protective face mask and gloves amid concerns over the country's coronavirus outbreak, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, April 6, 2020. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Kareena Kapoor Khan is doing what she can to boost the spirits of fans amid the coronavirus lockdown. On Tuesday, she posted a new photo about work from home.

Sharing it, she wrote, Work from home they said.... In the picture, Kareena looks glamorous as usual. She is sporting a white linen shirt and a pair of white distressed jeans, accessorised with a hat and pout in place. While fans were gushing over her glamorous avatar, Arjun Kapoor decided to troll her. He wrote: Underdressed by ur standards. A variety of responses poured in from her fans. One called her Boss Lady while another asked What work is it?

Also Watch | Coronavirus: Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra advise fans to stay at home amid lockdown

Through much of Covid-19 crisis, Kareena has been giving a peek into her personal life while also inspiring fans to hang in there. Couple of days back, she posted a picture of herself wearing a necklace made by her son Taimur Ali Khan with pasta. Sharing it, she had written: Pasta la vista. Handmade Jewellery by Taimur Ali Khan. Last week, she has posted a picture of her sons painting. Sunny days will be here again soon... A day at the beach #InhousePicasso #QuaranTimDiarie.

Also read: Deepika Padukone says Ranveer Singh complained about her on family WhatsApp group, calls her phat-phat

Like many others from Bollywood, Kareena, her husband Saif Ali Khan and Taimur Ali Khan pledged support to various relief funds needed to fight coronavirus. In early April, posting a message on Instagram, she had written: We extend our support to the PM-CARES and Chief Ministers Fund (Maharashtra). In times like these, every helping hand and every rupee raised, matters. Do help wherever possible.

Earlier on March 31, the Jab We Met actor had announced their contribution to UNICEF, GIVE INDIA and the International Association of Human Values (IAHV).

(With PTI and ANI inputs)

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Founded 10 years ago, Plymouth, Michigan-based Rivian started 2020 with plenty of momentum, drawing more than $2.8 billion in investments last year from Ford, Cox Automotive and Amazon, among others. It received an order to build 100,000 custom electric delivery vehicles for Amazon alongside its consumer-focused truck and SUV.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

By Eldar Janashvili  Trend:

Azerbaijan is considering the possibility of applying an amnesty of capital and property to continue to ensure the economic growth and expand financial resources for investments, Vusal Gasimli, executive director of the Azerbaijani Center for Economic Reforms Analysis and Communication, told Trend on April 7.

In fact, the amnesty of capital and property may be a logical continuation of the fight against the shadow economy, executive director added. In particular, the changes in the Tax Code today encourage entrepreneurs to 'bleach' their business by stimulating and administrative ways.

"Today, investors say that this is a 'money masterpiece', as stock prices worldwide are falling, and this is a chance to legalize cash in the shadow sector, Gasimli said. In March 2020, owners of over 20,000 manat ($11,764) did not choose dollarization, having learned that the financial monitoring service will be declared.

The amnesty may also be attractive to the owners of such capital, executive director said. Of course, as a developing country, Azerbaijan also has factors that impede the amnesty of capital and property."

Azerbaijans joining the transparency initiatives on an international scale is also favorable for the amnesty of capital and property, Gasimli said. Thus, the country is a member of the Egmont Group (Specialized Agency of Financial Intelligence Units), it participates in the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism  MONEYVAL and cooperates with the working group of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development dealing with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) financial measures.

The legalization of capital as a result of amnesty may lead to an increase in investments in the country, the development of the securities market, the revitalization of the banking sector, the growth of cashless circulation, the growth of budget revenues and an increase in economic activity, Gasimli said. For this purpose, it is necessary to determine the form, conditions, duration, goals and scope of the amnesty and to ensure an environment of mutual trust.

"An amnesty of capital and income must be carried out in such a way for the declared funds to be made in the form of investments, the executive director added. For example, the orientation of the declared capital to the construction is currently valid to create a greater multiplier effect. The declared funds may be sent to the real economy through banks, investment funds and institutes of market makers, investment companies and banks, stock exchanges, financial and technical companies, agricultural parks, industrial parks and others."
Financed as a European Union Twinning project, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Masaryk University, the second-largest university in the Czech Republic, have announced plans for close cooperation with regard to research into ribonucleic acids (RNAs). The three-year project will kick off in January 2021 and receive EUR 1 million in total provided by the EU. The Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), located on the JGU campus, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, and the University of Edinburgh will also be involved in the program. The Twinning project is intended to support emergent research institutions within the EU13 states that have joined the European Union since 2004. Eligible institutions are partnered with at least two leading international institutions within the respective field of research. In this case, the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) at Masaryk University will receive support in establishing a leading-edge cluster for RNA research. "We are very proud to have been selected as a partner," said Professor Mark Helm of JGU's Institute of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, which is participating in the project. "This reflects JGU's sterling reputation in the field of RNA research."

One core element of the project calls for young researchers from Masaryk University to visit JGU to complete part of their training during or after their doctorate. "The coordinators of the project at the various institutions all know one another because they have been working for decades in the same field," explained Helm. "Collaboration of this kind fosters a great many ongoing academic and even personal relationships that will prove very fruitful for us all in the long run." Helm anticipates that the project will not just burnish ties to Masaryk University, but to other participating institutions as well.

RNA uses the genetic information stored in DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) for the synthesis of proteins and thus plays a central role in the functionality of human cells. In recent years, numerous sub-types of this biomolecule have been discovered. Knowledge about the so-called small RNA is of growing importance for the treatment of a variety of diseases.

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The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, allegedly stormed the premises of Caverton Helicopters Ltd at the Nigerian Air Force base, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Tuesday, and ordered the arrest of a pilot who flew a helicopter into the oil-rich state.

Mr Wike recently barred vehicles and flights from entering Rivers State as a preventive measure to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus in the state.

Caverton is a logistics company providing support services for oil and gas companies in Nigeria. Its major clients include the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Total, Shell, ExxonMobil, and Chevron.

Two persons working with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) have confirmed the development to PREMIUM TIMES.

The information about the incident, which was said to have happened in the afternoon, is still hazy as of the time of filling this report but photos seen by this newspaper showed Mr Wikes entourage driving in and out of the Caverton premises.

Another photo of the incident showed an unidentified police officer guiding a pilot, apparently the arrested pilot, through a door.

The governor is said to be demanding that Caverton produce the passengers who were in the flight with the pilot.

The Commissioner for Information in Rivers State, Paulinus Nsirim, declined to comment on the issue when PREMIUM TIMES contacted him Tuesday evening.

The police spokesperson in Rivers, Nnamdi Omoni, requested that he should be given some times to find out information about the incident but did not call back the reporter as promised.

I am yet to get the details, the spokesperson of the NCAA, Sam Adurogboye, told PREMIUM TIMES, Tuesday evening. But I learnt there was an issue about a flight operated from Osubi to NAF Base.

Governor Wike in a statewide broadcast on Sunday said the federal government was putting pressure on him to allow expatriates fly into Rivers State to drill oil.

Every day, we are inundated with letters from the Federal Government to allow oil companies to fly in expatriates to drill oil. Then we ask, what is the status of those coming from Lagos? Nobody has told us their status as regards coronavirus.

If they come to Rivers without us knowing their status, what will be the implication assuming they have the virus? said the governor who has accused the federal government of politicising its support to states in the fight against the pandemic.

The governor had questioned why the federal government should give N10 billion grant to Lagos State to fight the pandemic, without giving any financial support to Rivers which he said produces a greater percentage of the nations wealth.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Monday announced a new case of coronavirus in Rivers bringing the number of confirmed cases of infection in the state to two.
Human rights advocates warn that the coronavirus crisis is being used to discriminate against migrants and asylum seekers.

A partial closure of the US-Mexico border has disrupted the lives of thousands who depend on cross-border travel.

But under the emergency policy, the US is also implementing strict anti-immigration measures.

Human rights advocates have warned that the virus is being used to discriminate against migrants and asylum seekers.

Al Jazeeras Manuel Rapalo reports from Mexico City.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Jobcase , a social platform for the "future of work," announced its new virtual hiring events offering to support job seekers and company recruiters with a simple, online method to facilitate the hiring process. This new channel allows employers to interact directly with candidates from any industry, eliminating the need for in-person hiring which is no longer viable due to COVID-19. Going forward, virtual hiring events will offer important hiring flexibility for employers  as a scalable and repeatable option when in-person events are not feasible for any reason.

"Jobcase is proud to provide a virtual hiring event solution that brings workers and employers together," said Fred Goff, Founder and CEO of Jobcase. "On one side there are a lot of individuals dealing with recent lay-offs and furloughs. Things have happened so quickly that many of these folks are still processing, not aware of what jobs are available, or have never had to work remotely before. On the other hand, there are many overwhelmed employers who need help in necessary services  healthcare, logistics and warehousing, supply chains, customer service, grocery, delivery, etc. Frankly, this is why Jobcase exists. Our community is built to empower all workers and the employers they support. So, along with surfacing more work-from-home jobs, we want Jobcase's virtual hiring event product to help everyone during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond."

Jobcase's new virtual events platform features a variety of simple, intuitive options for online interaction. It provides employers a streamlined set of tools to quickly and efficiently bring candidates through the hiring process. Possible options include:

Hiring event promotion utilizing Jobcase's powerful data science and multi-channel distribution to identify, inform, and attract qualified job seekers

Online registration with screener questions to ensure attendees are qualified and help recruiters prioritize their interactions

Video and webinar-style presentation capabilities

Public and private chat tools for recruiters to speak with candidates

The support of Jobcase's online social media platform for improving and managing work-life  a community of "people helping people" that offers access to jobs, resources, and tools for self-improvement.

Kelly Services, a global leader in workforce management solutions, is an early adopter of Jobcase's virtual events. "We've held several virtual hiring events with Jobcase and they've been very successful," said Tara Marcelle, Vice President Recruiting - Global Business Services from Kelly Services. "We are obviously dealing with some overwhelming circumstances right now and coordinating high volume hiring has required us to be creative. Having the capability for virtual events has been extremely helpful for efficiency and has really put candidates at ease. Jobcase is very responsive to our needs and great at getting qualified candidates to show up."

Employers can contact a Jobcase representative at: [email protected]

For more details, visit:

www.jobcase.com/hire/hire-jobcase-members/recruiting-professionals/virtual-hiring-events

For press information, please contact: Weber Shandwick for Jobcase, [email protected].

About Jobcase

The Jobcase mission is to empower the world's workers. Jobcase.com is the free open-access social media platform where more than 100 million registered members can improve and manage all aspects of their work-lives. Jobcase technology also powers more than 100 job sites and many non-profit driven activities via its Jobcase network. Jobcase has emerged as one of the fastest growing technology companies in Boston and is an industry-affiliated partner of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, CSAIL. Jobcase also provides no-cost services for non-profit organizations who share in their mission of empowerment, such as with the Urban League and Generation West Virginia. For more information, visit www.jobcase.com or contact Weber Shandwick for Jobcase.

SOURCE Jobcase

Related Links

http://www.jobcase.com


By Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON, April 6 (Reuters) - U.S. officials on Monday girded the country for a "peak death week" from the coronavirus pandemic as the accelerating American death toll closed the gap with Italy and Spain, the countries with the most fatalities to date.

"It's going to be the peak hospitalization, peak ICU week and unfortunately, peak death week," Admiral Brett Giroir, a physician and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Monday.

Giroir raised particular alarm for New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Detroit, and reinforced the messaging from U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams who warned on Sunday that, "This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment."

Confirmed U.S. coronavirus cases topped 336,000 on Sunday. The United States is by far the world leader with nearly twice as many cases as in Spain and in Italy, according to a Reuters rally of official data.

Roughly twice as many people a day are dying in the United States versus Spain and Italy, according to the latest data. The American death roll rose by 1,144 on Sunday, pushing the total to 9,573.

Hospitals report chaotic shortages of beds, ventilators and protective gear as patients isolated from their families die alone. Meanwhile, more than 90 percent of Americans are under stay-at-home orders issued by state governors.

In the U.S. government's first review of the ability of hospitals to cope with the coronavirus outbreak, investigators on Monday confirmed that facilities nationwide faced "substantial challenges," including shortages of equipment and staff.

In terms of testing and treating patients, hospitals have insufficient capacity to handle the surge, which is taking an emotional toll on doctors and nurses, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspector general said in a report based on 323 hospitals surveyed from March 23-27.

"Hospitals reported that widespread shortages of PPE put staff and patients at risk," HHS inspectors said, referring to personal protective equipment. "Additionally, hospitals reported frequently waiting seven days or longer for test results," requiring them to keep patients longer and use up more critical supplies.

Story continues

GLIMMER OF HOPE

Despite the grim warnings, at least one model offered hope that the death rate was slowing.

The University of Washington model, one of several cited by U.S. and some state officials, now projects U.S. deaths at 81,766 by Aug. 4, down about 12,000 from a projection over the weekend.

The model, which is frequently updated with new data, projects the peak need for hospital beds on April 15 and for daily deaths at 3,130 on April 16.

President Donald Trump, who has oscillated between issuing dire warnings and expressing optimism that contradicts the views of his medical experts, tweeted "USA STRONG!" and "LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL!" on Monday.

Trump also defended his controversial daily news conferences as "vital," saying, "They are reaching millions of people that are not being told the truth."

Some broadcasters have stopped airing the entire news conference live, citing the president's frequent misstatements and a shortage of new information.

Trump has deferred to state governors for issuing stay-at-home orders.

Eight states, all of them with governors from Trump's Republican Party, have yet to order residents to stay home: Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

Georgia, which has recorded 6,600 cases and more than 200 deaths, ordered residents to stay home but then allowed some beaches to reopen.

Adams, the surgeon general, said in his Fox News appearance on Sunday that governors who had not issued month-long stay-at-home orders should at least consider one for the upcoming week.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey and Peter Szekely; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Frank McGurty and Howard Goller)
Atheist fails to get so help me God removed from naturalization oath for US citizenship

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The naturalization oath for U.S. citizenship will continue to include the words so help me God, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has ruled, rejecting claims that the words violate First Amendment rights of atheists.

We follow the Supreme Courts most recent framework and apply American Legions presumption of constitutionality to the phrase so help me God in the naturalization oath because we consider the inclusion of similar words to be a ceremonial, longstanding practice as an optional means of completing an oath, the judgment states in a federal lawsuit that was filed in 2017 by an atheist, Olga Paule Perrier-Bilbo, who moved to the United States from France and applied for naturalized citizenship in 2008.

And because the record does not demonstrate a discriminatory intent in maintaining those words in the oath or deliberate disrespect by the inclusion of the words, Perrier-Bilbo cannot overcome the presumption.

Perrier-Bilbo, a resident of Massachusetts, had argued that whether the use of the phrase is rooted in history and tradition is not a legitimate way to assess if the oath in its current form is constitutional.

Judges said the Supreme Court Establishment Clause jurisprudence supports the district courts analysis of the challenge by reference to historical practices and understanding.

By its very nature, an oath that concludes so help me God is asserting that God exists, read her lawsuit.

Accordingly, the current oath violates the first ten words of the Bill of Rights, and to participate in a ceremony which violates that key portion of the United States Constitution is not supporting or defending the Constitution as the oath demands, it stated, referring to clause that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

The phrase so help me God is optional in the Oath of Allegiance of the United States, which reads: I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

Some Democratic leaders of several key committees have nixed the phrase so help me God from a swearing-in oath for individuals testifying before them.

I think God belongs in religious institutions: in temple, in church, in cathedral, in mosque  but not in Congress, Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, the chairman of the Judiciary Committees Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, told The New York Times last May. What Republicans are doing, he argued, is using God.

And God doesnt want to be used, he said.

At the time, the Rev. Franklin Graham, who serves as president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, blasted the move as backward.

Why has the Democratic Party turned its back on God? Graham said in a series of tweets in response to the report. We need more of God, not less! What @RepCohen is suggesting is what Communism did in Eastern Europe & is still doing in places around the world like Cuba. Communism only allows worship inside approved churches.

"God is our Creator & the maker of the universe. He is present everywhere; He is not limited to churches or temples. The root of the issue is that many politicians dont want God in any part of their politics or our countrys business because His standards condemn their sins.
BOSTON: Crisis Ready by 30-year public relations veteran Edward Segal will now be titled Crisis Ahead and include an introduction that focuses on the early crisis management lessons to be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. The release of Crisis Ahead is being expedited with an e-book-led publication schedule that begins on April 21.

Due to a recent trademark on Crisis Readyimplemented after production of Segal's bookpublisher Nicholas Brealey and Segal changed the book's title to Crisis Ahead: 101 Ways to Prepare for and Bounce Back from Disasters, Scandals, and Other Emergencies. The new title reflects Segal's expert guidance to all business professionals looking to get ahead of a crisis before it happens and bounce back from disasters after they strike.

Based on the premise that it is not a matter of IF a crisis will hit, it's a matter of WHEN, Segal details how companies can safeguard their brands and effectively communicate throughout a crisis. This timely title directly addresses the COVID-19 pandemic and how companies can navigate such a volatile and evolving business landscape.

The book features a template for a generic crisis management and communication plan that can be customized for the needs of any company or organization. "If a business did not have a crisis management plan in place before the coronavirus pandemic, they certainly need one now," Segal said.

Crisis Ahead will be released first as an e-book April 21 in response to the current remote-working business climate due to COVID-19. Segal and Nicholas Brealey landed on this course of action in an effort to reach as many business professionals as possible and as soon as possible during these unprecedented times of isolation and adjusted working conditions.

In the past few days the book has been among the top ten books on two of Amazon's hot new book realese lists: public relations and business ethics books. Although the new title now shows up on the book's Amazon page, it may take a few days for the new cover to appear.

About the Author:

Edward Segal has more than 30 years' experience as a crisis management expert. He managed crisis situations as the CEO of two trade associations; advised and helped organizations survive disasters, scandals, and emergencies including the arrest and firing of corporate officers, hate crimes, and sexual harassment; and conducted crisis management and communication training for hundreds of executives and their staffs.

Segal is the former marketing strategies columnist for The Wall Street Journal's StartUpJournal.com and senior media relations consultant for Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. He has provided expert PR advice and counsel to more than 500 corporations and organizations.

Crisis Ahead will be available in paperback June 16, 2020, through Amazon

and all fine retailers. 978-1-5293-6142-1 $24.95

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April 07, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - The spectre of the coronavirus pandemic in the US has darkened decidedly, with President Trump warning of a harrowing next few weeks from a surging disease death toll. Into the malevolent mix are reports of American citizens buying up firearms as if there is no tomorrow.

In recent weeks, gun sales have hit record highs amid public fears of a breakdown in law and order. Most of the sales were among first-time buyers, according to reports. During March, before the government-ordered shutdown of businesses due to the coronavirus epidemic, mandatory FBI background checks showed a huge spike suggesting gun sales had gone through the roof.

Some 3.7 million checks were carried out in that month alone, corresponding to individuals purchasing firearms.

Bear in mind too that each individual can buy several guns under the same application. Bear in mind too that the US is already the leading nation for citizens owning firearms, with an estimated 390 million pieces in circulation, equivalent to more than one weapon for every citizen. Bear in mind too that the US is the worlds leader in deaths from mass shootings.

That's in "normal" times, never mind the highly anxious present development over COVID-19.

Every year, official figures show some 11,000 Americans are killed in homicides with firearms. Nearly double that figure die in suicides involving guns, putting the annual death toll from gun violence at well over 30,000. The US death toll from the COVID-19 disease is heading towards 10,000 as the number of fatalities escalates. Official estimates are warning of COVID-19 mortality in the US reaching as high as 200,000.

But what could add to the deadly impact of the pandemic is the prevalence of guns and the growing fear of social chaos. This is what Trump may have been hinting at when he said last month that the longer the economic shutdown goes on the more casualties will result. In recent days, the president has voiced concern that the US economy cannot go on indefinitely "paying people not to work".

Trump doesn't want the economy to tank because with that so will his reelection hopes flounder. More than that, however, Trump and the corporate class know that the capitalist economy is like a bicycle. Once it stops moving it will fall over. So, the imperative is to get businesses re-opened and workers back on the job.

What if millions of workers don't want to go back to the front line knowing that their lives may be at risk from a pandemic that has not been contained?

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The near-mutinous episode on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier speaks of a simmering mood against the authorities. When the Pentagon bosses sacked Captain Brett Crozier for sounding the alarm about infections among his 4,000 crew, the crew cheered their commander as a hero for putting their health and safety above orders from the admirals.

Elsewhere, the critical shortage of protective equipment for essential workers such as healthcare personnel shows that the US authorities have not done nearly enough to ensure public safety. If workers are forced back to their jobs by authorities who are seen as callous and uncaring  motivated only by private profit  then that will surely breed further massive resentment and anger.

How will people feed their families if government welfare checks dry up, as Trump has hinted they will dry up owing to fiscal pressure?

Some 10 million Americans have lost their jobs so far due to the COVID-19 pandemic with total job losses possibly soaring to 47 million. Oh yeah, Washington can find trillions for military spending every year, but when it comes to supporting workers and their families during a time of crisis, well then suddenly there must be fiscal prudence. Such twisted priorities tell people that, as far their governing class is concerned, they are expendable.

It's not hard to imagine hungry and desperate people forcing their way into closed shops and stores to raid for food, medicines and other essential supplies if it comes down to a survival situation. The ethics of feeding one's children takes precedence over legal formalities of paying at a checkout  particularly when there is no checkout operating.

Seems too like it's not just the US citizenry who are expecting trouble ahead. The US government has mobilised over 21,000 troops belonging to the National Guard to be deployed across states in the event of social disorder.

The US is not a good place to be right now. A pandemic worsened by government mishandling of the crisis, massive social insecurity among impoverished workers, and enough guns and ammo out there to wage a war. When Trump warns that the worse is yet to come, he may not even realise just how bad that is.

Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Masters graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. - " Source "
Ninety-three percent of Protestant churches are closed in America, for fear of spreading COVID-19. Religious liberty advocates are worried about the other seven percent.

The few churches touting First Amendment freedom while defying emergency stay-at-home orders may do lasting damage to the arguments for religious liberty, according to experts like Luke Goodrich, senior counsel with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

We have to be able to distinguish between real threats and mere shadows, Goodrich said. Stoking conflict and grandstanding about things that arent real threats isnt helpful. Its like crying wolf. It deadens society to the real religious conflicts that are at hand.

Goodrich has a robust view of religious liberty. He believes that even unpopular minorities should be allowed to practice their faith free from government intrusion and has made the argument successfully to the Supreme Court in some of the most important cases of the last few years. Goodrich defended a religious prisoners right to grow a beard, a religious schools right to fire a sick teacher, and a religious companys right not to provide its employees with insurance that covers some forms of birth control.

But he doesnt see the argument for churches right to hold worship services in a pandemic.

Legally, the issues are not that complex, Goodrich said. Every constitutional right has limits, and the right of religious freedom doesnt mean you can harm your neighbors.

The law varies from state to state, but even the strongest protections of religious practice allow for some restrictions. If the government isnt targeting religious groups, has a legitimate reason for the law, and doesnt impose a heavier burden than it has to, then it can restrict peoples right to practice their faith.

Stopping a pandemic is a clear government interest, and public officials around the globe have warned that churches can be hot spots for the spread of COVID-19. Major outbreaks in South Korea and France have been traced back to church meetings. And in the United States, theyve been linked to a choir practice in Washington state, a Pentecostal church in California, and church funerals in Georgia.

Unsympathetic faces

Currently, 45 states have instituted stay-at-home, safer-at-home, and shelter-in-place orders, which ban large gatherings of people. Some exempt religious gatherings, but most do not. The majority of white evangelicals support this. The American Enterprise Institute found that 72 percentalong with 71 percent of Hispanic Catholics, 74 percent of black Protestants, 76 percent of white Catholics, and 80 percent of white mainline Protestantsdont think there should be religious exemptions to the emergency public health orders.

And most of the people who dont think religious organizations should be required to close their doors are still willing to do it voluntarily. A LifeWay Christian Resources Survey found that by March 29, all but 7 percent of Protestant churches had stopped in-person meetings.

The minority who disagree, however, are loud. Theyre good at grabbing attention. And theyre claiming religious liberty arguments as their own.

A Oneness Pentecostal pastor in Louisiana defied the states ban on large gatherings and said, We hold our religious rights dear, and we are going to assemble no matter what someone says.

Three churches in Texas filed a lawsuit alleging a county order banning large gatherings is unconstitutional. The circumstances presented by coronavirus do not excuse unlawful government infringements upon freedom, the lawsuit states. The free exercise of religion cannot be taken lightly and should not be sacrificed at the altar of political expediency.

In Florida, a pastor of a charismatic church was arrested for holding services that allegedly violated a county stay-at-home order. Rodney Howard-Browne, a strong supporter of President Donald Trump and a revivalist known for promoting uncontrolled laugher as a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit, is fighting the misdemeanor charges in court and filing a federal lawsuit claiming the arrest was a violation of his religious liberty.

If these people become the face of the argument for religious liberty, that could change public perception of the legitimacy of legal protections for religious practice, said John Inazu, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

To put an unsympathetic plaintiff at the forefront of a case, it shifts the cultural and national debate, said Inazu, who wrote an academic book on the right of assembly. This will represent Christianity for many, many people. Most people arent going to be able to say, Thats just one guy in Florida. Theyll say, Thats what Christians do. They prioritize their own gatherings instead of loving their neighbors.

Essential argument

Whether theyre sympathetic public figures or not, though, these churches think they do have a legal argument.

Jared Woodfill, the attorney suing on behalf of three Texas churches, said the stay-at-home orders set a dangerous precedent: If the government can shut down churches because of the coronavirus, whats to say it wont shut down churches during flu season?

Mat Staver, who co-founded Liberty Counsel with his wife Anita Staver and is representing Howard-Browne in Florida, shared Woodfills concern. He points out that the stay-at-home orders include lots of exemptions for essential services. In different states, these can include hardware stores, abortion providers, and marijuana dispensaries. Who gave the government this power to decide whats essential?

They shut the churches and leave open the hardware store, where people can buy potted plants and hoses, he said. Those are essential, but a church that functions beyond its walls and cant be contained in an online service isnt essential? Thats a problem. When literally one person, a governor or a county commissioner, can shut down a church by just using the word essential, thats a problem.

Staver argues that Howard-Brownes church actually didnt violate the stay-at-home order, but followed all the precautionary measures put in place by the county, setting up hand-sanitization stations and moving chairs so people wouldnt sit next to each other. But Staver says even if the church did break the public health order, it was unconstitutional.

The county could have exempted churches from the ban. Some states have done that. Some counties in Florida have too. That means there were less restrictive means to accomplish the legitimate aim of lessening the impact of a pandemic, Staver said, and that means the rule was a violation of religious liberty.

Theres definitely a precedent we should be worried about, he said.

Public witness

People who are normally very concerned about religious liberty are unpersuaded by these arguments, however. They dont think the responses to the pandemic are setting a precedent for future restrictions, or represent a dramatic expansion of government power.

Travis Wussow, vice president for public policy at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that even if some public officials have been more aggressive than they needed to be or made seemingly sweeping statements about the power to shut down churches, this isnt cause for concern.

These are extraordinary times, Wussow said. Everybody in this country is trying to figure outin their own way and in good faithhow to make it through this crisis.

And a governments error in judgment can be corrected in the courts. A churchs error, on the other hand, can do lasting damage to Christianitys public witness.

As a Christian, I am concerned when people of faith are seen as being more about power and publicity than loving their neighbors, Goodrich said. It can harden people against the gospel.

The churches defying stay-at-home orders are outliers. But in the end, that may not matter, because the arguments they are making dont sound different than the arguments in other high-profile religious liberty cases. And the Christians in these cases are hard to distinguish from the other 93 percent.
The videoconferencing app Zoom has seen a sudden, massive rise in its popularity since one-third of the world went under some form of lockdown in the past several weeks. But what should be a bonanza for the company has turned into such a security nightmare for users, as AVN.com has reported, so much so that at least one senator felt compelled to pen a letter to CEO Eric Yuan demanding answers.

Whether Yuan has yet responded to Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthals letter last week is unclear, but the 50-year-old billionaire did issue a mea culpa of sorts to The Wall Street Journal.

Since Zoom jumped from 10 million daily users to 200 million thanks to the coronavirus lockdown, in which video chats offer a quick, safe, albeit virtual method of face-to-face communication, reports of Zoombombing incidents have become widespread and frequent.

Thats when an uninivited guest infiltrates a Zoom teleconference and starts streaming unsolicited porn, or in some cases racist images and other forms of hate material. To pull off a Zoombomb does not even take much technical skill. All it requires is access to the video chats host URL, and a host who has not bothered to password-protect the session.

In addition to the Zoombombing issue, what the company did with user data remains rather murky. Blumenthal in his letter to Yuan also demanded answers regarding how the company utilized that data, and to whom it sold the information. According to one report by the tech site Toms Guide, Zooms policies until recently seemed to give Zoom the right to do whatever it saw fit with any user's personal data.

Last week, an individual in California sued Zoom, alleging that the company shipped private data on users to Facebook, even if those users did not have Facebook accounts. New York Attorney General Letitia James has also asked Zoom to reveal how it handles private user data.

But Yuan is now promising that Zoom will take steps to become a privacy-and security-first company.

I really messed up as CEO, Yuan told The Journal, saying that he now feels an obligation to win the users trust back.

Yuan said he and his software engineers will spend the next 90 days in an attempt to fix the security issues. Exactly what steps they will be taking also remained unclear, but Yuan also promised a transparency report containing  information related to requests for data, records, or content.

Photo By Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Scalable Grid Engine / Wikimedia Commons
Trocaire has urged the people of Laois to hold onto their Trocaire lenten campaign boxes until it is safe and possible to return them in support of the development agencys COVID-19 response work in some of the worlds poorest countries.

While the agencys Lent campaign continued despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Trocaire cancelled all their face-to-face events and outreach work last month.

Trocaire's Declan Dixon, who lives in Kilcavan, Co Laois explained: Due to COVID-19, we had to stop all our public events and activities for our Lent campaign. That will, unfortunately, impact our crucial fundraising to support our work and we are still massively dependent on this campaign, which ends at Easter.

Families in the worlds poorest countries need our support now more than ever. We are urging people to please keep a hold of their Trocaire boxes and return them when it is safe and possible to do so.

In the meantime, we are urgently trying to save lives during the Coronavirus outbreak. Supporters can continue to make donations online or over the phone to fund this work. We know not everyone is in a position to support this work right now, but  if you can  any donation you can give will help us to support the worlds poorest communities through this terrible crisis, he said.

Caption Madam Yankai Sesay provides COVID prevention information to Gbendembu community in Sierra Leone. Trocaire's local partner SEND is engaging communities in York chiefdom on COVID prevention measures. Photo - Jonathan Bundu

Trocaire is using funds to provide hygiene kits, testing kits, information campaigns and other support to vulnerable communities affected by Covid-19.

The virus is now present in 18 countries where Trocaire provides support, including some  Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)  that are amongst the poorest places on Earth.

Many communities where Trocaire works do not have essential but basic infrastructure to fight the virus. This means they lack access to clean water and social distancing is often not possible in overcrowded refugee camps and slums, said Mr Dixon.

Most countries do not have a functioning health service to respond to a mass outbreak of illness. Some worrying figures include:

- Malawi has one intensive care (ICU) bed for every 1million people.

- Sierra Leone has no ICU beds

- South Sudan has only 2 ventilators for 12million people.

Trocaires experience in fighting previous outbreaks will be utilised in the battle against Covid-19. The agencys teams delivered vital services to affected communities in countries such as Sierra Leone and the DR Congo throughout the Ebola crisis.

Trocaires Ebola response work helped hundreds of thousands of people with water tanks, latrines, water pumps, and chemical treatments to provide safe water. The last affected Ebola patient was discharged from care last month in the DR Congo.

Trocaires COVID-19 response work includes:

- Setting up isolation wards and sanitation systems in Somalia.

- Adapting humanitarian food distribution programmes to ensure improved hygiene in Honduras.

- Support for quarantine facilities where people have access to running water, hygienic products and food in Sierra Leone.

In a number of countries, Trocaire says it has supported public messaging on radio and social media to raise awareness and prevent the spread.

The publics support for our Lenten campaign and this COVID-19 response work is vital. We are grateful to everyone in Co Laois who has fundraised and collected coins over Lent. We urge people to please retain your boxes to return them at a later date. These generous donations will be put into action as we attempt to battle the Coronavirus in some of the worlds most vulnerable communities," he said.

You can support Trocaires work and Lenten 2020 campaign at trocaire.org/donate or phone 1850 408 408. Please retain your Trocaire box to return donations to Trocaire at a later date.

Pictured below is Laois resident Declan Dixon of Trocaire
Food City president and CEO Steve Smith emphasized the cleanliness of the companys stores during his online press conference. With COVID-19 becoming more and more pervasive by the day and no slowdown in sight, the sanitization of public places such as Food City is being scrutinized. Mr. Smith went through some of the measures stores are implementing to stay as clean as possible.

Youre going to see us sanitizing and cleaning throughout the day, said the CEO.

We have now assigned someone to the front of our stores who will do nothing but clean and sanitize shopping carts. Weve installed plexiglass shields at all of our stands and customer service checkout areas throughout our stores.

He said associates/workers are encouraged to wear gloves as they work. President Smith said the company will supply workers with masks when they become available. The CEO said as of right now, there is a shortage of masks in the United States, and medical professionals get top priority when it comes to attaining these items.

As those become available, well make them available to our associates at no cost, and hopefully we can get into those by next week, said President Smith. In the meantime if they have a homemade mask, theyre welcome and encouraged to wear them.

Like many other stores in the United States, Mr. Smith said Food Citys supply chain has been affected by the pandemic. During the first few weeks, Food City was sending out more cases of food than they were receiving. He said the company has just now begun to receive more cases than they are sending out.

He said there is no threat of the stores running out of food. However, Mr. Smith did say there will be a shortage of certain items for the foreseeable future.

I think sanitizers and disinfectants will be in short supply, and some items like bleach will be allocated for a number of weeks or months, said Mr. Smith. The good thing is were still getting this product in and on a regular basis.

While Food City is prepared to limit the number of people in stores, Mr. Smith said there is no imminent need to do so at this time. Instead, he trusts Food City customers to exercise good judgement and social distancing as they shop.

Im absolutely convinced our customers understand their responsibilities when they come to our stores, said President Smith. If they follow those responsibilities I dont think well have to get into a position where we have to meter people or allow certain numbers of people in.

If customers do not want to go inside the store, President Smith said curbside pickup is an option. During the press conference, he said this way of shopping is up 350 percent from normal. No matter how one shops though, he asked shoppers to only buy what they need and to avoid hoarding.

Let me stress how critical it is to shop as you need the item, said the CEO. Please dont hoard items, and just shop according to your weekly shopping needs. This will leave more for other folks.
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On Monday evening, two different courts issued two disastrous decisions, a one-two punch that has forced countless Wisconsin voters to choose between their health and their voting rights in Tuesdays election. First, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overruled Gov. Tony Evers order postponing the election, restoring in-person voting on Tuesday in the midst of a pandemic. Hours later, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively nullified tens of thousands of absentee ballots that wont be returned until after the electionnot because voters forgot, but because election officials did not mail them out in time. Both decisions were issued by conservative judges; both will help Republicans suppress legitimate votes. Taken together, they are the Bush v. Gore of 2020, a flagrant judicial heist that renders Tuesdays election a sham.

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These two rulings spurred strong dissents condemning this mass disenfranchisementbut only one of them lays bare the overt partisanship motivating the judiciarys conduct. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissenting from SCOTUSs decision, took pains to say she did not doubt the good faith of my colleagues, suggesting the conservative majority had made a mistake, or simply disagreed over a legal principle. By contrast, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, dissenting from the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision, castigated her court for a pattern of lending unmitigated support of efforts to disenfranchise voters. Ginsburgs conciliatory tack is understandable; she has a lifetime appointment that gives her an incentive to play nice with her colleagues and preserve the institutional prestige of the Supreme Court. Bradley, who is elected to fixed terms, has more leeway to publicly shame others on the bench. In her scorched-earth assault on her colleagues integrity, Bradley is leveling with the public, raising the alarm over the judiciarys threat to democracy. It is long past time for impartial judges to take off the kid gloves and call out their colleagues cynical, bad-faith crusade against voting rights.

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Its easy to see why Bradley took direct aim at the four-justice majority that reinstated Wisconsins election during the COVID-19 outbreak. The most important race on the ballot is for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court: Justice Daniel Kellyan archconservative who once said slavery and affirmative action are the sameis defending his seat against challenger Jill Karofsky, a liberal circuit judge. Currently, the court is divided 52 between conservatives and progressives. If Karofsky ousts Kelly, liberals will have a chance to flip the court in 2023. The new progressive majority could then strike down Republicans worst voter suppression measures, including their impenetrable partisan gerrymander.

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Recognizing the stakes of the election, Kellys conservative colleagues have lined up to support himand condemn Karofsky. After Karofsky criticized Kelly for repeatedly siding with Republican interests, Chief Justice Patience Roggensack and Justice Annette Ziegler issued a statement condemning her for undermining the courts legitimacy and failing to act with the decorum appropriate to the office. Justices Brian Hagedorn and Rebecca Bradley went even further, denouncing Karofskys criticisms as slanderous, irresponsible, and insulting. They accused her of using an outcome-driven judicial approach while commending Kelly for the quality of his reasoning and the depth of his commitment to the judicial craft. Hagedorn and Bradley then effectively endorsed Kelly over Karofsky, declaring: We are absolutely confident that we need his integrity and intellect to continue on the Court.

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Notably, while all four justices defended Kelly against Karofskys putatively unfair attacks, they said nothing about the justices own false accusations against his opponents. For instance, Kelly ran an ad alleging that Karofsky is dangerously soft on crime because she went easy on a sexual predatoran objectively false statement. Kelly ran a different ad announcing that Karofsky allowed a plea deal that put a sex offender back on the street, yet another lie. He also said Karofsky sought to disarm law abiding citizens because she tweeted in support of gun safety laws that respect constitutional rights while making every family safer. The Wisconsin Supreme Courts conservative justices declined to put out statements rebuking Kelly for slandering his opponent.

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There is no real doubt that holding the election during a pandemic will decrease Democratic turnout. In disproportionately Democratic urban centers such as Milwaukee, election officials have been forced to shutter the vast majority of polling places because poll workers refused to show up for fear of infection. Thats why the GOP-dominated Legislature denied the governors request to delay the election. After the Legislature sued to block Evers order, Kelly recused himself from the case. But his four conservative colleagues did noteven though they have a vested interest in the outcome. And sure enough, the court voted 42 to resume the coronavirus election.

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The majoritys unsigned opinion provided scant rationale, as Bradley put it, for its actions. Evers relied on a Wisconsin law that allows him to issue such orders as he or she deems necessary for the security of persons and property. Despite the sweeping nature of this power, the majority interpreted it narrowly, usurping the governors executive authority to protect Wisconsinites from lethal threats. As Bradley wrote in dissent:

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With the decision of the majority, democracy takes a step backwards. Paying no heed to the warnings or the science, the majority circumvents the law, while disenfranchising voters and putting at risk the health and safety of our fellow Wisconsinites.  Neither the law nor common sense support the majoritys tenuous and callous order.

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Bradley also chastised the majority for its rank hypocrisy. She pointed out that the court previously suspended civil trials due to the pandemic, recognizing the unacceptable risk of forcing Wisconsinites to congregate during this pandemic. In doing so, Roggensack explained that this step was necessary to protect the people of Wisconsin and the families of jurors who would be at increased risk of COVID-19 infections carried home by family members who performed jury service. Yet, Bradley wrote, Roggensack displayed no similar concern for the health of our families, neighbors and friends when forcing citizens to choose between needless risk of contracting a deadly virus and surrendering their right to vote.

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Ginsburgs dissent, while sharp, slings no such barbs at the majority. Without calling into question the good faith of my colleagues, Ginsburg wrote that the majoritys decision will result in massive disenfranchisement. But when five Republican-appointed justices nullify tens of thousands of votes in an unsigned eleventh-hour order, is there really no reason to doubt their good faith? Even when their act is likely to favor Republicans?

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Perhaps, taken in isolation, the majoritys decision can be defended as a grievous mistake motivated not by partisanship but a misunderstanding of the facts. After all, it includes at least one erroran assertion that the plaintiffs never asked for the ability to return ballots after April 7, a claim that Ginsburg debunked. But Mondays decision cannot be taken in isolation. It is the latest in a long line of rulings by the Roberts court that blatantly favor Republican interests by allowing the GOP to suppress Democratic votes. In recent years, the conservative majority has gutted the Voting Rights Act, allowing mass poll closures, racial gerrymandering, and draconian voter ID laws. It has greenlighted voter purges and closed the federal courthouse door to partisan gerrymandering cases. Its redistricting decisions permitted Wisconsins Republicans to maintain their legislative majority even when they receive fewer votes, a majority they used to preserve Tuesdays election.

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Put simply, the U.S. Supreme Court has also lent its unmitigated support of efforts to disenfranchise voters, in Bradleys words. Federal judges have a duty to say so. Ginsburg wrote that her colleagues order will result in massive disenfranchisement, but that phrasing seems too roundabout. The Supreme Court itself inflicted massive disenfranchisement, reversing a decision that protected voters disenfranchised through no fault of their own. These justices took it upon themselves to intervene on behalf of Wisconsin Republicans and void these voters ballots. They made a bad situation exponentially worse, favoring partisan demands over constitutional rights.

Chief Justice John Roberts cares enough about his courts legitimacy to occasionally vote with the liberal justices to forestall institutional embarrassments. His occasional moderation seems to persuade the liberals to pull punches for fear that he will permanently join the reactionary wing of the court. They clearly believe they have a responsibility to treat the court as a neutral arbiter, not an organ of the GOP. So far, this approach has worked for Roberts: Most Americans approve of the way the Supreme Court is operating and do not believe it shows too much ideological bias.

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In March, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman wrote a law review article titled The Roberts Courts Assault on Democracy. In it, he wrote that the Roberts Court has been anything but passive. Rather, the Courts hard right majority is actively participating in undermining American democracy, engaging in a direct assault on the right of poor people and minorities to vote. Monday nights order neatly illustrated this phenomenon. The five Republican-appointed justices may have near-unlimited power to swing elections. But the rest of us have no obligation to pretend that the majority has not taken sides against democracy.
The Massachusetts College of Art and Design will set aside housing and parking spaces to offer shelter for Boston health care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus response.

The college sent an email to students on Tuesday saying it will set aside 150 housing units and 140 parking spaces for medical staff that need a place to sleep in between shifts at local hospitals.

I know we are incredibly grateful for the doctors, nurses and other medical workers who are on the front lines of confronting this crisis, and we are eager to assist them, the email states.

The college is located minutes away from several hospitals near Bostons Mission Hill neighborhood, including Brigham and Womens Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Boston Childrens Hospital.

MassArt is among dozens of Massachusetts colleges that sent students home and moved to online learning for the rest of the semester. The housing units and parking spaces will be separate from the housing provided to a small group of MassArt students who were granted emergency housing because they couldnt go home, according to the email.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said last week that Suffolk University will repurpose a dormitory to provide at least 172 beds to house homeless people during the coronavirus pandemic. The Newton Pavilion, a former long-term acute care hospital, will provide 70 beds.

Doctors, nurses and other hospital employees are working around the clock to test and treat patients for illnesses related to the coronavirus.

In Massachusetts, 260 people have died of complications from the coronavirus. As of Monday, 13,837 people have tested positive, according to the state Department of Public Health.

Sign up for free text messages about important updates on coronavirus in Massachusetts

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Grinnell students studying abroad faced uncertainty and turmoil as they scrambled to pack up and return home or find accommodations to stay abroad while the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world into isolation, overrunning healthcare systems and shutting down public life.

Every decision that I made was out of panic, said Meltem Gokcebel, 21, who spent part of her spring semester in Milan, Italy, a major city at the forefront of the coronavirus outbreak in Europe.

On March 12, one day after the World Health Organization officially declared the global coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, President Trump banned travel from 26 European countries. The same day, the Office of Off-Campus Study sent out an email informing students that Spring 2020 programs in Europe were suspended. On March 16, the Office canceled all Spring 2020 programs.

According to an email sent to The S&B by Director of Off-Campus Study Alicia Stanley, the OCS office had been monitoring the coronavirus since December. As the situation escalated, her staff worked with students on a case-by-case basis to determine the best course of action.

When programs were suspended by our study abroad provider partners, students no longer had access to their programs room and board, international health insurance and in-country support services, which factored into decisions about returning home, wrote Stanley.

The upheaval that ensued resulted in an unprecedented and overwhelming experience for Grinnell students around the world.

Grinnell students in Italy were among the first to feel the effects of the virus. The outbreak began there in late February, disrupting Gokcebels semester weeks before the College chose to suspend European programs.

Then, in late February, the crisis in Milan escalated almost overnight.

Everything happened in a split second, Gokcebel said. One night, the bars and cafes in her neighborhood were crowded and bustling. The next morning, she woke up to emails informing her that Milans universities were shutting their doors. Gokcebel and her classmates were instructed not to leave their apartments.

Her program, run by the study abroad organization IES Abroad, urged her to stay in Milan and wait it out. But Gokcebels parents told her to come home. They suspected border closings were imminent, and flight prices were soaring as people rushed to leave the country. On Feb. 26, she boarded the three-hour flight to her home country of Cyprus.

After a whirlwind of flustered decision-making, Gokcebel is still trying to process the whole situation. She said she was frustrated by the lack of clear information and guidance during the unfolding crisis, especially from her study abroad program. I was basically making decisions based on what my parents were telling me, and they were just freaking out.

According to Gokcebel, when the College suspended all off-campus programs in Europe there wasnt any specific information except that students could not stay on the continent and that flight refunds were available. There wasnt any guidance on what to do, she said. Despite this, she appreciated that Stanley was in constant communication with her and took care of her during the process.

For some students abroad, leaving the country they were studying in seemed riskier than staying. Linnet Adams 21 had been studying in Berlin, Germany for a month when programs were suspended. Adams worried that embarking on a trip back to the U.S., which would involve multiple international airports and long flights spent in close proximity to others, would be more dangerous than staying. COVID-19 is a contagious respiratory disease and airports and airplanes are breeding grounds for infection.

Adams was also concerned about the United States capacity to handle the outbreak. Germany, despite having more than 50,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, has reported a strikingly low number of deaths and has rolled out one of the most robust responses to the virus in the world. Adams hails from New Orleans, Louisiana, which has become a coronavirus hotspot in recent days.

So, when the College told Adams she had to leave, she initially pushed back.

If I get on that plane, Im going to be risking illness.  Ill also be coming home to a country thats wildly unprepared for this. Germany was testing people super early and thats why they had so many cases at the beginning and a low death rate, said Adams. I thought that if I stayed [there], I would have a better chance [of surviving] if I were to get the virus.

But the College told her that if she stayed, she would be put on a leave of absence and stripped of her credits for the semester.

I felt like my education was in danger, along with my health, said Adams. As a low-income student, she was discouraged that the Colleges initial response to her situation was to threaten her credits during an already stressful and uncertain time.

After extensive contact with the College administration, the OCS Office drafted a waiver stating that Adams could release the College from liability for her health and safety abroad. The waiver also stated that if she stayed, the College would not pay for her flight home. Adams said her parents initially agreed for her to stay, but when it came to an expensive plane ticket, they realized she had no other choice but to return home.

While most students abroad were able to find a way home, others were not. For Nicole Mendez Subieta 21, reuniting with her family soon became out of the question. Subieta, who is from Cochabamba, Bolivia, was stranded in Europe after swift border closures in Latin America prevented her from travelling home.

She had been studying in Lisbon, Portugal, where the novel virus sparked panic following the outbreaks in Italy and Spain. Soon after the World Health Organization declared the global COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on Marcih 11, several Latin American countries began closing schools and imposing stringent restrictions on travel.

Before Subieta could buy a ticket home, Bolivia shut its borders. Despite her precarious position caused by the border closure, Subieta said shes proud of the Bolivian governments quick response to the crisis. The countrys lack of public health infrastructure means it is unequipped to handle a mass outbreak of the coronavirus. We dont have the intensive care resources to deal with it, she said.

However necessary, the border closures left her stuck in limbo. European countries were starting to close borders and cancel flights, and her program was giving her a strict deadline to leave. As with Adams case, the OCS office was threatening to take away credits and scholarships from students who refused to comply with the order to evacuate. During more than a few moments, Subieta found it difficult to think straight.

In the moment where everything developed, it felt like there was no solution. I had to talk to my program in Portugal, I had to talk to [Alicia Stanley] in Grinnell, I had to talk to my parents. I felt so overwhelmed that at one point I went for a walk and completely ignored what was happening, said Subieta.

The support she received from friends and family kept her afloat. I had so many people reach out and to see how I was. I felt overwhelmed, but I didnt feel alone.

Eventually, connections from a previous study abroad experience came to her rescue. She contacted her old host family in Hamburg, Germany, whom she stayed with for a year before

starting at Grinnell. They immediately told her to come stay with them. Not long after, Subieta boarded the last flight to Hamburg.

Meanwhile, Cally Carr 21 was in the city of Cusco, Peru on the opposite end of Latin Americas stringent border closures. Carr had been in Peru for five weeks when the country went into lockdown. The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the city was low, but to further quell the spread of the virus, the government imposed a nightly curfew. During quarantine, Carr painted rocks and played games with her nine-year-old host-brother.

Eventually, her program, run by SIT Study Abroad, began to actively try to get students out of the country. But Carrs family lives in New York City, which was emerging as the center of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S.

Its kind of terrible here right now, said Carr, who returned home a week ago after being evacuated from the country on a repatriation flight. Things are much calmer in Peru, at least in Cusco. I also feel like the government in Peru was taking more active steps to address and control the situation, but there was a certain point where [the program] just wouldnt let me stay.

Her flight from Cusco to Miami was filled with U.S. residents donning protective masks. When she landed in Miami, Carr said the nonchalant atmosphere in the airport was concerning.

In Cusco, everyone had a mask. Everyone had gloves. They were taking temperatures. Then you get to the U.S. and everyone is just  relaxed, she said. Carr is currently quarantining with her family in New York, where the virus has infected more than 120,000 and taken more than 4,000 lives.

For students who were travelling outside the United States for the first time, the semesters abrupt ending was especially difficult to come to terms with. This was the case for Antonix Davis 21, who had been on a year-long study abroad program in Tokyo, Japan. When their program was suspended, Davis was given three days to leave the country  a small window in which to pack, organize departure plans and have some semblance of closure with their host family.

To have my first experience being in a foreign country to end with me being ejected in three days was really hard, said Davis. The hardest part is not being able to have time with my host family. We were so excited for having the next four months together.

Up until then, Davis hadnt sensed much concern about the coronavirus in Japan, even with its close proximity to China.

The rest of Japan seemed pretty unconcerned. No one had said anything about quarantining or social distancing, except for people that had come from China, they said. Davis didnt realize the gravity of the situation until they started an internship at a Zen Buddhist Temple, where the Temple staff were much more stringent about wearing protective masks.

After that, Davis started wearing masks when going outside.

Davis has since returned home to Texas, where they self-quarantined for two weeks. Like Gokcebel in Cyprus, Davis struggled with the abrupt transition from a fresh and exciting life in a new country to the solitude of quarantine back home.

There was time for me to kind of mourn that I was leaving, but not a lot.  Im still all over the place. I havent quite registered that Im in the U.S. right now, they said.

Victims of an unfortunate flight complication, Daviss two suitcases are still in Japan. The luggage is scheduled to be shipped by sea and wont arrive in Texas for another two months.

Even though students abroad were dealing with their own unique situations across the world, they were also aware of the events unfolding back on campus. While Carr said she had very little communication with the College, she received the all-campus emails regarding the campus shutdown. Subieta and Davis also said they received the emails about what was occurring in Grinnell, heightening the sense of turmoil as they dealt with their own circumstances.

As their semesters abroad were cut short, the opportunities for cultural immersion and on-site language study were halted. But the gravity of the situation seems to outweigh the lost experiences. As Carr said, Its sad, but I understand. Its a global pandemic. You cant really change that.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- At the continued insistence of Rep. Max Rose (D-NY), the United States Department of State today designated a foreign white supremacist group as a global terrorist (SDGT) group  enabling federal authorities to prosecute Americans who support it with terror-related offenses.

The group, the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), is the first foreign white supremacist organization to ever be labeled as terrorists, officials said. Ambassador Nathan Sales, who leads the State Departments Counterterrorism Bureau, called the designations unprecedented on Monday.

RIM is a terrorist group that provides paramilitary-style training to neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and it plays a prominent role in trying to rally like-minded Europeans and Americans into a common front against their perceived enemies, Sales said. RIM has two training facilities in St. Petersburg, which likely are being used for woodland and urban assault, tactical weapons and hand-to-hand combat training.

Sales praised President Donald Trump for an order signed in September of last year enabling the state Department to designate groups and individuals that participate in training to commit acts of terrorism. The newest designation sends "an unmistakable message that the United States will not hesitate to use our sanctions authorities aggressively, and that we are prepared to target any foreign terrorist group, regardless of ideology, that threatens our citizens, our interests abroad or our allies, Sales said.

Rose, the chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism, previously introduced legislation that directed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to develop a terrorist threat assessment of foreign violent white supremacist extremist groups.

The surge in white supremacist extremist violence in the United States puts all of us at risk,'' Rose said at the time. "There is mounting evidence that the threat to the homeland posed by violent white supremacist extremism has transnational links.

He later introduced a bipartisan resolution requesting that the State Department designate qualifying violent foreign white supremacist groups as foreign terrorist organizations (FTO), shortly after he sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo questioning why white supremacist extremist groups were not included on the list of foreign terrorist organizations.

After the Advance/SiLive.com published an investigation of the New Jersey European Heritage Association (NJEHA)  a group labeled as a white supremacist organization by the Anti-Defamation League with a presence on Staten Island  Rose said that there is no doubt that every one of these local white nationalist organizations have global connections."

While technically a different designation than labeling a white supremacist group as an FTO, the SDGT designation still makes it illegal for Americans to engage in transactions with RIM or its three leaders  who were also labeled as specifically designated global terrorists, officials said.

The group previously had connections to a series of terrorist attacks in which bombs were detonated at multiple locations in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2016. It will effectively have its assets in the U.S. frozen after the designation.

As chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism, Congressman Max Rose has been the leading voice in calling for violent foreign white supremacists to be labeled as the terrorists that they are, said a spokesperson for Rose. The congressman is currently deployed with the National Guard to help with Staten Islands coronavirus response.

Congressman Rose has continued to publicly make the case that making such an historic designation was merited, necessary and justified," the spokesman said. Todays decision validates that workbut this is only a first step. The threats these groups pose are real, global in nature, and this designation gives our law enforcement the tools necessary to protect our homeland.

Congressman Rose will continue his bipartisan work to combat terrorism and keep our nation safe, the spokesman said.
Hailey Bieber recently joined husband Justin for a star-studded Instagram Live while self-quarantining.

But the power couple is also enjoying some quality family time as they isolate amid the growing coronavirus pandemic.

She posed for her creative husband Monday during an impromptu Polaroid shoot as she gave their dog Oskie the Poskie a bath.

Puppy love: Hailey Bieber posed for husband Justin Monday during an impromptu Polaroid shoot as she gave their dog Oskie the Poskie a bath

The 23-year-old stuck out her tongue for the camera as she sat on the bathroom rug with Oskie.

She bent down to give the adorable Maltese Yorkie a smooch after she dried him off in her lap.

Justin, 26, posted a collage of six polaroids to his Instagram, writing: 'Mommy giving @oskietheposkie a bath.'

He went live Sunday on Instagram with Hailey as they caught up with some celeb pals like Kehlani and Kendall Jenner.

Old pals: She went live Sunday on Instagram with Justin as they caught up with some celeb pals like Kehlani and Kendall Jenner

Her rules: During a chat with Auston Matthews, he revealed that Hailey made him shave off his mustache: 'Hailey was gonna freaking kill me. I wasn't gonna be able to sleep in the bed. So, I had to shave it'

Fond farewell: The Changes artist posted a video to his story in February of himself shaving it off in the mirror after it earned mixed reactions from his 131million Instagram followers

During a chat with Auston Matthews, he revealed that Hailey made him shave off his mustache.

He told the Toronto Maple Leafs centerman: 'Hailey was gonna freaking kill me. I wasn't gonna be able to sleep in the bed. So, I had to shave it.'

The Changes artist posted a video to his story in February of himself shaving it off in the mirror after it earned mixed reactions from his 131million Instagram followers.

After his star-studded Instagram Live this weekend, Bieber posted a video to his story with a humble brag.

He said: 'So, I guess I was crashing the Instagram servers, according to my friend who has inside scoop. That's why it doesn't seem to be working.'
The worlds largest oil producers are groping their way toward a deal to mitigate the devastating impact of the coronavirus crisis on their industry. The challenge now is to nail down numbers everyone can live with.

Ministers and diplomats will spend the next two days talking about whos willing to cut production, and by how much. The most important contributions will come from oils trio of big powers: Saudi Arabia, Russia and the U.S.

An effective deal will require all three to participate, but not every barrel cut will be the same. Russia and Saudi Arabia are set to curb their production significantly, said people familiar with the negotiations. The U.S. is more likely to offer up the kind of gradual output reductions that will come as American companies respond to a market where prices are low and tanks are full.

After a turbulent few days in which U.S. President Donald Trumps prediction of a historic output cut was followed by sniping between Moscow and Riyadh, there were signs that diplomats were making progress. U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette held a productive discussion over the phone on Monday with his Saudi counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the U.S. government said.

Trump resists

The talks still face significant obstacles: a meeting of producers from OPEC+ and beyond -- which has been delayed once already -- is only tentatively scheduled for Thursday. Russia and Saudi Arabia want the U.S. to join in, but Trump has so far shown little willingness to do a deal with the cartel.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies will meet by video conference at 4 p.m. Vienna time on April 9, delegates to the group said. That will probably be followed the next day by talks between energy ministers from the Group of 20 on wider contributions to a production deal.

The G-20 may be a more acceptable forum to bring on board the U.S. and other big oil producers outside the OPEC+ alliance -- such as Canada and Brazil. Brouillette said he agreed with Prince Abdulaziz that there should be talks within that group in the near future.

Crude prices have fallen 50% this year, as the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic have knocked out about a third of global demand. The price crash is so dramatic that its threatening the stability of oil-dependent nations, the existence of U.S. shale producers, and poses an extra challenge to central banks. Industry officials say that if a deal to cut supply in an orderly way isnt reached, the market will simply force producers to slash output as storage space runs out.

The aim of talks, first revealed by Trump last week, is to cut oil production by about 10% -- the biggest ever coordinated reduction. Crude rallied on Trumps comments but pared those gains as the diplomatic intricacies became clearer. Brent futures fell 3.5% on Monday, trading near $33 a barrel.

However, even if a deal is struck for as much as 10 million barrels per day, that will barely dent the supply glut, which is estimated at as much as 35 million barrels a day. In some corners of the physical market prices have already turned negative, and traders have been putting oil into tankers at a record pace to store it at sea.

Jump together

Saudi Arabia and Russia both say they want the U.S., which has become the worlds largest producer thanks to its shale revolution, to join the cuts. But Trump had only hostile words for OPEC on Saturday, threatening tariffs on foreign oil, though at a briefing late Sunday he said he didnt expect hed have to use them.

Its not clear if Russia and Saudi Arabia will require the U.S. to publicly commit to cut production -- a challenge in the private, fragmented American industry -- or if a compromise gesture would be enough. Alexander Dynkin, president of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow, a state-run think tank, said Moscow would like the U.S. to lift some sanctions as a compromise.

Even a passive role for the American shale industry, whose output is already expected to go into decline at current prices, may be enough for a deal, according to Ed Morse, head of global commodities at Citigroup Inc.

I think there is already an understanding between Saudi Arabia, Russia and the U.S., Morse said. The U.S. is a party to the agreement, in effect, because the price of oil is already reducing drilling activity to an extent that production will likely be down 1 million barrels a day by the end of the third quarter.

Russia and Saudi Arabia -- which sparred publicly between themselves over the weekend -- have disagreed about how they would calculate the cuts, according to a person familiar with the talks.

Russia favors using an average of the first quarter output as the baseline, while Saudi Arabia wants to use its current April production. The difference is huge: the kingdom pumped 9.8 million barrels a day on average between January and March. In April -- as it wages its battle for market share -- its producing more than 12 million.
LONDON - A pandemic forcing everyone to stay home could be the perfect moment for online grocery services. In practice, theyve been struggling to keep up with a surge in orders, highlighting their limited ability to respond to an unprecedented onslaught of demand.

After panic buying left store shelves stripped of staples like pasta, canned goods and toilet paper, many shoppers quickly found online grocery delivery slots almost impossible to come by, too.

Its kind of becoming more challenging to put a meal together, said Paul Smyth, a software engineer who lives near Manchester, England, where the online groceries industry is particularly advanced. Hes a longtime customer of British online-only supermarket Ocado but hasnt been able to land a slot since he received his last delivery two weeks ago.

The problem for many delivery services is ramping up staff to pick goods in shops and deliver. But for Ocado, a cutting edge service that relies on warehouse robots, significantly increasing deliveries would mean a big investment in new machinery and warehouses too late to catch the spike in demand.

Smyth said hes starting to run low on meat and frozen goods, but wants to avoid going to a supermarket because he worries his asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure are risk factors if he catches the new coronavirus.

I wont be panicking for another week, but if Ive got to wait another two weeks for a delivery slot its going to be very close to the bone.

The coronavirus crisis is giving the e-commerce industry a boost but troubles at Ocado and other online grocers highlight how hard it is for the industry to quickly scale up online delivery.

In the U.S., grocery shopping had only been slowly migrating online, making up 3% of the food retail market, according to a report last year by Deutsche Bank.

As the crisis hit, delivery orders surged as millions of Americans stayed home. During the week of March 2, even before some cities and states imposed stay at home orders, Instacart, Amazon, and Walmart grocery delivery sales all jumped by at least two-thirds from the year before, according to Earnest Research. Instacart, a platform that partners with more than 25,000 stores in North America, says orders in more recent weeks have surged 150%.

As a result, customers in hard-hit New York City are waiting days to schedule deliveries that usually take just hours.

In China, where the outbreak originated early this year, ubiquitous smartphone food apps helped millions get through months of strict lockdown. Even so, e-commerce giant Alibabas supermarket chain Freshippo reportedly recruited laid off restaurant workers for temporary staff as more customers shifted to ordering by app and average basket sizes jumped in the first half of February.

Britains online grocery market, one of the worlds most advanced, is estimated to account for 8.3% of all sales in 2020, according to market research firm Mintel. Nevertheless, Ocado and the online arms of bricks and mortar rivals like Tesco, Sainsburys and Walmart owned-Asda were all booked up. To be fair, theyre prioritizing slots for vulnerable customers.

Ocado has pioneered online groceries in the U.K. since 2002 with automated warehouse robots and has licensed its technology to other companies including Kroger. That experience wasnt enough when its website melted down after traffic quadrupled.

The company battled to get systems back to normal by taking its smartphone app offline and stopping new account signups. It temporarily blocked its website, then made all visitors wait in a virtual queue, alienating long-time users.

It just felt as if theyd completely abandoned customers, said Smyth, 50, who waited as long as four hours online only to find there were no delivery slots. Ocado now has a new system to allocate slots but Smyth still hasnt had any luck and is getting by with basic items from a local shop.

CEO Melanie Smith emailed customers to tell them demand spiked to 10 times the normal level. Her message came after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new lockdown rules and urged people to use food delivery services.

Every time the British government announces new measures to fight the virus, she said, we see a further extraordinary surge of customers.

No matter how hard we work, we will not have enough capacity to serve the unprecedented levels of demand.

Ocado operates three warehouses where cube-shaped robots on wheels zip along vast grids, picking up crates of soda, teabags, or apples and delivering them to picking stations. There, humans or robot arms put together customer orders to be delivered by a fleet of vans.

The company said it handled 343,000 orders per week in the quarter ending March 1, and sales have since doubled. Analysts note the main factor influencing growth in an automated system like Ocados is warehouse capacity.

There are only so many of those warehouses you can build, said Simon Bowler, an analyst at Numis Securities. It takes up to two years for Ocado to build a warehouse, so saying today, were going to build a new warehouse, it doesnt solve the problem here and now. A fourth warehouse was destroyed by a fire last year.

Traditional supermarkets have their own less sophisticated online operations, using people to pick items off shelves.

That is a bit easier to flex to sudden huge increases in demand, said Bowler - you just need to hire more people.

Companies have started doing that. British supermarket Morrisons is hiring 2,500 extra drivers and pickers. Amazon is looking for 100,000 more staff, while Instacart plans to add 300,000 gig workers, more than doubling the number of people it has picking and delivering groceries.

Still, Instacarts workers have struggled to meet efficiency targets, as stores impose distancing rules and business surges.

That highlights the main downside to human store pickers, Bowler said: Theyre 10-15% less cost efficient than robots.

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Zen Soo in Hong Kong and Alexandra Olson in New York contributed to this report.

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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.

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Follow Kelvin Chan at twitter.com/chanman
Funeral director Kendall Lindsay has been forced to turn 20 families away.

As the number of COVID-19 deaths skyrockets in New York City, the third-generation funeral director at Lawrence H Woodward Funeral Home in Brooklyn said the demand for funeral services has increased overwhelmingly.

On March 29, the funeral home had 127 scheduled funeral services; a week later, on April 5, that number had gone up to 175, Lindsay told Al Jazeera in an email. The funeral home is not taking on any new cases because it is running out of storage capacity.

We have cases we cannot bury or cremate until April 15  Caskets [are] in the lobby of my lower level. I have no space for them, she said.

Across New York City, funeral homes, morgues and mortuary workers are scrambling to respond to a surge in cases linked to COVID-19. As of Tuesday more than 68,550 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in the city and more than 2,700 people had died.

The state of New York recorded its biggest one-day jump on Tuesday with 731 new coronavirus deaths reported, bringing the statewide death toll to 5,489.

Men carry a body into a funeral home during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City. [Jeenah Moon/Reuters]

The New York Times reported last week that New York Citys chief medical examiners office had purchased 45 mobile morgues to handle an additional 3,500 bodies, while dozens of refrigerated units were also ordered to meet the demand for more space.

One funeral home in Queens cancelled all visitations and is no longer embalming bodies: Were simply burying them directly, picking them up at the hospital and going directly to the cemetery or doing direct cremation, Neufeld Funeral Homes director, Omar Rodriguez, told local television news station PIX11.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said his government was looking into its contingency plans should the city need a temporary burial space.

Lindsay said her funeral home typically works with five embalmers: one has stopped taking COVID-19 cases due to their own health issues, one had too many cases and stopped taking new ones, and two of the remaining three have begged to give them time amid the increase.

Men load a coffin into a car outside a funeral home during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. [Jeenah Moon/Reuters]

The funeral home also has asked people over age 70 not to come in and restricted viewings to a maximum of 10 immediate family members. We have changed our whole operation, Lindsay said.

We can no longer work with the constant calls. We have closed and locked the door. It is too much.

Social distancing

In Washington State, the early epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak in the US, Governor Jay Inslee on March 23 issued a Stay Home  Stay Healthy proclamation that banned private and public gatherings, including funeral services.

Less than a week later, Inslees office reversed the decision, saying that licensed funeral homes and cemeteries could have funerals so long as only the immediate family members of the deceased are in attendance and social distancing measures can be respected.

The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) guidelines urge people to avoid public places and mass gatherings, and to maintain two metres (six feet) from others, in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Russ Weeks, owner of Columbia Funeral Home in southeast Seattle, said there is a lot of anxiety among both funeral staff and the general public around what is allowed and what isnt, so were trying to stay up on the most recent information.

Pat Marmo, owner of Daniel J Schaefer Funeral Home, walks through a viewing room set up to respect social distancing. [John Minchillo/AP Photo]

Now that the ban on funerals has been lifted, he said small funeral services are being organised for immediate family members, while larger community memorials will be pushed back to later dates.

For the most part we know how to protect ourselves from the deceased  The danger lies in family members or living people, said Weeks, who added that social distancing will protect mortuary workers from coronavirus transmission at limited funeral services, however.

As long as we practise strict social distancing and cleaning and sanitation, we should be at no greater risk, he said. Even though we cant do it in the same way, I think its extremely important that we do what we can.

Washington state also recently reclassified mortuary workers as emergency responders during the coronavirus pandemic, which allows them to order personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks and gloves, from the State Emergency Operations Center.

Rob Goff, executive director of the Washington State Funeral Directors Association, said mortuary workers had been reusing single-use equipment because the supply chain dried up and they were not able to get any more protective equipment that would help protect them from COVID or anything else.

Hopefully people are going to start getting those supplies  and be able to protect themselves and protect the families that they serve, he told Al Jazeera.

Funeral homes are making other changes to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19, such as making funeral arrangements over the phone or online, and webcasting services for people unable to be there in person, he added.

Strain on everyone

Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, Goff said being able to offer families a way to grieve for their loved ones is important  even if it is more limited than before.

That time of gathering  is absolutely imperative, he said. To come forward and to have an opportunity to say goodbye to somebody, to celebrate that they lived a life, that that life touched somebodys elses life.

A white rose is pinned to an empty chair during a funeral of a man who died of the coronavirus in Lexington, South Carolina. [Sarah Blake Morgan/AP Photo]

Lindsay, the funeral director in Brooklyn, agreed that any time you prevent someone from saying goodbye, you are affecting them mentally and emotionally  so the firm is operating under the principle that it will keep providing goodbyes that are safe.

She said, however, that funeral directors and workers are also feeling emotionally and physically drained by the crisis. Almost everyone here is a parent, a wife, husband. We are doing all we can, but we really are at our mental and physical limits, she said.

This is a strain on everyone.
Australian criminals are using the coronavirus pandemic to get special treatment or their jail time slashed, it has been claimed.

According to a prison guard who works in New South Wales prisoners will 'say anything' in court and have used the threat of infection as an excuse to get a more lenient sentence

On Monday one defendant staring down a litany of robbery and escaping custody charges told a District Court judge that he should be moved out of prison and into a 'far cleaner' rehab facility to avoid the coronavirus.

The man's lawyer claimed inmates at Parklea Correctional Centre in Sydney do not have access to antibacterial products and have resorted to cleaning their own cells with shampoo, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Inmates pictured roaming the yards at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater in Sydney

Australian criminals are using the coronavirus pandemic to get special treatment and have their jail time slashed, corrections officers have revealed

But Corrective Services New South Wales claimed they are taking stringent measures to protect prisoners against the virus, including a 'significant increase in cleaning'.

'All staff and inmates are screened on entry to a prison or other Corrective Service New South Wales facility to identify those with possible symptoms of COVID-19 or who have been overseas or had contact with a confirmed case in the past 14 days,' a spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

'We are working closely with Justice Health to monitor inmates at increased risk from infection including those with a history of respiratory illness.

'All inmates who show possible symptoms of the virus are isolated, provided with a surgical mask and tested promptly.'

The Shortland Correctional Centre at Cessnock (above) is a maximum security prison in the New South Wales Hunter Valley where two fires broke out on Friday

The New South Wales Government recently passed emergency legislation which will make it possible for non-violent, vulnerable inmates to be released early in some circumstances.

One of the more drastic measures introduced by correctional facilities across Australia has been the suspension of all personal prison visits.

Tensions boiled over on Friday when two fires broke out at Cessnock's Shortland Correctional Centre  a maximum security prison in New South Wales' Hunter Valley.

But Corrective Services Commissioner, Peter Severin, downplayed the unrest and its links to prisoner stress over the coronavirus.

'They were not related, to the best of our knowledge, to any COVID-19 regime  but they happened and were managed very professionally by our staff and fortunately nobody was injured in the process,' he told the ABC.

So far, there have no confirmed coronavirus cases in Australian prisons.
Companies will have to pay GST on the remuneration they dole out to directors, the Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) has said.

In an application filed before the Rajasthan bench of the AAR, Clay Craft India Pvt Ltd had sought clarification on whether salaries paid to directors would attract Goods and Services Tax.

The company said its directors are working as employees for which they are being compensated by way of a regular salary and other allowances.

"The company is deducting TDS on their salary and PF laws are also applicable to their service. Therefore, in all practical purposes these directors are the employees of the company and are working as such besides being Director of the company," it said.

In its ruling, the AAR said, "the consideration paid to the directors by the applicant company will attract GST under reverse charge mechanism..."



The AAR, while analysing the case, said that Director is the supplier of services and the applicant of the company is the recipient of the services.

It said that the Central Tax (Rate) notification clearly states that services supplied by a Director of a company will be considered as supply and hence directors cannot be called an employee.

"So it is very clear that the services rendered by the Director to the company for which consideration is paid to them in any head is liable to pay GST under RCM (Reverse Charge Mechanism)," the AAR order said.

AMRG & Associates Senior Partner Rajat Mohan said, "This ruling needs to be clarified by government, otherwise, lower authorities may take legally incorrect view creating havoc in the business community".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kayleigh McEnany was selected as the new White House press secretary Tuesday, according to the New York Times.

The news came hours after it was reported Stephanie Grisham was leaving the role and returning to her position as chief of staff to the first lady.

McEnany, currently serving as spokeswoman for Trumps 2020 re-election campaign, was immediately identified in reports Tuesday morning as a contender for the suddenly-vacant job.

In a recent appearance on Fox Business Network, she defended the presidents response to the spread of COVID-19, saying, We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here. A campaign spokesperson said that while the comment may have been inarticulately worded, according to CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski, McEnany was not denying that coronavirus was in the U.S. but speaking in the context of the travel ban from China that Trump instated.

On the same day Larry Kudlow said coronavirus was contained on Feb. 25th, Trumps campaign spox made an even more bold claim.

We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here..and isn't it refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama." pic.twitter.com/O0DDH3Rvkw

 andrew kaczynski???? (@KFILE) April 4, 2020

Also Read: Trump Campaign's Kayleigh McEnany Says President Has Never Lied, CNN's Chris Cuomo Responds: 'Interview's Over'

She is a familiar face to anyone who watched cable news in the lead- and follow-up to the 2016 election, as she was a Trump surrogate hired by CNN to be a contributor at the time. Shes continued to make headlines in the years since. Last August, once she was installed as spokesperson for the re-election campaign, CNNs Chris Cuomo ended an interview with her abruptly when she continually asserted that Trump doesnt lie.

During the toss from Cuomo to fellow CNN primetime anchor Don Lemon after the show, Lemon said this: I dont even bother anymore with that because youll never get a real, direct answer from someone like that. She has no credibility, Chris! Shes a nice woman. She used to be on this show as well as other CNN shows all the time, but someone like that has no credibility and the audience Put whoever you want on your show, this isnt chastising you, but the audience gets nothing from her because she does not tell the truth.

Read original story Kayleigh McEnany Picked as New White House Press Secretary (Report) At TheWrap
Ordering takeout is one of the small joys left now that most of the country is hunkering down at home, but some quarantine comfort foods have proven to be more popular than others.

Uber's food delivery service, Uber Eats, has seen a 30 per cent increase in orders in the U.S. and Canada since the coronavirus pandemic was declared a national emergency in mid-March, according to Fox News.

In the 35 states that have Uber Eats, French fries were the most popular order for the month of March closely followed by pad Thai.

Yum: Uber Eats revealed the most popular takeout orders for the month of March, with French fries topping the list in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington

Hard to resist: Pad Thai came in a close second after becoming the most ordered dish in Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee, and Texas

French fries ranked highest in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, though there were other variations that made the cut.

Carne asada fries were the most ordered menu item in Colorado and Utah, while Ohioans favored Notso fries  cottage fries topped with melted cheese, chopped bacon, and a dollop of sour cream.

Pad Thai prevailed as the go-to order for people in Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee, and Texas.

And believe it or not, crab rangoon was the third most popular dish in the country thanks to fans in Missouri and Wisconsin.

Loving it: Crab rangoon was the third most popular thanks to fans in Missouri and Wisconsin

Warms you up: People have been taking comfort in soup, with Miso, wonton, hot and sour, egg drop, and chicken being the most popular

Other foods that made the cut included chicken tikka masala in California, nachos in North Carolina, jerk chicken in New York, and cheesesteaks in Pennsylvania.

People have also been taking comfort in soup, with Miso, wonton, hot and sour, egg drop, and chicken being the most popular.

As for beverages, an Uber Eats spokesperson told Fox News that the most delivered drinks were soda, Thai iced tea, Horchata, iced coffee, and lemonade.

And for those with a sweet tooth, tiramisu, baklava, cheesecake, banana pudding, and churros were go-to orders.

Thirst-quencher: The most delivered beverages were soda, Thai iced tea, Horchata, iced coffee, and lemonade

Sweet treats: Tiramisu, baklava, cheesecake, banana pudding, and churros were go-to dessert orders

According to the company's spokesperson, food-serving establishments have been signing up for Uber Eats 10 times higher than previous rates while trying to ride out the economic fallout from the pandemic.

As one of the few industries still thriving amid the global crisis, Uber Eats is trialing a new in-app feature that allows users to directly donate to their favorite restaurants.

Uber will match each dollar donation  up to $5 million  for the National Restaurant Association's Restaurant Employee Relief Fund.

The trial is starting in New York City with a 'national rollout to follow,' she spokesperson said.
FILE PHOTO: A Malaysia Airlines plane is seen at Kingsford Smith International Airport in Sydney

By Liz Lee

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Privately held Golden Skies Ventures (GSV) has made a $2.5 billion offer to fully take over the holding company of ailing state carrier Malaysia Airlines, with financing from a European bank, its executives told Reuters on Monday.

GSV, which was set up by former Malaysia Airlines officials and professionals with aviation experience, made the proposal a month ago, as airlines around the world were hammered by travel restrictions following the coronavirus pandemic.

"(We have secured) in excess of $2.5 billion from the bank. We will take about three to four months to get the long-term financing," Chief Executive Shahril Lamin told Reuters in a phone interview.

GSV said it also has a commitment from a Japanese private equity firm to inject immediate funds into the aviation group through an equity deal.

It declined to name the firms involved, adding it was in talks with other foreign banks and private equity firms for further funding.

GSV has submitted its proposal to Morgan Stanley which has been hired by the aviation groups sole owner, sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd.

Sources have previously said Japan Airlines Co Ltd, domestic carriers AirAsia Group Bhd and Malindo Air have shown interest in Malaysia Airlines.

GSV said it would assume most of the airline's debt that is being held by the government in outstanding Islamic bonds.

Khazanah and Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

GOLDEN SHARE

The proposal includes keeping the governments so-called golden share which allows it majority voting rights and maintains Malaysia Airlines' flag carrier status.

GSV expects it will have ample liquidity to help the airline operate comfortably for up to 18 months.

It intends to reinstate Malaysia Airlines as a premium long-haul airline by expanding its flight network and maximising utilisation of its 81-plane fleet. It also plans to keep other business units such as the budget airline, cargo freighter and maintenance repair and overhaul unit.

Story continues

(It) is still a viable venture, it has inherent strengths. We are saying we wont lay off the 13,000 frontline employees and we are not going to asset-strip the airline, Deputy Chief Executive Ravindran Devagunam said.

The firm aims to achieve positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation within three years of taking over, and targets 15 billion ringgit ($3.5 billion) in revenue in 2025.

Plans for a listing or possible listing of its units are on the cards in three to five years, they said.

Ravindran said the firm is banking on pent-up travel demand when the coronavirus is contained. Regardless of how long (the virus) will take this year, we are looking at an uptick in the business from summer 2021."

($1 = 4.3450 ringgit)

(Reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by David Holmes and Edwina Gibbs)
Subscriber content preview

TC Energy plans to build 11 worker camps along the Keystone XL pipeline's route  in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.



By MATTHEW BROWN, STEPHEN GROVES and CEDAR ATTANASIO

Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont.  Major construction projects moving forward along the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico are raising fears that the coronavirus could race through temporary camps and workers could spread it to nearby rural communities that would not be able to handle an outbreak.

Despite a clampdown on people's movements in much of the country, groups of workers travel every day from camps in New Mexico to build President Donald Trump's border wall.





. . .
Today, on William Wordsworths 250th birthday, the poet will come in for his share of adoration. We offer a dissent from a critic who is nevertheless a passionate reader of Romantic poetry. In this excerpt from her forthcoming book The Calamity Form: On Poetry and Social Life, Anahid Nersessian asks why Wordsworths poetry leaves her cold. Its not his politics or his narcissism, she writes, or anything else she cares to critique, but an estrangement that cuts both ways. Why should Wordsworth fail me, and I him? Read on, and look for The Calamity Form in June.

Let me put it bluntly: I dont like Wordsworth. I almost said I dont care for him, but thats not quite true. A day spent writing about Wordsworth is a good day; when he comes into the classroom with me, things inevitably go well. And yet the eye I cast on his section of my bookshelf is doubtful, disgruntled. Never could I imagine reading Wordsworth for pleasure, though it is with pleasure that I recall someones startled love for that cataract in the seventy-seventh line of Tintern Abbey. It is with pleasure, too, that Ive been taught about Wordsworth by professors and colleagues, by lectures and book chapters, and by the poems of others, especially those that share or repeat the traumatological structure of The Prelude, playing back some jackknife dive into a chasm that is like a chiasmus in the way it both narrows and opens up. But Wordsworth himself leaves me cold.

By cold I mean unmoved and unmoving, for it has long been my view that there is something insurmountable about Wordsworth, that the poetry is structured by a subterranean series of blockages that keep me from being involved in it, cajoled by any combination of affective, aesthetic, and intellectual prompts. The poet Nan Shepherd wrote of a traffic of love between herself and Scotlands Cairngorms mountain range; in his own immixture of nature-writing and amour propre, Wordsworth taps the fullness of that same thought to turn congestion into a form of intimacy, obstacles into channels of care. I see that and yet, for me, these each feel uniquely impassive.

Its not like Wordsworth is a rebarbative poet; its not like he pleads for a sympathy I might be compelled to withhold. So many of his experiences are familiar: disappointment and self-rebuke, the passion and fear of wildnessthese are common enough, and Ive known them too. Nor can I say, as others have, that my alienation from Wordsworth is political: I dont mind the sexism or the glacial sexuality, the turn against revolution and even reform. I dont mind the narcissism or the way it occasionally unfurled into full-blown nastiness (A very pretty piece of paganism), and like Hazlitt Im unfazed by the hebetude of [Wordsworths] intellect and the meanness of his subject, happy to accept both as the calling cards of avant-garde innovation.

In short, this isnt about critique; its about a numbness that jump-starts irritation, an estrangement that cuts both ways. Why should Wordsworth fail me, and I him?

Recently it was suggested to me that I dont understand Wordsworth because Im not English. This cant be true: I often think the only thing I understand is English poetry. Besides, why attribute to an accident of biography what might well be a matter of poetics? Id rather not believe my resistance is meaningless or flatly identitarian, so this chapter is an effort to follow detachment into some better insight. Of course, whether I like Wordsworth or not is not anything to keep anyone up at night. What could, though, is how the poetic mode he developssober, a bit sodden, and yet tremoring with the concentrated force of momentum bound by metermight produce a certain unintelligibility or intransigence, a poem facing us from behind a wall. Facing or, perhaps, fronting, as in the opening lines of Michael:

If from the public way you turn your steps

Up the tumultuous brook of Green-head Gill,

You will suppose that with an upright path

Your feet must struggle; in such bold ascent

The pastoral mountains front you, face to face.

But, courage! for beside that boisterous Brook

The mountains have all opend out themselves,

And made a hidden valley of their own.

Front names the appearance of candor as concealment, for behind the prosopopoeia of the mountains hard face lies a secret from which our attention is about to be redirected. The poem, after all, concerns neither the hidden valley nor any of the trail markers Wordsworth clusters around it but the shepherd Michaels unfinished sheepfold. It is to this ruin that Wordsworths story appertains, a curious verb that suggests a doubled or extraemphatic relevance, the story molded against its object like wax or gum (M, 18).

The mountains turn out to be, in the colloquial sense, a front, a pretense, introducing the main line of Michael while continuing to keep their own counsel. They draw attention to deflect it and this might be said, too, of Wordsworths poems: that they give off light without heat, face us without feeling, are opened out on a secret theyre never going to divulge. As this passage suggests, it may well be that what the mountains hide is, simply, themselves, as if secrecy were their substance and to betray it would be killing.

He has written to disclose a buried life, says David Bromwich, but he does not pretend to know the meaning of those days. If this chapter is about incomprehension, it is also a chapter about secrets, the ones we keep even from ourselves. These are taken or, more properly, used as a structure that solicits nescience in various guisesas attention, as annoyance, as paralysis, as compliance or willingness but never, pointedly, as the response to a seduction, because it is never the aim of Wordsworths poetry to charm or entrap. My word for both this reticence and this bewilderment is obscurity, a poetic trope that has played a decisive role in the development of hermeneutics and, by extension, literary criticism.

Anahid Nersessian is associate professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of Utopia, Limited: Romanticism and Adjustment, and the coeditor of the Thinking Literature series, published by the University of Chicago Press.

The Calamity Form publishes in June and is available now for pre-order from our website and your local bookseller.
Leaders of the Arab community in Israel, including Knesset members from the Joint List, claim that Arab citizens face discrimination in testing for the novel coronavirus. Figures released by the Ministry of Health show that the number of people infected with the virus among the Israeli Arab population is significantly lower that that among the Jewish population. Out of almost 9,000 cases in Israel on April 7, about 200 are in predominantly Arab localities.

This is a surprising figure, given that Arab citizens constitute 20% of Israels total population. The highest concentration of confirmed Arab cases, 19, is in Umm al-Fahm, followed by Tamra, in the north, with 15 infections. Nevertheless, the number of tests allocated for Arab towns and villages is disturbingly lower than for Jewish areas. Speaking about testing, Knesset member Yousef Jabareen (Joint List), a resident of Umm al-Fahm, told Al-Monitor, It is incredible that as Knesset members, we had to pressure the Health Ministry to get what any Jewish citizen can take for granted in Israel.

According to Jabareen, it took enormous effort and pressure by Joint List leaders and the heads of Arab local authorities to set up two drive-thru testing facilities, at Wadi Ara, in the north, and in Arara, in the south. The two stations helped increase the number of tests performed in Arab communities to around 10,000, he estimated.

This national blindness, which hurts everyone, clearly revealed the dearth of Arab representation at the professional decision-making level, said Jabareen. He further remarked that there is no professional Arab team that works with the Ministry of Health to advise it or provide an up-to-date picture of the Arab community and its needs. Magen David Adom, for instance, doesnt even have an Arabic-language copy of the questionnaire required to conduct coronavirus testing. So far, finding solutions to such problems has been driven by local organizing.

When you feel like the system is not only estranging but alienating too, Israeli Arab citizens realize that there is no one that they can rely on, so they create independent self-help systems, Jabareen said. According to him, the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, the heads of Arab local authorities, and Knesset members from the Joint List moved to create emergency teams and a control center of sorts to work in conjunction with neighborhood committees. [These teams will] follow the processes, issue warnings, and relay messages and data, he explained. Every Arab citizen realizes that in situations like these, they need to take more personal responsibility, so that they do not depend entirely on the authorities.

In an April 6 interview with Channel 12, Tira Mayor Mamoun Abd al-Hay, said that it is impossible to know how many people are actually infected in Arab society. There are lots of people in the Arab public who want to take the test, but cant, he asserted. The restrictions are very tough. We need to increase the number of tests in order to discover what is really happening with our residents.

The most serious instances of neglect and discrimination can be found in the Bedouin settlements in the south. Adham Amarna, a resident of the Bedouin village of Segev Shalom, told Al-Monitor that residents, especially in unrecognized settlements, feel like they are not citizens.

The state ignores us entirely, Shalom said. There is no available information, nor are there medical stations or tests. If someone shows any symptoms of the coronavirus, that person doesnt have anywhere to turn. According to him, the testing station set up in Arara provides only limited services, and people need permission to be tested. We have no idea how many cases there are, what the infection rate is or even what to do to protect [ourselves], he said.

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Ministries of Health, Internal Security and Defense are approaching the effort to stop the spread of the virus in Jewish localities as if preparing for war, they have abandoned Arab towns and villages, relegating them to the bottom of the list when it comes to national preparedness priorities. Were it not for the intervention and pressure of the Joint List members and the heads of the Arab local authorities, it is doubtful whether the little that has been done would have been done at all. Its frustrating and depressing, said Amarna. Even when there is a pandemic, and lives are in danger, your country tells you that you dont have the same right to life.

Despite the discrimination faced by Arab localities, it is believed that the number of people infected there is indeed considerably lower than in the Jewish community. Some confirmation of this can be gleaned from the statistic that as of April 7, among the 65 Israelis who had died of COVID-19, not one of them was from an Arab town or village. Similarly, not one of them is hospitalized or on a ventilator, and therefore considered to be in critical condition. A possible explanation for the wide gap in numbers could be that the Purim festivities in Jewish communities on April 9 served as a prime accelerator of infections. Another possible factor is that the number of people traveling overseas, and potentially bringing the virus back to Israel, is lower among the Arab population than among the Jewish population.

After the outbreak of the coronavirus in Israel, and given that the number of people infected is rapidly approaching 10,000, two disturbing factors must be taken into consideration. The first is that Arab citizens come into contact with the Jewish population on a daily basis. The second is that many of the medical professionals operating in Israeli hospitals are Arab.

One-fifth of all doctors are Arab, said Jabareen. One-quarter of all nurses are Arabs, and half of all pharmacists live in Arab localities, not to mention the significant percentage of hospital administrators. Our greatest fear is that they are on the front line every day, and then they come home, where they can transmit the virus. According to Jabareen, there has been an increase in the number of nurses infected with the coronavirus, apparently at their workplaces  hospitals.

Given that Arab towns and villages contribute such a large number of medical and pre-med professionals to the countrys hospitals, even if the country doesnt grant them priority, it should at least exert the same effort for them and provide them the same means to block the spread of the plague as it does Jewish communities. It is actually in Israels own interest to do so. Doctors, nurses and pharmacists, not to mention hospital aides, are all necessary and valuable these days. If they and their families are infected, the pandemic will get out of control in Arab communities, and the Israeli health system will lose a significant part of its most loyal soldiers.
After more than three weeks of lockdown in Spain, the countrys intensive care units (ICUs) are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. While they continue to be overloaded, with their usual capacity multiplied by as much as four times, and their staff exhausted due to a seemingly endless coronavirus pandemic, the intake of critical patients is beginning to slow. Its a small truce after several days on the brink of total breakdown.

Several weeks are still needed before the ICUs return to their usual state and dimensions, but a reduction in emergency room cases, which translates into fewer hospitalizations, is beginning to be seen. Experts consulted are calling, however, for people to keep their guard up. Since the Covid-19 disease took hold in Spain, a total of 6,931 patients have received treatment in Spains ICUs, according to figures from the Health Ministry.

Healthcare sources say that some major Madrid hospitals are already planning a withdrawal of resources and a gradual return to normal

The stabilization of the situation can now be seen in the data coming from the hospitals in the region that has been hardest hit by the coronavirus: Madrid. One example of this is the Infanta Sofia Hospital, in the city of San Sebastian de los Reyes, located north of the capital.

The health center usually has eight beds in the ICU, and on March 16 seven of them were occupied. Three days later there were 11 ICU patients; six days later, 25; and on April 1 there were as many as 40 people in the ICU itself, and other wards that had to be adapted to house these critical patients, including the recovery area, operating theaters and any other bed that could be adapted with a respirator and 24-hour monitoring.

By last Friday, there were 38 patients; on Saturday, the same number, and by Sunday there were 37, according to data obtained by EL PAIS from hospital sources, given that the Madrid regional government refused to supply any figures. Of nearly 40 hospitals, among which there were a number of private centers, 30 saw the same or fewer ICU patients on April 4 compared to the previous day.

Healthcare sources say that some major Madrid hospitals, such as the 12 de Octubre and the Fundacion Jimenez Diaz, are already planning a withdrawal of resources and a gradual return to normality. At the Clinico San Carlos, four of the seven wards that were opened to deal with the flood of patients have now closed. Madrid regional health chief, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, said on Monday that of 1,955 emergency cases dealt with on Monday of last week, there are now 390. However, the clear improvement in the flow of patients and the number of hospitalizations takes a little longer to be seen in the ICUs.

For several days now, the number of patients being discharged from hospital in Madrid has been exceeding the number of deaths

A critical coronavirus patient stays on average for two or three weeks in the ICU, a lot longer than, for example, post-surgical patients, who usually stay for 48 or 72 hours. In the Madrid region, and specifically in my hospital, in Torrejon, where this started a little before the rest of places, the pressure in terms of the number of admissions has stabilized, explains Maria Cruz Martin, a member of the board of the Intensive Medicine Society (Semicyuc) and the head of the UCI at her hospital. Her center even accepted two critical patients from another hospital, one that was struggling to cope.

The situation is much better, she adds. There are still a lot of patients, 1,500 in the Madrid region, in the ICUs. Of these, more than 50% are outside the usual wards. The situation appears to have peaked, but Martin warns that they are still very, very far from normality and there are still patients in normal hospital wards who could end up in the ICU, but it is true that the situation is a little better, its more under control.

Cruz Martin adds that, for several days now, the number of patients being discharged from hospital in Madrid has been exceeding the number of deaths. The region is likely to have passed its peak, and Catalonia is nearing the same point, according to the data compiled by Semicyuc. But the ICUs are still operating at 200 to 300% of their baseline situation.

In Catalonia there are 1,970 ICU beds in the regions hospitals, triple the amount there were two weeks ago. Of them, Catalan health chief Alba Verges reports, 85% are occupied, with 1,512 Covid-19 patients. The pressure is still high, but it is not rising, explains Joan Ramon Masclans, the president of the Catalan Society of Intensive Medicine. Compared with one or two weeks ago, when we were having to open up more wards, now the situation is getting back to normal. While the occupation level is high and today [Monday] we are over triple the normal level.

In Barcelonas Hospital del Mar, where Masclans is the chief of service for intensive medicine, they have gone from 24 to 92 ICU beds. The admissions are compensated by discharges, which, being cautious still, is good news. We are working with less of a sense of being overwhelmed than we were a few weeks ago. But rather than saying that we have reached a peak, Id say we were at a plateau.

English version by Simon Hunter.
The doors may not be open, but were open, she said. Were still doing intakes and providing all the services that we did before, but were doing them in a little bit of a different way.
31st MEU cyber operations section attaches, deploys for first time, increasing active defense in cyberspace

US Marine Corps News

6 Apr 2020 | Lance Cpl. Kevan Dunlop 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit

PHILLIPINE SEA -- In the same way that the ships of the USS America Expeditionary Strike Group patrol the seas to provide safety and maritime security against any threat, so too do the Marines of Defensive Cyberspace Operations-Internal Defensive Measures in the cyber realm, according to 2nd Lt. Adam Kosianowski, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit DCO-IDM officer in charge.

"For the first time, the 31st MEU embarked aboard the America ESG with DCO-IDM to ensure naval integration between Marine Corps and Navy networks, and that the networks are defended in the cyber domain in order to operate unimpeded by enemy probing and malicious activity," said Kosianowski. "By supporting the America ESG, 31st MEU team, DCO-IDM provides another line of defense to friendly networks."

The ability for the MEU to process information, communicate, and execute a wide range of missions relies on a safe and secure cyber network. While the wars of the early 21st century saw the Marine Corps operate uncontested in the cyber realm, preparation for the next conflict requires a robust cyber defense capability. DCO-IDM functions as a roving guard force that searches for unusual trends, benign content, or malicious solicitation in the cyber realm.

"The Marine is DCO-IDM. The Marine hunts, views the network from enemy points of view, and mitigates damage before the bad actor can anticipate and act," said Kosianowski. "Practicing security standards and policies are important because it prevents the enemy from figuring out vulnerabilities, especially through lack of attention to detail."

"Defensive cyberspace operator Staff Sgt. Ulises Villegas described how the adversary can take many actions to potentially exploit friendly networks. "Bad actors probe the network they are looking to penetrate, looking for vulnerabilities and openings on networks that are exploitable. Once inside, the enemy can insert malware, deny service and access, and manipulate and delete information. In worst-case scenarios, the enemy can export and copy stolen data onto their own networks for manipulation and nefarious activity."

"DCO-IDM can identify and mitigate this threat instantly, using tools or applications that analyze data, filter content and counter enemy procedures for exploiting networks in order to give real-time information of any anomaly," Villegas continued. "Marines can trace enemy breaches, complete counter-intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance back to their origin, and ensure the enemy doesn't have access in friendly networks. The Marines review suspicious content and report out of the ordinary activity for follow on action."

"In the past, the thought process of cyber security was reactionary with monitoring event logs waiting to be attacked," said Villegas. "DCO-IDM is the opposite. The team, using up-to-date intelligence of the battlespace and potential enemy actions, is proactively conducting focused ISR of friendly networks, scanning for gaps, and closing potential vectors of attack and if directed upon identification, able to isolate, contain and even conduct local fires on threats."

During Exercise Cobra Gold 2020 in the Kingdom of Thailand, 31st MEU DCO-IDM along with III Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group Marines, supported a Cyber Field Training Exercise at the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters in Bangkok. The Marines as part of the U.S. team collaborated with five partner nations: Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, establishing baseline training and international standards to overcome language barriers and communicate in the same cyber language. U.S. Marine Col. Larry Jenkins, commander of III MIG, oversaw the collaboration between Marines and partner-nation forces as they worked together, problem-solving scenarios.

Anytime we work in a coalition environment, it's positive, whether it's cyber or one of the other elements of Cobra Gold," said Jenkins. "Any time we have an opportunity to work with our coalition partners, it builds relationships and makes us stronger."

The refinement of DCO techniques, along with collaboration with Navy and other forces, improves how the team operates afloat. As the first DCO-IDM team embarked with the 31st MEU, their goal is to establish a framework so that follow-on teams are able to efficiently take over and improve the proactive defense operations. These teams will eventually build up and fully support all ships while forward-deployed.

The 31st MEU stays ahead of any threat by identifying world trends that may hinder its ability to maintain security. By employing DCO-IDM, the MEU stays true to its motto as "ready, partnered and lethal," to face any threat including in cyber space, according to the 31st MEU commanding officer Col. Robert Brodie.

"The 31st MEU's Cyber Unit patrols our network employing DCO-IDM to innovatively identify and engage potential cyber threats while reinforcing and maintaining the highest level of network security," said Brodie. "As the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command's crisis response force, our cyber operations demonstrate our adeptness to operate across all domains. We stand ready for crisis 24/7-365 and our cyber warriors ensure we are prepared to project combat power at a moment's notice: ready, partnered, and lethal."

The America Expeditionary Strike Group, 31st MEU team, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

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Harris County has begun building a medical shelter at NRG Park in preparation for an expected surge of COVID-19 patients locally, Harris County Public Health announced Monday night.

County, state and federal partners do not have a date scheduled to open the shelter, which is part of a contingency plan to prevent hospital bed shortages that could come with rising case counts.
A Queensland man found guilty of twice raping his seven-year-old daughter at his mother's home will be retried after appealing against his conviction.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the Court of Appeal in Brisbane there had been a miscarriage of justice because an interpreter was not present throughout his trial in 2018.

The court on Tuesday agreed, saying there must be a new trial as the absence of an interpreter had compromised the fairness of the proceedings.

The man's two-day Brisbane District Court trial heard the girl told police her father had "put his rude part in my rude part" during two sleepovers at her grandmother's home in 2017.

The man, who has a poor grasp of English, denied the allegations, saying such offending could never have occurred in such a small house.
The first full moon of the spring season is set to grace the night skies on April 7. The Super Pink Moon is being heralded by astronomers as potentially the biggest and brightest lunar event of 2020.

According to Space.com, a supermoon occurs when the moon comes into its fullest phase on the same night that it reaches perigee, its closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit. A supermoon may appear up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than a regular full moon, making it a lunar spectacle for the masses.

In scientific terms, a supermoon is known as a perigee-syzygy; astrologer Richard Noelle coined the more popular term supermoon in 1979.

[H]e coined a term for when the moon was full, when it was 90 percent of the closest distance it could be to Earth, Jackie Faherty, an astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History, told NPR. And a couple of years ago, it just caught on.

Aprils full moon is also sometimes referred to as the Paschal full moonreferring to the word passover in Greeknamed as such because it is the first full moon to take place after the spring equinox each year. The 2020 spring equinox occurred on March 19.

Smithsonian reports that on April 7, 2020, the full moon will be approximately 221,772 miles from Earth. On March 24, the moon was 30,000 miles further away. The April 7 Super Pink Moon will be the supermoon nearest to Earth in almost 70 years, while the next one this size will be in 2034.

Illustration  Shutterstock | Darkfoxelixir

Interestingly, the name Super Pink Moon is misleading, as its color is no different from any other full moon. It will at first appear golden when low in the sky, changing to white once fully risen.

According to The Old Farmers Almanac, the name Super Pink Moon actually denotes the pink wildflower called creeping phlox, which blooms in early springtime beneath the light of the April full moon.

The Almanacs advice for moon-gazers in the United States is to look for the Super Pink Moon after sunset on April 7, reaching its peak illumination at 10:35 p.m. Eastern Time. The Super Pink Moon occurs in the midst of a series of supermoonsthe first occurred on March 9, 2020, and the last will occur on May 7but Aprils is expected to be the biggest and brightest.

According to astronomer Jackie Faherty, speaking to NPR, it is best to look at the supermoon close to the horizon. This way, she explained, the moon-gazer can make the most of the dramatic optical illusion that occurs when the moon is seen rising beside buildings and above the horizon, making it look disproportionately large.

People play volleyball on the beach as the Super Pink Moon rises over the Salmiya district, east of Kuwait City, Kuwait, on April 19, 2019 (Getty Images | YASSER AL-ZAYYAT)

Although we have intense light pollution in the city, said Chicago-based astronomer Joe Guzman, addressing city dwellers, its a misnomer that you cant see anything. Find a shaded area away from street lights and the skies will open up to you.

As for the best spot from which to enjoy Aprils lunar spectacle, and the night sky in general, Michelle Nichols of Chicagos Adler Planetarium advised, Theres no one best spot to observe the sky.

The best place to observe the sky is wherever you currently are, Nichols continued, speaking to WBEZ. So you dont have to find that perfect location; it doesnt exist. There are some sites that are better than others, but truly get to know the sky where you are.
Georgias leading state and federal prosecutors announce a new Coronavirus (COVID-19) Fraud Task Force aimed at better protecting the citizens of Georgia from criminal fraud arising from the pandemic.



The task force will enhance communication between partner agencies and more rapidly share information about COVID-19 fraud, while ensuring each fraud complaint is reported to the appropriate prosecuting agency. Task force member agencies include the Office of the Governor of Georgia, the Office of the Attorney General of Georgia, the U.S.

Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Georgia, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Georgia and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Georgia. Georgias three U.S. Attorneys, the Attorney General of Georgia and the Executive Counsel for the Governors Office serve on the task force.My office is honored to work with this task force in our states fight against the spread of COVID-19. As a team, we are committed to putting Georgians first to ensure their safety and well-being as we address this public health state of emergency, said Governor Brian P. Kemp.Thieves never stop searching for ways to take advantage of unsuspecting people, said Byung J. BJay Pak, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. Citizens can rest assured that we will bring every asset to bear against fraudsters and those who use this crisis as an opportunity to commit fraud. Also, we encourage anyone who believes they are the victim of a scam, or may have been contacted by someone stating they represent a government agency, to contact this task force immediately.Our office has received hundreds of complaints regarding scams, price gouging and other issues related to the COVID19 pandemic, and we wont tolerate those who are taking advantage of consumers and interfering with our frontline workers response to the crisis, said Attorney General Chris Carr. This partnership between the State of Georgia and our U.S. Attorneys will enable us to work together to investigate and, as appropriate, prosecute those who violate our laws. We will leave no stone unturned as we protect all Georgians.Opportunistic criminals are targeting the most vulnerable among us with COVID-19 scams, but our office and law enforcement and prosecutorial partners remain vigilant, said Bobby L. Christine, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. We continue to detect, investigate and prosecute criminal conduct, and reassure our law-abiding citizens that their safety and security is our primary focus.To all would-be scammers: Anyone who uses this pandemic to defraud Georgians will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, said Charlie Peeler, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia. The creation of this unified task force better prepares us to investigate and prosecute criminal acts of fraud related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The law enforcement community is strong in our state. I want to thank our partners at the local, state and federal level dedicated to protecting our citizens from fraudsters.Within each task force member agency, an appointed fraud complaint coordinator will oversee the cases and remain in regular contact with partner law enforcement agencies. The appointed coordinators are: Russell Phillips, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Georgia , Jim Crane, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Georgia; David Dove, Executive Counsel, Office of the Governor of Georgia; Anne Infinger, Deputy Attorney General, Consumer Protection Division, Office of the Attorney General of Georgia; and Patrick Schwedler, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Georgia.The public is urged to be on the lookout for any of these COVID-19 scams, which can be reported to the National Center for Disaster Fraud hotline (1-866-720-5721) or to the NCDF e-mail address disaster@leo.gov: Treatment scams: Scammers are selling fake vaccines, medicines, and cures for COVID-19.

 Supply scams: Scammers are claiming they have in-demand products, like cleaning and household supplies, and medical supplies, but when an order is placed, the scammer takes the money and never delivers the order.



 Charity scams: Scammers are fraudulently soliciting donations for non-existent charities to help people affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Scammers often use names that are similar to the names of real charities.



 Phishing scams: Scammers, posing as national and global health authorities, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are sending fake emails and texts to trick the recipient into sharing personal information like account numbers, Social Security numbers, and login IDs and passwords.



 App scams: Scammers are creating COVID-19 related apps that contain malware designed to steal the users personal information.



 Provider scams: Scammers pretending to be doctors and hospitals demand payment for COVID-19 treatment allegedly provided to a friend or family member of the victim.



 Investment scams: To promote the sale of stock in certain companiesparticularly small companies, about which there is little publicly available informationscammers are making false and misleading claims that those companies can prevent, detect or cure COVID-19.



The Consumer Protection Division of the Office of the Attorney General of Georgia has received more than 600 complaints of price gouging or scams related to COVID-19, the majority regarding food, toilet paper, water and hand sanitizer. The public can file complaints with the CPD by calling 800-869-1123 (toll-free) or at www.consumer.ga.gov.



For further information, contact the U.S. Attorneys Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or 404-581-6016. The Internet address for the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Georgia is www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.
The Daily Beast

Fox News White House correspondent and perpetual nemesis of Jen Psaki thought he had Joe Bidens press secretary cornered on Monday when he asked her why the president is still referring to COVID-19 as a pandemic of the unvaccinated when so many people are getting breakthrough infections. He was wrong.I understand that the science says that vaccines prevent death, Doocy began, before undercutting that basic truth. But Im triple-vaxxed, still got COVID. Youre triple-vaxxed, still got COVI
FILE PHOTO: An illuminated logo of steelmaker Voestalpine stands in front of the steel plant Donawitz in Leoben

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian specialty steelmaker Voestalpine <VOES.VI> said on Tuesday it will not meet earnings targets for its recently ended business year because of the coronavirus pandemic, trimming its outlook for core profit and forecasting an operating loss.

The Linz-based firm, which supplies the auto, aerospace and energy industries, said it had been forced to write down the value of assets and goodwill because of the pandemic, which had hurt its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT).

But the outbreak had also dented business more generally, with a broader effect, including on its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in its 2019/2020 business year, which ended on March 31.

"The COVID-19 pandemic and its global effects negatively influence the result of the 2019/20 business year of Voestalpine AG, which ended on March 31, 2020, both operationally and through one-time effects," it said in a statement, referring to the illness caused by the coronavirus.

"The outlook of a just positive EBIT cannot be maintained. At present, a negative EBIT of around 135 million euros is expected," it said, adding that the figure could still be subject to change.

The firm said two weeks ago that demand for its products in key sectors had collapsed within days due to massive reductions in capacity and production shutdowns in the automotive, aerospace, mechanical engineering, and oil & natural gas industries.

It said at the time that it was too soon to say what the pandemic's impact would be on its results for the 2019/2020 business year, but it was shortening working hours at about 50 of its European units in Austria, Germany, Belgium, and France.

On Tuesday it also trimmed its EBITDA forecast by roughly 100 million euros from 1.2 billion euros. It now expects EBITDA "in a range of more than 1.1 billion", it said.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 11:48:40|Editor: zh

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PHNOM PENH, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia on Tuesday confirmed a Vietnamese female-tourist was tested positive for the COVID-19, raising the total number of the confirmed cases in the kingdom to 115.

According to a Ministry of Health statement, the new patient is a 27-year-old Vietnamese woman, who had visited Bavet City in southeast Cambodia's Svay Rieng province and left the city for Vietnam on March 2, and then returned to Cambodia on March 10.

"The COVID-19 positive woman has been put under quarantine for treatment at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital in (capital Phnom Penh)," it said.

According to the statement, to date, five more COVID-19 patients in Cambodia had recovered, bringing the tally of patients cured in the kingdom to 58.
JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has blamed poor planning for the coronavirus crisis.

In his annual letter to shareholders, Mr Dimon wrote that the US was not prepared to deal with the pandemic and added that the government needs to plan for the future.

Mr Dimon said the country was not adequately prepared for this pandemic  however, we can and should be more prepared for what comes next.

Done right, a disciplined transition would maximise the health of Americans and minimise the time, extent and suffering caused by the economic downturn.

He added: I am hoping that civility, humanity, empathy and the goal of improving America will break through. We have the resources to emerge from this crisis as a stronger country.

Mr Dimon didnt single out Donald Trump by name in his letter, but instead argued that the inclination of some ... to finger-point and look for blame. I hope we can avoid that.

However, he did admit that we need to demand more of ourselves and our leaders if we want to prevent or mitigate these disasters, and that the current pandemic is only one example of the bad planning and management that have hurt our country.

Mr Dimon added that disputes between Republicans and Democrats could have been avoided if the government had planned for the pandemic.

There should have been a pandemic playbook, and it should have detailed and nonpartisan solutions, he said.

He doesnt think that the problems attributed to the coronavirus will end once the outbreak has been contained, writing that a recession will follow the return to work.

We dont know exactly what the future will hold  but at a minimum, we assume that it will include a bad recession combined with some kind of financial stress similar to the global financial crisis of 2008.

Speaking about the future of the US, Mr Dimon added that our challenges are significant, and we should not assume they will take care of themselves. Let us all do what we can to strengthen our exceptional union.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, upwards of 369,069 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 11,018.
Seven people were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly attacking a team of health workers during its visit to a locality in Rajasthan's Ajmer district earlier this week for screening residents for coronavirus, police said.

The incident took place on Sunday night when the team was visiting Khanpura Chisti Nagar area, they said.

A total of 22 people have been booked in the case and seven of them have been arrested, the police said.

The health team had visited Khanpura Chisti Nagar to screen residents for coronavirus. Local residents manhandled the team members and even pelted stones at them, following which a case was registered against 22 people on Monday, said Station House Officer (SHO), Ramganj, Narpat Singh.

"Seven of the accused named in the FIR were arrested on Tuesday under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Rajasthan Epidemic Diseases Act," he said.

Some people had recorded a video of the incident and it was used to identify the accused. Further investigation in the matter is underway, the SHO said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The decision is likely to upset Pell's many detractors, who hold him responsible not just for the alleged assault on the choirboys but for the broader record of the Catholic Church in Australia, where some 4,444 people reported being abused in recent decades, according to an official inquiry. Their average age was about 11 years old.
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New Zealand Ambassador to China Clare Fearnley. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

New Zealand Ambassador to China Clare Fearnley underscored the importance of working together in addressing the common threat posed by COVID-19 during a recent interview with China.org.cn.

"International cooperation is absolutely vital in combating COVID-19," Fearnley said. "While it's understandable that each country would prioritize the protection of its own people's health, no one can really win the battle against the global pandemic alone."

The ambassador continued, "We must support each other, such as through sharing information and best practice, maintaining free flow of vital supplies, looking after each other's nationals unable to return home due to travel restrictions [and] coordinating measures of international impact."

Clearly, no country faces the COVID-19 challenge alone, said the ambassador.

A total of 1,346,299 cases and 74,679 deaths have been recorded globally as of 8:39 a.m. Beijing Time on April 7, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.

On the international level, now is the time that we really need to help out those countries that are particularly vulnerable to the epidemic, she underlined.

Fearnley stressed, "We oppose any form of xenophobia and discrimination." "As is commonly said, 'Viruses don't discriminate, and nor should we'," she urged.

The ambassador added that one of the messages that the New Zealand government has been emphasizing during the pandemic is the need to "be kind," which is also a way of uniting against the virus.

She believes that on the individual level, everyone can make a difference by checking-in on others, especially the elderly and vulnerable. "You can look after anyone that needs help and drop supplies to those who need it  while keeping the social distancing requirement."

She noted, "We saw many acts of great kindness shown during China's shutdown and now, in New Zealand, less than a week into our shutdown, we're seeing a spirit of kindness shown too."

This is captured in the Maori term "manaakitanga," which means showing kindness, generosity and support for one another, Fearnley said.

New Zealand, which had reported 943 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of 9 a.m., April 7, declared a state of national emergency on March 25, giving authorities more powers to curb COVID-19 and reduce its impact.

According to the ambassador, the country also moved into Level 4  the highest level on its pandemic alert system  at 11:59 p.m. on March 25, signaling a kind of a national "lockdown" which requires anyone not involved in essential work to isolate at home. Educational facilities are now closed; events and gatherings are cancelled; businesses are closed, except for those providing essential services and lifeline utilities; and New Zealanders entering the country must undergo strict measures to isolate or quarantine.

Bilateral support and cooperation

New Zealand stands with China and lent a helping hand to the country when it was working to bring the COVID-19 outbreak under control at home.

In February, the New Zealand government donated and delivered medical supplies to Wuhan, facilitated by the Hubei Charity Federation, Fearnley told China.org.cn. "New Zealand communities and our private sector have made donations of medical supplies, funds and food for those in need in Hubei province as well."

"New Zealand expresses its continued solidarity with China as it focuses on overcoming the challenges of the virus and turning the corner to economic recovery," the ambassador continued. "For example, Air New Zealand is moving freight between our two countries to ensure vital goods such as medical supplies and food continue to flow in a two-way exchange."

The ambassador noted that the country has also been exchanging experiences with relevant Chinese departments in the fight against COVID-19.

As the domestic situation continues to improve and various sectors begin to resume work and production, China, in turn, has started to offer assistance wherever it can to many other countries, as well as international and regional organizations such as the WHO and African Union.

Fearnley said that New Zealand recognizes the efforts being taken by the Chinese government to limit the spread of the virus.

"I have been personally impressed by the resolve with which China has worked to contain the COVID-19 epidemic, including as two new hospitals were built from scratch and thousands of medical personnel were deployed to Hubei province."

"I recognize that China's domestic efforts are a significant contribution to regional and global well-being," Fearnley commented.

"In addition to government measures, we have also seen moving actions of many Chinese frontline health and other workers as well as groups and individuals during the epidemic," she noted. "This is now being replicated around the world. We all owe a vote of respect to our front-line workers."
The rapid spread of the new coronavirus forced many people to hunker down inside their homes, with others fighting for survival against abusers.

COVID-19 swept through the world in four months, leading many countries to release lockdown orders to their citizens. The recent movement restrictions, which are aimed to curb the spread of the virus, were found to be related to an increase in violence in homes---more frequent, more brutal, more fatal.

A recent data compilation showed domestic abuse cases flourish in the environment created by the global pandemic. The data suggest abuse should be considered a public health crisis as the number of cases rises each day.

Marianne Hester, a sociologist for Bristol University, said the mounting abuse reports were expected to come along with the restrictions imposed by the government. According to her, domestic abuse cases see a surge when families spend more time together, especially during holidays and summer vacations.

'A Call for Help'

The National Domestic Violence Hotline received 25% more calls and pleas for help than they usually would. The charity said it received more calls last week than the number of calls two weeks earlier.

Experts also say the pressure on other services, as well as ongoing awareness campaigns, may have contributed to the increase of frequency in abuse.

In the United States, authorities said a victim called to report that her husband threatened to kick her out of the house if she so much as coughed. Another abuse victim said her partner strangled her. A third caller, a man, said his girlfriend refused to give him cleaning products to sanitize himself.

Crystal Justice, the chief marketing and developer officer at the National Domestic Violence Hotline, said most abusers threatened their victims with COVID-19 to gain control and power over their victims further. The virus has also impacted the survivors' ability to access necessary support, such as shelters and counseling.

State and local governments are scrambling to address the issue that experts believe should have been taken into consideration.

The United Nations also called governments to address the surge of domestic violence cases worldwide.

'Help Me'

Various organizations created secure chat and hotline services where abuse victims could call for help without leaving a trace in their browser history.

Safe Chat is a web-based, one-on-one chat session where victims can freely share their experience on violence, crime, and abuse. Health experts will be available for a free consultation, after which they will present options the victim can take.

The website has an escape button that immediately closes the page and erases it from the browser history.

If you know someone who is a victim of domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 512-453-8117. You can also call at 1-800-799-7233.

Victims may access a safe and secure live chat that is available 24/7 by clicking here.

Read More:
The latest:

US marks record for most new coronavirus deaths reported in a single day

The United States' coronavirus death toll surpassed 12,800 on Tuesday evening, with an increase of more than 1,800 deaths during the day. That number marks the most deaths recorded in a single day so far.



Trump says he's thinking of putting a hold on WHO funding

Minutes after President Donald Trump said he's placing a "very powerful hold" on U.S. funding to the World Health Organization for what he says is a "China-centric" stance, he appeared to back off the statement.

"I'm not saying I'm going to do it, but we are going to look at it," Trump said after being pressed on his statement.

Speaking Tuesday at his daily coronavirus briefing, Trump said the organization "receives vast amounts of money from the United States" that he wants to re-examine.

Trump said certain WHO programs were worthwhile but that overall they'd made mistakes  in particular, he said, opposition to his decision to shut down travel from China.

"We have to look into that, so we're going to look into it," Trump said.





Health officials say parts of country that social distanced saw slowdown of virus

As the U.S. coronavirus death toll moves past 12,000, health officials say parts of the country that leaned in heavily to social distancing measures may be seeing a slowdown in the growth of coronavirus cases.

The majority of people in the U.S. are "doing the right thing" by staying home and following other mitigation measures to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Tuesday.

"I'm seeing mitigation work," Adams said. "I know I've said it a couple times with Washington and with California. Their public health officials there should be applauded because they've given us the blueprint for how we deal with this and the rest of the country."

President Donald Trump warned Americans last week to prepare for a "painful" two weeks ahead as he extended nationwide distancing measures and acknowledged the severity of the virus.

Both Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading health official and Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said Monday that with continued mitigation efforts, there is potential to lower the projected U.S. death toll from 100,000.

"I don't think anyone has ever mitigated the way I've seen people mitigate right now. It's never happened in this country before. I am optimistic. Always cautiously optimistic," Fauci said.

Meanwhile, an influential University of Washington model now predicts fewer people will die and fewer hospital beds will be needed, compared to its estimates from last week.

But it assumes social distancing measures  like closing schools and business  will continue until the end of May.

The model predicts the virus may kill more than 81,000 people in the United States over the next four months, with just under 141,000 hospital beds being needed. That's about 12,000 fewer deaths  and 121,000 fewer hospital beds  than the model estimated on Thursday, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine says.

Paris bans daytime outdoor exercises

As France surpassed 10,000 deaths due to coronavirus, the mayor of Paris announced a restriction on when citizens would be allowed to exercise outdoors.

Anne Hidalgo said between the hours of 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., outdoor exercises would be banned in the French capital.

Hidalgo said the rule change came in the hopes of having Parisians exercising "when the streets are generally at their quietest," according to the BBC.

New Jersey closing parks, state forests

The Garden State is looking to further increase its social distancing efforts.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday that he's signing an executive order to close all state parks and forests as well as county parks.

"Weve seen far too many instances in our parks where people are gathering and socializing in groups. We need to #FlattenTheCurve," he said on Twitter.

New Jersey has had more than 41,000 cases and over 1,000 deaths reported as of Tuesday, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.

New York governor says new deaths were flat for two days

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday the number of coronavirus deaths has been effectively flat for two days, adding that the "total number of hospitalizations are down, ICU admissions are down and the daily intubations are down. Those are all good signs and again would suggest a possible flattening of the curve," he said.

"But we get reckless," the governor warned, "we change, we're not compliant on social distancing, you will see those numbers go up again."

New York Citys death toll officially eclipsed the number of those killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11, health officials said Tuesday.

At least 3,202 people have died in New York from COVID-19, according to the count released by the city. The deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil killed 2,753 people in the city and 2,977 overall, when hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001.



In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis extended the state's stay-at-home order to April 26 and said the state was starting to "see progress" thanks to the measures.

"At the beginning of the crisis, the number of positive cases in Colorado was doubling every one and a half days. Today, the number of positive cases is about doubling every six to seven days," he said. "That means the spread of the virus is beginning to slow."





Los Angeles saw a 7% increase in cases Monday, marking the city's first single-digit daily increase since mid-March, Mayor Eric Garcetti said.

The mayor, while calling the smaller rate of increase "good news," cautioned that the percentage of increase is usually lower on Mondays than other days of the week.

Health officials say the state's early aggressive measures gave California time to prepare for its peak in cases, which Gov. Gavin Newsom has said will likely come in May.

"The governor brought together experts to really try to understand if we flatten our curve, if we do all of this social distancing and stay at home how should we be thinking about what to prepare for, " California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis said Monday.

The growing number of cases, she said, are expected but come at a pace that has so far allowed the state to prepare.

"We have been expanding the capacity of our hospitals rapidly and so far we are able to handle the increase," she said. "But of course, for California and for all states around the country, it really is a race against time to have the equipment and supplies we need."

States helping each other with supplies

To help states like hard-hit New York, California announced it was sending 500 ventilators to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile, which Trump previously said is nearly depleted.

"We still have a long road ahead of us in the Golden State  and we're aggressively preparing for a surge  but we can't turn our back on Americans whose lives depend on having a ventilator now," Newsom said in a statement.

The 500 machines were scheduled to leave California on a military aircraft Monday to be shipped to FEMA, which will then redistribute to other states based on need, Brian Ferguson with the California Office of Emergency Services told CNN.

Newsom isn't alone  Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee have also offered ventilators to support other states.

"These ventilators are going to New York and other states hardest hit by this virus," Inslee said in a statement Sunday. The governor released 400 ventilators to the national stockpile.

"I've said many times over the last few weeks: We are in this together," he said. "This should guide all of our actions at an individual and state level in the coming days and weeks."

Virus hits African-American communities

Meanwhile, as states employ more tests to identify carriers of the virus, data has begun to show African Americans make up a large number of victims in the country.

In Chicago, 72% of the people who have died from coronavirus are black, though they make up 30% of the population, officials said.

In Louisiana, where nearly 33% of the population is African American, those residents account for 70% of the state's coronavirus deaths.

Dr. Celine Gounder, a CNN medical analyst and clinical assistant professor of infectious diseases, on Tuesday offered possible reasons for this, including:

 African Americans may be disproportionately likely to work in essential jobs that can't be done at home, such as grocery jobs.

 African Americans are disproportionately likely to have underlying health conditions that would make someone more likely to have severe COVID-19 illnesses.

Adams, the surgeon general, made similar arguments to "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday.

"When you look at being black in America, No. 1, people unfortunately are more likely to be of low socioeconomic status, which makes it harder to social distance. No. 2, we know that blacks are more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, lung disease," Adams told CBS.

"I and many black Americans are at higher risk for Covid. It's why we need everyone to do their part to slow the spread."

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on Monday called for the federal government to release racial and ethnic data relating to the pandemic. The group says it wants to "ensure that communities of color receive equitable health care and treatment during this crisis."

Trump seeks $250 billion more from Congress for payrolls

As Congress races to craft the next coronavirus rescue package, Trump requested Tuesday to pump $250 billion more into a just-launched payroll program for small businesses.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said more money is needed for the popular new $350 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which took off with a start last Friday but was quickly overrun as companies jumped at the chance to tap up to $10 million in forgivable loans to keep paychecks flowing amid the stay-home shutdown. He requested the funds in private calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Democrats largely support it as a component of a broader new aid package, but McConnell wants to swiftly jam it through Congress this week, even though the House and Senate all but shuttered.

The House was already preparing to boost the small business program as part of a broader $1 trillion package Pelosi wants as a follow-up to the sweeping $2.2 trillion rescue that became law in late March.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
PETAH TIKVA (dpa-AFX) - Teva Canada, part of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA), launched the Caregiver-Friendly Pharmacy program. The program includes accredited training for pharmacy teams and online resources for caregivers that are further supported with a mapping tool that helps carers find a pharmacy in their local area that specializes in their needs at the Website. Huddol announced the creation of a Caregiver Community Fund with support from Teva Canada. Huddol Pro's will provide free personal 1-to-1 video support sessions, through the fund. Caregivers will have free virtual access to 40 health and wellness professionals for 30 days through Huddol.com using the promo code 'TevaCares'. After the initial free period, the services will continue to be offered at discounted fees. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to announce a state of emergency on Tuesday for the capital Tokyo and six other prefectures to stem a worrying rise in coronavirus infections in major population centres.

The government is also planning to finalise a massive stimulus package worth 108 trillion yen ($990 billion) - equal to 20% of Japan's economic output - to cushion the heavy impact of the pandemic on the world's third-largest economy.

Abe will hold a news conference at 7 p.m. (1000 GMT), after seeking formal advice on declaring the emergency from a panel of experts.

"Japan and countries overseas and facing their biggest crisis in recent years because of the coronavirus outbreak," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Tuesday.

Japan has so far been spared the massive outbreaks seen in other global hotspots, but a recent, steady rise in infections in Tokyo, Osaka and other areas led to growing calls for Abe to announce a state of emergency.

Tokyo has seen coronavirus infections more than double to 1,116 in the past week, accounting for the highest number of patients in the country. Nationwide, cases have climbed past 4,000 with 93 deaths as of Monday.

Abe said on Monday he was preparing to announce the state of emergency, which would stop short of imposing a formal lockdown.

"Japan won't, and doesn't need, to take lockdown steps like those overseas," Abe told reporters on Monday.

"The state of emergency will allow us to strengthen current steps to prevent an increase in infections while ensuring that economic activity is sustained as much as possible."

Abe said the emergency would last around a month and give governors the authority to call on people to stay at home and businesses to close. With no penalties for ignoring the requests in most cases, enforcement will rely more on peer pressure and respect for authority.

"We are currently in deliberations with the central government to decide specifically which types of facilities we will be asking to close or shorten business hours," Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said on Monday, while reiterating there would be no restrictions on buying groceries and medicine.

The government's stimulus package will include more than 6 trillion yen for cash payouts to households and small businesses and 26 trillion yen to allow deferred social security and tax payments.

Abe said on Tuesday direct fiscal spending in the package would amount to 39 trillion yen, more than double the amount Japan spent following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

Abe is set to hold a cabinet meeting later on Tuesday to approve the stimulus plan.

Many analysts believe Japan has already slid into recession as supply chain disruptions, travel bans and social distancing policies at home and abroad put more pressure on the slowing economy.

Analysts expect the economy, which shrank in the final quarter of last year, to post two more quarters of contraction.

Also Read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: Country's active COVID-19 cases at 3,851; death toll rise to 111

Also Read: Coronavirus in India: Telangana CM KCR urges PM Modi to extend lockdown by two weeks
To help users more easily find food and medical services during the coronavirus pandemic, Apple updated its Maps app, reprioritizing the searchable categories by placing grocery stores, restaurants that are providing delivery, and medical services at the top. The changes -- which were spotted by iPhone Ticker -- should make the app a little more useful as more and more people stay home. However, Google Maps has made more extensive adjustments that may make it a better choice for navigating these strange times.

Google Maps has been especially useful over the past month or so because it alerts users when a selected business is closed or has adjusted its hours due to COVID-19 concerns. Also, if a user searches for medical services, Google Maps tells them to call their doctor before visiting a location. This feature hopefully cuts down on people who needlessly go out in public and spread or contract the virus when seeking medical attention. While its certainly a good move for Apple to help users get the food or medical attention they need, these updates also emphasize the fact that the company is playing second fiddle to Googles app. Time will tell if the rebuilt Apple Maps will help the company gain more users.
ZURICH (Reuters) - It is too early to consider easing measures that restrict the spread of the new coronavirus, Switzerland's health minister said on Monday, even as neighbouring Austria sketched out plans to start loosening a national lockdown.

The Swiss death toll rose on Monday to 584 from 559 people on Sunday, while the number of positive tests increased to 21,652 from 21,100 on Sunday, a less steep rise than of late.

"Of course we look at the others but we decide for ourselves," Health Minister Alain Berset told a news briefing after visiting health care officials in the southwestern canton of Valais.

He said Switzerland would use epidemiological data to decide when it might start easing up on measures -- including closing schools, bars and restaurants and banning gatherings of more than five people -- set to run until April 19.

Hospital stays and infections were still rising in Switzerland, which had not yet seen peak cases of respiratory disease COVID-19 caused by the new virus, Berset said.

"You cannot forget that even when we are at the peak it does not mean it is over. The peak is only the moment you hope it goes down. When it is really going down then you can imagine measures to loosen up," he said, urging people to stay home.

"Easter and the whole month of April will be somewhat different this year."

The cabinet is set to meet twice before April 19 so has time to gauge the situation before adopting any measures as in Austria, which has fewer COVID-19 infections, Berset said.

Austria's government plans to start reopening shops from next week, saying the country was turning a corner though it widened a requirement to wear face masks.

(Reporting by John Revill and Michael Shields)
A local Bay Area sailing crew has returned home after spending three months at sea, reports KGO.

Captain Jay Grant told KGO that even when they were a mile out from the Golden Gate Bridge, they didnt know if the Coast Guard would allow them passage into the bay.

Grant and his crew were aboard the Seaward, an 84-foot schooner, owned by Call of The Sea, a local Bay Area non-profit organization that plans educational sea trips for children.

It was not until around 9:30 p.m. on Monday that the Coast Guard finally gave the five-person crew the all-clear to sail by.

Although the Seaward was at sea for two weeks, Grant reported that all his crew members are healthy. The Coast Guard told KGO that "because the Seaward is operating in a recreational capacity and no one aboard is reported to be experiencing flu-like symptoms, there are no federal regulations in place that would prohibit them from docking."

The crew returned from a trip to Mexico, where for the past three months they've been doing private sailing trips to raise funds for their organization.

"We started getting a lot of reports of other countries and how serious it just became day after day more and more serious, down in Mexico it wasn't perceived that way for quite a long time until really the end of our trip, Grant said.

Fernando Martinez is an editorial assistant. Contact him at fernando.martinez@sfgate.com
DUBLIN, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Neurostimulation Devices Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global neurostimulation devices market reached a value of US$ 5.5 Billion in 2019. Looking forward, the market is expected to reach a value of US$ 9.6 Billion by 2025, registering a CAGR of 9.5% during 2020-2025.

The rising instances of neurological and lifestyle-related disorders, along with the rapidly growing geriatric population across the globe, are among the key factors driving the growth of the market.

Furthermore, the increasing preference for minimally invasive (MI) procedures among patients is also providing a boost to the market growth. For instance, deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an MI procedure that uses neurostimulation devices to deliver electrical signals to a specific spot in the brain circuits. This aids in treating various degenerative disorders, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.

Additionally, technological advancements, including the development of devices that can electronically stimulate the nervous system to restore vision and regain post-paralysis motor movements, are creating a positive outlook for the market. Other factors, including significant growth in the medical industry, increasing healthcare expenditure and extensive research and development (R&D) activities, are projected to drive the market in the upcoming years.

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined with some of the key players being Biocontrol Medical, Boston Scientific Corporation, Cyberonics Inc., Medtronic Inc., Neuronetics Inc., Neuropace Inc., Neurosigma Inc., Nevro Corporation, ST. Jude Medical Inc., Synapse Biomedical Inc., etc.

Key Questions Answered



How has the global neurostimulation devices market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the stimulation type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the device type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the application?

What is the breakup of the market based on the end-user?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the market?

What is the structure of the global neurostimulation devices market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the market?

Key Topics Covered



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Neurostimulation Devices Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Stimulation Type

6.1 Internal Stimulation

6.2 External Stimulation



7 Market Breakup by Device Type

7.1 SCS (Spinal Cord Stimulation) Devices

7.2 DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation) Devices

7.3 SNS (Sacral Nerve Stimulation) Devices

7.4 VNS (Vagus Nerve Stimulation) Devices

7.5 GES (Gastric Electrical Stimulation) Devices

7.6 Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation Devices

7.7 Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Devices

7.8 Others



8 Market Breakup by Application

8.1 Pain Management

8.2 Epilepsy

8.3 Essential Tremors

8.4 Urinary and Fecal Incontinence

8.5 Depression

8.6 Dystonia

8.7 Parkinson's Disease

8.8 Others



9 Market Breakup by End-User

9.1 Rehabilitation Centers

9.2 Hospitals

9.3 Medical Clinics

9.4 Others



10 Market Breakup by Region

10.1 North America

10.2 Europe

10.3 Asia Pacific

10.4 Latin America

10.5 Middle East and Africa



11 SWOT Analysis

11.1 Overview

11.2 Strengths

11.3 Weaknesses

11.4 Opportunities

11.5 Threats



12 Value Chain Analysis

12.1 Overview

12.2 Inbound Logistics

12.3 Operations

12.4 Outbound Logistics

12.5 Marketing and Sales

12.6 Post Sales Services



13 Porters Five Forces Analysis

13.1 Overview

13.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers

13.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

13.4 Degree of Competition

13.5 Threat of New Entrants

13.6 Threat of Substitutes



14 Price Indicators



15 Competitive Landscape

15.1 Market Structure

15.2 Key Players

15.3 Profiles of Key Players

15.3.1 Biocontrol Medical

15.3.1.1 Company Overview

15.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.2 Boston Scientific Corporation

15.3.3 Cyberonics Inc.

15.3.4 Medtronic Inc.

15.3.5 Neuronetics Inc.

15.3.6 Neuropace Inc.

15.3.7 Neurosigma Inc.

15.3.8 Nevro Corporation

15.3.9 St. Jude Medical Inc.

15.3.10 Synapse Biomedical Inc.



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/syiv2a

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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SOURCE Research and Markets

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The Queen has released a message of gratitude dedicated to healthcare workers to mark World Health Day.

World Health Day is a global awareness day commemorated on 7 April.

To mark the occasion, the theme of which this year is support nurses and midwives, Queen Elizabeth II has released a message of thanks, in the form of a video on the royal familys social media channels and a published letter.

In the letter, the monarch states that she wants to thank all those working in the healthcare profession for your selfless commitment and diligence as you undertake vitally important roles to protect and improve the health and wellbeing of people across the Commonwealth, and around the world.

In testing times, we often observe that the best of the human spirit comes to the fore; the dedication to service of countless nurses, midwives and other health workers, in these most challenging of circumstances, is an example to us all, the 93-year-old states.

The Queen ends her letter by stating: My family and I send our enduring appreciation and good wishes.

The release of the Queens message for healthcare workers comes a couple of days after she delivered a rare address regarding the coronavirus pandemic.

Her eldest son, Prince Charles, recently came out of self-isolation after recovering from Covid-19.

Coronavirus: London on lockdown Show all 29 1 /29 Coronavirus: London on lockdown Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man walks down a deserted Camden High Street Photos Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Goodge Street Station is one of the many stations closed to help reduce the spread Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown An empty street in the heart of Chinatown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown People in masks in Chinatown a day after the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A near-empty Piccadilly Circus during the first week of lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Sonja, my neighbour, who I photographed while taking a short walk. It was nice to briefly chat even from a distance Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple sit on the empty steps of the statue Eros in Piccadilly Circus Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Making sure I stay two-meters apart  DArblay Street, Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A mannequin behind a shop window. UK stores have closed until further notice Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A notice displayed on a shop window in Camden Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown As part of the lockdown, all non-essential shops have been ordered to close.Image from Camden High Street Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A skateboarder wearing a mask utilises his exercise allowance in the Camden area Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Communities have been coming together in a time of need Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman stands alone in a deserted Oxford Street. Up until a few weeks ago, on average, half a million people visited the street per day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple walk hand in hand down a street in Soho, a day before the stricter lockdown was announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown During the first week of March, shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities ahead of a countrywide lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Many supermarkers are operating a queuing system to make sure only a limited amount of customers are allowed in at anyone time Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Stay Safe  Curzon cinemas are temporarily closed under the new measures Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Pubs, restaurants and bars were ordered to shut as part of the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street There are fears that coronavirus could lead to permanent closure of struggling shops Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden Town is eerily silent on a normal working day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Shops and supermarkets ran out of hand sanitisers in the first week of the lockdown. As we approach the end of the second week most shops now have started to stock up Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty streets around Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A noticeboard on Camden High Street urges the public to stay at home Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street, one of Londons busiest tourist streets turns quiet Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Thriller Live confirmed its West End run ended in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty and eerie Soho streets after stricter rules on social distancing announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman pauses for a cigarette on Hanway Street, behind Tottenham Court Road Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man steps outside onto Hanway Street, that sits behind what is usually a bustling retail hub Angela Christofilou

Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, also came out of self-isolation after testing negative for the virus.

During the Queens special televised address, which aired on Sunday evening, she thanked NHS workers on the frontline, care workers and individuals carrying out essential roles, who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all.

I am sure the nation will join me in assuring you that what you do is appreciated and every hour of your hard work brings us closer to a return to more normal times, she said.

I also want to thank those of you who are staying at home, thereby helping to protect the vulnerable and sparing many families the pain already felt by those who have lost loved ones.

The Queen ended her address with a message of hope, stating: We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.

But for now, I send my thanks and warmest good wishes to you all.
Technicians are testing machines used to manufacture face masks at GMs Michigan facility. Photo: John F. Martin for General Motors

Vietnams biggest listed firm Vingroup, which runs the VinFast auto brand, said on Friday it will produce ventilators for the countrys fight against the coronavirus outbreak. The group has entered into an agreement with Medtronic for its ventilator production, the company said in a statement, adding that it can produce up to 55,000 units a month.

Lamborghini was one of the latest carmakers to convert departments, with its production plant in Italys SantAgata Bolognese set up to produce surgical masks and protective medical shields.

Under the announcement, 1,000 masks a day will be made in the upholstery department, which commonly produces the interiors and customisations for Lamborghini cars. At the same time, 200 protective medical shields in polycarbonate a day will be made inside the composites production plant and at the research and development department with the use of 3D printers, according to its website.

Last week, General Motors (GM) also reported that it was trying its best to begin manufacturing surgical masks at a production facility in Michigan as well as producing critical care ventilators at a components plant in Indiana that is expected to churn out more than 10,000 units per month once it reaches full production. Other automakers have also begun work on ventilators, masks, and other medical equipment, including Ford, Toyota, Saic, GAC, and Tesla.

In the US, Ford is expected to expand production of ventilators through entering into partnership with GE Healthcare as well as increase production of 3M respirators by six-fold in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, Japans Toyota said it is dealing with at least two partners to increase production of ventilators and respirators. It expects to begin mass-producing 3D-printed face shields, and is seeking partners to make filters for face masks.

The positive movements come as the demand for masks and ventilators increases sharply with the coronavirus pandemic sweeping across the globe. Many carmakers have temporarily suspended production due to the spread of COVID-19.

The British government also called on carmakers such as Vauxhall, Airbus, and Rolls-Royce to switch assembly lines over to produce mechanical ventilators.

The World Health Organization has called on industry and governments to increase manufacturing of such products by 40 per cent to meet rising global demand. It has warned that severe and mounting disruption to the global supply of personal protective equipment  caused by the rising demand, panic buying, hoarding, and misuse  is putting lives at risk of the new coronavirus and other infectious diseases.

It reported that since the start of the outbreak, the price of such items has surged. Surgical masks have seen a six-fold increase, N95 respirators have trebled, and gowns have doubled.
I really hope Biden gets corona and dies.

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This is all I want 

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If it takes Biden, it damn well better take Trump too.

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This has taught me men should never be allowed in positions on power, theyre just consistently awful.

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Trump and Pence too let's make it a three-way KO

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It looks like its taking Boris first.

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then they'll nominate cuomo.



warren should come back from the dead.

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how does this work wrt the primary? does sanders automatically get it because he's the only one left?

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lol wow... people need to chill

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she's right and she should say it

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nobody wins when the family feuds



LOL



Rose is right tho

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Yaaasss, go in.

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Republicans in Wisconsin have literally made it apparent they prefer we get sick and die to vote in a safe manner.



Fuck every system - democratic and republican that wants to call these people decent and will the error of their ways when Trump is out of office. Fuck everyone who says shit like "results not revolution "



We need a revolution to show these people we fucking matter. My mother - a poll worker and cancer survivor - matters. And deserves to be treated like a person.

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What Republicans are doing in Wisconsin is criminal. Also, not smart on their part, because there's a judge race going on and old people are more likely to vote for the Republican candidate than the Democratic one.

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Yeah but they don't care if those old people make it after this election. And a bunch of them that have been watching Fox News think this is a joke.



This virus could kill them - and their party and the people they vote for dont care. They see them as a vote and nothing else. They know they cant hold onto power forever, but they'll kill you for a few more years

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Bidens team pushed for ST elections even though the spread of COVID had started because the party had closed ranks behind Biden and wanted to kill Bernies momentum so they can also fuck off.

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Lol Alyssa never replies her and will continue to ignore Rose's equally hypocritical and not to mention deranged ass.

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I have the same thoughts. Rose is just as hypocritical as Alyssa.

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Yeah, they both are. Being a huge Charmed fan in the past, I'm both extremely hurt and extremely embarrassed with these 2 and how they manage to take on these issues.



It's like Holly is the only one tolerable, but then again, she also ditched Shannen during her times of need *allegedly*, so that's another conclusion right there.



Ugh. Why can't they just not be messy?

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WkuAF2B5o8M "But where's the piece evaluating Joe Biden's credibility? Where's the piece asking if he should be believed given his documented record of plagiarism and lying, not to mention handsy innapropriate public behavior toward women? Should we discuss Anita Hill, maybe? Real feminism means applying the same level of scrutiny to the powerful men as to the women." - Krystal Ball

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Did Krystal believe Anita Hill when she was begging Biden for jobs a few years ago?

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I really can't stand WOACB tbh

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her name is actually krystal ball?

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Didn't Rose say she was going to be a Republican now or something?

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Oh God I forgot...

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she tweeted



Im a registered Republican in California. I loathe the Clintons. I hate Trump. I will not vote Republican, but I cannot vote Democrat. Id rather know what evil Im getting, so Ill go Republican. This is about WWIII, so none of that shit matters anyway.



and then later that same day she tweeted



I will never vote Republican. I want the Democrats to win because we are less likely to die. I am a conscientious objector to the USA, its policies, lies, corruption, nationalism, racism, and deep misogyny. It is our right and duty as citizens to dissent.



then she went on a podcast and said her brother paid her to pretend to be a republican

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Love this so much.  Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) April 6, 2020 Alyssa has more important tweets to reply to

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God, I hate her so much.

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we need to bully karens

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lmao

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cuomo who refuses to free black and brown prisoners from rikers, who is planning to cut medicaid. they are so deranged that they fawn over him just because he can speak coherently.



all performance, no actual work

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omg lol

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i will never understand thirsting for geriatric politicians folk need to go church lord have mercy

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she's got to be fucking kidding



pisses me off SO MUCH

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God I hate Randy Rainbow

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LMAO

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She really needs to stop with that user pic.

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I literally dont understand why Cuomo is getting so much attention for things that other governors did before him, and better.

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i hate it

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Rose is absolutely right.



I never felt good about registering as a Democrat, but I'm changing back to Independent after the primary.



The DNC is depraved, Joe Biden can burn in hell. The Democrats don't care if we all die, I don't care the the Democratic Party dies in 2020.

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republican kween



nnn @ the messy white gays tagging Holly and Holly replying 



Edited at 2020-04-07 01:10 am (UTC)

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I will never forgive Democrats for nominating this guy. People who purport to support feminism but smear Biden's accuser are despicable.

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I just don't get why Biden had to enter in the first place. didn't Obama tell him he didnt need to do this? I would've been fine with either sanders or warren

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obama personally made calls on his behalf to klobuchar and buttigieg to get them to coalesce around him to keep bernie from running away with the nomination

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people wanted him (warren too) to run in 2016 and he didn't because iirc that was around the time beau was getting worse and passed away. i guess he feels like now he needs to make up for not running then.

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It's ego. He has the Hillary "It's my turn now" syndrome.



This is the third time he's run for POTUS (didn't get one delegate the first two times). He wasn't doing shit until DNC basically forced everyone else out and endorsed him.



Even though I'll vote for him if I have to, but I'm still afraid he is going to lose big to Drumpf. I'm waiting to see who he names as his VP pick. VP is who may win it not Biden.



I'm coming to believe that the hardcore Dem neo-lib/centrists would rather have Trump and blame it on Sanders forever even though it's their own damn fault for losing in 16 and this year. They're more afraid of Sanders breaking everything up FDR style...at least Trump is still elite status quo.

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A former TD says work needs to be done to examine why gender quotas in politics are not working.

Political parties lose funding if fewer than 30% of their general election candidates are women.

However, that has not seen any significant rise in the number of women getting elected.

Former Fine Gael TD Kate O'Connell says despite work in the last number of years, the new measures haven't worked.

"The problem is the net result is not more women," she said.

So we have to us, as a party, look at why the measures we have put in and why the investment and training we have put in has not yielded additional female parliamentarians.

Ms OConnell said she has seen some resistance from some members of the party when female candidates progress.

She added: There was a massive push-back from certain sectors. I am speaking about my own party because that is what I have knowledge of.

When there is progress from women there is push-back from some elements from the party  usually the Young Fine Gael wing.

Ms O'Connell was among a number of high-profile female TDs to lose her seat in February's election along with party colleague Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, Fianna Fail's Brexit spokesperson Lisa Chambers, Fiona OLoughlin and Margaret Murphy O'Mahony, and Ruth Coppinger of Solidarity-People Before Profit.

Elsewhere Labour's Joan Burton and Jan OSullivan also lost seats they had held for over two decades.

Among the first-time elected female TDs serving in the Dail are Sinn Fein's Mairead Farrell, Sorca Clarke, Patricia Ryan and Rose Conway-Walsh as well as Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Fine Gael) Holly Cairns (Social Democrats) and Fianna's Fail's Norma Foley in Kerry.

Ms Cairns was the only one female deputy was elected among the five Cork constituencies, while none were elected in Limerick and Tipperary.

Overall, there are 36 female TDs, one more than the previous Dail
Lucknow, April 7 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Tuesday that the number of Corona positive persons in the state was 308, which includes 168 Tablighi Jamaat returnees in the state.

The Chief Minister, who had chaired a meeting at his official residence earlier in the day to review measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic in the state, said: "We have decided that in every district hospital of divisional headquarters, we will establish corona testing labs and we have formed a committee to give this step a vital boost. We have 24 government medical colleges in the state, out of which 10 have testing labs and I have given orders to upgrade the rest of them so that testing can be done." Adityanath, on Sunday, had sought the cooperation of various religious leaders in the battle against coronavirus, saying the deadly disease does not distinguish between religions and hence it is necessary that everyone fights against it together.

In the video conference with the leaders, he had mentioned the Tablighi Jamaat event, which has emerged as the biggest hotspot of the virus in the country. He urged the leaders to play an important role in spreading the correct information about Covid-19.

Adityanath said timely steps taken by the Central government had "stagnated" the spread of the virus in the second stage but "things suddenly changed" due to the Jamaat incident.
Fiance scam  A Castle Rock woman reported to 911 dispatchers Saturday that her fiance was being held for ransom somewhere in Oregon after being kidnapped at the Portland Airport. She said she sent $16,000 in gift cards to his alleged captors over the last six weeks, but they had still not released him. The woman said she had never met the fiance in person but had talked to him over the phone and internet. Cowlitz County sheriffs deputies, Portland authorities and the womans family told her she was being scammed and advised her to not send any more money, according to 911 dispatch logs.
With lockdown conditions imposed on the UK, the majority of the nations daily routines have come to halt.

But, while people have been advised to keep activities such as food shopping to a bare minimum, supermarkets remain one of the few places still open during the coronavirus outbreak.

As notoriously busy places that are filled with products touched by a number of people, consumers have become increasingly concerned about the risk of exposure to the virus while doing their shopping, with many taking precautions such as wearing gloves and face masks.

Meanwhile, others have become concerned with coming into contact with other shoppers and their possessions, including reusable shopping bags.

So much so, that some places around the globe, including San Francisco, have chosen to ban reusable bags altogether in an attempt to protect both customers and supermarket employees from spreading the virus.

But, just how much of a risk do reusable shopping bags pose and what precautions can you take? Here is everything you need to know.

Can coronavirus live on a reusable bag?

Like the majority of cold and flu bugs, health experts state that the virus is spread through droplets transmitted into the air from coughing and sneezing, which people nearby can take in through their nose, mouth or eyes.

However, if the droplets land on surfaces and are picked up on the hands of others, it can spread further.

While it remains relatively unknown as to how long the coronavirus can persist on reusable bags, one study has suggested that it could stay viable for up to three days on plastic

A study conducted by the National Institutes of Health study showed that the virus could survive in droplets for up to three hours after being coughed out into the air.

However, the study added that the virus could survive for longer on cardboard  up to 24 hours  and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless-steel surfaces.

Vincent Munster, who was part of the NIH study, said that it was unclear how long the Covid-19 virus can live on clothing and surfaces that are harder to clean.

We speculate due to the porous material, it desiccates rapidly and might be stuck to the fibres, he told the BBC, emphasising the important of cleaning and thorough hand washing.

According to Timothy Newsome, a University of Sydney science professor, the risk of coronavirus spreading via reusable bags is relatively low.

Anything that leaves the house and then is brought back into the house could pose a low risk, he said.

But the vast majority of transmission happens from person to person so we're much more worried about people than plastic.

Have reusable shopping bags been banned from supermarkets?

Across the United States, a number of states have chosen to temporarily ban reusable bags in minimise the risk of transmitting Covid-19.

On 31 March, New Hampshire became the first state in the US to temporarily ban reusable bags during the pandemic, closely followed by San Francisco which introduced new ordinance to reinforce existing social distancing protocols by restricting customers from bringing their own bags, mugs, or other reusable items to essential stores.

Our grocery store workers are on the front lines of #COVID19, working around the clock to keep NH families fed, said Chris Sununu, governor of the State of New Hampshire.

With identified community transmission, it is important that shoppers keep their reusable bags at home given the potential risk to baggers, grocers and customers.

What is the UKs advice on reusable shopping bags?

In October 2015, the UK government introduced new laws which required large shops to charge 5p for all single-use plastic carrier bags.

The measures were brought in to help reduce the use of single-use plastic carrier bags, and the litter they can cause.

While there is currently no evidence so far to suggest that using reusable grocery bags have been responsible for spreading the novel coronavirus, the government has suspended charges for bags used in online grocery deliveries in England.

It is hoped that the change will help speed up deliveries and also reduce the risk of contamination.

The government states that this does not apply to single-use bags provided in store or for other types of online delivery, and that it is a temporary measure due to the Covid-19 outbreak. It expects the measure to end on 21 September 2020.

Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, told The Independent that while retailers are constantly reviewing all of their services in line with the latest government guidance, customers should continue to use reusable bags.

There is little evidence to suggest risk associated with virus being spread via goods, so it is safe to use these items. Mr Opie said.

We continue urge all customers to follow Public Health Englands advice: wash hands frequently with hot water and soap for 20 seconds or use alcohol hand gel, and be aware of safe coughing etiquette.

What can you do to reduce the risk?

Instead of ditching reusable bags altogether, Professor Newsome suggests that a better way to reduce the spread would be to limit shopping trips to an absolute minimum.

If you can go shopping once instead of twice, or even offer to shop for a neighbour at the same time, that would be helpful, he added.

Should you clean your reusable bags?

Dr Donald Schaffner, is a microbiologist and expert on food safety from Rutgers University, agrees, adding that anyone who is concerned could also consider storing their grocery bags in their car and washing them on a regular basis.

Many people use reusable bags as a responsible choice. We do this in my family as well, he said.

If you're concerned that your bags might have coronavirus on them, you can wash them. You should also wash your hands after you have finished putting all your groceries away. This was also good advice even before pandemic.

Antibacterial wipes and disinfectant sprays can be used to clean most reusable bags before storing them away, while sturdier versions can also be washed using warm, soapy water.

Most reusable cotton and canvas shopping bags are machine-washable, but people are advised to check the care label beforehand.

What precautions should you take at the supermarket?

Visiting supermarkets does pose some risk as you are mixing with other members of the public.

This is why it is important to adhere to the governments guidelines on social distancing by ensuring that you keep at least two metres from others. This advice applies to both inside the store and in the external public area where you may need to queue.

Supermarkets across the UK have already implemented a series of measures to ensure customers stay safe while shopping including regulating the number of people that can enter at any time, using floor markings at till points, making regular announcements and placing plexiglass barriers at tills.

Customers are advised to wash their hands before and after visiting the supermarket, to avoid touching their faces after handling shopping trollies, baskets, packages and produce, and to use contactless payment methods where possible.

Many people also choose to wear gloves while they shop, however it is important to note that doing so does not stop you from touching trolley handles and then touching your face, which could transmit the virus.
The other possibility is that Modly saw he had misinterpreted Trumps feelings and decided that prostrating himself before the dismissed captain was his best hope. He knows from the experience of other administration subordinates that to differ with the president, even unintentionally, is usually fatal. So he may have decided  like so many other Trump aides  that humiliation was preferable to banishment.
Key Highlights

Pharma companies to increase production capacity by 5-6 times to 70 MT per month

This capacity can make 35 crore tablets every month

India to maintain 10 crore tablets stock for own requirement

Rest to be exported to neighbouring countries and others such as US

Zydus Cadila and Ipca Labs have backward integrated HCQ making capability

Other manufacturers include Intas Pharmaceuticals, McW Healthcare of Indore, Macleods Pharmaceuticals, Cipla and Lupin

API suppliers for the drug include Abbott India, Rusan Pharma, Mangalam Drugs, Unichem Remedies, Laurus Labs, Vijayasri Organics

Also Read: Coronavirus India live updates: 308 people dead in the country as active COVID-19 cases near 8,000-mark

Indian pharmaceutical companies are raising monthly production of anti-malarial drug Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) four times to 40 metric tonnes (MT) by the end of this month and five to six times to over 70 metric tonnes (MT) by next month. The plan to step up production came after the Government of India indicated it will help countries in dire need of the drug to fight novel coronavirus.

Peak capacity would produce 35 crore (350 million) tablets of 200 mg dosage every month. India's own requirement is unlikely to exceed 10 crore tablets for which the government has already placed an order with leading domestic manufacturers Zydus Cadila and Ipca Laboratories. Industry experts say 10 crore tablets are good enough to treat seven crore people, if required. In India, HCQ costs less than Rs 3 per tablet.

The remaining production will be exported to neighbouring countries as well as countries such as the US which need them. According to some studies, HCQ has shown strong antiviral effects on the coronavirus infection, which prompted US President Donald Trump to seek India's help in procuring the drug.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus: India to supply hydroxychloroquine after US threatens retaliation

Other leading manufacturers of HCQ include Intas Pharmaceuticals, McW Healthcare of Indore, Macleods Pharmaceuticals, Cipla and Lupin. API suppliers for the drug include Abbott India, Rusan Pharma, Mangalam Drugs, Unichem Remedies, Laurus Labs, Vijayasri Organics, etc.

"Together, we estimate active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production can be augmented to 40 metric tonnes (MT) this month and to 70 MT per month in two months," said a top executive with a leading HCQ drug manufacturer.

Sources said the manufacturers are cautious, as studies done so far to judge the efficacy of HCQ in treating coronavirus included smaller populations only. Large trials start only this week. Reports said one study had also failed to prove its efficacy, though it is a safe and proven molecule.

Ironically, HCQ is no more a primary anti-malarial drug. It is mostly used globally to treat some immunological diseases like Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Indian drug formulators export 80-85 per cent of the production to almost all parts of the world, as global pharma majors more or less stopped large scale production of this low cost molecule due to lack of demand.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus: Shashi Tharoor slams US President Donald Trump over retaliation remark

Two major Indian manufacturers - Zydus Cadila and Ipca Laboratories - have backward integrated production capacity - from key raw materials that can be converted to intermediates and then to APIs and to final formulations, in the 12-15 step process to make the medicine.

Most of the other Hydroxychloroquine API manufacturers import some key raw materials and intermediates from China or source them from countries like South Korea, Italy or Finland.

API manufacturers keep an inventory of raw materials for six months. With most of China returning to normalcy, sourcing raw material will not be an issue, industry sources said. An Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA) spokesperson even told India Today that shipments of intermediate chemicals for making HCQ have commenced from China.

"We have ramped up production to 20 metric tonnes to meet the requirements and will be scaling it up further to about 40 to 50 metric tonnes in the coming months, if the need arises. As we are fully integrated, this should not pose a challenge. The priority is to ensure that all patients who need the drug get it," Zydus Cadila Managing Director Dr Sharvil P Patel said in a statement.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus impact: India withdraws export ban on 12 essential medicines

The current increase in production, is also apparently a 10-fold increase already from about 4 MT. This current enhanced capacity alone is apparently good enough to make about 150-200 million tablets. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has temporarily cleared the over three-year ban on Ipca's API manufacturing unit at Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh and two formulation facilities in Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh and Silvassa. Ipca, which earned 18 per cent of its revenues in 2018-19 from sale of anti-malarials, had sales of API and intermediates worth Rs 885 crore. About 77 per cent of this was exports, except to the US due to the ban.

Chloroquine was discovered in 1934 by Hans Andersag and his team at Bayer's laboratories, but was not used for over a decade as researchers feared that it was too toxic for human use. In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that there were 219 million cases of malaria worldwide, causing 435 thousand deaths, or 1,190 per day, mostly young children.

Sources said India's exports of HCQ in 2018-19 was only $51 million and the whole current size of the US market is only $220 million, generating about 5.5 million annual prescriptions. Zydus Cadila is the largest player in the US market with 32 per cent market share by volume and the top ten players include Dr Reddy's Lab (10 per cent) and Sun Pharma (7 per cent).

ALSO READ: Coronavirus: Trump calls Modi for hydroxychloroquine, but Indian makers at China's mercy
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 15:13:12|Editor: xuxin

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CANBERRA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Two thirds of Australian businesses have lost money as a result of COVID-19.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Tuesday released the results of its second survey on the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

It found that 66 percent of businesses said their turnover or cash flow has been reduced by the virus, which has forced widespread business closures across Australia.

Almost 40 percent of businesses have changed how they deliver their products or services, including restaurants shifting to exclusively takeaway, in order to abide by strict physical distancing rules implemented by federal, state and territory governments.

About 47 percent of businesses said they have made changes to their workforce because of COVID-19, including changing the location where staff worked, staff being placed on leave, or temporarily changing working hours.

Australian Parliament will re-convene on Wednesday to vote on legislation for the government's 130 billion Australian dollar (79.5 billion U.S. dollars) wage subsidy package.

Under the scheme, full-time, part-time and casual employees who have had their work status affected by the virus will be eligible for a fortnightly payment of 1,500 Australian dollar (917.6 U.S. dollars).

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on Tuesday announced that Australians who are working from home will be able to claim 80 cents for every hour worked from home as a tax deduction.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, has evolved and divided into two different groups, according to the latest study of the Vietnam National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

Thevirus has beensuccessfully cultivated and isolated in the institute's laboratory. Photo courtesy ofNational Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology

Professor Le Thi Quynh Mai, deputy director of the institute said the scientists had conducted the study after it cultivated and isolated the virus since Viet Nam recorded the first people positive with the virus.

Mai said at first, patients mostly returned from Asian countries but now the patients mostly had been in European countries.

The virus Viet Nam isolated in COVID-19 patients coming from Europe was found to be different from the virus in COVID-19 cases found in Asia, she said.

The institute's discovery followed the general trend of the world, she said.

Mai said that so far the study had yet to show which of the two was more infectious or stronger as the spread of the virus also depended on the environment, geography and person infected, but detecting the changes of the virus would aid vaccine production.

Previously, Mai and her colleagues isolated the virus in early February, making Viet Nam one of the first four countries around the globe that isolated the new strain of coronavirus.  VNS

Coronavirus: Where will be the last place to catch Covid-19? Some places are yet to record a case - but what will they do if and when it arrives?
At Sundays White House briefing, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, suggested that hundreds of thousands  or even millions  of silent carriers may be unwittingly spreading the coronavirus across the United States because they dont realize theyre infected.

The idea that at least some coronavirus carriers dont feel sick isnt new. But the scale of Faucis estimate was.

Its somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of the total, Fauci said. But right now, he went on, were just guessing.

Fifty percent is a staggering  and scary  number. To put it in perspective, an asymptomatic rate that high would theoretically double the confirmed U.S. case count to more than 700,000 infections (even though the actual number of infections is likely much larger, given all the issues with testing).

But is Faucis new estimate supported by science? And if so, what does it mean for the United States efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus and ultimately bring it under control?

The news might not be as bad as it looks.

The first thing to note is that Fauci himself expressed a high degree of uncertainty about his own numbers. I dont have any scientific data to say that, he admitted Sunday. You know when well get the scientific data? When we get those antibody tests out there and we really know what the penetrance is. Then we can answer the questions in a scientifically sound way.

Fauci was right to be cautious. As he noted, its impossible to say how many carriers never showed symptoms until youve tested a bunch of people who never showed symptoms  something that will only happen after the worst of the pandemic is over and scientists start trying to determine, en masse, who does and doesnt have immunity. (More on that later.)

But Fauci has reason to suspect the asymptomatic rate could be as high as 50 percent. Researchers initially assumed the coronavirus would spread much like its notorious sibling, the virus that caused SARS  that is, only from people who were clearly sick with fever and cough. Even if theres a rare asymptomatic person that might transmit, an epidemic is not driven by asymptomatic carriers, Fauci himself said on Jan. 28.

Story continues

Yet as the deadly pathogen shut down one country after another, evidence began to surface that sick people werent the only ones spreading it. Some of the new data came from Wuhan, China, where the pandemic originated. Some of it came from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where more than 700 captive passengers and crew members tested positive. Some of it came from Iceland, where nearly 5 percent of the total population  sick or not  has been screened for the virus.

All of it pointed to the same conclusion: Silent carriers are real, and they are most likely infecting others.

Estimates of the asymptomatic rate have been ticking upward for months. Thats one reason why U.S. authorities recently reversed their earlier guidance and started advising all Americans to wear masks in public.

A bus carrying passengers from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship leaves a port in Yokohama, Japan, on Feb. 20, 2020. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP)

For instance, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention claimed in early February that only about 1.2 percent of the reported cases in mainland China were asymptomatic  relatively rare, as a WHO-China joint report put it, and not a major driver of transmission.

Yet in late March, the South China Morning Post reported that more than 43,000 people in China with no immediate symptoms, or about a third of the countrys total case count, had tested positive for the virus by the end of February. They had not been included in the governments official tally.

Immediate symptoms is an important distinction. There is a difference between being asymptomatic (meaning you never get sick) and presymptomatic (meaning you havent gotten sick yet). The latter looks like the former, until it doesnt.

Yet its possible to tell them apart. Once the Diamond Princess docked in Japan on Feb. 3, researchers tested all of the passengers and reviewed those who tested positive for the virus on multiple occasions over a two-week period. They found that 18 percent of the infected passengers remained symptom-free throughout. Researchers then estimated that within the general population  which is younger and healthier overall than the Diamond Princess passengers, and therefore less likely to develop symptoms  that might translate to a 40-percent asymptomatic rate.

The substantial asymptomatic proportion for COVID-19 is quite alarming, one of those epidemiologists, Dr. Gerardo Chowell of Georgia State University, told the New York Times.

An unidentified passenger is surrounded by the media after she disembarked from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship on Feb. 19, 2020, in Yokohama, Japan. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

Most recent estimates have been in this range. A report based on a group of two dozen people in China said 29 percent; another based on screenings of 565 Japanese citizens evacuated from Wuhan said 30 percent. Last week Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield told NPR that one of the [pieces of] information that we have pretty much confirmed now is that a significant number of individuals that are infected actually remain asymptomatic. That may be as many as 25 percent. New CDC data shows that among confirmed cases, the percentage of children who show symptoms is 20 points lower than the percentage of adults who show symptoms  suggesting that minors could be a major source of covert spread.

The highest rate so far came from a biopharma company called deCODE, which has tested 9,000 nonsymptomatic, nonquarantined residents of Iceland on behalf of the countrys chief epidemiologist. Although fewer than 1 percent of the tests came back positive, the companys founder told CNN that around 50 percent of those who tested positive said they didnt feel sick.

That may be the source of Faucis high-end estimate; on Sunday, he didnt cite any particular studies, and gesturing to the other experts onstage, he noted that even among us, good friends that we are, we differ.

Either way, asymptomatic transmission presents a significant near-term challenge. Several studies have also shown that people infected with the coronavirus are most contagious one to three days before they begin to show symptoms, and researchers in China recently discovered that one asymptomatic carrier had just as much virus in his system as his symptomatic peers  meaning that he was probably just as contagious.

Dr. Anthony Fauci at an unscheduled briefing after a Coronavirus Task Force meeting at the White House on Sunday. (Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images)

The result is that Americans who feel perfectly fine must now choose to believe theyre protecting others by wearing masks in public, and authorities in areas where almost no one has tested positive must now decide to get ahead of the curve by issuing shelter-in-place orders that may look at first like overkill. According to the New York Times, a new study by disease modelers at the University of Texas at Austin suggests that even counties with just a single reported case have more than 50 percent likelihood that a sustained, undetected outbreak  an epidemic  is already taking place. Once there are five cases in a county, that probability rises to 85 percent.

In the long term, however, a huge, hidden population of asymptomatic cases may actually prove to be helpful. For one thing, it would mean that the coronavirus isnt as deadly as initially feared, which could ease anxieties and inform public-health approaches going forward. It would also mean societies and economies could return to normal sooner than anticipated  assuming that universal antibody tests show that hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of people who never felt sick are now immune. The first such U.S. test was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on April 2.

Making sure we are testing asymptomatic individuals to understand more about this virus is critical, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday. Its all part of figuring out whether people have immunity  in order to get [them] back into the workforce, or at least back in society.

So as frightening as Faucis 50-percent estimate sounds today, Americans may ultimately be grateful if his guess turns out to be correct.

People wearing face masks on 33rd Street in New York City on Monday. (Kena Betancur/Getty Images)

_____

Click here for the latest coronavirus news and updates. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please refer to the CDCs and WHOs resource guides.

Read more:
HAMDEN  Residents could face a 2 percent tax rate increase based on the mayors proposed budget for next year.

Mayor Curt B. Leng presented his budget recommendations to the Legislative Council via a Zoom meeting Monday night, proposing a 0.98-mill tax rate increase to fully fund essential services during the coronavirus pandemic and the largest pension contribution to date.

An increase seems particularly harsh when so many people find themselves in uncertain times economically with less income and are scared, but its the only tool we have and given that we have to be careful of it, Leng said.

Leng said state funding is highly uncertain at this time, but all towns can anticipate shorted funding from the state. Towns will be receiving reimbursements for education, public safety, community services, and business and economic development related to the pandemic, but so far, Leng said they dont know what that means for Hamden.

Leng said he planned on attacking more of the towns long-term liabilities and even proposing a higher tax rate increase than he did Monday, but it wasnt the right thing to do given the impact the pandemic has had economically.

In this budget, were going to have to kick the can down the road, Leng said. I hate that statement, but in order to protect our citizens we have to do it. We have to do it to protect our residents from something they cant afford right now.

Nevertheless, next years $246,936,456 proposed budget asks residents to take on a 49.84-mill tax rate needed to meet Hamdens financial obligations.

Next fiscal year will be the first in which the town is obligated to contribute 100 percent of the pension payment, more than the town has ever contributed in its history.

The budgeted contribution for next year  $28,100,000  is almost $10 million more than what the town paid last fiscal year and about $6 million more than what the town is budgeted to pay into the fund by the end of the current fiscal year.

The difference in anticipated tax revenue between next fiscal year and the current one is slightly more than $10 million, according to Lengs budget presentation.

The administration has been criticized for not fully paying into the pension fund in prior years to help cover short-term budget gaps.

In the last audited fiscal year of 2018-19, the town used close to $3 million budgeted for the pension payment to help cover revenue shortages, making the final payment just over $19 million.

The other line Leng recommended funded at 100 percent of the departments request for the first time will be the Fire Department because of the towns pandemic response, Leng said.

His (Fire Chief Gary Merwede) departments role in this crisis demands that we provide him with every resource he needs to keep us safe, Leng said. Police also have been recommended at nearly the departments entire request, with only a couple of changes, he said.

We need to keep our residents safe and for them to know public safety will keep performing their jobs, Leng said.

Lengs budget restructures Hamdens government by combining some departments under one manager, including a new Department of Engineering and Inspections that will consolidate the engineering department, zoning enforcement officers, the building department and the Quinnipiac Valley Health District, allowing for what Leng called one stop shopping for residential and business permitting.

Leng said this is something the town has tried to do for 20 years and now its needed more than ever.

This budget has a theme of streamlining with the goal of not only being better with cost and expense, but with product, Leng said.

He also recommended consolidating community development, community services, mental health services and new grant management positions under a Community Services and Grants Department. The reason for this restructure accompanies Hamdens need to seek out grant funding to help lessen the tax burden, he said.

However, in addition to these changes, Leng has recommended cuts to Sunday library hours, reduction in bulk trash pickup and other Public Works services, and summer programming.

If were going to meet our essential expense needs and set ourselves up for long-term fiscal stability, we need to cut, Leng said.

The summer programs are partly a cost-saving measure, but primarily due to the uncertainty of how the novel coronavirus will develop in Connecticut, Leng said.

He said hes been on daily calls and communication with the towns emergency managment team, state officials and health experts, but from everything Ive learned, we sadly wont be able to have our summer get togethers on the Green.

To still plan for the long term, Leng proposed starting a CMERS trust and a medical insurance trust to start building up reserves that will grow interest over time, similar to pension fund and help to offset the tax burden in the future.

mdignan@hearstmediact.com
Boeing will redo its Starliner spacecraft test that failed to dock with the International Space Station in December, further delaying its timeline for launching people into microgravity.

Boeing is one of two commercial companies selected by NASA to develop spacecraft that will carry astronauts to the International Space Station. It had a key test in December where a Starliner was launched without people on board. It was supposed to dock with the International Space Station, but a software anomaly prevented it from docking and prompted Boeing and NASA to create a joint independent review team to analyze the unsuccessful mission. Until Monday, they had not announced if Boeing would redo this test or could advance to launching astronauts.

More from the review: Report finds greater scrutiny needed for Boeing spacecraft

In a statement, Boeing said its committed to the safety of the men and women who design, build and will fly on the Starliner spacecraft.

We have chosen to refly our Orbital Flight Test to demonstrate the quality of the Starliner system, the statement said. Flying another uncrewed flight will allow us to complete all flight test objectives and evaluate the performance of the second Starliner vehicle at no cost to the taxpayer.

The joint review team identified two major software errors.

The first software error caused the spacecrafts mission timer, which is supposed to start at the time of launch and end when the vehicle lands, to be off by nearly 11 hours. That prompted the spacecraft to think it was in a different phase of the mission, delaying a scheduled burn and causing its thrusters to expend too much fuel too early. It didnt leave enough fuel to reach the space station.

The second software error was detected while the spacecraft was in orbit. It could have caused an issue right before the spacecrafts return to earth during the separation of the crew module from the service module, which fuels and propels the spacecraft. The software error could have led the modules to bump together after separation, but it was caught and corrected before the Starliner returned to earth.

The spacecraft also had a communications-related hardware issue that impeded the ability to command and control the spacecraft.

Despite such issues, the Starliner had a safe landing on Dec. 22.

More on SpaceX: Houston-born astronaut Shannon Walker to ride on SpaceX Crew Dragon to space station

And as Boeing works to redo its uncrewed test, NASA is moving forward with the second commercial space company. SpaceX could launch astronauts in its final test as soon as May, marking the first time astronauts have launched from U.S. soil since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011. Astronauts have since relied on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to reach the space station.

Douglas Loverro, NASA's associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, praised Boeing's decision on Twitter.

"Hats off to Boeing for recommending a repeat of their Orbital Flight Test for the @Commercial_Crew program," his Tweet said. "Corporate responsibility takes many forms, and this is one of them."

andrea.leinfelder@chron.com

twitter.com/a_leinfelder
Geneva Wood knew her life was about to end. She could feel it with every strained breath.

She was well aware her 90-year-old lungs were filling with fluid. She was drowning from the inside out. The coronavirus had taken hold and she had one last request.

"I said to the doctor, this is the end. I'm not gonna make it and I want to see my family," Wood told CNN. "And that was my only wish and desire was to be able to talk to my children again."

Her doctor agreed. She was dying. Her children were called to see their mom alive one last time. With so little oxygen in her lungs Wood was losing the ability to talk.

Her daughter, Cami Neidigh, drove from home to the hospital.

"They didn't think that she was going to make it, and that we should go ahead and come on down while she can still talk to us," her daughter said.

The news was doubly devastating for the family. Wood had been recovering from a stroke.

"It was kind of cruel, you know," Neidigh said. "She had just learned to live again."

Wood's family had chosen to send her for rehab to the nearby Life Care Center of Kirkland, Washington, after her stroke. When Wood arrived months earlier, she couldn't talk. She couldn't walk. She couldn't speak well enough to be understood.

The staff cared for her until she could do all those things.

"All I could do was jabber and they taught me to live again," Wood said. "I went there for therapy, which they provided. What the staff did for me was great."

But as she regained her strength, the coronavirus spread through the Life Care Center of Kirkland. It became the first place in America to have a major deadly outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Only nobody realized it at the time. The virus was spreading like a deadly plague inside the facility long before people switched to elbow bumps instead of handshakes, and before self-distancing and stay-at-home orders became the norm.

Geneva Wood suddenly found herself infected like 80 other patients there.

She was rushed to the hospital where the virus began taking her breath away.

"I coughed a lot." Wood said "I had trouble breathing, I was just tired. I just wanted to sleep and rest and just leave me alone."

She had never felt the kind of exhaustion that came with Covid-19. The spitfire of a great-grandmother says she survived the flu dozens of times while raising her children and survived the Great Depression and World War II, but she never wanted to give up until she got the coronavirus.

But her body fought it. And she survived, with her humor intact.

"I'm not dead yet," Wood quipped to the nurse who she asked to bring her water.

Wood was one of the lucky ones. Fifty-five people associated with the Life Care nursing home died, many younger than her.

Now Wood is home and able to speak with her family, who she once feared she might never see or talk to again.

She snuggled up next to her daughter in her big comfortable chair and marveled at how happy she was just to be home.

"I love it here. One of the things I fought for was to be able to be with my kids. To give them a hug or a kick or whatever they needed," Wood said.

Her daughter cracked up. Her feisty, strong-willed mother was back.

"That's, that's what I'm here for." Wood laughed. "To take care of their needs. If they need a hug that's what they need and if they need a kick in the rear, that's what they get."

Her daughter is relieved to hear her mom joke again.

"It's been a brutal roller coaster ride," she says.

And Neidigh wants anyone who is writing off the elderly as those who can be sacrificed to coronavirus for the sake of others or for the economy to remember people like her mother. She says nobody should get to choose who gets to live or die and that the world could used the wisdom of the elderly. They still have something to give.

"You can't put a price on life like that," Neidigh said.
A relief package for the regional media could be announced as soon as next week, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has said.

The government was looking at potential relief on spectrum and licence fees.

Reports suggest Prime, WIN and Southern Cross are running out of cash and planning to stop producing news bulletins within weeks, while regional newspapers have also been shutting down print.

Well look at what we can do for the television networks, McCormack told WIN News yesterday.

And of course they need to know that they are going to have a future. They need to know that out of the other end of COVID-19, that there is going to be a future.

McCormack also acknowledged that some media laws that were set for regional networks were outdated.

We want regional journalism. We need regional journalism: local journalists talking about local issues and addressing them for local people, he added.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Treasury secretary, speaks during a Coronavirus Task Force news conference at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, April 2, 2020. Kevin Dietsch | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Small businesses are clamoring for funds from a new forgivable loan program to combat the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic. But some business owners, particularly those with high rents and low labor costs, may not benefit from the program as much as they think. The Paycheck Protection Program earmarks up to $349 billion in low-interest loans for businesses with 500 or fewer employees. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday that he has asked congressional leaders for an additional $250 billion in funding. A Senate vote was expected as soon as Thursday. The program, one of the core components of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package known as the CARES Act, doles out up to $10 million to each qualifying business.

The Small Business Administration may forgive the loans, which are offered through SBA-approved banks, given certain stipulations. Any unforgiven portions would carry a 1% interest rate and come due within two years. For example, to qualify, businesses must keep their workers and wages intact. Only funds used for payroll costs, rent, utilities and mortgage interest over an eight-week period can be forgiven. The forgivable nature of the debt is one of the program's key attractions. But business owners may owe more than they think if they don't pay close attention to the fine print. Those hoping to have their entire loan forgiven  by being turned into a grant  must use at least 75% of the funds for payroll costs.

That's because only up to a quarter of the loan's forgiven amount can be used for nonpayroll costs like rent, according to guidance issued by the Treasury Department last week. For example, a business owner who gets a $100,000 loan and wants to have it all forgiven must use at least $75,000 on payroll costs. Payroll expenses are capped at $100,000 per employee on an annualized basis.

'Forgotten gray area'

That provision could make loans from the Paycheck Protection Program less attractive to certain small business owners  especially those with high rents, few employees or low labor costs, said Brock Blake founder and CEO of Lendio, an online marketplace for small business loans. Alyssa Nix, owner of Posh Boutique, a women's clothing boutique in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is one such business.

A PPP loan didn't make sense for Nix because the business only employs three part-time workers, she said. Rent and loan payments are currently the business' largest monthly expenses. "It wasn't going to be beneficial to my business because my payroll is so low," said Nix. She feels the federal government hasn't given businesses of her size many financial relief options. Businesses with five or fewer employees are in a kind of "forgotten gray area," she said. Instead of a PPP loan, Nix will apply through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program for a $10,000 advance, which doesn't have to be repaid. She's still waiting to apply because the applicable website hasn't been loading properly, Nix said. More from Personal Finance

Small businesses worry the loan money will run out

What you need to do if you lose your job

Your lender might let you miss a few mortgage payments
Celebrating Sunshine Week During the COVID-19 Crisis



As a nation, we have celebrated the week of James Madisons birthday (March 16) as Sunshine Week for 15 years. Throughout the week, news outlets and open government advocacy groups issue articles and reports on the publics right to know what its government is doing. Meetings scheduled during Sunshine Week allow journalists, educators, librarians, civic groups, and government officials to debate and extol open government and freedom of information.

Why James Madison, you ask? Our fourth president, known as the Father of the Constitution, was a fierce advocate of open government. Per President Ronald Reagans Freedom of Information Day proclamation in 1986, Madison understood the value of information in a democratic society, as well as the importance of its free and open dissemination. He believed that through the interaction of the Government and its citizens, facilitated by a free press and open access to information, the Government could be most responsive to the people it serves.

In step with the advised COVID-19 precautions, some groups shifted Sunshine Week celebrations to virtual events (e.g., webinars); others promised that planned in-person meetings would be rescheduled for a later date. As many of the resource sites were collected in preparation for the annual weeklong initiative, its worth mentioning them. So here goes.

Open Data Day

Organizations kicked off Sunshine Week with Open Data Day on March 7. For the past 10 years, the world has celebrated Open Data Day on the first Saturday in March by hosting local events to showcase the benefits of open data. These events are designed to encourage governments and businesses to adopt open data policies that permit anyone and everyone to use (and reuse) their data. More than 306 scheduled events can be viewed on the opendataday.org map, but its difficult to tell how many of these were actually held.

The open data community resource page on the site (opendataday.org/#resources)designed for those planning Open Data Day eventsis the perfect place to locate collections of open datasets and is particularly helpful for environmental data discovery, tracking public money expenditures, open mapping, and exploring data for development. While readers may be familiar with data.world, many governments and organizations use the CKAN data management platform to share resources and case studies. If you need help finding data or tools, DataHub is free.

Sunshine Week Resources

The calendar of events for this years Sunshine Week was been a bit thin, as news editors and reporters were preoccupied with other things, and public librariesthe venue for many local eventswere not necessarily available. You can explore the list of Sunshine Week participants at sunshineweek.org/sw-participants.

The Sunshine Week toolkit offers links to stories, photos, and graphics that are freely available for publication. A link to MuckRocks Editorial Package from the toolkit includes an article covering examples of public records reporting, a sidebar of helpful tips for readers who are thinking of filing a request for records, and a brief guide to accessing state-level data that could be useful in Sunshine Week reporting. FOI in Action provides links to online resources for easily filing and tracking Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The Schools & Colleges webpage has lesson plans and activities. In addition, a vault of archived materials from prior years celebrations is available for reference. Use it to explore ideas for Sunshine Week activities as you consider how you will participate in 2021.

Journalists and Their Organizations

Its a challenging time for local news organizations. In addition to their active coverage of the pandemic, newspapers around the country took time to address the need for transparency in government and limiting unnecessary government secrecy. The Whistleblower Project, a collaboration between the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the Government Accountability Project, is worthy of note.

Journalists have been actively building Sunshine Week programming for their fellow reporters and news agencies, as well as for high schools and colleges. SPJ has a site devoted to Sunshine Week that provides FOI program ideas for society chapters around the country, links to FOI resources that are dedicated to college students/campuses, ideas for newsroom activities, assistance for writing about FOI that includes comparing laws from your state to those of others, and a link to FOI resources. Curriculum ideas include suggesting that students request one public record. They would have to research the law, submit a records request, follow the request through, and summarize their experience of the process.

Your Federal Government in (In)action

A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released during Sunshine Week, Freedom of Information Act: Federal Agencies Recent Implementation Efforts, indicates that the number of FOIA requests of federal agencies has increased by more than 30% from FY2012 to FY2018 and that the backlog of requeststhat is, the number of requests or administrative appeals that are pending beyond FOIAs required time period for a response at the end of the FYincreased over 80 percent. With FOIA staff increasing by only 21% during that time period, it would appear that staffers would be experiencing work overload. However, agencies also reported that resources spent on FOIA implementation increased from FY 2012 to 2018. Notably, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used Sunshine Week to release its 20202023 FOIA backlog reduction plan. Subtitled A Business Modernization Roadmap, the document states that DHS commits to, among other improvements, reducing FOIA backlogs, responding to FOIA requests in a consistent and timely manner, and reducing the age of open requests through upgraded FOIA IT infrastructure and investment in frontline employees.

The National Archives and Records Administrations (NARA) March 16 Sunshine Week program, including the panel discussion The Transparency Landscape, was canceled, but NARAs Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) used Sunshine Week as an opportunity to release its annual report for FY2019. The report indicates that OGIS reduced its backlog of FOIA requests by 50%, handling 4,649 requests for FOIA assistance from the public and federal agencies in FY2019.

During the most recent quarterly meeting of the FOIA Advisory Committee (March 5), OGIS compliance team lead Kirsten B. Mitchell summarized how agencies measure their records management and FOIA request fulfillment in the presentation Assessing Freedom of Information Act Compliance Through the 2018 Records Management Self-Assessment. This was followed by recommendations to the committee from the FOIA subcommittees on Time/Volume, Records Management, and Vision. One month earlier (February 14), the Chief FOIA Officers (CFO) Councils Technology Committee released a report discussing FOIA-related IT best practices and recommendations.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) released its 2019 Litigation and Compliance Report, summarizing its efforts to encourage agency compliance with FOIA. On March 11, Syracuse University-based Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) sued the DOJs Office of Information Policy (OIP) for withholding information regarding the receipt and processing of FOIA requests. OIP claims that it is under no legal obligation to search its own database.  TRAC asserts that OIPs handling of FOIA requests flies in the face of the offices mission to encourage and oversee agency compliance with FOIA.

During a DOJ Sunshine Week event, Claire McCusker Murray, principal deputy associate attorney general, pointed to the fact that, these days, FOIA applicants are quicker to litigate, thus straining the workloads of agency FOIA staffers and delaying their ability to process FOIA requests. Based on a study it released in 2019, TRAC found that to be incorrect, with requesters waiting on average six monthsa full month longer than they had five years agobefore filing a FOIA lawsuit.  Additionally, [TRAC found] that the increase in FOIA lawsuits  was due to FOIA officials failure to respond to requests in a timely manner as required by law.

The Americans for Prosperity Foundation celebrated Sunshine Week by issuing an investigation of federal agency instant messaging (IM) records management policies and practices. Gone in an Instant: How Instant Messaging Threatens the Freedom of Information Act notes, Thirteen of the sixteen agencies that produced their policies for the administration of IM in response to our FOIA request do not preserve instant messages as a matter of policya violation of federal law and NARA guidance. The foundation recommends that agencies embrace IMs increasing integration and use in the workplaceproviding employees with an official IM option for work that is equipped with the necessary features to comply with legal requirements.

The National Security Archive at George Washington University released a Sunshine Week audit indicating that 75% of the current presidents decisions have been bad for openness, including classifying coronavirus talks, hiding White House visitor logs, and keeping his tax returns secret. There have been some good transparency decisions made by this administration, however, including work on providing greater transparency about hospital and prescription drug prices. The audit underscores the need to strengthen the Presidential Records Act, which requires the president to make and preserve records, just as federal agencies are required to do by the Federal Records Act.

The Novel Coronavirus Takes Its Toll on FOIA

COVID-19 is having an effect on FOIA requests. On its eFOIPA portal, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says, Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the FBI has adjusted its normal operations and is unable to timely process Freedom of Information/Privacy Act (FOIPA) requests received via the eFOIPA portal or by standard mail. Given limited staffing to ensure safety, you can expect delays in both the acknowledgement and substantive response to your FOIPA request.

In response to her effort to determine the impact the pandemic is having on agencies FOIA operations, Emma Best of MuckRock received a message from NARA that it had located one two-page document that would answer her question, but it opted to use the FOIA exemption (b)(5) of legally privileged communications in the Executive Branch as its (non)response.

Government Participation in Sunshine Week Events

One of the Sunshine Week events scheduled for Washington, D.C., that had to be canceled this year was to take place at the U.S. Census Bureau and feature Nancy Potok, former U.S. Chief Statistician. The timing of this cancellation is unfortunate, as census forms have just been released for completion by every citizen in the U.S. Oh, the questions that could have been asked of Potok!

The Data Coalition hosted a webinar on March 16, Innovating With Open Government Data, that was originally scheduled as a panel discussion for South by Southwest (SXSW). Panelists representing the Data Coalition, the Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) discussed how their agencies are using open data to promote transparency and accountability in government as they solve issues facing the public. Rebecca Hutchinson, Big Data lead at the U.S. Census Bureau, said, Open data can enhance our ability to provide our data users with what they need to gauge the health of the economy, get a more accurate count of regional demographics, and ultimately provide substantial benefits to the American public. Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator at NOAA, reminded participants that NOAA makes its trove of data  publicly available through several ways, including commercial cloud service providers who simplify and accelerate accessibility.

Advocacy Groups

Open The Government hosted a state of the union virtual conference in honor of Sunshine Week, featuring experts and advocates who held a discussion about openness in government, open government data, government modernization, transparency at the DOJs Office of Legal Counsel, whistleblowers, press freedom, and democracy in the U.S. today. Much of the initial conversation concerned openness about COVID-19, but the video is worth a few minutes of your time.

Each year, the National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC) and its regional affiliates celebrate Sunshine Week by recognizing achievements and setbacks in ensuring open and accessible public institutions. The organization holds government agencies accountable for violations of transparency laws and calls out those localities obstructing access to public records. NFOICs latest contribution is a new bill-tracking tool that allows the public to follow transparency-related bills that are introduced across the country.

On March 16, NFOIC released its biennial Open Government Survey showing that members of the public outnumbered newspapers as the larger client group for attorneys pursuing open government cases.  Lack of funds and resources were cited as the number one reason for declining media interest and involvement in litigation, followed by a decline in the type of reporting that requires assertive legal action to gain access to information.

@SunshineWeek and #SunshineChat2020

The Twitterverse was abuzz during Sunshine Week as individuals and organizations used @SunshineWeek to tag news, opinions, and event roundups. Participants of the exquisitely moderated #SunshineChat2020 emphasized the importance of government transparency and accountability to a functioning democracy. Among the most active participants in the chat, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC; @EPICprivacy), published its FOIA Gallery 2020 of the organizations most significant open government cases this past year.

Not-So-Rewarding Awards

This year, ALA did not get a chance to give out its James Madison Award celebrating an individual or group that has brought awareness to public access to government information and the publics right to know. However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) continued its tradition of celebrating Sunshine Week with the Foilies, a list of government officials and corporations that impede the publics right to know. This years winners can be found at eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/foilies-2020; laughter is encouraged.
The countrys chief medical officer is pleading with Irish people to stay home this weekend, regardless of the weather.

Dr Tony Holohan made the appeal as Ireland saw the largest single-day death toll from Covid-19.

A further

Read More:

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) also announced a further 345 cases, bringing the overall number of confirmed cases so far to 5,709.

With the weeks weather set to be dry and sunny, fears have been raised that the Easter holidays will see public spaces flooded with visitors.

Dr Holohan said that there is still transmission of the disease in a concerning way, despite a levelling off in overall cases.

Were not at a point yet where were ready as a society to step back from the collective effort that weve had in place," he said.

We understand the effect that upcoming holidays and bank holiday weekends, good weather, and, perhaps, a little bit of fatigue with some of the measures can have on the population.

"But our message is a clear one: we want people to stay the course with us.

We know its a challenge on individuals and on families, and we know its a significant challenge on the economy, but we think its a justifiable set of measures.

He said that he is aware that the restrictions are a big ask and that they were considered at todays NPHET meeting, but people need to stay the course.

Dr Holohan rejected, however, the suggestion that Dublin would need added or different restrictions, saying: We dont think there would be a justification in focusing solely on Dublin.

Dr Holohan said that while the increased number may cause concern, they are still relatively small and said that NPHET examines all of the trends associated with the illness.

He signalled that it is unlikely that the country will be reopened on Monday.

The current restrictions are due to end on Sunday, but Dr Holohan said it is unlikely he would recommend their cessation this week. NPHET will meet on Friday and will then make a recommendation to the Government.

At this moment of time, were not anticipating a recommendation later in the week that we should lift the measures. We do want to see the benefit to the restrictions that were put in place which we think will take the rest of this week, said Dr Holohan.

Asked about the partial reopening of the economy, as was announced yesterday in Denmark, Dr Holohan said this would be informed by the European Centre For Disease Control (ECDC).

One of the things that has characterised this disease in Europe is that different countries have moved at different times. We would like to see a coherent and planned set of measures to remove or relax those measures instead of something a bit more haphazard.
[April 07, 2020] Adtalem Global Education Medical Schools Add More Than 900 Physicians to U.S. and Canada Residency Programs During 2020

As COVID-19 continues to add strain to the U.S. and Canadian healthcare systems, Adtalem Global Education (ATGE), a leading workforce solutions provider, continues to make significant contributions to address the need for more physicians. Adtalem's two medical schools, American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC) and Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM) announced more than 900 students and graduates have attained residency positions in the United States and Canada. This brings the total number of alumni at both schools to 21,700. AUC students achieved a first-time residency attainment rate of 91% and RUSM achieved a rate of 93.5%. "As the COVID-19 pandemic tests the capacity of an already strained primary care system experiencing a growing shortage of physicians, 70% of Adtalem institution's students and graduates who attained residencies will enter residencies in internal medicine, family medicine or pediatrics - the heart of primary care," said Lisa Wardell, chairman and CEO of Adtalem Global Education. Of the 909 individuals who attained a residency, more than half have already graduated and are eligible to start immediately1. This represents a significant level of support at a critical time for healthcare providers. With residency placements in 42 states, including New York, Florida, California and Illinois, AUC and RUSM graduates have an opportunity to contribute in the states most heavily impacted by COVID-19. Adtalem's medical schools are in a unique position to fill this need. Qualified students at AUC and RUSM have the ability to begin their medical education three times per year -- in January, May and September. This added flexibility allows students to obtain their Doctor of Medicine degree at more frequent intervals. As one of the largest providers of healthcare professionals in the U.S., Adtalem is proud to support and contribute to the medical professionals working tirelessly in our communities. In addition to Adtalem's physician graduates, Chamberlain University, another Adtalem institution, has graduated more than 3,000 Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students since January. This brings the total number of Chamberlain University alumni to over 76,000.



About American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC School of Medicine) is an institution of Adtalem Global Education (NYSE: ATGE), a global education provider headquartered in the United States. AUC School of Medicine's mission is to train tomorrow's physicians, whose service to their communities and their patients is enhanced by international learning experiences, a diverse learning community, and an emphasis on social accountability and engagement. Founded in 1978, AUC School of Medicine has more than 7,000 graduates, many of whom work in primary care or underserved areas. Dedicated to developing physicians with a lifelong commitment to patient-centered care, AUC School of Medicine embraces collaboration, inclusion and community service. With campuses in Sint Maarten and in the United Kingdom, affiliated teaching hospitals in the United States and the United Kingdom, and internationally recognized faculty, AUC School of Medicine has a diverse medical education program for today's globally minded physician. For more information visit aucmed.edu, follow AUC School of Medicine on Twitter (@aucmed), Instagram (@aucmed_edu) and Facebook (@aucmed).

About Ross University School of Medicine Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM) is an institution of Adtalem Global Education (NYSE: ATGE), a global education provider headquartered in the United States. Founded in 1978 and located in Barbados, RUSM has more than 14,700 alumni and is committed to educating a diverse group of skilled physicians. RUSM is accredited by the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and Other Health Professions (CAAM-HP). For more information, please visit medical.rossu.edu and follow RUSM on Twitter (@RossMedSchool), Instagram (@rossmedschool) and Facebook (@RossMedSchool). About Adtalem Global Education The purpose of Adtalem Global Education is to empower students and members to achieve their goals, find success, and make inspiring contributions to our global community. Adtalem Global Education Inc. (NYSE: ATGE; member S&P MidCap 400 Index) is a leading workforce solutions provider and the parent organization of Adtalem Educacional do Brasil (IBMEC, Damasio and Wyden institutions), American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists, Becker Professional Education, Chamberlain University, EduPristine, OnCourse Learning, Ross University School of Medicine and Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine. For more information, please visit adtalem.com and follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) (@adtalemglobal) and LinkedIn. 1 ECFMG certification and training license required. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005102/en/

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Maharashtra Home Minister Anil



Deshmukh on Tuesday said that police personnel deployed at Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's private residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra will be tested for coronavirus infection, a day after owner of a tea stall near the bungalow tested positive.

Police personnel deployed at the bungalow will be quarantined and replaced as a precautionary measure, Deshmukh said.

"The policemen may have consumed tea from the stall. We will screen them and other staffers who were deployed there," he said.

"We will quarantine them to contain the spread, in case they (the security personnel) have been infected," the home minister told a channel.

The tea vendor was admitted in Jogeshwari-based HBT hospital for COVID-19.

However, it is not yet clear how the vendor, who stays inside his small shop, contracted the infection.

After the case was reported, civic officials on Monday sprayed disinfectants in the area.

Meanwhile, Deshmukh also lambasted people who flout the lockdown norms and step out of their homes for "frivolous" reasons, and warned strict action.

"We are keeping vigil. We have issued orders to seize vehicles and 4,000 vehicles have been seized till Monday," he said.

The home minister also asked people living in containment zones not to panic and cooperate with the state government by not stepping out of their homes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
R. Kelly Photo: Tannen Maury/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock/Copyright (c) 2019 Shutterstock. No use without permission.

R. Kellys request for release on bail due to the coronavirus pandemic has been denied. While I am sympathetic to the defendants understandable anxiety about COVID-19, he has not established compelling reasons warranting his release, Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Ann M. Donnelly wrote in her four-page decision, released on Tuesday. The Chicago federal jail Kelly is housed in hasnt had a confirmed COVID-19 case, she wrote, and authorities have taken steps to prevent inmates and staff from getting infected. Donnelly is also not buying Kellys claim that his age, 53, puts him at risk, given that CDC officials maintain that the high-risk age starts at 65: Moreover, despite his contentions, the defendant has not demonstrated that he is within the group of people  categorized as most-at- risk for contracting COVID-19  The defendant is fifty-three years old, twelve years younger than the cohort of older adults defined by the CDC as at high risk for severe illness from COVID-19.

Kellys lawyers had argued in their request for his release that his age, the multiple surgeries he has undergone, including a recent surgery while incarcerated, and the jail conditions necessitat[e] his temporary release on bail until this pandemic has ended. His attorney, Steve Greenberg, previously confirmed to Vulture that hes been practicing whatever level of social distancing you can practice in jail.

Donnelly also noted in her decision that Kelly wasnt exactly a model candidate for bail in general: The defendant is currently in custody because of the risks that he will flee or attempt to obstruct, threaten or intimidate prospective witnesses. The defendant has not explained how those risks have changed. R. Kelly is presently in jail awaiting trial on sex-abuse and racketeering charges. He has maintained his innocence.
The dramatic spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which threatens the lives of millions of people worldwide, has done nothing to change German war policy. On the contrary, the ruling class is using the crisis to push ahead with its foreign policy offensive and Germanys return to an aggressive foreign and great power policy.

When Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) announced on Thursday on the ARD morning show the largest deployment of the Bundeswehr (armed forces) at home in post-war German history, she made it clear that the Bundeswehrs foreign missions will also continue unabated. We must also ensure that the core mission we have, namely alliance and national defence, the provision of external security, but also our international obligations are safeguarded. The missions continued as normal and in all missions, in all international areas, our performance is maintained.

Indeed, in recent days, the grand coalition of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats has extended and expanded numerous war missions in Africa, the Near and Middle East and Central Asia.

On March 25, the Bundestag (federal parliament) decided to supplement the deployment of armed German forces in Syria and Iraq. The new mandate provides for Bundeswehr A400M transporters from the Jordanian airbase al-Azraq to continue to refuel the fighter aircraft of the so-called anti-IS coalition. In addition, the transport aircraft are now also to be used for flights to Iraq. In addition, the deployment of air surveillance radar in Iraq is also planned. The training mission of German soldiers in central Iraq is to be placed under the command of NATO rather than the US-led Operation Inherent Resolve.

On March 13, the Bundestag had already extended the NATO-led Sea Guardian military mission in the Mediterranean and the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan by a further year in each case. Above all, the mission in Afghanistan, where thousands of German soldiers have been stationed since 2001, shows the sinister tradition to which German imperialism is returning. On April 2, Kramp-Karrenbauer issued an order of the day for Kunduz province on the tenth anniversary of the so-called Good Friday Battle, which states:

These were not the Bundeswehrs first and not the last battles in Afghanistan. But with the events of this day, it became visible for many citizens in Germany for the first time that the soldiers of the Bundeswehr must also kill and can die in combat. For the Bundeswehr, this day illustrates what ultimately defines the profession of the soldier: the ability to survive in battle. And also, the willingness to risk ones own life for the mission that the German Bundestag gives the Bundeswehr.

This is the language of German militarism. Contrary to official propaganda, the Bundeswehrs foreign missions are not about peace and democracy, but defending geostrategic and economic interests with war, annihilation and death.

This also applies to Sea Guardian and the naval mission Irini off the Libyan coast, which was decided by the EU at the end of March. The missions in the Mediterranean, in which the German armed forces are involved with warships, reconnaissance planes and hundreds of soldiers, serve to seal off Fortress Europe against refugees from the war zones in the Middle East and from Africa and to prepare new neo-colonial incursions on the resource-rich continent.

Last week, the federal government declared its support for an expansion of the French-led war offensive in the Sahel. A newly formed task force would be integrated into the command of Operation Barkhane under the name of Takuba and would be composed mainly of European special units, supported by the main commanders and offering a high degree of autonomy, according to an official statement by the French Ministry of Defence.

The explicit goal of the offensive is to combine all previous missions, in which Germany is already involved with over a thousand soldiers, into one comprehensive war mission. The new task force will advise, support and accompany the Malian armed forces in coordination with the G5 Sahel partners, the UN mission (MINUSMA) and the EU missions (EUTM Mali, EUCAP Mali and EUCAP Niger).

Additional war missions are already being prepared behind the backs of the population. In an interview with the news portal t-online.de, Lieutenant General Martin Schelleis, who as territorial commander of the Bundeswehr is leading the Corona mission in Germany, emphasised, Training and basic operations must also be maintained at least to the extent that operational readiness does not suffer in the long term. After all, we do not know where the Bundeswehr might soon be in demand for further foreign deployments as a result of the corona crisis.

As in Germany itself, the ruling class, especially in the less-developed countries, fears revolutionary uprisings due to the dramatic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The situation is dramatic, because with a delay of two months, the virus is now arriving in developing and emerging countries, warned Development Minister Gerd Muller at the weekend in an interview with the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. In Mali, with its 18 million people, he said, there are only four ventilators. And the economic consequences of the worldwide corona shock are already leading in many countries to mass unemployment. The structures are collapsing. He is very concerned that unrest will break out in fragile states, including civil wars. The impact on us would be incalculable.

Instead of respirators and medical equipment, Germany and the other imperialist powers are sending weapons and soldiers to oppress the impoverished masses. In return, the astronomical sums already spent on armaments and war will be further increased. Last Thursday, before a NATO meeting, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (Social Democratic Party, SPD) reiterated his commitment to the military alliances 2 percent of GDP spending target. As far as the two percent target is concerned, what we have said so far applies. We have increased our defence spending by 45 percent since 2014 according to NATO criteria, he boasted. We also stand by our commitments and we prove it every day.
A 64-year old woman died of COVID-19



in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday taking the toll due to the disease to seven in the state while 69 more people tested positive as the tally rose to 690, a top health department official said.

The woman, who died at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here, had co-morbid conditions like hypertension and diabetes, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh said.

With this, the number of COVID-19 deaths in the state has risen to seven.

Of the new positive cases, as many as 63 were returnees of the jamaat meet held in Delhi's Nizamuddin area recently, she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The UN Security Council on Tuesday called for the "swift liberation" of Soumaila Cisse, head of the Mali opposition, who was kidnapped in the northern part of the country March 25.

Cisse, 70, was captured while traveling in the Niafounke electoral district, in the Timbuktu region, while campaigning for legislative elections March 29.

In a statement, Council members also condemned "the terrorist attack" Monday on Malian government forces in which at least 25 people were killed and six injured in Bamba in the northern region of Gao.

Large swaths of Malian territory are still not under state control, and the military has endured months of deadly attacks by groups linked to Al Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State group as well as having to deal with communal violence and trafficking.

The statement called for the United Nations and the government to work together to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in the country.

It said the UN peace-keeping mission MINUSMA should "continue delivering on its mandate despite the pandemic, while ensuring the safety and security of its staff and peacekeepers."

The statement also repeated the Security Council's previous calls for greater cooperation between the government and armed group signatories of the country's 2010 peace accord.




South Korea said Tuesday it is continuing consultations with China on an "early visit" here by President Xi Jinping, dismissing a news report that the two sides have retracted a related accord amid the prolonged coronavirus outbreak.







Xi has agreed to travel to South Korea in the first half of the year for talks with President Moon Jae-in. The exact schedule has not been announced yet.







The Chosun Ilbo, a major Seoul-based daily, reported that Xi would postpone the trip to the latter half of 2020 or beyond due to the continued spread of COVID-19.







The South Korean government has also decided not to rush to arrange it, according to the newspaper.







It cited criticism among some conservatives here that the Moon administration has shunned full travel restrictions against China, where the coronavirus originated, in hopes of Xi's visit.







Cheong Wa Dae said Chosun has "distorted (relevant) facts" and expressed regret.







"There's no change in our plan to push for President Xi's early visit to South Korea within this year, keeping an eye on the COVID-19 situation," a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters. "The two sides are in consultations for that."







The official, however, would not confirm whether Xi will visit South Korea before the end of June, which is seen as realistically difficult. (Yonhap)


Texan Nursing and Rehab of Gonzales instituted a no-visitor policy in early March to protect its residents from the coronavirus.

Since then, the nursing home has used a combination of high and low tech to keep residents connected to their families.

Staff members have two tablets available for people to FaceTime or Skype loved ones beyond the facility's walls.

They also offer a whiteboard and a marker.

Texan Nursing photographs the messages, drawings, and jokes scrawled on those boards, then posts them on Facebook for families and friends to see.

"I am working hard with therapy," one man wrote. "I started walking! I am determined to make it back home to you Honey."

A family member responded, commenting, "Keep working Papa, we love you!"

On ExpressNews.com: Separation and solitude in nursing homes amid coronavirus outbreak

Many of the residents' messages reassure loved ones that they're fine ("We have toilet paper") and excited to meet in-person again. One woman wanted to make sure her first visitor after the pandemic subsides brings a Lone Star Light.

Wendy Moore, regional director of marketing for the nursing home east of San Antonio, said the staff has become like family to residents as they try to keep their spirits up during the pandemic.

"They know what's going on," Moore said of the residents. "They know that this is for the better interest of their health. But they're definitely ready to see their loved ones. They're ready to love and hug on them."

Nursing homes across the country have struggled to contain COVID-19.

In response to an outbreak of the virus at a San Antonio facility that has killed three residents and infected 67 - along with 12 staff members - Mayor Ron Nirenberg prohibited nursing home employees from working at multiple facilities.

On ExpressNews.com: They make $10.50 an hour to care for the Texans most susceptible to coronavirus

Texan Nursing made a list of staff members who work at multiple facilities and encouraged them to stick with one employer.

"It's unfortunate but we definitely have to give them the choice whether they want to work for us or another facility," Moore said.

The nursing home has not had any COVID-19 cases so far.

Here are some of the heartwarming messages from residents to their families and friends outside the walls:
Police detain suspect in fire near Chernobyl: Emergency teams in Ukraine continued battling a forest fire in the contaminated area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that has raised radiation fears. Police said they tracked down a person suspected of starting the blaze by setting dry grass on fire. The 27-year-old reportedly said he burned the grass "for fun" and then failed to extinguish the fire when the wind caused it to expand quickly. Two blazes erupted Saturday in the zone around Chernobyl that was sealed after the 1986 explosion at the plant. Firefighters managed to put out the smaller of the two fires, but the second one continued burning, covering about 50 acres. The authorities said radiation levels in the area engulfed by the fires substantially exceeded normal levels.
Queen Elizabeth is doing her best to instill hope amid the coronavirus pandemic. Her Majesty addressed the nation over the weekend and encouraged everyone to stay strong during this time of disruption. The speech is sure to inspire millions of people, and Queen Elizabeth made sure to take some major precautions to broadcast her message across the U.K.

Queen Elizabeth II addresses the nation | Robin Pope/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Queen Elizabeth addresses the UK

Over the weekend, Queen Elizabeth addressed the nation about the coronavirus crisis. The move was a rare one for the 93-year-old monarch, who has only given three televised speeches during her reign.

With the world trying to contain the virus, Express reports that Her Majesty recognized the hardships that people are suffering all across the country. She also highlighted the importance of helping each other during this time of crisis and assured everyone that they are as strong as any generation she has encountered.

I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time. A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all, she shared. I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge.

Queen Elizabeth also thanked frontline health professionals for their hard work on the front lines of the crisis. This includes caregivers and NHS staffers, who are doing their best to care for the sick.

Her Majesty, who turns 94 years old in a few weeks, spoke from inside Windsor Castle. She left the confines of Buckingham Palace a few weeks ago and is practicing social distancing alongside her husband, Prince Philip.

Her Majesty took major precautions to give her speech

At the age of 93, Queen Elizabeth took a major risk giving a televised speech to the nation. In order to reduced the chances of her catching the virus, Her Majesty took some major precautions with the filming crew.

Only one cameraman filmed the speech, and the person wore proper personal protective equipment.

The address was filmed inside Windsor Castle and everyone involved in the process adhered to strict social distancing guidelines. They also picked the White Drawing Room for the speech because it is spacious enough to allow for safe distancing.

Queen Elizabeth will likely remain at Windsor Castle with her husband until the pandemic is under control. The royals have already canceled future events for this month and further delays might arise if things do not get any better.

The last time Queen Elizabeth gave a televised speech was back in 2002 following the Queen Mothers passing. She also addressed the nation in 1997 after Princess Dianas tragic death and in 1991 during the Gulf War.

Queen Elizabeths address encourages a nation

Queen Elizabeths speech was aired on TV, radio, and social media. It was released to the entire U.K. as well as some nations in the Commonwealth.

Given how the entire U.K. (and much of the world) is under lockdown, a government spokesperson told Express that Her Majestys address could not have come at a better time.

As a nation, we are faced by a profoundly challenging situation, which we are only too aware threatens the livelihoods, businesses and welfare of millions of our fellow citizens, Charles stated. None of us can say when this will end, but end it will. Until it does, let us all try and live with hope and, with faith in ourselves and each other, look forward to better times to come.

Buckingham Palace has not revealed the status of Queen Elizabeths health. Palace officials have assured the public that Her Majesty is in good health and is following the advice of medical professionals.

It is unclear if Queen Elizabeth has been tested for the coronavirus. Health concerns arose after Prince Charles tested positive for the virus and had been in meetings with Her Majesty days before he was believed to be infectious.

Prince Charles offers a health update

Charles is the first member of the royal family to have tested positive for the coronavirus. After dealing with mild symptoms, Charles recently revealed that he has recovered fully and will remain at his estate in Scotland with Camilla Parker Bowles, who did not contract the virus.

Taking to social media, Charles posted his own message about the ongoing crisis. The Prince of Wales admitted that the pandemic is a profoundly challenging situation and encouraged people that it will eventually come to an end.

Were two weeks into some very restrictive measures on the public. Were asking people to stay indoors, to not go about their life in the usual way, the spokesperson stated. Sadly, we have also seen a significant number of deaths over the course of the past week.

Charles is no longer in self-isolation but will not be appearing in public anytime soon. Members of the royal family  including Queen Elizabeth  are only conducting business over the phone and will remain out of the spotlight until things settle down.
[April 07, 2020] Media Invitation: HKBN FY2020 Interim Results Live Webcast

To: Business Editor / Assignment Editor Due to the current circumstances, HKBN Ltd. (SEHK Stock Code: 1310) will hold its interim results media presentation via webcast this year. In the webcast, the company will share with media its key annual financial results for the 6 months ended 29 February 2020, as well as its business outlook. We cordially invite you or your representatives to cover the event. Details of the live webcast are as follows:







Date: 22 April 2020 (Wednesday)

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Mumbai, April 7 : Maharashtra on Tuesday recorded 23 new Covid-19 cases, with the total jumping from 868 to 891, besides a total of 52 deaths till Monday, including a 30-year-old pregnant woman, officials said here.

On Tuesday, 10 fresh cases were reported from Mumbai, Pune had 4 new cases, Ahmednagar 3, Nagpur and Buldhana two each, and one each from Sangli and Thane this morning.

The increased figures came a day after aA huge health scare with a tea-seller testing positive from Bandra, near 'Matoshri' - the residence of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, and two major private hospitals, one in Mumbai and one in Pune being sealed after around 130 staffers were found Covid-19 positive.

The tea-seller, who was in business till March 22, has been admitted to the Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Medical College & R.N. Cooper Hospital in Juhu, and efforts are on to trace his contacts even as Kala Nagar - the area around 'Matoshri' has been sealed.

Of the total 52 casualties in the state, Mumbai alone has notched 34 deaths, including a 30-year old 9-month pregnant woman from Nalasopara town in Palghar who died in Nair Hospital.

Till date, 32,521 people are in home quarantine and 3498 in institutional quarantine, while 70 who are fully cured have been discharged.

As the number of Covid-19 cases and casualties continue to rise, the Mumbai Police has appealed to all those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat convention in Nizamuddin, Delhi, to voluntarily come forward to the health authorities.

The state health authorities continue to comb for the Jamaat attendees in all districts and civic bodies in the state where so far 8 such positive cases have been found.

They are four from Pune, two from Ahmednagar and one each in Hingoli and Washim.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
In December 2019, Mayor-elect Justin Elicker announced the appointment of ethics attorney and former zoning board chair Patricia King to serve as the citys next corporation counsel. According to the press release, King had spent the past 15 years practicing law in the area of professional ethics. When Mayor Elicker received his transition report a month later, one recommendation was to ensure strong ethics and conflict-of-interest rules in all levels of city government.

Since Elicker has joined the Board of Education, even during these trying times some members of that board are facing ethical issues which are clear as day and are being ignored by the ethics boss King, the transparency mayor Elicker, and our ethically challenged board president Yesenia Rivera. Every two weeks when the BOE meets there is another issue on the agenda which pushes the boundaries of ethics rules.

At Elickers first meeting he led other board members to approve questionable items over the objections of nearly half the board. The Elicker faction hired a director of transportation, even though the board received a document outlining several troubling issues with the process, including a complete lack of transparency. Their hire quit two weeks later under mysterious circumstance, still not explained.

At Elickers third meeting he and his crew tried to slip an extra $117,000 to his preferred contractor, Go To Services, by eliminating a union position. This contractor made substantial contributions to the Elicker campaign.

This month Elicker, Rivera, Joyner and Wilcox are on another fantastically ethically challenged journey. They voted to eliminate the only African-American local legal firm of Martyn Philpot and transfer the funds to the well-connected and deeply entrenched Berchem, Moses & Devlin of Milford, a huge contributor to Elickers campaign, which already has hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts in Kings corporation counsel office. The firm is the former employer of COO Will Clark, who pushed all this business their way when he was an employee of both the City of New Haven and the COO of the school system.

Clark was also a top campaign adviser to Elicker. Clark also managed to finagle a healthy buyout to leave the school system, right after he negotiated a contract with the First Student Transportation. Apparently Clark slipped into the bus contract a little-noticed clause that forces the school system to pay for transportation even if we have to close down the system, leaving us to pay over $2 million a month for buses mothballed in their parking lot. This is the same Clark who ignored the Americans with Disabilities Act, which cost the school system $400,000 in a lawsuit last year.

Previously I wrote about Joyners ethical issues related to his childrens work at the school system and the lack of the school systems investigation of these issues. Joyner and Elicker are now leading an attack on two African-American female leaders in the school system in a campaign to eliminate their positions. Why? Because they play a role in supervising Joyners children. Last month I wrote about board president Rivera getting paid with school funds to manage an after-school program at Edgewood School. This is unprecedented. Board members are statutorily banned from receiving funds from the school system. That goes double for the board president. Yet, not a peep from ethics boss King or her boss Elicker, who actually led the movement to put both Joyner and Rivera into leadership. Where are the New Haven advocates who claim to care about ethics? Do those ethics rules only apply to people they dont like?

When will someone in leadership do the right thing and address these ethical lapses? This stuff stinks to high heaven. What is our professional ethics expert going to do?

Boise Kimber is pastor of First Calvary Baptist church in New Haven.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on April 7, 2020

2020/04/07

Global Times: The Spectator USA published an article on its website on April 5, saying that China is making Italy buy coronavirus supplies that it had donated to Beijing earlier. However, an Italian journalist found it was fake news after investigation. The author of the article put forward the claim that "China forced Italy to buy its medical donation back" based on hearsay and unverifiable third-hand information. What's your comment on that?

Zhao Lijian: China and Italy are friends and important cooperative partners. During the difficult time of China's fight against COVID-19, Italy supported China in various means. Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Italy, we have been closely following the situation there and providing assistance to the Italian side as our capacity allows. In addition to the assistance from the Chinese government, our localities, enterprises and people also donated a large number of urgently needed epidemic prevention materials such as masks, protective suits, ventilators and test reagents to Italy. Meanwhile, we also coordinated efforts to facilitate Italy's purchase of medical supplies from China at its request. Three groups of Chinese medical experts were sent to Italy to share our experience and practices. China's practice demonstrates what it means to be a friend in need. We sincerely hope Italy can bring the epidemic under control and ensure people's health is protected at an early date. Rumor-mongering and wedge-driving practices will only sabotage the cooperation against the pandemic, which is inhumane and immoral.

China Review News: A US lawmaker said in a recent interview that during a phone call between the Chinese and French leaders, China told France to implement 5G with Huawei in exchange for the masks that France asked for. The lawmaker said "that's who China is and it's time the world wake up and recognize it." Can you comment on that?

Zhao Lijian: I wonder on what basis this US lawmaker said that. His words again prove that certain US politicians could even resort to lies and disinformation in a bid to sabotage international anti-epidemic cooperation and China-France relations.

I want to tell you that since the outbreak, the Chinese and French heads of state have had three telephone conversations, which manifests a high degree of mutual trust and the high level of China-France relations. With their strategic guidance, China and France have engaged in close cooperation in the pandemic. For friendship and humanitarianism, China provided medical supplies to France and facilitated its procurement from China with no strings attached.

The Paper: New York State Governor Cuomo tweeted on April 4 that the Chinese government helped facilitate a donation of 1,000 ventilators which have arrived in New York. He thanked the Chinese government, the Jack Ma Foundation, the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation and Chinese Consul General in New York Huang Ping. Later at a press conference, Governor Cuomo also thanked China for its cooperation and said "this is a big deal and it's going to make a significant difference for us". What is your response?

Zhao Lijian: We noted relevant reports. During a recent phone call with President Trump, President Xi pointed out that China and the US should strengthen cooperation in anti-epidemic and other areas to overcome difficulties together. In the early days of the outbreak in China, the US people and localities provided China with a lot of assistance. Now as we follow closely the situation in the US, we sincerely hope the COVID-19 will be brought under control at an early date, so that it will cause less damage to American people. Chinese localities, civil groups, institutions and enterprises also donated medical supplies to the US side. China understands the difficult situation the US is facing now and will continue providing support within its capacity.

Reuters: First question, there was a call yesterday led by a UK-based group called Jubilee Debt Campaign. Over 140 groups signed on to their call urging the G20 to help the poorest countries by canceling debt payments including for some African countries. Given China's participation in the G20, would China be willing to give that relief? Second question, the Ghana finance minister said that he feels China has to come on stronger on debt relief. Does China have any specific plans to offer debt relief to African countries?

Zhao Lijian: China has been conducting financial cooperation with other developing countries based on the principle of equal-footed consultation, mutual benefit and common development. Our goal is to help these countries accelerate development and work for implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. China never presses countries in difficulties for debt payment. We resolve issues like this through bilateral consultation.

Due to the spreading pandemic, developing countries, especially low-income countries, are facing greater challenges. China attaches high importance to that. We are ready to keep in contact with these countries via bilateral channels. We also hope G20 members can work together to implement the outcomes of the Extraordinary G20 Leaders' Summit on COVID-19, and help low-income countries properly address debt risks and other problems.

Regarding your second question, I believe China will resolve these countries' difficulties via consultation through diplomatic channels.

Shenzhen TV: The UN General Assembly on April 2 adopted the resolution titled Global Solidarity to Fight the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), sponsored by six countries including Singapore, Ghana and Indonesia and co-sponsored by 188 nations including China. What is China's comment?

Zhao Lijian: China welcomes the unanimous adoption by the UN General Assembly of the resolution Global Solidarity to Fight the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)". More than 180 countries, including China, co-sponsored the resolution, which reflects the consensus and determination of the international community to strengthen solidarity and cooperation to jointly combat the pandemic. The resolution reaffirms the commitment to international cooperation and multilateralism, supports the central role of the UN in responding to the outbreak, and calls on all countries to follow the WHO recommendations and enhance experience and information sharing. The resolution also stresses that discrimination, racism and xenophobia will not be tolerated. All these are highly consistent with China's position and propositions.

The pandemic is a common enemy to all mankind. The world is closely connected and all countries share a common future. China is ready to work with the international community to respond with greater confidence, solidarity and cooperation, win the battle against this pandemic and build a community with a shared future for mankind.

AFP: First, US State Department spokesperson Ortagus said in a statement on April 6 that the US is seriously concerned by reports of China's sinking of a Vietnamese fishing vessel, and asked China to stop exploiting the distraction of COVID-19 to expand its "unlawful claims" in the South China Sea. The statement also mentioned the South China Sea arbitration in 2016 and China's new "research stations" on Yongshu Jiao and Zhubi Jiao. Do you have any comment on that? Second question is about Brazil's education minister's comment that linked the coronavirus with China's "plan for world domination". China has asked for an official explanation. Has China received any response?

Zhao Lijian: On your first question, my colleague briefed you on the incident and expounded on China's position on the recent sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat in the waters off China's Xisha islands. I will not repeat it here.

The Nansha islands are within China's territory. China's activities on its own territory are legitimate, lawful, and entirely within its sovereignty. Recently, the Chinese Academy of Sciences established two research stations on Yongshu Jiao and Zhubi Jiao for monitoring and field studies on vegetation, geological environment and marine ecology of the Nansha Islands. They also help provide more public goods to regional countries and the international community.

The Chinese government solemnly stated on many occasions that the South China Sea arbitration and its so-called award are illegal and invalid. China does not accept or participate in the arbitration, nor does it accept or recognize the so-called award. China's position is consistent with international law.

At present, the world is in a crucial period of jointly combating the pandemic. While fighting the pandemic at home, China is doing its utmost to support and help other countries in need, which has won universal praise from the international community. Under such circumstances, the US not only sent warships and planes to make waves in the South China Sea, which violated China's sovereignty and security, but also sowed discords and misinterpreted the UNCLOS in an attempt to negate China's legitimate claims and stir up troubles. China urges the US to stop linking the pandemic with maritime issues and focus on domestic and international anti-epidemic response instead of doing otherwise.

On your second question, this pandemic is indeed a war that caught us by surprise. China is doing its best to protect the life and health of its people, sharing experience and know-how with the international community, and providing as much help as we can to countries and international organizations, Brazil included. The virus, knowing no borders or races, is a common enemy to all human beings. The urgent task for all countries is to defeat the virus through cooperation. We oppose stigmatization and smears on China.

China Daily: We noted that the Foreign Ministry announced the decision to dispatch a medical team to the Philippines on April 5. Do you have more information?

Zhao Lijian: To help the Philippines fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese government has decided to send a team of medical experts to the Philippines. The team, organized by the National Health Commission, consists of 12 experts selected by the Fujian Provincial Health Commission. The team arrived in Manila on the afternoon of April 5. The experts will work in the most seriously affected region in Manila and share experience and practice in epidemic control, public health policies and medical treatment with local frontline medical professionals, which we believe will help the Philippine side to enhance the capability for epidemic control and medical treatment, and boost their confidence in this fight.

As a Philippine saying goes, "A broom is sturdy because its strands are tightly bound", which means people gain strength by standing together. The Philippines is China's friendly neighbor, and the two peoples always support each other in times of difficulties. Earlier on, the Philippine government and its people in various sectors have offered political support and medical supplies to China during our hardest time. China closely follows the epidemic in the Philippines and cares about the health and safety of the Philippine people. We donated medical supplies and held video conferences with the Philippine side in a manifestation of our confidence and resolve in standing together to overcome the difficulties. China stands ready to share all we know about the pandemic with the Philippine side and provide our best support and assistance as their needs arise.

With the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind, while fighting the COVID-19 at home, China will strengthen regional and international cooperation with the Philippines and other countries. Together we will defeat the virus.

Swedish TV: Given the fact that China has suspended entry of foreigners with valid visas and residency, I wonder if you could give us a time frame for how long foreigners with residency in China will have to wait until they can come back to their homes in China?

Zhao Lijian: As the COVID-19 is still spreading, China will make adjustments to the policy according to how the situation develops. I suggest you keep following statements to be released by the Chinese government. I have nothing to update you at the moment.

South China Morning Post: First question, will there be a China-CEEC summit this year, or will it be canceled due to the pandemic? Second, Qihoo 360 said in its report that hackers having links with the ROK have been attacking Chinese government websites. I wonder if it is true? Can you tell us if China has related information?

Zhao Lijian: On your first question, the China-CEEC summit in 2020 will be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. China will keep in contact with all sides on the date of the summit.

On your second question, I haven't read the news on that. I will get back to you after getting to know more about it.

China News Service: The Group of 77 and China issued a statement on COVID-19 on April 3, calling on the international community to work together to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic. What are the specific considerations and significance of this statement?

Zhao Lijian: The Group of 77 and China is the largest and most influential political group of developing countries in the United Nations. In the face of severe challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak, the Group of 77 and China issued the statement to urge the international community to demonstrate solidarity, accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, maintain the stability of global financial markets and supply chains, including by cutting tariffs and removing trade barriers, in order to facilitate the unfettered flow of trade and promote global economic recovery, and eliminate the use of unilateral coercive economic measures. The Group of 77 and China is resolved not to allow any stigmatization or discrimination of states, peoples or individuals in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. The statement calls on the international community to work together in solidarity to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 and to build a community with a shared future for humankind.

The statement sent a positive signal of solidarity and cooperation in response to the pandemic, which will help the international community to pay attention to the difficulties of developing countries, increase material, technology and capacity building support for developing countries, promote the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and safeguard multilateralism and the interests of developing countries. The pandemic knows no borders. China will continue working with other countries to tackle the challenges of the pandemic and strive to achieve an early and complete victory over the pandemic and contribute to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Within the framework of South-South cooperation, we will continue providing assistance to developing countries that are seriously affected.

Xinhua News Agency: Some media said that since China tightened the immigration control measures for foreigners to prevent imported cases, there have been reports of some foreigners complaining about discrimination and rising xenophobia in China. Do you have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: I would like to make clear three points.

First, China always attaches great importance to the safety and health of foreign nationals in China and protects their legitimate rights and interests in accordance with law. Viruses are heartless but humans not. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, relevant departments and local governments in China have made every effort to meet the living, epidemic control and medical needs of foreign citizens in China, and provided timely treatment to those infected with COVID-19. The vast majority of foreign citizens in China highly appreciate the Chinese people's efforts and outcomes in fighting the epidemic. They expressed sincere gratitude for being taken care of, and they have been cooperating with us in epidemic prevention and control. Many even volunteered to join the ranks of China's fight against the epidemic, leaving us touching stories of Chinese and foreign friends working together to tide over the difficult times.

Second, China opposes all forms of discrimination and prejudice. In light of the development of the epidemic, China has promptly adjusted the quarantine and prevention and control measures for foreign nationals entering into China. These are temporary measures that China has to take in response to the current situation by referring to the practices of many countries. China has to do so because we must be responsible for our own people and foreign citizens as well. We always treat foreign nationals and Chinese citizens alike, implement measures without discrimination, give full consideration to the legitimate concerns of the persons concerned and respect their religions and customs. We do not increase or reduce certain regulations on someone just because they are foreign citizens.

Third, all foreigners in China should strictly abide by the Law of the People's Republic of China on Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, as well as other laws and local regulations on epidemic prevention and control. We hope foreign citizens in China will continue to fully understand and cooperate with China's epidemic control measures to prevent risks and protect the health and safety of themselves and others. That is their way to contribute to the final victory over the epidemic.

---

After the press conference, Zhao made further response to the question raised by South China Morning Post.

Zhao Lijian: China is home to a large online community and also a major victim of cyber attacks. The Chinese government firmly opposes and fights all cyber attacks. We will take necessary measures to safeguard our country's cyber security. I'd like to stress that the cyber space is also a community with a shared future. All countries need to work together to protect it.
A "selfless" doctor who specialised in treating the elderly has died just days after his last shift after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Anton Sebastianpillai, who had a long association with Kingston Hospital in south-west London, died on Saturday, four days after being admitted to the hospitals intensive care unit, a spokeswoman said.

The consultant geriatrician, who qualified as a doctor in Sri Lanka in 1967, finished his last shift on March 20.

A spokeswoman for Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: It is with great sadness that I confirm the death of a consultant geriatrician who was part of the team at Kingston Hospital.

Dr Anton Sebastianpillai died on Saturday having been cared for in the hospitals intensive care unit since March 31.

We would like to extend our sincere condolences to his family.

In an obituary notice Dr Sebastianpillai was described as a distinguished alumnus.

Dr Thusiyan Nandakumar, from Kingston College London, took to Twitter to express his condolences.

He said: "Another healthcare worker dies on the frontline.

"Dr Sebastianpillai put himself at risk to help save others. A remarkably courageous and selfless role model."

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The news comes after a British Pakistani GP based in east London died in hospital on Monday after it is believed he developed coronavirus symptoms.

According to The News International, a newspaper in Pakistan, Dr Syed Haider had been receiving treatment at Queens Hospital in Romford where he passed away.

A staff member at the Valence Medical Centre in Dagenham, east London  where Dr Haider worked, confirmed he had died.

The News International said it had spoken to his son, named only as Dr Kumail, who described his father as a selfless man driven by his passion for his profession.

Dr Kumail said: Even whilst in hospital breathing his last, he was urging doctors and nurses to pay attention to other patients rather than him.
Working from home is driving Pennsylvanians to drink, and not just on their own time, according to a study from Alcohol.org. More than a third of those surveyed said they believe they will drink more alcohol while in self-isolation, and 38 percent of Pennsylvanians said they have consumed alcohol during work hours.

That percentage puts Pennsylvania ahead of the national average of 32 percent, but well behind the 67 percent of Hawaiians who responded that they have consumed alcohol while on the clock. Beer was the most likely culprit and might be borne of necessity in Pennsylvania as demand overwhelms the online operation of the states wine and spirits stores.

While workers for essential businesses still brave the risks of doing their jobs on location, many others are working from home and tackling a brand new set of obstacles that come with it. According to the Alcohol.org study, many are also taking advantage of the extra layer of freedom as they go about their business.

Last week, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf extended a stay-at-home order for the entire state while also enforcing the closure of non-essential businesses to fight the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pennsylvania residents are following social distancing guidelines from officials at both the federal and state level, which President Donald Trump most recently said would remain in place until at least April 30.

That has led to a whole new world where personal and work boundaries are blurred, and according to the Alcohol.org study, more Americans have turned to alcohol to help push through the weeks-long self-isolation period. In addition to respondents saying they are drinking more, the study also says 22 percent of Americans are stockpiling booze.
The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) notes with grave concern Governments intention to amend the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) to access the Ghana Heritage Fund (GHF) as part of proposed fiscal measures to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.



As a body whose membership represents a broad spectrum of the Ghanaian society, the Committees position articulated in this statement is informed by its mandate under Act 815, to provide independent assessment on the management and use of Ghanas petroleum revenues; by faithfully adhering to the principles and philosophy that informed the passage of the PRMA in the first place.



It is worth noting that there have been previous attempts by successive governments to access the Heritage Fund for various reasons, to which PIAC objected. The Committees position is consistent with its understanding of the spirit of the PRMA on the management and use of the Ghana Heritage Fund (GHF)  to cater for the intergenerational ownership of the petroleum resource as well as the shared compensation on the adverse effects of petroleum extraction.



The Committee acknowledges the threat the COVID-19 pandemic poses to the Ghanaian society and the world at large, in which regard the Committee commends the efforts of government and citizens focused on containing the pandemic.



Governments search for resources to address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is in the right direction.



PIAC observes with interest, governments intention to lower the cap on the Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF) to US$100 million in order to use the excess for contingency purposes.



The PRMA is not oblivious of national emergencies, and made provision for transfers from the Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF) into the Contingency Fund. However, governments over the years have made limited petroleum revenue transfers to the Contingency Fund thereby depriving it of the needed resources for addressing emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic.



The Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF) is meant for shoring up the ABFA in times of budget shortfalls, providing for contingency, and debt servicing. However, withdrawals from the Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF) over the years have been heavily tilted in favour of debt servicing, as against a balance between the budget, debt servicing, and contingency purposes.



Again, the Committee notes that, although the Heritage Fund is primarily future generation- oriented, it equally provides opportunity for the current generation to benefit from the interest earned on the Funds investment after 15 years of coming into force of the PRMA, to be determined by a two-third majority vote of Parliament.



It is worth emphasising that, the Heritage Fund receives ONLY nine (9) percent of the countrys petroleum revenues in a given fiscal year. This makes available a whopping 91 percent of petroleum revenue for government spending.



The Committee is also concerned that, although the Health Sector has featured in the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) expenditure since 2011, yet allocations to the Sector have been paltry, even after its selection (Health sector) as a priority area for the period 2017 - 2019. This pattern has translated into the poor state of the countrys health system, as exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.



The proposals put forward by Government would involve an amendment of the PRMA. Any amendment of the PRMA would come across as reactionary and a risky option, which when unchecked could provide a recipe for abuse of the intent of the law at the least opportunity.



Accessing the Heritage Fund will not only dim the spirit of the law but derail the Countrys intended purpose of applying international best governance practises to our Hydrocarbon Resources. PIAC posits that, the country risks slipping back into the very terrain that necessitated the promulgation of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act in 2011.



Recommendations



 For the short term, government must review and reduce planned 2020 ABFA expenditure, and apply the savings to the COVID-19 Alleviation Programme (CAP). Reduce the capital expenditure focusing on roads and infrastructure.



 Considering that in the best of times since 2011, petroleum revenue constitutes just 10 percent of total government revenues, PIAC recommends that other domestic revenue sources such as cocoa and minerals should be explored, given that these sectors are still in active operation.



 Going forward, there must be a balance in allocating funds to the budget, the Sinking and Contingency Funds, as skewed withdrawals towards debt servicing have not prepared the country for national emergencies.



 Even though the Health Sector is a priority area for ABFA expenditure, the pandemic has reinforced the critical nature of the Sector, with its interconnections to economic development, national security, food security, and the survival of the citizenry. Government must therefore review allocations to the sector vis-a-vis allocations to other priority areas (Roads & Rail, Education and Agriculture).



 PIAC supports the use of part of the Stabilisation Fund for Covid-19 but is against the utilisation of the Heritage Fund for Covid-19.



Therefore having made these recommendations, PIAC strongly urges Government not to disturb the arrangements that underpin the PRMA.



Signed



Mr Noble Wadzah Chairman, PIAC



Interview Contacts:



1. Mr. Noble Wadzah 0242257972



2. Prof. Akosua Darkwah 0208141466



3. Mr. Mark O.A. Agyemang 0268469445

Source: PIAC









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With over a million infected and more than 60,000 dead, the coronavirus outbreak has gripped almost every corner of the world, bringing some of the biggest global economies to a halt.

Covid-19 cases are on a sharp rise in the United States while European nations like Italy, Spain, France and Germany are fighting a tough battle to contain the rise in the number of cases and fatalities.

Here are key developments from across the globe:

1. On Tuesday, India agreed to supply paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine to countries particularly badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. US President Donald Trump had warned of retaliation if New Delhi did not allow the export of anti-malarial drugs.

2. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson fights worsening coronavirus symptoms in an intensive care unit.

3. Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will declare a state of emergency in parts of the country on Tuesday, including Tokyo, over the coronavirus outbreak.

4. As per Johns Hopkins University, the US recorded more than 368,000 confirmed coronavirus cases with 10,986 deaths by late Monday.

5. Saudi Arabia placed its capital Riyadh and other big cities under a 24-hour curfew on Monday amid the coronavirus crisis.

6. In Germany, the number of Covid-19 cases rose to 99,225, deaths at 1,607.

7. After a nearly 3-week long lockdown, Denmark plans to reopen daycare centres and schools on April 15.

8. Britains big supermarkets fear they wont be able to supply the countrys 60 million people without longer opening hours or relaxation of social distancing rules introduced to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

9. In New York, a vast cathedral is being converted into a field hospital as the city struggles to cope with the mounting Covid-19 crisis.

10. On Tuesday, the government in Singapore tabled a bill in parliament that sought to ensure that a general election could be held safely if called during the coronavirus pandemic.
Luu Manh Ha, General Director of Star Telecom (Unitel)  a joint venture of Vietnams telecom group Viettel in Laos and Lao Asia Telecom, noted as a leading information technology firm in Laos, the company is aware of its responsibility for deploying technological solutions to assist COVID-19 prevention and control efforts in the country.

Since COVID-19 broke out in Chinas Wuhan city, the company has implemented technological solutions for the Lao Government and Health Ministry such as installing teleconference devices, providing an SMS network that automatically sends coronavirus-related information to more than 3.5 million people, and offering 400 SIMs with preferential policies to frontline cadres of the anti-COVID-19 committee.

Aside from the three abovementioned aid packages worth US$320,000, the business has also carried out many programmes to help its clients amid the pandemic, Ha added.

Meanwhile, the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) contributed US$50,000 to the Lao Government and peoples efforts to deal with COVID-19.

Representatives of BIDV present US$50,000 to the Lao Government in support of the country's efforts to combat COVID-19. (Photo: VNA)



Nguyen Van Binh, General Director of LaoVietBank and head of BIDVs representative office in Laos, said the support, donated by over 20,000 staff members of the bank in Vietnam, aims to assist Laos in the combat against the pandemic.

BIDV will continue directing its representative bodies in Laos to keep making practical contributions to the countrys efforts in this regard, he noted.

In response, Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Somdy Duangdy, who is also head of the countrys national steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control, appreciated the two businesses assistance, affirming that his country will use the aid in the most effective manner to control and curb the spread of the disease.
"I was so proud to see our nurses and facilities department work together and donate these masks, Superintendent Lori Bein said of the efforts. Everyone in District 25 has been pulling together to support our community and this was just another example of that.
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Medial workers wearing protective gear move a patient suspected of contracting the new coronavirus from an ambulance to the Kyungpook National University Hospital in Daegu, South Korea, on Feb. 19, 2020. (Kim Jong-un/Yonhap via AP)

51 Recovered COVID-19 Patients Test Positive Again in South Korea

Fifty-one recovered COVID-19 patients in South Korea tested positive again for the virus after leaving quarantine, said health officials in the country this week.

The patients from Daegu, in the southern part of the country, tested positive for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus in a relatively short time after they were cleared from their initial COVID-19 cases, said the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) in a report carried by the Yonhap News Agency.

Their unusual results may have been due to reactivation from the virus, KCDC Director-General Jeong Eun-kyeong said, according to the government-backed Yonhap outlet on Monday.

A team of investigators were deployed to Daegu, the site of South Koreas initial CCP virus outbreak earlier this year, to conduct an investigation into the test results.

In mainland China, where the virus first emerged last year, some whistleblower doctors in epicenter Wuhan warned that COVID-19 patients could get reinfected, reported the Taiwan News in February.

Its highly possible to get infected a second time, one of the doctors said. That doctor remained anonymous out of fear of retaliation from the Chinese regime after another doctor, Li Wenliang, went on the record to raise warnings about COVID-19 before he was detained and rebuked by the CCP. He reportedly succumbed to the disease in February, although netizens and citizen journalists in China expressed their suspicions.

A few people recovered from the first time by their own immune system, but the meds they use are damaging their heart tissue, and when they get it the second time, the antibody doesnt help but makes it worse, and they die a sudden death from heart failure, the anonymous doctor told the Taiwan News.

However, some experts outside of China have said its not clear if patients are immune to reinfection from the virus.

We dont know very much, said Matt Frieman, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, reported NPR in late March. I think theres a very likely scenario where the virus comes through this year, and everyone gets some level of immunity to it, and if it comes back again, we will be protected from iteither completely or if you do get reinfected later, a year from now, then you have much less disease.

Four seasonal coronaviruses that cause about 10 percent to 30 percent of common colds can cause reinfection, said researchers.

Almost everybody walking around, if you were to test their blood right now, they would have some levels of antibody to the four different coronaviruses that are known, Ann Falsey of the University of Rochester Medical Center told the public broadcaster.

On Monday, the KCDC reported less than 50 cases of the CCP virus, bringing the total of cases in the country to 10,284.
By Hoda Emam

Bay City News Foundation

The COVID-19 coronavirus-induced scramble to obtain face masks hit home for Bay Area tech entrepreneur Mark Linsey when his father, a Southern California physician, told Mark he was facing a shortage.

Linsey set off to find a face mask supply for his dad but, with talk of price gouging and the re-sale of stolen supplies, he wanted to avoid competing for the scarce N95 masks in America.

"I didn't want to be fighting over the same limited pool," Linsey said.

So, he looked outside the country and found that millions of medical-grade KN95 masks were in stock in China at a cost that was competitive and, in some cases, lower than the price charged for N95 masks in America.

The KN95 masks, which are certified by the Chinese government, are almost identical to the N95s that are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A recent study by the company 3M found China KN95 masks are "equivalent" to US N95s for filtering non-oil-based particles such as bio-aerosols (e.g. viruses), and on Friday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it would allow the use of KN95s.

After speaking with many people in the medical community, Linsey found that physicians, nurses and some hospitals would gladly use the KN95s in view of the current supply shortage.

There was one problem, however; the suppliers in China would only allow orders of masks in the tens of thousands -- not just a few hundred.

With a base price of $2.95 per unit, Linsey needed tens of thousands of dollars to place his first order -- money he didn't readily have.

So to secure enough for a bulk order, Linsey launched a GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/kn95-masks-for-impacted-hospitals and began soliciting his social network. Through the crowdfunding platform and other funding sources, Linsey succeeded in raising $130,000 and so far has purchased 60,000 masks.

"I started this solely trying to find masks for my dad and the physicians he works with. I didn't envision a mass fundraiser for physicians across California," Linsey said.

Despite several flight delays and customs inquiries, this week Linsey was able to deliver 20,000 KN95 masks to hospitals in the Los Angeles area.

Next, Linsey plans to distribute masks across the Bay Area.

"Santa Clara Valley, the San Mateo Medical Center, Stanford Hospital, Mills-Peninsula, and Zuckerberg General are currently on our list, though we have yet to distribute to any of these," Linsey said.

Linsey plans to continue for at least another major round of shipments and to extend the initiative outside California.

"A couple weeks ago, everyone expected San Francisco and LA to follow similar trajectories as New York City," he said. "It's clear now that for the moment, New York is heavily impacted, so we are starting to talk to hospitals there."

With no certainty as to how long the coronavirus pandemic and mask shortage will last, Linsey has provided hospitals with details of his suppliers in China.

Still, his underlying hope is that U.S. manufacturers will ramp up production of N95 masks.

"I'd be extremely happy if the need for this sort of project no longer exists."

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
The Federation of European Publishers (FEP), a pan-European lobby that works on behalf of 29 different publishing associations, said that the publishing sector across Europe has already seen a 25% drop in anticipated revenue for 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis. The information was included in a letter to culture ministers, who are participating in an informal video conference on April 8 with the European Council to discuss measures to support publishing and other cultural industries.

"Yet, despite their serious financial and logistical difficulties, European publishers are supporting society in general as well as their communities with many initiatives during the crisis," Rudy Vanschoonbeek, president of the FEP, said in the letter.

The FEP asked Brussels to act fast in extending support for the industry, and asked the culture ministers to back a variety of proposals, including:

Requesting full support for the Creative Europe Programme as requested by the European Parliament, including a specific budget line dedicated to books.

Upgrading the Financial Guarantee dedicated to the creative sectors so as to cover the urgent liquidity needs of enterprises in the publishing value-chain.

Ensuring that any E.U. money earmarked to help address the crisis includes fund dedicated to the cultural sectors, including the book sector.

Financially supporting the entire book value chain to help it cope with the immediate effect of the crisis.

Stepping up public investments in buying books for institutions, particularly libraries in order to restore the sustainability of the sector.

Vanschoonbeek, who is founder and CEO of Belgian publishing house Uitgeverij Vrijdag and president of Vlaamse uitgevers Vereniging, closed with a direct plea to the culture ministers. "We often hear: books and culture are important for the future of Europe; they are a core asset of the European economy," he wrote. "Today is the time to demonstrate that the book sector is really a priority for Europe. We are counting on you."
Recovering Covid-19 patients pose with doctors at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi as they are discharged, April 7, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh.

27 Covid-19 patients including seven foreigners were discharged from hospitals across Vietnam on Tuesday, taking Vietnams tally of recovered patients to 122.

11 patients were discharged from Hanoi's National Hospital of Tropical Diseases, nine from three different hospitals in HCMC, two from Hue Central Hospital in central Vietnam and five from the Mekong Delta hospitals.

They would have to remain quarantined for the next 14 days.

Two patients discharged in Hue are a 66-year-old British woman and a 49-year-old British man, who were both on Vietnam Airlines flight VN54 that flew in from the U.K., landing March 2 in Hanoi. They were confirmed positive on March 8 and 9.

The two would be quarantined in a resort in Phu Vang District following their discharge.

In the Mekong Delta, four Vietnamese patients including a nine-year-old girl were discharged from Sa Dec General Hospital in Dong Thap Province and Binh Dai medical center in Ben Tre Province.

Among the discharged in HCMC, three are related to a March 14 party at the Buddha Bar & Grill, the largest Covid-19 hotspot in HCMC."Patient 98" is a 34-year-old British man who was confirmed positive on March 21, "Patient 120" is a 27-year-old Canadian man confirmed positive on March 23, and "Patient 159" is a 33-year-old Brazilian man confirmed positive on March 27.

Five other patients flew in from overseas: "Patient 95" is a 20-year-old resident of Go Vap District who flew in from France to Saigon's Tan Son Nhat Airport, landing March 18 and found positive four days later; "Patient 96" is a 21-year-old woman in District 8 who flew from Dubai to Tan Son Nhat March 19 and was confirmed positive March 22; "Patient 142" is a 26-year-old man in HCMCs Binh Chanh District who flew in from the U.S. March 10 and was confirmed positive three days later; "Patient 150" is a 55-year-old Vietnamese man flying in from the U.S. on March 13, before being confirmed infected on March 26; and "Patient 160" is a 30-year-old woman from the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong whod flown from Spain to Vietnam on March 22 and confirmed positive the same day.

"Patient 119" is a 29-year-old American man in Binh Thanh District. He was confirmed positive on March 23.

The discharged in Hanoi include a 29-year-old doctor working for the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi's Dong Anh District. He was confirmed positive on March 23, the first doctor in Vietnam, one working directly with Covid-19 patients, to be infected by the novel coronavirus.

Others include seven patients who were confirmed infected after flying from overseas. "Patient 21" is a 61-year-old man who flew in from the U.K. to Vietnam on March 2 and confirmed positive on March 8; "Patient 72" is a 25-year-old French woman flying to Hanoi on March 9 and confirmed positive on March 18; "Patient 84" is a 21-year-old man in Hanoi flying back from the U.K. on March 18 and confirmed positive on March 19; "Patient 111" is a 25-year-old woman from northern Nam Dinh Province, flying from from France to Hanoi on March 18 and was confirmed positive on March 22; "Patient 136" is a 23-year-old Hanoi woman flying from the U.S. on March 16 and confirmed positive on March 25; "Patient 137" is a 36-year-old man flying from Germany to Hanoi on March 15 and confirmed positive on March 25; and "Patient 222" is a 28-year-old Hanoi woman flying from the U.S. on March 20 and confirmed positive on April 2.

Three other patients discharged in Hanoi are related to Bach Mai Hospital, the country's largest Covid-19 hotspot.

"Patient 192" is a 21-year-old woman, an employee of Truong Sinh Company who provides food and other logistics services to the hospital. She was confirmed positive on March 30.

"Patient 197" is a 41-year-old man in Thanh Oai District. He went to Bach Mai Hospital for a health check-up on March 12 before being confirmed positive on March 30.

"Patient 200" is another employee of Truong Sinh Company. She works as a cleaner for the kitchen of Bach Mai Hospital, and was confirmed positive on March 30.

The 200th patient, 61, said: "I'm very glad that I'v tested negative and am free of the disease, so when I go back to my family it would not affect my children. I want to tell my children that they should feel assured as I have been taken care of."

Do Thi Phuong Mai, deputy director of the General Bacterial Infection Department at the Hanoi's National Hospital of Tropical Diseases, said treating Covid-19 patients is difficult as it is caused by a new virus strain. "We had to read many foreign documents to learn how to treat, find the drugs and their appropriate doses for Vietnamese people based on treatment regimens in foreign countries," she said.

The latest additions take the total Covid-19 recoveries in Vietnam to 122 of the 245 cases detected so far.

Globally, the Covid-19 pandemic has claimed over 74,700 lives.
A decade ago, Dominic Raab was readying himself for a possible career in frontline politics. On Tuesday, he will dial in to Cabinet as de factor Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The Foreign Secretary has spent much of the last month trying to get Britons repatriated from various far-flung corners of the globe amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The intricacies of negotiating border closures, grounded planes and stubborn international authorities has seen the Foreign Office come under increasing pressure to get its stranded citizens home.

But, in his dual role as First Secretary of State, Mr Raab will take on the added responsibility of caretaker prime minister while his boss, Boris Johnson, is unable to lead the country from the Intensive Care Unit at St Thomas hospital in central London.

Upon being appointed Foreign Secretary last summer, Mr Raab was soon thrust into handling the Transatlantic fall-out over the death of British teenager Harry Dunn, who was killed when his motorbike crashed into a car outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on August 27 last year.

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The fact Mr Dunns parents tried to heckle Mr Raab at a constituency hustings event was indicative of how well the family felt he dealt with obtaining justice for their son.

Mr Raab also had to manage the thorny issue of repatriating children of British jihadis.

By then, he had already established himself as an uncompromising figure in politics following his election to the seat of Esher and Walton in David Camerons sweeping Conservative victory of 2010.

He said he would probably not describe himself as a feminist, and rarely strayed from his dedication to leaving the European Union  the latter, an enviable characteristic for a Conservative government elected four months ago on a mandate to get Brexit done.

The former Brexit secretarys relentless commitment to the cause even led to him saying he would keep open the option of suspending Parliament in order to prevent MPs blocking it.

In fact, Mr Raab memorably quit his Cabinet role in protest against Theresa Mays doomed plan to leave the bloc in November 2018.

The former Foreign Office lawyer, who studied law at Oxford and for a Masters at Cambridge, is the son of a Czech-born Jewish refugee who fled the Nazis in 1938.

He was brought up in Buckinghamshire and is married to wife Erika.

Mr Raab has denied claims, made by his former diary secretary, that he insisted on the same Pret a Manger lunch every day.

The Dom Raab special apparently consists of a chicken Caesar and bacon baguette, superfruit pot and a vitamin volcano smoothie.

The karate black belt and father to two boys played up his image as a Brexit hard man during the 2019 Tory leadership race, but failed to progress to the final two.

On Tuesday, his ambitions to lead the country will  temporarily, at least, and not in the circumstances he would ever have wished for  become reality.
: Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland



has been utilising the kitchens located at its five manufacturing facilities to serve the doctors, paramedical staff and sanitary workers engaged in fighting against COVID19.

The city-based commercial vehicle major in a statement on Tuesday said it was providing food through kitchens in all its plants to civic and sanitary workers, health department officials.

The company has five major plants -- at Ennore, Hosur, technical centre near Chennai, Pant Nagar, Hinduja Foundries at Sriperumbudur.

The total number of people served on a daily basis was 7,200 from the kitchens located in the manufacturing facilities.

The company besides providing food was also offering 200 sets of personal protective equipment, basic essentials to doctors at Pant Nagar facility among others.

"...we at Ashok Leyland are constantly supporting the initiatives of the government by keeping pace with their needs,", company President -HR and Communications, Balachandar NV said.

"We will ensure that we extend support in all possible ways to those brave warriors who are at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19," he added.

Tamil Nadu reported 571 people who have tested positive for coronavirus while six people have lost their lives to COVID-19.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bosses at Cineworld have revealed a survival plan which includes deferring their annual salaries and bonuses for a year amid the Covid-19 crisis, triggering a 40 per cent share price surge.

In a bid to save cash, the cinema group, which has net debts of over 2.8billion, has also decided to 'suspend' its final dividend for last year and dividends for the rest of this year.

All 787 cinemas owned by the group in ten countries are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and the group warned last month it might be forced to shut down.

The cinema firm, which runs the Cineworld and boutique Picturehouse chains, has faced fierce criticism from its grassroots workforce, many of whom feel they have been left in the lurch by the company.

Deferral: Bosses at Cineworld have opted to defer their annual salaries and bonuses for a year amid the Covid-19 crisis

Last month, workers at Cineworld formed a group called the 'Cineworld Action Group'. In March, around 800 staff at Cineworld wrote a letter to the company's boss, Mooky Greidinger, demanding immediate reinstatement after being laid off the previous week.

At that stage, some staff said they had been made redundant, while others faced having their pay temporarily slashed by 60 per cent.

Since then, the group has pledged to offer its hourly-paid workforce a lifeline under the 'furloughed' option, which the UK government has introduced to cover 80 per cent of staff salaries up to 2,500 per month. A spokesperson for Cineworld could not confirm how many staff had been furloughed.

Cineworld said: 'We were very pleased when the government announced its Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to support companies like ours. This scheme has allowed us to put all of our employees who are unable to work on furlough, which means they will be able to keep their jobs and still be paid during the closure.

'The wellbeing of our employees is our top priority and we will continue to support them as much as possible.'

The challenges faced by Cineworld and other cinema companies remain stark, and the group today admitted it was in talks with its lenders about liquidity matters and was 'curtailing all unnecessary expenditure.'

Tough times: The challenges faced by Cineworld and other cinema companies remain stark

In a stock market update today, Cineworld said: 'Every effort is being made to mitigate the effect of the closures, to assist our employees and to preserve cash.

'These efforts include discussions with our landlords, the film studios and major suppliers, as well as curtailing all currently unnecessary capital expenditure.

'This is a painful but necessary process as before the onslaught of the COVID-19 virus, we were excited and confident about the Group's future prospects.

'We are also discussing the Group's ongoing liquidity requirements with our RCF banks.'

FTSE 250 listed Cineworld has seen its share price jump sharply this morning. Shares in the group are currently up 43.79 per cent or 17.35p to 56.96p. A year ago the shares were trading at around the 220p mark.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: 'A longer term question concerns the existential threat to the wider cinema industry. The upcoming release Trolls 2: World Tour  a sequel to the successful 2016 family film Trolls  will be the first major studio title with family appeal to go straight to streaming services when it drops on 10 April.

'If it is successful questions may be raised about the viability of cinema, nine years after Ben Stiller comedy outing Tower Heist flirted with the idea of a video-on-demand release at $60 a viewing to pretty much coincide with its theatrical debut.

'It is worth noting that predictions for the death of cinema have been made before, notably in the 1950s and 1980s when the advent of TV and home video respectively led to declines in admissions, but the industry ultimately recovered. Cineworld and its investors will hoping for a repeat this time.'

Cineworld runs 102 cinemas in the UK and Ireland, with over 1,030 screens.
Questions about the independence of the programs inspector general emerged almost immediately after the president signed the $2 trillion economic relief package into law.

In an unusual signing statement, Mr. Trump suggested he had the power to decide what information a newly created inspector general intended to monitor the fund could share with Congress. That prompted concern among lawmakers and watchdog groups, which said Mr. Trumps statement went further than previous presidents in limiting the authority of the inspector general.

The president has not been shy about his resistance to independent oversight in recent weeks, particularly individuals who played a role in the impeachment proceedings.

On Friday night, after announcing that he intended to nominate Mr. Miller, Mr. Trump also said that he was firing the intelligence communitys inspector general who alerted lawmakers to a whistle-blower complaint about the presidents dealings with Ukraine.

At a news conference on Monday, Mr. Trump assailed a Department of Health and Human Services inspector general for writing a report detailing equipment shortages that hospitals face as they confront the coronavirus. Mr. Trump suggested that the report was politically motivated because the inspector general was first appointed during the Obama administration.

Mr. Trump further eroded the oversight architecture of the $2 trillion economic stabilization package on Tuesday when he removed Glenn A. Fine, the Defense Departments acting inspector general who had been tapped to lead a separate Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, and replaced him with Sean ODonnell, who is the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Fine had been selected to lead the committee by a panel of inspectors general.

A White House spokesman declined to make Mr. Miller available for an interview and would not comment on whether he had a role in drafting the signing statement or discuss his level of involvement in the impeachment process.
Tiger Shroff Doesn't Have The Spiritual Face!

Mukesh also added that someone had suggested Tiger Shroff for the role (in new Shaktimaan), but he feels that Tiger doesn't have the spiritual face that is needed for the character.

All These Big Actors Already Have An Image, That Will Come In The Way

The Mahabharat actor was quoted by the leading daily as saying, "It's not the action that made Shaktimaan popular, it was because of this superpowers, messages and values of life. All these big actors already have an image, that will come in the way. For me Shaktimaan is still as iconic as it was in 1997. I am still known as Shaktimaan. It has to be made keeping me in it. It is difficult casting even for us."

Mukesh Khanna Cant Make New Shaktimaan Like Ektas Mahabharata

When asked about his vision for the new version of Shaktimaan, he said, "The new version of Shaktimaan cannot be the way Ekta Kapoor made Mahabharata (in 2008) by putting a tattoo on Draupadi's shoulder. She had said that she was making Mahabharata for modern people."

Mukesh Says He Cant Murder Shaktimaan As Ekta Murdered Mahabharat

Mukesh said that he can't murder Shaktimaan as Ekta murdered Mahabharat and added that he had talks with big television production companies but things did not work out as it didn't fall in their strategy. He feels that it's their loss as whoever makes Shaktimaan will earn money. Mukesh further said that he has now made a deal with someone!

The Actor Slams Ekta Kapoor

The actor continued to slam Ekta and said, "If the serial name would be 'Kyunki Greek Bhi Kabhi Hindustani the', then I would accept Ekta's Mahabharat. Who has given them the right to slaughter an epic? They have changed the actual version of Devarath's 'Bhishma Pratigya' to something else and created a vamp-like image for Satyavati, among other things in the show. They tried to be smarter than Vyas muni (Vyasa who wrote Mahabharata) to which I have an objection. I want to point out that Ramayana and Mahabharata are not mythologies, they are our histories."
THE entire world is still in the battle against common enemy  COVID  19. Even the few countries that have not reported any cases are reeling from the pandemic because the current global economy is so interconnected that ones demise becomes global.

No records of the similar incidence to have occurred on earth  not in the recent epochs. This plague, as it is a norm during emergency, has made consumers selective of products, from essential to non  essential ones.

As such, those who are in the non  essential food industry have already started facing the scourge of Corona.

According to FAO Food Price Index, the global food prices has declined by 4.3 per cent in the past month of March  the lowest since 2015.

Bloomberg reports that the biggest losers in this category are sugar and vegetable oils. Major reason being the plunge in crude oil, which has also been affected by cancellation of flights by major airline companies.

Relationship between sugar, corn and vegetable oils and airline companies comes from the fact that, they are useful in production biofuels.

So thats on the consumption side, a point which pulls the whole value chain. A prolific Economist and unorthodox thinker of a South Korean decent, Professor Ha Joon  Changs did a research on a number of value chains in the world, and came up with a rather commendable revelation that, the farmers that produces cotton earns only 1.9 per cent of the international market price, leaving the rest  98 per cent  in the hands of cloth weavers and fashion designers.

Simply put, in the country like Tanzania, whose 65 per cent of 55 million people are primary producers in the agriculture sector, earns a peanut in the global supply chain.

To understand it better, a trouser made in Turkey with cotton produced by famers in Mwanza, sold at a price of 30,000/- , leaves a Tanzanian farmer with 570 shillings only.

It couldnt be more meager. It is now more than clear that a farmer is a daily loser in our business duel. In a usual respect, this calls for a more specific and concerned intervention especially in times such as these. If this outbreak persists, farmers are going to lose much.

For those in the tea and coffee industry are expected to experience a 14 per cent slash in their price in few days to come. Situation may get worse as the days count on.

To keep the economic ball rolling, some actions must be assumed at this juncture. And one item can be subsidies in all the value chains, most especially those which are closely connected to global supply chain.

This will be a humanitarian gesture as well as relief package that aims at preventing the sector from total collapse as it keep on survival as we struggle to return the situation into sanity.

This subsidy will help cushioning them from global price slump and make them feel little pressure to abandon the practice altogether.

Furthermore, these farmers takes the larger component of our population, one they are liquid enough, it is natural that their spending capacity will increase which will help pepping up our economy as they will spend on products sold in the country. But thats just one side of the coin.

The subsidy can be in the form of a stimulus package, if properly utilized it will be the greatest investment in agriculture the country has ever made.

This is the reason behind; COVID  19 has brought about restriction and liberalization in the world at the same time. Both might have tremendous effects if we will be prepared.

Countries like Vietnam and Philippines have banned exportation of rice as of 30th March 2020. Switzerland have liberalized import quotas on butter and eggs on 1st April 2020.

One thing you will realize from this is that they are all trying to ensure food security in their borders  they smell the shortage of it.

No wonder price of rice, a staple for millions of people in Asia, has risen for the past three months. All these products have been produced in Tanzania for ages now, but our supply chains been ending on the Eastern Africa region only.

If we will make our farmers produce much, and Ministry of Trade in collaboration with Foreign Affairs actively enters bilateral agreements to supply those crops to the particular countries, it will be a superb thing our country could do to cease the moment.

Whichever way we will take, our farmers have families to feed and community responsibilities to cater for, they are too valuable to be redundant at this time, above all, they are the potent force of economy our country can bet on.

It is high time that Government of Tanzania and allied partners plan to rescue the situation and see beyond bleak colours before it is too late.
This pandemic crisis is making for some strange alliances and friendships.

Youve got conservative premiers praising the federal governments disaster response. Weve seen small business groups express praise and appreciation for the same thing. Liberal Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has taken to describing Ontario Premier Doug Ford as her therapist, and Ford cant find enough words to praise the work Freeland is doing throughout the crisis. These are just a few examples.

A natural thing to wonder about is whether or not some of this constructive goodwill might remain behind once the crisis passes. While it would be nice to think so, its also probably naive. In any case, it is worth keeping in mind that there is more that unites us than divides us, especially in a crisis.

Another thing that unites Canadians is being angry with Donald Trump. His latest outrageous decision is to invoke emergency legislation to prevent American manufacturers from exporting personal protective equipment to Canada and Mexico. U.S.-based 3M is the latest to face Trumps wrath because they have long-standing commitments to export PPE to other markets, including Canada.

Trump has brushed aside all concerns about his inhumane and foolish decision. America first, and last, seems to be his view, and to hell with everyone else. Canadians across the political spectrum, including premiers in nearly every province, have expressed their alarm and outrage. The decision prompted Doug Ford to pledge that Ontario will never again be in the position of having to rely on neighbours like America, which has now proven to be untrustworthy on more than one occasion.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has wisely remained stubbornly diplomatic about Trumps latest antic. He is scheduled to speak with the president in the next few days. Hopefully he can convince Trump of the foolishness of this isolationist position. While Trudeau has stayed on the diplomatic high road, he has also been careful to mention, more than once, that the door swings both ways.

On Monday, mayors in Windsor and Sault Ste. Marie announced that health-care workers who typically move back and forth between Canada and the U.S. to work in both countries will need to choose one and stay there. This was done to reduce the spread of COVID-19 between Michigan, where it is running rampant, and Ontario. But it is worth considering the opinion of Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, who says there is at least one Detroit hospital that would have to close without Canadian workers.

What would happen if Canada ordered Canadian health workers to stay on this side of the border at least until this crisis passes?

Heres another example. Canada is the worlds leading producer of medical isotopes, which are necessary for use in medical imaging technology to detect cancer and other illnesses. What would happen if Canada decided to keep our medical isotopes at home, to ensure there is always an adequate supply for Canadians before anyone else?

Interestingly, many of the same people angry about Trumps unethical decision were also angry about our government exporting PPE to China at the height of the COVID-19 crisis there. Now they know what its like to be on the losing side of that equation.

Justin Trudeau knows some critical things Donald Trump does not. Pandemics dont respect borders, which is why efforts to fight coronavirus here are intrinsically related to efforts to fight it in America. Allies need to trust and respect one another, through thick and thin. And if you treat friends badly for long enough, what goes around will come around.

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NEW YORK and MONTVALE, N.J., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS) released today from ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and IMA  (Institute of Management Accountants) found that the coronavirus pandemic led to global economic confidence dropping to the lowest levels on record in all regions during Q1 2020.

GECS is the largest regular economic survey of accountants around the world, in terms of both the number of respondents and the range of economic variables it monitors. The full report is available here and at https://www.imanet.org/insights-and-trends/global-economic-conditions-survey?ssopc=1.

The survey was conducted between February 28 and March 12, 2020, and since then, the pandemic has worsened in many other regions across the globe, including the United States. ACCA and IMA note that the Q1 GECS only begins to paint the picture of the global economic collapse brought on by the coronavirus.

"In normal circumstances, economic conditions change little in the space of just a few weeks. But these are not normal circumstances. So, although global confidence and orders both fell significantly in the Q1 survey, they do not convey the true scale of the global economic contraction that is now in progress," said Raef Lawson, Ph.D., CMA, CPA, IMA vice president of research and policy. "What is abundantly clear is that the global economy is heading into a recession, initially at least a severe one."

Overall, the report noted that global confidence fell to its lowest level on record  since the GECS was first conducted a decade ago - with big falls in all regions. The global orders index, which tends to be less volatile than confidence, also fell sharply but not to an all-time low.

"The global economy is heading into recession as private economic activity collapses due to an effective lockdown in many countries. If these conditions were to persist for three months or longer, then falls in output approaching 10% would be entirely possible," said Warner Johnston, Head of ACCA USA. "Early data releases, such as US jobless claims and monthly activity surveys in the US, eurozone, and UK point to plunging levels of economic output. Emerging market economies face additional difficulties as a flight to quality among investors triggers capital outflows."

Added Lawson, "There will inevitably be long term economic consequences, although at this stage, much is conjecture. But what is certain is that the public finances in many countries will be in very large deficits this year, probably often double-digits as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and greater than reached during the 2008/09 financial crisis. Once economies start to recover and temporary income support measures are removed, these deficits will shrink rapidly. But they will remain substantial and fiscal retrenchment will be necessary at some point. Given the nature of this crisis, it seems likely that this will be achieved more through higher taxation than through reduced public spending."

The coronavirus was beginning to spread to North America at the time of the Q1 2020 GECS survey. But many of the restrictive measures that cause economic contraction were not in place. The longest economic expansion in US history of over 10 years is coming to an abrupt end.

Among other findings in the report:

Two of the most significant economic regions, Europe and the U.S., are among the most badly affected. One early measure of the scale of the economic impact is the ten-fold increase to 3.3 million in U.S. jobless claims recorded for the third week in March.

and the U.S., are among the most badly affected. One early measure of the scale of the economic impact is the ten-fold increase to 3.3 million in U.S. jobless claims recorded for the third week in March. Global equity prices are down by around 30% since the start of the year and corporate bond yields have risen sharply, both factors raising the cost of capital for companies.

Commodity prices have fallen sharply, especially for oil. Oil prices have collapsed by over 50% since the start of this year. Oil exporters will suffer a further significant hit to their economies as oil revenues collapse.

In many countries, the scale of government intervention will resemble war-type conditions: huge state involvement funded mainly by increased borrowing. The fiscal cost will be very large indeed as public sector deficits and debt will soar; deficits in many cases will rise well into double digits as a percentage of GDP.

Global trade will fall sharply this year, possibly by as much as 20%.

The report notes that a short-term hit to global GDP will almost certainly be greater than during the 2008/09 recession, which at its low point recorded global GDP falling at an annual rate of around 2.5%. Unlike that downturn, however, the 2020 coronavirus recession is truly global in nature with no region of any economic significance spared.

Some of the lost economic activity is likely to be recouped, for example, in delayed purchases of consumer durables such as televisions and white goods will eventually take place. But much will be permanently lost, including in the service sector, such as cancelled visits to hotels, bars, restaurants, and cinemas that are never regained.

"The economic damage in the coming months will be huge," Johnston said. "But if appropriate policy action is taken, then conditions for recovery will be in place when the COVID-19 health crisis is substantially over. Once confidence is restored, then this recovery should gather momentum, even if it is initially rather patchy. For now, the focus of economic policy is on preventing the coronavirus pandemic from causing significant and permanent damage to the global economy."

Fieldwork for the Q1 2020 GECS took place between February 28, 2020 and March 12, 2020 and attracted responses from 983 ACCA and IMA members around the world, including more than 100 CFOs.

About ACCA

ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants, offering business-relevant, first-choice qualifications to people of application, ability and ambition around the world who seek a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management.

ACCA supports its 219,000 members and 527,000 students (including affiliates) in 179 countries, helping them to develop successful careers in accounting and business, with the skills required by employers. ACCA works through a network of 110 offices and centres and 7,571 Approved Employers worldwide, and 328 approved learning providers who provide high standards of learning and development. Through its public interest remit, ACCA promotes appropriate regulation of accounting and conducts relevant research to ensure accountancy continues to grow in reputation and influence.

ACCA has introduced major innovations to its flagship qualification to ensure its members and future members continue to be the most valued, up to date and sought-after accountancy professionals globally. Founded in 1904, ACCA has consistently held unique core values: opportunity, diversity, innovation, integrity and accountability. More information is here: www.accaglobal.com

About IMA (Institute of Management Accountants)

IMA, named the 2017 and 2018 Professional Body of the Year by The Accountant/International Accounting Bulletin, is one of the largest and most respected associations focused exclusively on advancing the management accounting profession. Globally, IMA supports the profession through research, the CMA (Certified Management Accountant) and CSCA (Certified in Strategy and Competitive Analysis) programs, continuing education, networking and advocacy of the highest ethical business practices. IMA has a global network of more than 125,000 members in 150 countries and 300 professional and student chapters. Headquartered in Montvale, N.J., USA, IMA provides localized services through its four global regions: The Americas, Asia/Pacific, Europe, and Middle East/India. For more information about IMA, please visit www.imanet.org.

SOURCE ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants)

Related Links

http://www.accaglobal.com


By Online Desk

One COVID-19 patient is likely to infect 406 people in 30 days if he or she refuses to follow lockdown restrictions or social distancing, the Health Ministry said on Monday, while quoting from a recent ICMR study. Addressing the routine press briefing, the ministry informed that the total number of coronavirus cases in India have increased to 4789 including 124 deaths.

Luv Aggarwal, joint secretary in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare also said that the government is looking at designing a strategy for cluster containment.

Furthermore, the ICMR has tested over one lakh people and roped in 59 more private labs.

Earlier in the day, there were reports that the Centre, after following requests from several state governments and experts, is considering extending the three-week-long COVID-19 lockdown after April 14, government sources said. However, the health ministry in its briefing urged the media to not speculate on it.
A total of more than 126 billion VND (over 5.35 million USD) had been raised via a texting campaign for Vietnams fight against the COVID-19 as at 11am on April 5, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.

A texting campaign is launched last month to call for public support for the countrys COVID-19 relief efforts.

The campaign was launched on March 19 by the ministry, the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Ministry of Health, and the Vietnam Red Cross Society (VRCS) to call for public support for the countrys COVID-19 relief efforts.

Donors can donate by texting CV n to 1407, of which n is the multiple of 20,000 VND (0.85 USD), which is also the cost of each message.

All funds collected will be used to purchase medical supplies and other necessities for healthcare workers, soldiers, and police officers who are in the front line of the battle against the virus. Funds will also be used to support the patients of the disease and those in quarantine.

The campaign will last until June 18.

Domestic telecom service providers have been working with the health ministry to set up wifi access free of charge for medical workers, soldiers, volunteers, and others in state-designated quarantine centers.

The VRCS Central Committee received more than 5,500 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical workers on April 6 from the Golden Time Group JSC.

Including protective clothing, goggles, gloves, and masks, the PPE sets will be sent to hospitals in Hanoi and HCM City treating infected patients./.VNA

12 shining examples of VN volunteering and acts of kindness in the COVID-19 pandemic Times of crisis can often bring out the best in people. As the COVID-19 situation becomes more and more complicated in Vietnam, many have stepped up to help doctors and their communities, any way they can.
Vega Verde is a leading producer of BIO citrus in Europe. They distribute their products in the Rewe Group, Alnatura and Kaufland supermarkets in Germany, Nemlig.com in Denmark and Hofer in Austria. Vega Verde has 40 hectares, certified by DEMETER, with a significant production of Verna lemon.

MALAGA, Spain, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vega Verde, a family business dedicated to the production, packaging and export of BIO products for more than 20 years, maintains its productive and exporting capacity despite the current international health emergency.

The pandemic has not prevented the company's workers from carrying out their work in an optimal way, complying with all the established security measures. More than 250 people working across different areas (agricultural production, harvesting, quality, packaging and administration), are aware of the importance of the agri-food service provided to society, and have responded efficiently to consumer needs.

Vega Verde is one of the main producers and exporters of BIO citrus, and they distribute their products daily throughout Europe. With a production of more than 23,000 tons of oranges, tangerines, lemons, limes, clementines and grapefruits, they have some of the largest production schedules in the sector.

The main destinations of Vega Verde's exports are France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Eastern Europe and Austria. This highlights the economic relevance of the BIO citrus sector at European level for its variety and quality.

The company has 650 hectares dedicated to production in Andalusia, Spain. For Miguel Espinosa, Vega Verde's sales manager: "Production and distribution have hardly been diminished by the COVID-19 crisis. We continue our activity by providing a healthy supply to the consumer, in accordance with the European Union's sustainability, environment and biodiversity programs."

Growth forecast

The company will increase its productive capacity in the next 5 years, based on a vertical integration strategy, bringing high added value to its final product. Miguel Espinosa points out that "Our agricultural operations are developed within a framework of sustainability and integration in the biodiversity of the area. We alternate citrus crops with the planting of native tree and shrub species, thus promoting agro-ecological agriculture. It is a type of crop that respects the ecosystem and has a positive impact on both the quality of the product and the ecosystem."

Due to the growing trend of BIO citrus consumption in the international market, Vega Verde foresees a growth of 15% to 20% in the next three years.

https://www.vegaverde.es
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark plans to reopen day care centres and schools on April 15 as a first step to gradually relax a three-week lockdown to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, the country's prime minister said on Monday.

The Nordic country, which was one of the first in Europe to shut down, has seen the number of coronavirus-related hospitalisations and deaths stabilise over the past week.

It is now trying to balance the need to keep its population safe and the economic risks of a deep recession, tough decisions that many other governments around the world have lying ahead of them.

"This will probably be a bit like walking the tightrope. If we stand still along the way we could fall and if we go too fast it can go wrong. Therefore, we must take one cautious step at a time," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a media briefing.

Denmark on March 11 announced closure of schools, day cares, restaurants, cafes and gyms, and shut all borders to most foreigners.

Frederiksen day care centres and schools for children in first to fifth grade will reopen on April 15, which will allow parents to return to a normal workday.

All remaining restrictions including a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people would stay in place until at least May 10, while a ban on larger gatherings would remain in place until August.

Frederiksen cautioned that the gradual reopening would only happen if the numbers stay stable and she urged all Danes to stick to the government's guidelines on social distancing and hygiene.

The number of daily deaths slowed to seven on Sunday from 14 on Saturday and 18 on Friday, while the number of hospitalisations has fallen slightly over the past week. Denmark has reported 187 coronavirus-related deaths and total of 4,681 infected.

"If we open Denmark too quickly again we risk that infections rise too sharply and then we have to close down again," Frederiksen said.

Denmark is the second country in Europe to provide dates and details on a gradual reopening of its coronavirus lockdown after Austria earlier on Monday said it was preparing for a "resurrection" the day after Easter by reopening some shops.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Stine Jacobsen; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Grant McCool)
Strict restrictions on the movement of people in Kashmir to contain the spread of coronavirus remained in force for the 20th consecutive day on Tuesday, even as police arrested 17 persons for defying the lockdown orders here, officials said.

Acting tough against violators of prohibitory orders, police on Monday arrested the 17 persons.

Police arrested three persons, including a shopkeeper, and seized a vehicle for violating the prohibitory orders in the jurisdiction of police stations Nishat and Harwan.

In the jurisdiction of police stations RM Bagh and Nowgam, police arrested nine persons and also seized eight vehicles for violating the government prohibitory orders, they added.

Similarly, the officials said, in the jurisdiction of police station Khanyar, police arrested five persons for violating the restrictions.

Cases under relevant sections of the law have been registered against all of them and further investigation has been initiated, they said.

Several persons have been arrested across the valley since the lockdown began as police has warned of strict action against those violating the restrictions imposed by the Government in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Tight curbs are in place across the valley in view of the surge in the number of positive cases in Kashmir.

The security forces have sealed off the main roads in the valley and erected barriers at several places to check the unwanted movement of the people and to enforce the lockdown, the officials said.

Markets across the valley were shut and public transport was off the roads with only pharmacies and groceries allowed to open, they added.

Educational institutions across Kashmir have been closed, while all public places including gymnasiums, parks, clubs and restaurants have been shut down more than a week before the nationwide lock down announced by the Prime Minister.

While the Prime Minister announced the country-wide lockdown on the evening of March 24, the union territory administration here had on March 22 announced a lockdown across Jammu and Kashmir till 31 March as part of its efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

The administration said essential services including healthcare personnel have been exempted from the restrictions.

Restrictions were first imposed in many parts of the valley on March 19 to contain the spread of the virus infection. The measures were taken after a 67-year-old woman from Khanyar area of the city, who had returned on 16 March from Saudi Arabia after performing Umrah, tested positive for COVID-19 infection.

The authorities have started an aggressive contact tracing campaign across the union territory to contain the spread of the infection.

The total number of positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir has gone up to 106. While two patients have died, four have recovered while another seven have tested negative after undergoing treatment. These patients will undergo another test before they will be discharged from hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Vietnamese patient was discharged from a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday, over two weeks from his hospitalization with severely damaged lungs for treatment for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The man, a 55-year-old, resides in Tan Dinh Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.

The patient, Vietnams 150th case, was emotional when he extended his sincere thanks to the health workers at the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases upon his discharge.

Doctors had met with quite a few difficulties in treating the patient, said Dr. Nguyen Thanh Phong, head of the infectious disease department at the hospital.

The patient was hospitalized on March 24. His lungs were seriously damaged so he was given respiratory support together with antibiotics.

He has fully recovered after more than three weeks of care at the hospital, Dr. Phong said, adding that the patient is required to self-isolate at home for another 14 days.

On March 13, the patient returned to Vietnam from the U.S., with transit time in Taiwan, aboard EVA Air flight BR395. Their seats were 2D and 2K.

Their flight landed at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City.

He went home after entry, as Vietnam only started enforcing compulsory isolation of all arrivals from foreign countries on March 21.

The man visited many places and came into contact with a lot of people from March 14 to 18.

He came to the Family Medical Practice clinic at 34 Le Duan Boulevard in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City for a consultation on March 18.

He was then advised to have his health checked at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, where he tested negative for the novel coronavirus for the first time.

He was still sent to a field hospital for COVID-19 in Can Gio, an outlying district of Ho Chi Minh City.

He had a fever, sore throat, and coughing on March 23 before testing positive in a conclusive test.

He was transferred back to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases one day later.

He was among nine patients discharged from hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday.

Thirty-one out of 53 patients in the southern Vietnamese hub have made a full recovery.

Vietnam added four new cases to the national tally to make it 249 patients in total on Tuesday, when the country also announced 27 hospital discharges.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Health has declared 122 patients free of the virus so far.

Over 94,000 coronavirus tests have been conducted in Vietnam, the minstry said.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Friends star Matt Le Blanc has shared a morsel of information on the show's reunion-special, after it was put on hold amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The actor - who played soap star Lothario Joey Tribbiani on the American sitcom - has claimed that 'we got the band back together without the instruments!' when he appeared on a pre-recorded segment for The Kelly Clarkson Show this week.

As reported by US publication TV Guide, Matt's comments have led many to believe that the one-off has in fact already been filmed.

Tease: Friends star Matt Le Blanc has shared a morsel of information on the show's reunion-special, after it was put on hold amid the global COVID-19 pandemic

Matt, 52, added: 'It's the six of us together talking about the good old days.'

The special will feature fellow cast members Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox.

Filming was scheduled to begin at the end of March, but production was said to be pushed to May at the earliest, according to Variety.

HBO Max and Warner Bros. Television declined to comment, but the delay is just the latest production to be sidelined by the outbreak of the deadly virus.

In the can? The actor has claimed that 'we got the band back together without the instruments!' leading many to believe that the one-off has in fact already been filmed

How YOU doin'? The actor played soap star Lothario Joey Tribbiani on the American sitcom

Delayed: The long-awaited Friends reunion special has become the latest victim of the coronavirus, with production being delayed

While there had been rumors and speculation about a Friends reunion for years, The Hollywood Reporter revealed in November that a reunion special is happening at HBO Max.

Each of the show's main stars - Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer - were in talks to return, with series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman.

The deals were finalized and the reunion special was officially announced in late February, confirming the cast will reunite for an, 'untitled unscripted special.'

Reunion special: While there had been rumors and speculation about a Friends reunion for years, The Hollywood Reporter revealed in November that a reunion special is happening at HBO Max

The special is slated to be filmed on Stage 24 of the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank, where the original series was filmed.

The special was supposed to help kick off the HBO Max streaming service when it launches in mid-May.

The streaming service will also carry all 236 episodes of Friends through the original sitcom's iconic 10-season run.

Original series: The special is slated to be filmed on Stage 24 of the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank, where the original series was filmed

WarnerMedia reportedly shelled out a whopping $425 million over five years to air the original series, outbidding Netflix.

Netflix had previously shelled out between $80 million and $100 million for the Friends streaming rights just in 2019 alone.

Nielsen had previously reported that Friends was among the most-watched shows on Netflix, though they don't release any official viewership data.

Streaming hit: WarnerMedia reportedly shelled out a whopping $425 million over five years to air the original series, outbidding Netflix

The Friends special is just the latest in a long line of film and TV productions to be either canceled or delayed due to the spread of COVID-19.

On the TV side, shows like Amazon's Lord of the Rings, Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale and Netflix's Stranger Things were shut down, just to name a few.

Movies such as The Matrix 4, Fantastic Beasts 3 and all of the Avatar sequels have been sidelined as well.

Watch every episode of Friends on soon-to-be-launched HBO Max, or on Stan in Australia now.
1. Jeetendra Movies - Jigri Dost (1969)

2. Jeetendra Movies - Jaise Ko Taisa (1973)

3. Jeetendra Movies - Dulhan (1975)

4. Jeetendra Movies - Jyoti Bane Jwala (1980)

5. Jeetendra Movies - Meri Aawaz Suno (1981)

6. Jeetendra Movies - Pyaasa Sawan (1981)

7. Jeetendra Movies - Farz Aur Kanoon (1982)

8. Jeetendra Movies - Mawaali (1983)

9. Jeetendra Movies - Justice Chaudhary (1983)

10. Jeetendra Movies - Sarfarosh (1985)

11. Jeetendra Movies - Singhasan (1986)



Gandhars army commander Vikram Singh (Jeetendra) and Prince of Avanthi Aditya Vardhan (Jeetendra) look alike. Both defer in temperament, however. While Vikram is dedicated to his duty and worships his land, the Prince only believes in having a good time. They both have a set of enemies who want to do away with them. Adityas problems are more severe and when they duo meet, he proposes that Vikram should pose as him, rule his kingdom for a while and set things right. Vikram manages to fulfil that fairly well. Aditya marries his girlfriend Chandana (Mandakini) who despite being a vishkanya gets cured due to love. His enemies accuse that Aditya is actually Vikram who has taken over after murdering the king and want him to be hanged for the crime. But Vikram hears of it in the nick of time and destroys the enemies once and for all.



Gandhars army commander Vikram Singh (Jeetendra) and Prince of Avanthi Aditya Vardhan (Jeetendra) look alike. Both defer in temperament, however. While Vikram is dedicated to his duty and worships his land, the Prince only believes in having a good time. They both have a set of enemies who want to do away with them. Adityas problems are more severe and when they duo meet, he proposes that Vikram should pose as him, rule his kingdom for a while and set things right. Vikram manages to fulfil that fairly well. Aditya marries his girlfriend Chandana (Mandakini) who despite being a vishkanya gets cured due to love. His enemies accuse that Aditya is actually Vikram who has taken over after murdering the king and want him to be hanged for the crime. But Vikram hears of it in the nick of time and destroys the enemies once and for all.

Jeetendra was one of the busiest of our stars right from the 60s to the 90s. He was the darling of the South producers and spent a huge part of his career either in Hyderabad or in Chennai shooting South remakes. Hes said to be the Bollywood actor who has done the most double roles. We present afor your viewing pleasure this lockdown.Director: Ravikant NagaichCast: Jeetendra, Mumtaz, KomalThe film is a remake of the Kannada film Emme Thammanna (1966), starring Dr Rajkumar. The actress Komal in the film is none other than Poonam Sinha nee Chandiramani. She was crowned Miss India in 1968 and appeared in films under the screen name Komal. The film had the evergreen rural number Mere des mein, extolling the virtues of village life. Gopi (Jeetendra) is a simple village lad devoted to his livestock. He incurs the wrath of the Chairman Neelkanth (KN Singh) and has to flee. His friend Kasturi (Jagdeep) helps him change his appearance. Circumstances lead him to the house of advocate Narayan Das (Agha), who mistakes him for Anand (Jeetendra), a young lawyer who was supposed to apprentice with him. Gopi falls in love with Shobha (Mumtaz) and Anand falls in love with Indu (Komal), the chairmans daughter. Theres a revenge plot also in it somewhere revolving around the chairman and Anands father. Thanks to their lookalike features, the two friends take care of the baddies and marry their respective sweethearts.Director: Murugan KumaranCast: Jeetendra, Reena Roy, SrividyaThe film is a remake of Kannada film Bhale Jodi (1970) starring Dr Rajkumar. It shares a similar plot to the Dilip Kumar starrer Ram Aur Shyam (1967). That film had Dilip Kumar playing twin brothers, here they are merely lookalikes. The film contains the evergreen RD Burman number Ab ke saawan mein jee dare. Vijay (Jeetendra) is a collegian who desperately needs money for his mothers illness. He enters a house to steal the money and is surprised to find another man Vinod (Jeetendra) there who looks exactly like him. The good-hearted Vinod lends him the money. Later, Vinod lands up at Vijays house asking for help. Vinods greedy relatives have made life hell for him and he fears they might kill him. Vijay swaps places with him and teaches a lesson to the wrong-doers, turning the tables on them. It was a fun watch with Jeetendra excelling in both the roles.Director: C. V. RajendranCast: Jeetendra, Hema Malini, JamunaA remake of Telugu film Sarada (1973), its a poignant story of a woman who loses her sanity after her husbands death and how a stranger helps her regain stability. Radha (Hema Malini) falls in love with Ashok (Jeetendra), a doctor. The duo gets married in due time. Hes dedicated to his patients and on his marriage night itself, he gets killed in an accident while trying to reach an emergency patient. Radha loses her mental equilibrium hearing this. She believes her husband to be alive and hopes of his return. One day, when a stranger comes to their village, the villagers initially mistake him for a ghost. When he learns of Radhas condition, he pretends to be her husband to help her. Hes married and his own wife Jamuna helps him in this kind cause. Radha does manage to retain her wits by the end and comes to accept her reality. The film had realistic performances not only by the lead actors but by the whole ensemble cast as well.Director: Dasari Narayana RaoCast: Jeetendra, Waheeda Rehman, Sarika, Moushumi ChatterjeeDasari Narayana Rao remade his own Telugu language film Katakatala Rudraiah (1978) as Jyoti Bane Jwala. Suraj (Jeetendra) and Malti (Waheeda Rehman) are very much in love and want to get married. However, Suraj dies before that could happen and a pregnant Malti is taken away by her father to a remote area. She gives birth to a son but her father throws it in the dustbin and tells her she gave birth to a stillborn child. Malti marries OP Bakshi (Sriram Lagoo) and has a son by him called Arjun who grows up to be a police inspector. After many years, she spots a young man who looks exactly like her late lover and thinks she has found her long-lost son. But the young man, Jyoti (Jeetendra) is also hiding a secret. People suspect hes the ruthless don Jwala Singh. How Jyoti/Jwala meets with his long-lost mother and makes matters right forms the crux of the film.Director: S. V. Rajendra Singh BabuCast: Jeetendra, Hema Malini, Parveen BabiS. V. Rajendra Singh Babu converted his own Kannada language film Antha starring Ambareesh into Meri Aawaz Suno. The film depicted the nexus between the politicians, police and criminals quite boldly and courted controversy when it first got released. Jeetendra plays an honest police officer who leaves behind his pregnant wife (Hema Malini) to take part in a secret mission. He looks very much like a dreaded criminal Kunwar Lal (Jeetendra) who is in lock-up currently. The inspector takes his place in the gang and learns all the secrets. He gets the shock of his life when he learns that prominent politicians, members of the judiciary as well as the police force are hands-in-glove with the criminal elements. He gathers evidence to expose them all but is betrayed at the last minute. The criminals torture him relentlessly and even kill his wife and unborn child in front of him. He escapes with the help of Parveen Babis character, gathers the evidence, beats up the bad guys and takes them all directly to the court. The film leaves you with the question as to whether the court will listen to his plea and punish the culprits or whether theyll get away scot-free.Director: Dasari Narayana RaoCast: Jeetendra, Reena Roy, Moushumi ChatterjeeDasari Narayana Rao converted his own Telugu movie Yedanthasthula Meda (1980) into Pyaasa Sawan. The film revolved around the father-son bond and showcased how a father opens up about his own life to teach a valuable lesson to his son. Chandrakant (Jeetendra) is a young man belonging to the middle-class. Shanti (Moushumi Chatterjee) is a girl belonging to rich parents. They fall in love and they get married against the wishes of her father. Once, her father publicly humiliates Chandrakant for being poor and he vows to earn more money than his father-in-law. He works 24/7 to achieve that end but in the process starts neglecting his wife. He does manage to erect an empire but learns that Shanti is terminally ill. Hes unable to save her despite his riches and regrets not spending enough time with her. Years later, his son Ravi (Jeetendra) grows up and takes over the business. He wants to expand it further and as a result, starts neglecting his wife Manorma (Reena Roy). Chandrakant learns of this when he returns from his travels and narrates his own story to Ravi, asking him not to repeat the same mistakes.Director: K. Raghavendra RaoCast: Jeetendra, Hema Malini, Rati Agnihotri, Raj KiranDirector K. Raghavendra Rao rebooted his own Telugu film Kondaveeti Simham (1981) as Farz Aur Kanoon. The plot of the film was similar to the Dilip Kumar-Amitabh Bachchan starrer Shakti which came out the same year. Inspector Ranjit Kumar (Jeetendra) and Bharti (Hema Malini) are a happily married couple. She gets pregnant but her first child is stillborn. Thankfully, the next child lives and is brought up as a spoilt brat by the mother. Ravi (Raj Kiran), resents his fathers strict ways however when he grows up and becomes close to criminal elements. Meanwhile, it transpires that the elder son is very much alive. Ramu (Jeetendra) is as valiant as his father. Bharti is brought close to death when Ravi leaves home for good. Ramu meets her at this juncture and promises to reconcile the differences between his younger brother and father.Director: K. BapaiahCast: Jeetendra, Sridevi, Jaya PradaThe film is a remake of Telugu movie Chuttalunnaru Jagratha (1980). Ramesh (Jeetendra) works as a manager for an industrialist and sets his affairs in order. He clashes initially with his boss daughter Nisha (Jaya Prada) but the two later fall in love and want to get married. Initially, his boss has no objection to his alliance but later changes his mind and fires him. The industrialist is found dead and all clues point towards Ramesh. Hes sent to jail and meets with a lookalike Gangu (Jeetendra). The two unite to fight the evildoers and marry their respective girlfriends, Nisha and Julie (Sridevi) respectively. The film has the funky Jhopdi mein chaarpaai song picturised onDirector: K. Raghavendra RaoCast: Jeetendra, Hema Malini, Sridevi, Moushumi ChatterjeeR. K. Chaudhary (Jeetendra) is a renowned criminal lawyer who later becomes a judge at the high court. Hes known for his strict adherence to the law. He makes an enemy of Shankar Singh (Shakti Kapoor) when he wins a case and as a result, Shankars twin brother gets hanged. He doesnt know that his college sweetheart Radha (Hema Malini) is alive and has borne him a son. The son, Ramu, is a car racer and mechanic and in love with Rekha (Sridevi). His enemies learn of the secret and set up Ramu against his father by spreading lies against RK Chaudhary. Ramu plots his fathers ruin but later, upon learning the truth from his mother, joins hands and decimates their enemies.Director: Dasari Narayana RaoCast: Jeetendra, Sridevi, Leena ChandravarkarThe film is a remake of Dasari Narayana Raos own Telugu film Sardar Papa Rayudu (1980). Three criminals killed a Raja during the British era and put the blame on freedom fighter Jwala Singh (Jeetendra). Hes given a long jail term and after completing his sentence he seeks revenge. He doesnt know that he has a son Suraj (Jeetendra) who not only looks exactly like him but is a strict police inspector as well. Its Suraj who stands in the way of Jwalas intentions. However, upon learning of Jwalas identity, he helps his father fight the good fight and finally clear his name. It was Leena Chandravarkars comeback film after getting married to Kishore Kumar, who reportedly got so jealous he used to call her every hour when she was shooting in Chennai.
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Companies managing major apps and online tools will now have a boost of creativity in developing better user experiences as people shift their habits during the COVID-19 pandemic, experts say.

Richard Lachman, an associate professor at Ryerson University, said in an interview that many applications are now being used by different demographics in ways that differ from their original purpose.

Zoom (ZM), a platform that is typically used for enterprise video conferencing, is now being used by non-working individuals to connect with friends and family, he said.

Lachman said that new users with different goals give companies an opportunity to tweak their product to improve the user experience.

If my 10-year-old is using it, they want the virtual backgrounds right there because theyre going to spend 45 minutes putting themselves in space, he said. But when I login the next morning, Im still in space. [Companies will be] finding these little tweaks that are not massive shifts.

Lachman said now is the perfect time for companies to capitalize on this moment and make their platforms better.

The idea is were fixing, were tweaking, were changing, were improving. And right now theres a massive user test case, he said. What is amazing is how many platforms have been scaling well to deal with the numbers of people on it.

According to a JP Morgan analyst, daily Zoom usage was up more than 300 per cent after the pandemic forced more people to work from home.

The companys active daily user count was also up 378 per cent compared to the same period a year ago.

On Monday, Zooms shares dropped eight per cent as the company battles security concerns and competition from other platforms.

Lachman indicated that companies will also face lots of criticism if certain aspects of the platform do not meet the publics standard.

I have seen pushback. For example, what does end-to-end encryption mean, for this particular piece of software? Should I be using this, because maybe this platform is not secure?

Story continues

Platforms reminding users of existing tools

Now will also be the time that many platforms will remind users of features that already exist, as Jane Manchun Wong, a social media feature leaker and researcher, said in an interview.

For example, on Instagram, theyre testing to move the video call button to the chat list, she said. Theyre trying to remind the users Hey, we do video chats as an option as well.

Facebook indicated in a blog post that it was seeing unprecedented usage because of COVID-19 and that it was monitoring usage patterns in order to make its systems more efficient and adding capacity when needed.

Jeff Goldenberg, co-founder of Abacus Agency, said that a metric for companies to watch will be how much time is being spent on different screens to determine advertiser potential.

He noted that people were already using these platforms heavily before the pandemic, citing that one in four minutes on cellphones is spent on a Facebook-owned platform, and now that is expected to increase even more.

Now people are definitely using it more, but [these companies] already had plenty of user data before. Their user experience development is always on and they scour data and insights to come up with improvements that would lead to more time in app, he said in an emailed response.

With files from Reuters

Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android and sign up for the Yahoo Finance Canada Weekly Brief.
A Texas man who couldn't be by his wife's side during her chemotherapy appointment because of new hospital restrictions got creative to be there for her during her treatment.

Due to the pandemic, visitors are being barred from many hospitals, meaning that Albert Conner, 44, couldn't join his wife Kelly Conner, 40, while she was treated for breast cancer at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Sugar Land, Texas recently.

But he couldn't bare to let her go alone, so Albert made a giant sign on poster board and stood outside her window to make sure she could see it.

Here for her: Albert Conner, 44, waited outside MD Anderson Cancer Center in Sugar Land, Texas with a sign while his wife Kelly, 40, got chemo

Not alone: Kelly was diagnosed with breast cancer in January, and her husband promised to be there for every chemo appointment  but the pandemic has introduced new rules

Kelly was diagnosed with breast cancer in January, and Albert promised to accompany her to every appointment.

But new restrictions in place at the hospital have now made that impossible.

'When you just reflect on everything and think about all the nurses and doctors and other patients, it makes perfect sense,' Albert told Good Morning America. 'You really cant argue it. You just have to support it any way you can.'

But even though he understood the rules, he didn't want to send his wife by herself.

'I didnt feel right not being a part of it because I had promised her that I would be there every step of the way and I felt like I would be breaking my word,' he said.

So he bought a piece of poster board, wrote a message, and had his kids color it in.

'I can't be with you but I'm here. I love you,' it said, adding: 'Thank you to all staff.'

The sign was still a big surprise for Kelly, though. That day, she drove herself to the hospital, leaving Albert at home.

He drove there after, though, and texted her that he was in the parking lot.

Touching: Kelly didn't know her husband was outside until he texted her. She looked outside and teared up

Viral: Several nurses even went outside to thank him, and Kelly snapped a photo to share on Facebook

Surprised, Kelly adjusted in her seat and looked out the window  to see Albert sitting there with his sign. The positioning was a bit of luck: Albert didn't know what room she'd be in, and happened to pick the right spot.

'It immediately brought tears to my eyes and I felt a love for him right then in that moment, that he would do that for me,' Kelly said.

'I think I kind of gasped and the nurse turned around and said, "Whats wrong?" And then she saw I was looking out the window and she looked out and started to tear up too.'

Several nurses even went outside to thank him, and Kelly snapped a photo to share on Facebook.

'No visitors allowed for Chemo due to the virus but that didnt stop Albert L. Conner! Thank you for all your continued love and support,' she wrote.

The couple still has a tough road ahead of them. After Kelly's chemo ends in May, she'll have surgery and radiation. Albert has also closed his business so he can stay home with his family and not expose his immunocompromised wife.

Touching: An unidentified man stood outside the ER at Morristown Medical Center last month, holding one hand to his heart and pressing a homemade sign against the window

In March, a heartwarming image of a man holding up a sign outside the ER at Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey emergency room went viral.

The unidentified man appeared to be on the verge of tears as he held one hand to his heart and pressed a homemade sign against the window.

Though it hasn't been confirmed whether his wife has been hospitalized for coronavirus or some other ailment, he did keep his distance by standing outside with the message with hospital workers.

'Thank you all in emergency for saving my wife's life. I love you all,' it read.

They got the message. Emergency room nurse Allison Swendsen took a picture of the sweet moment before sharing it with family, friends, and other medical professionals at the hospital.

Eventually, a woman named Shay Vander Vliet posted the image on Facebook, were it has gone viral.

Viral: Shay Vander Vliet shared the image on Facebook after receiving it from her sister-in-law

'My sister-in-law, Paige Van Der Vliet, is a nurse in the emergency department at Morristown Medical Center,' she wrote. 'She sent me this picture the other day and I feel like it needs to be seen as much as possible!

'And thank you, Paige, and ALL of the nurses and doctors, for your hard work and dedication, especially during this scary time.

'This picture brought us all to tears,' Paige told the Daily Record. 'It's amazing to see not only the ER staff but all the floors coming together during this challenging time.

'We couldn't do this without nurses, techs, residents, doctors, secretaries, registrars, housekeeping.

Karen Zatorski, Senior Public Relations Manager at Morristown Medical Center, added: 'We don't know who the man is, we don't know who his wife is. The nurses happened to be there and took his picture. What's beautiful is that's all we know.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 19:49:52|Editor: xuxin

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COLOMBO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government, on Tuesday said it had not imposed any restrictions on exporting tea, coconut and rubber as these were vital export crops which would help boost the country's economy.

The government information department quoted Plantations Minister Ramesh Pathirana as saying that the decision to continue these exports was taken in order to ensure that those engaged in these export industries were not faced with economic difficulties.

Accordingly, the minister said that measures have been taken to ensure all operations related to these crops from the plantation stage to transport, export and auction processes will continue without any hindrance even during the ongoing curfew due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Furthermore, sugarcane, cashew and other minor export crop farmers have also been exempted from any restrictions and instructions have been issued to ensure they have the freedom to engage in their cultivation, the minister added.

"Those engaged in the plantation industry are allowed to carry on their operations, however, they should adhere to the guidelines set by the Health Ministry and the Police," Pathirana said.

Sri Lanka's total exports reached 16.14 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 with tea, rubber and coconut contributing heavily to the total exports.

According to official statistics, last year, the United States was the top export destination of Sri Lankan commodities, with 3,139 million U.S. dollars, followed by Britain with 998 million dollars, India with 759 million dollars, Italy with 531 million dollars and Belgium with 352 million dollars.
Welcome to Money Diaries, where were tackling what might be the last taboo facing modern working women: money. Were asking women how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period  and were tracking every last dollar.



Today: an unemployed catering event manager who makes $228 a week and spends some of her money this week on a church donation.

Occupation: Unemployed (laid off Catering Event Manager)

Industry: Service

Age: 30

Location: Minneapolis, MN

Salary: As a Catering Event Manager: about $33,500. Maximum unemployment benefit: $6,712

Net Worth: $55,000 ($25,000 in savings and $30,000 in a Roth IRA. I live with a partner, but we keep our finances separate.)

Debt: $0 (I have one credit card, which I pay in full every month)

Unemployment Check (1x/week): $228 (as a Catering Event Manager my paycheck was $1,100 twice a month)

Pronouns: She/her



Monthly Expenses

Rent: $670 (for my half of a studio alcove I share with my boyfriend)

Loans: $0 (I graduated owing $14,000, thanks to many need-based and merit scholarships and have paid them off. I bought my car in cash for $4,500.)

Utilities: $30-$65 for my half

Internet: $30 for my half

Phone: $44.71 (family plan with my brothers and sister-in-law)

Spotify Premium: $10.78

NYT Digital Subscription: $15

Google Drive Storage: $2.99

Netflix: We use my boyfriends familys account

Car Insurance: $29 every six months (I split unevenly with my boyfriend because it didnt increase his premium much when he added me to his policy)

AAA: $5.67 for my half (paid annually)

Retirement: I contribute when I can to a Roth IRA I opened in 2014. I was contributing a matched 3% to a simple IRA at my job.

Health Insurance: Currently uninsured. I was going to be eligible for my companys plan on April 3rd, but after being laid off, I applied for state insurance. Im still waiting for more forms to come in the mail (everything is by paper).

Donations: I donate sporadically  usually at the Unitarian Universalist service, to non-profits where friends work, and Planned Parenthood.

Story continues

Day One

9 a.m.  Wake up. Although this was my first week laid off, Saturday still means the weekend for my boyfriend, J. Weve been faring pretty well sharing our 576 sq. ft. studio while he works from home. I honestly have been enjoying having him around and Im hoping it stays that way. I make us scrambled eggs with spinach, mushrooms, and vegan chorizo rolled into multigrain flatbread with smashed avocado and pressed on the panini grill. We drink tea.

10:30 a.m.  We go into deep cleaning mode. I do all the cooking and more of the daily cleaning around the apartment than J. does, but we usually clean together on the weekend until its all done.

12:30 p.m.  For lunch, we have leftover pizza that I picked up last night (chicken, oyster mushrooms, goat cheese, basil).

5 p.m.  Im feeling restless and go out on a walk while J. plays a computer game online with a friend. I call my stepdad first. He has a bad growth on his face, so Im glad to hear its been shrinking. I hope hell still be able to get it biopsied and removed the first week of April as planned. Then I call my grandma and we chat as I wander around a cemetery. Its in the middle of Minneapolis, but its just me and a bunch of wild turkeys in here.

7 p.m.  I get home and end my call with grandma. J. is still playing his game. Social distancing or not, its Saturday night, so I make a caipirinha for myself and an Old Fashioned for J. I heat up leftovers from last week for dinner and we watch The Invisible Man. I usually avoid scary movies because I get nightmares easily, but this one is worth it!

Daily Total: $0

Day Two

9:30 a.m.  Wake up. I put frozen pao de queijo (Brazilian cheese rolls with tapioca flour) in the oven and make strawberry banana vitaminas (fresh fruit with milk).

10 a.m.  We arent perfect weekly attendees, but we like to go to the Unitarian Universalist service on Sundays. Theyre using Zoom to live stream, so we cast the service on the TV and settle in. We agree theyve done a great job transitioning to online services and its hard not to get emotional reading the concerns and gratitudes in the chat. I text in $10 to the virtual offering plate. Afterward, there is a virtual coffee hour which I stay for while J. showers. $10

1:30 p.m.  I do a 60-minute yoga practice on the DownDog app. Ive been really enjoying their classes and am thinking of subscribing when they switch back to being paid.

2:45 p.m.  I take a shower, then heat up leftover sweet potato cashew curry for myself and make a turkey, swiss, tomato, and spinach sandwich on sourdough in the panini press for J.

4 p.m.  I meet a friend for a walk around the lake (keeping six feet between us). Even though I know were both tired of talking about COVID-19, its hard to talk about anything else.

6 p.m.  A couple of weeks ago, I picked up clothes and other miscellaneous things from my childhood room at my stepdads. One of the boxes had postcards I bought around the world and now seems like a great time to actually send them. I blast out a call for addresses from friends and family, pour a glass of Cabernet, and start writing.

8 p.m.  J. wants to watch a movie. It cant be just any movie, though, right? After he rejects a few of my suggestions, I heat us up leftovers and turn on the first episode of Love is Blind. After a half-hour of J. both making fun of me and showing mild interest, he puts on Knives Out. It is a good choice after all! Ive liked all the movies in the eat the rich thread coming out lately.

Daily Total: $10

Day Three

9:30 a.m.  I meant to get up with J., but it didnt happen. I dont feel like eating yet, so I have some lemon ginger tea and work on submitting my job search activities to make my unemployment benefit payment request. I make a spinach-strawberry-ginger smoothie for myself and a strawberry-banana for J.

12:30 p.m.  I start making lunch  salmon cakes (think crab cakes, but with canned salmon, my mom used to make them!) with sauteed spinach and mashed potatoes. J. takes a break to eat with me.

2 p.m.  I work on sorting through my moms old clothes that I picked up at my stepdads. She passed away from colon cancer six years ago. I want to make a quilt with some of her t-shirts  I dont know how, but my grandma will help me when/if I ever get around to it. Im now a colonoscopy cheerleader, so: everyone 50+ needs them, or earlier if you have symptoms or family history! Polyps can be removed during the procedure, before they grow into tumors. Theyre not that bad  speaking from personal experience.

4 p.m.  I drive to St. Paul to pick up J.s new license plate and tabs. It turns out they were sent to our old address because he hadnt updated the address on his cars title, but he needs to sign a form to authorize me to make the change. I take the form and head back. Its a beautiful day, so I stop to take a walk along the Mississippi River. I call my brother, who is worried about getting laid off, and my other grandma who just got back from Florida.

7:30 p.m.  I get home and start making dinner. First I marinate and bake tofu in a homemade Thai peanut sauce. Then I saute broccoli and red pepper, toss in the rest of the sauce, and serve it all over udon noodles.

10:30 p.m.  We get in bed and I watch Love is Blind. Im afraid to check the actual time, but I make it to the dreaded Are you still watching? before calling it a night.

Daily Total: $0

Day Four

7 a.m.  J. wakes me up. I make us french toast, topped with cream cheese and a sauce of strawberries cooked down in water and honey. I drink a cup of coffee and actually get dressed to go back to St. Paul with the signed form.

8:30 a.m.  Right after I get in the car, the Preservation Hall Jazz Bands Keep Your Head Up plays on the Current, our local radio station. J. and I saw the band in New Orleans shortly after I moved back from Brazil to be closer to him and again at a show in St. Paul for his birthday last year. I couldnt tell you exactly why, but I start to cry. I drive to the License Bureau and get J.s new license plate and tabs without a problem.

9:30 a.m.  Low fuel light is on. I stop for gas on the way back. I walked to work and dont need my car often, so I only fill up my tank about once a month, or when I visit family in other states. $23.67

10 a.m.  I get home and start canceling flights and our Airbnb. J. and I had a trip planned to New York next month and I was going to Chicago for a show. I make a spreadsheet to keep the info about our flight credit on four different airlines organized.

11 a.m.  An hour of yoga on DownDog, then a shower.

12:30 p.m.  I start making lunch  turkey cutlets in butter chicken sauce and a big batch of white rice. I top lettuce and tomato salads with a dressing made of plain yogurt, salt, pepper, garlic, lime, and cilantro. J. has a lot of work to do, so he eats at the desk instead of taking a break with me.

2 p.m.  I start working on my resume for a Portuguese bilingual at-home tech support position. Working remotely with full benefits and speaking Portuguese every day would be great. The problem? Tech is not exactly my thing. I also loathe job searching and spend way too much time overthinking my resume and cover letter for each application. I get flashbacks to last year when I was unsure which direction to go in my job search. I feel overwhelmed and this time the crying is full-blown. J. hugs me until I get it together. I know I could be a lot worse off, but Im frustrated about finally figuring things out by deciding on my new job and then being laid off not even two months later without any idea when I will be able to return.

5 p.m.  The same friend invites me out on a walk. Im happy to set aside my work. We take a different route, avoiding the lakes, to be around fewer people.

6 p.m.  I get back with time to review my German homework before class starts at 6:30. J. and I started classes this year because he hopes to do a Masters in Germany in 2022 before we move back to Brazil. I took two years of German in college, so I have a nice head start. This is the first class weve had online since in-person classes were cancelled. It feels great to get my mind off everything else going on.

9 p.m.  The class ends and I heat up leftovers from last week  sweet potato cashew curry for me, penne in vodka sauce for him. We watch an episode of Ugly Delicious and go to bed.

Daily Total: $23.67

Day Five

8:30 a.m.  I dont do as well at getting up today. Last night, Brazils president announced that people were being hysterical about the little flu and that the country couldnt stay shut down  business should continue as usual. I scroll through Instagram stories to see my friends reactions (of disgust) and message a few to check in.

9 a.m.  I finally get out of bed. J. has already eaten and is busy working, so I make breakfast for myself while dealing with yesterdays dishes. My soft-boiled eggs actually come out perfectly  its a miracle! I top a slice of dense, whole rye bread with smashed avocado, an egg, and everything bagel seasoning, and drink black tea with cinnamon.

10:30 a.m.  Im feeling a bit inspired from online church service and German class. I was an English as a Second Language teacher for eight years before switching to catering full time this year, but Ive never taught online. I look into teaching options.

12 p.m.  I start making lunch  a huge stir-fry with cabbage, onions, mushrooms, carrots, vegan chickn, and edamame noodles in a homemade sesame sauce. We eat together, then cuddle on the couch a little before J. goes back to work.

2 p.m.  I message back and forth with my sister in another state and scroll Instagram. I Venmo $5 to a content creator I follow (@hownottotravellikeabasicbitch) as a thanks for the work she puts into sharing information. I see that my unemployment benefit of $228 has been deposited  that was faster than expected! $5

2:30 p.m.  I get back to work on researching teaching online. My laptop is really a drag. I bought it refurbished for $450 in 2013. J. formatted it for me a couple months ago when it had become unusable, but I have barely used it since then preferring our desktop. Now that hes working on the desktop, Im back on my laptop. Its so slow and the keyboard has so many issues that I think Ill need to get a new one if Im going to teach online.

5 p.m.  I do an hour of yoga, watching the rain fall outside, then take a shower.

6:30 p.m.  J. has his German class online. I water my 12 houseplants and write postcards with a glass of wine.

8 p.m.  I decide to bake a yogurt cake. I make a raspberry sauce to top it.

9 p.m.  J. finishes his class. We eat leftovers and cake, then go to bed.

Daily Total: $5

Day Six

8:30 a.m.  I get up a little after J. I clean up the kitchen and make us both avocado toast with soft-boiled eggs. He has coffee with milk and I have chai with oat milk.

10:30 a.m.  I sit down at my laptop, but after half an hour, I cant focus. Its a beautiful day, so I decide to go on a bike ride. Some Minnesotans bike year-round, but Im not one of those hardy winter riders, so this will be my first time taking it out this year. I wash off the dust and stop at a gas station to fill up the tires ($1.50 for air), then make an 18-mile loop. It is glorious. $1.50

2:30 p.m.  I get home and eat a slice of yogurt cake before getting in the shower.

3 p.m.  Leftovers for lunch then back to job searching. My biking high unfortunately doesnt stay with me.

6 p.m.  J. finishes working and we have a serious talk. He thinks I need to be prepared for my company to not hire me back until the end of the summer or possibly ever. He goes out on a run, I cry a little, and then sit silently in the dark for a while  there is literally nothing I feel like doing. Eventually I pour myself a glass of wine and text my sister.

8:30 p.m.  J. has leftovers for dinner and I make bean and cheese nachos to have with salsa fresca. In bed after, he asks if Im feeling sad (yes) and says, why dont you watch Love is Blind? (Okay). I watch through to the final episode (can I marry Lauren and Cameron?!).

Daily Total: $1.50

Day Seven

8 a.m.  I get up. J. has already eaten breakfast, but I make a vegan chorizo, black bean, and spinach scramble in a multigrain flatbread wrap and black tea with cinnamon, then get straight to the computer.

12 p.m.  No! After spending all morning writing my multilingual script for a video I need to upload to a teaching platform, I see that they are no longer accepting applications for English teachers. I feel stupid for not checking again before, but get over it. I think Ill make my own business.

12:15 p.m.  I heat up leftovers for us both and J. eats at his desk. My sister, who is a tour leader, tells me that her company has canceled all tours through June and that two of her friends have COVID-19. Both are in their 30s and otherwise healthy. They arent hospitalized, but its been very rough on them.

12:30 p.m.  I research everything I can on teaching group classes through Zoom and start building a website on Squarespace (free for the first 14 days). It feels nice to be learning a new skill! At some point, I have a slice of yogurt cake, a mango turmeric smoothie, and espresso made on the stove.

6:30 p.m.  Time to get ready for (virtual) happy hour! I make guacamole and a strawberry margarita with a tajin and sugar rim. Its nice to catch up with some friends around the country, plus a new friend of a friend. J. gets back from his run, so I make him say hi to them before he leaves again to go to Target and Walmart. I make another margarita, this one with frozen mangoes and tajin.

9:30 p.m.  J. comes home with his load  hes setting me up for my own home office! He got me a fold-up table and fold-up chair (with cushioning), a mouse, and a headset with a microphone. Awwww. Were actually able to fit it in our apartment and it will be better than working on the couch! I fall asleep early.

Daily Total: $0

COVID-19 has been declared a global pandemic. Go to the CDC website for the latest information on symptoms, prevention, and other resources.

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A Week In Queens, NY, On A $64,600 Salary

A Week In Dallas, TX, On A $42,000 Salary

A Week In Portland, OR, On A $51,450 Salary
The new coronavirus might spread through the air via normal breathing and speaking, a top US scientist said Friday as the government was poised to recommend the use of face masks for everyone.

Anthony Fauci, head of infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, told Fox News the guidance on masks would be changed because of some recent information that the virus can actually be spread even when people just speak, as opposed to coughing and sneezing. As it stands, the official advice is that only sick people need to cover their faces, as well as those caring for them at home.

Faucis comments come after the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) sent a letter to the White House on April 1 that summarized recent research on the subject.

It said that though the research isnt yet conclusive, the results of available studies are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing. Until now, US health agencies have said that the primary pathway of transmission is respiratory droplets, about one millimeter in diameter, expelled by sick people when they sneeze or cough.

These quickly fall to the ground around a meter away.

But if the virus can be suspended in the ultrafine mist we expel when we exhale, in other words an aerosol, it becomes much harder to prevent its spread, which in turn is an argument in favor of everyone covering their faces. A recent NIH funded study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could become an aerosol and remain airborne for up to three hours.

This triggered a debate even as critics said the findings were overblown because the team behind the study used a medical device called a nebulizer to deliberately create a viral mist and argued this would not occur naturally.

The NAS letter pointed to preliminary research by the University of Nebraska Medical Center that found the genetic code of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, its RNA, were found in hard to reach areas of patients isolation rooms.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. )

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US president Donald Trump has lashed out at a journalist who questioned information in a report about coronavirus testing in US hospitals that conflicted with victories the president was claiming.

During his daily COVID-19 response briefing President Trump was asked about the results of the US Department of Health and Human Services report that found three out of four US hospitals surveyed reported a shortage of tests and long waiting times for results.

The reports findings conflicted with the presidents claims that the US had conducted nearly 1.8 million tests, some with results in as quickly as five minutes.

We are doing an incredible job at testing, we are doing a better job than anyone else in the world right now, there is nobody close and other nations admit this, Trump claimed.

President Trump boasted the US was doing an "incredible job at testing" despite his own governments conflicting reports that hospitals are struggling with lack of testing kits and lengthy wait times. Source: Reuters

The number one complaint from those hospitals were severe shortage of testing supplies and a really long wait time, a week or longer, Fox News reporter Kristen Fisher told Mr Trump.

Its wrong, the President snapped back.

This is your own government, Ms Fisher responded, pointing out that Mr Trump had appointed the inspector general who conducted the survey.

President Trump went on to deflect the question by repeatedly asking the reporter for the name of the inspector general.

Could politics be entered into that? he asked before cutting her off.

Typical fake news

Later in the briefing ABC journalist John Karl told the President that the inspector generals name was Christi Grimm.

When was she appointed? Mr Trump asked.

She did serve on the previous administration, the reporter replied.

You mean the Obama administration? Thank you for telling me that ... theres a typical fake news deal, Trump interrupted.

'Youre a third rate reporter' Trump lashed out at an ABC journalist for pointing out the government's conflicting information on coronavirus testing. Source: CNN

The President began a personal attack on Mr Karl and mocked him asking questions.

Story continues

Youre a third rate reporter and what you just said was a disgrace, Mr Trump said.

Mr Karl looked baffled and responded that he was simply answering the presidents question but Mr Trump cut him off again.

Thank you very much John, you will never make it, he snapped before ending the briefing.

Hardest week yet

The outburst came a day after the US death toll passed 10,000 and as experts warn it would be the toughest week yet for the country.

This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives, quite frankly, US Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned on Fox News on Sunday, local time.

This is going to be our Pearl Harbour moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to be localised.

It's going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that.

Bodies from Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn are moved to a refrigerator truck serving as a temporary morgue, as the US death toll surpasses 10,000. Source: Reuters

A key insight from the report was that different problems are building on each other to entangle the whole system.

For example, a lack of testing and slow results means hospitals must keep patients with unconfirmed coronavirus disease longer.

Of the 323 hospitals in the survey, 117 reported they were treating one or more patients with confirmed COVID-19, while 130 said they were treating one or more patients suspected to have the disease.

Suspected infections are treated similarly, because of the uncertainties around testing. Only 32 hospitals said they were not treating any patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19.

Hospitals anticipated being overwhelmed by a surge in COVID-19 patients, who would need specialty beds and isolation areas for effective treatment, the report said.

As of 5pm on Tuesday CNN reported there were more than 368,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in America with 10,944 deaths.

New York has the largest number of coronavirus cases with over 131,000 cases and 4,758 deaths.

with AP

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
At least nineteen people across Australia have been infected with COVID-19 after coming into contact with passengers allowed to disembark from the Ruby Princess cruise ship in Sydney.

Thirteen passengers were swabbed and tested after exhibiting virus symptoms before the ship docked at Circular Quay on March 19, with four ultimately returning positive results. However, the passengers and crew were allowed to leave the ship before the test results were known.

The Ruby Princess carrying hundreds of sick crew with possible coronavirus enters Port Kembla. Credit:Nick Moir

Twelve passengers on the ship have subsequently died from the virus after disembarking, and the circumstances surrounding the ship's docking are the subject of a criminal investigation involving homicide detectives.

The ramifications of the decision to let 2700 people off the Ruby Princess to board planes, buses and taxis to return home can now be quantified for the first time by the growing number of patients infected by the ship's passengers.
Fishing boat takes 202 Rohingyas to Malaysia

April 07,2020 | Source: AFP

Malaysia yesterday detained 202 suspected Rohingya Muslims who arrived illegally by boat, a top official said, raising fears that people smugglers are back in action despite the coronavirus pandemic.



Zulinda Ramly, deputy director with the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, told AFP a large fishing boat ferried the suspected Rohingya migrants to the northern resort island of Langkawi.



Malaysia is a favoured destination for the migrants from Myanmar as it is a Muslim majority nation with a sizeable Rohingya diaspora.



With few opportunities for jobs and education in Myanmar or refugee camps in Bangladesh, thousands have attempted to reach Southeast Asian nations.



Zulinda said the migrants were detained by maritime authorities for questioning and will be handed over to immigration officials.



Authorities are investigating complaints by the migrants that three individuals  a boat captain and two crew members  were operatives of a human smuggling ring, she said in a statement.



The three apparently escaped to sea after bringing the boat into Malaysian waters.

 Independent Publications Limited

Theme(s): Others.
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) today announced a new egift card program that will support healthcare workers on the frontlines. The brand will be matching 10% of special egift card purchases and donating to Direct Relief, an organization working to provide personal protective equipment and essential medical items to healthcare workers in the U.S. and around the world.

Fans can learn more and purchase a Healthcare Heroes egift card through May 31 by visiting: https://www.chipotle.com/healthcareheroes

Chipotle thanks healthcare heroes with donation to Direct Relief

"We wanted to create an easy way for our fans to come together and support our healthcare heroes," said Chris Brandt, Chief Marketing Officer. "Proceeds from the gift cards will help Direct Relief's efforts to provide brave medical workers with the supplies they need to help save lives."

Last week, Chipotle announced it is giving away 100,000 burritos to healthcare heroes working at various hospitals and medical offices across the country. Through April 10, Chipotle, alongside DoorDash, the leading logistics platform, will continue to deliver the burrito orders in honor of World Health Worker Week.

Chipotle is offering free delivery on any order $10 or more via the Chipotle app and Chipotle.com through April 30 to increase access to real food for customers nationwide. The brand's Delivery Kitchens, which are comprised of dedicated ingredient stations operated by special teams, will continue to prepare digital orders with care. Chipotle is taking additional precautions to help ensure customer safety during this time including: a tamper evident packaging seal for delivery orders, in-app delivery tracker providing step-by-step real-time updates as food travels from the restaurant to its destination, and a place for special instructions so guests can request a contactless delivery when ordering digitally.

The last day to purchase a Healthcare Heroes egift card is May 31, 2020. Purchaser receives the full value of the egift card. Proceeds will be based on specific Healthcare Heroes egift card denominations available via our website. Donation percentage of 10% of sales with minimum donation of $5,000, and maximum donation of $250,000.

Free delivery offer valid only for orders placed and fulfilled through 4/30/20, within Chipotle's delivery areas within the U.S. from participating U.S. Chipotle locations, during normal operating hours for such locations. Minimum order $10/maximum order $200, each excluding tax. Deliveries subject to availability. Not valid on catering or Burritos by the Box orders. Redemptions of Chipotle Rewards and other promotional offers may be included in a qualifying delivery order but do not count towards satisfaction of minimum purchase requirements. Valid only at chipotle.com or on the Chipotle app; not valid on orders placed via third-party delivery platforms. Chipotle reserves the right to modify or terminate this offer at any time without notice. Additional restrictions may apply; void where prohibited.

ABOUT CHIPOTLE

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) is cultivating a better world by serving responsibly sourced, classically-cooked, real food with wholesome ingredients without artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Chipotle had over 2,600 restaurants as of December 31, 2019, in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany and is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its restaurants. With more than 83,000 employees passionate about providing a great guest experience, Chipotle is a longtime leader and innovator in the food industry. Chipotle is committed to making its food more accessible to everyone while continuing to be a brand with a demonstrated purpose as it leads the way in digital, technology and sustainable business practices. Chipotle's founder, Steve Ells, first opened Chipotle with a single restaurant in Denver, Colorado in 1993. For more information or to place an order online, visit WWW.CHIPOTLE.COM.

SOURCE Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.

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Shopper footfall increased by 9.5% on Saturday 4 April compared with the same day a week ago. (PA)

There was an alarming uplift in the number of people visiting shops last weekend, despite government calls to stay at home, according to new data.

Although there was an 81% decline in footfall last week compared with the same period last year, according to figures from retail data specialist Springboard there were widespread reports of people ignoring advice to stay home as the weather improved with sunshine and warmer temperatures over the weekend.

Shopper footfall increased by 9.5% on Saturday 4 April compared with the same day a week ago and the number rose 21.3% on the Sunday, despite repeated government warnings on the health and safety implications of visiting public spaces.

All shops other than those providing essential services have been shut under the UKs coronavirus lockdown rules.

The greatest increase on Sunday was seen in London with the number of people on the streets going up by 51%.

Read more: High earners twice as likely to be able to work from home

Other large cities were 31% busier and the number of people out and about in coastal towns across the UK rose by 30%, according to Springboards report.

The report noted that these are key locations for leisure trips but less significant for essential shopping, suggesting people are disregarding advice only to go out for essential trips.

All shops other than those providing essential services have been shut under the UKs coronavirus lockdown rules.

With the warm weather set to continue over the four-day Easter weekend, this brings into question what further measures the government will need to enforce to curtail this movement, Springboard said.

With the closure of all but essential stores, the four-day bank holiday weekend will be unrecognisable in what is usually the most important trading period for retailers outside of Christmas.

The government has warned that lockdown restrictions may be increased with parks closed and outdoor exercise banned if the public fails to observe the social distancing rules in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus and protect the NHS.

Story continues

One London council closed a park on Sunday, saying thousands of people had ignored guidelines during the warm weather. Lambeth Council closed Brockwell Park as over 3,000 people visited on Saturday, with some sunbathing and gathering in large groups.

Read more: Wellcome Trust calls on businesses to donate $8bn for COVID-19 research

The health secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News: The vast majority of people are following the public health advice, which is absolutely critical, and staying at home.

But there are a small minority of people who are still not doing that  it's quite unbelievable frankly to see that there are some people who are not following the advice.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo Finance UK
In order to justify the effort of selecting individual stocks, it's worth striving to beat the returns from a market index fund. But even the best stock picker will only win with some selections. So we wouldn't blame long term Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG (ETR:O2D) shareholders for doubting their decision to hold, with the stock down 56% over a half decade. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 11% in the last three months. But this could be related to the weak market, which is down 23% in the same period.

See our latest analysis for Telefonica Deutschland Holding

Telefonica Deutschland Holding isn't currently profitable, so most analysts would look to revenue growth to get an idea of how fast the underlying business is growing. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. That's because it's hard to be confident a company will be sustainable if revenue growth is negligible, and it never makes a profit.

Over five years, Telefonica Deutschland Holding grew its revenue at 1.4% per year. That's far from impressive given all the money it is losing. It's likely this weak growth has contributed to an annualised return of 15% for the last five years. We want to see an acceleration of revenue growth (or profits) before showing much interest in this one. When a stock falls hard like this, some investors like to add the company to a watchlist (in case the business recovers, longer term).

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

XTRA:O2D Income Statement April 7th 2020

Telefonica Deutschland Holding is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. Given we have quite a good number of analyst forecasts, it might be well worth checking out this free chart depicting consensus estimates.

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. As it happens, Telefonica Deutschland Holding's TSR for the last 5 years was -39%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

Story continues

A Different Perspective

Although it hurts that Telefonica Deutschland Holding returned a loss of 10% in the last twelve months, the broader market was actually worse, returning a loss of 14%. Given the total loss of 9.5% per year over five years, it seems returns have deteriorated in the last twelve months. Whilst Baron Rothschild does tell the investor "buy when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own", buyers would need to examine the data carefully to be comfortable that the business itself is sound. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Telefonica Deutschland Holding that you should be aware of.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of companies that have proven they can grow earnings.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on DE exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
HONG KONG, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Monday called on the international community to fully and accurately understand the HKSAR Basic Law and earnestly support its implementation.

Commissioner Xie Feng received via video a courtesy call from new consuls-general of Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, the Dominican Republic and Pakistan in Hong Kong, during which he shared with the consuls-general several key points about the HKSAR Basic Law.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the promulgation of the HKSAR Basic Law, and the practice of "one country, two systems", which is to remain unchanged for 50 years, has entered its medium term, Xie noted, adding that "taking stock of the past 23 years, we can find that at the crux of the strife in Hong Kong over the decades is often a failure to understand the Basic Law comprehensively and accurately."

"In particular, activists trying to sow trouble in Hong Kong and China at large have deliberately distorted the principles of the Basic Law, and obstructed the comprehensive and accurate implementation of the instrument," Xie said.

"They have even played the victim, and accused instead the central government and the HKSAR government of violating the Basic Law and the policy of 'Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong' and eroding Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy," he said. "Therefore, it is imperative for us to get the basics straight and set things right."

The Basic Law codifies "one country, two systems" into law with concrete provisions and institutional arrangement, Xie said, noting that to fully and accurately understand it, it is important to grasp the relations between the Constitution and the Basic Law, between "one country" and "two systems", and between the central government's overall jurisdiction and the HKSAR's high degree of autonomy, he said

It is also important to realize that safeguarding national sovereignty, security and unity is crucial for comprehensively and accurately implementing "one country, two systems", and is a constitutional obligation of the HKSAR under the Basic Law, he added.

Xie emphasized that as supporters of the "one country, two systems" policy and stakeholders in Hong Kong's prosperity and stability, members of the international community should fully and accurately understand the Basic Law and earnestly support its implementation.

"Only when the Basic Law is implemented in a comprehensive and accurate manner, and the systems and mechanisms related to implementing the Constitution and the Basic Law in the HKSAR are improved to keep abreast with the times, can we ensure greater success of the endeavor of 'one country, two systems'," said the commissioner.
I think vice president Biden should look around, Lewis said. It would be good to have a woman of color, it would be good to have a woman. . . . And we have plenty of able women, some are white, Latino, Asian American, Native American. I think the time has long passed for making the White House look like the whole of America.
The Taraba State Police Command said it had rescued additional 27 children from a suspected child trafficker, Mary Yakubu, in Taraba.

The Commands Public Relations Officer, David Misal, disclosed this in a statement.

Misal said one Mary Yakubu was arrested in Bali by the detectives attached to Bali Division in connection with a case of suspected child trafficking in February where 23 children were found in her possession.

Similarly on the March 3, the suspect led a team of police officers to Mararaban Donga where another additional 10 children were recovered.



The recent rescued which is the third, made by the Command, was on April 3, where more 27 children, comprising 14 male and 13 female, were rescued by the operatives of the command in Tashan Takalmi area of the Gassol Local Government Area.

The Command has so far in the last two months rescued 60 children from the suspect, 33 of them were reunited with their parents, he said.

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Some world leaders are keen on chloroquine anti-malarial drugs to treat Covid-19 - what's the evidence?

There has been a global surge in demand for drugs normally used against malaria to tackle the coronavirus, as governments urgently seek out treatments for the new disease.

Chloroquine, and a related derivative, hydroxychloroquine, have gained attention - despite the World Health Organization (WHO) saying there is no definitive evidence they work.

So what is the current evidence of their effectiveness as a treatment for the coronavirus, and who is using them?

What do we know about these drugs?

President Trump has frequently referred to the potential of hydroxychloroquine in White House briefings. At a recent press conference, he referred to it and said: "What do you have to lose? Take it."

In a video removed by Facebook for breaching its misinformation guidelines, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro claimed "hydroxychloroquine is working in all places".

Tablets containing chloroquine have long been used in the treatment of malaria to reduce fever and inflammation, and the hope is that they can also inhibit the virus that causes Covid-19.

"Chloroquine seems to block the coronavirus in lab studies. There's some anecdotal evidence from doctors saying it has appeared to help," says James Gallagher, BBC health correspondent.

There is insufficient evidence at the moment from current trials as to their effective use in treatment of patients with Covid-19, and the results from one early French study suggest it is not effective at all.

There are also risks of serious side effects, including renal and liver damage.

"We need larger, high-quality randomised clinical trials in order to better evaluate their effectiveness," says University of Oxford 's Kome Gbinigie, author of a report on anti-malarial testing for Covid-19.

More than 20 trials are being carried out, including in the US, UK, Spain and China.

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove says the UK is "conducting rapid clinical trials on anti-malarials" to assess if they are able to reduce the impact of Covid-19 on those affected.

In the US, various trials are under way for a combination of drugs including chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and an antibiotic called Zithromax, for treating Covid-19 patients.

Which countries have authorised their use?

The US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), the body in charge of licensing medicines in America, has granted "emergency use" authorisation for these drugs in the treatment of Covid-19 for a limited number of hospitalised cases.

That does not mean the FDA is saying they definitely work. But it does mean that in specific circumstances, hospitals can request and use the medicines from government stockpiles for use in Covid-19 treatment.

The US government has said that 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine have been donated to the national stockpile by a German-based pharmaceutical company.

Other countries are also deploying these anti-malarial drugs to varying degrees.

France has authorised doctors to prescribe them for patients with Covid-19, but the country's medical watchdog has warned of side effects.

India's health ministry has recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine as a preventative treatment for healthcare workers, as well as households in contact with confirmed cases if they have a prescription from a doctor.

However, India's government research body has warned against the unrestricted usage of the anti-malarial drug and said it was "experimental" and only for emergency situations.

Several Middle Eastern countries have authorised its use or are conducting trials. This includes Bahrain (which claims it was one of the first countries to use hydroxychloroquine on coronavirus patients), Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

Is there enough chloroquine available?

As interest in these drugs has grown as a potential treatment for Covid-19, many countries have seen high demand and shortages.

Chloroquine and its derivatives have long been widely available in pharmacies, particularly in developing countries, for the treatment of malaria.

This is despite their declining efficacy against malaria, as the disease has become increasingly resistant.

Jordan has banned the sale of hydroxychloroquine in pharmacies to prevent stockpiling. Similarly, the Kuwaiti Health Ministry decided to withdraw all medicines containing the drugs from private pharmacies and limit them to hospitals and health centres.

Kenya has banned over-the-counter sales of chloroquine, so it is now only available on prescription.

India is a major producer of these antimalarial drugs, and has imposed a ban on exports.

President Trump has made a personal plea to India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, for access to the drugs for use in the United States. It has been reported that India is considering this request.

Unregulated use can be unsafe

In Nigeria, households still regularly use tablets containing chloroquine for treating malaria, even though it was banned in 2005 for first-line use because of its declining effectiveness.

News of a February study in China about the use of chloroquine for the coronavirus had already sparked lively debate in Lagos, so people began stocking up.

Following Mr Trump's reference to it as a coronavirus treatment, this ramped up, and shops and chemists sold out of the drug very quickly.

But the Nigerian Centres for Disease Control has told people to stop taking it. "The WHO has NOT approved the use of chloroquine for #COVID19 management."

Officials in Lagos state say there have been a number of people poisoned from overdoses of chloroquine.BBC
After more than two months indoors, Wuhan resident Tong Zhengkun was one of millions of people enjoying a renewed sense of freedom when the Chinese city's 76-day coronavirus lockdown was lifted Wednesday.

Wuhan resident Tong Zhengkun, on Wednesday - the day the city of 11 million people finished its coronavirus lock down. Credit:AP

"I haven't been outside for more than 70 days," an emotional Tong said as he watched a celebratory light display from a bridge across the broad Yangtze River flowing through the city, where the coronavirus outbreak started late last year. "Being indoors for so long drove me crazy."

Streets in the city of 11 million people were clogged with traffic and masked pedestrians visited the few snack shops that had reopened in the nightlife area.

Long lines formed at the airport and train and bus stations as thousands streamed out of the city to return to their homes and jobs elsewhere.

Hankou railway station in Wuhan on Wednesday. Credit:Bloomberg

Yellow barriers that had blocked off some streets were gone, although the gates to residential compounds remained guarded.

Tong said his apartment complex was shut down after residents were found to have contracted the coronavirus. Neighbourhood workers delivered groceries to his door.

Such measures won't be entirely abandoned following the end of Wuhan's closure, which began on January 23 as the virus was raging through the city and overwhelming hospitals.

A medical worker, in red, embraces a colleague as she prepares leave Wuhan's main airport on Wednesday. Credit:AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

Schools are still closed, temperatures are checked when people enter buildings and masks are strongly encouraged. City leaders say they want to simultaneously bring back social and commercial life while avoiding a second wave of infections.

The ability to travel again is a huge relief, however, and around 65,000 people were expected to depart Wednesday by plane and train.

Wuhan residents are now permitted to leave without special authorisation as long as a mandatory smartphone application powered by a mix of data-tracking and government surveillance shows they are healthy and have not been in recent contact with anyone confirmed to have the virus.

Restrictions in the city where most of China's more than 82,000 virus cases and over 3300 deaths from COVID-19 were reported have been gradually eased as cases declined. The government reported no new cases in the city on Wednesday. - AP




This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

Cambridge, UK and Indianapolis, US  7 April 2020: Acacia Pharma Group plc (Acacia Pharma or the "Company), (ACPH.NX), a hospital pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of new products aimed at improving the care of patients undergoing significant treatments such as surgery, other invasive procedures or cancer chemotherapy, announces that Alessandro Della Cha has been appointed to the Board as a non-executive Director.

This appointment is in accordance with the right of Cosmo Technologies Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V., to appoint a director to the Board under the terms of the strategic in-licensing, investment and loan transaction entered into in January 2020.

Alessandro Della Cha has been a board member of Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. since 2006 and has been the Chief Executive Officer since 27 March 2014.

Until 27 March 2014, he was senior partner at Studio Legale Edoardo Ricci e Associati, Milan, where he specialized in company law, mergers and acquisitions. He joined the firm in 1988. From 1987 to 1988 he was assistant of the central director for corporate matters at Fininvest Group. From 1994 to 1998 he was director of II.PP.A.B. Milan (formerly ECA), a charitable institution owning hospitals and specialized in elderly care.

Alessandro Della Cha has a degree in law from the University of Milan, Italy, and an LL.M. in European Union commercial law from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. He is a lecturer in conferences and seminars held by universities and institutions on commercial and company law issues.

Commenting, Scott Byrd, Chairman, said: I am delighted to welcome Alex as a company director. His background and expertise will be a valuable addition to the board.

Contacts

Acacia Pharma Group plc

Mike Bolinder, CEO

Gary Gemignani, CFO

Story continues

Ali Elsley, Company Secretary

+44 1223 919760 / +1 317 505 1280 / +44 1223 919765

IR@acaciapharma.com

Citigate Dewe Rogerson (Financial PR)

Mark Swallow, Frazer Hall, David Dible

+44 20 7638 9571

acaciapharma@citigatedewerogerson.com

About Acacia Pharma

Acacia Pharma is a hospital pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of new products aimed at improving the care of patients undergoing significant treatments such as surgery, other invasive procedures or cancer chemotherapy. The Company has identified important and commercially attractive unmet needs in these areas that its product pipeline aims to address.

Acacia Pharma's lead product, BARHEMSYS (intravenous amisulpride) is approved in the US for the treatment and prophylaxis of postoperative nausea & vomiting (PONV), with US launch planned for H2 2020.

BYFAVO (intravenous remimazolam), an ultra-short-acting and reversible sedative/anesthetic for use during invasive medical procedures, such as colonoscopy and bronchoscopy, is in-licensed from Cosmo Pharmaceuticals for the US market. The NDA for BYFAVO has been filed with the US FDA and the target PDUFA action date is now 5 July 2020.

APD403 (intravenous and oral amisulpride), a selective dopamine antagonist for chemotherapy induced nausea & vomiting (CINV) has successfully completed one proof-of-concept and one Phase 2 dose-ranging study in patients receiving highly emetogenic chemotherapy.

Acacia Pharma is based in Cambridge, UK and its US operations are centred in Indianapolis, IN. The Company is listed on the Euronext Brussels exchange under the ISIN code GB00BYWF9Y76 and ticker symbol ACPH.
NongHyup Bank Vice President Ham Yong-moon, third from left, and Korea Child Welfare Center Association Chairman Ok Kyung-won, third from right, pose with other attendees at the association headquarters in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. The bank said it donated 3,000 face masks to the association, so that biracial children living in rural areas can protect themselves from COVID-19. / Courtesy of NongHyup Bank
As the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, which can only be described as deadly and insidious, psychological scars that the virus is leaving behind are just as devastating and gruesome.

At present, there are more than a million confirmed cases of coronavirus around the world. In India alone, the number of cases has crossed 3000 with over 70 deaths.

Read: Panic, Anxiety, Depression: What Coronavirus Lockdown Means for India's Mental Health

In India and in most parts around the world, a lockdown has been imposed upon the people to contain the virus and social distancing has been prescribed as the only way of keeping the disease at bay. As a consequence, people have been compelled to stay at home (in many cases, alone), with no idea of when it'll be safe to step out again. The burden of the disease, along with the uncertainty and chaos that it brings along, has been difficult to cope with.

According to the World Health Organisation, at least 7.5 percent of India's population, which amounts to approximately 90 million people, suffer from mental health problems. However, since the topic of mental health or therapy is still considered a taboo in the country, only a few end up seeking help.

The lockdown poses another problem for people who haven't been able to step out of their homes for therapy or meet their therapists face-to-face to discuss how they've been feeling in times of coronavirus.

However, there are other ways too. Therapists across the country are now have opened up virtual doors for online sessions. Meanwhile, thanks to technology, mental health apps are galore. If you type "mental health" or "anxiety" in the search section of your play store, you'll be greeted with hundreds of suggestions to choose from.

We tried a few of them.

Most of these applications have a chat-based system, where you can either talk to therapists or AIs. The best part about this has to be the convenience; if you're speaking to your therapist through video conference, chances are, you'll have to adhere to their schedules. But for those of us battling anxiety on a daily basis, panic attacks seldom come announced.

In that case, simply chatting with a therapist online can work wonders.

Both Android and Apple have a number of apps dedicated solely to mental health where you can chat with therapists for free or by paying a nominal amount.

We decided to try out four such apps - Wysa, PinkyMind, Let's Meditate and Now&Me (a platform).

Let's Meditate, from the Heal Me Team, has a 4.8 rating on the Android Play Store. The app, which is mainly for guided meditation, has a plethora of options to choose from. After signing in with basic details, you'll be shown the options and you can choose the one that suits your mood.

For instance, the one titled Deep Relaxation is fourteen minutes long and can really calm your nerves if you're in a state of panic, which seems to be a constant mood these days.

All you really have to do is download the audio, so make sure you have storage space on your phone. I tried it after a long, exhausting day at work, and it really worked! Here's a tip - use headphones and meditate in a dark or dimly lit room for best results; also, keep your phone on the silent mode to avoid distractions.

If you're having trouble sleeping, the app has an option for that too! The audio, also fourteen minutes along, relies on the sound of ocean waves to calm you and help you sleep. Science proves that the sound of the ocean, consisting of binaural beats, can help reduce stress and calm nerves.

Moreover, here's what really seemed to have an impact - in stressful times, having a soothing voice guide you can really work wonders. Yes, staying attentive and following the instructions may seem like a task especially if you're as agitated as I was when I tried the app. But it gets easier when you get the hang of it.

Wysa is slightly different. The app, which has a 4.7 rating on the Android playstore, relies on a chatbot to communicate with the users. The fact that the chatbot is a cute penguin really does the trick. Here's an interesting thing I noticed while signing up - the app really tries to personalise the experience by using a nickname. Hence, when the penguin crops up from time to time on your screen to ask you how you've been doing, it almost feels like confiding in a friend!

However, the chatbot, like most AIs has a set of pre-determined answers to your questions. So, irrespective of what you ask the penguin, it'll feel like speaking to a customer service executive you contact when your food delivery takes longer than usual! Of course, the app has a feature which allows you to speak to certified therapists, but you have pay for that. If you're not willing to, these automated answers are all you got.

That's where PinkyMind emerges a clear winner. The app has an elaborate sign-in process and gives you the freedom to choose the kind of help you want. There's also an option where you can speak to therapists for free!

If you opt for the chat option, you will be assigned a certified therapist within a couple of minutes. This is no AI, so you won't be asked generic and vague questions. Naturally, that gives the interaction a personal touch and to be honest, that's the closest thing to a therapist these days.

You can speak to the therapist about what you're feeling and vent if needed. You can also choose to opt for the paid services and schedule multiple appointments with the therapist of your choice. For paid users, there's a video call option as well which you can use to speak to therapists.

Now&Me, on the other hand, can be a great way to stay connected if you've been feeling isolated and alone during the lockdown.

The website can be better described as a community. Here, you can share your story, speak to strangers while simultaneously keeping your identity anonymous, read up experiences of others, take part in discussions related to problems you might be facing and even offer advice to others who might value your suggestions.

There are different categories, including physical health, relationships, anxiety, stress and so on. There is also a separate category called 'Women's World', which as the name suggests, focuses on topics pertaining to women's mental and physical well-being.

Yet, even though you get to interact with real people here, it seems more like a chatroom from the early 2000s. More importantly, would you be entirely comfortable sharing your thoughts and problems with a group of strangers? Personally, I had my guards up as the fear of being judged really got in the way of opening up.

Nevertheless, the website does have a number of insightful blogs and an all-encompassing section on women's health which can be really educational otherwise.

But here's what I learnt through this experiment - mental health and seeking help for the same is extremely personal, and you really need to find an app that suits your taste because what may work for someone may not really work for you. Trial and error, that seems to the only solution in this case.
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The brand new EastEnders set is nearly complete - and was buzzing with activity on Tuesday as work continues amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Construction sites have not been asked to close, so work can continue 'if it is done safely' according to the UK government's website - with social-distancing measures in place and strict rules regarding personal and food hygiene.

Yet the project may not, to some, be classed as 'essential' - as the majority of the UK has been asked to stay at home unless absolutely necessary.

Getting there: The brand new EastEnders set is nearly complete - and was buzzing with activity on Tuesday as work continues on amid the COVID-19 outbreak

Lone site workers were spotted in protective gear as they busily went about their tasks, keeping a fair distance from one another.

The 87m Borehamwood set is taking shape, despite the few construction staff on site.

The famous Queen Vic pub is now one of the only major structures left to be finished.

The new Albert Square is being erected next to the old one - which would ordinarily be busy with cast and crew shooting EastEnders.

Reduced staff? A lone contruction worker is pictured on set as the UK continues to enforce lockdown rules for non-key workers

Big changes: The brand new set features all of Albert Square's staples, as well as a brand new version of the Queen Vic pub, a block of flats and a railway line

Challenging: According to The Telegraph last year, ongoing maintenance issues on the old set hampered the show's filming schedule and presented health and safety concerns

But this was deserted on Tuesday, as production has been halted due to the UK's lockdown.

The BBC was accused of 'complacency' over the astonishing 87 million bill for its new EastEnders set at the end of last month.

The project, nicknamed E20 after the soap's fictitious postcode, is already 27million over budget and is not expected to be fully completed until May 2023, nearly five years late.

MPs said BBC bosses 'badly' managed the construction and that they made 'a serious error' by failing to consider what project management skills they needed.

Open for business: Construction sites have not been asked to close, so work can continue 'if it is done safely' according to the UK government's website

Rules: Social-distancing measures are in place, as are strict rules regarding personal and food hygiene

Essential? The project may not, to some, be classed as 'essential' - as the majority of the UK has been asked to stay at home unless absolutely necessary

Cut-backs? Lone site workers were spotted in protective gear as they busily went about their tasks, keeping a fair distance from one another

Controversial: The new and improved Walford has not come without its detractors, however, as The Sun previously reported that neighbors were left disgruntled by the loud noises of builders working on the set

Scary: Construction for the brand new set also continues as filming for all of the UK's biggest soaps has been thrown into doubt amid the coronavirus outbreak

The public accounts committee said they secured a contract poorly, drastically increasing costs.

The committee also found that contract negotiations took six months longer than planned, partly because of discussions about what bricks to use for the set. Meanwhile, the corporation spent 50,000 on samples.

MPs added that they were 'disappointed by the BBC's complacency in managing this project, particularly in its early stages'.

And they said the BBC 'underestimated the scale and complexity of the project, including how it would age the new sets so that they either exactly replicate what viewers are used to, or look realistic where there are new locations'.

Investment: The updated set will allow the crew to film in HD as bosses feared filming above standard definition on the current set would allow viewers to notice that the fronts of the some buildings were made of plaster and plywood

Still a long wait: In 2013 the BBC said the new set would cost 59.7 million to be completed in August 2018. In October 2017 this was revised, with the broadcaster saying the set will cost 86.7 million and not be fully completed until 2023

The set consists of a 'front lot'  a brickwork replica of the current set  and a 'back lot', which will provide extra locations to 'better reflect modern East End London'.

A BBC spokesman said: 'We strongly reject the notion that there has been any complacency in managing this project.

'Like any building work of this scale, there have been challenges along the way including construction market issues beyond our control and working on a brownfield site.'

The extended sound stage sees a new railway line and block of flats in place, replicating the soap's original set up.

EastEnders' brand new set was first announced four years ago when it was also revealed that the show's old 1984 set was in poor condition.

Quiet: The 87m Borehamwood set is taking shape, despite the few construction staff on site

Accusations: The BBC was accused of 'complacency' over the astonishing 87 million bill for its new EastEnders set at the end of last month

Complacent? The project, nicknamed E20 after the soap's fictitious postcode, is already 27million over budget and is not expected to be fully completed until May 2023, nearly five years late

As well as an extension of the famous Albert Square, EastEnders' new set will feature a brand new block of flats to house all manner of colourful characters.

It is being perfectly built to replicate the old set, which had been in use since the soap first began.

According to The Telegraph last year, ongoing maintenance issues on the old set hampered the show's filming schedule and presented health and safety concerns.

The updated set will allow the crew to film the programme in HD as bosses feared filming above standard definition on the current set would allow viewers to notice that the fronts of the Queen Vic and its surrounding buildings are made of plaster and plywood.

Hitting out: MPs said BBC bosses 'badly' managed the construction and that they made 'a serious error' by failing to consider what project management skills they needed

Criticism: MPs added that they were 'disappointed by the BBC's complacency in managing this project, particularly in its early stages'

The HD set's buildings are made entirely out of brick, however the crew are working diligently to ensure they appear identical on camera to the buildings that viewers are familiar with.

The new and improved Walford has not come without its detractors, however, as The Sun previously reported that neighbours were left disgruntled by the loud noises of builders working on the set.

The BBC said in response: 'We are extremely mindful of the neighbouring properties and have ensured residents are regularly updated. We keep all out-of-hours work to an absolute minimum.'

In 2013 the BBC said the new set would cost 59.7 million to be completed in August 2018.

However in October 2017 this was revised, with the broadcaster saying the set will cost 86.7 million and not be fully completed until 2023.

Hard at work: The new set - which is based mere feet away from the old studio - has been in the works for several years at the soap's studio in Elstree

The BBC said in a statement: 'The set of EastEnders was built in 1984 and only intended for use for two years. Over 30 years later, the show remains one of the BBC's flagship programmes and yet is filming from a set that is no longer fit for purpose.

'The new set will be suitable for HD filming for the first time and extend Walford to better reflect modern East End London.'

Construction for the set also continues as filming for all of the UK's biggest soaps has been thrown into doubt amid the coronavirus outbreak.

On Monday Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted the members of the public avoid any social contact, and those who are particularly vulnerable ordered to remain at home for at least 12 weeks.
Kerala Chief Minister



Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday hailed the services of nurses and said the world comes to know about the state through their work.

He also expressed the state's gratitude to nurses and midwives for their sacrifices and contribution and said Kerala was proud of them.

On the occasion of the World Health Day, Vijayan tweeted: "Kerala is one of the world's largest contributors to the talent pool of nurses. The world comes to know our State through their work. On #WorldHealthDay the State expresses its profound gratitude to nurses & midwives for their sacrifices & contributions. We are proud of you.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mehbooba, the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, who has been detained under the Public Safety Act, was shifted from a make-shift jail to her 'Fairview' residence on Gupkar road here on Tuesday

Srinagar: National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah on Tuesday demanded that PDP president Mehbooba Mufti be set free, saying merely shifting her home while keeping her under detention was a cop out.

Mehbooba, the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, who has been detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA), was shifted from a make-shift jail to her 'Fairview' residence on Gupkar road in Srinagar on Tuesday.

In a tweet, Omar said,"Mehbooba Mufti must be set free. Shifting her home while continuing to keep her detained is a cop out".

. @MehboobaMufti must be set free. Shifting her home while continuing to keep her detained is a cop out.  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) April 7, 2020

The Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference (JKPC) chief spokesperson Junaid Azim Mattu said the continued detention of Mehbooba, JKPC chairman Sajad Lone, who is under house arrest, and other mainstream politicians was "authoritarian".

"The continued detention of JKPC Chairman Sajad Lone and JKPDP President Mehbooba Mufti and a number of senior mainstream leaders is authoritarian. They've been under detention for more than eight months now, not allowed access to the media, to their colleagues and their relatives," he said on Twitter.
By Bill Hughes Apr. 06, 2020 | 10:17 PM | CALVERT CITY

A Marshall County church has come up with innovative ways to keep meeting on Sundays and love their neighbors during the pandemic.Pathway Baptist Church held their last service in their sanctuary on March 8. After Governor Andy Beshear asked churches to avoid large group gatherings, they held one service on Facebook Live, but then partnered with Calvert City Drive-in for services on March 22 and 29. The church gathered, but nobody got out of the vehicles, and they listened to the service on their radios. The church is now using a similar set-up for drive-in worship at their church property, and Pastor Mike Donald says, "attendance is up."Donald said the governor gave his approval to this alternate style of worship when they hatched their plan.At these drive-in services, Donald has placed a large bucket at the front of their outdoor stage to collect tips. Those collections are designated for servers at six restaurants in Calvert City, as a way to help meet tangible needs and also share the love of Jesus.Donald said, "So I'm sitting in my office thinking, 'what can we do to help out folks around us?' and you know, we have some nice restaurants and I thought, 'well, let's just put a bucket up there and see what we can do.'"On the first two Sundays the church of just under 250 members raised $10,250 for folks who depend on tips for income.Donald said, "I think we cut 85 checks last Thursday."Almost immediately, the message section of their Facebook account lit up."People saying, 'thank you, you can't believe how much this helps, I can't believe you're thinking of us,' things of that nature. The District Manager for Cracker Barrel called us and he was really excited about it," Donald said.The church is going to continue leaving the bucket out every Sunday and will distribute money every two weeks.They are streaming their outdoor worship service on their Facebook page (see link below).

On the Net:
Assessing Admiral Group plc's (LSE:ADM) past track record of performance is a valuable exercise for investors. It enables us to reflect on whether the company has met or exceed expectations, which is a great indicator for future performance. Today I will assess ADM's recent performance announced on 31 December 2019 and evaluate these figures to its longer term trend and industry movements.

Check out our latest analysis for Admiral Group

Were ADM's earnings stronger than its past performances and the industry?

ADM's trailing twelve-month earnings (from 31 December 2019) of UK432m has increased by 9.4% compared to the previous year.

However, this one-year growth rate has been lower than its average earnings growth rate over the past 5 years of 9.4%, indicating the rate at which ADM is growing has slowed down. What could be happening here? Well, let's examine what's going on with margins and whether the rest of the industry is feeling the heat.

LSE:ADM Income Statement April 7th 2020

In terms of returns from investment, Admiral Group has invested its equity funds well leading to a 47% return on equity (ROE), above the sensible minimum of 20%. Furthermore, its return on assets (ROA) of 6.0% exceeds the GB Insurance industry of 1.3%, indicating Admiral Group has used its assets more efficiently. However, its return on capital (ROC), which also accounts for Admiral Groups debt level, has declined over the past 3 years from 14% to 14%. This correlates with an increase in debt holding, with debt-to-equity ratio rising from 35% to 58% over the past 5 years.

What does this mean?

While past data is useful, it doesnt tell the whole story. Positive growth and profitability are what investors like to see in a companys track record, but how do we properly assess sustainability? You should continue to research Admiral Group to get a more holistic view of the stock by looking at:

Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for ADMs future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for ADMs outlook. Financial Health: Are ADMs operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why weve done it for you. Check out our financial health checks here. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the trailing twelve months from 31 December 2019. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- At the beginning of the year, the U.S. and Iran came close to war, following a series of attacks in Iraq. Now, as all three countries grapple with the coronavirus epidemic, another round of confrontation is looming.

Once again, rocket attacks by Iranian-backed militia groups on American targets in Iraq are driving the escalation. On March 11, an attack on Camp Taji attributed to the Kataib Hezbollah group killed two U.S. and one British servicemen. The next day, the U.S. retaliated with at least five attacks on groups weapons depots.

It was strikingly reminiscent of the exchange of attacks that culminated in the January 3 killing, by a U.S. drone strike, of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Irans retaliation did not take any American lives, but left scores of soldiers with hear trauma. An uneasy lull followed.

Now the two sides are again threatening each other with dire consequences. On April 1, Donald Trump said Iran was planning a sneak attack on U.S. troops and/or assets in Iraq and warned the next American response will be bigger. Iran responded that the U.S. would face the fiercest response to any counterstrike.

Why is this happening now? Because both sides see an opportunity.

The escalation is largely driven by Irans ongoing imperative to carve out some breathing space from the suffocating U.S. economic sanctions. Tehran is convinced that it needs some military leverage to achieve this. And Iraq is the place that Iran can challenge the U.S. directly, without having to pay the bills, literally and metaphorically. Many of the Iraqi militias, even those that take instructions from Tehran, are funded by the Iraqi government.

Iran now finds itself on the back foot across the region, as well as dealing with several crises at home. Its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, are in the uncomfortable position of having responsibilityit prefers to have just powerin the middle of an economic catastrophe. In Syria, Iran is being increasingly elbowed to the sidelines by Russia, Turkey and the Assad regime. And in Iraq, its proxies allies have so far failed to secure their own candidate for the prime ministership and are trying to fend off an effectively pro-Western candidate, Adnan al-Zurfi, nominated by President Barham Saleh.

Story continues

But Iran still has a trump card in Iraq: the Shiite sectarian militia groups collectively known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Using them to attack the U.S. provides that military leverage with a degree of plausible deniability.

The regime in Tehran also needs to exert its authority over the militias. Al-Muhandis was the PMFs unquestioned leader, but although Iran and its allies were able to replace him with another Kataib Hezbollah commander, Abu Fadak al-Mohammedawi, at least two other candidates have challenged his leadership. The coordination of the PMF groups is in relative chaos, and the authority of Abu Fadakand hence of Iranis yet to be consolidated. A bloody battle against U.S. troops in Iraq might help establish the new mans credentials.

Moreover, Iran needs the PMF groups to consolidate their position within the Iraqi political structure and fend off a potential pro-U.S. prime minister.

The Iranian regime and revenge-seeking Iraqi militants arent the only ones yearning for a fight. A contingent within the Trump administration, led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor Robert OBrien, believes now is the time to escalate pressure on Iran, as it is battered by an economic crisis brought on by intensifying U.S. sanctions, the coronavirus epidemic, and the collapse in the price of oil, as well as a myriad of regional woes. The Pentagon has ordered commanders to draw up a plan to try to destroy Kataib Hezbollahs capability to attack U.S. forces in Iraq.

This was strongly opposed by the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Robert P. White. President Trump, too, appears reluctant to intensify the escalation with Iran under current circumstances.

But Iran and its Iraqi client groups may be encouraged by reports that U.S. forces are being consolidated into a smaller number of forward operating bases; the regime in Tehran believes this is an important step to the eventual removal of all American troops from Iraq. They will want to hurry the U.S. departure, but in a way that doesnt invite massive retaliation.

American casualties from rocket fire would require Trump to act decisively to restore deterrence, which has weakened since the drone strike on Soleimani and Muhandis. Several Patriot missile batteries have been installed to protect bases from incoming rocket fire.

There are just too many itchy fingers on triggers in Iraq for anybodys comfort.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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2020 Bloomberg L.P.
(Newser)  Stephanie Grisham is leaving her post as White House press secretary as part of a West Wing communications shake-up, report Politico and CNN. Replacing her will be Trump campaign spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany, reports the New York Times. Grisham will become first lady Melania Trump's chief of staff, per CNN, and it's not an unfamiliar role: She worked closely with the first lady before succeeding Sarah Sanders as press chief last year. Grisham didn't hold a single press conference during her nine-month tenure as press chief, continuing a practice begun by Sanders. It wasn't immediately clear if McEnany would resurrect the briefings.

story continues below

The Times describes McEnany "as a vocal defender of Mr. Trump on television, the main role the president has long believed the press secretary should play." The move isn't a huge surprise: Axios reported last week that new White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was strongly considering the move. CNN notes that Grisham has played an increasingly small role in West Wing communications of late, in part because she had to go into quarantine after coming into contact with a Brazilian official who tested positive for the coronavirus. Grisham herself tested negative. Meanwhile, VP Mike Pence's communication team has taken a lead role amid the outbreak because he's head of the White House task force. (Read more Stephanie Grisham stories.)
As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread across the globe, some U.S. states are taking action to help out veterans who are being hurt by the outbreak's economic impact.

While all states offer special benefits to veterans ranging from free fishing licenses to home loans and free college, two have recently announced new and expanded cash relief programs for their veterans.

Related: Your 2020 State Veterans Benefits

Minnesota Offers Two New Financial Relief Programs

In late March, the state of Minnesota created a special program that will assist veterans who may be financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program provides $6.2 million to Minnesota veterans through two new grants.

The COVID-19 Disaster Relief Grant provides $1,000 to veterans and their families who have suffered negative financial effects due to COVID-19. The grant is open to all Minnesota resident veterans or their unmarried surviving spouses.

Funding is limited, apply online.

The COVID-19 Special Needs Grant provides one-time financial assistance to a Minnesota resident veteran or their unmarried surviving spouse who needs help due to a COVID-19-related event. Money from this grant goes directly to the creditors; none is given to the applicant.

This grant is basically used to take care of bills that a veteran or survivor is unable to pay as a result of unemployment or under-employment caused by the pandemic. Some examples of qualified expenses include utility bills, insurance, rent or mortgage, auto repairs, etc.

Again, money for this grant is limited. Apply online.

Minnesota also offers other cash grants and loans to veterans or their survivors who find themselves in need and are not personally affected by COVID-19.

Check out our Minnesota State Veteran Benefits page for more details.

Indiana Expands Existing Programs

The state of Indiana has loosened requirements for its Military Family Relief Fund (MFRF) in light of the statewide economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

See: Indiana State Veteran Benefits

The MFRF is now available to more veterans, as well as active-duty members, and the grant is being made available to those who may have received it before. The MFRF COVID-19 grant may be used for up to two months of household needs, such as food, housing, utilities, medical services, child care and other essential family support that has become difficult to afford.

Indiana resident veterans who received an honorable or under honorable conditions discharge may be eligible, as well as active-duty members with at least 12 months' active service. Dependents may also be eligible if the criteria listed above are met.

The normal grant amount is $2,500, but larger amounts may be authorized if great need is proven.

Check out the Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs website for more information.

Stay on Top of Your Veteran Benefits

Military benefits are always changing. Keep up with everything from pay to health care by subscribing to Military.com, and get access to up-to-date pay charts and more with all latest benefits delivered straight to your inbox.
Its been about a year since CentralSquare filled seven executive positions around its chief executive officer, and today it named a new one of those too.CentralSquare will now be led by David Zolet, the former president and CEO of Logistics Management Institute (LMI), a management consulting firm that has been serving the federal government for decades.Zolet also sits on the board of FirstNet , the nationwide communications network for public safety agencies.Im thrilled to be leading CentralSquare at a time when there is so much opportunity for public-sector technology, Zolet said in a statement. I look forward to further building and strengthening the companys momentum in helping our clients deliver on their commitment to citizens.Zolet is replacing Simon Angove, who had been CEO since September 2018, and before that was CEO of Superion, one of CentralSquares subsidiaries. The announcement did not mention Angove's status following the change.A news release from CentralSquare credited Zolet with overseeing a 50-percent growth in revenue at LMI, and working with government through various technology companies over the past 30 years. According to Zolets LinkedIn , before working at LMI he was a regional vice president for CSC, a vice president of systems integration for IBM and an employee of Northrop Grumman IT. He got his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University.According to its news release, CentralSquare serves more than 7,650 organizations across North America, making software for public safety, public administration, hospitals and clinicians. The company formed in July 2018 from the merger of Superion, TriTech and Apteans public-sector and health-care divisions.The year and a half since then have been a time of apparent growth and transformation for the company: In January 2019, CentralSquare acquired asset-management company Lucity; in February 2019, it announced it was hiring 400 new employees ; in March 2019, it closed its only California office and announced the hire of a new leadership team , including a chief financial officer, chief operating officer, a senior VP, an executive VP, a chief technology officer, a chief marketing officer and a chief revenue officer; in May 2019, it acquired Tellus Safety Solutions.In February 2020, having incorporated Tellus CAD-to-CAD software into its public safety platform, the company announced a $74.9-million contract to become Chicagos CAD provider.
After days of chaos and sickness, sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt listened on Monday as the Navy's top political official took to a loudspeaker and fumed about how wrong it was that their captain had raised the alarm about the Navy's handling of a coronavirus outbreak on his ship in a letter that leaked to the media.

Acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly told the sailors that Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, relieved of command on Thursday, committed a "betrayal" by writing the letter and distributing it to some people who were not in his chain of command. Modly left open two possibilities.

"It was my opinion that if he didn't think information was going to get out into the public in this information age that we live in, then he was either A, too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this," Modly said. "The alternate is that he did it on purpose, and that's a serious violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which you are all familiar with."

The fiery speech, sprinkled with obscenities, plunged the Navy and the Trump administration deeper into a political crisis and prompted calls from Democratic lawmakers for Modly's resignation. It also promised to keep the plight of the Theodore Roosevelt under the microscope, now that Crozier and 172 more of its crew of 4,800 have tested positive for the virus.

Crozier's removal has drawn widespread attention, especially after videos of sailors cheering him as he left the ship circulated Friday.

In his remarks, Modly raged against the media, saying it "has an agenda and the agenda that they have depends on which side of the political aisle they sit."

And he criticized former vice president Joe Biden, the leading Democratic presidential nominee, saying that his allegation that the removal of Crozier was "close to criminal" was inaccurate and that "what your captain did was very, very wrong."

A Navy official said in an emailed statement on Monday morning that Modly's remarks, initially published by The Daily Caller, were "intended to be private, between the secretary and each member of the crew." The official and others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

But after an audio recording of the remarks leaked a couple of hours later on the website Task & Purpose, Modly doubled down.

"The spoken words were from the heart, and meant for them," Modly said in a statement. "I stand by every word I said, even, regrettably any profanity that may have been used for emphasis. Anyone who has served on a Navy ship would understand. I ask, but don't expect, that people read them in their entirety."

Among sailors on the ship and some of their family members, Modly's speech was met with disbelief.

Margalis Fjelstad, whose daughter is among the Theodore Roosevelt's sailors who have tested positive for the virus, said she was "sad and offended at the crass, unsympathetic, hostile and bitter response" by Modly.

"His emphasis shows that his public image seems to be his greatest concern and makes obvious his unsuitability for the job he is filling in currently," she said.

On Monday evening, Modly issued an apology.

"Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid. I think, and always believed him to be the opposite," Modly said. "I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship. I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused."

Modly pledged to get the ship to full health and back to sea, "where we can move beyond this unfortunate situation."

Modly became the de facto top political official in the Navy after his predecessor was fired amid Trump's personal intervention in a Navy SEAL's war crimes case. In an interview with The Washington Post's David Ignatius, Modly said he fired Crozier so as not to get into a situation where Trump would think that he needed to intervene.

Modly said he was aware that his predecessor lost his job because the Navy "got crossways with the president," and "I didn't want that to happen again."

Modly's speech followed a tumultuous month in which sailors began testing positive for the coronavirus after a multiday port stop in Vietnam that had been approved by Adm. Philip Davidson, the top U.S. commander in the Pacific. It marked 25 years of relations between the United States and Vietnam, as the Pentagon seeks to deepen ties in the region in the shadow of China.

While President Donald Trump said over the weekend that "I guess the captain stopped in Vietnam," the decision was directed by more-senior Navy commanders. It was defended last week by Modly and Adm. Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, as being made while there were no reported cases within hundreds of miles.

According to relatives of sailors on board the vessel, crew members weren't issued any particular warning about the possibility of contracting covid-19, the disease the virus causes, even as people on shore in Vietnam were wearing face masks in certain places to avoid getting the virus. Less than a week after the ship left Vietnam on March 9, the nation's government mandated that people wear face masks in public spaces.

Modly said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt last week that the Navy didn't know who was "case zero" on the ship, and that the outbreak might not even have originated in Vietnam.

"They're flying in and out from all over the place," Modly said. "You know, this could have been contracted by a crew member who was in San Diego on leave before he arrived on the ship. We just don't know."

Whatever its origin, the outbreak became apparent within days.

On March 24, Modly informed the public that three individuals aboard the Theodore Roosevelt had tested positive and been evacuated from the carrier. He said others aboard the vessel who had contact with them had been identified and quarantined. "This is an example of how we are able to keep our ships deployed at sea and underway, even with active covid-19 cases."

Soon, Modly's confident portrayal of the Navy's handling of the situation aboard the aircraft carrier would be undercut. According to one relative of a sailor aboard the ship, many crew members didn't find out about the coronavirus cases until reading media reports.

For many, the revelation was unnerving. The social distancing that health experts had begun advising in the United States was all but impossible aboard the carrier, where crew members are housed in tight spaces, share restrooms and dining facilities, and often bunk together.

As the crisis mounted, the Navy leadership grouped the crew into those who were deemed essential to continue operating the carrier and those who were considered nonessential.

Many of those deemed essential were piled into a gym aboard the carrier and given cots to sleep on.

But according to the relatives of two sailors who were moved to the gym, crew members weren't tested or screened for the virus first. Soon enough, positive cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, began showing up among the group that was put there. Those crew members were told they would soon be moved to hotels on Guam, even as they crowded together for meetings, in contradiction to public health guidance. 

Crozier and his superior officers, meanwhile, were struggling to reach a consensus on a plan of action, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

Among them were Rear Adm. Stuart Baker, who was embarked on the ship as its strike group commander, and Adm. John Aquilino, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Both admirals favored smaller mitigation efforts than Crozier wanted because of concerns about taking the carrier out of action and jeopardizing the mission, while Crozier wanted a more aggressive effort up front in the hope that it would protect his crew's health and allow the ship to return to sea more quickly.

On March 30, Crozier sent his letter to Navy officials. While Modly described it at one point as a "blast-out email" to 20 to 30 people, a person interviewed said many of the people who received it were on Crozier's staff. Baker and at least one other admiral were not on it.

"The characterization that he did not go through the chain is not accurate," the friend of Crozier's said. "He did not route it to them for distribution because they were not buying in on the plan."

Crozier said in the letter that while the Theodore Roosevelt could set sail at any time, he was requesting that 90% of the crew be removed for testing and quarantining and the disinfecting of the ship.

"We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die," Crozier wrote. "If we do not act now - we are failing to take care of our most trusted asset - our Sailors."

The following day, the letter leaked and was published by the San Francisco Chronicle, angering senior Navy officials still sensitive to any perception that they might put a mission before the well-being of sailors. After the death of 17 sailors in two ship collisions in 2017, the service promised it would listen to ship captains who raise concerns about whether they are ready to sail.

On Wednesday, Gilday said at the Pentagon that the Navy wasn't "looking to shoot the messenger" in Crozier's case. But Modly sounded less committed to keeping the captain on.

A day later, Modly announced that he had directed the removal of Crozier and that he already had been thinking of doing so on Wednesday.

Word of Crozier's removal was met by the crew of the Theodore Roosevelt with a mixture of shock, anger and disappointment, according to family members and one sailor still aboard the ship.

"We were excited to see what else he could have brought to the table as far as being a great leader," said one enlisted sailor.

In an emotional send-off, hundreds of sailors crowded into an aircraft hangar on the ship as Crozier exited early Friday, chanting his name as he exited off a gangway alone.

The visuals, captured by numerous sailors on video, put senior U.S. officials on the defensive.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defended Modly's decision. Gilday, the Navy's top officer, had advocated against Crozier's removal but ultimately supported Modly.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he disagreed with the way Modly has handled the outbreak.

"His decision to relieve Captain Crozier was at best an overreaction to the extraordinary steps the Captain took to protect his crew," he said in a statement.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., a Marine veteran, said Modly "spectacularly disqualified himself as an effective leader" of the Navy.

"President Trump or Secretary Esper should fire him," Gallego said.

Trump, asked about the controversy at the White House on Saturday, said he supported Crozier's dismissal but noted that he didn't make the decision.

The president said Crozier's letter was "terrible" and not appropriate.

Modly left to visit Guam over the weekend, seeking to quell the outcry.

Asked Monday evening about Modly's statement, Trump said he "hadn't heard it exactly," but he called it "strong."

The president said sending the letter was a "mistake," but then he suggested that Crozier's career might not be over.

"With all of that said, his career prior to that was very good, so I'm going to get involved and see exactly what's going on there, because I don't want to destroy somebody for having a bad day," he said.

- - -

The Washington Post's Missy Ryan and Julie Tate contributed to this report.
A person holds a Geiger counter at the scene of a forest fire at the Chernobyl exclusion zone, not far from the nuclear power plant, on April 5, 2020. (Yaroslav Emalianenko/AFP/Getty Images)

Chernobyl Radiation Back to Normal After Spike at Forest Fire Site

Ukrainian authorities said that radiation levels were back to normal after an earlier radiation spike in the restricted zone around Chernobyl, the scene of the worlds worst nuclear accident.

There is bad newsin the center of the fire, radiation is above normal, Yegor Firsov wrote on Facebook on Sunday along with a video of a Geiger counter. As you can see in the video, the readings of the device are 2.3 when the norm is 0.14.

But this is only within the area of the fire outbreak, he added, indicating a localized radiation spike.

Local authorities on Tuesday sought to allay residents fears that the fires near the Chernobyl nuclear power station have led to persistently unsafe levels of radiation, saying that measurements showed they did not exceed natural background levels.

As for the situation in the Chernobyl zoneI want to calm you down, Firsov wrote in a follow-up post, adding that state radiation security specialists took measurements and detected no unsafe levels of radiation.

Therefore, you need not be afraid to open windows and air your premises during quarantine, he added, referring to residents in and around Kyiv, who like all Ukrainians as of Monday, face stricter measures to curb the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly knows as novel coronavirus.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said in statement that authorities had intensified quarantine requirements, including prohibiting people from being out in public without masks covering their nose and mouth, and shutting down non-essential services.

The wildfire broke out within the 1,000-square-mile Chernobyl Exclusion Zone set after the 1986 disaster at the plant that sent a cloud of radioactive fallout over much of Europe.

State Emergencies Service of Ukraine reported that 138 firefighters were deployed to fight the blaze, including two Antonov AN-32P planes and an MI-8 helicopter.

The emergency service said Tuesday it was still fighting the fires but the situation was fully under control.

Firsov said the blaze was probably caused by people setting fire to nearby grass, which spread to trees.

He called on lawmakers to increase arson fines by a factor of 100, otherwise, large-scale fires will continue to happen every fall and spring.

Blazes in the exclusion zone are more dangerous because the trees and plant life are still irradiated from the nuclear meltdown decades ago.

After the explosion in April 1986, people were evacuated and resettled from the 19-mile exclusion zone around the plant, and the zone is still strictly controlled.

The zone is mostly unpopulated, though some 200 people have stayed despite orders to leave.

According to the Emergency Services Ministry, cited by NBC News, there is a greater frequency of fires in the exclusion zone in the spring and the fall.
Scientists have developed a precise, nanotechnology-based treatment to alleviate the pain and fertility problems associated with endometriosis, a common gynecological condition in women of childbearing age.

Research led by Oleh Taratula of the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy and Ov Slayden of the Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University used photo-responsive nanoparticles loaded with dye to find and remove the lesions associated with the disorder.

Findings were published today in the journal Small.

The endometrium is the innermost layer of the uterus, and endometriosis occurs when endometrium-like tissue forms lesions outside of the uterine cavity -- usually involving the ovaries, the fallopian tubes and the tissue lining the pelvis.

On rare occasions, endometrial tissue may spread beyond the pelvic organs.

Roughly 10% of childbearing-age women will experience endometriosis, and 35% to 50% of women with pelvic pain and or infertility suffer from the disorder.

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There's no cure, although surgical removal of the lesions can improve fertility. The downside, however, is that the lesions come back about half the time, and more than one-quarter of endometriosis surgery patients need three or more operations because it's hard to find all of the diseased tissue that needs to be removed.

Taratula and Slayden, in a collaboration that also included OSU's Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine, used tiny -- less than 100 nanometers in size -- polymeric materials packed with a dye that can generate both a fluorescence signal and cell-killing heat under near-infrared light.

For doctors, that means it can be both an imaging tool and a lesion-removal technique.

"We built our strong team to combine expertise in both nanomedicine and endometriosis," said Olena Taratula, also a researcher with the College of Pharmacy. "This is a devastating disease, and we developed and evaluated the photo-responsive nanoagent to detect and eliminate unwanted endometrial tissue with photothermal ablation."

That means injecting the dye-loaded nanoparticles into the body, where they fluoresce to show where the lesions are, and also kil them with heat because the particles soar to 115 degrees Fahrenheit upon exposure to near-infrared light.

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"The challenge has been to find the right type of nanoparticles," Oleh Taratula said. "Ones that can predominantly accumulate in endometriotic lesions without toxic effect on the body, while preserving their imaging and heating properties."

By using a clinically relevant animal model of endometriosis developed by Slayden's group at the primate center, the scientists showed that the nanoparticles constructed by the Taratula group can efficiently accumulate in endometrial tissue 24 hours after being administered. Slayden is a professor of reproductive and developmental sciences at the Oregon National Primate Research Center and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and molecular and cellular biosciences at the OHSU School of Medicine.

"The heat is produced under near-infrared laser light that is harmless to tissue without the presence of the nanoparticles," Oleh Taratula said. "The generated heat eradicates the endometrial lesions completely within a day or two. Dr. Slayden and I built this team years ago to help surgeons to better visualize and treat endometriosis lesions, and we're getting close."

To advance the technology to human clinical trials, future studies are needed to validate the treatment approach in animals that develop endometriosis similar to how it presents in humans, he added. The research team has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to evaluate the efficiency of the nanoparticles in macaques with endometriotic lesions.

"We believe that our developed strategy can eventually shift the current paradigm for endometriosis detection and treatment," Oleh Taratula said. "In general, nanomedicine has barely been explored for imaging and treatment of endometriosis. Our results validate that some fundamental principles of cancer nanomedicine can potentially be used for the development of novel nanoparticle-based strategies for treatment and imaging of endometriosis."

The National Institutes of Health, the OSU College of Pharmacy and the Oregon National Primate Research Center funded this research.
A newly-hatched study out of China, so raw that its not yet been peer-reviewed, has some disturbing news for cat lovers.

Our furry feline friends appear to be susceptible to catching COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus called SARS-CoV-2. Even worse, the cats in the study were able to infect each other, although they showed no signs of illness.

Ferrets were also able to catch the CCP virus, although it didnt appear to harm them. Dogs, on the other hand, were not susceptible, according to the study. The CCP virus showed up in the feces of five dogs, but no infectious CCP virus was found. Pigs, chickens, and ducks were also not very hospitable places for the CCP virus.

But theres no need for cat or ferret lovers to panic, experts say. Theres no evidence their pets could get very sick or die from the CCP virus.

Yes, people should embrace their pets. These researchers squirted the virus down the cats nose in high concentration, which is pretty artificial, said Dr. John Williams, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh.

No Realistic Exposure

The lab experiment used a scenario that is completely unrealistic, experts say. First, researchers forced extremely high doses of virus up the nostrils of five 8-month-old domesticated cats.

Cats in our homes or even in the wild would never be exposed to that level of CCP virus.

Thats a whole lot more than an average human would get, said infectious disease expert Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventative medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville.

So this is an artificial circumstance and we dont know that it happens in nature at all, Schaffner added.

Two of the five cats were euthanized six days later. Researchers found CCP virus particles in their upper respiratory systems.

The remaining three infected cats were put into a cage adjacent to three non-infected cats. One of those three cats later tested positive for the CCP virus, while the other two did not. Still, the researchers felt that showed the virus could be transmitted via respiratory drops.

Or did it? None of the infected cats exhibited signs of illness. And even if they did pass the virus to each other, that doesnt mean they would be able to pass it on to humans.

Thats what happened nearly two decades ago with a sister CCP virus called SARS-CoV, which causes the deadly pneumonia-like respiratory disease called SARS.

Just like now, science found cats could be infected with SARS-CoV and infect other cats. But the CCP virus didnt transmit widely among house cats during the 2002 to 2004 pandemic, nor were there any known cases of transmission to humans.

Ferrets Affected Too

The study found ferrets were also efficient replicators of the CCP virusmeaning the virus can easily grow and reproduce in their long, slinky bodies.

SARS-CoV-2 can replicate in the upper respiratory tract of ferrets for up to eight days, without causing severe disease or death, the study said. The study did not look at a longer time frame.

Thats good news for researchers looking for a way to test any future vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, also called the CCP virus or novel coronavirus.

Its necessary to have an animal model to do initial tests of vaccines and understand how viruses cause disease. So, this will be useful to the field, Williams said.

Its actually not surprising that ferrets appear to respond to the CCP virus. A ferrets lung and airways are strikingly similar to a humans. In fact, biologically and physiologically ferrets are more similar to humans than they are to a mouse or rat.

Ferrets are classical animals in which to study influenzaits been done for decades, Schaffner said. If scientists were looking for an animal model, they would reach for the ferrets first.

What This Means

Will your cat or ferret come down with the CCP virus? Highly unlikely, experts say, pointing to the fact that we would certainly have heard of many cases in pets by now, considering the significant spread of the virus in the United States and Europe.

Hong Kong has been quarantining animals belonging to people diagnosed with the virus and has found only two cases of positive results in dogs. The dogs showed no signs of illness during the quarantine.

Rare as it may be, it appears one cat in Belgium may have gotten the virus in March from her owner, who was ill with the virus after returning from a visit to Italy. But even though the cat had respiratory problems and high levels of the virus in vomit and feces, researchers arent yet sure if the cat was sick from it or had another illness.

While 2 dogs (Hong Kong) and 1 cat (Belgium) have been reported as infected with the virus, infectious disease experts and multiple international and domestic human and animal health organizations agree there is no evidence at this point to indicate that pets spread the virus to other animals, including people, the American Veterinary Medical Association says on its website.

The AVMA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend taking normal precautions when cleaning litter boxes and feeding animals.

Out of an abundance of caution, the AVMA suggests anyone ill with CCP virus symptoms limit contact at this time, until more information is known about the virus.

Have another member of your household take care of walking, feeding, and playing with your pet, the AVMA states. If you have a service animal or you must care for your pet, then wear a facemask; dont share food, kiss, or hug them; and wash your hands before and after any contact with them.

NTD staff contributed to this report

The-CNN-Wire

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The next full Moon is the Pink Moon, Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Fish Moon, the Pesach or Passover Moon, Paschal Moon, Hanuman Jayanti, Bak Poya and a "supermoon."

The Moon will be full on Tuesday night, April 7, 2020, appearing opposite the Sun (in Earth-based longitude) at 10:35 PM EDT. The Moon will appear full for about three days around this time, from Monday night through Thursday morning.

The Maine Farmer's Almanac first published "Indian" names for the Full Moons in the 1930s. According to this Almanac, as the full Moon in April and the first Full Moon of spring, this is the Pink Moon, a name that comes from the herb moss pink, also known as creeping phlox, moss phlox, or mountain phlox, which is native to the eastern USA and one of the earliest widespread flowers of Spring.

Other names for this Moon include the Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Fish Moon, as this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.

This is the Pesach or Passover Moon. Pesach or Passover begins at sundown on Wednesday, April 8, and ends at nightfall on Thursday, April 16, 2020. In the Hebrew lunisolar calendar, the months change with the new Moon and full Moons fall in the middle of the lunar months. This full Moon is in the middle of Nisan.

In the Christian ecclesiastical calendar, this is the Paschal Moon, the full Moon from which the date of Easter is calculated. Paschal is the Latinized version of Pesach. Generally, the Christian holiday of Easter, also called Pascha, is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring.

However, there are differences between the times of these astronomical events and the calendars used by the Eastern and Western churches. This is one of the years where it makes a difference. Western Christianity will celebrate Easter on Sunday, April 12, 2020, while Eastern Christianity will celebrate Easter a week later, on Sunday, April 19, 2020.

There are a number of variations of the Hindu lunisolar calendar, but for many, this full Moon corresponds with the Hanuman Jayanti festival celebrating the birth of Lord Sri Hanuman.

In the Chinese lunisolar calendar, the months change with the new Moon and full Moons fall in the middle of the lunar months. This full Moon is in the middle of the third month of the Chinese calendar. In the Islamic calendar, the months start with the first sighting of the waxing crescent Moon shortly after the New Moon. This full Moon is near the middle of Sha'ban, the eighth month of the Islamic year 1441 and the month before Ramadan.

As usual, the wearing of suitably celebratory celestial attire is encouraged in honour of the full Moon.

On the evening of the Full Moon on Tuesday, April 7, 2020, as evening twilight ends (at 8:37 PM EDT for the Washington, DC area), the brightest of the planets, Venus, will appear as the Evening Star about 32 degrees above the horizon in the west-northwest.

The brightest of our stars, Sirius, along with the other bright stars of the local arm of our home galaxy, will appear spread across the southwestern horizon. The twin stars (Castor and Pollux) from the constellation Gemini will appear nearly overhead, with Pollux the brighter of the two.

As this lunar cycle progresses, the background of stars will appear to shift towards the west, while Venus will appear to shift slightly towards the north and towards the horizon. Venus will reach its greatest brilliancy (a geometric approximation of its greatest brightness) on April 28, 2020.

When Venus is near its brightest, if the weather is clear and you know where to look, Venus can be seen during the day. By the evening of the Full Moon on May 7, 2020, as evening twilight ends (at 9:12 PM for the Washington, DC area), Venus will appear about 19 degrees above the horizon in the west-northwest. None of the brightest stars will appear directly overhead; the closest to overhead will be Regulus, appearing about 59 degrees above the southwestern horizon.

On the morning of the Full Moon on Tuesday, April 7, 2020, at the time morning twilight begins (at 5:43 AM EDT for the Washington, DC area), the bright planet Jupiter will appear in the south-southeast at about 23 degrees above the horizon. Next in brightness, the planet Saturn will appear to the left of Jupiter at about 21 degrees above the horizon, and third in brightness, the planet Mars will appear further to the left at about 19 degrees above the southeastern horizon.

The planet Mercury will be below the horizon but may be visible (if you have a clear view of the eastern horizon) after it rises about 45 minutes before sunrise. As the lunar cycle progresses, the background of stars will appear to shift towards the west. Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars will also shift towards the west, but at differing rates, such that Mars will appear to shift away from Jupiter and Saturn. Mercury will shift closer towards the Sun, becoming harder to see in the glow of dawn.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi government is in talks with an online learning platform to explore a programme for students that expands the accessibility of educational resources, particularly in Maths and Science subjects, during the ongoing lockdown.

The government is looking to design ways to help students continue with their learning during the nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 situation, according to government officials.

More than 9,000 students have already signed up for online classes which started on Monday.

"In an effort to design an easy and well-structured learning plan for the students of other classes as well during the period of lockdown, the Delhi government is planning to tie up with the Khan Academy," the government said in an official statement.

"An educational non-profit organisation, Khan Academy, which offers interactive learning materials for students, has been working to introduce guided self-learning ways for school students with its own instructors. We are aiming to utilize the content and resources offered by this educational portal to include it in addition to the already rolled out online sessions for Class 12 students," it said.

The aim is to effectively continue with the academic cycles of the students and not let the lockdown affect their learning, it added.

According to the plan, students will be provided with audio and video based content along with self-assessment exercises.

"Special doubt-clearing sessions on important topics will be held for students. The team would be instrumental in facilitating live discussions and ensuring feedback," the government said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists.
Stocks soared on Monday, with all three major U.S. indexes up over 7% during regular trading. Netflix NFLX shares jumped 5% as part of their larger 17% climb in 2020, which came as the S&P 500 fell roughly 20% on the back of coronavirus worries.

Now the question is should investors buy Netflix stock, with the streaming TV firm set to report its Q1 fiscal 2020 financial results on April 21?

Binge Mode

Many Americans and people around the world have been stuck in their homes for weeks in an attempt to try to flatten the coronavirus curve. There are signs that social distancing is working in the U.S. and elsewhere, which was part of the reason for the markets big jump Monday.

That said, health officials and the White House have warned that models suggest that the number of coronavirus cases is likely to reach a new high sometime soon. Therefore, most U.S. citizens are likely to remain largely inside until at least the end of the month, if not longer. And even when things start to return to normal many might decide to have a movie night at home, instead of going to a theater.

On top of that, sports arent likely to return anytime soon, which gives many people even more reason to watch TV shows and movies. This puts Netflix, which is already the worlds largest streaming TV company, in an ideal spot.

Netflix boasts 167 million global users and it beat its own Q4 fiscal 2019 subscriber estimates. The firm clearly faces competition from newcomers such as Disney+ DIS and Apple TV+ AAPL. But the cord-cutting revolution might just be getting started. This could mean that people who sign up for Disney+ or the new beefed-up HBO Max T wont necessarily dump Netflix, since the content is very different.

Overall, roughly 56 million households will have canceled cable or satellite TV subscriptions by 2023, according to eMarketer. Therefore, many people are likely to have multiple streaming TV subscriptions.

Story continues

Other Fundamentals

Netflix shares have surged over 40% since late September and are up roughly 17% in 2020. NFLX sat not too far off its 52-week highs at around $380 a share Monday. The nearby chart also helps investors see that the stock has been pretty volatile over the last serval years after an insane run for much of the 2010s.

This could mean NFLX shares are poised to finally break out again. Yet even though Netflix appears tailor-made for the current coronavirus economy, the broader economic uncertainty makes that case much harder to make or project, especially since the stock is already up nearly 30% since mid-March.

Meanwhile, NFLX is still trading at high forward earnings multiplies. But its 54.5X forward 12-month Zacks earnings comes in below Amazons AMZN 62.8X and NFLX own three-year median of 86X.

Some investors might not favor a P/E ratio for a growth-focused firm like NFLX. That said, it is trading at 6.2X forward sales, which comes in right below its three-year median and just above streaming TV industry peer Rokus ROKU 5.9X.

Investors should also note that Netflix has taken on more long-term debt to fund its content push, which is essential to its expansion as it faces a more crowded market. NFLX closed fiscal 2019 with $14.76 billion in long-term debt, up from $10.36 billion in 2018. Along the way, well continue to use the debt market to finance our investment needs with our FCF profile improving, this means that over time well be less reliant on public markets and will be able to fund more of our investment needs organically through our growing operating profits, the firm wrote in its Q4 earnings release.

Bottom Line

Netflix said last quarter before the coronavirus was a global pandemic that it expected to add 7 million global paid users. This would mark roughly 17% expansion from the year-ago period and see the company close the quarter with over 174 million users.

Meanwhile, our Zacks estimates call for Netflixs adjusted Q1 earnings to skyrocket 112% from $0.76 a share to $1.61 per share. The companys first quarter revenue is expected to jump over 26% to reach $5.70 billion. This would top Q1 FY19s 22% sales growth.

We can also see that NFLXs earnings revisions have trended upward, which helps it earn a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) right now. The company has also crushed our bottom-line estimates in three out of the last four periods.

Once again, Netflix is set to report its Q1 results on April 21. Some might want to take a chance on NFLX as a longer-term bet on the continued growth of streaming TV for years to come. However, Netflix has a history of climbing following earnings if it tops its subscriber estimates, and falling if it misseswhich makes it a more difficult near-term bet.

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By Liz Hampton

April 7 (Reuters) - More than two dozen employees of Denver-based shale producer Ovintiv Inc sent form letters this week to Texas energy regulators opposing any state-mandated oil production cuts in the face of plunging energy prices.

The state's Railroad Commission, which has the authority to mandate production curbs in the state, will consider next week a proposal to require larger oil producers to cut output by 20% beginning May 1.

The proposal was submitted by shale producers Parsley Energy Inc and Pioneer Natural Resources Co, and backed by Commissioner Ryan Sitton, as a way to curb a free fall in crude oil prices.

The state's two other commissioners took to Twitter last week to distance themselves from Sitton's advocacy, saying they had not yet made up their minds. Passage requires two of three to agree on curbs, which would be the first by the state in nearly 50 years.

Ovintiv, formerly known as Encana, has core operations in Canada, Oklahoma and Texas. Some 30 employees, ranging from a legal analyst and lease operators to the head of investor relations, sent emails as of Tuesday objecting to the plan.

Michael Schmidt, Ovintiv's Texas-based investor relations chief, who submitted one of the letters arguing "Texas should remain a free market state," did not immediately return a call and email requesting comment.

Oil prices collapsed last month to around $20 a barrel after Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed to pump full bore while the spread of the coronavirus zapped demand for fuel. Ovintiv employees argued that coordinated cuts would "give Saudi Arabia, Russia and other OPEC nations leverage over Texas in perpetuity."

Other submissions were mixed, with Occidental Petroleum Corp opposed to cuts and Unitex Oil & Gas and Hibernia Resources III in support of the cuts. (Reporting by Liz Hampton; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Peter Navarro, the National Trade Council director.

Andrew Harnik/AP

The White House trade adviser Peter Navarro blew up at Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US's top infectious-disease expert, during a fraught coronavirus task force meeting in the Situation Room on Saturday, Axios reported.

The argument stemmed from a disagreement over how much the White House should back hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment.

Navarro reportedly touted the drug's "clear therapeutic efficacy," while Fauci said there was only anecdotal evidence about its effectiveness.

Fauci's comments "just set Peter off," a source told Axios, and Navarro went on to accuse Fauci of opposing President Donald Trump's travel restrictions for China. Fauci, who has praised Trump's actions, "looked confused," the report said.

Vice President Mike Pence tried to calm the situation, while "everyone was just trying to get Peter to sit down and stop being so confrontational," a source told the news website.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The White House trade adviser Peter Navarro and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US's top expert on infectious diseases, erupted into a fight during a coronavirus task force meeting on Saturday, Axios reported on Sunday.

At the center of the argument was how much the White House should back a malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine in fighting the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19.

According to Axios, the discussion began when Stephen Hahn, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner, updated the task force on what he'd seen from drug trials and real-life results. At that point, Navarro, who has no background in science or medicine, distributed folders and praised the "clear therapeutic efficacy" of the drug, a source familiar with the conversation told the news website.

"Those are the exact words out of his mouth," the source told Axios.

Navarro's remarks sparked significant pushback from public-health officials, including Fauci, who said that the drug was still experimental and that there's no proof it's an effective treatment for COVID-19.

Story continues

Fauci said there was only anecdotal evidence suggesting that hydroxychloroquine is useful against COVID-19, which "just set Peter off," a source told Axios. Navarro pointed to the folders and told Fauci, "That's science, not anecdote," another source said.

Navarro then reportedly accused Fauci of opposing President Donald Trump's restrictions on travel from China, saying, "You were the one who early on objected to the travel restrictions with China."

Fauci, who backed the restrictions and has voiced support for Trump's announcement, "looked confused," Axios said, citing a source who was in the room. Vice President Mike Pence, the head of the task force, was trying to calm the situation, while "everyone was just trying to get Peter to sit down and stop being so confrontational," a source said.

Eventually, Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who also has no medical or scientific training, told Navarro to "take yes for an answer," as the task force agreed that hydroxychloroquine should be sent to the most affected areas, Axios reported.

The "principals" on the task force also agreed that the administration's public stance should be that the decision whether to use the drug is between physicians and their patients, the report said.

"There has never been a confrontation in the task force meetings like the one yesterday," a source familiar with the argument told Axios. "People speak up and there's robust debate, but there's never been a confrontation. Yesterday was the first confrontation."

Trump ended up spending a significant part of Saturday's coronavirus task force briefing touting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19.

"What do you have to lose?" Trump said. "Take it. I really think they should take it. But it's their choice, and it's their doctor's choice, or the doctors in the hospital. But hydroxychloroquine  try it, if you'd like."

Near the end of Sunday's briefing, a CNN reporter directed a question about the drug to Fauci, asking, "What is the medical evidence?"

Fauci started to answer before Trump cut him off.

"Do you know how many times he's answered that question? Maybe 15," Trump said.

Fauci glanced at the president before turning to the reporter, who said, "He's your medical expert, correct?"

Trump interjected again, telling the reporter, "You don't have to ask the question."

Axios' reporting and the tension during Sunday's news briefing highlighted what appears to be growing disagreement between the task force's public-health experts  like Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx  and Trump's political advisers.

Health officials have been cautious about publicly pushing hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment, while Trump and his political advisers have thrown their weight behind it as coronavirus surges across the US.

The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on March 11. As of Monday, it had infected 1.3 million people around the world and killed more than 70,000 people. In the US, there were more than 338,000 confirmed cases and 9,600 deaths.

Got a tip? Email ssheth@businessinsider.com or sonamsheth@protonmail.com.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra has a total of twenty-five COVID-19 positive cases, as per the local administration.

Twenty-one out of these twenty-five patients include Tablighi Jamaat returnees and their close contacts.

In last 24 hours, four people have tested positive for COVID-19 out of which three are close contacts of persons who attended the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi.

With 120 new cases of COVID-19, the total number of confirmed cases in the state increased to 868 on Monday, Maharashtra Health Department informed in the daily media bulletin.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shocked medics comb through trash and blood-spattered debris in a desperate race to find Johnny Depp's severed finger in explosive audio revealed for the first time by DailyMail.com.

Depp's ex-wife Amber Heard can be overheard violently sobbing in the background as the actor's private doctor David Kipper frantically searches for the missing digit so it can be reattached.

'I can't find the fingertip, I can't find the finger,' Kipper repeats in the astonishing recording made immediately after the couple's now-infamous March 2015 dust-up.

'Look at all this awful blood. Holy f**k. Wow, wow, wow,' gasps Debbie Lloyd, a nurse and colleague, as she surveys the estimated $75,000 worth of damage to the rented home where it took place.

'What about in the trash?' she asks grimly, recovering her composure. 'Is there a trash that has bandages in it?' How big of a piece of skin are you looking for?'

'I looked through it once and I didn't see anything that looked like flesh,' says US-based Kipper, who traveled with Depp and Heard to provide their healthcare.

'You're looking at like a third of the tip of the finger and it's, I mean, he's going to get a cellulitis,' he says.

The two A-listers have offered radically different accounts of the surreal episode which took place while Depp was filming the fifth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean in Australia.

Shocked medics comb through trash and blood-spattered debris in a desperate race to find Johnny Depp's severed finger in explosive audio revealed for the first time by DailyMail.com. 'I can't find the fingertip, I can't find the finger,' Depp's doctor David Kipper repeats in the astonishing recording made immediately after the couple's now-infamous March 2015 dust-up

Doctor's X-ray showing the missing tip of Depp's severed finger

The violent incident took place a month after the pair were married and while Depp was filming the fifth installment of the Pirates of Caribbean movie franchise in Australia. The Captain Jack Sparrow actor, 56, chuckles on camera as he reveals how he nicknamed the permanently-damaged digit 'Little Richard.' Pictured: Depp's finger after surgery

Depp's ex-wife Amber Heard can be overheard violently sobbing in the background. The two A-listers have offered radically different accounts of the surreal episode which took place while Depp was filming the fifth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean in Australia

He claimed at the time he caught his finger in a door but the grizzly details emerged one year later when the couple split and started to trade blood-curdling accusations in a string of lawsuits.

Heard, 33, maintains in court filings that Depp inflicted the injury to his right middle finger himself while smashing a phone against a wall during a three-day booze and ecstasy bender.

She also accuses her ex-lover of ripping off her nightgown, grabbing her breasts and strangling her during the 'horrific' ordeal.

Depp, 56, insists his petite ex-wife flew of the handle when he asked her to sign a post-nup agreement one month after their marriage.

He says the Aquaman actress caused the gruesome injury by hurling a vodka bottle which smashed into shards and guillotined his finger against a marble bartop.

The new audio obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com begins around 1pm on March 8, 2015, around an hour after the notorious fight.

It runs for the next five hours, capturing the voices of Depp, Heard and an array of minders and medics, though many sections are tantalizingly unintelligible.

It's not clear how it was recorded or who was responsible, though Depp and Heard had a habit of taping their arguments as a form of DIY therapy to listen back to afterwards.

'I can't find the fingertip, I can't find the finger,' Kipper (right) repeats in the astonishing recording made immediately after the couple's now-infamous March 2015 dust-up. 'Look at all this awful blood. Holy f**k. Wow, wow, wow,' gasps Debbie Lloyd (left), a nurse and colleague, as she surveys the estimated $75,000 worth of damage to the rented home where it took place

Kipper departs the 'ruined' rental property in Queensland, northeast Australia (pictured), having failed to locate the gnarled digit but one hour later we hear that Jerry Judge, Depp's former head of security, has found it

The first voice on the tape belongs to Depp, who shouts angrily: 'I guess you're leaving Monday. I wish you f**king understood what you are and who you are and how you f**ked me over and make me feel sick of myself.

'I should have walked away the day I knew she dyed her hair (indiscernible) that she took'

The Oscar nominee tails off amid the sound of footsteps and a door slamming.

Heard can be overheard at various points in the recording, though her voice is muffled, suggesting the recorder is in a living room while she's upstairs on in another part of the house.

Around 50 minutes into the action we hear Kipper imploring Lloyd to help him find the missing fingertip.

He also tasks her with giving Depp antibiotics to stave off infection, saying the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory actor is 'in a lot pain' and will need a skin graft.

'Now if I cut my hand like that I would put it in the sink and wash it,' he speculates. The finger is eventually found next to a sink, though not until later in the recording.

As Kipper and Lloyd sift empty trash cans and comb through garbage Heard sobs uncontrollably in the background.

Kipper recommends sedating her with the anti-psychotic medicine Seroquel - 100mg rather than her 'usual' 25mg dose - and says someone should fly back to Los Angeles with her as soon as possible to ensure she and Depp are kept apart.

The first voice on the tape belongs to Depp, who shouts angrily: 'I guess you're leaving Monday. I wish you f**king understood what you are and who you are and how you f**ked me over and make me feel sick of myself. 'I should have walked away the day I knew she dyed her hair (indiscernible) that she took' The Oscar nominee tails off amid the sound of footsteps and a door slamming. Pictured: Depp waving with his other hand wrapped up as he headed back to the US for surgery after the fight

As part of Depp's $50m defamation case against Heard, he included images of his own bruised and battered face (pictured ) following Heard's alleged attacks

WHAT JOHNNY DEPP HAS SAID ABOUT THE INFAMOUS FIGHT: IN HIS 2019 DEFAMATION SUIT 'While I was in Australia filming a movie approximately one month after I married Ms. Heard, on a day where my then-lawyer tried to discuss with Ms. Heard the need that she sign a post-nuptial agreement with me, she went berserk and began throwing bottles at me. The first bottle sailed past my head and missed, but then she threw a large glass vodka bottle. The bottle struck the marble countertop where my hand was resting and exploded. The projectile's impact shattered the bone in my finger and entirely severed the tip of my finger ... I had to have 3 surgeries to reconstruct my finger and contracted MRSA three times. I feared that I would lose my finger, my arm, and my life. To conceal the fact that her domestic violence against me caused me grievous bodily injury, Ms. Heard has concocted various, shifting, false stories claiming that I cut off my own finger. First, in the midst of our divorce case, Ms. Heard caused to be leaked to the media a fake story that I cut off my finger by punching a hole in a wall. Now, Ms. Heard has crafted a new, but equally fake, story that I cut off my finger by smashing a plastic phone to smithereens while violently beating her in a 'three-day ordeal'. Advertisement

Kipper departs the 'ruined' rental property in Queensland, northeast Australia, having failed to locate the gnarled digit but one hour later we hear that Jerry Judge, Depp's former head of security, has found it.

'David can you hear? All right, we found the top of the finger. What do you want me to do?' he tells Kipper over the phone.

Referring to another member of Depp's entourage, Ben King, Judge adds: 'Ben's doing it now. Ben put it in some ice, mate. Do we take it straight to you? I can get him in the car and he can drive straight now.

'What we'll do I'll put it in ice, put it in an envelope  I'll send the bag now OK.'

As the fingertip is dispatched to Kipper, Judge calls an unidentified female and warns her about the horrifying fight.

'I've seen Johnny bad. I've never seen him this bad. And honestly, he wrecked this place,' says the longtime security guard, who died last April from cancer.

'I mean, it's wrecked. There's windows broken. There is a TV, she did it. There was a cup thrown, it missed.

'There's been bottles thrown and she admits to me that she threw the first, she threw a bottle (indiscernible). She (indiscernible) first. She (indiscernible).

'She wants a settlement. She says (indiscernible) refused to do (indiscernible) and he was shouting at her and screaming at her.'

Judge says he saw scratches on Heard's left arm but adds: 'I've seen those scratches before on a lot of people and as far as I am concerned they're self-inflicted. I'm convinced about it. It was self-inflicted.

'At the moment I'll do a deal with the devil, calm this lady down because we'll be sending the car to get her, get this whole thing calmed down.'

He goes on: 'I've been hurt this, I've been hurt that. (indiscernible) She admitted that she hit him first. She actually hit him in the face.

'He has a small burn on the right hand side of his face, which she says, I've seen that yesterday, that she said she said (indiscernible) he put a cigarette and burned his own face with the cigarette he was so bad.'

Depp has said in court filings that it was in fact Heard who stubbed the cigarette out on his cheek as their confrontation spiraled.

Heard insists however that she was the one battered and abused as the star took drugs and drank heavily for three days straight before he injured his finger himself.

Depp does not dispute one of the more macabre elements of Heard's horrifying account: that he dipped the stump of his finger in paint and daubed 'Billy Bob' on a mirror.

Depp does not dispute one of the more macabre elements of Heard's horrifying account - that he dipped the gnarled digit in blue paint afterwards and wrote 'Billy Bob' and 'Easy Amber' on a mirror (pictured)

Heard claims, however, that Depp's temper flared as he accused her of having had an affair with her former co-star, Billy Bob Thornton (pictured together on the set of London Fields)

It was an apparent reference to her former co-star, Billy Bob Thornton, with whom Depp has accused her of having an affair.

Sources close to Depp say he was in extreme shock at the time.

As the recording continues, Judge talks to someone new on the phone, recalling what Heard told him about the fight.

'There's $75,000 worth of breakages here. There's blood everywhere. She (indiscernible) tears and these two are covered in blood (indiscernible). The bedroom upstairs (indiscernible),' he says.

'(indiscernible) down in the bar, he drank everything in the past week. She (indiscernible) within two hours he'd taken 10 - 10 - ecstasy tablets.

'(indiscernible) not the time to talk about it. If someone keeps supplying him, he's going to O.D. on this  he drank tequila, he drank vodka (indiscernible) because she said he didn't want you to smell it.

'When I (indiscernible) he was drinking kind of to calm down. He had started drinking. And then he picked up one of the bottles and threw it through the window.'

Later Judge repeats during a different phone call: 'She reckons that he took 10 ecstasy tablets'.

The former lovebirds met on the set of The Rum Diary back in 2011, married four years later - but split in May 2016 amid a slew of shuddering domestic violence allegations and tabloid headlines. Pictured: Heard during her 2016 deposition where she described punching Depp in the face in attempt to stop him from hurting her sister, she said

Heard cataloged the 'horrific' abuse she claims to have suffered at Depp's hands, describing him as 'the monster' and recalling many of the allegations she made during their divorce. The filing included photos of bruises and scars (left and right)

WHAT AMBER HEARD HAS SAID: IN HER 300-PAGE REPLY TO HIS DEFAMATION CASE 'In one of the most horrific and scariest moments of this three-day ordeal, Johnny grabbed me by the neck and collarbone and slammed me against the countertop. I struggled to stand up as he strangled me, but my arms and feet kept slipping and sliding on to the spilled alcohol and were dragged against the broken glass on the countertop and floor, which repeatedly slashed my feet and arms. Scared for my life, I told Johnny, 'You are hurting me and cutting me.' Johnny ignored me, continuing to hit me with the back of one closed hand, and slamming a hard plastic phone against a wall with his other until it was smashed into smithereens. While he was smashing the phone, Johnny severely injured his finger, cutting off the tip of it  Once I was able to get away, I barricaded myself in an upstairs bedroom. On the third day of Johnny staying awake without sleeping, I came downstairs to find numerous messages Johnny had written to me around the house, on the walls and on my clothes, written in a combination of oil paint and the blood from his broken and severed finger. Johnny also urinated all over the house.' Advertisement

Judge decides that Heard  who is 'breaking down every five minutes' - will be taken to a hotel near Brisbane airport before King escorts her on to a flight to LA the next day.

The actress needs to be with someone strong 'in case she kicks off', he says. She has agreed to 'see her shrink'.

'She keeps saying I don't want to lose him. I don't want to leave him and we're saying, look, he needs to (indiscernible) on his own and then when he's on his own we'll remind him and then you two can talk a little about it and then you can come back,' Judge says, more than three hours into the recording.

'But no matter what happens she needs to leave Australia, to get the f**k out of here. So let's go get some lunch and we'll go from there.'

Judge and King also talk about the extensive damage to the house estimating it will likely cost Depp between $50 to $75,000, including $10-15,000 to replace the TV.

Blood and paint is spattered across the floor, walls, carpets, table, couch, even the lamp shades, they reveal.

'It's safe to say we've lost the deposit,' King remarks dryly.

Depp has also painted a 'fake d**k' on a photo of Heard, Judge says, urging King - whose regular day job was to arrange accommodation and manage Depp's properties - to 'get rid of it all'.

'We need to get this house back in shape before anybody sees it. We need to get it cleaned up,' he says.

Depp's finger was re-attached at an Australian hospital before he was flown to the US for further surgeries and a skin graft.

Despite suffering complications caused by MRSA, he was back Down Under to resume filming for Dead Men Tell No Tales about a month later.

In a 2018 video published for the first time this week by DailyMail.com, Depp jokes that he now calls the permanently-scarred finger 'Little Richard'.

'I said that it was caught in the door in these huge accordion doors at this house, that wasn't the case at all' he says on camera, giving a deposition in an unrelated legal case.

'She smashed, she threw a vodka bottle at me and my, my hand was resting on the marble of the bar like that.

'The first bottle went whoosh just past my ear. And the second one was a larger bottle and she threw it from about this distance and it smashed into the bar, which, this finger who I now call little Richard, was, the tip of the finger was severed and all the bone in here was completely shattered.'

Depp jokes that his severed finger gushed like 'Vesuvius' after it was sliced off during a blood-curdling fight with ex-wife Amber Heard in exclusive video footage obtained by DailyMail.com

Pointing to the visible scar on his finger, Depp, looking uncharacteristically clean-cut in a navy Tom Ford suit and tie, goes on: 'I mean, it looked like Vesuvius and then I got infections'

The shocking audio is the latest is a series of exclusive recordings published by DailyMail.com as the couple prepare to square up in two separate defamation lawsuits either side of the Atlantic.

The first sees Depp take on News Group Newspapers in London over a 2018 article in The Sun newspaper that described him as 'wife beater', with Heard scheduled to give testimony. Later this year hostilities will switch to Fairfax, Virginia, where the Washington Post is headquartered.

Depp is suing Heard for $50 million for allegedly defaming him in a December 2018 op-ed she wrote for the newspaper, describing herself as a domestic abuse survivor.

The former lovebirds met on the set of The Rum Diary back in 2011, married four years later - but split in May 2016 amid a slew of shuddering domestic violence allegations and tabloid headlines.

They looked to have put their feud behind them after agreeing to a $7 million divorce settlement until Heard's essay was published. It didn't mention Depp by name but he filed for defamation in March 2019, saying it led to speculation that he was the abuser and caused him to lose the role of Captain Jack Sparrow.

Depp has always argued that he was the victim of an 'elaborate hoax' instigated by his ex-wife, who 'faked' her injuries with makeup after a blowout May 2016 fight that finally ended their toxic marriage.

'Ms. Heard is not a victim of domestic abuse; she is the perpetrator,' his suit alleges. Heard responded with a 300-page filing of her own, cataloging the years of alleged abuse she suffered at the hands of 'the monster' and recalling many of the allegations she made during their divorce. The case is due to be heard in August.

Depp's lawyer, Adam Waldman, said he had 'strong evidence' the March 2015 recording was made by Heard.

'Unfortunately for Amber Heard and her media co-conspirators, her own tape further exposes both her big and little lies - down to the time of day, date, and sequence of events that she has claimed under oath,' he said.

'The penalty for perjury in both the UK and US is prison. If you can't do the time, don't audio tape the aftermath of the crime.'

A lawyer for Heard told DailyMail.com: 'Just last month it was revealed in a UK court that Mr Depp admitted to cutting off his own finger and sent multiple text message to his doctor about it.

'Once again, the evidence is inconsistent with Mr Depp's self-serving account.'
Relieving Capt. Brett Crozier, Commanding Officer of the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), of his command was unnecessary and unconscionable.

His impassioned plea on behalf of his 4,800 sailors  trapped in the confines of the big steel warship, unable to practice social distancing and doomed to be victims of the inevitable contagion of coronavirus  brought overreaction by U.S. Navy brass who were clueless as to what they faced with the pandemic. Croziers letter to his superior officers ends with: We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset  our sailors.

Amen. Yet, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper conceded he hadnt even read Croziers letter in its entirety before the firing and Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modlys praise for Crosier the day before they fired him included published reports that Modly said Crozier had acted appropriately in sounding the alarm through the chain of command. We want people to tell us about problems, Modly said.

Modly added insult to injury in deeply disturbing, expletive-laced remarks to the ships crew on Monday, including saying Crozier was too naive or too stupid to command the carrier. Before the day was out, Modly was forced to apologize for his remarks. And Tuesday, he resigned.

To know what kind of leader Croziers crew thinks he is, just watch the video of his departure from the ship. He is a hero to his crew  and he should be judged by those he led, not by senior officers who are obviously out of touch with the realities of command in a time of crisis.

I served 31 years, active and reserve, as a U.S. Navy Surface Warfare Officer and I can tell that there were alternatives to the firing. In the Tonkin Gulf of Vietnam during one of my three tours, one of my radiomen unknowingly tossed away a piece of cryptographic gear away with the trash. I was responsible for the crypto gear. I received a Nonpunitive Letter of Caution, described by the navy as: A nonpunitive letter is not considered punishment; rather, the letter is issued to remedy a noted deficiency in conduct or performance of duty.

The letter did not go into my record and I had a successful career thereafter, but it could have been handled differently  to my detriment.

Croziers superiors also could have handled it differently. They could have awarded him Nonjudicial Punishment, something short of a court martial, for which Crozier could have been censured or admonished. The Secretary of the Navy also has the authority to issue a letter of censure.

Instead of relieving him of his command in these extraordinary times, they could have said in their opinion that he crossed the line in his impassioned call for help  but still retained him as captain of his ship.

He is a great leader who pushed hard for his crew and is justifiably revered. The bond between a captain and their crew is not plug-and-play. It is built on performance, trust and commitment. To sever that bond in a time of great trouble when a more considered approach was possible demonstrates the disorder in the civilian leadership of our military.

The navy brass, from his immediate boss up through the chain of command to the commander-in-chief, acted precipitously and with unnecessary harshness. Ready, shoot, aim has come to characterize this administrations management of the military.

On-line reports of the militarys preparations for Covid-19 reveal how slow all the services were to ramp up. Even now, the USNS Comfort, the 1,000-bed hospital ship deployed to New York City to fill beds starting on March 31, had fewer than 20 patients onboard four days later because of the burdensome screening procedures required for admission.

The expressed fears that Croziers brinkmanship on behalf of his crew would somehow weaken the appearance of our strength to our enemies is bogus. What greater sign of strength is there than to protect our fighting men and women? Putin has ordered the entire month of April to be no-work time: there is no reason to believe the Russian fleet is in any better shape.

Other sailors in our fleet are also suffering. The littoral combat ship, the USS Coronado, had its first infection on March 16 and 10 days later nine other crewmembers fell sick. That is a quarter of the crew of the small ship, just eight officers and 32 enlisted. Instead of getting everyone off, the sailors were told to clean up with bleach. This Navy Times report outlines another failure of leadership:

Everybody started getting sick, said a sailor familiar with the outbreak on Coronado. The right thing to do was get everybody off the ship, test everybody whether they were sick or not, put the people who were fine on a barge next to the ship, and then bring on people in HAZMAT suits and have the ship cleaned professionally.

Instead, he said. The sailors were provided buckets and bleach and told to wipe down the ship, the sailor said. The Navy always says its number one asset is its people? Not on Coronado.

Captain Crozier was right. We are not at war and we must not have our troops make the ultimate sacrifice for appearances sake. Save our soldiers and sailors and we will be stronger and better prepared for battle.

Dwight Merriam is an attorney in Simsbury and a retired navy captain (surface warfare).
Actor James Drury, best known for The Virginian, has died aged 85.

He died of natural causes unrelated to coronavirus. His assistant, Karen Lindsey, on Facebook: It is with immense sadness that I let you all know that James Drury, our beloved Virginian and dear friend passed away this morning of natural causes, Monday, April 6, 2020. He will be missed so much. It is beyond words. Memorial service to be determined later.

Drury starred in the title role of The Virginian from 196271 -a TV western only surpassed by Gunsmoke and Bonanza. He portrayed the tough foreman of the fictional Shiloh Ranch set in the latter part of the 19th century in the Wyoming Territory. Many of the 249 episodes, airing over nine seasons until 1971, involved his character fending off outlaws and rustlers.

There were times when we had five Virginian episodes shooting on the same day, Drury recalled in his biography on his official web site. I would literally ride on horseback from set to set to give two lines here, three lines there, then over here to do 10 pages of script.

His other credits included Blackboard Jungle, Forbidden Planet, The Tender Trap, Love Me Tender, Pollyanna, Playhouse 90, Gunsmoke, Cheyenne, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Wagon Train, Rawhide, Death Valley Days, Firehouse, Alias Smith and Jones, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., The Fall Guy and Walker, Texas Ranger.

Source: Variety
Are you ready to find some deals in the stock markets? The S&P 500 skyrocketed 7% yesterday, marking a strong trading session in what appears to be a true rally. Judging by the market charts, it looks like stocks bottomed out on March 23.

Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen, noted, "The stock market will bottom before the economy does, The stock market may have bottomed at 2,192 on the S&P."

Its a situation that gives investors an incentive to buy. Were not in a true bull market  not by a long shot  but the recent bear has pushed prices down and the current rally is opening up the prospects of gains. All that remains is finding the right stocks to buy.

And this brings us to penny stocks. After seeing heavy losses in March, investors are short of cash. Penny stocks are the natural fit; priced below $5, they offer an easy point of entry.

Sure, there could be a very good reason these tickers are so affordable, but should there be even minor share price appreciation, massive percentage gains could materialize, along with hefty profits for investors.

Weve dipped into the TipRanks database, and found three penny stocks with Strong Buy consensus ratings and better than 50% upside potential over the next 12 months. Let's take a closer look.

Zix Corporation (ZIXI)

We start in the tech sector, where Zix, a small-cap cybersecurity company specializes in providing safety for emails. Zixs products allow data encryption and loss prevention for mobile applications. The company boasts over 20,000 customers, and a cloud app that is used by 30% of US banks.

ZIXI shares ended 2019 on a mixed note, but a solid product and strong yoy growth were the main story. Company earnings and revenue both missed the forecasts, although did better year-over-year. EPS, at 9 cents, matched the year-ago quarter, while the top line revenue of $50.4 million was significantly higher than 4Q18s $18.5 million.

Zixs product is popular, and that underlies the review by Northland Securities analyst Nehal Chokshi. He writes, ZIXI already has ~22% market share. We view this as an ideal market share as it demonstrates the company has an established selling motion, but has significant opportunity to drive share gains within what should be a fast-growing market

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Chokshi reiterates his Buy rating on the stock, and his $8 price target implies an impressive 100% upside potential. (To watch Chokshis track record, click here)

Craig-Hallums Chad Bennett agrees that Zix is a buying proposition. He specifically points out the companys ability to withstand the current recessionary forces unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Bennett says of the stock, Ultimately, we believe the company can be resilient in a recessionary environment. Email and security are mission-critical to a businesss operations ZIXIs contracts are on one- to three-year terms, so assuming a two-year average contract length, only 1/8 of ZIXIs customers are up for renewal each quarter. We believe that the ZIXI-side of the business will be resilient in the current environment

Bennett gives ZIXI shares a $9 price target, indicating a 125% upside, fully supporting his Buy rating. (To watch Bennetts track record, click here)

All in all, Zix supports its Strong Buy analyst consensus rating with a unanimous 4 Buy reviews. Shares are priced low, at just $4.01, and the $10.25 average price target suggests room for a hefty 155% upside potential in the coming 12 months. (See Zix stock analysis on TipRanks)

Plug Power, Inc. (PLUG)

With our next stock, we move into the arena of reusable energy. Plug Power is a designer and manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cells, a technology with the potential to replace conventional batteries  giving it a certain allure in the alt-fuel automotive sector. The biggest advantage of hydrogen fuel cells over batteries is the ability to run at a constant power output, avoiding the power drop that batteries experience when their charge runs low.

Plug Power boasts an agreement with the USPS, and provides power cells for a fleet of electric mail delivery vehicles in Maryland. Earlier this year, Plug introduced a 125-kilowatt engine for trucks and off-road heavy-duty equipment.

Plug Power is on track to achieve its goal of $1 billion in revenue by 2024, and has provided guidance toward $300 million in billings for the current year. Plug boasts a heavy order load, and needs to meet a 90% order backlog, based on new orders from established customers.

In line with the companys busy year ahead, H.C. Wainwright, analyst Amit Dayal put a Buy rating on the stock and raised his price target to $6.00 (from $4.00). His new target implies an upside of 63%. (To watch Dayals track record, click here)

Dayal commented: We are updating our outlook for the company and have revised our estimates upwards. With respect to 2024 outlook, we remain relatively conservative in projecting net revenues of $759.0M vs. managements goal of $1.0B in gross billings. In line with this, we have revised our operating expense estimates for 2020 to $84.2M, compared to $76.7M previously. With this level of topline execution, and higher insourcing of MEAs contributing to margin improvements, we believe the company should start demonstrating consistent EBITDA improvements over the next few years."

Also bullish is 5-star Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch. Rusch sees Plug as an advancing technology, with a handle on the technical issues it needs to resolve, and says of the company, We believe PLUG continues to progress on its technology roadmap, which targets 25% cost reduction, 50% increase in MEA durability, and 25% improved power density by 2023/2024. We believe these efforts will help expand its addressable market opportunity Ruschs Buy rating, like Dayals, is backed by a $6 price target. (To watch Ruschs track record, click here)

Overall, the hydrogen fuel-cell maker is without question a Wall Street favorite, considering TipRanks analytics indicate Plug Power as a Strong Buy. Out of 7 analysts tracked in the last 3 months, 6 are bullish on Plug stock while only 1 remains sidelined. With a return potential of 51%, the stock's consensus target price stands at $5.57 (See Plug Power stock analysis on TipRanks)

Orbcomm, Inc. (ORBC)

Our final stock today, Orbcomm, is a wireless messaging company with a network of 31 satellites along with ground-based infrastructure. Customers can communicate, control, monitor, and track linked fixed and mobile assets worldwide. The companys network is deeply connected to the Internet of Things and machine-to-machine niches, and Orbcomm boasts over 2 million billable subscribers. The service is available in 130 countries.

ORBC reported a loss of 3 cents per share in Q4, which actually beat the estimated 5-cent loss by 40%. Revenues, at $69.7 million, came in just under the forecast, but grew 5% year-over-year. Orbcomm had the bad timing to release this quarterly report just a week after the bottom fell out of the market in February; the stock has lost 50% so far this year, badly underperforming the overall markets.

That said, Orbcomm still presents investors with growing revenues  and now, a very low point of entry to the stock. In addition, many of ORBCs customers are in the grocery sector, where accurate tracking of delivery vehicles is essential, giving the company a valuable niche in an essential sector  a clear advantage when much of the economy is shut down in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus epidemic.

Michael Latimore, 4-star analyst with Northland Securities, notes another important factor in Orbcomms position -- the companys solid foundation of parts and supplies. Latimore writes, ORBC has enough inventory to last four months. Most of its manufacturing is done in Mexico and Germany. These plants could shut down for 1-3 months, but so far so good. China seems to be getting back to work, which helps with standard components like wired cables.

Latimore sets a $6 price target on this stock, implying a fantastic upside of 185%, and gives ORBC a Buy rating. (To watch Latimores track record, click here)

Overall, a unanimous 3 Buy ratings give Orbcomm a Strong Buy from the analyst consensus. The stock has an average price target of $7.17, which suggests a massive 241% potential upside from the current share price of just $2.10. (See Orbcomm stock analysis on TipRanks)
As the International Space Station (ISS) was traveling over India towards the day-night terminator, an astronaut shot this photograph of Earth's third-highest summit, Kangchenjunga, and its surrounding peaks warmly lit by the setting Sun.

With the Sun low in the sky, the light was passing through more atmosphere, which scatters it towards the red end of the visible spectrum.

Kangchenjunga rises more than 8500 meters (28,000 feet) above sea level. It stands in eastern Nepal near the border with India and about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east-southeast of Mount Everest. The apex of Kangchenjunga is surrounded by valley glaciers, some of which (like Yalung) are discernable in the shadows of this image. Just out of reach of the Sun's rays, a deck of low-lying clouds lingers over the valley floors.

Thirteen other mountain peaks on Earth rise higher than 8000 meters (26,000 feet). These are known by mountaineers and climbers as the "eight-thousanders." Oblique views such as this one give the dauntingly dangerous terrain a three-dimensional appearance and depth.

Astronaut photograph ISS061-E-92131 was acquired on December 16, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 500 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 61 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by Andrew Britton, Jacobs, JETS Contract at NASA-JSC.

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China has condemned Brazil after the far-right government's education minister linked the coronavirus pandemic to Beijing's 'plan for world domination,' in a tweet imitating a Chinese accent.

In the latest incident to strain ties between Brasilia and Beijing, Education Minister Abraham Weintraub insinuated China was behind the global health crisis.

The Chinese Embassy in Brazil has slammed the tweet as 'highly racist' and demanded an explanation from the Brazilian government.

FILE PHOTO: Brazilian Education Minister Abraham Weintraub (pictured) mocked the Chinese accent in a tweet blaming the country for the coronavirus pandemic

The far-right government's education minister Abraham Weintraub linked the coronavirus pandemic to Beijing's 'plan for world domination,' in a tweet imitating a Chinese accent

'Geopolitically, who will come out stronger from this global crisis?' Weintraub wrote on Twitter Saturday.

'Who in Brazil is allied with this infallible plan for world domination?'

The original tweet from Weintraub has now been deleted.

Chinese Ambassador Yang Wanming responded to the incident yesterday on his Twitter: 'The Chinese government expects an official explanation from Brazil.

'We are aware that our people are on the same side resisting to the racist words wanting to preserve our good relationship,' Yang added.

In the original Portuguese, his tweet substituted the letter 'r' with capital 'L' -- 'BLazil' instead of 'Brazil,' for example - in a style commonly used to mock a Chinese accent.

It was also a reference to a character from a popular Brazilian comic strip, 'Monica's Gang.'

FILE PHOTO: Chinese Ambassador Yang Wanming (pictured) responded to the incident yesterday on his Twitter: 'The Chinese government expects an official explanation from Brazil'

FILE PHOTO: Brazil's Education Minister Abraham Weintraub speaks during a session of education commission of the Brazilian Federal Senate in Brasilia, Brazil

The embassy condemned Weintraub's 'absurd and despicable' tweet, calling it 'highly racist' , according to an official statement.

The row comes as Brazil, like many countries, is hoping to source more medical equipment from China to deal with COVID-19.

Weintraub said in an interview he stood by his tweet and called on China to do more to help fight the pandemic.

'If they (China) sell us 1,000 ventilators, I'll get down on my knees in front of the embassy, apologize and say I was an idiot,' he told Radio Bandeirantes.

Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said last week Brazil was struggling to source ventilators and other vital health supplies from China, saying some of its orders were canceled without explanation.

The issue erupted into a social media war Monday. The top trend on Twitter in Brazil was the hashtag TradeBlockadeOnChinaNow.

Eduardo Bolsonaro criticised the Chinese 'dictatorship' for its handling of the outbreak

Brazil, whose biggest trading partner is China, is the Latin American country hit hardest by the new coronavirus, with nearly 500 deaths and more than 11,000 confirmed cases so far.

Since the pandemic emerged, Brazil-China ties have been strained, notably by a series of tweets by President Jair Bolsonaro's son Eduardo, a federal lawmaker.

Eduardo Bolsonaro criticised the Chinese 'dictatorship' for its handling of the outbreak in March.

Last week, he tweeted about the 'Chinese virus,' a phrase that infuriates Beijing. It has also been used by US President Donald Trump, whom his father admires.

That prompted China's consul general in Rio de Janeiro, Li Yang, to ask Eduardo in an opinion column in Brazilian newspaper Globo: 'Are you really that naive and ignorant?'

Globally, over 1.3million people are infected with the deadly disease and the death toll has risen to 73,838.
As COVID-19 touches lives across the North, the N.W.T. community of Fort Good Hope is feeling it a little harder. Work on a community housing strategy has been suspended due to the pandemic.

Fort Good Hope is one of the harder-hit communities in the present N.W.T. housing crisis. Last year, two-thirds of Fort Good Hopes 173 households reported some kind of problem with their unit.

An assessment in 2017 said at least 75 people in Fort Good Hope were homeless or at risk of homelessness.

To combat that, the communitys Kasho Gotne Housing Society (KGHS) adopted a five-year strategic plan and action plan on March 30.

Edwin Erutse, president of KGHS, told Cabin Radio the housing society held a COVID-19 planning meeting last week with Chief Daniel Masuzumi, the community nurse, RCMP, the hamlets senior administrator and the housing association.

There are literally no unused housing options in Fort Good Hope.

Were meeting every week to follow up where we are, identifying our needs as a community, Erutse said. Were going through, having those discussions, and seeing whats available in case a worst-case scenario arises.

Because of COVID-19, everything has been put on hold. We arent sure when (but), like everyone else, when things are able to get back to normal (the society will) carry on with our plans.

Erutse says 25 men, three women, and three families in insecure and transient situations are the immediate focus for the society.

James Caesar, executive director of the society, said three men are moving into transitional housing at the Kaduyle Home. A fourth is expected to move there later in the spring.

KGHS is one of 24 groups to receive funding through Ottawas Indigenous Homes Innovation initiative. Caesar says the money is helping the society to assess repairs and maintenance needed on private homes.

This is going to give us a clearer sense of need than what is available from the GNWT and federal statistics, he said. The society is studying the feasibility of launching a sweat-equity, lease-to-own program.

Sixty households have accessed our no-interest loan program and labour services for maintenance and repairs of their private homes, said Caesar. We have identified that the number of houses needing major repairs is one of our major challenges  58 per cent of houses in Fort Good Hope need major repairs.

Those repairs offer a means to provide work experience and trade apprenticeships to Fort Good Hope residents.

Fifty-five per cent of homes in the community are privately owned. Caesar said Fort Good Hope has a higher rate of homeownership than most of the territorys smaller communities.

This reflects our culture of self-sufficiency and it is something we want to keep supporting, he said. We dont want to make housing programs that build dependency.

He said repairs are a short-term focus for the society while work takes place on longer-term initiatives like building new homes and shelters.

Since we need to identify land, capital funding and operational funding for those sorts of projects, you are looking at two- to three-year planning horizons. They dont just happen overnight, he said.

The ambition is ultimately to provide 20 new homes, housing 44 individuals.

Erutse said the study made clear the community was experiencing a homelessness crisis.

We decided to target that issue right away for men, single mothers and families, to address their needs, he said. We know we cant do it all at once, so we are going to take it in different phases and prioritize them. But we are committed to (the plan) and will follow through on it in the next fiscal year, for sure.

After a feasibility study and review of building codes, KGHS made the decision to start work immediately on a transitional home for men needing a safe, sober, supported environment. The housing society will now work on solutions for other groups in need, such as a safe home for women and children.

Caesar said residents are welcome to stay for up to three years at the Kaduyle transitional home.

Its not like in the city where there are homes people can transition to, he added. There are literally no unused housing options in Fort Good Hope.

Three years give us time to build new housing and develop the programs that can make these homes attainable for community members.

In its 2020 strategic plan, KGHS reports the lack of housing tends to fragment families and community ties  In addition, vulnerable residents returning from corrections or treatment programs do not have sufficient support in the community, often returning to unstable and unsafe situations.

The plan states some in the community live with no power, nor plumbing, which can pose health and safety issues.

Right now I think weve identified the needs and, based on the buildings we have right now, we can address the homeless, single men right away, said Erutse.

(The society) is trying to renovate another building so we can accommodate single mothers and families. Were trying to address those needs and have those plans activated right away.

Caesar said the society will be working with the N.W.T. Housing Corporation to apply for co-investment funding through the federal government.

The aim is to build four rental units that would operate under the same transitional housing program, then introduce integrated case management  a way of helping vulnerable people navigate many government departments that has won praise in Yellowknife.

When someone moves into the Kaduyle Home, the resident agrees to develop a personal plan and the housing co-ordinator will help them to develop that plan, said Caesar.

Our teams role is to support them in achieving their goals in any way we can, and also linking them with other resource people who can support them.

The housing society is looking to hire a permanent staff member, but Caesar says staffing is challenging.

We looked at trying to recruit someone to our community who would have the right mix of strong administrative skills, social work, and cultural sensitivity, he said.

In the end, we decided to invest in our own people and are finalizing contracts locally.

The society will support the new hire by building a strong training and professional development framework, he said.

In fact, weve had agreements in place with contractors to come in for at least one week, every two months, to offer training and mentorship.

That includes individuals with expertise in traditional counselling. The society hopes to have its new employee shadow the GNWTs integrated case management staff.

The (GNWT) have been very helpful in our planning process so far and we have a lot to learn from them, in terms of how to facilitate service providers to work together to help an individual while respecting that individuals privacy, he said.

We are really excited to create opportunities for our staff, and for other service providers in the community to learn new skills.

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Love Island runner up Siannise Fudge looked incredible when she posed in very sexy grey lingerie for an Instagram snap on Tuesday.

The pretty brunette, 25, teamed the lace corset top and matching skimpy briefs as she posed on her bed, no doubt delighting her 1,7million followers.

She captioned the snap, which was an ad, with the words: 'Lockdown nights made sweeter with Boux @bouxavenue.'

Wow! Love Island's Siannise Fudge looked incredible in very sexy grey lingerie as she posed on her bed after revealing she's only spent an hour apart from Luke Trotman since leaving the villa

Steal her style: She wrote this caption alongside her post letting her fans know where they can get her racy look from

The post came just a day after Siannise revealed that she and her Love Island beau Luke Trotman have only spent an hour apart since leaving the villa.

Luke, 22, told OK!: 'The longest weve been apart is about an hour,' revealing they only go their separate ways for a haircut or a trip to the beauty salon.

Siannise added: 'Thats the only time weve been away from each other and its literally been an hour. But do you know what? We wouldnt have it any other way.

Inseparable: Luke and Siannise became fan favourites after coupling up in the villa, and came in second place after falling madly in love with one another

'I couldnt imagine it now, not being with you. If I turned round and Luke wasnt there, I think Id panic!'

The pair quickly became fan favourites after coupling up in the villa.

And they believe that finding each other in such a unique environment is arguably a greater victory than winning the show and its prize money.

It was Paige Turley and Finn Tapp who nabbed the cash after beating Luke and Siannise with just 1% extra votes.

Luke and Siannise are now quarantined together as the UK enters its third week of lockdown.

And they've been keeping themselves entertained by sharing a series of humorous Tik Tok videos with fans.

Funny: The couple are now quarantined together as the UK enters its third week of lockdown - and they've been keeping themselves entertained by sharing a series of humorous Tik Tok videos
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Spectrum Health says its using a new system to clean and reuse facemasks, putting the healthcare system in good shape as it contends with a shortage of the equipment needed to care for coronavirus patients.

Last week, Spectrum began using vaporized hydrogen peroxide to sanitize and disinfect N95 masks. Efforts to use industrial ovens to heat the masks to 158 degrees, hot enough to kill viruses but not ruin the masks, are also underway.

So is a plan to convert a conference room at Butterworth Hospital into an ultraviolet light room. Goggles, face shields and other hard-surface items would be placed under the high-powered lights for disinfection. Spectrum officials are investigating whether masks could also be sterilized using that process.

Were a little in the experimentation mode right now, said Kurt Knoth, Spectrums vice president of system supply chain. Weve never done this before.

The steps come as West Michigan hospitals brace for a potential surge of coronavirus COVID-19 patients. A global shortage of personal protective equipment has left Spectrum and other Michigan hospitals scrambling to conserve and acquire more of the supplies frontline healthcare workers need to do their jobs.

But because West Michigan has not yet felt the full force of the pandemic, unlike hot spots such as Detroit and New York, Spectrum has had time to build up its stockpile of personal protective equipment and implement new cleaning methods that allow that equipment to be reused, Knoth said.

When asked whether Spectrum now has enough personal protective equipment to handle a surge of coronavirus patients, Knoth said: Were in good shape.

Were not having any problems getting what we need, he said.

During an interview with Knoth, Spectrum spokesperson Bruce Rossman declined to discuss ventilator capacity. He referred to a prepared statement that said Spectrum had acquired additional ventilators during the past couple of weeks, and that there are regional, state and federal agencies it can work with when faced with a greater need.

As of Tuesday morning, 43 people with coronavirus COVID-19 were being treated at one of Spectrums 14 hospitals. Another 14 patients were awaiting test results.

Spectrum President and CEO Tina Freese Decker, in a video posted online on March 30, said the healthcare systems modeling showed that coronavirus cases in West Michigan could peak in early May. A surge of patients at that time would push demand for chare beyond what Spectrum or any health care system could handle, she said.

Knoth said he learned about using vaporized hydrogen peroxide to sterilize masks from an online article by Duke University.

After discovering that Spectrum several years ago had purchased the necessary equipment to undertake the process  it had done so when an Ebola outbreak in Africa prompted worldwide concern  he moved to put the method into place.

Working with Spectrums sterile processing department, which sterilizes the health systems surgical equipment, the masks are hung from hooks in an enclosed room. Theyre then sprayed with the aerosolized hydrogen peroxide solution.

Knoth said Spectrums system is designed to sanitize up to 2,000 N95 masks per shift.

As of now, Spectrum is planning to clean and reuse each mask five times. But a mask can be cleaned and reused 10 or 20 times if needed, Knoth said.

Were going to be a little conservative right now and try for five cycles and see how that works, he said. If we feel that we can safely get more cycles, well do that. But others around the country are finding they get quite a bit longer usage out of their masks.

N95 face masks filter out at least 95 percent of particles, more than other types of isolation masks. They have been in high demand throughout the globe since earlier this year when the coronavirus began to spread across the world. Frontline healthcare workers use the masks to prevent airborne transmission of coronavirus COVID-19.

In addition to hydrogen peroxide, Spectrum is deploying another method to clean facemasks: heat.

Using industrial-strength ovens, provided by Zeeland-based Gentex Corp., the facemasks are heated to 158 degrees. Doing so kills all the bad stuff, Knoth said, but doesnt get so hot that it ruins the material.

Spectrum has the ovens in place at Butterworth Hospital and at its Lakeland network in southwest Michigan. Lakeland worked with Whirlpool on its oven sanitizing operation.

The global shortage of personal protective equipment has created alarm among some frontline health care workers.

On Monday, a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at McLaren Flint died from complications related to COVID-19. And nurses represented by unions have complained about a shortage of personal protective equipment. Nurses at Spectrum are not represented by a union.

Rossman, the spectrum spokesperson, said Spectrum is tracking the health of its employees. All workers must complete an electronic screening process in which theyre asked about their temperature and health before coming to work, he said.

He declined to say how many Spectrum employees either have or are suspected of having coronavirus COVID-19.

Were taking a lot of steps to protect our healthcare staff, Rossman said.

Beyond using hydrogen peroxide and ovens, Spectrum also plans to use ultraviolet light to sanitize personal protective equipment.

Workers at the healthcare system have removed television screens from a conference room at Butterworth Hospital and plan to install ultraviolet lights to sanitize googles, face shields and other hard surface products. The lights were ordered a couple weeks ago and are due to arrive in the coming days, Knoth said Monday.

That will give us much more capacity, he said, adding that he and his colleagues are investigating whether the lights can be used to sanitize facemasks.

Knoth said Spectrum is keeping open several ways to clean masks and other personal protective equipment because its unclear how much equipment it will need to clean on a daily or weekly basis if a patient surge were to occur.

Beaumont Health in southeast Michigan announced its using a two-step process to sanitize masks. First, the masks are placed under ultraviolet light for eight minutes, and then heated as high as 160 degrees for one hour. The method enables the masks to be used a second or third time, Beaumont said in a news release.

The work being done by Knoth and his colleagues is connecting them to Spectrums frontline healthcare workers in a new way.

Before now, Knoth said he and his colleagues in Spectrums supply chain system didnt feel as intimately involved in the daily work being done by doctors, nurses and others. But thats changed amid the coronavirus pandemic. He said he and his colleagues now feel the weight of their mission to ensure that Spectrums workers have the equipment they need to do their job.

Its so important for our staff to feel safe and be safe to have the proper PPE, he said, using the acronym for personal protective equipment. With these methods in concert, I feel very confident that well be able to weather any storm that we might hit.

PREVENTION TIPS

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India has decided to partially lift a ban on export of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, paving the way for its supply to the United States and several other countries hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

Government officials said India would export hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol on a case-by-case basis to the countries which have already placed orders for them after meeting the domestic requirements.

The decision to partially lift the ban on hydroxychloroquine came to the fore hours after US President Donald Trump warned of retaliation if India does not heed to his request to supply the drug, cited by him as a viable therapeutic solution to fight coronavirus infection.

In a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, Trump sought supply of hydroxychloroquine to the US.

"In view of the humanitarian aspects of the pandemic, it has been decided that India would licence paracetamol and HCQ in appropriate quantities to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on our capabilities," said Anurag Srivastava, spokesperson in the ministry of external affairs.

"We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations which have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic," he added, responding to queries on the issue.

On March 25, India banned export of hydroxychloroquine in the midst of views in some quarters that the drug could be used to fight COVID-19. India is the largest exporter of the drug.

It is learnt that high-ranking officials of India and the US were engaged over the issue of supply HCQ to the US by certain Indian companies following telephonic conversation between Modi and Trump and the decision to ease restrictions on export of the drug was result of a process.

The assessment in the government on Trump's comment on "retaliation" is that his response was not pre-meditated and that it was an instantaneous reaction by the US President when put on the spot.

There was indication that the decision to lift the partial ban on the two drugs was taken at a high-level meeting last night.

Hydroxychloroquine is and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria. India is the largest producer of the drug globally.

Officials said India would export the drug on a case-by-case basis after meeting all the domestic requirements.

"India has always maintained that the international community must display strong solidarity and cooperation. This approach also guided our evacuation of nationals of other countries," Srivastava said.

India is learnt to have received requests from at least 20 countries including its immediate neighbours Sri Lanka and Nepal for supply of hydroxychloroquine.

"Like any responsible government, our first obligation is to ensure that there are adequate stocks of medicines for the requirement of our own people," the MEA spokesperson said.

In order to ensure this, he explained, some "temporary steps" were taken to restrict exports of a number of pharmaceutical products. He said a comprehensive assessment was carried out about possible requirements of various drugs under different scenarios.

"After having confirmed the availability of medicines for all possible contingencies currently envisaged, these restrictions have been largely lifted," he said.

He said the Directorate General of Foreign Trade has notified lifting of restrictions on 14 drugs on Monday.

"With regard to paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine, they will be kept in a licensed category and their demand position would be continuously monitored," Srivastava said.

"However, the stock position could allow our companies to meet the export commitments that they had contracted, he said

The Indian Council of Medical Research has recommended the hydroxychloroquine for those involved in the care of suspected or confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

The Trump administration has already created a national strategic stockpile of 29 million doses of the malaria drug, anticipating that its test results on more than 1,500 COVID-19 patients in New York is yielding positive results.

Global scientists, racing against time to find either a vaccine or a therapeutic cure to the virus, have begun testing hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as options for potential COVID-19 treatments.

The US Food and Drug Administration last week issued an Emergency Use Authorisation for the prescription of the drug in certain circumstances.

In addition to New York, COVID-19 patients in several States are being treated with hydroxychloroquine, including Michigan and Texas.

According to Trump, the drug is yielding positive results. If successful, he said that it would be a gift from heaven.

Lifesaving drugs should be made available to Indians first: Rahul

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that India must help all countries in their fight against coronavirus but lifesaving medicines should be made available to Indians first.

"Friendship isn't about retaliation. India must help all nations in their hour of need but lifesaving medicines should be made available to Indians in ample quantities first," he said on Twitter.

Gandhi's reaction came after the MEA said that India would to export anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to several countries including those in the neighbourhood on a case-by-case basis in sync with its commitment to the international community to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Medical staff prepare for the opening of the COVID-19 Assessment Centre at Brewer Park Arena in Ottawa, Canada, on March 13, 2020. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

Pandemic Experts Look for Key Figures in Describing Progress of Disease

Scientists who track the growth of pandemics say some figures provided by public health officials tell more about the spread of the CCP virus than others.

Daniel Coombs says the number of people admitted to hospitals tells him where COVID-19 stands in a community, a province or across the entire country.

The mathematics professor at the University of British Columbias institute of applied mathematics said those numbers best indicate the daily status of COVID-19.

The number of new positive tests and reports of how many people have recovered are less important, said Coombs, who has also conducted research on overdose prevention efforts during B.C.s ongoing illicit opioid overdose epidemic.

Of all the statistics being reported, I would probably put the least weight on the recovery rate, he said in a recent interview. Its nice information. The numbers Im really paying attention to at the moment are the numbers of people in hospital, and the number of people in intensive care units and the numbers of deaths.

A man wears a mask for protection against COVID-19 while waiting outside a store in Ottawa, Canada, on April 4, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

He said those in hospital are a definitive count of patients who have contracted COVID-19, adding that the numbers associated with testing are not as firm because there are more variables involved.

Prof. Junling Ma of the University of Victorias department of mathematics and statistics said providing the recovery rate figures would likely be viewed by the public as comforting, but scientists are looking at different data.

Ma, who studies the spread of infectious diseases in populations, said the daily toll of new cases provide information, but its dated.

The numbers right now are not quite related to todays new cases, said Ma, adding the daily case updates are from people who were infected two weeks ago.

Ontario public health officials reported on April 6 a total of 4,347 cases and added 13 deaths for a total of 132. There were 589 people in hospital.

Quebec had 8,580 confirmed cases, 121 deaths and 533 in hospital.

B.C. had 1,266 confirmed cases with 140 people in hospital and 39 deaths.

Two dozen people have died in Alberta, which has 1,348 confirmed cases.

A woman in a mask walks in the financial district in Toronto, Ontario on March 24, 2020. (Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images)

Overall, as of Monday, Canada had 16,666 reported cases of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, with just over 3,600 cases listed as resolved.

Ma and Coombs said the figure for people listed as being infected with COVID-19 isnt as helpful as some other numbers because not everybody is being tested. But hospitalization data provides actual head counts, they said.

In recent days, those receiving hospital care in B.C. has not spiked, indicating the provinces self-isolation and physical distancing measures may be slowing the spread of COVID-19, Coombs said.

What were afraid of is seeing exponential growth of anything related to the disease in the province, he said. I feel like the hospitalization and ICU number is very important information and may be overlooked by everybody focusing on the number of new cases.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbias provincial health officer, credited good fortune and lessons learned from other provinces for early restrictive measures that appear to have helped slow the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

B.C. learned from Quebec and Ontario, where spring break began two weeks earlier and travellers unknowingly brought back the disease with them, she said.

A lot of the work we did early on this, Henry added. Part of it was the system that we had in place to detect cases in our communities, part of it was luck, and I believe part of it was timing.

Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.
Now that the spread of coronavirus seems to be on a decline in China, it has projected the image to the world that it wants to help. However reports seem to suggest something absolutely opposite.

When China was in the middle of crisis, Italy reportedly donated masks and PPE kits to the country. Now that Italy is at war with the disease, China came forward and said it would donate PPE kits to the country. However, according to The Spectator report, China instead of donating these items, is SELLING the PPE kits to Italy, that the latter donated in the first place.

AP

A senior administration official of the Trump government told The Spectator, Before the virus hit Europe, Italy sent tons of PPE to China to help China protect its own population. China then has sent Italian PPE back to Italy  some of it, not even all of it  and charged them for it.

If true, this is not an isolated case of Chinas help to other nations. Spain returned over 50,000 faulty kits back to China; these had a detection rate of only 30%. Czech republic also reported receiving faulty kits. There have been reports from Pakistani local media where China seems to have sent its all-weather-ally face masks made of undergarments rather than the promised N-95 masks.

Shutterstock

Netherlands had to withdraw masks shipped from China as they did not meet safety standards.

Its so disingenuous for Chinese officials now to say we are the ones who are helping the Italians or we are the ones who are helping the developing world Of course they should be helping. They have a special responsibility to help because they are the ones who began the spread of the coronavirus and did not give the information required to the rest of the world to plan accordingly, The Spectator quoted the official as saying.

EPA

Well, that's not a nice thing to do, is it? Especially when the damage is at such a huge scale.
April 6 (Reuters) - Alaska Air Group said on Monday it expects to cut its capacity by 80% for both April and May, as demand falters due to the coronavirus crisis. (https://bit.ly/2JLqiUa)

The U.S. carrier had earlier planned to reduce its April capacity by at least 10% and May capacity by at least 15%.

"Alaska Air continues to experience demand that is 80% or more below normal levels as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak," the company said in a regulatory filing.

"In recent weeks we have moved quickly to dramatically reduce capacity, pull down costs, cull cash expenditures and access financing." (Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the verdicts of two high courts ordering the release of under-trial prisoners on bail due to scare of the coronavirus spreading into overcrowded jails and asked the authorities to re-arrest those prisoners who have been set free.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the Sindh High Court (SHC) had ordered last month to release hundreds of such prisoners on bail.

The orders were challenged in the Supreme court where Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed overturned them and ordered authorities to re-arrest some of those prisoners who have been set free.

"The 519 under-trial prisoners released by the Sindh High Court should be re-arrested,' the apex court announced.

The Supreme Court also cancelled bails granted to those incarcerated for serious crimes.

It also rejected IHC exercising suo muto powers to grant relief to prisoner by saying that such powers were only available with the Supreme Court.

However, the court approved the recommendation by the attorney general to give the relief to vulnerable prisoners who posed no threat to society.

It said that relief of bail will be available to those only who were being tried for offenses that carry a punishment of less than three years in jail.

The court also said that the relief of bail shall not extend in cases involving abuse/violent acts against children and women.

It would first be extended to persons otherwise suffering from ailments or physical or mental disability. It would also be extended to under-trial prisoners (UTPs) who are 55 years of age or older, and then other male UTPs, provided there is no history of past convictions. The relief would be extended to all women and juvenile UTPs, the court said.

The Chief Justice also remarked during Mondaay's hearing that the court wanted to analyse the federal government's performance to counter the pandemic



"No work is being done by the government apart from holding meetings. The Outdoor Patients Departments (OPDs) of all hospitals in Islamabad are closed. What kind of medical emergency has been imposed in the country?' he said.

He also ordered that every hospital and clinic should remain open and questioned why the Ministry of National Health Services wrote a letter to the Supreme Court to close its dispensary.

"Why should the dispensary be closed? Is the pandemic being countered this way?" he said.

When the attorney general tried to defend the federal government for measures against the coronavirus outbreak, the Chief Justice replied that the federation "is doing nothing on the ground".

The total number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan crossed 4,000 on Tuesday with more than 500 fresh infections reported, while the death toll reached 54.

The deadly COVID-19 has spread rapidly throughout the world, killing 75,945 people and infecting over 1.3 million across over 180 countries and territories, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The legislator also alleged in the viral audio phone tape that the isolation wards set up by the government are worse than the detention centres.

Assam Police has arrested MLA and senior AIUDF leader Aminul Islam for charges of misleading people during COVID-19 outbreak.

"The MLA has confessed in the interrogation that the viral audio clip was made and circulated by him. It was recorded for a particular community and police has recovered the same from his handset. Being an elected representative Aminul Islam has hurt the secular fabric of India, more cases may be registered against him," Nagaon SP Abhijit Gurav said in a presser. The case was filed by one Kapinjal Sarma with Nagaon police station under 877/20 US 120(B)/153A/124A/295A.

A team of Nagaon Police on Monday evening picked up Dhing MLA Aminul Islam for interrogation and after several hours of grilling, he was arrested at 2 am. Police are yet to announce on what laws he will be charged with.

Police have got hold of a viral audio tape where Islam was propagating conspiracy theory against Muslims by the Assam government in the name of Tablighi Jamaat and coronavirus.

One could hear him saying in Assamese, "It's really sad the government is cherry-picking people without no sign of illness and testing. They are not allowed to have food and kept in a very shabby shelter where even a bottle of water or mosquito coil and net are not available. They are not allowing family members to provide any amenities to them. They are given no food and no proper arrangement for sleeping. These people went to Tablighi Jamaat more than a month ago. They have no sign and just to target a section these dramas are going on. I fear they will be injected with coronavirus and murdered."

The legislator also alleged in the viral audio phone tape that the isolation wards set up by the government are worse than the detention centres. After the first positive case of Tablighi Jamaat came out, he peddled a rumour on his Facebook page that the person is not corona positive.

Islam is a two-time MLA from Dhing in Nagaon district. He is a post-graduate with a BEd degree. Earlier in his career, he used to be a teacher. The AIUDF leader is infamous for frequently picking up communal controversy.

Allegedly Islam's hateful propaganda is one of the reasons many people who attended Tablighi Jamaat are hiding and not coming out for quarantine.

Click here for Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates

Till Tuesday, Assam has 27 active cases of COVID-19 and 26 of them have links with the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin.

As announced by Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday that many Nijamuddin-returned persons are yet to be traced.

"Assam government received four lists from the Centre where names of a total of 831 peoples who attended the Tablighi Markaz were included. Fifty of them have not returned to the state, 491 samples have been collected for test and another 128 samples will be sent for testing in no time. The minister warned cases will be registered under the Disaster Management Act against all who are still hiding and not coming out despite many repetitive appeals by the state government," Sarma said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 22:22:17|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities Monday stressed measures to further prevent imported COVID-19 infections through land border.

The demand was made at a meeting of the leading group of China's COVID-19 epidemic response, which was chaired by Premier Li Keqiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

Noting the rapid spread of the pandemic overseas and the rising risk of imported cases through land border, the meeting urged local authorities to hold the defense line of communities, ports and borders.

China will support the border regions to step up their lab test and medical treatment capabilities while toughening port management, quarantine inspections and traffic controls in border areas.

Stricter epidemic control measures will be imposed in economic cooperation centers and trade markets along the border. Efforts will be made to ensure smooth international freight transport on the premise of safety.

The country should integrate emergency response with normal prevention and control practices in work resumption, restoring the production order in accordance with local conditions and risk levels, the meeting noted.

Low-risk regions should optimize epidemic control measures and cancel measures adopted in earlier stage which were not in line with resuming production and living order now, while ensuring necessary epidemic control supplies and emergency response capability, the meeting said.

It called on the enterprises to implement protective protocols for employees and make reasonable arrangement for people flow to avoid unnecessary gatherings and group activities.

To guard against an epidemic rebound, Monday's meeting also urged timely report and response to situations concerning confirmed, suspected and asymptomatic cases as well as the transparent release of information.

Work should be strengthened on asymptomatic patients' medical management, epidemiological survey, quarantine and treatment, the meeting said.

Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and deputy head of the leading group, attended the meeting.
Yukon has installed officers at some of the territory's entry points to collect information on anybody coming into the territory and advise them of public health orders related to COVID-19.

Community Services Minister John Streicker said officers were in place as of 8 a.m. Monday, and would now be there 24 hours a day, every day, until further notice.

The move was announced last week, as part of the government's enforcement measures under the Civil Emergency Measures Act (CEMA).

Enforcement officers  some of them conservation officers or natural resource officers  are now stationed at highway weigh scales on the Alaska Highway south of Watson Lake and at the junction of the Alaska Highway and the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, just west of Watson Lake. Officers are also meeting travellers arriving at the Whitehorse airport.

People arriving in Yukon must stop and sign a travel declaration, with information about their place of residence and details of their plans for a mandatory 14-day self-isolation period on arrival.

The Canada Border Services Agency will be doing enforcement at Yukon's international land borders, officials said.

Non-residents must declare where they intend to go, and confirm they have no symptoms of COVID-19. Under regulations announced earlier, non-residents heading home through the territory can only stay in Yukon for 24 hours.

Travellers will also be advised of Yukon's public health orders on arrival.

Watch Monday's COVID-19 update from Dr. Brendan Hanley and Minister John Streicker:

Yukon has so far had seven confirmed cases of COVID-19. The most recent case was confirmed on Saturday, officials said on Monday.

Chief medical officer Dr. Brendan Hanley said at Monday's news briefing that the seventh case is a person from Whitehorse who had travelled to Europe. The person is self-isolating and doing well at home, Hanley said.

All of Yukon's confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far have been in Whitehorse, and none have required hospitalization for their illnesses. As of Friday, four of the affected people had recovered.

Story continues

Wayne Vallevand/CBC

"We are pleased that so far, no Yukon cases have required medical treatment," Hanley said on Monday.

He also said the risk to the territory from any of the seven identified cases is low, as they've been "well-contained."

"These are not the cases that keep me up at night," Hanley said. "We will continue to see these cases pop up like little arrows trying to penetrate the armour we have created."

As of Monday, 775 people in Yukon had been tested for COVID-19, and results were pending on 28 of those.
NEW DELHI: The Press Information Bureau (PIB), which is the governments nodal agency, has rejected a media report claiming that the newly launched AarogyaSetu is a surveillance App. Taking to its Twitter handle, the PIB tweeted, Claim: a prominent newspaper has alleged in an Op-Ed that #AarogyaSetu will be used for surveillance.

The PIB tweet clarified that the media report is baseless, adding that the App does not link user location and data with any sensitive personal data. Also, it does not make users vulnerable to hacking.

#PIBFactCheck Claim: a prominent newspaper has alleged in an Op-Ed that #ArogyaSetu will be used for surveillance. Fact: This is baseless, the App does not link user location & data with any sensitive personal data. Also, it does not make users vulnerable to hacking. pic.twitter.com/4IXstdsIkk  PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) April 6, 2020

The clarification from the PIB came days after the government launched the AarogyaSetu app to track COVID-19 patients in the country. The ArogyaSetu app has been made available on both Android and iOS devices.

Launched under the banner of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY), the app has been developed by the National Informatics Centre.

The app lets users check whether they have been in contact with infected people by using location and Bluetooth data from smartphones. The app requires users to give continuous access to their smartphones location that would let it figure out where the user has been. The Bluetooth location lets users figure out a persons proximity to others.

AarogyaSetu is available in 11 languages, including English, Hindi, Bangla and Marathi. It is one of many location-based surveillance apps that have been launched by governments across the world to help with contact tracing efforts for COVID-19.

Your data is shared only with the Government of India. The app does not allow your name and number to be disclosed to the public at large at any time," says a disclaimer on the App Permissions page of the application, on Android.
Australian airlines are offering travellers refunds, credit vouchers or rebookings after suspending flights due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Thousands of travellers are desperately cancelling their upcoming holidays following the federal government's warning against all non-essential travel.

But with different policies in place depending on the airline a flight was booked through, some don't always offer you a refund unless you ask.

So to help you get your money back, consumer organisation CHOICE has offered a guide detailing exactly what to do if your flight has been cancelled due to COVID-19.

Travellers are entitled to a full refund if Qantas cancels your flight and is unable to offer you a suitable alternative (file image)

QANTAS

Half of Qantas's domestic and all of its international flights have been suspended until May 31.

For flights due to depart before July 31, you can claim a credit voucher that will be valid until December 31, 2021.

Travellers need to claim the credit voucher by April 30. You can use the voucher only for fares that are equal to or higher in value than the original fare you paid. For higher fares, you'll have to pay the difference.

Travellers are entitled to a full refund if Qantas cancels your flight and is unable to offer you a suitable alternative. The refund will only be processed upon request, according to the airline's conditions of carriage.

For Jetstar flights due to depart before July 31, you can claim a credit voucher (file image)

JETSTAR

Jetstar has suspended 70 per cent of its domestic flights and all international flights until May 31.

For flights due to depart before July 31, you can claim back the cost of your flights as credit.

The voucher can be redeemed 12 months from issue for travel up to one year ahead of the booking date so customers have up to two years to take their next trip.

Customers can only receive a credit voucher if their flights have been cancelled. The airline's conditions of carriage doesn't mention refunds.

Travellers are entitled to a full refund if Virgin changes or cancels the flight and is unable to make suitable alternative arranges

VIRGIN

Virgin Australian Group has reduced its domestic capacity by 90 per cent and suspended all international services until June 14.

For flights due to depart by June 30, travellers can re-book or claim a credit voucher.

The airline will waive the cancellation or change fees but you'll have to pay the difference for higher fares.

Under Virgin Australia's Guest Compensation Policy, travellers are entitled to a full refund if Virgin changes or cancels the flight and is unable to make suitable alternative arrangements, and their fare-type purchased is eligible.

Customers are advised to contact the airline for more details to see whether they are eligible for a refund.

Travellers with an existing booking can only claim a flight credit. The policy doesn't mention refunds for cancelled flights that are outside of the airline's control (file image)

TIGERAIR

Tigerair has suspended all of its flights due to the current unprecedented situation regarding COVID-19.

Travellers with an existing booking can only claim a flight credit. The policy doesn't mention refunds for cancelled flights that are outside of the airline's control.

The budget airline said in a statement it's currently working through the process of transferring Tigerair Flight Credits to a Virgin Australia Travel Bank.
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After more than 20 years under the leadership of Jimmy Lyons, the Alabama State Port Authority has announced that John C. Driscoll will take over as director and CEO effective June 1.

The announcement is in keeping with plans announced in December, when Lyons said he planned to retire at the end of 2020. At the time Lyons said he hoped to have a successor in place by June and that he would assist with the transition for the remainder of the year.

Ive observed over the years Johns incredible contributions to the industry, Lyons said in a statement released by the Port Authority. His abilities were affirmed through our extensive assessment of his body of work and my conversations with those who have worked with him. I am confident John will be an excellent fit for our seaport, our management team, and our employees, and I personally look forward to the transition.

Bestor Ward, chairman of the Port Authority board, said Driscoll stood out from a slate of candidates considered in a national search. Driscoll emerged as the natural choice, he said.

Driscoll has worked with major shipping companies including Sea-Land Service, Maersk Line and CMA CGM, and has successfully developed business operations in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, according to information released by the Port Authority. He most recently served as maritime director at the Port of Oakland in California.

"I've seen the caliber of people who work here and the contributions the Port of Mobile makes to Alabama, the local community, and global trade, Driscoll said in the Port Authority statement. There is so much to be proud of at Mobile. The responsibility in leading this port is fantastic, and we will work together to continue the progress made under Executive Director Lyons.

During Lyons tenure the port has greatly expanded its operations. It now ranks as the 11th largest seaport by total trade.

Major developments include the addition of a steel terminal that serves the AM/NS Calvert steel mill; massive upgrades to the container terminal, in partnership with APM Terminals, making it one of the fastest-growing container terminals in the country; and a forthcoming roll-on, roll-off terminal designed for loading and unloading automobiles. Lyons advocated for a project to enlarge the Mobile Ship Channel, allowing larger ships to traverse Mobile Bay. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received final approval in 2019 and Lyons signed an agreement in October authorizing the engineering and design phase of the project.

At the end of March the Port Authority and APM Terminals, which operates the ports container terminal, announced the completion of an expansion project. The expansion, Phase 3 of a larger development plan for the container terminal, cost $50 million included a 400-foot dock extension that allows APM Terminals to handle two major container ships simultaneously.

This was done for the first time on March 23, when the 1,096-foot-long Belita and the 856-foot Cosco Santis both docked, according to information released by the Port Authority and APM.
Residents of the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center now account for nearly half of Bexar Countys coronavirus deaths, after officials learned of five previously unreported fatalities over the past few days.

The five were residents over the age of 70 who were asymptomatic but had tested positive for the virus, officials said Tuesday. It was not clear what other health conditions may have contributed to their deaths.

Previously, the city had known of three deaths connected to the nursing home, after receiving notifications from the hospitals where the people had been treated. But on Tuesday, officials indicated that facility administrators had not immediately provided information about the five additional deaths that had occurred at the nursing home since Sunday.

The Metropolitan Health District had asked the nursing home for a detailed list of all deaths in recent days, following media reports that identified a possible fourth death. That resident, a man in his 70s, was ultimately not included among the coronavirus deaths because his test results were inconclusive.

On ExpressNews.com: Texas, San Antonio officials launch investigations of nursing home overrun by coronavirus

I was concerned and frankly a little upset we were just notified of the five additional fatalities that had occurred since Sunday, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said Tuesday.

Moving forward, he said officials would place the highest level of scrutiny on the facility to ensure such information is reported sooner.

In a matter of days, the Southeast Side nursing home has become the largest known cluster of coronavirus cases in San Antonio, with infections confirmed in at least 79 people, including 67 residents and a dozen workers.

The facility now accounts for eight of 18 coronavirus-related deaths in Bexar County and almost 16 percent of the 503 confirmed cases.

Eight people from the nursing home were hospitalized as of Tuesday.

New coronavirus cases increased by 47 in the past 24 hours and one person, a woman in her 60s who was not connected to the home, died at Northeast Baptist Hospital of complications from the virus, officials reported Tuesday.

Among those who died at the nursing home were a woman in her 70s, three men in their 80s and another woman in her 90s.

The nursing home is now the subject of investigations by local health officials and state regulators after dozens of infections were reported among residents last week.

Metro Health identified 10 other facilities in the area that shared staff with the nursing home workers, Nirenberg said, but so far has not found any additional infections. How the virus was introduced at Southeast Nursing is not known, he said, but officials surmise that it was likely brought in by a worker.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio nursing home at center of coronavirus outbreak recently cited for infection control problems

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is separately investigating whether the facility violated any rules related to infection control, communicable disease screenings and the use of protective equipment.

Federal regulators have given the nursing home an overall rating of one out of five stars, one of its lowest ratings, for poor performance on health and fire inspections, quality of resident care and staffing levels. Reports show that the facility was recently cited for not following proper infection control protocols and had medically neglected a resident, resulting in hospitalization.

Nursing and other long-term facilities across the country have proven to be particularly susceptible to the virus, which kills the elderly and those with underlying health conditions at high rates.

Nirenberg said there were no other known outbreaks at San Antonio nursing homes. But officials continue to monitor other poorly rated facilities in the area, including those who have histories of violations related to infection control.

This is a dangerous mix when we have a pandemic, he said.

Lauren Caruba covers health care and medicine in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Lauren, become a subscriber. lcaruba@express-news.net | Twitter: @LaurenCaruba
Apple finally got rid of unreliable keyboards with Butterfly switches on MacBooks, starting with the 16-inch MacBook Pro and then extending it to the 2020 MacBook Air. Now, the company has a plan to improve the keyboards backlight feature with future MacBooks.

The company has filed a new patent with the USPTO (United States Patent & Trademark Office) that gives us a look at the companys plans of using True Tone technology to improve the keyboard backlight behavior on MacBooks. The patent titled Electronic devices having backlit keyboards displays with adjustable white points suggests that the white point of the keyboard backlight can be adjusted according to the changes in ambient light.

The patent suggests that Apple has found a way to create keyboard keys that have transparent sections in the glyphs to allow ambient light to pass through. This ambient lights color temperature is then measured using sensors underneath the keyboard keys and the True Tone system adjusts the backlights white point to better suit the ambient light so that theres minimal effect on a users eyes. This makes the keyboard appear visually pleasing to the users eyes.

This technology could also be used to adjust the keyboards backlight brightness, similar to how modern smartphones and laptops adjust their screen brightness based on the intensity of the ambient light. Finally, automatic brightness adjustment and white point adjustment technologies seem to be making a way to laptop keyboards. While it isnt a necessary feature, it certainly makes a users life a bit easier.

Our Take

There are various ways Apple thinks about a user and making their life easier, in a way that other brands dont. And the Cupertino-based brand has to bring newer features to its devices faster than other brands due to the higher pricing it demands from its laptops, smartphones, smartwatches, and tablets.

If Apple brings True Tone adjustments to its future laptops, it could be the first brand to bring such a mechanism to laptops. It would not only allow dynamic keyboard backlight brightness and white point adjustment but also keep it independent from the brightness and white point adjustment of the screen.

However, it could take years for the feature to come to actual devices, and theres a possibility of it not making it into real products as well. This happens all the time. Not all patents get converted into actual features.

What do you think? Would you want such a feature in your future MacBook? Let us know in the comments section below.

[Source: USPTO
Mumbai, April 7 : Amidst the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, the production house Yoodlee Films has decided to go online for its auditions.

"As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, we planned how we could function around the existing lockdown. We felt that this was really the best time to talk to a whole lot of talent through online auditions for our upcoming films," said Siddharth Anand Kumar, Vice President, Television and Films, Saregama.

He added that where internet connections are sporadic, self-audition videos could work.

"Otherwise all our auditions are conducted live, and we have found it to be a complete game-changer. We also realise that this allows us to reach out to a larger corpus of potential actors across the country, due to the lack of geographical boundaries," he said.

The production house, which has backed films including the National award-winning movie "Hamid", has a Tamil film in the post-production stage, along with two other films - "Axone" and "Bahut Hua Sammaan" - ready for release.
At the end of 2019, the sanitizer market amounted to about 4,000 tons in Ukraine

Open source

Nowadays, there are two stages of Ukraines sanitizers market  before the beginning of 2020, when demand was stable and limited to the B2B market (primarily medical institutions and laboratories, food production and HoReCa, where sterility is important) and small sanitizers for personal use, and after the beginning of 2020, when demand rose sharply.

At the end of 2019, the sanitizer market amounted to about 4,000 tons: 1,000 tons of imports and about 3,000 tons of domestic production. At the same time, about 70% of the consumption of sanitizers and disinfectants in Ukraine belonged to the B2B segment.

Against the backdrop of the coronavirus and quarantine pandemic, there has been a sharp jump in demand for sanitizer agents. Ukraine suffers from a shortage of disinfectants and sanitizers.

Disinfectant deficiency was caused by two main factors:

"Bureaucratic barrier" Lack of raw materials for manufacturing

First, in 2018-2020, manufacturers of disinfectants faced the inability to carry out state registration of sanitizers, which is necessary because of the high content of ethyl alcohol.

For this reason, in March 2020, the Cabinet adopted a resolution, according to which the registration of disinfectants was regulated on the basis of the conclusions of the state sanitary and epidemiological examination. It is expected that this will facilitate the entry into the Ukrainian market of the required amount of high-quality and safe disinfectants and, accordingly, reduce the share of the shadow turnover of sanitizers.

Secondly, there is a shortage of raw materials on the market, in particular isopropyl alcohol, used for the production of sanitizers agents due to the Ukrspyrt (Ukraines state-owned enterprise of alcohol and liquor industry) monopoly, which lasted until early 2020 and was accompanied by inefficient management of the enterprise. As of the beginning of 2020, almost half of the state-owned enterprises were closed.

Ukrspyrt states that additional plants of the company would work for these purposes. Ukrspyrt will produce a disinfectant until April 30, operating 43 production sites with a capacity of about 82,000 decalitres per day. Currently, Ukrspyrt produces only 26,000 decalitres of alcohol per day, that is, it works at 31% of its declared capacity.

Read the original text at Pro-Consulting
Technavio has been monitoring the electrolyte mixes market and it is poised to grow by USD 415.93 million during 2019-2023, progressing at a CAGR of over 11% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005361/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Electrolyte Mixes Market 2019-2023 (Graphic: Business Wire)

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The growth of the electrolyte mixes market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of electrolyte mixes market vendors

Table Of Contents :

PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT

2.1 Preface

2.2 Preface

2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE

Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

Market segmentation analysis

PART 04: MARKET SIZING

Market definition

Market sizing 2018

Market size and forecast 2018-2023

PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY END-USER

Market segmentation by end-user

Comparison by end-user

Electrolyte mixes for human end-user Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Electrolyte mixes for animal end-user Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Market opportunity by end-user

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Europe Market size and forecast 2018-2023

APAC Market size and forecast 2018-2023

MEA Market size and forecast 2018-2023

South America Market size and forecast 2018-2023

Key leading countries

Market opportunity

PART 09: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 10: MARKET TRENDS

Introduction of flavored electrolyte mixes

Growing popularity of e-commerce

Increasing use as a hangover cure

PART 11: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 12: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Abbott Laboratories

Cargill

Fonterra

PepsiCo

Prestige Consumer Healthcare

PART 13: APPENDIX

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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Tuesday is World Health Day. The Day is being commemorated at a time the world is at war with a deadly virus.

However, developed and developing countries are facing the same enemy which knows no boundaries or skin colour.

Since COVID-19  a rare strain of coronavirus  broke out last December in China, human daily activities have been put on hold across the globe. There have been over a million infections while tens of thousands have died.

Health workers are the frontline soldiers of this historic battle.

As they put their lives on the line to save others, many have died and thousands have tested positive to the infection.

The World Health Day 2020 carries a more important task of not just celebrating and acknowledging the contributions of doctors, nurses and other health workers, it presents an opportunity to push their safety and protection to the front burner, several health authorities say.

A global shortage of protective equipment has added to the huge toll on the physical and mental wellbeing of health workers waging the war against COVID-19.

Nigerian Doctors Celebrate Nurses and Midwives

The tagline of World Health Day 2020 is Support nurses and midwives.

In line with the theme, Francis Faduyile, the president of Nigerias Medical Association (NMA), in a statement on Tuesday acknowledged the enormous contributions of nurses and midwives in the health sector of the country.

Nurses and midwives sometimes work under intense pressure, high workload and very inhumane conditions, especially in fragile health systems. These circumstances may expose them to dangerous health risks and even death while saving others lives, he said.

The NMA president said the association is particularly concerned about the hazards healthcare professionals, including nurses working at the frontlines of the war against COVID-19, face.

He urged the government to do all it takes to ensure a healthy working environment by providing protection, insurance and safety for all medical staff.

World Health Day: Eulogising Heroic Health Workers

In a virtual press conference, World Health Organisations director-general, Tedros Ghebreyesus, also eulogised all categories of health workers for their heroics during the pandemic.

He said Worth Health Day, which is celebrated each year on the World Health Organizations founding day, is usually one of the groups biggest days of the year, but this year, the day is being overshadowed by the coronavirus.

The 2020 Worth Health Day was supposed to be the main event in our assembly in May. Unfortunately, we are in this situation, he said.

The WHO began observing the World Health Day on April 7, 1950 after the need for a World Health Day was discussed in the First Health Assembly in 1948. Now, every World Health Day focuses on a certain key area in the healthcare system and aims to develop it.

Through this initiative, significant growth has been brought to the fields of mental health, maternal and child care and climate change.

To generate attention towards their contribution during the COVID-19 outbreak, the World Health Day this year highlights the current status of nursing around the world.
Express News Service

BENGALURU/NEW DELHI: With the first case of a wild animal, a tiger at a zoo in New York, testing Covid-19 positive, Indian authorities have swung into action, issuing directives to all national parks, zoos, tiger reserves and sanctuaries to minimise human-animal interactions, use of safety gear by the staff, isolation of sick animals and sending their samples for testing to three identified veterinary labs.

A tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York City has tested positive for the coronavirus, while several domestic animals have previously tested positive for the disease. But it is the first case of a wild animal getting infected, experts said. A recent Chinese study found that cats are susceptible to coronavirus and may infect each other.

The union environment ministry, the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) wrote to states to take immediate preventive measures to stop the transmission and spread of the virus from humans to animals and vice versa at national parks, sanctuaries, tiger reserves and zoos. The Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK) and forest department too held meetings with heads of all nine zoos and forest officials in the state to ascertain if measures were in place and to list items for testing and safety.

The forests of Karnataka have already been shut and will continue to remain closed until further orders. The NTCA stated that tigers must be observed for any symptoms directly and through camera traps for any visible signs; those handling tigers and their translocation should be tested negative and diligence should be followed while handling postmortem cases to record location, age and gender of animals. The CZA too asked zoos to be on high alert and monitor animals 24x7 using CCTV cameras for any abnormal behaviour or symptoms.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Karnataka, Sanjai Mohan said the cardinal principal is keen observation of all animals. The fear now is of the virus spreading from humans to animals, so extra precautions should be taken while managing conflict cases, especially of leopards.

ZAK Director BP Ravi told TNIE, As a preventive measure, all nine zoos in Karnataka have been closed. There is no direct contact of animals with zookeepers. However, the staff strength has been curtailed and they have been told not to mingle and immediately report if any animal is not eating properly. Staffers who come from affected areas are told not to report for duty and their wages will also be not deducted.

CZA Member-Secretary SP Yadav said that keepers and handlers in zoos should not be allowed in the vicinity of felines without the safety gear. Mammals like carnivores, especially cats, ferrets and primates, to be carefully monitored and fortnightly samples of suspect cases to be sent to the designated animal health institute to initiate Covid-19 testing, he has written to Chief Wildlife Wardens of all states.
The lack of action  even as they close schools and limit the size of gatherings  has frustrated some health experts.

Even as most Americans are under orders from their governor to stay at home to slow the spread of the coronavirus, leaders in a handful of states have steadfastly refused to take that action, arguing it is unneeded and could be harmful.

Nine governors have refused to issue statewide mandates that people stay at home, but local leaders have taken action in some of those states. North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas are the only states where no one is under a stay-at-home order.

The lack of action from those governors  even as they take other steps such as closing schools and limiting the size of gatherings  has frustrated health experts and left some residents puzzled.

If social distancing manoeuvres are going to work, theyre most likely going to work if you do them early, said Arthur L Reingold, a professor and infectious disease expert at the University of California-Berkeley. The longer you wait, the harder it is for them to have a substantial impact on transmission of the virus.

That also has been the message of Dr Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert, who has said all states should have statewide orders that people remain at home.

Fauci on Monday credited the governors of Nebraska and Iowa for what steps they have taken to slow the virus, but David Leeson, a retiree in Winterset, Iowa, said he cannot understand why restrictions that make sense in most of the country have not been imposed in his home state.

I think its idiotic, Leeson said. The only way this is going to work is to have every state under the same rules.





Nearly 305 million people live in the 41 states or Washington, DC, which mandate people stay at home, compared with fewer than nine million in the states without such mandatory orders. Enforcement of the rules, however, varies.

All of the states without statewide or local orders are in the central US. Each has a Republican governor, and while they all have hundreds of coronavirus cases and some deaths, the numbers are significantly less than the hardest-hit areas.

The reasons behind their decisions vary.

Even as Iowas coronavirus cases have grown to more than 1,000 with 26 deaths and the states medical board has recommended a stay-at-home order, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds maintains that demanding people not leave their homes would threaten their mental health.

We are a connected community. Theres just that side of it as well, Reynolds said. In addition to suicides and domestic abuse, there are a lot of downsides to it as well.

At the same time, Reynolds has closed schools and ordered the closure of most retail establishments other than grocery stores and gas stations. She argues her moves match or exceed most states.

Here's the latest on COVID-19 in Iowa from @gazettedotcom as of Monday, April 6. 78 more Iowans have tested positive for the virus on Monday. Three Iowans have died, including one Linn County resident and two from Tama County, via @rodboshart: https://t.co/M3uFsvKcTD  Michaela Ramm (@Michaela_Ramm) April 6, 2020

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum noted the rural nature of his state and voiced scepticism that a stay-at-home order was needed.

For Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, his targeted actions to slow the virus are intended to protect the thousands of people who would otherwise lose their jobs, including employees at clothing stores that have remained open.

People are making their own decision to stay home, and thats exactly what they should be doing, unless theres an absolute necessity to get out, Hutchinson said last week.

Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, who has banned gatherings of more than 10 people, speculated that many residents might eventually ignore tougher restrictions.

What we dont want is to have people start this too early, and then they get tired and start breaking the ban, Ricketts said.

The governors reasoning doesnt sit well with some residents.

Not only as a nurse, but as a father of two and a husband, I resent the attitude coming from our governors office of Its just not bad enough yet,' said Ryan Mauk, a registered nurse who works with intensive care patients in Fargo, North Dakota, and who says he continues to see people gathering in groups. Its bad enough. And its only going to get worse unless we act.

A white rose is pinned to an empty chair during a funeral of a man who died of the coronavirus in Lexington, South Carolina [Sarah Blake Morgan/AP Photo]

In Utah, Wyoming, South Carolina and Oklahoma, where governors have declined to issue mandatory statewide stay-at-home orders, some local officials have taken it upon themselves to direct people to stay home.

Utah Governor Gary Herbert and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon have asked people to stay home  a request that does not carry any penalties. In Wyoming, the only state with no known deaths from COVID-19, Governor Mark Gordon similarly has urged people to stay home.

In South Dakota, Governor Kristi Noem issued a limited stay-at-home mandate that applies only to people in the two hardest-hit counties who are older than 65 or who have chronic health conditions.

Noems action Monday came amid criticism that she has not done enough, including an online petition started by Amy Taylor, a Sioux Falls nurse.

My fear is that were going to wait until its too late, Taylor said.
An Emirates flight today brought back to Dubai the first batch of UAE citizens stranded abroad due to the coronavirus crisis, said a report.

The 42 passengers, who boarded the flight from Londons Heathrow Airport, were flown to Dubai International Airport today morning. The passengers, who include families, were in the UK for medical and educational purposes, news agency wam reported.

Emirates Airline also confirmed its full readiness to fly foreign nationals in the UAE who wish to return to their countries, provided they receive an approval from their governments.

Emirates said it is closely working with concerned authorities in this regard, noting that its operations through its extensive network mainly depends on the reduction of international restrictions on travel and flights. Emirates is keen to provide all guarantees to ensure the health and safety of passengers and crew including medical tests for all passengers.

H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and chairman, and CEO of the Emirates Group, had earlier announced that Emirates Airlines will operate flights to bring back all UAE citizens stranded abroad free of cost, the report said.

Emirates Airline has obtained permits and approvals required to operate a limited number of flights to select destinations.

The flights, which began on Sunday, are taking passengers stranded in Dubai to their home countries. Emirates will operate four flights per week to London and three flights per week to Frankfurt, Paris, Brussels and Zurich.

Adel Al Rida, executive director of operations at Emirates, said: "The carrier has taken all precautionary and preventive measures and is coordinating closely with Dubai Health Authority and other concerned authorities at the airport to run required medical tests for the arriving passengers. He said the passengers will observe a compulsory 14-day home quarantine and follow other guidelines recommended by the Ministry of Heath, Dubai Health Authority, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
Kuwait National Petroleum Corp (KNPC) has announced the completion of its biofuels project after the successful launch of the last two production units coming on-stream, reported the state-run Kuwait News Agency.

The two new coal and naphtha hydro treating units will produce 37,000 and 8,400 barrels per day (bpd) of oil equivalent respectively, stated the report, citing a top KNPC official.

"The two refineries are undergoing upgrades and expansion as part of the Clean Fuels Project (CFP) with a focus on producing higher-value products such as diesel and kerosene for export," remarked its CEO Waleed Al Badr.

Upon completion, Al Ahmadi refinery, which consists of 31 units, will have a production capacity of 364,000 bpd, KUNA quoted Abdullah Al Ajmi, the deputy CEO for projects, as saying.

The cost of the biofuels project has reached 4.6 billion dinars ($14.7 billion), said Al Ajmi.

After the units in Mina Abdullah come on-stream, the biofuel project will have a capacity of 800,000 bpd, he added.
Former President John Dramani Mahama on Monday presented a total of 70 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and 50 pairs of Gum Boots to health workers at the Ho Teaching Hospital, to support their work towards fighting the COVID-19 disease.



The presentation is part of a total of 650 PPE and 650 gum boots procured by Mr. Mahama, who is also the Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for distribution to a number of medical facilities across the country.



A member of the NDC COVID-19 Technical Team, Prof. Margaret Kweku, who is also the Parliamentary Candidate for the Hohoe Constituency, who presented the items on behalf of the NDC Flagbearer, thanked the countrys frontline health workers for their dedication, hard work and sacrifice as the nation grapples with the coronavirus.



Prof. Margaret Kweku, who was accompanied by the NDC Volta Regional Chairman, Henry Kwadzo Ametefee, James Gunu, Reg. Sec. Emmanuel Kwesi Bedzrah, Kwame Agbodza and some Regional Executive, urged government to work faster to ensure the urgent supply of the required protective clothing and logistics for the health workers to maintain their confidence as they come into contact with hundreds of people during these times.



Chief Executive of Ho Teaching Hospital, Dr. Tampore, who received the items thanked former President Mahama for the support, pledging that the hospital will put them to good use.



As part of HE. J.D Mahamas support for the countrys health workers, a quantity of PPEs and gum boots are being presented to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the Ho Teaching Hospital, Effia Nkwanta Hospital, Cape Coast Teaching Hospital and Koforidua Government Hospital today.



Speaking at a ceremony on Saturday to announce the supply of the materials, President Mahama said he was deeply touched by the enthusiasm and the sacrifice of the health workers, adding that I, John Dramani Mahama, appreciate you all, and Ghanaians appreciate you all.



He also lamented the non-availability of protective clothing for the health workers. I must quickly add that it is not a good thing that health workers, across the country, still, do not have personal protective equipment. This is obviously because we did not plan early as a country and our importation of test kits was also late. Also the demand for test kits and PPEs have outstripped supply globally.

Source: johnmahama.org









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I've been a reporter and editor at Missouri community newspapers for 35 years and joined the Columbia Missourian in 2003. My emphasis at the Missourian is on local government and elections. You can reach me at swaffords@missouri.edu or at 573-884-5366.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced highway traffic to a bare minimum. People obsessively washing their hands every hour and not to forget the remarkable stock market crashes. The pandemic has brought catastrophic consequences both physically and financially.

Next in line are the promoters and insiders of companies. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) reportedly prohibited promoters and insiders from buying company shares from April 1, 2020, to June 30, 2020. This prohibition may have been a direct effect of the additional time given to companies to report their financial results.

On March 19, the SEBI released a circular providing relaxation from compliance to certain provisions of the SEBI's (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015.

This included an extension of quarterly and annual financial results reporting by one month, from May 30 to June 30, 2020. The beneficiaries of such relaxation are listed entities, stock exchanges and depositories.

Also Read: Coronavirus blues: How to prevent insider trading in the midst of COVID-19

Customarily, the trading window is subject to closure for a certain period after the financials of a company are published. The period for restriction on trading can be made applicable for 48 hours from the end of every quarter.

This would mean a closure of the trading window for insiders and promoters for 48 hours from May 30, 2020. However, in light of the ongoing lockdown, SEBI has reportedly prohibited promoters and insiders from trading between April 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020.

The rationale behind the decision is clear. Numerous companies may have reached a stage where financial results may be suggestive of the ultimate outcome, although not entirely accurate.

Such information is considered Price Sensitive Information (PSI). Relaxation of filing deadlines suggests a higher possibility of misuse by insiders, promoters and management if the trading window is left open from April 1 to June 30, 2020.

What appeared to be just another WhatsApp forward disclosed the financial results of top companies in 2019. People remember this and so does the regulator. In light of past and current circumstances, SEBI rejected requests for exemption from this trading restriction.

Knowledge of PSI and acting upon such information amounts to insider trading and may subject a person to penalties under Section 15H of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992. A person found guilty of insider trading will be liable to the following penalty: -

1. Rs 10 lakh or more, subject to a maximum of Rs 25 crore, or

2. Three times the amount of profits made from insider trading, whichever is higher.

Also Read: SEBI relaxes compliance requirements for FPIs

Further, all connected persons and insiders will fall under the purview of this restriction. Connected persons include directors, deemed directors, employees, professionals having access to unpublished PSI and also include connected persons six months prior to the act of insider trading.

Promoters and insiders of companies are regularly exposed to PSI, thereby favourably positioning them to cushion a bear run especially in turbulent times where capital markets have hit rock bottom.

This is a welcome move by the regulator in its attempt to disarm holders of price-sensitive information from further wreaking havoc in the markets and penalising them if found to be in violation of this trading restriction.

(The author is Managing Partner, KS Legal & Associates)
South Africa: Crimes against women condemned

Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, has condemned the raping and murder of women during the national lockdown period.

This follows two reported cases of murder over the past weekend.

A Willowvale woman was found murdered in her home last Friday, with her 18-month-old baby lying next to her. It is reported that the 47-year-old woman was shot in her upper body.

In a separate incident a Grade 9 pupil that attends Aurora Girls' High School from Dobsonville, Soweto, was raped and murdered while running an errand. Her body was found last Friday in a bush at eMndeni Extension in Soweto.

We are shattered! This is saddening beyond comprehension especially during these trying times. Im calling for immediate action against perpetrators of GBV. Men must stand up against GBV by saying violence against women and girls is unacceptable, the Minister said.

She said women and girls are currently gripped by fear in their homes.

South Africa boasts hosts of legislation and policies that affirm the rights of all, including women and gender non-conforming people. These rights do not necessarily translate into reality in the lives of people who still face systemic and endemic forms of violence.

We must all work tirelessly to deliver for the lives of women and gender-non-conforming people in South Africa today. We cannot continue to live lives that are constantly under siege and where we are not all enjoying the fruits of our Constitutional democracy, Nkoana-Mashabane said.

Government has announced plans to beef up the family violence, children protection and sexual offences units.

Victims can contact 0800 150 150 and 0800 428 428 to report incidents of gender-based violence.

All citizens have been encouraged to ensure that children are cared for and not left unattended during this period. They should also remain vigilant to any suspicious behaviour of neighbours and surroundings.

Any suspected form of abuse or criminal activity can be reported to the South African Police Service Crime Stop number on 0860 10111. - SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SoFi , the online personal finance company, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Galileo Financial Technologies ("Galileo"), the powerful financial services API and payments platform. SoFi will pay total purchase consideration of $1.2B to acquire Galileo, comprising cash and stock.

Galileo's digital payments platform enables critical checking and savings account-like functionality via its powerful open APIs, providing companies with an easy way to create sophisticated consumer and B2B financial services. The company's offerings are accessible via mobile, desktop, and a physical debit card. Galileo's APIs power functionalities including account set-up, funding, direct deposit, ACH transfer, IVR, early paycheck direct deposit, bill pay, transaction notifications, check balance, and point of sale authorization as well as dozens of other capabilities. Galileo processed over $53B of annualized payments volume in March 2020, up from $26B in September 2019, with accelerating growth. SoFi Money is already tightly integrated with Galileo's payment platform including several of its leading account and events API functionalities.

Galileo and SoFi will work together to accelerate the pace of technology innovation to offer Galileo's partners, and subsequently consumers everywhere, even more value. These new functionalities and services will further help Galileo's current and new partners capture the secular shift of financial transactions from the physical-only to a multi-channel digital and physical platform.

With the addition of Galileo, SoFi strengthens its capabilities, rounding out its best-in-class technology ecosystem. Additionally, the combination will extend the reach of its products to other Galileo partners in the United States and international markets, while offering diversification and scale to SoFi's existing infrastructure.

"SoFi has established itself as a leader in the fintech sector, providing our more than one million members a full array of financial products to help them get their money right," said Anthony Noto, CEO of SoFi. "The response by our members to our innovation across borrowing, saving, spending, and investing has motivated us to think bigger, bolder and more expansively given the insatiable consumer appetite for financial services innovation. Together with Galileo, we will partner to build on our companies' strengths to drive even greater financial technology innovation, making those products and services available to both current and future partners. While we march forward on our mission to help people achieve financial independence through our own direct efforts, with Galileo, we can enable a broader ecosystem of companies to join us in helping the world achieve financial independence."

"SoFi has built a very strong diversified financial services company focusing on a full suite of financial services. These are products that many of our leading fintech clients are asking for. Distributing products through our enterprise class API is the vision behind this combination. I think it's very powerful," said Clay Wilkes, CEO of Galileo. "We're excited to work with SoFi to build on the services that have made Galileo the leading supplier of infrastructure services to leading financial, technology, and fintech companies. With the help of SoFi, we intend to continue to grow with and support all of our existing clients and the product roadmaps that they have defined."

"Clay is an extraordinary founder and leader," said Noto. "He has had an unwavering vision since starting Galileo 19 years ago. I could not be more excited by the opportunity to work side-by-side with a visionary who has not only built a great company, but one that has endured unprecedented technological and financial changes, through multiple economic cycles. With Clay at the helm, Galileo's durability has resulted in its industry leading position at the precipice of a massive multi-decade secular shift to digital financial services that we have already seen unfold across almost every other consumer industry sector."

Galileo will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary of Social Finance Inc, with Wilkes as CEO. Galileo will collaborate with SoFi to accelerate the technology roadmap needs for consumer financial offerings, as well as offering the full SoFi suite of products and services to those Galileo partners who are looking to broaden their offering to better meet the needs of their customers.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Citigroup served as financial advisors and WilmerHale acted as legal advisor to SoFi. Qatalyst Partners served as financial advisor and Dorsey & Whitney acted as legal advisor to Galileo.

About SoFi

SoFi helps people achieve financial independence to realize their ambitions. Our products for borrowing, saving, spending, investing, and protecting give our more than one million members fast access to tools to get their money right. SoFi membership comes with the key essentials for getting ahead, including career advisors and connection to a thriving community of like-minded, ambitious people. SoFi is also the naming rights partner of SoFi Stadium , future home of the Los Angeles Chargers and the Los Angeles Rams, opening in July 2020. For more information, visit SoFi.com or download our iOS and Android apps.

About Galileo Financial Technologies

Salt Lake City-based Galileo, the API standard for card issuing, is a global payments platform that powers world-leading fintechs, financial services and investment firms by removing the complexity of payments. Galileo makes it fast and easy for businesses of every type and size to innovate and deliver amazing user experiences to their customers. The company is backed by Accel. Check out Galileo at galileo-ft.com.

Contact

Rachel Rosenzweig

Director, Communications

[email protected]

Disclosures

SoFi Lending Corp. CFL# 6054612, NMLS #1121636 (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org). Advisory services are offered through SoFi Wealth, LLC an SEC-registered Investment adviser. Brokerage products and SoFi Money are offered through SoFi Securities LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Neither SoFi nor its affiliates is a bank. 2020 Social Finance, Inc.

SOURCE SoFi

Related Links

http://www.sofi.com


China's People's Liberation



Army released on Tuesday the 21-year-old Indian man who was abducted on March 19 from near the McMahon line in Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh, a defence spokesman said.

Togley Singkam, who was handed over to the Indian Army personnel guarding the border, was immediately put into quarantine amid fear of coronavirus infection, Defence PRO Lt Col P Khongsai said.

When the incident came to light, the Indian Army swung into action and approached the Chinese side utilising the established border management mechanism. Owing to peace and tranquility existing in the region and the bonhomie that has developed between both the border guarding forces, Singkam was handed over to the Indian Army on Tuesday, he said.

This has provided immense relief to the family members of Singkam and also to the people of the area, he said.

Singkam has been quarantined by the Indian Army and will be handed over to his family after 14 days, the official said.

Singkam along with his two friends -- Gamshi Chadar and Ronya Nade -- had gone fishing and to collect traditional herbs from the land belonging to the Naa clan of Tagin community on March 19 when the Chinese security personnel allegedly ambushed them.

While his other two friends could successfully escape, Singkam was abducted at gunpoint by the Chinese security personnel.

The Tagin Cultural Society had approached the governor on March 27, urging him to take steps for Singkam's release.

A complaint was also filed by Singkam's family at the Nacho police station on March 23.

The McMahon Line demarcates the boundary between the Tibet autonomous region of China and Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as its own.

The McMahon Line is not properly demarcated and small cement pillars erected on the Indian side often get covered under wild growth.

A number of organisations in the state had appealed to the state government for taking up the matter with the Centre for the safe release of the man.

The Siyum Nacho Limeking Taksing Students Union (SNLTSU) had also threatened to launch a democratic movement in the state capital, if his early and safe release was not ensured.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Jan Strupczewski

BRUSSELS, April 7 (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers are likely to agree on Tuesday on measures worth more than half a trillion euros to fight the economic fallout of the coronavirus epidemic, but say that plans to jointly issue debt will need more talks.

Italy and Spain, the hardest hit by the epidemic, have also been the most vocal about the need for creating eurobonds to cushion the deep recession that the pandemic is expected to cause in Europe this year and finance a recovery.

But the Netherlands, Germany and several others are against mutualising debt and argue that since all euro zone countries can still cheaply borrow on the market and EU limits on deficits have been lifted for the pandemic, there is no need to create eurobonds now -- especially since the process would take years.

"There's a lot of room for solidarity within the existing instruments and institutions. We have to exploit these tools fully and remain open to doing more. A strong package is in the making," the chairman of EU leaders, Charles Michel, said.

The ministers will hold a teleconference at 1300 GMT on Tuesday. They last prepare a list of ideas for EU leaders, focusing on three or four steps that can be taken immediately.

The first measure will be standby credit lines from the euro zone bailout fund of up to 2% of a country's gross domestic product, or 240 billion euros in total. They will come with minimal conditions focused on health issues to alleviate Italy's concerns it will be told what macroeconomic reforms to implement.

The second will be an agreement to grant the European Investment Bank 25 billion euros of additional guarantees so the bank can increase its lending by 200 billion euros, on top of a 40 billion-euro increase in lending already under way.

The third will be support for the European Commission's plan to raise 100 billion euros on the market against 25 billion euros of guarantees from all 27 EU governments, to subsidise wages of workers so that companies can cut working hours of employees rather than sack them.

Story continues

Finally, the ministers are likely to back a plan by the European Commission and the Netherlands to create an emergency support fund issuing grants for medical supplies and health care, which could reach some 20 billion euros.

The ministers are also likely to take note of a French proposal to create a joint EU solidarity fund to finance long-term recovery measures, worth several hundred billion euros and financed by joint borrowing.

But the plan, while included in the list for leaders, is unlikely to get broad support. It its recourse to debt mutualisation is a red line for the camp led by the Netherlands and Germany.

"On the joint liability of all governments, it is no surprise that there are different opinions on this," one senior official involved in preparations for the meeting said.

"There is a clear need for more work and discussions." (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; editing by Larry King)
In a sign of deals still being completed, an office in Liverpool's CBD leased by Centrelink has been sold for $52.5 million to a private investor.

The 211 Northumberland Street property is a 7654-square-metre building, home to Centrelink, and was sold at a passing initial yield of 6.59 per cent on behalf of vendor ESR.

The four-level building has a four-star NABERS rating and a weighed average lease expiry of 3.04 years, with easy access to the Hume Highway.

An office at 211 Northumberland Street in the Liverpool CBD has sold for $52.5m.

John McCann, James Barber and Frank Oliveri of Colliers and Peter Vines and Victor Sheu of Ray White Commercial advised on the sale.
HONG KONG / ACCESSWIRE / April 7, 2020 / With the approval of both Israeli and Palestinian authorities, AID GENOMICS announceto launch anemergency testing Laboratory to perform 3,000 COVID-19 tests daily for Gaza residents. BGI is the partner to provide technology support.

The Lab shall cost a few million dollars, AID GROUP will lead the donation.Prospective donors may contact AID Genomics in Israel.Mammoth Foundation also announced to join the donation and organize fund-raising in China for GAZA Lab operation.

For the first time in the history, Palestinian and Israeli authorities mutually agree on a common goal."Peace" is the resultof mankind's common enemy - the novel corona virus.BGI from China, which is one of the most prominent suppliers of COVID19 PCR tests in the world, has bridged the borders of the Gaza strip.BGI is collaborating with their Israeli partner, AID Genomics, to build a laboratory in Gazathat will provide 3,000 tests a day.

"With the approvals from both sides of the Gaza border, people in Gaza will see hope in defeating COVID19 as well as a light of peace in the future." This represents the many Gaza people's voice.

"The worst of times reveals the best in people, saving lives is of paramount importance", said Dr. Ye Yin, the CEO of BGI, "we must work together to surmount whatever difficulty that lies ahead." BGI, as a leading genomics company, brings the HuoYan Lab solution from China. Mammoth Foundation, a charity in Shenzhen, China, also announced to join the donation and organize fund-raising in China for GAZA Lab operation.

The AID Group already supplied hundreds of thousands of test kits, developed by BGI, to the State of Israel.BGI is the largest DNA and Genomics company in the world. Today, AID announced an extraordinary initiative for the people of Gaza and the Palestinian Authority with the support of the authorities' special approvals and the technology transfer from BGI.

According to SnirZano, the CEO of AID GENOMICS:"In the past months, we are working with BGI at full speed to assist as much as we can. To my delight, as an Israeli, our proposal was approved by the Palestinian Authorities and other relevant departments. We have then received calls from various parties around the world to show their support. We are fortunate that Mammoth Foundation and my Chairman's, Kelvin Wu, philanthropic family arm, i-Future Foundation, are the first to lead the donation. The lab will be a HuoYan Lab Solution and be ready to perform up to 3,000 tests per day."

Story continues

According to Kelvin Wu, the Founder and Chairman of AID Group: "We are humbled to receive the support from BGI that derived from our two years of continuous R&D collaboration in cancer genomics. When it comes to illness, it is a common challenge to humanity. We are wholeheartedly committed to winning the fight against diseases."

BGI was one of the first institutes to examine the virus that erupted in Wuhan. In light of the lack of test throughput, BGI built the first HuoYan Laboratory in Wuhan in Feb; after that, four more in other bigger cities.

Altogether, the HuoYan Labs have performed 500,000+ Coronavirus tests in China. This vast testing capability has enabled a fast reaction time and rapid treatment for those found infected to the virus, even in incubation.Today, dozens of countries want the aid of the HuoYan Labs. AID is in the process of bringing the labs to Gaza and Israel.

Contact:

Michelle Shi

michelleshi@dlkadvisory.com

+852 2854 8711

SOURCE: DLK Advisory Limited via EQS Newswire





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/584031/Hope-is-Coming-to-Gaza-BGI-and-AID-to-Set-Up-Lab-Testing-3000-People-a-Day




As the sun rose on another blameless California morning, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex took their daily turmeric shots boosted with raw ginger, naked opportunism and freshly squeezed brass neck.

The world was in turmoil around them, as Covid-19 continued to sweep across the globe.

Yet not even a pandemic can stop Harry and Meghan in their self-imposed, grandiose scheme to save the world, one worthy cause at a time. The couple have just announced that they are launching a new non-profit charitable foundation named Archewell which will replace their short-lived Sussex Royal brand.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have started their new life in Los Angeles following their decision to step down as senior royals

Archewell! It sounds like a pink foam pad designed to help those who suffer from flat feet. A forgotten London tube station. Or perhaps a dried out canal bed in Salford. Whatever it is, it doesnt sound good.

Certainly, it has none of the self-explanatory elegance of Sussex Royal, but that had to go after the Queen laid down the law following the couples decision last year to step down as working royals. Yet much of the Sussexes global appeal is contingent on public understanding that they remain enmeshed with and indispensable to the Royal Family. Without that, who or what are they? And why should anyone care?

Yesterday they took pains to explain why we should. And that Archewell was not only their future, it had informed their past, too. Before Sussex Royal, came the idea of Arche  the Greek word meaning source of action, said the Sussexes in a statement. We connected to this concept for the charitable organisation we hoped to build one day, and it became the inspiration for our sons name.

Did it really? Lets be frank here. Harry wasnt exactly noted as a Greek scholar at Eton, while I imagine Meghans knowledge of the subject begins and ends with how much feta she wants in her Greek salad. I could be wrong! As Plutarch once almost said, judge ye not the Duke and Duchess of Do-Good until the virtue of their harvest is fully reaped on the Oprah show.

Yet the problem with the Sussexes is that, in such a short time, they have become increasingly preposterous. Just listen to them earnestly elaborating on their Archewell aims: To do something of meaning, to do something that matters. Archewell is a name that combines an ancient word for strength and action, and another that evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon.

So far the only deep resources Harry and Meghan have drawn upon are Prince Charless bank accounts. I mean, who are they trying to fool? The current global health crisis has made many take stock, and to focus with piercing clarity on what is really important; family, health, love and safety.

One of the results of this is that it throws a harsh light on the kind of virtue signalling, woke values and empty words of people like Harry and Meghan, exposing the aching vacuity at the heart of their endeavours. We look forward to launching Archewell when the time is right, they say. Couldnt they have waited until the time was right to tell us they were going to wait until the time was right to tell us?

Look around you, kids. Prime Minister Boris Johnson lies gravely ill in a London hospital. The Queen has just delivered the speech of her life; a pitch-perfect oration that summed up the perilous situation in which we now find ourselves.

In this photo taken on 27 March, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks to the camera from an office in Downing Street to announce that he has tested positive for the coronavirus. Meanwhile, Harry and Meghan have been in Los Angeles announcing their new charity

Since his announcement, he has been moved into an intensive care ward, similar to this one pictured in UCL Hospital, London, which shows patients hooked up to ventilators

It was a moment that strengthened the bonds between the monarchy and the nation. Not something that tainted the monarchy with the cheap values of celebrity and personal ambition.

And if the future begins with Archewell  where does it end? For everything the Duke and Duchess of Sussex do and say now seems to raise more questions than answers. Prince Harry has always maintained that their abdication from royal life stemmed from a desire to protect his son.

So why move him from the relative safety and isolation of Vancouver Island to the metropolitan Covid-19 hotspot of Los Angeles?

And if the couple are so desperately concerned about Archies privacy, why name their primary charity after him? Surely this only leverages the child further into the public spotlight?

On Sunday the Queen gave the 'speech of her life; a pitch-perfect oration that summed up the perilous situation in which we now find ourselves', rallying the nation during this time of crisis

The most unfathomable mystery of all is simply why they have to continue to present themselves as all-encompassing do-gooders, armed with their grab bag of causes which include climate change, mental health, domestic violence and refugees?

All very worthy, of course, but the way they carry on, its almost as if no other charity in the world has ever done anything of note.

Yet why dont they just quietly begin again in America, doing good works, making a difference and letting their philanthropic profile emerge naturally? I think we all know the answer to that  and it is embroiled in their corrosive relationship with celebrity.

Harry and Meghan  they have never knowingly undersold themselves. And with Archiewell they are not about to start now.
An opposition MLA in Assam was arrested on Tuesday for making "objectionable" remarks about the condition of quarantine facilities and hospitals treating COVID 19 patients, calling them worse than detention centres, police said.

Aminul Islam, the All India United Democratic Front (AIDUF) legislator from Dhing constituency was apprehended early in the morning after preliminary interrogation, state police chief Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta told PTI.

An audio clip containing a telephonic conversation purportedy between Islam and another person was doing the rounds on social media where the lawmaker was heard talking "disparagingly" about the quarantine facilities and hospitals.

He also purportedly said the living conditions there were worse than those at the detention centres.

Hundreds of suspected illegal migrants, many of them Muslims, are lodged in the detention centres in Assam after they did not figure in the controversial updated National Register of Citizens.

"We have registered a case against him under various sections of the IPC for criminal conspiracy, spreading disaffection between communities, among others," Mahanta said.

He said the Assam Assembly Speaker has been informed about the development.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
DUBLIN, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Electric Vehicles Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global electric vehicles market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 44% during 2020-2025.

This report provides a deep insight into the global electric vehicles market covering all its essential aspects. This ranges from macro overview of the market to micro details of the industry performance, recent trends, key market drivers and challenges, SWOT analysis, Porter's five forces analysis, value chain analysis, etc.

The increasing demand for fuel-efficient automobiles across the globe is one of the key factors driving the growth of the market.

Furthermore, growing concerns regarding the detrimental environmental effects due to greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions, along with the implementation of favorable government policies encouraging sustainable development, are also providing a boost to the market growth. For instance, various benefits, including tax exemptions, subsidies, low buying costs and free charging facilities, are some of the government privileges offered to those utilizing EVs, thus encouraging their overall adoption rates.

Additionally, manufacturers are focusing on the development of advanced technologies to produce zero- and low-emission vehicles with improved fuel efficiency and soundless operations. Also, enhancements in the EV charging infrastructure are leading to more investments in utilities, charging hardware manufacturers and other power sector stakeholders.

Other factors, including rapid urbanization, increasing disposable incomes and extensive research and development (R&D) activities, are projected to drive the market further.

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined with some of the key players being Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, BYD Auto, Chery, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company, Geely, General Motors, Honda Motor Company, Hyundai Motor Company, Nissan, Renault, SAIC Motor, Tesla Inc. Toyota Motor Corporation, Volkswagen, etc.

Segment Highlights

Based on the component, battery cells & packs currently account for the highest market share.

Based on the charging type, slow charging represents the largest category.

Based on the propulsion type, battery electric vehicles currently account for the largest market share.

Based on the vehicle type, passenger vehicles currently account for majority of the market share.

On the geographical front, Asia Pacific currently represents the biggest market for electric vehicles.

Key Questions Answered

How has the global electric vehicles market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the component?

What is the breakup of the market based on the charging type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the propulsion type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the vehicle type?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the market?

What is the structure of the global electric vehicles market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the market?

Key Topics Covered



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Electric Vehicles Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Component

6.1 Battery Cells & Packs

6.2 On-Board Charger

6.3 Fuel Stack



7 Market Breakup by Charging Type

7.1 Slow Charging

7.2 Fast Charging



8 Market Breakup by Propulsion Type

8.1 Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV)

8.2 Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV)

8.3 Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)

8.4 Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV)



9 Market Breakup by Vehicle Type

9.1 Passenger Vehicles

9.2 Commercial Vehicles

9.3 Others



10 Market Breakup by Region

10.1 Asia-Pacific

10.2 Europe

10.3 North America

10.4 Middle East & Africa

10.5 Latin America



11 SWOT Analysis

11.1 Overview

11.2 Strengths

11.3 Weaknesses

11.4 Opportunities

11.5 Threats



12 Value Chain Analysis

12.1 Overview

12.2 Raw Materials/Components Suppliers

12.3 Manufacturers

12.4 Distributors

12.5 Exporters

12.6 End-users



13 Porters Five Forces Analysis

13.1 Overview

13.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers

13.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

13.4 Degree of Competition

13.5 Threat of New Entrants

13.6 Threat of Substitutes



14 Price Analysis



15 Competitive Landscape

15.1 Market Structure

15.2 Key Players

15.3 Profiles of Key Players

15.3.1 Bayerische Motoren Werke AG

15.3.1.1 Company Overview

15.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.1.3 Financials

15.3.1.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.2 BYD Auto

15.3.3 Chery

15.3.4 Daimler AG

15.3.5 Ford Motor Company

15.3.6 Geely

15.3.7 General Motors

15.3.8 Honda Motor Company

15.3.9 Hyundai Motor Company

15.3.10 Nissan

15.3.11 Renault

15.3.12 SAIC Motor

15.3.13 Tesla Inc.

15.3.14 Toyota Motor Corporation

15.3.15 Volkswagen



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/29gy70

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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SOURCE Research and Markets

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By Akbar Mammadov

In accordance with the Plan for the combat coordination of the Nakhchivan military garrison troops for 2020, the artillery units conducted live-fire tactical exercises at night, Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on April 5.

"Artillery units during movement from the places of permanent deployment to concentration areas were directly deployed in the battle formation and capturing firing positions and observation posts, were prepared for combat use," the ministry said.

It should be noted that during the exercises, the actions of the imaginary enemy were monitored by night vision devices.

The ministry added that the units occupied the firing positions, worked out the tasks of lighting support for planned and unscheduled fire missions.

During the exercise, conducted in conditions of reduced visibility, the goals were achieved.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Just two days back, producer Karim Moranis (Chennai Express) daughter, Shaza Morani, was admitted in Nanavati Hospital as she tested positive for COVID-19. Now, according to a report Karims elder daughter, actor Zoa Morani too is admitted to Dhirubhai Kokilaben Ambani Hospital in Mumbai.

In an interview with Bombay Times, Zoa revealed, I have tested positive. I have been moved to COVID-19 positive patients isolation ICU. She also said, I was the one showing the symptoms and thats the reason my sister Shaza and I agreed to do the test so now I am in the hospital. They have put me under observation. There are other suspected COVID-19 patients here too. I was only allowed to carry limited stuff. I have got some books with me for company as nobody is allowed to meet us. Currently, both the sisters are under treatment in separate private hospitals in Mumbai.

Reportedly, the Morani family has been placed in quarantine in their Juhu house to prevent the spread of the contagious virus.




The idea behind that is to be able to help hospitals and the funeral director community in handling any overflow in the number of deaths that may occur, Jorgensen said. We decided it was better to be prepared and have that in place, rather than try to scramble once were behind the 8-ball.
By Katya Golubkova, Olesya Astakhova and Ahmad Ghaddar MOSCOW/LONDON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and Russia are close to a deal on oil output cuts to reduce a global glut, a top Russian negotiator said on Monday, while sources in Moscow said it was ready for significant cuts, ahead of talks planned for this week.

By Katya Golubkova, Olesya Astakhova and Ahmad Ghaddar

MOSCOW/LONDON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and Russia are close to a deal on oil output cuts to reduce a global glut, a top Russian negotiator said on Monday, while sources in Moscow said it was ready for significant cuts, ahead of talks planned for this week.

A supply deal between OPEC, Russia and other producers, a group known as OPEC+, that had propped up oil prices for three years collapsed in March, just as the impact of lockdowns to limit the spread of the new coronavirus destroyed demand.

Riyadh and Moscow blamed each other for the failure and launched a battle for market share, sending oil prices to their lowest in two decades. That has strained the budgets of oil-producing nations and hit higher-cost producers in the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump said last week he had brokered a deal with Moscow and Riyadh. But initial plans for an OPEC+ meeting on Monday were delayed. Two OPEC sources said a video conference would be held at 1400 GMT on Thursday.

"I think the whole market understands that this deal is important and it will bring lots of stability, so much important stability to the market, and we are very close," Kirill Dmitriev, one of Moscow's top oil negotiators, who also heads Russian's sovereign wealth fund, told CNBC.

Dmitriev was the first to make a public declaration last month about the need for an enlarged supply pact, potentially involving producers outside the OPEC+ group.

Two Russian sources said Moscow was ready for a significant oil output reduction provided other producers would do the same.

"It is necessary to reduce oil production in order to tackle the very serious decline in demand," a source close to the Russian government told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The Russian energy ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier on Monday that Moscow was ready to work with other leading oil exporting countries.

HOW DEEP WOULD BE ENOUGH?

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said OPEC+ cuts could amount to around 10 million barrels per day (bpd), or some 10% of global output. Russian production reached 11.29 million bpd in March.

A Russian government and an industry source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said such 10% cuts might not be enough to steady the global oil market given the weakness of demand.

Trump has said a deal could see cuts of 10% to 15% of global supply.

Russia and Saudi Arabia have long been frustrated that curbs by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and others have left a gap that has been filled by shale oil firms in the United States, which became the world's biggest producer.

Producers also disagree on the level from which they should make any reduction. Riyadh, with by far the world's biggest reserve of extra capacity, has insisted it will no longer carry what it considers an unfair burden of cuts.

Putin has said the starting point should be production levels in the first quarter.

In its scramble to secure a bigger market share after the OPEC+ deal fell apart in March, Saudi Arabia raised its crude output to 12.3 million bpd on April 1 and said it planned to export more than 10 million bpd.

An OPEC source said the baseline was negotiable, adding every producer faced the same problem that the world's oil storage capacity would soon be full.

"The cliff is visible to everyone," the source added.

OPEC member Iraq said on Sunday any new deal needed support from major producers from outside OPEC+, such as Canada, Norway and the United States.

Antitrust laws prohibit oil producers in the United States from taking steps to push up oil prices. But curbing output would be legal if state regulators or the federal government set lower production levels, antitrust experts said.

The U.S. authorities have yet to indicate what, if any, action they might take. Trump said on Sunday he could impose "very substantial tariffs" on oil imports if prices stayed low, but he also said he did not expect this would be necessary.

In rare moves, Canada and Norway have signalled their willingness to curtail production.

After Thursday's scheduled OPEC+ talks, G20 energy ministers and members of some other international organisations will hold a video conference, hosted by Saudi Arabia, on Friday, a senior Russian source told Reuters, as part of the efforts to get the United States involved in a new deal on production cuts.

(Additional reporting by Olesya Astakhova and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow; writing by Shadia Nasralla in London; editing by David Goodman, Edmund Blair and Barbara Lewis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
In just a matter of weeks, Ryan Sitton went from being a lame-duck commissioner of an obscure Texas agency to one of the key figures in a global effort to save the oil market from plummeting prices.

Sitton, a Republican who lost the primary election for his own seat on the Texas Railroad Commission just one month ago, said Thursday that he had spoken with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak about cutting global oil supplies and planned to have a conversation with Novaks counterpart in Saudi Arabia. Two weeks ago, he spoke with OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo and was invited to attend a meeting this summer in Vienna.

To be clear, these kinds of exchanges between state-level regulators and national energy ministers about capping global oil supplies are not common. In fact, if Sitton attends that OPEC meeting, he would be the first member of the state Railroad Commission to do so since the 1980s. Hes earning a seat at the table just as the OPEC+ alliance, which includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, tries to form a global coalition to cut output, put an end to a war over market share and stem the rout in crude prices brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

A deal with non-OPEC+ nations including the U.S. would set a historic precedent. President Donald Trump hasnt publicly said whether the U.S. is willing to cut its own domestic production. He met with oil executives at the White House on Friday to discuss ways to shore up the industry.

In the absence of federal action, Sitton -- an oil and gas engineer and self-proclaimed energy markets expert who leaves office in January -- became the face of Americas response to a global battle for oil market share.

ELECTION DOWNFALL: Texas Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton unseated in GOP primary upset

Even before crude collapsed amid the virus and a Saudi-Russia price war, Sitton was in the public eye far more often than his fellow commissioners, Chairman Wayne Christian and Christi Craddick, both Republicans. He regularly appears on television and has his own website, ryansitton.com, where visitors can view everything from his annual oil industry report to a video of a Crossfit class he led for state employees. (Sitton, 45, attributes his more public persona to success early in his career as a business owner that allowed him to take more risks while in office.)

To a certain degree, Sittons always had an eye on the global market. When the commission was criticized for its lax policy toward natural gas flaring, Sitton took it upon himself to release a report and subsequent video call, saying that the problem was far worse in Iraq and Iran.

Other nations are flaring at levels four times higher than Texas, he said in the report, which was panned by environmental groups. They, therefore, present much more efficient paths to global flaring reductions.

The power to manage the states oil production has been there all along. Following a slump in the oil market in 1931, the Texas Railroad Commission started periodically implementing a process known as pro-rationing to bolster prices. That ended in the early 1970s, just as OPEC, which had modeled itself on the commission, was rising to a dominant position in the oil market.

Theres this regulatory authority thats just sitting there unused for all these years but all of a sudden becomes relevant again, said James Coleman, an energy law professor at Southern Methodist University. The Texas Railroad Commission, although obscure, has always been an important international player.

Days after prices first crashed below $25 a barrel, Sitton penned an opinion piece advocating for a coordinated response with Saudi Arabia and Russia. Hes urging the agency to consider pro-rationing state production, a proposal that both Christian and Craddick have yet to support. It wouldnt be the first time Sitton has split with his fellow commissioners: Last year, Craddick nominated Christian to serve as chairman, even though tradition dictated that Sitton would lead the agency as he ended his six-year term.

The commission has scheduled a hearing on pro-rationing for later this month, a move Sitton announced in a webinar he hosted to outline his take on the global oil market.

SITTON'S STUDY: Flaring in Texas reaches levels not seen since 1950s, oil industry regulator says

Our constituents elect us for situations like this and look at how we solve problems, he said in an interview last month. They dont need people who sit on the sidelines when youre in an economic catastrophe like were in right now.

Complicated position

Its a complicated political position to take in Texas, a state that prides itself on free markets and individualism. And Sitton doesnt appear to have much public support, with the exception of Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and Parsley Energy Inc. Scott Sheffield, chief executive officer of Pioneer, is himself an unusually public figure for the typically media-shy independent shale producers.

Others companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp., and major trade groups like the American Petroleum Institute, have said theyre not seeking government intervention, preferring free markets take their course. And Christian and Craddick both reiterated Friday evening that Sittons vocal support for a government response doesnt necessarily reflect their positions.

One commissioner does not speak for the Texas Railroad Commission, Craddick said. No decision has been made about proration to limit Texas oil production.

But Sitton may have little to lose. Last month, he lost the Republican primary for his seat in a shocking upset. In November, Jim Wright, a rancher and chief executive of an oilfield-service company, will battle one of two Democrats vying for Sittons seat.

Now Sitton could be spending his last few months in state office speaking with international energy chiefs and traveling to Vienna.

Its important to remember that this is the history of the Railroad Commission, Coleman said. Its just amazing how quickly this happened.
It added that messages would now be forwarded to one chat at a time once the content in question has been forwarded more than five times in total.
Local newspapers owned by the Hearst Corporation will be hosting a free crisis marketing webinar for businesses in their coverage areas to learn how to market themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It will take place at 10 a.m. on April 10 at gotowebinar.com.
DALLAS (dpa-AFX) - AT&T Inc. (T) said the company had about $12 billion in cash on hand on Dec. 31, 2019. On Tuesday, the company announced a $5.5 billion term-loan agreement with 12 banks to provide additional financial flexibility. The company has a fully committed $15 billion revolver in place and has no need or plans to use it in 2020. AT&T plans to continuing to pay a quarterly dividend to shareholders. AT&T said the company's pension trust's funded status is substantially the same as year-end 2019. There are no cash funding requirements in the near term and the company does not expect any required contributions through 2022. Regarding supply chain, the company believes its exposure to near-term equipment shortages is limited. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
N eighbours in east London have banded together to raise almost 6,000 in two weeks to buy meals for NHS workers as they battle coronavirus.

Admins of an Ilford area Whatsapp group created a Just Giving page to spread the word and got local caterers on board to prepare food.

So far they have delivered hot meals and snacks to London's NHS Nightingale Hospital in Docklands, King George Hospital in Goodmayes, Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel and Whipps Cross University Hospital in Leytonstone.

Doctors have said the initiative has kept them going during an extremely busy period treating Covid-19 patients.

Chefs whip up hot treats for NHS workers in east London / Clayhall Neighbourhood Group

The Clayhall admin team - made up of residents Rakesh Makwana, Dewan Khan, Sajeev Vilvarajah and Nitesh Singh - thanked the community for pulling together to support the NHS with the vegetarian meals.

Upon delivery, it was a great pleasure to see the gratitude shown by staff, the team said.

"We wholeheartedly want to thank Clayhall and Redbridge Community as well as family and friends for the support provided and a special thank you to Dinesh Patel and Kirtesh Patel from Satsang Caterers in Ilford Ley Street who have been fulfilling the orders at cost price.

Whipps Cross University Hospital acute assessment doctor Arthieshna Ganamdran thanked everyone who helped deliver the delicious hot food.

Food getting delivered to workers / Clayhall Neighbourhood Group

It went down a treat, she said.

Especially when working the new long hours on the emergency rota.

Its a weight off our mind knowing that we have hot food waiting for us after caring for our patients.

As well as hot meals, dry good were also provided / Clayhall Neighbourhood Group

Its good to know we have the support of the local community during the ongoing battle against Covid-19.

Royal London Hospital doctor Gina Sherpa said the gesture ensured members of staff remained well fed and watered during intense shifts.

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When we are busy we can often neglect eating and drinking but this kind donation meant we were well fed with extremely delicious food and cant appreciate that enough. Thank you so much, she said.

Dr Arnee Yogarajah added: A huge thank you to the entire team at Clayhall Neighbourhood involved in organising and donating food for so many of us at The Royal London Hospital.

In the midst of a busy shift, such gestures always manage to make our day.
Nine of the 141 inmates at the Morris County jail have tested positive for the coronavirus and at least two others are awaiting results, according to the jail.

Thats in addition to the 20 officers and other employees, about 10 percent of those working at the jail, who have tested positive since March 22.

Morris County Sheriff James Gannon, in a three-page statement from his office Monday, outlined steps being taken to aid officers, inmates and others at the Morris County Correctional Facility in Morris Township amid a coronavirus outbreak blamed for more than 1,000 deaths in New Jersey.

The jail went into lockdown on Sunday night and the inmates in need of care, all of whom are in stable condition, are being cared for in two housing units  one for men, one for women  set aside for medical isolation.

All 20 officers and employees are recovering well, said Peggy Wright, spokesperson for the sheriffs office.

The first officer to test positive returned to work Monday after fully recovering, and following 15 days of self-quarantine. Two days later, the first inmate with the coronavirus was confirmed, the jail said.

Gannon said the coronavirus cases, were inevitable, given the population and turnaround of inmates.

"However, the numbers are being managed extraordinarily well and we are heartened by the recovery and return of the first corrections officer to contract the virus, Gannon said.

Inmates and officers have been raising concerns, at both county jails and in state prisons, about the potential for coronavirus to spread. A 28-year officer at the Hudson County jail died last week after contracting the coronavirus, union officials said.

Conditions in state prisons have been drawing scrutiny due to insufficient personal protective equipment, inadequate social distancing and transfers of inmates between facilities.

The Morris County jail is a six-story building, with eight housing pods and 277 cells. It opened in 2000 and began accepting inmates from neighboring Sussex County last year.

It has a maximum capacity of 524 inmates, far higher than the current total of 141.

A total of 38 inmates were released over four days starting March 24, Wright said, in response to an emergency order from the state Supreme Court  prompted by coronavirus concerns  mandating the release of any county jail inmates in New Jersey incarcerated due to a probation sentence or municipal court conviction.

Before being released, the inmates had their temperatures taken and were questioned about any symptoms, Wright said, adding that all provided addresses of where they would be living.

Gannon, a Republican elected to a second term in November, said he supports a resolution, recently adopted by the Major County Sheriffs of America, opposing broad releases of inmates and arguing instead for decisions on a case by care basis.

I have a duty to ensure that citizens are safe and not left to worry, in addition to feeling anxiety about the coronavirus, that potentially high-risk people may be in the community, Gannon said.

Additional cleaning and social distancing rules at the jail have been in place since March 5, with restrictions gradually escalating and culminating with the lockdown order on Sunday night.

Inmates are now limited to a half-hour outside their cells, per day, either to shower or make a telephone call, with no more than two out of their cells at the same time. They also are eating meals in their cells, rather than in the common area.

Inmates assigned to kitchen and laundry units are being given surgical masks, in addition to others deemed in need of them.

Visits with family members are suspended, the jail said.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Pennsylvania State Police have yet to file a citation against non-life-sustaining businesses that have stayed open in violation of a state order to shutter during the coronavirus pandemic, but 14 more violators were warned Monday.

The agencys new data brings the statewide total up to 205.

Harrisburgs barracks reported the most violations Monday, with three warnings issued.

Gov. Tom Wolf told non-essential businesses to close on March 19 as part of ongoing efforts to slow the coronaviruss spread.

The state police began enforcing the order on March 23, alongside local law enforcement and state agencies including the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, Department of Health and Department of Agriculture.

Citizens can report violators by calling their local police departments non-emergency phone number.

READ MORE:

More than a third of Pennsylvanians admit to drinking during work-from-home hours, study says

Sheetz launches new scan-and-go option to aid social distancing

Pennsylvania is 19th most aggressive in controlling coronavirus, says WalletHub
Three defendants in Baring Vostok case ordered to stay under house arrest till May

 Moskva city news agency, Sergey Vedyashkin

14:19 07/04/2020

MOSCOW, April 7 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court on Tuesday extended house arrest of three defendants in the Baring Vostok 2.5-billion-ruble (about $40 million) embezzlement case until May 13, the courts press service told RAPSI.

The defendants are Baring Vostok partner Vagan Abgaryan, the banks Investment Director Ivan Zyuzin, CEO of a debt collection firm Maxim Vladimirov.

In late March, two other persons involved in the case, the investment funds founder Michael Calvey and Baring Vostok partner Philippe Delpal until for the same term.

In mid-February 2019, Moscows Basmanny District Court ordered detention of Calvey and five other defendants including Delpal, Zyuzin, Vladimirov and ex- chairman of Vostochny bank board Alexey Kordichev.

On April 11, Moscows Basmanny District Court released Calvey from detention and put him under house arrest. Delpals measure of restrained was changed in October.

According to investigation, Calvey knowing about a 2.5-billion-ruble debt of the First Collector Bureau, a firm under his control, has organized the sale of its shares to Vostochny bank that has led to embezzlement.

The Investigative Committee claims that he committed a crime that could not be classified as business crime because he used a chain of sham companies settling the deal. Moreover, investigators say they have a PricewaterhouseCoopers audit report on the done deal estimating the sold shares at 600,000 rubles, which indicates an instance of fraud.

Calvey denies allegations insisting that the deal was fair as both companies agreed its terms and stood for it, including a person reporting an alleged crime to law enforcement bodies. He noted that a report has been filed with police by a member of Vostochny bank board of directors Sherzod Yusupov. According to Calvey, the real reason of his prosecution is a wide corporate dispute related to the control of the bank by two groups of shareholders: Baring Vostok and stockholders coming from Uniastrum bank, which was reorganized and joined to Vostochny in early 2017.

Baring Vostok company founded by Calvey in 1994 focuses on private equity investments in the CIS and Russia. The company has invested in shares of Yandex, Vkusvill, Tinkoff Bank and other major projects.
SPRINGFIELD  Gov. Charlie Baker, in response to a call from legislators to halt all regular construction during the pandemic, said Tuesday that those projects can safety continue under stricter guidelines.

A letter supported by 105 state legislators, dated April 2, urged Baker to impose a statewide suspension of all regular construction activity through May 4, due to the pandemic.

The letter cited a similar request for a suspension of regular construction from the Massachusetts Building Trades Council. The statewide union called on Baker last week to allow just emergency work and certain essential projects.

Baker, in response, said strict guidelines from his administration create a safe environment for construction workers, a spokewoman said. The guidelines list requirements such as measures needed for frequent hand-washing and for keeping workers at a distance from each other.

The Administration has followed federal guidance and tailored the essential business list to reflect the Commonwealths unique economy while maintaining strict guidelines for essential workers, said Sarah Finlaw, a spokeswoman for the Governors office. "The Administration has issued guidance to keep those performing essential services safe, including putting out supplemental guidance last week to ensure the safety of construction sites and the health of workers.

The legislators said that emergency and essential construction should continue, but building luxury condominiums, corporate offices, housing and other non-emergency and non-essential projects is a risk to the workers building those facilities, their families and the communities they work and live in.

The only way to protect the health and safety of construction workers, their families and the general public is to keep people apart, the letter from legislators said.

The Building Trades Council represents 70,000 workers statewide, and there are also tens of thousands of non-union construction workers, the council president said recently.

Legislators from the region that signed on to the letter included state Sen. James T. Welch, Adam G. Hinds; Anne M. Gobi; and Reps. Angelo J. Puppolo Jr., Brian M. Ashe, Jose F. Tosado, Carlos Gonzalez, Michael Finn, John Velis, Aaron Vega, Lindsey N. Sabadosa, and Mindy Domb,

Some projects, however, are deemed non-essential under revised state guidelines.

Worcester city officials announced last week that construction of Polar Park will cease amid the COVID-19. crisis, through May 4, as a result of Bakers ban of non-essential business.

The state guidelines for general construction projects, that are allowed to continue include:

Frequent washing of hands with readily available soap or sanitizer during breaks, lunch or other reasons.

Zero tolerance for sick workers reporting to work, even those with mild symptoms.

Contractors must enforce work site risk prevention practices including social distancing rules and use of personal protective equipment.

Contractors working with local boards of health to identify any other potential job site exposures, such as any close contact among workers, vendors, inspectors and visitors.

Contractors must sanitize common areas and direct work places, including on-site bathroom facilities and break facilities.

Construction sites that cannot comply with the COVID-19 guidelines must safety secure the site and pause construction activities until a corrective action plan is prepared and approved by the owner and community.

Other exceptions could be added on a case by case basis, legislators said.

The full supplemental guidelines can be found at https://www.mass.gov/doc/april-2-2020-construction-supplemental-guidelines

Legislators said that emergency and essential construction should be limited to: emergency utility, road or building work such as gas leaks, water leaks ad sinkholes; new utility connections to occupied buildings; mandated building or utility work; public health facilities and shelters; and work which ensures the reliability of the transportation network, and work necessary to make residential buildings fully habitable.

Related content:
Opinion Article

7 April 2020

Half of all global tourism arrivals historically come to Europe; and, within Europe, Spain enjoys a disproportionate share of this visitation, with more than 80 million visiting the country yearly. Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic ravages Europe and takes a particularly heavy toll in Spain, it is important to evaluate how the reliance of this country on international visitation might shape the recovery of its two main urban markets once the pandemic subsides.

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The reliance on international demand has historically allowed hotel markets to yield room rates to a greater extent than is the case when demand is mostly domestic. Following its successful hosting of the 1992 Olympics, Barcelona became an international tourism success story. Whilst the market's RevPAR in the late 1990s trailed that of Madrid by about 10%, as it enjoyed high occupancies but lower rates, a decade later its RevPAR was 25% higher than that of Madrid. This shift was mostly rate driven. The share of visitation has continued to shift towards international arrivals in Barcelona: over the last decade, domestic demand has decreased from around an already modest 30% in 2009 to less than 20% in 2019. This shift has been substantially less pronounced for Madrid, which has traditionally been considered the corporate beating heart of Spain: its domestic share represented around 45% of total arrivals in 2019, down from just over half in 2009.

Share of International Visitation

Photo: HVS

Whilst Madrid's transition from a corporate hub into a more diversified market with a greater share of leisure is ongoing, its strong performance over the last couple of years is likely to be further compounded by the expected opening of luxury hotels such as the Mandarin Oriental (following the renovation of the Ritz Hotel) and the Four Seasons. Both hotels were due to open later in 2020, but these dates are currently being revised. The sale of the Villa Magna for 1.4 million a key in December 2018 and the forward sale of the EDITION for 1.1 million a key in February 2020 reflect the evolving profile of this market, historically shy on luxury.

The strong reliance of Barcelona on its leisure base is somewhat balanced by the success of this city from an events and meetings perspective, where the ICCA consistently ranks this market amongst the top ones across the world (in 2017, it hosted the most meetings in the world). However, it is true that both international leisure and large meetings and events are likely to be the type of demand that might take longer to recover, depending on how quickly or otherwise international travel resumes and blocks on corporate spending on travel and meetings are lifted.

On the other hand, a busy pipeline for Madrid with some 15 hotel projects for the next few years could put downward pressure on occupancy levels in the city, whilst in Barcelona new hotels are in the single digits at nine projects, owing to constraints to future developments since the implementation of the PEUAT law in 2017. It is likely that a number of proposed hotels could take longer to open than originally planned and some may be cancelled altogether. It is more probable, in any case, that Madrid will see a faster recovery of its occupancy levels once the domestic corporate base returns, as Barcelona needs to wait longer for the full reestablishment of international travel routes after the pandemic in order to enjoy normal occupancy levels. An additional 'unknown quantity' this time around, however, is that some of the currently closed hotels in both cities may never reopen, either because of the bankruptcy of their owners or an alternative use being preferred. The time taken for closed hotels to reopen will also need to be factored into the recovery of each city's hotel market and will serve to prolong the time this takes.
PRINCE FREDERICK, Md.

Disclaimer: In the U.S.A., all persons accused of a crime by the State are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. See: so.md/presumed-innocence. Additionally, all of the information provided above is solely from the perspective of the respective law enforcement agency and does not provide any direct input from the accused or persons otherwise mentioned. You can find additional information about the case by searching the Maryland Judiciary Case Search Database using the accused's name and date of birth. The database is online at so.md/mdcasesearch . Persons named who have been found innocent or not guilty of all charges in the respective case, and/or have had the case ordered expunged by the court can have their name, age, and city redacted by following the process defined at so.md/expungeme.

(April 06, 2020)The Prince Frederick Barrack of the Maryland State Police (MSP) today released the following arrest reports.TRAFFIC COMPLAINT / DUI / WARRANT SERVICE: On 04/01/2020, Trooper Brown responded to the 200 block of Village Center Drive, Lusby, for reports of a traffic complaint in that area. Trooper Brown located the vehicle and conducted a routine traffic stop. The driver, Jacob John Joseph Mishou, and passenger, Deandra Vonzell Claggett, were positively identified. Through a wanted check, it was shown that Claggett had an active warrant (Forgery) through Calvert County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office responded to the scene and took custody of Claggett. Mishou was put through field sobriety on scene and was arrested for Driving Under the Influence.WARRANT SERVICE: On 04/01/2020, Trooper First Class Rucker responded to the Prince Frederick Barrack to make contact with Braden Jerome Allen, who had an active warrant (FTA - Driving While Suspended) through the Prince Frederick Barrack. Allen was transported to the Calvert County Detention Center where the warrant was served without incident.DUI: Jacob John Joseph Mishou, 28, of Lusby, arrested on 4/1/2020 by Tpr. Brown.
- Robots help reduce the number of times medics visit the wards and this decreases risk of contracting coronavirus

- The machines assist doctors to remotely check on patients' pulse among other duties and the sick can also use them to relay information to medics

- They have also reduced the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) like masks, gowns and gloves that doctors wear before attending to patients

- Since the bots can work tirelessly, they have reduced the rate at which medics get exhausted hence improving their efficiency

- At least 70 Italian medics have died since the pandemic's outbreak in the European country

As the number of medics infected with coronavirus continues to spike in Europe, Italy has resorted to enlisting robots in the fight against the highly contagious respiratory disease.

TUKO.co.ke has learnt that at least six high tech robots have been deployed in facilities with a high number of COVID-19 patients and are helping nurses and doctors perform their duties.

READ ALSO: Kenyan newspapers review for April 7: Scientists predict Kenya will lose 400 lives to coronavirus by April 30

The machines assist doctors to remotely check on patients' pulse among other duties. Photo: Christiane Sarah.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: People first: Governor Joho says county is ready to feed vulnerable families in Mombasa

The prime purpose of the robots at Circolo di Varese Hospital in northern Italy is to reduce the chances of medics getting infected as a result of direct contact with coronavirus patients.

This comes at a time when authorities in Italy confirmed that at least 70 medics at the forefront of the COVID-19 war had succumbed to the ailment.

Robots help reduce the number of times medics visit the wards. Photo: Christiane Sarah.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Kenyan innovators: Engineers build locally assembled ventilator to help fight COVID-19

Several others are still fighting for their lives after getting infected while attending to patients.

The robots are programmed to drive themselves inside the rooms and can record vital information like pulse and relay it to medical personnel.

Medical personnel can watch live video feed from the robots while seated in a distant room. Photo: Christiane Sarah.

Source: UGC

They are fitted with cameras that allow clinicians to see the state of the patients from a distant room.

The bots also have an interactive interface that gives patients a chance to communicate with their doctors without physical presence.

READ ALSO: Wetangu'la apinga wazo la chanjo ya COVID-19 kufanyiwa majaribio Afrika: "Sisi si panya"

With the biting global shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), the high tech gadgets have gone a long way in reducing the frequency of use of masks and gloves.

Since the bots can work tirelessly, they have reduced the rate at which medics get exhausted. Photo: Christiane Sarah.

Source: UGC

Another great benefit of the robots is that they are not subject to exhaustion unlike human doctors and nurses who tire and are prone to making mistakes after long working hours.

In Europe, Italy is the epicentre of the virus with 132,500 cases. The death toll as at early Tuesday, April 7, stood at over of 16,500 and some 22,800 recoveries.

The robots are programmed to drive themselves inside the wards. Photo: Christiane Sarah.

Source: UGC

Globally, 1,348,257 cases have been reported since the diseases broke out in China in December 2019.

Some 74,795 lives have been claimed by the disease while 286,512 have recovered.

America has the highest number of confirmed cases which stand at 367,650 out of which 10,943 are deaths and 19,800 are recoveries.

As of Monday, April 6, Kenya had reported 158 cases of coronavirus which included four recoveries and six deaths.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly.

I was famous and broke- Mama Otis aka Flaqo | Tuko TV.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Scientists at an institute in Kerala have designed and developed a disinfected barrier chamber, just like a telephone booth, for examining patients of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) in Thiruvananthapuram have developed the booth amid cases of doctors and paramedical staff getting infected with the deadly infection while treating coronavirus cases.

The disinfected booth is closed like a telephone booth for examining the patient without direct contact with the doctor to prevent transmission of infection. It is equipped with a lamp, table fan, rack and ultraviolet light.

The SCTIMST is an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The institute had indigenously developed low-cost heart valve in the past.

Elaborating on the new technology, the DST said the installed UV light in the booth disinfects the chamber after each patient leaves. The UV light installed has a wavelength of 254 nanometre with a 15-watt rating, which effectively removes most of the viral load within three minutes of exposure.

A pair of gloves provided in the examination booth allows the patient's physical examination.

An entry tunnel on the side frame is provided to pass a stethoscope within the chamber. "This feature would help the doctor to place stethoscope on the patient and listen to heart and breath sounds," the DST said in a statement.

After the patient vacates the chamber after examination, the UV light will be turned on for three minutes. When the UV exposure in the chamber is completed, the next patient is examined and the sequence is repeated.

The examination booth has dimensions of 210 centimetres in height and 120 centimetres in width, providing enough space for the patient.

"Providing the highest standards of safety to the doctors and the front-line medical workers while interacting with the carriers of a highly-contagious virus is clearly a critical priority," DST secretary Ashutosh Sharma said.

"A thoughtfully-designed protective booth with clinician inputs is a good step in that direction," the official added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 19:03:47|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Health officials and experts from the Chinese military shared their experience in fighting the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with their Pakistani peers via a video conference Monday.

Attended by some 20 health officials and experts in Beijing, Wuhan and Rawalpindi, the teleconference started with the Chinese side's introduction on China's general situation and experience in COVID-19 response, as well as testing and treatment of the disease.

The two sides exchanged views on emergency coordination, epidemic response, testing and clinical treatment, and discussed treatment of severe cases and nosocomial infection control with detailed cases.

Speaking highly of the Chinese military's efforts in COVID-19 prevention response, the Pakistani side thanked China for sharing its experience timely.

It's the first time that the Chinese military has organized a teleconference with its foreign counterpart sharing its experience in fighting COVID-19, and it will further step up international cooperation to guard global health security.
Four men accused of the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002 were rearrested on April 4, a day after a court controversially overturned their convictions. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliates the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the US-based National Writers Union (NWU) jointly demand justice for Daniel Pearl, a strong appeal against the four acquittals and urgent adoption of a UN Convention to protect and defend journalists globally.

On April 2, the high court of Sindh province acquitted the four, including Briton Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was sentenced to death in 2002 for masterminding Pearls murder. The other three were sentenced to life. Pearl, 38, was investigating Islamist militants in Karachi, the capital of Sindh, after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US when he was kidnapped in January 2002. He was beheaded weeks later.

Some 18 years after Pearls murder, with Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh still on death row, the PFUJ said the court apparently overturned the judgment due to insufficient evidence. According to reports, the law used by Pakistans government to keep the men in detention was often used on high-profile suspects, particularly militants, when it was unable to successfully prosecute cases in court.

In a statement Pakistans Interior Minister said the four accused in the case were re-arrested and detained for a period of three months, pending filing of the appeal against the acquittal. The official cited concern that the released men may act against the interest of the country.

The decision handed down by the two-judge bench on April 3 found Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh only guilty of Pearls abduction. The judges also overturned the life sentences of the three accomplices, Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Adil and Salman Saqib.

PFUJ said: We still believe that real culprit will be punished if proven guilty. We support the government decision to file a review appeal in the Supreme Court and believe that justice will prevail.

The US-based National Writers Union (NWU) said: This turn of events not only adds Daniel Pearl's name to the list of unsolved murdered journalists, but reopens an old wound for journalists everywhere, maybe even more in Pakistan where journalists continue to pay a very high price.

IFJ said: This is an affront to journalists globally and particularly so in a country that has one of the highest death tolls of journalists in the world, and where 99% of murderers do so with absolute impunity. We continue to vehemently condemn a climate where justice is continually denied for most journalists. We urge every effort to secure justice for Daniel Pearls murder, not only for the mastermind behind this brutal killing but also the henchmen. A UN Convention to protect and defend journalists is needed now more than ever.
Z2 Comics/Grateful DeadNew details about the previously reported Grateful Dead graphic novel, Grateful Dead Origins, have been revealed.

The publication of the illustrated book, which focuses on the group's formation and emergence as one of America's most important and enduring bands, has been pushed back from April to June.

A limited-edition hardcover collector's version of Grateful Dead Origins will be released on Friday, June 12, while a standard softcover edition will arrive on Tuesday, June 16.

As previously announced, the hardcover version will come packaged with a vinyl LP featuring previously unreleased live recordings from an August 21, 1968, concert at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, the cover art for which has now been unveiled. The show included the group's first known West Coast performance of "St. Stephen."

"We can't wait for everyone to see and hear the amazing Origins package and we hope it will provide some comfort to music and graphic novel fans alike during these challenging times," says Josh Frankel of the Z2 Comics company.

"Our plan was always to time the release to the week of Record Store Day, giving comic shops and booksellers the ultimate music book for their customers. We will still do that, it will just happen in June now."

The limited-edition version of the novel also will feature exclusive prints and will be autographed by the book's creators: writer Chris Miskiewicz and illustrator Noah Van Sciver.

Both editions of Grateful Dead Origins also will come with a code to download an exclusive 13-track companion compilation of early recordings by the band, curated by the group's longtime archivist, David Lemieux.

The deluxe edition of the book is available for pre-order now at Z2Comics.com and Dead.net.

Here's the track list of the Grateful Dead Origins digital compilation:

"The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)" -- from Grateful Dead

"Cream Puff War" -- from Rare Cuts and Oddities 1966

"Walking the Dog" -- from Rare Cuts and Oddities 1966

"Viola Lee Blues" -- from Road Trips 2/2/68

"Hey Little One" -- from Rare Cuts and Oddities 1966

"That's It for the Other One" -- from Anthem of the Sun

"In the Midnight Hour" -- from the 1966 disc of 30 Trips Around the Sun

"Standing on the Corner" -- from Rare Cuts and Oddities 1966

"China Cat Sunflower" -- from Aoxomoxoa

"Big Railroad Blues" -- from Rare Cuts and Oddities 1966

"Morning Dew" -- from Grateful Dead

"Keep Rolling By" -- from the 1966 disc of 30 Trips Around the Sun

"Cosmic Charlie" -- from Aoxomoxoa

And here's the track list of the deluxe edition's live LP:

Side 1

"Dark Star"

"St. Stephen"

Side 2

"The Eleven"

"Death Don't Have No Mercy"

Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
The nature of investing is that you win some, and you lose some. Anyone who held Hua Medicine (Shanghai) Ltd. (HKG:2552) over the last year knows what a loser feels like. The share price has slid 59% in that time. Because Hua Medicine (Shanghai) hasn't been listed for many years, the market is still learning about how the business performs. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 39% in the last three months. We note that the company has reported results fairly recently; and the market is hardly delighted. You can check out the latest numbers in our company report.

See our latest analysis for Hua Medicine (Shanghai)

Hua Medicine (Shanghai) wasn't profitable in the last twelve months, it is unlikely we'll see a strong correlation between its share price and its earnings per share (EPS). Arguably revenue is our next best option. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. Some companies are willing to postpone profitability to grow revenue faster, but in that case one does expect good top-line growth.

In the last twelve months, Hua Medicine (Shanghai) increased its revenue by 144%. That's a strong result which is better than most other loss making companies. Meanwhile, the share price slid 59%. This could mean hype has come out of the stock because the bottom line is concerning investors. We'd definitely consider it a positive if the company is trending towards profitability. If you can see that happening, then perhaps consider adding this stock to your watchlist.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

SEHK:2552 Income Statement April 7th 2020

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. You can see what analysts are predicting for Hua Medicine (Shanghai) in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.

Story continues

A Different Perspective

We doubt Hua Medicine (Shanghai) shareholders are happy with the loss of 59% over twelve months. That falls short of the market, which lost 18%. That's disappointing, but it's worth keeping in mind that the market-wide selling wouldn't have helped. The share price decline has continued throughout the most recent three months, down 39%, suggesting an absence of enthusiasm from investors. Given the relatively short history of this stock, we'd remain pretty wary until we see some strong business performance. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 4 warning signs with Hua Medicine (Shanghai) (at least 1 which can't be ignored) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
A small Pennsylvania biotech firm has been given regulatory clearance to commence clinical testing for a potential coronavirus vaccine and the company is now aiming to start injecting healthy volunteers.

Researchers administered the dose to the first person on Monday, the Business Insider reported. The experimental vaccine was created by Inovio Pharmaceuticals, and the initiative was awarded funding by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the report said.

Inovio's candidate, called INO-4800, is the second potential coronavirus vaccine to begin human trials in the US, the report added. Moderna, the Massachusetts biotech firm, began dosing in March for its safety trial.

Anthony Fauci, the longtime leader of the National Institutes of Health's infectious disease unit, has time and again said that it would take at least a year to know for certain if any vaccine is safe and effective against the novel coronavirus, the report added.

For the said vaccine study, Inovio is registering around 40 healthy adult volunteers at the University of Pennsylvania's medical school in Philadelphia, as well as, at the Center for Pharmaceutical Research in Kansas City, Missouri. Every participant will be administered two doses of the vaccines, each four weeks apart, the report said.

Inovio is anticipating a quick registration in the study and safety results by summer and if the outcome is positive, the company shall swiftly begin another study assessing the vaccines potency against the virus.

Owing to the magnitude of the demand, any vaccine that shows to be safe and effective will see huge hurdles in the manufacturing phase. Inovio has said that it is now ramping up its production capacity and is seeking to make available 1 million doses by the end of 2020, the report said.
This year's cast of Married At First Sight haven't been afraid to defy Channel Nine by leaking spoilers, talking to the press and blasting the producers.

And on Tuesday, Jessika Power from last year's season slammed the 2020 stars for 'ruining' the show by displaying a complete disregard for viewers.

Jessika, 28, said on Instagram: 'I definitely think it was pretty p**s poor of everyone to keep breaking their contracts just for a little bit of attention.'

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Having her say: Jessika Power (pictured) has accused Married At First Sight stars of ruining this year's season by breaking their contracts and leaking spoilers

Jessika said it was 'crappy' for the MAFS participants to disrespect viewers, who get 'invested in these love stories [only to] have them all ruined'.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sunday night's season finale saw a significant decline in viewers after several major storylines were leaked ahead of time.

'The contestants film the show for four months. Why would you want to go ruin it all straight away?' Jessika said during her Instagram Q&A.

Speaking out: Jessika said it was 'crappy' for the MAFS participants to disrespect viewers, who get 'invested in these love stories [only to] have them all ruined'. Pictured: Mikey Pembroke and Natasha Spencer

Warnings: It comes after MAFS bride Natasha Spencer spoke to Daily Mail Australia last week about the consequences cast members face for breaking their contracts with Nine

It comes after MAFS bride Natasha Spencer spoke to Daily Mail Australia last week about the consequences cast members face for breaking their contracts with Nine.

The 26-year-old financial analyst said: 'I am so proud of my co-stars for going rogue. I'm not going to lie, I'm all for it!'

Natasha said the rules this year weren't any less strict than previous seasons, but Nine bosses had given up trying to enforce them.

'When there's a state of anarchy, I think they just give up,' she said.

'When I mentioned I left MAFS for my mental health, I was like, "What are you going to do? Say I breached contract and sue me?"'

Party time: Natasha, Hayley Vernon and Chris Nicholls defied producers by throwing a party at their hotel the day before the cast reunion in mid-January

Strength in numbers: Natasha claimed a female producer had told her there was nothing they could do legally speaking because so many of the participants had broken their contracts

Natasha claimed a female producer had told her there was nothing they could do legally speaking because so many of the participants had broken their contracts.

However, the network did punish her by removing her personalised GIF from Instagram, which Natasha said was 'the only thing' that annoyed her.

Last month, Married At First Sight's verified Instagram account unfollowed a string of controversial participants.

Petty: However, the network did punish her by removing her personalised GIF from Instagram, which Natasha said was 'the only thing' that annoyed her

The likes of Natasha, David Cannon, Josh Pihlak, Poppy Jennings and Stacey Hampton were unfollowed.

Unsurprisingly, these brides and grooms all had one thing in common: They had broken their contracts by publicly criticising the show.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel Nine for comment.
A security exploit in Apple's Safari web browser could let hackers access a person's iPhone camera or Macbook webcam.

The exploit was found by security expert Ryan Pickren, who says it involves the way Safari registers permissions for frequently visited websites.

As an example, Pickren points to Skype, which Safari will register as having general permission to access a device's camera and microphone so it won't have to borrow users with requests every time a person opens the site.

A security researcher discovered a major new bug in Safari that could let hackers access your iPhone camera and mic by impersonating a familiar site's URL that user's have already granted camera access to, such as Skype

'Safari encourages users to save their preferences for site permissions, like whether to trust Skype with microphone and camera access,' Pickren told Wired.

'So what an attacker could do with this kill chain is make a malicious website that from Safaris perspective could then turn into "Skype."'

'And then the malicious site will have all the permissions that you previously granted to Skype, which means an attacker could just start taking pictures of you or turn on your microphone or even screen-share.'

Hackers specifically target a feature in Safari that includes slight variations of a familiar site's URL in its permissions chain.

Pickren shared a more generic example of how this might work with a fictional site with the URL, https://www.example.com.

That site might use some alternate URLs for different subsites, such as http://example.com or fake://example.com.

Taking advantage of this feature, hackers could impersonate a familiar site by using a minor URL variation in what's known as a 'bait and switch' attack.

Ryan Pickren, the security researcher who found the bugs, submitted them to Apple in December and was rewarded with $75,000 as part of its Bug Bounty program. The company said it fixed the security holes in two security updates in January and March

After identifying the theoretical security flaw, Pickeren decided to see if he could actually use it in practice to break into a device.

'I just kind of hammered the browser with really weird cases until Safari got confused and gave an origin that didnt make sense," Pickeren said.

'And eventually the bugs could all kind of bounce from one to the next. Part of this is that some of the bugs were really, really old flaws in the WebKit core from years ago.'

'They probably were not as dangerous as they are now just because the stars lined up on how an attacker would use them today.'

Pickeren identified seven specific bugs and submitted them to Apple in December as part of its Bug Bounty program.

Apple verified the bugs and rewarded Pickeren with a $75,000 prize for finding them.

According to Apple, the security hole in Safari was fixed in two recent security updates released in January and March.

Devices that haven't installed those security updates may still be vulnerable.
(Natural News) Washington has legalized the use of facial recognition for law enforcement and other state agencies. This makes it the first U.S. state to legalize the use of such software for government business.

Gov. Jay Inslee signed SB 6280 last Tuesday, March 31, after the Washington State House of Representatives passed it on March 12, by a vote of 27 to 21. The law will come into effect next year.

Prior to the laws signing, facial recognition software had been in use at the city and county level. However, it had never been formally legalized at the state or federal level.

Limited to identifying the missing and deceased

The new legislation comes with some restrictions. Law enforcement agencies wont be able to use facial recognition for all kinds of cases. Rather, they can only use it to find missing persons or identify dead bodies.

Additionally, before developing, procuring or using facial recognition technology, agencies must first file a notice of intent with a legislative authority. In addition to this, theyre also required to file an accountability report.

In addition to above, the law states that Washingtons state agencies arent permitted to use facial recognition based on persons religious, political or social views or activities, or actual or perceived race, ethnicity, citizenship, place of origin, immigration status, age, disability, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or other characteristic protected by law, or participation in a particular noncriminal organization or lawful event.

The new law, as well as the limits placed on the use of the technology, has earned the support of Brad Smith, president of Microsoft. Smith praised the legislation in a recent blog post.

This balanced approach ensures that facial recognition can be used as a tool to protect the public, but only in ways that respect fundamental rights and serve the public interest, Smith wrote. He also commented that the new law would help prevent a commercial race to the bottom for the facial recognition industry.

It should be noted that State Senator Joe Nguyen who sponsored the law, currently works as a program manager at Microsoft.

Facial recognition doesnt safeguard civil liberties

In response to the signing of the law, the Americal Civil Liberties Union wrote a strong rebuttal, stating that civil liberties will not be safeguarded by anything short of a facial recognition ban.

Alternative regulations supported by big tech companies and opposed by impacted communities do not provide adequate protections  in fact, they threaten to legitimize the infrastructural expansion of powerful face surveillance technology, wrote ACLU project manager Jennifer Lee. This is why we strongly opposed SB 6280, which purports to put safeguards around the use of facial recognition technology but does just the opposite.

Lee also wrote that many key issues surrounding facial recognition remained unaddressed by the law. She pointed out that the law contains language that allows agencies to use the technology to deny people essential services and basic necessities such as health care, housing and even food and water.

Other governments have moved to ban facial recognition

The use of facial recognition in the United States is currently not governed by any federal rules. While Washington state has legalized facial recognition, other governments have been more apprehensive about the technology. Some have gone as far as to ban its use by police and other government agencies. (Related: Half of America already in law enforcements facial recognition network.)

In 2019, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8 to 1 to ban the use of facial recognition software by government agencies. The city joined Oakland and Berkeley as one of three California cities that moved to ban the technology that year. Meanwhile, on the East Coast, the Boston, Massachusetts suburbs of Somerville and Brookline have also done the same.

Outside the U.S., other countries have also been more cautious about facial recognition technology. In January, the European Union suggested implementing a five-year ban on the technology. This was so that researchers would have an opportunity to study its potential benefits and drawbacks.

The EU proposal for a five-year ban was supported by Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai.

I think it is important that governments and regulations tackle it sooner rather than later and give a framework for it, explained Pichai at a tech conference in January.

It can be immediate but maybe theres a waiting period before we really think about how its being used, he added.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

LawFiles.Leg.Wa.gov

Blogs.Microsoft.com

OneZero.Medium.com

ACLU-Wa.org
Ambulances in front of the emergency room entrance of the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn on April 2, 2020. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

Federal, State, and Local Governments Shed Over 170 Regulations to Fight Pandemic

The federal, state, and local governments in the United States have shed more than 170 regulations in order to fight the CCP virus pandemic, according to a list maintained by a taxpayer advocacy group.

The waived regulations fall into roughly two categories: The absence of some makes it easier for doctors, hospitals, and health care companies to respond to the pandemic. Others were shed to help Americans deal with the unprecedented repercussions of closing down vast swaths of the economy.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave states more leeway to test for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, commonly known as the coronavirus. The FDA also loosened restrictions on the distribution and use of newly developed tests, issued dozens of emergency authorizations for new test kits, and eased rules on the production and use of ventilators.

The Department of Health and Human Services lifted restrictions on medical licensing to allow professionals to treat patients across state borders and waived privacy restrictions that prevented doctors from providing telemedicine.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services waived more than a dozen regulations to give doctors more flexibility to provide telehealth services and ease the burden on health care providers by temporarily suspending reporting requirements and audits, among others.

The Department of Transportation lifted restrictions on truckers who drive essential supplies.

The list was compiled by Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a nonprofit advocacy group.

The Trump administration and state and local governments are wisely suspending regulations to help fight the coronavirus, ATR said in a statement.

Many of these rules and regulations were not necessary in the first place, given their tendency to reduce innovation and access to care, not to mention their restriction on American liberty.

The growing list, which has been updated regularly as of April 7, includes dozens of regulations shed by state and local government, including the suspension of the ban on plastic bags in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York. The goal of the suspensions is to prevent customers from bringing reusable bags to stores, since they are more likely to spread the CCP virus.

Virginia, Colorado, and North Dakota suspended requirements for car inspections and driver license and registration renewals, according to the list.

Even more regulations can be scrapped to empower American industry to help with the crisis, according to a list released by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) on April 7. The institute flagged a list of 30 major regulatory hurdles it believes should be addressed as part of the next stimulus bill.

A call to scrap regulations that slow down the approval of new medicines and COVID-19 test kits are at the top of CEIs list. The institute also calls for the repeal of all state-level certificate of need laws, which require health care providers to seek the approval of a state regulator in order to expand their facilities.

While a number of states have waived and loosened medical licensing regulations, CEI notes that more needs to be done in the area, including suspending regulations that restrict physicians assistants and nurses from performing procedures they have been trained to carry out.

The institute also calls for shedding restrictions imposed on medical supply sterilization plants, several of which have shuttered after the Environmental Protection Agency issued what CEI calls a faulty analysis about a chemical used in the sterilization process.

We have already seen that many regulations have proven to hinder or delay appropriate policy responses, CEI said in a statement.

Other regulations are or were making things worse than they otherwise would be. In many cases, it is now clear that these regulations were never needed, or that whatever justification they once had has been superseded.
M ichael Gove is self-isolating after one of his family members displayed coronavirus symptoms.

He said the family member's symptoms were mild and that he intends to continue working from home.

"In accordance with the guidance, I am isolating at home after a member of my family started to display mild symptoms of coronavirus on Sunday," he wrote on Twitter.

"I have not displayed any symptoms and am continuing to work as normal."

Mr Gove conducted a number of interviews on behalf of the Government this morning, speaking about the Prime Minister's situation.

He spoke remotely via video link in the televised discussions.

Mr Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, is the latest senior politician to isolate due to Covid-19.

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Boris Johnson has been given oxygen though is not on a ventilator, Mr Gove earlier said.

Were all working together to implement the plan the Prime Minister set out in order to try to ensure that we can marshal all the resources of government, indeed all the resources of our country, in the fight against this invisible enemy, he told BBC Breakfast.

The work of government goes on.

We have a superb Civil Service and they have ensured that the machinery is there for decisions to be made by ministers, by medical and scientific experts, and for those decisions to be followed through in a way which enables us to help those at the front line.
Afghan Taliban says deal with US nearing breaking point

Iran Press TV

Monday, 06 April 2020 6:28 AM

The Taliban militant group in Afghanistan says a peace deal recently signed with the United States is nearing a breaking point because Washington and the Afghan government are violating its terms.

In a statement on Sunday, the Taliban accused the US of breaching the deal by conducting drone strikes against civilians and accused the Afghan government of dithering about the release of Taliban prisoners as promised in the agreement.

Taliban negotiators signed the deal with the US in Qatar on February 29. Under the deal, the US committed to a gradual withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan, and the Taliban agreed not to allow terrorist groups on Afghan soil and not to attack US and international forces as long as they were in the process of withdrawing.

The US and other foreign forces have started pulling out, a process that could take 14 months to complete.

Kabul was not a party to the negotiations that led to that deal. The Taliban would refuse at the time to recognize the Afghan government. But under the same deal, the militants agreed to ultimately sit down with the government. A first face-to-face meeting over a prisoner exchange did take place last week.

But the Taliban have not stopped attacking government forces. Since the deal was signed, Taliban assaults have claimed the lives of scores of security forces.

In the Sunday statement, the Taliban claimed they had restricted attacks against Afghan security forces to rural outposts and had not attacked Afghan forces in cities or military installations. They said limits on such attacks had not been specifically laid out in the agreement with the US.

Still, the militant group threatened that it would "increase the level of fighting" if the alleged violations continued.

"We are seriously asking the Americans to abide by the contents of the agreement and to alert their allies to fully abide by the agreement," the Taliban statement said.

A spokesman for the US military in Afghanistan in a tweet rejected the Taliban statement, claiming the group's comments were "baseless."

There was no immediate reaction from the Afghan government.

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(Natural News) If youre used to starting your day with coffee, orange juice, bacon, toast and some eggs, brace yourself  the price of wholesale eggs in the U.S. has skyrocketed to a shocking 180 percent from its regular price. And reports reveal that increased buying due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is to blame.

It doesnt look like the spread of the coronavirus will be stopped anytime soon. People are buying staples like eggs to add to their stockpiles, which is a normal reaction during times of disaster.

While its admirable that civilians are following recommendations to stay home during these troubled times, the surge of shoppers has contributed to stores experiencing supply shortages, leading to a shocking spike in prices.

The most recent Nielsen data shows that egg sales increased by 44 percent for the week ending on March 14 compared to 2019. Meanwhile, Walmart and other big grocers have implemented limits on purchases of eggs, cleaning supplies and other products that worried customers tend to buy more of.

Brian Moscogiuri, director and egg analyst at Urner Barry, a commodity market research firm, explained that consumers are buying staple items like eggs, bread, milk, and toilet paper in excess. But because the coronavirus pandemic is occurring on a national scale and for a longer period of time, the aftermath of bulk supply buying is more noticeable.

Moscogiuri added that retailers are ordering at least six times their normal egg volumes. The increase in demand has depleted the supply that producers were starting to build in preparation for Easter.

Now, buyers must pay huge premiums to secure loads of staple items like eggs.

According to Urner Barry, which publishes a daily benchmark for the industry, wholesale egg prices have skyrocketed to 180 percent since the beginning of March this year.

On March 20, the Department of Agricultures weekly report revealed that [w]holesale prices for shell eggs rose precipitously through the week, Additionally, companies were struggling to provide enough stocks to meet increased consumer demand for eggs.

When suppliers prices rise, grocers have two options: To make shoppers shoulder the cost or take the hit to their profits.

Desperate times have forced grocers to resort to both.

At a Stop & Shop in Boston, shoppers will notice the following sign: Due to a limited supply and higher than usual demand, our suppliers have increased their prices on eggs. As a result, you may see higher prices starting Saturday, March 21, as well as potential interruptions in supply.

Dennis Curtin, a spokesperson for Weis Markets in the northeast, commented that the grocer has decided to take limited pricing action so far. Suppliers have also notified the company that egg prices have increased.

At Morton Williams stores in New York, egg prices have gone up by 14 percent. The company is understandably frustrated that it has to pay double for eggs from its suppliers during the coronavirus pandemic.

Avi Kaner, a spokesperson for Morton Williams, shared that it is outrageous to see the egg industry doubling their prices because of increased demand. The move is affecting low-income New Yorkers the hardest, especially since many of them have lost their jobs at restaurants and hotels.

If there is anything to learn from this scenario, its that being prepared and setting up your stockpile ahead of time is crucial for when SHTF.

Egg substitutes

If youre desperate to get your hands on some eggs but the nearest store has run out, here are some egg substitutes that you may have lying around in your kitchen.

Applesauce

Applesauce, a puree made from cooked apples, is often sweetened or flavored with spices like cinnamon. Use one-fourth cup (65 g) of unsweetened applesauce to replace one egg in most recipes.

When using a sweetened variety, reduce the amount of sugar or sweetener in the recipe itself.

Aquafaba

Aquafaba is the liquid that remains after cooking beans or legumes. You can also get aquafaba from canned beans or chickpeas. The liquid has a similar consistency to raw egg whites.

Use three tablespoons (45 g) of aquafaba to replace one egg. Aquafaba suits recipes that need egg whites, like macaroons, marshmallows, meringues or nougat.

Ground flaxseeds or chia seeds

Grind flaxseeds and chia seeds at home or buy ready-made seed meal from the store.

Whisk a tablespoon (7 g) of ground chia or flaxseeds with three tablespoons (45 g) of water until fully absorbed and thickened. The mixture will produce enough to replace one egg.

Using ground flaxseeds or chia seeds can make baked goods heavier and denser. This substitute may give the final product a nuttier flavor, so use it when baking breads, cookies, muffins, pancakes and waffles.

Vinegar and baking soda

Mix one teaspoon (7 g) of baking soda with one tablespoon (15 g) of vinegar to replace one egg. Use either apple cider vinegar or white distilled vinegar.

Combining the two ingredients causes a chemical reaction that produces carbon dioxide and water, which makes baked goods light and airy. Use this substitute for cakes, cupcakes and quick breads.

There are plenty of ways to solve the problem of overpriced eggs. Visit Grocery.news to learn more.

Sources include:

Boston.CBSLocal.com

Healthline.com
The police are being inundated with public tip-off calls about people breaching the Covid-19 social distancing rules every five minutes, a police chief has revealed.

Forces have seen a noticeable increase in the number of calls warning them about those refusing to comply with the government's lockdown guidelines, Derbyshire's chief constable Peter Goodman told The Telegraph.

The police chief said his own police department, which last month came under fire for using drones to deter hill walkers in the Peak District, were experiencing 2,300 calls a day from concerned neighbours and residents.

Mr Goodman said just over 11 per cent of calls his force were receiving were tip-offs and while some of them were 'a little misguided' many the police had received were from 'concerned members of the public'.

Police departments in the UK have seen a noticeable increase in the number of public tip-off calls warning them about those breaching the government's lockdown rule. (Stock image)

Derbyshire's Chief Constable Peter Goodman said his force were experiencing 2,300 calls a day alerting them to those who were flouting the social distancing guidelines

He told The Telegraph: 'Some of it is about things taking place in public spaces, some of it a bit more about people entertaining at their home addresses

'We do believe some of [the tip-offs] are a little misguided, a little of it may be malicious, getting your own back on your neighbours.

'But the vast majority of it has been about concerned members of the public doing the responsible thing.'

Meanwhile in West Yorkshire, chief constable John Robbins said he too had seen a rise in the number of calls his force were receiving from concerned residents alerting the police to those who were breaching the government's restrictions.

In order to manage the surge in public tip-offs, some forces in the country have created online services which allow users to enter the address of those flouting lockdown.

Last month, Humberside, West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Avon and Somerset Police announced that they had set up an online portal which would enable people to report the alleged breach after an increase in the number of non-emergency 101 calls left the police overstretched.

Mr Goodman's comments come after his police force came under fire for using 'overzealous' tactics to enforce the lockdown last month.

In March, Derbyshire Police used drones to film hill walkers in the Peak District and poured black water dye into the Blue Lagoon in Buxton to deter visitors at the beauty spot.

Some police forces have created online services which allow users to enter the address of those flouting lockdown. (Stock image)

This weekend people continued to flout the social distancing guidelines as temperatures peaked at 20C. Pictured: Revellers walk through Battersea Park in London on April 5

Police officers stop drivers on a street in North Yorkshire and ensure that their travel is 'essential'

Despite widespread criticism, the police chief later defended his methods and argued that they had tried to do everything through conversation and explanation.

He told BBC Radio 5: 'Some forces will be doing not enough, perhaps, some forces have probably gone a bit too far and some sit in the middle. Some would say we in Derbyshire have gone too far.

'I genuinely believe that we haven't because we are trying to do everything through conversation and explanation.'

This weekend Britons across the nation continued to flout social distancing guidelines to flock to the country's sun-soaked parks and beaches.

Despite government warnings, revellers were seen descending upon London's Battersea Park and Greenwich park to embrace the warm weather.

Meanwhile in the capital's Regent's Park, officers were stopping those who had chosen to leave their homes and flout government rules.

Last month Derbyshire police poured black dye into Buxton's blue lagoon in order to deter visitors

The scenes came just hours before Health Secretary Matt Hancock backtracked on a threat to ban outdoor exercise if people did not comply with the coronavirus lockdown.

Mr Hancock, who earlier during the day blasted sunbathers for flouting the rules and warned the government would ban 'all forms' of public exercise if a 'small minority' refuse to stay at home, later updated his comments at the daily Downing Street press conference.

The politician said the end of lockdown would be determined by 'how much people follow the rules on social distancing' and issued a direct plea to people who are 'breaking the rules or are pushing the boundaries', telling them: 'You are risking your own life and the lives of others and you are making it harder for us all.'
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The first coronavirus (COVID-19) infected case in Libya was Monday declared totally cured after 13 days of treatment despite his advanced age, official source told PANA here
The Plot Against America excels at conveying the passage of time, how communities and people slowly but perceptibly change parallel to their country. Only four months have passed between the past two episodes, but whole personalities have shifted, new ideas have taken root, and old divisions have grown stronger. The Lindbergh administration has dug its heels into America, and many have either embraced its vision with open arms or tacitly accepted it. In September 1940, no one would have dared to openly heckle Roosevelt with anti-Semitic slurs at Shepsies newsreel theater. But by September 1941, Herman has to sit quietly while the man behind him calls Roosevelt a Jew lover, lest he possibly face physical retribution.

Its not just strangers who feel comfortable espousing their bigotry in public. Members of Hermans family have also changed their tune, such as his brother, Monty, who has softened his opposition to Lindbergh, partially because his business is booming. Monty uses Alvin as a cudgel against Hermans liberalism: If Alvin had only stayed in America and not gone to war for his principles, he would still have a leg. Its a view shared by Rabbi Bengelsdorf, who pledges his loyalty to Lindbergh at Friday dinner and insists that America doesnt require its citizens to sacrifice life or limb for a European war. I guess Alvin counted himself a citizen of the world, Herman shoots back. And a Jew, he adds.

Even though hes right, Herman unintentionally uses Alvin as a tool for his ideology as well. No one really wants to ask Alvin how he feels, possibly because theyll find that his staunch heroism has been replaced by bitter resentment. (Theyre all angry in some way. But not like him, a Canadian nurse informs Herman.) When he returns to New Jersey, he makes darkly sarcastic jokes about his condition and stares pensively out the window in Philip and Sandys room. He plays craps with his old friend Shush, who now knows Newark mobster Longy Zwillman. Unfortunately, its the same Longy Zwillman who has friends in the FBI, who dont take kindly to Alvins wartime efforts and conclude that hes a Communist set on infiltrating America. He gets Alvin fired from working at Montys warehouse when a G-man leans on Hermans brother.

The FBI has taken an active interest in the entire Levin family: An agent stops Philip on the street to ask him some innocent questions about Alvins patriotism and his fathers interest in Hitler, and, later, they catch up with Herman as he picks up pastries in the morning. The presence of the FBI forebodes a dangerous trend in the country, one in which the federal government starts cracking down on undesirables or agitators. Hitler doesnt need to come to America to beat down and shoot Jews when Lindberghs government does the job for him. Meanwhile, Herman watches cars filled with Hasidim driving to Canada as a preemptive measure, and Bess persists in trying to push her husband in that direction. The rabbi at Bess and Evelyns mothers funeral might claim that all Jews are Americans, but the country itself might have a different idea.

Though if you ask someone like Sandy, he might say that its people like his mother and father, two narrow-minded ghetto Jews, who are responsible for such discord. After spending the summer in Kentucky, Sandy has become a proud proponent of Just Folks, even going so far as to become a lead recruiter for the program, much to the pleasure of Evelyn and Rabbi Bengelsdorf. Herman and Bess may hold their tongue about that, but they wont stay silent when Sandy wants to attend a state dinner honoring German minister Herr von Ribbentrop at the behest of Evelyn and First Lady Anne Lindbergh. Appalled by his sons stance, he forbids his son from attending, which sends him right back into the arms of Evelyn and Bengelsdorf. Its just a great opportunity! Sandy insists, without realizing hes slowly morphing into just another opportunist like his aunt and her fiance.

Still, episode writers David Simon and Reena Rexrode dont characterize Sandy as a traitor to the tribe or a self-loathing Jew or anything like that. Hes a 15-year-old boy who likes being in proximity to great power and wants to make his own decision. His love of Just Folks and his no-big-deal attitude toward Lindberghs association with Nazis folds into his teen rebellion. He doesnt care about von Ribbentrop or Goring or Goebbels; he just wants to piss off his father, whom he sees as a dictator who wont let him do what he wants. When Herman leaves the home, Bess slaps Sandy across the face for suggesting that his father is worse than Hitler, which might be what was coming to him but will only drive him further away from his parents values. All Sandy sees is his parents refusing to let him meet the president. All Herman and Bess see is their son cozying up to ideas he doesnt fully understand.

As the nation turns and people change into different versions of themselves, all the trauma and the strife trickles into Philips mind like a leaky faucet. Every minor and major event collapses into one terrifying timeline; their small Weequahic neighborhood and America as a whole slowly meld into one entity. Earl Axman moving away to New York after her mothers breakdown takes on the weight of his community changing before his very eyes. Seldons father losing his battle to throat cancer becomes an image of his father being wheeled out of his own house, another victim of Jewish heritage in a time and place when its unacceptable. Alvins severed leg and Sandys bruised face are reminders of the violence thats seeping into their home. Its why Herman comes close to striking his very young son when he discovers that Philip has snuck into Shepsies theater to watch footage of his aunt dancing with von Ribbentrop. The world has evolved into a dangerous place. Any slip-up can potentially cost someone their life. This is not a game.

Other Stars & Stripes

 Its worth noting that in Roths book, Herman actually slaps Philip across the face outside the theater for seeing the newsreel without permission, drawing an implicit connection between the consequences of his rebellion and Sandys. Its possible Simon and Rexrode wanted to soften Hermans reaction to Philips misbehavior.

 Similarly, the anti-Semitic abuse Henry Ford flings at Evelyn and Bengelsdorf at the state dinner was invented for the adaptation. Alas, that detail rang false for me. At best, it feels like a cheap way to engender sympathy towards the two power-hungry turncoats, i.e. no matter how many Jews they sell out to curry favor with Lindbergh, theyll still be Jews.

 With that said, I did like Evelyns comeback to Ford: gai kaken oifen yam, which literally translates to Go shit in the ocean, but is synonymous to Take a hike or Beat it.
In a televised news conference, Abe asked people to refrain from going outside needlessly. But he said that the government will not lock cities down as has been done overseas and that economic activity will be maintained as much as possible. He also announced an unprecedented economic rescue package, equivalent to about 20 percent of Japans gross domestic product.
(Source: Getty)

Toyota Australia has issued a safety recall for 45,683 cars  including FJ Cruisers, Camrys, Corollas, Klugers, Hilux, Landcruisers and Prados  over an issue with the fuel pump that could increase the likelihood of a car crash.

According to Toyota Australia, the compromised vehicles have a fuel pump that may stop operating, which can cause issues with the engine.

This can result in a vehicle stall, and the vehicle may be unable to be restarted. If a vehicle stall occurs while driving at higher speeds, this could increase the risk of a crash, the car brand said in a statement.

Affected vehicles were produced between September 2013 to June 2015 and September 2017 to July 2019 and were sold between 11 October 2013 and 3 April 2020.

Recalled Toyota vehicles

These are the affected models:

(Source: Toyota Australia)

Klugers are most severely affected, with nearly 23,000 affected models, followed by the Hilux at 10,771 affected models.

Heres a breakdown of the affected models:

Toyota Camry (GSV70) Model Years 2013-2019 1 436 affected vehicles

Toyota Corolla (ZRE172) Model Years 2013-2019 6 947 affected vehicles

Toyota FJ Cruiser (GSJ15) Model Years 2013-2019 2 948 affected vehicles

Toyota Kluger (GSU50 and GSU55) Model Years 2013-2019 22 982 affected vehicles

Toyota Hilux (TGN121) Model Years 2013-2019 10 771 affected vehicles

Toyota Prado (GRJ150) Model Years 2013-2019 483 affected vehicles

Toyota Land Cruiser (URJ202) Model Years 2013-2019 116 affected vehicles

How to tell if your vehicle has this issue

There are some warning signs that could indicate your car is an affected model.

Drivers may experience illumination of the check engine and master warning indicators on the instrument panel, the engine not running smoothly, the engine not starting and/or vehicle stall, Toyota Australia stated.

Story continues

All Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) of affected models are listed on the Product Safety Australia website here.

What to do if your Toyota car has been recalled

Toyota is reaching out to affected customers in writing, so if your car is an affected model, you can expect a letter from them.

To amend the issue, Toyota is offering free fuel pump replacements with an improved one. However, replacement parts will not be available until June.

Once the replacement parts are made available, youll be contacted again to make an appointment to get a replacement.

If your vehicle has been affected, you should get in touch with your closest or preferred Toyota dealer.

In the meantime, you can also ring the Toyota Recall Campaign Helpline on 1800 987 366 between the hours of 8:30am and 7pm, Monday to Friday, and be ready to quote your VIN.

You can also find a local Toyota dealer here.

The fuel pump replacement is expected to take two to four hours, but the car brand has warned that more time should be given for the replacement.

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Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex are officially done with life as senior members of the royal family and are moving on to bigger and better things. The two have been hunkered down in Canada, enjoying time away from the spotlight and soaking in precious moments with their son, Archie Harrison, before splitting to Los Angeles.

Archie is now ten months old and as he grows older, his understanding of the world around him will deepen. Prince Harry and Meghan are very aware of the publics interest in their young son, and according to a recent report, they are doing their part to ensure that he grows up to be a responsible citizen.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will raise Archie Harrison to be socially aware

Archie Harrison was born in May 2018, and from the beginning, the public was fascinated by him. Although Prince Harry and Meghan have tried to keep him out of the spotlight as much as possible, keeping his christening ceremony a private affair and releasing very few photos of him, people eagerly soaked in any baby Archie news that they could.

When they made their statement in January that they intended to step back from the royal family, Prince Harry and Meghan cited their desire to raise Archie in a more multicultural way as one of their reasons for leaving the royal family.

In Canada, Prince Harry and Meghan took the opportunity to spend as much time as they could with their son. According to a recent report, the couple has been reinforcing the values that they hold dear in Archie Harrison.

A source stated that the two want to teach him the importance of treating people equally regardless of race and background and that they hope he will carry on their work and try to make the world a better place.

Meghan Markle was mistreated by the British press

Prince Harry and Meghan have a personal stake in trying to improve the world at large. The Duchess of Sussex suffered terribly at the hands of the British press, from the very beginning of her romance with Prince Harry.

From headlines accusing her of being difficult to palace staff members to gossip that she didnt get along with Kate, Duchess of Cambridge it seemed as though the tabloids always had something negative to say about her.

While Meghan didnt address the attacks for the better part of her life as a royal, she did open up in late 2019 during an interview with journalist Tom Bradby and admitted that she wasnt doing well. As it turned out, only months after the intimate interview, Meghanand Prince Harry announced that they would be stepping down as senior royals.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are social justice warriors

Meghan Markle | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Individually, Meghan and Prince Harry are both devoted to social justice causes. Together, however, they are a force that cannot be stopped. They have proven that they are willing to do whatever it takes to get their message across, no matter how much negativity they might have to deal with from the press.

The couple regularly speaks out on behalf of womens rights causes, environmental issues, and education equality.

While its not entirely clear what their new lives will consist of, theres no doubt that they will continue to work on behalf of causes that matter to them. With a wealth of experience, passion, and resources at their disposal, Meghan and Prince Harry can certainly make a big difference in the world  and when Archie Harrison gets older, he will likely join them.
David Clark will continue as New Zealand's health minister, despite labelling himself an 'idiot' and offering to resign his position for a second blunder during the country's lockdown.

Days after Dr Clark was caught mountain biking near his Dunedin home in spite of the lockdown, he revealed he also took his family on a coastal walk on the previous weekend.

The first charge breaks the lockdown's rules as a potentially dangerous activity, the second does so as the walk was not local; it was 20km away.

Scroll down for audio

New Zealand health minister David Clark will remain in his role despite mountain biking and going on a coastal walk 20 kilometres away during the lockdown

Dr Clark said 'as the Health Minister it's my responsibly to not only follow the rules but set an example to other New Zealanders'.

'At a time when we are asking New Zealanders to make historic sacrifices I've let the team down,' he said.

'I've been an idiot, and I understand why people will be angry with me. I've apologised to the Prime Minister for my lack of judgement and offered her my resignation.'

However, Jacinda Ardern has kept him in his position owing to the crisis.

'Under normal conditions I would sack the Minister of Health. What he did was wrong, and there are no excuses,' she said.

'But right now, my priority is our collective fight against COVID-19. We cannot afford massive disruption in the health sector or to our response. For that reason, and that reason alone, Dr Clark will maintain his role.'

The 20km distance to the beach from Dr Clark's home is pictured. The walk is not considered local to where he lives in Dunedin's northern suburbs

Pictured: Doctor's Point Reserve in Otago on New Zealand's south island. Dr Clark has been stripped of his associate finance minister role after his trip to the scenic spot

It remains to be seen whether Dr Clark will remain in the position beyond the coronavirus outbreak.

Ms Ardern has punished the 47-year-old by stripping him of his associate finance Minister role.

'But he does need to pay a price. He broke the rules,' Ms Ardern said.

'I expect better, and so does New Zealand.'

Scotland's chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood resigned earlier this week after she was given a police warning for twice visiting her family's coastal retreat - about 65km from her home.
The European Commission recognises that ambitious climate action is this generations defining task. As such, it has proposed a European Green Deal, which aims to transform the EUs economy to produce zero net greenhouse emissions in 2050 and decouple economic growth from resource use, in line with the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. To meet this ambition, the Commission announced a 10-year 1 trillion Investment Plan. From the estimated climate-associated risks that the worlds largest corporations face, to the estimated cost for the United Kingdom to become carbon neutral, to the European Investment Bank transition to Europes climate bank, to planting trees to capture carbon emission, trillion is the recurring headline-grabbing figure. Whether chosen to reflect the actual needs or for its sensational impact, the trillion-euro question is: does this Green Deal produce not just a transition, but a Just Transition?

As President Ursula Von der Leyen has made clear, The transformation ahead of us is unprecedented. And it will only work if it is just  and if it works for all. Because of this imperative, the Commission simultaneously announced a Just Transition Mechanism, which will mobilise at least 100 billion in investments over the period 2021-2027 to support citizens of the regions most impacted by the transition. In dialogue with the Commission, Member States will draw up territorial just transition plans that set out the social, economic and environmental challenges and detail needs and measures for economic diversification, reskilling and environmental rehabilitation.

The Mechanism will operate through the Just Transition Fund, a dedicated window under InvestEU to leverage private finance, and a public sector loan facility by the European Investment Bank (EIB). Only 7.5 billion will be fresh EU funding provided to the Transition Fund, which Member States will need to match with between 1.5 and 3 from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund Plus. The distribution of the Just Transition Fund will reflect the capacity of Member States to finance the necessary investments and already different Member States are scrambling to receive a significant share of this funding. However, the amount of fresh money is certainly insufficient to fulfil meaningful just transition plans. The European Trade Union Confederation noted that the funding proposed for 10 years is what would be needed every year to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 in a fair way. Unfortunately, prospects for increased funding are dire as Germany and the Netherlands oppose expanding the EU budget. Without additional funds lofty ambitions will remain just that.

Questions also abound about how fair and in-line with decarbonisation the distribution will actually be. Poland and Germany are currently set to receive the most benefits from the Fund, 2 billion and 877 million respectively, even though Poland has infamously low decarbonisation ambitions while Germany ran a 13 billion budget surplus in 2019. This is especially problematic since the investments are not linked to a binding date for the phase-out of coal or other fossil fuels. Under current plans, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece will not have significantly lowered coal power capacity by 2030. In addition, the Just Transition Mechanism support can also finance projects for energy and transport infrastructure, including gas infrastructure, locking in emissions that directly contradict the Green Deals stated goal for the EU to become climate neutral by 2050. The Just Transition Plans will thus need substantial decarbonisation criteria, rule out funding gas infrastructure, and head the EIB President Werner Hoyers warning against a box-ticking approach to climate investments.

The investments should equally avoid a myopic focus on economic diversification and reskilling but commit to addressing the socio-economic inequalities between and within Member States, a key component of any Just Transition. To echo the European Parliaments resolution on the Green Deal, a just transition should leave no person and no place behind and address social and economic inequalities. Climate change, pollution and environmental destruction have already exacerbated inequalities, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable communities. The Green Deals commitment to the European Pillar of Social Rights is a good start, but to veritably address socio-economic inequalities would require a re-forging of the social contract and concomitant shifts in power and wealth.

The Green Deal must thus be much more ambitiously financed, incorporate planetary boundaries, and break with the narrow paradigm of the current economic model. This is the only way to ensure the Green Deal is indeed the pledge of solidarity and fairness promised by Executive Vice-President Timmermans.
Chinese companies in Brunei have continued with production amid the COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring safety measures are adhered to, helping to stabilize and stimulate the countrys economy.

Zhejiang Hengyi Petrochemicals oil storage facility on Pulau Muara Besar. (Peoples Daily/Zhao Yipu)

Chinas Zhejiang Hengyi Petrochemical Co. Ltd. has been able to keep operations running at its modern oil refinery in Pulau Muara Besar (PMB), or Great Muara Island, a tiny isolated island northeast of Brunei's capital city Bandar Seri Begawan amid the outbreak.

To ensure the safety of employees, the company is encouraging its Bruneian staff to live on the island in order to reduce the potential risks that come with commuting, and is taking the temperatures of anyone who gets on or off the island.

The companys petrochemical project was put into full production in November 2019. Less than two months later, the output of raw oil and various chemical products exceeded 1 million tons.

The oil refinerys stable production has helped extend the petrochemical industry chain in Brunei, boosting employment and driving related industries, meeting the countrys needs for diversified development, said Xu Ye, vice general manager with the companys branch in Brunei. He added that the project enabled Brunei to produce chemical products on a large scale for the first time, reducing the country's economic dependence on oil and gas exports.

The project is expected to increase Bruneis GDP by $1.3 billion and create more than 1,600 jobs one year after it is put into operation, said Mat Suny bin Mohd Hussein, Bruneis minister of energy, manpower and industry.

Zhejiang Hengyi Petrochemical Co. Ltd. is not an isolated example. Chinas Guangxi Hiseaton Food Co. Ltd. has been operating as normal from its base in Brunei, cultivating and raising fry and exporting fish products, playing an important part in developing Bruneis fish farming industry.

By December 2019, the companys base in Brunei had processed more than 500 tons of fish products, which not only meets demand in Brunei, but also allows for exports to Canada, America and other countries and regions.
By Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary will raise its budget deficit to 2.7% of economic output this year from a targeted 1% to help fund measures to jump-start the economy, which has been hit badly by the new coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday.

Orban said the stimulus package, which includes subsidised loans to Hungarian companies and funds to preserve jobs, would amount to 18%-20% of gross domestic product (GDP), including central bank programmes.

"The goal is to create as many jobs as are destroyed by the virus," he said in a televised speech.

Analysts said while some measures were going in the right direction, it was hard to see how the deficit could be kept at a relatively low level with the economy expected to shrink by 1% to 3%, even under the best case scenario.

They also said the measures were not transparent at this stage and the devil would be in the detail.

"We do not know what forecasts the government used for GDP growth ... and we don't know how the expenditure side of the budget will add up," said David Nemeth, an analyst at K&H Bank, whose central forecast is for an economic contraction of 7%-8%.

Orban did not give a forecast for how the economy, which exports heavily to the euro zone, would perform this year.

Parliament, where Orban's ruling party has a big majority, has granted him the right to rule by decree indefinitely to fight the pandemic, ignoring calls by opponents and human rights groups to put a time frame on the extra powers.

The National Bank of Hungary is expected to announce new measures on Tuesday. The government has already imposed a blanket moratorium on all loan repayments until the end of 2020.

Orban said the government was ready to pay some of the wage costs of companies forced to cut working hours and would support investments with 450 billion forints ($1.3 billion).

There will also be targeted support for sectors such as tourism, the food industry and construction.

Story continues

Subsidised loans to companies will total more than 2 trillion forints, while pensioners will get one month's extra pension to be disbursed in four tranches from early 2021.

Elections are next due in Hungary in 2022.

On Saturday, the government announced a $2 billion special fund to help fight the coronavirus, which will include contributions from banks and foreign retailers.

(Reporting by Budapest bureau; Editing by Gareth Jones and David Clarke)
By Trend

The relevant work will be carried out from April through May 2020 to prevent unjustified dismissal, staff reduction and withholding vacation pay of employees working in the public sector, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers.

Corresponding information is reflected in the Action Plan of the Cabinet of Ministers on the implementation of the order of the President of Azerbaijan dated March 19, 2020 On a number of measures to reduce the negative impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) and sharp fluctuations as a result of coronavirus in the global energy market and stock market, on the economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, macroeconomic stability, issues of employment in the country and business entities".

The measures in this sphere will cover 910,000 employees working in this sector.

In addition, to prevent unjustified dismissal, staff reduction in the private sector, daily control over the work with employers, covering 664,000 employees of the private sector, will be ensured from April through May.

The Action Plan, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in connection with the execution of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs order dated March 19, 2020, includes large-scale, effective and targeted measures to reduce the negative impact of coronavirus on the national economy, employment issues, the entrepreneurship and social well-being support in existing conditions.

The document focuses on the protection of jobs as well as ensuring employment support and social welfare.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
House Rules contestants Carly and Andrew have quit the Seven show after one episode, incensed with a format twist that will eliminate two teams.

The Queensland couple walked off the show last night telling producers they were unhappy with a first week challenge in which two teams will be eliminated after a Gold Coast penthouse renovation.

This curve ball of two (teams) being eliminated has thrown me for six. Im not a quitter, but this game has changed a lot, said Carly.

Its no longer, Get on House Rules, get your house renovated. Its House Rules-two-(teams) -get eliminated-and-then-the-rest-get-a-house-reno. Its not what I expected at all.

A producer was seen in the episode explaining the shows new format twist.

Do you understand that as part of a television process and making a show, shows change, shows evolve? Things change all the time? the producer asked.

But Carly insisted her bedroom zone did not have enough time to make it pop.

We knew we were getting eliminated anyway. Id rather have my dignity and self respect and leave on my own terms, she replied.

I signed up for House Rules as I knew it. Not as it is now.

Im not going to stand here and argue with you, the producer insisted.

Their departure forced the show to scramble for an outcome.

Host Jamie Durie asked the remaining teams to take on the extra renovation for potential extra points. No team would be eliminated at the end of the penthouse challenge, but there is still a second challenge with an elimination on the way.

7pm Sunday  Thursday on Seven.
Our reporters at syracuse.com | The Post-Standard are working around the clock to make sure Central New Yorkers have the news they need to stay informed on this public health crisis. Because this information is so vital to our readers as they go about their daily lives, we have decided to make all our most essential coronavirus-related stories available to all readers, not just subscribers. However, If you are able, please consider helping support this important work with a subscription.

Sign up for our free text alerts about coronavirus in Central New York and get direct access to the latest developments, brought to you by syracuse.coms unparalleled team of reporters, visual journalists, editors and more, delivered right to your phone.

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Here is a look at Mondays top coronavirus-related stories:

McMahon makes plea to do better with social distancing: Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon warned Monday that coronavirus cases could spiral out of control if residents dont do more social distancing immediately. "Lets turn it around, McMahon said. Im pleading with you ... and the only way were going to do it is, the publics gotta buy in.

Exams canceled: The state Regents exams scheduled for June have been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The exams are graduation requirements for New York high schoolers. What does this mean for students?

"Your body will take care of you": Michele Dwyer is a nurse at Upstate University Hospital who works in obstetrics and gynecology. Over the past week, Dwyer experienced the fever, the cough, the overall malaise symptomatic of the coronavirus. So she got tested. Here is her own story, in her own words.

Dog groomers divided: Once again, the question: Whats an essential business? While many local dog groomers have closed, large pet stores including -- PetSmart and PetCo -- are open for grooming.

Still driving, but not without worry: Gahungu Enock spends these days zipping along empty roads from restaurants to apartments in the Syracuse area. He delivers bundles of food with a quick knock on the door, then leaves without getting a thank you. Delivery drivers like Enock, who drives for GrubHub, are keeping the restaurant industry afloat and families fed amid the coronavirus outbreak. But gig workers on the front lines have to weigh the risks of continuing to do the vital job without knowing if a new, hastily knit safety net will catch them.

Fire departments celebrate birthdays, spread cheer: As birthday parties and other celebrations have been canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, fire departments across Central New York have stepped up with impromptu parades and drive-by birthday greetings. Watch these videos.

READ MORE:
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street for PMQs at the House of Commons on 25 March, 2020 in London, England.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was "stable" and in "good spirits" Tuesday and was getting "standard oxygen treatment" in the intensive care unit for the coronavirus, his spokesman said.

The spokesman also said the 55-year-old prime minister was breathing without any other assistance.

"He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support," the spokesman told reporters.

Downing Street confirmed that the prime minister has not been diagnosed with pneumonia.

Johnson was hospitalized Sunday and admitted to intensive care Monday after his condition worsened over the course of the afternoon.

Johnson announced on March 27 that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. He was admitted to St. Thomas' Hospital in London on Sunday evening for "tests" due to his "persistent symptoms."

The coronavirus attacks the respiratory system and can cause pneumonia. For the worst cases, a ventilator is required to take over the breathing process and to allow the immune system to concentrate on fighting the virus. But ventilators carry risks.
A man cleans the front door at J&J Super Market, in South Philadelphia, April 6, 2020. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has put in place a stay-at-home order until April 30th in the hopes of slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Read more

As we enter yet another week of mandatory shutdowns and shelter-in-place rules, many businesses in the Philadelphia area are adjusting to a different kind of reality. Of course there are companies that provide essential services and products that are operating as best as can be expected. The rest of us have been ordered to close our doors. But although most of us are seeing a slowdown in business, few have stopped operating altogether. So how are some businesses adapting to this new normal?

How DocuBank is helping employees work from home

Randi Siegel, the president of DocuBank, an online health-care document storage company based in Narberth, continues to operate her business as usual, but with some big changes. Shes sent all of her employees home to work and is heavily relying on communication and collaboration software Slack for messaging and meetings, which she says is more efficient than email and also creates a better sense of community.

With our employees now working from home, our focus is on helping them navigate this new arrangement, she says.

Shes doing that by helping them create suitable work spaces and even providing extra assistance, such as providing them with a desk or even a desk chair to avoid back issues, which has been a common request. Shes also sensitive to her teams emotional well-being.

We recognize that our staff is under additional stress now, as they navigate the challenges of working at home with their families, she says. So we are also offering limited mental-health therapy/counseling sessions to all staff at no charge.

Running an essential business and taking care of workers

We are an essential business that services multiple strategic marketplaces, including providing cable to the Centers for Disease Control and multiple ventilator companies, says Tim Flynn, the owner of Allied Wire and Cable in Collegeville. Our employees realize they are saving lives and are willing to come in every day to do so, no matter how apprehensive some of them might be.

Flynn has been able to send most of his employees home to work remotely. But he still has to keep key operational and production people in the office, so hes doing a lot of cleaning as well as making sure people are distanced. Its working for now, but Flynn is concerned about the days ahead. I expect things to become a lot more difficult if this continues for much longer, he says.

Running a roofing business during the pandemic

Wyatt Kaller, who helps run his family business, Russell Roofing, with offices in Oreland and Princeton, is concerned about all of his employees, and particularly those that are out in the field.

We are in a challenging position to do this because we operate in exterior construction, and many of our clients have active leaks, causing damage to their property, that we have been hired to repair, he says. We have done our best to remedy as many of our customers problems before the inevitable government mandated shutdown. We did this through practicing social distancing company wide and running a skeleton office with two people from admin and our estimators working remotely from home with contact-less appointments.

Now that so much production has been halted, Kaller has been forced to cancel all customer meetings and is operating with the smallest crews possible when essential services are needed. Those production workers who still have work to do have been directed to wear gloves until it is absolutely necessary to take them off.

Bob Girard braces for the FMLA extension

Bob Girards company, Pottstown-based Valtech Corp., is a specialty chemical manufacturer that provides essential cleaning products to customers around the country. So the company keeps operating as best as it can. Office staff have been sent home to work remotely, and the remaining manufacturing and research and development staff are following strict protocols for safe distancing and frequent use of hand sanitizers, and are being asked to thoroughly wipe down their own and even common areas twice a day.

Girard is expecting the new, extended family leave requirements that recently took effect to have a big impact on his business, too, and hes still navigating how this will be handled. Although costs are to be offset through tax credits, it will have a negative impact on cash flow short term, he says.

Having a disaster recovery plan helps

For years, experts have been telling small-business owners that they should have a disaster recovery plan, and although some may not have heeded that advice, the ones who did are seeing the benefits. Cody Jackson, an information technology analyst at Bartlett Bearing Co. in Philadelphia, is one of those people.

For a few years now, weve been building and practicing a disaster recovery/business continuity plan, he says. Weve taken steps that will let us continue to operate in the event of quarantine or lockdown. Those steps include having their systems online for easy access with access, security and backup software in place to allow remote workers to do their work out of the office.

I would say the best insurance option is to plan ahead, he says. That may not help anyone right now, but plan now and the next time something like this happens, youll be ready.

Sell online and be safe

Even before he was forced to shut down, Steve DeShong, owner of 10th Street Hardware in Philadelphia, saw the writing on the wall and knew that he couldnt sustain a safe level of customer traffic in his store. So before the city acted, he did.

He closed his store to the general public and instructed his customers to purchase online for either delivery or in-store pickup. This allows us to provide urgent/emergency items without actually transacting a close person/person transaction, he says.

DeShong also changed his payroll from bi-weekly to weekly so that he could give his employees more frequent paychecks. We hope to continue conducting far reduced business as long as it can be done safely for our employees and customers, he says.
As the world is facing a severe health crisis due to the outbreak of coronavirus, a slew of celebrities, including Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi, Priyanka Chopra, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt among many others, have come together to create awareness about COVID-19 through a short film, titled 'Family'.

Conceptualized and virtually directed by Prasoon Pandey in collaboration with Big B, the film will show that staying at home, staying safe, maintaining hygiene, working from home and maintaining social distancing can be productive and should be taken in one's stride.

'Family"' will be premiered across Sony Network on Monday at 9 p.m. Amitabh shared the same on his twitter.

Also given the unprecedented nature of the situation we are in, an initiative undertaken by Big B, WE ARE ONE' has been supported by Sony Pictures Networks India and Kalyan Jewellers, through which the monthly ration of 1,00,000 households across the country will be funded.

Commenting on the initiative, N.P. Singh, Managing Director and CEO, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), said: "In trying times, we have to collectively front and face issues that affect the industry. So, as part of its CSR outreach, SPN has taken the initiative of working alongside Mr Amitabh Bachchan and Kalyan Jewellers to support the households of daily wage earners of the Indian film and television industry. SPN's support will ensure that at least 50,000 workers and their families have their home supplies for a month.

"This film made by Prasoon is very special since it has been virtually directed. Like-minded celebrities have come together in this short film."

Follow @News18Movies for more
Nigerians living in the United Kingdom, United States, China and other West African countries have been registering for their evacuation back home due to the Coronavirus pandemic ravaging the world, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) has said.

The Commission added that those registering for evacuation are ready to foot their flight expenses.

Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairperson, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), last week urged Nigerians residing abroad who are willing to return back to Nigeria to notify the Nigerian missions in their respective countries.

She noted that the financial implications of such evacuation will be borne by the respective individuals who will be compulsorily quarantined when they return.

In response to the directive, the Nigerian Consulate in New York, United States, on Sunday announced via a statement that it had begun compiling names of Nigerians willing to return home.

READ ALSO:

But, highlighting efforts to evacuate Nigerians, Mr Balogun said the stranded Nigerians agreed to foot their bills and be quarantined on arrival in Nigeria, PUNCH reported on Tuesday.

According to him, the commission had been receiving emails from other interested Nigerians overseas about the modalities for their evacuation.

Nigerians are responding overwhelmingly from China, UK, US and also from West Africa. We cant quote a figure because the registration is still ongoing, Mr Balogun said.

A lot of people have been sending emails to us. The response has been overwhelming. Some said they were ready to be quarantined on their return to the country;

They are ready to pay for the evacuation. Some also have their air tickets but they could not come before the lockdown order was implemented, Mr Balogun said.

The United States has so far evacuated 38,296 citizens from Nigeria, Ghana, Benin Republic, and 75 other countries on account of the coronavirus pandemic.

The citizens were airlifted in 330 flights coordinated by the US Department of State.

On the registration of Nigerians overseas, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, during a briefing by the Presidential Task force for the Control of COVID-19 on Monday, said the government would work out the evacuation logistics after the exercise.

He advised Nigerians abroad to stay where they were to avoid the risk of contracting the virus.

Mr Onyeama stated, We have written letters to our embassies to give us an indication of the number in their countries and once we have that, we would be able to look at the issue of logistics and how to bring them back.

We should also bear in mind that the medical people have said that its better to stay where you are if you can but you stand a much better chance of catching the virus if you are travelling up and down.

COVID-19 is a deadly respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. It has infected over a million people globally and caused over 60,000 deaths.




South Korea is considering using electronic wristbands to prevent people in self-isolation from going outside, an official said Tuesday, amid growing concerns over those breaching the rules and spreading the coronavirus.







"A majority of people are following self-isolation (rules), but there have been some cases of (people) leaving (designated venues)," Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health ministry official, told reporters.







"If the self-isolation rules are not kept, this would put the government in a position to consider various measures to prevent such a move," Yoon said, citing the wristbands as a potential option.







But the official acknowledged the opposition to electronic wristbands, saying the focus would be on finding an effective way in line with quarantine guidelines.







The remarks came amid concerns over those potentially infected with COVID-19 leaving self-isolation venues and spreading the virus in local communities.







The government runs a mobile app to monitor people in self-isolation, but there have been cases where people left their phones at home or turned off the GPS function.







Law authorities have found 75 people who have breached self-isolation rules. Six of the cases have been transferred to the prosecution for further probe.







South Korea mandated a two-week self-isolation for all international arrivals starting Wednesday, April 1.







Some 46,566 people, including more than 36,000 international arrivals, are in self-isolation. The figure is expected to grow to more than 80,000.







Starting Sunday, the government also heightened measures against people who violate the two-week isolation or give false information during the quarantine process to a maximum one-year jail term or a 10 million won ($8,172) fine.







South Korea announced 47 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, bringing the country's total infections to 10,331. (Yonhap)


The novel coronavirus, as we all know, is an acute respiratory illness with symptoms like intense coughing episodes and troubled breathing. Over the past few weeks, weve heard of several patients across the globe sharing their terrifying accounts, describing how the infection worsens with each progressing day.

YouTube

While all of these cases can be terrifying, one doctor from the UK has offered all of us a sense of relief with a breathing method. Dr Sarfaraz Munshi, who works at Queen's Hospital in Romford, said the practice is used on intensive care patients but can help anyone fight off infection.

In a viral YouTube video, he attributes the creation of the technique to his colleague Sue Elliot, a director of nursing uses the techniques regularly with patients in the intensive care unit.





Dr Sarfaraz Munshi, urgent care lead at Queen's Hospital, has shared a breathing technique which could help relieve the symptoms of COVID-19.

Serious complications and death due to COVID-19 are largely due to the virus impacting the respiratory system, including the functioning of the lungs, so for people facing early symptoms Dr Sarfaraz Munshi recommends the following breathing exercise:

1. The doctor explains that all you need to do is take five deep breaths in and hold each one for five seconds.

2. After the fifth exhale, take a deep breath and hold it again for five seconds after which you have to a big cough to push out the air from your lungs, whilst covering your mouth.

3. Repeat the drill a few more times and lay down flat on your belly with the pillow as a support in the front.

In the video, Dr Sarfaraz Munshi goes on to explain that complication and death due to COVID-19 are largely due to the virus impacting the respiratory system, including the functioning of the lungs.

He said: "Please remember, and this is the important part, lying in bed for prolonged periods on your back will close off the small airways. You've got to understand, the majority of your lung is on your back, not on your front, so, by lying on your back you're covering off more of the smaller airways."

In the video he explains, "this is not good during a period of infection and can lead to atelectasis. This can then lead to a secondary pneumonia that can make your condition deteriorate much further - bearing in mind the patients that are deteriorating are deteriorating because of respiratory problems."

It must be remembered that our lungs are at the back, lying down flat on our backs can obstruct breathing.

Please watch this doc from Queens Hospital explain how to relieve respiratory symptoms. For last 2 weeks I've had all symptoms of C19 (tho haven't been tested) & did this on doc husband's advice. I'm fully recovered & technique helped a lot.https://t.co/xo8AansUvc via @YouTube  J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 6, 2020

Praising the breathing technique, Rowling said it helped her recover from a suspected case of the coronavirus. "For last 2 weeks I've had all symptoms of C19 (tho haven't been tested)," Rowling said on her Twitter account. She also shared a video of a breathing technique that she said had helped her manage her worst symptoms and had been recommended by her husband, who is a doctor in the U.K.
One year since more than 70,000 maquiladora workers in Matamoros, Mexico, organized wildcat strikes and mass marches behind the banner The companies and trade unions kill the working class, another wave of wildcat strikes began last week in the border city to shut down the plantslargely involved in the production of auto parts and electronicsas the coronavirus pandemic spreads.

The latest Covid-19 count in Mexico is 94 deaths and 2,143 confirmed cases, with both numbers widely seen as underreported because of the lack of testing. Milenio found that 63 percent of fatal victims are younger than 60, with the World Health Organization (WHO) specifically warning that Mexicos incidence (50 percent) of diabetes and obesity could drive up deaths.

In Matamoros, which is located across the border from Brownsville, Texas, the earliest confirmed case was on March 12, and the total of cases across the state of Tamaulipas has risen to 41, with two deaths. Despite the enormous industrial capacity of the state, there are only 277 ventilators for its 3.5 million residents. Without strict measures to shut down all nonessential production and provide incomes for families to remain home, hundreds of thousands of lives across Tamaulipas and Mexico are being placed in danger.

Workers down their tools on March 31 at VDO (Credit Mia Sophia)

The new wave of wildcat strikes across Matamoros began last Tuesday, when workers at VDO and Novalink walked out. The next day, Autoliv workers downed their tools and those at Edemsa struck, refusing an order by management to attend talks with groups of 20 people at a time to convince them to return to the line.

On Thursday, workers at Tridonex and Parker also struck and were followed the next day by Tyco and Kwalu. Yesterday, strikes were reported at Kongsberg and Kwalu, where the company agreed to closing the plant and paying 80 percent of their salaries.

The government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), however, is doing everything possible to let companies continue extracting profits, endangering the lives of workers and their families. At the same time, the government is posturing as a defender of workers in order to prevent another social explosion.

On March 30, the government announced a health emergency ordering the closure of all nonessential activities until April 30. However, the measure is deliberately vague in its definition of essential activities and includes exceptions for activities essential for the functioning of the economy or of public interest. When pressed about when companies should close, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard made it clear the government would not interfere with the prerogatives of the corporate owners. What weve found in the private sector has been solidarity and support, he said, adding, When it becomes indispensable to take such a measure of suspending nonessential activities, in that moment, well have to close ranks.

At the same time, while ordering closed companies to continue paying 100 percent of the salaries, the Secretary of Labor Maria Luisa Alcalde effectively confirmed that this will not be enforced. The general obligation should be to pay the full salary, based on the understanding that there could be circumstances that force both parts to reach certain agreements.

The agreements include deals reached by corporate-controlled unions to pay workers half of the salaries (200 pesos or $8) per week at auto-parts company APTIV and other US- and European-owned component factories. Due to price gouging, a worker commented on social media that one cant even buy two cartons of eggs with 200 pesos.

The deliberate vagueness of the decrees has helped the trade unions enforce the companies mandates. The head of the Metal-Mechanic Auto Industry Trade Union (SITIMM), Alejandro Rangel, said he wasnt even discussing temporary closures since there was no categorical declaration and clear suspension of work at companies in general by the health authorities.

Management have cited the governments decree to coerce workers to remain on the job. At Robertshaw, a supervisor was recorded saying the majority of our clients sent us letters saying that you are an essential company and told striking workers to read the document well and then well discuss. However, workers continued to strike and compelled management to close the plant and pay the full wage. We, the workers, achieved this because, if we had not struck, the union would have done nothing, commented a worker on Facebook.

At least 20 companies with 12,000 workers have been furloughed with an average of 50 to 60 percent of the salary, according to the local trade union leader Juan Villafuerte. Acknowledging that workers would shut down the plants if management did not, these companies hope to starve workers into submission to force them back to work.

A handful of maquiladoras were compelled to pay 100 percent, but several will undoubtedly use the threat of layoffs to compel workers to return to the line as soon as possible. As explained by the president of the Maquiladora umbrella organization Gerardo Vazquez Falcon, We solidarize ourselves with workers, but that has a limit. Every company has a limit in how much it can keep paying wages. After that, the law establishes another mechanismhow to give severance payments.

Dozens of plants, however, remain open. At Tridonex, a striking worker sent an audio to the WSWS of management arguing, The decree says that there should be no firings, well for people not showing up to work, but not for those fighting in the line, not for those who dont want to work The virus has nothing to do with lack of discipline.

At Schumex (Schumacher), a worker explained to the WSWS, The manager tells us that we make essential products just like at all other plants in Matamoros and Reynosa, even though we make car battery chargers. She added, I suffer hypertension and, since I dont have the medical file from the state insurance, they didnt let me leave to protect myself, even though I had notified the medical department when I began working here. Many people with that record keep working under the risk due to COVID-19. The threats that theyll fire us if we leave are everywhere.

At the Easy Way plant, which produces blankets, the plant will remain open and switch immediately to producing facemasks since it has the equipment and material necessary. But even in this particular case, management is under pressure to cut costs, acknowledging that profits may fall and minimizing the importance of providing safe conditions for workers. The health of workers is very important but keeping the source of our jobs is equally important, a manager explained during the announcement.

The American ruling class sees continued manufacturing in Mexico and the flow of billions of profits as crucial to restart US production itself, especially as it fears a strengthening of Chinas economic influence as a result of its faster containment of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Trump administration and Wall Street are pushing to force workers back to the plants, regardless of the human cost and, as noted by the Council on Foreign Relations last year, Dozens of US companies, including General Motors Co., Honeywell International Inc., Nordam Group Inc., and Medtronic Plc, depend on the speedy delivery of Mexican-made components to keep their operations running in Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina and Oklahoma.

The struggle of US, Mexican, Canadian workers and beyond against the efforts of the global corporations and capitalist governments to sacrifice lives of workers for the sake of profits, is one and the same.

Striking Matamoros workers in January 2019 with banner declaring, "The union and companies kill the working class"

In Matamoros, various political forces, including those tied to AMLOs Morena Party and the American AFL-CIO union federation, intervened last year to chain workers to the trade unions and prevent them from building independent rank-and-file factory committees to fight for a cross-border fight against the thousands of firings that followed the strike wave last year. Today, the unions and their apologists share the responsibility for the suffering, sickness and potential deaths, which will result from workers being coerced through layoffs and reduced wages to work in infected factories.

On January 16, when workers were appealing to their brothers and sisters internationally to expand the wildcat strikes, lawyer Susana Prieto, partnered with Morena, the independent unions, the AFL-CIO and pseudo-left outlets like La Izquierda Diario, showed up in Matamoros and declared, You organized yourselves alone. But this is why they have so much power because you cant authorize a strike if its not through a union You must pressure, to begin with, the union. You cant free yourselves from Villafuerte for now.

Villafuerte is the General Secretary of the Union of Workers and Contractors of the Maquiladora Industry (SJOIIM), an affiliate of the gangster-controlled Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), which Matamoros workers rebelled against.

Even now, Prieto, her new independent trade union, and their partners are calling on workers not to show up to work while insisting that they must remain beholden to the trade unions and the capitalist system, which threatens the very lives of workers and their families.

A response to the COVID-19 crisis that prioritizes the needs of workers requires the building of authentic rank-and-file organizations, including factory, workplace and neighborhood committees. This is inseparable from the struggle for socialism, that is, the taking of political power by the working class to place all production under the democratically and scientifically developed plan to serve social needs and save lives, not corporate profits.
The aero-engine coating market is expected to grow by USD 48.84 million during 2020-2024. The report also provides the market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As per Technavio, the impact can be expected to be significant in the first quarter but gradually lessen in subsequent quarters with a limited impact on full-year economic growth. Request a free sample report

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Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Aero-Engine Coating Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Coatings such as thermal barrier coating (TBC) and abradable coatings function as thermal barriers and improve the efficiency and performance of aero-engines. They protect engine components such as actuator components, afterburner assemblies, bearing and accessories, combustion chambers, combustion flame tubes, and others from corrosion, wear, erosion, fouling, and heat. For example, abradable coating improves the overall efficiency of engines by achieving high operating temperatures (650F-2,100F) and improving the surge margin. Such operational advantages are driving the growth of the global aero-engine coating market.

To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR43021

As per Technavio, the growing demand for military aircraft engines will have a positive impact on the market and contribute to its growth significantly over the forecast period. This research report also analyzes other significant trends and market drivers that will influence market growth over 2020-2024.

Aero-engine Coating Market: Growing Demand for Military Aircraft Engines

Countries across the world are increasing investments in new generation aircraft to modernize and strengthen their defense forces. For instance, during 2017 and 2018, the global military expenditure increased by about USD 46 billion, led by countries such as the US, China, Saudi Arabia, India, and France. In June 2019, the Government of Russia signed a contract with United Aircraft Corp. (UAC) to procure 76 Sukhoi Su-57 fighter aircraft. Such investments are providing significant growth opportunities for vendors, which is expected to boost the growth of the aero-engine coating market during the forecast period.

"The development of nano-coatings will further boost market growth during the forecast period", says a senior analyst at Technavio.

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Aero-engine Coating Market: Segmentation Analysis

This market research report segments the aero-engine coating market by geographic landscape (North America, APAC, Europe, MEA, and South America) and application (commercial aircraft and military aircraft).

The North America region led the aero-engine coating market in 2019, followed by APAC, Europe, MEA, and South America respectively. During the forecast period, North America is expected to register the highest incremental growth due to factors such as the strong presence of numerous aero-engine and aircraft manufacturers and the increasing number of air travelers in the region.

Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report, such as the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more. Request a free sample report

Some of the key topics covered in the report include:

Market Drivers

Market Challenges

Market Trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Competitive scenario

About Technavio

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A related tralac blog, in the same series as this one, discusses the phenomenon of informal cross-border trade (ICBT) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in the context of the current Covid-19 pandemic. At time of writing, several SSA countries have closed their borders entirely and many others have implemented various types of travel restrictions. Two countries that have closed their land borders  Cameroon and Rwanda  both host ICBT communities on multiple borders, most of them comprising populations close to or below the US$1.9 per day poverty datum line. These communities are vulnerable and live subsistence existences  requiring weekly trade in order to purchase essentials and survive. Border closures and the resulting denial of access to markets therefore represent an existential threat to these communities.

The examples of Cameroon and Rwanda are just two of many across SSA. This blog extends on the previous by proposing a method for assessing the most affected and vulnerable communities in SSA. This method draws on two techniques, both using Geographic Information System (GIS) data in combination with economic and trade data. They are:

Time to market mapping: Using data on road availability, road quality, accessibility, terrain, rivers and borders; it is possible to generate geocoded data on the estimated time taken to access a market for any particular geographic location, to a certain map resolution. Marketsheds: A related concept is that of marketsheds. Using time to market data and identification of market centres, it is possible to delineate areas (also known as polygons in GIS terminology) which indicate the extent or range of the market for that market centre. These areas can and often to cross borders, especially as the size of the market centre (in terms of the population of the market) increases. For the purposes of ICBT however, we data use the smallest market centres. This is in light of the small-scale, localised nature of ICBT.

These methods can then be combined with geocoded purchasing power/poverty data in order to assess the relative risk of border closures across SSA.

By way of example, consider the marketshed centred on Mazabuka in south-central Zambia. Mazabuka is about 100km south of Lusaka and is the 12th largest town in Zambia, with a population of around 64 000[1]. According to IFPRI marketshed data [2] for this area, the marketshed with Mazabuko at its centre also includes a portion of north western Zimbabwe, including the town of Makuti. The marketshed is illustrated in the figure below.

Figure 1: Mazabuka marketshed

This marketshed is more accessible to the residents of the indicated portion of Zimbabwe, those living in Makuti (not shown on map) and the surrounding areas, than a marketshed to the south, centred on Chinhoyi.

The map below shows that within the Mazabuko marketshed, a smaller range around the border town of Chirundu town shows that Zimbabweans in the area experience a shorter time to market to the market in Zambia than to markets in Zimbabwe. In this map, the darker the shade of orange the shorter the time to market. Clearly, the areas closer to the A1 arterial route experience a quicker time to market, but that market nevertheless lies on the other side of the border with Zambia, and is accessed via the border post at Chirundu.

Figure 2: Time to market for border post Chirundu

Interestingly, the border post of Chirundu in Zimbabwe was piloted as the first one-stop border post by COMESA in 2009[3]. These border posts, also referred to as joint border posts  since they are operated as one border post by both countries  have been introduced to reduce the friction associated with cross-border trade and are in essence a recognition of the extent of ICBT taking place in the area.

Analysis of purchasing power and poverty datum data for this region reveals that the population on the Zambian side fall into the 60-80% below poverty line class while the residents on the Zimbabwean side fall into a similar or slightly poorer group. This then is but one example of a vulnerable community reliant on cross-border trade for survival. Closure of this border would involve an existential threat to this community, especially on the Zimbabwean side.

Configurations such as that at Chirundu and with the Mazabuka marketshed are found throughout SSA. There are also plenty of examples involving more than two countries, for example in the Great Lakes area or in West Africa between Guinea, Liberia and Cote dIvoire. An example involving Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania is represented in the figure below. This market shed centres on Mbeya in Tanzania, and is accessed by citizens from Zambia and Malawi as well.

Figure 3: Mbeya marketshed

The Mbeya marketshed is accessed through the border posts indicated in the table below. Time to market data, although not shown, also confirms that Zambian and Malawian communities living in these border regions are able to access Mbeya more easily than Mzuzu in Malawi or Kasama in Zambia.

Table 1: Mbeya marketshed access border posts

Border between Border Post Malawi/Tanzania Songwe Malawi/Zambia Chitipa Tanzania/Zambia Nakonde

Of the border posts listed in the table, Nakonde has been established as a one-stop border post and Songwe is due to be developed as a one-stop border post in the near future. Chitipa, which connects Malawi to Zambia is not on the list for development as a one-stop border post. However, unlike the other two border posts in the table, it does not directly facilitate access to the Mbeya marketshed.

Finally, purchasing power/poverty data confirms the vulnerability of these border communities. The Zambian and Tanzanian communities in the Mbeya marketshed fall into the 60-80% poverty threshold category, while for Malawi the border population falls into the lowest 80-100% impoverished category.

The conclusion to be drawn from the preceding analysis is that land border closures for the sake of Covid-19 action should be undertaken with full cognisance of the potentially disastrous impact on small-scale cross border trade. There is no doubt that Covid-19 action requires modification of human movement and economic activity. However, the extent of the trade-off on the survival of fragile and vulnerable communities must be taken into account by the governments and authorities of SSA.

[1] World Resources Institute. 2020. Maps and data. https://www.wri.org/resources

[2] Guo, Z. and C. Cox 2014. Accessing Local Markets: Marketsheds. Atlas of African Agriculture Research and Development. Washington: International Food Policy Research Institute

[3] UNCTAD. 2019. Borderline: Women in Informal Cross-border Trade in Malawi, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia. Geneva: UNCTAD
YEREVAN, APRIL 7, ARMENPRESS. Over 400 Armenian citizens returned from Russia by 2 charter flights conducted by Red Wings Airlines on April 6 and 7, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Facebook page of Foreign ministry of Armenia.

''Considering the financial situation of some of the citizens, 150 free tickets was possible to provide them. We are thankful to all our compatriots who contributed to the purchase of the tickets for the our citizens'', reads the statement, adding that all of them will be quarantined for 14 days.

Nearly 200 other citizens, who were unable to return, have been accommodated in four hotels under the coordination of the Embassy. Nearly two dozen citizens refused to go to hotels, preferring to stay at Domodedovo airport.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 10:45:39|Editor: Liu

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TRIPOLI, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The National Center for Disease Control of Libya's UN-backed government on Monday announced the first COVID-19 recovery case in the country.

"We officially announce recovery of the first case of the new coronavirus after two samples tested negative at the laboratory," Badr Addin Al-Najjar, director of the center, told a press conference.

"Social separation and commitment to home quarantine are the first steps in reducing the spread of the virus," he added.

When asked about a possible 24-hour curfew in the country, Al-Najjar said it "depends on the development of the epidemic situation."

The center also announced a new COVID-19 case, bringing the total in the country to 19.

The country reported the first death from COVID-19 on Thursday, an 85-year-old woman who was diagnosed with the disease after she passed away.

UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj in mid-March declared a state of emergency and mobilization against the virus.

His government has taken a series of measures against the pandemic, including closing airports, border crossings, mosques and educational institutions, banning mass gatherings and movements among cities, and imposing a curfew.

The government also stipulated daily working hours from 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) to 2 p.m. (1200 GMT) local time.

On March 24, Libya reported its first case in a 73-year-old man who had returned from Saudi Arabia.
- DPP Noordin Haji and EACC boss Twalib Haji said the money was recovered from corruption cases following plea bargains

- The money was being held in the prosecution's fund account as part of recovered proceeds of crime such as money laundering

- Uhuru Kenyatta directed the Treasury to utilise corruption proceeds to support the needy affected by COVID-19

The Office Director of Public Prosecution and Ethics and Anti-Corruption Unit (EACC) have released KSh 2 billion from corruption proceeds to be used in combating coronavirus in Kenya.

The development followed President Uhuru Kenyatta' directive to the Treasury to utilise corruption proceeds to support the needy who have been the most affected by COVID-19.

READ ALSO: Coronavirus effects: Uhuru Kenyatta appeals to landlords to reduce rent

Twalib and Haji handing over a dummy cheque of KSh 2 billion to be used in fighting coronavirus. Photo: Office of Director of Public Prosecution.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Saburi afungwe kwa miaka 10 gerezani, apendekeza Rais Uhuru

The money was being held in the prosecution's fund account as part of recovered proceeds of crime such as corruption and money laundering following signing of plea bargaining agreements with corporates and individuals.

While presenting the dummy cheque on Tuesday, April 7, Haji and EACC boss Twalib Mbarak said they hoped to recover more assets and money from ongoing cases.

Haji and Twalib at the Treasury during hand over of the KSh 2 billion to coronavirus fund. Photo: Office of Director of Public Prosecution.

Source: Facebook

We have various institutions dealing with corruption. A lot more money is out there but because cases are not complete, we cant use it. We have to wait for the cases to be complete, said Haji.

With Kenya counting down months to the national budget reading, Finance Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani disclosed they have been forced to review and revise certain projects.

President Uhuru had on April 6 directed the two agencies to release the KSh 2 billion. Photo: State House Kenya.

Source: Facebook

We are revising the budget and we wont spare any item. We are suspending some projects to address the current situation and recovery of the income. We are cutting on some expenditure that we can push to the next financial year, he said.

Yattani said it was, however, premature to give exact coronavirus budget because the situation not static at the moment.

I may not be able to give you the specifics on the budget for Covid-19 because its a moving target, but the figures are massive. Some of these proposals are outrageous, we may not be able to finance them. Even with the prevailing circumstances, we must run a fiscally sound economy," he added.

On March 5, Haji fined five financial institutions KSh 385 million for facilitating illegal transfer of money.

The DPP entered into agreement with directors of Equity Bank, Co-operative Bank, Diamond Trust Bank, Standard Chartered Bank Kenya and KCB bank.

We considered the requests in line with the decision to prosecute and the need for the application of alternatives to prosecution and a decision to enter into Deferred Prosecution Agreements was accordingly reached, he said.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

Couple names new born twins Corona and Covid | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
US authorities on Monday recovered the body of a member of the Kennedy family who, along with her young son, went missing in the Chesapeake Bay on Thursday, according to the Maryland Natural Resources Police.

The body was identified as Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40. Police said the search for her 8-year-old son Gideon will resume Tuesday.

Police said McKean's body was found over 2 miles south of the waterfront home of McKean's mother in Shady Side, Maryland, where the McKean family had been staying to isolate from the coronavirus.

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Family members and police said McKean and Gideon had climbed into a canoe to retrieve a ball that had gone into the water and were apparently swept away in strong currents and gusty winds.

Maeve McKean was a granddaughter of the late senator Robert F. Kennedy and grandniece of former president John F. Kennedy.

Her mother, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, was a teenager when her father, Bobby Kennedy, was assassinated.

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Maeve McKean was the executive director of the Georgetown University Global Health Initiative and was president of the Parent Teacher Association at the Capitol Hill Cluster School.

Police and firefighters from several agencies participated in the exhaustive search, which has covered 2,275 square miles. The canoe was found Thursday in Rockhold Creek near Deale.

In a statement, Natural Resources Police said the search involved aviation and boats and utilised underwater imaging sonar. Police said McKean's body was found about 5.30 pm Monday in 25 feet of water.

Maeve McKean and her husband, David, have two other children, 7-year-old Gabriella and 2-year-old Toby. They live in the District of Columbia.

 Washington Post
As coronavirus cases continue to rise in India, states governments have requested the Centre to extend the lockdown that officially ends on April 14. The Central government, however, is yet to take a final decision on the matter.

Eleven empowered committees formed to oversee India's response to COVID-19 pandemic have received feedback from states on the lockdown extension, say sources. These include closure of all kinds of religious activities, and school and colleges till June; transfers and postings in government sector to be deferred for six months; closure of hotel, bars and restaurants till situation improves; and suspension of public events like weddings, funerals, and corporate town hall meetings.

Active coronavirus cases in India stand at 3,981, excluding 114 deaths. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend lockdown deadline by two more weeks. He said the situation would become uncontrollable if the lockdown was lifted "hastily".

Also Read: Coronavirus in India: State-wise COVID-19 cases, deaths, list of testing facilities

"The lockdown is the reason the country is saved and has seen very few cases. A country like India has to be careful otherwise it will become uncontrollable. We have no other choice except to obey the lockdown. At least we are not seeing deaths like Italy, Spain and the US," KCR said during a media interaction.

The central government has sought feedback from all the states. Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with chief ministers via video-conference and asked them to submit suggestions -- as per the situation in their respective states -- for a staggered exit after April 14.

A senior minister told India Today that the Centre was planning a "rational lockdown" -- a micro-managed exit -- as the government believes the lockdown had proved to be effective in curbing community spreading.

States like Punjab, Haryana and UP may favour partial relaxation in lockdown due to the commencement of wheat harvesting season which requires huge labour movement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his address to BJP workers on Tuesday, said people needed to be ready for a long fight. He also asked them to plan a slow exit from the nationwide lockdown.

Also read: Coronavirus Live Updates: Delhi CM Kejriwal announces 5-T plan to combat COVID-19
W eve all seen how Italians respond to Covid-19: they sing opera from their balconies. This is no surprise in Italy, where opera came into being at the end of the 16th century. Italian composers still dominate the core repertoire: Puccini and Verdi, Donizetti and Bellini, Mascagni and Leoncavallo  even the names exude musicality.

And yet today, many wouldnt consider it for them. Now however, with theatres all over the world closed, opera companies small and large are streaming their work, often for free, making it available to people who might otherwise never consider live performances. How many of us would travel to Munich to see Donizettis Lucia di Lammermoor, or to Brussels for Wagners Tristan und Isolde?

Now, we can see them in the locked-down comfort of our living rooms. Here are eight things you need to know to get into opera right now.

Do the research

Opera is like mumblecore films; you have to get used to the fact that you wont be able to make out most of the words  especially, as is often the case, if theyre sung in the original language. Most opera companies now provide the text (either the original English, or an English translation), above the stage in live performance, or as subtitles in video. But you dont need to understand every single syllable: opera works in broad strokes. Read a plot summary beforehand (the briefer it is the better) to get a sense of the narrative trajectory; then let the music carry you through.

Tenors and sopranos good, baritones and mezzos bad

Carmen at the ENO / Richard Hubert Smith

There are dozens of exceptions, but the voice types that are available to composers often match character types. Tenors will likely be the dashing hero, their ringing high notes an expression of tumescent masculinity: Cavaradossi in Puccinis Tosca, for example. The soprano will long for his fond embrace; sometimes, shell get her man, sometimes  like Tosca  shell die in the attempt. Baritones? The archetype is Scarpia, again in Tosca, a malevolent and sadistic sexual schemer. As for mezzo-sopranos, their speciality is often described as witches, bitches, and britches  britches for when the mezzo plays a man, usually in baroque opera.

Prima la musica

Its a debate as old as opera itself: which matters more, the words or the music? Usually music gets the vote. An opera with dull music (however you define it) wont hold our attention for long, but beautiful music (however defined) may carry us through a dull text. Of course, the ideal is that music and text work in perfect harmony, but too often, especially in contemporary operas, the words get in the way, often because the librettist is trying too hard to be poetic, or to write as if the words will be spoken. Thats not how it works.

How to get your cultural fix online - in pictures 1 /28 How to get your cultural fix online - in pictures Hamilton Where to watch: Disney+ Joan Marcus Three Kings Where to watch: Old Vic Getty Images Pina Bausch's The Rite of Spring Where to watch: Sadler's Wells Digital Stage RSC archive Where to watch: Marquee TV (c) RSC Les Miserables concert Where to watch: lesmis.com Matt Murphy Matthew Bourne's ballets Where to watch: New Adventures website Johan Persson To a simple, rock 'n' roll . . . song Where to watch: BBC iPlayer Shakespeare's Globe Where to watch: globeplayer.tv Tristram Kenton for the Globe Headlong's Unprecedented season Where to watch: headlong.co.uk, from May Getty Images Deafinitely Theatre Where to watch: YouTube Simon Annand Hannah Gadsby's Douglas Where to watch: Netflix Ali Goldstein/ NETFLIX 2020 Wise Children Where to watch: BBC iPlayer Steve Tanner Judi Dench in conversation Where to watch: Orange Tree Theatre Soho Theatre on Demand Where to watch: sohotheatre.com Idil Sukan Patricia Gets Ready Where to watch: LIVR Oscar Wilde Season Where to watch: Marquee TV Marc Brenner Royal Opera House online Where to watch: Marquee TV, Facebook, YouTube, Luke Hayes Comedy at the Covid Arms Where to watch: Emailed link after donation Kayla Wren Papatango's Isolated But Open: Voices From Across the Shutdown Where to watch: papatango.co.uk Getty Images Next Up Comedy Where to watch: Next Up Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd

Mozart does it best

From the very beginning, composers divided their operas sung text into two types: what you might call the conversational, which carries the drama forward (usually called recitative); and the big vocal showpieces  solo arias, duets, quartets, sextets, all the way up to mighty choruses. The challenge is to knit the two together. No one managed that better than Mozart, especially in the three comic operas (The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte) that he wrote to texts by Lorenzo da Ponte. Here, complex drama unfolds at breakneck speed, knock-about comedy bumping up against moments of heavenly beauty with barely a pause for breath.

Brush up your Shakespeare

Macbeth / Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

Shakespeares career was at its height just as opera was being born, and the two have got on well ever since. There are at least 400 operas based on Shakespeare, in many languages, but few do the playwright justice. Verdis Macbeth is a personal favourite, not because Verdi slavishly followed the plot (although he told the story pretty straight), but because he worked it into full-blown Romantic opera entirely on his own terms. Not all Bardic operas are so successful: when Rossinis version of Othello premiered in Rome in 1820, papal censors insisted on a happy ending.

History is bunk

Like Shakespeare, opera treats history not as a set of verified facts but as a source of towering characters, convoluted situations and mighty confrontations. Theres no use pointing out that Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots never met. In Donizettis Maria Stuarda, they do, and it makes for one of the most almighty rows in drama, in decidedly unregal language. Catholic Mary goes so far as to call Protestant Elizabeth a vile bastard. Forget the history books, enjoy the musical makeovers for what they are: blatant but bold reimaginings.

She must die

Tristan and Isolde / Van Rompay

Catherine Clements feminist polemic Opera, or The Undoing of Women, argued that opera embodied womens submission to male desire; in essence, they had to die for love. True, there are dozens of women killed off in opera: Lucia di Lammermoor, Carmen, Tosca, the list goes on and on. Clement saw them as victims of patriarchy, but she paid little attention to the music that the (invariably male) composers gave their doomed heroines. Lucias elaborate coloratura, Carmens confrontational vocal swagger, Toscas confessional I have lived for art: all these give the character a degree of self-determination that the plot alone may not allow.

Wagner: monster or maestro?

No figure in music history divides opinion as starkly as Richard Wagner. For some, his idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk (roughly, total work of art) showed the way forward, and not just for opera; for others, it marked the end of opera as a genuinely popular art form. Many regard his anti-Semitism as no more than a prejudice widely shared at the time; yet others see it as a baleful influence embedded within the very fabric of his work. Its just about possible to enjoy his music without getting mired in the debates, but with Wagner, its never just about the opera.

Where to see it for free

Royal Opera House, London

A programme of free online content via Marquee TV. Next up is Cosi fan tutte on April 10.

Met Opera, New York

Nightly free streams of past productions. Tonight its Puccinis La Fanciulla del West starring Deborah Voigt.

Bavarian State Opera, Munich

Past productions and concerts free on demand for limited periods. Lucia di Lammermoor is available until April 8.

Deutsche Oper, Berlin

Past productions free on demand for limited periods. Tonight and tomorrow: Die Heimliche Ehe by Domenico Cimarosa.

Opera North

Several productions and performances available on demand, including The Ring Cycle, The Turn of the Screw and The Lullaby Project.

La Fenice, Venice
The son of US President Donald Trump says he would welcome the early prison release of Joe Exotic after binge watching the rise and fall of the disgraced zookeeper in Netflix series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.

Businessman Donald Trump, Jr says he was stunned after watching Joe, the key player around which the seven part series unfolds, receive a 22-year jail term on a slew of convictions, including two counts of murder for hire.

Speaking to SiriusXMs The Jim and Sam Show, the 42-year old argued that Exotic's lengthy sentence was 'too aggressive,' and joked that he would even consider lobbying for his freedom in the near future.

Big fan: Donald Trump, Jr says he would push for the early prison release of Joe Exotic after binge watching the rise and fall of the disgraced zookeeper in Netflix series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness

He said: 'Maybe not right now, but I can generally be for this just for the meme. And just for frankly watching the media reaction to this thing. It would be pretty amazing to ultimately see that.'

Exotic is currently seeing out his prison term at Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, after being found guilty of orchestrating a murder plot against nemesis Carole Baskin, owner and founder of the Florida based non-profit animal sanctuary Big Cat Rescue.

The 57-year old is also convicted on eight violations of the 1900 Lacey Act - a law that prohibits trade in illegally obtained or transported wildlife, fish, and plants - and nine violations of the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

Jailed: Exotic, the key player around which the seven part series unfolds, received a 22-year jail term on a slew of convictions, including two counts of murder for hire

But Trump, Jr insists the lengthy sentence is disproportionate to the crimes committed, and claimed the flamboyant zookeeper has been harshly treated.

'Now, I dont even know exactly what he was charged with I watched the show, but it was like, I dont know exactly what he was guilty of or wasnt,' he explained.

'It doesnt seem like he was totally innocent of anything. But when theyre saying, "Were putting this guy away for 30 years," Im saying that seems sort of aggressive.'

Behind bars: The 57-year old is also convicted on eight violations of the 1900 Lacey Act - a law that prohibits trade in illegally obtained or transported wildlife, fish, and plants - and nine violations of the 1973 Endangered Species Act

Exotic, who was born Joseph Allen Schreibvogel before changing his name in later life, requested a presidential pardon from Trump, Jr's father in March 2020, while filing a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the United State federal government.

Among its demands the lawsuit pushes for $79million from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for the confiscation of his tigers, and a further $15million based on a range of charges, including false imprisonment.

Exotic's exploits in Tiger King have become essential viewing as the world adjusts to strict lockdown laws in the fight against deadly coronavirus COVID-19.

And after watching the series in just two sittings, Trump, Jr admits he was surprised by how affordable wild tigers are across the United States.

He added: 'But do you know what the real tragedy of that whole situation is? None of us knew until now that you could have had a pet tiger for two grand.'
RTHK: No change in UK prime minister's condition

There has been no change in Boris Johnson's condition, two sources close to him said on Tuesday, after the British prime minister was taken into intensive care following a deterioration in his coronavirus symptoms.

Johnson was given oxygen on Monday at a central London hospital in what Downing Street said was a precautionary measure after his condition had worsened.

Johnson's personal battle with the virus has shaken the British government just as the United Kingdom enters what scientists say is likely to be one of the most deadly weeks of the outbreak, which has already killed 70,000 people worldwide.

Johnson, 55, was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital across the River Thames from the Houses of Commons late on Sunday after suffering persistent coronavirus symptoms, including a high temperature and a cough, for more than 10 days.

"The PM remains conscious at this time," Downing Street said late on Monday, adding that the move to intensive care was "a precaution should he require ventilation to aid his recovery".

While Britain has no formal succession plan should a prime minister become incapacitated, Johnson asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputes for him "where necessary, Downing Street said.

Just hours earlier, Johnson had said that he was in good spirits and Raab had told a news conference that the prime minister was still running the government, though Raab also said he hadn't spoken to the prime minister in person since Saturday.

"The government's business will continue," a sombre Raab, 46, told reporters, saying Johnson was in the safe hands of a brilliant medical team.

The United Kingdom is in a state of virtual lockdown, a situation due to be reviewed early next week, and some ministers have suggested it might need to be extended because some people were flouting the strict rules.

Johnson tested positive for the virus on March 26, the first leader of a major power to announce that he had been infected.

Buckingham Palace said Queen Elizabeth had been kept informed by Downing Street and US President Donald Trump said all Americans were praying for his recovery.

Trump told a news briefing he had asked two pharmaceutical firms developing potential Covid-19 therapies to get in touch with the British government to offer their services.

"We've contacted all of Boris' doctors and we'll see what is going to take place," he said. "But they are ready to go."

Johnson, who is not a smoker, is not known to have any underlying health issues, although he has struggled with his weight. (Reuters, AFP)

This story has been published on: 2020-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Coronavirus: EU reserves 15 bn for partners, focus on Africa Von der Leyen says they could face crisis in a few weeks

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, APRIL 7 - The European Union is reserving 15 billion euros in aid for its partners around the world, in particular Africa, for the fight against coronavirus, said European Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen in a video message on Twitter.



She said the countries "could face the same problems as Europe in a few weeks".



"It's possible that the crisis worsens before getting better.



It is in our interest that the fight against the pandemic is successful. If we are coordinated globally, we can defeat the virus," she said.



"More money will come from member states, in an authentic European team spirit," she said, adding that aid "could help cover immediate needs in the health sector, and support the economies of these countries", safeguarding employment.



"The EU is ready to coordinate a strong international response to the pandemic," she said.(ANSAmed).




Physically fit and self-motivated, 19 Mohali police constables have been selected as members of a first emergency response team dealing with Covid-19 patients and affected areas. They are the Covid Commandos.

The men will spearhead coordination and response to persons and areas affected by Covid-19 in Mohali, which has been reporting a sharp rise in cases, the last count being 26 patients.

The district will have 19 Covid Commandos, designated district Covid-19 emergency response team working within Mohali district, said Kuldeep Singh Chahal, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Mohali.

Selected for their high motivation and fitness levels from Mohali police, the constables have themselves volunteered to take up the onerous job of Covid-19 control in this moment of extreme exigency.

The commandos will be ready for deployment in a short span of 30 minutes within the entire district, Chahal added.

Having the commandos in place will mean freeing other Mohali police personnel

from dealing first hand with Covid-19, reducing chances of infection in the police force.

The commandos have been provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) and are trained to wear, remove and dispose these. Their go-bags include PPE for commandos and first aid supplies for response to community members.

They are trained and motivated to meet the requirement of an on-scene police presence along with health department staff. The drills for handling a non cooperative positive patient are well rehearsed. Standard operating procedures are also in place, added Chahal.

The commandos are prepared for health department and community requests to evolve and reflect the needs of Covid-19 patients, including but not limited to transport to hospitals, wellness checks, and delivery of critical items like medication. Officers may be required to enforce revised local or regional public health ordinances, such as mandatory quarantines, isolation, or travel restrictions. Provide testing and coordinate treatment to limit the spread of Covid-19 within the district, said Chahal.

SHIELDED FROM INFECTION

Covid Commandos will be wearing PPE (personal protection equipment) that includes single pair of disposable examination gloves, disposable isolation gown or single-use/disposable coveralls, particulate respirator (N-95 or higher-level respirator) and eye protection (goggles or disposable face shield that fully covers the front and sides of the face).
ANN ARBOR, MI  Ann Arbor City Council candidates who want to compete in the August primary have two weeks left to collect 100 petition signatures to get on the ballot.

There are several candidates that I know of who dont have their signatures yet, said Council Member Elizabeth Nelson, D-4th Ward.

Given the ongoing coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and the governors orders to stay home, its not appropriate to knock on doors and collect signatures, Nelson said.

The city has been looking to the governors office to implement a solution, but so far the governor hasnt acted.

Its not just an Ann Arbor issue. In Michigan, candidates for many down-ballot offices are required to collect and submit signatures to qualify for the ballot by 4 p.m. April 21.

U.S. House candidate says gathering signatures impossible under Michigans coronavirus stay at home order

City Council voted unanimously Monday night, April 6, to call on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to issue an executive order to provide potential candidates an opportunity to meet the filing requirements while still following her orders.

9 Ann Arbor Mayor holds virtual council meeting from home

The resolution sponsored by Nelson and Council Member Kathy Griswold, D-2nd Ward, doesnt advocate for a specific solution, instead leaving it to the governor to decide how to handle it.

Ideas that have been suggested include pushing back the deadline in hopes that the outbreak will be over soon, allowing candidates to collect signatures electronically or allowing payment of a filing fee in lieu of signatures.

The last option may not be possible since its written into Ann Arbors city charter that 100 signatures are required.

Chelsea Lewis, Whitmers deputy press secretary, said last month the governors team was reviewing several options.

She said on Monday they had nothing more to say on the matter at this time.

There are many things we must consider when it comes to how to run elections in light of current circumstances, she said.

Nelson recalled when she decided to run for council shortly before the filing deadline in April 2018, she collected signatures to get on the ballot in just a handful of days.

She said its not fair for potential 2020 candidates to be faced with the tough decision of putting their health and other peoples health at risk to meet the April 21 filing deadline.

We need to ask the governor to intervene, she said. Its required that the governor intervene. We cant do this ourselves. We cant extend the deadline or make some other arrangement like paying a fee instead.

Under current requirements, a person circulating a petition must witness the actual signing, City Clerk Jackie Beaudry noted.

If the governor doesnt act, Council Member Anne Bannister, D-1st Ward, who still needs to collect signatures to get on the ballot to seek re-election this year, suggested one option may be to mail a bunch of petitions to a bunch of people to sign and send back, with each person who signs an individual petition also signing as the circulator of the petition.

But that is not the ideal plan, and hopefully there wont be any germs on all of that as it gets circulated, she said.

MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS:

Ann Arbor implements carts only compost pickup due to coronavirus

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Secretary of State seeks election workers for May 5 election, despite coronavirus concerns

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April 07, 2020-- Researchers have identified the most common clinical characteristics of 109 patients with COVID-19 related pneumonia who died in Wuhan, China in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new study published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

In "Hospitalization and Critical Care of 109 Decedents With COVID-19 Pneumonia in Wuhan, China," Huan-Zong Shi, MD, PhD, and co-authors report on the age, comorbidities (other diseases), treatments and other commonalities among patients who died from this viral infection in three Wuhan hospitals between Dec. 25, 2019 and Feb. 24, 2020. The study was conducted to describe the hospitalization and critical care of patients who died from COVID-19 pneumonia.

"Mortality due to COVID-19 pneumonia was concentrated in patients above 65 years of age, especially those with major comorbidities," stated Dr. Shi, professor and director of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University. "We also found that patients who were admitted to the ICU lived longer than those who didn't. Our findings should aid in the recognition and clinical management of such infections, especially in ICU resource allocation."

The researchers looked back at the medical records of 109 deceased patients (out of 1,017) with confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia admitted to three Wuhan hospitals: Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital, which is designated as a "COVID-19 hospital," Tianyou Hospital affiliated with Wuhan University of Science and Technology, and Central Hospital of Wuhan. They recorded information on patients' demographics, clinical symptoms, laboratory results on admission and during hospitalization, treatment and date of death. The team created a database containing this information, and then cross-checked it. They then performed statistical analyses.

The average age of these patients was 70.7 years. Eighty-five suffered from comorbidities. The most common conditions were hypertension (high blood pressure), cardiovascular or cerebrovascular diseases and diabetes. All 109 patients were critically ill at hospital admission, and their most common condition was progressive shortness of breath (dyspnea). Prof. Shi observed, "Dyspnea was the most remarkable symptom that rapidly worsened."

Although all of these patients needed ICU care, only 46.8 percent were admitted to the ICU because of a bed shortage. Although all of the patients studied died, patients who were in the ICU group in comparison to the non-ICU group, lived an average of 15.9 days vs. 12.5 days following hospitalization.

"It is not surprising that there were approximately twice as many men as women among non-survivors with COVID-19 pneumonia," stated Prof. Shi. "In most infectious diseases and related conditions such as sepsis and septic shock men always represent a larger proportion of cases and have higher mortality rates."

All patients received antibiotics to treat secondary infections and nearly all received antivirals, while all ICU patients also received antifungal drugs. Other medicines, including glucocorticoids and intravenous immune globulin, were given to some patients. Oxygen therapy of various types was given to all patients.

Based on their observations and analyses, the authors concluded: "Since multiple organ failure, especially respiratory failure and heart failure, occurred rapidly after hospital admission, an organ protection strategy and ICU care should be provided as soon as possible to patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia in order to prolong their survival. A social distancing policy should also be proposed to slow the rate of cases and prevent health care systems from being overwhelmed by patients for whom they cannot provide ICU care."

###
Wheat growers will be checked for influenza-like symptoms and they will have to wear masks when they bring crop to mandis for procurement, set to start from April 15, officials said here.

Farmers and labourers will be checked for influenza like symptoms, masks (including cloth masks) will be made compulsory and multiple hand washing arrangements shall be set up in each Mandi. All trucks or harvesters going from one village to the others will be required to be cleaned regularly, Punjab health secretary Anurag Aggarwal said in a statement here.

He said that guidelines were being prepared to ensure that the mandis were protected from COVID-19.

The state government has already decided to start wheat procurement from April 15 and it will be staggered in such a manner so as to avoid overcrowding at any place.

The additional chief secretary Vishwajit Khanna said in order to maintain social distance, ground space at the mandis is being divided into 30'x30' areas for heaps of 50 quintals each.

"Every day, one-third of the farmers will be issued coupons, with holograms and the number of the trailer allowed to bring in the produce on that day. More coupons will only be issued after the earlier produce is lifted, said Khanna.

The government has already prohibited night harvesting, with harvesters allowed to be operational only from 6 am to 7 pm.

Police personnel will be deputed at all the centres to maintain order, said Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta, adding that adequate force would be deployed and nodal officers will be appointed for proper coordination.

The state government has set up a 30-member control room at the mandi board for coordination and providing logistic support during the ensuing wheat harvesting and marketing season, amid the COVID-19 clampdown. Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday again reviewed the arrangements for the Rabi operations at a video conference with top officials from various departments, including Food & Civil Supplies, Agriculture, Police, among others, said a government release here.

The CM ordered the Food and Agriculture departments to immediately come out with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the mandis and the purchase centres.

He directed the departments to scale up the number of purchasing centres to 4,000, from the current 3,761, which is already double that of last year.

While 1,820 mandis had been notified so far, the remaining were expected to be notified later.

The Chief Minister also wrote to his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, seeking her personal intervention to revive manufacturing and loading at the jute mills in her state against the pending indents for gunny bales placed by the government of Punjab.

This was essential given the emergent situation, to enable smooth procurement of wheat for Central Pool for onward distribution in the country under National Food Security Act and other Public welfare schemes, he said.

The Chief Minister said indents had been placed for 3.40 lakh jute bales from December 2019 to March 2020, and approximately Rs 1,000 crore had been transferred in advance in the escrow account of Jute Commissioner of India, Kolkata.

As per the status available on the Jute Smart Portal of the JCI, out of 3.40 lakh bales indented by Punjab, 2.46 lakh bales had been cleared in inspection, and 2.30 lakh bales had been dispatched till date. Another 10,000 bales were ready with the mills for inspections, but the nationwide lockdown disrupted the entire supply chain, he observed.

Singh pointed out in his letter that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had already provided exemption from lockdown for the manufacturing units of packaging of food items, as well as agencies engaged in procurement of agriculture products, including MSP operations. He further noted that in Punjab too, such units have been allowed to run their operations while observing the prescribed health safeguards.

Meanwhile, to further check overcrowding at any place during the procurement operations, the chief minister directed that Arhtiyas should make their own individual arrangements for water and food rations, and no water coolers should be allowed to be set up.

The chief minister was informed during the video conference that there was no shortage of labour, with 14.2 lakh workers available to join the operations. Details of MGNREGA workers would be shared with the Arhtiyas, he was further told.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MOSCOW, April 7 (Xinhua) -- A snap check carried out by the Russian Defense Ministry has shown that the country's Armed Forces are ready to combat COVID-19, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday.

The check carried out between March 25-28 involved military control bodies, formations, units of the Western and Central Military Districts, Aerospace Forces, Strategic Missile Forces, units of radiation, chemical and biological defense, engineering troops and individual medical support units.

"In accordance with the government's instructions, the defense ministry has deployed an emergency operations headquarters to prevent the import and spread of the new coronavirus infection into the Armed Forces," Shoigu said at a conference call attended by top brass.

He said the ministry had formed 49 mobile sanitary-epidemiological groups to identify virus carriers and organize a prompt response.

Shoigu said that currently, the most important task was the construction and commissioning of 16 multi-functional medical centers in the western, southern, central and eastern military districts.

Contractors have already begun work on all construction sites, with the facilities expected to be put into operation between April 20 to May 15, he said.

Shoigu said he had also instructed the commanders of the Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet to raise the capacity of the Irtysh hospital vessel to 450 beds.

The upgraded ship will be able to accommodate uninfected patients, to unload medical facilities of the Defense Ministry in the Far East and prepare them for possible admission of patients with signs of coronavirus infection, he said.
Arjun Reddy star Vijay Deverakonda is all set to make his Bollywood debut with Puri Jagannadh's upcoming movie, tentatively titled Fighter. The Telugu star will be seen romancing Ananya Panday in this pan-India film. The two stars already wrapped the first shooting schedule in March and Ananya is all praise for her co-star.

In a recent interview with Mid-day, the Pati Patni Aur Woh actress said that she is quite happy to work with Vijay Deverakonda and finds him quite humble and grounded.

The tabloid quoted Ananya as saying, "I have yet to meet someone who is so grounded and humble despite being such a huge star. He is kind and soft spoken."

Ananya is foraying into the south film industry with Fighter. When asked if language is a barrier for her, the actress said, "We both are entering different territories; I am new to south cinema, and Vijay is foraying into Hindi cinema. So, we both are nervous and can relate to the other's state of mind. I have a strong character arc in the film, and my part is pivotal. So, it has been a liberating experience to be part of such a film. Also, at the end of the day, I think content is all that matters. We shouldn't divide the industries on the basis of language. Parasite (Korean film, 2019) winning at the Oscars has shown that language isn't a barrier anymore. Actually, the film will be released in five languages. So when we go into dubbing, I will try and dub in as many languages as I can."

While Ananya is learning Telugu for the film, Vijay recently revealed that he will be dubbing his own lines for the Hindi version. The film will be releasing in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

The Vijay Deverakonda-Ananya Panday starrer will be produced jointly by Puri Jagannadh, Charmme Kaur, Karan Johar and Apoorva Mehta.

What's Bothering Vijay Deverakonda Amid Coronavirus Lockdown?

Woohoo! Ananya Panday Clocks 10 Million Followers On Instagram
(CNN) -- Schools around the world have been shut to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, but one team of scientists is questioning whether the havoc the closures are causing to millions of people is actually worth it -- suggesting that the impact on the pandemic might be smaller than previously thought.

A new study by researchers at University College London said recent modeling studies of Covid-19 suggest that school closures alone would prevent only 2% to 4% of deaths -- far fewer than other social distancing interventions.

The research, published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health medical journal late on Monday, reviewed 16 studies looking at past epidemics of SARS, MERS and seasonal flu, as well as others modeling the spread of the novel coronavirus, and found that the evidence to support national closures of schools to combat Covid-19 is "very weak."

"Data from the SARS outbreak in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Singapore suggest that school closures did not contribute to the control of the epidemic," the researchers said.

Data so far suggests that while children can be infected with the novel coronavirus, they are likely to experience only mild symptoms.

Of the of first nearly 45,000 confirmed cases in China, there were no deaths of anyone younger than 10. In the US, cases of Covid-19 in children made up less than 2% of the 149,760 laboratory-confirmed cases occurring in the country between February 12 and April 2.

But while their symptoms may be mild compared to those experienced by adults with the virus, children can still spread Covid-19 to more vulnerable people, which is why many governments took the decision to shut schools.

According to UNESCO, nationwide school closures are currently impacting over 91% of the world's student population -- roughly 1.6 billion children and young adults. The UN agency said that 188 countries have implemented nationwide closures.

This isn't something policymakers decided on a whim. Past experiences have shown that shutting schools early in a seasonal flu epidemic can help slow down the spread of the disease and reduce the number of people who get sick. But the UCL study suggests that while this may be true for the flu -- which tends to be spread by children -- it doesn't necessary hold true for outbreaks of other diseases.

The scientists suggest that policymakers should consider other "less disruptive social distancing interventions in schools," especially if the pandemic-related restrictions need to be in place for a long time.

Keeping schools open for the children of key workers, or staggering school start and finish times, may be a way forward. Close monitoring of students' health, for example through temperature checks, and sending kids with symptoms home, could be another solution.

But some experts have warned against jumping to conclusions based on one study.

Neil Ferguson, director of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London and the author of the epidemiological study that has informed the British government's plan to tackle the epidemic, told the Science Media Centre that the UCL researchers had failed to consider the impact of school closures in combination with other lockdown measures.

"While school closure as a measure on its own is predicted to have a limited effectiveness in controlling Covid-19 transmission, when combined with intense social distancing it plays an important role in severing remaining contacts between households, and thus ensuring transmission declines," he said.

When considering whether or not to shut schools, policymakers must balance the need to protect public health with the huge disruptive effects such closures can cause.

Scientists are increasingly warning of the potential impact of long-term school closures on the mental health and wellbeing of children, warning that more research is needed.

"The longer schools, colleges and universities are closed, we do risk the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people who are vulnerable because of the situation created by self-isolation and social distancing policies," Catherine Carroll-Meehan, from the School of Education and Sociology at the University of Portsmouth, told the Science Media Centre.

With children forced to stay at home, a large proportion of working parents are likely to miss work.

Previous studies in the United Kingdom and the United States have shown that as many as 30% of healthcare workers have children they would need to take care of if schools were closed. A separate study published in The Lancet last week estimated that one in seven frontline medical workers in the US may miss work to care for their children when US schools are closed.

Another common solution -- leaving children with their grandparents -- is particularly risky in the case of Covid-19, as the elderly are among those most vulnerable to the virus.

The economic costs of shutting schools can snowball quickly. Studies in the US have showed that as much as 3% of America's GDP could be lost as a result of an eight-week closure of US schools.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "School closures may only have a small effect on stopping coronavirus, study says"
REGINA - The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency says nearly 400 complaints about people violating COVID-19 health orders have been made to a toll-free line.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe speaks with the media on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Tuesday November 12, 2019. Police in Regina say a 23-year-old woman ticketed nearly $3,000 for violating a public health order had tested positive with COVID-19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

REGINA - The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency says nearly 400 complaints about people violating COVID-19 health orders have been made to a toll-free line.

The province launched the phone line March 25 to handle pandemic-related questions not pertaining to health.

It said it has received 397 calls about potential violations since March 28.

Police in Regina confirmed Tuesday that a 23-year-old woman ticketed nearly $3,000 for violating a health order had tested positive for COVID-19.

"Typically, a police service would not give out health information, but it has been deemed necessary to confirm the individuals COVID-19-positive status in this case, given the circumstances we all face with the COVID-19 pandemic," police spokeswoman Elizabeth Popowich said in a release.

Officers had announced Monday that the woman was given the ticket under the Public Health Act for not following a 14-day mandatory self-isolation rule.

Popowich said public health officials are leading the investigation as to where the woman had been and whom she had contact with.

A spokeswoman for the Saskatchewan Health Authority didn't release further details, citing privacy legislation.

"Contacts who were at risk of exposure will be communicated with directly as part of the contact tracing process that occurs and provided direction regarding care," said Amanda Purcell.

"If, during a contact investigation, the local medical health officer believes they cannot identify those at greatest risk for exposure  a public alert related to a specific case will be issued."

Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

To slow the spread of COVID-19, the province's chief medical health officer has ordered the closure of many businesses, banned gatherings of more than 10 people and made self-isolation mandatory for people returning from international travel and those who have the virus.

Premier Scott Moe last month granted powers to police agencies to enforce the orders and asked people who know if others are not self-isolating to call police.

On Tuesday, the province reported seven new cases of COVID-19, bringing its total to 260. Three residents have died, seven are in hospital and 88 have recovered.

The Ministry of Health said most of the cases are related to travel.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 7, 2020.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story; a previous version said the phone line launched a week ago
There is growing hope in Fine Gael and Fianna Fail that they can put together proposals for government that will entice at least one smaller party to enter a coalition.

Senior politicians from both parties met again last night as they thrashed out a framework document on tackling the coronavirus crisis, as well as issues in housing and health, that can be presented to the Green Party, Social Democrats and Labour.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said such parties should not be bullied into government, while saying he does not see a second election taking place.

Tanaiste Simon Coveney said he hoped the framework document might "surprise" some people in terms of the "change" it offers.

A senior Fianna Fail source last night said that progress continues to be made in the talks with Fine Gael and the party "remains hopeful that smaller parties will engage and ultimately participate in producing a programme for government".

The negotiating teams from both parties are to meet again tomorrow or Thursday as they continue to finalise the framework document.

Both parties have said they want a solid Dail majority, but Fine Gael and Fianna Fail only have 72 seats of the required minimum of 80.

The Greens, Social Democrats and Labour have all expressed reluctance to enter coalition with the two larger parties and Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have ruled out a deal with Sinn Fein.

Failure to get a small party on board would leave the potential government relying on several Independent TDs to elect a Taoiseach.

Mr Varadkar last night said he does not envisage a second election taking place. He said that if the two larger parties agree a framework for government it will be presented to the smaller parties with an understanding that they will want key parts of their agendas implemented.

"It's not our view that we should try to bully any party into government," he said. "There shouldn't be any forced marriages in a democracy."

He said he was "absolutely sure" that the Green Party won't take part in a government unless there is a strong climate action and biodiversity agenda. He identified "making universal healthcare a reality in Ireland" as a key focus of the Social Democrats and noted that Labour has a "huge interest in areas like health and childcare and housing".

"So what we're saying really to those parties is we want and need a third pillar in this government, and we wouldn't expect for a second that you would enter government unless a big part of your core agenda was a part of that government's mission as well," added the Taoiseach.

Mr Coveney told South East Radio he hoped the framework document "might surprise a few people in terms of how open it is to quite fundamental change in a number of areas".

He added: "I hope that perhaps some of those parties may change their mind and engage and work with us to put together a very ambitious programme for government."
A nurse working in Brisbanes Princess Alexandra Hospital has tested positive for coronavirus, with six of her colleagues also in isolation.

The nurse was among 13 new cases made public on Tuesday, bringing the states cumulative total to 934.

Queensland Health released a statement late on Tuesday confirming the nurse had tested positive to the disease, and that she was working in the hospital's infectious diseases unit dealing with patients who are suffering from COVID-19.

A nurse working with COVID-19 patients in Brisbane's PA Hospital has hersefl tested positive for the virus. Credit:Bradley Kanaris

They would not release any more details about the nurse, citing patient confidentiality, but did say that six other employees from the infectious disease unit have also gone into isolation as a precaution.
For years, prior to the privatisation and commercialisation exercise of year 2013 that was supervised by the Bureau of public Enterprises with the corruptly rooted emergence of eleven privatised electricity distribution companies(DISCOS) and six equally corruptly selected six privatised electricity generation companies(GENCOS), millions of Nigerians were without any source of electricity.

It was generally believed in some quarters that the involvement of the private entrepreneurs in the distribution of electricity power could see millions of deprived Nigerians getting hooked on to the national grid just as the perennial and pathetic situation of ELECTRICITY power generation and distribution which was classified as erratic was about to end if good investors are brought in to manage the substantial aspects of the electricity power sector. These aspirations and ambitions are a mirage.

But as expertly observed in the Mediterranean Journal of social sciences published around year 2014, "In spite of the privatisation of Nigeria's power sector, the industry is still plagued with sundry issues which generate a great cause of concern".

Aside perennial power supply failures all across Nigeria including Abuja the seat of power, the kind of Privatisation implemented in Nigeria in which cronies of politicians connived with some commission seeking agents affiliated to some rogue banking institutions to take over these services from the erstwhile POWER HOLDING COMPANY OF NIGERIA, the private owners have failed to improve on these expected services and to add salt to injury, the pricing has become way above the affordability of an average Nigerian struggling family.

Scholars identified as Isah and Peterside(2014) cited in the aforementioned journal acknowledged that the Privatisation of the electricity power sector in Nigeria produced the following adverse consequences-: retrenchment of many Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) workers; increase in electricity generation without corresponding increase in electricity supply or distribution; hijack of the privatisation programme by the Political and economic elites; Proliferation of Power Sector investors who have no cognate experience in the Power sector. Most of the core investors in the electricity power sector according to Ayodeji(2012) are owned by few political elites and their fronts.

The problem of power electricity distribution to Nigerians who are nevertheless made to pay through the nose has lingered and has exacerbated even as millions of Nigerians have complained that they are been short-changed by the Electricity Power Companies.

In Enugu, Kaduna, Lagos and Abuja, customers are on the receiving end of poor services by these badly administered power distribution companies and because these core owners are patrons of those wielding POLITICAL powers, it appears like there is virtually nothing that can be done to check these excesses and exploitative practices by these so called core investors in the ever disgraceful electricity power sector.

The current lockdown as a result of the consequences of CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC has brought out the worst criminal system of business by these distribution companies of the electricity power sector. In Lagos, a group of soldiers who have had enough of the poor services of the core investors in that segment of the electricity power sector matched straight to an office of the Lagos Electricity Distribution Company and beat the living hell out of the staff of the electricity company.

These sorts of confrontations have been witnessed since the privatisation of Nigeria's power sector in 2013.

In 2016 these new owners of DISCOS protested the incessant physical attacks they have faced from soldiers who like millions of Nigerians are sick and tired of the perennial power supply shortages and the exorbitant bills they are forced to pay or face electricity power disconnection. In Abuja where customers of electricity power are gravely shortchanged, a staff of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company was stabbed to death when the workers went to cut off electricity power supply to some customers. Since the lockdown most parts of Abuja are without electricity power supplies. Garki Area two is the worst affected. Nyanya and other satellite towns have been without light for days. So when the story came in that soldiers in Lagos beat up staff of electricity power company, there was apathy in Abuja by most people who thought that what happened to the electricity workers was right. These confrontations have gone on for as long as the perennial poor services have perdured.

Frustrated by these attacks, the 11 electricity distribution companies in the country under the aegis of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) had then in 2016 cried out to President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the brutality against the electricity workers by officers and men of the Nigerian armed forces, saying the assault on the workers is the height of impunity by soldiers. These pleadings fell on deaf ears even as the attacks have increased with every passing day that the electricity power supply has deteriorated.

Executive Director of ANED, Mr. Sunday Oduntan told journalists in Lagos that soldiers had been beating up electricity workers carrying out their legitimate duties for a number of years, without any action against such erring soldiers by the military authorities.

Oduntan called on Buhari to call soldiers to order, insisting that you cant continue to run a country, where soldiers will be beating our staff when we are only asking them to pay their bills.

Oduntan argued that the distribution companies have continued to receive insults and beating while they are not responsible for the poor power supply in the country.

We are the one that give you bill. We are the one that collect money from you. We are the one you will insult; we are the one you will beat. This morning, one of our staff, Mr. Abdulahi Mohammed in Zamfara State, around 10.0am this morning, was beaten up by soldiers. As usual with their impunity, soldiers from 1 Base Ammunition Depot in Gusau, Zamfara State, beat up the guy this morning because the guy went to disconnect them for not paying their electricity bill for over two years. That is the kind of problem we are facing in the sector. You cannot continue to beat our staff and say that you can get away with anything, Oduntan explained.

Oduntan also alleged that a serving army major had led a group of soldiers from Alamala Barracks under 35 Artillery Brigade Headquarters in Abeokuta to attack the workers under Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company.

Under Ibadan Disco, there is a place in Abeokuta called Alamala Barracks. Some soldiers led by a major from Alamala Barracks went to a place called Rounda and beat up one of our distribution staff. I have the picture of the man with serious injuries. Up till today, nothing has been done by the military. We call on the Federal Government, particularly, the President, who is a retired general himself, to call his boys to order, Oduntan added. The President is not known to act rapidly to take action to stem the tide of indiscipline anywhere including in both tje corrupt partly privately owned electricity supply companies. These electricity companies whilst complaining about been beating failed to address the issues related to corription and inefficiency in their services. But they are quick to disconnect customers for not paying for these poor services.

The media further reported then in 2016 that Discos commenced a mass disconnection of legacy debtors to protest the huge unpaid electricity bills by this class of consumers.

The body had revealed that government establishments, including the military and security agencies alone, owed the Discos some N93 billion.

The figure, it said, comprised N39.1 billion pre-privatisation of electricity assets and N39.5 post-privatisation.

But the truth is that these new ownership pattern of the electricity power sector is a HOUSE OF FRAUD and these fraudulent practices are overwhelming. In 2015, the media reported that a major labour crisis was unfolding at the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company over an alleged fraudulent allocation of outrageous salaries and perks to a few officials.

While a privileged few draw as high as N36 million a month from the public liability company that is operating on deficit, majority of equally qualified and even more critical staff absorbed from the previous government-owned Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, receive peanut, the section of the media had found out so reports an onlune newspaper.

Recall that after the privatisation of PHCN, the Nigerian government reportedly retained substantial stake in the distribution companies, including the Abuja DISCO.

This reportedly means the government is entitled to part of the profit. But this must happen only after the operation cost of the company, comprising overhead and personnel cost, are deducted. This arrangement i must say is riddled with corription and insider abuses because all tjat these provate so called investors need to do to deny government and the Nigerian people any benefits from the profits of their businesses is to continue to recruit all sorts of ghosts as staff and to cook up the books to retire some siphoned fund. This is precisely what the media found out years back.

The online media reported that for the past two years as at 2015 the Abuja Electricity Distribution company recorded only losses instead, but at the same time paid outrageous salaries to a select few.

The media house that investigated and discovered that the highest paid director takes home N36 million a month, while a staff with Ordinary National Diploma, OND, takes home as high as N1.9 million monthly.

While this select few earn jumbo perks, majority of the key staff retained from PHCN are paid peanuts  between N50, 000 to N150, 000.

According to the companys financial statement prepared by KPMG, as at December 31, 2014, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Companys revenue increased from N36.01 billion in 2013 to N48.1 billion.

Yet, the media investigator found out that the company declared a higher loss of N25.61 billion in 2014, up from N13.37 billion in 2013.

Notwithstanding the loss, the companys administrative expenditure nearly doubled  from N13.67 billion in 2013 to N24.93 billion in 2014.

The highest paid director in the company (believed to be the Managing Director), who received N5.67 million as salary monthly in 2013, had his pay reviewed by over 640.7 percent, to N36.33million, according to the report obtained by the investigative journalist who did a deep professional job in 2015.

Six directors who received between N3.5million and N4million a month in 2013 also got a raise to between N145 million and N150 million annual pay.

Within the year, N719.7million was also spent on salaries and other short-term benefits to key management personnel compensation. These corrupt practices are exactly why there is absolute lack of effectiveness and efficiency because the institution is simply turned into a cash cow for some politically exposed Nigerians and their cronies in the Bureau of public Enterprises.

The media investigative staff found out that after the privatization of PHCN, about 3,601 former workers of the defunct company were re-engaged on November 1, 2013, by the new firm. The workers were retained mostly as casual staff.

The Abuja distribution company recruited another set of employees in 2014, either as permanent or contract staff.

Although the companys approved salary structure obtained by an online media house reportedly ranged between N47, 186.80 for the least paid staff on grade level JS1 step 1, and N1.137.069.17 for the highest paid official on grade level EG1, some categories of staff received far ahead of those allocations.

It would seem that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission is also a gang member in these corrupt practices going on in the distribution and generation companies which is why there is a wide chasm in oversight responsibility to stop the disparity in wages. How indeed do we expect the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to stop the financial malpractices when that body is itself deeply enmeshed in corrupt practices? And then here is a more startling revelation-: the payroll reflects a huge disparity in favour of the new employees.

The online newspaper reported that although some of the new employees lack technical competence and practical experience, they were made to pocket between N1.2 million and N1.9 million per month.

Their colleagues from PHCN the paper recalled receive between N50, 000 and N200, 000 per month, irrespective of qualification and experience. Only a few of the older workers earn N200, 000 and above so reported the major online newspaper.

The online media reported then that the huge disparity in salary between the different categories of workers is fuelling discontent in the company.

Recall that the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company is one of the 11 successor power distribution companies (DISCOs) of PHCN just as It was created to undertake electricity distribution activities and related business in Niger, Kogi and Nasarawa states and the Federal Capital Territory.

The company is owned 60 percent by KANN Utility Company Limited, a joint venture between Xerxes Global Investment Ltd, CEC Africa Investment Ltd and Abuja Electricity Distribution Plc.

The Nigerian Government controls 40 percent of the company through the Bureau of Public Enterprises, which has 32 percent, and the Ministry of Finance which owns eight percent.

Prior to the power sector privatization exercise, BPE had disengaged over 4,000 former PHCN employees on October 31, 2013, as part of the winding down process.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, the electricity sector regulatory agency, confirmed to the ONLINE media house that AEDC was later allowed to re-engage about 3,601 of the workers for an initial contract period of six months.

The online media reported it viewed parts of the companys financial statement and these showed that at the completion of the re-engagement process, 3,658 workers were on the companys payroll in 2013, consisting Administration (845), Finance (399), Marketing (1,116) and Technical (1,298).

The figure, however, fell to about 2,243 in 2014, with Administration having 320, Finance (279), Marketing (859) and Technical (785).

At the expiration of the initial contract period in 2014, NERC explained that each worker was issued fresh re-engagement letters as permanent or contract staff, in line with the AEDCs framework of employee remuneration and public service rules.

Apart from discriminatory salaries, the casual workers are denied vacation and proper medical attention, despite performing similar jobs and exposed to same hazardous conditions at work on a daily basis, one of the affected workers confided in the reporter.

At that time as reported it would seem that Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences commission waded into these accusations of underhand tactics and frauds in the Abuja electricity distribution company but for five years these issues are still lingering.

The media had reported in 2015 that ICPCs invitation letter had asked the affected AEDC top officials to provide for examination the statute/law/enabling Act establishing the company; the companys nominal roll since 2013, and certificate of compliance in recruitment process from the Federal Character Commission (Premium Times).

The officials were reportedly also asked to furnish the Commission with the companys payroll for June 2015; company policy; list of contracts awarded from January 2013; statement of Account; statement of salary accounts as well as recruitment report detailing advertisements, short listings, result sheets/scores since 2013.

The spokesperson for ICPC, Rasheedat Okoduwa, who confirmed to this online media (Premium Times) that the AEDC top officials had honoured the invitation on August 4, 2015, however did not give details, saying she was not authorized to speak to the media on the issue. Little wondsr these matters were swept under the carpets of impunity by ICPC.

These crises of corruption as comprehensively covered by Premium Times have not abated. The most disturbing phenomenon is that millions of the customers of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company are badly short-changed even as most of them live in darkness all the times and end up paying so much for the darkness.

The complains of Nigerians is that it is an act of wickedness for President Muhammadu Buhari to ask them to stay at home for two weeks when the electricity power distribution companies are only distributing darkness. Nothing has been done even when the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT itself constituted a committee to review the electricity power sector privatisation in Nigeria which is hobbled by corruption. The committee is headed by the kaduna state governor who also was part of the setting up of BPE. BPE is part of the mess in the privatisation exercise in the electricity power sector. Will anything good come from this committee? I have my strong doubts. Nigerian government is very insensitive to have failed to provide palliatives after caging peope in their houses on LOCKDOWN amid erratic power supply shortages.

In a neighbouring nation of Ghana whereby they were asked to stay home whilst the government contains the spread of the CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC, the government of Ghana has paid three months water bills for the citizens as palliatives. Nigerians had asked for just one month electricity bill to be written off by government but nothing of sych happenedand in Enugu the customers woke up on April 7th 2020 to be told that there is 200% hike in the TARRIFF of electricity and these peoplelive perpetually in darkness. In Ghana the government is responsible and responsive to the yearnings of the citizens.

A Ghanaian newspaper reported that as part of the measures taken to combat the novel Coronavirus pandemic, government have absorbed the water bill for all Ghanaians for the next three months [April, May and June].

In his fifth address to the nation, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo instructed all water tankers [publicly and privately owned] to mobilised to ensure that there is constant water supply all vulnerable communities.

He noted that, "the Ghana Water Company Ltd and the Electricity Company of Ghana have been directed to ensure the stable supply of water and electricity during this period. In addition, there will be no disconnection of supply."

The poor services the electricity power sector consumers in Nigeria are facing with the attendant consequences of collapse of several small and medium sized businesses have made millions of Nigerians including this Writer to support the move by President Muhammadu Buhari to review the electricity power sector privatisation if it will be just, fair and professionally executed without the practice of favouritism and sectionalism for which President Muhammadu Buhari is known for.

Buhari is one President under whose watch favouritism and nepotism have become widespread with the President appointing only his cousins, nephews and religious affiliates into key national offices. Nigerians are asking that if any review in the electricity power sector privatisation exercise is to be carried out then it must be transparent and the South African example should be borrowed as a model.

A South African publication last year said that according to the Ministry of Energy, South Africas total domestic electricity generation capacity is 51,309 megawatts (MW) from all sources. Approximately 91.2%, or 46,776 MW, comes from thermal power stations, while 4,533 MW, or 8.8%, is generated from renewable energy sources.

Conventional thermal power sources will likely be the dominant source of electricity generation for the foreseeable future but its share of total capacity is likely to decrease as more renewable generation comes online in the coming years so the publication revealed.

South Africas Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) for utility-scale transactions signed 27 power purchase agreements in June 2018, and plans to add 19,400 MW of new renewable generation by 2030 according to the draft updated Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) released in August 2018.

South Africa is also being futuristic and visionary.

The Ministry of Energy has reportedly drafted an updated Integrated Resource Plan which will prescribe the energy mix to address demand to 2050. This is a nationthat is looking ahead and yet the Nigerian politucal class are bragging about that Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa. How can you run the largest economy in Africa when two third of the Nigerian population are wuthout ELECTRICITY power? 90 million Nigerians are absolutely poor and so do not have light.

In South Africa however, the new IRP focused on increases in photovoltaic solar panels while reducing coal fired generation and no new civil nuclear power plants, says the report compiled by international experts.

The South African government has also reportedly signed 27 new renewable energy projects under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program in 2018 representing 2,130 MW of generation capacity. Power Africa supports the REIPPP through the Southern Africa Energy Program.

Nigeria needs to quickly unbundle these houses of FRAUD known as Distribution Companies and Generation Companies in the electricity power sector and give the jobs to the most competent investors and not cronies of politicians and commission agents of banks. It is in doubt if this government of NEPOTISM and SECTIONALISM can achieve these lofty objectives. Only time shall tell.

Emmanuel Onwubiko is the Head of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria and [email protected] ; www.emmanuelonwubikocom; www.thenigerianinsidernews.com ; [email protected]
OnePlus has released a new beta update for the OnePlus 6T and OnePlus 6, which includes users in India. The new update is said to bring the March Android security patch as well as work-life balance features, Zen Mode v1.5.0, and other bug fixes and optimizations. Although the latest update does not add anything new as far as the features are concerned, one can hope that they will be considered in the following days. It is worth noting that the OnePlus 7T series recently got a new update bringing improvements to slow-mo videos, the March security patch and more. Although the Chinese phone-maker is eagerly waiting to release its flagship OnePlus 8 series, we already know that the company is working on features like Always-on Display, Instant Translation, and Expanded Dark Mode option.

While the March 2020 Android Security Bulletin was published at the beginning of the month, it was made available to Google's Android partners in February. It is safe to assume that the company likely had the March 2020 patches since February this year, and similarly, had the April 2020 Android Security Bulletin since March this year. Having said that, it is believed that the company is not able to make the patches available right after Google publishes them because of many changes that the company and others OEMs often carry out to the Android Framework and Linux Kernel, as well as OnePlus own timeline for update rollouts and beta testing

Here's the changelog shared by OnePlus for OnePlus 6t and OnePlus 6:

System

Now unlock the LockBox without any problems in File Manager

No more crashes in the Launcher with apps in a full-screen display

Got rid of blank screens while clearing up the background apps

Updated Android Security Patch to 2020.03
MySA.com is compiling the latest headlines on the COVID-19 pandemic and its affects in the San Antonio area.

Total Coronavirus count: Confirmed COVID-19 cases shot up, with a total of 503 San Antonio area residents testing positive for the virus, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said at Tuesdays briefing. Of those, 150 patients were infected by community transmission, while 179 cases were attributed to close contact, such as catching the virus from a family member. On Tuesday, 88 were hospitalized. Of those patients, 51 remained in intensive care, while 40 were on ventilators.

Five more nursing home residents die: Five more residents of Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center have died after contracting coronavirus, bringing the total there to eight, city officials said Tuesday. One other person separately died of complications from the virus, bringing the citys overall death toll to 18.

VIA bus driver in S.A. tests positive:A bus driver for VIA Metropolitan Transit has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, but she reportedly is experiencing no symptoms. The driver, whose name has not been released, last worked on Tuesday, March 31, and called in sick the next day, according to a statement released by VIA.

North East, Southwest ISDs delay board elections: Several municipalities and school districts with elections scheduled for May 2 are taking action this week to reschedule them. The North East and Southwest independent school district boards each voted unanimously Tuesday to postpone their elections to Nov. 3.

S.A. teachers share tips for online learning: Its been almost three weeks since most San Antonio schools transitioned to distance learning, with all student-teacher interactions  instruction, assignments, grading  moving online. And in that time, teachers say theyve learned a lot about making the process work, and what they want parents to know, too.

Planet K defiant in face of coronavirus: Last week, authorities had made a total of 21 visits to Planet K locations across the city, repeatedly issuing warnings and citations even as its employees said the chains owner, Austin resident Michael Kleinman, was refusing to shut down and forcing them to keep working. Finally, on Sunday, the city revoked its certificate of occupancy for a Planet K on Austin Highway, authorizing the disconnection of all electric, gas and water service there due to risk to life.

Gov. Abbott closes state parks: Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Historical Commission to temporarily close all state parks and historical sites to strengthen social distancing efforts during the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 cases continue to rise: Mayor Ron Nirenberg said 456 people have now tested positive, up from 410 reported Sunday. The number of deaths stands at 12, he said. Nirenberg also said the city is recommending people wear protective masks in public places where social distancing isn't possible.

COVID-19 Tracker: Interactive maps track coronavirus cases in San Antonio, Texas counties and the U.S.

CURBSIDE: An updated list of San Antonio restaurants offering takeout and delivery

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:
Josh Brodesky, editor of the editorial pages at the San Antonio Express-News, and metro columnist Gilbert Garcia have been honored by the Best of the West journalism contest.

Brodesky won first place in the editorial writing category for an editorial describing how a homeless man, held on a nonviolent misdemeanor charge because he could not post $500 bond, spent two weeks in the Bexar County Jail and died there  without ever having appeared before a judge.

Brodesky also won second-place honors in the special topic column writing category.

Joshs words are a paring knife that cuts to the truth in just a sentence, wrote one of the contest judges. On a technical level, his ability to build contrasts between the words and the reality of his subjects is lyrical. But his depth of knowledge is that of an investigative reporter. How can you read Joshs columns and not be moved, not be outraged, and not learn about what justice looks like?

On ExpressNews.com: Editorial: Is the Bexar County jail ready for COVID-19?

Garcia won second place in general interest column writing for a selection of columns on former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, current Gov. Greg Abbott and former El Paso Congressman Beto ORourke.

Excellent examples of reporting and writing with authority, the category judge wrote, adding: No wasted words.

On ExpressNews.com: Garcia: Abbotts church exemption validates public-health recklessness

Brodesky grew up in Arizona and holds a masters degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He was a reporter and columnist at the Arizona Daily Star and later a senior reporter at the Arizona Republic before joining the Express-News in 2013.

Garcia, a native of Brownsville, graduated from Harvard University and holds a masters degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Reagans Comeback: Four Weeks in Texas That Changed American Politics Forever, published in 2012 by Trinity University Press.

On ExpressNews.com: Garcia: The elusive enigma of electability

Best of the West was founded in 1987 to reward journalistic excellence and promote freedom of information. Its annual contest recognizes work by news organizations in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
Posted on: April 7, 2020 10:52 AM

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The Archbishop of Adelaide, Archbishop Geoffrey Smith, has today (Tuesday) been elected Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia. Archbishop Geoffrey assumes his new responsibilities with immediate effect as his predecessor, the Archbishop of Melbourne Philip Freier, retired from the primacy on 31 March.

In a first round of elections, held on 14 March, Archbishop Geoffrey won majorities in the Houses of Bishops and Laity; and the Bishop of Tasmania, Bishop Richard Condie, won a majority in the House of Clergy. A majority was required in all three houses.

A second round of electronic voting opened yesterday and concluded today. The Board of Electors cast their votes electronically, with the polls open for 24 hours. The General Secretary of the Anglican Church of Australia, Anne Hywood, announced the news shortly afterwards.

Archbishop Geoffrey will serve for an initial term of six years.

I am very conscious of the enormous privilege we the church have in sharing the mission of Christ, and the importance of unity in that task, Archbishop Geoffrey told the Anglican Communion News Service today. My prayer is that our unity might be strengthened to better enable the witness and work of the church in the world.
Formula One team Mercedes has made the designs of a new breathing device freely available to aid the fight against the coronavirus. Mercedes worked on the designs in conjunction with University College London. The Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) device helps patients with lung infections breathe more easily when an oxygen mask alone is insufficient. CPAP devices are in short supply in British hospitals, so engineers at UCL and Mercedes-AMG HPP worked to reverse engineer a device that could be manufactured rapidly by the thousands. The UCL-Ventura has now undergone patient evaluations at UCLH and across sister hospitals in the London area. After a British government order for up to 10,000, the devices are being produced at a rate of up to 1,000 a day at the HPP technology centre in Brixworth, Northamptonshire. Andy Cowell, Managing Director of Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains, said: "Since the project was announced, we have received an incredible number of enquiries about the CPAP device from around the world. "Making the design and manufacturing specifications openly available will allow companies around the world to produce these devices at speed and at scale to support the global response to Covid-19." UCLH critical care consultant Professor Mervyn Singer (UCL Medicine) added: This week we have seen the UCL-Ventura help dozens of patients with Covid-19 breathe more easily. "These devices can help to save lives by ensuring that ventilators, a precious resource, are used only for the most severely ill. "We and others are finding that a significant proportion of patients treated with CPAP can avoid mechanical ventilation." F1 team Mercedes has made designs of a new breathing device freely available in the fight against the coronavirus
" " Queen Elizabeth II views the Royal Dockyard Chapel restoration and meets local people involved with the project during an official visit on April 29, 2014, in Pembroke Dock, U.K. Bethany Clarke/Getty Images

Queen Elizabeth II, who is in her 90s, has ruled longer than any other monarch in British history. But at this point, is the British monarch's role purely ceremonial, or does she or he hold any real political power?

That turns out to be a complicated question. Even though the United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, it doesn't have a single codified constitution like the United States. Instead, the power balance between the Crown (the monarchy) and Parliament (the elected officials) is mediated by a set of rules known as constitutional "conventions," some of which are written down and others that are based on custom and tradition.

According to some of the oldest traditions, the queen is the ultimate source of power in the British government; the British legislature is formally known as "The Queen in Parliament." But as we'll see, in modern practice the queen wields no real political power to act independently of the wishes of Parliament or the prime minister.

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The Queen's Reserve Powers

Technically, the queen still retains certain political powers, known as her "personal prerogatives" or the "queen's reserve powers" (makes her sound like a superhero). Among those reserve powers are the power to appoint the prime minister, to open and close sessions of Parliament, and to approve legislation.

But those powers, says Philip Murphy, have been heavily restricted by constitutional conventions. Murphy is director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at University College London and author of "The Empire's New Clothes: The Myth of the Commonwealth."

"The Queen has powers, but the question is how much discretion does she have within those powers," says Murphy.

According to Robert Hazell, co-author of a report on the changing role of the monarchy, the queen has been effectively stripped of all personal discretion when it comes to the use of her reserve powers. She has no real choice when it comes to who is appointed prime minister, for example, or which bills are made into law. The voters and elected officials make those decisions, and her only real job is give a royal stamp of approval.

But that lack of true political power doesn't mean that the queen isn't powerful. The 19th-century British constitutional scholar Walter Bagehot wrote that the monarch has three essential rights: to be consulted, to encourage and to warn.

"What you're talking about there is not so much power as influence," says Murphy. And no one would argue that Queen Elizabeth isn't influential.

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Appointing the Prime Minister

One of the queen's most important reserve powers is to appoint a new prime minister. Queen Elizabeth has appointed 14 prime ministers starting with Winston Churchill in 1951 through Boris Johnson in 2019. The ceremony is called "kissing hands," but there's no actual kissing anymore.

According to convention, the day after a general election, the queen invites the leader of the party that won the most seats in Parliament to Buckingham Palace. The queen asks the leader whether he or she will form a government. The queen's question is fully ceremonial at this point, but Murphy says it underscores one of the monarch's main responsibilities  to ensure the continuity of the British government.

" " Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Theresa May at the start of an audience where she invited the former home secretary to become prime minister and form a new government at Buckingham Palace on July 13, 2016, in London. Dominic Lipinski/WPA Pool/Getty Images

Once the prime minister is chosen, the official royal register will say that "the prime minister Kissed Hands on Appointment," but that's not really true. The hand-kissing used to happen later in a private council meeting, but even that has gone away a royal spokesperson told The New York Times back in 2007.

What if the election results in a hung Parliament, in which no party wins a clear majority of the seats? It's still not up to the queen to pick a winner. Not that Elizabeth, who takes great pains to remain politically neutral, would ever want to.

In 2015, when pundits widely predicted a hung Parliament, "the queen very pointedly left London for the weekend," says Murphy. "She was clearly saying, 'Look guys, I don't want to be involved in this. You make your decision and then you come to me.'"

The last time a monarch replaced a prime minister was 1834, when King William IV fired the Whig reformer Lord Melbourne and appointed Sir Robert Peel.

The queen may remain stoically neutral in her public comments, but no one knows what goes on behind closed doors. The queen has a standing weekly meeting with the prime minister in which they presumably discuss the kingdom's most pressing political issues. We say "presumably" because the meetings are completely confidential.

"No one is taking minutes," says Murphy. "Even the queen's private secretary isn't there."

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Opening and Closing Parliament

Another of the queen's official powers is to open and close sessions of Parliament. She officially opens each new session of Parliament with the "Queen's Speech." For a telling example of the queen's lack of real political power, the speech is written by the incoming government, not her.

Sessions of Parliament can be ended in two ways: They can be dissolved, which only happens before a general election, or they can be "prorogued," which means that the Parliament goes into recess for a set time and can't pass any more bills.

" " The queen and Prince Philip arrive for the state opening of Parliament at the House of Lords on May 8, 2013, in London. Lewis Whyld - WPA Pool/Getty Images

The queen no longer has any power to dissolve Parliament. That was repealed with the 2011 Fixed-term Parliaments Act that automatically dissolves Parliament every five years, or earlier if two-thirds of Parliament votes for a new election, or if there's a no confidence vote.

She can still technically prorogue a session of Parliament, but even that is dictated by the will of the prime minister. In 2019, Boris Johnson asked the queen to prorogue Parliament so he could avoid opposition to his Brexit plans. The queen went along with it, because convention dictates that she follow the prime minister's advice. But the U.K. Supreme Court later ruled that Johnson's move was unconstitutional.

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Other Ceremonial Powers

As part of Britain's constitutional monarchy, the queen is obliged to give "Royal Assent" to all bills passed by Parliament before they can become law. The queen's approval is purely a formality at this point since the last time Royal Assent was refused was 1707, when Queen Anne blocked a bill to send a militia to Scotland.

As the sovereign head of state, the queen is also the head of the Armed Forces, which gives her the power to declare war and sign treaties. But like her other reserve powers, she exclusively acts under the advice of government ministers, including the prime minister.

She also gives out knighthoods and other awards for exceptional achievement and service twice a year, at New Year and in June on her official birthday (The monarch's birthday is always celebrated officially in June, regardless of when he or she was really born  it's a month guaranteed to have good weather.) But these honors are not hers to decide; committees of experts, along with government reps, present the list of people to be honored to her via the prime minister.

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The Perfect Constitutional Monarch?

Murphy points out that our conception of the role and powers of the monarch are wrapped up with the persona of the person sitting on the throne.

"In that sense, you can't distinguish between the functioning of monarchy in modern Britain and Queen Elizabeth II," says Murphy. "She's been there so damn long. She's of a particular kind of character. She's very discreet. She isn't given to expressions of emotions. She isn't keen to tell everyone her views."

Still, she has received much praise for her encouraging address to the U.K. and the Commonwealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was only the fifth time in her 68-year reign that she had addressed her nation apart from her annual Christmas message.

One could argue, says Murphy, that Queen Elizabeth II has been the perfect constitutional monarch, an apolitical and beloved figure always careful not to cross the line of convention.

That may not be the case with future monarchs.

"Prince Charles has his pet issues which he's been quite active in preaching about," says Murphy. "He's notorious for writing long, rather hectoring letters to ministers."

Now That's Funny Even though she doesn't write the text of the Queen's Speech, Elizabeth II is free to pen her own Christmas Day addresses. True to her discreet and non-boat-rocking nature, however, the Christmas broadcasts are "incredibly dull," says Murphy.

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Originally Published: Apr 7, 2020
T he Foreign Office has been criticised for failing to offer repatriation flights to thousands of British nationals stranded in Punjab.

The Government has organised flights home for British citizens currently trapped in Goa, Mumbai, and Delhi due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, due to Indias Covid-19 lockdown, thousands of trapped British citizens in Punjab, a state with a majority Sikh population, cannot cross state borders to catch these flights.

British citizens stranded abroad and several Labour MPs have called on the Government to arrange flights from Amritsar, a city in Punjab.

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Labour MP for Slough, told the Standard he had been inundated with messages from a lot of very angry people [in Punjab] who feel they have been discriminated against.

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi has criticised the lack of flights home for British nationals in Punjab / AFP via Getty Images

The UK Government had decided originally that its policy would be to just leave it to the market, unless absolutely necessary, he said.

Thats not the approach other governments took, which acted quickly to repatriate their stranded citizens.

Im astounded as to why not even one of the original seven flights arranged by the Government is from Amritsar.

Mr Dhesi said he and others would ask the Government why rapid action was not taken.

Pardeep Nijjar, 30, a civil servant from Nottingham, is stranded in Punjab with his parents who are both running out of necessary medication.

The family booked several flights back to the UK which have all been cancelled.

Mr Nijjars mother, Baldip Kaur, 63, a receptionist and former nurse, has Parkinsons disease, and has only ten days' worth of medication left. After this she wont be able to function as normal, Mr Nijjar said.

She will have uncontrollable body spasms, be unable to control her speech, and be in pain all over her body.

Weve followed all guidance so far in trying to get medication here, but nothing has worked.

Mr Nijjar said his father Ajaib Singh, 65, a factory worker, is low on medication for his heart condition.

The stress of being stuck here and knowing the meds will run out, and waiting every day for news of a rescue flight is torture, he added.

Bally Kaur, 44, said her parents, both in their seventies, were trapped in Punjab, and had already spent nearly 2,000 on flights which have been cancelled.

The Foreign Office has not advertised any repatriation flights for Amritsar, she said.

Thats a massive oversight. Thousands of people [are] in the same position in Punjab. Movement is restricted in Punjab, police are beating anyone seen outside with bamboo sticks.

I just want my parents home.

Ms Kaur said she is also concerned that when the Government does arrange flights they will be very expensive. The repatriation flights she had seen from Delhi, Mumbai and Goa were priced between 500 to 600.

"These prices are extortionate given that my parents have no idea if they will ever get a refund [from their previous bookings]," she said.

"This is putting pensioners under massive financial difficulty."

Mani Sekhon, 42, from the West Midlands, said his 66-year-old father Mohan is stranded in Manawalia, a village in Punjab.

He is diabetic, and my familys concern is him being able to get medication, Mr Sekhon said. At the moment hes okay, but running really low.

There are another ten Brits also stuck [in Manawalia].

As there is currently state lockdown they are not able to travel to Delhi.

Mr Sekhon said he was really angry that, unlike other countries, the UK had not organised flights for their citizens out of Punjab.

The information from [the British High Commission in India] is unclear, he said. It is frustrating.

My father has been out there two weeks longer than he should have been.

Labour MP for Warley John Spellar told the Standard it was quite scandalous that the UK was so far behind other countries such as Germany and Canada in its repatriation efforts.

Labour MP John Spellar said the situation in Punjab and Pakistan was "quite galling" / UK Parliament

There is a large number of British people, including many pensioners, in Punjab  especially the Sikh community who are visiting family. They need to get home to their families.

Many have taken their medication with them, but now thats running out.

The government must now show some real urgency," he added.

Its particularly galling for people in Punjab and in Pakistan that so little has been done.

Its not as though we are asking for the impossible.

Emily Thornberry, Shadow Secretary for International Trade, tweeted on Sunday that the situation in Punjab showed there was "more to be done" by the Government.

"We know this is a difficult time for many British travellers in India, and we are working around the clock to bring them home," a spokesperson for the Foreign Office said.
News of Boris Johnsons worsening health in his personal battle against coronavirus has dominated UK front pages and provoked concern from media around the world.

The decision to move the prime minister to an intensive care unit (ICU) on advice of his medical team came as a shock to many and was an alarming escalation after Mr Johnson had previously described his symptoms as mild and tweeted earlier on Monday that he was in in good spirits.

From broadsheets to tabloids, British newspapers presented the news in stark terms: Johnson in intensive care, wrote The Daily Telegraph, while The Daily Mirror led with the headline Sick Boris faces fight for his life.

The Times reported Mr Johnson had not been intubated for ventilation but said he had needed four litres of oxygen, below the usual threshold of 15 litres for intensive care - a suggestion that he may be in better health than other patients in ICUs.

However, the newspaper noted that the deterioration in his health had been rapid and quoted a government minister who said it was a truly shocking moment.

The Daily Mail highlighted the decision to pick Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, as a crisis stand-in for the prime minister after Mr Johnsons health dramatically worsened and said Carrie Symonds, the PMs pregnant fiancee, was in agony as she was unable to see him in hospital.

Meanwhile, The Guardians columnist Simon Jenkins wrote that we can only wish [Mr Johnson] well and a speedy recovery but noted it must now be recognised that the machinery of power is malfunctioning during the Covid-19 crisis.

The rest of the world

Mr Johnsons health has also captured the attention of newspapers around the world, particularly in Europe and the US, where updates on his worsening condition have featured prominently on news websites.

In the US, The Wall Street Journal said the prime ministers illness had come at a critical juncture in the UKs coronavirus outbreak, noting research which has suggested the peak of the epidemic could be less than 10 days away.

CNN reported that his sickness had shocked the nation, while Fox News focussed on the response of Donald Trump, who said he was saddened by Mr Johnsons condition.

With the prime ministers condition worsening Monday, Britain plunged into a harrowing new phase in its struggle against the coronavirus, The New York Times wrote in its lead article on the PMs health.

Mr Johnson is in a debilitating battle after contracting a virus he initially viewed with characteristic nonchalance.

In France, Le Monde noted Mr Johnsons optimistic tweet on Monday afternoon but said the disease had now caught up with him.

The news also featured on websites in Spain, Germany and Italy, where La Repubblica gave a particularly grave assessment of the situation.

He is still conscious. The clarification that came from Downing Street shortly after 8 was chilling, the Italian newspaper said.

Now it is no longer a mystery: Boris Johnsons condition is serious.

The paper warned it was not just the fate of the prime minister that was now in question, but also the credibility of an entire medical, health and national system.
New York Citys death toll from the coronavirus rose past 4,000 on Tuesday, eclipsing the number killed at the World Trade Center on 9-11. In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson lay in intensive care, believed to be the first major world leader hospitalized with the virus.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This photo shows a hospital bed in one of the temporary rooms at the TCF Center, Monday, April 6, 2020, in Detroit. The city's convention center was converted to accommodate an overflow of patients with the coronavirus. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began construction at the TCF Center to create a quarantined hospital setting with 1,000 beds as the pandemic spreads rapidly in the city. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

New York Citys death toll from the coronavirus rose past 4,000 on Tuesday, eclipsing the number killed at the World Trade Center on 9-11. In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson lay in intensive care, believed to be the first major world leader hospitalized with the virus.

The twin developments came even as the crisis seemed to be easing or at least stabilizing, by some measures, in New York and parts of Europe, though health officials warned people at nearly every turn not to let their guard down. After 76 days, China finally lifted the lockdown on Wuhan, the city of 11 million where the outbreak began.

COVID-19's toll in New York City is now more than 1,000 deaths higher than that of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil, which killed 2,753 people in the city and 2,977 overall, when hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001.

New York state recorded 731 new coronavirus deaths, its biggest one-day jump yet, for a statewide toll of nearly 5,500, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

A lot of pain again today for many New Yorkers," he said.

In this March 19, 2020 photo, Luis Mendoza jokingly dons a hair net over his face given to him by a group handing out protective gear outside a popular market where he has come to beg for food with his 2-year-old daughter Alejandra, in Lima, Peru. The global COVID-19 pandemic has spotlighted the wide gap between the rich and poor in Latin America and economists say a looming economic recession worse than any since World War II could push the continent's long-suffering poor into even more dire circumstances. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

But in an encouraging sign, the governor said hospital admissions and the number of those receiving breathing tubes are dropping, indicating that social distancing measures are succeeding.

And alarming as the one-day increase in deaths might sound, the governor said thats a lagging indicator, reflecting people who had been hospitalized before this week. Over the past several days, in fact, the number of deaths in New York appeared to be levelling off.

You see that plateauing  thats because of what we are doing. If we dont do what we are doing, that is a much different curve, Cuomo said. So social distancing is working.

Medical staffer Wassim Kamari, who has symptoms of coronavirus, receives an x-ray of his lungs at the polyclinic Klinicare during a partial lockdown against the spread of Covid-19 in Brussels, Monday, April 6, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Still, 6-foot (2-meter) social distancing has become impossible at times in the city's subway system.

With service drastically reduced, essential workers are encountering some busy trains as they head to their jobs. Photos taken in Brooklyn showed riders sitting or standing within inches of each other, some not wearing face masks.

Across the U.S., the death toll neared 13,000, with close to 400,000 confirmed infections. Some of the deadliest hot spots were Detroit, New Orleans and the New York metropolitan area, which includes parts of Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut. New Jersey recorded over 1,200 dead, most of them in the northern counties where many residents commute into New York City.

Medical workers in protective suits entering a building under lockdown in downtown Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Tuesday, April 7, 2020. The Malaysian government issued a restricted movement order to the public to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

In London, the 55-year-old Johnson was in stable condition and conscious at a hospital, where he was receiving oxygen but was not on a ventilator, officials said. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was designated to run the country in the meantime.

For all of us in Cabinet, he is not just our boss. Hes also a colleague, and hes also our friend, Raab said. And Im confident hell pull through, because if theres one thing I know about this prime minister, hes a fighter.

Deaths in Britain reached nearly 6,200, after a one-day increase of almost 800.

A man reads a newspaper with the headline: 'PM in intensive care', outside St Thomas' Hospital in central London as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in intensive care fighting the coronavirus in London, Tuesday, April 7, 2020. Johnson was admitted to St Thomas' hospital in central London on Sunday after his coronavirus symptoms persisted for 10 days. Having been in hospital for tests and observation, his doctors advised that he be admitted to intensive care on Monday evening. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

President Donald Trump trained his anger at the World Health Organization and threatened to freeze U.S. funding for it, saying the international group had missed the call on the pandemic and that it was very China-centric.

Throughout his presidency, Trump has voiced skepticism toward many international organizations and has repeatedly heaped scorn on the WHO. In its most recent budget proposal in February, his administration called for slashing the U.S. contribution to the WHO from an estimated $122.6 million to $57.9 million.

Trump suggested the WHO had gone along with Beijings efforts months ago to minimize the severity of the outbreak. The WHO has praised China for its transparency on the virus, even though some public health experts regard the country's figures with suspicion.

People ride an escalator up toward a train station Tuesday, April 7, 2020, in Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency on Tuesday for Tokyo and six other prefectures to ramp up defenses against the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

They should have known and they probably did know, Trump said of WHO officials.

On Wall Street, a strong rally propelled by signs that the outbreak may be levelling off in some hard-hit parts of the world evaporated after the price of crude oil suddenly fell. Stocks ended the day slightly lower.

Elsewhere, Chinese authorities ended the lockdown on Wuhan, and tens of thousands of residents travelled in and out of the sprawling industrial city. Residents must use a cellphone app showing that they are healthy and have not been in recent contact with anyone confirmed to have the virus.

Subway riders, wearing personal protective equipment due to COVID-19 concerns, step off a train, Tuesday, April 7, 2020, in New York. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

China, which officially recorded more than 82,000 infections and over 3,300 deaths, reported 62 new cases  59 of them brought from outside the country  and two additional deaths Wednesday.

In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a monthlong state of emergency in Tokyo and six other prefectures because of a spike of infections in the country with the world's oldest population. The order will close night entertainment.

My lifestyle will change. These are difficult times said Yoshiyuki Kataoka, 44, a nightlife industry worker. Maybe Ill become a recluse.

A member of the health staff team wearing a protective suit to protect against coronavirus, transfers a patient into an ambulance at the Severo Ochoa hospital in Leganes, outskirts of Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, April 7, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

In some European hot spots, as in New York, authorities saw signs that the outbreak was turning a corner, based on slowdowns in new deaths and hospitalizations.

In Spain, new deaths Tuesday rose to 743 and infections climbed by 5,400 after five days of declines, but the increases were believed to reflect a weekend backlog. Authorities said they were confident in the downward trend.

In Italy, with over 16,500 deaths, authorities appealed to people ahead of Easter weekend not to lower their guard and to abide by a lockdown now in its fifth week, even as new cases dropped to a level not seen since the early weeks of the outbreak.

A man wearing a mask walks alongside a mural of Ernesto "Che" Guevara as other pedestrians are reflected in the side-view mirror of a car in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, April 7, 2020. Cuban authorities are requiring people use masks outside their homes as a measure to help contain the spread of the new coronavirus. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

In France, the number of dead passed the bleak milestone of 10,000, climbing to more than 10,300, said Jerome Salomon, national health director.

We are in the epidemics ascendant stage, he said. We have not yet reached the peak. But he offered a glimpse of hope, saying the virus rate is slowing a little."

In the U.S., Surgeon General Jerome Adams said that if Americans continue to practice social distancing for the rest of April, we will be able to get back to some sense of normalcy.

One lockdown exception was Wisconsin, which asked hundreds of thousands of voters to ignore a stay-at-home order to participate in its presidential primary Tuesday.

Lines were particularly long in Milwaukee, the states largest city and a Democratic stronghold, where just five of 180 traditional polling places were open. Many voters statewide did not wear facial coverings.

Worldwide, about 1.4 million people have been confirmed infected and over 80,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are almost certainly much higher, because of limited testing, different rules for counting the dead and deliberate underreporting by some governments.

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For most people, the virus causes mild to moderate symptoms such as fever and cough. But for some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause pneumonia. About 300,000 people have recovered worldwide, by Johns Hopkins' count.

One of the main models on the outbreak, from the University of Washington, is projecting about 82,000 U.S. deaths through early August, with the highest number on April 16.

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Hinnant reported from Paris.

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Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
Janett Perez sings to her patients, though few can hear her. They are sedated, intubated, pushed to the brink of death by Covid-19. They lie unconscious in their beds as she tends to them.

They can still hear you, the intensive care nurse at Brooklyns Maimonides Medical Centre said. Besides, she is all they have.

They dont have family around. So we have to be their family.

The pandemic that has disrupted everything about the way people live has mercilessly altered the way they convalesce and die. Like every hospital in New York state, Maimonides has banned almost all visitors until the final hours before death, when a single family member is allowed to witness the passing.

The hospital is frantically expanding for the coming surge of Covid-19 patients, although officials acknowledge it will almost certainly overwhelm their efforts. Before that happens, its leaders allowed us access to some of the hospitals intensive care units and other floors last week, on the condition that patient privacy be protected.

Eighty per cent of the approximately 600 adult patients in the hospital Wednesday were infected with the new coronavirus. That proportion will surely increase until nearly every bed is filled with its victims, officials said.

Everyone at Maimonides is working harder, under more dangerous conditions, than ever before. In addition to mastering unfamiliar medical responsibilities, nurses like Perez stand in as spouse, child, sibling or parent to their patients.

Perez bustles between patients, some now two to a room meant for one. She moves quickly but purposefully, checking a monitor, gently rearranging limbs and tubing. And keeping up her chatter: The weather. The Lakers. Last weeks television show.

I talk to them like I would talk to my family or my friends, she said. Positivity goes such a long way. Positivity can heal a person. Positivity, good energy can just take away all the bad and infuse someone with goodness. Thats really what nursing is about.

It is a remarkable perspective. There is little reason for optimism on Tower 8, the surgical ICU floor where just a few weeks ago Perez saw people after strokes, car crashes and major operations. Most of the patients who reach this floor will die, often after lingering for two or even three weeks on ventilators, the desperately needed machines that force oxygen into clogged and inflamed lungs.

Hospital staff around the world have taken new levels of responsibility since the coronavirus outbreak (Getty)

Many covid patients pass away, Perez said. But you cant determine that others wont do well. Thats what we have to hold on to, is that hope that people will do better. And we have to treat them with the expectation that they will.

The overworked healthcare workers are now the only bridge between patients and their family outside. At perhaps the worst moment of their lives, relatives crave every scrap of information, good or bad. It must substitute for being there themselves. Only women in labour and children are allowed to have one person with them.

I talk about the ventilator, said Cheryl Martines, a nurse in the medical ICU, a floor below Perez on Tower 7. She explains to heartsick families how much work the machine is doing, why its important to wean the patient off the breathing device. She speaks in laymans terms.

I let them know were here for them, Martines said. Their family member is not alone, that were with them. We talk to them. We encourage them. And were praying for them.

But there is no denying the bleak prognosis for most. Its breaking our hearts to see people dying, without having, really, anything to help them, said Monica Ghitan, associate director for infectious disease.

One of the reasons that always attracted me to [infectious disease] is the fact that we cure people. We make people better. We give them medication, and they go home and enjoy their lives.

And now we have very little, if anything, to give.

ICU staff in particular have begun wearing PPE on a daily basis (Getty)

An independent teaching hospital in Brooklyns Borough Park neighbourhood, Maimonides is named for a 12th-century Jewish philosopher and physician. Its ethnically diverse staff serves a patient population that speaks more than 70 languages, including Urdu, Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Yiddish, Creole and Russian.

As the virus approached, the hospitals leadership began building, staffing and equipping the equivalent of a second hospital on the fly, inside and outside its walls. Maimonidess official capacity is 711 beds. In a week or two, officials intend to have 1,400.

An enormous tent outside the hospitals front lobby will hold 80 to 100 beds. There are beds in a rehab gym. The number of beds in an older, smaller cardiothoracic ICU were more than doubled.

Like most major medical centres, Maimonides had separate intensive care floors for heart patients, children and others. But in effect, they are all Covid-19 ICUs now. Nearly everyone else has been discharged to make room for coronavirus patients  sent to a rehab facility, perhaps, or home. Or told not to come in. Few people with complaints other than Covid-19 are even bothering to show up at the hospital.

On Wednesday, every bed in the medical ICU, whose capacity was increased from 20 to 26, held a Covid-19 patient. The surgical ICU, now at 25 beds, held 21 Covid-19 patients. Soon its capacity will rise to 39. It is barely enough now, and even with the expansion it probably wont be.

Maimonides has not yet experienced shortages of ventilators and protective garb that plague other hospitals. But there is a backlog of patients waiting for critical care beds. They are intubated in the emergency department, where a never-ending procession of ambulances brings patient after patient to a hastily erected triage tent outside.

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Our biggest issue is that the people we are caring for who are acutely and critically ill, it takes a very long time for them to show any signs of recovery, said Stephan L Kamholz, chief of pulmonary critical care. And some of the very first people who ended up on mechanical ventilation three, three-and-a-half weeks ago, are still on it  if theyre still alive.

One patient who was successfully taken off a ventilator recently was put back on after breathing problems recurred, Kamholz said.

He died last night, said Omar Taha, a pulmonary and critical care specialist.

Doctors and nurses hurry through the surgical ICU hallway, bathed in yellow light. There is no time for wasted motion. They wear white lab coats or blue gowns, with hair coverings, gloves, face masks and goggles, their shoes protected by disposable booties. Signs with colourful illustrations remind them of the importance of each measure. Without looking, they poke at ubiquitous hand sanitiser dispensers and rub their hands as they speed by.

Staff members have been repurposed. On Wednesday, a urologist, a trauma surgeon and a surgical oncologist were among the physicians working on Tower 8. With elective surgeries cancelled, orthopedists are pitching in elsewhere. They are all Covid-19 doctors now.

A lot of the disease process, were learning on the go, said Mehr Qureshi, the trauma surgeon, whose patients normally follow a steadier trajectory of improvement once they reach the ICU. The things that we thought were working before are not really working anymore. These patients can start to turn the corner, and then they get very sick very fast.

Makeshift emergency hospitals have been set up all around the world (Getty)

Monitors and IV poles have been moved into the hallway. This minimises the number of times nurses must enter the rooms of infectious patients, limiting their exposure to the virus and preserving the precious masks and gowns in short supply at other hospitals. Long plastic tubes run beneath the doors to the patients, bringing medication and sedatives.

The monitors beep. Their lights blink. Overhead, speakers blare orders with varying degrees of urgency.

In patient rooms, it is calmer, almost placid. On this sparkling spring day, large windows allow sunlight to wash across the motionless figures in the beds. Outside, the squat brick buildings of south Brooklyn stretch for miles.

In a hospital full of a deadly, highly contagious virus, front-line medical workers protect themselves with face masks, stoicism and prayer. Only a handful of Maimonides staff have tested positive for Covid-19 disease, though more have served 14-day quarantines after exposures. The hospital declined to release exact numbers.

The workers discuss the risk matter-of-factly. They measure it, take precautions and try to do their jobs.

At the end of the day, it has to be done. Somebody has to take care of these people, said Taha, the pulmonary specialist. Theres no time to be too concerned for ourselves. We take the proper precautions, and we do what we have to do for the patients.

Perez, the nurse, has moved from her home to a nearby apartment. She was afraid she would bring the virus home to her parents, her sister and her brother-in-law, who live with her.

Earnest, plain-spoken, she harbours no doubts about her role in the pandemic. She knows it will end sometime. Until then, her fate is in Gods hands, she said.

This is a battlefield, and weve turned ourselves from nurses into soldiers, in a sense, she said. We all took an oath, and we all have a responsibility to our patients. This is what every single nurse was meant to do. This is what we were born to do.

Recommended Johnson still in hospital as FO advises against travel indefinitely

Parita Soni, another pulmonary and critical care specialist who gave birth 27 January at Maimonides, has also moved out. She pumps breast milk during the day and drops it off with her husband, who bottle-feeds their daughter. But she lives in a small apartment five blocks from the hospital, separated from her firstborn by the virus.

Soni returned to work in recent days. I was very scared. But at the same time, all my colleagues are in this war, and I just cant stay home, she said.

The circumstances are taking a toll. Were seeing stress, seeing despair, seeing concern, Kamholz said. People who are appropriately capped, gowned and masked still have a concern about their own illness, and then, when they go home, they have concern about the safety of their loved ones and family. Thats a little bit different than other diseases.

Before each shift, Perez said, the staff on Tower 8 gets together to pray. Sometimes the group is led by a Jew, other times by a Christian, still others by a Muslim. The days prayer comes from the leaders faith, but it is, of course, for all.

Every single morning, we pray together as a team, whether theyre religious or not religious, she said. We pray in Islam. We pray in the Christian faith. We pray in the Jewish faith. We include everybody, and we pray every single morning. As a team.

The Washington Post
As in most of the country, normal routines have been cast aside in an effort to curb the virus. Gatherings of more than 10 people are forbidden. Businesses that were not deemed essential have closed, and restaurants have shut down their dining rooms. Students at the local school district were off last week for spring break, but starting this week, they will be taking online classes, with school canceled until at least April 17.
Fans should thank Hollywood star Chris Evans' mom Lisa Evans for pushing him to play Steve Rogers aka Captain America, as the actor was initially unwilling to take up the superhero part.

In an interview with Esquire, Lisa revealed that her superstar son was skeptical to take up the role because he was scared of becoming too famous.

His biggest fear was losing his anonymity. He said, I have a career now where I can do work I really like. I can walk my dog. Nobody bothers me. Nobody wants to talk to me. I can go wherever I want. And the idea of losing that is terrifying to me.'



I said to him, Look, you want to do acting work for the rest of your life? If you do this part, you will have the opportunity. You'll never have to worry about paying the rent. If you take the part, you just have to decide, 'It's not going to affect my life negatively it will enable it', Lisa said.

Chris made his debut as the Marvel superhero with Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and went on to reprise his role in films The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War , Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

In the final moments of last year's Endgame it was revealed that Steve travels back to the 1940's to live out his dream life with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and returns to the present as an old man to pass his shield on to Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson aka Falcon.

Lisa said seeing Chris as an old man in the film was an emotional moment for her as he resembled his late granddad exactly."



After completing his decade long journey in Marvel Cinematic Universe, the actor's last release was Rian Johnsons' Knives Out.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- With restrictions around social gatherings, Alcoholics Anonymous has switched to holding many of their meetings online.

The chair of the Emerald Valley Intergroup, a group that supports AA activities in our area, said meetings at jails and hospitals have been put on hold. The chair, who didn't want to be identified, said many meetings are now held through the video conferencing website Zoom.

"It was a little bit cumbersome at first to get used to it, but we fall into the groove, we're a very respectful bunch," she said.

One volunteer who also didn't want to be identified said there are still some in-person meetings happening because not everyone has access to the internet. He said people at those meetings are practicing social distancing.

"They have hand sanitizer. Most AA meetings have a coffee service, and I think that's been pretty much shut down now," the man said.

U.S. sales of alcoholic beverages rose 55% in the week ending March 21, according to market research firm Nielsen. Spirits like tequila, gin and pre-mixed cocktails led the way, with sales jumping 75% compared to the same period last year. Wine sales were up 66% while beer sales rose 42%.

The Emerald Valley Intergroup provides information on all meetings that are taking place on their website. They also have a book store and a support phone line that takes calls 24 hours a days, seven days a week. Leaders at the group said they plan to keep their office open to help others stay sober.

"I can't change anything about what's going on in the world, but I can be available for people who reach out for help," the man said.

The number for the support line is 541-342-4112. Narcotics Anonymous is also holding meetings online.
The Big Brother compound at Manly North Head in Sydney was boarded up on Saturday after the Channel Seven reboot wrapped filming several weeks early.

Daily Mail Australia's exclusive pictures show the purpose built set looking deserted with fixtures falling apart, just 24 hours after the housemates moved out.

It's believed production was 'accelerated' due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after a coronavirus scare on set had forced filming to stop for two days in March.

It's a wrap! The Big Brother compound at Manly North Head in Sydney was boarded up on Saturday after the Channel Seven reboot wrapped filming several weeks early

The outdoor seating area, swimming pool and small gym set-up on the synthetically turfed lawn were eerily empty on Saturday.

The adjoining production units and storage facilities were also deserted following the departure of all staff members.

Earlier in the day, the crew had cleared out their belongings before heading home.

Ghost town: Daily Mail Australia's exclusive pictures show the purpose built set looking deserted with fixtures falling apart, just 24 hours after the housemates moved out

Nothing to see here: The outdoor seating area, swimming pool and small gym set-up on the synthetically turfed lawn were eerily empty on Saturday

The compound's front entrance, which the housemates had used for their arrivals and exits, was boarded up.

Additionally, one of the circular plastic light panels leading up to the front entrance had come loose and was swinging in the wind.

The entire production resembled a ghost town.

No one around: It's believed production was 'accelerated' due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after a coronavirus scare on set had forced filming to stop for two days in March

Closed for business: One of the circular plastic light panels leading up to the front entrance had come loose and was swinging in the wind

Contingency plan: According to TV Blackbox, production was accelerated after a COVID-19 scare had caused the set to be shut down for 48 hours in late March

According to TV Blackbox, production was accelerated after a COVID-19 scare had caused the set to be shut down for 48 hours in late March.

Production company Endemol Shine Australia then sped up the filming process so they wouldn't have to halt shooting again.

Apparently there is no winner because this will be decided in a live public vote once the series goes to air.

The reboot will air later this year with Sonia Kruger as host.

Coming soon: Apparently there is no winner because this will be decided in a live public vote once the series goes to air
Researchers have reportedly discovered the 90-million-year-old fossilized remains of a rainforest underneath Antarctic ice which reveals that the continent was warmer than what it is today. The finding suggests that the forests in Antarctica resembled the present-day forests of New Zealand during the mid-Cretaceous geographical period, over 145 million years ago. While it has been discovered that the period was the warmest in 140 million years, the sea level was 170 meters higher.

According to reports, the study concluded its findings based on the evidence from sediments collected at seabed near the Pine Island glacier in the west of Antarctica. The samples taken in the year 2017 revealed about the environmental condition of the Antarctic Polar Circle. A geologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, and studys first author Dr. Johann Klages, told a media outlet that the scientists studied well-preserved diverse fossil pollen and other plant remains in the sediment deposited some 90 million years ago near the South Pole. He said that the preserves in the sediment indicated that the coast of West Antarctica was actually a dense temperate, swampy forest.

Read: Japans PM Set To Declare Emergency As Coronavirus Cases Surge: Reports

Read: Countries Using Drones To Disinfect Public Places Amid Coronavirus Scare

Higher carbon dioxide levels

The scientists studied the depth of the roots preserved in the core of the sediment to discover the Antarctics past environments and climates. They then constructed a photograph of its landscape from millions of years ago. To achieve this, they CT-scanned the soil, as per media reports. According to the study, evidence of a mild climate has been found around 500 miles from the South Pole, with annual mean temperatures of around 12C and summer temperatures averaging at 19C.

The study also found that the rainfall recorded in the region was similar to the UKs Wales region. Therefore, the scientists inferred that Antarctica had climate similar to the UK 90 million years ago than what it has now, temperature ranging from -10C to -60C at its highest point. It was also discovered that the carbon dioxide levels in Antarctica's atmosphere millions of years ago used to be significantly higher.

Read: Coronavirus Lockdown Reducing Earths Seismic Vibrations: Geoscientists

Read: These Tweets Prove Coronavirus Lockdown Is Introverts' Paradise
"I've done other home makeover shows. This is the first one where research meant talking to police departments," says showrunner and executive producer Star Price. "My feeling through the whole process was that we had to be self aware of what we were doing. We couldn't take it too earnestly and at the same time we couldn't be disrespectful ... and at times we could have fun."
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Jose Sanbrano stopped on a roadside in the Colombian capital to catch his breath. The 30-year-old migrant had been walking for 15 days. He had hundreds of miles more to go -- uphill, through the Andes -- before he would reach the broken homeland he once fled.

Venezuela.

Nearly 5 million Venezuelans have abandoned the collapsing socialist state in recent years, most of them to scrape out meager livings elsewhere in Latin America. But as countries from Argentina to Peru to Colombia shut down to slow the spread of the coronavirus, untold thousands of desperate Venezuelans, now jobless, hungry and living without a safety net, are heading home.

For a growing number, the decision has been agonizing. Sanbrano was working on a construction site in Quito, Ecuador, and sending back money for his young wife and infant son. When Ecuadoran President Lenin Moreno ordered a national lockdown, he quickly lost his job. Unable to pay the $60 monthly rent for his small room in the capital, and with no hope of finding new work, he was evicted.

Faced with the choice of hunger and homelessness in Quito or the compounding but familiar hardships in Venezuela, he opted to travel back to his family. He packed his few belongings and set out on the 1,590-mile trek back to Caracas.

"I've been sleeping and eating on the streets along the way," Sanbrano said. "I've had to beg for food. It shames me that I have to do that."

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is seeking to portray himself as a benevolent father figure to his returning prodigal sons and daughters, even as his authoritarian government struggles to cope with their numbers in a country uniquely ill-prepared to respond to a pandemic.

"We're looking out for our compatriots who are victims of xenophobia & have decided to return to [Venezuela], their homeland," Maduro boasted on Twitter. "Here we've our arms opened to them as we have done with millions of people who have found in our country a land of peace & hope. Welcome!"

Maduro said 15,000 Venezuelans were on their way home. Internal numbers being shared by officials in Venezuela's border region of Tachira state show at least 7,600 have arrived since mid-March. More are arriving at a rate of up to 500 per day.

Those numbers remain relatively small compared with the massive recent outflow of Venezuelans, which until the virus arrived was still running at 4,000 to 5,000 a day. But observers warn they could rapidly grow, further burdening Venezuelan hospitals already plagued by shortages of medicines, supplies, power and water.

Lockdowns and closed borders across Latin America, meanwhile, are likely to sharply curb the outflow in 2020. Neighboring Colombia, home to an estimated 1.8 million Venezuelan migrants, closed its border with the country last month. But it has kept open a humanitarian corridor to allow Venezuelans to return home.

Marianne Menjivar, Colombia and Venezuela director for the International Rescue Committee, said Venezuelans have nowhere to turn.

"If you're a migrant or refugee, you don't have an auntie you can go get some soup from in case you don't have any money, or a grandmother who will lend you some money so you don't get kicked out of your house," she said.

Returning migrants are required to obtain medical checkups both before and after crossing the border, leading to hours, even days-long delays. That's prompted some to turn to dangerous informal crossings, known locally as trochas, manned by armed groups.

Felipe Munoz, Colombia's presidential adviser on the migration crisis, said at least 1,000 Venezuelans arrived by bus in the border city of Cucuta over the weekend with the intention of returning.

The operation is complicated by the strained relations between the two countries. Colombian President Ivan Duque has expressed support for Venezuelan migrants in his country. But his government recognizes Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, not Maduro, as the country's rightful leader, and each government accuses the other of using armed groups to undermine its rule.

"We've had to negotiate with the other side, so they accept them little by little," Munoz said. "But that's not something we want to be promoting, because we don't want to have uncoordinated migration flows in the middle of a health emergency."

On the Venezuelan side, at least some returnees are finding themselves herded immediately into quarantine. Freddy Bernal, designated by Maduro as the "protector of Tachira," tweeted Sunday that the region was activating a containment plan based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization. Venezuelan officials elsewhere said they were preparing holding centers for returnees.

Yohana Briceno, 36, returned to Venezuela with her family of five Saturday. They had no coronavirus symptoms, she said, but were still being held in a facility near the border. They were sleeping on a concrete floor and sharing "filthy bathrooms" with 900 other returnees, she said by telephone. They haven't been told how long they will be held.

"As soon as we crossed the border, everything changed," she said.

With commerce shut down and unemployment soaring, some countries are eager to see their Venezuelan migrants gone. Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez said last week the city would not extend the rent assistance now offered to struggling Colombians to Venezuelan migrants.

"We already pay for food, child care, school," she said. "Sorry, but we can't cover rent."

Several Colombian mayors have organized buses to send migrants to the border.

On a recent afternoon, at least 60 Venezuelan migrants were passing through Bogota on foot en route to Cucuta, some 342 miles east. They pushed strollers, shopping carts and suitcases loaded with their belongings.

Some were able to pay the $30 bus fare to the border. Those who couldn't planned to walk.

Yessika Silva came to Bogota from Caracas three years ago with her three daughters. On a recent afternoon, they desperately tried to hitchhike, with no luck.

"I haven't been able to earn anything for weeks," said Silva, 36. Her daughters, she said, are exhausted: "Their legs are throbbing."

Briceno, still being held with her family, said they had struggled to build a new life in Colombia. She found work as a hairdresser; her husband did construction. But when the virus came, they lost their jobs.

"I had a dream of staying there," she said. "We could have had a future.

"Now we are stuck [in Venezuela] with only God to help us."

- - -

Faiola reported from Miami. Herrero reported from Caracas, Venezuela. The Washington Post's Mariana Zuniga in Caracas contributed to this report.
Observing that the time was not yet ripe for a withdrawal of the lockdown, an expert committee constituted by the Kerala government suggests a three- phase relaxation of lockdown in the state.

Observing that the time was not yet ripe for a withdrawal of the lockdown, an expert committee constituted by the Kerala government on Tuesday suggested a three-phase relaxation of existing restrictions in the state.

The nationwide 21-day lockdown announced by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to contain the spread of the coronavirus ends on 14 April and the prime minister has sought suggestions from states to gradually ease out restrictions.

The 17-member taskforce, headed by former chief secretary KM Abraham and comprising eminent personalities, including renowned film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan, submitted its report to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday.

Vijayan told PTI that a decision on withdrawing restrictions could only be taken by the Centre and said that the report had been sent to the prime minister.

Three-phase relaxation

"The committee recommends a withdrawal strategy that should be gradual, phased and calibrated to ensure that the case load is always kept below the (surge) capacity of the healthcare," the report said, stating that "the time is not yet ripe for full withdrawal" of the lockdown on 14 April, 2020.

However, the panel also felt that a "prolonged and stringent lockdown would lead to economic hardship, famine and law and order problems, which could undermine both the lockdown and the health management objectives" and suggested a three-phase strategy for easing of restrictions at the district-level outside areas identified as COVID-19 hotspots with specific criteria spelled out for initiating each phase.

Phase-1

According to the report, the first phase can be initiated in districts in which no new case has been detected in the week before the date of review, where the number of persons under home surveillance has not increased by more than 10 percent and where no COVID-19 hotspots have been identified by the health department. If the conditions are not met a review can be carried out again after ten days.

In districts which fulfill these conditions, says the report, banks may function with a 50 percent attendance while private establishments can resume operations with ten persons or 25 percent of the staff strength.

Only one person per house at any given point in time will be allowed to step out for non-essential activities, says the report.

Notably at this stage, gatherings of more than five persons and all religions gathering will continue to be prohibited. Vehicular movement shall follow an odd-even pattern and no persons from outside the state will be allowed to enter.

Phase-2

The second phase of the lockdown can be initiated in such districts after a period of fifteen days if the following criteria are satisfied: there should have been no COVID-19 cases reported in the district in the fortnight, not more than a five percent increase in people under home surveillance and no hotspots should have been identified.

If these conditions are satisfied then the district authorities may allow autos, taxis as well as buses to operate locally with restricted seating capacity.

In this phase, work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) can resume, says the report, adding that MSMEs shall be allowed to resume operations provided they follow certain protocols.

In this stage, authorities can increase the number of persons allowed to attend marriages and funerals to 20 from 1o in the first phase and also increase the number of employees allowed at private establishments.

Phase-3

A district can qualify for the third phase of relaxations of restrictions if no new cases have been reported in a fortnight, if the number of people under home surveillance has gone down by 5 percent in the same period and if no hotspots have been identified by the health department.

In this stage, travel restrictions may be further lifted, including those on inter-district bus travel and on domsetic flights for doctors, patients, etc, with restrictions on seating capacity continuing.

In this stage, persons from outside the state will be allowed entry with the condition that they undergo a 14-day home quarantine.

This phase also allows schools, colleges to re-open for conducting exams and allows the opening of hostel and residential facilities. It allows IT companies to open partially. Shopping malls and stores can only be opened in the third phase, with care taken to ensure social distancing.

For a final revocation of the lockdown, the report again suggests a review to be carried out after 15 days of entering the third phase.

Additions to list of economic activities allowed during lockdown period

Further, the committee recommend certain relaxations to maintain the supply chain of essential services and commodities during the lockdown period.

In addition to the activities currently permitted by the Centre, it suggests that agricultural operations be permitted along with supply of food grains and milk, and suggests that provision stores be exempted from the lockdown.

It further suggests that local workshops, repair shops and artisan units like cobblers shops be allowed to operate and recommends that production units for essential commodities be allowed to function.

As per the report, cleaning services like those provided by domestic workers, take-away and home delivery services, helpers for elderly/disabled and parcel and transport services should also be allowed.

Other suggestions

The report recommend that state and Central governments take a cautious approach to easing restrictions and prepare themselves for a cycle of lockdowns and lifting of restrictions. It also advises states to ramp up preparatory work in anticipation of a surge in cases, with a focus on stepping up production and procurement of test kits, ventilators, PPEs for healthcare personnel and masks.

Kerala, which has reported over 300 cases, has seven COVID-19 hotspot districts Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod, and the report lists measures for identifying and managing such hotspots.

Cordoning off the entire panchayat or wards and enforcing complete restriction of travel outside were recommended in infection hotspot areas.

Deploying of additional police force in the hotspot boundary is necessary to ensure the strict enforcement of the lockdown and essential commodities and food from community kitchen are delivered through the Voluntary Task Force, the report added

Recognising that different Indian states are expected to pass through the peak of the infection at different timings, it recommends the setting up of a national-co-ordination mechanism so that states can support one another with experience, expertise, equipment and finances.

It recommends three general measures to be enforced till 30 June, including compulsory face masks for all persons leaving their homes, prohibiting the use of air-conditioners in all offices, public transport and cars and stipulates that permission to hold weddings should be obtained from local authorities.

Noting that the economic packages announced by the Centre and the RBI are grossly inadequate to alleviate the economic devastation, the committe suggests that the government formulates a special COVID-19 package to the tune of 10 percent of GDP. It also suggests that the Centre extends a substantial line of credit to states and introduce a special package for MSMEs.

Lastly, the committee observes that the "COVID-19 crisis is forcefully taking India into the 'online' world" at a very rapid pace.

"Innovations and practices which would have needed years to achieve is being introduced in matter of weeks in education, judiciary, local business, telemedicine among others. We must ensure that such modern technological leaps are not lost when the lockdown is withdrawn as there are huge economic and efficiency gains attached to it," it says in the report.

Till date, India has recorded over 4,700 confirmed cases of the infection while at least 124 persons have lost their lives to the disease.

With inputs from PTI
The Ministry of National Defence has sent medical experts to Laos to exchange experience in COVID-19 prevention and control.

At the hand-over ceremony

The Vietnamese side has handed over medical supplies, including face masks, protective gear, and hand sanitiser, worth over 3 billion VND (128,800 USD) to the Lao side.

Following a handing-over ceremony at the Cau Treo border gate in Vietnams central Ha Tinh province on April 7, Vietnamese experts traveled to the Lao capital of Vientiane and held working sessions with the countrys national and government steering committees for COVID-19 prevention and control.

Under the instruction of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Defense Minster Ngo Xuan Lich, military zones and units of the Ministry of National Defense stand ready to dispatch experts to Laos when necessary. VNA

Vietnam helps Laos prepare for UNESCO recognition of national reserve A working group of Vietnamese cultural heritage experts has been established by to support Laos in compiling a dossier seeking UNESCO recognition of Hin Namno National Reserve as a World Natural Heritage Site.
Part of the US FDA's Comprehensive in vitro Proarrythmia Assay (CiPA) Initiative

Metrion Biosciences Limited (Metrion), the specialist ion channel CRO and drug discovery company, today announced it has contributed to two new peer-reviewed papers under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) CiPA (Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay) initiative. The papers, in Nature Scientific Reports1 and Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology2, focus on application of improved cardiac safety testing protocols and recommendations for best practice for the drug discovery industry.

The CiPA Initiative (www.cipaproject.org), which began in July 2013 following a workshop at the US FDA, has the objective to revise and enhance the regulatory framework assessing cardiac safety of new chemical entities. Under current guidelines, new therapeutics undergo initial assessment of proarrhythmic risk by measuring activity against the hERG cardiac ion channel, before progressing to studies in preclinical animal models and ultimately, a Thorough QT interval study in the clinic. The CiPA initiative aims to extend the use of advances in early electrophysiology-based cardiac ion channel screening, in silico predictive modelling, and human induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes to improve the accuracy and reduce the cost of predicting the cardiac liability of new drug candidates. Metrion's research forms part of the first stage of the proposed harmonisation work, to provide clarity on how to standardise cardiac ion channel assays to ensure they deliver consistent data for in silico models of clinical cardiac arrythmia risk.

The first paper1, published in Nature Scientific Reports on 27th March 2020 by an international group of authors drawn from 20 different commercial and academic laboratories, including Metrion Biosciences, was coordinated by the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI). It reviews data from a multi-year, multi-site collaboration across industry, academia and the FDA regulatory agency to optimize experimental protocols and reduce experimental variability and bias. The goal of the study was to guide the development of best practices for the use of automated patch clamp technologies in early cardiac safety screening. High quality in vitro cardiac ion channel data is required for accurate and reliable characterisation of the risk of delayed repolarisation and proarrhythmia in the human heart and to guide subsequent clinical studies and regulatory submissions.

The second paper2, to be published formally in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology paper on 1st May 2020 but currently available online, uses automated patch clamp data from the CiPA consortium to address the lack of statistical quantification of variability, which hinders the use of primary hERG potency data to predict cardiac arrhythmia. The consortium establishes a more systematic approach to estimate hERG block potency and safety margins.

Dr Marc Rogers, CSO, Metrion Biosciences, said: "The Metrion team has been a participant in the international CiPA Initiative since inception and we are now pleased to be able to announce the publication of our data from this global collaborative scientific effort. We believe these projects will make a significant contribution to the eventual revision of cardiac safety testing guidelines by the FDA and other international regulatory agencies. They also contribute to deepening our knowledge of the underlying causes of proarrhythmia, which will help prevent early attrition of potentially promising drugs."

Contributing organisations to the Nature Scientific Reports CiPA study include: Charles River Laboratories; Bayer AG; Sophion Bioscience A/S; Nanion Technologies; GlaxoSmithKline PLC; Pfizer; Sanofi R&D; Astra Zeneca; B'SYS GmbH; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Eurofins Discovery; Merck; Metrion Biosciences Ltd.; Natural and Medical Science Institute at the University of Tubingen; Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago; Roche Innovation Center Basel; Novoheart; Health and Environmental Sciences Institute, Washington, DC; AbbVie.

Contributing organisations to the Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology hERG study include: Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration; Eli Lilly and Company; AstraZeneca; CiPA LAB; NMI-TT GmbH; Sophion Bioscience A/S; B'SYS GmbH; The Ion Channel Company; F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG; Eurofins Discovery; Bristol-Myers Squibb; Merck Co., Inc; Metrion Biosciences Ltd.; Nanion Technologies; Charles River Laboratories; Bayer AG; University of Nottingham; Universite de Lille.

Cross-site and cross-platform variability of automated patch clamp assessments of drug effects on human cardiac currents in recombinant cells, Nature Scientific Reports

A systematic strategy for estimating hERG block potency and its implications in a new cardiac safety paradigm, Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology

For more information on Metrion's fully integrated Cardiac Safety Screening CiPA Screening service, please visit: https://www.metrionbiosciences.com/services/cardiac-safety-screening/

Merion Biosciences' comprehensive cardiac safety testing 'White Paper' "The changing landscape of cardiac safety" will also be available on the Company's website from 13th April 2020.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005408/en/

Contacts:

Katie Odgaard

Zyme Communications

E-mail: katie.odgaard@zymecommunications.com

Tel: +44 (0)7787 502 947
Gov. Pete Ricketts said Wednesday that current modeling suggests Nebraska will not experience its coronavirus peak until the last week of April or perhaps early in May and that he'd "certainly encourage" Nebraskans to consider wearing masks to help slow the spread.

Meanwhile, the state continues to order personal protective equipment, such as gowns and masks, for health care workers, and ventilators that might be needed in hospitals.

Echoing a common problem experienced by other states that are now engaged in a highly competitive marketplace, Ricketts said "we've had frustrations" that included "shipments we thought we had purchased disappeared."

Many governors have complained that they are being outbid by other states and even by the federal government in their quest for needed medical and protective gear.

Although Nebraska so far has not been as greatly affected by the virus as other states, Ricketts said "we want to err on the side of caution (and) make sure we have the capacity to meet our needs."

It is "premature for us to determine whether we can send supplies to others" as a few states have done, Ricketts said. "We're still trying to acquire more supplies."
BERKELEY (BCN)

The Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees has chosen Skyline College vice president of student services Angelica Garcia as the next president of Berkeley City College.

Garcia will become the school's ninth president and the first Chicana to hold the position when she assumes control of the college May 7. Garcia will replace Deborah Budd, who began serving as interim president in February.

"Her experience as a first-generation college student, and student of color, informs her teaching and leadership, always putting students first," Peralta Community College District Chancellor Regina Stanback Stroud said of Garcia. "I have seen her move mountains to assure student success at Skyline College, and I have no doubt that will continue at Berkeley City College."

The district launched its search for the school's next president in January after former President Rowena Tomaneng left for the same position at San Jose City College. Search committee members called the pool of candidates "very large, diverse and extremely competitive."

Garcia graduated from St. Mary's College in Moraga for her undergraduate degree and received her master's degree in social work from San Diego State University and a doctorate in educational leadership from San Francisco State University. She is also a leadership fellow with the National Community College Hispanic Council.

"I'm honored to lead a school that is already a top choice for students looking to transfer to UC Berkeley or UC Davis," Garcia said. "I believe pursuing higher education is an act of liberation, especially for historically minoritized communities. Berkeley City College students are part of a thriving community which mirrors the Bay Area's ethnic, cultural and socio-economic diversity."

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

Trend:

The Chinese Jack Ma and Alibaba foundations sent humanitarian aid to Azerbaijan as part of the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, Trend reports on April 7.

The humanitarian aid includes medical masks, kits for coronavirus testing, special protective clothing, artificial ventilators (for artificial ventilation of lungs) and thermal imagers.

In an interview with reporters, Head of the health sector of the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers Department of Social Affairs Lala Kazymova, thanked the Jack Ma and Alibaba foundations for this humane action on behalf of the Azerbaijani government.

We hope that the pandemic will end soon all over the world with less loss, Kazymova added.

In these difficult days, when the fight against COVID-19 pandemic is conducted at the global level, the peoples of Azerbaijan and China, remaining faithful to the traditions of friendship, demonstrate solidarity.

The Chinese authorities have recently provided Azerbaijan with test systems for detecting COVID-19 infection, which is a striking example of the expression of friendship between two countries. Azerbaijan also showed solidarity with the Chinese people from the first days of the fight against coronavirus, provided them with funds and rendered moral support.
D entists have used 3D printers to design a high-protection visor for frontline medics that is about to be produced in vast numbers for Londons Nightingale hospital .

Professor Shakeel Shahdad, from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, said dentistry was a high risk for Covid-19. We felt that the visors we had were not fit for purpose. We didnt think they were big enough, he told the Standard. Initially we began to address the problem in our dental hospital. He said the visors and helmets they created were soon being used by front-line medics at Royal London Hospital, part of Barts Health NHS Trust.

The dental school, part of Queen Mary University of London, secured a rapid 25,000 grant from Barts Charity last week to fund the designs, which medics made after taking 3D printers home. Their sixth prototype has passed infection control rules. The equipment can be disinfected and reused.

Dental school staff have been 3D-printing 70 to 100 visors a day non-stop from home. Production is now to be ramped up to provide 10,000 visors for the Nightingale field hospital at ExCeL. The design is being outsourced to the Batch.works factory in Bethnal Green, which can print 500 to 700 a day.

Amersham-based Halma has also offered tooling and injection-moulding. Once the tooling is done we can probably produce half a million pieces from there, Professor Shahdad said.

He added: Im overwhelmed and touched by the amount of goodwill. People want to help in whatever way they can, whether its financially or through technology. Its been an incredible experience. We should have the ability to have 30,000 to 50,000 pieces in the next two to three weeks.

Meanwhile the British Medical Association today revealed that two-thirds of 2,000 doctors responding to a survey did not feel protected while at work , and many felt pressured to work in a high-risk area despite inadequate PPE.

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This is despite government claims that millions of items of PPE had been delivered to the front line.
KYODO NEWS - Apr 7, 2020 - 22:36 | World, All

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Tuesday the territory's public broadcaster is not "immune" from advocating China's "one country, two systems" principle, in a show of solidarity with the commerce minister, who said the broadcaster had made mistakes and should face the consequences.

"Let me make this very clear, either as a public broadcaster or government department, RTHK has to fulfill the very important and fundamental principle of upholding 'one country, two systems,'" Lam told reporters ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting. "RTHK could not claim immunity by being a public broadcaster and not observe this (principle)."

She said the charter for the publicly funded Radio Television Hong Kong has clearly stated its role in deepening Hong Kong people's understanding of the one-country principle and parameters regulating its operation.

"I certainly endorse and support the stance and position of Secretary Edward Yau," Lam said.

(File photo shows Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam.)

[Getty/Kyodo]

The Commerce and Economic Development secretary, who oversees the operation of RTHK, said last week the broadcaster's editor-in-chief should be held responsible for failing to engender a sense of national identity and promote the understanding of the one-China principle.

The controversy stems from a segment on The Pulse, an English-language program broadcast on March 28, in which Bruce Aylward, the World Health Organization's assistant director general, was questioned about Taiwan's effort in fighting the new coronavirus and its nonmembership saga.

In the program, uploaded on RTHK's Facebook account, Aylward did not react to a question asked in an online interview about whether the WHO would consider Taiwan's repeated requests for membership, opposed by Beijing.

When asked again, he claimed to have not heard the question and told the interviewer to move to another one just before the broadcast connection was lost.

Once reconnected and asked again to comment on Taiwan's efforts in containing the virus, Aylward said, "Well, we've already talked about China" and went on to complement the good job that "all the different areas of China" have done.

The WHO has, in a subsequent statement, acknowledged the incident while claiming that Taiwan's membership to the group should be up to WHO member states, not its staff.

At a special finance committee meeting in the legislature Tuesday, Secretary Yau said it is the presentation of the program, rather than the question asked, that constitutes a breach of the one-country principle.

Wow, cant even utter Taiwan in the WHO? You should set politics aside in dealing with a pandemic. FYI @WHO, 450+ news reports from 40+ countries so far positively covered #Taiwans handling of #COVID19. These reports do not mistake us as part of China & #TaiwanCanHelp. JW https://t.co/KbupbUb7NG   Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan)  (@MOFA_Taiwan) March 29, 2020

"Should, on any occasion, national sovereignty or territorial integrity be violated, the bureau has a supervisory duty to speak out clearly," he said but declined to elaborate on how the program breached such principle. "Hong Kong has free speech, but as a public broadcaster and a government department, the RTHK also needs to bear in mind its editorial duty."

The RTHK has rejected Yau's accusations and insisted that the program, which has not referred to Taiwan as a country, did not violate the one-country principle or its charter.

"The RTHK will not infringe upon the one-China principle, and we have all along been strictly abiding by it," Leung Ka-wing, RTHK's editor-in-chief and the government's director of broadcasting, said at the committee meeting.

China-friendly politicians have been questioning the role of the publicly funded broadcaster and grown more intolerant over its reluctance to become a government mouthpiece over the years since the former British colony was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Programs mocking Beijing and local authorities, in particular, have been openly condemned, followed by calls to bring the liberal broadcaster under control with funding cuts.

Related coverage:

Chinese rights lawyer released from prison, under quarantine: wife

Imported virus cases threaten medical system: Hong Kong's leader

Hong Kong loses "freest economy" title to Singapore over turmoil
(CNN)  Kids, you can rest easy. The coronavirus will not prevent the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny from visiting you with presents.

You can thank New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who added the two mythical definitely real characters to the list of essential workers.

"You'll be pleased to know that we consider both the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny to be essential workers," Ardern said at a news conference Monday. "But as you can imagine, at this time, of course, they're going to be potentially quite busy at home with their family as well and their own bunnies."

"So I say to the children of New Zealand, if the Easter Bunny doesn't make it to your household, we have to understand that it's a bit difficult at the moment perhaps for the bunny to get everywhere," Ardern added.

The Prime Minister went on to suggest that families could create Easter egg hunts for their neighborhood while respecting social distancing by drawing colored eggs and taping them to the front windows of their homes.

Ardern announced a nationwide lockdown on March 25. New Zealand has a much lower death toll than the rest of the world. As of Monday, the country has one confirmed death and 1,106 cases of the coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

This story was first published on CNN.com "New Zealand PM adds 2 crucial figures to list of essential workers: The Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny"
W ere a few weeks in now, and the UK like the rest of the world is in the grips of the coronavirus lockdown.

Things are tough out there, but theres a silver lining  the UKs cultural output has moved online, and millions of us have been tuning in for theatre shows, live comedy and art exhibitions from our sofas.

Nightlife, too, has been making its way into peoples homes through virtual club nights, and people are finding ways of enjoying live music during testing times.

These are our top picks of the things to get up to online today  make sure to check out our main guide for things to keep yourself occupied with at home, too.

Watch Fleabag live and support a great cause

Tune in to watch one of the most successful comedies of recent years and support a charitable cause  whats not to like? A recording from last years West End run of Phoebe Waller-Bridges Fleabag has been made available to raise money for the likes of the National Emergencies Trust (NET) Coronavirus Appeal, helping to tackle the current crisis. The production was broadcast to cinemas as part of the National Theatre Live in September, and its available to watch through Soho Theatres On Demand streaming website for a minimum donation of 4.

Visit the American Bar with an online experience

London's top spot: American Bar at The Savoy

Savoy institution the American Bar is moving online this evening, recreating its famous atmosphere for an Instagram live session. Tune in from 8.30pm to see resident pianist Jon Nickoll play live and bring the bars ambiance to viewers at home, while head bartender Maxim Schulte and Erik Lorincz  former American Bar head bartender and now boss at Kwant  fix a drink or two and tell stories from the bars history.

Tune in for a virtual DJ set with Sofi Tukker

Getty Images for Coachella
Editor's Note: With so much market volatility, stay on top of daily news! Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today's must-read news and expert opinions. Sign up here!

(Kitco News) - First-quarter production met Hecla Mining Co.s (NYSE: HL) expectations, but officials are withdrawing 2020 output and cost guidance due to uncertainty tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company reported Tuesday.

Hecla said three of its five mines  those located in the U.S.  remain fully operational and represented 69% of its 2019 gold-equivalent output. Work at mines in Mexico and Quebec have been temporarily suspended due to government rules in response to COVID-19, as is the case with many other producers as well.

Silver production was 3 million ounces in the first quarter, while gold output came in at 57,238 ounces. This equaled silver-equivalent production of 10.3 million ounces or gold-equivalent output of 110,210 ounces.

Phillips S. Baker, Jr., president and chief executive officer, said the company undertook a quick response to institute protections at mines when the outbreak began. Hecla said there are no known COVID-19 cases among its workforce so far.

While government orders have shut down two mines, our U.S. mines continue to operate as planned, Baker said. Our balance sheet is strong with over $200 million in cash, and no near-term debt maturities with our revolver debt not due until 2023 and senior notes in 2028.

At the Greens Creek Mine in Alaska, output rose to 2.5 million silver ounces in the first quarter from 2.2 million in the same period a year ago. However, gold output dipped to 11,296 gold ounces from 14,328. Silver benefited from higher grades, while gold grades were lower, the company said. During the quarter, the mine began quarantining employees in a Juneau facility for 14 days before they start a 28-day rotation, and nobody is allowed on the mine site who has not been quarantined.

At Casa Berardi in Quebec, a suspension of operations has been extended to May 4 to comply with the provincial governments stay-at-home order, Hecla said. Operations are being wound down at San Sebastian after the Mexican governments order halting non-essential business until April 30.

Mining continues at the companys Nevada operations and the Lucky Friday Mine in Idaho. In the case of Lucky Friday, the company is in the process of calling back and training the workforce following the end of a lengthy strike, officials said.
Afghanistan needs billions in foreign aid every year to provide its citizens with basic services, and expert projections estimate the country will remain dependent on aid for years to come. That dependence is expected to be exacerbated if the coronavirus outbreak in Afghanistan worsens. Afghanistan has had more than 400 confirmed coronavirus cases and 14 deaths, but officials warn that the true number could be much higher, as testing has been limited.
With oil prices deflated and most Texans sheltered at home, the states economy has all but certainly plunged into a recession, Comptroller Glenn Hegar said Tuesday.

You dont have the data but its pretty evident that much of the world is shut down, Hegar, the states top tax collector, said in a live interview with the Texas Tribune. You just dont know how bad its going to be.

The comptroller had been warning of a slowdown for days now, but his remarks Tuesday seemed to be his first public admission that the state is now in the throes of it. Texas is combating the coronavirus pandemic and reeling from a global price war in the oil sector that has slashed profits.

IMPACT ON CREDIT: Lenders tighten credit requirements on VA, FHA loans as uncertainty takes hold

Hegar said officials wont have their first real glimpse into the slowdown until June, but early indicators show significant declines. Unemployment claims have skyrocketed in the last two weeks, hotel occupancy rates have dropped to historic lows, and most local businesses are no longer collecting sales tax  the single biggest source of state tax revenue.

Hegar said he has started talking to agencies about cutting their spending, and plans to use the rainy day fund to help get the state through until legislators reconvene next spring. Under state law, the comptroller can borrow from the fund to maintain cash flow.

The fund now has about $10 billion dollars, with $2 billion of that already allocated for damages from Hurricane Harvey and other state projects. Hegar predicted it would end the fiscal year, in August, with about $8.5 billion.

The $2 trillion federal stimulus package that Congress passed last month includes about $11 billion for the state to help fight the pandemic. Nearly half of that will go directly to local governments, Hegar said. He said lawmakers in Washington are still considering additional relief packages.

$2.2 TRILLION PACKAGE: Trump signs stimulus plan with $11B for Texas

The comptroller has so far resisted calls to defer sales tax payments, including from the oil and gas industry, saying local governments would be negatively impacted because the deferrals cant be applied selectively.

The office plans to release new revenue projections this summer, Hegar said, and he warned they will likely be billions of dollars lower than expected. Sales tax and taxes on motor vehicles and rentals make up about two-thirds of the states tax revenue.

Unfortunately a lot of these scenarios weve never had before, Hegar said. We dont have a bridge or a program in place to find an easy solution.
Bengaluru, April 7 : Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala donated 30 per cent of his salary to the PM Cares Fund, set up to fight coronavirus outbreak across the country, an official said on Tuesday.

"The governor has donated 30 per cent of his emoluments to the PM Cares Fund through internet banking on Tuesday," said the official in a communique from Raj Bhavan here.

Vala has also decided to contribute 30 per cent of his salary for a year to the fund for spending on treating the virus-affected people.

"The governor will continue to remit 30 per cent of his salary every month during the year to the fund," the official added.

The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (Cares) Fund was set up on March 28 for combating, containment and relief efforts against the pandemic.

State Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on April 1 declared that he would donate his year's salary amounting to Rs 24 lakh to the CM's Relief Fund Covid-19, set up by the state government to fight the fallout of the communicable disease.

Yediyurappa also urged in Kannada his cabinet colleagues, ruling BJP Legislators, officials and citizens to generously contribute to the fund for fighting the pandemic.

"I also appeal to the citizens to contribute in whatever capacity to help the state in fighting the coronavirus outbreak," said Yediyurappa in a tweet a week ago.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Gaza clothing manufacturers have ventured into the production of personal protective equipment (PPE) amid the coronavirus outbreak in the region  and they're making the products for Israel.

Tailors in Gaza are working with Israeli companies and factories started to export protective masks, coveralls, shoes, gloves and other clothing to Israel in early March.

The garment sector used to be one of the most prosperous in the Gaza Strip, but business significantly deteriorated after Israel imposed a blockade in 2007 and prevented clothing exports from Gaza. Nearly 90% of the 928 facilities, which had employed about 35,000 workers, had to close, said Abdel Naser Awwad, director general of the Department of Industry at the Ministry of National Economy in Gaza.

Last year, Israel allowed Gaza to export limited quantities of clothing and textiles to the West Bank and Israel, in accordance with truce understandings between Hamas and Israel reached that March. As a result, about 6,000 workers regained their factory jobs. The number of licensed factories operating [in Gaza] has currently reached 165," Awwad told Al-Monitor.

These factories, which are advanced and can compete in global markets, immediately responded to the regions PPE needs, he said.

Awwad said Israeli companies are subcontracting work directly to two main Gaza factories run by Unipal 2000 and National Textile Industries Co. These two major manufacturers distribute orders to smaller factories based on delivery deadlines, helping revive some inactive businesses.

Unipal 2000 chairman Tayseer al-Bawwab said that even though his factory has been able to survive the 13-year Israeli blockade, he was forced to lay off the majority of his workers. After Israel allowed some exports following the truce understandings, the factory regained activity. We contract with Israeli companies to produce what they want according to certain specifications and standards they set. These companies contacted us and asked us to manufacture PPE and each company sent the model they want us to manufacture.

He explained that samples are manufactured to ensure their conformity to the required specifications. Then, either adjustments are made or the needed quantity is manufactured immediately. Israeli companies send their models, including the raw materials they wish to be used, the colors and other details, and the factory handles the fabrication.

All the agreements and shipments are coordinated with the Ministry of National Economy in Gaza, he said.

Bawwab added that this is the first time his factory has made PPE. He noted that some masks require more effort and time, and their prices vary accordingly. One medical mask can cost between 50 cents and $4. One of the companies asked us to manufacture a multiple-use, four-filter mask, and we managed to make it, Bawwab said.

He pointed out that the most difficult obstacles he currently faces are the curfew and lockdown amid the coronavirus crisis. He also has trouble paying employees, as the banks are closed.

Bawwab said Israeli companies contract with Palestinian factories for many reasons, including quality, material and labor pricing, ease of communication, payment in the same currency and geographical proximity. We work as traders; we are not interested in the party that takes our goods and this has nothing to do with politics," he said.

Awwad said, The fabric that is used is imported [from Israel] and specially manufactured for these purposes. There is periodic review of the work of these factories, as samples are also examined by the Ministry of Health in Gaza."

He said his ministry's primary goal is to reduce unemployment by getting as many workers hired as possible, regardless of who they end up working for.

Asked whether these factories are licensed to manufacture PPE, he noted that these products are garments and thus appropriate for the sewing industry to take on. Although they are sewn differently than normal clothing, they require no new licensing. In addition, the Ministry of Economy has exempted factories from licensing fees for the current year and reduced taxes as well as lifted customs duties on raw materials for garments.

Awwad noted that the sewing sector still faces many obstacles because of the Israeli blockade, but the ministry is supporting it by facilitating trucking of goods into Israel.

Moein Rajab, a political science professor at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, told Al-Monitor some sectors of the economy that can help battle the coronavirus are reviving a bit, but the economic conditions have battered most aspects of life in the Gaza Strip. The general picture in Gaza is bleak, considering that this crisis has made the already deteriorating situation even worse," he said. He called for the government to support all economic sectors and pump money into the market to alleviate the conditions in Gaza.
The death toll in the US from the coronavirus crossed the 10,000-mark on Monday as the country entered the most difficult phase during this pandemic with officials stating that there are encouraging signs in the fight against the dreaded disease mainly due to the aggressive implementation of the mitigation measures.

By Monday, more than 10,800 Americans died due to the deadly coronavirus and over 366,000 tested positive, to which top American scientists are racing against time to develop either a vaccine or a successful treatment.

Globally it has infected more than 13 lakhs people and resulted in the death of more than 74,000.

In New York, the epicenter of COVID-19 in the US, the fatalities on Monday increased to 4,758 and confirmed cases to 130,000, with officials saying that new cases and deaths have now slowed down in the Big Apple.

Members of the White House Task Force on coronavirus said that the new models based on fresh data projects less than 100,000 death against the previous projections between 100,000 and 200,000. This has been mainly due to the aggressive implementation of the mitigation strategy.

"We are increasingly hopeful that the aggressive mitigation strategy we put into place will ultimately allow our hospitals system to successfully manage that major influx of cases that we have right now," Trump told reporters at his daily White House conference.

The goal is that all Americans have been sacrificing to achieve these last few weeks things that a lot of people thought were not possible to achieve, he said.

"I think we've more than achieved, but we have to go through. Again, we're going to have a rough week, were going to have maybe a rough little more than a week but there's tremendous light at the end of that tunnel, he said.

According to the president, there are so many things happening with therapeutics, and with vaccines.

"Those therapeutics, the vaccines are going to be always a little bit later because of that testing period, but the therapeutics, getting the kind of things that I heard about today talking to these brilliant companies and brilliant people on the phone was fantastic," he said.

Currently there are 10 different therapeutic agents in active trials and some are looking incredibly successful, he said, adding that another 15 are in plans for clinical trials. A second company announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has authorised its vaccine candidate to begin critical trials, he said.

Dr Deborah Brix, member of the White House Task Force on coronavirus, told Fox on Monday that the drop in new cases in New York and other places shows American people are following the presidential guidelines: social distancing, not gathering in groups any groups, over time trying to keep going out to an absolute minimum. getting drive through, getting carry out, getting delivery services, and really protecting all Americans,



We know this is a very transmittable virus and having all Americans pulled together in this moment of great need as a nation. It is really inspirational, she said.

We are really beginning to see the impact of the sacrifice that Americans have made for each other. And we're in a call to action for this next 26 days or 25 days to really ensure that we're doing everything we can to stop the spread of this virus we can do it as a nation," she said.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Texas reported 464 more cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of about 7 per cent over the previous day, bringing the total number of known cases to 7,319.

In a press conference on Monday, Texas Governor Greg Abbot said there have been 85,357 Texans who have been tested for the COVID-19 and 7,319 have tested positive.

Governor Abbott provided an update on personal protective equipment (PPE) distribution throughout the state of Texas.

"It is vital that our health care workers and first responders on the front lines have the personal protective equipment they need to stay safe as they respond to COVID-19, said Abbott said.

He also said that Texas received 2.5 million masks in the past 24 hours, and will receive an additional 3 million masks by April 11.

"The only states that have administered more tests than Texas are those with more dire consequences with regard to people in their states," he said.

"All of the states that have tested more than Texas have more deaths. We have more than enough testing data in order to form the models that we need to make the assessments and determinations based upon science and data to understand the correct strategy for Texas."



In an executive order last month, Abbott closed all public schools through May 4. Some districts have told students and parents their campuses will be closed "until further notice."Abbott also issued a warning to those not taking the self-quarantine orders seriously. The more patient Texans are and the longer they stay at home, the safer everyone will be.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Janice Scott Cover, EdD has been a teacher for over 40 years serving people of all ages, in various settings and from diverse backgrounds. She is familiar with the complexities of the profession and knows that the continual challenges and increasing responsibilities of teachers can be overwhelming. Her knowledge and familiarity about the teaching profession inspired her to provide a supportive and empowering tool to help her colleagues overcome obstacles and enjoy their chosen vocation through her book, Teachers are Burdened: Proven Tips to Lighten the Load and Win (published by Archway Publishing).

Cover empathizes with her colleagues as she also endured hardships throughout her teaching journey. However, she developed success strategies that helped to build her career and improved her life. In this book, she shares what she has been learning and assures her fellow educators that they too can achieve personal and professional success for themselves and students in their charge that will inevitably leave an eternal impact. In addition, this book also serves as a teaching tool. The Teachers Corner at the end of each chapter pose questions and ideas for discussion and reflection to bring about necessary change. Each chapter also concludes with Digging In activities to help in organizing, developing and implementing winning strategies.

Each year, scores of teachers leave the profession citing undue stress. Filling vacant teacher positions is an ongoing struggle for school districts and principals, which could have dire consequences for the continued education of learners. A look at the big picture is having less qualified people in the workforce. This book helps to raise awareness and understanding of some issues teachers encounter as they work tirelessly to educate each child in diverse classrooms, Cover says. I have proven and believe that a relaxed and competent teacher creates a relaxed and productive classroom of future leaders. Additionally, everyone strives for personal growth and development. To that end, each chapter in this book is relevant to anyone seeking self-improvement.

Teachers are Burdened: Proven Tips to Lighten the Load and Win validates proven strategies, supported by triumphs over challenges from Covers personal and professional experiences. It reminds readers that intentional actions will lead to successful outcomes. Hopefully, my personal stories throughout the book will affirm as well as invigorate your journey and challenge your beliefs about teaching and learning while driving you to further personal growth and development, Cover adds. For more details about the book, please visit https://www.amazon.com/Teachers-Are-Burdened-Proven-Lighten/dp/1480884634.

Teachers are Burdened: Proven Tips to Lighten the Load and Win

By Janice Scott Cover, EdD

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About the Author

Janice Scott Cover, EdD, has spent most of her professional life working in urban school systems in the United States and Jamaica. She completed a certificate in education at Moneague Teachers College, Jamaica; earned a bachelors degree in elementary education, Louisiana State University; and a masters degree in educational leadership and a doctorate degree in education with a concentration in child and youth studies, Nova Southeastern University. Cover lives with her family in south Florida. Visit her online at drjanicecover.com

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The Observer says: - Federation like marriage, is for better or worse, richer or poorer, but there is no constitutional divorce court to which an aggrieved partner like West Australia can resort. The secession poll will be quite ineffective, except as an indication of public feeling.

First published in The Age on April 10, 1933. Credit:The Age Archives

The Times says: - No State maintains more pronounced individually or sturdier local patriotism than West Australia. It is a small community, engaged in a hard struggle for existence, and out of sight is apt to be out of mind. There has always been a feeling that Commonwealth authorities have little interest in its peculiar difficulties, and it is inevitable that West Australia should regard herself as the Cinderella in the sisterhood of States, but it is only within the last two or three years that the movement for secession has been taken seriously. With the depression has come a change of temper, and the movement in favor of secession gathered strength so fast that an affirmative vote is regarded as quite possible. The outsider may doubt whether the movement would have become so strong but for the handicap placed on West Australian development by a tariff policy framed in the interests of the secondary industries of the eastern States. Under the present system the west State suffers all the disadvantages of protection and free-trade, and enjoys the benefits of neither. Whether she would be better off under secession, even if secession were possible, is another question. The State even now gains more than she loses by being part of the Australian Commonwealth. It is evident that Federal statesmen admit the existence of serious grievances, and are prepared to do their utmost to remedy them. Doubtless many who vote for secession will do so in order to drive the lesson home.

The financial editor of the Daily Telegraph says: - Though some Australian stockholders might become uneasy in the event of a secession vote in West Australia, such a vote would have no sinister meaning. West Australia could not secede from the Commonwealth without the consent of the majority of the votes of all the other states. A vote for secession can be regarded only as a vigorous protest against Commonwealth taxation regulations, which bear unduly on States almost wholly dependent on primary products.

The financial editor of the Daily Herald says: - As a result of Perth messages there is a tendency to offer West Australian stocks for sale, but there is no cause for alarm. The vote will have no legal or constitutional effect.
After a tiger was tested positive for coronavirus at Bronx Zoo in New York City which created panic all around, the birth of a baby cub in a Mexican zoo amid the outbreak has brought a ray of hope. The rare birth of a baby tiger who has been named after the deadly disease "Covid" has taken the Internet by storm, where people are pouring in their love for the little animal. The Bengal tiger Covid, who is named by the family that owns the zoo, was born on March 14 in Mexico's BioZoo that expertise in rescuing animals from circuses and exotic private collections.

As per reports, Kitzia Rodriguez, daughter of the zoo owner and also a vet at the zoo, said that the birth of the little one was a complete surprise for all and nobody was aware of the fact the little one would be born any time, Rodriguez reportedly told a media outlet. Considering the little tiger Covid as a gift amid such panic-stricken moment, Rodriguez reportedly added that they hope the little one creates a big impact on the prevailing crisis because the situation right now is difficult for everyone. The birth of the cub will bring hope to help the entire zoo family. The BioZoo in the state of Veracruz is still operational even as the queues of the general public trickles down in Mexico to stop the spread of the deadly disease, which has claimed the lives of more than 70,000 people worldwide.

Read: Zoos In India Put On 'highest' Alert After Tiger Tests Positive For COVID-19 In US

Read: Indian Zoo Authority Issues Notice To States After New York Tiger Gets Coronavirus

'A surprising piece of news'

As per reports, zoo owner Gonzalo Rodriguez who is running the zoo for almost two decades and said that Covid was born to an 8-year-old tigress that was rescued from a circus and was brought back to good health after she underwent an operation for a hip fracture. While the cub's 6-year-old father was brought from a private home where he had injured himself by biting into a vase.

Birth of baby tiger #Covid; brings hope to Mexican Zoo https://t.co/VPsd61LYvR via @Yahoo I saw this coming. Only I swore it would be a human naming their kid.  Rich Vee (@RichVee1) March 28, 2020

Baby tiger born in Veracruz named Covid, because Mexico https://t.co/Ab8UU6BAMh pic.twitter.com/ulnj54bPLp  Laura Martinez (@miblogestublog) March 30, 2020

The rare birth of a baby tiger has brought a glimmer of hope to a private zoo in eastern Mexico. They have named the baby tiger as "Covid".

Hope to contain the deadly coronavirus that inspired his name.

A great move! @mexico @peta#StayAwareStaySafe pic.twitter.com/OejWVeMFB6  Shubham Bhatt (@only_nationalit) March 27, 2020

On hearing the news about the little cub, several people stormed social media with their hot takes on the same. One of the users who was completely taken aback after hearing the name of the little one expressed his anger of keeping the name after a disease. Another user who was excited to hear this news of joy amid such a crisis shared a handmade painting of Covid where he can be seen sitting on the grass. A third user who was also surprised to hear such a name of a cub shared the piece of news on his micro-blogging site and wrote that the name will definitely surprise one and all.

Read: Observe Tigers And Report If They Develop COVID-19 Symptoms: NTCA To Tiger-range States

Read: Zoos In India Put On 'highest' Alert After Tiger Tests Positive For COVID-19 In US
Disclaimer: I use the term Data Scientist throughout this post; however, popular titles such as Machine Learning Engineer, Data Analyst, Data Engineers, BI analysts share similar responsibilities and could be used interchangeably here.

I had high hopes about the potential impact of being a Data Scientist. I felt every company should be a data company.

My expectations did not meet reality.

Where did my expectations come from?

I attended a 12-week data science bootcamp in mid-2016. 11 of the 12 weeks focus were on machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). At this time, ML & AI news mentions had hit an all-time high. Tesla was paving the way in self-driving cars, and even older behemoths like General Motors (GM) invested over a billion dollars in an AI company to stay at the frontier of automotive tech. At the consumer level, headphones emerged that used AI to automatically translate your words to someone else as you speak, and an AI beat the worlds best esports team.

I figured Id spend most of my time buried in code and data to find hidden patterns, implement machine learning models in production and optimize them. Executives would likely rely on me to help inform the product roadmap based on insights in data, and I would be highly valued.

However, practically none of that happened.

Over the past few years, Ive worked as a Data Scientist, a Data Engineer, and as an industry consultant. Ive also learned from the stories of dozens of data scientists and similar professions, actively read articles on data science and followed data science thought leaders on Twitter.

Across these diverse data experiences, I have noticed common themes.

Below are seven most common (and at times flagrant) ways that data science has failed to meet expectations in industry. Throughout each section, Ill propose solutions to these shortcomings.

People dont know what data science does. Data science leadership is sorely lacking. Data science cant always be built to specs. Youre likely the only data person. Your impact is tough to measure  data doesnt always translate to value. Data & infrastructure have serious quality problems. Data work can be profoundly unethical. Moral courage required.

1. People dont know what data science does.

Some people think data science is all ML, AI and/or custom algorithms. Others think its simply analytics. Many data scientists may spend a significant portion of their time on Extract-Transform-Load (ETL). The truth is - all of these things are possible!

Due to this lack of clarity, in interviews, you can be asked about any of these topics and more! In 50+ interviews for data related jobs, Ive been asked about AB testing, SQL analytics questions, optimizing SQL queries, how to code a game in Python, Logistic Regression, Gradient Boosted Trees, data structures and/or algorithms programming problems!

Its daunting to study a wide breadth of concepts and still have depth. Keep your chin up! Expect interviews to be confusing and frustrating, as theres no de facto set of problems and questions. Ask your hiring managers for specific details on the interview process, technologies youll be asked to use and why those will be asked. The more context you have, the better you can prepare to ace it!

On the job, you may be asked to solve a hard problem and have minimal to no direction on how to reach the solution. Because people dont know what data science does, you may have to support yourself with work in devops, software engineering, data engineering, etc. If you end up as the only data person on the team, you may want to start building out a cohort of external mentors before you arrive on the job who can advise you as you proceed into uncharted waters.

2. Data science leadership is sorely lacking

Most executives in charge of data science decision-making are neither educated nor trained in actual data science theory and techniques. Instead, they have relied upon non-data-driven, plug-and-play features that can be launched in a timely manner.

Few teams have a Head of Data, Data Science Manager or other relevant role. As a Data Scientist, you may report to someone specialized in just product, engineering or even another discipline.

These non-data proficient executives and managers are usually the ones to make important product decisions. In tech, top-down decision-making is still very prevalent. You may not have a seat at the table or be respected enough to be included in these decisions and your research may not be valued. Where does that leave you as a Data Scientist?

In one experience, a fellow researcher spent over a month researching a particular value among our customers through qualitative and quantitative data. She presented a well-written and evidence-backed report. Yet, a few days later, a key head of product outlined a vision for the team and supported it with a claim that was antithetical to the researchers findings!

Even if a data science project you advocate for is greenlighted, you may be on your own as the rare knowledgeable person to plan and execute it. Its unlikely leadership will be hands-on to help you research and plan out the project. This could be a very difficult road ahead - especially for someone junior in the industry.

3. Data science cant always be built to specs

You and peers may have expectations on the potential of data science projects. Two common types of projects are in exploratory analyses and machine learning.

In an exploratory analysis, someone or yourself may have questions on the data and you simply want to answer those. Common questions are: How many users click this button; what % of users that visit a screen click this button; how many users have signed up by region or account type? However, the data needed to answer those questions may not exist! If the data does exists, its likely dirty - undocumented, tough to find or could be factually inaccurate. Itll be tough to work with! You could spend hours or days attempting to answer a single question only to discover that you cant sufficiently answer it for a stakeholder.

In machine learning, you may be asked to optimize some process or experience for consumers. However, theres uncertainty with how much, if at all, the experience can be improved!

In one engagement, the product had a newsfeed with posts from a large network of people - content often irrelevant for users. You may have noticed your Facebook or Twitter newsfeed content is ordered in a way to show posts most relevant to you near the top - optimized to consume the content and click through on whats relevant. Similarly, the team I worked with was asked to optimize the feed. However, they didnt know exactly how much the feed could be improved.

The team evaluated the optimization of the feed by an evaluation metric called uCTR - unique click through rate. This is essentially the probability the user would click on the post to like it or comment on it in a session.

Executives had expectations that the experience would be drastically improved. The machine learning team did improve the metric by over 50% - but only for a small group of users who were very engaged because there was more signal in the data to improve that groups experience. The majority of users still had a bad viewing experience even after the ML model was implemented!

50% seems significant but may be rather insignificant too. Its high on a relative change but still can be a small absolute change. Picture this: you have 10 dollars in cash and you increase it by 50% in a day. You now have 15 dollars in cash. Yet thats still a small number on an absolute scale. You can only buy 1 or 2 meals out!

Since many ML projects may not be built to the expectations of teams, most projects likely dont make it into production.

4. Youre likely the only data person

Nearly every team in a business will want to know their progress through quantitative measures. All teams, whether sales, customer support, engineering, or marketing, want metrics and data-driven dashboards to measure their efficacy and progress.

Most companies with <100 employees have few employees who are proficient in SQL, databases, data analysis and data visualizations. These are skills necessary to analyze data and produce these dashboard outputs.

As the resident Data Scientist, you may become easily inundated with requests from multiple teams at once. Be prepared to ask these teams to qualify and defend their requests, and be prepared to say no if their needs fall outside the scope of your actual priority queue. Id recommend utilizing the RICE prioritization technique for projects.

Moreover, you may quickly realize much of this work is repetitive and while time-consuming, is easy. In fact, most analyses involve a great deal of time to understand the data, clean it and organize it. You may spend a minimal amount of time doing the fun parts that data scientists think of: complex statistics, machine learning and experimentation with tangible results.

5. Your impact is tough to measure  data doesnt always translate to value

Two ways to interpret this sections header come to mind.

For one, Data Scientists are often in support roles. Most organizations make the majority of their decisions on intuition that stems from past readings and personal experiences - not from a Data Scientists analyses. Id be shocked if you could find a small to medium size organization that acted otherwise. Generally, you want to err on the side of being decisive rather than being overly cautious in order to succeed in business. (Though, this can backfire on you.) As a Data Scientist in the org, are you essential to the business? Probably not. The business could go on for a while and survive without you. Sales will still be made, features will still get built, customer support will handle customer concerns, etc.

When I first started, I thought Id be incredibly valued as the gatekeeper for helping justify business decisions. However, that was rarely the case. DJ Patil, the former Chief Data Scientist at the White House, once stated in a podcast episode that you as a Data Scientist should try to find a situation to be incredibly valuable on the job! Its tough to find that from the outskirts of applying to jobs, but internally, you can make inroads supporting stakeholders with evidence for their decisions!

Another challenge being usually a support role in a company is quantifying your impact. A common data science task is to help a Product Manager answer a question about some recent activity in the data. You can also issue a product recommendation based on your insights. So what? How do you measure whether this work of yours was impactful?

Its tough to do. Most people dont put a price or value on analyses.

Did you save the company 10 million dollars through your analysis for the sales team that led them to avoiding a huge and costly new workflow, or did the sales team save the 10 million dollars? Truthfully, will anyone even value the 10 million dollars if it was simply saved and never spent?

On the job, Id recommend you document your work well and calculate the monetary value of your analyses based on factors like employee salary, capital investments, opportunity cost, etc. These analyses will come in handy for a promotion/review packet later too.

I realize the actual analysis is challenging to do and Ive only heard of one data science manager who executed on this well with his team! Seek help from others on how to best craft these analyses.

6. Data & infrastructure have serious quality problems

In data science books, online classes, online tutorials, and Kaggle competitions, the problems faced are radically different from what exists in industry.

In those online resources, youll have clean data thats easily available, well-documented, and structured in an outline that allows you to apply data science techniques to answer the problem.

In regards to quality of data on the job, Id often compare it to a garbage bag that ripped, had its content spewed all over the ground and your partner has asked you to find a beautiful earring that was accidentally inside. Essentially, the data will be tough to find and poorly documented  or not documented at all. Data can also be presented in unstructured formats such as complicated JSON, submitted text responses with punctuation, emojis, and minimal context. Moreover, data that seems helpful can prove to be a red herring.

Like the famous saying, garbage in, garbage out. If you dont have quality data, you likely wont produce a quality output to meet your stakeholders expectation.

Cleaning data may likely become the majority of your work. In 2016, a survey distributed to experienced Data Scientists by the popular ML-focused company Crowdflower claimed 3 out of every 5 data scientists we surveyed actually spend the most time cleaning and organizing data. The Data Scientist, in many cases, should be called the Data Janitor. _()_/

Note, if you spend most of your time on data cleaning, thats very little time left for coding, studying ML, and conducting analyses.

Have been extremely curious about this for a while now, so I decided to create a poll.

"As someone titled 'data scientist' in 2019, I spend most of (60%+) my time:"

("Other") also welcome, add it in the replies.  Vicki Boykis (@vboykis) January 28, 2019

In addition to dirty data, another major challenge is handling data with poor infrastructure. Imagine a busy highway with lots of potholes, toll booths, and traffic. Your job is to somehow navigate these treacherous conditions to supply data insights at the end.

Image from the Insight Extractor - Blog.

You may be faced with a database that isnt optimized for your queries or unable to identify the source of truth in the data through its data lineage. You may wait days or weeks to get access to a database or be stuck with poor infrastructure because people are afraid to change it for fear of breaking everything! There may be no centralized data store, multiple dashboard tools used making it difficult to find information, and no repository for past data science work.

When I worked at Target HQ in 2012, employees would arrive to work early - often around 7am - in order to query the database at a time when few others were doing so. They hoped theyd get database results quicker. Yet, theyd still often wait several hours just to get results. The traffic jam was real!

Even my friends at big tech startups have complained about the same problems with data infrastructure and technical debt. One friend had to come to work on Saturdays just to be able to query the data without extreme wait times.

Imagine wanting to investigate a hunch in the data and having to wait hours for it! Then, imagine you made a mistake in the SQL query, had to re-implement it and wait hours again! Thats practically waiting a whole day without even getting the data!

On the job, if you notice poor infrastructure, speak up to your manager early on. Clearly document the problem, and try to incorporate a data engineering, infrastructure, or devops team to help resolve the issue! I'd also encourage you to learn these skills too!

7. Data work can be profoundly unethical. Moral courage required

This is the scariest of concerns for me. I have seen and heard of shady practices of collecting and analyzing private user data, from their private messages to their every interaction on the app. As a Data Scientist, you likely wont have ethics training or a say in product decisions made regarding them.

Uber is infamous for a secret internal tool called Greyball built to evade law enforcement. The tool could help identify law enforcement officials in their respective cities and provide them a fake Uber experience to show riders but no one would pick them up. What if you were the Data Scientist tasked with predicting whos a law enforcement official or modifying the core driver routing algorithm to evade these individuals? Would you do it?

The recommendations of an ML model can also be unethical. I once worked on an engagement in which ML predictions were provided to consumers. These predictions were created based on flawed practices in ML model training and there was very little signal in the data. Later, the paying customers complained about how poor the recommendations were, yet the company never publicly apologized.

There may come a time when an ecommerce company asks you as a Data Scientist: If we wanted to figure out if a customer is pregnant, even if she didnt want us to know, can you do that? These were the exact words spoken to one only a few years ago at Target! But what are the ethical implications of figuring this out? Would you as a consumer want you and your family to be marketed this way? What if the significant other doesnt know if their partner is pregnant? What if theyre considering an abortion? At companies, especially smaller ones, these ethical concerns may not be taken into consideration!

Conclusion: Where Does This Leave Us?

I dont want to discourage people from applying to data science jobs. They can be incredibly impactful towards the companys mission.

Rather, try to ask about these concerns in interview questions to help you evaluate your next role. If youre on the job and already facing these issues, work with your manager or coworkers to try and resolve them asap to improve your job experience.

Let me know if you have any questions or feedback on this post: dan [@] dfrieds.com

Additional and somewhat similar articles to this are:

If you're interested in hiring me for data engineering or science, please reach out: dan [@] dfrieds.com.

Id like to thank Naveed Nadjmabadi, Steve Dean, Andrew Ju, Julia Xu, Em deGrandpre, and Canzhi Ye for their advice on drafts.
A domestic abuse agency has claimed that the Government is failing to protect women and children experiencing domestic violence (PA)

A domestic abuse agency has claimed that the Government is failing to protect women and children experiencing domestic violence.

Safe Ireland said that it is growing increasingly concerned that the Government is not responding to the urgent and practical needs of women and children.

Safe Ireland is the national social change agency working with 38 member domestic violence services across the country.

The agency said it has submitted a proposal for emergency funding of 1.6 million euro to the Government to ensure that services can respond adequately to the needs of women and children at this unique time.

The women and children in these refuges should be moved into safe, self-contained accommodation as part of the emergency national responseSafe Ireland

A spokeswoman for Safe Ireland said that there has been no definite response to its proposal.

Safe Ireland said that the emergency funding would be used to help accommodate women safely within the community, give them personal protection equipment, necessary technology and to provide for adequate professional staff throughout the crisis.

We have an untenable situation at the moment, where women and children are living in communal refuges, with shared kitchens and bathrooms, a spokeswoman said.

These are potential sites for an outbreak of Covid-19. The women and children in these refuges should be moved into safe, self-contained accommodation as part of the emergency national response.

Overall the capacity of our emergency accommodation services is down about 20% because we have to leave some units as isolation spaces.

We need to be thinking creatively and at a national level about how we can accommodate all women and children safely when they look for support, particularly as the weeks of containment and isolation progress.

Nearly four weeks into the Covid-19 crisis, we are growing increasingly concerned that key Govt. agencies are failing to respond adequately to the urgent needs of women & children experiencing domestic abuse & coercive control.



Full press release here: https://t.co/qN1VPuf3Pd  Safe Ireland National Social Change Agency CLG (@SAFEIreland) April 6, 2020

Safe Ireland said that women and children could use Airbnb accommodation or other housing stock in the community.

Resources are urgently needed from the Government to make this happen, the agency added.

Last Friday, Safe Ireland submitted a proposal to the Department of Social Protection that would see women and children in need of immediate relocation have access to an emergency rent supplement throughout the Covid-19 emergency.

Domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness for women and children.

Housing instability is four times more likely for women and children who have experienced domestic violence.

In a statement, the Department of Affairs and Social Protection said it is aware of the proposal from Safe Ireland.

We will examine this in consultation with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Department of Housing Planning and Local Government, a spokeswoman said.

Responsibility for the development and provision of services to support victims of domestic violence rests with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the delivery of such services is managed through the Child and Family Agency, Tusla.

The Department of Housing and Local Government is the competent authority to deal with the accommodation needs of those facing homelessness.

A local authority can provide short-term emergency housing to people who are unable to return to their homes because of domestic violence on a humanitarian basis without having to assess their eligibility for social housing support or include them on the authoritys waiting list for housing supports.
Mary Gannon and Kevin Larimer, the two most recent editors of Poets & Writers magazine, want you to know how to be a writer. That means knowing every step of the process, not just when to pick up the pen (or put it down) or open up the laptop (or close it shut). Their new book, The Poets & Writers Complete Guide to Being a Writer (Avid Reader), includes tips on how to find and enter writing contests, applying for and taking writing retreats, navigating the seas of self-publishing, how to find an agent and work with an editor, and a number of other aspects of building a sustainable career.

Larimer said that the duo "tried to balance practical, no-nonsense tips and insights from successful authors and publishing professionals with a decidedly more human, humane, and emotional approach to the writing life." Their hope, Adler added, was that the book would "reflect the hearts and souls of the writers weve worked with and come to deeply admire over the past two decades as much as their boundless creativity and bright intellect." The effort, according to some of the biggest names in writing and publishing, paid off, with Graywolf publisher Fiona McCrae calling the book a "teeming compendium" and Riverhead Books associate publisher and director of publicity Jynne Dilling Martin adding, in a blurb for a book published by a rival company, that she found the book "lucid, lively, [and] enormously helpful."

To help distill some of its knowledge for the masses as writers find themselves, like much of the world's population at the moment, cooped up indoors, PW asked Gannon and Latimer to round up six pieces of advice from the book they found both representative and particularly helpful. Here are six shortened selections they sent us:

Read literary magazinesand subscribe to them, too.

This seems like a no-brainer, but not all writers take the time to do it. Reading literary magazines not only demonstrates good literary citizenship, but it also provides essential information about the field and the chance to discover the work of writers you wouldnt otherwise find. You can take note of where your favorite authors are publishing their work, hone in on particular magazines missions and aesthetics, and support the very magazines you hope to be published in one day. And as writer Yuka Igarashi says, A literary magazine puts a writer in conversation with other writers and, depending on the magazine, with a community, with a lineage or tradition.  chosen by Mary Gannon

Write a fan letter to an author.

All writers, even the most established, need a little love. And youd be surprised to know how meaningful receiving a fan letter can be to a writer. Plus, carving out the time to think through and articulate why a book or piece of writing moves you, what you found important, and possibly even transformative, gives you a gift as wellthe opportunity to understand what you value most and why. This clarity can inform your own writing practice in significant ways. chosen by Mary Gannon

You dont need an MFA to be a successful writer.

Pursuing a master of arts degree in creative writing has become a well-travelled path toward becoming a published writer, but its not the only path and it can be expensive. (If you do choose to pursue an MFA, we highly recommend researching programs that offer full funding.) What the MFA providesthe time and environment for refining your craft with like-minded peoplecan be achieved through other means. Think writing conferences, writing groups, and DIY retreats. Talk to any agent or editor, in New York City or elsewhere, and theyll all say the same thing. If given a choice between a mediocre manuscript from a writer with an MFA and a remarkable one from a writer who never even went to college, they will always choose the best writing. chosen by Mary Gannon

Dont feel guilty if youre not writing.

Too often we hear the advice that all writers really need to do is force themselves to sit there and write. As Mary Heaton Vorse purportedly said to Sinclair Lewis over a century ago: The art of writing is the art of applying the seat on the pants to the seat of the chair. While its true that nothing was ever written without a significant amount of time spent, you know, writing, you shouldnt feel a constant sense of guilt if youre not in that chair writing at every available moment of every day. Some authors talk about how theyre able to plant themselves in the writing chair on a strict schedule, which can be inspiring, but it can also give beginning writers the impression that everyone works that way. Or that everyone should want to work that way. So, in the book we wanted to guard against the assumption that if you dont keep a rigorous writing schedule you must not want it enough, that you must not be serious about writing if you arent dedicating a set number of hours to the act of writing. This is nonsense. It ignores the reality for many of usthe reality that is composed of varying levels, degrees, and amounts of responsibility, of inequality, of privilege, of access. Your level of passion and commitment to writing is not commensurate with the number of hours per day that you write. Being a writer is about more than just writing. Theres a reason we refer to it as the writing life. An important part of being a writer is livingand truly living is ensuring that youre not chained to a desk staring at a computer at the expense of lived experience (which will, of course, inform and enliven your writing). chosen by Kevin Larimer

Be proud of yourself.

Too often, especially for writers, pride can sound like a bad word. Many of us downplay our contributions and accomplishments, forgetting to take a moment to feel proud of what were doing on the page. Having grown up on a farm in the Midwest, in a family where modesty was held up as a kind of unspoken principle, I can find it difficult, even under the sheen of social media, to take time for the good, healthy, valuable feelings of accomplishment that come after a long writing or editing project is finally complete. We wanted to make sure that our book included some reminders to writers to take a moment and give yourself permission to brag a bit. Dont automatically dismiss what youre doing if someone brings up your writing over dinner or in casual conversation. Youre a writer; youve written something unique. And there are millions of people out there who cannot say that. Its a special thing youre doing, unique to you. Go ahead, be proud of yourself! chosen by Kevin Larimer

Feel your post-publication feelings.

Honestly, this is something we were able to write about only after our own book was well on its way to being published, and we added it as the last chapter because the feelings we were writing about were so strong. Not a lot of writers talk about it, at least not publicly, because unless youve been through the process yourself, you likely wouldnt know to ask an author about it. And so many writers hold publication as a top marker of success; it makes sense that authors wouldnt want to be perceived as complaining about how emotionally difficult it can be. Plus, its kind of personal. It can be a little embarrassing when your eyes well up with tears when you hit send on the final manuscript to your editor. There are so many emotionsjoy, relief, excitement, and happiness, yes, but also fear, sadness, exhaustion; heck, maybe youre feeling a little let down after the rush leading up to deadline. All of these things are normal. So dont be embarrassed of your feelings. Youre engaged in something really big. This work involves every part of you, and there are highs and lows at every step. We want to remind writers to feel it all, and use every piece of it to fuel and empower your next writing project. chosen by Kevin Larimer
The Indian governments decision to conditionally lift its export ban on 14 pharmaceutical products, including much-in-demand hydroxychloroquine, is correct. It has done an assessment that shows there is enough for internal requirements plus a buffer. A large number of strategically important countries, ranging from Indias South Asian neighbours to the United States (US), had asked to tap into Indias large pharmaceutical base. India also saw an opportunity to display leadership in rolling back the present beggar thy neighbour policies that are fragmenting global medical supply chains to the detriment of all coronavirus victims. Remember, India is as dependent on external medical supplies as anyone else.

Even into the fourth month of the pandemic, India is importing tonnes of protective gear and testing kits from all over the world. Even before US President Donald Trumps unacceptable reference to possible retaliation, India  based on an assessment of its domestic needs, the need to ensure it remains in a position to ask the US itself for critical supplies, and display statesmanship  had decided to go ahead. While the initial bans and restrictions on medical supplies and drugs were an inevitable panicked response, over time, it is becoming clear they make little sense. No government has the ability to manufacture every variety of medical equipment and manufacture all varieties of drugs within its borders.

Many political leaders believe these are make-or-break times and this pressure manifests itself in unseemly ways. Hence Mr Trumps personal obsession with chloroquine and his boorish language regarding Indias earlier ban on the medicine. Indias own behaviour has not been without fault. The continuing decision to ban the export of diagnostic kits, irrespective of disease, was harmful to many developing nations and deserves to be reviewed. Hopefully, Indias decision on the pharmaceutical front indicates a formula-based policy, which will add to a global momentum towards greater openness and cooperation in handling the pandemic. In a viral sea, no country is an island.
A reporter with a Chinese news outlet has been accused of attending a White House coronavirus press briefing to push propaganda about the communist regime sending aid to the US.

Republicans politicians are claiming a reporter with Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV infiltrated President Trump's briefing on Monday in order to promote Beijing's spin on the virus.

Footage from the coronavirus task force press conference showed the woman ask Trump if he was 'co-operating with China' after she listed medical supplies the country had sent to the US.

The president responded by asking: 'Who are you working for, China? Do you work for China? Or are you with a newspaper? Who are you with?'

The reporter from pro-Beijing Phoenix TV questioned Trump during a coronavirus press briefing about whether he would 'co-operate with China'

The reporter replied that she works for Phoenix TV, a Chinese media company based in Hong Kong sympathetic to Beijing and with strong ties to the ruling Communist Party.

She began by asking: 'Only last week, there were multiple flights coming from China full of medical supplies.

'Companies like Huawei and Alibaba have been donating to the United States, like 1.5 million N95 masks and also a lot of medical gloves, and much more medical supplies.'

Trump interjected, adding: 'Sounds like a statement more than a question.'

The reporter then asked if Trump was willing to work 'directly' with China and the president said China should honor its trade deals with the US.

He then started listing the billions of dollars in trade deficit that operated between the two countries.

'Are you cooperating with China?' the female reporter added.

President Trump responded during the White House briefing on Monday by asking the reporter: 'Who are you working for, China?'

When asked if she was working for China, the reporter smiled and said: 'Um no, I'm working for...Hong Kong Phoenix TV.'

When Trump followed up by asking about the ownership of the media outlet, she said 'it's a private-owned company'.

He said: 'Who owns that [Phoenix TV], China? Is it owned by China? Is it owned by the state?'

Trump was criticized for assuming an Asian reporter was working for the Chinese state.

While Phoenix TV is technically 'privately-owned' their biggest investor is a state-owned mobile company, China Mobile.

It has since emerged that Phoenix Media is largely owned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and run by a former party propaganda officer, Liu Changle.

Changle, who is a former People's Liberation Army (PLA) propaganda official who is close to senior Chinese government leaders, has 37.1 per cent of shares in Phoenix Satellite Holdings and is the company chairman and CEO.

Republican consultant Elliot Schwartz tweeted part of an FCC filing that showed the outlet is controlled by China's Communist party's propaganda department.

People wearing hazmat suits walking along a street today in Wuhan, China's central Hubei province where the coronavirus outbreak began

Phoenix Media (pictured a reporter from the outlet) is largely owned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and run by a former party propaganda officer

The document also states the network follows directives to not report positively on the US, according to a 2017 report by pro-democracy think tank Freedom House.

The report states: 'Phoenix TV's coverage is typically favorable to the CCP [Chinese Communist Party].

'Moreover, over the past two years, it has been used as an outlet for airing televised confessions by various detained CCP critics, most notably all five Hong Kong booksellers abducted by Chinese security forces in late 2015.'

In 2018 Spanish-language radio station, XEWW AM 690, in Mexico began broadcasting in Chinese after a deal with Phoenix TV to broadcast to Chinese Americans throughout Southern California.

Republicans, including Ted Cruz, criticized the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA), an independent affiliation that controls which reporters have access to briefings, for allowing the Phoenix TV reporter a space.

The Texas senator wrote on Twitter: 'Phoenix TV has been waging information warfare in the US for yrs. They are nominally private but actually state owned. In 2018 I led effort to block them from using cutouts to spread propaganda. MSM should NEVER have given them seat at WH [White House] press conference.'

A man wearing a protective suit checking a woman's temperature next to a residential area in Wuhan today

Republican Senator Ted Cruz speaking on the Senate floor at the US Capitol in Washington DC last month

In a separate tweet he added: 'Phoenix Satellite TV US is a subsidiary of Beijing Phoenix TV, based in Hong Kong. The People's Republic of China (PRC) exerts control over Chinese media and the control extends to Phoenix: in 2009 testimony to the US Economic & Security Review Commission on China, Anne Marie-Brady...at Wilson Center said 'Phoenix is nominally privately-owned; however its current main investor is the State-owned enterprise China Mobile. In 2016...Phoenix BROADCAST THE FORCED CONFESSIONS of 5 Hong Kong booksellers for violating PRC censorship law.'

Access to the White House briefing room has been severely restricted to enforce social distancing.

The White House Correspondents Association has split outlets into rotations to avoid more than 14 people sitting in the room.

Foreign television outlets are on a rotation among each other, while domestic print and online outlets, including DailyMail.com are on another rotation.

China has been criticized for trying to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus when it first emerged and for suppressing those within the country raising the alarm.

Beijing has also been accused of under reporting its true death toll from the virus.

So far China has officially recorded more than 81,000 cases with over 3,300 deaths, but activists in Wuhan, where the outbreak began, claims thousands of cremations have been taking place each day.

Long queues at the funeral homes have fueled skepticism about China's numbers, prompting claims that 42,000 people or more could have died in Wuhan alone.

One whistleblowing doctor, who first alerted the rest of the world to the escalating crisis within Hubei province, was sanctioned by medical authorities and police and later died of the disease.
Does the April share price for Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) reflect what it's really worth? Today, we will estimate the stock's intrinsic value by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. I will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward.

We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Check out our latest analysis for Mastercard

What's the estimated valuation?

We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 Levered FCF ($, Millions) US$7.73b US$9.25b US$10.2b US$12.0b US$14.1b US$15.5b US$16.7b US$17.7b US$18.6b US$19.3b Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x7 Analyst x8 Analyst x2 Analyst x2 Analyst x2 Est @ 10.46% Est @ 7.85% Est @ 6.01% Est @ 4.73% Est @ 3.83% Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 6.9% US$7.2k US$8.1k US$8.4k US$9.2k US$10.1k US$10.4k US$10.5k US$10.4k US$10.2k US$9.9k

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = US$95b

Story continues

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 10-year government bond rate of 1.7%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 6.9%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2029  (1 + g)  (r  g) = US$19b (1 + 1.7%)  6.9% 1.7%) = US$383b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= US$383b ( 1 + 6.9%)10= US$197b

The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is US$292b. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of US$266, the company appears about fair value at a 8.4% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind.

NYSE:MA Intrinsic value April 7th 2020

The assumptions

We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Mastercard as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 6.9%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.942. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

Next Steps:

Whilst important, DCF calculation shouldnt be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For Mastercard, We've put together three additional aspects you should further research:

Risks: For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Mastercard that you should be aware of before investing here. Future Earnings: How does MA's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every US stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
In a world hit hard by Covid-19, the work from home (WFH) is a long-term reality for most businesses and hotels are no exception. However, it is important to look beyond today.

For managing essential functions in times of lock down as well as future business continuity, leading technology solutions provider Prologic First offers a comprehensive array of WFH solutions ranging from options for back-office staff to sales and reservation teams.

Amlan Ghose, managing director of Prologic First, explained: Even if your hotel is locked down and your employees are unable to get to work, your back office needs to function. You need to follow up on debtors to bolster your cash-on-hand, you need to pay essential suppliers so that they stand by you when you are back in business, you need to pay salaries and manage HR functions so that you do not lose talent without whom restarting will be harder and you still need to worry about statutory compliance.

Considering the above there are many questions that arise. Are hotelsable to do all this? Does its IT allow it to? If IT is capable and the team is able to WFH, how secure is the hotel's system? How well protected is the hotel against unauthorised intrusion?

Ghose stressed: Our popular hospitality ERP, Web ProlIFIC, that is used at 1,000+ sites, is web based and multi-property. You may host it in your private data centre or may use it off our public cloud. In either case, you will get rich functionality and high performance. More important, you will be secure. The application works over secure Internet (SSL enabled), access is restricted to authorised users down to the feature level and access may be restricted so that only recognised IP addresses are allowed to access the system.

Similarly, what are hotels doing to ensure that they have guests when the lock down is lifted, and life returns to normal? Are they taking bookings? If yes, how confident are they of their latest availability? Are all their reservation agents referring to a single image of availability so that they do not have situations of overbooking, under booking or double booking?

Ghose stated: To do all the above, you need a cloud-based PMS connected, via a channel manager, to the online portals and your own brand web site. We already have a system in place. Mycloud is a cloud service that you subscribe on a pay-as-you-use basis. By using mycloud you can ensure that your hotel reservations system is fully operational even when your hotel is not. Not just at this moment, when cities and countries are under lock down, but also after the lockdown is lifted. Afterall, WFH is being forecasted as the way of the future.

A big benefit of using cloud-based systems is that hotel managers and owners get visibility into the operations and management information of their hotel or chain. There is no need to depend on staff in office to provide answers. Users can seek them themselves.

Trusted by global hospitality leaders, Prologic First has been at the forefront of providing multi-functional innovative technology solutions for hotels for more than two decades serving clients in over 40 countries. In addition to the most comprehensive hospitality cloud solutions, Prologic First has been a pioneer in hybrid and on-premise hospitality technology solutions and is the technology partner of choice for many leading hotels in the region and worldwide. - TradeArabia News Service
President Trump announced on Tuesday that the U.S. would temporarily freeze funding to the World Health Organization.

They seem to be very China-centric. And we have to look into that, so well look into it; we pay for a majority of the money that they get, Trump said at a White House press conference. And were going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. Several minutes later, Trump clarified that the U.S. would not immediately cut funding for the organization, but that his administration would study the option.

They really called every aspect of [the coronavirus pandemic] wrong, Trump said. Everything seems to be very biased toward China and thats not right.

The U.S. provides about 15 percent of the WHOs annual budget, making it the highest contributor to the organization. By contrast, China provides 0.2 percent of the budget.

The WHO has been criticized by other U.S. lawmakers for its ties to China. In addition, Taiwan has accused the organization of failing to communicate Taiwanese officials warnings of possible human-to-human transmission of coronavirus.

The WHO could not obtain first-hand information to study and judge whether there was human-to-human transmission of Covid-19, said Taiwans vice president Chen Chien-jen in March. This led it to announce human-to-human transmission with a delay, and an opportunity to raise the alert level both in China and the wider world was lost.

Taiwanese medical officials first warned the WHO of possible human-to-human transmission on December 31. On January 14, the WHO wrote in a tweet that preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus. The pandemic has since infected over 1,400,000 and claimed at least 80,000 lives worldwide as of Tuesday evening.

More from National Review
Married At First Sight star Cathy Evans didn't let mandatory social distancing hold her back from getting glammed up on Monday.

The 26-year-old logistics investigator showed off her ample cleavage as she went braless in a busty bubblegum-pink cropped blazer while working from home amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Posing in what appeared to be an empty dining room, Cathy smiled innocently at the camera despite the seductive ensemble.

NSFW: Married At First Sight star Cathy Evans showed off her ample cleavage as she went braless in outrageous working from home outfit on Monday during coronavirus lockdown

The blonde reality star also revealed a hint of her torso by teaming the top with a tiny tweed mini skirt.

The freelance makeup artist showed off her impressive skills, accentuating her plump pout with a nude lip, while giving herself a radiant glow with bronzer and a subtle coral blush.

The bombshell's long locks fell to her waist, amplifying to the Barbie-like look.

'Wfh, wbu?' Cathy captioned the post, using the text abbreviations for 'working from home, what about you?'

Locked down: Cathy was recently forced to self-isolate for two weeks after travelling her home country New Zealand to promote Married At First Sight

Cathy was recently forced to self-isolate for two weeks after travelling her home country New Zealand to promote Married At First Sight.

On the show, she was paired with larrikin Josh Pihlak - but while they started off strong, their differing priorities eventually tore them apart.

On Monday, Cathy confirmed she's moved on from her MAFS groom and has settled down with a new mystery man.

Speaking to Yahoo, the Sydney-based reality star announced: 'I've found someone so much better now.'

'I've found someone so much better now': Cathy recently confirmed she's in a relationship with a mystery man after failing to connect with Josh Pihlak on MAFS

'I really tried so hard in the relationship and, if anything, it was a blessing that it didn't work out,' she admitted of her failed romance with Josh, 28.

While she refused to reveal any details about the identify of her new beau, she insisted: 'They're just a private person, they're not a person who's famous or anything, it's just a normal citizen of Australia'.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there are 5,895 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia, including 45 deaths.

'I really tried so hard in the relationship... it was a blessing that it didn't work out,' she told Yahoo Lifestyle, speaking about her failed romance with 'groom' Josh (right)
Plus de 50 migrants attendent a Melilla, une enclave espagnole a la frontiere marocaine, apres un passage en masse de la frontiere tres protegee dans lequel un policier a ete legerement blesse, selon des responsables.
After the events of that summer, it took Ernaux another decade and a half to find her voice. Her early influences  from Simone de Beauvoir to the social upheaval of May 1968  are captured in vivid snapshots in The Years, which weaves together nearly 70 years of autobiography and history.

Her first novel, written at college, was rejected by publishers as too ambitious, she said. When she took up writing again, in the early 1970s, she was a French teacher and a married mother of two, newly acquainted with the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and his theory of social reproduction.

Bourdieus emphasis on the ways the education system excludes working-class children brought Ernaux to a realization: Suddenly, the shame she felt as a scholarship student, with a background so unlike her bourgeois peers, made sense.

She wrote Cleaned Out without telling anyone. My husband had made fun of me after my first manuscript. I pretended to work on a Ph.D. thesis to have time alone, she said. When the book was picked up by a prestigious publishing house, Gallimard, her husband Philippe was aggrieved, Ernaux said: He told me: If youre capable of writing a book in secret, then youre capable of cheating on me. By her third book, A Frozen Woman, which explored the writers ambivalent feelings about being a wife and mother, divorce loomed.

Ernaux said that choosing not to remarry had given her freedom. I lived with men for periods of time, but very quickly, I would get tired of it. Im picturing being on lockdown with someone right now  what a nightmare, she said, laughing.

In the early 1990s, she startled many in France with A Simple Passion, an account of her affair with a married foreign diplomat, which explores desire in disarming, sensual detail, without moralizing. By that point, Ernaux had done away with any pretense of fiction, and the book, which sold 200,000 copies in two months, attracted virulent criticism from social conservatives.
(CNN)  Teen girls were charged with hate crime after police said they attacked a woman on a New York bus, made "anti-Asian statements toward her and told her she caused coronavirus.

Police said the four suspects attacked the 51-year-old victim on an MTA bus in the Bronx. They called her a expletive, said she caused coronavirus and asked her why she wasn't wearing a mask, NYPD Lt. Thomas Antonetti told CNN.

One of the suspects struck the woman's head with an umbrella before all four of them fled the bus, police said.

The woman received stitches for a cut on her head at a local hospital, the NYPD said in a statement.

Shortly after the incident, officers arrested three15-year-old girls near the scene. The teens were charged with hate crime assaults, menacing and harassment for the attack, the NYPD said.

But police are still searching for the fourth suspect, believed to be the only one who struck the woman with the umbrella. Antonetti said she's likely a teen, too.

Racist and xenophobic attacks against Asian people intensify

Reports of attacks against Asian people or anyone who appears to be East Asian have intensified after the novel coronavirus outbreak began in China.

The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force said it's investigated 11 cases in which Asian victims were targeted due to the coronavirus since the start of the outbreak.

CNN political commentator Andrew Yang called the surging xenophobia against Asian Americans a "heartbreaking phenomenon" in an interview with CNN's Lisa Ling.

"I've gotten the same messages you have, Lisa, about friends and Asian Americans who are being either spat on or attacked or assaulted around the country," he said.

Yang said he'd heard of children being "bullied mercilessly" at school and taunted as the "Chinese virus."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Teens charged with hate crimes for attacking a woman on a bus and saying she caused coronavirus, NYPD says."
Boris Johnson's heavily pregnant fiancee Carrie Symonds and his children are all barred from seeing the prime minister as he battles coronavirus in intensive care today.

Mr Johnson, 55, was rushed into ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in central London with breathing difficulties and his partner is not allowed to be by his side because of her pregnancy and a blanket ban on visitors.

Boris and Carrie have not seen each other for a fortnight after Mr Johnson, 55, first fell ill on March 27 while Ms Symonds, 32, is understood to have come down with similar symptoms over the weekend and is in self-isolation with the couple's dog Dilyn at their 1.3m South London home.

The Prime Minister is said to be conscious but needing oxygen - and it is not known if they have been able to speak on the phone, but Carrie will be getting updates from the ward and No 10.

If Mr Johnson has nominated Carrie as his next of kin, if his condition deteriorates doctors may ask her to make decisions on his behalf should he be sedated and put on a ventilator.

Boris' children Lara Lettice, 26, Milo Arthur, 24, Cassia Peaches, 22, and Theodore Apollo, 20, will also be being informed about his condition by ICU medics at St Thomas', according to NHS guidance. He also has a fifth child, Stephanie Macintyre, 11, after an affair with art consultant Helen Macintyre with a sixth child from another affair also rumoured.

But it is likely his second wife Marina, who divorced him in February, will only hear news from their four children unless Mr Johnson specifically asks medics to speak to her about his health.

Carrie Symonds is self isolating with the couple's rescue dog Dilyn (pictured together on March 27)

Pregnant Carrie cannot see her fiance Boris, who is seriously ill with coronavirus (pictured together on March 9 at Westminster Abbey)

There is a heavy police presence at St Thomas' Hospital on Wesrminster Bridge today where Mr Johnson remains in intensive care

Royals wish Boris Johnson a 'speedy recovery' The Queen has sent her best wishes for a speedy recovery to her Prime Minister this afternoon and also said her thoughts are with his pregnant fiancee and his family as he battles coronavirus in hospital The Queen and other senior royals have sent messages of support to Boris Johnson for a 'speedy recovery' as he battles coronavirus in intensive care today. Her Majesty said her thoughts were also with the Prime Minister's heavily pregnant fiancee Carrie Symonds and his family, who are not able to visit him at St Thomas' Hospital in central London. It is the third time in less than 72 hours that the Queen has made a public statement about the coronavirus crisis, as the death toll jumped by a record-high of 854 in a day with 6,227 known victims. Buckingham Palace said in a statement: 'Earlier today The Queen sent a message to Carrie Symonds and to the Johnson family. Her Majesty said they were in her thoughts and that she wished the Prime Minister a full and speedy recovery'. And in a message released at the same time Prince William and Kate Middleton also sent their best wishes to the PM. The Duke of Cambridge tweeted a personal message, signing it off with his initial 'W', and saying: 'Our thoughts are with the Prime Minister and his family, who like so many in the UK and around the world are affected by coronavirus. We wish him a speedy recovery at this difficult time. W.' His father the Prince of Wales, who has recovered from Covid-19, sent a message from himself and the Duchess of Cornwall to Mr Johnson on Tuesday, also wishing him a 'speedy recovery', Clarence House said. Advertisement

Their acrimonious split has caused tension between Mr Johnson and his children, who he asked to meet in person in February to tell them he was engaged to Carrie and they were having a baby.

But not all of his children reportedly bothered to turn up for their father's announcement and are said to be 'furious' because they believe Carrie and Boris got together after an affair.

On March 27 - the day Boris tested positive for coronavirus - Carrie shared a photograph of herself self-isolating with their dog Dilyn at the 1.3million Camberwell house she bought with Mr Johnson last year.

Downing Street has refused to say where she is

Carrie Symonds is just one of the millions of pregnant women who were told they were at increased risk from Covid-19  and ordered to follow stringent social distancing, for 12 weeks.

She had also reportedly wanted a home birth but women all over the country are having these cancelled because of a lack of midwives and some hospitals are also banning birthing partners.

Miss Symonds is the first unmarried partner of a Prime Minister to live in Downing Street, where she is understood to have been considering having the baby.

But if the lockdown continues she may have to give birth in hospital, potentially without a birthing partner.

Boris Johnson is still battling coronavirus in intensive care today with 'no change' in his condition overnight - amid a wave of support from across the nation and an outp

Mr Johnson was moved to ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in central London and given oxygen after his health deteriorated sharply over just two hours, leaving doctors fearing he will need a ventilator.

The 55-year-old was transferred to intensive care at 7pm because of breathing difficulties - forcing him to 'deputise' Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to take the reins of government.

The Queen is being kept informed about Mr Johnson's condition, while Mr Raab will chair a meeting of the government coronavirus task force this morning.

No10 has been urged to be more 'transparent' about the premier's condition, amid claims a hospital bed was being prepared for him as early as last Thursday.

Boris Johnson's second wife Marina (pictured together in 2015) divorced him in February amid claims of an affair

Boris' daughter Lara (together in 2012) reportedly branded her father a 'selfish b*****d' after allegations he had a liaison with Carrie surfaced in 2018

Mr Johnson is thought asked Lara Lettice, 26, Milo Arthur, 24, (left) Cassia Peaches, 22, (centre) and Theodore Apollo, 20, (right) to meet so he could tell them he and Carrie are having a baby - but some refused to come amid tensions over his new relationship

Are pregnant women more vulnerable to coronavirus? There is no evidence that pregnant women become more severely unwell if they develop coronavirus than the general population. It is expected the large majority of pregnant women will experience only mild or moderate symptoms because more severe symptoms such as pneumonia appear to be more common in older people, those with weakened immune systems or long-term conditions. There are no reported deaths of pregnant women from coronavirus at the moment. If you are pregnant you are more vulnerable to getting infections than a woman who is not pregnant, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. In terms of risk to the baby, there is no evidence right now to suggest an increased risk of miscarriage or transmission to the unborn baby via the womb or breast milk. Advertisement

Carrie was brought up by her mother Josephine, who is now 71, in East Sheen, South-West London and attended the private 20,000-a-year Godolphin & Latymer School.

Her father Matthew, a founder of the Independent newspaper, lived in a large property not far away in Twickenham with his wife, Alison, with whom he has three children.

Matthew had an affair with Josephine, who was a lawyer on the paper and Carrie is the product of that affair, born in 1988.

When Mr Johnson and former Tory Party head of press Miss Symonds fell in love, many were sceptical that it could last.

The cynics appeared to have been proved right when they were overheard having a spectacular domestic spat in their London house early in their relationship.

But they have proved the doubters wrong. Despite not being married, they negotiated tricky moments like visiting the Queen at Balmoral as an unmarried couple, with great dignity.

Miss Symonds proved a great asset to Mr Johnson in the election campaign. She curbed her love of the limelight and made sure he was the centre of attention.

Images show the Prime Minister's changing appearance as his battle with coronavirus as he looked more and more unwell (left to right April 1, 2 and 3)

The couple, pictured on election night in December, have rarely seen each other through the crisis and haven't been together for more than a fortnight

How many children does Boris Johnson have? The Prime Minister and Marina Wheeler, who separated in 2018, have four children together: Lara Lettice, 26, Milo Arthur, 24, Cassia Peaches, 22, and Theodore Apollo, 20. He also has a fifth child, Stephanie Macintyre, with art consultant Helen Macintyre. Ms Macintyre's daughter is allegedly one of two children he fathered as a result of an affair. The Appeal Court ruled in 2013 that the public had a right to know that he had fathered a daughter during an adulterous liaison while Mayor of London in 2009 - but also mentioned the possibility of a second baby. It is not known if Boris has any more children - but his baby with Carrie will be his sixth, officially. Advertisement

Within weeks of becoming Prime Minister she became pregnant. Mr Johnson was heavily criticised soon into his premiership when many parts of Britain were badly flooded and he failed to visit them.

At the time he was staying with Miss Symonds at the Foreign Secretarys official residence, Chevening in Kent, while repairs were being carried out at Chequers. Mr Johnson fell in love with Chequers in his days as Foreign Secretary in Theresa Mays government.

He regularly went for swims in the Chevening lake, urging male guests to strip off and join him.

One MP who has known him since before he became an MP said: He was excited at being able to be with Carrie at Chevening officially. It is no secret that they used to go there for trysts before they were officially an item.

They had a brief break in Mustique but it was at Chevening that they had the time and space to get to know each other better. Then Carrie got pregnant. It was wonderful.

Little did they know that their lives were about to be thrown into such personal and political turmoil.
It is turning out to be one of the biggest challenges for the authorities in the battle against Coronavirus  to identify the Tablighis and their contacts. The Thane Police have registered two FIRs against the trustees of two Mosques in Mumbra area for violating the government order.

Trustees of masjid named in FIRs

Thane Police have taken out around 20 foreigner Tablighis who were lodged in two Mosques in Thane. In one Mosque, 13 Bangladeshi Tablighis were hiding with two Tablighis from Assam and in the other, around 8 Malaysian Tablighis.

While in one FIR, 19 people have been named as accused, in another, 14 people have been named. This includes trustees of the Masjid. They have been accused of violating the laws promulgated by the state. FIR has been registered under the following sections- 188, 269, 270 of IPC, 3 of Epidemic Act, 51 of National Disaster Management Act.

READ | Republic accesses Markaz videos: Did committee members mislead the Delhi Police?

The foreigners came to Thane before the 18th March Nizamuddin congregation. They arrived in New Delhi on 10th March. They stayed in the markaz for few days before leaving for Thane. The trustees of the masjid allegedly helped the Tablighis to stay inside. The trustees are being questioned by Thane police. The Tablighis from Bangladesh had come to Mumbra via Nizamuddin on 13th March. They did not attend the congregation on 18th.

READ | Crime Branch likely to issue second notice to Markaz head Maulana Saad

The Tablighis from Malaysia came in February to attend the scheduled congregation in Vasai which was later cancelled by Maharashtra police. Thane Police team headed by commissioner Vivek Phansalkar convinced the masjid office bearers to cooperate with the police. It was only after that the Tablighis hiding inside the masjid stepped out. The Tablighis have been quarantined. Swabs have been sent for testing.

READ | EXCLUSIVE: Massive blow to Pak backed ISKP; Republic accesses exclusive images

READ | Timely action against Tablighi Jamaat by Maharashtra Police saves many lives

(Representative image: PTI photo)
U.S. Designates Russia-Based White Supremacist Group, Leaders As Terrorists

By RFE/RL April 06, 2020

The United States has designated the ultranationalist Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) along with three of its leaders as terrorists, marking the first time the classification has been applied to a white supremacist group.

Ambassador Nathan Sales, the U.S. State Department's counterterrorism coordinator, on April 6 described the step as "unprecedented," saying in a statement that the movement had "innocent blood on its hands."

The movement describes itself as a "Russian Orthodox national-patriotic and monarchist organization" that aims to restore an autocratic monarchy in Russia. The group also seeks the declaration of Russia as a mono-ethnic state centered on what it classifies as the three branches of the Russian people -- Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians.

The movement has branches in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod and its military wing, the Imperial Legion, advertises training in hand-to-hand combat, martial arts, and tactical training.

Sales linked RIM to a series of recent bomb attacks targeting asylum seekers in Sweden in 2017. Prosecutors in a case against three men accused of plotting the attacks alleged that the three had traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, for military training carried out by the movement, according to The New York Times.

"The prosecutor who handled their case blamed RIM for radicalizing them and providing the training that enabled the attacks," Sales said in a statement.

Sales added that the battle against "white supremacist terrorism" would continue, and said that the administration of President Donald Trump would use all "counterterrorism tools to this fight."

It marks the first time the designation has been applied to a white supremacist group abroad, and comes after Trump signed an executive order in September 2019 that expanded sanctions for combating terrorism by allowing the terrorist designation to be applied to groups that provide training to terrorists.

With the designation in place, the U.S. Treasury Department is now free to blacklist the organization and to block U.S. properties or assets that belong to the movement.

While the group is not considered to be sponsored by the Kremlin, it has openly recruited fighters for the Russia-backed separatists fighting against government troops in eastern Ukraine.

In addition to the movement itself, three members of the group's leadership were blacklisted individually.

The three are RIM's leader, Stanislav Vorobyev; Nikolai Trushchalov, the group's coordinator; and Denis Gariyev, who heads the Imperial Legion.

With reporting by The New York Times and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-designates-russia- based-white-supremacist-group-leaders -as-terrorists/30536654.html

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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YEREVAN.  On April 3, the Government of the Republic of Armenia (RA) adopted a decision to amend the Decision on Declaring a State of Emergency, according to which foreigners are prohibited from entering Armenia through the countrys border checkpoints, regardless of their place of arrival. This was reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in a statement.

As per the statement, this change was made taking into account that the geographical spread of the novel coronavirus is no longer limited to countries with a tense epidemiological situation, and includes almost all countries (territories) in the world.

According to the above-mentioned decision, any person who is not an RA citizen or a member of the family of an RA citizen, as well as has no right to lawfully reside in the RA is prohibited from entering the country throughout the state of emergency.

Exceptions are the diplomatic representatives of foreign countries, representatives of consular institutions and international organizations and members of their families, as well as persons authorized to enter by the decisions of the Commandant, or in special cases authorized by him.

Upon entering the RA at the checkpoints, persons are immediately subjected to a special inspection in order to detect the presence of the coronavirus or its symptoms.

After undergoing the appropriate examination, all persons are subject to mandatory self-isolation, unless hospitalization and/or other restrictive measures are applied to them due to the presence of symptoms.

If people refuse to undergo a medical examination, hospitalization, self-isolation and/or other restrictive measures after entering the RA, their right to free movement may be restricted within a certain area (place) in order to study, treat, and prevent the spread of the infection.
Paris, 7 April 2020 - The Covid-19 epidemic is creating a situation of major uncertainty. From today's vantage point, no one can predict how long it will take to emerge from this public health crisis, what the human or economic costs will be, nor how long it will take for the economy to return to normal.

Leveraging the experience gained during the 2008 crisis, the Management Company anticipates that the private equity sector will see an almost total halt to new investments and divestments, coupled with a need to invest additional amounts in their portfolio companies. EBITDA of portfolio companies will decline, as will peer-group multiples, while indebtedness will rise.

With respect to Altamir:

- Given the uncertainty surrounding the length and breadth of the coronavirus epidemic and its impact on the performance of the companies in the portfolio, the Management Company can no longer maintain the 2020 guidance announced when 2019 earnings were published, and it is not in a position to issue new guidance.

- Altamir's portfolio should be resilient for the most part, because it is made up principally of growth companies that are leaders in their sector and are geographically diversified.

- All the companies in the portfolio have taken measures necessary to preserve their business activity and their cash to the greatest extent possible.

Following the high level of divestment activity in 2019, Altamir is entering this difficult period with a sound financial condition. Cash totalled 79m as of 31 December 2019 and the Company is negotiating an increase in its bank lines of credit from 30m as of 31 December 2019 to 70m, or 10% of the shareholders' equity of the parent company as of that date, i.e. the maximum allowed under its status as an SCR (Societe de Capital Risque).

Moreover, in order to reflect the impact of the current situation on NAV as of 31 March, the Company has decided to revalue all of its shareholdings, and not only the listed companies as it usually does at the end of the first quarter. Consequently, the Company has postponed publication of NAV as of 31 March from 12 May, as initially planned, to 19 May 2020.

Forthcoming events :

Annual Shareholders' Meeting 28 April 2020 NAV as of 31/03/2020 19 May 2020, post-trading H1 2020 earnings and NAV as of 30/06/2020 8 September 2020, post-trading NAV as of 30/09/2020 5 November 2020, post-trading

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

About Altamir

Altamir is a listed private equity company (Euronext Paris-B, ticker: LTA) founded in 1995 and with a NAV of more than 1bn. Its objective is to provide shareholders with long-term capital appreciation and regular dividends by investing in a diversified portfolio of private equity investments.

Altamir's investment policy is to invest via and with the funds managed or advised by Apax Partners SAS and Apax Partners LLP, two leading private equity firms that take majority or lead positions in buyouts and growth capital transactions and seek ambitious value creation objectives.

In this way, Altamir provides access to a diversified portfolio of fast-growing companies across Apax's sectors of specialisation (TMT, Consumer, Healthcare, Services) and in complementary market segments (mid-sized companies in continental Europe and larger companies in Europe, North America and key emerging markets).

Altamir derives certain tax benefits from its status as a SCR ("Societe de Capital Risque"). As such, Altamir is exempt from corporate tax and the company's investors may benefit from tax exemptions, subject to specific holding-period and dividend-reinvestment conditions.

For more information: www.altamir.fr

Contact

Claire Peyssard Moses

Tel.: +33 1 53 65 01 74 / +33 6 34 32 38 97

E-mail: claire.peyssard-moses@altamir.fr

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Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-62861-en.pdf
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The COVID-19 crisis has the potential to push around 40 crore informal sector workers in India deeper into poverty, with the lockdown and other containment measures affecting jobs and earnings, an International Labour Organisation (ILO) report said on Tuesday.

India has imposed a three-week lockdown till April 14 to contain the pandemic.

As per ILO, India is among the countries less equipped to handle the situation.

"COVID-19 is already affecting tens of millions of informal workers. In India, Nigeria and Brazil, the number of workers in the informal economy affected by the lockdown and other containment measures is substantial," the ILO report released in Geneva said.

"In India, with a share of almost 90 per cent of people working in the informal economy, about 400 million workers in the informal economy are at risk of falling deeper into poverty during the crisis.

"Current lockdown measures in India, which are at the high end of the University of Oxford's COVID-19 Government Response Stringency Index, have impacted these workers significantly, forcing many of them to return to rural areas," it said.

The report further said countries experiencing fragility, protracted conflict, recurrent natural disasters or forced displacement will face a multiple burden due to the pandemic.

"They are less equipped to prepare for and respond to COVID-19 as access to basic services, especially health and sanitation, is limited; decent work, social protection and safety at work are not a given; their institutions are weak; and social dialogue is impaired or absent," it added.

The ILO also noted that the pandemic is having a catastrophic effect on working hours and earnings globally.

The new ILO report highlights some of the worst affected sectors and regions, and outlines policies to mitigate the crisis.

It found that the crisis is expected to wipe out 6.7 per cent of working hours globally in the second quarter of 2020 -- equivalent to 195 million full-time workers.

Large reductions are foreseen in the Arab states, (8.1 per cent, equivalent to 5 million full-time workers), Europe, (7.8 per cent, or 12 million full-time workers) and Asia and the Pacific (7.2 per cent, 125 million full-time workers).

Huge losses are expected across different income groups but especially in upper-middle income countries (7 per cent, 100 million full-time workers).

This far exceeds the effects of the 2008-9 financial crisis.

The sectors most at risk include accommodation and food services, manufacturing, retail, and business and administrative activities.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 LIVE

The eventual increase in global unemployment during 2020 will depend substantially on future developments and policy measures.

There is a high risk that the end-of-year figure will be significantly higher than the initial ILO projection of 25 million, it said.

More than four out of five people (81 per cent) in the global workforce of 3.3 billion are currently affected by full or partial workplace closures.

"Workers and businesses are facing catastrophe, in both developed and developing economies," ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said.

"We have to move fast, decisively, and together. The right, urgent, measures, could make the difference between survival and collapse."

The 'ILO Monitor 2nd edition: COVID-19 and the world of work', which describes COVID-19 as "the worst global crisis since World War II", updates an ILO research note published on March 18.

The updated version includes sectoral and regional information on the effects of the pandemic.

According to the new study, 1.25 billion workers are employed in the sectors identified as being at high risk of "drastic and devastating" increases in layoffs and reductions in wages and working hours.

Many are in low-paid, low-skilled jobs, where a sudden loss of income is devastating.

Looked at regionally, the proportion of workers in these "at risk" sectors varies from 41 per cent in the Americas to 26 per cent in Asia and the Pacific.

Other regions, particularly Africa, have higher levels of informality, which combined with a lack of social protection, high population density and weak capacity, pose severe health and economic challenges for governments, the report cautions.

Worldwide, two billion people work in the informal sector (mostly in emerging and developing economies) and are particularly at risk.

Large-scale, integrated, policy measures are needed, focusing on four pillars -- supporting enterprises, employment and incomes; stimulating the economy and jobs; protecting workers in the workplace; and, using social dialogue between government, workers and employers to find solutions, the study says.

"This is the greatest test for international cooperation in more than 75 years," said Ryder.

"If one country fails, then we all fail. We must find solutions that help all segments of our global society, particularly those that are most vulnerable or least able to help themselves.

"The choices we make today will directly affect the way this crisis unfolds and so the lives of billions of people," he added.
(Natural News) When it comes to COVID-19, the only thing we can really be sure of is that we dont really know very much at all. Mortality rates, the R-0 value (the number of people each coronavirus patient will go on to infect), just how far we need to stand away from an infected person, whether or not we should wear masks, and just about everything else about dealing with this virus seems to change with each passing day.

Are we dealing with one strain or two? Has the virus mutated? And, importantly, can people who have recovered from the virus continue to infect others? If so, for how long?

According to a report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP), doctors in Wuhan, China, found that between 3 and 10 percent of recovered patients continued to test positive even after being discharged from hospital.

It has already been established that around 25 percent of COVID-19 patients are asymptomatic, and despite not showing any symptoms, are still infectious. Might it not be possible, then, that patients who are no longer displaying symptoms, but test positive, could still be infectious? (Related: New study shows coronavirus can live in patients for up to 37 DAYS after theyre diagnosed.)

Positive but not infectious?

As reported by the SCMP, researchers across the globe are working flat-out to determine whether COVID-19 patients develop antibodies that will protect them from future infections, and whether those who have officially recovered can still infect others.

The country with the best recovery rate to date is China, and as such, scientists are very interested in any research to come out of that country.

The SCMP reported:

The Chinese mainland, where the disease first emerged last December, has discharged over 90 per cent of its infected patients and around 4,300 confirmed patients are still receiving treatment in hospitals. 

Wang Wei, president of Tongji hospital told CCTVs prime-time programme that of the 147 recovered patients they studied, only five  or just over 3 per cent  have tested positive in nucleic acid tests again after recovery.

Wang and his team insist that their study should not cause concern because there is no evidence that recovered patients can still infect others.

He told the media that none of the family members or associates of the five patients who recovered in his hospital but continued to test positive went on to get infected. (Related: Coronavirus survivors in China testing positive again, igniting fears of a possible second wave of infections.)

Nonetheless, their findings are especially relevant because China now has thousands of recovered patients, and if the doctors are wrong, these patients could go on to infect others.

And other Chinese researchers have found that far more than 3 percent of patients who no longer exhibit symptoms still test positive.

The SCMP reported further:

Life Times, a health news outlet affiliated with Peoples Daily, reported this week that quarantine facilities in Wuhan have reported that about 5 to 10 per cent of their recovered patients tested positive again.

Previous reports have also highlighted cases where patients tested positive after recovery, including one on Sunday from Life Times about a family of three in Wuhan, who all tested positive again.

These incidents have raised questions about whether nucleic acid tests might not be reliable in detecting traces of the virus in some of the recovered patients.

Some experts have also expressed concerns about the sensitivity and stability of the test kits, and the collection and handling of patients samples.

Only time will tell whether recovered patients can continue to infect others or not, but with close to a million patients worldwide and over 50,000 who have already died, we can only hope and pray that the Chinese scientists are right.

Stay informed, stay alive. Bookmark Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

Breitbart.com

SCMP.com
[April 07, 2020] Tri-Continental Corporation Announces Postponement of 90th Annual Meeting of Stockholders

The Board of Directors (the Board) of Tri-Continental Corporation (the Corporation) (NYSE: TY) announced today that, in light of the public health concerns regarding the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, the 90th Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the "Meeting") of the Corporation, originally scheduled to be held at The Boston Harbor Hotel, 70 Rowes Wharf, Boston, Massachusetts 02110, on April 21, 2020, at 9:00 a.m., local time, has been postponed pursuant to Maryland Code, Corporations and Associations 2-511(d)(2) and the bylaws of the Corporation. The Corporation now seeks to hold the Meeting at 707 Second Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55474, on June 15, 2020 at 8:00 a.m. local time. As described in the proxy materials for the Meeting previously distributed, you are entitled to participate in the Meeting if you were a stockholder as of the close of business on March 3, 2020, the record date. You will need proof of record ownership of the Corporation's stock to enter the Meeting or, if your shares are held in street name, a proxy from the record holder. our vote is very important. Whether or not you plan to attend the Meeting, and regardless of the number of shares you own, we urge you to vote by promptly signing, dating and returning the Proxy Card included with the proxy materials previously distributed, or by authorizing your proxy by telephone or the Internet as described in the Proxy Card. In addition, you may be able to authorize your proxy by telephone through the Corporation's proxy solicitor.



If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact Georgeson LLC, the Corporation's proxy solicitor, at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10104, or by telephone at 1-888-680-1528. The Corporation is managed by Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC. This material is distributed by Columbia Management Investment Distributors, Inc., member FINRA.

Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Corporation carefully before investing. A prospectus containing information about the Corporation (including its investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other information about the Corporation) may be obtained by contacting your financial advisor or visiting columbiathreadneedleus.com. The prospectus should be read carefully before investing in the Corporation. For more information, please call 1-800-345-6611 or visit columbiathreadneedleus.com. Investment products are not federally or FDIC-insured, are not deposits or obligations of, or guaranteed by any financial institution, and involve investment risks including possible loss of principal and fluctuation in value.  2020 Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC. All rights reserved. Adtrax 3026244 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005590/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
KANSAS CITY, Mo.

April 6, 2020

Rob Haake

/PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- AJ Manufacturing  a leading manufacturer of critical environment HVAC products  has introduced a portable version of its Reverse Flow Criti-Clean Ultra Fan Filter Unit (FFU) to quickly and easily create patient isolation rooms. The new units were specifically developed to help protect healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients and to help reduce the spread of the virus.Like the original ceiling-mounted model, the portable Reverse Flow Criti-Clean Ultra FFU connects to existing ductwork and creates a negative pressure environment that removes the air from a patient room and cleans it via the unit's built-in HEPA filter, keeping airborne contaminants from escaping. The unit comes on wheels for easy movement and can be plugged into a standard electrical wall outlet."We're proud to be able to do our small part to help protect healthcare workers who are treating the growing number of coronavirus patients," said, president of AJ Manufacturing. "Our plant is 100% focused on producing both our permanent and portable FFU models for as long as they are needed to help stop the spread of the virus."In addition to reverse flow units that take in air and remove it from a room, standard FFU models  both ceiling mounted and portable  are also available to bring HEPA filtered air into a room. AJ's ceiling mounted FFUs offer the industry's lowest plenum height of just 13.7?, allowing easier retrofitting into existing ceiling spaces.For more information, contact AJ Manufacturing at 816-231-5522 or visit http://www.ajmfg.com.About AJ Manufacturing AJ Manufacturing is an industry leader in stainless steel air distribution products for critical environments, such as hospitals, laboratories, pharmaceutical plants and many others. The company offers a wide range of both standard and custom products, including filter and non-filter diffusers, supply and return grilles, dampers, louvers and more.SOURCE AJ Manufacturing
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing St. on March 18, 2020. He is now in intensive care because of COVID-19. (Ray Tang / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Back in December, when Britain was in the midst of an angry, divisive general election campaign, Amy Woodrow Arai went door to door in her southeast London neighborhood, desperate to divert votes away from Boris Johnsons Conservatives. To no avail: Johnsons party romped to victory.

But now that the usually ebullient 55-year-old prime minister is in intensive care  a victim of the coronavirus outbreak many believed he lagged in addressing  Woodrow Arai is feeling a weird mix of emotions about a flamboyant politician who has both ardent devotees and furious detractors.

When it emerged late Monday that Johnson was being transferred to the ICU, barely 24 hours after he was hospitalized, I suddenly felt so fearful and worried for him and his family, said Woodrow Arai, a 41-year-old accounts manager. For the man, but also him as our prime minister.

Shes not alone. Many Britons who openly detest Johnsons cheerleading for Brexit and the Conservatives record of painful austerity policies have nonetheless found themselves, somewhat to their own surprise, rallying around the ailing leader.

In many ways, the angst over Johnson reflects the larger anxiety assailing Britain as it weathers a public-health calamity whose like has not been seen in a century. On Tuesday, the countrys coronavirus death toll surpassed 6,100, and the daily death rate outpaced that in devastated European neighbors such as Spain and Italy, where fatalities are beginning to ease.

Because of Johnsons air of sunny invulnerability  a trait many critics find maddening  his newfound place among the pandemics sickest patients marked a jarring moment. That was magnified by the surreal landscape of locked-down London, where iconic landmarks are thinly trafficked and convivial pubs are shuttered even as spring warmth and sunshine have suddenly brightened up the city.

Johnson, the first major world leader so seriously stricken by the virus, remained in the ICU unit of Londons St. Thomas Hospital on Tuesday, his office said, adding that he was being given oxygen but was breathing on his own.

Story continues

The government portrayed the situation as serious but not dire. The prime minister, a spokesman said, had not been diagnosed with pneumonia, a potentially dangerous complication of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Nor, by official accounts, had he been placed on a mechanical ventilator, a move that generally heralds a deeply worrying deterioration.

Official reassurances, however, were undercut to some extent by a sense that a too-rosy picture had been painted initially, which left many Britons shocked by the prime ministers move to the ICU only a day after he was admitted to the hospital, ostensibly for tests, and after repeated upbeat references to his good spirits.

Questions have also been raised over the role of Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, whom Johnson appointed to fill in for him as needed. Raab, 46, is a relatively little-known figure, lacking the prime ministers elocutionary flair and charisma.

One of Johnsons more high-profile deputies, Michael Gove, took the lead role Tuesday in a round of morning radio and television interviews about how the prime minister had fared overnight  but then announced soon afterward that he himself was self-isolating because a family member had mild symptoms sometimes associated with the virus.

For the moment, Raabs role remains limited in scope. He did not, for example, step in Tuesday for the prime ministers weekly one-on-one chat with Queen Elizabeth II, which was switched from a personal audience to a phone call after the outbreak began.

The queen joined many dignitaries and world leaders, including President Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in sending well-wishes to Britains now-bedridden leader. Sometime rivals such as former Prime Minister David Cameron, whose resignation after the shocking Brexit referendum result ultimately paved the way for Johnsons ascension, also joined in voicing warm support.

But the outpouring is far from universal. Some Brits scoffed at a Twitter campaign, carrying the hashtag #ClapForBoris, urging people to stand on their doorsteps and applaud in support of Johnson on Thursday evening as they have done in previous weeks in gratitude to Britains beleaguered healthcare workers.

"Absolutely not," wrote one Twitter user, angrily citing Johnsons jokey comments about happily shaking hands with people on a March 3 hospital visit that included the coronavirus ward. I wish him a speedy recovery, but the man does not deserve applause."

Comedian Matt Forde suggested that the sense of deep unease surrounding Johnsons illness had more to do with the symbolic importance of the countrys leaders, and the peril of the moment, than about the prime minister personally. Besides Johnson, Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, and Chris Whitty, Englands chief medical officer, have all tested positive for the coronavirus or exhibited COVID-19-type symptoms.

We live our national story through them, Forde wrote on Twitter. I never thought Id be so emotional about Boris Johnson.

Actor Hugh Grant, who marshaled his celebrity to campaign against Brexit and Johnson, chimed in online. I havent been his greatest supporter but v[ery] much rooting for the PM tonight, Grant  who played a floppy-haired prime minister in the movie Love Actually  said in a social-media post.

I havent been his greatest supporter but v much rooting for the PM tonight.  Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) April 6, 2020

The coronavirus outbreak comes at a delicate moment for Britain, where nerves are still raw and tempers short nearly four years after the countrys narrow vote to leave the European Union. Brexit formally took place at the end of January, but difficult negotiations lie ahead.

An ambitious 11-month timetable set by Johnson for striking a complex new trade deal with the EU, already criticized as unrealistic, appears even more so now, as the public-health crisis tramples over other government business and makes face-to-face talks between negotiators impossible.

But many Britons appeared willing to put divisions aside in the face of the coronavirus  even when it comes to a leader whose facile manner is blamed by many for fostering discord.

The words Boris Johnson and seriousness are not often encountered together. He has spent much of his life breaking rules and behaving self-indulgently, commentator Martin Kettle wrote in a column in the Guardian newspaper. But his hospitalization overleaps all that.

Special correspondent Boyle reported from London and staff writer King from Washington.
Yesterday, Lisa asked our Wisconsinite readers for their stories of voting during a pandemic. Our inboxes were quickly flooded. Thank you to everyone who replied; it helped inform our reporting, and we love hearing from our readers.

Here are some of your responses, edited and condensed:

A sad day in Wisconsin

My husband and I requested absentee ballots and never received them. We are seniors who always vote and today we will not vote. Human lives are at stake and the safe thing to do is to stay in place and not vote. It is a sad day in Wisconsin and our representatives did not do the honorable act by standing by the governor and postponing the election. Then the Wisconsin Supreme Court also failed Wisconsin.

 Bonnie Ehlert, Cambridge, Wis.

Very nervous about going in

I am a poll worker and will be responsible for counting/validating absentee ballots at tomorrows election. I was relieved initially to see that Tony Evers, our governor, had been successful at postponing the election. Shortly after, I got the call: It was back on. I am a Democrat, and very nervous about going in tomorrow. I am 62 with no health issues but I understand the gravity of the situation. I feel responsible to our democracy to support this process but Im very conflicted. Initially I requested an absentee ballot but never received the ballot in the mail. After waiting 11 days, I went into our clerks office to vote early.

 Jennifer Patterson, Brookfield, Wis.

Endangering so many lives

I have worked elections for the City of Milwaukee Elections Commission since 2007. Every little one, and every federal election including the presidential elections of 2008, 2012 and 2016, and I plan to work November 2020. I sure dont do it for the money, Ive been in the investment business for 35 years. I am sick from the idea that Wisconsins Republican leaders believe that winning a 10-year seat on the Supreme Court is worth endangering so many lives, let alone mine. That is the only reason this election will be conducted in person tomorrow. I plan on going to Washington High School at 6 a.m. Tuesday to perform my civic duty.

 Tom Shanahan, Milwaukee

He waited until the last minute

We had notice well in advance about doing absentee voting due to the impending virus. So for the first time in my life, I applied for an absentee ballot, had no trouble in receiving it, and voted and sent it in. Those who waited until the last minute seem to be the ones who are now upset about it. A while back our Governor Evers was adamant that the election was going on as scheduled when several other states were already changing their election dates. He waited until the last minute to cancel the April 7 election. He had plenty of time to do it right. So sad that the pointing-fingers and blame game is running amok now. It didnt have to be this way.

 Shirley Grunloh, Oshkosh, Wis.

I thanked the poll workers

I attempted to obtain an absentee ballot last week so I could vote by mail, but I havent received it yet. So I decided to go in person this morning. My polling place in Madison was quite quiet at 9:15 and well staffed. They had personnel outside to take care of curbside voting. Everyone was wearing a mask and gloves. Inside, there was only one other voter. The poll workers were seated behind a glass partition. I was in and out in five minutes. I thanked the poll workers for being willing to work under these conditions.

 Tom Dale, Madison, Wis.

All the workers looked like surgeons

I just turned in my absentee ballot as a first-time voter. My polling place was largely abandoned, except for a few poll workers. All the workers looked like surgeons prepping for an operation with the amount of P.P.E. they had on, and I believe there were glass dividers between the voting booths to minimize the spread of germs.

 Ryan Witz, Oregon, Wis.
The Trump administration will not adopt new federal limousine safety recommendations that were called for by the National Transportation Safety Board after it completed its preliminary investigation into the 2018 Schoharie limo crash that killed 20 people.

Last month, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration quietly declined to take up several NTSB proposals that would require rear passenger seatbelts in all new limousines and change seating safety requirements.

The 17 people riding in the passenger compartment of the limousine died from catastrophic injuries when the vehicle slammed into a ditch next to the Apple Barrel County Store on Route 30A. None of them were wearing seat belts. They were thrown from their seats and crushed. The limo's driver died as did two pedestrians in the store's parking lot.

The NHTSA decision would not impact the limo industry in New York, which will now be subject to seatbelt requirements starting next year and in 2023, depending on when the limo was made.

The state Department of Transportation, for instance, intends to inspect limos for the required seatbelts when a new state law takes effect next year.

Despite the strengthened regulations in New York, the NHTSA said there wasn't enough data on the crash yet for the agency to take up the recommendations on the federal level, which would impact all 50 states. The NTSB found that some of the passengers might have survived if they were wearing seatbelts during the Oct. 6, 2018 crash, the worst highway disaster in the U.S. in at least a decade.

The NTSB last year issued a preliminary report on the crash and is working on its final report now. The stretch limo, owned by the Hussain family in Wilton that also owns the now-shuttered Crest Inn Suites motel, had seatbelts for rear passengers, although they were tucked underneath the seats at the time of the trip so they were technically inaccessible, the NTSB report found.

While the NHTSA is part of the federal Department of Transportation, the NTSB is an independent federal agency, although its board is appointed by the president.

So far, the other groups that were issued recommendations by the NTSB report  including state DOT and the National Limousine Association  have said they put in place the recommendations about checking for seatbelts in limos. The National Limousine Association has advocated for "access to fully functioning seatbelts for all (limo) passengers" in its previous lobbying efforts.

"The (NTSB) report does not show that belt use would have caused the passengers to survive such a high-severity crash," James Owens, the acting administrator of the NHTSA, wrote last month in response to the NTSB recommendations. "The exceedingly severe nature of the Schoharie crash, including the detachment of seats from the bottom of the vehicle, prevents us from concurring with an assertion that the tragic outcome would have changed had there been belt use."

Previous stories:

NTSB: Crash might have been survivable with seat belts

Records reveal mysterious life of FBI informant Shahed Hussain

Limo owner Shahed Hussain integral, elusive

After heart attack, owner of limo company departed for Pakistan

Hussains: Living well - until Schoharie limo crash

Complete coverage of the Schoharie limo crash

Owens goes on to assert that "some studies" have shown that rear passengers in side-facing seats who wear combo lap-and-shoulder seatbelts may suffer "potential" life-threatening injuries to their carotid arteries in a frontal crash.

"NHTSA has no near-term final rule pending or anticipated in this area," Owens said. The agency is not moving forward either on making new rules on seat safety requirements. The NTSB report found that the seats installed in the rear of the Excursion were not adequately secured to the floor.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

"The findings in the (NTSB) report are not sufficient to establish that there is an unmet safety need relating to seat strength of passenger seats in medium-size buses or side-facing passenger seats... further, it is not known whether, if the occupants had been belted, the original seats in the Schoharie crash would have remained attached to the vehicle," Owens added.

The NTSB said Monday it is working on a response to the NHTSA letter.

"The NTSB will continue to work with NHTSA to achieve the changes necessary to ensure effective, well-designed occupant protection systems for occupants of all vehicles including limousines," NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss added.

New York's congressional delegation introduced federal legislation last year that would have adopted the NTSB recommendations, but those bills have not made much progress so far.

That push was led by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, who called it "dangerously wrong" for the Trump administration to pass on the NTSB recommendations.

"The heartbreaking Schoharie limo crash was one of the deadliest our nation has ever seen, but it was not the first, nor will it be the last if we do not close the loopholes and amend the broken system that took these lives," Schumer said in a statement to the Times Union.

"We owe it to the families of those lost and to one another to get this right and I will not rest until these safety measures are in place and our roads are safer."

U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, who has sponsored the legislation in the House, said with the NHTSA not acting, the time has come for Congress to pass the legislation so other families don't suffer what happened to those families of the Schoharie victims.

"Congress must work to immediately pass the bipartisan and bicameral limo safety package to prevent such needless accidents from happening again. I will continue fighting for this life-saving legislation to ensure that every unsafe limo is taken off the road," Tonko said in a statement to the Times Union Monday.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has also been outspoken on the need for the federal government to adopt seatbelt regulations for limos and has also supported the limo safety package be passed by Congress.

I am deeply disturbed by NHTSAs decision not to move forward with critical limousine safety recommendations put forward by the NTSB," Gillibrand said in a statement to the Times Union noting the glaring "loophole" in federal regulations that have long exempted limos from seatbelt laws. "We must ensure that stretch limousines are held to the highest vehicle safety standards possible and I urge NHTSA to reconsider this misguided and reckless decision.
"We are providing this notice as soon as possible in light of the rapidly-developing events surrounding coronavirus outbreak," Benson wrote in the letter. "The speed and vast reach of the coronavirus outbreak, as well as the numerous declarations of a state of emergency and directives at the Federal, State and local level for all individuals to: 1) remain/stay in place; 2) avoid all restaurants, bars, gyms and nightclubs; 3) avoid congregating in public in groups of 10 people or more; and 4) work remotely, were unforeseeable and are causing, and will continue to cause, among other things, a drastic impact on HOAs business, including but not limited to the closure of many Hooters restaurants, the cessation of all dine-in business operations in Hooters restaurants both nationally and within the State, substantial income and profit losses and an uncertain future such that the Company does not have alternative work to offer to its affected employees. After reviewing our staffing and business needs, we are providing this notice at the earliest possible time."
A CRPF jawan on Tuesday succumbed to injuries sustained in an attack by terrorists on a CRPF team in Anantnag district here, informed Sandeep Choudhary, Senior Superintendent of Police, Anantnag.

The terrorists fired and hurled a grenade at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) party in Goriwan chowk, Bijbehara area of Anantnag at around 5:30 pm. The jawan had received bullet injuries.

This comes after the recent operation carried out by the Indian Army along the Line of Control (LoC) in Keran sector, in which five Pakistan supported terrorists were killed and five of Army's own Special Forces troops also lost their lives.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Antony Catalano. Illustration: John Shakespeare Credit:

Few industries are doing it tougher than regional publishers, many of whom have stopped printing.

So far, Australian Community Media boss Antony Catalano has managed to keep the presses rolling. Catalano swooped in with Bleak City billionaire Alex Waislitz to snap up a slew of papers including the Canberra Times and the Newcastle Herald from Nine (our publisher) last year.

It might be a struggle, but at the very least Catalanos doing it in style. He's transported his family, extensive enough to probably fill a boutique hotel, from their Melbourne base to his luxury Raes on Wategos resort in Byron Bay. Its from here that he will be conducting his business and waiting out the pandemic.

Catalano splashed out $7 million for beachfront Wategos in 2014. His eldest son Jordan has since acted as manager. Now, thanks to strict travel restrictions, Raes sits empty but for the Catalano family (although take-away meals are available). The Cat told CBD he was trying to keep the hotels staff employed through the pandemic.
A&E workers at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil recorded themselves dancing to Aretha Franklin to help raise morale.

They chose the song Respect as an instruction for people to follow the Government's advice and obey lockdown rules.

Staff dance around the department wearing face masks with some in blue gloves and plastic aprons.

Doctors and nurses at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil dance around the department to Aretha Franklin's Respect

One worker is pushed in a wheelchair while a line of other staff dance behind her.

Colleagues continue dancing around them while she wears a bedpan on her head.

Five workers are wheeled in on a bed swaying and clicking their fingers by two other members of staff.

Another wearing a bright green hazmat suit and blue gloves is wheeled in on a stretcher.

One worker was pushed around the department on a wheelchair, dancing and wearing a bedpan on her head

The video ended with one worker in a hazmat suit, who had been wheeled in on a stretcher, doing the box step before backing out through the double doors

He performs a solo dance and then walks backwards out of the door as the video finishes.

A Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board spokesperson said: 'The message people should take away from this video is about respecting our NHS, supporting the teams and social distancing.

'It's really important people follow the advice and look after themselves and the NHS.'

The video ends with a message saying 'Stay strong & safe everyone throughout the NHS'.
The Kaduna State Government said that two clergymen were arrested by security agents for holding church service last Sunday in violation of the lockdown order by the government.

A statement issued by the Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, on Tuesday said that one Ifeanyi Ojonu and Giniki Okafor held church service at Sabon Tasha of Chikun Local Government Area of the state.

Mr Aruwan said the suspects had been arraigned before a Chief Magistrates Court on Monday.

The commissioner said the suspects were arraigned on a two-count charge of criminal conspiracy and disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant, under Sections 59 and 115 of the Penal Code.

Nobody is above the law and everyone is equal in the eyes of the law, the Quarantine Law will be applied without fear or favour until the lockdown is duly lifted, Mr Aruwan said.

He recalled that some Muslim clerics who held congregational prayers on March 27, at Unguwar Kanawa and Malali areas of Kaduna North Local Government were earlier arrested.

They were promptly arrested and subsequently arraigned before a Chief Magistrates Court on March 30, 2020 to demonstrate the governments determination to prosecute violators of the Quarantine Law, he said.

The commissioner said the two clergymen apparently misread the governments strong signal as they flouted the law and disobeyed the warning of various leaders of faith by holding church service last Sunday.

He, however, commended religious and traditional rulers for sensitising their followers about the dangers of COVID-19 by asking them to obey the lockdown order as a religious obligation.

The commissioner maintained that the religious community had substantially complied with the lockdown as Muslims daily congregational prayers, including Jummaat prayers, had been suspended.

He said church services have also not been held in line with the government directive.

Mr Aruwan advised residents to report any infringement of fundamental human rights by either security agents or government officials by calling these dedicated telephone numbers (09034000060, 08170189999) to complain.

(NAN)
President Donald Trump has removed the chairman of the federal panel Congress created to oversee his administration's management of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package - the latest action by the president to undermine the system of independent oversight of the executive established after Watergate.

In just the last four days Trump has ousted two inspectors general and expressed displeasure with a third, a pattern that critics say is a direct assault on one of the pillars of good governance.

Glenn Fine, who had been the acting Pentagon inspector general, was informed Monday that he was being replaced at the Defense Department by Sean O'Donnell, currently the inspector general at the Environmental Protection Agency. O'Donnell will simultaneously be IG at the EPA and acting inspector general at the Pentagon until a permanent replacement is confirmed for the Defense Department.

Late last month, Fine was selected by the head of a council of inspectors general to lead the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, created by the March 27 law.

On Friday, the president notified Congress that he was removing Michael Atkinson as the inspector general of the intelligence community - a decision that Trump acknowledged was in response to Atkinson's having alerted lawmakers to the existence of a whistleblower complaint about the president's dealings with Ukraine. The matter ultimately led to Trump's impeachment in the House before his acquittal in the Senate.

Trump has also refused dozens of congressional subpoenas and asserted to the courts that they lack jurisdiction to oversee his responses to Congress.

"We wanted inspectors general because of an out-of-control president named Richard Nixon and this president is trying to destroy them," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight. "What's happened this week has been a total full-on assault on the IG system."

Fine is a career official who has served Republican and Democratic presidents. He had been acting Pentagon inspector general for more than four years, and before that was inspector general at the Justice Department for 11 years. Fine and his staff were caught by surprise when informed of the decision Monday, and were given no explanation for the move, according to U.S. federal officials.

Trump cast his decision to remove Fine as merely cleaning house of Obama-era holdover appointments, saying those officials could be biased.

"We have a lot of IGs in from the Obama era," he said Tuesday. "And as you know, it's a presidential decision. And I left them, largely. I mean, changed some, but I left them...But when we have, you know, reports of bias and when we have different things coming in. I don't know Fine. I don't think I ever met Fine."

Defense Department spokeswoman Dwrena Allen confirmed that Fine "is no longer on the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee."

Because he is no longer acting inspector general, Fine is ineligible to hold the spending watchdog role. He will, however, continue to serve in his current position of principal deputy inspector general at the Pentagon. He had until now held both the acting and deputy positions.

On Monday, Trump nominated Jason Abend, senior policy adviser at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to be the permanent inspector general at the Defense Department.

The $2 trillion coronavirus emergency spending law, known as the Cares Act, created several layers of oversight, including the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.

It will now be up to Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general and chairman and the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, to appoint a new stimulus spending watchdog head.

The new law mandated that the group to conduct and coordinate audits, with investigators looking for waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer money in the disbursement of loans, loan guarantees and financial payments to households and businesses. The oversight mechanisms were the subject of contentious negotiations between Republicans and Democrats. Trump, when signing the bill into law, questioned the constitutionality of the provisions and asserted in a statement that the administration will not allow the inspector general to provide certain information to Congress without "presidential supervision," calling it a violation of executive branch authority.

Fine's removal, which was first reported by Politico, drew criticism from Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California called Fine's removal "part of a disturbing pattern of retaliation by the president against independent overseers fulfilling their statutory and patriotic duties to conduct oversight on behalf of the American people."

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said, "President Trump is abusing the coronavirus pandemic to eliminate honest and independent public servants because they are willing to speak truth to power and because he is so clearly afraid of strong oversight."

Paul Rosenzweig, a Department of Homeland Security political appointee in the George W. Bush administration, blasted the president's removal of Fine as "an affront to independence and oversight."

Said Rosenzweig: "Frankly, if the House of Representatives does not condition all further covid aid on the restriction of the president's removal authority, they will have made a mistake."

Trump also has on his radar the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, whose office Monday released a survey of more than 300 hospitals across the country finding that the top complaint was a "severe" and "widespread" shortage of testing supplies and protective gear.

That finding contrasted with Trump's rosier assessment that the country had carried out more covid-19 testing than any other in the world - nearly 1.8 million tests to date. Trump seemed perturbed by reporters' questions asking him to square his remarks with the survey conducted by the HHS watchdog.

"So give me the name of the inspector general," he said. "Could politics be entered into that?"

Christi Grimm, the agency's principal deputy inspector general since January, began working for the inspector general's office at HHS in 1999, and, like Fine, has served under both Republican and Democratic presidents.

On Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted disparagingly about Grimm, selectively highlighting her service during the Obama administration.

"Why didn't the I.G., who spent 8 years with the Obama Administration (Did she Report on the failed H1N1 Swine Flu debacle where 17,000 people died?), want to talk to the Admirals, Generals, V.P. & others in charge, before doing her report," he tweeted. "Another Fake Dossier!"

The Cares Act also created a special inspector general at the Treasury Department to oversee the spending of $500 billion of the stimulus package. Trump has signaled his intent to nominate White House lawyer Brian Miller to serve as the new special inspector general, whose work will be coordinated by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.

Miller, a former General Services Administration inspector general in the Bush and Obama administrations, gets good marks from watchdog groups, though there is some skepticism about his independence given his White House role.

Inspectors general have existed in the military since the country's founding, but Congress established the position in statute in 1978 in response to Nixon's abuse of executive power during the Watergate scandal. The idea was that the watchdogs would investigate wrongdoing in the agency and report to the agency head as well as Congress.

"That's what made that law so special," said Brian of the Project of Government Oversight. "The inspector general is unlike any other position in government, where a member of the executive branch is authorized to speak directly to Congress. That's where they derive their power."

But the Inspector General Act still permits a president essentially to fire inspectors general at will, as long as Congress is notified in writing with an explanation. The House in 2008 passed a measure that would have required the president to have "cause," to include abuse of authority, malfeasance and conviction of a felony or conduct involving moral turpitude. But the measure failed in the Senate.

"The only way we will be able to save the entire IG system is if the Congress passes those protections," Brian said, "because what's happened this week is going to make it impossible for any IG to be able to conduct their job with the vigor you would want--because they know they'll get fired."

- - -

The Washington Post's Anne Gearan and Missy Ryan contributed to this report.
Despite the widespread use of oral contraceptives (OCPs) by women, many are not aware that it may impair their ability to recognise others' emotional expressions, which may have serious consequences in interpersonal contexts, suggests a new study. Image Source: IANS

New Delhi, April 7 : The Central government on Tuesday denied that it lifted the partial ban on the export of hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug used for Covid-19 disease, under the "threat of retaliation" by the US in international trade of medical supplies.A A section of Indian media claimed that President Donald Trump had not requested but threatened to "retaliate" with counter-measures if Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not concede the demand.A At a White House press briefing on Monday President Trump, in response to a question whether he was worried about "retaliation to the US ban on export of medical goods" from India, had said, "I would be surprised if he (Modi) would, you know, because India does very well with the US." "I don't like that decision, I didn't hear that that was his decision. I know that he stopped it for other countries. I spoke to him yesterday, we had a very good talk and we'll see whether or not that's his...For many years, they've been taken advantage of the US on trade. So I would be surprised if that were his decision. He'd have to tell me that. I spoke to him Sunday morning, called him, and I said, we'd appreciate you allowing our supply to come out. If he doesn't allow it to come out. That would be ok. But of course, there may be retaliation. Why wouldn't there be," the US President said.

The official spokesperson of ministry of external affairs, Anurag Srivastava however said that these were "attempts by section of the media to create unnecessary controversy" over the issue of Covid-19 related drugs and pharmaceuticals. He discouragedA "speculation" or "attempts to politicise the matter." To ensure there are adequate stocks of medicines for the requirement of IndiaaAs own citizens, he said, some temporary steps were taken to restrict exports of a number of pharmaceutical products. "In the meanwhile, a comprehensive assessment was made of possible requirements under different scenarios. After having confirmed the availability of medicines for all possible contingencies currently envisaged, these restrictions have been largely lifted," the spokesperson said.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade, he said, has notified lifting restrictions on 14 drugs yesterday. Paracetamol and Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), will be kept in a licensed category and their demand status would be continuously monitored. However, the stock position could allow Indian companies to meet the export commitments, he said.

In view of the humanitarian aspects of the pandemic, he said, it has been decided that India would licence paracetamol and HCQ in appropriate quantities to neighbouring countries who are dependent on Indian capabilities. India, he said, will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations which have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
KYODO NEWS - Apr 7, 2020 - 15:41 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Support groups and individuals in Japan have raised the alarm that measures to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus in Japan may fuel domestic violence, as victims remain stuck at home with no avenues of escape.

The All Japan Women's Shelter Network, a nonprofit organization that provides care and assistance to domestic violence survivors, has submitted a letter urgently requesting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his government to give better support to victims amid an increase in teleworking and calls on people to refrain from going out.

While calling for an increase in consultation helplines and child protection facilities, the organization is also requesting that those fleeing from abusive homes are able to receive money directly if they belong to households qualifying for special pandemic-related economic assistance. Such payments would normally be made to the person designated as head of the household under Japan's family registration system, who is customarily the husband in a family.

The letter dated March 30 was also addressed to Seiko Hashimoto, minister in charge of women's empowerment, and health minister Katsunobu Kato, and contained reports made by women to the organization's consultation centers.

One was quoted as saying, "My husband started working from home and my children were out of school, so my husband became stressed and began to physically assault us."

Another called for the group to establish a members-only social media website for consultations since they were afraid to take the train to attend in-person counseling due to the virus.

In response to the letter, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference Tuesday that the government was considering ways to strengthen the support systems already in place.

"We hope to also expand and improve our consultation services," he said.

Separately, a social worker has launched a petition on Change.org calling for Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike to establish emergency shelters for the homeless and those fleeing domestic abuse, due to fears that countermeasures to stem the spread of the virus will result in the temporary closure of internet cafes and similar facilities.

That means homeless people and abuse victims who normally seek refuge in such places will then have nowhere to go, the campaign organizer said.

The petition, which has already attracted over 29,000 signatures, also calls for the implementation of government-run consultation lines.

A report released by the Tokyo metropolitan government in January 2018 indicated that around 4,000 homeless people per day in Tokyo use internet cafes and other similar facilities to stay the night, according to the organizer.

An operation ban on internet cafes would also increase the risk that teenagers, particularly girls, will be involved in crime and subjected to sexual abuse, since the facilities are commonly used by teenagers who need to escape a life of abuse and neglect but cannot afford a hotel.

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres has urged governments to ensure that prevention of violence against women and girls will be a key part of their COVID-19 countermeasures, citing a "horrifying global surge in domestic violence" in the wake of lockdowns responding to the pandemic.

The U.N. reported that domestic violence has tripled in China since the pandemic, while internet searches on the topic in Australia are at their highest level for the past five years.

"For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest: in their own homes," Guterres said in a video posted to his official Twitter account Monday.

"Together, we can and must prevent violence everywhere, from war zones to people's homes, as we work to beat COVID-19," he said.
Benchmark indices on April 7 posted strong gains after two consecutive sessions of losses.

The market opened with a strong gap on the upside which fuelled a 2500-point rally in Sensex, while the Nifty50 reclaimed 8,800 levels in intraday trade.

Eventually, Sensex closed 2,476 points, or 8.97 percent, higher at 30,067.21 while Nifty settled 708 points, or 8.76 percent, up at 8,792.20.

It was a broad-based rally as all pockets managed to rebound sharply, especially recent beaten down spaces like private banks and auto counters.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said that in the holiday-shortened current week, any news regarding peaking infections will be bought into. Defensives like pharma and FMCG, which has witnessed the least disruption in their business, will continue to be favoured.

We have collated 15 data points to help you spot profitable trades:

Note: The OI and volume data of stocks given in this story are the aggregates of the three-months data and not of the current month only.

Key support and resistance level for Nifty

According to the pivot charts, the key support level for Nifty is placed at 8,495.63, followed by 8,199.07. If the index continues moving up, key resistance levels to watch out for are 8,954.08 and 9,115.97.

Nifty Bank

Nifty Bank closed 10.51 percent up at 19,062.50. The important pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 18,280.67, followed by 17,498.83. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 19,517.46 and 19,972.43.

Call options data

Maximum call open interest (OI) of 15.11 lakh contracts was seen at the 9,000 strike price. It will act as a crucial resistance level in the April series.

This is followed by 8,500 strike price, which holds 8.68 lakh contracts in open interest, and 8,600, which has accumulated 1.94 lakh contracts in open interest.

Minor call writing was seen at the 8,700 strike price, which added 20,175 contracts, followed by 8,900 strike price that added 19,800 contracts.

Call unwinding was witnessed at 9,000 strike price, which shed 1.4 lakh contracts, followed by 9,200 strike which shed 83,775 contracts.

Put options data

Maximum put open interest of 13.35 lakh contracts was seen at 8,500 strike price, which will act as crucial support in the April series.

This is followed by 9,000 strike price, which holds 13.24 lakh contracts in open interest, and 8,700 strike price, which has accumulated 1.86 lakh contracts in open interest.

Put writing was seen at the 8,500 strike price, which added 1.7 lakh contracts, followed by 8,700 strike, which added 72,675 contracts.

No significant put unwinding was seen on April 7.

Stocks with a high delivery percentage

A high delivery percentage suggests that investors are showing interest in these stocks.

96 stocks saw long build-up

Based on open interest (OI) future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which long build-up was seen.

Only one saw long unwinding

3 stocks saw short build-up

An increase in open interest, along with a decrease in price, mostly indicates a build-up of short positions.

43 stocks witnessed short-covering

A decrease in open interest, along with an increase in price, mostly indicates a short-covering. Based on open interest (OI) future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which short-covering was seen.

Bulk deals

(For more bulk deals, click here)

Board meetings

IDBI Bank: The board will meet on April 8 for general purposes.

Gulf Oil Lubricants India: The board will meet on April 9 to consider and approve the interim dividend.

OnMobile Global: The board will meet on April 9 to consider and approve the buyback of shares.

Stocks in the news

Maruti Suzuki India: The company said it produced 92,540 units in March 2020 against 1,36,201 units in March 2019.

Galaxy Surfactants: The company said it had partially resumed operations at its plants with effect from April 6, 2020.

T T Limited: The company said Rikhab Chand Jain, its promoter and Director, had purchased 1,000 equity shares of the company between March 20 and March 31.

IndusInd Bank: UBS Principal Capital Asia buys 53,83,066 shares of the bank at Rs 367 per share on April 7.

Hero MotoCorp: Company extends the duration of all its warranty and free services in view of COVID-19 lockdown.

Sudarshan Chemical: India Ratings revised the outlook to Positive from Stable while affirming Long-Term Issuer Rating at A+.

VIP Industries: Board appoints Neetu Kashiramka as Chief Financial Officer of the company.

Adani Green Energy: Company receives Rs 3,707 crore for the formation of the JV with TOTAL SA.

Veeram Securities: The board of directors will meet on April 17 to consider allotment of bonus shares.

Wipro: The company will release the earnings for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2020, on April 15.

Fund flow

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 741.77 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), too, bought shares of worth Rs 422.51 crore in the Indian equity market on April 7, provisional data available on the NSE showed.

Stock under F&O ban on NSE

No security is under the F&O ban for April 8. Securities in the ban period under the F&O segment include companies in which the security has crossed 95 percent of the market-wide position limit.
These dizzying changes have startled key members of Congress. Sen. Mark R. Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told me Tuesday that both Republicans and Democrats on the . . . committee are united in our concern about the politicization of intelligence. Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told me he thought Trump was seeking to chill dissent and neuter any oversight of his conduct.
An ASOS worker who tweeted the CEO with concerns over coronavirus safety measures was blocked by the 'gutless' boss.

Gabriel Martinesc, 38, feared for his safety as he felt it was 'impossible' to follow Government guidelines and keep two metres away from others while working at the retailer's warehouse in Barnsley.

He claims team leaders told them they could not wear face masks as they were 'not part of the uniform', leaving him so concerned he called in sick on March 26 and hasn't been back since - using holiday days instead.

However, Barnsley Council's Regulatory Services visited the site on March 27 and said that Government guidelines were being adhered to.

Gabriel Martinesc, 38, feared for his safety as he felt it was 'impossible' to follow Government guidelines and keep two metres away from others while working at the retailer's warehouse in Barnsley

Online shopping has been a lifeline for Britons across the country as all but essential shops have been shut down, meaning the only way to buy products that can't be found in supermarkets is on the internet.

When Mr Martinesc took to social media to tweet to ASOS boss Nick Beighton about his concerns on March 28, he was appalled when the boss blocked him.

Mr Martinesc believes the CEO's decision to block him shows he simply 'doesn't care or have the guts to speak to his staff' and he believes that 'people may die' if social distancing isn't respected.

ASOS said that since Mr Martinesc took leave, further measures have been implemented to ensure social distancing and there is ample room to follow this - though said it was staff's 'responsibility to adhere to these rules'.

However, Barnsley Council's Regulatory Services visited the site (pictured) on March 27 but said that Government guidelines were being adhered to

The company said they would 'make amends' with Mr Martinesc over their CEO blocking him and explained it happened accidentally as Beighton had been suffering abuse from trolls and was blocking numerous accounts.

Mr Martinesc, of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, said: 'The last time I was there it was impossible to keep a safe distance of two metres from colleagues because there are so many of us.

'It's even worse when we have to change shifts because people come in and out - it's a big place and can be busy and sometimes you don't have any space.

'I don't know exactly how many people are there per shift, but there's thousands - everywhere you go you'll find people.

'They told us during a briefing with team leaders that we were not allowed a face mask because it's not part of our uniform.

'Someone asked them ''do you think it's possible that I bring my face mask from home'' and then he said ''no it's not possible''.

Mr Martinesc believes the CEO's decision to block him shows he simply 'doesn't care or have the guts to speak to his staff' and he believes that 'people may die' if social distancing isn't respected

'I wanted to send him a tweet and I was expecting an answer, maybe a private message from him.

'But he blocked me for no reason - it's obvious he doesn't care or have the guts to speak to his staff.

Mr Martinesc is directly employed by XPO Logistics, who run the warehouse on ASOS' behalf and employ the 3,500 staff there.

He claims he felt so concerned about his potential exposure to the virus that he booked 10 days holiday and is due back on April 13 but vows he won't return until he feels safe.

His original tweet read: 'Hi, I am a worker at Asos Barnsley. I am telling you me and my colleagues we are really afraid to go to work, it is impossible to keep a safe distance inside the warehouse.

'They told us his not aloud to wear mask because his not part of our uniform. We gonna die there.'

Mr Martinesc claims to have been working at the warehouse for six years and is 'disappointed' with ASOS who are 'just thinking about money' during such difficult times.

ASOS now claim that changes to their safety measures have been put in place across their warehouses

XPO Logistics said that they had not given any team leaders instructions to ban the wearing of face masks, which are now available for staff to wear.

A spokesman for ASOS said: 'Our CEO blocked a large number of people on Twitter the weekend before last after he and his wife were subjected to personal abuse there and on Facebook, most of it driven by trolls and non-recognised union reps pushing unverified allegations.

'It looks like Mr Martinesc was caught up in that blocking activity, so we'll be making amends and answering his concerns when he returns from leave in mid-April.

'We are sorry to hear that Mr Martinesc felt unsafe on his shift almost two weeks ago. Since he was last in, further measures have been implemented to ensure the enforcement of, and adherence to, strict social distancing protocols.

'The health and safety of our staff is always of paramount importance to us.. We have followed scientific and recognised union steer to the letter and, as we operate in line with Government guidance, we are continuing to adapt our operations to the changing nature of this pandemic on a daily basis.

'The Government hasn't advised the use of face masks. We also believe it wouldn't be necessary given our strict social-distancing policy.

'However, we have face masks available for colleagues should they feel the need to wear one. We ask simply that they are worn and used in accordance with UK Government guidelines.

'We have reduced the number of people on shift and there is sufficient space in our 680,000 square foot warehouse to follow our social distancing guidelines. These have been reinforced repeatedly throughout the period.

'It must be said, however, it is also our team members' responsibility to adhere to these rules.'

After concerns were raised, Barnsley Council's Regulatory Services visited the site on March 27 but claimed that social distancing was being adhered to.

Cllr Sir Steve Houghton CBE, Leader of Barnsley Council, said: 'In response to the concerns we received, our Regulatory Services visited the site on Friday 27th March and found that at the time of the visit there were various social distancing measures in place and at no point did our officer see any member of staff not in compliance with this.

'The company is following national government advice in terms of remaining operational, protecting the welfare of their employees and constantly reviewing how additional measures can be introduced where necessary.

'There are visual markers, frequent reminders, additional cleaners, new eating arrangements, dispersal of lockers and available hand sanitiser around the site.

'We are following government guidance that businesses who can operate safely should remain open. XPO Logistics are the largest private employer in the borough, making an important contribution to our local economy and we will continue to support them and all other Barnsley businesses to remain open during this period.'
In a bid to contain the spread of



coronavirus, police in Chhattisgarhs Janjgir-Champa district have created a mobile application to keep a tab on those violating the home quarantine order, an official said.

Nearly 6,200 people, most of them with history of travel to foreign nations or other affected states in India, are kept under home quarantine in Janjgir-Champa district.

"With a large number of people in home quarantine, it is not possible to keep each one under surveillance on a regular basis. So, we decided to use the digital mechanism to tackle the issue," Janjgir-Champa Superintendent of Police Parul Mathur told PTI on Tuesday.

The police, with the help of Noida-based startup Mobcoder, developed the app 'Rakhsa Sarv', which enables them to track the quarantined people through Google Map.

Details of the home-quarantined people are being fed in the app's dashboard, Mathur said.

Police teams have started installing the application in the phones of those kept under home quarantine and so far, over 50 per cent of such people have been covered, she said.

"The quarantined person will have to upload a selfie in the app every hour which will specify his/her location.

If the person steps out of the house (along with mobile) and reach the prescribed limit of 200 metres, the app will send an alert to the local police station," she said.

If the home-quarantined people turn off the phone or location or internet connection, in that case also the app sends an alert to the police station, she said.

This allows the police keep a tab of those who break the quarantine protocol and take action accordingly.

"We respect the privacy of home quarantined residents and they will automatically be removed from the tracking system once their quarantine period ends. All the data is encrypted. We just want to ensure safety of the community, the official said.

Inspector General, Bilaspur Range, Dipanshu Kabra said they want to use the technology more and more for community and self-policing.

"This is a great initiative and will be replicated in other parts of the Bilaspur Range," Kabra said.

Apart from Janjgir-Champa, other districts in the range are Bilaspur, Mungeli, Korba and Raigarh.

Besides keeping tab through the app, regular patrolling in areas of home quarantined people will also be done by police because if these people leave the phone at home and move out, there is no way to trace them through the app, another official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CHICAGO, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Farm Equipment Rental Market by Equipment Type (Tractors, Harvesters, Sprayers, Balers & Other Equipment Types), Power Output (<30HP, 31-70HP, 71-130HP, 131-250HP, >250HP), Drive (Two-wheel Drive and Four-wheel Drive), Region - Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Farm Equipment Rental Market is estimated to be valued at USD 46.8 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach a value of USD 66.4 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 7.3% during the forecast period. Factors such as the increase in demand for food security by the growing population, shortage of skilled labor, and increase in mechanization in developing countries are projected to drive the growth of the farm equipment rental market.

Download PDF Brochure:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=165100186

The two-wheel-drive segment is projected to be the largest segment in the Asia Pacific farm equipment rental market during the forecast period.

The two-wheel-drive tractors are primarily used for farming in dry soil conditions, and also for transporting the field produce. Two-wheel-drive tractors are efficient and easy to use without much energy consumption. They facilitate farmers with smaller turning cycles, to access corners or smaller areas, and easy usability. These are also cheaper than the robust 4WD tractors, which makes them perfect for the use of smallholding or family farmers. As they are used in smaller areas of land, their demand is higher in the developing regions such as Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, where majority cultivation practices are undertaken by small farmers.

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The tractors segment is estimated to account for the largest market share, in terms of value, in 2020.

Tractors are used in various farming activities such as plowing & cultivating, sowing & planting, threshing, and others. The demand for tractors for a rental basis by farmers is expected to boost further mechanization during the forecast period. As the population in the Asia Pacific region continues to increase at a rapid pace, countries such as India, Thailand, and Vietnam would observe a significant growth in the demand for food grains, which, in turn, will drive the farm equipment rental market in the region. The regional government authorities are making efforts to increase farm mechanization by providing additional support to the farmers.

The >250 HP segment, on the basis of power output, is projected to grow at the highest CAGR, in terms of value, in 2019.

Tractors beyond the 250 HP power range accounted for the least market share, by power output, globally. North America and Europe are the largest markets for > 250 HP farm tractors, where some global giants such as John Deere, CNH Industrial, CLAAS, and AGCO are the key suppliers. These are high-power machinery and are used for the cultivation of land extending up to thousands of hectares. Their demand only exists in the US and European regions; wherein there are large commercial farmers. They support farm processes such as harvesting and plowing.

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Asia Pacific is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

The market for farm equipment rental in the Asia Pacific region is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2020 to 2025. The predominance of small-scale manufacturers and increasing focus on rice cultivation are also widely seen across various countries in the Asia Pacific region. Farmers in the Asia Pacific region are increasingly producing rice and crops such as palm and cotton. Further, a shift from the adoption of labor-intensive farming techniques to advanced technological equipment in the agricultural sector across the Asia Pacific countries has led to increasing demand for tractors and various farming equipment such as harvesters and spraying and threshing equipment for renting purposes.

This report includes a study on the marketing and development strategies, along with a study on the product portfolios of the leading companies operating in the farm equipment rental market. It includes the profiles of leading companies, such as John Deere (US), CNH Industrial (UK), Kubota Corporation (Japan), AGCO Corporation (US), Mahindra & Mahindra (India), JCB (UK), and Escorts Ltd (India), Tractors and farm equipment's ltd. (India), Pape Group, Inc. (US), Premier Equipment Rentals (US), Flaman Group of Companies (Canada), Pacific Ag Rentals (US), Pacific Tractors & Implements Ltd (US), Kwipped Inc. (US), Cedar street sales & rentals (US), Farmease (US), EM3 Agri Services (India), German Bliss Equipment Inc. (US), and Friesen Sales & Rentals (Canada).

Browse Related Reports:

Farm Equipment Market by Tractor Power Output (<30,31-70, 71-130, 131-250, >250), Drive (2WD, 4WD, & Autonomous), Combines, Baler, Sprayer, Implement (Plow & Cultivate, Sow, Harvest, Plant Protection & Fertilizer), Rental, & Region - Global Forecast to 2025

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/agriculture-equipment-market-164005174.html

Tractor Implements Market by Phase (Tillage, Irrigation, and Crop Protection, Sowing and Planting, Harvesting and Threshing), Drive (2-Wheel and 4-Wheel Drive), Power (Powered and Unpowered), and Region - Global Forecast to 2023

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/tractor-implement-market-248809422.html

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New Delhi: The world is hit by the deadly novel coronavirus which has affected as many as 1,350,523 people globally, out of which 285,327 have recovered and 74,856 succumbed to the disease, according to data shared by John Hopkins University, as of this afternoon.

To fight it out, the government called for a 21-day lockdown in the country, stressing on the 'stay home safe' policy and social distancing.

Don't underestimate the power of Social Distancing!#NagpurPolice pic.twitter.com/AmFGYcAE0C  Nagpur City Police (@NagpurPolice) April 5, 2020

The Nagpur police reminded the netizens about social distancing and its power with a 'Chennai Express' picture featuring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone. Check the tweet here:

The picture is from the movie which shows Deepika and SRK sitting on extreme edges of the bench, maintaining a safe one-arm distance.

In a quirky way, the Nagpur police tried conveying the message of staying home and practising social distancing which is of utmost importance in this time of global health crisis.

Coronavirus which first emerged in China's Wuhan city has now spread across the globe. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic, prompting the governments worldwide to take extraordinary measures to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

Globally, the pandemic flu has claimed thousands of lives and continues to affect millions.
A coalition of more than a dozen advocacy organizations is calling on Alabama leaders to take action to ensure the safety of the states more than 20,000 prisoners.

On Monday, Alabamians for Fair Justice issued a statement a day after AL.com published a story about an internal Alabama Department of Corrections document that details how underprepared the department is to prevent prisoners from contracting coronavirus.

The coalition  which is made up of organizations including the SPLC Action Fund, the ACLU of Alabama's Campaign for Smart Justice and Greater Birmingham Ministries  urged the state to release certain prisoners.

The coalition called on the DOC to "reduce overcrowding and enable social distancing by releasing people from custody" including older inmates; minors; people with chronic medical issues, compromised immune systems or disabilities; pregnant women; people who have less than a year left on their sentences; inmates who are eligible for parole; and others.

"Over the weekend, AL.com reported on a 263-page Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) plan that outlined dire measures in response to an outbreak of COVID-19 - calling in the National Guard, forcing incarcerated people to manufacture protective equipment, and preparing for mass deaths," the coalition's statement says.

"Faced with a choice between releasing the people most at-risk of contracting COVID-19 or keeping them warehoused, ADOC plans to order 312 body bags."

The coalition also asked the department to release the internal document and provide incarcerated people with adequate personal protective gear and hygiene products.

"Now is the time for our state leaders to choose another path, and follow the advice of experts and advocates by releasing people from its unhygienic, overcrowded prisons," the statement says.

Neither the DOC nor the office of Gov. Kay Ivey immediately responded to requests for comment in response to Alabamians for Fair Justice's demands.

On Monday, the department issued a press release from DOC Commissioner Jefferson Dunn that addressed the article and the prison systems coronavirus plan, dubbed 2020 Pandemic Continuity of Operations Plan.

"The version obtained by AL.com was the most recent iteration of ADOCs Pandemic COOP, which had been developed over a period of weeks in response to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic and is a strategic planning document that continues to be modified as needed," Dunn wrote.

Dunn wrote that the DOC does not have sufficient PPE or other supplies needed to prevent the spread of coronavirus, as the document states and AL.com reported.

He wrote that the DOC has "not  nor has any other correctional system in the country  stockpiled critical resources, such as PPE, through the years  With that said, we are working tirelessly to collect sufficient equipment to protect our inmates and staff, and I am proud of our Departments efforts."

He wrote that the document was a crisis plan to help the department prepare for a worst-case scenario.

In addition to COVID-19 preventative and mitigation efforts underway, my staff also is charged with working to maintain calm and provide reassurance not only to each other, but also to those in our custody who may be fearful, Dunn wrote.
While there may not be an actual scarcity of vegetables and grocery items in Mumbai, various factors like relocation and demolition of several markets, irregular transportation, as well as lack of manpower have impacted the supply chain of essential goods and contributed to some lag and shortage in essentials.

Speculation that the lockdown may be extended further has also led to panic buying that has added to this perceived shortage. To add to this, the Mumbai civic body has now decided to ban the selling of vegetables in all the 241 containment zones in the city.

While Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) in Vashi, where the city sources most of its vegetables from, confirmed that there is no shortage of vegetables, smaller vendors and retailers are finding it difficult to source and sell their produce.

APMC wholesale market director (vegetable market), Shankar Pingle said that close to 100-150 trucks of vegetables arrive at the Vashi market every day. There is absolutely no shortage, he said.

However, a local vendor from central Mumbai said that the stock of potatoes, onions, ivy gourds, and some leafy vegetables are less.Supply from the Vashi market is restricted. Authorities have also shut the Dadar market from where we used to get the main supply, the vendor said. Similarly, a vendor from Shastri Market in Matunga, Avinash Verma, said that before the lockdown, he would get stock for a week but now getting an adequate supply for a day is also difficult.

Many leading grocery outlets undertaking regular supply are facing the brunt. Most Hyper grocery outlets are not offering home delivery options unless in bulk to mega complexes.

There is no guarantee of what you will get. It is very erratic supply, said Binita Shah, a resident from Parel. We are now buying in more quantities since we anticipate the lockdown will be extended.

To avoid crowding at markets, several housing complexes are either getting produce directly from farmers groups or asking vendors to set up bi-weekly stalls in their premises. Farm to Home, a Nasik-based group of farmers, supplies vegetables and fruits directly to housing complexes in the eastern suburbs, from Vikroli to Chembur.

A vendor who sets up stalls in housing complexes, Mahesh T, said, Earlier, I would get vegetables from Vashi but now it is a time consuming and tedious process to buy vegetables from there. I am getting vegetables directly from farmers in Nasik now.

Despite complaints from retailers, APMC grain traders said that food grains and pulses stock is also adequate. It will easily last for one month to 45 days but people must refrain from panic buying, said Umang Sejpal, who supplies wheat in wholesale.

The food grain market is now letting in retailers on alternate days for crowd control. We have also asked our traders to limit work between 10am and 5.30pm, said Nilesh Vira, APMC director (food grains).

The Maharashtra government has provided helpline numbers through which citizens can call in case of a shortage of food grains or other essential services. An official from the control room said, We are getting close 2,500 calls related to supply shortage every day. Once we get a complaint, we direct it to the district authorities. In the last few days, there has been a shortage of oil but we are resolving most complaints.

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Living through the COVID-19 pandemic that is currently gripping the globe has proven to be, if nothing else, a surreal experience. Its all so real, yet, at the same time, just seems so inconceivable. Given the unfathomable period that we are currently experiencing, maybe it really isnt so hard to believe that one of Hollywoods brightest stars recently made a direct impact on the life of a young harness racing fan from Ontario.



Ariel, pictured with her parents, Ace and Denise. Ariel, pictured with her parents, Ace and Denise.

Late last year, the Standardbred Canada website helped inform the Ontario harness racing industry of the plight of Ariel, the 12-year-old daughter of racehorse owner Colin Ace Densley Burrows that is giving everything that shes got in her fight against scoliosis.

Those that make it out to Standardbred racetracks in southern Ontario have probably seen Ace and Ariel from time to time.

I love getting out to the track, and I take Ariel with me quite a bit, said Ace, who explained that, for example, he will drive from his home base in the Niagara region to the Peterborough area just to catch the excitement that two minutes of a live race brings.

The two of us have a great time at the track, and Ariels gotten to know some of the regular faces that we see at the raceways, said Ace. Shes a great kid and really leaves an impression with people.

Ariel has had three ribs removed and part of her thigh to reconstruct her spine. She recently underwent a month of halo stretching her spine at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and 11 hours of surgery. Ariel was recently released to go home, but before she left the hospital she was part of a quick conference call from none other than Ryan Reynolds.

Ariel kicked off the call with the first question for Reynolds. She asked him what is his favourite movie that he has acted in.

My favourite movie that Ive done I really loved Detective Pikachu, Reynolds told Ariel. Thats a big one  partly because my kids love it. I have three daughters, and two of them are old enough to watch it now and they love it so much.

Please join Standardbred Canada in wishing Ariel a speedy and complete recovery from her fight against scoliosis.
The environmental movement has made the Wuhan epidemic more severe than it would otherwise be. And I included in this movement not just the enviro-activists and assorted kooks like Greta Thunberg, but also most of the Democrat Party and the entire media. They have done this by continually harping and hyping the dangers of man-made climate change to the exclusion of everything else.

Every time you turn on the news these days, a health official somewhere in the country is bemoaning the lack of preparation for an epidemic and the lack of ventilators, masks, and other critical medical supplies. The enviro-movement deserve part of the blame for this. It was they who forced governments to direct enormous amounts of money to subsidies for wind and solar as well as to fund green pork-barrel projects like Barack Obama's $535-million Solyndra boondoggle. That money, or at least part of it, could have gone into preparation for a true danger  like a viral epidemic, an epidemic many health officials were warning about.

Look at California. Its population centers sit on earthquake fault lines. No doubt, some preparation has been done in the event of earthquakes, but if the big one hits, the need will dwarf what has been set aside. Why? Part of the reason is that Sacramento has been bowing at the green altar for years. The state's absurd high-speed rail is a good example of the waste.

And imagine what the country would be like in the midst of this Chinese coronavirus plague if the environmental movement had been able to strangle fracking or kill coal power as was Obama's stated objective. Without reliable power, what would hospitals look like now? The answer is obvious, but it's a question the media won't dare ask.

Stupid decisions come with a cost. The cost may not be immediate, but will have to be eventually paid when reality bites back. So has the environmental movement learned any lessons now that it sees the Wuhan flu ravishing the world? Not on your life. Right now, the enviros are lying low. But once the virus has burned itself out, they will rise out of their crypts like vampires to suck the blood out of the economy yet again. This is possible not on the strength of their arguments or on science, but only because the media are fully on board with their leftist agenda.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio admitted Tuesday that the city's coronavirus death toll may be higher than reported by officials.

De Blasio said that people who died in their homes in the past few weeks without having being tested or treated for COVID-19 likely had the disease.

The mayor also refused to comment on how bodies are going to be stored as the death toll jumped by 808 in 24 hours. The refusal came after speculation emerged that Hart Island could be used as a temporary grave for COVID-19 victims.

There were 3,544 coronavirus deaths in the city as of Tuesday.

The US is now barreling toward the infection's projected peak day on April 16 when experts predict there will be more than 3,000 deaths in 24 hours. The death toll reached 12,876 across the country Tuesday.

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New York Mayor Bill de Blasio holds media availability on the coronavirus on Tuesday in which he claims that the city may be undercounting coronavirus deaths as those who have died in their homes without being tested or treated may have the virus but are not in official figures

Healthcare workers wheel the bodies of COVID-19 victims to a refrigerated trailer used as a temporary morgue outside of Wyckoff Heights Medical Center on Sunday. De Blasio has refused to comment on how New York City will deal with the surge in bodies from the virus

Medical workers wearing personal protective equipment wheel bodies to a refrigerated trailer serving as a makeshift morgue in Brooklyn. The city's capacity to hold dead bodies has been expanded but Mayor de Blasio refused to comment on whether the current capacity is enough

'I am assuming the vast majority of those deaths are coronavirus related,' de Blasio said during his Tuesday briefing of the people who have died at home.

'It's understandable in a crisis that being able to make the confirmation is harder to do with all the resources stretched so thinThe first use of all of everything we've got  our professionals, our health care workers, our resources  the first thing we are focused on is saving the next life.

'We do want to know the truth about what happened in every death at home,' he added.

'But I think we can say at this point, it's right to assume the vast majority are coronavirus related and that makes it even more sober, the sense of how many people we are losing, how many families are suffering, how real this crisis is.'

The mayor has been pushed in recent days to comment on how the city intends to handle the surge in bodies as the coronavirus deaths continue to increase and as information spread that a city park may be used to temporarily bury bodies.

The story is believed to have come from an incorrect tweet from a city lawmaker.

Drone footage released Tuesday shows inmates in hazmat suits digging graves on NYC's Hart Island suggesting that coronavirus victims could already be being temporarily buried there, as morgues across the city continue to overflow and the death toll ticks up.

The footage taken on Thursday - which is the day bodies are buried there every week - by The Hart Island Project shows inmates in hazmat suits digging graves on the island, possibly for victims of the virus which has claimed more than 3,500 lives across New York City and sickened more than 74,000. Ordinarily prisoners are seen digging in their prison uniforms.

Mayor Bill de Blasio did not confirm whether burials for coronavirus victims had been or would take place there but told reporters Monday: 'We may well be dealing with temporary burials so we can then deal with each family later.

'Obviously, the place we have used historically is Hart Island.'

Bodies are buried three deep in wooden, unmarked caskets. Normally, 25 are buried a week. In the last week of March, however, 72 were buried. It is not known if any or all were coronavirus patients or whether or not the bodies, once in the medical examiner's office, were tested for COVID-19

Hart Island is ordinarily used to bury unidentified or unclaimed bodies. It was used for bodies after the Spanish Flu.

Public officials sparked panic and disgust this week by claiming some of the dead would be temporarily buried in public parks across the city.

That suggestion, made by councilman Mark Levine, has since been dismissed but the question of what to do with the escalating body count remains pertinent.

New York City coronavirus deaths rose by 29.37 percent in the 24 hours ending Tuesday morning, jumping from 2,475 deaths to 3,202.

It now stands at 3,544 coronavirus deaths but a discrepancy exists between figures reported by the city and by the state, which claim deaths are now more than 4,000.

According to NY Daily News, the medical examiner's office has enough space for between 800 and 900 bodies in morgues based in the city's boroughs.

This capacity has now been expanded for the current crisis with 80 mobile refrigerated trucks and a temporary morgue tent established outside of hospitals.

Hospitals also have their own morgues.

De Blasio has continuously refused to speak about the current capacity available and on how the city plans to deal with the extreme number of bodies.

'I really am not going to keep getting into detail,' he said Tuesday.

'We have the capacity we need, we're hoping and praying we never have to come near using it.'

The mayor added that he did not want to cause affected families any more pain by going into the details, adding that the focus should be on 'saving the next life'.

'To them, it's their loved one, it's not some bigger discussion, it's about a person in their life they've lost and we want to be really dignified and really respectful in our support for those families,' he said.

New York City could bury virus victims in temporary graves if city morgues are overwhelmed, but de Blasio said 'we're nowhere near that now'.

The mayor said Monday that officials have explored the possibility of temporary burials on Hart Island, a strip of land in Long Island Sound that has long served as the city's potte's field.

De Blasio told TV station NY1 that under such a contingency plan, bodies of COVID-19 victims would be buried individually so families could later reclaim them.

'There will never, ever be anything like mass graves or mass internment in New York City, ever,' de Blasio said.

The city was forced to address the issue of temporary burials Monday after a lawmaker incorrectly tweeted that the city would use a park for that purpose.

The city's 2008 Pandemic Influenza Surge Plan states that Hart Island would be used as a temporary burial site in the event the death toll reaches the tens of thousands and if other storage, such as the refrigerator trucks parked outside hospitals, is full.

The mayor's spokeswoman, Freddi Goldstein, stressed that the city government was not considering using local parks as cemeteries.

But she added that Hart Island, where around one million New Yorkers are already buried in mass graves, may be used 'for temporary burials, if the need grows'.

Rikers Island inmates in hazmat suits dig graves on Hart Island on April 2. The island is where unidentified or unclaimed bodies have been buried for years. Now, the city is suggesting it could become a mass burial site for coronavirus victims. Burials ordinarily take place on Thursdays, which is when this video was filmed overhead

Interments of coronavirus fatalities on the island may already have taken place.

Melinda Hunt, the founder of the Hart Island Project, said drone video footage shot last week appears to show burials of COVID-19 patients who passed away.

De Blasio's comments on undercounting the death toll came after the chair of NYC council health committee, Mark Levine, stated on Monday night that only those tested before they die are counted as COVID-19 victims, sparking fears the actual death toll could be far higher than the 3,500 already recorded.

Mark Levine tweeted: 'Now only those few who had a test confirmation *before* dying are marked as victims of coronavirus on their death certificate. This almost certainly means we are undercounting the total number of victims of this pandemic.'

Levine was commenting on how the city is 'managing its dead' with morgues, funeral homes and cemeteries 'dealing w/ the equivalent of an ongoing 9/11'.

He said 'on an average day' before this crisis there were between 20 and 25 deaths at home in NYC. He said there are now between 200 and 215 every day and 'most of these people are not tested for coronavirus'.

Only those tested before they die are counted as COVID-19 victims, a New York City councilman said Monday, sparking fears the actual death toll could be far higher

For several days, state and city officials have been giving substantially different figures for the New York City death toll, with their counts sometimes hundreds of fatalities apart.

As of Tuesday morning, the city was reporting 3,202 deaths while state officials were reporting at least 4,009. A day earlier, the city's count was 837 deaths lower than the state count.

The city's total now stands at 3,544.

Asked about the discrepancy, state and city officials explained that they pull their numbers from different sources. The state figures come from reports submitted by health care facilities through an automated system. The city's figures come from the city's medical examiner and vital statistics reports.

The New York City Health Department said Tuesday that it would start reporting the state's figures soon on its website 'to ensure that we are being as consistent and comprehensive as possible'.

According to the state's figures, more people have died from the coronavirus in New York City than perished in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

At least 3,400 people have been killed in the city by the virus, according to a new count released by health officials.

The deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil killed 2,753 people in the city.

Another 224 died when hijacked planes slammed into the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 2001.

The coronavirus death toll has mounted over the course of just a few weeks.

The city recorded its first fatality on March 13, less than two weeks after confirming its first infection.
President Donald Trump credited his daughter Ivanka at a small business event with creating 15 million jobs  an astonishing claim that comes as the nation braces for millions of new unemployment claims.

The president's daughter appeared alongside her father in the Roosevelt Room as he held a conference call with CEOs, where he said his administration wants $250 billion in additional loans to shore up businesses and prevent mass layoffs.

'My daughter Ivanka Trump who just wants to have people working,' Trump said, acknowledging the first daughter, who has a job as a senior White House aide.

'I gave her lots of options. What do you like? She created over 15 million jobs working with some of you, but working with the biggest companies in the world,' Trump said.

President Donald Trump credited daughter Ivanka with having 'created over 15 million jobs'

'They were training and training like nobody's ever seen. She started off with a goal of 500,000 jobs, and now she's up to over 15 million.' Trump was referencing job training commitments she helped coordinate  but not actual jobs that were created by her or the business leaders.

Ivanka Trump gave remarks at the event, which included Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as well as business leaders participating by video conference.

'The foundation of our economy was so incredibly strong until this virus hit,' she said, in remarks that lined up with what her father has said. She mentioned small businesses and said 'this was no fault of their own.'

Senior Adviser to the President Ivanka Trump speaks on small business relief in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC on April 7, 2020. Trump met virtually on Tuesday with executives of US banking giants to discuss boosting relief for small business

U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his daughter and senior advisor Ivanka Trump, participates in a 'small business relief update' conference call

Ivanka Trump urged Americans to 'stay safe' and 'stay healthy' amid the outbreak

Unemployment claims since the outbreak have surpassed 10 million, as the U.S. economy virtually shuts down amid stay-home orders to contain the virus.

'We just asked Congress to pass legislation to fund an additional $250 billion dollars for Paycheck Protection Program,' Trump said.'The way it's going, we're going to need that, because it's really going. People are loving it. They're really loving it.'

Ivanka, who has spent time at home with her family as have many White House staffers amid social distancing, also told the nation: 'We are all in his fight together. Stay safe, stay healthy.'

'Thank you honey, very much,' Trump said when she was through.

Her husband Jared Kushner appeared at a recent coronavirus briefing, where he said he has been fielding phone calls from states and hospitals and helping to line up medical supplies. He drew criticism when he said of the national medical stockpile: 'The notion of the federal stockpile is that it's supposed to be our stockpile. It's not supposed to be states' stockpiles that they then use. '

On the call, major institutions like Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase made commitments meant to ease the burden on borrowers and customers amid the downturn.
Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh has been named as the interim shadow Northern Ireland secretary by new Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer.

Labour described it as "interim" appointment as her predecessor Tony Lloyd is currently in hospital being treated for coronavirus.

Ms Haigh's appointment comes after a series of confident displays at the despatch box in her shadow Home Office role.

She tweeted yesterday: "All my love and best wishes to Tony and his family for a very speedy recovery."

The former shadow policing and crime minister was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015.

Ms Haigh, who voted in favour of reform of the abortion law in Northern Ireland last year, was the youngest Labour member of that Parliament.

Meanwhile, Ed Miliband will return to the Labour frontbench under Sir Keir as the new leader revealed an overhauled shadow cabinet that includes his former leadership rivals.

Mr Miliband - succeeded by Jeremy Corbyn after leading the party to electoral defeat - was named as the new shadow business secretary yesterday.

His predecessor in the role Rebecca Long-Bailey has been moved to education and joins fellow leadership rivals Lisa Nandy and Emily Thornberry in Sir Keir's top team.

David Lammy, a leading voice against the Windrush scandal who practised as a barrister, was named as shadow justice secretary.

The moves will be seen as an attempt to unite a fractured party, bringing back some names from the recent past while holding on to some who excelled under Mr Corbyn.

Sir Keir said: "I'm proud to have appointed a shadow cabinet that showcases the breadth, depth and talents of the Labour Party. This is a new team that will be relentlessly focused on acting in the national interest to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and rebuilding Labour so that it can win the next election."

Mr Miliband led a more moderate party than his successor Mr Corbyn, who guided Labour to its worst general election defeat since 1935.

His return comes after he found fresh popularity hosting a podcast in the wake of his 2015 general election defeat.

He spent five years as Labour leader until 2015 and also served as energy and climate change secretary in the Government of Gordon Brown.

Mr Miliband has continued to display a keen interest in climate change matters from the backbenches.

Ms Thornberry has been appointed shadow international trade secretary, after Ms Nandy replaced her in the role of shadow foreign secretary. Mr Lammy returns from the backbenches having been brought into government by Tony Blair.

Ian Murray, who ran for the deputy leadership, returns as shadow Scotland secretary after resigning from the role under Mr Corbyn while criticising his leadership.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, who also unsuccessfully stood to be deputy and who continues to work as a hospital doctor, is shadow minister for mental health.

John Healey was moved to become shadow defence secretary having served in education for Mr Corbyn.

He replaces Nia Griffith, who in turn is now shadow Welsh secretary for a second time in her career.

But allies of Mr Corbyn also lost out, with Richard Burgon not making the cut and Baroness Chakrabarti no longer having a role.

Sir Keir was reshaping the party having secured 56% of the 490,731 votes cast in the three-month leadership contest.

Ashton-under-Lyne MP Angela Rayner won the deputy leadership race.
For three Belfast sisters, the Easter weekend should have been the time for a big family celebration.

But the UK's oldest surviving triplets will instead, for the first time the family can remember, celebrate their birthdays in isolation in light of the Covid-19 guidelines.

Primrose Page, Iris Bull and Marigold Milliken all turn 87 on April 16, having been born on Easter Sunday 1933, and have been almost inseparable ever since.

All three still live not too many miles apart in Bangor, Holywood and Castlereagh.

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Instead, the wider family will observe the new social distancing norm and will be making phone calls from around the country, with cakes and cards left on doorsteps.

"It's going to be a different sort of birthday for the three of them," said Page McLaughlin, Primrose's granddaughter.

"We had plans to all get together as usual on Easter Sunday but that's not going to happen now as a result of the coronavirus outbreak in Northern Ireland. My granny and aunties are all still living in their own homes and given their age and health conditions, they know we can't all be with them this year."

Born in the south east of England, the triplets moved to Belfast with their parents and older sister Marguerite not long after the end of the Second World War.

"My great-grandad John Bull had been in the Royal Air Force, but moved to Belfast with the family while working for Shorts," said Page.

Though the celebrations will be muted, Iris Bull said that even though the family can't be together, they'll be with each other in spirit.

"We're always there for each other," she said from the isolation of her Castlereagh home.

"I look a little like Primrose but the three of us always had to fight for our own identity and I think that did us a lot of good over the years. We tried hard to stand out and we're all stronger for it.

"We've enjoyed separate lives, but together.

"We have our ups and downs like all sisters do, but we're still looking out for each other.

"I do recall during our days at primary school when I got punished instead of Primrose and she never spoke up, but I forgave her a long time ago for that!" she laughed.

"You'd think there would be battles over boyfriends to tell, but that was never the case. We were lucky we never went after the same boys, and that the boys always liked one of us and not the others!

"We all try to stay as active as we can, though that's been difficult lately," she said.

"I write and have had stories published, Primrose still plays piano marvellously and Marigold started knitting shawls for stillborn babies some time ago and she's still at the knitting today so we've all got our specialities," she added. "We try to keep our minds active too. Reading newspapers, doing crosswords, that all keeps us in shape!

"We're very big into family celebrations but we'll just have to wait for the next one and make up for lost time when we can. There's a new baby in the family and we were all supposed to meet her when she came over from Scotland at the end of March so that was a disappointment, but we'll make up for lost moments soon enough," she said.

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Primrose worked as a ward sister and superintendent in the health service, Iris for the civil service and as a school administrator, and Marigold was a BT telephonist.

"My grandmother married Wilbur Page and that's where I get my name from," said Page.

"They had two children, my mother Rosalind and her brother Timothy. Marigold also has one son, Edward," she added.

"Family occasions like this become all the more precious as the years go on so of course we'd all love to be together, but the best way we can think of showing them we love them all is by staying away.

"Sure we will make it up to them on their 88th birthdays next Easter!"
The whole world was in awe of how calming and comforting the Queen's emotional televised speech was last Sunday.

Queen Elizabeth II delivered a historic nation's address about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has greatly affected nations across the globe.

From her official residence in Windsor Castle, the 93-year-old monarch encouraged his fellow Brits to prove that this generation is "as strong as any" and assured the public that "better days will return."

The Queen also acknowledged the magnitude of the health crisis in the history of England and expressed his hopethat "everyone will be able to take pride" on how their countrymen responded to the challenging situation.

Donald Trump Praised Queen Elizabeth

Brits flocked social media to commend Queen Elizabeth II's heartwarming nation's address.

One online user posted: "How lucky are we to have Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth as our Sovereign." Another one commented: "HM The Queen. Providing sense in so much uncertainty. What a woman."

Meanwhile, U.S President Trump said nothing but good words to the longest-reigning monarch after hearing her touching and powerful speech.

Known for his vocal admiration tof the Queen, Trump took to Twitter to praise Britain's reigning monarch.



"A great & wonderful woman!" Trump wrote.

During his state banquet at Buckingham Palace in 2019, the U.S President paid tribute to the "eternal friendship" between the U.K and the U.S and even called the Queen as a "great, great woman".

Trump Compared To Queen Elizabeth II

However, tables have turned for Trump, as he was slammed by his fellow Americans on how he handled the coronavirus crisis.

Over the past few weeks, since COVID-19 has massively struck America, Trump sent mixed messages to the public and gave misleading information regarding testing kits, pandemic timeline, and ventilator supplies.

The 45th U.S President was also lambasted after he vowed to "open the country" and to be fully operational by this coming weekend even in the middle of the pandemic.

"Our country was not built to be shut down," Trump declared. "We are going to be opening up our country for business because our country was meant to be open."

With this, health officials predicted a huge spike in COVID-19 cases if the public would indeed return to its normal lifestyle.

The Presidential daughter Ivanka Trump also recognized the Queen's nation address, as she re-posted in her Twitter account a clip from the televised speech.

Netizens immediately criticized the 38-year-old presidential senior adviser for the administration's lack of action during the health crisis.

"How dare you! 9,600 Americans are dead already - and your father is tweeting, lying, blaming but doing nothing of substance. Start at home. Tell him to bring in qualified experts to run this. American people are dying! Do something worthwhile with your access," replied by user @Amy_Siskind.

Another follower replied: "She got better ratings than your dad."

As of this writing, the U.K has reached more than 51,000 confirmed cases with 5,000 fatalities while the U.S soared to 366,000 COVID-19 cases and nearly 11,000 reported deaths.
Suddenly, it's no longer the "Wuhan virus."

The United States and China have reached a truce in a vitriolic feud over the coronavirus pandemic, with the two powers each seeing at least a tactical interest in cooling down.

President Donald Trump, hardly known for the delicacy of his word choices, has dropped his provocative term "Chinese virus" and held back from criticizing Beijing's response since a telephone call, on March 26 US time, with his counterpart Xi Jinping.

And Secretary of State Mike Pompeo -- who so insisted on saying "Wuhan virus" that the Group of Seven foreign ministers could not issue a joint statement -- has been talking of cooperation.

"We know that this is a global pandemic, and this is the time for every country to work together to resolve that," Pompeo told reporters Tuesday when asked about China.

Beijing infuriated the United States last month when a foreign ministry spokesman spread a conspiracy theory that US troops brought the virus to Wuhan.

Cui Tiankai, China's gentlemanly ambassador to Washington, struck a highly different tone in an op-ed in The New York Times in which he spoke of his affection for Americans and promised China would do "whatever it can to support the United States."

State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus welcomed Cui's remarks but called, civilly, on China to share virus data and allow free speech.

"True cooperation requires transparency and real actions, not just rhetoric," she said.

- Not time for 'blame game' -

Whatever the faults in China's response, many observers saw Trump's blaming of Beijing as a political ploy as he faces criticism for not acting sooner to stop COVID-19, which has killed more than 12,000 people in the United States.

But with medical supplies in dangerously short supply, Trump also needs China, which produces half of the imported masks in the United States.

"Washington certainly does not want to alienate Beijing to the point that it bans the sale of medical equipment to the United States," said Elizabeth Economy, director of Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Story continues

"It also reflects a broader sentiment within much of the United States that this is not the time to play an international blame game -- the priority should be on saving American and other lives."

Economy said the Trump administration may also feel that it no longer needs to be as upfront, especially when other countries have also stepped up criticism of Beijing.

She doubted that the newfound tone would improve the rest of the relationship, which was already tense before the pandemic.

The Trump administration has vowed to confront China on multiple fronts, including on its human rights record and military buildup, with the State Department just Monday criticizing Beijing over the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing trawler.

- Goal to 'keep Trump calm' -

From China's standpoint, the friction also has limited benefits, especially when Beijing is seeking to cast itself around the world as a pandemic benefactor.

The State Department's Global Engagement Center, which tracks foreign propaganda, says Chinese state social media have already phased out conspiracy theories blaming the United States.

For China, the goal is to "keep Trump calm and to try to prevent unnecessary damage from taking place, and keeping that channel open between you and Trump," said Douglas Paal, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Paal, a former Asia adviser to presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, said that China also had an eye on US elections in November.

China's top priority is to revive global demand for its exports and initially thought that Trump's re-election would be its best outcome, fearing that the rival Democrats would intervene more forcefully on human rights as well as on trade, Paal said.

But Paal was struck by an overall positive portrayal in Chinese state media of Joe Biden, the likely Democratic nominee.

Biden as vice president invested heavily in building a relationship with Xi, China's most powerful leader in decades.

China also sees a "historic strategic opportunity" to expand its power as Trump has weakened US alliances, Paal said.

"My reading of the official media suggests that they're less committed to getting Trump re-elected than they were a year ago," Paal said.

"And therefore they don't have as many ambitions for doing things with Trump. They can stand back and just take care of their own interests."
A body known as Save Kwara Group (SKG) has decried the marginalization of the North-Central zone by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government in appointment to key positions.

The group, which said it was at the forefront of the winning the state for the APC added that north-central zone voted massively for the government at the centre in the last general elections.

Addressing reporters in Ilorin, SKGs chairman Mohammed Abioye said: As you may be aware, recently there was a north-central zonal meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja. A point was raised that generally the zone has been marginalized in the appointment to key positions by the Federal Government.

It is on record that the north-central zone voted massively for the APC in the last general elections. As at today, the President, the Vice President and Senate President are not from here.

What we are saying is that the zone should be considered for some concessions in future appointments.

On the performance of the Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq thus far, Alhaji Abioye gave the governor a pass-mark.

Said he: 60 or 70 days are too short to assess the performance of any governor. But I think the governor has done very well. He has been able to demonstrate to Kwarans that a governor is not supposed to lord it over anybody. Our governor is very accessible.

In terms of infrastructural development many of the pot-holes riddenroads in the metropolis are being patched up daily. He has also released money for the completion of ongoing projects. So I think we are going on well.

Earlier, Convener of the group Benjamin Oyinloye urged President Muhammadu Buhari to consider the precarious political situation of the zone. As it stands, north central zone is currently shortchanged

politically and the president needs to placate the tensions and emotions of its supporters in the region.

Mr. Oyinloye urged all elected public office holders in the state to reflect that their election into office was bough at too great a price. Hence it is demanded of you all that you must distinguish yourselves, put the state and its citizens first in every decision you intend to make.
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top government figures will take a 30 per cent salary cut this year, a government minister said, as the country tackles the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on the economy. Indias new financial year began on April 1.

These include President Ram Nath Kovind, Governors of all states and members of both Houses of Parliament, who will be forgoing 30 per cent of their salaries this year as part of their social responsibility to fight the coronavirus, Covid-19, pandemic.

In view of the emerging situation arising due to the rapid spread of coronavirus, the cabinet promulgated an ordinance to reduce the salaries, allowances and pensions of Members of Parliament (MPs) by 30 per cent for one year, stated Prakash Javadekar, the designated minister who briefs on meetings of the Union Council of Ministers, in a presser.

Modi had on Sunday consulted several opposition leaders and got their approval for the measure. President Kovind will now issue an ordinance sanctioning the cut since Parliament went into recess a few weeks ago in view of rising virus cases.

The Cabinet also approved the temporary suspension of the MPLAD (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) Fund during 2020-21 & 2021-22. The consolidated amount of MPLAD Funds for 2 years - Rs 7900 crores - will go to Consolidated Fund of India, declared Prakash Javadekar in the press briefing, said media reports citing Javadekar.

The ordinance - an amendment to Members of Parliament Act, 1954, will reduce the allowances and pension by 30 per cent with effect from April 1, 2020. The reduction will be applicable for a year.

"Apart from the ordinance on MP salary, President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu and many state governors and lieutenant-governors have also voluntarily decided to take a pay cut as a social responsibility," the Union minister added.
Hollywood star Salma Hayek is happy that she got to fulfil her wish of playing a superhero with upcoming movie The Eternals.

In the Marvel Studios film, the Mexican-American actor features alongside the likes of Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kit Harington, Gemma Chan, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Lia McHugh, Don Lee and Barry Keoghan.

In an interview with Total Film, Hayek described the titular Eternals as a gang of misfits, except for Jolie.

At 53, finally! I can be a superhero. I play Ajak, who is the leader of the superheroes and all of them are people you would never have imagined. Except for Angelina She was born to be a superhero, the actor said.

The rest of us (Eternals) are like misfits, and we're all superheroes, and I get to be the leader. That sounds really appropriate! Yes, why not? Let's go! It just made me feel like, Maybe they're doing something different.' And they are, she added.

Created by Jack Kirby in 1976, the story of "The Eternals" is set millions of years ago when the cosmic beings known as the Celestials genetically experimented on humans to create super-powered individuals known as the Eternals along with the villainous Deviants.

Hayek particularly praised the film's director Chloe Zhao, saying she was a fan of her 2017 western "The Rider".

The director is amazing. Did you see her first movie? 'The Rider'? I was blown away. The one thing that excited me the most was the director. She's incredible, the actor added.

The Eternals was earlier scheduled to release in November this year but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the film has been postponed till February 2021.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WORSHIPERS in all mosques here have been directed to practice social distancing during prayers, as crucial measure for curbing transmission of coronavirus.

The Office of the Mufti, which is responsible for Islamic affairs in the Isles, issued a statement asking all clerics to comply with the directive at this time when the world needs unity to curb coronavirus.

In a statement read out to reporters at Mazizi, the Secretary of the Mufti Office, Sheikh Khalid Ali Mfaume, said the decision aimed at facilitating social distancing was reached after a long discussion on April 1, 2020 involving Maulamas (Muslim scholars).

This is a time of emergency, and according to Islamic teachings and footsteps of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him), we are allowed to adjust our normal programmes. Majids will remain open, but during prayers, worshippers have to keep a onemetre distance from one another, Sheikh Mfaume said.

He said Islam encourages social proximity during pandemics, in terms of providing assistance, but at this time social distancing is crucial to contain COVID-19, against which no country is entirely safe.

All mosques should have hand washing facilities at entrances as a precautionary measure, and in their prayers, worshippers should plead with the Almighty God for forgiveness and protection from coronavirus, he remarked further.

Last Sunday, the Isles Minister for Health, Mr Hamad Rashid Mohamed, announced that the number of COVID-19 patients had increased from five to seven after two men from Tanga on the Tanzania mainland were tested positive. More than 300 people are under surveillance.
On Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a temporary emergency measure in New Yorks battle against the new coronavirus pandemic. The state would borrow unused ventilators from upstate, which has seen far fewer cases of the virus per capita than downstate, and lend them to overwhelmed hospitals in the New York City region, where the life support devices are in short supply. Im not going to let people die because we didnt redistribute ventilators, the governor said.

As Cuomo has repeatedly noted, the virus is expected to travel across the state like a wave. Today, New York City is short of ventilators, hospital beds and medical personnel, leaving hospitals to ration lifesaving supplies and let some patients die. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said last week that the city will run out of the breathing machines in a matter of days unless it secures an additional 2,500 to 3,000. In a few weeks or months, upstate may be in the same boat. Just as Cuomo has begged other states and the federal government to help New York in its hour of need  and promised to ship them to the next hot spot as soon as New Yorks crisis is over  he said New York will have to deploy its resources to the neediest areas at any given time. Given downstates greater resources, upstate could end borrowing a lot more from downstate when their turn comes.

Cuomos reassuring and uplifting calls to common purpose during the crisis have received widespread bipartisan praise. So, you might expect that upstate New Yorkers, moved to do their part in saving lives, would eagerly rush forth to help their brethren.

If so, you would be disappointed. As soon as Cuomo mentioned the ventilator redeployment, upstate politicians exploded in a greedy rage that would embarrass Ebenezer Scrooge. On Friday, a consortium of Republican legislators from upstate, including Reps. Tom Reed and Elise Stefanik, state Sens. Robert Ortt, George Borrello, Chris Jacobs, Pam Helming, Rich Funke and Fred Akshar, Assemblymen Philip Palmesano, Christopher Friend and Andy Goodell and Assemblywoman Marjorie Byrnes sent Cuomo a letter. (Its worth listing all of the signatories so that, as the bodies in New York City pile even higher, those who abandoned them can be held accountable.) Taking our ventilators by force leaves our people without protection and our hospitals unable to save lives today or respond to a coming surge, reads the letter. We stand together opposing the Governor's very dangerous and reckless action. He is leaving our communities in a terrible position which will cost lives."

Of course, leaving the New York City region without an adequate supply of ventilators during its current surge is already costing lives. But that goes unmentioned, as downstate lives dont count. Upstate lives, on the other hand, do count. Thats why some upstate residents, led by Stefanik, have taken to tweeting with the hashtag #upstatelivesmatter.

Online, many African Americans have taken offense at this hashtag, which appropriates the #blacklivesmatter language used to protest violent systemic racism and uses the phrase to justify hoarding resources in the predominantly white upstate region. Meanwhile, the communities in New York bearing the brunt of coronavirus deaths are black and Latino neighborhoods in New York City. One black woman from upstate tweeted in response to the hashtag that the selfishness, presumptuousness, and open racism involved is embarrassing to everyone who calls upstate home.

Nonetheless, on Sunday, a bipartisan group of elected officials from the Hudson Valley signed onto the let-downstaters-die initiative, including Rep. Antonio Delgado, Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus, state Sens. George Amedore, Jen Metzger and Sue Serino and Assemblymen Kevin Cahill and Chris Tague. Their self-contradictory joint statement reads, in part, We stand ready to help our fellow New Yorkers, but moving needed ventilators from our region now would be devastating and counterintuitive to all data on the spread of COVID-19.

Cahill, Delgado, Ryan and Metzger are Democrats. The rest are Republicans. Molinaro was the GOP nominee for governor in 2018. New York City-area voters might wonder how many more of their family, friends and neighbors would be dead already if Molinaro had won that election and brought this attitude to Albany.

Other upstate officials from both parties, including Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, a Democrat, also have said their regions have nothing to spare.

For the last few weeks, the Cuomo administration has doggedly tracked confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and tried to match resources to them. None of these upstate politicians who claim they have no ventilators to spare or that they will be unprepared for their own COVID-19 surge have cited any evidence or demonstrated that they have more accurate caseload projections.

New Yorks COVID-19 outbreak is overwhelmingly a downstate phenomenon. The state reported 130,689 confirmed cases as of Monday morning. New York City and its four nearest counties  Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland and Westchester  account for 121,281 of those. Westchester, just north of New York City, has 980,000 residents and 14,294 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus. Erie County, which encompasses Buffalo and much of its suburbs, has 926,000 residents and just 1,023 confirmed cases.

The federal government has sent 4,000 ventilators to New York, and other nations and states are beginning to help out as well. China sent 1,000 ventilators and Oregon, which sits between California and Washington, which are the second and third most affected states after New York, is shipping 140.

But upstates elected officials care less for the lives of their downstate neighbors than Oregon Gov. Kate Brown cares about New Yorkers.

Thats why theyre telling residents of New York City and its suburbs to drop dead. Literally. The Upstate Firsters do not offer an alternative source of ventilators to the downstaters who may die if these are withheld.

This isnt to say that there are no valid concerns for upstaters to raise about Cuomos plan to take up to 20% of their hospitals unused ventilators. As the Daily Gazette, a newspaper serving the Capital Region, pointed out in an editorial against lending ventilators downstate, If a hospital has only five ventilators to begin with and the state takes 20%, that leaves it with just four." But thats a reason for upstates representatives to negotiate over the details, such as proposing to exempt some small rural hospitals that have few ventilators and are far from other hospitals, not to just oppose lending any devices at all.

Perhaps, instead of just trying to protect their districts unused medical devices, Delgado and Stefanik should be working to secure more equipment from the federal government, which has been reluctant to part with its stockpile. Like the rest of New Yorks congressional delegation, Delgado and Stefanik failed to protect New Yorks interests in the recent federal stimulus package, allowing the state to get the least aid per coronavirus patient. Stefaniks main contribution to combatting the deadly pandemic has been to introduce a toothless resolution condemning China for letting the virus emerge.

Now, heres another piece of statistical context to consider: How many ventilators would upstate have  how much of anything would upstate have  if downstate didnt subsidize it for the last couple of centuries? New York City, Westchester and Long Island account for 62% of New York states population, but between 66% and 82% of its state income tax revenue, depending on how you count out-of-staters who commute to work in the New York City area. According to a 2017 Rockefeller Institute report, New York City and the Downstate Suburbs give far more to Albany in taxes and other revenues than they get in state-funded expenditures. The Capital Region and the Rest of State, by contrast, get significantly more than they give. Upstate provides 24% of state tax revenues, but receives 35% of state spending.

The current governor has been obsessed with investing public money in the upstate economy. Reporters on Cuomos press list receive a steady barrage of news about grants to various upstate initiatives, with far fewer counterparts for New York City or its suburbs.

Now, when upstate can finally pitch in and give downstate a helping hand, it turns its back instead.
The nation's largest hotel chain is sheltering people fleeing domestic violence as front-line workers say incidents of household abuse are on the rise as a result of the pressures caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

International hotel group Accor has revealed it is housing vulnerable people, including victims of family violence, the homeless and worn-out medical workers in need of alternative accommodation, in its Sydney CBD rooms as well as other beds throughout the state. The group owns brands such as Ibis, Sofitel and Swissotel.

One of the hotel rooms domestic violence survivors and homeless Sydneysiders have been offered during the COVID-19 crisis. Credit:Accor

Chief operating officer in Australia Simon McGrath said that while the tourism and hospitality industry had been decimated by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, using empty rooms to protect those in need had been a valuable way to redeploy the group's abundant resources.

"Our doors are open," Mr McGrath told the Herald. "We have accommodation assets that can help people in times of need, and while the industry's been devastated commercially, it doesnt mean we cant help."
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Linkedin Paul Ricard (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Tue, April 7, 2020 13:03 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd039e94 2 World antibody,test,COVID-19,COVID-19-drugs,research,medicine,immunity,coronavirus Free

It's the key that opens to door from total lockdown: serologic testing, which will show definitively who has contracted COVID-19 and is in theory safe to return to work.

"Everyone's waiting for serologic testing, the whole world," said France's Health Minister Olivier Veran.

He said that the global research community was focusing on ways of perfecting the tests, which measure viral antibodies in a person's blood that signal immunity.

Veran said that mass production of the tests could start within weeks.

"It's a huge factor, especially when we're trying to reduce confinement," he said.

The World Health Organization said that serologic tests were still being developed but were yet to be properly evaluated.

'Great interest'

Current diagnostic tests, known as RT-PCR, are invasive and use genetic analysis to see if a person is actively infected.

Serologic testing, which only requires a drop of blood to conduct, focuses instead on finding virus antibodies, the presence of which indicates that an individual has had COVID-19 and is now likely immune.

"Antibodies are one of the key immune response components. They start to be detectable around a week after initial infection," said Andrew Preston, a reader in Microbial Pathogenesis at the University of Bath.

There are two types of antibodies associated with the COVID-19 immune response: IgM, which the body produces in the early stages of viral response, and IgG, which arrive later on during infection.

The tests being developed can identify both antibodies, key hallmarks of a patient's auto-immune response to the virus.

"Thus there is great interest in the use of an antibody test to indicate immunity against disease for use in the lifting of lockdown restrictions," said Preston.

Supply problem

Antibody testing is so crucial because of the large proportion of people with COVID-19 infections who may not show symptoms but can still pass the virus on to others.

Such tests already exist for other illnesses. And once they are perfected for the novel coronavirus the results can be analyzed in labs using existing hardware.

Once widely available, they could be used to determine who gets to return to work and exit the lockdown currently being experienced by billions around the world.

"The main question is how to ensure everyone can return to work," Francois Blanchecotte, president of the French Union of Biologists, told AFP.

In Italy, the president of the Venice region Luca Zaia, has proposed that returning workers carry a document after testing to prove they aren't contagious.

Similar measures have been proposed in Germany.

"A GP told me yesterday that if I gave him a serologic test and it showed that he's immune, he would offer his services to a neighboring hospital's COVID-19 unit in an flash," said Philippe Herent, director of the Synlab Opale group of laboratories.

He however cautioned that global demand for the tests is likely to significantly outstrip demand, and production remains limited.

Caveats

The tests aren't the perfect solution, however.

"They have to be used carefully. Used too early, the convalescent patient may still be carrying and shedding the virus, they may still be a risk to others," said Michael Skinner, a reader in Virology at Imperial College London.

It's due to this risk that countries are likely to continue producing and using RT-PCR tests and combine them with the serological versions.

"You might see a mix of the two: one diagnosis to see if you're still contagious and a serological test to know if you have antibodies," said Blanchecotte.

Another potential pitfall is that it not yet known for certain whether people who have recovered from COVID-19 are immune to reinfection.

"In a vast majority of infectious diseases, recovery from disease and evidence of a strong immune response would lead to a period of immunity from re-occurrence," said Preston.

"[But] the caveat is that we don't know for sure that a positive antibody test does imply someone is immune [from COVID-19]."

Most countries in lockdown still lack testing capacity, so it is not at all clear when restrictions on movement could be lifted, even with a widely available antibody test.

But serologic tests are the only way to know for sure what percentage of humanity has been infected with COVID-19, which will help inform a variety of current unknowns, not least mortality rates.
Citing a popular event from the



epic Ramayan a day ahead of 'Hanuman Jayanti', Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday asked people to not step out like the revered devotee of Lord Ram to "lift hill", but stay indoors to avoid the coronavirus spread.

Pawar also appealed to members of the Muslim community to observe 'Shab-e-Barat', when they visit graveyards to remember the dead, by offering prayers at their homes on Wednesday.

"Today, to protect the people from coronavirus, none needs to (step out of home and) lift hills. Instead, they should stay inside their homes on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti (to contain the spread of the viral disease)," an official statement quoted Pawar as saying.

According to the epic Ramayan, when Lord Ram's brother Laxman lay motionless after being hit by an arrow from demon Ravana's son Meghnad, Lord Hanuman was asked to bring a herb 'Sanjivani' (a kind of panacea) to restore the life in the wounded Laxman from the Dronagiri mountain.

Unable to locate the 'Sanjivani', Lord Hanuman lifted the entire mountain and flew back.

Wishing people on the occasion of the World Health Day, Pawar said that people should celebrate their festivals by staying inside their homes until further notice.

Noting that the government has sealed certain areas to prevent transmission of the coronavirus, Pawar said that the violators will be jailed.

"The government will not take further risk on coronavirus. Serious offences will be registered against those responsible for the spread of coronavirus and they will have to suffer the consequences of it," he stated.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A state Health Department official said the [Department of Health] has shipped doses of hydroxychloroquine to 56 hospitals across New York, distributing enough "to treat 4,000 patients to date." Patients have received doses as part of four- or 10-day regimens, officials said. The University of Albany's School of Public Health is observing the drug's impact on the patients, and its preliminary study could come back in weeks instead of the usual months, officials said.

On March 23, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order barring pharmacists from filling prescriptions for chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, its next-generation derivative, for home treatment of COVID-19, the disease caused by the cornavirus SARS-CoV-2. But doctors are using the drugs, which are effective for treating such diseases as malaria and lupus, in huge numbers.As many as 4,000 people in New York are currently being treated with hydroxychloroquine, the New York Post reports:Cuomo has been criticized for prohibiting pharmacists from dispensing hydroxychloroquine outside a hospital.Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Sunday told a story about an elderly man with a high fever arriving at Mount Sinai Hospital,Guiliani said on "Sunday Morning Futures."President Trump's personal lawyer said.Fox News host Sean Hannity also questioned why New York doctors can't prescribe the drugs outside of a hospital setting.Hannity said in a Saturday op-ed.Cuomo, Hannity said,Trump, who has twice tested negative for COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, told reporters gathered in the White House briefing room on Saturday that he may himself take hydroxychloroquine, which he has called a "game changer" for treating the virus.Trump said about the drug, normally used to treat malaria and lupus.Last Monday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the drug emergency-use authorization for the treatment of COVID-19.Trump again on Sunday touted the drug.Trump said.Trump said.Health experts have warned that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine can have some serious side effects, andas reported by Forbes Sunday.
The Navy's acting secretary has been forced to apologize after a profanity-laden broadside in which he called the fired commander of the coronavirus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt "too naive or too stupid".

Thomas Modly issued a written apology after President Donald Trump, at a White House conference, described his comments about Captain Brett E Crozier as "rough".

Modly had relieved Crozier of command of the aircraft carrier last week. He said he'd lost confidence in Crozier for having shown "extremely poor judgment" in widely distributing a memo pleading for an accelerated evacuation of the crew members to protect their health.

On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Modly should lose his job.

"Sadly, Acting Secretary Modly's actions and words demonstrate his failure to prioritize the force protection of our troops," Pelosi, D-Calif, said in a written statement.

"He showed a serious lack of the sound judgment and strong leadership needed during this time. Acting Secretary Modly must be removed from his position or resign."



At least 173 sailors aboard the ship had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Monday. About 2,000 of the 4,865 crew members had been taken off the ship to be tested.

On Sunday, Modly flew to Guam to address sailors on the aircraft carrier who had cheered their support of Crozier as he departed the ship on Friday. He reprimanded them, saying they were overlooking their most basic duty to defend US interests.

"So think about that when you cheer the man off the ship who exposed you to that," he said. "I understand you love the guy. It's good that you love him. But you're not required to love him." Late Monday, Modly backtracked.

I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused, he wrote, referring to his speech aboard the Roosevelt on Sunday.

I also want to apologize directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused.

Defence Secretary Mark Esper's staff told Modly he must apologize, according to a person familiar with the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he might get involved, agreeing that Modly's criticism of Crozier was a rough statement".

He said Crozier made a mistake when he sent a memo to several people laying out his concerns about the crew and the virus. In the memo, which was leaked to the media, Crozier said, We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die.

Trump said Crozier had a good career prior to this incident, adding, I don't want to destroy somebody for having a bad day.

Modly, in his apology, reframed his earlier remarks that Crozier was "too naive or too stupid to command. Instead, he said he believes Crozier is smart and passionate.

I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship, Modly wrote.

On Sunday aboard the ship, Modly had urged the crew to stop complaining. It is the mission of the ship that matters, he said.

You all know this, but in my view your Captain lost sight of this and he compromised critical information about your status intentionally to draw greater attention to your situation.

Modly, a 1983 Naval Academy graduate, became the acting Navy secretary last November after Richard Spencer was ousted from the position. Trump last month nominated retired Rear Adm. Kenneth Braithwaite, the current ambassador to Norway, to be the next Navy secretary.

In his remarks aboard the Roosevelt, Modly raised issues likely to please Trump. He accused the media, for example, of manipulating a political agenda to divide the country and embarrass the Navy.

He said China was not forthcoming about the coronavirus when it began spreading there months ago, echoing Trump's oft-repeated statement that China could have done more to prevent a pandemic.

And Modly invoked the name of Trump's chief Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, noting that the former vice president had said Modly's decision to fire Crozier was almost criminal. I assure you it was not, Modly said.

Modly said Crozier should have known his letter voicing urgent concerns about the virus aboard his ship would leak to the media.

He said if Crozier didn't think this would be the result, he was too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this." He also accused Crozier of betraying his duty as an officer.

And I can tell you one other thing, because he did that he put it in the public's forum and it's now become a big controversy in Washington D.C., and across the country, Modly said.

After an unofficial transcript of Modly's remarks and an audio recording circulated widely on the internet Monday, Rep. Elaine Luria, a Virginia Democrat and Navy veteran, called for Modly to be fired.

Luria said Modly's comments show he is in no way fit to lead the Navy. Luria's district includes Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval base.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nobel Laureate economist Abhijit Banerjee on Tuesday suggested that the West Bengal government should follow the sanitation model put to use by Taiwan and South Korea at market places to curb the novel coronavirus infection.

Banerjee made the suggestion while participating through video conferencing in a media briefing by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click here

Referring to the state governments plan of reopening a few more markets the economist said that if like Taiwan and South Korea arrangements of sanitization and hand washing can be made for the public at the entry and exit points of these markets.

 Countries such as South Korea and Taiwan which have done extremely well in tackling with the novel coronavirus crisis have followed measures such as wearing masks and being sanitized before entering and exiting supermarkets. We can follow these examples. It is very easy and cost-effective to do so, said the economist. Abhijit is heading the state government newly formed advisory board to deal with the outbreak.

Read: Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister said that the number of deaths from the novel coronavirus infection has gone up from three to five. She also said that the number of active positive novel coronavirus cases in West Bengal stands at 69.

The Chief said that the state government has identified seven COVID-19 hotspots in the state but she did not disclose the names of these areas.

The Chief Minister also said that she is yet to know when the lockdown will be lifted but said that when the lockdown will be relaxed there will be a rush among people stranded in other states to return home.

 But we will take precautions. The people (coming from other states) will be kept in isolation, said the Chief Minister.
FILE PHOTO: People take part in a protest over the Hungarian government's stance on the segregation of Roma schoolchildren, in Budapest

By Marton Dunai

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Leaders of Hungary's Roma people said on Tuesday the coronavirus pandemic posed a grave threat to the already precarious status of the marginalised minority, with many Roma feeling abandoned by the nationalist government.

Populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban presented a massive action plan on Monday to mitigate the economic fall-out from the highly contagious disease, focusing on bolstering investment and employment but bypassing the very poor.

Roma communities across eastern Europe are impoverished, plagued by high unemployment and historically the target of discrimination and scapegoating especially in times of crisis, and the coronavirus outbreak has many feeling more vulnerable.

Hungarian Roma have begun to report increased tensions, including discrimination as layoffs begin to hit the economy.

"From the very first moment, the economic crisis has had a huge impact especially in segregated rural areas," said Erno Kadet, a rights activist at Hungary's Roma Press Centre. "They have zero savings, zero buffer...The government ignores them."

Innovation and Technology Minster Laszlo Palkovics mentioned no measure that could help the Roma at a Tuesday briefing. Loan, training, tax and wage programmes he outlined "are in the interest of all Hungarians", a government spokesman said.

He repeated that remark when asked about any specific programmes for Roma.

In February, Orban indicated the government would ignore a court order to pay compensation to Roma children who had been unlawfully segregated in a school in eastern Hungary.

Orban's Fidesz party said people linked to Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros, who promotes liberal causes, helped Roma launch lawsuits, prompting a petition protesting that Fidesz's stance could promote hatred between Roma and non-Roma.

Thousands of Hungarians including Roma families and civic activists marched to parliament in protest, but the issue took a back seat as the coronavirus swept across Europe.

Story continues

DISCRIMINATION

The row reflected the anti-Roma resentment, discrimination and even segregation common in Hungary, as in other areas of eastern Europe, and Roma fear a new bout of scapegoating over the economic slump triggered by the coronavirus.

Activist Karoly Buza recounted a case where a Roma employee of a fast food restaurant in Szeged, southern Hungary, was laid off while all co-workers were retained, including more junior colleagues.

"This reminds me of the (1989-90) fall of Communism, when Roma were the first to be fired," Buza wrote on Facebook. "We need unity and solidarity from everyone in these hard times."

Roma typically work precarious day jobs in agriculture and construction or in the hospitality sector such as street musicians, hotel maids or in restaurant kitchens.

Figures for income and unemployment among Roma are not available, but anecdotal evidence suggests they are much more prone to joblessness and have only a small fraction of the country's average income to share among large extended families.

HEIGHTENED RISK TO HEALTH

Poorer health standards within Roma communities also figure in their heightened vulnerability to the impact of the pandemic.

Northeastern Hungary, where hundreds of thousands of Roma are concentrated, has been mostly spared so far from the pandemic, according to government figures. About half of Hungary's 817 confirmed COVID-19 cases have been from the Budapest capital region, and 38 people have died.

But any spread of the epidemic into Roma communities could wreak havoc as many Roma have pre-existing lung infections or diabetes that elevate risk in case of infection with the COVID-19 respiratory disease, community leaders say.

Gabor Varadi, a Roma leader in Miskolc, eastern Hungary, said even basic levels of hygiene are lacking in some destitute communities, and Roma could not or would not obey curfew orders if their families starved at home as a result.

Several European Union rights bodies warned on Tuesday that Roma communities often lack running water and up to 80% of Roma in some countries live in cramped, overcrowded housing.

"This makes physical distancing, a key element of public health measures (against coronavirus), close to impossible," the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights said in a report.

(Reporting by Marton Dunai; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
On April 2, Chicago Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that former Dallas Police Chief David Brown will become the next superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (CPD). The appointment of Brown, infamous for deploying a remote controlled robot to kill a suspected mass shooter with C-4 explosive in 2016, is part of plans to intensify the repression of the citys working class in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Lightfoot has hailed Brown as a police reformer who will be more accountable and transparent. Pointing to his previous record as police chief of the Dallas Police Department (DPD) in creating community policing initiatives, Lightfoot claims that Brown will lead a period of reform and change for the Chicago Police Department, which has a decades-long history of violence overseen by the Democratic Party.

Under Browns leadership between 2010 and 2016, the DPD used deadly violence and excessive force repeatedly. According to the Police Data Initiative, over 100 residents of Dallas were shot by police officers during Browns tenure as police chief and 37 were killed.

Dallas police were given unprecedented powers by Brown to inflict terror on working class communities. A report from the Better Government Association in 2015 showed that Dallas ranked third in the United States for fatal police shootings with a fatality rate of 2.7 per 100,000 residents. According to data from the Police Data Initiative, in 2019 there were a higher number of arrests within lower income neighborhoods relative to higher income neighborhoods in Dallas.

In 2016, under Browns orders, Dallas police force used a robot to kill Micah X. Johnson, an Afghanistan war veteran, after he ambushed a group of police officers, killing five and injuring nine others. It was the first time in US history that a robot was used with lethal force outside of a military war zone. Brown defended his actions stating, we saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was.

The decision by Brown to kill Johnson with a bomb by remote control was a criminal and extrajudicial act, despite his heinous actions. Brown served as judge, jury, and executioner, effectively denying Johnson his right to a trial. With the use of the deadly robot Brown introduced technology typically reserved for military battlefields onto US soil setting a dangerous precedent for police forces all over the country. While Brown defended his actions, stating that he had no choice but to deliver the bomb, he was widely criticized for not choosing a less deadly method of apprehending the suspect.

Browns tenure as Superintendent of CPD will be no different from his time as Dallas Police Chief. Like Dallas, Chicago also has a long history of its police meting out wanton violence against the working class. The appointment of Brown is not a break from the past but will be a deepening of the violence deployed against the working class.

All previous claims of police oversight and reform of the CPD have done nothing to stop police violence and killings in Chicago. The CPD is perhaps most notorious for the torture operation carried out by police commander Jon Burge between 1972 and 1991. The city of Chicago is currently under a court-ordered consent decree following the cover-up of the police murder of Laquan McDonald in 2014 by the previous administration of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a one-time aide to President Barack Obama.

The eventual release of the video of the brutal killing of McDonald in 2015 provoked mass protests in Chicago. In an effort at damage control, the Justice Department intervened with a scathing report of the CPDs systematic practices of police violence and brutality and recommended a court-monitored consent decree to enact reforms. The 161-page document examined cases from the past two decades. One noted incident involved an officer pointing a gun at teenagers on bicycles and accusing them of trespassing. Another involved an officer who used a Taser on an unarmed, mentally ill, 65-year-old woman.

In 2017, the Justice Department and then Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan worked out a court order with Emanuel, but he failed to comply with any request for a federal judges oversight. Widely hated by the population for his cover-up of the McDonald police murder, and his attacks on the working class, Emanuel announced he would not seek re-election, but worked out a deal for court oversight with Madigan in 2018. In early 2019, US District Judge Robert Dow Jr. approved a court order to enforce a consent decree.

Mayor Lightfoots claims that the CPD will be more accountable under her and Browns leadership than under the previous administration are refuted by her long record as a defender of police violence. A court report filed last fall noted that the city of Chicago failed to meet 37 of 50 deadlines for the limited court orders for reform. Of the 577 paragraphs in the decree, the city under the Lightfoot administration and the CPD had failed to comply with 52 of them. The court report found that police officers have continued to use methods associated with the deadly use of force.

During the early 2000s Lightfoot was chief administrator of the CPDs Office of Professional Standards (OPS), which sided with high-ranking officers over her own investigators. Her investigators had recommended that a cop be fired for lying repeatedly about a fatal shooting they found unjustified. Lightfoot declared the shooting justified and recommended a 30-day suspension for the officer. Providing no explanation, Lightfoot also ruled police officer Phyllis Clinkscales was justified in shooting an unarmed 17- year-old male, reversing a decision that the officer be fired. Lightfoot also played a leading role on Emanuels Police Board and his Police Accountability Task Force, which continued to whitewash police violence.

The appointment of Brown to become the top cop of the CPD by Lightfoot will only increase the repressive attacks against the working class as the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic spreads. A recent Sun-Times editorial gives voice to the concerns of the ruling class. It states: And once the pandemic has passed, we have to wonderforgive our pessimismwhether violent crime in the city will grow only worse. The weather will be warmer, unemployment will be higher. For her part, Lightfoot dismissed concerns about the severity of the pandemic in February as Chicago area hospitals currently prepare for a surge of COVID-19 cases.

Most recently, Amazon workers in Chicago have refused to work, protesting hazardous conditions, while thousands of workers are going on strike and protesting across the country to demand safety during the pandemic.

Last year, thousands of Chicago teachers and other educators went on strike to oppose the horrendous conditions in schools and low pay for teachers, joining a wave of teacher strikes that swept the US and five continents internationally. Lightfoot, with the aid of the Chicago Teachers Union, imposed a sellout contract on the teachers despite widespread opposition. With the end of the strike, Lightfoot announced her austerity budget promising increased policing and austerity on behalf of the corporate and financial aristocracy.

The financial aristocracy fears that opposition in the working class will intensify as economic conditions deteriorate and police repression will be necessary to protect their interests. Lightfoot, as her counterparts around the world, is preparing for repressive measures. The failures of the capitalist system and every governments criminally neglectful response to the global pandemic will drive millions of workers across the world and in Chicago into a struggle for their lives.
Rafimex General Trading Company Limited the official distributors of Lucozade energy drink, in partnership with Fairway Supermarket, donated 8000 cans of Lucozade to the Ghana Armed Forces on Monday in Accra.



The items were accepted by the Chief of Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces Rear Admiral Adam Yakubu at Burma Camp. The Public Relations Officer of Rafimex General Trading Company Abigail Ofosu Antwi said they were concerned about the people at the front lines in the fight against the Coronavirus in Ghana, and the donation was a demonstration of their concern about the society.



Rafimex General Trading Company Limited, a local distributor of fast moving consumables, and Fairway Supermarket which is a subsidiary of Rafimex General Trading, presented 8000 Cans of Lucozade energy drink to the Ghana Armed Forces on Monday at Burma Camp in Accra. According to the Public Relations Officer of Rafimex General Trading Abigail Ofosu Antwi, this was a little way of appreciating those at the front lines in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic. "We decided to embark on this donation for the purpose of offering some assistance to what is happening in Ghana currently. We know the Ghana military is part of those at the front lines in the battle against the spread of the Coronavirus, so we thought that helping them would be a way of also helping to ensure a safer and better society", she said.



The Chief of Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces Rear Admiral Adam Yakubu, received the items and expressed his appreciation to the team from Rafimex General Trading Company and Fairway Supermarket. "We thank them so much for this donation specifically to our troops who have been deployed to enforce the partial lockdown currently ongoing in Ghana. We are at the front lines so the support from the populace and corporate bodies would really boost the morale of our troops. The Government is doing its part, however, support from corporate bodies as well as individual philanthropists would be an added boost to us", he explained.



Also present during the donation were the Chief Executive officer of Rafimex General Trading Company Haissam El - Dowi, Country Manager of Lucozade West Africa Mensah Seneadza, Director General (General Headquarters) Joint Operations Brig. Gen. Mahama Abdullai, and other dignitaries.



The Chief Executive officer of Fairway Supermarket Maya Ishmael; a subsidiary of Farimex General Trading, also applauded the efforts of the military personnel especially in the fight against the Coronavirus.

Source: Jerry Wonder









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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U.S. pushes back on call by OPEC+ to join big oil output cuts FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: A sticker reads crude oil on the side of a storage tank in the Permian Basin

By Ahmad Ghaddar, Olesya Astakhova and Vladimir Soldatkin

LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia, Russia and allied oil producers will agree to deep cuts to their crude output at talks this week only if the United States and several others join in with curbs to help prop up prices that have been hammered by the coronavirus crisis.

However, the U.S. Department of Energy noted in a statement on Tuesday that U.S. output is already falling without government action, in line with the White House's insistence that it would not intervene in the private markets. That decline, however, would take place slowly, over the course of the next two years.

Global oil demand has dropped by as much as 30%, or about 30 million barrels per day (bpd), as measures to reduce the virus' spread have caused demand for jet fuel, gasoline and diesel to crash.

While Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of the group known as OPEC+ have expressed willingness to return to the bargaining table, they have made their response conditional upon actions by the United States and other countries that are not members of OPEC. No agreement has yet been formalised.

"Before any meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC there needs to be an agreement on production numbers for any country that will reduce production," Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh tweeted on Tuesday, adding that the United States and Canada need to play a role in determining production cuts.

OPEC+ is due to hold a video conference on Thursday at 1400 GMT, after U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that Riyadh and Moscow had agreed to cut an unprecedented 10 million to 15 million bpd, or about 10% to 15% of global supply. He has not committed to any actions by U.S. companies.

"With regards to media reports that OPEC+ will require the United States to make cuts in order to come to an agreement: The EIA report today demonstrates that there are already projected cuts of 2 (million bpd), without any intervention from the federal government," the U.S. Energy Department said.

Story continues

After the OPEC+ talks, Saudi Arabia will host a video conference on Friday for energy ministers from the Group of 20 (G20) major economies to alleviate the effects of the pandemic on energy markets, the group said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The scale of this challenge is so large that OPEC+ cannot solve it," said Jason Bordoff, director of Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy and a former Obama administration official. "Only some and not all of the world's producers have the willingness and ability to limit production."

Riyadh and Moscow are trying to overcome the rancor stemming from March's talks, when a deal to extend production cuts fell apart. Since then, Saudi Arabia has been flooding the market with extra crude, and it has insisted it would no longer carry what it considered an unfair burden of output cuts.

Benchmark Brent crude <LCOc1> settled at about $32 a barrel on Tuesday, about half its level at the end of 2019.

Three-plus years of production curbs by OPEC+ left an opening for the United States to gain market share as it boosted shale production to push national output to 13 million bpd, the most worldwide.

The U.S. success in growing crude output has frustrated some members of the production-cut pact, most specifically Russia, whose oil companies have bemoaned giving up market share to the United States.

U.S. Department of Energy projections now show U.S. oil output averaging 11 million bpd in 2021, which correlates to about a 2 million bpd decline from the late 2019 peak.

U.S. antitrust laws prohibit oil producers in the United States from taking steps to push up oil prices. Output curbs would be legal if state regulators or the federal government set lower production levels, experts say.

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on imports of Russian and Saudi crude, while two Republican U.S. senators have introduced legislation that would remove U.S. forces from ally Saudi Arabia.

BASELINE FOR CUTS

Saudi Arabia, with by far the world's biggest reserve of extra capacity and some of the lowest production costs, said it had raised crude output to 12.3 million bpd on April 1 and planned to export more than 10 million bpd.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said any output cuts should be made from levels in the first quarter, before Saudi Arabia and others hiked production. OPEC sources said Riyadh wanted cuts to be calculated from its current higher level.

The OPEC source said there was no consensus between Riyadh and Moscow on the baseline for any reductions. Russian TASS news agency said cuts could last three months starting from May.

The head of top U.S. oil firm Exxon Mobil Corp <XOM.N>, Darren Woods, said on Tuesday he supported "free trade and low tariffs", when asked about the cuts. However, his firm cut investment by a third to $23 billion, mainly in U.S. shale fields.

Occidental Petroleum <OXY.N>, another large U.S. producer, argued in a letter to Texas regulators that mandated cuts would be short-sighted. Texas is the largest-producing U.S. state and regulators there are meeting next week to consider production cuts.

Other oil producers outside the OPEC+ group have already indicated a willingness to help, though private producers in Canada, home to the world's third-largest oil reserves, were already reducing output due to the sharp fall in prices. [nL1N2BV0VZ]

(Additional reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh, Stephen Kalin, Alex Lawler, Tim Gardner, Jennifer Hiller, David Gaffen and Shadia Nasralla; Writing by Rania El Gamal and David Gaffen; Editing by Edmund Blair, Kirsten Donovan, Marguerita Choy and Dan Grebler)
In a letter to students and parents in Spring Branch ISD this week, Associate Superintendent for Academics Kristin Craft provided an update about current goings on in the district with regard to meeting educational needs.

Over the past two weeks, parents, students and teachers have learned a great deal about how to attend school from home, navigate new technology tools, and structure learning time, she said in the letter. By now you should have heard from your childs teachers, and you likely are making daily adjustments to schedules that work best for your family.

The districts Digital Backpack system is helping students supplement their distance learning with an additional layer to at-home education.

This week, more of our teachers, especially at the secondary level, are moving assignments and courses to itsLearning (ITSL) our learning management system, Craft said. For these courses, the Digital Backpack continues to serve as another layer of instructional support.

The Digital Backpack contains objectives, parental guidelines and activities for students to help keep students on track and maintain pace while not in a classroom setting. For more information on the Digital Backpack go to https://tinyurl.com/wskw6dr.

In her letter, Craft stressed the need to have up-to-date and accurate contact information to ensure communications about any changes are received in a timely fashion. Go to the Skyward Family Access page at https://tinyurl.com/vwwr34t to update contact information. Among the information to look for in email, Craft said, includes:

College Board AP Communications: Students should have a working email address they monitor regularly. The College Board is sending all communications via the registration email address your child used to register for an AP exam. Students also will receive their AP exam join code at this email address.

Course Verification Letters: Soon, Course Verification letters will be uploaded to Skyward Family Access. These are individualized for each student going into 6th through 12th grade next year and show the courses each student chose for next year during the course selection process. Once Course Verification letters are available, you will receive an email from your students school with specific instructions about how to communicate any desired changes.

As far as grading students, Our principals and district staff have been reviewing options for grading guidelines, in light of our extended and unforeseen closure. Our priority focus has been to ensure no student is disadvantaged as a result of Covid-19.

Craft also updated the use of e-books in the district, pointing out usage has skyrocketed with students unable to check out books at campus libraries.

Year over year, e-book checkouts have increased more than 600 percent from 606 in March 2019 to 4,259 in March 2020 across all grades.

To read Crafts letter in its entirety, go to https://tinyurl.com/tpasbov.

For more information on Spring Branch ISD, go to www.springbranchisd.com.

rkent@hcnonline.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 15:04:29|Editor: xuxin

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SEOUL, April 7 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's current account surplus rose in February as export grew on more business days, central bank data showed Tuesday.

Current account surplus amounted to 6.41 billion U.S. dollars in February, up 2.56 billion dollars from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

Outbound shipment increased on more working days, caused by the Lunar New year holiday that moved to January this year from February last year.

Trade surplus for goods expanded 1.16 billion dollars over the year to 6.58 billion dollars in February.

Export gained 4.0 percent to 41.82 billion dollars, while import added 1.3 percent to 35.24 billion dollars.

Services account balance, which measures the flow of travel, transport costs and royalties, logged a deficit of 1.45 billion dollars in February, down from a deficit of 1.54 billion dollars tallied one year ago.

Travel account deficit posted a deficit of 570 million dollars as the number of travelers to South Korea reduced on the COVID-19 outbreak across the world.

Primary income account, which includes monthly salary and investment income, reached a surplus of 1.25 billion dollars in February, up from a surplus of 450 million dollars a year earlier.

Financial account, which gauges cross-border capital flow without transactions in goods and services, posted a net outflow of 5.5 billion dollars in the month.

Overseas direct investment by local residents expanded 2.07 billion dollars, while foreign direct investment in South Korea climbed 830 million dollars.

For the portfolio investment, which includes stock and bond transactions, overseas investment by domestic residents advanced 2.87 billion dollars. Foreign investment in local stocks and bonds rose 370 million dollars.
A Naas man living in the US had to close his cafe in Ohio and is self isolating with his family.

Conor Boylan is the board president of the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) which is supporting the campaign of veteran Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Boylan moved to Oregon in 2006 and later married his long-distance American girl friend Nora and they now have a three-year-old son Ronan.

The former Intel worker, who worked on the successful Barack Obama presidential campaign in 2008, said the Governor of Ohio addresses citizens every day.

Conor said: We made the decision the close our cafe  the 5 Points Cafe  in Cleveland on Sunday, March 15. The Governor of Ohio mandated that bars and restaurants must close except for take out.

We made the tough decision to temporarily close to support self isolation in our community.

Since we shut I am enjoy- ing a slower pace of life and spending more time with my soon to be three year old, but it's the uncertainty that kills me. We will open again but not knowing when is tough.

We had to lay off our employees but plan on rehiring them again as soon as we get the go ahead.

Every Ohioan tunes into our Governor's daily address at 2pm and that is our most important piece of daily news and advice.

His name is Gov. Mike DeWine and somebody came up with the hashtag #winewithdewine to put a fun slant on what is a scary time for many people.

Conor added:  March 17, St Paddy's Day, is traditionally our busiest day of the year and my brother Brendan who plays in a band called Shindig was over from Ireland playing Irish music but had to cut the trip short and leave when the President implemented the travel ban.

"They could not play at the cafe and instead the shop lay idle on what should have been a celebration day!
Deep in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil, where rivers are the only highways, the coronavirus pandemic is sharply limiting boat traffic, leaving villages even more cut off from the world than before. Canoes, motor boats and ferries are the cars, trucks and buses of the Amazon, bringing people and goods to remote communities that can only be reached by river -- sometimes with a journey of more than a week. But because of the pandemic, authorities in Amazonas state have restricted river traffic to essential travel, seeking to stop the spread of the virus in a region that could be particularly vulnerable to it. Cargo transport is operating normally, but passenger transport is restricted to exceptional circumstances such as medical emergencies and essential services like paramedics and police, said Jerfeson Caldas, regional coordinator for national health agency Anvisa. Even those trips are bound by special rules: boats can only operate at 40 percent of their passenger capacity, and must supply water, soap and hand sanitizer. The restrictions amount to the jungle equivalent of the isolation measures now in place for around half the world's population. "Amazonas depends on rivers for more than 85 percent of the transport we survive on. Unfortunately, people here are now living a sad reality because of this crisis," said Alessandra Martins Pontes, a transportation planning expert at Amazonas Federal University. - Hammock distancing - Passengers usually make the trip on "regionals," big diesel-engine ferries that replaced the steam-powered paddle boats of the 19th century. Travelers typically sleep on hammocks they bring themselves, slung one above the other like bunk beds. But not in the time of COVID-19. The authorities have ordered all hammocks be placed a minimum of two meters (yards) apart. Amazonas is the biggest state in Brazil, a densely forested expanse of more than 1.5 million square kilometers (600,000 square miles), equal to about the size of Peru and Ecuador combined. It has registered 532 cases of the new coronavirus so far -- mostly in the state capital, Manaus -- with 19 deaths. The fear is what will happen if the virus progresses into the rainforest, particularly the indigenous communities that live there. Indigenous peoples are particularly vulnerable to imported diseases, as they have been historically isolated from germs against which much of the world has developed immunity. Remote indigenous communities have been decimated in the past by diseases including smallpox and flu. Authorities reported last week that a first indigenous woman had tested positive for the new coronavirus in Amazonas, a health worker from the Kokama ethnic group who came into contact with an infected doctor. - Natural isolation - The transport restrictions affect hundreds of families, indigenous or not, that live from fishing and gathering in stilt-house villages along the Amazon and its tributaries. "Movement is very limited now. Outsiders can't even go to the protected nature reserves" where most of those families live, said Edervan Vieira, a technical adviser to an association of farmers and fishermen in Carauari, a week's trip upriver by boat from Manaus. No COVID-19 cases have been reported here yet. But he says he worries about the economic effects of the transport restrictions on families that depend on sales of their surplus produce to buy whatever they cannot make locally. "We have what we need to survive here: fruit, fish, cassava flour," said Maria Cunha, 26, who lives in the protected nature reserve of Medio Jurua. "But living in the forest also brings its challenges.... What worries us is if we have to go to the city for an emergency, because that's when we would risk bringing the virus back home."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 19:52:26|Editor: huaxia

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HOHHOT, April 7 (Xinhua) -- China's flaxseed imports from Russia through Manzhouli rose 325 percent year on year to reach 17,000 tonnes in the first quarter of the year, local customs said.

Manzhouli, in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is the largest land port on the China-Russia border. The flaxseed imports in the first quarter were worth 7.05 million U.S. dollars, up 317 percent compared to the same period of last year, said the customs office in Manzhouli.

The imported flax seeds are usually processed into cooking oil for domestic market.
The Department of Human Services, led by Secretary Teresa Miller, said the agency is "trying to expand resources to facilitate telework for these employees." Read more

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and PennLive/Patriot-News. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter.

HARRISBURG  As the ranks of unemployed Pennsylvanians swell, the states 90-plus county assistance offices are still staffed by workers processing benefits for services like cash and food assistance, health-care coverage, and family planning.

Though the offices are closed to the public, these workers, classified as essential, must show up because the state lacks the necessary technology and other measures to allow them to work from home.

At least four caseworkers have tested positive for the coronavirus and one is hospitalized, said Steve Catanese, president of the union representing the workers.

A spokesperson for the Department of Human Services said the agency is trying to expand resources to facilitate telework for these employees, with 94 telecommuting on a trial basis this week. The department employs 6,800 county assistance caseworkers, though it was unclear how many were in offices.

Its never been done for [county assistance office] staff before, so we need to make sure its feasible as we consider scaling it up, the spokesperson, Ali Fogarty, said.

In 2016, the entire department had about 1,100 laptops, according to an internal IT document. Last week, the department requested $90,000 in emergency funds to buy HP laptops for county assistance office workers.

Catanese, of SEIU Local 668, said that is a positive development, but workers have not been told how those laptops will be distributed or if there will be enough to give all staff an equitable opportunity to work from home.

In the meantime, workers who remain in the offices are worried about dirty conditions, a lack of cleaning supplies, and crowded conditions that make it difficult to practice proper distancing techniques, Catanese said.

Workers in county assistance offices are rightly concerned that by simply going to work, they may be a source of coronavirus spread, Catanese said in a March 17 letter to department Secretary Teresa Miller. And if just a handful of workers within our offices ... test positive for the virus, the resulting impact on statewide public services could be catastrophic.

At one office where a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus, Catanese said, employees were told the space had been thoroughly disinfected. But when staff passed a wipe over frequently touched and shared equipment  keyboards, printers, and even a vending machine  the wipes turned dark with grime.

He said some workers have sent him pictures of poorly cleaned offices, with dirt visible on a hand soap dispenser and puddles of slimy water in a bathroom. Fogarty said the agency is working with the Department of General Services and the owners of leased office spaces to ensure offices are cleaned regularly and a log is kept.

The agency is also ordering antibacterial soap, hand sanitizer, and cleaning supplies for each office, Fogarty said, and is supporting offices that want to purchase more supplies if they become available.

But orders for cleaning supplies may be delayed due to supply chain constraints, according to internal guidance from the Department of Human Services seen by Spotlight PA.

In late March, the department closed three Philadelphia offices for additional cleaning after the union said workers at some locations tested positive for COVID-19. Last week, the department sent each county assistance office in Philadelphia five bottles of hand sanitizer, Catanese said. Every office in the city has at least 50 workers, and several have more than 100.

Philadelphia is a priority, and the best they can do is five 8-ounce bottles for every office, he said.

As for other protective equipment, like N95 masks or gloves, the state is not providing welfare workers with them unless those workers open mail or used similar supplies before the coronavirus pandemic began.

The Department of Human Services did ask the state for emergency funds  $215,000  to purchase 200,000 N95 masks. Those are slated for staff and patients at state-run hospitals, residential centers, and for youth in the juvenile justice system.

Fogarty said the department distributed one cloth mask to each county assistance office worker over the weekend, as Gov. Tom Wolf advised everyone to wear a mask when out in public.

Catanese said moving to telework needs to happen as quickly as possible.

Weve indicated wed be willing to work out situations to use most equipment available, including workers personal devices, he said. [I]f theres any possibility of telework for all workers, it needs to happen now.

100% ESSENTIAL: Spotlight PA provides its journalism at no cost to newsrooms across the state as a public good to keep our communities informed and thriving. If you value this service, please give a gift today at spotlightpa.org/donate.
The U.S. Army's top enlisted soldier said Tuesday that the service plans to issue some type of non-surgical mask to troops to help control the spread of the novel coronavirus.

During an Army Facebook Live on Tuesday, Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston said that soldiers should follow the face-covering guidance the service issued Monday evening until it can provide masks for them.

"We are going to get you the masks," he said. "In the near term, we will get you something either black or camouflage to put on."

Grinston gave no other details, but Army officials confirmed to Military.com that the service is working on a plan to eventually issue some type of masks to soldiers and will release details in the near future.

Related: DIY T-Shirt Masks and Balaclavas: Military Services Release Face-Covering Guidance

The Army issued broad guidance regarding a Pentagon announcement Sunday that service members, family members and other personnel may make their own face coverings to wear when social distancing is not possible.

Soldiers are authorized to wear the "neck gaiter and other cloth items, such as bandanas and scarves, as face coverings," according to the guidance.

"To protect the facial area, the cloth item must cover the mouth and nose and extend to the chin or below as well as to the sides of the face," Lt. Col. Emanuel Ortiz, an Army spokesman, told Military.com. "It must be secured or fastened to the face in a manner that allows the soldier to breathe while also preventing disease exposure or contamination."

Soldiers should not cut up Army Combat Uniforms to use as face coverings since they are chemically treated to reduce wrinkles.

"Our uniforms are treated with chemicals for various reasons, so we do not want people using these uniforms and putting them close to their face," Army Chief of Staff James McConville said during the Facebook Live event.

The color of the masks is up to unit leaders, Army officials said, but Grinston added that homemade masks should look as professional as possible.

"You've got either a ... black neck gaiter, brown, some kind of scarf -- that's fine," he said. "Use common sense. I don't want to see any skull and crossbones on your face -- maybe a brown or something that looks somewhat professional."

Surgical masks and N95 respirators are in short supply and should be reserved for health care workers or other medical first responders, as recommended by CDC guidance, Ortiz said.

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.

Read More: Full Details: What You Need to Know About the Military's New Face Covering Policy
No vaccines exist that protect people against infections by coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, or the ones that cause SARS and MERS. As COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc, many labs around the world have developed a laser-like focus on understanding the virus and finding the best strategy for stopping it.

This week in mBio, a journal of the American Society of Microbiology, a team of interdisciplinary researchers describes a promising vaccine candidate against the MERS virus. Since the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak began in 2012, more than 850 people have died, and studies suggest the virus has a case fatality rate of more than 30%.

In the new paper, the researchers suggest that the approach they took for a MERS virus vaccine may also work against SARS-CoV-2. The vaccine's delivery method is an RNA virus called parainfluenza virus 5 (PIV5), which is believed to cause a condition known as kennel cough in dogs but appears harmless to people. The researchers added an extra gene to the virus so that infected cells would produce the S, or spike, glycoprotein known to be involved in MERS infections.

"We know people have been exposed to PIV5, but it seems to be an innocuous virus in humans," said pediatric pulmonologist and coronavirus expert Paul McCray, M.D., at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, who co-led the new study with virologist Biao He, Ph.D., at the University of Georgia, in Athens. "PIV5 doesn't seem to cause a cytopathic effect." The MERS virus cannot replicate in mice, so to test the vaccine McCray developed a mouse model that mimics human infections. The mice had been genetically engineered to express DPP4, the protein used by the MERS virus as an entry point for human cells.

Lab tests showed that a single dose of the vaccine, given intranasally, effectively caused infected cells to produce the S protein, which in turn triggered immune responses against the protein in the animal host.

Four weeks after the mice received the vaccine, they were exposed to a strain of the MERS virus, adapted to the mice to cause a lethal infection. The MERS virus was also given to groups of mice that had received a different PIV5 vaccine -- one without the genes for the S protein -- or an intramuscular vaccine with inactivated MERS virus.

All the mice immunized with the modified PIV5 virus survived MERS virus infection. In contrast, all the mice immunized with the PIV5 without S died from the infection. The intramuscular vaccine of inactivated MERS virus only protected 25% of the mice from a lethal infection. The mice that received inactivated MERS virus showed above-average levels of eosinophils, white blood cells that indicate infection or inflammation. This connection raises a safety concern for inactivated MERS virus as a potential vaccine, said He. The study demonstrates that an intranasal, PIV5-based vaccine is effective against MERS in mice, said He, and should be investigated for its potential against other dangerous coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2.

"We're quite interested in using viruses as gene delivery vehicles," said McCray, who has also investigated similar strategies as a way to treat cystic fibrosis. Now, like colleagues around the world, McCray and He have both focused their research efforts on SARS-CoV-2, taking a similar tack to working with mouse models of infection and testing vaccines.

Finding an effective vaccine against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is a race against time, McCray said. "One hundred percent of the population is not going to be exposed to the virus the first time around, which means there will be more people to infect when it comes again," he said. "We don't know yet if people get lasting immunity from the SARS-CoV-2 infection, so it's important to think about ways to protect the population."
English French

Highlights ( FIGURE 1 ):



Mineralized intersection of 5.0 g/t Au over 10.9 m included within 26.1 m grading 2.5 g/t Au at a distance of 250 m below the new Zones 5B4-5M4-5NE in the East Sector;



Au at a distance of 250 m below the new in the East Sector; Discovery of a 4 th gold zone within the East Sector, named Zone 5CE , which returned 11.9 g/t Au over 2.0 m ;



within the East Sector, named , which returned ; The  NI 43-101 Technical Report and Mineral Resource Estimate, Chimo Mine Project, Central Gold Corridor, Val-d'Or, Quebec, Canada, completed by GeoPointCom Inc and dated December 17 th 2019 , showed Zones 5B4-5M4-5NE having 28,400 ounces of gold in the indicated resource category and 137,140 ounces of gold in the inferred resource category;



, showed having in the category and in the category; The results of this press release, factored with those of the press release dated February 18, 2020 , increase the dimensions and, by the greater density of mineralized intersections, the potential for expansion of resources estimated to date for the new Zones 5B4-5M4-5NE.

VAL-DOR, Quebec, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cartier Resources Inc. (TSX-V: ECR) ("Cartier") announces values of 5.0 g/t Au over 10.9 m included within 26.1 m grading 2.5 g/t Au intersected at a distance of 250 m below Zones 5B4-5M4-5NE of the Chimo Mine gold property located 45 km east of Val-dOr, Quebec.

Values of 9.5 g/t Au over 2.0 m, included within 15.8 m grading 2.0 g/t Au, were also obtained 350 m below the new Zones 5B4-5M4-5NE ( FIGURE 1 ). Thirty meters (30 m) south of Zones 5B4-5M4-5NE, a new zone, named Zone 5CE, was intersected and returned an intersection grading 11.9 g/t Au over 2.0 m.

These new results indicate that the gold mineralization of interest is open in all directions below Zones 5B4-5M4-5NE drilled to date from the surface up to a depth of 1.3 km commented Philippe Cloutier, President and Chief Executive Officer.

The details of the new results are as follows:

Drill Hole Drill Hole Collar Coordinates (m)

UTM (E/N/Elev.) Collar Azimuth ()

Dip () From

(m) To

(m) Length

(m) Au

(g/t)



Gold

Zone Gold Structure CH19-54B 332623/5320281/-268 200/-71 1123.5 1134.4 10.9 5.0 5B4 5B Included within 1109.0 1135.1 26.1 2.5 CH19-54E 332580/5320159/-537 194/-55 1189.0 1191.0 2.0 9.5 Included within 1189.0 1204.8 15.8 2.0 CH19-55E 332512/5320299/-649 186/-60 1384.5 1386.5 2.0 5.1 Included within 1369.6 1386.5 16.9 1.1 CH19-54E 332580/5320159/-537 194/-55 1162.5 1167.5 5.0 3.4 5NE 5N CH19-54A 332595/5320207/-459 196/-59 1166.0 1169.0 3.0 3.1 CH19-54E 332580/5320159/-537 194/-55 1256.0 1258.0 2.0 11.9 5CE 5C

The lengths of the mineralized intersections are expressed in lengths measured along the drill core. The estimated true thickness of the mineralized intersections represents approximately 70 to 85% of the measured length.

Recall that in the NI 43-101 Technical Report, dated December 17th 2019, using a gold price of US $ 1,292 /ounce and a cut-off grade of 2.5 g/t Au the Central Gold Corridor resource estimate for the Chimo Mine property ( FIGURE 1 ), reported :

461,280 ounces of gold in the indicated resource category from 3,263,300 tonnes at an average grade of 4.40 g/t Au;



417,250 ounces of gold in the inferred resource category from 3,681,600 tonnes at an average grade of 3.53 g/t Au.

Work on expanding resources of the Chimo Mine Project is in progress underway via :

The resources estimate in progress of the North Gold Corridor and South Gold Corridor ( FIGURE 2 ) ;



of the and ( ) ; The completion of the 10,000 m exploration drill program, using 2 drills, along the geometric extensions below the new Zones 5B4-5M4-5NE and peripheral to the new Zone 5CE ( FIGURE 1 ). Drilling is temporarily suspended as part of the Covid-19 situation but are ready to restart as soon as the government authorize it.



and peripheral to the new ( ). Drilling is temporarily suspended as part of the Covid-19 situation but are ready to restart as soon as the government authorize it. Carrying out internal engineering studies and industrial sorting of mineralization tests aimed at optimizing resources and ongoing exploration drilling.

About Chimo Mine Project

Cartier holds a 100% interest in the property for which 1% NSR ('' Net Smelter Return '') royalty has been granted to IamGold Corporation. No rights of first refusal ('' buy-back '') have been granted.



The property, which is accessible year-round, is located near 6 mills in the Val-d'Or area.



Fourteen gold zones were exploited by 3 producers between 1964 and 1997 for a production of 379,012 ounces of gold (MERN DV 85-05 to DV-97-01).



The mining infrastructure consists of a network of drifts over 7 km, distributed over 19 levels and connected by a 5.5 m x 1.8 m 3 compartment shaft with a depth of 920 m. The headframe and the surface installations were dismantled in 2008 but the 25 kV power line and the sandpit are still in place.



The drilling, completed to date by Cartier on the Chimo Mine property, consists of 121 holes totaling 55,890 m and 20,792 gold samples collected. This work demonstrated the continuity of the main 5B and 5M gold zones under the existing mining infrastructure, explored the extensions of 19 gold zones peripheral to the main zones and explored the extensions of the 7 gold zones that were prioritized; which allowed the discovery of the Zones 5B4-5M4-5NE and 5CE ( FIGURE 1 ) and to develop the potential of Zone 6N1. These areas have excellent potential to deliver future discoveries.

About Cartier

Cartier Resources was founded in 2006 and is based out of Val-d'Or, Quebec. Quebec has consistently ranked high as one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world primarily based on its mineral rich geology, attractive tax environment, and pro-mining government.

The Corporation has a strong cash position with over $ 5.7 M in the bank and important corporate and institutional investors including Agnico Eagle Mines and the Quebec investment funds.

Cartiers strategy is to focus on gold projects that have an exploration potential for rapid expansion.

The Corporation holds a portfolio of exploration projects in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in Quebec; one of the most prolific mining regions in the world.

Exploration work is currently concentrated on the Chimo Mine property to optimize the value for investors. Preparations for the next exploration work are underway to carry out drilling programs on Benoist, Fenton and Wilson properties respectively.

Qualified Persons

The scientific and technical informations of the Company and the Chimo Mine Project, included in this new release, have been prepared and reviewed by MM. Gaetan Lavalliere, P.Geo., Ph.D., Vice President and Ronan Deroff, P.Geo, M.Sc., Senior Geologist, Project Manager and Geomatician, Qualified Persons as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Lavalliere approved the information contained in this press release.

The independent qualified person for the issuer, responsible for the estimation of mineral resources, as defined in NI 43-101, is Mr. Christian D'Amours, P. Geo., B.A.Sc., President of GeoPointCom.

Quality Assurance / Quality Control

The analytical results, derived from Cartier's drilling, were obtained from samples measured along the drill core. The estimated true thickness averages about 65% of the measured apparent length. NQ core samples are crushed up to 80% passing an 8 mesh (3.33 mm) and then pulverized up to 90% passing a mesh of 200 mesh (0.07 mm). Cartier inserts 5% of the number of samples in the form of certified standards and another 5% in the form of blank samples to ensure quality control. The samples are analyzed at the Techni-Lab laboratory (Actlabs), located in Ste-Germaine-Boule (Quebec). The 50 g pulps are analyzed by fire assay and read by atomic absorption, followed by gravimetry for results above 5.0 g/t Au. For samples containing visible gold, 1,000 g of rock are analyzed by the '' Metallic Sieve '' method.

For more information, please contact:

Philippe Cloutier, P.Geo.

President and CEO

Telephone: 819 856-0512

philippe.cloutier@ressourcescartier.com

www.ressourcescartier.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulatory services provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5874affe-3f68-47db-ba91-a79d0328be93
Police insist they have not been heavy-handed in punishing breaches of coronavirus lockdown rules, despite backflipping on two fines on Tuesday amid complaints from Victorians who believe they have been unfairly punished.

Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton admitted on Tuesday there was a lack of clarity over the $1652 fine given to learner driver Hunter Reynolds, 17, on Sunday for being too far from home.

Pat Riordan was alone in his ute when he was fined $1652. Credit:Simon Schluter

Police rescinded her fine but warned any future cases of parent-child driving lessons would be punished.

Hours before Ms Reynolds was fined on Sunday, Pat Riordan set out in his ute from his home in Bonbeach, in Melbourne's south-east, towards a mountain bike trail in Red Hill.
STEPANAKERT, APRIL 7, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan addressed a congratulatory message in connection with the Motherhood and Beauty Day, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

The message runs as follows:

Dear women,

On behalf of the Artsakh Republic authorities and myself personally I extend my cordial congratulations to you on the Motherhood and Beauty Day.

May your life be like a wonderful spring day, bright and luminous, prosperous and sunny! May only happiness and welfare prevail in your families!

An Armenian woman has always been a keeper of a hearth, a support and reliable rear for her husband. Today too they honorably fulfill this noble mission coming from centuries, wholeheartedly and selflessly serving the family and the homeland, spreading boundless love and warmth, kindness and care around them.

I once again congratulate you, dear mothers, sisters, grandmothers, women and ladies, wish you peace, robust health and all the best to you, your relatives and friends.
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Two 13-year-old schoolboys have been arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman and stealing her watch and handbag, Hong Kong police said on Tuesday.

Officers are scouring the city for another three teenagers  two boys and one girl  in connection with the mugging that happened in Mong Koks Tai Kok Tsui area shortly after 11.30pm on Monday.

The victim  a 51-year-old woman  was walking home alone when she was attacked at the junction of Man On Street and Wai On Street.

The victim fell to the floor when the youth gang tried to snatch her handbag from behind, a police source said. They then punched and kicked her before fleeing with her handbag and watch. They flagged down a taxi to escape.

Officers in a police patrol car found the injured woman and immediately gave chase.

About 800 metres from the crime scene, police stopped the taxi at the junction of Nam Cheong Street and Yu Chau Street in Sham Shui Po.

Three of the suspects [two boys and one girl] managed to escape, and the other two suspects were caught at the scene, the source said. All the stolen property, including HK$7,000 cash that had been in the handbag, was recovered at the scene.

The woman suffered injuries to her head, arms and legs, and was taken conscious to Caritas Medical Centre for treatment.

The three suspects on the run are thought to be aged between 13 and 15, according to police.

The two arrested boys are Form One students and do not live in the area.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the two boys were being held for questioning and had not been charged. Detectives from the Mong Kok criminal investigation unit are handling the case.

Between March 22 and 29, 15 students were among 60 people arrested in a police operation that targeted an uptick in youth crime in the Tuen Mun area.

Police figures show the number of juveniles aged 10 to 15 arrested rose 22.8 per cent in 2019, to 1,140, up from 928 the year before.

Story continues

Arrests for criminal offences among those aged 16 to 20 jumped even more dramatically for the same period, with 3,128 arrested, up 69.9 per cent from 2018s 1,841. Police said most of the crimes committed by youths were offences against public order such as unlawful assemblies and riots tied to the citywide social unrest that first erupted in June.

This article Hong Kong schoolboys arrested for womans Mong Kok mugging, while young accomplices still on the run first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020.
SIU economic development experts available to assist businesses

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Staff with SIU Carbondales Office of Innovation and Economic Development are available to help as businesses, particularly small businesses, deal with the impact of safety protocols from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Staff members are assisting by both telephone and virtual connections. In addition, free informational webinars are being held to help businesses.

The COVID-19 virus has had a major impact on the operation and future of many businesses in Southern Illinois but we are here to help businesses navigate through these uncertain times, Greg Bouhl, director entrepreneurship and business development for SIU, said.

There are a variety of federal and state resources to help businesses, including some funding available in the form of loans and some that wont have to be repaid, according to Bouhl.

Finding resources

One session is geared specifically toward helping small business operators learn about resources, new programs and the latest information. The COVID-19 Programs and Resources for Illinois Small Businesses webinar is set for 3 p.m. on April 14.

Topics include:

Economic Injury Disaster Loan.

Payroll Protection Program.

Small Business Debt Relief Program.

Small Business Administration Express Bridge Loan.

Illinois Small Business Emergency Loan Fund.

Downstate Small Business Stabilization Program.

Illinois Treasurer COVID-19 Relief Program.

Register online at zoom.us/meeting/register/vJ0ucOiorzkqn7vKzQEOS3wma0Yg5XEvCQ.

Starting a business

The Illinois Small Business Development Center at SIU is continuing to offer some of its regular programming online at this time. Start Your Business in Illinois is set for 9 to 11 a.m. on April 16.

The webinar will cover all of the information one needs to know when considering starting or expanding a business. The session will cover:

Writing a business plan and analyzing the business potential.

Setting up the legal structure.

Securing a name for the business.

How to obtain necessary licenses and permits.

Obtaining financing and various other relevant topics.

SBDC advisers will discuss relevant information and answer questions. Register for the session at ilsbdc.ecenterdirect.com/events/31894.

Individual remote help

Clients can still receive personalized assistance from SBDC staff who are working remotely via Zoom, telephone and email.

Demand is super high  we had 113 people register for the latest webinar  but we are here to help, whether its finding funding to stay open, start a business or help existing businesses, Bouhl said.

To obtain services as a client, register online at ilsbdc.ecenterdirect.com/?home=51.

For more information, call 618/536-2424 or email sbdc@siu.edu.
China donated 170,000 personal protection equipment (PPE) kits to India on Monday to help the neighbouring country fight the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, the health ministry said.

Domestic supply of an additional 20,000 PPE will begin soon. Altogether, these 190,000 kits will be distributed to hospitals and health facilities. This will add to the 387,000 PPE already available in the country.

The development comes amid a debate over whether India has enough PPE kits to arm its frontline health care workers who are working round the clock to contain the spread of the fast-spreading infection.

In addition, 200,000 domestically produced N95 masks are being sent to various hospitals, the health ministry statement said, adding that about 1.6 million such masks are already available.

A large part of the fresh supplies will be sent to states with comparatively higher number of cases such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Rajasthan.

The commencement of foreign supplies marks a major milestone in our efforts to procure personal protection equipment for the battle against Covid-19, the ministry said.

It added that an order for 8 million complete PPE kits was placed before a Singapore company. Also, negotiations are in final stages with a Chinese platform for placing an order of 6 million complete PPE kits, which will also include N95 masks.
Rajasthan police chief Bhupendra Singh on Tuesday called upon the force personnel to set an example by remaining patient while ensuring strict implementation of the lockdown in the state.

The director general of police (DGP) said all Rajasthan police personnel have been done a commendable job during the lockdown so far.

Singh said in this coronavirus crisis, the police force needs to work with social goodwill and decency.

"Overall the work and behaviour of our comrades during the lockdown has been good, but occasionally some complaints have been received," he said.

He appealed to all police personnel working at the grassroots level to be sensitive towards people's needs and conduct themselves in a dignified manner.

Singh advised the police personnel against holding any person or group responsible for the current situation.

Countries across the world have been affected by coronavirus, including India. It will be unfair to blame any person, class or group for the spread of coronavirus, he said.

He also urged the personnel to serve needy and sick people as much as possible without any prejudice and motivate others as well.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown on March 24 to contain the spread of coronavirus. The lockdown, the world's biggest, came into effect on March 25 midnight.

India has reported 4,421 COVID-19 cases so far. The disease has claimed 117 lives in the country, according to the Union Health Ministry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PG&E Corp.s glide toward approval of its bankruptcy plan has hit new turbulence, with lawyers for fire victims clashing over whether to push for a better settlement because the risk of being compensated with stock has ballooned.

Attorneys for the official committee of fire victims in PG&Es bankruptcy want the power company to guarantee the value of the half of the $13.5 billion settlement to be paid through new shares of stock. Otherwise, they contend the deals value will shrink as a result of the market downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

In a court filing Monday, the lawyers asked a judge to allow them to send a letter asking victims to hold off voting on the power companys reorganization plan until issues with settlement are resolved.

Another faction of tort claimants immediately dissented and said the victims committee doesnt represent the majority of fire victims. Lawyers for more than half the wildfire claimants said last week that their clients plan to vote overwhelmingly in favor of the utilitys reorganization plan.

While creditors with different types of debt often fight each other in bankruptcy, its rare for an official creditors committee, such as the fire victims group known as the TCC in PG&Es case, to split publicly with a big part of its constituency.

The TCCs filing is an attempt to change the settlement it agreed to despite the fact that the agreement has the broad support of the parties and the governors office and is the best and fastest path to getting victims paid, PG&E said in a statement. The TCCs effort to re-cut the deal puts at risk their clients ability to be paid quickly.

Late Monday, PG&E filed an objection to the TCCs request. Despite the current market turmoil, the companys share price is now higher than the average price in the two months leading up to the settlement with victims, the company argued.

The rift comes as PG&E is racing to win approval of its bankruptcy plan before a state deadline of June 30. If the company fails to win confirmation of its plan by then, it wont be able to tap a state wildfire fund to help pay for claims from future fires.

PG&Es Chapter 11 plan must win support from two-thirds of the wildfire victims who cast ballots. Voting began last week and concludes May 15.

The company has already won the backing of bondholders and other major groups including insurance claim holders and local government agencies through multibillion-dollar settlements. Wildfire victims are the only group that will be compensated through shares, which will be held by a trust set up to pay claims.

In Mondays filing, wildfire victims attorneys said that last-minute changes to PG&Es plan along with the market turmoil present unforeseeable and significant risk that the shares of stock will not have the value necessary to match the $13.5 billion that PG&E has stated would be available to pay fire claimants.

The victims attorneys said PG&E hasnt provided key details on how and when the settlement trust can sell PG&E shares. As a result, the attorneys say PG&E has breached its settlement agreement.

The lawyers want to give PG&E until April 28 to fix the issues. They plan to issue supplemental materials to victims by May 1 explaining whether and how PG&E has fixed the problems.

They are looking to see if they can get the pot sweetened, said Jared Ellias, a bankruptcy law professor at the University of California Hastings. They are not saying they will oppose the plan no matter what.

With assistance from Steven Church.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
By Bernard Rowan





When I prepared for my first visit to Korea, I read a passage in a cultural education guide about Koreans' understanding of personal space. Americans, as readers likely know, have an exaggerated conception of personal space.



The famous but aging children's program "Barney & Friends" featured a song about "personal space." Some Americans take offense if someone stands too close. I'd say that's within three feet. Some feel threatened or challenged. The guide to Korea said visitors shouldn't worry in crowds and Korean public settings where this convention doesn't exist.



I must say after visiting Korea many times, the guide doesn't ring true. I think Koreans care about personal space as much as anyone. Perhaps they're not so passionate or likely to rear up when someone stands close. An exaggerated understanding of space simply won't work on a Seoul subway. However, Koreans mind personal space too.



Recently in both countries, though I gather later in South Korea, the practice of what's called "social distancing" has arisen. Social distancing is keeping a safe distance from others for health reasons. COVID-19 pandemic history will discuss social distancing as a way of saving lives. It's a reciprocal hedge because we don't know if others have the bug. It shows common self-regard.



Social distancing struck me as pitiful when I first met it. Inside, I took mild offense when colleagues, neighbors, and strangers "backed up" as I approached the Barney zone (the Barney zone is now six feet of personal space). I thought, "These people are full of themselves." I now think this opinion was stupid. Plato called opinions "doxa" and they might or mightn't have reason. I think social distancing and the idea of personal space are important. It's a lesson from this pandemic. It's also a reminder of respect for people.



Korea has many value streams touching on matters of personal integrity. Korean Confucian ideas include right conduct and manners following right conduct. The values of Korean society commit each person to lifelong development and avoiding scapegoating. They extend a core respect for the relationships of daily life as the basis for harmony and humanity.



In turn, when COVID-19 hit and authorities called for distancing, it has been heartening to see how many people have embraced the practice of respecting personal space. Keeping six feet of distance sounds a bit like keeping six car lengths between one's car and the next on the interstate or highway. We're learning that danger to life and public health isn't always about knives, guns and bombs.



Social distancing as a practice respects life. I want to make it through this pandemic. I want others to do so as well. Instead of taking offense, one should see social distancing as embodying a fundamental regard for others. It's likely a good correction to the way people "normally" behave, moving into and out of personal spaces, often in a hurry, and thinking of "me, myself and I." In a sense social distancing in 2020 frames a return to some basic practices busy cultures often ignore or forget to follow consistently.



Koreans have achieved success now through harmony in uniting their traditions and ethics with the practices of public health. The world marvels at COVID-19's virulence, but in South Korea the incidences of death and disease have begun to crest and fall. Of course, it's right to be cautious and continue the practices of social distancing, testing and aggressive quarantining of the infected, in hospitals or otherwise. America has moved to copy the practices used in Asian countries to fight COVID-19.



I hope social distancing will morph into a new era of respect for people and personal space. Just as so many have seamlessly practiced the new Barney rule, let "six feet" mean not keeping distance alone. It means we care. Public health threats will continue to arise. Our behavior must evolve and renew.



Take good care, friends in Korea. Spring is coming, and may it remind us of life's fragility and beauty, even in these dreadful times.





Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.


London, April 7 : A study that first claimed that anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for the novel coronavirus and triggered US President Donald Trump enthusiasm for its widespread use, has now been slammed by the same group that publishes the journal in which the paper first appeared.

The Scotland-based nonprofit International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC) has stressed that the study in question that appeared in its International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents (IJAA) "did not meet its standard".

The study was published as "Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an open-label non-randomized clinical trial" and was led by France-based University of Marseille's researcher Didier Raoult.

It reported testing 36 French COVID-19 patients in March, majority of them showing upper respiratory tract infection symptoms. They were given 600mg of hydroxychloroquine daily, and were tested every day via nasal swabs.

The addition of azithromycin to the treatment depended on patients' "clinical presentation." According to a society statement, the "ISAC Board believes the article does not meet the Society's expected standard, especially relating to the lack of better explanations of the inclusion criteria and the triage of patients to ensure patient safety".

"Although ISAC recognises it is important to help the scientific community by publishing new data fast, this cannot be at the cost of reducing scientific scrutiny and best practices. Both Editors in Chief of our journals (IJAA and Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance) are in full agreement," said Andreas Voss, ISAC President.

Other scientists have also detailed serious problems with the study, including questions about its ethical underpinnings, messy confounding variables, missing patients, rushed and conflicted peer review and confusing data.

According to Retraction Watch, others have used PubPeer to report additional issues with the original Raoult article.

Hydroxychloroquine is a less toxic version of chloroquine, another malaria drug, which is related to quinine, an ingredient in tonic water.

President Trump called Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to supply the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine that is being used to treat COVID-19 patients and as prophylactic by the frontline health care workers deployed in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

India imposed a ban on export of the drug since the coronavirus pandemic hit India.

The government has now decided to lift a partial ban on hydroxychloroquine, to export the drug to aid America's fight against the deadly COVID-19 disease.

The US has the highest number of the novel coronavirus cases in the world, with over 368,000 cases of infections and over 10,800 deaths.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
A sign of support for healthcare workers working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

As we shelter in place, hunkered down, washing our hands, it's easy to feel helpless, and worse, to feel useless. We endlessly refresh our browsers and inboxes for news about the progress of this pandemic. Overwhelmed hospitals and health workers. Unemployment and economic instability. The news is all there, all the time, along with the pain and suffering. But what can we actually do to help, when we can't even leave our homes?

A couple of weeks ago we got an email blast from Tanya Holland, a friend and local chef, the owner of Brown Sugar Kitchen, a restaurant at the heart of Oakland's vibrant restaurant scene. The order to close bars and restaurants had just come down, and fearing the devastating impact to her small business, she was imploring her customers to order takeout. We duly placed a lunch order.

While Ayelet was on her way to pick it up, she happened to hear from a friend who is an emergency room doctor. He told her that someone  a stranger  had just showed up at California Pacific Medical Centers emergency department with dinner from a fine restaurant. It was the first thing he had eaten in days, he said, that wasnt out of a vending machine.

We had been wrestling with feelings of helplessness and uselessness. Ayelet saw at once that this might be a solution. There had to be a way to nourish the front line healthcare heroes putting their lives at risk in our community every day and save our local restaurants at the same time.

Ayelet ordered 25 meals from Brown Sugar Kitchen and drove them over to Oaklands Highland Hospital emergency room. The first nurse she saw when she arrived at the ER began to cry when Ayelet told the nurse that she had a delivery of food, which, of course, made Ayelet cry, too. We dont know if the coronavirus can be passed through tears, but were glad nonetheless that they were standing more than six feet apart.

Four days after that impromptu delivery, www.EastBayFeedER.org was up and running. We began with one meal a day delivered to the staff at Highland Hospital, ordered from a local restaurant at full price (plus a generous tip). Now, two weeks after that first meal delivery, East Bay FeedER's 40 volunteers feed the staffs of five East Bay ERs and intensive care units with food from the kitchens of five different local independently owned restaurants every day. We have raised $200,000 of the $400,000 we think we'll need to continue this project for the next six weeks to two months, through this phase of the pandemic.

Story continues

Most of us volunteers have jobs we are still trying to do remotely. Many of us have children whose education we must oversee. We've taken on this extra task for a few reasons. First, its a way to show our profound gratitude to the people who risk their lives every day to save us, our friends, families and neighbors.

Second, the independent restaurants of the East Bay are a vital part of the ethnically diverse and inventive culture that sustains this community. But we think that for many of us, a third reason is just as important: We're doing it because being of use feels like a survival strategy, a way to make it through this lonely and long period of social isolation, a reminder of how it feels to be part of a community that nurtures its own.

When people used to ask the Fred Rogers, of TV's "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," for his advice with helping children confront scenes of horror and disaster in the world, he would say, When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'"

Those words are comforting for children, and they can be comforting for adults, too, when we face some terrible calamity. But the heroic doctors, nurses and other practitioners throwing themselves body and soul into the fight against COVID-19 remind us that looking for the helpers isn't enough.

We have to find ways  however circumscribed by quarantine or ability  to be helpers ourselves, not just out of a sense of duty to our neighbors and our communities, but because there's comfort to be found in helping, in feeling that you can also be of some use.

Ayelet Waldman is the author, most recently, of "A Really Good Day." Michael Chabon is the Pulitzer Prize- winning author of "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay." They live in Berkeley with their children.




Before the pandemic, one of the governments highest profile health care initiatives was the creation of Ontario Health Teams (OHTs). The goal of these teams is greater integration and coordination among different parts of the health system. The first 24 teams across Ontario were announced this past December with fanfare and optimism  and then COVID-19 arrived.

As we face the first pandemic of our lifetimes, it may not feel like the time to be figuring out new models of care. Rational thinking might suggest that COVID-19 should pause these nascent teams pause, if not totally stop them.

Alternatively, could this be a crucible moment for Ontario Health Teams? Should we be embracing OHTs and bringing them into the pandemic planning conversation? Many of the plans that the teams had developed will need to be set aside, but it is not clear the OHTs themselves need to be. There are a few reasons why these teams are positioned to be critical assets in facing pandemic planning.

First, we need primary care to keep working. The majority of people who will be infected with COVID-19 will have only mild symptoms and not require hospitalization. We need to sustain our family doctors and nurse practitioners so they can manage these patients as well as other routine health care needs. Ontario Health Teams are about organizing and empowering primary care.

One of the greatest challenges hospitals face preparing for COVID-19 is creating capacity. Thousands of elective surgeries have been cancelled to make as many beds available as possible. However, many hospitals were already functioning over capacity in large part due to patients who were waiting placement in the community (Patients designated alternate level of care). Ontario Health Teams include a wide variety of community-based organizations that can support transitions of these patients out of hospital.

Approved Ontario Health Teams demonstrated meaningful and sustained ways for engaging patients, families and caregivers. While pandemic planning requires technical discussion on things like supply chain management, epidemiological data and parsing emerging scientific data, it is also rife with ethical decisions and choices that will deeply impact patients and families. They deserve to be part of these discussions. As one example, when the hospital we work at made the painful decision to close our doors to almost all visitors, we were guided and supported by the strong voices of our patient and family advisers. Our Teams can help bring different patient voices into these conversations.

Fighting COVID-19 is going to be complicated. We need effective communication and strong relationships. Historically, there have been disconnects among health care organizations that are all working within a few kilometres of each other and serving the same community. This reality was one of the impetuses for the creation of OHTs in the first place. While OHTs are still developing, strong relationships have already been built.

Recently, North York General Hospital admitted a patient who had COVID-19. Within a couple hours, we were talking with the CEO of the organization that had been providing care for him in the community. We talked through risks and urgent next steps. It was a warm, productive conversation that built on the relationship we had formed over the many months of building our new OHT together.

Similarly, when our community needed a second COVID-19 Assessment Centre, a true partnership formed. The family doctors who had been part of the OHT planning stepped up to help staff the new site while the hospital helped with information technology, nursing support and other components.

In a crisis, it can feel risky to try something new or to rely on something that has been hardly built. On the other hand, this pandemic is going to test our health care system in unprecedented ways. It is going to need deep collaboration from every part of the system and the patient voice. That is the promise of OHTs. This is a chance to realize that promise.
Lieutenant General, Doctor of Political Science, Professor (Strategic Security Research), Honorary President of the Political Science Association of Armenia Hayk Kotanjyan has addressed the leadership of the Republic of Armenia (RA), Golos Armenii reports.

His letter, in particular, reads:

Honorable President of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Armen Sargsyan, and Honorable Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Nikol Pashinyan:

In the interests of the unification of Armenia, Artsakh and the World Armenians under the extraordinary conditions of the challenges of the epidemic in the region and regional war, I am honored to address you with the following request:

Given the humanitarian drive of the leaders of the leading states as well as of international organization in the coronavirus epidemic aimed at release from prisons of detainees from high-risk groups (over 60 years of age), it is advisable for the RA authorities to initiate the release of RA Second President Robert Kocharyan from prisonbased on regularity (he is 65 years old and needs treatment according to the diagnosis of a medical institution).

The release of the RA second president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, who is in the risk group, will be a humanitarian step in line with the aspirations of the international community, aimed at uniting the Armenian society in the conditions of the coronavirus epidemic and security challenges.

P.S. I have the honor to inform that in the conditions of the world crisis, I had the honor to present my petition aimed at the consolidation of Armenias society addressed to RA Honorable President Mr. S. Sargsyanwith a request of pardoning those arrested in the March 1, 2008 case, including Nikol Pashinyan.
With this new partnership, our merchants can now expect to benefit from increased security, reduced PCI scope and reduced PCI compliance costs, all with no additional development required. That is a Win/Win in my book, said David Price, President, Plugn Pay Technologies.

Bluefin, the leading provider of payment security technologies including PCI-validated Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) solutions for retail, hospitality, healthcare, and higher education, has announced a new partnership with Plugn Pay Technologies, a leading secure internet authorization provider, to provide Plugn Pay clients PCI-validated P2PE through the companys WebXpress Processing Gateway.

Plugn Pay offers the industrys most feature-rich, easy-to-integrate processing gateway, along with a wide array of leading-edge premium products that enable customers to maximize online and point-of-sale profits, reduce fraud risks, and build customer loyalty. With the companys Payments as a Service model, there are no web server or hosting requirements. Surcharging, Convenience Fees, Billing Presentment, Recurring Billing, and Membership Management are just a few of their product offerings.

We have been looking for a viable, robust P2PE solution for quite a while. Our merchants have been asking for a way to increase security, reduce PCI scope, and its associated significant cost. Bluefins P2PE solution addresses these needs on all points, said David Price, President, Plugn Pay Technologies. Since 1996, when the company was first formed, PnP has always allowed its merchants to help drive product development based on their needs. So it was important for us to be able to answer their demands for a fully integrated P2PE solution.

With this new partnership, our merchants can now expect to benefit from increased security, reduced PCI scope and reduced PCI compliance costs, all with no additional development required. That is a Win/Win in my book, added Price.

The Bluefin/ Plugn Pay P2PE offering secures credit and debit card transactions by encrypting all data within a PCI-approved point of entry device. This prevents clear-text cardholder data from being available within the device, or in the merchants system where exposure to malware is possible. Data decryption always occurs offsite in a Bluefin hardware security module (HSM), ensuring the highest level of security.

Plugn Pay Technologies provides a complete suite of processing solutions for companies across the U.S., said Greg Cornwell, Chief Revenue Officer, Bluefin. Not only is the company innovative in their approach to sales and serving their clients, but they are clearly dedicated to providing the gold standard of payment security with PCI-validated P2PE. This security solution will provide numerous cost and efficiency savings to their clients, while protecting payments through every point of acceptance.

About Bluefin

Bluefin specializes in payment and data security technologies that protect point-of-sale (POS) and online transactions. Our security suite includes PCI-validated point-to-point encryption (P2PE) for retail, call center, mobile and unattended payments, and our ShieldConex data security platform for the protection of personally Identifiable Information (PII), Personal Health Information (PHI), and payment data entered online. Bluefin is a Participating Organization (PO) of the PCI Security Standards Council (SSC) and is headquartered in Atlanta, with offices in Chicago and Waterford, Ireland. For more information, please visit http://www.bluefin.com.

About Plugn Pay Technologies

Since 1996, Plugn Pay Technologies has been on the forefront of bringing secure, reliable eCommerce solutions to businesses of all sizes. Our transaction programs are developed specifically to meet the needs of todays Internet merchant. Since 1996, more than 100,000 merchants have trusted us to manage their Internet payments.

Plugn Pay is one of the pioneers of Internet payment solutions, enabling customers to maximize online and point-of-sale profits, reduce risk of fraud, and build customer loyalty with a wide array of leading-edge premium products and services. All of our products are simple to use, fast to integrate, and highly cost effective.

Plugn Pays seamless plug-in technology allows merchants to accept and manage both credit card and electronic check payments in a secure environment. Our industry-leading cardholder fee absorbing models maximize merchant savings by allowing merchants to pass the cost of card processing onto the customer. Our Attendant product allows customers to manage their own billing profiles significantly for membership and recurring payment, thereby reducing customer service costs. We securely provide connectivity to all of the nations largest credit card processors, as well as to the EU and Caribbean, offering merchants the option to work with any bank they prefer.

Our flexible, cost-effective products make it easy for both online and brick-and-mortar retailers to gain a competitive edge by plugging into new profits and reducing risk.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

Trend:

The Azerbaijani State Migration Service has appealed to foreign citizens residing in the country, Trend reports referring to the service.

According to the report, the Service prepared a video instruction for the foreigners and persons without citizenship residing in Azerbaijan so that they can easily find the appropriate document number, which must be sent via SMS to the 8103 number for obtaining a permit to leave the home.

For more information, a working call center is available at "919" round the clock.

The links to the video instruction are as follows:

1. https://youtu.be/VX8z7K8b7zA (in Azerbaijani)

2. https://youtu.be/dvwyzCxmDt0 (with Russian subtitles)

3. https://youtu.be/IQXN1NK8qmU (with English subtitles).

The movement restriction has been imposed in the country within a special quarantine regime which is introduced to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).

The Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan has made a decision on the movement restriction in the country from 00:00 (GMT+4) April 5, 2020 to 00:00 April 20, 2020 to protect life and health of the population, ensure uninterrupted operation of state structures and life support facilities, as well as activity of economic entities in the current situation at the appropriate level.
The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has the world in check and Mexico is no exception. Yet the virus, despite its unprecedent scale and speed of transmission, represents many of the same challenges for women as other crises. In it, women are in the front line as health professionals, volunteers, and caregivers, and are often performing several of those tasks at the same time. They are also disproportionately affected by the lack of health care, their level of unpaid work, and by the violence that exists in these spaces, whether public or private.

It is essential to analyze our response to COVID-19 with women in mind, since we can predict that they will be affected differently.

To slow the spread of the virus the Government of Mexico has closed public and private schools, and non-essential businesses and encouraged social distancingwhere citizens are advised to stay at home as much as possible and when out in public to be two metres away from others.

Having children home from school places an extra burden on women. It is estimated that three-quarters of the unpaid care work is done by women, equivalent to US$ 287.291 million dollars per year or 23.5 percent of national GDP. Also, according to OXFAM women constitute two-thirds of the workforce that deals with paid care work.

In this situation, care policies should be considered an extraordinary provision of social security for mothers and fathers who, in health crises like the present, need to to be absent from their work to take care of children. This would allow both men and women not to have negative consequences in economic, and professional terms, and in the use of their time.

In Mexico, of the 475,000 people in nursing careers, only 15 percent are men, so women are in the frontline of healthcare, exposing them directly to the coronavirus.

The security and health of first responders must be a priority. However, as nurses are also most probably the ones in charge of the care work in their homes, it is important that health systems considered permits for health workers, regardless of their gender, to leave and care for their families.

In the last 10 years, 43.9 percent of Mexican women aged 15 and over19.1 millionhave faced violence from a current or former partner. These figures pose a scenario that could increase the risk of violence.

Women survivors may face additional obstacles to escape violent situations, due to the obligation to share a home with their aggressors.

It is vital that essential services count on protocols for prevention, and control and minimize the risk of violence, and, where appropriate, act against these contexts.

The inequalities that women face for their development are deep. Mexico UNDP appeals to the governments, civil society, academia, private sector, international organizations and families, to understand how differently COVID-19 will affect women than men. This will allow for egalitarian policies to avoid reproducing inequality, and to insure no one is left behind.
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  Metro Manila mayors are urging local government units in the region to pass ordinances punishing the discrimination of health workers and COVID-19 patients.

The Metro Manila Council, composed of chief executives of the region, passed Monday a resolution recommending the passage of local ordinances prohibiting and penalizing acts of discrimination and violence, including libel, slander, physical injuries, and violation of lease agreements and employment contracts.

It has been observed that there is [a] rise in cases of discrimination and physical violence against health workers, frontline workers, OFWs, confirmed patients, PUI (persons under investigation) and PUM (persons under monitoring) in [Metro Manila], the council said.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases had previously urged all local government units to prohibit these discriminatory acts.

President Rodrigo Duterte had also ordered police and the military to patrol and look out for anyone who may assault health workers, after a health worker in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat was allegedly attacked by strangers by throwing bleach at his face.
Petrobras has set its April oil production at 2.07 million barrels per day (bpd), after having reduced production by 200,000 bpd in the past two weeks in response to the low oil prices, Brazils state-owned oil firm said in a securities filing on Tuesday.

The company continues monitoring the market and, if necessary, will make new adjustments always ensuring safety conditions for people, operations and processes, said Petrobras, the largest producer in the South American country, which not part of the OPEC+ group.

At the end of March, Petrobraslike many major oil firmsannounced reductions in capital spending and production guidance due to the oil price crash and the collapse in global oil demand in the coronavirus pandemic.

Petrobras slashed its planned investments for 2020 to US$8.5 billion from US$12 billion and mothballed operating platforms in the shallow-water fields with higher lifting costs per barrel that had turned cash-flow negative after the price collapse. On March 26, Petrobras said it would cut its oil production by 100,000 bpd by the end of March. A week later, Petrobras said it would cut its oil production by 200,000 bpd as of April 1a volume that includes the production reduction announced the previous week.

Premium: Ending The Oil War Isnt Enough

Production levels at Petrobras, being a state-controlled entity, could play an important role in global oil supply management in the coming months, if Brazil and other nations outside the current OPEC+ group, most notably the United States, Canada, and Norway, were to join OPEC+ and its leaders Saudi Arabia and Russia in a global production-cut deal to possibly remove 10 million bpd from the market.

Brazil was expected to be the third-largest growth driver of non-OPEC supply in 2020 after the U.S. and Norway, according to OPEC.

Last week, Petrobrass chief executive Roberto Castello Blanco said that the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia and any reported talks they may or may not be holding had become irrelevant in the context of the demand loss in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Analysts are still skeptical that such a large and diverse group of oil producers will agree and implement a collective cut, especially as every country signals they would not reduce their production if the United States doesnt commit to cuts, too.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
US President Donald Trump on Monday (April 6) warned that Washington may retaliate against India if it does not export hydroxychloroquine, a anti-malaria drug used in the treatment of COVID-19 coronavirus, to the US.

President Trump issued the warning a few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre banned export of the drug while trials are on to check the efficiency of hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19 patients.

"I would be surprised if he would, you know, because India does very well with the United States," Trump told reporters during a press briefing at the White House.

"So, I would be surprised if that were his (Prime Minister Narendra Modi's) decision. He'd have to tell me that. I spoke to him Sunday morning, called him, and I said we'd appreciate your allowing our supply to come out. If he doesn't allow it to come out, that would be okay, but of course there may be retaliation. Why wouldn't there be?" he added.

Last week, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine for treating healthcare workers involved in the treatment of coronavirus patients.

On Saturday (April 4), President Trump had said that he had appealed to PM Modi to release US order of hydroxychloroquine stockpile that can be used to treat COVID-19 patients.

"After call today with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is giving serious consideration to releasing the hold it put on a US order for hydroxychloroquine," President Trump had said.

The US president also said that he too will take a tablet of hydroxychloroquine after talking to his doctors. "I may take it too, will have to talk to my doctors," he added.

"India makes a lot of it. They need a lot too for their billion-plus people. The hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug will be released through the Strategic National Stockpile for treatment. I said I would appreciate if they would release the amounts that we ordered of hydroxychloroquine," noted President Trump.
This is an opinion column.

Imagine theres a box.

And somebody has to hold the box.

And this job  holding the box  is important. Because if somebody drops that box, if that somebody leaves the box lying around, or it gets lost, or stolen, or if a kid plays with it, or a dog chews on it 

If something happens to the box, then the world explodes and everyone dies.

This is the metaphor political consultant Joe Trippi uses to explain why its important who we choose to be president  and why all of us should be wary of those who volunteer for the job.

What rational person wants to be the one to hold the box? Who raises their hand, yelling ME! Pick ME! like a kindergartener who wants to be the line-leader at lunchtime?

Almost anyone who volunteers for that job either doesnt understand the responsibility theyre seeking or they suffer some mental illness, or maybe both.

And yet, there are people who work their whole lives for the chance. There are people who, when running for SGA president, fantasize about what their Secret Service code name will be. And there are enough of those who make it to the top of this contest that it takes a year or more just to winnow the field down to two.

And then one.

The responsibility is on us to find the one who might not be crazy. And that responsibility is all the more important now because 

It sure looks like somebody dropped the box. The president we elected four years ago has failed.

He failed, despite having more than two months warning, to understand one of the greatest threats in American history was right in front of him.

He failed to read briefings prepared for him personally by the greatest intelligence network in the world.

He failed to warn the American people to take this threat seriously, and instead told those he was supposed to protect that it was all a hoax.

He failed to mobilize our government, science and industry to defend us.

He failed to see our wellbeing as something more important than his approval ratings and he still says hes number one on Facebook, whatever the heck that means.

This man is a fool. And it is time to take the Doomsday box away from him.

Impeachment did not work. The separation of powers has been breached. The guardrails of our government buckled like saltwater taffy in a microwave.

The only means left to remove the Doomsday box from this fools hands is to elect someone else.

This should not be a partisan issue. There were good Republicans who bravely opposed him  Bill Weld, the former governor of Massachusetts, and Joe Walsh, the former congressman from Illinois. Like Alabamas Carl Elliot running against Wallace, they charged an insurmountable hill and their campaigns died on its slopes.

But whether you like it or not, were left with two.

And somebody has to take the Doomsday box away from that fool.

Its not going to be easy. Its going to be hard. Its going to be dangerous. Its going to be deadly.

If you want to understand how hard it will be, look to Wisconsin, the state that has now made Alabama look responsible. This week the governor there sought to delay the Wisconsin primary until the coronavirus threat had safely passed. The Republican-held legislature, which has more power, refused and fought him all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

And won.

For what reason? For what purpose?

A global pandemic is now the greatest, sickest form of voter suppression. Anyone there who wishes to vote must now risk their health  their lives  to do so.

In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, THIS is the line for in person voting as the polls open for Election Day in Wisconsin. #COVID19 #ElectionDay pic.twitter.com/WplsSHy9RF  Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenez) April 7, 2020

The president has said that if more people can vote remotely then his party will never win again. The Republican legislature in Wisconsin is following his lead for naked partisan advantage. Unless the Wisconsin primary is such a disaster that a repeat of it is unthinkable anywhere else, this is our future in Alabama.

Alabama has rescheduled its primary runoffs, but partisan self-interest has metastasized. Vote-by-mail is not likely to happen here. Its more likely than not that, come November, to vote Alabamians will have a choice  overcome high hurdles to vote by absentee or risk your health at the polls.

If you wish to vote, this is what you must do between now and then: You must request an absentee ballot from the Secretary of State and you must make a photocopy of your photo ID. If you dont have a photo ID, you must get one before then. And when you vote, you have to have your ballot signed by two witnesses. If you dont have two witnesses, you have to have it notarized.

Or 

You have to go to a polling place and vote  again, with a photo ID.

Hopefully, this angel of death will pass over our homes by then, but if the past is a predictor of the future, it might not. The 1918 flu pandemic took lives well into 1919.

What Im about to tell you sucks, but its important you understand whats at stake and what its going to take to make a difference.

You might have to put your safety at risk to vote.

That is the most Alabama thing you can do.

There are lots of reasons to be ashamed of our state, but in the balance, those are outweighed by the reasons to be proud. This is where men and women  alienated and disenfranchised  stood up to be counted. This state is where the oppressed said no more. This is where the disenfranchised crossed a bridge, got beaten back, and then crossed again. This is where blood was shed and lives were risked  and some taken  to vote.

They did it knowing the odds. You can, too.

We have to.

Theres a fool over there with a Doomsday box, who treats it like a toy.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. And on Twitter. And on Instagram.

More columns by Kyle Whitmire

Alabamas governor went on Twitter for a coronavirus Q&A. It was a disaster.

Alabama is stuck on autopilot

What Ill take from the quarantine: My daughters first steps

Stop with the California comparisons, Kay Ivey

Lieutenant governor demands Alabama coronavirus task force do its job

If Alabama has to go back to work, so should the Legislature

In grief for normal life

The truth will tell itself
[April 07, 2020] FDA expedites approval of Cochlear's Remote Check solution for cochlear implants

CENTENNIAL, Colo., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH), the global leader in implantable hearing solutions, obtained U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval on April 2 for its Remote Check solution. This approval is the first step in commercializing the product offering, which is anticipated by the end of 2020. Cochlear will immediately begin a controlled market release of Remote Check in the U.S. and Canada by partnering with hearing healthcare providers and hospitals to quickly reach those most in need of audiological care during the COVID-19 pandemic, which supports social distancing by providing an alternative to in-person appointments. Remote Check is designed to be a convenient, at-home testing tool that allows Cochlear recipients with a Cochlear Nucleus 7 Sound Processor to complete a series of hearing tests from their compatible iOS device using the Nucleus Smart App.* Results are then sent remotely to the recipient's clinic for review by their clinician. The clinician can review the results by logging into their myCochlear Clinic professional portal, where they can access a comprehensive overview of their patient's hearing health. Remote Check is designed to provide a snapshot of a patient's hearing health so a clinician can quickly determine whether a patient is progressing well, or whether further clinical intervention is required.** "The FDA's expedited approval of our Remote Check offering during the COVID-19 crisis underscores that at-home hearing healthcare support needs to be prioritized, more accessible and convenient for patients now more than ever," said Patricia Trautwein, Au.D., Vice President, Marketing & Product Management, Cochlear Americas. "When elective surgeries become available again after the COVID-19 crisis, clinicians are going to see a wave of patients coming in to seek hearing implant treatment. Having a solution like Remote Check will help clinicians prioritize their case load, so they can reduce unnecessary visits for patients progressing well, spend more quality time with patients who have complex needs, and help more patients seeking initial cochlear implant candidacy assessment." For the Cochlear recipient, Remote Check is designed to reduce unnecessary travel burdens to get into their clinic, provide immediatehearing and patient data to their clinician for troubleshooting requests, and provides a convenient, time-saving option for care that does not require travel to the clinic. Using this technology, clinicians will not only be able to provide a more convenient avenue of care, but they can also free up more appointment times to manage the anticipated growth in the hearing implant market.



"Our clinic is eager to provide our patients with more remote servicing opportunities, and we are excited to start using Cochlear's Remote Check offering," said Regina Presley, Au.D., FAAA, CCC-A, Senior Cochlear Implant Audiologist, Presbyterian Board of Governors Cochlear Implant Center of Excellence, Greater Baltimore Medical Center. "Many patients travel long distances for in-clinic care, need a caregiver to help get to their appointments, have competing school, personal and professional priorities, so if we can provide at-home service options, we believe they will have a more positive healthcare experience overall. Every patient deserves timely, quality service to get the most from their hearing devices. Remote Check will ensure that patients receive the best care no matter where life and times like this take us." A clinician can choose to assign any of the following activities for their patient to complete as part of their Remote Check:

Photographing the implant site and the area behind the ear. Completing questionnaires to gather information about general health and hearing. Taking an audiogram test to precisely measure the softest levels heard across a range of frequencies. Taking a listening-in-noise test to objectively assess hearing ability by identifying three-digit numbers presented in varying levels of background noise. Impedance Check to assess the performance of the implant. The full suite of Remote Check activities for patients is designed to be completed in as little as 15 minutes, although it may take longer for some patients and children.1 Remote Check is designed so that it can be completed at a patient's own pace. Early pilots of Remote Check in the United Kingdom and New Zealand affirm the need for the service with 87 percent of users stating they were likely to use Remote Check again.2 "Over the last decade, Cochlear has been heavily focused on expanding and improving our digital and remote care services. We've brought to market first-of-its-kind solutions, like Remote Check, remote programming, myCochlear Clinic, Cochlear Link and SignHEAR, to help improve clinic efficiency, support a range of clinical practice preferences and provide the best hearing experience for our recipients," said Tony Manna, President, Cochlear Americas. "During unprecedented times like we're experiencing right now, we're proud Cochlear is the leader in providing innovative solutions that allow our clinic partners to continue treating their patients without the need for an in-person appointment, ultimately ensuring our recipients continue to hear and stay connected." About Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH)

Cochlear is the global leader in implantable hearing solutions. The company has a global workforce of more than 4,000 people and invests more than AUD$180 million each year in research and development. Products include cochlear implants, bone conduction implants and acoustic implants, which healthcare professionals use to treat a range of moderate to profound types of hearing loss. Since 1981, Cochlear has provided more than 600,000 implantable devices, helping people of all ages, in more than 180 countries, to hear. www.cochlear.com/us References

1. Based on internal Cochlear data. Some users may take longer than 15 minutes and 10 minutes, respectively. Data on file.

2. Based on internal Cochlear data. "Remote Check Pilot Evaluation UK & NZ." Data on file. * To use Remote Check, a patient requires: latest version of the Nucleus Smart App (Remote Check is part of this App) running on a compatible Apple device (iPhone or iPod Touch); Nucleus 7 Sound Processors with implant models: CI24RE, CI512, CI513, CI522, CI532, CI612, CI622 and CI632; compatible firmware on the Nucleus 7 Sound Processor (4.1.3.3 or later). A clinician requires access to Cochlear's secure web-based myCochlear.com Professional Portal to access and review patient results. The recommended browser for accessing the Professional Portal is Google Chrome. A clinician also requires Custom Sound 5.1 or later software to upgrade the patient's firmware to enable access to Remote Check. For sound processor and app compatibility information, visit www.cochlear.com/compatibility. ** Remote Check does not replace clinical care and does not involve remote programming of the sound processor. Apple, iPhone and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Please seek advice from your health professional about treatments for hearing loss. Outcomes may vary, and your health professional will advise you about the factors which could affect your outcome. Always read the instructions for use. Not all products are available in all countries. Please contact your local Cochlear representative for product information. Views expressed are those of the individual. Consult your health professional to determine if you are a candidate for Cochlear technology.  Cochlear Limited 2020. All rights reserved. Hear now. And always and other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of Cochlear Limited or Cochlear Bone Anchored Solutions AB. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fda-expedites-approval-of-cochlears-remote-check-solution-for-cochlear-implants-301036357.html SOURCE Cochlear Limited

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Married At First Sight bride Stacey Hampton threatened Jessika Power with a cease and desist letter last week after the 2019 MAFS star slammed her in a vicious recap of the show.

But Jessika, 28, has since laughed off the blonde's legal threats and questioned whether there was ever a letter drawn up.

During an Instagram Story Q&A session on Tuesday, she smiled while revealing: 'No, I didn't receive a lawyer letter from Stacey's "make-believe lawyer".'

Scroll down for video

'I didn't receive a letter from her make-believe lawyer': Married At First Sight's Jessika Power (pictured) laughed off Stacey Hampton's threat of legal action on an Instagram Q&A session on Tuesday

Jessika also said she was confused as to why Stacey, who is a law graduate, couldn't write the cease and desist letter herself.

'I find it funny that you're supposed to be barrister or a lawyer, but you can't issue the cease and desist letter on your own,' she said.

'Apparently she's not even registered... I don't know,' Jessika added in a mocking tone.

After repeatedly referring to herself as a 'lawyer' on the controversial reality show, Stacey admitted she's yet to actually practice law - and is just a law graduate.

'I just got admitted to the bar - I'm not allowed to practice law,' claimed Stacey, while defending her achievements in front of all of the other brides on the show.

Truth: 'I just got admitted to the bar - I'm not allowed to practice law,' claimed Stacey, after referring to herself as a 'lawyer' on the show. Pictured: Stacey holding her legal diploma on the steps of the Supreme Court of South Australia in a picture she shared in 2019

Stacey had threatened Jessika with a cease and desist letter over an Instagram video.

She claimed that she was forced to seek medical attention after Jessika disparaged her in a paid MAFS recap video for New Idea and Who magazine.

In the recap, which Jessika posted on her Instagram Stories, she said that Stacey was 'pathological' in her denial that she had secretly slept with Mikey Pembroke on the show.

Brides at war! Stacey had threatened Jessika with a cease a desist letter over an Instagram video

She also branded Stacey's on-screen husband Michael Goonan a 'piece of work', among other things.

After the video went live on Friday night, a furious Stacey privately messaged Jessika on Instagram and threatened her with legal action over the recap.

'You're still calling me names and getting your 10 cents in,' Stacey wrote.

'How f***ing embarrassing. You're so last season, stop it.'

Drama: In a paid recap video for Who and New Idea, Jessika said that Stacey was 'pathological' in her denial that she had secretly slept with Mikey Pembroke on the show

She continued: 'I'm organising my lawyer to send you a cease and desist letter. I request no further comments from you here on in.'

Never one to hold back, Jess fired back: 'Oh Stacey, get over it babe.

'If I had a lawyer send a cease and desist letter to everyone who said things about me I would have been on the phone to them every day.'

She continued: 'I've been asked (and paid) to do the recaps for Who magazine and New Idea. If you don't like what I said then don't act so shady.'

'How f***ing embarrassing!' After the video went live on Friday night, a furious Stacey privately messaged Jessika on Instagram and threatened her with legal action over the recap

'If you don't like what I said then don't act so shady': Jessika argued back that she was just doing paid recaps for a magazine and that Stacey needed to 'get over it'

When contacted for comment by Daily Mail Australia on Saturday, Stacey said that Jessika's remarks about her and Michael had harmed her mental health and forced her to seek medical attention.

'In order to stop Jessika defaming my character on a social platform, I've met with lawyers to have a letter sent which will enable me to be free of slander,' she said.

'Jessika will no longer be able to put me down and cause my mental health to become worse.

'I sought medical attention after reading her comments on her [Instagram] Story and they wrote me a letter outlining her impact on [my] mental health.'

She added: 'Her whole [Instagram] Story was an insult to me and my ex [Michael].'

'I sought medical attention after reading her comments': Stacey claims that she was forced to seek medical attention after seeing Jessika's Instagram video

Earlier this week, Stacey told Daily Mail Australia that she went to hospital and was on antidepressants due to the online trolling she's received since her alleged affair with Mikey was exposed at the Married At First Sight reunion dinner party.

Jessika had been the official Married At First Sight recapper for Who and New Idea magazine this season, and shared weekly recap videos to her Instagram page as part of the collaboration.

She's not the only former MAFS star to throw shade at Stacey, with Martha Kalifatidis and Michael Brunelli criticising Stacey in a recap video for the official Married At First Sight YouTube channel.
With British Prime Minister Boris Johnson fighting for health in the intensive case of a hospital in London, the UK is facing a leadership crisis.

The 55-year-old prime minister was taken to the hospital on Sunday night for routine tests after struggling to shake off Covid-19, but his condition worsened during Monday afternoon.

Britain has no formal succession plan should the prime minister become incapacitated, but Johnson, 55, has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputise for him.

Raab is a former Foreign Office lawyer who has been both an ally and a rival to his boss.

During the Brexit campaign in 2016, Raab campaigned alongside Johnson successfully to break away from the European Union. Three years later, the pair stood against each other in the Conservative Partys leadership contest.

Raab, who was the Brexit minister under former premier Theresa May, quit after just three months in November 2018 in protest at Mays doomed divorce deal with Brussels that he said offered too many concessions.

But when Johnson became Conservative party leader and prime minister after Mays resignation in July last year, Raab was catapulted back into government.

His role as foreign secretary also carries the title first secretary of state, implying seniority over all other ministers except the prime minister and making him his de facto deputy.

Often combative, he holds a black belt in karate and is a keen boxer.

His Czech-born Jewish father came to Britain in 1938 as a six-year-old refugee. He died of cancer when Raab was 12 and his mother brought him up in the Church of England.

He competed in karate for 17 years, making the UK squad.

After studies, he became an international lawyer at London legal firm Linklaters before joining the Foreign Office in 2000 as an advisor.

Raab was posted to The Hague in 2003 to head a team focused on bringing justice to war criminals including Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic and Charles Taylor.

From 2006 to 2008, he was chief of staff to the Conservatives home affairs spokesman David Davis while in opposition.
The United States has so far repatriated around 1,300 Americans from India but a considerable number of them are developing cold feet in flying back home, a senior US official has said.

"About 1,300 American citizens have been brought back as of last night, and we have five additional flights scheduled this week. It's difficult to say with any certainty how many Americans intend or need assistance in repatriating to the US. We have had over 7,000 register with the US embassy and consulate," Alice G Wells, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, said during a teleconference here on Monday.

While Wells did not give a clear idea on why rest of the Americans had developed cold feet to return back home, it can be seen in the context of the US emerging as the hot spot of coronavirus in the world.

Till Monday, over 360,000 people have tested positive with coronavirus and the fatalities have crossed the 10,000 in a matter of weeks.

Wells said Americans in India were needed to make a decision.

Members of the White House Task Force on Coronavirus have projected between 100,000 and 200,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US in the next several weeks.

Ian Brownlee, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, said a large number of Americans in India have cancelled their intent to travel to the US even after the US Government made arrangements for their flights.

"We had multiple thousands who, when we put in India when we put the call out for expressions of interest in a flight, and yet over this weekend, our staff in India literally cold-called 800 people asking if they wanted to get on a flight today. We got 10 positive responses," Brownlee said.

Since January 29, the US has brought home over 43,000 American citizens including those from countries like Peru, India, Egypt, Nepal, and Burundi.

The US is currently working on over 80 flights worldwide, Brownlee said.

Of these, the US organized 13 flights from South and Central Asia, including special flights home for about 2,900 US citizens from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nippon Paint India-Automotive Refinish has donated internally-raised funds to over 1000 workers and painters in the automotive refinish as the COVID-19 crisis continues to wreak havoc to and economy in the country.

The funds have been generated through a trust that is run and funded by employees of Nippon Paint India - Automotive Refinish for the welfare of painters and colour matchers associated with the business.

Nippon Paint aims to show solidarity and its support to members of the struggling automobile refinish industry that continues to face hardship amid economic slowdown in the country and the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

Sharad Malhotra, President, Nippon Paint India - Automotive Refinishes and Wood Coatings said: "The COVID-19 epidemic has dealt a heavy blow to many members of India's economically weaker sections of the society. It is not just our duty but a privilege to be able to help our fellow countrymen. Automotive refinish business, along with the rest of the automobile industry, is going through an unprecedented challenging time and it is our duty to look out for our community members and ensure a safe future for them."

Nippon Paint India is a leading producer of high-quality paints and coatings for automotive refinish, industrial and decorative sectors. Nippon Paint India is part of the NIPSEA Group which, together with Nippon Paint of Japan, forms the largest coatings group in Asia Pacific and the 4th largest in the world in terms of revenue.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be in any way responsible for the content of this article.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Maltas national agency for museums, conservation practice and cultural heritage has collaborated with Google to allow users from all around the world to virtually discover the islands heritage sites.

Through the online platform Google Arts & Culture, Heritage Malta currently has 25 virtual tours which include museums, temples, forts and archaeological sites, as well as, three Uneaco heritage sites which are the city of Valletta, the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum and the Megalithic Temples.

In Vallettas virtual tour, visitors can discover several historical attractions in the city such as the Grandmasters Palace, which is now the seat of Maltas President. The palace is one of the first buildings in new Valletta, built by Grandmaster Jean De Valette in 1566 after the successful siege of Malta. The palace has a formidable armoury and is considered one of the worlds largest collection of arms and armour.

Moreover, Vallettas tour includes a fascinating trip to Fort St. Elmo National War Museum. Here visitors can discover Maltas history from the bronze age around 2,500 B.C., up to the time of the first and second world wars.

Virtual visitors can also enjoy unravelling the secrets of Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, which was used as sanctuary and burial place by temple builders. Some of the structures elements trace back to 3600-2400 BC, which were discovered during construction in 1902.

Additionally, the virtual tours include one of Ggantija Temples. Five out of the seven temples on the Maltese islands can be visited using the platform. These historic landmarks are the oldest free-standing monuments in the world, and they have been there 1,000 years before the construction of Gizas pyramids.

Due to the spread of Covid-19, travellers are not able to visit the islands and enjoy their offerings. However, Malta is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to share its magic with people across the world.

Check out Maltas virtual tour: shorturl.at/dBGL8. - TradeArabia News Service
From Texas Parks and Wildlife:

"AUSTINAt the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas State Parks will be closed to the public effective at the close of business Tuesday, April 7 in order to maintain the safest environment for visitors, volunteers and staff. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) will continue to stay current with the latest public health recommendations and will announce when a definite reopening date has been determined.

Given the myriad of challenges and heightened risks of operating the parks at this time, we believe this is the best course of action right now in order to meet the health and safety expectations the state has set out for the citizens of Texas, said Carter Smith, Executive Director of TPWD. All state parks will remain temporarily closed until public health and safety conditions improve. During the closure, staff will continue to steward and care for the parks to ensure they can be immediately reopened to visitors at the appropriate time.

Outdoor recreational opportunities such as hunting, fishing, biking, jogging, walking, hiking, wildlife viewing, and the like are essential activities for Texas citizens. TPWD will continue to do its part to actively encourage and promote these opportunities in ways that are safe and close to home, said Smith.

Through this trying time, TPWD has worked diligently to facilitate access to the outdoors across the state, including in the state park system, which hosted nearly 740,000 day and overnight visitors throughout the month of March.

Despite the implementation of increasingly restrictive visitor use measures to help minimize the transmission of COVID-19 at parks, TPWD has reached a point where public safety considerations of those in the parks, and in the surrounding communities, must take precedence over continued operations. Difficulty in ensuring compliance with social distancing, problems in maintaining adequate supplies and keeping park facilities sufficiently sanitized are only a few of the challenges encountered by state park staff.

While parks are closed to the public, staff will be working to help maintain the standard upkeep, maintenance, stewardship, and continued regular cleaning of site facilities.

The Texas State Parks Customer Service Center is currently working toward contacting customers with upcoming overnight reservations to reimburse stays booked through the reservation system. Group and facility reservations have been cancelled until April 30. Cancelled reservations will not be charged normal administrative fees.

Day passes purchased through the reservation system, not associated to the Texas State Parks Pass, will also be refunded without penalties. The Texas State Parks Customer Service Center will automatically process cancellations of both overnight and day-use reservations. If your reservation is impacted by a facility or park closure, a Customer Service Center agent will contact you  you do not need to contact us. We are contacting customers in order of arrival date and appreciate your patience.

Questions regarding state park reservations can be emailed to customer.service@tpwd.texas.gov and general park information can be found at TexasStateParks.org."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines calls on parish churches to ring their bells on Holy Wednesday in solidarity with an interfaith prayer against the COVID-19 pandemic.

CBCP President Archbishop Romulo Valles said that the simultaneous ringing of bells at 3 p.m. is to signal the start of a televised interfaith prayer organized by the government.

It will be comforting and encouraging for our people when they sense and observe that a spirit of unity and working together is there in these trying times, Valles said in a statement released Tuesday.

The prayer activity is an initiative organized by the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The initiative will be led by the Chaplain Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), said Bishop Oscar Florencio of the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines.

The AFP chaplains will assist to invoke the mighty help of God as we plead Him to heal those affected by Covid-19 and to spare us from this present pandemic, Florencio said.

The Health Department reported 104 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, bringing the total number to 3,764. Meanwhile, the country now has 84 recoveries.

Worldwide, COVID-19 has killed more than 70,000 people, mostly in Italy, although the outbreak began in Wuhan, China in December 2019. More than 1.3 million people have been infected, according to the Johns Hopkins University's COVID-19 global tracker.

Eight in ten, or around 80 percent, of infected patients experience "mild illness" and eventually recover from COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization. Some 15 percent experience severe illness while 5 percent were critically ill, the WHO said.
Iran to have blocked funds released: Government spokesman

Iran Press TV

Monday, 06 April 2020 11:56 AM

The Iranian government says it will soon have parts of funds blocked abroad because of the US sanctions released and return to the country for the fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Government Spokesman Ali Rabiei said on Monday that the government would soon announce some good news about unblocking the highly-needed funds.

"There has been some positive progress in unblocking our moneys," said Rabiei, adding, "There would be some good news in this regard which will be publicized after the finalization (of unblocking)."

The announcement comes more than a week after the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati said that Iran was making progress in securing new sources of funds for the national fight against the new coronavirus.

Hemmati said that coordinated efforts by the CBI and the Iranian Foreign Ministry for unblocking the funds abroad as well as for persuading the International Monetary fund (IMF) to accept Iran's request for an emergency loan had come into fruition.

Rabiei said that Iran's success to access new hard currency sources was a blow to the United States and its "unethical" policy of refusing to ease the sanctions even at a time of increased pressure on Iran because of a pandemic.

He also dismissed reports in some media outlets suggesting that the IMF had rejected Iran's request for a $5-billion emergency loan under pressure from the US.

"We have yet to hear anything about rejecting the request for this loan, there has been some statements but whether the fund (IMF) has made a decision or paid any attention (to those statements), we haven't heard anything," said the spokesman.

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Aiding doctors and other health officials who are involved in the treatment and care of Coronavirus (COVID-19) patients, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Wipro 3D, on Tuesday, have come up with a 'full face shield' to protect them from direct infection. India's premier defence research facility has already provided several testing kits, PPEs and masks to the health ministry for the same. India's current COVID-19 case tally stands at 4789, with the 124 deaths.

Big achievement for Railways as DRDO clears PPE kit made by Northern Railways

DRDO provides 'full face shield' for doctors

DRDO & Wipro 3D have together developed a full face shield to be provided to doctors & medical staff working with #COVID19 patients. It will help protect them from direct infection. DRDO has already supplied masks, full-body suits, & many PPEs for medical staff: DRDO officials pic.twitter.com/ZBKYBMgmIp  ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2020

DRDO develops indigenous bio-suit for frontline warriors of coronavirus battle

DRDO designs disinfection chamber

On Sunday, DRDO unveiled a full-body disinfection chamber and a special face protection mask for healthcare professionals. The special chamber called 'PSE' has been designed by Vehicle Research Development Establishment (VRDE), Ahmednagar, a DRDO Laboratory as a walkthrough enclosure for personnel decontamination, one person at a time, equipped with sanitiser and soap dispenser. On entering the chamber, the electrically-operated pump creates a disinfectant mist of hypo sodium chloride for disinfecting, which automatically stops after 25 seconds.

DRDO designs disinfection chamber, spl face mask

DRDO's bio suit

The defence research organisation had also developed a bio-suit to keep safe medical, paramedical and other personnel engaged in containing the pandemic. The bio-suit has been subjected to rigorous testing and exceeds the standards set for body suits by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. DRDO is aiming to start mass production of the suits and has a current production capacity of 7,000 suits per day. It has already identified companies to assist with production.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Centre mulls extending lockdown post-April 14; cases at 4789

Coronavirus crisis in India

As of date, 4312 positive cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) - 352 have been discharged and Maharashtra reported the highest at 868. 124 deaths have been reported till date. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries. The Prime Minister has issued a 21-day countrywide lockdown starting from 23 March to April 15 and the Finance Minister has announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore package under the 'PM Gareeb Kalyan Scheme'.


EU finance ministers are to meet by video conference to discuss an economic rescue plan for European countries worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

The ministers are under pressure to deliver proposals for further fiscal measures to counter the socioeconomic impacts of the epidemic.

On the table is a "safety net" worth a half-trillion euros ($540 billion), according to the Eurogroup president, Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno.

Included is a precautionary credit line from the European Stability Mechanism in case individual countries experience difficulties raising funds to deal with the fallout from the pandemic.

Also under discussion is a guarantee fund from the European Investment Bank for business liquidity and EU support, which would pay the wages of workers who would otherwise be laid off by struggling firms.

More controversial is the question of whether to jointly issue "coronabonds," which would pool borrowing among EU members.

Some southern EU countries, notably Italy and Spain, are demanding this.

But the idea of such debt has been rejected by Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and Finland, who fear it would mean the eventual sharing of all sovereign debts.

The European Central Bank has already announced a 750 billion-euro ($812 billion) program to buy government and company debt across the eurozone and ease the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, while the European Commission has relaxed its state aid and budgetary rules.

Based on reporting by AFP and dpa
Americans prepare for what the country's top doctor warned Sunday would be "the hardest and saddest week" of their lives.

According to Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Fox News, fatalities from the novel coronavirus would make this advent reminiscent of Pearl Harbor and 9/11.

However, New York City witnessed a slight decrease in daily deaths, ICU admissions, and patients who needed breathing tubes inserted, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It is the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic.

The governor warned that it was too soon to tell the significance of those numbers.

Meanwhile, the U.K. was beheld deadliest COVID-19 hot spot in Europe after recording a 24-hour jump in deaths that surpassed previously the most hard-hit Italy.

The tally of deaths is exploding in New York, Louisiana, and Michigan with some governors declaring a national order to stay indoors.

New York reported Sunday that there were almost 600 new deaths for a total of 4,159 fatalities and 122,000 total cases, making it the hardest-hit state.

Bodies of victims of the coronavirus were piled in bright orange bags inside a makeshift morgue outside Brooklyn's Wyckoff Heights Medical Center.

According to Adams, there "is a light at the end of the tunnel if everyone does their part for the next 30 days."

Also read: Chinese Patient Had COVID-19 for Record-Breaking 49 Days

"There is hope, but we've also got to all do our part."

Medical equipment and supplies were urgently needed across the Philadelphia region on Palm Sunday.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared that the state acquired an additional 500 ventilators from the national emergency reserve, but still short of at least 1,350 more.

Authorities are alerting that the next two weeks will be critical in tackling the spread of the coronavirus. According to data collated by Johns Hopkins University, the nationwide total of fatalities had risen to at least 8,503 people, with nearly 312,245 infected.

U.K.'s prime minister, Boris Johnson, was admitted to the hospital 10 days after testing positive for the coronavirus in what his office deemed as a "precautionary step." Queen Elizabeth II called out Britons to practice self-discipline in "an increasingly challenging time."

Along with the number of people dying seemingly slowing down in New York City, the same goes for Spain and Italy.

Britain registered 708 new coronavirus fatalities Saturday while Italy reported 631 deaths on the same day.

Adams announced, "This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to be localized. It's going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that."

Host Chris Wallace pressed the surgeon general on President Donald Trump's recurring promotion of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a cure for the coronavirus. The drug has not been approved yet as a treatment while experts have cautioned a run on supplies could result in a shortage for those in need of it for its FDA-approved uses.

On Saturday's coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, Trump said that this week and the next could be the most difficult in the battle against the coronavirus, citing that "there will be a lot of death."

Related article: China Province Imposes New Coronavirus Lockdown, Fears of Second Wave

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The City Police on Tuesday warned



that people violating prohibitory orders clamped to enforce the ongoing lockdown will be dealt with strictly and advised citizens to walk to the nearest stores to buy essential commodities including vegetables.

City Police Commissioner A K Viswanathan said complaints have been received that many motorists travel farther under the pretext of buying essentials, even as the state has effected a lockdown as part of its efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Chennai has the highest number of coronavirus infected persons in Tamil Nadu with 110 patients while the state's overall tally stands at 621, according to latest government data.

The government had earlier curtailed the business hours of shops selling essential items such as vegetables by 90 minutes after it expressed concern that the lockdown rules were not being followed by the public properly.

"Essential commodities will be available in the vicinity, within 1-2 km. People can walk to the shops to buy them," Viswanathan told reporters here, and pointed out that Chief Minister K Palaniswami has also advised in this regard.

Further, as suggested by the government, one can buy stocks for a week and should not venture out of their homes everyday for this purpose, he added.

Palaniswami had on Saturday announced that shops selling essential items can remain open only from 6 am to 1 pm, while earlier they were allowed to function till 2.30 pm.

The government's curbs relating to shops remaining open was announced after Palaniswami warned of tightening the ongoing lockdown on Friday as many were not following the prohibitory orders clamped to implement it.

The state has imposed Section 144 Cr.Pc., which bans the assembly of more than five persons, to implement the lockdown.

On Tuesday, Viswanathan further said the police had received complaints that many persons travel farther in their two-wheelers under the pretext of buying such essentials.

"We will take strict action against them," he said.

So far cases have been booked against 30,000 persons and 12,000 vehicles have been seized in this connection in the city, he added.

"People should realise the seriousness (of the situation) and protect themselves and their families," he said in an apparent reference to staying indoors.

To a question, he said steps have been taken by the Corporation of Chennai to deliver essential items to people residing in containment areas in the city from where COVID19 positive cases have been reported.

Earlier, he gave away hand sanitizers and energy drinks to city police personnel.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Chinese sailor was brought into Australia on Monday and tested for Covid-19 after sustaining a finger injury aboard a ship.

Foreign nationals are banned from entering Australia after Scott Morrison closed the borders to stop the spread of the deadly virus.

But a 30-year-old Chinese man had to be brought ashore in Queensland after he hurt his finger.

Senior Sergeant Joe Matheson said the sailor was taken to the Townsville University Hospital and will be tested for coronavirus.

Although the man was not showing any symptoms of the virus, 'he's being treated as a potential COVID-19 carrier,' Senior Sergeant Matheson said.

Australian dock workers (above) wait to unload a Chinese freighter as the coronavirus pandemic grips the country

A Chinese sailor had to be brought ashore and taken to the Townsville University Hospital (pictured) after suffering a severe finger injury off Australia's east coast

There have been a total of 934 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the State of Queenalnd including 22 reported in the Townsville area.

'The majority of cases are from patients who have travelled overseas, or have had direct contact with a confirmed case who had travelled overseas,' Queensland Health said in a statement.

'We want everyone to know they can play their part to protect themselves and the more vulnerable in our community.

'Please follow the recommended advice from us and our federal counterparts in regards to social distancing, public gatherings and general wellbeing.'

The incident comes one week after 12 Australian dock workers in Melbourne walked off the job refusing to unload a Chinese ship.

The men feared the Xin Da Lian freighter could be contaminated with the coronavirus as it was in breach of the 14-day quarantine period set by the Federal Government.

Maritime Union of Australia claimed the vessel left Shanghai on March 17 before docking in Kaoshiung, Taiwan, on March 19 and arriving in Melbourne 12 days later.
Lucknow, April 7 : Even as the Yogi Adityanath government is working overtime to strengthen the healthcare faculties to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak, the non-coronavirus patients are facing a tough time.

The general facility for out-patients (OPD) have been shut at the six major hospitals in Lucknow --the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) , King George's Medical University (KGMU), Balrampur Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences (RMLIMS), Shyama Prasad Civil Hospital and Lok Bandhu Hospital.

All these hospitals are now focusing on the COVID-19 cases which has led to the denial of treatment for general patients.

The OPD at the KGMU alone gets around 4,000-5,000 patients daily while the SGPGIMS receives at least 2,000 patients on a daily basis. The Ram Manohar Lohia hospital caters to around 18,000 patients a day while the Balrampur hospital count is around 2,000 patients. The Lok Bandhu hospital gets 1,000 patients daily.

All these hospitals are now admitting only suspected/confirmed Covid-19 cases and offer emergency and super-specialty services.

Kiran Kumar, who suffered a fracture in his leg after falling down the stairs in his house, was turned away from the KGMU on Monday.

"I could not even get an X-ray done because diagnostic clinics are closed due to lack of staff. I am trying to get an appointment with a private orthopedic doctor but most of them are not taking calls," he said.

The situation is worse for the Cancer patients since most hospitals are not entertaining new patients for chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Abdul Hasan Hashmi, whose younger brother is suffering from oral cancer and was scheduled to undergo chemotherapy, was turned away twice from hospitals in Lucknow.

"We live in Sultanpur and I have been to Lucknow twice but no hospital agreed to treat my brother. If the chemo session is missed, the cancer may get aggravated," he told IANS.

He finally took his brother on a motorbike to a private hospital in Kanpur where the latter underwent chemotherapy last week at the cost of a whopping Rs 75,000 for one session, against the normal charge of Rs 30,000 per session.

Dental patients are also facing problems due to lack of treatment. More than 15,000 dental patients visit 700-odd private dental clinics, government hospitals and medical facilities every day.

President of Indian Dental Association (IDA), Lucknow chapter, Ashish Singh said, "Since dental issues are not considered as an unavoidable medical service or emergency, passes are not being issued to our staff. We are unable to run OPDs. We are treating patients through video calls, but not every patient is equipped to handle video calls." Dentists also claim that they are unable to run private clinics because the staff is not being provided passes for the lockdown.
MIAMI, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Call it ominous timing. In February, author Dick Barlik published "S***, I Got Fired," a short, no-B.S. guide on how to get hired after being unexpectedly fired. Shortly thereafter, the United States saw the worst unemployment spikes in history.

"S***, I Got Fired" Book

According to the Department of Labor, job loss as a result of the coronavirus outbreak continues to soar as unemployment claims reach nearly 10 million in the last 3 weeks. Barlik hopes the practical, straightforward advice in his book will help the jobless. He writes from personal experience, having been suddenly fired from his job in 2019.

"I wrote this book because when I got fired people told me that I handled it well," said Barlik. "I recently decided to share what I did as a practical guide. Now with COVID-19, millions of Americans find themselves unemployed. It's a terrible situation. But I'm proud to offer whatever help I can to people who are jobless and utterly confused about their next steps."

Getting fired is a traumatic experience, notes Barlik. A research review at the University of East Anglia suggests the psychological effects of getting fired are equal to a divorce or even the death of a spouse. Sometimes, notes the research, the psychological effects of getting fired even last longer.

Barlik's doesn't mince words in his unemployment guide. It avoids "rah-rah" advice that focuses on inspiring quotes but fails to offer actionable tips. "S***, I Got Fired" admonishes fired professionals to get used to rejection until landing a new job. Barlik explains that the isolation of unemployment and the coronavirus can be used to focus one's efforts on landing a new job. In these days of quarantining and social distancing, the advice is surprisingly prescient.

"I didn't write this book for the world of COVID-19," Barlik says. "But the way things have turned out, it's an ideal guide for someone who's social distancing at home and is uncertain about their future."

The book covers a wide range of topics, including immediate steps (keeping one's home clean and organized, staying off of social media except LinkedIn) to following up on phone calls, and interviewing tips. As part of the "no-B.S. approach," Barlik advocates honesty in explaining a previous firing. People like HomeAway co-founder Brian Sharples have said they even prefer to hire people who have learned from previous failures.

Barlik, includes a list of unemployment resources at his website, https://bit.ly/2X3ORmS. He credits his proactive approach during those early 2019 days for keeping his career on track and making it possible to grow as a result of the experience.

"Looking back, getting fired can be a devastating memoryor it can be an opportunity," Barlik says. "You'd be surprised how much of that choice is under your control. That's no B.S."

For more information, reach out to Dick Barlik at https://bit.ly/2X3ORmS or [email protected].

About the Author

Dick Barlik knows how to go from getting abruptly fired to landing a job. He wrote his book "S***, I Got Fired" to help reduce the pain and frustration generally associated with going from fired to hired. Originally from Philadelphia, he graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and completed his MBA at The University of Miami. He has conducted interviews and managed hiring decisions, and gives advice from the perspective of employer and successful job candidate.

Media contact:

Dick Barlik

[email protected]

317-439-7919

SOURCE Dick Barlik
U.S. gasoline demand has collapsed as stay-at-home orders keep drivers off the road, following the pattern seen in the hardest-hit parts of Europe.

Sales at retail stations were down 46.6% from a year earlier in the week ending March 28, according to a report from OPIS by IHS Markit. The average station sold about 11,000 gallons -- less than two tanker trucks worth.

The gasoline demand plunge accelerated as government orders on staying home became more widespread, dropping 30% in a week. The loss of consumption in the U.S. echoes that of Spain and Italy, which imposed some of Europes harshest restrictions on movement. Demand there for gasoline was down about 85%.

Weekly U.S. government data show that the least gasoline was supplied to the market since 1994. While the drop isnt as drastic as at the retail level, its likely to increase as retailers take less fuel. Refineries are cutting back production as fuel piles up in storage tanks, in turn pushing down crude prices. Globally, oil demand may shrink by as much as a third, according to some estimates.

The national figures line up with state-level numbers. Last week, a trade group in California reported a drop of 60% in combined gasoline and diesel sales in urban areas and 35% in farm markets from early March through March 27. Trade groups in Texas and Florida reported big-city gasoline sales down by half.

European demand

European countries are also taking a hit. Gasoline demand fell 83% on an annual basis in Spain during the week ended March 29, according to pipeline operator CLH Group. In the U.K., gasoline sales in late March were down by 66%, compared with an average during the previous two months, the U.K. Petrol Retailers Association said.

A survey of Dutch car dealers, driving schools and transport companies found that respondents lost almost half of their revenue on average as a result of the virus, according to industry group Bovag, which conducted the study.

The Netherlands really has come to a standstill, said Bovag spokesman Tom Huyskens. Only those that really need it are driving, filling up their tank, but otherwise traffic has pretty much stopped.

Diesel sales

In the U.S., diesel demand hasnt been hit as bad, as truck deliveries have continued. But Pilot Co., Americas biggest truck-stop company, is facing a 25% to 30% slowdown as the impact of coronavirus moves through the supply chain, keeping economic activity muted and workers at home, Chief Executive Officer Jimmy Haslam said in an interview.

With big box retailers starting to slow and automakers shutting, we expect more slowdown in coming weeks, he said.

Alex Baloga, president of the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association, said his states figures were roughly in line with drops in the larger states, but there were glimmers of hope.

Members with fuel pumps at stores have reported increased traffic in the last few days to numbers not seen since late February. Stores are still looking for creative ways to make money.

There are not a lot of good options out there, he said. One of the things we are looking at is the return of video poker machines to the stores, with responsible social distancing, and allowing liquor sales at the stores. We want to start having that discussion.
Robertson argued the lawsuit should be dismissed because the attorney general took longer to file suit than allowed by the two-year statute of limitations, since he learned about the alleged malfeasance in 2014 and waited until 2017 to try to recover the money.

The Supreme Court, in a 4-1 decision, disagreed. It said the statute of limitations doesn't begin to run until the attorney general receives the official, final SBOA audit, and in this case the attorney general timely filed suit within two years of receiving the report.

In the Munster superintendents' case, Pfister was paid $359,728.94 and Sopko $311,198.75 in extra retirement pay under contracts that were continually approved, along with the related payment vouchers, by the Munster School Board, according to court records.

The contracts were audited by SBOA on six occasions between 1999 and 2014 with no wrongdoing identified.

However, a special 2016 audit covering the entire 15-year period alleged the superintendents were paid more than they should have received.
Regulatory News:

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) ("PSH") today announced that it has purchased, through PSH's agent, Jefferies International Limited ("Jefferies"), the following number of PSH's Public Shares of no par value (ISIN Code: GG00BPFJTF46) (the "Shares"):

Trading Venue: London Stock Exchange Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 7 April 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 168 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 1,488 pence 18.34 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 1,488 pence 18.34 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 1,488 pence 18.34 USD Trading Venue: Euronext Amsterdam Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 7 April 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 1,155 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 18.40 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 18.40 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 18.40 USD

PSH will hold these Public Shares in Treasury. The net asset value per Public Share related to this buyback is 27.72 USD 22.32 GBP which was calculated as of 31 March 2020 (the "Relevant NAV"). After giving effect to the above buyback, PSH has 200,135,008 Public Shares outstanding, or 205,844,259 Public Shares calculated on a fully diluted basis (assuming that all Management Shares had been converted into Public Shares at the Relevant NAV). Excluded from the shares outstanding are 10,821,742 Public Shares held in Treasury. The prices per Public Share were calculated by Jefferies.

The number of PSH Management Shares and the one special voting share (held by PS Holdings Independent Voting Company Limited) have not been affected.

About Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd.

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) is an investment holding company structured as a closed-ended fund that makes concentrated investments principally in North American companies.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005782/en/

Contacts:

Camarco

Ed Gascoigne-Pees Hazel Stevenson +44 020 3757 4989, media-pershingsquareholdings@camarco.co.uk
YEREVAN.  Irates daily of Armenia writes. Unlike the MPs, who unanimously decided to refuse their last month's bonuses and direct them to the special account opened in the Ministry of Finance for the fight against coronavirus, the representatives of the executive [branch of power in the country] will not make such a sacrifice.

Of course, this does not apply to all ministries or agencies, but the Ministries of Justice or Finance, for example, have confirmed that they will not discomfort the employees. It is not clear what the picture will be in other ministries or provincial halls; these circles give to media inquiries an answer that says nothing.
By Gina Lee

Investing.com  Chinas Three Gorges Renewables Group is planning to raise up to CNY 25 billion ($3.52 billion) in what could be the countrys second biggest IPO of the year.

Three Gorges looks to sell up to 8.57 billion shares on the Shanghai bourse, according to its prospectus on the China Securities Regulatory Commission. It will list mostly domestic solar and wind farms and hydropower plants with a total capacity of around 10 gigawatts.

The company will use CNY 20 million of the proceeds to fund seven new offshore wind farms, with the remainder CNY 5 million will be working capital.

It aims to operate 6 gigawatts of offshore wind power capacity by the end f the year, including projects under construction. It had a 1.47-gigawatt capacity as of December 31.

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[April 07, 2020] Columbia Seligman Premium Technology Growth Fund, Inc. Announces Postponement of 10th Annual Meeting of Stockholders

The Board of Directors (the Board) of Columbia Seligman Premium Technology Growth Fund, Inc. (the Fund) (NYSE: STK) announced today that, in light of the public health concerns regarding the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, the 10th Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the "Meeting") of the Fund, originally scheduled to be held at The Boston Harbor Hotel, 70 Rowes Wharf, Boston, Massachusetts 02110, on April 21, 2020, at 9:30 a.m., local time, has been postponed pursuant to Maryland Code, Corporations and Associations 2-511(d)(2) and the bylaws of the Fund. The Fund now seeks to hold the Meeting at 707 Second Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55474, on June 15, 2020 at 8:30 a.m. local time. As described in the proxy materials for the Meeting previously distributed, you are entitled to participate in the Meeting if you were a stockholder as of the close of business on March 3, 2020, the record date. You will need proof of record ownership of the Fund's stock to enter the Meeting or, if your shares are held in street name, a proxy from te record holder.



Your vote is very important. Whether or not you plan to attend the Meeting, and regardless of the number of shares you own, we urge you to vote by promptly signing, dating and returning the Proxy Card included with the proxy materials previously distributed, or by authorizing your proxy by telephone or the Internet as described in the Proxy Card. In addition, you may be able to authorize your proxy by telephone through the Fund's proxy solicitor. If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact Georgeson LLC, the Fund's proxy solicitor, at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10104, or by telephone at 1-800-261-1047.

The Fund is managed by Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC. This material is distributed by Columbia Management Investment Distributors, Inc., member FINRA. Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Fund carefully before investing. You can obtain the Fund's most recent periodic reports and other regulatory filings by contacting your financial advisor or visiting columbiathreadneedleus.com. These reports and other filings can also be found on the Securities and Exchange Commission's EDGAR Database. You should read these reports and other filings carefully before investing. Investment products are not federally or FDIC-insured, are not deposits or obligations of, or guaranteed by any financial institution, and involve investment risks including possible loss of principal and fluctuation in value.  2020 Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC. All rights reserved. Adtrax 3026231 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005600/en/

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New Zealand Health Minister David Clark has been demoted and only avoided being sacked by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern due to the "massive disruption" it would cause after admitting he broke the country's strict coronavirus lockdown by taking his family on a 20 kilometre trip to a beach.

Clark, in a statement issued early on Tuesday morning, said he had informed the Prime Minister of his breach of the lockdown and offered his resignation.

Health Minister Dr David Clark. Credit:Getty Images

He later told the AM Show he felt "like a complete dick" when he realised his mistake. Clark even left the door open to resigning from Parliament by not standing at the next election.

He said that on the first weekend of the lockdown he travelled about 20 kilometres from his home to Doctor's Point Beach for a walk with his family.
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI)  School is looking a lot different for students all over the state of Indiana but Tippecanoe County principals are working to maintain a sense of normalcy, with a bit of a twist.

Morning announcements are how students typically start their day in the classroom, now that everything is digital Southwestern Middle School Principal Sarah Gustin is using virtual videos and social media trends to help parents and students adjust to this temporary normal we're facing. Instead of simply reading school announcements, she's adding a little fun by dancing and lip-syncing to popular TikTok videos.

Neuroscience teaches us that connections are so important and essential so I wanted to find a way to kind of maintain that connection in the best way that I could, said Gustin.

She said her middle schoolers love TikTok so she felt they would enjoy her using it as a tool to give them the information they need while keeping them engaged.

Principal Gustin said teachers and parents have been feeling the pressures of this abrupt change in learning. That's why creating something to look forward to is at the forefront.

We're not homeschooling right now, we're crisis schooling, said Gustin. This is not a situation where pressure needs to be placed on you, on the children, on the staff, the most important thing is that we all communicate and make this situation as much of a positive one as we can.

Battle Ground Principal John Pearl agrees. He's also finding creativity with his morning announcements. His latest video took place in his barn, where he got to show his students some animals.

It's unfortunate that we're not getting together to get any sort of closure but when we return in the fall, I am sure we'll have lots of handshakes and hugs to those teachers that we left so unexpectedly, said Pearl.

James Cole Elementary Principal Michael Pinto said while these videos are a way for students and parents to feel connected It's also fulfilling something in the principals as well.

This allows me a little bit of an itch to be scratched in terms of doing the videos because at least I know that I'm putting myself out there and that hopefully, I'm connecting, said Pinto.

Even at home, these principals say the love is still there and they hope students continue following the Tippecanoe School Corporation motto, Treat people right and do the right.

The principals send their announcement videos every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Many teachers have incorporated their own videos in their virtual classrooms for students as well.
At the start of what is expected to be the deadliest week of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, the White House tried to offer some hope that measures to contain the spread were working.

The virus killed 1,264 over 24 hours in the U.S. as of 2:05 am ET on Tuesday, according to NBC New's tracker. A total of 10,906 have been recorded killed by COVID-19.

Meanwhile China, where the pandemic broke out, claimed that not a single new death was reported, and the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, where the new virus was first identified, prepared for lockdown measures to be lifted.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, said on Monday he was "cautiously optimistic" that the worst projections could be avoided "if we keep our foot on the accelerator"  referring to social distancing policies in force throughout much of the country.

Fauci and other officials leading the U.S. response to the crisis emphasized the importance of stay-at-home measures during a briefing.

"I don't think anyone has ever mitigated the way I'm seeing people mitigate right now," he said.

Nevertheless, President Donald Trump cautioned that over the next week-and-a-half there would be a "big surge" in cases and deaths.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

The president added that his administration was tackling hot spots, including New York, which has been hardest-hit by the virus in the U.S.

"We are pressing into action the full power of American government and American enterprise in our military has been incredible," he said.

While the lockdown was being lifted in Wuhan, the pandemic's original epicenter, a spokesman for China's National Health Commission cautioned the country still faced the risk of new outbreaks caused by domestic and imported cases.

Health officials reported 32 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus in mainland China on Monday, all of them imported, bringing the total to 81,740.

Story continues

The former epicenter of the epidemic, Wuhan, reported only two new confirmed cases in the past 14 days.

Image: People wearing face masks walk inside a barricaded residential compound in Wuhan, China, on Tuesday. (Noel Celis / AFP - Getty Images)

On Wednesday, its residents will be able to move in and out of the city for the first time since the city went into lockdown on Jan. 23 to stop the spread of the virus.

For more than two months, Wuhan has been under draconian containment measures with its public transportation completely shuttered and residents ordered to stay inside.

Ahead of the citys reopening, Chinese state media trumpeted the success of the lockdown measures, praising the residents for their sacrifice, but also warning people against letting their guard down.

Zero growth does not mean zero risk, and opening a city gate does not mean opening every family door, Xinhua state news agency said Tuesday.

Download the NBC News app for latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak.

The city has been showing signs of going back to normal since last week. With its subway and train service resuming last weekend, some businesses, supermarkets and shopping malls have also re-opened their doors.

Photos shared by state media in the past few days showed people venturing out into the streets, walking their dogs, buying food in the street markets and even relaxing on the banks of the Yangtze River  with many still wearing masks.

But some residents told NBC News they remain cautious about going outside, concerned about a possible second wave of infections.
Updates related to COVID-19 and its effects on Albuquerque and the rest of the state.

PICTURES





UPDATES

7:50 p.m.

Navajo Nation COVID-19 cases increase by 42, with 2 more deaths

The Navajo Nation Health Command Operations Center reported 42 new cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, bringing the total cases on the Navajo Nation to 426. The Navajo Nation also confirmed two more COVID-19 deaths. There are now 17 confirmed COVID-19 deaths on the Navajo Nation.

The Navajo Nation can implement and enforce curfews and restrictions, but ultimately its up to you, President Jonathan Nez said. We must practice Taa hwo ajiteego, self-determination, our Dine people must know that they also have the power to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We have the power to save lives, especially those that have compromised immune systems. We must work together to protect our people, our way of life and who we are as Dine.

A reservation-wide stay-at-home order and an 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew remain in effect. The Navajo Nation will also have a weekend-long curfew from 8 p.m. on Friday, April 10, to 5 a.m. on Monday, April 13. President Nez has encouraged people who must leave home for essential trips to wear masks and gloves.

The Navajo Health Command Operations Center hotline is (928) 871-7014.

 Theresa Davis

6:05 p.m.

SIC ratifies $100M New Mexico recovery fund

A New Mexico Recovery Fund aimed at helping businesses stay afloat during the coronavirus outbreak will make loans of between $500,000 to $10 million available to businesses that employ at least 40 workers and meet other qualifying criteria, under a plan approved by the State Investment Council.

The SIC, which had voted last month to approve the idea of the new fund, voted 10-0 on Tuesday to ratify its final framework.

As we battle the pandemic, weve got to explore every avenue for both protecting public health and assuring economic relief for affected businesses and individuals, said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who chairs the investment council.

Read more >>

 Dan Boyd

4:35 p.m.

NM confirms 109 new virus cases, 1 additional death, clusters on pueblos

New Mexicos coronavirus outbreak reached 794 confirmed cases Tuesday as health officials announced 109 more positive tests and said clusters of the disease had emerged at two pueblos in Sandoval County.

The death toll, meanwhile, climbed to 13, following the death of a Bernalillo County man in his 30s with underlying health conditions.

State health officials also said clusters of COVID-19 case have emerged in San Felipe and Zia pueblos, where the disease is spreading among the community. Fifty-two people have tested positive for the virus at San Felipe Pueblo and 31 tested positive at Zia Pueblo.

Read more >>

 Dan McKay

2:56 p.m.

Oil producers begin shutting down wells

New Mexicos oil and gas industry is teetering on the edge of a near shutdown, slammed by plunging demand for oil and an unprecedented global market glut thats slashed prices to 20-year lows.

New drilling in the Permian Basin in southeastern New Mexico is screeching to a halt, and many producers are starting to shut in existing wells to await better times. That, in turn, foreshadows a double whammy on the state budget, as government revenue tumbles from plummeting oil prices plus forthcoming production declines.

Its not pretty down here, said Raye Miller, president of oil company Regeneration Energy Corp. in Artesia. Probably the most activity were seeing now is from folks moving rigs out of the oil fields and into storage yards.

Read more >>

 Kevin Robinson-Avila

1:53 p.m.

Santa Fe International Folk Art Market postponed until 2021

he COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered Santa Fes International Folk Art Market, the largest of its kind in the world.

The markets board of directors cancelled the market on Tuesday, as it joins the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Traditional Spanish Market and the Native Treasures Market in closing due to the worldwide pandemic.

It became quite evident in the last 10 days it would be impossible, said Stuart Ashman, IFAM CEO. Borders were closing; quarantines were required.

Read more >>

 Kathleen Roberts

1:05 p.m.

Zia Pueblo grappling with COVID-19 outbreak

At least 11 and as many as 20 members of the Zia Pueblo have tested positive for COVID-19, the acting governor announced in a memo Sunday.

If this statement does not make you realize how real and close to home this truly is, then we dont know what will, Acting Governor Floyd Toribio wrote in a memo to all tribal members which was posted on Facebook. We are a small, close-knit community with strong family connections.

The pueblo, northwest of Rio Rancho in Sandoval County, has about 1,000 members, according to census data from 2017.

Read more >>

 Elise Kapan

1:03 p.m.

Picture: Chatting, at a distance

 Eddie Moore

12:23 p.m.

Ruidoso Easter egg hunt canceled

The Village of Ruidoso has canceled its annual Easter egg hunt that was to be held Saturday, April 11 at the Cedar Creek Picnic Area. The decision was made after a public health order limiting mass gatherings to five individuals was issued in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Lincoln National Forest remains open. The public may use trails and disperse camp in areas outside designated campgrounds. Restrooms, picnic areas, designated campgrounds and day-use areas may be closed to protect public health.

Visit fs.usda.gov/lincoln for the latest updates.

 Beth Trujillo

11:09 a.m.

Citys coronavirus costs average $100k per day

The city of Albuquerque is spending about $100,000 per day on its response to COVID-19, according to its chief financial officer.

Sanjay Bhakta told the city council Monday night that expenses are averaging about $100,000 per day and include employee overtime, cleaning supplies and information technology programs. He said the number could increase as the coronavirus crisis ascends toward its peak in New Mexico.

The federal governments CARES Act relief package allows local governments of at least 500,000 people to seek direct reimbursement for costs specifically associated with the coronavirus pandemic. Albuquerque officials estimate the city could qualify for up to $150 million under the package.

But Bhakta told the council that the pandemics toll on the city budget will more likely take the form of lost tax revenue. With many businesses forced into temporary closures under the states stay-at-home order, the city will inevitably see less gross receipts tax.

GRT powers city government. It accounts for 67% of the general fund, which covers police, street maintenance and other basic city services.

Bhakta said local governments across the U.S. are currently pushing the federal leaders to also provide reimbursement for lost revenue instead of only direct coronavirus costs.

I think all of us are lobbying for lost revenue  that may be a bigger issue for us than expenditures related to COVID-19, he said.

 Jessica Dyer

6:10 a.m.

Its lonely  its truly lonely

Coronavirus takes mother, infects brother

Maxine Roybal Lopez died at the University of New Mexico Hospital fighting COVID-19 with no family by her side.

The 71-year-old had been hooked up to a ventilator for days when she took a turn for the worse. Because hospitals have limited visitors, her daughter couldnt be there.

One of the nurses did hold my moms hand to the very end, Maria-elena Lopez said. I asked her to please do that for me.

The hospital had previously called to warn her about her mothers deteriorating condition and to ask how to proceed if her mothers heart stopped.

It was the hardest thing Id ever heard.  I couldnt understand the rapid decline, she said.

Now she is alone as she grieves her moms death.

And she is hoping that her brother, who she said has tested positive for the same virus that killed their mother, will not suffer a similar fate.

Lopezs family has been in the news a lot this past week. Her mom was the seventh person to die in New Mexico of coronavirus. And she believes her brother, Daniel Lopez, was the first person to test positive in the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Read more >>

Katy Barnitz

6:07 a.m.

Virus forces postponement of Traditional Spanish Market

Days after the 2020 Indian Market postponed until 2021, the Traditional Spanish Market has followed suit.

The Spanish Colonial Arts Society, which puts on the event, informed hundreds of artists about the decision in a letter sent Monday.

The 2020 event was scheduled to take place July 25-26 at the Santa Fe Plaza.

In the letter, Rob Coffland, president of the Spanish Colonial Arts Society, wrote that the board of directors decided to postpone the event until July 24-25, 2021, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision was very difficult, but it was made in the interest to protect the health of the artists, your families, your collectors, and our community, Coffland said in the letter.

Read more >>

Adrian Gomez

6:05 a.m.

Congress, White House reach high for next virus bill

Congressional leaders are jolting ahead with another coronavirus rescue package as President Donald Trump indicated Monday that Americans will need more aid during the stark pandemic and economic shutdown.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said another $1 trillion is needed, beyond the just-passed $2.2 trillion effort. She wants another round of direct payments to Americans and more money for companies to keep making payroll. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said in recent days that health care should top the list, signaling his intent to get to work on a new bill.

Were going to take good care of our people, Trump said Monday at his daily White House briefing. It was not their fault.

Its a rare sign of emerging consensus as Washington responds to the public health emergency and severe economic fallout that is ransacking communities nationwide, a crisis on par with a war effort or the Great Depression.

Read more >>

 AP

6:00 a.m.

Mayor suggests less crowded open spaces

Packed parking lots and narrow trails can be a recipe for distancing disaster during a pandemic.

Thats why Mayor Tim Keller , during a recent news conference, urged people to consider open spaces that have less traffic.

Our popular open spaces are getting heavily used and we want to let you know that there are a lot of other open space areas that are just as awesome, Keller said. You can have a very enjoyable time with less parking hassle by trying to hit some of these lesser used, open space areas.

The City of Albuquerque suggests visitors visit these other locations: the Tijeras Arroyo, Juan Tomas, San Antonito, Calabacillas Arroyo, Manzano, and Quail Rancho Open Spaces.

The City also manages Open Space in Sandoval County and the East Mountains, including Golden Open Space and the John A. Milne & Gutierrez Canyon.

For a full list, maps and other resources, visit www.cabq.gov/openspace.

A 2007 study done by the Trust for Public Land found that Albuquerque has the most land area devoted to parks and preserves throughout the country.

Since stay-at-home orders were put in place many people in Albuquerque have been flocking to open spaces, something Superintendent of Open Space Colleen McRoberts is happy to see, but not without reminders to be courteous visitors like: stay on the trail; take out your trash; pick up after your dogs; be prepared; let other people know where youre going and dress accordingly.

Please remember to stay safe for your sake and other people on the trail and minimize your impact to our natural and cultural resources, McRoberts said.

The mayors office is asking residents to observe social distancing even on the trails.

 Anthony Jackson
CNBC's Jim Cramer on Monday rolled out a list of stay-at-home stock picks of companies he thinks will continue to perform even after lockdown mandates across the country are lifted. "The stay-at-home economy might seem temporary, but working remotely has so many advantages that I think we might be witnessing a more permanent shift in that direction," the "Mad Money" host said. "That's why I like all these stay-at-home stocks for the long haul." Below is a list of names that he is banking on:

Constellation Brands

Constellation Brands nearly lost half its market value between February and March as restaurants and bars were order closed across the country in efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus. Most of the company's business, however, whose beer brands include Corona, Modelo and Pacifico, comes from outside of bars of restaurants. CEO Bill Newlands said Friday that as much as 90% of its sales are for at-home consumption. "At the end of the day, quarantine doesn't make people stop drinking, they just buy their beer at the supermarket rather than a bar," Cramer said. "If anything, they drink more when times are tough, which makes this a terrific recession stock."

Conagra

After reporting earnings last week, Conagra  whose packaged food brands include Slim Jim, Healthy Choice, Hunt's and Pam  said its sales have picked up as people stock up on pantry items, including signs of a comeback in its classic Chef Boyardee pasta line. "Conagra's not perfect. It's got history of spotty execution, but I think it works here," Cramer said. "This is the pantry aisle's time to shine."

PepsiCo

Cramer called PepsiCo the "king" of snacking with names like Frito-Lay and Quaker in its portfolio. "While we haven't seen their lockdown numbers yet because PEP reports early, I bet they make a killing," the host said.

Hormel Foods

"[I]t's great to know that Hormel just declared its 53rd-consecutive annual dividend boost," Cramer said. "A lot of companies are slashing their dividends here, but not in the packaged foods space."

Domino's Pizza

Domino's Pizza continues to add to its store count in efforts to beef up its delivery services. Cramer thinks it will help the company beat out competition in the tough delivery space, post-pandemic. "This pandemic is crushing the mom and pop pizza places, sadly," he said. "We really need that small business bailout money, and we need it fast, or else Domino's wins by default."

Chipotle
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, December 3, 2019.

Alex Brandon/AP

Acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly made an impassioned speech to sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, days after he dismissed its commanding officer over a leaked letter.

Modly, who visited the ship in Guam on Monday, made an all-hands call to the carrier's crew. Business Insider obtained a copy of the call and confirmed its authenticity.

"He was either A: too naive, or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this," Modly said of Capt. Brett Crozier. "The alternative is that he did this on purpose."

Modly also suggested the news media were too partisan to be trusted and said China was to blame for the coronavirus.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly made an impassioned speech to the roughly 4,800 sailors aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt days after he dismissed its commanding officer for losing confidence.

Modly, who visited the ship in Guam on Monday, made an all-hands call using the carrier's announcement system, addressing the crew that recently lost its commander, Capt. Brett Crozier.

Crozier was fired on Thursday, after he emailed an urgent plea to over 20 colleagues outlining the ongoing coronavirus outbreak aboard his ship. In his four-page letter, Crozier asked for a "political solution" and "immediate and decisive action" as his crew dealt with the coronavirus outbreak.

The letter was eventually leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, which published it. It was not immediately clear how the letter was leaked, and the Defense Department has launched an investigation.

Capt. Brett Crozier, commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, addresses the crew during an all-hands call on the ships flight deck, November 14, 2019.

US Navy/MCS 3rd Class Nicholas Huynh

According to Modly, Crozier violated military protocols, circumventing the chain of command by sending the letter to a group of people. Modly said that while he did not how the letter got to the media, there was a "proper way" for Crozier to handle his concerns.

Story continues

In his speech aboard the carrier, Modly outlined his reasons for Crozier's firing and expressed continued support for the crew. Modly also criticized Crozier's decision to send the letter by comparing it to China's obfuscation over the coronavirus, with which China "put the world at risk to protect themselves and to protect their reputations," Modly said.

"If he didn't think, it was my opinion, that if he didn't think that information wasn't going to get out into the public, in this information age that we live in, then he was either A: too naive, or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this," Modly said. "The alternative is that he did this on purpose."

"Imagine if every other CO [commanding officer] also believed the media was a proper channel to air grievances with their chain of command under difficult circumstances," Modly added. "We would no longer have a Navy. Not long after that, we would no longer have a country."

Modly, who also served in the US Navy as a helicopter pilot, described Crozier's actions as "a betrayal" and a "big controversy" that created "a martyr CO." He also said crew members should not go to the news media because those companies had a political agenda.

"I'm sorry that's the way the country is now, but it's the truth, and so they use it to divide us they use it to embarrass the Navy," Modly said. "They use it to embarrass you."

US Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, then commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, addresses the crew in an all-hands call, December 15, 2019.

Associated Press

Modly stressed that the crew members ought to stay the course and that they still had a duty to perform amid the coronavirus outbreak on and off the ship.

"That's your duty. Not to complain. Everyone's scared about this thing," Modly said. "But I'll tell you something, if this ship was in combat and there were hypersonic missiles coming at it, you'd be pretty f---ing scared too. But you do your jobs. And that's what I expect you to do."

More than 150 service members aboard the carrier have tested positive for the coronavirus. Crozier also tested positive, The New York Times reported Sunday. Around 2,700 crew members are expected to be evacuated in the coming days to curb the coronavirus' spread.

Videos of Crozier leaving the USS Theodore Roosevelt on April 3 showed the crew cheering and chanting his name.

"I understand you love the guy. It's good that you love him," Modly said in his speech. "But you're not required to love him."

In a statement on Monday, Modly said "the spoken words were from the heart, and meant for" the sailors aboard the ship.

"I stand by every word I said, even, regrettably any profanity that may have been used for emphasis," Modly said. "Anyone who has serve on a Navy ship would understand. I ask, but don't expect, that people read them in their entirety."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Christina and Daniel Fitch and children Joaquin, 3 months, and Paloma, 2, stand outside the recreational vehicle outside their Chesterton area home where Daniel Fitch, who works in health care, will be staying to protect his family from COVID-19. People in the area loaned the family the RV after seeing Christina Fitch ask about one in a Facebook group. (Amy Lavalley / Post-Tribune)
As the global COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt life, the Startup ecosystem has been confronted with unique challenges both from the and operations perspective.

In this unprecedented scenario, TiE Mumbai continues to assist Startups and has organized several webinars with investors, legal assists, Industry leaders and mentors to help entrepreneurs with much needed guidance to tide over the current situation.

"These are challenging times. We are facing a crisis of both life and livelihood. TiE Mumbai is committed to remain engaged with the Startups and support and guide them is every possible way," said Atul Nishar, President, TiE Mumbai.

Some of the webinars organized by TiE Mumbai were -

Continuity and contingency planning - This was a brainstorming session on practices adopted by various startups and strategies bracing for the days ahead. Startups discussed that it is extremely critical to have cash in this crisis. Startups must utilize this time to invest in relationships and must be clear and transparent in their communication with employees.

There is an active need for evolution in thinking and businesses and adoption of new product lines. Raising money is not easy thus being frugal is the key. In addition, startups must be mindful not to delay their statutory payment.

COVID-19 brainstorming strategies for food service network - Key members from the food startup industry discussed that liquidity is an issue. However, there are opportunities in challenges, distribution of resources and change in business model should prove effective. One must be very prudent in opening new outlets.

Unsettling times, what next in the startup world - This was a panel discussion between VCs from around the world on how the current economic situation might evolve, how different geographies and sectors might get affected, how investors view the situation evolving, and their plans for funding. The mentors agreed that this is the time to focus on surviving. While great businesses have started during downturns, tech served companies, digital enterprise solution and digital healthcare remain hot pics.

Cash flow and financial management bootcamp for entrepreneurs - Here experts discussed how to retain one's advantage while cutting costs during these times. Cash management, sensitivity planning, statutory issues, accelerated cash collection and organic growth were discussed as the way forward.

Founders' 101 was launched in partnership with Nishith Desai Associates ("NDA") for Founders to get legal and tax experts' answers to questions on an array of legal issues that need attention. The discussing focused on Force Majeure Issues for Startups: Can Parties Renege from their Contracts in view COVID-19?

Ask me Anything Session with a renowned Doctor from Hinduja Hospital on COVID 19, its symptoms and medical assistance.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(CNN)  The prospect of using hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 amid the novel coronavirus pandemic has sparked rancor and disagreement among politicians and scientists.

There have been indications that the drug is effective in treating or preventing Covid-19, but the tests haven't endured the due diligence of extensive clinical trials.

Still, many -- including President Donald Trump -- are calling for doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine to Covid-19 patients. Here is what you should know:

What is its origin?

Hydroxychloroquine -- also known by the brand name Plaquenil -- and its analog, chloroquine, are derived from quinine, which French chemists in 1820 isolated from the bark of the cinchona tree, according to Medicines for Malaria Venture. In 1934, German scientists created the synthetic chloroquine as part of a class of anti-malarials, MMV said. Hydroxychloroquine is the less-toxic version of chloroquine.

Can it be used to treat Covid-19?

It's unclear. In labs it has demonstrated some efficacy against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus responsible for the present pandemic. But the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, has said that efficacy in test tubes doesn't mean it will work in humans.

Studies on humans have presented conflicting conclusions. For instance, a small Chinese study said the prognosis was "good" but the drug requires further investigation. Meanwhile, a French study combining the drug with a popular antibiotic -- which Trump said could be a game changer -- showed "no evidence of rapid antiviral clearance or clinical benefit."

Another French study showed promise in treating the virus, according to the medical journal The Lancet, "but virologists and infectious disease experts caution that the excitement is premature."

So it's an anti-malarial?

Yes, but since 2006, it has not been recommended for use in severe malaria because of problems with resistance, particularly in the Oceania region, according to the World Health Organization.

It also has value as a "disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug" that can decrease the pain and swelling of arthritis, according to the American College of Rheumatology. It is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, childhood arthritis, some symptoms of lupus and other autoimmune diseases.

"It is not clear why hydroxychloroquine is effective at treating autoimmune diseases. It is believed that hydroxychloroquine interferes with the communication of cells in the immune system," the college says.

Are more studies on humans coming?

Yes, lots of them. Drug makers have provided millions of doses to the federal government, and the US Food and Drug Administration, which has not officially approved hydroxychloroquine for treating Covid-19, issued an emergency use authorization to treat Covid-19 patients with it.

The drug should be used a last resort for extremely ill patients after they are "able to have a conversation with their health care provider about everything that they could possibly do to save their lives," US Surgeon General Jerome Adams told Fox News.

In Detroit, 3,000 patients at Henry Ford Hospital will be part of a trial whose results will be tracked in a formal study, said Vice President Mike Pence, who is heading the White House's coronavirus response. The federal government is also working to get millions of doses into areas with high infection rates, another White House official said.

Why does Trump keep mentioning it?

He believes the drug can be a powerful weapon against Covid-19, he says, "and there are signs that it works on this -- some very strong signs." He also feels taking the drug could be useful as a preventative measure for health care workers, he said.

Experts have not suggested the latter, but Trump is correct that there are promising signs. While health experts say it's best to wait until clinical trials determine if hydroxychloroquine is safe and effective in treating Covid-19, Trump wants faster results. It may not work, he said, but he doesn't want to wait 18 months to find out.

The US Department of Health and Human Services has also cited the encouraging anecdotal reports, but it, too, insisted more clinical trials are needed.

But it's safe?

Trump points to the fact it's been in use for decades, "so we know that if things don't go as planned, it's not going to kill anybody." Health experts indeed feel better about its safety than they would "a completely novel drug," Adams told Fox.

Hydroxychloroquine is well tolerated in Covid-19 patients, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, while the American College of Rheumatologists says it's well tolerated in general.

Side effects are rare, according to the college, and most commonly include nausea and diarrhea. Less common side effects include rashes, hair changes, weakness and, in rare instances, anemia or changes in vision.

That said, Nigerian officials have reported cases of overdoses, and an Arizona man who took a form of chloroquine used for cleaning fish tanks died.

Should people just take it and see what happens?

Lupus patients routinely use the drug to treat their symptoms -- for some, there is no alternative -- and it's the only known therapy for primary Sjogren's syndrome, another autoimmune disorder, The Lancet said.

Because of shortages spurred by coronavirus-related interest, the Lupus Foundation of America has called on drug makers to increase their production of hydroxychloroquine, and Kaiser Permanente is no longer filling routine prescriptions for chloroquine, The Lancet reported.

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, who has called for a "large, pragmatic clinic trial" of the drug, has also urged caution, warning against "treating patients with a product that might not work when they could have pursued other, more appropriate treatments."

This story was first published on CNN.com. "Hydroxychloroquine and COVID-19: an explainer."
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 10:02 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd02ddb8 4 Science & Tech COVID-19,ITB,Unpad,coronavirus,health,ventilator Free

Bandung Institute of Technology is collaborating with the Pembina Mesjid Salman Foundation (YPM Salman) and Padjajaran Universitys (Unpad) School of Medicine to develop a ventilator for COVID-19 patients.

Ventilators allow patients who suffer from breathing difficulties to receive sufficient oxygen supply. However, not all hospitals currently have enough of them, partly because of expense.

Led by ITB's School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics (STEI) lecturer Syarif Hidayat, the team expects the so-called Ventilator Indonesia (Vent-I) to be easy-to-use and able to cater to patients who are still able to breathe on their own; not those who are being treated in an intensive care unit (ICU).

A prototype of the Vent-I being developed by a joint team from the ITB and UNPAD. (itb.ac.id/-)

Read also: Tesla engineers show ventilator prototype on YouTube

During a presentation to senior doctors of Unpad's School of Medicine, the team demonstrated three functions of the ventilator, namely continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), continuous pressure control (CPC) and synchronized pressure control (SPC). CPAP is regarded as the most crucial function to be developed as it may help reduce the number of patients being treated in ICUs.

After it undergoes a series of tests conducted by the Health Ministry's Health Facility Test Agency (BPFK), up to 100 Vent-Is are expected to be manufactured in-house to be donated to hospitals.

As of April 6, there were 2,491 reported cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia, with 209 deaths. (gis/kes)
At 8:45 a.m. on Monday, as her students logged on for their first day of remote learning, one after another, she was thrilled to see them blurt hello for the first time in a week. But all did not go smoothly. A third of the students were not present. There were technical issues. And the class had the feel of a slumber party, since so many children were in their pajamas or in their beds, with parents in the same live shot.
The provincial police watchdog is investigating after a 26-year-old Brampton man died Monday evening in a shooting involving police.

At around 6 p.m., Peel police received reports of a domestic situation near Sawston Circle, east of Chinguacousy Road.

According to a Special Investigations Unit news release, there was an altercation and two officers used conducted energy weapons then one officer discharged his firearm multiple times. The man was struck and died at the scene.

The SIU is an arms-length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.

David Venn is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @davidvenn_

Read more about:
WASHINGTON  White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is leaving the job after eight months during which she held no regular press briefings of the sort that once defined the job.

First lady Melania Trump announced Tuesday that Grisham would rejoin her staff as a full-time chief of staff and spokesperson, calling her "a mainstay and true leader in the Administration."

Grisham was not a fixture in the inner circle of advisers to President Donald Trump, as her predecessor Sarah Sanders had been, although White House officials have praised her loyalty.

The White House did not immediately name a successor for Grisham, who has also held the job of communications director.

Grisham said in a statement that her replacements would be announced "in the coming days" and that she would remain in the West Wing "to help with a smooth transition for as long as needed."

Grisham has been mostly absent from Trump's near-daily press briefings about the novel coronavirus pandemic, most held in the same James S. Brady Press Briefing Room where past press secretaries held their own daily question-and-answer sessions.

Grisham entered voluntary quarantine after learning she had been exposed to two or more people who later tested positive for covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, during a March 7 dinner at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club.

The White House announced on March 24 that she had tested negative and would return to work the following day.

Axios had reported last week that new White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was exploring whether to replace Grisham, perhaps with Pentagon press secretary Alyssa Farah, who was previously the top spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence and who had earlier worked for Meadows when he was in Congress.

Grisham issued a statement to Axios that stopped short of denying any plans might be afoot to replace her.

"Sounds like more palace intrigue to me, but I've also been in quarantine. If true, how ironic that the press secretary would hear about being replaced in the press," she said.

Meadows is reportedly interested in restoring more regular briefings, something Trump has recently mused about in discussions with friends.

During her tenure, Grisham's public profile was defined mainly by her guest appearances on television. She was interviewed frequently on Fox News and by conservative media outlets, while her off-camera engagements with much of the traditional White House press corps grew increasingly contentious.

She was praised for throwing herself between North Korean guards and the small group of American reporters who accompanied Trump during his brief visit to the Demilitarized Zone between South Korea and North Korea last June.

By blocking for the press when Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Grisham made sure that American news cameras and reporters were able to witness the meeting. Trump's interaction with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The Secret Service intervened as North Korean guards pushed and shoved American reporters to block them from entering the Inter-Korean House of Freedom south of the border, where Trump and Kim were meeting.

Grisham was bruised when she stepped into the chaotic scene to give U.S. media a pathway into the meeting room.

She rejected criticism that the White House had become less transparent and accountable with the lack of daily public interaction with reporters. Trump himself performed that role, Grisham said, pointing to the president's frequent impromptu news conferences during White House events or before boarding his helicopter.

A tweet Grisham sent March 31, replying to veteran White House reporter Steve Holland of Reuters, sums up her back seat approach.

"The most accessible @POTUS in modern history! Members of the media get to ask direct questions & the American people get to hear directly from @realDonaldTrump, @Mike_Pence & medical experts on the vital topic of #COVID19," she wrote.

Holland had observed that one of the Trump-led sessions had run more than two hours.

Grisham, who worked on Trump's 2016 campaign, was his third White House press secretary. Sanders replaced Sean Spicer, and discontinued the practice of daily or near-daily press briefings. She held them periodically; the last was in March 2019.

- - -

The Washington Posts John Wagner contributed to this report.
By Aref Mohammed

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Rockets landed near a district in Iraq that houses workers for foreign oil companies on Monday, including U.S. oil service company Halliburton, but caused no damage or casualties, oil and police sources said.

Police said three Katyusha rockets were launched around 3 a.m. local time and hit the Burjesia residential and operations headquarters west of Iraq's main southern city, Basra. A launcher and 11 unfired rockets were found nearby and dismantled by security forces, according to the statement.

The oil ministry denounced the attack and said in a statement one rocket landed near a health centre in a district which includes administration offices for state-run and foreign oil companies without causing any casualties or damage.

Another rocket landed near the perimeter of Zubair oilfield, operated by Italy's Eni, without causing any damage or disrupting operations, said oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad.

According to the oil ministry statement, which described the attack as "unjustified criminal acts", five rockets in total were fired. Three landed in an uninhabited area.

An Iraqi employee working with Halliburton said the rockets fell far from the site. The district houses foreign oil workers and offices of both foreign and Iraqi oil companies, but has been largely empty in recent weeks after nearly all foreign personnel were evacuated because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Two officials with state-run Basra Oil Co, which oversees oil operations in the south, said the attack had not affected production or export operations.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Police said they deployed additional forces to search the area.

Iran-backed paramilitary groups have regularly been rocketing and shelling bases in Iraq that host U.S. forces and the area around the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

(Reporting Aref Mohammed in Basra and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Writing by Ahmed Rasheed; editing by Larry King and Nick Macfie)
Maryland Natural Resources Police recovered the body of Maeve Kennedy Townsend, the granddaughter of late Robert Kennedy on April 6 evening, international media reported. The police added that the search operations for her son would resume on April 7. Townsend and eight-year-old son disappeared on April 2 after both of them went boating on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

Body found 25 feet underwater

Charles County Dive and Rescue, one of the agencies searching the bodies found Maeve's body 25 feet deep inside the water, nearly 2.5 miles away from Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's house from where the canoe was launched. According to reports, Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, Townsend's daughter, and her 8-year-old son, Gideon had gotten into a canoe on April 2 in the water of Chesapeake Bay near their home in order to retrieve a ball. Reportedly they were unable to paddle back to shore. As per reports, Townsend released a statement on April 3 where she revealed that the search and rescue operation for her daughter and grandson had turned into a recovery operation. The Townsends have asked for privacy and that everyone keeps Maeve and Gideon in their thoughts and prayers.

Read: Robert F Kennedy's Granddaughter And Her Son Go Missing In Maryland

Read: Carmelo Anthony Recalls How LeBron James Saved His Life When He Was Drowning In Bahamas

Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean was an adjunct professor in bioethics and human rights, as well as executive director of the Georgetown University Global Health Initiative. Maeve also worked on the boards of the Brady Campaign, a gun control nonprofit, and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights charity. The Kennedy family, unfortunately, is very familiar with tragic incidents. In addition to the assignations of Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy, the President's son John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife were killed in a plane crash in 1999. According to reports, David, Robert F. Kennedy's son, died of a drug overdose in 1984.

Read: Yashwant Sinha Laments 22-day Shanti Yatra Being Drowned Out, Ponders 'peace Vs Violence'

Read: Pet Dog Found Waiting For Drowned Owner While Sitting Near The Pond

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PNB Housing Finance said it has signed an agreement with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Citibank to raise USD 100 million (about Rs 762 crore) for providing loans in the affordable housing segment.

The company has signed an agreement with JICA to raise USD 75 million and with Citibank for USD 25 million, a release said.

We express our gratitude to JICA and Citi for partnering with us in their journey towards improving the lives of low-income households and promoting sustainable economic growth in India. This would be JICA's first debt funding in the housing finance sector in the country,company's managing director Sanjaya Gupta said.

Its CFO Kapish Jain said these are long-term loans of five years that would further help in balancing the company's asset liability management (ALM) position.

As on March 31, 2020, it maintained sufficient liquidity of around Rs 7,588 crore (not considering the SLR investments) and has additional sanctioned but undrawn funding lines of Rs 3,994 crore.

On the business front, it closed 2019-20 with assets under management of around Rs 84,000 crore with deposit mobilization of around Rs 9,200 crore.
A fire burns at the scene of a car-bomb attack in front of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center in Yala, Thailand, March 17, 2020.

BRN rebels in Thailands Deep South are known for being a shadowy bunch, but lately the insurgents have emerged from the darkness and are trying hard to show the world that they can be responsible non-state actors.

The April 3 declaration by Barisan Revolusi Nasional (the National Revolutionary Front or BRN) that for now it was ceasing all hostilities against the Thai military on humanitarian grounds because of the coronavirus pandemic was unprecedented in the history of the separatist insurgency, and the latest example of such an effort.

In January, BRN, the longstanding separatist movement that controls virtually all of the insurgents in the Deep South, signed the Deed of Commitment with Geneva Call, an international NGO based in Switzerland. It works with armed groups worldwide to encourage them to abide by the Geneva Convention, which regulates the conduct of armed conflict.

A month later, BRN issued a statement via YouTube, in which it urged residents of this historically contested region to heed the advice of medical personnel working to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The groups new call for a ceasefire was in line with an appeal made by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for warring parties in conflicts around the globe to observe ceasefires in order to help contain the deadly virus.

Military offensive

Meanwhile, until just days ago, Thai security forces were carrying out search-and-destroy operations in Ta Se, a sub-district of Yala province, to flush out militant cells in this vast wetland the Muslim-majority far south. Thai troops wrongly thought the operation would be easy.

A game changer came when photographs of one of the militants killed in a gunfight, and who was severely mutilated, surfaced; the same day also saw a powerful twin bombing outside the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center (SBPAC) in Yala  a stern warning by the insurgents to the Thai side to back down.

Sources within the BRN movement claimed they had not been aggressive. Ever since the coronavirus penetrated this border region, BRN operatives said they were on the receiving end, starting with the killing of five insurgents in a gunfight at their makeshift camp on the foothills of a mountain in Narathiwat province on Feb. 23. The fight then shifted to the wetlands of Ta Se in the weeks that followed.

There were concerns that the armys offensive would jeopardize a peace process launched on Jan. 20 in Malaysia between the BRN and Thai negotiators. But even without the fighting in the field, the talks were already on shaky ground.

Before the formal announcement in Kuala Lumpur in January that the talks were starting, BRNs political wing had met separately with Thai government negotiators in Indonesia and Germany, with the help of another foreign NGO.

BRNs blunder

BRNs negotiators went to the table without inputs from the militants in the field, thinking that the terms of reference (TOR) were the only thing on their plate. But Bangkok has never agreed to such terms with any of the Patani Malay groups because Thailand always has been non-committal.

The Thai negotiators and the BRNs political wing were supposed to dwell on the seven-page draft TOR for some time. But it didnt take long for their secret meetings in Indonesia and Germany to be exposed.

As expected, the designated facilitator of peace talks, Malaysia, was furious for being left in the dark. As a gesture of reconciliation, Bangkok decided to credit Kuala Lumpur and praise Malaysian officials for all the wonderful work that made the Jan. 20 event between the Thai government and BRN negotiators possible. So far, Kuala Lumpur has hosted two meetings between the Thai negotiators and the BRNs political wing.

For the BRN militants, the problem wasnt the talks or keeping the Malaysian officials out of the loop; the problem was that the political-wing people had started the talks without addressing key questions within the movement. To correct the sloppy mistake of coming to the negotiating table prematurely, BRNs secretariat told its members to mend fences with the militants fighting in the field.

Even with that, BRN people still cant get the new narrative right. Is the BRN willing to settle for something less than the right to self-determination, or are the talks a stepping stone toward some sort of autonomy to be followed by independence? These are some of the unanswered questions from the combatants.

And as the political and military wings of the BRN tried to patch things up, the coronavirus struck the Deep South. The number of infections went up considerably after hundreds of Tablighi Jamaat members returned from Malaysia and Indonesia, where they had traveled for religious revivals in early and mid-March, respectively.

Silence on Thai side

Now, the Thai government has not yet said anything publicly about the BRNs ceasefire declaration.

Perhaps this is out of fear that any positive statement, like welcoming the insurgent groups humanitarian gesture, would upset the top leaders in the government and in the armed forces, especially Gen. Apirat Kongsompong, the powerful army chief. Many have said that he opposes the current southern peace initiative because he believes the country has made too many concessions.

Meanwhile in the Deep South, Lt. Gen. Pornsak Poolsawat, the regions top army commander, refuses to see the violence through political lenses. As far as hes concerned, he is upholding the law of the land.

Three months ago, Apirat led a delegation to Indonesia, where he succeeded in persuading his counterpart to agree to curb any of BRNs activities in the worlds largest Muslim-majority country.

He also got the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), a separatist movement that secured a peace agreement with Jakarta in 2005, to agree to act as a monitor of the Thai-BRN talks. Thai negotiators and the designated facilitator in Kuala Lumpur were left in the dark and wondering what was Apirats real intention.

For many of the generals among Thailands top military brass, treating the Patani Malay separatist movements as their equals is a bitter pill, which they refuse to swallow.

For the time being, the army has retreated from the wetlands of Ta Se, but unannounced visits and searches of residents homes in the name of national security continue unabated.

BRN may have won some points by heeding the U.N. secretary-generals call to silence their guns during a global pandemic, but the rebels are still up against a mighty army, whose anger only deepens every time its enemies become that much more legitimate in the eyes of the world.

Don Pathan is a senior program officer at The Asia Foundation  Thailand. The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and not of BenarNews.
Georgia Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis has endorsed former vice president Joe Biden, calling the Democratic front-runner a a friend, a man of courage, a man of conscience, and promising to do whatever he can to support his candidacy.

It is my belief that we need Joe Biden now, more than ever before, Lewis said on a call with reporters Monday evening.

He will be a great president. He will lead our country to a great place. He would inspire another next generation to stand up, speak up and speak out. To be brave, to be bold, and thats why I am committed to supporting him, Lewis said, calling Biden a dear friend.

One of the nations most influential voices on civil rights, Lewis was a close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and walked alongside the civil rights leader in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965, when he was badly beaten by police while crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

He suffered a fractured skull in the attack.

"I know hatred when I see it. I have felt it. I've stared down the deepest and darkest forces in this nation. Over the past four years, I've seen the same kind of evil rear its head again," Lewis says in a video released by the campaign accompanying his endorsement, as images of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia flash across the screen.

"You judge the character of a man by how he chooses to respond to that moral obligation. Vice President Joe Biden has never stopped speaking up for his fellow man," Lewis says in the video, adding that he believes Biden has "no delusion about this nation's past."

(MORE: Biden campaign offers to help state, local officials with coronavirus response)

Biden's strength with African-American voters, and backing from a slew of prominent black lawmakers, has helped propel him to a large lead in the delegate race over his lone rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Lewis is the 38th member of the Congressional Black Caucus to endorse Biden's presidential bid.

Story continues

Lewis, who is in the midst of a fight with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, also said it would be good for Biden to have a woman of color as his running mate, advocating for a vice presidential candidate who looks like the rest of America.

I think Vice President Biden should look around. It would be good to have a woman of color. It would be good to have a woman. It would be good to have a woman who looks like the rest of America, Lewis said.

PHOTO: In this March 3, 2013, file photo, Vice President Joe Biden embraces Rep. John Lewis as they prepare to lead a group across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. (Dave Martin/AP, FILE)

Biden pledged at the most recent Democratic debate to select a woman as his vice presidential running mate, and said last week he will formally announce a committee to begin the vetting process for potential candidates later this month.

Addressing Bidens relative lack of support among younger African-Americans, Lewis urged those same young voters to turn out, referencing his own past with the civil rights movement and arguing that people died for the right to vote, calling it the most powerful non-violent instrument or tool that we have in a democratic society.

My message would be very simple. Look around, we have a choice, you must decide, Lewis said. Get out there and vote, like weve never, ever, voted before.

(MORE: Biden says 2020 convention may be 'virtual,' will wear mask in public amid COVID-19 outbreak)

Lewis, who was first elected to Congress in 1986 and is in the middle of his 18th term, also stressed the importance of voting, even amidst the global coronavirus pandemic that has largely put traditional campaigning on hold.

I'm worried about whether we're going to be able to have a free and clean election. I just hope that in spite of whatever is going on now, that people will not be afraid to come out and vote, we have to vote, Lewis said Monday when asked about his concerns over campaigning amid the COVID-19 crisis.

If we fail to vote, we don't count, he added.

PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about responses to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic at an event in Wilmington, Del., March 12, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters, FILE)

Lewis has been a fiercely vocal critic of President Trump, participating in a protest march over the administrations immigration policies, and labeling Trump a racist in a 2018 interview with ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on "This Week.

Georgia Congressman, civil rights icon John Lewis endorses Joe Biden originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
DHAKA, Bangladesh - Police in Bangladesh arrested a fugitive killer of the countrys independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on Tuesday, nearly 45 years after the brutal assassination, the countrys home minister said.

Abdul Majed, a former military captain, was arrested in the capital, Dhaka, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said, adding that the arrest was the biggest gift for Bangladesh this year.

Majed had publicly announced his involvement in the assassination after the killing and had reportedly been hiding in India for many years. It was not clear when or how he returned to Bangladesh.

Majed is one of a dozen defendants whose death sentences were upheld by the countrys Supreme Court in 2009. A trial court in 1998 had sentenced them to death for their involvement in the Aug. 15, 1975, killing of Rahman and most of his family members by a group of army officials.

Rahman is the father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana were the only survivors in the family, as they were visiting Germany during the assassination.

After the assassination, subsequent governments and later President Ziaur Rahman awarded the killers by posting them mostly in Bangladeshs diplomatic missions abroad. Rahman  an ex-army chief and the husband of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, an archrival of Hasina  was killed in a military coup in 1981. Ziaur Rahman and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were not related.

In 2010, five others who admitted to taking part in the assassination were hanged to death. One man died of natural causes in Zimbabwe. The other six convicts, including Majed, were at large. At least one of them is in Canada and another in the United States, officials say.

Majed was jailed following his arrest on Tuesday. The jail authorities will complete procedures for his execution, but it was not immediately clear when.

Bangladesh became independent in 1971 through a nine-month war against what was then West Pakistan, now Pakistan, under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He was kept in jail in Pakistan during the war and was freed in 1972 amid a global outcry when he returned to newly born Bangladesh via London and India.
More than 400 citizens of Armenia in the Russian Federation returned to Armenia via two Moscow-Yerevan flights carried out by Red Wings Airlines on April 6 and 7, as reported on the Facebook page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.

Taking into consideration the financial situation of some citizens of Armenia, more than 150 citizens were able to get free tickets. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses gratitude to the Armenians who helped those citizens obtain tickets.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to emphasize the fact that the citizens of Armenia having returned to Armenia will be under mandatory quarantine for two weeks.

Nearly 200 citizens of Armenia who werent able to return via the mentioned flight have been accommodated in four hotels through the coordinated efforts of the Armenian Embassy. Nearly two dozens of citizens of Armenia refused to be accommodated in hotels and preferred to stay at Domodedovo Airport, the Facebook post reads.
Strict abortion laws were overturned following a change to the law voted in at Westminster last year (PA)

Stormonts leaders have clashed over the prospect of allowing women in Northern Ireland access to home abortions during the coronavirus outbreak.

Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill called for the introduction of telemedicine services during the crisis, but First Minister Arlene Foster has reiterated her opposition to abortion on demand.

While a new legal framework to allow terminations in the region came into effect at the end of last month, the services have not yet been rolled out.

Women seeking terminations in the interim have been advised to travel to Great Britain.

However, restrictions on travel due to coronavirus have placed the arrangement into difficulty.

I don't think it's any secret that I don't believe that abortion on demand should be available in Northern IrelandArlene Foster

During the Covid-19 emergency, women in the early stages of pregnancy in England, Scotland and Wales are able to secure abortion medication from a doctor through telemedicine services.

Pro-choice campaigners have called for this provision to be introduced in Northern Ireland as well.

Health Minister Robin Swann has responsibility for the issue, but any move to introduce the measure will require the agreement of the wider powersharing executive.

The issue was discussed at a meeting of the Stormont Executive on Monday.

Expand Close Anti-abortion protesters stage a silent demonstration at Stormont against the liberalisation of abortion laws (Brian Lawless/PA) PA / Facebook

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Afterwards, Mrs Foster said she would not give a running commentary on the executives deliberations. She said a full discussion was required.

The Health minister will bring papers forward and we will have discussions in relation to those papers, she said.

But I dont think its any secret that I dont believe that abortion on demand should be available in Northern Ireland.

I think its a very retrograde step for our society here in Northern Ireland instead of supporting people who find themselves in crisis pregnancies, were not even having any discussion around that and how we can support people in those circumstances, how we can provide perinatal care.

This is about compassionate healthcare, this is about making sure that we have supports here for women who find themselves in a vulnerable situationMichelle O'Neill

Ms ONeill said the service should be available to Northern Ireland women.

I support telemedicine, she said.

What were talking about is compassionate healthcare, modern healthcare for women.

What were talking about is responding to womens need at the time of global crisis  women shouldnt be left out in terms of supports that are put in place.

And so the regulations that have went through Westminster, the legislation thats went through, needs to be implemented here.

Obviously this is about compassionate healthcare, this is about making sure that we have supports here for women who find themselves in a vulnerable situation.

So the health minister has an obligation to put in place those regulations and to put in place the mechanisms in order to make sure those supports are there for women as has been legislated for.

There has been anger among the pro-choice lobby that the Stormont Executive has not yet set up termination services.

Alliance for Choice expressed frustration and claimed Stormont is blocking abortion services.

Naomi Connor, Alliance for Choice co-convenor in Belfast, said: The World Health Organisation notes that abortion is essential healthcare in a pandemic, and yet the Northern Ireland Office and the Department of Health in NI have found it acceptable to do absolutely nothing, except to release videos extolling travel to England for treatment, when the reality of clinic accessibility is limited to an eight-hour each-way freight ferry with no companions and only for those who are not quarantined or self-isolating.

Earlier Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said travel is currently appropriate for medical needs.

Travel should only be for essential travel, one of those key points is a medical need or the need to provide medical care and support to other people. So if there is a medical need for someone to travel, that is something that is appropriate within the guidelines, he told the BBC.
How Vietnam is winning its 'war' on coronavirus

April 07,2020 | Source: DW

A densely populated neighbor of China, Vietnam has a weak health care system and a low budget for combating the coronavirus. So how has it managed to keep its COVID-19 infection rate so low?



As the coronavirus pandemic rages in wealthy European countries, more than 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) from China where the outbreak began, Vietnam has widely been spared.



In Germany alone, the latest numbers from the World Health Organization (WHO) show more than 30,000 people have been infected with COVID-19, resulting in 149 fatalities. Vietnam, which shares a 1,100-kilometer-long border with China, however, has only reported 134 infections and no fatalities since the outbreak began in January.



Read more: How Chinese propaganda is reframing the coronavirus narrative



Even if we consider these numbers with a dose of caution, one thing is clear: Vietnam has a done a good job thus far in fighting the coronavirus.



During the Tet New Year celebrations at the end of January, Vietnam's government said it was "declaring war" on the coronavirus, although the outbreak at that time was still confined to China. Premier Nguyen Xuan Phuc said during a meeting of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party that it would not be long before the coronavirus reached the country. "Fighting this epidemic, means fighting the enemy," said Phuc.



However, this fight will depend on a lot of government funding and a stout public health system, which are two things that Vietnam lacks.



Vietnam does not have the capacity to undertake a South Korea-style fight against coronavirus, which has so far involved carrying out 350,000 tests. The country's medical system is also limited. Nguyen Thanh Phong, the mayor of Ho Chi Minh City, a metropolis of 8 million people, said that the city's hospitals have a total of 900 intensive care beds. An epidemic in the city would easily overwhelm this capacity.



To take the fight to coronavirus, Vietnam instituted rigorous quarantine policies, and carried out complete tracing of all people who came in contact with the virus. These measures were implemented much earlier in the course of the epidemic than in China, where lockdowns of entire cities were used as a last resort to keep the virus from spreading further.



For example, on February 12, Vietnam put an entire town of 10,000 near Hanoi under quarantine for three weeks. At this time, there were only 10 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the entire country. Authorities also widely and meticulously documented anyone who potentially came in contact with the virus.



Western countries like Germany only documented those infected and their direct contacts. Vietnam also kept track of second, third and fourth levels of contact to infected persons. All of these people were then placed under successively stringent levels of movement and contact restrictions.



And from very early on, anyone arriving in Vietnam from a high-risk area would be quarantined for 14 days. All schools and universities have also been closed since the beginning of February.



Instead of depending on medicine and technology to prevent a coronavirus outbreak, Vietnam's already robust state security apparatus has applied a widespread system of public surveillance, helped along by a well-supplied, and generally respected, military.



Security officials or Communist Party spies can be found on every street and crossing in every neighborhood and in every village. The military is also deploying soldiers and materiel in the fight against coronavirus.



This close surveillance largely keeps anyone from slipping through the net or evading regulations.



But the downside of this is those who are sick with COVID-19 are ostracized in their community and on social media. One woman whose case went public in Vietnam brought the virus with her to Hanoi after traveling in Europe. She was widely insulted on social media for having ignored instructions like registering with authorities and remaining quarantined.



She was also a special case, because when she arrived, the first 16 people infected with COVID-19 in Vietnam had already recovered. She was considered as the person who brought the virus back.



This kind of ostracism for those who become sick creates a tremendous amount social pressure to submit to government regulations.



Vietnam is also applying a kind of war rhetoric in its fight against coronavirus. The premier has said: "Every business, every citizen, every residential area must be a fortress to prevent the epidemic."



This has hit a nerve with many Vietnamese, who are proud of their ability to stand together in a crisis and endure hardships.



State-controlled media have also launched a massive information campaign. The Health Ministry even sponsored a song on YouTube about proper hand-washing that has gone viral.



Although there are no studies to prove it, the mood on social media and conversations with Vietnamese indicate that the majority of the public agrees with the government measures.



They are proud that Vietnam is faring comparatively well in meeting the crisis. The country's most popular coronavirus fighter, vice Premier Vu Duc Dam, has been celebrated on Facebook as a "national hero."



There are few people who are bothered by the fact that this success gives a political advantage to Vietnam's one-party Communist government, which is accused of violating civil rights. People are also accepting stricter control of the media.



The projected economic costs, which will hit Vietnam hard despite the low case numbers, have also been widely accepted by the population.



According to government figures, 3,000 businesses have closed in the first two months of 2020. Big conglomerates like the Vin Group have shuttered dozens of hotels and resorts due to the drop in tourism, costing employees their jobs.



To ease the burden, Vietnam's government has made $1.1 billion available to pump liquidity into the economy. However, finance officials expect that tax revenues will dry up because of the crisis. The government is also calling for voluntary donations  and people are giving what they can because they believe in their government during this crisis and in the fight against coronavirus.

 2020 Deutsche Welle

Theme(s): Others.
As the nation braces for the economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak, the government's ambitious Central Vista redevelopment project in Lutyens' Delhi is under the scanner with several opposition leaders slamming the Rs 20,000 crore venture as a vanity project and a postponable luxury in times of crisis.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and made various suggestions for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, including suspending the Central Vista beautification and construction project forthwith.

At a time like this, such an outlay seems self-indulgent to say the least. I am certain that Parliament can function comfortably within the existing historical buildings. There is no urgent or pressing requirement that cannot be postponed until this crisis is contained, Gandhi said.

This sum could instead be allocated towards constructing new hospital infrastructure and diagnostics along with equipping frontline workers with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and better facilities, she said in her letter.

Several opposition leaders have been criticising the government's move of going ahead with the project and the issue was back in focus on Monday with the Centre's decision to suspend Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) Funds for two years.

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel and party MP Karti Chidambaram on Monday slammed the government over the Central Vista project amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Patel said the central government can save more than Rs 20,000 crore by scrapping the Central Vista redevelopment project, Chidambaram said the BJP's vanity projects should be shut.

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury has also been a vehement critic of the Central Vista project and responding to the suspension of MPLADS funds, he tweeted, If there's no money with the government, why doesn't it abandon the Central Vista project in Delhi? Does it deserve a higher priority than lives of lakhs of Indians?



Yechury had also criticised the Centre's timing on issuing the land use change notification for the project last month, saying, Modi government's priorities are cruel. When all resources must be mopped up to meet this COVID-19 challenge a Gazette notification is issued for the Rs 20,000 crore Central Vista project. Shame.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra also slammed the government over the project, saying the government is suspending MPLADS funds for two years for resources to fight COVID-19, but the BJP spends Rs 20,000 crore on the Central Vista project, Rs 27,000 crore in the past Lok Sabha election and Rs 2,500 crore on one statue.

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has also hit out at the government over the project saying the Rs 20,000 crore earmarked for it must be diverted to supplement the allocation to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Grand spending on buildings at this time of crisis is a postponable luxury, he had said recently.

Economic costs of COVID-19 are expected to be very high.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last month announced a slew of relief measures for taxpayers and businesses. She also announced a Rs 1.7-lakh-crore relief package for those hit hardest.

The Centre last month approved the land use change for execution of its ambitious Central Vista redevelopment project in Lutyens' Delhi with the issuance of a notification by the Union housing and urban affairs ministry.

The redevelopment project of the Central Vista -- the nation's power corridor -- envisages a triangular Parliament building next to the existing one, common Central Secretariat and revamping of the 3-km-long Rajpath -- from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate.

The new Parliament House building will come up on a 9.5-acre land near the existing building. Earlier, the plot was meant for development of a district park.

According to sources, the prime minister's residence and office are likely to be shifted near the South Block and vice-president's new house will be in the vicinity of the North Block.

The vice president's current residence is among those buildings identified by the government for demolition in Lutyens' Delhi for the purpose of the project.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 23:31:08|Editor: huaxia

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ADEN, Yemen, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-led Arab coalition launched a series of airstrikes on several areas controlled by the Houthi rebels in Yemen on Tuesday, a government official told Xinhua.

The airstrikes were launched in support of the pro-government Yemeni forces who are battling the Houthi rebels on the ground, according to the official who preferred to remain anonymous.

"More than 15 air raids were carried out against the Houthi-controlled sites in several villages of the central province of al-Bayda," he said.

The pro-government Yemeni forces unleashed a large-scale operation against the Houthis in al-Bayda following the airstrikes, the official added.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition also launched a number of airstrikes on the Houthi fighters positioned on the western outskirts of the northeastern province of Marib.

The airstrikes aimed at impeding the Iran-backed Houthis from making military progress toward the government-controlled Marib, according to the local source.

In addition, the main bastion of the Houthi rebel group in the northern province of Saada also came under the Saudi-led airstrikes.

No information, however, was given about casualties among the Iran-backed Houthi fighters as a result of the Saudi-led airstrikes.

Yemen has been locked in a civil war since the Houthis seized all northern provinces, including the capital Sanaa, in 2014.

Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen's conflict in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Houthi rebels forced him into exile.

The prolonged military conflict has aggravated the suffering of Yemenis and caused the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Chennai, April 7 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Tuesday said he has cleared utilization of Rs 1 crore from all members of the legislative assembly Local Area Development Scheme (MLALADS) for Covid-19 relief works.

In a statement, Palaniswami said MLAs can allocate Rs 25 lakh from their MLALADS towards Covid-19 relief work and that would continue.

In order to purchase medical equipment and to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Rs 1 crore will be allocated from all the MLALAPDS to be used at the state level, he said.

Meanwhile, responding to DMK President M.K. Stalin's tweet, Palaniswami said funds from MLALADS could be used for certain projects recommended by an MLA in his/her constituency.

Stalin in a social media post condemned the state government for rejecting recommendation of lawmaker V. Senthil Balaji to allocate Rs 60 lakh for purchase of ventilator by a government hospital in Karur.

Balaji, representing Aravakuruchi assembly constituency, said Covid-19 patients from his constituency are admitted in the government hospital in Karur and hence he had recommended Rs 60 lakh for purchase of ventilators.
OKLAHOMA CITY, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the demand destruction attributable to COVID-19, Continental Resources, Inc. (NYSE: CLR) ("Continental" or the "Company") today announced the following:

"Continental will continue to take decisive action to maximize cash flow generation, accomplish cost savings initiatives and prioritize the strength of our balance sheet," said Bill Berry, Chief Executive Officer. "Global crude oil and product demand is estimated to have been impacted by 30% due to COVID-19. Accordingly, we are reducing our production for April and May 2020 in a similar range."

Furthermore, the Board of Directors has made the decision to suspend the quarterly dividend until further notice. This is part of the Company's proactive strategy to manage cash flow in a challenging commodity price environment.

Cautionary Statement for the Purpose of the "Safe Harbor" Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements included in this press release other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements, information, forecasts or expectations regarding the Company's business and future plans, including those relating to its share repurchase program, payment of dividends, debt reduction goals, free cash flow generation and liquidity expectations, and its expectations regarding the achievement of ROCE goals. When used in this press release, the words "could," "may," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "expect," "project," "budget," "target," "plan," "continue," "potential," "guidance," "strategy," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words.

Forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current expectations and assumptions about future events and currently available information as to the outcome and timing of future events. Although the Company believes these assumptions and expectations are reasonable, they are inherently subject to numerous business, economic, competitive, regulatory and other risks and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company's control. No assurance can be given that such expectations will be correct or achieved or that the assumptions are accurate. The risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, commodity price volatility; the geographic concentration of our operations; financial market and economic volatility; the effects of any national or international health crisis; the inability to access needed capital; the risks and potential liabilities inherent in crude oil and natural gas drilling and production and the availability of insurance to cover any losses resulting therefrom; difficulties in estimating proved reserves and other reserves-based measures; declines in the values of our crude oil and natural gas properties resulting in impairment charges; our ability to replace proved reserves and sustain production; our ability to pay future dividends or complete share repurchases; the availability or cost of equipment and oilfield services; leasehold terms expiring on undeveloped acreage before production can be established; our ability to project future production, achieve targeted results in drilling and well operations and predict the amount and timing of development expenditures; the availability and cost of transportation, processing and refining facilities; legislative and regulatory changes adversely affecting our industry and our business, including initiatives related to hydraulic fracturing; increased market and industry competition, including from alternative fuels and other energy sources; and the other risks described under Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors and elsewhere in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, registration statements and other reports filed from time to time with the SEC, and other announcements the Company makes from time to time.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which such statement is made. Should one or more of the risks or uncertainties described in this press release occur, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, the Company's actual results and plans could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly correct or update any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances after the date of this report, or otherwise.

About Continental Resources

Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR) is a top 10 independent oil producer in the U.S. Lower 48 and a leader in America's energy renaissance. Based in Oklahoma City, Continental is the largest leaseholder and the largest producer in the nation's premier oil field, the Bakken play of North Dakota and Montana. The Company also has significant positions in Oklahoma, including its SCOOP Woodford and SCOOP Springer discoveries and the STACK plays. With a focus on the exploration and production of oil, Continental has unlocked the technology and resources vital to American energy independence and our nation's leadership in the new world oil market. In 2020, the Company will celebrate 53 years of operations. For more information, please visit www.CLR.com.

Investor Contact: Media Contact: Rory Sabino Kristin Thomas Vice President, Investor Relations Senior Vice President, Public Relations 405-234-9620 405-234-9480 [email protected] [email protected]



Lucy Guttenberger

Investor Relations Analyst

405-774-5878

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SOURCE Continental Resources

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YEREVAN, APRIL 7, ARMENPRESS. 2 billion 353 million drams in aid has already been distributed as of April 6 as part of the governments coronavirus response measures to assist businesses and the socially vulnerable, PM Nikol Pashinyan said on social media.

As part of the nine measures adopted by the government, as of yesterday 2 billion 353 million drams in economic and social assistance has been distributed to legal and natural persons, Pashinyan said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
An elderly Mississippi couple who contracted coronavirus aboard a cruise ship died within six minutes of each other while holding hands last week.

Jerry and Frances Williamson, both 72, passed away on Wednesday April 1.

The Long Beach pair, who were married for over 50 years, passed away just minutes apart from each other with their hands still lovingly intertwined.

The Williamsons loved to go on cruises and went on their latest trip when coronavirus just started to make headlines but its full-fledged deadly potential was not yet known.

Mississippi couple Jerry and Frances Williamson, both 72, died on April 1 of COVID-19 after they contracted coronavirus aboard a cruise ship. They died within six minutes of each other while holding hands

The Long Beach couple were married for more than 50 years, pictured above in what appears to be an old wedding photo on their Facebook pages

The pair usually came home from cruises with a slight illness, only this time they contracted the deadly COVID-19.

It's not clear what cruise they were on when they caught the virus.

'When we got word they work sick after their cruise, it was normal to us. But then we learned that Mrs. Frances had went on a ventilator. Jerry called me right after that happened and you could tell there were tears in his eyes as he was talking to me. He was scared to death,' a pastor said at the funeral service.

'I dont think Hollywood could have written a better ending to their lives. They lived their life together and they entered into the next life together,' he added.

Jerry was a Navy veteran and lifelong Alabama Crimson Tide fan. Frances was a retired phlebotomist. She was on the flower committee at North Long Beach Baptist Church.

On Monday a private ceremony was held at the Riemann Family Funeral home to remember the couples lives.

They were laid to rest in an emotional funeral ceremony on Monday. 'I dont think Hollywood could have written a better ending to their lives. They lived their life together and they entered into the next life together,' the pastor at the funeral service said. An American flag was draped over Jerrys coffin to commemorate his service in the Navy

The Williamsons loved to go on cruises and went on their latest trip when coronavirus just started to make headlines and its full-fledged deadly potential was not yet known. Pictured above on a cruise ship in this social media photo

The happy couple pictured together aboard a Disney cruise

An American flag was draped over Jerrys coffin to commemorate his service in the Navy and his career as a public works supervisor at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport.

They are survived by their two children, Delora Demaris Williamson Ingerson and Jerry Austin Williamson II, along with their eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

As of Sunday evening there are a total of 1,738 cases of coronavirus in Mississippi and 51 deaths in the state.

They are survived by their two children, Delora Demaris Williamson Ingerson and Jerry Austin Williamson II, along with their eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren
One of the big questions facing the international community today is how to hold China legally and politically accountable for all its dishonesty and harm to people around the world. According to reports, U.S. intelligence agencies have confirmed to the White House that China has deliberately understated the number of its people who have contracted and died from the coronavirus epidemic. Such deceit follows Beijings recklessness in suppressing news of the origins, rapid spread, and lethality of COVID-19 in December and January. Chinese officials punished doctors who tried to warn of the outbreak in Wuhan, slowed identification and research on the virus, and allowed thousands to leave the region for the rest of the world.

If China were an individual, a company, or a law-abiding nation, it would be required to provide compensation for the harm it has inflicted globally. The United States alone may well suffer 200,000 or more deaths, billions in health-care costs, trillions in lost economic activity, and trillions more in new government spending. Chinas failures render it legally liable under international law, but the COVID-19 crisis has exposed the crisis of ineffectiveness and corruption of international institutions. Instead of focusing on international law, the U.S. should thus protect its national interests by opting for the self-help mechanism.

International institutions provide no meaningful way to force China to remedy the harm it has caused. The United Nations Security Council, allegedly the supreme lawmaking and executive body in international law, cannot hold China to account because China and Russia exercise their permanent right to veto any Security Council resolution. China has rendered the U.N. impotent, even though U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has declared the COVID-19 pandemic the worlds most challenging crisis since World War II, as it has become a threat to international peace and security by shutting down swaths of the global economy and killing thousands, if not millions.

Story continues

The U.S. and its allies also could try to sue China before an international tribunal, such as the International Court of Justice, although countries have never been sued for their violation of infectious-disease treaties. But even if a court were to judge China responsible for the injury caused by its handling of COVID-19, China would just ignore any decision. When the Permanent Court of Arbitration found that Chinas construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea violated international law, Beijing simply ignored the ruling. A Chinese official declared that the judgment was nothing more than a piece of paper. We should expect nothing different from China in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has only a weak, non-binding dispute-resolution mechanism, but Chinas failure to promptly report the coronavirus outbreak to the organization violated the International Health Regulations, which require states to notify the WHO of potential public-health emergencies of international concern.

In fact, China has used its financial war chest to manipulate the WHO. Chinas annual funding of the organization, which relies on voluntary donations, has increased to $86 million since 2014 (a rise of 52 percent). The WHOs director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has praised Chinas leadership for its openness to share information with the international community and stated that China has bought the world time regarding the coronavirus. In January, the WHO parroted Chinas line that there was no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus. The WHO has also followed the Chinese line on Taiwan, excluding it from membership and barring it from COVID-19 response meetings. While some scholars have suggested that a larger budget would make the WHO more effective, the Trump administration has rightly halved Americas contribution. Not only has the WHO become a Chinese client, but it also spends $200 million a year on luxury travel. The U.S. should investigate the WHO and its director general and expose their ties with China.

Rather than rely on corrupt, conflicted international institutions such as the WHO, the United States and its allies should engage in self-help. To protect against the next virus outbreak, the U.S. should create a new monitoring mechanism that can detect global health threats early, spread information about them reliably, and coordinate national efforts to develop a response. The International Atomic Energy Agencys inspection regime for illicit nuclear weapons could provide a model. The U.S. and other wealthy nations could establish a similar inspection regime and provide financial assistance to developing nations that agree to participate. Trust but verify could become the watchword not just for Ronald Reagans nuclear-reduction treaties with the Soviets, but for a truly effective global health system.

The U.S. should also punish China for its coronavirus failings as an incentive for Beijing to mend its ways. Washington could persuade leading nations to join it in excluding Chinese scholars and students from scientific research centers and universities. China has used its Thousand Talents program to recruit scientists to help steal sensitive technology from American laboratories. Confucius Institutes have spread propaganda while masquerading as Chinese cultural centers. Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Representative Francis Rooney (R., Fla.) have introduced the Stop Higher Education Espionage and Theft Act to help colleges protect against threats by foreign actors.

According to China experts, President Xi Jinping depends on a humming economy and appeals to nationalism for his political legitimacy. The U.S. and its allies could strike at the heart of the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) claim to a mandate from heaven by further ratcheting up the pressure on Beijing to adopt a more cooperative, transparent stance on public health by imposing economic sanctions and inflicting serious economic harm on China. The Trump administration could enhance its efforts to exclude China from buying and selling advanced technologies, such as microchips, artificial intelligence, or biotechnology. It took an important step in that direction this week by implementing new measures on chip exports to Huawei. In addition, the U.S. should use targeted sanctions on specific CCP leaders and their supporters by freezing their assets and prohibiting their travel. The administration needs to impose pain on CCP supporters so that they will want to change policy to alleviate their own economic losses.

In addition to halting any further trade cooperation with Beijing, the administration could also seize the assets of Chinese state-owned companies. Under its Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing reportedly has loaned billions to developing nations in Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, and then taken over their strategic ports and facilities once the debts fall due. The U.S. could turn this strategy on its head by supporting the expropriation of these assets by legal process and the cancellation of these debts as compensation for coronavirus losses.

Seizing Chinese property would allow the United States to finally use international law to its advantage. Let China try to go to court and claim that the U.S., its allies, and the developing world have violated international rules. Let Beijing try to show that these nations have no right to compensation for its coverup of the coronavirus outbreak. Let the Chinese Communist Party try to claim, outside its own borders, just as it does within them, that it can deny common sense and blame the very victims of its wrongdoing for the worst public-health catastrophe in a century.

John Yoo is the Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Ivana Stradner is a Jeane Kirkpatrick Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

More from National Review
A day after President Donald Trump spent much of his coronavirus press briefing attacking the press and airing grievances against perceived enemies, CNN anchor Jake Tapper delivered an on-air message to the president: do you have a plan to get the nation back to normal or are you just interested in pleasing your fans and Fox News?

At the end of Sundays broadcast of CNNs State of the Union, Tapper said he would like to speak directly to one person known to watch this show or at least clips of the show, adding that he knows Trump is eager for the country to regain normalcy.

The CNN anchor went on to ask the president if he had a plan to combat the pandemic that has now resulted in over 8,500 dead Americans and hundreds of thousands of confirmed cases.

Is there a plan for widespread testing of every American so as to isolate the virus the way other countries have done? Tapper wondered aloud. When will there be enough tests for that to happen? How will they be administered? Who will pay for the tests and the results? Who will notify us as to whether we have tested positive or not?

The veteran journalist turned his attention to the shortages of life-saving medical supplies and protective gear that hospitals and medical workers are experiencing nationwide, pointing out that governors and mayors are currently forced to bid against each other to get these supplies.

This is escalating the prices and causing confusion and unnecessary bidding competition, Tapper declared. Is there a plan to stop that? What is it? What about ventilators? New York City Mayor de Blasio said today would be the day his city could run out. Governor Edwards said his state could run out Thursday. Is there a plan to expedite the manufacturer of ventilators?

Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly insisted that governors sounding the alarm on their desperate need for ventilators are vastly overestimating, specifically dismissing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomos call for up to 40,000 ventilators.

Story continues

40,000, think of it, Trump exclaimed. 40,000. Its not possible. They wont need that many.

After questioning whether Trump has fully utilized the Defense Production Act and if the public will have enough masks now that the CDC is recommending people wear them when leaving the house, Tapper told the president that Americans werent interested in his personal grievances.

"Is there a plan? Please, Mr. President, the American people, they need answers to these questions, he pleaded. They are less interested in your popularity on Facebook. Thousands of Americans are in mourning. Theyre horrified when you make leering illusions to your history with models while discussing projection models of mass American deaths.

Attacking governors and mayors and journalists for asking questionsthat might please your fans, it doesnt save one life, Tapper concluded. This is not about winning a news cycle on Fox, please. The American people right now need someone to explain what is going to be done to get us out of this. Its a moment that requires leadership, it requires honest information, it requires empathy, and it requires a plan. Do you have one?

Inexcusable: Dr. Sanjay Gupta Goes Off on Georgia Governors Stunning Coronavirus Admission

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Within the scope of cooperation with the Armed Forces of Russia and in accordance with the agreement reached between Ministers of Defense of Armenia and Russia Davit Tonoyan and Sergey Shoygu, a team of specialists of the Armed Forces of Russia has just arrived in Armenia to help organize prevention of the spread of the novel coronavirus and implementation of the anti-epidemic measures, as well as share experience and practical knowledge. This is what Spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia Shushan Stepanyan wrote on her Facebook page.

The team has come with a mobile laboratory and a sanitizing system to conduct coronavirus checkups. The systems, which will be at the disposal of the Ministry of Defense, will help the ministry conduct checkups for the personnel of the Armed Forces of Armenia and the Russian 102nd Military Base stationed in Armenia.

The checkups for the target groups will really help organize implementation of the preventive measures and significantly increase effectiveness of the anti-epidemic measures.
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday suggested five austerity measures to the government, including a complete ban on media advertisements and suspension of Central Vista beautification program. In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi said that a substantial amount would be available if the central government imposed a complete ban on media advertisements for two years. "The only exceptions should be advisories for COVID-19 or for issues relating to public health," Sonia Gandhi said.

She asked the prime minister to suspend the Rs 20,000 crore 'Central Vista' beautification and construction project. "At a time like this, such an outlay seems self-indulgent to say the least. I am certain that Parliament can function comfortably within the existing historical buildings," she added. She also asked Narendra Modi to order a proportionate reduction of 30 per cent in the expenditure budget (other than salaries, pensions and central sector schemes) for the government as well. "All foreign visits including that of the President, the Prime Minister, Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, State Ministers and Bureaucrats must be put on hold in a similar fashion," Sonia Gandhi also said.

"Transfer all money under 'PM Cares' fund to the 'Prime Ministers National Relief Fund' ('PM-NRF'). This will ensure efficiency, transparency, accountability and audit in the manner in which these funds are allocated and spent," Sonia Gandhi added. In her last letter, Sonia Gandhi had stressed on the need to provide doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers with personal protection equipment, including the N-95 masks and hazmat suits. India is currently under a 21-day lockdown until April 14 to prevent spread of coronavirus.

Also Read: Coronavirus Live Updates: Delhi CM Kejriwal announces 5-T plan to combat COVID-19

Also Read: Coronavirus: Delhi State Cancer Institute temporarily shut down after 18 staff members test positive
PASADENA, Calif., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Miso Robotics announced today the official start of their Series C equity crowdfunding campaign, following SEC approval. The company has already secured over $2.6M in reservations, following a $80M pre-money valuation in 2019. The campaign is being executed in collaboration with SeedInvest and Wavemaker Labs, with the aim of raising up to $30M in new funding.

The boom in artificial Intelligence and machine learning technology has attracted an enormous amount of interest from the public  fascinated by what the future holds for fields like robotics. One robot that has drawn the public eye is Miso Robotics' autonomous kitchen assistant, Flippy. First launched at the Pasadena, CA location for the CaliBurger, a quick service global restaurant chain, the burger-flipping robot brought a safer and healthier work environment to staff by reducing human to food contact, while expediating the completion of mundane tasks to meet the demand surges of the new delivery-driven industry.

Flippy's quick rise to fame sparked Miso Robotics to re-think their next round raise  deciding to bring intelligent automation to the masses for investment. With an equity crowdfunding approach, individual investors can enter the field without access to a large source of capital. The model gives an average person the opportunity to bring transformative technologies, like Miso Robotics, to market. Interested parties can invest in the raise with a minimum of $1500. In return, they receive ownership of a small piece of the company, which will increase or decrease in value with the company's fortunes.

"It has become clear that the traditional VC fundraising model has limited the investor pool to only heavyweight companies for far too long. There is so much exciting innovation underway in AI and ML that the average person wants the opportunity to invest," said Buck Jordan CEO of Miso Robotics. "The demand is really starting to disrupt the VC landscape with more companies opening themselves up to smaller individual investors  it's been a growing trend, and Miso Robotics is excited to allow more people to shape a healthier and more productive kitchen environment for the future."

In January 2020, the company launched Flippy ROAR, the next iteration of Flippy, designed to meet the needs of the quick service restaurant (QSR) market that is facing growing challenges in labor turnover, real estate costs, delivery and take out demand, as well as health concerns. The new design positions Flippy under a standard kitchen hood creating as zero-footprint impact to optimize space, while expanding abilities to cover more staff stations by interacting with a food hopper. The advancement further limits the transmission of potential pathogens through food contact, while producing higher volumes of perfectly consistent treats thanks to enhanced frying capabilities for up to 14 different foods.

Miso Robotics value proposition has continued to grow as individuals look to invest in promising solutions. While projections of economic downturn amid COVID-19 are causing some industries to slow down, automation is proving to be an area of growth. Since the rise of the pandemic, SeedInvest saw a spike in investments for robotics, automation and healthcare solutions  with March marking the highest jump.

"In the current environment, we are especially interested in startups that might thrive due to the impact of COVID-19," said Ryan Feit, CEO & Co-Founder of SeedInvest. "There will likely be strong tailwinds for robotics solutions in the hospitality sector and we believe that Miso is uniquely positioned to potentially capitalize."

The new Series C round raise will accelerate speed to market for Flippy ROAR and serve to expand the current talent for the team that already spans data science, industrial engineering and robotics experts.

Invest in the future of intelligence behind the machine, by investing in Miso Robotics today: http://invest.misorobotics.com/

About Miso Robotics

Miso Robotics (www.misorobotics.com) is revolutionizing the restaurant and prepared food industries with innovative robotics and artificial intelligence solutions. Miso Robotics was founded with a mission to leverage AI technology to help chefs cook food perfectly and consistently and enable restaurants to increase labor productivity, reduce costs and drive profitability while improving the overall dining experience. Miso Robotics employs a respected team of scientists, roboticists, engineers and industrial designers from Caltech, Cornell, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Harvey Mudd, UCLA, USC, Art Center and UNC Chapel Hill.

Press Contact

Diane Zuniga

909-510-0433

[email protected]

SOURCE Miso Robotics

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

Trend:

Turkmenistan discussed bilateral cooperation with Russias Kamaz and Kazan Helicopters companies, Trend reports with reference to Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.

The discussions were held via a videoconference format between Turkmenawtoulaglary agency and Russias Kamaz company, as well as between Turkmenhowayollary agency and Kazan Helicopter company.

Turkmenhowayollary agency and Kazan Helicopters discussed the aircraft procurement. The parties also highlighted the need to purchase ambulance and other types of helicopters.

Procurement of spare parts, consumables and necessary equipment were also discussed.

During the discussions between Turkmenawtoulaglary agency and Russias Kamaz company, the implementation of an Agreement on cooperation for the delivery of Kamaz trucks and their future provision of services were discussed.
A major shopping center owner in the U.S. has taken matters into its own hands to try to help small business owners get access to funds from the federal government and from states that can help them pay rent.

Kimco Realty, which owns and operates roughly 400 strip centers typically anchored by grocery stores across the country, has started piloting a tenant assistance program, or TAP. Its goal is to help its tenants find and apply for federal and state loans. Those loans are meant to aid smaller businesses in surviving the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Currently, the TAP pilot is in California and Florida. Kimco said it plans to roll out the program to other states over the next few days.

The launch follows a frenzied rush last Friday for small businesses to file for federal loans. Entrepreneurs are now nervously waiting on bank approvals. The government's $350 billion loan program is aimed at assisting small businesses hurt by the measures that have been taken to stem the spread of COVID-19. But many have described the process as chaotic and confusing. And some are still seeking assistance.

"We were nervous about time. We are not ones to wait for the government. We figured we had to act quickly," Kimco CEO Conor Flynn told CNBC in an interview.

"We recognized early on, that the big national retailers ... they need to pay their rents," Flynn explained, mentioning names like Target, Home Depot and Costco. "They have the balance sheets and the cash positions to weather this storm."

"The small mom-and-pops are the ones in the trenches," the CEO said. "We knew they needed access to capital quickly."

Kimco said it is working with various law firms to help its tenants that are looking for government-sponsored disaster relief loans, at no cost, with Kimco covering the legal expenses.

"If we are funding the legal assistance ... this helps our tenants get to the front of the line," for funds, Flynn said. He said Kimco is looking for additional ways to get capital to the businesses that need it most. Those efforts could be announced by the company in the near future, he said.

Kimco also will offer a rent deferral program to smaller tenants that cannot pay April rent, so long as they are checking all the boxes and applying to the government programs that are available to them, the CEO explained. "This is not a free handout."

But when Flynn gets a phone call from a large, national retailer looking to "game the system," Flynn said, he will not hesitate to default them  or boot them from a lease.

"At some point, I think [these retailers] are going to recognize this is damning to your brand," he said, about well-capitalized companies looking to get out of rent payments. "I think they run a real risk of alienating their customer base," if they do not pay rent when they are financially in a position to do so.

Other landlords including U.S. mall owners Triple Five Group and Taubman have said they have their own obligations to meet, and therefore need to collect rent checks from their tenants.

American Dream co-CEO Don Ghermezian told CNBC in an interview: "The difficulty we are going though now ... if tenants don't want to pay rent, my response is: I have got to pay a mortgage. I borrowed money. I have got to pay back my lenders."
Online shopping categories today have become more diverse than in the past, when the most popular items to buy online included household and electronics appliances, clothes, stationery, snacks, and local specialties.

In addition to the above-mentioned traditional products, there has been a sharp increase in the consumption of processed and fresh foods, ranging from meat, poultry, seafood, to green vegetables. There is also a shift in the payment methods as more people turn to making payment by bank transfer and e-wallets.

Many businesses have quickly adapted in response to the surge in online shopping demand by offering various promotional activities for online customers. They have also fostered social media marketing to reach a wider range of customers while improving their delivery services.

Resultantly, a dramatic increase in online orders has been seen not only among e-commercial platforms such as Shopee, Tiki and Lazada, but also major retailers including VinMart, Saigon Coop, Big C, and BRG, with some of them even attainting a growth rate of 150% year-on-year.

In May 20144, the Government approved a national programme to develop e-commerce for the 2014-2020 period with a target to make online shopping a regular habit for customers and for payment cards to be used widely to reduce the use of cash.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the countrys e-commerce has seen annual growth of 35% in recent years. Notably, the revenue from the e-commerce sector accounted for 4.2% of the total retail sales of goods and services in 2019.

According to experts, prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the size of Vietnams e-commerce market was expected to reach US$13 billion in 2020. However, online shopping is relatively popular among residents in urban areas as most of Vietnamese prefer to shop instore to see the products. This habit is the result of a lack of customers trust in product quality and time of delivery.

The Covid-19 epidemic has forced many people to navigate to online shopping. At the same time, it offers a valuable opportunity for businesses to utilise e-commerce channels to gain customers trust. If businesses can address the limitations of e-commerce while ensuring their product quality, delivery time and after-sales services, online shopping will become a preferred consumer behaviour, which can foster the sustainable development of e-commerce and non-cash payments.

E-commerce benefits both businesses and customers as it helps to address the limitations of traditional retail, such as eliminating travel time and costs while clearing away temporary markets on many streets, thus contributing to the improvement of urban planning in big cities.
In the best of times, Meals on Wheels faces the herculean task of delivering 200 million meals annually to 2.4 million hungry and isolated older Americans.

But this is the time of the dreaded novel coronavirus.

With the pandemic bearing down, I wanted to get inside Meals on Wheels to see how it would gear up its services. After all, 79% of its existing clients are 75 or older. There would be more demand now that many more seniors  including those who probably never imagined they'd be stuck inside  are advised it is safest to remain housebound.

What I saw was that this agency, a mainstay in the lives of so many, was swamped. Its ideas of what was possible diminished by the hour, and it has had to improvise, sometimes successfully, to complete its mission.

When I reached out to its press office on March 12, I was optimistic I'd be able to see its local operation, meet its director and volunteers, and maybe even talk to a client or two. While the West Coast was already hunkering down, life was still fairly normal on the East Coast and near its national headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. It would be ideal, of course, to go on a delivery. That was probably too much to ask.

By the next afternoon, a publicist from the headquarters told me, "In an effort to minimize risk, they're no longer allowing visitors or inviting them into facilities."

But this, she said, could "illustrate how cautious they're being and how quickly the situation is escalating."

That's OK, I thought.

Not an hour later, another email from a local program director in nearby Alexandria, Virginia: "Things are very dynamic. As a precaution, we are no longer having visitors go along on deliveries."

He invited me to a meal pickup spot to talk with volunteers, so long as there was "no shaking hands, of course."

Maybe we could even get a look at meal prep. On the next Monday, four days later, we'd go with a photographer to Jeffery's Catering, a full-service catering company tucked away in one of Alexandria's industrial sections.

The novel coronavirus marched on.

About five minutes after I pulled up that Monday, I got a text saying all in-person meetings were canceled. Instead of seeing the director, I drove home to interview him by phone. And I could talk to a volunteer by phone, too. But not a client.

What I couldn't see, but what I learned, was that Meals on Wheels was desperately  though creatively  struggling to honor its mission. This is also an organization that depends on older volunteers, roughly two-thirds of whom are 65 and up. What if they prefer to stay home for their safety? Or worse, what if they had been struck by this nasty virus, which is particularly deadly for older folks?

The need was overwhelming. Most volunteers were taking shelter. All social norms were upended, with people social distancing and working from home.

By the next Thursday, Vinsen Faris, CEO of Meals on Wheels in San Antonio, was worried. The chapter serves 3,600 meals daily and had lost dozens of corporate volunteers as companies shut down.

With fewer volunteers, staff members would make home deliveries. Faris suspected they'd need to move on to shelf-stable food, like canned fruit and beans and boxed pasta.

He was haunted by the idea that they might not be able to deliver at all.

I'm up at night wondering: How do we continue to be their lifeline?" Faris said.

Bracing for the worst, the San Antonio group has been providing five extra meals for clients to keep in their refrigerators. It will also distribute emergency meal boxes with four days' worth of food that can be easily opened and requires little preparation.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, executive director Alan Winstead said that its group would soon scrap fresh, hot meals. They would do more with less: delivering frozen and shelf-stable food. He'd lost 75% of his volunteers.

I have been with Meals on Wheels for seven years, and this experience  and the need to adapt  is unprecedented," said Ellie Hollander, CEO of Meals on Wheels America.

But adapt it must. "We will need to provide even more meals than we previously had to," she said, because requests nationally for new aid are mounting.

Meals on Wheels is informing folks calling for help right now that it can't take on new applicants until after April 15.

Meal delivery is more complicated, too. Volunteers must wash hands or use sanitizer between stops. They will have their temperature taken, too.

They will place the bag of food on the doorknob, knock on the door and then step back at least 6 feet. Some clients who can't walk  or who are blind  can't navigate the trip to the front door. Others aren't able to bend down to pick up the food. They must wait for the client to come to the door and retrieve the food before leaving.

Rule No. 1: no contact.

The food is critical. But Meals on Wheels offers something just as precious: human connection. Its volunteers offer a conversation. They check in on folks. They might be the first to know that someone's struggles are getting the best of them. Staff will now reach out by phone to check in.

As Winstead, in Raleigh, puts it: "The social connection is equally important."

The group's need for financial assistance is dire. Its COVID-19 Response Fund has raised more than $5 million. Another silver lining: The government has committed $250 million in supplemental funding to feed the needy as part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.

With a boost from that, it will hire more drivers and reach out to ride-hailing companies to assist with delivery, said Hollander, the national CEO.

The real possibility of halting all home delivery has Winstead focused on getting as much food as possible to his clients in Raleigh.

This is a food crisis. This is a community crisis. This crisis challenges every operating procedure we've ever had," he said. "I'm scared."
Bhilwara district, which was once among the 10 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) hot spots in the country, is now being talked about for its ruthless containment model.

In the video conference with chief secretaries of states, Indias cabinet secretary Rajeev Gauba praised Rajasthan for the Bhilwara model, said Rajasthan chief secretary DB Gupta. The government is planning to implement this model in other places, too, for effective containment of the infection, he said.

Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

The Bhilwara model of containment worked in phases. The first task was to isolate the district, second was screening strategy in city and rural areas and third was quarantine and isolation wards, followed by monitoring mechanism for rural areas, said Rajendra Bhatt, district collector, who led the team of government staff in this war against Covid-19.

For isolating the district, curfew was imposed in the district on the day the first case was reported. This was from March 20 to April 2. During this period, essential services were exempted from the order.

We sealed borders of the district and set up check posts at all entry and exit points. Roadways and railway services were stopped and movement of private vehicles prohibited, Bhatt said.

After isolating the district, the administration defined the containment zone of 1km from the epicenter  Brijesh Banger Memorial Hospital (BBMH), a private institution, who doctors and staff were the first ones to test positive  and buffer zone of 3km. Similar, containment and buffer zones were also created around the house of a positive patient.

On the basis of cluster mapping, we identified six areas and deployed special teams for continuous screening of suspected cases in these, the collector said.

During this phase, disinfection of the following was done on a daily basis: containment zone and buffer zone; locality of positive cases; all ambulances and police vehicles; screening centre and quarantine centre; collectorate, police line and public dealing offices; and city wards.

In the second phase of curfew, from April 3 to April 13, even essential services are prohibited in the city. During this period, theres no relaxation of any type. We are ensuring door to door supply of essential items such as vegetables, fruits and milk to residents and food packets to the poor, Bhatt said.

For screening, survey teams trained by specialized doctors regarding Covid-19 ILI (influenza-like illness) symptoms, checking persons having foreign travel history and prioritizing epicenter affected population as well as migratory population. There is a supervisor for every 10 survey teams.

Screening and testing was prioritized for Brijesh Banger Memorial Hospital. ICU admissions, doctors and nursing staff, IPD and OPD patients, persons who were identified to have had contact history with the positive cases, health workers and other staff were screened and all suspected cases told to be in home quarantine, the collector said.

He said a dedicated screening and testing centre was established at MG Hospital, which was dedicated as Covid hospital. People were brought to these cntres for screening and testing in government vehicles and dropped back. In screening, doctors and nursing staff did thermal scanning and physical examination. If anyone had symptoms or was contact of a positive patient, his samples were drawn and he was sent in isolation, Bhatt said. He said every day, government vehicles carried these samples to Jaipur for testing, thrice a day.

For every positive patient, the close contacts were brought to isolation wards and the tier-2 contacts were taken to institutional quarantine facility. The district administration used 1,541 rooms of 27 hotels as quarantine centres.

Apart from the hotel room, the administration also had 11,659 quarantine beds in 22 institutions and hostels. MG Hospital has 200 beds. The capacity could be extended up to 427 beds. Four private hospitals with isolation ward capacity of 25 beds each were also acquired.

For monitoring, Bhatt said, corona fighters and corona captains were appointed in city and rural areas. In city, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) is the corona caption and ASHA and ANM are corona fighters. In the villages, block development officers (BDO) and tehsildar are corona captains at the level of panchayat samitis and sarpanch, panchayat sahayak, teachers and ASHAs are corona fighters at village level.

Corona captains and corona fighters monitor people in home quarantine, ensure food supplies, food packets, flow of migrant labourers and law and order, collector said.

Bhatt said while in other cities, source of Covid-19 infection was known, in Bhilwara, it is unknown from whom the doctor got infected. Ask him to sum up his efforts in one line and he says, Ruthless containment model and cooperation of people in our war against Covid-19.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rakesh Goswami Rakesh Goswami leads Hindustan Times bureau in Rajasthan. He loves to write on social issues and has been a journalist for 20 years, including 8 years as a broadcast journalist. ...view detail
(Newser)  Australia's highest court on Tuesday dismissed the convictions of the most senior Catholic found guilty of child sex crimes, the AP reports. Cardinal George Pell welcomed the news and said his trial had not been a referendum on the Catholic Churchs handling of the clergy sex abuse crisis. Pope Francis former finance minister, Pell had been the most senior Catholic found guilty of sexually abusing children and has spent 13 months in high-security prisons before seven High Court judges unanimously dismissed his convictions. The High Court found there was reasonable doubt surrounding the testimony of the witness, now the father of a young family aged in his 30s, that Pell had abused him and another 13-year-old choirboy at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne in the late 1990s.

story continues below

I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice, Pell said in his first public statement since he was convicted in December 2018. He released the statement before he was driven from the gates of Barwon Prison and past waiting media two hours after the verdict. Pell, 78, added: "I hold no ill will toward my accuser." Pell was regarded as the Vaticans third-highest ranking official when he voluntarily returned to Melbourne in July 2017 determined to clear his name of dozens of decades-old child abuse allegations. All the charges were dropped by prosecutors or dismissed by courts in preliminary hearings over the years except the cathedral allegations. The complainant first went to police in 2015 after the second alleged victim died of a heroin overdose at the age of 31. Lawyers for the father of the dead man said the verdict left him in utter disbelief. (Read more Cardinal George Pell stories.)
Yohana Briceno, 36, returned to Venezuela with her family of five Saturday. They had no coronavirus symptoms, she said, but were still being held in a facility near the border. They were sleeping on a concrete floor and sharing filthy bathrooms with 900 other returnees, she said by telephone. They havent been told how long they will be held.
COVID-19 and the Constitution

Commentary

Americans constitutional rights arent luxuries to be thrown away in times of crisis. They are central to our economic and social system and key to our success. To discard them is to cut our own throats.

First, the good news: Our constitutional system is flexible enough to allow governments to respond to pandemics and other emergencies.

Each state enjoys a vast reservoir of authority the courts call the police power. (The word police does not refer to the cop on the beat; its an older usage meaning governance.) In responding to a pandemic, states and their local governments may employ the police power to quarantine the sick, close places of assembly such as theaters and churches, provide emergency care, and require testing and vaccination.

States may impose health restrictions on businesses that remain open, such as reducing business hours and requiring masks. They may restrict mass transit or take special steps to ensure vehicles are well ventilated and not too crowded. They may declare tax holidays and repeal regulations so as to reduce the burden of government.

The Spanish Flu pandemic of 191819 may have killed as many as 50 million people worldwide. It made COVID-19 look like a walk in the park. State and local government fought it with some of the tools Ive just listed. All of those tools are perfectly constitutional. This flexibility in the face of emergency is why the late Justice Robert H. Jackson once said, The Constitution is not a suicide pact.

On the other hand, emergencies dont cause the Constitution to vanish. The Supreme Law is flexible, but it isnt dissolvable. Today, though, some state and local governments are acting as if it doesnt exist.

Although the state police power is extensive, its still subject to the Constitution. Today, many state officials and bureaucrats are threatening constitutional rights as they never have before in peacetime. Most universally threatened is the right to travel.

Fundamental Rights

The Constitution doesnt mention the right to travel explicitly. But the Supreme Court has found its components in the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV and in the Equal Protection and Privileges or Immunities Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court ranks it as a fundamental rightin the same category as freedom of speech and religion.

In a series of cases, the Supreme Court has protected the right to travel by striking down state laws that imposed only incidental burdens on interstate migration. I think it would act even more readily if faced with excessive direct bans on travel within state boundaries.

Over the years, the Supreme Court has developed a test for measures (laws, regulations, and orders) that restrict fundamental rights. Its a two-part test: One, to be constitutional, the measure must further not merely an ordinary government purpose, but a compelling one, such as national defense; and two, the governments measure must be narrowly tailoredi.e., targeted closely at the problem. It cant be over-broad: You cant use a shotgun to kill an ant.

Additionally, if the measure is filled with loopholes, thats a sign that its not narrowly tailored. A citizen suing to strike down the measure doesnt have to prove its defective. The government must prove its valid.

I think the courts would find that fighting the CCP virus is a compelling government purpose. But they likely would find also that the states methods for doing so are too scattershot to be constitutional.

Unconstitutional Orders

One example is the statewide lockdown order in Maryland. Because epidemics dont last forever, emergency orders should include a termination date. If the epidemic hasnt eased sufficiently by the termination date, the order can be extended. But Marylands state shutdown order has no termination date.

As President Donald Trump has suggested, a stay-at-home order appropriate in New York City would be excessive for Wyoming. (As of this writing, Wyoming has no statewide shutdown orders, and no deaths.) The same flexibility should be observed within individual states.

The governor of Pennsylvania formerly understood this and limited his states order to urban counties. But he has since extended it to his entire state, even the most profoundly rural areas. A court could find this to be overly broad.

Colorados orders follow a template used in some other states. They are unconstitutional for several reasons:

They extend to all parts of the state, even though conditions differ radically between metropolitan Denver and the states nearly empty eastern plains.

The Colorado orders ban much automobile travel, although the virus isnt communicated between cars.

They close down most of the economy rather than taking a more targeted approach. For example, it may be sufficient to allow businesses to function if they follow emergency health procedures, such as social distancing and offering curbside service. Anyway, destroying the economy is a sure way to boost the death toll from suicide, malnutrition, and other products of poverty.

The Colorado orders, like those of some other states, contain unexplained exemptions. For example, recreational marijuana stores may stay open, but tobacco shops must close. Clearly, this is more about politics than health: In Colorado, the marijuana lobby is stronger than the tobacco lobby.

Some states are violating other constitutional rights as well. One of Colorados orders seems to ban most interstate freight hauling, in violation of the Supreme Courts Dormant Commerce Clause rules. And in Montana, the governor has issued a directive that probably violates the Constitutions Contracts Clause.

The Montana directive purports to stop evictions for non-payment of rent, block foreclosures for non-payment of mortgages, and prevent service cutoffs for non-payment of utilities. The directive doesnt distinguish between those who can pay and those who cant. A prosperous supermarket may stop paying rent as readily as a shuttered business.

Finally: Appropriate government response to a pandemic would consist of a balance between, first, restrictions and spending, and second, tax and regulatory relief. Yet in almost all states, orders have been very long on measures that add to the burden of government and short on measures that reduce it.

This, again, suggests that many state efforts to fight the CCP virus have been corrupted by politics.

Rob Natelson, a retired constitutional law professor, is a senior fellow in constitutional jurisprudence at the Independence Institute in Denver and the author of The Original Constitution: What It Actually Said and Meant (3rd ed., 2014).

Special Coverage:

For our latest coverage of the CCP Virus Outbreak, visit our new section and sign up for our CCP Virus Newsletter.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 7, 2020) - Jaxon Mining Inc. (TSXV: JAX) (FSE: 0U31) (OTC: JXMNF) ("Jaxon" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the completion of the soil geochemistry study using in laboratory sample analysis conducted by HEG & Associates in February 2020 at UBC's FiLTER Lab in Kelowna, B.C. (http://www.filterubco.ca). Preliminary soil sampling results from the handheld devices were released Sept 10, 2019. (https://www.jaxonmining.com/news/2019/jaxon-defines-two-strong-copper-anomalies-based-on-newly-completed-soil-geochemistry-samples-at-red-springs/).

The soil samples were taken from a (+/-) 2 km2 area at the Primary Ridge target which now includes the "Red Springs" porphyry target. The preliminary soil geochemistry study used the results from handheld devices to define two strong Cu in soil anomalies. The laboratory analysis utilized Aqua Regia Digestion by ICP-MS finish. The laboratory results were further statistically analyzed and modeled. Results of the testing and statistical analysis confirmed the high Cu in soil anomalies and revealed a new gold in soil anomaly (Figure 1).

Highlights of Laboratory Results from 2019 Soil Geochemistry Study:

Soil samples in the 2km 2 area are "anomalous" (Cu grades >300 ppm) in comparison with most Cu porphyry projects in British Columbia (Blaine, F.A. and Hart, C.J.R. 2012), (Figure 1, large blue outline).

area are "anomalous" (Cu grades >300 ppm) in comparison with most Cu porphyry projects in British Columbia (Blaine, F.A. and Hart, C.J.R. 2012), (Figure 1, large blue outline). Statistical analysis shows the anomalous Cu samples at the Primary Ridge porphyry target start at ~500 ppm (Figure 1, two small blue outlines). Log normal plots confirm no further sub populations. Ignoring background occurrences, all four "anomalous" populations are straight lines confirming normal distributions of each sub population (Figure 2).

Statistical analysis shows Mo in soil anomalies are similar to Cu in soil anomalies and follow a general enrichment halo around the intrusion (Figure 3). This observation is supported by the abundance of Mo seen within the fractures and veinlets in sediments and granodiorites.

The hyperspectral study on the minerals and soil geochemistry samples both portray the signature of a potassic core at the Primary Ridge porphyry target (Figure 4).

The gold anomaly area >500m was delineated at a propylitic zone indicating vein type gold mineralization also exists at the Red Springs AOI. It is noted that sampling here occurred from E-W therefore this is not a product of contamination. Almost half a gram Au in soil is a very impressive result. The Company plans to follow up with trenching and more soil sampling in the 2020 season (Figure 1).

Most importantly, intrusions with disseminated Cu sulfide mineralization outcrops and negative ground magnetic anomalies have also been observed in both Cu anomalous areas (Figure 1). This indicates that these intrusions are the source of the strong Cu anomalies marking two potential deep porphyry targets planned for the 2020 drilling program (Figure 5).

Figure 1: Comprehensive Geology and Soil Anomalies Map at Red Springs



To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/881/54173_000f43c354fc195d_001full.jpg

Figure 2: Log Normal Populations (Straight Lines) Chart for Cu Assay Data at Red Springs (HEG Report, 2020)



To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/881/54173_figure2new.jpg

Figure 3: Mo in Soil Anomalies at Red Springs (HEG Report, 2020)



To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/881/54173_000f43c354fc195d_009full.jpg

Figure 4: Possible Signature Map of Potassic Core at the Primary Ridge Porphyry Target (HEG Report, 2020)



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Figure 5: Potential Model for Primary Ridge Porphyry Target (HEG Report, 2020)



To view an enhanced version of Figure 5, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/881/54173_000f43c354fc195d_0011full.jpg

COVID-19 and 2020 Field Season

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company will follow all directives issued by the provincial and federal governments. The Company is funded and ready to proceed should social/physical distancing restrictions be relaxed in time for the 2020 field season. The Company plans to expand sampling and geochemical studies to include the Razorback target and Netalzul AOI and conduct additional focused structural and geophysical work programs at the Red Springs AOI in preparation for drill testing.

Mr. John King Burns, CEO and Chairman of the Board commented, "We are pleased to see these lab results and the statistical modeling confirm the preliminary results from our 2019 soil geochemistry study at Red Springs. We have now outlined two very strong Cu mineralized centres within what is a large Cu anomaly background area. These copper in soil numbers are higher than most seen at other discoveries across B.C. (Blaine, F.A. and Hart, C.J.R. 2012) We thank HEG for the expert execution of their advice, encouragement and work both in the field and laboratory; and for the application and interpretation of their analytics."

"The results from these studies have been added to our conceptual geological model which projects a potentially large and deep Cu porphyry system. This set of geochemically based observations are supported by other geophysical, geochronological and structural work that will continue to be integrated into the model. We are compiling results from other geophysical and geochronological studies and these results will become part of our geologically informed drill target vectoring/modeling exercise. We plan to release an updated model with proposed drill targets in Q3 of 2020."

"In reviewing the results from our multi-disciplined efforts, we are confident in the value of the targets we are pursuing. We are continually impressed by the rocks and the increase in scope and scale of our potential targets. We have favorable topological features and favorable geological and geochronological settings. We are modeling our targets as products of and having the signatures of Laramide porphyry events in South America. The multiple occurrences of anomalously high-grade mineralization in outcrops and within rock samples at surface are confirmatory and support our belief that we are on the brink of discovering a major system in British Columbia."

Soil Sampling and Analytical Procedures

Soil samples were taken on a 50 m by 50 m grid covering an approximate 2 km2 area over the Primary Ridge target. Approximately 500 g to 600 g of soil was sampled at a depth of approximately 25-30 cm from surface. Soil samples were primarily targeting the B horizon when appropriate and sampled into labelled craft paper bags.

Soil samples were analyzed before shipment via PXRF (portable X-Ray fluorescence) for Cu, Mo and Zn.

Approximately 50 packaged samples (10 soils per poly bag) were put into labelled rice bags for transport. Security tags were added to rice bags to further increase QAQC protocol.

All soil samples are dried at low temperature, 500 g is then screened to -80 mesh before Aqua Regia digestion. A 20 g true Aqua Regia digestion with ICPMS finish and Ultra Trace were selected as the analytical method for soil samples at FiLTER Lab at UBC in Kelowna, B.C., Canada.

Qualified Person

Yingting (Tony) Guo, P.Geo., President of Jaxon Mining Inc., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and prepared the scientific and technical information and verified the data supporting such scientific and technical information contained in this news release.

About Jaxon Mining Inc.

Jaxon is a precious and base metals exploration company with a regional focus on Western Canada. The Company is currently focused on advancing its Red Springs Project in north-central British Columbia.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

JAXON MINING INC.

"John King Burns"

John King Burns, Chairman

For more information please contact:

Investor Relations

Kaye Wynn Consulting

T: 604-558-2630

TF: 1-888-280-8128

E: info@kayewynn.com

Freeform Communications

T: 604-243-0499

E: enquiries@freeform.com

Corporate

T: 604-398-5394

E: info@jaxonmining.com

www.jaxonmining.com

This news release may contain forward-looking information, which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information in this news release may include, but is not limited to, the Company's objectives, goals or future plans. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, those risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames, or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. Neither TSX Venture exchange nor its Regulations Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54173
A working group of Vietnamese cultural heritage experts has been established by to support Laos in compiling a dossier seeking UNESCO recognition of Hin Namno National Reserve as a World Natural Heritage Site.

A corner of the Hin Namno National Reserve (Source: laostravel.indochinacharm.com)

The reserve is located in Khammouane province, some 150km from Thakhek town in the southeast region of the country.

Covering an area of 82,000 ha, the site is home to over 40 mammal species, over 200 bird species, 25 bat species, 46 species of amphibians and reptiles, over 100 fish species, and more than 520 species of flora. Rare fauna living in the reserve include the red-shanked douc langur, and the white-cheeked langur.

The reserve also boasts substantial potential in nature tourism, with a network of beautiful limestone caves such as Nangen, Vua (King), Troi (Heaven), Konglor, and Xebangpha.

Most limestone areas in the Hin Namno National Reserve are connected to the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in Vietnams central Quang Binh province, forming the largest continuous karst area in Southeast Asia./. VNA
Domestic air traffic is expected to drop to 80-90 million passengers in the current fiscal and delivery of more than 200 planes to Indian carriers are likely to be deferred by up to two years, according to a report.

"The combination of COVID-related travel restrictions and an economic downturn is likely to result in 1Q FY2021 being a virtual washout for the Indian industry.

"The second quarter is historically the weakest period for demand and hence airlines are only likely to limp back into recovery," aviation consultancy CAPA India said on Monday.

As a result, CAPA said the majority of the fleet is likely to be surplus to requirement during the first half of the current financial year.

In its report titled 'COVID-19 & the State of Indian Aviation Industry,' the aviation consultancy forecast domestic traffic to decline to around 80-90 million this fiscal from an estimated 140 million in FY2020.

International traffic is expected to fall from approximately 70 million in the previous financial year to 35-40 million passengers or may be even less in the current fiscal.

While giving the forecast, CAPA India said it is initial estimate and would be continually revised.

Domestic and international flights have been suspended till April 15 amid nationwide lockdown to curb spreading of coronavirus infections. A gradual path towards normalcy could be expected towards Q3 and Q4, CAPA India said.

According to the report, airlines that are offered concessions by lessors would need to take a strategic call on whether they require all of their aircraft.

The holding costs of maintaining a larger fleet may outweigh the concession available.

More than 200 aircraft -- scheduled for delivery over the next couple of years, including 56 MAX aircraft -- are likely to be deferred by 1-2 years, it said.

"Starting from the end of April-2020, Indian carriers are initially expected to seek to return up to 100 aircraft to lessors, especially older equipment and those that may be closer to the expiry of their terms.

"The number of returned aircraft will continue to increase significantly up until September-2020, possibly reaching 200-250, or even higher," the report said.

Since aircraft lessors would have limited customers to whom they can remarket returned aircraft, they may be willing to negotiate temporary rental holidays, CAPA India said.
TORONTO - Ontario put out a wartime-like plea Tuesday to press anyone in the province with health-care experience into service, as the first Ontario-made personal protective equipment rolled off the lines following a similar call to action to businesses.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford loads ASTM Level 3 protective masks made by The Woodbridge Group in Woodbridge, Ont. on Tuesday, April 7, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

TORONTO - Ontario put out a wartime-like plea Tuesday to press anyone in the province with health-care experience into service, as the first Ontario-made personal protective equipment rolled off the lines following a similar call to action to businesses.

Premier Doug Ford announced the opening of an online portal through which people with medical training can be matched with jobs in order to increase front-line capacity in hospitals, clinics and assessment centres.

"Join the fight today, because we need every person in Ontario in this fight," Ford said.

"We need an army of 14.5 million people...Whether it's staying home, working in our hospitals or long-term care homes, or putting food and medicine on our shelves, we're all part of this and with your help we will win this battle and our province and our economy will come back stronger than ever before."

Health Minister Christine Elliott said people who should look at the health-care portal include retired people, students, and people who were trained in other jurisdictions  though she suggested foreign credentials may not be immediately and fully recognized.

"What we're trying to do is match the employer's needs with the skill set of the person that's coming forward," she said.

"They may or may not, depending on their skill sets, their experience and so on, be able to practice medicine, but they certainly will have a place in our health-care system."

The jobs will come with pay, Elliott confirmed.

Ford also announced Tuesday that the first made-in-Ontario face masks are ready, one day after he warned that the province would run out of personal protective equipment in a week.

Ford was at the Woodbridge manufacturing facility in Vaughan, Ont., where the first 1,000 Level 3 masks have been produced.

He lauded the work of the company, together with the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, to retool their factories and get the required approvals to manufacture masks for front-line workers.

The company hopes to eventually produce one million masks per week and have the product certified as N95 masks to be used in all health-care settings. Woodbridge will be making the masks at its facilities in Vaughan and Kitchener.

Ford has blamed supply shortages on a combination of delays in global shipments, domestic manufacturing lag time and U.S. restrictions.

Late Monday, manufacturer 3M reached a deal with the White House to continue sending masks to Canada, shortly after U.S. officials held up a shipment of 500,000 masks.

Ford called that a positive development, and along with the Woodbridge masks now being produced he said Ontario's personal protective equipment situation is better, but the province still needs supplies through the federal government and clarification on the 3M agreement.

"The numbers are so fluid," Ford said.

"We could get a shipment of 100,000 masks in one day and it moves the needle. We have people donating every single day, but if you're asking me is today better than yesterday, the answer's yes."

Ontario reported 379 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday, including 21 more deaths.

That brings the totals in the province to 4,726 confirmed cases, including 153 deaths and 1,802 cases that have been resolved.

The new cases represent an 8.7 per cent increase over Monday, marking the second day in a row that the growth rate has been under 10 per cent.

There are at least 51 long-term care homes in Ontario with one or more cases of COVID-19, with a total of 850 reported cases, and there have been at least 69 deaths in those institutions.

About 45 per cent of all of the deaths in Ontario have been long-term care residents, according to government data.

There have been 27 deaths alone at Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon  more than a third of the facility's residents. Twenty-nine staff members have also been infected. Long-term care and retirement homes across the province have seen multiple residents die in COVID-19 outbreaks, including in Toronto, Oshawa, Sarnia, Hagersville, Hamilton and Woodslee.

There are now 614 people in Ontario hospitalized with COVID-19, with 233 of them in intensive care and 187 of those people on ventilators.

More than 500 health-care workers in the province have tested positive, representing about 11 per cent of all confirmed cases in Ontario.

There have also been 15 COVID-19 outbreaks reported in hospital settings.

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Ontario appears to have completed about 2,500 tests in the past 24 hours, despite pledges that increased lab capacity would allow for at least 5,000 tests per day by this point.

A spokeswoman for Elliott said Ontario's capacity is actually at 13,000 tests per day now, but only about 3,500 are being submitted through assessment centres.

"This surplus in capacity means that we can now look at testing more people, particularly priority populations, including health-care staff, residents and staff in long-term care and retirement homes and Indigenous communities," Hayley Chazan said in a statement.

Ontario's chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams, said fewer tests being submitted could be good news, if fewer people are going to assessment centres with concerns.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2020.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version twice referred to an incorrect day of the week.
New Delhi, April 7 : Mining and energy major Vedanta on Tuesday said that in its effort to support the needy and under privileged during the current lockdown, it has been distributing 10,000 meals per day to daily wage earners, slum dwellers, and laborers in the national capital since April 1.

In a statement, the company said that under this initiative, around 3 lakh meals will be distributed around Delhi by the end of the month.

"Around 70,000 meals have been distributed till date to families in Old Delhi, Laxmi Bai Nagar, Ram Nagar, Sarojini Nagar and Gole Market," it said.

It noted that the families comprising of daily wage earners, slum-dwellers and laborers have been adversely impacted due to the current lockdown implemented to combat the deadly coronavirus.

This initiative of Vedanta is in partnership with the district administration, in which the meals are being distributed to affected areas as per the direction from the district administration.

"The daily wage earners are our lifeline in our everyday life. Our Chairman, Anil Agarwal has been in the forefront of extending all support to feed daily wage workers with our 'Meals for all' initiative. We have partnered AkshayaPatra who are extending this support to feed the needy in Delhi," said Ritu Jhingon, CEO, Nand Ghar, Vedanta Limited.

The group has contributed Rs 101 crore to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund. It also said that it would fund up to Rs 200 crore in providing relief measures to communities at large across the country.
He has also held senior positions at Ace Tempest Re, Allied World Assurance Company and General Reinsurance.

In his new role, Kreuzer will report to Christian Dunleavy, chief underwriting officer at Aspen Re and CEO of Aspen Bermuda Limited. He will be based in Aspens New York and Rocky Hill, Conn., offices.

As we continue to transform our business, we are pleased to be attracting people of Scotts considerable expertise and experience to Aspen, said Mark Cloutier, executive chairman and group chief executive officer. He will further strengthen our senior leadership at this important time in our evolution. In the last year we have added a number of high-caliber individuals to our management team, and they will play an important role as we move the business forward and look to realize our long-term vision for Aspen.
The measures taken by China to contain the Covid-19 pandemic have resulted in an overall two per cent reduction in Chinese production, which has so far been translated into a $50 billion drop in global trade, according to figures from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).



Its report revealed that the sectors most hurt by the drop included the manufacture of precision tools, machinery, automotive equipment, and communications devices. The economies most impacted were those of the EU ($15.5 billion), the US ($5.8 billion) and Japan ($5.2 billion), it said.



According to a report on the oil market from February 2020 by the International Energy Agency (IEA), demand for oil in China represents 14 per cent of global demand and the growth of demand for oil in China is more than 75 per cent of the growth in global demand. Therefore, any relapse in Chinas economy is expected to negatively impact the global economy in general and indirectly affect the African economies.



The IEA expects global demand for oil to drop by 435,000 barrels a day in the first quarter of 2020, which is the first quarterly contraction in more than a decade. It also expects that global demand for oil will drop in 2020 by 365,000 barrels a day, the worst demand performance since 2011.



The economic impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus on the African countries depends on the size of their trade, investments, and movement of people with China. Since some African countries greatly depend on oil and gas exports, it is expected that the drop in oil prices will negatively affect their economies. Since the discovery of the new coronavirus, the price of oil has dropped to lows it has not seen in years.



Sub-Saharan Africa could lose up to $4 billion in exports if the pandemic leads to a drop in demand by China and the rest of the world, due to falls on the stock exchange, halts in production, closed borders, and canceled flights. If the price of oil falls by five per cent due to a drop in global demand caused by Covid-19, the Sub-Saharan African countries will see a $3 billion drop in oil revenues. The countries that will be most impacted include Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Lesotho and Zambia. Angola sends 60 per cent of its exports to China, for example.



The pandemic is also impacting tourism, especially since several African countries have ordered travel bans in and out of their territories, dealing a blow to the continents airline and tourism sectors. It is estimated that African airlines have lost $400 million since the start of the pandemic, and most Sub-Saharan African countries have stopped flights to and from China. Countries that have taken the firm position of banning flights with the outside world include South Africa, Tanzania, Mauritius, Kenya, and Ghana.



Fluctuating exchange rates are another economic feature of the pandemic. Since most African currencies are tethered to foreign currencies, their flexibility is limited and they are impacted by economic crises. The rand in South Africa lost five per cent of its market value against the US dollar after the crisis began, and other African countries saw a rise in the price of their bonds. Economically, this means a rise in the cost of financing and hence a rise in the cost of repayments and the servicing of debt on their bonds.



Meanwhile, Chinese infrastructure projects in Africa have faltered due to the disruption resulting from the travel bans. The larger problem is that supply chains for primary components for these projects come from China and have become disrupted, making it difficult to find components, equipment, and machines from elsewhere.



African officials are concerned about the fast spread of Covid-19 across the continent, which will impact many sectors in their countries. Africa is home to 16 per cent of the worlds population, but it spends very little on healthcare at around two per cent of global spending. This means that the pandemic will seriously impact African communities on top of the other diseases they already suffer from, including HIV, Ebola, and others. The ability to contain Covid-19 will rely on the resilience of public healthcare systems in Africa. One example is Djibouti, which ranks 157 out of 191 countries on the World Health Organisations (WHO) healthcare systems index.



The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) announced the launch of the Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA) on 20 March, with $3 billion to assist the African countries in dealing with the economic and health impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. It will facilitate financing for countries that are Afreximbank members to cope in an organised manner with the financial, economic, and health shocks resulting from the novel coronavirus outbreak. It will also support central banks and other financial institutions in these countries to pay trade debts and avoid defaults. It will support and stabilise foreign currency resources for central banks so they can support critical imports during the Covid-19 pandemic.



Egypt is a key member of the Afreximbank. The $3 billion will assist members whose revenues are linked to specific export revenues, such as from metals, to manage any sudden drop in revenues due to slumps in exports. It will also facilitate funding trade to import urgent necessities to combat the pandemic, including medical equipment and equipment to refurbish hospitals. This will be done through direct financing, credit lines, guarantees, currency swaps and other mechanisms.



The African countries need to adopt a slew of health policies and media campaigns to contain the pandemic and research the possible economic impacts of it depending on the extent of their exposure to the novel coronavirus through trade, investment, and the movement of people. The African countries must move to limit shocks from the outside resulting from an over-reliance on one country or one activity.



China is the main trading partner and creditor of many African countries. The Covid-19 outbreak reminds us of the importance of diversifying export partners and identifying funding other than from China.







The writer is professor of economics at the Graduate School of African Studies at Cairo University.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 9 April, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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HOD HASHARON, Israel, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- MinerEye, www.minereye.com, a data protection leader, is proud to announce the launch of a new Intelligent Data Breach Incident Response and Investigation Service. With this new MinerEye Service, an organization can accelerate and improve network-wide investigations to map compromised data and significantly reduce the time it takes to provide accurate breach notification. It also allows them stay ahead of future incident related risks before they strike. MinerEye's Data Breach Incident Response and Investigation Service enables organizations to meet breach notification requirements mandated by GDPR, CCPA, NYPA, HIPAA, PIPEDA and others.

"The unprecedented growth of the remote workforce in these challenging times, has increased every organization's risk and threat surface," said Yaniv Avidan, MinerEye's President and Co-Founder. "MinerEye's AI-Powered categorization and virtual labeling capabilities - which can automatically discover and monitor confidential corporate data and PI customer data in any file format wherever it is located, on premise or in the cloud  have become mission critical for data risk reduction programs." Powered by Interpretive AI Technology, MinerEye's data protection platform can mitigate corporate risks associated with future incidents.

"With MinerEye's technology, we are able to provide our clients with faster discovery of PI customer data that may have been compromised in a breach," said Ray Vankrimpen, Partner at consulting firm RICHTER LLP. "MinerEye's technology rapidly pinpoints exposed sensitive data that would otherwise may take months to manually discover."

Below are the topline capabilities of MinerEye's Data Breach Incident Response & Investigation Service:

Incident Response

Quickly identify and categorize sensitive/regulated data across the network

Perform automated and custom searches on unstructured data (prem and cloud-based)

Leverage automated, scalable data risk assessments

Mitigate future incident-related risks

Intelligent Investigation

Accelerate and improve network-wide incident investigations

Perform rapid compromised account reviews

Breach Notification

Meet breach notification requirements with comprehensive identification, mapping and classification of regulated data anywhere in your network

To learn more about this and other MinerEye solutions, or to request a live MinerEye demo, visit www.minereye.com or email [email protected].

About MinerEye

MinerEye enables organizations to overcome the information governance and protection challenge. It automatically scans, indexes, analyzes, virtually labels and categorizes every piece of unstructured and dark data contained in the organization's data repositories. With proprietary Interpretive AI, machine learning, and computer vision, the solution locates relevant files out of the billions that are stored, accurately evaluates them, qualifies them by significance and purpose, and automatically sends alerts with next best action recommendations in cases of conflicts, duplications, or potential violations. This way, data protection is profoundly enhanced while risk and operational costs are reduced.

To learn move, visit www.minereye.com, or connect on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or YouTube.

Download the Datasheet: MinerEye's Data Breach Incident Response & Investigation Service

For more information, please contact:

Jodi Joseph Asiag, Director of Marketing

[email protected]

SOURCE MinerEye

Related Links

http://www.minereye.com/


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DENVER, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cimarex Energy Co. (NYSE: XEC) today announced it plans to report first quarter 2020 financial results on Wednesday, May 6, 2020, after market close. The company will host its quarterly conference call at 11:00 AM ET on Thursday, May 7, 2020.

The call will be webcast and is accessible via the Cimarex website at www.cimarex.com. To join the live, interactive call, please dial 866-367-3053 ten minutes before the scheduled start time (callers in Canada dial 855-669-9657 and international callers dial 412-902-4216).

A replay will be available on the company's website.

About Cimarex Energy

Denver-based Cimarex Energy Co. is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company with principal operations in the Anadarko and Permian Basins of the U.S.

SOURCE Cimarex Energy Co.

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Another resident was able to virtually connect with the council to ask about paying late fees for rent, which her landlord charged. Uran said the city isnt able to waive fees for private entities, but he told the resident to call 211 to talk with a state official about her situation.
M ore people with medical conditions are being added to the Governments coronavirus shielding programme, Englands chief medical officer has said.

Prof Chris Whitty said GPs have helped identify patients who were not initially included in the high-risk category but who do need special protection.

About 1.5 million people had been told they need to have the absolute minimum contact with others after being identified as among the most vulnerable.

But Prof Whitty confirmed on Tuesday that more people are now being added to the official high-risk list and that they would be sent letters this week.

Chris Whitty: Mistake to discuss the next phase of managing the pandemic at this stage

The Government last month said people in high-risk categories should exercise shielding measures by staying at home at all times.

They were told to avoid any face-to-face contact for at least 12 weeks.

Prof Whitty said a first wave of letters informing people they needed to implement measures had been sent, with a second wave due to go out this week.

He said the "great majority" of people at high risk had been identified centrally through medical records.

But he told the daily Downing Street press conference: "There are additional people who have been identified either by specialist medical groups or, in some cases, by GPs, who know that someone has got a group of conditions or a particular condition that isn't on the list but makes them particularly vulnerable... so some people have been added to the list as a result of that."

Prof Whitty did not clarify what medical conditions meant these extra people qualified for the shielding programme.

This focus on clinically vulnerable people, including children, covers those with certain conditions such as severe asthma, specific cancers, solid organ transplant recipients and pregnant women with significant heart disease.

Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty and Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab attend a COVID-19 Digital Press Conference at 10 Downing Street / via REUTERS

Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast

Prof Whitty explained that some being urged to observe the shielding measures would choose not to do so.

He said: "There have been some people who will have taken a decision in discussion with their GP, that they simply do not wish to be part of this, that the idea of being, for many weeks, completely cut off, at least physically from society, except for the absolute basic necessities... that this is not something they wish to do."

He added: "And this particularly, for example, might apply to people who have had a terminal diagnosis and are in palliative care and are on the last stages, where they would just make a rational life decision, that was not what they wished to do."

Prof Whitty said changes to the shielding programme, in terms of people being added or not wishing to take part, was something that was always "expected to happen".
ISTANBUL  Turkey has ordered all citizens to wear masks when shopping or visiting crowded public places and announced that it will deliver masks to every family, free of charge, as coronavirus infections increase in the country of 80 million.

The order is the latest in a gradual tightening of antivirus measures by a government that has insisted that the virus was under control and has resisted a complete lockdown.

Turkey has over 34,000 confirmed cases of the virus and has registered 725 deaths. More than 1,400 patients are in intensive care units and at least 600 medical workers have been infected, according to figures released Tuesday by the Health Ministry.

The number of confirmed cases places Turkey among the top 10 currently worst affected countries, and reflects a steep rise since its first confirmed death from the disease on March 17.
UCLA Hospital offered Ms. Essombe a per diem position less than a year later in August of 2019. The timing was no coincidence. On August 6, 2019, a Los Angeles Superior Jury ordered the UC Regents to pay Nicole Birden $1.58 million dollars because of the racial harassment to which she was subjected while working as a phlebotomist at UCLA Hospital in Santa Monica. Nicole Birden v. UC Regents et al Case No. BC663189. The UC Regents offered Ms. Essombe her job within weeks of the verdict.

Two years after Birden was subjected to harassment, the same coworkers and supervisors subjected Ms. Essombe to the same type of racially motivated discrimination, harassment, and bullying, according to the suit. Like Ms. Birden, the newly filed lawsuit alleges that the same coworker addressed Ms. Essombe as "My N***a," the same coworkers subjected her to disparaging remarks about the color of her skin and they repeatedly racially stereotyped her in Spanish. The same coworkers allegedly harassed her through repeated calls to her work phone while she was drawing blood, piling an excessive workload, and tampering with blood samples by discarding them in the trash. Ms. Essombe is a very dedicated first responder, so after she complained about her blood specimens being thrown away and no corrective action was taken, she proceeded to hand deliver her specimens to the lab.

Further, like Ms. Birden, it is alleged that the UC Regents repeatedly denied Ms. Essombe career employment opportunities while other less qualified non- African American phlebotomists were hired to these career positions. Disturbingly, the lawsuit alleges that, two of the same supervisors that ignored the harassment against Ms. Birden resulting in the jury's verdict, ignored Ms. Essombe's complaints of harassment and engaged in harassment themselves, including use of the words "pickaninny" and "n****r" while engaging in blatant racial stereotyping.

The lawsuit also alleges that the UC Regents deny African-American phlebotomists a fair opportunity for career employment and relegate them to inferior shifts and assignments.

V. James DeSimone, representing both Birden and Essombe, explains: "UCLA Hospital treats its black phlebotomists as second class citizens. When the employees complain, instead of taking appropriate corrective action, UCLA Hospital terminates them. As someone who went to UCLA Law School, I believe it is more important than ever to hold the perpetrators of discrimination accountable so that the culture can be changed to one of respect and equality."

Co-Counsel Carmen Sabater, a former New York City Police Officer, added, "The role of First Responders is vital to our society, especially today during this pandemic. Phlebotomists are among these first responders we rely on to perform essential and sometimes imperative life or death blood draws. For this reason, a phlebotomist must be able to perform these duties in a work environment free from racial discrimination, hostility and bullying."

The lawsuit requests that a Los Angeles Superior Court jury provide compensatory and punitive damages and also requests reasonable Attorneys' Fees. In the Birden v. UC Regents Case, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Stern approved a $1000 hourly Attorneys' Fee as reasonable based on the legal work performed by V. James DeSimone and his team.

About V. James DeSimone Law

At V. James DeSimone Law, our Los Angeles employment law and civil rights attorneys are committed to justice. For over 30 years, we have been focused on representing individuals whose employee or civil rights have been violated. We believe no one should be a victim of such mistreatment, and passionately fight for the individuals who have been. Our team prides itself on being the tenacious advocates these individuals can rely on to pursue justice on their behalf. For more information, go to www.vjamesdesimonelaw.com.

SOURCE V. James DeSimone Law

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An opposition legislator in Assam has been arrested for allegedly making provocative, communal and false statements on the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and the treatment of patients, the police said on Tuesday.

Aminul Islam, the Dhing MLA from the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), has been booked under relevant Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections and arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy and spreading disaffection among communities, among others, Assam director general of police (DGP) Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta said.

In audio clips that have surfaced on the social media, Islam purportedly said there was a conspiracy to target Muslims on the pretext of Covid-19 and those sent to quarantine could be killed. HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the clips.

The police picked up Islam from his residence in Dhing in Nagaon district on Monday night and arrested him on Tuesday morning after interrogation.

He will be produced in court later on TuesdayWe have seized his personal digital accessories (PDAs) and processing them as per law. We have found several clippings in his mobile, which we will have to test digitally, DGP Mahanta said.

In the past few days, Islam allegedly posted several posts on social media platforms questioning the governments handling of Covid-19 patients and those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month.

At present, there are at least 26 Covid-19 cases in Assam and 25 of them are linked to the Jamaat event at the Islamic missionary groups six-storey Nizamuddin building that has emerged as one of the single-largest source of the deadly infection in India.

According to the Union health ministry, of the total 4,067 cases in India as of Monday evening, 1,445 (or about 35%) are linked to the congregation. According to the home ministry, at least 25,500 Jamaat members and people who came in contact with them have been quarantined across India.

In one of the audio clips, Islam allegedly said a plan was underway to spread hatred (against people associated with the Jamaat). He purportedly said the condition of quarantine centres was worse than that of detention centres, which are used to incarcerate foreigners illegally staying in the state.

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Australia's coronavirus panic buying frenzy may be coming to an end.

The Commonwealth Bank, Australia's biggest bank, has released new data showing spending on food and alcohol had dived for several weeks in a row.

A month ago, toilet paper shelves at supermarkets were being cleared as the prospect of a COVID-19 lockdown sparked a flurry of frenzied shopping - and a fight in a Sydney Woolworths aisle.

Pasta and rice were next, prompting Woolworths and Coles to introduce a two-packet limit.

Australia's coronavirus panic buying frenzy may be coming to an end. The Commonwealth Bank, Australia's biggest bank, has released new data showing spending on food and alcohol had dived for several weeks in a row. Pictured is are empty Coles supermarket shelves at Bondi Junction in Sydney's east on March 20 - before the drop in food sales

The limits appear to be working with Commonwealth Bank credit and debit card data from showing a 12 per cent fall in food spending in the week ending on April 3.

How panic buying may be ending Food spending fell by 12 per cent in the week ending April 3 This followed a 21 per cent decline in the previous week Alcohol sales plunged by 33 per cent last week, after two weeks of solid gains Source: Commonwealth Bank of Australia Global Economic and Markets Research Advertisement

This followed a 21 per cent decline during the previous week.

Alcohol spending has also fallen, diving by 33 per cent last week after a fortnight of heavy spending.

Commonwealth Bank senior economist Kristina Clifton said a ban on large house parties had possibly discouraged the binge buying on grog.

'Restrictions on activity have also been ramped up and people are no longer allowed to socialise with those that they don't live with,' she said.

'There will be fewer barbecues, parties and other social occasions.'

While toilet paper is very slowly returning to some shelves and warehouses retailers like Costco, supermarkets are continuing to enforce one-packet limits on toilet paper and paper towels.

Commonwealth Bank senior economist Kristina Clifton said a ban on large house parties had possibly discouraged the binge buying on grog with national alcohol sales falling 33 per cent in a week. Pictured is a woman buying several bottles of alcohol at Sydney's Coogee Bay Hotel
Uber has joined hands with renowned eCommerce player Flipkart for last-mile delivery of essentials using the Ubers cab portfolio in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru for now. Surprisingly, Big Basket is also part of the team and the services are more likely to expand to several other cities as well.

Throwing light on this, Uber India & South Asia Director- Operations Prabhjeet Singh said the partnership with Flipkart went live and it is the third such partnership in India after Spencers Retail and BigBasket.

He further added, The partnership helps keep the economy running and enables Indians to stay at home in line with government guidelines for containing COVID-19, as well as creates earning opportunities for a driver.

The partnership will drive Flipkart and BigBasket that have more than half a million inventories pooled at their warehouses. Also, the plan for Big Basket is to use Ubers fleet to serve customers in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, and Noida, as per sources.

The COVID Spread has led to a hike in online food ordering and delivery services. Form managing this increasing demand effectively and keep the riders safe, these brands are coming up with different strategies to serve the societal demands safely.

The lockdowns effects are leading these brands partnership to hold vital supply chains to cater to the expanding needs of consumers to receive the most of the prerequisites at their doorsteps. Similarly, bike taxi startup Rapido also teamed with Big Basket, Big Bazaar and Spencers Retail for delivering the essentials.

Sources state that Amazon India has also joined the move and decided to limit its online deliveries to only certain days for areas that have seen a higher number of positive cases. Along with these strategies of the major players, Swiggy is also focusing to tap into grocery delivery and expand the operations. Currently, Swiggy has added marts and supermarkets like Vishal Mega Mart to deliver daily needs. It has strategized to allow only 12 Kg of products each order to prevent stockpiling of whats more than needed.
Education Minister Peter Weir has told Northern Ireland students who were due to sit A-Level and GCSE exams this summer that he hopes to provide answers on grades by the end of the week.

This years summer exams and all primary assessments have been cancelled as the government fights to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Mr Weir, speaking on Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster, said that he understood this was an "immensely stressful situation" for students who were due to sit GCSEs and A Levels this summer.

"We have been working very hard with CCEA and a range of stakeholders to ensure that we have fit provision in terms of grades.

"That is also something where there is work ongoing with CCEA and organisations across the water.

"Particularly if we are looking at those important exams, they have to be compatible across the UK.

"That work is virtually at the point of completion. I can't give detail today, but I anticipate in the next two or three days I will be able to give clarity."

He added: "We are living in incredibly stressful and critical times. Adding to that there are tens of thousands of students who need that answer and we are working to be able to provide that and we hope to provide that in the next two or three days."

In England and Wales teachers are being asked to send exam boards a range of data on each pupil.

This will include the grade they believe a student would most likely get if teaching, learning and exams had happened as planned.

Schools are also being asked to consider classwork, homework, results in assignments, mock exams, any non-exam assessment or coursework and the student's general progress.

In England and Wales the guidance for teachers is not to submit this information earlier than May 29, giving exam boards time to adapt to receiving lots of information they don't normally deal with.

Ofqual (The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation) is also working with exam boards to see if they can provide exams in the Autumn if pupils request this.

Mr Weir said a call has gone out to retired teachers and classroom assistants to help keep schools open amid the coronavirus pandemic.

He has previously said some schools would need to remain open over the Easter break to accommodate children of key workers and the vulnerable. He has now written to retired teachers and classroom assistants asking them to volunteers.

In his letter, the education minister said retired staff would work alongside existing staff to help supervise children.

Mr Weir said: "It is to provide a pool of volunteers so that we can cope in all situations. At the moment there are nearly 400 schools that are open over Easter.

"They are providing that service outside of normal term time. (It is) to provide the safety and to ensure the provision of those services as staff are rotating.

"This is to have a level of reserve pool so that if we reach in any eventuality a spike in terms of the number of teachers that are off, in a particular area that there are people that can be called upon to provide that service."
What happened

Shares of General Motors (NYSE:GM) were surging on Tuesday afternoon, as an analyst's pessimistic downgrade failed to dent investors' growing optimism about GM's prospects once the coronavirus pandemic fades.

As of 1:30 p.m. EDT, GM's shares were up about 12.6% from Monday's closing price.

So what

In a note on Tuesday morning, Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner downgraded GM from the equivalent of buy to hold and cut his price target for the shares from $41 to just $25.

Rosner's concerns centered on GM's rate of cash burn while its factories in North America are shut down. While both GM and rival Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) have well over $20 billion in cash, Rosner estimates that those cash hoards will last just 15 to 17 weeks with factories idled.

(Like most automakers, GM records revenue when it ships vehicles to dealers; with factories shut down, there aren't any shipments at the moment.)

But auto investors seemed much less concerned than Rosner on Tuesday. There's a counterargument to be made that the effects of a lengthy shutdown are already priced into GM's shares, which even with today's rally are still down almost 30% since the beginning of March.

And with signs emerging that the U.S. may be near the peak of the pandemic, and that social-distancing measures imposed since mid-March are having a positive effect, investors have some reasons to think that perhaps GM will emerge from the pandemic in better shape than they might have expected a week or two ago.

Now what

With auto production suspended, GM (like Ford) has turned to making medical equipment and supplies to support healthcare workers and first responders on the front lines of the COVID-19 outbreak. That won't generate much (if any) revenue, but -- in addition to being the right thing to do -- those efforts have already won some genuine goodwill for the company.

But how is GM doing right now, really? It's not easy to tell, not least because CEO Mary Barra and her team are still working through the cost cuts and new-product delays that will help reduce the company's cash-burn rate.

I expect we'll get a comprehensive update no later than May 6, when GM is scheduled to report its first-quarter earnings results.
Abu Dhabi Department of Health has launched a new initiative under which the emirate's residents will be able to get their medicines delivered at their homes, straight from the pharmacies.

Most of the outpatient pharmacies in the emirate have the approval to offer this service, reported the state news agency Wam.

All the DoH-licensed pharmacies in government (under SEHA, the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company) and private sectors, which adhere to mechanisms and requirements of DoH - Abu Dhabi's new standards for home delivery of patients' medication, have been authorised for this purpose, it stated.

Patients can now reach out to pharmacies directly to order medicines.

The service was originally launched to serve the demand of patients and for their convenience, especially for the elderly, vulnerable patients and those who live in remote areas, said senior DoH officials.

However, the timing of the launch is critical as it enables the health sector to support the government strategy to ensure taking preventive measures against the new coronavirus, Covid-19, including social distancing, protecting society by encouraging them to stay at home, and ensuring the continuity of care for all residents in the emirate, it added.

On the service charges, the DoH said the pharmacies can charge the customers for home delivery services. But iit is the discretion of each pharmacy on whether they intend to charge for the service or not, it added.

The permitted drugs for home delivery are: Over the Counter, OTC (sold directly to a consumer without a prescription); Pharmacist Only, PhOM (sold without a prescription but its safe use requires professional advice) and Prescription Only Medications, POM (that legally requires a medical prescription to be dispensed).

For those who want to get home delivery of controlled and semi-controlled medications, special authorisation is required from the DoH - Abu Dhabi to ensure all legal and regulatory requirements are met, it added.

Controlled drugs are those that, if not used responsibly, can lead to addiction and have the potential to be abused by individuals.

These medicines are administered to patients of acute and chronic diseases in accordance with modern medical practice. They are mostly administered to in-patients, said the statement from Wam.

The pharmacies have to follow drug storage guidelines to ensure that the medicines delivered to patients are packaged and sealed properly.

Therefore, pharmacists must ensure that refrigerated medicines are transported in a temperature-controlled container, maintaining the correct temperature as per product specifications during the transit.

Also these pharmacies have to maintain the confidentiality of patients information during the home delivery. Only patients name and his or her contact details will be mentioned on the package.

It is mandatory for patients to provide the pharmacy with an original medical prescription, whether digital or a hard copy, as well as verification documents of the patient or the recipient of the medicine, it added.
As Zoom continues to rise in popularity, so as getting into trouble with some controversial matters. First, it was reported that Zoom were sending your app data to Facebook without your permission, then some hackers were hacking into people's meeting broadcasting porn and shocking videos. With this, some schools are beginning to step away from Zoom and have banned the video call app.

According to sources, several schools in the US are taking the first step to ban Zoom. This includes the ones in New York, Clark County, Nevada, Washington, and Utah as well. Although Zoom have been fixing a number of bloopers, the latest public damage was a ton of private video conversations being shared online. Considering these constant incidents from Zoom, it's no wonder schools are taking a step back from using Zoom.

Perhaps Malaysians should also consider banning Zoom if their problems continue to surface. If anything, the second alternative is Microsoft's Team and there are many other video conferencing call apps to consider too. In fact, we have written 8 Zoom alternatives you can try out during the Movement Control Order. However, keep in mind that there is no perfect security measure on these platforms as hackers will always try to find a way in.

But what do you think of Zoom? Are you still using it or do you prefer other apps? Let us know on our Facebook page and stay tuned for more trending tech news at TechNave.com.
Over 30 booked in Delhi for stepping out without masks

Assam MLA held for spread fake news on COVID-19

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Guwahati, Apr 07: A leader of the opposition in Assam has been booked for allegedly making fake and communal statements relating to COVID-19.

Aminul Islam, Dhing MLA from the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) was arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy and spreading disaffection among communities, Assam Director General of Police, Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta said.

Islam allegedly said that there was a conspiracy to target Muslims on the pretext of coronavirus. In the audio clip that has surfaced, Islam said that those sent to quarantine centres could be killed. The police picked up Islam from his residence. His personal digital accessories have been seized and are being processed as per the law.

Fake News Buster

Islam has in the past few days posted several posts questioning the government's handling of the coronavirus patients and those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation last month.
The vast interior of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Manhattan stood empty on Monday, the thousands of chairs that normally sit beneath its soaring ceiling and stained-glass windows removed to make room for a more grim sight: a coronavirus field hospital.

The cathedral, which describes itself as the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, said on Monday that its 600-foot-long nave and equally large subterranean crypt would be turned into an emergency hospital as part of the fight against the pandemic.

Nine climate-controlled medical tents capable of holding a total of at least 200 patients will be erected inside the cathedral by the end of the week, said the Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel III, the dean of the cathedral.

The crypt, which is primarily accessible via a series of winding staircases, will be used as a staging area for medical personnel, he said. It is the first time the cathedral, which is the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, will have been used for such a task, he said.
At a news conference Monday, Trump maintained that Crozier should not have sent the letter but said he had been hearing good things about the captain and his career before that. So Im going to get involved and see what is going on there, because I dont want to destroy somebody for having a bad day, Trump said.
Scotland's Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood speaks at a briefing on the CCP virus in Edinburgh on March 29, 2020. (Jeff J. Mitchell/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Scotlands Top Medical Official Resigns After Mistakes in Following Lockdown Guidance

The top medical official in Scotland resigned after not following the advice she gave to the country about how to act during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Catherine Calderwood, Scotlands chief medical examiner since 2015, issued an apology after she and her family were photographed at their second home, which is located in Fife, about an hour from their main residence in Edinburgh.

I am deeply sorry for my actions and the mistakes I have made, Calderwood said in a statement published by the Scottish government in announcing her resignation.

The First Minister and I have had a further conversation this evening and we have agreed that the justifiable focus on my behaviour risks becoming a distraction from the hugely important job that government and the medical profession has to do in getting the country through this coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19, a disease that emerged in China last year, is caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus.

Calderwood said she would work with her team for a few days this week to ensure a smooth transition to my successor.

Scotlands First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, left, speaks as Chief Medical Officer Dr. Catherine Calderwood listens in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 12, 2020. (Jeff J. Mitchell/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Calderwood was featured in television and radio spots urging members of the public to stay home.

The doctor told reporters at a press conference after photographs were published in a tabloid of her and her family in Fife, that she and her husband also traveled to their second home the previous weekend.

On April 5, both Calderwood and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the doctor would remain in her post but not attend press conferences for the foreseeable future. That stance changed later in the day.

Sturgeon said in a statement that it was clear that Calderwoods mistake risks distracting from and undermining confidence in the governments public health message at this crucial time.

That is not a risk either of us is willing to take, she said before praising the medical officers tenure.

A steward works as cars line up to enter a drive-in facility set up to test NHS staff for the CCP virus at Glasgow Airport in Paisley, Scotland, on April 5, 2020. (Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images)

Sturgeon told reporters on April 6 that things changed over the course of the previous day, adding, I have set out pretty fully my own thought processes and decision-making, and I stand by that. But I didnt want this situation to arise, I regret it and I am deeply sorry for it.

Calderwood was visited by police officials, who issued her a warning for her travel.

The legal instructions on not leaving your home without a reasonable excuse apply to everyone. Social distancing is the key intervention to curtail the spread of coronavirus and it is essential that the instructions are followed to protect each other, take strain from the NHS and save lives, Police Scotland Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said in a statement. Individuals must not make personal exemptions bespoke to their own circumstances.

A number of lawmakers weighed in against Calderwood, including Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlow and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie.

As of April 7, Scotland has 4,299 confirmed CCP virus cases and 296 deaths out of more than 25,000 people tested.
The coronavirus test kits donated by Vietnam arriving in Indonesia

Vietnam has sent 500 test RT-PCR real-time COVID-19 Kits to Western Indonesia as support from the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the Government of the Republic of Indonesia to fight the disease.

The donation was a result of co-ordination and co-operation between the Indonesian Embassy in Hanoi and the Vietnamese Embassy in Jakarta, as well as the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology, said Ibnu Hadi, the Indonesian Ambassador to Vietnam.

According to Ambassador Hadi, right after landing in Indonesia, all the test kits were immediately delivered to Prof. Dr. Sri Oemijati Infectious Disease Research Laboratory in Central Jakarta to help discover infected cases quickly.

The test kits have high accuracy in a short time. The total real-time RT-PCR process time is about 60 minutes, and one one sample needs one test only, improving the efficiency of the test protocol, he said.

The test kits are called Light Power IVASARS-CoV-2 1stRT-rPCR kit (VA.A02-055H) and have been produced by Viet A Corporation, a Vietnamese company specialising in the field of molecular biology.

According to data released by the Vietnamese Ministry of Health, by 5pm April 7, Indonesia had 2,491 coronavirus positive cases and 209 deaths while Vietnam has 249 cases of infection without a single death so far, with 122 cases totally recovered.

Besides Indonesia, Vietnam has also presented the kits along with other medical equipment valued at $100,000 to Laos and Cambodia.
By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan and Turkey have applied for inclusion of balaban and other multinational objects in the UNESCO Cultural Heritage List.

Stories about Molla Nasreddin, tea culture and balaban are presented as multinational objects.

The application for inclusion of the balaban in the list was submitted jointly by Azerbaijan and Turkey, while the stories about Molla Nasreddin were submitted jointly by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Balaban is cylindrical-bore, double-reed wind instrument with seven finger holes and one thumb hole. When you play balaban you should use fingers of both hands to open and close certain holes. It can be made of mulberry or other harder woods, such as walnut.

Balaban refers to aerofoams. The silver ring, which is more than 2,000 years old, has been discovered during archaeological excavations in Bargoed village of Ujar region.

For the first time, balaban was mentioned in the epos of "Kitabi Dada Gorgud".

Ring with the blue stone imprinted the image of Balaban. The word "Balaban" combines two Azerbaijani-Turkish words "bal" and "ban".

"Bala" means small or fragile and ban is an archaism which means "voice".

The name of the first performer on this instrument in Azerbaijan is unknown. However, the oldest performer was poetess Mahsati Ganjavi. In his works, Nizami also notes the name of Nagisa, master harpist and composer of the royal court of King Khosrau II of Persia.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
FORT COLLINS, Colo., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DH2i, the leading provider of multi-platform Software Defined Perimeter and Smart Availability software, today announced that it has teamed with Joseph D'Antoni, a Principal Consultant with Denny Cherry & Associates, to present a live webinar entitled, "Overcoming the HA/DR and Networking Challenges of SQL Server on Linux."

When:

Wednesday, April 15, 2020 at 11:00 am  12:00 pm Pacific Time (2:00 pm  3:00 pm Eastern Time)

Why Attend:

At the surface level, Microsoft SQL Server on Linux sounds like an IT pro's paradise. Organizations would like to adopt this technology for its ease of deployment and fit into automated build processes. However, there are some major roadblocks dissuading the industry from mass adoption: configuring high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) - and doing so across sites and clouds.

In this live webinar, attendees will learn how to mitigate the configuration challenges and typical headaches associated with traditional clustering solutions. SQL Server visionary Joey D'Antoni will show attendees how to use DH2i machine images to easily deploy highly available SQL Server on Linux into AWSincluding across disparate sites, zones and regions.

About Joseph D'Antoni:

Joseph D'Antoni is an Architect and SQL Server MVP with over a decade of experience working in both Fortune 500 and smaller firms. He is currently Principal Consultant for Denny Cherry and Associates Consulting. He holds a BS in Computer Information Systems from Louisiana Tech University and an MBA from North Carolina State University. He is a frequent speaker at PASS Summit, Microsoft Ignite, Code Camps, and SQL Saturday events.

Learn more and register here:

https://dh2i.com/overcoming-the-ha-dr-and-networking-challenges-of-sql-server-on-linux-with-joey-dantoni/

Tweet this:

@DH2i & @jdanton to Discuss How to Overcome the HA, DR and Networking Challenges of #Microsoft #SQLServer on #Linux https://dh2i.com/overcoming-the-ha-dr-and-networking-challenges-of-sql-server-on-linux-with-joey-dantoni/

#HighAvailability #DisasterRecovery #AWS #cloud #multicloud #SQLServer

About DH2i

DH2i Company is the leading provider of multi-platform Software Defined Perimeter and Smart Availability software for Windows and Linux. DH2i software products DxOdyssey and DxEnterprise enable customers to create an entire IT infrastructure that is "always-secure and always-on." To learn more, please visit: www.dh2i.com, call: 800-380-5405 or +44 20 3318 9204, or email: [email protected].

DH2i Company 2020. DH2i, Smart Availability, DxEnterprise, DxOdyssey, DxConsole, DxHADR, DxTransfer, DxCollect and InstanceMobility are trademarks of DH2i Company. All other brand or product names contained in this press release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

PR Contact:

Nicole Gorman

Corporate Communications / PR

DH2i

M: 508-397-0131

[email protected]

SOURCE DH2i

Related Links

http://www.dh2i.com


Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  The Philippine Coast Guard said its newest and biggest ship has arrived in the country from France, and it will be used in the country's fight against the coronavirus disease.

BRP Gabriela Silang is now docked in Manila Bay after reaching the country's waters Tuesday morning. It was supposed to arrive in December last year, but while enroute to Manila, it was diverted to the Middle East in January for the possible evacuation of Filipinos in case tensions escalate there.

Its next mission is to transport personal protective equipment and other supplies amid the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

"Sa kasagsagan ng banta ng COVID-19, gagamitin ang barkong ito sa pagbibiyahe ng mga medical supplies, PPE, gamot, pati na rin mga frontliners tulad ng mga medical workers sa mga regional hospitals sa buong bansa," the Philippine Coast Guard announced on Twitter.

[Translation: Amid the threat of COVID-19, this ship will be used to transport medical supplies, PPE, medicine, as well as frontliners like medical workers to regional hospitals across the country.]

BRP Gabriela Silang, manufactured by French shipbuilder OCEA, was launched in France in July last year. Dubbed as the "newest, biggest, and most modern" ship of the Philippine Coast Guard, it was expected to patrol the country's waters, including the West Philippine Sea that is also being claimed by China.

Luzon is under enhanced community quarantine until April 30 to contain the spread of COVID-19. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country has risen to 3,660 with 163 deaths and 73 recoveries.

The viral disease has spread to all the regions in the country after previously being confined to Metro Manila and Luzon.

CNN Philippines' David Santos contributed to this report.
TWO Limerick teachers have sacrificed their Easter break to help those in the front-line in the fight against Covid-19.

James Browne and Tom Jones (yes these are their names!) who are technology teachers at Villiers School in the North Circular Road have been coming in each day this week to make visors, which are being donated to healthcare workers.

The technology laboratory in the school has been turned into a production line pumping out up to 80 of the protective face-masks a day.

These have been donated to care workers across Limerick who are all playing their part to control the pandemic.

Mary Quinn, the schools deputy principal said: They are using a template for the visors. They are cutting it using our 3d printers. They are also printing the acetate to the correct size, and then assembling them together. All this is literally happening in the technology lab in our school.

The initiative has been made possible thanks to a donation from the Villiers School parent-teacher association, with the two teachers on the premises from 9am to at least 5pm each night.

Ms Quinn said: Already Mowlam's Nursing Home has collected 100 masks for their staff. Ten have been given to Thomond House, and 10 have been given to our local GP who has connections with the school.

They will be here for the next few days, throughout the Easter holidays, she added, They know what they are doing and are happy to give of their time during the Easter holidays.

Ms Quinn said the school community is exceptionally proud of the teachers.

They are wonderful guys. And our Parent-Teacher Association to be fair are happy to sponsor the cost of the visors. They'll be there today, tomorrow, they'll be there Friday and Monday. There'll be no break for them this Easter!.

Teacher James said in a video on Twitter: We are making these to protect front-line workers. We'd hope these would go to nursing homes or healthcare agencies. That they'd be able to get some use out of them.
By Express News Service

KASARAGOD/ MANGALURU: Kasaragod district, it appears, has put a brake on runaway Covid-19 figures, with all the latest cases being reported from identified and sealed-off clusters. On Monday, nine persons tested positive for coronavirus disease-2019, of which six are from the UAE. The three cases of local transmission are women are from Kalnad in Chemnad panchayat, said district surveillance officer Dr AT Manoj. To be sure, Kalnad has already been sealed and cordoned off as part of the governments strategy to contain the spread of the virus.

The other six persons who reported positive on Monday are from Mogral Puthur (1), Chengala (4), and Kasaragod (1). All these places are also recognised as clusters of Covid-19 and cordoned off, said district officials.In all, Kasaragod has 147 active cases, the highest in the state. Fifty-five of them are cases of local transmission.

Meanwhile, three Kasaragod natives, who were undergoing treatment for Covid-19 in Mangaluru, returned home after recovery on Monday. They were among the four persons who recovered in Dakshina Kannada district on Monday. The fourth person is from Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka. According to a release from the Deputy Commissioner, all the four landed at Mangaluru International Airport from Dubai on March 19.

They were isolated at the airport after they showed symptoms of Covid-19. They were admitted to District Wenlock Hospital where they were under treatment for the past 17 days. Officials said they were declared cured after their swab samples tested negative, twice. Two more persons from Kasaragod who arrived with the three are in Wenlock Hospital after testing positive for coronavirus.
Easyjet's founder has lashed out at the airline's bosses for taking 600million from UK taxpayers while pressing ahead with a 4.5billion order for more than 100 new planes.

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou last night accused the management team of 'misusing taxpayers' money' and said the decision not to terminate the deal with Airbus 'could be the biggest scandal in British corporate history'.

EasyJet will get 600million from the Government's coronavirus fund, and is borrowing an additional 400million from creditors.

Easyjet's founder has lashed out at the airline's bosses for taking 600million from UK taxpayers while pressing ahead with a 4.5billion order for more than 100 new planes

Sir Stelios, whose family is EasyJet's largest shareholder, insisted the airline would not need a loan if it cancelled the multi-billion-pound Airbus deal, which he said was 'useless' while planes are grounded during the Covid-19 pandemic.

EasyJet has not broken any rules in taking advantage of the bailout measures and is entitled to use the money to buy new aircraft.

But Sir Stelios is opposed to the Government loan and urged executives to ditch the Airbus contract 'for EasyJet to survive'.

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou (pictured) last night accused the management team of 'misusing taxpayers' money' and said the decision not to terminate the deal with Airbus 'could be the biggest scandal in British corporate history'

The Greek-Cypriot billionaire called for the removal of chief finance officer Andrew Findlay, and threatened to oust non-executive director Andreas Bierwirth.

The row comes days after Sir Stelios faced criticism for receiving a 60million dividend payment, although this related to last year's performance and was approved and made legally binding before the pandemic.

He said previously: 'The world looked like a much happier place on the 6 February and the dividend was rightfully paid to all shareholders.'

An EasyJet spokesman said its board 'fully supports' the decision to accept the Government loan in the 'interests of the company'.
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of top news as of 07.04.2020:

 The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Armenia has reached 853. The death toll has remained eight yet. And the total number of recoveries has reached 87.

According to the Armenian governments decision, foreigners are not allowed to enter Armenia through border crossings, however, with exceptions. Upon entering Armenia at the checkpoints, the latter are immediately subjected to inspection.

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has already said that Armenia would start production of COVID-19 tests. According to him, the funds have already been allocated.

 Meanwhile, well-known Armenian physicist, Professor Mishik Ghazaryan, who had tested positive for COVID-19, has died at a Moscow hospital on Monday evening.

What comes to other coronavirus deaths outside Armenia, an Armenian, 75, died in Greece, Armenia TV company was informed from Vice Prelate of the Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Greece Hovhannes Saghdejian.

 Artsakh has already confirmed the first COVID-19 case, the health ministry said.

All 17 citizens who had been in contact with this person had self-isolated in advance for security reasons. They have had no symptoms yet, the Artsakh Information Headquarters reported in a statement.

 Armenian PM had a live broadcast Monday on Facebook and commented on the COVID-19 crisis, gas tariffs, problems with Civil Aviation Committee, and other issues.

According to him, the Armenian government is facing a problem with the effective exploitation of the natural gas system, and it needs to solve the issue. He noted Armenia has already addressed Gazprom Armenia to review the natural gas tariff, taking into consideration the global situation. I hope Russian president and I will be able to consider the issue and reach an agreement, he noted referring to his last phone talks with Vladimir Putin.

The PM also spoke about the Civil Aviation Committee issue and noted that ex-officials have dealt with illegal activities and the sale of weapons in African countries for many years. According to him, the European Aviation Safety Agency has inspected the Committee. The Agency hasnt followed the rules as the discussion was supposed to be held in May, and the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia has sent an appeal.

Pashinyan has also revealed that Armenia is producing a new weapon. A few days ago, I was shown a sample of a product of Armenias military-industrial complex, the existence of which serves as evidence of the fact that the military-industrial complex in Armenia is at a new level, he said adding: We agreed to make efforts to make sure the product is presented in the international market.

 Third President Serzh Sargsyan is ready to attend parliaments special committee hearing on April 16 on the inquiry over the military activities in April 2016, but provided that the hearing be recorded.

His office on Tuesday sent an official letter to Andranik Kocharyan, Chair of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Defense and Security. According to the letter, although the third president is not legally obliged to attend the hearings of this special committee, he would attend the hearing to present details about the military aggression which Azerbaijan had unleashed in April 2016.

 The second president Robert Kocharyan has filed a lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan. Kocharyan has taken Pashinyan to court demanding the protection of his honor and dignity from public slander. The lawsuit was assigned on April 3 to Judge Tigran Grigoryan of the Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan.

 The Council of Europe has published new statistics on the European prisons, including Armenia.

According to the press release, there were major reductions in the incarceration rates in Armenia (-36%).

By the way, the overall imprisonment rate  the number of inmates per 100,000 inhabitants- remained stable in Europe from 2018 to 2019, according to the Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics for 2019.
PRINCE FREDERICK, Md.

(April 7, 2020)The Calvert County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) today voted to extend the declaration of a local State of Emergency for Calvert County for an additional 30 days.The declaration was executed by BOCC President Kelly McConkey on March 17. The state of emergency will expire 60 days after the declaration first went into effect, unless terminated earlier."We are doing everything in our power to protect our citizens and to support the healthcare community and first responders," said McConkey. "This action enables us to remain at a heightened state of readiness, with the flexibility we need to respond swiftly as this crisis evolves. We thank the citizens of Calvert County for their support and call on everyone to continue to stand together in this challenging time."The county continues to share the latest updates surrounding Calvert County's response to COVID-19 through a virtual resource center on its website, including any precautionary measures, guidance and closures. Residents, employees and media are encouraged to regularly monitor the page and use the resources available at www.CalvertCountyMd.gov/Coronavirus Updates will continue to appear on the Calvert County Government website, www.CalvertCountyMd.gov , Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CalvertCountyMd and Comcast Channel 6.somd.com is tracking all official Southern Maryland COVID-19 information releases at
L to R: Surjit Singh Sekhon and his son Manjinder Singh Sekhon pose for a photo with Jasminder Sekhon. The father-son duo finally secured tickets home to Toronto from India after weeks of canceled flights and martial law being declared.

COVID-19 In Canada

After weeks of miscommunication, canceled flights and a countrywide shutdown, Manjinder Singh Sekhon and his father, Surjit Singh Sekhon, will be able to come home to Canada after being stuck in India during a global pandemic.

Its been an absolute nightmare, my dad was feeling a lot of pressure to make sure he keeps my grandfather safe and in good health, said Jasminder Sekhon, Manjinders daughter.

On March 24, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the country of 1.3 billion people would be going into a three-week-long shutdown to limit the spread of COVID-19.

As a result, police and government officials had limited non-essential travel and while living a thousand miles away, Jasminder was handed the task of bringing her family home.

This past Monday, after a weeks long ordeal, Jasminder secured two tickets to bring her family home on an Air India flight out of Amritsar to come back to Canada for Tuesday. The cost of each ticket was $2,900, which is almost three times as expensive as a one-way flight either way.

Sekhon says shes heard from other families who have as many as four family members stuck in India, and the ticket price is what is keeping them from coming home.

Its price-gouging, its incredible that were being told to report on businesses engaging in the practice, but the ticket back is almost three times the regular priceits appalling, she said.

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted

The ordeal started weeks ago when Air India canceled the Sekhons flight for April 1st and the father and son were left without any clear answers on how to proceed.

We tried contacting Air India, but their airlines are shut, we couldnt even contact anybody there to even have a conversation, said Jasminder. We felt stuck.

Sekhon said she tried repeatedly to speak to someone on the phone but to no avail, and even her emails to the Canadian High Commission in India were not getting the response she needed.

When COVID started to accelerate in Canada, we were looking at tickets to bring my dad and grandfather back, we were just being told that no tickets were available, nobody knew what to do, said Sekhon.

Story continues

With neither the Canadian governments help or any word from their airline, Sekhon eventually started pestering the travel agency they had booked with and after hours of messaging was able to secure the tickets.

My family and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted, were so grateful to be together as a family after so much uncertainty, she said.

According to Global Affairs Canada, 27,352 Canadians are registered in India with the Registration of Canadians Abroad Service. The registration is voluntary, and could be higher, and most like the Sekhon family were unaware of how dire the situation was when it hit.

When contacted by Yahoo News, a Global Affairs Spokesperson said theyre working with Canadians in India to come home via flights from Amritsar, Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.

Despite our best efforts, it will not be possible to ensure the return of all Canadians who wish to come home. To prepare for this, Global Affairs Canada is providing heightened advice and support to Canadians already outside of Canada or unable to return to Canada. We encourage Canadians abroad to follow the advice of local authorities, wrote an email to Yahoo News.

There was a complete lack of clarity, family says

Jasminders grandfather, Surjit, is a lung cancer survivor, and at the age of 84, he wanted to visit India one more time while he was still in good health.

At the time when they left, the only concern that we had was making sure that my grandpa didnt face any health complications, said Jasminder.

However, Surjit's diminishing health required medication and specialized bandages that needed changing every couple months, but they could not be purchased in India.

[My dad] couldnt just go out to the pharmacy and get him what he needs, so they cant get access to what they need, it was a stressful situation she said.

Another problem with the new repatriation flights being offered at the time was the Sekhons originally had direct flight tickets from Delhi to Toronto, but the new flights being offered by Air India included a layover in the U.K., which was a major concern.

We didnt want them to layover in Europe, because at the time, it was the epicenter of COVID-19, and with their ages we were concerned, said Jasminder.

Over the past few weeks, Sekhon heard from Canadians who had loved ones stuck in similar predicaments, and some who couldnt secure seats on the repatriated flights dont know what to do.

There was a complete lack of clarity about who theyre trying to bring home, people are literally stuck abroad and it was a fiasco, she said.

Now, with her family back home, Sekhon intends to keep fighting for the thousands of Canadians struck abroad in India.

Our fight is far from over...well continue to push for more repatriation flights and fair pricing, she said.
On Monday there were 27 new cases of coronavirus in the Balearics giving it a growth rate of -9.93%, which is lower than anywhere else in Spain, according to data from the National Institute of Epidemiology.

The only place with a figure anywhere close to that is Extremadura with -9.42% and the national average is -0.63%.

The figures for the Balearics are also backed up by the R0 number, which is the number of people who are infected with coronavirus.

When the R0 number is 1, cases do not increase and when it is below 1, a decrease in cases begins.

The Balearic Islands now have an R0 of 0.63 and is the community in which the number of patients is decreasing the most.

The national average is 0.94 and two territories are still above one: Catalonia and Castilla-La Mancha.

Diagnosis in the Balearic Islands dropped from around 100 cases a day during the week of March 16-22 to about 60 a day last week and the last two weekends have also shown a marked decrease in cases.

Data for Sundays, which is reported on Mondays, was much lower than for other days.

There were 69 new cases on March 22 compared to 78 on Tuesday and the 84 on Wednesday, then on March 29 there were 42 new cases, compared to 69 on Tuesday and 62 on Wednesday.

Last Sunday 27 new people tested positive, taking the total number of infections to 1,320.

531 have now been discharged and show no signs of the virus and there were 6 more deaths, taking the total number of fatalities to 81.

More than 80% of those who have tested positive for Covid-19 have been admitted to hospital and the rest are being treated at home.

224 people people in Nursing Homes and Disabled Centres have been diagnosed with coronavirus, 203 of them are Health Professionals and the rest are residents.

"The main concern right now is the Residences because they have a high risk of contagion," said Dr Javier Arranz, Spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Committee.

18,000 rapid tests for coronavirus have now arrived in the Balearic Islands, but Dr Arranz was unable to say what criteria is required for a test.

De-escalation of Restrictions

With regard to the de-escalation of the coronavirus restrictions, Dr Arranz said it will be a gradual process and requires proper planning.

"The position of the Government, the Ministry of Health and experts is that confinement should continue at least until the end of the month," said Dr Arranz. The most important thing is to avoid a rebound of cases.

Regarding the debate about whether or not the entire population should be wearing masks, Dr Arranz pointed out that if not used properly they can be dangerous and should only be used for high-risk situations." He also said again and that constant hand-washing is more important.
Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News

City officials say more than 1,600 residents have called in complaints of others or businesses violating stay-at-home orders since San Antonio's Public Health Emergency Declaration on March 18.

As of Monday, city departments and the San Antonio Police Department have received 1,647 calls, 20 of which have resulted in citations, according to officials. Another 1,017 locations have been given warnings.
With countries struggling to contain the Covid-19 epidemic, drug companies are working round the clock to find a possible vaccine for the novel coronavirus. Across the world, over 140 experimental drug treatment and vaccines for coronavirus are in the development stage, including 11 that are already in clinical trials, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.

Taking into account drugs which have been approved for treating other diseases, there are presently 254 clinical trials assessing treatments and vaccines, the report said. Most of these are led by universities and government research agencies with over a hundred more trials in the offing. Researchers are crunching timelines for developing these vaccines into weeks and even days, the report added.

We have never gone so fast with so many resources in such a short time frame, Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer of Johnson & Johnson was quoted as saying by WSJ.

However, for most treatments and vaccines, the results of their safety and effectiveness will be known only by mid-summer. J&J, the report says, is eagerly looking forward to a possible vaccine, but wont be able to start testing it in humans till September. Despite tremendous progress being made, outpacing the virus seems like an impossible task.

US health officials are cautioning the public to gear up for a spurt in infections this week. In the US, Covid-19 has claimed the lives of over 10,000 people. The White House projections also portray a grim scenario with an estimated 100,000 to 240,000 deaths from Covid-19, the report said.

Vaccines to fend off infections and drugs to treat them, it appears, cant come any sooner. Bereft of these, health officials have had to depend on containment steps, including travel bans and social distancing, the report said.

Vaccines or a new drug usually take years to develop. After identifying prospects, researchers must then make adjustments to maximise their disease-fighting strength and minimise the risk of unwarranted side effects.

The compounds must be tested in the lab, in animals and extensively in humans. If they succeed, more time is needed to manufacture large numbers of doses, the report said.

The pressing, high-speed quest is moving along three crucial fronts, the report adds. One is to develop a vaccine that could give immunity, permitting a return to normalcy.

The vaccine that has made the maximum progress is the one in the making by government researchers and Moderna Inc., a biotechnology firm in Cambridge, Mass. The safety test for this vaccine has already commenced. If this, and all subsequent clinical studies pan out, the vaccine could be fit for use by early next year, researchers told WSJ.

Besides this, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Plymouth Meeting, Pa. announced that human trials are beginning today for an experimental vaccine it is working on, the report said. Chinese firm CanSino Biologics Inc. and a research arm of the Chinese military have commenced testing of a possible vaccine, as per World Health Organization (WHO). Meanwhile, in Europe, German company CureVac AG and the University of Oxford are developing vaccines, the report said.

Scientists are also studying if existing drugs such as hydroxychloroquine for malaria or HIV treatments might be effective against the novel coronavirus and a few doctors are already treating patients with hydroxychloroquine. The outcome of Chinese studies by Gilead Sciences Inc. on antiviral remdesivir  which was previously tested in Ebola  is also expected this month, the report said.

On the third front, researchers are keeping an eye out for entirely new drugs. These attempts, which take longer than other routes, are programmes to mine the blood of recovered patients for antibodies that can be turned into drugs.

Research for finding a vaccine and treatment is challenging, but fighting a virus is a particularly daunting task. Tweaking the immune system, as a few drugs and vaccines focusing on infectious diseases seek to do, risks the possibility of sending the immune response into an overdrive, the report said.

Several medical facilities across the US are looking for people to test the safety of the potential coronavirus drugs or vaccines. To speed up the process, they are suspending trials of other medicines and allocating data-entry workers, pharmacists and other staff to help with the paperwork, the report said.

It can take researchers many attempts to find more powerful agents. I think we can find something that, at least, helps people out, said Derek Lowe, a veteran drug researcher told WSJ.

Whether any of these things work well enough to get people out of their houses, thats another question. Maybe it works well enough to reduce the number of people who go on ventilators, he added.

Several medical facilities across the US are looking for people to test the safety of the potential coronavirus drugs or vaccines. To speed up the process, they are suspending trials of other medicines and allocating data-entry workers, pharmacists and other staff to help with the paperwork, the report said.
New Delhi, April 7 : The Delhi Minorities Commission on Tuesday urged Muslims to not step out for the 'Shab-e Bara'at' and spend the time at home offering prayers amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Zafarul-Islam Khan, DMC Chairman, appealed to the Muslims to not visit the graveyards but pray for their departed relatives while staying at home.

Khan made the request in view of the outbreak of cornonavirus, which has evolved into a dangerous pandemic.

"Thousands have lost their lives as a result and over a million people have been infected by this virus. In our own country over four thousand people are infected by this virus. As a safeguard, the whole country is under lockdown at present," he said.

He also said that due to the lockdown, congregational and prayers in the mosques have been curtailed and people are offering their prayers at home.

"Muslims every year observe vigil at night at mosques on the occasion of Shab-e Bara'at, offering special prayers, reciting the Holy Quran and visiting graveyards. An effective way to protect ourselves from this virus is to observe social distancing and people should not assemble at any place." Khan said it is part of wisdom and expediency that the same is observed during the Shab-e Bara'at.

"We appeal to all Muslims to spend Shab-e Bara'at at home offering prayers, reciting the Holy Quran and doing 'zikr' and 'du'a'. Muslims should not visit graveyards but pray for their departed relatives while staying at home. We appeal, in particular, to our youth to completely refrain from going out of their homes during this night." He also appealed to all to offer prayers to safeguard all our compatriots from this pandemic.
OAKLAND, Calif., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Poets&Quants For Undergrads, the leading news source for undergraduate business education, has released its fifth annual Best & Brightest Business Majors feature, which honors 100 of the most accomplished seniors who majored in fields like marketing, accounting, operations, and human resources.

"This year's Best & Brightest is bittersweet," says Jeff Schmitt, Poets&Quants' senior writer who launched the series in 2016. "Everything ended so abruptly with COVID-19. Most students won't be able to cement their legacies this spring. There is still a silver lining for them. They're already so driven and creative. They may not come into the work world they expected, but they're going to be doing the heavy lifting in starting things back up. That's a lot of exposure and opportunity. These business majors are the kind of talent who are going to capitalize on that."

This year's 100 Best & Brightest feature gifted students like Deven Rodriguez, a St. John's University Management major who ranked among the top three Army ROTC cadets in its annual merit list. Miami University's Laura Mena is on track to raise $1.5 million dollars for RedHawk Venture, the school's seed stage venture fund. Additionally, she has made the Cincy Inno 25 Under 25, which honors the best young innovators in Cincinnati's startup ecosystem. Similarly, Cornell University's Jessica Tao has co-founded a company that produces a patented toenail trimmer for people with limited flexibility  one that garnered support from the National Science Foundation and the New York State Department of Health.

To compile this year's Best & Brightest students, Poets&Quants reached out to the 50 highest-ranked schools in Poet&Quants' 2019 undergraduate business school ranking. Each school was asked to choose two students for inclusion, with criteria including academic excellence, extracurricular leadership, personal character, and innate potential. Ultimately, 46 of these programs nominated students, including 23 programs ranked among P&Q's Top 25. This includes representatives from top-tier programs like the Wharton School, Notre Dame, University of Virginia, Georgetown University, University of Michigan, and New York University.

Each student is given an in-depth profile, which covers areas like their extracurricular activities and awards, proudest achievement, and favorite classmate. Also included is a testimonial from an administrator or faculty member. In the coming months, Best & Brightest will also spotlight the best student responses related to their favorite faculty members, favorite companies, and the biggest lessons they learned from business.

To read the Best & Brightest Business Majors of 2020, go to https://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/2020/04/05/100-best-brightest-business-majors-of-2020/

About Poets&Quants for Undergrads:

Poets&Quants for Undergrads is the leading resource for complete coverage of college-bound business education. We feature multiple tools and authoritative content, including: a proprietary ranking of the best undergraduate business schools, news and in-depth features, videos, podcasts, empowering our community of students, parents and guidance counselors with information needed to make decisions along their journey to college as a business major.

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE Poets&Quants

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French President Emmanuel Macron held a telephonic conversation with Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on April 6 asking Iran to respect its nuclear obligations. Macron also expressed solidarity with Iranian people as the country has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic with over 60,000 COVID-19 cases.

He (Macron) hoped that Iran would turn to honour its nuclear obligations, refrains from taking new measures contrary to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and contributes to the easing of regional tensions," Elysee said in a statement.

Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sounded the alarm on Irans nuclear programme demanding clarification on failure to provide access to its sites. The UN nuclear watchdog has been overseeing the JCPOA (2015), commonly known as Iran nuclear deal, and issuing quarterly updates to its member states.

Read: Canada: Employee At Ontario's Nuclear Station tests Positive For COVID-19

Suspected activities

In December 2019, IAEA Director-General Mariano Grossi had said that the nuclear watchdog will take firm and fair approach towards inspection of nuclear facilities in Iran. An inspector is not a friend. Hes someone who comes and needs to ascertain the facts without bias, without agenda, in an objective and impartial way, said Grossi.

IAEA is seeking access to sites which has been referred by Israel as the atomic archive of information on Irans nuclear program. In November 2019, Irans nuclear program head Ali Akbar Salehi declared that Tehran had been producing more low-enriched uranium on a daily basis after it restarted an underground lab in Fordow.

Read: US Renews Restrictions On Iran's Nuclear Program For 60 Days Amid COVID-19 Crisis

Salehi, who heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), had said that Iran was producing at least 5.5 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, which is almost 12 times what the country had been producing before the underground lab started. Iran had claimed that its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes as it has been facing severe sanctions on the economic front after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the JCPoA

Read: Japan: Nuclear Reactor Taken Offline After Failing To Meet Safety Requirements

Read: Radiation Levels 16 Times Above Normal After Fire Hit Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Zone
The forest department on



Tuesday rescued a leopard after it attacked and injured two persons in a village in Vaishali district.

The incident happened at Balua Basant village under the jurisdiction of Lalganj police station early in the morning, a forest department official said.

The leopard was hiding near a bund after attacking the villagers, the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Vaishali, B B Pal, said.

A team of forest department officials from Patna, after six to seven hours of hard work, managed to tranquilise and capture the animal, the DFO said.

The forest department was informed about the attack around 6 am on Tuesday, he said.

It is not known from where the leopard strayed into the village, the DFO said.

The villagers received minor injuries during the attack, the Sub-Divisional Police Officer of Hajipur, Raghav Dayal, said.

They were admitted to a local hospital, sources said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
North Chinas Tianjin and the city of Anyang in Central Chinas Henan province both reported two new cases of the highly transmissible omicron variant over the weekend. Both cities have launched new rounds of mass testing and designated more Covid-19 risk areas to control the spread of the virus

Jan 10, 2022 06:18 PM
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-08 02:17:15|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on April 7, 2020 shows the Roman archeological site, closed down by the authorities as part of the precautions against COVID-19, in Jerash, some 50 kilometers north of Amman, Jordan. Jordan said on Tuesday four cases of the COVID-19 were detected in Amman, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 353. (Photo by Mohammad Abu Ghosh/Xinhua)

AMMAN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Jordan said on Tuesday four cases of the novel coronavirus were detected in the capital Amman, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 353.

A total of 12 patients of coronavirus recovered, increasing the overall number of recoveries to 138, Minister of Health Saad Jaber said in a statement obtained by Xinhua.

Jordan's Minister of State for Media Affairs Amjad Adaileh said no decision has been taken yet about when and for how long a full curfew will be implemented.

The minister added that the government is looking for the gradual resumption of some businesses in several sectors.
The Centre indicated on Tuesday that it was in no hurry to lift the nationwide lockdown on April 15, after several state governments came out in favour of an extension. The Union government and states are expected to have a coordinated view on the matter, according to officials.

Many state governments have told the Centre they would not be able to handle more pressure on health facilities if outsiders transported Covid-19 into new areas. Responding to the requests made by many states and experts for an extension of the three-week lockdown, the Centre was thinking ...
Today is World Health Day. Now is the best time to salute all the doctors, midwives, and nurses who have worked selflessly at the forefront to combat COVID-19. Indeed, this is the day that the whole world should celebrate the work of the health workers.

It is also the very day that we remind the leaders of the world of how critical the role of these professionals is in keeping all the people in the world healthy.

In this time of the pandemic, these people-the frontliners whom we also now consider the heroes of the present time, provide excellent quality, careful treatment, and compassionate care.

The health care professionals are currently leading community discussions to address questions and fears, and, in some circumstances, gathering data and information for clinical studies.

In other words, without them, especially the nurses, no response would ever be possible. Incidentally, in celebrating the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife this 2020, the World Health Day is highlighting the nursing sector's current status worldwide.

READ: 26 Health Workers in Mexico Infected, 1 Doctor Dead Due to COVID-19

Strengthening of the Nursing and Midwifery Workforce

The World Health Organization (WHO), together with its partners, is making a series of recommendations for the strengthening of the midwifery and nursing workforce.

This is going to be essential if all nations are achieving the targets associated with universal coverage of health, child and maternal health, viral and non-communicable illnesses, which include emergency readiness and response, mental health, the safety of the patient, and the delivery of unified, people-oriented care.

And, in line with this, WHO has called for the public's support on the World Health Day celebration to guarantee that all the people, anywhere in the world, get all the care they need health-wise.

Meanwhile, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and Nursing Now have both called on governments of the world to make this year "a landmark year in health" to fulfill the Universal Health Coverage's promise.

As this international celebration for nurses and midwives starts, the two organizations have urged the world leaders to make considerable investments in the sector to achieve a brighter future for health globally.

READ NEXT: Blockchain Technology Used to Fight COVID-19 in Latin America

Celebrating the Nurses and Midwives' Contribution

WHO has labeled 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife to recognize their contributions, as well as the risks linked to shortages in nursing.

Additionally, the Nursing Now and the National Nursing associations have planned numerous events to mark 2020, also the same year to celebrate the 200th birthday of Florence Nightingale, as well as the WHO State of the World's Nursing Report's first publication.

Notably, midwives and nurses are the keys to achieving the Universal Health Coverage goal of WHO as they portray a crucial role in promoting health, preventing disease, and delivering care in all settings.

However, WHO approximated that there would be a global shortage of roughly nine million midwives and nurses by 2030 unless a drastic action takes place now.

READ MORE: 6-Minute Burials: Cemetery Prepares for Major COVID-19 Impact in Latin America
Merck Foundation , the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany together with African First Ladies of Ghana, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi, Namibia, Niger, Guinea Conakry, Burundi, Central African Republic (C.A.R.), Chad, Zimbabwe, Zambia, The Gambia, Liberia and Congo Brazzaville, announced the call for applications for their Stay at Home Media Recognition Awards for African countries.

The theme of the awards is Raising Awareness on how to Stay Safe and keep Physically and Mentally Healthy during Coronavirus Lockdown.

Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation explains, This unsettling period due to the coronavirus scare is difficult for everyone  both physically and mentally. While most countries are under complete lockdown or restricted movement, people do not know how to handle this situation. Social Distancing is our Social Responsibility and the only way to kill Coronavirus, however, it will take a lot of courage and discipline to practice it. Taking good care of your mental and physical health is important during this period. So, we decided to initiate these awards in order to reward the journalists who are raising awareness in most effective and creative way on how to keep safe and keep physically & mentally healthy during this phase.

All the journalists from Print, Online, Radio and Multimedia Platforms from English speaking, French speaking, Arabic speaking and Portuguese speaking African countries are invited to send their entries for the awards. The most creative and influential media work aiming to raise awareness and sensitizing communities about this alarming topic at a regular basis will be eligible to win these awards.

We have created four categories for Africa; English, French, Portuguese and Arabic speaking countries, Dr Kelej added.

Merck Foundation will extend the awards to include Middle Eastern, Latin American and Asian Countries in the next few days to involve all media across the global South.

Since most of the people are confined to their homes, they are spending a lot of time reading and listening to news through different platforms. Media professionals, it is your time to help the people to take care good care of their mental & physical health during these disturbing times, through your creative, informational and motivational work. You can guide them to adjust to their new and different routine & rhythm of life, emphasized Dr. Rasha Kelej.

Details of the Merck Foundation Stay at Home Media Recognition Awards

Who can Apply:

Journalists from Print, Online, Radio and Multimedia Platforms from English speaking, French speaking, Arabic speaking and Portuguese speaking African countries

Last date of submission:

Entries can be submitted till 30th June 2020

How to apply?

Entries can be submitted via Email to info@merck-foundation.com along with your details (including Name, Gender, Country, Media house, Email address & Mobile Number) and entry as an attachment

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The Supreme Court, while continuing to issue rulings, has postponed its remaining hearings this term because of the coronavirus. Some of the unheard cases are time-sensitive, including attempts by House Democrats and New York prosecutors to obtain President Trumps financial records.

But whatever urgency those cases have is apparently outweighed by the courts unwillingness to allow cameras that would enable the public to view the hearings. Unless the court changes its rules, cases not heard in the current term, scheduled through the end of June, will be put off until the next term that runs from October through June 2021.

The court will consider a range of scheduling options and other alternatives if arguments cannot be held in the courtroom by the end of the term, the justices said in an announcement Friday postponing the last group of scheduled hearings.

In one group of cases, two House committees are seeking financial records held by Trumps accounting firm from 2011, and Manhattan prosecutors have subpoenaed Trumps tax returns and other records of hush money payments to two women who said they had sexual relations with Trump. Lower courts ordered disclosure of the documents.

Other postponed cases include a dispute over the right of Electoral College members to vote for a candidate other than the one they had pledged to support, a multibillion-dollar battle between Oracle and Google over copyright protections, and an effort by two Catholic schools in California to classify their teachers as ministers and exempt them from discrimination laws.

Stanford Law Professor Nate Persily said the court could conceivably rule on those cases without holding hearings.

Much as we have come to think oral arguments are necessary for resolution of a case, they could probably decide all those cases on the briefs, he said.

Meanwhile, state appellate courts around the nation and a number of federal appeals courts, including the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, continue to hear cases by teleconference and allow remote viewing by the public.

Dozens of state and federal courts are keeping the wheels of justice moving via teleconferencing in spite of the pandemic, said Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, which advocates increased public access to the Supreme Court and stronger ethical rules for the justices. He noted that the justices have been communicating remotely in their weekly conferences, in which the court decides which lower-court rulings to review.

Another group of advocates, including Demand Justice, People for the American Way and Common Cause, said the court appeared to have political reasons for delaying action on cases related to the presidents finances, including demands by two House committees for financial records held by Trumps accounting firm from 2011 through 2018, and a grand jury subpoena obtained by Manhattan prosecutors for Trumps tax returns and other records of hush money payments to two women. Lower courts ordered disclosure of the documents.

The courts failure to make alternate arrangements in this time-sensitive case only serves to sanction Trumps stonewalling of investigations, the advocacy groups said. Delaying of this case is effectively picking a side.

While courts in California and most other states have halted trials and other proceedings requiring in-person appearances and interaction by participants, appellate courts have maintained their regular schedules, hearing cases remotely and issuing rulings while closing their doors to the public.

The California Supreme Court first televised a hearing in 1982  allowing news media and the public to observe the proceedings without traveling to the courthouse  and has been live-streaming all of its hearings since 2016. Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, appointed to the court in 2011, said she has seen no difference in conduct by attorneys or justices since 2016.

No one plays to the camera because the cameras are unseen and unnoted, Cantil-Sakauye said in a statement. The attorneys and the justices are focused on the argument in the case at hand. Live streaming our arguments makes the work of the third branch of state government more transparent and more accessible.

That appeared to be the view of several current U.S. Supreme Court justices at the beginning of their tenure.

I dont see any problem with having proceedings televised, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in 1993, three months after joining the court. I think it would be good for the public. But she told an interviewer in 2019 that telecasting gives an altogether wrong impression of what appellate advocacy is.

At her 2009 confirmation hearing, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said her past experiences with camera coverage in lower courts had been positive. But she said recently that most viewers of televised proceedings dont take the time to appreciate what the court is doing. Other justices have said they feared lawyers, or fellow justices, would start talking in sound bites for the cameras.

Televised hearings would be very helpful in getting people more familiar with how the court operates, Chief Justice John Roberts said in an October 2018 C-SPAN interview. But its not our job to educate people. ... Our job is to carry out our role under the Constitution.

Charles Geyh, a professor of law and legal ethics at Indiana University, said Roberts has longstanding legitimacy concerns about the court, but his fears of telecasting seem exaggerated.

He seems to be placing those concerns ahead of the needs of parties on the court docket, and the nation that turns to the court for guidance on and resolution of some of our most pressing problems we face, Geyh said.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
Key Highlights:

- Morgan Stanley estimated FY21 GDP growth will decelerate to a 29-year low of 2.2%. Morgan Stanley has also cut FY21 Sensex growth forecast to 7% from 10%

- Ratings Agency Fitch has cut India's GDP growth forecast for FY20 to 4.9% & 2% for FY21

-Sensex dropped over 7%, while Nifty ended 6% lower in the last week

-RBI has announced further measures like extending period for realisation, repatriation of export proceeds, for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic

-India's March services PMI stood at 49.3 compared to 57.5 registered last month. India's composite PMI came in at 50.6 as compared to 57.6 last month

-FIIs offloaded Rs 1,960.97 crore while DIIs bought Rs 226.55 crore in equities on Firday

Stocks in the news today: Here is a list of top stocks that are likely to be in focus in Tuesday's trading session based on latest developments.

Sobha: The company said it achieved the highest ever sales volume of 40.7 lk sq ft in FY20. The filing also added that sales volume for Q4 were impacted due to lockdown announced by govt.

Lupin: The pharma major has launched Mycophenolic Acid Delayed-Release Tablets USP, 180 mg and 360 mg (generic equivalent of Myfortic Delayed-Release Tablets) of Novartis. Mycophenolic Acid Delayed-Release Tablets USP had an annual sales of approximately $156 m in the US, the filing added.

MOIL: The company has contributed Rs 45 crore to the PM Cares Fund.

Solar Industries India: Company said it has resumed partial manufacturing operations with the limited manpower and with all the necessary safety precaution measures to ensure the supply of our products to emergency service providers. This was upon receipt of approval of concerned administration authorities, the filing added.

Kotak Mahindra Bank: Company said that its net advances grew 1.3% to 205,605 while deposits rose 11.7% over the previous quarter to 216,150, on a quarterly basis. The advances climbed 6.7%, while deposits grew 19.6% on an annual basis.

IndusInd Bank: Moody's Investors Service (Agency) has placed lender's domestic and foreign currency issuer ratings of Baa3/P-3 under review for downgrade. The Bank's ba1 base line credit assessment (BCA) and adjusted BCA have also been placed under review for downgrade by the Agency. As per the filing, the review for downgrade of IndusInd's ratings reflects the downside risks to asset quality amid the deteriorating macro environment and financial market volatility.

Larsen & Toubro: Company said its board is scheduled to meet on Thursday, April 9, 2020 to seek approval for raising funds including through issue of debt securities

DCB Bank: The lender has announced revised marginal cost of funds based lending rate.

Force Motors: The company announced it has sold 877 units in March 2020 as compared to 4117 units in March 2019, a drop of 78.70% year-on-year.

HDFC Bank: Lender said that advances grew 6.3% to Rs 9.93 lakh crore while deposits rose 7.4% over the previous quarter to Rs 11.46 lakh crore, on a quarterly basis. The advances climbed 21%, while deposits grew 24% on an annual basis.

Bharat Gears: CRISIL has announced ratings for the total Bank Loan Facilities of Rs. 325.00 Crores of Bharat Gears Ltd as on March 31, 2020. The brokerage has rated Long-Term Rating - CRISIL BB+/Stable and Short-Term Rating - CRISIL A4+, the filing added.

IDBI Bank: The lender said that Moody's affirmed the deposit rating of IDBI Bank at Ba2. The baseline credit assessment (BCA) and adjusted BCA of IDBI Bank has also been affirmed at b2. At the same time, the outlook for IDBI is revised to Stable from Positive, the filing added.

NMDC: The company has revised iron ore price from April 4, 2020. As per the filing, Lump Ore (65.5%, 6-40mm) will be now sold at Rs 2,650 per ton, Fines (64%, -10mm) price has been upgraded to Rs 2,360 per ton

Axis Bank: The lender announced that Moody's has revised its outlook from stable to negative. Further, it has downgraded the counterparty risk assessments of the bank to Baa3(cr)/P-3(cr) from Baa2(cr)/P-2(cr), and the local currency counterparty risk rating to Baa3/P-3 from Baa2/P-2.

ICICI Bank: The lender said that Moody's has revised outlook on its rating from stable to negative and affirmed the deposit ratings of the bank at Baa3. Bank's baseline credit assessment (BCA) and adjusted BCA are also affirmed at ba1. Moody's has lowered the counterparty risk assessment from Baa2(cr)/P-2(cr) to Baa3(cr)/P-3(cr) and the local currency counterparty risk rating from Baa2/P-2 to Baa3/P-3, the filing said.

Dhampur Sugar Mills: The company announced that it has started Production of Hand Sanitizers at its unit at Asmoli, Distt. Sambhal on 3 April, 2020.
STEPANAKERT.  The Ministry of Health of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Republic informs that the results of the tests of two samples sent to Armenia on suspicion of the coronavirus were received Tuesday, and one of them was positive, the Artsakh Information Headquarters reported in a statement.

As per the statement, this citizen was taken by ambulance to Kashatagh medical center on the morning of April 2 and was isolated because this had returned to Artsakh from Armenias settlement that is considered "infection hub." The second tested citizen was a neighbor of this citizen who returned from Armenia, and she was taken to the same medical facility on April 4, but with symptoms of bronchitis.

Taking into account the fact that this citizen was in Mirik village of Kashatagh Region after returning to Artsakh from Armenia, all 17 citizens who had been in contact with this person in the previous days had self-isolated in advance for security reasons, and at the moment they have no symptoms.

After clarifying the scope of possible contacts with this person, the specialists of the Artsakh Epidemiology and Hygiene Center carried out the necessary disinfection work a few days ago in the houses of these self-isolated citizens.

The aforementioned settlement is located 39 km from the regional center and 89 km from the capital city.

After isolating this person, the abovementioned settlement was placed under supervision.
Humanity is at risk of replicating a devastating mass extinction event that wiped out half of all life on Earth 200 million years ago.

The so-called End-Triassic Event saw huge carbon dioxide levels driven by volcanic eruptions which led to eventual environmental meltdown.

Scientists studying ancient rock formations found these levels are similar to modern projections for CO2 concentrations by the end of the century.

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Pictured, Lava piles of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) in Morocco, where some samples were taken. Scientists studying ancient rock formations from the End-Triassic Event found CO2 levels are similar to modern projections of CO2 levels for the 21st century

Geoscientist Manfredo Capriolo and colleagues found evidence of the ancient volcanic eruptions in basaltic rocks stretching from the US to North Africa.

Global warming, sea level rise and ocean acidification followed the eruptions, the researchers say.

Mr Capriolo said: 'It is likely [the eruptions] emitted a total volume of CO2 equivalent to that projected from manmade activities during the 21st century, in the 2C warming scenario.'

This is the minimum target above pre-industrial levels set by the Paris Agreement.

Carbon dioxide was found in patches of preserved 'bubbles' caused by the gas during a chemical process known as exsolution.

The samples came from the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) - Earth's biggest igneous province spanning around seven million square miles.

More than 200 pieces of CAMP basaltic lava were scanned from the US, Canada, Morocco and Europe.

Mr Capriolo, a PhD student at the University of Padova, Italy, said: 'The analysed bubble-bearing melt includions strongly suggest the CAMP magmatic system was rich in CO2.'

Geoscientist Manfredo Capriolo and colleagues found evidence of the ancient volcanic eruptions in basaltic rocks stretching from the US to North Africa. Pictured, Lava piles of the CAMP in Morocco

They were produced by a series of huge eruptions known to have started around 201 million years ago when the world was ocean and one large continent.

Mr Capriolo said: 'The end-Triassic climatic and environmental changes, driven by the large volume volcanic CO2 emissions, may have been similar to those predicted for the near future under manmade warming.'

There have been five mass extinctions and the End-Triassic was one of the largest.

The latest findings published in Nature Communications add to increasing evidence the sixth has already started - the Anthropocene or 'Manmade' Extinction.

Explosive human population growth, industrial activity and exploitation of natural resources are rapidly pushing many species off the map.

Burning of fossil fuels in particular has had an effect, raising the air's CO2 level more than 40 per cent in just 200 years - a pace possibly as fast, or faster, than that of the End Triassic.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic and the nationwide lockdown announced on March 25 in the country, the poor have suffered the most. First, the four-hour notice for the lockdown created panic for thousands of migrant workers who started a long walk to reach their villages and the poor who had no means to survive without any money and means.

However, the timely intervention of the government to provide food packets to the poor saved thousands from dying of starvation.

There are many who are still facing shortage of food supply but the local municipalities are going the extra mile to provide food packets to such families.

Representational Image

In one such report from Raipur in Rajasthan, affluent people are calling on the municipality's toll free number and asking for food packets for their families. Reason - they can't cook in the absence of house help or cook.

Raipur's municipality team has been facing such incidents over the past few days wherein 10-15 people who call them for food packets are from affluent families. They have a house, cars and all kinds of comforts.

According to a report by Rajasthan Patrika, when a team of workers visits the addresses given by such families, only then they get to know the tricks people are resorting to get some cooked food.

Representational Image

"The team however hands over the food packets but they also request them to not resort to such tactics since the food is meant for poor people and can't afford a day's meal. They also ask them to not call again," the report added.

Ashish Mishra, PR officer of Raipur smart city told Rajasthan Patrika that they have received reports of rich people ordering food packets on the pretext of being poor. Such families mostly say that they do not have food at home because the cook isn't coming to work due to the lockdown. Some say that their spouses are unwell and they do not get enough time to cook food.
You'll want to step outside Tuesday night and look up.

The biggest, brightest moon of 2020 will light up the sky and the weather forecast calls for clear conditions perfect for viewing.

Maybe you'll even be inspired to howl.

The so-called "supermoon" occurs when the moon is close to what we call "perigee" in scientific terms, the point when the moon is closest to the earth in its orbit.

"Tonight, we will have the third supermoon of 2020," said Gerald McKeegan, an astronomer at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland. "And it will be the closest of the three. The Moon's orbit is an ellipse, and as it travels around the Earth its distance varies by roughly 30,000 miles. So tonight at 7:35 p.m. Pacific time, the full Moon will be closest, appearing 14% larger that when it is farthest."

Tonight will mark the first full moon of spring, which is sometimes called the Pink Moon or the Sprouting Grass Moon. Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring.

Full moons are known for triggering animals such as coyote to howl. During these unusual times of the coronavirus, a lot of humans in the Northern California town of Mill Valley have also been howling from their front porches nightly at 8 p.m. in an act of gratitude for the nurses and doctors on the front lines of the pandemic.

"The Mill Valley Howl" as it's known was started by Hugh Kuhn with a post on NextDoor and he said in the days leading up to tonight's big moon, he has heard some coyote activity rivaling the nightly cry from locals in recent weeks. "Last night around 11 p.m. they were LOUD," Kuhn wrote in an email.

He imagines Mill Valley folks will make a solid showing tonight amid the astronomical event, but he thinks nothing will compare to the howl that will come after the coronavirus crisis is over.

"In the end I believe our towns loudest and most engaged howl - and general outward thanksgiving and celebration of community - will occur on the final night of shelter-in-place whenever that arrives," he said.

Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her at agraff@sfgate.com.
[April 07, 2020] Supporting Canadians to Think Critically About Online Health Information

The Government of Canada is funding projects to prevent misleading COVID-19 information and to support social cohesion throughout the country GATINEAU, QC, April 7, 2020 /CNW/ - Now more than ever, Canadians need reliable news and information. The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage, announced tpday that the Government of Canada is investing $3 million in several organizations through the Digital Citizen Initiative's Digital Citizen Contribution Program. This funding will help combat false and misleading COVID-19 information as well as the racism and stigmatization that are often the result. This support will help fund activities, such as public awareness tools and online workshops, to help Canadians become more resilient and think critically about COVID-19 disinformation. Funded projects will reach Canadians on a national and local scale, online and offline, in minority communities, in both official languages and in Indigenous communities. The following organizations are receiving immediate funding: Upstream ($95,000)

Project: Information in the Age of COVID-19 MediaSmarts ($654,134)

Project: Critical Thinking in the Digital Age: Countering Coronavirus Misinformation Societe de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick ($434,725)

Project: Portail de verification des faits sur le COVID-19 / Fact-Checking portal on COVID-19 COVID-19 : Federation professionnelle des journalistes du Quebec ($330,164)

Project: Depister la desinfo / COVID-19 : Track the facts Institute for Canadian Citizenship ($490,880)

Project: Supporting New Canadian Citizens: Dispelling Discriminatory Disinformation Around COVID-19 Digital Public Square ($679,176)

Project: Countering Disinformation Relating to COVID-19 Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic ($301,904)

Project: Empowering, Engaging and Equipping Canadians to Combat Anti-Asian Racism through Online Resurces and Social Media: A Study to Advance Policy Development and Systemic Change



Asian Environmental Association ($64,660)

Project: Combating COVID-19 disinformation in Vancouver's Chinese and Vietnamese language communities Quotes

"We want to remind Canadians to be careful when searching for online information about COVID-19 and to ensure the reliability of the sources. We must be critical news consumers and make informed decisions. And in the present context, there are very real concerns surrounding discrimination and a climate of hate and fear during this uncertain time. As Canadians stand together to defeat the COVID-19 virus, we must stand together to stop xenophobia, racism and misinformation." The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage "Combatting false and misleading information online is critical, especially during this uncertain and challenging time. I am proud to support this important investment as part of my mandate to strengthen citizen resilience to online disinformation. These initiatives will help make sure that Canadians are better able to get the COVID-19 information they need to keep themselves, their loved ones, and their communities safe." The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada Quick Facts On March 13, 2020, Canadian Heritage's Digital Citizen Initiative launched a targeted call for proposals to support and amplify current efforts to counter COVID-19 disinformation. Successful applicants will be rolling out their initiatives beginning this spring. Before the last federal election, the Digital Citizen Initiative contributed $7 million over nine months to more than 20 projects that encouraged critical thinking about online disinformation and involvement in the democratic process. The initiative supported new projects that raised awareness about news and digital media literacy through various sessions, workshops and learning materials. These projects reached more than 12 million Canadians. Related Links Digital Citizen Initiative  Online Disinformation MediaSmarts Societe de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick Federation professionnelle des journalistes du Quebec Institute for Canadian Citizenship Digital Public Square Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice SOURCE Canadian Heritage

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Oswego, N.Y.  Oswego County Tuesday reported its first two deaths from COVID-19.

The county health department said that two adults died in a hospital in a neighboring county. No other details about the people who died were released.

We extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of these patients, said James Weatherup, chairman of the Oswego County Legislature. While we have anticipated and prepared for the spread of coronavirus to our county, the deaths are an unfortunate development in our efforts to fight this disease, and something that we never wanted to see.

Oswego joins other Central New York counties reporting deaths:

Onondaga: 5

Madison: 2

Oneida: 2

Oswego County currently has 34 known cases of COVID-19, according to its virtual coronavirus dashboard. There have been 732 people tested, and the county is waiting for 68 results. There have been 630 negative test results returned.

Weatherup and county health director Jiancheng Huang urged residents to continue to practice social distancing.

(Note: numbers below may not match story, as charts are updated frequently.)

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Coronavirus in NY: Cuomo extends school, business closures until April 29

Behind the Onondaga County execs latest move: Hes frustrated with coronavirus and some slackers

Instead of coronavirus patients, Syracuse hospitals swamped with empty beds

Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com

Nolan Weidner is a reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard and Syracuse.com. Got a comment or idea for a story? He can be reached by call or text at 315.247.7419 or via email at nweidner@syracuse.com.
Square and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Tuesday he will set aside $1 billion in his Square equity to support relief efforts for COVID-19 and other causes once the pandemic is over.

In a series of tweets, Dorsey said that after the pandemic is over, he will dedicate the money to causes like universal basic income (UBI) and girls' health and education. He said he's pulling the shares from his stake in Square instead of Twitter because he own more stock in the Square. Dorsey said he'll cash in the shares over time.

Dorsey Tweet.

"The impact this money will have should benefit both companies over the long-term because it's helping the people we want to serve," Dorsey said on Twitter.

Dorsey said that he wants to see the impact of his donation during his lifetime, and that "the needs are increasingly urgent." He also said he hopes it will inspire others to "do something similar."

Dorsey also tweeted a link to a public Google Doc where people can track which organizations the fund's money will go to.

Dorsey isn't the only technologist to fund coronavirus relief efforts, though he's doing it on a big scale. Amazon's Jeff Bezos has said that he is donating $100 million to U.S. food banks. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $25 million toward creating treatments for coronavirus through their philanthropic organization, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. And the Bill Gates Foundation has said it will spend billions to fight coronavirus, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A commercial Dragon cargo ship returned to Earth Tuesday (April 7), wrapping up a successful trip to International Space Station that heralded the end of one era and the start of another for its SpaceX builders.

The uncrewed Dragon CRS-20 spacecraft was released from the station's robotic arm at 9:06 a.m. EDT (1306 GMT) today as both spacecraft sailed high over Vietnam. It was just a moment, but marked the last time a robotic arm will ever catch or release a SpaceX Dragon.

About six hours after leaving the space station, Dragon splashed down in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast from Long Beach, California.

"Good splashdown of Dragon confirmed, completing the 20th and final resupply mission for SpaceX's first iteration of the Dragon spacecraft!" SpaceX said in a Twtitter update.

Dragon CRS-20, a veteran spacecraft that made three resupply runs to the space station, flew SpaceX's final mission of a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Service 1 contract with NASA. As its name suggests, the capsule is flying the 20th cargo mission for NASA and is also the last first-generation Dragon to fly. (The first Dragon 1 cargo ship visited the station in October 2012.)

Video: Watch SpaceX's last Dragon 1 cargo ship leave the space station

More: The evolution of SpaceX's rockets and spaceships in pictures

SpaceX's Dragon CRS-20 is seen at the end of a robotic arm on the International Space Station as it is released back into space on April 7, 2020 in this photo by NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan. (Image credit: NASA/ Andrew Morgan via Twitter

Now, SpaceX has a new version based on its Crew Dragon capsule for astronauts. Like that vehicle, the new cargo ship will be able dock itself to the station instead of an astronaut catching it with a robotic arm, like some sort of cosmic claw machine game. The first Crew Dragon vehicle made a successful uncrewed flight to the station last year.

"That was the last time the arm and Dragon will meet that way," NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan said from inside the space station as Dragon was released. "So it was fun to watch."

SpaceX aims to launch its first Crew Dragon spacecraft with astronauts aboard in mid-May. The next cargo ship it launches for NASA will be under a new contract, called Commercial Resupply Service 2, and will feature a variant of Crew Dragon designed for cargo. Gone are the wing-like solar arrays, replaced by solar panels on the hull of the craft's service module. Also gone: a grapple fixture for the station's robotic arm to latch onto.

"The Dragon used in subsequent missions will resemble the Crew Dragon and will also automatically dock at the space station rather than require robotic action," NASA spokesperson Leah Cheshier said during live commentary.

Related: How SpaceX's Dragon space capsule works (infographic)

SpaceX's Dragon CRS-20 cargo ship departs the International Space Station on April 7, 2020, for a return to Earth, ending a month-long resupply mission to the outpost. (Image credit: NASA TV)

Dragon CRS-20 is carrying about 4,300 lbs. (1,950 kilograms) of scientific samples, gear and other items for the trip back to Earth. It will splash down in the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Long Beach, California, where SpaceX recovery teams are waiting to pluck the capsule from the ocean.

This Dragon capsule launched to the station on March 6 carrying more than 4,300 lbs. of supplies and arrived at the orbiting lab three days later. The same capsule previously flew to the station in February 2017 and December 2018.

Reusability is a hallmark of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft (and the Falcon 9 rockets that launch them), but three flights has been the limit for the first-generation vehicles. The new Dragon 2 version is expected to be able to fly at least five times.

After a full month of exciting scientific payloads, #Cygnus and #Canadarm2 say goodbye to @SpaceX Dragon CRS-20 over central Asia at twilight. pic.twitter.com/ke7s2odcRnApril 7, 2020 See more

The post-splashdown recovery will also see changes next flight.

Dragon CRS-20 is final Dragon to splash down in the Pacific Ocean. SpaceX has historically retrieved the vehicles off the Southern California coast so they can be refitted at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California near Los Angeles. Future Dragon spacecraft will splash down in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast, SpaceX and NASA officials have said.

SpaceX is one of two companies currently flying uncrewed cargo missions to the station. The other, Northrop Grumman, uses its Antares rockets and Cygnus cargo ships to make space deliveries.

For the CRS-2 contract, NASA has again tapped SpaceX and Northrop Grumman, as well as Sierra Nevada Space Systems, which is building the uncrewed Dream Chaser space plane for orbital cargo missions.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include the successful splashdown of Dragon CRS-20 in the Pacific Ocean.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.
People hike the trails at Wissahickon Valley Park during an sunny morning on Monday, April 6, 2020. The Park is seeing summer-level crowds, despite Gov. Wolf's stay-at-home order, and the result is taxing those who operate the 1,800 acres of forest, and trails. Read more

Philadelphias Wissahickon Valley Park is seeing crowds the size it normally draws in peak summer season as people cooped up by coronavirus protective measures seek relief outdoors.

But those who work to keep the park functioning say the crush is not just a strain on the park  its dangerous to visitors.

Ever since the social distancing order has gone into place, its been incredibly crowded in the park  even on the rainy days, said Ruffian Tittmann, executive director of Friends of the Wissahickon, a nonprofit that works with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation to oversee the park.

Tittmann cautioned that visitors should practice safe distancing, consider cutting back trips to the park, and keep their dogs on leashes.

Gov. Tom Wolf issued stay-at-home orders for Philadelphia and six other counties on March 23, but extended the orders for all 67 Pennsylvania counties as of April 1. The orders state that engaging in outdoor activity, such as walking, hiking or running if they maintain social distancing is allowed.

In recent years, Wissahickon Valley Park has experienced an explosion of visitors that has strained staff as people discover through social media the parks 1,800 acres of paths, bike trails, forest, and rushing water.

Wissahickon Valley Park isnt the only green space receiving swarms of people seeking to escape pandemic isolation.

Gail Farmer, executive director of Wissahickon Trails, a separate nonprofit organization focused on the creek as it runs through Montgomery County, wrote in The Inquirer that her staff has seen increases in use along 24 miles of trails and 12 nature preserves, as well as overflowing parking lots.

 READ MORE: Wissahickon Trails director: Staying safe means sometimes skipping your hike | Opinion

On social media, commenters noted reports of heavy use of other outdoor areas in the region, including Batsto Village in Wharton State Forest in the New Jersey Pinelands, where cars were lined up bumper to bumper.

But Wissahickon is one of the bigger draws in the city, regularly pulling in visitors from other counties and states for its natural attractions such as Devils Pool and its vast network of hiking and biking trails.

Tittmann, who is working from home and not going to the park, said shes gotten reports that while many visitors are trying to keep a safe distance from others, too many others are not. According to a city survey, more than two-thirds of Philadelphians say they are taking social distancing guidelines seriously.

Were seeing use more typical of a hot July weekend than early April, Tittmann said. We love people to love the Wissahickon, but we also want people to stay safe.  So we want to get the message out there that theres no cease-fire for the virus in the Wissahickon. Its everywhere.

 ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters.

Tittmann pointed to recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to wear a face covering, as the coronavirus can spread through people interacting in close proximity by coughing or sneezing. But not everyone at the park is complying.

The CDC also says maintaining a distance of at least 6 feet from other people is an important way to slow the spread of the virus. But thats hard to do on a narrow trail crowded with people  and pets. Tittmann said too many are not leashing their dogs.

Tittmann said most of the parks 10 parking lots were full last weekend. But there is no accurate count because trail counters are not being used right now.

We really want people to do social distancing," she said. "So maybe if you went to the park yesterday, take off today. Or just step outside, and stay in your neighborhood if thats possible.

Tittmann said she understands the need for people to get out.

But its not business as usual, its not run with your usual running club, and meet up with groups of friends," she said. "Its get in and get out and stick to social distancing.

Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, which owns the park, said it is doing its best to keep up with the demand for use of all outdoor spaces.

This crisis reveals just how vital our urban forests are to the health of our city and its residents, Kathryn Ott Lovell, commissioner of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, said in a statement.

Ott Lovell said its best for residents to stay home and away from other people, but she understands the need to exercise, take a walk to relieve stress, or just get outdoors.
A Russian Air Force IL-76 cargo plane

Five massive military planes from Russia and Algeria landed at Pudong airport on Saturday to pick up coronavirus prevention supplies.

The planes include two IL-76 transports belonging to the Algerian Air Force and another two from the Russian Air Force. An An-124 transport aircraft was also dispatched from Russia.

With the escalating COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world are purchasing prevention materials such as masks and hazmat suits from China. The large cargo planes are an ideal way to transport them.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China has allocated more flight schedules for the operations of cargo planes.

With the number of international passenger flights slashed to help contain the spread of COVID-19, the administration said it had also encouraged domestic and overseas carriers to use spare passenger aircraft to transport cargo.

In March, a total of 528 additional cargo charter flights have been approved, a nearly five-time increase on year, according to the administration.

At Pudong airport on Saturday, the two IL-76 planes from Algeria landed at 4am after taking off from the Kazan Airport in Russia. They flew back in the afternoon, carrying masks and other materials.

They were followed by the two Russian Air Force's IL-76 planes which landed at 5am and 7am at Pudong. They took off from Novosibirsk airport also on Saturday afternoon.

The An-124 arrived in Shanghai at around 8pm and was scheduled to fly back on Sunday.

Pudong airport has provided increased docking space for cargo planes and fast loading services.

An Algerian Air Force IL-76 cargo plane at Pudong

COVID-19 prevention materials are loaded onto the IL-76 cargo plane from Algeria.

COVID-19 prevention materials are loaded onto the IL-76 cargo plane from Russia.

Source: SHINE
On Easter Sunday (this year on 12 April), the Anglican Cycle of Prayer follows its tradition of calling on people to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. In this blog, ACNS offers some background and suggestions for prayer.

Jerusalem is a city that is considered by both Israelis and Palestinians as their capital. Ever since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the status of Jerusalem has remained, to this day, one of the central issues in the dispute between the Israel and Palestine. But conflict in the city is nothing new.

King David, in Psalm 122, urged people to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Verses six and seven of the psalm read: May those who love [Jerusalem] be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.

Jerusalem is home to the holiest of sites in Judaism. Jerusalem is the location of some of Islams holiest sites. And Jerusalem, for Christians, is the city where Jesus was crucified and  more importantly  where he rose again.

At the time of Jesus, Jerusalem was a city that was under Roman occupation. In the centuries that followed, the city has been captured and re-captured by warring entities  including by Christians during the crusades. And since the creation of the State of Israel, the city has seen further war and conflict; but today it is a city which is relatively peaceful; but conflict is never far from the surface.

Within the Anglican Communion, Jerusalem is home to the Diocese of Jerusalem which, under the leadership of Archbishop Suheil Dawani, covers Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Syria and Lebanon. The Diocese is part of the Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East, which also includes the dioceses of Iran, Cyprus and the Gulf, and  until it leaves to become the new Province of Alexandria, the 41st Province of the Anglican Communion, later this year  the Diocese of Egypt with the Horn of Africa and North Africa.

Archbishop Suheil is due to stand down next year. The Dean of St Georges Cathedral in Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum, has been elected coadjutor bishop and will be consecrated on a date yet to be fixed.

As you pray for the peace of Jerusalem, pray for the security and prosperity of all its people, whether Israeli or Palestinian; whether Jewish, Muslim, or Christian.

This Easter, as you pray for the peace of Jerusalem, pray particularly for:
The total number of Covid-19 cases in the country soared to 4,421 as India entered the 14th day of 21-day coronavirus lockdown on Tuesday.

There are 3,981 active coronavirus cases in the country while 114 people have lost their lives to Covid-19 contagion. As many as 325 have been cured or discharged across the nation.

The maximum number of cases come from Maharashtra which is now inching toward witnessing over 900 total Covid-19 cases.

Here are the latest developments:

1. India will supply paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine to countries particularly badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday tweeted on the occasion of World Health Day and urged the citizens to extend their gratitude towards nurses and healthcare workers who are battling against the Covid-19 menace.

3. China donated 170,000 personal protection equipment (PPE) kits to India on Monday to help the neighbouring country fight the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, the health ministry said.

4. India Covid-19 Clinical Research Collaborative Network, a hospital-based clinical research initiative, is in the works to enhance the understanding of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

5. Delhi State Cancer Institute has been shut after 18 healthcare workers were tested positive for Covid-19.

6. In a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan urged the administration to provide utmost protection to nurses and medical staff from Kerala.

7. A person suspected to have the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) can now undergo testing in simple steps at a private labs drive-through centre in west Delhi.

8. In a bid to intensify the fight against coronavirus, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to increase testing facilities in the state.

9. The Railways has developed a disinfection tunnel at its Loco Shed in Bhusaval, Maharashtra in an attempt to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the country.

10. Chhattisgarh police on Monday booked 16 people, including seven minors, associated with the Tablighi Jamaat in Korba district for hiding their travel details.
People detained since last year in Kashmir deserve to be released as their "incarceration" even in times of a global pandemic "undermines our democratic credentials", PDP president Mehbooba Mufti's daughter Iltija Mufti said on Tuesday.

Iltija's remarks came on a day her mother, who was detained under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), is being shifted to her official residence that has been converted into a subsidiary jail where she would continue to be in detention.

"All Kashmiris illegally detained since 5th August deserve freedom.Their continued incarceration even in times of a global pandemic undermines our democratic credentials. Nevertheless, I'd like to thank everyone for their support and good wishes," Iltija wrote on her mother's Twitter handle.

She has been tweeting from Mehbooba's handle ever since the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister was put under detention in August last year.

Mehbooba was detained on August 5 last year when the Centre abrogated the special status of the erstwhile state and divided it into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Initially, she was taken into preventive custody. Later on February 6 this year, she was slapped with the PSA along with another former chief minister Omar Abdullah, who was released recently.

While expressing gratitude to the media, Iltija requested that the family be given privacy as it waited for Mehbooba to come home.

My gratitude to the media in Kashmir for their concern & well wishes. May I please humbly request that you give the family privacy as we wait for her to come home today. Please remember this isn't a release & the house has been declared as a subsidiary jail, she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
When we finally step out of home isolation after the COVID-19 pandemic, our city and world will be a much different place.

In addition to the lingering suffering from the loss of life, the experience will undoubtedly lead to major public health infrastructure investments to try to ward off future pandemics.

In Hamilton, there was a horrendous cholera epidemic in 1854 that gave rise to transformative changes in the city. And although it was a long time ago, it shows how reverberations from a public health crisis can be massive.

The epidemic led to one of the most ambitious undertakings ever in the city  the construction of a water infrastructure system to pump safe water from Lake Ontario to residents.

It was a fantastic development. I dont know if people really appreciate the waterworks and how important it was as a public health initiative. Its infrastructure that protects us to this day, says retired McMaster University anthropology professor, Ann Herring.

It was a multi-year effort of digging and laying more than five miles of cast iron pipe from the lake to the escarpment and back down again as well as building a major pumping station. It cost $600,000, a fortune by the standards of the day.

The epidemic made people realize the city was not working, says Ian Kerr-Wilson, who recently retired as the citys heritage resource manager, overseeing city museums including the Museum of Steam and Technology. The city, like others, was caught flat-footed and everybody was playing catch up.

Cholera was not well understood at the time, but civic leaders did come to recognize a connection between the disease and compromised drinking water as well as poor sanitation. Before the waterworks was built, Hamiltonians generally used community wells that were prone to contamination.

The horrific experience of disease and death  described at the time as depriving children of their parents and parents of their children  was a giant condemnation of the status quo.

An estimated 550 people died in the summer of 1854, but it was likely many more. In a city of less than 20,000 people, the death toll was staggering. The epidemic followed an earlier one in 1832 that was also disastrous.

A hearse driver at the time of the second epidemic was quoted as saying: I used to drive to the cemetery every day and I had as many as 10 in one load. Ive seen coffins stacked up like cordwood. You couldnt get enough grave diggers.

According to an 1890 report in The Spectator  recounted in the McMaster University book Hamiltons Forgotten Epidemics, edited by Herring  there were people who exploited the crisis in 1854. A gravedigger hired to bury deceased immigrants in Hamilton Cemetery was reported to have surreptitiously used a coffin with a hinge at the end of it. The casket was tilted, allowing the body to slide into a mass grave, and the coffin was retained for future use.

Hundreds of cholera victims were buried in Hamilton Cemetery with no grave markers to remember them. Amateur historian Gary Hill, who conducted cemetery tours until his death in 1999, disclosed the location of the unmarked graves in the cemetery belonging to cholera victims. A stone in the cemetery recognizes his efforts.

Cholera is an infectious disease that causes severe diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration and death. The disease is caused by ingesting water or food infected with a bacterium known as vibrio cholerae, something that arises in communities with compromised water systems and poor sanitation.

As well as having both those issues, Hamilton had the added problem of being a port city where infected people from Europe would arrive.

The city was a boom town. The railway had just arrived. There was a big influx of people. A lot of immigrants were coming from Ireland and elsewhere, said Kerr-Wilson.

So the stage was set for an epic epidemic that was at its worst during the summer of 1854.

By 1860, safe water from the lake began to flow and it ushered in a new era of better public health and growth for the city.

To celebrate the achievement, a major fountain was built in Gore Park.

The fountain was a way of saying that Hamilton had so much public water that they could afford to waste it. It was a marketing device for the city, says Kerr-Wilson.

The fountain today  a replica of the original  remains a memorial to the suffering of cholera and a celebration of infrastructure development.

And its a reminder, as we struggle through COVID-19, that we have survived epidemics before.

Show your stuff

Last week, I asked local history fans to send pictures of their favourite Hamilton artifacts. I was inundated with emails of amazing keepsakes and plan to feature many of them in the future.

But one in particular struck me.

I had mentioned that I bought a wooden Tuckett Tobacco Co. cigar box last summer at a market. And reader Brian Laufman put my little box to shame. Turns out Brian has a collection of a dozen Tuckett boxes in many shapes and sizes. He has several large tin Tuckett advertising signs, as well as a printing stone and a copper plate from the Hamilton tobacco company. Turns out Tuckett is very collectible.
Geoff Davis considers his family-owned downtown Albany business a full-fledged glass shop, offering everything from custom shower doors to new vinyl- or wood-clad windows and commercial work of all sizes and shapes.

Thanks to the coronavirus epidemic, you can add sneeze guards to the long list of products produced by Davis Glass.

Retail stores are looking for ways to protect their employees, especially at check-out counters, where they are dealing with a variety of customers one transaction after another all day long.

We heard people talking about this last week, Davis said. It started with a friend who works at Costco, and then T.J. Colson of Wilco called me. I told him to give me an hour.

Davis said his lead installer is a skilled carpenter and they discussed several different designs, with an emphasis that the units be easily movable by cashiers.

We came up with the idea of using a picture frame style, Davis said. Basically, a piece of 3/16ths-thick acrylic is framed in 2-inch-by-2-inch cedar strips  just like a picture you might hang on a wall  and is held upright by wooden feet.

Davis said he contacted Multi-Craft Plastic in Tigard to cut the acrylic into 32-inch-by-32-inch sheets.

They mass-produced these for us very quickly, Davis said. The acrylic sheets arent something we could whip out on a table very quickly in our shop. I drove up to Tigard and picked them up at their will call area.

Davis crew burned the midnight oil and turned out 90 units for Wilco.

Coastal Farm called the next day and ordered 85 of them, although they wanted them a little smaller, 24 by 33 inches, Davis said. We delivered 52 last Friday and the rest of them on Monday.

Davis said the screens need to be large enough to protect customers and employees, but light enough that the employees can easily move them if they need to scan price tags for large items such as 50-pound bags of dog food.

Units the company produced for Tri-Valley Markets needed to have a cutout on the bottom of them so smaller products such as sandwiches or candy bars could be slid under them for scanning.

The companys most recent delivery was for Cascade Health in Eugene, and there is also interest from a company in California.

We are also talking with some doctors about developing medical-grade acrylic boxes that can be used if someone has to be intubated, Davis said. They would provide medical personnel a layer of protection.

Davis said he doesnt know if he will ramp up the sneeze guard production on a larger level.

Right now, we are here to fill a local need, and were happy to do it. This allowed my crew to stay busy and provide some work flow through the shop, Davis said.

Davis parents, Ken and Mary Jeanne Davis, founded the company in 1975. Geoff joined the company full-time in 1994, and his sister Jenny came on board in 2010.

They have 10 employees.

Davis said the shops showroom on Second Street is closed to the general public, but employees are still working.

We are following social distancing protocols, Davis said. We arent doing much in terms of residential work, but for most commercial jobs, guys are working in different parts of buildings.

And like everyone else, we are using lots of hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes," he said. "All of our employees are instructed to not come to work if they have any symptoms.
Actor Sumeet Vyas, who shot to fame with web series for TVF including Permanent Roommates and Tripling just announced his next project with Wife and actor Ekta Kaul and it's not what you think.

Instagram

Sumeet and wife Ekta shared the news on social media with similar pictures and their captions were full of cuteness and wit!

Instagram

"Proudly announcing our new project together. Introducing Junior Kaul Vyas (soon). Created, produced and directed by us (Sumeet and I)," Ekta wrote. Along with it, she posted a picture that shows her flaunting her baby bump.

Even though it's a piece of happy news but definitely there are complications in the way owing to the countrywide lockdown as well as restrictions.

Instagram

How are Ekta and Sumeet managing?

Well, the couple spoke to the media and said that they're not panicking and taking each day as it comes.

Instagram

In an interview with Mumbai Mirror, Ekta revealed that she didn't even know she was expecting when she was on a bike trip in Ladakh in November 2019. She was quoted as saying,

Ekta Kaul/Instagram

I felt like a rock star when I learned the news on my return. I had gone to meet Sumeet who was shooting in Ladakh and wanted to explore the place. So, I made some friends with the crew and we all went for a bike ride. Throughout the trip, I was feeling slightly unwell and marked it down to altitude sickness.

In a conversation with ETimes TV, Sumeet Vyas' wife and Actor Ekta opened up on how it feels to be pregnant at the time when there's a complete lockdown and there are restrictions.

Instagram

Talking about how they're managing everything, she said,

Instagram

"Sumeet and I are doing all the work by ourselves. We make plans for the next day and divide work! Thats how we are managing right now. And after the delivery, my mom will be around so managing baby wont be an issue at all. She has managed me, I am sure my baby will be easy for her. Also, Sumeet was ready since forever. So, I am not worried about managing the baby."

Talking about the tough phase that the whole world is in and if she's prepared for it, she said,

Instagram

"Yes, I know about it and we are kind of prepared for that. But at the same time, we are hopeful things will be better by the time I deliver."



Actors Sumeet Vyas and Ekta Kaul tied the knot in September 2018 after dating for a few months.

Instagram

The couple tied the knot in Jammu, which is also Ekta's hometown. Well, we wish Sumeet and Ekta all the best for their new 'venture' and 'permanent roommate'!


[April 07, 2020] Esri and United Nations Team to Provide Countries with COVID-19 Data Resources

Esri, the global leader in location intelligence, today announced that it will partner with the Statistics Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs to offer its mapping and analytics technology for member states to help access and visualize the data needed as they combat the novel coronavirus pandemic. These countries can now use the software and tools that will enable them to be part of a Federated Network of COVID-19 data hubs. A hub is a cloud-based community engagement platform that organizes people, data, and tools through information-driven initiatives. "As we face an unprecedented health crisis, the world has never needed easy access to reliable and timely data as urgently as today," said Stefan Schweinfest, Director of the United Nations Statistics Division. "Tracking trends of the pandemic, identifying the more vulnerable groups, and understanding the impact of the crisis on all sectors of society and the economy are the most pressing needs of the global statistics and data community. This partnership offers an important tool easily accessible and usable by any national statistical office." With a hub, organizations can leverage their eisting data and technology and work together with internal and external stakeholders to track progress, improve outcomes, and create actionable policies. This new international network of hubs will allow countries to maximize communication, collaboration, and data sharing. By placing that data in a geographic context, hubs give governments, NGO's, citizen groups, and other organizations a deeper, more complex understanding of issues that face their communities.



"We are committed to helping the world solve issues that arise due to COVID-19," said Jack Dangermond, Esri founder and president. "Through our hubs, we hope to provide the United Nations and all their member states with the tools they need to understand and meet the unique and distinct obstacles that a worldwide crisis like this pandemic poses for nations." The availability of ready-to-use templates also helps national statistical offices get quickly up to speed in building their own COVID-19 open data sites. This enables them to respond to the urgent demand for data and insights from their constituencies with regard to issues like vulnerable populations, hospital locations, active cases, and more.

To learn more about the Federated Network of COVID-19 data hubs, visit covid-19-data.unstatshub.org/. About Esri Esri, the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping, offers the most powerful geospatial cloud available, to help customers unlock the full potential of data to improve operational and business results. Founded in 1969, Esri software is deployed in more than 350,000 organizations including 90 of the Fortune 100 companies, all 50 state governments, more than half of all counties (large and small), and 87 of the Forbes Top 100 Colleges in the US, as well as all 15 Executive Departments of the US Government and dozens of independent agencies. With its pioneering commitment to geospatial information technology, Esri engineers the most advanced solutions for digital transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics. Visit us at esri.com. Copyright  2020 Esri. All rights reserved. Esri, the Esri globe logo, The Science of Where, esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of Esri in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products or services mentioned herein may be trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of their respective mark owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005853/en/

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Catwoman reunites with an old flame (and meets a new mystery man) as Tini Howard takes over DC ongoing comic

Catwoman returns to Gotham City, with a nod to Les Miserables
BRISBANE, Australia - A shark fatally mauled a young Australian wildlife worker on the Great Barrier Reef, officials said Tuesday.

Queensland state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the 23-year-old victim worked for the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.

Once again a family out there is grieving for a young man who tragically has lost his life in this horrific shark attack, she told reporters.

Police said the man was in the water, returning to a vessel chartered by the service when he was attacked Monday near North West Island, 75 kilometres (47 miles) northeast of Gladstone. He suffered extensive injuries to his leg and arm and died at a hospital hours later.

Detective Senior Sergeant Tony Anderson said the ranger had been doing maintenance work before the attack. The victim was the last person out of the water.

At the end of the day there were four people swimming off the back of a boat, cooling down after a days work, he told reporters.

There have been at least three shark attacks on the Great Barrier Reef over the past 18 months.

Last October, two British backpackers were attacked while snorkeling at Hook Island in the Whitsunday Islands. One of the men lost his foot.

In March 2019, a 25-year-old man suffered serious thigh injuries when a shark attacked him at Hardy Reef, near Hamilton Island, also in the Whitsundays chain.

And in November 2018, Victorian doctor Daniel Christidis, 33, was killed at Cid Harbour at Whitsunday Island.
Tensions continue to mount between Qantas and Perth Airport following a decision by the airline to defer aeronautical payments and stop paying rent on unused leased areas in Australian airports.

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On Wednesday Qantas revealed it would stop making the payments in order to protect the business from revenue losses that could exceed $11 billion for the whole industry for the year thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.

Perth Airport chief executive Kevin Brown said airport revenue was up for a $100 million hit this year and expressed disappointment at Qantas decision.

Everyone in the aviation industry is trying to work together to find a way through this challenge, protect as many jobs as possible and remain viable until we all can reach recovery, he said.

It was hoped that Qantas would play a leadership role in this combined effort and there is widespread disappointment that this has not happened.

A Qantas spokesman said everyone connected to aviation had to bear the brunt of demand for air travel evaporating.

Most of our employees have been stood down, our executives and board directors are working for no pay and shareholder dividends have been postponed and share buyback has been cancelled, he said.

We are also asking our suppliers to support us during these unprecedented times.

While the fundamentals of our business mean that we are well placed to weather the storm created by coronavirus, we must continue to manage our cash flows to ensure we can resume normal operations when demand for air travel returns.

Airlines have been hardest hit by government travel restrictions and our suppliers, including airports, have been very understanding of the acute difficulties that all airlines are facing.

Qantas and Perth Airports relationship was already on tenterhooks with the two organisations locked in a legal battle over claims the airline underpaid aeronautical fees by $11.3 million in 2018.

Aeronautical fees include terminal usage and aircraft parking charges.

Qantas said it would defer aeronautical payments for February and March and would discuss repayment plans once the pandemic eases.
US military dispatches 35 trucks to oil-rich northeastern Syria: SANA

Iran Press TV

Monday, 06 April 2020 2:34 PM

Syrian media say the United States has dispatched truckloads of military and logistical equipment to the country's northeastern province of Hasakah as Washington and some of its regional allies keep vying with one another to seize oil reserves and plunder natural resources in the war-battered country.

Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Syria's official news agency SANA that a convoy of 35 trucks crossed the Waleed border crossing on Monday and headed toward US positions in the Jazira region of the province.

The sources added that the majority of the equipment was sent to a base that American troops have set up at Kharab al-Jeer Airport in al-Malikiyah district.

The report comes only a day after the Arabic-language Enab Baladi weekly newspaper, citing a video published by the local North Press news agency, reported that the so-called US-led military coalition purportedly formed to fight the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group had airdropped military and logistical equipment to an area close to al-Omar oil field in Syria's eastern countryside of Dayr al-Zawr.

The report noted that the operation took place late on Saturday.

In late October 2019, Washington reversed an earlier decision to pull out all of its troops from northeastern Syria, announcing the deployment of about 500 soldiers to the oil fields controlled by Kurdish forces in the Arab country.

The Pentagon claimed that the move was aimed at protecting the fields and facilities from possible attacks by Daesh. That claim came although US President Donald Trump had earlier suggested that Washington sought economic interests in controlling the oil fields.

US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper also threatened that the US troops deployed to the fields would use "military force" against any party that might seek to challenge control of the sites, even if it were Syrian government forces or their Russian allies.

Syria, which has not authorized American military presence in its territory, has said the US is "plundering" the country's oil.

On December 18, 2019, China's special envoy for Syria said the United States' pretext for extending its military presence in the Arab country, namely to protect Syrian oil fields, was untenable.

"Who has given the Americans the right to do this? And, at whose invitation is the US protecting Syria's oil fields?" Xie Xiaoyan said at a press conference in Moscow at the time.

"Let's think the other way around: Will the US allow Syria to send troops to US territory to protect oil fields there?" he added.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 16:30:40|Editor: Xiaoxia

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CHICAGO, April 6 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. scholar urged the United States and China to work together in the fight against COVID-19 in an interview with Xinhua, saying "we are in this world together and we will only survive and prosper together."

Tom Watkins, an advisor to the Michigan-China Innovation Center, told Xinhua that the world needs China and the United States to lead right now.

"We need the United States and China to ramp up the sharing of scientific and health information and research to find a vaccine for this deadly virus ... Together we will defeat this scourge on earth," Watkins said.

"We must beat back this war without bombs together," he said. "Our collective health and welfare is quite literally dependent not just on what our individual governments do to keep us safe, but what each nation and each individual does around the globe."

Watkins noted that even before the emergence of the virus, the United States and China have been at a crossroads in their historic relationship, a relationship that he claims is the most important bilateral relationship in the world today.

"The latest global health crisis presents the two nations with an important opportunity," he said. "How our respective leaders address these issues will impact the people of China, the United States and all of humanity."

The Chinese word for "crisis" consists of two characters meaning "danger" and "opportunity." "With the emergence of the novel coronavirus, we face both today," Watkins said.

He said a geopolitical tug of war and blame game, throwing tit-for-tat barbs between the two nations is "disruptive and could well prove catastrophic."

"'Blame' is ill relevant and should not be for the entire world at this point and time. All energy, physically and mentally should be focused on solving this public health pandemic and the global economic tsunami it has unleashed," he stressed.

Facing COVID-19, "no nation is an island unto itself," Watkins said. "Simply complaining and blaming China is not a plan that will pay dividends to the American people."

Real leadership should find ways to strengthen the relationship rather "using this crisis to drive us apart", he added. "We should be building even more bridges rather than erecting walls and digging moats."

Watkins holds that now is the opportunity for the two countries to turn the crisis of today into an opportunity that benefits the peoples of China, America, and all humanity, "if the remainder of the 21st century is to be healthy."

Watkins was once Michigan state superintendent of schools. His lifelong interest in China led to his extensive travel and work in China from 1989. "My focus has been on building cultural, educational, economic and person-to-person bridges between our two great and proud nations," he said.

"Together, we are truly better."
Wind turbine manufacturer Senvion on Tuesday said it has entered into a binding agreement to sell and transfer its fully operational Indian entity to a strategic investor.

Last year, the Germany-based company had announced its decision to spin off Indian operations into a standalone and separate entity after it filed for insolvency in a German court.

"Senvion has entered into a binding agreement with a strategic investor to sell and transfer its fully operational Indian entity. This is further to our announcement last year where Senvion India was made an independent entity to manufacture, supply and operate the turbines," the company said in a statement.

The company, however, did not provide any financial details of the deal.

It further said the parties have now entered in the final closure stage where legal documentations and agreements are being discussed and expects the transaction to close before June 2020, after regulatory approvals.

"This is a positive outcome for our Indian entity to find a safe harbour and continue to serve one of the largest renewable energy markets. We have started working towards an earliest closure and transfer of the Indian business to the new shareholders,"Thorsten Bieg,Partner at GRG who joined the Management Board of Senvion as a restructuring expert, said.

He further said the company has also signed legally binding agreements to transfer the relevant intellectual property and knowhow to Senvion India, which will be effective upon the closure.

Commenting on the development, Senvion India CEO and managing director Amit Kansal said, "This Indian entity makes 85 per cent of its turbines domestically and has created over 1,000 jobs directly and indirectly. We will continue to provide world class wind energy solution to projects in India."



He further said the management team will continue to put all efforts in concluding the transaction at the earliest. "Senvion India will continue to service its installed base and deliver its project while we close this transaction," Kansal added.

Senvion, which has an R&D centre and a manufacturing facility in India, recently installed its 130 m rotor turbine in the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 07:22:23|Editor: Liu

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LISBON, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Monday called for national unity to overcome the ongoing public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which he described as the biggest challenge in the past 100 years.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, attending a debate program on the national television RTP via a video conference, said that the crisis caused by the pandemic of the new coronavirus "is the biggest challenge in the field of life and health in the last 100 years."

"We have had many social, economic and financial challenges, many crises, but this is the biggest challenge in the field of life and health in the last 100 years, in size and duration of time," said the president.

He said that national unity is needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It is the convergence in the essential in the fight against the health crisis during the present outbreak," the president stressed.

The president declared a state of emergency, first of its kind in Portuguese history, on March 18 and extended last Thursday until April 17. However, he has indicated that the country may need four phases of state of emergency before bringing the pandemic under control and restoring the normalcy.

The Directorate-General for Health (DGS) announced on Monday that the COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has killed 311 people and infected 11,730 in Portugal so far.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa has said that April will the most critical period for the pandemic, while health authorities expected that the peak of the COVID-19 might occur at the end of May.

However, the growth rate of the new confirmed cases in the past week is on the decline, indicating that the containment measures are effective, experts and health professionals said.
Toby Antony By

Express News Service

KOCHI: When the Prime Minister announced the 21-day lockdown on March 24, nearly 820 foreign tourists were stranded in Kerala, unable to return to their native countries. Now, into the second week of the lockdown, nearly 400 of them are still held over.Though nations concerned are attempting to evacuate these tourists safely, closure of airports is seemingly deterring the move.

According to P Bala Kiran, director, Kerala Tourism, so far, 300 of the 820 tourists have been evacuated. We are taking care of all the foreign tourists who are currently in Kerala. Some had arrived as part of tour packages, while a few others were visiting the state for medical reasons. All the foreign tourists here are safe. Our officials are frequently in touch with them, he said. The tourists were kept under quarantine at various hotels and hospitals across the state.

K Raj Kumar, joint director, Kerala Tourism, Ernakulam said the evacuation procedures are conducted after coordinating with the embassies of the respective countries. We evacuated over 100 German nationals last week. Similarly, a flight from Oman was arranged to airlift the Omani medical tourists. Also, steps were taken to evacuate French nationals and other tourists from other European countries on Saturday,  he said.

According to Raj Kumar, the majority of the foreign tourists, who are still in Kerala, are from the United Kingdom. There are also several tourists from the United States and Malaysia also, besides a few Saudi nationals. We are constantly contacting them,  he said.

Tourists feel safe here

Owing to the pandemic across the globe and much to the credit of the tourism fraternity here, several tourists, especially from European countries, say they want to continue their stay in Kerala till their tourist visa period ends.

On Saturday alone, 24 tourists who were supposed to board the Air India flight along with the remaining 112 people to Paris opted to stay back. Some tourists claim they feel safer here than in Europe now. A few of them have also arrived in the state with long-term visas and wish to stay here till their visa period ends, an official said.

Eight foreign tourists underwent medical treatment in Kerala after they were tested Covid-19 positive. The successful treatment of 57-year-old British national Brian Neil who was admitted in a critical condition after testing Covid-19 positive during his tour here, brought laurels to the Kerala government.

Maldivian citizens airlifted from Kochi

Kochi: Maldivian, the national airline of Maldives, conducted a special service from Cochin Airport to Male to shift its citizens stranded in Kerala on Monday. As many as 189 Maldives citizens were repatriated in the flight. According to Kerala Tourism officials, a majority of the Maldivian nationals were in the state as part of medical treatments at hospitals here. After the lockdown, they remained at respective hospitals. All the arrangements were made by the authorities of Maldives itself. We helped them to complete all the paper works. We had received a list of 189 passengers to board the flight, an official with Kerala Tourism said. The flight took off at around 6pm from here and reached Male in two hours. When the Maldivian office in Thiruvananthapuram was contacted, the officials refused to comment on the flight operation
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- In the eyes of Moscow hardliners, the shale boom that turned the U.S. into a leading oil exporter has also encouraged Washingtons belligerence. Back in early March, low prices were a welcome means of pushing American producers over the edge; Russias bolstered state finances and its lower-cost oil companies meant it could take the pain.

But that was then.

Now, the unfolding coronavirus epidemic has forced the country into a shutdown that will last until the end of April, while dealing an unprecedented blow to oil demand. Its a double whammy just as President Vladimir Putin, whose approval ratings have been slipping, prepares to extend his stay at the top. An output-cutting deal with other producing nations, even one that can merely cushion the revenue drop, is now desirable, to stop the economy  and the presidents popularity  from fraying further. Achieving that on the Kremlins terms will be another matter.

Russia is certainly less vulnerable than in the past, in part thanks to financial buffers encouraged by U.S. sanctions. Like Saudi Arabia, with whom Moscow is engaged in a damaging output standoff, it has used high oil prices to cut its external debt. Fiscal prudence has created budget surpluses, while foreign currency reserves have increased. Corporate debt in foreign currency has fallen. The country is even more self-sufficient in food.

Yet oil prices have halved this year. Brent is trading at $34 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate and Urals crude, Russias export blend, below $30. Thats grim news for Moscow, and not just because its budget balances with the benchmark value at just above $40, or because Putin started the year with promises of significant social spending. The budget can be reworked with $20 oil  and indeed already is. Russia can still borrow.

At current prices, though, profit margins begin to look thin even for Russian producers, for whom it costs less than $20, including capital spending, to extract and ship a barrel, and which also benefit from a falling rouble and flexible taxes. And its not just about the state budget: Energy investment will fall, affecting employment and consumption. Combined with shelter-in-place orders for Russias citizens, prospects for the broader economy look bleak. The nationwide shutdown could cost 1.5%-2% of GDP, according to the Bank of Russia. The governments worst-case scenario last month had the economy shrinking by as much as 10%. Thats a dramatic drop for a country that has already seen disposable incomes falter.

Story continues

The logic of squeezing shale producers hasnt disappeared, nor has the clout of Igor Sechin, the pugnacious boss of Rosneft Oil Co., the state-backed producer. His weight has arguably increased with Januarys change of government. With global oil demand likely to remain well below 100 million barrels per day for some time, Russia wants a bigger share of what remains. But at this rate, the countrys own ambitious projects, like the Bazhenov formation, the worlds largest shale oil resource, look untenable.

The real wild card here has been the coronavirus. Not just the direct economic hit, but also Putins distant initial reaction and the lack of a fiscal boost, which means he hasnt seen the sort of rallying effect in the polls that has helped U.S. President Donald Trump and other political leaders.

Nigel Gould-Davies, at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, suggests the risk is a repeat of Putin's Kursk debacle two decades ago, when his perceived leadership failure at the time of the submarine tragedy triggered widespread criticism. This isnt a threat to the plan to change the constitution to allow him to stay on, but his father of the nation gambit may be harder to implement, especially if Russias under-resourced health system buckles.

An oil output deal, even today, wont fix the crude price problem, given we now have the biggest supply overhang in history. Its difficult too for Russia to cut, even if it wants to. Saad Rahim, chief economist at commodity trader Trafigura, estimates that Moscow will want to target a reduction of just 500,000 to 1 million barrels per day at most, as its large number of older, more marginal fields means that anything more would risk wastage and long-term damage to reservoirs. And there is no compensation for lost volume from Moscow's wealth fund. For some analysts, it makes little sense for Russia to yield now, when many people have yet to feel the pain at home.

Yet the longer this drags on, the less financial capacity Russia, and its banks, will have to provide support for businesses and households. To make matters worse, the country has limited oil storage too.

Moscow is pragmatic. But Trump will need to make some concession-like noises at least on American production cuts, to help Putin save face. Not easy, but given the shut-ins already triggered by the price fall, also not impossible, with the help of U.S. state energy regulators. Other non-OPEC producer nations may have to join in. The threat of tariffs, a favorite Trump tool, would by contrast be more irritating than effective, at least for Russia, which ships the vast majority of its oil to destinations outside the U.S.

Absent that, theres pain ahead for everyone.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the U.K., Italy and Russia.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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Future Market Insights (FMI) delivers key insights on the global medical pouch inspection systems market in its published report titled Global Medical Pouch Inspection Systems Market Forecast, Global Industry Analysis 2014-2018 and Opportunity Assessment 2019-2029. In terms of revenue, the global medical pouch inspection systems market is estimated to expand at an approximate CAGR of 8% during the forecast period, owing to numerous factors, which FMI highlights in this research report.

Incorporation of Medication Pouch Inspection Systems Reduces the Requirement of Workforce at a Pharmacy

Growth of the medical pouch inspection systems market is highly proportional to the growth of the pharmaceutical industry. As per FMI analysis, at a global level, the medical pouch inspection systems market is expected to remain at a strong position. Medical pouch inspection systems inspect medicines packaged in the medication pouch, dispensed by medication dispensing machines. However, the high cost of medication pouch dispensing systems restrains the growth of the medical pouch inspection systems market.

Around 5% of the patients in the world need to get medical attention due to wrong intake of medication. This has increased the importance of pharmacy automation technologies such as medication dispensing systems and medication pouch inspection systems, to minimize the probability of error in medication received by the patient. Most of the medical pouch inspection systems are capable of performing inspection with around 98% accuracy, which means that only around 2 out of 100 pouches need to be inspected by pharmacists. Therefore, medical pouch inspection systems not only reduce the probability of error in medication dispensing but also reduce the requirement of workforce by increasing the pace and productivity at a pharmacy.

Increased Consumer Convenience, with Adherence to Flexible Packaging of Drugs, Makes Medical Pouch Inspection Systems a Compelling Option

Machines dispensing medication in pouches are highly preferred by consumers as medical pouches provide vital information about the drug such as prescription, expiry date of the medicine, name of the patient, time & date of intake of medicines, and some other details. As the pouch already contains all the information, the patient does not need to remember the medicine he/she has to take at a particular time. Therefore, the medical pouch inspection systems have enhanced consumer experience.

Medical Pouch Inspection Systems Manufacturers Prioritizing New Launches & Joint Ventures

Most of the medical pouch inspection systems detect tablets on four general parameters such as color, shape, size, and number of tablets. The global market leader, TCGRx, has developed medical pouch inspection systems that inspect tablets in medication pouches on 12 parameters, which include surface of the tablet, distance to center, length, width, contour, roundness, standard color deviation, sequence, and others. The accuracy in the inspection of medication is thus highly increased with the increase in the number of parameters and probability of error in medication dispensing is greatly reduced. Medical pouch inspection systems provided by JVM Co., Ltd. are integrated with medication registering systems, which store the data about the medication pouches inspected by the machine.

Manufacturers in the medical pouch inspection systems market are adopting collaboration strategies to expand their global reach. Leading players are offering wide range of options for pharmaceutical end users such as medical pouch inspection systems with capacities including up to 50 ppm, 50-75 ppm, and above 75 ppm for enhanced efficiency.

Collaborations & Joint Ventures

TCGRx announced the acquisition of ARxIUMs Fastpak Exp and Fastpak 71, medical pouch inspection systems business to enhance the existing pharmacy technology product portfolio of the company.

Parata Systems, Inc. has entered group purchasing agreement with American Associated Pharmacies consisting of more than 2,200 independent pharmacies.

Product Launches

Ziuz Holding B.V launched Ziuz Iris medical pouch inspection systems with low footprint and economic prices, targeting the requirement of small pharmacies.

JVM Co., Ltd., TCGRx, Arxium Inc., Ziuz Holding B.V., Parata Systems, Inc., and Global Electronics B.V. are some of the key companies actively operating in the global medication pouch inspection systems market landscape.

Request for covid19 Impact Analysis: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/covid19/REP-GB-6746

Press Release Source: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/06/14/1868895/0/en/Medication-Pouch-Inspection-Systems-Market-Size-to-Grow-at-a-CAGR-of-Nearly-8-by-2029-Future-Market-Insight.html

More from FMIs Packaging Market Intelligence:

Temperature Controlled Pharmaceutical Packaging Solutions Market

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Deblistering Machines Market

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Michael Gove has become the latest member of the British Government to go into self-isolation because of the coronavirus.

It comes after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was last night taken to intensive care after he had tested positive for coronavirus on March 27.
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Video conferencing service Zoom says its product is suitable for Australian companies and agencies that require confidentiality, despite concerns raised by security researchers and reports that some calls and encryption keys were routed through China.

With the Australian Defence Force banning its members from using the service, Zoom's head of Asia Pacific Michael Chetner told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that its platform was subjected to rigorous security testing.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson caused a stir when he ran a Cabinet meeting on Zoom last month. Credit:Twitter/@BorisJohnson

"Our platform was built primarily for enterprise customers; large institutions with full IT support. Thousands of enterprises around the world have done exhaustive security reviews of our user, network, and data centre layers and confidently selected Zoom for complete deployment," he said, adding the company is moving fast to deal with a recent 20-times increase in demand.

"We have been working around the clock to ensure that all of our users  new and old, large and small  can stay in touch and continue running businesses during these times".




Le Le, a British Shorthair cat from Wuhan, China, has become a symbol of resistance during the current pandemic, showing us human that if she could survive by herself in a locked apartment for 40 days, then we can handle a bit of social distancing and isolation too.



This story of feline endurance and survival began in January of 2020, when the Covid-19 crisis in Wuhan was still in its infancy. One by one, Le Les human family had to be hospitalized after becoming infected with the coronavirus, and before the Chinese New Year (January 25) rolled up, the heavily pregnant cat had been left by herself. Her owners had decided not to hire someone look after her, or even check in on her from time to time, because they didnt known whether their home was contaminated with the virus or not. So they just opened a bag of cat food and hoped for thee best.





I had to find a solution myself, the cats owner told Chinese video platform Pear Video, adding that before he went to the hospital for a checkup, he built a delivery pad for Le Le, in case he didnt come back, so she had something soft to give birth on. He also opened a 20-pound bag of cat food, left the bathroom and the balcony doors open so she could move around, then left and locked the cat inside the apartment.



I keep turtles and flowers on the balcony, and there is filtered water there safe for her to drink, the man added. She also knew how to use the cat toilet in our bathroom.







For the 40 days that Le Les owners were hospitalized and prevented from returning home, no one knew anything about the feline what she was up to, or if she was even alive anymore. But when they returned and saw Le Le safe and sound, with four kittens running around the flat, they were overjoyed.



I count myself very lucky. After all, I didnt take care of her [for so long], the owner said. But when I saw the newborns, it was like I saw hope.






The President of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr. Frank Ankobea, has applauded the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, for the bold measures that he has taken to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic in Ghana.



One behalf of the Executive Committee of the Association, Dr. Frank Ankobea stated that we would like to say a big thank you for all the bold decisions that youve taken throughout this COVID-19 era, i.e. the lockdown, closure of our borders and some other things, particularly the incentive package that youve given to health workers, and the recognition of our work.



According to the GMA President, When you are working and the President of the nation recognizes the work that you are doing, it is very, very encouraging, and I must tell you we have resolved that well carry on this fight no matter what it takes. We know some of us may be taken away by COVID, but that is not going to let us down, and we will continue to mobilize all the health workers and fight to the end of this COVID-19.



Dr. Frank Ankobea made this known on Tuesday, 7th April, 2020, when, at the invitation of President Akufo-Addo, the Executive Committee of the Ghana Medical Association engaged with the President on measures being taken to combat the spread of the virus.



The GMA President told President Akufo-Addo that members of the Assocation continue to join the mass media education which is ongoing across the country to sensitise Ghanaians on the need to practice good hygiene and maintain social distancing as the basic measures needed to defeat the virus.



Again, we are also raising funds in our own small ways, and you see that weve actually donated to Ridge Hospital, Tamale Teaching Hospital, weve also donated to Koeln-Bu Teaching Hospital, the Internal Medicine Department. We are still, together with our residents, that is the doctors in training, residency training, and we are soliciting for funds to get some PPEs, and are on the ground, we know where the PPEs must go, he added.



He appealed to President Akufo-Addo direct the Ghana Health Service to help ensure the distribution of all parts of the country.



Nonetheless, he expressed his appreciation for the announcement made by President Akufo-Addo to the effect that we are going to go into local production, and I was surprised that media men and all that never took it up. For me, that is the day that I would be so much happy. It would gladden my heart if we produce our PPEs.



With literature and evidence, according to Dr. Ankobea, indicating that almost every five years a similar pandemic will come, he appealed for adequate preparation to this end, and urged Government to link us with the plastic industries, so that we get our own aprons, we get our own overalls, we get our own goggles, the shield and all that. We would be very, very grateful, and that would mean that we have started the preparations for the next pandemic.



Whilst also appealing for the construction of more intensive care units across the country, he added that we should resource some laboratories so that they could come on to the test results, because youll have to wait between 48 and 72 hours before the results come, and it has become a problem for us because the person is in a holding area.



Touching on the incentive package announced by the President, he stated that it is in the right direction, and for that matter, it is also going to motivate us I must say, before I sit down that Mr President, we are so grateful, we are so grateful for the bold decisions that youve taken.



Even though the Association initially advocated for a total lockdown, the GMA President stated that you did it in a way that we turned round to support you. Now I must say that this is not the time for us to be talking about things that were not done. Now we are confronted with COVID-19, how to contain it moving forward is why we are here.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Now that age group is top of mind for many Americans as the nation confronts the staggering costs of the coronavirus crisis. It is a vulnerable population in terms of the outbreak  and has become the focus of the public conversation. Health officials are pleading for young people to stay home to protect their parents and grandparents, while in Texas, Dan Patrick, the Republican lieutenant governor, suggested that older people might be willing to take risks in order to protect the economy, sparking a national controversy.
A food trailer visits additional locations throughout the community, focused on areas where families that qualify for free and reduced meals are living, Taylor described.

"As this goes on we are going to continue to see the needs grow and we are going to do everything we can go get food to these kids."

BackPack Meals, a supplemental food program, is operating as well, helping with food above and beyond what is provided by the district for breakfast and lunch.

Ginny Mermel, a nutritionist who began the BackPack Meal program a decade ago, as well as helping to found teen pantries for students in need, described the district as a complex and well-oiled machine for feeding kids for every day of the school week.

In routine times, BackPack Meals were provided to families who may already receive assistance, but its not enough to feed children all week or on weekends. Meals are purchased with donations and given to students to take home.

The BackPack Meals program was established during the last recession with support of Montana Food Bank Network to provide two meals and a snack a day on weekend to children in need, and now there are 164 such programs across Montana.
(Photo : Screenshot from: Pexels Official Website)

Following the first earlier clinical human trials for a COVID-19 vaccine, another possible vaccine -- this time backed by Bill and Melinda Gates through their foundation -- is now at the human testing stage.

Read Also: Data Has Shown that the U.S is Capable of Producing More Ventilators For COVID-19 Patients but Not For Essential Medicine

Second coronavirus vaccine hope: INO-4800

A second COVID-19 vaccine candidate will be entering Phase 1 clinical trials on humans today after the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted Inovio Pharmaceuticals' application under the regulator's Investigational New Drug program.

According to TechCrunch, Inovio has been planning to inject their first human volunteer test subject with the recently developed INO-4800 DNA vaccine. After observing positive results from preclinical research that was performed on animals which resulted in increased immune response, the company is eager to proceed to human trials.

This new Inovio DNA vaccine is created by infusing a specifically engineered plasmid -- a small independent genetic structure -- into a patient that enables their cells to produce a targeted and desired antibody that will fight the infection.

These DNA vaccines have not yet been approved for human use, although they have already been approved and been available for use in veterinary medicine.

Inovio previously completed its Phase 1 study for a DNA vaccine for MERS or the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. The study showed promising results and produced an impressive level of antibodies that continued to function for an extended period of time.

Inovio has now developed thousands of doses of INO-4800 in just a few weeks to try and support the Phase 1 and Phase 2 stages of their trials. These efforts were made possible through the backing of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, together with other organizations and nonprofits.

If these clinical trials become successful, Inovio said that they would be able to produce one million doses by the end of the year which would be used for both trials and emergency use, pending authorization.

This is not the first vaccine to proceed to human trial testing

This is the second COVID-19 vaccine to reach Phase 1 clinical testing on humans. The first one by Moderna began theirs in mid-March. Moderna is a relatively young company that was built around drug therapy development. They used a gene-based method that uses RNA to trigger immune responses in the targetted individual.

Inovio's trial will consist of at least 40 volunteers comprised of healthy adults gathered through screening that will be conducted at Philadelphia's Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, or the Center for Pharmaceutical Research in Kansas City.

The human trials will run for several weeks, and the company is expecting to see results about the immune responses of the volunteers after that time. Clearance for use, however, will still likely take at least a year to 18 months. If this goes on at this pace, human trials will happen as expected, and the public will not have to wait any longer for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Read Also: Recent Cases Have Shown That COVID-19 Patients Can Suffer Brain Damage and Other Neurological Complications

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
YEREVAN, APRIL 7, ARMENPRESS. The first case of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been confirmed in the Republic of Artsakh, Artsakhs information center said on Facebook.

The Artsakh healthcare ministry informed that the results of the tests of two suspected cases sent to Armenia were received today, one tested positive, and the other negative. As for the confirmed case we want to remind that the citizen was transported to Kashataghs hospital on April 2 via an ambulance and has been put into isolation because he has returned to Artsakh from the settlement of Armenia that is considered center of the infection. The second citizen is the neighbor of the first citizen, the Information Center said.

Given the fact that the citizen has stayed in Mirik village of Kashatagh region upon his arrival from Armenia to Artsakh, 17 citizens who directly contacted him, have been self-quarantined in advance and do not have any symptoms at this moment. The settlement has been under control after the isolation of the citizen.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Department store David Jones has taken another hit with its sales falling by almost 20 per cent amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The retail giant's parent company, Woolworths Holdings, reported a 'significant' reduction in foot traffic throughout March as social distancing measures were ramped up as the infection rate increased.

This resulted in a 19 per cent drop in sales in the four weeks to the end of March compared to the same time last year, despite online sales increasing 108 per cent.

David Jones' half-year profit took a nosedive by more than 50 per cent to $20million in the second half of 2019.

Department store David Jones (pictured) has taken another hit with its sales profits tipped to fall more than 20 per cent in full year earnings amid the coronavirus pandemic

The retail giant's parent company, Woolworths Holdings, reported a 'significant' reduction in foot traffic throughout March (Pictured: Two people wearing protective face masks ride an escalator in Sydney's QVB)

However, the company has vowed to continue to trade, despite mounting pressure to follow rival Myer and close its stores, The Australian reported.

Its Barangaroo store in Sydney and James Street in Brisbane are the only ones to close with staff redeployed.

'We continue to see a drop in footfall across the store portfolio and are focused on stimulating trade, reducing inventory and generating cash,' the company said in a statement to investors.

Brands which are also under the Woolworths Holdings umbrella, including Country Road, Witchery, Trenery, Mimco and Politix, reported even bigger falls in recent weeks amid the pandemic with sales down 60 per cent.

The Country Road Group closed all 280 stores last week and stood down 5,000 employees for at least four weeks.

'The closure of stores means that our retail employees will be stood down during this period, in line with Australian workplace laws. However, the federal government JobKeeper wage subsidy program will provide some relief.'

The coronavirus pandemic has brought the economy to a crashing halt with thousands of workers stood down across the country thanks to strict social distancing measures.

The Queen Victoria Building in Sydney has been left empty after strict social distancing measures were introduced

People have been left with little to do during lockdown (Pictured: Social distancing in practice at the coffee shops in Cronulla Mall in Sydney)

Centrelink offices have since been flooded with desperate workers hoping to get the job seeker benefit.

Solomon Lew's Premier Investments, which owns General Pants, Smiggle, and Peter Alexander, shut all its Australian stores last week.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Around 9,000 of the company's staff around the world will be stood down without pay until at least April 22.

The company said it does not intend to pay rent on any of its stores. Around 70 per cent of its leases in Australia and New Zealand run out this year or are already expired.

The group's bosses will be working from home without pay.

RAG Group, which owns Tarocash, YD and Connor, also closed 500 stores and standing down 3,000 workers.

Meanwhile, Accent Group - which owns Athlete's Foot, Platypus and Hype - has announced it is closing 522 stores and standing down around 5,000 staff.

During the stand down period, employees will continue to accrue entitlements and may access their annual and long service leave entitlements.

ALH pub group has stood down 8,000 workers and jeweller Michael Hill has told 2,500 people they no longer have a job.

Hanes Brands, which owns Bonds, Bras N Things, Sheridan and Champion, announced the closure of its stores on Tuesday

About 3,000 employees have been stood down as a result of the closure

Flight Centre has announced 3,800 job losses in Australia - and 6,000 globally - after the Prime Minister banned overseas travel.

Pubs and gyms have been forced to close to prevent mass gatherings.

Cafes and restaurants are only allowed to offer a takeaway service.

The government has been working to soften the blow to the economy, pledging to support workers who lose their jobs.

Scott Morrison announced an extra $66billion worth of spending on Sunday, bringing the total survival package to $189billion - or 10 percent of Australia's GDP.

SOCIAL DISTANCING LAWS EXPLAINED STATE-BY-STATE: HOW TO AVOID GETTING CAUGHT OUT Queensland Gatherings are restricted to two people, with residents only allowed out of their homes for a few essential reasons. This includes buying food or essential goods, getting a medical treatment or engaging in physical exercise. You can also visit a terminally ill relative or attend a funeral. Students are also allowed to attend childcare, school, college or university. From April 3, the state's borders will be closed to everyone except residents and essential workers. New South Wales NSW officials are also enforcing the two-person limit, with residents legally obliged to stay at home unless they have a 'reasonable excuse'. This includes travelling to work or school, buying food or other essentials, exercise and medical reasons. It is left up to police officers to decide who will get the fines, with the maximum being an $11,000 fine or six months in prison. Victoria The state has also brought in the two-person limit inside and outside the home - not counting pre-exisitng members of the household. Its chief medical officer Dr Brett Sutton confirmed an exception would made for people visiting their boyfriend or girlfriend if they lived separately. Otherwise, people are allowed to leave the house for one of five reasons - shopping for food, work and education, care reasons, exercise or other extenuating circumstances. Australian Capital Territory The ACT is also enforcing the two-person limit, but people are allowed up to two guests inside their homes - only if there is at least four square metres per person. It also only allows people to leave home for essential reasons, including shopping for essentials, medical reasons, exercise, work or study. Offenders are being issue with warnings, but may get a fine if they are found to be breaking the rules again. Western Australia As well as closing its borders to non-residents, WA has also introduced fines for people who cross out of their region. Nine regions have been carved up, and people cannot move between them for anything but an essential reason. This includes going to work, medical appointments, school or other types of education. Drivers are also allowed to transport freight, and people can go to a shop outside of their area if the essentials are not available closer to home. Northern Territory In NT, police are still enforcing a 10-person limit rather than just two people. But chief minister Michael Gunner warned it may take further action if people don't stick to the rules. All non-essential arrivals in the state must self-quarantine for 14 days, and people are not allowed to visit remote communities. Tasmania Tasmania also has brought into law the two-person limit, with residents only allowed to leave home for essential reasons. This includes shopping, exercising, and going to healthcare apppointments. Going to a vet is also allowed, as is going to school or caring for another person. Arrivals must self-isolate for 14 days. South Australia SA has also stuck to the 10-person limit, with $1,000 on-the-spot fines for people who have a larger group. Again, all arrivals into the state must self-isolate for 14 days. Advertisement




Islamic State Imposes 10-Day Ultimatum for Sikhs to Leave Afghanistan

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This week, the Islamic State imposed a 10-day ultimatum for all Sikhs to leave Afghanistan. This comes in the wake of a recent attack on a Sikh house of worship in Kabul, which left 25 dead, along with one gunman. The Sikh population living in Afghanistan remains the most targeted, forcing many to flee to other countries to seek refuge.

Afghanistan has historically been home to hundreds of thousands of Sikhs for centuries. Today, the Sikh population has dwindled to barely one thousand, made up of less than 300 families, with only few operating Gurdwaras across the country, including Gurdwara Guru Hai Rai in Kabul, the site of the most recent attack.

UNITED SIKHS POSITION AND EFFORTS

UNITED SIKHS, a global humanitarian non-profit organization dedicated to saving lives, alleviating suffering and maintaining human dignity around the globe; urges Canada, Germany, United States, India, Australia and other countries to answer the plea of Sikhs living in terror, with entry into these countries via protected asylum. For decades Sikhs have been at the forefront and vibrant members of these countries and have contributed richly as citizens. Now we request these very nations that humanitarian intervention is urgently needed to help the Sikh minority undergoing constant and consistent suffering in Afghanistan.

Short sighted and failed policies from the United States and Afghanistan have shaped the current state in Afghanistan for Sikhs today. Now, the United States has a moral obligation along with the United Nations to protect Afghan Sikhs and ensure their civil liberties and freedom from religious persecution.

In addition to working on this issue globally, UNITED SIKHS immediately delivered funding to the families of those killed and injured along with releasing funds ready to be disbursed for passport fees and will help in expediting the rescue of Sikhs seeking asylum.

Story continues

Countries across the globe have an extraordinary leadership opportunity by lifting immigration restrictions and opening their doors to Sikhs escaping Afghanistan. By granting Afghan Sikhs with Special Protected Status, and special entry into other countries via protected asylum; and saving lives in the hundreds. Time is a very real enemy of Sikhs desperate to leave their homeland and historic places of worship. With the 10-day ultimatum imposed by the Islamic State; there is little to zero protection from the horrors Sikhs will endure if they do not find immediate refuge.

Below is the detailed timeline of UNITED SIKHS efforts to save the lives of Afghan Sikhs.

UNITED SIKHS ACTIVITIES TO SAVE AFGHAN SIKHS

March 25 - Attack on Sikhs who were praying in a Gurdwara in Kabul. 25 men, women and children killed.

March 25 - UNITED SIKHS alerts Pope Francis and top Sunni and Shia religious leaders along with intelligence communities including: President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud

March 26 - UNITED SIKHS shares information on Sikh persecution globally

March 26  Second attack on Afghan Sikhs. This time on the way to the crematorium.

March 26 - UNITED SIKHS creates fundraiser for Sikhs in Afghanistan

March 27  Third attack on Afghan Sikhs. This time via roadside bombs.

March 27- United States Ambassador to Afghanistan Ross Wilson is alerted of the urgent issue facing Afghan Sikhs

March 27- United States Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom is alerted of the urgent issue of Afghan Sikhs

March 27- UNITED SIKHS along with American Sikh Congressional Caucus contacts Congressman (D-CA) John Garamendi to condemn attacks on Afghan Sikhs

March 27 - UNITED SIKHS reaches out to Canadian MPs, drawing their attention to this crisis.

March 28  UNITED SIKHS meet with US State Department to plea on behalf of Afghan Sikhs

March 28  Islamic State imposes 10-day ultimatum for Sikhs to leave Afghanistan

March 28  UNITED SIKHS issues official statement condemning violence against Sikhs living in Afghanistan, and pledges aid to help Sikhs leave Afghanistan

March 29 - UNITED SIKHS Pakistan Chapter provides funds for families of those killed and injured during the attack along with releasing funds for passport application fees to aid Sikhs in leaving Afghanistan

March 29 - UNITED SIKHS initiates the process to launch a Canadian Parliamentary Petition to ask the Government

March 30 - Canadian Ambassador Soroosh condemned the violence against Sikhs stating that the attack was "A barbaric and cowardly attack against humanity. Soroosh went on to state that the, "Sikh community is a patriotic and peaceful community making a huge contribution to the Afghan society and the government is committed to protecting the lives of all citizens in the country"

March 30  UNITED SIKHS reaches out to the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan to raise concern and ask for protection and safety of Afghan Sikhs

March 31  UNITED SIKHS contacts United Nations Honorable High Commissioner for Refugees Fillipo Grandi and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

April 1 - UNITED SIKHS urges the United States, Germany, UK, Canada, Australia, India, Pakistan and other countries to answer the plea of the Sikhs and provide them Special Protective Status.

April 1 - UNITED SIKHS contacts Pakistani Administration to request safe passage receivership into Pakistan for Afghan Sikhs

April 1 - Chad Wolf, acting United States Secretary of Homeland Security is contacted by UNITED SIKHS to provide Temporary Protective Status for Afghan Sikhs requesting asylum

April 1  UNITED SIKHS Australian Chapter reaches out to the Minister of Immigration to ask the Australian Government to allow Afghan Sikhs to resettle via refugee status

April 2 - UNITED SIKHS Canadian Chapter launches this House of Commons petition to ask the Canadian government to bring persecuted Afghans to Canada.

April 2 - UNITED SIKHS reaches out to Afghan Consulate and Embassy in the USA for immediate action in Sikh crisis.

April 3 - UNITED SIKHS send letter to Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo to lighten immigration regulations for Afghan Sikhs applying for asylum before 10-day Islamic State ultimatum expires

April 3 - UNITED SIKHS notifies Australia of attacks on Sikhs living in Afghanistan

April 3 - Australia Prime Minister, Scott Morrison condemns attacks on Afghan Sikhs

April 3 - Australian Chapter of UNITED SIKHS raises awareness and attention of Afghan Sikh prosecution to Australian authorities to stimulate and urge intervention

April 3  Australian Chapter of UNITED SIKHS sends letter to Minister of Immigration to provide resettlement to Afghan Sikh via refugee status

April 6 -UNITED SIKHS sends correspondence to Indias Administration and heads of religious infrastructure to get involved and support Afghan Sikhs

ONGOING: UNITED SIKHS CONTINUES TO WORK

AND LOBBY TO SAVE PERSECUTED AFGHAN SIKHS GLOBALLY.

About UNITED SIKHS:

UNITED SIKHS is a U.N. affiliated, international non-profit, non-governmental, humanitarian relief, human development and advocacy organization, aimed at empowering those in need, especially disadvantaged and minority communities across the world. UNITED SIKHS is registered: as a non-profit tax exempt organization pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code in the USA; as a Registered Charity in England and Wales under the Charities Act 1993, Charity Number 111 2055; registered in Australia as a not for profit NGO (ABN 24 317 847 103); and is a registered NGO in Belgium; as a non-profit organization in Canada; under the Societies Registration Act 1860 in Panjab and as a tax exempt organisation under section 80G of the Income Tax Act 1961; under the French Association Law 1901; under the Societies Registration Act 1860 in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Pakistan; as a registered society under the Registrar of Societies in Malaysia (registered as UNITED SIKHS Malaysia Humanitarian Aid Organisation- Regn No: PPM-015-14-06042015); and an NGO pending registration in the Rep of Ireland.:

Attachment

SANDY LEVY

UNITED SIKHS

210-439-5951

Sandra.Levy@unitedsikhs.org


VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- HeroX , the leading crowdsourcing platform that solves global problems, today announced the launch of a resource hub to pool all COVID-related challenges, from an array of crowdsourcing platforms, into one accessible place. COVID-19 Central is designed as a pathway to connect innovators with opportunities to develop life-saving technologies during this pandemic.

COVID-19 Central: A Resource Hub for COVID-19 Projects

HeroX's global platform has solved complex problems for a cross-section of organizations including NASA, Novartis, and Boeing. This hub will allow millions of motivated individuals to make a difference, shifting the view from 'observer' to 'participant' in the fight against COVID-19. HeroX's vast network is poised to make an immediate impact with solutions aimed at halting the pandemic and saving lives.

"An encouraging substory of the COVID-19 outbreak has been the unprecedented cooperation of the scientific community, private sector, and individuals," said Christian Cotichini, CEO, HeroX. "People want to help, and HeroX is providing them with a platform that matches their skillset with a complementary project. If we work together we can accelerate solutions to COVID-19 and its impact on our society."

Projects that can be found on the resource hub, include: MIT's Beat the Pandemic Hackathon , the State of New York's Tech SWAT Team and the Code Life Ventilator challenge .

"We are calling on everyone, everywhere to participate," said Cotichini. "The HeroX platform is in a unique position to leverage the collective intelligence of a wide network of individuals with COVID-19 focused challenges. By bringing together resources, on one easy-to-access platform, our hope is that challenges can be solved efficiently and quickly, to help mitigate these difficult times."

To access the resource hub, visit herox.com/covid19

ABOUT HEROX

HeroX is a social network for crowdsourcing innovation and human ingenuity, co-founded in 2013 by serial entrepreneur, Christian Cotichini and XPRIZE Founder and Futurist, Peter Diamandis. HeroX offers a turnkey, easy-to-use platform that supports anyone, anywhere, to solve everyday business and world challenges using the power of the crowd.

Learn more at www.herox.com

Media Contact:

Alexandra Pony

[email protected]

250.858.0656

SOURCE HeroX
They say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. So what should you do when life gives you pineapple peels?

Pineapple peels are used to make eco-friendy enzyme cleaners.  Photo provided by Bui Thi Bich Ngoc

The answer, it seems, is to make eco-friendly enzyme cleaners, at least according to a woman in the central province of Thanh Hoa.

In her early thirties, Bui Thi Bich Ngoc wanted to do something useful for the community and get out of her comfort zone as an accountant.

Ngocs home province of Thanh Hoa is not only famous for beaches and fishing but also big pineapple farms in its districts of Thach Thanh, Bim Son and Ha Trung.

Pineapples are grown and processed for export or used to make pineapple juice. But what about the pineapple peel?

Ngoc said she was very concerned to see dozens of tonnes of pineapple peel being discharged into the environment daily in the province.

Part of the waste was used as cow feed while the rest was usually left abandoned, Ngoc said, adding that improperly treated peel or untreated peel posed a high risk of pollution.

Ngoc said she spent much time searching for a solution for the problem as well as how to increase the economic value of pineapples grown in her hometown.

During the search, Ngoc said, in 2017, she happened to find a study by a Thai expert on enzymes. She found that fermented fruit peels can be used to clean. The end products are friendly to the environment and good for human health.

Pineapple peel is said to be the best input ingredient to make such bioproducts. I was so happy to know about it and thought it was a new way to add value to the pineapple grown in my home, Ngoc said.

Since then, Ngoo started learning to make cleaning products from fruit skins including pineapple, orange, grapefruit and lemon.

Its both easy and difficult to make the enzyme cleaners, Ngoc said.

She said she followed the online instructions of the Thai expert and tried at home but she struggled to increase the cleaning property of the fermented fruit peels so they could be commercial products meeting consumers demand.

At that time, I knew little about biotechnology. I read all the related materials that I had.

"My husband who is quite good at English also looked for writing on enzyme cleaners and translated them into Vietnamese for me, she said.

After reading theory, Ngoc said she tried again.

It took dozens of failed experiment, Ngoc said.

Until early 2019, I was mostly satisfied with some end products and then, officially introduced them for sale with branding Fuwa3e, she said.

Fuwa stands for fruit warrior, implying that each enzyme is like a warrior killing bacteria and dirt in your house. 3E is enzyme, ecosystem and Earth, meaning that we made the enzyme naturally to protect the ecosystem to help create a green Earth, Ngoc said.

Early last year, Ngoc opened Fuwa Biotech Ltd Company with products to clean floors, dishes and hands.

All the products are made from fruit peels waste, very friendly to the environment and users, Ngoc said.

Pineapple peels are collected from local factories that process the fruit for export or make fruit juice while other peels come from local restaurants and fruit juice stalls.

The production helped deal with some of the organic waste in the area. Moreover, Ngoc said that during fermentation, daily stirring releases O3 gas which can kill bacteria, fungi, purify the air and repel insects.

O3 gas combining with N2O, CO2 or O2 in the air can add minerals to soil and clean water sources. Final waste of the production can be used as fertiliser.

Ngoc said that they are given the peels free of charge. Ngoc said she also asked her neighbours to process and ferment the fruit peels to pitch in.

It takes three months to process and ferment the peels.

Now, Ngoc said her company provided about 10,000 products monthly to market, earning more than VN200 million. With a workshop of about 300 sq.m located at Ngocs house, she said she could make 60,000 products each month.

The products were certificated by HCM City Pasteur Institute as being able to remove 98 per cent of bacteria.

Ngoc said she expected to expand production and involve more local people in making cleansers from fruit peels.

People can recycle the waste, produce environment-friendly products, earn more and lead a greener life, Ngoc said.

Pham Giang, 35 years old, a mother of two children in Hanoi said she started looking for organic products and those with natural origins a few years ago when she had her first child.

I want products that are safe and good for my children and for the environment too, she said, adding that the enzyme products were good choices.

Giang said that she had used such products to clean floors and dishes.

They are chemical-free, biodegradable and gentle on the hands and the environment. The wastewater discharged after washing dishes is also unharmful to the environment.

When little children want to help parents with washing dishes, its wise to use eco-enzyme cleaners as it would be still okay if the children carelessly wash the dishes, Giang suggested.

Making and using enzyme cleaners is more and more popular as I know many housewives tried and successfully made fermented cleaners at home, Giang said.

She said that with those advantages, she thought it was acceptable to buy eco enzyme cleaners despite them being more expensive than chemical options.

Nguyen Thu Ha, a primary teacher in Hanoi said she knew more and more people prefer natural organic products to synthetic chemical ones because of their advantages and their good impacts on the environment.

Children should be told about them as soon as possible so when they grew up, they could make the right choices, she said.

I feel reassured when my children use such natural products, she said, adding that it was great if parents could make such products at home and the children could join.

Making cleaners from fruit peels sets a good example, she said.  VNS
TORONTO, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (FQM or the Company) (TSX: FM) announces that it is in receipt of Resolution No. 11622 dated April 6, 2020 issued by the Director General of Health of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Panama (MINSA) ordering the temporary suspension of labour activities at its Panamanian subsidiary Minera Panama, S.A., as a sanitary control measure due to COVID-19.



The Company has decided to place the Cobre Panama operation onto care and maintenance until MINSA are satisfied that the quarantine conditions are appropriate.

We have been working very closely with MINSA throughout the current COVID-19 pandemic, said Gordon White, General Manager of the Cobre Panama operations. We respect and support the Governments efforts to reduce the impact of the pandemic in Panama and we will cooperate fully with MINSA.

The heightened quarantine conditions require that mining and processing operations be halted. It is expected that the port and power plant will continue operations in order to supply essential electrical power into the Panama national grid, and to sustain the care and maintenance activities.

Cobre Panama is evaluating the reduction of all operating costs on the site for the expected duration of increased quarantine, including access to emergency labour code concessions for suspension of contracts. Temporary care and maintenance is expected to cost approximately $4-6M per week assuming suspension of labour contracts and hard turn down of other variable and fixed costs. The Company will provide revised guidance for Cobre Panama production in 2020 in due course.

Cobre Panama will continue to support its employees, their families and the wider community during this challenging period. So far we have donated 60 containerized health clinic modules to the Ministry of Health for use as health posts and community quarantine facilities, both in the region and nationally, to assist the protection of those most vulnerable in our communities. The mine is also donating much needed medical supplies such as ventilators to the Ministry of Health. We have also responded to the Governments request to support families in need with food and supplies, added Mr. White.

The Company will continue to provide updates as necessary.

For further information, visit our website at www.first-quantum.com

North American contact: Lisa Doddridge, Director, Investor Relations

Tel: (416) 361-6400 Toll-free: 1 (888) 688-6577

UK contact: Clive Newall, President

Tel: +44 7802 721663

E-Mail: info@fqml.com
There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. For example, although software-as-a-service business Salesforce.com lost money for years while it grew recurring revenue, if you held shares since 2005, you'd have done very well indeed. But while the successes are well known, investors should not ignore the very many unprofitable companies that simply burn through all their cash and collapse.

Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether Alta Zinc (ASX:AZI) shareholders should be worried about its cash burn. For the purpose of this article, we'll define cash burn as the amount of cash the company is spending each year to fund its growth (also called its negative free cash flow). Let's start with an examination of the business's cash, relative to its cash burn.

Check out our latest analysis for Alta Zinc

Does Alta Zinc Have A Long Cash Runway?

A company's cash runway is the amount of time it would take to burn through its cash reserves at its current cash burn rate. In December 2019, Alta Zinc had AU$2.0m in cash, and was debt-free. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through AU$2.4m. That means it had a cash runway of around 10 months as of December 2019. To be frank, this kind of short runway puts us on edge, as it indicates the company must reduce its cash burn significantly, or else raise cash imminently. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.

ASX:AZI Historical Debt April 7th 2020

How Is Alta Zinc's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Because Alta Zinc isn't currently generating revenue, we consider it an early-stage business. Nonetheless, we can still examine its cash burn trajectory as part of our assessment of its cash burn situation. Given the length of the cash runway, we'd interpret the 25% reduction in cash burn, in twelve months, as prudent if not necessary for capital preservation. Alta Zinc makes us a little nervous due to its lack of substantial operating revenue. We prefer most of the stocks on this list of stocks that analysts expect to grow.

Story continues

How Hard Would It Be For Alta Zinc To Raise More Cash For Growth?

While Alta Zinc is showing a solid reduction in its cash burn, it's still worth considering how easily it could raise more cash, even just to fuel faster growth. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future growth. By comparing a company's annual cash burn to its total market capitalisation, we can estimate roughly how many shares it would have to issue in order to run the company for another year (at the same burn rate).

Since it has a market capitalisation of AU$8.8m, Alta Zinc's AU$2.4m in cash burn equates to about 28% of its market value. That's not insignificant, and if the company had to sell enough shares to fund another year's growth at the current share price, you'd likely witness fairly costly dilution.

How Risky Is Alta Zinc's Cash Burn Situation?

Even though its cash runway makes us a little nervous, we are compelled to mention that we thought Alta Zinc's cash burn reduction was relatively promising. Summing up, we think the Alta Zinc's cash burn is a risk, based on the factors we mentioned in this article. Separately, we looked at different risks affecting the company and spotted 5 warning signs for Alta Zinc (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) you should know about.

Of course Alta Zinc may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of companies boasting high return on equity, or this list of stocks that insiders are buying.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
This is the moment a civet was rescued after escaping from raging forest fires that have killed three people in northern Thailand. The badly burned Asian palm civet was seen crawling across a road next to the Doi Suthep mountain in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, on Saturday morning (April 4). It had fled from fierce forest first - believed to have been caused by humans - which had ravaged hundreds of acres of forest and left three people dead. Firefighter Sukanya Ruangpratheep was working in the area to tackle the blaze when she noticed the exhausted and dehydrated creature dragging itself across the mountain road. The animal appeared thirsty and weary while its eyes were bleeding and partially blinded caused by the fire. Other parts of it body, mouth, tongue, and paws, were burned with severe injuries. Sukanya and her family gave the wounded animal water while gently putting it into a rescue sack. The Asian palm civet, a mammal which most resembles a type of cat, was later taken to vets at nearby national park where staff nicknamed her 'Ranger'. They said the name was testament to her strength and tolerance. Sukanya said: ''The poor creature had been burned badly around her eyes and her mouth when we found her. She could hardly move and would have been hit by a car if nobody had seen her in time. ''We picked her up and took her to a checkpoint so vets could give emergency treatment as quickly as possible.'' Ranger has been kept under close observation since being found. She has recovered well after three days of treatment and can now eat soft food fed to her by the doctor. Sukanya added: ''Her symptoms have improved and she's much stronger. She is getting better. ''Chewing food is not easy for her at the moment, but she has no broken bones or no damage to her internal organs.'' Ministers have been concerned by the forest fires in northern Thailand, with soldiers and rescue teams using helicopters to drop water onto the blazes. They are believed to have been started by hunters and foragers who light camp fires while trawling the woods for food. Dry conditions have also contributed to the spread of the fires. They have lead to Chiang Mai becoming one of the worst places the world for air quality. It was has been consistently recorded as ''very unhealthy'' by Air Visual during two months of forest fires.
The Bengaluru police have registered FIRs against 19 Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan nationals, associated with Tablighi Jamaat, for violating visa norms.

Suryaprasad S, police-sub-inspector attached to Jagajeevanram Nagar police station, had registered suo motu FIRs, under the Foreigners Act,against the Indonesian and Kyrgyzstan nationals who had come to the city on March 9. They travelled across the city on Tablighi work till March 16 and stayed at the Subhania Masjid at Farooqia Nagar in Padarayanapura, he said.

Following the Centre's direction, the BBMP officials tracked these 19 foreign nationals and put them under quarantine at Haj Bhavan in Saraipalya.

Krishna Kumar, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Kengeri sub-division, said, "On March 30, they were taken to C V Raman Hospital at Indiranagar for medical examination. At present they are under quarantine at Haj Bhavan.

The investigation revealed that these delegations had come to India on tourist visas but indulged in religious activities, such as promoting the religion, and this amounts to a violation of visa norms.

A senior police officer said the police had submitted a report to the court seeking directions to deport them to their countries.
The two largest coronavirus clusters in Wyoming continued to grow over the weekend as the states total cases swiftly surpassed 200.

The largest cluster in the state has blossomed out from the Showboat Retirement Center in Lander. Fremont County has 38 total cases, the second most in the state. Its unclear how many of those are tied to the Showboat, but its certainly the majority, a state health official said Monday. Nine new cases were identified there over the weekend, adding to an already sizable cluster.

Over the weekend, Fremont County health officials said they would test all remaining Showboat staff and residents. Kim Deti, a state Health Department spokeswoman, said that after the initial case was identified there last month, the state sent out a team and tested everyone who was symptomatic.

Officials in Fremont County have also said the total number of cases there is higher than is known; several hundred people have self-isolated without a firm diagnosis because of testing shortages.

Deti described the situation tied to the Showboat as rolling and said the disease emanating from the facility is beyond one or two degrees of separation now. Messages sent to spokesmen in Fremont County were not returned Monday.

In Natrona County, 12 of the 26 identified cases here are linked to the Wyoming Behavioral Institute, an inpatient mental health hospital here. That number has tripled in five days. Last week, county health officer Dr. Mark Dowell described the cluster there are significant and said it was likely the result of asymptomatic shedding.

You can be spewing virus for up to two or three days before you become ill, and thats what we think happened there, Dowell told the Star-Tribune on Friday.

Its unclear if WBI is testing all of its patients and staff, or if its still accepting patients at all. Business development manager Emily Quarterman-Genoff said last week that the patients whove contracted the virus are in strict isolation and infected staff are isolating at home.

We have reduced hospital capacity to ensure everyones well-being, creating isolation areas while still being able to meet the needs of those in crisis, she said.

Health officials in Natrona County have provided information on the WBI patients. They include three females in their 50s; two males in their 20s; two females in their 20s; a female in her 40s; a male in his 50s; two males, whose ages havent been disclosed; and a female in her 70s.

Of the remaining 13 Natrona County patients, three are linked to domestic travel and three more are related to international travel. Several more have unknown origins.

The county and Wyoming Medical Center have collectively tested 456 people here, with 389 combing back negative. Forty-two samples are still pending processing and confirmation.

Statewide, there have been 212 cases as of Monday evening. Beyond the cases tied to the two facilities in Casper and Lander, there arent other identified clusters of the same size or of the same circumstances  spread from an inpatient facility  anywhere else in Wyoming.

Over the weekend, the state identified 44 new cases. Roughly 4,000 test samples have been processed in state and private labs, and 52 patients have recovered. Overall, 24 patients have been hospitalized.

Since Friday evening, new cases were identified in Campbell, Converse, Fremont, Goshen, Laramie, Natrona, Sheridan, Sweetwater, Teton, Uinta and Washakie counties.

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Last year we were on a group walking tour through a European city, only half paying attention to the guides overly enthusiastic detailed commentary about old uninteresting history.

My wife then pointed him out to me. With legs outstretched he was precariously perched on the edge of a stone bench in this large public square.

A shell of his former self

A sad pathetic figure in filthy rags so dirty they shone, and in their filth the skin on his hands did also.

This nondescript man of indeterminate age (late 40s early 50s perhaps) with chin on chest lurched slightly forward in a fitful and no doubt uncomfortable doze, only to correct his forward lean and regain his near-unconscious upright sitting position.

A pair of decrepit sandals fit only for the garbage tip were his foot wear. Sleeping rough was no doubt uncomfortable, cold and sometimes wet.

Loosely clasped and finely balanced between right thumb and forefinger was a half empty small bottle of unknown plonk.

What was it like?

Standing bored near the back of the pack I tried to quickly process this awful scene of degraded humanity.

Whilst pondering how miserable life must have been for him with long monotonous lonely days and nights, I recalled that he was once a mothers tiny babe, hopefully loved, with her hopes, dreams and expectations embracing him. Perhaps he was a brother. What of his father and wider family?

How and why had this happened? Why him and not me? To be born with the then dormant monster of alcoholism residing within, aroused during the drift into adulthood, is not the fault of the sufferer.

As with each of us God had knitted him together in the secrecy and security of his mothers womb. Jesus had brought heaven down, died and risen victoriously for him too.

Jesus still seeks

During earthly life Jesus said that: The poor you will always have with you but you will not always have Me. (Matthew chapter 26 verse 11).

Just as quickly as we had come upon this shocking sight our guide had moved on and we had to catch up to stay with the group else we too could easily have become lost ourselves.

Its clear that any of us can be (and many are) spiritually lost without being reduced to this poor mans physical state, although he was almost certainly also spiritually lost.

The Son of Man [Jesus] came to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke chapter 18 verse 10). Someone is lost when they are precious and valuable to their Seeker who wants to deeply relate to them but they dont.

Jesus always knows where they are although tragically many/most (?): refuse' to come to Me to have life. (John chapter 5 verse 40). They dont seek Him and so probably dont find Him. Even if not physically lost, they are lost from God.

Nearing the end

We were nearing the end of our cruise, the second part of our holiday. On the second last evening before the others arrived for dinner I suggested to one couple that perhaps we could take up a collection for our evening food and drink waiters who had served us so well. On the final night my suggestion was put to the other four diners but met with stony silence.

So we quietly gave our own expression of appreciation for their great service. And do not forgetto share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. (Hebrews chapter 13 verse 16).

From conversations over the previous week it seemed that our well-healed Aussie dinner table companions were as spiritually lost as the bench man.

Deceptive money

Jesus sober warning came to mind that everyone hears Gods word at some time, perhaps at a wedding, baptism or funeral but: the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word making it unfruitful. (Mark chapter 4 verse 19).

The other things may reflect the commonplace name-dropping one hears on cruise ships, including ours: when we were in Portugal last year or the third time we were in Switzerland recently.

For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. (1 John chapter 2 verse 16).

The deceitfulness of wealth Jesus warns about may include the distracting comfort of a healthy bank balance such that we lose sight of the true meaning and purpose of life.

Instead of being generous combined with at least some understanding of the life and lot of others, we can become insular, stingy and selfish, such as calling for the menu to calculate our share to the cent when the table account arrives.

His daily grind

The daily routine of our diminutive jovial Indonesian cabin steward involved servicing/refreshing eighteen cabins each day, working a twelve hour split shift for eight months straight.

On one occasion an obviously educated steward quietly, courteously and respectfully said to me that whilst us tourists were enjoying our holiday, for him and his colleagues the ship was merely a steel prison.

The usual counter-argument raised that at least a cruise ship job gives that person an opportunity s/he may not otherwise have had in the Philippines, India or Myanmar is merely weak self-justification for tightfistedness.

Abundant life

A life lived without God begets much striving for emptiness, and Jesus warns: Watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed: a mans life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. (Luke chapter 12 verse 15).
NEW YORK, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Givsly, previously Lucky Forks, a for-purpose company that helps organizations find simple, turn key ways to create social good for their business community, is thrilled to announce its official launch nationwide with a new, comprehensive online platform. It allows busy professionals the chance to set aside meetings to raise money for their favorite nonprofit, fundamentally elevating the efficiency of which we create social change  no matter the cause.

Through the Givsly social impact platform, professionals can set aside up to an hour of meeting time a week, select nonprofits they care about, then share a profile. Within minutes, others can suggest new business meetings by donating to one's favorite cause. Once the meeting ends, the donation goes to the nonprofit of choice. It's a simple, yet impactful way for professionals to give back while doing business.

"We truly are redefining what it means to create meaningful social impact by connecting individuals passionate about making a difference and well equip to do so consistently," said Chad Hickey, Founder and CEO of Givsly. "We all have causes we care deeply about, yet professionals are busier than ever and have little time to think about how to make social impact. With Givsly, we're making it easier than ever to contribute while connecting relevant professionals to progress everyday business."

Givsly has a track record of simplifying impact, building trust and inspiring change through its historical work driving social impact events under Lucky Forks. Crucial to that success has been identifying the right partners to help move Givsly forward and step up during times of crisis, like the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Our immediate focus is on helping teachers at schools that have been closed due to the coronavirus," said Christopher Pearsall, Vice President, Brand & Communications for DonorsChoice, a Givsly partner. "When students are unable to attend school, the resources available will define their education, which means this pandemic threatens to widen educational inequity, and ultimately, we aim to shrink that gap."

While Givsly is a social impact platform at its core, it is also a lead generation platform for prospecting others for business. Although, rather than profits earned from meetings going directly to the lead generation company, with Givsly, the power is put back in the hands of the individual and the donation goes directly to the community.

"This is more than a financial donation," said Amy Armstrong, U.S. CEO of Initiative and Givsly user. "It's a start of an ongoing commitment to being open to different points of view while sharing the same passions whether it's around equality, ideas that matter, or creating a culture where talent and client's businesses thrive."

To learn more, register, and begin your own social impact initiatives, please visit www.givsly.com.

Media:

Lucas Seiler, Interdependence Public Relations

[email protected]

312-340-8576

SOURCE Givsly
By PTI

JAMMU: Arif, who started a 2,100-km cycle journey from Mumbai to meet his ailing father in Jammu, on Tuesday finally met him in Chandigarh, with personnel of the CRPF's 'madadgaar' helpline assisting him through five states during the lockdown imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic, officials said.

The man, who works as a watchman in the financial capital of the country was seen caressing the head of his 60-year-old father, Wazir Hussain at PGI, Chandigarh, where the CRPF got him admitted after airlifting him on Sunday from a remote village in Rajouri along the India-Pakistan Line of Control (LoC).

The story of Arif's sheer determination and good samaritan CRPF began last week when the paramilitary force got to know from a media report that the man had started on a borrowed bicycle from Mumbai on April 2 to meet his father who suffered a massive stroke a day before.

CRPF's Kashmir-based helpline 'madadgaar' immediately got into action and got help by way of food and other essentials for Arif on Sunday, who had reached Vadodara in Gujarat by then.

"Arif's father was admitted to PGI Chandigarh on Monday and as soon as his procedural medical tests are over, he will undergo a surgery for his heart ailment.

We are happy that Arif will be by his side during this time," a senior Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officer said.

Arif was put on a truck by the CRPF from Vadodara and later he was assisted by the local force units in Jodhpur (Rajasthan) and Ludhiana (Punjab) on the route.

CRPF Special Director General (JK zone) Zulfiquar Hasan had told PTI on Sunday that they had asked Arif "to stay at their base in Vadodara due to the lockdown restrictions with an assurance that the madadgaar will take care of his fathe".

He, however, insisted to be along side his father at this sensitive time and hence, the madadgaar then worked upon the logistics to ensure this meeting, he had said.

The helpline on Tuesday also posted a video on its official Twitter handle of the emotional father-son meeting at the Chandigarh hospital with a message: "for any assistance 24X7 call @CRPFmadadgaar on 14411."
Supreme Court Wont Hear Dispute Over Washington Transit Authoritys Ban on Religious Ads

The Supreme Court has declined to take up a case challenging Washington transit authoritys policy that bars religious advertisements on public buses.

In 2017, Archdiocese of Washington sued the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) after the agency refused to run one of its ads on the side of local buses in Washington. The ad, which contains a silhouette of three shepherds and sheep, along with the words Find the Perfect Gift and a link to the church website, was part of a Christmas time campaign that encouraged charitable giving and community service.

WMATA refused to accept the advertisement because of its religious nature. The archdiocese then filed a lawsuit alleging that WMATAs policy violates the First Amendments free speech and free exercise clause as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The district court and the court of appeals sided with WMATA, prompting an appeal to the Supreme Court (pdf).

The court below nonetheless endorsed WMATAs no-religious-speech policy on the theory that it permissibly excluded the entire subject of religion instead of prohibiting speech from a religious viewpoint, the archdiocese wrote in their petition. That theory is neither legally nor factually tenable.

On Monday, the top court, who is usually receptive to religious rights disputes, said they declined to review the case because Justice Brett Kavanaugh had to recuse himself from the case because he was previously involved as an appeals court judge. This means that with the courts conservative and liberal 4-4 split, it is unlikely that the case would receive enough votes for a victory.

Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh attend the State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on Feb. 5, 2019. (Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

Because the full Court is unable to hear this case, it makes a poor candidate for our review, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a statement accompanying the courts denial (pdf). He was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas in his statement.

Gorsuch added that if Kavanaugh could have participated then our intervention and a reversal would be warranted.

He accepted the archdioceses arguments, saying that the transit authoritys action had violated the First Amendment and engaged in viewpoint discrimination. He said WMATA had opened up a forum to discussion of a particular subject but then sought to ban discussion of that subject from a religious viewpoint.

The justice went on to reject WMATAs argument that it was treating religion as a subject rather than as a viewpoint, saying that it was an argument that stems from a misunderstanding of a previous Supreme Court case.

[T]he Court [in that case] recognized that religion is not just a subject isolated to itself, but often also a specific premise, a perspective, a standpoint from which a variety of subjects may be discussed and considered.' Gorsuch argued.

He added that the Constitution requires government entities to respect religious speech and not to maximize advertising revenues.

So if WMATA finds messages like the one here intolerable, it may close its buses to all advertisements, he wrote. More modestly, it might restrict advertisement space to subjects where religious viewpoints are less likely to arise without running afoul of our free speech precedents.

The one thing it cannot do is what it did herepermit a subject sure to inspire religious views, one that even WMATA admits is half  religious in nature, and then suppress those views.

He concluded that the First Amendment requires the government to protect religious viewpoints, not single them out for silencing.
TORONTO, April 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YAMANA GOLD INC. (TSX: YRI; NYSE: AUY) (Yamana or the Company) provided notice today that its Annual Shareholder Meeting (Annual Meeting) will be held in a virtual only meeting format due to the public health concerns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.



The Company also today announced that it will release its first quarter 2020 operational and financial results before the market open on April 30, 2020, followed by a conference call and webcast on April 30, 2020, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). Additional details are provided below.

Details of Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting will take place via live webcast on April 30, 2020, at 11:00 a.m. EDT. In order to ensure the health and safety of all, it will be a virtual meeting only. No one will be able to attend the Annual Meeting in person . Online access to the meeting will begin at 10:00 a.m. EDT.

We expect this modification in meeting format to be in effect for this year only and we plan to revert to an in-person annual meeting in future years after public health conditions have improved.

Attending the Annual Meeting as a Shareholder of Record

If you were a holder of record of Yamana common shares as of March 13, 2020 (the Record Date) (i.e., you held your shares in your own name as reflected in the records of our transfer agent, AST Trust Company (Canada) (AST)), or if you are a duly appointed proxyholder, you may attend the virtual Annual Meeting by completing the following steps:

logging in at https://web.lumiagm.com/187278145 clicking on I have a Control Number; and entering the control number found on the proxy accompanying your Management Information Circular. The password is yamana2020 (case sensitive).

Appointments: If you appoint someone as your proxyholder, you must complete the additional step of registering the proxyholder by calling AST at 1-866-751-6315 (within North America) or 1 (212) 235-5754 (outside of North America) by no later than 4:00 p.m. EDT on April 28, 2020. Failing to register your proxyholder online will result in the proxyholder not receiving a control number, which is required to vote at the meeting.

Story continues

Registering to Attend the Annual Meeting as a Beneficial Owner

If you were a non-registered holder of record of Yamana common shares as of the Record Date (i.e. you hold your shares through an intermediary such as a bank or broker) you must register in advance to attend the Annual Meeting.



If you are a non-registered shareholder and you wish to vote your shares during the meeting by online ballot through the live webcast platform, please follow these steps:

1: Insert your name in the space provided on the voting instruction form provided by your intermediary and sign and return it in accordance with the instructions provided. By doing so, you are instructing your intermediary to appoint you as proxyholder. Do not otherwise complete the form, as you will be voting at the meeting.

2: Register yourself as a proxyholder with AST by calling 1-866-751-6315 (within North America) or 1 (212) 235-5754 (outside North America) by no later than 4:00 p.m. EDT on April 28, 2020, or two business days before reconvening any adjourned or postponed meeting. Failure to register yourself as proxyholder with AST will result in you not receiving a control number to participate in the meeting and you will only be able to attend the meeting as a guest.

At the time of the Annual Meeting, you will need to complete the following steps:

login at https://web.lumiagm.com/187278145 click on I have a Control Number; and enter the control number provided to you. The password is yamana2020 (case sensitive).

Asking Questions

If you are attending the meeting as a shareholder of record or appointed proxyholder, questions can be submitted by accessing the live webcast platform at https://web.lumiagm.com/187278145, entering the control number and meeting password yamana2020 (case sensitive), and clicking on the message icon in the upper right hand corner of the page. To return to the main page, click the i icon at the top of the screen.

Voting Shares

If you have not already voted your shares in advance, you will be able to vote your shares electronically during the Annual Meeting. When the Chair announces the polls are open, the screen will change so you can enter your ballots should you choose. Your vote is important. Whether or not you plan to attend the Annual Meeting, we urge you to vote and submit your proxy in advance of the meeting by one of the methods described in the proxy materials for the Annual Meeting to ensure that your shares are represented and voted at the Annual Meeting.

Attending the Annual Meeting as a Guest

If you would like to enter the Annual Meeting as a guest in listen-only mode, click on the I am a guest button after entering the meeting center at https://web.lumiagm.com/187278145 and enter the information requested on the following screen. Please note you will not have the ability to ask questions or vote during the meeting if you participate as a guest.

First Quarter 2020 Results

The Company will release its first quarter 2020 operational and financial results before the market open April 30, 2020, followed by a conference call and webcast on April 30, 2020, at 8:30 am EDT.

First Quarter 2020 Conference Call Toll Free (North America): 1-800-273-9672 Toronto Local and International: 416-340-2216 Webcast: www.yamana.com Conference Call Replay Toll Free (North America): 1-800-408-3053 Toronto Local and International: 905-694-9451 Passcode: 5543937# The conference call replay will be available from 12:00 p.m. EDT on April 30, 2020, until 11:59 p.m. EDT on May 21, 2020.

About Yamana



Yamana Gold Inc. is a Canadian-based precious metals producer with significant gold and silver production, development stage properties, exploration properties, and land positions throughout the Americas, including Canada, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Yamana plans to continue to build on this base through expansion and optimization initiatives at existing operating mines, development of new mines, the advancement of its exploration properties and, at times, by targeting other consolidation opportunities with a primary focus in the Americas.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Investor Relations

416-815-0220

1-888-809-0925

Email: investor@yamana.com



CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains or incorporates by reference forward-looking statements and forward-looking information under applicable Canadian securities legislation and within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to information with respect to the date and format of the Annual Meeting, the Companys plans to revert to an in-person annual meeting in future years, the impact of the coronavirus, and the timing and availability of the Companys first quarter 2020 financial and operating results. Forward-looking statements are characterized by words such as plan", expect, budget, target, project, intend, believe, anticipate, estimate and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions may or will occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made, and are inherently subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other known and unknown factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. These factors include unforeseen impacts on guidance, liquidity, cash flow, monetization initiatives, and available residual cash, an inability to maintain a cash reserve fund balance that can support current or future dividend increases, the outcome of various planned technical studies, production and exploration, development, optimizations and expansion plans at the Company's projects, changes in national and local government legislation, taxation, controls or regulations and/or change in the administration of laws, policies and practices, and the impact of general business and economic conditions, global liquidity and credit availability on the timing of cash flows and the values of assets and liabilities based on projected future conditions, fluctuating metal prices (such as gold, silver and zinc), currency exchange rates (such as the Brazilian Real, the Chilean Peso and the Argentine Peso versus the United States Dollar), the impact of inflation, possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates, changes in the Companys hedging program, changes in accounting policies, changes in mineral resources and mineral reserves, risks related to asset dispositions, risks related to metal purchase agreements, risks related to acquisitions, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, changes in project development, unanticipated costs and expenses, higher prices for fuel, steel, power, labour and other consumables contributing to higher costs and general risks of the mining industry, failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, unexpected changes in mine life, final pricing for concentrate sales, unanticipated results of future studies, seasonality and unanticipated weather changes, costs and timing of the development of new deposits, success of exploration activities, permitting timelines, government regulation and the risk of government expropriation or nationalization of mining operations, risks related to relying on local advisors and consultants in foreign jurisdictions, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses, risks relating to joint venture or jointly owned operations, title disputes or claims, limitations on insurance coverage, timing and possible outcome of pending and outstanding litigation and labour disputes, risks related to enforcing legal rights in foreign jurisdictions, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to herein and in the Company's Annual Information Form filed with the securities regulatory authorities in all provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com , and the Companys Annual Report on Form 40-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or managements estimates, assumptions or opinions should change, except as required by applicable law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information contained herein is presented for the purpose of assisting investors in understanding the Companys expected financial and operational performance and results as at and for the periods ended on the dates presented in the Companys plans and objectives and may not be appropriate for other purposes.




Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Sunny skies with gusty winds developing later in the day. High around 35F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight. Low 29F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
Shelley Davies waits for her delivery at Plants and Friends./Douglas Zimmerman/SFGate

Six Bay Area counties officially announced Tuesday school sites will remain closed through the end of the academic year.

Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Francisco aligned to make a joint decision based on advice from public health officials to continue with distance learning to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

This news comes after California Governor Gavin Newsom and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said last week that they were advising districts to prepare for a closure of all school facilities into summer.

"We believe it is most important that schools maximize their efforts around distance learning," Thurmond said.

"We know this is difficult. We have to rise to the challenge. Quite frankly, none of us knows when its safe enough for our students to return to campus, he added.

Newsom said districts' efforts should be focused on launching distance learning and not opening schools.

In its statement to families, San Francisco Unified School District said it will begin distance instruction "through interactive teacher-led learning" on April 13. In recent weeks, the district has been working on securing Chromebooks and Wi-Fi for families without access to connectivity.

Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.
Peter Navarro, an often-sidelined adviser who feeds Donald Trump's "America first" instincts, is back on the field.

And the aggressive policy adviser to an equally aggressive chief executive is throwing his newfound weight around, reportedly clashing with the widely popular Anthony Fauci, Washington's top infectious disease coordinator, about a malaria drug the president calls a possible "game-changer" to treat coronavirus. Mr Fauci and other members of a White House team coordinating antivirus efforts, however, want to follow normal medical and scientific practices to first test the medication before using it widely to fight the novel respiratory disease.

Mr Trump thrust his 70-year-old White House director of trade and manufacturing policy back into the national spotlight earlier this month when he handed him a second bureaucratic hat. In the heat of what the Trump administration called a "spike" towards a possible coronavirus "peak" in several "hot spot" cities, Mr Trump turned to Mr Navarro to head up coordination with companies.

Specifically, the president tapped the two-time Harvard University graduate to oversee his administration's use of the Defense Production Act during the pandemic outbreak. That means it falls to Mr Navarro to talk to companies  or simply force some  to build crucially needed medical equipment like ventilators to fight the respiratory disease and make potentially life-saving protective gear for hospital workers like face masks.

The new role means Mr Navarro is getting more airtime, both on cable television interviews that are frequently seen by his boss, the country's most-powerful consumer of 24/7 news networks and during appearances alongside other White House coronavirus task force members and Mr Trump during some daily briefings.

Democratic lawmakers and Joe Biden, that party's leading candidate to capture its nomination for president, have panned the president for, in their view, not using the law to force more companies to do more to fight the virus -- and much sooner than he eventually did.

Mr Trump told reporters several times he prefers to use the DPA as "leverage" during talks with American firms. Democrats say that was a rare kind of, in their view, example of Mr Trump misusing his office: this time, by doing too little.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters last week she and her colleague viewed it as "beyond comprehension why he (Trump) has not done that -- except that maybe the Chamber of Commerce does not want him to, from what I understand."

Mr Navarro, who shares many of Mr Trump's views about global trade and stressing the United Sates needs to be more self-reliant when it comes to producing many of the items and components it now buys from China and other countries, said on Monday he views his new role this way: "There's three ways to use it."

"One is in the allocation of resources we have, which is to make sure that the supply chain has enough so that we can make the ventilators, [so] we don't want to run out of components in the supply chain" and that "in terms of allocation, [we] want to make sure that when we manufacture something, it gets to the right people."

"The ... second thing is mobilisation of the [US] industrial base, and that can mean repurposing factories like GM and Ford, [which] are now turning their auto production into making ventilators," he told Fox News. "And the third thing basically is cracking down on the kind of black market and profiteering that has arisen."

Mr Trump's White House has been plagued by internal staff fights since his first day in office in January 2017. The president has opted to weigh in on a small number, but mostly leaving it to various factions to fight until one side wins -- and gains his ear about a coming policy decision.

Office politics

One former White House official who eventually resigned in frustration said it was hard to do their job because those various groups were constantly jockeying for position, making it hard to bring any single policy decision in for more than a crash landing. That same official said it was virtually impossible to keep everyone in the West Wing on the same page, with each faction telling a different story publicly and in private conversations with reporters.

That person left in 2018, but those problems persist. And Mr Navarro has proved adept at emerging a winner in the internal battles.

Mr Trump appeared to send the other task for members a message recently when he, at one of his nationally televised coronavirus briefings, called Mr Navarro's Defence Production Act "a very important position," and "more important, probably, than it's almost ever been in our country."

But some leading Democrats question why the president chose a man known more as an academic and author who has strong views of lowering US trade deficits, slamming China and other countries for a slew of what he calls unfair trade practices, and using tariffs to produce more beneficial-to-America trade deals to negotiate with some of the country's biggest corporations.

The crisis-era implementation of the law means it is up to Mr Navarro to tell Mr Trump if he should "commandeer the factories and the supply chains to produce what's needed, and then distribute it to the place that's most needed, so we won't have ... this sort of chicken-with-your-head-cut-off [approach], everybody running around trying to get the equipment," as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer explained the Defence Production Act's purpose.

"Now, the president appointed somebody, a man named Peter Navarro, a professor on China, to run the production side of it," the New York Democrat said recently. "I talked to him. He is not up to the job. He's a very nice man, but he has had no experience doing things like this."

But Mr Trump often values loyalty and effectiveness on television has qualifications more so than a proven record on a specific issue. Mr Navarro repeatedly shows, with Trump-like, rhetoric one reason the boss picked him.

"What we have, essentially, is a nation at war. We have a wartime president standing behind me," he said from the White House briefing room last Thursday. "The Defense Production Act is one of the most powerful weapons this administration can use to fight the invisible enemy of the virus."

And on Monday, while Mr Fauci was still sounding a publicly skeptical tone about the malaria drug on which the president is so transfixed, Mr Navarro was busy praising him for trusting his gut -- and urging an uneasy country to do the same.

"There's also the point of view that we are in war. President Trump is a wartime president, in the fog of war. We might take more risks than we otherwise would," one of his top trade advisers, Peter Navarro, said Monday during a television interview. "And, given the track record of the drug over many, many years treating malaria, and there are side effects, but it's been used a lot in lesser doses, the decision's been made by many doctors to prescribe ... it. And if it saves lives, that's a beautiful thing."

"I think history will judge who's right on this debate," he said, "but I'd bet on President Trump's intuition on this one."
The European Union is to put up 15 billion euros (USD 16.4 billion) to help poor countries fight the coronavirus epidemic, the bloc's chief announced on Tuesday.

European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said the money would help countries with weak healthcare systems tackle the impact of COVID-19 and also aid their long-term economic recovery.

Beating the pandemic in Europe alone is not enough, officials say, pointing out that if coronavirus continues to rage elsewhere in the world, it will simply return in time.

"We will only win this battle with a coordinated global response," von der Leyen said in a video posted on Twitter.

"This is why the European Union is securing more than 15 billion euros to help our partners worldwide to fight coronavirus." The brief video did not give details of where the money would come from nor which countries would benefit.

But officials have previously identified Africa as a concern because of its links to Europe and the poor state of healthcare in many of its countries.

A senior EU official last week warned it would be "completely useless" to defeat coronavirus in Europe if it simply re-emerged from nearby countries struggling to contain it.

"Africa could experience the same problems that we are facing in Europe in a matter of weeks," von der Leyen said in her video on Tuesday.

"They need our help to slow down the spread of the virus as we needed help in this crisis." Europe has been the epicentre of the virus in recent weeks but last week the EU's diplomatic chief Josep Borrell warned the virus could "get out of control very rapidly" in Africa.

EU development ministers will meet by video call on Wednesday to discuss details of financial help for vulnerable countries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Trump administration is pumping the brakes  for now  on calls for the Treasury Department to issue a second round of checks of up to $1,200 to American taxpayers to mitigate the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The administration's position puts it at odds with Democrats in Congress, who have been eager to begin negotiating a fourth bill aimed at economic "recovery," but is in lockstep with the argument from House and Senate Republicans that the government should first see how effective the $2.2trn "phase three" coronavirus stimulus package passed in late March is before authorizing more direct cash payments.

"Our job is to execute what we've got," Larry Kudlow, the president's top economic adviser, told reporters Monday.

"You've got assistance going out to 175 million people. I keep using that stat only because for somebody like me, who's been around a while, it's unbelievable: government assistance, 175 million people," Mr Kudlow added. "Let's see what happens."

Democrats have been advocating for a second round of stimulus checks since before Mr Trump even signed the first bill into law authorizing the initial round of payments.

"I don't think we've seen the end of direct payments," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last month after wrapping negotiations with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate Republicans.

Ms Pelosi said at that time that she would continue pushing in the next coronavirus response bill talks for checks for taxpayers worth up to $1,500, which was House Democrats' initial proposal before being whittled down to $1,200.

The speaker reaffirmed her position in a 'Dear Colleague' letter to House Democrats Sunday, saying the next bill "must go further in assisting small businesses including farmers, extending and strengthening unemployment benefits and giving families additional direct payments."

There are already signs of friction between how Republicans and Democrats view the efficiency with which the government is rolling out checks from the $2.2trn bill, the largest economic relief package in US history.

"I think we're doing OK, frankly. I know there are always a few glitches but I'd give it an 'A,'" Mr Kudlow told reporters Monday of the Treasury Department's schedule for getting direct payments into American taxpayers' bank accounts. "You might not agree, but whatever. And if we need more, we'll ask for more, but day at a time, week at a time  let's see how this works."

Meanwhile, House Ways and Means Committee Democrats circulated a memo to lawmakers last week estimating millions of Americans might not get their $1,200 for months.

While the roughly 60 million taxpayers whose direct deposit information is on file with the Treasury Department will receive their checks electronically beginning next week, the rest must be cut and mailed manually.

The Ways and Means Democrats estimate the Treasury Department has the capacity to cut and mail about 5 million checks per week, meaning the last payments may not arrive in some Americans' mailboxes until September.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  Japan will enter a month-long state of emergency starting Tuesday- a wake-up call for the Japanese people, an analyst said.

Seven affected prefectures will be under the state of emergency namely Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka.

READ: Japan to declare state of emergency over coronavirus pandemic

Shizuoka University Dean and professor Seijiro Takeshita told CNN Philippines that the announcement of the state of emergency is a wake-up call for the Japanese people, which will definitely be accompanied with a lifestyle change for the coming month.

Its a good wake-up call. I think the Japanese people have been quite naive about this. By getting a wake-up call, I think peoples lifestyle would definitely change, he said.

Takeshita added that before this, people did not understand the importance of social distancing, and that is no longer the case now.

I think people are starting to understand what social distancing is. That said still, there are so many people who really dont understand the importance of social distancing, and this is one of the things the government has to strongly propel, the professor said.

He added that there was a time where people let off their guard because they felt like the curve concerning the domestic cases of COVID-19, was not flattening.

Takeshita also expressed concerns with the preparedness of the countrys healthcare system, saying that there is a shortage in intensive care units.

We have to realize that it is a health issue. Because if we dont get the curve to be flat, its like youre fixing the water pipe where the faucet is still on, he said.
[April 07, 2020] AXIM Biotechnologies Receives New U.S. Patent Issuance for Chewing Gum Comprising Cannabinoids and Nicotine to Treat or Alleviate Tobacco Smoking

NEW YORK, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc. (OTCQB: AXIM) (AXIM Biotech, AXIM or the Company), an international healthcare solutions company targeting oncological and cannabinoid research, announced today the issuance of a Notice of Allowance for a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on a method to use a chewing gum composition comprising cannabinoids and nicotine according to the patented formula to treat or alleviate tobacco smoking. The USPTO granted this allowance from AXIMs patent application 15/494,514 filed on April 23, 2017.

Under this patent allowance, AXIM plans to formulate a chewing gum that contains cannabidiol (CBD) and nicotine to aid smoking cessation utilizing the Companys proprietary delivery mechanism. Other cannabinoids are also covered under the invention in this patent allowance. At the end of the day, our main goal is to help as many people in need as we can. There are over one billion tobacco smokers around the world, and it is estimated that 70% of U.S. smokers want to quit, said AXIM Biotech CEO John W. Huemoeller II. With this patent, we look to provide a unique and effective solution for those who want to quit smoking. It is well known that smoking cigarettes poses many health risks. Research has shown that smoking causes a rise in blood pressure due to an increase in cardiac output and total peripheral vascular resistance. Alternatively, research also suggests that CBD can assist in lowering blood pressure in healthy subjects.



Due to the massive number of smokers and large percentage that would like to quit smoking, the smoking cessation market is expected to be worth $21.8 billion by 2024. This presents a huge opportunity for companies like AXIM that are looking to provide the market with unique options. To learn more about AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc., visit http://aximbiotech.com/ .

About AXIM Biotechnologies

Founded in 2014, AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc. (AXIM) is a world leader in the research and development of plant and laboratory-derived cannabinoid and oncological therapeutics. AXIM's proprietary research intends to find new ways to diagnose and treat cancer as well as other conditions, such as the intense side effects of chemotherapy, through innovative pharmaceutical delivery systems, cannabinoid-based active pharmaceutical ingredients, and novel therapeutics. Currently, Sapphire Biotech, Inc.s diagnostic tool is being used to study the company's enzyme biomarker to detect pancreatic cancer earlier than circulating tumor cells. Learn more here . For more information, please visit www.AXIMBiotech.com . FORWARD-LOOKING DISCLAIMER

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc. to be materially different from the statements made herein.



LEGAL DISCLOSURE

AXIM Biotechnologies does not sell or distribute any products that are in violation of the United States Controlled Substances Act (US.CSA). CONTACT:

Public Relations Contact:

Andrew Hard

Chief Executive Officer CMW Media

P. 858-264-6600

[email protected]

www.cmwmedia.com Corporate Contact Info:

North American Address:

45 Rockefeller Plaza, 20th Fl.

New York, NY 10111, USA

P. 844 294 6246 European Address:

Industrieweg 40, Unit B4

3401 MA IJsselstein

Netherlands Investor Relations Contact:

[email protected]

888-759-0844

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
A top New York City official attacked President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, days after his mother died of the disease.

NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, whose mother Arlene Stringer-Cuevas passed away aged 86 as a result of complications from COVID-19 on Friday, spoke with CNN's Anderson Cooper about the devastating loss on Monday.

Stringer became emotional as he spoke about how many other families are dealing with the same grief.

'In New York City, this is playing out in so many families and I've got to tell you, Donald Trump has blood on his hands. He has my mom's blood on his hands,' he said.

Scroll down for video

NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer (left) launched a ruthless attack on President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic during a CNN interview on Monday, days after his mother, Arlene Stringer-Cuevas (right), died from the disease

'He sent us a hospital that's right here in the Manhattan harbor and no one can get on that hospital,' Stringer added, referring to the USNS Comfort, which has only taken on a few patients since it docked at Pier 90 in New York City last week.

'This is something that is just outrageous, and so it's very tough to mourn under these circumstances.'

'Donald Trump has blood on his hands. He has my mom's blood on his hands,' Stringer said of the president (pictured Monday)

'You're angry about that,' Cooper asked.

'I think we all are,' Stringer replied.

'The government is supposed to protect our people and we're supposed to be able to protect our parents and grandparents the way they protected us and we're not able to do that.

'Perhaps the thing I struggle with the most is how do you mourn at a time when you can't connect with people? There can't be a funeral. There can't be a traditional shiva. There's no way to reach out to my stepfather and see him personally because he's quarantined. My little kids can't say goodbye to their grandma.'

He then pleaded with viewers to reach out to anyone they know who has lost a loved one to 'this evil virus'.

'Text someone, call someone, because that's the only way you have closure, is by people who are strangers saying good-bye to your mom and helping you grieve and that is so critical to the families,' he said.

Asked by CNN host Anderson Cooper if he's angry about Trump's handling of the pandemic, Stringer said: 'I think we all are. The government is supposed to protect our people'

Stringer criticized how the USNS Comfort (pictured) has been used, as reports suggest the ship with capacity for more than 1,000 patients has only received a few dozen so far

Stringer first spoke publicly about his mother's death on Twitter Friday, calling the loss 'incalculable'.

He praised how she raised him and his brother as a single mother while also working as a public school teacher before she became a New York City councilwoman.

Speaking to CNN three days later, he said: 'She's got a great story to tell and going to tell it for the rest of my life.

'For this tragedy to happen is just so overwhelmingly sad for my family but it's a story, Anderson, that I know is playing out across the country. It's playing out in New York City. It's so hurtful.'

Stringer announced his mother's death aged 86 in a tweet (pictured) on Friday

Arlene Stringer-Cuevas (right) died as a result of complications from COVID-19 on Friday

Stringer (left) praised how his mom (center) raised him and his brother as a single mother while working as a public school teacher before she became a New York City councilwoman

New York City is currently the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, with more than 72,000 confirmed cases and at least 3,485 deaths as of Monday evening.

Officials have taken drastic steps to address the city's crisis, including by setting up field hospitals in Central Park and converting the Javits Center into an emergency facility.

Under immense pressure from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and other local leaders, President Trump has directed some federal supplies and funding to the state and sent the USNS Comfort to the Big Apple to help free up beds in traditional hospitals.

Stringer criticized how the Comfort has been used as reports suggest the ship with capacity for more than 1,000 patients has only received a few dozen so far.

The ship was intended to be used for non-coronavirus patients only, but over the weekend a handful of infected people - less than five - were accidentally transferred there.

New York City is currently the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, with more than 72,180 confirmed cases and at least 3,485 deaths as of Monday evening
5-Year-Old Texas Boy Dies After Getting Hit by Stray Bullet on Balcony

A 5-year-old boy was making a social media video on his balcony when he was shot, said his family and the local medical examiners office.

At about 9 p.m. March 31, 5-year-old Jordan Allen Jr., of Houston, was sitting on the porch of his familys home with his family.

He just told me to get him some juice, thats why I stepped in the house to get him some juice, Jordan Allen Sr., his father, told KTRK.

Five to six shots rang out, and the boy was shot in the head by a stray bullet, his father said, adding that the boy was recording a TikTok video.

The incident was confirmed by Houston Police, writing that a 5-year-old juvenile was shot. Police added in a news release: Paramedics transported the child to the hospital. Officers recovered multiple casings in the parking lot near where the child was shot and several cars were damaged from possible gunfire.

Everybody ran in the house and the kids room in the house, so I ran to the porch, and then I see my son on the ground holding his head asking for my help, Allen Sr. told KTRK. The shooter drove away from the scene of the crime, officials said.

The Houston medical examiners office confirmed the boys death on Tuesday, the station reported. Police said Jordan Allen Jr. was not the intended target of the shooting.

Houston officials are asking anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477.

There are no known suspects or witnesses in the shooting, according to police.

Other details were not provided in the case.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-07 22:32:03

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Atico Mining Corporation (the Company or Atico) (TSX.V: ATY | OTC: ATCMF) announces its operating results for the three months ended March 31, 2020 from its El Roble mine. Production for the quarter totaled 4.93 million pounds of copper and 2,736 ounces of gold in concentrates, an increase of 108% and 85% for copper and gold, respectively, over the same period in 2019.



The El Roble mine operated continuously under strict prevention protocols and newly implemented health policies for predominance of the quarter, with results in line with 2020 objectives, said Fernando E. Ganoza, CEO. We will continue to comply with guidelines and regulations from local authorities in the jurisdictions where we operate while putting tremendous emphasis on the health and safety of all of our employees. At the same time, we have deployed efforts to support local communities and hospitals in their prevention and treatment efforts during these unprecedented times.

First Quarter Operational Highlights

Production of 4.93 million pounds of copper contained in concentrates; an increase of 108% over Q1 2019.

Production of 2,736 ounces of gold contained in concentrates; an increase of 85% over Q1 2019.

Average processed tonnes per day of 878, no significant change over Q1 2019.

Copper head grade of 3.31%, no significant change over Q1 2019.

Gold head grade of 1.96 grams per tonne; a decrease of 13% over Q1 2019.

Copper and gold recovery of 91.9% and 59.0%; no significant change for copper and a decrease of 2% for gold over Q1 2019.

COVID-19 Response Measures

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a global pandemic. The Company is closely monitoring developments and has implemented preventative measures at the El Roble mine site, La Plata project, as well as our corporate offices to safeguard the health of its employees, while continuing to operate effectively and responsibly in its communities. To date, we have no confirmed cases of the COVID-19 at the mine site or the El Carmen community. The El Roble mine continues to operate with minimum personnel and very strict health and safety protocols in coordination with the local hospital and authorities. The mine site currently has 42% of the usual work force and contractors are down to a minimum. We will continue to assess the situation and are prepared to swiftly make any necessary adjustments within the regulatory framework issued by the Colombian and Ecuadorian Ministry of Health and Social Protection.

The Company, in coordination with local authorities has deployed resources to help in the prevention and treatment of the disease as well as support the local communities where we operate. The following are some of the measures undertaken by the Company;

The provision of medical and hospital supplies to the San Ramon Hospital at Carmen de Atrato to control, monitor and diagnose COVID-19 as well as to treat patients.

Hiring medical staff for the San Ramon Hospital to work on a prevention campaign in the local community.

Donation of food and basic supplies to vulnerable families in the Carmen de Atrato community.

Providing basic supplies to local authorities to aid in preventative measures.

Donations of medical supplies to Hospitals in the Choco Province and Municipalities close to El Carmen de Atrato.

Donation of medical grade personal protection equipment to the local medical clinic in Palo Quemado.

Participation in the RadioThon initiative organized by the provincial government to recollect medical supplies and equipment in Ecuador.

First Quarter Operational Details

Q1 2020

Total Q1 2019

Total % Change Production (Contained in Concentrates) Copper (000s pounds) 4,926 2,362 108% Gold (ounces) 2,736 1,552 85% Mine Tonnes of ore mined 72,777 34,796 82% Mill Tonnes processed 73,374 35,581 106% Tonnes processed per day 878 885 Nil% Copper grade (%) 3.31 3.29 Nil% Gold grade (g/t) 1.96 2.24 -13% Recoveries Copper (%) 91.9 91.6 Nil% Gold (%) 59.0 60.6 -2% Concentrates Copper and Gold Concentrates (dmt) 10,213 4,921 108% Payable copper produced (000s lbs) 4,680 2,244 108%

Note: Metal production figures are subject to adjustments based on final settlement. The reported results are preliminary in nature and are awaiting independent lab verification.

El Roble Mine

The El Roble mine is a high grade, underground copper and gold mine with nominal processing plant capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day, located in the Department of Choco in Colombia. Its commercial product is a copper-gold concentrate.

Since obtaining control of the mine on November 22, 2013, Atico has upgraded the operation from a historical nominal capacity of 400 tonnes per day.

El Roble has a measured and indicated resource of 1.87 million tonnes grading 3.46% copper and 2.27 g/t gold, at a cut-off grade of 0.93% copper equivalent. Mineralization is open at depth and along strike and the Company plans to further test the limits of the resource.

On the larger land package, the Company has identified a prospective stratigraphic contact between volcanic rocks and black and grey pelagic sediments and cherts that has been traced by Atico geologists for ten kilometers. This contact has been determined to be an important control on VMS mineralization on which Atico has identified numerous target areas prospective for VMS type mineralization occurrence, which is the focus of the current surface drill program at El Roble.

Qualified Person

Mr. Thomas Kelly (SME Registered Member 1696580), advisor to the Company and a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 standards, is responsible for ensuring that the technical information contained in this news release is an accurate summary of the original reports and data provided to or developed by Atico.

About Atico Mining Corporation

Atico is a growth-oriented Company, focused on exploring, developing and mining copper and gold projects in Latin America. The Company operates the El Roble mine and is pursuing additional acquisition opportunities. For more information, please visit www.aticomining.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Fernando E. Ganoza

CEO

Atico Mining Corporation

Trading symbols: TSX.V: ATY | OTC: ATCMF

Investor Relations

Igor Dutina

Tel: +1.604.633.9022

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. The securities being offered have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act), or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States, or to, or for the account or benefit of, a "U.S. person" (as defined in Regulation S of the U.S. Securities Act) unless pursuant to an exemption therefrom. This press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities of the Company in any jurisdiction.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, without limitation the use of net proceeds, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties and are based on certain factors and assumptions. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Companys expectations include uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; uncertainty of estimates of capital and operating costs; the need to obtain additional financing to maintain its interest in and/or explore and develop the Companys mineral projects; uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones for the Companys mineral projects; and other risks and uncertainties disclosed under the heading Risk Factors in the prospectus of the Company dated March 2, 2012 filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The items marked with a "(1)" are alternative performance measures and readers should refer to Non-GAAP Financial Measures in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 as filed on SEDAR and as available on the Company's website for further details.
Digital Visibility Concepts This is a time when every human needs to work together in order to get through these very tough times, as humans we are far more resilient than we realize. We must all do our part. DVC is donating 5% of its profits.

Digital Visibility Concepts (DVC), a marketing agency based in Burbank, California, has announced that it is donating 5 percent of its profits for the next 60 days to the World Health Organization (WHO) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to its efforts to help fight the coronavirus outbreak internationally, DVC is initiating its own social distancing policy. DVC is requiring all of its employees to work from home in an effort to help minimize the virus spread in its community.

COVID-19 is a virus that emerged from Wuhan, China, and has since spread all over the world resulting in thousands of deaths, lockdowns of entire countries, and havoc in the healthcare systems of many nations. Some countries such as China, South Korea, and Singapore have been able to successfully contain the virus through rigorous testing, contact tracing, and quarantine of infected individuals giving hope to the world.

Jeremy Dickson, CEO of DVC, stated, "This is a time when every human needs to work together in order to get through these very tough times, as humans we are far more resilient than we realize. We must all do our part. DVC is donating 5% of its profits."

WHO has been working with countries around the world affected by the pandemic by gathering data, helping countries prepare, and working with the UN in its Global Humanitarian Response Plan. This global plan will provide materials for testing as well as medical supplies and equipment to countries with weaker health systems.

DVC is a family-owned business that provides full-service digital marketing services such as social media management, text message marketing, paid search management (Google Adwords, Facebook, etc.), search engine optimization (SEO), website design and hosting, graphic design, and online reputation management.

DVC is one of the nation's leading digital marketing agencies, and offers its services from small and medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 companies who are looking to enhance their digital visibility. DVC offers competitive pricing and no contract, month-to-month service arrangements.

For more information about how DVC can help your company with digital marketing or for a quote on any of their services, call their toll-free number at 1-888-354-6110.

DVC will continue to be open to assist its clients and help those needing their marketing services for the duration of this crisis.

The DVC website can be found at https://digitalvisibilityconcepts.com/

CEO and founder of DVC, Jeremy Dickson, has many years of experience in the marketing industry. He has been a featured speaker in multiple digital marketing seminars including one hosted by Georgetown University in 2014. He is accredited by Bing and is Google Adwords certified. DVC's corporate office is located in Burbank, California.
What would you do for an eternal honeymoon? One South African couple is getting a taste of that very question, trapped in luxury in the Maldives thanks to the current pandemic.

Olivia and Raul De Freitas are currently on their honeymoon, at a five-star resort, in the Maldives, a nation composed of more than a thousand tiny, idyllic islands in the Indian Ocean, like a trail of smashed crystals scattered on a slab of blue glass, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

But we dont need to bore you to jealousy on that: the Maldives have long been known as an adult playpen of floating breakfasts, crisply ironed Hawaiian shirts and sumptuous bedsheets. Oh, and there are some nice water views too.

In any case, the just-hitched couple arrived on Sunday, March the 22nd, with a six days booked. But instead of being an opulent jumpstart to never-ending matrimony, it has turned into a lengthy  and expensive  stay.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zeriah Travel and Tours (@zeriahtravels) on Apr 6, 2020 at 1:39pm PDT

They had some concerns about the trip, The New York Times wrote, considering the mounting travel restrictions imposed in light of the new outbreak around the world. But nothing specific that would affect them had been announced, and their travel agent assured them that, whatever policy was forthcoming, all South African citizens would be allowed back home.

Go ahead and have a great time, they were told.

By Wednesday the couple received notice that South Africas airports would all be closed by midnight Thursday. Which didnt leave them much time: returning to South Africa from the Maldives involves a five-hour stint to Doha, Qatar, a three-hour layover, then nine hours to Johannesburg.

Even if they scrambled, and even if they could get a flight, the complexities of leaving their remote island ensured theyd never make it home in time, wrote The New York Times.

Other guests faced similar restrictions, but managed to wrangle ridiculous flights that would get them home in time to their various home countries, such as the US (flying via Russia).

Olivia and Rauls only other option was to get a speed boat to the Maldives mainland and try the airport in person. But as the South Africa lockdown commenced, so did the Maldives, and the couple feared if they struck out on the mainland they might not be allowed back into the resort.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cinnamon Velifushi Maldives (@cinnamonvelifushi) on Feb 20, 2020 at 10:00pm PST

Long story long: They reached out to the South African Consulate in the Maldives, and the closest South African Embassy, in Sri Lanka, for help. A representative told them, via WhatsApp, that there were around 40 other South Africans spread among the Maldives, and that their option home would be to hire a chartered jet, at their own expense, for $104,000, The New York Times explained.

Everyone could split the cost, the message noted, but the government had only connected with around half of the 40 people; of those 20, many were unable or refusing to pay. The fewer the number of people on board, the more expensive each share would become. Even so, after several days of discussions between South African representatives and the Maldivian Foreign Ministry, the flight still hasnt been approved.

By Sunday, they were the only guests at their resort, the Cinnamon Velifushi Maldives, which normally is at capacity this time of year, catering to some 180 guests. Its average price per night for a room, according to Google, is AU$1,253.

While it is not as flash, maybe, as the mega mansions of some of the celebrities around the world, who are riding out the current crisis is what is conventionally considered the most luxurious settings in the world, wed argue that true luxury is about exclusivity. And in that sense Olivia and Raul win hands down  there are hundreds, maybe thousands of celebrities living in over-opulent penthouses and mansions, but only one couple living it up at the Cinnamon Velifushi.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cinnamon Velifushi Maldives (@cinnamonvelifushi) on Mar 25, 2020 at 6:00am PDT

Paying for the privilege, the couple reign like benign yet captive sovereigns over their islet (The New York Times) sleeping in, snorkelling and lounging by the pool.

That was until this Sunday just gone. But well get to that later. First: how were they able to do all that while the Maldives was in lockdown?

It was able to happen because the staff were still there (and for that matter, still are), as Government regulations wont allow any Maldivians to leave resorts until they have undergone a quarantine that followed their last guests departure.

Accustomed to the flow of a bustling workday, and the engagement with a full house of guests, most of the staff, having grown listless and lonely, dote on the couple ceaselessly.

Other than keeping calm and drinking cocktails, the couple have been working on getting home. Most recently, The New York Times reports, theyd heard that flight permissions are supposed to be sorted out by Monday, April 6 [yesterday].

That was an extension from April 1, so these dates seem to merely be optimistically penciled in. No matter: The latest wrinkle, they were told, is that the Maldivian airline crew assigned for the charter wont fly anyway, needing to rest for a day before their return flight to the Maldives.

The upshot: they still dont know when theyll be able to get home. South Africas lockdown is meant to last until April the 16th. But, like everywhere, this is subject to continual reassessment.

Its incredible that we get this extra time, Ms. De Freitas told The New York Times. But the financial toll weighs heavily. Though the pair have been paying a generously discounted rate, the bill is going to sting.

Each day that ticks by is a chip taken out of their savings that had been set aside for a house down payment.

Everyone says they want to be stuck on a tropical island, until youre actually stuck, Ms. De Freitas said. It only sounds good because you know you can leave.

In any case, on Sunday, April the 5th, according to what the couple has told The New York Times, they were contacted by the South African embassy and taken via speedboat to another five-star resort, where about two dozen stranded South Africans in the Maldives are being put up. The local government told them it would subsidize a large portion of the cost of their stay.

Their return date remains unknown.

Read Next
Yesterday, it was reported that Bollywood producer Karim Morani's daughter Shaza has tested positive for the Novel Coronavirus. Now, according to the latest updates, Shaza's twin sister, actress Zoa Morani has also tested positive for COVID-19.

Shaza, who had returned from Sri Lanka in the first week of March, showed no symptoms but was admitted to Nanavati Hospital here, on Monday. According to sources, Zoa, who had returned from Rajasthan around mid-March, tested positive for COVID-19.

Karim Morani confirmed this latest development to ABP News. A PTI report quoted a source as saying, "She (Zoa) had tested today for COVID-19 and her results came positive by evening. She is in Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, whereas Shaza is under medication at Nanavati. Shaza will be tested again after two days. As of now, the immediate family, house helps are also getting tested. They are all under quarantine."

Karim told ABP News that his elder daughter Zoa, who is found COVID-19 positive, has been admitted to Dhirubhai Kokilaben Ambani Hospital in Mumbai. However, he chose not to react on being asked about the reason behind admitting both his daughters in different hospitals.

Earlier, Morani had said that both the daughters were under observation. The producer was quoted as saying, "Shaza had no symptoms but has tested positive. Zoa, my other daughter, has a few symptoms so we got both of them tested. Zoa, however, tested negative. Both have been admitted to Nanavati hospital. They are in isolation and under observation."

Zoa Morani made her Bollywood debut with Shah Rukh Khan's production venture Always Kabhi Kabhi. She later starred in films like Bhaag Johnny and Mastaan. She made her digital debut with Zee5's Akoori. The young actress was last seen in Bhoot Purva, which streamed on the same online platform.

Shah Rukh Khan's Friend Karim Morani's Daughter Shaza Tests Positive For COVID-19

Fight Against Coronavirus: Arjun Kapoor Donates To Various Charities
China Mourns Dead as Wuhan Families Deal With Mass Cremations

2020-04-06 -- As families across China remembered the dead on a traditional mourning day, the authorities issued a warning to a prominent lawyer who drew attention to the large numbers of family members lining up to collect their loved ones ashes in the central province of Hubei.

As the entire nation observed a three-minute silence at 10.00 a.m. on Saturday, the traditional grave-tending festival of Qing Ming, cars, trains and ships sounding horns and air defense alarms sounded out in memory of the dead, both ancestral and those who died more recently in the coronavirus pandemic.

But the tribute came amid ongoing questions over the government's official death toll and officials' early handling of the epidemic after it emerged in Hubei's provincial capital, Wuhan.

One social media user surnamed Cai published an article titled "Accountability is the best tribute for the dead."

In it, Cai wrote that mourning those who died after a disaster could bring comfort to the living, but more importantly, should cause people to reflect on the causes of the disaster.

"At the moment of national mourning, those responsible should be held to account, whether they be in government or the private sector," the article said.

An Wuhan resident surnamed Ding whose mother recently died of coronavirus said she had been denied hospital treatment because she couldn't get tested, and demanded that somebody be held to account over her death.

"I went to the police yesterday to ask about this," Ding said. "Everyone responsible for ... serious consequences should bear criminal liability, not just administrative accountability."

Mismatched ashes

Meanwhile, mourning relatives said they had discovered anomalous objects in urns that couldn't have been linked to their relatives.

A resident of Wuhan's Jiang'an district surnamed Liu said she had found a man's belt clasp in the urn she was given, supposedly containing her mother's ashes.

And a resident of Hongshan district said he had found the remains of ceramic dental crown, denture or implant in the urn labeled with his father's name, even though his father had never had such a thing fitted.

Meanwhile, Wuhan's funeral homes have been working round the clock to cremate dead bodies, giving rise to widespread suspicion of the official death toll of around 2,500 dead in the city.

Residents and citizen journalists have been counting urns and figuring out the number of cremations based on the combined capacity of the city's cremation facilities.

Most estimates, regardless of how they are arrived at, indicate the cremation of more than 40,000 dead bodies in recent weeks.

A source close to the funeral industry surnamed Ma said some incinerators have stopped working after being run night and day, and that funeral homes are now cremating several bodies together to meet demand.

"In the past, only one body would be cremated at a time, but now they are working 24/7," Ma said, adding that six out of the city's 30 furnaces were now no longer working.

"This is certainly because they have been burning too many bodies at the same time," he said. "This blocked up the machine and it burned out."

Henan lawyer reprimanded

Ma said reports have emerged of people restrained and forced into body bags when they were still moving.

"One old lady was saying that they put one guy into ... a body bag when he wasn't even dead yet, and took him off to the crematorium because there was no way of saving him," he said.

"Some people are saying that ... there are video clips of screams coming from funeral homes, from inside the furnaces ... which tells us that some people were taken to the funeral homes while they were still alive."

RFA was unable to confirm these reports independently.

Meanwhile, authorities in the central province of Henan have handed an official reprimand to a lawyer who posted about the numbers of people lining up outside funeral homes in Wuhan.

Liu Yingying is the subject of a disciplinary action by the official lawyers' association in Henan's provincial capital, Zhengzhou after she posted a photo of people lining up outside an Wuhan funeral home to her WeChat account.

The Zhengzhou Lawyers' Association, which is under the control of the municipal justice bureau and therefore the ruling Chinese Communist Party, has accused her of "provoking dissatisfaction with the government" after her post received more than half a million views and more than 10,000 retweets.

The association said its code of practice requires lawyers not to post "inappropriate comments" online.

Liu had cooperated with the investigation, admitted her mistake, deleted the post and reflected sincerly on her mistake, it said, adding that it would treat her with leniency in return.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Copyright  1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content April not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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Terrorists in Syria demonstrate against Ankara, demand salaries

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 05 April 2020 11:23 PM

Turkish-backed terrorists positioned in northeastern Syria have staged a protest denouncing their treatment by Turkey and demanding their salaries to be paid.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Sunday that dozens of terrorists have been seen protesting and shooting in the air near the al-Alam Sqaure in the occupied northeasternSyrian city of Tal Abyad.

The terrorists also demanded to be replaced and transferred to other areas controlled by Turkish-led forces in Syria.

The terrorists were deployed in northeastern Syria October last year as part of a Turkish offensive against Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces bordering Turkey.

The offensive came to a halt shortly after following an agreement between Ankara and Moscow.

Turkey has played a major role supporting terrorists in Syria ever since a major foreign-backed insurgency overtook the country nine years ago.

Nonetheless, with the Syrian government gradually regaining control over most of Syria, Turkey has instead sought to enlist the terrorists in its operationsagainst Kurds in northern Syria.

Ankara views the Kurdish forces in Syria to be tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which it deems a threat as they seek an autonomous region in Turkey.

The Syrian government has, nonetheless, firmly rejected the Turkish-led operations as a blatant violation of its sovereignty and has vowed to liberate the whole country from foreign-led occupation.

The reported protest on Sunday comes as SOHR had reported similar protests by terrorists on Ankara's payroll last month.

The fighters cut off roads with rubber tires in Tal Abyad and the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain and demanded their salaries to be paid.

Discontent rising among Turkish-led terrorists in Libya

According to another report published by SORH on Sunday, discontent is also rising among terrorists deployed from Syria to fight on behalf of Turkey in Libya.

Ankara deployed the terrorists earlier this year in a bid to intervene in the ongoing civil war in the country.

According to the report, the growing frustration is due to Turkey's failure to pay the mercenary forces' salaries while they "suffer from dire living conditions" in Libya.

"Turkey paid our salaries for only one month. It has not secured any thing for us," said one fighter in an audio recording obtained by SOHR.

"All of us want to return to Syria. There are groups that have already got prepared to leave Libya to Syria", the fighter added.

The growing discontent comes as a total number of 165 terrorists deployed from Syria have been killed in the north-African country, according to SOHR.

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WASHINGTON - Amid the rush to supply hospitals with ventilators, there's a sad truth: At least half of covid-19 patients who require ventilators don't survive.

As many as two-thirds of these critically ill patients - who struggle to breathe as their lungs fill up with fluid - end up succumbing to the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, according to early reporting on deaths out of China, Italy and the United States. While helpful, ventilators are far from a miracle cure for the virus sweeping through the United States.

"They're called life support for a reason - they just keep people alive while typically buying time for something else to heal the lungs," Scott Halpern, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, told The Washington Post's Carolyn Y. Johnson and Ariana Eunjung Cha.

Ventilators are used, typically in intensive care units, to assist patients with breathing by helping the lungs inhale and exhale air. The process involves inserting a tube into a patient's mouth or nose and down their windpipe. Mechanical ventilators are often used on patients with brain injury, stroke or when they have pneumonia (a condition often resulting from influenza).

Hospitals short on ventilators amid a surge of covid-19 patients are one of the most pressing worries of public health leaders as the country tries to mobilize against the virus. Chief among the problem areas is New York City, where Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said the state received 1,000 ventilators from the Chinese government and another 140 from Oregon. Last Thursday, Trump announced he was using the Defense Production Act to ensure several companies including General Electric and Medtronic get the materials they need to build ventilators.

Trump struck a typically boastful tone at Monday night's press briefing, promising the government is "ready to roll" with "almost 10,000" ventilators from the national stockpile and more being built by private industry. But the president has been in an ongoing argument with governors who say they're not getting what they need from the federal government in terms of ventilators, masks and gowns - called personal protective equipment - with Trump claiming those needs might be exaggerated.

"Wherever that monster goes, we're able to move with it," the president said. "We have people ready and waiting to bring them."

Here's what studies suggest about covid-19 patients who are sick enough to be put on a ventilator:

- According toLondon's Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre study on 165 critically ill patients in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 66% of patients who received respiratory support died.

That's significantly more than patients who typically die after being put on ventilators. Just 36% of these patients died from 2017 to 2019, according to the study.

- Nine out of 18 covid patients on ventilators in Seattle-area hospitals died and just six had recovered enough to breathe on their own, according to a study published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The researchers noted these patients needed especially high oxygen requirements soon after being intubated - and that patients typically required the ventilator for longer than a week.

"The earliest extubation occurred 8 days after initiation of invasive mechanical ventilation, which suggests that acute respiratory failure due to Covid-19 may require prolonged mechanical ventilation lasting days to weeks," they wrote.

- In another study of critically ill patients in Wuhan, China, where the virus originated, 30 out of 37 patients who received ventilation died.

So even if the Trump administration follows through on bold promises to deliver more ventilators to undersupplied hospitals, that can only go so far in stemming a death toll research models say could reach 100,000 or more in the United States.

Monday, a widely cited model from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) slightly downgraded its national fatality prediction from 82,141 deaths to 81,766 deaths, although that model conflicts with several others projecting deaths, equipment shortages and projected peaks. Some state leaders are growing increasingly concerned about how the White House is using the University of Washington model to deny state requests for equipment and help in preparations, Carolyn and William Wan report.

"The stark differences between the IHME model and dozens of others being created by states exposes the glaring lack of national models provided publicly by the White House or agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for local leaders to use in planning or preparation," they write.

And for patients who survive being put on a ventilator, a host of other challenges await.

"Many will suffer long-term physical, mental and emotional issues, according to a staggering body of medical and scientific studies," Johnson and Cha write. "Even a year after leaving the intensive care unit, many people experience post-traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer's-like cognitive deficits, depression, lost jobs and problems with daily activities such as bathing and eating."

"Patients with covid-19 typically stay on ventilators for prolonged periods which increases the likelihood of long-term complications," they add. "The risk of infection also means they are cut off from human contact, which also increases the risk of psychological issues."

"We normally kneel at their bedside and hold their hand and ask them, 'How are you' and tell them, 'It is my privilege to help you.' Instead what they are getting is someone in spacesuit garb with very little time to spend with them," E. Wesley Ely, a professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, told our colleagues.
The Centre is considering extending the three-week nationwide lockdown over the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak after some states favoured its enforcement beyond April 14, while also weighing the option of lifting the restrictions in a staggered manner, officials said on Tuesday, when the number of cases in the country crossed 5,000.

Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka have informed New Delhi that the threat of Covid-19 would be easier to handle if the lockdown, which took effect on March 25, remains in force for a longer duration, an official said on condition of anonymity.

Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, too, have favoured an extension of the lockdown. Even states such as Punjab, which havent been as forthcoming, favour maintaining the restrictions, the official added.

The number of Covid-19 cases in India on Tuesday reached 5,305 and 160 have so far died of the highly infectious disease. There is concern that once the lockdown is lifted and free public movement is allowed, it could lead to a spike in the number of cases of the disease, frittering away the gains from the lockdown.

At the same time, however, there are worries that continuing with a strict lockdown could cause long-term damage to the economy -- in terms of personal finance, the administering of states, and business activity in key sectors that are already reeling from the sudden halt in economic activity.

One of the big questions will be lives versus livelihoods, according to Niti Aayog member Dr Vinod Paul, who is also the head of one of the empowered groups on the matter. We are assessing the cost of the lockdown economically with the lives that need to be saved, he said.

A decision on what to unlock, and when to unlock it, will also be driven by the numbers and how India stands in terms of the Covid-19 spread towards the end of this week, a second official said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 announced the lockdown aimed at breaking the chain of infections, halting flights, trains and road transport, shutting all but essential services, and stressed the need for social distancing to be strictly observed to curb the spread of the disease.

On Tuesday, a Group of Ministers led by defence minister Rajnath Singh met at his residence to discuss the various factors that would need to be considered once the lockdown was lifted. The ministers were very clear that even if the lockdown is lifted, travel restrictions will remain, said an official.

The meeting is the fourth held by the GoM. Home minister Amit Shah and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman attended Tuesdays meeting along with 14 other ministers, who discussed in what form travel should be allowed.

Trains and buses will not be back to normal, an official aware of the developments said on condition of anonymity. Air traffic will also be disrupted. The public should expect a slow, staggered return to a new normal.

The government was also considering the option of lifting the lockdown only in phases, with those districts where no cases have been reported likely to be the first to see resumption of some services.

One key concern that was flagged in the meeting was that the farm sector is still struggling. The sector has been particularly hit hard by a disruption of the farm-to-fork supply chain in the absence of workers, mainly migrants who have returned home in the aftermath the lockdown, to harvest the winter-sown rabi crops and transport to carry the produce to agricultural markets.

The ministers were briefed that some concessions extended to agriculture were not filtering down, another second official said. For instance, on March 28, the government exempted farm work from the lockdown and said that activities such as sowing of crops and harvesting should be allowed, and fertiliser and pesticide shops could stay open. However, more than a week later, it doesnt seem to have helped. The labour who would have worked on the fields were too scared and were not going back to work, said this person.

This was an issue that the ministers were hoping to troubleshoot with the home ministry and other officials soon.

In the same way, the lack of labour is also affecting the supply of medicines. While there is no shortage of drugs, said the official, there was a shortage of people to transport them.

The official said the substance of the ministers discussion would be conveyed to Prime Minister Modi, who is expected to shortly decide whether or not to extend the lockdown.

Lav Aggarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry, when asked about the extension of the lockdown, said at a daily briefing: The chief secretary has already given a statement. Once a decision is taken on this, we will convey it.
As part of his contribution towards the ultimate eradication of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, the Member of Parliament for Effutu Constituuency, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, has made donations of Personal Protective Equipment to health facilities in Effutu.



The donations, according to the Member of Parliament, will help the frontline workers as the country is battling the deadly coronavirus pandemic.



Receiving the items on behalf of all the Health facilities in Effutu, Dr Prah who is the Medical Director at the Winneba Trauma and Specialist Hospital expressed the appreciation of all the Medical facilities in Effutu towards the MPs kind gesture.



We are at war with this global pandemic and we cannot be an island just because the lockdown policy is not applicable to us here. We never know when anyone of us can get infected with it. It is upon this that we are expressing our heartfelt gratitude to Honourable Afenyo-Markin for these donations. They will go a long way into helping us to deal with this pandemic Dr. Prah intimated.



Beneficiary hospitals and health centres include Winneba Trauma & Specialist Hospital , Effutu Municipal Hospital, Winneba Health Center, Ansaful, Nsuekyir, Wonsom, Zongo and Gyegyenadzi CHIPS Compounds.

Source: peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Minister says India will soon cure COVID-19 patients with Ayurvedic treatment

India

pti-PTI

Panaji, Apr 07: Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik has expressed confidence that COVID-19 can be treated with Ayurveda, adding that in the absence of scientific validation the ancient Indian medicinal stream has only been used as a preventive measure during the current crisis.

He also reasserted his controversial claim that Prince Charles was cured of COVID-19 with Ayurvedic treatment and added that the heir to the British crown is denying it because Ayurveda is not accepted in the West. Naik had earlier said that a Bengaluru-based practitioner had treated Charles.

Prince Charles has denied it because he might be having some problems in admitting it. His country does not recognize Ayurveda, Naik said in an interview to PTI. It was obvious for him to refuse. I am hundred and one percent sure that he got cured because of Ayurveda, the minister said. He did not say if there was a specific Ayurvedic medicine that purportedly cured Prince Charles or if he benefitted from a holistic Ayurvedic approach. Naik said that once scientific validation of some formulas in Ayurveda is done, the country would be ready to treat COVID-19 patients with it. When other systems like allopathy have failed, we have a solution to treat COVID-19 through Ayurveda, he said.

The minister also alleged that a lobby was hindering the usage of Ayurveda as an effective medicine to treat novel coronavirus in the country. He said his ministry has been following up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Ayurveda has a solution for coronavirus, which is not offered by other streams.

We have been asked for scientific validation for the Ayurvedic formula. But we must understand that scientific validation of Ayurveda has been done thousands of years back. It is a stream of medicine that has been passed on from one generation to other. He did not say how the validation would have been done thousands of years ago for a disease that is known to have come into existence only last year.

There is no known cure for COVID-19, which is caused by a novel coronavirus known as SARS-CoV2 that was first observed in Chinas Wuhan province in late 2019. Scientists and pharma companies all over the world are working fervently to create the first vaccine or first cure for the disease.

The Central government will have to notify the Ayurvedas formula to treat coronavirus. We have put up our claim before the PM after which he has acted and a task force has been formed, he said. Naik said that coronavirus attacks the immune system. If you boost the immunity system, then the virus cannot attack you. It also affects your respiratory system. We have a solution to improve respiratory system." Strictly speaking, the coronavirus SARS-CoV2 does not attack the immune system but attacks the respiratory system, leading to the disease. However, most of the damage in COVID- 19 disease is caused by the immune system, which unleashes a massive defence to stop the virus from spreading.

In the process, millions of immune system cells attack the virus and infected lung tissues but end up wreaking havoc on the entire lung. This leads to shortness of breath, dry cough and other complications, leading to in some cases death. The minister added that there is 60 to 70 per cent control on spread of coronavirus in India due to home remedies prescribed in Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani.

"Lakhs of people are currently taking advantage of it, he said. But he provided no details of where the people are benefitting from the Ayurveda cure or if any hospitals are running regulated programmes in this regard. India is the only example where this virus has been controlled. We have already issued advisory to the people on does and donts, he said.
After US President Donald Trump virtually blamed the World Health Organisation for playing the Chinese side on the coronavirus pandemic, heat will now mount on Beijing at an informal discussion on the virus outbreak in the UN Security Council on Thursday, April 9, at 3 pm EST (April 10 12.30 am). The informal discussion will be preceded by a briefing by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

The WHO really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately, I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation, Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday. It is not what prompted the outburst but as one Indian analyst put it, Trump had hit the nail on its head.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was elected to the post after China backed him in the May 2017 election as he defeated US-backed Dr David Nabarro, who was the candidate of the UK. Despite the coronavirus being detected in Wuhan in China as early as November 17, 2019, the WHO categorised Covid 19 outbreak as a pandemic on 12 March 2020 when it had crossed the borders and created havoc in Europe. By then, the virus had already killed 1,000 people in the european region.

All the 10 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council have backed the informal discussion led by the UNSC President; the post is held by the Dominican Republic. But whether the closed-door discussion will conclude with any outcome depends on the proposals put up and the exercise of veto powers of China and its ally Russia.

If President Trumps tweet is indicative of the US mind, then the vote will be 13 to 2 or 14 to 1 depending on how Russia plays. Other two members of the P5, the UK and France have suffered at the hands of pandemic and so has Europe.

While China may say that the pandemic is not a peace and security issue - the argument used to block a request by Estonia for a discussion last month - the economic misery that the pandemic has hurled the world towards a deep crisis.

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* Doctors say Lombardy management errors exacerbated crisis

* Health ministry sends inspectors to Milan care home

* Lombardy official defends care home actions

By Crispian Balmer

ROME, April 7 (Reuters) - Doctors in Lombardy, the Italian region hardest hit by the coronavirus epidemic, have criticised local officials for their handling of the crisis and said the mistakes they made should be a lesson for everyone.

More than 16,500 people have died from the coronavirus in Italy, the biggest death count in the world, with Lombardy accounting for 55% of the tally. The region also accounts for 39% of the country's 132,547 confirmed cases.

The particularly large death toll in Lombardy, the wealthiest region in Italy, has raised eyebrows, with local officials suggesting that both the high urban density and considerable elderly population might have played a part.

However, a letter signed by leading doctors, including the heads of 11 provincial health authorities within Lombardy, suggested failures within the local health system contributed to the greatest emergency Italy has faced since World War Two.

Amongst the failings they highlighted were a lack of protective clothing for medical staff - a regular source of anger since the outbreak emerged on Feb. 21.

"This determined the death of many colleagues, the illness of many of them and the probable and involuntary spread of the contagion, especially in the early stages of the epidemic," said the letter, which was posted on the website of the national federation of doctors, surgeons and orthodontists.

There was no immediate comment from Lombardy officials.

The medics bemoaned an "absence of strategies" in tackling the crisis, a lack of good data and limited testing as the virus spread. This "greatly underestimated the number of patients and, to a lesser extent, the number of dead", they wrote.

While the neighbouring region of Veneto engaged in widespread testing in a known coronavirus hotspot, Lombardy only tested the seriously ill arriving for treatment in hospital, saying they did not have the capacity for wider checks.

Story continues

CARE HOMES

The letter took aim at the management of nursing homes, where hundreds of people have died without ever being tested. The doctors said in the province of Bergamo alone, 600 of the 6,000 pensioners under care had died.

Italy's health ministry announced on Tuesday it was sending inspectors to Milan's largest nursing home, Pio Albergo Trivulzio, where more than 100 people have died since March.

A photograph of nine bodies in the home's mortuary was published on the front page of La Repubblica newspaper on Tuesday, with another showing its chapel full of coffins.

Lombardy's top health official, Giulio Gallera, rejected media allegations that the region had allowed hospitals to send infected patients to local care homes without proper protection in an effort to free up badly needed space in packed wards.

"We always acted for the good of everyone in a extraordinary emergency and we will not let anyone cast aspersions on the serious, rigorous work we have carried out," he said on Facebook. He did not refer to the doctors' letter.

Italy's healthcare system is decentralized with regions having control over the money that goes to hospitals within their own borders. Lombardy has focused on developing a dual private-public network of high-performing hospitals, but critics say this was done at the expense of grassroots medical care.

"Public health and on-the-ground medicine have been neglected and weakened in our region for many years," the doctors said.

"It is going to be difficult to recover from this situation at the moment," the wrote, adding that as a starting point, the region should undertake large scale testing of health workers. (Additional reporting by Elvira Pollina and James Mackenzie in Milan; editing by Nick Macfie)
Married At First Sight's KC Osborne and Michael Goonan were pictured kissing in public for the first time on Monday, but some fans have criticised the pair for setting a bad example during the coronavirus pandemic.

After keeping their relationship a secret for weeks, the lovebirds stepped out in the inner Melbourne suburb of Elwood on Monday where they packed on the PDA.

Michael, 29, who manages his family's commercial ice business, was attending work meetings and KC, 31, accompanied him on his breaks.

And while KC offered Michael a squirt of hand sanitiser from her $2,500 Givenchy handbag, some fans questioned whether their outing constituted 'essential travel'.

Criticism: Married At First Sight's KC Osborne and Michael Goonan were pictured kissing in public for the first time on Monday, but some fans have criticised the pair for setting a bad example during the coronavirus pandemic

'Confirming a rumour for a tabloid isn't essential': Some Married At First Sight fans questioned whether their outing constituted 'essential travel'

'Not the time to be showing off in public!' one fan wrote on Facebook after seeing the photos of KC and Michael's outdoor date.

'We are meant to be at home social distancing. Confirming a rumour for a tabloid is not essential,' they added.

'So is no one going to address the fact that KC is breaking isolation to accompany her partner to work?' another added.

Essential outing? They were seen cuddling and kissing in photos published this week

'That would be an inessential outing for her,' a third Facebook user pointed out. Another person simply commented: 'Social distancing please!'

The Victorian government has published a list of 'essential outings', which cover shopping, exercise, work and education, and access to medical services.

People who fail to comply with social distancing rules may be liable for fines of up to $20,000.

However, it's important to note that Michael and KC aren't breaking any rules by kissing or cuddling. They are a couple living together domestically, which means they don't have to observe social distancing with each other.

Furthermore, Michael was attending business meetings, which means his outing falls within the permitted category of 'work and education'.

Clarification: Michael and KC aren't breaking any rules by kissing. Because they are a couple living together domestically, they don't have to observe social distancing with each other

The reality stars have been dating since early March and are planning to live together at Michael's home for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.

Michael was previously partnered with Stacey Hampton on Married At First Sight, but they broke up after the reunion dinner party in mid-January.

KC split from her 'husband', Drew Brauer, a few weeks after their final vows in December.

Hunkering down: The couple have been dating since early March and are planning to live together at Michael's home in Melbourne for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic

Their friendship began a week after filming the MAFS reunion three months ago.

After exchanging phone calls and texts, the pair eventually agreed to meet in Melbourne for a date.

Things soon became romantic and by the time of the COVID-19 crisis the pair had become inseparable and decided to self-quarantine together.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there are 5,895 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia, including 45 deaths.
Israel's coronavirus cases top 9,000

Health Ministry reports 102 new cases, 2 deaths over past 24 hours.

The number of coronavirus cases in Israel is now above 9,000 and the death toll stands at 59, the countrys Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

153 PATIENTS ARE IN CRITICAL CONDITION

The ministry said two people died and 102 more tested positive for coronavirus over the past 24 hours, raising the total to 9,006.

It said 153 of the total patients are in critical condition, while 683 have recovered so far.

Israel has taken several measures to stem the spread of the virus, including closing all educational institutes and banning gatherings of more than 10 people in open or closed public areas.

All businesses except supermarkets, pharmacies, gas stations, and banks have also been closed since March 15. Tel Aviv also banned the entry of foreign citizens into the country, except those with Israeli residency.
A man who spent 11 years living as a transgender woman has trained as a counselor to help people accept their gender, after 'detransitioning' back to being male.

Constantly mistaken for a girl, from childhood onwards, Brian Belovitch, now 63, from Brooklyn, decided to transition to a woman when he was 19-years-old, instead of embracing his 'effeminate gay identity' as he does today.

Brian transitioned in the late 1970s, and spend eleven years living as a busty female performer named Tish, after going through hormone therapy and breast implants.

However, he soon realized his transition had not made him happy and reverted back to his old self, and now lives as a gay man again.

Brian began hormone therapy aged 19 in 1976 and became known as a busty showgirl named Natalia 'Tish' Gervais in New York (pictured in 1986 as Tish)

Brian Belovitch, 63, from Brooklyn, decided to transition to a woman when he was just 19 years old, instead of embracing his 'effeminate gay identity' as he does today, but ended up detransitioning in the 90s, to become a gay man (pictured as a man in 1990 on Miami Beach)

Brian said: 'I was so uncomfortable as an effeminate, chubby gay boy I thought it would be easier just to be female. Looking back now, I realize I never felt like a woman.

'It was more that my gender had always been in question and the idea that something wasn't quite right was forced on me.

'It was like, "Well, if people think I'm a girl, I'll be a girl".'

Brian is speaking out about his extraordinary life, which has seen him battle addiction as he tried to fathom who he really was, just as a British woman has been given the go-ahead to pursue legal action against an NHS gender clinic, saying they should have challenged her more ardently before allowing her to transition from female to male.

Now 63 (pictured) Brian has become a counsellor and written about this experience of de-transitioning

Known as a 'detransitioner' - a transgender person who has reverted back to the sex they were assigned at birth - Brian believes we are seeing 'the tip of the iceberg' when it comes to people making the decision to change gender in this way.

He said: 'You'd be shocked by how many people are already coming out in the community to talk about this.

'I think people have this idea that transitioning is a great fix all and end up doing it for the wrong reasons.

'People like myself have a duty to speak out and be vocal - it's the only way to stop the same mistakes being made again.'

Brian developed crippling drug and alcohol addictions while living and working as Tish in the 80s

As a late teen, Brian and his friend Paul Bicker dabbled in drag before Brian decided to fully transition (pictured in drag in 1973)

Brian certainly enjoyed a colourful existence after transitioning - living as the showgirl Natalia 'Tish' Gervais, through the late 70s and early 80s and performing in legendary New York nightspots like Dancetaria, the Limelight Club and Studio 54, made famous by artist Andy Warhol.

But beneath the glamorous surface was a seedy underbelly that saw Brian, who is now happily married to horticulturist Jim Russell, 61, develop crippling drug and alcohol addictions.

Hitting rock bottom in the 1980s and seeking therapy, in 1986 Brian decided he was fundamentally unhappy in his own skin and decided to transition back to being male.

Brian (left) is now happily married horticulturist Jim Russell, 61 (the couple are pictured in 2002)

'It was such a relief,' he said. 'I finally felt at peace in myself for the first time.

'It felt like my world had become a lot simpler by the decision and I could finally live the life I wanted to.'

Brian became confused about his gender as a tiny child, when he remembers strangers mistaking him for a girl - to his mother's chagrin.

'One of my first memories is being out shopping with my mother and a group of women gathering around and saying, "Oh how cute, how sweet. Where does she get those curls and thick eyelashes from?",' he said.

Brian said he would routinely be mistaken for a girl as a young boy, which would annoy his mother (pictured in 1959, aged two)

'My mother didn't deal with it very well and pulled me away shouting that I was a boy.

'My father, Isadore, who passed away when he was 80, would say, "Why are you walking that way? Stop shaking your a** like that".'

Targeted by his peers throughout his childhood and into his teenage years, Brian says he was lucky to have survived the experience.

'Kids would follow me home and throw rocks at me,' he recalled. 'They'd call me "f***** and queer".

'I was scared for my life and I was even more scared my father would hear what they were calling me.

Brian explained he came out three tines: 'I've come out as gay, I've come out as a trans woman and now I was coming out as a detransitioner,' he said (pictured now)

'You have to remember this was the 60s. It was pre-Stonewall - a series of demonstrations that spearheaded gay liberation - and there were only the rumblings of the gay rights movement.'

Exploring the local gay scene aged 16 brought Brian some solace, especially when he made a like-minded friend in Paul Bricker, then 17, who tragically passed away from an aneurysm, aged just 27.

Describing Paul as his 'mentor,' Brian said: 'We were like two peas in a pod from the night we met.

'He took me home that night - it wasn't sexual - and he taught me everything I know. He was like a mentor to me.'

Soon after, Brian moved in with Paul and his mother, Gloria Walker, now 93.

Brian became a fixture of the New York club scene while living as a woman (pictured as Tish in 1986)

In the bohemian household, he could be open about his sexuality and he and Paul began dabbling in the world of drag.

'By today's standards, I was what would be called a "gender non-conformist," meaning that I trod the line between what is seen as male and female,' Brian explained.

'It was a mixed bag. We called it "scare drag," because we were scaring the straight people that couldn't put us into one of their boxes.'

Outgrowing his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, Brian moved to New York City with $100 in his pocket and started performing with drag queens to 'earn an extra buck,' alongside working in a thrift store.

Taken under the wing of a group of trans women, Brian was still struggling with his own gender identity and began to question if transitioning from male to female might be the answer to his problems.

So, less than a year after arriving in New York, aged just 19, he was given the name of a 'no questions asked' doctor who could help him to transition.

'I turned up at this doctor's office - no questions asked - and handed over $10 (8),' he recalled.

'It was pretty much, "Come in, drop your pants, I'll stick you with a needle".'

Describing how the hormone therapy worked 'very effectively,' within a matter of months Brian developed small breasts, had a 'softened' appearance and his voice sounded more feminine.

Changing his name legally that year, Brian officially became Natalia - going on to spend the next 11 years living as Tish.

Back in 1972 (pictured) Brian explained he was a gender non-conformist, who rejected traditional rules of gender

In 1979, four years into his hormone therapy and still not feeling like his 'authentic self,' Brian took the next step in his transition, spending $500 (405) having silicone breast implants fitted.

'It felt like the right thing to do at the time,' he said. 'In hindsight, it wasn't very well thought out, but none of my decisions were back then.

'I would just react to the situations around me. I was never 100 per cent committed to being female - there was always this niggling question.

'I was never assessed. They didn't really do that kind of thing back then.

'I just saw the breast implants as another quick fix.'

Although struggling personally, Brian's professional life - as Tish - went from strength to strength.

Working seven nights a week, he would run the gauntlet of New York's hottest clubs, performing as a 'big, busty showgirl.'

'At the height of the 80s, I was a club personality,' Brian said. 'I had a band and would do a live show with a mix of comedy and musical numbers.

'I met some famous faces and was hanging out at VIP parties - it was a very exciting time to be alive.'

Living both as a man and then as a woman also gave Brian a rare insight into the way society treats people based on their gender.

Discussing the downside of life as a woman, he said: 'The worst part of living as female was the endless exploitation by men.

'The misogyny and attitude that because I looked like a beautiful, sexy woman, I couldnt possibly have a thought in my head.

'And men were constantly trying to have sex with me.

'Also, it took much longer to get ready to go out - leaving time for hair, makeup etc.'

But life as a member of the 'gentler sex' also had benefits, according to Brian.

He continued: 'The best thing about living as a female was the power of beauty in itself.

'I used it to my best advantage and believe I got as far as I did because of my looks.

'I had a lot of fun with make-up and costumes and experiencing life fully in the role of a woman gave me a unique perspective. I know what it's like to be a man and a woman in a way in which not many people can understand.'

But the party scene - and life as a showgirl - eventually took its toll on Brian's physical and mental health and, in 1986, he hit an all time low.

Brian said he enjoyed a unique life, having lived with the perspective of a woman and man (pictured in 1986 with a friend named Musto)

'I was relying on drugs and alcohol to get through each day,' he said.

'I was broke, had spent all my money and ended up living on a friend's couch.'

Putting his life back together, with the help of friends, he kicked his alcohol and drug addiction.

But being stone cold sober meant he could no longer ignore what was staring him in the face - that he was not happy living as Tish.

'I was as sober as a judge and that really was the beginning of the end for Tish,' Brian said.

'I always wanted to be my authentic, true self - and I realised I wasn't.'

After having therapy in which he discussed gender issues and what constitutes a male and a female identity, Brian felt his only option was to revert back to the gender he was assigned at birth.

'I was beautiful and young, but I wasn't happy as that person,' he said. 'I was at a crossroads. I knew I had to have surgery on my genitalia - or go back to being Brian.

'There was no question which path to take. Times had changed a lot since I'd made the transition and there were more gay men embracing their effeminate side.

'I was in the gym one day and saw a fellow who reminded me of myself before I transitioned.

'He was very effeminate, but he was muscly and buff and I thought - that could be me.'

So, Brian decided after much consideration, to make the transition back to being male, stopping his hormone therapy and cutting off his shoulder-length hair.

Then, six months later, in February 1987, he spent $750 (609) having his silicone implants removed.

'I felt a great sense of relief after the operation,' he said. 'I woke up crying - not from the pain - but because it felt like a huge burden had been lifted.'

Visiting the gym up to five times a week, Brian slowly built up his muscles and, with his hormone replacement 'out of the window,' he started growing more body hair and his shape filled out.

He also 'came out' for the third time.

'I've come out as gay, I've come out as a trans woman and now I was coming out as a detransitioner,' he said.

'People would come up to me in the street and say, "Hi Tish," and I'd have to tell them, 'No - it's Brian now.'

'The whole thing just clicked - this was who I was always meant to be.'

Saying goodbye to Tish meant leaving the glitz and glamour of the New York drag scene, after which Brian established himself as a successful photography agent and editor.

But, after the economic crash of 2008, he decided to re-train again as a counselor, specializing in drug and alcohol addiction.

Brian was bullied for being effeminate as a boy. Pictured with his parents Dolores and Isadore aged five

Describing his 'second time around' at being Brian as the 'the best years of his life,' recently he has become alarmed about the amount of trans people following in his footsteps, by reverting back to the gender they were assigned at birth.

Hoping to shine a light on the issue, Brian released his autobiography, Trans Figured: My Journey from Boy to Girl to Woman to Man, in 2018.

He said: 'I wanted to break the stigma of people who have detransitioned and to provide some insight to anyone struggling with gender confusion.

'I hoped to add my voice to the ever expanding understanding of gender and identity.'

Now, Brian - who met his husband while walking his Jack Russell Terrier, Bricker, 18 years ago and married in 2013 - is hoping to specialize in gender identity counselling, to help other detransitioners with their journey.

He concluded: 'We need to make sure people are definitely happy with the idea of transitioning and properly inform them of the pros and cons.

'I want to help people do that. I'm the perfect man for the job.

'Just look at the life I've lived - I'm a self-proclaimed expert.'
Haircut, Part II: Yesterday, the mayor took some heat over getting her hair cut as barbers and salons across the state have been deemed nonessential businesses in the statewide COVD-19 shutdown. Photos have popped up on social media of Lightfoot standing with the stylist who cut her hair in recent days. A reporters questions to her about it rankled Lightfoot, whose COVID-19 refrain Stay Home, Save Lives includes a cheeky PSA in which shes on the phone telling someone getting your roots done is not essential.
A 23-year-old man who was mauled to death by a shark has been remembered as a friendly and genuine bloke working in his dream job as a Queensland Park and Wildlife ranger.

Zachery Zach Robba died on Monday night a few hours after he was mauled on the southern Barrier Reef, 75km northeast of Gladstone.

"Once again a family out there is grieving for a young man who tragically has lost his life in this horrific shark attack," Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters on Tuesday.

"A lot of his work colleagues, I understand, were very upset today."

Zachary "Zach" Robba died on Monday night a few hours after he was mauled by a shark near North West Island. Source: Facebook

The 23-year-old had spent Monday with other rangers doing research and maintenance work on North West Island, and decided to jump in the water for an impulsive swim.

Mr Robbas colleagues returned to the boat ahead of him when the shark struck.

"They would have witnessed the attack," Detective Senior Sergeant Tony Anderson told reporters on Tuesday.

"There were four people swimming off the back of a boat, cooling down after a day's work."

Mr Robba suffered extensive leg and arm injuries and survived an emergency flight to the Gladstone Hospital, but later died.

Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch has offered her sympathy to the victim's family and says a report will be prepared for the coroner.

"The ranger network is like a family and we have lost a brother today," she said in a statement on Monday.

A young Steve Irwin

Past students from Brisbane's Iona College have shared their sadness over the loss of their former schoolmates death.

This was Zachs dream job and he embraced all that it entailed, a spokesperson for Iona College Old Boys' Association wrote on Facebook of the wildlife ranger.

Every one of us has a Zach shaped hole in our heart. And each shape is unique.

One of the friendliest and genuine blokes Ive had the privilege of having a chat with at a 21st. I remember the pride he had in his voice when telling me he worked as a ranger for QPWS, one person wrote.

Zach was so full of life and Ill always remember him as a young Steve Irwin! Rest in peace, another person responded.

Story continues

A kind and caring person with an infectious smile. Rest in peace mate, one friend wrote.

The alumni association called for those wishing to pay their respects to keep in mind social distancing rules.

At the appropriate time we will be available to welcome all Old Boys to gather safely and give thanks for Zach's life.

Third shark attack in three months

Monday's attack was the third at North West Island in just over three months.

A rescue team attending to a 2018 shark attack on the Whitsundays. Source: AAP

In early January, a nine-year-old girl was attacked by a shark, suffering a bite wound to the back of her leg, and puncture wounds to her foot.

A lemon shark was suspected of that attack.

And in late December a shovelnose shark bit a man in shallow waters at North West Island.

He suffered minor injuries to his right hand and leg.

There have also been a series of other shark attacks on the Great Barrier Reef over the past 18 months.

Last October, two British backpackers were attacked while snorkelling at Hook Island in the Whitsundays. One of the men lost his foot.

In March last year, a 25-year-old man suffered serious thigh injuries when a shark attacked him at Hardy Reef, near Hamilton island, which is also in the Whitsunday Islands chain.

Those attacks followed another fatality in November 2018, when Victorian doctor Daniel Christidis, 33, was killed at Cid Harbour at Whitsunday Island.

- with AAP

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

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A letter petition has been sent to Chief Justice of India S A Bobde seeking directions to the Centre and the Delhi government to impose "complete ban" on the activities of Tablighi Jamaat with immediate effect.

At least 9,000 people had participated in the religious gathering at Tablighi Jamaat's headquarters in Delhi's Nizamuddin West last month.

Out of over 4,000 cases of coronavirus in the country, at least 1,445 have been found to be linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi, the Union health ministry had said on Monday.

The letter petition has sought a direction to the Centre and Delhi government to transfer the investigation to the CBI to probe into the alleged conspiracy of spreading coronavirus throughout India in the garb of congregation.

The letter petition by Delhi-based Ajay Gautam has sought a direction to the Delhi government to demolish the building of the organization at Nizamuddin here under the provision of the MCD Act.

Gautam had urged the CJI to treat his letter petition as a writ petition.

It has also sought a direction to the authorities to take strict action against the officers of police and civil administration, who had failed in strict compliance of the orders by Delhi government which restricted gatherings to maximum of 50 persons, and later to 20.

It said several persons from foreign countries, which were affected by coronavirus, had participated in the congregation held from March 12 to March 15 here.

On April 6, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind had moved the apex court alleging that a section of media is spreading communal hatred over last month's Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi.

The Muslim body has sought directions to the Centre to stop dissemination of "fake news" and take strict action against those responsible for it.

The plea by Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and the secretary of its legal cell, through lawyer Ejaz Maqbool, has contended that the unfortunate incident of the Tablighi Jamaat was being used to "demonise" and blame the entire Muslim community.

The plea by Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind has said that this "demonisation" of the community has led to serious "threat to life and liberty of Muslims", and has thus led to the violation of their "right to life under Article 21" of the Constitution.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In an extraordinary broadside punctuated with profanity, the Navy's top leader accused the fired commander of the coronavirus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt of being too naive or too stupid to be in charge of an aircraft carrier.

He delivered the criticism to sailors who had cheered the departing skipper last week.

Hours after the remark was widely reported in the media, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly issued a written public apology, saying he does not believe Capt Brett E Crozier is stupid or naive.

I apologise for any confusion this choice of words may have caused, Modly wrote late Monday evening, referring to his speech aboard the Roosevelt on Sunday.

I also want to apologise directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused.

According to a person familiar with the conversation, Defense Secretary Mark Esper's staff told Modly he must apologise.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

Modly had flown to Guam over the weekend and went aboard the carrier to deliver a lengthy and passionate speech.

Crew members are being taken off the ship to be tested for the coronavirus.

At least 173 sailors aboard the ship have tested positive, as of Monday, and about 2,000 of the 4,865 crew members had been taken off. The Navy has offered no estimate of when the ship might return to duty.

While skewering Crozier, Modly also admonished the crew. He suggested that by cheering Crozier when he departed the carrier last week, they were overlooking their most basic duty to defend US interests.

So think about that when you cheer the man off the ship who exposed you to that, he said.

I understand you love the guy. It's good that you love him. But you're not required to love him.

President Donald Trump on Monday said he may get involved, agreeing that Modly's criticism of Crozier was a rough statement.

He said Crozier made a mistake when he sent a memo to several people laying out his concerns about the crew and the virus. The memo was leaked to the media.

Trump said Crozier had a good career prior to this incident, adding, I don't want to destroy somebody for having a bad day.

Modly relieved Crozier of command of the ship last week, saying he had lost confidence in him for having shown extremely poor judgment in widely distributing the memo pleading for an accelerated evacuation of the crew to protect their health.

The dismissal quickly turned into a hot political issue, with Democrats saying Crozier was wrongly fired for defending his sailors, and Trump denouncing Crozier and backing Modly.

In his apology Monday night, Modly said he believes Crozier is smart and passionate.

I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship, Modly wrote.

Speaking on the ship, Modly urged the crew to stop complaining about their predicament, which he said made the Navy look weak.

He suggested that some aboard the Roosevelt, including Crozier, had forgotten what matters most.

It is the mission of the ship that matters, he said.

You all know this, but in my view your Captain lost sight of this and he compromised critical information about your status intentionally to draw greater attention to your situation.

US officials said Navy leaders, including Adm. Mike Gilday, chief of naval operations, argued that an investigation should be done before taking action.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The Sunday comments by Modly added fuel to the political fire, with at least one member of Congress urging he be fired.

An unofficial transcript of Modly's remarks, as well as an audio recording, circulated widely on the internet Monday demonstrating the slippery landscape that Modly accused Crozier of failing to navigate.

Modly, a 1983 Naval Academy graduate, became the acting Navy secretary last November after Richard Spencer was ousted from the position.

Trump last month nominated retired Rear Adm. Kenneth Braithwaite, the current ambassador to Norway, to be the next Navy secretary.

In his remarks aboard the Roosevelt, Modly raised issues likely to please Trump.

He accused the media, for example, of manipulating a political agenda to divide the country and embarrass the Navy.

He said China was not forthcoming about coronavirus when it began spreading there months ago, echoing Trump's oft-repeated statement that China could have done more to prevent a pandemic.

And Modly invoked the name of Trump's chief Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, noting that the former vice president had said Modly's decision to fire Crozier was almost criminal. I assure you it was not, Modly said.

Modly said Crozier should have known his letter would leak to the media, allowing information about the ship's compromised condition to be published.

If Crozier didn't think this would be the result, he was too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this." He also accused Crozier of betraying his duty as an officer.

And I can tell you one other thing, because he did that he put it in the public's forum and it's now become a big controversy in Washington DC, and across the country, Modly said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New York on Tuesday announced the death of 731 more people from the novel coronavirus disease, representing the largest single-day increase in deaths since the crisis began.

Briefing journalists, the state governor, Andrew Cuomo, gave the new death toll as 5,489, up by 731 from 4,758 on Monday morning.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the latest fatality figure has dampened rising spirits following a drop in the numbers below 600 two days before.

The governor said state-wide confirmed cases also rose by 8,147 from 130,689 on Monday morning to 138,836 on Tuesday.

The number of people hospitalised also increased from 16,837 on Monday to 17,493 as of Tuesday morning, representing a difference of 656.

Mr Cuomo said the number of patients in intensive care also rose, by 89 from 4,504 on Monday morning to 4,593 as of Tuesday morning.

New York accounts for not less than 40 per cent of the U.S. coronavirus deaths, which stood at 11,018 by Tuesday.

(NAN)
This Is What Happens When Women Are In Power During A Crisis

As the world takes on an unprecedented global pandemic, one thing has become abundantly clear: the lives and well-being of the greater population rely heavily on how the people in charge are handling the situation. Remember that one time Donald Trump, and many of his supporters, thought Hillary Clinton would be too emotional if she were to become president and lacked the equilibrium required to be an effective leader because she was a woman? And then, when Trump became President, we all laughed a nervous laugh as we watched him completely unravel and throw tantrums over social media for all the world to see. Now, its not really ironic or morbidly hilarious anymore. As we face a life or death situation, Trump has proved once again that perhaps, he is unstable and lacks the mental equilibrium to be the president. But that isnt the point here. What is the point is that as the world watches nations leaders grapple with what to do in the midst of this pandemic, women in power have generally proved to be more level-headed, more prepared, and above all, more compassionate than other world leaders.

A perfect example of a small act of kindness and compassion from a woman in power is when Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, quelled the fears of hundreds of little ones in her country. At a press briefing on Monday, Arden assured children that the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy count as essential workers during this difficult time. You will be pleased to know that we do consider both the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny to be essential workers, the Prime Minister said. Taking a moment to educate children about the severity of the situation, however, she noted that the two figures might be quite busy at home with their own families and that if the Easter Bunny doesnt make it to your household we have to understand that its a bit difficult at the moment for the bunny to perhaps be everywhere. This brief showcase of thoughtfulness and compassion towards children, a group that likely has just as much anxiety about the pandemic, even if they dont fully understand it, shows what you get when you have women in power.

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Of course, it is not just this sweet, lighthearted moment that shows the effectiveness of New Zealands handle on coronavirus. The country acted with haste, closing the borders to the country just 25 days after the first case. Since then, New Zealands four-week lock down has seemed to have an impact on slowing the spread of the virus. Ardern was sure to hold those who have not listened to stay-at-home rules accountable, citing some people I would charitably describe as idiots. Imagine if our President called out those not following rules, rather than being pretty nonchalant about the whole affair prior to the last two weeks or so. As of the weekend, New Zealand had a little over 1,000 cases with 15 people in the hospital and one death.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has also showcased what can happen when a woman is in charge in times of crisis. The 34-year-old feminist and environmentalist invoked the Emergency Powers Act, something that has never been done in the country during a time of peace. This allowed for more government funds to go towards health care and welfare. While she quickly shut down schools, museums and public places, she kept daycare facilities open--noting that childcare is crucial during this time, especially to help those medical professionals and essential workers fighting the virus at the front lines.

While this proves Prime Minister Marins level-headedness and preparedness, as a young woman, she has also thought of various other ways to help combat the spread of the virus that others might not think of. The Finnish government has recently enlisted the help of 1,500 social media influencers. Because not everyone can be reached through official communication, especially certain groups like young people, influencers have been asked to use their platforms in order to spread crucial information about the pandemic and updates from the government. Who else might think of something like this, that will likely end up aiding in slowing the spread of the virus, than a millennial activist in charge?

Although Germany just became the fourth country to reach 100,000 cases, their death rate is remarkably lower than many other nations in Europe and around the globe. This could be largely in-part to the effective rule of long-standing Chancellor Angela Merkel. The fatality rate in the country is 1.6 percent, which is significantly lower than that in Italy, Spain, China and the United States. Why? Because people in Germany trust Merkel and the government at large. They have listened to social distancing rules. The country has also been testing in far greater numbers than other countries. Not to mention, they have an impeccable medical system with plenty of ICU beds and have even enlisted medics (who are, of course, well protected) to visit sick people at their homes five or six days into their infections, a crucial time when it comes to deteriorating health.

The healthcare system in Germany was fostered and upheld by Merkel long before the pandemic hit, which is why they were perhaps more prepared to handle the care of patients than say, the U.S. But Merkel has also been extremely logical since the pandemic reached her country. Just a few days ago, the Chancellor announced that she sees hope on the horizon, but will not be loosening restrictions anytime soon and believed that it would be absolutely irresponsible if she were to set an end-date to the restrictions. A stark difference from the President of the United States, who first did not take restrictions seriously, then said they would only be in place until Easter, then had to admit that they would be in place until at least April 30th and will likely have to extend them once again.

It seems that being logical, and letting people know that there is hope of normalcy going forward if everyone continues to uphold social distancing, is far more effective than handing out false hope and disappointment. Of course, nobody knows the meaning of offering effective reassurance and calm to their people in a time of crisis like Queen Elizabeth II. This weekend, the Queen did a rare televised address to the people of Britain for just the fourth time in her 68 year reign. It reminds me of the very first broadcast I made, in 1940, helped by my sister, the monarch said in her address. We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety. Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones."

The Queen was clear and strong in her address, offering an encouraging tone for how to take-on what still lies ahead. She concluded her speech, "This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavor, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed -- and that success will belong to every one of us." While some could argue that the queen is a figurehead, and the people who are truly making the decisions are lawmakers like Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Queen used her position to provide a sense of comfort and unity rather than be disingenuous and use the time to deny, deflect and confuse. After her address, #MakeAmericaAColonyAgain even started to trend on Twitter. Yes, folks. It really is that bad.

From global leaders, to women working in the health-care and medicine field, to everyday women like the wee Scottish Granny who stole our hearts on Twitter last weekend, at a moment where some are understandably losing faith, women once again show that we can make it through this.

Got this update from my wee granny? 93 and still going strong  pic.twitter.com/SEjCwLZ8Ww

Image via abc30

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Aliza is a Creative Writing BFA student and former BUST Magazine intern! When she's not writing, reading or scrolling through TikTok for hours on end, you can find her consuming copious amounts of iced coffee or doing something witchy. Follow her on Twitter @alizapelto.
ELWOOD  Multiple fire departments had to contest a grass fire north of Elwood in dangerous fire weather during Tuesday afternoon.

On Tuesday, April 7 around 2:15 p.m. the Lexington Volunteer Fire Department was called to a location on Highway 283 four miles north of Elwood for a grass fire which was rapidly spreading.

The Elwood Fire Department could not immediately respond to the blaze because they, along with the Arapahoe Fire Department were handling another fire near the Gosper, Furnas County border.

Weather conditions were ripe for any fires which broke out. Earlier in the day the National Weather Service Hastings had issued a Red Flag warning most of Central Nebraska, which was primed for fire conditions with high winds and low dew points.

Temperatures in the afternoon rose to 80 degrees with winds out of the west at 25 mph with gusts up to 33 mph which rapidly spread the fire.

Multiple fire departments responded including Elwood, Bertrand, Cambridge and Stapleton. Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District and the property owners also arrived on scene with water,

Check back at lexch.com as more details become available.
Streaming giant Netflix has released the trailer of the much-anticipated film Extraction featuring Thor actor Chris Hemsworth in the lead role. Accompanying him in the quest for survival is child actor Rudraksh Jaiswal who plays the role of the kidnapped son of an Indian drug lord. Chris Hemsworth plays the role of Tyler Rake, the fearless mercenary who embarks on a mission to rescue the crime lord's son, but ends up fighting for his own survival instead.

Read | Chris Hemsworth praises 'Extraction' co-star Randeep Hooda; talks about India

The action-packed trailer of the Netflix film promises the dangerous thrills from the bylanes of countries like India and Bangladesh where the rules of an international mission are tweaked for convenience. Refined Bollywood actors Pankaj Tripathi, Randeep Hooda seem to play pivotal roles in the film which has been in the news for its shooting schedules in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Dhaka. Chris Hemsworth certainly is the eye-candy in the Extraction trailer as he jumps across buildings and out of moving vehicles while on his quest for survival using some classic combating moves and punches on the villains.

Have a look at the trailer:

Read | Chris Hemsworth puts on his best brooding face for Netflixs 'Extraction' poster

The film stars actors Chris Hemsworth, David Harbour, Manoj Bajpayee, Marc Donato, Fay Masterson, Randeep Hooda, Pankaj Tripathi and Derek Luke. Rudraksh Jaiswal plays the pivotal role of the kidnapped boy along and has plenty of action sequences as he comes across as the pawn in this dangerous mission. The ensemble cast includes some seasoned Hollywood and Bollywood actors and their performances in the film are something to look forward to.

Read | Randeep Hooda shares 'Extraction' poster starring Chris Hemsworth, says 'finally happened'

About the film

Directed by Sam Hargrave, this action-packed, edge-of-your-seat thriller is produced by Joe and Anthony Russo, the visionary directors of Avengers: Endgame along with Mike Larocca, Chris Hemsworth, Eric Gitter, and Peter Schwerin. The Netflix film will be out on the streaming platform on April 24.

Read | Chris Hemsworth has a special message for Indian fans; reveals 'Extraction' trailer date

Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment.
Three males arrested in connection with the murder of a convicted criminal in north Belfast have been released without charge.

Two men, aged 30 and 33, and a 17-year-old boy had been questioned by detectives investigating the murder of 36-year-old Dublin man Robbie Lawlor in the Ardoyne area on Saturday.

A 27-year-old man who had also been detained was released on Monday.

The victim was shot dead at a house in Etna Drive shortly before noon on Saturday.

Lawlor had previously been linked with the murder of teenager Keane Mulready Woods in Co Louth in January.
Xi Jinping led other Chinese leaders on Saturday to attend national mourning for martyrs who died fighting the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and compatriots who lost their lives in the outbreak.

Xi, Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng and Wang Qishan, as well as other Party and state leaders, stood in silence in the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in Beijing, at 10:00 a.m. The commemoration lasted for three minutes.

They had white flowers pinned to the chest and paid a silent tribute in front of a national flag, flying at half-mast outside the Huairen Hall.

A black banner hung over the doorway of the hall, with white characters "deeply mourn for martyrs and compatriots who died in COVID-19 outbreak."

In Beijing, flags were lowered to half-staff from Tian'anmen Square to the compounds of the central leadership organs of the Party, national legislature, central government, national political advisory body, military, top court and top procuratorate.

A moment of silence was observed by the public across the country. Air raid sirens blared. Cars, trains and ships honked horns.

In commemoration of the martyrs and deceased compatriots, national flags flew at half-mast across the country and in all Chinese embassies and consulates abroad, and public recreational activities were suspended nationwide Saturday.

In Wuhan, the hardest-hit city in central China's Hubei Province, various commemoration activities were held in public squares, hospitals, communities and other places.

The COVID-19 outbreak is considered a major public health emergency that is the fastest spreading, most widely affecting and most difficult to contain since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

During the battle, a certain number of health professionals, cadres and staff members, as well as community workers, died on duty.

A total of 81,639 confirmed COVID-19 cases had been reported on the Chinese mainland, and 3,326 people had died of the disease, according to the National Health Commission Saturday.
The Health Ministry reported no new novel coronavirus infections Tuesday morning, keeping the national count at 245.

This was the third morning in a row that Vietnam had had no new Covid-19 case. Since March 6, every morning briefing has reported several new Covid-19 infections.

While Monday morning also began without a new infection, four cases in the evening, taking the national tally to 245. Of these 95 have recovered fully and another 18 are expected to leave hospitals Tuesday.

A doctor in protective gear walks inside the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi on March 30, 2020, the day when the hospital discharged a batch of 27 Covid-19 patients. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh.

Many of the remaining active cases are Vietnamese nationals returning from abroad, mostly from Europe and the U.S.; and more than 60 people are related to the two major national Covid-19 hotspots - the Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi with at least 43 cases, and Buddha Bar & Grill in Ho Chi Minh City with at least 18 cases.

The number of new cases recorded in a day in Vietnam had fallen steadily over the past four days, from ten on April 3 to three on April 4, and then just one on April 5 before it went clean until the night of April 6.

Tran Dac Phu, senior advisor at the Public Health Emergency Operations Center under the Health Ministry, said at a meeting Monday that the improvement seen was not a reason for Vietnam and its citizens to neglect any measure needed to prevent the spread of the infection.

"We cannot say anything at this point about the decrease in the number of new cases because the incubation time has been identified at 14 days," he said, adding that as the number of cases are falling, stronger measures should be taken to keep up the good work.

"If were not careful, Vietnam can see the epidemic grow out of control, just like it has happened in many other places in the world right now," he said.

The country is a week into a 15-day nationwide social distancing campaign announced by the PM, not allowing gatherings of more than two people and asking people not to leave their homes to contain the spread of the pandemic. The PM cited a crucial two-week period in the nations Covid-19 fight when he announced the campaign.

The government also suspended all inbound international flights and halted road transport services until April 15 to limit travel in the country of 94 million people.

The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed more than 74,000 lives as it spread to 209 countries and territories.
A man who grew up the 'dirty secret' of an Irish Army nurse and a 'celibate' chaplain who moved to America after falling into a life of crime has shared his story for the first time.

Michael McGuirk, from London, spent much of his childhood not knowing his father's true identity before, over time, he realised he was a Catholic priest, Father Bernard Joseph McGuirk.

His mother was a nurse when she fell pregnant with the chaplain of the army in 1950s Ireland, with the duo running away to London where Father McGuirk 'ended up working for some gangsters'.

He was imprisoned for six months for his part in a fraud and conspiracy and, on release, the Catholic church sent him to America where he lived until his death.

Speaking to BBC Sounds' Dan Tierney, Michael blasted the Catholic church, saying: 'I honestly believe that the unhappiness that myself and fellow children of priests have experienced is because of the isolation and the hidiness and being the church's dirty secret.

'Growing up, you don't understand this. It's like the lobster in the pot, you get accustomed to this is normal for you.'

Michael McGuirk, from London, said he felt like the church's 'dirty secret' after realising his father was a 'celibate' Catholic priest

Michael's father, a Catholic priest and chaplain to the Irish army, met his mother when she was working as an army nurse.

He revealed: 'When she fell pregnant in 1950s Ireland, it must have shaken her to the core she went AWOL from the army and came to live in London.'

A year later, Michael's father left Ireland without telling anyone and moved to London, where he struggled to earn a living due to his lack of CV.

Michael said: 'My father followed my mother about a year later, he just went AWOL. He didn't tell the army or his religious order.'

It was then that Michael's father turned to a life of crime, with a story in the News of the World from 1963 revealing he 'fell into bad company.'

Michael revealed: 'He couldn't produce a CV, he was no spring chicken.'

The story reports: 'When Father Bernard Joseph McGuirk fell in love with a pretty Irish nurse, he forsook the Church Father McGuirk and his pretty nurse ran away together to London...the 49-year-old priest fell in bad company and took to crime.

'Now he's started an 18-month sentence, passed at the Old Bailey, for his part in a fraud and conspiracy which netted more than 5000 in five months.'

Michael said his suspicions over his father's true identity grew over time, and that he has felt shame over his father's secret

As an adult, Michael has been left stunned by the idea that his father was in the company of gangsters, leaving him horrified and slightly amused.

He revealed his uncle had once confided in him that Father McGuirk's rival gang were notorious for torturing.

Michael said: 'He said, "My boss carries a gun not to shoot people who are coming at him, but to shoot himself if they were to come at him.'"

Michaels father appealed his sentence and was released after 6 months with the family believing he was sinned against more than he sinned himself.

Michael revealed: 'When my father had served his time in prison, the Catholic church took him back and sent him to America.'

'The story my mother and father had spun to me was that my father was a businessman working in America and he would come back and we would all live happily ever after.'

The Catholic Church on priests and children The tradition of celibacy among Roman Catholic clergy was codified in the 12th century. There are no estimates of how 'priest children' exist. Bishops in Ireland in 2017 created detailed guidelines about the children of priests. The details outlined that mothers must be respected and involved in decision-making, and that the priest 'should face up to his responsibilities  personal, legal, moral and financial.' In the case of priests under the age of 40 with children, it is proposed 'they obtain the dispensation from clerical state'...'Such a decision [] has, as its principle objective, the safeguarding of the good of the child.' Priority focus 'does not refer only to economic support, but also the affection of parents, an adequate education... all that pertains to an effective and responsible exercise of paternity.' If a priest has 'children who are already grown up, 20- 30 years old...the Dicastery does not oblige the Bishop to invite the priests to request the dispensation' from priesthood owing to paternity. Guidelines published in 2020 recommend that priests should leave the priesthood to look after their children. Source; Coping International Advertisement

Michael said he felt divided on how he feels about the decision for his father to live in America.

He said: 'My father was probably shell-shocked from the experience hes had in prison and with violent criminals, so who could blame him for wanting to go back.'

'But what Im cross [about], is that the Catholic Church put such a huge distance between a father, the woman he loved and his child.'

Over time, Michael's suspicions about his father grew and he came to the realisation that he was a priest.

He said: 'I knew for a long time that he was a priest. When my family knew that I knew, it was all hush hush.

'The church wants them to do it, society wants it to do it. but what they're really saying is 'don't be yourself, pretend you don't exist.'

'Then when you do say who you are, you feel so guilty about letting people down.'

Michael revealed: ''My cousins said, "He's not your dad, he's a priest." But I knew he was my dad. We couldn't get through to each other.'

He became more emotionally distant from his father as he grew older and was a teenager when his mother told him that his father had died.

Michael said he didn't cry about it, and he didn't attend his father's funeral.

Over time, Michael struggled to deal with the truth about his father, saying: 'From 1975-1984, my life was a bit of an alcoholic haze. I felt very, very bad for a number of years.'

Despite his disrupted and challenging childhood, Michael now feels his parents did their best at a difficult time.

He has now visited his father's grave in America for the first time, and said the process was an emotional one.

He said: 'I visited my mother's grave took some soil from my mothers grave and I laid it on his grave; and I took soil from my fathers grave and I laid it on my mothers grave.

'I wanted to say, "Look Dad, its kind of okay between you and me.'"

Michael now believes the solution for priest children is simple, saying that 'the truth will set you free'.

He said: 'Id like all of the children of Catholic priests, on Fathers Day, to ask their local church to say a prayer for these priests and these mothers and these children whove been hidden away; to be open about it.

'Because thats the only way that anybody can live with anything that theyve done.'

Hear Michael's story in Hidden Children of the Church on BBC Radio 4, Sunday 5 April at 5pm, and available now on BBC Sounds.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 16:22:58|Editor: Wang Yamei

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Medical workers carry a patient into an ambulance in New York, the United States, April 6, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

NEW YORK, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The number of deaths from COVID-19 in the United States surpassed 10,000 on Monday afternoon U.S. Eastern Time, as total cases topped 360,000, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Monday night that "remarkable progress" in slowing down the transmission of the virus has been seen in states like Washington and California where stay-at-home orders and social distancing protocols have taken effect.

"That's a great tribute to the people of both of those states, and to all of their dedicated health care workers," said Pence.

Pence's words echoed New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who said at Monday's briefing that the state has seen a "possible flattening of the curve" of the pandemic as new death tolls remained steady for the second day in a row.

Meanwhile, the numbers of the newly hospitalized, daily ICU admissions and daily incubations are all down from Sunday to Monday, which "are all good signs," said Cuomo.

It remains unclear whether the state is currently at a plateau or has reached the apex of the pandemic, said Cuomo while stressing that it's "no time to be lax."

The governor on Monday extended the statewide shutdown of non-essential businesses, the ban on gatherings and the closure of public schools until April 29 to keep the trend going.

"None of us has the right to be reckless in our own behavior, which compounds the problem we are dealing with," said Cuomo.

He also announced an increase of maximum fine for violations of the social distancing protocol from 500 to 1,000 U.S. dollars.

Later on Monday, the governor said on Twitter that he had talked to President Donald Trump, who agreed to the state's request to treat COVID-19 patients on the Navy hospital ship Comfort.

The ship, which arrived and docked at Manhattan's Pier 90 a week ago, was originally dispatched to New York by the president to treat non-COVID patients in order to relieve the city's overwhelmed hospital system.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that with 1,000 beds and some 1,200 staffers on board, the Comfort had only taken in some 20 patients.

At the epicenter of the pandemic, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that the city is also experiencing a crisis which is "discrimination and hatred directed at our Asian American communities, particularly our Chinese American community."

"I think it's absolutely unacceptable and I know legally it is unacceptable by the laws in New York City," said the mayor, who urged anyone who witnesses an act of discrimination or a hate crime to report it to police.

He noted that a lot of Chinese Americans are contributing to efforts to save lives and fight the pandemic, despite facing discrimination.

"I want to thank all of these good working people for what they are doing," he said.

In California, Governor Gavin Newsom announced Monday that the Golden State will lend 500 ventilators to the Strategic National Stockpile inventory in order to help other states like New York fight the COVID-19 epidemic.

California hospitals currently holds an inventory of 11,036 ventilators, a jump from their original estimate of 7,587 ventilators. That increase is due to old ventilators being refurbished and the acquisition of new ventilators, according to the governor.

"California is stepping up to help our fellow Americans in New York and across the country who are being impacted the hardest right now by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Newsom, adding that even though the state prepared for a surge of infections but "we can't turn our back on Americans whose lives depend on having a ventilator now."

This could be a timely assistance to New York, as de Blasio said Sunday the city's medical supplies could make it through the middle of the week and an additional 1,000 to 1,500 more ventilators are needed for the rest of the week.

By Monday night, New York state had reported 131,815 cases and 4,758 deaths, while California reported 16,310 cases and 388 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
LYON, France, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enphase Energy, Inc. (ENPH), a global energy technology company and the worlds leading supplier of solar microinverters, today announced it has collaborated with Courant Naturel, a fast-growing residential solar installer with headquarters in Soual, France, to deliver solar solutions to customers in southwest France.



Courant Naturel has served residential solar customers in southwest France since 2007. The company has chosen Enphase as its exclusive inverter supplier, using Enphase IQ 7X microinverters, along with SunPower X-Series, an Enphase Energized  AC Module leveraging IQ 7X microinverters. In addition, Courant Naturels residential solar systems are outfitted with Enphase Envoy communications gateways, which connect the solar system to the Enphase Enlighten monitoring platform and helps make per-panel energy monitoring and insights for operations and maintenance easy.

We pride ourselves in offering our solar customers the best products for their homes, said Paulo De Araujo, co-manager of Courant Naturel. Enphase provides high-powered microinverters which are top-of-the-line when it comes to quality, performance, features, cost, warranty, and reliability. By collaborating with Enphase, our customers can enjoy the combination of high-efficiency, 96-cell modules from SunPower with IQ 7X microinverters, and we benefit from the ease of installation and monitoring capabilities which led us to choose Enphase as our exclusive microinverter supplier."

Enphase IQ 7X microinverters leverage Enphases unique software-defined architecture and semiconductor integration for excellent reliability and economies of scale, which is ideal for space-constrained rooftops in France. Enphase microinverters are subjected to a rigorous reliability and quality testing regimen with more than an aggregated one million hours of cumulative power-on testing to ensure exceptional performance under heat, high humidity, salty air, and extreme cold. The Companys microinverters are designed to be long-lived energy assets and are backed by a 25-year limited warranty.

Story continues

We are pleased to collaborate with Courant Naturel to deliver PV rooftop solutions for their residential customers in France, said Dave Ranhoff, chief commercial officer at Enphase Energy. Enphase provides high-quality, reliable and easy-to-install products that help enable Courant Naturel to spend less time installing and servicing systems and more time providing a superior customer experience.

About Enphase Energy, Inc.

Enphase Energy, a global energy technology company, delivers smart, easy-to-use solutions that connect solar generation, storage and management on one intelligent platform. The Company revolutionized solar with its microinverter technology and produces the worlds only truly integrated solar plus storage solution. Enphase has shipped more than 25 million microinverters, and over one million Enphase systems have been deployed in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit www.enphase.com/ fr and follow the company on Facebook , LinkedIn and Twitter .

Enphase, Enphase Energy, IQ 7X, Enphase Energized, Envoy, Enlighten, the Enphase logo, and other trademarks or service names are the trademarks of Enphase Energy, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including statements related to the expected quality, reliability, safety, cost, ease of installation, performance and advantages of Enphase Energys products and technology, and the services provided by our partners. These forward-looking statements are based on Enphase's current expectations and inherently involve significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of certain risks and uncertainties including those risks described in more detail in Enphases most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents on file with the SEC and available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Enphase Energy undertakes no duty or obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or changes in its expectations, except as required by law.

Enphase Contact:

Robert Gruijters

Marketing Director, EMEA

rgruijters@enphaseenergy.com

Telephone: +31-6-82390633




DETROIT, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Stratview Research announces the launch of a new research report on Subsea Buoyancy Market by End-Use Industry Type (Oil & Gas, Drilling & Mining, Oceanography, Technology, Renewable Energy, and Others), by Function Type (Buckle Mitigation & Tension Reduction, Support Arch & Uplift, Mooring, and Others), by Application Type (SURF, Drill Riser, Mooring System, ROV/AUV, Installation, and Others), by Material Type (Synthetic Foam, Polyurethane, and Others), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, The Middle East & Africa, and Latin America), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2020-2025.

This strategic assessment report, from Stratview Research, provides a comprehensive analysis that reflects today's subsea buoyancy market realities and future possibilities for the forecast period of 2020 to 2025. The report segments and analyses the market in the most comprehensive manner to provide a panoramic view of the market. The vital data/information provided in the report can play a crucial role for market participants as well as investors in the identification of low-hanging fruits available as well as formulate growth strategies.

Subsea Buoyancy Market: Highlights from the Report

Buoyancy is an upward thrust exerted by fluid opposing the weight of an immersed object. This upward thrust is equal to the weight of the water displaced by the immersed object. This phenomenon is vastly used in different industries, such as oil & gas, drilling & mining, oceanography, ROV/AUVs, offshore renewable energy, fishing, defense, subsea cable and pipeline laying, and water sports, as a solution to their subsea operation. Buoyancy products are objects fabricated to apply these solutions. Buoyancies are of two types: surface (applications on the surface of the sea) and sub-surface (applications between the surface and the seabed) buoyancies. This report covers subsea (subsurface) buoyancies, which are used in a wide array of industries for various purposes including the reduction of hook load and surface tensions on the equipment while installation, providing lift and support arch to configure risers and umbilical, acting as a moor under the sea and as navigators and markers.

As per Stratview Research, subsea buoyancies account for a diminutive share of the total subsea equipment market but are forecasted to grow at a healthy pace over the next five years to reach an estimated value of US$ 359.6 million in 2025. The last three months had been very dynamic, imprinting a huge impact on the demand for subsea buoyancies as well as the supply chain of the market. The outbreak of coronavirus in China followed by the gradual spread across the world and then breach of the three-year-old pact to manage global oil prices by Russia are anticipated to leave a huge impact on the entire ecosystems of the oil & gas industry including subsea buoyancies. The prices of crude oil suffered their biggest decline in March 2020 since 1991 and are currently oscillating around $30 per barrel. It is anticipated that the prices are likely to remain low throughout the year 2020. However, the long-term outlook of the subsea buoyancy market still seems vigorous, propelled by several factors including an expected increase in offshore oil & gas spending, an increased number of oceanographic activities, and expanding offshore wind energy industry.

Click Here and Run Through the TOC of the Report: https://www.stratviewresearch.com/toc/819/subsea-buoyancy-market.html

Based on the end-use industry type, drilling & mining is expected to remain the largest segment of the market during the forecast period. Recovery in oil prices in 2018 coupled with more advanced and cheaper offshore drilling activities has made deepwater and ultra-deepwater drilling commercially viable. The commercial viability and large offshore oil & gas reserve discoveries in recent years have led to the dominance of the segment.

Renewable energy is estimated to be the fastest-growing end-use industry type during the forecast period. Reduction in production cost with the use of more efficient and bigger turbines, increase in the demand for renewable energy, and initiatives taken by governments across the globe to reduce dependency on non-renewable energy are driving the demand for subsea buoyancies in offshore renewable energy.

Based on the material type, the market is segmented into synthetic foam, polyurethane, and others. Synthetic foam is expected to remain the dominant and fastest-growing material type during the forecast period. Increased crude oil prices in the past couple of years along with the exhaustion of many shallow-water production fields have led to an increased focus of E&P companies towards deepwater and ultra-deepwater oil & gas reserves. Synthetic foam-based buoyancies provide the lowest density possible in higher depths, making it a suitable claimant for the needs of the offshore oil & gas industry.

Register Here for a Free Sample of the Detailed Report: https://www.stratviewresearch.com/Request-Sample/819/subsea-buoyancy-market.html

In terms of region, Europe is projected to remain the largest market for subsea buoyancies during the forecast period. Europe is the leader in the offshore wind energy market and has the largest operational wind farms for both bottom fixed and floating platforms. Presence of major ROV/AUV manufacturers, such as Soil Machine Dynamics Ltd. (SMD), Fugro, Saipem Sonsub, Subsea 7 S.A., and Oceaneering, and increasing activities in deepwater and ultra-deepwater oil fields in the North Sea are creating a huge demand for subsea buoyancies in the region.

Latin America is expected to be the fastest-growing market for subsea buoyancies during the forecast period, owing to recent discoveries of deepwater and ultra-deepwater offshore oil & gas reserves, continuous efforts by government and regulatory bodies to boost the offshore energy industry in the region, and expected significant growth in oceanography and renewable energy.

The supply chain of this market comprises raw material suppliers, subsea buoyancy manufacturers, distributors, and end users (such as oil & gas companies, ROV/AUV manufacturers, offshore drilling companies, and offshore renewable energy firms). Key players in the subsea buoyancy market are Trelleborg AB, Balmoral Offshore Engineering, Matrix Composites & Engineering Limited, Advance Insulation, Fendercare Marine, DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc., Bardot Group, PartnerPlast AS, Mooring System, Inc., and Unique Group.

In recent years, major players have expanded their capabilities in order to gain a competitive edge in this briskly growing market. For instance, in 2019, Matrix Composites & Engineering invested US$ 2.2 million to upgrade its Henderson manufacturing facility to increase its production capacity.

Report Features

This report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights on the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market. The following are the key features of the report:

Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysis.

Market environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porter's five forces analysis, SWOT analysis.

Market trend and forecast analysis.

Market segment trend and forecast.

Competitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, product portfolio, product launches, etc.

Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunities.

Emerging trends.

Strategic growth opportunities for the existing and new players.

Key success factors.

This report studies the subsea buoyancy market and has segmented the market in five ways, keeping in mind the interest of all the stakeholders across the value chain. Following are the five ways in which the market is segmented:

Subsea Buoyancy Market, By End-Use Industry:

Oil &Gas (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Drilling & Mining (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Oceanography (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Technology (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Renewable Energy (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Others (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Subsea Buoyancy Market, By Function Type:

Buckle Mitigation & Tension Reduction (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Support Arch & Uplift (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Mooring (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Others (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Subsea Buoyancy Market, By Application Type:

SURF (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Drill Riser (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Mooring System (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

ROV/AUV (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Installation (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Others (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Subsea Buoyancy Market, By Material Type:

Synthetic Foam (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Polyurethane (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Others (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Subsea Buoyancy Market, By Region:

North America (Country Analysis: The USA and Canada )

Europe (Country Analysis: Norway , The UK, The Netherlands , Denmark , Russia , and Rest of Europe )

Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: China , Malaysia , Indonesia , Vietnam , and Rest of the Asia-pacific )

The Middle East & Africa (Sub-Region Analysis: The Middle East and Africa )

& Africa Latin America (Sub-Region Analysis: Brazil , Mexico , and Rest of Latin America )

Stratview Research has several high value market reports in the oil & gas industry. Please refer to the following link to browse through our reports:

https://www.stratviewresearch.com/market-reports/Oil-Gas.html

About Stratview Research



Stratview Research is a global market intelligence firm providing wide range of services including syndicated market reports, custom research and sourcing intelligence across industries, such as Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Mass Transportation, Consumer Goods, Construction & Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductors, Energy & Utility, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Oil & Gas.

We have a strong team of industry veterans and analysts with an extensive experience in executing custom research projects for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies, in the areas of Market Assessment, Opportunity Screening, Competitive Intelligence, Due Diligence, Target Screening, Market Entry Strategy, Go to Market Strategy, and Voice of Customer studies.

Stratview Research is a trusted brand globally, providing high quality research and strategic insights that help companies worldwide in effective decision making.

For enquiries, please contact:

Stratview Research

E-mail: sales@stratviewresearch.com

Direct: +1-313-307-4176

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660595/Stratview_Research_Logo.jpg
New Delhi, April 7 : To fight the increasing cases of novel coronavirus in the city, the Delhi government has chalked out a 'five T plan' -- testing, tracing, treatment, team work, and tracking and monitoring.

Speaking to the media, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said along with these steps, the government is well prepared in dealing with up to 30,000 active cases in the city.

Explaining each T, he said corona test will be the first step, under which the government will go for mass random tests.

"If there is no testing, how will we know who is infected and who is not? We will do mass tests for coronavius like South Korea did." He said South Korea identified every single patient through mass tests.

"We will get one lakh test kits from Friday and will carry out random tests for spot suspected and confirmed cases, partially at the hotspots," he said.

The next step will be tracing, Kejriwal said, after a person tested positive.

"We will trace his/her movement. Their contacts will be asked for quarantine. Many people in Delhi were asked for self-quarantine. Mobile numbers of 27,702 people were shared with the police to ensure they were following the directions of the government. We will also ask police to trace the phones of 2,000 Tablighi Markaz attendees," Kejriwal said.

He said Delhi has so far reported 525 positive cases.

"We have about 3,000 beds for only COVID-19 patients, including LNJP with 1,500 beds, G.B Pant with 500 beds, Rajiv Gandhi Hospital with 450 beds apart from several private hospitals," Kejriwal said.

Currently, Kejriwal said, total 2,950 beds are reserved for COVID-19 patients.

"If the patient count increased, we will keep GTB Hospital for COVID-19 cases as well... even if Delhi has 30,000 active cases, we are well prepared." Explain the steps in case of such a scenario, he said the Delhi government will make arrangements in hospitals, hotels, and even banquet halls to quarantine/isolate the patients.

"We will have 8,000 beds in hospitals, 12,000 hotel rooms and 10,000 rooms at banquet halls and guesthouses.... The most serious -- those already suffering from other disease and above the age of 50 --- will be kept in hospitals while others will be accomodated elsewhere," the Chief Minister said, adding the rooms outside the hospitals will also have all medical facilities.

Kejriwal said not just rooms but the government will need more ventilators, oxygen and other equipment. "We have made the calculations and are ready." Kejriwal said the PPE kits were a major issue but the Centre has helped in this regard. Also, the Delhi government has asked for the kits from some companies. "We will get the kits directly from companies from the next week." The fourth T, he said, is teamwork.

"No one can fight COVID-19 alone. All governments are working as a team. The people and government should also work as a team. Doctor and nurses are the most important part of the team." Kejriwal said the opposition and ruling party are working together.

"I will talk to all the MPs in Delhi on Wednesday," Kejriwal said. In Delhi, all the seven Lok Sabha seats are represented by the BJP.

On the fifth T, tracking and monitoring, Kejriwal said he will personally track everything and ensure things fall in line.

"I am personally monitoring the situation and the preparations. I am sure if we are well prepared, we will be able to win this fight against coronavirus."
Amish communities are flouting coronavirus lockdown rules by gathering in large groups for church visits and parties.

Around 342,000 Amish people live in North America, largely across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Amish people don't have access to televisions or computers, meaning they may not be aware of the current rules in place to slow the spread of coronavirus, experts fear.

Members of an Amish community in Geauga County, Ohio, (pictured) flouted coronavirus lockdown rules by gathering in large groups for church visits and parties

An Amish community in Northeast Ohio have been approached by Geauga County health officials after their non-Amish neighbours reported large gatherings (pictured)

The bug has killed more than 10,000 people and infected upwards of 360,000 in the US alone.

An Amish community in Northeast Ohio have been approached by Geauga County health officials after their non-Amish neighbours reported large gatherings.

Authorities are keeping groups up to date with the latest information and to explain the importance of social distancing, Fox News reports.

Ohio is under state-wide lockdown with all residents ordered to stay indoors except for a small number of essential activities.

Rei and Geauga County Health Commissioner Thomas Quade said: 'I talked to one bishop the other day who said five churches had closed.

Around 342,000 Amish people live in North America, largely across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Michigan, and Wisconsin (stock image)

'I was also told they are putting signs on other churches as well.

'We are also getting complaints about non-Amish, too. Its important that everyone follow the governors order.'

Geauga County's Amish schools have all been closed.

Last week, an Iowa auctioneer drew close to 600 people from six states to a horse auction, despite public calls for him to cancel the event amid the pandemic.

Amish people don't have access to televisions or computers, meaning they may not be aware of the current rules in place to slow the spread of coronavirus, experts fear (stock image)

Dozens of Amish and Mennonite families from Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana were said to have arrived to Ura Gingerich's auction on Thursday morning, according to the Wayne County Public Board of Health.

'We went to him to discuss the possible public ramifications of having this sale,' said Penny Fetters, a member of the agency, explained to KTVO.

'And he was sympathetic and he understood, but he is getting ready to move, and he said this was something he needed to do.'

The board began screening families at the auction at around 6.15am and counted roughly 488 people in attendance.
A former Bangladeshi military captain, who was convicted for killing the country's founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was arrested by the police in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal confirmed ex-captain Abdul Majed's arrest and said he had been sent to court to "exhaust legal options".

Majed was one of the six absconding ex-Army officers who were handed down capital punishment after their trial in absentia.

Minister Kamal said previous reports indicated Majed was hiding in India and he was arrested from Dhaka upon his return.

The minister said Majed, a self-confessed killer, was not only involved in Bangabandhu's killing on August 15, 1975 at his private Dhanmandi residence but was also involved in the subsequent murder of four national leaders in high security Dhaka Central Jail on November 3 in 1975.

Majed's predawn arrest was led by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the police in Mirpur based on a tip-off.

"Majed was near a shrine in Mirpur when policemen arrested him," an official said.

After the arrest, a magistrate court sent the sacked Army captain to jail. Majed appeared in Old Dhaka Court Complex wearing white pyjama and pants. He was handcuffed with a bulletproof police jacket and helmet.

"Majed was brought to the court at around 12.15 pm. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate A M Zulfikar Hayat passed his order at 12.55 pm asking the police to send him to jail," a police officer said.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Hemayet Uddin said Majed told the court that he was hiding in India and returned home recently.

Majed was not allowed to give any statement as according to the law convicts do not have the right to do so at this stage of legal proceedings.

Legal experts said a report on his arrest would now be sent to the Dhaka District Judge's Court, which originally tried the killers of Bangabandhu.

"The stipulated time for appeal against death penalty expired long ago. Majed now can just seek Presidential mercy unless the Supreme Court decides to consider any plea on his part," a Supreme Court lawyer said.

Twelve ex-military officers were sentenced to death for the August 15, 1975 killing of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members and five of them were executed in 2010 while one died of natural causes.

The five were hanged at Dhaka Central Jail on January 28, 2010, after protracted legal procedure. The trial process began in 1996 when an indemnity law was scrapped as it was protecting the assassins.

The hanged lieutenant colonels were Syed Farooq Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Mohiuddin Ahmed and sacked Major Bazlul Huda, while sacked Colonel Rashed Pasha died of natural causes in Zimbabwe while on the run.

Farooq Rahman, Shahriar Rashid Khan, Mohiuddin Ahmed of the Artillery faced trial in the judge's court in person.

Huda was extradited from Thailand and Lancer Mohiuddin was sent back from the United States after the then district judge Golam Rasul delivered the judgment.

Majed was one of the remaining fugitives believed to be hiding abroad with no confirmed whereabouts.

The fugitives include key mastermind of the August 15, 1975 coup ex-lieutenant Colonel Abdur Rashid.

After the August 15, 1975 carnage, Majed was rehabilitated in civil service during the subsequent regime of former military dictator-turned politician Ziaur Rahman as an ex-cadre official and posted as the director of National Savings Department.

He fled the country while serving later in the finance ministry along with most of the other 1975 coup plotters as the 1996 general elections brought Awami League back to power which vowed bring justice to the killers of Bangabandhu.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In this series we put the spotlight on the people in Luxembourg whose work or action have become even more important to all of us now, as many of us depend on their continued services.

We say Thank you for being there for us during these challenging times  this time to Didier, a bus driver who helps people depending on public transport and who just through his and his colleagues' presence preserves some of the normality.

What has changed for you due to the Coronavirus?

You go to work with a bit of fear: Are there infected passengers in the bus? but we have to think of others, and that is why I come to work every day. We have to keep a cool head.

In the beginning, when we were still following our regular schedule, I had been driving empty buses, which is why now the timetables were adapted.

Did the passengers' behaviour change?

I think that people are more stressed. Usually when people enter the bus, they are smiling but now they enter making sure to protect themselves, even people who are taking the bus regularly. Some of the people are more talkative though, often people who mention that they telework. I suppose it is also because they dont have a lot of other interaction anymore that they appreciate a little chat.

Do you feel safe at work?

Yes, my company has organised different measures. The buses are disinfected during the night, the seats and even the windows are cleaned and every driver is provided with a bottle of disinfectant.

Have you had situations where you thought: This could be a bit dangerous for me?

Yes, a couple of days ago I overheard a telephone conversation where someone said that he doesn't feel well and what he should be doing and then he left at a bus stop at a hospitalBut none of the passengers in my bus was ever displaying any symptoms.

Do elderly people still take the bus?

Yes, just recently I was driving a few of them. There were two elderly ladies who I dropped off near a pharmacy, it seems they might have picked up medication and a couple who I dropped off at a shopping centre. They still need us for their necessary errands.

Are customers respecting safety rules?

Usually, yes. People should not sit next to each other and only very few times I needed to remind them of that.

How is driving with so much less traffic?

That is the one good thing. We sometimes even have to wait a couple of minutes now in order to keep the schedule so I drive more slowly.

You are driving in Luxembourg only but you have colleagues who cross the border. How is that going for them?

When they come from France it takes them longer even though they get priority but there is no extra lane, from Belgium there are priority lanes.

Is there any message you would like to convey?

Yes, a few:

Stay at home, even though we might be running out of work ; ).

The disease doesn't have a passport, the disease doesn't ask if it can join us. If we move, we take the disease along.

Stay positive and Thank you! to everyone for your efforts in these difficult times!

Last but not least, many thanks to my company who takes every measure to keep us safe.

And finally: be sure that you can count on us!
Coronavirus, which originated in the Hubei province of China, has now spread to nearly 200 countries and has affected more than a million people worldwide. At least seventy thousand people around the world have died. But it seems, the xenophobic people of the world have decided that their person of hate won't be the virus, but everything that is Chinese. Yep. So, there has been anger brewing on social media against China and the Chinese for having "introduced the virus to the world".

With more than half the countries being forced into quarantine and isolation, people are lashing out against the Chinese for not being able to contain the virus in the initial stages of the pandemic. Hashtags like #MakeChinaPay and #ChinaLiedPeopleDied are also doing the rounds on Twitter.

In India too, hatred against China and everything Chinese seems to be on the rise. Even Chinese app TikTok hasn't been spared. #BoycottTikTok and #BoycottChineseProducts. Trends show that a large number of people are deleting TikTok from their phones and what's more alarming is that they are calling it "revenge" against China.

Tiktok, which is now one of the fastest-growing social media companies, is owned by the Chinese organisation Bytedance. The app has 800 million users across the world, and at least half of them belong to India. On average, Indians spend 52 minutes a day on TikTok. Well, what do TikTok influencers, whose only source of income may be the app itself, have to say about this "cancel culture" in India?

Yeah, it will be the best option to take revenge on China. Let's #boycotttiktok #BoycottChina pic.twitter.com/nPgLviNbim  Koushik Banik (@koushik_banik) March 31, 2020

Its time to take revenge from china by stop using its most popular app tik tok. #BoycottChina #boycottTikTok pic.twitter.com/YcrwtopRh1  Yash Soni (@YashSon55568268) April 2, 2020

Chinese Markets have been reopened to Sell bats, dogs & cats. They will never change. At least for the sake of your Children's future #BoycottChina  Dipiya Dilawari (@Dipdil) March 31, 2020

Since we are talking about boycotting Chinese products. Let's start with the app that's being used by most of us. Tiktok. #BoycottChina #BoycottTikTok pic.twitter.com/acAwZ002zZ  Salil Tripathi (@SalilTripathi17) March 30, 2020

China is the enemy, they unleashed the Corona Virus on the world, they lie, steal, threaten, and are coming for the domination of Canada. Say no to any & all Chinese ownership in Canada. Boycott anything & everything Chinese including their spy tool Huawei.#BoycottChinapic.twitter.com/AuB0UHXsqj  Jesse (@JesseLonnen) April 1, 2020

The underlying tone seems to be that China unleashed the virus upon the rest of the world on purpose, and therefore all businesses and products originating from China must be boycotted. If we were really to boycott everything Chinese, we'd probably have to throw out a lot more than just TikTok.

Even the President of the United States, Donald Trump has previously endorsed such acts of xenophobia. He made it abundantly clear in multiple speeches that referring to the virus as Wuhan Virus or Chinese Virus is "payback."

In other bizarre news, lawsuits have also been filed in the US against China in order to make them "pay".

Yet, this is not the first time an epidemic has resulted in communities and people pointing fingers at each other. In the past, contagious diseases like the Spanish Flu, SARS or Ebola have led to communities being ostracized just because the disease in question originated from a specific region. Back in the 14th century, the emergence of the Black Death had triggered violence against Jews who were blamed for carrying the disease.

Through generations, such uncontrolled outbreaks have fuelled animosity against specific groups, and clearly history is repeating itself once again.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg dad has gone viral after giving a speech from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressing Canadian kids a Lego makeover.

Trudeau reached out to children experiencing changes in their day-to-day life in the midst of COVID-19 during a press briefing on March 22, something marketing manager Tyler Walsh said he had flagged to show his two sons.

The idea to add Lego figurines to the speechs audio came to him while he had already been working on a different Lego stop-motion project with his two sons.

"It just kind of occurred to me that wed got everything set up here, what if I took this really cool speech that the prime minister did and combine that with some of the Lego stop-motion effects, and people might think thats kind of fun," he said.

The process took around 12 hours total, including finding Lego look-alikes for Shared Health chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusa and chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin  both of whom have become familiar to Manitobans during the pandemic  and building several sets.

It has resonated with people all over the world, amassing over 250,000 views on Twitter, getting a retweet from the official Lego account and earning some congratulatory words from the prime minister himself.

Tyler Walsh created a Lego version of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's message to kids with his own kids Jack (left) and Noah. (Carly Peters)

"I think my kids  and a whole lot of others  will get a kick out of this, all while hearing how they can help out too," Trudeau wrote on Twitter.

The widespread connection comes from the powerful words behind the figurines, Walsh said.

"I think the message itself was powerful because I think that a lot of parents are sort of questioning how they should talk to their kids about everything thats going on," he said.

Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

"So to hear something from the prime minister that sort of sums it up nicely and why we have to do what we do and the whole message there  the message itself resonated."

Walsh said while the stop-motion process was "super-tedious," he was happy the end result was a resource for parents to introduce difficult new concepts to their children.

"When you combine it with something that kids might actually enjoy watching or be drawn to, it just works so well together, and then that message would be pushed out further," he said.

"So I think theres just a lot of parents that are like, Oh my goodness, this is perfect, Ill show my kids this; its safe to show them, and its put in a way that they will understand."

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_
For scores of children and parents, being assigned to Sandra Santos-Vizcainos third-grade classroom at Public School 9 in Brooklyn felt like winning the lottery.

Though Matteo Flores was only in the first grade this year, he was already hoping she would be his teacher in two years. Then he heard the news. I guess she wont get to be my teacher anymore, he told his mother.

Ms. Santos-Vizcaino died on March 31 of complications of the coronavirus, her son, Victor-Luis, said. She was 54 and is believed to be the first public-school teacher in New York City to die of the virus, according to the Department of Education.

Ms. Santos-Vizcaino spent four years as one of the most beloved instructors at P.S. 9, in the Prospect Heights neighborhood, part of her 25-year teaching career in New York City, which is the countrys largest public school district.
The governing board of the Partnership For Connecticut voted unanimously via teleconference Tuesday morning to spend $24 million on the purchase of 60,000 Dell laptops for high school students in the state, the first wave of which will be delivered to students in May.

The deal saves millions of dollars off the expected price and 4-week delivery for the first wave is considered fast at a time when demand for laptops is high because much of the world is working and educating at home.

Still, House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, a member of the governing board, wondered whether the purchase and delivery of laptops after the end of the school year went against the intended purpose of the purchase as a response to the coronavirus-related school closures.

The move marks the partnerships first major expenditure since its formation was announced almost exactly one year ago. Delivery could be faster than what a straight government purchase would bring.

Although the effort is a response to the COVID-19 coronavirus public health crisis, which has sidelined students throughout the state for the foreseeable future, philanthropist Barbara Dalio said the speedy purchase and delivery of computers to the most vulnerable high school students in Connecticut is exactly the kind of thing the partnership  and her private efforts before that  were designed to do in the first place.

I find it really really exciting because weve been working with these students who are disengaged and disconnected for about five years, and we really feel for them and we know that if they get extra attention and extra help from the teachers, that they can thrive and they can graduate from high school, Dalio said. This is really an incredible opportunity if we know how to handle it and go with it and make the most out of it.

The partnership, a public private-partnership formed with $100 million from Dalio Philanthropies and $100 million from state coffers was announced to great fanfare as well as scrutiny on April 5, 2019. Organizers hope to raise an additional $100 million from other donors.

Mary Anne Schmitt-Carey, the Partnerships CEO, is expected to submit a purchase order for the laptops later Tuesday, ensuring the first 15,000 laptops will be delivered in May. Another 30,000 will be delivered in June and the final 15,000 will be delivered in July.

All 33 of the states alliance districts, generally those with the highest percentage of students from the lowest income households, have opted into the program. The order of distribution will be based on the severity of the need in each district. Bridgeport School District, for example, is a top priority given the lack of existing technology in the district.

Schmitt-Carey, in response to Klarides questions, said theres still a need to get the laptops in students hands even this close to the end of the school year.

If we could physically go carry the laptops to the students tomorrow, I promise you we would do that, Schmitt-Carey said in response to Klarides question. Being able to get this delivery schedule is extraordinary and itll help be able to facilitate learning opportunities over the summer and next year. Its just a practical impossibility to get them sooner, but I dont think that negates the need to get them and deliver them as quickly as we can.

A similar process carried out by the state or individual school districts might have taken months simply to complete the bidding process. That highlights the efficacy of the public-private partnership model  which has come under some criticism for funneling taxpayer money into a new organization operating on a hybrid of public and private rules.

Demand for laptops and other mobile technology is high right now as millions of people attempt to work and attend school from home as a result of the public health crisis. Private companies have been forced to prioritize technology purchases for public safety, public health and then public education purchases.

Klarides and Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, also questioned the omission of the Norwich Free Academy from the list of eligible schools. Norwich Free Academy, though it is part of an alliance district, is not designated an alliance district high school, and therefore was left off the list.

Gov. Ned Lamont and state Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona established the Learn From Home task force co-chaired by Guilford Superintendent Paul Freeman and East Hartford Superintendent Nate Quesnel to lead the safe, efficient and timely distribution of the laptops.

In a letter to the partnerships board of directors over the weekend, Schmitt-Carey said the partnership is receiving a 63 percent discount off the list price for Dells Latitude 3190 Education 2-in-1 laptop. The laptops will come preloaded by Dell with the programs and security features the students need, and the company is providing support services to IT departments throughout the state free of charge.

Dell has said the selected laptops are highly durable and expected to last at least five years.

Once distributed, the laptops will become the property of the school systems. Students will keep the laptops for the duration of their high school careers and return them once they graduate. School systems will be responsible for the maintenance, storage and replacement of the laptops as needed.

Dalio, who lives in Greenwich, said school systems have indicated the cost of upkeep wont likely be a problem, as the biggest barrier to entry for districts was the startup cost of going from no technology to fully-digital.

Although the purchase was prompted by a public health crisis, Dalio said she believes this will change the way education happens on a permanent basis.

Hopefully by five years from now, all of the kids will have computers, it will be just part of the curriculum and materials that they must have, not just in Connecticut, but all over the states, she said.

kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt
The world has changed almost ostensibly overnight - toilet rolls are now a hot commodity and social distancing the new norm. The good news is that only 2% of South Africans say brands should stop advertising, but marketers should be more authentic and tone-sensitive in their communications than before.

Will your brand be criticised for its communications in the current situation?



Consider your categorys emotional engagement. Is your brand involved in highly emotional/sensorial experiences?



Messaging tips and tricks

Join our hour-long webinar on Thursday, 9 April from 12pm (GMT+2) where we discuss some considerations for creativity during Covid-19. Natalie Botha, head of creative development for Kantar in SA, shares local findings from our Covid-19 Barometer study; Daren Poole, global head of creative for Kantar, provides a global perspective on what type of creative content your brand should be putting out at the moment; and Fran Luckin, chief creative officer of Grey Africa, shares A day in the life of the agency of today.The team will share some examples of how brands have responded to leave a lasting impression in these times:Strategically, we know that brands should invest in long-term outcomes. While the cause of the current crisis is different, the effect is similar to what we saw during the financial crisis of 2007-2008. Our BrandZ data saw that the brands that continued to spend remained strongest and recovered most quickly afterwards.We look forward to seeing you virtually on Thursday, please feel free to extend the invite to your colleagues.Cant make the date and time? Register anyway to receive a recording of the webinar that you can watch on-demand. Missed the first webinar in our series  Navigating for growth in a Covid-19 world? Click here to register to watch on-demand and here to download the deck. #StaySafe
Emeritus Professor in Humanities at Rhodes University, Prof Michael Neocosmos with Prof Mbembe

By Professor Michael Neocosmos

The South African national government has  like some other countries  shown itself to have been efficiently responsive to the crisis befalling the nation as a result of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. It has not procrastinated and has taken extraordinary measures, including a 21-day lockdown  during which people are required by a law of exception to remain in their homes  and announced countrywide testing to battle the virus.

In order to confront the crisis, the language used has rightly been one of war against an enemy for which the resources of the whole country must be mobilised. This is always the case in times of war, irrespective of who the enemy might be. Given the vulnerability of millions of our people to the virus, including people already living with HIV and TB, and people living in shack settlements and hostels where self-isolation is not possible, the language of war is neither exaggerated nor inappropriate.

In times of war, a national compact has to be agreed on, precisely in order to draw all sectors of the population into what amounts de facto to a common struggle for survival. In other words, the common interest must, under these circumstances, take precedence over sectional interests. Trade unions are asked to moderate their wage demands, bosses are asked to restrict their profits and to provide financial aid to a national war chest, a moratorium is put on evictions, the state provides subsidies to priority industries and the most vulnerable and so on, all in order to combat the national enemy.

Of course, we know that some interests, such as arms manufacturers, will benefit from the war, and correspondingly that international drug companies are poised to make a killing from responses to Covid-19. Nevertheless, the importance of national unity is still crucial in such times when the whole nation faces the real possibility of thousands of deaths. The much-trumpeted (but largely unthought) state slogan of social cohesion is crucial for the country at such times.

The executive of the state has rightly stressed unity in this context, although it has not always been able to restrain some of its more aggressive members at ministerial level from wagging their fingers at the public in a manner reminiscent of a previous president in a bygone era. Such individuals have been adept at referring to suspects as criminals long before anything has been proven against them in a court of law, forgetting the injunction repeated ad nauseam by our previous president, that people are, in our liberal democratic system, innocent until proven guilty.

Overall, however, the higher organs of state have been extremely good at reiterating the need for all without exception to contribute towards fighting the virus. President Ramaphosa himself has taken the lead in doing so, backed up by Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize, who has shown composure at all times.

At lower levels, however, the general idea seems to be to coerce the poor into adhering to government directives. But the fact that the poor have, in a neo-colonial mode, largely been governed as a potential enemy rather than as full citizens worthy of respect, gives rise to an immediate problem of legitimacy. Given that the police, in particular, are often experienced as a threat in poor areas rather than as a solution to the problems of life, the need arises for the state to work hard on legitimising its power through consent in order to decrease the understandable prevalence of suspicion and untrustworthiness.

Therefore it is, in this context, particularly disturbing that despite numerous explicit statements by the executive, various arms of the state, in particular those charged with coercion, have exceeded the bounds of their duties in exercising power over individual poorer members of the nation. In Durban, the municipality, long notorious for its disregard for the law and brutality, has gone out of its way to systematically engage in forcibly removing shack dwellers from their homes.

Hearing the language of criminality constantly directed towards the poor by these state apparatuses, one should perhaps not be surprised. In principle, redress is available through the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Ipid, for cases of police violence against individuals, although in reality the process often fails complainants.

But what of collective violence such as the continuing forced removals in the eThekwini municipality? These have not only been illegal in that they have not been accompanied by a court order, but in addition have contradicted the governments injunction for people to remain at home by systematically demolishing their homes. One is therefore entitled to ask if this is an attempt  undoubtedly criminal in intent  to physically destroy a powerful movement of the poor that is part of the South African nation, by criminal elements ensconced in power in that municipality? This question is not far fetched, and fear of the poor  an ingrained neo-colonial demophobic attribute  seems to be as valid a conjecture as any other given the circumstances of a wild pandemic. Are the (organised) poor to be treated like rodents were during the bubonic plague?

On the following days  March 27, 29, 31 and 2 and 3 April 2020  settlements where Abahlali baseMjondolo has been organising were attacked by a private security company (Calvin and Family Security Services) along with the police, and on Friday they were even accompanied by the military. Peoples homes were destroyed and building materials broken into pieces. Several people were injured and required hospitalisation. In all cases, the violence has been orchestrated by the eThekwini municipality and directed explicitly at Abahlali baseMjondolo members.

This is the latest manifestation of municipal-state orchestrated violence against this movement which has been ongoing now since 2005 during which time 18 members of the movement have lost their lives. Over 15 years, coerced removals have been carried out without court orders making them illegal and criminal acts. While police actions are legally under Ipid surveillance, the same does not apply to private security companies.

Recently the central government in the form of the Minister of Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu appealed for these eviction practices to be halted, but to no avail. The violence unleashed by the municipal state continues. It is clear that those in charge of the municipality have a different agenda to that of the national state, which includes the destruction of democratic popular organisations in their jurisdiction.

There is, of course, a culture of violence against the poor in this country going back to colonial times. South Africans should recall the massacre of the 34 miners at Marikana in August 2012. The possibility of this recurring should be taken very seriously. There is little point in presidents apologising to their people  as has recently happened in both India and Kenya after violence was let loose during Covid-19 lockdowns  in conditions when that violence was perfectly predictable.

President Ramaphosa has already apologised once to the families of the Marikana miners. In this instance, it is the eThekwini municipality that has engaged in dastardly deeds that require concomitant action. He must at all costs act accordingly.

During times of war, the state requires the support of all its people; it requires a united nation so the slogan of social cohesion cannot suddenly be forgotten. The nation is prepared to help once all understand the severity of the issue and the need for national mobilisation.

However, the quid pro quo must be that the state should treat all its people in the same way, and with dignity, in order to bring them on board. There is no room, in such circumstances, for recourse to neo-colonial practices which are totally counterproductive. Should this not happen, those undermining the unity of the nation should be dealt with severely, especially if they emanate from within the state authority itself.

Source: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za

Please help us to raise funds so that we can give all our students a chance to access online teaching and learning. Covid-19 has disrupted our students' education. Don't let the digital divide put their future at risk. Visit www.ru.ac.za/rucoronavirusgateway to donate
The number of Qantas crew members confirmed to have contracted coronavirus after a flight from Chile to Sydney has climbed to 11, raising further questions about the current exemption from quarantine rules for airline crew.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age first reported on Monday that four crew members operating the March 28 flight from Santiago later tested positive for the virus, and can now reveal that number stands at 11.

More Qantas staff tested positive to COVID-19

Passengers from the flight were put into forced 14-day quarantine in city hotels, but 10 of the flight crew were free to return to their homes under an exemption for airline staff, which one leading epidemiologist has called "illogical".

The federal exemption says returned airline crew are not required to self-isolate, go into quarantine or complete an "Isolation Declaration Card".
Industrial conglomerate 3M (NYSE:MMM) and the Trump administration have settled a dispute over the supply of N95 masks in the United States, with the company announcing it will supplement its domestic production by importing respirator masks manufactured at its overseas facilities. On April 2, President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) in his push to have 3M keep its domestically produced masks in the U.S.

In a response to the DPA invocation, 3M criticized the attempt to prevent exports, pointing out that it is a critical supplier of the respirators to Canada and Latin America, and that preventing it from shipping protective gear to those regions would have "significant humanitarian implications."

With the new agreement, 3M will import 166.5 million N95 respirators into the U.S. over the next three months, supplementing its domestic production of 35 million per month. 3M said it worked with the administration to ensure that the plan "does not create further humanitarian implications for countries currently fighting the COVID-19 outbreak."

Since the start of the pandemic, 3M has been working to increase its N95 respirator production capacity. The company expects to be producing the masks globally at a rate of 200 million per month within the next 12 months. In January, it produced 50 million globally. It now expects to be able to produce 50 million per month in the United States alone by June.

The company said it will begin importing the 166.5 million masks in April, most of them from its facility in China. This will enable it to continue supplying Canada and Latin America from its U.S. production.
(EDITORS: Discusses plot details from Netflix's "Unorthodox." )

- - -

In "Unorthodox," Esther "Esty" Shapiro (Shira Haas) flees to Germany to escape the rigidity of life in the Satmar Hasidic community, the ultrareligious Jewish sect in which she grew up.

The four-part Netflix series, which has been among the platform's most-viewed content since its March 26 premiere, is loosely based on Deborah Feldman's best-selling memoir, "Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots." The series diverges widely from its source material, which was published in 2012, but there are several nods to Feldman's story. So how do the two narratives compare?

Feldman and her on-screen counterpart both grew up in the Yiddish-speaking Satmar community in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood and entered into arranged marriages before reaching their 20s. Like Feldman, Esty struggles with many of the rules Hasidic wives are expected to follow. She cries while shaving her head to make more room for the wig she is expected to wear after marriage so other men will never see her hair and bemoans the strong influence her in-laws have over personal aspects of her relationship with her husband - including their issues with sex.

The series alludes to Esty's father suffering from mental illness as Feldman's own father did. Like Feldman's mother, Esty's mother came out as a lesbian after leaving the community when Esty was a child.

While Esty flees to Berlin to make a permanent break with her old life - without telling her husband or beloved grandmother - and is eventually confronted there by her spouse and his less religiously observant cousin, Feldman's initial departure from Williamsburg was not nearly as dramatic. She and her husband moved together to Airmont, a largely Orthodox community in Rockland County, New York, where her life was decidedly less restrictive: Feldman began taking writing classes at Sarah Lawrence College and learned to drive.

As the author told the New York Post in 2012, she left her husband after getting into a bad accident on a New Jersey highway: "I was convinced I was going to die. And there was no way I was going to waste another minute of life." In "Unorthodox," Feldman writes that she and her husband went to religious marriage counseling even after her decision to leave, but ultimately decided divorce was the best option.

In one of the biggest departures from Feldman's memoir, Esty leaves her husband a year into their marriage and takes her first flight ever to Germany, where she is embraced by a diverse group of music conservatory students; Feldman and her husband were already parents to a young son when she left. As noted in a 2017 New York Times profile, Feldman and her son did not move to Berlin until after she had published her second memoir "Exodus" in 2015.

The publication of "Unorthodox" caused anger within the insular Hasidic community and left Feldman estranged from the rest of her family.

Even some former community members objected to Feldman's account. The Forward - a progressive Jewish news organization - published a review of "Exodus," by Frimet Goldberger, a writer who recalled living near Feldman and her husband in Airmont. Referring to Feldman's previous work, Goldberger asserted that "'Unorthodox' was a stylized account of real people and situations."

The series has been well-received by critics, including The Washington Post's Hank Stuever, who called the show "gripping and carefully constructed."

For her part, Feldman - who consulted on the series and makes a blink-and-you-missed-it cameo - told the Times she was most touched by one of the show's final scenes, which finds Esty doubling down on her new life in an emotional conversation with her husband.

"To me, the series climaxes in this moment," Feldman said. "I also felt jealous because I never had a moment like that - I had many small moments where I tried to express myself, and I tried to speak up for myself, but I love how she just lets it all out."

"It really touched me, and it made me wish I had been the same way," Feldman added. "It made me admire her."
A coronavirus treatment already approved in the UK and US which uses blood from recovered patients can help the infected get better within three days, a study has found.

Ten COVID-19 patients in China who were severely ill in hospital saw their symptoms disappear or rapidly improve within 72 hours after the therapy.

They were given a dose of plasma donated from COVID-19 survivors, which had the antibodies necessary for their immune system to clear the virus.

Known as convalescent plasma therapy, it has recently been given the green light by medical regulators in the UK and US to trial on critically ill patients.

The promising therapy, which was first used a century ago in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, has been used already in China and the US.

As well as proving to be life-saving, the therapy appears to be safe so far, with no serious side effects observed in the small study group.

It comes after a New York City mother who survived coronavirus last week became one of the first Americans to donate her blood plasma in hope of helping others. Tiffany Pinckney, 39, said she felt like 'a beacon of hope' for those suffering.

But although experts say convalescent plasma is 'an important area to pursue', there is no conclusive evidence it is effective yet.

There is no cure for the killer coronavirus, which has infected more than 1.3million people worldwide and killed almost 80,000. Thousands of patients worldwide are involved in trials of promising medicines.

A key advantage to the blood based therapy is that its available immediately and relies only drawing blood from a former patient.

It is also significantly cheaper than developing a new drug, which costs millions to take through trials and regulation before mass production.

A coronavirus treatment approved in the UK and US which uses blood from recovered patients helps patients get better, a study shows. Tiffany Pinckney, 39, (pictured) a recovered New-Yorker who was one of the first to donate her blood in the city, said she felt like 'a beacon of hope' for those suffering

Jason Garcia, a 36-year-old aerospace engineer from California, donated his blood on April 1 after fighting COVID-19 in March. He was humbled to potentially be saving someone else's life

The treatment, known as convalescent plasma (CP) therapy, involves using antibody-rich blood plasma of those who have recovered from coronavirus, which can fight infection. Pictured, Diana Berrent was the first recovered patient to have her blood screened for antibodies at Columbia University, Irving, New York

The treatment - used for around a century for other infections - works by bolstering a patient's own immune system to fight the virus.

Infusing patients with blood plasma has also been used to tackle SARS and MERS, two similar coronaviruses, as well as the deadly infection Ebola.

Plasma makes up around 55 per cent of all blood volume and provides the liquid for red and white blood cells to be carried around the body in.

By injecting this into patients it can provide their bodies with a vital dose of crucial substances called antibodies.

Antibodies can only be created by people who have already been infected and learnt how to fight off an infection, such as SARS-CoV-2.

It may be the best hope for COVID-19 patients while scientists work to develop new, specific treatments for the disease.

It is significantly cheaper than developing a new drug, which costs millions of dollars to take through trials and regulation before mass production.

The study in Wuhan  where the coronavirus pandemic began in December  was led by Kai Duan of China's National Biotec Group Co. Ltd.

Because it was a pilot study, which assess the feasibility of a treatment, the findings are only preliminary.

However, the results were published in a respected journal called the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.

Ten patients at three different hospitals were enrolled to get convalescent plasma therapy. They also received other promising drugs.

The researchers said all clinical symptoms, which included the tell-tale signs of a fever and cough, subsided within three days.

The patients' liver and lung function as well as blood oxygen levels were also found to have improved, signs they had fought off the virus.

The numbers of disease-fighting white blood cells, lymphocytes, also increased, and antibody levels remained high after CP transfusion, the researchers said.

Two of three patients who were hooked up to a ventilator to assist with breathing were taken off, and given oxygen delivered into the nose.

The patients' blood oxygen levels improved (top right). The numbers of disease-fighting white blood cells, lymphocytes, also increased (top centre), and enzymes produced by the liver - which indicate an infection - reduced (bottom left)

The researchers published chest scans of two patients. Pictured, the lungs of a 49-year-old woman: On day seven, she showed ground-glass opacity in the lungs (A, top left), which indicated fluid or debris. On day 13 (B, top right) the fluid had been absorbed and her lungs had improved significantly

A patient recovered from COVID-19 coronavirus donates their plasma used for transfusions to treat COVID-19 patients at the Policlinico San Matteo hospital in Pavia, Italy, on April 6

Plasma (pictured in the bag) is a clear fluid which makes up around 55 per cent of all blood volume and provides the liquid for red and white blood cells to be carried around the body in

Blood plasma therapy - known formally as convalescent plasma - has been around for centuries. Doctors in China, where the COVID-19 outbreak began in December 2019, were the first to attempt treating patients this way. Pictured, Dr Zhou Min shows his plasma

A top World Health Organization (WHO) expert said the blood-based therapy 'is a very important area to pursue', according to Reuters. Pictured, Dr Kong Yuefeng, a recovered COVID-19 patient, donates plasma at a clinic in Wuhan, Hubei province, China on February 18

The study was not designed to compare the outcomes for patients who received the antibody therapy with those who did not.

That would have shown if it was the convalescent plasma that worked or the patients just recovered on their own.

But the authors did create a control group from a random selection of ten COVID-19 patients treated in the same hospitals with a similar outlook.

They were matched to the pilot study participants by their age, gender and illness severity.

Over several weeks, there were shown to be obvious differences in how the control group patients deteriorated.

Three died, six saw their conditions stabilize, and one got better during the course of the study.

Of those who received convalescent plasma, none of the 10 patients died, three were discharged from the hospital, and the remaining seven were rated 'much improved' and ready for discharge by the end of the study.

The authors wrote: 'This pilot study on [convalescent plasma] therapy shows a potential therapeutic effect and low risk in the treatment of severe COVID-19 patients.

'One dose of [convalescent plasma] with a high concentration of neutralizing antibodies can rapidly reduce the viral load and tends to improve clinical outcomes.'

Ms Pinckney, a mother in New York City, became one of the first Americans to donate her blood plasma. 'It is definitely overwhelming to know that in my blood, there may be answers,' she said

After hearing his blood would be used to treat three patients with the coronavirus, Mr Garcia told CNN: 'This can be turned into a life-saving opportunity for someone who can't fight off this disease'

WHAT IS CONVALESCENT PLASMA AND WHERE HAS IT BEEN USED? Convalescent plasma has been used to treat infections for at least a century, dating back to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. It was also trialed during the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza virus pandemic, 2003 SARS epidemic, and the 2012 MERS epidemic. Convalescent plasma was used as a last resort to improve the survival rate of patients with SARS whose condition continued to deteriorate. It has been proven 'effective and life-saving' against other infections, such as rabies and diphtheria, said Dr Mike Ryan, of the World Health Organization. 'It is a very important area to pursue,' Dr Ryan said. Although promising, convalescent plasma has not been shown to be effective in every disease studied, the FDA say. Is it already being used for COVID-19 patients? Before it can be routinely given to patients with COVID-19, it is important to determine whether it is safe and effective through clinical trials. The FDA said it was 'facilitating access' for the treatment to be used on patients with serious or immediately life-threatening COVID-19 infections'. It came after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that plasma would be tested there to treat the sickest of the state's coronavirus patients. COVID-19 patients in Beijing, Wuhan and Shanghai are being treated with this method, authorities report. Lu Hongzhou, professor and co-director of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre, said in February the hospital had set up a special clinic to administer plasma therapy and was selecting patients who were willing to donate. 'We are positive that this method can be very effective in our patients,' he said. Meanwhile, the head of a Wuhan hospital said plasma infusions from recovered patients had shown some encouraging preliminary results. The MHRA has approved the use of the therapy in the UK, but it has not been revealed which hospitals have already tried it. How does it work? Blood banks take plasma donations much like they take donations of whole blood; regular plasma is used in hospitals and emergency rooms every day. If someone's donating only plasma, their blood is drawn through a tube, the plasma is separated and the rest infused back into the donor's body. Then that plasma is tested and purified to be sure it doesn't harbor any blood-borne viruses and is safe to use. For COVID-19 research, people who have recovered from the coronavirus would be donating. Scientists would measure how many antibodies are in a unit of donated plasma - tests just now being developed that aren't available to the general public - as they figure out what's a good dose, and how often a survivor could donate. There is also the possibility that asymptomatic patients - those who never showed symptoms or became unwell - would be able to donate. But these 'silent carriers' would need to be found via testing first. Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda is working on a drug that contains recovered patients antibodies in a pill form, Stat News reported. Could it work as a vaccine? While scientists race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, blood plasma therapy could provide temporary protection for the most vulnerable in a similar fashion. A vaccine trains people's immune systems to make their own antibodies against a target germ. The plasma infusion approach would give people a temporary shot of someone else's antibodies that are short-lived and require repeated doses. If US regulator the FDA agrees, a second study would give antibody-rich plasma infusions to certain people at high risk from repeated exposures to COVID-19, such as hospital workers or first responders, said Dr Liise-anne Pirofski of New York's Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. That also might include nursing homes when a resident becomes ill, in hopes of giving the other people in the home some protection, she said. Advertisement

Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, President of the British Pharmacological Society, said the findings should be taken with caution.

'This paper reports the outcomes in 10 patients with severe COVID-19 who were treated with convalescent plasma. The authors did compare the 10 cases with a concurrent control group and showed some encouraging results.

'However, this was not a randomised trial and all patients also received other treatments including antivirals such as remdesivir which are currently in trials for COVID-19.

'It is also important to remember that there are potential safety concerns with convalescent plasma including transmission of other agents (including transmissible spongiform encephalopathy) and antibody enhancement of disease.'

There were no side effects recorded in this small study, other than an unexpected red bruise on a patient's face.

Sir Munir said: 'Even if shown to work, scalability to treat large numbers of patients may become an issue. As the authors indicate, there is a need for robustly designed randomised controlled trials to show efficacy of convalescent plasma.'

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved the blood-based therapy in early March, meaning NHS patients can get the treatment.

The Food and Drug Administration - the US version of the MHRA - approved the use of the blood-based therapy on March 23 as an experimental treatment in clinical trials, and for critical patients without other options.

Ms Pinckney, a mother in New York City who survived coronavirus, became one of the first Americans to donate her blood plasma.

'It is definitely overwhelming to know that in my blood, there may be answers,' Ms Pinckney told the Associated Press.

She got sick the first week of March, and when breathing deeply caused her chest pains, she remembers 'being on my bathroom floor crying and praying'.

So when Mount Sinai, the hospital which diagnosed her, called to check on her recovery and ask if she'd consider donating, she didn't hesitate.

'It's humbling. And for me, its also a beacon of hope for someone else,' she said.

Jason Garcia, a 36-year-old aerospace engineer from California, donated his blood on April 1 after fighting COVID-19 in March.

After hearing his blood would be used to treat three patients with the coronavirus, he told CNN: 'This can be turned into a life-saving opportunity for someone who can't fight off this disease.'

COVID-19 survivor Diana Berrent, 45, said those who have recovered 'can be superheroes'.

The New Yorker was the first in her state to donate her blood to Columbia University, where scientists are screening plasma for antibodies and determining which ones could help fight the killer infection.

Doctors in China, where the COVID-19 outbreak began in December 2019, were the first to attempt treating patients this way.

Recovered patients in China, including in Wuhan, Shanghai and Beijing, have been donating their blood in hospitals since February.

Special units for blood donation have been set up in hospitals in China with leading doctors claiming to have had encouraging early results with COVID-19 patients.

The doctors of the latest study in China described how each patient recovered, even if they had been admitted to hospital with a poor prognosis.

A 46-year-old man with high blood pressure showed up at a hospital with fever, cough, shortness of breath and chest pain.

He was put onto a mechanical ventilator to push oxygen into his lungs, and still his blood-oxygen level was a dismal 86 per cent. Normal readings are between 95 and 100 per cent.

On the eleventh day of his symptoms, the patient was given convalescent plasma. The next day, his blood tested negative for infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

His blood-oxygen level rose to 90 per cent, and he was able to be weaned off the ventilator he had been relying on to survive for three days.

Patient's liver function was also measured, because COVID-19 can cause organs to malfunction and even fail.

The man's immune system and liver function, both of which were showing signs of inflammation along with his lungs, stabilised four days after the antibody infusion.

Another patient, a 49-year-old woman with no underlying health conditions, received convalescent plasma on day ten of her symptoms.

She had been admitted to hospital quite early on because she had shortness of breathe. By day seven, scans of her chest showed fluid inside her lungs  called ground glass opacity.

By day 12, she had cleared the virus from her system and her chest X-ray showed remarkable improvement in her lungs.

The findings are promising and will fuel more research into convalescent plasma, which was recently labelled a 'very important area to pursue' by Dr Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organisation's health emergencies program.
H undreds more people have died from coronavirus than the daily official figures reveal, it emerged today.

The Office for National Statistics published a new analysis of the death toll from Covid-19. It showed that up until March 27 there had been nearly 1,650 deaths linked to the virus reported by NHS England.

But the official tally announced by the Government was just over 900 up to this date. The lower figure is understood to be due partly to the time taken for post-mortem examinations to be carried out and for families to be informed that their loved ones have died from the virus.

The discrepancy, though, will inevitably raise questions over the accuracy of information being put out by the Government on the impact of the epidemic.

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It also suggests that the true death toll is already significantly higher than the official figure of 5,373. The latest far more complete figures from NHS England, put out just days ago, are also in line with data from the ONS.

According to its figures, there were 1,568 deaths in England up to March 27 registered by April 1.

The vast majority of the deaths are happening in hospital, but some are in hospices, care homes or at peoples homes. Todays ONS statistics said there had been 237 deaths in London linked to coronavirus in the week to March 27  18 per cent of the 1,297 deaths in the capital from all causes that week.

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Meanwhile, figures published by Mayor Sadiq Khan suggested that more than 100 deaths in London hospitals have yet to be declared by NHS England.

City Hall last night published its first analysis of the coronavirus toll on the capital. It said there had been 1,586 hospital deaths by 5pm on Sunday  104 higher than comparative figures from NHS England.

City Hall said there had been 135 deaths in the preceding 24 hours  but NHS England said the figure for London hospitals was 129, taking its total to 1,482.

According to NHS England, the worst-hit trusts in the capital have been London North West Healthcare with 160 deaths, Kings College with 145, Barts Health with 129 and the Royal Free with 124. City Hall said its figures, which will now be published at 5pm daily, were being released on behalf of the NHS and London Strategic Co-ordinating Group.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

Trend:

A monitoring group has been created in the Azerbaijani Ministry of Justice to monitor the situation in correctional facilities in connection with coronavirus, Member of the Public Committee that oversees correctional facilities under the Ministry of Justice Almammad Nuriyev said, Trend reports on April 7.

Nuriyev stressed that a group of the committee representatives visited convicts in correctional facilities.

The condition of convicts is constantly monitored, member of the committee said. The internal quarantine was imposed in correctional facilities. The individuals who have been diagnosed with high fever have been placed there. To date, coronavirus has not been detected in any correctional facility in the country. "

Nuriyev added that the group constantly monitors the food quality of convicts.

Sanitary and hygienic rules are monitored in the correctional facilities, member of the committee said. The transfer of food to convicts from their relatives has been suspended. Moreover, the Ministry of Justice has set up an operational headquarters on this issue. The information about the situation in correctional facilities is received twice a day. "
China Could be Sued for $6.5 Trillion in the UK; CCP Military Allegedly Moves Into Beijing

The Chinese regime could be sued for at least $6.5 trillion for its cover-up of the new coronavirus, the CCP virus, which allowed the virus to spread globally and left other nations unprepared.

Reports are coming out of Taiwan that the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) is moving into Beijing, and videos from the ground suggest the reports may be accurate.

These stories and more in this episode of Crossroads.

Crossroads is an Epoch Times show available on Facebook and YouTube.
Every day, Wisconsin dairy farmers Jim and Katie DiGangi watch more of their lifes work go to waste.

Were definitely not sleeping well. Its devastating, said Katie DiGangi.

The couples families have worked in agriculture for as long as they can remember. They say farming is their familys passion and its legacy, but the COVID-19 crisis has put it all at risk.

Darlington Ridge Farms produces about 30,000 gallons of milk every daybut it now dumps 12,000-15,000 gallons per day, because food-service demand has dried up. Restaurants, schools and other businesses shuttered by the coronavirus no longer need the milk dairy farms produce.

Disposing of half of our product that we have put our blood, sweat and tears into  is extremely heart-wrenching, said Jim DiGangi in an interview with Yahoo Finance.

As dairy farmers dump massive amounts of milk, warehouses are filling up with cheese that has no place to go.

We're talking about millions and millions of pounds of cheese that have not been sold because of lost and canceled orders from food service, said John Umhoefer, executive director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association.

The DiGangi family at the Darlington Ridge Farms in Wisconsin.

Umhoefer told Yahoo Finance half of all cheese, butter and other dairy products in the United States go to the food-service industry.

There are whole companies in our industry that are dedicated to just serve the food-service industry  or 75% of their sales or 50% of their sales  and they are finding that all their orders are canceled in food service, said Umhoefer. It's unprecedented.

The supply chain is not designed for whats happening.

For the DiGangis, one of the most frustrating parts of the situation is that some demand still exists, but the industry cant meet it.

Our local grocery stores 10 miles away are limiting butter, milk and cheese purchases and we're over here dumping our milk because the supply chain is not designed for what's happening, said Katie DiGangi.

Its not designed for everybody being at home. We're all cooking at home, said Jim DiGangi. So we have the product available. The supply chain  i.e., the processors, the bottlers  [doesnt] have the tools and the packaging to meet the demands of the retailers.

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Experts say its impossible to immediately shift products designed for restaurants to grocery stores. The recipes, the label requirements and the companies that pick up and deliver the products are all different.

Dairy farmers dispose of milk they can't sell (Photo: Katie DeGangi)

To rebuild all that in a matter of weeks is not possible, said Umhoefer.

Paul Bauer is CEO of the Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery in Wisconsin, which is made up of about 300 dairy farms. The 110-year-old co-op has two manufacturing plants and a processed cheese plant.

If you're a blue cheese plant, you make blue cheese. If you're a cheddar manufacturer, you make cheddar, said Bauer. There is no way that you can take a mozzarella cheese or a blue cheese plant and suddenly convert them into bottling plants. It just doesn't work that way because they don't have the equipment to bottle it.

Lawmakers urge USDA to act

Eight members of the Wisconsin Congressional delegation wrote a letter to USDA, urging the agency to step in and help. Lawmakers want the federal government to buy cheese and dairy products for food banks around the country.

We need immediate action to keep the dairy supply chain moving and not waste the critical food our farmers and food processing workers are producing, the lawmakers wrote.

Among other things, the lawmakers want the government to place orders for dairy products on behalf of schools that can be fulfilled once they reopen, and use its emergency funding included in the CARES Act to expand the use of the Healthy Fluid Milk Incentives program  which aims to boost milk purchases by people who receive food assistance.



Dairy purchases will also help to keep dairy processing plants up and running, so that our manufacturers and their dedicated employees can continue their important work of providing food for our nation, said the lawmakers. In order for those plants to keep running, they need a market for their cheese, and in this extraordinary time, the federal government is uniquely able to purchase that cheese and make sure it reaches American dinner tables.

The industry has also made its case to USDA, asking for relief.

We need the USDA to step up and start getting forms of dairy products that might be a little bit out of the range of the average consumer such as a five-pound loaf of processed cheese or mozzarella in larger chunks so they can start distributing that, said Bauer. Because it's amazing the food insecurity that we have in this country.

We need to get the food to the people that need the food and there needs to be some direct relief for farmers and the processors to mitigate the situation, said Katie DiGangi.

In a statement to Yahoo Finance, USDA said it is actively monitoring agriculture commodity markets during the coronavirus emergency.

The US food supply chain remains safe and secure and we are committed to ensuring Americas farmers, ranchers, and producers get through this pandemic. We are swiftly evaluating the authorities granted under the CARES Act and will leverage our programs to alleviate disruption as necessary, said a spokesperson for USDA.

Dave Wolfskill of Mar-Anne Farms in Lower Heidelberg Township, Pa. (Bill Uhrich - MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)

Were in dire need

Bauer said the coronavirus hit the dairy industry at a particularly painful time. The industry has struggled in recent years, in part because of turbulent international trade.

We were seeing some normalized trade, but this pandemic really has disrupted that  and we don't know how many farms are going to be able to make it out of this change, he said. The rate of decline will be dramatic as we go forward.

The DiGangis employ 35 people on the farm and say they havent laid anyone off, in part because they need to make sure their 2,700 cows stay healthy. The couple told Yahoo Finance they are in the process of applying for a small business loan through the Paycheck Protection Program, but they hope USDA will step in soon.

Were in dire need, along with other small businesses, said Jim DiGangi. We're hemorrhaging cash like everybody else.

Jessica Smith is a reporter for Yahoo Finance based in Washington, D.C. Follow her on Twitter at @JessicaASmith8.

Read more:
Incensed by HSBC's decision to cancel its dividend at the request of regulators last week, a group of more than 3,000 investors in Hong Kong demanded on Monday that the lender reinstate its final payout for 2019 and instead eliminate compensation for top management for a year.

From retirees to large pension funds, cutting the cash dividend has been particularly harsh for Hong Kong investors, who have come to rely on it as a steady source of income. About a third of the bank's shareholders in Hong Kong are retail investors and its shares are a common gift for graduates and newlyweds.

Shareholders wiped about US$15 billion off the bank's market capitalisation over three days last week. The bank's shares, however, rose 2.8 per cent to close at HK$38.95 in Hong Kong on Monday.

"I bought HSBC shares because it always pays a high dividend," said a shareholder who only gave her surname as Wong at a media briefing on Monday. "I bought 10,000 shares on February 27 after it announced its fourth dividend. But on April 1, it said the payment is cancelled. How can a big bank lie to a small shareholder like me?"

Wong, who cried during Monday's press conference, said she owns 20,000 HSBC shares, which would have entitled her to a cash payout of US$4,200 (HK$32,760) had the final interim dividend not been cancelled.

HSBC and Standard Chartered, two of the three banks authorised to issue currency in the city, suspended their dividends and share buybacks on April 1 at the request of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), an arm of the Bank of England and their chief regulator. The PRA threatened to use its statutory powers if the UK's biggest banks, including HSBC, did not comply.

On Friday, Noel Quinn, the HSBC chief executive, wrote directly to shareholders to explain the decision and said that the bank regrets the loss for its Hong Kong investors.

The group of rebel shareholders, calling itself the HSBC Shareholders Alliance on Facebook, is seeking to convince enough investors to band together to force the company to convene an extraordinary general meeting to consider their demands " they are aiming to attract support from at least 5 per cent of shareholders.

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The group claims to have already attracted more than 3,000 shareholders, ranging from small investors to family offices and pension funds, who own a combined 2 per cent of the lender's shares worth about HK$10 billion.

They want HSBC to pay the final dividend in stock, rather than cash, and eliminate pay for the bank's top executives for a year, as well as add a director representing shareholders on its board. The group is studying ways to protect the rights of shareholders, including taking legal action.

Lawmakers called on HSBC to reconsider the decision and pay a scrip dividend, which gives shareholders the option to receive stock instead of cash.

"This is a financial scam," said Christopher Cheung Wah-fung, a lawmaker representing the financial sector.

Former Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying said mainland and Hong Kong borrowers should boycott the bank as a result of the dividend being cancelled.

Members of the HSBC Shareholder Alliance gather on April 6. Photo: Enoch Yiu alt=Members of the HSBC Shareholder Alliance gather on April 6. Photo: Enoch Yiu

The dividend cancellation also renewed calls by investors for HSBC to move its headquarters back to Hong Kong, where it was founded 155 years ago. Hong Kong is the lender's biggest market, but it has been domiciled in the UK since 1993. The bank opted to keep its headquarters in London after a review four years ago.

"Why is HSBC a Hong Kong bank but it follows the rules of the UK regulator?," another investor who only gave her surname as Lee said. "Does it mean if the UK regulator needs it, it may take all the Hong Kong depositors' money to meet what the UK needs?"

Lee, who owns more than 100,000 HSBC shares, said her entire savings is invested in the bank's stock.

Posting on the group's Facebook page, activist investor David Webb said he believes HSBC's directors acted legally when they cancelled the dividend. "So don't waste your money on legal action, you have no case," Webb said.

The group said it planned to invite former Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief executive Joseph Yam Chi-kwong to speak on their behalf.

When contacted by the South China Morning Post, Yam said through a representative that he did not own shares in the bank and would not be suitable to join the group.

"It is all about trust. Many retirees have trust in HSBC and they spend their entire saving to invest in HSBC shares for a long time and relied on its dividends to support their living," said Ken Lui, another founder of the shareholder group. "The suspension of the dividend payment has not taken care of the interests of these investors."

Additional reporting by Denise Tsang

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Crude Oil's 2020 Crash: See What Helped (Some) Traders Pivot Just in Time



The coronavirus wasn't the cause of oil's 70% collapse. This was

Let's start by establishing that the stock market is not driven by the news. Aggregate stock prices are driven by waves of optimism and pessimism -- which go from one extreme to another -- as reflected by the Elliott wave model. That's what makes the stock market predictable.

Hence, Elliott wave analysis is at the core of EWI's stock market forecasts.

Having said that, sentiment indicators are also valuable in providing clues about "what's next."

For example, Robert Prechter's book, Prechter's Perspective, made this observation:

No crowd buys stocks of other countries intelligently. For decades, heavy foreign buying in the U.S. stock market has served as an excellent indicator of major tops.

Since the start of 2020, crude oil has gone from "black gold" to "black days," plummeting 70% for its "worst quarter on record" (March 30, Bloomberg).

As of March 30, oil prices circled the drain of a two-DECADE low near $20 per barrel.

Is there any way an oil trader or active oil investor could look at the market's crash and NOT see what one March 12 CNN article coined "a nightmare scenario"?

That depends on one simple factor; i.e. did that trader/investor's methodology enable him/her to pivot in time to anticipate oil's downturn before it went from blip to "bloodbath" (March 10, Fortune)?

In his timeless Traders Classroom eBook "14 Critical Lessons Every Trader Should Know," Elliott Wave International's senior instructor Jeffrey Kennedy asserts that the #1 "fatal flaw" for any trader is a "lack of methodology." Writes Jeffrey:

"If you aim to be a consistently successful trader, then you must have a defined trading methodology, which is simply a clear and concise way of looking at markets.

"If you don't have a defined trading methodology, then you don't have a way to know what constitutes a buy or sell signal.

"Moreover, you can't even consistently correctly identify the trend."

So, it's not just about having a methodology. It's about having the right methodology.

In the case of crude oil, many oil participants rely on the mainstream methodology known as fundamental analysis. It says market trends are driven by external events related to that market. As of March 30, the event responsible for crude's 2020 crash is the coronavirus, and the substantial contraction in fuel demand that has resulted from the ongoing, virus-driven travel bans.

Said one March 30 BBC:

"Coronavirus: Oil price collapses to lowest level for 18 years... The price of oil has sunk to levels not seen since 2002 as demand for crude collapses amid the coronavirus pandemic."

That is now, March 30, 70% down and three months into crude's crash.

But what about then, in early January, when oil prices orbited an 8-month high near $70 per barrel?

The coronavirus was barely a dot on crude oil's radar, having taken just two lives and sickened 45 all overseas. As one health expert predicted in a January 17 New York Times:

"There will probably be cases in the United States at some point, but we believe the current risk from the virus to the general public is low."

COVID-19 wasn't the bearish news event oil experts were watching; the bullish escalating tensions in the Middle East -- set off by the January 3 US drone attack which killed the "second most powerful man in Iran" General Qassem Soleimani -- were. A series of retaliations by Iran followed, culminating in Iran's threat to block exports of oil through the vital gateway the Strait of Hormuz. Wrote one January 8 CNBC:

"Oil prices will climb above $100 a barrel if Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz."

Added another news source: "An extended period of conflict in the region will support prices by fueling uncertainty, even as alternative suppliers step up." (Oil and Gas Journal)

Yet -- instead of the ongoing conflict supporting prices, oil turned down on January 6 and didn't look back. The fundamental methodology failed to prepare traders, either for the direction or the depth of that turn.

The methodology known as the Wave Principle did both.

Meet the Elliott Wave Principle, Esquire

In his Trader's Classroom eBook "14 Critical Lessons Every Trader Should Know," Jeffrey half-jokes that the best trading methodologies are so simple, they can "fit on the back of a business card."

And in his January 17 Commodity Junctures Service, Jeffrey used the tools and rules of the Wave Principle to identify an alternate bearish wave count for crude oil that called for prices to be slashed in half from current levels. In Jeffrey's words:

"The big narrative when you start looking at the weekly and monthly crude oil charts is -- any strength we see is going to fail."

The basis of Jeffrey's bearish analysis was the possibility that wave 2 was over, setting the stage for a third wave decline. Pictured below: Jeffrey's January 17 Commodity Juncture Service chart of crude oil followed by an idealized diagram of an Elliott third wave.

Note the timing of Jeffrey's January 17 bearish oil forecast. It occurred before the very first coronavirus travel restrictions were enforced on January 23, and before the OPEC+ "price war" began on March 6.

Soon after, on February 7, Jeffrey's near-term sister service Daily Commodity Junctures confirmed that oil's trend was now down and said,

"It's basically telling us that the high of the year is in place in crude oil and we will fall to $33 a barrel -- at minimum."

The next chart captures the action: Oil prices took the downside in earnest, plunging below $33 per barrel as anticipated by Jeffrey's January 17 bearish wave count.

The crude oil crash is just one real-world example of the danger of not having a methodology that leads trend changes, rather than follows them.

In his Trader's Classroom eBook "14 Critical Lessons Every Trader Should Know," Jeffrey expounds on all 5 "fatal flaws" of trading and offers original charts and lessons that stand the test of time.

In Jeffrey's words:

"Trading successfully is not easy. It's hard work...damn hard. And if anyone leads you to believe otherwise, run the other way, and fast.

"But this hard work can be rewarding, above-average gains are possible and the sense of satisfaction one feels after a few nice trades is absolutely priceless."

Get instant access to the complete, 45-page eBook today by joining the rapidly growing Club EWI community -- absolutely FREE. Get started now!

This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International and was originally published under the headline . EWI is the world's largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts led by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




THE State is to provide a 15m emergency package to ferry companies to keep supply lines open during the coronavirus crisis.

The proposal was brought to government by Transport Minister Shane Ross and the plan was among a number of coronavirus-related issues considered by ministers today.

The Cabinet agreed to designate five sailing routes as public service obligation routes, four of which operate from Rosslare in Co Wexford and one from Dublin.

The decision was taken following a request for assistance from a number of ferry companies in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Minister Paul Kehoe said the move was essential in order to keep the routes from Rosslare viable.

This emergency measure is extremely welcome given the huge collapse in tourism that is affecting the entire industry.

"It is also vital to ensure the protection of supply chains.

I will work with Transport Minister Shane Ross to ensure all is done to protect Rosslare.

The routes that will be supported are Rosslare to Cherbourg, Bilbao, Pembroke and Fishguard as well as Dublin to Cherbourg.

A Department of Transport statement said the sum involved in the emergency package will be a maximum contribution of 15m towards the costs involved in the continued operation of passenger ferry services on these routes over a period of up to three months.

The support package will be restricted to the five designated routes and will be targeted at compensating the gap between specified costs and revenues generated on the services.

The details of this will be established in contracts with the ferry companies.

Transport companies will continue to pay shipping companies for the services on these routes as usual.

Mr Ross said: "Measures to control the coronavirus pandemic have now practically stopped passenger traffic on combined Passenger/Roll-on Roll-off ferries on the Southern and Continental routes to and from Ireland.

"This revenue is necessary for the operations economic viability.

"Because of this, it has become clear that urgent measures are necessary to assist in the continuation of Roll-On Roll Off freight transport on these services over the next few months."

He added that the routes in question are of strategic importance to Ireland "because they ensure the robustness and resilience of Irelands lifeline supply chain which is critically important at this time for the movement of goods, including food and medical supplies, into and out of Ireland."

Around 25pc of Ireland's freight traffic is carried on the Southern and Continental corridor.

Mr Ross also said: "These routes also provide alternatives and maintain contingency options to the main route into and out of Dublin during COVID-19.

"In addition, it is critically important that these services are operating when the economic activity resumes in the coming months and we prepare for Brexit.
TRENTON  For the first time since the pandemic hit, Mercer County released a town-by-town breakdown of coronavirus cases here.

The data, released Tuesday afternoon, showed that Hamilton was temporarily leading the county in positive cases with 165, followed by Trenton (148) and East Windsor (140).

The numbers reflected Mondays total, and were outdated by the end of Tuesday, as Trenton retook the lead with its case total approaching 200, and Hamilton reporting 183 cases, with three deaths, by the close of business.

That figure included at least 12 township residents who recovered from the virus.

Overall, Mercer County now has 837 positive cases, according to the Department of Health, including 24 deaths.

This was the countys daily breakdown by municipality after Monday:

Statewide, the figures soared over 50,500 infections and more than 1,200 deaths.

Gov. Phil Murphy has already locked down the state, closing schools and non-essential businesses and banning social gatherings. He further restricted movement in the state by shutting down county and state parks on Tuesday.

Hamilton Mayor Jeff Martin soon followed suit, shuttering all parks, including Veterans and Sayen and any neighborhood parks. Mercer County parks had also remained open until Tuesday.

While I wanted all parks to remain open, I am concerned that if our parks remain open, they would not be able to safely handle the additional visitors, he said in a statement. It would put your safety, and the safety of our parks employees, in jeopardy and I cannot take that chance.

Mercer County Brian Hughes announced last week the county would begin compiling the numbers from each of Mercers 12 municipalities after it got calls from residents wanting that information.

Murphy was asked about the four counties in the state that werent providing town-by-town breakdowns, but demurred saying it was a county call.

Because New Jersey is a home rule state, with no centralized agency overseeing the state public health system, coronavirus reporting had been piecemeal in Mercer County. The numbers are fed to local health officers, who then relay them to state officials.

Some municipalities, like Princeton and West Windsor, provide detailed daily breakdowns of the cases on their websites, while other townships give little or no information or simply parrot the countys daily release of local figures provided by the state Department of Health.

And The Trentonian had little luck getting each municipality each day to report its numbers.

The county tracking is one thing Hughes has done right, lately.

He had been criticized for shutting down county government and leaving local mayors to fend for themselves. Trentons Mayor Reed Gusciora ripped the county executive during a daily conference call, laying into him with a string of expletives.

While testing efforts were mobilized elsewhere in the state, the county took weeks to open a testing center here.

It finally did open a drive-thru center at Quaker Bridge Mall in Lawrence, but its available only to adult residents by appointment and with a doctors order saying theyre symptomatic.
This is the first time since January when the authorities began reporting deaths. Quarantine remains in some Wuhan residential compounds. Hong Kong extends airport closure to foreign travellers indefinitely.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies)  China reported no coronavirus deaths yesterday. This is the first time since January when the National Health Commission began reporting deaths.

There were however 32 new cases, all people arriving from abroad, bringing the total to almost 82,000, including 1,033 asymptomatic patients. More than 3,331 people have died.

Although doubts surround the accuracy of government figures, for observers the trend is certainly towards an improvement in the overall situation.

In Wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic, the lockdown is set to be lifted tomorrow.

Residents in the capital of Hubei province will be free to leave the city for the first time since 23 January. Some residential compounds will remain locked down because of the presence of asymptomatic cases.

The authorities are now concerned that a second wave of infections could be brought in by foreign arrivals and returning residents.

The same is the case in Hong Kong, which recorded 24 new cases on Monday, six locally transmitted, for a total of 914 cases, more than double from a fortnight ago.

Local authorities responded by extending the airport closure to international flights indefinitely.

Local residents returning to the city must spend 14 days in solitary confinement at home. Quarantine is also imposed on anyone coming from mainland China, Macau and Taiwan.

China has also reduced international flights with both Chinese and foreign airlines only allowed to operate one international flight a week. Passenger and cargo flights must not be more than 75 per cent full.
Jet2 has cancelled all flights and holidays until mid-June because restrictions put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic show no sign of easing.

The travel firm, which is Britain's second-biggest holiday company and owned by Dart Group, said in a statement that its holidays and flights would not now restart until June 17, and it would contact customers to discuss their options.

It comes just days after the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) warned Britons against all non-essential travel abroad indefinitely.

Tour operator Jet2 has cancelled all flights and holidays until June 17 due to the coronavirus crisis

A spokeswoman from Jet2 said: 'We are keeping this decision under constant review, in line with guidance from governments and the relevant authorities.'

A spokesman for Tui, Britain's biggest holiday company, said it would provide an update on its plans shortly.

Meanwhile, UK-based budget airline easyJet, which also has a holiday business, has grounded its flights until further notice and British Airways has told customers to keep checking its website for bookings for travel after May 31.

Holiday customers in Britain should be refunded for cancelled trips within 14 days but many have experienced delays due to the sheer number requiring reimbursement and the travel slump causing cash flow problems for many companies.

Last month, a 30-day advisory was put in place by the FCO warning Britons against all non-essential foreign travel until April 15.

But on Saturday an update was announced by the FCO on Twitter.

It said: 'The Foreign Office indefinitely advises against all non-essential global travel.'

On Saturday, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) warned Britons against all non-essential travel abroad indefinitely

The FCO said British travellers may not be able to return to the UK if they travel abroad. Pictured is an empty arrivals hall at Heathrow's Terminal 5 on April 3

And it added: 'The situation is changing rapidly. Travellers could face severe disruption and be unable to return to the UK.'

It also quietly updated its website to say: 'FCO extends advice against travelling overseas for an indefinite period.'

The FCO also said it was 'ramping up' efforts to bring home thousands of British travellers stranded overseas due to the coronavirus crisis.

Flights have been chartered to bring home Britons from Bolivia, Ecuador, the Philippines and India.
Heres a look at various testing methods available as the WHO stresses the need to aggressively test for COVID-19.

We have a simple message to all countries  test, test, test, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last month in a press briefing on measures to fight the coronavirus pandemic in the Swiss city of Geneva.

And health experts worldwide have backed the World Health Health Organization (WHO) director general, saying the best way to fight the pandemic is to flatten the transmission curve in order to prevent a sharp spike in cases as seen in Italy and Spain.

Tedros and other experts agree that mass testing for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, would allow positive cases to be isolated and help identify those who came in contact with them, helping to curb further transmission.

But how does testing happen and how does it help? Here is what you need to know about coronavirus testing:

What coronavirus tests are available?

NAAT tests

The most commonly used coronavirus tests are the WHO-recommended Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests (NAAT), which detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the COVID-19 disease.

The specimen is usually collected from the upper respiratory tract using the nasopharyngeal swab technique  in which a sample is gathered from the throat behind the nose, containing a mixture of mucous and saliva.

The RT-PCR testing process can take up to 3-4 hours [File: Edgard Garrido/Reuters]

Samples are brought to a specialised laboratory and tested for SARS-CoV-2 using a real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) assay  a method used to detect the presence of specific genetic material from a pathogen.

From reputable laboratories, they [NAAT] are very reliable, Anna Wald, head of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Division at University of Washington, told Al Jazeera.

Wald said that while the technique was good and did not warrant any improvements, it was just not available enough.

The testing process can take up to 3-4 hours, with results available to patients within several days in most countries.

Serological tests

A serological test is used to detect antibodies present in blood serum. Antibodies are proteins produced by white blood cells to fight foreign bodies such as antigens.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the serum includes antibodies to specific components of pathogens, called antigens  recognised by the immune system as foreign and are targeted by the immune response.

According to authors of a recent pre-print, but yet to be peer-reviewed study, serological tests can help detect the rate of infection in a community, and hence determine the rate of mortality from the disease.

The study also asserts the test can help identify individuals who have developed antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, allowing them to serve as donors to those currently infected with COVID-19.

Scientist Linqi Zhang in his laboratory where he researches COVID-19 antibodies for possible use in a drug at Tsinghua Universitys Research Center for Public Health in Beijing [File: Thomas Peter /Reuters]

For some, it is too early to tell exactly how effective serology tests will be in tackling COVID-19.

It is not clear if they will be a game-changer at this time, Waleed Javaid, director of Infection Prevention and Control at Mount Sinai in New York, told Al Jazeera.

Serology tests tell you about possible infection or exposure in the past, but not if you are currently infectious, he said.

Currently, serology tests are in developing stages for both commercial and non-commercial use, and only a handful of countries like China and Singapore use it for coronavirus testing.

On April 2, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first serological test produced by biotechnology company Cellex, that tests for coronavirus antibodies in blood obtained from pricking a finger. The test can reveal if a person has COVID-19 in approximately 15 minutes, the company claims.

Who will get tested?

Testing for coronavirus in most parts of the world is largely prioritised for those above 65 and severely ill patients.

Many people who show mild symptoms are unlikely to get tested in countries such as the United States, often due to lack of testing kits.

The WHO has recommended that if a person tests positive, it is important to figure out those they came into close contact with up to two days before they developed symptoms and test those people too, but only those who show symptoms.

Where can you get tested?

In most countries, coronavirus tests take place largely in specialised labs and medical facilities like hospitals and clinics.

However, in recent weeks, some countries like Germany, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea have opened up testing centres outside of traditional hospital settings.

In South Korea, many cities have started authorising road-side tests, touted to cut testing time to about a third, while also lowering the risk of catching the virus  since the individual is in his vehicle. The entire process is believed to take approximately 10 minutes.

A drive-through sampling site is developed to overcome bottleneck in sampling process, Lee Hyukmin of the Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, told Al Jazeera.

Medical staff wearing protective suites work to take samples from drivers with suspected symptoms of the coronavirus at a drive-through virus test facility in Goyang, South Korea [Ahn Young-joon/AP]

It is a good solution for rapid sampling. In Korea, the sampling process is very time-consuming because of bio-safety issues to protect healthcare personnel. So, enough tests cannot be done even with early expansion of lab capacity, Hyukmin added.

Several companies in the US claim to have created home-based coronavirus kits.

However, the US Food and Drug Administration has strongly asserted that it has not authorised any test that is available to purchase for testing yourself at home for COVID-19.

In Bangladesh, researchers have produced a testing kit which they say can detect SaRs-CoV-2 antibodies in 15 minutes. The kits, which have been approved by the Bangladeshi government for production, cost a mere $3 each.

Researchers in Senegal announced in late March a new home-based coronavirus test that costs approximately $1  and can detect an active infection using a saliva swab, or a previously undetected case using an at-home finger-prick blood test to that identifies antibodies to the virus.

Infectious diseases specialist at the University Health Network in Toronto Abdu Sharkawy believes home-based kits would allow a significant expansion of testing. But he added that home tests are more likely to be less sensitive than lab-based tests.

Is mass testing feasible?

Germany and South Korea have been widely praised for their efforts to aggressively test for coronavirus on a mass scale, with the former claiming it has the capacity to conduct 500,000 tests a week.

However, for many countries, especially middle/low-income nations, testing on a large scale may not be feasible.

I think the unique challenges in low and middle-income countries, many of which are recognised as having high burdens of (other) diseases, may be more related to the lack of financial safety net, Maia Lesosky of Cape Town University in South Africa, told Al Jazeera.

Elaborating further, Lesosky said the choice to implement mass testing for a new disease could very well take away the capacity to diagnose or treat existing diseases.





In the context of her own country, South Africa, one the worst affected countries in Africa, Lesosky said it was a large country and not all areas are easily accessible, which translates directly into logistical challenges in reaching remote communities to provide testing.

Anything was possible with enough funding, she said, however, in the absence of it, the benefits of mass testing need to be weighed carefully against potential drawbacks.

Moreover, Lesosky stressed: mass testing  can be beneficial only if it is closely tied to public health programmes to limit further spread, such as separate testing and treatment facilities and restriction of public gathering.

This may be of greater challenge where healthcare systems are less robust, she added.
SALES

Springvale

Undeterred by the uncertainty in the property sector, a local investor has splashed out almost $13.5 million on a 71-bed residential aged care centre at 340-344 Springvale Road leased to listed aged care group Japara Healthcare. Japara are paying $750,000 per annum. This reflects a strong benchmark yield for the social infrastructure and healthcare sector, transacting to a 5.6 per cent yield, according to Savills Australias Julian Heatherich, Benson Zhou and Mark Stafford. Despite the current uncertainty and volatile market sentiment more generally, we saw strong demand throughout the campaign and received multiple offers, Mr Heatherich said.

Dandenong South

Pomeroy Pacific and McLaren Developments have sold a petrol station at 247-263 Greens Road at the entrance to the Logis Eco-Industrial Park for $8 million to an interstate investor. Jones Real Estates Tim Spargo and Paul Jones negotiated the deal on a net yield of 5.35 per cent after signing up United Petroleum as the sites tenant on a 15-year lease at $450,000 per annum. It was the second service station sold by the same developers in the past nine months. Another at 1050 Thompsons Road in Cranbourne West (also leased to United Petroleum) fetched around $5 million.
Its tough to find a bigger bull on delinquent Chinese debt than Benjamin Fanger. The Mandarin-speaking founder of ShoreVest Partners, a Guangzhou-based asset manager, built his firm around the idea that theres money to be made from the nations growing pile of distressed credit. He says the opportunity is larger now than at any time in the 15 years since he started analyzing Chinas nonperforming loans, or NPLs. He predicts it will only get bigger.

Fanger also says the $1.5 trillion-plus market is full of pitfalls. If you dont have experience, it can be very risky, says the 43-year-old University of Chicago Booth School of Business alum, whose team has purchased more than 15,000 Chinese NPLs since 2004.

Distressed Chinese debt is attracting increased global attention, with defaults soaring even before the coronavirus pandemic and with President Xi Jinpings government peeling back restrictions on international investors. In an era that could prove to be another global economic crisis, Chinese debt is counterintuitively looking more safe, Fanger says.



Oaktree Capital Group , the credit-investing behemoth led by Howard Marks, in February opened a wholly owned unit in Beijing to buy NPLs. The potential rewards are juicy. Fangers team has generated double-digit internal rates of return on all of its NPL portfolios, according to a ShoreVest offering document seen by Bloomberg Markets. By comparison, Bloombergs benchmark index for junk bonds in the U.S. yielded about 6% before a virus-induced spike in late March. In Europe, rates on some corporate bonds are negative.

Global money managers desperate for yield have a growing universe of beaten-down Chinese debt to choose from. The country had $1.5 trillion of NPLs and other stressed assets at the end of 2019, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. And S&P Global Ratings estimates that past-due loans could jump by $800 billion if the coronavirus epidemic turns into a prolonged health emergency.

Even if Chinas economy bounces back quickly, delinquencies may continue to rise. The countrys ruling Communist Party, which enabled one of the biggest credit booms in world history over the past decade by providing implicit guarantees for corporate borrowers, is now trying to tap the brakes. Policymakers have made it clear that bailouts are no longer a given; even some state-owned companies are defaulting on their bonds.

But buyer beware. Veterans of distressed investing in the West may find their playbooks of little use in China. So Bloomberg Markets asked Fanger, Marks, and other specialists how to navigate the minefield. Below are some of the key takeaways.

Avoid social unrest

This is one of Fangers guiding principles, and it applies to more than just layoffs and idled factories. When considering real estate debt, for instance, he avoids situations that might force people from their homes. If a developer got into a cash-flow bind and has contractual purchase and sale agreements with families who think they are buying units, when you go to the court to enforce, the court is likely to delay, he says.

Another tricky area: companies that issued debt to individual savers through asset management products or peer-to-peer lending platforms. If retail investors invest in mezzanine debt sold through these products and you buy a senior loan, there could be social unrest if retail investors know they are going to be wiped out, Fanger says. The upshot: Think twice before buying that senior loan. While Chinas government has shown an increased willingness in recent years to let its citizens bear the brunt of poor investment choices, authorities are still loath to make decisions that might send angry people out into the streets.

State support matters

One of the biggest challenges of buying Chinese corporate debt is working out the borrowers ties to the government, says Soo Cheon Lee, chief investment officer at SC Lowy, a credit-focused banking and investment firm. China is not about the financials, its about relationships, Lee says. Thats driving a lot of the liquidity available to a company. You really need to understand the local landscape, and its difficult for foreign players to understand who has that connection or support from the state.

Sometimes a Chinese company will appear to be in dire straits, only to come up with the cash for a debt payment at the last minute, Lee says. For most of the companies in Asia, we know two weeks before whether they have financing or if they are going to restructure, he says. I think its very unique for China to not be able to predict a default.

Some firms are not what they appear to be, Lee says. If you are truly a state-owned enterprise, he says, you will continue to get support from the government or state-owned banks. But when we look at companies that claim to be SOEs but arent really SOEs, we see theyre having some difficulties.

Develop local expertise

For CarVal Investors, which oversees about $10 billion in credit and alternative assets, getting comfortable with China meant tapping the local knowledge of Shanghai Wensheng Asset Management, a distressed debt specialist. The two firms have teamed up to purchase two portfolios of NPLs since 2018.

Today there are domestic investors and servicers that have experience, and that leads to a much better opportunity if you can team with a smart local investor, says Avery Colcord, a Singapore-based managing director at CarVal whos spent about two decades in China. He says the firm would like to buy more NPLs but has taken a cautious approach after aggressive bidding by some domestic managers pushed up valuations. At Oaktree, Marks says the firm has also been moving slowly as it builds local expertise. Were feeling our way and getting used to a new market, he says.

Sweat the details

One major advantage of having a strong local team is that its more likely to notice the little things that can make or break an investment, says Ron Thompson, managing director of Alvarez & Marsal Asia, who leads the firms restructuring practice. Property-related deals in particular often require extreme levels of due diligence. If you have the whole building, its easier, but if you have just the third floor, you have to figure out who owns everything else, Thompson says. You have the third floor, but the elevator might be controlled by the debtor, or the mafia. Will you be able to access the floor? Who else can buy it?

Savvy borrowers will frequently structure their debt in ways that give them leverage. For instance, you take a block of land, divide it into five, and deliberately default on the middle piece first, Thompson says. Thats really worth nothing, because theres no access. And then the debtor will buy it back, gradually aggregate it, and theyll only pay market value on the last piece.

Thompson stresses the importance of hiring lawyers who know their way around the domestic court system. While Chinese authorities have pledged to move toward a more efficient and predictable process for dealing with defaults and restructurings, judges in small, poorer provinces are more inclined to help out down-on-their-luck entrepreneurs. Going more for local insight is critical in China, Thompson says. There are things you could miss without it.

Liquidity is key

Distressed debt managers in China sometimes overestimate the liquidity of a loans collateral, says James Dilley, a Hong Kong-based partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Its crucial because selling assets is often the only way for creditors to get repaid quickly.

Many distressed situations involve real estate, which requires understanding local property markets. It might be easier, for example, to find buyers for a building in more developed provinces on Chinas eastern seaboard, such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, than in less populated inland cities. Some investors have seen their returns suffer because property sales took longer than expected, Dilley says, and getting that right is key.

Bloomberg
Beijing, April 7 : Samsung has issued a new update for the Galaxy S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra in China which brings the April security patch as well as some camera improvements.

The update improves focus, HDR and fine-tunes the transition animations.

"Four days after updating the TCT firmware, China updated the Galaxy S20 series firmware TD1 again, once again improving the focus, HDR, and fine-tuning the transition animation. There are other improvements to be discovered," tweeted tipster Ice Universe (@UniverseIce).

The smartphone maker recently rolled out an update for its flagship Galaxy S20, which apparently focuses on camera and autofocus qualms.

The update was rolled out in international regions to Exynos variants of the Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra.

The company in February released a software update that cites camera improvements.
The minutes, signed upon the Trilateral Contact Group meeting in Minsk on March 11, 2020, are a working paper that is declarative in nature and does not foresee legal consequences, including the legitimization of the agency of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky made a corresponding statement in his response to the electronic petition No.22/088960-ep demanding the immediate withdrawal of the signatures of the representative of Ukraine and the approval of the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine under the minutes of the Trilateral Contact Group meeting held in Minsk on March 11, 2020.

"A working paper  meeting minutes  was signed upon the TCG meeting in Minsk on March 11, 2020. It is declarative in nature and does not provide for legal consequences (commencement of obligations of the parties), including the legitimization of the agency of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The minutes are not an international treaty as defined in Article 2 of the Law of Ukraine "On International Treaties of Ukraine", therefore authorization by the President of Ukraine to sign/decide to withdraw signatures under a working paper of the TCG meeting in Minsk on March 11, 2020 is not regulated by law," Zelensky explains.

He noted that the composition of the TCG was clearly defined in the preamble to the minutes upon the consultations of the Trilateral Contact Group on joint steps aimed at implementing the peace plan of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and the initiatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin of September 5, 2014, and the memorandum on the implementation of the minutes upon the consultations of the Trilateral Contact Group on steps to implement the Peace Plan of the presidents of Ukraine and Russia of September 19, 2014.

"The invitees from temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine may be involved in discussions within the TCG and in its working subgroups, including any consultative mechanisms, exclusively with consent reached in the trilateral format  between Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE," the Head of State emphasized.

It is envisaged that the Consultative Council should become a technical tool with advisory functions within the TCG political subgroup to discuss the issues with the participation of Ukrainian citizens  both IDPs and Ukrainians residing in the temporarily occupied territories.

As a reminder, at the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on the peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas on March 11, attended by Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak and Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation Dmitry Kozak, an agreement was reached on the establishment of the Consultative Council within the TCG political subgroup after the consultations with the representatives of the OSCE, France, and Germany on the implementation of the agreements reached during the Normandy format summit.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 23:57:56|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Djibouti Ministry of Health disclosed on Tuesday the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the horn of Africa nation has soared to 121.

These figures were reached after 31 more people were confirmed on Tuesday to have been infected with COVID-19 virus.

"We conducted medical tests on 450 people in the last 24 hours, with 31 people testing positive for COVID-19," according to the ministry.

"We declare nine people who tested positive for COVID-19 and were hospitalized have recovered," said Salah Banoita Tourab, Djiboutian health minister said in a press statement.

Djibouti confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 18.

Djibouti, which lies on a key location connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, hosts a number of foreign military bases and is the main sea outlet for landlocked Ethiopia.
Is the White House Correspondents Association Enabling Communist Propaganda at Presidential Briefings?

Commentary

A hard and fast rule should be instituted immediately for White House press briefings: Journalists should be required to announce their names and media affiliations before asking a question.

That mayI repeat, mayhave avoided the startling occurrence at the April 6 coronavirus briefing when a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agent masquerading as a reporter (an all-too-obvious cover to anyone even remotely familiar with spy fiction) began to spout propaganda before launching a bogus query to the president of the when did you stop beating your wife? ilk.

At least the rule would be a start, though few in the U.S. television audience would recognize Phoenix Media, a supposedly private Hong Kong operation that, besides being owned partly (10 percent) by the CCP directly, has as its primary owner (37.1 percent) Liu Changle, a former propaganda officer for the Peoples Liberation Army and what was then known as the Central Peoples Broadcasting System (now bowdlerized as China National Radio).

As they say, if it walks like a duckits a red duck.

Nevertheless, with the apparent acquiescence of the White House Correspondents Association (WHCAwho current rotating head is ABCs Jonathan Karl) that traditionally controls access, Youyou Wang, a young woman from Phoenix Media, was somehow admitted to the coveted foreign journalist position in the White House briefing room. (These difficult-to-obtain seats are even more sparse due to extended coronavirus spacing.)

There, in the grand tradition of Tokyo Rose, she was able to launch a screed about how China (read: the CCP) was being so generous to the United States and other nations by shipping them masks, ventilators, and the restthis, although it is now well known that Chinaamong its many novel coronavirus-related malfeasanceshoarded and even imported staggering amounts (billions, actually) of those same materials before announcing the virus to the world.

Trump, either by advance warning or instinct (the CCP has been engaged in this particular coverup for some time), was having none of it and asked immediately, Who are you working for, China? The woman, of course, denied it, claiming she was employed by a private enterpriseshe hadnt identified herself at firstbut clearly the president, as anyone interested now knows, was right.

What concerns me, however, isnt anotherin this case, mostly unsuccessfulCCP propagandist from the world of journalism. It is how and why she was able to get into a position to make her dubious pronouncements before the president of the United States and an audience that has gone as high as 8 million of our fellow citizens.

Perhaps she was in the queue for the natural rotation for the single foreign journalist seat. Or perhaps someone moved her ahead in the line. (Some have pointed the finger at Karl, no friend of Trumps, but there is no concrete evidence he would go so far as to give preference to communist propaganda.)

Lets hope it was that rotation, but if so, the WHCA might be well advised to examine their vetting process. We all believe in freedom of the press and freedom of speech, but using White House press conferences as a platform for dogmatic lies during a pandemic can be construed as the journalistic equivalent of yelling fire in a crowded theater.

Transparency on the part of the WHCA is called for, but unfortunately, the workings of that association are far from transparent. They have been accused of elitism and favoritism toward established mainstream media entities for some time. They function almost as a cartel protecting the front row positions of the networks that have endured for decades.

That the association is best known to the public for sponsoring a televised annual glamour dinner (also known as the nerd prom and mercifully canceled this year for obvious reasons) only enhances a snobbish, elitist reputation that isnt congruent with a healthy and open press in a democratic republic.

Early in the Trump administration, some effort was given to democratize the atmosphere in the press room. This seems to have largely gone by the wayside in the welter of events. Perhaps in a second Trump administration, this could be reinstituted, as well as, more immediately, the aforementioned proposal that journalists identify themselves to the public before launching into what are often accusatory questions. They owe us that much.

Roger L. Simon is The Epoch Times senior political columnist. He is the author of many books and films. His most recent is The GOAT.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
BRIDGEPORT  Police and health department officials will begin enforcing the 8 p.m. shutdown of bodegas, variety stores and other still-open businesses on Wednesday.

I call it ramp up and clamp down, Mayor Joe Ganim said Monday during his daily briefing. Theres going to be increased police presence and patrols using lights and public address systems ... We will disrupt people gathering-in, we will disrupt the overflow of people coming in (to the parks) from out of town.

The mayor said police and health officials are particularly going to enforce the shutdown for businesses now staying open until 1, 2, 3 oclock in the morning. Thats going to stop.

Beginning Wednesday, he said, in addition to a greater police presence and city personnel to enforce closures and disperse groups, there will be signage at intersections and exit ramps urging people to stay home.

The mayor said a the level of inconsistency still exists of people going out, using the closed parks, playgrounds and congregating near bodegas and variety stores.

Theres no one out there saying its good to gather in a large group, its good to be within six feet of each other, its good to ignore and be out and about. No one is saying that in the medical community, Ganim said. This is a national crisis. Its a call to action.

The mayor said the next two to three weeks are going to be critical.

If you have anything to do between now and Wednesday, get it done, the mayor said.

Ganim said Bridgeport has been staying relatively ahead of the curve in terms of COVID-19 infections. As of Monday, he said there were 196 confirmed cases with three deaths.

The mayor said he engaged in a lengthy call Sunday with hospital and health care leaders.

He said the local healthcare professionals have requested at least 10 more ventilators and N95, KN95 and surgical style face masks.

Were putting a call out to anyone who has them, he said. If you have them and you can help our hospitals, we will facilitate getting them to them through our emergency management office.

He also urged anyone who knows how more ventilators can be acquired to contact his office.

At this time, he said, Bridgeport Hospital is using about 48 percent of its 501 beds and St. Vincents Medical Center is using about 48 percent of its 473 beds.

The mayor said he is working to have a citywide prayer on Thursday.

He also reminded parents that beginning Friday, there will be no more Board of Education personnel distributing teaching materials since that will mark the start of a weeklong April vacation. Grab-and-Go meals will not be distributed on Friday.
Victims of Chads former dictator Hissene Habre fear that his recently granted prison furlough could set the stage for a full release, one their lawyers said Tuesday.

The 78-year-old was jailed in Senegal in 2016 over abuses committed during years of iron-fisted rule in Chad, but his supporters have stepped up a campaign for his release over the past year.

On Monday, a judge in Senegals capital Dakar granted Habre two months of prison leave over coronavirus fears, sparking concerns about an eventual release.

Habre seized power in the semi-desert country in 1982, fleeing to Senegal in 1990 after he was in turn overthrown.

Some 40,000 people are estimated to have been killed under his rule in the former French colony.

The ex-dictator was eventually arrested, then convicted in 2016 of war crimes and crimes against humanity, at an African Union-backed trial in Dakar, where he is serving his sentence.

On Tuesday, one of the lawyers who represented Habres victims told AFP that the ex-dictators supporters had for the past year waged a concerted campaign to secure his full release.

The concern is that this could be a disguised release, said Reed Brody, the human rights lawyer.

While the government has stated very clearly that Habre will return to prison, Brody added, the fear is that the ex-dictator could use his wealth to up the ante in his release campaign.

A judge on Monday granted 60 days of leave to Habre, after his lawyer argued that the septuagenarians age left him particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic.

Habre is currently under house arrest at his home in Ouakam, a district in Dakar, until he returns to prison.

Senegal has recorded 237 cases of coronavirus to date, with two deaths.
OTTAWA - The federal government is stepping up efforts to produce ventilators, face masks and surgical gowns in Canada, while it continues to try to get millions of pieces of equipment ordered from international suppliers actually shipped to the country.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA - The federal government is stepping up efforts to produce ventilators, face masks and surgical gowns in Canada, while it continues to try to get millions of pieces of equipment ordered from international suppliers actually shipped to the country.

That includes an order of 500,000 N95 respirator masks from Minnesota-based 3M, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said should arrive in Canada on Wednesday, while acknowledging the duel with U.S. President Donald Trump over medical supplies is not entirely over. 3M reached a deal with the White House to continue delivering its products to Canada and Latin America late Monday.

"We continue to work with Americans," Trudeau said in his daily briefing to Canadians outside his Ottawa home Tuesday.

"As I've said, we've had constructive and productive conversations that have assured that this particular shipment comes through, but we recognize there is still more work to do," he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland later added that there are more shipments expected from 3M and all of them should arrive as expected, but that there are orders with other U.S. suppliers that have not been given clearance to be exported yet.

Canada's main argument to the United States is that they are reliant on raw materials, manufactured goods and health-care professionals from Canada, and that both countries will do better if neither blocks those supplies or people from crossing the border.

As of Tuesday, Canada has recorded more than 380 deaths due to COVID-19, and hundreds of Canadians remain hospitalized in critical condition fighting the respiratory illness. Nationally, the number of confirmed cases grew to just under 17,900.

Quebec on Tuesday projected that in the best-case scenario, COVID-19 will peak in that province in about 11 days, and kill 1,263 people by the end of April. In the worst-case scenario, more than 8,860 Quebecers will die in that timeframe, though provincial officials anticipate the final outcome based on current data will fall closer to the best-case numbers.

Later, Alberta unveiled a probable scenario, which projects between 400 and 3,100 deaths by the end of the summer. An elevated scenario would have between 500 and 6,600 deaths.

Last week, Ontario estimated between 3,000 and 15,000 Ontarians will die of COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic.

The federal government has not yet released national projections.

The main message from Ottawa on Tuesday was about efforts to get the needed medical equipment. Procurement Minister Anita Anand said more than 230 million surgical masks and 75 million N95 respirator masks have been ordered but cautioned the global supply chain is so fragile they cannot guarantee how many of those will actually arrive.

A 3M mask which health care workers are in dire need of is shown in Mississauga, Ont., on Friday, April 3, 2020. Health officials and the government has asks that people stay inside to help curb the spread of the coronavirus also known as COVID-19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Front-line medical workers remain in desperate need of personal protective equipment, including gowns and N95 masks.

Trudeau said to ensure a stable supply, Canada has to make a lot more of these things at home  and that the country is not alone in not having what it needed on hand.

"The entire world was unprepared," he said.

Almost 5,000 Canadian companies stepped up with offers to help make needed equipment, including apparel companies making surgical gowns, using materials provided by construction and auto manufacturers. Canada did not produce the material typically used in the gowns, but some companies discovered material used in air bags or house wrap could work instead.

Trudeau also said Canada is working with several companies to get 30,000 new ventilators made in Canada. His office later clarified that only 1,020 new ventilators have actually been ordered, from Toronto-based Thornhill Medical. However, there are letters of intent with other companies for up to 29,000 more.

Access to ventilators is a main issue for treating critically ill patients with COVID-19-induced pneumonia, and a lack of ventilators in hard-hit countries like Italy forced doctors to choose which patients would get one and which would not.

As the virus started to rampage across Canada a few weeks ago, inventories found about 5,000 ventilators across the country and provinces have been trying to order more. Few provinces have indicated how many they think they need, and it's also hard to gauge exactly how many patients are on a ventilator right now because provinces report statistics differently.

On Tuesday, Quebec reported 164 patients in intensive care, but not specifically the number on ventilators. Ontario reported 233 patients in intensive care, of which 187 were on a ventilator, while Manitoba reported 12 hospitalized cases of COVID-19, and six in intensive care.

Ontario already placed an order for 10,000 new ventilators, and as of Monday had nearly 2,000 critical care beds with ventilator capacity, up from almost 1,300 a month ago. Ontario's COVID-19 projections released last week expect the illness to peak in late April, with at least 1,200 patients in intensive care.

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Meanwhile, federal aid packages to help unemployed workers and struggling companies are beginning to roll out this week.

Top-ups to GST rebates for lower-income Canadians are set to go out April 9, the same day the first Canadians might see their $2,000 from the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

Treasury Board President Jean-Yves Duclos said Tuesday more than 966,000 Canadians applied for the benefit Monday, the first day applications were accepted. That is, he said, about the same number of people who apply for employment insurance over six months. It also included only those with birthdays in the first three months of the year, as the government is staggering the application process to avoid overloading the system.

Nearly 3.7 million Canadians have now applied for employment insurance or the emergency benefit since mid-March, said Duclos, and more than three million applications have already been processed. Anyone who applied for EI because of COVID-19 after March 15, will automatically be processed by the CERB program instead.

The government's increased wage-subsidy plan is also moving forward. Trudeau said Tuesday the government shared its proposed legislation with opposition parties. They are now negotiating on when to hold an emergency session of the House of Commons to pass the bill.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2020


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: A case has been registered



against a group of six Malaysians on the charge of violating visa norms and not disclosing to the authorities about their attendance at the religious meeting in Delhi last month and staying in the city, police said on Tuesday.

The six Malaysians had come to Hyderabad on tourist visas last month and later went to New Delhi and attended the Tablighi Jamaat religious meeting there, and travelled back to the city but did not inform the local authorities about their stay here.

Based on information, a police team shifted them to the state-run Gandhi Hospital here for quarantine around one week ago and their medical test reports were pending,they said.

The Telangana government had earlier asked the persons who attended the religious gathering to voluntarily come forward and report to the officials.

The government also said it would be arrange for conducting tests for them and provide them with free treatment after at least six people, who attended the congregation last month, died in the state due to the coronavirus infection.

"The six Malaysians did not share information about their stay in Hyderabad and were booked under relevant IPC sections, the Epidemic Diseases Act, Disaster Management Act and Foreigners Act and for violating tourist visa norms", a police official told PTI.

On Monday, a case was registered against 10 Indonesians, who had attended the Tablighi Jamat congregation in Delhi last month and visited Karimnagar district and subsequently tested positive for coronavirus for alleged negligence and disobedience to the order issued by a public servant.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China on Tuesday reported no new deaths from the deadly coronavirus for the first time since it started publishing figures in January but the number of imported infections increased to 983 with 32 new confirmed cases, health officials said.

China's National Health Commission (NHC) on Tuesday said that no death was reported on Monday. The official death toll in China is 3,331.

It is a landmark in China's over two-month-long fight against the deadly virus as the country continued to report coronavirus deaths till Sunday, especially from the epicentre Hubei province.

The overall confirmed cases on the mainland have reached 81,740 by Monday, including 1,242 patients still being treated, 77,167 patients discharged after recovery, and 3,331 people died of the disease, the NHC said.

While no new domestically transmitted cases of the coronavirus were reported, 32 imported cases were reported on Monday taking their total to 983, it said.

A total of 30 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were reported on the mainland on Monday, including nine imported ones, it said.

Asymptomatic coronavirus cases are those who test positive for the virus but do not show any symptoms and have the potential to cause sporadic clusters of infections.

Last week, China began disclosing the number of asymptomatic cases for the first time, after growing public concerns over the potential of "silent" carriers to spread the disease.

The NHC said 1,033 asymptomatic cases were still under medical observation, including 275 from abroad.

By Monday, 914 confirmed cases, including four deaths have been reported in the Hong Kong, 44 confirmed cases in Macao and 373 in Taiwan including five deaths.

China for the first time issued an official timeline of coronavirus on Monday in which it stated that coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan in "late December 2019" where the infection was listed as "pneumonia of unknown cause", but skirted the key question about its origin.

In late last December, the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in central China's Hubei province detected cases of "pneumonia of unknown cause", state-run Xinhua agency reported, citing the 38-page timeline document.

China has faced criticism over COVID-19 crisis and Beijing has been accused of using its "propaganda" to hush-up coronavirus cases.

China and the US had a lengthy spat over origin of the virus.

While US President Donald Trump called COVID-19 as "China virus" and "Wuhan virus", Beijing said such allegations amounted to stigmatising China. Beijing said the origin of the COVID-19 can be determined only by scientific and professional views.

The US has accused China of delayed action resulting in the pandemic spreading to other countries, an allegation Beijing vehemently refuted asserting that it was working with the international community in an "open and highly responsible manner" to contain the global crisis.

According to estimates by the Johns Hopkins University, there are over 1.34 million confirmed coronavirus cases across the world and over 74,000 people have died of it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States  Tue, April 7, 2020 23:20 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd05f7f2 2 World New-York-City,Andrew-Cuomo,COVID-19-death-toll,health,coronavirus,COVID-19,infection,pandemic,global-crisis Free

New York state has recorded its highest number of COVID-19 deaths in 24 hours, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday, adding though that hospitalizations appeared to be "plateauing."

Cuomo said 731 people succumbed to the new coronavirus on Monday, bringing the state's total death toll to 5,489. The previous single-day record was 630, set on Friday.

New York has borne the brunt of America's deadly coronavirus pandemic, accounting for around half the number of deaths across the country.

COVID-19 has killed more than 11,000 people in the United States, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Cuomo said New York appeared be nearing the peak of its pandemic, with a three-day average of hospitalizations down.

He added that intensive care admissions and intubations had also declined.

"We're projecting that we're reaching a plateau in the number of hospitalizations," Cuomo told reporters.

He said social distancing was working, urging New Yorkers to continue to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary.

"I know it's hard but we have to keep doing it," Cuomo implored.

On Monday, the governor extended a shutdown until near the end of the month, ordering schools and non-essential businesses to remain closed until April 29.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said it was "too early to draw any definite conclusions" about whether the situation was improving in the Big Apple.

"I want to really make sure none of us in public life tell you we have turned a corner until we are absolutely certain," he told reporters.

Elsewhere, a crew member of the military hospital ship USNS Comfort tested positive for the virus, a navy spokesperson told AFP.

The vessel arrived in New York last month to relieve the burden on hospitals overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.

"The crew member is isolated from patients and other crew members. There is no impact to Comfort's mission, and this will not affect the ability for Comfort to receive patients," said the spokesperson.
NEW YORK, April 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market is expected to grow from USD 721.12 Million in 2018 to USD 5,545.12 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 33.83%.







Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05871808/?utm_source=PRN







The positioning of the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market vendors in FPNV Positioning Matrix are determined by Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) and placed into four quadrants (F: Forefront, P: Pathfinders, N: Niche, and V: Vital).



The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market including are Atheer, Inc., Augmedix, Inc., DAQRI, LLC, EchoPixel, Inc., FirstHand Technologies, Inc., Google LLC, Medical Realities ltd., Microsoft Corporation, MindMaze SA, Oculus VR, LLC., Osso VR Inc., Osterhout Design Group, Inc., Psico Smart Apps, S.L., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., and Surgical Theater, LLC..



On the basis of Component, the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market is studied across Hardware and Software.



On the basis of Device Type, the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market is studied across Handheld Device and Head-Mounted Display.



On the basis of Application, the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market is studied across Fitness Management, Medical Training & Education, Patient Care Management, Pharmacy Management, and Surgical Processes.



On the basis of End-user, the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market is studied across Academic & Research Institutes, Clinic, Defense Institutions, Diagnostics, Government & Public Sector, Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Companies, and Surgical Centers.



For the detailed coverage of the study, the market has been geographically divided into the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The report provides details of qualitative and quantitative insights about the major countries in the region and taps the major regional developments in detail.



In the report, we have covered two proprietary models, the FPNV Positioning Matrix and Competitive Strategic Window. The FPNV Positioning Matrix analyses the competitive market place for the players in terms of product satisfaction and business strategy they adopt to sustain in the market. The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies. The Competitive Strategic Window helps the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. During a forecast period, it defines the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisitions strategies, geography expansion, research & development, new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth.



Research Methodology:

Our market forecasting is based on a market model derived from market connectivity, dynamics, and identified influential factors around which assumptions about the market are made. These assumptions are enlightened by fact-bases, put by primary and secondary research instruments, regressive analysis and an extensive connect with industry people. Market forecasting derived from in-depth understanding attained from future market spending patterns provides quantified insight to support your decision-making process. The interview is recorded, and the information gathered in put on the drawing board with the information collected through secondary research.



The report provides insights on the following pointers:

1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on sulfuric acid offered by the key players in the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market

2. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and new product developments in the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market

3. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets for the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market

4. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new products launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market

5. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players in the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market



The report answers questions such as:

1. What is the market size of Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality market in the Global?

2. What are the factors that affect the growth in the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market over the forecast period?

3. What is the competitive position in the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market?

4. Which are the best product areas to be invested in over the forecast period in the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market?

5. What are the opportunities in the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market?

6. What are the modes of entering the Global Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market?



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05871808/?utm_source=PRN



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Samaritans Purse eyeing partnership with St. John the Divine Cathedral on second NYC field hospital

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NEW YORK CITY  Samaritans Purse, the Franklin Graham-led evangelical Christian humanitarian aid organization, said Tuesday that they were looking at partnering with the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the worlds largest Gothic cathedral, as a field hospital site to help treat coronavirus patients, if necessary.

Samaritans Purse, in partnership with Mount Sinai Health System, is currently looking at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine as an expansion site to increase our capacity to treat patients with COVID-19. Our goal is to do all that we can to prepare for an upsurge in cases, but we continue to pray that the virus subsides so that this additional site is never needed. We continue to stand with the people of New York in the fight against this vicious disease, the organization said in a statement to The Christian Post.

The statement comes after The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Graham confirmed Samaritans Purse would set up a field hospital under the churchs 124-foot-high stone nave.

Dean of the cathedral, the Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel III, told The New York Times, which first reported on the story Monday, that nine climate-controlled medical tents capable of holding at least 200 patients will be erected inside the cathedral by the end of the week.

The last thing like this was the flu pandemic in 1918, but the world was different then and I dont think they used the cathedral in this way, Daniel said in an interview inside the empty church. But traditionally, in earlier centuries, cathedrals were always used this way, like during the plague. So this is not outside the experience of being a cathedral, it is just new to us.

The field hospital was also reported by the Episcopal News Service as a partnership between the cathedral, Mount Sinai hospital network and Samaritans Purse, which already has a field hospital running on the East Lawn of Central Park.

Lisa Schubert, the cathedrals vice president of programming and external relations, said details of the partnership are expected to be finalized in a few days. The Washington Post reported that Franklin was expected to fly to New York City on Tuesday and meet with officials at the cathedral.

Samaritans Purse would not confirm these details beyond what they said was their latest and only statement on the plan that will tentatively see the addition of another 400 hospital beds in the city.

Schubert said it had not yet been decided if the cathedral would handle coronavirus cases, but said Monday that within 10 days they would start accepting patients.

Everything is happening in real time, Schubert told Episcopal News Service. What we knew a week ago is very different from what we know now.
New Delhi, April 7 : Various central universities, colleges and educational institutions, which are closed due to the lockdown, will now establish direct contact with their students. The social media platforms, phone calls, emails and other digital mediums will be adopted to establish daily contact with students. This is being done so that the students and educational institutions remain in contact even during the lockdown period.

Students are also being made aware of the coronavirus and the situation arising because of this. Covid-19 support groups have been formed for the students living in hostels with the hostel warden and senior faculty being the members. These groups will identify those students who need immediate assistance and will provide the necessary support.

In this regard, the UGC has also taken some initiatives to help the students.

UGC Secretary Rajneesh Jain has written a letter to the Vice Chancellors in which he said, "During the nationwide lockdown, it is equally important to look into students' mental health and other concerns during and after Covid-19".

He said, "In the current situation, universities and colleges should start a helpline to deal with problems such as stress or depression in students regarding their education, health and other issues. This helpline should be regularly monitored by counsellors and the faculty members. " The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has also advised the universities and colleges to regularly interact with the students and keep them calm and stress free through these difficult times.
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By Express News Service

PUDUCHERRY: Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Tuesday expressed favour for extension of lockdown considering the current COVID-19 scenario in Puducherry and the rest of India. CM Narayanasamy said that his government would support the central government if the lockdown period was extended.



Briefing the media at a press conference on Tuesday, Narayanasamy said that Puducherry government is compelled to take certain hard decisions after April 14 as the COVID-19 cases are shooting up, particularly in the bordering Tamil Nadu areas of Villupuram and Cuddalore.



'The people of Puducherry have to be protected. However the Central government needs to support the Puducherry government by ensuring the availability of essential items, medical equipment and releasing timely funds,' the CM said.



FOLLOW COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES HERE



He regretted that neither any financial assistance of the Rs 995 crores was sought nor GST arrears, other dues have been released by the Central government so far during the lockdown period.



The doctors and other staffs of private medical colleges will join government doctors and health workers in door to door visits in rural areas and check people for COVID-19 symptoms. The report of the same will be submitted to the government.



Private medical colleges have also agreed to coordinate with the Indira Gandhi government medical college which is designated exclusive COVID-19 hospital.



Doctors and nurses of the private medical college will help their counterparts in the government medical colleges on a shift basis. Further, the private medical colleges have also agreed to give their ventilators to support the Government medical college, Narayanasmay said.
South Korea will set guidelines for the treatment of coronavirus patients with plasma from those who have recovered from COVID-19, a senior health official said Tuesday, after two patients here were declared cured upon receiving the therapy.



The therapy involves infusions of blood plasma from coronavirus survivors to virus patients, though there is controversy over whether it will be successful and effective for all virus patients.



There is no vaccine yet for the novel coronavirus, and some experts have said convalescent plasma is worth a try.



South Korea administered plasma therapy on nine MERS patients in 2015, and some of them were cured.



Blood plasma filled with antibodies gotten after an illness has proven effective in curing infectious diseases.













Kwon Joon-wook, deputy director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters that plasma therapy guidelines will be announced within days.



The two recovered patients are over 65 years old, with one of them suffering underlying illnesses, Kwon said.



Kwon remained cautious about the effectiveness of plasma therapy, saying health authorities will apply the guidelines to hospitals after gathering opinions from experts. (Yonhap)
A Chinese nurse has died of cardiac arrest after fighting on the front line against the coronavirus epidemic in Hubei for 56 days.

The 32-year-old medic, Zhang Jingjing, was pronounced dead yesterday, according to a statement from her hospital.

She was due to go home after completing her 14-day quarantine. The nurse left behind her husband and their five-year-old daughter, Chinese media report.

At least 62 medical workers have died on the line of duty, either from the coronavirus or some other diseases, according to Chinese media.

A Chinese nurse, Zhang Jingjing (pictured), has died of cardiac arrest after fighting on the front line against the coronavirus epidemic in Hubei for 56 days

Ms Zhang will be remembered for her contribution to save COVID-19 patients in Hubei, Chinese officials said today.

A heart-breaking video shows the medical worker waving at the camera as she and her colleagues leave Hubei on a plane on March 21.

'We will be home and meet again very soon,' Ms Zhang said in the video.

The nurse, who worked at the Qilu Hospital, was a member of the first medical team from Shandong Province dispatched on January 26 to help Hubei fight the epidemic.

She completed her 14-day isolation on April 4 after working day and night in Huanggang city of Hubei for nearly two months. She tested negative three times during quarantine, according to the press.

The medical worker then suffered a heart attack on the next morning, just before she was allowed to return home.

The Shandong hospital announced her death yesterday after all treatment failed.

A heart-breaking video shows the medical worker, Zhang Jingjing (pictured), waving at the camera as she and her colleagues leave Hubei on a plane on March 21

'I believe that people will appreciate and remember nurse Zhang Jingjing,' Mi Feng (pictured), a spokesperson from the National Health Commission, said today

Ms Zhang's husband, Han Wentao, works as a construction contractor in Sierra Leone. He was unable to bid a farewell to his wife after the African country suspended all flights to China amid the pandemic, according to the press.

Mr Han said the last time the couple saw each other was in December last year.

'I still feel numb. I can't believe everything,' Mr Han wrote on his social media page when Ms Zhang was being rescued on Sunday. 'Hold on there, my wife! Our family can't live without you!'

Chinese Embassy in Sierra Leone said today that they have contacted Mr Han and are trying to find a way to help him return to China.

A medic sweeps away tears for her mother, a member of the medical rescue team from Fujian, on April 6, as medical workers from all over China are gradually returning home from Hubei

The news comes as China has awarded 14 medics, including Dr Li Wenliang, with the title of 'martyr' after they contracted the deadly contagion at work and died of it. Medical workers bow their heads during a national moment of mourning for victims of coronavirus in Wuhan

'I believe that people will appreciate and remember nurse Zhang Jingjing,' Mi Feng, a spokesperson from the National Health Commission, said today.

'Over more than 70 days and nights, Chinese medical workers came under unprecedented pressure and unthinkable difficulties, and some even lost their lives,' Mi added.

Health authorities from Shandong and Hubei also expressed their condolences today over Ms Zhang's death.

The news comes as China has awarded 14 medics, including Dr Li Wenliang, with the title of 'martyr' after they contracted the deadly contagion at work and died of it.

Globally, over 1.3million people are infected with the deadly disease and the death toll has risen to 73,838.
Speaking to reporters on March 27, Mayor Bill de Blasio threatened to permanently close any place of religious worship that holds services in violation of governmental edicts regarding the coronavirus pandemic. To that end, he said that the citys police, fire and buildings department will be deployed to ensure that such services dont occur. If a church or synagogue ignores an initial warning to cease and desist, the city will be potentially closing the building permanently.

While de Blasios motivation may have been honorable in these extraordinary times, his threat was nonetheless outrageous. Permanently closing churches is what one might expect from the leadership of Iran or paramilitary groups in Iraq, not the Mayor of New York City. The threat was also stupid because de Blasio lacks the power to carry it out. Surely, he realizes that the free exercise of religion is expressly protected by both the federal and New York State Constitutions.

As state and city governments are fervently committed to combating the coronavirus, many people are just as fervently committed to practicing their faith. Since rising tensions between the two perspectives are inevitable and significant, the pandemic clearly has implications for religious liberty.

Pastor arrested

On March 30, the Rev. Rodney Howard-Browne, a Pentecostal pastor, was arrested, arraigned, and required to post bail on two criminal charges stemming from his having conducted services at the River at Tampa Bay Church the preceding Sunday. Explaining the arrest, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said that Howard-Browne had intentionally and repeatedly violated directives that residents stay at home and maintain social distance. Thus, Chronister continued, his reckless disregard for human life endangered not only members of his congregation but also others with whom they may interact.

Many will likely find Chronisters action and explanation perfectly plausible given the life-threatening crisis created by the coronavirus. It is not, however, a slam dunk. Did Howard-Browne really recklessly disregard human life? Perhaps, instead, he, as a Christian leader, was well aware of the risk, but, after due deliberation, found Jesus more compelling when He said in John 12:25, Any one who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

The obvious retort is that the pastors religious beliefs shouldnt supersede the rights of others who dont subscribe to those beliefs. Whatever ones perspective, however, the fact remains that a pastor was arrested for going to his church and preaching to his flock on a Sunday in March in the United States of America. It may be defensible, but it does raises serious questions.

Notwithstanding its guaranteed status under the federal Constitution, the exercise of religion is being treated differently among the various states. In Maryland, for example, Gov. Larry Hogan issued a Stay-at-Home order on March 30 that only allows residents to leave their homes for limited reasons, such as food shopping, medical appointments or the conduct of essential business.

Essential travel

Since Hogan has not deemed places of worship to be essential, the Archdiocese of Baltimore was forced to close all churches. That not only prevents individuals from going into church to pray on their own, but it also effectively forces priests to stop dispensing the sacraments, including confession. Thats an extraordinary intrusion on religious liberty and likely unconstitutional. Its simply not the business of Hogan, or any other secular official, to decide whether the practice of ones religion is essential.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued a Stay-at-Home order on the same day, but his directive specifically permits people to travel to their places of worship. While a provision limiting gatherings to 10 or fewer people does apply to religious sites, churches are still open for individual prayer and priests can still hear confessions while practicing social distancing.

Northam and Hogan are both trying to keeping their states safe. Northam is doing so with due respect for religious freedom; Hogan is not. This disparity in treating the right to freely exercise ones religion illustrates one of the myriad problems created when any public official is given what amounts to dictatorial power.

The purpose of the Stay-at-Home orders emerging today, whatever their particulars, is obviously not to persecute religion. Still, what the pandemic has wrought offers a glimpse of what persecuted people of faith, especially Christians, endure endlessly in some countries.

For Americans, the actions of people like de Blasio and Hogan call to mind James Madisons admonition that It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties.

Daniel Leddys column On the Law appears weekly. Follow him on Twitter. His email address is column@danielleddylaw.com.
As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, Bobby Orr made sure he took a moment to appreciate Bostons true heroes.

The Bruins legend wrote a letter of thanks and encouragement to all of the employees at Mass General Hospital. Orr wanted to remind doctors and nurses that their service isnt taken for granted, and to express great confidence in their fight against COVID-19.

The hospital posted the letter in its entirety, so you can read all of Orrs words below:

This message is for everybody currently on the front lines at Mass General, doing what you all do so well. Thank you to the physicians, nurses, technicians, custodians, administrators, supply handlerseveryone there who is contributing in these unprecedented times. The battle against COVID-19 could never be managed without your tireless dedication, and please know that the people you serve understand your commitment, and we do not take it for granted. This pandemic has yet against demonstrated what everyone at Mass General is made of as you go about your daily routines. You are not only saving lives at your wonderful facilitiesyou are also protecting so many more people beyond your hospital walls as a function of your best efforts. It strikes me that the word "hero" is often used to describe athletes in our society, but in my eyes, YOU are the true heroes that I personally look up to and your are constantly on my mind. This virus is no game, so we need real life heroes to step up and bring it under control. Thankfully, that is exactly what you are doing.

Undoubtedly, the days and weeks ahead will test us all in many ways. But none will be tested more than those of you who continue to manage, treat and research the virus day after day after day. Given your efforts and expertise, I have great confidence in the eventual outcome of this pandemic, in no small measure because of the excellence I have personally witnessed at Mass General.

To all of you, please ... keep on fighting the good fight, and thank you so much for all you do.

With great respect,

Bobby Orr
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 14:30:12|Editor: Lu Hui

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LANZHOU, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Zhu Yanjie's village homestay reopened on March 25 after two months of closure.

"The number of visitors is still low compared to previous years, but it keeps rising every day," Zhu said. "I think the number will continue to increase after the Tomb-sweeping Day holiday."

Zhu's homestay is located in Zhujiagou village in the city of Longnan, northwest China's Gansu Province. The village is close to mountains and rivers, making it a popular rural destination for tourists. In 2016, the area was listed as one of China's national traditional villages under protection.

However, the coronavirus outbreak greatly affected rural tourism in Gansu, including Zhu's business.

From January to February, rural tourism generated a revenue of 300 million yuan (42 million U.S. dollars) in Gansu, down 72 percent year on year.

As the epidemic gradually comes under control, the sector will recover, especially rural tours, said Ba Duoxun, with Northwest Normal University.

"The rural areas close to the cities will see their tourism sectors recover first," Ba said, adding the provincial government can roll out a series of measures to prepare for the recovery.
Doctors may be making decisions about the care of Covid-19 patients based on weak and over-optimistic evidence, Keele researchers have found.

Researchers from Keele University and institutions from across Europe, including the University of Oxford, reviewed 27 research studies that propose models for the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with Covid-19.

The researchers, whose paper has been published today in The British Medical Journal (BMJ) (link here), found that the data and methods used in these studies were potentially at high risk of bias, while some of the studies included recommendations that were questionable if put into practice.

The researchers warn that the potentially flawed models may result in doctors making inappropriate decisions about whether patients have the virus, need a ventilator or should remain in hospital.

Since the outbreak in December, health care systems across the world have been under severe strain.

More than one million people have been diagnosed with the virus worldwide and the death toll has surpassed 51,000.

Doctors face significant pressure to detect and diagnose patients who are infected with the virus and to give a prognosis for each confirmed case.

The researchers reviewed 27 studies - 25 used data from China, one used data from Italy, while another used international data. The data was collected between 8 December 2019 and 15 March 2020.

They found that all the studies had a high risk of bias. Some of the studies had a non-representative selection of patients, while others excluded patients who were still ill at the end of the studies. Others had poor statistical analysis.

The researchers acknowledge that clinical data from Covid-19 patients is scarce and that the studies were done under severe time constraints so that they could help medical decision-making as quickly as possible.

However, given the identified flaws, the researchers said it was a concern that some of the proposed models were already being used to support medical decisions.

They are calling on researchers to immediately share anonymised high-quality patient data through the World Health Organisation to support collaborative efforts to build and validate more rigorous prediction models.

Richard Riley, Professor of Biostatistics at Keele University, said:"Doctors should be making decisions based on robust evidence. Unfortunately, current studies fall short in providing robust models for diagnosis or prognosis of Covid-19.

"Researchers around the world should unite in sharing their data immediately to improve the quality of future studies in this area. Health professionals and methodologists must work together, to pool high-quality and representative Covid-19 data that is then analysed using appropriate statistical methods."

Dr Kym Snell, Lecturer in Biostatistics at Keele University, said:

Many researchers are focusing their efforts on trying to assist healthcare professionals in this very difficult time - this should be applauded. However, we still need to ensure that models for the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with Covid-19 are properly tested. We will continue to critically appraise new models so that healthcare professionals have an up-to-date summary of the evidence."

Laure Wynants, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Maastricht University, which led the research, said: "This research has shown how important it is for researchers working in this field to share good quality evidence. This helps quickly identify models that work well and can potentially support decision-making in clinical practice."

The team of researchers were from Maastricht University, KU Leuven, University Medical Center Utrecht, Oxford University, Medical University of Vienna, Leiden University, as well as Keele University.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Eighteen Malaysian nationals, who were part of the Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin Basti in Delhi last month, were detained at airports in Delhi and Chennai on Sunday while trying to flee the country on special flights for stranded Malaysian travellers.

While eight of them were detained at IGI airport in Delhi, 10 Malaysian Tamils were offloaded from another special chartered flight with 167 Malaysian Tamils onboard.

After participating in the meeting, the Malaysian Tamils had visited Tenkasi district in southern Tamil Nadu and had stayed there before coming here to board the flight.

It is, however, not immediately known if the Jamaat participants will be quarantined by health authorities or not.

In Delhi, the eight Malaysians were intercepted by immigration officials and later handed over to the Delhi Police Crime Branch. According to police sources, all eight have been sent to the quarantine facility.

So far, more than 400 COVID-19 positive cases and about 15 deaths in the country were found to

have links with the Nizamuddin Markaz.

Action against the foreign Tablighi Jamaat members were taken after over 2,300 activists, including 250 foreigners, were found to be living at its headquarters located at Delhis Nizamuddin last week despite the 21-day lockdown imposed to check the spread of coronavirus.

At least 9,000 people had participated at the congregation at the Nizamuddin Markaz last month after which many have travelled to various parts of the country for missionary works.

The participants include citizens of 41 nationalities. They are 379 Indonesians, 110 Bangladeshi, 77 Kyrgyzstan, 75 Malaysian, 65 Thai, 63 Myanmarese and 33 Sri Lankan citizens besides others.

10 Filipinos, including 3 COVID-19 patients, booked

Ten Philippines nationals have been booked for residing in Navi Mumbai without informing authorities, police said on Sunday.

The group attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi last month and then come to Navi Mumbai, an official said, and three of them had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

They were staying in Nurul Islam Trust premises in Vashi between March 10-16 without informing police. They have been booked under Epidemic Diseases Act and Foreigners Act, said a police officer.
"Serving in the military changes you. The shades and degrees of change vary for everyone, but no one is ever the same as...
A year ago, the states energy industry paid more than $14 billion in state and local taxes and made more than $2 billion in state royalty payments. But this year promises to be radically different as the industry is suffering from collapsing oil prices caused by the demand destruction of the coronavirus and flooding of the market with crude by Saudi Arabia and Russia.

These are most unusual times, Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick said in a phone interview.

Thats why she sent a letter Monday to Comptroller Glenn Hegar requesting that he extend the deadline to file monthly crude oil and natural gas production taxes.

What weve worked on in my office is to see all things we can do to help the industry and to help people everywhere, she said. Weve worked on waivers of all kinds. We have lots of waivers in place to give companies time to file things.

She said she asked the comptroller to give companies additional time to pay the production taxes to give them flexibility, just as he did with franchise taxes.

It wouldnt be out of line for him to do, she said.

Her request is for the monthly deadline be extended three to six months so that companies wouldnt have their taxes deducted from their mineral payments, as is traditionally done and those taxes are held in trust to be sent to the State Comptrollers Office.

Craddick stressed that companies would still have to pay those taxes, but they would have additional time, and the funds that would go to taxes could instead be used to help companies pay bills or make payrolls and retain their employees.

Anything that lets companies pay their people, keep their employees, let people keep their jobs, is important to me, she said.

She also requested that the comptroller review standards in place for real property interest in oil to determine if his office can offer guidance to reduce the likelihood of massive mineral appraisal protests.

Any opportunity or idea to help the industry, especially if theyre small operators, any opportunities for them to have flexibility, she said.

The native Midlander, first elected to the Railroad Commission in 2012, is also preparing for the April 14 hearing to consider the request by Parsley Energy and Pioneer Natural Resources that the agency determine reasonable market demand for Texas crude. The move could lead to commissioners prorationing state output for the first time in about 50 years.

I hope it will be a vibrant hearing with lots of comments, whether by letter or online, she said. She said she hopes to hear the perspectives of the industry, economists., academics and statisticians on the subject.

This is a major shift in the conversation after 50 years, she said. Its not an easy conversation. All parts of the industry will be affected. I hope they give us their perspectives.

She said she has had conversations with her peers in Canada and with the federal government about the need to reduce production.

Texas cant do it alone. It needs to be all states.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  Children are likely to transmit the virus responsible for COVID-19 even if they do not show symptoms, according to a pediatric specialist.

What we do understand about this virus now is there is what we call a pre-symptomatic transmission phase. So thats the case with most of the patients thats the information that we have for most of the cases that have been studied, which is adult. We dont know yet if thats the case in children, but it seems to make sense, Dr. Anna Lisa Ong-Lim, president of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of the Philippines told CNN Philippines on Monday, citing review of published literature on coronavirus disease.

Ong-Lim explained that a pre-symptomatic phase of COVID-19 means a person could transmit the viral disease two days before the symptoms start to show.

In the Philippines, around 1.2 percent of about 3,000 patients with coronavirus disease in the country are children, Ong-Lim said. But she added this figure does not the "actually show us the total picture.

According to a CNN Philippines tally based on the DOH tracker and reports from local government units, at least 32 children aged 5 months to 17 years old have been infected with the virus as of April 5.

The official name of the virus that causes COVID-19 is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or SARS-CoV-2.

How do they contract COVID-19?

The health expert said most kids will get it from COVID-19-infected family members whom they came in close contact with.

This is why it is crucial for a household member who is ill to self-quarantine at the earliest possible time to avoid spreading the infection to other family members, including kids, Ong-Lim stressed.

How does coronavirus affect them?

Experts are still learning about the effects of COVID-19 to children.

And while more and more kids are being confirmed to have the viral disease, they will have a fairly benign course, the health expert said, referring to available research.

Ong-Lim noted, In the studies that have been published, 90 percent of kids will recover. Whereas in adults, there is a certain proportion who will become severe to critical.

The Department of Health earlier pointed out elderly people, women with high-risk pregnancy and immunocompromised persons or those with weakened immune system are groups that are at higher risk of infection or have a higher percentage of fatalities.

Ong Lim said it is thought that this could be a function of the immune response.

The country now has 3,660 COVID-19 cases, with 163 deaths and 73 recoveries.

President Rodrigo Duterte had earlier approved the recommendations of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of the Emerging Infectious Diseases to restrict the movement of people, ordering most except for those rendering vital services to stay at home in a bid to stem the spread of COVID-19.

The quarantine is scheduled to last until April 12, but Duterte said on Monday the government is inclined to extend the lockdown up to April 30.
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Italy has unveiled a record 400 billion euro ( $430 billion) stimulus to help businesses hurt by a month-long national lockdown that is like to run on for many more weeks.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Monday told the nation to be patient in the face of a pandemic that has now officially claimed 16,523 lives in the Mediterranean country and left millions at least temporarily unemployed "We will soon see a new spring for Italy but for the moment we must stay at home," the Italian leader said in a television address. The programme will add to the 340 billion euros in ...
China is ramping up production of masks and it seems every other country wants them, so what are Canadas chances of getting their hands on some of the precious equipment on an ongoing basis?

Experts say the two countries have traditionally maintained a good trade relationship, and that even recent scuffles like the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver in 2018 shouldnt have much of an impact, if any, on the ability to secure masks.

The demand for masks due to the COVID-19 pandemic has become increasingly more intense, and the United States has sparked further tension with President Donald Trumps order that masks and other personal protective equipment not be exported.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced over the weekend that Canada was expecting million of masks to be transported via cargo plane from China in the next two days.

The ability to secure the number of masks it needs from China is likely to come down to timing and price, said Joy Nott, a partner in KPMGs trade and customs practice.

Everybody wants masks, and whoever has the most amount of money wins, she said. Does Canada have a good relationship with China? Id say yes. Should we automatically assume the U.S. will get masks over us? I wouldnt assume that. I think its going to be very competitive.

If a shipment of masks was secured, Canada should be able to get them relatively quickly, she said, in as little as 24 hours.

Though cases of COVID-19 have been shrinking in China, where the virus first emerged late last year, the country has been ramping up production of masks and says it sold nearly 4 billion masks to other countries since the beginning of March, Agence France-Presse reported.

But some of the countries that have received equipment from China have also complained about poor quality.

Canada also created goodwill when it sent over medical supplies to China when it was dealing with its peak of the pandemic, pointed out Opher Baron, distinguished professor of operations management at the University of Torontos Rotman School of Management.

It also doesnt appear China will be hoarding masks as the U.S. is doing, he said.

The main difference between the U.S. and China is that the U.S. market is not sufficient enough to provide local supply, he said. The Chinese market is. So they are planning to export.

Nott said with supply low in the world and demand high, prices will quickly climb for masks, though by how much remains unclear.

She said this situation is a wake-up call for the world, where every country should be looking at its national supply  in this instance, its supply of personal protective equipment  and to look at where its sourced from.

I think it teaches us that supply chains need to be more diverse, she said.

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Every rational person should agree that, in determining how governments ought to respond to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, economic considerations must be taken into account along, of course, with considerations of public health. The two sets of concerns are related  economic devastation has health consequences and the economy cant function normally when the public health system is overwhelmed  but are not the same.

In considering the public health consequences of particular responses to the virus, governments rely on models. Its not clear that the forecasts of any given model, or even of existing models collectively, are worthy of much reliance, but were relying on them just the same. Whats the alternative?

But what about models that forecast the economic consequences of our response to the pandemic? What do they say?

Ive seen very little about such modeling. However, Robert Samuelson, who writes about economics for the Washington Post, describes what I take to be some leading economic models relevant to the pandemic.

Apparently, the models are all over the place. Some models assume the pandemic will subside during the summer and that the economy will bounce back to a considerable degree by the end of the year. For example, says Samuelson, Goldman Sachs expects U.S. GDP to take a massive hit in the second quarter, but then to jump by 19 percent in the third. For the year, it forecasts a 6.2 percent drop. Another forecast predicts a 5.4 percent decline.

Other forecasters are far more pessimistic. They see the measures taken to flatten the curve as having devastating long-term economic effects. They predict that these measures, by eliminating wealth, will crush consumer spending and thus trigger a major deflation that prevents the kind of recovery the optimists are predicting. Thats a recipe for a prolonged depression.

When the modeling is this disparate, I think were entitled to apply common sense. To me, common sense suggests that if our economy remains shuttered through July, were unlikely to see much of a recovery and might well experience the prolonged depression the pessimists are predicting.

If, on the other hand, the shutdown terminates in most the country at the end of this month, replaced by something along the lines of what Sweden is doing and then the easing of many of those restrictions, the prospects for a recovery along the lines forecast by the optimists are reasonably good. This assumes, though, that the virus doesnt overwhelm us.

I dont know of any forecast of the public health consequences of this course of action, perhaps because there isnt yet sufficient data as to how Swedens approach is working. But I find it difficult to believe that such a model, if transparent and built without bias, would cause reasonable policy makers to insist on a multi-month shutdown of our economy.

Samuelson concludes that we cant allow the kind of depression the pessimists foresee to occur. Certainly, we ought not knowingly induce it.
Dubais largest developer Emaar Properties has cut executive and staff salaries across its businesses as the coronavirus pandemic halts projects and weighs on revenue from malls and hotels, reported Bloomberg.

The changes took effect on April 1 for all of Emaars Dubai businesses and will continue until further notice, stated the report, citing a letter sent by Chairman Mohamed Alabbar to employees.

Under this arrangement, Alabbar has forgone his salary, while the senior management will take a 50 per cent cut followed by middle management with a 40 per cent cut and junior staff 30 per cent.

There will be no pay cut for support staff working full time; staff not currently operating/on leave will receive full accommodation and healthcare as well as 15 per cent of their cash salary, while other businesses will receive 60% of full salary, it added.

Dubai's property market has struggled in the past decade due to fallout from the global financial crisis and weak oil prices that left the emirate oversupplied with homes and offices. In the latest knock to the economy, the global virus outbreak prompted Dubai to propose a one-year delay to Expo, a major event it was due to host from October.

Emaar has suspended work on major projects in Dubai, as the coronavirus pandemic exacerbates a real estate slowdown in the business hub, reported Reuters citing sources familiar with the matter.

Already projects have been suspended at Dubai Creek Harbour, a new development touted as offering homes to 200,000 people, sources said. That included suspending work on the Dubai Creek Harbour Tower, billed as being higher than Dubai's Burj Khalifa, which is now the world's tallest building, the sources added.

Emaar was up 4.7 per cent as of 11:48 a.m. in Dubai. The stock is down 44 per cent this year, exceeding the 38 per cent decline of the Dubai Financial Market General Index. Emaar has the third-highest weighting in the 37-member index.

It is now among the developers in the Middle Easts business and logistics hub being forced to rethink projects as the pandemic and the oil-price collapse squeeze finances, reported Bloomberg.

The coronavirus is aggravating a long property slump in Dubai, where oversupply and economic uncertainty have pushed down prices for years, it stated.

The developer of the worlds tallest tower built a large portfolio of cash-generating assets such as hotels and malls to carry it through tough times for property sales. Now that revenue is drying up as strict social distancing rules implemented to curb the viruss spread closes its malls and empties its hotels, it added.

Yesterday, Emaar sold 80 per cent of its Downtown Dubai district cooling business to Tabreed for $675 million. Tabreeds biggest shareholder is French utility Engie.
In severe cases, oxygen and later ventilation, if necessary, effectively take the pressure off the patient's vital systems, giving them a better chance of fighting back. In the most serious cases, coronavirus patients have an overly powerful immune response to the virus, which can cause severe inflammation and damage to the tissue of the lungs. In otherwise healthy patients, it is this response - which doctors do not currently fully understand - that can be most dangerous. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved into intensive care after the symptoms from his coronavirus infection worsened. Credit:Getty Images Earlier this week, Professor Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, pointed to early data gathered by the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre which suggests critical care for COVID-19 patients is less effective than for other types of viral pneumonia. "Sadly about half of cases (50.1 per cent) that go into critical care [with COVID-19] still die. This is much higher than for other viral pneumonias (22.4 per cent). Why this is the case and how much higher this figure would be without critical care beds is not clear."

The chances rise to 54 per cent survival for someone his age. Loading Tom Solomon, director of the Institute of Infection and Global Health at the University of Liverpool said that some patients are moved to critical care beds simply for more intensive monitoring of their vital functions. However, he added: "Most patients with COVID-19 who go to intensive care do so because of difficulty breathing, as a direct consequence of the virus's infection, or the body's immune defences which are trying to fight it. "At the most severe end a patient is made unconscious by drugs, and then a tube is inserted all the way into the lungs to do the breathing for the patient. Currently, we understand this is not being used for the PM.

"At the mildest end, the patient is awake and just has some support with a tightly fitting mask, and higher pressure is applied to the airways through the mask, for example, CPAP, which is continuous positive airway pressure." St Thomas' Hospital in central London, where British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to intensive care after his coronavirus symptoms worsened. Credit:AP Professor Derek Hill, professor of medical imaging at University College London (UCL), said it was likely the Prime Minister was admitted to hospital after becoming breathless. He said if his condition deteriorated further mechanical ventilation may be needed." Intensive care ventilators have sophisticated software and sensors to enable them to adjust the way they work around the needs of the patient, and to change the amount of oxygen inhaled with the air. One of the features of COVID-19 in all countries seems to be that many more men become seriously ill than women - especially in the over-40 age group.We also know that people under about 60 seem to have a higher chance of making a recovery from critical illness with COVID-19 than older people.

The Prime Minister is 55 years old. Loading Hill added: "It illustrates three of the important healthcare needs of COVID-19: Firstly many patients need help breathing, and there is a shortage of the mechanical ventilators that can do this - and in particular a shortage of the high-quality intensive care ventilators most suitable for COVID-19 patients who might need help breathing for over a week. "Secondly, COVID-19 patients need a huge amount of oxygen to help them breathe - which is potentially going to be in short supply. "Thirdly, looking after people in intensive care requires skilled staff, and the experience of New York has been that finding enough skilled staff has been the greatest challenge."

Professor Linda Bauld at the University of Edinburgh, said the admission of the Prime Minister to intensive care was of "huge concern and illustrates just how indiscriminate this virus is". Healthcare workers assist a COVID-19 patient at a library that was turned into an intensive care unit (ICU) at Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, Barcelona province, Spain. Credit:AP "Anyone, anywhere, including the most privileged in our society, can be affected and can become seriously ill", she said. She added: "Questions will be asked in future about whether the UK government acted appropriately in keeping Parliament open and face-to-face meetings going while the rest of the country was already following advice to shut down. "For now, however, all our thoughts will be with the Prime Minister and his family, and the many other families who are facing similar circumstances with critically ill relatives."
In the face of the quick spread of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the world, China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) has attached great importance to infection prevention in its overseas branches and project construction sites, and has made full deployment of the fight against the pandemic. Recently, it has dispatched teams to Egypt and Algeria, with the aim of guiding the company's overseas efforts on COVID-19 prevention and control, as well as protecting the overseas employees from health risks.

As the world's largest investment and construction group, CSCEC currently has operations in 75 overseas countries. Following closely on the latest development of COVID-19 in these countries and evaluating the conditions of its overseas subsidiaries, the company decided to send the teams to countries and regions with large scale operations and big numbers of personnel.

Two teams sent overseas

As many countries upgraded the prevention and control measures, closed borders, and suspended flights, CSCEC started a race against time to set up its teams. CSCEC employees in China have responded proactively to the recruitment for the teams and shown determination to help their overseas colleagues fight the coronavirus at this critical time.

CSCEC's team to Egypt, comprising 10 people, was formed in a single day and equipped with adequate COVID-19 prevention and medical supplies. On the evening of Mar. 17, they boarded the last operating flight from Beijing to Egypt, and departed for Cairo, the Egyptian capital.

In regard to the traffic and visa restrictions adopted by the Algerian government for the purpose of COVID-19 prevention and control, the Chinese Embassy in Algeria has provided much assistance to CSCEC's 12-person team to Algeria. The embassy helped with the handling of the visa procedures as well as coordinating an Air Algerie charter flight to pick up the team in China. The team left Beijing on the morning of Mar. 27 and headed to Algiers, the capital of Algeria.

The plane also carried a few metric tons of protective and medical supplies, including ventilators, medicines, masks, and protective clothing that were urgently needed in Algeria. Some of the supplies on board were donated by the Chinese government to the Algerian government.

The arrival of the team was highly appreciated by the Algerian government, who also gave them much assistance. Before the departure, Algerian Ambassador to China Ahcene Boukhelfa went to where the team had been assembled to see them off. He spoke highly of the China-Algeria friendship, and greatly commended CSCEC's outstanding contributions to the economic and social development in Algeria over the last 40 years. He said he believes that by sending the team to help its Algerian operations prevent COVID-19, CSCEC has further deepened the friendship between the two countries and once again set an example of the China-Algeria bilateral cooperation.

Getting to work without delay

The CSCEC teams have maintained close liaison with the Chinese embassies in their respective countries, and have undertaken various activities to prevent COVID-19. In the spirit of taking practical and effective measures to guarantee results, the teams also contributed to the global combat against the COVID-19 pandemic.

At noon on Mar. 18 local time, the 10-person team safely landed in Cairo, and was warmly received by Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang. Liao expressed his appreciation and gratitude to CSCEC for attaching great importance to the COVID-19 prevention work of its operations in Egypt, and acting decisively to send the team. The ambassador said that the presence of the team in Egypt has not only fully reflected the company's care for its employees, but also brought encouragement to the Chinese Embassy in Egypt and other Chinese-funded enterprises in the fight against the pandemic.

Getting to work without delay, the team quickly determined a plan that prioritizes prevention and control while focusing on early diagnosis and treatment. To better manage the health records of project managers and construction workers, the team introduced successful practices in China by asking everyone to scan a QR code and fill in a personal health archive for monitoring purpose. All employees have started taking body temperatures twice a day, while medical analysis has been conducted on the archived data collected daily. In addition, the medical staff in the task force swiftly came up with videos to demonstrate how to correctly wash hands and use face masks. Embedded with Arabic subtitles and auto-replayed on the screens at all construction sites, the videos have been popular among both the Algerian and Chinese employees. The team also formulated specific plans for implementing the next phase of on-site COVID-19 prevention: publicizing science-based information, organizing professional training sessions, setting up clinics, perfecting disinfection measures, and purchasing medical supplies and equipment.

CSCEC's team to Algeria arrived in Algiers on the afternoon of Mar. 27 local time. The medical staff of the team had participated in nursing CSCEC workers back from Changsha after the construction of the Wuhan emergency hospitals, Huoshenshan and Leishenshan. Having been working on the frontlines since the Chinese New Year, they have brought precious experience in fighting COVID-19. In view of the limited medical support in Algeria, the medical staff not only brought with them important medical supplies, but also provided medical services to both Chinese and Algerians employees of CSCEC Algeria. Passing on China's experience in containing the virus, the team will be guiding the COVID-19 prevention efforts on every CSCEC construction site in Algeria, and supporting the Algerian government and its people.
The Navy has a history of publicly sacking officers for a "loss of confidence in leadership." Sometimes, it tells the public what led to that loss of confidence; other times, it doesn't.

But the Navy isn't the only branch of service that has to fire officers, even if its firings seem to be much more public than the other branches. The Navy just has much more experience with it. If an officer does get fired publicly, it's usually safe to assume there's a good reason for it.

Usually.

Historical instances of high-ranking officials being fired include President Harry Truman sacking Gen. Douglas MacArthur for failing to respect the Office of the President and Gen. Stanley McChrystal getting canned for trashing the Obama administration in front of Rolling Stone reporters.

Though the Navy likes to cite a loss of confidence, statistics compiled by the Associated Press between 2005 and 2013 found that, of the 255 fired commanders above the rank of lieutenant colonel, 40% percent were actually sacked because of sexual misconduct. Another 10% percent were alcohol-related.

Here are five examples of high-profile firings we just can't let go of, without ever mentioning the words "fat" or "Leonard."

5. Air Force Gen. Michael Dugan

Dugan was the 13th chief of staff of the Air Force for a brief 79 days in 1990. A Vietnam veteran with more than 300 combat missions, he seemed like the perfect man for the job. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait later that year, air power would be decisive. But Dugan wouldn't be in the Air Force by the start of Operation Desert Storm.

Gen. Michael Dugan, chief of staff, U.S. Air Force, speaks with military personnel while having breakfast at the 56th Tactical Air Command dining facility during Operation Desert Shield. (DoD)

The general was fired by then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney for telling journalists the U.S. was going to bomb Baghdad and intentionally target Hussein, his family and his mistress, as well as other sites that would cause the most psychological damage to the Iraqi people.

Former Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay might have approved, but President George H.W. Bush did not.

4. Navy Vice Adm. Tim Giardina

Giardina is another naval officer who fell to a "loss of confidence." Except this time, that loss seems entirely justified. In 2014, Giardina was second in command at the U.S. Strategic Command so he ended up in national headlines when he was investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service for using counterfeit chips in a poker game at the Horseshoe Council Bluffs Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

General Shigeru Iwasaki, Japan Joint Staff, presents Vice Admiral Tim Giardina, Deputy Commander, U.S. Strategic Command, with a memento of appreciation. (U.S. Strategic Command)

After being caught cheating at poker, Giardina had to be removed from his post by President Barack Obama himself, because only the president is able to relieve three- and four-star officers.

3. Navy Rear Adm. David Baucom

We've all had a bad night. Many of us have had a bad morning after a bad night. Most of us are also not two-star admirals in the U.S. Navy. In 2015, Baucom was fired and reprimanded after stumbling around his hotel, naked and visibly intoxicated -- which means he could barely walk.

Rear Adm. David F. Baucom, commander of Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, tours the uniform issue department at the Recruit Training Command. (U.S. Navy/Mass Communications Specialist 1st Class Andre N. McIntyre)

Read: Two-Star Navy Admiral Relieved After Wandering Hotel Drunk, Naked

After attending a conference at a Florida hotel, the admiral drank until he fell from a barstool and hit his head, then wet his pants. He was then helped to his room by the hotel staff. Baucom said he took a prescription drug before bed and woke up in the night to use the bathroom. But he missed the door to the bathroom entirely, instead walking around the hotel.

In his defense, Baucom said he forgot his pajamas and that he'd pack them next time.

2. Army Brig. Gen. Bryan Roberts

Roberts is memorable for telling his soldiers at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, that he had a zero tolerance policy toward sexual assault while he was under investigation for just that. A disciplinary committee would later find the general guilty of assaulting his mistress.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Bryan T. Roberts visits the Buffalo Military Entrance Processing Station at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station March 2, 2011. (U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Joseph McKee)

According to The Washington Post, the two were in the general's quarters in February 2013 when a fight over a cellphone ensued. The general's mistress had accidentally called the general's wife.

He was also convicted of adultery with two other women. He would be transferred to the Pentagon and fined $5,000, effectively ending his military career.

1. Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael Carey

Everyone has their bad days at work, ones where they imagine doing the craziest things imaginable as they try to get fired. Most people never go through with it, though. Carey's story sounds exactly like one of those imaginings -- except he actually went and did it.

Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, 20th Air Force commander, talks to a group of 90th Maintenance Group Airmen during his tour of F. E. Warren Air Force Base. (U.S. Air Force photo/Matt Bilden)

It took a 42-page report to fully describe what Carey, who was in charge of 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles, did on a trip to Moscow in July 2013. Over the course of a few days, he drank like Russia was going to run out of vodka, skipped official meetings, loudly bragged about his importance, blacked out, spent a lot of time chasing foreign women and even tried to play with the band in a Moscow bar.

What happens on TDY definitely does not stay on TDY.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com.

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Dr. Jitendra Kumar Rathod, an Associate Specialist in cardiothoracic surgery at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW), has become the latest medical professional to succumb to COVID-19 in the UK.

58-year-old Rathod, who graduated in medicine from Bombay University in 1977 later moved to the UK and worked for years in the National Health Service (NHS). Cardiff and Vale University Health Board posted a tribute to the medic, fondly called "Jitu".

AFP

"Jitu had worked in the Department of Cardio-thoracic Surgery since the mid-1990s and came back to UHW in 2006 after a brief stint abroad," the board said. "He was an incredibly dedicated surgeon who cared deeply for his patients. He was well-liked and greatly respected by one and all. He was a very compassionate and a wonderful human being," the tribute read. The Board added that his commitment to the hospital''s special facility had been "exemplary".



He is among a growing number of medics who have lost their lives on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic across UK hospitals, where the COVID-19 death toll mounted to 5,373.

AFP

Earlier four doctors, who also were from immigrant backgrounds had died of the infection in the UK. The first UK doctor to die of COVID-19 was Dr. Alfa Saadu, a former medical director at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Essex and Ealing NHS Trust. The Nigerian origin doctor who had retired in 2017 had returned to work recently due to the COVID-19 outbreak.



Dr. Saadu started showing symptoms of coronavirus two weeks ago and died last week.

According to reports, one in four NHS staff including doctors and nurses are off work with suspected symptoms of COVID-19, while over 2000 of them have already been tested positive. This is largely blamed on the dangerous working conditions the frontline staff face, because of the shortage of personal protective equipment.

AFP

An Indian-origin NHS nurse who also tested positive for COVID-19 had told Indiatimes that for three weeks he was attending COVID-19 patients wearing plastic aprons and surgical masks for protection. Over 208,800 people have been tested in the UK, of which more than 51,600 have tested positive, including the country's Prime Minister Boris Johnson. UK's Crown Prince, Prince Charles who had also tested positive for COVID-19 has since made a full recovery.

The UK also has the third-highest number of COVID-19 cases in Europe after Spain and Italy. The number of COVID-19 cases in the country is likely to increase further in the coming days before it slows down.
A Sheetz store in Harrisburg has closed to customers after finding out one of its employees has tested positive for coronavirus.

The store is located at 7970 Linglestown Road. The Pennsylvania-based convenience stores chain made the announcement Tuesday.

Nick Ruffner, the public relations manager at Sheetz, said the store was closed immediately and will be professionally deep cleaned and disinfected.

"Our gas pumps will also be sanitized and cleaned, he said. We are working with employees who may have had close contact with this employee.

Ruffner said Sheetz is following health guidelines set forth by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

All employees will be fully paid while this store remains closed, he said. This location will not reopen until we have ensured that all steps have been taken to protect our community. Your safety is our top priority and that will continue to be our first thought as we join the nation in navigating this unprecedented health crisis.
- A couple's six-day honeymoon in the Maldives has now turned into an extended lockdown stay

- While on their post-wedding baecation, South Africa announced the 21-day lockdown due to the coronavirus

- Olivia and Raul de Freitas are now stuck in the luxury R14 000-a-night Maldives hotel

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Imagine going on the perfect tropical honeymoon but instead of just staying the couple of days, you and your spouse get stranded due to a pandemic.

That's what happened to one South African couple. On 14 March, Raul and Olivia de Freitas said "I do" and several days later they embarked on their dream honeymoon.

Eight days later, the newly-weds arrived at Cinnamon Velifushi Hotel in the Maldives.

While on their fourth day in the Maldives, South Africa announced the lockdown in an attempt to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Thus far, the lockdown is set to end on 16 April, however, Police Minister Bheki Cele has indicated that an extension on the lockdown isn't totally out of the question. This means Raul and Olivia have no idea when they will be allowed back in Mzansi.

The Daily Mail reported the happy couple had concerns about travelling during the pandemic but Raul, 28, and his wife, 27, were assured by a travel agent that they would be allowed back into the country.

The Telegraph reported the lockdown changed the circumstances with all incoming and outgoing flights in SA suspended.

The couple contemplated a trip to the main island's airport, but they would not have made it back to SA before the start of the lockdown, YOU reported.

Soon after SA's lockdown announcement, the Maldives followed suit and the couple would not have been allowed back if they left the island.

With no other options, the De Freitases made the decision to stay. However, the decision has been eating into their savings, the couple revealed.

They were left to stay at the extravagant hotel, which sets one back a whopping R14 000 a night.

Olivia and Raul de Freitas. Photo credit: Olivia Rodrigues De Freitas/Facebook.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Zuma's wifey turns 48: Inside Tobeka's lockdown birthday celebrations

Rual and Olivia then contacted the SA Consulate in the Maldives and SA Embassy in Sri Lanka for help.

The De Freitases were not alone and they learned 40 other SA citizens were also stranded in the Maldives.

They have since been transported to another resort where other South Africans were also being assisted.

Meanwhile, Briefly.co.za reported on another couple who got married in the lockdown. A couple released a video on YouTube telling their romantic story of how, despite everything going wrong and a global pandemic cancelled their wedding, they still found a way to share their special day. A 'priest' with a tablet for a face waited for them.

The groom woke his fiancee up and took her outside, where the 'guests' were waiting. Cardboard cutouts, roughly drawn and shaped to resemble their loved ones, sat patiently and waited for the ceremony to start.

Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news!

Source: Briefly News
In a residential neighborhood of the US capital, children are hunting for bears. Not the ferocious ones, of course -- but stuffed animals peering out from neighbors' windows. In Washington as in other cities and towns across America and around the world, the collective scavenger hunt is captivating stir-crazy children under coronavirus lockdowns. With schools closed and the vast majority of Americans ordered to stay at home, a rare walk is often the only fresh air families are getting. And the bear hunt is making it more fun. "It is hard for parents to come up with stuff for the kids to do," said Rachel, 32, who was out hunting teddy bears with her eight-month old daughter in the Chevy Chase area. The stuffed toys started appearing in windows around the neighborhood about two weeks ago. The community email network Nextdoor even has maps showing parents and children where to look. Joyful kids dart from one house to the next, happy to spot one, two, three or even four bears at the same house. "When I saw it on the listserv, I decided to participate immediately," says Rachel, who asked not to be identified by her last name. - Inspired by children's book - The idea for the scavenger hunts came from the perennially popular 1989 children's book "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," by British author Michael Rosen. Teddy bears have popped up in windows in Britain, the Netherlands and as far away as New Zealand, where Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern put one in the window of her family home in Wellington, local media reported. In Washington, at one home in Chevy Chase, the owners posted a sign congratulating the young hunters: "You've found one!" One of the earnest children, eight-year-old Joshua found a giant teddy bear sitting in an armchair on the porch of one home. "That's one over there is huge!" he exclaimed with glee. Joshua and his little brother spent nearly two hours combing the neighborhood for cuddly bears -- and walked a fair distance. "It's really fun to have something to look for," Joshua says. "We didn't even notice how long we were out, or how far we walked!" At the end of the family stroll, the kids have lost count of the bears and other stuffed toys they've seen. "It gives the children an activity, and the parents an activity to do outside, and... something that's reasonably safe for them," said Washington resident Phillip Renfrow. "That's important." - A touch of levity - Renfrow is a 72-year-old architect living in the US capital's Cleveland Park neighborhood. He said participating in the hunt was also fun for those putting bears on display. He said he recently spotted a man and his young daughter, aged about seven, on the hunt near his home. "She was walking with her little toy binoculars up to the houses, so she spotted ours and focused on it for a few seconds," Renfrow said. These moments of human contact really count at a time when the global pandemic has already killed more than 70,000 people around the world, said Christopher Drell, a massage therapist. His wife Rachel, who is a real estate agent, also said she was seeking some levity in these grim times. The bears at her house "are wearing my mother-in-law's very favorite hat in the entire world and a scarf from the dog and they are out for a picnic," she told AFP. And in a wink at the times, the bears are observing social distancing guidelines.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson remained in a central London hospital Monday, having been admitted there on the advice of doctors Sunday. Johnson was diagnosed with the coronavirus 10 days ago.

The 55-year-old was taken to St Thomas Hospital in central London at around 8 p.m. local time Sunday. He did not require an ambulance. Government officials say the prime minister was hospitalized on precautionary grounds for further tests as his symptoms had not improved.

Johnson had previously posted several video messages while under self-isolation in his residence at 10 Downing Street, reassuring the public that his symptoms were mild and urging Britons to adhere to the nationwide lockdown.

I am absolutely confident that we will beat it and we will beat it together, and we will do it by staying at home, Johnson said in a message posted last week. Observers say its clear he is quite unwell and has been suffering from a fever for several days.

"There are instances where people who are otherwise fit and healthy, and who are not above the 70-year-old sort of age qualification for isolating, where they struggle a bit. And certain people do that. We don't understand why, noted Dr. Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at Britains University of Reading.

Boris Johnsons partner Carrie Symonds, who is pregnant, is also showing symptoms of COVID-19. She wrote on Twitter that she has not been tested and is self-isolating at her London home.

Johnson remains in contact with government ministers via video link.

He'll continue to be kept informed as to what's happening and to be in charge of the government, Housing Minister Robert Jenrick said Monday. If Johnson becomes too ill to lead the government, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab would take over the reins of power.

U.S. President Donald Trump wished Johnson a speedy recovery Sunday.

I want to express our nation's well wishes to Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he wages his own personal fight with the virus, Trump said at the beginning of a White House press conference Sunday. All Americans are praying for him. He's a friend of mine, is a great gentleman and a great leader. And he's, as you know, he was brought to the hospital today. But I'm hopeful and sure that he's going to be fine. He's strong man, a strong person.

There are concerns however that Johnson may struggle to lead Britains response, with indications that the country is following a similar trajectory as the worst-hit European nations, Italy and Spain. As of Monday, Britain had recorded 4,934 deaths from the coronavirus with almost 50,000 infections.

With the nation in crisis, Queen Elizabeth II  Britains official head of state  made a rare televised address Sunday night from Windsor Castle outside London, where she is staying as the COVID-19 outbreak grips the capital. The monarch invoked Britains struggles through World War II.



I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time. A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all, Queen Elizabeth said.

The Queen went on to recall her first broadcast made in 1940. ... helped by my sister. We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety.

We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.

The Queens son and heir to the throne, Prince Charles, was diagnosed with the coronavirus two weeks ago. He has ended his period of self-isolation after making a full recovery.

The monarchs stirring words were well-received by a weary nation, fearful of the health and economic challenges that lie ahead.
A COVID-19 patient in Paris. (Associated Press)

The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 passed the 10,000 mark on Monday, just slightly more than two months from the day the first case was confirmed in the state of Washington. As bad as that is, things are going to get worse.

Thats the gloomy message coming from federal, state and local authorities, who've warned that this will be the worst week yet for the nation during the pandemic. With dramatic increases in deaths from COVID-19 likely in such hot spots as New York, Louisiana and Detroit, U.S. Surgeon Gen. Jerome Adams told Fox News Sunday that this is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans lives, quite frankly.

California too is bracing for a tough week. The state now has nearly 16,000 identified cases, more than 6,300 of which are in Los Angeles County. And the numbers are still rising. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 cases jumped 10% overnight, Gov. Gavin Newsom reported Monday; the L.A. County Department of Public Health on Sunday reported 15 deaths in the county since the day before.

Theres no reason to doubt the bleak outlook. In the past two months, every week has been worse than the one that came before. But don't misinterpret the warnings coming from government. New cases and deaths are not expected to fall off after this one intensely bad week. Next week will likely be worse still. And the week after that? More sickness and more death. Newsom said Monday that he didn't expect the pandemic to peak in California until May.

How long it will go on and how many Americans will die before the pandemic is played out is an open question. Will it be the 100,000 to 240,000 people that President Trumps coronavirus task force suggested last week, based on a selective reading of epidemiological models? Will it be 49,000 to 136,000 deaths by Aug. 1, as modeling by the University of Washingtons Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation suggests? Or something closer to the 1.2 million death scenario painted by the Imperial College Londons models?

We don't know. We can't know. While statistical models of the pandemic's trajectory can be useful to shock complacent elected officials out of denial, they cannot tell the future, only suggest possible outcomes based on an educated extrapolation from known data. And in the case of SARS-CoV-2, which was identified only in December, there aren't enough data.

That's why the wisest course now is to stick with the social distancing strategies that are currently in place, despite the damage they're inflicting on our livelihoods and the economy. Indeed, officials in places such as Singapore and South Korea who thought they successfully flattened the pandemic's curve with quick action are now seeing a resurgence in cases from incoming travelers. The safest bet is that this week will be the worst, followed by an unknown number of even worse weeks.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-07 20:00:08





Capelle aan den Ijssel, The Netherlands 7 April 2020: Today, AND has published the convocation and meeting materials for its Annual General Meeting of shareholders to be held on May 19th, 2020.

The meeting material and the convocation including the agenda are available on the AND website and are outlined below.

At this Annual General Meeting, the Supervisory Board proposes to appoint Mr Ivo Vleeschouwers as the new Statutory Chief Financial Officer. Mr Vleeschouwers joined AND on April 1, 2020. Most recently, he served as Interim Finance Manager at Protiviti, and prior to that he was CFO for C-Map and has held other senior financial positions with global enterprises.

INVITATION TO ATTEND THE AND INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS N.V.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS

AND International Publishers N.V. (AND) invites shareholders to attend its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (GMS) on Tuesday May 19th, 2020 at 10:00 hours CET. This meeting will be held at the offices of AND located in Capelle a/d IJssel 2909 LC, Rivium Quadrant 75, 9th floor.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak requires precautionary measures. as such and in order to comply with Dutch government health directives and protect the health and safety of all participants to the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders 2020, AND is closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation and shareholders are advised to regularly check the AND website for updates up to the day of the meeting.

AND urges all shareholders not to attend the meeting in person, but instead to provide their voting instructions via internet or the voting instruction form no later than May 11, 2020, at 5 p.m. CET (in accordance with the usual procedures described in the convocation notice). Shareholders are kindly requested to follow the meeting via a live webinar. Full Instructions on how to attend the webinar are outlined below in this convocation notice.

A limited number of seats, allocated on a first come first served basis will be available at the offices of AND in Capelle a/d IJssel for shareholders, who are unable to use the online alternative, provided that they have registered in advance and submitted their voting instructions as detailed further below.

The following agenda items are scheduled for the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders 2020:



Opening of the meeting by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board Announcements Review of the minutes of the GMS of May 16th, 2019 (discussion item) Review of the Report of the Supervisory Board on 2019 (discussion item) Implementation of the remuneration policy during 2019 (discussion item) Annual Report 2019 Proposal to adopt the financial statements (voting item) Policy on result allocation (discussion item) Proposal to not to issue a dividend over 2019 (voting item) Corporate Governance (discussion item) Proposal to discharge the members of the Board of Management (voting item) Proposal to discharge the members of the Supervisory Board (voting item) Proposals to authorize (extend authority of) the Board of Management to: Nominate a Statutory Auditor (voting item) Issue shares (including the authority to allocate certain rights to shares (voting item) Grant, limit or exclude priority rights (voting item) Proposal to approve the convertible loan and the issuance of the conversion right (max number of shares if converted per outstanding balance today are 627,548 shares. At maturity of the loan  Feb 2022 this would be 700,401 shares) (voting item) Proposal to re-appoint Mr. B.J. Glick as member of the Supervisory Board (voting item) Proposal to appoint Mr. I. Vleeschouwers as member of the Management Board and CFO of the company (voting item) Business update Any other business Closing of the Shareholders meeting

Meeting documents

Some of the meeting documents will be made available on the AND International Publishers N.V website of (AND or the Company). Those will include the agenda, clarifications, and minutes of the Extraordinary Shareholder meeting from May 16th 2019. Documents will also be available at the offices of the Company, Rivium Quadrant 75, 2909 LC, Capelle aan den IJssel, Tel. 010-8851200, Fax 010-8851240 and at ING BANK N.V., Issuer Services, Location code TRC 02.039, Foppingadreef 7, 1102 BD, Amsterdam, Tel. 020-5636799, e-mail iss.pas@ing.nl. A detail of these documents will be provided free of charge upon request. The Consolidated Annual Accounts of AND will be available as of April 24th, 2020.

Registration date

Persons entitled to vote and/or attend the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders 2020, are holders of common shares who on April 21, 2020, after processing of all settlements per this date (the Record Date) are registered as such in a (sub)register designated by the Board of Management. The (sub)registers for bearer shares are those kept on the Record Date by the banks and brokers, which are according to Dutch Securities Giro Transfer Act (Wet giraal effectenverkeer) intermediaries (intermediairs) of the Dutch Central Securities Depositary (Euroclear Nederland).

Registration

Holders of common shares who wish to attend the 2020 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders either in person, by proxy or online, have to register for the meeting by Monday May 11th, 2020, at 17.30 CET at the latest at ING BANK N.V., Issuer Services, Location code TRC 02.039, Foppingadreef 7, 1102 BD, Amsterdam, Tel. 020-5636799, e-mail iss.pas@ing.nl.

Attending the meeting online.

We will use a professional online tool to give you the opportunity to participate to the shareholders meeting and vote on the above items. This tool is called GoToWebinar. You will be able to access the meeting via a simple web browser or the GoToWebinar app available for smartphones or tablets on the corresponding app stores. Once you have registered as a shareholder via ING, we will send you an email to register for the webinar. You will then receive a link that will be unique to you. Please make sure you have registered with ING with the correct email address. To test if your system is meeting the minimum requirement please click on this link: https://support.goto.com/webinar/system-check-attendee

Proxy and voting instructions

Holders of bearer shares who wish to attend the meeting by proxy have to submit a power of attorney and provide instructions for the person voting on their behalf . In that case the shareholder needs to register his/her shareholding as described above and at the same time provide an electronic copy of the proxy. This proxy needs to be received no later than Monday May 11, 2020 at the service desk of ING Bank NV (email: iss.pas@ing.nl ). The shareholder can inform the Company of such proxy using the following email address:

ava@and.com . Proxy documents can be obtained free of charge at the offices of the Company (phone: 010-8851200) and can be downloaded from its website www.and.com. When attending the meeting in person, the proxy holder needs to have the proof of the registration, a copy of the proxy document and a valid identification document.

Identification



Holders of registered shares or proxy holders who wish to attend the meeting in person will be requested to provide a valid identification document before being admitted to the meeting.

Share Capital and voting rights

At the time of issuing this convocation notice, the company has a share capital of  2.795.352,75 consisting of 3.727.137 ordinary shares with a nominal value of  0,75. The number of voting right amounts to 3.727.137.

Rotterdam, April 7, 2020

The Board of Management and the Supervisory Board

AND International Publishers N.V.

www.and.com
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Linkedin Sausan Atika and Ivany Atina Arbi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 16:24 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd04e1a2 1 City COVID-19-in-Indonesia,coronavirus,virus-corona,virus-korona-indonesia,outbreak,social-restriction,Jakarta-police,limitation,PSBB Free

The Jakarta Police have asserted that there will be no limitation on travel to or from Jakarta, the countrys COVID-19 epicenter, despite the upcoming implementation of large-scale social restrictions in the capital city.

"The Health Ministry's regulation on large-scale social restriction doesn't mention or describe such access limitation," Jakarta Police traffic director Sr. Comr. Sambodo Purnomo said on Tuesday.

He added that the policy only required authorities to limit the number of passengers using private cars and public transportation, including city buses and commuter trains.

Jakarta became the first region in the country to implement social restrictions to curb the transmission of COVID-19 after the Health Ministry approved the provincial administrations proposal on Tuesday.

The ministry wrote in a ministerial decree that data had shown a significant increase in, and a rapid spread of, COVID-19 cases, accompanied by evidence of local transmission in Jakarta. Therefore, large-scale social restrictions were deemed necessary to flatten the contagion curve.

Read also: COVID-19: Anies slams Health Ministrys requirements for large-scale social restrictions

The Jakarta Police are waiting for either the Transportation Ministry or the city Transportation Agency to issue further regulations detailing public transportation limitations.

"We will only move based on regulations," said Sambodo.

A 2020 Government Regulation on social restrictions requires regional administrations to submit a proposal to the governments COVID-19 task force and obtain a permit from the Health Ministry before imposing such measures. Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan applied for the restrictions last Thursday.

Health authorities in Jakarta had confirmed more than 1,200 COVID-19 cases as of Monday afternoon, making up nearly half the countrys official tally of 2,738 infections. There were more than 100 fatalities from the disease in the capital city out of a nationwide death toll of 221.

Concerns are mounting about the potential wider spread of COVID-19 if authorities remain reluctant to impose lockdowns in several red zones in the country as millions of people return to their hometowns for the annual Idul Fitri mudik (exodus).
PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-08 00:03:03

Rio Tinto discloses details of the $7.6 billion taxes paid in 2019

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Rio Tinto plc

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Category: general

Rio Tinto paid $7.6 billion in taxes and royalties globally in 2019, including $4.8 billion of corporate tax, as detailed in its latest Taxes paid report, published today.

The majority of its taxes were paid in Australia ($6.2 billion), home to the largest part of Rio Tintos business. The company also made significant payments in Chile ($311 million), Mongolia ($305 million), Canada ($291million), United States ($178 million), the United Kingdom ($117 million) and South Africa ($80 million).

The report also outlines the $45.1 billion direct economic contribution Rio Tinto made in 2019 to the countries and communities where it operates, taking the companys direct economic contribution since 2015 to $210 billion.

Rio Tinto chief financial officer Jakob Stausholm said Our business, including the taxes and royalties we pay, play a critical role in the overall economic health and development of the regions where we operate.

The funds we provide to governments and communities support the basic infrastructure of society  bridges and roads, schools and hospitals  as well as other local development priorities, like job creation and skills training. Being transparent about where these payments go helps our stakeholders better understand how these funds may be used.

A decade ago Rio Tinto became the first company in the resources industry to voluntarily disclose its payments to governments in detail, and has continued to report on taxes and royalties paid, and economic contribution, in increasing detail ever since. Over that period, Rio Tinto has paid over $70 billion in taxes and royalties to governments around the world, including $52 billion paid in Australia.

This year, consistent with Rio Tintos commitment to building on transparency about its economic contribution, the company has for the first time released comprehensive financial and tax related disclosures for each country in which it operates. The companys 2018 Country by Country report can be found on our website.

Rio Tinto is a founding member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and a signatory to the B Team Tax Principles, a not-for-profit initiative formed by a group of cross-sector, cross-regional companies to help define what leadership in responsible tax looks like.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005
By IANS

SRINAGAR: A CRPF trooper was killed on Tuesday in a firing incident by militants in Jammu and Kashmir's Bijbehara town.

Police sources said militants fired at a CRPF party in Bijbehara town today injuring a trooper who was shifted to the local hospital for treatment.

Doctors at the local hospital referred the injured trooper for specialty treatment to the nearby Anantnag town where doctors declared the injured trooper as dead on arrival.

The area has been cordon off for searches.
Calif. church locked out of building by landlord to stop it from holding services

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A church in California was locked out by its landlord after the congregation opted to hold services despite a state order against gatherings.

Cross Culture Christian Center in Lodi was unable to hold a planned service on Sunday due to its landlord, Bethel Open Bible Church, changing the locks on the building.

Jeremy Duncan, brother of Cross Culture Pastor Jon Duncan, told local media outlet Fox 2 of Oakland that he took issue with the restrictions on in-person worship.

I'm not thrilled in general with the restriction on religious liberties, said Duncan, especially during what is Christians' most holy week.

Last week, the San Joaquin County Health Department ordered Cross Culture to close down in response to concerns over spreading the coronavirus.

Duncan told KTXL last week that his church planned to continue holding gatherings, which had a reported average worship attendance of around 30 people.

The church, the assembly of God is the people of God gathering together, said the pastor to KTXL, regularly gathering together for the teaching of God's Word, praying, worship, baptism, communion and fellowship.

Duncan also told KTXL that they were not taking the virus lightly nor do we have in our minds to act reckless, with sick members told to stay home and services having spaced out seating and hand-washing stations.

We are going to meet as often as we can meet and we do believe that this right is protected by the First Amendment and should be considered essential, he added.

Last month, the church was visited by officers with the Lodi Police Department during a Wednesday evening service, telling them to respect a state stay-at-home order.

As a result, the church has sought legal representation through the Escondido-based conservative law firm the National Center for Law & Policy.

In a statement released last week, NCLP President Dean Broyles argued that California does not have the jurisdiction to unilaterally shut down all church services indefinitely.

Religious congregations dont forfeit their fundamental rights, their unalienable civil liberties, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, stated Broyles.

Therefore, we call on Governor Newsom and all California Counties to honor and respect our fundamental civil rights by granting churches religious exemptions from the sweeping stay at home orders, as other states have appropriately done, as this what is required by the Constitution.
Three positive cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in Wyoming, and the situation continues to develop quickly. The Star-Tribune will update this page throughout the weekend with the latest news regarding coronavirus in Wyoming.

All of our coronavirus coverage is free to read.

Confused about the coronavirus  what it is, how it spreads or how to protect yourself? Read our explainer on the virus here.

7:55 p.m. Sunday

Casper closing rec facilities

The Casper Recreation Center, Aquatics Center and Ice Arena will suspend their services. The facilities will be closed effective immediately, the city said in an announcement.

6:26 p.m. Sunday

District providing free meals

While Natrona County School District's schools will be closed, those under 18 will still be able to get free meals. The district will provide them from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday at Verda James Elementary, Paradise Valley Elementary, Midwest School, Lincoln Elementary and the Casper Recreation Center.

6:01 p.m. Sunday

Other districts announce shutdowns

A number of other school districts have also announced closures of varying lengths: Fremont County School District No. 14 (two weeks), Fremont County No. 1 (through April 6), Fremont County No. 6, Sweetwater School District No. 2 and Johnson County School District No. 1.

5:41 p.m. Sunday

NCSD heeds Gordon's advice

Natrona County School District, the second largest district in the state, will close from Monday until April 5. The district had already implemented some proactive measures to keep students or staff who may be at risk of carrying the disease away from school.

"NCSD will share additional details and further information with parents, guardians, and staff as soon as possible in the coming days," spokeswoman Tanya Southerland said in a release.

5:10 p.m. Sunday

Gordon recommends all schools close

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and state Superintendent Jillian Balow have recommended all schools in Wyoming close through at least April 3 to limit the spread of COVID-19.

"This is Wyoming, where we are all neighbors," Gordon said in a statement. "While social distancing should be a priority, it should not keep us from helping one another out. I am thinking of our first responders and healthcare workers who may be without child care. This is a time to help one another out."

While the officials made this recommendation, they left it up to the individual school districts to decide on closures themselves.

4:55 p.m. Sunday

Cheyenne school district temporarily close

Laramie County School District No. 1, the largest in the state, followed suit in closing its doors temporarily. The district is not far from the Colorado border; Wyoming's southern neighbor has had a far more substantial outbreak of the virus thus far.

2:55 p.m. Sunday

Teton County schools temporarily close

Teton County public schools became the first in the state to temporarily shut down in light of the coronavirus. A confirmed case was recently announced in nearby Teton County, Idaho.

5:28 p.m. Saturday

Douglas hospital eyeing potential case

Memorial Hospital of Converse County in Douglas announced it had a patient who met the criteria for a COVID-19 test. The hospital is awaiting results from the Wyoming Department of Health.

The patient, admitted Friday, did not have a fever but "underlying medical conditions required hospitalization," according to a news release.

5:15 p.m. Saturday

Officials confident in preparation

In education/health reporter Seth Klamann's Sunday story recapping the last week in coronavirus developments, officials express confidence that their proactive efforts will be enough to handle the virus here. Find it on the front of Sunday's Star-Tribune.

4:54 p.m. Saturday

School district taking further steps

The Natrona County School District expanded its efforts to limit the disease's spread. Students with a fever of 99.5 degrees or higher, or symptoms such as cough or shortness of breath, should not come to school. The school will contact their guardians and send them home otherwise.

Additionally, the district is monitoring students and staff groups that have traveled out of Wyoming in the last week.

Students and staff who have traveled out of the state or to an affected area, plus those with family members exhibiting the aforementioned symptoms, will be monitored as well. The students and staff in question will be checked for fevers daily for two weeks following their travel or potential exposure.

4:08 p.m. Saturday

Third case confirmed

Wyoming's third case of COVID-19 has been confirmed. The man is from Sheridan County and is linked to the state's first case, also from the county.

The Health Department is following up to learn more about the man's exposure risk and who he may have been in close contact with.

Testing on the man was performed in Colorado, where the man was visiting, the Health Department said. Officials have said they believe they've contacted those who may have been affected by the first patient and that at least two people were in self-quarantine.

2:40 p.m. Saturday

Details on second case

The second person in Wyoming confirmed to have COVID-19 is a resident of an assisted-living facility in Lander. The older man is a resident of Showboat Retirement Center and is now in isolation at SageWest Health Care in Lander, according to the state Health Department.

It's not clear how he was exposed to the virus.

Our initial follow-up with this individual found nothing that could be explained other than potential community spread of this virus in the Lander area, Dr. Alexia Harrist, state health officer and state epidemiologist with the Health Department, said in a statement.

The respiratory disease caused by the virus has thus far been more dangerous for older patients.

12:05 p.m. Saturday

Foreigner concert postponed

The upcoming Foreigner concert at the Casper Events Center has been postponed. A rescheduled date will be announced soon, the venue said.

Refunds are not available. Previously purchased tickets will be honored.

12:00 p.m. Saturday

Outbreak likely to bring economic blow

City reporter Morgan Hughes lays out some of the challenges that coronavirus could bring to Casper on the financial front. While that component of the pandemic is hard to gauge just yet, many in Casper expect it to be a problem. Find the story on the front of Sunday's Star-Tribune.

Have a question about coronavirus that you want answered? Send us an email at editors@trib.com.
NEW DELHI : India, the world's main supplier of generic drugs, has lifted restrictions on the export of 24 pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines made from them, the government said in a statement.

It had imposed the restrictions last month as the coronavirus outbreak disrupted global supply chains.

Paracetamol, a common pain reliever, and its formulations were not included in the list of drugs freed up for export.

It was not clear what prompted India to lift the restrictions, but Indian government sources had said the bans had prompted intense pressure from the United States.

The decision also followed a telephone call on Saturday between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump.

"The two leaders agreed to remain in touch on the issue of global supply chains for critical pharmaceuticals and medical supplies and to ensure they continue to function as smoothly as possible during the global health crisis," White House spokesman Judd Deere, said in a tweet on Saturday following the leaders' call.

India had restricted the exports of 26 ingredients and medicines on March 3. Paracetamol and its formulations accounted for two items on the original list.

The 26 active pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines accounted for 10% of all Indian pharmaceutical exports and includes several antibiotics, such as tinidazole and erythromycin, the hormone progesterone and Vitamin B12.

India has also placed restrictions on the export of most diagnostic testing kits. And in recent weeks it had also banned the export of ventilators, masks and other protective gear needed by both patients and medical staff.

During the telephone call on Saturday, Trump urged Modi to release supplies of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which is being tested as a possible treatment for patients with COVID-19 - the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Trump said late on Monday in Washington that India could face retaliation for its decision to ban exports of hydroxychloroquine.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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European auto major Groupe PSA on Tuesday said it has decided to postpone the launch of its first model in India to first quarter of next year due to the challengingbusiness environment right now owing to coronavirus pandemic.

The company, which was all setto introduce C5 Aircross later this year, now plans to launch the SUV in the first quarter of next year.

Groupe PSA in India along with its dealers, agencies and vendors understands the challenges to business this pandemic poses, as the global business isolation impacts all multinational projects, it said in a statement.

"Whilereiterating its commitment to India,given the current scenario where people at large are concerned about their personal well-being and health and automotive purchase is not a priority,Groupe PSA in India in close co-ordination with its new dealer partners has decided to re-time the launch of its debut vehicle Citroen C5 Aircross SUV to Q1 2021, while ensuring industrial readiness," it added.

The re-timing is aimed to move the commercial launch to a potentially more positive economic activity period where consumer sentiments are upbeat, Groupe PSA said.

"At the same time,Groupe PSA has decided to maintain the project timeline and investment for the C-Cubed program, under which the first vehicle designed, developed and made in India would be launched in 2021as announced in 2019 by Carlos Tavares, chairman of the managing board, Groupe PSA," it added.

The automaker had formally announced in early 2019 its plan to enter the Indian market with Citroen brand.

The brand has already stated to roll out five models in India. It has already established leasing and finance arms in the country to make the C5 Aircross SUV and other upcoming models accessible for the consumer financially.

The automaker said in order to tackle and contain the spread of the COVID-19, all its offices and plants across the country are closed until further noticeand in line with government's lockdown directive.

Groupe PSA is Europe's second-largest carmaker after Volkswagen. It sells three brands Peugeot, Citroen and DS.

The company is no stranger to India, having entered into a partnership with the erstwhile Premier family resulting in JV Peugeot PAL India. However, it pulled out from the JV in 2001.

In 2017, PSA Groupe announced a partnership with CK Birla Group to re-enter the Indian market.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The government has lifted restrictions on the export of 24 pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines made from them.

The 24 APIs include -- Tinidazole, Metronidazole, Acyclovir, Vitamin B1, B6 and B12, Progesterone, Chloramphenicol, Ornidazole, formulations made of Vitamin B1.

On March 6, Union Minister of State for Shipping, and Chemical and Fertilizers, Mansukh Mandaviya had said that the government has imposed short term restrictions on some active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) with regards to coronavirus preparedness.

Export restriction on paracetamol, a common fever and pain reliever, and its formulations would remain, said the Directorate General of Foreign Trade.

"24 APIs and formulations made from these APIs are made free for export with immediate effect," the DGFT said.

The ease on curbs on export 24 APIs assumed significance as some pharma companies have raised concerns over these restrictions.The total number of COVID-19 positive cases in India has reached 4,281 according to the latest government estimates.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With the coronavirus outbreak



creating demand for the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said three companies from the state will export it to the United States.

In an interview to a private radio station on Tuesday, Rupani said his government has kept aside 1 crore hydroxychloroquine tablets to deal with any eventuality.

"Gujarat is shining the world over. US President Trump has been vigorously demanding that drug from India. Now, when the Centre has given permission for its export, Gujarat is all set to send it to the United States," said Rupani.

"Three Gujarat-based companies have already started production of that drug to be supplied to the US. To be on the safer side, we have kept aside 1 crore tablet for our own use," the CM said.

US President Donald Trump had, on Monday, warned India of retaliation if the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is not supplied to his country.

In response, the Centre had said India will supply essential drugs to neighbouring countries and those that are badly affected by the pandemic.

Hydroxychloroquine is an old and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria, the export of which was banned by India last month amid views that it could be used as potential anti-viral agent to protect from infection healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients.

On speculation of the lockdown getting extended, he said it was tough to say anything at this juncture, adding it was the Centre that would decide on this after seeking opinion from all states.

He said there was confusion among the masses on this topic, and claimed one of options being discussed by the people was to lift the lockdown in a phased manner so as to control the rush of crowds.

He said impact of lockdown on the economy should not be taken into consideration when people's lives are at stake.

He said a sudden rise in COVID-19 cases in Gujarat was because of "mistakes" committed by Tablighi Jamaat members who had attended a gathering in Delhi last month.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By AFP

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's admission to intensive care with coronavirus prompted an outpouring of well-wishes from world leaders on Monday.

Here are some of the global figures who wished the British leader a quick recovery:

US

President Donald Trump said he wanted to "send best wishes to a very good friend of mine and a friend to our nation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson."

"We're very saddened to hear he was taken into intensive care this afternoon, a little while ago. Americans are all praying for his recovery," Trump told a press conference.

"We'll see if we can be of help. We've contacted all of Boris' doctors and we'll see what is going to take place. But they are ready to go."

EU

The European Union's top officials all sent public messages wishing Johnson a "full recovery".

The EU's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, who is recovering in quarantine after also testing positive, tweeted that "my thoughts are with you and your family."

The best wishes from the European Union's top officials underlined the setting aside of political tussling after Johnson took Britain out of the bloc in January.

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France

French President Emmanuel Macron gave his "full support to Boris Johnson, his family and the British people at this difficult time".

"I hope he will rapidly overcome this ordeal," tweeted.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had earlier told BFMTV: "I know his strength, I am convinced he will draw from his resources, which are great, the capacity to overcome this ordeal. It's also symbolic of the seriousness of this crisis, which affects everyone."

Spain

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted: "My solidarity and wishes for a speedy recovery for Prime Minister Boris Johnson. These are difficult days for our countries, but it is through strength and unity that we can win this battle."

Italy

Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio tweeted in English that "the Italian people is with the UK in these difficult times. We are one for each other. Get well soon Boris Johnson!"

WHO

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "thinking of my friend Boris Johnson tonight, and sending my and WHO's heartfelt good wishes as he battles the coronavirus."

"I know the NHS and its dedicated health workers will be looking after you," he tweeted.

Canada

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose wife tested positive last month, wished Johnson a full and speedy recovery. "My thoughts are with you and your family right now. Hope to see you back at Number 10 soon," he tweeted.

The Netherlands

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that "on behalf of the Dutch cabinet, I wish Boris Johnson, his family and the British people lots of strength during this difficult time."

"I hope to be able to speak to him soon in good health," Rutte tweeted.

NATO

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said his thoughts are with his friend. "Lots of strength, Boris, and get well soon!" he tweeted.

Poland

President Andrzej Duda tweeted: "My thoughts are with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his family at this testing time. I wish him a full and swift recovery."

Czech Republic

Czech President Milos Zeman tweeted: "I wish you strength and endurance in your fight with the disease to overcome it and win over it."
Johnson was stable overnight in intensive care and is in good spirits as he fights coronavirus, says UK PMs spokesman.

London, United Kingdom  UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is battling worsening coronavirus symptoms, was stable during his first night in an intensive care unit at a London hospital, the PMs spokesman said on Tuesday.

The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits. He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support, the spokesman said, adding that Johnson did not have pneumonia.

Johnson, 55, first announced he had tested positive for the virus on March 27 and went into self-isolation.

After failing to shake off a high fever for more than a week, he was admitted to Guys and St Thomas hospital in central London on Sunday from where he continued to lead the government until he was moved into intensive care on Monday evening when his condition deteriorated.

Over the course of [Monday] afternoon, the condition of the prime minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the intensive care unit at the hospital, Number 10 said in a statement.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on a screen as he remotely chaired the morning novel coronavirus COVID-19 meeting by video link, in Downing Street in central London. [File: Andrew Parsons/10 Downing Street/ AFP]

Johnson has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputise where necessary.

In Tuesdays daily afternoon briefing, Raab told reporters that the prime minister was breathing without assistance and had not required respiratory support.

He remains in good spirits, said Raab. And in keeping with usual clinical practice, his progress continues to be monitored closely.

Im confident he will pull through. If there is one thing I know about this prime minister, hes a fighter.

It was also announced on Tuesday afternoon that, as of 16:00 GMT on Monday, 6,159 people in the UK had died from coronavirus, according to the health ministry. More than 55,000 people have so far tested positive for the virus.

The PMs spokesman on Tuesday said Raab and the cabinet had the authority to decide on national security issues in Johnsons absence, but that Raab did not currently have the power to hire or fire ministers.

If Raab became unable to lead, Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, would lead government, said the spokesman.

Before being moved within the hospital, Johnson tweeted: Last night, on the advice of my doctor, I went into hospital for some routine tests as Im still experiencing coronavirus symptoms. Im in good spirits and keeping in touch with my team, as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe.

Id like to say thank you to all the brilliant NHS staff taking care of me and others in this difficult time. You are the best of Britain. Stay safe everyone and please remember to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives.

Queen Elizabeth II, who recently gave a rare address to the nation amid the coronavirus crisis, is being kept informed about Johnsons health.

While doctors attempted to help Johnson recover on Tuesday, world leaders paid tribute as political figures in the United Kingdom across the spectrum set differences aside to send messages of support. US President Donald Trump said: Ive gotten to know him [Johnson]. Hes just such an incredible guy.

It was just so shocking to see that because you know what that means  intensive care is a big deal with regard to what were talking about. Thats a very big deal. Very scary deal.

All my support for Boris Johnson, his family and the British people at this difficult time.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he wished for a full and speedy recovery for his British counterpart.

My thoughts are with you and your family right now. Hope to see you back at Number 10 soon.

Keir Starmer, the new leader of the opposition Labour Party, tweeted: Terribly sad news. All the countrys thoughts are with the Prime Minister and his family during this incredibly difficult time.

Starmers predecessor Jeremy Corbyn said: My thoughts are with Boris Johnson and his family.

Thanks to the NHS staff for their hard work and dedication.
Prime ministers through the years have suffered terrible health problems in office that have included strokes, heart attacks and even amphetamine addiction.

Boris Johnson's hospitalisation with coronavirus means he joins a litany of leaders who have suffered serious ill health and or been admitted to hospital during their term or terms in office.

They include his hero, Winston Churchill, who famously suffered a serious stroke while prime minister in the early 1950s.

Less well documented and semi-forgotten in the past are the brushes with death and disease suffered by some of his other predecessors in No 10.

Here we look at some of the previous prime ministers who have had health concerns while in the nation's top political office.

Winston Churchill: 1940-45 and 1951-55

Revered as a war hero and famous for his garrulous character and bustling, often champagne-fuelled energy, Winston Churchill none-the-less struggled with his health behind the scenes.

He suffered a mild heart attack while at the White House in Washington in 1941, just a year after taking over as prime minister, and contracted pneumonia two years later.

In 1949, while opposition leader, he suffered a stroke on holiday, which affected his health to the extent that the King gently suggested he resign as PM in 1951 in favour of Anthony Eden.

Churchill suffered a second one during an official dinner at No 10 while in office in 1953, leaving him paralysed on one side.

His aides and family conspired to keep news of his illness out of the press, at a time when the Cold War was very chilly and there were fears he may not survive.

Eden's own illness meant that Churchill did not quit until 1955. He suffered a third stroke the following year and died in 1965.

David Lloyd George: 1916 to 1922

David Lloyd George was a pugnacious Welshman, the only PM to not speak English as their first language.

Famous for steering the then British Empire through the First World War he was also controversial, with a post-war honours scandal and his love life tarnishing his record, despite introducing universal suffrage in 1918.

In September 1918 he developed a sore throat after visiting Manchester's Albert Square and mingling in crowds during a ceremony for soldiers and munitions workers.

It later became clear he had Spanish influenza - which was rife in Manchester at the time of his visit. He spent 11 days in hospital and was hooked up to a ventilator before recovering. The disease would go on to kill more than 200,000 people in Britain and millions around the world.

Anthony Eden: 1955 - 57

Anthony Eden, who served in Churchill's war Cabinet and succeeded him in 1955, had a long history off ill health that prevented him from taking over from the ailing Churchill sooner.

He has suffered from a stress-related ulcer for decades but underwent a botched operation in 1953 that left him in regular excruciating pain, requiring rounds of more surgery.

On top of this he was prescribed benzedrine. They regarded as a harmless stimulant to reduce tiredness, it is a form of amphetamine and can become addictive.

Eden complained of insomnia and mood swings, which are side-effects of the drug's use.

Some historians have attributed his poor leadership during the 1956 Suez Crisis - seen as the failed last hurrah of British as a world superpower - to this drug use, although its impact is disputed.

Eden resigned in 1957 and was later elevated to the peerage as Lord Avon.

Harold Wilson: 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976

Harold Wilson had two terms in office that covered both the Swinging Sixties boom and the industrial-unrest strewn period of the mid 1970s.

Language experts believe the Labour leader's Commons speeches in the mid-1970s show tell-tale signs of mental decline and hint at the beginning of dementia.

Wilson's surprise announcement in spring 1976 that he was resigning led to a host of conspiracy theories.

But the research supports the long-held view that he was suffering from some form of dementia. He was later diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

He would also go on to be diagnosed with colon cancer, which eventually led to his death in 1995.

Gordon Brown: 2007 - 10

The Labour prime minister suffered from decades of sight problems, including during his three-year term in office.

His problems began decades earlier when he lost the sight in his left eye and suffered a loss of vision in his right eye, despite four major operations, after a kick to his head during a school rugby match.

He struggled on with his limited vision but suffered further problems in September 2009.

In 2017, discussing the incident he said he carried on working for a week without being able to see properly and without informing colleagues.

'When I woke up in Downing Street one Monday in September, I knew something was very wrong,' he said. 'My vision was foggy.'

He was taken to London's Moorfields Eye Hospital and was told he needed surgery for a torn retina. But after further examinations it was decided it was unnecessary and could lead to further complications.

Tony Blair: 1997 to 2007

Mr Blair is the longest-serving Labour prime minister ever, with a solid decade in power.

He was also one of the youngest when he took office at the age of 43, and was seen as fit and active.

In 2003 the then 50-year-old spent almost five hours with doctors after suffering chest pains at Chequers, his official countryside home.

He was taken to the nearby Stoke Mandeville Hospital after complaining he was feeling 'under the weather', Downing Street said at the time, but did not require an ambulance.

But he was then moved to London's Hammersmith hospital which has a specialist coronary care unit.

Doctors there carried out a series of checks and diagnosed supraventricular tachycardia, in which the heart beats much faster than usual.

They gave him a cardio-version - a treatment to regulate his heartbeat - before letting him return to Downing Street.

The following year he underwent minor surgery under local anesthetic for a 'heart flutter'.

Theresa May: 2016-2019

Theresa May was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2012 while Home Secretary.

This version of the pancreas disorder means that she has to maintain her blood sugar level with insulin injections.

Complications from severe cases can include a loss of blood circulation to extremities, leading to amputations, while untreated ultra high and low blood sugar levels can lead to coma and possibly death.

But she is believed to have kept in robust health while injecting herself with insulin several times a day. She was a noted fan of hill walking with her husband Philip.

She also used modern technology to keep her condition regulated, using a FreeStyle Libre monitor (pictured on her arm), which allows diabetics to use a mobile phone app to monitor sugar levels, removing the need to test using a finger-prick blood test.
Fired Inspector General 'Saddened' by Trump Move

By VOA News April 06, 2020

The intelligence community inspector general who alerted Congress to a whistleblower complaint about President Donald Trump's contacts with Ukraine says he is "disappointed and saddened" that Trump removed him from office.

Michael Atkinson issued a statement late Sunday saying he believes Trump's decision is based on Atkinson's faithful execution of his duties to be an independent and impartial inspector general and his "commitment to continue to do so."

Trump officially explained the move Friday as having lost confidence in Atkinson, and followed that Saturday by saying, "He took a fake report and he took it to Congress."

Atkinson urged federal workers who witness or learn of unethical or illegal behavior to report it.

He said, "The American people deserve an honest and effective government."

To others in charge of overseeing government actions, he urged them to "not allow recent events to silence your voices."

U.S. law required Atkinson to alert Congress of the whistleblower complaint, which raised alarms about Trump's conversations with Ukrainian officials and his pressure for them to investigate his Democratic rivals.

Those events launched impeachment proceedings against the president that ultimately ended with his acquittal in a Senate trial in February.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  Dubai has handed down its strictest lockdown measures yet as coronavirus cases in the United Arab Emirates tripled in just over a week.

Residents of Dubai, the commercial and tourism hub of the oil-rich Gulf monarchy, have already been in lockdown for two weeks, with all but essential businesses closed and no outdoor activities permitted, including exercise.

Since Sunday, leaving the house for trips deemed "essential"  which only include visits to the grocery store, pharmacy or doctor  now requires a permit issued online by the Dubai Police, with a new permit required for each trip. A mask and gloves are to be worn at all times when outside the house, on penalty of police action. The rules are in effect for two weeks, subject to renewal.

Permit applications are to be made online with the Dubai Police, at which point the applicant is supposed to receive a single-use text message login code. The application then requires you to enter your phone number, address, national ID number, reason for leaving the house, destination, date and time expected to leave and return, and license plate number if driving. Once approved, you have 24 hours to use the one-time permit.

Tweet1

Dubai embarked on a city-wide disinfection campaign last week, with a curfew imposed between 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., during which time residents needed government-issued permits to leave their houses. Now the rule applies 24 hours a day, as the government tries to stem human movement to curb the spread of the virus in the emirate of 3.3 million. The movement permit requirement does not yet apply in Abu Dhabi or other emirates.

Police checks are routine in many areas and speed cameras have been used to flash any cars on major roads during the curfew times, with fines applied to those who did not pre-register for an essential errand. Individuals stopped by police outside without a permit risk being fined or even prosecuted in court, authorities said.
As the World Health Day knocked in with a global healthcare crisis this year, Bollywood actors Bhumi Pednekar, Shraddha Kapoor, and Nushrat Bharucha took to social media to express gratitude towards them on the day.

'Climate warrior' Bhumi Pednekar took to Instagram to share a picture of herself holding a placard that had a little note for the healthcare workers working to combat COVID-19.

'Thanking all our 'health heroes' who are fighting the battle to keep us safe & health # WorldHealthDay,' read the placard.

"Health is Wealth. On #WorldHealthDay here's thanking all our doctors, primary health care givers, medical staff and all front-line workers and their families," the 'Pati Patni Aur Who' actor wrote in the caption.

"Thank you for working tirelessly to keep us safe and we promise to do our bit by staying home isolated and following protocol #indiafightscorona," the caption further read.

'Dream Girl' actor Nushrat Bharucha took to Twitter and said, "This #WorldHealthDay I express my gratitude to all frontline workers & heroes of this war against Covid-19 for working tirelessly to keep us safe."

"Pls support doctors, medic & paramedic staff, police personnel & sanitation workers in this fight so they too can go home soon & safe," her tweet further read.

Actor Shraddha Kapoor also thanked the doctors, nurses and medical staff that are risking their lives to treat people amid coronavirus pandemic.

"The doctors, nurses & all health workers have selflessly devoted their time and effort in keeping us safe as we battle COVID-19. This #WorldHealthDay is an ode to their compassion and love for their work. A Big Thank You!" she tweeted.

Many other Bollywood actors like Sara Ali Khan, Kriti Sanon, and Shilpa Shetty Kundra took to Social media to share their idea of good health with their social media fam.

This year, the theme of World Health Day is to honour the incredible, selfless work of 'nurses and midwives' across the globe during coronavirus crisis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On March 9, 2020, the government in Italy imposed a nationwide lockdown, restricting the movement of people amid the coronavirus outbreak. The virus has affected over 130,000 people killing over 16,000 in the country so far. (Image: Reuters)

Like many others, the unprecedented lockdown has left Italy's fishermen also in the lurch. While they still go to sea at night, but the frequency has reduced in recent weeks as demand is much lower. (Image: AP)

As a result, they are barely covering their expenses. (Image: AP)

Before the lockdown, people would stroll along the wharf of this town near Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport and it would be buzzing with activity. (Image: AP)

Now, with the lockdown restricting people's movement, the place wears a deserted look. (Image: AP)

Before the lockdown, fisherman used to go out to sea five nights a week. That is now down to three nights because the cooperative has suffered a 30-40 percent fall in demand. (Image: AP)

Going to sea three times a week is not enough to make a profit and the earnings hardly cover the boat maintenance costs and fishermans salaries. (Image: AP)

While supermarkets and fish shops can participate in the auctions, restaurants are closed during the lockdown, leading to lower demand for their catch. (Image: AP)

Fishermen are seen wearing protective masks to unload a boat at Fiumicino fishing port, on the outskirts of Rome, to stop COVID-19 spread. (Image: AP)

Workers follow safety measures, wearing protective masks while carrying crates of fish to the Silver Fish wholesale auction house at Fiumicino fishing port. (Image: AP)

Buyers too maintain a safe distance and wear protective masks during an auction in a wholesale fish market. (Image: AP)
The shocking news that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to intensive care in St Thomas' Hospital in London as a result of coronavirus has produced an outpouring of good wishes for his speedy recovery from a wide range of politicians, not just on the Conservative benches but also from leading Labour and SNP MPs.

First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon - no fan of Johnson - expressed her sincere hope for his safe recovery. Sir Keir Starmer, who was convincingly elected as the new leader of the Labour Party last Saturday, described his hospital admission as "terribly sad news" and expressed his hope that the Prime Minister would recover.

Sympathy was also offered by a range of other politicians to his family and, in particular, to his fiancee Carrie Symonds, who is expecting their first child.

All of these positive and civilised reactions by Government and Opposition politicians to the serious illness of the most powerful political figure in Britain is comforting to a public who are fearful and worried in this time of great crisis.

This will do much to restore the faith of the people in politicians as they demonstrate goodwill and decency by showing care for an opponent laid low and in mortal danger from a killer disease.

The PM's critical illness is a sharp reminder, if one was needed, of the fragility of human life brought about by the savage impact of this worldwide pandemic.

It illustrates that, no matter how high you are in society, you still can fall victim to this pernicious virus. Even the great are not immune.

It further reminds us that we have not yet reached the peak of this epidemic and that we all should remain sensitive to the need to exercise social distancing in our lives.

If the community observes social distancing then this attack on our community's health can be contained and, ultimately, defeated.

Social distancing is difficult and frustrating and goes against our ingrained sense of freedom in our lives.

However much we resent it, it is the only effective answer that we have to this powerful disease at the moment in time.

Sir Keir has had an unfortunate and strange beginning to his leadership of the Labour Party, being elected almost at the same time that the Prime Minister entered hospital for emergency treatment.

Indeed, his initial period of leadership could be eclipsed, media-wise, by exhaustive concentration on the pandemic.

Asserting his public profile at this critical time will be incredibly difficult for him to achieve.

Being leader of the Opposition at Westminster at a time of unimaginable crisis will be an uphill task.

However, his statesmanlike decision to "work together" with Mr Johnson and his Government to beat the pandemic has struck the right note. Nobody wants him beating up on the Tory administration at this time of extreme stress.

Perhaps Sinn Fein's gauche northern leader Michelle O'Neill could learn a lesson from Sir Keir by doing the same here and stop publicly attacking Health Minister Robin Swann, who is bravely attempting to defeat the Covid-19 threat.

He needs public support from his ministerial colleagues and any criticisms should be dealt with behind the scenes at the Executive table.

But things may not be all that bad for Sir Keir if and when the premier returns to office, particularly as Mr Johnson has had a lacklustre performance to date.

In this crisis he has fallen short of the decisive leadership that would be expected of a Prime Minister at a time of deep national trauma. The shine of winning a superb victory in the December general election and getting Brexit through has vanished.

He has lacked sure-footedness and sits uncomfortably in the middle of this unexpected and unprecedented political nightmare.

His leadership skills are already being questioned and, unless he pulls something extraordinary out of this continuing crisis on his return, his leadership will be in trouble once things revert to normality, whenever that may be.

Sir Keir is a barrister by profession and has great advocacy skills. As a successful Director of Public Prosecutions before he entered politics, he has had wide experience of public administration.

He comes across as a formidable political debater and more than a match for Mr Johnson.

He was also a human rights legal adviser to the Policing Board here in its early years, and, refreshingly, has direct personal knowledge of Northern Ireland.

He does, however, lack the charisma of Tony Blair, the most successful Labour leader ever.

Despite all of the criticisms of him, Blair won three general elections in a row.

Therefore, much could be learnt by Sir Keir from Mr Blair's extraordinary achievements as leader of the Labour Party.
The list of New Jerseyans charged with violations related to the coronavirus outbreak  or, as Gov. Phil Murphy calls them, knuckleheads  grew again Tuesday with more people accused of coughing on police officers while claiming to have the virus and an estranged husband allegedly caught on camera coughing on his wifes things while feeding their fish.

The latest incidents announced by the state also includes two more gatherings broken up by cops.

The full list:

 A 39-year-old Parsippany man who was in his estranged wifes house March 28 to feed their fish was allegedly caught on security footage touching and coughing on objects and saying he had the 'rona and Do you want the 'rona?, authorities said. The wife has sole possession of their house under a court order, but the man is permitted to enter it on alternating dates when the woman is not home to feed the fish. The man was charged with violating Murphys emergency orders.

 After police responded to a domestic violence call reporting a stabbing in Elizabeth on Tuesday, Oscar Diaz, a 40-year-old city resident, kicked, punched, and pushed officers, yelled COVID! COVID!," coughed on the officers, and attempted to spit on them as he was escorted to a patrol car, authorities said. Diaz was charged with second-degree terroristic threats during an emergency, third-degree aggravated assault on an officer, third-degree resisting arrest, fourth-degree throwing bodily fluid at an officer, obstruction (disorderly persons offense), and simple assault/domestic violence.

 After police broke up a large group of people Sunday outside a residence in Camden, Dasia Syms, 31, of Camden, allegedly cursed, created a scene by saying I do not have to go anywhere," said she had the virus and began to cough. She was charged with fourth-degree causing or risking widespread injury, fourth-degree contempt, disorderly conduct, and failure to disperse (disorderly persons offense).

 Thomas J. Wilson, 56, of Monroe Township was charged with violating Murphys orders Sunday after allegedly having a gathering of about 15 to 20 people in the backyard of his house in Seaside Park.

 Ryan Coolahan, 24, of Monmouth Beach, was allegedly found by police to be smoking and playing music at the boroughs closed municipal pavilion Saturday. Coolahan was charged with criminal trespass and violation of the emergency orders, both disorderly persons offenses.

 Dominic Affatoto, 35, of Maple Shade, was allegedly found by police on April 1 fishing off a boat ramp in a park that was closed because of the pandemic. Affatoto was charged with violating Murphys orders.

 After Camden police responded to a gathering April 4 on North 6th Street, Angel Martinez, a 34-year-old city resident, allegedly ripped up the warning about gatherings that officers gave him, saying he does not care about getting a fine because he has money in the bank. Martinez was charged with two violations of Murphys orders.

 Police in Newark issued 38 summonses Monday for violations of the governors orders.

 Police in Trenton issued two summonses for violations of the orders and closed one non-essential businesses.

State officials announced it is seeking to revoke the liquor license of Billings, Inc., after Post Time Pub in Blairstown allegedly served drinks on site March 27 and April 2 despite Murphys orders that restaurants and bars serve only takeout or delivery. State officials said the business has twice been issued criminal charges but flouted them.

Liquor license holders who flout the take-out only rule by allowing patrons to come inside their establishments and linger for drinks are breaking the law and putting themselves, their customers, and all New Jerseyans at risk, state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in a statement.

The state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control told the company it must explain why its license should not be suspended immediately pending a full hearing.

To slow the spread of the virus, Murphy has placed New Jersey in near-lockdown, ordering residents to stay at home, banning gatherings, and mandating that all non-essential businesses must close until further notice.

On Monday, Murphy called on all the jackasses out there to get with the program and observe social distancing restrictions during the coronavirus outbreak.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage

Grewal said Tuesday that police officers are being called upon far too often to deal with people violating the emergency orders  or what is more egregious, people using the virus to spread fear or impede officers in their vital work.

Staying home and maintaining social distance isnt just the best advice to stay healthy, its the law," Grewal said. "Make no mistake, we will do everything in our power to keep our residents and officers safe, and that means we wont hesitate to file charges against violators.

Col. Patrick Callahan, superintendent of the State Police, added: Because lives are at stake, enforcement action will be taken without hesitation against those who are blatantly placing the lives of others at risk.

Violations of Murphys orders are disorderly person offenses, and violators can face up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

Violators can also face criminal charges including second, third, and fourth degree indictable offenses.

Those who wish to report violators can contact local police or report here: Covid19.nj.gov/violation.

New Jersey, a state of 9 million residents, now has at least 44,416 cases and at least 1,232 deaths, officials announced Tuesday. Thats more than any U.S. state but New York and more than all but eight countries.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.
By Akbar Mammadov

The so-called elections organized by Armenian is Azerbaijans occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region on March 31 were strongly condemned and rejected by the international community, Azerbaijani Foreing Ministry said in the statement on April 6.

"Any election will be possible only after the withdrawal of the Armenian occupying forces, return of the expelled Azerbaijani population to their places of origin, and restoration of dialogue and cooperation between the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of the region," the statement said.

The statement also stressed that international organizations including the Non-Aligned Movement, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, European Union, NATO, Turkic Council, GUAM, European Parliament, TURKPA, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, as well as many states made statements declaring these so-called elections and their results illegal.

"Having the Non-Aligned Movement, the second largest political platform after the UN which unites 120 countries, as well as numerous other organizations and states among those rejecting this illegal act, once again clearly demonstrates that the world community rejects the aggressive policy of the Republic of Armenia and its consequences", the statement reads.

"We once again underline that elections in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan may be held only within the Constitutional framework of the Republic of Azerbaijan and full participation of the entire population of the region," the ministry stated.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Groups efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Europe needs debt mutualisation and a common "Marshall Plan" to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, even as Germany dismissed calls for the debt-pooling idea.

EU leaders have tasked policymakers with finding a new way to finance a recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak, after Germany and the Netherlands ruled out calls from France, Italy and Spain to create a common debt instrument.

Germany, among other nations, has long been opposed to issuing common debt with other European nations, arguing that it would stop individual countries from pursuing structural reforms and balancing their budgets.

Helge Braun, head of the German chancellor's office in Berlin, told Frankfurter Allgemeine's Sunday edition that "liability and control need to be aligned."

Sanchez had echoed the remarks of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen who called on Thursday for a new EU budget in the form of a "Marshall Plan" to help drive Europe's recovery from the coronavirus crisis.

The Marshall Plan was an aid programme initiated by the United States in 1948 to help countries in Western Europe recover after World War Two.

In the medium term, Europe needs a "new mechanism for debt mutualisation", Sanchez also told the newspaper in comments published on Sunday. "If the virus doesn't stop at borders, then financing mechanisms cannot do so either," he said.

Separately, the European Union's internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, and European Economics Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that Europe needed to create a European taxpayer fund that could then issue long-term bonds to pay for a recovery from the pandemic.

(Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editing by Pravin Char and Peter Cooney)
Republicans are sounding the alarm after a reporter with ties to Chinas Communist Party obtained access to a White House press briefing and asked questions that promoted Chinese interests.

A reporter from Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV, which the Hoover Institution has labelled a quasi official Chinese outlet, asked President Trump at Mondays briefing whether he is cooperating with China.

Only last week, there were multiple flights coming from China full of medical supplies, the reporter said at Mondays White House briefing. Companies like Huawei and Alibaba have been donating to the United States, like 1.5 million N95 masks and also a lot of medical gloves, and much more medical supplies.

Sounds like a statement more than a question, Trump answered.

The reporter then asked Trump if he is personally working directly with China on securing medical supplies.

Trump touted his administrations trade deal signed with China in January before asking, Who are you working for, China?

The reporter answered in the negative and named Phoenix TV as her outlet, calling it a privately-owned company.

Senator Ted Cruz heavily criticized Phoenix TV, which he said has been waging information warfare in the US for yrs. They are nominally private but actually state owned.

MSM should NEVER have given them seat at WH press conference, the Texas Republican added.

So to recap, the WH Correspondents Assoc gave a seat at the WH press briefing to an employee of the Chinese Communist govt, to ask globally televised Qs to POTUS, at the same time China is waging a propaganda campaign to hide their culpability & coverup of the Wuhan virus?!? Cruz added.

The White House Correspondents Association wields control over which outlets have access to the briefings.

Why is an outlet with such close ties to Communist China allowed in the White House briefing room? Representative Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, asked in a tweet.

A former Phoenix TV news director testified to the FCC in 2018 that the outlet was under tight enough control by the Chinese government to be ordered to remove specific news items that positively reported [on] the United States or events in the United States.

Story continues

I know from personal experience that Phoenix TVs content is subject to the dictates of the leadership of the Central Communist Propaganda Department, Central Communist Overseas Propaganda Office, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which often directly sent instructions to Phoenix Satellite TV, said the former director, Chung Pong, who said he was fired in 2002 by then-Chinese president Jiang Zemin.

More from National Review
The Married At First Sight cast have banded together to support Steve Burley's barbershop in Melbourne, as the COVID-19 pandemic takes its toll on the business.

Steve, 51, has implemented social distancing rules at Kingsman Barbers in Balaclava to protect customers and staff as the shop remains open in a limited capacity.

'One way to do a bit of self-care is to go and get your haircut,' Drew Brauer said in an Instagram post on Monday, drumming up support for his friend and co-star.

Support: The Married At First Sight cast have banded together to support Steve Burley's barbershop in Melbourne, as the COVID-19 pandemic takes its toll on the small business

In recent weeks, Dave Cannon, Jonethen Musulin, Ivan Sarakula and Seb Guilhaus have also thrown their support behind the small business.

Dave and Jonethen have visited the shop for a haircut, while the others have shared videos to Instagram urging fans in Melbourne to book an appointment.

'Hey guys, we're all going through a pretty tough time at the minute and it's affecting a lot of businesses. One of my boys, Steve, from the show has a barbershop by the name of Kingsman Barbers in Balaclava, Victoria,' Ivan said in his video.

Small business: Steve, 51, has implemented social distancing rules at Kingsman Barbers in Balaclava to protect customers and staff as the shop remains open in a limited capacity

'Go and get your haircut': In recent weeks, Drew Brauer (pictured), Dave Cannon, Jonethen Musulin, Ivan Sarakula and Seb Guilhaus have thrown their support behind the business

The real estate agent added: 'It is a small business and he does do a famous job with his team. Get down there and show some local support.'

Drew also told his followers: 'Hope you're all staying safe and sane during these strange times.

'One way to do a bit of self-care is to go and get your haircut. Speaking of haircuts, if you're in Melbourne, my man Steve has a barbershop in Balaclava.'

Meanwhile, Seb wrote: 'Hey, if anyone needs a trim in Melbourne, check out Steve's barbershop.'

Kind words: 'It is a small business and he does do a famous job with his team. Get down there and show some local support,' said Ivan Sarakula

On March 25, Steve shared a photo to Instagram of himself wearing a face mask in the shop as two barbers worked behind him.

The staff kept plenty of space between their chairs while cutting hair.

'Social distancing is in place. We are open with clearly some changes to help you and us. Book online only,' Steve explained.

As of this week, Kingsman Barbers is now operating under reduced trading hours.
New Delhi, April 7 : Shree Maruti Courier Services has committed support to India's fight against the coronavirus outbreak, including a contribution of Rs 1.08 crore to the PM-CARES Fund.

In a statement, the company said that around 10,000 delivery personnel of the company have been engaged in distribution of food packets to the needy and under privileged amid the lockdown.

Chairman of the company, Ram Mokariya said that this is the time to help each other and Shree Maruti Courier is committed to the cause.

Several businesses and companies have come forward to contribute to the fight against the pandemic and also supporting the people in need during the lockdown period.
The contents of the memos were revealed by the New York Times and Axios on Monday as the US death toll reached 11,000

A senior White House adviser warned the Trump administration in late January and again in February that failing to contain coronavirus could cost the US trillions of dollars and millions of American lives.

President Donald Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro issued his first grim warning in a memo dated January 29 - just days after the first COVID-19 cases were reported in the US.

At the time, Trump was publicly downplaying the risk that the novel coronavirus posed to Americans - though weeks later he would assert that no one could have predicted the devastation seen today.

Navarro penned a second memo about a month later on February 23, in which he warned that as many as two million Americans could die from the virus as it tightened its grip on the nation.

The memos were obtained by the New York Times and Axios on Monday, as the number of COVID-19 cases nationwide surpassed 368,200 with at least 11,000 deaths.

Trade adviser Peter Navarro warned top Trump officials in late January and again in February that failing to contain coronavirus could cost the US trillions of dollars and millions of American lives. Trump is seen with Navarro (center) at a March 9 press briefing on coronavirus

Navarro's memos were obtained by the New York Times and Axios on Monday, as the number of COVID-19 cases nationwide surpassed 368,200 with at least 11,000 deaths

The January memo marks the earliest known high-alert to circulate within the West Wing as officials planned their first substantive steps to confront the disease that had already spiraled out of control in China.

It serves as evidence that top officials in the administration had considered the possibility of the outbreak turning into something far more serious than Trump was acknowledging publicly at the time.

'The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil,' Navarro wrote.

'This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.'

Navarro stated that the administration faced a choice about how aggressive it would be in containing the outbreak, offering two different scenarios.

The first scenario suggested that the disease could be on par with a 'seasonal flu', resulting in relatively low human and economic costs.

But Navarro further asserted that 'risk of a worst-case pandemic scenario should not be overlooked', given information emerging from China.

He specifically cited one worst-case scenario in which more than 500,000 Americans could die.

Navarro's initial memo is dated January 29 - days after the first COVID-19 cases were reported in the US. At the time, Trump was publicly downplaying the risk the virus posed to Americans

Navarro sent the first memo to the National Security Council before it was distributed among Trump administration officials, according to the Times.

It was penned on the same day that Trump unveiled his White House task force to address the threat.

The following day, the president announced limits on travel from China - which Navarro had pushed for in his memo.

But it wasn't until weeks later that Trump implemented more aggressive measures to stem the spread of the virus, under ongoing criticism from many who've said he acted too slowly.

People familiar with the memo's distribution told the Times that it reached a number of top officials - including aides to then-Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.

However, the sources said it was unclear if Trump ever saw it.

Navarro and Matthew Pottinger, the chief deputy at the National Security Council, were among the few officials pushing for the administration to take stronger action against the growing coronavirus threat in late January.

Some officials have argued that their concerns are more prescient in hindsight than they were at the time.

One official told Axios that the January memo 'struck me as an alarmist attempt to bring attention to Peter's anti-China agenda while presenting an artificially limited range of policy options'.

Trump announced limits on travel from China one day after Navarro issued the memo. Pictured: A medical worker treats a COVID-19 patient at a hospital in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak originated in late December

Navarro opened the memo by writing: 'If the probability of a pandemic is greater than roughly 1%, a game-theoretic analysis of the coronavirus indicates the clear dominant strategy is an immediate travel ban on China.'

At another point he concluded: 'Regardless of whether the coronavirus proves to be a pandemic-level outbreak, there are certain costs associated with engaging in policies to contain and mitigate the spread of the disease.

'The most readily available option to contain the spread of the outbreak is to issue a travel ban to and from the source of the outbreak, namely, mainland China.'

He cited an estimate by the Council of Economic Advisers' which indicated that banning travel from China would cost $2.9billion per month - or $34.6billion over a year.

But he also noted that without containment a pandemic could cost the US up to $5.7trillion, depending on how deadly it was.

Navarro pointed to the history of pandemic flus as he suggested that the chances of a new one were elevated by the novel coronavirus strain.

'Historical precedent alone should be sufficient to prove the need to take aggressive action to contain the outbreak,' he wrote.

He went on to say that early figures on how easy the virus was spreading indicated that it posed even greater risks than aforementioned pandemic flus.

Navarro's second memo was addressed specifically to President Trump, but was not explicitly signed by the trade adviser.

In it he warned that a third of the country could be infected by COVID-19, resulting in anywhere between a million and two million deaths.

He requested $3billion for immediate aid to 'support efforts at prevention, treatment, inoculation, and diagnostics', writing: 'This is NOT a time for penny-pinching or horse trading on the Hill.'

The White House official who spoke to Axios about the memos said that the second one 'lacked any basis for its projections, which led some staff to worry that it could needlessly rattle markets and may not direct funding where it was truly needed'.

Neither Navarro nor the White House returned requests for comment from the Times or Axios.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon defended Navarro's motives to Axios, calling the memos 'prophetic'.

Bannon charged that Navarro had been forced to put his concerns in writing because 'there was total blockage to get these facts in front of the President of the United States'.

He said that 'naivete, arrogance and ignorance' from White House advisers 'put the country and the world in jeopardy' - adding that Navarro had been sidelined from the task force after voicing his concerns.

'In this Kafkaesque nightmare, nobody would pay attention to him or the facts,' Bannon said.
Photo: edward stojakovic/Flickr

Here's the most recent top news you may have missed in Chicago. Man's COVID-19 worries prompted murder-suicide, authorities say Read the full story on HLN. South Side teacher creates hashtag to engage students academically Read the full story on ABC Chicago, WLS. Chicago Animal Care and Control runs out of adoptable dogs for first time ever Read the full story on ABC Chicago, WLS. Virtual market supports local farmers, supplies fresh produce Read the full story on ABC Chicago, WLS. Woman arrested after man stabbed to death on West Side Read the full story on Chicago Tribune. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.

The bodies of a man and a woman were found inside a suburban Chicago home in what authorities say was a murder-suicide that was apparently prompted by the man's concern that the two of them had the coronavirus, authorities said.

Johnson College Prep educator Chivon Ford created the hashtag #LearningNeverStops to engage South Side students to keep up with school work.

Chicago Animal Care and Control confirmed its last two adoptable dogs  Penn and Alley  were adopted on Sunday. The shelter made the announcement on its Facebook page.

A collective of farmers markets around Chicago have launched a virtual marketplace to provide fresh produce and support local food producers after the COVID-19 outbreak delayed the start of spring farmers markets.
DANVILLE, Calif., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The San Ramon Valley Unified School District has settled a case involving First Amendment and Due Process claims brought by former student body president Nathaniel Yu. As part of the agreement, the district will pay $665,000 and apologize for "negative effects, disruption, and emotional distress" suffered by Mr. Yu and his family.

First Amendment scholar and former Student Press Law Center Executive Director, Frank LoMonte, has followed this case closely and describes it as "the largest settlement amount surrounding student free speech cases," adding, "it makes Nathaniel the most successful student speech plaintiff in U.S. history."

"The landmark settlement figure sends a strong message to public school officials throughout the country that the First Amendment prohibits them from censoring off-campus student speech that does not substantially disrupt school activities," Prof. LoMonte said. "This is especially true in instances such as this where the speech was made on a weekend, entirely off-campus, and with no school resources."

According to the lawsuit, the school district violated Mr. Yu's First Amendment rights when it disciplined him for his role in creating a James Bond-style parody video. As punishment, Mr. Yu, who was 17 and a junior at San Ramon Valley High School at the time, was stripped of his position as elected junior class president, removed from the school's leadership class and disqualified from the Associated Student Body presidential election after he had already garnered the majority of votes.

Even after the school district reversed their punishment, district employees retaliated against, and continued to publicly disparage Mr. Yu.

In November 2019, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney ruled against the school district's motion to dismiss the case, rejecting an argument that the parody constituted school-sponsored speech. A month later, the school district and its legal team were ordered by the court to release more than 12,000 documents they previously withheld. Soon thereafter, the district proposed to settle.

Lead attorney James Carlos McFall, a Dallas partner at Jackson Walker LLP stated, "It was an honor and a privilege to represent Nathaniel and his family in this important First Amendment lawsuit. The defendants punished him for the parody video because they found it 'offensive' and 'inappropriate.' The First Amendment, however, prohibits government officials from punishing speakers for speech simply because they subjectively disapprove of its content."

Nathaniel Yu said the settlement and the district's apology underscore the importance of our Constitution and the First Amendment in the modern age of digital technology and social media.

"No one should be subjected to what my family and I have been forced to endure. As a child of immigrants, I am constantly reminded that we cannot take our civil rights for granted. We must continue our fight to preserve these rights at all costs."

Learn more about the case at https://studentspeechrights.org/.

Media Contact:

Mark Annick

800-559-4534

[email protected]

SOURCE Yu Family
tech2 News Staff

How'd you like a pic next to a roaring lion, or a cuddly panda? If your answer is yes, and you're also wondering how you'd do that in post-lockdown India, this how-to is here to help.

This can happen thanks to a seldom used Google search feature that shows 3D animals in augmented reality (AR). Even if you don't have a pet at home, you can at least interact with a virtual one.

If you haven't already tried it out yet, you should! Here is how to do it.

How to use 3D animals on Google

Step 1: Open Google and type the name of the animal you want to see

Step 2: Scroll down and tap on the "View in 3D"

Step 3: Move around while pointing your phone on the floor and wait till it recognises a base for the object to appear

And that's it! You are good to go. You can now enlarge the object by zooming in or, zooming out to make it small. You can also drag and drop to move it around. Happy petting!
(Alliance News) - The UK could see as many as 66,000 Covid-19 deaths during the first wave of the current pandemic, new research showed Tuesday, making the outbreak there by far the deadliest in Europe.

Modelling conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington's School of Medicine showed that approximatelyA 151,680A people were likely to die from the virus across the continent.

While the novel coronavirus emerged in China and was initially focussed in east Asia, the World Health Organization now says the pandemic is centred in western Europe, with Spain, Italy and France experiencing devastating death tolls.A

Most European nations have introduced strict social distancing measures to try to stem the virus spread.A

More than 5,000 people have died from Covid-19 in Britain, fewer than in Spain, Italy and France.A

But Britain's epidemic lags behind the rest of the continent by several days, and its death toll trajectory is already steeper than other nations.A

Using local and international data on case numbers, as well as age mortality breakdowns from Italy, China and the US, the team at IHME modelled the expected death toll on a country-by-country basis.A

A key consideration was an individual nation's intensive care bed capacity.A

It found that the UK could experience 66,000 Covid-19 deaths by July, far more than Italy, the next most severely impacted, with around 20,000.

Spain and France were next, with 19,000 and 15,000 predicted deaths, respectively.

"We are expecting aA foreboding few weeks for people in many parts of Europe,"A said IHME Director Christopher Murray.A

"It seems likely the number of deaths will exceed our projections for the US."

On Sunday the institute predicted just over 80,000 US Covid-19 deaths during the pandemic's first wave.

The modelling suggests that outbreaks in Italy and Spain, where hundreds of deaths have been reported daily for weeks, may be past their peak.

Daily deaths in both countries have declined for several days, but Spain saw a spike on Tuesday - with the government citing weekend numbers taking a couple of days to be registered for the rise.

But Britain is likely weeks away from getting a handle on its death toll as intensive care capacity is overwhelmed.

Peak demand was forecast to see more than 100,000 hospital beds needed versus the 17,765 currently available.

"The peak for Europe as a whole is expected in the third week of April," said Murray

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is currently in intensive care with Covid-19, came in for criticism for his government's slow response to the pandemic.A

The UK now has strict social distancing measures in place, but it had held off implementing them even as the outbreak surged in Europe.

The IHME models include the predicted effect of social distancing, and Murray said it was vital that measures are not relaxed too suddenly once countries pass their mortality peak.

"ItA isA unequivocally evident thatA social distancingA can,A when well implemented and maintained,A control the epidemic,A leading to declining death rates,"A Murray said.

"Those nations hit hardA early onA implemented social distancing ordersA and may have the worst behind them as they areA seeing important progress in reducing their death rates.A

"Each nation's trajectory will change - and dramatically for the worse - if people ease up on social distancing or relax other precautions."

By Patrick Galey

source: AFP

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
David Perdue.

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Sen. David Perdue of Georgia bought stock in a company that produces personal protective equipment on January 24, the same day the Senate received a classified briefing on the spread of the novel coronavirus, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Monday.

Perdue's latest financial-portfolio disclosure listed 112 transactions, 82 of which were made on March 3. Seventy-six were stock purchases of as much as $1.8 million, and there were 34 stock sales of as much as $825,000.

Overall trading activity was significantly higher in March as volatility rocked markets in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Perdue isn't the first US lawmaker to face scrutiny over their financial activity around the time senators were being privately briefed on the spread of the disease.

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Sen. David Perdue of Georgia bought stock in DuPont de Nemours, a chemical company that produces personal protective equipment, on January 24, the same day the Senate received a classified briefing on the spread of the novel coronavirus, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Monday.

The revelation came from Perdue's financial-portfolio disclosures. The latest, filed on Sunday, included 110 items related to stock trades.

According to The Journal-Constitution, Perdue engaged in heavy trading in March, when markets plunged and the virus gained a stronger foothold in the US.

Perdue's latest disclosure form listed 112 transactions, 82 of which were made on March 3. Seventy-six were stock purchases of as much as $1.8 million. The report also documented 34 stock sales worth as much as $825,000. The Journal-Constitution reported that Perdue's portfolio activity from March onward was three times as busy as it was in the two years before the coronavirus hit the United States.

Overall trading activity was significantly higher in March as the market was rocked by volatility brought on by the coronavirus outbreak in the US and in other countries like China, Italy, and Iran.

Story continues

Perdue's spokeswoman, Cherie Gillan, told The Journal-Constitution that "since coming to the US Senate in 2015, Sen. Perdue has always had an outside adviser managing his personal finances, and he is not involved in day-to-day decisions."

"For the past five years, the senator has fully complied with federal law and all Senate ethics requirements," Gillan told the newspaper.

Perdue isn't the first lawmaker to face questions about his trading activity in the wake of the outbreak. His counterpart in Georgia, Sen. Kelly Loeffler, sold off shares following the closed-door briefing on January 24. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina also unloaded stocks in the weeks after the briefing.

Burr in particular has faced heightened scrutiny because of his trades and his position as chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee. The panel has access to the federal government's most classified and sensitive information, and, according to Reuters, it was getting daily briefings on the threat of the coronavirus around the time he dumped his stock.

ProPublica published a bombshell report last month detailing how Burr dumped as much as $1.72 million in stocks days after reassuring the public that the Trump administration was well prepared to handle the outbreak.

In a February 7 op-ed article for Fox News, Burr and Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee acknowledged that "Americans are rightfully concerned about the coronavirus" as the number of cases in China was skyrocketing.

The senators added: "Thankfully, the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus, in large part due to the work of the Senate Health Committee, Congress, and the Trump Administration."

According to Burr's financial disclosure form, he started dumping stock on February 13, six days after writing that op-ed article.

"I relied solely on public news reports to guide my decision regarding the sale of stocks on February 13," Burr said in a statement following the reporting.

He added: "Specifically, I closely followed CNBC's daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus at the time. Understanding the assumption many could make in hindsight however, I spoke this morning with the chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee and asked him to open a complete review of the matter with full transparency."

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Evraz Oregon Steel said Monday it has experienced a significant business downturn and will lay off 230 employees over the next two months.

Oregon shed more than 169,000 jobs in the last two weeks of March as coronavirus shutdowns took hold. While restaurants, bars and shops formed the greatest share of cuts, manufacturers and other sectors are now also reporting significant reductions.

Evraz disclosed the cuts in a notice to state employment officials. The Portland Business Journal first reported the layoffs and said the facility employed 600 before the pending layoffs.

A number of factors contributed to this situation, including economic conditions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, Evraz communications director Patrick Waldron wrote in an email Monday night. "Crude oil prices and pipe product demand have dropped considerably and pipeline construction projects have been delayed or slowed shrinking demand for spiral pipe products."

Evraz will shut down its Portland spiral mill, Waldron wrote, but will retain its rolling mill. He said a separate plate product line in Portland will operate with fewer employees due to decreased global demand during the coronavirus outbreak.

Evraz is headquartered in London but the company has historically operated primarily in Russia. It paid $2.35 billion in 2007 to buy Oregon Steel, which was founded in Portland in 1928. Four years later the company moved the headquarters for Evraz North America from Portland to Chicago.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699

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In accordance with article L233-8 of commercial law, Wavestone informs its shareholders that as of March 31, 2020, its capital was composed of 20,196,492 shares representing 23,989,690 voting rights according to article 223-11 of the AMF.

About Wavestone

In a world where knowing how to drive transformation is the key to success, Wavestone's mission is to inform and guide large companies and organizations in their most critical transformations, with the ambition of a positive outcome for all stakeholders. That's what we call "The Positive Way."

Wavestone draws on some 3,000 employees across 8 countries. It is a leading independent player in the European consulting market.

Wavestone is listed on Euronext Paris and recognized as a Great Place to Work.

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Conte promises "new spring for Italy" thanks to emergency stimulus package.

Italys government has approved a new emergency decree that will offer more than 400 billion worth of liquidity and bank loans to companies adversely affected by the Coronavirus crisis, reports Italian news agency ANSA.

Italian premier Giuseppe Conte announced the stimulus package, which he described as "firepower", in a televised address on the evening of Monday 6 April.

"With the decree just approved, we are giving immediate liquidity of 400 billion to our companies: 200 billion for the internal market, another 200 billion to boost the export market," Conte said.

Quando si difende il proprio Paese non si fanno calcoli. Io sono convinto, lo dico con tutta la prudenza che mi contraddistingue, che la storia e con noi. E vedremo alla fine quale piega prendera. pic.twitter.com/JVAwouZIZz  Giuseppe Conte (@GiuseppeConteIT) April 6, 2020

Together with a previous stimulus package unveiled in March, the legislation would allow banks to offer credit totalling more than 750 billion in an attempt to bolster Italy's economy.

"I cannot remember such powerful measures being introduced in the history of our republic to help with the financing of our businesses," Conte said.

The Treasury will protect banks from losses on 90 per cent of loans to companies of all sizes, while the guarantee can be extended to 100 per cent of possible losses for loans of up to 25,000.

Italy's economy minister Roberto Gualtieri described the package as an "unprecedented intervention" with a "massive mobilisation of public resources" to give "a powerful guarantee to protect our production system, to overcome this difficult moment and be able to relaunch itself."

The package, made possible by a loosening of European Union regulations on state aid to companies, aims to keep credit flowing to the economy without forcing losses onto banks because of the additional risks they assume due to the Coronavirus, reports Reuters.

More than 16,500 people in Italy have died of Coronavirus since the crisis began in February, with all non-essential businesses remaining closed until 13 April, at the earliest.

"Soon we will reap the fruits of our sacrifices," said Conte, adding: "I want to say to Italians: you are making a fundamental contribution, when it is all over there will be a new spring for Italy."

Photo credit: Gennaro Leonardi / Shutterstock.com
COVID-19 crisis helps John Kasich rediscover his faith in Jesus: 'The most powerful being cares for us'

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Former Ohio Governor John Kasich said the fear and panic surrounding the new coronavirus pandemic led him to ask some deep questions about his faith in Jesus, which in turn renewed his confidence about what he believes in.

Writing for USA Today, the former presidential candidate admitted that hes been in and out of a funk these past weeks, ever since the full force of this global COVID-19 pandemic started to impact our communities here at home.

In the midst of the spread of the disease, Kasich recalled he walked for over six miles, keeping a safe social distance from others and the whole time thinking about where we were as a society and where I was with God.

He spoke to Father Kevin Maney, from St. Augustine's Anglican Church in Westerville, Ohio, about the disconnect he was feeling, believing wholeheartedly in the resurrection of Christ and the promise of a new creation and a life after death, while at the same time harboring these feelings of fear and anxiety.

"I told him that what had me frustrated was that it sometimes felt to me as if my faith was in my head and not in my heart."

Maney responded to him, Its normal for us to be afraid, John. Were born to live, not to die, so our focus should be on living, not dying.

Kasich, a senior political contributor for CNN, said he shared about his sense of lacking in his faith also with his friend Tom Barrett, whose wife never complained or questioned her faith despite having and eventually dying of cancer.

Barrett responded, Youve just forgotten for the moment that God answers our needs, not necessarily when we ask for them to be answered, but when we need Him to answer them.

Kasich admitted that after the sudden death of his parents, who were killed in 1987 by a drunk driver, he wasn't sure he believed in God.

In times of crisis and doubt, "we are pushed to examine our beliefs, and perhaps even to steady ourselves in those beliefs," he wrote, acknowledging that a largely unknown pandemic could shake a person's faith.

But he assured that his faith foundation is sound.

"Religion for me is not a mind game Ive learned to play to help me answer some of lifes unanswerable questions. This is not a workaround or a get-out-of-jail-free card I choose to play when things get tough," he said. "No, this is me, knowing with dead-solid certainty that we are graced by the most powerful being to ever exist in the universe, who cares for us, who cares for our families, who cares about what we do and how we live our lives and the footprints we mean to leave behind. He does. Absolutely, He does.

"And if you come to embrace this truth, as I have come to embrace this truth, you can internalize it and grow from it, and it can give you the hope and strength and confidence you need to get to the other side of even an unknowable difficulty such as this one and to somehow emerge all the better for it."

In the end, he said, what matters is not "what we've gained" but rather "what we've built."

Its our legacy that matters in the end. Its the example weve set for our children, the impact weve managed to make in our community," he emphasized.

As of Monday morning, the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus had risen to over 1.27 million around the world with 69,527 deaths, out of which 337,646 cases were in the United States with 9,648 deaths, according to Johns Hoskins University.

Kasich concluded, Right now, I am in a hopeful place, because I do know we will get through this. And given the opportunity, it allows me to figure out what is really important and where my real treasures are.
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The Indian government ordered a nation-wide lockdown on March 25, 2020, for an initial period of 21-days which could get extended to 1-2 months, Macquarie Research highlighted said in a report authored by Aditya Suresh.

In the report, Macquarie has taken a granular look at two scenarios that could emerge in the near future. In the first scenario which is also the base case  Macquarie sees a 1-month lockdown followed by 3 months to business as usual.

In the bear case scenario, there could be 2-months of lockdown followed by more gradual 6 months to normal.

Macquarie has made wholesale cuts across their coverage which are in the range from a moderate 5 percent to some cases ~80 percent. Sectors that look better placed are staples, IT, and pharma.

The report highlights the top 10 Macquarie India research ideas based on certain fundamental parameters such as Book value per share growth is greater than 10 percent, or there is an EPS growth of more than 10 percent, etc. among others.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

HDFC Bank: Target Rs 1,499

Even in the bear case scenario if we assume the loan growth/credit costs post COVID-19 to be 12%/2.3% for FY21E (base 21%/1.3%), the stock still offers an upside of ~30 percent today.

We consider credit cost of 2.3% to be excessive as ~80% of the unsecured loans is towards salaried employees which in our view would have a better ability to repay in these testing times, said the report.

Valuations at 2.1x FY22E P/BV for a ~2 percent ROA provides a favourable risk-reward with limited downside risk. Even though agriculture is a pain point, Macquarie does not expect a significant impact on HDFC Banks overall asset quality.

Successful execution of the strategy of the new CEO has yielded success with the companys organic growth rate being faster than the industry now. Even with a single-digit revenue decline in FY21E (due to global growth shocks), EPS decline would be less than 10 percent (due to margin resilience) against an 18 percent drop in share price in the last 1 month.

The stock has a strong net cash balance sheets (US$3.4bn) and a dividend yield of 4.7 percent. The target price if Rs830 is set at 17x FY22 EPS with ~30 percent upside.

HUL: Target Rs 2563

Macquarie is of the view that home care can benefit in the near term on account of stockpiling which we see normalizing in the next 2-3 months. Out of home consumption like color cosmetics and skincare can take a hit.

We see long term positive trends in some of the categories like personal wash and packaged/nutrition foods. We believe the GSK merger provides a strong platform to grow the food portfolio. We believe the merger would be EPS accretive (~9%) from the first year, FY21, said the note.

Superior portfolio constructs, strong distribution and investments in digital infrastructure will help consolidate market share. Macquarie values HUR at 50x FY22E.

ICICI Bank: Target Rs 684

Even if we factor a loan growth/credit costs of 8.5%/2.7% for FY21E in the bear case scenario (post-COVID) the stock offers an upside of ~50 percent today. We have assumed credit costs to be higher than the GFC level credit cost, said the note.

Though there will be job losses due to COVID-19, Macquarie believes that the delinquencies in the retail portfolio will be contained and will be fairly lower than the GFC levels as this time around banks has majorly lent to internal customers.

Valuations at ~1.5x FY22E P/BV for 1.5% ROA is very compelling and can offer reasonable upside from the current levels, added the note.

HCL Technologies: Target Rs 727

In the current volatile global macro environment, Macquarie is of the view that HCL has low exposure to BFSI (21% of revenues) and a diversified business mix with software: services mix of 35:65.

UltraTech Cement: Target Rs 3952

Given near term earnings uncertainty, Macquarie focus on asset-based valuation  Ultratech trades at US$128/ton, which is 5 years low and a mere 5-10 percent above replacement cost.

Given the fact that the company has over 20 percent market share, along with diversified geographical presence, strong brand and distribution network, the stock warrants a sustainable premium.

Dr Reddys Laboratories: Target Rs 3324

Macquarie is of the view that the market is discounting Dr Reddys steadfast focus on creating ex-US growth avenues (refer Fig) and better productivity. It expects ongoing efforts on rationalising costs and improving asset utilisation to boost cash generation.

GAIL India is trading at about 50 percent below our fundamental bear case valuation. Macquarie value GAILs gas transmission division and listed investments together at US$9bn EV or ~20% above todays price.

Cipla: Target Rs 535

Key positives are steady growth visibility, recalibrated capital allocation, and attractive valuations, according to Macquarie. The FY21/22E EBITDA margins are higher than Street led by factoring in a higher upside from Ciplas focus on profitable growth.

Ciplas key strengths, its strong branded franchises in India and South Africa, are growing at a healthy pace.

Petronet LNG: Target Rs 325

The core thesis on PLNG has not changed despite a volatile macro backdrop, and Macquarie sees a short sharp volume recovery post lockdown. We continue to see PLNG as a steady compounder with  10+ percent EPS CAGR, driven by: (a) Dahej expansion ramp-up, (b) Kochi ramp-up, (c) tariff compounding, (d) income on growing net cash position.

: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
Boko Haram Terrorists

A report by Sahara Reporters has revealed that dreaded Boko Haram terrorists on Monday night, attacked a village in Adamawa State, destroying residential buildings and looting shops.

The terrorists attacked Kirchinga under Madagali Local Government Area of the state razing no fewer than five houses.

A source told SaharaReporters that the terrorists in large numbers arrived the village in pickup vans and motorcycles at about 4:00pm.

The Boko Haram fighters also shot an octogenarian in the leg before being repelled by troops of the Nigerian Army.

A resident said, The devastation would have been worst but for the timely response by soldiers stationed in Kirchinga.

Commander of the troops in Madagali, Colonel Abdulsalam, also confirmed the attack.

He said, Yes, there was an attack but it was repelled successfully.
Cibolos parks and small businesses were major talking points during the citys March 30 special city council meeting to discuss the citys emergency health declaration.

Council members joined City Manager Robert Herrera on a Zoom videoconference to consider taking action on adding public and private parks and door-to-door solicitation to prohibited activities within the city.

Council recognized that the closure of parks loomed large, as several council members talked of feedback received from residents since first enacting an emergency declaration at their March 24 meeting.

City Attorney Frank Garza told council that the emergency declaration does give the ability to close down private parks. Just like the city agreed to close down some businesses, those are privately own businesses and so forth, it gives you the same authority.

Councilwoman Jennifer Schultes said she is determined to fight to keep as many Cibolo businesses open as possible.

Not hurting our businesses is very, very high on my priority list, Schultes said. We need to be safe and follow CDC guidelines, but I dont want to hurt these businesses if they are following guidelines and doing what they are supposed to be doing.

Councilman Ted Gibbs said the council needs to be prepared to make a hard decision on how soon a Shelter In Place-type order might be necessary.

I would challenge each one of you to think about what is our threshold. Weve just had our fifth (positive coronavirus) case in Cibolo and theres probably more (people) that are being tested, Gibbs said. There will be a point where were going to have to make a hard decision where we have to say, Stay safe, and stay home.

Councilman Tim Woliver said that time had already arrived.

I think the time is now to reduce the amount of unknown spread thats going on out there, Woliver said, adding, I would not have a problem with Cibolo stepping out in front of others and doing what we think is right because of what were seeing here in Cibolo.

An April 3 order signed and released by Guadalupe County Commissioner Kyle Kutscher made that point moot. The county joined San Antonio and Bexar County in issuing a Stay Home, Stay Safe order that specifically ordered non-essential businesses and public places, other than walking trails, to close.

All non-essential businesses in the county are ordered to cease operations, though they may continue to operate if they can be done from home, the order stated. Additionally, any public or private gathering, regardless the size of the gathering, outside of a residence is not allowed.

It spelled out what it deems are essential activity:

Tasks essential to their health and safety of their family or household members.

Obtaining necessary services or supplies such as food and consumer products needed to maintain the operation of their home or the operation of their work from home.

Outdoor activity, like walking and hiking while maintaining social distancing.

Doing work, and traveling to and from, an essential business.

Caring for a family member or pet in another household.

The exchange of children between parents or guardians pursuant to a child custody orders.

Cibolo Mayor Stosh Boyle said the citys measures were necessary, despite observations of emergency compliance.

Throughout the city of San Antonio and Bexar County and even within Cibolo, the number of folks out has drastically reduced. I think the education has immensely improved, Boyle said.

The premise on that is, Stay home. Educate yourself. We already have a strong declaration thats just inches from the stay-at-home order. Were not sitting on our hands. Were trying to find out what the best solutions are.

While Cibolo remained just inches from a stay at home call with its 4-3 vote to close all public and private parks and to prohibit door-to-door solicitation, Guadalupe County stepped in and issued that Stay At Home order just days later.

The 4-3 vote on the parks closure and solicitation ban was opposed by Council Members Schultes, Steve Quinn and Woliver.

I am going to vote no, Schultes said, due to the amendment of solicitation. At some point, personal responsibility needs to go into effect. Quinn and Woliver agreed.

As of April 5, there were eight reported cases of COVID-19 in Cibolo, and the current Guadalupe County count stands at 28.

jflinn@express-news.net
Four student researchers earn Goldwater Scholarships

April 03, 2020

Four Carnegie Mellon University students have received 2020 Barry Goldwater Scholarships to encourage their pursuit of research careers.

Cassandra Bishop, Jessica Lee, Shiv Sethi and Noah Stevenson are among this year's recipients of the scholarship. They are among the 396 students selected from an applicant pool of over 5,000 sophomores and juniors nationwide.

Stephanie Wallach, assistant vice provost for undergraduate education, said that CMU can nominate four students annually for the award. Brittany Allison, assistant director in the Office of Undergraduate Research and National Scholarships, oversees the university's Goldwater nomination process, which includes a committee of faculty members who discuss the nominations.

"Dr. Allison did a double take when she saw that all four of CMU's nominees were selected," said Wallach, who added that it is unusual for all four nominations to be selected. "This is an award that recognizes our CMU strengths in the fields of engineering, natural sciences and mathematics and the exceptional ability of our faculty to involve our immensely talented and highly motivated students in undergraduate research."

The award, given by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, recognizes second- and third-year college students intending to pursue research careers in mathematics, engineering and the natural sciences, and provides up to $7,500 for tuition, mandatory fees, books, room and board.

CMU has been home to 39 Goldwater Scholars.

Cassie Bishop

Cassie Bishop, a junior biological sciences major, is an ardent researcher with a keen interest in molecular biology.

"I am fascinated by the molecular mechanisms of cellular pathways that allow cells to function normally in their environment as well as how those pathways can and do go awry in people, leading to diseases such as cancer," Bishop said.

Last summer, she conducted research on the mechanisms underlying cancer treatment resistance with Professor Tanya Paull as part of the Livestrong Cancer Institute's Summer Internship Program at the University of Texas, Austin.

She is planning to pursue a career in cancer research. Specifically, she wants to understand the carcinogenic drivers that cause that first cell to be cancerous and research immunotherapeutic approaches that could identify and eradicate these cancerous molecules.

Currently, Bishop investigates fruit fly stress response at the physiological and molecular level with Biological Sciences Associate Professor Brooke McCartney.

Outside of her research, Bishop is a supplemental instruction (SI) leader and supervisor. In this position, she mentors her peers in the introduction to modern chemistry course and supervises the SI leader training. She is co-president of the Mellon College of Science Student Advisory Council and a member of the Science Olympiad Club at CMU, which hosts an annual invitational competition for high school students.

Jessica Lee

Jessica Lee, a junior majoring in computer science , is a member of the School of Computer Science 's Student Advisory Council and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in computer vision and machine learning. Her goal is to develop techniques that make machine learning algorithms more efficient, scalable and explainable  similar to how a human brain is able to learn quickly.

Obtaining a Goldwater scholarship, the most prestigious STEM scholarship for undergraduates, promises to be a big help in attaining those goals, she said.

"It's definitely hard to convince your parents to be on board with pursuing a Ph.D. instead of finding a job after graduation," Lee said. "However, the Goldwater enables student researchers to both be recognized for their work and to encourage them to pursue a research career in the future by getting involved in a nationwide community of researchers."

Shiv Sethi

Shiv Sethi, a junior neuroscience major and Science and Humanities Scholar, is interested in neuroscience but has spent most of his time in the lab working on cancer research. He has worked in labs at the University of Pittsburgh, Washington University in St. Louis and at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland.

Sethi currently is working with University of Pittsburgh scientists Louis Falo and Emrullah Korkmaz who are researching a new way to deliver drugs for skin cancer. The new method, called microneedle arrays, could help doctors deliver medicine to cancer patients with greater efficacy. This type of project helped Sethi realize his passion for research and aspire to earn both a M.D. and Ph.D. after graduation.

"When I started working in the lab, my career goals changed," he said. "I've had fantastic experiences doing independent research as an undergrad, which helped me see that I could do more than help patients as a M.D. I want to do hands-on work in the lab, on the translational side, to help patients in a different way."

In the future, Sethi hopes to focus on brain cancer research, especially aggressive diseases like Glioblastoma.

"There are not a lot of solid approaches to treat it right now," said Sethi, who also is a SI leader for organic chemistry. "I want to integrate my major with my research interests to better target these more aggressive invasive tumors."

Noah Stevenson

Noah Stevenson, a junior in mathematical sciences, is pursuing CMU's Mathematical Sciences Honors Degree Program. He takes both undergraduate and graduate level classes and will graduate from CMU next year with his B.S. and M.S. in mathematical sciences.

At CMU, Stevenson has molded his interests in both teaching and research. He has served as a teaching assistant for the mathematical sciences courses Analysis I and II, and he has conducted several research projects studying partial differential equations in fluid mechanics and function spaces, advised by Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences Ian Tice.

His projects are influenced by his interest in applying abstract mathematical concepts to solve problems in the physical world.

Through his research, Stevenson has discovered special math solutions and submitted a manuscript to be published.

These experiences have shaped Stevenson's career plans to earn his Ph.D. and become a researcher and professor of mathematics.
An impala's desperate bid to escape a crocodile's jaws was doomed to failure when a hippo joined in the chase.

The dramatic scene unfolded at South Africa's biggest game reserve, Kruger National Park.

Safari guide and presenter James Hendry spotted the impala, apparently injured, standing on a small island.

It takes a few seconds for the impala to spot the crocodiles rearing its head nearby.

Hendry gives a running commentary, saying: 'It is unlikely that the croc will be able to grab the impala on land but he could catch it if the croc came onto land and chased it into the water.'

Just on cue the crocodile starts climbing onto the island and the impala leaps for its life into the water.

The South African impala does not seem to notice the crocodile while he rests on an island in the country's biggest game reserve, Kruger National Park

As soon as the crocodile starts to climb onto land the impala makes a run for it hoping to out-swim the reptile

The giant reptile instantly follows the impala sliding into the water and swimming terrifyingly fast.

Just as it seems the chase could not get any more horrifying for the impala a hippo joins the hunt.

'I can't believe what we're seeing here this is what we normally see in East Africa,' says Hendry.

In a matter of seconds the pursuit is over as the crocodile drags the impala underwater.

The hippo begins fighting the crocodile for the impala before another hippo appears and the two retreat.

Bubbles can be seen rising through the water at the end of the video suggesting the crocodile is still hiding below, probably with its jaws still closed tight around its prey.

'Obviously its a sad encounter for the impala, says Hendry. 'Its very seldom that anybody ever roots for the crocodile, but I guess the croc has to eat, too.'

The impala leaps off the island and the crocodile does not leave a minute to spare as it slides back into the water to make its chase
Say Florence Nightingale, and instantly the word nurse pairs with it. Probably she was the most extraordinary nurse in history. Kings, queens, and princes all consulted her, as did the president of the United States, who wanted her advice about military hospitals during the Civil War.

It was Florence Nightingale who revolutionized hospital methods in Englandand indeed throughout the world. During the Crimean War, she served in the first field hospital ever run and tended by women. She established schools for training nurses, and she introduced procedures that have been benefiting people ever since.

Still, this is an incomplete portrait. For years Florence acted as behind-the-scenes British secretary of war, managing to considerably better conditions for men in the armed services by setting up a system of health administration that was without precedent.

Suffering, wherever it existed, challenged her. She even set up a system for extending nursing care to the poor and the criminal underworld in the slums of English cities.

One reason Florence managed to accomplish so much was because any occupation but working for improved health standards seemed to her a waste of time. And Florence had remarkable stamina. When she was young, she sometimes worked twenty-two out of twenty-four hours.

Then, too, she was gifted with a peculiar genius: She could assimilate information in prodigious quantities, retain it, marshal her facts, and use them effectively. A relative wrote that when Flo was exhausted, the sight of a column of figures was perfectly reviving to her. Altogether she wrote eight lengthy reports and seventeen books on medical and nursing subjects.

Early Family Life

Florence was born in 1820 while her English parents, Fanny and William, were vacationing in Florence, Italy. She was named for her birthplace, although at that time Florence was not listed among feminine names, as it has been since Miss Nightingale gave it fame. She had an older sister, Parthenope (always called Parthe), who was also named for her birthplace.

Florences beautiful and intelligent mother and her wealthy, dilettante father were not very compatible, nor were the two little girls. Parthe, though she all but adored her sister, at the same time was envious and selfishly possessive of her.

It was impossible to find a tutor with the intellectual prowess demanded by Mr. Nightingale. So he assumed the responsibility himself, teaching the children Latin, Greek, German, Italian, French, English grammar, philosophy, and history. A governess was trusted to teach them only music and drawing.

When Parthe was eighteen and Flo sixteen, study was somewhat curtailed. The girls were presented at court and introduced to society. Their life then included many parties and much travel on the Continent.

Flo was tall, willowy, graceful, and pretty. Two young men promptly fell in love with her and proposed marriage. She liked them both, but she wasnt ready to marry either.

Divine Mission

Then a strange thing happened. Though she did not think herself deeply religious and never thought she became so, on February 7, 1837, when she was scarcely 17 years old, she felt that God spoke to her, calling her to future service. From that time on her life was changed.

At first the call disturbed her. Not knowing the nature of the service, she feared making herself unworthy of whatever it was by leading the frivolous life that her mother and her social set demanded of her. Now she was given to periods of preoccupation, or to what she called dreams of how to fulfill her mission. Meanwhile she spent all her spare time visiting the cottages on her family estate and bringing neighboring poor people food and medicine.

When a family friend died in childbirth, Flo begged her parents to let her stay at the country home year round and take care of the baby instead of making her go to London for the winter social season. They vetoed the idea, believing she should mingle in society, eventually choose a husband, and bear children of the family bloodline. Too, Parthe had hysterics at the thought of the ungrateful and unfeeling Flo wanting to be separated from her.

In London one of Flos suitors again pressed her for an answer to his marriage proposal. She liked him, but she could not bring herself to say yes, especially when she did not know what service lay ahead.

Visiting her family home at the time were Dr. Howe and his wife, Julia Ward Howe (author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic). Florence asked Dr. Howe, Do you think it unsuitable and unbecoming for a young Englishwoman to devote herself to works of charity in hospitals and elsewhere as Catholic sisters do? Do you think it would be a dreadful thing?

He answered that it would be unusual and whatever is unusual in England is thought unsuitable. Nonetheless he advised her, Act on your inspiration.

If Florence was to consider nursing her serviceand she was beginning to believe it must bethen she needed training. She proposed going to an infirmary run by a family friend.

Her parents were shocked, horrified, angry! She was a gentlewoman! Their objections were understandable. In that era English hospitals were places of degradation and filth. The malodorous hospital smell was literally nauseating to many, and nurses usually drank heavily to dull their senses. Florence herself admitted that the head nurse of a London hospital told her that in the course of her long experience she had never known a nurse who was not drunken, and there was immoral conduct in the very wards.

Years of Preparation

But at least Florence could study on her own. From a friend in Parliament, Sidney Herbert, she procured government reports on national health conditions. Then she got up at predawn every morning and pored over them by the light of an oil lamp, filling notebook after notebook with facts and figures, which she indexed and tabulated.

She planned to acquire practical experience by going to the unquestionably moral Institution of Lutheran Deaconesses in Kaiserwerth, Germany. Although her father called the move theatrical, and although Parthe again had hysterics, her parents reluctantly allowed her to go. After the Kaiserwerth stint the old pattern reappeared: Her parents wanted her to lead a normal life and were baffled and annoyed when she turned down another eligible suitor and seemed indifferent to marriage.

Then Florence met and confided in Cardinal Manning. He understood her aims, and she wondered if Catholicism could be her gateway to service. She proposed becoming a Catholic, but the cardinal demurred because she rejected certain Catholic tenets.

However he arranged for her to enter a Paris hospital staffed by nuns who obviously didnt resort to drink. She would wear the postulant habit but live apart from the nuns. Shortly after she arrived, ironically, she came down with measles and had to leave.

Back in England, the Institution for Care of Sick Gentlewomen in Distressed Circumstances needed a superintendent. Florences study of health, hospital problems, and management recommended her. While she held this job, cholera broke out and nurses, fearing the disease, refused to serve, so Florence acted as a nurse herself and earned universal respect.

Opposition and Adulation

Then the Crimean War erupted. English military hospitals were a disgrace; in them a wounded man had almost no chance of recovery. When a reporter wrote that the French took far better care of their wounded, English consciences were stung into action.

Sidney Herbert, now secretary of war, not only authorized the purchase of hospital equipment, but also created a new of official position to which he appointed the bestqualified person he knew, Florence Nightingale. She became Superintendent of the Female Nursing Establishment of the English General Hospitals in Turkey. She was to go to Crimea with plenary authority, taking nurses of her choice.

Previously no woman had ever entered a military hospital. But because of Miss Nightingales reputation (she was called Miss Nightingale by the public), the order was applauded.

Now to implement it! First, how was she to find good nurses? Through Cardinal Manning a great concession was made: ten Catholic sisters were allowed to go to Turkey under Miss Nightingales leadership, subject to her orders. Eight Anglican sisters joined too, and Florence painstakingly gathered other women.

On arrival they found moldy food, scarce water, filth, overcrowding, no sanitary arrangements, no bedsheets, no operating tables, no medical supplies. The forty nurses were allotted a kitchen and five rat-and-vermin infested bedrooms; this meant crowding many nurses into each room.

Miss Nightingale had authority to requisition supplies, so she quickly asked for towels and soap and insisted that clothes be washed and floors scrubbed. Thats when she ran into trouble; some officers and doctors grumbled about her power. The superior of the Catholic sisters, although she had agreed to accept Miss Nightingales leadership, questioned why anyone but herself should direct the sisters, and she constantly made trouble. The Anglican nuns felt that Florence favored the Catholics.

Only the patientsthe wounded menfully approved of her. They all but adored the Lady of the Lamp, as they called her when she visited the wards at the end of the day. They spoke of kissing her very shadow as she passed.

The Cost of Caring

Despite difficulties, Miss Nightingale went on working. She dressed wounds, administered or supervised medical treatments, instructed nurses, and made rounds of the wards. Then, before she dropped exhausted into bed near midnight, she spent an hour or two writing reports for the government at home.

She also suggested legislation to help the men. For example, the old law mandated that hospitalized men, since they were no longer in danger of being shot, have their pay cut. But their wounds often handicapped them for life, so Miss Nightingale opposed the pay cuts and wrote directly to Queen Victoria to explain why. The mens pay was restored, just one instance among many where she suggested or wrote legislation that her friend Sidney Herbert introduced in Parliament.

When the war ended, she was the sole hero to emerge. As one biographer said, She had the country at her feet. The queen presented Florence with a diamond brooch. The inscription on the reverse side read, To Miss Florence Nightingale as a mark of esteem and gratitude for her devotion toward the queens brave soldiers from Victoria R. 1855.

Fighter for Reform

In Crimea, Florence had collapsed once or twice from overwork, and she returned home gaunt, pale, and suffering from several ailments. But she had no intention of resting. Military reforms were urgently needed. The mortality rate (73 percent in six months from diseases alone) was outrageous and resulted not from battlefield casualties but from the execrable state of the British armys health administration.

Her aims were furthered when the queen summoned her to palace visits. Amazingly, the queen even made informal visits to her home. The women became friends, and Florence convinced Victoria of the value of her reforms. Although royalty could not act directly, the queen summoned the secretary of state to the palace along with Florence, so that she had an opportunity to present her ideas to him and to try to persuade him to act. Florence kept at him until he at least appointed a commission to study the matter.

The secretary of state then asked her for a detailed report. Night and day, she worked on the report; it ran 1,000 pages. Then she collapsed. She was seriously ill, but she had won her point. The government acted.

A friend, Sir John McNeill, wrote her, To you, more than to any other man or woman alive, will henceforth be due the welfare and efficiency of the British army. I thank God that I have lived to see your success.

Adviser, Writer, Educator

When her health improved, people came to her for advice, among them the queen of Holland and the crown prince of Prussia. Between visitors, she wrote books. Notes on Hospitals ran into three editions and was widely translated into other languages. After its publication, the king of Portugal asked her to design a hospital in Lisbon, and the government of India consulted her. Her next book, Notes on Nursing, sold thousands of copies in factories, villages, and schools and was translated into French, German, and Italian.

Writing mostly at night and working by day, she opened a nurses training school, using money given to a Nightingale Fund by the grateful British troops. If she had not done so before, surely now she changed forever the image of a nurse from that of a drunken hussy to that of an efficient attendant of the ill.

Despite illness, she pushed for reorganization of the War Office. One of her friends said that she was virtually secretary of state in the War Office for the next five years.

Her next big task came when a prominent Liverpool philanthropist approached her, begging nursing care for slum dwellers and workhouse inmates. She arranged to supply the care. Moreover, she called for legislation that would provide separate facilities for the children, the insane, and the victims of communicable diseases, who had previously lived cheek by jowl in the same workhouses.

No letup followed. Next came the Franco-Prussian War, during which Florence worked with the National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded, later called the British Red Cross Aid Society. When the war ended, Jean Henri Dunant said, Though Im known as the founder of the Red Cross  it is to an Englishwoman that all the honor is due. What inspired me  was the work of Florence Nightingale.

For an interval, however, she did slacken her public work to devote herself to nursing first her dying father, then her dying mother, and then her dying sister, Parthe, with whom she was closer than in bygone years.

Florence lived on into old age, always supervising work at the Nightingale Fund School and always and everywhere being treated with a respect akin to awe. In 1907 Edward VII bestowed on her the Order of Merit; it was the first time it had ever been given to a woman. She continued to write until her sight failed, her memory dulled, and she became a little vague. On August 13, 1910, she fell asleep around noon and did not awaken.

Mary Lewis Coakley is the author of twelve books and resides in Wyncote, Pennsylvania.

Copyright  1990 by the author or Christianity Today/Christian History magazine.

Click here for reprint information on Christian History.
Carson Daly and his wife, Siri, are grateful that their baby Goldie can be a little "beacon of hope" during a difficult time across the country.

Carson and his family introduced their adorable 12-day-old daughter to the TODAY family Tuesday as they remain at home like millions of others during the coronavirus pandemic.

"She is the little pot of gold at the end of our family rainbow, and she came obviously at a much-needed time with what's happening in the country, so she's been a wonderful distraction," Carson said about his baby daughter.

Carson's three older children, son Jack, 11, and daughters Etta, 7, and London, 5, have welcomed their baby sister with open arms.

Carson Daly's son, Jackson, 11, and daughters Etta, 7, and London, 5, have welcomed their baby sister, Goldie, with open arms. (Carson Daly)

"The kids love her. They're like little mothers and fathers to her," Siri Daly said. "They can't get enough, and they're so helpful. It's the silver lining in all of this to have all of us home together because they just snuggle her up and grab binkies when needed and burp cloths."

Carson is cherishing the time at home with the newest addition to his family but wishes it was for a different reason.

"It's a really bittersweet event as we all know because we're all hunkered down in our homes,'' he said. "I work to be home, and now that I'm home all the time and I get this unprecedented time with my wife and my kids, it's great, but it comes at such a cost because there's so much life that's been lost.

"There's so many people that are hurting, so it's almost hard to appreciate all this time with your family when you're mindful of what's happening to other people in the world."

Carson has been enjoying his quality time at home with baby Goldie. (Carson Daly)

Goldie is "very chill," according to her parents, although Carson said "she's headed towards professional beer drinking because she burps all the time."

The family also had a sweet moment over the weekend when Goldie received a drive-by blessing from the Catholic priest who married Carson and Siri at the parish near their home in Long Island, New York.

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Their neighbors also lined the streets and made signs for Goldie when Carson and Siri brought her home from the hospital.

"She's been a light not just to our family but to our community, our neighborhood," Carson said. "Everybody is still very anxious and very nervous about the unknowns of the pandemic. And here comes little Goldie, and it puts a smile on their face."

New York has been the epicenter of the global coronavirus outbreak with more than 130,000 cases and nearly 5,000 deaths across the state.

"It's a harrowing time to be pregnant and to have a child, especially where we are geographically. So there's a lot of nervous people around us, and she's been a great beacon of hope,'' Carson said.
Elected bodies in San Francisco and San Jose approved emergency paid-leave ordinances applying to companies with more than 500 employees Tuesday, and supporters called on the state to follow suit.

Were looking to Gov. Newsom and the California Legislature to establish paid sick leave for workers who are not covered by the federal stimulus package approved last month, said Kate OHara of the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy at a Tuesday morning news conference. Its not hyperbolic to say that the actions being taken today could have life-and-death impacts.

The stimulus package extends such coverage for 14 days to employees of firms with between 50 and 500 workers, but it exempts companies with more than 500 workers. The San Jose City Council voted to extend paid leave for employees of those companies. In San Francisco, which already has a paid sick leave requirement, the Board of Supervisors voted to extend a paid leave requirement so that workers can take paid time off to care for children or parents during the pandemic.

Both ordinances would apply to anyone working within city limits for such a company, even if theyre at a small branch office. It also includes gig employees such as drivers for Uber and Lyft.

A similar proposed ordinance is expected to be introduced at Oaklands next City Council meeting

The online news conference included Keven Adams, a San Francisco security guard. He described working at a bank last week where one elderly patron required physical assistance.

I had to break that 6-foot (social distancing) range because they were disabled, and Im proud to do this, Adams said. But if I had to quarantine myself, how would I pay my rent?

Several advocates used the regions early efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 as a model for why the local measures can have larger impact.

This is commonsense legislation to help flatten the curve and save lives, argued Maya Esparza of the San Jose City Council. Im hoping this action will push the momentum to have it done on a statewide level, as the Bay Area did with shelter in place.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The San Francisco ordinance was introduced by Supervisor Gordon Mar.

We need to help people keep both economically and physically healthy, Mar said before the vote on the ordinance. It passed unanimously and will go into effect once it is signed by Mayor London Breed, who already has signaled support.

Correction: A previous verions of this misstated details of the two ordinances. San Francisco already has paid sick leave, but expanded it to include workers who need to take off up to 14 days to care for children or parents. The San Jose vote expands paid sick leave to firms of more than 500 employees, but it does not have the emergency care provisions.

John King is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @johnkingsfchron
Getty

Refunding passengers for cancelled flights in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic would be an unbearable task for cash-strapped airlines, the head of an industry group says, as many companies opt to offer vouchers instead.

Alexandre de Juniac, the chief executive of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), told reporters on a weekly conference call Tuesday that the coronavirus outbreak has caused the biggest crisis ever seen in the airline industry. Many companies are concerned with survival, he said, with just a few weeks worth of cash on hand.

The key element for us is to avoid running out of cash, so refunding the upfront ticket is almost unbearable, financially speaking, in this terrible situation, de Juniac said from Geneva.

We are perfectly conscious of the difficulty for the passenger not to be refunded immediately. But the point is that it is a matter of survival for us. We have no cash to refund the upfront ticket.

He also said IATA, which represents 290 airlines around the world including Air Canada and WestJet, is open to offering vouchers or deferred refunds that can be delayed for a period of time to avoid using the limited cash resources currently available to airlines.

Its very difficult to find the cash in our balance sheet to refund the upfront tickets, de Juniac said. Thats the reason why the industry has proposed to pay with vouchers.

While U.S. and European Union officials have ordered airlines to reimburse passengers for cancelled flights, Canadian airlines are not obligated to do the same. The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), a quasi-judicial organization that resolves disputes related to air travel, issued a statement in late March allowing airlines to provide vouchers or credits for future travel instead of refunds.

An appropriate approach in the current context could be for airlines to provide affected passengers with vouchers or credits for future travel, as long as these vouchers or credits do not expire in an unreasonably short period of time, the CTA statement said, adding that 24 months would be considered reasonable in most cases.

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Many Canadian carriers are offering customers flight rebookings or vouchers, but not refunds, a move that has infuriated many travellers. This comes as airlines call for Ottawa to provide financial relief for the industry, something Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has signalled the government will do.

Several online petitions have been launched calling on Ottawa to ensure airlines provide passengers with refunds for cancelled flights. One petition, started by air passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs, had garnered nearly 24,000 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon. Another, calling on the federal government to refuse to provide bailout funds to any airline that does not refund customers, had nearly 4,000 signatures.

Airlines around the world have had to cut capacity, ground planes and lay off thousands of employees to reduce costs as revenue drastically declines and, in many cases, disappears. Globally, the number of flights has decreased by 70 per cent when compared to the same time last year, IATA said, with Europe being particularly hard hit, reporting a 90 per cent drop in flights. IATA said that a third of the 2.7 million people that work in the airline industry have either lost jobs or been furloughed.

The Conference Board of Canada estimates that the airline industry will suffer 40,000 job losses in Canada as a result of COVID-19.

With files from the Canadian Press

Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android and sign up for the Yahoo Finance Canada Weekly Brief.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 21:46:29|Editor: yhy

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ADDIS ABABA, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the socio-economic condition of "almost all African countries" and appears to worsen dramatically as the tourism, air transport and the oil industry sectors "visibly impacted," according to a new report published by the African Union (AU) on Monday.

Noting that the current COVID-19 crisis is affecting the entire world economy and that of Africa, the 55-member pan African bloc said in its latest report on the impact of COVID-19 on African economies issued on Monday stressed that "some key sectors of the African economy are already experiencing a slowdown as a result of the pandemic."

"The COVID-19 pandemic has hit almost all African countries and appears poised to worsen dramatically. The disruption of the world economy through global value chains, the abrupt falls in commodity prices and fiscal revenues and the enforcement of travel and social restrictions in many African countries are the main causes of the negative growth," the newly published report read.

The AU also projected exports and imports of African countries to drop by at least 35 percent from the level reached in 2019, in which the loss in value is estimated at around 270 billion U.S. dollars.

"The fight against the spread the virus and medical treatment will lead to an increase of public spending in Africa estimated to by at least 130 billion U.S. dollars," the report argued.

According to the AU, due to the African continent's openness to international trade and migration, the continent is not immune to the harmful effects of COVID-19, which are of two kinds endogenous and exogenous.

Noting that the exogenous effects of COVID-19 come to have an impact on Africa's direct trade links between affected partner continents such as Asia, Europe and the United States, the AU stressed that the tourism sector, the decline in remittances from African diaspora, reduced foreign direct investment and official development assistance, as well as illicit financing flows and domestic financial market tightening, are among the major exogenous impacts of COVID-19 on African economies.

The endogenous effects of COVID-19 also occur as a result of the rapid spread of the virus in many African countries. On one hand, they are linked to morbidity and mortality. On the other hand, they lead to a disruption of economic activities," the AU stressed.

"It is important to assess the socio-economic impact of COVID-19, although the pandemic is at a less advanced stage in Africa, due to its lesser quantity of international migrants' arrivals relatively to Asia, Europe, and North America and strong precaution measures in some African countries," the report read.

The newly published report, which noted that African economies remain informal and very extroverted and vulnerable to external shocks, envisaged on understanding the possible socio-economic repercussions in order to propose policy recommendations to respond to the crisis mainly due to the difficulty of quantifying the real impact as a result of the uncertainty as well as the rapidly evolving nature of the pandemic and scarcity of the data.

According to the report, tourism, air transport, and the oil sectors are "visibly impacted." It, however, stressed that the invisible impacts of Covid-19 are expected in 2020 regardless of the duration of the pandemic.

"The socio-economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis is real. It is therefore essential to inform the populations on the impact and advice policymakers in order to better prepare and lessen the adverse impact of the pandemic," the report stressed.

"With the negative impact on key sectors of the economy such as tourism, travel, exports; with falling commodity prices, declining governments' resources to finance public investment, it would be quasi impossible to achieve this optimistic forecast of growth rates in 2020," the AU stressed.

The report, which noted the higher impact of COVID-19 on Africa's tourism industry, also stressed that for 15 African countries, the tourism sector represents more than 10 percent of the GDP and for 20 of the 55 African states, the share of tourism in the national wealth is more than 8 percent.

Figures from the AU also show that the tourism sector contributes much more to GDP in countries like Seychelles, Cape Verde and Mauritius (above 25 percent of GDP) while it also employs more than a million people in each of Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania. Tourism employment comprises more than 20 percent of total employment in Seychelles, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, and Mauritius.

The newly published report came as the death toll from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the African continent has reached 414 as confirmed positive cases reached 9,178, the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention revealed on Monday.
The Ashanti Regional Health Directorate has been collected 1,836 blood samples through routine surveillance, community screening, contacts of confirmed cases and travellers, as part of efforts to contain COVID-19 in the region.

Ninety out of the figure are contacts of confirmed cases, 1,251 were collected during community screening, 372 through routine surveillance with 123 being travellers.

Regional Director of Health Services Dr. Emmanuel Tinkorang, who announced this, said confirmed cases in the region stood at 12 with two deaths.

Speaking at the weekly media briefing on COVID-19 in Kumasi on Monday, Dr. Tinkorang, said eight of the cases had a history of recent travel from affected countries.

He said the directorate was following 389 contacts, out of which two had tested positive with 58 being those picked from the Juaso case.

So far we have 389 contacts and out of that 220 have completed their 14 days observation, he emphasized.

The Regional Director further disclosed that the last three cases, including a couple who had recently returned from France were recorded on April 4 and were all responding to treatment.

He said the region had also received several donations that were being used to procure Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) including non-contact thermometers and medical goggles.

The Ministry of Health has given us GHC400,000.00 to manage the contacts as well as the 351 health staff that we have trained to do the contact-tracing, he noted.

He said apart from the contacts being traced, the directorate was also screening people living in high-risk areas.

High-risk areas are areas where we have isolated cases. So all inhabitants who live within a one-meter radius of isolated cases would go through voluntary testing, he explained.

---Daily Guide
David Crosling/Reuters

ROMEAbout an hour after Cardinal George Pell was discharged from Melbournes Barwon Prison on Tuesday, a courier left a case of wine at the monastery where he would spend his first night as a free man. The wine was not the kind used in Catholic mass. It was the kind for toasting victories: Pells clerical sex abuse conviction had just been overturned by Australias highest court.

Its not clear who ordered the wine, but for sure not everyone is celebrating the decision.

The reversal of the convictionwhich had been upheld by an appellate court in Melbourne last yearhas deeply divided the Catholic Church around the world. Many Vatican insiders who felt Pell was a scapegoat convicted for the sins of many others will now feel vindicated, while survivors of clerical sexual abuse feel as if they have been victimized all over again.

Pope Francis earlier said he would refrain from commenting until all the Australian court processes played out. But at his televised mass Tuesday morning, he seemed to send a subtle message of support for Pell. I want to pray today for all those who suffer unjust sentences, Francis said. In these days of Lent, weve been witnessing the persecution that Jesus underwent and how he was judged ferociously, even though he was innocent. Let us pray together today for all those persons who suffer due to an unjust sentence because of someone who had it in for them.

Convicted Cardinal Pells Second Secret Sex Abuse Trial Is Called Off

The Vatican issued a statement on Tuesday in Rome in which they expressed confidence in the Australian judicial authority and welcome the High Courts unanimous decision concerning Cardinal George Pell, acquitting him of the accusations of abuse of minors and overturning his sentence. The statement goes on to say that Pell has always maintained his innocence, and has waited for the truth to be ascertained but that the Holy See reaffirms its commitment to preventing and pursuing all cases of abuse against minors.

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Pell, formerly the Vaticans finance czar, had served more than a year of his six year prison sentence after he was convicted two years ago of assaulting two 13-year-old choirboys in Melbournes St. Patricks cathedral in the '90s. One of the victims testified that Pell had exposed himself and touched the boy inappropriately. The other alleged victim had taken his own life years ago, but his family spoke on his behalf, recounting the spiral of substance abuse and personal strife experienced by so many victims of clerical sex abuse.

The seven-judge panel presiding over an empty courtroom, which was cleared due to the coronavirus pandemic, read its ruling on line: The jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicants guilt with respect to each of the offenses for which he was convicted.

The cardinal issued a statement of his own, in which he said he had suffered a serious injustice that the high court now remedied. He added that he held no ill will to my accuser, who had testified in his trial. I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel, he said. There is certainly hurt and bitterness enough.

Lisa Flynn, who represents the father of Pells alleged victim who took his life by suicide, said her client has lost faith in Australian justice because of the ruling. Our client is currently in shock, Flynn said in a statement to The Daily Beast. He is furious the man he believes is responsible for sexually abusing his son was convicted by a unanimous jury only to have that decision overturned today, allowing George Pell to walk free from jail.

Flynn added that her client is heartbroken for the surviving victim who came forward to testify. Our client says he is heartbroken for the surviving victim who stuck his neck out by coming forward to tell his story but was ultimately let down by a legal process that forced him to re-live his pain and trauma for no benefit, she said. Our client says this man, who the jury believed, is an upstanding citizen who had nothing to gain from speaking out other than to protect other children from the pain and suffering he has to live with on a daily basis.

This is not the message we need to be sending to vulnerable survivors of sexual abuse, said Flynn. It suggests that even if survivors of child sexual abuse report their abuse, convince police to lay charges, convince the prosecution to pursue those charges, convince a jury to convict the accused, convince a Court of Appeal to uphold the jurys decision, they can still be denied justice by the countrys highest court.

Pell has expressed a desire to stay in his native Australia, but he might also be welcomed back in Rome, where he could live more anonymously inside the walls of Vatican City. He has become a divisive figure in Australia and might face a constant barrage of criticism and protest should he stay. He is also facing civil suits from the victims, which he does not have to stay in Australia to fight. Because he was never stripped of any clerical status, he will be eligible to vote in a conclave to elect the next pope should it happen before he turns 80 in 2021.

Pells new status is devastating for victims who may now choose to stay silent. Do not let this decision stop you from speaking your truth, Flynn wrote in her statement. Instead, use todays decision to free George Pell to ignite your fire and take on your abuser.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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In more typical occasions, many of the children born into these communities are cared for in government-run boarding schools.

In any case, since the epidemic of the novel coronavirus, schools have closed, driving the children to return to their homes, where many find broken families, domestic violence and little to eat.

The children had no choice but to head to a huge town, to ask and search for food. They were saved a couple of weeks ago by the non-benefit Blue Dragon Children's Foundation and are currently being taken care of by a foster family.

Cry of the City

Tourism has declined drastically, whole families have lost their jobs, private companies are closing down and schools have been suspended. Children from poor families in rural regions are currently bound to drop out of school, leaving them vulnerable to child labor and human trafficking.

In the previous month, Blue Dragon's street outreach group had taken 21 homeless children into its care. Part of the reason for this is that the weddings are generally arranged over the Lunar New Year period and this year the occasion was extended, with schools staying shut to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Caged Children

On March 16, President Rodrigo Duterte put the whole island of Luzon under lockdown, which is expected to last at least until mid-April. Associations to the capital megacity of Manila were cut off, while classes and non-essential services were suspended.

In the Philippines, Catherine Scerri, deputy director of non-profit group Bahay Tuluyan, says children and families in thickly populated urban regions are the most affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Different gatherings gauge there are somewhere in the range of 250,000 and one million children living in the city of Manila.

Because to the lockdown, Scerri's non-profit group has been not able to give on-the-ground aid. Children and youth and families are engaging for food as they no longer have work. Many of them have gotten no help from the government.

Scerri said that isolation can be extremely devastating for these children who no longer have a way to escape physical, emotional or sexual abuse. At the same time, the Philippines is already a hotspot for online sexual exploitation of children and the risk factors for that are even greater now. The heightened militarization in the Philippines in response to the crisis has made things worse.

Examples of this are children who were caught out after curfew and put in a dog cage, others were made to sit in the hot sun, while another child was made to lie in a coffin for an hour.

Read Also: WWII Veteran Survives COVID-19, Celebrates 104th Birthday in The Same Week!

Depressed Brides

Pennapa Wuttimanop, a project coordinator at the Alliance Anti Traffic in Thailand said, "victims are becoming invisible because brothels are closed and those in forced marriages have been confined in the houses of their husbands," where more than 1,650 coronavirus cases have been confirmed.

Wuttimanop, who works mostly with human trafficking survivors from Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand, says rescuing women trafficked into forced marriages in China has gotten more dangerous and about inconceivable. Wuttimanop's non-profit group has made police aware of the instance of the two young ladies who are believed to be in Jiangxi, southeast China. Wuttimanop said, "we think rape and domestic violence will increase,".

No Wage

Wuttimanop warns that prostitution, sexual abuse on the web and sextortion are probably going to develop during the lockdowns. In India, Aaboo Varghese, founder and executive director of Purnata, a non-profit group that visits red-light districts and supports human trafficking survivors, says sexual laborers and different workers who depend on a day by day wage have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak

Disheartening Future

Scerri expects the number of homeless children to grow and for vulnerable families to be pushed into further poverty when the lockdown ends in the Philippines. "It's likely that many families who no longer are able to pay their rent or have so much debt will end up on the street, In worst-case scenarios, children may be orphaned by parents dying of COVID-19," she said.

Scerri and Wuttimanop both accept the financial effect will be felt by the locale's most vulnerable people for a long time. The big problems will happen after the coronavirus crisis, Wuttimanop, in Thailand, said.

Related Article: University of Cincinnati provides road map to combat human trafficking in Ohio

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on African countries will be known only after the situation is brought under control. There will be immediate shocks to livelihoods, as well as severe disruptions to value chains, industries and government revenue for the foreseeable future. As an illustration, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) estimates that the GDP growth in Africa will decline from 3.2 per cent to 1.8 per cent in 2020. It is also important to look beyond macro-analyses, because, as the current President of the African Development Bank has noted, Nobody eats GDP. Also, a significant proportion of the working population is engaged in the informal sector, where activities are not captured by formal accounting systems, and so GDP calculations may not present the economic picture. Economic contractions will be experienced by individuals, families and businesses. The bulk of Africas workforce operate in the informal sector, within micro, small and medium sized enterprises. Take for instance, the transport service operator unable to work as a result of lockdowns and prohibitions on movement within and between cities. Similarly, border closures translate to loss of income for those small-scale traders operating between countries. Many salaried workers will also be in a precarious situation, as businesses grapple with the loss of income associated with the lockdowns.

The World Bank Group announced a US$14billion emergency response facility for developing countries. By early April 2020, some African countries had accessed this facility, as shown in announcements of a US$2.5 million grant for Sao Tome & Principle, a US$10 million grant for Gambia and a $82.6 million ($41.3 million grant and $41.3 million credit) for Ethiopia. These funds notwithstanding, economic recovery will depend to a significant extent on countries deftness with policy manoeuvres, as well as the coordinated continental response to the crisis. It seems that trading under the terms set by the Agreement to establish the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which was slated to commence on 1 July 2020, will have to be postponed. In light of the pressures currently faced by African countries, it becomes pertinent to anticipate the impact of disrupted trade patterns on economic performance, and reflect the new realities of African economies in the negotiations for, and liberalisation of intra-African trade. Accordingly, it is important that trade-related considerations are accounted for in the measures for palliation, recovery and resilience at national and regional levels. These considerations include repositioning African countries in regional and global value chains, prioritising health services in the first round of AfCFTA services negotiations, promoting cross-border digital trade in services, and leveraging the AfCFTA for economic recovery and resilience.

Health Services in the First Phase of the AfCFTA Services Negotiations? The Ebola epidemic provided valuable lessons for African countries in tackling major health crises. The Nigerian government specifically was commended by the World Health Organisation for the speed and efficiency with which it was able to contain and eventually expel the virus from the country. The lessons learned by the Ebola-affected countries in West Africa (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone) are also instructive for others, especially the way in which paper diagnostic systems were quickly transformed through digital solutions, enabling quick analysis of diagnostic data and avoiding delays, errors and data bottlenecks. Such diagnostic accountability was crucial to stemming and eventually stopping the spread of the virus. In the end, connecting diagnostic instruments to the national health system, reduced the time it took to initiate patient treatment, improved the number of patients put on treatment and ultimately saved lives. Of course, technology cannot solve every health problem. There is no substitute for having enough medical personnel, hospitals, clinics and medical equipment. Traditionally, health management systems have not been robust in African countries and naturally they are playing catch up with this new virus (most African countries were at the bottom of the 2019 Global Health Security Index at the beginning of the outbreak).[3] And Africa Centre for Disease Control has noted that no African country was at level 5 (highest level) for operational readiness.[4] Investment in health services delivery now needs to be a priority because Africa is waking up to the fact that the health of its populations is fundamental to every facet of life  social and economic. Health services, although constituting a social service, may also be considered a backbone industry, and are among a range of services in which some African countries are seeking to become competitive. This is true of South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius, and Ghana. In the context of the AfCFTA, although health services are not included in the first round of services liberalization[5], they are very much at play in the current round through the liberalisation of professional services under the overall business services sector, which extends to medical services personnel. Furthermore, through mode 3 (commercial presence), the establishment of polyclinics, hospitals, private laboratories, diagnostic centres, and other health infrastructure can be prioritized in the current round.

Cross-Border Digital Trade in Services in the AfCFTA Containment of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the capacities of businesses operating primarily through digital channels, and the increasing reliance on technologies in the value chains of African economies. For example, Lifebank, a Nigerian health technology firm, building on its experience with monitoring the availability of blood in hospitals, created a digital inventory to track the availability of ventilators and respirators in hospitals. Also, there emerged a variety of applications to monitor and track the rate of infections, and disseminate health information such as the Safiri Smart Service developed in Kenya. Aligned to the liberalization of the health services is also liberalization of communication services (under which telecoms is a subsector), since health services can have a wider delivery through such technologies. Communication services are included in the first round of services liberalization, and African countries have an opportunity to open this sector in the negotiations. In preparing for the AfCFTA services liberalisation negotiations, African countries should identify and consider what digital channels and types of digitally-driven businesses were useful in tackling the coronavirus outbreak and seek to consolidate their market opportunity and capacities. Countries should engage with these channels and businesses to understand their priorities, challenges and market interests. These could include remote diagnostics and medical advice, the use of drone technology for delivering vital medication where road transport systems were halted, tracking infections and monitoring recovery, and establishing digital supply chains for pharmaceutical companies and distributors. There have been concerns about data, privacy, and the security of activities and transactions which occur on digital channels. Also, there are multiple strategies, policies and instruments governing the digital economy and digital trade at national and regional levels. The AU Digital Transformation Strategy (2020-2030) which was adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in February 2020 outlines approaches for continental standards and cooperation on these issues. On this basis, the Eighth Technical Working Group on Services decided to align the negotiations with the policy recommendations within the continental digital strategy. Additionally, Phase III of the AfCFTA negotiations, slated for 2021 will be dedicated to e-commerce. Liberalisation of the ICT sector in the AfCFTA services negotiations, as well as agreement on the rules and regulatory frameworks governing the digital trade of specific services is a necessary precursor for the negotiations to create a continental digital market.
A cruise ship carrying British passengers remained stranded off the coast of Uruguay last night after 81 people tested positive for coronavirus.

Six people in a 'life-threatening' condition have been taken ashore from the Australian vessel Greg Mortimer but more than 100 others are marooned at sea.

The 341ft vessel was also battling gale-force winds as it lay at anchor in the Rio de la Plata, around 15 miles from the port of Montevideo.

The ship was on a voyage to Antarctica and the British territory of South Georgia, and left the Argentine port of Ushuaia on March 15.

A sick 75-year-old Australian passenger is moved into an ambulance on a stretcher after she was taken off the Greg Mortimer cruise ship

The cruise ship Greg Mortimer lies off the coast of Montevideo yesterday, with more than 80 people on board testing positive for coronavirus

Uruguay's public health ministry said a total of six passengers and crew members with 'life-threatening' illness have been taken for treatment so far.

Some were helped onto a dock in Montevideo by doctors wearing biohazard suits as the ship remained offshore.

Another woman breathing from an oxygen bottle was helped off a Uruguayan naval launch onto a stretcher, while another person was brought ashore on Sunday night.

Tour operator Aurora Expeditions said 81 passengers and crew had tested positive for Covid-19 after being assessed by a team of 16 Uruguayan infectious disease specialists who were ferried out to the ship early Sunday.

But Uruguayan officials said that figure could rise, pending the results of a further 90 tests.

About 45 people have tested negative. There were more than 200 passengers and crew on board, with passengers mostly from Australia, Britain and New Zealand.

'We know that there is a relatively high percentage of infected people but only six required to be transferred to Montevideo hospitals because they were at risk,' Uruguay's Foreign Minister Ernesto Talvi told local Channel 10 news.

Medics help a sick passenger from the Australian cruise liner off a Uruguayan navy launch in Montevideo last Friday

Medical workers help transfer an Australian cruise ship passenger to hospital in Montevideo late Sunday, in a picture released by Uruguay's navy

Uruguay will consider a 'humanitarian corridor' to allow 'non carriers of the coronavirus, those who are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms' to be flown home, he said.

'We are in talks with the Australian government to have this flight organised as quickly as possible,' said Talvi.

Karina Rando, a doctor who coordinated the offshore testing mission, told reporters the monitoring of positive patients could now be done remotely, as they had been given mobile phone numbers to call if their symptoms worsened.

'There are many patients over the age of 70, some of them have comorbidities, heart and lung diseases. Those patients can relapse tomorrow althrough we have seen them to be well today,' she added.

One of the doctors who boarded the ship said the high infection rate could be due to asymptomatic people being isolated among the healthy.

'When we opened the doors of the cabins we had people who were negative with patients who were positive,' Sebastian Yancev told Uruguay's Canal 4 TV.

Yancev said the initial source of contagion was likely the port of Ushuaia, a starting point for many Antarctic cruises, where the ship's crew had shore leave.

'It seems the crew in Ushuaia had a break. They themselves presume it could have been at that time, because in Ushuaia there is a lot of transfer of passengers of different nationalities to different ships.'

The 75-year-old Australian is helped aboard an ambulance in Montevideo after being taken off the virus-stricken Greg Mortimer cruise ship

Aurora said it had begun the 'extraordinarily complicated' task of repatriating passengers, as most airlines had stopped flying 'and access to charter planes is difficult'.

This would require passengers to disembark in three groups: those who had tested negative and were well, those who were positive but either recovering or with vague symptoms; and those who are sick.

'We are confident that group one, well people who have tested negative, will be able to disembark and leave,' the company said in a statement Monday.

The company said it was seeking the assistance of the Australian government for help with those who were asymptomatic or who had only mild symptoms.

For those who were ill, it said, 'we are working with the Uruguayan Health Ministry and its medical director to develop the best plan to have them cared for and returned to their home countries as soon as their health allows.'

Many cruise lines have halted their operations because of the pandemic, after a spate of virus scares at sea during February and March.

Ships still at sea are facing intransigence from governments unwilling to allow sick patients to enter the country.
By Peter Nurse

Investing.com - European stock markets have pushed firmly higher Tuesday, as investors anticipate more financial aid to help bolster the regions battered economies.

At 3:30 AM ET (0730 GMT), the U.K.'s FTSE index traded 3.4% higher, France's CAC 40 was up 2.8%, while the DAX rose 3.4%. The broader-based Stoxx 600 Europe index climbed 2.4%.

The EUs finance ministers will be in focus Tuesday as they meet to try and agree a list of measures to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on the regions economies. If enough headway is made, the blocs leaders could debate and then rubber stamp a deal later in the week.

The subject of joint 'coronabonds' is sure to be raised again, but more likely options include credit lines from the euro zone's bailout fund, more lending from the European Investment Bank and the use of the joint long-term budget directly for guarantees for leveraged borrowing.

This follows on from reports late Monday that another stimulus package could come from Capitol Hill. Another round could come by May and be around $1.5 trillion, Fox Business reported, citing sources briefed by the White House and Congressional leaders.

In corporate news, shares in Thales (PA:TCFP) rose 3% despite it becoming the latest major European company to slash its dividend, suspend profit guidance and top up liquidity in response to the coronavirus crisis. The French aerospace and defense supplier said it had withdrawn the proposed final instalment of its 2019 dividend, saving 430 million euros ($465 million).

Elsewhere, luxury groups LVMH (PA:LVMH) and Kering (PA:PRTP) joined Hermes (PA:HRMS) and Chanel in saying they wouldn't tap a state scheme for wage subsidies to help them through the crisis.

Shares in WH Smith (LON:SMWH) soared over 7% after the U.K. retailer said it has raised 165.9 million pounds ($203.5 million) via the share placing, which will strengthen its balance sheet and liquidity position.

Story continues

Oil prices pushed higher Tuesday as investors focused on the possibility of a global cut in crude production. OPEC+, which includes Russia, is set for a virtual meeting on Thursday that many expect to end with an agreement.

The group is likely to agree to cut production Thursday as long as the United States joins in cutting output, Reuters reported late Monday, citing three OPEC+ sources.

The American Petroleum Institute will issue its measure of weekly U.S. oil stockpiles after the bell Tuesday. Last week it reported a huge build of more than 10 million barrels.

At 3:30 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 3.5% higher at $27.00 a barrel. The international benchmark Brent contract rose 2.7% to $33.94.

Elsewhere, gold futures rose to a new seven-year high of $1,742.20 before retreating a little to $1,700.10/oz, while EUR/USD traded at 1.0870, up 0.7% on the day.

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Indian tea exports may fall 6-8 per cent this year owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has paralysed logistics movement, as well as pushed the global economy towards recession. Estimates from the Tea Board suggested that because of the loss of the first flush and the wipe-out of Darjeeling tea from the system, there could be a shortfall of 16-20 million kg (mkg) this year in export volumes.

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Easter is usually a time of joy for our chocolate industry, but 2020 will be remembered with horror.

The usual bumper sales have been slashed by dwindling crowds due to coronavirus restrictions and widespread job losses have dried up customer spending.

Ian Neeland and his wife Leanne, owners of Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery.

"Its a disaster," said Ian Neeland, co-owner of the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery, whose usual Easter customer numbers of 30,000 have reduced to a trickle.

Mr Neeland said sales were down by 80 per cent on last Easter across his three stores at Yarra Glen, Torquay on the Great Ocean Road and Flinders on the Mornington Peninsula.
More than 80 political and civil rights inmates in Sheyban (Shiban) prison in Ahvaz have been taken to an unknown detention center, an Iranian-Arab activist, Karim Dahimi, told Radio Farda on Tuesday, April 7.

Ahvaz is the capital city of the oil-rich Khuzestan province, southwest Iran, where the majority of Arabic-speaking Iranians live.

The decision to transfer the prisoners was taken after the inmates held a protest to the lack of health facilities and the possibility of the novel Coronavirus outbreak on March 31, Dahimi said, adding that the security forces suppressed the uprising with full force.

According to Dahimi, several inmates were hit by bullets, and there is no information on their whereabouts.

Speaking to Radio Farda, Dahimi asserted that he has collected the names of eight prisoners, some battered and tortured by the security forces.

Several prisons across Iran witnessed protests to conditions in facilities and being deprived of furlough amid the deadly virus outbreak.

Meanwhile, an unknown number of inmates in Sheyban and Sepidar prisons in Ahvaz were killed during clashes with the security forces last week, reports say.

Based on separate reports filed by human rights groups, the Islamic Republic security forces have so far killed ten inmates in Tehran's infamous prison, Fashafuyeh (the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary, GTCP), and Qarchak detention center in the city of Varamin, as well as in a jail in the city of Orumieh, northwest Iran.

"The Iranian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release hundreds of prisoners of conscience amid grave fears over the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Irans prisons. The authorities should take measures to protect the health of all prisoners and urgently consider releasing pre-trial detainees and those who may be at particular risk of severe illness or death," Amnesty International said in a statement on March 26.
Taking over the world of social media as one of the top young singers is Armaan Thakur

Influence is not about growth, its about knowing that there is a way towards it: Anand Mandal

Fake: Govt has not issued any order regarding the ticks below your WhatsApp message

Fact Check

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Apr 07: There is a message that has been circulating on the social media regarding the tick marks below a WhatsApp message.

The message says the following:

Single tick: Message sent

Double tick: Message delivered

2 Blue ticks: Message Read

3 Blue ticks: Government has taken note

2 blue, 1 red tick: Government can take action against you

1 blue, 2 red ticks: Government is screening your data

3 red ticks: Government has initiated action and you will receive summons from court.

The fact: The government has not contemplated anything of this sort. There is absolutely no order issued by the government to this effect. The government has also not spoken to WhatsApp to introduce such features.

Fake News Buster

The government has also not issued any order stating that those posting jokes relating to coronavirus will be penalised. The Press Information Bureau too has clarified that such messages are fake and should not be shared.

It may be recalled that the government in its submission recently to the Supreme Court had said that the media should publish news relating to the coronavirus only after proper verification of facts. The government also agreed to have regular bulletins relating to the outbreak of the pandemic.
India has ended an anti-dumping probe against mono ethylene glycol (MEG) imports from Saudi Arabia, while continuing investigations against Kuwait, Oman, the U.A.E. and Singapore, a government order said late on Monday.

Reliance Industries Ltd, which had sought a probe in December, in February asked for the termination of investigations against imports from Saudi Arabia, the order said.

MEG is a major feedstock for the polyester industry and is used to produce polyester fibres, polyester films, and resins. It is also used in the fibre treatment of textiles, the paper industry, and in adhesives, inks, and cellophane.

Also Read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: Country's active COVID-19 cases at 3,851; death toll rise to 111

Also Read: Coronavirus in India: Telangana CM KCR urges PM Modi to extend lockdown by two weeks
It is not uncommon to see companies perform well in the years after insiders buy shares. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So before you buy or sell Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.

What Is Insider Buying?

Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock in the company. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.

We don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. For example, a Columbia University study found that 'insiders are more likely to engage in open market purchases of their own companys stock when the firm is about to reveal new agreements with customers and suppliers'.

View our latest analysis for Annaly Capital Management

Annaly Capital Management Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when insider Kevin Keyes bought US$2.9m worth of shares at a price of US$9.62 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, even at a higher price than the current share price (being US$4.25). Their view may have changed since then, but at least it shows they felt optimistic at the time. To us, it's very important to consider the price insiders pay for shares. Generally speaking, it catches our eye when insiders have purchased shares at above current prices, as it suggests they believed the shares were worth buying, even at a higher price.

Annaly Capital Management insiders may have bought shares in the last year, but they didn't sell any. The chart below shows insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

Story continues

NYSE:NLY Recent Insider Trading April 7th 2020

There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. So if that suits your style you could check each stock one by one or you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Does Annaly Capital Management Boast High Insider Ownership?

I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Annaly Capital Management insiders own about US$20m worth of shares. That equates to 0.3% of the company. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

So What Does This Data Suggest About Annaly Capital Management Insiders?

There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. Overall we don't see anything to make us think Annaly Capital Management insiders are doubting the company, and they do own shares. So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing. For instance, we've identified 4 warning signs for Annaly Capital Management (1 is concerning) you should be aware of.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
MPs will be asked to use Zoom for digital sessions as plans for a virtual parliament during the coronavirus crisis took a step forward.

Parliamentary officials are working on proposals to allow MPs and peers to hold the government to account remotely from 21 April following demands for greater scrutiny from Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and opposition politicians.

The plans discussed at a meeting of Commons authorities on Monday would allow MPs to dial in to prime minister's questions, as well as urgent questions and ministerial statements.

The government has been criticised for its handling of the crisis, including slow introduction of testing and lack of critical protective equipment for NHS staff and other key workers.

In a recent letter to MPs, Commons clerk John Benger said MPs will soon be offered a more secure version of Zoom, the video conferencing app, which is used by Downing Street for cabinet meetings and for the daily press briefings.

He said: "We have worked at speed to enable this. We could not make it available sooner because we needed to ensure that our version of Zoom meets some basic legal, security and privacy requirements.

"This version of Zoom is closely aligned to that used within government and is therefore more secure than Zooms consumer offerings which many members are currently relying on."

Dr Benger said up to 20 virtual committees could start up after the Easter recess after the success of the first remote hearings to scrutinise health officials and government ministers. Officials are working with the BBC to hone their plans.

However Dr Benger said he was "reluctant to give an undertaking" that all parliamentary business could take place, due to the "scale and complexity" of the task.

The senior official also warned that the Commons will have to pass a resolution to change the way it operates  requiring MPs to attend in person.

Sir Lindsay confirmed that parliament will return after the Easter recess but the details would hammered out closer to the time.

He told BBC Breakfast: In the end, we're not sure what the position will be. What we do know is that the House will return.

It is how many people we will need in the House, whether that will be to extend the recess or not, but we'll only make that judgement when we get nearer, and we'll be making the right judgement, to make sure people are safe, taking the right health advice.

What I would say is that if it needs a virtual parliament, of course, everything will be on offer and everything will be looked at. But that decision will be taken as we get nearer that time.

Coronavirus: London on lockdown Show all 29 1 /29 Coronavirus: London on lockdown Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man walks down a deserted Camden High Street Photos Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Goodge Street Station is one of the many stations closed to help reduce the spread Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown An empty street in the heart of Chinatown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown People in masks in Chinatown a day after the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A near-empty Piccadilly Circus during the first week of lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Sonja, my neighbour, who I photographed while taking a short walk. It was nice to briefly chat even from a distance Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple sit on the empty steps of the statue Eros in Piccadilly Circus Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Making sure I stay two-meters apart  DArblay Street, Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A mannequin behind a shop window. UK stores have closed until further notice Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A notice displayed on a shop window in Camden Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown As part of the lockdown, all non-essential shops have been ordered to close.Image from Camden High Street Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A skateboarder wearing a mask utilises his exercise allowance in the Camden area Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Communities have been coming together in a time of need Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman stands alone in a deserted Oxford Street. Up until a few weeks ago, on average, half a million people visited the street per day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple walk hand in hand down a street in Soho, a day before the stricter lockdown was announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown During the first week of March, shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities ahead of a countrywide lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Many supermarkers are operating a queuing system to make sure only a limited amount of customers are allowed in at anyone time Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Stay Safe  Curzon cinemas are temporarily closed under the new measures Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Pubs, restaurants and bars were ordered to shut as part of the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street There are fears that coronavirus could lead to permanent closure of struggling shops Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden Town is eerily silent on a normal working day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Shops and supermarkets ran out of hand sanitisers in the first week of the lockdown. As we approach the end of the second week most shops now have started to stock up Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty streets around Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A noticeboard on Camden High Street urges the public to stay at home Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street, one of Londons busiest tourist streets turns quiet Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Thriller Live confirmed its West End run ended in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty and eerie Soho streets after stricter rules on social distancing announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman pauses for a cigarette on Hanway Street, behind Tottenham Court Road Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man steps outside onto Hanway Street, that sits behind what is usually a bustling retail hub Angela Christofilou

Darren Hughes, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said: Scrutiny must continue as life-changing decisions continue to be made every day.

"That means parliament must adapt to return this month and convene digitally  ensuring voters concerns from across the country are heard and properly represented at this urgent hour.

It is essential that MPs are not just able to contribute from isolation but vote too, learning from the experiences of other parliaments that are already allowing this to happen.

"We look forward to seeing these plans develop to ensure democracy and good governance doesnt disappear when we need it most.

Parliament rose a week early for its usual Easter break due to concerns about the spread of coronavirus in Westminster.
Working with VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), Vodafone Group has completed the roll-out of network virtual infrastructure (NVI) across all of its European business and 21 markets in total.

Operating a reliable, agile network that can be more efficiently upgraded to maintain the quality of coverage has never been more important as Vodafone customers across Europe rely on the operator to provide critical connectivity and communications services during the COVID-19 crisis.

With the completion of work in Albania, Vodafone now has a single digital network architecture across its European markets, enabling the operator to design, build, test and deploy next generation functions more securely and around 40 percent more quickly*. Infrastructure automation also helps limit the amount of manual intervention required to operate and maintain Vodafone networks.

VMware's telco cloud infrastructure is deployed by Vodafone at more than 57 sites across Europe and 25 in its Africa, Asia and Oceania markets. The cloud-based infrastructure supports voice core, data core and service platforms on over 900 virtual network functions. Almost 50 percent of Vodafone's core network nodes providing voice and data services run on VMware's NVI platform, vCloud NFV.

Johan Wibergh, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone Group, said: "Vodafone wants to be the industry's leading digital telco and we are pleased with the progress made to introduce modern cloud-based technology and automation. Working with VMware, we have improved the speed and efficiency with which we can support customers and estimate that the cost of our core network functions has been reduced by 50 percent*."

"Leading service providers, like Vodafone, are adopting a telco cloud infrastructure to deliver next-generation applications and services," said Shekar Ayyar, executive vice president and general manager, Telco and Edge Cloud, VMware. "The successful engagement between our two companies is evident in the tremendous results Vodafone has captured since starting on their network transformation journey. We look forward to continuing to innovate together to unlock the transformational benefits of network modernization for Vodafone customers."

VMware's telco cloud platform provides the automation for virtual compute, storage, networking, management and operations capabilities to enable operators to provide virtualized network services. Its transformative capabilities allow communication service providers to accelerate time to market and increase revenue with new services, streamline operations, reduce network infrastructure costs, and deploy elastic business models for telecommunications workloads.

Learn more about how VMware is helping service providers modernize their networks at telco.vmware.com.

Additional Resources:

Bookmark the VMware Telco NFV blog

Get all VMware Telco and Edge Cloud updates on Twitter and LinkedIn

Follow VMware on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

*Source: Vodafone internal analysis and reporting, March 2020

About VMware

VMware software powers the world's complex digital infrastructure. The company's cloud, app modernization, networking, security, and digital workspace offerings help customers deliver any application on any cloud across any device. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is committed to being a force for good, from its breakthrough technology innovations to its global impact. For more information, please visit https://www.vmware.com/company.html.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005175/en/

Contacts:

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By Gul Yousafzai

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Riot police wielding batons used force to break up a protest by Pakistani doctors and medical staff against a lack of gear to protect against coronavirus, arresting dozens of medics who say the government has failed to deliver promised supplies.

Reuters journalists at the scene, in the southwestern city of Quetta, saw hundreds of doctors and paramedics, some in face masks and scrubs, chanting their demands. Some were dragged off by riot police in helmets, armed with rifles and batons.

A senior police official said 30 protesters had been arrested for defying a ban on public gatherings imposed during a lockdown to fight the spread of the virus. Doctors threatened to stop working unless the detained protesters were released.

Pakistan has reported a total of 3,277 cases of the virus, including 50 deaths. At least 191 of these cases are in the vastly underdeveloped province of Balochistan, of which Quetta is the capital.

Dr Abdul Rahim, a spokesman for the doctors' association leading the protest, told reporters after the incident that the medics believed the failure to supply them with safety gear was putting them at risk.

A dozen doctors have been infected while other medical staff is also suffering, he said. He added that a number of doctors and paramedics had been injured in the baton charge.

Doctors in Pakistan's capital Islamabad last month also threatened to boycott duties if not provided protective gear, which has been in short supply. The country's disaster management authority has said it is being imported in batches.

A spokesman for the provincial government told Reuters hospitals in Quetta dealing with coronavirus had been provided protective gear, and the medics who were demonstrating were not those fighting the virus.

"The doctors protesting don't look after coronavirus patients; we don't understand their justification for protesting," Balochistan government spokesman Liquat Shahwani said.

Story continues

The doctors say they deal with hundreds of visiting patients daily who could be infected but are unaware and have not been referred to the hospitals and centres dealing with coronavirus. Medical workers who have so far been infected do not all work at such centres.

Global rights watchdog Amnesty Internationals South Asia wing condemned the arrests in a statement on Twitter, terming it an attack on the doctors right to peaceful protest and an affront to the risks they face.

(Writing by Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Peter Graff)
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex ended their royal duties on Mar. 31, taking to their Sussex Royal Instagram account to give one final farewell before ending their use of the royally branded account. With their son Archies first birthday quickly approaching, many royal fans are wondering if the couple will create another social media account to share photos of their little one.

Prince Harry, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and son Archie | Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImage

Prince Harry and Meghan quit their royal duties

Prince Harry and Meghan made the decision to step back from their royal duties, announcing a plan in January and agreeing to give up their HRH titles and public funding for the opportunity to leave the spotlight.

The queen supported what seemed like a bombshell announcement at the time, giving her blessing as they planned to move to Canada after officially leaving the royal family.

Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved members of my family. I recognise the challenges they have experienced as a result of intense scrutiny over the last two years and support their wish for a more independent life, the queen noted.

Prince Harry and Meghan stopped using their Instagram account

Since the couple could no longer use the name Sussex Royal, they posted one last message on the account before making their final exit. Prince Harry and Meghan addressed the current coronavirus (COVID-19) health crisis and assured that they would still be at work even if they werent on social media.

Whats most important right now is the health and wellbeing of everyone across the globe and finding solutions for the many issues that have presented themselves as a result of this pandemic, the Sussexes noted, in part.

They continued, As we all find the part we are to play in this global shift and changing of habits, we are focusing this new chapter to understand how we can best contribute. While you may not see us here, the work continues.

They ended their message with a promise, sharing, We look forward to reconnecting with you soon.

Will the Sussexes create a new Instagram account?

One royal expert entertained the idea that, since Archie would be celebrating a birthday soon, fans are hoping a new social media account will be created to share photos of their son.

Royal expert Laney Lui shared her thoughts on the matter during the Heirpod podcast. We now know the Sussex Royal, the Instagram account, will be inactive, meaning that there will be no further updates from Harry and Meghan on that account, she explained.

Lui continued, But in a months time, is baby Archies first birthday. I think a lot of us were expecting that since theyve given us Archie gifts and little Archie drops in the past that that would be the account where we would see some sort of Archie birthday wish  his big milestone.

So now, is Archies birthday just going to pass quietly and no one is going to see a new photo of him?, she wondered. Or will some kind of new Sussex social media account be set up by then so that we can be like, oh hey, Archies one?

Lui added, Im really, really curious about what is going to happen by that date and what may or may not be in place.
Hi, and welcome back to The Station, a weekly newsletter dedicated to all the ways people and packages travel from Point A to Point B. I'm your host Kirsten Korosec, senior transportation reporter at TechCrunch. If this is your first time, hello; I'm glad you're with us.

I have started to publish a version of the newsletter on TechCrunch. Thats what youre reading now. For the whole newsletter, which comes out every weekend, you can subscribe by heading over here, and clicking The Station. Its free!

Last week, I asked readers to share how they were doing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The response was overwhelming. It wasn't just the number of you who reached out. It was your words  devoid of pretense, the veneer exposed  that struck me.

There were, of course, those who used the opportunity to make a marketing push or pitch a story. I get the impulse, but you won't be rewarded here. I'm seeking something different. And I will share below some of what you sent me in hopes that it provides insight, solace or, dare I suggest, an esprit de corps among us.

I will repeat my appeal from last week: Maybe you're a startup founder, a safety driver at an autonomous vehicle developer, a venture capitalist, engineer or gig economy worker. I'm interested in how you're doing, what you're doing to cope and how you're getting around in your respective cities.

Please reach out and email me at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com to share thoughts, opinions or tips or send a direct message to @kirstenkorosec.

Micromobbin'

the station scooter1a

As we've seen the past few weeks, operators are stepping up to respond and adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lyft began offering its scooters for free to healthcare and other essential workers. As part of the program, up to 30-minute rides will be free for members of critical workforces through April 30 in Austin, Denver, Los Angeles, the Washington D.C. metro area, San Diego and Santa Monica.

Story continues

Spin, similarly, introduced a new initiative that provides free, 30-minute rides and helmets to essential healthcare workers. Spin, which began offering this on April 1, is making this available in Baltimore, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, Tampa and Washington, D.C.

'Micromobility winter on steroids'

That's how RideReport CEO William Henderson described the current state of the micromobility industry in a recent interview with TechCrunch reporter Megan Rose Dickey.

Ride Report creates software that enables cities to work with micromobility operators. That gives Henderson a birds-eye view on the industry, which he shared with TechCrunch.

Yep, this is an Extra Crunch article, and you need a subscription. A few of the highlights include biking as one of the few bright spots, how some companies have pivoted to providing rides to healthcare workers and insights on how the industry and cities might have reacted had the pandemic occurred two years in the future.

A novel rewards program

These times have sparked a host of new ideas. Here's one. A Nashville-based startup called Hytch Rewards developed an app that companies and governments can use to give their employees incentives to walk, bike, rideshare or use public transit. The company's entire purpose has been to reward commuter behavior that reduces traffic congestion and lowers emissions.

Now it's pivoting to reward people for staying at home. The office of Tennessee Congressman Jim Cooper is among the first employer to partner on Hytch's Shelter in Place initiative, which offers a small daily reward to staff for working from home.

 Megan Rose Dickey (with a cameo from Kirsten Korosec)

Deal of the week

money the station

This week, we'll highlight Via's Series E funding round that was led by Exor. The on-demand shuttle startup raised $400 million, TechCrunch learned. Exor contributed $200 million of that raise. The remaining $200 million came from new investors Macquarie Capital, Mori Building and Shell, as well as existing investors 83North, Broadscale Group, Ervington Investments, Hearst Ventures, Planven Ventures, Pitango and RiverPark Ventures.

Noam Ohana, who heads up Exor Seeds, the holding companys early-stage investment arm, will join Vias board.

Via gets the "deal of the week" designation not just because its post-funding valuation is now $2.25 billion. Via's actions during the pandemic offers a little bit of understanding on how companies are adapting and where opportunities may lie. Via has two sides of its business: a consumer-facing shuttle and a "partnerships" division that sells its software platform to cities and transit authorities that allows them to deploy their own shuttles.

As you might expect, the consumer-facing shuttles has been adversely affected by COVID-19. There is some promise with the partnerships side of the business, according to CEO Daniel Ramot .

Existing partners, a list that includes transit authorities in Berlin, Germany, Ohio and Malta, have worked with Via to convert or adapt the software to meet new needs during the pandemic. A city might dedicate its shuttle service to transporting goods or essential personnel. For instance, Berlin converted its 120-shuttle fleet transport to an overnight service that provides free transit to healthcare workers traveling to and from work.

There has been a real interest in emergency services," Ramot told me, adding he expects to see more demand for the software platform and the flexibility it provides as the pandemic unfolds.

Via isn't the only company shifting its attention to emergency services. Moovit, an Israeli-based Mobility as a Service startup, launched an Emergency Mobilization On-Demand service. The feature was developed to turn unused vehicle fleets into an on-demand solution to get essential workers to their destination. Moovit is also offering transit agencies and operators a transit data manager for free for three months. This management tool lets transit agencies communicate schedules, line changes and service alerts to users.

Other deals:

Qcraft.ai raised what it described as an "eight-figure USD investment" in a seed funding round from IDG Capital, Vision+ Capital and Tide Capital. Qraft didn't provide the exact number; VentureBeat reported it is $24 million.

Phantom.ai, which has focused on advanced driver assistance systems, raised $22 million in a Series A round led by Celeres Investments; Celeres was joined by Ford Motor and Korean telecommunications giant KT. Two existing investors, Millennium Technology Value Partners and DSC Investment, also participated in the round.

Seegrid, a company that makes self-driving industrial vehicles for material handling, closed a $25 million growth-equity investment from G2VP.

GM and Honda deepened their relationship and said they will jointly develop two new electric vehicles slated for 2024. Under the plan, the automakers will focus on their respective areas of expertise. Honda will design the exterior and interiors of the new electric vehicles; GM will contribute its new electric vehicle architecture and Ultium batteries, its OnStar safety and security services and its hands-free advanced driver assistance technology, known as Super Cruise.

Enovix, which has developed a silicon-based lithium-ion battery, has raised $45 million in new funds. The company said T. J. Rodgers and York Capital participated, as well as an unnamed "major new strategic investor."

Layoffs in a time of COVID-19

We've all seen the bars, restaurants, retail shops and salons in our community shuttered because of stay-at-home directives from local and state governments. We've started to see the results of those closures in the form of tens of thousands of jobless claims.

Startups are not immune. It is difficult to get an exact number, but Layoffs.fyi is working to track what is going on in the startup world. As of April 4, the site had calculated 126 startups had laid off more than 10,000 people since March 11.

The transportation sector has been among those hardest hit. Some of the companies that have laid off 20% or more of their staff include shared scooter company Bird; peer-to-peer car rental startups Getaround and Turo; Cabin; freight brokerage KeepTruckin: and Moovel and Zipcar.

Maybe your company is actually hiring. If so, go check out Layoffs.fyi, the site doesn't just list layoffs. The site also includes spreadsheet that list employees you might want to hire.

From you

I have selected a few excerpts from readers who shared with me  and now you all  their observations about what is happening in their lives in this COVID-19 world. I have edited these for length and clarity.

I plan to share more with you in the weeks ahead, so please reach out.

From Canoo CPO James Cox, who also advises founders of Routable.ai, a startup that developed a real-time routing engine for high-capacity rides. Cox explained in his email to me that Routable's CEO wrote a piece in Medium (which you can read here) about providing critical transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic:

As a result of the piece, the Boston Medical Center reached out last week. They've now adapted their technology to provide rides to homeless people and solve an allocation problem of which bed in which hospital in Boston to send them to. They've worked directly with the frontline doctors and nurses and IT teams on it. They were previously using a whiteboard, which is obviously not going to scale to solve the problem! The trial launches Monday and is a really interesting short-term pivot that is solely focussed on doing good and adjusting to this crazy world we are now living in.

From Aryan Bhasin, a college student under lockdown in India:

There is no sense of transportation at all. Public transport is becoming interesting because even though all forms of transport are banned (one can only use a vehicle to buy essentials at grocery stores), the Indian government has been sending hoards of buses to get villagers back to their villages  completely blowing apart all rules of social distancing. Airlines, too, have been a very interesting sector to follow. Most airlines have changed their business models significantly in lieu of COVID-19 as governments organize airlifts for stranded citizens.

From Luis Orsini-Rosenberg, CEO of GetHenry, a Berlin-based micromobility startup that focuses on B2B services. GetHenry, which is part of the Techstars Smart Mobility Accelerator, operates in Austria, Germany and Spain. He shared what is happening in Austria:
Australian cyber spies are cracking down on foreign crooks targeting households and businesses with scams and attacks during the coronavirus crisis.

Telecommunications and IT companies have also been enlisted to block and destroy malicious websites.

Some cyber criminals have posed as health professionals to exploit vulnerable Australians by infecting their computers with malware and stealing private information.

Australian Signals Directorate boss Rachel Noble (pictured) slammed foreign cyber criminals for targeting vulnerable people during the crisis and said they would respond by attcking their organisations

Australian Signals Directorate boss Rachel Noble described the thieves as heartless.

'Our offensive cyber campaign has only just begun,' Ms Noble said on Tuesday.

'We will continue to strike back at these cyber criminals operating offshore as they attempt to steal money and data from Australians.'

The intelligence agency is also working with Google and Microsoft to ensure people are warned about dodgy websites.

Scammers are sending shoppers an email claiming to be a $250 Woolworths groceries voucher

It comes after the government body Scamwatch warned people on Wednesday of an influx of scams specifically targeting people based on the coronavirus pandemic.

In one example an was sent out that claimed to give shoppers a $250 Woolworths groceries voucher.

Once people clicked on the link, scammers installed malicious software designed steal victims' banking details.

The email says: 'Woolworths to give away free groceries worth $250 to support the nation during corona pandemic.'

Scamwatch shared the phising text message Australians need to be aware of and to delete

Anyone who receives the message is being urged to delete it and avoid clicking on the link to protect their personal information.

Scammers also sent out thousands of text messages offering free Netflix subscriptions in an attempt to secure bank account and credit card numbers and passwords.

'Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will give out three months of Netflix Premium to help you spend time at home,' the text messages states.
Looking at New York City, the centre of the US outbreak, more people have now died from the coronavirus than perished in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre. At least 3202 people have been killed in the city by the virus, according to a new count released by city health officials on Tuesday. Loading The deadliest terror attack on US soil killed 2753 people in the city and 2977 overall, when hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 2001. The coronavirus has again made New York ground zero in a national tragedy and the centre of a crisis that is reshaping Americans' lives, liberties and fears. "9/11 transformed society. ... You had a sense of vulnerability that you never had before, which I feel to this day," Cuomo said during a coronavirus briefing last month. "There was a trauma to 9/11. But as a society, as a country, we have been blessed in that we have not gone through something as disruptive as this."

In London, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the world's first head of government known to have fallen ill with the virus, was in a stable condition and conscious at a hospital, where he was receiving oxygen but was not on a ventilator, said his spokesman James Slack. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was designated to run the country in the meantime. "We're desperately hoping that Boris can make the speediest possible recovery," said cabinet minister Michael Gove, who is among scores of British officials in self-isolation. Meantime Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency after a spike in infections in Tokyo, but it was a stay-at-home request - not an order - and violators will not be penalised. Despite having relatively few infections and deaths, Japan is a worrying target for a virus that has been killing the elderly at much higher rates than other age groups. In Spain, one of the hardest-hit countries, new deaths on Tuesday rose to 743 and infections climbed by 5400 after five days of declines, but the increases were believed to reflect a weekend backlog. Authorities said slowing the contagion will be a long process and were confident in the downward trend.

Italy's commissioner for fighting the COVID-19 virus appealed to Italians ahead of Easter weekend not to lower their guard and to abide by a lockdown now in its fifth week. Citing data that shows that pressure on Italian intensive care wards is easing, Domenico Arcuri said that "the cruel reality is stronger that algorithms". "Don't ever forget even for an instant that this invisible, strong and unknown virus has taken 16,523 lives through to yesterday," Arucuri said, reciting the figure repeatedly. "I beg you, in the next hours and days, do not cancel this number from your memory." New coronavirus cases were also slowing in France and Portugal. To keep up social distancing, Paris banned daytime jogging just as warm spring weather settled in. US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said that if Americans continued to practise social distancing for the rest of April, "we will be able to get back to some sense of normalcy."

"I want the American people to know there is a light at the end of this tunnel, and we feel confident that if we keep doing the right thing for the rest of this month, that we can start to slowly reopen in some places," he said on ABC's Good Morning America. Sign up to our Coronavirus Update newsletter Get our Coronavirus Update newsletter for the day's crucial developments at a glance, the numbers you need to know and what our readers are saying. Sign up to The Sydney Morning Herald's newsletter here and The Age's here. One lockdown exception in the US was Wisconsin, which asked hundreds of thousands of voters to ignore a stay-at-home order to participate in its presidential primary on Tuesday. The lines were particularly long in Milwaukee, the state's largest city and a Democratic stronghold, where just five of 180 traditional polling places were open. Many voters across the state did not have facial coverings in line with public health recommendations. China, the first country to go into lockdown and among the strictest, reported no new deaths over the past 24 hours for the first time since it began publishing statistics on the virus that emerged in December in the city of Wuhan. Many experts, however, have been sceptical of China's virus figures. The final travel restrictions in Wuhan are being lifted on Wednesday.
Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly submitted his resignation late Tuesday, after calling the ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt "stupid" in an address to the ship's coronavirus-stricken crew.



(At the time of this blog post, is not yet clear whether his resignation has been accepted.)

This news comes hours after Modly finally apologized for ridiculing USS Theodore Roosevelt captain Brett Crozier, whose crew considered him a hero.

Speaking to those men, some of whom have since become sickened with coronavirus and COVID-19, Modly mocked their fired commander as "stupid or naive."

Modly submitted his letter of resignation late Tuesday to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and told staff he was quitting.

James McPherson, acting undersecretary of the U.S. Army, will reportedly take his placeagain, 'acting,' at Trump's behest.

Meanwhile, congress calls for investigations, and we today learned the Trump administration just fired an experienced inspector general at the Defense Department who would be precisely the official tasked with conducting such an investigation.

Nothing matters.

Sources: CNN, AP.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has resigned, one day after flying to Guam and criticizing a fired aircraft carrier skipper to his former crew, CNN reports: https://t.co/cjCkKy3jjG How we got here: a Roosevelt timeline: https://t.co/jVl0MNgvpP  Bradley Peniston (@navybook) April 7, 2020

Scoop: Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has submitted his resignation a day after a leaked audio showed him calling ousted commander of USS Theodore Roosevelt "stupid" in address to ship's crew, a US official and a former senior military official tell me.  Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) April 7, 2020

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has resigned after criticizing the former captain of the Roosevelt. He will be replaced by James McPherson, the acting undersecretary of the Army. @glubold scoop https://t.co/PQRDAk8tu8  Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) April 7, 2020

The safety of our troops should be paramount, which is something Captain Crozier understood. Acting Secretary Modly showed poor leadership at this crucial moment, and his resignation is a welcome development. https://t.co/NkrEstGNY5  Chris Pappas (@ChrisPappasNH) April 7, 2020

Acting Navy Sec Thomas Modly has resigned amid backlash for calling an ousted Navy captain "stupid" for warning officials about a coronavirus-stricken warship https://t.co/Ex1oIgM79U  Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) April 7, 2020

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has submitted a letter of resignation to Defense Secretary Esper and told staff he is quitting after seeing a backlash for admonishing an ousted aircraft carrier commander. https://t.co/RKrMvsmIFF  The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) April 7, 2020

Modly's doubledown-turned-backflip yesterday was actually a back belly flop with a twist. Modly out. https://t.co/RetzC1IZXF  Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) April 7, 2020
The Wockhardt Hospital said that several healthcare professionals at its South Mumbai facility have tested positive for COVID-19 and they are being treated.

"Several of our healthcare professionals tested positive for COVID-19 at South Mumbai facility. The source of the infection is identified as a 70-year-old patient who was admitted on March 17 for a cardiac emergency. Later, the patient tested positive for COVID-19," read a statement from Wockhardt Hospital.

"Our colleague nurses and the doctors identified as COVID-19 positive are presently being treated. The hospital is currently declared containment zone by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and we are closely working with the authorities," the statement added.

Meanwhile, 23 new coronavirus positive cases were reported in Maharashtra on Tuesday.

The total number of positive cases in the state has increased to 891.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Australian National University vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt says the country's universities will be permanently "transformed" by the COVID-19 crisis and a new higher education system must be developed as revenue from international students dries up.

Universities are likely to lose billions of dollars in revenue this year because of the pandemic and Professor Schmidt has warned the sector needs long-term certainty as it confronts the disruption to its teaching and research. He said the government and universities had to start "co-designing the future" for the sector.

ANU vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

"I do think that higher education will be transformed," he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

"What do we want our domestic course offerings to look like? What is the research that we need done for the short- and long-term? And how do we ensure this system  which had grown a fairly large dependency on international student income, which is going to be less in the future  what does that system need to look like?"
A harsher social distancing regime is still likely in Victorias battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Premier has warned, despite stability in the spread of the disease through the state in recent days.

Daniel Andrews said on Tuesday that he believed there would be stage four restrictions, curtailing the movements of Victorians even further than the present stage three partial lockdown and potentially shutting down some of those industries that are still operating.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews giving a press conference at treasury place in Melbourne on Tuesday. Credit:Luis Ascui

Announcing that up to a million Victorian schoolchildren would be away from their schools for at least the next term, the Premier said he would not hesitate to impose a tighter lockdown if the medical advice called for further action.

Thirty-three new cases of coronavirus were detected on Tuesday in the state. Eleven Victorians have now lost their lives to the virus, with 34 people in hospital, 13 of them in intensive care.
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Militant raid kills 20 soldiers in south-central Mali

Iran Press TV

Monday, 06 April 2020 3:23 PM

About 20 soldiers have been killed in a pre-dawn attack on an army camp in a south-central region of Mali.

Local government officials said assailants on motorbikes and in cars attacked the base in the northern town of Bamba during the small hours of Monday.

Some sources, however, said the death toll was likely higher than 20.

"Investigations are still ongoing on the ground because the death toll must be higher than the 20 deaths announced," an unnamed official said.

Separately, a government statement said "terrorists" entered the camp near the village of Sokolo, killing the soldiers and causing "significant material damage."

The statement added that reinforcements had been dispatched to the troubled area to hunt down the assailants. It said an aerial reconnaissance is underway in the area to track down the attackers.

There was no claim of responsibility for the deadly attack, which followed a similar incident in the militant-ridden northern part of Cameroon on Sunday.

Two bombers, suspected of being members of the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group, blew themselves up in a border town. Seven people were killed.

Mali has been suffering from violence since 2012, when militants and allied Tuareg rebels took over the country's north.

The French military then intervened. Sweden also sent troops to Mali back in 2013 as part of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission.

The violence has since spread to the center of the country and neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Thousands of Malian soldiers and civilians have died, despite the presence of foreign troops.

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Rise in focus on lightweight products and infrastructure development in the Asia-Pacific region drives the growth of the global adhesive film market.

PORTLAND, Oregon, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Adhesive Film Market by Film Material (Polypropylene, Polyvinyl Chloride, Polyethylene and Others), Technology (Water-based, Solvent-based, Hot Melt, Pressure-sensitive and Others), and End User Industry (Electrical and Electronics, Aerospace, Automotive and Transportation and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026." According to the report, the global adhesive film industry was estimated at $17.3 billion in 2018, and is expected to hit $26.7 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 5.5% from 2019 to 2026.

Rise in focus on lightweight products and infrastructure development in the Asia-Pacific region fuels the growth of the global adhesive film market. On the other hand, unavailability of raw materials and volatile costs of the end product hinder the growth to some extent. Nevertheless, increase in demand for adhesives from Southeast Asia and Africa is expected to create multiple opportunities in the industry.

Request Sample Report at:https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/5749

The automotive and transportation segment to maintain lead the trail by 2026-

Based on end-user industry, the automotive and transportation segment contributed to nearly one-fourth of the global adhesive film market revenue in 2018, and is expected to rule the roost by 2026. The electrical and electronics segment, on the other hand, would cite the fastest CAGR of 6.2% during 2019-2026. This is attributed to the growing demand for electrically conductive adhesives and films in electrical and hardware components for transmitting current through layers of a gadget, shaping electrical interconnections, and holding electrical parts.

The water-based segment to maintain the lion's share-

Based on technology, the water-based segment held the largest share in 2018, generating around two-fifths of the global adhesive film market. Growing investments in water-based adhesives is expected to boost the segment growth. At the same time, the pressure-sensitive segment would grow at the fastest CAGR of 6.4% throughout the forecast period. Rise in demand for pressure-sensitive adhesives in automotive, metal, and other industrial sectors fuels the growth of the segment.

For Purchase Enquiry at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/5749

Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe and North America, to remain lucrative in terms of revenue-

Based on geography, Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe and North America, accounted for nearly two-fifths of the global adhesive film market share in 2018, and is anticipated to retain its dominance during the study period. The same region would also portray the fastest CAGR of 6.3% by the end of 2026. This is due to gradual shift of manufacturing industries from the Americas to the region.

Key players in the industry-

The Dow Chemical Company

Henkel AG & Co. KGaA

Akzo Nobel N.V.

DuPont

Arkema Group

Hitachi Chemical

Dymax Corporation

Solvay

Interested in Procuring this Report? visit: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/adhesive-film-market/purchase-options



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Srinagar: A man delivers essential commodities at the doorstep of a consumer on Day 6 of the 21-day countrywide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of novel coronavirus, in Srinagar on March 30, 2020. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Continuing action against violators of prohibitory orders issued by the government under section 144 CrPC, J&K Police have arrested 17 persons for defying the restriction orders over COVID-19. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Srinagar, April 7 : Srinagar District Magistrate Shahid Iqbal Choudhary on Tuesday barred all religious gatherings on the occasion of the upcoming Shab-e-Barat in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The DM took to his Twitter handle on Tuesday to say that all sorts of religious congregation and public movement on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat in Srinagar would be barred because of the pandemic.

The holy night of Shab-e-Barat will be observed during the intervening night between Wednesday and Thursday.

Traditionally, Muslims observe the entire night with prayers and penance and also visit the graves of their parents and elders during this night.

Because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, all gatherings of devotees have been disallowed by Islamic scholars in different parts of the country.
F oreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said that Boris Johnson is a "fighter" who "will pull through" after spending the night in intensive care.

The Prime Minister was moved to intensive care on Monday night following a worsening of his coronavirus symptoms.

Speaking at the daily Covid-19 press conference, Mr Raab, who is deputising for the PM, said that Mr Johnson remains in "good spirits" after spending another night at St Thomas' hospital.

The Foreign Secretary said: "He is not just the Prime Minister. For all of us in Cabinet, he is not just our boss.

The Foreign Secretary said: "For all of us in Cabinet, he is not just our boss. He is also our friend" / REUTERS

"He is also a colleague and he is also our friend. So all our thoughts and prayers are with the Prime Minister at this time, with Carrie (Symonds) and his whole family.

"And I'm confident he will pull through because if there is one thing that I know about this Prime Minister is he is a fighter and he will be back leading us through this crisis in short order."

Mr Raab, the Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State, told the daily Downing Street coronavirus press conference: "He's receiving the very best care from the excellent medical team at St Thomas's Hospital.

Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures 1 /81 Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures A deserted Westminster Bridge PA A man wearing a face mask or covering due to the COVID-19 pandemic, walks past customers sat outside a restaurant AFP via Getty Images Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Runners pass cardboard cutouts of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William during the London Marathon in London AP An empty escalator at Charing Coss London Underground tube station Jeremy Selwyn Electronic bilboards displays a message warning people to stay home in Sheffield PA A sign is displayed in the window of a student accommodation building following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mancheste Reuters People take part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions, in Londo AP People sing and dance in Leicester Square on the eve on the 10PM curfew Reuters Hearts painted by a team of artists from Upfest are seen in the grass at Queen Square, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Bristol Reuters Graffiti reads 'good luck and stay safe', as the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases grow around the world, under a bridge in London Reuters A sign is pictured in Soho, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London Reuters Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures, during a coronavirus briefing in Downing Street, London AP A person runs past posters with a message of hope, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Manchester REUTERS Riot police face protesters who took part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions in London AP An image of The Queen eith quotes from her broadcast to the UK and the Commonwealth in relation to the Coronavirus epidemic are displayed on lights in London's Piccadilly Circus PA Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images Durdle Door in Dorset Reuters Captain Tom Moore via Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Coronavirus outbreak PA An NHS worker reacts at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital during the Clap for our Carers campaign in support of the NHS Reuters Goats which have taken over the deserted streets of Llandudno @AndrewStuart via PA Tobias Weller PA Novikov restaurant in London with its shutters pulled down while the restaurant is closed London Landscapes: Hyde Park and the Serpentine, central London. Matt Writtle A newspaper vendor in Manchester city centre giving away free toilet rolls with every paper bought as shops run low on supplies due to fears over the spread of the coronavirus PA Theo Clay looks out of his window next to his hand-drawn picture of a rainbow in Liverpool, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue Reuters A young man cuts another man's hair on top of a closed hairdresser in Oxford Reuters General view of the new NHS Nightingale Hospital, built to fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London via Reuters Jason Baird is seen dressed as Spiderman during his daily exercise to cheer up local children in Stockport, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters A woman wearing a face mask walks past Buckingham Palace Getty Images A man holds mobile phone displaying a text message alert sent by the government warning that new rules are in force across the UK and people must stay at home PA Medical staff on the Covid-19 ward at the Neath Port Talbot Hospital, in Wales, as the health services continue their response to the coronavirus outbreak. PA Prime Minister Boris Johnson taking part in a virtual Cabinet meeting with his top team of ministers PA A shopper walks past empty shelves in a Lidl store on in Wallington. After spates of "panic buying" cleared supermarket shelves of items like toilet paper and cleaning products, stores across the UK have introduced limits on purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have also created special time slots for the elderly and other shoppers vulnerable to the new coronavirus. Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour PA Mia, aged 8 and her brother Jack, aged 5 from Essex, continue their school work at home, after being sent home due to the coronavirus PA Children are painting 'Chase the rainbows' artwork and springing up in windows across the country Reuters Social distancing in Primrose Hill Jeremy Selwyn A general view of a locked gate at Anfield, Liverpool as The Premier League has been suspended PA Homeless people in London AFP via Getty Images A piece of art by the artist, known as the Rebel Bear has appeared on a wall on Bank Street in Glasgow. The new addition to Glasgow's street art is capturing the global Coronavirus crisis. The piece features a woman and a man pulling back to give each other a kiss PA The Queen leaves Buckingham Palace, London, for Windsor Castle to socially distance herself amid the coronavirus pandemic PA A general view on Grey street, Newcastle as coronavirus cases grow around the world Reuters Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA Britain's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty (L) and Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance look on as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures as he speaks during a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) news conference inside 10 Downing Street Reuters The ticket-validation terminals at the tram stop on Edinburgh's Princes Street are cleaned following the coronavirus outbreak. PA Locked school gates at Rockcliffe First School in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear PA A sign at a Sainsbury's supermarket informs customers that limits have been set on a small number of products as the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases grow around the world Reuters Jawad Javed delivers coronavirus protection kits that he and his wife have put together to the vulnerable people of their community of Stenhousemuir, between Glasgow and Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" Getty Images A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A pedestrian walks past graffiti that reads "Diseases are in the City" in Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images Staff from The Lyric Theatre, London inform patrons, as it shuts its doors PA A quiet looking George IV Bridge in Edinburgh PA A quieter than usual British Museum Getty Images A racegoer attends Cheltenham in a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com A commuter wears a face mask at London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn A empty restaurant in the Bull Ring Shopping Centre Getty Images A deserted Trafalgar Square in London PA Passengers determined to avoid the coronavirus before leaving the UK arrive at Gatwick Airport Getty Images

"He remained stable overnight.

"He's receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any assistance, he's not required any mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.

"He remains in good spirits and in keeping with usual clinical practice his progress continues to be monitored closely in critical care."

Mr Raab is standing in for the Prime Minister "whenever necessary", including leading the daily meetings of the coronavirus "war cabinet".

Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast

He said he had "total confidence" in the arrangements the Prime Minister had put in place to allow the Foreign Secretary to deputise for him.

The Cabinet has "very clear instructions" from the Prime Minister whilst he remains in hospital, Mr Raab added.

"Well first of all, decision making by Government is made by collective Cabinet responsibilities, so that is the same as before.
A person was fatally shot in the area of Martin Luther King Drive and Myrtle Avenue in Jersey City Monday evening, the citys fourth homicide in the past seven days.

In a tweet, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said the prosecutors offices homicide unit and the Jersey City Police Department are investigating the shooting, which occurred at roughly 6:30 p.m. The victim was described only as a male.

According to police radio transmissions, the victim was shot multiple times.

Earlier Monday, the prosecutors office declined to comment on the possible motives in the recent rash of shootings, citing the ongoing investigations.

Jersey City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said police have seized or recovered 94 guns so far in 2020, twice the total for the same time period last year, which translates to 94 potential crimes thwarted.

Its unfortunate that these actors view this current crisis as an opportunity to commit crimes and carry out attacks on one another as weve recently seen, Wallace-Scalcione said. Our police officers continue to put their lives on the line to keep our community safe despite the additional COVID-19 concerns.

The four shootings have occurred along a 1.3-mile stretch between Rose/Cator avenues and Martin Luther King Drive/Forrest Street. Up until March 31, there had been just one homicide in the city in 2020.

On March 31, 25-year-old Damone Smith was killed in the area of Rose and Cator avenues and the following night, 17-year-old Stephanie Jacques was killed on Martin Luther King Drive and Forrest Street.

On Saturday, 21-year-old Akim Ward was fatally shot shortly after 3:15 p.m. on Ocean Avenue between Bidwell and Bayview avenues, officials said. He was transported to the Jersey City Medical Center and pronounced dead 15 minutes later.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we recognize that individuals and governments want to do everything they can to protect themselves and others. So do we, he said at a virtual press conference in Geneva.
Delivery and sales of electric vehicles (EVs) from leading EV manufacturer Tesla showed no sign of weakness despite the economic setbacks triggered by the global spread of Covid-19, according to preliminary data released by the company on Friday April 3.

Tesla produced about 103,000 and delivered 88,400 EVs in the first three months of 2020. The figures show a year-on-year increase in production of around 33.6% and an annual increase in sales of around 40.3%.



The company added that its factory in Shanghai continued to achieve record levels of production in spite of significant setbacks."



China's central government imposed strict lockdown measures after the Chinese New Year (January 24-February 2) to tackle the spread of the virus, which disrupted supply chains across a range of industries.



With the virus spreading to the United States, Tesla announced production suspensions at its US factories in New York and California from March 23 in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus.



Operations at the two plants have been limited to a minimum level to allow Teslas vehicle and energy service operation and charging infrastructure to continue.



The company said that operations at its other facilities in Nevada have continued unaffected.



The company joined a raft of automakers around the world in closing facilities due to the virus, including Ford Motor, General Motors, FCA US, BMW, Toyota, Jaguar Land Rover, Groupe PSA, and Volkswagen.



The EV producer will release its full financial earnings statement for the the first quarter later in the June quarter, it said.
Almere, The Netherlands

April 6, 2020

ASM International N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: ASM) today announces that the information regarding the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) scheduled for May 18, 2020, is now available on the Company's website, www.asm.com. This information includes the convocation, the full agenda and annexes thereto. The U.S. market proxy materials for holders of New York Registry Shares are also posted on our website.

The AGM is scheduled to commence at 2:00 p.m. CET at the offices of ASM International N.V., Versterkerstraat 8, Almere, the Netherlands.

Given the COVID-19 outbreak, the related health risks and the precautionary measures invoked by the Dutch government, we strongly urge our shareholders not to attend in person but to exercise their voting rights by way of proxy, and to follow the meeting through our live webcast. We will also provide the possibility of virtually attending and voting at the meeting as can be read in more detail in the convocation and accompanying AGM documents. Given the health hazard and public health measures, not the entire Supervisory Board and Management Board will be physically present during the AGM, but rather join remotely. Also there will be no reception, drinks or other social gatherings surrounding the meeting. We will continue to closely monitor the situation and advise shareholders to regularly check our website for any further updates regarding the AGM.

The agenda for the AGM includes amongst others the proposal to appoint Mr. Benjamin Loh as member of the Management Board and as successor of Chuck del Prado, to appoint Mrs. Monica de Virgiliis and Mr. Didier Lamouche as members of the Supervisory Board, to re-appoint Mr. Martin van Pernis as member of the Supervisory Board, to approve the new remuneration policy, and approve the proposal to declare a regular dividend of 1.50 (one Euro fifty cents) per common share and an extraordinary dividend of 1.50 (one Euro fifty cents) per common share. In addition, the agenda includes a proposal to withdraw 1,500,000 treasury shares.

Story continues

In accordance with applicable legal requirements in the Netherlands the record date for the AGM is April 20, 2020, as further set out in the convocation for the meeting.

The total number of issued shares in ASM International N.V. as per today amounts to 51,297,394 common shares. Considering the number of shares held in treasury as per today, amounting to 2,441,583 shares, the number of voting shares amounts to 48,855,811.

About ASM International



ASM International NV, headquartered in Almere, the Netherlands, its subsidiaries and participations design and manufacture equipment and materials used to produce semiconductor devices. ASM International, its subsidiaries and participations provide production solutions for wafer processing (Front-end segment) as well as for assembly & packaging and surface mount technology (Back-end segment) through facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. ASM International's common stock trades on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange (symbol ASM). For more information, visit ASMI's website at www.asm.com .

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: All matters discussed in this press release, except for any historical data, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to, economic conditions and trends in the semiconductor industry generally and the timing of the industry cycles specifically, currency fluctuations, corporate transactions, financing and liquidity matters, the success of restructurings, the timing of significant orders, market acceptance of new products, competitive factors, litigation involving intellectual property, shareholders or other issues, commercial and economic disruption due to natural disasters, terrorist activity, armed conflict or political instability, epidemics and other risks indicated in the Company's reports and financial statements. The Company assumes no obligation nor intends to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future developments or circumstances.



CONTACT

Investor contact:

Victor Bareno

T: +31 88 100 8500

E: victor.bareno@asm.com

Media contact:

Ian Bickerton

T: +31 625 018 512




Many people were feared killed Monday evening as Boko Haram insurgents attacked Kirchinga in Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State during which they looted shops and destroyed many houses, locals have said.

The village is at the edge of Sambisa forest, a former Boko Haram operational base.

The attack is coming amidst a lockdown ordered by Governor Ahmadu Fintiri to contain coronavirus in the state.

A fleeing resident who said his house was destroyed in the attack, Kumangar Baba, said the insurgents stormed the village at about 5 p.m in pick up vans and on motorcycles.

We saw hell because the terrorists pounced on us in the evening on Monday. In the twinkle of an eye, they opened fire and people started scampering for their lives, Mr Baba said.

They burnt my house and carted away valuables. Possibly, many are feared killed, he said.

Residents also said that the Boko Haram fighters were later repelled by troops of the Nigerian Army.

A resident said, The destruction would have been worse but for the timely response of soldiers stationed in Kirchinga.

The head of the troops in Madagali, Abdulsalam Usman, an army lieutenant-colonel, confirmed the attack.

He said, Yes, there was an attack but it was repelled.

Also confirming it, the police spokesperson in the state, Suleiman Nguroje, said: for now I am yet to get details. I will get back to you as soon we get more on the attack.

The attack occurred two days after Chadian troops crossed into Nigeria and pummelled Boko Haram fighters on Saturday.
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That question is arising across the country as a growing number of parents have begun to withhold access to their children from former spouses or partners over fears of infection, according to families, lawyers and judges. For health care or other essential workers, the battles are infused with heightened controversy. Some say they shouldnt be punished for doing crucial services; their counterparts argue that the jobs pose too great a risk to other family members.

If theres an imminent threat to the kids well-being, you must take action, whether thats something like drug abuse or a virus, Mr. Surdukowski said. Watching the news, looking at the cases of doctors being sick, you cannot tell me that they are not at a higher risk. Mr. Surdukowski, who has an underlying condition, had told the judge that he was also concerned about his own health.

Amid the pandemic, the landscape of family law, which varies across the country, has become more uneven, with few guidelines to address the current safety concerns. Families of medical workers arent the only affected. Other parents are arguing over who comes and goes from each home, whether children should be on the playground and if travel to more remote areas should be permitted.

What we are recommending is to figure out a way for visitation to go forward, and if theres an emergency worker, to figure out how to salvage it as best as you can, said Susan Myres, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. We cant make those people have to sacrifice more, but how do we do that custody safely?

Some courts have issued administrative orders addressing the coronavirus crisis. For example, the state district court in Davidson County, Tenn., said that the primary residential parent should take custody of the child within four hours of a shelter-in-place order and retain sole custody until the order is lifted.
by Melani Manel Perera

The Archbishop of Colombo calls on Catholics to comfort the sick and those who lost their jobs. This is a great show of charity during the Easter period: helping everyone, Catholics and others, without showing off. The country lacks a food distribution system during emergencies. The government quarantine is making it hard to hand out aid.

Colombo (AsiaNews)  In locked down cities, isolated villages and millions of people shut inside in their homes, the quarantine imposed by the Sri Lankan government is creating more poverty.

The government has not set up any mechanism to help people who lost their jobs and cannot feed their families. No emergency food distribution has been instituted. Everything is left to individual initiatives.

So far, there have been 180 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus with six deaths and 38 patients released from hospital yesterday. For now, the outbreak seems to be contained, but providing support to people remains a problem.

"We are listening to the cry for help from people affected by COVID-19 and we are trying to help those who need it, in particular by distributing food aid," said Father Lawrence Ramanayake, director of Seth Sarana, the Caritas of the Archdiocese of Colombo, speaking to AsiaNews.

Recently, Card Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, called on the clergy and faithful in his archdiocese to provide human and material comfort to the many Sri Lankans who are suffering as a result of the pandemic.

Help those who suffer, give them food in this moment of emergency, he said. These efforts are aimed above all at those who lost their jobs as well as the sick, and for Catholics this is all the more important because we are in the Easter period, added the cardinal.

In light of the situation, the archbishop is urging the faithful to help those in difficulty, whether Catholic or not. For him, There must be no divisions at such a time of emergency. Hence, I invite everyone to help the poor privately, without making it public.

The curfew imposed by the government has made life in Sri Lanka difficult. Many stores are closed and although people have money, they cannot go out and buy what they need for their daily needs.

The biggest problem for us is the lack of manpower to transport aid. Those who could help us are forced to remain closed in their own homes, Father Ramanayake explained.

In such conditions, he added, he missionary Fathers who live at the seat of the archdiocese are a great help, so are the faithful who manage to reach our facilities.

They went from store to store looking for rice, dhal, flour, green beans, ravioli, cereals, coffee, tea and other basic foods, and brought them to whoever needed it. Even a company, Atlas, has contributed by donating sugar.
A student nurse on the COVID-19 frontline has told how she has written her will because she fears she could die from the killer virus

Kate O'Flaherty said she has told her boyfriend where to find it if she was to fall ill.

In an open letter to a nation on lockdown, the 21-year-old said: 'If you're finding it hard to put yourself in the shoes of healthcare workers right now. I'll try my best to paint you a picture - I wrote my will the other day.

Kate O'Flaherty (pictured) has revealed her horror at having to make out her will aged just 21

'I stashed it away in my room and told my boyfriend where it is in case anything happens to me on the frontline. I am 21.'

The healthcare worker must wait until after lockdown for two witness signatures - which will validate the document.

It comes after Farewill offered free wills - which normally cost 90 - to NHS workers after a spike in visits to its website.

'It's a terrifying time for us all, where even the most experienced of us are learning something new.

'This time last year, nurses were on strike to no avail. This year, we are being deemed heroes.'

Anxious Kate, of Dublin, added: 'We don't want you to call us your heroes. We don't want you to clap for us on your doorstep.

'We want you to fight with us, to ensure that nurses, student nurses, carers and anyone else in a nursing profession gets the treatment and the pay that they deserve.

The student nurse (pictured) from Dublin has shared her horror at having to make her will despite being just 21

'We need everyone to pull together, we need everyone to fight for the nurse in their lives.'

Social media users have shared their support for the nurse who is thinking about her end-of-life.

Muireann O'Connell wrote: 'Jesus, Kate, that's hard reading so I can't imagine what it's like being the one living it. I hope you're doing ok.'

Janica added: 'Oh Kate, that is a horrible thing to contemplate at 21. I am so sorry lovely that you have to contemplate that.

'We are eternally grateful to our health workers, to our essential workers. I think about you all everyday going into the front line. Be safe, be well pet.'

Laura added: 'Sh*t babe. We thank you and God will be looking over your beautiful back.'

Lillie added: 'I'm so sorry the government has failed you like this and you have my support. I'm praying you'll be safe x.'

It comes just days after two young nurses died after contracting the deadly virus while working on the frontline.

Mother-of-three Areema Nasreen, 36, has become the youngest NHS worker to die from Covid-19.

There are now 51,608 confirmed cases of coronavirus and the death total has topped 5,000.
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SEATTLE (AP)  Seattle Public Schools and Amazon say the company is donating 8,200 laptops to families of elementary-school students who don't have access to a device needed for remote learning while schools are closed due to the coronavirus.

Amazon will work with Seattle Public Schools to ship the laptops directly to students, who will keep them.





. . .
Two women suffering from the coronavirus successfully gave birth under new isolation measures at a Queensland Hospital.

Both new mothers were in a stable condition and gave birth at the Gold Coast University Hospital to healthy babies over the past month.

One of the women tested positive to COVID-19 while the other woman was suspected to have the virus but did not undergo any testing.

Both women were in a stable condition and gave birth at the Gold Coast University Hospital (pictured) to healthy babies over the past month

The team at the hospital had to undergo training using simulations where they were required to wear personal protective equipment, Gold Coast Bulletin reported.

The mothers were required to give birth in the hospital's negative pressure rooms as infection control guidelines indicate.

Gold Coast Health announced that all expectant mothers are going to be treated safely while coronavirus measures are in place.

Queensland has recorded 934 confirmed cases with an additional 13 recorded overnight. There are a total of 5,895 coronavirus cases nationally.

Of the current cases, 42 people had been hospitalised and 11 are in intensive care on ventilation.

Health Minister Steven Miles says the new reduced case numbers was a sign of a continued downward trend.

He said four of Queensland's five fatalities from the coronavirus were from people who had been on cruise ships.

The team at the hospital had to undergo training using simulations where they were required to wear personal protective equipment (Pictured: Coronavirus testing at Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane)

Cruise ship passengers account for 119 cases of the virus in Queensland and a further six people have caught the virus from those passengers.

'We need to stop these cruise ships coming into Queensland and bringing the virus with them,' Mr Miles said.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

He urged people in the state to think about how they would spend the Easter Holiday at home amid travel and social distancing restrictions.

It was announced on Monday that more Queenslanders will be tested for coronavirus after a handful of people mysteriously contracted the disease.

Health workers in Brisbane, Cairns and on the Gold Coast have been ordered to carry out extra tests after officials diagnosed 32 people who had no idea where they caught it.

'It wasn't from someone who had been overseas, it wasn't from a confirmed case,' Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk said on Monday.

'And I've asked for that to be done in the Gold Coast, in Brisbane and in Cairns, because that's where we've seen those cases.'

Meanwhile, police in Logan are cracking down on people ignoring social distancing and mass gathering rules, warning they will be fined.

Officers will be stationed at key locations in the region south of Brisbane, after reports of people flouting social distancing rules at a shopping centre on the weekend.
Syria: Russians, US, Turkish cross in northeast - sources Military patrols of the three powers in contested zone

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, APRIL 7 - Turkish, Russian, and US military patrols in armoured vehicles in northeast Syria crossed in a border zone between the three foreign powers' areas of influence, said local sources, confirming a report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).



Sources said US military patrols were covering a stretch of the Aleppo-Qamishli highway and encountered Russian and Turkish military patrols near the Tell Tamer intersection.



The area is also controlled by Kurdish-Syrian forces, which are formally backed by the US, but those forces withdrew from the Tell Tamer area following the Turkish offensive last fall.(ANSAmed).




Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on election night, 6 November 2018. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Scores of local leaders in Georgia have expressed outrage, confusion and desperation over the last several days after Governor Brian Kemp issued a statewide executive order last Thursday that re-opened the state's beaches, superseding measures taken by many communities' leaders to shut down public to their shores.

While most of the criticism directed at Mr Kemp has come from Democrats, some nonpartisan officials have let loose on the governor and have taken active measures to keep people away from their beaches despite Mr Kemp's order to open them back up.

On Tybee Island, a community of roughly 3,000 permanent residents and a popular beach destination outside the eastern hub of Savannah, Georgia, Mayor Shirley Sessions is keeping parking lots closed and entryways to the beach blocked. There are no lifeguards and emergency medical services are "not properly staffed" for hospital transports and other medical needs, Sessions said.

"At no time has the state designated a single point of contact to orchestrate the implementation of the Governors plan," Ms Sessions wrote in a scathing letter over the weekend defying Mr Kemp's order.

That defiance could lead to legal troubles for the mayor, who does not identify as either a Republican or Democrat and has no record of recent campaign contributions to federal political candidates of either party.

"As the Pentagon ordered 100,000 body bags to store the corpses of Americans killed by the Coronavirus, Governor Brian Kemp dictated that Georgia beaches must reopen, and declared any decision makers who refused to follow these orders would face prison and/or fines," Sessions wrote in her weekend letter, referring to a request from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the Defense Department last week for body bags.

Ms Sessions' office is doing its best to maintain a de facto closure of the town's beaches  despite not having the legal authority to enforce such a closure  by appealing to the public to stay away despite Mr Kemp's order allowing them access.

Story continues

We are now in a position where we are pleading with the public and with our residents to adhere to the beach closing, Ms Sessions said in a video last Friday filmed on her porch.

Mr Kemp defended his decision to open beaches back up in a Twitter thread Monday, saying "the health and safety of Georgians" are the "top priorities" for himself and "local leaders across the state  including those along our coast."

"During these difficult times, it is vitally important for Georgians to have safe options to maintain their physical and mental health while also abiding by social distancing," Mr Kemp tweeted.

State troopers, local law enforcement, and the law enforcement division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources are working together to patrol beaches to ensure visitors are abiding by the shelter-in-place order that requires social distancing.

Visitors cannot bring chairs, umbrellas, coolers, or any other items that "encourage group activities," Mr Kemp wrote.

The governor added that patrols reported "most people" were complying with the order over the weekend and that the beaches were seeing "much lighter traffic... than normal."

Still, many Democratic leaders in the state suggested the mental and physical health benefits of opening the beaches back up did not outweigh the potential concerns.

It is stupid and crazy at the same time, said Democratic commissioner of Glynn County, Ga., Allen Booker, the Atlanta Constitution-Journal reported. It attracts to the beach larger groups of people, young and old and facilitates the spread of the COVID-19 virus, leading to people dying.

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TORONTO, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Franco-Nevada supports measures to address the COVID-19 pandemic and it is now into its fourth week of having its employees work remotely. There are no known cases in the Company. Franco-Nevada has a very small organization and the transition to working remotely is working well. The business development team has also developed work-arounds for various due diligence processes. Franco-Nevada is also closely monitoring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its portfolio of assets.

Portfolio Updates

Gold and Gold Equivalent Mining Assets  Franco-Nevada remains in close contact with many of its operators who are facing increased challenges due to COVID-19. Franco-Nevada has a diversified portfolio of 56 producing assets consisting of four larger cash-flowing assets, Antamina, Antapaccay, Candelaria and Cobre Panama and 52 smaller cash-flowing assets. First Quantum announced today that operations at Cobre Panama have been temporarily suspended. Antamina, Antapaccay and Candelaria continue to perform close to expectations based on recent information provided by the operators. Of the 52 smaller cash-flowing assets in Franco-Nevada's portfolio, 11 have announced temporarily reduced or curtailed production. With the higher uncertainty going forward as to gold equivalent ounce ("GEO") sales than when the original guidance was estimated, Franco-Nevada is withdrawing its GEO sales guidance for 2020 which was provided on March 9, 2020. Note that the majority of Franco-Nevada's assets are top line royalties and streams which do not bear associated carrying costs. The impact to Franco-Nevada of temporarily reduced or curtailed production is essentially limited to a deferral of revenue.

Energy Assets  Franco-Nevada's original energy guidance provided on March 9, 2020 was based on a $45/bbl WTI price assumption and assumed drilling activity at that price. With the current volatility in the energy sector, Franco-Nevada is withdrawing its Energy revenue guidance for 2020 until the markets stabilize. The Company will continue to review the carrying value of its Energy assets.

Franco-Nevada expects to provide a further portfolio update with the release of its Q1 results on May 6, 2020. The Company will consider providing new guidance once operations in the mining industry and energy markets stabilize.

Corporate Updates

2020 Asset Handbook and 2020 ESG Report  Franco-Nevada will release its 2020 Asset Handbook tomorrow with updated disclosures on Franco-Nevada's extensive portfolio of assets including updated asset counts, Royalty Ounce estimations for each asset and total property acreage. Also being released tomorrow is Franco-Nevada's 2020 ESG report with updated disclosures on Franco-Nevada's ESG efforts including new commitments such as the World Gold Council's Responsible Gold Mining Principles and the UN Global Compact. Both reports will be available on the Company's website and hard copies can be obtained through [email protected].

Finance Update  Franco-Nevada is financially strong and debt-free. As at March 31, 2020, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $205 million and undrawn credit facilities of $1.1 billion. Franco-Nevada is well-positioned to make further investments to grow its diversified portfolio of assets. Franco-Nevada has increased its dividend in each of the past 12 years. The Company expects to announce its Q2 dividend on May 6, 2020 and to continue its track record of paying a sustainable and progressive dividend.

New Director Nominee  Franco-Nevada is pleased to announce that Maureen Jensen will be a nominee to the Board of Directors at its upcoming Annual and Special Meeting of shareholders scheduled on May 6, 2020. Ms. Jensen joins the Board following a distinguished career in senior regulatory and business positions, most recently as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Securities Commission from 2016. Ms. Jensen is also a Registered Professional Geoscientist and brings extensive experience and knowledge both in regulatory and governance matters and in geology and mining matters. On election, Franco-Nevada's Board will then have three women directors.



Corporate Summary

Franco-Nevada Corporation is the leading gold-focused royalty and streaming company with the largest and most diversified portfolio of cash-flow producing assets. Its business model provides investors with gold price and exploration optionality while limiting exposure to many of the risks of operating companies. Franco-Nevada is debt free and uses its free cash flow to expand its portfolio and pay dividends. It trades under the symbol FNV on both the Toronto and New York stock exchanges. Franco-Nevada is the gold investment that works.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, respectively, which may include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to future events or future performance, management's expectations regarding Franco-Nevada's growth, results of operations, estimated future revenues, carrying value of assets, future dividends and requirements for additional capital, mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates, production estimates, production costs and revenue, future demand for and prices of commodities, expected mining sequences, business prospects and opportunities, audits being conducted by the Canada Revenue Agency, the expected exposure for current and future assessments and available remedies, the remedies relating to and consequences of the ruling of the Supreme Court of Panama in relation to the Cobre Panama project, the aggregate value of Common Shares which may be issued pursuant to the ATM Program, the Company's expected use of the net proceeds of the ATM Program, and expected succession planning. In addition, statements (including data in tables) relating to reserves and resources and GEOs are forward-looking statements, as they involve implied assessment, based on certain estimates and assumptions, and no assurance can be given that the estimates and assumptions are accurate and that such reserves and resources and GEOs will be realized. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budgets", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "projects", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Franco-Nevada to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. A number of factors could cause actual events or results to differ materially from any forward-looking statement, including, without limitation: fluctuations in the prices of the primary commodities that drive royalty and stream revenue (gold, platinum group metals, copper, nickel, uranium, silver, iron-ore and oil and gas); fluctuations in the value of the Canadian and Australian dollar, Mexican peso, and any other currency in which revenue is generated, relative to the U.S. dollar; changes in national and local government legislation, including permitting and licensing regimes and taxation policies and the enforcement thereof; regulatory, political or economic developments in any of the countries where properties in which Franco-Nevada holds a royalty, stream or other interest are located or through which they are held; risks related to the operators of the properties in which Franco-Nevada holds a royalty, stream or other interest, including changes in the ownership and control of such operators; influence of macroeconomic developments; business opportunities that become available to, or are pursued by Franco-Nevada; reduced access to debt and equity capital; litigation; title, permit or license disputes related to interests on any of the properties in which Franco-Nevada holds a royalty, stream or other interest; whether or not the Company is determined to have "passive foreign investment company" ("PFIC") status as defined in Section 1297 of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended; potential changes in Canadian tax treatment of offshore streams; excessive cost escalation as well as development, permitting, infrastructure, operating or technical difficulties on any of the properties in which Franco-Nevada holds a royalty, stream or other interest; access to sufficient pipeline capacity; actual mineral content may differ from the reserves and resources contained in technical reports; rate and timing of production differences from resource estimates, other technical reports and mine plans; risks and hazards associated with the business of development and mining on any of the properties in which Franco-Nevada holds a royalty, stream or other interest, including, but not limited to unusual or unexpected geological and metallurgical conditions, slope failures or cave-ins, flooding and other natural disasters, terrorism, civil unrest or an outbreak of contagious diseases, including the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic; and the integration of acquired assets. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon assumptions management believes to be reasonable, including, without limitation: the ongoing operation of the properties in which Franco-Nevada holds a royalty, stream or other interest by the owners or operators of such properties in a manner consistent with past practice; the accuracy of public statements and disclosures made by the owners or operators of such underlying properties; no material adverse change in the market price of the commodities that underlie the asset portfolio; the Company's ongoing income and assets relating to determination of its PFIC status; no material changes to existing tax treatment; the expected application of tax laws and regulations by taxation authorities; the expected assessment and outcome of any audit by any taxation authority; no adverse development in respect of any significant property in which Franco-Nevada holds a royalty, stream or other interest; the accuracy of publicly disclosed expectations for the development of underlying properties that are not yet in production; integration of acquired assets; and the absence of any other factors that could cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. However, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. In addition, there can be no assurance as to the outcome of the ongoing audit by the CRA or the Company's exposure as a result thereof. Franco-Nevada cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

For additional information with respect to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, please refer to Franco-Nevada's most recent Annual Information Form filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities on www.sedar.com and Franco-Nevada's most recent Annual Report filed on Form 40-F filed with the SEC on www.sec.gov. The forward-looking statements herein are made as of the date of this press release only and Franco-Nevada does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE Franco-Nevada Corporation

Related Links

www.franco-nevada.com


Maya Jama has paid tribute to her rapper friend Black The Ripper after it was announced on Monday he had tragically passed away, aged 32.

The Radio One host, 25, took to her Instagram stories to share throwback snaps with the late star named Dean West.

Maya wrote: 'So, so sad. He was such a lovely soul, praying for his family...

'So sad': Maya Jama has paid tribute to her rapper friend Black The Ripper after it was announced on Monday he had tragically passed away aged 32

'This year has been scary, stay safe.'

Maya shared a throwback snap of the pair celebrating his birthday with a pal in December 2012, while another showed them having fun in the studio.

The radio presenter also uploaded a make-up selfie as she continued to keep her fans updated with what she was doing while she stayed at home amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Memories: The Radio One host, 25, took to her Instagram stories to share throwback snaps with the late star named Dean West

Devastated: Maya wrote: 'So, so sad. He was such a lovely soul, paying for his family... This year has been scary, stay safe.'

Maya and Black The Ripper had been friends for many years, no doubt being introduced due to each other via their work on the music scene and Maya's ex rapper boyfriend Stormzy.

Black The Ripper initially rose to fame with his hugely popular mixtapes Afro Samurai and Holla Black, which were released in the mid-noughties.

While he continued to make music in the years that followed, he eventually became a voice in the push to legalise marijuana in the UK.

Always remembered: Maya shared a throwback snap of the pair celebrating his birthday with a pal in December 2012

While it's known yet known how the star, also known as Ital Samson, died, a host of musicians joined Maya to pay tribute to the talented rapper on Twitter as the news broke on Monday.

Fellow MC Chip, shared a snap of himself posing with the Edmonton, north London, MC in happier times, as he wrote: 'RIP my brother,' preceded by a heartbreak emoji.

Posting the same image on his Instagram account, Chip, a longtime friend of West, continued: 'Real tears. I never cry. Rest in peace my bro. Forever here for your son.'

South London grime MC Novelist stated: 'I can't believe the news I've just got. I had good times with you cuz. Everyone's gonna miss you. Rest in peace Black the ripper.'

Krept, of the duo Krept and Konan reacted to the news of West's untimely death by writing: 'No way black the ripper. R.I.P man f***inghell what a horrible year.' [sic]
Facebook is launching a survey of its users that will attempt to track the spread of covid-19.

The system will appear at the top of the news feed and encourage people to describe their own health so that information can be passed onto researchers.

That data could then help guide responses to the crisis, including allowing the development of a heatmap of reported symptoms that can be used to track where coronavirus could be spreading.

It is part of a series of responses to the outbreak revealed by Facebook as part of its "Data for Good" programme.

As well as asking users to participate in the survey, Facebook will also use its data to help generate maps and charts of how people are behaving under coronavirus lockdown. Co-location maps will allow researchers ot to track where people are coming into contact with each other, movement range trends allows for a picture of the degree to which people are moving around and a "social connectedness index" gathers informaiton to see how friendships span across countries.

Together, Facebook says that it hopes the data will guide public responses to the outbreak, and give information about where authorities should focus next.

It made various commitments about how the information involved will be kept anonymous. In the maps, for instance, individual identities are obscured in the hope that nobody in the data could be identified, and the data shows information at a city level but not the behaviour of specific people.

Google made similar commitments when it made its data from Maps publicly available to researchers. It published that information for the public to read, too, arguing that doing so ensured the company was being transparent about what data it was making public.

For users who are selected to take part in the survey, it will appear at the top of the news feed. Users will have to opt in to take part, and will be taken off the main Facebook website to actually take it.

The survey itself is run by Carnegie Mellon University Delphi Research Center and the data on people's health will allow health researchers to "better monitor and forecast the spread of covid-19", Facebook said. The company hopes the data can be used to plan where resources are needed and eventually how lockdowns could be lifted.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

For the time being, the feature is only available to specific users in the US. Facebook will make it available in othe parts of the world if the results are "helpful", Facebook said.

The survey results will also be anonymised. Researchers will not share responses with Facebook, and Facebook will share no individual personal information with the researchers, it said.
Some residents of the federal capital territory (FCT) paid last respect to Pius Adesanmi, Nigerian-born Canadian professor, on Wednesday. He was among the passengers on the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed on its way to Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday.

All the 157 persons on board died in the accident.

At the Unity Fountain in Abuja, different people, mostly clad in black and teary-eyed, recounted how the professor touched their lives in numerous ways.

While speaking at the event, Senate President Bukola Saraki said Adesanmi was not his enemy despite criticising him.

Describing Adesanmi as an ambassador of Nigeria, Saraki said the professor did not die in vain.

As I was leaving my house somebody said, Sir, do you know that he was very critical of you? I said we are not enemies, we share different views and we must appreciate his talent. He had his views, he had his thought about some of us, he said.

We can learn from some of those things and that is why I came here to join you and appreciate those that are good ambassadors of this country. His wife and his daughter, let them know that their father and husband did not die in vain. Im here to give him that respect.

The Cable reports that Deji Adeyanju, convener of Concerned Nigerians, said Adesanmi was a patriot who ought to be celebrated.

There is no greater patriot than a person who speaks the truth, we must celebrate Pius Adesanmi. Im touched by this death and I prayer that his memory be blessed, Adeyanju said. We must take the lives of Nigerians more seriously than business.

On his part, Dino Melaye, senator representing Kogi west, said the professor was one who spoke the truth fearlessly. He said one way to honour Adesanmi is to stand for the truth he wrote.

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With every high-profile film project delayed due to coronavirus, cinemagoers are going to have to wait to watch some of the years biggest releases.

Its now been revealed this will have a knock-on effect in Marvels case  almost every planned outing for the Marvel Cinematic Universes fourth phase has been shifted back by several months.

The Hollywood Reporter states that Black Widow  which was originally scheduled to be released on 1 May  will now take The Eternals release date of 6 November.

The Eternals, the studios next foray into the cosmic side of proceedings, will be released in March 2021 instead, meaning fans will have to wait an extra four months for Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden and Salma Hayeks addition to the MCU.

Other films to be affected by the delays are Shang-Chi, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Taika Waititis Thor: Love and Thunder.

The only release whose date has not been affected is Black Panther 2.

Marvel also used the opportunity to formally announce a sequel to Captain Marvel, which will see Brie Larson return as Carol Danvers.

Find the full list of new release dates below:

Black Widow  6 November 2020

The Eternals  12 February 2021

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten-Rings  7 May 2021

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness  5 November 2021

Avengers characters - ranked Show all 27 1 /27 Avengers characters - ranked Avengers characters - ranked 27. War Machine Played by: Don Cheadle Don Cheadle Imagine Iron Man but without a backstory or humour. That's War Machine. Terrence Howard saw that the character would be underwritten and dropped out after filming the first Iron Man. Still, it's hard to dislike Don Cheadle, even when he's shortchanged. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 26. Mantis Played by: Pom Klementieff Pom Klementieff The forgettable Mantis is purely there to make up the numbers. It doesn't help that she was introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, one of the MCU's weakest films to date, as the servant to Kurt Russell's tedious villain, Ego. In a crowded ensemble, Mantis is drowned out by the larger personalities. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 25. Hawkeye Played by: Jeremy Renner Jeremy Renner "Oh no! It's a man with no superpowers and a bow and arrow! I, an alien with futuristic technology who has travelled through the galaxy to invade Earth, am terrified!"  Thanos's army of Outriders, probably. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 24. Doctor Strange Played by: Benedict Cumberbatch Benedict Cumberbatch Oh, Doctor Strange. Perhaps there's a good character there, but Benedict Cumberbatch wasn't the man to play him. He's probably the least likeable presence in the MCU, even if a few kick-ass moments in Avengers: Endgame almost pull him back from the brink. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 23. Gamora Played by: Zoe Saldana Zoe Saldana Although the father-daughter relationship between Gamora and Thanos is interesting, it's completely overshadowed by the dynamic between her half-sister Nebula and the Mad Titan. And now she's AWOL. Perhaps. No one really knows. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 22. Star-Lord Played by: Chris Pratt Chris Pratt Star-Lord  the half-man, half-Celestial  remains one of the funniest Marvel characters to date. Yet, the Avengers would have saved the universe the first time around if it weren't for his (quite understandable) temper tantrum over the death of Gamora in Infinity War. For that, the leader of Guardian of the Galaxy falls many places. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 21. Nebula Played by: Karen Gillan Karen Gillan Nebula has all the makings of being a vintage Marvel character, but the feeling that she's been slightly short-changed by her appearances to date cannot be escaped. Going forward, she'll undoubtedly have an elevated role in the MCU, so here's hoping she's handed the justice she deserves. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 20. The Winter Soldier Played by: Sebastian Stan Sebastian Stan Sebastian Stan's Bucky was a bit of a non-entity in the otherwise underrated Captain America: The First Avenger, which is why his do-over as the villainous Winter Soldier in the sequel three years later injected the character with some much-needed intrigue. His shift back to being a good guy, though, has dampened the interest around him once again. Still, that teased romance with Shuri (Letitia Wright) is sure to do him some favours. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 19. Vision Played by: Paul Bettany Paul Bettany Vision is the purple embodiment of Tony Stark's AI butler JARVIS, brought to life by the Mind Stone. One of the only other characters capable of wielding Thor's hammer (oi oi, Cap!), Vision is overpowered to the point of being boring. Still, he doesn't know his paprika from his cayenne. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 18. The Wasp Played by: Evangeline Lilly Evangeline Lilly Sidelined during the first Ant-Man, The Wasp finally became a headline name in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Not only is she smarter, quicker and a better fighter than Ant-Man, she can also fly thanks to a set of wings. Fingers crossed we'll be getting more Wasp post-Endgame. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 17. Falcon Played by: Anthony Mackie Anthony Mackie There's no two ways about it: if Falcon wasn't played by Anthony Mackie, he'd be far lower down this list. His character remains memorable solely due to the vibrancy the ever-entertaining actor brings to the role. Falcon might be a lesser Avenger, but no appearance since his debut in Captain America: The Winter Soldier has left fans wanting more. For that, Falcon should be celebrated. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 16. Captain Marvel Played by: Brie Larson Brie Larson There's no doubt that Captain Marvel could become one of the best characters in the MCU. Fresh off her billion dollar-grossing debut  the series's first female-led superhero film  the character returned to save the day (well, help the crew out) in Avengers: Endgame. Now her origin story is out of the way, the sky's the limit for her; it'll be exciting to see which planets her story scales next. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 15. Groot Played by: Vin Diesel Vin Diesel To be quite honest, it's hard to screw up a character who is literally a tree that's able to speak just one word (his name). There's no denying that Vin Diesel's Groot was one of the best things about the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, and his camaraderie with Rocket Raccoon a highlight. Sadly, being turned into a baby for the entirety of the sequel made his character slightly more annoying. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 14. Valkyrie Played by: Tessa Thompson Tessa Thompson Introduced in Thor: Ragnarok, Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie has the swagger of Han Solo and the powers of Wonder Woman. The result is probably the coolest and smoothest Avenger yet, and someone we very much look forward to seeing again in Thor: Love and Thunder. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 13. Hulk Played by: Mark Ruffalo Mark Ruffalo The Hulk was originally played by Edward Norton, but Mark Ruffalo took over for the Avengers films. The actor brought out a manic unpredictability to the character, who remains a skittish presence in every film. Since the first Avengers outing, though, Bruce Banner/Hulk has been less integral to the team. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 12. Black Widow Played by: Scarlett Johansson Scarlett Johansson Black Widow has had a rough ride. Introduced during Iron Man 2, Scarlett Johansson's agent was a fierce fighter with an intriguing back story. However, this has rarely been explored since, with the Avengers films focusing on the lads rather than the one female character in the team. Almost 20 Marvel films on and the character is finally getting a solo film  but it's a prequel film arriving after her death in Endgame that's been delayed because of coronavirus. Ouch. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 11. Shuri Played by: Letitia Wright Letitia Wright One of Black Panther's biggest revelations was Shuri, T'Challa's kid sister who might just be the cleverest character in the entire MCU. She's brought to life by British actor Letitia Wright, who capitalised on the several opportunities she had to steal the film from under her co-stars' noses. Great, another broken white boy for us to fix," she says as Martin Freeman's Everett Ross is carted into her workshop  and thus, a star was born. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 10. Scarlet Witch Played by: Elizabeth Olsen Elizabeth Olsen Scarlet Witch doesn't really do much save for wave her hands around while looking concerned about the well-being of her love, Vision (Paul Bettany)  but it doesn't matter considered she's played by the the extremely talented Elizabeth Olsen who, as ever, gives it an admirable stab. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 9. Captain America Played by: Chris Evans Chris Evans On paper, Captain America should be the most boring Avenger. Yet, with Chris Evans at the wheel, the patriotic super-strong OAP who fought in the Second World War has been enjoyable company in every film he's been in, his righteous values never being too overbearing. Captain America, with his pure heart, really is one of the ultimate superheroes. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 8. Iron Man Played by: Robert Downey Jr Robert Downey Jr The leader of the MCU used to be its greatest character. But with the influx of newer additions, Tony Stark has been pushed down that list  which isn't to say he isn't still a reason why the series has been such a success. No Marvel actor has thrown themselves into a role more than Robert Downey Jr, whose larger-than-life personality made him the only candidate to have brought the billionaire industrialist and former playboy to screen. Among the big-budget explosions, he's a breath of fresh air and without him, the MCU would have run out of steam long ago. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 7. Ant-Man Played by: Paul Rudd Paul Rudd A man who presses a button and takes on the powers of an ant: not exactly a thrilling premise for a superhero. Thankfully, Marvel accepted that Ant-Man's power are a bit of a joke and cast the ever-delightful comic actor Paul Rudd as the mini-hero. And despite his stature, Ant-Man stole the show in Captain America: Civil War when he reversed his powers and became Giant Man. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 6. Rocket Played by: Bradley Cooper Bradley Cooper In many ways, the success of Guardians of the Galaxy  Marvel's first true move away from the cleaner cut Avengers (see: Captan America, Thor)  rested on the shoulders of Rocket Raccoon. Many questioned whether it'd work, but thanks to impressive effects, Bradley Cooper's terrific voice work  and not to mention James Gunn's knockout screenplay  Rocket found himself with more range than most characters on this list. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 5. Black Panther Played by: Chadwick Boseman Chadwick Boseman Few characters have had the cultural impact of Boseman's Black Panther. First appearing in Captain America: Civil War, T'Challa's measured demeanour was a counter to the quip-making norm of the other Avengers. Come the character's solo film, the noble leader finally accepted his role as King of Wakanda and, in the process, unleashed the inner Panther. It's no wonder that the film became a box-office sensation, even out-grossing Avengers: Infinity War (2018) in the United States. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 4. Drax Played by: Dave Bautista Dave Bautista Drax is proof that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. His burly appearance suggests he should be fighting for the bad guys, but the opposite couldn't be truer  thanks to Dave Bautista, the character is given a cuddly sheen that belies his full name (Drax the Destroyer). The only thing Drax, who first appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy, truly destroys is your rib cage  he's one of the MCU's funniest characters. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 3. Spider-Man Played by: Tom Holland Tom Holland Spider-Man's back. Again again. Where Tobey Maguire's webslinger was an out-and-out dork, and Andrew Garfield's version was arguably too slick to really be Peter Parker, Tom Holland has found the perfect middle ground: still obsessed with making Star Wars references yet also capable of talking coherently with members of the opposite sex. It's a miracle that Marvel Studios managed to bring Spider-Man into their cinematic universe  and a miracle they managed to make him feel this fresh third time around. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 2. Okoye Played by: Danai Gurira Danai Gurira Black Panther was a landmark moment for cinema, let alone Marvel. It was a film filled with selling points  the lustrous visuals of Wakanda; a villain you actually cared about  but sitting at the top of the heap was Okoye. The Walking Dead star Danai Gurira swapped the katana for a vibranium spear and showed audiences that not only was she more than just television character Michonne, she could translate a comic book character into one of the very best characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Avengers characters - ranked 1. Thor Played by: Chris Hemsworth Chris Hemsworth Thor was not a great film. Thor: The Dark World was even worse. Yet, against all odds, the God of Thunder has established himself as the greatest Avenger. How? It's namely thanks to Taika Waititi's revisioning of the character in Thor: Ragnarok. Rather than making Hemsworth deliver sub-par Shakespearean prose, the filmmaker enthused Thor with a sense of humour  something that played to Hemsworth's strength as an actor. The result was a charismatic, short-haired, smouldering superhero who was finally able to charm Marvel fans. If only Thor had been this way all along. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Thor: Love and Thunder  28 February 2022

Black Panther 2  8 May 2022

Captain Marvel 2  8 July 2022
MBABANE  The gravity of the coronavirus outbreak has seen the about E20 million donated by various companies and organisation being depleted.



As it is, the country is in dire need of ventilators, ICU beds, personal protective equipment, testing kits and masks.



National Disaster Management Agency Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Russell Dlamini yesterday made a plea to potential donors to direct funds towards the purchase of the aforementioned items. Dlamini said the gap was huge when it came to these items as they were in demand and were no longer available. According to the CEO, they needed to have E50 million to purchase ventilators alone. He said they would continue accepting other donations as well but they would be more than happy to first receive the items, which were a priority.



Dlamini explained that as they collected the funds, they were directed to the prioritised list. So far, we have managed to buy medical equipment, water tanks, soap and sanitisers, said Dlamini. He said all funds raised towards the fight of the spread of COVID-19 in the country had been allocated to their needs.

Further, he assured the nation that there were no funds which were being kept so far as all resources that were received had been utilised.

Just this morning (yesterday), an amount of E26 million reflected in our account and the funds have also already been allocated, he explained when receiving donations from other companies yesterday at Happy Valley.



To date, the country has raised E24 762 240, following the E5 525 000 yesterday. Chairman of the Resource Mobilisation Committee, Phil Mnisi thanked companies and individuals for responding speedily in donating towards the fight against COVID-19.

Mnisi said the nation was doing all it could to ensure that the spread of the virus was stopped. He encouraged other companies to also come on board in supporting the good cause. Mnisi said interested companies and donors should call any member of the Resource Mobilisation Committee and indicate that they would be making a donation in support of raising funds for COVID-19.

One of the companies that donated included the RES Corporation, which made an in-kind donation of E225 000 of 1 500 litres of sanitisers.
A pastor who criticised the panic surrounding the coronavirus pandemic has died from the illness.

Pastor Landon Spradlin from Virginia died a month after falling ill while at Mardi Gras in New Orleans to preach, according to the BBC.

Despite suffering from Covid-19 symptoms, on 13 March, Mr Spradlin shared a meme on Facebook describing the reaction to coronavirus as mass hysteria, according to the New York Post.

In the comments section, he added that it is a real issue, but I believe the media is pumping out fear and doing more harm than good.

He added that it will come and it will go.

His daughter, Naomi Spradlin, told the BBC that she doesnt remember talking to him about Covid-19.

With whats happened, we keep looking back, and we didnt talk about it once, she said.

Mr Spradlins son Landon Isaac, told the BBC that they did discuss the virus and that despite his Facebook comments, Mr Spradlin didnt think it was a hoax, he knew it was a real virus.

But he did put up that post because he was frustrated that the media was propagating fear as the main mode of communication, Mr Isaac added.

Alongside preaching, Mr Spradlin was a musician, who was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2016.

His daughter, Jesse Spradlin, told the BBC that he was always playing music.

He loved to laugh. He loved to play guitar. He played guitar even when he wasnt supposed to. She added that he was just the best man in the world.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, upwards of 378,289 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 11,830.
Two months on from the election, we are still awaiting a government. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael now seem closer to an agreement, but they are short of the votes needed to provide a firm basis for decisions over the next few years.

Independents, Greens, Labour and the Social Democrats have been invited to consider joining what might once have been called a grand coalition. Would such a government be against the spirit of 'change' many saw in the election result? Or could it actually reflect the preference of the majority? The evidence from a recent poll suggests that a Fianna Fail-Fine Gael-plus government could command widespread support.

People vote for parties and candidates, not governments. They often get some clues about potential governments during campaigns, but in February, parties spent more time discussing who they would not work with than focusing on their preferred coalition partners. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael both ruled out Sinn Fein. And while Leo Varadkar raised the possibility of a Fianna Fail-Fine Gael coalition, this was swiftly rebuffed by Micheal Martin.

When parties don't send out clear signals about coalition preferences, voters will often make decisions about lower preferences on the basis of candidates.

The Irish National Election Study is a post-election national research project dating back to 2002. This part of the study was funded by TCD and UCC. The poll was conducted online by RedC with more than 3,000 respondents. Online polls have become much more reliable and YouGov polls in the UK have proven especially accurate at predicting election results.

Carried out in the first three weeks of March, respondents were split into two equal groups. Group one was asked questions that can shed light on what voters thought about coalition options.

The options presented were:

:: Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Green Party;

:: Sinn Fein-led, left-leaning coalition;

:: Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein, supported by some smaller parties;

:: Grand coalition of Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and Fine Gael;

:: Fianna Fail single-party minority government.

The most popular formation was the Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Green Party coalition followed by the Sinn Fein-led, left-leaning coalition, with the first chosen by 35pc of voters and the second by 33pc. Importantly, none of these options came close to securing majority support.

Our research asked respondents not just for their first choice, it invited people to rank these options from one to five, as they might do with candidates on a PR-STV ballot paper. We counted these preferences as you would in an election and the results are set out below in order of first count, second count, third count and fourth count:

(1) Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party: 35pc, 39, 44, 52;

(2) Sinn Fein-led, left-leaning coalition: 33pc, 33, 35, 48;

(3) Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein, supported by some smaller parties: 14pc, 16, 21;

(4) Grand coalition of Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and Fine Gael: 10pc, 11;

(5) Fianna Fail single-party minority government: 9pc.

A Fianna Fail single-party minority government was the least popular, so, as in an election count, we eliminated this option. Option (1) was up to 39pc in the second count. The grand coalition with just 11pc is next to go. Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party remained the most popular choice with 44pc in favour as against the 35pc for the Sinn Fein-led government. The last step is to eliminate the Fianna Fail-Sinn Fein option. This still leaves Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party as the most popular choice with 52pc support relative to the 48pc support for the Sinn Fein-led option.

We show a Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Green Party government was the most popular first choice (from those on offer) among voters. And when we run a PR-STV count on the preferences of electors, support for the Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party government is endorsed by 52pc. But the margins are small.

Those who supported Fine Gael or Fianna Fail in February were most likely to prefer the first option. As were Green party voters, 64pc of whom favoured that option, in contrast it seems to the parliamentary party. Significantly, Labour voters also favoured this option by a large margin.

Some 90pc of both Sinn Fein and of People Before Profit voters and 70pc of Social Democrats opted for the Sinn Fein-led left option. This is not surprising. These are parties on the left and their voters favour a left-led government. But they are a minority of voters.

The first poll after the election by B&A showed a big shift towards Sinn Fein, but the most recent RedC poll showed a surge for Fine Gael, with voters rallying to the Government as this crisis deepens. This is a pattern seen elsewhere. We can examine the effects of the Covid-19 crisis in the election study data as it was collected before and after March 13, when significant action was taken to close bars and restaurants. The results in both periods are the same. The most popular option is the Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Green Party government followed closely by the Sinn Fein-led, left government.

Michael Marsh (TCD) was co-author of this article with Theresa Reidy (UCC)
A worker producing protective masks at a factory in Handan city, Hebei province, China, on Feb. 28, 2020. (Str/AFP via Getty Images)

Many Mask Factories in China Dont Meet Sanitation, Quality Standards: Chinese Broker

Workers at many factories that manufacture masks in China dont wear masks or gloves while handling the products, a Chinese broker has revealed, prompting further questions about the quality of Chinese medical supplies amid a global shortage.

Using the pseudonym Chen Guohua, a broker who facilitates the export of masks manufactured in China told Chinese tech news outlet Tech World that 60 percent of factories dont have sterile work environments.

He recounted visiting one dust-filled factory where workers were handling masks from the factory line with bare hands and without wearing masks.

Who would dare to use masks that are manufactured like this? Who would dare to wear it on their face? Chen asked.

The revelations come amid reports of shoddy medical equipment coming from China, as countries scramble to supply health workers and citizens with protective gear. China has exported 3.86 billion masks, 37.5 million pieces of personal protective equipment, 16,000 ventilators, and 2.84 million testing kits since March 1, customs official Jin Hai told news agency AFP on April 4.

But countries including the Netherlands, Turkey, and Spain have complained that some Chinese-made supplies dont meet quality standards.

The Netherlands on March 28 said it had recalled about 600,000 masks shipped from a Chinese manufacturer. Dutch health officials said the masks didnt fit properly or had defective filters.

In addition, the United Kingdom said it would seek refunds for millions of virus antibody test kits ordered from China after a study found they returned inaccurate results, The Telegraph reported.

Last week, the Chinese regime tightened rules governing the export of medical equipment in an attempt to address the concerns. Authorities announced on March 31 that only manufacturers who were accredited to sell their products within China could export test kits, surgical masks, protective gowns, ventilators, and infrared thermometers.

Since the rule change, Chinese customs have confiscated 11.2 million medical supplies that came from unaccredited manufacturers, according to customs data released on April 5. This included 9.9 million masks, 155,000 protective suits, and 1.08 million testing kits.

Chen was, until recently, an e-commerce seller, before his switch to exporting masks, after receiving increased requests from his overseas clients as the pandemic worsened outside of China.

He said that most of the factories making masks were initially textile or electronics factories that quickly shifted production to meet the surging demand, so their equipment and technology often dont meet the standards.

According to the Chinese financial news site Sanyan Blockchain, almost 5,500 mask manufacturers were set up in China between Jan. 23 and March 11.

Chen added that some factories would simply purchase the accreditation needed to make masks.

Videos of unsanitary factory conditions have also circulated on Chinese social media, drawing criticism from netizens.

Some footage shows workers not using gloves when handling masks being processed on a conveyer belt, while one video shows a man wiping his shoe with a bunch of masks piled on the floor.
Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City claimed that exercising in Prospect Park helped him work 'nonstop' during the coronavirus outbreak - despite telling millions of residents to stay home and practice social distancing.

De Blasio received backlash after footage shared to social media showed him and his wife, Chirlane McCray, walking in Prospect Park on Saturday.

While answering questions on NY1's 'Inside City Hall', de Blasio hit back at residents who have labeled the mayor hypocritical during the coronavirus pandemic.

'I go get my exercise like everyone else,' de Blasio said, according to New York Post.

'I go to my home neighborhood. Its part of what helps me just continue to work nonstop. Im on conference calls pretty much the whole time.'

New York's Mayor Bill de Blasio (pictured) said exercising in Brooklyn's Prospect Park has helped him work 'nonstop' during the coronavirus outbreak

I saw him too and was so angry. He has nothing better to do??? A literal walk in the park?? The sirens were nonstop. pic.twitter.com/xYeA0oISKU  Jessica Scott (@j_scott20) April 4, 2020

Vocal New Yorkers lambasted de Blasio for seemingly ignoring his own shelter-in-place and social distancing orders.

They've also taken particular grievance with the fact Prospect Park - located in the city's Brooklyn borough - is 12 miles away from the couple's Upper East Side home.

Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the Mayor New York City, has 11 acres of land and rests within Carl Schurz Park.

(left to right) De Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, were seen jogging in Prospect Park on Saturday

The de Blasio family lives in Gracie Mansion (pictured), an 11 acre home on the Upper East Side that is some 12 miles away from Prospect Park

New Yorkers shared their frustrations with de Blasio on Twitter.

'I saw him too and was so angry,' one woman wrote. 'He has nothing better to do?? A literal walk in the park?? The sirens were nonstop.'

Another wrote: 'Just saw @NYCMayor and @NYCFirst Lady strolling in Prospect Park. Both unmasked.

'The "Do as I say, not as I do Mayor,' one user quipped.

Some residents took to Twitter to vent about their frustrations with de Blasio's exercise plans

Andy Newman: 'Just saw @NYCMayor and @NYCFirst Lady strolling in Prospect Park. Both unmasked'

One agitated user called de Blasio the 'The "Do as I say, not as I do Mayor"' on Twitter

On Monday, De Blasio appeared unmoved by New Yorkers' concerns and attempted to shift focus elsewhere.

'This is just something that we shouldnt focus on. Theres much better things to talk about,' he said.

The Prospect Parks walks, according to de Blasio, help him become a more effective mayor.

'My situation is particular and I am here serving people  and Im just doing something I think will help me to be the most effective,' he said.

As of Monday, the New York City recorded 72,181 confirmed cases and at least 3,485 deaths. The state amassed 131,815 infections and a death toll of 11,000.

Over the last few weeks, de Blasio has navigated continual criticism over his exercise tendencies as COVID-19 plagues New York City.

De Blasio, during a desperate press conference to plead for more ventilators for New York City, fielded similar questions about his cross-borough fitness routine.

He explained: 'I think what  everyone who needs some exercise should get the exercise for the amount of time they need and then get back to home or work if they're doing essential work.

'That's what I do. And I was using a scarf as a face mask and following the exact instruction  face covering, careful that I use the right phrase, face covering.

Pictured: de Blasio has his temperature taken before he tours local companies Crye Precision and Lafayette 148 NY, that have teamed up to make thousands of protective hospital gowns to supply the citys health care workers

'Face covering, a scarf that I had on  and exactly the rules if you're distant from everyone, there's no one near you, there's not a specific need. If you think you're going to be near people, you bring it up and cover your face. That's what I did.'

Some Twitter users noted that neither de Blasio norMcCray are wearing face masks just two days after he advised residents to 'wear a face covering when you go outside.'

De Blasio first came under speculation after he was spotted working out at the Prospect Park YMCA on March 11.

At the time New York City was beginning to see the severity of COVID-19, prompting people to confront de Blasio and his security for delaying city shut down.

Four days later, with the CDC advising against large gathering during the pandemic, de Blasio revealed the initial emergency shutdown orders would not apply to gyms and similar recreational facilities.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo superseded that order and announced gyms would be included in business closures.

But not before de Blasio was seen back at the Prospect Park YMCA.

Two longtime advisers blasted de Blasio on Twitter. Rebecca Katz said: 'No current or former staff member should be asked to defend this. The Mayors actions today are inexcusable and reckless.'

Jonathan Rosen agreed, going so far as to call the action 'pathetic,' 'self-involved' and 'inexcusable.'

That day, Gothamist reports de Blasio said: 'I live in the regular world. I'm very comfortable with what I did.

'I knew in advance that it was a very socially distanced situation, there was almost no one there, I had heard that information prior.'

Cuomo announced Monday that New York's lockdown will extend to April 29.
WASHINGTON  The Navy's top civilian has resigned after criticizing an aircraft carrier captain who pleaded for help with a coronavirus outbreak on his ship. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper accepted the resignation and tapped James McPherson, undersecretary of the Army, to be the new acting Navy secretary. "He resigned on his own accord, putting the Navy and the sailors above self so that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and the Navy as an institution, can move forward," Esper wrote in a Tuesday statement. "I have the deepest respect for anyone who serves our country, and who places the greater good above all else. Secretary Modly did that today, and I wish him all the best." The move comes hours after acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly apologized for ridiculing U.S. Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, whose letter pleading for help amid a coronavirus outbreak on a U.S. warship was leaked to the media. "Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid," wrote Modly in a statement on Monday. "I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship."

"I also want to apologize directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused," he added. Modly's decision came after prominent leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, called for him to resign. "Sadly, Acting Secretary Modly's actions and words demonstrate his failure to prioritize the force protection of our troops," Pelosi said in a statement.

'Too naive or too stupid'

The apology was issued on the heels of a surprise speech Modly made aboard the coronavirus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt. "If he didn't think that information was going to get out into the public in this information age that we live in, then he was, A, too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this," Modly told the crew over a loudspeaker. "The alternative is that he did it on purpose," Modly said, adding that he stood by his decision to relieve Crozier of his command. Read more: Navy relieves captain of duty after he pleaded for help with coronavirus outbreak on aircraft carrier Last week, Modly told reporters at the Pentagon that he had lost confidence in Crozier and that the letter "raised alarm bells unnecessarily."

Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly briefs the press about the Navy's response to COVID-19, at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., April 1, 2020. Lisa Ferdinando | Department of Defense

On Monday, President Donald Trump said he may get involved in the messy tit-for-tat between Modly and Crozier, when asked about the saga revolving around the captain's stunning plea for help. "Look the letters shouldn't have been sent and certainly, they shouldn't have been leaked," Trump said, adding that the letter showed "weakness" within the U.S. Navy. "It was weak, we don't want weak," he added, saying that he wanted to get involved in the matter because he was pleased with Crozier's military career. "I looked at his record and he's been an outstanding person," Trump said. "I'm going to be getting involved and see exactly what is going on there because I don't want to destroy someone for having a bad day."

'Sailors do not need to die'

In a four-page letter, first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, Crozier described a worsening coronavirus outbreak aboard the warship, a temporary home to more than 4,000 crew members. More than 100 people on the ship were infected. "We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset  our Sailors," Crozier wrote. "The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating."

Captain Brett Crozier addresses the crew for the first time as commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt during a change of command ceremony on the ship's flight deck in San Diego, California, U.S. November 1, 2019. U.S. Navy | Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Sean Lynch | Reuters
Some European countries have decided to limit and control journalists' questions during government press conferences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls on all governments not to restrain media activity and organise online press conferences in a way which enables journalists to ask questions without prior filtering.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many European countries to find alternative ways to organise press conferences. Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and France are using online tools to keep the long-standing protocols to hold regular or daily press conferences. However, in the last few weeks, some countries such as Ireland, Spain and Slovenia have organised press conferences where journalists have been forced to send their questions in advance and were not allowed to ask supplementary questions.There have also been allegations that some questions submitted have not been selected.

On 3 April, the Irish Secretary of National Union Journalists (NUJ) Seamus Dooley, expressed his concern to the Irish Minister for finance and public expenditure, Paschal Donohoe, when he required journalists to submit written questions in advance of the press conference. The current crisis should not be used as a pretext for limiting the ability of the media to question ministers directly or to change long-standing protocols, Dooley warned.

In Spain, the government used to keep in touch with media professionals by means of a WhatsApp group of 220 enrolled journalist s . Spanish IFJ affiliates, Federacion Asociaciones Periodistas Espana (FAPE) and Federacion de Sindicatos de Periodistas (FeSP) condemned the government's control over journalists' questions and urged the authorities to ensure at the daily videoconference the right to follow-up questions. On 6 April, the Spanish government accepted the unions' request.

On 20 March, the Slovene Association Of Journalists (SAJ) reacted strongly to new government measures when it banned journalists participation in press conferences.

IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger, said: "We call on all governments to ensure a direct line of communication with journalists and to avoid restrictive and controlling protocols over their work. Journalists must be able to ask their questions without passing through the authorities filter and to ask additional questions when necessary".
The Supreme Court Tuesday directed all sates and Union Territories to ensure through Director Generals of Police (DGPs) that prisoners released from jails get safe transit, so that they can reach their homes amid the lockdown due to coronavirus.

The top court said the prisoners be given an option of staying in temporary shelter homes during the period of lockdown.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao issued the directions in the matter taken up suo motu (on its own) on the conditions of prisons during coronavirus pandemic.

Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appointed amicus curiae by the top court, said the prisoners who have been released according to the guidelines framed by the High-Powered Committees in various states are stranded because they have no means to reach their homes.

Attorney General K K Venugopal said it is very unjust that the prisoners who are released have been left stranded in absence of any transportation.

In these circumstances, we consider it appropriate to direct that Union of India shall ensure that all the prisoners having been released by the States/Union Territories are not left stranded and they are provided transportation to reach their homes or given the option to stay in temporary shelter homes for the period of lockdown, the bench said.

It added that for this purpose, the Centre may issue appropriate directions under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 or any other law for the time being in force.

We further direct that the States/Union Territories shall ensure through Directors General of Police to provide safe transit to the prisoners who have been released so that they may reach their homes. They shall also be given an option for staying in temporary shelter homes during the period of lockdown. Ordered accordingly, the bench said.

The top court had on March 23, directed all states and UTs to constitute high-level committees to consider releasing on parole or interim bail prisoners and undertrials for offences entailing up to 7-year jail term to decongest prisons in the wake of coronavirus.

It said overcrowding of prisons is a matter of serious concern, particularly in the present context of coronavirus (COVID19).

In regard to the provisions of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, it has become imperative to ensure that the spread of coronavirus within the prisons is controlled, the court had said.

The top court had said it would be open for the High Powered Committee to determine the category of prisoners who should be released depending upon the nature of offence, the number of years to which he or she has been sentenced or the severity of the offence with which he/she is charged with and is facing trial or any other relevant factor, which the Committee may consider appropriate.

It also directed that the Undertrial Review Committee set up by the court in another matter, shall meet every week and take such decision in consultation with the concerned authority.

It had directed that there should not be any delay in shifting sick person to a Nodal Medical Institution in case of any possibility of infection is seen and prison specific readiness and response plans must be developed in consultation with medical experts.

The top court added that looking into the possible threat of transmission and fatal consequences, it is necessary that prisons must ensure maximum possible distancing among the prisoners including under trials.

On March 16, the top court had taken suo motu cognisance of overcrowding of prisons across the country and said it is difficult for jail inmates to maintain social distancing to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
test tube

REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz

At least six coronavirus patients have been enrolled in a late-stage clinical trial testing the arthritis drug Actemra as a coronavirus treatment.

Mark Eisner, Genentech's global head of immunology, infectious disease, and ophthalmology clinical development, told Business Insider on Monday the study enrolled the first patients on Friday in the US and Spain.

The study will see if the anti-inflammatory drug can help coronavirus patients with severe cases recover.

The trial will enroll 330 people across the world, and Genentech is hoping to have initial results in early summer, Eisner said.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The first patients have enrolled in a major late-stage clinical trial testing the arthritis drug Actemra as a coronavirus treatment, Business Insider has learned.

The study will ultimately enroll 330 people globally and produce initial results in early summer. Participants have to have severe cases of COVID-19, marked by pneumonia and requiring hospitalization.

Enrolled patients will randomly receive either an IV infusion of Actemra or a matching placebo. After a month, physicians will assess their clinical status on a seven-category scale to see if they improved or worsened. The trial will help answer if Actemra can provide a real benefit to patients with severe COVID-19 cases, particularly after anecdotal reports of its efficacy came out of China.

So far, at least six patients have been enrolled at trial sites in the US and Spain, Mark Eisner, Genentech's global head of immunology, infectious disease, and ophthalmology clinical development, told Business Insider on Monday. Genentech is a subsidiary of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche.

Read more: The US is sprinting to develop a coronavirus vaccine or treatment. Here's how 12 top drugmakers are racing to tackle the pandemic.

Rather than directly fighting the virus, Actemra is an anti-inflammatory drug that may help alleviate symptoms in COVID-19 patients. In particular, some severe cases have been marked by an overactive immune response that can damage the lungs. This testing will help answer if Actemra can help these patients.

Story continues

"It's a very good hypothesis, but it's one that needs rigorous testing in a clinical trial so we can give clinicians, patients, their families, other stakeholders, a clear and definitive answer to what Actemra can do or not do in this disease," Eisner said.

The timing of the results will depend on how quickly patients can enroll at the various sites, Eisner said. So far, Genentech is hoping for early summer.

Actemra isn't the only drug being tested in this anti-inflammatory hypothesis. The biotech Regeneron has also launched a study of its arthritis therapy Kevzara. Both drugs have the same target, called the IL-6 cytokine.

Read more: Pharma giants Sanofi and Regeneron are now testing out an arthritis drug to treat the coronavirus, starting in New York

Since both drugs are already approved in the US and in other countries around the world, doctors have broad authority to use them in nonapproved indications like COVID-19.

"So many physicians around the world have been using it on their own and reporting good results," Eisner said. "We need to get to the bottom of this and answer the question definitively as soon as possible."

Read more: Everything we know about remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, and 4 other drugs being tested against the coronavirus

Read the original article on Business Insider
India, like a lot of countries plunged into crisis by the pandemic, is struggling to ramp up testing for the coronavirus, but in few places would the odds of containing the disease appear so bleak should domestic transmission start to multiply.

Officials hope to be testing 20,000 people daily by the end of the week, twice the current rate.

Since India's first case was confirmed on Jan. 30, India has conducted only a little over 96,000 tests, having focused efforts on identifying those who had come in contact with people who have tested positive.

The results show 4,067 people are infected, and 107 have died of the respiratory disease.

Officials believe a three-week nationwide lockdown ordered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have slowed the spread of the virus in communities, giving them a chance to catch up in the race to stop a full blown epidemic.

Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the Indian health ministry leading the effort to tackle the spread of infections, said the country was increasing its testing capacity gradually.

"We should be not be panicking, we should be preparing," Agarwal said.

"We have followed a pro-active policy from the beginning. Our focus has been on surveillance and contact tracing. Instead of the virus chasing us, we have been chasing the virus."

Testing had already doubled in the last two days from 5,000 samples a day, another health official said. "This is expected to reach 20,000 in the next three days and increase further over the next few weeks as per the plan," the official said.

Further out, the country was planning to scale up to 100,000 tests a day in the "worst-case scenario", the Indian Council of Medical Research, the government arm regulating the testing, said in a statement.

Worldwide, more than 1.25 million people have been reported infected by COVID-19, and far wealthier countries than India have been fiercely criticised for their slow initial response, particularly regarding testing.

Having been chided for a lag in testing, the United States has overtaken China as the country suffering the most infections. The United States has now conducted around a million tests, and 336,000 people have tested positive.

In India, with 1.3 billion people, hundreds of millions of poor, living in unhygienic and crammed-in conditions, there is a very real fear that if the testing starts too far behind the curve, the confirmed cases won't even account for the tip of the tip of the iceberg.

"There is unanimity among epidemiologists, doctors and district-level administrators that the need of the hour is aggressive and extensive testing," said former finance minister P. Chidambaram and a leader of the opposition Congress party.

Yet, doctors say the campaign for mass screening is handicapped by a lack of both testing kits and protective gear for staff carrying out the tests.

SOUTH ASIA

Elsewhere in South Asia, the medical infrastructure can be even more inadequate, and authorities are playing catch up as testing kits become available to them.

Bangladesh and Nepal moved on Monday to further restrict people's movements in the hope of containing the virus.

Nepal's Finance Minister Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada said a two-week lockdown that was due to end on Tuesday will be extended by another week. Bangladesh, struggling to get its people to abide by a similar shutdown, suspended prayers at mosques to stop worshippers from stepping out of their homes.

Afghanistan has had 367 cases from the 2,737 people it has tested. The western border province of Herat has suffered the worst outbreak, as thousands of Afghans returned in recent weeks from Iran, where the virus has hit hard.

Officials say there has been basic screening such as temperature checks but only a fraction of those crossing the border from Iran have been tested.

In Bangladesh, with a population of 160 million, the government has faced criticism also over a lack of testing.

"We are testing at 14-15 different places. We will increase the number of tests to 1,000-1,500 per day in future," Health Minister Zahid Malik said. The testing rate has varied from 300 on Sunday, to barely 50 to 100 last week.

Pakistan's health ministry said it had conducted 35,875 tests so far, based on a policy of testing only those people with a suspect travel history, direct exposure to someone who has tested positive or showing acute symptoms with an underlying history of health problems.

Following are government figures on the spread of the coronavirus in South Asia:

* India has 4067 cases, including 109 deaths

* Pakistan has 3,277 cases, including 50 deaths

* Afghanistan has 367 cases, including 7 deaths

* Sri Lanka has 176 cases, including 5 deaths

* Bangladesh has 123 cases, including 12 deaths

* Maldives has 19 cases and no deaths

* Nepal has nine cases and no deaths

* Bhutan has five cases and no deaths

Also Read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: Country's active COVID-19 cases at 3,851; death toll rise to 111

Also Read: Coronavirus in India: Telangana CM KCR urges PM Modi to extend lockdown by two weeks
Richard J. Cohen, president and chief executive of Public Health Management Corp., at the company's headquarters overlooking City Hall. Read more

The University of Pennsylvania Health System has sold Mill Creek School in West Philadelphia to Public Health Management Corp. (PHMC), an acquisitive Philadelphia nonprofit that provides a wide range of health and social services.

PHMC declined to disclose the price and the number of people who work at Mill Creek. The sale was effective April 2.

The school at 111 N. 49th St. now serves 30 children in grades seventh through 12th who have personal, emotional, and educational challenges, according to PHMC. The school was founded in 1971 as part of the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital. Penn acquired Pennsylvania Hospital in 1997.

Pennsylvania Hospital sold the affiliated behavioral health operation in West Philadelphia in 1996 but continued to run the school through the Hall-Mercer Community Behavioral Health Center of Pennsylvania Hospital.

Mill Creek School was originally called the High School of the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital, according to the Asylum Projects website.

The Mill Creek School complements PHMCs robust special education and educational support programs, said Richard J. Cohen, president and chief executive of PHMC, which employs more than 3,500.

In February, PHMC acquired the Center for Autism.
DALLAS, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- To empower business professionals to improve their marketing skills and develop new capacity to adapt their organizations through economic turbulence, the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) today announced the immediate availability of four free training courses.

Digital Channels: learn tools and techniques to engage more across the key digital marketing channels.

learn tools and techniques to engage more across the key digital marketing channels. Social Media Marketing : learn how to grow and engage a community around your brand through social media.

: learn how to grow and engage a community around your brand through social media. Paid Search (PPC): learn how to execute pay-per-click campaigns using Google Ads while tracking conversations through analytics.

learn how to execute pay-per-click campaigns using Google Ads while tracking conversations through analytics. E-Commerce Strategy: learn key concepts underpinning effective website optimization, website traffic generation, conversion rate optimization, and analytics.

The courses, available at no cost for the first time, are available through DMI's award-winning Power Membership. All fees were waived to join this membership program to enable professionals to access market-leading content through on-demand podcasts, articles, webinars, ebooks and other practical toolkits on topics most relevant to their roles and their businesses.

Courses are designed to provide business owners, leaders, and marketers with the insight needed to manage a brand or business online. As marketing strategies must pivot to accommodate quarantines and stay-at-home orders, professionals don't have time to deep dive into lengthy and complicated marketing training programs. Rather, they need to quickly understand and apply best practices now so they can update programs to promote brand awareness, capture leads and generate sales  during the pandemic and beyond.

"As organizations are forced to alter marketing programs to connect with their audiences in new and creative ways, many professionals are recognizing they have a skills gap in terms of the know-how needed to develop the right strategies to keep their brands active and their customers engaged and informed," said DMI CEO Ken Fitzpatrick. "DMI's free courses and Power Membership deliver the most essential content to empower business leaders, entrepreneurs and small businesses to understand the digital marketing landscape and make informed decisions fast to address current business realities."

For those professionals exploring a digital marketing certification curriculum, DMI is currently offering 30% off of all of its courses, excluding the DMI Master certification program. This includes its dual certification program with the American Marketing Association (AMA), where participants can become dually certified with two respected credentials: AMA's PCM Digital Marketing and DMI's Certified Digital Marketing Professional. Credits from any of the completed free courses will immediately be applied towards the certification program requirements.

Professionals can access the courses through April 30, 2020 when they sign up for the free Power Membership, available via https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-us.

About the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI)

As the global standard in digital marketing professional learning and certification, DMI develops leading players of the most exciting game in the world.

Founded in Ireland, DMI has offices in the U.S. and Australia, 57,000 Members, and partners in more than 150 countries. It works with colleges, universities, and businesses of all sizes to provide marketing professionals with the skills, confidence and industry know-how to stay relevant  and to make an impact  in an always-evolving digital world.

DMI is backed by Spectrum Equity, a leading U.S. based growth equity firm.

Media contact:

Laura Wooster

Lightspeed PR

+1 202-681-4010

[email protected]

SOURCE DMI

Related Links

https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/


British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was in hospital due to persistent coronavirus symptoms, has been shifted to the intensive care unit after his coronavirus symptoms "worsened", Downing Street has said.

Johnson, 55, asked UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab to deputise for him as he was moved on Monday to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at St Thomas' Hospital in London, a move Downing Street said was a precaution should he require ventilation to aid his recovery.

Over the course of this afternoon (Monday), the condition of the Prime Minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the ICU at the hospital, a Downing Street spokesperson said.

The Prime Minister has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is the First Secretary of State, to deputise for him where necessary," the spokesperson said.

Raab, speaking after taking temporary charge, said the team spirit within the government would be focussed on taking Johnson's plans to defeat the pandemic forward.

The minister said: The government's business will continue. The Prime Minister is in safe hands with that brilliant team at St Thomas' hospital, and the focus of the government will continue to be on making sure that the Prime Minister's direction, all the plans for making sure that we can defeat coronavirus and can pull the country through this challenge, will be taken forward".

"There's an incredibly strong team spirit behind the Prime Minister, and making sure that we get all of the plans the Prime Minister's instructed us to deliver, to get them implemented as soon as possible. And that's the way it will bring the whole country through the coronavirus challenge that we face right now, the minister said.

Downing Street said Johnson remains conscious and is receiving excellent care, for which he thanks all National Health Service (NHS) staff for their hard work and dedication.

Queen Elizabeth II has been kept informed about Johnson's health by No 10, according to Buckingham Palace.

According to the BBC, Johnson was given oxygen late on Monday afternoon, before being taken to intensive care. However, he has not been put on a ventilator.

Earlier in the day on Monday, Johnson had messaged from his hospital bed to say that he was in good spirits and staying in contact with his ministers to oversee the UK's coronavirus fightback despite his hospitalisation on Sunday night due to persistent COVID-19 symptoms.

He was last seen in public applauding the NHS and other key workers just outside his flat in Downing Street last Thursday and posted his last Twitter video message on Friday in which he said he was still displaying minor symptoms.

"I still have a temperature. So in accordance with government advice I must continue my self-isolation until that symptom itself goes. But we're working clearly the whole time on our programme to beat the virus," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The coronavirus outbreak, which now threatens the health of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has forever changed Britain.

A sense of disbelief swept through the country as it became clear his 10-day battle with COVID-19 had significantly worsened. After going through so much upheaval over the past four years with Brexit, the Johnson era promised a new era of stability.

News of Boris Johnson's illness has shaken Britain. Credit:Getty Images

The news couldn't have come at a worse time: while countries such as Australia are appearing to flatten the curve, Britain reported more than 600 deaths on Sunday and the virus spares no one - not the leader of the country, not the next in line to the crown.

This is not the first time a leader has fallen ill during a national crisis. Winston Churchill suffered a heart attack during the height of World War 2 in 1941 and contracted pneumonia two years later. Johnson, who literally wrote the book on Churchill, will know this.
A second staff member at the Oregon State Hospital has tested positive for coronavirus, officials said Tuesday. Both staff members worked at the Salem campus.

Rebeka Gibson-King, a hospital spokeswoman, said three patients at the hospital have been tested and all the tests have come back negative. The number of pending tests for staff is unknown, according to Gibson-King.

The hospital, which provides in-patient psychiatric treatment for adults and also has facilities in Junction City, learned of the first case March 31. The second case was disclosed Monday.

The hospital has taken several steps to slow the spread of coronavirus, including requiring staff members to wear masks, monitoring all patients for fevers or other respiratory symptoms, and tracing the contacts of anyone who tests positive.

The hospital is staggering gym and outdoor time to allow for social distancing, creating special areas for high-risk patients, and admitting new patients to a special unit where they are monitored for two weeks before being allowed access to other parts of the hospital.

CORONAVIRUS IN OREGON: THE LATEST NEWS

On Friday, the first inmate in the Oregon prison system tested positive for coronavirus at Santiam Correctional Institution in Salem, officials said. On Monday, inmates filed a class action lawsuit, accusing several top officials from the Department of Corrections and Gov. Kate Brown of failing to prevent the spread of the virus in the states prisons.

-- Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Dairy farmers across the UK are having to dump tens of thousands of gallons of milk due to a massive slump in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

With restaurants and coffee shops closed the demand from the food service industry has plummeted by as much as 50 per cent.

Dairy distributors have failed to turn up to collect supplies as their processing plants are full and they have reached their storage capacity.

Industry experts believe as many as 300 farmers have had to dispose of milk as the produce can no longer be stored.

Among them is Clive Stickland who said: 'It is literally pouring money down the drain.

Dairy farmers across the UK are having to dump tens of thousands of gallons of milk due to a massive slump in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic

Clive Stickland told MailOnline: 'I had to get rid of 4,200 gallons (16,000 litres) when I received an email saying there would be no collection. I did not have the storage capacity to keep the milk so it had to go'

'I had to get rid of 4,200 gallons (16,000 litres) when I received an email saying there would be no collection. I did not have the storage capacity to keep the milk so it had to go.

'We all understand why the demand has dropped but it is still heart-breaking just to throw away our product.'

Mr Stickland, 62, filmed himself opening up the tap on a milk storage tank at his farm near Billingshurst, West Sussex.

His 300 cows produce up to 1,800 gallons (8,000 litres) of milk each day and he has a scheduled collection by tanker every other day.

UK dairies produce just over 220million gallons (one billion litres) of milk each year. Like many dairy farmers Mr Stickland sells his milk to Freshways, the UK's largest independent dairy distributor.

They supply hundreds of companies in the food service sector, including McDonalds, British Airways and P&0 cruises.

With those businesses closed or furloughing staff due to Covid-19 crisis they have a surplus of milk and have also faced problems with drivers and other staff having to self isolate and so reducing their capacity to work as normal.

The supply of milk to the retail sector for shops and supermarkets has been unaffected.

Fourth generation dairy farmer llyr Griffiths had to dispose of 2,500 gallons (11,500 litres) of milk when his collection from Freshways failed to arrive.

UK dairies produce just over one billion litres of milk each year. Like many dairy farmers Mr Stickland sells his milk to Freshways, the UK's largest independent dairy distributor

Fourth generation dairy farmer llyr Griffiths had to dispose of 11,500 litres of milk when his collection from Freshways failed to arrive

The 28-year-old, who runs a farm with 500 cows in Llangoedmor, near Cardigan, North Wales, was sent an email the day before his scheduled collection telling him it had been cancelled.

Disposing of the milk as cost him 3,000 and he fears this is just the start that could see his livelihood collapse.

He said: 'What is so worrying is that there is no guarantee on when the collections will take place.

'The cows have to be milked and if it is not collected, I've no choice but to throw it all away.

'Until the lockdown is lifted we are not going to see any change.'

Abi Reader, who runs a farm in the Vale of Glamorgan, said: 'Roughly 50 per cent of milk goes into retail & 50 per cent into food service.

'The food service sector has more or less gone. The food service sector had more value. And any dairy going into exports has become incredibly difficult to shift.

'Retail has picked up 20-25 per cent uplift from loss of the food sector but there is a heck of a lot of excess milk floating around. With the loss of coffee shops, bakeries, vending machines, pubs and restaurants people aren't consuming dairy in the same way.'

The National Farmers Union have called in the Government to step in and help those farmers affected.

NFU Chairman Michael Oakes said: 'We have seen the almost complete loss of the foodservice market and closure of restaurants and cafes during the lockdown which has left some processors with little or no business.

'This has led to some farmers feeling like they have no option but to dispose of milk on farm.

The National Farmers Union have called in the Government to step in and help. NFU Chairman Michael Oakes said: 'We have seen the almost complete loss of the foodservice market during the lockdown which has left some processors with little or no business'

'We are working as a matter of urgency with government and the supply chain to find solutions to the problem, including measures that will divert milk into retail and developing measures that will support affected farmers through this crisis.'

A spokesman for the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers said they had asked the Government to reimburse dairy farmers who are receiving a significantly reduced value or are having to dispose of their milk.

Peter Alvis, Chairman of RABD, said: 'Removing the excess distressed milk from the market place will help to stabilise the current spot price without causing long-term market distortion.'

A spokesman for Freshways was unavailable for comment.

A Defra spokesperson said: 'We have taken a number of measures to support our food and farming sectors to manage the impact of coronavirus on the dairy supply chain.

'We are also working very closely with farmer and processor representatives to understand the specific challenges that the dairy sector is facing.
In an effort to help the medical community in the fight against COVID-19, VUNO (Seoul, South Korea), an AI medical imaging software company, is offering special versions of two AI products, VUNO Med- LungQuant and VUNO Med-Chest X-ray: COVID-19, encompassing both lung X-ray and CT modalities, respectively all at once. VUNO's one-stop service offering will allow users to choose one or both algorithms to use depending on their own needs by simply visiting one website without the hassle of moving from different AI systems. The web-based services are available for free for anyone who wants to use VUNO's AI algorithms to analyze a chest X-ray or CT scan.The common theme of the two AI solutions is to empower healthcare providers to provide better patient care by assisting them in the screening, diagnosis, and management of COVID-19 infected patients using VUNOs AI technology. The company has developed the AI solutions to help protect healthcare providers from burnout or help overworked doctors on the edge of exhaustion in virus fight make a speedier and more accurate diagnostic decision in the current difficult time. In addition, VUNO's cloud-based service offering will enable remote result reading and tracking of the status of patients infected with COVID-19, where radiologists are not readily available. Medical institutions and healthcare providers are encouraged to make the best use of VUNO's free online service offering available at https://covid19.vunomed.com
While blasting "We Like to Party!" by Vengaboys, a San Antonio family dressed up in funny costumes and drove around for two hours Sunday morning to toss bean and cheese tacos to teenagers who are members of their youth group.

Anne Bridges, the theater director at Holmes High School, said she and her husband Robbie typically host their youth group meetings every Tuesday night at Las Palapas.

READ MORE: The latest news and features about coronavirus in San Antonio

Since the stay-at-home orders went into effect to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, the meetings have been conducted via Zoom and FaceTime.

Because they haven't seen the group's members in person for weeks, the Bridges family decided to surprise all 12 by driving to each of their homes located in the Northwest Side area and tossing them the tacos.

Bridges said she wore a husky onesie while her husband wore a tiger suit, adding that her kids even joined in on the fun and made signs that read "We love ya'll" and "We miss you."

"The smile on their faces was just amazing," she said. "A lot of the kids are also my students and it was nice to see them. We really just wanted to give them a break from the routine we've all falling into."

READ ALSO: BCSO performs drive-by parade for 9-year-old to celebrate his birthday

The couple followed up with the teens on Monday, texting them that "they aren't alone" during this self-isolation period.

"We did it to let them know we are worried about them and that we care for them," Bridges said. "We are praying to see them again after all this is over."

The youth group originally began as a church-run organization but after the church dissolved the family kept it going by hosting fundraisers to help keep it going.

Priscilla Aguirre is a general assignment reporter for MySA.com | priscilla.aguirre@express-news.net | @CillaAguirre

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:
Senator Gerard Craughwell described the decision as the final kick in the teeth for the Defence Forces

There is anger at a government decision not to pay re-enlisting members of the Defence Forces their pensions during the Covid-19 crisis, while the opposite is apparently the case for returning healthcare workers and prison officers.

A senator has said hes prepared to help mount a legal challenge against the decision amid warnings it may deter much-needed specialists from rejoining the Defence Forces.

Senator Gerard Craughwell described the decision as the final kick in the teeth for the Defence Forces.

He said three times during a Seanad debate on the crisis he asked the government to apply the same criteria to the Defence Forces as prison officers and healthcare workers, but was totally ignored.

The Defence Forces are the poorest paid of all of them. This is going to penalise them.

"This is the final kick in the teeth for the Defence Forces. Its the Taoiseach saying I value every other worker over you, Mr Craughwell said.

He said he had already sought legal advice on the issue.

Pensions are regarded in this State as a property right, Mr Craughwell said.

The lack of a level playing field was also criticised by the Defence Forces officers representative association, RACO.

Its deputy general secretary, Colonel Derek Priestly, said many highly-skilled specialists had departed the Defence Forces in the last number of years due to inferior remuneration and service conditions.

Many of these specialists would consider coming back into military service for the period of the Covid-19 crisis even with pension abatement.

"Unfortunately, the fact that other former public sector specialists will not have their pensions stopped, demonstrates again that Defence Forces personnel are not treated on an equal footing relative to other essential personnel, Col Priestly said.

"The Minister (for Defence) has the authority to change this (pension decision), as the Ministers for Health and Justice have quickly done, Col Priestly said.

PDForra, which represents enlisted Defence Forces members said it also sought to allow those returning to be paid their pensions during their renewed period of service.

PDForra general secretary Gerard Guinan, said hed sought the waiver of pension abatement for returning members.

This had also been sought by public representatives during the Dail debate on the Emergency Bill, Mr Guinan said.

The Department of Defence has argued the scheme for re-enlistment is for a minimum period of six months and for up to three years.

It admitted while re-enlistment will assist in the Defence Forces aid to the Covid-19 response, the scheme is designed for medium to long-term requirements and is not comparable to other sectors.

However, it is widely believed the current lockdown could last for many more weeks and even months.

The Department said: The waiver of the pension abatement which has been sanctioned to other sectors, such as the appointment on a temporary basis of former prison officers or health professionals, is time-bound for the period specifically for the Covid-19 response.
President of Ukraine thanked Washington for 1.2 million dollars of targeted assistance to Ukraine to fight the spread of coronavirus

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed ways of combating coronavirus during their telephone conversation that took place on April 6. This was reported by the press service of the President of Ukraine.

"The United States is now at the epicenter of the battle against the pandemic. I share the pain of the thousands of Americans who have lost loved ones, I sincerely wish a quick recovery to those who are currently battling the disease. I am confident that the United States will successfully pass through all these trials. I wish you good health," Zelensky stated.

He also raised questions about potential loan guarantees from the United States to Ukraine that would allow stabilizing the economy, in addition to expected loans from the IMF, the World Bank, and other foreign partners.

President of Ukraine thanked Washington for 1.2 million dollars of targeted assistance to Ukraine to fight the spread of COVID-19, as well as for the continued support of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a sanctions policy on Russia.

As we reported earlier, the International Monetary Fund expects Ukraine to adopt amendments to the state budget for 2020.
[April 07, 2020] Baker McKenzie Hires Pre-Eminent Cross-Border Restructuring Team Led by Chair of the American College of Bankruptcy, Mark Bloom

Leading global law firm Baker McKenzie has made a significant hire in its Global Restructuring and Insolvency (R&I) practice with three renowned names in the field. Mark Bloom, Paul Keenan and John Dodd have deep experience in insolvency, business reorganization, and cross-border bankruptcy and restructuring around the globe. They join the Firm from Greenberg Traurig where Mark led the firm's Global Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005463/en/ Mark Bloom, Partner, Baker McKenzie (Photo: Business Wire) Mark is one of the preeminent bankruptcy lawyers globally and currently serves in the prestigious position of Chair of the American College of Bankruptcy. His experience spans more than 35 years and includes all areas of US and cross-border financial restructuring, reorganization and bankruptcy. He represents debtors, trustees, secured and unsecured creditors, and official committees and purchasers of troubled companies and their assets, both in and out of bankruptcy court. He has been consistently recognized by Chambers Global and USA since 2003, and the Legal 500 since 2009. He is very active in the bankruptcy community and has held a number of notable positions which include, in addition to his work for the American College f Bankruptcy, membership in the International Insolvency Institute and multiple speaking engagements for INSOL.



Paul has emerged as a go-to debt restructuring lawyer for major global companies operating around the world. His practice includes the representation of corporate debtors and creditors in bankruptcy cases, receiverships, assignments for the benefit of creditors, loan workouts, asset sales, wind downs and UCC foreclosures. He represents clients in courts across Florida and nationwide, including wide-ranging experience before the bankruptcy courts in Delaware. Paul has substantial experience representing clients in Latin America and the Caribbean, where he most recently led a successful out of court restructuring for a leading airline. Paul also provides insolvency-related structuring advice and legal opinions in connection with complex financial transactions. He has been recognized by Chambers USA yearly since 2014. John is a rising star within the bankruptcy and restructuring space and is a past winner of the "Most Effective Lawyers" award given by the Daily Business Review. He has also been recognized by Super Lawyers Magazine and Florida Super Lawyers, among other publications. John is experienced in handling transactions and litigation that arise in business reorganizations, liquidations, distressed asset acquisitions and sales, financial restructurings, and loan workouts. He represents debtors, trustees, secured and unsecured creditors, and official committees and purchasers of troubled companies and their assets, both in and out of bankruptcy court.

"We have been steadily building up our R&I practice globally, and have been looking to further strengthen our group in the US for some time," said Debra Dandeneau, chair of Baker McKenzie's Global Restructuring and Insolvency Group. "Mark is a colleague with whom I've worked for years. His outstanding reputation and technical knowledge, along with the additional expertise of Paul and John, will be a tremendous asset for our clients." Baker McKenzie's R&I practice, recognized by Chambers Global, has advised on some of the largest and most complex multijurisdictional restructurings, recoveries and insolvencies for many years. Its lawyers have the fluency to manage local regulatory, tax, employment, disputes and other legal issues that arise. Their ability to mobilize experienced multidisciplinary teams across borders produces efficiencies that often make a critical difference in the outcome of any restructuring or insolvency. "Bringing this preeminent restructuring team on board is just another example of the fantastic momentum we are building in the Miami market. Mark, Paul and John are leaders in complex cross-border restructurings of multinational corporations, especially in Latin America," said Scott Brandman, managing partner of Baker McKenzie's New York and Miami offices. "Their practice will perfectly complement our existing capabilities for companies doing business across the Americas and around the world." "As we navigate the next economic downturn, being ready with a strong R&I practice is crucial for us to support our clients," said Baker McKenzie's North America Chief Executive Officer Colin Murray. "With Mark, Paul and John, we are well positioned to guide clients through the uncharted territory we are now in." Mark received his BA from Yale University and his JD from Maryland School of Law. Paul received his BA from Tufts University and his JD from University of Miami School of Law. John received his BA from Harvard College and his JD from University of Florida Levin College of Law. About Baker McKenzie Baker McKenzie helps clients overcome the challenges of competing in the global economy. We solve complex legal problems across borders and practice areas. Our unique culture, developed over 70 years, enables our 13,000 people to understand local markets and navigate multiple jurisdictions, working together as trusted colleagues and friends to instill confidence in our clients. (www.bakermckenzie.com) View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005463/en/

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The airport has handled a Special Passenger Charter flight of the national carrier - Air India to evacuate a few US nationals from Hyderabad city in Telangana.

 99 US nationals airlifted by an Air India Special Relief Flight

 RGIA has handled 3 evacuation flights So far

 Operating cargo services to keep the vital link of essential supplies fully alive and operational

When Covid-19 pandemic has brought the world down to its knees and India is under virtual lock-down; GMR led Hyderabad International Airport is standing resolute, while handling Covid-19 relief and evacuation flights in support of the nations efforts.

Today, the airport has handled a Special Passenger Charter flight of the national carrier  Air India to evacuate a few US nationals from Hyderabad city in Telangana. As per the flight itinerary, the special flight of Air India  AI 1617(Arrival)/AI 1618 (Departure), an airbus A 320 aircraft landed at Hyderabad International Airport today at 3.12 PM from Mumbai and departed with the US-bound passengers at 4.15 PM to Mumbai. The flight was a purely domestic and operated from the main Passenger Terminal Building of Hyderabad International Airport. As per the flight itinerary, the passengers were to be further connected with Delta Airlines from Mumbai to their final destination in the US.

In coordination with the US Consulate and the Telangana State government, a group of 98 adults and 1 infant US-bound passengers arrived at the airport at around 1 PM from various part of Hyderabad City. All these passengers were serviced through the fully-sanitized main passenger terminal building, which has been kept ready for evacuation operations.

To meet this emergency requirement, a select group of personnel from GHIAL Terminal Operations, Airside Operations, AOCC (Airport Operations & Control Center), ATC (Air Traffic Control), IT Team, CISF (Central Industrial Security Force), Landside Security, Airline Ground Handlers, ARFF (Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting) services, RAXA security, Trolley Operators, Housekeeping Staff, among others were available to ensure safe and seamless departure of the passengers.



Special screening and safety measures were in place during the flights handling to protect against the COVID-19 threat including thermal screening prior to terminal entry, mandatory social distancing enforced through special queuing arrangements at all passenger processing points.

On 31st March, 2020, GHIAL had handled a group of 38 German Nationals who flew by a special flight of Air India which ferried the passengers from Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai to Frankfurt. On 28th March, 2020, GHIAL serviced a special Medical Evacuation Flight of IndiGo, which dropped its 8 crew members bound for Hyderabad and departed to Chennai with 5 stranded IndiGo crew members.

While RGIA is keeping the evacuation flights operating seamlessly as per requirements, its cargo terminal is also fully operational to keep the vital link of essential supplies completely alive. The cargo is working round the clock in close coordination with the Customs, Ground Handlers, Forwarders, CHAs (Customs House Agents), Regulators, State Police, Cargo Trade associations, to keep rolling the critical chain of essential supplies viz. Medicines, Vaccines, Medical equipment, Pharma raw material, Defense Goods, Bank related etc. seamlessly.

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Two off-duty police officers have been given $1,000 fines for breaching coronavirus social distancing laws after partying at an apartment.

The two senior constables, a 27-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman, had been at the party in Sydney's CBD on Saturday with three other revellers.

All five were issued with penalty infringement notices for failing to comply with the Public Health Act.

It comes as it emerged police in New South Wales have issued 18 notices for breaches of the act since Friday to enforce rules on social gatherings during the pandemic.

A police officer patrols Bondi Beach to oversee social distancing measures on March 21. Two officers have been given $1,000 fines for breaching coronavirus restrictions by partying in an apartment

People can also only leave their homes for one of 16 essential reasons and gatherings are restricted to only two people.

The pair of officers were caught after the woman was perceived to be in a drunken state by police patrolling on King Street about 8.30pm.

'Officers from Sydney City Police Area Command were conducting a patrol when they observed a woman who appeared to be intoxicated being assisted by a man on King Street,' NSW Police said in a statement.

The woman was taken to St Vincent's Hospital for treatment and released about 2am on Sunday morning.

After further inquiries, police discovered the woman had been at a social gathering with the 31-year-old man at a nearby apartment.

'Police conducted further inquiries and established the 27-year-old woman, a serving Senior Constable attached to Police Transport Command, and the 31-year-old man had been at a nearby apartment at a social gathering,' the spokesperson said.

'A 27-year-old man, a serving Senior Constable attached to Fairfield City Police Area Command, a 28-year-old woman, and a 31-year-old woman, were also in attendance.'

The pair of officers were caught after the woman was perceived to be in a drunken state by police patrolling on King Street (pictured) about 8.30pm

On Tuesday, the five party-goers were issued with $1000 PINs.

Police have issued 18 PINs in the four days to Monday - including to motorists driving around for no reason and failing to move on when told to by officers.

One man, 21, trying to enjoy a kebab on a park bench in Newcastle was fined on April 2after ignoring two warnings from police earlier that day.

Anyone who breaches the social distancing guidelines in NSW faces a maximum fine of $11,000, six months in jail or a hefty $1,000 on-the-spot fine.
By PTI

DHAKA: Bangladesh on Monday suspended prayers for the public at mosques across the country in a bid to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus after four more COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 12.

"Four more people died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, while another 35 cases were confirmed," Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Director Meerjady Sabrina Flora told an online media briefing.

She said the fresh reports of infections were detected as 468 samples were tested at 14 facilities, nine of them being in Dhaka.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Religious Affairs on Monday issued an emergency notice restricting the congregation in mosques.

ALSO READ | Bangladesh announces USD 8 billion stimulus package to fight coronavirus

The ministry urged the public to pray at home.

The notice also said that a maximum of 10 people can attend the weekly Friday prayers in mosques.

The government also restricted visits to other places of worship.

In several Muslim-majority countries, the 'azaan' (call for prayer) has been amended and now it urges people to pray in their homes.

Director General of Health Services Abul Kalam Azad said one of the four dead in the last 24 hours was a director of the independent Anti-Corruption Commission, who was being treated for infection along with two other family members.

The 48-year-old official died early Monday after eight days of treatment at the Bangladesh Kuwait Friendship Hospital, the hospital said.

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Azad said 739 people were quarantined in the past 24 hours, 30 of them in institutional quarantine while another 23 suspects were kept on isolation.

The health officials briefing came hours after Health Minister Zahid Maleque issued a note of warning that Bangladesh was facing extra COVID-19 risks in the next 30 days as healthcare officials said the virus now appeared as a community wise pandemic.

"Community transmission of the virus has begun," a spokesman of the directorate general of health services said, adding that 64 of the 123 infection cases were reported from Dhaka and 23 from Narayanganj on the outskirts of the capital.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday announced stimulus packages to the tune of Taka 72,750 crore (USD 8,573 million) to counter the adverse effects of coronavirus on the country's economy.

"Earlier I declared Taka 5,000 crore (emergency) incentive package for paying salaries and allowances of export-oriented industry workers and employees and today I am announcing four fresh financial stimulus packages of Tk 67,750 crore," she said in a televised address from her official Ganobhaban residence.

"I hope our economy will rebound and we can reach near the desired economic growth, if the stimulus packages -- the previous and the fresh ones -- are quickly rolled out," she said.

Bangladesh on Saturday extended the nationwide transport shutdown till April 11.
Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government will prosecute the organizers of a prohibited funeral service that infected dozens of people with the coronavirus in the Kurdish region of Iraq, officials told a local news organization.

Arrest warrants have been issued for five people who organized a mourning ceremony on March 21 which led to the infection" of a number of people with COVID-19, a spokesperson for Erbil's crisis task force told Rudaw.

Some of those wanted for arrest are themselves hospitalized with the virus, the Erbil-based news outlet reported. Their arrests will be delayed until they have recovered.

Despite a ban on funerals and other large gatherings, mourners gathered last month in Erbil's Karezan neighborhood for two separate services that infected at least 72 people, Health Minister Saman Barzanji said. On Sunday, the ministry announced 18 new cases in Erbil, each of whom came in contact with an infected person during one of the funerals.

The infected mourners now make up 35% of all cases in Erbil, according to the citys health directorate, which announced plans to sue the two families who broke the rules by holding the funerals. Rudaw quoted Barzanji as saying today that Karezan and 10 other neighborhoods have been placed under quarantine.

The Kurdistan region is in grave danger and is facing a humanitarian catastrophe, Barzanji said earlier this week.

Iraq's Kurdistan region has reported a total number of 288 cases and three deaths. The central government in Iraq today announced 1,122 cases and a death toll of 65. Health care workers on the front lines have told Reuters the number of infected persons in Iraq is likely much higher than what has been publicly reported.

Also today, an Iraqi delegation arrived in China to bring back medical supplies and preventative equipment, the countrys air force said on Twitter. The pandemic, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, has killed more than 81,000 people worldwide.
The World Bank last week announced its East Asia and Pacific in the time of COVID-19 report, which stated that while prospects remain favourable for the Vietnamese economy in the medium term, GDP growth will be affected negatively by the coronavirus outbreak, now a global pandemic. Preliminary estimates suggest that the rate of expansion of the economy could decline to about 4.9 per cent in 2020, which is about 1.6 percentage points lower than our previous forecast, read the report.

However, the World Bank also showed its strong belief that over the medium term, growth is projected to rebound back to 7.5 per cent in 2021 and converge at around 6.5 per cent in 2022, reflecting an improved external demand and a firming of the services sector, as well as a gradual recovery in agricultural production. The economy will also rebound from the global coronavirus pandemic, said World Bank country director for Vietnam Ousmane Dione.

Global analyst FocusEconomics last week told VIR that it projects the Vietnamese economy to expand by only 5.2 per cent in 2020, down 1.3 percentage points from last months forecast, and 7 per cent in 2021. Notably, the firms February forecast of 6.5 per cent was lower than the previous months projection of 6.6 per cent.

It is the first time FocusEconomics has issued consecutive downward revisions of Vietnams economic growth projections in years, due to the fast and dangerous spread of COVID-19, which has been badly affecting almost all sectors in the economy.

Growth is seen slowing markedly this year due to the impact of the coronavirus. Nevertheless, fundamentals remain solid and the economy should still perform favourably compared to ASEAN peers. A possible worsening of the viral outbreak and domestic banking vulnerabilities pose downside risks to the outlook, said the statement.

Under FocusEconomics, Vietnam is projected to remain one of the ASEANs top performers in 2020 thanks to strong domestic demand.

Specifically, the analysts reported, the growth rates this year for Asia will be 2.9 per cent, against the ASEAN (3.4 per cent), Indonesia (4.5 per cent), Laos (6.4 per cent), Malaysia (2.8 per cent), Myanmar (6.8 per cent) the Philippines (5.2 per cent), Singapore (-0.2 per cent), and Thailand (0.8 per cent).

Meanwhile, Fitch Solutions under Fitch Ratings, one of the worlds three largest rating firms, has also just cut its projections for Vietnams growth this year.

In light of the worsening global outbreak, we are revising our 2020 growth forecast for Vietnam down to 6.3 per cent, from 6.8 per cent previously, the group said in a statement.

It explained that a disruption of supply chains in the region will result in slower manufacturing growth, due to an inability to secure inputs from and export to China, a key trade partner. Moreover, a cutback in tourist arrivals from the countrys top three markets  China, South Korea, and Japan  will weigh on tourism and by extension the services industry.

However, according to Fitch Solutions, Vietnams 2020 growth will likely be higher than that of many regional nations, like Indonesia (4.8 per cent), the Philippines (6 per cent), Singapore (1 per cent), and Thailand (2 per cent). All these nations have also been hit hard by COVID-19.

According to these data rating agencies, the reasons behind Vietnams expected better performance is that the country is pushing up its economic restructuring, making it a more business-friendly destination for investors and firms. Especially, free trade agreements have also been making Vietnam more attractive.

In February, the EU Parliament approved the EU-Vietnam trade deal, paving the way for it to come into force later this year and boding well for the external sector in the medium-term, FocusEconomics added.

Meanwhile, as per the International Monetary Fund as of March 3 for Vietnam under COVID-19, the country may grow 5.8 per cent this year if the pandemic reaches its peak in late April. A second scenario posits that the economy may increase by 4.8 per cent if the situation lasts longer, with grave impacts on global demand if the pandemic expands on a larger scale within the country.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) stated in a report, In order to control the pandemic well and ensure the safety of people, it is a must to sacrifice some economic benefits.

Vietnams economy grew 3.82 per cent on-year in the first quarter of 2020, the lowest first-quarter growth rate since 2009 (see box).

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has repeatedly stressed that all resources must be mobilised to put paid to the virus and that Vietnam stands ready to sacrifice some economic benefits in order to eradicate the pandemic.

The government expects that the growth rate will be 6.8-7 per cent this year. Previously, PM Phuc ordered that despite difficulties from COVID-19, Vietnam should not change its growth target, and all efforts must be made to reach it.

According to an updated scenario by the MPI, if the outbreak ends in the second quarter of 2020, GDP will grow only 5.96 per cent this year.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-07 19:19:02

CEO Andrew O'Shaughnessy says the company wants "to do everything we can to support these heroic people"

CORK, Ireland, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Essential communication technology is being made available free of charge to COVID-19 healthcare crisis teams in their battle against the pandemic.



Public health services around the world are being offered the critical communication firepower by Poppulo  a global leader in employee communications technology  to connect with their frontline workers and first responders.

Ireland's national public health service, the Health Service Executive, has already taken up the offer for its COVID-19 communication team.

Poppulo CEO, Andrew OShaughnessy, said the company was in the privileged position that its platform was designed for the type of urgent communications public healthcare crisis teams need right now, and it wanted to help in any way possible.

The company has fast-tracked set-up processes so that crisis teams can get up and running quickly.

Every day, communications to over 25 million employees in over 900 companies across 100+ countries are sent through Poppulo, and over the past few weeks, tens of millions of those communications have been related to the COVID-19 crisis.

For crisis teams, its critical to be able to get the right information to the right people at the right time, and not burden already overwhelmed frontline workers with communications that are not relevant to them. The crisis teams also need to be able to get instant feedback from the coalface.

For frontline workers in the turmoil and uncertainty of a crisis, its imperative they can rely on getting the most up-to-date information they need to know from trusted sources, through email or mobile app no matter where they are at any time.

This is what Poppulo was designed to do and how COVID-19 teams can use it.

Working with big multinational organizations every day, we know how to get the communications needed by frontline staff in place rapidly and want to do everything we can to help these heroic people, said Mr. OShaughnessy.

Contact for media queries: Tim Vaughan: tvaughan@poppulo.com

Healthcare Crisis Teams can find out more here

About Poppulo

Shaping the future of employee communications

When many of the worlds most successful organizations - including GSK, Aon, Telefonica, Honda, and CDK Global - want to solve complex employee communication and engagement challenges with their large international workforces, they look to Poppulo.

Custom-built software designed for the internal communications sector enables organizations to plan, target, publish and measure the impact of their communications across multiple digital channels - email, mobile, video, social networks, all on one platform.

Just as easily, employee sentiment can quickly and regularly be assessed using the same technology.

Poppulo is based in Cork, Ireland, and its USA headquarters is in Boston, MA.

For more information: poppulo.com




President Donald Trump doubled down on his defense of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for use to combat the coronavirus, saying no one would die from the pill.

'You not going to die from this pill. There could be some side effects but the side effects is more so from the Z pack,' he said Tuesday at his daily White House press briefing, referring to the antibiotic Zithromax-Pak, which can adversely affect people with certain heart conditions.

Trump has become a champion for hydroxychloroquine despite doubts from some medical officials about its efficiency in treating the virus, pointing to the lack of reputable scientific studies.

The president was quizzed about the drug's side effects but noted his lack of a medical degree.

'I am not a doctor,' the president said. 'I'm saying that we hear great results.'

President Trump doubled down on his defense of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus

He advised people to get advice from a doctor before taking it.

'Again, I'm not a doctor. I say get a physician's approval. They have physicians in these hospitals, great physicians, brave physicians. They also say it's good for the hospital workers to take them. That it keeps it away,' he noted.

The president was lobbied to use hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus during an Oval Office visit from Fox News host Laura Ingraham and two doctors who are frequent guests on her show.

Side effects of hydroxychloroquine Nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, diarrhea, dizziness, or headache slow heartbeat, symptoms of heart failure (such as shortness of breath, swelling ankles/feet, unusual tiredness, unusual/sudden weight gain) mental/mood changes (such as anxiety, depression, rare thoughts of suicide, hallucinations) hearing changes (such as ringing in the ears, hearing loss), easy bruising/bleeding signs of infection or liver disease muscle weakness, unwanted/uncontrolled movements (including tongue/face twitching), hair loss, hair/skin color changes low blood sugar, severe dizziness, fainting, fast/irregular heartbeat, seizures - from WebMD Advertisement

Trump, in his daily briefing Tuesday, talked about Michigan State Rep. Karen Whitsett, who he saw on Ingraham's show the previous evening talking about her experience with the drug.

'A woman last night, I watched her on one of the shows, good show, Laura, and she thought she was dead. She was a representative from Michigan. She was just in horrible shape for 12 days, 14 days. She thought she was dead. I think she said that her doctor said it's going to be very tough. She saw me talking about this and she asked her husband to go to the drugstore. This is a Democrat representative, a person that you know perhaps wouldn't be voting for me. I think she will be voting for me now even if she's a Democrat,' he said.

'She asked her husband, she said please go out. I'm not going to make it. You have to hear her story. Please go out and get it. He went at 10:00 in the evening to the drugstore and he got it. He gave it to her. I don't say it works like this but four hours later she woke and she said I feel better. And then shortly thereafter she felt great,' the president said.

Whitsett, in her interview with Ingraham, said she had heard of hydroxychloroquine because she has chronic lyme disease but noted the drug 'saved my life.'

'If President Trump had not talked about this it would not have been accessible to everyone,' she said.

She said she felt better within a few hours of taking the anti-malaria.

She spent most of her five minute interview with Ingraham talking about how difficult it was to get tested for the virus.

'It was a very long process,' she said.

And, it was revealed on Tuesday, Trump has a financial stake in a French firm that makes the drug.

The president came out of the Oval Office meeting with Ingraham full of enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine, which has shown some promise but has not undergone rigorous testing for its treatment of COVID-19, The Washington Post reported.

And Trump has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French company that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine, The New York Times reported.

President Donald Trump was lobbied to use hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus during an Oval Office visit from Fox News host Laura Ingraham

Laura Ingraham brought two doctors who frequently appear on her show with her to the Oval Office meeting to talk to President Trump about hydroxychloroquine

But the investment is part of the Trump family's larger stake in a mutual fund whose largest holding is in Sanofi. The French drugmaker also manufactures many other drugs and there is no suggestion that Trump is motivated by personal gain and may even be unaware of the investment.

Sanofi does not market hydroxychloroquine in the United States or in the United Kingdom, according to the company.

Trump repeatedly has advocated for hydroxychloroquine to be used as a treatment option for the coronavirus even as many medical officials - including Dr. Tony Fauci, who sits on the White House Coronavirus Task Force - have urged a more cautious approach, noting the lack of reputable scientific studies on hydroxychloroquine.

But the president's focus on the drug comes from a combination and optimism, sources told The Post, as Trump looks for a magic bullet to make the pandemic go away and let the economy reopen in time to recover before November's election.

'The president lives in a world of wishes and hope,' one person said.

'It's the only thing anyone has held out as offering an immediate reprieve from what's become his greatest challenge - and political threat,' said a former senior administration official. This official described Trump's 'overwhelming desire for a silver bullet to make it all go away.'

Trump has given his own reasons for advocating the drug.

'I want people to live and I'm seeing people dying,' he explained Sunday during his daily press briefing.

'What really do we have to lose?' he asked after announcing his administration had bought 29 million doses of the drug to combat the virus.

'But what do I know? I'm not a doctor,' Trump conceded. 'I'm not acting as a doctor. I'm saying, do what you want.'

Ingraham has promoted hydroxychloroquine on her 10 p.m. Fox News show.

When she met with the president, she brought with her two of the guests she refers to as her 'medical cabinet': Ramin Oskoui, a Washington D.C.-based cardiologist, and Stephen Smith, a New Jersey-based infectious disease specialist.

Ingraham brought to her Trump meeting two of the guests she refers to as her 'medical cabinet': Ramin Oskoui, a Washington D.C.-based cardiologist, and Stephen Smith, a New Jersey-based infectious disease specialist

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn was in the room as well at the president's request.

Smith, a graduate of Yale Medical School who is a former fellow at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, gave the president a presentation about hydroxychloroquine based on his own experiences and studies, two White House officials and a person familiar with the meeting told The Post.

Smith told the newspaper he walked Trump through a spreadsheet and other documents about how the drug works.

'I'm a guy who looks at data,' Smith said. 'I came as a scientist and physician. I trained under Dr. Fauci and respect him a lot.'

And he told Ingraham on her show Wednesday night: 'I think this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic. I'm very serious.'

He also told her that none of his coronavirus patients who have been on a hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin regimen for five days or more has had to be intubated.

Oskoui, meanwhile, advised Trump on health care policy during the 2016 campaign. And, in 2018, he wrote an op-ed for LifeZette, the conservative news website founded by Ingraham where he's listed as a senior health care adviser, arguing that school shootings could be prevented by taking teenagers off of certain anti-depressants.

He advocated for hydroxychloroquine on Ingraham's show last week.

'We don't have time to do beautiful, randomized clinical trials. We know these drugs have a very good safety margin,' Oskoui said. 'These drugs are clearly effective and safe. They're cheap and they're easy to access. The biggest problem with hydroxychloroquine may be getting enough of it.'

The American Medical Association's president, Dr Patrice Harris, told the Associated Press she personally would not prescribe the drug for a coronavirus patient, saying the risks of severe side effects were 'great and too significant to downplay' without large studies showing the drug is safe and effective for such use.

Harris pointed to the drug's high risk of causing heart rhythm problems.

'People have their health to lose,' she said. 'Your heart could stop.'

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has been procuring hydroxychloroquine and got into a heated fight with Dr. Anthony Fauci about the effectiveness of the drug

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has urged caution when it comes to the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus

In a heated Situation Room meeting of the White House's coronavirus task force Saturday, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro challenged Dr. Anthony Fauci over his concerns about recommending the drug based only on unscientific anecdotal evidence.

Navarro, who has no formal medical training, erupted at Fauci, raising his voice and claiming the reports of studies he had collected were enough to recommend the drug widely, a person familiar with the exchange told Axios.

Fauci has repeatedly said current studies provide only anecdotal findings that the drug works. In response, Navarro told CNN on Monday, 'I would have two words for you: 'second opinion.'

Navarro has been trying to source hydroxychloroquine from around the world as part of his role as coordinator of implementing Defense Production Act policy.

Trump announced last Thursday that he was invoking the Defense Production Act to help clear up supply-chain issues with manufacturing ventilators and producing additional N95 face masks.

The president put Navarro in charge of coordinating those efforts.

During an impromptu White House press briefing Sunday evening, Trump stopped Fauci from answering a question from a reporter about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine.

When reporters tried to get Fauci's opinion on the drug  after he previously warned against seeing the malaria medication as a wonder drug  Trump stepped in and stopped the question.

'We're starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. And hopefully in the not-too-distant future we'll be very proud of the job we all did,' Trump said, instead of letting Fauci answer.

Fauci has warned Americans not to consider it a 'knock out' drug when it comes to the coronavirus.

'Weve got to be careful that we dont make that majestic leap to assume that this is a knockout drug. We still need to do the kinds of studies that definitely prove whether any intervention is truly safe and effective,' he told 'Fox & Friends' on Friday.

Hydroxychloroquine pills: President Trump and his administration kept up their promotion of the malaria drug not yet officially approved for fighting the new coronavirus

Hydroxychloroquine is officially approved for treating malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, not COVID-19. Small, preliminary studies have suggested it might help prevent the new coronavirus from entering cells and possibly help patients clear the virus sooner. But those have shown mixed results.

Doctors are already prescribing the malaria drug to patients with COVID-19, a practice known as off-label prescribing.

Research studies are now beginning to test if the drugs truly help COVID-19 patients, and the Food and Drug Administration has allowed the medication into the national stockpile as an option for doctors to consider for patients who cannot get into one of the studies.

But the drug has major potential side effects, especially for the heart, and Fauci has said more testing is needed before it's clear that the drug works against the virus and is safe for such use.

Some limited studies have been conducted on the use of hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic azithromycin in concert to treat COVID-19, but they have not included critical control groups that scientists use to validate the conclusions.

Researchers in China, for instance, reported that cough, pneumonia and fever seemed to improve sooner among 31 patients given hydroxychloroquine compared with 31 others who did not get the drug, but fewer people in the comparison group had cough or fevers to start with.

Many questions have been raised about another study in France. Some of the 26 people given hydroxychloroquine in that test were not counted in the final results, including three who worsened and were sent to intensive care, one who died a day after later testing negative for the virus and one who stopped treatment because of nausea.

The French study was published in an International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy journal. The society's president wrote on its website that the report 'does not meet the society's expected standard.'
As this years Lenten campaign comes to an end, Trocaire has urged the people of Kilkenny to hold onto their Trocaire boxes until it is safe and possible to return them in support of the development agencys Covid-19 response work in some of the worlds poorest countries.

While the agencys Lent campaign continued despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Trocaire cancelled all their face-to-face events and outreach work last month.

Lorrha native Colm Hogan of Trocaire explained: Due to Covid-19, we had to stop all our public events and activities for our Lent campaign. That will unfortunately impact our crucial fundraising to support our work and we are still massively dependent on this campaign, which ends at Easter.

Families in the worlds poorest countries need our support now more than ever. We are urging people to please keep a hold of their Trocaire boxes and return them when it is safe and possible to do so.

In the meantime, we are urgently trying to save lives during the Coronavirus outbreak. Supporters can continue to make donations online or over the phone to fund this work. We know not everyone is in a position to support this work right now, but  if you can  any donation you can give will help us to support the worlds poorest communities through this terrible crisis.

Trocaire is using funds to provide hygiene kits, testing kits, information campaigns and other support to vulnerable communities affected by Covid-19.

The virus is now present in 18 countries where Trocaire provides support, including some  Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)  that are amongst the poorest places on Earth.

Trocaires Colm Hogan said: Many communities where Trocaire works do not have essential but basic infrastructure to fight the virus. This means they lack access to clean water and social distancing is often not possible in overcrowded refugee camps and slums.

Most countries do not have a functioning health service to respond to a mass outbreak of illness. Some worrying figures include:

Malawi has one intensive care (ICU) bed for every 1million people.

Sierra Leone has no ICU beds

South Sudan has only 2 ventilators for 12million people.

Trocaires experience in fighting previous outbreaks will be utilised in the battle against Covid-19. The agencys teams delivered vital services to affected communities in countries such as Sierra Leone and the DR Congo throughout the Ebola crisis.

Trocaires Ebola response work helped hundreds of thousands of people with water tanks, latrines, water pumps, and chemical treatments to provide safe water. The last affected Ebola patient was discharged from care last month in the DR Congo.

Trocaires Covid-19 response work includes:

Setting up isolation wards and sanitation systems in Somalia.

Adapting humanitarian food distribution programmes to ensure improved hygiene in Honduras.

Support for quarantine facilities where people have access to running water, hygienic products and food in Sierra Leone.

In a number of countries, Trocaire has supported public messaging on radio and social media to raise awareness and prevent the spread.

Colm said: The publics support for our Lenten campaign and this COCovidVID-19 response work is vital.

We are grateful to everyone in Co Kilkenny who has fundraised and collected coins over Lent. We urge people to please retain your boxes to return them at a later date. These generous donations will be put into action as we attempt to battle the Coronavirus in some of the worlds most vulnerable communities.

*You can support Trocaires work and Lenten 2020 campaign at trocaire.org/donate or phone 1850 408 408. Please retain your Trocaire box to return donations to Trocaire at a later date.
Ena Veronica Lindner Swain, 88, of Philadelphia, an author, community organizer, and longtime board member and historian at the Johnson House Historic Site in Germantown, died Friday, March 27, of heart complications at Chestnut Hill Hospital.

Mrs. Swain was born in Philadelphia to Stanley Barrett Lindner and Adeline Gardiner Lindner, Jamaican immigrants who came to the United States to work with the political activist Marcus Garvey. The third of four children, she grew up in South Philadelphia and graduated from South Philadelphia High School for Girls in 1949.

In 1951, she married William Arch Swain Sr., who was among the first African Americans allowed to use the Allied Printing Trades Council union label. They lived in Germantown and were wed for 66 years until Mr. Swains death in 2017.

Early in her career, Mrs. Swain became the first African American bookkeeper and accountant at the C. Schmidt & Sons Inc. brewery, said daughter Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum. She later left to rear her four children.

In 1977, Mrs. Swain and her husband opened Swains Printing & Accounting on Germantown Avenue. It became a popular place to have event books and fliers printed. Mrs. Swain started her own accounting practice, while her husband completed printing jobs at night.

As her children got older, Mrs. Swain began taking classes at Temple University. A history class with Emma Lapsansky-Werner, now a professor emeritus at Haverford College, motivated her to start scholarly research, and she began a 50-year quest to study the abolition movement in Germantown.

Her research culminated in a 2018 book, The Evolution of Abolitionism in Germantown and Its Environs. During a lecture at the University of Pennsylvania last year, she detailed the thesis of her book: The Quakers did not act alone in creating the 1688 First Protest Against Slavery."

Mrs. Swain said the protest document was a collaborative effort by Mennonites, Pietists, some Quakers, Lutherans, Huguenots, and the Reformed." Further, she told the audience, it actually reprimanded the Quakers for their trafficking in slaves. The history of Germantown has been sanitized, quite literally, whitewashed, over these many years.

Cornelia Swinson, executive director of the Johnson House, said Mrs. Swain was a board member for 17 years. After stepping down over a year ago, she continued to visit the historic house and make herself available if Swinson had questions.

In 2017, Johnson House honored Mrs. Swain with an Unsung Hero award.

She had a lot of knowledge about the abolition movement, and she did walking tours. She was unassuming, but she was very confident in her knowledge," Swinson said.

While Mrs. Swain loved history, Swinson added, "she was very much in love with her family and her husband.

Mrs. Swain also served on the advisory council for Mallery Recreation Center, now Daniel E. Rumph II Recreation Center, where she fought for better facilities in the 1970s.

Mrs. Swain met with Mayor Frank L. Rizzo and demanded that a new gym be built so children could use it all year. She was known as the kind of person who got things done, Swinson said.

She was resolute," Swinson said. "She didnt mind speaking up. But she wasnt loud. She was always a lady, a beautiful lady.

Mrs. Swain loved attending Christ Church in Old City and St. Michaels Episcopal Church in Germantown. She was an excellent cook, her family said. She was especially known for her turkey, ribs, potato and macaroni salads, and sweet potato pies and chocolate cake.

She and her husband owned a vacation house in Wildwood, and the family enjoyed spending summers there.

In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Swain is survived by daughter Gail Swain Harrison; sons William A. Swain Jr. and Brian Anthony Swain; 12 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandchild; and a sister.

A Celebration of Life will be held in the future.
The opposition National Democratic Congress NDC in the Binduri district of the upper east region has accused the District Chief Executive, Ayinga Abagre Yakubu of diverting items meant for the district to fight the covid-19 pandemic.

The items which were received from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), the NDC alleged that the DCE not only diverted the items but embossed the image the New Patriotic Party Parliamentary candidate in Binduri constituency.

The items were procured with taxes for the Binduri District Public Health Emergency Management Committee but were presented as though, the NPP parliamentary candidate procured the items solely.

At a press conference in Binduri, the National Democratic Congress Constituency Secretary, Imoro Mahama alleged that the items being donated to the district don't belong him (Abdulai Abanga the parliamentary candidate) but rather from the taxpayers.

Below is their full address"

NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS (NDC)

BINDURI CONSTITUENCY

PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE DIVERSION OF COVID-19 LOGISTICS TO A PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATE OF THE RULING NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY (NPP); HON. ABDULAI ABANGA BY THE DISTRICT CHIEF EXECUTIVE (DCE) FOR BINDURI HON. AYINGA ABAGRE YAKUBU.

07/04/2020.

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, good morning and thank you for honouring our invitation despite the short notice for this brief but very important press conference.

It is an urgent one which is to protect and safeguard the lives of the good people of Binduri so far as the worlds pandemic; COVID-19 is concerned.

Friends from the media, you will recall that since the outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019, all countries across the world have been battling this very deadly disease and Ghana is no exception. It is in the light of this that the president of the Republic of Ghana H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo through executive powers rolled out a number of measures however poor and reactive they maybe, which included closing down of schools, ban on religious activities as well as public gatherings such as funerals, night clubs, beaches and many others. These were followed by a partial lockdown of Accra, Kasoa, Tema and Kumasi all aimed at bringing COVID-19 under control.

More importantly, it is also worth mentioning that the president through his finance minister has also gone in for a loan of One Hundred Million Dollars ($100m) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to acquire logistics, PPEs, human resource capacity building among many others. This loan will be paid by all of us tax payers. The president has also called for a united front and de-politicization of COVID-19 right from the presidency to the MMDAs.

Surprisingly ladies and gentlemen of the media, the conduct of the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Binduri; Hon. Ayinga Abagre Yakubu and the ruling NPPs parliamentary candidate in the constituency is blatantly to the contrary. We have found out from reliable sources and have evidence that the DCE for Binduri District Hon. Ayinga Abagre Yakubu decided to divert portions of our fair share of the district COVID-19 logistics from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) to Hon. Abdulai Abanga; the parliamentary candidate for NPP in Binduri constituency to emboss his posters on these items procured through the taxes of the ordinary Ghanaian and presented to the Binduri District Public Health Emergency Management Committee as if the NPP parliamentary candidate procured these items from his personal or party resources.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Abdulai Abanga on April 3, 2020 donated the following items to the Binduri Health Directorate:

20 Veronica bucket

480 200ml hand sanitizers

20 gallons of liquid soap

10 gallons of sanitizers

20 buckets

1000 hand gloves

100 nose masks

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, it is shocking to know that all the above listed items donated in the name of PC Abanga Abdulai does not belong to him, and he never contributed a penny towards the procurement of the said items. I know you people are outraged too, regrettably, that is the truth for you to battle with. You can contact him to produce the various invoices covering the items. I bet you, you will either be presented with fake invoices or none at all will be made available for your perusal. So far, they have in reaction to the leak of the news circulated a fake invoice covering 10 200ml sanitizers, their own donation and publication says 480 200ml hand sanitizers. Things are simply not adding up.

The NDC in Binduri constituency finds this development disheartening, illegal, immoral, disrespectful to the rule of law, criminal and above all a blatant disregard of the executive authority of the President of the Republic of Ghana whose directive these two inconsiderate gentlemen of the NPP disregarded.

We find the action of the DCE as one that smacks of disrespect and an outright violation of the presidents directives. We will like the DCE and PC of NPP to note that, COVID-19 has no political colours and is a no respecter of persons. Therefore using resources from central government to score cheap political advantage will not wash.

Again, we are by this statement calling on the DCE to as a matter of urgency tell the good people of Binduri how many items he has received so far from the central government, how it has been distributed including quantities for verification purposes. The people also deserve to know how many PPEs are yet to be distributed. Any cash remaining must be made public as well. We are aware of his shoddy deals and daylight corruption; we are aware of the properties he has acquired within this short period while he has been a DCE; we want him to know that we are closely watching his moves and will in the coming days expose his corrupt nature.

We will also like to bring to the notice of the president of the republic, H. E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo that ever since Hon. Ayinga Abagre Yakubu was nominated and subsequently confirmed by the Assembly members in May, 2017, he has been running the assembly in his own interest as if the District Assembly is his personal property. We base this claim on the following reasons:

He succeeded in changing three different District Coordinating Directors for only God knows why and what the crime of these directors maybe within two years in office. It is sad to also note that the Binduri District Assembly has not had a substantive presiding member since the Hon. DCE assumed office due to his divide and rule tactics.

He refused to stay in the official residence of the DCE. He stays in his personal residence which he only managed to reconstruct after becoming a DCE and still draws rent allowance from the district assembly further depleting the scarce resources of the assembly. It is sad to note that, the residence meant to accommodate the DCE is now a habitat for animals.

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, it is also sad to note that the Hon. Ayinga Abagre Yakubu used a district assembly Navara pickup meant for Rural Enterprise Development to carry stones, water and sand for the construction of his private residence at Nayoko No: 2. The DCE ignored several calls from the sub sector committee to stop using the said pick up for others purposes except for its official use. The said pickup is broken down and packed at the district assembly.

He totally disregarded H.E the presidents directive to all his appointees not to use government resources to enhance their education. The DCE uses his official vehicle to attend lectures at Valley View University on weekends of which the vehicle is fuelled by the assembly. He has on two occasions driving himself got involved in accidents with assemblys official vehicle registration number GT. 8469-19.

Our friends from the media we want to find out from the DCE the source of the money that was used in repairing the damaged vehicle. Your guess is as good as ours; the assemblys limited resources. Is this what this poor assembly resource should be used for?

He refused to cooperate with the MP for the area in his quest to help develop the constituency. He was recently heard shouting at the top of his voice in a meeting with assembly members that he will never work hand in hand with the MP. Evidence of which we can prove on demand. We want the DCE to note that political difference should not deprive the poor constituents of development.

We are of the firm conviction that it is this his stance that has resulted in his refusal to approve the following projects proposed by the MP. Please note that these are just a few of his excesses and crass display of arrogance and ignorance;

Construction of pavilion to be used as classroom in Gotesaliga D/A Primary School.

Purchase of hospital equipment for the new maternity block at the Binduri Health Centre.

Financial assistance to tertiary students in the constituency.

Construction of boreholes in several communities within the constituency which are in dire need of portable drinking water.

Request to procure logistics to support COVID-19 fight in the Binduri district.

Total disregard for assembly members of the assembly. It is sad to note that, the DCE has side-lined assembly members in all the assemblys activities aimed at fighting COVID-19 within the district.

Distribution of logistics from central government were done by NPP party executives and communicators at the blind side of assembly members. This conduct is totally against the norm and practice of the assembly.

He refused to work with Mr. Godwin Abindabs who was appointed NADMO coordinator for the Binduri district. It is sad to note that this young man had no option than to sit home in expectation of the next miracle.

Interestingly, this is the same man (Hon. Ayinga Abagre Yakubu) who has borrowed seventy thousand Ghana cedis (70, 000.00) from the MPs share of the common fund has since refused to pay back for about a year now depriving constituents of the needed development from the Hon. Mp.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, the dubious and despicable attempts by Hon. Abdulai to gain political advantage not through hard work but through such bizarre and dishonest manoeuvring with the connivance of a clearly clueless and vindictive DCE must be exposed. We submit that, this gross disregard and wanton diversion of state resources for personal political gain is criminal by law. We call on the special prosecutor as a matter of urgency to commence investigations into such conduct of abuse of power and the use of public office for private gain by Hon. Ayinga

We again submit that, Hon. Abanga Abdulai also stands liable for abetment of crime in this unholy act and must be made to answer for such criminal negligence and connivance.

Our friends from the media, in conclusion, we are serving the DCE a stern warning that we have had enough of his excesses, ignorance and arrogance. We are left with no option but to match him boot for boot. Several options are on our table. He should in his own interest put a stop to his needless shenanigans before things get out of hand. He must be minded that, the wheels of justice grinds slowly but his days of reckoning are numbered.

Thank you all for coming, may God bless you; bless our dear Binduri district and our dear nation Ghana. Remember to observe the basic health protocols of hand washing with soap under clean running water, use hand sanitizers as much as you may need them, avoid handshakes and stay home. Stop the spread, spread calm and not fear.

Thank you.

Signed

Alhaji Abanga Seidu, NDC constituency chairman, Binduri, 0242027651

Mr, Imoro Mahamadu, NDC constituency secretary, Binduri, 0246640717

Hon. John Abugri Adaboo, NDC constituency communication officer, Binduri 0242652835

Mr. Iddrisu Abubakar Seidu, NDC Zongo caucus coordinator, Binduri 0248583600

Mrs. Anaba Judith, NDC Women Organiser, Binduri constituency, 0542852277

Ayamba Paul Asaana Deputy NDC constituency communication officer, Binduri 0245501792

Hon. Ras Solomon Anambe, NDC communication member, Binduri 0243921594

Mr. Mbun Louis, NDC party elder, Binduri, 0243319801
FAIRFIELD  After three weeks of people apparently still congregating at the towns closed parks, beaches and public spaces, the Fairfield Police Department is ready to write scofflaws $92 tickets for trespassing.

First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said the decision to fine people ignoring the order to stay away came after she and other town officials repeatedly received texts, phone calls and emails about people gathering at parks, playgrounds and other town facilities.

Kupchick signed an executive order to close Fairfields public recreation areas on March 16 after the first cases of the new coronavirus in town were confirmed.

As of Wednesday evening, state officials report Fairfield had 113 confirmed cases of the virus and five deaths related to COVID-19.

Over the weekend, it was reported that parents and kids were at McKinley (Elementary School) playground like it was a normal day, like there was no pandemic, Kupchick said Monday, adding that there are signs posted at all public locations saying they are closed. I have also received numerous reports that Warde High School track was used.

The first selectwoman said signs notifying people of the closure at Warde had been removed and a barrier preventing people from entering had been ripped down. She said she had several reports of teenagers hanging out in the parking lot.

I got reports that Mill River was jam-packed, she said. They took down the barricades. They did it at Lake Mohegan, too.

Kupchick said the number of reports of people ignoring the rules was not only upsetting to her, but to members of the community who are doing the right thing.

(They) are frustrated that, they feel, there are some people in our community who are putting us all at risk, she said  and putting police officers responding to the complaints in danger because they have to interact with the people ignoring the safety measures.

Fairfield Police Capt. Robert Kalamaras said encouraging rather than enforcing the rules was not working. He said the department hopes the public now takes the warning seriously.

Starting Monday, Kalamaras said, if a person is at any of the towns parks, beaches or open spaces, they will be fined. He said the department is hoping for voluntary compliance. He added that none of the money from the fines would go to the department; it all goes to the state.

Our officers are now forced to engage with the public, Kalamaras said. They dont know if that person is infected or not. That person may not know. Its unfortunate that we have to rise to this level.

Kupchick said she is also frustrated with inconsistency from Gov. Ned Lamonts administration, which, she said, should be taking the lead when it comes to protecting Connecticuts communities.

The first week, the (state) parks were open, Kupchick said. Last week, they (started) restricting access to a certain amount of people. I dont know how theyre doing that. They closed the Grand Canyon. Yellowstone Park is closed. Everybody needs to be on the same page here. Were not on a vacation. This is a pandemic.

Kupchick said she has been getting emails from Fairfield residents worried for their own and their familys health. She said that included emails from nurses and doctors who work at hospitals in the area.

They cannot believe the public is not doing everything in their power to protect themselves, Kupchick said, so that those poor people, who have to be on the front lines and take care of people, arent overwhelmed.
BERLIN, April 6 (Reuters) - Germany expects heavy demand from small and medium companies for state-backed loans of up to 800,000 euros ($863,120.00) that the government is offering to help them survive the collapse in demand caused by the coronavirus crisis, ministers said.

The loans, which will be fully guaranteed by the state, will vary in size depending on the size of the company in question and the outcome of a risk assessment made by the lender.

The purpose of the loans is to ensure that these companies, a crucial component of the German economy, "are still there when the economy starts growing again," Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Monday at a joint news conference with Economy Minister Peter Altmaier.

($1 = 0.9269 euros) (Reporting by Thomas Escritt Editing by Michelle Martin)
The coronavirus crisis has turned into hunger crisis in the UK, leaving some of the most vulnerable people in the country wondering whether they are going to get enough food to see them through the week.

Yet a huge network of more than 4,000 mutual aid groups has sprung up to support those suffering from the impact of the terrible outbreak.

The Independents Help The Hungry campaign supports the work going on across the UK to ensure that everyone has enough to eat during the crisis, backed by figures such as London mayor Sadiq Khan, Labour MP Jess Phillips and TV cook Nigella Lawson.

The emergence of a new kind of safety net  made up of informal grassroots groups organised via Facebook and WhatsApp  has been one of the most inspiring developments since the lockdown began.

Louis Vine, 28, responded to their struggles of those around him in his southeast London neighbourhood of Telegraph Hill by helping setting up a mutual aid group with like-minded people in the area.

Recommended How to support our campaign

Food was initially bought by the volunteers, but a fundraising campaign Feed the Hill has been set up with the support of local charities and businesses to make sure they can keep providing enough for those people self-isolating due to age and health conditions, and others struggling with a loss of income.

Mutual aid groups have emerged very quickly to fill the gaps locally, Mr Vine told The Independent. Its been necessary. But were committed to working with others groups and organisations who come might along to help meet the needs of the community in different ways as time goes on.

He said the group has a pool of over 250 volunteers and an on call rota who are now getting several dozen calls a day from people in the area in real need of supplies.

Whatever help The Independent can give in mapping the support network across the country is a good thing, especially if it means more people get access to the support they need, Mr Vine added.

Louis Vine helped set up mutual aid group in Londons Telegraph Hill (Louis Vine)

Many food aid charities have been struggling with a drop in donations and a fall in the number of regular volunteers. Yet the mutual aid groups have been able to help them adapt by delivering food to peoples doorsteps.

Kelsey Mohamed, 28, helped set up a mutual aid group in her ward in Islington, north London, and is now working with several to several small, independent food banks in her area.

We knew local authority services were not going to be able to spring into action and support everyones needs immediately, she said. Who better than neighbours to do that job quickly?

Kelsey Mohamed helped set up a mutual aid group in Islington (Kelsey Mohamed)

She is now part of a large, local WhatsApp group, co-ordinating requests for help in the streets around her with dozens of others. In London, most people dont know their neighbours  but thats all changed now, she said. People have really stepped up and come together for their community.

I would encourage anyone to find out whats going on in their area and see if they can help. There are a lot of people are struggling to make rent, struggling with loss of income, struggling to access universal credit, as well as isolating for health reasons. Its such a wide range of things.

Sam Maher, 44, is working with a mutual aid group of volunteers in Machynlleth, covering the small town in west Wales and its surrounding villages.

The group began by putting postcards through peoples doors to try to make sure everyone knows help is available for food shopping and picking up of medicines, and at the end of March they also set up a phone line people in urgent need can call.

Its really just about caring for your community, she said. At the moment I think the vast majority of the need out there is being dealt with by neighbour looking after neighbour, which is essential if local authorities and charities are overstretched.

Were working to create partnerships with other community groups, voluntary bodies and the council to make sure no one is slipping through the cracks. Its terrible to think there are people out there that were missing. I do worry the safety net isnt strong enough.

National co-ordinators at Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK estimate there were 1,000 groups set up in the week after the government announced vulnerable people would have to be shielded from the virus. The movement has grown steadily since then to more than 4,000 collectives.

The Independent is asking food aid charities across the UK to contact us at helpthehungry@independent.co.uk to tell us about your project and what problems you are facing right now.

You can help us build a directory of ways that our readers can help the hungry in their area  through money, volunteering and food donations. Find out more about how you can support the Help The Hungry campaign here, or follow this link to donate to our campaign in London in collaboration with the Evening Standard.
Canberra, April 7 : Two-thirds of Australian businesses have lost money as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, official figures revealed on Tuesday.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the figures of its second survey on the economic impacts of the pandemic, reports Xinhua news agency.

It found that 66 per cent of businesses said their turnover or cash flow has been reduced by the virus, which has forced widespread business closures across Australia.

Almost 40 per cent of businesses have changed how they deliver their products or services, including restaurants shifting to exclusively takeaway, in order to abide by strict physical distancing rules implemented by federal, state and territory governments.

About 47 per cent of businesses said they have made changes to their workforce because of COVID-19, including changing the location where staff worked, staff being placed on leave, or temporarily changing working hours.

Parliament will re-convene on Wednesday to vote on legislation for the government's A$130 billion ($79 billion) wage subsidy package.

Under the scheme, full-time, part-time and casual employees who have had their work status affected by the virus will be eligible for a fortnightly payment of A$1,500.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on Tuesday announced that citizens who are working from home will be able to claim 80 cents for every hour worked from home as a tax deduction.
Cardinal George Pell leaves Barwon Prison on April 7

George Pell first learned he was a free man when a chorus of cheers echoed through the high-security jail where he was held, with his first reaction to the High Court decision: 'Well, that's great'.

On Wednesday Cardinal Pell wakes to his first full day as a free man, putting quashed convictions for child sexual abuse behind him.

Australia's High Court acquitted him on Tuesday, ruling there wasn't enough evidence for the jury to convict him beyond reasonable doubt as they did in December 2018.

The 78-year-old was watching television just after 10am when the news broke.

'I was watching the television news in my cell when the news came through... I thought, "well, that's great. I'm delighted",' he told The Daily Telegraph through the friend.

'Of course, there was no one to talk to about it until my legal team arrived. However, I did get a great cheer from somewhere within the jail and then the three other inmates near me gave a great cheer as well.'

When asked by a prison guard how he felt about the 'miracle', Cardinal Pell said there was no miracle, only 'justice'.

Pell leaves the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne, Thursday, June 6, 2019 after his initial conviction

After more than 400 days in prison - first in Melbourne's Metropolitan Remand Centre and later the maximum security Barwon Prison - the Cardinal was taken to the Carmelite Monastery in the city's east.

His first meal as a free man was steak and vegetables, which was cooked by nuns.

Cardinal Pell did not stop to speak as he left the prison and instead issued a statement saying the serious injustice he has suffered had been remedied.

'I hold no ill will to my accuser, I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough,' he said.

Cardinal Pell said his trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church or how Australian church authorities dealt with paedophilia.

'The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not,' he said.

A nun closes the gates at the Carmelite Monastery in Kew, where George Pell is staying following his release HM Prison Barwon in Geelong

The Carmelite Monastery in Kew, where George Pell is staying following his release HM Prison Barwon in Geelong

Cardinal Pell was charged by Victoria Police officers after a man came forward in 2014 alleging he and another choirboy had been sexually abused at St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne in 1996.

That boy, now in his 30s, gave evidence in court, revealing he felt compelled to come forward after the death of the other boy.

A jury convicted Cardinal Pell of five charges in December 2018 after an earlier jury was unable to reach a verdict.

Victoria's Court of Appeal upheld the convictions last year.

With coronavirus sending Queensland into lockdown, the forecourt and road outside the High Court in Brisbane were empty for the handing down of Tuesday's decision.

Only three journalists were allowed in the courtroom as Chief Justice Susan Kiefel handed down the decision.

'There is a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof,' the full bench of seven judges said in their judgment.

Unlike the decision in Victoria's Court of Appeal last year, the judgment was not live streamed.

Instead the High Court posted the judgment online and tweeted the news to the world.

The father of the choirboy who died in 2014 was shocked by the court's decision and his lawyer Lisa Flynn said in a statement he was heartbroken for the surviving boy.

'Our client says this man, who the jury believed, is an upstanding citizen who had nothing to gain from speaking out other than to protect other children from the pain and suffering he has to live with on a daily basis,' Ms Flynn said.

The father will continue to pursue a civil case against Cardinal Pell.

Lawyers for the surviving complainant are expected to speak on Wednesday.

The charges against George Pell: The surviving choirboy had alleged that Pell had caught him and his friend swilling altar wine and said something like 'What are you doing here?' or 'You're in trouble'. 'There was this moment where we all just sort of froze and then he undid his trousers or his belt, like he started moving underneath his robes,' he said. 'He pulled [the other boy] aside and then he pulled out his penis and then grabbed [the other boy's] head.' He said the other boy struggled while Pell's hands were around his head and shoulders. The surviving choirboy said Pell then turned his attention to him and put his penis in his mouth. 'Archbishop Pell was standing. He was erect and he pushed it into my mouth.' Pell was originally found to have exposed himself and forced a boy to perform oral sex on him inside the sacristy of St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne (pictured). He always maintained his innocence Advertisement

As an archbishop, George Pell was required to wear heavy vestments which a retired priest told broadcaster Alan Jones would make it impossible for him to easily expose his genitals

A key argument in the cardinal's defence was that he could not have assaulted the boys in the robes he was wearing on the day of the main alleged offences.

Cardinal Pell's vestments that day included an alb - a white tunic which reached the feet and had two slits to allow access to trouser pockets but no zips or buttons.

The alb was secured tightly around the waist with a knotted rope cincture, which also secured a stole hanging around his neck, and over the alb was a decorative heavy chasuble which had no splits or openings.

Only one of Cardinal Pell's accusers gave evidence at trial against the man who rose to become the Vatican's treasurer. The other alleged victim had died of a heroin overdose and had denied ever having been abused.

The living complainant's evidence was not given in public but some of it was revealed from the bar table during the course of Pell's County Court trial.

Cardinal George Pell always maintained it would have been physically impossible for him to expose himself to a pair of 13-year-old choirboys. His vestments included an alb, chasuble, stole and cincture

How Cardinal Pell argued for freedom The timing of the alleged assaults was impossible. It was not possible for Pell to be alone in the sacristies only a few minutes after the end of Mass. It was not possible for Pell to be robed and alone in the priests' sacristy after Mass. It was not possible for two choir boys to be sexually assaulted in the priests' sacristy after Mass by Pell undetected. It was not possible for two robed sopranos to leave an external procession without being noticed. The criminal acts attributed to Pell were physically impossible. No one corroborated the second incident though the complainant said it happened in the midst of a 50-person choir. County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd erred in not allowing Pell's defence to present a video in his closing arguments, and that there was a 'fundamental irregularity' in how Pell was arraigned at trial. Advertisement

Psychologist and former priest Terry Laidler sat through almost all of the trial and told ABC's Law Report a set of robes was produced and sent to the jury room.

Cardinal Pell's trial barrister Robert Richter QC described the complainant's version of events as a 'far-fetched fantasy'. He said his client's cumbersome multi-layered robes would have prevented access to his genitals.

The prosecution had argued it was still possible for Cardinal Pell to expose his penis to the boys while robed because of the slits in the alb.



Sacristan Max Potter told the County Court that Pell would never have worn the alb on its own. Rather it would be under a chasuble and possibly a dalmatic, another thick layer of liturgical clothing.

'The weight of those vestments are not light,' Mr Potter had said. It would be 'inhumanly possible' for Cardinal Pell to have exposed himself through the robes.

Cardinal Pell's former Master of Ceremonies Monsignor Charles Portelli also disagreed with the suggestion the then archbishop could have exposed himself through the secured alb.

'The whole point of the cincture is to keep the alb in place.'

The vestments were so heavy that Cardinal Pell required help robing and disrobing and Monsignor Portelli could recall only two occasions the senior cleric had not required his assistance in five years.

Pope Francis exchanges Christmas greetings with Cardinal George Pell at the Clementina Hall on December 22, 2014 in Vatican City

Pope Francis appeared to address the quashing of George Pell's child sex convictions on Tuesday

Pope Francis has appeared to address the quashing of George Pell's child sex convictions days before Easter.

The head of the Catholic Church seemingly compared the cardinal to Jesus in a tweet on Tuesday.

'In these days of #Lent, we've been witnessing the persecution that Jesus underwent and how He was judged ferociously, even though He was innocent,' Pope Francis wrote.

'Let us #PrayTogether today for all those persons who suffer due to an unjust sentence because of someone had it in for them.'

Supporters of Cardinal Pell are pictured outside the High Court in Canberra on March 11

Pope Francis also appeared to comment on Cardinal Pell during his Tuesday morning mass.

'I would like to pray today for all those people who suffer unjust sentences resulting from intransigence (against them),' he said at the beginning of proceedings.

He compared the suffering of those served unjust sentences to Jesus being persecuted with 'obstinacy and rage even though he was innocent'.

Pope Francis had previously focused his morning masses and prayers on the coronavirus pandemic.
April is National Poetry Month. Even though writers and audiences cant gather in person because of the coronavirus, verse is happening on Facebook or Zoom, in peoples notebooks and in our earbuds. Some highlights are a sound artist who is making an audio collage of haikus about the pandemic, weekly book release readings from Copper Canyon Press, and the option to book a live video call with a poet through the Poetry Society of New York.

Poetry was the first way I fell in love with words. Before journalism was even on my radar, I found comfort in the complexity of other peoples line breaks, and all the mysteries that such small amounts of text could contain.

Now, in a moment of international uncertainty, when we cant plan for the future, or even visualize exactly how the world might change in the aftermath of the pandemic, groups are gathering across the country and around the world to celebrate stanzas and all the things that poetry can do in a time of crisis. Heres how you  a poetry lover or someone brand-new to the art form  can tune in and take part.

Open Mics

Nuyorican Poets Cafe offers online open mics via Zoom on Monday nights.

Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon, a literary salon based in New York City and modeled after salons of the Harlem Renaissance (and founded by the poet and author JP Howard), is hosting an open mic over Zoom on April 18.
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned on Tuesday after calling an ousted aircraft carrier captain stupid and naive.

Modly had apologized for the comments on Monday evening.

I want to apologize to the Navy for my recent comments to the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Modly said in a statement. Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid. I think, and always believed him to be the opposite.

Modly flew to Guam on Monday, where he spoke to sailors after the removal of Crozier. Last week, Crozier wrote an email to superiors that was subsequently leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, in which he pleaded for help with a coronavirus outbreak on the ship.

During his meeting with the sailors on Monday, Modly said Crozier was stupid or naive for thinking the email wouldnt be leaked to the press. Modly also asserted that he had inquired about the outbreak on the ship before Crozier wrote the email, and that Crozier had told him the situation was under control.

President Trump, who initially criticized Crozier over the email, on Monday said he might intervene in the decision to remove the captain.

Im going to get involved and see exactly whats going on there, because I dont want to destroy somebody for having a bad day, Trump told reporters at the White House.

More from National Review
Last year, VinaCapitals flagship fund, Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF), invested US$25 million in a private hospital operator, Tam Tri Medical Joint Stock Company.

Later in the year, Hau Giang Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (DHG) became a subsidiary of Japans Taisho Pharmaceutical Co Ltd after the latter acquired an additional 20.6 million shares in the former to increase its stake to 50.78 per cent. Photo baodauthau.vn

The deal gave VOF a stake in the company, which owns a hospital each in HCM City, Dong Thap Province, Nha Trang City, and Da Nang City with a total 500 beds and more than 700 employees.

Also last year, South Koreas Sun Medical Centre acquired Nha Khoa My and went down in history as the first buyer of a Vietnamese dental clinic.

Later in the year, Hau Giang Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (DHG) became a subsidiary of Japans Taisho Pharmaceutical Co Ltd after the latter acquired an additional 20.6 million shares in the former to increase its stake to 50.78 per cent.

The Vietnamese healthcare market has been seeing foreign investors inject trillions of dong in merger and acquisition (M&A) deals.

In 2018, Hoan My Medical Corporation, backed by Singapore firm Richard Chandler, bought out Hanh Phuc Hospital and Huu Nghi General Clinic. The deals helped Hoan My expand its nation-wide network and improve its maternity services, and benefit from the Singaporean firms large customer database.

Polish company Adamed Group bought a 70 per cent stake in Dat Vi Phu Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (Davipharm) for $50 million.

Not only foreign investors but also domestic ones are keen on entering the medical sector.

For instance, Infrastructure Investment and Transportation Construction Investment Joint Stock Company (Intracom) has set up the Phuong Dong General Hospital.

Chiong Woan Shin, general counsellor at the Singapore consulate in HCM City, was quoted by au Tu (Investment) newspaper as saying Singaporean investors are extremely interested in the Vietnamese healthcare market.

Living standards in the country have shown a marked improvement in recent years and so there is growing demand for high-quality medical services, she said. The fact that many Vietnamese opt to go abroad for medical treatment has caused Singaporean businesses to take interest in the countrys healthcare sector, she said.

Speaking about the investment in Tam Tri Medical Joint Stock Company, VinaCapitals managing director and chief investment officer, Andy Ho, said Vietnamese spend an estimated $2 billion a year for medical treatment overseas, which is a good reason for investing to develop the quality of healthcare services in the country.

Analysts said the healthcare sector is becoming more and more attractive to both domestic and foreign investors since demand for quality medical care is increasing. Meanwhile, the Government has outlined plans to pull out its investment in many pharmaceutical companies.

Business Monitor International reported that spending on healthcare in 2017 was estimated at $16.1 billion, or 7.5 per cent of the country's GDP. It forecast the spending to grow to $22.7 billion in 2021.

To explain this rapid growth, experts pointed to the fact that Vietnam is among the countries with the fastest growing middle class, which always seeks quality healthcare and education services.

A study by global measurement company Nielsen in the second quarter of 2019 confirmed this, saying health had become the top concern among Vietnamese.

That health had gone past job security to become the top concern was something of a surprise but largely predictable, Louise Hawley, managing director of Nielsen Vietnam, said.

She wrote in the Vietnam Economics Times: Vietnamese consumers care about their health more than ever.

Pollution in the air and in the environment are hot topics that are increasingly top of mind for people. With the current situation relating to pollution and increased consumer awareness, health is expected to continue to be a top concern in the third quarter.

Eng Aik Meng, chairman of the Singapore-Vietnam Cancer Centre, owned and managed by Vietnam Integrated Medical Services, said there is a big opportunity for private healthcare providers in Vietnam.

He said the outlook for foreign investors in the healthcare sector is good since the countrys population is ageing quickly. Some 10 per cent of the population was aged 60 or above in 2017, and in 15-20 years elderly people would account for a third, he said.

Besides, the rapid urbanisation is stimulating demand for quality healthcare and overcrowding is expected to intensify in public hospitals, resulting in long wait times and a shortage of beds, he said.

In addition to the increasing local demand for quality healthcare, the medical sector is also poised for strong growth due to medical tourism. For instance, the cost of dental services in the country is half that in developed countries though the quality is comparable.

All these advantages are the evident cause for the sharp increase in both domestic and foreign investment in the healthcare sector both directly and indirectly through M&A deals in recent years.

The Nielsen report stated: The demand for healthcare and safety has been increasing in line with peoples awareness of health problems. Thus, the call to multi-national businesses to provide health-related services is critical considering the need for long-term investment.

A report on private equity in Vietnam by Grant Thornton showed that healthcare and pharmaceuticals ranked third in terms of industry attractiveness for investors, 38 per cent of whom described it as very attractive.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son said many international organisations and Vietnamese private businesses want to invest in the countrys healthcare sector through public-private partnerships.

The health ministry completely supports their plans, and is ready to co-operate with foreign and domestic businesses to help them realise their investment projects. VNS

Compiled by Thien Ly
A joyful celebration of love between a pair of newlyweds in South Africa took a twist on Sunday when the police showed up to arrest the couple for contravening the lockdown regulations.

South African police and defence force got a tip-off about the wedding in KwaZulu-Natal happening despite a nationwide ban on public gatherings due to the coronavirus pandemic, South Africa Times reported.

All 50 wedding guests, the pastor who conducted the ceremony, and the newlyweds themselves were promptly arrested and taken to a police station outside Richards Bay.

They are to be charged in court.

A widely circulated video on Twitter shows the moment the besuited groom helps his wife into the back of a police van in her white wedding dress, complete with train and veil:

Twitter post by @IamMzilikazi said:

A couple arrested on their wedding day at Nseleni in KwaZulu-Natal for violating the lockdown rules and regulations as they decided not to postpone their big day.

The uMhlathuze municipality said the newlyweds would be spending their honeymoon under stringent bail conditions.

Ruthless response

South Africa is the epicentre of the pandemic in Africa.

It has 1,655 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 11 deaths.

Last week, South Africas President, announced a 21-day lockdown of the country to flatten the spreading curve of the pandemica move, many have named as one of the strictest lockdowns in history.

In defence, some say South Africas response to the pandemic has been ruthlessly efficient.

The country imposed movement restriction with only essential movement permitted.

It also has seen mobile testing units as well as drive-through testing centres being rolled out.
A Galveston County nursing home that housed one of the largest coronavirus outbreaks in the Houston region has now become a testing ground for an experimental treatment.

Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday said 30 residents of the Resort at Texas City who tested positive for coronavirus are being treated with hydroxychloroquine, typically used to treat malaria and lupus. In total, 83 residents at the facility originally tested positive, and so far, one has died; local officials had to rush to test more than 100 after a nursing home employee fell ill with a confirmed COVID-19 case.

The drug is not officially approved for treating COVID-19  there is no vaccine or treatment for the disease. Yet small, preliminary studies have suggested the drug might help prevent the new coronavirus from entering cells and possibly help patients clear the virus sooner. But those have shown mixed results, and there has not yet been a controlled clinical trial.

Texas is not the first state to experiment with the drug  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that doctors in his state are using it. The Food and Drug Administration sent thousands of doses of the drugs to hospitals in New York starting last month.

Abbott said the Texas City patients are in the second day of treatment, and the testing period will go on for several days.

More Information What is Hydroxychloroquine? Hydroxychloroquine is a medication that has been used for 60 years to treat malaria and minimize symptoms of autoimmune diseases including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Recent studies in China and France have found mixed results in treating patients with COVID-19 with the drug. But laboratory tests have shown that it can prevent similar SARS viruses from attaching to and entering cells, according to the Mayo Clinic. Millions of doses have been provided by the drug's manufacturers to the national stockpile for distribution. The FDA approved an emergency order on March 28 clearing the drug to be provided to COVID-19 patients. Guidance from the Mayo Clinic advises doctors perform electrocardiograms on patients before prescribing it to them, as it can trigger fatal heart attacks in patients with cardiovascular disease or those using certain medications. See More Collapse

IN-DEPTH REPORTING: Texas City nursing home at center of coronavirus outbreak recently cited for health code violations

We look forward to updating you as the week progresses about how this drug is aiding  or not  these patients, Abbott said.

The nursing homes medical director did not respond Monday to a request for comment.

Despite what little is known about the drugs effects on the new coronavirus, President Donald Trump, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and others, including many conservatives, have held it up as a possible cure. Fauci and Trump have shared tense moments during White House briefings as the president and his administration tout the drug optimistically and Fauci tries to temper expectations and offer context.

I think without seeing too much, Im probably more of a fan of that, Trump said last month. Its a strong drug. So, well see.

Fauci, meanwhile, has stressed that the drugs success has only been shown anecdotally.

It was not done in a controlled clinical trial, so you really can't make any definitive statement about it, Fauci said at the time. If you really want to definitively know if something works, youve got to do the kind of trial where you get the good information.

FOR THE LATEST: Interactive maps, charts show spread of coronavirus in Texas

Texas doctors generally have the latitude to decide whether the drug is right for their patient  with some limitations.

The Texas Pharmacy Board on March 20 issued a guidance to pharmacists saying they would only be allowed to dispense the drug as well as other antimalarial medications to COVID-19 patients with a written diagnosis from the prescriber consistent with the evidence for its use.

The guidance also limited new prescriptions to no more than a 14-day supply and required a new prescription for refills so as to prevent the stockpiling of the drugs and to ensure that reasonable quantities are available for all patients that require therapy with the drugs, including patients with a COVID-19 diagnosis.

The rule did not stop doctors from prescribing the drug for an off-label use, and it did not apply to patients already established on the medication.

This drug is widely being used to treat COVID-19 although its effectiveness is unclear, said Dr. Philip Keiser, the Galveston County Local Health Authority. This drug is licensed by the FDA and doctors have the ability to use it in their best judgment.

Larry Edrozo, whose mother is a resident at the home and tested positive but is asymptomatic, said staff told him that only those who were showing symptoms were eligible to participate.

So shes not up for the drug and would not get the drug unless her condition changes drastically, Edrozo said.

Hydroxychloroquine has major potential side effects, such as heart rhythm problems, severely low blood pressure and muscle or nerve damage, and Fauci has said more testing is needed before its clear that the drug works against the virus and is safe for use.

Other experts have expressed similar hesitance. The American Medical Associations president, Dr. Patrice Harris, said she personally would not prescribe the drug for a coronavirus patient, saying the risks of severe side-effects are "great and too significant to downplay without large studies showing the drug is safe and effective.

There has been anecdotal evidence that it is promising, said Cuomo, the New York governor. Thats why were going ahead.

This report contains material from the Associated Press.
New York, Ghana (PANA)  Human Rights Watch on Tuesday urged Governments to respect the rights of older people in their response to the COVID-19 (coronavirus)
By March 27, a month since its first recorded COVID-19 case, Nigeria had confirmed 70 cases of the virus, a speed of spread that pales into insignificance when compared with that of the United States for the same period.

The U.S. went from 60 cases to 104,126 within that period, and now tops the table as the country with the worlds highest number of COVID-19 cases with 367,650 as of April 7, according to Worldometres. Nigeria now has 238 cases, but 35 of the patients have recovered and been discharged, with five deaths in less than six weeks.

Of Americas total cases, at least 10,943 fatalities have been recorded since late January, translating to 2.9 per cent fatality rate, compared to Nigerias 2.1 per cent.

But apart from the US, the numbers from Nigeria suggest that Africas largest economy has had a better response against the spread of COVID-19  despite decrepit public healthcare infrastructure  than many countries, including the great powers of the global North.

Depending on statistics from Worldometres, PREMIUM TIMES compared the speed of spread and recovery and fatality rates in the US, the United Kingdom, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Nigeria. By these indicators, our analysis shows Nigeria may have better-managed COVID-19 than many countries including in Europe and America.

On February 27, when Nigeria recorded its first case in an Italian traveller, the UK had only 16 cases. One month later, the Kingdom had documented 14,543 cases, while Nigeria was still below 100. Now, as of April 7, the UK has 51,608 cases, including 5,373 deaths and 135 recoveries.

Thus, the UK has had a 10.4 per cent fatality rate and 0.3 per cent recovery rate, compared to Nigerias 2.1 per cent and 14.7 per cent, respectively. In the US, the recovery rate is 5.3 per cent, still far lower than Nigerias.

With 16,523 deaths in 132,547 cases, Italys fatality rate, 12.5 per cent, is worse than Nigerias 2.1 per cent and indeed than any other countrys.

Nigeria and Brazil recorded their respective first cases on the same day, February 27. Currently, while Nigeria has 238 recorded cases, the American nation has 12,240, including 566 deaths and 127 recoveries, translating to 4.5 per cent fatality and 1.04 per cent recovery rates.

National coordinator, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu [Photo: Health News Extra]

Saudi Arabia had its first record case on March 2, days after Nigerias; yet, the Islamic kingdom has now reached 2,795 cases, including 41 deaths and 615 recoveries. However, in terms of rates of fatality and recovery, 1.5 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively, Saudi Arabia comes ahead of Nigeria.

We are still learning

Meanwhile, despite faring better than many countries in terms of speed of spread, fatality and recovery rates, Chikwe Ihekweazu, the Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, told PREMIUM TIMES, It is too early to conclude that our response is better than that of most countries.

We are still learning and continue to do so on a daily basis. Ultimately, our aim is to protect the health of Nigerians and we remain committed to this mandate.

In any case, limited testing capacity may cover Nigerias true reality. Nigeria has tested only about four thousand people, according to the NCDC, the frontline agency against the virus, compared with nearly two million and over 250,000 in the US and the UK, respectively.

But Mr Ihekweazu suggested limited testing capacity may not be covering Nigerias true reality. He told PREMIUM TIMES that authourities are testing and tracing promptly contacts of confirmed cases, most of whom are returnees and their direct contacts.

Till date, we have tested nearly 4,000 people for COVID-19, he said. Surveillance in terms of contact tracing and monitoring is one of the most important yet resource-intensive and rigorous aspects of our response to COVID-19.

For every confirmed case, intense contact tracing is carried out to promptly detect and treat contacts who may be infected. As at the 3rd of April, 7,868 passengers of interest have been identified and monitored. Over 70% have completed their follow-up period without showing symptoms of COVID-19.

Controlling community-level spread in Nigeria

Nigerias comparatively better statistics are clearly not results of sound healthcare infrastructure and services. The countrys elites barely patronise public hospitals, poorly equipped and staffed as impacts of corruption and years of neglect.

An investigation, based on direct observation by PREMIUM TIMES, showed the public hospitals in the capital Abuja are poorly prepared to help stem the spread of the virus.

Apparently aware of the countrys inadequacies, the authorities have ratcheted up efforts to control COVID-19 from becoming a community disease, a case that could prove disastrous.

Apart from lacking facilities to respond to a widespread transmission, measures such as social distancing may not work substantially in Nigeria, where many families live in clumsily compacted manners and would need to go out daily for means to merely survive.

Currently, the majority of the confirmed cases that have been recorded in Nigeria are returning travellers or contacts of travellers, said Mr Ihekweazu, suggesting that COVID-19 is not a community disease crisis in Nigeria yet.

In the last one week, we have reviewed our case definition to ensure we can detect cases that are not in returning travellers or contacts of confirmed cases. This will enable us to make informed decisions to mitigate the impact of the disease, Mr Ihekweazu further told PREMIUM TIMES.

Hopelessly out of depth

The efforts of port health officials have also played into Nigerias performance so far. At the time Nigeria had increased screening at the international airports, passengers arriving UKs London Heathrow could walk out without thermal temperature check or hand sanitiser.

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Just arrived at Heathrow T5 after 4 days in Milan  was fulling expecting a thermal temperature check. Nothing. Straight enough, tweeted Nick Dixon, an ITV correspondent on February 27. In a reply, one Twitter user, @Orwelland30, said, Yes. I was checked on my way into Bologna 10 days ago but nothing on return. UK government appears hopelessly out of their depth on health issues.

No surprise we landed at Heathrow from Singapore and nothing, not even hand sanitiser, replied another Twitter user, @1411gibson.

Nigeria has now gone from closing airports and issuing nationwide social distancing and personal hygiene advisory to a lockdown of the capital Abuja, Lagos, Nigerias epicentre of COVID-19, and Ogun State.

There is a strong chance that if these interventions are properly implemented and adhered to, we can flatten the curve and control this outbreak, said Mr Ihekweazu.

By limiting movements, we are reducing the possibility of spread of the virus causing COVID-19, which is highly transmissible. This requires a whole-of-society approach to ensure we do not gravitate towards the worst-case scenario.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry assured everyone that they can be financially independent on their own. However, just a few days after Megxit, they seem to be on the verge of having nothing but liabilities already.

A royal expert warned the Duke and Duchess of Sussex that they might face a very rocky future ahead due to their financial instability.

According to the royal contributor for ABC, Omid Scobie, Harry and Meghan have once again failed to predict how the coronavirus pandemic could affect their financial status.

Since the health crisis occurred after they have already agreed to Queen Elizabeth II's money-related requirements before they could leave the monarchy, it caused more financial concerns for the Sussexes.

"For Harry and Meghan, on top of the difficulties they have had with the press, there has been this underlying issue of who pays for security moving forward," Scobie said during his appearance on The HeirPod. "It is something the couple was very conscious of - that from March 31st it would have to be done by themselves."

Their unstable budget also prevented the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from pursuing their foundation anytime soon.

Meanwhile, CTV's Laney Lui added more fuel to the issue and said, "Security is not cheap. For them, you are dealing with multiple personnel and round-the-clock at that. You have to also account for that and travel and other expenses."

In fact, weeks after they dropped the bombshell announcement, the Daily Mail computed the possible expenses of the family-of-three.

Based on their published calculation, the royal couple needs to pay each protection officer around 100,000 per year -- including the officer's flights, pension, and living expenses. In their case, they need two officers per member, leaving them an average cost of 600,000.

Because of this, Lui believes that Harry and Meghan need to retrace their steps and review their plans.

For them to push through all of their ventures, they need to have a stable source of income that can cover their whole expenses -- most especially their extravagant lifestyle.

Problematic Royals Soon?

In the same podcast, Scobie and Lui continued to exchange their thoughts about how the simple water bills, and not solely their future foundation, could also cause headaches to the Sussexes.

"I think that is why they didn't go down the route of starting a foundation because they don't have an unlimited fund behind them to start that," the royal contributor said.

Scobie suggested that they might have to launch a fundraising event to raise their own money since they have spent their last few years not earning enough as senior royal members.

To recall, the Sussexes already slashed 2.4million from their pocket to pay back the renovation expenses they used for their home in Windsor since it "will remain their U.K. family home."

"No-one knows when there is an end date to this," Scobie warned. "This could follow us for some time. That will provide different obstacles to the couple that they weren't expecting."

Their possible future financial problems were unrolled after U.S. President Trump refused to cover their security expenses when they came to Los Angeles from Vancouver Island.

In return, they insisted that they never had any plans to ask for the government's help in covering their security costs.
Health officials in the city of Elizabeth have closed a nursing home to new admissions, after at least 12 out of 22 recent deaths were directly tied to the coronavirus outbreak and eight staff members tested positive for COVID-19, said Mayor Christian Bollwage.

Another 16 residents have also tested positive, the mayor said. Five others are still awaiting test results.

Its just heartbreaking for all these families, said Bollwage.

The Elizabeth Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on Grove Street did not respond to multiple requests by phone or emails to the facility or its owners for comment. A woman at the facility who answered the phone said there was no one available to talk to a reporter and took a message.

Coronavirus has swept through New Jerseys long-term care facilities, leaving a deadly toll in its wake. State officials said 188 of the states 375 long-term care facilities  or just over half  have had at least one patient with coronavirus, but has not made public the list of nursing homes. Approximately 10% of the deaths in New Jersey have been linked to nursing homes, the state has reported.

Long-term care facilities continue to be severely impacted, said state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli at the states daily coronavirus briefing on Tuesday. The Department of Health is working on a statewide plan to assist nursing homes experiencing large outbreaks and also shortages of staff and equipment.

Facilities with outbreaks of more than one death include Woodcrest Health Care Center in New Milford; Lakeland Health Care Center in Wanaque; Family of Caring at Montclair; Atrium Post Acute Care of Princeton; Laurel Brook Rehabilitation in Mount Laurel, and St. Josephs Senior Home in Woodbridge.

Bollwage said the city had not even been aware of the deaths at Elizabeth Nursing and Rehab until health officials received a call more than a week ago from Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth.

I spoke with the administrator (at the nursing home) before this started and asked him if he was prepared and he advised he was, said the mayor. Here we are, and we didnt even know anything was going on until the hospital reached out to us.

He said the citys health officer subsequently went to the facility and was told the administrator was not on site.

A law that went into effect in February after an adenovirus outbreak at a Wanaque nursing home killed 11 children requires nursing homes to have as part of their outbreak response plans clear policies regarding notifying residents, staff and families about an outbreak. An outbreak is defined as at least one confirmed positive and one symptomatic individual.

Currently, the mayor said 58 patients remain at Elizabeth Nursing and Rehab, a facility licensed for 103 beds.

Documents shared by the city that included a series of emails between Elizabeth health officials, the state Department of Health, and nursing home administrators, showing the increasing concerns, as the number of patients being sent to Trinitas with COVID-19 symptoms continued to rise.

In one email dated March 30, Mark Colicchio, the citys health officer, sought state action, and questioned why the Department of Health was giving the facility time to determine whether its infection control measures were working.

Noting that at that point eight residents were already dead, and 13 others were still at Trinitas, Colicchio urged in the emails for the state to take action. He said giving the facility two weeks to experiment on whether or not their infection control rates improve was jeopardizing the lives of patients, staff and first responders that have to go to this facility.

It was the hospital that brought this outbreak to my attention because out of concern for the patients and staff along with our first responders. The facility whose duty it is to report any disease outbreak to the local health department failed to do so, he said in the emails. Also, there were times this facility couldnt even give me a proper update on their residents who were in the hospitals.

Colicchio called it an extremely urgent dangerous matter.

Persichilli said the health departments plan to address the growing number of nursing home outbreaks will take a regional approach. The department did not address the Elizabeth concerns directly.

It will require for patients to be moved around and for patients and staff to be cohorted, she said, referring to the isolating of those testing positive. The plan will be based on an algorithm that will determine the most appropriate location for residents, based on whether residents have tested positive; whether residents have symptoms; or are asymptomatic, but have had exposure. For those who have not been exposed, we want to keep them safe and for those who have tested positive, we want to make sure they are well cared for.

Persichilli also said at the Tuesday briefing that she sent a guidance letter to nursing home operators informing them they had to report COVID-19 patients and fatalities to the department.

I have to tell you, I think they are all reporting, Persichilli said. I didnt get any indication they were not reporting, particularly their covid-19 individuals. I just dont have an indication that they are not reporting. By the number of reports that we have, which is about 1,000 at this point, they are reporting.

Two other nursing homes in Elizabeth also have COVID-19 positive patients, said Bollwage, but neither on the scale reported by the Elizabeth Nursing and Rehab, he said.

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Read on for the most recent top news you may have missed in Las Vegas. Schools ditch Zoom amid concerns over online security Read the full story on NPR. Family of man killed in Arizona plane crash sues MGM Resorts, pilots Read the full story on Las Vegas Review-Journal. Police announce new protections at county jail Read the full story on Las Vegas Review-Journal. Video links suspect to victim in Silverado Ranch Park death Read the full story on Las Vegas Review-Journal. 15-year-old charged with attempted murder in January shooting Read the full story on Las Vegas Review-Journal. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.

School leaders in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas are abandoning the video conferencing service after reports of meetings being disrupted by intruders.

Anand Anil Patel, a 26-year-old Oklahoma concert and club promoter, was one of six people killed in the April 2018 crash near Phoenix. Patel was on board the plane to promote MGM hotels and casinos on social media, according to the lawsuit.

The Metropolitan Police Department is implementing new protective measures to keep inmates at the Clark County Detention Center healthy amid the pandemic, police said.

A homeless man accused of carrying out a slaying at Silverado Ranch Park was observed on video surveillance walking with the victim shortly before the killing, Las Vegas police said.


The small business measures aim to help companies cover payroll and other expenses during the punishing outbreak. Firms with fewer than 500 employees can use the money to cover salary, wages and benefits, with a maximum loan of $10 million or 250% of monthly payroll.

Congress late last month approved a $350 billion small business loan program as part of a more than $2 trillion stimulus bill aimed at helping the economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic . The program is aimed at helping small businesses that provide the engine of employment and entrepreneurship in the U.S. economy.

"I will work with Secretary Mnuchin and Leader Schumer and hope to approve further funding for the Paycheck Protection Program by unanimous consent or voice vote during the next scheduled Senate session on Thursday," he said in a statement.

McConnell said earlier Tuesday he hopes to approve further funding Thursday to buoy small businesses devastated by the coronavirus pandemic .

Mnuchin said he spoke with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, to secure the funding.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday that, at the direction of President Donald Trump, he has spoken with congressional leaders to secure an additional $250 billion for the small business loan program as the coronavirus outbreak hammers the economy.

Still, the initial rollout of the ambitious program faced challenges as banks hurried to prepare themselves to assist with the efforts. In the run-up to the program's launch this past Friday, banks and trade groups pushed for more clarity around the program and sought to manage expectations about how quickly they could dole out the funds.

This week, there were technical glitches with the system amid the flurry of demand. Some banks are still awaiting guidance from the Treasury on promissory notes clarifying the terms under which the loans are valid, a person familiar with the situation told CNBC. The Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Still, some banks viewed the announcement of more funds positively, believing it would reassure small business owners that the system would have enough money to cash their checks, even as it works through the technical issues, that person said.

Nonetheless, initial challenges may be a point of debate in any proposal to add to the program.

A spokesperson for Sen. Chuck Schumer said in a statement to CNBC, "Senator Schumer has not heard from Senator McConnell, and [the small business committee's ranking member] Senator Ben Cardin D-Md has not heard from Senator Rubio."

Sens. Cardin, Schumer and others issued a release Tuesday urging that a portion of the small business lending program be reserved for companies without relationships to banks. In an effort to expedite the process of delivering loans, some banks have hoped they can prioritize those with whom they have existing relationships.

But Schumer and other Democratic senators warned that some companies may get left behind.

"Without proactive and sustained outreach, we can expect that underserved communities will be disproportionately harmed  just as they were during the Great Recession when minority business enterprises suffered a precipitous decline in the proportion of SBA-backed loan approvals," they said.

Despite concerns about the existing program, Congress and the administration are under pressure to offer relief quickly. Administration officials and lawmakers have acknowledged the loan program may not be enough. Mnuchin has told CNBC he would ask Congress for more money if more is needed.

On Tuesday, the White House is expected to hold a virtual meeting with a number of major banking executives to discuss issues including small business support.

The Senate, meantime, had not been expected to be back in session before April 20. McConnell said Tuesday that a session was scheduled for Thursday.

While most senators are out of Washington, the chamber can pass legislation during regular pro forma sessions, brief periods of activity usually overseen by at most a few lawmakers. Any one senator can block the passage of a bill by unanimous consent.

After passing the Senate, the legislation would need to be approved by the Democrat-led House of Representatives. Speaker Pelosi told CNBC last week she that wants more small business loans as part of a bigger fourth financial relief package the Democrats have begun to discuss.
A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking direction for the government to impose a complete ban on all activities of the Tablighi Jamaat with immediate effect.

The letter petition sent to the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde also sought direction for government to demolish the building of the office of the Tabligi Jammat at Nizzamuddin in New Delhi under the provision of MCD Act.

Over 1,000 of the total 4,421 coronavirus cases in India are linked to Tablighi Jamaat gathering. Hundreds of people who are related to Tablighi Jamaat have been quarantined.

Petitioner Ajay Gautam also sought directions from the Apex Court to transfer the investigation to the CBI to investigate the "conspiracy for spread the coronavirus throughout India by the members/ participators of organization in the garb of so called religious gathering" and also behind Delhi riots.

He also sought strict action against the responsible officers of the police and civil administration who were failed to strict compliance of the orders passed by the Delhi government on March 12 and 16.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Authorities are investigating after a mans body was found Tuesday morning on the shore of Revere Beach, Massachusetts State Police announced Tuesday.

A resident of a high-rise condominium on Revere Beach Boulevard called authorities around 6:50 a.m. to report what appeared to be a body on the beach near the Oak Island Bath House, state police said in a statement.

Troopers responded to the scene and found the mans body, according to the statement.

Preliminary observation suggests the man may have washed onto the shore from the ocean, the statement said. The investigation is ongoing to determine the deceaseds identity and the facts and circumstances of his death.

State police did not release any further information.
151,680 Europeans and UK Residents Projected to Die in 'First Wave' of Pandemic

Significant Shortage Projected for Hospital Beds, ICU Beds, and Ventilators

'Unequivocally evident that social distancing can help control the trajectory of the pandemic'

SEATTLE, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- New COVID-19 estimates find that, among European nations, the peak daily death rate from the pandemic will occur during the third week of April, with the pandemic spreading from Southern Europe.

The new forecasts, released today by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington's School of Medicine, find that approximately 151,680 people will die during what researchers are calling the "first wave" of the pandemic. By comparison, the US is expected to face 81,766 deaths, according to forecasts released on Sunday by IHME.

"We are expecting a foreboding few weeks for people in many parts of Europe," said IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray. "It seems likely the number of deaths will exceed our projections for the United States."

This is despite the declines in deaths that are now occurring in Italy and Spain.

The death toll in many countries is compounded by demand for hospital resources well in excess of what is available. For example, peak demand in the UK is expected to total 102,794 hospital beds needed compared to 17,765 available, 24,544 ICU beds compared to 799 ICU beds available, and 20,862 ventilators needed (with data currently unavailable on ventilators available).

Today's announcement on Europe finds that most regions of Italy and Spain have passed their peaks in the number of deaths, while other nations are approaching their peaks and still others facing peak mortality later in April.

Countries that are about to peak or are quickly approaching peak in this wave of the epidemic include The Netherlands, Ireland, Austria, and Luxembourg. The Czech Republic and Romania are midway through their expected trajectories. Other nations including the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, and Greece are still early in their trajectories and face fast-rising death tolls through their peaks in the second and third weeks of April.

"It is unequivocally evident that social distancing can, when well implemented and maintained, control the epidemic, leading to declining death rates," Murray said. "Those nations hit hard early on implemented social distancing orders and may have the worst behind them as they are seeing important progress in reducing their death rates. Each nation's trajectory will change - and dramatically for the worse - if people ease up on social distancing or relax other precautions."

Murray cautioned that easing these precautions too soon during the first wave of the pandemic could lead to new rounds of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. He defines the end of this "wave" as a ratio of 0.3 deaths per 1 million people. IHME's projections assume that social distancing measures, if not currently implemented, will be implemented within one week.

"To decrease the risk of a second wave in places where the first wave is controlled by robust social distancing, governments would need to consider mass testing, contact tracing, and quarantines for those infected until a vaccination is available, mass produced, and distributed widely," Murray said.

IHME started making projections of the pandemic's impact in the United States state-by-state on March 26. Today's announcement is the first set of predictions for European nations and is based on modeling the peak in death rates and hospital usage in Wuhan City in China, where the virus was first discovered, as well as data from seven European locations that have peaked, including Madrid, Spain; Castile-La Mancha, Spain; Tuscany, Italy; Emilia-Romagna, Italy; Liguria, Italy; Piedmont, Italy; and Lombardy, Italy.

Of these eight locations that have reached the peak regarding daily deaths, only one, Wuhan, has currently brought new cases to nearly zero.

The analysis is based on an extensive range of information and data sources, including:

Local governments, national governments, and the World Health Organization

Government declarations on implementation of social distancing policies

Age-specific death rate data from China , Italy , South Korea , and the US

Here are some country-specific findings from IHME's latest forecasting:

ITALY : The first wave of the pandemic has peaked in Italy , and peak resource use for ICU beds and ventilators was on March 28 . Deaths are forecast to peak in Calabria on April 7 , and in Puglia on April 16 . On April 6 , 699 daily deaths were projected, with only three provinces ( Lombardy , Piedmont, and Emilia-Romagna ) seeing more than 50 deaths daily.





: The first wave of the pandemic has peaked in , and peak resource use for ICU beds and ventilators was on . Deaths are forecast to peak in on , and in Puglia on . On , 699 daily deaths were projected, with only three provinces ( , Piedmont, and ) seeing more than 50 deaths daily. SPAIN : Almost all regions of Spain are at or past the peak. Excess demand for ICU beds is particularly high in Spain compared to many other countries in Europe . The forecasts predict 19,209 total deaths from COVID-19 in Spain by August 4 .





: Almost all regions of are at or past the peak. Excess demand for ICU beds is particularly high in compared to many other countries in . The forecasts predict 19,209 total deaths from COVID-19 in by . PORTUGAL : Deaths in Portugal peaked on April 3 with an estimated 37 deaths. The model shows that while Portugal did not have a total bed shortage, it did not have enough ICU beds to meet demand, with the shortage peaking at 118 ICU beds on April 3 . The model predicts 471 total deaths in the country by August 4 .





: Deaths in peaked on with an estimated 37 deaths. The model shows that while did not have a total bed shortage, it did not have enough ICU beds to meet demand, with the shortage peaking at 118 ICU beds on . The model predicts 471 total deaths in the country by . FRANCE : The model shows that France is just passing the peak and will have a total of 15,058 deaths by August 4 . The country is expected to have enough total beds to meet demand, but a shortage of 4,330 ICU beds. The forecasts predict 6,091 ICU beds will be needed for COVID-19 patients in France .





: The model shows that is just passing the peak and will have a total of 15,058 deaths by . The country is expected to have enough total beds to meet demand, but a shortage of 4,330 ICU beds. The forecasts predict 6,091 ICU beds will be needed for COVID-19 patients in . GERMANY : Deaths in Germany are forecast to peak in the third week of April, with an estimated 377 deaths on April 19 . The model shows that Germany will have enough beds and ICU beds to meet demand, with the required number of total beds peaking at 12,222 on April 14 , and predicts 8,802 total deaths in the country by August 4 .





: Deaths in are forecast to peak in the third week of April, with an estimated 377 deaths on . The model shows that will have enough beds and ICU beds to meet demand, with the required number of total beds peaking at 12,222 on , and predicts 8,802 total deaths in the country by . SWEDEN : Deaths in Sweden are forecast to peak the last week of April, with an estimated 134 deaths on April 24 . The model shows that Sweden will not have enough beds and ICU beds to meet demand, with the shortage peaking at 1,090 ICU beds on April 25 , and predicts 4,182 total deaths in the country by August 4 .

UK: Deaths in the UK are forecast to peak the third week of April, with an estimated 2,932 deaths on April 17 . The model shows that the UK will not have enough beds and ICU beds to meet demand, with the shortage peaking at 23,745 ICU beds on April 17 , and predicts 66,314 total deaths in the country by August 4 .

For the complete update, please visit http://www.healthdata.org/covid/updates.

For a video of Dr. Murray summarizing key points of IHME's COVID-19 data analysis for Europe, please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vM0pwEulCs&feature=youtu.be

Contact: media@healthdata.org

For Italy: Gianluca Giansante, Gianluca.giansante@cominandpartners.com,

+39 3409017753

Orsola Randi, orsola.randi@cominandpartners.com, +39 3393273672



For Spain: Andrea Joseph, andreamarianajoseph1@gmail.com, +5491159790368



For UK and other European nations:

Oliver Courtney, oliver.courtney@digacommunications.com, +447815 731889

Jon Date, jon.date@digacommunications.com, +44 7533011983

NOTE: Dr. Murray will conduct a briefing for journalists on the new Europe COVID-19 forecasts on Tuesday, April 7

WHO: Dr. Christopher Murray, Founder and Director, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington's School of Medicine



WHAT: Briefing for journalists on new Europe forecasts on COVID-19



WHEN: 6 AM (Pacific Time); 3 PM (Central European Time); 2 PM (UK Time),

Tuesday, April 7, 2020



WHERE: Via Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/382600333

Meeting ID: 382 600 333

Find your local number: https://washington.zoom.us/u/ac7iy5zTFE

NOTE: Hospital administrators, government officials, and others not associated with the news media may contact COVID19@healthdata.org.

IHME is grateful to the Microsoft AI for Health program for supporting our hosting of COVID-19 data visualizations in the Azure cloud.

About the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent global health research organization at the University of Washington School of Medicine that provides rigorous and comparable measurement of the world's most important health problems and evaluates the strategies used to address them. IHME is committed to transparency and makes this information widely available so that policymakers have the evidence they need to make informed decisions on allocating resources to improve population health.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1141750/IHME_Logo.jpg
The Health Ministry has approved the Jakarta administration's proposal to implement large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) in the capital, the first region in the country to apply such a measure to tackle the largely unabated coronavirus disease.

Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto issued on Tuesday a ministerial decree concerning the approval, a copy of which was obtained by The Jakarta Post, saying that the decision had been made following several considerations.

Existing data show there has been a significant increase and rapid spread of COVID-19 cases, accompanied by local transmission occurrences in the province of Jakarta, the decree read.

Based on the results of epidemiological studies and the consideration of regional preparedness in social, economic and other aspects, large-scale social restrictions need to be implemented in Jakarta to reduce the spread of COVID-19, according to the decree.

The considerations were taken in coordination with the national COVID-19 task force, the ministrys head of media and public opinion Busroni said.

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan could start managing the implementation in Jakarta according to his regional capacity once a permit letter was sent to the Jakarta administration on Tuesday, Bursroni said.

Read also: Anies slams red tape in pandemic fight

According to Government Regulation No. 21/2020 on large-scale social restrictions, regional governments are required to obtain a permit from the Health Ministry to impose such physical distancing measures by submitting a proposal to the task force.

Anies proposed to the Health Ministry to impose large-scale social restrictions in Jakarta on Thursday as the pandemic continued to worsen in the capital city, the hardest-hit by the coronavirus in the archipelago.

What we need is for the central government to hurry up to grant the status so we can issue regulations, Anies said recently.

Large-scale social restrictions are regulated under the 2018 Health Quarantine Law, which stipulates that the measure includes suspending schools and offices, limiting religious activities and restricting gathering in public places.

Jakarta -- the country's epicenter of the outbreak -- has recorded 1,232 confirmed COVID-19 cases so far, making up nearly half of the country's official tally of 2,491 infections as of Monday afternoon.

The capital recorded 99 fatalities from the disease out of a nationwide death toll of 209.
The great Victor Davis Hanson eloquently chronicles the Corona meltdowns of Nancy Pelosi, the media, and Joe Biden in his American Greatness column of that name. This is his take on the media circus on we see in the daily White House coronavirus task force briefings:

Watching the media deal with the daily White House briefings reminds the country that we have never had journalism of this low character beforenot in the acrimony over the Founding, not in the furor during the Civil War, not even in the age of yellow journalism at the turn of the 20th century.

Reporters do not wish to transmit knowledge to the public that might aid in confronting the virus. They do not even wish to clarify murky statements from public officials to ensure Americans know exactly what the government wants them to do.

Instead, journalists during White House briefings fixate on two agendas.

One is to goad the president into saying something sloppy, by repeatedly suggesting that in reacting to the virus, he was in error, that he is cruel and heartless, or that he is dangerous. That gotcha obsession explains why the media can call Trump a xenophobe and racist for issuing a travel ban against Chinacontrary to the earlier advice of WHO, the Centers for Disease Control, the media, and the entire Democratic Party hierarchythen silently support it. It explains why they then use doctored Chinese data and propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party to convince Americans that Chinaa nation that lied about the origins, spread, and nature of the virusis admirably doing a better job in containing the virus than is their own country. Even the media cannot keep straight their own anti-Trump gymnastics.

If evidence convinces Trump to let the public know that hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin are efficacious in treating patients infected with coronavirus, then reporters will seek to persuade Americans that such off-label uses have no utility and are dangerouseven if they have to stoop to find some nut who drank fish-tank cleaner, clearly marked unfit for human consumption, to argue that a nonpotable chloroquine derivative cleaning agent provides proof of Dr. Trumps deadly ignorance.

But the White House press obsesses over a second agenda, too. It must always prove that previously respected figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, once embraced by the liberal media in their pre-Trump days, either are in revolt against their doltish boss or brainwashed into obsequious enslavement to the president. Often the media advances both antithetical scenarios near simultaneously.

The third rail for the media is that Fauci and Birx are empirical and sound mostly politically disinterested. They seek to provide Trump with scientific data about the virus to balance his incoming streams of financial, economic, military, and cultural information.

When Trump accepts their advice over objections from other advisors with competing national concerns, the two feel it was for the good of the country. When he demurs, they press their arguments as advocates of public health. And when they rarely lose an argument the two concede the president has to balance dozens of existential concerns.

In other words, it would be hard, for anyone other than the current press corps, on Monday to paint Fauci and Birx as frustrated scientists at the mercy of a moron who refuses to listen to science, while on Tuesday writing off both as Trump toadies who have joined the forces of darkness.

But that is currently the schizophrenic state of the American media. The only constant is that whatever Trump advocated, they are against, even if lives are at stake. And whatever Trump policy seems to be working for the good of the country, they either deny or ignore it.

Another irony: While the current media is the logical culmination of the liberal biases of the more polite leftwing domination of network and print media of the late twentieth century, it is now also far more vulnerable to exposure and ridicule. After all, it was progressive Silicon Valleys creation of the Internet website and social media that have allowed truth to emerge past even media filters, truth that has largely exposed the media as incompetent, meanspirited, and increasingly irrelevant.
[April 07, 2020] ARGUS International, Inc. Announces White Paper: "COVID-19 and the Impact on the Business Aviation Industry"

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ARGUS International, Inc., a member of the SGS Group, today announces its release of the organization's analysis of the disruption caused by COVID-19 on business aviation flight activity. The publication titled "COVID-19 and the Impact on the Business Aviation Industry," is available for download on their website at https://www.argus.aero/covid-19-impact-business-aviation-activity/ and outlines the dramatic results the global pandemic is having on the business aviation community and the longer-term predictions. "Without a doubt, the aggressive yet necessary steps taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic have had a chilling effect on the aviation industry," said Joe Moeggenberg, CEO of ARGUS International. "Using our realtime and historical TRAQPak flight tracking data, our analysts took an objective, data-driven look into how this catastrophic event has altered business aviation traffic and provided a glimpse of what to expect soon." In addition to the white paper, ARGUS announces that it will conduct a webinar to provide the business aviation community with a more in-depth analysis of the findings contained in the white paper along with updated data and projections. "Thiswebinar offers a unique opportunity for attendees to speak with the analysts that brought us this content and gain additional insights," said Charles Cunningham, Vice President of Sales and Marketing VP at ARGUS International. "We hope this session will provide much-needed answers to an industry that is collectively on bated breath."



The 60-minute webinar titled, "GROUNDED: An Analysis of the COVID-19 Outbreak's Impact on Business Aviation Flight Activity," is scheduled for Tuesday, April 21, at various times. Interested participants are encouraged to register directly at https://go.argus.aero/groundedwebinarsignup. Visit https://www.argus.aero/covid-19-impact-business-aviation-activity/ to download a complimentary copy of the "COVID-19 and the Impact on the Business Aviation Industry" White Paper.

About ARGUS International, Inc.

ARGUS International, Inc. (ARGUS) is the worldwide leader in specialized aviation services that allow organizations to improve their operational and business decision making with software solutions. ARGUS provides a collection of safety audits for both the business aviation and commercial aviation sectors. ARGUS Charter operator ratings are the most recognized and requested independent source of overall operator quality in the business aviation space. ARGUS subsidiaries include ARGUS PROS, the leading provider of onsite safety audits, and PRISM, a worldwide leader in safety management systems, certification, and consultation services. ARGUS was founded in 1995 and headquartered in Colorado. To learn more about ARGUS International, please visit www.argus.aero View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/argus-international-inc-announces-white-paper-covid-19-and-the-impact-on-the-business-aviation-industry-301036952.html SOURCE ARGUS International

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M ercedes Formula 1 team will begin deliveries of breathing devices to the NHS this week in response to a Government appeal to manufacturers to help with the UK's coronavirus outbreak.

The new Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices will help coronavirus patients with lung infections to breathe more easily.

They were developed by Mercedes engineers, University College London (UCL) and doctors at UCL Hospital - and gained regulatory approval last week after a "round-the-clock effort", Formula 1 said.

The team is now using machinery that is usually devoted to building pistons and turbocharger to make up to 1,000 breathing devices every day, according to Formula 1.

Mercedes engineers have shifted from car maintenance to designing breathing devices / AFP via Getty Images

Andy Cowell, Managing Director of Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains, said: Since the project was announced, we have received an incredible number of enquiries about the CPAP device from around the world.

Making the design and manufacturing specifications available on an open source basis will allow companies around the world to produce these devices at speed and at scale to support the global response to Covid-19.

The CPAP devices are usually for patients whose problems are less severe than those who need ventilators.

CPAP devices are for patients who are less severely ill than those who need ventilators / POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Professor David Lomas, UCL Vice Provost Health, said: These life-saving devices will provide vital support to the NHS in coming weeks, helping to keep patients off ventilators and reducing demand on intensive care beds and staff.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Credit: Universal Pictures/Lucasfilm)

The fifth movie in the Indiana Jones series has been bumped back to 2022, according to reports.

It was set to begin shooting in April, with a release date plotted for 9 July, 2021.

The movie will now be released worldwide on 29 July, 2022, following a huge reshuffle of the Disney slate.

Read more: Disney shares new movie release dates

It's just the latest Disney movie to be delayed by the worldwide coronavirus outbreak, which has disrupted the shoots and release plans for countless projects in Hollywood and beyond.

The studio's big-budget remake of Mulan has been delayed, as have new Marvel movies Black Widow and The Eternals.

The Eternals, starring Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani and Richard Madden, will now premiere on 12 February, 2021, with Black Widow shifting to 6 November, 2020.

Black Widow (Credit: Disney)

Mulan has now been shoved by from its original 27 March release date to 24 July, 2020.

The fifth movie in the Indiana Jones series, the follow up to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull from 2008, has been a long-in-gestation affair, but one that Lucasfilm has been keen to pursue since its acquisition by Disney.

Read more: The Disney+ originals in development now

According to former Disney boss Bob Iger, the movie won't be 'just a one-off', leading to speculation that Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones could hand over his treasure hunting mantle to another.

Then in February, it was announced that Logan director James Mangold was in talks to direct the fifth film, with Steven Spielberg, who has helmed all the other Indy movies, remaining on board as a 'hands-on' producer.

With this additional delay, it means that Ford will have turned 79 when the film comes out.
* Miners in Congo, Zambia divert copper shipments to Dar es Salaam



* Supply chains disrupted by border closures, coronavirus controls



* Exports of copper through Dar are up around 20-25%



* Mozambique's Beira port, Namibia's Walvis Bay also more active

By Helen Reid JOHANNESBURG, April 7 (Reuters) - South Africa's strict coronavirus lockdown has caused miners to divert copper from the country's ports to others in Africa, with Dar es Salaam the clear winner, sources told Reuters. Authorities in South Africa initially said ports would only process essential goods during a three-week nationwide lockdown that began on March 27.

On Friday, the Department of Transport said ports remain open to all types of cargo. But miners in the copper belt - an area spanning northern Zambia and southern Democratic Republic of Congo - did not wait for that clarification before acting. Trucks from the copper belt were turned round midway through journeys to Durban and redirected to Tanzania's Dar es Salaam port, officials at two regional logistics companies said.

"The moment the lockdown happened, all the trucks on their way to South Africa were basically stopped and offloaded at a warehouse in Zambia," said an official in Tanzania's capital, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Then all the documentation was changed and they started the journey to Dar," the official added. "Everybody is now looking at Dar as the reliable solution, because in South Africa it's not clear."

Exports of copper cathodes and copper concentrate through Dar have increased by between 20% and 25%, he estimated. Mozambique's Beira port, 1,200 km (746 miles) north of the capital, Maputo, and Namibia's Walvis Bay are also seeing more copper and cobalt export volumes than average, said a logistics company official in Zambia, who also asked not to be identified. Transnet, which manages South Africa's railways and ports, did not respond to questions about the hit to its revenue from the lockdown. Transnet Port Terminals made 3.7 billion Rand ($200 million) in revenue in 2019 from dry bulk, which includes copper, coal and grains.

CAPACITY HURT

Although South Africa's ports are open again to non-essential cargo, capacity has been hurt by the lockdown, logistics firm Grindrod said, predicting revenue at the company's port and terminals businesses would fall in April. Some port personnel who were initially sent home have not yet returned to work. First Quantum is now exporting all the copper from its two mines in Zambia through Dar es Salaam and Walvis Bay, whereas the majority previously went via Durban, a source close to the miner said in London. It is sending around 12,000 tonnes of copper through Dar this month - more than twice the usual average of 5,000 tonnes, according to the Zambia logistics source. The amount exported through Walvis Bay has increased by a third.

QUEUE OF TRUCKS Increased checks at the Zambia-Congo border crossing are also creating delays, with a 35km (22 mile) queue of trucks south of the border, according to another logistics company official in Zambia. This is slowing the supply of key reagents mines need for copper processing, he said. Congo miner Chemaf shut one of its processing plants on Sunday, saying it could not source oxide ore. While South Africa's lockdown is benefiting ports like Dar, Beira and Walvis Bay, it is hurting Mozambique's Maputo port, which depends on South African mine production.

It normally receives 500 trucks of chrome a day, but those trucks disappeared as soon as the border closed in response to COVID-19, he said. With most chrome mines in South Africa shut, Maputo is exporting stockpiles from South Africa with no replenishments in sight. "The main concern is that we have to have certainty," said Lucas. "We need to understand what is the plan for after - is the lockdown going to be extended?" Even for a port such as Dar, which is getting more business, the boost could be short-lived, given the drop in copper prices. Benchmark prices for copper have slumped around 17% this year as the pandemic dents demand.

"I believe I will have a very good year here in Dar," said the Dar logistics source. "But the challenge is if copper prices go down too much, and the mines go into care and maintenance."

(Reporting by Helen Reid Additional reporting by Zandi Shabalala in London, Nuzulack Dausen in Dar es Salaam, Tom Daly in Beijing, and Melanie Burton in Melbourne Editing by Alexandra Zavis and David Holmes)
Press Release

April 7, 2020 HONTIVEROS URGES MEASURES PENALIZING DISCRIMINATION OF COVID-19 HEALTH WORKERS, FRONTLINERS In commemoration of World Health Day, Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday urged local government officials to pass and implement measures to better protect health workers and other frontliners from discrimination. "There is no health without health workers. They and other frontliners are heroes and should be treated with respect and compassion, not hate and suspicion," the Senator said during the third week of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus disease or COVID-19. "Hindi katanggap-tanggap na ang ating mga frontliners na lubos na nagsasakripisyo para iligtas ang buhay ng ating mga kababayan ay nagiging biktima pa ng diskriminasyon mula mismo sa kanilang mga komunidad," Hontiveros said as she recommended that local government units (LGUs) pass ordinances against the incidence of health workers being denied entry into their communities or places of residence by neighbors, dormitory or apartment owners, and even barangay officials. "An anti-discrimination ordinance for the protection of health workers and other frontliners in the time of COVID-19 should establish clear mechanisms for the reporting and redress of grievances," the Senator urged. "This measure should also penalize acts of discrimination in order to fully support our health workers and other frontliners in the conduct of their duty," she remarked. Anti-discrimination ordinances for health workers are already being implemented in Manila, Paranaque, and Iloilo City, while similar ordinances are being deliberated by other LGUs. The Senator maintained that ordinances will be one of the most effective and expedient ways to address the problem. "Mabilis na tugon at may pangil ang ordinansa para matigil ang problemang ito," Hontiveros said. But the Senator committed that she will file a bill penalizing acts of violence and discrimination against health workers and frontliners, once the Senate session resumes in May. She will file the measure as an amendment to the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Concern Act or Republic Act. No. 11332. Hontiveros also expressed concern about the recent spate of violent acts against health workers due to COVID-related fears, including that of an ambulance driver who was shot in Quezon province, and a health worker who was attacked in Sultan Kudarat. "It's alarming and unacceptable. We should work towards eliminating future violent incidents against health workers," Hontiveros said. "All levels of government should work together to ensure that our frontliners can perform their noble duties, free from violence or discrimination by misinformed or hysterical individuals," she added. Hontiveros also urged the Department of Health to invest in information campaigns that will dispel rumors and fake news regarding COVID-19, especially those that put the safety of health workers at risk. She likewise encouraged LGUs to follow recommendations set by the Department of Interior and Local Government to better protect frontliners, such as deploying more law enforcement agents in the vicinity of hospitals, providing free transport to health workers, and keeping streets leading to medical facilities well-lit. "Hindi sapat ang ating pasasalamat sa ating mga frontliners kung hahayaan lang natin silang masaktan o maabuso. Let us repay the hard work and selflessness of Filipinos fighting the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring that they are safe and welcome in our communities," she concluded.
San Miguel de Allende Colonial Highlands Mexico "Instead of memorizing, Boomers learn by what is called patterning,"

Can older people learn to speak another language? Thats a common question asked at International Living events worldwide by the mostly Baby Boomer attendees. According to a new report from International Living, the simple answer is: Yes, soon-to-be retirees and those already retired can learn another language successfully when given the right tools in a simple, repetitive way.

The report examines techniques specifically designed for older learners, which differ from those methods used most often with younger students.

While in college, I took a course called Brain Based Learning, says Warren Hardy, Founder of Warren Hardy Spanish, a Spanish-language school in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, which caters primarily to older learners. This theory was based on the idea that not all brains learn the same and so a general curriculum doesn't work for all students. The idea was to study the specific brain you are teaching and find out how that brain learns best.

When I moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico in 1990, I began teaching but I quickly found that students over 60 could not memorize and that they didn't want to learn grammar. The methods and content that I had successfully used to teach younger executives were suddenly thrown out the window. Both I and my students were frustrated. Mature students just wanted to be courteous and know enough Spanish to get around.

According to Hardy, Boomer students suffer from what he calls C.R.S. Can't Remember Stuff. So how, he asks rhetorically, does the older brain learn, if it cant remember stuff?

Don't laugh, all of us over 55 suffer from C.R.S! says Hardy. I began to research how a brain over 60 learns and I soon found out things that dramatically changed how I thought about learning and teaching.

Hardy learned four key lessons, he says:

1. Mature brains read and write very well. That is their strongest learning modality.

2. Mature brains don't memorize and if they do memorize something they forget almost immediatelyC.R.S.

3. Mature brains don't focus for long periods of timemany don't study long courses, like language.

4. Mature brains want to learn what is meaningful to them.they have a very pragmatic approach to learning.

The International Living report examines practices Hardy has used to help a mature brain learn another language.

Instead of memorizing, Boomers learn by what is called patterning, explains Hardy who has seen over 20,000 students pass through the doors at his Warren Hardy School.

Patterning is the repetition of a meaning pattern until that pattern sticks in the brain. It has to be logical and meaningful. Once that pattern is learned, then it can be used to gently layer on new information.

I knew that my students wanted to learn to get around. They wanted to be courteous and tell people what they needed. With that in mind, I developed a system of learning based on expressing needs and wants. A simple pattern like I need combined with another verb and a noun. For example, I need to study Spanish, I need to pay the bill or I need to use the bathroom.

I also learned that each pattern needed to be repeated at least 21 times to be remembered.

Empowered with this knowledge, Hardy began to create his own course curriculum, based on what he calls Power Verbs.

At first, I used handouts in the classroom and slowly honed my course, he says. I found that all students, no matter the age, succeed. The Power Verbs pattern works for everyone.

But there was still the issue of mature learners not being able to focus for long periods of time because language learners tend to study in spurts. They can't go to class for months at a time, and they need to continually go back and review.

Thus, Hardy says, he saw a need for an online program that travelers to Spanish-speaking countries, would-be expats, and folks already living abroad could learn with from home, whenever it was most convenient for them.

I created from my in-person program an online video course called the Warren Hardy Online Webtutor, which, today, has been used successfully by thousands of expats and Boomers worldwide.

Today, Hardy argues, is as good a time as any to give a new language a try. With everybody sequestered at home, he says, learning online makes good sense.

More information on learning Spanish can be found, here: How to Learn Spanish

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For information about InternationalLiving.com content republishing, source material or to book an interview with one of our experts, contact PR Managing Editor, Marita Kelly, +001 667 312 3532, mkelly@internationalliving.com

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Since 1979, InternationalLiving.com has been the leading authority for anyone looking for global retirement or relocation opportunities. Through its monthly magazine and related e-letters, extensive website, podcasts, online bookstore, and events held around the world, InternationalLiving.com provides information and services to help its readers live better, travel farther, have more fun, save more money, and find better business opportunities when they expand their world beyond their own shores. InternationalLiving.com has contributors traveling the globe, investigating the best opportunities for travel, retirement, real estate, and investment.
The model granddaughter of the Queen's former racing manager has spoken of the abuse she says she suffered at the hands of an ex-boyfriend.

Frankie Herbert, 24, who is training to be a counsellor, wrote a first-person account for Marie Claire in which she told how she was mentally abused by a man who later attempted to force himself on her in her London flat.

Frankie, who did not name her ex, told how one weekend he switched from being the 'sex bomb' of her dreams to 'rude' and 'aggressive'.

Frankie Herbert, 24, wrote a first-person account for Marie Claire in which she told how she was mentally abused by a man who later attempted to force himself on her. Pictured, Frankie at an event for fashion brand Zimmermann at Annabel's in February

Frankie, whose famous grandfather Lord 'Porchie' Porchester is fictionalised in The Crown, explained she is sharing her story in order to draw attention to the issue of domestic violence amid a spike in cases during the coronavirus lockdown.

The model, who is based in the UK, revealed she met her ex-boyfriend while travelling for a casting. They embarked on a long-distance relationship, speaking 'all day every day' and visiting each other's home cities.

However his behaviour changed on a visit to London. On the third day of his stay he woke up a 'completely different person' and started undermining Frankie and putting her down.

Frankie recalled how at a friend's dinner he spent the entire meal 'muttering under his breath' about how 'disgusting' she was.

Frankie, who did not name her ex, told how one weekend he switched from being the 'sex bomb' of her dreams to 'rude' and 'aggressive'. Pictured, Frankie at a fashion show in February

'Hed say things like, "you are making me feel sick, youre a nasty person, ugly, youre spoilt and I really dont like the person Im seeing in you",' she wrote. 'I just smiled through it, wanting to cry but holding it together and I remained as silent as I could be, something that anyone who knows me knows, is very unlike me.'

When they returned to her London flat, the man 'ran' at Frankie when she tried to turn off the lights to go to sleep.

She continued: 'The next thing I knew I was being pinned down by a man who laughed in my face and tried to kiss me so hard my lip split.

'He started trying to pull down my underwear and trying to touch me and remove his clothes simultaneously, whilst keeping me pinned to the bed.'

Frankie is the granddaughter of Lord 'Porchie' Porchester, the Queen's friend and former racing manager (pictured in 1985). Their relationship was fictionalised in The Crown

Frankie screamed, alerting her flatmate and her boyfriend who came into the room. Her ex-boyfriend continued to spiral, punching himself in the face before threatening to kill himself with knives in the kitchen.

She explained she left the house that night and that her now ex-boyfriend left the following day.

Frankie did not report the incident and now feels that 'little could be done' but said the 'mental entrapment' of an abusive relationship has left a scar.

'Its safe to say I had a break down,' Frankie added. 'I was miserable and life seemed to be falling apart around me.'

The model is now urging women in abusive relationships to speak out and seek help, even during the coronavirus lockdown.

Refuge runs the Freephone 24 hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline, 0808 2000 247. There is also information available on their website here.

The model granddaughter of the Queen's former racing manager has spoken of the abuse she suffered at the hands of an ex-boyfriend.

Frankie Herbert, 24, who is training to be a counsellor, wrote a first-person account for Marie Claire in which she told how she was mentally abused by a man who later attempted to sexually assault her in her London flat.

Frankie, who did not name her ex, told how one weekend he switched from being the 'German sex bomb' of her dreams to 'rude' and 'aggressive', which culminated in him trying to force himself on her after a night out with friends.

Frankie, whose famous grandfather Lord 'Porchie' Porchester is fictionalised in The Crown, explained she is sharing her story in order to draw attention to the issue of domestic violence amid a spike in cases during the coronavirus lockdown.

The model, who is based in the UK, revealed she met her ex-boyfriend while in Hamburg for a casting. They embarked on a long-distance relationship, speaking 'all day every day' and visiting each other's home cities.

However his behaviour changed on a visit to London for Frankie's birthday in November last year. On the third day of his stay he woke up a 'completely different person' and started undermining Frankie and putting her down.

Frankie recalled how at a friend's birthday dinner he spent the entire meal 'muttering under his breath' about how 'disgusting' she was.

'Hed say things like, "you are making me feel sick, youre a nasty person, ugly, youre spoilt and I really dont like the person Im seeing in you",' she wrote. 'I just smiled through it, wanting to cry but holding it together and I remained as silent as I could be, something that anyone who knows me knows, is very unlike me.'

When they returned to her London flat, the man 'ran' at Frankie when she tried to turn off the lights to go to sleep.

She continued: 'The next thing I knew I was being pinned down by a 6ft 7 man who laughed in my face and tried to kiss me so hard my lip split.

'He started trying to pull down my underwear and trying to touch me and remove his clothes simultaneously, whilst keeping me pinned to the bed.'

Frankie screamed, alerting her flatmate and her boyfriend who came into the room. Her ex-boyfriend continued to spiral, punching himself in the face before threatening to kill himself with knives in the kitchen.

She explained she left the house that night and that her now ex-boyfriend flew back to Germany the following day.

Frankie did not report the incident and now feels that 'little could be done' but said the 'mental entrapment' of an abusive relationship has left a scar.

'Its safe to say I had a break down,' Frankie added. 'I was miserable and life seemed to be falling apart around me.'

The model is now urging women in abusive relationships to speak out and seek help, even during the coronavirus lockdown.

Refuge runs the Freephone 24 hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline, 0808 2000 247. There is also information available on their website here.
London, 7 April 2020 (SPS) - The Sandblast UK has offered condolences on the passing of Emhamad Khadad, a member of the National Secretariat of the Polisario Front, Coordinator with the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), on last Tuesday after long illness.



In a condolence message addressed to President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Mr. Brahim Ghali, Danielle Smith, Founding Director of Sandblast, UK said, on behalf of Sandblast UK, I would like to express our deepest sorrow about the news of the passing away of Mohamed Ould Haddad.



We would like to extend our sincerest condolences to his family for their loss and to the President and the Saharawi government for the loss of a brilliant freedom fighter who dedicated and sacrificed his life with unwavering conviction for the Saharawi self-determination cause.(SPS)



062/SPS




Singapore, 6 April 2020  CapitaLand Limited today released its Annual Report for the financial year ended 31 December 2019. The publication summarises an eventful year for the Group, including the S$11-billion combination with Ascendas-Singbridge to form one of Asias largest diversified real estate companies.

In a video message accompanying the release of the Annual Report today, Mr Lee Chee Koon, Group CEO, CapitaLand Group, said: Our strong financial results for 2019 prove that CapitaLand is a quality company on the right track. Every year, we have been focusing on delivering the best financial returns for our shareholders. But 2020 is a different year. We need to have the additional focus of standing tall as a responsible corporate player to make sure that we help our other partners in the ecosystem.

In the video, Mr Lee provided updates on the business impact of COVID-19, and the support the Group has rendered to stakeholders in the lodging and retail sectors, which have been hit particularly hard by the virus. With the lodging business, the Group continues to mitigate the effects of the global pandemic by taking care of its remaining guests, and where possible, support local needs such as accommodating returning nationals, workers in limbo due to border closures and healthcare workers.

On the retail front, Mr Lee said: CapitaLand is a major player in retail, and we take responsibilities of our leadership very seriously. We have provided some level of rental rebates and have committed to pass on any Government tax rebates to retail tenants; and we will be prepared to do more  all while ensuring that it is sustainable for CapitaLand and our shareholders.
Economic entities in Armenia were fined AMD 42 million in 2019-2020, said Gegham Gevorgyan, chair of the state commission for the protection of economic competition.

He claims that total fines will not contribute to the normalization of the market situation and that penalty mechanisms should be mostly abandoned.

We are now practicing other mechanisms, he said adding that its quite successful.

Speaking about the costs of maintaining the department led by him, Gevorgyan noted that a little more than AMD 380 million were allocated from the state budget, a significant part of which went to cover expenses on salaries of employees.
Construction work continues at the future site Live! Hotel and Casino Philadelphia in Philadelphia, PA on April 6, 2020. Read more

As the coronavirus spread across the region last month, and Gov. Tom Wolf ordered a halt to all but life-sustaining business, construction workers on the site of the new Live! Hotel & Casino in South Philadelphia fretted that the general contractor wasnt doing enough to protect them from being infected.

Gilbane Building Co., having obtained a waiver from the state, continued work on the $700 million casino, one of the most expensive projects in the city. Hundreds of workers traveled to the site on Packer Avenue near Citizens Bank Park, some from as far away as New York and Maryland.

Then a worker who had been on the job for two days in mid-March tested positive for COVID-19.

Yesterday afternoon we were notified that a taper that worked on the Live! Hotel & Casino project tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, Gilbane project executive Dan Kelley wrote in a March 26 email, listing people who might have had contact with the infected man.

Some workers responded by walking off the site, convinced that Gilbane was not taking the coronavirus seriously.

On Monday, sheet metal workers left after their union head said they were in danger because the company was ignoring Centers for Disease Control and Prevention precautions.

We were like, Were not working here, said a construction worker who asked not to be identified because he feared retaliation. Most of our guys felt this was bullcrap. Some of these guys dont care, but this spreads like wildfire.

On Tuesday morning, workers were told in another email from Kelley that a first-shift medic who oriented new hires and did drug screening had tested positive for the virus. The medic had worked on site between March 11 and 25, according to the email. Kelley advised those who had contact with him to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Gilbane, an international development company, said it had been allowed to push ahead with construction by obtaining a waiver from the Wolf administration to continue operating. But the administration has given few details about how the waiver process works, and has refused repeated requests to provide a list of which businesses applied to reopen, what they said their life-sustaining business is, and why they were approved or denied.

As of Monday, Gilbane said it was planning to keep building. But state officials now say the waiver is being misused.

An exemption was granted to Gilbane Construction, but that exemption does not allow for casino construction, Casey Smith, a spokesperson for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, said Monday, replying to questions from The Inquirer and Spotlight PA.

The waiver was granted to Gilbane only for those projects that pose [a] public safety hazard" and need more work to safely close down, "health care construction, and, in one case, completing a much-needed Philadelphia school, Smith said.

Per guidance, when a company receives an exemption in response to a request in which it specifically identified a particular element of the business as essential to health care or another life-sustaining operation, that exemption only relates to those specified life-sustaining activities, Smith said.

Gilbane declined this week to answer questions about how many workers at the casino site tested positive or negative for COVID-19, or how it obtained the exemption to the state shutdown.

Nor did Cordish Cos., the Baltimore-based casino operator and developer that took control of the project developer, Stadium Casino LLC, in November 2018.

In the case of the casino project, the building is still exposed to the elements and requires critical enclosure and infrastructure work to be completed before construction work can be safely paused, Cordish said in a statement Monday. The safety of all workers on the casino job and all construction jobs in the region is paramount.

Gary Masino, president of Sheet Metal Workers Local 19, sent a letter to his members Monday informing them that they were being pulled from the casino site as well as two other Philadelphia job sites, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the citys new police administration building, because the union leadership believed general contractors there were not complying with the CDC regulations and preventative precautions regarding the coronavirus.

We felt that the workers on those projects were in danger, Masino wrote.

But Cordish said the company has adopted protocols consistent with CDC guidelines, including social-distancing requirements, hand-washing stations, and staggered shifts to limit the number of workers on site together.

Those rules havent always been followed, workers say.

In an April 1 email to his employees, a subcontractor said he had been informed that day that a casino site worker had previously tested positive for COVID-19, but that workers were to return to the site on Monday after it was deemed safe.

Personal protective equipment "is extremely scarce as most understand at this point and we will continue to refine and change our program based on this, wrote Michael Jackson, vice president of Philadelphia D&M, which specializes in framing, drywall, and carpentry. We look forward to finishing this project with the vigor we started with, all the while keeping YOU, our employees and multiemployer trade partners as safe as we can in our current climate.

Attached to the email were company infection control procedures for projects where social distancing is not feasible, as well as a flier from the general contractor titled Gilbane Cares.

The Gilbane flier said workers should not be on site if they feel sick, have a fever or breathing issues, have traveled outside of government travel restrictions, or have been in contact with someone suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19.

If you answer NO to all of the above, please come to work, it states.

Gilbane in a statement said: The casino, when completed, will bring thousands of new jobs and hundreds of millions of new taxes to Philadelphia and the commonwealth, at a time when both will be critically needed. While other gaming companies have cut tens of thousands of jobs in the commonwealth and shelved planned investments, we are continuing to invest $1 billion in the region to create these new jobs and taxes."

Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) is pushing a bill that appears to be on the fast track for a vote in the chamber that would reopen all public and private construction activities in the state as long as they can adhere to social distancing and other CDC-recommended mitigation practices.

Democrats in the chamber have decried the measure, saying it plays to politics and special interests, and have called it a threat to public health.

Lauren Cox, a spokesperson for Mayor Jim Kenney, said the city was not involved in Gilbanes obtaining a waiver from the state.

Pennsylvania State Police and other law enforcement agencies can cite businesses that stay open despite not providing a life-sustaining service or products, but the agency has handed out only warnings, 205 of them as of Tuesday, except for a few citations to businesses selling liquor.

The posture has largely been to educate, to inform, to demonstrate to the business, perhaps through virtue of a copy of the governors order, what the criteria are, Lt. Col. Scott Price, the State Polices deputy commissioner of operations, said during a conference call with reporters Tuesday.
The most dramatic contraction in civil aviation history poses a challenge for Airbus SE in how to balance its response.

Factories that churned out aircraft in record numbers before the coronavirus crisis face an unprecedented production cut. But retreating too far risks leaving the company wrong-footed in a rebound and diluting its advantage over Boeing Co.

Airbus warned last month that it wouldnt achieve its earnings goals this year, hinting it would slow output without providing specifics. This week, the European planemaker reports orders and deliveries for March, the month that virus-induced lockdowns became a global phenomenon, grounding airline fleets in Europe and the U.S. and forcing customers to defer acceptance of aircraft.

Demand was already flagging in February, when the coronavirus downturn was upending flight schedules in Asia. Airbus failed to secure any new orders that month. Now customers and suppliers, from Deutsche Lufthansa AG to EasyJet Plc to Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc, are bearing the full brunt of what the International Air Transport Association has called the industrys worst crisis. Thats raising pressure on Airbus to give some of its most loyal buyers more flexibility.

The trick will be to pare back output on models like its A320 narrow-body workhorse, where production stood at close to 60 units a month, without going so far that suppliers will be starved out of business.

If Airbus went into it at 60 A320s a month, they are very unlikely to even make 40, said Sash Tusa, an analyst at Agency Partners LLC in London, who is predicting the worst civil aerospace recession in a generation. They will be making the decision now, but the rate cut will happen progressively over the next three to four months.

Airbus said its identified a number of operational measures it can take to minimze its cash outflow. These will be activated depending on the further development of the pandemic. It had no further comment ahead of its disclosure of monthly orders and deliveries.

The company also holds its annual general meeting next week, and may choose to save any comments on its output plans for that mostly online gathering. Last week, Airbus told employees that a return to full production was unlikely in the short-term, after it temporarily idled facilities across Europe. It said on Monday that German sites in Bremen and Stade would be paused for parts of April. A plant in Mobile, Alabama, where it makes A220 and A320 jets, is shut down at least through April 29.

Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury has preached patience, while building up a 30 billion-euro ($32 billion) liquidity buffer to get through the hard times. He said hed base his decisions on facts and discussions with customers.

I would not make judgments that would be too early, he said last month. Sometimes we are wrong to be right too early.

Wide-Body Woes

The air of crisis marks a reversal of fortunes for Airbus, which entered the year with a clear advantage over its main rival, Boeing. Still reeling from the grounding of its popular 737 Max model after two fatal crashes in rapid succession, the U.S. manufacturer was already in distress after halting production of its bestselling model. Airbus, by contrast, had lifted output to a record and was looking for ways to create even more capacity for the A320 family at its factories.

Now such ambitious plans are on hold, and Faury predicted that the market for wide-body aircraft used for longer flights will suffer as intercontinental travel dries up. Airbuss offering in that segment consists of the A330neo and the more advanced A350 models. Any decrease in that area will likely come with a delay because many aircraft due this year are already partially paid for and close to completion, making deferral harder, said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at aviation consulting firm Teal Group.

Note: 2016 to 2019 actual deliveries [Bloomberg]

Wide-body production wont drop off that much this year; its 2021-2022 that we have to worry about, said Aboulafia, who estimates A330 output could fall to zero, while Airbus may manage to hold the line at six A350s a month.

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr was among the first aviation executives to paint a bleak picture of his airlines future fleet requirements. The company, historically among the biggest buyers of Airbus jets, has grounded almost its entire fleet of more than 700 aircraft and mainly operates cargo and repatriation flights of customers stranded overseas.

We had planned to receive a new jet every 10 days this year, now we need none of these, Spohr said last month. We are discussing down payments, postponements, and cancellations with Seattle and Toulouse, he said, referring to the cities where Boeing and Airbus have their main production facilities.

Last week, leasing customer Avolon Holdings Ltd. deferred delivery of nine A320-family orders from to 2027, while canceling an order for A330neo wide-bodies. The pain was worse for Boeing, which saw an order for its grounded 737 Max slashed by 75 planes.

New Normal

Boeing, too, has acknowledged that the coronavirus crisis will transform the industry, with CEO David Calhoun saying on April 2 that the size of the commercial market and the types of products and services our customers want and need will likely be different.

Boeing has said it plans to trim back output of its popular 787 Dreamliner wide-body. The new 777x airliner only recently performed its maiden test flight.

Adjusting production in either direction is always a delicate task for the manufacturers. While Airbus and Boeing have orders for single-aisle models and some wide-bodies stretching out several years, theres a limit to how far suppliers can remp up when demand peaks. During a trough  or an extraordinary crisis like the 737 Max grounding  the drop-off rips through the supply chain with even greater force. Thats why the companies try to minimize shocks to the broader manufacturing ecosystem.

Its a backlash most recently felt by Rolls-Royce, which provides engines for the A330, A350, A380 and 787 Dreamliner jets. On Monday, the biggest U.K. manufacturer said flying hours that determine revenue from the wide-body planes it powers fell 50% in March, and it predicted a further tumble this month and beyond. To preserve cash, the company eliminated its dividend for the first time as public company.

Among Airbuss most hotly debated standing orders is a purchase agreement with U.K. low-cost specialist EasyJet Plc, whose founder and biggest shareholder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, is pressuring management to halt a contract for more than 100 A320-series jets and refrain from buying more aircraft. The carrier is exploring a delay in plane orders to conserve cash if needed for a longer-term downturn, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the discussions are confidential.

If no new orders arrive and airlines are able to defer deliveries, Airbus could quickly lose up to 3 billion euros in payments, said Sandy Morris, an analyst at Jefferies International.

At the same time, inventory builds up as Airbus is left with aircraft that cannot be delivered, he said. It amounts to the proverbial double-whammy for cash flow.
Does Manitoba have enough nurses to weather a severe outbreak of COVID-19? The province wont say for sure, but if recent bulletins from Shared Health Manitoba are any indication, there is some cause for concern.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Does Manitoba have enough nurses to weather a severe outbreak of COVID-19? The province wont say for sure, but if recent bulletins from Shared Health Manitoba are any indication, there is some cause for concern.

As is the case with other aspects of the COVID-19 response, Shared Health, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and public-health officials have been cagey when asked about whether there will be enough nurses to handle a potential influx of critically ill patients.

The WRHA keeps up-to-date statistics on nursing vacancies but guards it closely. After many inquiries and some significant negotiation, it released figures to the Manitoba Nurses Union late last week that showed vacancies up to March 22. In short, the numbers show only modest progress in filling vacant positions.

The latest data shows that across all Winnipeg hospitals and health-care facilities, 14.2 per cent of all approved, full-time nursing positions were vacant. That is only slightly better than the picture taken two months earlier, in January, when 15.1 per cent of nursing positions were vacant. That is surely not the situation the province wanted to be in with the possible onslaught to come.

It should be noted that the steady level of vacancies does not mean there hasnt been an increase in the total number of nurses. In February, the province graduated 33 nurses from a specialized critical-care training course and, according to the WRHA, they were put to work right away. Anecdotally, Shared Health has also claimed that the number of nurses has gone up.

If thats so, why hasnt there been a greater improvement in the vacancy rate? To prepare for COVID-19, some facilities have been authorized to hire more nurses. Put another way, the number of nursing positions has gone up at the same time as the number of nurses.

Shared Health has issued several bulletins and news releases seeking more nurses or asking nurses to work more hours.

On April 1, a request was made for all nurses who retired in the last five years to "consider joining the provincial fight against COVID-19." Provisions have been made for an expedited recertification process so retirees can return to work. That bulletin followed one on March 31, when Shared Health broadcast its need for RNs with critical-care experience to take on additional ICU shifts in Winnipeg and Brandon.

On the face of it, it seems unusual that Shared Health would have to communicate with nurses via public bulletin or release, particularly when it claims to have an open channel to the Manitoba Nurses Union. However, when you consider how strained the relationship is between the province and its nurses, the awkwardness of these communiques starts to make more sense.

Although there were thousands of health-care workers affected by Premier Brian Pallisters massive reorganization of Winnipeg hospitals, nurses bore the brunt. The decision to close three community hospital emergency departments, and shuffle a host of other departments, caused significant turmoil within the nursing community. Over the years, nurses had gained hard-fought control over where and when they work; those gains were largely trampled by the decision to shuffle the hospital deck.

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It also revealed a problem with the basic composition of the nursing community in Winnipeg.

Winnipeg has more than 8,600 nurses, which is, theoretically, enough to cover all shifts at all hospitals. However, nearly two-thirds of those nurses work part time. Although that does provide a lot of flexibility when it comes to scheduling, it also reflects that nurses expect some semblance of control over when and where they work.

No one would suggest that nurses wont step up to meet the challenges of a pandemic. As is the case all over the world, nurses have always been the first line of defence against public-health crises, and often suffer the greatest overall losses as a result. But this is an unique situation, where a pandemic arrived in Manitoba at the same time that nurses and the province were still very much at odds with each other.

Last week, nurses marked the third anniversary of the expiry of their last contract. Like all public servants in Manitoba, they have been subject to a de facto wage freeze. No one has the time to talk wages and benefits right now, but its becoming exceedingly obvious that nurses who can work more hours or who are willing to rejoin the workforce to lend a hand need some sort of gesture.

Social distancing eliminates the possibility for face-to-face dialogue. But clearly, either Pallister or Health Minister Cameron Friesen need to reach out and ask for some help. The stakes are much too high to let the pre-existing estrangement that existed between nurses and the Tory government linger during this, the crisis of a lifetime.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
"All it takes," said Wabasha Mayor Emily Durand, "is for one person to be sick, and that whole house of cards changes."

Durand spoke during a Rural Impact Round Table hosted by U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, MN-2, who brought together rural leaders from cities, hospitals, transportation, schools and farming to talk about what might be needed next as communities struggle to survive the COVID-19 pandemic.

Talking about the city's ambulance service, Durand said the EMS had recently hired a couple new first responders, but that staffing was designed for "normal times," not a long-term battle with a pandemic.

"Our EMS is stretched to be there for the service area," she said.

Police, ambulance and fire personnel, she said, are looking for information on who has been diagnosed with the virus that causes COVID-19, she said, so they can be aware when entering a home or arriving on a scene.

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Zumbrota Mayor Brad Drenckhahn agreed with Durand's assessment that city services could quickly be wiped out with one or two illnesses.

He also talked about the need to support small businesses so towns have an economic base once life returns to normal.

The owner of one of those businesses, Roxanne Bartsch, who runs Wild Ginger Boutique in downtown Zumbrota, said most businesses in that once-thriving downtown have closed due to the virus. And uncertainty from federal programs designed to help have her and other business owners concerned.

"We don't really know the status of our (Small Business Administration) loans," Bartsch said. "We don't even know if they got our application."

For her business, a women's clothing store, Bartsch said the quarantine orders could not have come at a worse time.

"All my inventory is for spring and summer," she said. "I don't know if I'll be able to get the product in for fall."

She's been delighted at the ingenuity of some businesses, though. For example, she said the local flower shop started a campaign to "Put a bloom in every room" at the local senior care facilities. When donors came forward to help fund the campaign to help brighten the days of seniors who are sheltering in place, the movement then expanded to talking with local churches about bringing blooms to shut-ins.

Both Bill Ihrke, superintendent of the Plainview-Elgin-Millville District, and Stacy Schultz, principal of Wabasha-Kellogg K-12 School, agreed that the impact of the shelter-in-place orders on budget lines is a concern beyond being able to teach online.

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While Ihrke talked about the formula for special education funding, which mainly comes from the federal government, and how it can cause a burden to district budgets, Schultz talked about child care.

"We've had to expand our hours," she said. "We're open now from 6 (a.m.) to 6 (p.m.) to accommodate our parents. And it's all free now. We're wondering how that's going to affect our budget."

Schultz also said because internet connections can be spotty across her district, she's concerned about children getting missed.

"We have some kids we still haven't been in contact with, and they are our at-risk kids," she said.

Craig said in the next round of bills aimed at helping deal with the impact of the pandemic, she'll introduce a bill today aimed at reducing the discrepancies in aid and infrastructure that impact rural communities.

For example, Schultz was just one of several individuals who talked about how a lack of broadband in rural areas is impacting their ability to serve people, whether through telemedicine, education or just connecting people.

While the first round of bills addressing COVID-19 as a disease made testing available for free, Craig said the next round needs to make vaccination and treatment free so no one gets the disease for lack of money.

Next, the small-business community needs more funding support.

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"If businesses are gone, we'll be less as a county," Craig said.

Congress needs to look at a bigger financial cure rather than just Band-Aids financing as we triage the economy, she said.

"We need to get people to work, and that means infrastructure and broadband," she said.

Finally, if the shelter-in-place orders go on for an extended period, Congress might need to look at another round of direct assistance.

"We have to have an economy left to stand back up," she said. "We have to make sure rural America is ready to stand back up."
Some patients with the coronavirus who are deteriorating at home are waiting too long to come to hospital and are critically ill when they arrive, a leading infectious disease consultant has warned.

Dr Jack Lambert, of the Mater Hospital in Dublin, said patients can go from being mildly unwell to seriously ill in a matter of days.

"I am worried about people who have been asked to self-isolate who are waiting too long for a test result," he said.

He was speaking as the official death toll rose to 174 after 16 more people, with a median age of 78, died from the virus yesterday.

Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said another 370 people have tested positive for the virus, pushing the total number of confirmed cases so far to 5,364.

Dr Lambert said he welcomed moves to step up testing and he urged people who may be self-isolating not to ignore an escalation in symptoms such as high fever and breathing difficulties.

Other lesser known symptoms to look out for are diarrhoea and altered consciousness, he added.

He said it is likely that many more people have the virus in the community and more elderly have died with the infection outside of the official figures.

He referred to preliminary figures from UCD's Department of Public Health showing up to late March the average number of deaths on RIP.ie was 90 a day.

But in the last 10 days that has risen and as of last Saturday an average of 20 more notices a day were being posted.

Dr Lambert's team is monitoring around 140 people with the virus as outpatients and those who deteriorate are being brought to hospital.

"If we waited 48 hours or 72 hours they would have got worse and worse," he said.

Dr Holohan said most of those who have died with the virus in the official figures to date had underlying illnesses, but that was not reported for all fatalities.

Speaking yesterday evening, he said the latest figures show 175 patients, with a median age of 61, have been admitted to intensive care and 20 have died. Some 33 have been discharged. This compares to 169 admitted to intensive care as of midnight on Saturday, which is encouraging as it suggests there has been no major jump in admissions in recent days.

Asked when he thinks the surge will happen, he said: "We have seen progress on a continuing basis now for 10 days or more in the so-called flattening of the curve.

"We think we are pushing out the wave of infection and pushing down the peak of that."

Over the course of this week it will become clearer if the near lockdown ordered last Friday week will have had the necessary level of impact.

It will be much easier at that stage to forecast when the peak could hit and how big it will be.

However, he said that "as we continue, we continue to grow in optimism that the peak may be further in the future".

Questioned on what impact the limitation on testing is having on the daily rise in new cases of the virus, he said they had been honest that they are not testing as many people at they would like because of problems accessing reagents.

"It has had an impact on total numbers. There is no question."

The aim is to increase testing in the next week or two so that if some of the emergency restrictions are lifted they could be reassured they could find people who are infected and aggressively trace contacts.

Thousands of swabs were sent to a German laboratory last week to relieve the pressure until Irish laboratories are ready to ramp up testing.

So far of those returned some 468 were positive for the virus, 7.6pc of the total.

Former health minister James Reilly said he knew of two people who tested positive whose contacts were not properly traced.

Dr Holohan signalled that another two weeks would be needed before a review of current emergency restrictions would be possible.

He also appealed to people not to relax their adherence to physical distancing over the coming Easter weekend.

And he urged joggers to keep a wide distance from people and said it should be wider than two metres.
Briefing With Coordinator for Counterterrorism Ambassador Nathan A. Sales On the United States Designation of the Russian Imperial Movement And its Leaders as Global Terrorists

Special Briefing

Nathan A. Sales, Coordinator for Counterterrorism

April 6, 2020



MS OTAGUS: Good morning, and thanks for joining this briefing. Today, the State Department has announced the designation of Russian Imperial Movement, or RIM, and members of its leadership as specially designated global terrorists  the first time in the history that the department has designated a racially or ethnically motivated terrorist group.

To explain that decision and further actions, we have joining us for this on-the-record briefing our Coordinator for Counterterrorism Ambassador Nathan Sales. Ambassador Sales will begin with some opening remarks, per usual, and then we'll take a few questions.

Just a reminder, please, that this briefing is embargoed until the end of the call. Ambassador Sales.

AMBASSADOR SALES: Thanks very much, Morgan, and thanks to everybody for joining this morning. Since 2015 the world has seen a surge in white supremacist terrorism around the globe. Last month was the first anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. And the United States is not immune to this threat. We've seen attacks targeting people because of their race or religion in places like Pittsburgh, Poway, and El Paso.

Countering this threat is a top priority for the Trump administration. After the El Paso attack, President Trump said, "In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated."

This administration isn't just talking the talk. We're also walking the walk. We're taking decisive actions to counter this threat.

Today, the State Department is designating the Russian Imperial Movement  also known as RIM  as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, or SDGT. We're also designating three of RIM's leaders as SDGTs: Stanislav Anatolyevich Vorobyev, Denis Valliullovich Gariev, and Nikolay Nikolayevich Trushchalov.

These designations are unprecedented. This is the first time the United States has ever designated foreign white supremacist terrorists, illustrating how seriously this administration takes the threat. We are taking actions that no previous administration has taken to counter this threat.

RIM is a terrorist group that provides paramilitary-style training to neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and it plays a prominent role in trying to rally likeminded Europeans and Americans into a common front against their perceived enemies. RIM has two training facilities in St. Petersburg, which likely are being used for woodland and urban assault, tactical weapons, and hand-to-hand combat training.

This group has innocent blood on its hands. In August of 2016, two Swedish men traveled to St. Petersburg and underwent 11 days of paramilitary-style training provided by RIM. A few months later, these men and another person conducted a series of terrorist attacks in the Swedish city of Gothenburg. In November of 2016, they detonated a bomb outside a cafe. Two months after that, they bombed a migrant center, gravely injuring one person. And three weeks after that, they placed another bomb at a campsite used to house refugees. Thankfully, that device failed to detonate.

Swedish authorities were able to arrest the attackers, and they've now been tried and convicted for their crimes. The prosecutor who handled their case blamed RIM for radicalizing them and for providing the training that enabled the attacks.

These historic designations are just one part of the Trump administration's broader efforts to counter white supremacist terrorism abroad. We're bringing all of our counterterrorism tools to this fight  information sharing, counter messaging, combatting terrorist travel, engaging with tech companies, and building partner capacity to protect soft targets like synagogues and mosques.

Today's actions are possible because of an order President Trump signed in September of last year  the most significant expansion of federal terrorism sanctions authorities since the aftermath of 9/11. Thanks to this order, the State Department can now designate groups and individuals that participate in training to commit acts of terrorism. We can also designate the leaders of terrorist groups, without needing to show that they were involved in particular attacks.

And let me be clear: Today's designations send an unmistakable message that the United States will not hesitate to use our sanctions authorities aggressively, and that we are prepared to target any foreign terrorist group, regardless of ideology, that threatens our citizens, our interests abroad, or our allies.

And with that, I'm happy to take some questions.

MS ORTAGUS: Okay, thanks, everybody. I think you know the drill, but please dial 1 and then 0 if you'd like to ask a question. Okay, and I think we have Jennifer Hansler that has already  is in the queue? Is that right, Ruben?

MR HARUTUNIAN: Yes.

MS ORTAGUS: Great. Jennifer, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hi, thanks so much. Could you talk to us a little bit about the practical implications of this designation, whether there are economic impacts that come along with it? And then any background on why this particular group was chosen as the first designation. Are there other white supremacist groups that also fit the bill that weren't chosen for this particular unprecedented designation? Thank you.

AMBASSADOR SALES: Yeah, thanks for the questions. I would say, first of all, with respect to your last question, this group was designated because it meets our statutory and regulatory thresholds for designation. No, we are always on the lookout for other groups that may likewise meet our standards for designation, looking at intelligence information, open source information, information that's provided to us by our allies. Not in a position to comment on any internal deliberations that may or may not be taking place, but rest assured we are always looking for potential designations, targets that meet our standards and that pose a threat to the American people and our interests and values.

As for your first question, remind me what that was? The practical impacts? Yeah, let me just highlight two in particular. First of all, this designation denies RIM and its leaders and its members access to the United States financial system. Any assets that they had in the United States or that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction are now frozen. We think that that's going to make it substantially more difficult for them to move money throughout the international financial system.

A second consequence that I would flag is today's announcement makes it easier for our officials at the borders to stop RIM-related individuals from ever seeking to travel to the United States. It enhances our watchlisting capability and our general border security posture with respect to this group. Thanks.

MS ORTAGUS: Okay, great, thanks. I think, let's see, we have Barbara Usher.

QUESTION: You mentioned  you mentioned some examples of this group rallying likeminded Europeans. Do you have any examples of this group rallying likeminded Americans? Because you say  you mentioned Americans, that they're playing a prominent role to get Americans into a common front.

AMBASSADOR SALES: Well, we are aware of public reports that RIM has reached out to Americans or even travel to the United States to reach out to Americans. We're not in a position to comment on whether or not those reports are accurate, but I can tell you that, as a general matter, any foreign terrorist group, if it seeks to make common cause with Americans, is a grave concern to the United States, a grave concern to the State Department, and we will not hesitate to aggressively use our authorities to counter such groups.

MS ORTAGUS: Okay, great, thanks. Next we have Tracy Wilkinson.

QUESTION: It's a similar question. I wondered if you have any evidence that RIM has participated at all in any of the election interfering that has gone on from Russians; and second, if you have any evidence of RIM having ties to Putin. Thanks.

AMBASSADOR SALES: On the first, I can't comment on any intelligence matters. What I can tell you is that the basis of the designation is RIMs provided provision of training to terrorists in Europe for the commission of terrorist attacks in Europe.

As for RIM and its relationship to the Russian Government, we call on all partners, our allies in other countries around the world, to take actions commensurate with what we have taken today. We encourage Russia, we encourage other countries to use domestic legal authorities available to them to designate this group, to deny it the ability to travel, and to cut off its access to the international financial system.

MS ORTAGUS: Great, thanks. Let's go over to Humeyra now.

QUESTION: Hi. Nathan, can you elaborate a little bit on what you said about you've designated this particular group because it met your statutory and regulatory thresholds? That's a little bit too sophisticated talk for, like, general audience. Can you talk a little bit about why this particular group? Thank you.

AMBASSADOR SALES: Sure, and just  don't disparage yourself and your colleagues. You are the epitome of a sophisticated audience. So our standards for designating terrorist groups are consistent across the board whether we're talking about Islamist groups, neo-Marxist groups, or racially or ethnically motivated terrorist groups like RIM. We look at is it a foreign group? We do not have the authority to designate groups with a substantial connection to the United States. Second of all, is it engaging in conduct that meets the standards for designation, such as it is engaging in incitement to violence; is it fundraising for terrorists; is it facilitating terrorist attacks; is it directing or planning attacks? In the case of RIM, is it providing training for the commission of terrorist attacks?

The United States does not have the authority to designate groups on the basis of constitutionally protected speech. So when we look at whether a group meets our standards for designation, we're always looking at the presence of violent action. That's the sort of conduct that is necessary to get a foreign group on our list.

MS ORTAGUS: Great. Next question, Kim Dozier.

QUESTION: Thank you. I wanted to ask if you could go into either cooperation with Russia to hunt these actors or lack thereof. And you mentioned Christchurch at the top of your statement. Is there any link that you can go into more detail of inspiration of the Christchurch shooter? Did we see social media from this group or similar? Thanks.

AMBASSADOR SALES: Thanks. Let me take Christchurch first. We know that the global racially or ethnically motivated terrorist community or the global white supremacist terrorist community is very much a transnational phenomenon. The shooter at the El Paso Walmart who deliberately targeted Hispanics claimed to be inspired by the Christchurch shooter, which I think is a bloody and grisly demonstration of how these networks interrelate with one another and inspire one another.

As for RIM and its relationship to Russia and what we might or might not be doing with the Russian Government, I can only tell you that we encourage the Russian Federation to live up to the commitments it has made to countering terrorism. We have identified this group as a terrorist organization and we encourage all partners around the world, including the Russian Government, to take this threat as seriously as we take it.

MS ORTAGUS: Great, thanks. Next question, Nike Ching.

QUESTION: Thank you, Morgan. Nathan, could you just talk about what impact this designation will have on domestic cases involving racially motivated extremist groups? And separately, if I may, it appears that the State Department and Justice Department have been bouncing responsibility for doing this back and forth since at least January. What has changed now? Thank you.

AMBASSADOR SALES: Well, I think I would disagree with the premise of your question. The State Department and our domestic counterparts have distinct and separate authorities here. The State Department's authorities begin and end at the water's edge. We have the authority to designate foreign groups. We do not have the authority to designate or take any action with respect to domestic groups. Those sorts of threats are very much within the purview of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Justice.

As far as what steps, if any, those authorities would plan to take against RIM or any other white supremacist group, I'm going to have to defer to them to speak to what they have in mind.

MS ORTAGUS: Great. Next question, Shaun Tandon.

QUESTION: I wanted to follow up on Russia, on the government. I know you mentioned your comments about the relation with the state, that you weren't going to say much about that. But can you say what the  whether there's been communication with Russia before this designation? Have you asked Russia in the past do more on this group? And just a basic question: Do you anticipate more designations of white supremacist groups?

AMBASSADOR SALES: So I can't comment on any diplomatic exchanges that we have with foreign counterparts for reasons that I'm sure you can all appreciate. But with today's announcement, we are not shy at all in our call for other countries, Russia included, to take decisive action to counter this threat to international security.

As far as future designations, once again, we don't telegraph our plans when it comes to designations. Suffice it to say that we are always on the lookout for groups that engage in violent activity and that present a threat to U.S. national security interests, and we will not hesitate to designate such groups in the future, regardless of their ideological motivation.

MS ORTAGUS: Great, thanks. Joel Gehrke.

QUESTION: Hi, thanks for doing this. Still following up on the Russia angle, there have been reports that RIM is closely  was closely associated with Russian military instructors, little green men who went into Crimea in 2014. Do you assess that this organization is an unofficial part of Russia's foreign policy toolkit?

And regarding their outreach to Americans, do you assess the Russians as being  potential violence associated with this group in America as aligned with their interests? Do  are we at loggerheads in that way?

AMBASSADOR SALES: So on the Ukraine question, I can tell you we are aware of public reports that RIM was among the forces that fought in Ukraine on behalf of the pro-separatist forces. Our position on this question is clear and unambiguous. The United States supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. That is why this administration has provided unprecedented levels of support to our partners in Kyiv as they defend themselves against Russian aggression, including the provision of lethal assistance.

As far as the connections between  potential connections between RIM and the United States, we've seen what RIM-trained terrorists can do in Europe and we want to make sure that RIM is not able or any terrorist group is not able to accomplish something similar here in the United States  that is to say, providing training that could enable violent attacks and deadly attacks here in the homeland. That is why we are designating RIM today, because it enables us to better protect our borders, to keep these terrorists out of our country, and to deny them resources they might use to plan additional training that could harm our interests.

MS ORTAGUS: Great, thanks. Next question, Jessica Donati.

QUESTION: Hi. I was wondering if there is any evidence that RIM has substantial financial inflows or ties to the U.S. or whether the designation is going to be more symbolic in terms of impacting their financial flows. Thank you.

AMBASSADOR SALES: Thanks, Jessica. I can't comment on the details of any financial holdings they may or may not have in the United States, but as a general matter, I will simply say something that is true of all of our terrorism designations: Even if a foreign terrorist group doesn't have a bank account at a U.S. bank, a designation still has a significant financial impact on them because it increases the difficulty of them moving money. If they are unable to participate in transactions denominated in U.S. dollar currency, that increases the cost to them of coming up with workarounds and various other measures to try and move money. So even if they don't have a savings account at your local corner bank or any other presence specifically in the United States, designations of the sort that we're announcing today can have a significant crippling effect on their ability to finance their activities and move money abroad.

MS ORTAGUS: Okay, thanks. So we have one person left in our queue, which is Conor Finnegan, but if anyone has  we have a couple more minutes  if anyone else has a final question, 1 0, and if not then we'll just end it with Conor, so go ahead, Conor.

QUESTION: Hey, thank you. Nathan, just to be clear, this isn't a foreign terrorist organization designation, it's the specially globally designated terrorist. So does that mean that the Department of Justice can't bring charges based on Americans providing material support to this group, and if so, why not do an FTO designation as opposed to the other category?

AMBASSADOR SALES: Well, thanks for the question, Conor. I'll defer to the FBI and the Justice Department on the details of how they would handle criminal charges related to RIM, but in broad strokes, you're exactly right. This is an SDGT designation, not an FTO designation. As a result, the possible criminal charge for providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization would not be available here. However, the FBI and the Justice Department do have other prosecutorial tools available to them to bring criminal charges against people associated with SDGTs. And again, on the details of that, I'm going to have to defer to the experts at DOJ and FBI.

As to your second question, why not the FTO, the reason the SDGT is a better fit here is because President Trump's order in September of last year dramatically expanded the utility of that sanctions authority. I want to foot-stomp a point I made a couple of minutes ago: Prior to those changes that the President announced in September, it was more difficult for us to designate groups that provide training to engage in acts of terrorism. Now, that authority is expressly spelled out in the executive order.

And second of all, it was previously more difficult for us to designate specific leaders of groups, because it was necessary as a general matter to tie them to specific terrorist attacks. Under the President's revisions, that is no longer the case. An individual's leadership status in an organization is itself a sufficient basis to designate them. So we used the SDGT tool here because the President's expansion of it made it a perfect fit.

MS ORTAGUS: Okay. Let's go over to Kylie Atwood.

QUESTION: Hi, thanks for doing this. So I just wanted to circle back to your opening remarks when you cited a number of examples from 2016 with regard to RIM training and attacks that they had carried out. But I'm just curious if you have any more recent examples, because it seems like having to reach back to 2016 may indicate that the group is diminishing in terms of what it's doing.

And then my second question is just on outreach to Americans. Can you give us a timeframe for when the outreach happened? Thank you.

AMBASSADOR SALES: Thanks. So on the reported outreach to Americans, as I said a moment ago, we are aware of publicly available reports that this outreach happened. We can't comment on whether those reports are accurate or not, but to the extent that that outreach is happening, I can assure you that it is of keen interest  for any terrorist group that is contacting Americans  that is a matter of keen concern and interest not only to the State Department, but to domestic law enforcement as well.

As far as what kinds of activities RIM continues to engage in, the specific examples we gave were from 2016 and into 2017 because that's the specific series of terrorist attacks that these RIM-trained individuals perpetrated in Gothenburg, Sweden. But RIM is still very much in the business of providing training to likeminded Neo-Nazis and white supremacists across Europe. We know that they have recruited individuals from other countries in Europe and continue to do so. Today's designation is a way of denying them the financial resources they need to continue that training, and also to make it much more difficult for them to travel here to the United States to carry out that malign activity in the homeland.

MS ORTAGUS: Okay, and last question  we have time for one more  and it'll be Said.

QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you, Morgan. My question is  I think I missed it, maybe you said it in the beginning  was there anything in particular that prompted this designation as opposed to, let's say, all the other European groups, like the National Democratic Party of Germany and other groups? Thank you.

AMBASSADOR SALES: Yeah, thanks for the question. We designated this group because it meets our standards for designation. That is to say, it is a group that is a foreign organization, not a United States-based organization, and it's an organization that is engaged in violent conduct  in this case, training to commit acts of terrorism. The United States doesn't have the authority to designate groups or individuals on the basis of constitutionally protected speech. Our authorities allow us to go after violent actions such as training to participate in terrorism, fundraising for terrorism, facilitation of terrorism, solicitation or direction and control of terrorist acts. This group met all of those benchmarks, and that's why we designated it and its leaders.

MS ORTAGUS: Well, thank you so much, Ambassador Sales. We really appreciate you being on the call today. Thanks, everybody.

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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / April 6, 2020 / Gratomic Inc. ("GRAT" or the "Company") (TSXV:GRAT)(FRANKFURT:CB81) (WKN:A143MR) is pleased to announce that it successfully raised gross proceeds of $626,000 in the recent Non-Brokered Private Placement, final approval for which was obtained from TSXV on April 6, 2020.. The Company placed 11,128,888 working capital units ("WC Units"). Each WC Unit was priced at $0.05625 and consisted of one (1) common share and one (1) common share purchase warrant (a "WC Warrant"). On the first closing on December 18, 2019, the Company paid a cash finder's fee of $9084.38 and issued 161,500 broker warrants ("Broker Warrants") to Walter Luke. Each Broker Warrant issued in respect of the sale of WC Units entitles the finder to acquire one (1) common share of the Company at $0.05625 until December 18, 2022.Each WC Warrant entitles the holder to acquire one (1) common share (a "WC Warrant Share") at $0.10 per WC Warrant Share until the earlier of: (i) three (3) years following the Closing of the Offering; and (ii) in the event that the closing price of the Common Shares on the TSX Venture Exchange is at least $0.30 for twenty (20) consecutive trading days, and the 20th trading day (the "Final Trading Day") is at least four (4) months from the Closing Date, the date which is thirty (30) days from the Final Trading Day.The Private Placement was initially slated to close February 18, 2020. However, the Company decided to extend the Offering for an additional thirty days (30) to allow additional time to accumulate the original desired amount of $2.5 million. Due to unforeseen market conditions and managerial reorganization, the Company decided to close the financing on the $626,000 raised.Gratomic's President and CEO, Arno Brand, stated: "I am grateful to investors for their confidence in the Company and its potential." About Gratomic Inc.Gratomic is an advanced materials company focused on mine to market commercialization of graphite products most notably high value graphene-based components for a range of mass market products. We have a Joint Venture collaborating with Perpetuus Carbon Technology, a leading European manufacturer of graphenes, to use Aukam graphite to manufacture graphene products for commercialization on an industrial scale. The Company is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol GRAT.For more information: visit the website at www.gratomic.ca or contact:Arno Brand at abrand@ gratomic.ca or 416 561-4095"Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release." FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com) SOURCE: Gratomic Inc.
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Getting started on a healthy program can be easy with some professional help.
The U.S. Supreme Court blocked a Wisconsin judge's order that would have given voters an extra week to submit primary election ballots by mail. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

The Supreme Court's five Republican appointees came to the aid of Wisconsin's Republican leaders Monday and blocked a judge's order that would have given voters an extra week to submit their ballots by mail.

By a 5-4 vote, the justices granted an emergency appeal from Republican lawyers on the eve of Tuesday's election.

In an unsigned opinion, the court's five conservatives said a federal judge had gone too far by extending the time for counting absentee ballots. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by the other Democratic appointees, dissented.

The high court's order came at the end of the day in which Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, moved to postpone the election because of the danger to poll workers and voters, only to be overruled by the state's conservative Supreme Court.

Wisconsin, a closely divided battleground, is the first state to hold major elections under the threat of the coronavirus. And its legal scramble over voting deadlines may foreshadow what's to come this fall if the virus remains a daily threat.

"It is a very bad sign for November that the court could not come together and find some form of compromise here in the midst of a global pandemic unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes," said UC Irvine law professor Richard Hasen, an election law expert. "Like the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court divided along partisan and ideological lines."

The GOP leaders filed their emergency appeal with Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, and he referred it to the full court.

The court issued a "per curiam" order, which speaks for the court, although in this instance, only five justices.

"Extending the date by which ballots may be cast by voters  not just received by the municipal clerks but cast by voters  for an additional six days after the scheduled election day fundamentally alters the nature of the election," they said. "By changing the election rules so close to the election date and by affording relief that the plaintiffs themselves did not ask for in their preliminary injunction motions, the district court contravened this courts precedents and erred by ordering such relief. This court has repeatedly emphasized that lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election.

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In dissent, Ginsburg said the majority failed to take into account the emergency presented by the pandemic.

"While I do not doubt the good faith of my colleagues, the courts order, I fear, will result in massive disenfranchisement. A voter cannot deliver for postmarking a ballot she has not received. Yet tens of thousands of voters who timely requested ballots are unlikely to receive them by April 7, she wrote. "This courts intervention is thus ill advised, especially so at this late hour."

Republicans who control the state Legislature refused to postpone Tuesday's election, which includes a high-profile reelection fight over a conservative justice on the state Supreme Court.

Last week, Wisconsin's governor issued a stay-at-home order, and Democratic lawyers then went to court seeking to postpone the election or allow more time for voters to receive and submit absentee ballots. At least 27,000 voters would not receive their absentee ballot by Tuesday, according to the Wisconsin Election Commission.

U.S. District Judge William Conley refused to postpone the April 7 election, but he ordered the state to count mail-in ballots if they arrived by April 13.

GOP leaders tried but failed to win a reversal from the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. They then filed an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court and urged the justices to reject the extended time for accepting mail-in ballots. They said the judge's orders "means that tens of thousands of Wisconsin residents will be permitted to vote after the election-day deadline." This creates a "serious possibility of fraud and misconduct."

Lawyers for the Democratic National Committee urged the court to stand back and to deny the GOP appeal. They said they had urged state leaders to postpone the election because neither poll workers nor voters would want to gather to cast ballots at a polling place.

While they endorsed the idea of more voting by mail, "it quickly became apparent that thousands, if not tens of thousands of voters, would not even receive their timely requested absentee ballots until on or after April 7." They said they supported the judge's decision to extend the deadline for the state to accept otherwise valid absentee ballots.
Many companies are introducing special measures to help people combat the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and the nationwide lockdown. Recently, Uber launched its UberMedic Service to help healthcare officials and now, the company has tied up with Flipkart to deliver everyday essentials in select cities of India.

Online vendors like Flipkart Grocery, Big Basket, Grofers, etc, are facing a shortage of manpower to delivery everyday essentials and this partnership will help ease the load, at least to an extent. Uber will deploy its wide network of drivers for last-mile delivery of everyday essentials and the company will not be charging any commission for the same.

Uber says that all the earnings through deliveries will be directly given to the drivers and safety measures of the drivers associated with this service are taken care of. Drivers are being provided with masks, sanitizers, gloves, and specialized safety training adhering to the Government of Indias guidelines.

Ubers partnership with Flipkart comes after the announcement of a tie-up with Big Basket and Spencers Retail recently. As of now, Uber has tied up with Flipkart to deliver everyday essentials in Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai and hopefully the service will be extended in other cities as well.

Source
For five years beginning in 1976, Mrs. Aaron directed programming for PBS. She introduced a satellite system for distribution to PBS member stations, implemented a schedule in which national programs would be broadcast at the same time by member stations around the country, and expanded broadcasts such as the MacNeil/Lehrer Report (now called PBS NewsHour) and the Nova science series.
India has reported a total of 4,789 COVID-19 positive cases with the death toll rising to 124 in the country.

While the number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 4,312, as many as 352 people have been cured and discharged and one has migrated to another country, the Health Ministry stated. The0 total number of cases include 66 foreign nationals.

Here are the top developments as of April 7:

>> Amid speculation that the lockdown, which is expected to end on April 14, might be extended, reports suggested that the government is "thinking in that direction" after several state governments requested the Centre to do so.

>> India decided to export anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to several countries including those in the neighbourhood on a case-by-case basis, officials said.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Follow all the LIVE Updates here.

>> WhatsApp said that it will limit the sharing of frequently forwarded messages to one chat at a time, in order to curb the spreading of misinformation amid the coronavirus pandemic.

>> Cases in Maharashtra crossed the 1,000-mark with over 150 fresh cases being reported today.

>> All passengers, who booked tickets on IRCTC-run trains, will get full refund, IRCTC said after cancelling bookings till April 30. As of now, IRCTC is running three trains  2 Tejas trains and 1 Kashi Mahakal Express.

>> UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was shifted to intensive care late on the night of April 6 after his coronavirus symptoms reportedly worsened. While Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove had said that Johnson is not on ventilator, he had said that the "prime minister has received some oxygen support".

>> Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said the final week of the ongoing lockdown is "critical" for evolving an exit strategy as data regarding the spread of coronavirus will have a bearing on the decision to be taken by the government.

>>New York registered a record 731 COVID-19 related deaths in 24 hours, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

>> China reported no new deaths from coronavirus for the first time but the number of imported infections increased to 983, with 32 new confirmed cases.
Several Katyusha landed near a US oil company in Iraqs oil crescent of Basra province Monday according to the army.

The army in a statement said at least three rockets hit an area near the company that it did not name.

The security forces found a rocket launcher and 11 missiles that were not fired which had been defused and dismantled. There were no significant losses recorded, it added.

No one was harmed in the attacks the army said, adding that it is looking for perpetrators.

The attacks, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reports came few days after eight Iraqi armed factions Saturday, threatened to attack US forces in the country if they refused to withdraw. The militias argued that the refusal to pullout was proof that it was an occupying power which only respects the language of force.

The U.S and international forces in place Iraq since 2003, have recently come under fire after the Iraqi parliament voted in early January for the withdrawal of all foreign troops after the assassination in early January of Irans top military commander an Iraqi militia leader in Baghdad.

The forces have begun last month a gradual withdraw after handing over the Qayyarah military, in Southern Mosul, to the Iraqi army.

Posted by North Africa Post North Africa Post's news desk is composed of journalists and editors, who are constantly working to provide new and accurate stories to NAP readers.
I had a few brief spells in solitary, each time becoming a bit unglued. Of course, I understand that its my fault I ended up in prison in the first place. And I understand that right now this enforced isolation is necessary to save peoples lives.

But in the moment, that doesnt always make it easier. I find myself doing all the things I did in prison, like rocking back and forth when I go to sleep. Once again, Im stocking up on toilet paper, instant coffee and canned peas  the commissary items I relied on to make it through. Im running. Im marking off days on a calendar. Im doing crossword puzzles, looking for a place in the world where I know the answers.

Last week, I texted my friend Stacy, whom I met in late 2011 in a prison in upstate New York. Stacy did a lot of time in solitary for nonviolent rules violations.

The thought of lockdown incites panic in her. For the first time ever, she told me, shed been prescribed Valium to handle the constant anxiety as she isolated herself inside her New York City apartment  that caged animal feeling.

But some people who have been inside think that prison trained us perfectly for long-term lockdown, even unrest and chaos. As little as incarceration did to prepare us to thrive in the free world when the sun shines, it did much to prepare us to survive when the world feels like its falling apart.

Think about the dynamics of prison, my friend Paradise told me, as we messaged late at night. It forces you to constantly conserve. Be aware. Ration.

Also creativity, she said. It makes you use what you have to get to what you need.

Shes not wrong. Behind bars, we learned how to squirrel away necessities we couldnt get enough of, devising homemade tampons and concocting makeup out of FireBall candies and lip gloss. We figured out how to cook jailhouse Mexican food out of ramen and Doritos, and how to make tattoo guns out of gel pens, ashes and sharpened metal.
No signs of COVID-19 have been detected.

The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine says 6,400 Ukrainians returned to their home country over the past day.

"In addition, over 4,500 people, including about 2,000 foreigners, left Ukraine in the past day. It should be noted a decrease in passenger traffic has also been recorded compared to the previous day. In total, the border guards have handled over 12,200 crossing operations for entry into and exit from Ukraine," the report says.

Read alsoUkraine's Cabinet keeps 21 checkpoints operational on state border amid coronavirus crisis (Video)

Of all Ukrainians who returned from abroad in the past a day, over 3,300 were transported in vehicles provided by local authorities and the State Emergency Service.

As of the morning of April 7, there were no queues at checkpoints, the State Border Guard Service said. Only 19 checkpoints where citizens could cross the Ukrainian border in their private cars will remain in operation starting from April 7.

Over the past day, border guards together with members of the coronavirus task force conducted temperature screening and a medical condition survey of almost 7,700 persons. They signed self-isolation consent papers. Following additional medical checkups, no symptoms of COVID-19 were detected.
Those affected by COVID-19 arent alone, whether employer or employee. Several available resources were shared during a press conference held Monday afternoon at Columbus City Council Chambers.

We know people have been laid off for this, Columbus Mayor Jim Bulkley said. We know businesses have closed for this.

Bernie Hansen, regional manager for the Nebraska Department of Labor in Columbus, urged residents who have been unable to work due to COVID-19 to apply for unemployment. Those who are self-employed, independent contractors or are considered seasonal workers are also eligible for unemployment.

Nebraskans should not walk away from their jobs in hope of collecting unemployment insurance benefits, Hansen said. If you quit your job without being covered, you will be ineligible for benefits. Additionally, declining an employers request to come back to work will also be treated as a quit, making an individual ineligible.

The job search waiver has also been extended to Aug. 1.

The volume of unemployment claims in the last three weeks is roughly equal to that of the volume of claims filed in 2019, Hansen said, adding that the Department of Labor has doubled its staff to handle claims.

Hansen encourages those residents who do qualify for unemployment to file a claim electronically by visiting neworks.nebraska.gov.

Also, she noted, employers who have questions regarding labor laws should call 402-471-2239.

On the employer side of the crisis, Bryan Chochon of Great Plains State Bank provided information on Small Business Administration (SBA) loans.

Businesses qualify for a loan equal to 2.5 times their monthly payroll. The loans are given on a two-year term with 1 percent interest. However, they are only available for small businesses or not-for-profit; those applying must have fewer than 500 employees.

Seventy-five percent of the loan must be used to fund payroll. The remaining amount can be used toward utilities, rent or mortgage.

That needs to be documented closely, Chochon said. I cannot stress that enough.

When applying for the loan, the business owner will need to provide documentation payroll for last year, payroll for this year to date and rent and utilities.

Approximately $339 billion has been allotted for this program with the funds estimated to last three weeks, Chochon said.

Even if you dont qualify under this program, its still wise to call your banker to see if they can help, Chochon added.

The Columbus Area United Way also has a COVID-19 fund established for nonprofits struggling during this time. That information can be found at columbusunitedway.com.

According to Bulkley, as of noon on Monday there were seven confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in the area  two in Colfax and five in Platte. In the State of Nebraska, there are 367 positive cases, with eight resulting in death.

It was announced Monday afternoon that there is a third confirmed case in Colfax County, bringing the total in East-Central's coverage area to eight.

Although there is no evidence of community exposure, residents should assume COVID-19 is in the area and practice social distancing, washing their hands or using hand sanitizer frequently and only leaving their home unless absolutely necessary, Bulkley said.

Bulkley also noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released information that cloth, or light-duty, masks should be worn by those who are healthy when in public.

This guidance applies to everyone  not just people who are sick. That is because recent studies have a shown that a significant percentage of people with COVID-19 are asymptomatic or do not show symptoms. Also, people with COVID-19 may pass on the disease to others even before they show symptoms.

By wearing a mask, people can reduce the chance that they will spread COVID-19 to others  whether or not they show symptoms.

The cloth face coverings recommended by the CDC are not surgical masks or N-95 respirators, which are critical supplies that must continue to be reserved for health care workers and other medical first responders. Instead, the CDC is recommending people create cloth face coverings from household items or other low-cost materials.

Cloth face coverings should not be placed on children under age 2, anyone who has trouble breathing, or is unconscious, incapacitated or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance.

All other people should wear a cloth face covering that fits snugly, but comfortably, against the side of the face, is secured with ties or ear loops, includes multiple layers of fabric and allows for breathing without restriction.

When removing used cloth face coverings, people should be careful to not touch their eyes, nose, and mouth and they should wash their hands immediately after removing the covering. The cloth face coverings can be safely cleaned and sterilized by washing them in a washing machine and thoroughly drying them in a dryer.

In particular, health officials have said it is still very important to maintain the 6-feet social distancing guidelines to slow the spread of the virus.

Those found violating the terms of the Directed Health Measures announced Friday  which include prohibiting events containing 10 or more people, on-site consumption of alcohol or food at an establishment, and one-on-one personal retail such as salon services or tattoo artists  could face a Class 3 misdemeanor.

Bulkley urged residents to stay home and keep children on their property.

The only way well get through this is by working together as a community, Bulkley said.

Hannah Schrodt is the news editor of The Columbus Telegram. Reach her via email at hannah.schrodt@lee.net.
Japanese language schools in the country are unable to welcome new overseas students as the government has invalidated visas issued in more than 170 nations due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A school based in Tokyo's Arakawa Ward had planned to accept about 700 new students from 28 countries and territories at the start of the new academic year in April.

But only some 90 students have made it to Japan. The fate of the remaining 90 percent is unknown.

The new students took part in an orientation session Monday morning. They were allowed into the classroom after disinfecting their hands and having their temperature checked.

They wore masks and sat on chairs placed about one meter apart. They were given a briefing on how to protect themselves from the virus, such as by avoiding crowded places.

One student from the United States said that he had spent most of his time inside the dorm since arriving in Japan. He expressed the hope to be able to see something of the country when things return to normal.

The head of the Akamonkai Japanese Language School, Arai Tokiyoshi, said he keenly feels a sense of crisis because, if the situation does not improve, business will become financially untenable.
Health officials and experts from the Chinese military hold a video conference to share the experience in fighting COVID-19 with their Pakistani peers on April 6.

BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Health officials and experts from the Chinese military shared their experience in fighting the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with their Pakistani peers via a video conference on Monday.

Attended by some 20 health officials and experts in Beijing, Wuhan and Rawalpindi, the teleconference started with the Chinese side's introduction on China's general situation and experience in COVID-19 response, as well as testing and treatment of the disease.

The two sides exchanged views on emergency coordination, epidemic response, testing and clinical treatment, and discussed treatment of severe cases and nosocomial infection control with detailed cases.

Speaking highly of the Chinese military's efforts in COVID-19 prevention response, the Pakistani side thanked China for sharing its experience timely.

It's the first time that the Chinese military has organized a teleconference with its foreign counterpart sharing its experience in fighting COVID-19, and it will further step up international cooperation to guard global health security.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  All members of the military agreed to donate a portion of their salary for May to help in COVID-19 response efforts.

In a statement, military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said they took into account President Rodrigo Dutertes candid admission on Monday nights address that the government will lack funds to respond to the crisis.

The AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) leadership heard the Commander-in-Chiefs candid admission in a televised address to the nation that government will not have sufficient funds to deal completely with the massive impacts of COVID-19, Arevalo said Tuesday.

All regular members will donate based on a percentage of their pay.

Arevalo said the deduction will be based on rank.

Since their salaries for the month of April are already out for payment, the donationdeductible from their Base Pays for the month of May will be available by the 3rd week of April, he added.

AFP chief Gen. Felimon Santos, Jr. will give 10,484; while the lowest ranking soldier, either private, airman, or apprentice seaman will donate 100, Arevalo said

The military said it expects to raise 16.9 million from the effort.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 05:26:55|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Iran rose by 2,274 to reach 60,500 on Monday, the sixth consecutive day of slowdown in a row.

A total of 3,739 COVID-19 patients have died in Iran as of Monday, and 24,236 have recovered and left hospitals, with 4,083 still in critical condition.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday that the government plans to provide loans for 4 million low-income Iranian households to deal with their losses over the COVID-19 outbreak.

He said a relief package worth 16.5 billion euros (17.8 billion U.S. dollars) has also been allocated to businesses damaged by the outbreak of the pandemic.

Ali Akbar Velayati, head of Iran's Masih Daneshvari Hospital, said Iran has started producing antiviral drug favipiravir for the first time in the country to treat COVID-19 patients.

"Fortunately, favipiravir was produced for the first time at Shahid Beheshti Medical University's School of Pharmacy and has been made available to Masih Daneshvari Hospital ... to be used for treatment of coronavirus patients," Velayati said.

In Turkey, the second hardest-hit country in the Middle East, 3,148 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Monday, bringing the total number to 30,217, and the death toll surged to 649.

A total of 1,415 patients are treated in intensive care units and 966 more are intubated, he said, noting the total recoveries are 1,326.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey will build two hospitals in the country's biggest city Istanbul for COVID-19 patients.

The hospitals will be constructed in the Ataturk Airport area on the European side of the city and Sancaktepe district on the Asian side.

"Their constructions will be completed within 45 days," Erdogan said, adding each of them will have a capacity of 1,000 beds.

The president pointed out that Turkey's health system surpassed an important threshold by implementing 20,000 COVID-19 tests per day.

Erdogan on April 3 announced a series of strong measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak in the country, declaring a partial curfew for the citizens under the age of 20 and closing the borders of 31 out of 81 provinces across the country.

Iraqi Health Ministry said on Monday that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has climbed to 1,031 by an increase of 70, and the death toll reached 64 in the country.

The Iraqi authorities have taken several measures to contain the outbreak of COVID-19, including extending a nationwide curfew until April 19.

In Egypt, 149 new coronavirus cases were reported on Monday, bringing the total number to 1,322, with 85 fatalities after seven new deaths were added.

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 241 new COVID-19 cases, were reported on Monday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 2,076.

Farida Al Hosani, spokeswoman of the UAE health sector, said the new cases of different nationalities are all in stable condition and receiving medical treatment.

She also confirmed one more death, pushing the country's death toll to 11.

In Qatar, a total of 279 new infections of COVID-19 were reported, bringing the total confirmed cases to 1,604, the ministry of public health said.

Palestine declared on Monday the full lockdown of four villages in the West Bank, as the COVID-19 cases has climbed to 252 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Israel was in lockdown with 8,904 people diagnosed with the virus and 57 deaths.

It is worth noting that a coronavirus testing lab will be set up by Israeli medical tech company AID Genomics in collaboration with Chinese biotech giant BGI Genomics in the Palestinian city of Gaza.

AID Genomics said the emergency testing laboratory, approved by both Israeli and Palestinian authorities, will perform up to 3,000 COVID-19 tests daily for Gazan residents.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The police force of Sint Maarten KPSM had been overwhelmed with over one (1) thousand requests for curfew waivers over the last 24/48 hours. We still have a very large backlog of forms, but we are doing our utmost to process all requests that were sent in. Due to the magnitude of requests will not be able to all requests on the same day.

A deadline has now been set, is Tuesday 7 April 2020 at 10 a.m. for processing the backlog of same-day requests at the police station.

As of Tuesday, April 7th, 2020, the police will not handle any more requests when it comes to travel for medical reasons. These requests must then directed to the Ministry of VSA who will process these forms.

After this police will only deal with real emergencies request, and the requesters should be aware that same-day processing cannot be guaranteed.

During her press briefing held earlier today April 6th, the prime minister of Sint Maarten made the following announcements concerning the waiver requests.

1) From now on everyone can only ask for permission through the 3 types of waivers that were used earlier, and that can be filled in online. Only these waivers will be processed, stamped and signed by the Chief of police or the prime minister.

2) These 3 waivers forms can be found on the website government website www.sintmaartengov.org on the Corona page, at Laws and protocol for personal, work and border crossing.

3) After filling in the form online, it can be sent via the website, to the police email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

.

4) These forms will be reviewed then signed by the chief of police or the Prime Minister of Sint Maarten and subsequently returned to the requester by mail.

Waiver forms that have already been signed cannot be modified, new applications will have to be filled in requesting the changes.

Be aware that requests by e-mails sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. without the waiver will not be processed from now on. Only the 3 waivers of the government website will be accepted and processed.

Urgent medical visits to your personal doctor or to the St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) will require a signed certificate from the doctor.

The police will again is making it clear that Hurricane passes are NOT valid for COVID-19 curfew.

KPSM Press Release
Highlights Saurabh Jain a Delhi resident who distributed food among hundreds He is a businessman and has his factory in East Azad Nagar He also feeds stray dogs and birds

Saurabh Jain believes in one simple thing in life, live and let live. This mantra has now encouraged him to take up the responsibility of feeding hundreds of underprivileged people in Delhi on a daily basis amid the ongoing coronavirus lockdown.

Since the announcement of the 21-day lockdown, there is a large number of people who have been left without food or shelter. Jain is determined to provide help to as many as he can.

Jain, who runs a garment factory in East Azad Nagar, has hired people to prepare food for over five hundred people daily. Be it Pulao, Chole-puri, or Aloo-puri, each day he gets different items prepared to offer to those in need.

The image shows food being prepared.

The image shows men preparing food to be distributed among people.

Some people visit his factory to collect the food packets and Jain ensures that they maintain proper norms of social distancing. He even hired a few delivery men to ensure that the food packets reach those who are unable to come to his factory.

The image shows the food packets being distributed.

Its not just the humans that Jain is concerned about. Since before the lockdown, he used to feed stray dogs and birds. In fact, this 29-year-old man is feeding the animals for almost 10 years now.

Heres a video which gives you a glimpse of Jains efforts:

What will there be if everyone dies? Jain told Hindustan Times and added that he will continue his food service as long as possible.

Do you know story of any such corona heroes? Share with us on Twitter or Facebook

Also Read | Corona Heroes: Wives of CRPF jawans, couple make masks to help people fight Covid-19 in Bengaluru
MadridAs the infection curve begins to flatten, the Spanish authorities are considering new ways to halt the spread of the coronavirus pandemic during what has been referred to as the descaling phase, once the the full lockdown is eased. One of the methods they are contemplating is to monitor the whereabouts of people carrying the coronavirus by means of their mobile phone, a system that has proven successful in Asian countries such as South Korea and, in particular, Singapore.

On Monday Spains Justice Minister, Juan Carlos Campos, said he couldnt rule out the use of mobile phones geolocation data coupled with more sophisticated methods, such as the activation of bluetooth services. During a press conference held in Madrids La Moncloa palace, Campo stated that this is one of the measures being considered because in a public health crisis the usual restrictions and data protection rules shouldnt take precedence.

[Spains] Data Protection Agency has said that in a situation like this it wouldnt constitute a breach [of privacy] and we feel it is reasonable to think that if someone has tested positive and they refuse [to self-isolate], they ought to be monitored somehow, Campo said accompanied by the Spanish Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.

Campo also mentioned the possibility of forcing people who have tested positive to remain in isolation centres which the authorities might set up for mild or asymptomatic cases in hotels and public facilities. Along the same lines as Marlaska on Sunday, Camp was emphatic that the state of emergency does not curtail the rule of law and, in cases like this, we would request the necessary reports before taking any action.
The federal government on Tuesday said it has commenced the local production of ventilators and disinfectant spraying devices to battle the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

A statement sent by the ministry of science and technology on Tuesday, said the Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, launched the newly produced devices on behalf of the government in Abuja.

The statement signed by the ministrys spokesperson, Olusegun Ayeoyenika, said the ventilators and other devices were produced by the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), under the ministry.

The statement said the first consignment of the devices will support breathing efforts of Nigerians who are already down with the pandemic.

It said the Nigerian government was determined to contain the epidemic in the country.

NASENI is the federal governments agency for research, development and the manufacturing of capital goods, machines and equipment.

As its response to the COVID-19 disease, the Agency has manufactured a set of disinfectant sprayer devices to assist in sanitising Nigerian cities, streets and the environment including ventilators, he said.

Mr Onu, represented by the minister of state, Mohammed Abdullahi, said the Buhari administration was not resting on its oars to prevent Nigerians from dying as a result of COVID-19.

Ventilators are currently scarce all over the world as countries continue to conserve the ones they have for their own citizens.

Aside the ventilators which aid COVID-19 patients in breathing, NASENI had manufactured sprayer devices ranging from NASENI-Safety Tunnel (O shape), NASENI-Single Disinfectant Chamber, Disinfectant Delivery on KEKE NASENI(tricycle), Disinfectant delivery device on Hilux, Disinfectant delivery device on Tanker and the environmental disinfectant blower, the statement also said.
Often considered desolate, remote, unalterable places, the high seas are, in fact, hotbeds of activity for both people and wildlife. Technology has enabled more human activity in areas once difficult to reach, and that in turn has brought a growing presence of industries such as fishing, mining and transportation in international waters -- the ocean beyond 200 nautical miles from any coast.

This increase is cause for concern to people like UC Santa Barbara researchers Douglas McCauley, Morgan Visalli and Benjamin Best, who are interested in the health and biodiversity of the oceans. That no nation has jurisdiction over international waters has, at least historically, made regulation very difficult and puts sensitive and essential ocean habitats and resources at risk.

"The high seas are the planet's last global commons," said Visalli, a marine scientist at the Benioff Ocean Initiative at UC Santa Barbara. "Yet marine life and resources on the high seas are at risk of being overexploited and degraded under the current fragmented framework of management. The world needs and deserves a comprehensive legal mechanism to protect high seas biodiversity now and into the future."

So when the United Nations turned its efforts toward negotiating the first global high seas treaty for "the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction," the scientists leapt at the chance to put their expertise to work. To kickstart this research, ocean scientists and high seas experts from 13 universities and institutions gathered in a series of workshops held at UC Santa Barbara. Together the team developed a standardized, data-driven strategy to identify hotspots of biodiversity potentially deserving of protection in the high seas.

"One of the goals of these United Nations negotiations is to develop a pathway for the establishment of marine protected areas in the high seas," said Visalli. "This creates an incredible opportunity to leverage new global data assets and data-driven planning tools to identify areas of the high seas that have outstanding conservation value and could be considered high priority areas for spatial protection."

The researchers' results are published in a paper in the journal Marine Policy.

Location, location, location

Marine protected areas -- designated parks in the sea where special measures are taken to protect biodiversity -- are among the most powerful and effective tools marine scientists and managers have at their disposal to look after marine biodiversity, maintain ocean resiliency and enhance the productivity of fishery resources that operate just outside of these parks.

But to get the most out of marine protected areas, they need to be put in the right places. Researchers in this collaboration used big data and an optimization algorithm to try to balance the benefits of protecting certain locations with high biodiversity against costs, such as the loss of fishing in that area. Their aim was to find win-win solutions for the possible placement of these high seas protected areas.

"It is a historic moment for our ocean," said McCauley, a professor of ecology at UC Santa Barbara and director of the Benioff Ocean Initiative. "Places like New York City, that famously included parks for nature and people in their zoning plans before things got busy, have benefited immensely from that foresight. This is our Central Park moment for the high seas."

The researchers took more than 22 billion data points organized into 55 layers that included information on conservation-related factors such as species diversity, ocean productivity, threatened species and fishing in locations across the high seas, which cover about two-thirds of the global ocean. They also future-proofed their analysis by including data layers describing the predicted diversity of species in a future ocean altered by climate change.

"This is important because climate change is rapidly altering our oceans," McCauley said. "Our approach illustrates one way to protect the biodiversity oases of both today and tomorrow."

Each hotspot identified in this analysis was special for its own unique reasons. The research highlighted, for example, the Costa Rica Dome, a dynamic nutrient rich region that attracts endangered blue whales and leatherback sea turtles; the Emperor Seamount Chain, a string of extinct underwater volcanoes that are home to some of the oldest living corals; and the Mascarene Plateau, an area in the Indian Ocean that has the largest contiguous seagrass meadow in the world and provides habitat for many globally unique species. These and other notable biodiversity hotspots across the globe could constitute the critical mass needed to achieve long-term marine sustainability goals, according to the study, and are worthy of consideration as the first generation of high seas marine protected areas.

The Home Stretch

Decades in the making and nearly close to completion, the high seas treaty negotiations were set to embark on their fourth round this month, but have been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary results from this exercise were presented by UC Santa Barbara scientists at the United Nations during the third negotiation session for the treaty last August.

This analysis, the researchers say, disproves the misconception that there is not enough good data about biodiversity in the high seas to strategically plan for high seas protected areas.

"We have high hopes," McCauley said. "We hope that the United Nations will indeed deliver a strong treaty later this year that includes measures to set up these new international ocean parks. And that science-based analyses, such as these, give them confidence that researchers and experts stand ready to help them strategically put these parks in smart places that will maximize the benefits that these parks will yield for people and nature."

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(Newser)  The nonpartisan inspector general's office in the Department of Health and Human Services called 323 hospitals to see if they have enough supplies to care for their COVID-19 patients. They don't, says the report, which lists severe shortages. Asked about the report in his press briefing Monday, President Trump said, "It's wrong." The report, released Monday, said some hospitals are so short of protective masks that they are searching auto-body shops and nail salons, the Washington Post reports. The problems start with a lack of tests, per the AP. They're compounded by the slow turnaround on test results, lack of protective gear, scarcity of breathing machines and weary staffs worried about their safety.

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"These challenges play off each other and exacerbate the situation," an assistant inspector general said. "There's a cascade effect." Trump wasn't buying it. "Give me the name of the inspector general," he said to a reporter. "Could politics be entered into that?" Christi A. Grimm, a career government official, is the acting HHS inspector general. Trump dismissed the report by saying that she'd served under President Obama, though she began working in the office in 1999. The survey, conducted March 23-27, involved hospitals across the country. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
President Trump has aggressively promoted hydroxychloroquine as a potential solution to the coronavirus outbreak. Experts say it's unproven and has significant side effects. (Associated Press)

Two major federal agencies are stocking up on hydroxychloroquine, a longtime anti-malarial medication touted by President Trump as a potential "game changer" in the coronavirus pandemic, amid experts' warnings that its use for COVID-19 is risky and unproven.

Federal contracting records show the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Bureau of Prisons have placed emergency orders for more than $250,000 of hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets from private suppliers over the last two weeks, with both agencies planning to use the drug in certain cases to treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Controversy has swirled around the drug, typically used to treat malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Amid reports of shortages in the U.S., Trump threatened "retaliation" against India, a major world supplier, if the nation did not lift its ban on exports of hydroxychloroquine to the U.S.

The Food and Drug Administration recently authorized the drug's experimental use for COVID-19 in response to anecdotal reports of its effectiveness  while warning in one notice that "we do not know if it works for COVID-19." FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn warned last month that "it might do more harm than good.

Trump touted the drug again at his Tuesday news conference, saying, "You're not going to die from this pill."

In some instances, however, the drug has led to very serious eye and heart damage. Last month, when asked whether the drug was known to be effective at treating COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said, "The answer is no." But Fauci added that "it might be effective" and officials needed to collect data "that will ultimately show that it is truly effective and safe under the conditions of COVID-19.

The VA and the Bureau of Prisons have moved ahead with boosting their stockpiles nonetheless, though the prison system said the drug would only be issued to infected prisoners as the continuation of a treatment first prescribed by a hospital.

Story continues

"We are not using routinely using Hydroxychloroquine," a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson wrote in an email to The Times. "It would be used if an inmate is discharged from the hospital having already started treatment with Hydroxycloroquine while there. We would follow any discharge instructions to continue treatment with Hydroxycloroquine."

The prison system signed a no-bid $60,000 contract for 200-milligram hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets on March 31 with Premium Rx National, a Derwood, Md., supplier, citing the national emergency to set aside usual competitive-bidding rules.

The VA, the nation's largest healthcare system, plans to use hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients only "in cases where Veteran patients and their providers determine it is medically necessary, and in a manner consistent with current FDA guidance," spokeswoman Christina Noel said.

But Noel said the VA plans to use "the bulk" of its latest hydroxychloroquine orders to continue its traditional usage for conditions such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis.

The VA signed a $40,000 no-bid contract on March 26 to secure 200-milligram hydroxychloroquine suflate tablets from Texas-based McKesson Corp., citing the "COVID-19 EMERGENCY," according to contracting records.

The VA followed that order with a similar $168,000 no-bid contract on April 1 with Golden State Medical Supply, a Camarillo-based company.

Records showed both orders were placed on behalf of the VA's mail-order pharmacy system, which handles tens of millions of prescriptions for the nation's veterans.

The existence of the Bureau of Prisons contract was first reported by the Daily Beast, and the existence of one of the VA contracts was first reported by BuzzFeed News.
Neuroscientists who studied the brain activity of jazz guitarists during improvisations have suggested that creativity prompted from an unfamiliar situation is a right-brain activity.

A brain-imaging study out of Drexel Universitys Creativity Research Lab suggests that creativity is driven primarily by the right hemisphere in musicians who are comparatively inexperienced at improvisation. However, musicians who are highly experienced at improvisation rely primarily on their left hemispheres.

Recently published in the journal NeuroImage, the study suggests that creativity is a right-brain ability when a person deals with an unfamiliar situation but that creativity draws on well-learned, left-hemisphere routines when a person is experienced at the task.

This research may contribute to the development of new methods for training people to be creative in their field.

For instance, when a person is an expert, his or her performing is produced primarily by relatively unconscious, automatic processes that are difficult for a person to consciously alter, but easy to disrupt in the attempt, as when self-consciousness causes a person to choke or falter.

The study was led by David Rosen, Ph.D., a recent Drexel doctoral graduate and current co-founder and chief operations officer of Secret Chord Laboratories, a music-technology startup company; and John Kounios, Ph.D., professor of psychology and director of the doctoral program in applied and cognitive brain sciences in Drexels College of Arts and Sciences.

The team recorded high-density electroencephalograms (EEGs) from 32 jazz guitar players, some of whom were highly experienced and others less experienced.

For the study, the researchers compared the EEGs recorded during highly rated performances with EEGs recorded during performances that were rated to be less creative. For highly rated performances compared with less-creative performances, there was greater activity in posterior left-hemisphere areas of the brain; for performances with lower ratings compared with those with higher ratings, there was greater activity in right-hemisphere, mostly frontal, areas.

The results suggest that highly creative performances are associated with posterior left-hemisphere areas and that less-creative performance is associated with right-hemisphere areas.

Some of these musicians who participated were highly experienced, having given many public performances over the decades. Other musicians were much less experienced, having given only a very small number of public performances.

When the researchers reanalyzed the EEGs to statistically control for the level of experience of the performers, a very different pattern of results emerged. Virtually all of the brain-activity differences between highly creative and less-creative performances were found in the right hemisphere, mostly in the frontal region.

This finding is in line with the teams other research that used electrical stimulation to study how the creative expression is generated in musicians brains and its study of how experienced and inexperienced jazz musicians reacted to being exhorted to play even more creatively.

The new study reveals the brain areas that support creative musical improvisation for highly experienced musicians and their less-experienced counterparts and addresses the controversial question of the roles of the left and right hemispheres in creativity.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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Al Fahim Group, one of UAEs most successful family businesses, recently held a signing ceremony with Groupe PSA to collaborate and acquire the exclusive distribution of Opel vehicles in Dubai and the Northern Emirates. The deal reiterated the companys commitment to enhance innovation and technology and boost the economy through job creation here in the UAE.

The Distributor Agreement was signed in the presence of Ahmed Abdul Jalil Al Fahim, Chairman of Al Fahim Group and Rakesh Nair, Groupe PSA Managing Director GCC region. Al Fahim Group announced the opening of their first Dubai showroom in April, showcasing the Opel Astra, the Crossland X and the Grandland X, the Zafira Life and very soon the Corsa, along with a service and repair centre at Al Quoz.

Opels brand values German, exciting and approachable will form the core of customer service for Al Fahim to focus on regional expansion and growth and target a gradually increasing market share. The company also aims to open two more showrooms and two new service showrooms in the next five years.

With our continued commitment to deliver sustainable growth through superior quality, we are proud to collaborate with Groupe PSA, seeking to surpass customer expectations by offering a state-of-the-art showroom presenting Germanys popular Opel brand. Bringing the car brand to the region is part of our business plan and plays a fundamental role for the development of the countrys progressive economy and to harness its assets to deliver on a clearly defined mission.

Opel is positioned to offer our customers comfort, German engineering and fun-to-drive and efficient models of the highest quality that are affordable. Through such initiatives, we aim to continuously present the best and most convenient offerings to our customers further strengthening the automotive sector. We believe in strength of our cooperation and we are looking forward to see more of these German vehicles on the streets of UAE, commented Ahmed Abdul Jalil Al Fahim.

Commenting on the news, Rakesh Nair said: Our focus has always been on customer satisfaction. Indeed, Groupe PSAs Push to Pass strategy over recent years has been a customer-driven revolution. This partnership with Al Fahim Group will help take Opel to great success in the region, while offering world class customer service. He added, This partnership is the first step towards strengthening the Opel brand in the region, to become the powerhouse it can be. The German brand is beloved by a core audience here in the region. Along with our partners, we are dedicated to expanding this circle of fans.

The GCC markets are very interesting markets for Opel. Obviously, being a German brand is a major advantage when entering these markets because German engineering is also synonymous with quality in this region. Our top priority in Dubai as anywhere else in the world is profitable growth with a high level of customer satisfaction, said William Mott, Director International Operations Opel Automobile GmbH.

An extensive export offensive is a key pillar of Opels company plan PACE! that ensures sustainable profitability for the company. The plan includes the clear goal of achieving 10 per cent of sales in markets outside of the traditional core European markets by the mid-2020s. To this end, Opel is strengthening its presence in international markets with new and renowned partners. In addition, the carmaker will enter 20 new export markets by 2022. Recent examples include the comeback in Russia or the upcoming market entries in Colombia, Ecuador and Japan. -- Tradearabia News Service
The coronavirus will change the world as we know it. Every nation has had to re-evaluate themselves and their priorities and when it is over, every nations standing in the world will be re-evaluated for them. None more so than Britain.

Discussions about Britains place in the world began as part of our never-ending Brexit saga, but if the way we handled that didnt expose us, then our handling of coronavirus certainly will. While we continue to trade off the nostalgia of being world leaders, the pandemic is showing the world that we are leading nothing.

While other countries offer residency to migrants, we maintain detention centres and no recourse to public funds. While other countries provide universal basic income, we leave the self-employed in limbo and offer small business owners relief in the form of debts. And while Cuba sends doctors around the world to fight Covid-19, staff in our chronically under-resourced NHS use bin liners in place of proper, personal protective equipment.

During a recent Urgent Question about Jamaica deportation flights, a Conservative MP remarked that British citizenship was a privilege, not a right. Yet as I write, hundreds of thousands of British nationals are stranded abroad. British consulates have closed their doors and unplugged the phones. Brits look on as other countries pull out all the stops to get their citizens safely home.

Some of the first countries to shut their borders to Europeans were former colonies. The world we know and our place in it is already changing.

Just before our official departure from the EU, I made my maiden speech in a debate on Global Britain, which was clearly meant to be a celebration of our standing in the world.

I said: It strikes me that as a country we cannot begin to fulfil the idea of global Britain until we first address the historic injustices of the British empire, injustices including slavery and colonialism; first, because it is the right thing to do, but also because we may soon find ourselves out in the cold if we do not.

The one thing that I agree with ardent Brexiteers on is that Commonwealth countries could be our most fruitful trading partners after Brexit. But while my comments were overwhelmingly welcomed by people across the Commonwealth, they were met with ridicule and racist abuse here at home. And herein lies our problem.

Advocates of Global Britain clearly hearken back to the last time when Britain really did have global power. But theres underlying bathos to the phrase in a time when power bases are shifting. This was exemplified by Theresa Mays unsuccessful trade visit to India in 2016, where talks floundered over migration and Brexit. More recently, a Foreign Affairs Select Committee report on the UKs relationship with India stressed that the UKs failure to become more open to overseas workers, students and tourists, would limit our capacity to build new trading relationships.

The recent publication of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review highlighted the institutional racism that underpins our approach to immigration. This racism and the way we view the Global South has roots in slavery, colonialism and empire. So, it stands to reason that until we address these historic ills, we will continue to alienate the countries whose friendship will be paramount after Brexit.

Instead of doing this, the government introduced its glossy continuation of the hostile environment: a points-based system cloaked in rhetoric, but not enough to conceal its concession to anti-migrant sentiments. Even at a potential economic cost. While we pander to populist ideas about immigration, we have fallen from being Indias second-largest trade partner in 1998-99, to its 17th in 2018-19. In a world outside the EU, are we really so arrogant to think that we can call all of the shots with India, a country which recently surpassed the UK to become the fifth-largest economy in the world?

We saw this same disregard at the recent UK-Africa trade summit, dubbed the scramble for Africa. The prime ministers speech showed he had not been listening to African leaders at all, making no reference to Africas past and perhaps more surprisingly, no reference to its future  the African common market. When established, this will be the largest free trade area in the world, and there is already talk of accelerating the process to cushion African economies against a post-pandemic global recession.

The prime ministers omission was glaring given that the summits whole purpose was to discuss trade with the UK after leaving the EUs common market. Countries like Ghana, Kenya and Uganda, which Britain deliberately underdeveloped, stole resources from, and brutally enslaved, are already among the fastest-growing economies in the world. Imagine what an African market would mean, and then imagine the level of arrogance it takes to ignore it. Coronavirus is exposing a truth that should give advocates of Global Britain pause for thought: they do not need us.

Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Show all 12 1 /12 Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Agnetha Septimus, Matthew Septimus, and children Ezra and Nora Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Husband and wife filmmakers, Claire Ince and Ancil McKain pose for a portrait for the series by Shutterstock Staff Photographer, Stephen Lovekin, shot around the Ditmas Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Khadijah Silver and son Eliot Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Anna Beth Rousakis and daughter Mary Rousakis Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Mike Pergola and Denise Pergola with children Henry, Jack, and Will Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Artist Shirley Fuerst Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Jean Davis and Danny Rosenthal, with children Simone, Naomi, and Leah Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Robert E Clark Jr Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Lisa Draho and Josh Zuckerman, with children Ruby and Ava Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Professor and activist Dr Kristin Lawler Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Tom Smith and Laura Ross, with daughters Caroline, Elizabeth, and Abigail Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock Words at the window: Social isolation and the Coronavirus Callie Lovekin and Lucas Lovekin Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock

As our government panders to nationalism, it would do well to remember that nationalism is not a uniquely western concept. Many Commonwealth countries will only remember a past of exploitation and a present in which they are subjected to punitive IMF conditions, crippling their social infrastructure in serving the interests of more powerful countries like the UK. Countries in the global south have their own nationalists and every one of them will tell you that their achievements are in spite of Britains atrocities, not because of aid or the privilege of being colonised.

Why does this all matter now? Coronavirus demonstrates more than ever the importance of global cooperation. It has also shown that we have less and less to offer. We will come through this crisis and when we do, we need to find a new economic foothold. But we cannot successfully do this if were unwilling to approach our former colonies from a place of equality, respect and understanding. We werent prepared for the reality of coronavirus but we must prepare to face our place in the world when the pandemic is over.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy is the shadow immigration minister and Labour MP for Streatham
Davenport University is working to keep the university community safe while assuring the highest level of learning continues for students.

"We're proud of how our Davenport community has come together to support one another and those around us during this crisis," said Amy Miller, executive director of communications and public relations at Davenport University in a statement.

Davenport is the first university in Michigan to utilize virtual reality classrooms to provide "you are there" experiences for both learning and events. The university has been using the software VirBELA for the past year in various applications and will be rolling it out within its bachelor's in health information management degree program this spring.

Faculty and staff at the university have set up and continue to donate to a student emergency fund to support those in need. More than $10,000 has been distributed for computer equipment, hotspots, rental vehicles for moves home and other much needed items.

Davenport University has donated more than 16,000 pieces of personal protective equipment from its nursing and science labs to healthcare providers across Michigan, including N95 and procedure masks, face and eye shields, isolation, surgical and PPE gowns and gloves. Davenport's Midland campus has donated 3,900 items

Davenport will continue to offer 100% of its classes online including nursing and lab sciences for the spring and summer semester - at the same tuition rate as the winter semester.

All Davenport admissions and advising is continuing online without interruption.

The university will do its best to keep everyone informed and as staff members implement new initiatives and take additional steps to ensure safety. Latest updates can be found at www.davenport.edu.
Amid the rising number of the novel coronavirus cases in India, the central government is planning to implement the ruthless containment model adopted by Rajasthans Bhilwara district to control the spread of COVID-19, the Hindustan Times has reported.

Bhilwara district was among the most-affected places in India during the first phase of the COVID-19 outbreak with reporting zero positive COVID-19 cases on March 18 to 26 patients on March 30. However, since March 30, Bhilwara showed a turnaround with just one reported case till the date. Of the total 27 positive novel coronavirus cases detected in the Rajasthan district, 17 have been reportedly cured and 13 have been discharged.

Taking note of the containment in the district, Indias cabinet secretary Rajeev Gauba has praised Rajasthan for the Bhilwara model, said the report.

Now, the government is planning to implement this model in other places of the country as well for effective containment of the infection, Rajasthan chief secretary DB Gupta was quoted as saying.

Coronavirus LIVE updates

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

How COVID-19 spread in Bhilwara?

The first reported case of coronavirus in Bhilwara was of a doctor at a private hospital who tested positive. After the first COVID-19 patient was reported in the district on March 19, the number of cases shot up within a very short time.

Most of the cases that had come up after the first reported infection were either of hospital staff or the patient who had gone for treatment at hospitals.

Coronavirus state-wise tally April 7

What is Bhilwara model of COVID-19 containment?

The Bhilwara COVID-19 containment model refers to the steps taken by the administration in Rajasthans Bhilwara district to contain the disease after it emerged as a hotspot for coronavirus infection.

The containment model of Bhilwara worked in several phases, said the report citing Rajendra Bhatt, district collector, who led the team of government staff to control the spread of COVID-19. These are:

> Isolating the district

A curfew was imposed on the day the first case was reported in the district. This was from March 20 to April 2. During this period, essential services were exempted from the order. The local administration sealed the borders of the district and set up check posts at all entry and exit points, said Bhatt. Also, railway services were stopped and movement of private vehicles prohibited, he said.

In the second phase of curfew, even essential services are prohibited in the city. This was from April 3 to April 13. During this phase, the administration was ensuring door to door supply of essential items such as vegetables, fruits and milk to residents and food packets to the poor, said Bhatt.

> Screening strategy in city and rural areas

In the second step, the administration defined the containment zone of one km from the epicenter  the private hospital, whose doctors and staff were the first ones to test positive  and a buffer zone of three km. Similar, containment and buffer zones were also created around the house of a positive patient. Special teams were deployed for continuous screening of suspected cases in these areas, Bhatt was quoted as saying.

A screening and testing centre was established at a hospital, which was dedicated as COVID hospital, Bhatt told the publication. Government vehicles were arranged to bring people to these centres for screening and testing and dropping them back, he said.

> Quarantine and isolation wards

The district administration converted 1,541 rooms of 27 hotels as quarantine centres. Besides, it also had 11,659 quarantine beds in 22 institutions and hostels.

> Monitoring mechanism for city and rural areas

Corona fighters and corona captains were appointed in city and rural areas for monitoring, said Bhatt. In the city, the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) is the corona caption and ASHA and ANM are corona fighters.

In the villages, block development officers (BDO) and tehsildar are corona captains at the level of panchayat samitis, and sarpanch, panchayat sahayak, teachers and ASHAs are corona fighters, Bhatt added.

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By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday rejected the media reports on Islamabad's link with a deadly terrorist attack on a Gurdawara in Afghanistan last month, saying it was designed to malign the country.

"This attempt is highly mischievous and condemnable, the Foreign Office said, adding that Pakistan has strongly condemned the dastardly terrorist attack on the Gurdawara, in which so many precious lives were lost. Places of worship are sacrosanct and their sanctity must be respected at all times. The perpetrators of this heinous crime must be brought to justice," it said.

Pakistan firmly believed that such despicable terrorist acts had no political, religious or moral justification, it said, adding that the media reports were designed to malign Pakistan.




Mexico President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador recently announced that there would no longer be huge economic incentive programs as the nation is going through the threat of the crisis prompted by COVID-19, which is almost definitely unlike any it has encountered in the past 100 years.

Rather, the national leader said his administration is expanding more on social programs and will keep on propping up the heavily indebted state-owned oil firm, as well as deepen the austerity campaign of the government, not to mention, doing anything and everything possible to prevent becoming more indebted.

According to President Lopez Obrador, there is definitely a lesson they have learned well and cannot forget. He added, "An economic model" benefiting only the minorities does not produce general well-being, yet in contrast, engenders both violence and public misery.

READ: How American Lives are Likely to Change After COVID-19

Additionally, the economic reactivation scheme stays constant with the priority of his administration to help the country's most susceptible areas by ensuring that people remain employed, that there is greater public spending on social welfare, and that there will be cost-cutting in the expansive administration.

Government Officials' Salaries Reduced

The president cited an example saying, the government bureaucrats' top level, from the undersecretaries up to him, will have reduced salaries, on top of the year-end bonuses which they have given up.

Aside from that, the president also promised to generate 2 million new jobs in the next nine months, and apparently implausible goal in a stationary economy and no other details have been given by him, on how he would go about the said new employment scheme.

READ NEXT: Mexico Responds to the COVID-19 Crisis: Social Distancing Program and More

Moreover, President Lopez Obrador put emphasis on his "signature infrastructure projects". More specifically, the Mexico City airport, a tourist train said to be circling the peninsula of Yucatan, and a new oil refinery, are all pushing through.

The said train, which has yet to start being constructed, the president said, "promises to generate roughly 30,000 jobs for each of the seven segments." Another program of the government includes developing construction works through paving roads, and improvement of drainage, to name two.

Criticisms from the Private Sector

Gustavo de Hoyos, president of Coparmex, a business owners' association, criticized the plan of the president saying the announcement he made had no relevant measure to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amid an emergency, the businessman said, the nation leader read a so-called "piece of ideological propagation," criticizing apparitions from the past and neglecting his responsibility as head of state to UN.

Before the President's speech, Concoamin, another Mexican industries' association, cautioned via a statement that the pandemic could only lead to the worst recession in Mexico in a century.

More so, it called for support to the private sector, specifically the businesses, to prevent hundreds of thousands of them from shutting down. But until now, President Lopez Obrador has more often than not, talked about the protection of Mexico's poorest and especially emphasized those who work in the informal half of the economy of the country.

READ MORE: New Mexico's Report Card on Social Distancing

The nation leader has also praised Carlos Slim, a billionaire, for his pledge to not layoff any employee during a crisis. He also urged other companies to follow Slim's example. More so, the president also said that only those working in essential businesses should still go out and work, and that, those staying at home should still be paid.
Heres a round-up of coronavirus reportage and insights from publications from India  from the impact of a single undiagnosed case, to practising information hygiene, and what you could do to tide over the economic fallout. Expert Speak One undiagnosed Covid-19 case can infect up to 16,000 people in 14 days: Those above 80 who are not vaccinated for flu or pneumonia and living in old-age homes are at A high risk, says Dr Prasun Chatterjee, associate professor, Department of Geriatric Medicine, AIIMS.

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A Ruby Princess cruise ship passenger in his 80s has died from coronavirus in hospital, taking Australia's death toll to 46.

The man died at North West Regional Hospital in Tasmania.

He is the fourteenth Ruby Princess passenger to die from coronavirus in Australia.

So far 46 people have died from coronavirus in Australia, including five deaths which were confirmed on Tuesday.

A Ruby Princess cruise ship passenger in his 80s has died from coronavirus in hospital, taking Australia's death toll to 46

So far 46 people have died from coronavirus in Australia, including five deaths confirmed on Tuesday

The Ruby Princess cruise ship is docked in Port Kembla, near Wollongong, as a criminal investigation begins into why 2,700 passengers were allowed to disembark in Sydney Harbour on March 19 despite having multiple travellers who were ill with coronavirus symptoms.

The investigation will cover the actions of the port authority, ambulance, police, NSW Health and ship operator Carnival Australia.

The ship is expected to spend up to 10 days in Port Kembla as its 1,040 crew members undergo medical assessments, treatment or emergency extractions.

Some 200 have symptoms of the illness. Two of the crew members were taken off the ship on Sunday for medical assistance.

It's understood Border Force officials and health workers will board the ship and test crew members displaying coronavirus symptoms as well as deliver medical supplies.

The ship will remain docked at the port for up to 10 days, with no crew to be let off without permission from NSW Police commissioner Mick Fuller.

NSW police said the Ruby Princess will dock 'to allow for safer access for medical assessments, treatment, or emergency extractions of her crew'.

The Ruby Princess cruise ship is docked in Port Kembla, near Wollongong, as a criminal investigation begins

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

'The berthing will be conducted under strict health and biosecurity guidelines and will not pose a risk to employees at the port or the broader community,' a police spokeswoman said.

'She will also be refuelling and restocking provisions, as required for her home journey.'

Mr Fuller said NSW Police will work closely with the 1,040 crew members on the ship, who are from 50 different countries.

'Obviously the health and wellbeing of the crew members is essential,' he said.

'Between NSW Health, NSW police and the emergency management team a plan has been developed that will be around isolation on the ship.

'And then from that, from that 10-day period of isolation we can then continue to work with Carnival in relation to repatriation of the individuals on the ship.'

Labor's health spokesman and Shadow Minister for the Illawarra and South Coast Ryan Park accused the NSW government of trying to 'dump' its problems on the Illawarra

The ship will remain docked at the port for up to 10 days, with no crew to be let off without permission from NSW Police commissioner Mick Fuller

Labor's health spokesman and Shadow Minister for the Illawarra and South Coast Ryan Park accused the NSW government of trying to 'dump' its problems on the Illawarra.

'It is unbelievable that in the cover of darkness the vessel that has been the epicentre of coronavirus in NSW sails into the harbour,' he told reporters at Port Kembla on Monday.

'Everyone wants to see the crew on board this ship get the medical attention they need and deserve, but the majority of health and hospital resources are located just a few kilometres from Sydney Harbour.

'It beggars belief that a government has made a decision to move this ship down to the Illawarra when they have a large number of ICU beds and hospital resources located within close proximity of Sydney Harbour.'

Mr Park said he is 'extremely concerned' that an influx of sick crew members needing medical treatment will put a strain on Wollongong Hospital and its intensive care capacity.
BRUSSELS, April 6 (Reuters) - The European Commission has been asked by six European countries to look at Mastercard Inc'S bid for a majority stake in the corporate services businesses of Scandinavian payments group Nets over competition fears, it said on Monday.

The Commission, which acts as the competition enforcer for the 27-country bloc, said it has been asked by Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Britain to take over the case. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee Editing by David Goodman)
KYODO NEWS - Apr 7, 2020 - 18:40 | All, Japan

Three Japanese ships set sail early Tuesday morning for the first commercial whaling expedition in 32 years off the country's northeastern Sanriku Coast.

Japan resumed hunting whales for commercial purposes last July 1, a day after formally leaving the International Whaling Commission, and whaling took place last year in waters off the northernmost main island of Hokkaido and other regions. But there were no voyages in Sanriku waters, as minke whales had already left the area and reached the waters around Hokkaido.

The fleet left port in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, to track minke whales in nearby waters that are on their annual migration north in search of food.

"We're finally here. We hope to deliver fresh and delicious whale to everyone," said Nobuyuki Ito, president of a local whaling company from the district of Ayukawa, which used to be one of the most prosperous whaling hubs in the country.

The company jointly runs two of the ships with other local firms, while the third ship is owned by a whaling company from Minamiboso in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo.

The companies have developed their own sales channels and will mostly land their catches at the Miyagi port. Last year, the Japan Small-Type Whaling Association based in southwestern Fukuoka Prefecture was solely in charge of the sale of the whale meat and no catch was landed in Miyagi.

As an IWC member, Japan halted commercial whaling in 1988 but hunted whales for what it called research purposes, a practice criticized internationally as a cover for commercial whaling.

Tokyo says the resumed commercial whaling will only take place in nearby waters and within its exclusive economic zone.

Related coverage:

Japan's hunt for minke whales resume in coastal areas off Hokkaido

Japan whaling town Taiji begins dolphin hunting
London, April 6, 2020



CNH Industrial N.V. (NYSE: CNHI / MI: CNHI) confirms that its Annual General Meeting of shareholders (AGM) will be held on April 16, 2020 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, as previously announced. Due to travel bans and local restrictions on meetings issued because of the COVID-19 outbreak, it is anticipated that executive and non-executive directors will attend our AGM via remote connection. Furthermore, for health and safety reasons, the Company will take appropriate measures to minimize public health risks relating to the AGM and further measures will be introduced in the event local prescriptions will be amended. CNH Industrial therefore reserves the right to amend the physical arrangements on the day of the AGM, including refusing entry to the meeting to comply with health and safety requirements.

As a result of the above described constraints, Company shareholders are expected not to attend the meeting in person. Instead, shareholders are urged to cast their votes by proxy or online in advance. For further information regarding voting by proxy please refer to the Companys website, www.cnhindustrial.com .

Shareholders will, however, be able to follow the Annual General Meeting remotely. Further details in this respect will be posted on the Companys website www.cnhindustrial.com in advance of the meeting.

The global fight against COVID-19 has triggered an unprecedented impact on economic activity including in the markets in which the Company operates. Considering the challenges and the uncertainties associated with this situation, as a precautionary measure the Company has decided to remove its dividend proposal from the agenda of the Annual General Meeting. The Company thanks all of its shareholders for their understanding and ongoing commitment during this challenging period.

CNH Industrial N.V. (NYSE: CNHI /MI: CNHI) is a global leader in the capital goods sector with established industrial experience, a wide range of products and a worldwide presence. Each of the individual brands belonging to the Company is a major international force in its specific industrial sector: Case IH, New Holland Agriculture and Steyr for tractors and agricultural machinery; Case and New Holland Construction for earth moving equipment; Iveco for commercial vehicles; Iveco Bus and Heuliez Bus for buses and coaches; Iveco Astra for quarry and construction vehicles; Magirus for firefighting vehicles; Iveco Defence Vehicles for defence and civil protection; and FPT Industrial for engines and transmissions. More information can be found on the corporate website: www.cnhindustrial.com

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Attachment




Funke Akindele and husband, JJC Skillz

The Federal Government has commended the Lagos State Police Commands enforcement of the presidential order on lockdown of the state, which included the arrest and prosecution of high-profile violators of the order.

The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Federal Government, Boss Mustapha gave the commendation during a briefing of the taskforce in Lagos on Tuesday.

He said that nobody, no matter how highly-placed, is above the law.

Recall that popular actress Funke Akindele and her musician husband, Abdulrasheed Bello aka JJC Skillz, were dragged before an Ogba Chief Magistrates Court on Monday for violating the lockdown order by hosting a house party.

The couple was sentenced to 14-day community service with an option of N100,000 fine.

Popular musician, Naira Marley was also detained at the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) for attending the party.

Also, a 2019 governorship candidate in the state, Babatunde Gbadamosi and his wife were detained at the SCIID for attending the controversial party.

Speaking on the Lagos State Police Commands action of arresting and prosecuting the lockdown violators, Mustapha said, Reports have been received of the general level of satisfactory compliance in Lagos with the lockdown order and we have similarly received reports of violations.

In this case, I commend the governor of Lagos State with his institutions for the instant action of the government by prosecuting and convicting notable violators, which shows that nobody is above the law.
Through diligence and shared responsibility, daily life and the economy will gradually recover  and so will we, writes Jamie Blake Knox

When I told my family and friends that I was returning to Taipei last month, it was greeted with a mixture of concern and disbelief.

I could understand their anxieties. Taiwan is just 81 miles off the coast of mainland China, where the coronavirus originated.

The island is less than half the size of Ireland, but has a population of 23 million, and close to half-a-million Taiwanese work on the mainland.

I was urged to quit my teaching post at Mackay Medical College outside Taipei, the islands capital, and remain safe at home in Ireland.

But it wasnt only my parents who believed that Taiwan was going to have a very high rate of infection. That concern was shared by the Taiwanese authorities.

The start of the academic term was delayed when the Government extended the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays. That meant that all universities, colleges and schools remained closed for an additional two weeks.

I must confess that I felt some apprehension when I boarded my plane at Dublin airport. Even the plentiful supplies of Barrys Tea, Tayto and Jaffa cakes in my luggage were not enough to ease my anxiety. I was not used to wearing a mask and the one that I chose to wear on my 13-hour flight was a very large and uncomfortable monstrosity that made me resemble Bane from Batman.

That was drawn to my attention as I walked through Schipol airport in Amsterdam for my connecting flight, when a group of Spanish teenagers laughed and shouted Batman at me.

Expand Close Dr Jamie Blake Knox is a writer and Assistant Professor of English at Mackay Medical College, Taiwan / Facebook

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Whatsapp Dr Jamie Blake Knox is a writer and Assistant Professor of English at Mackay Medical College, Taiwan

I was one of only a few people on the flight to Taipei wearing a mask, but it was clear when we touched down just how seriously the Taiwanese were taking the virus. We were asked to sign declarations that we had not travelled through mainland China; we were given hand sanitiser; and electronic scanners were used to take all our temperatures.

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Suddenly, my mask didnt seem so ridiculous. Everyone I saw was wearing one, but I was struck by the lack of panic and calmness with which they were all reacting to the new situation.

After I arrived, I discussed the situation with friends and colleagues including Professor Jacob Yih-Jer Wu of Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei.

He believes that this reaction to a legacy of the SARS outbreak in Taiwan nearly seventeen years ago. "Although relatively small numbers of people died at that time, it was a major wake-up call for us he told me, we realised that we were not sufficiently prepared and needed to change everything about our approach."

In fact, as Professor Wu pointed out, COVID 19 is much more dangerous than SARS because it can be carried by people who were only showing mild symptoms or are asymptomatic and has proved able to stay in the human body for longer.

The year after the SARS outbreak, the Taiwan government established its National Health Command Centre (NHCC). As early as December 31st, 2019, Taiwanese officials tried warning the World Health Organization (WHO) of the threat posed by cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan city. Sadly, the warning was not passed onto any of WHOs members.

Taiwan also has one of the most developed and sophisticated technology sectors in the world, and Big Data has been used used to identify and guide the direction of the Government strategy towards coroanvirus.

Only Taiwanese nationals and foreigners with residency are currently allowed into Taiwan, and they must all undergo 14-day quarantine.

Those who break it face a $32,000 USD fine and the prospect of being publicly named and shamed.

The Chinese government finally imposed an extreme quarantine on the province of Wuhanon January 23rd, and that is only being eased up now.

However, they have also attempted to stifle any public discussion of the epidemic. At first, they tried to demonise whistle blowers like Doctor Li Wenliang.

It was only after his death from the virus that he was praised by the state media. The Chinese Government are now claiming to have passed the peak stage of infection, but most of the people I meet in Taiwain simply do not trust their claims.

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In Taipei, life is already getting back to some semblance of normality. Shops, pubs, museums and restaurants are all open, but when I enter any of these my temperature is taken: if it is too high, I will not be allowed in, and my hands are also sprayed with disinfectant.

Schools, Colleges and Universities are open too, but strict protocols are enforced: if there are any cases of infection, the school or college is closed. It only reopens when a quarentine period of two weeks has safely passed.

Of course, the threat of the virus is always in the background. But, like everyone else, I have learned to adapt. There was a surreal moment a few weeks ago when I was able to meet up with some friends in a park and celebrate St Patricks day.

Meanwhile, back in Ireland I learned that the celebrations had been curtailed. Hiking in the mountains around Taipei and picnicking have become the most common form of dating as people tend to avoid going to cafes or the cinema. In my college, there are posters on display reminding over amorous couples against public displays of affection.

Most people wear masks - especially on public transport. There is no panic buying, and I can use my health card to pick up masks from a pharmacy, clinic or hospital. Whatever the limitations of masks, they do tend to affect your behaviour and make you less likely to touch your face. Masks are also viewed as a sign of civic awareness and respect for the rights of others.

At the time of writing, the number of confirmed cases in Taiwan stands at 376, while the number of deaths is just 5. This is a fraction of the latest figures from Ireland, both in real and proportionate terms.

There is often the assumption that, in order to effectively combat this pandemic, European states need to adopt authoritarian and draconian measures. Such restrictions will inevitably limit and compromise our civil liberties.

However, Taiwan has shown that - through transparency, the free flow of information and a sense of collective responsibility - a vibrant liberal democracy can counteract this virus without compromising the safety of its citizens or its liberal ideals and principles.

There are many lessons that we can draw from Taiwans response to this crisis. They have shown that, as bad as things may seem now, this is not the end of the world. Through diligence and shared responsibility, daily life and the economy will gradually recover  and so will we.

Dr Jamie Blake Knox is a writer and Assistant Professor of English at Mackay Medical College, Taiwan
More than a half-dozen U.S. carriers have applied for federal relief money to help keep them running and their front-line workers on the job amid the unprecedented drop in airline traffic caused by the novel coronavirus.

American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and United are among the airlines that filed applications by the Friday deadline guaranteeing them fast consideration for their share of the $2 trillion economic rescue package approved by Congress last month.

Carriers will now work with the Treasury Department to negotiate the terms of a possible deal.

A spokesman for Southwest Airlines confirmed that the carrier had submitted an application but, citing confidentiality around ongoing negotiations, said the airline would provide no additional details.

"The applications are not public, and we are not at liberty to discuss the details as the next several days could involve conversations regarding the terms of an agreement," spokesman Chris Mainz said via email. "This is a brand-new program and is happening very quickly so it would be difficult to speak to timing or details in process at this time."

In a statement that accompanied its Friday filing, United said the money would help protect the paychecks of more than 93,000 employees.

"The financial assistance provided by the CARES Act will ensure our pilots, flight attendants, airport and contact center agents, ramp service, technicians and others remain on the front lines and are able to provide the vital air service that gets Americans home and delivers much needed goods around the country - including food, medical equipment and front-line health care provider protective gear - as we come together to fight COVID-19," the United statement said, referring to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Among the provisions of the Cares Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law March 27, are those that would provide $29 billion in grants to airlines for payroll support - $25 billion to passenger carriers and $4 billion to cargo operators. In addition, the legislation provides $25 billion in loans or loan guarantees.

Whether carriers applied for grants, loans or both was not clear. Delta and Alaska Airlines indicated in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that they applied only for grants. Southwest also said it had applied for grant money. The rescue law requires the Treasury Department to disclose any loans within 72 hours.

The money, however, does not come without conditions.

Companies receiving the grants would be barred from furloughing workers until Sept. 30 and could not issue dividends or buy back their stock until late 2021. They also would be required to maintain service levels as far out as 2022 - a condition that has brought pushback from some carriers that argue it does not take into account services that run only seasonally. Meanwhile, some airports have objected to conditions outlined by the Transportation Department that would allow airlines to consolidate some routes, saying that could hamper the ability to get personnel or supplies to areas in need of aid.

Labor groups and some Democratic lawmakers raised objections about the Trump administration's position that it might take an equity stake in airlines that accept government money, saying such a provision could prompt carriers to reject the money.

The aviation industry pushed hard for relief, citing dramatic drops in air travel in the wake of flight restrictions imposed by the United States and governments around the world to control the spread of the virus. Some carriers have slashed service by more than 80%, and some flights are operating with few passengers aboard.

According to the Transportation Security Administration, its officers screened just over 122,000 people Sunday, compared with 2,462,929 the same day in 2019.

However, the money could still come too late for some carriers, particularly smaller regional airlines.

On Sunday, RavnAir, a regional carrier in Alaska, announced that it was grounding its 72 planes and laying off its employees temporarily as it files for bankruptcy and seeks aid from the rescue package.

"We took these actions to ensure our airline has a future," chief executive Dave Pflieger wrote in a letter to customers.

Under the act, airlines are eligible to receive payouts equal to their payroll costs between April and October of last year. That puts Delta and American in line to receive a maximum of almost $7 billion each, with an additional $6.5 billion for United, according to data published by the Transportation Department. Southwest could get up to almost $4.3 billion; JetBlue and Alaska are each in line to see more than $1 billion each.

However, the $31 billion in total wages and benefits paid by airlines in those six months is more than the total amount in the bailout package. The Treasury Department is allowed to reduce the individual awards if the $25 billion fund comes up short, according to an application form released last week.

Delta said in a message to employees that it filed for its share of the money Friday morning. But the airline said that it expects its revenue to be down 90% in the second quarter of the year and that without more cost-cutting actions and efforts to raise new financing, the government money would be gone by June. The message said that 30,000 of the company's 90,000 employees have volunteered for unpaid leave and that it was looking for more people to come forward.

"That is the most important action you can take to support our company," the message said. "Please consider whether a short- or long-term leave makes sense for you and your family at this time."

In a disclosure to the SEC filed Monday, Alaska Air Group said its subsidiaries Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air Industries had both applied for the payroll grants. McGee Air Services, a ground-services company that is a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines, has also applied, according to the disclosure.

The group said that demand is down 80% and that it would cut its capacity by the same amount for April and May, saying that "given current trends and circumstances, it is our expectation that sizable cuts will be necessary for the coming months."
Upon becoming public, Croziers letter fed into the very narrative that the White House was looking to dispel about leadership in Washington failing to take serious enough steps in early days to contain the outbreak. His firing has been seen among the aircraft carriers crew as an attempt to muzzle any leaks of information about the situation on the vessel that could become politically inconvenient for top officers and civilian appointees back in Washington.
Our medical workers are not made of steel. They are penetrable, and their immune systems are corruptible. It is unfair to leave them to their own devices as they help our families, neighbors and us. This is an opportunity to be the heroes for those we praise for saving our lives. This is a time that requires us to be the heroes for those whom we are forever indebted to for saving our lives.
With taxes and government profit share eating away more than three-fourth of revenue, India's biggest private oil producer Cairn Oil and Gas has sought a review of taxation system during low oil price regime, saying funding exploration will be difficult in the present scenario.

Ajay Dixit, the chief executive of Vedanta Ltd's oil and gas arm, said the government levies 20 per cent cess on oil price realised and an equivalent amount has to be paid to the state government in royalty.

On top of this, the government is entitled to profit petroleum of 50 per cent of earnings after deducting cost.

"In the present low oil prices, there is hardly any money left after paying cess, royalty and profit petroleum. There is a need to revisit these levies," he said.

He said cess, which was brought in when oil prices were very high, should not be levied if the price realised is less than USD 45 per barrel.

Also, the rate of profit petroleum also needs to be revisited.

"There is no way we can fund exploration in the present high incidence of taxation and low oil prices continue," he said, adding exploration is a risky business and not funded by debt.

International oil prices had fallen to low-20s and have only in the past couple of days bounced to USD 27 per barrel on signs that the world's biggest producers are moving toward a deal to end their price war and cut output as the coronavirus eviscerates energy demand.

Dixit said the outbreak of COVID-19 has cost the company 50,000 barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas in production.

The company was producing 1,80,000 barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas (boepd) from its flagship Barmer oil and gas fields in Rajasthan before it took a maintenance shutdown in February. The shutdown was meant to hook up a new project that could have helped ramp up production further but it could achieve only 1,60,000 boepd.

"We would have been at 210,000 boepd but for the covid-19 outbreak. The contract labour went away (following the lockdown) and long lead equipment have got stuck in Italy and China," he said. "We dont know when the labour will return and when we will be able to source the equipment."



The company, he said, is managing operations in Rajasthan with bare-minimum workforce. "An acreage as large as 3,500 square kilometes is being manned by around 1,200 staff now instead of 7,500 in normal times."



It has adopted stringent measures at its operation sites, to ensure a safe work environment for its employees, partners, all stakeholders, and communities. Moreover, through digitalisation, the company has also been able to empower the site workers to remotely manage critical operations.

With just one-seventh of the workforce on the ground, Cairn's oil warriors are doing more than their regular shift, he said, adding the company was also taking measures to keep the community in Barmer safe from the pandemic.

Over the last one month, in addition to all business measures, Cairn has marshalled all its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) resources, including its Mobile Healthcare Vans (MHVs), to spread awareness about COVID-19 related public health precautions, preventive healthcare advice, and kits among remotely located communities.

Cairn teams, along with their network of NGO partners and district healthcare workers are out there every day, to drive awareness about prevention, risk mitigation, and first-response measures among communities, he said, adding face masks and hand sanitizers have been distributed and a quarantine facility with a 120-bed capacity, with meals provided three times a day for 150 people, has been handed over to district administration in Jodhpur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WASHINGTON  Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned Tuesday, a day after his inflammatory speech to sailors aboard a coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier brought calls for him to be fired.

After first saying that he stood by every word of his speech, Modly was forced late Monday to apologize for his words to sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Modly had castigated their previous captain  who he had just fired  as either having broken the law by leaking a sensitive memo or being too naive or too stupid to think that it wouldnt be leaked to be left in command the coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier.

The sudden departure of the acting Navy secretary raises the possibility that President Trump might re-instate that captain, who Modly removed last week for copying too many people when he sent a memo up his chain of command expressing concerns about the Navys response to the outbreak among his crew of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus

Modlys resignation did not come as a surprise, but nonetheless represented yet another twist in an extraordinary series of events following the spread of COVID-19 on the Theodore Roosevelt. After the outbreak forced the Navy to sideline the carrier in Guam, Modly relieved Capt. Brett Crozier on April 2, saying he had lost confidence in Crozier after the captains memo was obtained and published, first by the San Francisco Chronicle and soon after by many other news organizations.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly. (Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

But the acting secretarys job was in peril after news reports of his speech to the crew prompted widespread calls for his resignation, particularly from senior Democratic lawmakers, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees. After first issuing a statement Monday saying I stand by every word I said to the crew of the ship, which is presently docked in Guam, Modly issued a second statement apologizing profusely for insulting Crozier. But that was not enough to save his job.

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Modlys resignation raises the question of whether President Trump, who said Monday he planned to get involved in the case, might reinstate Crozier. That would be an extraordinary outcome, but when asked directly during his Monday afternoon press conference, Trump did not rule it out.

After criticizing Croziers decision to write and then widely circulate his memo  It shows weakness, Trump said  the president seemed willing to give Crozier a second chance. His career prior to that was very good, Trump said. I dont want to destroy somebody for having a bad day.

Its certainly within his authority if he wants to reinstate Crozier, said a former senior Navy official, who asked not to be named, when asked if Trump might give Crozier his job back.

The former senior Navy official said he could not recall any similar reinstatement of a Navy officer relieved of command in such circumstances. Typically, when you are fired for trust and confidence reasons, thats a pretty sacrosanct tradition in the Navy, he said. Its pretty much considered the kiss of death.

Capt. Brett Crozier, commanding officer of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. (Specialist 3rd Class Nicholas Huynh/Handout via Reuters)

But Trumps reading of the political tea leaves might persuade him to make an exception in Croziers case, according to the former senior Navy official. The captains popularity with his crew could be easily discerned by the raucous send-off the sailors gave him when he left the ship for the last time, videos of which circulated widely on Twitter, Trumps favorite social media platform.

The president realizes that not only did Modlys relief of Crozier upset the Theodore Roosevelts almost-5,000 crew members, but it also upset their moms and dads, many of whom are probably Trump supporters, the former senior Navy official said. Trumps no fool, he said. I wouldnt put it past him to revisit that decision.

There is recent precedent for the president intervening in Navy personnel actions: Trumps decision in November to prevent the Navy from stripping Navy SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagher of his prestigious Trident pin. Gallagher had been convicted of a war crime for posing for a photograph beside the corpse of an unarmed detainee. (Gallaghers own colleagues had accused him of killing the detainee, but, after being promised immunity from prosecution, one of those colleagues recanted and said he had actually killed the detainee, leading to Gallaghers acquittal on charges of murder.)

A recently retired defense official noted that the officer Modly announced as Croziers replacement is Rear Adm. Select Carlos Sardiello, who previously commanded the Theodore Roosevelt, and that Crozier is sick with COVID-19 himself and still in Guam. If this [controversy] wasnt happening and Crozier got sick with COVID-19, he probably would have come off the ship anyway and there would have been an interim commander, the recently retired defense official said.

The retired official added that if Trump does reinstate Crozier, it will be interesting to see whether those who criticized the president for reaching down into the Navy in the Gallagher case remain consistent in their views that the commander in chief should refrain from such interference in military personnel actions.

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Click here for the latest coronavirus news and updates. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference the CDC and WHOs resource guides.

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CHANGCHUN, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Northeast China's Jilin Province saw 2,796 standard containers transported by China-Europe freight trains in the first quarter of this year, up 36.3 percent year on year.

The increase was partly attributed to the unstable maritime transport between China and Europe in Q1. So far, the transportation of goods like electronic products and auto parts made by Japanese and Korean enterprises via the Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe railway have remained steady, despite the impact of COVID-19.

"We strengthened the contact with domestic and foreign customers and timely informed the logistics delivery process during the epidemic period," said Wang Yue, chairman of the Changchun International Land Port Development Co., Ltd., which operates the cargo trains on the route.

As an important project for Jilin to join the construction of the Belt and Road, the Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe cargo train line was launched in 2015.

The route starts from Jilin's capital Changchun, exits China via Manzhouli, the largest land port on the China-Russia border, and passes through Russia, Belarus and Poland before arriving at the terminus of Nuremberg, Germany. It measures more than 10,000 km, and a single trip usually takes 14 days, saving more than 20 days compared with sea transportation.
THE Principal Judge, Dr Eliezer Feleshi has called upon all judicial officers to work hard, uphold ethics and take precautions against the spread of Coronavirus.

Judge Feleshi made the remarks at the end of his five-day tour of the High Court's Dar es Salaam Zone.

According to the statement issued by the Directorate of Information and Communication of the Judiciary of Tanzania, Dr Feleshi visited several courts, notably Kigamboni, Temeke and Ilala District Courts, as well as Temeke, Mbagala, Ukonga, Buguruni and Ilala Primary Courts in Dar es Salaam.

He also visited Mkuranga, Kibiti and Rufiji in Coast Region and Morogoro Magistrate's Court, the Mvomero District Court and the Morogoro, Mvomero and Kingolwira Primary Courts in Morogoro Region.

Addressing staff of the Morogoro Resident Magistrate's Court as well as Morogoro and Mvomero District Courts, Dr Feleshi underscored the need for court employees to observe precautionary and preventive measures while on duty.

He said while carrying out their duties, they should adhere to precautions and follow all instructions provided by health professionals in dealing with the deadly disease.

He pointed out that the Judiciary of Tanzania would continue with its constitutional mandate of dispensing justice to the people despite the existence of the disease.

Judge Feleshi revealed that the Judiciary would maximize use of Information and Communication (ICT) for timely justice delivery.

The principal judge added that in response to Coronavirus, judicial officers have to comply with the instructions provided, including use of sterilisers and frequently wash their hands with soap regularly.

The principal judge witnessed implementation of the instructions of health professionals where various measures have been taken in combating disease, including the installation of hygiene products such as water, tissue soap and hand hygiene in all courts.

Referring to the steps taken, Resident Magistrate in Charge of Morogoro Resident Magistrate's Court Abeesiza Kalegeya said other measures were taken to reduce congestion around court premises, saying procedures were put in place to reduce the number of people entering the courts.

"Currently persons allowed to enter the premises are parties to a case, accused persons, witnesses, lawyers, police and other judicial stakeholders in need of essential services," she told the principal judge.

Regarding filing of new criminal cases, Kalegeya explained that admitted cases are only those whose investigations have been completed, while other cases whose investigations are incomplete were being adjourned for a month.

"Also remand prisoners are not brought to court, except those whose cases are at the hearing stage.

For cases whose accused persons are out on bail, priority has been placed on cases that have been pending in court for more than 12 months," she said.

According to the magistrate, the judiciary has now put in place a mechanism for imposing lenient bail conditions to accused persons to facilitate the reduction of congestion of inmates in prison to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.

During his visit, the Chief Justice also inspected the ongoing construction of court projects in the Dar es Salaam region.

The projects under inspection include the construction of Integrated Justice Centres in Kinondoni, Temeke, and Morogoro.

The Tanzanian Judiciary has begun the construction of six Integrated Justice Centres in the cities of Arusha, Mwanza, Dar es Salaam, Dodoma and Morogoro.

Those centres that are expected to be completed within ten months will include the High Court, Resident Magistrate's Courts, District and Primary Courts and stakeholder offices within one building.

The aim is to facilitate justice services and to move court services closer to the public.
It was a revolution; a game-changer. The shale industry that transformed American oil was on its way to upending the world by first rendering the United States energy independent, and then turning it into the most formidable energy power on the planet. Then, a double disaster struck.

Now, there is talk about the previously unthinkable: production cuts.

When Texas railroad commissioner Ryan Sitton last month floated the idea of a joint production cut between Texas and OPEC, many immediately opposed it, including, notably, the American Petroleum Institute (API).

"You're facing a situation where there's so much demand destruction from people staying home because of COVID-19 and there's so much oil flowing right now with no place to go," Commissioner Sitton told the Houston Chronicle. "The supply chain is facing a problem and it backs up all the way to the gas stations."

It is undoubtedly a complex problem. U.S. production is still close to record-highs hit last year even with rigs being idled at a fast pace as companies brace for the worst of the crisis. Storage is running out, although, according to data from the EIA and Labyrinth Consulting that energy expert Art Berman posted on Twitter yesterday, there is still ample space in U.S. oil storage facilities. Prices are lower than breakeven levels. Something's got to give.

Initially, the U.S. industryand Washingtonbelieved what had to give would be OPEC and Russia. They were the ones that have been controlling prices in concert for years now. It was their job to put a floor under the benchmarks yet again. It is this reliance on OPEC and Russia that is the clearest sign yet that America is not as energy independent as it might like to believe.

Related: Is Gazproms LNG Megaproject Doomed To Fail?



The reason for this is simple. As Columbia University scholar and former energy official David Sandalow put it in a recent article, "So long as significant portions of our economy are powered by oil, we will remain subject to the ups and downs of global oil markets."

Story continues

The United States last year became a net exporter of crude oil and oil products. Yet it is still importing oilincluding, surprisingly, from Russiaat a rate of more than 6 million bpd. Continued imports are one aspect of the incomplete energy independence. It is hypothetically possible to bring imports down to zero at some point in the future. What cannot be brought down to zero is the dependence of any one oil-producing economy on international oil prices. Being an exporter of the most traded commodity is a mixed blessing. It's good when prices are high and not so good when they tank.

Washington's reaction to the latest events in oil is a clear enough indication of this dependence and its unpleasant nature. Last week, media reported that the U.S. oil industry had started a lobbying offensive against Saudi Arabia and Russia, calling for sanctions and tariffs on imported oil to get the world's number two and number three top producers to limit production.

If anyone thinks that there's something missing, they are right. The U.S. oil industry, like the U.S. President, is calling on other producers to limit their production, but there is no official wordbesides Sitton' sthat the U.S. is ready to join the cuts. It reflects the dominant, long-standing mentality: OPEC manipulates prices through production adjustments. OPECand its partnersshould act now.

Related: Will This Be The Slowest Year Ever For Oil & Gas Mergers?



Low oil prices are bad for every producing nation, especially if they are as low as they are now. This means that every producing nation has a vested interest in production cuts. However, this is not the only consideration, at least from the Russian and, to a lesser extent, the Saudi perspective.

The oil price war was called by many a war on U.S. shale. Although last week Saudi Arabia lashed out at Russia for allegedly unjustly accusing Riyadh of playing against U.S. shale, weaker U.S. shale is even better for the Saudis than it is for the Russians. The former have a higher breakeven price than the latter and are more vulnerable to competition from the United States. If OPEC+ now agrees to cut production without asking the U.S. to do the same, it would effectively hand over the crown of the global oil decision-maker to Washington. While Saudi Arabia may be on board with this, Russia may have misgivings.

A lot of geopolitics revolves around oil. It's not surprising since the world runs on oil. But because of that close connection, it is often hard to see where oil ends and geopolitics begin. All producing nations want prices higher than they are now. Yet from a geopolitical perspective, some may be willing to suffer another few weeks of superlow prices to make a point, the point being that no one country could or should have the final word on how much the whole world produces.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

Read this article on OilPrice.com
President Donald Trump speaks as top officials, including Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC director (second from right) and Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams (R) listen in Washington on Feb. 29, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

COVID-19 Death Toll Will Be Much Lower Than Projected, Top Officials Say

The director of one of the top public health agencies in the United States said the death toll will be much lower from COVID-19 than modeling has projected, an assertion backed up by another top health official.

If we just social distance, we will see this virus and this outbreak basically decline, decline, decline. And I think thats what youre seeing, Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Monday.

I think youre going to see the numbers are, in fact, going to be much less than what would have been predicted by the models.

Models are only as good as their assumptions, Redfield asserted, adding officials still dont know everything about the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus.

A model should never be used to assume that we have a number, the director said.

He was speaking to AM 1030 KVOI Radio, a station in Arizona.

Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, asked on Tuesday whether the death toll will end up lower than the predicted 100,000 to 240,000 deaths, said absolutely.

I feel a lot more optimistic, again, because Im seeing mitigation work, Adams said during an appearance on ABCs Good Morning America. I want the American people to know: There is a light at the end of this tunnel, and we feel confident if we keep doing the right thing for the rest of this month that we can start to slowly reopen in some places.

Social distancing measures have been put in place across the country. The overwhelming majority of Americans are under stay-at-home orders. Authorities have threatened jail time and fines for people caught leaving home on non-essential trips.

People try to keep a social distance while they enjoy a sunny day at Central Park, as the outbreak of the CCP virus continues, in the Manhattan borough of New York City on April 6, 2020. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

A man wears a gas mask while riding a bike amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Los Angeles, California, on April 6, 2020. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Model Updated

A major model relied upon by the White House was updated on Monday to reflect additional data coming in from healthcare systems from multiple states, including New York, the most affected state in the nation. Modelers now predict about 12,000 fewer deaths.

Projected peak hospitalizations, intensive care admissions, ventilator use, and deaths were all down in the model, generated by the University of Washingtons Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Asked if he would lift the federal advisory asking people to stay home except for essential trips, President Donald Trump told reporters Monday night that he wants to try.

We certainly want to try. We certainly want to see whats going on. Were doing very well, he said, adding that the curve, or the increase in cases that ultimately hits a peak before falling, has become very flat in many areas.

Trump extended the guidelines in late March to April 30 based on advice from health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci said at the same briefing in Washington that America cant go back to normal in terms of acting like the CCP virus never happened.

I dont think thats going to happen until we do have a situation where you can completely protect the population. But when we say getting back to normal, we mean something very different from what were going through right now. Because right now we are in a very intense mitigation. When we get back to normal, well go back gradually to the point where we can function as a society, he said.

Fauci has said that until there is a vaccine, some mitigation efforts will need to continue. Vaccines arent projected to be ready until 2021.
* Shares jump as Covid-19 deaths slow

* Stoxx up 2.5%, FTSE 100 gaining 1.7% Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters. You can share your thoughts with Thyagaraju Adinarayan (thyagaraju.adinarayan@thomsonreuters.com), Joice Alves (joice.alves@thomsonreuters.com) and Julien Ponthus (julien.ponthus@thomsonreuters.com) in London.

CORONAVIRUS STOCK PICKING: WHAT WOULD MOM AND POP DO? (0852 GMT)

Netflix and chill?

When it comes to stock picking, UK retail investors seem to trust in what they see around them and that's TV binge watching and Amazon deliveries.

"Many retail investors are investing in the companies we are all turning to help us weather the COVID-19 storm, such as streaming services like Netflix, delivery services like Amazon and supermarkets like Tesco", said Iqbal Gandham, UK Managing Director at eToro.

The trading platform has just released the top 20 most bought shares in March and here's how it looks:

(Julien Ponthus)

*****

OPENING SNAPSHOT: RISK-ON (0730 GMT)

Investors have clearly switched to risk-on this morning with the pan-European STOXX 600 up about 3%. All regional bourses and industry indexes are firmly in the black as faith that lockdowns are proving effective in flattening the curve of the outbreak boost morale.

Travel and Leisure stocks, a typical gauge of coronavirus fear and greed, are rising 4.6% with stocks at the front line of the crisis, such as cruise operator Carnival up 12%. Cyclical stocks are also in high demand with the automotive sector leading gains with a whopping 6% rise.

Another big winner is Rolls-Royce which scrapped its final 2019 dividend but said it secured an additional 1.5 billion pound revolving credit facility, bringing its overall liquidity to 6.7 billion pounds.

(Julien Ponthus)

*****

ON THE RADAR: LIGHT-AT-THE-END-OF-THE-TUNNEL RALLY (0650 GMT)

The perception that the lockdowns implemented throughout Europe are starting to show some results is boosting sentiment this morning with surging futures pointing to a likely rally when the bell rings.

Story continues

While falling oil prices were keeping a lid on investors' optimism earlier, brent crude futures are now paring losses on hopes Russia and Saudi Arabia are getting closer to deal to cut production.

That said theres nothing particularly rejoicing in macro and corporate headlines this morning.

For instance for auto stocks, export expectations in Germany's have fallen to their lowest level since March 2009 and new car registrations in Britain are expected to show an annual drop of more than 40% in March.

In the battered travel and leisure sector, Norwegian Air's passenger volume fell by 60% year-on-year in March. British aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce also said it was scrapping its targets and had decided against paying its last dividend.

Some investors seem reluctant however to adjust to the brave new world of a coronavirus-struck economy which includes acceptance of dividend cuts (German regulator telling banks to refrain from paying dividends) and actually willingness to inject fresh cash (WH Smith securing new lending facilities conditional on raising new equity).

HSBC shareholders in Hong Kong are mulling possible legal action against the bank's scrapping of dividend payments.

Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of easyJet, has warned that he will not inject any fresh equity into the airline until it terminates a contract with Airbus for 4.5 billion pounds.

That being said some companies are still sticking with shareholders payouts and are being rewarded for that. AMS is seen jumping at the open with its buyback program. One headline which just shows how times are changing fast is Singapore finance minister saying all adult Singaporeans will get a one-off payment of S$600.

Helicopter money isnt just an eccentric economic concept: its news.

(Julien Ponthus)

*****

MORNING CALL: POSITIVE MOOD (0540 GMT)

European futures and their U.S. peers are trading convincingly in the black - over 3% - this morning as hopes that lockdowns implemented throughout the continent to fight the spread of the coronavirus outbreak are starting to show some results.

Sentiment was also positive in Asia overnight with MSCI's broadest index of Asian shares outside of Japan up about 1.5% and Japan's Nikkei rising 2.7%.

A big downer however is that oil prices are still suffering from oversupply concerns after Saudi-Russian negotiations to cut output were delayed.

Another worry for the London bourse is that Boris Johnson was still in hospital on Monday morning, suffering persistent coronavirus symptoms 10 days after testing positive for the virus.

(Julien Ponthus)

*****

(Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan, Joice Alves and Julien Ponthus and)
If the IRS has your direct deposit information, you dont need to do anything. If your 2018 tax return showed an adjusted gross income of $75,000 or less if you filed as an individual or $150,000 or less if you filed jointly, you should see $1,200 per adult and $500 per child in your account shortly.
In a bid to support the country's fight against COVID-19, JK Tyre and Industries Ltd on Tuesday said is providing food supplies to over 10,000 daily earners and migrants in every region, besides organising health camps in 25 villages in the vicinity of its manufacturing facilities across India.

The company, in a statement, said it is extending support to government officials, police department and government hospital employees with packed food and drinking water with the help of NGOs.

Already, more than 50 plus medical camps have been set up in several villages to conduct first-level screening for COVID-19 symptoms among citizens and awareness drives were conducted for 5,000 truck drivers, suppliers and vendors.

Additionally, district health departments have been provided with ambulance, safety materials, masks, soaps and hand gloves. Isolation wards have been created near the plants and infrastructure support is being provided at primary health centers, it added.

Further, the company has also set up a Corona Task-Force to undertake measures for supporting the needs, health and well-being of colleagues, partners, and their families.

Initiatives like virtual training sessions and interactive webinars with medical experts are being organised to help them cope with the impact of COVID-19, it added.

We all are faced with an unprecedented challenge and the world has become as one community in its efforts towards arresting the spread of COVID-19," JK Tyre and Industries Chairman and Managing Director Raghupati Singhania said.

While the company is ensuring the safety of employees, there is a large section of society that remains deprived of basic facilities, he said adding that JK Tyre is humbled to play its part in the relief efforts aimed towards the marginalised communities.

Among other steps, the company said it has fumigated nearby villages covering more than 25,000 people, distributed more than 20,000 hand sanitizers and masks, created awareness about safety precautions in more than 150 villages through door-to-door visits, banners and posters at prominent locations and public address systems.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BBC bosses have confirmed Strictly Come Dancing looks set to go ahead this year amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The dance competition airs every year in autumn, and now the broadcaster's controller of programming has suggested the show could go ahead.

Speaking to Emma Bullimore on BBC Essex, BBC's Dan McGolpin said: 'It wouldn't be the same if we didn't have Strictly in the autumn, would it?

Keep dancing! BBC bosses have confirmed Strictly Come Dancing looks set to go ahead this year amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic (pictured L-R Bruno, Motsi, Shirley and Craig)

'So no of course the BBC is doing everything it can, and I know that everyone involved in that production team would absolutely love that to happen this Autumn.'

The competition typically launches in August or September with the reveal of the celebrity lineup, and live shows follow in October as the programme concludes in December.

Dan is hopeful filming can kick off as planned, if the current health crisis improves.

The dance competition airs every year in autumn (pictured last year's winners Oti Mabuse and Kelvin Fletcher), and now the BBC have suggested the show could go ahead

He added: 'So we've really just got to keep watching the government advice, thinking about what's possible.

'And if there's any way of bringing Strictly back this autumn, then we absolutely will. That's very much our intentions, so yeah fingers crossed.'

Dan echoed comments made by pro dancer Anton Du Beke, who is keen to push on as planned.

The show must go on: It comes Anton du Beke has vowed to return to the Strictly dance floor for the next series and cleared up concerns over the show's fate (pictured 2017)

Anton said last week on The Steph Show: 'The actual live stuff doesn't start until about September, so we're hoping we'll be out of it by then and back to some sort of normality.

'I think everyone will be ready for a bit of Strictly Come Dancing by then!'

Whenever the programme returns, it will be without departing stars Kevin Clifton and AJ Pritchard, after both the pros recently confirmed their respective exits.

Head judge Shirley Ballas has paid tribute, saying: 'They've been a great part of the show. We love them, we wish them well, they've chosen to go onto other things, but the show will continue.'
Creating. Its a messy, unscripted process. It involves planning, failing, trying, almost getting there, restarting, and occasionally hitting the jackpot on the first try.

This is true for the creative process. Birthing something new involves ingenuity and risk. We are creating when we push past the comfortable (regurgitating previous creations), to bring forth something new.

I was reminded of this when someone shared an old song with me the color green by Jim Morrison. The song, spoken word poetry layered over a bubbling, rising and falling melody of a grand piano, is both soothing and captivating.

Going against the grain

Lyrically, Morrisons poetry uses symbolism, imagery and does not follow any set structure. It may be perceived as strange or abstract, especially considering it is a song written by Morrison as praise to God.

Morrison took a creative risk, going against the grain of typical songs of praise, both musically and lyrically. He married a stripped back classical piano style with an ambiguous spoken praise for God inspired by the color green. In fact, you may not even recognize, on first hearing, that it is a song of praise. It is only once you begin to truly focus on the lyrics that you discover deep spiritual themes which are imbedded in the song.

Similarly to Morrison, we must reach beyond the corners of the known to birth something new and truly creative. The process takes patience and chances failure; you cant predict the audiences response. I would venture, however, that risk eventually pays off. Often creative risk is where the success of well-known artists found its origins.

Risk taking pays off

We can see this through the development of bands who took the risk of combining their love of praise with the rock genre. Petra, for example, a group on the forefront of Christian rock which formed in the 70s, helped widen the horizon of genres of praise. After facing serious pushback against mixing Christian music with rock, the band became quite successful in their industry and their musical style filters into the Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) we listen to today.

As Christians we serve a God who is the Creator Himself and desires for us to co-create with Him. I urge you to let yourself dream with God, go out on a limb with Him and simply see what happens. I champion the church to press forward across spheres of society which require creative ingenuity. Like Morrison and Petra, lets become leaders in innovation! The process may be strange or unusual, but we can do it hand in hand with He who is the source of all imagination.
Princess Diana's former butler has revealed how she almost didn't attend a 1994 Vanity Fair party she wore her famous Christina Stambolian black cocktail dress to, as it came soon after Prince Charles spoke out about his affair.

Paul Burrell, 60, from Cheshire, took to Instagram to share a memory of his 'favourite dress' worn by the late royal, recalling how it raised $3.25 million in Manhattan at The Christies Dress Auction in June 1997.

Revealing the story behind it, Paul revealed how Diana, then 33, was due to go to the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park shortly after her then-husband Prince Charles admitted on TV that he had an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.

Princess Diana's former butler has revealed how she almost didn't attend a 1994 Vanity Fair party she wore her famous Christina Stambolian black cocktail dress to, as it came soon after Prince Charles spoke out about his affair

Remembering the day, Paul said: 'This was my favourite dress. I remember this evening well, the Princess turned to me and said "I'm not going, I can't face the world. Not after Prince Charles has just been on national TV discussing his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles".

'I said "you are going", and she said "I've got nothing to wear!".'

He continued: 'So I went to her wardrobe, pulled out this dress, zipped her up and the finishing touches were the pull choker and high heels.

'As she left I said to her "Remember to say this to yourself: I am Diana, the Princess of Wales, I am here to stay and I am the mother of the future King of England.'

He concluded: 'She did it, and I was so proud of her'.

Diana, then 33, went to the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park shortly after her then-husband Prince Charles admitted on TV that he had an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.

24 years later: The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay while in Scotland, arrive at the Mackintosh at the Willow tea rooms Glasgow in 2018

And Diana's appearance proved to be a success, as many agreed she put on a more confident, stunning and serene display than she had ever done before as she stepped out of her limo that evening.

It was exactly the reaction she had planned, for that same evening 14million were watching her estranged husband Prince Charles admit to Jonathan Dimbleby on TV that after his marriage had irretrievably broken down he had committed adultery.

The following day Dimbleby confirmed that the prince was unfaithful with someone who was a long-standing friend, that is Mrs Parker Bowles.

Paul Burrell, 60, from Cheshire, took to Instagram to share a memory of his 'favourite dress' (seen) worn by the late royal, recalling how it raised $3.25 million in Manhattan at The Christies Dress Auction in June 1997

An estimated 14 million people watched Prince Charles gushing about his friendship with Camilla in conversation with Jonathan Dimbleby.

However, it was Diana's dress that made headlines around the world.

Following Prince Charles and Diana's divorce in 1996, the Princess began wearing racier hemlines and higher heels as she presented a new image.

Burrell, 60, served as a footman for the Queen and later butler to Diana for 10 years until her death in 1997. In the years since he has spoken often of his connections to the royal family and published a number of memoirs.
On the fourteenth day of the national lockdown on Tuesday Maharashtra reported a sharp spike by 150 in coronavirus positive cases, with Mumbai alone accounting for 116, taking the overall tally of the affected people in the state to 1018, Health officials said.

Maharashtra thus became the first state in the country to report more than 1,000 coronavirus cases, he said.

Simultaneously, the death toll due to COVID-19 rose by 12 to 64 across the state.

In Mumbai, the death toll climbed to 40, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) stated in a release.

The tally of COVID-19 patients in the country's financial capital now stands at 642.

Apart from Mumbai's 116 cases, new cases were reported from Pune (18), three each from Ahmednagar, Nagpur and Aurangabad, two each from Thane and Buldana, and one each from Satara, Ratnagiri and Sangli, said the Health department official.

Of the 12 fresh deaths in the state, six are from Mumbai, three from Pune and one each from Satara, Nagpur and Mira Bhayandar area near Mumbai, he said.

"The state reported deaths of 12 people, out of which only one person has a known travel history to the USA. Rest of the victims have no travel history but they are above 50 year old and have some existing illness such as diabetes or hypertension," he said.

The worst-affected Mumbai reported 116 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally of the affected people to 642 while the death toll from the financial capital went up to 40, the BMC stated.

Out of the 64 deaths in the state so far, 40 are from Mumbai, 8 from Pune, 3 from Thane, 2 each from Navi Mumbai and Vasai-Virar, 1 each from Mira Bhayandar, Palghar, Satara, Nagpur, Buldana, Jalgaon, Aurangabad, Jalgaon and Amravati, said the official.

Out of the total 1018 cases in Maharashtra so far, the highest 642 are from Mumbai, followed by 130 from Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad (17), Pune Rural (4), Thane (21), Kalyan Dombivli (25), Navi Mumbai (28), Mira Bhayandar (3), Vasai Virar (10), Panvel (6), Satara (6), Sangli (26), Nagpur (19), Ahmednagar (18), Aurangabad (12), Latur (8), Osmanabad (4) and Kolhapur (2).

Three cases each are reported from Thane rural, Palghar, Ratnagiri and Yavatmal, 7 each from Buldana and Ahmednagar rural and one each from Ulhasnagar, Nashik city, Nashik rural, Jalgaon city, Jalgaon rural, Aurangabad rural, Jalna, Hingoli, Washim, Amravati city and Gondia, the official said.

He said of the 20,877 samples sent for testing so far, 19,290 have returned negative while 1,018 repoted positive.

A total of 79 people have been discharged so far in the state after recovering from the viral infection, the official added.

While a total of 34,695 people are put under home quarantine across the state and 4,008 others are put under the institutional quarantine.

Talking about the Nizamuddin link, the official said a total of 23 people, who had returned from the Delhi congregation held last month, have tested positive for coronavirus so far.

"Out of them, 8 are from Latur, 6 from Buldana and 2 each from Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and Ahmednagar while one each is from Hingoli, Jalgaon and Washim," the official said.

According to the official, a total of 214 surveillance teams are pressed into service in Satara city to identify clusters for containment. The number of such teams in Hingoli is 14, 31 in Sangli, 39 in Ratnagiri and 48 in Jalgaon.

A total of 3,492 survey teams have so far completed surveillance of 12 lakh population, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Express News Service

Tracing the accounts of capitalism across worldwide revolutions, a new book titled Capitalism: Towards a Global History, explores various aspects of development. As per the editors Kaveh Yazdani and Dilip M Menon, who have also contributed to this volume, the book contends with cliches of Western exceptionalism to argue about non-Western and inter-connected economic development across the globe, prior to the era of colonialism.

It argues that the multiple histories of capitalism can be better understood from a global perspective, say the editors. Featuring major debates and case studies from all over the world, the book includes voices from scholars like Anne Gerristen, Henry Heller, David Washbrook and Rudi Matthee among others. Many chapters talk about historical conjunctures, flow of commodities, circulation of knowledge and personnel, and stress on the need to think beyond present day national boundaries.

In an interesting case study from Cairo within the time period 1600-1800 titled Artisans, Guilds, and Capitalist Development in Cairo by Nelly Hanna, a professor specialising in Ottoman Egypt (1500-1800), the reader gets a fair idea of the people working out of an establishment.

Book:

Capitalisms: Towards a Global History

Edited by: Kaveh Yazdani and Dilip M. Menon

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Pages: 412, Price: I1,495
Anyone who owns a holiday home is being asked not to travel to it this weekend.

A number of areas are worried about possible influxes for the Easter bank holiday and the potential spread of coronavirus.

The country's chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan led the calls for people not to travel to holiday homes this weekend.

It has been reiterated by the Health Minister Simon Harris who says we need to think like we already have the virus and do not want to spread it.

"What we are trying to do by ensuring that people stay at home and even if they're going out to exercise to stay near their home is limit the chances of them spreading it beyond their own home and beyond their own community."

One of the more popular areas for holiday homes is Lahinch in County Clare.

Local hotel owner Michael Vaughan says there have been some issues in the last few weeks.

"Over the St Patrick's period, we had to call the coast guard and the guards in to police the promenade here and we don't want a return to anything like that."

Local Green Party Councillor Roisin Garvey just wants people to stay away for the time being.

Ms Garvey has appealed to those who have a holiday home to stay away from it during this time.

"Then after this is all over they can move into it forever, for all I care.

"We just have to use our cop on here."

People are being asked not to be tempted to make the trip to their second homes this weekend to slow down the spread of Covid-19.

As for the weather this Easter bank holiday weekend, the good weather we are experiencing at the weekend looks set to change.

Here is our 7 day Atlantic Chart, showing the pressure and precipitation forecast in 6 hours intervals.https://t.co/9Giuj4CR5mhttps://t.co/9gKN6SVok4 pic.twitter.com/NaJ9xHlaG9  Met Eireann (@MetEireann) April 7, 2020

The highest temperatures so far this year are expected over the next three days.

Dry and sunny weather will continue until Thursday with temperatures reaching as high as 18 degrees.

"We're expecting the sunny weather to continue all through today for much of the country and then through tomorrow and on Thursday," said Met Eireann's Elizabeth Coleman.

"There will be some cloud coming in to the west coast and the north coast with some light, patchy rain through tomorrow and Thursday as well.

"But there will be good sunshine for the rest of the country with temperatures reaching up into the late teens for part of the midlands and the east through tomorrow and Thursday, possibly reaching up to 17 or 18 degrees by Thursday."

[snippet1]987600[/snippet1]
President Donald Trump said he has spoken with Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden about the nations response to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic in a really wonderful, phone call.

Speaking at his White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on April 6, Trump said he appreciated the exchange between the two and described the conversation as warm and friendly.

I also spoke just a few minutes ago with former Vice President Biden who called and we had a really wonderful, warm conversation, it was a very nice conversation, Trump told reporters, adding that the political rivals had mainly spoken about the current CCP virus pandemic as this is what everyone is talking about, this is what they want to talk about.

And he gave me his point of view, and I fully understood that, and we just had a very friendly conversation. Lasted probably 15 minutes and it was really good, really good, really nice. I appreciate him calling, he said.

Bidens campaign also issued a brief statement reiterating Trumps summary of the phone call, and said that Biden had offered the president a number of suggestions for tackling the pandemic during their conversation.

Vice President Biden and President Trump had a good call, campaign spokesperson Kate Bedingfield wrote on Twitter. VP Biden shared several suggestions for actions the administration can take now to address the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and expressed his appreciation for the spirit of the American people in meeting the challenges facing the nation.

During Mondays press conference, Trump said that he and Biden had agreed they would not reveal the specific details of their conversation and declined to elaborate on what suggestions Biden had made, but noted that he had not agreed with all of them.

He had suggestions, Trump said. It doesnt mean that I agree with those suggestions but certainly he had suggestions, and I also told him some of the things were doing. But the conversation was a friendly, very friendly conversation.

Biden had previously said that he wanted to speak with Trump in the hope that the president could learn some lessons from the Obama administration on how to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

Weve been through this in a slightly different way in the past, and I hope they can learn some lessons from what we did right and maybe what we did wrong, the former vice president said during a virtual press briefing last week.

However, on Monday morning prior to his announcement, Trump said no such conversation had taken place as of yet and appeared to poke fun at the former vice president.

Joe Biden wanted the date for the Democrat National Convention moved to a later time period. Now he wants a Virtual Convention, one where he doesnt have to show up. Gee, I wonder why? Also, what ever happened to that phone call he told the Fake News he wanted to make to me? Trump tweeted. In response to the presidents tweet, Biden said he was happy to discuss anytime.

Biden, who is currently the frontrunner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, has been forced to continue running his campaign from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, conducting live video feeds and interviews as the CCP virus continues to spread across the globe.

The former vice president had previously criticized Trump for failing to invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) early, which he said would ramp up the scale of production of ventilators, masks and gowns  and shields and all the things our first responders and doctors need. Speaking to NBC, Biden questioned why the administration was waiting, adding, we know theyre needed, theyre going to be increasingly needed.

Last week, the White House announced Trump was invoking the DPA order, allowing his administration to work with companies to ramp up the production of ventilators which are desperately needed amid the ongoing crisis.

From The Epoch Times
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 20:17:36|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The world is now in a battle against COVID-19, a disease caused by a previously unknown coronavirus that has spread to over 200 countries and regions.

The following are the updates on the contagious disease.

DAKAR -- Senegalese Ministry of Health and Social Action said on Tuesday that 13 more patients have been cured of COVID-19, bringing the country's total number of patients cured to 105.

Senegalese health minister Aboudulaye Diouf Sarr also said that the country's total confirmed cases stood at 237. Among the 237 confirmed cases, 85 are imported ones.

- - - -

BEIJING -- China has successfully reduced the mortality rate of COVID-19 as the disease developed, said Gauden Galea, representative of the World Health Organization in China, at a press conference Tuesday.

Galea said Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak in China, has managed to reduce the mortality rate to around four percent, and the figure in other regions of China has fallen below one percent.

- - - -

BRUSSELS -- The number of COVID-19 deaths in Belgium reached 2,035 deaths on Tuesday, according to latest figures released by the Belgian health authorities.

- - - -

TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday declared a month-long state of emergency for Tokyo, Osaka and five other prefectures in an effort to curb the COVID-19 outbreak.

- - - -

TRIPOLI -- A United Nations official condemned a recent attack on a hospital in the Libyan capital Tripoli, noting it is "unacceptable" amid the global public health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I am appalled to have learned that heavy shelling hit Tripoli's Al Khadra General Hospital today, injuring at least one health worker and damaging the fully-functioning medical facility," Yacoub El Hillo, UN resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator in Libya, said in a statement.

"The repeated calls by the United Nations and the international community for a cessation of hostilities have only been met with complete disregard and intensified fighting. This is unacceptable at a time when healthcare and health workers are vital in our fight against a global pandemic," the statement said.
NEW YORK (AP)  A tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the U.S. or a tiger anywhere, federal officials and the zoo said Sunday.

The 4-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia, and six other tigers and lions that have also fallen ill, are believed to have been infected by a zoo employee who wasn't yet showing symptoms, the zoo said. The first animal started showing symptoms March 27, and all are doing well and expected to recover, said the zoo, which has been closed to the public since March 16 amid the surging coronavirus outbreak in New York.

We tested the cat out of an abundance of caution" and aim to "contribute to the worlds continuing understanding of this novel coronavirus, said Dr. Paul Calle, the zoo's chief veterinarian.

The finding raises new questions about transmission of the virus in animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which confirmed Nadia's test result at its veterinary lab, says there are no known cases of the virus in U.S. pets or livestock.

There doesnt appear to be, at this time, any evidence that suggests that the animals can spread the virus to people or that they can be a source of the infection in the United States," said Dr. Jane Rooney, a veterinarian and a USDA official.

FILE - This Sept. 21, 2012, file photo shows an entrance to the Bronx Zoo in New York. A tiger at the zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus. It's believed to be the first infection in an animal in the U.S. and the first known in a tiger anywhere, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Sunday, April 5, 2020. The zoo says all the animals are expected to recover. (AP Photo/Jim Fitzgerlad, File)

The USDA said Sunday its not recommending routine coronavirus testing of animals, in zoos or elsewhere, or of zoo employees. Still, Rooney said a small number of animals in the U.S. have been tested through the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories, and all those tests came back negative except Nadia's.

The coronavirus outbreaks around the world are driven by person-to-person transmission, experts say.

There have been reports of a small number of pets outside the United States becoming infected after close contact with contagious people, including a Hong Kong dog that tested positive for a low level of the pathogen in February and early March. Hong Kong agriculture authorities concluded that pet dogs and cats couldnt pass the virus to human beings but could test positive if exposed by their owners.

Story continues

Some researchers have been trying to understand the susceptibility of different animal species to the virus, and to determine how it spreads among animals, according to the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.

The American Veterinary Medical Association and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been recommending that out of an abundance of caution, people ill with the coronavirus should limit contact with animals. In general, the CDC advises people to wash their hands after handling animals and do other things to keep pets and their homes clean.

At the Bronx Zoo, Nadia, her sister Azul, two Amur tigers and three African lions developed dry coughs, and some of the cats exhibited some wheezing and loss of appetite, Calle said.

In a question of being thorough, we did want to specifically test for the virus that causes COVID-19, he said. Only Nadia was tested because it takes anesthesia to get a sample from a big cat. Her temperature was taken at the same time, and it was normal, Calle said.

The seven sickened cats live in two areas at the zoo, and the animals had contact with the same worker, who is doing OK, zoo officials said. They said they are taking appropriate preventive measures for the staffers that care for the ailing animals, and there are no signs of illness in other big cats on the property.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as a fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and can be fatal.

___

Associated Press Medical Writer Mike Stobbe contributed.
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Global challenges can be better addressed if multilateralism is applied. The majority of politicians, diplomats, and academics around the world agree on the importance of this principle; this principle becomes even more vital in times of a crisis, such as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Reality is sometimes much grimmer. G7 Foreign Ministers failed to issue a joint statement after their virtual meeting. According to media reports, the reason is that the ministers were unable to agree on U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's call for COVID-19 to be identified as the "Wuhan virus."



It is undoubtedly bizarre that politicization overshadowed G7 discussions. As French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian underscored in a statement, what should matter more is the need to combat any attempt to exploit the crisis for political purposes. He added that "the unity of all in order to combat the pandemic must now take precedence over any other considerations."

The failure of G7 Foreign Ministers to address the issue came as no surprise. Even during good times, relevant G7 summits produced no results. The 2019 Biarritz meeting in August, for instance, was not accompanied by important commitments. But as far as COVID-19 is concerned, the Extraordinary G20 Leaders' Virtual Summit generated some hope for the international community. The participation of China and other emerging economies in this format naturally enhances its capacity to act successfully.

The recent G20 leaders' statement contains different commitments. The first is their determination to take all necessary health measures and share timely and transparent information in coordination with WHO. The second is their decision to inject $5 trillion into the global economy for the protection of jobs and the recovery of growth. And the third is their promise to avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade. On the whole, G20 understands the importance of international collaboration. This is why the statement makes references to international organizations beyond the WHO. Examples include the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, and the OECD.

President Xi Jinping's speech set the tone in the virtual G20 summit by advocating for greater multilateral synergies. By considering COVID-19 as a "common enemy," he proposed an "all-out" global war against it to be based on coordinated action to boost international public health security and provide efficient fiscal and monetary solutions. More importantly, China is determined to share its experiences from the first few months of the year, which is why it has already established an online knowledge center that is open to all countries. It is also offering medical assistance to other states in need.

At the time of writing, several Western commentators remain skeptical of alleged Chinese motivations during the pandemic. Some believe that China has found an opportunity to challenge the world order. Others argue it wants to escape from the supposed responsibilities of the outbreak. And some even blame the country for the quality of masks provided by private companies but not ones recommended by the government. If trust cannot be restored during a pandemic, when will it be restored? Ideological bias can now take a break. Public health should be the only priority because COVID-19 respects no borders.

Following the G20 virtual summit, President Xi spoke with his American counterpart, Donald Trump, suggesting that the two sides need to work together to enrich collaboration in epidemic control and other fields. An improvement of Sino-American ties will certainly constitute the cornerstone of international cooperation. Whether this will happen is a matter of political will. Social stigma against China, for instance, is unfair and hinders the likelihood of joint actions.

While mutual suspicion will not be easily eliminated, there is a critical factor that needs to be taken into account. It would be in President Trump's interest to win the war against COVID-19 to secure a second term in the November election. A prolonged period of uncertainty and instability will imperil his ambition. Having said that, he needs to study Chinese practices carefully and preserve good relations with China despite differences. International cooperation will subsequently be the primary winner. This is what the international community expects these days, and historians will judge in the future.

George N. Tzogopoulos is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/GeorgeNTzogopoulos.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

If you would like to contribute, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn.
3xLOGIC and Sonitrol Online, On-demand certification training available FREE Easy to learn solutions that are also easy to install are key differentiators when choosing from the 3xLOGIC ecosystem of solutions, and now our eLearning Academy is available to our valued partners at no cost. Suzi Abell, Senior Director of Global Marketing, 3xLOGIC.

3xLOGIC, Inc., a leading provider of integrated, intelligent security solutions, today announced the immediate availability of its infinias and VIGIL certification training courses, as well as sister company Sonitrols CLOUD access and mySonitrol.net courses. For a limited time only, training is available at zero costover 750 people have already taken advantage of this FREE offering. Follow the link below to get started today.

3xLOGIC has developed some of the most user-friendly, easy to install products on the market today. During these challenging times, the company has rolled out its best-in-class, eLearning Academy thats just as user-friendly. 3xLOGIC wants to assist its partners in making productive use of unplanned downtimeget certified!

Easy to learn solutions that are also easy to install are key differentiators when choosing from the 3xLOGIC ecosystem of solutions, and now our eLearning Academy is available to our valued partners at no cost, said Suzi Abell, Senior Director of Global Marketing, 3xLOGIC.

New technician training certification for infinias consists of 10 modules and assessments. The infinias Access Control Certification course introduces new terminology to the student, presents core and peripheral hardware, and provides best practices for configuration and navigation. Lab work is included by granting the student access with their own account to the infinias Training CLOUD where they will complete tasks such as calendar integration, zone hierarchy, new customer creation, and more.

The VIGIL Video Management course also contains 10 modules featuring current hardware offerings as well as in-depth navigation of the VIGIL Client, Server, and other utilities within the VIGIL Suite of products. This course also provides a VIGIL Server playground with simulated exercises such as adding camera streams, setting up groups and users, and setting recording schedules. All training modules enable 3xLOGIC installer partners to access the curriculum and assessments any time, from anywhere.

All the training programs consist of interactive modules that facilitate learning of the 3xLOGIC and Sonitrol product lines, applications, hardware installation, and software deployment. Trainees can log in and access the training server for a digital remote, yet hands-on learning experience. When it comes to on-demand training, 3xLOGIC Certified Partners now have the advantage, and theres never been a better time to make these valuable additions to your skill set, said Bill Hobbs, VP of Global Sales, 3xLOGIC.

3xLOGICs eLearning Academy certification courses are available TODAY, to get started visit https://go.bluevolt.com/SPSAcademy

The Sonitrol CLOUD Access Course introduces the Sonitrol network to the terms, concepts, and hardware associated with their Cloud-managed Access Control offering. A total of seven modules walk the trainee through the configuration, navigation, and management of the user interface and Dealer Portal.

The mySonitrol course is geared toward the end user. This course consists of six modules that instruct on the key concepts from signing on, running reports, editing users, video integration and management of the Sonitrol Access Control System.

About 3xLOGIC

3xLOGIC Inc. has been a leading innovator in server and cloud-based security technology for 15+ years. The company is recognized for providing easy-to-use surveillance and business intelligence solutions that seamlessly integrate video, access control, and disparate data such as ATM, Point-of-Sale, analytics, and more.

3xLOGICs video surveillance solutions are engineered for ease of installation, scalability and affordability combined with a managed services portfolio that enables integrators to effectively evolve from dealers to high-value strategic partners. Follow 3xLOGIC on Facebook, Linked-in, or our Twitter account, and read our latest news at http://www.3xlogic.com.

About Sonitrol

Sonitrol is the leader in verified electronic security, offering Intrusion Detection, Access Control, Video Surveillance and Fire Monitoring. Sonitrols ability to verify intrusion, through patented audio technologies in real-time, offers unrivaled credibility with law enforcement. Sonitrol provides for some of the fastest police response times, lowest false alarm rates and the best apprehension record, over 180,000, in the security industry. For more information on Sonitrol, visit sonitrol.com.

Press Contact North America

Bruce J. Doneff, Public Relations, 3xLOGIC

843.476.3022

bruce.doneff(at)3xlogic(dot)om

Press Contact UK and Europe

Linda Tyrrell, The Henley Group International

linda(at)henley.co(dot)uk

+44 (0)1491 570972

###
A 26-year-old Prospect man has been arrested in the hit-and-run death of man whose body was found along Route 63 in Bethany in 2018.

Michael Rodriguez, of Birchwood Terrace, was arrested Monday and charged with evading responsibility resulting in death.

The body of Tony Pires Goncalves, 25, of Derby, was found Nov. 4, 2018, on the right shoulder of the road, partially under the metal beam guardrail.

Near the body were scattered debris, personal items and broken car parts. Several parts were marked with identifying numbers and letters on them; investigation determined they had come from a 1997-2001 Jeep Cherokee.

About 15 hours after the body was discovered, Rodriguez arrived at Troop I in Bethany to provide information on the accident. Rodriguez told police that at around 12:30 a.m., he had struck a deer in the same area where Goncalves body was found.

He told troopers that he wanted to clear his name. Rodriguez stated he had been coming from The Hops Co. beer garden in Derby and did not stop or report the accident because he was operating his green 1999 Cherokee, which was not registered or insured and had a misused license plate.

Police later found the green Cherokee at Rodriguezs home and saw damage on the vehicles right-front corner, including a broken headlight, dented hood and fender. Also found on the Jeep were two black fibers, suspected to be human hair, on the right-front bumper.

Investigation determined the hairs were from Goncalves. Swabbings for DNA on the Jeep also matched Goncalves DNA.

Based on the DNA evidence and Rodriguezs own admission that he knowingly struck something, police obtained a warrant for his arrest.

Rodriguez is free on bail and is to appear at Superior Court in New Haven June 1.
We're all thoroughly sick of bad news about the pandemic: rising infection and mortality rates, shortages of essential medical equipment, a president who cares more about his TV ratings than the citizens he's supposed to be protecting. So this column is entirely about good news: the countless acts of caring and kindness that individuals are performing every day.

Marty Wuerstlin, who runs an appliance repair business in the Maryland suburbs of Washington where I live, put it well: "There are a lot of good people in the world, and nobody hears about it."

Marty is one of them. He recently went to the home of John Sclavounos, a retired widower, to fix a broken ice-maker. But John turned him away at the front door, saying, "I'm sick, I don't want to infect you." Marty consulted his wife, Connie, and left John a phone message: Can we bring you a pot of Connie's homemade soup? And if you're sick and alone, do you need her to stay with you?

"I'd never heard of anything like this in my life. I really haven't," John told me. "To me it's overwhelming that there's such kindness out there in these days. The press doesn't report on the kindness as often as need be."

He's right; we don't. But the story of Marty and John is duplicated in communities and neighborhoods across the country, and the givers gain as much as the receivers. Making soup is as nourishing as eating it. The best way to cope with the pandemic is to help someone else cope.

A group of mental health professionals in my town are offering free online therapy sessions to anyone who needs counseling. Marjorie Kreppel, the group's founder, told me: "I get more joy from doing these free sessions than from anything in my day. It raises my happiness. It feels good to help other people feel good."

A quick Google survey turns up a vast array of generous and creative gestures. Here are just a few:

-- The teachers from Prestonwood Elementary School in north Dallas organized a parade through the neighborhoods where their students live. The teachers decorated their cars with signs ("Sending Hugs!! Mrs. Lyon") and the kids cheered back, waving pompoms, pictures and posters of their own ("We Miss You Teachers," proclaimed 10-year-old Mira Joachimiak). Vice principal Aaron Ward told a reporter, "Seeing faces digitally is nice, but something about personal connection, just seeing each other like that, keeps us from taking each other for granted."

-- A woman named Rebecca Mehra tweeted out this story: "I went to the grocery store this afternoon. As I was walking in, I heard a woman yell to me from her car. I walked over and found an elderly woman and her husband. She cracked her window open a bit more, and explained to me, nearly in tears, that they were afraid to go into the store." The woman pushed a $100 bill and a shopping list through the window. Mehra bought their groceries, stowed them in the trunk and returned the change. "I know it's a time of hysteria and nerves, but offer to help anyone you can," she posted later. "Not everyone has people to turn to."

-- Lane Grindle, a radio announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers, had a brainstorm while playing outside with his four small children. "What if we all put our Christmas lights back up?" he tweeted. "Then we could get in the car and drive around and look at them." In Brookhaven, Georgia, Ginny Dunn encouraged her neighbors to haul out any holiday decorations. One inflated a 9-foot pumpkin. Another put out illuminated candy canes. Others displayed Valentine hearts and Irish shamrocks. In my neighborhood, my chocolate Lab, Rosie, and I encountered a 10-foot-tall inflatable dragon adorned with a sign saying, "I'm Waving to You. Wave Back to Me." Rosie and I both smiled and waved. Or at least, I think she did.

In the nearby town of Chevy Chase, village manager Andy Harney organized a weekend dance party, hiring a DJ to tour the neighborhood, playing a few songs at 24 different stops through loudspeakers attached to the roof of his car. One favorite was the old disco standard "I Will Survive," which includes these lyrics:

"Did you think I'd crumble / Did you think I'd lay down and die?

"Oh no, not I / I will survive / Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive."

Yes, we will. Together.

Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. He can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com

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[April 07, 2020] Nemesysco Reports Increased Interest for its Voice Analytics Technology for Remote Employee Wellness Monitoring

KADIMA, Israel, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nemesysco, a leading provider of voice analytics technologies and solutions for genuine emotion detection, today announced that the company has been experiencing significantly increased traction for applying its voice analytics technology for remote employee wellness monitoring since the outbreak of the Coronavirus. In recent weeks, millions of employees around the world have been forced to work from home for the foreseeable future in conditions that are severely impacting their individual and team productivity. Even though technologies for remote employee collaboration, such as video conferencing and virtual shared working spaces, are enabling businesses to continue working, managers are unable to fully understand and measure how these new conditions are impacting the performance and overall state-of-mind of their employees. Nemesysco's voice analytics solution for monitoring employee wellness is built around the company's core Layered Voice Analysis (LVA) technology. The LVA technology is designed to reveal the genuine emotional state of a person by detecting and measuring uncontrolled psychophysiological changes to a person's voice during open conversations. For remote employee wellness monitoring, the LVA technology runs in the background during real-time or recorded conversations with employees. The technology initially establishes a baseline for each monitored employee and monitors for changes in emotions relevant to the workplace, such as sress, frustration, fatigue motivation and enthusiasm.



"We have been a channel partner of Nemesysco here in Hungary for many years and the human resources space is currently the strongest market we are serving," said Gyorgy Kis, CEO at ANIMA Polygraph Ltd. "Many of our customers, especially in the banking and insurance sector, who traditionally use the Nemesysco technology to improve their recruiting processes, are now applying the technology to better understand the mind set of their employees who are now forced to work from home in a critical effort to maintain the continuity of their businesses and the services they provide." "This strong interest we are currently experiencing for remote employee wellness monitoring is coming from both government organizations and enterprises across the Far East, India, Europe and Mexico. Many of our call center customers have also recently expanded their use of our voice analytics technology to monitor the emotional wellness of their agents who are now working remotely from home," explained Amir Liberman, CEO of Nemesysco. "These new customers initially approached us with the immediate need to ensure business continuity as they rapidly transitioned their employees to work from home and many are also telling us that they want to be prepared for the new realities of remote working that will likely continue afterwards."

In an effort to help businesses and government organizations to ensure business continuity while their employees are working from home and other remote locations, Nemesysco is currently offering a free, no obligation trial of its recently released InTone solution. The company notes that InTone is intended for call center environments and has been recently adapted for remote employee wellness monitoring to support the needs of customers during the Coronavirus outbreak. About Nemesysco Nemesysco is a leading provider voice analytics technologies and solutions for genuine emotion detection. The company's patented Layered Voice Analysis (LVA) reveals and measures the genuine emotions of a speaker during voice-based communications. Nemesysco's technology has applications for call centers, insurance and financial services, human resources, mental health and more. For more information, please visit www.nemesysco.com. Press Contact

Tony Miller

+1-617-418-3024

[email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nemesysco-reports-increased-interest-for-its-voice-analytics-technology-for-remote-employee-wellness-monitoring-301036444.html SOURCE Nemesysco

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Joe Biden appeared on Jimmy Kimmel live on Thursday: ABC

After calling on his Democrats to avoid "playing politics" during the coronavirus outbreak, Donald Trump lashed out at Joe Biden as he continues to find ways to raise questions about his likely general election foe's competence.

The former vice president floated a "virtual" Democratic Party nominating convention in August, should the pandemic not allow American life to return to normal -- including large gatherings -- by then. He also said he intends to wear a mask in public, unlike the president, who says it's "okay" if Americans do but it's just not for him.

That was more than enough for the ever-opportunistic and always-on-the-attack president to criticise Mr Biden.

"Joe Biden wanted the date for the Democrat National Convention moved to a later time period. Now he wants a 'Virtual' Convention, one where he doesn't have to show up. Gee, I wonder why?" Mr Trump said, appearing to allege the former vice president lacks an ability to remain coherent during a convention speech to a large arena crowd."

Joe Biden wanted the date for the Democrat National Convention moved to a later time period. Now he wants a Virtual Convention, one where he doesnt have to show up. Gee, I wonder why? Also, what ever happened to that phone call he told the Fake News he wanted to make to me?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 6, 2020

The president also appeared to make a scheduling announcement. Mr Biden last week said he was open to having a telephone conversation with the president about the federal government's Covid-19 response. During the economic recession of 2007-2008, then-President George W Bush hosted then-Democratic nominee Barack Obama and then-Republican nominee John McCain for a White House mini-summit as they tried to forge a consensus about what to do.

Story continues

A Biden spokeswoman last week reportedly said the candidate's team would contact the White House to set up a telephone chat.

"Also, what ever happened to that phone call he told the Fake News he wanted to make to me?" Mr Trump wrote Monday morning.

The Twitter volley came a week after Democrats pushed their Milwaukee convention to 17 August and a day after Mr Biden floated the first "virtual" nominating event.

(Mr Trump said this weekend that Republicans still intend to hold their convention to again nominate him a week later in Charlotte; both Wisconsin and North Carolina are expected to be among the states up for grabs come Election Day.)

"Well, we're going to have to do a convention. We may have to do a virtual convention. I think we should be thinking about that right now," Mr Biden told ABC News on Sunday. "The idea of holding the convention is going to be necessary.

"We may not be able to put 10, 20, 30,000 people in one place and that's very possible," he added. "Again, let's see where it is -- and what we do between now and then is going to dictate a lot of that as well. But my point is that I think you just got to follow the science."

Mr Biden is leading the president in most national polls -- but the incumbent is running competitively, typically within any given poll's margin of error -- in the six or seven battleground states that political experts say will decide the election. A Reuters/Ipsos survey released last week gave the former VP a 46 per cent to 40 per cent edge nationally.

Mr Trump is a notorious poll-watcher. He has been slipping in digs at the Democratic frontrunner since his political rallies were put on hold a few weeks back as the coronavirus began sweeping the country.

Over the weekend, he again tried to paint Mr Biden as mentally feeble.

"He is probably not even watching right now," he said, "and if he is he doesn't understand what he is watching."

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A breathing aid developed by the Mercedes F1 team is being made 'open source' which means other companies can produce the devices for the NHS themselves.

The Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices are part of Formula 1's Project Pitlane scheme to help fight the deadly coronavirus worldwide.

The first round of CPAP devices will be delivered to NHS hospitals around the country after a series of patient trials across London.

Engineers from the Mercedes F1 team, University College London (UCL) and clinicians at UCL Hospital designed and developed the CPAP devices for the NHS.

CPAP devices are designed to help patient that can't stabilise on an oxygen mask alone but doesn't need a more invasive ventilator. It works by pushing air and oxygen into the mouth and nose at a continuous rate.

The Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices are part of Formula 1's Project Pitlane scheme to help fight the deadly coronavirus worldwide

In response to a UK government order of 10,000, the Mercedes AMG technology centre in Brixworth is now building up to 1,000 devices per day.

Andy Cowell, Managing Director of Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains, said: 'Since the project was announced, we have received an incredible number of enquiries about the CPAP device from around the world.

'Making the design and manufacturing specifications available on an 'open source' basis will allow companies around the world to produce these devices at speed and at scale to support the global response to Covid-19.'

Currently 40 machines, which would normally produce F1 pistons and turbochargers, are being used for production of the CPAP devices.

Mercedes said the breathing aid was developed within a 'rapid timeframe', taking fewer than 100 hours from the first meeting to production of the first device.

Mark II of the device, which has reduced oxygen consumption by up to 70 per cent compared to the Mark I model, received regulatory approval last week.

The company have made all the details needed to build the device online for other manufacturers who want to contribute to the effort.

The designs have been shared on a research licensing website developed by UCL that is sharing technologies useful in the fight against COVID-19.

'The licensed package will include not only the designs, but will also specify materials, tools and kit used in the rapid prototyping process, as well as the fabrication time for each part,' Mercedes said.

The company said that by making this information widely available, it may help the global response to the crisis by providing respiratory support for patients.

The designs have been shared on a research licensing website developed by UCL that is sharing technologies useful in the fight against COVID-19

How does a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device work? Continuous positive airway pressure devices are a way of helping patients to breathe without having to sedate them. They push a mixture of air and oxygen into the mouth and nose at a continuous rate to keep the airways open. This increases the amount of oxygen entering a patient's lungs and helps them to breathe. If used properly a CPAP can remove the need for a patient to be put on a ventilator while still giving them a safe amount of oxygen. They are used for patients too unwell for simple oxygen but well enough not to need a ventilator immediately. CPAPs are already used widely throughout the NHS, but are being scaled up for mass production to help with the coronavirus epidemic. Without CPAP machines all patients not able to be stabilised by an oxygen mask would be put on a ventilator. Source: University College London Advertisement

Governments, relevant industry manufacturers, academics and health experts will be able to request access to the designs to ensure quality control over the manufacture.

These would also have to meet regulatory approval in the relevant country.

Professor Rebecca Shipley, Director of UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering, said the devices are relatively simple to manufacture and can be made quickly.

'We hope that, by making the blueprints publicly available, they can be used to improve the resilience of healthcare systems preparing for the Covid-19 pandemic globally,' she said.

'My thanks goes to the brilliant engineers, business managers and team at UCLB who have come together and made this happen at a pace that would be considered unimaginable under normal circumstances.'

CPAP machines are routinely used by the NHS to support patients in hospital or at home with breathing difficulties.

They work by pushing an air-oxygen mix into the mouth and nose at a continuous pressure, keeping airways open and increasing the amount of oxygen entering the blood stream.

Invasive ventilators deliver breaths directly into the lungs, but require heavy sedation and connection to a tube placed into the patient's windpipe.

Engineers from the Mercedes F1 team, University College London (UCL) and clinicians at UCL Hospital designed and developed the CPAP devices for the NHS

The breathing aid has been used extensively in hospitals in Italy and China to help COVID-19 patients with serious respiratory problems to breathe more easily, when oxygen via a face mask alone is insufficient.

Professor Michael Arthur, UCL President & Provost said: 'This demonstrates what extraordinary things can be achieved when universities, hospitals and industry work together for the national good.

'These devices, which can play a vital role in keeping patients out of intensive care, have been produced in just a couple of weeks.'

Project Pitlane, of which this is one project, was launched by Formula 1 to help with the production of medical equipment to be used against COVID-19.

Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren, Renault, Racing Point, Haas and Williams are working on solutions in response to the government's call for assistance.
After reports of losses and staff cuts, Massachusetts hospitals are getting $800 million in state funding to help stay afloat while they perform tests and treat patients who have fallen ill from the coronavirus.

Gov. Charlie Baker announced the $800 million infusion and acknowledged that hospitals were hit hard by the states response to the coronavirus pandemic. One of the biggest examples are the cancellation of elective surgeries, often lucrative procedures for hospitals.

The result for many of our health care model organizations has been a huge hit to their operations and to their cash flow," Baker said Tuesday afternoon during a news conference at the Massachusetts State House.

The funding is separate from the $290 million in cash relief and the $550 million in accelerated payments the state approved in March. The rollout will be overseen by the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

More than half of the money will go to hospitals across the state, according to the Baker administration. Most of the funding will go to 28 high-Medicaid hospitals to offset lost revenue and increased costs they incurred while responding to COVID-19 cases.

As a whole, the Baker administration projects the funding makes up a 7.5% rate increase for other hospital care, and specifically a 20% rate increase for COVID-19 care.

More than $80 million will go toward nursing facilities with $50 million of that will be dedicated funds for those facilities in Massachusetts, and $30 will support units and facilities within those facilities that are COVID-19 sites.

About $300 million will go toward other health care providers, including $50 million for community health centers, $30 million for personal care attendants and other funding for ambulances, home health agencies, community behavioral health providers and long-term services such as Adult Day Health or Day Habilitation programs.

The funding comes as hospitals across the state have employees working around the clock on the coronavirus response, but they are also grappling with financial losses. Hospitals have seen their revenues dip due to the cancellation of elective surgeries, the increased demand for personal protective equipment and the rise of patients suffering from illnesses linked to the coronavirus.

Harrington Healthcare, which operates a hospital in Southbridge, furloughed 131 employees across all of its branches in Central Massachusetts and Northeastern Connecticut. Chris Canniff, vice president of Administration and Human Resources, attributed the move to a decline in patients during the pandemic.

Boston Medical Center said last week it would furlough 700 employees, about 10% of the hospitals workforce.

At the Berkshire Medical Center, hospital employees were furloughed for 14 days last month after coming in contact with coronavirus patients.

When asked how the investment would affect furloughed employees and those hospitals Baker said, I certainly think that this should health stabilize health care organizations generally. That was a big part of the reason why we did it.

In Massachusetts, 13,837 people have tested positive for the coronavirus and 260 people have died, according to the state Department of Public Health statistics released Monday.

The number of cases are only expected to increase, as models cited by Baker suggest a surge will hit Massachusetts between April 10 and April 20.

Baystate Health President and CEO Dr. Mark Keroack said on Monday that Western Massachusetts might not see a peak in cases until May or even June.

When asked about that projection, and regional differences, Baker noted that the state will adapt as needed changing projections.

If it turns out the slope of the line ends up being flatter and longer, thats the way well play it, but again this is not something people have seen before," Baker said on Monday, speaking from Eastern Bank in Boston. This is new, and because its new, and because its not something we have lots of historical history that people can rely on, when they make judgment calls about how exactly to expect it to play out, we have to be willing  as Ive said several times  to be nimble about this and to be willing to adapt.

Related Content:
Coronavirus: Spain victim toll rises to 13,798 743 new deaths in the past 24 hours

(ANSAmed) - ROME, APRIL 7 - The number of coronavirus victims in Spain rose to 13,798 on Tuesday compared to 13,055 on Monday, for a total of 743 new deaths in the past 24 hours, said the Spanish health ministry.



There are 140,510 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country, and 43,000 patients have been discharged from hospital.



The increase in the number of deaths, after four days in which the number had gone down, should be taken with caution, however, due to how the figures are reported.



Spanish daily El Pais said that since the start of the crisis, every Tuesday there has been an increase in the reported number of deaths from coronavirus because the numbers include deaths at the weekend that are sent to the health ministry on Monday evening by various communities across the country.(ANSAmed).




India has decided to partially lift a ban on export of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, paving the way for its supply to the US and several other countries hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

Government officials said India would export hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol on a case-by-case basis to the countries which have already placed orders for them after meeting the domestic requirements.

The decision to partially lift the ban on hydroxychloroquine came to the fore hours after US President Donald Trump warned of retaliation if India does not heed to his request to supply the drug, cited by him as a viable therapeutic solution to fight coronavirus infection.

In a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, Trump sought supply of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to the US.

"In view of the humanitarian aspects of the pandemic, it has been decided that India would licence paracetamol and HCQ in appropriate quantities to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on our capabilities," said Anurag Srivastava, Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs.

"We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations which have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic," he added, responding to queries on the issue.

On March 25, India banned export of hydroxychloroquine in the midst of views in some quarters that the drug could be used to fight COVID-19. India is the largest exporter of the drug.

It is learnt that high-ranking officials of India and the US were engaged over the issue of supply HCQ to the US by certain Indian companies following telephonic conversation between Modi and Trump and the decision to ease restrictions on export of the drug was result of a process.

The assessment in the government on Trump's comment on "retaliation" is that his response was not pre-meditated and that it was an instantaneous reaction by the US President when put on the spot.

There was indication that the decision to lift the partial ban on the two drugs was taken at a high-level meeting last night.

Hydroxychloroquine is and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria. India is the largest producer of the drug globally.

Officials said India would export the drug on a case-by-case basis after meeting all the domestic requirements.

"India has always maintained that the international community must display strong solidarity and cooperation. This approach also guided our evacuation of nationals of other countries," Srivastava said.

India is learnt to have received requests from at least 20 countries including its immediate neighbours Sri Lanka and Nepal for supply of hydroxychloroquine.

"Like any responsible government, our first obligation is to ensure that there are adequate stocks of medicines for the requirement of our own people," the MEA spokesperson said.

In order to ensure this, he explained, some "temporary steps" were taken to restrict exports of a number of pharmaceutical products. He said a comprehensive assessment was carried out about possible requirements of various drugs under different scenarios.

"After having confirmed the availability of medicines for all possible contingencies currently envisaged, these restrictions have been largely lifted," he said.

He said the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has notified lifting of restrictions on 14 drugs on Monday.

"With regard to paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine, they will be kept in a licensed category and their demand position would be continuously monitored," Srivastava said.

"However, the stock position could allow our companies to meet the export commitments that they had contracted, he said



The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended the hydroxychloroquine for those involved in the care of suspected or confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

The Trump administration has already created a national strategic stockpile of 29 million doses of the malaria drug, anticipating that its test results on more than 1,500 COVID-19 patients in New York is yielding positive results.

Global scientists, racing against time to find either a vaccine or a therapeutic cure to the virus, have begun testing hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as options for potential COVID-19 treatments.

The US Food and Drug Administration last week issued an Emergency Use Authorisation for the prescription of the drug in certain circumstances.

In addition to New York, COVID-19 patients in several States are being treated with hydroxychloroquine, including Michigan and Texas.

According to Trump, the drug is yielding positive results. If successful, he said that it would be a gift from heaven.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
FILE PHOTO: The logo of French defence and electronics group Thales is seen at the company's headquarters in Merignac near Bordeaux

By Tim Hepher

PARIS (Reuters) - France's Thales <TCFP.PA> on Tuesday became the latest major company to slash its dividend, suspend profit guidance and top up liquidity in response to the coronavirus crisis.

The aerospace and defence supplier said it had withdrawn the proposed final instalment of its 2019 dividend, saving 430 million euros ($465 million). The company has already paid an interim dividend of 0.6 euros, meaning the remaining 2.05 euros will not be paid.

Thales also suspended its 2020 financial guidance, which had assumed only a limited impact from the crisis, which is now grounding airline fleets and seizing up economies worldwide.

"We want to limit cash outflows that are not strictly necessary...to contain the economic and industrial impact on the group as much as possible," Thales Chief Executive Patrice Caine told reporters.

Thales said it had also signed a new 2-billion-euro credit facility that can be used over the next 12 months, with the option to extend it by another 6 months.

At the end of last year, Thales had 2.9 billion euros in cash or cash equivalents and an undrawn revolving credit facility worth 1.5 billion euros, expiring in December 2021.

Chief Financial Officer Pascal Bouchiat said the resulting available liquidity of 6.4 billion euros "allows us to build a liquidity reserve that is totally sufficient".

The new credit line, arranged and underwritten by Credit Agricole <CAGR.PA>, is not backed by guarantees offered by the French state to help companies through the crisis, he added.

Airlines worldwide have grounded the bulk of their fleets to cope with a slump in demand and travel restrictions designed to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

Thales says 12% of its annual revenues come from commercial aerospace activities such as air traffic management, with the rest coming from defence, government agencies and private infrastructure.

Caine declined to comment in detail on reported disruption in the French aerospace supply chain, but said that Thales' operations in Singapore and Australia were running almost normally.

Story continues

Industry executives have said up to half of small French aerospace suppliers have halted production at some point since the government imposed a lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus in mid-March, but that work is gradually resuming.

"Today I have the impression that the supply chain, like Thales, is in a recovery phase," said Caine.

(This story corrects figure in 10th paragraph to 12%, not 21%.)

(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu By

Never in the history of India has a lockdown of this magnitude and scale been envisaged or implemented. And never in the history of India has the entire population faced such a strain; neither has the economy nor the healthcare system faced such a crisis. The virus is spreading rapidly; the hospitals are steadily getting stressed and would find it tough when the number of cases goes up. According to WHOs World Health Report 2000 that compared country performances, the healthcare systems of France, Italy, Spain and the US ranked 1st, 2nd, 7th and 37th respectively; India ranked 112th. After this crisis, many countries will take a hard look at their healthcare systems and three issues in particular.

Firstly, the importance of an adequate ratio of doctors to patients must be addressed. According to the World Bank, Spain and Italy have 4.1 physicians per 1,000 people, while India, it is just 0.8 per 1,000. The number of hospital beds available is also low in India, with only 1 bed for 879 people. The ratio is likely to be worse considering the actual usable beds. This is a wake-up call for the healthcare system of the soon-to-be most populous country in the world. We must look outward for inspiration. Cuba boasts a ratio of 8.2 physicians per 1,000 people.

It is a commendable achievement to not only invest in the healthcare system but also to export healthcare soldiers to nations in need. Similarly, India must invest in its doctors. We must take a hard look at the state of medical education in our country. It must be made affordable and accessible to all. Consequently the cost of accessing healthcare would also fall. Secondly, the crisis highlights the need for a Make in India impetus to medical healthcare. Doctors face both a lack of administrative support and limited personal protection equipment (PPE). Without these basic requirements the system would collapse.

The lockdown has also resulted in the disruption of the supply chain and to an extent, a disruption in the transportation and production of essential goods such as nebulisers, ventilators and PPE, especially face masks. Importantly, the crisis has shown the excessive dependence of even the most developed countries on import of medical equipment. So India must pursue the indigenous development of medical equipment, both in terms of capacity and capability. Unfortunately we are even importing PPEs though state-of-the-art technology is not needed to produce them. Due emphasis must be given to diagnostic equipment that currently amounts to a third of the $8 billion market share of medical equipment in India. Our nation is also heavily dependent on imports as it imports 50% of its medical equipment. Notably imports from China have seen a double-digit growth since 2017.

Thirdly, focus must be placed on production of high-tech equipment suited for Indian conditions at low costs. Entrepreneurs in the medical field must be promoted and the monopoly of state utilities must be broken. The monopoly of HLL Lifecare has proved a disaster and must serve as a lesson. Aravind Eye Hospitals is a worthy example. Innovation and dedication to a greater cause has resulted in a Rs75,000 operation to be performed for a mere Rs750, a 99% cost reduction. Aurolab has produced a lens for a mere Rs 80, 1/10th of the global market cost. Now they are exporting these lenses. Such efforts must be given a substantial push. Funding research in development of medical devices will provide cheaper and efficient alternatives. Within a few months of the Covid-19 pandemic in India, cheaper, novel alternatives for testing were developed. Recently the DRDO also developed a special sealant for biosuits due to the lack of seam sealing tape. It is an example of what is possible if support and funding is provided.

A policy change forced by a crisis has often helped in India. Take for example the agricultural and milk revolution in the 1970s or the economic liberalisation in 1991. These were responses to crises to which the state was forced to react. Its 2020 and there is again a need for a policy change. The corona crisis has affected the lives of all Indians and there is an opportunity to enact changes if the ruling party of the day chooses to do so. The question whether the government is doing enough also arises. According to the Overseas Development Institute, India has the strongest measures, but at the same time has also spent the least on fiscal stimulus as a percentage of GDP. Western nations have provided a substantial economic stimulus. However in India despite a financial crisis brewing for the past five years the government has not shown a sense of urgency. Meanwhile we have helped big businesses by doling out tax reductions while also refusing to help MSMEs, which generate a lot of employment.

In these circumstances, unemployment has also been a constant concern. With the expected onset of stagflation, unemployment is likely to rise further. The US, within a few weeks, reported over 6 million unemployment claims. The situation in India is likely to be worse considering the lack of data and formalisation of employment. Keeping this in mind I intend to introduce The Indian Unemployment Insurance and Benefits Bill 2020. The Bill would ensure employers provide 70% of the daily average wage for a period of 90 days. A widow who is the guardian of a minor would be entitled for this benefit for a period of 120 days. Further it shall ensure employers provide medical insurance to the employee and his or her first degree family upto Rs1 lakh for secondary and tertiary care and 50% of primary care costs for a period of 120 days. These would be in addition to existing benefits. This would consequently ensure unemployment insurance is made a statutory right for every employee, white or blue collar.

I hope the government will take note of these measures and fully support our healthcare soldiers. We must make our contribution by practising social distancing and adhering to the lockdown. (Noel Therattil contributed to the article)

Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu

YSRC MP from Narasaraopet, Andhra Pradesh Email: krishna.lavu@yahoo.in
SAGINAW, MI  A Saginaw County attorney is suing Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, arguing she violated her authority in issuing an executive order regarding Freedom of Information Act requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whitmer on the night of Sunday, April 5, signed executive order 2020-38, relaxing requirements for government workers responding in person to FOIA requests during the coronavirus outbreak. The order applies to records requests submitted by mail, fax, or in person. Public bodies are now allowed to defer parts of the responses that would require workers to report to government offices in-person, the order states.

The order is effective immediately and is scheduled to be lifted June 4, according to a news release.

Whitmers order can be read in full here.

The next day, Hemlock-based attorney Philip L. Ellison sent a lawsuit naming Whitmer and the state of Michigan as defendants to the Michigan Court of Claims in Lansing via FedEx. The suit was officially filed Tuesday, April 7. Ellison is representing two clients in the suit, Eric Ostergren of Midland County and Jason Gillman Jr. of Ingham County, both of whom had planned to file FOIA requests and have filed some in the past.

Both have concerns over the governors order and a number of other orders coming out at various levels, Ellison told MLive. They want to get information and now they essentially cant.

The concern of any time a government acts beyond its normal, everyday powers and processes is that theyll abuse that power, Ellison continued. Of course in times of crisis, we have to give officials more authority than they would normally have. But when you go too far, youre actually hurting the citizenry rather than protecting them.

Philip Ellison poses with his son, Patton Ellison, at Philip Ellisons firm Outside Legal Counsel on March 23, 2018.

Tiffany Brown, press secretary for Whitmers office, declined to comment, saying it is standard practice not to do so on pending litigation.

In the suit, Ellison states Whitmer since March 10 has suspended or altered countless laws, regulations, legal obligations, and statutes, including the criminalizing of operations deemed nonessential, criminalizing the free movement and assembly of individuals, and suspending of schools.

Additionally, state and local officials have started issuing orders further criminalizing traditional lawful and constitutionally protected activities, the suit states.

The Freedom of Information Act serves the most important tool for citizens, media, businesses, and others in accessing and securing needed information and documents from state and local governments. Many times, governments will not provide key document(s) unless and until a request is formally made under the Freedom of Information Act," Ellison wrote in the suit.

Whitmers executive order limiting the granting of FOIA requests is drastic, unprecedented, and unauthorized by the text of the Michigan Constitution, Ellison wrote. The Michigan Constitution says nothing about Michigans governor issuing emergency executive orders or who is in charge in an emergency to expressly suspend government transparency laws and obligations created by constitution and/or statutory law.

The suit goes on to state the only provision dealing with continuity of government in emergencies refers to disasters occurring within Michigan caused by an enemy attack on the United States.

The suit also states that the states Emergency Management Act allows the governor to issue a state of disaster or a state of emergency that expires 28 days after its issuance unless its extended by the legislature upon the governors request. Whitmer issued a state-of-emergency declaration on March 10, meaning it would expire on April 7 without the legislature extending it.

Whitmers April 5 order regarding FOIA requests that would last until June 4 thusly exceeds the authority provided to Defendant Governor Gretchen Whitmer given the 28-day limit as provided by statute absent prior Legislature approval, the suit states.

Whitmer on April 1 upgraded the state-of-emergency order to a state of disaster. The statute allows for the governor to provide reasonable orders, rules, and regulations he or she considers necessary for protecting life and property, or to bring the emergency situation within an affected area under control. The governor has also asked the legislature to pass a concurrent resolution to extend the state of emergency by 70 days from the date of the resolution.

The FOIA order is not reasonable, Ellison states in the suit.

Ellison said his goal with the suit is for Whitmer to alter or retract her executive order. He added the suit is not specifically Whitmers stay-at-home order, but it will target and question the governors authority to issue orders like it.

There is clearly a better way the governor could have done this rather than this blanket ban, Ellison said. They could have done something far more narrow. However, I dont think she should have banned anything at all as it relates to FOIA.

As of Monday, Michigan has had 17,221 confirmed coronavirus cases, 727 of which have resulted in death. Saginaw County on Monday announced its first two deaths related to coronavirus, both decedents being men older than 75.

Related:

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer asks lawmakers to extend Michigans state of emergency during coronavirus pandemic

Whitmer issues order allowing delayed in-person processing of Freedom of Information Act requests

How Michigans coronavirus stay-at-home order compares to other states

Saginaw County lawyer behind tire-chalking lawsuit says he fights for the little guy

Whitmer says patchwork response to coronavirus with no national strategy could prolong fight

Michigan reports 1,493 new coronavirus cases on Sunday and 77 more deaths
Tuesday, April 7th, 2020 - Johannesburg, South Africa - As the world comes to terms with the impact of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), research reveals that the vast majority of African youth are deeply concerned about the spread of infectious diseases and its impact on the development of the continent and its people.

The African Youth Survey 2020, the most comprehensive study of Africas youth to date, found that nine out of 10 African youth express concern about the spread of infectious diseases, and deaths caused by infectious diseases was identified as the one singular event or development that had the biggest impact on Africa over the last five years.

The research, undertaken prior to the COVID-19 outbreak in China, was commissioned and published by the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, a leading African foundation encouraging active citizenship across the continent.

When asked to select one singular event or development over the last five years which had the greatest impact on the continent, 24% (the highest number of African youth) believed it to be deaths from infectious disease. The second highest event or development was reported as the rise of terrorism (15%), followed by the technological revolution (12%), and civil war (11%).

African youth who cite deaths from infectious disease as the most formative development of the past five years tend to be concentrated in Western and Southern Africa. The countries with highest level of concern regarding infectious disease were Congo Brazzaville (43%), Ghana (40%), Gabon (33%), Zambia (33%), and South Africa (32%), likely due to the 2014 Ebola outbreak, and ongoing HIV/Aids, Malaria and TB epidemics.

The findings highlight the lasting impact that infectious diseases, like COVID-19, could have on the developmental years of young people around the world. In contrast to the rest of the world, African youth have had far greater exposure to decimating diseases like Ebola, HIV/Aids, Malaria and TB during their formative years.

As COVID-19 has been confirmed in at least 30 of Africas 54 countries, health experts are cautiously optimistic that the lessons learnt from previous health emergencies will help the continent in its fight against coronavirus.

Ivor Ichikowitz, African industrialist, philanthropist and Chairman of the Ichikowitz Family Foundation said: We have found that despite severe challenges like infectious diseases, the youth in Africa are imbued with optimism about the future and want to shape their own destiny. They refuse to shy away from the very real challenges of Africa, open and honest about what needs to be done.

This rising Afro-Capability and Afro-Responsibilityis in line with the swift and decisive action that many African Governments have taken to deal with COVID-19, from nationwide lock downs, travel restrictions to school closures and the banning of large gatherings. These decisive actions, which must be commended, stand in contrast to many developed nations who have failed to decisively deal with the crisis despite being at the epi-centre of the pandemic.

The AfricanYouth Survey (AYS) is a sweeping Pan-African study commissioned by the Ichikowitz Family Foundation and conducted by PSB, undertaken across the major urban centers of Congo-Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Malawi, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The study was designed to measure the principles and attitudes, concerns and aspirations of sub-Saharan Africas young people, to develop foundations for a better global understanding of an all-too-often misunderstood part of the world.

The African Youth Survey has offered profound new narratives speaking to a rising Afro-Optimism among the continents youth driven by a strong sense of individual responsibility, a post-colonial mindset, entrepreneurialism, and confidence in a shared African identity.

Ichikowitz added: It is clear that, now more than ever, African youth have been poised well ahead of the curve, uniquely aware and informed regarding the threats posed by infectious diseases to socioeconomic development. Youths from Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the rest of the world will now most likely share the concerns that our Survey proves most Africans have grown up with throughout their lives.

Despite the spread of infectious diseases serving as a major issue in years past to African youth, reforming healthcare, improving health infrastructure and / or fighting infectious diseases were not considered among the most important reforms needed to be implemented for Africa to progress in future.

In the interest of the African continent moving forward over the next five years, the Survey found priority was lent to reducing government corruption (26%), creating new, well-paying jobs (24%), achieving peace and stability (17%), increasing access to basic needs and services such as food and water (16%), modernizing the education system (15%), fighting terrorism (12%) and building a culture of both innovation and entrepreneurship (12%), in the eyes of African youth. Fighting the spread of or stopping infectious disease did not foster enough of a response at the time to register as a definitive priority across the dataset. However, in 2020 these perceptions may change as coronavirus cases continue to increase across the world, with severe consequences for Africas fragile economies.

The Ichikowitz Family Foundation has commissioned the African Youth Survey on an annual basis, in an effort to help African governments, global lending institutions, and regional business and civil society leaders collect the critical, contemporary information required to better respond to the concerns of what is collectively the worlds fastest growing population.
"Shame was an emotion he had abandoned years earlier. Addicts know no shame. You disgrace yourself so many times you become immune to it."

 John Grisham

As anyone who has been watching the daily press briefings about the virus knows, the duplicitous non-journalists in the room are not one bit interested in actual facts or any good news about the virus, hydroxychloroquine, or medical equipment supplies, or any other information that may be gleaned about the administration's war against this flu. They are driven only by their hatred for this president, who has risen to the challenge as a true leader.

President Trump put the medical and scientific task force together early on, when the left was paying attention to and reporting only on the impeachment. He banned travelers from China when the Democrats and media called him a racist for implementing the ban, and he started screening passengers from all over the world.

We see the reporters' ill mannered disrespect throughout the mainstream media, network television, on CNN and MSNBC. No one can miss the truth of the left's plan: we can use this virus to destroy the economy and the country, and that will be the end of Trump.

But it won't. A majority of Americans can see for themselves that he has handled this crisis like a pro at problem-solving. Trump is exactly that  a problem-solver, no matter the magnitude of the problem.

Then there are the foaming-at-their-mouths Democrats in Congress: Nancy Pelosi, as VDH wrote, has thoroughly disgraced herself over the past many months, from the Kavanaugh hearings to impeachment to her stunt at the SOTU to her push to load up the relief bill with regressive, authoritarian pork. She is truly a vile, evil person. So is Schumer. So is Schiff  to name just a few.

Like the perpetually deranged Maxine Waters, they are addicted to their own rage, and like any addict, the drug destroys the addict who is dependent on it. It is eating away at them like an opioid addiction.

The Democrats have been reduced to hurling ridiculous accusations virtually blaming Trump for every death from the virus when he was on the case long before any of them was paying any attention to it. The timeline is what it is.

The left suffers from a dearth of character. Since Trump became president, leftists have exhibited and rationalized their toxic dependency on cruelty to those they abhor  Trump and his supporters. It is a near certainty that millions of Americans who admire and respect the president's leadership have not only lost life-long friends, but been viciously and personally vilified. This addiction to hating Trump has destroyed not just friendships, but families.

Many observers have noted over the last three years that the D.C. establishment crowd loathes the man because he is an outsider, not a member of their elite club of self-appointed bosses of the rest of us. Despite Trump's phenomenal success in business around the world, he was never more than a reality show host to them. The left rarely looks beneath the surface of any issue or person. Leftists rarely for a moment doubt that their view is the only correct view and assume without consideration that anyone with a different perspective is a moron. Simple as that. They never question their certainty that they are the best and brightest.

So, when Donald Trump beat their oh, so corrupt candidate in 2016, they suffered paroxysms of anger and rage. They have always had contempt for the Americans between the coasts. No one made that clearer than the tone-deaf Michael Bloomberg with his admitted disdain for farmers.

The furious and frenzied left found treatment for its own epidemic of sudden-onset psychosis by banding its members together in unity to bring the man down. They descended into the gutter that is social media to vent their outrage. The Russia collusion hoax was a bust, and so was the impeachment fantasy.

CNN and MSNBC began and continue their full assault on the president 24/7. It is pathetic. They ignore or twist any and all facts that deviate from their narrative. They spew provable lies all day long and call it news. No wonder their ratings are so very, very low. Truth is hard; it's propaganda that is cheap.

The former media giants like the NYT and WaPo, mere scraps of what they once were, are similarly addicted to their own rage and so publish hateful distortions of the truth day after day. A marquee New York Times columnist called the virus Trumpvirus! They attacked Trump for his travel ban on Jan. 31. They refuse to acknowledge that he assembled the task force immediately thereafter.

Governors like Cuomo were wholly unprepared (Cuomo refused to purchase ventilators, choosing to invest $750M in solar panels instead) and blamed the president for their own failures. These Democrat governors are apparently not familiar with the Constitution or the founders' creation of federalism. Governors are in charge of their states, and the responsibility for preparedness lies with them.

Trump masterfully got up to speed to fill the gaps in the states and the sorry state of medical mask supplies left by the Obama administration. He brought all manner of private corporations on board. He has accomplished what no other leader could have or would have up against such an event. He has surrounded himself with experts and advisers, and he listens to them.

The left went berserk when he talked about the possibility of hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment. Now that it is proving to be effective, the left is still nonsensically attacking hm for "pushing" it! He never pushed it; he mentioned it and was hopeful. The piteously ignorant Mika Brzezinski thinks Trump must have a financial interest in the drug, which has been around since before he was born and is inexpensive, and other deranged leftists from Sonny Hostin to the New York Times join in the innuendo.

The Views @Sunny Hostin suggests Trump has a financial interest in the non-patented drug hydroxychloroquine: "lets face it, theres always something in it for this president when he wants to tout something." pic.twitter.com/tttZSx9C0N  Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) April 6, 2020

Wow. NYT reports Trump himself has a financial stake in the French company that makes the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine.https://t.co/FM1t2WadgN  Ian Sams (@IanSams) April 7, 2020

The nonsense emanating from CNN and MSNBC is appalling. The Trump presidency has exposed the sheer idiocy of the political, bureaucratic and media classes. They have succumbed to their addiction to rage against the Trump machine and it has rotted their brains as surely as meth rots the brains of meth addicts. And it has reminded all Americans who our true heroes are  all the doctors, nurses, healthcare workers and all first responders, truckers who are still getting essentials to us, and the clerks and staff at our local markets. These are the people on whom we all ultimately depend upon and they have all risen to the task.

We have learned just how irrelevant the Nancy Pelosis Joe Bidens and Chuck Schumers truly are. Trump knew this when he chose to run for the office; he knows exactly who makes this nation function and it is not the political class. And that is why he won. His supporters know he recognizes and supports them.

The greatest fool is not the person who has been fooled by the lies of others, despite how crafty and ingenious those lies might have been. Rather, it is the fool who has lied with such amazing dexterity and subtle finesse that he himself has come to believe his own lies. And this is the most forlorn and yet the most dangerous person that I can imagine.

 Craig D. Lounsbrough

Photo credit: Twitter video screen grab.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: Scores of Indian Americans have tested positive with the novel coronavirus and several of them have died, according to multiple news reports from community organisations and diaspora leaders from across the US, currently the global epicentre of the deadly disease.

While there is no official or unofficial count of Indian-Americans infected with the coronavirus, information available on various private social media groups indicate that a significant number of them are in New York and New Jersey.

The two States, which have the highest concentration of Indian-Americans in the US, are also the worst hit by the coronavirus.

By Monday, over 170,000 people tested positive in these two States and fatalities crossed 5,700.

CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES

Community leaders said that every day they have been receiving reports of their near and dear ones and other testing positive.

Some of them, including a former president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.

Veteran Indian-American journalist Brahm Kuchibhotla, who was a former contributor to United News of India news agency breathed last at a New York hospital on Monday night.

"Really shocking that this is happening to the community. Cannot believe that this is happening to us and the people we know," said Indian American Rajendra Dichpally.

Several community leaders both in the New York metropolitan area and Greater Washington Area of Maryland and Virginia have tested positive.

While the majority of them are in self-quarantine in their homes, many of them have been admitted to hospitals.

ALSO READ | COVID-19: Despite 'effectively' flattening curve, New York governor extends shutdown to April 29

Sewa International, which has been running a help-line in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic said that they have been receiving several calls seeking help.

Indian-Americans have raised USD 204,000 in support of Houston-based IT professional Rohan Bavadekar who is battling for his life on ventilator support.

His wife and three children have also tested positive.

A day earlier, Federation of Kerala Associations in North America said that it has lost four of its community members due to the coronavirus.

In Silicon Valley, an Indian American IT engineer has been tested positive along with his immediate family members.

While the rest of his family members stayed inside their home during this ongoing lockdown.

He was the only family member who came out and did grocery.

Dr Mukul S Chandra, medical director of the Cardiac Preventive Care and Research at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio is on a ventilator fighting COVID-19.

Community members in an appeal are seeking a plasma donor who tested positive for COVID-19 and then made a full recover.

According to estimates by the Johns Hopkins University, there are over 1.34 million confirmed coronavirus cases across the world and over 74,000 people have died of it.

The US has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world at 364,723, followed by Spain (136,675), Italy (132,547), Germany (102,453).

More than 10,000 people have died in the US because of COVID-19.
An empty NYC subway car.

Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

As of Monday, 33 of New York City's transit workers have died from the novel coronavirus, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider.

A total of 5,600 MTA workers are self-quarantined, including more than 1,100 employees who have tested positive for the virus.

Of the MTA's 74,000 employees, more than 7% are self-quarantining.

The above numbers have since been updated, and as of late on Monday, the MTA reported 33 deaths, more than 1,100 cases, and 5,600 employees in quarantine.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Twenty-two New York City transit employees have died as a result of the novel coronavirus, Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesperson Aaron Donovan confirmed to Business Insider on Monday, while confirmed cases among MTA staffers have skyrocketed.

Donovan also confirmed that the number of MTA employees who are self-quarantining has risen to 5,430, including 1,092 workers who have tested positive. The MTA employs roughly 74,000 people, meaning that slightly more than 7% of the agency's workforce is either quarantining at home or has tested positive for COVID-19.

Around the time this story published, NYC Transit Interim President Sarah Feinberg gave updated numbers: 33 deaths, more than 1,100 cases, and 5,600 employees in quarantine.

The number of coronavirus cases among New York's transit workers has ballooned in recent weeks. Fifty-two employees had tested positive as of March 24, according to The Wall Street Journal. By March 31, that figure had multiplied to 582.

In an effort to protect workers, the MTA said it will distribute close to 250,000 N95 masks to essential employees of the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad, New York City Transit, and its Bridges and Tunnels division.

In early March, as the number of coronavirus cases in New York began to climb, the MTA began ramping up efforts to disinfect stations, train cars, and buses in order to curb the disease's spread. Now, the agency disinfects high-touch surfaces in stations twice per day and disinfects its entire fleet every 72 hours.

Story continues

Due to a staffing shortage and a massive drop in ridership, the MTA is currently operating limited service to transport healthcare workers and other personnel deemed essential by New York State.

This story has been updated with new numbers provided by NYC Transit Interim President Sarah Feinberg on Monday.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The leadership of the National Assembly has criticised the approach adopted by the federal government to distribute social grant to Nigerians who suffer the impact of the coronavirus lockdown.

It called for legislation for the programme in line with global best practices.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, expressed their concerns at a meeting with the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, and some top officials of the ministry on Tuesday.

The meeting, convened by the leadership of the National Assembly, was against the backdrop of the ongoing federal government intervention initiatives aimed at reducing the impact of the pandemic on the most vulnerable Nigerians, following the lockdown order given by the President Muhammadu Buhari on March 29.

The president ordered a 14-day lockdown in Abuja as well as Lagos and Ogun States. Mr Buhari had announced that the most vulnerable affected by the lockdown will be compensated.

The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs has since announced the distribution of the first tranche of N5 billion.

Messrs Lawan and Gbajabiamila noted that the programme needed a reform to make it more efficient and effective.

Vulnerable Nigerians not properly captured

Mr Lawan expressed concerns about the conditions and guidelines for the intervention programmes.

When for example, some conditions are set, that those who will benefit will have to go online, through the internet or BVN and the rest of it.

I want to tell you that the majority of those who are supposed to benefit have no access to power. They have no access to the Internet. They have no bank account, so no BVN.

In fact, many of them dont even have phones and these are the poorest of the poor. Yet, some of the conditions or guidelines which you set inadvertently leave them out, he said.

He added that the poorest of the poor have not been sufficiently captured by the programme.

More of these people who are in serious distress even before the coronavirus can be reached if both parties work together, he said as he called for a review of the process.

Now with coronavirus, they need our attention more than ever before. The time has come that we review the ways and manner we use to deliver the services under the SIP to Nigerians.

We need to be better in terms of strategy for delivery and definitely, what we have been doing in the past cannot deliver exactly what will solve the challenges of the most ordinary and most vulnerable Nigerians.

So we need to put on our thinking cap and work out some strategies on how to identify the poorest persons in Nigeria. I think we have not been able to reach far out there to get them properly captured.

Minister tasked with changing the system

In the same vein, Mr Gbajabiamila charged the minister to change the system she met because all eyes are on her.

I know that you came into a system, or you get a system that has nothing to do with you, but what we will be asking you to do is for you to change that system.

When you walk into a system, no system is 100 per cent perfect. The word reform is something we use all the time, and this is the one time when that word reform must be used in the truest sense of that word.

The questions are going to be asked, how do you come about your list, how comprehensive is your distribution list? What are the parameters? What is the geographical spread? So these are tough questions that are going to be asked but I want you to look at them as frank questions that we need to ask.

He emphasised the need to provide Nigerians with the information and answers to questions.

The speaker said the relevant committees in the House have complained even before the Minister took over the scheme about the inability of Nigerians to access information about the scheme.

There is a lot of takeaway from this COVID-19. One of them is the international best practices. My point is that these things are backed by law. They are codified by the legislature so that these issues and these questions will not arise, he said.

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He also urged the minister to talk with the relevant committees and the National Assembly leadership on the best way to codify the scheme.

In her response, the minister pledged cooperation to ensure that a legal backing is given to the programme.
As the global pandemic ravages through multiple countries and cities across the world, preachers in Brazil continue to be utterly deaf to the coronavirus.

According to the head of the Universal Church of God's Power, Valdemiro Santiago, COVID-19 is not a disease but a form of divine punishment.

Another pastor claimed the deadly virus is Satan's work. Pastor Edir Macedo said those who stand brave and unafraid against the virus would be immune to the infection. Macedo is the founder of a powerful church that has a worldwide network of evangelical churches.

Pastor Silas Malafaia, a figure with an immense amount of influence on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, said economic shutdowns are unnecessary.

Considered as Bolsonaro's spiritual teacher, he believes churches should remain open to serve those who are desperate, fearful, and depressed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He also said more people would die should the government implement strict lockdowns policies due to social disorder.

Sticking to traditions

Despite bans on large, public gatherings, many places of worship remain open. Most, however, see rows of empty pews. Evangelical preachers turned to provide church services online.

Small congregations, especially those in impoverished areas, are seeing an increase in attendance. According to sociologist Clemir Fernandes, supermarkets are far more crowded than small churches---places, he said, contribute to the peace and safety of the public.

Despite seeing a decrease in attendance, many pastors reportedly continue to downplay the COVID-19 threat and promote prayers and church services as the solution to stopping the virus.

Bolsonaro has publicly echoed many pastors' idea of the virus in more than one occasion. He was also quick to promote 'miracle drugs' and conspiracy theories---one such theory claims the Chinese government released the virus as a "biological weapon" against the West.

Experts warn of the dangers of fundamentalist views. Refusing to observe proper social distancing measures and denying realities such as climate change will post a threat to existing economic structures.

"To make them out as some kind of ideological scarecrow," an expert said, "is both dangerous and silly."

It's just a flu

Jair Bolsonaro is the only leader left in the world to reject all data and evidence on the gravity of the new coronavirus altogether.

The far-right president, who was elected into place in 2018, has repeatedly called COVID-19 as "a little flu". He also received more backlash after he remarked: "We all die someday."

Bolsonaro also mocked his own health ministry's warning by urging Brazilians to ignored isolation policies and go back to work, effectively ignoring the advice of federal health agencies such as the World Health Organization.

Health officials in Brazil reported over 11,490 coronavirus cases and 492 deaths as of Monday. Local authorities imposed strict isolation policies in their states. The system includes closing schools, shops, and all unnecessary businesses. The operations of all intercity buses, bars, and public gatherings are also suspended.

Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourao urged the public to observe caution until the pandemic reaches its peak in late April.

Rea the latest coronavirus news:

Mexican Communities say 'No' to Outsiders Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Blockchain Technology Used to Fight COVID-19 in Latin America

26 Health Workers in Mexico Infected, 1 Doctor Dead Due to COVID-19
Lottery ticket vendors in Vietnam are often senior citizens and those with disabilities. Photo by VnExpress/Phan Diep.

HCMC will award lottery ticket vendors VND750,000 ($32) each plus VND3 million ($129) to the recently unemployed and poor.

Le Minh Tan, director of the HCMC Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said there are currently nearly 12,000 beneficiaries, with District 8 hosting the largest number, at over 1,000.

The total amount of nearly VND9 billion ($386,118) in support will be allocated this week.

"The money will be given directly to each person. Though its not much, the city would like to share some of the peoples burden," Tan said.

About 3,000 lottery ticket vendors will receive the two-week allowance after the government ordered the closure of lottery businesses for 15 days from April 1 to contain the pandemic.

About 9,000 poor and near-poor households across HCMC affected by job loss, loss of social support, community, and lack of business in the wake of Covid-19 will receive VND1 million a month for three months.

On March 27, HCMC announced it would use half the money earmarked for a pay raise for civil servants to support 600,000 people who lost their jobs. They would each receive a monthly allowance of VND1 million ($43) for three months starting April. The total amount spent on this group is about VND1.8 trillion ($76.1 million)

The city asked local authorities to help over 6,000 beggars and homeless locals to access social support centers.

As of Tuesday morning, HCMC has reported 53 Covid-19 cases. Of them, 31 have recovered. The city is currently monitoring 2,888 citizens in isolated facilities. Another 1,351 are isolated at home.

HCMC is fully equipped with human resources and medical equipment to cope with any epidemic development, city authorities stressed. There are 2,300 available beds and room to isolate 8,400 patient in facilities, it was added.

Vietnam has confirmed 245 Covid-19 cases in total. Of them, 122 people recovered.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-07 07:00:33

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HONG KONG / ACCESSWIRE / April 7, 2020 / With the approval of both Israeli and Palestinian authorities, AID GENOMICS announceto launch anemergency testing Laboratory to perform 3,000 COVID-19 tests daily for Gaza residents. BGI is the partner to provide technology support.The Lab shall cost a few million dollars, AID GROUP will lead the donation.Prospective donors may contact AID Genomics in Israel.Mammoth Foundation also announced to join the donation and organize fund-raising in China for GAZA Lab operation.For the first time in the history, Palestinian and Israeli authorities mutually agree on a common goal."Peace" is the resultof mankind's common enemy - the novel corona virus.BGI from China, which is one of the most prominent suppliers of COVID19 PCR tests in the world, has bridged the borders of the Gaza strip.BGI is collaborating with their Israeli partner, AID Genomics, to build a laboratory in Gazathat will provide 3,000 tests a day."With the approvals from both sides of the Gaza border, people in Gaza will see hope in defeating COVID19 as well as a light of peace in the future." This represents the many Gaza people's voice."The worst of times reveals the best in people, saving lives is of paramount importance", said Dr. Ye Yin, the CEO of BGI, "we must work together to surmount whatever difficulty that lies ahead." BGI, as a leading genomics company, brings the HuoYan Lab solution from China. Mammoth Foundation, a charity in Shenzhen, China, also announced to join the donation and organize fund-raising in China for GAZA Lab operation.The AID Group already supplied hundreds of thousands of test kits, developed by BGI, to the State of Israel.BGI is the largest DNA and Genomics company in the world. Today, AID announced an extraordinary initiative for the people of Gaza and the Palestinian Authority with the support of the authorities' special approvals and the technology transfer from BGI.According to SnirZano, the CEO of AID GENOMICS:"In the past months, we are working with BGI at full speed to assist as much as we can. To my delight, as an Israeli, our proposal was approved by the Palestinian Authorities and other relevant departments. We have then received calls from various parties around the world to show their support. We are fortunate that Mammoth Foundation and my Chairman's, Kelvin Wu, philanthropic family arm, i-Future Foundation, are the first to lead the donation. The lab will be a HuoYan Lab Solution and be ready to perform up to 3,000 tests per day." According to Kelvin Wu, the Founder and Chairman of AID Group: "We are humbled to receive the support from BGI that derived from our two years of continuous R&D collaboration in cancer genomics. When it comes to illness, it is a common challenge to humanity. We are wholeheartedly committed to winning the fight against diseases." BGI was one of the first institutes to examine the virus that erupted in Wuhan. In light of the lack of test throughput, BGI built the first HuoYan Laboratory in Wuhan in Feb; after that, four more in other bigger cities.Altogether, the HuoYan Labs have performed 500,000+ Coronavirus tests in China. This vast testing capability has enabled a fast reaction time and rapid treatment for those found infected to the virus, even in incubation.Today , dozens of countries want the aid of the HuoYan Labs. AID is in the process of bringing the labs to Gaza and Israel.Contact:Michelle Shimichelleshi@ dlkadvisory.com +852 2854 8711SOURCE: DLK Advisory Limited via EQS Newswire
UPPER THUMB  The Upper Thumb saw an increase in coronavirus cases Tuesday, with Tuscola County reporting four additional cases and Sanilac County reporting three additional.

The statewide number of coronavirus cases also increased by more than 1,700 cases, bringing the statewide totals to 18,970 infected. The state also saw its largest increase in deaths in a single day, with 118 people dying from the coronavirus, for a total of 845 since the start of the pandemic.
European natural gas storage inventories as of March 1, 2020, were 60 percent fullthe highest ever recorded level for the start of March, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said referring to the Gas Storage Europes Aggregated Gas Storage Inventory (AGSI+).

European stock levels for both January and February 2020 were the highest ever recorded for those months. Europes high levels of natural gas in storage are the result of a mild winter, which limited winter heating demand, and growing natural gas imports by pipeline and as liquefied natural gas (LNG), said EIA.

Relatively mild winter weather across Europeand especially in northern Europe, where natural gas heating is more commonreduced demand for residential and commercial heating, according to the report.

As a result, natural gas withdrawals from storage were lower than average, resulting in record-high January and February inventory levels. Europes natural gas storage capacity utilization for the first day of March has typically been 38 percent, based on the previous five years; in 2020, natural gas stocks in Europe started March at 60 percent of capacity, said EIA.

The report shows that high natural gas stocks were partly the result of record-high deliveries to Europe both by pipeline and as LNG in 2019.

LNG imports into Europe had been relatively low between 2012 and mid-2018, but they increased substantially in 2019, averaging 11 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) or almost twice the volume in the two previous years. LNG imports set monthly records of 14 Bcf/d in December 2019 and February 2020 (excluding re-exports, where a country imports and then exports LNG), implying a Europe-wide regasification capacity utilization of almost 60 percent, said EIA.

Russia and the United States increased LNG exports to Europe last year by an estimated 1.4 Bcf/d and 1.5 Bcf/d, respectively, compared with 2018. The United States has been the largest LNG supplier to Europe since November 2019, and in February 2020, LNG imports from the United States reached a new record high at 5.1 Bcf/dnearly double the volume of Europes second-largest supplier, Qatar.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Simon Coveney said the framework document being worked on by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will attempt to persuade other parties to join a coalition government.

The Tanaiste said that both parties recognise that a difference type of governance is needed to steer Ireland out of the health crisis.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are working to put together a document they hope to use as road to government formation.

The document will be circulated to other political parties within the next week.

Mr Coveney said: Certainly I think its possible for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael working with Independents and independent groups to form a majority but that is not the kind of government that we are looking to create.

We want to try to include other political parties outside Fine Gael and Fianna Fail as well.

It's amazing that Keynesian economics is back in fashionAlan Kelly

Thats why we have focused on trying to put a framework document together which I think will certainly attempt to persuade parties like the Green Party, the Social Democrats and the Labour party, that actually politics is going to be different, that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael recognise that the combination of what is being asked of us in a general election, and a national public health emergency, demands a different kind of government and different kind of governance in Ireland.

One thing that this crisis is reinforcing in many peoples minds is that there does need to be increased roles in the State in protecting people and their well being, not just in terms of healthcare but also in terms of their economic interest.

He also said he does not believe a government of national unity will work, adding that Ireland needs a strong and stable government for the next five years.

He made the comments after Labour leader Alan Kelly says he does not expect his party to enter a new government coalition.

The newly-elected leader said the party is not in a position to enter government with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.

He said that while Labour will talk to anybody who wants to talk to us, the focus is on the parties that secured a large number of seats.

Speaking to RTEs Morning Ireland programme, Mr Kelly said: Simply put, there are four large parties, any three of which could form a government. It is up to them to do so.

The Green Party got a large mandate of 12 seats, and obviously climate change is the big agenda item once we get over Covid (-19).

Its quite disappointing that it seems that they are not willing to put their shoulders to the wheel and stay on the pitch and get involved in this.

Government formation talks between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are still ongoing, two months after the general election.

I think the way in which Ireland is going to have to come out of this is going to have to embrace a lot of things that the Labour Party stood for over the last number of yearsLabour leader Alan Kelly

Mr Kelly said, however, that he believes the Labour party will play a huge part in shaping Irelands recovery.

I think the world has changed. I think politics has changed, he added.

Its amazing that Keynesian economics is back in fashion.

I think the way in which Ireland is going to have to come out of this is going to have to embrace a lot of things that the Labour Party stood for over the last number of years, in relation to housing and childcare, in relation to a one-tier health system, in relation to a rent freeze, which Ive advocated for many years.

Mr Kelly also said that even if Labour added its six seats, there still would not be enough to form a majority government.

He added: Its my job to ensure we will not be swamped, we will be different and I aspire to doing so, to making us very, very relevant, punching way above our weight into the future, but I also want to say we need a strong opposition into the future.

He said there is a need for a strong opposition as the Government is going to have to make difficult decisions.
Dublin, April 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Motion Sensor Market Research Report: By Technology, Type, Application - Competitive Share Analysis and Growth Forecast to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The major reasons behind the prosperity of the motion sensor market are the increasing demand for consumer electronics and the expansion in the worldwide automotive industry. From $4,430.7 million in 2019, the market revenue is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.1% during 2020-2030 (forecast period). At this rate, the sales of these devices are projected to be worth $7,590.8 million by 2030. Such devices are used to see the distance traveled by a physical body in a defined area.



On the basis of technology, the motion sensor market is bifurcated into passive and active, of which the passive bifurcation dominated it in 2019, and it would also experience the higher CAGR during the forecast period. This is credited to the rising adoption of microelectromechanical system (MEMS) and infrared (IR) motion sensors that work on the passive technology. Such devices are widely utilized in medical devices, consumer electronics, and industrial machines.



To cater to the rising requirement for such devices, the production of motion sensors has to be raised significantly. Therefore, in order to save costs, manufacturers are turning to the MEMS technology to produce these devices, as it is based on the process of microfabrication. Apart from cost benefits, MEMSs also offer enhanced reliability and performance figures, which is why this technology is becoming a motion sensor market trend. As MEMSs are based on silicon wafers, a single batch of semiconductors can produce thousands of motion sensors.



The increasing demand for consumer electronics is one of the most important drivers for the market. Motion sensors have numerous uses in electronics, such as detecting the heartbeat in smart wearables and controlling a smartphone's screen orientation. A high interest in consumer electronics, including smartphones, smart wearables, and augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR) devices, is being displayed by the millennials and the young, owing to the rising disposable income and standard of living and easy access to financing. With population boom, the sale of consumer electronics would surge further.



Under the application segment, the categories of the motion sensor market are consumer electronics, automobile, medical device, industrial equipment, building automation, and others. Among these, the largest share, in 2019, was held by the automobile category, majorly because of the rising popularity of autonomous and electric vehicles. Motion sensors are predicted to make autonomous vehicles better, by improving electronic equipment stability detection, battery performance, navigation system, braking and stability control, airbag system, suspension monitoring and control, and security system.



The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) estimates around 2 billion autonomous vehicles to ply on roads by 2025. Additionally, as per the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA), in 2018, the automotive industry registered a sale of 95.1 million commercial and passenger vehicles. The increasing automobile demand in developing countries, such as Indonesia, China, Brazil, Thailand, and India, is responsible for such high numbers. Further, with people shifting to electric vehicles, the global automotive industry would progress, in turn, helping the motion sensor market grow.



On a geographical basis, Asia-Pacific (APAC) has been the largest market for such devices, owing to its hugely productive manufacturing industry, especially in China. The country is a global leader in the production of semiconductors, which according to its Ministry of Commerce, brought a revenue of $65 billion in 2016. With this value targeted to rise to $365 billion by 2025, the market for motion sensors in the region is expected to display the highest CAGR during the forecast period.



Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Research Background

1.1 Research Objectives

1.2 Market Definition

1.3 Research Scope

1.3.1 Market Segmentation by Technology

1.3.2 Market Segmentation by Type

1.3.3 Market Segmentation by Application

1.3.4 Market Segmentation by Region

1.3.5 Analysis Period

1.3.6 Market Data Reporting Unit

1.3.6.1 Value

1.3.6.2 Volume

1.4 Key Stakeholders



Chapter 2. Research Methodology

2.1 Secondary Research

2.2 Primary Research

2.2.1 Breakdown of Primary Research Respondents

2.2.1.1 By region

2.2.1.2 By industry participant

2.2.1.3 By company type

2.3 Market Size Estimation

2.4 Data Triangulation

2.5 Assumptions for the Study



Chapter 3. Executive Summary



Chapter 4. Introduction

4.1 Definition of Market Segments

4.1.1 By Technology

4.1.1.1 Active

4.1.1.2 Passive

4.1.2 By Type

4.1.2.1 IR

4.1.2.2 Ultrasonic

4.1.2.3 Tomographic sensor

4.1.2.4 Accelerometer

4.1.2.5 Gyroscope

4.1.2.6 Combo sensor

4.1.2.7 Others

4.1.3 By Application

4.1.3.1 Consumer Electronics

4.1.3.2 Automobile

4.1.3.3 Medical device

4.1.3.4 Building automation

4.1.3.5 Industrial equipment

4.1.3.6 Others

4.2 Value Chain Analysis

4.3 Market Dynamics

4.3.1 Trends

4.3.1.1 Leveraging MEMS technology for manufacturing of motion sensors

4.3.2 Drivers

4.3.2.1 Growing automotive industry

4.3.2.2 Rising demand for consumer electronics

4.3.2.3 Impact analysis of drivers on market forecast

4.3.3 Restraints

4.3.3.1 Low return on investment

4.3.3.2 Impact analysis of restraints on market forecast

4.3.4 Opportunities

4.3.4.1 Commercialization of internet of things (IoT)

4.4 Porter's Five Forces Analysis



Chapter 5. Global Market Size and Forecast

5.1 By Technology

5.2 By Type

5.3 By Application

5.4 By Region



Chapter 6. North America Market Size and Forecast

6.1 By Technology

6.2 By Type

6.3 By Application

6.4 By Country



Chapter 7. Europe Market Size and Forecast

7.1 By Technology

7.2 By Type

7.3 By Application

7.4 By Country



Chapter 8. APAC Market Size and Forecast

8.1 By Technology

8.2 By Type

8.3 By Application

8.4 By Country



Chapter 9. LATAM Market Size and Forecast

9.1 By Technology

9.2 By Type

9.3 By Application

9.4 By Country



Chapter 10. MEA Market Size and Forecast

10.1 By Technology

10.2 By Type

10.3 By Application

10.4 By Country



Chapter 11. Competitive Landscape

11.1 List of Market Players and Their Offerings

11.2 Competitive Analysis of Key Players

11.3 Competitive Benchmarking of Key Players



Chapter 12. Company Profiles

12.1 NXP Semiconductors N.V.

12.2 Robert Bosch GmbH

12.3 Schneider Electric SE

12.4 Honeywell International Inc.

12.5 Koninklijke Philips N.V.

12.6 Panasonic Corporation

12.7 Eaton Corporation plc

12.8 Analog Devices Inc.

12.9 STMicroelectronics N.V.

12.10 Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

12.11 TE Connectivity Ltd.



Chapter 13. Appendix



Companies Mentioned



Story continues

NXP Semiconductors N.V.

Robert Bosch GmbH

Schneider Electric SE

Honeywell International Inc.

Koninklijke Philips N.V.

Panasonic Corporation

Eaton Corporation plc

Analog Devices Inc.

STMicroelectronics N.V.

Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

TE Connectivity Ltd.



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A mother-of-two has spoken of her ordeal when a 'senior doctor' told her that her 12-week-old daughter could not have contracted coronavirus, only to find out 24 hours later she had.

Little Winter-Rose Watson is thought to be one of the youngest cases of coronavirus in the UK.

Her mother, Jade Watson, 27, from Burnley in Lancashire, claimed a 'senior doctor' at the Royal Blackburn Hospital initially ruled out the chance her daughter had Covid-19, saying babies cannot catch the virus.

She added they told her they would not be testing the child, according to a report by SWNS. 'That really upset me, and they could see that,' she said.

Little Winter-Rose Watson seen here in hospital with Covid-19 receiving treatment for the virus

Hot and bothered - Little Winter-Rose Watson stripped to cool down with a cannula fitted

Winter-Rose Watson pictured here with mother Jade Watson, 27, from Burnley

However, one consultant who did want to test Winter-Rose produced results that the infant had indeed contracted coronavirus.

Ms Watson suspected her daughter was ill on April 2 when she noticed Winter-Rose had a high temperature.

'I contacted 111 and they advised me to stay at home,' she said.

'But at about 5am on Friday (April 3) I'd set my alarm to check on her and she'd got really warm, even more than she was before.

'I didn't even need to touch her, there was heat just coming off her. She was gasping for breath.'

Little Winter-Rose Watson had high temperatures and breathing problems, her mother said

Her mother claimed a 'senior doctor' at the Royal Blackburn Hospital initially ruled out the chance her daughter had Covid-19, saying babies cannot catch the virus

While the results came back the hospital also checked the 12-week-old's overall health and gave her antibiotics to lower her temperature

Ms Watson said she called for an ambulance which took three hours to arrive.

Upon arrival at the Royal Blackburn Hospital a consultant decided to run some tests, despite Ms Watson's claims a senior doctor argued babies do not catch the virus.

'A consultant said he still wanted to give her a test though and they put a cannula in her hand and tried to put a catheter in her too, it was heartbreaking,' she said.

While the results came back the hospital also checked the 12-week-old's overall health and gave her antibiotics to lower her temperature.

'They put needles in her spine to check for meningitis and gave her antibiotics, but they didn't work,' she said.

'On Saturday morning the doctor came and told me she had tested positive for coronavirus. It was the worst thing in the world to hear,' Ms Watson told SWNS.

'She was on a drip to try to get her fluids back up but there was nothing else they could do to help her fight it.'

Winter-Rose's condition did improve over the weekend and she was discharged on Monday to self-isolate for 14 days.

Ms Watson's six-year-old son has been sent to live with his father as a precaution.

It is unknown where the child contracted the virus.

'We're coming home' - a happier shot of Winter-Rose coming out of hospital

Jade Watson - 'People need to listen to the advice, and stay indoors'

'She's still got the virus and I don't know if I've had it or not, as the only symptom I had was a headache that wouldn't go away, even after taking headache pills,' said Ms Watson.

'My son was with me a couple of days before Winter went into hospital, but now he has to isolate with his dad at his home as we don't know if he could have it too.'

Ms Watson said the hardest part was seeing her daughter ill in hospital and having no one around for support due to social distancing measures.

'I did receive a lot of nice messages from people online though. That was quite overwhelming and made me cry but it's what got me through,' she added.

Medical professionals have continued to check on her daughter every day since.

'There's been talk of this virus not affecting babies the same way as others, but it does, and it has affected Winter so much. I had never seen her looking so helpless,' said Ms Watson.

'I'd only been out of the house really to go to Lidl and Home Bargains but people need to listen to the advice, and stay indoors.'
Ana de Armas will co-star in the upcoming James Bond movie. (Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures)

Actress Ana de Armas had the same reaction a lot of us would have about meeting Ryan Gosling, back when she had to audition in front of him before being cast as his girlfriend in the 2017 movie Blade Runner 2049.

Oh, hell yes I was nervous, de Armas revealed in the April/May issue of American Airliness in-flight magazine, American Way. I auditioned three times for [the role of] Joi, and the third time, I knew he would be there. I was shaking so badly. They put you in a room together and make you read things, to see how your chemistry is. I wish I had the tape of that meeting.

Gosling is just one of the many Hollywood heavyweights that de Armas has worked with in the past few years. Shes counted Keanu Reeves as a co-star, too, and says theyre so close now. Shes finishing up the thriller Deep Water, with Ben Affleck, who shes been photographed kissing, and soon shell play the starring role of Norma Jeane in the Marilyn Monroe story Blonde. Brad Pitt is producing that one.

Ive been very lucky  because these men are all very handsome  but the best part of it is who they are as people, de Armas said. Ive had the best partners.

Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas couple up in Los Angeles. (Photo: BG020/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Already, her most famous leading man is Daniel Craig, who will play James Bond for the final time in No Time to Die, scheduled to come in November. (He also co-starred with her on last years Knives Out.)

Her onscreen reunion with Craig almost didnt happen. De Armas, 31, was hesitant to step into the high-profile role of Bonds female sidekick.

Bond girls have been portrayed for so many years with a specific type of woman. I associate it with some sort of perfection and beauty standards beyond the normal. Things that I didnt match, the Cuban-born de Armas said. I was shocked when the director called me to say The character is not written yet but we want you do it.

Halle Berry, Michelle Yeoh, Jane Seymour and many other women have played the role over the decades.

Usually these women [Bond girls], they need to be rescued. Or they die. Or are evil, de Armas said. I needed to read that script. And it took a little, but they sent me the scenes. It's important, because I want to bring something else to the story.

Story continues

De Armass character is a CIA agent whos assigned to help Bond. She was convinced.

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India on Tuesday brought back home a number of officials serving in its consulate in Herat province of Afghanistan which has recorded a spurt in coronavirus cases following return of thousands of Afghan people from neighbouring Iran.

India has been temporarily relocating its staff from its consulates in Herat, Jalalabad and Kandahar in view of fast-spreading cases of coronavirus infection in the country, government sources said.

Most of the areas in Afghanistan do not have healthcare facilities to take care of people having coronavirus infection.

"As part of ongoing exercise, a few Indian officials were relocated from Herat today. They were brought to India as there was no sufficient place to stay in Embassy in Kabul," said a source.

The sources said Indian Mission and Consulates in Afghanistan continue to function observing necessary health precautions.

Late last month, India shifted a number of its diplomats and staff from its consulates in Herat and Jalalabad to Kabul following spike in coronavirus cases.

Afghanistan shares a long border with Iran, the worst hit nation by the pandemic in the region.

According to the Afghan government, over 420 people have been infected by the virus although the actual figures are believed to be far higher.

Health experts believe the actual number could be higher as several provinces in the country do not have facilities to carry out lab test to check the infection.

The Indian diplomats and staff in Kabul have been told to take all required precautions to insulate themselves from the virus while carrying out their normal duties in the embassy.

Herat province shares a long border with Iran which is among the countries reporting large number of coronavirus cases and struggling to combat one of the world's worst outbreaks.

Thousands of Afghan people are returning from Iran to Herat in the wake of rapid rise in coronavirus cases in Iran.

Over 3,600 people died and more than 55,000 have been infected across Iran since February.

The coronavirus pandemic, which first emerged in Chinese city of Wuhan, has killed nearly 75,000 people and infected close to 13 lakh people in 185 countries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The World Health Organization has no blanket recommendation for countries and regions for easing measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, but urged them not to lift them too early, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

"One of the most important parts is not to let go of the measures too early in order not to have a fall back again," said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier in a virtual briefing.

"It's similar to being sick yourself if you get out of bed too early and get running too early you risk falling back and having complications," he added. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed the bail application of Christian Michel, alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland scam, who had moved court seeking release from Tihar jail on the grounds of the spread of coronavirus pandemic.

Justice Mukta Gupta said that the petitioner is lodged in a separate cell with only two other prisoners and thus, is not in a barrack or dormitory where there are a number of prisons.

It is not the case of the petitioner that any of the two inmates residing with him are suffering from Covid-19 pandemic. Hence, the apprehension of the petitioner also because of the vulnerable age and overcrowding in jail that he is likely to contact Covid-19 which may be detrimental to his health, is unfounded, the judge said.

Michel is in judicial custody from January 2019 and has been lodged in Tihar jail for 16 months now. He was extradited by the CBI from Dubai in December 2018.

Appearing for Michel, his counsel Aljo K Joseph and Sriram Parrakat, had submitted Michel has a low immunity level and is aged 59 years. He states that the strength of the prisoners of Tihar Jail is 10,000 whereas presently, around 17,000 prisoners are lodged therein. Thus, because of overcrowding and social distancing not being mentioned, petitioners are prone to catch Covid-19.

They also contended that the charge sheet has already been filed and other co-accused have been granted bail.

However, the court said despite being a British national, Christian Michel has not been in that country for the last 6-7 years and had to be extradited from Dubai after an inquiry. The judge said he was a flight risk and had no roots in the society.

The court had heard the arguments through video conferencing on Monday and had reserved the order.

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court also rejected the bail application of Shivinder Mohan Singh, ex-promoter of Ranbaxy, stating that he is already in isolation and is maintaining social distancing.

Justice Mukta Gupta said that even if Singh has to use common facilities like restroom and taking food, the distancing can still be maintained besides maintaining hygiene by use of adequate measures including washing hands etc. to which the petitioner does not state that there is any inadequacy.

Singh, through his advocate, had also sought release on the ground that he would be of help to the society in view of his expertise in the healthcare sector. However, the court said that the apex court has already asked Singh to give his suggestions which would be considered by the concerned authorities.

The suggestions have been transmitted to the concerned authorities and if they find feasible and need the co-operation of the petitioner, they would be at liberty to take the same through various means including Video Conferencing as is done in all the cases, the court said.
iTrip Vacations proudly expands our world-class vacation rental property management and short-term rental management into Annapolis, MD iTrip Vacations is a national leader in vacation rental management. iTrip provides full-service property management programs to more than 75 destinations in North America, while enhancing experiences through affordable luxury accommodations and custom programs.

iTrip Vacations has expanded their property management program in Maryland. Vacation property owners and guests in greater Annapolis now benefit from world-class property management and customer service. iTrip Vacations Annapolis  owned and managed by Sean and Jennifer Degnan  has launched as the newest iTrip Vacations destination.

The short-term property management company serves rental owners and guests in Annapolis, Kent Island and St. Michaels. The full-service program focuses on increasing net rental income and guest satisfaction, while providing international marketing, free light maintenance, 24/7 property care and automatic-response systems.

We have managed a rental across the country from where we live and wished we had the benefit of iTrip Vacations' impressive online marketing support, says Jennifer Degnan, iTrip Vacations Annapolis co-owner. We love Annapolis and the Chesapeake Bay shoreline, and appreciate the draw to historic charm, outdoor recreation, and shopping and dining. We look forward to serving the community.

The Maryland addition is part of a growing number of destinations managed by iTrip Vacations, the largest franchise brand serving the short-term vacation rental industry in North America.

Additionally, we earned Vrbo Elite Partner status for the third consecutive year in 2020, says Steve Presley, iTrip Vacations co-founder. To continue this trend, we are building more software features that will further enhance our capabilities and better serve the short-term property management industry.

Annapolis is Maryland's state capital. Visitors enjoy water recreation, sports, arts and culture, shopping, delicious food, as well as island destinations. Nearby Kent Island and St. Michael's offer waterfront destinations perfect for making vacation dreams come true.

To learn more about the full-service property management program, contact iTrip Vacations Annapolis at 410-571-4076 (local).

About iTrip Vacations

iTrip Vacations is a national leader in vacation rental management. iTrip provides full-service property management programs to more than 75 destinations in North America, while enhancing experiences through affordable luxury accommodations and custom programs.
KANAZAWA, Japan, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Toshio Ando of the WPI Nano Life Science Institute, Kanazawa University, Electra Gizeli (Principal Applicant, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research and Technology, Greece), Marino Zerial (MPI of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany), and Andrew J. Spakowitz (Stanford University, USA) have been awarded a prestigious research grant from the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP). The research grant is an award of 450,000 USD per year for a period of three years for the collaborative team. The award is for the group's proposal for multidisciplinary research entitled, 'Self-organization and biomechanical properties of the endosomal membrane'.

Toshio Ando is internationally recognized for the development and invention of the in-liquid high-speed atomic force microscope (HS-AFM) for visualizing the dynamics of protein molecules in liquid environments [1-6]. The publication of his seminal paper on HS-AFM in 2008 led Ando and his colleagues to develop derivatives of this technology including non-invasive high-speed scanning ion-conductance microscopy (HS-SICM). "It is a great honor for me to receive this HFSP grant in the worldwide competition," says Professor Ando.

Comments from the HFSP highlighted the strengths of the team and multidisciplinary nature of the proposal, stating: "This is a very strong team of investigators. Each is highly accomplished in their field and brings unique expertise."

Roles of the members of the team:

Team leader Professor Gizeli's expertise in acoustic measurements to determine the dynamics of EEA1 structural changes.

Prof. Zerial's accomplishments in cellular and molecular biology and research on EEA1 "motivated this study".

Prof. Ando's unique high speed atomic force microscopy instrumentation that enables direct visualization of the structure and dynamics of protein molecules in liquids to measure EEA1 conformational changes.

Dr. Spankowitz's expertise in multi-scale modeling to develop a model of EEA1 brush behavior.

The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) promotes international collaborative basic research on "the elucidation of the sophisticated and complex mechanisms of living organisms". The programs are implemented by the International Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO) that is based in Strasburg and receives financial support from the governments or research councils of the European Union, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and USA.

Selection of references on research published by Professor Ando on high speed AFM

T. Ando, T. Uchihashi, and T. Fukuma, "High-speed atomic force microscopy for nano-visualization of dynamic biomolecular processes," Prog. Surf. Sci. 83, 337-437, (2008).

DOI: 10.1016/j.progsurf.2008.09.001 N. Kodera, D. Yamamoto, R. Ishikawa, and T. Ando, "Video imaging of walking myosin V by high-speed atomic force microscopy", Nature 468, 72-76 (2010).

DOI: 10.1038/nature09450 T. Ando, N. Kodera, D. Maruyama, E. Takai, K. Saito, and A. Toda, "A High-speed atomic force microscope for studying biological macromolecules, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA98, 12468-12472 (2001).

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.211400898 M. Shibata, H. Yamashita, T. Uchihashi, H. Kandori, and T. Ando, "High-speed atomic force microscopy shows dynamic molecular processes in photo-activated bacteriorhodopsin", Nat. Nanotechnol. 5, 208-212 (2010).

DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2010.7 K. Igarashi, T. Uchihashi, A. Koivula, M. Wada, S. Kimura, T. Okamoto, M. Penttila, T. Ando, and M. Samejima, "Traffic jams reduce hydrolytic efficiency of cellulase on cellulose surface", Science 333, 1279-1282 (2011).

DOI: 10.1126/science.1208386 T. Uchihashi, R. Iino, T. Ando, and H. Noji, "High-speed atomic force microscopy reveals rotary catalysis of rotorless F1-ATPase, Science 333, 755-758 (2011).

DOI: 10.1126/science.1205510 T. Uchihashi, Y. Watanabe, T. Yamasaki, H. Watanabe, T. Maruno, K. Ishii, S. Uchiyama, C. Song, K. Murata, R. Iino, and T. Ando, "Dynamic structural states of ClpB involved in its disaggregation function", Nat. Commun. 9, 2147 (12 pp) (2018).

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04587-w

Prof. Toshio Ando

https://nanolsi.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/en/research/researchers/toshio-ando/

Further general information

About the Human Frontier Science Program

2020 awards for Research Grants

https://www.hfsp.org/awardees/newly-awarded

About WPI nanoLSI Kanazawa University

Hiroe Yoneda

Vice Director of Public Affairs

WPI Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI)

Kanazawa University

Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan

Email: nanolsi-office@adm.kanazawa-u.ac.jp

Tel: +81(76)234-4550

About Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI)

https://nanolsi.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/en/

Nano Life Science Institute (NanoLSI), Kanazawa University is a research center established in 2017 as part of the World Premier International Research Center Initiative of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The objective of this initiative is to form world-tier research centers. NanoLSI combines the foremost knowledge of bio-scanning probe microscopy to establish 'nano-endoscopic techniques' to directly image, analyze, and manipulate biomolecules for insights into mechanisms governing life phenomena such as diseases.

About Kanazawa University

http://www.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/e/

As the leading comprehensive university on the Sea of Japan coast, Kanazawa University has contributed greatly to higher education and academic research in Japan since it was founded in 1949. The University has three colleges and 17 schools offering courses in subjects that include medicine, computer engineering, and humanities.

The University is located on the coast of the Sea of Japan in Kanazawa - a city rich in history and culture. The city of Kanazawa has a highly respected intellectual profile since the time of the fiefdom (1598-1867). Kanazawa University is divided into two main campuses: Kakuma and Takaramachi for its approximately 10,200 students including 600 from overseas.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1142295/Kanazawa_University.jpg
Iowa hotline set up for

virus legal issuesSIOUX CITY  A phone hotline has been established for Iowans who have legal issues related to coronavirus and COVID-19.

The COVID-19 Legal Advice Hotline will operate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at 1-800-332-0419.

The free service is hosted by Iowa Legal Aid, which is working with the Iowa State Bar Association and Polk County Bar Associations Volunteer Lawyers Project.

Iowans may call with any type of legal problem related to the pandemic. Issues may include facing eviction, being denied unemployment benefits, experiencing employment issues or being a victim of identity theft. Callers must leave a message, which will be returned by Iowa Legal Aid staff.

This legal advice hotline will assist Iowas most vulnerable at a time of deepening crisis, Nick Smithberg, Iowa Legal Aid executive director, said in a news release. We stand ready to help Iowans with a host of legal challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including problems related to housing, employment and domestic violence.

Treasurers Office closes drive-up window

SIOUX CITY  The Woodbury County Treasurers Office has closed its drive-up window until further notice due to traffic congestion.

According to a statement from the Treasurers Office, the congestion has caused law enforcement to perform traffic duty when it should not be necessary.

Woodbury County Treasurer Mike Clayton closed the office to walk-ins late last month after staff expressed coronavirus concerns.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has extended the deadline for penalty on property taxes and vehicle registration and titles to April 30.

Customers who need to renew their vehicle and pay property taxes can do so through the mail or at woodburycountyiowa.gov. Customers can call for their pin or receipt number if they do not have it. Call 712-279-6500 for vehicle and 712-279-6495 for taxes.

The office will also have a drop box next to the drive-up window payments for vehicle renewal and taxes will also be accepted there. Do not put cash in the drop box, which is only for personal check, money order or cashiers check.

Sioux City man pleads not guilty to stabbing

SIOUX CITY  A Sioux City man has pleaded not guilty to stabbing another man during a fight inside a hotel room.

Jason Persons, 41, entered his written plea Friday in Woodbury County District Court to charges of willful injury causing serious injury and carrying a concealed knife.

Police responded to the AmericInn, 4230 S. Lewis Blvd., early on March 19 after receiving a report of a stabbing. According to court documents, Persons and the victim got into a fight in a room at the hotel and Persons pulled a knife out of his pocket and stabbed the victim in the leg and the side, causing serious injuries that included a cut femoral artery.

The victim was expected to recover from his injuries, police said.

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YEREVAN, 7 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 7 April, USD exchange rate down by 2.18 drams to 499.37 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.68 drams to 543.06 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.04 drams to 6.62 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 1.84 drams to 614.92 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price stood at 26011.57 drams. Silver price stood at 232.04 drams. Platinum price stood at 11513.4 drams.
Morphisec Logo Given patching cycles are significantly slower for these types of collaboration applications, a layer of deterministic prevention to protect against in-memory and evasive malware attacks is urgently needed.

Morphisec, the leader in Advanced Threat Prevention, today announced it has added capabilities for hardening popular remote collaboration applications such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Skype, and WebEx as enterprises respond to COVID-19 and rapidly shift to work-from-home environments. The Morphisec Unified Threat Prevention Platform addresses potential security vulnerabilities with these tools by preventing exploits, fileless attacks, or zero-days with its Moving Target Defense technology.

The rise in use of enterprise collaboration platforms during the coronavirus pandemic continues to skyrocket, said Andrew Homer, VP of Security Strategy at Morphisec. However, as weve learned over the last few weeks, the exponential use of these solutions by remote workers has stretched the attack surface and exposed some serious security vulnerabilities. Thats why were excited to provide CISOs and cybersecurity professionals a deterministic approach to protecting these now mission-critical applications for their remote employees, without impacting system performance or impeding business operations.

Malicious actors targeting and exploiting security vulnerabilities on these collaboration tools can lead to Remote Code Execution (RCE). This exponential threat enables attackers to inject malicious code on an employee endpoint that is running a collaboration tool on either their device or through a browser plugin. Within the current enterprise work-from-home landscape where employees are much more likely to use non-hardened, personal devices, this is especially dangerous. Attackers can easily obtain admin privileges on personal devices to gain control of the endpoint and access an enterprise network.

Morphisecs Unified Threat Prevention platform is an ideal solution for cybersecurity professionals tasked with securing remote workforces as it doesnt rely on network controls or threat identification like antivirus solutions to prevent advanced attacks. Instead, its Moving Target Defense technology perpetually hides key memory resources from attackers without the need to recognize threats. It hardens these tools applications through scrambling the locations of .dlls, memory structures, and commonly used resources, which protects them from exploitation. Just as important as the protection, is that these hardened applications function normally without disruption.

The vast majority of cybercriminals follow usage patterns and build exploit tools that can be delivered via the documents, applications, and tools that are depended on the most, added Homer. For a long time that has meant zero-day and unknown attacks delivered via traditional paths such as Office and Adobe. However, with those business solutions increasingly hardened and patched to thwart against advanced threats, and demand for remote collaboration tools rapidly increasing, attackers are putting collaboration applications in their crosshairs. Given patching cycles are significantly slower for these types of applications, a layer of deterministic prevention to protect against in-memory and evasive malware attacks is urgently needed.

The new protection for collaboration tools comes on the heels of Morphisec announcing that its Unified Threat Prevention platform is free to license for enterprise work-from-home employees during the COVID-19 response. To help enterprises secure their rapidly evolving remote workforce during these unprecedented times, Morphisec has made its Moving Target Defense technology, free for remote employees through June 1.

Enterprises interested in taking advantage of Morphisecs free offer to secure their remote workforces and employee use of business collaboration applications during the response to COVID-19 can inquire here.

About Morphisec

Morphisec offers an entirely new level of innovation to customers in its Endpoint Threat Prevention product, delivering protection against the most advanced cyberattacks. The companys patented Moving Target Defense technology prevents threats others cant, including APTs, zero-days, ransomware, evasive fileless attacks and web-borne exploits. Morphisec provides a crucial, small-footprint memory-defense layer that easily deploys into a companys existing security infrastructure to form a simple, highly effective, cost-efficient prevention stack that is truly disruptive to todays existing cybersecurity model.


That morning, Crystal Zyzanski, her ex-husband, their children, the family friend and Frank Zyzanski were in the living room when Frank Zyzanski pulled Crystal Zyzanski aside to talk to her, and as he did, Crystal Zyzanskis ex heard her say Get him, documents said. And as he turned to toward them, he saw Frank Zyzanski pointing gun at her, records said. Her ex-husband ran toward them yelling No! but Frank Zyzanski had already shot her and then ran out the front door and sped away in a white Ford pickup with an Arkansas license plate, records said.
IN THE PAPERS - Monday, April 6: British papers react to two big pieces of news: their leader's hospitalisation with Covid-19 and a message from their monarch about the pandemic. Spain's prime minister issues a plea published in nearly a dozen European papers calling for European solidarity in the face of the coronavirus. We also look at the gruesome situation in Ecuador, where families have been forced to store the bodies of loved ones or put them out in the street. Finally, how some priests are coping with empty churches as worshippers are forced to celebrate Holy Week from home.
Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act got a lot of attention in the early Trump years when the president invoked the passage to restrict steel and aluminum imports. The act allows officials to tax foreign products that are considered to be weakening national security.

The coronavirus pandemic has inspired recognition of a new national security risk: the outsourced medical supply chain.

What's In Short Supply?

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities in the U.S. medical supply chain.

A survey conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that 85% of mayors lacked enough ventilators for their hospitals, and 90% ran short on test kits, face masks and personal protective equipment used by medical workers and first responders.

Despite their best efforts, most cities do not have and cannot obtain adequate equipment and supplies needed to protect their residents, the late March report said.

This is a life-threatening crisis that will continue unless the federal government does everything in its power to help us safeguard our first responders and health care workers  our first line of defense  and the millions of other public servants in our cities whose work today puts them at risk.

Benzinga is covering every angle of how the coronavirus affects the financial world. For daily updates, sign up for our coronavirus newsletter.

Where Are The Federal Governments Response Limits?

Within weeks of their first cases, states began to call on the federal government to distribute resources from the Strategic National Stockpile.

At the beginning of the outbreak, the stockpile had 9,404 ventilators, and the Department of Defense had an additional 1,065, according to The Wall Street Journal.

By March 31, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it had distributed more than 8,000 ventilators.

By April 1, the Department of Health and Human Services Strategic National Stockpile of masks, gloves and PPE was nearly exhausted.

Story continues

The stockpile was designed to respond to a handful of cities. It was never built or designed to fight a 50-state pandemic, a DHS official told The Washington Post.

The government has long considered the national stockpile a temporary solution for emergency needs to give the private sector time to increase production.

FEMA planning assumptions for COVID-19 pandemic response acknowledged that the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) alone could not fulfill all requirements at the State and tribal level, FEMA spokeswoman Janet Montesi said in a statement.

The federal government will exhaust all means to identify and attain medical and other supplies needed to combat the virus.

Since U.S. manufacturers have sent sizable shipments to Europe and other foreign purchasers, as trade records show, federal efforts include importing supplies from foreign producers in China, Malaysia and elsewhere.

Not only are we buying what they have to sell, were buying their next batch, a DHS official told Reuters.

In the meantime, states risk running out of critical supplies, another official told the Post.

How Reliant Is The US On Foreign Production?

Prior to the crisis, the U.S. imported nearly half of its PPE from China, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The FDA reports that about 63 medical device manufacturers rely on Chinese factories, 20 U.S. drugs are made or rely on ingredients made solely in China and another 370 essential medicines rely partly on Chinese inputs.

If China cuts off our access to key medical ingredients, that would be devastating, a Republican congressional aide told the Financial Times.

What Are The Proposed Solutions?

Some critics say the U.S. has become too reliant on medical imports  and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer agrees.

Unfortunately, like others, we are learning in this crisis that over-dependence on other countries as a source of cheap medical products and supplies has created a strategic vulnerability to our economy, Lighthizer said at a G-20 meeting on March 30.

For the United States, we are encouraging diversification of supply chains and seeking to promote more manufacturing at home.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said he is drafting an executive order to extend the federal procurement constraints of the Buy American Act to medical and pharmaceutical products. This would require federal agencies to purchase only U.S.-made goods.

A bipartisan Senate bill would force pharmaceutical companies to report active ingredients imports from China to the Pentagon. Congress is also considering issuing government-backed loans and tax breaks to shift supply chains back to the U.S.

What About Sec. 232 Tariffs?

Sec. 232 tariffs have not yet been mentioned as a lever to reshore pharmaceutical and medtech production, but they may be an option.

According to federal experts, pharmaceuticals qualify as a critical infrastructure sector  one necessary to preserve national security. In March, the FDA announced a drug shortage caused by COVID-19 manufacturing disturbances. The national drug shortage has not gotten nearly as much attention as the shortage in medical supplies.

In fact, federal policy responses seem to treat the latter commodity almost like critical infrastructure. By late March, more than 100 national security professionals signed a letter urging Trump to use his authority under the Defense Production Act to order private sector actors to produce ventilators. Days later, Trump invoked the emergency rule to commandeer production at General Motors Company (NYSE: GM).

Expert consensus is clear that access to medical technology is a matter of national security. Whether the determination will lead to Sec. 232 tariffs is yet to be seen.

See more from Benzinga

 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
The Covid-19 pandemic, which affected so far 1,423 and killed 173 people in Algeria, does not prevent the Algerian justice system from punishing Hirak activists and journalists.

On Monday, Abdelouahab Fersaoui, president of the Rassemblement-Actions-Jeunesse (RAJ), an association at the forefront of the anti-regime popular movement, known as Hirak, was handed a one year in prison Monday for harming the integrity of the national territory.

The 39-year-old academic had been arrested on October 10 while participating in a sit-in in support of political prisoners.

Human rights associations argue that he had been arrested for expressing his opinion and criticizing the repression against the Hirak militants.

The government is taking advantage of the global pandemic to intensify the repression, behind closed doors, as it usually does, Hakim Addad, founding member of the RAJ, told AFP. Hakim Addad, who had himself been detained for more than three months for participating in the protests against the regime, said they will appeal the verdict.

He said Mr. Fersaouis conviction was pronounced by magistrates who are in the service of a dictatorial, police and military power.

The Algerian judicial machine is also targeting journalists. These include freelance journalist and correspondent for Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Khaled Drareni, who had been arrested on March 29 after reporting on a demonstration in Algiers, according to AFP.

Two other journalists are behind bars, Sofiane Merakchi and Belkacim Djir, states the French news agency, which also mentions activist Karim Tabbou, an emblematic figure of the protest movement, already sentenced to one year in prison. He will appear on April 27 in another trial, accused this time of damage to the morale of the army, said his lawyer on Monday.

But there are also lesser-known prisoners of conscience.

According to the latest tally of the National Committee for the release of detainees (CNLD), 44 people are currently in detention for facts related to the Hirak.

These convictions and arbitrary detentions were vehemently condemned by Algerian and international human rights watchdogs.

Judicial harassment continues against activists and detainees during this period of confinement of citizens, commented the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD), on its Facebook page.

To condemn an activist to a year in prison for having expressed his opinion peacefully on Facebook during a health crisis is unacceptable and scandalous, Amnesty International reacted in a statement.

We are stunned. We were awaiting his release, or at least a six-month sentence, a sentence he has already served, Said Salhi, vice-president of the Algerian League for the Defense of human rights (LADDH).

This conviction confirms our concern about the risk of escalating repression, he observed.

If President Abdelmadjid Tebboune pardoned more than 5,000 prisoners last week, this leniency measure did not benefit any of the Hirak detainees awaiting trial.

However, the coming trials will maintain the + Hirak + and will not lead to either demobilization or appeasement, assures Mr. Salhi, of the LADDH. Quite the contrary.

Meanwhile, despite the pandemic of the new coronavirus, the judicial machine continues to crack down on militants, human rights advocates.
Six Bay Area counties are requiring grocery stores to ban reusable bags, pausing the environment-friendly policy that did away with single-use plastic bags, as pressing health concerns arise amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Last week, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties tightened and extended their shelter-in-place orders until May 3. The order also requires chains such as Safeway and Whole Foods and local neighborhood stores to ban reusable bags and to offer single-use plastic and paper bags as alternatives for as long as the order is in effect. Some stores are also waiving bag fees.

The reality of curbing the spread of the virus by changing consumer habits is a blow to environmental gains seen in the past few years. San Francisco was among the first cities in the country to ban single-use plastic bags in 2007, with California following suit in 2014. The law was delayed for two years but voters upheld the law in 2016.

Deemed an essential business, grocery stores could be potential sites of the coronavirus infection because they are one of the few places people are still allowed to gather as they shop for necessities. To lessen the risk of infection, some grocery stores have set aside special hours for seniors, pregnant women and those with underlying health conditions, and have seen a spike in delivery orders and curbside pickups.

The coronavirus can live on surfaces such as cardboard for up to 24 hours and up to three days on plastic, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the virus is thought to be passed mainly by respiratory droplets between people in close proximity.

Nonetheless, the move to ban reusable bags as an additional step to curb the spread of the virus, is making employees feel safer.

I couldnt be more appreciative of the city taking steps to protect my employees, said Janet Tarlov, co-owner of Canyon Market in San Franciscos Glen Park neighborhood. They are coming to work every day to serve the public. Its a sacrifice on their part.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Canyon Market, which employs almost 100 full-time employees, was already implementing some of the measures that are now required by all grocery stores in the six counties. Those included marking 6-foot intervals at checkout lines and limiting per-person purchases on certain goods that sell out quickly to minimize crowds. Stores are also required to disinfect all payment portals, pens and styluses after each use. Canyon Market has employees stationed at its doors to manage lines.

Quin Graddy, the store manager at Canyon Market, said most shoppers have been receptive to the no-reusable-bag policy. For those that have been insistent on using their own bags, he said theyre free to pack items outside the store after purchase. Chain stores like Trader Joes have similar measures in place in the Bay Area.

For Tarlov, a potential worry was running out of plastic bags, but her supplier in Oakland came through with a last-minute request. Now she has enough and plans to order more than usual to provide for the uptick in usage.

We were pretty worried that if we didnt offer a bag, there would be an irate customer, Tarlov said. Im spending all day, every day, trying to manage peoples expectations now.

Shwanika Narayan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: shwanika.narayan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @shwanika
The Morgan County jail and the Illinois Department of Corrections Jacksonville Correctional Center have been taking measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus through their halls.

The Morgan County jail started a couple weeks ago by beginning new detainees processing before they ever step foot inside the facility, Sheriff Mike Carmody said. Jail staff meet arriving detainees outside, where they take their temperature, question them about their health and categorize their risk of infection.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has issued an executive order suspending all transfers from county jails to the Illinois Department of Corrections, and IDOCs director also is working closely with county sheriffs and others to identify any potentially necessary exceptions.

During the IDOC intake process, everyone  including parole violators  is screened by medical personnel and quarantined for 14-days, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The Morgan County jail is following the same 14-day quarantine process.

If they have a temperature, they are put into isolation and are observed for 14 days, Carmody said.

Newcomers temperature is taken twice a day, any employee coming to work has his or her temperature taken, and attorneys who come to visit clients do, too  as do their clients, he said.

Right now our numbers are low enough where we have made seven additional isolation pods to put inmates in that show signs of the virus, Carmody said. We worked very hard with the states attorney, Gray Noll, and circuit judge in releasing non-violent offenders for a later court date in June, he said.

Visitation has been shut down, Carmody said.

Coming into the jail were very restrictive, Carmody said. We give them daily med requests, so if theyre feeling anything (unusual) then we can possibly get them separated. And we would watch people that are in the same area.

IDOC also has been taking an aggressive approach to its COVID-19 mitigation measures, following guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

IDOC suspended visitation at all of its facilities, including the Jacksonville center, on March 14 and instituted an administrative quarantine on March 20.

We are utilizing outside hospitals, said Lindsey Hess, IDOC media administrator. We are taking vigorous steps to protect our staff and men and women in custody from this disease, including thoroughly reviewing those who are eligible for early release, appropriately quarantining or isolating men and women in custody, and equipping staff with personal protective equipment.

Hess said there are enough ventilators and hospital beds available for those who are critically ill.

A man in his 50s who was incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center died last week at an off-site hospital; he had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

IDOC facilities with confirmed cases of the coronavirus were placed on lockdown and the department has made hand sanitizer, antibacterial soap and cleaning supplies available to all staff and prisoners.

Correctional facilities and transport vehicles are being regularly cleaned and disinfected, and both staff and prisoners are being encouraged to practice good health habits, including frequent hand washing, according to the IDOC.
U.S. Rejects Taliban Claim It Is Violating Doha Peace Deal

By RFE/RL April 06, 2020

The U.S. military has rejected a claim by the Afghan Taliban that the United States is violating the terms of a peace deal signed by the two sides in late February.

U.S. Forces-Afghanistan "upheld and continues to uphold the military terms of the U.S.-[Taliban] agreement; any assertion otherwise is baseless," spokesman Colonel Sonny Leggett tweeted on April 5.

Leggett also wrote that the militant group "must reduce violence" and warned that the U.S. military will continue to defend Afghanistan's security forces if attacked, in line with the terms of the agreement.

In a statement issued earlier in the day, the Taliban accused U.S. and Afghan forces of conducting raids and air strikes against the group in noncombat zones and of launching operations on civilian areas.

It also chastised the Afghan government for delaying the release of thousands of Taliban prisoners as promised in the agreement signed by the United States and the Taliban in the Qatari capital, Doha, on February 29.

The militants claim they have reduced their attacks compared with last year and warned that continued violations would create "an atmosphere of mistrust" that would "damage the agreements" and "increase the level of fighting."

The Doha deal calls for the Afghan government to release 5,000 detained Taliban fighters as a confidence-building measure ahead of formal peace talks aimed at ending the country's 18-year conflict.

The Taliban has vowed to release some 1,000 Afghan government troops and civilian workers it is holding.

With reporting by AP and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-rejects -taliban-claim-it-is-violating-doha- peace-deal/30534327.html

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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As New York's morgues slowly become snowed under by the number of corpses, officials released that they may be resorting to burying other victims of COVID-19 in the Hart Island Potter's field or even in public parks.

With the city death toll climbing to 2,738 and the cases hitting 68,779 which is more than half of the 9/11 bombing's 4,758 fatalities and 130,689 casualties, the officials floated the heart-wrenching option.

In a press briefing at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Mayor de Blasio shared that they may do temporary burials right now so that they could deal with each family when the pandemic ends. He added that historically they have used Hart island.

The desolate spit of land is located in the Long Island sound off the Bronx's southeast coast. It is the nation's largest public burial ground as it hosted a Civil War Prison Camp and a colony of tuberculosis patient. In the 1980s, it served as a resting place for thousands of HIV/AIDS victims who were abandoned by their families and resulted to not having proper burials.

Loath to publicly discuss how New York will handle the extreme body count, Mayor de Blasio faced the dreadful reality after Mark Levine, city Councilman raised an even more dire possibility.

Prior to de Blasio's remarks, Manhattan Democrat tweeted that they will soon start temporary interment and will be done using NYC park for burials wherein they will be digging trenches for 10 caskets in a line. It will be done in an orderly, dignified and temporary manner even if it will be tough for New Yorkers to take.

A Contingency Plan

Council's Health Committee chair, Levine clarified in a later tweet that the conversion of parks to makeshift cemeteries was a contingency plan and the City Hall released that it will not be happening for now.

Read also: COVID-19 Cheers: Philippines Frontliners in 'Money Heist,' 'Power Rangers,' 'Black Panther,' Colorful PPEs



Moreover, Mayoral Representative Freddi Goldstein also tweeted that they are exploring using Hart island for temporary burials if the need grows and they are not currently planning to use local parks as burial grounds.

Despite hundreds of New Yorkers still dying, Gov. Cuomo again voiced guarded optimism after a record of 630 deaths were tallied Saturday, the number fell to 594 on Sunday and stayed with 599 on Monday.

As the flattening of the curve continues, it is better than the increases that they have seen, Cuomo added.

Cuomo's longtime aide Dr. Jim Malatras agreed that the state may be turning a corner and suggests that they are potentially at the apex. But he cautioned that this is far from over as he pointed out that it looks like they are towards the earlier side of the projection.

Easing the pressure on Cuomo, President Donald Trump granted Cuomo's request on Monday for the hospital ship USNS to dock along Manhattan's West Side so it can take on coronavirus patients.

Originally reserved for non-coronavirus patients, it is a welcome relief for Cuomo for the vessel can hold at least 1,000 patients looking at its bed capacity.

Related article: U.S. Brace for 'Hardest, Saddest' Week as COVID-19 Deaths Expected to Surge

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
New Delhi, April 7 : Since the lockdown was announced, the Delhi government has set up 111 shelter homes, specifically for the migrant workers across the city, with less than 5,000 migrants staying in the shelters.

According to an official, while these relief camps have a capacity to accommodate 40,000 persons, not even 5,000 people have turned up.

"Since the lockdown was imposed, we were working on increasing the shelter homes so that maximum people can be accommodated. While we have arrangements for 40,000 people, only 4,788 migrants have been housed in these shelter homes," the official told IANS.

Soon after the lockdown was imposed, the migrant labourers were initially migrating to their home states due to various reasons and have been focused as a target group for which special facilities have been provided.

The labourers were left homeless and jobless since the lockdown was imposed.

To ensure that they do not have to leave the city because of the lack of shelter and food, the Delhi government has started food distribution and made enough arrangements to accommodate these migrants.

While there is enough arrangement to feed more than 10 lakh people, according to the government data, currently, only about seven lakh people are taking food from about 3,000 hunger relief camps across the city.

"We have more arrangements than the people and more people can be easily accommodated in these relief camps and hunger relief centers, if required," the official said, adding the arrangements are helping a lot in ensuring social distancing.

These 111 shelter homes, the official said, are evenly spread over all the 11 Districts of Delhi under the supervision of respective District Magistrate.

"The boarding and lodging facilities, food and medical facilities are provided by the Delhi government at these shelters." These shelters are in addition to 223 permanent shelters managed by Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board and 10 more such night shelters for the homeless. The night shelters are most helpful for the homeless during the winter season.

"All occupants are provided free food which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. General items for daily use are also provided to the people. Special attention is also given to overall health and sanitation of the migrants," the official said.

The medical assistance is provided by the doctors assigned to the Centre.

"In case, of symptomatic persons housed in these shelter homes, people are quarantined as per protocol. Only one person has been hospitalised till date since the shelter homes were earmarked." The people living in the shelter homes are monitored on a daily basis by the District Authorities.

"Due to the proactive steps taken by Delhi Government no fresh movement of migrant labourers has been reported in Delhi," the official said.

Thousands of migrants gathered near the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border in search of inter-state buses, soon after the lockdown was imposed. However, with no buses, while several started walking home, others decided to stay at the shelters provided by the government.
British PM in intensive care with coronavirus

WORLD: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to intensive care yesterday (Apr 6) after being hospitalised with coronavirus, with foreign minister Dominic Raab to take over his duties where necessary, his Downing Street office said.

CoronavirusCOVID-19health

By AFP

Tuesday 7 April 2020, 08:58AM

The prime minister was moved in case he needed to use a ventilator, the government added. Photo: AFP

"Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the prime minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital, said the Downing Street press release.

The PM has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab... to deputise for him where necessary, it added.

The prime minister was moved in case he needed to use a ventilator, the government added.

Johnson was admitted to St Thomas Hospital in London on Sunday (Apr 5) with a temperature and a cough after testing positive for coronavirus on March 27, becoming the most high-profile world leader infected with the disease that has spread rapidly across the globe.

The 55-year-old had been self-isolating in his Downing Street flat but on Sunday evening was driven to a nearby state-run hospital on the advice of his doctor.

Officials said it was a precautionary step but questions had earlier been raised about whether the Conservative leader could still run the country.

The British government was criticised for initially refusing to follow other European countries in requiring people to stay home as the virus spread.

And Johnson himself said in early March that he was still shaking hands with people.

But two weeks ago he ordered a nationwide lockdown and Britain is now in the grip of a serious outbreak.

Over 50,000 cases and more than 5,000 deaths have been recorded so far, with a latest daily toll of 439.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock and the heir to the throne, Prince Charles, have both been infected with coronavirus, although they have since recovered.

In response to the crisis, Queen Elizabeth II made a rare public address on Sunday night, evoking the spirit of World War II and urging Britons to stay united.

We will be with our friends again, we will be with our families again, we will meet again, she said.

Working non-stop

Housing minister Robert Jenrick told BBC television that the prime minister had been working phenomenally hard during the crisis, adding that he would be finding it very frustrating to be ill.

Johnson is not known to have any underlying health issues, although he has struggled with his weight, but some questioned if he should have taken more time off.

Junior health minister Nadine Dorries, who also had coronavirus but has recovered, added: Many with #COVID19 are felled by fatigue/temperature and use isolation to sleep and recover.

Boris has risked his health and worked every day on our behalf to lead the battle against this vile virus.

Sarah Vine, a newspaper columnist and wife of senior cabinet minister Michael Gove, added: Boris has worked non-stop throughout his illness  and now we see the result.

Persistent symptoms

US President Donald Trump said he was hopeful and sure Johnson would recover, calling the prime minister a friend of mine and a great leader.

Johnsons pregnant partner, Carrie Symonds, moved out of Downing Street after some staff fell ill. But she said on Saturday she had just spent a week in bed with symptoms, although she has not been tested.

Johnsons spokesman would not confirm a report in The Times newspaper reported that the prime minister had been given oxygen treatment.

Doctors will be monitoring important vital signs such as oxygen saturations, said Rupert Beale, group leader at the cell biology of infection laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute.

He said they would also check Johnsons blood to see what the immune response to the virus looks like, and to assess liver and kidney function, and may also perform an electrocardiogram to check the heart.
At least 50 Nigerian Christians killed by Fulani attacks in March, NGO reports

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A Nigerian civil society organization is reporting that no less than 50 Christians were killed in March and 10 in the first two days of April by radical Fulani herdsmen. Since the start of 2020, estimates suggest that over 400 Christians were killed in the West African country.

In all, not less than 410 Christian lives have been lost in Nigeria to Jihadist Fulani terrorists in the past 93 days of 2020, the Anambra-based International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) said in a statement.

Ten Christians were killed in the first two days of April, it added.

This is on daily average of about five Christian deaths. On average, the Jihadist Fulani militants killed 125 Christians in January and February, respectively, and 50 in March.

Intersociety is a nongovernmental organization headed by Christian criminologist Emeka Umeagbalasi. Through a team of criminologists, lawyers, journalists as well as peace and conflict studies graduates, Intersociety has monitored violence against Christians in Nigeria since 2010.



In addition to Umeagbalasi, the statement released Saturday was signed by lawyers Obianuju Igboeli, Ndidiamaka Bernard and Chinwe Umeche.

Intersociety previously reported that 350 Christians were killed in the first two months of 2020 by Fulani militants, highway bandits and the Boko Haram terrorist group in the northeast.

Since 2015, about 11,500 Christians have been killed in Nigeria, according to Intersociety. The killings are largely a result of increased terrorist attacks from Boko Haram splinter groups and overnight attacks carried out by radicalized Muslim nomadic Fulani herders against predominantly Christian farming communities in Nigerias Middle Belt.

In 2019, between 1,000 to 1,200 Christians were killed by Fulani attackers, Intersociety estimated.

The NGO relies on what it deems to be credible local and foreign media reports as well as government accounts, data from international rights groups, eyewitness testimony and reports from Christian bodies to compile its estimates.

Intersociety argued in its latest statement, which only counts the killings committed by Fulani attackers, that the decline in reported killings in March could be a result of attacks being under-reported due to a shift in local and international media attention during the coronavirus pandemic. The decline is not a result of change of heart or government counter successes," it said.

The groups statement comes as some international advocacy groups, including Christian Solidarity International and the Jubilee Campaign, are pressuring international actors to label the plight of Christians in Nigeria as a genocide.

On March 5, at least four Christians were reportedly killed and three women raped by Fulani attackers in the Guma area of the Benue state, according to Intersociety.

On March 13 and March 14, seven Christians were killed in coordinated attacks in Tyohembe and Tse Ayev communities of the Benue state believed to be carried out by radical Fulanis. The attacks were said to be carried out between 11 p.m. on March 13 and the early-morning hours of March 14.

Between March 26 and March 31, in Southern Kaduna state, a total of 11 Christians, including a district head and his brother, were reportedly killed by Fulani militants.

On March 27, three more Christians were said to have been killed in the Chikun local government area of Kaduna.



On March 30, the district head of the Jemaa local government area of Kaduna Danlami Barde and his brother, Musa Barde, were reportedly killed while the wife of Musa Barde sustained several gunshot injuries.

On the night of March 31-April 1, at least three Christians were killed in the Ancha area of the Plateau state.

According to the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), in its statement dated 31st March 2020, no fewer than six defenseless Christians were hacked to death in Komo Community, Guruku ward in Chikun [local government area] of Kaduna State, Intersociety stated.

On April 1, seven elderly Christians in the Hukke and Nkiedoro communities in the Plateau state were reportedly burned to death during an attack in which at least 23 houses were burned or destroyed.

Nigeria ranks as the 12th worst country in the world for Christian persecution on Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List. It is one of the most deadly countries in the world for Christians.

Because of the Nigerian governments inability to halt societal and extremist violence and hold those accountable responsible, Nigeria was added to the U.S. State Departments special watch list of countries that engage in or tolerate severe violations for religious freedom in December.



We are designating [Nigeria] special watch list for the first time because of all of the increasing violence and communal activity and the lack of effective government response and the lack of judicial cases being brought forward in that country, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback told reporters at the time.

It is a dangerous situation in too many parts of Nigeria. The government has either not been willing to or have been ineffective in their response and the violence continues to grow.
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty

Red states are shutting down abortion clinics, determining that the health care they provide is not essential. Yet gun stores and shooting ranges remain open as a supposedly essential industry.

That designation was President Donald Trumps latest gift to the NRA, and the message it sends to women is that gun rights are sacrosanct while womens health is subject to the whims of the anti-abortion ideologues, also known as Trumps base.

States long hostile to abortion are using the coronavirus as an excuse to try and shutter clinics in at least six statesTexas, Ohio, Iowa, Alabama, Oklahoma and Kentucky. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are challenging the shutdowns, and by late Tuesday, federal judges issued emergency stays in three of the states, Texas, Ohio and Alabama, while the underlying legal arguments play out.

Trumps GOP: The Old Should Die and the Women Should Breed

In Texas, hundreds of patients had been turned away as the ban took effect and the states attorney general told an online event with anti-abortion activists, The truth is abortionfor the most partis an elective procedure that can be done later.

A Los Angeles Times editorial noted, A postponed abortion? Thats called having the baby.

At the same time, the administration updated a list it created last month of essential critical infrastructure to include gun stores and shooting ranges, setting up a contrast of women being denied urgent medical care while gun owners can enjoy their rights unimpeded.

Thus, the president and his allies have used the pandemic to reward two of their core constituencies: anti-abortion activists and gun-rights advocates.

In times of crisis, gun sales go up, along with toilet paper. People stockpile things they dont need, says Jim Kessler with Third Way, a moderate Democratic think tank. The NRA has had a bad couple of years with scandals. Trump needed to hand them a victory.

Its paying off rather handsomely. Gun sales are surging, exceeding even the previous record that was set after the Sandy Hook mass shooting in 2013.

Story continues

The federal list is an advisory, not a directive, so gun stores and shooting ranges are more likely to be open for business in red states, and closed in blue states, underscoring the divide in the country. Most people buying guns in this climate are not first-time buyers, but already have multiple firearms, says Kessler.

The people who use firearms are politically powerful. The people who use abortion clinics are socially and politically vulnerable. Thats an obvious difference, says Jack Pitney, a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College. The other thing about the gun stores, its survivalistsa lot of gun owners think the apocalypse is here and they need firearms to protect themselves. A lot of them have seen Contagion.

Hannah Shearer, litigation director with the Giffords Law Center, told the Daily Beast that most gun stores are remaining open, some with protections in place like social distancing or appointment-only hours. When theyre closed, background checks cant be done and federal officials cant trace guns recovered at crime scenes because they cant access the paper records that gun dealers keep.

When the Los Angeles County sheriff closed gun stores last month after California Governor Newsom left decisions on critical infrastructure to the states 58 county governments, gun groups immediately sued. They claim that designating them as nonessential violates the Second Amendment while county officials say public health takes precedent.

States are making decisions to limit constitutional rights to save lives. The gun industry should be treated like everybody else, says Shearer. We dont think theres anything special about the gun industry. There are lots of hard decisions we make here, but the goal is to save lives.

She cites Harris County, Texas, where three local pastors and a hardline conservative activist are appealing to the Texas Supreme Court to allow gun stores to remain open and churches to hold in-person services as a First Amendment right. Harris County is the most populous county in the state and the third most populous in the country with over four million people.

This goes to show that these emergency executive orders are affecting other constitutional rights as well, and necessarily so given the urgency of restricting public gatherings to prevent massive loss of life, Shearer told the Daily Beast.

The conflict over constitutional rights, and how to balance them during a pandemic, and where to draw the line with political exploitation, will continue to dominate our discourse over the coming weeks and months.

In the case of Harris County, its pretty clear that the majoritys right to health and safety outweighs the need to congregate for religious worship, or to access gun stores. The toll on the women affected by the shuttered abortion clinics is of an entirely different and more immediate magnitude, as it is on the doctors and nurses and providers who deliver this care.

Texas is among the strictest of the red states, threatening $1,000 fines or 180 days in jail for abortion providers who defy the ban on their services.

It is incredibly concerning when states would impose criminal penalties on doctors and nurses seeking to provide medical care, says Megan Christin with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Incredibly concerning, and an outcome that anti-abortion activists have long sought.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The first is the tried and true claim of a material adverse change, or MAC. To stand up to challenge, the MAC must be unexpected and have a significant long-term impact. If the MAC affects an industry as a whole, the buyer is generally out of luck. A fair number of MAC clauses also exclude pandemics. That makes it a good tool to renegotiate deals, but not to terminate them: The Delaware courts, where these cases are typically brought, have only once found in favor of the acquirer in a MAC claim.

The second is the requirement that the target company operated according to the ordinary course of business before being acquired. Nothing is ordinary now, of course  but this clause requires only that the target make its reasonable best efforts. Is abruptly and aggressively tapping credit lines the ordinary course of business? LVMH, which said it would run Tiffany for centuries to come was OK with it, but BorgWarner says that Delphi maxing out its credit line is a breach of the acquisition agreement. Courts have yet to judge these types of claims, but it hardly seems unreasonable for a company to raise cash to avoid bankruptcy.

The third way is through regulatory issues, but for this to work a buyer needs a regulator to play along. A deal to watch is Googles acquisition of Fitbit. Google spends money like I use dental floss, but Fitbits shares are trading well below the agreed purchase price. If a regulator challenges the deal on antitrust or privacy grounds, that could give Google an out. There are also transactions subject to antitrust approval by China, like Mellanox-Nvidia and Cypress-Infineon. With geopolitical battles brewing over medical exports, national security and other issues, will Beijing block these transactions?

The easiest way out of a deal, it should be noted, is if both sides agree to scrap it, as with Woodward and Hexcel this week. Ultimately, though, acquirers with pending deals will mostly wait to see how bad things get before taking action. Then, deals with clear strategic significance will still get done. Deals that no longer make true economic sense are likely to collapse or be renegotiated, regardless of what the acquisition agreement says.
Spain's daily coronavirus death rate shot up to 743 on Tuesday after falling for four straight days, lifting the total toll to 13,798, the health ministry said.

The number of new infections in the world's second hardest-hit country after Italy also grew at a faster pace, rising 4.1 per cent to 140,510, it added. The number of new cases had risen by 3.3 percent on Monday.

Health ministry officials have said deaths occurring on the weekend are often registered a few days later, which may explain the rise.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police announced Monday they are searching for a suspect who drew anti-Semitic graffiti on the property of the Chabad Center in Brookline and that the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

The man, seen in photographs and video, is accused of approaching the front door of the Jewish institution shortly before 1:45 a.m. on Sunday and defacing the building with graffiti written in Russian. A symbol drawn above the words closely resembled a swastika, the Brookline Police Department said in a press release.

Authorities believe the man approached the center from the direction of Coolidge Corner and left toward Commonwealth Avenue, according to the press release. In images provided by police, the suspect can be seen in a hat and sunglasses with a cigarette in his mouth.

This antisemitic act represents a direct threat to the Jewish community and is a reminder that hate never rests, even in a pandemic. We are grateful to Brookline Police who remain on the frontlines, sacrificing themselves to keep us safe," Robert Trestan, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League of New England, said in a statement.

3 Reward offered for information that leads to identification, prosecution of suspect responsible for drawing anti-Semitic graffiti on Jewish institution in Brookline

The ADL New England is offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to the identification and prosecution of the person responsible, according to the statement.

This is not the first anti-Semitic incident to occur at a Jewish institution in Greater Boston.

Fires were intentionally set at three Chabad houses in Arlington and Needham in May 2019. The incidents were being investigated as possible hate crimes.

Anyone with information about the suspect responsible for Sundays incident has been urged to call the Brookline Police Department at (617) 730-2222 or Detective Brendan Kelliher at (617) 730-2791.

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Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the EU has to ensure labour and health protection for migrant farm workers.

European Union institutions and national governments are scrambling to address the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for European farming, vowing that food supplies will not be affected. Procedures for accessing the EUs Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies are being relaxed and funds are being pumped into the sector to keep farmers and businesses afloat.

Meanwhile, farming associations have sounded the alarm about large labour shortages, highlighting the fact that, whatever Europes populists claim, our farming depends to a large extent on migrant labour.

Lockdowns across the EU mean that seasonal workers from Central and Eastern EU states cannot travel, although Germany has allowed them to do so to salvage the spring produce. Those from outside the EU also cannot get in, although exemptions to the EU travel ban were hastily broadened last week to include seasonal labourers.

In their quest to guarantee food supplies without fixing a broken system, however, policymakers appear not to be focusing on the people picking our fruit and vegetables, packing and processing our food, and transporting it across Europe.

In fact, calls to cut red tape and to suspend reporting requirements will probably make working conditions even worse. Replacing migrant workers with unemployed nationals, as some governments are trying  largely unsuccessfully  to do, will also not improve labour conditions.

Even before the pandemic hit Europe, its agricultural system was struggling to remain economically viable despite massive EU funding. Crucially, it was also both environmentally and socially unsustainable, depleting soil, poisoning aquifers and concentrating power in the hands of retail cartels which have been driving prices so low that in many cases they are below production costs.

As existing and forthcoming research published by the Open Society European Policy Institute (OSEPI) shows, farmers resort to cutting the only cost they have any control over  the price of labour.

This has led to widespread exploitation, not just in countries like Italy where conditions are often akin to slavery, but also in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

In Southern Europe, thousands of migrant farm workers eke out a living in shacks and unsanitary settlements where the pandemic could have devastating effects. In the fields, labourers toil in close proximity, with no protective equipment at the best of times.

So what can and should the EU do?

The pandemic presents the EU with an opportunity to overhaul its agricultural and food system to make it greener, fairer and more efficient, with shorter and less circuitous supply chains, adequate prices for both farmers and consumers, and guaranteed labour rights for workers.

The EUs agricultural policy has thus far favoured industrial farming and its so-called social dimension has focused on farmers, but not workers. The new CAP is finally expected to include respect for environmental standards among the criteria for granting farming subsidies.

Labour conditions should also be part of these so-called conditionalities. While supporting farmers in this crisis is important, injecting more cash into a broken system or cutting red tape will not fix it.

Instead, these measures may end up subsidising polluters and may not benefit workers at all, as more money in farmers pockets is no guarantee of higher wages for labourers.

To address labour shortages during the current lockdowns, the European Commission could take up the proposal from the European Parliaments agriculture committee for a special EU-wide laissez-passer for seasonal workers. To ensure labourers also arrive from outside Europe, the Commission should upscale its existing legal migration pilot projects.

A single EU-wide screening procedure and the guarantee of protective gear and decent working conditions would ensure respect for labour rights as well as allaying concerns about contagion on both sides.

In member states like Italy and Spain, national governments should be supported if they decide to grant an amnesty to undocumented migrants, who are the most vulnerable part of the pool of exploitable labour already in the country.

Large migrant facilities should be shut down across the EU, with people moved to smaller housing units where physical distancing is possible. In most EU countries, the suspension of asylum and immigration procedures due to the pandemic has also thrown millions into limbo and may deprive many of papers. Permits should therefore be automatically prolonged, as Portugal has already done.

The crisis unleashed by the spread of the coronavirus has shown just how fragile and unstainable our food supply system is. The EU institutions and national governments should act now, to make sure the food we eat is not produced by exploiting people and planet  and so that we are ready for the next crisis.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Representational Image (PTI)

New admissions have been stopped at Mumbais Jaslok Hospital. Its outpatient department (OPD) has reportedly been sealed as well after the staff there had tested positive for coronavirus.

The Economic Times reported that a nurse at the hospital sent out a video message via WhatsApp alleging that the multiple staff had contracted the disease. After that, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) took cognizance of the matter.

Follow our LIVE Updates on the coronavirus pandemic here

The nurse added that the hospital administration failed to make known that a COVID-19 affected patient had been admitted and that the hospital was claiming only one person tested positive, when there were more.

The BMC has called a meeting with the nurse and top state health officials to determine the allegations, sources told the paper.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Jaslok Hospital told the paper that one nurse who had come in contact with the COVID-19 patient tested positive and the staff handling the case were provided personal protection equipment (PPE), face masks, eye protection, gloves and long sleeved water resistant gown for protection.

It added that staff who had come directly in contact with the patient and the affected nurse had been identified and quarantined as per protocol. The OPD services and new admissions are suspended as a precautionary measure, it added.

This is the second such incidence in Mumbai after Wockhardt Hospital had been sealed off on April 6 as multiple staff  including 40 nurses - tested positive for COVID-19.

So far, a total of 53 medicos working at this hospital - including doctors - have tested positive, and the nurses have been shifted to an isolation ward

A member of the United Nurses Association in Mumbai has informed that the infected medicos are now being treated at the same hospital. However, no one is allowed to visit them now as the premises have been sealed by the BMC to contain further spread.

Wockhardt has also stopped admitting new patients.
Until the Boko Haram insurgents turned against Garkida in Gombi Local Government Area in February, Madagali and neighbouring Michika were- the two LGAs that the insurgents had been attacking in Adamawa State.
The value of Irelands biggest brands could drop by as much as 14% this year, due to the effects of the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

Independent global brand-valuation firm, Brand Finance, has warned that the value of the worlds 500 biggest companies could fall by 1tn as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, with the airline sector the most-affected.

It said Irelands top 25 brands stand to lose up to 14% of their value.

In terms of Brand Finances estimated figures, that would be a drop in value from 20.4bn to 17.5bn.

Spirit brands  including the likes of Baileys and Jameson  could lose up to 10% of their brand values, due to the market disruption caused by the virus, the report said.

Baileys parent company, global drinks company, Diageo, has already warned of a significant sales hit, estimated at just over 200m, as the brand suffers with bar and pub closures, as well as travel restrictions, which are significantly impacting airport sales, Brand Finance said.

In its latest report, Brand Finance has ranked discount clothing retailer, Penneys, as Irelands most valuable brand, at an estimated 2.4bn.

Penneys leap-frogged AIB  whose brand value is calculated to have dropped by 18%, to 1.9bn  and Guinness, which saw a 24% brand value drop, to 1.9bn, according to Brand Finance.

However, Brand Finance warned that with store closures expected to see Primark/Penneys lose over 700m in monthly net sales, the retailer has a turbulent journey ahead.

While AIB and Bank of Ireland remain in the top-ten most valuable Irish brands, Brand Finance said all banks face a rocky road, because of the fragile global economy and political landscape.

Despite the uncertainty facing it, Baileys ranks as Irelands fastest-growing brand, with its brand value  as estimated by the report  surging 115%, to 1.2bn.

Glanbia and Kerry Group come out of the report strongly, with their combined brands falling in the low-impact bracket and set to be shielded from the worst of the fallout, according to the report.
DES MOINES, Iowa - Even as most Americans are under orders from their governor to stay at home to slow the spread of the coronavirus, leaders in a handful of states have steadfastly refused to take that action, arguing its unneeded and could be harmful.

Nine governors have refused to issue statewide mandates that people stay at home, but local leaders have taken action in some of those states. North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas are the only states where no one is under a stay-at-home order.

The lack of action from those governors  even as they take other steps such as closing schools and limiting the size of gatherings  has frustrated health experts and left some residents puzzled.

If social distancing manoeuvrs are going to work, theyre most likely going to work if you do them early, said Arthur L. Reingold, a professor and infectious disease expert at the University of California-Berkeley. The longer you wait, the harder it is for them to have a substantial impact on transmission of the virus.

That also has been the message of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert, who has said all states should have statewide orders that people remain at home.

Fauci on Monday credited the governors of Nebraska and Iowa for what steps they have taken to slow the virus, but David Leeson, a retiree in Winterset, Iowa, said he cant understand why restrictions that make sense in most of the country havent been imposed in his home state.

I think its idiotic, Leeson said. The only way this is going to work is to have every state under the same rules.

Nearly 305 million people live in the 41 states or Washington, D.C., which mandate people stay at home, compared with less than 9 million in the states without such mandatory orders. Enforcement of the rules, however, varies.

The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.

All of the states without statewide or local orders are in the central U.S. Each has a Republican governor, and while they all have hundreds of coronavirus cases and some deaths, the numbers are significantly less than the hardest-hit areas.

The reasons behind their decisions vary.

Even as Iowas coronavirus cases have grown to more than 1,000 with 26 deaths and the states medical board has recommended a stay-at-home order, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds maintains that demanding people not leave their homes would threaten their mental health.

We are a connected community. Theres just that side of it as well, Reynolds said. In addition to suicides and domestic abuse there are a lot of downsides to it as well.

At the same time, Reynolds has closed schools and ordered the closure of most retail establishments other than grocery stores and gas stations. She argues her moves match or exceed most states.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum noted the rural nature of his state and voiced skepticism that a stay-at-home order was needed.

For Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, his targeted actions to slow the virus are intended to protect the thousands of people who would otherwise lose their jobs, including employees at clothing stores that have remained open.

People are making their own decision to stay home, and thats exactly what they should be doing, unless theres an absolute necessity to get out, Hutchinson said last week.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, who has banned gatherings of more than 10 people, speculated that many residents might eventually ignore tougher restrictions.

What we dont want is to have people start this too early, and then they get tired and start breaking the ban, Ricketts said.

The governors reasoning doesnt sit well with some residents.

Not only as a nurse, but as a father of two and a husband, I resent the attitude coming from our governors office of Its just not bad enough yet, said Ryan Mauk, a registered nurse who works with intensive care patients in Fargo, North Dakota, and who says he continues to see people gathering in groups. Its bad enough. And its only going to get worse unless we act.

In Utah, Wyoming, South Carolina and Oklahoma, where governors have declined to issue mandatory statewide stay-at-home orders, some local officials have taken it upon themselves to direct people to stay home.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon have asked people to stay home  a request that doesnt carry any penalties. In Wyoming  the only state with no known deaths from COVID-19  Gov. Mark Gordon similarly has urged people to stay home.

In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem issued a limited stay-at-home mandate that applies only to people in the two hardest-hit counties who are older than 65 or who have chronic health conditions.

Noems action Monday came amid criticism that she hasnt done enough, including an online petition started by Amy Taylor, a Sioux Falls nurse.

My fear is that were going to wait until its too late, Taylor said.

___

Associated Press writers David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa; Grant Schulte in Lincoln, Nebraska; Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Dave Kolpack in Fargo, North Dakota; Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; and Meghan Hoyer in Washington contributed to this story.




IPOB Leader, Nnamdi Kanu

Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has been described as the greatest enemy of Igbo people in the last 200 years by the apex Igbo socio-political organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo..

Ohanaezes Secretary General, Barr. Uche Okwukwu disclosed this during a recent interview with DAILY POST.

He claimed that Kanu collected money from enemies of Igbos to destroy the Southeast.

Okwukwu maintained that the actions of the IPOB leader was undermining the chances of the Southeast to produce the next Nigerias president.

He said: This is a man that asked Igbo to destroy their Voters Registration Cards and not to vote. 48 hours to the election, he collected money from PDP and asked the people to vote; so what will they have used to vote?

Kanus action undermines the interest of Ndigbo politically. Hes an enemy of the Igbo man. In any serious land and clime, they will catch him and flog him because hes undermining our people.

Today, you can see the votes that came out of Igbo land, three thousand votes from Abia; 600,000 votes from Anambra; 500,000 votes from Enugu; 300,000 votes from Ebonyi; 500, 000 votes from Imo. Is that the number of votes that will produce Igbo president?

All the votes from the Southeast are not up to that of Jigawa and Katsina, so Nnamdi Kanu is commissioned to destroy the Igbo race. The enemies of Ndigbo gave him money to destroy us. Hes the greatest enemy of Ndigbo in the last 200 years. I equate him to a slave master.

The Ohanaezes Secretary General lamented that the separatists continued insults on President Muhammadu Buhari was affecting the chances of the Southeast politically.

He claimed that Buhari will install a president in 2023 but Kanus action would hinder the chances of the Southeast coming out as next president.

He said: I have said this time without number that APC will win the 2023 presidential election; you know and I also know that Buhari will install a president, you dont need a prophet to tell you that in the next three years, Buhari will decide the next president of the country.

So, Kanus continued insult on the president and shifting Igbo from the APC is weakening us. APC will install the president and Igbo people are not in the party. Igbos in APC are being insulted, they are insulting Ngige, Okorocha, Orji Uzor Kalu, meanwhile APC will produce the president, Buhari will install the President in 2023.

APC does not need Nnamdi Kanu to win election. They have won the presidential election twice without the votes of the South-South and South-East. Buhari became president without the vote of our people, he ran again without the vote of our people, so he will still install a president without our votes.

Okwukwu also appealed to Buhari to give the presidency to the Southeast in the interest of fairness and equity.

We are appealing to Buhari and APC that in the interest of equity and fairness to give the presidency to Igbo and to produce a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction. I dont care where he comes from.
Northern Irelands loyalist Twelfth of July parades this summer have been cancelled for the first time since the Second World War (Brian Lawless/PA)

Northern Irelands loyalist Twelfth of July parades this summer have been cancelled for the first time since the Second World War due to coronavirus, the Orange Order said.

Social distancing rules and restrictions on the gathering of people during the pandemic were to blame.

The Twelfth marks the culmination of the loyal order marching season and normally attracts thousands of Orange lodge members, bandsmen and onlookers.

It celebrates the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 when the Dutch-born Protestant leader King William of Orange defeated the Catholic King James the second in Co Meath.

In the current circumstances, the gathering of hundreds of thousands of Orangemen and women, together with their accompanying bands and spectators, would not be responsibleGrand Master Edward Stevenson

Edward Stevenson, Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, said: It is with regret that I must cancel the 2020 Boyne anniversary parades.

In the face of the growing crisis surrounding coronavirus, it is in the best interests of our members, their families and the wider community that this decision has been made.

In the current circumstances, the gathering of hundreds of thousands of Orangemen and women, together with their accompanying bands and spectators, would not be responsible.

I appreciate that our culture and traditions are very much a way of life for the Orange family, however in light of the current situation we must prioritise the safety of not only our members, but of the entire community.

Seven more Covid-19 deaths were announced in Northern Ireland on Monday.

Expand Close Parades had been due to take place across Northern Ireland and in Rossnowlagh, Co Donegal (Brian Lawless/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Parades had been due to take place across Northern Ireland and in Rossnowlagh, Co Donegal (Brian Lawless/PA)

Parades had been due to take place at 17 venues across Northern Ireland and also in Rossnowlagh, Co Donegal, in the Republic.

Demonstrations were not held for a time during the First and Second World Wars or during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918.

Alternative ways to mark the occasion were found like flying flags and creating displays of Orange lilies, the institution said.

For some, the coming days will be extremely painfulEdward Stevenson

Mr Stevenson added: For some, the coming days will be extremely painful.

We must bear in mind that for many people there will be no return of normal life. They will have lost loved ones.

The Orange family has already lost members to this terrible virus whilst others are currently in hospital.

DUP leader Arlene Foster said the decision represented a responsible step.

She said: By taking such steps now and if everyone adheres to the advice then we can reduce the pressures on our NHS, save lives and ultimately ensure we emerge as strongly as possible from this pandemic.

There will be a great deal to celebrate when we do finally have the opportunity to meet again.

Earlier, it emerged a man has been arrested over online sectarian threats made against Stormont Health Minister Robin Swann.

Police are investigating offensive comments posted on social media on Friday.

Ulster Unionist Mr Swann has been leading the battle against coronavirus, and five million items of personal protective equipment arrived in Northern Ireland on Monday.

Medics have been calling for extra supplies after an expected joint order with the Republic of Ireland from China fell through due to international competition.

A 26-year-old was detained in the Ballymena, Co Antrim, area on Sunday on suspicion of improper use of telecommunications causing anxiety and later released on police bail pending further inquiries.

Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken said: It is utterly despicable that threats that were blatantly intimidating and sectarian were made against our exceptionally hard-working and dedicated health minister.
Kylie and Kendall Jenner have been working on a joint fashion line for years.

And on Monday the duo were back at promoting their line as they shared another look from their spring campaign on Instagram where they were posed together.

In the caption, the power sisters even credited the man who did the retouching for the photograph in a rare move.

Looking good: Kylie and Kendall Jenner have been working on a joint fashion line for years. And on Monday the duo were back at promoting their line as they shared another look from their spring campaign on Instagram where they were posed together

The caption began, 'Thanks to everyone that helped with our spring shoot, we couldnt have done it without you,'

They also said there was 'more to come soon.'

Next the duo credited the photographer, Sasha Samsonova as well as others in their team like Mary Phillips, Jesus for hair.

He makes magic: And then a name came up that seemed unusual: '@retouch_by_yul_zh.' Yul Zh is a post-production artist who has worked with Kylie before, like on her Playboy cover

And then a name came up that seemed unusual: '@retouch_by_yul_zh.'

Yul Zh is a post-production artist who has worked with Kylie before, like on her Playboy cover.

He has also worked with Kylie on some of her makeup shoots with Sasha. And he has done touch up work on shoots with Jessica Alba, Laura Dern and Ciara.

Kendall was in a print dress with Cult Gaia earrings while Kylie was in an off the shoulder dress.

Last week Kendall was seen in an image from the line.

Long before she self-isolated due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 24-year-old Keeping Up With The Kardashians star posed in a white bikini, showing off her enviable supermodel figure.

The suit was co-designed with her younger sister Kylie Jenner for their holiday 2019 Kendall + Kylie line.

Easy times: Kendall was seen in happier days in a flashback photo shared on Wednesday

The ex of Ben Simmons also had on a stylish hat as she posed outdoors.

The caption read: 'A little something for your Wednesday Holiday 2019 shot by @sashasamsonova and styled by @danixmichelle in an incredible @gladystamezmillinery oversized Panama Straw Hat.'

The retouch expert was not credited here.

The siren had her makeup perfectly done with neutral tones as the hat took over the shoot.

It's been a crazy time for Kendall as she was seen in the middle of a physical fight between Kourtney and Kim on KUWTK.

Kendall was told she was sick so she did not do the work she was supposed to. Kim added that she had to step in.

The Vogue cover girl seemed annoyed but blew it off.

She likes her bod: Also in March Kendall was seen in both a Calvin Klein shoot, where she showed off her killer curves

Just for Kimmy: Kendall was seen in SKIMS this week to mark the 6 month anniversary of the brand

However, when Kim told Kourtney she does not do the work because she does not care, the 40-year-old mother-of-threw blew up.

Kim said Kourtney scratched her so hard she drew blood.

Also in March Kendall was seen in both a Calvin Klein shoot, where she showed off her killer curves, and a SKIMS shoot to mark the 6 month anniversary of Kim's brand.

FIGHT! It's been a crazy time for Kendall as she was seen in the middle of a physical fight between Kourtney and Kim on KUWTK. Kendall was told she was sick so she did not do the work she was supposed to. Kim added that she had to step in. Kendall seemed annoyed but blew it off

Last week Kylie shared another flashback photo with Kendall.

The two reality stars were pictured cuddling up to one another in matching white cropped tops and full glam.

Kendall, 24, immediately responded to the Instagram post, writing: 'arent we fighting?'

Kylie, 22, replied: 'yes but my titties are sitting nice in this pic.'

Then older half-sister Khloe Kardashian, 35, chimed in: 'I miss us.'

The way they were: Kylie posted a throwback snap Sunday showing her cuddling up to older sister Kendall, 24, in matching white cropped tops and full glam

Last month, Kylie shared with her Instagram followers that she got used to staying home all the time while pregnant with Stormi.

'I'm on day 8. My pregnancy prepared me for this, I didn't leave the house for months,' she said last Wednesday.

After falling pregnant by rapper Travis Scott in 2017, Kylie took extensive measures to conceal her growing baby bump.

She hid it with baggy clothing in Instagram snaps and kept out of the public eye as much as possible throughout the end of 2017 and the start of 2018.

The beauty only confirmed her pregnancy when she announced the news that she had given birth to a baby girl on February 1, 2018.

New look: Here Kylie was seen posing at home in a tie dye top on Monday

Her little mini me: Also on Monday she showed off her daughter Stormi's hairstyle




Yet psychologists now know that only a small percentage of people develop the full-blown disorder while, on average, anywhere from one half to two-thirds of trauma survivors exhibit whats known as post-traumatic growth. After a crisis, most people acquire a newfound sense of purpose, develop deeper relationships, have a greater appreciation of life and report other benefits.

Its not the adversity itself that leads to growth. Its how people respond to it. According to the psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, who coined the term post-traumatic growth in the 1990s, the people who grow after a crisis spend a lot of time trying to make sense of what happened and understanding how it changed them. In other words, they search for and find positive meaning.

In modern psychology research, this is known, a bit unfortunately, as benefit finding. Mr. Frankl called it the human capacity to creatively turn lifes negative aspects into something positive or constructive. Of course, some people are naturally more hopeful than others. But the success of psychological interventions like meaning-centered psychotherapy  developed by Dr. William Breitbart at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and his colleagues to help terminal patients cope with death  reveals that even the most despairing individuals have the capacity to find meaning in a crisis.

It may seem inappropriate to call on people to seek the good in a crisis of this magnitude, but in study after study of tragedy and disaster, thats what resilient people do. In a study of over a 1,000 people, 58 percent of respondents reported finding positive meaning in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, such as a greater appreciation of life and a deeper sense of spirituality. Other research shows that benefit finders grow not only psychologically but also physically. Heart attack survivors, for example, who found meaning in the weeks after their crisis were, eight years later, more likely to be alive and in better health than those who didnt.

This doesnt mean that people should endure adversities with a smiling face. In fact, Mr. Frankl specifically said that tragic optimism is not the same thing as happiness. To the European, he wrote, it is a characteristic of the American culture that, again and again, one is commanded and ordered to be happy. But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to be happy.

He was right: In American culture, when people are feeling depressed or anxious, they are often advised to do what makes them happy. Much of the pandemic-related mental-health advice channels that message, encouraging people to distract themselves from bad news and difficult feelings, to limit their time on social media and to exercise.

Im not suggesting those arent worthy activities. But if the goal is coping, they do not penetrate into the psyche as deeply as meaning does. When people do things that make them happy, like playing games or sleeping in, they feel better  but those feelings fade fast, according to research by Veronika Huta of the University of Ottawa and Richard Ryan of the University of Rochester.
Taking a cue from the Centre, the Himachal Pradesh government has also decided to deduct 30 per cent salaries of state MLAs for a year to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, an official spokesperson said.

In a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur through video conferencing on Tuesday, the state cabinet decided to deduct 30 per cent salaries and honorarium of all Members of Legislative Assembly, including the chief minister, Vidhan Sabha speaker, deputy speaker and ministers for one year.

It has also been decided to suspend the Vidhayak Kshetra Vikas Nidhi Yojna for two years, the spokesperson said.

The state cabinet also decided to deduct 30 per cent salaries of chairmen and vice chairmen of various boards, corporations and all political appointees for one year.

On the World Health Day, the cabinet also expressed its gratitude to the frontline coronavirus warriors' -- doctors, nurses, para medical staff, sanitary workers and police -- for their dedicated services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The chief minister also hailed the decision of the Union government to deduct 30 per cent salaries of the prime minister, MPs and central ministers.

The cabinet also paid its tributes to two Army personnel from the state-paratrooper Bal Krishan of Kullu's Puyed village and Subedar Sanjeev Kumar of Bilaspur's Dehra village-- who along with three other soldiers had fallen to the bullets of militants in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A local cancer charity has said it will have to furlough the majority of its staff as it faces an 80% decrease in fundraised income this year because of coronavirus.

Yesterday Cancer Focus Northern Ireland announced that only externally funded staff are among those left able to work at the charity.

Cancer Focus NI, which celebrated 50 years working to reduce the impact of cancer on people's lives here in 2019, said it is 90% dependent on its fundraising activities.

The charity provides care and support services for patients and their families.

It offers a range of cancer prevention programmes to help people lessen their risk of getting cancer, funds scientific research into the causes and treatment of the disease, and campaigns for better health policy to protect our community and its future.

A range of charities have expressed concern over their future as their fundraising efforts have been halted due to social distancing restrictions and other factors. Cancer Focus now only provides its family support service, a reduced counselling service, support to stop smoking and skin cancer prevention work.

Roisin Foster, the charity's chief executive, said: "Cancer Focus NI is 90% dependent on our fundraising activities. With fundraising events unable to take place and our 13 charity shops closed, income for the charity has reduced to seriously low levels.

"In order to best ensure the charity's survival we have had no choice but to cease all work that is not externally funded and furlough our remaining employees.

"Many of our staff have said they are more than happy to continue to provide services while furloughed, but the Government's job retention scheme expressly forbids this. It's regrettable that the scheme will pay people not to provide services that patients need so much."

The charity's patient support services have been particularly badly affected, with 75% of services being cut. These include its nurse-led telephone helpline, art therapy, volunteer driving and bra fitting services.

"Cancer patients are already under great stress, worried about treatment being delayed or cancelled for very understandable reasons," said Ms Foster.

"We are deeply concerned that we have no option but to reduce services when people need it most. And the lack of support services throws even greater pressure back on the NHS.

"We're urging the Government to finalise a support package for the voluntary sector as soon as possible, so we can plan for how we're going to come out the other end of this crisis and continue our vital work."

Last month the Northern Ireland Hospice expressed concern over its future as fundraising efforts were halted.
Is your business solely dependent on technology? If so, you must be concerned about protecting it from the issue of cyber attacks, especially when they have the potential to damage its functionality. According to a study, small businesses are mostly targeted of cyber attacks, as small companies accounted for 43% of cyber attacks and it is only 14% of them that are prepared to defend themselves. This implies that your business is at great risk and you need to have pro-active measures to protect your business.

With technology providing vast opportunities, businesses are regularly expanding their wings to online platform. The issue of Cyber attacks have also increased manifold and businesses seek for security system that can keep them up. Cybertech strategies can be of great help to them seeking to learn about different types of cyber attacks that can pose a threat. It is therefore important to understand the types of Cyber attack that can impact your business, and also the measures needed to deal with them.

Types of cyber attacks impacting businesses

Cyber attacks are of many types and the most important ones are identified as malware and phishing. Malware can be defined as a virus, adware, spyware or other similar nature of threat. In case of phishing attack, the attackers use your company name in emails and try to elucidate information from your client. This can be related to their personal information, credit card numbers or it is even the passwords.

Denial-of-service is another important type of Cyber attack which aims at completely shutting down a network by flooding it with traffic. Other types of attacks include man in the middle whereby the attacker put himself between two parties and performs a business transaction with the intention of stealing the data. SQL injection is also a potential cyber attack whereby the attacker tries to insert malicious code installed in an SQL server. Zero day exploit is also an important technique of Cyber attack which normally takes place between the time vulnerabilities get out in public and the availability of solution for it.

Cyber attacks can have a direct level of impact on your business. According to an assignment help Singapore expert, they may result into a loss or damage to electronic data and they often include viruses and malware infection. The loss of data can directly affect the functioning of the business, as it may be related to customer details or sales record which is essential to deal with customers. The possibility of facing lawsuits also increases significantly when there is a loss of private data about important stakeholders of the business. In case of attack through ransomware, there will be no choice available rather than paying the extortion money in order to get the data back. Along with these problems, cyber attacks also impact the business in terms of extra cost and loss of time needed to recover the data. Above all, cyber attack pose a significant damage to the reputation of business, as it may result into loss of future contracts with the client. The resulting impact would be lost of sales and ultimately a decline in the overall profitability performance of the business.

Protecting businesses from cyber attacks

Prevention is always considered as a better strategy as compared to cure. There are chances that preventive measures are ineffective in achieving complete protection, but they can act as shield to some extent in dealing with cyber attack. The initial step that needs to be taken is to contain the breach. It is important to segregate the network as a person and the cyber attack as a virus. The affected server needs to be isolated immediately in order to contain them from the threat of virus. It is important to disconnect the system from internet, and remote access should be disabled completely. In the opinion of assignment help Australia experts, the firewall setting needs to be properly maintained and security updates need to be carried out. The better strategy would be to change the affected and vulnerable passwords to a stronger one. The following steps can be helpful in protecting the business against cyber attack to a significant level:

It is always considered better to use unique and strong passwords. Along with this, the integration of multi-step authentication process also acts as an extra layer of security against the threat of cyber attacks.

It is also important to update the cybersecurity software on regular basis. It is always considered good to buy software that work perfectly rather than utilising free cyber security software. That is mainly because the cost of managing the cyber attack is significantly higher as compared to the cost required in buying security software.

It is important to backup the data on regular basis in an isolated storage device. This will help in achieving faster recovery in the event of a cyber-attack. Cloud platform can be utilised in order to maintain backup, as they also provide disaster recovery amenities.

It is also important to provide complete education to employees about data breaches. They need to be given adequate training on how to deal with the issues of Cyber attack so that they can be prepared to handle such situation. The guidelines within the General Data Protection Regulation can be helpful in educating employees about the principles of data security.

Having cyber liability insurance is also a good strategy in dealing with the threat of cyber security. Hiring cyber security professional can also provide an extra layer of protection against such threats, but they may also result into an extra cost to the business.

Cyber attacks can therefore affect the functioning of a business in a direct way, and it is important to have proper preventive action plan in order to deal with such threats in a positive way. Having an updated security system along with proper back up of data can help in minimising the effect of cyber attacks and allow businesses to operate smoothly.

Edited by Maurice Nagle
SALT LAKE CITY, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercato Partners Traverse Fund ("Traverse"), today announced that Social Finance ("SoFi") has acquired one of its Growth Fund II portfolio companies, Galileo Financial Technologies ("Galileo"), a thriving API standard for card issuing programs and financial technology ("fintech") innovation. SoFi, the digital personal finance company, confirmed the signing of its definitive agreement to acquire Galileo Financial Technologies for $1.2 billion early this morning.

"To excel in the growth stage, a CEO and leadership team must be able to envision and execute at a level of innovation and ambition others might not even imagine," said Mercato Partners Managing Director and Galileo Board member, Greg Warnock. "They must be hungry for large scale problem-solving and provide the energy and direction to fuel exponential growth. The CEO, in particular, must convey a strong vision and display an ongoing, unrelenting commitment to excellence. Clay Wilkes absolutely fits that profile and has done a world-class job of leading Galileo. We congratulate Clay and the entire Galileo team and look forward to the continued pace of innovation and value Galileo will bring to SoFi customers."

Mercato led Galileo's Series A financing in 2014 with an $8 million investment. Galileo used the proceeds to invest in its differentiated technology and bolster its go-to-market efforts. Beginning with product innovation, Galileo developed and shared its APIs to enable fintech companies and developers to build on its platform, which spurred robust business development, expanded Galileo's client base, drove organic growth and elevated operating margins. Galileo further fortified its technology leadership position by developing an AI-driven fraud protection solution. Since its launch, users have reduced and remediated payment fraud loss by 80% over the industry standard.

SoFi helps people achieve financial independence to realize their ambitions. Founded in 2011 and based in San Francisco, SoFi started with online student loans and has expanded its product line to include personal and home loans, personal investing options, high yield bank accounts and insurance products. SoFi has more than 10 million registered users, has funded more than $30 billion in loans and has saved its members more than $1.5 billion to date.

Galileo, a fintech leader whose sophisticated API-based enterprise payments platform helps run companies like Chime, Revolut, Transferwise, Monzo and Remitly, has grown rapidly by providing the building blocks for the world's most innovative payment programs. It is a flexible and dynamic platform, handling thousands of financial transactions daily for a total of $30 billion in payments annually.

Mercato seeks out underserved companies in overlooked markets to support entrepreneurship in ways that are unique and meaningful. The CEOs and leadership teams the company supports across Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Southern California, Illinois and Missouri deserve the same access to capital and the very best guidance available for navigating the growth stage. Mercato is dedicated to help companies, communities and entrepreneurial ecosystems benefit from participating in markets domestically and internationally.

In addition to growth-stage capital, Mercato leveraged its five known growth disciplines to support Galileo. In collaboration with Galileo, Mercato's investment and performance teams provided both strategic direction and tactical practices in the areas most critical to maximizing growth: sales, marketing, human capital, customer success and leadership.

There is a $7 trillion market cap for US-based financial services institutions which are being disrupted by thousands of emerging fintech companies. Galileo serves both emerging fintech disruptors and the finserv incumbents. The company is uniquely positioned for this moment.

About Mercato Partners

Mercato Partners is a multi-practice growth firm providing both capital and guidance to founders and companies in a range of stages and a variety of industries ranging from technology firms to food and beverage operations to branded consumer companies. The experienced Mercato team of investors, analysts, and in-house performance operators combine forces with an extended network of advisors and service providers to accelerate growth and create lasting enterprise value. For more information, please visit www.mercatopartners.com.

About Galileo Financial Technologies

Based in Salt Lake City, Galileo is the API standard for card issuing programs. The payments technology company powers the world's most innovative card and fintech programs in North America. For more information, visit Galileo at www.galileo-FT.com.

About SoFi

SoFi helps people achieve financial independence to realize their ambitions. Our products for borrowing, saving, spending, investing, and protecting give our more than one million members fast access to tools to get their money right. SoFi membership comes with the key essentials for getting ahead, including career advisors and connection to a thriving community of like-minded, ambitious people. For more information, visit SoFi.com.

SOURCE Mercato Partners
Inside a dedicated COVID-19 hospital unit in San Francisco, simply entering a room is an ordeal  and a risk. Red stop signs on every closed door in the unit at St. Francis Memorial Hospital carry warnings: Dont eat. Dont drink. Dont enter without protective gear.

On Monday morning, a nurse in a blue mesh gown deftly pulled coverings over her shoes and hair, tugged on latex gloves, and repositioned her goggles above her face mask until she was covered almost head to toe in the ocean color. Finally, she knocked and entered.

Inside was one of seven patients confirmed or suspected of having COVID-19. Each has a room in the 48-bed unit repurposed to treat patients with the disease in the hospital at 900 Hyde St.

Because St. Francis had extra space  a well-equipped overflow unit for when patient numbers are high  the decision was made to transform the area into a coronavirus-only location, said Dr. David Klein, the hospitals president. The hospital offered The Chronicle a rare look inside a medical facility treating coronavirus patients. So a reporter and photographer donned protective gear and had a look, though were barred from entering patient rooms.

A patients monitor let out a dull, repetitive beep. Nurses clacked on keyboards and answered phones. Two chatted in the break room.

Although most beds were empty, hospital officials say they may not remain that way for long.

Its been prepare for the worst and hope for the best, said Dr. Kathleen Jordan, St. Francis chief medical officer.

Now Playing: Here's a look inside the first dedicated COVID-19 hospital unit in San Francisco. Video: Gabrielle Lurie

In this specialized unit, one patient at a time can be treated in a negative pressure room that lets air come in but not go out, reducing the risk of infection. Nurses separate supplies on tables marked clean or dirty. Technicians manage the patients oxygen flow, give them blood pressure medication and sedatives, and turn them over to aerate their lungs, which has proven to lead to better outcomes, Jordan said. COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has no specific cure or vaccine, although many patients recover.

By Monday, 583 people had been diagnosed with COVID-19 in San Francisco, and 83 had been admitted to a hospital. Of those, half had been moved into intensive care units, Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the citys public health department, said at a press conference Monday. Nine people with the coronavirus have died in San Francisco.

To meet a potential surge, the citys health care system increased hospital beds by 52%  from 1,055 to just over 1,600  and intensive care beds by 91%  from 277 to 530  since January. But the city could need more, Colfax warned. Based on hot spots in other countries and cities, city hospitals expect between 30% and 50% of COVID-19 patients will need ventilation, Jordan said.

In a worst-case scenario like New York City, where hospitals are becoming overwhelmed, San Francisco could need 5,000 more hospital beds and 1,500 ventilators, Mayor London Breeds office said in a statement last week.

We have seen overcrowded hospitals and doctors making choices about who to treat, Breed said Monday. We never want to get there in San Francisco. And we have to do everything we can to protect public health, she added, and to make sure that when people need a doctor, when they need a hospital bed, that we dont turn them away.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

St. Francis dedicated COVID-19 unit has 40 acute-care beds and eight for intensive care. The hospitals other units have more intensive care beds and 30 ventilators, if needed. The state will open another 290 beds for patients infected with the coronavirus in the next 10 days at Sutter Healths California Pacific Medical Centers Pacific Heights campus, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday.

St. Francis unit opened on Friday to internal patients and on Monday to citywide transfers. The unit is a collaboration through the Hospital Council of Northern California, a nonprofit trade group representing the citys hospitals. It was funded with $1 million from UCSF and $1 million from the St. Francis Foundation, which is raising another $500,000 it will match. Foundation president Mark Ryle said the organization was willing to give up to $5 million.

To prepare for a surge of patients, San Franciscos hospital networks were upended in a matter of weeks. Non-emergency services were shifted online. Units were repurposed. All while trying to address fears of employees and the community, said Jordan, the St. Francis chief medical officer.

St. Francis new unit is filled with equipment. Caring for just one patient can require 100 masks a day, Jordan said. The hospital uses thousands of masks and gloves each day, said Klein, the president. Like every hospital, St. Francis faces the challenge of getting enough personal protective equipment, called PPE, for health workers.

Jordan said she feels confident the hospital has enough protective equipment.

With some warning, St. Francis stockpiled its own stores and can get more supplies from the city and the federal government. The hospital is following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which allow nurses treating COVID-19 patients to use the same N95 mask for an entire shift and those without direct contact to wear only surgical masks. Its also finding creative ways to clean plastic face visors and wash gowns to reuse them.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

We have to be cautious, Klein said. There are days that our supplies are lower than others, but we havent run out of supplies at this point.

The new unit also needs trained staff, which the hospital has been able to fill internally with volunteers. Queena Fong, one of the nurses on the new unit Monday, said shes been treating COVID-19 patients on another hospital floor for weeks using the same training and protocols for other infectious diseases.

A few doors down from the nurse suiting up to enter a patients room, her colleague, Cho Lee, prepared to move another patient into the negative pressure room to contain his infection while he is treated. The hospital is waiting for his COVID-19 test results and ruling out other infectious diseases like tuberculosis, Lee said.

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

Like other city hospitals, St. Francis isnt allowing visitors, so staff help patients contact family. One doctor told Jordan over the weekend his wrist hurt from holding a phone up, she said. The St. Francis Foundation donated iPads and the hospital bought more to help those bedridden stay connected.

If someone is near the end of their life, the hospital makes case-by-case exceptions for visitation. So far, they havent had to do that for COVID-19 patients: none have been among San Franciscos deaths from the disease.

Now Playing: Jessica Boykin, 32, had stuck plenty of people with needles by the time she graduated from the nursing school at Los Medanos College in 2018, but nothing prepared her for the coronavirus pandemic. Now she's an ER nurse on the front lines, where equipment and staff are short. Many nursing students who are just inches away from graduation are hoping to join her, and begging the state to bend its licensing rules so they can work. Video: SFGATE

As the city awaits an expected flood of patients, Klein said the greatest challenge is planning and being prepared for uncertainty: Its really the unknown and when we may see the surge.

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench
Bailing out the cruise lines

If reports coming out of Washington are correct, the Trump Administration is considering a bailout plan to aid the major cruise lines, such as Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess, and Disney.

I bristle at this proposal, which makes no sense. Doesnt the Trump Administration realize that 90% of the cruise ships coming into and out of ports in the United States are registered in foreign countries, such as Panama and the Bahamas?

Why is this? The reason is obvious  the cruise lines want to skirt the U.S. tax laws and also the strict environmental standards.

If the cruise lines want financial aid, they should be placed last in the pecking order of priority. The Trump Administration should concentrate its attention on providing aid to the 3 million Americans who are now on unemployment, and also to the suffering small businesses located in this country, many of which are staring at the sad possibility of permanently shuttering its doors.

 Hamilton Reader

Yeah, the cruise lines should look to the governments where they are registered to get bailed out. There are important aspects of other industries to help, like the medical industry and others who provide jobs to so many, but if our tax money goes to help companies that intentionally skirted U.S. tax and labor laws for years, thats a travesty.

 Ed Note

Making excuses

When I hear people say they voted for Trump because of abortion or the Supreme Court. I imagine the people of 1930s Germany saying something like, yeah, he hates Jews, but hes done a hell of a job on the economy. People vote those who share their beliefs.

 A reader

To be fair, how would people have known how racist Trump was from the beginning? Its not like at the press conference to announce his candidacy he said something crazy like that all the Mexicans coming into this country are criminals and rapists, and a few of them, maybe, are good people.

 Ed Note
Samsung has been forced to delay the production of its next-generation 3nm chips until 2022 due to the coronavirus, DigiTimes reports.

The company is engaged in a race with TSMC to reach the large-scale production of 3nm semiconductors, but the effects of the coronavirus pandemic have reportedly impeded the companys ability to install the equipment necessary to facilitate this production.

Samsung has aimed to beat TSMC to 3nm production, but now both companies are slated to begin making chips using the new processing node in 2022.

The company has previously stated that it aims to become the worlds number one semiconductor manufacturer by 2030, a goal which would require it to beat TSMC in production volume and technology.

GAAFET vs FinFET

Instead of the FinFET process it used on previous chips, Samsung will use Gate All Around (GAAFET) technology to produce its next-generation 3nm chips.

Unlike FinFET, GAAFET is designed with gates around four sides of each channel, which Samsung said would reduce power leakage and deliver improved control.

This technology could potentially reduce chip size by 35% and power consumption by 50%.

It could also offer a 33% performance increase over the 4nm FinFET manufacturing process.

Modernising production

Chipset production is not the only sector in which Samsung is updating its production processes.

At the beginning of April 2020, the company announced that it would end all LCD production by the end of 2020.

Samsung confirmed it will not suffer any issues in supplying LCD displays that have already been ordered.

We will supply ordered LCDs to our customers by the end of this year without any issues, said Samsung.

In the same announcement, Samsung confirmed that it would invest about $11 billion into quantum dot technology.

It explained that it would implement a five-year plan to transition its LCD production resources into quantum dot production lines.

Now read: Samsung to end all LCD production by the end of 2020
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the Organized Crime And Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), and OCCRP member center Kloop have received the prestigious 2019 Tom Renner Award from Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) for Plunder and Patronage in the Heart of Central Asia, a six-part report revealing the operations of a massive underground network that funneled more than $700 million from Kyrgyzstan.

The investigation amassed evidence of an illicit cargo empire run by a secretive Uyghur clan that over five years systematically moved undeclared and falsely labeled goods into Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and other Central Asian states, and then funneled hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars out of Kyrgyzstan into Turkey and beyond. It documented further evidence that the funds were laundered through bank accounts and real estate investments in the United Arab Emirates, Europe, and the United States, and exposed the alleged central role of former Customs Service Deputy Director Raimbek Matraimov and other Kyrgyz government officials in facilitating the operation.

This was a tireless and unflinching effort that combined the local expertise of RFE/RLs Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk, with OCCRPs experience in anti-corruption reporting to reveal how staggering amounts of money were stolen from the Kyrgyz people, said RFE/RL President Jamie Fly. It is an exceptional example of RFE/RLs mission and our commitment to report about public accountability and the rule of law across our coverage area. Despite the threats and attacks on our journalists because of this reporting, they were undeterred.

In November 2019, before the reports publication, Aierken Saimaiti, a key source of information about the network, was shot and killed in an Istanbul cafe.

Ali Toktakunov, the Radio Azattyk reporter whose reporting drove the investigation, has received credible death threats in connection with the report and been named by Matraimov and his family as a defendant in a libel lawsuit. According to OCCRP, as many as 12 people who reported on or publicly criticized the Matraimov family over the last ten months have been harassed.

This was a tireless and unflinching effort that combined the local expertise of RFE/RLs Kyrgyz Service with OCCRPs experience in anti-corruption reporting to reveal how staggering amounts of money were stolen from the Kyrgyz people.

In a comment on the investigation, OCCRP co-founder and publisher Drew Sullivan said, It's a dangerous and often thankless job to write on this topic, but the reporters for RFE/RL and Kloop persevered to tell the last words of a dying source.

An IRE judge wrote that, This, to me, is the reason that there is a Renner award -- these crime syndicates that operate in the shadows, particularly in places that the world pays very little attention to." He added that the report met "the true definition of revealing something that people do not want to be revealed, to the point of murder -- and certainly danger for these journalists."

Plunder And Patronage In The Heart Of Central Asia has been viewed more than 2.7 million times on social media platforms, and galvanized hundreds of demonstrators who gathered on the streets of the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, to protest corruption. A three-part treatment produced for TV has been shown on Kyrgyzstans public television channel, and several independent private TV channels have carried the program during prime time.

IRE is a nonprofit organization founded in 1975 to improve the quality of investigative reporting by helping journalists throughout the world share story ideas, newsgathering techniques, and news sources. A ceremony to present the award is planned for August 28 at the 2020 IRE Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

RFE/RLs Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk, is a leading, multimedia source of independent news and information in Kyrgyzstan, reporting on topics that other media ignore, including minority rights, government corruption, and Islamic radicalism.

About RFE/RL

RFE/RL relies on its networks of local reporters to provide accurate news and information to more than 37 million people in 26 languages and 22 countries where media freedom is restricted, or where a professional press has not fully developed. Its videos were viewed over 3.6 billion times on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram/IGTV in FY2019. RFE/RL is an editorially independent media company funded by a grant from the U.S. Congress through the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

----

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Joanna Levison in Prague (levisonj@rferl.org, +420.221.122.080)

Martins Zvaners in Washington (zvanersm@rferl.org, +1.202.457.6948)
Many Americans are weeks, if not months, from returning to their offices and regaining a semblance of a normal workday. Given the recent layoff and furlough announcements, many are wondering whether they will even have a job after the dust settles.

But building owners and company leaders  and those who help them manage properties and design workplaces  have begun to anticipate the time when the shelter-in-place orders are lifted and people start heading back to the office. Those in the midst of planning suggest that the post-pandemic office might look radically different.

Returning workers can expect stepped-up cleaning and a reinforcement of social distancing. Hand sanitizer stands will probably be positioned in lobbies. Maintenance staff will swab door handles. There may be limits on the number of people allowed in an elevator.

Workplaces may have significant changes in the long run, including new seating arrangements and the addition of building materials that discourage the spread of germs. New technology could provide access to rooms and elevators without employees having to touch a handle or press a button.
Governments across the world have rolled out extensive financial packages to support individuals, businesses and large corporations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Equally, central banks have decreased their lending rates to almost zero, and have announced extensive and previously untested direct lending to private corporations and financial companies.

In many wealthy countries, the support packages are record-breaking in their size and scope, such as the US$2.2 trillion stimulus package for the US economy.

The US and Australian stimulus packages each represent about 10% of GDP. New Zealands program is about 5% of GDP, but each country is experiencing the economic shock differently, has different existing safety nets and priorities, and different mechanisms to deliver this assistance.

These support packages will play a significant role in shaping our world for many years, and we should not allow the clear emergency of the situation to stop us questioning their design.

Goals for financial support

Our work on economic recovery following natural hazards and disasters defines a set of build-back-better goals, and how they should be assessed.

This kind of thinking applies equally to our current predicament. We argue that globally, the purpose of COVID-19 stimulus packages should be threefold, and we should assess them against these three goals:

make sure peoples basic needs are satisfied make it possible for the economy to spring back into action once the necessary social distancing measures are relaxed use these funds to create positive change, and rebuild areas we previously neglected (in many countries, this will mean investing in public health systems).

To achieve the first goal of making sure people can meet their basic needs, many high-income countries - including the US, Greece, the UK and France - are either providing direct payments to all citizens (as in the US) or targeted support to those who lost income or jobs.

These payments are sometimes a fixed proportion of each recipients previous income, up to a cap (as in the UK), or are identical for everyone who has lost income (as in New Zealand).

From an economic perspective, it is clearly more efficient to provide support only to the people who really need it - those who have lost income and would not be able to support themselves and their dependants.

But these programs are also shaped by politics and ethics, and different countries chose different ways to distribute this assistance, not always based on need.

Restarting economies

Even better are programs that provide the wage subsidies through existing employers, such as Germanys famed Kurzarbeit program (which translates to work with shorter hours) which was implemented during the 2008 global financial crisis.

New Zealands wage subsidy package is a similar program. It supports businesses to continue paying their staff even if they are unable to work.

Details of payments to businesses are posted online, to make sure employers comply and transfer these funds to their employees. This initiative was trialled after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

A similar support was also implemented in Australia.

Generally, wage subsidies allow for continued employment of individuals who would otherwise be let go, and they will also assist in achieving the second goal of resuming economic activity once restrictions are relaxed.

Such programs have been shown to be effective in Germany and New Zealand in ameliorating unexpected shocks.

While employees need support, directly or indirectly, it is also important that small and medium-sized businesses are propped up so they are ready to forge ahead once it is possible to do so. They should receive grants and subsidised loans to pay their costs, other than wages. Otherwise many businesses will fail, and the recovery will be slow and hard.

Global impacts

Whether large corporations need to receive support depends partly on the longer-term importance of their sector. It is easier to justify support for national airlines, which are an important linchpin in many countries global ties, than to support fossil fuel producers, for example.

Nor are there many reasons why taxpayers (present and future) should bail out wealthy individual owners of large businesses, when these businesses could be restructured in bankruptcy proceedings that should not lead to their shutdown.

But the COVID-19 pandemic has impacts well beyond individual countries and their economies and may require global support mechanisms.

Most low- and middle-income countries have either not yet announced any assistance or their packages are less than 1% of GDP. They typically cannot afford more with their existing debt levels.

It is therefore incumbent on high-income countries that can afford larger fiscal support packages to help countries that cannot. But so far only a handful of high-income countries, including Finland and Norway, have provided such support.

The international institutions supported by the rich world, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, should pull out all the stops and lend enough, and at concessionary rates, to low-income countries so they can, at the very least, provide for their peoples basic needs.

Without that support, the virus will continue to spread in low-income countries and defeat the draconian social distancing measures that almost every country is implementing now.

Finally, it is important that we scrutinise these programs carefully now, rather than only once the public health emergency has passed and they have been entrenched. The sums involved are incredibly large and we will be remiss if we mis-spend what we are now borrowing from our children and grandchildren.

* Stay in touch with The Conversations coverage from New Zealand experts by signing up for our weekly newsletter  delivered to you each Wednesday morning.

Ilan Noy, Professor and Chair in the Economics of Disasters, Te Herenga Waka  Victoria University of Wellington

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
These are unusual times, and much like the rest of the world, weve never witnessed anything like this before. Upon scrutiny, the empty roads and clear skies give way to a different reality, and raise pertinent questions besides Indias immediate health and economic concerns amid the nationwide lockdown.

 Pexels

Relationships have metamorphosed in plain sight. Lovers who went on dates often, havent met in a long time, and those who hardly got to see each other are now locked down under the same room. So what more has the lockdown done besides digitising romance and threatening peoples personal space?



 BCCL

We got in touch with different couples spanning demographics to find out how they are working their way around the restrictions to balance their individuality and keep the romance alive under lockdown.



Garima & Ritesh

It took Garima and Ritesh almost 10 years of being acquaintances before finding their way to each other. The two had been friends on social media since 2010 but never had a proper conversation until their share of messy breakups led to some much needed decluttering, and eventually made space for new associations. What started off with an innocent DM, quickly turned into an engagement in three months time, and within the next seven months, they were declared man and wife.

 MensXP Garima Chaklader Pandey

Its been a little over a month of being married and Garima confesses to loving this upgrade to the relationship, and Ritesh agrees too that, Marriage has only strengthened what we already shared. Currently, these two are loving this extended honeymoon period due to the lockdown. Garima admits that It would have been torturous without him in this situation and Ritesh is quick to confirm that things are tough since the lockdown. Our mental health and daily lives have taken a strong hit. I am happy that she is around and I am able to share everything with her at a time like this.



 MensXP Garima Chaklader Pandey

When asked if the lockdown has affected their equation in any way, Garima says, That's the thing with Ritesh, he knows when to leave you alone! I honestly think I have a much harder time giving him the space he needs. I got to work on it. Ritesh, on the other hand, is quick to point out that unlike others who claim to be bickering a lot more with their partners amid the lockdown, The frequency of our fights has actually been the same. The lockdown has had an insignificant statistical impact on our relationship!



As for keeping the romance alive while they keep their individuality intact, Garima says thats a department her romantic husband takes care of much better. So Ritesh spills his secret formula, Well, romance, you know, there is netflix, so chill! *wink wink*

Diya & Chirag

 MensXP Diya Elizabeth

Chirag and Diya like to call theirs an arranged love marriage and though they may have been set up by their parents initially, fate had other plans in store. Diya wasn't ready to get married, but decided to meet Chirag for her familys sake. It took her a couple of more meetings to realise that she had fallen hard and fast for this charming man who constantly made her laugh. A short courtship later, they exchanged vows and became Mr & Mrs.



But here is the catch. Soon after their wedding, they turned into a long distance couple when Diya had to relocate to Karnataka for her job. Thus began their days of staying apart for months before they could meet again. Diya shares, On a regular day, were too busy. Our schedules dont exactly match, so we have to consciously make time to talk. We simply hate the woes that distance adds to the mix.

 MensXP Diya Elizabeth

Talk about lockdown and their happiness is almost palpable. The lockdown has done us good. She managed to get home just in time. Being away for so long, wed missed each other a lot. Diya happily confesses, Spending the lockdown together is keeping us happy as well as sane! We probably wouldnt have taken this lockdown well if we werent together. The worry, the yearning, its too hard to even imagine.



The lockdown has come as a blessing for these two after having stayed apart for months. But Chirag and Diya also make sure they give each other space and dont cling too much. We do our own thing but also ensure were doing a few things together as well, be it cooking or playing games. Diya makes a quick note and adds, Its been 2 weeks since I returned home, and we havent wanted to kill each other yet. So, its all good.

Sherry & Joy

 MensXP Joy

Joy and Sherrys love story could have been yet another quirky, office romance for the books, but that was not to be. They were coworkers at the same company in Bangalore and despite the many stolen glances over time, never spoke to each other until a month before Joy was to leave the company.



Once out, they decided to hang out and ended up exchanging numbers. One thing led to another until the two of them not only got into a relationship, but also found themselves moving-in together. Joy and Sherry have been together for a year now and claim that on most days it still feels like an adventure. Kabhi bhi kuch bhi hota hai.

 MensXP Joy

However, these two are especially stoked about the lockdown and Joy is quick to chip in why. For us, its been a year of working in shifts with even our weekly offs clashing. So, this lockdown situation has actually worked in our favour. For the first time since we started dating, we are finally getting to spend so much time together.



But when asked if the lockdown has had any severe impact on their equation over the last two weeks, Sherry confirms, We do have fights, but then again thats just our frustration of sitting at home. Otherwise, we dont think we have any complaints.

They admit that balancing their individuality and romance amid the enforced lockdown has not been an issue at all. We give each other enough freedom to do the things we personally like, and though not every day is the same, we do manage to work things out amicably most days.

Needhi & Akshay

 MensXP Needhi Dhoker

Needhi and Akshay were set up by their mutual friends and hit it right off after their first meeting at a cafe. That was five years ago, and today these two admit to have had one hell of a journey together. Interestingly, one may call Needhi and Akshay the accidentally locked-down couple, and here is why.



Needhi happened to be visiting Akshays family when she was caught in the lockdown with no way of getting back to her place as planned. Its now been 20 days since the two have been living together with Akshays family, and Needhi admits to actually liking this little sneak peek into the future.

 Pexels

These two share a pretty easy-going relationship, love spending time together, while respecting one anothers need for space. However, when asked how the lockdown has impacted their relationship, they come up with a nothing has changed in unison. Needhi shares that this has rather been a lucky turn of events, Were actually getting to spend more time together. Between working from home and managing the house, we also make time for each other. Thats something we didnt get to do before since we live pretty far.



Akshay agrees and adds we have been able to tolerate each other so far. We both spend quality time together but also know when to leave each other alone. Between our daily schedule we ensure that we have dinner together and have hearty chats with ample flirting added to the mix. Its been a great few days.

The lockdown has actually worked to Needhi and Akshays benefit because not only has it allowed them to spend more quality time together, but also helped them grow closer.

Sarah & Tariq

 MensXP Sarah Malik

A product of the classic Indian arranged match-making, Dr Sarah and Dr Tariqs story ought to begin in their courtship period, post their engagement. Theirs wasnt the usual exchange of texts and lovey emoticons. Instead Tariq and Sarah bonded over email exchanges sharing their dreams, hopes and insecurities. When the day of the wedding came, it was like two friends formalising a life-long friendship, so love wasnt far behind.



What followed was four years of an adventurous ride, and just over a month ago Sarah and Tariq welcomed their baby girl into this world. But as luck would have it, before Tariq could take Sarah and their baby home, the lockdown was announced. Now, while Sarah spends the lockdown away in her maternal home, duty calls Dr Tariq to the pandemic-fighting frontlines.

 MensXP Sarah Malik

The two of them have hardly met since, and thats been a difficult transition for the new parents. But Tariq fondly says, We cant meet each other quite as often as wed like. But this enforced distance has made us grow more fond of each other and we make the best use of whatever time we do get to spend together.



However, Tariq credits their Yin-Yang-like equation for having survived the last two weeks without major hiccups. Sarah agrees, Everyone believes our relationship is special, I am no different. I try my best to instill some planning and seriousness in his easy-going attitude and he helps calm my nerves when I get too paranoid about trivial issues. So, at the end of the day, things balance out pretty well.

 MensXP Sarah Malik

Recalling the initial period of the lockdown Sarah says, the sudden lockdown came with its set of uncertainties. We have to be extra careful because our daughter is only six-weeks-old. I do miss him not being around with us and also fear about his well-being amid the virus outbreak. But, I see it all improving in the weeks to come. Lets hope for the best.



But until then, both Sarah and Tariq are relying on technology to stay connected and keep the romance going. Together or apart, its this feeling that someone is there for you no matter what, keeps the romance alive. Also, in this era of technology, with video calls and WhatsApp, one can always stay connected and in touch.

Five couples, five distinct stories. Yet, all this lockdown seems to have done in most of their cases is to give these couples a chance to move away from their circumscribed, fast paced lives and reconnect at a more deeper, personal level.

Theres healing here, while for others its been nothing short of a discovery. As endless conversations make way for quiet understanding, leaving behind plain old love and clarity in its wake, perhaps its time for all of us to pause and really look at all those personal relationships which make our lives worthwhile. And if theres only one thing we can take away from all this, it ought to be that life is transient, and so are the people who make it, and we must make the most of what we have while it all lasts.
World Amateur Radio Day

On Saturday, April 18, 2020 (1200Z to 2359Z), Radio Amateurs of Canada is organizing a special on-air event to celebrate World Amateur Radio Day.

Every year on April 18, Radio Amateurs worldwide take to the airwaves in celebration of Amateur Radio and to commemorate the formation of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) on April 18, 1925.

World Amateur Radio Day is the day when IARU Member-Societies can show our capabilities to the public and promote global friendship among Amateurs worldwide.

The theme of World Amateur Radio Day (WARD) is Celebrating Amateur Radios contribution to Society and this is especially relevant given the important role Amateur Radio will play as the current global crisis unfolds.

IARU President Tim Ellam, VE6SH, provided the following message:

As I write this the world is in the midst of battling the COVID-19 crisis.

A few short weeks ago many of us could not imagine the levels of isolation that we are now dealing with and the sacrifices of many on the frontlines of the pandemic. As we have done in past challenges to our society, Amateur Radio will play a key part in keeping people connected and assisting those who need support.

Having come off my own 14-day isolation after returning from an overseas trip, I am touched by the kindness of strangers who assisted me when I was unable to leave my house. It strikes me Amateur Radio operators, who give so much during these times of crisis, are not limited to assisting over the air. Amateurs are true volunteers and I would encourage everyone to assist in the community as they are able to.

My wish for this World Amateur Radio Day is for everyone to stay safe, follow the advice of medical professionals and use Amateur Radio and your skills to help us through this crisis.

Radio Amateurs of Canada has decided to hold a new Get on the Air on World Amateur Radio Day special event in which we encourage as many Amateurs as possible to get on the air and contact as many RAC stations as possible.

RAC official stations will operate across Canada from 1200Z to 2359Z on April 18. The RAC official station call signs are VA2RAC, VA3RAC, VE1RAC, VE4RAC, VE5RAC, VE6RAC, VE7RAC, VE8RAC, VE9RAC, VO1RAC, VO2RAC, VY0RAC, VY1RAC and VY2RAC.

Those contacting one or more of these stations will be eligible for a special commemorative certificate noting their participation in RACs Get on the Air on World Amateur Radio Day Event.

Note: Starting at 1800Z, VA3RAC will be active in the Ontario QSO Party and will be sending the contest exchange. Stations contacting VA3RAC after 1800Z are encouraged to send their contest exchange in return (state/province/country or Ontario county).

For more information on World Amateur Radio Day and the special event please visit:

https://www.rac.ca/operating/world-amateur-radio-day-april-18/

Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA

President, Radio Amateurs of Canada

Radio Amateurs of Canada
The Jewish community praised new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer for making a clean break from the Corbyn era today as they held talks online.

Sir Keir was hailed for having 'achieved more in four days more than his predecessor in four years' after he unveiled steps to tackle vile abuse in the party.

In a Skype call, Sir Keir - who romped to victory in the contest to replace Jeremy Corbyn on Saturday - told senior figures that the handling of the issue up to now had been a 'disgrace'.

Joined by newly-elected deputy leader Angela Rayner, Sir Keir said he had demanded that all the outstanding anti-Semitism cases be 'on my desk at the end of the week', while also vowing to set up an independent complaints process.

The issue dogged Labour after Mr Corbyn's election as leader in 2015, and leadership hopefuls were regularly asked how they would tackle it.

In a Skype call, Sir Keir Starmer (pictured top right) told senior Jewish community leader that the handling of the anti-Semitic abuse up to now had been a 'disgrace'

The issue dogged Labour after Jeremy Corbyn's (pictured) election as leader in 2015, and leadership hopefuls were regularly asked how they would tackle it

An inquiry into Labour's handling of the crisis is currently being undertaken by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

The Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl, Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) chairman Jonathan Goldstein, Community Security Trust (CST) chairman Gerald Ronson and Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) chairman Mike Katz issued a joint statement following the online meeting.

They said: 'While we would have fully understood the need to focus entirely on coronavirus at this time, Keir Starmer has already achieved in four days more than his predecessor in four years in addressing anti-Semitism within the Labour Party.

'As we discussed with Keir and Angela, we want to have a normal relationship with Labour whereby we can discuss the full range of issues affecting our community, from religious freedom to Israel, from Jewish schools to poverty, from refugees to the environment - and not just anti-Semitism.

'This has certainly been a good start.'

Sir Keir thanked the representatives for meeting with him 'not least so close to Passover'.

'It was very important to me to seek to address the disgrace of anti-Semitism in our party as soon as possible,' he said.

'Today, I repeated once again the apology I made as soon as I was elected leader.

'Over the last few years, we have failed the Jewish community on anti-Semitism.

Sir Keir (pictured on the BBC's Andrew Marr show at the weekend) was hailed for having 'achieved more in four days more than his predecessor in four years' after he unveiled steps to tackle vile abuse in the party

'Labour is a proudly anti-racist party and, going forward, it will not be enough to 'pass the test' on anti-Semitism. We need to set new standards for best practice.

'At today's meeting, I committed to begin work on setting up an independent complaints process, co-operating fully with the EHRC's inquiry and asking for a report on all outstanding cases to be on my desk at (the end of) the week.

'I also discussed with the Jewish Labour Movement my ambition to roll out training of all Labour Party staff as soon as practically possible.'

Others on the call included the Board of Deputies chief executive and public affairs director, Gillian Merron and Phil Rosenberg respectively, JLC chief executive Simon Johnson, CST chief executive David Delew and Peter Mason, national secretary of JLM.

Party staff included Sir Keir's chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, Ellie Robinson, director of stakeholder engagement, Nick Parrott, policy adviser to the deputy leader, and Alex Barros-Curtis, legal adviser to Sir Keir's leadership campaign.

Campaign advisers Lord Jonathan Kestenbaum and Sir Trevor Chinn also dialled in.
Gilead Sciences (GILD) has positioned itself at the front line in the global war against COVID-19. The biotechs experimental drug remdesivir is currently in two Gilead sponsored Phase 3 trials in over 90 locations, and two further investigator sponsored Phase 3 trials in China. The drug is currently registered in 11 ongoing trials, from which a handful of data readouts are expected in the next 2 to 6 weeks.

So far, remdesivir has shown powerful in vitro efficacy against RNA viruses in cell-based assays and evidence of efficacy in both in California and Washington states; Additionally, there has also been some anecdotal evidence from American cruise passengers, as well as locals, treated in Japan.

Oppenheimers Hartaj Singh noted, We believe GILD likely has further positive in-vitro data from Chinese CDC in nonhuman primate (NHP) cells and potentially also from US CDC in human cells. Yet, Singh remains cautious going into the impending data readouts, due the limited data against human patients. And compared to the ongoing Gilead Phase 3 trials, the Chinese studies have broader inclusion and exclusion criteria, leading to fears there will be mixed results displaying no clinical significance on account of too heterogeneous a patient population in both studies.

Singh concluded, As we approach the impending Chinese (April) and GILD (May) Phase 3 readouts, we caution investors to NOT expect a simple Yes/No outcome. We believe the outcomes will be more nuanced and our recent KOL (key opinion leader) calls indicate that physicians will be comfortable with less-than-perfect results.

To this end, Singh reiterates an Outperform rating on Gilead shares, along with an $80 price target. The figure implies possible upside of a modest 5% from current levels. (To watch Singhs track record, click here)

All in all, Gilead has been one of 2020s success stories, with shares rising nearly nearly 15% versus the S&P's 20% loss. The biggest question for investors, then, is whether those gains are likely to continue. Looking at the consensus breakdown, opinions from other analysts are more spread out. 10 Buys, 9 Holds and 2 Sell ratings add up to a Moderate Buy consensus. In addition, the $76.88 average price target indicates just a slight upside from current levels.

Story continues

Importantly, Gilead boasts a 10 score from TipRanks Smart Score. Thats thanks to a combination of bullish datapoints, including a bullish positive sentiment from investors, increased hedge fund activity, positive news sentiment and even bullish opinions from the financial blogging community. (See Gilead stock analysis on TipRanks)

To find good ideas for healthcare stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.
PHILIPSBURG: --- Supermarkets on the south side of the island will open only to conduct delivery to their clients, on the French side and the BES islands. Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs made the announcement on Monday afternoon.

Jacobs made clear that that the supermarkets will not all be opened to the public; clients can make orders for essential items and not luxury items by emails or WhatsApp number that will be later published. She warned that the owners of supermarkets must follow strict guidelines with regard to the restrictions. She said the forms must be filled in while the delivery workers must stay a safe distance away from their clients.

Jacobs also announced that a videoconference meeting was held on Monday between the French and Dutch sides as a follow up on the border control. Jacobs said on Monday morning the Oyster Pond border was not blocked as agreed upon on Sunday, besides that she said persons crossing the borders must have the Disaster Pass issued by the Government of St. Maarten or the waiver issued by the Prefecture of St. Martin. The staff of the St. Maarten Medical Center has its Disaster Pass printed at the back of their professional identification.

The Prime Minister said on Monday Police received over 1000 requests for waivers to cross the border. She said the number is outrageous because these persons do not fall under emergency workers. Jacobs called on the population to respect the lockdown and not request these waivers for anything that is not of utter urgency. Persons desiring to cross the border for medical reasons or to care for the elderly should submit their request to the Minister of Health.
Research for THz semiconductors Joint Lab for very high frequency semiconductors established 7. April 2020, 9:42 Uhr |

Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE) of the Center for Semiconductor Technology and Optoelectronics (ZHO) at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) for InP high frequency devices.

Scientists from the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut fur Hochstfrequenztechnik, in Berlin are working together to develop ICs for very high frequencies.

At the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), a Terahertz Integration Centre, unique in Germany, is currently being built, which is being funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the EU with 6.5 million euros. Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Nils Weimann, scientists at the Center for Semiconductor Technology and Optoelectronics (ZHO) at UDE are already working on the necessary semiconductor materials, such as indium phosphide (InP).

This semiconductor material is well suited for high-frequency components, but can currently only be produced in very complex and small quantities. To change this, the ZHO has purchased a new production facility  for the Terahertz Integration Center.

The semiconductor experts at UDE are now contributing their know-how to the newly founded Joint Lab InP Devices, in which the Ferdinand Braun Institute, Leibnitz Institute for High Frequency Technology (FBH), in Berlin is also participating. Together, semiconductor materials, components and circuits for mm wave and terahertz applications are to be developed.

High frequency semiconductors

The terahertz range (0.13 THz) is still largely untapped, as electronic components are currently only commercially available for frequencies below 100 GHz. In order to open up the highest frequency range, suitable semiconductor materials, such as indium phosphide (InP), and component structures optimized for maximum frequency must be researched and developed.

Since January 2017, research in the department on THz components is funded by the Collaborative Research Center / Transregional Collaborative Research Center (SFB/TRR) 196 - Mobile Material Characterization by Electromagnetic Scanning (MARIE). This Collaborative Research Center of the German Research Foundation, DFG, was established at the UDE.

Prof. Dr. Nils Weimann heads the Department of High Frequency Electronics (BHE) at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) and the new Joint Lab InP Devices: Together with our colleagues in Berlin, we want to develop circuits and modules for terahertz applications.

The outstanding material properties of InP  high electron velocity combined with high breakdown field strength  allow the realization of components with highest cut-off frequencies and high output power. The material system InP is being studied in detail at the UDE: epitaxial processes accurate to one atomic layer are used to create structures for resonant tunnel diodes (RTD) and heterostructure bipolar transistors (HBT).

For this purpose, the Department of High-Frequency Electronics Devices (BHE) has two epitaxy systems at its disposal in the laboratories of the Center for Semiconductor Technology and Optoelectronics (ZHO) at the UDE: molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and metal organic gas phase epitaxy (MOVPE). The MOVPE system was newly procured as part of the BMBF initiative ForLab SmartBeam.

At UDE, RTD and HBT are developed and optimized for highest frequency and performance. The necessary manufacturing processes are carried out in the clean room of the ZHO. Here, critical component structures are defined using electron beam lithography, which allows structure widths far below 1 m.

The semiconductor components RTD and HBT form the building blocks for complex circuits and modules. The InP wafers with HBTs for THz applications developed at UDE are further processed at FBH to form complex circuits. Both partners in the new Joint Lab InP Devices use the same wafer diameter and compatible processes  this enables a fast implementation of new fundamental research results of the university in the application-oriented development of the FBH.

At the UDE, THz RTDs with integrated antennas are produced which are integrated into modules using chip assembly technology. This work takes place in the new Terahertz Integration Center of the UDE at the ZHO.
More high-profile lawmakers line up behind Biden's campaign FILE PHOTO: Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic at an event in Wilmington

By Trevor Hunnicutt

(Reuters) - Joe Biden's presidential bid won endorsements from two prominent members of Congress on Tuesday, support that could help the Democrat in his campaign for the party's nomination.

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who once weighed his own presidential run, and U.S. Representative John Lewis of Georgia, a prominent black civil rights activist, announced their support for the former vice president.

Biden is seeking his party's nomination to face Republican President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election.

While Trump carried both Ohio and Georgia in the 2016 election, Democrats see opportunity to make progress in statewide races in both places.

"Joe Biden has no delusion about this nation's past, but he knows who we can be at our best," said Lewis, who was beaten unconscious by Alabama state troopers in 1965 during a march for voting rights, in a video posted by Biden's campaign.

Biden maintains a strong lead in the Democratic nominating contest over his lone remaining rival, liberal U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, after victories powered by support from black voters and legislators from Southern states like Georgia.

Yet the coronavirus outbreak has postponed state primaries and delayed the nominating contest from reaching a conclusion. Ohio is now collecting ballots, mostly by mail, through April 28 and Georgians are set to vote on May 19. Both states had originally been scheduled to hold primaries in March.

Brown, a liberal with strong ties to the labor movement, could help Biden build his appeal with working-class white voters in the Midwest as well as among the party's more liberal constituencies.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Jonathan Oatis)
UPPER THUMB  Local cases of coronavirus didn't increase Monday, however state totals saw a significant jump. The state also set a single-day record for number of coronavirus-related deaths Monday with 110. Here are some things you need to know as you start your Tuesday.

Local health department releases presumptive positive numbers

Until Sunday, the Huron and Tuscola county health departments were only releasing the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in each county, despite Health Officer Ann Hepfer saying she suspected the number of cases locally to be much higher than what was reported. Sunday, the local health department released the number of presumptive positive cases in both Huron and Tuscola counties.

Community banding together during outbreak

Members of the community throughout the Upper Thumb continue to band to together to help anyone who needs it during the coronavirus outbreak. Several local companies and volunteers have stepped up to donate resources and time, and local medical facilities have seen an outpouring of support.

Local businesses recognizing front-line workers

A couple local businesses are partnering together to give a little thanks to those working on the front-lines of the pandemic. Emma's Coffee House is offering a free breakfast sandwich or beverage for front-line workers courtesy of a donation from its business as well as Popham Flooring.

State numbers on the rise

Confirmed coronavirus cases rose above 17,000 cases Monday, as the death toll grew the most it has since the pandemic began. As of Monday, 727 people had died due to the coronavirus in Michigan.

Coronavirus cases across the U.S.

Here is a look of where coronavirus cases are being reported across the country.

Have questions about coronavirus?

Need a question answered about coronavirus? Fill out the form below and we will try to get the answer in a future article.
As I said after Trumps election, we can all benefit in these polarized times from taking a peek at how the world looks to those who happen to be on the other political side. The same holds true in the freak show world of reality TV where what you are in reality can mean less than what you represent in other peoples imaginations.
Pakistan's military said it will provide protective equipment to dozens of doctors who were briefly jailed for protesting a lack of medical gear needed to treat the growing number of coronavirus cases.



The 47 doctors protested in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, on April 6, when they were detained. Provincial spokesman Liaquat Shahwani said they were released later the same day.



An army statement on April 7 said the "emergency supplies of medical equipment, including PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) are being dispatched to Quetta."



However, some of the medical personnel who had been detained said they were mistreated by police and that some of their colleagues were beaten. The doctors spoke under the condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals.



Two doctors have died after contracting the new virus in Pakistan, which has recorded 4,004 cases and 54 deaths.



Many of the cases have been traced to pilgrims returning from neighboring Iran.



Pakistani authorities have imposed a countrywide lockdown until April 14.

Based on reporting by AP and dawn.com
Californias Resilient Ranchers and Farmers Respond to Surging Demand

As cautious consumers continue to leave grocery store shelves bare, Californias ranchers and farmers have been rising to the challenge of feeding the nation.

For many food producers, working on their ranches and farms during the COVID-19 pandemic has been business as usualbut getting their products to consumers has become challenging.

People dont have to worry that theres not going to be enough produce or that theres not going to be enough protein, cattle rancher Celeste Settrini told The Epoch Times.

They need to just realize that ranchers, we have been doing this for a long time.

Since President Donald Trumps national emergency declaration on March 13, grocery stores have found many of their shelves stripped bare of vital itemsmaking it appear as though certain products, including meat, are scarce.

But livestock production is continuing at a record pace, and cattle ranchers arent worried. People shouldnt be either, they feel.

Farmers and ranchers have been producing food for hundreds of years, and were going to continue to do that, Settrini said.

Settrinialong with other crop farmers, egg ranchers, and food producershas been enduring different challenges for decades, yet has continued producing throughout all of them.

People in ranching are very resilient, and it seems like weve always got something to worry about, Settrini said.

Whether its a drought and theres not enough to eat for the cattle, or competitive markets with other proteins, it seems like we have always got something that were up against.

Still, the global pandemic caused by the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, has presented new challenges.

Those include shifting demand as well as supply-chain bottlenecks.

But theyve weathered the storm before, and Californias food producers are rising to the occasion in unexpected, inspiring ways.

Cattle graze among wildflowers at Celeste Settrinis cattle ranch in Salinas Valley, Calif. (Courtesy of Celeste Settrini)

A Volatile Beef Market

Settrinis Salinas Valley cattle ranch has been in the family for 105 years. She runs the ranch with her brother; they have no employees.

Her day starts at 8 a.m. when she begins making rounds to check on her 200 mother cows and their water troughs. By noon, shes back in her home office, tending to the logistical side of the business.

In a normal April and May, ranches begin marketing and selling their 8-month-old calves, which weigh about 750 pounds.

But Settrini said that this year, she hasnt seen many calves on the marketbecause the market itself has come down just like the stock market.

Small family-owned ranches like hers only see one paycheck for the entire year, she said.

Family ranches like myself, those calves, theyre raised on the mama cow and then eventually, those calves must be sold, Settrini said.

And so, at that time, thats our one paycheck for the year. So thats coming upon us now here, in the next couple months.

But volatile stock markets have created uncertainty regarding beef futures contracts as well.

Normally, restaurants control the retail market for meat. But with dine-in revenue blocked due to business restrictions Gov. Gavin Newsom implemented on March 19, theres been a surge in at-home food demand.

The problem that retailers face today is getting enough in the store as consumers stock up not for a week or two, but possibly a months worth of beef, cattle analyst Paul Dykstra wrote in Feed Lot Magazine. The beef industry infrastructure is simply struggling to keep up with the right now demand at grocery stores.

The cost of packaged meatwhich customers find on grocery store shelveshas increased, while prices for fine-cut meat, normally used by restaurants, have fallen.

The longer restaurants are not fully operational, the more privately owned farms that arent backed by conglomerate agricultural companies will suffer, Settrini said.

Who knows how long were going to be in shelter-in-place and wont be able to move around freely like we used to, Settrini said. And so I do worry about that a little bit, in what is going to happen.

Are people going to continue to purchase our product in the grocery store the longer that restaurants are out of business?

Derrell S. Peel, a livestock marketing specialist based at Oklahoma State University, wrote in Feed Lot Magazine that COVID-19 is changing how and where meat consumption happens and is temporarily overwhelming certain supply chains.

Peel cited recent reports that indicate a 77 percent year-over-year increase in grocery meat sales in mid-March and reiterated that there is no shortage of meat in the U.S. He added that production of beef, pork, and poultry are projected at record levels in 2020.

Jill Scofield, director of producer relations for the California Beef Council, told The Epoch Times, Its just a matter of getting the meat back into the stores.

Scofield believes its only a matter of distribution catching up with a surge in demand. Overall, she said, there have not been significant negative impacts or closures of processing plants due to the virus.

The problem lies not in a lack of availability, but in transporting goods quickly from ranches in central and northern California to grocery chains across the state. Once these distribution channels catch up, she said, you should not see quite as much clearing of the meat cases as you are right now.

For those in production, it really has notto this pointimpacted how they go about doing their business, she added. A lot of stock auction markets are still open.

But in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions social distancing measures, stock auction markets have also limited how many people are permitted to enter.

Meanwhile, Settriniwho describes herself as a glass half-full kind of galwaits anxiously to see how many calves shell sell and how much her yearly paycheck will be.

An Egg Rancher Adjusts

Its interesting how all of a sudden you are called a blessing by the folks who are buying eggs, Frank Hilliker, owner of Hillikers Ranch Fresh Eggs, told The Epoch Times.

San Diego-based Hilliker and his sister, Lara, own a family egg ranch thats been around since 1941. The siblings wholesale eggs to grocery and produce markets throughout the county. In addition, they also do on-farm sales to the public.

Normally, when folks come to Hillikers to buy eggs, they drive onto the ranch, get out of their cars, and enter the ranchs egg room, where the eggs are processed, packaged, and sold.

But since the stay-at-home order restrictions, the Hillikers are now operating only drive-through services to limit exposureand business is booming.

Customers circle their cars to purchase drive-through eggs at Hillikers Ranch Fresh Eggs in San Diego, Calif. (Courtesy of Frank Hilliker)

Team members stand ready to sell freshly packed eggs at Hillikers Ranch Fresh Eggs in San Diego, Calif. (Courtesy of Frank Hilliker)

Since the outbreak, they have been selling up to 75,000 eggs per day, averaging anywhere from 400,000 to 500,000 eggs every week.

When the grocery store shelves were empty and had no eggs, we became one of the most popular places around, said Hilliker. We had to hire traffic control folks as well to sell the product.

Now, customers enter the driveway, pull around in a circle, and stay in their cars. Then a Hillikers team memberwearing personal protective equipmenttakes the order and collects payment.

A staff member then retrieves the eggs, which conveniently are located in the middle of the circle under a pop-up tent.

I would ask people how far they drove, Hilliker said.Most were 15 to 30 minutes away, but several folks drove an hour to come to us. Some came from as far as Los Angeles just to get the chance to buy two flats of eggs.

Yet Hilliker still worries about the future: 60 percent of his regular business comes from the food service industry, so he is concerned about his customers who are restaurant owners. Many will have to face the brutal reality of reopening or being forced to close.

Are they going to be able to open, or be able to afford all these people out of work? he said.

You know, right now, people havent been out of work that longthey can still afford to buy food supplies, he said. But in two to three months, its gonna be bad.

A Worried Alfalfa Farmer

Erik Wilson is a cotton and alfalfa farmer who also runs his own crop-spraying business.

There are a lot of unknowns yet to materialize that have me worried, Wilson told The Epoch Times.

Wilson, who grew up in Madera, doesnt come from a farming familyso he had to learn everything on his own. He now owns a crop farm in Dos Palos, a small town about an hour northwest of Fresno.

Farming in many ways is like gambling, Wilson said.

We compete against the world in terms of price for our products. The world economy is suffering like ours, and it will be interesting, to say the least, how this all plays out.

But as I talk to my local farmers, we just dont know anything else but to keep farming and working to grow our crops.

The sun sets over the cotton bolls on Erik Wilsons farm in Dos Palos, Calif. (Courtesy of Erik Wilson)

He said its too early to know what will happen with agricultural commodities and prices.

When Wilson is not actively tending the fields, he works on his crop-spraying business. But this too has suffered during the pandemicespecially his two full-time employees.

Usually when we have no spraying jobs, we work on servicing equipment and routine maintenance, said Wilson. Right now, Im not having my employees come out unless we have an actual spraying job. I still pay them, however, to stay at home at this time.

When they do work, Wilson has handed out Clorox wipes to his employees and instructed them to drive only one vehicle. Because they work together all the time, they just do the best at not getting close to each other.

Wilson reiterated that he would continue to pay his employees, even if they got sick.

Recent phone conversations with other farmers have revolved around the health of our employees and their families and how we can find ways to keep paying them through these difficult times.

We got a lot of mouths to feed, he said. We really dont have any other choice but to overcome this.

Wilson had intended to plant honeydew melons and cantaloupes in Junebut due to the uncertainty created by the virus, this may not be feasible.

He had been in escrow on a parcel of land for some timebut withdrew his money just in case I have no other way to pay my guys and my own bills.

I hope it doesnt come to that, Wilson said. But we will persevere.

Looking to the Future

California is the leading U.S. state for cash farm receipts, accounting for over 13 percent of the nations total agricultural value in 2018, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Over a third of the countrys vegetables and two-thirds of the countrys fruits and nuts are grown in the state. In addition, California remains the countrys leading dairy state, and ranked fourth in total livestock receipts for 2017, behind Texas, Iowa, and Nebraska.

Cattle and calves accounted for $3.19 billion of the states economy in 2018, with dairy products and milk at $6.37 billion. Almonds and pistachios combined to equal around $8 billion.

Without our consumers, we couldnt do what we do, said Settrini. We need to work together in getting through all of this.

Wilson said, I just cant wait for the day when we all can look back on this historic event and it will be just thathistory.
Deaths from coronavirus in France on Tuesday passed the 10,000 mark as the prime minister Edouard Philippe warned that restrictions imposed on French citizens to battle the spread of the potentially fatal disease would continue.

Philippe told the Assemblee nationale that lockdown measures brought in almost one month ago would last for as long as necessary.

It's extremely premature to start talking about when people can start going out, Philippe said. It's time to remain inside and that's how it will stay.

The French government targeted 15 April as the date when measures could be eased.

Rethink

But the prospect appeared unlikely on Tuesday after top health official Jerome Salomon revealed that Monday had brought another 607 deaths to take the total past 10,000 since the beginning of March.

Just over 7,000 people had died from the virus in French hospitals along with 3,237 in old age homes throughout the country.

Salomon, the director general of health, said of the 30,000 people receiving treatment for the coronavirus, 7,000 patients were receiving treatment in intensive care units.

Peak

We're not yet at the peak of this since every evening there are a few more people being taken to hospital and a few more people going into intensive care."

Salomon added: "We're witnessing levels that we've never seen before. It's going up even if it is at a slow rate.

The French figures emerged as the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, was set to spend a third night in hospital.

The Conservative party leader was reported to be a stable condition on Tuesday night in the intensive care unit at St Thomas' hospital in central London.

He is in good spirits," his official spokesman said.

Treatment

Johnson, 55, was taken into intensive care on Monday evening after being admitted on Sunday following concerns over a cough and high temperature 10 days after being diagnosed with Covid-19.

Leaders throughout Europe as well as his counterparts in India, Canada and Australia have sent messages wishing him a swift recovery.

Britain's death toll went past the 6,000 mark on Tuesday after a record 786 people died due to the disease.
As happens each March, I recently got the notification that my Comcast internet bill was about to go up, this time by about $20 a month. It was time to call and negotiate a new deal  an annual dance that I both dread and, strangely, look forward to. Its my own personal rite of spring.

This time, though, I got a surprise. The Comcast representative I spoke with offered me the companys 1-gigabit-per-second service, saying there was a special in my neighborhood. It would cost the same as I was paying for my 275-Mbps service, and the price would be locked in for two years, though the contract would only run for one of those.

This seemed like a no-brainer at the time. Gig speed for the same price? And with 35 Mbps uploads, vs. 10 Mbps on my old plan? Ive always chafed at Comcasts stingy upload speeds. Sign me up! (And no, AT&Ts fiber service isnt available where I live.)

HOW TO: Use your own modem and router with Comcast

Little did I know the offer would send me down a rabbit hole that would cost me a lot in hardware. In the end, I learned some things, and the lessons were expensive.

Rather than rent Comcasts equipment for my internet-only service, I own my cable modem and router. It has paid for itself over time, since Comcast charges $14 a month to rent their combo unit. Plus, it lets me update each component individually if necessary.

In order to use Comcasts gig-speed service, I needed to upgrade my modem, which uses the DOCSIS 3.0 cable standard, to a DOCSIS 3.1. The older modem was reasonably priced, selling usually well below $90. DOCSIS 3.1 modems are significantly more expensive. I chose a Netgear CM1000, which cost $165 when I ordered it.

But when it arrived, the best WiFi speeds I got were around 300 Mbps. Connecting directly to the modem with an Ethernet cable, I got close to 700 Mbps. It turns out that my four-year-old Netgear R6400 router, which uses the common 802.11ac WiFi standard, couldnt deliver the speeds I was now paying for.

You can guess what happened next. I went looking for a new router. And I decided that, since I keep my routers for four to five years, I wanted to get ahead of the curve.

CHANGING TIMES: How tech will change us after the pandemic ends

The WiFi world is in a transition between 802.11ac, which is used by most routers and the devices that talk to them, and 802.11ax, also known as WiFi 6. My wife and I have iPhone 11 Pro models that are WiFi 6-capable, and chances are the next computers we buy will support it. So, I decided to bite the bullet and go with a WiFi 6 router.

Like DOCSIS 3.1 modems, these are not cheap as they are bleeding-edge hardware. Looking at recommendations and doing some research, I settled on TP-Links Archer AX6000, a WiFi 6 router that I bought for $269. Its specifications are impressive, even if its price is painful.

Once the router arrived, I began testing. My iPhone 11 Pro Max, which is WiFi 6-compatible, gets the fastest connection and at one point I got well over 630 Mbps. Other devices in the house are getting between 300-400 Mbps.

Chronicle screenshot

I had one annoying glitch, though. Modern routers have at least two radios, sending signals at 5 GHz, which delivers the fastest speeds but doesnt travel very far, and 2.4 GHz, which has better range but slower speeds, and is subject to interference from other electronics. My 2012 Mac mini was having a hard time with the 5-GHz connection, which typically delivers the fastest speed. It did very well on the usually slower 2.4 GHz connection, which was weird.

This was driving me nuts, so I asked about it on Twitter. ZDNet tech writer Adrian Kingsley suggested futzing with the channel settings for the 5-GHz radio. Sure enough, the default was set to one particular channel. I changed it to Auto, so the router would choose the best channel, and voila! My Mac mini is now as speedy as everything else.

THE CAP IS A LIE: Time to kill off data caps for good

I checked in with Comcast tech support last week once I knew all my devices were working properly to see if I could get the 960 Mbps, which is the maximum speed supported with the companys Gbps service. Via chat, a technician ran a diagnostic check on Comcasts signal to my modem, and Im getting the best I can, apparently.

Was it worth it? It will take about 32 months before the new hardware pays for itself at Comcasts current $14 equipment rental rate. Thats less of a value proposition  particularly considering I started out trying to save $20 a month.

Conventional wisdom says you can save money by owning your own modem and router. But if you are using a gigabit-speed service that requires a state-of-the-art modem and router to achieve those speeds, you may actually be better off using the companys rental equipment.

And heres another wrinkle: DOCIS 4.0, the next version of cable modem technology capable of speeds up to 10 Gbps, will start being tested soon and could become common in a few years. There will be a new bleeding edge, and my wallets in pain just thinking about it.

[This story originally appeared in Dwight Silvermans Release Notes newsletter. Sign up at houstonchronicle.com/releasenotes.]

dwight.silverman@chron.com

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 Flash

China on Thursday refuted several United States intelligence officials' accusations that China concealed the extent of the coronavirus epidemic and under-reported the number of the COVID-19 cases and deaths, and noted that such remarks were "shameless and immoral."

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying made the comments at a news briefing when answering a relevant question.

"China has been giving open, transparent and timely updates to the world as demonstrated clearly in the details my colleagues and I have elaborated on China's response many times," Hua said.

On international public health security, it is the World Health Organization (WHO) and experts on epidemiology and disease control who are entitled to make judgement, rather than several politicians who are habitual liars, Hua said.

She said a senior WHO official on Wednesday refuted unjustified accusations against China's epidemic data at a press conference in Geneva.

China has always been open, transparent and responsible in all its efforts, Hua said. "The decisive and strong measures taken by the Chinese government ensured to the highest possible extent the life, safety and health of the Chinese people and bought precious time for stemming the global spread of the virus."

"We understand that the United States is facing difficulties and some U.S. officials are under pressure, and we feel deeply for the hardship of the American people," Hua said. "Out of humanitarian spirit, we would like to provide help and support within our capability to the United States in the fight against the pandemic."

However, Hua said the remarks by these few U.S. politicians are just shameless and immoral. "Slandering, smearing and blaming cannot make up for lost time and more lies will only waste more time and lead to more lives lost."

"We advise these politicians that, at this moment, they should put the safety of people's lives and health before politics," Hua said. "It is immoral and inhumane to continue to politicize public health issue, which should be condemned by all people of the world, including people of the United States."
When Governor Newson locked down California, it was hard to believe that a single politician had the power to shut down the world's fifth largest economy and issue stay-at-home orders to forty million people. Governor Newsom's mandate was followed by many state governors over the next week. The mandates have placed millions out of work and shuttered, quite possibly forever, small and medium businesses where most owners have toiled long hours for years.



Gov. Newsom announces the lockdown 03/19/20 (YouTube screen grab, cropped).

The mandates have violated the essence of our nation's Constitution by depriving businesses due process and just compensation for their losses, also the freedom of assembly for every citizen and in some states the deprivation of Second Amendment rights. These mandates have been followed by threats of force  jail time and fines for those who don't comply. Citizens have been asked to spy on and report fellow citizens breaking the mandates. Constitutional legal scholars argue that there are many other violations.

The citizens have been told these unprecedented actions are required by the threat of COVID-19. However, the threat has not been adequately defined by statistics or models, and in fact, statements from "experts" have contradicted their own prior statements and those of other "experts." There has been no effort to measure the outcome of these unprecedented mandates. How many business owners will lose years of life from stress over the loss of their businesses? How many citizens will lose their health insurance and subsequently put off needed tests and preventative visits, leading to a loss of health and life? How many citizens will commit suicide or become addicted to drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes leading to premature death? How many citizens will not go to a hospital or doctor's office for fear of COVID-19 or because the facility has been mandated not to offer certain "elective" procedures?

Governors have failed to develop criteria to indicate when lockdowns will end. Uncertainty, the most stressful of human conditions, abounds. Citizens do not know when or where governors will exercise their newfound powers. Will citizens have curfews, be forced to accept vaccines, suffer travel bans? How will governors react when essential shortages result, such as food, medicine, and fuel? Whom will governors blame?

Governors who have locked down their states need their citizens to accept two unprecedented expectations: the power to lock down their citizens and direct industry. Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Maduro, and many others throughout history are all examples of what happens when power is amassed on such a scale. If governors have the ability to suspend the Constitution, then there is no law except those each governor decides upon.

Governors apparently want their citizens to believe that, unlike thousands of years of consistent history to the contrary, they have elected saints to office. Let me repeat: governors want citizens to believe they will not use their new power for political or economic gain, as the citizens have been fortunate enough to elect saints  for the first time in the history of mankind. If we accept that we have saints for governors, the next unprecedented expectation is that citizens have also elected geniuses who through the stroke of a pen and a one-size-fits-all solution know what is best for millions of citizens with millions of differing personal situations. Could the citizens be so fortunate as to have elected both saints and geniuses?

In no circumstances are the citizens witnessing saints or geniuses at work. Governors who are asking citizens to spy on other citizens as part of their mandate enforcement policy are already eerily similar to Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. The media have been abuzz with politicians pointing the finger of blame to someone else. What happened to "we're all in this together"? What civil unrest are governors sowing when they apply universal restrictions to everyone, whether circumstances dictate such measures or not, or when governors apply different restrictions to certain geographic areas or groups? Either way, we get the seeds of division and future civil unrest. Governors have made their mandates based on faulty data and models. Are we to believe governors will magically have the ability to look far enough down the road to see the cascading events they have unleashed and the further hardships they will mandate that their citizens endure?

It's time for governors to end their lockdowns. Let the elderly, those with pre-existing conditions, and others concerned about COVID-19 isolate themselves if they so choose.
Chinese Campaign in Tibet Rewards Tibetans for Reporting on Each Other

2020-04-06 -- Chinese authorities in the Tibetan Autonomous Region recently announced a campaign aimed at stamping out rumors and misinformation, but Tibet analysts say that its true purpose is to stifle freedom of expression, especially among advocates of Tibetan independence.

According to an April 1 report in the China Tibet Online, the 17-point "Squash Rumors and Reactionary Activities" campaign offers prizes for people who tip off authorities to a wide swath of illegal activities.

Tipsters can earn between 1,000 and 10,000 yuan (U.S. $141-$1,410) for reporting on activities ranging from the creation or distribution of unauthorized publications, people who call for a higher degree of autonomy for Tibet, and the misguidance of religious followers and encouragement of superstitious belief.

The measures also specifically discuss "those who advocate illegal activities like calling for Tibetan independence."

Spreading fear

Several Tibetan analysts said that the campaign is meant to turn Tibetans on one another and destroy their sense of national identity.

Aryang Gyalpo, the spokesman for the Central Tibetan Administration, told RFA's Tibetan Service, "the campaign, in reality, is aimed at creating an environment of fear and suspicion for those advocating the protection of the environment and the preservation of Tibetan religion and culture."

"It streamlines the process for the arrest and detention of those courageous Tibetans who stand up for Tibetan language and culture," the spokesman said.

Tenzin Dalha, a researcher at the Tibet Policy Institute told RFA, "These so-called measures are nothing new. The Chinese authorities long ago implemented these policies to pave the way for easy crackdowns and control of the Tibetan people."

"By rewarding snitches, it sows a seed of discord among Tibetans themselves. Unlike anything that has come before, this [campaign] will create more resentment and distrust among Tibetans," he said.

The policy of rewarding tipsters has precedents. Similar campaigns were in effect in the year 2000 and again in September 2019.

Reported by Kalden lodoe and Lobsang Gelek for RFA's Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Copyright  1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content April not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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At a time when the world is scrambling to respond to COVID-19 and ensure that hospitals can treat all patients, Yemen has entered the sixth year of a war that has all but decimated its healthcare system.

The new threats of the virus will complicate an already disastrous and entirely man-made humanitarian crisis. The multiparty war that has ravaged Yemen the past five years has not spared hospitals or health workers the violence and destruction.

Mwatana for Human Rights, the organisation I founded in in 2007, documented 120 attacks on health facilities and medical personnel by all parties to the conflict in Yemen between 2015 and 2018. They resulted in the death of 96 civilians and health workers and wounded hundreds of others.

In a report released in March by Mwatana for Human Rights and US-based organisation Physicians for Human Rights, we illustrate how these attacks were carried out and how they have contributed to the disastrous humanitarian situation in Yemen. This is just a snapshot, with the actual number of attacks on health facilities likely being much higher.

The Saudi and Emirati-led coalition, the Houthi armed group, and the internationally recognised government of Yemen have all contributed to the collapse of the healthcare system. They have launched aerial or ground attacks on known, occupied medical facilities, looted medical supplies, and assaulted medical personnel, among other violations.

What I saw when I visited hospitals in the city of Taiz and the capital Sanaa in 2015 was heartbreaking. The Republican Public Hospital in Taiz was empty, like a ghost house. It was in an area that soon became the site of armed clashes between Houthi and forces loyal to the late Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on one side and public resistance forces affiliated with the government of Yemen on the other.

In addition to being caught in the crossfire, hospitals across Taiz were suffering from shortages of oxygen to perform basic operations due to the siege imposed by Houthi and Saleh forces.

In Sanaa, the hospitals I visited were not equipped to treat the large numbers of people injured in Saudi/UAE-led coalition air attacks. I still remember the scene of wounded people filling the hallways of understaffed hospitals. I will never forget the overwhelmed doctors and nurses, unable to respond adequately and feeling helpless due to the lack of essential medical equipment.

By the end of 2016, just one year into the war, more than half of Yemens health facilities closed and those that remained operational lacked specialists, essential equipment, and medicines.

The few remaining and barely functional medical centres were often occupied and militarised by parties to the conflict, thereby weaponising and co-opting access to healthcare. These acts violated the medical principle of non-discriminatory healthcare provision and exposed many of these structures to the risk of losing their protected status under the laws of armed conflict.

All parties to the conflict have threatened, injured, abducted, detained, and killed health workers. This hostile environment led almost all foreign medical professionals, who comprised approximately 25 percent of the health workforce before the escalation of the conflict, to flee the country, putting further strain on the healthcare system.

Today, Yemen is facing a tremendous shortage of medical professionals, with only 10 health workers per 10,000 people  less than half of the minimum ratio recommended by the World Health Organization to provide the most basic health coverage to a population of this size.

The destruction of health facilities and the shortage of medical professionals have all contributed to a catastrophic situation for civilians in Yemen. This explains why Yemenis suffered an outbreak of an easily preventable disease, cholera.

Parties to the conflict in Yemen must cease attacking and weaponising healthcare across the country and should immediately conduct investigations into attacks to ensure accountability for crimes committed, and offer redress to victims.

In Yemen, our worst fears will likely become a reality: another epidemic. While novel to the entire world, the disease may be particularly deadly to countries in conflict like Yemen. A friend of mine who lives in Sanaa told me: If Coronavirus arrives in Yemen, we should just dig our graves and wait quietly for death.

The spread of coronavirus anywhere is a threat to everyone. While countries shore up their own health systems to battle coronavirus, they must not ignore the plight of Yemenis who are already under attack.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
As people rush to stockpile provisions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, stores have placed restrictions on the purchase of basic goods and medicines.

When supply chains are vulnerable to spikes in demand, one persons stockpiling can mean another persons shortage.

As a philosopher who has studied ethical action in difficult circumstances, I know that when many people fail to act ethically, it can seem that each individual has less of an obligation to act well.

At this time, American political philosopher John Rawls theory of justice can offer useful moral guidance.

Ethics for difficult times

John Rawls famously argued that in a fully just society, two circumstances are in place: everyone upholds the just society, and conditions of life are reasonably favorable.

When society is not fully just, people dont necessarily have to follow the rules. Rawls argued that if there was systemic injustice, civil disobedience can be justified. For example, when a minority group is denied the vote, protesters are permitted to disrupt business and stage sit-ins.

Other scholars, following this kind of argument, have said that it can be ethical to lie, when doing so thwarts others evil plans.

In other words, individuals are allowed to deviate from the cooperative norms that underpin a fully just society, under certain circumstances. Nevertheless, scholars also argue that there are some lines one must not cross, even when others act badly and conditions are difficult.

For Rawls, a particularly significant set of requirements include the natural duties.

These apply to all people and hold in virtually all circumstances. They include refraining from causing unnecessary suffering and harm to innocents, and not aggravating injustice, when possible.

Stockpiling can cause harm

The warning against harming innocent others or increasing the risk of harm, is relevant to most forms of stockpiling.

Consumers stocking up on medical grade face masks contribute to shortages of supplies for health care workers, which is not ethically permissible.

Story continues

Similarly, buying up hand sanitizer to sell at premium rates depletes the supply of what has come to be an essential good, not out of need but out of greed. It, too, unnecessarily puts others in harms way.

There are less obvious ways in which our shopping behavior can perpetrate harms, or risk of harms, on innocent third parties.

Consider the effects on grocery store workers. Frequent trips to the store may pose a risk to low-wage workers who have virtually no pandemic preparedness training. It increases their vulnerability to infection.

Venturing to the grocery store to buy only what is needed, and less often, is a more ethical solution.

Stockpiling can aggravate injustice

Amassing goods during short-term shortages can increase the economic disadvantages that many people already suffer.

Consider those who cannot afford to stockpile. Hoarding makes it more difficult for those who are less privileged to get what they need when they do shop.

Stockpiling can also turn people against each other. Other shoppers could transform from fellow members of our community, into obstacles to survival and well-being.

This view of others undermines the very possibility of social cooperation, which is a precondition of a just society.

Some exceptions

Still, one is permitted to protect ones life.

Some people have a genuine need for drugs to manage asthma, for example. Securing the drug supply that one will predictably need is warranted. If limited supply means that not all asthma sufferers can get drugs, then no just resolution is possible.

But importantly, this concern will not apply to most people, for most goods. No evidence supports the view that food supply chains are dangerously vulnerable right now, for instance.

Stockpiling can perpetrate harm and threaten the social cohesion that is foundational to a well-ordered society. Even when others stockpile, one has the obligations to do no harm and to do what one can to support social cooperation.

These priorities are important to keep in mind as new and difficult ethical problems emerge during this pandemic.

[You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help. Read The Conversations newsletter.]

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

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Jaime Ahlberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.


By Jon Dunbar





"Has anyone seen my pet snake?" I shouted, running through the bus.







It alarmed some of my fellow travelers, but the snake I was talking about was safely contained in a bottle full of 60 percent alcohol. I'd bought a bottle of baemsul (snake liquor) at a souvenir shop on the North Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone, and had to give it to the bus driver to get it back on our tour bus.







The bottle turned up, and our anxiety was relieved  mine, at least.







When I showed my North Korean guide, he scrunched up his face in disgust. "It smells terrible," he warned me.









I'd first heard of baemsul in a song by the now-defunct South Korean rockabilly band

, named after a North Korean action movie. All I knew was it came with a snake in the bottle, sort of like the worm in a bottle of tequila, only much bigger and more venomous.







I had no intention of drinking the stuff; it still sits on top of my fridge as a souvenir of my September 2018 visit to the North.







You've probably heard claims that North Korean beer is better than the South's. It's not so outlandish, although South Korea's craft beer scene has undeniably pulled ahead, even if the North's Taedonggang Beer outclasses the bland, unnatural-flavored lagers OB and Hite keep mass-producing. Equal attention should be paid to North Korea's traditional liquors.







In my travels there, I saw signs that many of the alcohol traditions forgotten in the South are still alive up North, although I didn't get to try as many kinds as I would have liked. There are a number of ginseng-infused liquors, but it is the soju that impressed me the most.







The first time I tried North Korean soju was during my August 2010 trip. We were at a restaurant in Pyongyang, sitting at one table while our guides sat at another. It was smooth and natural-tasting, and didn't cause a horrible hangover the next morning.







There was very little room on our tables for all the individual plates and glasses, so I asked my guides if it was okay to mix the soju and beer.







They answered with an alarmed "No, don't!"







"You mean you don't mix soju and beer in Korea?" I said. "Then, if anybody asks, I invented it. I think I'll name itsomaek."







Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to register it with the North Korean patent office (which does indeed

), but if you visit and hear anyone throwing around that word, please tell them I invented it.







I managed to bring back samples of North Korean liquor to the South after both my trips, and they seem to have impressed my friends and coworkers who got a taste.







South Koreans have a lot to learn about traditional alcohol, and they can learn through their Northern cousins. While South Korea enacted laws in the 1960s that basically doomed the nation's cottage industry of alcohol production, mainly as efforts to save rice in times of scarcity, North Korea seems to have thrown caution to the wind and kept the soju flowing. The soju you can get in North Korea is made using traditional techniques, distilled from rice, and is just about as authentic as the luxury Andong Soju brand in the South, without the high price.







Unfortunately, I don't know when I'll try North Korean liquor again. It may still be possible to buy some bottles from souvenir shops at DMZ tourist sites on the South side, but the variety and supply probably aren't great. If relations warm again, maybe we can get the liquor flowing, and if we get the liquor flowing, maybe we can see relations warming further.


A group of 70 foreign doctors at Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences working to combat COVID-19 alongside their Indian colleagues say they have been reduced to borrowing money because they have not been paid their salaries.

While AIIMS authorities maintain the doctors -- from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Bangladesh -- are sponsored by their respective countries, the junior and senior resident medicos say banks back home are not operating because of the lockdown everywhere.

A senior AIIMS administrative official said the institute is under no obligation to pay the doctors.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 5, the AIIMS' Residents Doctors Association said amendments should be made in the rules so the foreign doctors are paid their salaries. The foreign doctors, irrespective of their nationality, are working tirelessly and under similar stress, the letter said.

The AIIMS Resident Doctors Association, the umbrella body representing all resident doctors at the premier institution, also urged Modi to provide special financial benefits to the foreign doctors for their selfless efforts in treating people amid the coronavirus outbreak.

There is urgent need to solve the payment issue of foreign doctors. They are serving our country in this hour of crisis. The concerned authorities must give them their dues," Adarsh Singh, president of the RDA, told PTI.

The foreign doctors said they are relying on money borrowed from their colleagues as banks are not operating in their respective countries due to the lockdown.

We have been tirelessly working in critical conditions day and night like our Indian colleagues yet we are not receiving payments. We are unable to even ask for money from home due to the lockdown and hence have to borrow money from our Indian friends here, Sagar Poudel, a doctor from Nepal with the community medicine department of AIIMS, told PTI.

He said the authorities should at least release their stipends as they have been serving Indian patients under tremendous pressure despite their financial crises.

The foreign resident doctors said their Indian counterparts at AIIMS earn between Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh per month depending on the year they are in. But they don't get a single rupee from the hospital.

They also rue the fact that Modi's announcement of Rs 50 lakh insurance per person for frontline health workers who are treating coronavirus patents does not cover them as they are foreigners.

Ansarul Haq, another foreign doctor from Nepal at AIIMS, alleged the hospital is making a mockery of the system as it is defying the Delhi High Court order.

"While others who are rendering the same service as us are getting paid, we are being ignored. Don't we have families to feed? Are we not humans?" he asked PTI.

Every year, doctors from SAARC countries come to India to pursue medical courses followed by a residency in three institutes AIIMS, Delhi, the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, and the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER), Pondicherry.

In 2013, the Delhi High Court directed AIIMS to start paying its foreign doctors on par with Indian doctors. The prime minister and the Ministry of External Affairs in 2018 also directed the institute to make necessary amendments and release the due salary of the foreign doctors.

While PGIMER and JIPMER have been paying their foreign doctors, AIIMS has not because it places the doctors from abroad in the same category as sponsored students from India, an official explained.

The Health Ministry also allows foreign resident doctors to draw stipends on par with their Indian counterparts, but prohibits sponsored students from doing so.

However, the AIIMS administration has not initiated the procedure yet.

According to an AIIMS official, all sponsored students, including those from the Army, Navy, Air Force and state governments, are being paid by the sponsoring authority.

They do not compete on open seats but on reserved seats with hardly any competition and are aware when they apply that their government is supposed to pay them. They can also appear in open competition as others, qualify and get paid, he told PTI.

Another senior administrative officer, who did not wish to be named, said the matter was technical in nature and would be sorted in due course of time.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In the last episode of Outlander, viewers were introduced to a new character that may have looked awfully familiar. Buck MacKenzie (Graham McTavish) is Morags (Elysia Welch) husband, and theres a reason he looks so much like Jamies (Sam Heughan) uncle, Dougal. They are very close to crossing paths, so will Jamie recognize Buck if he meets him?

[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for Outlander season 5, episode 7.]

Lotte Verbeek, Graham McTavish, and Sam Heughan attend the Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage)

Who is Buck MacKenzie on Outlander?

While Buck MacKenzie is just making his debut on the Starz series, in Diana Gabaldons Outlander books, the character actually met Roger on the boat from Scotland to North Carolina. But on the show, Roger meets Morag on the Gloriana, realizes shes his ancestor and protects her and her baby from Stephen Bonnet (Ed Speleers).

In the books, Buck is William Buccleigh MacKenzie, and hes actually Dougal and Geilliss illegitimate son. In the first season of Outlander, Geillis (Lotte Verbeek) reveals that she and Dougal (Graham McTavish) were having a secret affair. And when they go to burn her for being a witch, she is pregnant with Dougals baby.

In season 2, Dougal tells Claire that Geilliss life was temporarily spared because of the pregnancy and that she gave birth to a baby boy. But the show never really touched on the babys fate after that.

However, in the books, Buck is taken in and raised by another family. He studies to become a lawyer, marries Morag, and eventually moves from Scotland to North Carolina.

Where is Buck on Outlander now?

On The Ballad of Roger Mac, Roger (Richard Rankin) sneaks into the Regulators camp to warn Murtagh (Duncan LaCroix) about the fate of the battle. On his way back to the Red Coats camp, Roger encounters Morag. He warns her about the battle and offers her a place to stay on Frasers Ridge.

As he leaves, Roger embraces Morag, but her husband Buck sees him. He threatens Roger, then hits him in the head with a gun, and knocks him out. Later, when Brianna (Sophie Skelton), Claire (Caitriona Balfe), and Jamie (Sam Heughan) go looking for Roger, they find what appears to be his body hanging from a tree.

Its unclear if Buck will be seen again this season, but in the novels, he has plenty more story left to tell.

Will Jamie meet Buck and recognize him?

Now that Jamie and Buck are in the same area, its very possible that the two meet. And there are a couple of hints that their paths will cross.

For starters, Buck looks almost exactly like Dougal, and thats because hes being portrayed by the same actor, Graham McTavish. Its possible the show set it up this way so that he could easily be recognized by Jamie.

Plus, right before the battle, Jamie invokes a prayer for his uncle Dougal. The show hasnt mentioned Dougal for a while, and it cant be a coincidence that his name is invoked at the same time his son is introduced.

If Jamie does finally meet Buck, it will be exciting to see the surprise on his face when he realizes how much he looks like Dougal. And it will also be interesting to see if the two recognize their relationship as cousins.


Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has submitted a letter of resignation to Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

That's according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the matter before an official announcement.

The official says Modly has also told staff he is quitting.

Modly had created a combustible controversy by firing the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt last week, saying Capt. Brett E. Crozier had shown extremely poor judgment in widely distributing by email a letter calling for urgent help with the COVID-19 outbreak aboard his ship.

Modly then flew to the ship, at port in Guam, and delivered a speech to the crew in which he lambasted Crozier, saying he was either too naive or too stupid to be in charge of an aircraft carrier. On Monday night, at Espers insistence, Modly issued a public apology, but by then the calls among Democrats in Congress for his resignation were mounting.

At least 173 sailors aboard the ship had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Monday. About 2,000 of the 4,865 crew members had been taken off the ship to be tested.

On Sunday, Modly flew to Guam to address sailors on the aircraft carrier who had cheered their support of Crozier as he departed the ship on Friday. He reprimanded them, saying they were overlooking their most basic duty to defend U.S. interests.

So think about that when you cheer the man off the ship who exposed you to that, he said. I understand you love the guy. Its good that you love him. But youre not required to love him.

Late Monday, Modly backtracked.

I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused, he wrote, referring to his speech aboard the Roosevelt on Sunday. I also want to apologize directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused.

Defense Secretary Mark Espers staff told Modly he must apologize, according to a person familiar with the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he might get involved, agreeing that Modly's criticism of Crozier was a rough statement. He said Crozier made a mistake when he sent a memo to several people laying out his concerns about the crew and the virus. In the memo, which was leaked to the media, Crozier said, We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die.

Trump said Crozier had a good career prior to this incident, adding, I don't want to destroy somebody for having a bad day.

Modly, in his apology, reframed his earlier remarks that Crozier was "too naive or too stupid to command. Instead, he said he believes Crozier is smart and passionate.

I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship, Modly wrote.

On Sunday aboard the ship, Modly had urged the crew to stop complaining.

It is the mission of the ship that matters, he said. You all know this, but in my view your Captain lost sight of this and he compromised critical information about your status intentionally to draw greater attention to your situation.

Modly, a 1983 Naval Academy graduate, became the acting Navy secretary last November after Richard Spencer was ousted from the position. Trump last month nominated retired Rear Adm. Kenneth Braithwaite, the current ambassador to Norway, to be the next Navy secretary.

In his remarks aboard the Roosevelt, Modly raised issues likely to please Trump. He accused the news media, for example, of manipulating a political agenda to divide the country and embarrass the Navy. He said China was not forthcoming about the coronavirus when it began spreading there months ago, echoing Trump's oft-repeated statement that China could have done more to prevent a pandemic.

And Modly invoked the name of Trump's chief Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, noting that the former vice president had said Modly's decision to fire Crozier was almost criminal. I assure you it was not, Modly said.

Modly said Crozier should have known his letter voicing urgent concerns about the virus aboard his ship would leak to the media. He said if Crozier didn't think this would be the result, he was too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this."

He also accused Crozier of betraying his duty as an officer. And I can tell you one other thing, because he did that he put it in the public's forum and it's now become a big controversy in Washington D.C., and across the country, Modly said.

An unofficial transcript of Modlys remarks and an audio recording circulated widely on the internet Monday.
[April 07, 2020] Podium Raises $125M in Series C Funding LEHI, Utah, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Podiu m , the leading customer messaging platform for local businesses, today announced that it has raised a $125 million Series C round of funding led by YC Continuity with participation from Sapphire Ventures, Alkeon Capital, Recruit Co., Ltd., IVP, Accel, Summit Partners, and GV. Podium launched in 2014 as a product to help local businesses get honest and timely online reviews. Since then, the company has developed an entire suite of messaging tools that allows any business with a physical location to conveniently interact with its customers. Podium's platform now supports customer messaging, mobile payments, webchat, online reviews, and customer feedback using messaging channels that customers actually use and trust. In just over five years, the Podium platform has been used by half of all smartphone owners in the United States to interact with a local business. Podium now has 45,000 businesses across the United States, Canada and Australia utilizing the platform, ranging from single-location SMB's to large enterprise companies with thousands of physical locations. "Over the past five years, we have seen the fundamental way consumers interact with a local business change," said Eric Rea, co-founder and CEO of Podium. "This round of funding coincides with one of the largest events that has impacted and changed business in our lifetime. The digital transformation that was already taking pace has been exponentially accelerated. We are putting this round to use to not only make this transition the most effective for these businesses during this period of time, but also to continue giving every local business the tools they need to grow and succeed moving into the future." Along with the funding, Podium is announcing a cost-free version of its product, Podium Starter. This new basic package will allow businesses to interact with their customers and process contactless payments completely via messaging, which is both convenient for their customers while also filling a crucial need during periods of social distancing due to Covid-19. Initially rolling out via invitation, this offer will become available to every local business in the United States. "YC and Podium have had a deep partnership ever since they were a part of our winter 2016 batch," said Ali Rowghani, CEO of YC Continuity. "Podium is unique in the fact that its market comprises almost every local business that we as consumers interact with on a daily basis. The company is modernizing the way we all reach out, interact, schedule, pay, and give feedback to our local businesses. When we had the opportunity to take a larger role in the growth of Podium and the positive change they are creating for the local economy, we were thrilled to partner in such a substantive way." To request an invite to Podium Starter visit podium.com/starter. About Podium

Podium is a customer messaging platform that enables companies with a local presence to conveniently connect with their customers at critical touchpoints to help them strengthen their business. By conveniently facilitating millions of customer interactions, such as driving customer-generated online reviews and providing improved customer messaging tools, Podium serves more than 45,000 local businesses in the United States, Canada and Australia. Headquartered in Lehi, Utah, and founded in 2014, Podium is currently backed by YC Continuity, Sapphire Ventures, Alkeon Capital, Recruit Co. Ltd., IVP, Accel, Summit Partners and GV. To learn more, visit www.podium.com or contact us at [email protected]. About YC

Y Combinator is a startup fund based in Mountain View, CA. In 2005, Y Combinator developed a new model of startup funding. Twice a year they invest a small amount of money in a large number of startups. The startups move to Silicon Valley for 3 months, and the YC partners work closely with each company to get them into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors. Each batch culminates in Demo Day, when the startups present their companies to a carefully selected audience of investors. Y Combinator has invested in over 2,000 companies including Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, Reddit, Instacart, Docker and Gusto. The combined valuation of YC companies is over $100B. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/podium-raises-125m-in-series-c-funding-301036414.html SOURCE Podium

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New Delhi, April 7 : Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Tuesday called it "unfortunate" the way US President Donald Trump "threatened" Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the export ban on the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.

Singh, while speaking to the media over India's removal of the ban on the export of hydroxychloroquine, said that Trump had said that "there would be retaliation if India does not supply the said drug", which is a direct "threat" to India.

"Such a threat at a time when our nation is fighting the battle against coronavirus is unfortunate and the US cannot dictate to us what we need to do," Singh said.

He said in India many people are dying, while many are suffering from hunger and at that time such a threat is an attack against the people of India.

"I expected a befitting reply from the Government of India and Prime Minister Modi to the US. The message should have been clear that India will not succumb to such a threat from the US. But unfortunately, the Central government did succumb to the threat and lifted the ban today. It seems that the BJP government lacks the vision and mission to fight against coronavirus. " Singh said till March 19, the Centre continued the export of ventilators, other ICU equipment and sanitizers.

"Till March 31, the BJP government continued to supply masks and ventilators to Serbia despite the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country. Many state governments like Bihar are asking for various medical aids from the Centre and the doctors of AIIMS and other hospitals also need more PPE kits, therefore, the Centre should first fulfil these needs within India." Singh said the AAP believes that such an unprecedented "threat" from the US President is completely "unacceptable" and Prime Minister Modi should give a befitting reply to the US.

"The Centre should not succumb to such threats from the US," he said.
[April 07, 2020] Accenture Acquires Revolutionary Security, Provider of Cybersecurity Services for Critical Infrastructure

Accenture (News - Alert) (NYSE: ACN) has acquired Revolutionary Security, a privately held company specializing in enterprise cybersecurity for information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) environments. Financial terms were not disclosed. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005179/en/ Accenture Acquired Revolutionary Security (Graphic: Business Wire) Revolutionary Security's portfolio of cybersecurity services includes assessment and testing, design and build of security programs and functions as well as security operations across its clients' IT and OT systems. Revolutionary Security leverages proprietary technology and methods to help mature the security capabilities of its clients and manage risk. The company's breach and attack simulation testing service, LiveFire, utilizes real-world cyber threats to identify gaps in security processes and monitoring, as well as staff operations and technologies. The results help organizations prioritize actions to mitigate cyber risks within their enterprise. Headquartered in the greater Philadelphia area, Revolutionary Security employs 90 highly skilled cybersecurity professionals throughout the United States. The company, founded in 2016, serves a variety of clients in the energy, manufacturing, healthcare, financial services and communications industries. "The acquisition of Revolutionary Security is another demonstration of our continued commitment to invest in areas to keep our clients safe from cyber threats," said Kelly Bissell, who leads Accenture Security globally. "Revolutionary Security's service offerings are a perfect complement to Accenture's portfolio, and the acquisition furthers our mission of helping clients better protect and defend their organizations across their entire ecosystem." The acquisition will provide Accenture's clients with greater end to end solutions, particularly regarding more complex IT and OT cybersecurity challenges. "High-profile and targeted cyberattacks around the world are putting increased attention on critical IT and OT security risks, with potentially catastrophic consequences if systems are hijacked," said Jim Guinn II, who leads Accenture's cybersecurity business for the energy, utilities, chemical and mining industries. "Companies often lack the necessary visibility to manage and measure OT cyber risk in the same way as IT risk. Revolutionary Security's extensive experience working with industrial companies and their specialized technical skill set will be incredibly valuable to our clients." Rich Mahler, president and CEO of Revolutionary Security, said, "The opportunity to become part of Accenture Security will enable us to deliver more complete solutions to our clients and expand our services to even more clients globally. We're excited to be joining a leading provider in cybersecurity services and look forward to working together to help clients solve their toughest challenges in IT and OT security." In March, Accenture agreed to acquire Context Information Security, which is the latest in a series of acquisitions - including those of Symantec's Cyber Security Services, Deja vu Security, iDefense, Maglan, Redcore, Arismore and FusionX - that demonstrate Accenture Security's commitment to investing in and innovating advanced cybersecurity solutions.



About Accenture Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services in strategy and consulting, interactive, technology and operations, with digital capabilities across all of these services. We combine unmatched experience and specialized capabilities across more than 40 industries - powered by the world's largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. With 509,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture brings continuous innovation to help clients improve their performance and create lasting value across their enterprises. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

Accenture Security helps organizations build resilience from the inside out, so they can confidently focus on innovation and growth. Leveraging its global network of cybersecurity labs, deep industry understanding across client value chains and services that span the security lifecycle, Accenture helps organizations protect valuable assets, end-to-end. With services that include strategy and risk management, cyber defense, digital identity, application security and managed security, Accenture enables businesses around the world to defend against known sophisticated threats, and the unknown. Follow us @AccentureSecure on Twitter (News - Alert) or visit us at www.accenture.com/security. This document makes descriptive reference to trademarks that may be owned by others. The use of such trademarks herein is not an assertion of ownership of such trademarks by Accenture and is not intended to represent or imply the existence of an association between Accenture and the lawful owners of such trademarks. Copyright  2020 Accenture. All rights reserved. Accenture, and its logo are trademarks of Accenture. Forward-Looking Statements Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "may," "will," "should," "likely," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "projects," "believes," "estimates," "positioned," "outlook" and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. For a discussion of risks and actions taken in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, see "Our results of operations have been adversely affected and could in the future be materially adversely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19)" under Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in Accenture plc's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended February 29, 2020. Many of the following risks, uncertainties and other factors identified below are, and will be, amplified by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). These risks include, without limitation, risks that: the transaction might not achieve the anticipated benefits for Accenture; Accenture's results of operations have been adversely affected and could in the future be materially adversely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19); Accenture's results of operations could be adversely affected by volatile, negative or uncertain economic and political conditions and the effects of these conditions on the company's clients' businesses and levels of business activity; Accenture's business depends on generating and maintaining ongoing, profitable client demand for the company's services and solutions including through the adaptation and expansion of its services and solutions in response to ongoing changes in technology and offerings, and a significant reduction in such demand or an inability to respond to the evolving technological environment could materially affect the company's results of operations; if Accenture is unable to keep its supply of skills and resources in balance with client demand around the world and attract and retain professionals with strong leadership skills, the company's business, the utilization rate of the company's professionals and the company's results of operations may be materially adversely affected; Accenture could face legal, reputational and financial risks if the company fails to protect client and/or company data from security breaches or cyberattacks; the markets in which Accenture operates are highly competitive, and Accenture might not be able to compete effectively; changes in Accenture's level of taxes, as well as audits, investigations and tax proceedings, or changes in tax laws or in their interpretation or enforcement, could have a material adverse effect on the company's effective tax rate, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition; Accenture's profitability could materially suffer if the company is unable to obtain favorable pricing for its services and solutions, if the company is unable to remain competitive, if its cost-management strategies are unsuccessful or if it experiences delivery inefficiencies; Accenture's results of operations could be materially adversely affected by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; as a result of Accenture's geographically diverse operations and its growth strategy to continue to expand in its key markets around the world, the company is more susceptible to certain risks; Accenture's business could be materially adversely affected if the company incurs legal liability; Accenture's work with government clients exposes the company to additional risks inherent in the government contracting environment; if Accenture is unable to manage the organizational challenges associated with its size, the company might be unable to achieve its business objectives; Accenture's ability to attract and retain business and employees may depend on its reputation in the marketplace; if Accenture does not successfully manage and develop its relationships with key alliance partners or fails to anticipate and establish new alliances in new technologies, the company's results of operations could be adversely affected; Accenture might not be successful at acquiring, investing in or integrating businesses, entering into joint ventures or divesting businesses; if Accenture is unable to protect or enforce its intellectual property rights or if Accenture's services or solutions infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others or the company loses its ability to utilize the intellectual property of others, its business could be adversely affected; Accenture's results of operations and share price could be adversely affected if it is unable to maintain effective internal controls; changes to accounting standards or in the estimates and assumptions Accenture makes in connection with the preparation of its consolidated financial statements could adversely affect its financial results; many of Accenture's contracts include fees subject to the attainment of targets or specific service levels, which could increase the variability of the company's revenues and impact its margins; Accenture might be unable to access additional capital on favorable terms or at all and if the company raises equity capital, it may dilute its shareholders' ownership interest in the company; Accenture may be subject to criticism and negative publicity related to its incorporation in Ireland; as well as the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed under the "Risk Factors" heading in Accenture plc's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this news release speak only as of the date they were made, and Accenture undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such statements to actual results or changes in Accenture's expectations. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005179/en/

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Sulfur 'spices' alien atmospheres

They say variety is the spice of life, and now new discoveries from Johns Hopkins researchers suggest that a certain elemental 'variety'--sulfur--is indeed a 'spice' that can perhaps point to signs of life.

These findings from the researchers' lab simulations reveal that sulfur can significantly impact observations of far-flung planets beyond the solar system; the results have implications for the use of sulfur as a sign for extraterrestrial life, as well as affect how researchers should interpret data about planetary atmospheres.

A report of the findings was published today in Nature Astronomy.

"We found that just a small presence of sulfur in the atmosphere, less than 2%, can have major impacts on what, and how many, haze particles are formed," says Chao He, an assistant research scientist in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at The Johns Hopkins University and the study's first author.

"This entirely changes what scientists should look for and expect when they examine atmospheres on planets beyond our solar system."

While scientists already know that sulfur gases influence the photochemistry of many planets within the solar system such as Earth, Venus and Jupiter, not much is known about sulfur's role in the atmospheres of planets beyond the solar system, or exoplanets.

Due to its role as an essential element for life on Earth--emitted from plants and bacteria, and found in several amino acids and enzymes--scientists propose to use sulfur products to search for life beyond Earth. Understanding whether sulfur exists and how it affects these atmospheres can help scientists determine whether sulfur gases could be used as a source for life to originate, says He.

Researchers have performed few studies simulating planetary atmospheres with sulfur in the lab due to its high reactivity and difficulty to clean up once an experiment is done, says He. In fact, sulfur is so reactive that it would have even reacted with the experimental setup itself, so the research team had to upgrade their equipment to properly tolerate sulfur. To He's knowledge, only three other studies that simulated sulfur chemistry in the lab exist, and those were to understand its role in Earth's atmosphere; this is the first lab-run simulation to study sulfur in exoplanet atmospheres.

Chao and colleagues performed two sets of experiments using carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, hydrogen, water and helium as a guide for their initial gas mixtures. One experiment included 1.6% sulfur in the mix and the other did not. The research team performed the simulation experiments in a specially designed Planetary HAZE (PHAZER) chamber in the lab of Sarah Horst, assistant professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and second author on the paper.

Once in the chamber, the team exposed the gas mixtures to one of two energy sources: plasma from an alternating current glow discharge or light from an ultraviolet lamp. Plasma, an energy source stronger than UV light, can simulate electrical activities like lightning and/or energetic particles, and UV light is the main driver of chemical reactions in planetary atmospheres such as those on Earth, Saturn and Pluto.

After analyzing for solid particles and gas products formed, He and colleagues found that the mixture with sulfur had three times more haze particles, or solid particles suspended in gas.

Chao's team found that most of these particles were organic sulfur products rather than sulfuric acid or octasulfur, which researchers previously believed would make up the majority of sulfur particles on exoplanets.

"This new information means that if you're trying to observe an exoplanet's atmosphere and analyze its spectra, when you previously expected to see other products, you should now expect to see these organic sulfur products instead. Or, at least, you should know that it wouldn't be unusual for them to be there. This would change researchers' explanation and interpretation of spectra they see," says He.

Similarly, the findings should direct researchers to expect more haze particles if they are observing exoplanet atmospheres with sulfur, as just a small bit of sulfur increases haze production rate by three. Again, this would change how researchers interpret their findings and could be critical for future observation of exoplanets.

The last major implication of his findings, He says, is they push for heightened awareness that many sulfur products can be produced in the lab, in the absence of life, so scientists should be caution and rule out photochemically-produced sulfur before suggesting sulfur's presence as a sign for life.

###

Other authors on this paper include Patricia McGuiggan and Sarah E. Moran of The Johns Hopkins University; Xinting Yu of University of California Santa Cruz, Nikole K. Lewis of Cornell University; Julianne I. Moses of The Space Science Institute; Mark S. Marley of the NASA Ames Research Center; Eliza M.-R. Kempton of the University of Maryland, College Park; Caroline V. Morley of the University of Texas at Austin, and; Veronique Vuitton of the Institut de Plane?tologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble.

This story has been published on: 2020-04-06. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
current-affairs-trends Coronavirus pandemic | Here are the countries that have reported no COVID-19 cases so far If the 193 countries, which are members of the United Nations, are considered to check the spread of COVID-19, as many as 16 member states have not reported the disease yet
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Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 16:23 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd04ddac 1 Business Indonesia,shipping-industry,COVID-19,impact,Pelni,port-closure,Papua,Maluku,Kalimantan Free

The national shipping industry has been hard hit by the COVID-19 outbreak, which has disrupted the flow of goods along shipping routes.

In addition to shipping, the COVID-19 outbreak has also taken a toll on passenger ship operators, with a number of ports temporarily closing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

State-owned shipping company PT Pelni has suffered a sharp decline in passenger numbers since the COVID-19 outbreak hit the country in early February, the companys corporate secretary Yahya Kuncoro said in Jakarta on Saturday, adding that business had dropped off further after the government imposed social restrictions to curb the outbreak in March.

He said that a number of the companys passenger ships, such as the KM Dobonsolo, KM Ciremai, KM Nggapulu, KM Dempo, KM Sinabung and KM Leuser, could not operate optimally because many regional administrations had closed their ports to prevent the spread of the virus. Although the ships are still allowed to transport cargo, the closure of ports had severely hurt business, he added.

Most ports in Papua, including in Jayapura, Timika, Agats, Merauke, Nabire, Biak, Serui, Sorong, Manokwari, Kaimana, Fakfak and Wasior, have been closed for passenger ships. Several other ports in Maluku, such as in Saumlaki, Namrole, Sanana and Dobo have also been also closed.

Ports have also been closed in Batulicin and Bontang in East Kalimantan; Waingapu and Larantuk in East Nusa Tenggara; Blinyu and Tanjung Pandan in Bangka Belitung; Awerange and Bitung in Sulawesi and Letung Tarempa in Riau Islands.

Meanwhile, chairwoman of the Indonesian National Shipowners Association (INSA) Carmelita Hartoto said on March 30 that the COVID-19 outbreak had not only had financial impacts on shipping companies but also affected their administrative and technical work.

The volume of cargo exported and imported to and from China has declined by 14 to 18 percent. Shipments to other countries such as Singapore and South Korea have also declined, while domestic cargo shipments have dropped 5 to 10 percent, the association said.

The clearance process at seaports is another challenge that has resulted in higher operational costs. The clearance process has been further complicated by additional procedures such as ship disinfection, ship crew health checks and travel history checks.

This has increased operational costs, said Carmelita.

Carmelita also reported that efforts to halt the spread of COVID-19 had also disrupted administrative work. With physical distancing and work-from-home policies in place, business players have found it difficult to carry out administrative work, such as acquiring ship certificate, because of staff shortages.

On the technical side, Carmelita said ship owners also faced difficulties conducting maintenance because of the limited number of workers available.
Stephanie Grisham is leaving the job of White House press secretary without ever holding a media briefing.

Grisham announced Tuesday that shell be exiting her West Wing role under President Donald Trump and returning as chief of staff for first lady Melania Trump. Lindsay Reynolds resigned from the East Wing role earlier this week to spend more time with her family, according to a statement from Mrs. Trumps office.

I continue to be honored to serve both the president and first lady in the administration, Grisham said in a statement. My replacements will be announced in the coming days, and I will stay in the West Wing to help with a smooth transition for as long as needed.

Grisham never held a press conference in nine months on the job at Trumps communications office.

CNN and The New York Times report Kayleigh McEnany, a campaign spokeswoman for President Trump and a vocal defender on television, will replace Grisham as White House press secretary.

CNN reports Trumps new chief of staff Mark Meadows, who replaced Mick Mulvaney last month, was considering several candidates to replace Grisham as White House press secretary, including Alyssa Farah, the current spokeswoman for the Defense Department and a former press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence.

McEnany, 31, is a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Law School who frequently supported President Trump on TV before formally joining his 2020 re-election campaign. She fills a role previously held by Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
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Cardinal George Pell is allowed to leave jail immediately after Australias highest court overturned his conviction for sexually abusing two choir boys.

The High Court found that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicants guilt with respect to each of the offences for which he was convicted, and ordered that the convictions be quashed and that verdicts of acquittal be entered in their place, the court said in a two-page summary of the ruling, according to The Guardian.

The ruling cited the court case Chidiac v The Queen, saying there was a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof.

Pell, 78, will now be released from Barwon Prison, near Melbourne, after spending more than 400 days behind bars. In 2018, he became the highest ranking Catholic Church official to face such criminal sexual-abuse charges, and the High Courts stunning decision brings his long-running court case to an end.

Pell, Pope Francis former finance minister, was convicted in December 2018 by a unanimous jury that found him guilty of five counts related to the abuse of two 13-year-old choir boys at St. Patricks Cathedral in Melbourne in December 1996. He was sentenced to six years in prison.

I hold no ill will to my accuser, Pell said in a statement responding to the High Courts decision to overturn his conviction. I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough. However my trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church; nor a referendum on how Church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of paedophilia in the Church. The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not.

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The Democrats are hysterically blaming President Trump for the fact that the Wuhan virus is killing some Americans. No doubt, they also will blame Trump for the recession that will be caused, not by the virus, but by governments reactionoverreaction, in my opinionto the virus.

In doing this, the Democrats are making some critical assumptions. They assume that voters wont remember that when President Trump banned travel from China at the end of January, Democrats unanimously (including Joe Biden) denounced his action as racist and xenophobic. While, on the other hand, as late as February 24, Nancy Pelosi did a photo-op for San Francisco news stations in Chinatown, strolling down the sidewalk surrounded by community leaders and cameramen, urging everyone to come to Chinatown, the rumored virus is no problem, no one is sick here.

They assume, further, that voters wont remember that prior to the virus panic, the U.S. had probably the strongest economy in our history, with record levels of employment and rising wages. It wasnt Trumps fault that a global pandemic damaged the economynot, that is, unless you think that Trump overreacted, which is an argument the Democrats cant make.

Those are problems. But they arent the Democrats biggest problem. Their biggest problem is Trumps argument that his vigorous conduct of the war against the coronavirus saved countless lives. Disease modelers, who have no track record of success, predicted as many as two million deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. More conservative modelers, like those at the University of Washington, have predicted 80,000 or 90,000 deaths, even with a total shutdown of our economy. I doubt that those numbers will be approached. No one is now talking about millions of deaths, or a million deaths. The Washington group is already backing down on its predictions, with its hospitalization numbers turning out to be wildly inflated. At the moment, it seems more likely that the COVID-19 fatality total may look like a bad flu season, in the U.S.

So what is the Democrats answer when Trump claims credit for saving a million lives? That the modelers were all wet from the beginning? They cant say that (although it is true) because they have been hysterically demanding that the administration do more, ever since they stopped hysterically demanding that the administration do less. It is hard to see the Democrats end game here.

So the Democrats are doing what they do best: they are resorting to hate. They rely on blind, irrational hatred of President Trump to win back the White House and empower their socialist dreams. Examples could be multiplied endlesslyjust go on Twitter!but here are a couple.

Haley Stevens is an actual Congresswoman from Michigan. She tweeted this, and apparently has deleted it since her Republican opponent started using it in his fundraising appeals:

Totally rational. Then we have state Rep. Tavia Galonski of Ohio, who tweeted this:

I cant take it anymore. Ive been to The Hague. Im making a referral for crimes against humanity tomorrow. Todays press conference was the last straw. I know the need for a prosecution referral when I see one. https://t.co/XQin24gqY4  Rep. Tavia Galonski (@RepGalonski) April 6, 2020



Galonskis vow to charge Trump with crimes against humanity at the Hague was applauded by a large number of Democrats. What was the presidents crime against humanity? Apparently, his suggestion during a press briefing that chloroquine could prove to be an effective treatment for the Wuhan virus.

There isnt much point in trying to talk rationally to a guy in an asylum who thinks he is Napoleon. Likewise, there probably isnt much point in trying to talk rationally to a Democratic politician or activist in 2020 America. But for what it is worth, lets just note that 1) the variants of chloroquine are all prescription drugs that will not be administered absent a prescription by a doctor, who probably doesnt intend to commit a crime against humanity; 2) numerous studies have found chloroquine compounds, alone or in combination with other drugs, to be effective treatments for COVID-19 sufferers; 3) chloroquine has now been approved by the FDA as a COVID-19 treatment; and 4) even assuming that the president was wrong, making a wrong prediction about the efficacy of a drug treatment is hardly a crime against humanity.

Is it possible that American voters will give power to a party running on a platform of the crudest, most ignorant hate? I doubt it. The Democrats know that they have the press on their side; the Washington Post, for instance, is just one short notch above Ms. Stevens and Ms. Galonski. But the days when the press could choose a president are long gone, if they ever existed.

My prediction for 2020? #LoveWins.
Raseto Agricultural Enterprise produces poultry on contract for Supreme Poultry. In order for us to comply with the lockdown regulations in South Africa, Supreme Poultry arranged and sent out permits that enable us to continue to perform essential services under the regulation 11B(3), Government notice R 399 in Government Gazette 43147 for all growers, casuals, washing team, etc. before the lockdown. Vaccination supplies for the chickens had been arranged as well for collection.

The COVID-19 lockdown took place at the end of the production cycle for us. The catching team continued catching the chickens, and sending them to the abattoir during the first day of lockdown. Unfortunately, the catching team faced last minute challenges while dropping off their employees at their homes, due to taxi bans after a certain hour.

The trucks that collected the chickens for slaughter were also delayed, due to the roadblocks in town. This slightly increased the mortality (Dead On Arrival, DOAs) of chickens, at the abattoir. The delay of trucks leads to a delay in catching of chickens at other farms.

The business has managed to keep all its permanent employees, as well as pay them their full salary. On the farm, the broiler production unit has not been drastically affected. Although the company was faced with a challenge the first day of lockdown, when the rental of a bobcat from a plant hire company was cancelled. With the help of another farmer, 65kms away, we were able to remove the remaining chicken manure (90 tons), in preparation for the coming cycle. Farm stores such as the local cooperative are very helpful with certain tools and inputs needed for production to continue smoothly.

In the poultry industry biosecurity is imperative so we have not had to implement many more measures to align with the newly-imposed health and safety regulations. The entire value chain has put emphasis on what they have long been preaching. In regards to health and safety measures, certificates have been given to companies that had complied, and those that still continue to comply. As a grower, quality management is taken through a Gap Management internal and external audit that takes place on the farm twice a year. Each cycle tests are taken, blood samples, boots swabs, and house swabs for all the chicken houses after disinfecting has taken place.

Supply chains have done extremely well during these trying times. Shoprite U-Save has taken mobile shops to the people. Supply chains have and will continue to play a crucial role in regards to food security, if they are not disrupted. The nation is guaranteed continuous supply of food, as all agricultural production units are still in operation. Through supply chains trading still continues, with no increase in store prices. It is important for the nation to understand the position we are in, and what an advantage we are at compared to other countries. Therefore, we should take care of our supply chains, and value chains by all means.
ChaCha N. Hudson, CEO of the SEWcial Cafe, makes fabric face masks at her fashion coworking space in Philadelphia's Harrowgate section on Friday, April 3, 2020. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Hudson began sewing cloth masks starting the last week of March and estimates she has made about 400 so far. Read more

By now, we all know that we should be wearing face masks when going about essential tasks in public as part of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Those types of masks have become a hot topic online during the pandemic, and are often constructed simply of cotton fabric, elastic, and some thread. According to the CDC, cloth masks can help prevent people who have the virus but may not be showing any symptoms from spreading it by containing the respiratory droplets that we all expel when we talk, cough, or sneeze.

Or, as the Pa. Health Department puts it, my mask protects you, your mask protects me.

But a lot of people still have questions. Chief among them: How do you take care of your new covering? How many do you need? How do you properly take it off and put it on? Here is what you need to know:

How many masks should you have?

The Pa. Health Department recommends that you wash or discard a mask after every use. With that in mind, having more than one mask available per person would be ideal.

Nicole Jochym, a third-year medical school student at Cooper Medical School at Rowan University working with the Sew Face Masks Philadelphia organization, says that five masks per person would be a good number, but at least two is advisable. That way, you can change your masks as needed and wont be stuck constantly doing laundry.

You should have a small set, Jochym says. Your set should be determined on your habits, and how you keep up with laundry and care.

 READ MORE: Use our simple template to make a face mask at home: A step-by-step guide

How often do you need to change them? Darrell Spurlock, director of the Leadership Center for Nursing Education Research at Widener University and a professor in Wideners doctoral nursing program, says you should treat your masks like you treat your underwear.

Lacking available data to suggest otherwise, changing out or laundering a cloth mask should follow the same routine as underwear, he says. Change them daily and when soiled.

How do you wash your face mask between uses?

Officially, the Pa. Health Department recommends cleaning your masks using hot water and regular detergent, and then drying them on the hottest setting on your dryer. The CDC echoes that sentiment online, saying that masks should be routinely washed and that a washing machine should suffice in properly washing a face covering.

Normal laundering of washable masks made of clothing fabric, including drying the masks on high heat, should be sufficient to remove any appreciable viral inoculation of novel coronavirus given what is known about its survivability on surfaces, says Spurlock.

Jochym, however, has her doubts about whether simple washing of masks is effective, and is concerned that washing machines and dryers may not get hot enough.

With that in mind, though, heres what shes doing, personally: She alternates between boiling her masks in a pot for 10 minutes or soaking them in a bleach solution before washing them on her washer and dryers hottest settings. The efficacy of those methods, she says, has not been confirmed, but they may be a good place to start.

 READ MORE: What you need to know about homemade masks

How to put on and take off your mask properly

Before putting your mask on, the Pa. Health Department recommends, you should wash your hands with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Once on, the mask should fit snugly around the nose and mouth.

Avoid touching the mask while using it, the department says online. If you do, wash your hands with soap and water or alcohol-based hand rub.

 FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered.

Removing a mask should be done from behind, says the department, and dont touch the front of the mask. And the CDC says to avoid touching your nose, mouth, and eyes, and wash your hands immediately after removing it.

Jochym recommends storing the used mask in a plastic bag, and not touching it again until it is cleaned.

When putting it in a pot or washing machine, dump it in from the bag, she says. Assume everything is dirty.

More face mask dos and donts

The CDC stresses that you shouldnt take up the supply of surgical masks and N95 respirators, which should be reserved for health-care workers and other medical first responders.

Do not purchase masks designed for health care professionals, the Health Department says in a statement.

Likewise, dont consider a cloth mask to be the end-all-be-all method of reducing the risk of getting COVID-19. According to the department, cloth masks should be used in conjunction with other recommended practices, such as social distancing, handwashing, and staying at home unless absolutely necessary.

Remember, the purpose of mask-wearing by the masses is to protect the uninfected from those who may be silently carrying and spreading the virus, Spurlock says. Not to prevent the uninfected from becoming so.
This article was submitted for publication by Muzamil Yaqoob and Nilanjana Bhattacharya, researchers affiliated with Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.

On March 24 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a sudden reversal. After weeks of boasting that India was a model for the region and the world in combating the coronavirus, he announced a nationwide 21-day lockdown, saying that to stop the spread of the pandemic and a catastrophic loss of life it was necessary that the entire population self-isolate. Since then, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has risen dramatically from 564 to more than 4,600, and from 10 to at least 140 deaths.

The Indian government, like its counterparts in the United States and Latin America, has been criminally negligent towards the underprivileged working class who have been left by the unprecedented lockdown to face hardships and even death. Not only has the deaths of 22 migrant workers been underreported, the media and the BJP government have in recent days attempted to communalize the whole issue and demonize the minority Muslim community for the widespread health crisis in the country. Similarly, the Indian state has refused to comply with World Health Organization guidelines to lift the internet lockdown in Kashmir.

All information regarding the pandemic, including healthcare protocols, notices and orders are conveyed to the population through internet, news and social media platforms. Yet in Indian-held Kashmir the population, including healthcare professionals, continues to be denied unimpeded access to the internet. The internet was shut down at the beginning of August 2019 as part of the massive security lockdown imposed on the people of Kashmir, when the BJP government illegally abrogated Article 370 of the constitution, which gave the states of Jammu and Kashmir special autonomous status, and divided it into two Union territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

After seven months, on March 5, internet services were partially restored. Broadband services remain unavailable, and mobile services are restricted to a 2G cap, thus making it difficult for people to utilize the service effectively.

During the recent wave of protests against the BJP governments communalist-motivated Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), many states, such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Assam, imposed internet shutdowns, some of which lasted 24 to 72 hours.

According to the recent estimates, from January 2012 to March 15, 2020, there were 385 state-ordered internet shutdowns in India, of which 237 were said to have been preventive, i.e., in anticipation of a law and order threat, and 148 were reactive, i.e., to help contain a breakdown of law and order. However, in all this, Kashmir made headlines as having faced the brunt of the longest ever internet shutdown in history, 213 days.

The spate of crises COVID-19 has unleashed around the globe has further intensified the already chaotic situation in Kashmir, which has among the greatest per capita mobilization of security forces anywhere on the planet. In the absence of good internet connectivity, the Kashmir Valley faces several challenges, ranging from the low downloading speed of documents, making it difficult for doctors to follow medical guidelines, to the lack of dissemination of information regarding basic healthcare protocols and notices to the general public. With the cases of COVID-19 mounting every day, it is imperative the Indian government immediately restore full internet services in the Valley.

The Indian states prolonged internet shutdown in Kashmir

Kashmiris have not only been under a brutal security clampdown since last August. They have been further traumatized by a severe communication blockade or blackout and internet shutdown that partially continues even today. Even widespread international condemnation and a severe humanitarian crisis could not force the Indian government to end its inhumane state of siege or lift the sanctions on the internet in Kashmir.

In January this year, the Indian Supreme Court in response to many petitions challenging restrictions in Kashmir held that Complete curb of internet must be considered by the state only as an extraordinary measure. While declaring that free access to the internet is a necessary part of freedom of speech and expression, the Court failed to review the situation on the ground in Jammu and Kashmir, which has become even more tragic and miserable.

With the widespread crises created by COVID-19, countries like Cuba have dispatched medical supplies to Italy to help resolve the pandemic through mutual cooperation and medical internationalism. However, the capitalist elites have not only sought to profit off the pandemic, the world powers like the US have been intensifying their imperialist offensives at this time, including Washingtons intensified sanctions on Iran. In Kashmir, not only has the Indian state been disinclined to improve the healthcare infrastructure while the COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the state, it has used the pandemic as an opportunity to push through changes in Kashmirs domicile or resident-property law without any uproar.

The healthcare infrastructure in Kashmir has always been in shambles. Recent appeals by doctors reveal that there is a severe shortage of basic facilities throughout the state, now reduced to a mere Union Territory. With such a paucity of resources, the local healthcare system seems too fragile to deal with any serious pandemic outbreak. The situation is worsened by the nonavailability of information and the difficulty in interacting with the coordinated network of Indian and global medical specialists. Under such a situation, Kashmiris, who were already struggling with the months-long clampdown, are finding it extremely difficult to access information, so as to understand the pandemic and organize preventive measures.

Criminalization of Kashmiris amidst the pandemic

It is significant to note that the authorities have made the current pandemic a law-and-order situation to further criminalize the existence of an already vulnerable people. The brutality with which freedom of mobility has been curbed again reflects upon the governments reluctance to resolve crises with dialogue and coordination. The pandemic has been used as a new opportunity to unleash a reign of terror throughout the Valley. In addition to this, the administrative directives to extend the blackout of the internet, which currently works at a 2G speed, speaks volumes about the criminal negligence of the Indian state and the authorities in Kashmir.

However, highlighting this gruesome situation in the backdrop of the healthcare emergency does not mean that the people of Jammu and Kashmir were not suffering greatly because of the internet shutdown even before the pandemic. Not only were students unable to go to school because of the lockdown, but they were and continue to be deprived of access to the reading materials necessary for their studies.

We are currently faced with a grave situation where thousands of students have not been able to forward their admission applications for higher studies. Researchers have been left with nothing. They can either move outside of Kashmir or keep waiting for the government to restore the internet, not to mention other necessary academic activities at universities and colleges. While students in many parts of world are currently continuing their studies through online classes and high-speed internet facilities, the neglect on the part of administration could cost Kashmiri students their careers and Kashmir a possibly bright future. The denial of internet access is perpetuating a sense of fear and discontinuity which has already created serious mental health problems and social schisms among the populace.

With cases of COVID-19 rising in Kashmir, fears of a human catastrophe loom large over the closed Valley, with minimum or no contact with the outside world. The state of siege which started with a complete blackout on cell phones, internet, landlines and television last year has not found any end yet. Even at this critical juncture, Kashmir finds itself secluded and relegated to struggle for the fundamental right to information. Unless the internet sanctions are completely lifted, Kashmir will continue to reel under fears of another devastationa health emergency within an antidemocratic state-security emergencythat could have far-reaching consequences.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  Every household in Caloocan City is set to receive a 1,000 financial aid from the local government, mayor Oscar Malapitan said Tuesday.

He said the city government has allotted a 500-million fund to help all city residents, regardless of socioeconomic status, during the enhanced community quarantine.

The Luzon-wide lockdown, initially scheduled to end on April 13, was extended until April 30 to further help curb the spread of COVID-19.

"Walang pipiliin basta lahat ng household ay makakatanggap ng tulong pinansyal buhat sa inyong lokal na pamahalaan," Malapitan said in a Facebook post.

[Translation: We will not choose beneficiaries, as all households can expect to receive this financial assistance from the local government.]

The mayor added that the initiative is still apart from the social amelioration program of the national government. Under the said national program, low-income households will be given 5,000-P8,000 cash aid by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

According to Malapitan, the 1,000 per household will be distributed this April after the DSWD dispenses the social amelioration packages.

Inaasikaso na ang mga dokumento para agaran nang maiimplementa at mahatiran ng karagdagang tulong ang mga Caloocano, he said.

[Translation: We are already taking care of the documents in order to immediately implement this program and extend aid to Caloocan residents.]
Former Ecuador president Rafael Correa was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for corruption during his 10-year term in office, the attorney general's office said Tuesday. Correa -- who was president from 2007-17 but now lives in exile in Belgium, where his wife was born -- was one of 18 people convicted of bribery, the office said on Twitter. Correa, who has always claimed to be a victim of political persecution and accuses his country's judges of complicity, hit out at the sentence. "I know the process and what the judges say is a LIE. They've proved absolutely NOTHING. Pure false testimony without evidence," he wrote on Twitter. He was found guilty of accepting funds from private businesses for his 2013 election campaign in return for state contracts. Amongst the others sentenced on Tuesday was former vice president Jorge Glas, who had already been sentenced to six years in prison in a separate case for accepting a bribe from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. The court also banned all those convicted from political "participation" for 25 years. "This was what they were looking for: manipulating justice to achieve what they never could at the ballot box," said the leftist Correa, who turned 57 on Monday. The former leader said he was "concerned" for his colleagues, adding: "For sure we'll win (an appeal) at the international level because all this is ridiculous." Ecuador's former president Rafael Correa, pictured in October 2019, claims he's the victim of political persecution
Gardai took time out of policing duties yesterday to surprise elderly residents at a nursing home with a special Easter treat.

Residents and staff at Cramers Court Nursing Home in Belgooly, Kinsale, Co Cork, were thrilled when a group of community gardai delivered a batch of Easter eggs and a special delivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), donated by Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Cramers Court Nursing Home activities co-ordinator Teresa O'Donovan said the delivery lifted the spirits of all 66 residents at a time where family visits are restricted due to the ongoing health crisis.

Sirens

"There was great excitement across the home, from both staff and residents, to see the community gardai arrive up with their sirens on, delivering the essential PPE equipment and an assortment of Easter eggs," she told the Herald.

"It was such an incredibly kind gesture and showed such community spirit.

"We cannot thank Thermo Fisher Scientific enough for thinking of us at this time."

Garda Damien Craven and Sergeant Sean Murray also stopped by to say hello to the residents from behind the nursing home windows.

"With visitor restrictions in place in the nursing home, this small gesture of a wave and a quick chat, along with the delivery itself, brought a smile to the face of everyone that was there," Ms O'Donovan said.

Meanwhile, garda stations nationwide have been inundated with sweets, chocolate, cakes and children's drawings as a token of appreciation for the hard work that has been put in over the course of the coronavirus crisis.

A garda spokesperson said gardai appreciate the kind gestures from members of the public.

"An Garda Siochana will continue to gratefully accept and appreciate the volume of small personal hospitality gifts... from individual members of the public, in particular our younger citizens," the spokesperson said.

"An Garda Siochana will advise, refer or divert any offers of hospitality received from commercial companies to more worthy causes at this time."

These include "charities, voluntary groups and our frontline colleagues in the health service who... may not be in a position to avail of catering and hospitality", the garda spokesperson added.
Advertisement

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to an intensive care unit at a London hospital last night in a frightening turn in the UK's coronavirus outbreak.

The PM is reported to be in a stable condition, breathing on his own and 'in good spirits'. He is said not to have been diagnosed with pneumonia and is receiving only minimal extra oxygen.

But there are still fears he could become seriously ill. One disease expert, the University of Reading's Dr Simon Clarke, said: 'The NHS, particularly at this moment, doesn't give up intensive care beds just for people to be looked over. It doesn't work like that, even for prime ministers.'

One-on-one nursing, life support machines and constant monitoring are the order of the day in an ICU and are what hundreds of stricken COVID-19 patients across the country - and the world - now face on a daily basis.

Among the staff to be found in ICU wards around patients' beds are critical care consultants and matrons for clinical care. There will also be a charge nurse, who is a senior nurse in charge of the unit, bedside staff nurses, healthcare assistants, advanced critical care practitioners and outreach nurses, who help with sicker patients.

The units cannot cure the coronavirus any more than medics anywhere else, but they can buy seriously ill patients vital time by keeping their organs running while the immune system battles the virus naturally.

An audit report of NHS units has found that almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of COVID-19 patients admitted to ICU are put onto ventilators - a form of life support machine - within 24 hours of arriving, and around half of those whose treatment has ended are known to have died. Most of the patients included in the report were still in hospital when it was published.

These are the features of an ICU which make them so suited to lifesaving treatment:

A bed in an intensive care unit is staffed by specialist staff who give round-the-clock care using machines able to replace the functions of the hearts and lungs

Hospitals offer varying degrees of breathing support for patients whose lungs aren't working properly, such as people with severe COVID-19. The treatments vary from basic breathing masks to machines which force oxygen into the blood and pump it round the body themselves

Ventilators and life support machines help overwhelmed organs while the body fights infection

The Government launched a drive to boost the numbers of ventilators available for the NHS. The machines are crucial for keeping coronavirus patients alive

The most vital pieces of equipment in intensive care units, particularly for people infected with the coronavirus, are ventilators and life support machines.

All beds in an ICU will have their own ventilators on hand in case the patient's organs start to fail.

For COVID-19 patients and Mr Johnson, there is a risk that the virus will overcome their lungs and make them unable to get enough oxygen into their blood.

A ventilator works by pumping oxygen directly into the lungs through a tube which is put down the patient's throat.

This procedure is usually done while the patient is sedated as they would be if they were having surgery. After the tubes are in place, the patient may awaken or they could be kept in a medically-induced coma if they are fighting for their life.

BBC footage from inside the University College Hospital in London showed that all the critically ill coronavirus patients had been sedated. Some had to be turned onto their fronts so the ventilators worked more effectively.

The ventilation process is described as 'particularly invasive' by Reading University's Dr Clarke, and is only used if the patient becomes unable to breathe well enough on their own.

More seriously ill patients may require even more support - machines called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) can remove blood from the body and artificially pump oxygen into it if the heart and lungs start to fail completely.

Two-thirds of ICU patients need ventilation and survival is 50/50

The death rate of coronavirus patients hit 50 per cent for those admitted to intensive care and whose treatment had finished, recent figures show

A report on COVID-19 intensive care patients in NHS hospitals found that two-thirds of those taken into critical care (62.9 per cent) had to be moved onto mechanical ventilation within 24 hours.

And half of those whose outcome was known at the time of the audit had died in hospital.

The Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) found in a report published on April 4 that, out of 690 ICU patients whose treatment was finished, 346 died and 344 survived.

This gave the ICU patients a 50.1 per cent chance of dying with the coronavirus, but 1,559 out of the 2,249 people in the audit were still being treated in hospital.

Doctors say that many of the patients who died were seriously ill and could have been expected die soon anyway, regardless of whether they caught the coronavirus.

But there are also young, otherwise healthy people dying - 396 people under the age of 60 have been killed by the virus, and there are daily reports of healthy older people succumbing to it.

One of the most dangerous mechanisms of COVID-19 is its ability to send the immune system into overdrive and trigger sepsis, which is when the body's own attempts to get rid of the virus end up destroying healthy cells and organs.

Linda Bauld, a public health professor at the University of Edinburgh, said: 'The admission of the Prime Minister to intensive care is of huge concern and illustrates just how indiscriminate this virus is.

'Anyone anywhere, including the most privileged in our society, can be affected and can become seriously ill. It is imperative now, more than ever that the rest of us comply with government guidelines to stay at home and not put others at risk.'

Dedicated team of critical care specialists at a high staff-to-patient ratio

Specialist staff work in teams which would usually have a ration of one nurse to one patient, although they may need to be relaxed in busy units (Pictured: Staff on a 'coronavirus ward' at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital)

Most patients in an intensive care unit will have at least one specialist nurse who is tasked with looking after them and them alone.

This may be relaxed in the coronavirus crisis because of a shortage of highly qualified staff, but the ratio of nurses to patients - which may stretch up to six-to-one in busy hospitals - will be lower than on a general ward.

Other hospital wards tend to be staffed by a team of less specialist nurses and healthcare assistants who split the workload among them and check on patients regularly throughout the day and night instead of watching them for 24 hours a day.

Because of ICU patients' risk of becoming life-threateningly ill, they are given dedicated round-the-clock care.

Intensive care units also have their own doctors - usually called a consultant in intensive care medicine, or similar - who constantly monitor the patients in their unit to decide what level of care they need.

St Thomas' Hospital in central London, where Mr Johnson is being looked after, has three permanent intensive care units consisting of 42 beds. It also has four high dependency units and may have more capacity for the COVID-19 epidemic.

The lung specialists at St Thomas' Hospital are some of the best in the UK and the hospital now has a dedicated team set up to handle COVID-19 patients.

One of them, Dr Luigi Camporota, a consultant in intensive care medicine, last week held a seminar explaining to other hospitals the best way to attach a coronavirus patient to a ventilator, The Times reports.

And St Thomas' was one of just five hospitals in the country which was used to treat patients at the start of the coronavirus outbreak because it has a highly trained team expert at tackling infectious diseases.

Oxygen for failing lungs - breathing can be helped with face masks for patients healthy enough to avoid a ventilator

PM Boris Johnson is believed to be receiving basic oxygen therapy through a mask or a nasal tube - the first step of breathing support (Pictured in a video he filmed before being hospitalised)

Mr Johnson has not been hooked up to a ventilator yet, his official spokesperson has confirmed, but is receiving 'standard oxygen therapy'.

This is believed to be simply a supply of oxygen delivered through a mask that covers the mouth and nose, or through a tube inserted into the nose.

It is the mildest form of breathing support and simply increases the amount of pure oxygen a patient inhales as they breathe normally, meaning it is easier for the lungs to absorb it than it would be if they were filtering it out of the air. It does not involve any forced inhalation or physical pressure on the lungs, which should still be working normally.

The next step could be a procedure called continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), which is used for patients who start to struggle to breathe in on their own.

This is a non-invasive procedure that involves a constant stream of pure oxygen being pumped through a tight-fighting mask while the patient is still awake and inhaling on their own.

The pressure helps to open up the lungs and force air in where the weakened lungs are unable to draw it in themselves, while the high purity of the oxygen makes it easier for the body to get it into the blood rather than trying to filter it out of air.

CPAP machines are also now being used on normal wards in some hospitals because of the COVID-19 crisis, doctors say, instead of being limited to intensive care units.

Oxygen is piped directly to a valve at the ICU patient's bedside from a central supply tank somewhere else in the hospital. This gives the ward a constant supply on demand for the patients who need it most.

The reason coronavirus patients may need help breathing is because the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects people by latching onto cells inside their lungs.

As it does this, the immune system triggers swelling in the lungs in its bid to attack the virus, constricting the airways and leading to a tight chest and shallower breathing.

Viruses also die inside the lungs and may kill off lung tissue as it reproduces, causing dead cells and debris to fall into the airways and block parts of them, making oxygen absorption less efficient and causing a cough as the body tries to get material out.

Constant monitoring of pulse, breathing and oxygen in the blood watches for deterioration

Patients on intensive care wards are attached to machines which constantly monitor and track their heart rate, breathing and levels of oxygen in their blood - the vital signs.

BORIS JOHNSON'S HOSPITALISATION 'TRULY FRIGHTENING' Michael Gove admitted Boris Johnson's intensive care battle is 'truly frightening' today as he said ministers are 'praying' for his swift recovery. Mr Johnson was moved to ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in central London and given oxygen after his health deteriorated sharply over just two hours, leaving doctors fearing he will need a ventilator. The 55-year-old was transferred to intensive care at 7pm because of breathing difficulties - forcing him to 'deputise' Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to take the reins of government. In a round of broadcast interviews this morning, Cabinet Office minister Mr Gove said Mr Johnson was getting the 'best care'. 'As we speak the PM is in intensive care being looked after by his medical team receiving the very, very best care from the team in St Thomas' and our hopes and prayers are with him and with his family,' he told BBC Breakfast. He said Mr Johnson's plight should demonstrate the need to follow social distancing rules, as the virus 'has a malevolence that is truly frightening'. Mr Gove played down concerns that the government will be paralysed with the leader out of action, insisting that Mr Johnson had already been on a 'stripped back diary' for days and 'Cabinet is the supreme decision making body'. However, within hours it had emerged that Mr Gove himself had also been impacted by coronavirus, as he has gone into self-isolation following a family member displaying symptoms. Mr Gove also dodged questions about whether Mr Raab has been given crucial national security responsibilities such as control of the nuclear deterrent and military. The Queen is being kept informed about Mr Johnson's condition. The monarch appoints the PM, choosing the individual who is best placed to carry a majority in the Commons. Meanwhile, Donald Trump revealed he has offered to send Mr Johnson experimental drugs to treat his coronavirus. 'I've asked two of the leading companies ... They've come with the solutions and just have done incredible jobs  and I've asked him to contact London immediately,' Mr Trump said. 'The London office has whatever they need. We'll see if we can be of help. We've contacted all of Boris's doctors, and we'll see what is going to take place, but they are ready to go.' The PM's sharp downturn came 11 days after he first suffered coronavirus symptoms and went into isolation. He looked increasingly unwell when glimpsed in public and in 'selfie' videos posted on on social media, and ministers were then shocked by his grim appearance at a Zoom conference on Sunday. Downing Street sources confirmed Mr Johnson is not yet on a ventilator - but was moved to intensive care to be near one if needed. Some medical experts forecasting this course of action is now 'very likely'. Advertisement

These are shown on a screen at the patient's bedside so nurses and doctors can keep track of how well their organs are performing.

Large or constant declines in any of those three measures could be a sign that someone's health is deteriorating and they need more support from machines.

Oxygen saturation - how much of it is in their blood - is a big point of focus for very sick coronavirus patients because the virus is able to stop the lungs drawing in enough of the vital chemical.

Too little oxygen in the blood can starve the muscles and organs of energy and eventually lead to life-threatening organ failure.

Dr Ron Daniels, an intensive care doctor in Birmingham, explained to Sky News: 'Most of what we're seeing in terms of referral to intensive care is about people who have very low levels of oxygen in their blood.

'People seem, with this condition, to be able to cope with low levels of oxygen better than they would with, for example, a normal bacterial pneumonia.

'But when those levels dip to a dangerous level that might threaten other organs in the body then we bring them to intensive care.'

Critically ill patients put into induced comas

Patients who need to be put onto ventilators or other life support machines may be put into induced comas if they are life-threateningly ill.

This is a dramatic step which is essentially intended to shut down any functions of the body which use up energy for purposes other than fighting infection and staying alive.

Induced comas are started in the same way that patients are put under for surgery, with an anaesthetic such as the drug propofol.

Specialist anaesthetists administer the drug at a level which reduces someone brain to and then they maintain the dose to stop the patient waking up.

This stops the patient from wasting energy on brain functions and muscle movements that aren't needed, and also allows machines to take over and breathe or even pump blood in place of the patient's organs if this is necessary.

People who have to be put into induced comas will likely take longer to recover than those who are kept conscious.

Some patients may see improvements within days, while others will have to stay on the ward for weeks. Some people with COVID-19 have needed hospital treatment with two to three weeks or longer.

Drip-feed of water, nutrients and medication

Patients in intensive care will often be connected to intravenous fluids, also known as a drip, which feed water, nutrients and sometimes medication into their veins.

This is done to make sure someone doesn't become dehydrated or starved if they become unable to eat or drink as often as they need to.

Patients who have to be sedated (knocked out) will not be able to swallow so must have all the fluids, food and drugs they need injected directly into their body.

The medicines given to coronavirus patients may include painkillers if they're still awake, antibiotics if they develop a bacterial infection such as pneumonia.

Coronavirus survivor, 39, says 'I want people to realise you can survive this' after his 'horrible' experience in intensive care

Matt Dockray spent a week in intensive care fighting the coronavirus infection. He said his time in hospital was a 'horrible, horrible experience'

A father who battled coronavirus on an intensive care ward has warned it is the 'most horrible experience you will go through,' as Boris Johnson battles the killer infection in hospital.

Matt Dockray, 39, was speaking to Good Morning Britain on Tuesday after Boris Johnson was admitted to intensive care on Monday evening.

The father-of-one said: 'It's a horrible, horrible experience. You're very lonely. You don't have any friends or family there so you don't have that emotional, personal support you rely on in your hardest times.'

But another dad has issued a rallying cry to the PM, saying: 'I want people to realise they can survive this'.

Boris Johnson has received oxygen support at the intensive care unit at St Thomas' Hospital in London, but has not been moved onto a ventilator, Michael Gove said this morning.

As well-wishers offer messages of the support for the PM, father-of-two Andrew Hodge sent a message of a hope on Good Morning Britain.

The electrical engineeer, who spent six days in intensive care, said: 'I dont want to dilute the seriousness of it, but I want people to realise they can survive this.

'There is so much negative communication about how many people have died, as opposed to how many have survived.'

He praised the treatment and care he received during 10 days at St Peters Hospital in Chertsey, describing the team there as 'phenomenal and attentive'.

Mr Hodge, husband to Dawn and father to Isabella, 17, and Genevieve, 11, also paid tribute to one nurse on Aspen ward at the hospital who simply held his hand for a while, the trust said.

The team at St Peters are delighted to see Mr Hodge recovering so well back at home, and wish him all the best, the trust added.

Andrew Hodge, 54, from Laleham, near Staines, who has recovered from coronavirus, celebrating his birthday back home on April 3

Mr Dockray, from Marlow, Buckinghamshire, told Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid about the treatment he received while in critical care: 'The main thing is getting oxygen in your system.

'I'm assuming Boris is at that stage now, they register your oxygen levels and they start getting critically low so they've got to get as much oxygen in you as possible.

'They start with a regular mask, then they try all sorts of different contraptions and ways to get 100% of oxygen into you.'

Now recovering at home, Mr Dockray spent a week in isolated room, where he said he saw patients of all ages being admitted.

He admitted he had dark moments as he struggled to overcome the life threatening virus, saying: 'There was a point where you sort of started to lose hope and thought that was it, because you've seen this on the TV, you've seen the pictures of Italy.

'In my head that was the time to say "You've just got to fight as much as you can,"

He added: 'To go from that extreme a couple of weeks ago, ICU for a week and come out breathing, talking is a testament you can get to that point.

'There's people who have been on those ventilators for a lot longer and they've come out and lived to tell the tale.There's quite a few of us getting clapped out of the hospital that prove you can get back to normal.

'There's still a long road of recovery, it takes about six to eight weeks, but you can sit here and tell the tale and fight this.'

When he arrived back at his Marlow home, Mr Dockray said there were 'a lot of tears and emotions' as he hugged his wife and child, while celebrity chef Tom Kerridge sent him a special gift package to help him get on the mend.
WOODS HOLE, Mass. - A selective mating experiment by a curious butterfly breeder has led scientists to a deeper understanding of how butterfly wing color is created and evolves. The study, led by scientists at University of California, Berkeley, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, is published today in eLife.

When the biologists happened upon the breeder's buckeye butterflies--which normally are brown--sporting brilliant blue wings through selective mating, they jumped on the chance to explore what caused the change in color of the tiny, overlapping scales that produce the wing's color mosaic and pattern. They found that buckeyes and other Junonia species can create a rainbow of structural colors simply by tuning the thickness of the wing scale's bottom layer (the lamina), which creates iridescent colors in the same way a soap bubble does.

Structural color, often used in butterflies and other animals to create blue and green, is created by microscopic structures interacting with light to intensify some colors and diminish others. In contrast, pigmentary coloration is created by the absorption of specific colors (wavelengths) of light and is commonly employed to create colors such as yellow, orange, and brown.

"It was a surprise to find that the lamina, a thin sheet that looks very simple and plain, is the most important source of structural color in so many butterfly wing scales," says first author Rachel Thayer. Previous studies of structural coloration had largely focused on some extreme examples and mostly involved analyzing complex, 3D shapes on the top of the scales.

First, the team showed that blueness in the selectively bred buckeye wings was, in fact, structural color and was generated largely by the lamina. They then compared these blue scales with wild-type brown scales, and found the same general architecture except the lamina was about 75 percent thicker in the blue scales. Finally, they measured lamina thickness in nine species of Junonia and a tenth species, Precis octavia, and found a consistent relationship with scale color.

"In each Junonia species, structural color came from the lamina. And they are producing a big range of lamina thicknesses that create a rainbow of different colors, everything from gold to magenta to blue to green," says Thayer. "This helps us understand how structural color has evolved over millions of years." The color shifts as lamina thickness increases according to Newton's series, a characteristic color sequence for thin films, the team found.

"The color comes down to a relatively simple change in the scale: the thickness of the lamina," says senior author Nipam Patel, director of the Marine Biological Laboratory. "We believe that this will be a genetically tractable system that can allow us to identify the genes and developmental mechanisms that can control structural coloration." They identified one gene, optix, that can regulate lamina structural colors, and are currently searching for other candidates.

It was fortunate that the butterfly farmer, Edith Smith, had chosen buckeyes (Junonia coenia) for her mating experiment. For a variety of reasons, it is an ideal species for scientists to work with. "The buckeye genome is sequenced and other labs are working with it and have developed a number of experimental tools and protocols," Patel says. "And it grows reasonably well in the lab, which is a big plus because many butterflies can be hard to raise."

Smith's bred buckeyes, which displayed "rapid evolution" from brown scales to blue, helped them to understand that the same, simple mechanism of tuning lamina thickness can facilitate evolutionary change that can span just several generations or millions of years.

###

The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery - exploring fundamental biology, understanding marine biodiversity and the environment, and informing the human condition through research and education. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.
[April 07, 2020] OneAmerica To Waive Hardship Fees in Response to CARES Act

In an effort to show support to its retirement plan participants during this unprecedented crisis, OneAmerica today announced it is immediately waiving fees for all hardship withdrawals, including those distributions related to COVID-19. The decision, announced by Sandy McCarthy, president of retirement services at OneAmerica, eliminates administrative fees for hardship and COVID-19 related distributions effective April 7, 2020 through December 31, 2020. "At OneAmerica, we recognize that this is a time of uncertainty for many of our participants," McCarthy said. "We're hopeful that this gesture will help to ease some of the burden." The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act signed into law March 27, provides additional opportunities for those affected by COVID-19 to access their retirement savings. Among its provisions, the CARES Act provides for COVID-19 distributions to participants of up to $100,000 of their vested retirement savings without the usual 10% penalty from the Internal Revenue Service, provided plan sponsors adopt the provision. OneAmerica has chosen to automatically implement the COVID-19 distribution option for all plans that currently allow hardship withdrawals and has provided an opt-out for those plan that do not wish to offer the provision. The firm is also working with plan sponsors who do not currently offer hardship withdrawals, but would like to begin offering the provision. The special withdrawal rules apply to eligible retirement plans, which includes qualified 401(k) plans, qualified 403(a) annuity plans, 403(b) plans, and governmental section 457 deferred compensation plan. OneAmerica has chosen to waive the administrative fee for these COVID-19 distribution and has also expanded the fee waiver to include all hardship withdrawals.



"While we stress our belief that a withdrawal of any kind should be a last resort option, we understand that for some, it may be a necessary one," McCarthy added. "Providing this additional relief is just one of the ways OneAmerica is able to be there for participants when they need us the most." OneAmerica has also created a COVID-19 webpage1, open to all participants and the general public. Whether people are looking to realign their budget, better understand market volatility or access additional COVID-19 information, this page can help navigate today's environment and prepare for what lies ahead.

OneAmerica is the marketing name for the companies of OneAmerica. Products issued and underwritten by American United Life Insurance Company (AUL), a OneAmerica company. Administrative and recordkeeping services provided by McCready and Keene, Inc. or OneAmerica Retirement Services LLC, companies of OneAmerica which are not broker/dealers or investment advisors. About OneAmerica A national provider of insurance and financial services for more than 140 years, the companies of OneAmerica help customers build and protect their financial futures. OneAmerica offers a variety of products and services to serve the financial needs of their policyholders and customers. These products include retirement plan products and recordkeeping services, individual life insurance, annuities, asset-based long-term care solutions and employee benefit plan products. Products are issued and underwritten by the companies of OneAmerica and distributed through a nationwide network of employees, agents, brokers and other sources who are committed to providing value to our customers. To learn more about our products, services and the companies of OneAmerica, visit oneamerica.com/about-us/companies-of-oneamerica. 1 https://www.oneamerica.com/misc/oneamerica-coronavirus-covid-19-financial-education View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005844/en/

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The United States death toll from the novel coronavirus topped 10,000 on Monday (local time), according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.

The US has the third-highest number of reported deaths from the disease in the world, only exceeded by Italy with 15,887 and Spain with 13,055, Al Jazeera reported.

White House medical experts have forecast that between 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could die as a result of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, even if sweeping orders to stay home are followed.

The US had entered what an official called the "peak death week" of the coronavirus on Monday, while a watchdog report said that hospitals were struggling to maintain and expand the capacity to care for infected patients.

"It's going to be the peak hospitalisation, peak ICU [intensive care unit] week and unfortunately, peak death week," Admiral Brett Giroir, a physician and member of the White House coronavirus task force, was quoted by the American media.

More than 90 per cent of Americans are under stay-at-home orders issued by state governors while eight states are still holding out on imposing such restrictions.

The report, based on a national survey, dated in March, showed that "severe shortages" of testing supplies and long waits for test results were limiting the ability of hospitals to keep track of the health of staff and patients, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General said.

"Hospitals also described substantial challenges maintaining and expanding capacity to care for patients," said the report, described as a snapshot of the issues hospitals faced in mid-March. Efforts were being made to address those issues, it said.

The watchdog said "inconsistent guidance from federal, state, and local authorities" was confusing hospitals and the public, while widespread shortages of personal protective equipment put hospital staff and patients at risk.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The BMW Group delivered a total of 477,111 (- 20.6%) premium BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce vehicles to customers in the first three months of this year, the company said.

The sales result for the first quarter was overshadowed by the global impact of COVID-19 and the effects of the temporary closure of a large number of retail outlets.

During the current coronavirus pandemic, protecting employees and taking responsibility for society are the number one priority for the BMW Group. At the same time, it is important to safeguard the companys liquidity and secure its long-term success, the company said.

We are reacting to the globally challenging sales situation caused by the corona pandemic and are flexibly adapting our production volume to demand. In this way, we are creating important conditions for the company's continued economic success, underlined Pieter Nota, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for customer, brands and sales. In China, we are seeing the first signs of recovery with a strong order intake, Nota said.

Thanks to its major model offensive in recent months, the BMW Group initially made a good start to the year and was reporting sales growth. However, by February, the impact of the pandemic had already led to a significant decrease in sales in China. By March, the effects of the pandemic were clearly visible in sales figures in Europe and the US. Around 80% of all retail outlets in Europe and 70% of those in the US are currently closed due to the coronavirus. In a number of countries, including Germany, stationary retailers are legally prohibited from selling cars at the present time, it said.

Support to measures to contain pandemic

The BMW Group fully supports the measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 and is meeting its responsibility to society, the company said.

The company is providing vehicles to social and healthcare facilities to ensure the mobility of health sector helpers and workers. At its German and international locations, the BMW Group is also helping social and public institutions with donations of goods and materials such as breathing masks and disinfectants. The company is currently working closely with its global supplier network to procure the necessary respiratory masks and other medical equipment at short notice. It is also reviewing the possibility of producing medical masks itself, it added.

"The BMW Group is providing its retail partners and customers with the best possible support in this difficult situation. Since the situation differs from one country to another, specific measures are being implemented for individual markets in close consultation with retail partners. Where currently appropriate, the BMW Group is also offering its customers measures such as the extension of warranties from new vehicle sales and the extension of maintenance intervals and continues to provide workshop services, as far as the legal requirements allow," it continued.

Delivery of vehicles

A total of 411,809 (-20.1%) BMW vehicles were delivered to customers in the first three months of the year. The MINI brand sold 64,449 (-23.4%) units during the same period.

In the first quarter 30,692 (+13.9%) electrified vehicles of the BMW and MINI brands were sold worldwide. This means we are also on track to meet the EUs CO2 targets. We do not see any necessity to defer climate protection goals, said Nota.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars reported sales of 853 (-27.2%) vehicles in the first quarter of the current year. A total of 34,774 (-9.9%) motorcycles were also delivered to customers between January and March.

In the US, a total of 64,692 (-17.4%) vehicles were sold in the first quarter of the year; of these, 59,455 (-15.3%) were BMW brand vehicles.

In China, first-quarter sales were down 30.9% (116,452 vehicles). In a welcome development, this trend was reversed in March, pointing to a sustainable recovery in this market. Sales figures in South Korea also trended in a positive direction, it said.

In the region of Europe, a total of 220,812 (-18.3%) BMW and MINI vehicles were delivered to customers in the first three months of the year. In Germany, BMW Group sold 67,882 units (-9.0%), a smaller decrease than for the market as a whole, it said. - TradeArabia News Service
Taiwan appears to be engaging in its own "coronavirus diplomacy," striking a partnership with Czechia to manufacture testing kits and a possible vaccine. Taiwan has also provided aid to Italy. For Marc Cheng, Taiwan is not competing with China but Beijing is irritated. The US is pushing for Taiwans to be accepted in the WHO.

Taipei (AsiaNews)  Taiwan has donated seven million masks to Europe and will send another two million to the United States and one and half million to the 15 nations with which it still has diplomatic ties (including the Vatican).

In what is the first cooperation agreement between the island nation and a member state of the European Union, Taiwan and Czechia (Czech Republic) have set up a partnership to develop and manufacture rapid tests and a possible virus vaccine.

Taiwan also plans to donate ventilators, protective visors and other medical supplies to Czechia to deal with the pandemic.

Ordinary Taiwanese have also become involved, donating NT$ 120 million (US$ 3.97 million) to help fight the coronavirus outbreak in Italy. The fundraising campaign began on 1st April, led by Fr Giuseppe Didone, the superior delegate of the Camillians in the island.

In a tweet, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, thanked Taiwan for the aid. This is the first time that the EUs top leader officially and directly addresses the Government of Taiwan.

Many EU states are also examining the Taiwanese model of response to the pandemic, a "democratic" alternative to China's draconian approach, one that has so far achieved excellent results.

For Marc Cheng, executive director of the European Union Centre in Taiwan, the aid does not constitute a Taiwanese "Health Silk Road."

"Taiwan is simply helping countries struggling with the COVID-19 because it is in its interest. We have no intention of entering into great power games. We dont even have the capacity to do so.

The numbers are clear. Taiwan manufactures more than 13 million surgical masks per day (up from 3.2 million in February), and is aiming to reach 15 million. In mid-March, China manufactured 110 million a day, 90 million more than a month earlier.

"We are not competing with China to win the hearts and minds of other peoples," says Cheng.

In his opinion, the difference between the two countries is that China is trying to polish its global image as a responsible power, whilst Taiwan just wants to prove that it is a responsible stakeholder in the international community.

It is hard to image the island and mainland China going head to head politically and economically. However, according to many observers, Taiwans "coronavirus diplomacy" is helping the island boost its international standing.

Not surprisingly, Beijing appears irritated by Taipeis humanitarian activism. China believes that Taipei is using "political tricks" to gain membership in the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The Chinese foreign ministry has "advised" Taiwan (and the United States) not to take actions that could harm China's core interests.

Washington is pushing for Taipei to be granted observer status in the World Health Assembly, a request that Beijing has rejected. To the Chinese, the island is a "rebel province" to be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Toronto, April 7 : Common medical masks are fine for all other COVID-19 treatments, say researchers, adding that the use of surgical masks did not increase viral respiratory infection or clinical respiratory illness.

According to the study, published in the journal Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, systematic review of four randomised controlled trials on masks done between 1990 and last month show the use of medical masks did not increase viral respiratory infection or clinical respiratory illness.

However, there is a consensus that the N95 respirators, designed to fit tight and prevent inhalation of small airborne particles, are best for procedures such as intubation or bronchoscopy when health-care professionals must insert a tube through a patient's throat.

"There is no convincing evidence that the loose-fitting medical masks are inferior to N95 respirators in protecting healthcare workers against viral respiratory infections during routine care in the pandemic," said study researcher Mark Loeb from McMaster University in Canada.

"But the N95 respirators are unanimously recommended by national and international guidelines for aerosol-generating procedures. This is an important distinction at a time when there is a serious concern about a shortage of N95 respirators because of COVID-19," Loeb added.

The researchers pointed out that there have been conflicting recommendations on the use of the N95 masks.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the European Centre for Disease and Prevention preferentially recommend the N95 respirator for routine care of patients with COVID-19, while the World Health Organization and Canadian Public Health Agency recommend medical masks. "Although COVID-19 transmission is not fully understood, it's believed to be mainly through respiratory droplets, and the medical masks provide barrier protection for that and prevent hand to face contact," Loeb said.

"This evidence to support the relative effectiveness of medical masks compared to N95 respirators in routine care might help preserve the stockpiles of N95 respirators for high-risk, aerosol-generating procedures," said study first author Jessica Bartoszko.

However, the question needs further research and this month the research teams are beginning a new study on whether the N95 respirators or medical masks are the best option for health-care providers caring for COVID-19 patients.

In a multi-site randomized controlled trial, nurses will use either a medical mask or N95 respirator when providing care for patients with fever and respiratory illness. "This study is critical to ensure we're using personal protective equipment correctly during this, and any future infectious disease outbreak," said Loeb.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Notwithstanding Gov. Mike DeWines competent management of the COVID-19 pandemic, his [in]action regarding prisoners has been pathetic (To avoid disastrous coronavirus spread in Ohio prisons and jails, Gov. DeWine must act, editorial, April 5). There are nearly 50,000 inmates in Ohios state prisons, living in the perfect conditions for a rapidly spreading epidemic when a few become infected. It can transform time served into death sentences.

After days of saying he was studying a solution to this problem, Gov. DeWine found 38 people to suggest for release, after they go through the bureaucracy of judicial review. These were some women who are pregnant or recently gave birth and some elderly people about to leave prison anyway. This leaves 99.9 percent of the issue unaddressed.

America locks up more people than any other country and hands out sentences by the decades for nonviolent offenses. Iran, which is surely no model of tolerance, has less than half the American incarceration rate, with around 200,000 convicted inmates, and it furloughed 100,000 of them for the period of the COVID-19 crisis.

By what standard does Ohio want to be measured?

Eric Fenster,

Piedmont
This article is part of Privacy in the Pandemic, a new Future Tense series.

The digital privacy class Im teaching this semester is now taking place  on Zoom. All of a sudden, an application that most people hadnt even heard of a month ago is at the center of some of the strongest privacy and security scrutiny that any company has been subject to since Facebooks Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Absolutely, Zoom has made some significant mistakes when it comes to privacy and security. It lied about using end-to-end encryption and AES-256 encryption to protect its video conferences. It routed some encryption keys for meetings through Chinese servers even when the meeting participants were not themselves located in China. It sent data about some users to Facebook even when they didnt have Facebook accounts, and it displayed information from peoples LinkedIn profiles during some meetings. Meanwhile, some users have experienced Zoom bombings, in which unwanted participants disrupt their online meetings. Because of Zooms file naming conventions, some peoples meeting recordings were easy to locate on the public internet. (This was not the case when the recordings were actually stored on Zoom servers, only when users saved and stored recordings themselves.) Those issues stem from the inability of users to configure their Zoom settings to protect meetings (something Zoom actually offers fairly good controls for) or recordings, but it would be reasonable to look to Zoom to provide more assistance on both of those fronts.

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Thats a long list of problems, a few of them very clearly Zooms fault (for instance, lying about its use of encryption), but many of them also forgivable, especially when viewed in the context of a company that is scaling up much more quickly than it ever could have hoped or planned. A recent Zoom blog post says that in December, the maximum number of daily meeting participants, both free and paid, conducted on Zoom was approximately 10 million. In March this year, we reached more than 200 million daily meeting participants, both free and paid. Thats a staggering increase.

The company has also been, on the whole, very responsive to the deluge of criticism it has faced in the past few weeksrevising its privacy policy, for instance, to declare that it does not sell user data, and moving off China-based servers for U.S. video conferences. That doesnt excuse the decision to misrepresent its so-called end-to-end encryption or its failure to protect recorded Zoom sessions stored online. But it is a strong signal that the company wants, ultimately, to protect its users, even as it is struggling to keep up with unprecedented demand and growth.

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So I was a little bit surprised when the New York City school system announced a ban on Zoom last week, not least because many other schools and universities (including my own!) still rely entirely on the companys platform to deliver their online courses. I use Zoom to teach my class, to hold office hours, to talk to friends and family. If I sound like a Zoom apologist, its because the program does feel like a bit of a godsend at this particular momentand also because I pretty much have to use it for work. Certainly, I worry about the privacy and security protections in place, but its also one of the best performing and easiest to use applications for synchronous video chatting with large groups of people. At the moment, those performance qualities trump many other concerns.

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All things considered, Zooms doing a hell of a job scaling up its service and trying to respond to concerns.

There are alternatives, of course. Ciscos Webex platform is another popular program being used by many companies and universities right now, and FaceTime works well for small groups, as does Skype, Houseparty, and the open-source videoconferencing software Jitsi. But when an organization like the New York City public schools decides to ban Zoom altogether, its not clear whichif anyof these alternatives they could turn to for the same variety of features, much less comparable performance. New York City is apparently recommending that teachers and students instead rely on Microsoft Teams, a tool that suffered an outage just last month during a surge in demand and has only recently begun working on crucial synchronous video chat features such as background noise suppression.

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Simply put, Zoom works very well for synchronous video chatting. Security and privacy issues aside (a phrase I dont love writing, but here we are), Zoom requires relatively low bandwidth to provide adequate video and fairly good audio for much larger groups than most other platforms can handle. For many of us trying to teach classes or hold other large group events online right now, thats the top priority.

I wish Zoom had taken security and privacy more seriously from the get-go. I wish it had been more honest about its encryption practices earlier on, and I very much wish it did a better job of protecting meeting recordings,. But all things considered, its doing a hell of a job scaling up its service and trying to respond very quickly to all of the concerns being raised about its product. Most of all, I admire its honesty and transparency about its shortcomings and its attempts to fix the vulnerabilities that have been identified, almost entirely within the past few weeks. We recognize that we have fallen short of the communitysand our ownprivacy and security expectations, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan wrote in a blog post last week, adding, we did not design the product with the foresight that, in a matter of weeks, every person in the world would suddenly be working, studying, and socializing from home. We now have a much broader set of users who are utilizing our product in a myriad of unexpected ways, presenting us with challenges we did not anticipate when the platform was conceived.

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Im not going to tell you that you should use Zoom over the other options, but neither do I think its a terrible or reckless choice. And if you are still using Zoom, whether by choice or because you have to, here are some things you can do to protect your meetings with regard to the three general areas of concern around Zoom communications.

The first of these concerns is zoom bombing, when people show up to meetings or classes uninvited and troll the participants with unwanted content or speech. This can be partly mitigated through using passwords to protect Zoom meetings, or requiring participants to be logged in with valid credentials before allowing them access to a meeting. Zoom also offers meeting hosts a function to expel unwanted participants from their meetings and forbid them from rejoining.

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The second category of risks is real-time espionage or capture of Zoom meetingssomeone spying on or intercepting Zoom traffic while a meeting is being held. This is a risk that Zoom users have almost no ability to protect themselves from beyond setting passwords for their meetings to keep out unwanted intruders. The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto reported last week on the handling of encryption keys by Zoom and the potential for those keys to be intercepted by or routed through China. Zoom has already announced it has taken the mainland China datacenters off of the whitelist of secondary backup bridges for users outside of China so that those encryption keys should no longer be passing through Chinese servers. That doesnt mean there isnt potential for other espionage pathways, but there is very little you, as a Zoom user, can do to prevent that.

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Finally, the third category of risks stems from how data can be accessed and used when Zoom meetings are recorded and stored on the companys servers. The Washington Post reported last week that thousands of those recordings are accessible online because Zoom had named and stored them in a predictable manner. The easiest way to avoid this is to not record your meetings, or, if you do record them, to store and encrypt them locally on your own computer so that you can protect them yourself. Another option might be to use a separate recording function to make voice-only recordings of your meetings, to minimize the collected data and avoid storing video or face information about participants.

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Even if you choose not to record your Zoom meetings, though, you should be prepared for the possibility that anyone else in the meeting could be making a recording without your knowledge, simply by training their smartphone on the computer screen and taking video with it, or through separate screen recording software. You should expect that everything you say or do on Zoom could resurface some day on YouTube, in the same way that you should be prepared for everything you write in an email to appear on the front page of a newspaper. Im not saying its likely that anyone will be interested enough in my class or your meetings to do that, but its always a possibility. Thats not a unique threat to Zoomyou could be recorded or captured on any video chatting tool. Its not even unique to online communicationsany one of my students could have recorded my class with their phone while sitting in the classroom.

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In short, create passwords for your Zoom meetings, always cover your computer camera when youre not using it, and be prepared for the possibility that anything you do or say over the internet, including on Zoom, could be captured for posterity.

If youre teaching on Zoom, I also think its worth talking to your students about the security and privacy shortcomings of the service and asking them what sorts of measures would make them feel most comfortable in class. Do they want class meetings to be recorded, to help students who miss class? Or would they prefer to have only the audio recorded so that their faces are not captured? Do they not want to be recorded at all and instead have the teacher create short video summaries of each class afterward so that no student data is stored? Those were some of the options I offered to my own class. Naturally, I solicited their opinions via Zoom poll.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
It is 250 years since the birth of the great English poet William Wordsworth. A lover of nature, his poetry abounds with images of lambs, flowers in full bloom, windswept crags and woodland scenes. His pleasure in nature, particularly that of his home the Lake District, is famous.

His contemporary Samuel Taylor Coleridge once describes his genius as not a spirit that descended to him through the air; it sprang out of the ground like a flower. Wordsworth did find much inspiration in the natural landscape that he would revel in on his long walks. In these house-bound times and on this anniversary, we can all find inspiration in the great poet and his love of walking as we take our daily exercise.

In a comic article from 1839 entitled Recollections of the Lakes and the Lake Poets: Mr Wordsworth, the writer Thomas De Quincey criticised Wordsworths unshapely legs while also noting that:

[He calculated], upon good data, that with these identical legs Wordsworth must have traversed a distance of 175,000 to 180,000 English miles

In his summer vacation from Cambridge University in 1790, he walked right across revolutionary France, over the Alps and back through Germany (arriving late for the start of term). Wordsworth was still able to ascend Helvellyn, one of the highest peaks in the Lake District, aged 70  a feat celebrated in Benjamin Robert Haydons portrait of him in 1842.

The walking Wordsworths

Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were not only interested in large-scale walking tours but walked almost every day, at all times of the day. Dorothys famous Grasmere Journal, documents their walks and is itself a wonderful example of nature writing. In it she logs the minute details they would see on their walks, like daffodils near the Lake Districts Gowbarrow Park:

I never saw daffodils so beautiful. They grew about the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake.

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Walking was not just for pleasure, though. We know that Wordsworth frequently walked to write. Dorothys Journal describes how:

Though the length of his walk maybe sometimes a quarter or half a mile, he is as fast bound within the chosen limits as if by prison walls. He generally composes his verses out of doors, and while he is so engaged he seldom knows how the time slips away, or hardly whether it is rain or fair.

In a poem entitled When first I Journeyd Hither to his brother John, who was away at sea, Wordsworth writes of the joy of finding a path carved into the earth by him:

With a sense Of lively joy did I behold this path Beneath the fir-trees, for at once I knew That by my Brothers steps it had been tracd. My thoughts were pleasd within me to perceive That hither he had brought a finer eye, A heart more wakeful: that more loth to part From place so lovely he had worn the track, Out of his own deep paths!

The poem ends by imagining John, walking up and down on the deck of his ship at sea in tune with William as he also walks up and down to write the poem on the path that John has made for him. He imagines an empathetic connection between the two constrained spaces:

Alone I tread this path, for aught I know Timing my steps to thine

To the rhythm

Wordsworth is known for composing in the rhythm with the pace of his walking. In his epic autobiography, The Prelude, Wordsworth describes himself doing this and sending his terrier (Pepper) ahead to warn him of others:

And when at evening on the public way I sauntered, like a river murmuring And talking to itself when all things else Are still, the creature trotted on before; Such was his custom; but whene'er he met A passenger approaching, he would turn To give me timely notice, and straightway, Grateful for that admonishment, I hushed My voice, composed my gait, and, with the air And mien of one whose thoughts are free, advanced To give and take a greeting that might save My name from piteous rumours, such as wait On men suspected to be crazed in brain

This is also a wonderful example of why walking alone can be freeing. It allows us to be alone with our thoughts and to act freely (till someone happens by that is).

So, as you undertake your permitted daily walk, remember that constraint can also be creative, the familiar walk enjoyable in its very familiarity. Enjoy the calm of nature and, like Williams brother, John, receive that calm as a silent poet appreciative and receptive to the simple pleasures around you.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Sally Bushell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Separately, Trump on Friday fired the intelligence community inspector general who had forwarded the whistle-blower report that led to the presidents impeachment. On Sunday, that inspector, Michael Atkinson, pointedly spoke out in support of whistle-blowers. Please do not allow recent events to silence your voices, he said in a statement.

At the briefing Monday, Trump seemed to grow irritated at the mention of the words inspector general.

He cut off multiple reporters, asking first for the name of the inspector general who had led the survey of hospitals (its Christi Grimm, he was told) and then challenging them to find out when she had been appointed to her position. (He was told that it was this year, and that she had been with the department since 1999.)

As he has consistently done in the past, Trump responded to questions about the availability of coronavirus tests by rejecting the premise. He bragged that the United States had conducted more tests than any other country. And he refused to accept that the buck stopped with him. States can do their own testing, he said. Were the federal government. Were not supposed to stand on street corners doing testing.
The Intel Foundation is making a financial commitment of 500,000 to support coronavirus relief efforts in communities where the company has a significant presence, including here in Ireland.

The Intel Foundation will be directly donating a total of 500,000 to Irish charities to support coronavirus relief and recovery efforts.

The exact details of the recipients of the charitable donation will be shared in the coming days.

Additionally, for the company's employees in Ireland, the Intel Foundation is establishing a special donation matching campaign to amplify their contributions.

Intel employees who donate to CMRF Crumlin, ALONE or Jigsaw will have their donation matched.

Donations from employees and US retirees will be matched from March 26 to April 10, or until a total of $2 million is reached.

CMRF Crumlin provides vital funding for CHI Crumlin (previously known as Our Ladys Childrens Hospital, Crumlin) and The National Childrens Research Centre to enable little patients to have the best possible outcomes.

CMRF Crumlin together with donors and partners fund initiatives, research, equipment and projects. CMRF Crumlin are Intel Irelands 2020 signature charity.

ALONE provides Housing with Support, Support Coordination, Befriending, BConnect training and technology, and Campaigns for Change to hundreds of older people every week, who are homeless, socially isolated, living in deprivation or in crisis.

Their role supporting older people in communities is particularly vital during this challenging time.

Jigsaw are the National Centre for Youth Mental Health.

Their mission is to advance the mental health of young people in Ireland (aged 12-25) by influencing change, strengthening communities, and delivering services through our evidence informed and early intervention approach.

Jigsaw are helping young people across the country cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition to these financial contributions Intel are also happy to share that in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Intel Ireland have donated 100,000 items of personal protective equipment  masks, gloves and other gear  to the HSE for health workers on the front lines to support our communities during this critical time.

Intel's employees are their biggest asset and they are encouraging them to share their experience, talents, and passions with schools and nonprofits in the communities where they live and work.

Intel said: "As we adjust to this situation, we are also providing and encouraging virtual volunteer opportunities to help local communities.

"We continue to work closely with organisations in our local community to support them through this challenging time and help them to deliver vital services.

"One example of local support is to the Leixlip Meals on Wheels organisation.

"One of the specific challenges that the group has at this time is how to continue to provide the service for elderly and vulnerable members of the community who are reliant on the meals.

"We made a donation to help ensure that they could continue their vital work over the coming weeks  we hope that small gestures such as this will be of practical support to our local community at this challenging time.

"We know how important it is for companies to support organisations who are working diligently, in a variety of different ways, to respond to the coronavirus pandemic here in Ireland.

"Our contributions are made to them with sincere gratitude for their incredible spirit, care, and fortitude in this time of need."

These efforts are part of a wider global response by Intel which includes a donation of 1 million gloves, masks and other equipment to healthcare workers and a $1 million International Red Cross donation Intel committed to in January.

The Intel Foundation will provide a total of $4 million to support coronavirus relief efforts in communities where the company has significant presence.

The Foundation will also offer a further $2 million to match employee donations to support relief efforts around major Intel sites.

Additionally, Intel is applying technology and expertise to help better understand and combat the virus.

For example, Intel NUCs are helping in the coronavirus fight, and Intel and Lenovo have teamed up with Beijing-based BGI Genomics to accelerate the analysis of genomic characteristics of COVID-19.

Read more about Intels response: Intel Coronavirus News

Since 1988, the Intel Foundation has been committed to improving lives in communities around the world.

The Foundation acts as a catalyst for change by providing disaster relief and support, investing in innovative STEM programs, and amplifying the investments of Intel employees across a broad spectrum of personal philanthropy and volunteering.

Their vision is inspired by one of Intel's co-founders, Robert Noyce, and his oft-repeated declaration, "don't be encumbered by history, go off and do something wonderful".
Abandoned when Pakistan's largest cities went into lockdown, hundreds of caged cats, dogs and rabbits have been found dead inside pet markets hurriedly shuttered as the coronavirus spread. Animals still alive in the corner of Karachi's sprawling Empress Market were rescued only after activists appealed to the authorities for access. Two weeks into the shutdown, Ayesha Chundrigar could hear the cries of the pets from outside the shops, which together housed up to 1,000 animals. "When we got inside, the majority of them were dead, about 70 percent. Their bodies were lying on the ground," Chundrigar, who runs ACF Animal Rescue, told AFP. "It was so horrific, I can't tell you." Starving and locked in cages with no light or ventilation, the surviving pets sat amongst the dead, trembling. As the virus pandemic grew, Pakistan's major cities were plunged into lockdown, forcing many shops to close. Only stalls selling essential goods such as food and medicine were allowed to continue operating. It left pet shop owners blocked from their businesses, some resorting to sneaking in at night to feed the animals. After the desperate rescue, Chundrigar has now convinced the Karachi authorities to allow pet shop owners and her team daily access to the animals. - Dumped in a sewer - In the eastern city of Lahore, animals met with a similar fate. The bodies of about 20 dogs were found dumped in a sewer near Tollinton Market, a hub for pet businesses which had closed leaving animals to starve. Kiran Maheen was able to rescue more than two dozen dogs, rabbits and cats after convincing officials at the market to let her in, but a large number had already died. "When the police opened up the shutters, a lot of animals were already lying dead inside," Maheen told AFP, adding that many had suffocated from a lack of air. Pakistani authorities have confirmed about 2,900 cases of COVID-19 and 45 deaths, though the tally is thought to be many times larger because of testing limitations in this impoverished country of 215 million. Around 25 percent of the population already live under the poverty line, but millions more who earn a daily wage have joined them since the lockdown began, experts say. A pet shop owner feeds an animal outside his shuttered store in Karachi Many animals have been abandoned since Pakistan went into lockdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus Stray dogs on the streets of Karachi, Pakistan
The International Melbourne Film Festival which was scheduled to be held in August this year has been cancelled over health concerns relating to the coronavirus outbreak.

According to Variety magazine, the organisers of the festival said that the accompanying events that used to take place with the festival have also been cancelled.

In an attempt to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, Australia is currently under a lockdown.

According to Variety magazine, 5,886 people have been tested positive for coronavirus in the country and the death toll stand at 46 as of April 7.

"The thought of a winter without MIFF in our city is a disorienting one; deeply disappointing to both our organization and, I'm sure, our community," Variety magazine quoted MIFF artistic director Al Cossar.

"It is a decision that was very hard but plainly necessary, responsible and required given what we all face together at this moment," added Cossar.

This year's edition of the festival was scheduled to start on August 6.

"In the absence of the festival this year, MIFF is considering other means of maintaining its engagement with audiences. We will share details as they become available," Variety quoted Cossar as saying.

Various other Australian festivals that have been halted due to the highly contagious virus include the Sydney Film Festival, Gold Coast Film Festival, and the Melbourne Queer Film Festival.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ayushmann Khurrana is a man with a golden heart! During this lockdown, everyone is spending their birthdays at home and trying to make the day as special as possible. For Mona Shah, who turned 49 today, quarantine brought in great news as she thrillingly found Ayushmann singing 'Happy Birthday To You'!

See Ayushmann Khurrana's surprise here:

Here's how it happened! Mona's two daughters Janvi and Kavya tagged Ayushmann on his social media platforms and informed him that their mother loves his brand of cinema, now famously known as "The Ayushmann Khurrana Genre'! Kavya appealed to Ayushmann writing, "It's her birthday in quarantine and nothing will make it more special than you Ayushmann giving her a shoutout! She loves your work and we love our mom! We are only trying to make today super super special for her even during this lockdown!!"

The second daughter Janvi wrote, "It's her quarantine birthday, and it would be great if you Ayushmann make her feel special and wish her in your way!! She loves youuuuuu!" Little did the two sisters know that Ayushmann will surprise them and their mother with an adorable post and celebrate Mona's birthday on the internet and get all of India to also celebrate Mona's birthday today!

Ayushmann took to his social media to sing Happy Birthday and strummed his guitar and told her to have the best day! Surely, it's an incredibly sweet gesture from a star and made the day for not just Mona for also the internet which needs a little bit of cheer amidst all the gloom!

Also Read : Ayushmann Khurrana Pleads People To Follow Lockdown; Says It's Not The Time To Be Irresponsible
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On March 31, 2020, two officers of the Iraqi Police Sixth Emergency Regiment assaulted Mohamed Kader al-Samarrai, director of the local broadcaster Al-Maliyah TV, after stopping him at a checkpoint to enforce the countrys COVID-19 curfew, according to a Facebook post by al-Samarrai and reports by the National Union of Journalists in Iraq and the Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq, two local press rights groups.

The two officers stopped al-Samarrai while he was driving home from work in the central Iraqi city of Samarra, according to those reports.

I waited for half an hour along with other drivers. I carried permits from the COVID-19 Crisis Cell and the Samarra Operations Command allowing me to work during curfew hours, he wrote on Facebook.

He wrote that when he got out of his car to show the officers his permits and ask to be let through, the police officers rushed him and beat him in the head with the butts of their guns until he lost consciousness.

He was transferred to a local hospital where he was treated for bruises and other minor injuries, according to the press rights groups reports.

Al-Samarrai also wrote that the commander of the Sixth Emergency Regiment ordered both police officers to be arrested following the incident.

CPJ emailed the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, which oversees the countrys police, for comment, but did not immediately receive any reply.
DTE joins coalition of business groups raising awareness of Paycheck Protection Program forgivable loans

Detroit, April 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DETROIT, Apr. 6, 2020  DTE Energy, Michigan's largest energy company, is making its business customers aware of programs that can provide financial lifelines, as well as offering guidance on reducing their energy bills during the coronavirus pandemic.

One form of assistance promoted by DTE is forgivable loans offered by the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), administered by the Small Business Administration. DTE has joined with a diverse business and community coalition in communicating how PPP loans offer critical help to businesses impacted by the pandemic. The loans are forgivable if certain criteria are met and provide small businesses with funds to pay up to eight weeks of payroll costs including benefits. Funds can also be used to pay interest on mortgages, rent, and utilities. More information on the programs participating lending institutions and answers to common questions can be found here.

We want businesses to know that DTE cares about them at this critical time, and we want them to stay safe throughout the crisis, as well as weather the financial challenges it has brought, said Jerry Norcia, president and CEO of DTE Energy. Well get through this crisis together as strong partners ready to power growth and prosperity as Michigan recovers.

While the PPP loans will help small businesses cover some costs, DTE is encouraging customers to cut expenses further with some simple, no-cost steps for quick reductions in energy usage that can help lower energy bills. Steps include:

Shut off unnecessary lighting. Double-check that all unused lights are turned off and make any adjustments to timers if necessary.

Close unoccupied areas. By closing off rooms, floors or entire wings that are vacant or not being used, youll be able to reduce lighting and HVAC usage, lowering your bills even further.

Turn off non-critical electronics and other equipment. Make sure any non-critical electronics are turned off for now, especially computers and monitors, printers, coffee makers or warmers, radios, and internal signage or TV screens. If your business uses any commercial grade kitchen equipment, such as stoves or ovens, make sure items like burners, fryers and warmers are shut off.

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DTEs full set of information resources on the PPP loan program, energy efficiency tips, and other programs that can benefit businesses is available online here. DTE has also posted a page helping all customers understand its response to the coronavirus pandemic here.

About DTE Energy

DTE Energy (DTE) is a Detroit-based diversified energy company involved in the development and management of energy-related businesses and services nationwide. Its operating units include an electric company serving 2.2 million customers in Southeast Michigan and a natural gas company serving 1.3 million customers in Michigan. The DTE portfolio includes energy businesses focused on power and industrial projects; renewable natural gas; natural gas pipelines, gathering and storage; and energy marketing and trading. As an environmental leader, DTE utility operations will reduce carbon dioxide and methane emissions by more than 80 percent by 2040 to produce cleaner energy while keeping it safe, reliable and affordable. DTE Electric aspires to achieve net zero carbon by 2050. DTE is committed to serving with its energy through volunteerism, education and employment initiatives, philanthropy and economic progress. Information about DTE is available at dteenergy.com, empoweringmichigan.com, twitter.com/dte_energy and facebook.com.

Pete Ternes

DTE Energy

313.235.5555


Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 22:38:28|Editor: huaxia

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JERUSALEM, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli health ministry announced on Tuesday that all aged six and older will be required to wear face masks outside homes starting Sunday morning as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

This obligation does not apply to those who drive alone in their cars or who have a significant difficulty in using the mask because of a disability, according to a ministry order.

Also, two employees who regularly work in the same room will not be required to wear masks if they keep at least two meters from each other.

Israel has approved emergency regulations that prohibit leaving home cities from Tuesday evening until Friday morning.

Within this period, from Wednesday afternoon, the beginning of the Jewish holiday Passover, to Thursday morning, it will be prohibited to leave home.

Israel also decided to completely halt public transport and international flights from Tuesday evening to Sunday morning.
Global stock markets posted strong gains for a second straight session Tuesday as investors seized on signs of a slowdown in the spread of the coronavirus, while some governments began making plans to ease restrictions.

"Investors are betting that the coronavirus outbreak may have peaked and are ignoring the economic slump that we are in," said Fawad Razaqzada, an analyst with Trading Candles.

But Razaqzada also said he "wouldn't be surprised if the rally were to end abruptly because the economic impact of COVID-19 is going to be severe".

In the meantime, oil was energised by hopes that key producers will agree to cut output at this week's emergency OPEC+ video meeting, which will address virus-sapped demand and a price war.

Following on from gains in Asian and European equities, Wall Street also posted solid gains shortly after the opening bell, with the DJIA up more than 800 points.

"Equities are still racing higher, as the from key countries like Spain and Italy remains positive," said IG analyst Chris Beauchamp. "Stocks continue to rally as investors look for the positives in the current global outlook."



Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai stocks all finished around two per cent higher.

After the close in Japan however, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a month-long state of emergency in the capital and six other parts of the country over a spike in virus cases.

Adding to the positive vibe were further measures to support economies, including a trillion-dollar package in Japan and central bank moves in China.

And with the ink barely dry on a USD 2 trillion rescue plan passed by Congress last month, Donald Trump said he favoured another massive spending programme -- again roughly USD 2 trillion -- this time targeting infrastructure projects.

The head of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers on Tuesday called for a major rescue plan, as EU members squabble over what is needed to rebuild the shattered economy.

Mario Centeno, who is also Portugal's finance minister, called for a "bold response" ahead of a videoconference with his counterparts.

However, analysts do not believe that a proposal to issue "coronabonds" -- that would pool borrowing among EU nations -- is going to gain any traction.

"The inability of eurozone ministers to agree on the subject of coronabonds is a clear sign of disharmony in the region," cautioned Rabobank analyst Jane Foley.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following their final days as senior working members of the British royal family, Prince Harry, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex hoped to announce their new brand name and their plans for the future. Though the Sussexes had been working diligently on their next steps since announcing Megxit in January 2020, things didnt actually turn out as planned.

When the duke and duchess finished their final royal engagements in early March 2020, there seemed to be a ton of friction between the couple and the remaining members of the British royal family. Almost as soon as they completed their final royal engagement, Commonwealth Day, the Sussexes left the U.K. for their rented home on Vancouver Island in Canada.

Unfortunately, just as Prince Harry and Meghan were set to focus on a new path, the coronavirus (COVID-19) began to ravage the world. As a result, the duo, along with their infant son, Archie, left Canada for their permanent home base, Los Angeles, California. Now it appears that the Sussexes wont be working for quite some time.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry wont launch their rebrand until later this year

Though theyd hoped to get on the ground running, the global pandemic has thwarted everyones plans, including the Sussexes. Though theyve shuttered their Sussex Royal brand, and there have been rumors about Meghan relaunching, The Tig, a cookbook and more acting work, no Sussex news will be announced in the near future.

Meghan and Harry are trying to rebrand themselves and want to make a big media splash but are stymied by the coronavirus situation, a source said to US Weekly. They are losing out on potential paid opportunities by having to keep a low profile. They did the move to L.A. to be closer to the deal makers and are setting up calls and virtual meetings with agents, studio heads. Meghan and Harry are plotting for a summer or fall splash.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are spending their time as a family in LA

Like many of us, the Sussexes are practicing self-quarantining amid the coronavirus crisis. They are currently isolating in a compound in Hollywood. Though they are keeping in touch with family and friends, they are adhering to LAs rules and regulations, which means no visitors.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will spend the next few months focusing on their family and continuing to do what they can, safely and privately, to support and work with their pre-existing charitable commitments while developing their future nonprofit organization, the couples team said in a statement.

The pair are also using this quiet time to ease any lingering tensions with the British royal family.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry wont be working for a while

The Sussexes hope to become completely financially independent in due time. For now, they will be getting financial help from Prince Charles. Prince Charles will still continue to offer private financial support to Meghan, Harry, and Archie, BAZAAR.coms Royal Editor At Large, Omid Scobie, reported on Twitter.

In fact, it will be some time before the pair publically get back to work. After such a stressful time in the spotlight and amid their Megxit announcement, the duo is really relishing their time away from the spotlight.

It is interesting because we had such a build-up since January to the departure of Meghan and Harry stepping back as senior working royals, Scobie said on his podcast The Heir Pod. Suddenly on March 31 it sort of crept up on us really quickly, we had the couple announcing the beginning of their transition period over the next year on Instagram. At the same time, they were announcing that they are closing down their social media and their website and taking a break for the next few months. I think it has really taken everyone by surprise. Because there was so much talk about the couple preparing projects and ready to launch initiatives. When actually it was two people that were like, We need a break too.'
Rental revenue from "Sorry We Missed You" will be split in half between The Projector and Anticipate Pictures.

6 Apr - Last week, The Projector revealed that it was in talks with Anticipate Pictures for a joint venture into video-on-demand service.

As announced on Anticipate Pictures' Facebook yesterday, it has included several new titles to its streaming list on Vimeo and the rental revenue from one of them will be shared with the arthouse cinema.

The particular movie is 2019 British-French-Belgian drama film, "Sorry We Missed You".

Directed by Ken Loach, the movie was selected for the Palme d'Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival. The proceeds from its rental on the indie film distributor's Vimeo will be divided in half with The Projector.

This is part of the cinema's effort to keep business afloat during its temporary shut down for the month, due to local government's effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Singapore.

In turn, the cinema is also supporting the film distributor by promoting the latter's films on social media.

Last weekend, the cinema posted about the film distributor's "Portrait of A Lady on Fire" watch party, which was hosted by author Amanda Lee Koe and filmmaker Kirsten Tan, and featured an Instagram Live Q&A afterwards with photographer Li Wanjie and writer-director Desiree Akhavan.

The movie was - and still is - available for rent on Vimeo for SGD9.99

Among other titles that are also available to be streamed on Anticipate Pictures' Vimeo now are "Toni Erdmann", "Girl", "So Long, My Son" and "Faces Places".

In related news, The Projector is currently running a Stay-At-Home Insta Story Short Film Competition, to encourage people to make movies while staying at home. Submission closes next week, 15 April (Wednesday).
A Pennsylvania man who spent seven years beating, starving and torturing his six adopted children wasnt punished too harshly when a judge slapped him with a 7- to 40-year prison term, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday.

Timothy Dean Krause, whose 52-year-old wife Barbara Jean is serving an identical jail term, beat the children so viciously with paddles that their buttocks bled through their underwear, investigators said.

They said the Clearfield County couple also starved the children, made them undergo excruciating punishments, didnt send them to school and even had the family dogs bite them while they were being abused. The Krauses referred to the children by racial slurs.

The children, ages 16 to 12, endured the abuse from 2011 to 2018.

Timothy Krause, 53, received his prison sentence after pleading guilty to 22 criminal charges, including child endangerment and assault. He had no sentencing deal.

In denying Timothy Krauses appeal, Superior Court President Judge Emeritus John Bender relied heavily on the findings of county Judge Paul E. Cherry, who hit Krause with that penalty. Cherry called the abuse the children suffered pervasive and severe.

That abuse also included threatening the children with axes and guns, Cherry noted. All of the kids were made to sleep in one room on one thin mattress that was so small two had to sleep on the floor. Cherry wrote that some of the children were fed only eggs and water as punishment for weeks at a time. Every one of them was malnourished.

So, Cherry found, Timothy Krauses acts amounted to violation of the parent/child trust.

Bender agreed.

Cherry determined that a lengthy term of incarceration was warranted due to the gravity of (Krauses) crimes, the need to protect the public from his violent criminal propensities, and to best serve Krauses rehabilitative needs, Bender wrote. We do not agree with (Krause) that his sentence of 7 to 40 years incarceration for his 7 years of violent abuse towards his six adopted children is excessive.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 20:48:42|Editor: xuxin

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ULAN BATOR, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia is fully confident in winning the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, said the country's health minister Davaajantsan Sarangerel in her World Health Day greetings published on Tuesday.

"This year's World Health Day comes at a time when the world is fighting against a deadly disease. I have no doubt that our health sector, which has overcome the spread of many communicable diseases through joint efforts, will win the battle against COVID-19 outbreak," said Sarangerel.

As of Tuesday, a total of 15 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the country. A French national tested positive on March 10, becoming the first confirmed case in the country.

All the confirmed cases are imported ones and four people have recovered so far, according to the country's National Center for Communicable Disease.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-08 01:18:59|Editor: huaxia

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A staff member removes barricades near an expressway toll station in northern Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, April 8, 2020. Wuhan, the megacity in central China, started lifting outbound travel restrictions from Wednesday after almost 11 weeks of lockdown to stem the spread of COVID-19. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)

WUHAN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- As cars queued up at expressway toll gates and passengers prepared to board trains to leave Wuhan, the megacity in central China started lifting outbound travel restrictions from Wednesday after almost 11 weeks of lockdown to stem the spread of COVID-19.

At Fuhe toll gate in nothern Wuhan, cars honked horns and rushed out after barricades were removed at midnight.

Guo Lei, who ran a business in Wuhan, drove his car with six other people aboard to the toll gate at around 8:40 p.m. and waited for a homebound trip.

"I can't wait returning to my hometown," said Guo, a native of east China's Shandong Province. "I have lived in Wuhan for eight years. During the Spring Festival holiday, my relatives came to the city and helped me deliver goods. We were all stranded here due to the epidemic."

Big data from Wuhan traffic police forecasted the expressways would see the peak of outbound vehicles on Wednesday.

As more enterprises resume their operations, Wuhan has seen an increase of nearly 400,000 vehicles in transit in the past half month, and the number is expected to reach 1.8 million after Wednesday, according to the city's traffic police.

Traffic police will release real-time traffic information through radio stations, online social platforms, and map apps.

"I'm very happy to see the lockdown was lifted. The reopening of outbound traffic represents the epidemic situation has improved, and our hard work over the past two months has paid off," said Fang Jing, a staff member of an expressway toll station in Wuhan.

"We still need to protect ourselves from the virus and remind passengers to pay attention to personal health since the epidemic is not yet over," Fang added.

Wuhan Tianhe International Airport started resuming domestic passenger flights early Wednesday. The airport is expected to see more than 200 inbound and outbound flights on the day, according to the airport.

On Jan. 23, Wuhan declared unprecedented traffic restrictions, including suspending the city's public transport and all outbound flights and trains, in an attempt to contain the epidemic.
A Chandrapur resident who



recently returned from Indonesia and is quarantined at neighbouring Nagpur in Maharashtra has tested positive for coronavirus, an official said.

The man is a member of the Islamic organisation Tablighi Jamaat and since he has not come back to Chandrapur after returning from Indonesia, the district administration is trying to gather more information about him, the official said on Monday.

Four couples from the district went to Indonesia in February and flew back to Delhi in the third week of last month. They later took a domestic flight and reached Nagpur where they were kept under quarantine at an MLA hostel, the official said.

None of them has since returned to Chandrapur, which is located about 150 km from Nagpur.

One of these persons, who is a member of the Tablighi Jamaat, tested positive for coronavirus in Nagpur on Monday, the official said.

When contacted, Chandrapur Collector Dr Kunal Khemnar said, "We have sought details of the person as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus in the district. After getting all details of his travel history, we will decide the course of action."



A religious congregation organised by Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in Delhi last month has emerged as one of the COVID-19 hotspots in the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Odisha has become the first state in the country to make a face mask or use of cloth in "at least two layers" mandatory for the citizens when they come out of home for any purpose.

The order shall come into effect from 7 am on April 9. "The general public is directed to cover their mouth and nose with any available form of the mask while stepping out of the house for any purpose. A handkerchief or any other piece of cloth in at least two layers can also be used for the purpose, until further orders," read an official order from the Revenue and Disaster ...
Every political leader is using the present health crisis to enhance his or her image. Prime minister Narendra Modi has taken the lead here by setting up a special public charitable trust, PM-Cares, to raise funds for containing the spread of coronavirus. Modi obviously wants his signature on the cheques to be handed to the beneficiaries. Even the food packets being distributed at relief camps have Modis photographs on them.

The BJPs ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is also lending a helping hand to those in need of assistance but its foot soldiers make it a point to wear their trademark uniform and don the black cap so that they can be easily identified. Coming to Modis rescue, RSS pracharaks are telling mediapersons in private conversations that the prime minister cannot be blamed for the rush of migrant workers as this is an annual feature  they usually go to their villages at this time of the year for the harvest season.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who has come in for praise for his handling of Covid-19, is hoping this will help him acquire national stature. He is ensuring that the details of his governments work are disseminated far and wide, even going to the extent of sending press releases in Hindi.

Javed Akhtar seeks Nitish's help

Lyricist Javed Akhtar has been a worried man since a case was filed against him in a Bihar for his seditious comments on the recent Delhi riots. Akhtar called up Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for help but despite several attempts got no response. The nervous Bollywood personality then rang up a friend in Delhi, who is known for his proximity to the Bihar chief minister, and asked him to put in a word with him. Nitish Kumar is said to have told his Delhi friend that Akhtar need not worry and that nothing will come of this case. But he still did not take Akhtars calls.

Modi praises Mamata

Well before prime minister Modi conferred with chief ministers on the steps needed to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, he dialled West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and praised the measures taken by her government to help citizens during the lockdown. This was followed by phone calls from home minister and external affairs minister Amit Shah and S Jaishankar.

This sudden outreach to Banerjee has led to considerable speculation in the capital as political pundits attempt to decode the real purpose of these calls, especially since the Bharatiya Janata Party and Mamata Banerjees Trinamul Congress are locked in an eyeball-eyeball confrontation in the state keeping in view next years Assembly polls.

The two parties may be battling each other but the BJP does not want to alienate Banerjee completely and push her to tie up with the Congress in the coming state election. This is in line with the BJPs strategy of isolating the Congress and keeping it away from regional parties so that they do not band together to put up a united fight against the saffron party.

Nitish not in a happy place

Although the Bihar Assembly election is still several months away, there is talk in political circles that it could be rescheduled because of the coronavirus outbreak. Apparently, Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar, a Bharatiya Janata Party ally, is most unhappy with the Modi government for its failure to anticipate the exodus of migrant workers to their villages. State governments were worried that the deadly virus would spread to rural areas with the return of the migrant workers and they were ill-prepared to deal with such a health emergency.

An angry Nitish Kumar publicly stated that he would not allow the migrants to enter Bihar. This statement has predictably blotted Nitish Kumars copybook and it is felt that the current mess could damage the electoral prospects of the ruling JD(U)-BJP alliance. Both parties need time to recover lost ground and so the whispers about a possible postponement of the Assembly polls.

Chidambaram pullback

Well before former finance minister P Chidambaram put out a detailed statement outlining a 10-point plan to tide over the economic crisis facing the country following the lockdown, mediapersons on the Congress beat were told in advance about this press release. And true to its word, the statement was promptly circulated on the partys WhatsApp groups for the beat reporters. But to everyones surprise, the release was subsequently withdrawn.

Party insiders attribute this to Chidambarams description of the Prime Minister as the commander in chief and the people as foot soldiers. He further said that we owe a duty to extend our total support to him. This is odd since the Congress has officially extended all support to the Modi government as it battles to contain the spread of coronavirus.

However, Chidambarams subsequent tweets have been fairly critical of the governments financial package and its handling of the rush of migrant workers to their villages.
The Christ Apostolic Church International, Bantama Central has donated alcohol sanitizers, assorted food items worth GHC40,000 and an undisclosed cash to the needy and vulnerable in the Church.



Items donated included 300 pieces of 500ml sanitizers, 60 bags of rice, 22 bags of maize, 15 boxes of mackerel and 20 boxes of Sunflower oil.



This donation has necessitated because of the partial lockdown in the Greater Kumasi Area which has affected most church members who are petty traders, apprentices, widows/widowers, and many more.



This gesture which was spearheaded by the Local Management of the Church headed by Apostle S. C. K. Akomeah, Bantama Area/Local Pastor, was to alleviate the needy and the vulnerable in the local church during this era of Coronavirus pandemic.



Apostle Akomeah added that during such critical period, the Church could not sit aloof and turned it back on the members; hence this donation.



He further stated that God requires from the Church, Philanthropists and other benevolent organizations to give to the vulnerable in the society.



The Area Head pastor of the church, therefore, entreated all and sundry to emulate this gesture and give their widows might to support the needy and the vulnerable in society during this COVID-19 era and beyond.



Lockdown extension to be decided next week



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has indicated that his government will determine whether or not to extend the lockdown imposed on parts of the country next week.



In a televised address to the nation on Sunday, April 5, 2020, the president noted that the decision will largely be based on the results of the over 19,000 tests that have been conducted due to the enhanced contact tracing exercise.



He said the decision of the government on the matter will be driven by science and available data.



Akufo-Addo noted that 15,385 out of 19,276 contact persons had been reached through the enhanced contact tracing and their samples have been taken.



This will determine our future terms of action, he stressed.









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Featured Video
Why China is Developing Military Vessels at the Center of its Coronavirus Outbreak

By Ralph Jennings April 06, 2020

As China continues to recover from COVID-19, the city where the now global disease began is stepping up ship production for military and commercial purposes as part of its broader economic recovery, domestic media and experts say.

A state-owned builder of ships and submarines in Wuhan has worked overtime since March 3, the Chinese state-controlled Global Times news website reported last week. The facility of the China State Shipbuilding Corp. is "making up for time lost during the city's lockdown" and keeping an "undisclosed major project" on track, the website said.

China looks to Wuhan, where the COVID-19 coronavirus surfaced in December, as a key site for building vessels for the People's Liberation Army Navy, said Collin Koh, maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Factories in the central Chinese industrial hub turn out submarines for export, for example, to Pakistan and Thailand, he added.

"Wuhan is a key industrial city when it comes to indigenous production for the PLA modernization, as well as the fact that when you talk about exports of submarines, this is increasingly going to become a crown jewel of China's present and future arms export," Koh said.

In that vein, Chinese defense contractor Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Co. built a complex 10 years ago on 3.3 square kilometers in Wuhan, U.S.-based defense research organization GlobalSecurity.org says. The site has "made significant contribution to the updating of the naval equipment and national defense of China," GlobalSecurity.org says.

Wuchang Shipbuilding let its second wave of workers back on the job March 26 for a factory reopening a day later, the Global Times report says. The subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp. makes ships and submarines.

Despite Wuhan's location 840 kilometers from the sea, completed ships reach the Chinese coastline via the Yangtze River.

Wuhan is also known for a military school, a PLA chemical-biological weapons research center, and military logistics, said Alexander Huang, a defense-specialized strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan.

"Wuhan is the center or the probably most important location for several things," Huang said. "These are the things I know, the logistics center, the chem-bio research institute and some transportation and others."

Much of China, including Wuhan, began powering back up in March after weeks of lockdowns that barred people from going to work. About 50,000 COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Wuhan through March 19, the official Xinhua News Agency says.

Renewed shipbuilding would fit in with what analysts call sustained Chinese coast guard and military activity near Taiwan and in the South China Sea, even at the peak of the virus outbreak. Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, all of which contest Beijing's South China Sea claims, are still too tied up fighting COVID-19 to bolster their own defenses, experts say.

China is "taking advantage of the lull in activity" around the world by bolstering its military in nearby seas, said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines.

Vietnam, which has issued shelter-in-place orders to contain COVID-19, on Friday filed a complaint with China over what Vietnamese media call the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing vessel near the disputed sea's Paracel Islands. On Thursday a Chinese surveillance vessel "hit and sank" the Vietnamese boat with eight fishermen aboard, Viet Nam News reported.

"The forward positioning of the coast guard ships is pretty constant," said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia. "The PLAN (Chinese navy) stays out of it basically, but they get off the bench when an American warship begins sailing through the area and then whatever regular exercises or port calls."

Washington periodically sends warships to the South China Sea to confirm that it remains an international waterway.

Submarine production in Wuhan is probably linked to export orders, too, Koh said. Exports drive the Chinese economy, but they are expected to slow because of the slump in demand from Western countries fighting COVID-19.

Pakistan had announced plans in 2015 to buy eight new Chinese-made submarines, for example. Thailand is on track to get up to three Chinese subs by 2023, according to media reports from Bangkok.

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Before the pandemic I anticipated 800 ballots, though we usually get a little less than that, Kosinski said. Right now we have 405 absentee ballots sent out  and 130 people have showed up in person.

New Lisbon Clerk Lisa Vinz erected a similar barrier in New Lisbon out of a couple shower curtains, which she hung from the ceiling between poll workers and the area for voters to present their identification. According to Vinz, 89 voters had been to the polls in person by 3 p.m., and 150 absentee ballots had been returned out of a total of 160 sent out.

Voter Brandon Luehman expressed his appreciation of the protective measures after exiting the polls in Mauston.

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They were very well organized, they took into account social distancing, it was very professionally done, Luehman said.

Luehman said he tried to get an absentee ballot so he did not have to vote in person, but missed the March 30 deadline by a couple hours. While he said he does not have a strong opinion on the election continuing during the pandemic, he would prefer to vote electronically.

Its strange that theyre pushing social distancing but then asking people to come in to vote, Luehman said.
The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), FCT Council, has cautioned security agencies against using the Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown to harass journalists as they go about their lawful duties.

The council gave the warning in a statement by its Secretary, Ochiaka Ugwu, on Tuesday in Abuja.

It urged the security personnel to respect journalists as essential service providers and a major partner in the efforts to curtail the spread of COVID-19 In the country.

The council called on heads of security agencies in the FCT to caution their officers and men against harassing journalists in the discharge of their duties as the lockdown lasts.

Officers should desist henceforth from misusing the situation to restrict or punish media personnel.

They should also ensure that measures to tackle the disease are not used as a pretext to hinder free flow of news and information nor hinder media freedom, he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had earlier announced that identity cards of media personnel should serve as their pass during the lockdown.

The council wondered why security agents would harass its members upon displaying their ID cards as directed by the authority.

It also called on media owners to provide preventive kits and sanitisers to their crews and ensure only experienced reporters are made to handle critical reports at this period.

The council however urged members to maintain social distancing at their live interview programmes.

It also called on media managers to allow colleagues work from home except when absolutely necessary to come to the office or studio.

However, NUJ FCT remains very committed to ensuring that any act to suppress free flow of news and information would be challenged even after the lockdown.

Council has also raised a Seven-Man-Committee to systematically monitor the activities of our members as well as their challenges during this period with aim of containing them, he said.

(NAN)
They've continued to present their Heart Breakfast show amid UK's coronavirus lockdown.

And Amanda Holden and Ashley Roberts put on typically playful displays as they larked around their empty office at Global Studios in a bid to cheer up the nation on Tuesday.

In a fun clip shared to Instagram, the Britain's Got Talent judge, 49, and the Pussycat Doll, 38, showed off their sporting skills as they kicked a heart-shaped pillow against their signature red wall.

Having fun: Amanda Holden and Ashley Roberts larked around their empty office at Global Studios in a bid to cheer up the nation in an Instagram clip on Tuesday

TV and radio host Amanda looked effortlessly stylish as she slipped into a navy polka dot dress, teamed with elegant white heels.

Nailing casual chic, Buttons hitmaker Ashley was dressed in a striped multi-coloured jumper, teamed with straight-leg trousers and patent scarlet stilettos.

Alongside the video uploaded to Ashley's social media account account, the songstress wrote: 'Kickin some Lvin your way. And thats the T.  #love #heartbreakfast.' [sic]

In their element: The Britain's Got Talent judge, 49, and the Pussycat Doll, 38, showed off their sporting skills as they kicked a heart-shaped pillow against their signature red wall

Making a statement: TV and radio host Amanda looked effortlessly stylish as she slipped into a navy polka dot dress, teamed with elegant white heels

Earlier in the week, the dynamic duo turned their seemingly abandoned workspace into their own personal catwalk.

The pair are among the minority who still travel to their respective places of work amid the the country's current lockdown.

But despite the relentless gloom, they found light relief by using an empty desk in their Leicester Square office to perform an impromptu fashion show.

Equally stylish: Nailing casual chic, Buttons hitmaker Ashley was dressed in a striped multi-coloured jumper, teamed with straight-leg trousers and patent scarlet stilettos

Alongside the video uploaded to Ashley's social media account account, the songstress wrote: 'Kickin some Lvin your way. And thats the T.  #love #heartbreakfast.' [sic]

Appropriately soundtracked with David Bowie hit Fashion, the short video sees both striking sassy poses, but Amanda - who broke her leg little more than six months ago - almost loses her balance as she completes her walk.

The blonde took things further later in the day as she wheeled her bin out while wearing a shimmering evening gown.

Alongside the post, Amanda wrote: 'Wheelie wanted to dress up tonight! #BallgownBinsOut #GlamForYourBinman #ClapOurKeyWorkers'.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-07 20:46:02

Press Release

Brussels, April 7, 2020

Orange Belgium calls for material improvement of the wholesale cable tariffs included in the draft CRCs decision, submitted to the European Commission

The CRC submitted its draft decision on the wholesale cable tariffs to the European Commission, nine months after the public consultation. Orange Belgium regrets the major change in the methodology of cost recovery leading to significantly over-compensate the actual costs of the cable networks.

In the market analysis decision of June 2018 and the draft wholesale cable tariffs decision of July 2019,a further decrease of the cable wholesale charges was put forward in order to bring these tariffs to a level of fair charges (costs + reasonable margin). Orange Belgium considers that reasonable wholesale cable tariffs are essential to guarantee a more sustainable internet and TV offer in the future.

Based on a first assessment of the draft submitted to the European Commission and published today, Orange Belgium notes that the Belgian regulators have adapted the draft proposal of mid 2019 significantly.

The most impactful changes in the draft decision

The most impactful regress is the incorporation of costs as if the cable operators would deploy a new network. Orange Belgium believes this change is not justified by the actual costs of the cable network, as those assets do not need to be renewed, as the CRC mentions in its draft decision. This change results from an explicit intention to artificially increase the wholesale tariffs beyond their fair value to the detriment of the end customers, with the objective to support FttH roll out. Should the European Commission confirm this towards the final decision, this would result in the extension of an unjustified deadweight effect to the benefit of the cable owners. This monopoly rent will be paid at the end of the day by the Belgian customers.

A preliminary analysis of this updated draft shows that most wholesale charges increase in a more or less substantial way compared to the draft proposal of July 2019, leading to wholesale charges that are clearly above and beyond the level of fair charges.

Fair competition on the Belgian Internet & TV market at risk

Orange Belgium counted on an updated wholesale charges proposal that would allow continuing developing its fixed services: to offer the Belgian consumers a qualitative and attractive Internet and TV alternative, to improve the quality of service; and to better answer to an unmet need of the market for internet only offers. These evolutions are clearly put at risk if the draft decision submitted to the European Commission today is not materially improved.

The European Commission has now until early May 2020 to adopt its position. The Belgian regulators will then have to integrate the comments of the European Commission if any and publish their final decision.

About Orange Belgium

Orange Belgium is a leading telecommunications operator on the Belgian market with over 3 million customers; Orange is also active in Luxembourg through its subsidiary Orange Communications Luxembourg.

As a convergent actor, we provide mobile telecommunications services, internet and TV to private clients as well as innovative mobile and fixed-line services to businesses. Our high-performance mobile network supports 2G, 3G, 4G and 4G+ technology and is the subject of ongoing investment.

Orange Belgium is a subsidiary of the Orange Group, one of the leading European and African operators for mobile telephony and internet access, as well as one of the world leaders in telecommunications services for enterprises.

Orange Belgium is listed on the Brussels Stock Exchange (OBEL).





corporate.orange.be, www.orange.be

More information on:or follow us on Twitter: @pressOrangeBe.

Press contact

Younes Al Bouchouari  younes.albouchouari@orange.com - +32 477 69 87 73

Annelore Marynissen  Annelore.marynissen@orange.com - +32 479 016 058

press@orange.be

Attachment
Saudi Arabia and Russia are expected to agree to cut output at a meeting on Thursday but nothing has been confirmed yet.

Oil prices clawed their way higher on Tuesday on mounting hopes that Saudi Arabia and Russia will call a ceasefire in their oil price war and agree to an output cut later this week.

Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, was up 77 cents, or 2.33 percent, at $33.82 a barrel by 13:53 GMT after falling more than 3 percent on Monday. West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US benchmark, was up 42 cents, or 1.61 percent, at $26.50, having dropped nearly 8 percent in the previous session.

Oil prices are holding their ground with market expectations building on an agreement for an output reduction of 10 million barrels per day (bpd), or at least close to 10 million bpd, BNP Paribas analyst Harry Tchilinguirian told the Reuters Global Oil Forum.

Saudi Arabia and Russia, are expected to agree to cut output at a meeting on Thursday of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+.

But any final agreement for how sharp those curbs would depend on the volumes that non-OPEC+ producers such as the United States, Canada and Brazil are willing to cut, an OPEC source told Reuters News Agency on Tuesday.

A major recession hangs over crude markets as coronavirus containment measures shutter factories, close borders, halt travel and place consumers under lockdown around the globe.

Worldwide oil demand has dropped by as much as 30 percent  a blow exacerbated by Saudi Arabia and Russia flooding already oversaturated crude markets after their three-year alliance collapsed in acrimony last month.

With 28 million bpd of oversupply in the oil market in April and 21 million bpd in May, the global coordinated production cuts that are really needed may be too large for the producers to accept; perhaps twice as large as the numbers being discussed, said Rystad Energys Bjornar Tonhaugen.

OPEC+ had been curtailing production in recent years even as the United States ramped up its own output to become the worlds biggest crude producer.

There are questions whether the United States would join any coordinated action to curb supply.

US President Donald Trump on Monday said that OPEC had not asked him to push domestic oil producers to cut production to buttress prices. He also said that US output was declining in response to falling prices.

I think its happening automatically, but nobodys asked me that question yet, so well see what happens, the president told a press briefing on Monday.

Coordinated action by US oil producers would typically be a violation of antitrust laws.
KENNETT SQUARE  Faith unites people.

However, due to the statewide stay-at-home order, churches cannot meet on Sundays to come together in prayer.

Yet, the churches of Chester County continue to unite, albeit it virtually and individually, in prayer. Many churches are working together to provide food for families in need during this unprecedented season.

Although traditionally churches rely on offerings from members on Sundays during church service, many have already moved to provide their congregations with online giving platforms, making the coronavirus crisis less damaging today.

Three weeks into this, people continue to be generous, said Father Christopher Rogers of St. Patrick Church in Kennett Square. The generosity of people still manifests.

He said the church asks people to continue to make Sunday offerings if they are able via mail or via drop-offs at the church. People can also give online.

In terms of long-term solutions, St. Patrick Church is looking to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia which is giving direction to regional Catholic churches.

St. Patrick Church is pondering at how this crisis will impact its planning, budget and operational activities.

Although there are no public church services at present, parishioners may visit the church to pray privately during the day.

The church doors are open, Rogers said.

He said this situation shall not last forever and people of faith stand by ready to help those in need.

As we get on the other side of this curve, I think people are going to be very interested and hungry to reach out to others from the community and to continue on, Rogers said.

Pastor Mike Schultz, of the Avon Grove Church of Nazarene, said a lot of folks today are struggling financially.

Things are difficult, but its part of the bigger picture, Schultz said. He added that members can give online if able during this difficult crisis.

Avon Grove Church of Nazarene runs the second largest food program in Chester County, he said. Nine regional churches participate in the program, called The Bridge, launched in 2003.

Concern is that making sure people have their food needs met, he said.

The Bridge provides families in need with fresh produce and non-perishable items. Typically 40 families come on Tuesday evenings to partake in the program which today is a drive-up service.

This is just being a good neighbor, Schultz said.

The crisis gives the church an opportunity to serve others as people are thinking of ways to help their neighbors.

He said the key is to show one another the love of God.

The church also runs a preschool program and school age after-school program with 155 students which is closed because of the coronavirus crisis.

Schultz said the church is applying for stimulus funds so that Avon Grove Church of Nazarene can continue to pay its teachers.

Schultz cited the Sermon on the Mount for inspiration during these trying times.

He said, We cannot be judging, condemning others. Adding, it is key to still trust God.

We really do need each other, he said.

Prayer matters now more than ever, said Pastor Greg Lafferty of Willowdale Chapel of Kennett Square, founded in 1956. Its satellite campus in Jennersville opened in 2014.

Most people, prior to the crisis, have already been supporting Willowdale Chapel via online giving for the last few years.

We dont pass the plate at our Sunday services, he said.

Lafferty said the church is looking at the longer impact from this crisis and how many people may lose jobs, noting it is a little too early to tell at this juncture.

At the end of March we were alright on our giving, Lafferty said. Well see how April goes.

Typical attendance at Willowdale Chapel in Kennett is approximately 1,100 people on a Sunday.

On March 29, the church paid for 10 thousand pounds of food which was distributed to nearly 300 families.

Weve always been very active in serving in the community, he said.

Lafferty said every day at 9 a.m. the church staff connects via Zoom to pray together.

Church staff, every day at 9 a.m. we get on Zoom call, and we pray together.

Were doing a lot of praying out of Psalms, Lafferty said, specifically referencing Psalms 23.

Jesus is our Shepherd, he said, I will never leave you or forsake you. We remind ourselves of those very simple truths of the family; God is with us.

Pastor Andrew Smith of the Kennett Square Presbyterian Church is originally from Ireland and returned to serve the community of Kennett Square stateside in 2008.

God brings life out of death, Smith said, adding that the church has a great message to proclaim. Gods enough to get us through.

Kennett Square Presbyterian Church started online giving last year. Some members are still mailing in checks.

He said his church is engaging with other churches in town to address the needs of the community.

This past Sunday marked the churchs fourth consecutive online service.

Smith said it is important to remember to, Love our neighbor.

Pastor Charlie Gross founded the West Grove Mobile Church Ministry in 2013.

He was the pastor at the West Grove Presbyterian Church from 2011 until last August upon his retirement there.

Gross said smaller churches operate from week-to-week or month-to-month operating budgets. West Grove Presbyterian Church launched its online giving program four years ago. Roughly a quarter to a third of donations received each month comes from online giving.

And while churches cannot hold services together as a community, prayer is uplifting for individuals no matter where they are.

We believe when you pray you are going directly to God, and God loves that prayer, God loves that communion, Gross said.

He added, You dont go church, you are the church wherever you go.

From the Bible, he cited, Be still and know that I am God.

He also cited Matthew 28:20 in which when Jesus departs the earth he tells his disciples, I am with you till the very end of the age.

Gross just returned from a 30-day cruise abroad. Hes under a 14-day quarantine at the moment. He said family and friends are dropping off supplies to help.

People are coming together now, Gross said. They are arising to the need.

Gross said, Gratitude is one of the most powerful things you can imagine.

He encouraged people to do what they can to help others and have a grateful heart.

Do what you can, he said.

To connect with the St. Patrick Church in Kennett Square, visit: www.stpatrickkennettsquare.org.

Visit www.willowdalechapel.org to learn more about Willowdale Chapel.

For more on the Kennett Square Presbterian Church, visit www.pcks.org.

To learn more about the Avon Grove Church of Nazarene, visit: www.avongrove.church.

For information on the Mobile Church Ministry, visit: www.firstmobilechurch.org.
Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala



has donated 30 per cent of his emoluments to PM Cares Fund for the fight against COVID-19.

"Vajubhai Vala, Governor of Karnataka, has donated 30 per cent of his emoluments to PM Cares Fund through internet banking on Tuesday and will continue to donate 30 per cent of his emoluments for a year in view of COVID-19 pandemic," a press note from Raj Bhavan said.

The Union Cabinet on Monday approved an ordinance to reduce the salaries, allowances and pensions of Members of Parliament (MPs) by 30 per cent for one year and the amount would be utilised in the fight against coronavirus.

The President, Vice-President and Governors of states have also voluntarily decided to take a pay cut as a social responsibility.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With collective anxiety circulating at an all-time high thanks to COVID-19, many of us need our therapists support more than ever. But given the circumstances, its not as simple as just showing up to your weekly appointment and talking through your fears (or in our case, complaining about each and every member of our family). Many therapists have temporarily closed their in-person practices to comply with social-distancing guidelines, leaving clients feeling apprehensive about what the future holds. With that in mind, we asked three mental health professionals for their thoughts on how therapy will change in the age of coronavirus. Heres what they had to say.

1. Were going to see a shift to phone and online therapy

Like many jobs, in-person therapy sessions have been replaced with phone calls and video chats. Most psychiatrists and mental health providers are rapidly converting to video visits, explains John Torous, M.D., director of the digital psychiatry division in the department of psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The Department of Health and Human Services relaxed the rules for the next 60 days on what platforms are permissible to offer telehealth through. There are usually certain privacy and security requirements, but right now using even FaceTime or Skype is OK. Good to know.

2. You might have to pay out of pocket for sessions

Bad news, guys: Some insurance plans (it varies by state and provider) dont cover telehealth appointments or may require your therapist to be on a list of approved telehealth providers. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) temporarily shifted their rules around telehealth visits to ensure more parity in billing, says Dr. Torous. Usually, private insurance companies follow the lead set by CMS, but in this case the shift is temporary, so its hard to know what they will do.

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3. Some therapists will offer discounted sessions

If you are going to have to pay out of pocket for your appointments, your therapist might be able to help. I know some of my colleagues are offering discounted sessions to help alleviate the financial stress people are experiencing, explains Molly Giorgio, Psy.D., a licensed clinical psychologist in West Hartford, Connecticut.

4. Were going to have to get used to going to therapy in our homes

The experience of going to therapy will no longer mean traveling to your therapists office. Instead, people will have to find a private space at home where they feel comfortable talking or video chattingand this can be tricky when you want to vent about your kids and husband, but theyre right in the next room. Sometimes, sitting in a parked car is a good option for privacy and quiet, suggests Dr. Torous. And while it might feel strange at first, there could be unforeseen benefits to the shift, says licensed professional counselor Satya Doyle Byock, founder of Quarterlife. People are integrating their therapeutic relationship into their own lives and homes in a way that isnt possible when visiting the therapists office.

5. Therapy websites and apps are about to get more popular

Dr. Torous predicts there will be an increase in ads for therapy apps in the coming weeks. If youre interested in using one, he recommends checking out the American Psychiatric Associations App Evaluation Model to determine which program is right for you. They can be a great alternative for folks whose therapists arent able to move to a teletherapy model of care, adds Giorgio.

RELATED: 8 Ways to Mitigate Anxiety, Because the World Feels Uncertain Right Now
This will be a very different Holy Week in Ireland but Longford people will have a chance to catch up with some Church services in the coming days online and on social media. A number of services are to be broadcast in the coming week from the county, some of which are listed below. To include a service being broadcast from your community this week, or any week throughout the Covid-19 crisis, then please email: newsroom@longfordleader.ie or phone us at 043-3345241.

Mass Broadcasts from St Mels Cathedral Holy Week

Mass will be available by webcam at St Mels Cathedral www.longfordparish.com each day 8am, 10am, 1.05pm weekday 7.30pm Saturday; 8am, 10am, 11.30am and 1pm Sundays.

Killashee

Fr Turlough will air mass live from the Killashee presbytery, on Facebook at 5pm each evening; and 11am on Easter Sunday, just follow his page at Turlough Baxter.



Ardagh

Join Fr Vinny for Holy Week Ceremonies on Facebook or Radio 108fm on Holy Thursday at 7.30 for Mass. Good Friday Ceremonies are at 3. Holy Saturday Ceremonies are at 8pm.



Ballymahon

During these difficult times when our daily and weekly Masses are cancelled, we still have Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Matthews Church in Ballymahon on Tuesdays from 11am to 7pm. The Church is open all day, every day. It is one place where we are free to go and pray for our health and safety.



St. Johns Church of Ireland

St Johns Church of Ireland Diocesan Service broadcast takes place every Sunday at 10am. Log into Kilmore Elphin Ardagh YouTube or http: shortturl@/drbz3 or www.dkea.ie.and follow the link.

RTE Programme of Events for Holy Week

Holy Thursday Mass of the Lords Supper 4.40pm. (RTE One TV and RTE Radio 1 Extra / LW252 / Digital Radio platforms. The Mass will air on radio at the later time of 19.00.) Good Friday Father Derek Darby commemorates the Passion and death of Christ. 4 p.m. (RTE One TV & RTE Radio 1Extra/LW252). Holy Saturday Easter Vigil Mass 10 p.m. (RTE Two & RTE Radio 1 Extra/LW252). Easter Sunday Mass. 10am. (RTE One & RTE Radio 1 Extra).
Spit guards should be carried by all frontline police to protect officers from thugs spitting and coughing at them during the coronavirus pandemic, a senior figure has demanded.

Sergeant Simon Kempton, the operational lead for Covid-19 at the Police Federation, told MPs the virus was being 'weaponised' by criminals after dozens of such assaults in recent weeks.

He said: 'Now more than ever, while Covid-19 is being weaponised, we need those spit guards in the pocket of every single police officer, not just in custody, on the street as well.'

It came as a record high of 854 coronavirus deaths were announced in the UK today, taking the total to 6,227, with 51,608 confirmed cases and Prime Minister Boris Johnson still in intensive care.

Oliver Cook, 35, was caught on camera threatening officers with coronavirus before spitting at them in shocking body-cam footage in Whitstable, Kent

Spit guards are controversial, with human rights groups such as Liberty calling them 'dangerous, degrading and unjustified'. Police forces are allowed to use them but they are not routinely issued to all officers.

Sergeant Kempton told the Home Affairs Select Committee: 'It's an emotive issue for me, because I've had other people's blood in my mouth after they've spat at me.

Thug is jailed for six months after threatening to spit at PC during arrest A teenage thug who threatened to cough and spit in a female officer's face has been jailed after being blasted by a judge who told him the UK faces an 'unprecedented threat from Covid-19'. Thomas Wilson, 19, had been flouting coronavirus lockdown rules when firearms police swooped to arrest him on his birthday last Tuesday. Warwick Crown Court heard he was wanted in connection with an earlier road rage attack in Coventry and began to angrily lash out while being detained. He then threatened to spit and cough at PC Katie Wynne before officers pulled a spit hood over his head and arrested him. Wilson, of Binley, Coventry, pleaded guilty to common assault on an emergency worker and was jailed for six months yesterday. Judge Andrew Lockhart QC said that in light of the 'unprecedented threat from Covid-19' the potential harm of his threat aggravated the offence. He told Wilson he should be 'thoroughly ashamed' of himself during his strongly-worded sentencing remarks in which he shamed the yob for disregarding lockdown rules. The judge said he would not hesitate to 'impose swift and condign punishment' to send out the message officers will have 'proper and timely protection' from the courts. Advertisement

'Now more than ever, while COVID-19 is being weaponised, we need those spit guards in the pockets of every single police officer, not just in custody, but on the street as well.'

'The crime of spitting or biting someone is terrible at the best of times. But during this crisis, when COVID-19 is being weaponised against my colleagues, it heightens that fear.'

There have been dozens of attacks on police officers by thugs claiming to have coronavirus.

Yesterday, 19-year-old Thomas Wilson was jailed for six months for threatening to cough and spit in a female officer's face while being arrested in relation to a road rage incident.

Wilson lashed out while being detained before officers pulled a spit hood over him.

Last week, four thugs were jailed for separate spitting and coughing assaults on police officers in Kent and Dorset.

Oliver Cook, 35, was caught on camera threatening officers with coronavirus before spitting at them after he was arrested outside a supermarket in Whitstable, Kent, for stealing meat. He was jailed for 120 days.

Martin Turner, 50, coughed at officers and sneezed in their direction as he was being arrested for being drunk and disorderly. He was jailed for 24 weeks after admitting the assault.

Scott Sanders, 36, was arrested over a disturbance at an address in Bournemouth before spitting at a custody sergeant when he was detained at a local police station.

Sanders, who was also in breach of a previous suspended prison sentence, admitted to assaulting an emergency worker and was jailed for six months.

Adam Power, 37, was arrested for stealing a bottle of wine from a Co-op store in Bournemouth.

He also attempted to spit at a police officer and kick them in the ankle while in a holding cell.

Police use a spit hood on a suspect. Human rights group Liberty calls the equipment 'dangerous, degrading and unjustified'

Spit hoods - like this one worn by a model - are made of nylon mesh and go over the wearer's head

Power admitted charges of assaulting an emergency worker, theft and criminal damage and was jailed for five months.

None of the four thugs tested positive for coronavirus.

The health of police officers during the pandemic remains a concern, as they are required to leave their homes on duty during the lockdown, putting them at an increased risk of catching coronavirus.

Also speaking to the Home Affairs Select Committee, Bedfordshire Police chief constable Garry Forsyth said forensics company Eurofins was due to make some antigen tests available for police forces in his region in the next two to three weeks.

In Bournemouth 50-year-old Martin Turner has been jailed after purposely sneezing on police officers

He said that NHS slots for tests might be made available in the same time frame.

Derbyshire Constabulary chief constable Peter Goodman said he had been told by Martin Hewitt, chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council, that they may be able to progress with antigen tests by late April.

Chief Superintendent Paul Griffiths, president of the Police Superintendents Association of England and Wales, said: 'Obviously the key workers that they're (the Government) focusing on at the moment is National Health Service and we recognise the importance for both national health colleagues and also social care.

'But we also are key workers in this system and we're very keen to make sure that we have a position within the testing regime and prioritisation.

'At the moment, we've been given no indication as to when the testing will take place.'

Around 13% of police officers and staff were currently off work, the committee was told.

Chief Superintendent Griffiths said no forces had so far raised their absence rate as a 'risk in terms of service provision' and the numbers seemed to be 'plateauing off'.

It comes after some officers were criticised for 'heavy-handed' enforcement of the coronavirus lockdown, including the use of drones by Derbyshire Police to shame dog walkers at beauty spots.

Responding to the concerns, Mr Forsyth said: 'It has been a challenge and I think that's why we've seen some of the challenges around the difference of interpretation early on.. I think we're passed that now.'
There is still a long way for us to find and implement the vaccine for COVID-19 but there are people who are focusing on building a strong immune system. After all, prevention is better than cure.

indiatimes

Actor-model-fitness enthusiast Milind Soman suggests meditation for peace of mind in these times of COVID-19 stress, often triggered by all the rumors, speculations and fake news emanating about the disease.

Instagram

"So much conflicting information online. So much uncertainty. What will the world be like in a few months? What about the virus. What about the economy. Let's not overthink this. Go with the flow. Whatever shape the world takes, we must be prepared. Our minds must be prepared. Strong. And centered," Milind wrote on Instagram.

"Meditation, if practiced for as few as 10 minutes each day, can help you control stress, decrease anxiety, improve cardiovascular health, and achieve a greater capacity for relaxation," added the 54-year-old.





He also offered suggestions about how to perform meditation for those who do not know.

Photo by JD Mason on Unsplash

Milind wrote, "How to Start Meditating? Set a timer. Start with 5 mins. Put on Music that you find calming. Sit or lie down comfortably in a quiet place Breath normally through your nose, with your mouth closed. Focus on your breath, as you inhale and exhale. If you notice your mind being distracted by thoughts, gently bring it back to the breath."



So far 114 people have died due to the coronavirus in India, according to the website of the Union Health Ministry. A total of 325 people have recovered since the first case was reported in the country on January 30. The total number of novel coronavirus affected people in India, including those who have recovered, stands at 4,421.


Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

BRIDGEPORT  City firefighters pulled a person from the waters near the Pleasure Beach dock Tuesday afternoon, according to initial dispatch reports.

The call came in around 4:40 p.m. Fire units raced to the Pleasure Beach dock  near the intersection of Seaview and Central avenues.
Hellevang recommends periodically running aeration fans to keep the grain temperature near or below 30 degrees until the grain is dried if it exceeds recommended storage moisture contents, and below 40 degrees as long as possible during spring and early summer if the grain is dry. Night air temperatures are near or below 30 degrees in April and 40 degrees in May. Soybean oil quality may be affected in less than four months if even 12% moisture soybeans are stored at 70 degrees.

Cover the fan when it is not operating to prevent warm air from blowing into the bin and heating the stored grain. Hellevang also recommends ventilating the top of the bin to remove the solar heat gain that warms the grain. Provide air inlets near the eaves and exhausts near the peak or use a roof exhaust fan. Grain temperature should be checked every two weeks during the spring and summer. Grain also should be examined for insect infestations. Check the moisture content of stored grain to determine if it needs to be dried. Remember to verify that the moisture content measured by the meter has been adjusted for grain temperature.
CAIRO  Egyptians in need of psychological support because of coronavirus repercussions now have hotlines they can call, provided by the Ministry of Health.

The ministry decided March 31 to allocate hotlines in light of the nighttime curfew imposed to confront the spread of the virus. Dr. Monan Abdel-Maksoud, secretary-general of the General Secretariat of Mental Health and Addiction Treatment with the Ministry of Health, said in a press statement that day that 150 mental health professionals received online training to provide support to coronavirus patients and their families, treatment teams in isolation hospitals and others.

Abdel-Maksoud said fear and anxiety caused by the spread of the coronavirus are normal during this period and must be overcome to avoid negative psychological effects, especially for children and the elderly. The statement further stressed the need for citizens to remain at home to protect themselves against the virus.

The partial curfew, from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m., began March 24 and appears to be taking a toll on people's moods and emotional well-being.

An Egyptian billionaire, the country's second-richest man, has threatened to commit suicide if the curfew is extended beyond April 8. Information Minister Osama Heikal said April 3 that, if necessary to contain the virus, a total curfew could be implemented.

The government also ordered places of worship to close as well as restaurants, cafes, cafeterias, clubs, nightclubs, bars, malls, schools and universities.

People around the world are suffering from the effects of quarantines and curfews. In Egypt, the streets are empty and calm, especially during curfew hours. Some families are confining themselves in their homes even during non-curfew hours, for fear of catching the virus.

Sarah Sayed, seven months pregnant, was reassured when she was given leave from work. But she told Al-Monitor that staying home all the time is not something she is used to, and she feels constrained and bored. Fearing for the safety of her unborn baby and her 4-year-old daughter, she has been avoiding any contact with people. She was forced to stay in her parents' home to be away from her husband, who goes out to work every day.

Najwa Muhammed, 54, feels the same. She told Al-Monitor, The feeling of being restrained at home is bad, especially because there is no specific date for the end of these health measures, which may be prolonged. She added that the constant warnings about the virus posing a greater risk for elderly people makes shopping for household items and being around people major sources of constant fear.

Al-Monitor called the ministrys hotline and a psychologist answered quickly. He offered several tips on how to deal with a state of permanent stress and anxiety, especially for children. He emphasized the need not to exaggerate when applying health instructions so as to keep from transmitting anxiety to children.

The psychologist recommended getting away from sources of rumors and not to constantly follow news about the epidemic throughout the day. Specific moments should be allocated for this, he said. He urged people to benefit from their time at home by taking part in their hobbies and getting closer to family members. He recommended breathing exercises to relieve stress or anxiety attacks.

Al-Monitor contacted Jamal Farwiz, a psychiatry professor at the Military Medical Academy. Allocating a hotline to provide psychological support to citizens in light of the coronavirus crisis is a very positive step," he said, adding, "Psychological assistance is being provided for everyone to help people deal with the current circumstances while staying at home. It's also offered to people who have caught the virus and their families to improve their psychological state while receiving medical care."

He noted a general sense of fear and anxiety in society, which shouldn't be thought of as pathological anxiety. Farwiz said it's best to stop thinking of home quarantine negatively and instead see it as a positive protective measure. He further stressed the need to not leave except for necessities.

As of April 7, Egypt had reported more than 1,322 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

Hala Mansour, a sociology professor at Ain Shams University in Cairo, told Al-Monitor that citizens had been committed to home confinement and the curfew in light of frequent news indicating a high number of infection cases. But they gradually started going out again after getting used to such news, she noted.

Mansour stressed the need for psychological support at this stage for those infected and those in quarantine in hospitals. This support is beneficial and helps people heal faster. In general, people who are not affected do not require psychological support. It is, however, absolutely necessary to take the necessary precautions to avoid getting sick.
Former President John Dramani Mahama has called on government to consider reducing the costs of power and LPG gas as part of social intervention for Ghanaians as the country fights Coronavirus.



According Mr Mahama, the cost of electricity is more of a burden to Ghanaians than water, which has been absorbed by the government.



Clearly electricity tariffs are the more burdensome of the two utilities. There is much expectation that some subsidy payment from the Stabilization Fund to the ECG and generating companies can provide some temporary relief, however small, to consumers in this difficult period.



It will also be necessary to look at the pricing of LPG, especially at a time when the price of crude on the global market is at an all-time low, NDC flagbearer wrote in an article Tuesday.



Writing on Day 9 of the partial lockdown of Accra and Kumasi to help curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, he says the disease has so far shown that it is no respecter of persons and that everybody is at risk.



Read the former Presidents thoughts below,



John Mahama writes on Day 9 of the lockdown.



Today is the 9th day of the partial lockdown declared by the President. Yesterday, we received with concern news of the hospitalization and transfer for intensive care of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. COVID-19 is proving to be a highly infectious disease and no respecter of persons.



This is the reason why we must cooperate with the directives announced by the President to restrict our movement as much as possible during this period, and continue to abide by the WHO and Ghana Health Service (GHS) protocols aimed at preventing the spread of the virus.



On Sunday, we also received the sad confirmation of the death of a young man at Ashaiman following a shooting incident involving a security officer. While we are not yet fully apprised of the circumstances surrounding this unfortunate death, I wish to express our deepest displeasure at the shooting of an unarmed civilian and call for a speedy investigation into the circumstances surrounding the shooting.



We woke up this morning to official reports that Ghana's incidence of COVID-19 infection has risen to 287. This is an alarming situation. While the GHS ascribes the sudden increase in numbers to enhanced surveillance and testing, it is a call to arms to redouble our efforts in battling this disease.



Last Saturday, I donated my widows mite of 650 PPEs and associated items for distribution to various health facilities across the country. During the rage of this pandemic, protective clothing, disinfectants, sanitizers, laser thermometers etc. are the most critical items needed by our frontline health workers. This will give them the confidence to continue their work without fear of getting infected with the virus themselves.



My motivation for this donation was to fill a stop-gap and buy enough time for the government-acquired medical items to become available. Last Sunday, the President announced the receipt of some items including PPEs. It is the hope of all Ghanaians that these items would be despatched speedily to where they are needed.



As the President of the Ghana Medical Association said, they are grateful for the incentives given to health workers, but they need the PPEs urgently to go about their business of saving lives.



Concern has also been raised about who are frontline workers. It is known that health staff work as a team. From doctors, physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory staff, cleaners, cooks, security personnel etc.



It may have been useful to consider a package that would cover all healthcare staff rather than a hefty package for only frontline health workers. Government should consider a package that benefits all health care staff who are working.



Consultations with professional groups of health workers on how to administer the incentives can result in a conclusion that is acceptable to all of them.



Last week, I made some suggestions about drawing money from the Stabilization Fund to cushion some of the unintended consequences of the partial lockdown. These included some temporary relief from utility tariffs including water and electricity.



I suggested a flexible adjustment in timelines for submission of SSNIT returns due to the manpower downturn occasioned by the pandemic. I also requested consideration of some tax relief for small businesses and tax exemption on critical medical items and other goods required for our COVID-19 response effort.



I also suggested the scrapping of the 50% increase in the Communications Service Tax (CST) and negotiations with the Telcos for some reduction in data tariffs in exchange for a free six month extension of their licences. This will be welcome relief for thousands of Ghanaians who are having to work from home.



I urged government to provide food from the National Buffer Stock Company or elsewhere to alleviate hunger in the most deprived communities within the lockdown areas.



I am grateful to note that some of these suggestions were taken on board during the President's last broadcast to the nation. While the announcement of relief from water tariffs was received with appreciation, the lack of water in many parts of the specified areas make the three month cancellation of tariffs meaningless for some.



The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) must be supported to increase the supply of water to make this gesture meaningful to all. Our people are also urged not to waste water at this critical time.



Clear instructions must be given to GWCL that the Presidential directive of three months relief from water tariffs means that no consumer must be billed for the months of April, May and June. This is notwithstanding if they have arrears on their bills or not.



Clearly electricity tariffs are the more burdensome of the two utilities. There is much expectation that some subsidy payment from the Stabilization Fund to the ECG and generating companies can provide some temporary relief, however small, to consumers in this difficult period.



It will also be necessary to look at the pricing of LPG, especially at a time when the price of crude on the global market is at an all-time low.



The President's announcement of the distribution of hot meals and dry food packages to deprived communities is welcome news. The president stated that this will be in collaboration with faith-based organisations. This collaboration is good news because if care is not taken, in both the distribution and procurement of the food, partisan and parochial interests will defeat the purpose of the whole gesture.



I believe that traditional rulers and our Assemblymen and women in the affected areas must also be involved in this enterprise.



Our (NDC) representatives on the Finance Committee of Parliament have been urged to fully participate in the expected meeting on Thursday with the Ministry of Finance to discuss the modalities for the disbursement of the proposed stimulus package.



We will table proposals to ensure that this money is utilized efficiently and administered in a manner that is fair and just to all Ghanaian businesses that are suffering the adverse effects of the economic slowdown occasioned by this dreadful COVID-19 pandemic.



Meanwhile, today is World Health Day, celebrating nurses and health workers. In the midst of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, we are reminded by the WHO that without nurses, and other health workers, there would be no response.



To all who continue to support with medical items, and providing lunch packs and fruits to our COVID-19 health workers and the public, I say thank you and more grease to your elbows.



Let us continue to #SupportNursesAndMidwives in our health facilities and communities.



#StayHome

#StopTheSpread





John Dramani Mahama

Cantonments, Accra

April 07, 2020.

Source: johnmahama.org









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Theres more variety than ever in the world of franchising, from the types of businesses being

franchised to their price tags. Thats right  opening a franchise doesnt have to cost a fortune. There are hundreds of opportunities, in a wide variety of industries, that can be started for less than you might expect. To see what we mean, just check out our lists of the top franchises that can be started for less than $50,000, less than $100,000, and less than $150,000.

These franchises are ranked based on the scores they received in Entrepreneurs 2020 Franchise 500 ranking, our comprehensive analysis that looks at more than 150 data points in the areas of costs and fees, size and growth, franchisee support, brand strength, and financial strength and stability. One note: A companys placement within a particular cost tier does not mean that all franchisees will be able to start their business for less than that amount, but simply that it is realistically possible for some. For reference, weve listed the full initial investment range from each companys franchise disclosure document (FDD).
OAKLAND, California  Its a sunny Friday afternoon in West Oakland but community organizer Margaret Gordon, 72, is inside at the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, poring over maps of the city. Interstate 880 and the train station are both visible through the office window, and diesel trucks going to and from the port are more common than commuter cars.

She points to a map, overlaid with dotted red lines, each covering a street in West Oakland, that highlights the effects all of those vehicles have on the community's air.

The darker the red is the higher the pollution. So if you look at West Oakland through these three freeways, and over here you get to see that pollution in this neighborhood, Hoover-Foster, it's not the same as pollution over here, Gordon said referring to different neighborhoods in the greater West Oakland region, surrounded by interstates 980, 880, and 580.

Like many of Californias cities, air pollution is not evenly distributed in Oakland. The unhealthy air is concentrated  usually in low-income neighborhoods of black and brown people. Gordon and the project have a plan to fight those environmental inequalities in their community, funded by a California bill focused explicitly on environmental justice.

Image: West Oakland Port (Nina Riggio / for NBC News)

Forty-nine percent of West Oakland residents are African American, according to a 2015 study conducted by the Alameda County Public Health Department. At 17 percent of the population, Latinos are the second largest ethnic group, followed by white people at 15 percent. Almost 13 percent of West Oakland residents are Asian. The neighborhood's rate of hospitalization for asthma among children under five is nearly double that of the county as a whole. A study conducted by Society Health found that life expectancy varies by 24 years in Alameda County. West Oaklands, 67 years, is closer to countries like Turkmenistan and North Korea than Piedmont  a community 3 miles away with a household median income of $212,000 as opposed to West Oaklands $50,000. But West Oakland is not alone in its problems.

Story continues

From agriculture and pesticides in the San Joaquin Valley to trucks and rail yards in East Los Angeles, communities across California face unique air quality challenges. For West Oakland, pollution mostly comes from industrial trucking.

In December, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved the environmental projects proposal to cut down air pollution, the first of 10 communities selected in 2018 to start implementing a plan designed by and for the people living in polluted neighborhoods. Lawmakers and community members hope that targeted, local plans will help make the air safe.

Image: Curtis (Nina Riggio / for NBC News)

The community action plans are part of a broader effort to study and improve the air quality in places experiencing an undue share of pollution. Passed in 2017, California Bill AB 617 set aside $495 million in funding to help communities develop air quality plans and implement them, as well as monitor the air in their neighborhoods. The group in West Oakland had been collecting air quality data with a fleet of small monitors for years before the bill passed, which allowed them to move directly into community planning.

Karen Magliano, chief of the Office of Community Air Protection, said AB 617 is in part a recognition that the state air resources boards previous tactics of air quality improvement were leaving some people behind.

Some communities within California, specifically communities of color, low income communities, still have a very disproportionate pollution burden, she says. This is a new collaborative effort, so it's CARB and the local air districts and, really importantly, the community members themselves that we're working together with to both identify what the problems are and identify what the solutions are needed going forward.

West Oaklands Community Action Plan was approved in December, making it the first to move on to implementation  and a new set of challenges. Among the plans 90 strategies for reducing air pollution and health risks, Gordon says a few take priority.

She wants to see all trucks coming in and out of the Port of Oakland to be electric (diesel from trucking is a leading cause of pollution and illness in West Oakland), indoor air filtration for income-based housing, and green infrastructure to create a buffer between neighborhoods and polluters such as freeways and truck routes.

Mike Zampa, the Port of Oakland Communications Director, said the Port largely agrees with the community's environmental goals. He says theyve spent millions removing old diesel trucks and providing electric power to ships stopped at the Port so they dont have to idle their engines. Zampa added that the Port has worked with community leaders in West Oakland and shares their goal of completely transitioning away from diesel equipment. Some of those plans, like the transition away from diesel, are expensive, and Gordon thinks they would require cash incentives to implement. That means more state funding, said Gordon, who has been an activist in West Oakland since 1992 and is still working on many of the same issues.

Image: Margaret Gordon (Nina Riggio / for NBC News)

Traditionally, CARB has worked by developing regional plans focused on net gains for large parts of the state, designed to make sure areas such as Southern California or the San Joaquin Valley meet federal air standards. But widely dispersed monitors meant parts of those regions were still below standards  just because Southern Californias air was improving overall didnt mean that truck-heavy neighborhoods in San Bernardino had healthy air.

Magliano said the purpose of grants provided by the 2017 bill is to fill in those gaps. San Bernardino is working on a community action plan with the new state funding.

Each community targeted by the legislation has its own specific needs, different types of pollution and polluters in various locations. Shafter, which is close to oil and gas refineries, requires different emissions reduction strategies than West Long Beach, which has a port.

The bill gives funding on the premise that people who live in polluted neighborhoods are the best informed about the nature of that pollution. By bringing community members, local regulators, nonprofits, and businesses together, CARB hopes to help develop plans that work for everyone.

Gordon said that people living in these communities have the most immediate knowledge of how pollution works in their homes. Regulatory agencies and bureaucrats don't necessarily know our day-to-day experience or expertise about how we understand these things, she says.

Magliano and CARB hope that the plans will get the conversation started. She thinks the bottom up approach to air quality planning will pay off, and other communities across California will follow the model pioneered by West Oakland.

Next up: The nearby city of Richmond is in the process of collecting air quality data with a new round of funding. Environmental advocates there hope that it will someday lead to less asthma and heart disease.
Ukraine's government authorities bought goods to combat the spread of Covid-19 virus, spending 952 million Ukrainian hryvnas (almost 300,000 U.S. dollars). ProZorro, the public procurement system reported that on April 7.

The state-run enterprises purchased medical equipment (lung ventilators, oxygen saturation monitors, patient monitors, etc.), medical materials (gloves, protection gloves, suits, respirators), as well as the equipment for anesthesia and intensive care.

The listed items cost almost half from the overall sum. Besides, the Centre for Urgent Medical Aid and Emergencies of Kyiv city hall purchased transports on the sum of approximately 2.6 million dollars. Another department of city hall purchased the systems of remote temperature measurement from Intevro company (some 2.3 million dollars). The Centre of servicing of units of the National Police bought masks and gloves for 2.17 million dollars.

Anoother state-run enterprise of Kyiv city administration purchased video cameras for remote measurement of temperature for approximately 2.3 million dollars.
Meerut: A COVID-19 positive Nepal national who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event was on Tuesday (April 7) caught by police after he escaped from a hospital in Baghpat where he was admitted. "A COVID-19 positive Nepal national who had escaped from a hospital in Baghpat has been caught. He had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi," Praveen Kumar, Inspector General, Meerut said.

"He was found from a place 3 km away from the hospital, the patient has been admitted to the hospital again," he added.

The Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 after several positive cases from across the country have been linked to the gathering including deaths in the national capital, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana.

India's tally of total positive cases rose to 4,421, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday.

Out of the 4,421 cases, 3,981 are active cases while 325 cases have been cured or discharged and one has migrated. The total death toll stands at 114.
Photo credit: Courtesy

From Esquire

A little after 8 p.m. on Sunday, March 22, Gary Martinez received a flurry of texts from one of his co-workers at Technoprops, a division of Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects and animation studio founded by George Lucas in 1975 and owned by Lucasfilm.

Two engineers in northern Italy were 3D-printing ventilator valves for local hospitals, part of a grassroots effort to address the shortage of medical supplies to fight the novel coronavirus.

If engineers could do this in Italy, Martinezs colleague wanted to know, couldnt someone in film production, someone used to working to the standards of cinemas most exacting directors, do it too?

And maybe even better?

Martinez, a lean fifty-five-year-old former Navy sonar technician and the mechanical supervisor at Technoprops, was already at work devising his own plan. He had spent twenty-five years helping bring to life some of Hollywoods biggest films (Avatar, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Avengers: Endgame, among many others). Now that the pandemic had halted production throughout the industry, he found himself unable to sit at home in the San Fernando Valley without a complex technical challenge to focus on.

Photo credit: Courtesy

It was that obsession with solving problems, coupled with a fanatical attention to detail, that made Martinez stand out in the high-pressure, high-stakes perpetual-motion machine of the movie business.

Gary is someone you only have to ask something once, says Paul Fleschner, the team producer at ILM who texted Martinez. And hell come back with three solutions, all better than you anticipated. (Fleschner and I went to college together, which is how I became aware of this effort.)

It did not take Martinez long to figure out that making valves wouldnt work. Not only did different ventilator models require different valves, but the highly contagious nature of the virus required that each valve be discarded after use.

With Governor Gavin Newsoms stay-at-home order in place as of March 19, Martinez had no access to the highest-end machinery in Technoprops arsenal. Most important, though, he wasnt comfortable printing pieces of equipment that could endanger patients if they failed.

Story continues

Photo credit: Courtesy

He pored over Internet healthcare forums and academic papers hoping to land on a better option. The one he found seemed oddly perfect for a man immersed in the world of Storm Troopers and superheroes: Martinez would throw all his design expertise into making reusable, easily disinfected, clear plastic face shields.

He was by no means the first to do this.

Engineers, students, and tech-savvy hobbyists around the world had been designing and printing their own shields for several weeks and posting the results on social media. Some were churning them out by the thousands.

Martinez was moved by the creativity and rapid response of those who had stepped up to help, but he noticed that many of their prototypes had at least one design flaw: The plastic sheet that wrapped around the wearers face was often made of an 8.5-by-11-inch piece of acetatesimilar to the transparencies used for overhead projectorswhich did not extend all the way to the ear. That left a large gap around which respiratory droplets expelled from a patient with COVID-19 could travel and land on the wearers skin.

Acetate is also relatively flimsy and occasionally cloudy, even when molded into a rigid shape.

On top of that, some of the headbands on the shields did not form a complete seal on the forehead, leaving another possible entry point for the virus.

In recent years, thinking about headgear had become a big part of Martinezs jobhe supervised the fitting and alignment of the helmet-mounted facial-capture cameras that James Cameron used in Avatar.

But he had other reasons to think about it, too.

He was on the U.S.S. David R. Ray in the Persian Gulf when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990, and he was issued a gas mask in case of a chemical-weapons attack. Had he needed that mask, his life could have depended on the strength of his gear.

Photo credit: Courtesy

This pandemic was a much different kind of war, but Martinez didnt want anyone wearing his shield on the frontlines to be afraid of it failing them. He wanted it to be made with durable, high-quality materials to maximize safety and comfort.

I wanted to know that the shield worked in my hands, on my head, he says. I wanted to make a good product. Everyone is obsessed with the speed at which you can print these things out, but that doesnt matter if you cant keep the user safe by meeting the requirements.

Martinez, who grew up in Los Angeles, has been making things all his life. When he was twelve, he fashioned his first light-saber out of a flashlight after seeing the original Star Wars at Mann's Chinese Theatre. The film woke me out of just doing nothing to doing something, he says. He began making his own costumes, models, and gadgets. In 1995, he quit his post-Navy job installing alarm systems, pulled out the phone book, and went to every special-effects studio he could find until one of them gave him work.

Now Martinez launched himself into sketching shield prototypes and sourcing materials from the few distributors still taking orders. He consulted his nephew, a radiology tech at Los Robles hospital in Thousand Oaks, and several other medical professionals in his family for feedback on the design.

Using his network of industry connections, Fleschner rounded up $6,000 to cover the cost of ten Creality CR-10 printers, several rolls of polylactic-acid filament, some quarter-inch polyethylene closed-cell foam, and a few spools of elastic from a local fabric store. Martinez had them all shipped to his house, where the packages began piling up in his driveway, and shuttled them to a then-empty workshop in Van Nuys.

On Tuesday morning, Fleschner texted again, this time a link to a story a friend had sent him about a Taiwanese doctor who had invented a clear plastic box with two arm holes that could be placed over a patients head during intubation. This would reduce the spray of respiratory fluid that occurred when the patient gagged or coughed as the tube was inserted. The friend, who worked as a respiratory therapist at a hospital in Indiana, hoped that Fleschner could help him find something similar.

I can make that, Martinez thought. But I can make it lighter and better and easier to manufacture.

Photo credit: Courtesy





Within three days of the initial exchange, Martinez was running all ten printers on the concrete floor of the workshop in Van Nuys, where he worked at his desk alone under a shelf of Star Wars and Indiana Jones memorabilia. He arrived early and stayed late, watching over the CR-10s as they whirred and hummed during their three-hour runs.

While the printers made the shield headbands, Martinez cut 16-by-10 sheets of thicker clear plastic by hand and fed them into a Glowforge laser cutter, ultimately heat-bending each one into the proper curve. He wasnt able to move as quickly as he'd wanted, but he could make forty shields in one twelve-hour shift.

When Martinez returned home and collapsed into bed each night, his brain would not stop working. He dreamed of ways to make his designs better. His brain would simply not stop working on them. The aerosol box, he realized, could be curved on one side to make it more comfortable for a healthcare worker to lean over and easier for the patient to see out of.

Every time he thought about the patient underneath the plasticwhat that person must be going through during an intubationthe gravity of what he was trying to do hit him right in the gut.

The question was: Would any hospitals actually want these things? If so, how would Martinez deliver them?

And how could they step up production if they needed to?

Photo credit: Courtesy

On Friday, March 27, the first shield prototype went to Martinezs nephew at Los Robles, who immediately began using it and spreading the word among his coworkers. The second went to Fleschners friend at Union Health in Indiana, along with a prototype for the aerosol box.

The box was used for the intubation of a COVID-19 patient almost as soon as it was unpacked, and staff at Union placed orders for ten more, along with 100 more shields.

The number-one thing I am worried about is my staff members getting exposed, says Jimmy McKanna, the respiratory-therapy manager at Union Health. The shields we were using before were mass-produced and pretty flimsy. Weve never been at the point where we had to wear shields all day long, so the comfort and sturdiness of these is really important. They will last much longer.

Like Martinez, McKanna has been dreaming a lot, toothough his nightmares are in which his name is on the patient board, and he can only pray that his caregivers have everything they need.

Two days later, a venture capitalist in Menlo Park contacted Fleschner on behalf of her sister, an anesthesiologist at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara. She wanted shields for every member of her anesthesia teamroughly sixty people. (Martinez and Fleschner ship the equipment to individuals, who then distribute it to coworkers at their discretion.)

The orders are flowing in steadily, with another hundred shields currently slated for distribution at several hospitals in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Massachusetts. Some workers have begun calling them their Jedi shields.

Martinez has kept the printers humming for the past two weeks, and he has recruited another coworker, machinist Alejandro Saint Geours, to design an injection mold, which will help him produce shields five to ten times faster.

Photo credit: Courtesy

He has no plans to stop, as long as he is still able to get materials. Because this is a personal effort, with everyone involved donating time and resources, Martinez will need help covering the cost of materialsabout $3.50 per shield in a run of 150but he isnt interested in any payment beyond that.

Had this 3D-printing effort not come together, Martinez says he would have hauled out his sewing machine, well used from years of sewing elaborate Halloween costumes for his children, instead.

I would have turned my house into a mask-making factory, he says, and just put all my kids to work. In fact, my kids are at home right now waiting to assemble a bunch of shields. Im not wanting to sit idle. When the world is falling apart, I just cant do it.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday asked Union ministers to prepare plans to fight the economic impact of COVID-19 on war footing and asserted that this crisis is an opportunity to boost the 'Make-in-India' initiative and reduce dependence on other countries.

Chairing the first meeting of the council of ministers after announcing a 21-day lockdown to combat the coronavirus outbreak via video-conferencing, Modi indicated a phased emergence from the lockdown and said that "a graded plan to slowly open departments, where hotspots aren't existing, should be made".

Talking about the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, Modi said that the government must work on war footing to mitigate the impact, adding that the ministries should prepare a business continuity plan, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

Emphasising the need to strategise for the emergent conditions once the lockdown ends, he asked the ministers to prepare a list of ten major decisions and ten priority areas of focus while at the same time identify and implement pending reforms in their ministries.

"Ministries should prepare a Business Continuity Plan and be ready to fight the economic impact of COVID-19 on war footing. The crisis is also an opportunity to boost Make in India and reduce dependence on other countries," Modi told the ministers, according to the statement.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Highlighting the impact on India's exports, he asked the ministers to submit actionable suggestions on boosting manufacturing and exports and ensure that new sectors and countries are added in India's export net.

Discussing the impact of COVID-19 on farmers and harvesting of crops, Modi asked the ministers to explore the use of innovative solutions like 'truck aggregators' on the lines of app-based cab services to connect farmers with mandis.

"Welfare of farmers is of high importance. Government would provide all possible help to farmers in the harvesting season," Modi said and suggested use of technology and encouraging exploration of innovative solutions in agriculture.

Modi also underlined the need to devise a strategy to ensure procurement of tribal products so that the source of income source of the indigenous tribal populace remains intact.

At the same time, Modi told ministers to maintain effective monitoring on supply and availability of food items, to check price rises and black marketing and ensure no crowding at public distribution system (PDS) centres.

Laying emphasis on the effective implementation of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), Modi told ministers to continuously monitor and ensure that the benefits of it keep reaching the intended beneficiaries in a seamless manner.

PMGKY is a Rs 1.7-lakh crore financial package announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to minimise the impact of lockdown on economy and poor.

Ministers should remain in touch with state and district authorities, provide solutions to emergent problems and formulate district-level micro plans to combat coronavirus, he said

Reiterating that lockdown measures and social distancing norms need to go hand in hand and hand, Modi told ministers to popularize Aarogya Setu app in the rural areas and grass root institutions.

The ministers provided feedback to the prime minister on the steps being taken to meet the challenges in tackling the impact of the pandemic and praised the initiative of lighting lamps, saying people from all corners of the country participated in it.
DETROIT, MI  A judge ruled that a now-retired police officer does not have immunity in the case of a Detroit man who spent 25 years in prison before it was proved that a gun seized from his mother couldnt have been a murder weapon.

According to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Paul Borman said retired police sued by Desmond Ricks don't have immunity in the lawsuit. The case centers on a murder conviction that was overturned in 2017 after students at the University of Michigan law school reopened the case.

Ricks claims he was intentionally framed in the fatal shooting of a friend, Gerry Bennett, outside a burger joint. He is seeking more than $100 million.

Experts agree that bullets removed from the victim couldn't have been fired from a handgun owned by Ricks' mother, AP reports.

Ricks, 53, was released from prison after 25 years, mostly on the weight of a gun expert's affidavit.

David Townshend said bullets recovered from the victim and discovered in police storage weren't the ones he examined when he was hired by Ricks' defense lawyer in '92.

Other experts, including one retained by the city during the litigation, also said the bullets couldn't have come from the type of handgun held up as the murder weapon.

Ricks previously was awarded $1 million under a state program that compensates the wrongly convicted.
The last three months have been tough on Christian Dior SE (EPA:CDI) shareholders, who have seen the share price decline a rather worrying 31%. Looking further back, the stock has generated good profits over five years. After all, the share price is up a market-beating 73% in that time.

See our latest analysis for Christian Dior

While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

Over half a decade, Christian Dior managed to grow its earnings per share at 4.5% a year. This EPS growth is lower than the 12% average annual increase in the share price. This suggests that market participants hold the company in higher regard, these days. And that's hardly shocking given the track record of growth.

You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

ENXTPA:CDI Past and Future Earnings April 7th 2020

We know that Christian Dior has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? If you're interested, you could check this free report showing consensus revenue forecasts.

What About Dividends?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. In the case of Christian Dior, it has a TSR of 100% for the last 5 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

Story continues

A Different Perspective

We regret to report that Christian Dior shareholders are down 20% for the year (even including dividends) . Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 17%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. On the bright side, long term shareholders have made money, with a gain of 15% per year over half a decade. It could be that the recent sell-off is an opportunity, so it may be worth checking the fundamental data for signs of a long term growth trend. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Christian Dior better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example - Christian Dior has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.

For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on FR exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Trump Administration trade adviser Peter Navarro sent a memo to the National Security Council on January 29 warning that the Wuhan coronavirus could kill over 500,000 Americans, but he was largely dismissed as alarmist and his policies were deemed unsustainable by White House officials, according to The New York Times.

It is unclear if President Trump saw Navarros memo, which was circulated among the White House and reached aides to Mick Mulvaney, the former acting chief of staff. In it, Navarro, a prominent China hawk in the administration, presented a choice between Aggressive Containment versus No Containment.

If the probability of a pandemic is greater than roughly 1 percent, a game-theoretic analysis of the coronavirus indicates the clear dominant strategy is an immediate travel ban on China, the memo reads. Navarro added that an aggressive containment strategy of travel restrictions would cost $2.9 billion per month  extending to 12 months and costing $34.6 billion if the virus became a pandemic  compared no containment, which could range from zero economic costs to $5.7 trillion depending on the lethality of the virus.

He also posited a worst-case scenario in which the coronavirus could kill 543,000 Americans, saying it was unlikely the introduction of the coronavirus into the U.S. population in significant numbers will mimic a seasonal flu event with relatively low contagion and mortality rates.

While President Trump did announce a ban on foreign nationals entering the country from China on January 31, White House officials largely belittled Navarros claims.

The January travel memo struck me as an alarmist attempt to bring attention to Peters anti-China agenda while presenting an artificially limited range of policy options, one senior official told Axios of his initial reaction to Navarros warnings.

The Times added that others saw the memo as reflecting Navarros broader criticisms of China, and that his travel-ban suggestions were unsustainable.

Story continues

We know that China knew about the virus as early as mid-December. We know that for a period of about five to six weeks they hid the dangers from the rest of the world even as Chinese citizens were flying around the world seeding the world with the virus, Navarro said in a Monday appearance on Fox News.

More from National Review
Lesotho leader's wife's murder trial postponed to April 14 Maesaiah Thabane, wife of Lesotho's Prime Minister Thomas Thabane poses for a photograph at the State House in Maseru

MASERU (Reuters) - The wife of Lesotho's prime minister appeared in court on Tuesday, accused of murdering the premier's previous wife, but the trial was postponed until April 14 because prosecutors were not ready to proceed with the case.

Maesaiah Thabane was charged with ordering the killing of Prime Minister Thomas Thabane's estranged wife Lipolelo but was released on bail last month.

The case has caused huge political upheaval in Lesotho, an independent kingdom lying in the middle of a South African mountain range, with Thomas Thabane also suspected of being involved in the killing and having appeared in court.

Both Maesaiah and Thomas Thabane have denied any role in Lipolelo's death.

Flanked by supporters, Maesaiah Thabane appeared relaxed in the courtroom on Tuesday. She did not say anything, and the magistrate adjourned proceedings.

Advocate Puseletso Sekoati told the magistrate that prosecutors were not ready to proceed as four other suspects in Lipolelo's murder had still not been charged.

"Investigations regarding this matter have been completed by the police, and what is left is for the four other suspects who are in South Africa to be arrested and brought before court to be charged," Sekoati said.

Maesaiah Thabane's lawyer, Rethabile Setlojoane, said if she was not indicted by April 14, she would apply for the charges to be dropped.

Lipolelo, then 58, and Thomas Thabane, now 80, had been going through an acrimonious divorce when she was gunned down in June 2017, two days before her husband's inauguration as prime minister. Thabane and Maesaiah Thabane, now 42, married two months later.

(Reporting by Marafaele Mohloboli; Writing by Alexander Winning, Editing by William Maclean)
Indian government has partially lifted the ban on the export of hydroxychloroquine, which is being called as a gamechanger drug in the fight against coronavirus COVID-19 by US President Donald Trump.

"Depending on availability of stock after meeting domestic requirements, existing orders will be cleared," sources told Zee Media.

The Department of Pharma and Ministry fo External Affairs will decide on allocations depending on the COVID-19 related situation in any foreign country.

In an order issued on April 4, India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade had announced the total prohibition of the export of hydroxychloroquine and formulations made of hydroxychloroquine "without exception". India has got requests from 30 countries for hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug to fight COVID-19.

Several world leaders have personally raised the request with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the recent conversation they had with him. From the US to Latin America to Europe, the request has come from several places. India has also got requests from Gulf countries regarding this drug.

On Monday (April 6), the government amended export policy of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and formulations made from these APIs by removing them from restricted to free category.

US President Donald Trump on Monday (April 6) warned that Washington may retaliate against India if it does not export hydroxychloroquine, a anti-malaria drug used in the treatment of COVID-19 coronavirus, to the US.

"I would be surprised if he would, you know, because India does very well with the United States," Trump told reporters during a press briefing at the White House.

"So, I would be surprised if that were his (Prime Minister Narendra Modi's) decision. He'd have to tell me that. I spoke to him Sunday morning, called him, and I said we'd appreciate your allowing our supply to come out. If he doesn't allow it to come out, that would be okay, but of course there may be retaliation. Why wouldn't there be?" he added.
Thomas Modly.

Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has resigned, CNN and Politico reported on Tuesday.

Modly's offer to step down came a day after he visited the USS Theodore Roosevelt in Guam and delivered an impassioned 15-minute speech to the crew slamming the ship's former commanding officer and lashing out at China and the US media.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who fired the commanding officer who pleaded with the Navy for help with a coronavirus outbreak on his aircraft carrier, resigned on Tuesday, capping off weeks of controversy as the service struggles to contain the virus.

Modly's resignation was first reported by CNN and Politico. Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirmed in a statement that he had accepted Modly's resignation.

"He resigned on his own accord, putting the Navy and the sailors above self so that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and the Navy as an institution, can move forward," the statement said. "His care for the sailors was genuine."

In a resignation letter first obtained by USNI, Modly said it was "with a heavy heart" that he voluntarily left the Navy.

"It has been the honor of my life to serve as the Under Secretary of the Navy and for the last five months, the Acting Secretary of the Navy," Modly's letter to Esper said. "I am thankful for the confidence both you and President Trump have expressed in me to discharge these weighty duties on behalf of our Sailors, Marines, and the American people.

"More than anything, I owe every member of the Navy and Marine Corps team a lifetime of gratitude for the opportunity to serve for them, and with them, once again," he added.

James McPherson, the Army undersecretary, is expected to replace Modly, The Wall Street Journal reported. McPherson previously served as an enlisted soldier in the Army, later joining the Navy's Judge Advocate General's Corps and rising to the rank of rear admiral.

Story continues

Modly had on Monday visited the USS Theodore Roosevelt in Guam, where he lashed out at the ship's former commanding officer, the media, and China in an impassioned, expletive-laced 15-minute speech to its 4,800 service members that resembled some remarks by President Donald Trump.

The leaked audio prompted numerous Democratic lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Tweed Roosevelt, the great-grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt, to call for Modly to step down.

In his speech, Modly outlined his reasoning for removing Capt. Brett Crozier on Thursday, after Crozier wrote a four-page letter urging his Navy colleagues to implement a "political solution" and take "immediate and decisive action" as the ship dealt with a coronavirus outbreak.

As of Tuesday, over 200 service members aboard the ship, as well as Crozier, had tested positive for the coronavirus.

The letter was eventually leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, which published its contents last Tuesday. It was not immediately clear how the letter found its way to the newspaper, but the Defense Department said it launched an investigation.

It was also unclear who the recipients of the letter were. Modly said it was addressed to over 20 people.

In his speech, Modly accused Crozier of violating military protocols and circumventing the chain of command by sending the letter to a group of people. He said there was a "proper way" for Crozier to handle his concerns, including allowing his immediate supervisor, who was aboard his ship, to address them.

"I have no doubt in my mind that Capt. Crozier did what he thought was in the best interest and well-being of his crew," Modly said. "Unfortunately, it did the opposite."

Capt. Brett Crozier.

US Navy/MCS 3rd Class Nicholas Huynh

There was a firestorm of criticism after Modly's speech was leaked to several media organizations, including Insider. In it, Modly explained his reasons for the firing and expressed support for the crew.

"It was my opinion that if he didn't think that information wasn't going to get out into the public, in this information age that we live in, then he was A., too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this," Modly said. "The alternate is that he did it on purpose."

Modly, who once served in the Navy as a helicopter pilot, described Crozier's actions as "a betrayal" and "a big controversy" that created "a martyr CO."

"I understand you love the guy. It's good that you love him," Modly told the crew. "But you're not required to love him."

In a statement on Monday, Modly said that "the spoken words were from the heart and meant for" the sailors aboard the ship.

"I stand by every word I said, even, regrettably any profanity that may have been used for emphasis," Modly said. "Anyone who has served on a Navy ship would understand. I ask, but don't expect, that people read them in their entirety."

Modly issued an apology later Monday and walked back his remarks aboard the ship.

"Let me be clear: I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid," he said. "I think and always believed him to be the opposite. We pick our carrier commanding officers with great care. Captain Crozier is smart and passionate."

In his final message to the entire Navy, Modly admitted his comments were "a poor use of words."

"You are justified in being angry with me about that," Modly said in the message, according to the Navy Times. "There is no excuse, but perhaps a glimpse of understanding, and hopefully empathy."

"But what's done is done," he added. "I can't take it back, and frankly I don't know if I walked back up that quarterdeck today if I wouldn't have the same level of emotions that drove my delivery yesterday."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, will present a policy statement on governments measures to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic to Parliament as the House resumes tomorrow [Wednesday].

Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, Speaker of Parliament recalled the countrys legislators after the suspension of proceedings three days ago.

A statement from Parliament said the Finance Ministers address will also facilitate the transaction of urgent business of Parliament.

The Finance Minister is scheduled to present a policy statement to the House in accordance with Standing Order 70 (2) on matters relating to government measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease as well as facilitate the transaction of any urgent business, the statement signed by Parliaments Director of Public Affairs, Kate Addo noted.

The last time the Finance Minister was in Parliament, he announced that the cumulative effect of the novel coronavirus pandemic will cost Ghana GHS9.505 billion.

He also announced a GHS1 billion Coronavirus Alleviation Programme that will be funded from the Ghana Stabilisation Fund.

The Minister was also seeking the support of Parliament to amend the relevant laws to lower the cap of the Stabilisation Fund from US$300 million to US$100 million to enable the government use the excess funds to bridge the gap created by the economic impact of the pandemic.

Ghana has also turned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial support to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic in the form of a rapid credit facility.

Ghana is also among the International Development Association (IDA) countries that could benefit from temporary debt relief during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Six regions have so far recorded cases of the novel coronavirus with Ghana's count standing at 287.

---citinewsroom
After the ill-fated defeat of the Confederate Army at Missionary Ridge on November 23-25, 1863, under the leadership of General Braxton Bragg, the Southern Army lost its last big advantage and made a slow but gradual retreat towards Atlanta.

Bragg had been replaced as commanding officer of the Confederate Army by General Joseph E. Johnston.

After both sides engaged in winter quarters, the South gradually began retreating south pursued by Union Major General William T. Sherman, who continuously attempted to outflank Johnstons Army in a series of skirmishes in northwest Georgia.

The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain took place on June 27 and was the most significant frontal assault between the two competing armies.

After two months of using flanking movements against the Rebels which resulted in only minimal casualties on each side, Sherman began his large-scale frontal assault.

Generals James B. McPherson, John A. Logan and George H. Thomas attacked on several fronts but sustained heavy casualties. However, General John M. Schofield was successful in threatening the Confederate armys left flank which resulted in the Confederates making another retreat towards Atlanta.

The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain had been preceded by several encounters designed for the North to take over control of the two principal Southern cities of Richmond and Atlanta by destroying the armies defending them.

On June 14, Sherman spied a group of Confederate officers on Pine Mountain and ordered his artillery batteries to open fire. One of the casualties was Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk who was an Episcopal Bishop and one of the founders of the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee. Polk was nicknamed the Fighting Bishop, although this descriptive title overstated his ability as a military officer. However, Johnston withdrew his troops from Pine Mountain and established military lines in an arc-shaped defensive position between Kennesaw Mountain and little Kennesaw Mountain.

The lay of the land and the heavily entrenched Confederates prevented further southern advance by Shermans troops.

A stalemate took place with the Union forces being stilled about 15 miles north of Atlanta.

Sherman decided to use the same strategy that had worked successfully at Missionary Ridge by ordering Schofield to attack on the right and McPherson on the left at the northern outskirts of Marietta and the northeastern end of Kennesaw Mountain.

General Thomas army would then attack the center of the weak Confederate lines.

At 8:00 a.m. on June 27, the Union artillery barrage of over 200 cannons bombarded the enemys lines with the Rebel artillery responding likewise.

For five days, the opposing armies fought in deadly combat, but on July 2, Sherman initiated a flanking movement on the left and Johnston was forced to retreat from the mountain to set up new positions outside Smyrna.

On July 17, Johnston was released of command and replaced by the overly aggressive John Bell Hood.

After other skirmishes at Peachtree Creek, Atlanta Ezra Church and Jonesboro on September 1, Hoods unsuccessful tactics resulted in Atlanta being evacuated.

Sherman proudly proclaimed the victory and Abraham Lincoln was able to interject the favorable result in his re-election campaign in the fall of 1864.

The battlefield is now part of Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield Park where one of the lesser known but highly significant contests of the Civil War took place.
A county in Colorado is attempting to seal itself off from the outside world and threatening jail time or a hefty fine for anybody who tries to come and visit during the coronavirus pandemic.

Gunnison County, which lies some 200 miles southwest of Denver, is asking tourists not to come.

The county, which is home to just over 15,000 residents, is popular with visitors who enjoy its ski resorts as well as the Colorado scenery.

Gunnison County is asking tourists not to come and visit until pandemic is over

Those who flout the ban face $5,000 fines or 18 months jail according to a public health order

Gunnison County is home to Paonia State Park along with a number of national recreation areas, national forests and national wilderness area and is a haven for skiers, mountain bikers, rock climbers and hikers.

In an attempt to dissuade any would-be tourists, officials are warning visitors they could face jail if they decide to come.

A public health order was issued last week that demands tourists and non-residents stay away in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Those who break the order could be fined up to $5,000 and spend 18 months in the county jail.

The scenic county is popular with skiers, mountain bikers and rock climbers

'The public health director finds that non-residents, visitors and non-resident homeowners from lower altitudes are at a greater risk for complications from COVID-19 infection than residents, who are acclimatized to the high altitude environment of Gunnison County,' the order said.

'The public health director also finds that non-residents, regardless of whether they own a residence in Gunnison County, are imposing unnecessary burdens on health care, public services, first responders, food supplies and other essential services.'

Those who wish to stay in the county need to request a waiver or leave as soon as possible.

'Our goal is to maintain the health and safety of our residents and the integrity of our healthcare system,' Daniel Kreykeys, public information officer for Gunnison County Emergency Operations Center, told Western Slope Now.

A public health order was issued last week that demands tourists and non-residents to stay away in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus

Gunnison County was shut off for four months during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic

'To that end, there's some language in that healthcare order that allows for folks to apply for an exemption. We realize there are certain things going on with our residents that may require that. We want to give people that option, if needed.'

Gunnison County was shut off during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic.

The isolated mining town of Gunnison imposed extreme measures. For four months, residents were forbidden to leave, and travelers were turned away.

As of April 6, there were 93 cases of COVID-19 and one death in Gunnison County.

Gunnison County, lies some 200 miles southwest of Denver, are asking tourists not to come

The death toll from the pandemic now stands at 11,000 with more than 368,000 confirmed infections across the United States
Woxer (https://woxer.com), the womens boxer brief brand known for promoting comfortable underwear, shocked its thousands of fans on March 31 when it dropped a hint about a new product release  thong undies. The teaser bombshell was sent out to email subscribers as a picture of a pink thong with coming soon in block letters across the photo. On Instagram and Instagram Story it was a thong with a color-changing background and the wording The thong youve been waiting for.

On April 1st, Woxer dropped their cheeky email, SMS message, Instagram post, and Instagram story, telling the world that Woxer thongs had arrived to make your butt look good. The gig was up as soon as excited shoppers clicked the shop now button or rushed to Woxers home page where they were greeted with an April Fools day message and a video of standup comedian Whitney Cummings talking about how thong underwear are torture devices. The video was curtesy of Whitneys YouTube channel. You can catch her funny (NSFW) rant here.

Woxer ended the joke with this message: Woxer stands for comfort and we believe thongs are the epitome of discomfort.

But in a twist of fate, it turned out that many fans were excited about the thought of Woxer thongs! Instagram commenters asked the brand to think about actually going through with the idea (believing that Woxer could actually thongs comfortable), and many others said they had clicked on the link, hoping to purchase a pair.

Overall, however, the joke was very well received and considering the overwhelming success Woxer has seen as during its first year of business, who knows? This is a brand that listens to its customers so maybe. just maybe comfortable Woxer thongs may show up for real in the future? That remains to be seen but one thing is for certain. Woxer will never waiver from its mission to empower women to be comfortable, natural, and confident  and any new products Woxer produces will be in accordance to this vision.

The Woxer thong is not real but you can console yourself with the readily available Baller, Stud, and Commando styles that are always available in singles, packs, and by subscription. Dont forget to tune into Woxers blog where the brand celebrates powerful, everyday women that are inspiring the world.

Learn more at http://www.woxer.com.

About Woxer:

Woxer (womens boxer briefs) was created to address the need for comfortable, sensible, empowering, underwear for women that could be worn under any outfit, and for any occasion. Woxers philosophy is that everyone has the right feel comfortable, and that the right undergarments bring out a womans confidence and energy.

Contact Details:

Woxer

8601 NW 27th St

Miami, FL 33130

hello@woxer.com

http://www.woxer.com

Source: Woxer


By Rod Nickel and Jeff Lewis

WINNIPEG, Manitoba/TORONTO (Reuters) - Enbridge Inc <ENB.TO> is running North America's biggest oil pipeline network, the Mainline, with unused capacity as Canadian producers cut output because of the spread of the coronavirus and low prices, a senior executive said on Monday.

The spare capacity points to mounting distress for the western Canadian province of Alberta and its already strapped energy industry as measures to contain the fast-spreading respiratory virus pummel North American oil demand.

"Right now we're going to see as much production turned down as possible in western Canada," Vern Yu, Enbridge's executive vice president of liquids pipelines, said in an interview.

He declined to say how much space the Mainline had, but Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said last week it was running with 150,000 barrels per day of unused room.

Canada, the world's fourth-largest crude producer, could curtail as much as 1.7 million barrels per day, or a third of the country's total output, as U.S. refineries idle capacity and rising production tests storage limits, according to Royal Bank of Canada analysts.

The Mainline, Canada's longest oil pipeline system, has capacity for nearly 3 million barrels per day, moving western Canadian oil to U.S. refiners.

Enbridge plans to sell 90% of the Mainline's space under long-term contracts to shippers rather than continue to ration space monthly. The move, intended to take effect in mid-2021, requires approval from the Canada Energy Regulator (CER).

Enbridge has said 13 shippers, mainly those with U.S. refineries, representing 70% of current Mainline volume, support its proposal.

Despite the oil market collapse, Yu said Enbridge had received no requests from customers to revisit shipping terms and the process remained on track.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd <CNQ.TO>, MEG Energy Corp <MEG.TO> and other major producers have asked the regulator, however, to postpone any hearings on the switch to firm contracts, citing strain on the industry caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a CER spokeswoman said.

Story continues

Yu said in February the best-case scenario for its proposed Line 3 replacement project was to obtain all permits needed in Minnesota in time to start construction in summer. Construction of the long-delayed Line 3, which is part of the Mainline, would take six to nine months, he said.

"We'll have to reassess once we have the permits on what's a reasonable construction time frame given what may or may not be there as far as physical distancing restrictions," he said on Monday.

(Reporting by Jeff Lewis in Toronto and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Richard Chang and Peter Cooney)
Basic Military Training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, will be reduced by one week to a 7 1/2-week curriculum while leaders adjust the program amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, officials announced Tuesday.

The move will aid in protecting new recruits, as well as "Military Training Instructors, other active-duty members, civilians and contractors that support the mission," Air Education and Training Command (AETC) said in a news release.

Officials are also working to reschedule recruit accessions into BMT to better filter trainees through the pipeline at a time when increased social distancing is a necessity, according to the release.

Last month, AETC announced it had suspended family-attended graduation events to keep visitors off base. Since then, graduations have been live-streamed on video and social media pages.

Related: Army Will Stop Taking New Recruits at Basic Training for 2 Weeks

Officials announced the latest updated graduation schedule. Exact times for the graduation ceremonies will be posted the week of, on the USAF Basic Military Training Facebook page:

April 9: Flights 257 through 286

April 16: From 320th Training Squadron (TRS), Flights 287 through 302

April 23: From 323rd TRS, Flights 303 through 318

April 30: From 331st TRS, Flights 333 through 348

May 7: From 324th TRS, Flights 349 through 362

May 14: From 737 Training Support Squadron, Flights 363 through 376

The change follows the decision of BMT leadership to begin using Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, as an alternate site for basic training.

The "proof of concept" trial began Tuesday, with 60 new recruits sent to Keesler, while 400 remain at Lackland, AETC spokeswoman Jennifer Gonzalez recently told Military.com

Overall class sizes have been whittled down to 460 due to social distancing requirements; previously, groups of 650 to 800 prospective airmen would arrive at Lackland each week.

By using Keesler, instructors and leaders have eliminated "the secondary need to transport BMT graduates to a follow-on technical training location while meeting the COVID-19 requirements," Gonzalez said.

"Keesler is home to the 81st Training Wing, where members train, develop and inspire premier warfighters in training for more than 160 career field specialty training courses, in addition to eight operating locations in the continental United States," she said.

A trainee slated for those fields will already be in place, she explained. "By limiting the need to ship a trainee from BMT to technical training, we are limiting the possible exposure to COVID-19."

AETC said the new process will remain in place for the next 180 days, but it's not intended to be a long-term option.

"We will use Keesler for as long as the current global pandemic demands that we do so or until we receive direction from the Department of the Air Force," Gonzalez said in an email.

The change resets BMT to its length a few years ago. In 2018, BMT was expanded to add an extra week to the curriculum in an effort to align more closely with then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' heightened focus on readiness and lethality, and to mentor the next generation of leaders.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.

Read more: Acting Navy Secretary Offers to Resign Amid Growing Backlash: Reports
Olga Matievskaya was able to get 500 masks, 4,000 shoe covers and 400 caps from the money donated on her GoFundMe page

An intensive care nurse was suspended by a hospital in New Jersey after she raised $12,000 to buy 'unauthorized' protective equipment for her colleagues.

Olga Matievskaya was able to get 500 masks, 4,000 shoe covers and 400 caps from the money donated on her GoFundMe page.

But she was placed on temporary suspension for 'inappropriately distributing unauthorized medical supplies', a spokesman for Newark Beth Israel Medical Center told ProPublica.

They added: 'No employee is allowed to distribute unauthorized medical supplies within the hospital.'

But one anonymous worker disputed that, telling the website: 'There was no information distributed.'

Olga, who bought most of the equipment from Ebay, had led a team of 12 other fundraisers, setting up the page a week ago.

The fundraising team explained: 'PPE are desperately and urgently needed for health care frontliners staff in ICU/CCU.

'Money will be used to order overalls, shoe covers, masks, filters for respirators, sanitizers and wipes.'

With the federal stockpile dwindling fast, and the Trump administration limiting access to what's left, state leaders are going to extraordinary measures on their own to secure faces masks, ventilators, gloves and other equipment essential to fighting the outbreak.

Olga was placed on temporary suspension for 'inappropriately distributing unauthorized medical supplies', a spokesman for Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, pictured, said

One nurse died from coronavirus after working nonstop for weeks at a hospital where staffers frustrated with dwindling supplies posed in gowns made of trash bags.

Healthcare workers are increasingly concerned about the ravages of the illness in their own ranks compounded by the lack of testing and protective gear.

Mount Sinai West emergency room nurse Kious Kelly, 36, died after a 10-day bout with the disease.

He worked at the same hospital where three nurses, frustrated at the scarcity of supplies, posted pictures of themselves on social media wearing makeshift garbage bag protective gowns.

A colleague of Olga said: 'We understand this is what we signed up for. Just provide us with sufficient (protective equipment) so we can give these patients the optimal care that they need, and so we aren't contaminating others or ourselves.'

Olga had shared updates with donors, telling them she had managed to secure vital equipment for her colleagues.

She also said she had been able to buy care packages for medics who had displayed symptoms and were in quarantine.

The US is now barreling towards the infection's projected peak day on April 16 when experts predict there will be over 3,000 deaths in 24 hours. The death toll reached 12,035 across the country Tuesday.

One nurse died from coronavirus after working nonstop for weeks at a hospital where staffers frustrated with dwindling supplies posed in gowns made of trash bags

Nurses putting their names on protective clothing resting outside the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn

Nurse Amy OSullivan, walks outside of Wyckoff Hospital in the Borough of Brooklyn on April 6

Posting pictures of the cleaning products, vitamins and care packages Olga wrote: 'Bought gatorate, vitamins, paper towels, flushable wipes, lemons and limes, coconut water, liquid soap and get well cards.'

In a post on April 5 one of the fundraising team wrote: 'Thank you is not a strong enough statement for all of your generous donations. You are all amazing people!!!!

We on the frontline are able to continue what we were born to do.... and that is SAFELY care for those who need us!

'A MILLION THANK YOUS!!! God Bless you and keep you safe!'

The group had kept people updated with items they had purchased thanks to the money raised including 400 21' White Bouffant Caps Medical Surgical Disposable cap for $48.

They also ordered 150 jumpsuits from ebay for $638. Olga added: 'The seller gave very good price $4 a piece (normally $7).'

She also bought 4000 shoe covers for $158 and ordered 500 NK95 masks $7 a piece, total $3500.

Her suspension ended Monday, the hospital confirmed.
Post-secondary students are being given a six-month grace period for both federal and provincial student loans due to financial uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Post-secondary students are being given a six-month grace period for both federal and provincial student loans due to financial uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Premier Brian Pallister and Economic Development and Training Minister Ralph Eichler announced Tuesday afternoon that Manitoba would offer student aid relief, three weeks after Ottawa introduced an interest-free moratorium on federal student loans.

Manitoba has suspended all repayments of loans under the Manitoba Student Aid Program, effective April 1 through Sept. 30. The temporary measure mirrors the announcement made by the Canada Student Loan Program. Neither the provincial or federal policies cover private loans.

"Manitobans carrying student loan debt have become vulnerable to programming and labour market changes resulting from COVID-19," said Eichler, in a prepared release. "This deferral of loan repayments is going to significantly lessen the hardship for them, at a time when they really need it."

One of the few provinces that dont charge interest on student debt, Manitoba is the last province to announce a student aid payment suspension. In recent weeks, student loan payments and interest attached to them have been put on pause from coast to coast.

The overall impact of COVID-19 on student aid in Manitoba will be assessed as the situation continues to evolve, according to the Tuesday release.

Manitoba Economic Development and Training expected to receive a total of $1 million in repayments from student borrowers on April 1. In total, the suspension of repayments until autumn will defer collection of an estimated $7 million for 2020-21.

At the same time, loan disbursements  tuition and grant payments included  will continue to be transferred to students.

Students will also be able to repay their loans via cheque or electronic fund transfer, should they choose to continue to do so throughout the deferral period.

Chairman of the local chapter of the Canadian Federation of Students, Brenden Gali, called the announcement "a victory for students."

"I pay student loans myself, so thats going to help me," he told the Free Press. "Now, I have to consider all the floating pieces  What about the Canada Summer (Jobs) Program? If students arent working over the summer time, will they even be able to pay them off in the fall?"

Under the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, otherwise known as CERB, Canadians who have lost work due to COVID-19 are eligible for a taxable benefit of $2,000 per month for the next four months. Students, Gali included, have criticized the limited eligibility requirements  including a requirement that individuals have earned at least $5,000 in 2019 or in the 12 months prior to the date of their application  that may exclude students.

Gali said he's heard from students who have had interviews for internships and summer jobs postponed as a result of COVID-19. Many students have also lost significant wages earned in the hospitality sector, which has taken a hit as all non-essential businesses have been ordered to close their doors.

Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

"CERB needs to be expanded because its so limited, and it doesnt affect people who are looking for jobs for the summer and the future," said Emily Leedham, a Winnipeg-based organizer with Fight for $15 and Fairness.

"They havent lost employment, but employment they could have potentially had is now going to be unavailable to them."

Leedham added she hopes students and all other employees in low-wage positions such as grocery store clerks are recognized for their important work long after the pandemic.

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged the financial hardships students across the country are facing at present. Trudeau said work is underway to address the uncertainty of summer jobs for students.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie
Michael Sheen has said that Wendi Deng, the former wife of Rupert Murdoch, once asked him to dress up like Tony Blair and surprise the real former PM at a Hollywood party.

The Welsh actor portrayed Blair in three different films, The Deal, The Queen and The Special Relationship, and recalled Deng being very excited after she met him in New York in 2010.

Speaking to The Guardian, Sheen remembered: [Deng] said: Oh, Im having a dinner for Tony soon, you must come  It took a little while for it to dawn on me: oh, but its going to be at Rupert Murdochs house.

Deng reportedly sent Sheen an email shortly after their meeting, in which she proposed that he dress up as Blair for the party.

She would get in touch with me and say, maybe you could make your hair look like him? Maybe you could dress like him, and we could hide you, and bring you out, and surprise him?

Sheen continued: I remember writing back to her in an email and going: I dont want to put anyone in an uncomfortable position, so I think we should just leave it. I thought, shes going to have me jumping out of a cake or something.

Deng still insisted that Sheen attend the party, and it was there that he met Blair for the first time. As they met, however, Sheen remembered Deng interrupting to shout, Tony? Its you!

Blair and Deng are long-time friends, with Blair godfather to one of her daughters with Murdoch.

In 2014, Blair was reported to have reacted angrily when asked by The Economist about the nature of his relationship with Deng. He said that it was not something I will ever talk about. I havent and I wont.

Murdoch filed for divorce from Deng in 2013. He would go on to marry the model Jerry Hall in 2016.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a press conference about the coronavirus, in Berlin, Sunday, March 22, 2020. German authorities have issued a ban on more than two people meeting outside of their homes, which they believe will be easier to follow than locking people in their homes. The vast majority of people recover from the new coronavirus. According to the World Health Organization, most people recover in about two to six weeks, depending on the severity of the illness. (Michael Kappeler/Pool photo via AP) Read more

As U.S. fatalities from COVID-19 rise, Germanys death rate from the virus is roughly half that of Americas.

As Americas frontline health workers still struggle to obtain face masks, South Korea has a smooth system to distribute masks to its health workers and its entire population.

Both countries are democracies and U.S. allies, not authoritarian regimes like China. So shouldnt we be looking at what these countries are doing right, and whether their methods are applicable here?

The German case is particularly interesting because relatively few people seem to be dying. Their fatality rate from virus cases as of early this week stood less than half the nearly 3% rate in this country.

Three key factors deserve the credit: strong leadership, early and persistent testing, and a robust health system that works.

Germany is doing more testing than other countries, but still not enough, I was told by Anna Sauerbrey, deputy editor-in-chief of Der Tagesspiegel, by phone from Berlin.

Despite President Donald Trumps false claim that the United States is now doing more per capita tests than any other country, several countries are doing better. Germany, as of late last week, was testing one in 90 citizens, compared with one in every 273 people in the United States.

These numbers enable German officials to find infections early, even among asymptomatic patients, isolate them, and contain the disease from spreading.

And only widespread testing will permit scientists to amass the data required to get a clear picture of the disease, including how many people have had it and shown no symptoms, which means they can return to work.

Moreover, widespread testing is vital to figuring out the real death rate from COVID-19, and for finding a response to blunt the virus if it returns in a second wave.

So here are the two key important reasons Germany has been able to conduct widespread testing  while the United States has faltered until now.

First, political leadership. Germany and the United States both have federal systems, says Sauerbrey, but the polarization is not that great here. Germanys minister presidents (the equivalent of elected state governors) come from different parties, but were able to cooperate and create a common set of rules, she explains. Despite upcoming state elections, they dropped partisan rhetoric.

They didnt use this for political show, Sauerbrey adds.

Equally important, Chancellor Angela Merkel  who had appeared to be fading before the crisis  rose to the challenge, inspiring the public and working with state governments. She did a great job communicating to the public how dangerous the virus was and how important solidarity is, says Sauerbrey. Her first speech was intense and emotional, and people understood the need to change their behavior.

But lastly, Germany was able to administer tests and avoid overwhelming its health system because that system is so solid. What can really drive death rates is if you dont have enough intensive care beds, says Sauerbrey, and Germany had them. Germans have a universal health-care system, but with private doctors and a dual public-private system that guarantees coverage to all. In Germany, you dont have to be afraid to call in sick, says Sauerbrey.

National and state leadership, a solid health system, and widespread ongoing testing  unburdened by shortages, partisan politics, and a chaotic health system.

Need I say more?

And then there is the case of South Korea, which has become the global gold standard on testing and keeping COVID-19 in check. But what I want to write about here is Seouls success at solving its face mask shortage.

After an initial mask crisis, the central government decided to intervene in production and distribution, writes E. Tammy Kim in the New York Times. By early March, the government was purchasing 80% of the national production of KF-94 masks, the equivalent of the American N95, from the nations 130 or so manufacturers (for comparison, think how the U.S. mask crisis might have been avoided if Trump had made robust use of the Defense Production Act).

The masks were shipped at a discounted price, first to hospitals and health providers, and then to pharmacies all over the country. No first responders washing masks or improvising bandanas in Seoul. No long queues at pharmacies, and everyone on the street wearing masks (as CDC guidance now recommends for the U.S.).

I asked Alexander Vershbow, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and distinguished visiting fellow at the University of Pennsylvanias Perry World House, what were the keys to this process.

In South Korea, he replied, "there is close trust between the government and the chaebols (business conglomerates). Businesses are more mindful of the national interest, so they worked together to bend regulations on tests, and compete to produce the best tests and accelerate production.

There was much more of a consensus on what needed to be done, and almost a worship of science and innovation. An educated public understood that a science-based approach was needed.

What Germany and South Korea have done is totally within the capacity of this country. In theory. If this crisis forces Americans to face up to why we are falling behind.
BAGHDAD  The visit of Iranian Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani to Iraq last week received a great deal of attention and provoked controversy on the local political scene.

His visit was an attempt to unify Shiite forces in nominating a new prime minister  one who would have close ties to Iran  amid the fruitless efforts of the current prime minister-designate, Adnan al-Zurfi, to form a Cabinet. Zurfi is currently facing opposition from the Shiite parliamentary majority.

Yet Ghaani failed to unify the Shiite factions, unlike his predecessor Qasem Soleimani, who brought Shiite forces together to carry out Irans objectives. Ghaani not only failed to unite Iraq's leaders but also drew condemnation and criticism from the Shiite leadership.

Al-Monitor learned from a senior clerical source in Najaf that the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani rejected Ghaanis request for a meeting. Furthermore, influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr canceled a prescheduled meeting with Ghaani, stating in a written message to Ghaani, delivered by Sadrs military adviser, Abu Doua al-Issawi, that "there should be no foreign interference in Iraqs affairs."

Parliamentarian Assad al-Murshidi, a member of the National Wisdom Movement led by Shiite cleric Ammar al-Hakim, said in a press statement, The timing of Ghaanis visit to Baghdad was improper and a clear interference attempt in the formation of the new government.

Zurfis Nasr parliamentary bloc described Ghaani's visit as a failed mission, assuring the Iraqi people that parliament would approve Zurfis government.

Zurfi finalized his Cabinet April 4 and sent a request to parliament to hold a session to vote on his Cabinet.

Zurfi managed to obtain a parliamentary majority, said parliamentarian Nada Jawdat of the Nasr coalition. [Ghaanis] visit did not  thwart Zurfis government but, on the contrary, it increased the parliamentary support for the upcoming government.

Nasr parliamentarian Faisal al-Issawi said April 6 that many members of different Shiite factions support Zurfi despite their leaders' objections.

Parliamentarian Alia Nassif of the State of Law coalition said Ghaani was pressuring Shiite factions to withdraw their support for Zurfi. It is a shame that Iraqi political leaders need foreign guardianship to decide on important issues related to their own country, Nassif said.

In the same vein, Sunni parliamentarian Raad al-Dehlaki of the Forces Alliance demanded that the Iraqi foreign minister summon the Iranian ambassador in Baghdad to complain about Ghaanis interference.

Despite Ghaanis opposition to Zurfis appointment as prime minister, Zurfi is determined to form his government.

Those opposed to the government can express their position in parliament alone, said Zurfi at a press conference in Baghdad April 4, confirming that he did not meet with Ghaani.

Regardless of whether Zurfi's government receives parliamentary approval or if he is replaced by the current head of intelligence services, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, as many Shiite parties are proposing, the divisions among the Shiite forces are a clear sign that Ghaani failed in his mission in Iraq.

Ghaani did not meet Sunni or Kurdish politicians during his visit to Baghdad, indicating that, unlike Soleimani, he does not have personal relationships or connections among Iraqi politicians outside the Shiite circles.

In fact, Ghaani lacks several crucial qualities needed to lead Iran's forces in the Arab world. Unlike Soleimani, Ghaani does not speak Arabic and lacks charisma. Regardless, Ghaani's recent Iraq trip indicates that the Quds Force is still pursuing an Iraq dossier.

Last month, Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Irans National Security Council, visited Baghdad and met with President Barham Salih, parliamentary speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi and caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. Shamkhanis visit was seen as a sign that Iran was transferring the handling of its Iraq dossier from the Quds Force, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, to Iran's diplomatic apparatus. However, Ghaanis trip, as well as the increased number of Shiite militias in Iraq, shows that Iran still views Iraq through a Quds Force lens.

Following Ghaanis failed attempt to unify Shiite forces, Iran-backed militias condemned Zurfis appointment in an official statement.

We [are] rejecting the appointment of the US intelligence candidate Adnan al-Zurfi, they said, pledging to escalate attacks on US interests in Iraq. The statement was signed by Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Nujaba Movement, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Kataib al-Imam Ali, al-Awfiya Movement, Saraya al-Ashura, Kataib Jund al-Imam and Saraya al-Khorasani.

A day after the statement, US oilfield services company Halliburton was targeted by several Katyusha rockets in Basra, part of a series of attacks on US troops and interests in Iraq.
Just recently, comedian-actor Ji Suk Jin uploaded videos on his YouTube channel Jeeseokjin World, featuring himself reading his profile on Namuwiki.

In the "Running Man" section, the Ji Suk Jin discovered that someone had written he had proven his skills on emceeing for many programs and was at the peak of his career as an MC. However, the anonymous writer added that the shows he had worked on started to disappear one by one. He giggled as he read the last line.

The comedian continued reading the comments and found one that claimed that when his broadcasting career seemed to end, he received an offer to be on the outdoor variety show Running Man. However, he only had mostly done indoor talk shows, so the outdoor variety show was not suitable for him. Ji Suk Jin quite agreed on that comment, saying that he was not a good fit, and he experienced a hard time at the start because of that.

In Running Man, the role of the MC is quite different from the player. He continued explaining that as a player, he has to comment and pop up a joke at the right timing, and that kind of thing sets the position apart, so it's true that he couldn't adjust at the beginning.

Then, the actor-comedian asked to meet the producing director of the show Jo Hyo Jin in person, and they talked three times. Ji Suk Jin expressed that he wanted to quit the show, explaining that he doesn't think that he is of help to the show, and vise versa. Instead of axing him, Jo Hyo Jin encouraged Ji Suk Jin every time he thinks about quitting. And for that, Ji Suk Jin took the opportunity to give his thanks to the people who didn't stop believing in what he can do.

Ji Suk Jin went on to reading something from his Namuwiki page, which stated that he garnered a considerable amount of criticism from viewers from the early to the middle period of the show's run. He smiled and said that it is reasonable since it could happen when you are just starting. He thought he was not a good fit for the show, so it's possible he didn't have much of a presence. It's not healthy to work having that kind of mindset, though.

His activities are described and that those had been seen less and less in the show. He simply laughed as he read that people had said he'd been given his pay for free.

Ji Suk Jin then giggled when he read one comment, stating that he's even personally boasted. As Running Man became more popular internationally, he also became a Korean Wave star, and fans go crazy for him when he goes overseas.
George Pell spent more than a year in prison, but what are some of the legal implications now that his convictions have been quashed by the High Court?

The Carmelite Monastery in Kew, where George Pell is staying. Credit:AAP

Could he claim compensation for wrongful conviction? Is he able to sue for defamation?

In theory, Pell could sue Victoria Police or the complainant for the legal tort known as malicious prosecution.

However, experts agree that this would be highly unlikely, because of the extraordinarily high bar hed have to meet in order to succeed.

It would require him to prove that authorities knew there was nothing to this case, yet they went ahead anyway, says Melbourne University Law School Professor Jeremy Gans.

Tactically, it would also be a very foolish thing to do as it would reopen all sorts of questions...In other words: he wont go there.

On the flip side, Tuesdays ruling wont prevent any other complainants from suing Cardinal Pell or the Catholic Church in the civil court, where standard is based on the balance of probabilities, rather than beyond reasonable doubt.

The burden of proof is very different in a civil court, said Arnold Thomas Becker managing partner Lee Flanagan.

As news of Pells acquittal reverberated around the world on Tuesday, social media was awash with opinions - some more slanderous than others.

But this also raises an issue for the media and the public more broadly. Are people at risk of defamation if they continue to assert Pells guilt against the two choir-boys?

The short answer is yes - so exercise caution.

Until today, Cardinal Pell was a convicted child sex offender, and anyone who said so wouldnt be held liable, says barrister and former Victorian Bar president Matt Collins QC.

But anyone who says it after today would be exposed.
The world is in the grip of an unprecedented health crisis, which has also brought in its wake a never-before-seen economic emergency. Strict social distancing norms across most countries have led to a near standstill in economic activity. India, which was already in the grip of a prolonged economic slowdown even before COVID-19 arrived, is now witnessing added misery.

As the Centre grapples with economic challenges, the worst affected due to the pandemic appear to be state governments. They are beginning to realise that not only have their recent projections of fiscal health for 2020-21 gone for a toss, finances are now facing a major stress due to multiple factors and they need urgent central help.

A large portion of state revenues comes from indirect taxes on consumption items like fuel, alcohol. etc. and all of these goods have seen a sudden and sharp decline in consumption due to the pandemic. This will certainly lead to an alarming dip in states revenues. Then, states also depend on the transfers the Centre makes under various heads to keep their books in order and here too, they have been facing a shortfall since the entire amount due under GST compensation (besides other heads) for 2020-21 has not been given released yet by the Centre.

Ratings agency ICRA had estimated in February this year that the compensation for the losses from GST required by all state governments between October 2019 to January 2020 was Rs 60,000-70,000 crore but there could be a shortfall of around Rs 15,000-25,000 crore in the GST Compensation Fund at end FY2020.

Not just revenue shortfall and a gap in central payments, the situation of states finances has been made worse by an imploding migrant crisis. It is hard to ignore the heart-wrenching visuals of huge crowds of migrants, leaving cities like Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai for their hometown since the 21-day lockdown started.

These migrants were forced to walk back hundreds of miles to their homes because of suspension of economic activity. Though most remain outside the security net, some state governments have begun making nominal cash transfers into their bank accounts to help them tide over the present crisis. Naturally, these cash transfers are further straining state finances.

Another potential drain on the states exchequer would be increased spending by most states on social welfare schemes and health facilities as COVID-19 spreads. Already, states are collectively depending more on borrowings to finance their expenditure. Even in 2020, borrowings by the Centre rose by about a fourth to Rs 7.1 lakh crore but the combined leverage of states rose by nearly a third to Rs 6.3 lakh crore, according to an analysis by CARE Ratings.

Given these harsh realities, some states have already begun petitioning the government for urgent financial relief. Last evening, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot first thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a series of tweets for seeking suggestions from state governments over steps needed to combat the COVID-19 fallout. And then went on to seek urgent financial help from the Centre, since the revenue projections his state had made recently have all gone haywire.

Gehlot has written to Modi, seeking an economic package, including a grant of Rs 1 lakh crore, for states. He also pointed out that Rajasthans financial condition was deteriorating rapidly to decline in revenues and the state government has been forced to partially defer salaries of state government employees for this month. The CM also wanted a relaxation in the borrowing limits for states and other concessions.

I would like to reiterate that our States financial condition is rapidly deteriorating due to decline in revenues and the State Government was forced to partially defer the salaries of the State Government employees for this month.2/ Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) April 6, 2020

How COVID-19 and its rapid spread has altered the state of states finances can be seen from the projections Rajasthan made just a few weeks back. According to an SBI analysis of the states Budget for 2020-21, growth in total revenues was nearly 14% in FY20 and the target for current fiscal was an increase of nearly 11%. Its fiscal deficit projection for FY21 was 2.99%, the lowest in four years. It is obvious that with the COVID-19 fallout, these projections will likely be junked.

Another state has asked the Centre for help. News reports suggest that Amit Mitra, the Finance Minister of West Bengal, has also written to the PM, urging the Centre to release revenue deficit grant of Rs 5,013 crore and also pay out the states share in GST collections. The SBI analysis of West Bengals Budget for 2020-21 notes that the state remained apprehensive (even when COVID-19 had not been an active threat) about the Centres refusal to release funds and grants to the tune of Rs 50,486 crore and this was one reason the states finances were in already a tough spot.

For 2020-21, outstanding debt of West Bengal was expected to rise by 10% and fiscal deficit target for 2020-21 was at 2.18% (much lower than last fiscal). The budget had estimated zero revenue deficit in 2020-21. Again, with COVID-19, this last expectation could well look like a dream now.

Apart from Rajashtan and West Bengal, other states including Tamil Nadu and Punjab are also seeking GST dues from the Centre to get a grip on their respective finances.

This report in the Hindu Business Line suggests the Chief Minister of Punjab has sought immediate release of Rs 6,752.83 crore towards the states arrears of GST compensation and Bengal has also asked for its share.

The SBI analysis of budgets presented by 19 Indian states shows the combined fiscal deficit projection for FY21 at 2.04% is unachievable as states grapple with the slowdown due to the COVID-19, all the while stepping up spending. First, the GST collections are estimated at 17% in FY21, as against a decline of 11% in FY20. At 5-10% GST growth, the shortfall in GST could be as much as Rs 75,000 crore, which needs to be compensated by the Centre. Second, the states have already committed an extra expenditure of Rs 30,000 crore.

Meanwhile, the precarious financial situation of many states has already compelled them to borrow more, even when COVID-19 induced slowdown was nowhere on the horizon. CARE Ratings has said that gross market borrowings for Centre as well as state governments grew notably in FY20.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Governments will have to undertake additional expenditures which could further pressure the fiscal deficit in FY21. To finance the fiscal deficit, the Central Government has not so far revised its gross market borrowing programme for FY21. The RBI has however front loaded the market borrowing program to the extent of 62.5% in the first half of FY21. If the Central government announces additional fiscal stimulus measures, then it is likely that the Government will have to undertake additional market borrowings to finance the fiscal deficit in FY21.

As the Centre stares at revenue shortfall of its own due to a decline in tax inflows and worries over rising fiscal deficit to be able to offer additional fiscal stimulus, the states demands over GST and other payouts could become a new headache.

The author is a senior journalist. Views expressed are personal.
Melky Cabrera didnt receive any four-year offers, so he chose to play in his preferred Eastern half of the country and sign a three-year pact with the White Sox, tweets Enrique Rojas of ESPN.com (link in Spanish). Cabrera became the latest splashy acquisition for the White Sox late last night joining Jeff Samardzija, David Robertson, Adam LaRoche, and Zach Duke in an effort to bring the club from 73 wins in 2014 to contention in 2015.

Heres more on the White Sox and the rest of the AL Central Division:
New findings show that a pair of complementary chemical defenses evolved independently in wallflowers, shaped by co-evolution with local insects

A pair of chemicals used by wallflowers and their kin to ward off predators have evolved to complement each other, with one targeting generalist herbivores and the other targeting specialised herbivores that have become resistant to the generalist defence.

Plants are engaged in an ongoing arms race with the creatures that eat them. They evolve defences to deter plant eaters, while their herbivores evolve counter-defences. The new study, published today in eLife, reveals details of the evolutionary chemical arms race in the wallflower genus Erysimum, a group of flowering plants in the mustard family Brassicaceae.

The first line of defence in all Brassicaceae plants are chemicals called glucosinolates, which are activated when predatory creatures nibble on the plants. More recently, wallflowers have developed a second line of defence by producing chemicals called cardenolides to deter plant-eating creatures that evolved defences to glucosinolates.

"Studying how these two defences evolved in this large genus can help scientists understand the trade-offs that the plants face as they try to defend themselves against multiple enemies," explains lead author Tobias Zust, PhD, Research Associate at the Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Switzerland.

To do this, Zust and his team sequenced the genome of the wormseed wallflower, a short-lived wild mustard. They next created a detailed family tree for this plant and 47 other wallflower species and compared the diversity and abundance of glucosinolates and cardenolides across these species. They found that the two defences varied independently of each other, and that closely related, geographically co-occurring species shared similar cardenolide traits, but not glucosinolate traits. This is likely a result of separate selective pressures acting on each defence.

"Even though most species co-expressed two different types of potentially costly chemical defences, there was no evidence of a trade-off between glucosinolates and cardenolides," Zust says. "Instead, these two types of chemicals appear to complement each other and do not serve redundant functions."

Zust adds that the emergence of cardenolides corresponds with an explosion in the number of wallflower species, which suggests this second complementary defence may have allowed these plants to succeed and diversify into new habitats.

"Further analysis of the wormseed wallflower genome will be needed to help scientists identify glucosinolate and cardenolide-producing genes in this species, as well as aid our understanding of the function of these chemicals in the evolution of Brassicaceae defences," concludes senior author Georg Jander, Professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute in Ithaca, New York, US.

###

Reference

The paper 'Independent evolution of ancestral and novel defenses in a genus of toxic plants (Erysimum, Brassicaceae)' can be freely accessed online at https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.51712. Contents, including text, figures and data, are free to reuse under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Media contact

Emily Packer, Senior Press Officer

eLife

e.packer@elifesciences.org

01223 855373

About eLife

eLife is a non-profit organisation inspired by research funders and led by scientists. Our mission is to help scientists accelerate discovery by operating a platform for research communication that encourages and recognises the most responsible behaviours in science. We publish important research in all areas of the life and biomedical sciences, including Evolutionary Biology and Plant Biology, which is selected and evaluated by working scientists and made freely available online without delay. eLife also invests in innovation through open-source tool development to accelerate research communication and discovery. Our work is guided by the communities we serve. eLife is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, the Wellcome Trust and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. Learn more at https://elifesciences.org/about.

To read the latest Evolutionary Biology research published in eLife, visit https://elifesciences.org/subjects/evolutionary-biology.

And for the latest in Plant Biology, see https://elifesciences.org/subjects/plant-biology.

About the University of Bern

Globally connected and regionally anchored, the University of Bern is focused on excellence in research and teaching. It was here that Albert Einstein qualified as a lecturer.

Internationally renowned for space research, dentistry, climate science and biomedical engineering, it also hosts several global research platforms in areas such as sustainable development.

With roots in the 1500s, this comprehensive university is based in the heart of Switzerland's capital, Bern, near its UNESCO-listed medieval old town. Some 18,500 students from more than 125 nations benefit from a full range of disciplines at all levels, ranging from medicine to mathematics, economics to world literature, archaeology to law and more. http://www.unibe.ch.

Full list of funders and grant numbers for this research:

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Forderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (PZ00P3-161472), National Science Foundation (1811965), National Science Foundation (1645256), Triad Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG-PE 2059/3-1), Agencia Estata de Investigacion, Spain (CGL2017-86626-C2-2-P), LOEWE Program Insect Biotechnology and Bioresources, Junta de Andalucia Programa Operativo (FEDER 2014-2020 A-RNM-505-UGR18)
A group of doctors has pleaded with the state government to install air quality monitors in the Yarra Valley to alert vulnerable residents to dangerous smoke pollution during the autumn burn-off season.

Supported by Yarra Ranges Council, which voted unanimously to back the push for better monitoring, the doctors say smoke pollution during the coronavirus pandemic is a dangerous health risk for their patients.

Yarra Ranges residents are concerned about the impact of burn-offs on respiratory health. Credit:Joe Armao

The Healesville-Yarra Glen region's death rate relating to respiratory system diseases is already nearly double the state average, according to local council data.

"There is growing fear and anxiety in the Yarra Valley about what the COVID-19 pandemic will mean ... and we are now facing months of smoke haze when already there are shortages of medications including asthma inhalers," the four doctors* write in a letter to Minister for Environment and Climate Lily D'Ambrosio and the Environment Protection Authority.




Implementation of a series of measures to promote employee safety and support local community



Publication of top-line results of the Phase IIb NATIVE clinical trial for lanifibranor in NASH on track for June 2020



Strong cash position with cash runway until the end of Q2 2021, beyond the next anticipated key clinical milestones of the Company



Daix (France), April 7, 2020 - Inventiva (Euronext: IVA), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing oral small molecule therapies for the treatment of diseases in the areas of fibrosis, lysosomal storage disorders and oncology, today provided an update on its business activities and financial position as well as the initiatives announced to support its employees and the local community amid the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, all while promoting the continuity of essential work on the development of its R&D portfolio.





Employee update and initiatives to support local community

Following the recommendations of domestic public health authorities, Inventiva has implemented a series of measures to minimize risks for its employees and support their health and safety in this uncertain time. The Company has put on hold non-essential pre-clinical activities and implemented a work from home policy for most of its employees, including those engaged in research and development functions. Only a very limited presence is maintained on-site to enable the Company to quickly and efficiently restart full activities following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, Inventiva supports the Dijon University Hospital as well as health care professionals in the region in the fight against COVID-19 by providing them with masks and protective gear.

As of today, no employees have been infected with COVID-19 to the knowledge of the Company.





R&D portfolio update



Lanifibranor in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)

Phase IIb NATIVE (NAsh Trial to Validate IVA337 Efficacy) clinical study

To date, the Company does not anticipate that the COVID-19 pandemic will significantly impact Inventiva's Phase IIb NATIVE clinical trial evaluating lanifibranor in the treatment of NASH. Following the completion of patient visits and the analysis of all exit biopsies announced on March 17, 2020, the publication of the trial top-line results remains on track for June 2020, in line with the Company's expectations.

Phase II NAFLD clinical study

Regarding the ongoing Phase II clinical trial conducted by Dr. Kenneth Cusi1 and evaluating lanifibranor in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in patients with type 2 diabetes, patients already included in the trial continue to receive their treatment according to the established protocol. The recruitment and screening of new patients has, however, been suspended across all sites of the University of Florida due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At this stage, Inventiva cannot properly assess the impact of the pandemic on the overall timing of the trial.

It is important to note that any delay of this trial will not impact the further development of lanifibranor in the treatment of NASH and its potential move into a pivotal Phase III clinical trial following the publication of the Phase IIb NATIVE clinical trial results.





Odiparcil in mucopolysaccharidosis type VI (MPS VI)

Following the publication of positive results of the Phase IIa iMProveS (improve MPS treatment) clinical trial evaluating odiparcil in the treatment of MPS VI at the end of 2019, Inventiva remains fully focused on the preparation and launch of the Phase I/II SAFE-KIDDS (SAFEty, pharmacoKInetics and pharmacoDynamics, Dose escalating Study) clinical trial evaluating odiparcil in children with MPS VI, which is anticipated to commence prior to the end of 2020. However, given that regulatory authorities, hospitals and other relevant bodies are currently mobilized around the COVID-19 pandemic, it is possible that the COVID-19 pandemic will adversely impact the commencement of this trial.





YAP-TEAD in the field of oncology

Given the slowdown in pre-clinical activities, Inventiva cannot exclude a delay in the selection of a pre-clinical candidate for its YAP-TEAD program. At this stage, it is too early for the Company to be able to properly assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the timing of this program.





Financial update

Thanks to its cash position which amounted to 35.8 million as at December 31, 2019, combined with the 15.0 million capital increase completed in February 2020, the Company confirms its cash runway until the end of Q2 2021, beyond the next anticipated key clinical milestones.

The global pandemic of COVID-19 continues to rapidly evolve and its ultimate impact is highly uncertain. The Company cannot predict the full extent of potential delays or impacts on its clinical trials, or potential impact on its business. As the Company navigates these unprecedented circumstances, Inventiva is committed to continuing to implement measures aimed at minimizing any further potential business impact from the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to comply with the recent guidance documents of the regulatory authorities. The Company will continue to closely monitor, assess and respond to the situation as it evolves overtime and continue to work closely with its contract research organizations, trial sites and investigators to critically reassess all its existing programs and will communicate further when and if appropriate.



About Inventiva



Inventiva is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of oral small molecule therapies for the treatment of diseases with significant unmet medical needs in the areas of fibrosis, lysosomal storage disorders and oncology.

Leveraging its expertise and experience in the domain of compounds targeting nuclear receptors, transcription factors and epigenetic modulation, Inventiva is currently advancing two clinical candidates - lanifibranor and odiparcil - in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis ("NASH") and mucopolysaccharidosis ("MPS"), respectively, as well as a deep pipeline of earlier stage programs.

Lanifibranor, its lead product candidate, is being developed for the treatment of patients with NASH, a common and progressive chronic liver disease. Inventiva is currently evaluating lanifibranor in a Phase IIb clinical trial for the treatment of this disease for which there are currently no approved therapies.

Inventiva is also developing odiparcil, a second clinical stage asset, for the treatment of patients with MPS, a group of rare genetic disorders. A Phase I/II clinical trial in children with MPS VI is currently under preparation following the positive results of the Phase IIa clinical trial in adult MPS VI patients published at the end of 2019.

In parallel, Inventiva is in the process of selecting an oncology development candidate for its Hippo signalling pathway program. Furthermore, the Company has established a strategic collaboration with AbbVie in the area of autoimmune diseases. AbbVie has started the clinical development of ABBV-157, a drug candidate for the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis resulting from its collaboration with Inventiva. This collaboration enables Inventiva to receive milestone payments upon the achievement of pre-clinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, in addition to royalties on any approved products resulting from the collaboration.

The Company has a scientific team of approximately 70 people with deep expertise in the fields of biology, medicinal and computational chemistry, pharmacokinetics and pharmacology, as well as in clinical development. It also owns an extensive library of approximately 240,000 pharmacologically relevant molecules, approximately 60% of which are proprietary, as well as a wholly-owned research and development facility.

Inventiva is a public company listed on compartment C of the regulated market of Euronext Paris



Contacts

Inventiva

Frederic Cren

Chairman & CEO

info@inventivapharma.com

+33 3 80 44 75 00

Brunswick Group

Yannick Tetzlaff / Tristan Roquet Montegon /

Aude Lepreux

Media relations

inventiva@brunswickgroup.com

+33 1 53 96 83 83

Westwicke, an ICR Company?

Patricia L. Bank

Investor relations

patti.bank@westwicke.com

+1 415 513 1284





Important Notice



This press release contains forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates with respect to the clinical development plans, business and regulatory strategy, and anticipated future performance of Inventiva, the potential effects of COVID-19 on the Company's clinical trials and business strategy and of the market in which it operates. Certain of these statements, forecasts and estimates can be recognized by the use of words such as, without limitation, "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "plans", "seeks", "estimates", "may", "will" and "continue" and similar expressions. Such statements are not historical facts but rather are statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on management's beliefs. These statements reflect such views and assumptions prevailing as of the date of the statements and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause future results, performance or future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Actual events are difficult to predict and may depend upon factors that are beyond Inventiva's control. There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline product candidates that the candidates will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or that they will prove to be commercially successful. Therefore, actual results may turn out to be materially different from the anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements, forecasts and estimates.Given these uncertainties, no representations are made as to the accuracy or fairness of such forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates. Furthermore, forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates only speak as of the date of this press release.Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of these forward-looking statements.

Please refer to the Universal Reference Document filed with the Autorite des Marches Financiers on February 7, 2020 under n D.20-0038 for additional information in relation to such factors, risks and uncertainties.

Inventiva has no intention and is under no obligation to update or review the forward-looking statements referred to above. Consequently, Inventiva accepts no liability for any consequences arising from the use of any of the above statements.







1 Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism in the Department of Medicine at the University of Florida, Gainesville.

Attachment
Capt. Brett Crozier.

US Navy

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly's impassioned 15-minute speech to the sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt on Sunday was met with dismay and anger.

In an audio recording obtained by Insider, some of the service members were not receptive to his message.

"Yeah, that was, uh ... It's almost like we got an ass-chewing. Almost," one person said. "And he kind of called us p---ies."

"He was like, 'B----, I said what I said,'" a different person said.

In a recording of Modly's speech obtained by Task & Purpose, one person could be heard saying "What the f---?" when Modly said Crozier was "too naive or too stupid to be commanding officer of a ship like this."

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The acting Navy secretary's impassioned 15-minute speech to the sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt on Sunday was met with anger from some people who supported its former commander, Capt. Brett Crozier, who was removed from command last week amid a coronavirus outbreak on the ship.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who visited the ship in Guam, used the carrier's announcement system to address the roughly 5,000 people in the ship's crew, squadrons, and staffs. Modly fired Crozier on Thursday, after the captain emailed an urgent plea to over 20 colleagues. In his four-page letter, Crozier asked for "a political solution" and "immediate and decisive action" as his crew dealt with the outbreak.

Modly said Crozier violated military protocols, circumventing the chain of command by sending the letter to a group of people. Modly said that while he did not know how the letter got to news outlets, there was a "proper way" for Crozier to handle his concerns.

Videos of Crozier leaving the Roosevelt on Friday showed the crew cheering and chanting his name.

Modly was apparently aware of the support Crozier had among his sailors but told them that Crozier was "too naive or too stupid to be commanding officer of a ship like this." In a recording of Modly's speech obtained by Task & Purpose, one person could be heard saying, "What the f---?"

Story continues

"I cannot control or attempt to change whatever anger you have with me for relieving your beloved CO," Modly said.

"I understand that you may be angry with me for the rest of your lives," he added. "I guarantee you won't be alone."

In an audio recording obtained by Insider, some of the service members were not receptive to his message.

"That's all I got to say about that," one person said after Modly gave his remarks.

"Yeah, that was, uh ... It's almost like we got an ass-chewing. Almost," another person said. "And he kind of called us p---ies."

"He was like, 'B----, I said what I said,'" a different person said.

More than 150 service members aboard the carrier have tested positive for the coronavirus. Crozier has also tested positive, The New York Times reported on Sunday. About 2,700 crew members are expected to be evacuated from the ship in the coming days to curb the coronavirus' spread.

Modly's office did not respond to a request for comment about his leaked remarks, but a statement attributed to him on Monday said, "I stand by every word."

Read the original article on Business Insider
DETROIT, April 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- McDonald Hopkins, a business advisory and advocacy law firm, has once again been nominated by Advisen as a finalist for their 2020 Cyber Risk Awards in the category of Cyber Law Firm of the Year. For more than a decade, the Data Privacy and Cybersecurity team at McDonald Hopkins has counseled clients in responding to over 5,000 data breaches and privacy incidents throughout the world and in nearly every industry. In 2019, the team responded to nearly 700 incidents.



Voting is now open through Friday, April 24 via Advisen's online ballot. The winners will be announced on June 18 at Gotham Hall in New York City.



The Cyber Risk Awards are selected by "People's Choice" vast contact database of insurance professionals who care about Cyber Risk. Cyber Law Firm of the Year recognizes a law firm that has been unparalleled in its work within the cyber insurance space in 2019. This year will mark the 7th annual Cyber Risk Awards.



"Breaches can be devastating not only for a company's bottom line, but also for their reputation," Giszczak said. "Organizations are now judged on their response to the breach, rather than the incident itself."



"While no industry or business is immune to cybersecurity incidents, it is crucial for businesses to have a proper plan in place, knowledge of regulations and effective and efficient legal support ready to respond to an incident 24/7," added Paluzzi.



More information on the 2020 Cyber Risk Awards can be found on Advisen's website.

About the National Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice at McDonald Hopkins

McDonald Hopkins specializes in advising organizations on data privacy and cybersecurity risks on both a national and international basis, including compliance counseling and risk assessments, incident response strategies and management, and defense of regulatory enforcement actions and single-plaintiff and class action litigation. McDonald Hopkins has counseled clients through over 5,000 data breaches and privacy incidents, in nearly every industry, where they work closely with local, state and federal law enforcement, forensic investigators and third-party vendors to provide clients with efficient and effective breach response services in compliance with the numerous state, federal, international and industry-specific legal obligations. McDonald Hopkins data privacy team also focuses on proactively protecting organizations' personal, sensitive and confidential information and minimizing the risk of a data privacy incident, by conducting breach response workshops and training sessions for organizations and their risk management teams, and helping clients with the development of their written information security programs and incident response plans.



About McDonald Hopkins

Since 1930, McDonald Hopkins has thrived by building long-lasting relationships with businesses and individuals who share an entrepreneurial spirit. As the business advisory and advocacy law firm celebrates its 90th anniversary in 2020, it has a renewed commitment to providing exceptional client service and insight for the challenges at hand and on the horizon. To learn more, visit mcdonaldhopkins.com.

David Carducci

McDonald Hopkins LLC

600 Superior Avenue, East, Suite 2100

Cleveland, Ohio 44114

Phone: 216.348.5814

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE McDonald Hopkins

Related Links

http://www.mcdonaldhopkins.com


A lifeless body was found floating in Omu river, Kelebe, along Osogbo-Iragbiji road in Osun state.

It was gathered that the body was recovered by the officers of the Nigeria Police Command, who later took it to the morgue of Ladoke Akintola Teaching Hospital, LAUTECH in the state capital.

Though the cause of the mans death could not be ascertained as at the time of filing this report, the head of the Ajoda Idi Okiti community, Chief Bisiriyu Aderemi, told journalists that he saw something floating on the river not knowing it was a human body until he moved closed to it.

He said: This afternoon (yesterday), I was on my way to Iragbiji when I suddenly saw the lifeless body of a yet-to-be-identified man, initially I thought it was a log of wood until I moved closer and later discovered it was a dead body.



Although my findings showed that he was not mentally stable when he was alive. But nobody can say what could have been the cause of his death.

A police officer from Iludun Police Division, Nurudeen Salami, said they evacuated the dead body following the report they got at the station.

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HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD

By C Pam Zhang

Chinese-Americans  both native-born and immigrant  played a huge part in the settling of the American West, a fact that has too rarely been the subject of fiction. How Much of These Hills Is Gold, a debut novel by C Pam Zhang, is a tough-minded, skillful and powerful corrective to that omission. She dismantles the myth of the American West, or, rather, builds it up by adding faces and stories that have often been missing from the picture.

Zhang tells the story of Ba, Ma and their children, 12-year-old Lucy and her androgynous 11-year-old sibling, Sam. In keeping with the fablelike, slightly fantastical West she has invented, we never learn the familys surname. Ma emigrated from China, Ba and the children were born in the United States (subtly undercutting the notion that all those of Chinese heritage are immigrants). Ba, like so many others, has joined the gold rush, sure that he will hit it big, but, like most prospectors, he never does. From the first sentence, when Lucy and Sam awake to find their father dead in his bed, the novel is about loss, grief and the importance of ritual: Ba dies in the night, prompting them to seek two silver dollars. Ma, we learn a page and a half later, has died some time ago; these kids are on their own.

It was Ma who laid down the rules for burying the dead, Zhang writes. Among these rules is placing silver dollars on a dead persons eyes, to weigh down his spirit, sending the soul to its final good sleep. Thus the childrens quest begins. Penniless but determined to carry out the ritual, they resort to crime. After a daring but botched robbery attempt to get silver dollars, they depart from home in search of a suitable burial ground, their fathers body in tow  inside a wooden trunk strapped to the back of a stolen horse. Their fathers rotting corpse helps them in their mission when it falls out of its makeshift coffin and frightens boys who are attacking Lucy and Sam. The terrified boys race off, leaving their rucksack, which contains the coins the siblings need.
Singapore Professor Yik Ying Teo: If you are caught breaking the law on quarantine, there is the risk of prosecution. It is either a very hefty fine or a jail term. So the public has been very obedient to follow the necessary rules.

Dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health of the National University of Singapore Professor Yik Ying Teo in his interview with Lithuania's Lietuvos Rytas told about his country's ways to curb coronavirus spread and which quarantine measures are taken to various categories of people, as well who is tested primarily.

In Singapore, first confirmed cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the first weeks of the epidemic outbreak in China. However, the tiny state has managed to evade a serious rise in incidence. Dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health of the National University of Singapore Professor Yik Ying Teo has told about this phenomenon.

Singapore is one of the few countries in the world that managed to contain the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the country. How did you do it?

It is a mixture of some of the measures that we have put in place in the past. Firstly, what I think we have done very well, is that we try to find the cases as early as possible. So this means that every time we find someone who is infected, and it is a confirmed infection, we trace the contact of that particular individual. We ask the person "Where have you been? Who are the other people you have been in contact with?" and we reach out to all these people to make sure that we isolate them early and we quarantine them if necessary. So that when these people become infectious (because they have been infected), they are in an environment where they do not get to spread it to other people, and I think that has been one of the key success steps we have implemented that has helped to bring down the numbers.

Does it mean you do a lot of testing? Whom and when do you test?

We actually quarantine people first. So, if I have been infected, people that I have been interacting with for the past 14 days, we try our best to identify who these people are and then we isolate them. We do not test them at the very beginning. We only test people who have the symptoms. So this is testing for people who are under quarantine.

The other group of people that we test are people that report to the hospitals and clinics or general practitioners  this is our primary care. We have a checklist: we look for people with persistent high temperature and who have exhibited symptoms that are consistent with a coronavirus infection. These are the people whom we will then prioritize for chest X-rays and then looking for the signs of pneumonia, for signs of lung infections, and, then, if those are confirmed, we test them. So this way we preserve the tests for people who have a high chance of testing positive.

I should emphasize that there are countries like Korea that have done fantastically well. They have been testing many people and that is because they have the capacity to test as many people as they could that are under suspicion of being infected. In Singapore, we could test many as well but we want to be prudent in the use of tests so we have a way of identifying who the people are that should be first isolated and then monitored, and then who the people are that should be fast-forward to be tested immediately.

There is a different understanding in different countries of quarantine rules. How do you quarantine people: at home or at special facilities? How do you ensure that they follow self-isolation at home or elsewhere?

We have three measures. First, we quarantine them at government facilities, so these are buildings we have taken over, including dormitories, student hostels, hotels, that the Government has commandeered. Some of these quarantined people are put in these facilities, food will be delivered to them and they are under watch so they can't leave the facilities.

The second group of people who are under quarantine are the people who are quarantined at home. For those who are quarantined at home, the Government actually performs regular checks and they use technologies such as GPS locators to make sure that individuals or even families of those individuals stay where they are supposed to be at all times and they are not allowed to leave. For these two groups there are very strict laws that say that if you are caught breaking the law on quarantine because there is an Infectious Disease Act that has been implemented, there is a risk of prosecution. When prosecuted, it is either a very hefty fine or its a jail term. So generally the public in Singapore is quite accustomed to regulations such as this. So the public has been very obedient to follow the necessary rules.

Who is sent to the government facilities and who can stay at home  the first and second groups? What are the criteria?

So the first group is individuals who have been exposed and now need to be brought away from their home because they are family members, and you do not want this person to spread the infection to other people in the family. The second group typically is someone whose whole family is confirmed to have been infected so the entire family is quarantined. And the easiest way to do that is to place the entire family within the same household to avoid any movement. So that is the way to determine who are the ones who should be quarantined at home versus those who are to be quarantined at government facilities. I should also mention that there is a third group of people who are given a "stay at home notice", which is a level weaker than quarantine but it is still mandatory and it is still governed by Infectious Disease Law. "Stay at home notice" has been implemented now to the people who have no contact with people who are infected but they returned home from places, from countries where there is widespread infection. So, right now, Singapore had implemented a law that put every traveler coming in to Singapore on a "14-day stay home notice". And I want to emphasize that a "14-day stay home notice" is mandatory and governed by the country's laws but it is less strict than the quarantine. It requires that individuals stay at home but they can mingle with their family. Quarantine means that an individual or an entire family is completely isolated from the rest of the world, they can't interact with anyone else that is outside the family or outside the facility.

How do you manage the facilities of the first group? Do people stay in their rooms alone? Is there a possibility that the person is sent to the government facility who had not contracted the disease, but did contract it there because others have been sick?

There's very low risk of that happening because everyone in government facilities is isolated in single rooms. So, individuals are put one hotel room per individual so there is no risk that I could be in a room with someone else and I may not be infected in the first instance but that person will be and then I get infected by that person. There is no chance of that happening because individuals are in isolation, one room per individual.

Let's say I have symptoms of the coronavirus, do I call an ambulance, or I call the hospital, or I go to some drive-in? How do you do the testing?

What happens is the following: if I exhibit symptoms, I would call a particular number and the ambulance will come and pick me up, deliver me to the hospital. In the hospital I will be kept in isolation and be checked in the screen before being sent for testing. The testing itself is done in public laboratories managed by the Government.

How many people are there who have already been tested and are sick? How many percent have been hospitalized and how many percent are being treated at home?

In Singapore, 100% of confirmed cases are managed in hospitals at the moment.

What about people who stay at home in Singapore? How do they get their food and necessities they need to survive?

In Singapore, there are online food delivery services that deliver groceries as well as cooked food products so those families that are currently staying at home, rely a lot on online delivery. Generally, because Singapore is quite close-knit, there is a close-knit community spirit, the community rallies around people who stay at home so you have neighbors that perform the delivery, you have relatives who can deliver food and medical supplies for people who have to stay at home. This is a sign that the community has come together to manage this crisis. In China there was the same response as well  they rely on the community spirit and the use of technology to procure food and medical supplies so that individuals can still function despite being locked down.

How long do you think you will have to apply these measures in Singapore and how long will it take in general to curb this pandemic?

This is a question that actually goes beyond Singapore. In Singapore, we rely entirely on trade for a lot of our goods and services. This means that as long as the world is not able to contain this, Singapore will have to keep up these measures. Equally I have made a comment that China has successfully contained the outbreak and we see that they are continuing to get cases from importations. So as long as the world is unable to manage this, every country will have to continue its surveillance and its care in managing important cases.

What can be done in a situation Italy has faced, where the epidemic curve is so sharp?

I think in Italy they are doing the right thing right now, which is a very extensive lockdown and making sure that there is a restriction on people's movement. As long as the people stay at home, and there is a hotline where citizens can call when they feel unwell, that could be a way of breaking any onward transmission. The country is struggling, the health system is struggling, and there is a need to make sure that the health system is able to recover and to treat the health system efficiently. Right now I am afraid that, based on the numbers that Italy is suffering from, it will be extremely difficult for healthcare workers to administer best quality care to ensure that infection cases are taken care of. So the measures that were put in place, which is an extensive lockdown and ensuring that the basic social functions still continue, that people are able to get access to the essentials like food and medicine, those are essential functions that Italy has done very well. But the extensive lockdown is necessary to break the chain.

We have seen this executed very well in China and now they have successfully contained the outbreak entirely.

What therapy do you use in Singapore for the COVID19 patients?

We are using Remdesivir on trial basis. There is the Interferon for the sick patients that do not meet the trial criteria.

When will we have a vaccine?

The vaccine, with the best scenario, is still about 18 months away.

Tomas Dapkus
The police have arrested a man here for allegedly posting objectionable comments on the social media and spreading rumour through the platform, officials said on Tuesday.

Virendra Singh, a resident of Silori Narayanbagad village, was arrested on Monday for posting an objectionable comment about the Tablighi Jamaat on the social media with an intention to disrupt social amity, Tharali police station SHO Subhash Jakhmola said.

The mobile phone used for the purpose has also been seized, he said.

Singh has been booked under sections of the IPC and IT Act, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
JACKSON, Miss., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Magnolia Health, in collaboration with its parent company, Centene Corporation, has recognized Dr. Javel Granados of Desoto Children's Clinic in Desoto, Mississippi, with a national award for clinical excellence.

Practitioners are selected each year for the Summit Award for Excellence in Care based on their exemplary performance in a number of quality measures. Centene has sponsored this annual award since 2008.

"We are proud to honor Dr. Granados with the 2019 Summit Award for Excellence in Care for his commitment to improving the many lives he touches in the Southaven community. It is an achievement well-deserved for a champion of exceptional patient care," said Aaron Sisk, plan president and CEO, Magnolia Health.

"With the Summit Award for Excellence in Care, we thank Dr. Granados for his dedication to healthcare outcomes improvement. His service to our members represents the best in quality medical care," said Dr. Jeremy Erwin, Chief Medical Director, Magnolia Health.

For more information, visit www.magnoliahealthplan.com

About Magnolia Health

Magnolia Health is a long-term solution to help the state of Mississippi enhance care for Medicaid recipients, while most effectively managing taxpayer dollars. A physician-driven, Mississippi-based Coordinated Care Organization (CCO), Magnolia is backed by its parent company, Centene Corporation (Centene). Centene has more than 30 years of experience in Medicaid and other government-funded programs such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and long-term care. For more information about Magnolia, visit www.magnoliahealthplan.com.

SOURCE Magnolia Health

Related Links

https://www.magnoliahealthplan.com


The fourth COVID-19 relief package from the federal government must include a boost for clean energy and protections against climate change, Sen. Ed Markey told actor and climate activist Jane Fonda in a Facebook livestream on Tuesday.

We want to make sure the competition to the fossil fuel industry is funded, Markey told Fonda, who had asked how the pandemic had impacted the clean energy industry. Were going to have a mighty battle in the next package. We already realize that Sen. Mitch McConnell didnt have any problem with spending $2 trillion to make sure small businesses and large businesses are taken care of, but so far theres been no mention of clean energy."

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act recently signed by President Donald Trump included $500 billion to help distressed industries including airlines and rail, and the president has frequently touted efforts to stabilize the oil industry.

Fonda told Markey that while the COVID-19 pandemic will eventually go away, the country should be preparing for another pandemic in the future and added that the climate crisis isnt going to go away."

The coronavirus has laid bare a lot of things, she said. The importance of following science and really listening to the scientists ... and stockpiling all necessary equipment for the eventuality that will come.

Fonda argued it was essential that funding is prioritized for front line workers, health care providers, small businesses, gig workers and clean energy as opposed to the fossil fuel industry.

On the positive side, Fonda said, the crisis has shown how capable human beings are of changing our behavior when theres emergency perceived by everybody. How really, public agencies can come up with an awful lot of money.

Markey told Fonda that the Trump administration also recently rolled back fuel efficiency standards for vehicles and said theres no question in my mind that Trump is going to be taking care of the fossil fuel industry.

Markey noted that more pollution in the air weakens the lungs and hearts of people ... ultimately thats what coronavirus attacks. People with preexisting conditions, especially lung and heart, should be very careful. Thats what pollution does.

With wind and solar industries heavily impacted by the virus, Markey pledged that clean energy would be front and center in a fourth package already in the works on Capitol Hill.

On March 23, more than 500 solar companies wrote to Congress urging for assistance to an industry that employs at least 250,000 Americans and injects nearly $19 billion annually in infrastructure investments across the country."

The COVID-19 crisis is threatening these jobs and investments at a time when we need them most, the companies wrote.

Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said in late March that the solar economy was at risk due to the ongoing pandemic. While many solar companies can apply for small business loans available through the CARES Act, 40% of respondents to a recent SEIA survey reported staffing reductions amid the crisis.

Before the pandemic hit, the Global Wind Energy Council expected the industry to see record growth with 76 gigawatts of new wind capacity, including more than 10 gigawatts in offshore wind farms in development along the East Coast. Two of the wind farms, Vineyard Wind and Mayflower Wind, are expected to deliver 800 megawatts each from federal waters south of Marthas Vineyard  enough combined electricity to supply power to more than one million homes in New England.

But with the coronavirus threatening the global economy, permitting, construction and installation, GWEC says its monitoring the situation and publishing a new market outlook for 2020-2024 in the second quarter of this year.

This forecast will undoubtedly be impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, due to disruptions to global supply chains and project execution in 2020, GWEC said in a report published in late March.

Dan Shreve of Wood Mackenzie, an energy research and consultancy group, said last month that the coronavirus crisis would see worldwide wind power growth decline by almost five gigawatts compared to previous predictions. The biggest potential hits are in China and the US, where wind-focused policy deadlines were expected to deliver record volumes," Shreve said in a statement.

The impact of the coronavirus is top of mind for the global wind industry and embodies a crisis unlike anything the market has ever seen, Shreve said. The state of the pandemic is evolving on an hourly basis, resulting in a highly reactionary environment. Industry stakeholders are continually adapting business operations to balance worker safety with the needs of their clients, all while complying with dynamic government containment measures."

Related Content:
Austria's Red Bull Ring could join Silverstone in hosting more than one race in 2020 once the coronavirus crisis has eased.

Eight races have been cancelled or postponed so far this year, and it is expected that Montreal's June race might join them as soon as Tuesday.

But Red Bull, owner and promoter of the Austrian GP set for July 5, is leaving open the possibility of hosting its race in 2020.

"We will have to wait and see, as we are not alone in the world," Dr Helmut Marko told motorsport-magazin.com.

"Even if we could organise, it does not help if the travel restrictions in the rest of Europe are still such that nobody can enter without quarantine," he said.

"The situation is generally better, but neither a refusal nor a promise is possible at the moment."

However, he said the venue in Spielberg is uniquely able to organise a race at late notice.

"This is the advantage of the Red Bull Ring," he said. "It is a finished system that can be unlocked overnight."

Marko said the situation in terms of selling tickets is not such a big hurdle either.

"There are already a lot of tickets sold," he revealed.

"First we would have to know if there is a race, and whether it takes place with spectators or not. These are questions that are currently completely open," said the Red Bull chief.

As for the possibility of more than one race being held at the Red Bull Ring in 2020, Marko answered: "The possibility is there because we have a ready-to-use system.

"It's just a matter of negotiation with Liberty, then it depends on how it looks in the rest of Europe."

(GMM)
Designers Are Making Face Masks for You and for Frontline Workers

31 Companies You Can Buy Face Masks From Right Now

The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.

At midnight, January 1 2020, no one could have guessed that this is what the new decade would be like by now  but here we are. Stricter and stricter social distancing guidelines, climbing infection rates and death tolls, staggering unemployement numbers, worldwide protests against police brutality, and ever changing face mask guidelines mean we are living in stressing, scary, uncertain times. But if one thing is certain, its that life will change  forever.

RELATED: These Podcasts Keep You Up to Date on Coronavirus

Face masks are nothing new to a lot of Asian countries, but recently, they have become more and more popular in the U.S. Keep in mind, we use the less common definition pertaining to the adoption of cultural activities or products by the general public, rather than specialists or intellectuals, since we can assume that if wearing protective face masks were something trend-driven, it wouldnt have taken a global pandemic to inspire it.

That said, what can a face mask really do? According to NPR, the primary benefit of covering your nose and mouth is that you protect others. While there is still much to be learned about the novel coronavirus, it appears that many people who are infected are shedding the virus  through coughs, sneezes and other respiratory droplets  for 48 hours before they start feeling sick. And others who have the virus  up to 25%, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield  may never feel symptoms but may still play a role in transmitting it.

Basically, wearing a mask makes the world a little better for you and for them. But if you arent going to make your own mask (following very specific guidelines of course) then youll want to purchase your own. Keep in mind, the vast majority of masks you can buy now are not medical-grade or CDC-approved N95 type products for use as Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). You dont need those. In fact, if you have any, you should consider donating them to health professionals who do.

The selection of brands we gathered below are all donating some or all of the sales from the masks you buy to various hospitals or charities to help those on the frontlines fighting the COVID-19 pandemic here in America. Dont feel like making a purchase? Consider a simple donation to any number of people and places in need.

Collina Strada

New York Based Collina Strada lets you tell it like it is without saying a word. One hundred percent of the proceeds from this embroidered, tie dyed cotton twill mask will be donated to the Homeless Black Trans Women's Fund.

Learn more at CollinaStrada.com

Huckberry

Built from tried-and-true merino wool fabric, these masks are triple-layered for proper comfort, function, and shape-retention. Merino wool was selected for its natural ability to wick moisture, resist odor, breathe in warm weather, and regulate temperature  offering an easy-wearing experience even in the summer. Huckberry is donating $5 per mask to the Opportunity Funds Small Business Relief Fund: a program established to support small businesses hit by the economic effects of COVID-19, especially those run by women, people of color, and immigrants.

Learn more at Huckberry.com

Slip

Slip will donate five percent of the suggested retail price from the sale of each slip reusable face-covering in the U.S. to BABY2BABY in the period from June 18 to September 18, 2020, with a minimum donation of $75,000.

Learn more at Slip.com

Ben Sherman

Ben Sherman and Gladson partnered with the Costume Designers Guild, Motion Picture Costumers, and the IATSE Labor Union in a mission to produce and deliver protective masks to hospitals in the U.S. experiencing the most severe lack of personal protective gear. Ben Sherman is continuing these efforts, looking to increase the quantity of masks donated to healthcare and volunteer workers while providing the public with an option to stay safe as cities begin to resume activity. Each pack will hold an assortment of three reusable masks, and for each pack sold, Ben SHerman will donate a three-pack to health care workers.

Learn more at BenSherman.com

Everlane

Each reusable non-medical mask is made from a double-layer knit fabric and features cotton-Lycra ear loops for a little stretch and a lot of comfort. Once its on, do your best to avoid adjusting. (And as always, try not to touch your face.) For every 100% Human Face Mask Three-Pack sold, Everlane will be donating 10% sales to the ACLU. To date, the basics brand has donated over $600,000 through this program.

Learn more at Everlane.com

Ngozika Okeke Clothing

These masks are made with three layers of cotton and include a filter that protects down to five microns. For every mask purchased, one is donated to healthcare personnel or medical facilities in need of PPE. If your U.S.-based medical facility is still in need of masks, please notify the brand via the Contact page and include the facility and a contact person.

Learn more at NgozikaOkekeClothing.com

Sunspel

Sunspel has introduced reusable cotton face masks for sale and will donate one mask to community and public service projects for every mask purchased. Sunspel masks are made from Sunspel-quality cotton (read: some of the best) with an anti-bacterial inner lining and are cut to shape for comfort. The British luxury brand previously donated 500 masks made from woven cotton to suppliers and volunteers making deliveries to vulnerable customers in Yorkshire, England. Sunspel will supply an additional 7,500 masks to be used by delivery drivers and food workers. Additional information regarding Sunspel supporting its local community here.

Learn more at Sunspel.com

Meqnes

Meqnes masks are handmade in Warsaw, Poland using 100% premium cotton with OEKO-TEX standard 100. The washable and reusable masks are doubled layered with signature Meqnes Patterned Mosaics, which is an art form with tremendous history; it first appeared some 1300 years ago in Morocco. For every item purchased, the brand will donate one to vulnerable groups in its local community.

Learn more at Meqnes.com

Migrate Art

Migrate Art collaborated with exciting artists  Helen Beard, Kai & Sunny, Jon Burgerman, Miaz Brothers, Richard Woods  to create reversible, washable, and reusable face masks that help feed the UK's homeless. One hundred percent of net profits will be sent to Refugee Community Kitchen to help them feed the UK's homeless. More artist collaborations will debut every week.

Learn more at MigrateArt.com

HUF

Kind of says it all, doesnt it? A portion of the proceeds from each mask sold will benefit the LA Food Bank.

Learn more at HUFWorldwide.com

Swaddle Designs

Lynette Damir, RN, mother of two, and founder of Swaddle Designs went from making baby blankets to making face makes overnight. She continues to donate masks to frontline workers as well as makes masks for children (very on brand) and offers bulk order wholesale prices for donation (or personal use, at the rate were going).

Learn more at SwaddleDesigns.com

Title of Work

Title of Work is known by all the cool kids in New York City, and its signature craftsmanship and eclectic influences are now available as non-medical masks. Safely handmade by dedicated, local artisans, using the finest upcycled materials, including embroidery and beadwork readapted from the brands neckwear collection. Twenty percent of all mask proceeds go to NoKidHungry.org.

Learn more at TitleofWork.com

Ministry of Supply

Each mask is made of washable fabric and contains a pocket in which a single-use filtration membrane can be easily inserted (10 are included with purchase). For every purchase we will donate a mask to frontline healthcare professionals.

Learn more at MinistryofSupply.com

CARAA

A pack of 5 non-medical grade dual layer masks consisting of a cotton interior and polyester exterior are constructed out of repurposed materials from Caraas production line. Masks are washable, breathable, and fasten around your ears with built-in elastic loops and fit your face with embedded nose wire. Caraa matches every purchase with a donation to relief efforts.

Learn more at CaraaSport.com

Coop Home Goods

Stay safe with this pack of three reusable, non-medical grade face masks, made of 100% cotton for breathability and complete with an interior filter pocket. Coop Home Goods partnered with Everly, a Los Angeles-based manufacturer, to offer these masks.

Learn more at CoopHomeGoods.com

Kenneth Cole

Kenneth Cole is donating 10% of net sales of this Wear In This Together mask to the Mental Health Coalition. Its reversible with one side in all black and the other features text with logo detail. Made of double-layered, breathable cotton with soft loops to fit comfortably around your ears.

Learn more at KennethCole.com

Freemans Sporting Club

For each mask you purchase, Freemans will donate two for healthcare professionals and essential workers. Made from high-quality cotton fabric, these non-medical masks have elastic or adjustable ties and are reusable and washable by hand.

Learn more at FreemansSportingClub.com

Giovanna

These non-medical cotton face masks are made in Brooklyn to fit the face of men. For every mask sold, Giovanna is donating funds to cover the cost of one N95 mask toward RETI's Rapid Resilience program to purchase and distribute PPE to health care workers on the front line.

Learn more at ThisIsGiovanna.com

Beautiful Curly Me

These simple, solid, stylish masks are crafted from a wicking, antimicrobial, cotton- blend fabric and made in Atlanta, Georgia. A meltblown polypropylene filter already sewn in between the fabric and for every two masks sold, it is donating one to healthcare workers.

Learn more at BeautifulCurlyMe.com

Hedley & Bennett

Hedley & Bennett developed this reusable, protective mask in concert with pediatric orthopedic surgeon Dr. Robert Cho, and has transitioned its factory in Vernon, CA to begin producing these personal masks designed to be used with a filter inserted within the fabric. Purchase the masks using it Buy 1, Give 1 plan

Learn more at HedleyandBennett.com

Goodfight

For each mask sold Goodfight will donate a mask to local institutions in need of personal protection equipment. You can wear this on its own, or as a cover for an N95 mask to extend its life. Each mask features an inner sleeve to insert a replaceable filter (printable cut & trace guides available).

Learn more at gdfht.com

Runabout

This triple pleat mask is a new and improved version of the classic health care workhorse. Runabout spent a lot of time experimenting and perfecting the details and numerous improvements for a far superior fit and proper visual balance. Personally, we are big fans of the fabrications of these masks but were even more impressed that for every mask we buy, Runabout is donating one to local hospitals.

Leanr more at RunaboutGoods.com

Buck Mason

Buck Mason, the all-American T-shirt and jeans company is making masks for America  literally. Its Masks for America program donates one mask for each one sold. After setting a goal of 100,000 to donate, the number is up to almost 200,000 at the publishing of this story.

Learn more at BuckMason.com

American Blanket Company

American Blanket Company is donating face masks to first responders and healthcare workers with every purchase. Shipped from Fall River, Massachusetts, these masks are crafted from thicker, denser two-ply comfort fleece making them soft and breathable. They come in five different color options, come five to a pack and are tailored to fit in two sizes.

Learn more at AmericanBlanketCompany.com

Citizens of Humanity

In an effort to help combat COVID-19, Los Angeles-based premium denim label has repurposed its sewing facility to produce masks for front line responders, including hospitals, healthcare workers and childrens advocacy groups. To keep the lights on and the sewing machines moving, it has offered packs of five 100% cotton reusable masks to customers for $5 per mask.

Learn more at CitizensofHumanity.com

Ball and Buck

Sometimes you just want a camo mask, and there might be no better place than Ball and Buck. For every camo mask you purchase, it will donate one mask to a hospital in need.

Learn more at BallandBuck.com

Maison Modulare

A little less camo and a little more luxury, Modulare has a variety of masks to fit a lot of tastes, Modulares #Mask4Masks initiative offers everyday basic protection while taking the pressure off the market for products that should be reserved for frontline workers and medical professionals. With your purchase, it will donate proceeds to fund and procure PPE for people who need them.

Learn more at Modulare.us

Alabama Chanin

Made from double-layered, 100% organic cotton, the tight weave of this durable mask creates a semi-impermeable fabrication that provides protection and breathability. An interior pocket is also sewn inside to offer an opportunity to insert filters to create another barrier for further protection. These masks are washable and reusable, and designed to meet the medical standards for COVID-19 medical providers in an effort to support the prevention of this disease. Available in three sizes and three color categories.

Learn more at AlabamaChanin.com

Marine Layer

These reusable masks come in packs of five and feature a pocket that fits HEPA filters. Whereas these masks are intended for personal use, Marine Layer is continuing to work with LA Protects by creating and donating masks to essential workers. To make your own donation, click here.

Learn more at MarineLayer.com

Bella Canvas

This seven ounce fleece fabric serves as a sturdy barrier crafted in an innovative no-sew design allowing for zero human touch during production. A one-size-fits-all design with two ear holes and a contoured shape makes the mask versatile for many different face sizes. The Guard Face Mask comes in packs of 5, 10 or 50.

Learn more at BellaCanvas.com

Mother Denim

This set of two masks wrap around the head (not ears) with 100% of proceeds going to No Kid Hungry. Using heritage prints are some of Mother Denims favorites from years past and are lined with 100% cotton to stay soft on your skin. Note: All masks are handpicked at random and what is pictured may be different than what you receive. Please make sure to wash them before wearing.

Learn more at MotherDenim.com

Brandt Sorenson

Brandt Sorenson is making a multiple-layer face mask with an articulated fit using remnant textiles allowing each mask to be one-of-a-kind. Given the company is a two-person operation, it cant afford to donate the time and energy to sewing masks for the CDC. Instead it has designed a mask for you to purchase to protect yourselves, with a limit of two per household.

Learn more at Brandt-Sorenson.com

This too shall end, and we hope, for everyones sake, we all make it through happy, healthy and ready to fight another day. Good luck out there guys.

Product photos from retailer site.

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Market Update COVID-19

Brisbane, April 7, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Anatara Lifesciences Ltd ( ASX:ANR ) provides an update on the impact to the Company of the COVID-19 pandemic.The Company remains committed to its corporate strategy and focused on delivering on its anticipated milestones during the year ahead. However, the Company is actively planning for disruptions that may lead to delays in meeting some of these objectives.Understandably, COVID-19 has caused delays in clinical research and manufacturing activities globally. The Australian Department of Health has provided COVID-19 guidance for clinical trials."The focus should remain on the safety and well-being of those most at risk in our institutions and communities." "Any new recruitment should reflect the most current public health advice on social distancing." "Researchers and sponsors should educate themselves about novel approaches to the conduct of clinical trials, such as decentralised trials (i.e. teletrials) and hybrid models in which participants can be recruited and participate remotely and data can be captured remotely via available technology."Given the disruptions, Anatara is reviewing possible paths forward and gathering information on realistic trial delivery so that we may be able to commence our upcoming human clinical trial as soon as practicable. Anatara will proceed with a planned decentralised trial design, allowing participants to be recruited and participate remotely. It is anticipated that this trial design will enable recruitment of participants and higher retention rates than traditional centralised trials. At the current time, Anatara anticipates a delay, to the second half of 2020, for the commencement of its clinical trial in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) for its Gastrointestinal ReProgramming (GaRP) over-the-counter medicine.We continue to advance our licensing discussions with potential animal health partners for our core animal asset, Detach(R), with the aim of meeting our partnering milestone of end Q2 2020. We do not anticipate a material delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Anatara will monitor developments around COVID-19 and if needed, will update the market accordingly.As at 31 March 2020, Anatara held cash and equivalents of 3.3 million. No commitments have been made for future in-licensing opportunities at this time and as a precautionary measure, the Company has put in place measures to reduce all non-critical expenditure. The anticipated delay in commencement of the GaRP clinical trial extends Anatara's cash runway. The Company will review funding needs in the second half of the year.Furthermore, in line with current federal and state COVID-19 guidelines, the Company has implemented a number of measures to protect the wellbeing of staff:- Employee training on infectious disease awareness and working-from-home-effectively- Suspension of all corporate travel until further notice- Encouraging staff to work from home where appropriate- Non-attendance at investor events, industry conferences and trade shows (except where virtual participation is provided) until further noticeAnatara CEO, Mr Steven Lydeamore said, "During these uncertain times, the Company remains optimistic that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be limited to medium-term delays in accomplishing our corporate objectives. We continue to work remotely on our upcoming GaRP clinical trial activities and maintain ongoing discussions with potential animal health and human consumer health partners.""The Company remains highly encouraged by the successful preclinical data reported for GaRP to date, providing the Company with every confidence going into a human clinical study later this year."About Anatara Lifesciences Limited

Anatara Lifesciences Limited (ASX:ANR) is developing and commercialising innovative, evidence-based products for gastrointestinal health where there is significant unmet need. Anatara is a life sciences company with expertise in developing products for animal and human health. Anatara is focused on building a pipeline of human gastrointestinal health products. Underlying this product development program is our commitment to delivering real outcomes for patients and strong value for our shareholders. For more information, please visit www.anataralifesciences.com.
(Newser)  The mayor of Alton, Illinois, maybe should've checked his wife's calendar before ordering police to crack down on gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic. "These are very serious times and I'm begging you to please stay at home," Mayor Brant Walker said Friday in a video posted on the city's Facebook page. He urged police "to use their discretion in issuing citations or making arrests to those refusing to follow the state issued stay-at-home mandate," reports the Alton Telegraph. Police did indeed bust up a gathering at Hiram's Tavern around 1am Sunday, per the Alton Daily News. Everybody was charged with misdemeanor reckless conductincluding Walker's wife, Shannon Walker, reports KSDK.

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"My wife is an adult capable of making her own decisions, and in this instance, she exhibited a stunning lack of judgment," Walker said in a Monday statement on Facebook, noting he'd told the police chief not to give his wife any special treatment. "I am embarrassed by this incident and apologize to the citizens of Alton," he added. A reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch asked for a comment from Shannon "as soon as possible," with the mayor responding, "No further comment." (Read more coronavirus stories.)
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The United States has expressed it serious concern after a Chinese coast guard vessel sank a Vietnamese fishing boat in the East Vietnam Sea last week.

The U.S. Department of State said in a statement on Monday that it was seriously concerned by reports of Chinas sinking of a Vietnamese boat near Vietnam's Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago in the East Vietnam Sea.

This incident is the latest in a long string of Chinas actions to assert unlawful maritime claims and disadvantage its Southeast Asian neighbors in the [East Vietnam Sea], said Morgan Ortagus, the State Departments spokesperson.

We call on China to remain focused on supporting international efforts to combat the global pandemic, and to stop exploiting the distraction or vulnerability of other states to expand its unlawful claims in the [East Vietnam Sea], she said, referring to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

In a press release on Friday, Le Thi Thu Hang, spokesperson of Vietnams Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that fishing vessel number QNg 90617 TS, carrying eight Vietnamese fishermen on board, was fishing near Hoang Sa's Phu Lam Island on April 2 when a China coast guard ship hit and sank it.

The eight fishermen were safely rescued on Friday.

A representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has had a meeting with a representative of the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi and lodged an official complaint.

Spokesperson Hang asked China to investigate, clarify, and strictly handle the civil servants and Chinese vessel responsible for the incident.

Similar actions are not to be repeated and adequate compensation is to be paid to the Vietnamese fishermen for their losses, she stressed.

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PORTLAND, Ore.  Oregon public health officials have identified 64 new cases of the new coronavirus in the state as of 8:30 a.m. on Monday, April 6, as well as two more deaths attributed to the virus.

The latest death brings the state total up to 29.

We want to remind Oregonians that staying home and avoiding contact with others is still the best way to keep yourself and others healthy. Read more about our guidance on homemade masks here: https://t.co/FCvk7AjWYE #COVID19 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/MKowu9KoWW  OR Health Authority (@OHAOregon) April 6, 2020

The Oregon Health Authority said that there are now a total of 1,132 people in the state who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 through a positive test.

OHA is reporting 64 total new cases in the following counties: Benton (2), Clackamas (6), Columbia (2), Curry (2), Deschutes (1), Douglas (1), Jackson (6), Josephine (3), Klamath (3), Lane (2), Linn (1), Marion (11), Multnomah (10), Polk (2), Umatilla (1), Washington (12).

Samples for 20,669 people have tested negative for COVID-19 in the state so far.

Examples of people who have recovered fully after testing positive for the coronavirus have been reported only sporadically by local health officials thus far, and the state has yet to report a count of a total across the state.

OHA has a partial, but incomplete count of how many people in the state have been hospitalized from the virus. According to that data, at least 400 Oregonians have been hospitalized, and just over 80 have been put on a ventilator.

SPECIAL SECTION: Coronavirus Watch

A 93-year-old man in Washington County, who tested positive on March 30, died on Saturday at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. He had underlying medical conditions, according to OHA.

Oregons 29th COVID-19 death was a 70-year-old woman in Marion County, who tested positive on April 1 and died the next day at her home. She also had underlying medical conditions.

New dashboard to help visualize COVID-19 data in Oregon

On Monday, OHA unveiled a new dashboard "to help visualize COVID-19 data and trends in Oregon." The two graphs show Oregons epidemiological curve and the number of Oregonians who have been tested for COVID-19.

"These data are provisional. Our team of epidemiologists continues to review and verify data, so our reported numbers will change. As we get more information, we update the data from previous days," the agency said.
(Newser)  Thousands of Wisconsin voters waited hours in line to cast ballots and the National Guard staffed overcrowded polling stations on Tuesday, straining the state's ability to hold a presidential primary election under the lash of an escalating pandemic. At the same time, many voters said they did not receive their requested absentee ballots and were unwilling to violate a stay-at-home order to vote in person. "We have moved forward with an election, but we have not moved forward with democracy in the state of Wisconsin," warned Neil Albrecht, executive director of the Milwaukee election commission. The AP reports the state's largest city opened just five of its 180 traditional polling places, forced to downsize after hundreds of poll workers stepped down because of health risks.

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As of midday Tuesday, most voting sites in Milwaukee were reporting wait times between one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half hours, according to Albrecht. Lines stretched several blocks outside buildings as workers tried to maintain social distancing recommendations that everyone stand at least six feet apart. Joe Biden hopes the state will help deliver a knockout blow against Bernie Sanders in the nomination fight. Polls were scheduled to close at 8pm CDT, although results were not expected Tuesday night. A court ruling appeared to prevent results from being made public earlier than next Monday. Sanders said that holding the election was "dangerous" and "may very well prove deadly." He did not encourage his supporters to vote in person. Biden has largely avoided discussion of the Wisconsin contest in recent days, instructing his supporters only to "follow the science." (Read the full story for one voter's "eerie" experience at the polls.)
Leo DeCapua was working from home  the last home he planned to rent  when the bad news came.

An army veteran who was homeless for a time in 2016, DeCapua spent the past four years attending school then working as the technical lead at a startup, all the while steadily rebuilding his credit. He was deep into the homebuying process, having found the perfect four-bedroom farmhouse in Rosenberg, where he planned to raise chickens, and had been approved for a mortgage backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Then came the text, a message his real estate agent was passing along from his mortgage officer. Sorry, it read. The investors just dont want these loans.

Mortgages are becoming harder to get for those with less-than-stellar credit as investors run from risk during the severe economic downturn caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic. With staggering job losses and emergency orders blocking foreclosures during the crisis, investors are insisting on much higher credit scores for mortgages originated through first-time homebuying programs via the Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Affairs.

HOME SALES IMPACTS: In the age of coronavirus, Houston real estate appraisers are keeping their distance

The tightening of credit standards could deliver another blow to a real estate market already hit by plunging sales during the coronavirus crisis. Nearly a third of the 3,500 homes purchased in Harris County in February were funded with FHA loans, and the VA averaged 300 home-purchase loans a month in the county last year. Even more families refinanced their homes with FHA and VA mortgages.

But in recent weeks, would-be homebuyers pursuing FHA loans, which only require a 3.5 percent downpayment, or VA loans, which dont require any downpayment, are encountering new obstacles. Multiple mortgage brokers said they were seeing investors turn down borrowers with credit scores below 680, though 580 is the official minimum score for an FHA mortgage.

The increasingly restrictive credit requirements are a response to both unprecedented job losses and the emergency policies put in place to limit foreclosures as the novel coronavirus sends the economy into a tailspin.

In mid-March, as more people filed for unemployment in the span of two weeks than had during the worst months of the Great Recession, officials moved to protect homeowners. Government-sponsored mortgage-finance companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which together own half of the mortgage market, will allow those impacted by COVID-19 to reduce or suspend mortgage payments for up to a year; Ginnie Mae, which backs FHA and VA loans, paused foreclosures for 60 days starting March 18.

But the measures have had the unexpected consequence of shutting many out of the mortgage market.

Yesterday was bad. Today was worse, William Buzzy Knapp, president of Home Trust Mortgage, said on Friday. His company originally planned to provide DeCapua a loan. After investors tightened their credit requirements, he estimated his businesss loan volume had dropped 80 percent from the week before.

REFI WORRIES: Homeowners taking cash out of houses as economic uncertainty looms

Almost every day, its something different, he said. A new guy is not buying any more loans. A new company wont buy credit scores below 680.

It has become harder for people who plan to use downpayment assistance programs to secure a loan. For those shut out of a mortgage by panicked investors, the shift is a frustratingly imperfect way to predict who will be able to pay back loans.

Why do you think someone with an FHA loan is less likely to make a payment than someone with a conventional loan? asked real estate agent Shad Bogany. It even opens up the potential for discrimination  because more minority buyers use FHA loans.

Competing interests

When a homeowner makes a mortgage payment, that money goes to two companies: the one that owns the loan  usually a big bank or a government-sponsored entity  and the one that administers the loan, known as a servicer.

Servicers are paid for the messy business of collecting payments, administering fees and answering customer questions in exchange for guaranteeing the loan owner a dependable monthly payment. Part of the deal is that they promise to pay the owner of the loan a set amount every month, whether or not the homeowner makes a payment  an arrangement that incentivizes swift foreclosures. Servicers build in a financial cushion to cover for the occasional missed payment and make it back when homeowners catch up or the home is foreclosed on. But many servicers are unprepared for a disaster of this size and duration.

Already, one of every 38 mortgages across the contry is in forbearance, up from one in 400 on March 2, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

So, while government-sponsored companies such as Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae will purchase or guarantee mortgages, private investors with businesses servicing loans are pumping the brakes.

HELP FOR RENTERS: Camden, Karya offering rental assistance to tenants

DeCapuas loan officer said he could still get a mortgage if he purchased 4.5 points, meaning he would have to pay roughly $6,000 in additional fees for the loan.

The people who buy loans and service loans from origination companies are on purpose pricing themselves out of the market, Knapp said.

Bogany had a similar experience. Last week, I had an investor quote me 14 percent on a VA loan, he said Tuesday. The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate loan that week was 3.5 percent, according to Freddie Mac.

To me, thats a red flag, Bogany said. They dont want VA loans.

In response to an outcry from servicers, Ginnie Mae announced March 27 that it planned to bail out servicers by lending them the money they needed to pay loan owners. Details of the program have not yet been released, and lenders say investors are still narrowing the scope of mortgages they were willing to buy.

Knapp said he feared he would not be able to sell some of mortgages Home Trust Mortgage had already locked in, unexpectedly thrusting the company  which normally makes loans and sells them immediately  into the position of owning and servicing mortgages during an economic crisis.

SUPPORTING EMPLOYERS: Small Houston businesses dash for loans aimed at keeping people working during coronavirus crisis

Before this shakes out, Ill end up getting stuck with loans that I cant sell, he predicted. And so will everybody else.

Meantime, both DeCapua and Boganys clients were able find mortgages at reasonable rates elsewhere. Investors are not changing the requirements of the loans in lockstep, and some lenders still have relationships with investors who are willing to buy, explained Jennifer Hughes Hernandez, a loan officer at Legacy Mutual Mortgage.

You just have to find them, like a needle in a haystack, she said.

DeCapua is set to close on April 17. But he said his experience has left him unsure of whether things will unfold according to plan. He does not know whether to make arrangements to move on that date, despite pressure for a clear answer from his landlord.

Im in a place of uncertainty thats making things both financially and mentally uncomfortable, he said. Stuck in limbo.

rebecca.schuetz@chron.com

twitter.com/raschuetz
Rajesh Asnani By

Express News Service

JAIPUR: Working at a hospital that is at the centre of providing advanced healthcare facilities to coronavirus patients comes with its share of responsibilities. Ramamurthy Meena, intensive care unit (ICU) in charge at the SMS hospital in Jaipur, is well aware of it. So caught up was he with work at the hospital that he couldnt even participate in the last rites of his mother, but managed to view her cremation through a video call.

His mother Bholi Devi passed away on March 30 at the ripe age of 93. But the call of duty was stronger, as Meena was attending on coronavirus patients. So, loaded with grief while pushing back his tears, he continued offering patient care at the hospital and let his brother perform the last rites. Remember, SMS is the states biggest government hospital where the first bunch of infected Italian tourists were admitted and later cured.



My mother passed away but I felt those who are alive and struggling need me more at this time, Meena told The New Indian Express.

I cant leave the patients. We all have to fight in unison against the epidemic. My wife and children are all in the village in my native Karauli district. My three brothers and father supported me saying you serve the corona patients without grieving. That gave me the courage to continue to work, he added. Fellow nurses lauded Meenas sense of commitment.

This is exemplary devotion to duty. If Meena wanted to go for the funeral, the administration would have helped him attend the last rites, but he never left the ICU as there are many serious patients admitted there. We are sad he wasnt able to join his family in their time of grief but he is an inspiration for all the medical professionals of the country. We are proud of him. said Rajendra Rana, state president of the All Rajasthan Nursing Association.



Rajasthan on Thursday had 27 fresh cases, taking the states total to 328. Of them, 103 cases are from Jaipur and many of them are admitted at SMS hospital, where people like Meena are holding fort, one reason why over 40 have already recovered in the state.
Patrick Jesernik feared he and his girlfriend had caught the novel coronavirus when she began showing symptoms, including shortness of breath, that drove her to be tested last week, family members later told investigators in Will County, Illinois.

Before the results of the coronavirus test came back, police found Jesernik, 54, and 59-year-old Cheryl Schriefer lying in separate rooms, dead in what they called an apparent murder-suicide. A revolver with two spent casings and three live bullets lay near Jesernik's body, police said. They lived in Lockport Township, Illinois, a suburb about 35 miles southwest of Chicago.

Jesernik's parents had not heard from the couple for a few days when an acquaintance called the police to ask for a welfare check, the Will County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

When deputies knocked on the door of the couple's house no one answered. The doors and windows had been locked from the inside. The house was orderly and neat, with no sign of a struggle, the sheriff's office said.

Family members met deputies at the home and told them about Jesernik's coronavirus fears and Schriefer's symptoms. They told police the results of Schriefer's recent coronavirus test had not come back yet, the sheriff's office said.

On Friday, the Will County Coroner's Office determined Schriefer died in a homicide from a "shot in the back of the head at close range," the sheriff's office said. Jesernik died in a suicide, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to the autopsy. Neither tested positive for the coronavirus.

Will County, which includes Lockport Township and the surrounding town of Joliet, Illinois, has experienced a sharp increase in coronavirus cases and deaths in the past week. Over the weekend, the number of deaths nearly doubled from 13 on Saturday to 22 by Monday afternoon. The virus has infected a police officer, a sheriff's deputy and a nurse who works in the county jail, Patch.com reported. The county had 703 total cases on Monday afternoon.

The Will County Sheriff's Office said the pandemic had increased calls for domestic violence and mental health crises.

"During the current COVID-19 pandemic, the vast majority of service calls that Deputies have been responding to, involve domestic disputes and crisis intervention calls," the sheriff's office said in a statement Saturday.

The sheriff's office said the courthouse remains open for people seeking protective orders and asked victims of abuse to contact the agency's social worker who specialized in domestic violence or call the local domestic violence hotline.

Those messages have been echoed around the United States, as calls for domestic violence and mental health issues have increased in some areas with public spaces closed, forcing people into close quarters.

Some hotlines for people suffering from anxiety and depression have reportedly received more calls, particularly in areas where the coronavirus is spreading rapidly like Maryland and Portland, Oregon, but the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline did not report an increase last week. (The phone number is 1-800-273-8255.)

Meanwhile, mental health experts have offered advice for people feeling unmoored by the loss of routines and contact with friends and family. They suggest developing a new routine, getting enough sleep, eating healthfully, staying hydrated, regularly exercising and soaking in some fresh air and sunlight every day.

As the virus has spread worldwide, domestic violence incidents have also increased in many countries, as The Washington Post's Miriam Berger reported. The measures employed to tamp down the pandemic - staying inside and avoiding physical contact with people outside the home - also put abuse victims at a heightened risk, experts say.

Spikes in violence at home have led some foreign governments to suspend alcohol sales and set up resource centers in grocery stores, one of the few retail businesses still open in many nations.

In the United States, advocates are bracing for an increase in domestic violence incidents as quarantine and stay-at-home measures fall into place nationwide.

"We know that when there's added stress in the home it can increase the frequency and severity of abuse," Katie Ray-Jones, chief executive of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, said last week. "We're trying to prepare survivors for that."

Domestic violence was widespread in the United States, long before the pandemic forced some people indoors with abusive partners. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men have been victims of "severe physical violence by an intimate partner."

States issuing stay-at-home orders have made exceptions for victims of abuse and the police officers who need to respond to domestic violence calls.

"When cabin fever sets in, give it a week or two, people get tired of seeing each other and then you might have domestic violence," Alex Villanueva, the sheriff of Los Angeles County, told the Associated Press.
[April 07, 2020] Blackline Safety Partners With STANLEY Security to Enhance 24/7 Monitoring Across Europe

Blackline Safety (TSX.V: BLN), a global leader of gas detection and connected safety solutions, is pleased to announce it has partnered with STANLEY Security, a division of STANLEY Black & Decker (News - Alert) (NYSE: SWK), to provide 24/7 monitoring and emergency response management to Blackline customers in the United Kingdom and Europe. Beginning this month in the UK and throughout Europe by the end of 2020, Blackline's partnership with STANLEY Security will centralize Blackline's monitoring and emergency response functions to streamline and enhance customer service and quality even further. "Developing connected safety solutions for companies across the globe, Blackline Safety is a leader in employee safety monitoring in itself," said Richard Solly, Director of Monitoring Security - Europe for STANLEY Security. "We are honored to join them in their life-saving mission as an extension of their safety operations team. Our global presence and years of experience will only support Blackline's top-of-the-line safety technology and services." "When a safety incident happens, every second is critically important to saving a worker's life," said Inna Rabkin, Director of Global Safety Operations at Blackline Safety. "We are committed to ensuring our customers make it home safe at the end of every day, and we recognize that same commitment in STANLEY Security. We are proud to partner with an organization that shares our drive to maintain the highest level of safety monitoring and emergency response for our customers throughout Europe." As a division of STANLEY Black & Decker, STANLEY Security is part of one of the world's largest and most comprehensive providers of tools and security products with expansive personal safety and monitoring solutions. With more than 12,000 employees globally, STANLEY Black & Decker has the experience and resources to provide industry-leading monitoring services that protect workers all across the world. Blackline Safety Europe and STANLEY Security both hold BS 8484:2016 accreditation - a key differentiator for Blackline, the only manufacturer of gas detectors to achieve this standard. BS 8484:2016, set by the British Standards Institution (BSI), is the latest criteria for lone worker safety devices and services, requiring increased reporting and tighter emergency response time. This shared accreditation will reinforce the seamless transition of 24/7 monitoring services and ensure zero impact to services currently provided to Blackline customers. STANLEY Security has also established a continuous training prgram for its employees across Europe to remain current on Blackline's emergency response protocols, products and features.



Blackline will transition all safety monitoring services in the UK, Netherlands and Belgium to STANLEY Security this month. Blackline will continue to transition monitoring services in other countries in Europe throughout 2020. In total, STANLEY Security will provide monitoring and emergency response management to Blackline customers in 10 countries. STANLEY Security will additionally act as backup support for Blackline's Calgary-based Safety Operations Center, increasing protection of the company's North American customers. To learn more about Blackline's 24/7 live monitoring services, visit blacklinesafety.com/live-monitoring.

About STANLEY Security: STANLEY Security, a division of Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK), is a provider of integrated security solutions defining the future of the security industry. STANLEY delivers a comprehensive suite of security products, software and integrated systems with a strong emphasis on service. STANLEY is powered by a culture of continuous innovation, providing revolutionary technology and unmatched customer service to commercial, institutional and industrial businesses and organizations. We focus on complete customer transparency and operational excellence in the five customer touchpoints: account management, installation, service, monitoring and billing. STANLEY takes pride in our signature approach to doing business - offering global resources, with a local touch. As one of the world's largest and most comprehensive security providers, we're protecting what's important to you by designing, installing, servicing and monitoring an extensive array of products and solutions that span the entire security spectrum: Intrusion (News - Alert) Detection

Fire Alarms & Monitoring

Access Control Systems

Video Surveillance Systems

Systems Integration

Personal Safety and Security Response

Patient Safety Solutions

Standards Development & Strategic Planning

Software Support, Consultation and Integration

System Design, Installation, Service and Monitoring www.stanleysecurity.com, (855) 5-STANLEY About Blackline Safety: Blackline Safety is a global connected safety leader that helps to ensure every worker gets their job done and returns home safe each day. Blackline provides wearable safety technology, personal and area gas monitoring, cloud-connected software and data analytics to meet demanding safety challenges and increase productivity of organizations in more than 100 countries. Blackline Safety wearables provide a lifeline to tens of thousands of men and women, having reported over 100 billion data-points and initiated over five million emergency responses. Armed with cellular and satellite connectivity, we ensure that help is never too far away. For more information, visit BlacklineSafety.com and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005295/en/

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FLINT, MI  Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has appointed a Flint-based attorney to a judicial position in the Genesee County District Court.

Whitmer announced on Tuesday, April 7 the appointment of Jessica J. Hammon, a private practice attorney, to fill a partial term in district court after Mark W. Latchana was appointed in March to a judgeship in Genesee County Circuit Court.

Hammon practices family, child welfare and juvenile criminal law in Flint. She is also a managing partner with Attorneys for Indigent Defense, PLLC, a firm that provides defense for indigent mothers involved in the child welfare system.

Gov. Whitmer names Latchana Genesee Circuit Court judge

She previously served as president of the Genesee County Bar Association and a member of the Board of Directors.

I am grateful to the Governor for this opportunity, said Hammon. I have strived throughout my career to represent my clients and my community with the utmost respect for people and the law. This is a difficult time in our society, I am proud to be called to serve in this capacity.

She also volunteers her time as a mediator for the Community Resolution Center and as a trauma-informed yoga instructor with the non-profit organization, Youth Arts: Unlocked.

Hammon earned her bachelors degree from the University of Michigan-Flint with a back and a Juris Doctor degree from the Ave Maria School of Law.

The partial term ends Jan. 1, 2021.

Hammon will have to run in the November 2020 election if she wises to fill out the remainder of Latchanas term, which expires Jan. 1, 2023.
The Telangana police have booked the 10 Indonesian religious preachers and the groups five Indian facilitators, including three Karimnagar locals, for violation of visa rules, cheating and disobedience of official orders aiding in COVID-19 spread in the state.

According to the FIR, a copy with DH, the 10 Indonesians arrived in India on tourist visas on March 9 and attended the 'Markaz' at Nizamuddin. They then arrived in Karimnagar on 14 March travelling in the AP Sampark Kranti Express from New Delhi.

As of Tuesday night, Telangana has reported 404 COVID-19 cases, 18 of them from Karimnagar including the Indonesians.

The FIR was registered on Sunday, under IPC sections 420, 269, 270, 188 and Foreigners Act 1946, Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, Disaster Management Act 2005, based on the complaint of Indrasena Reddy, special branch inspector, Karimnagar police.

All 10 Indonesians, detected in the Telangana town on March 16, had tested positive and have now recovered, after undergoing treatment at the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad.

Five Karimnagar locals, including the two who moved closely with the group arranging their transport, accommodation etc., were also found with positive symptoms, police said.

The Indonesian cases jolted the official machinery which swung into action with lockdown, sanitization, and testing of thousands of people in Karimnagar town particularly the area around the Ahmediya Masjid where the group stayed for two days.

In the FIR, Tabligh Jamaat is stated as a religious organization that contradicted the Visa rules and violated the worldwide advisories to contain Coronavirus spread.

According to the complaint, A1 to A10 Indonesians who came to India on tourist visas violated the Foreigners Act and neglecting central, state governments Coronavirus rules and disease severity, have spread it in various places of Karimnagar town with the support of A-11 to A-15 and others.

We have registered the case and taken up investigation, Vijaya Kumar, inspector, Karimnagar I town told DH, refusing to reveal any further.
A conservative public policy think tank has called for coronavirus shutdown measures to end, despite top scientists saying the rules are not strict enough.

The Institute of Public Affairs released a video on Saturday asking the government to reopen bars, restaurants and churches to allow Australian life 'return to normal'.

'Our response to the coronavirus outbreak has decimated our society, ruined thousands of lives, turned Australia into a police state and, worst of all, put hundreds of thousands of Australians out of work,' policy director Gideon Rozner says in the footage.

'Do it safely with appropriate social distancing measures in place, but do it now, not in six months, not in one month. Now, because Australians were not meant to live like this, and we cannot allow this to go on any longer.'

The video has been slammed by thousands of people on social media who have called it 'careless' and 'dangerous propaganda'.

University of New South Wales scientists said relaxing the rules too soon could be disastrous for the country - leading to potential failure of the health system and a longer recovery time.

The Institute of Public Affairs has urged for the lockdown to be relaxed after the Australian economy was brought to a crashing halt when businesses were forced to close (Pictured: The Edinburgh Castle bar in Sydney)

The Institute of Public Affairs wants bars, restaurants and churches to reopen (Pictured: St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne)

'Are you a satirical performer of some kind? Or just a complete imbecile? Shut up, and stop endangering lives, you clown in a suit,' Hollywood actor Sam Neill wrote.

Poll Do you think the lockdown should be ended? Yes No Unsure Do you think the lockdown should be ended? Yes 56 votes

No 107 votes

Unsure 11 votes Now share your opinion





'That's not an argument. You're just saying you want things to go back to normal so they should. It's moronic,' writer Briony Kidd wrote.

'Did you guys run this one past any epidemiologists or public health experts first, or is it more of just a ''vibe'' thing?' wrote Australian journalist Tom Rabe.

The strict social distancing measures were introduced last month as a way to curb the spread of the disease as the infection rate began to rise, overwhelming hospitals and leaving healthcare workers scrambling for protective equipment.

The highly infectious respiratory virus is yet to peak in Australia with 5,895 people now infected and 45 people dead after contracting the illness.

The 'slow trickle' lockdown measures have been criticised by scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) who say the measures are not been strict enough.

The highly infectious respiratory virus is yet to peak in Australia with 5,895 people now infected and 45 people dead after contracting the illness

Sydney's Opera Bar was empty on March 21 after the government restrictions forced restaurants to end dining and offer takeaway only

Professor Raina MacIntyre, the head of Biosecurity at the University of New South Wales's Kirby Institute, wrote a paper together with three other scientists outlining the benefits of a short, sharp lockdown for Australia.

The scientists said Australia's gradual approach to locking down the country, adding new restrictions on a rolling basis, was not enough.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

'A silent epidemic may be growing, driven by mild or asymptomatic infections of people who did not meet our testing criteria,' the scientists wrote.

Travel bans have been the most successful element of Australia's approach, but the gradual increase of social distancing and the failure to shut schools meant it was not enough.

'It will leave us dealing with COVID-19 for much longer, with a slow trickle of new infections that keep feeding the epidemic,' they wrote on the UNSW website.

'What's needed is a short, sharp lockdown for two to three incubation periods (four to six weeks), combined with scaled up testing capacity and expanded testing criteria.'

'This strategy, similar to South Korea's approach, would reduce the size of the epidemic substantially, spare the health system and give us a more manageable baseline from which to best protect Australia until a vaccine is available.'

They also said the measures do not have to last six months to 12 months - but only four to six weeks.

'China has demonstrated the feasibility of a short lockdown followed by phased lifting of restrictions,' they said.

The video has been slammed by dozens of people on social media who have called it 'careless' and 'dangerous propaganda'

A short, sharp lockdown of four to six weeks would enable Australia to control the epidemic quickly and get the numbers to a controllable baseline.

After that, the economic recovery can begin with the gradual lifting of restrictions.

'The slow trickle approach, especially if schools remain open, may result in continued epidemic growth, potential failure of the health system, and a far longer road to recovery,' they wrote.

In Wuhan, China, where the spread of the virus was brought under control rapidly, the lockdown was so strict that roads were bulldozed and people were welded into their apartments, and sometimes dragged off to quarantine.

Drones ordered people to return home if they ventured out without a facemask.

The difference a more liberal approach to lockdowns makes can be seen playing out in real time in the Nordic countries where in Sweden it appears to have encouraged the spread of the virus and raised the mortality rate.

Sweden has left bars, restaurants and schools open while its culturally and geographically similar neighbours Denmark, Norway and Finland have been locked down with schools shut and movement severely restricted.

Policy director Gideon Rozner (pictured) said in the video the lockdown needs to end 'because Australians were not meant to live like this'

Coogee Beach was deserted Sunday as all the beaches were closed after people were caught disobeying coronavirus physical distancing rules

As a result, new research by Imperial College London has estimated the virus will spread the most rapidly in Sweden and infect the highest percentage of the population.

Genetic epidemiology professor Paul Franks, of Lund University, Sweden, said as of March 28, the reproductive rate of the coronavirus in Sweden - how many people each infected person can pass the virus to - was estimated at 2.45, more than double the 0.97 estimated for Norway.

'Although it is probably too soon to see a clear effect of interventions on mortality rates, by April 1, COVID-19 deaths in Sweden accounted for 24 per million citizens, whereas in Norway it was only eight deaths per million. Finland was lower still with just three per million,' Professor Franks wrote in The Conversation on Saturday.

The United States is now the country with the most coronavirus cases worldwide, with 311,178 cases as of Sunday and 8802 deaths, according to BNO News which has tracked the outbreak since early January.

The United States Centre for Disease Control has issued an urgent recommendation to all citizens to wear a non-surgical cloth face mask to reduce the spread of the virus, in addition to maintaining a physical distance from others of six feet.

The US Surgeon General has made a video (above) showing people how to make their own face mask which can help slow the virus transmission.
New Delhi: The police personnel deployed at Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's residence Matoshree and nearby areas in suburban Bandra have been sent to quarantine and will be tested for coronavirus infection after a tea vendor in the area tested positive of the disease. According to a report, all the police personnel deployed at the bungalow have been replaced as a precautionary measure. After the case was reported, civic officials sprayed disinfectants in the area on April 6-7.

"The policement may have consumed tea from the stall. We will screen them and other staffers who were deployed there," Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh told PTI.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) also sealed off the Kalanagar area in Mumbai's Bandra East after a tea stall owner tested positive and got admitted to Jogeshwari-based HBT hospital. The civic body has also put up posters informing the same near the government guest house.

Sources said that along with the tea seller, four more people residing in his building have been put into a quarantine facility by the authorities. However, it is still not know that how the vendor, who stays inside his tea shop, contracted the infection.

Earlier on Monday, the BMC declared the city's Wockhardt Hospital a containment zone after three doctors and 26 nurses tested positive for coronavirus within a span of one week.

Meanwhile, 150 fresh COVID-19 cases were reported from Maharashtra on Tuesday (April 7), taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 1018. In Mumbai alone, at least 116 cases were reported in the last 24 hours, acording to a health ministry data.

Take a look at the list of new coronavirus patients in the last 24 hours across the state :

Mumbai: 116

Pune: 18

Ahmedbagar: 3

Buldhana: 2

Thane: 2

Nagpur: 3

Satara: 1

Aurangabad: 3

Ratnagiri: 1

Sangali: 1
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Scott Morrison has told Australians to stay at home this Easter to save lives even though the country is 'flattening the curve' and the number of new coronavirus cases is decreasing every day.

'This Easter weekend will be incredibly important. Stay at home,' the Prime Minister said.

Government data presented today showed the number of new daily cases spiked at 460 on 28 March and has been decreasing since. On 6 April there were 104 new cases.

But Mr Morrison warned that people who flout social distancing rules could cause the rate of increase to pick up once more.

'Failure to stay at home this weekend would completely undo everything we have achieved so far together - and potentially worse,' he said.

One of the scientists who worked on new modelling released today suggested Australia has passed the peak of the infection rate but faces an 'explosive resurgence' if restrictions are relaxed.

Professor James McCaw of Melbourne University's Doherty Institute warned: 'We expect to see a further decline in cases... [but if we] went back to normal we would see a rapid and explosive resurgence in epidemic activity.'

Scott Morrison (right today at a press conference) has told Australians to stay at home this Easter to save lives

Data presented today shows how Australia's new coronavirus cases have been decreasing since 28 March

The Prime Minister (pictured today) warned that people who flout social distancing rules could cause the rate of increase to pick up once more

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media during a coronavirus press conference at Parliament House in Canberra on April 7

Today the government released the Institute's modelling based on international data, showing how restrictions reduce the spread of the virus.

If no action were taken, 89 per cent of Australians might catch the virus and only 15 per cent of people requiring ICU beds would get one, causing mass deaths.

That is a 'horrendous scenario' which is highly unlikely, Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said.

With social distancing measures and strict quarantine of the sick, the proportion of people infected is 12 per cent and only five per cent require some medical care, meaning the health system can cope.

On Tuesday, the nation experienced its most deadly day yet in the fight against coronavirus, as seven people succumbed to the disease by 5.30pm.

The death toll rose to 48 with the announcement that two people in their 70s - one an international traveller who arrived on the Arcadia cruise ship, and the other a local woman - had died in hospital overnight.

A 14th passenger from the ill-fated Ruby Princess cruise ship also died on Tuesday.

What does the coronavirus modelling show? If no measures are taken The theoretical modelling finds an uncontrolled COVID-19 pandemic scenario would overwhelm our health system for many weeks. 89 per cent of people would catch the virus, with 38 per cent requiring some medical care. ICUs would be stretched well beyond capacity for a prolonged period. Only 15 per cent of people requiring ICU beds would be able to access one, even with the expanded ICU capacity in the model. This graph shows three scenarios based on no restrictions (grey), quarantine (light blue) and social distancing (dark blue) With quarantine and isolation Quarantine and isolation would reduce the proportion of people who would catch the virus to 68 per cent, and those needing medical care to 29 per cent. Only an estimated 30 per cent of people requiring ICU beds would be able to access them. With social distancing restrictions If social distancing measures reduces transmission by 25 per cent, the proportion of people infected would be 38 per cent with 16 per cent requiring some medical care. Eighty per cent of people who need ICU beds could access them. With a 33 per cent reduction in transmission due to social distancing, the proportion of people infected is 12 per cent and only five per cent require some medical care. In that scenario, everyone who needs an ICU bed over the course of the pandemic could access one. The modelling finds our ICUs will cope if we continue to have effective social distancing, increase our health system capacity, and isolate people with the virus and their close contacts. This table shows the proportion of each age group who require hospitalisation if they are infected with the disease Advertisement

The Prime Minister said the country must 'hold the course' because it's too early to tell if restrictions are causing the number of cases to drop fast enough.

He revealed that Australia's less populated states will release social distancing restrictions before the more populous states which have more cases.

'The path out of this is to get back so some sort of normality,' he said.

In Western Australia, an additional 10 new cases were diagnosed overnight, bringing the total known infections to 470. Of the new cases, nine are in metro areas while one is regional.

Premier Mark McGowan said people can't be complacent, despite the overall infection rate lowering.

'This is a marathon, not a sprint,' Mr McGowan said.

'Even though the numbers in WA are promising  we have no reason whatsoever to get complacent now.'

No timeframe was given for when restrictions could be eased but Mr Morrison said his decision would take into account their economic impact and the capacity for the government to provide support.

He warned that the government's extraordinary policies such as the JobKeeper plan to pay six million workers' wages were 'finite' and could not last more than six months.

'That will revert, that cannot go on,' he said.

Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy shows how Australia's new cases have been decreasing since 27 March

A drive-through testing clinic in Bondi in operation on Tuesday 7 April

Medical personnel carry equipment to the Bondi Beach drive-through testing centre on Tuesday 7 April

Professor Murphy said future modelling would based on actual cases in Australia and could be released in 'weeks' to help the government to decide when to release restrictions.

'We are not in any way out of trouble at the moment but we are in a relatively strong position to keep the pressure on,' he said.

The Prime Minister also revealed the national cabinet has agreed a commercial tenancies code of practice which will be enforced by state and territory governments.

It stipulates that landlords must provide rent relief, in the form of waivers and deferrals, to tenants who are using the JobKeeper scheme.

The amount of the rent reduction must be proportional to the revenue lost by the tenant due to COVID-19. At least half of the reduction must be a waiver not a deferral.

It comes after Gladys Berejiklian this morning warned that social distancing is 'a way of life' until a coronavirus vaccine is found.

New South Wales recorded 49 new cases on Monday, down from 57 new cases on Sunday

The New South Wales Premier said that even when restrictions are eased, residents will have to stay 1.5 metres apart.

'The reality is that until we find a vaccine, we all have to live with this virus,' she said.

'And no matter what restrictions there are in the future, no matter what restrictions are potentially eased in the future, until a vaccine is found, social distancing is a way of life now. That is the new normal.'

New South Wales recorded 49 new cases on Monday, down from 57 new cases on Sunday.

There were 13 new cases in Queensland overnight, continuing the downward trend.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Health officials said the slowdown in the rate of new cases each day shows the restrictions on daily life and social distancing measures have successfully flattened the curve.

But they are cautious about the rate spiking again.

Officials are urging Australians to maintain social distancing measures despite the rate of coronavirus cases falling.

Deputy chief medical officer Michael Kidd says Australians can't let their guard down because community transmissions are occurring.

'I know it's really challenging for many people with the self-isolation that's occurring, with the restriction of activities, but we are doing this to help each other, help ourselves and save lives by stopping the spread,' he told Nine on Tuesday.

A scaled back parliament will meet on Wednesday to pass the government's $130 billion wage subsidy plan, which will see eligible employees receive a $1500 fortnightly payment.

Younger people in particular have been warned about being complacent, given that people aged in their 30s are among the worst-affected patients.

Scott Morrison also took the opportunity to wish British Prime Minister Boris Johnson a speedy recovery after he was admitted to intensive care after contracting the disease.

New South Wales Labor leader Jodi McKay has accused Premier Gladys Berejiklian of trying to 'cover up' the Ruby Princess debacle.

She said a police investigation was not enough and royal commission was needed to find out why 2,700 passengers were allowed off the ship without proper health checks on 19 March.

Since that day there have been over 600 coronavirus infections linked to the ship and 13 deaths.

'Not only is this one of the greatest public health failures in New South Wales, but it is unfortunately being followed by a cover-up,' Ms McKay said on Tuesday.

New South Wales Labor leader Jodi McKay (pictured) has accused Premier Gladys Berejiklian's government of trying to 'cover up' the Ruby Princess debacle

On Sunday, NSW Police announced it would investigate whether national bio-security laws and state laws were broken.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the investigation would centre on 'discrepancies' regarding information provided by Carnival about sick patients.

When questioned by reporters today, he did not rule out the possibility of manslaughter charges if evidence was found that ship staff hid or downplayed coronavirus infections or if the decision to allow passengers off was negligent.

A specialist team of officers was preparing to board the ship to seize documents and digital evidence on Tuesday.

Ms McKay welcomed the police probe but said the NSW government needs to launch a more thorough inquiry.

She said: 'How can the community trust that this will not happen again, unless there is a transparent, independent inquiry with the powers of a royal commission?

'My message today to the Premier is please stop the cover-up.'

Attorney-General Christian Porter on Monday backed the NSW Police investigation.

NSW Police Rescue officers watch as the Ruby Princess, with crew only onboard, docks at Port Kembla, Wollongong on Friday

'Of course, there's a whole range of offences, including civil fraud, that may have been possibly committed and that's what the investigation is about,' he told ABC Radio.

'If those offences can be substantiated by evidence then they would be very, very serious indeed.'

The Ruby Princess docked at Port Kembla near Wollongong south of Sydney on Monday morning with 1,040 crew on board.

Commissioner Fuller says this will make it easier for the 200 crew members showing coronavirus symptoms to get medical treatment.

'The reason we need to dock it is because of the regular supplies that need to go on the ship,' he told reporters on Monday.

'Taking sick crew off at sea is a complex and dangerous task.'

NSW Health recently boarded the Ruby Princess with the help of Aspen Medical to assess the health of the crew.

Aspen Medical executive chairman Glenn Keys said the crew don't need to leave the ship for treatment.

'In our view, they can be treated on board,' he told ABC Radio.

'The ship's been good in spreading the crew out to make sure there is enough room. They've got fresh air and the treatment they need.'

Ruby Princess owner Carnival Australia says the company is assisting the police investigation.

'In addition to willingly participating in the investigation, Carnival Australia will vigorously respond to any allegations of which there must now be full disclosure and the basis for them,' a spokesman said in a statement.
Patna: Lockdown has been implemented in the entire country to beat the epidemic of Coronavirus which is causing a lot of panic across the world. An appeal is being made to everyone to stay inside their homes and not go out on the streets. Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo and former CM of Bihar Lalu Prasad Yadav have suggested a formula to beat the coronavirus, which they shared on Twitter.

Here's how turkmenistan is still safe from coronavirus, not a single is reported yet

On Tuesday morning, Lalu Prasad Yadav tweeted with his official Twitter handle that he can comfortably beat the coronavirus, stay at home ... and relax '. It is worth mentioning that the cases of coronavirus are continuously coming up in Bihar too and if such a big leader like Lalu Prasad Yadav appeals to the people to stay in the houses and follow the lockdown, then it has a big impact.

Raj Thackeray may have to face trial due to this statement

Not only Lalu Prasad Yadav but also his two sons Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav are also active on social media and working on the coronavirus case. Tej Pratap Yadav is constantly active on social media, helping the Bihari labourers trapped outside Bihar and pleading with the government in the state where they are.

PM took action against Health Minister who violate lockdown
The Morgan County Health Department is recommending following state and federal guidelines to wear a cloth face covering in public settings in which social-distancing measures are difficult to maintain, such as grocery stores and pharmacies.

Use of a simple covering may be used to slow the spread of COVID-19 and prevent people who may have the virus and not know it from transmitting it to others.
This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic.

David C. Driskell, an artist, art historian and curator who was pivotal in bringing recognition to African-American art and its importance in the broader story of art in the United States and beyond, died on April 1 in a hospital near his home in Hyattsville, Md. He was 88.

The University of Maryland, where he held the title of distinguished university professor of art, said in a posting on its website that the cause was the coronavirus.

Professor Driskell was teaching at Fisk University in Nashville in the mid-1970s when he began putting together Two Centuries of Black American Art: 1750-1950, a landmark exhibition that was first mounted at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and that later traveled to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Brooklyn Museum.

It was a sweeping show featuring more than 200 works by 63 named artists as well as anonymous crafts workers. Some critics found it too scattershot  as an anthology, it needs serious editing, Grace Glueck wrote in The New York Times  but Professor Driskell maintained that that was by design.
Organisations across County Kilkenny who work on issues of human rights and equality are being invited to apply to the Human Rights and Equality Grant Scheme 2020.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission will award small grants of up to 6,000 and general grants of up to 20,000 to support activities in Ireland that promote access to justice for people who face the greatest barriers to accessing their rights.

Now in its fifth year, grants are open to civil society organisations, rights-holder and community led groups, and trade unions from across the country, who can bring forward proposals on empowering people to understand and claim their rights. This includes people at risk of discrimination protected under the nine grounds of Irelands equality legislation: gender, civil status, family status, age, sexual orientation, disability, race, religion, and membership of the Traveller community and people at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

One Kilkenny organisation, Kilkenny Traveller Community Movement, is among those previously awarded funding for work focused on human rights and equality. Since 2016, under its grant scheme, the Commission has supported over 100 human rights and equality projects across Ireland.

The strict deadline for receipt of applications is Monday, April 27 at 4pm and full details of the grant scheme are available on the Commissions website.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission is committed to support people who face the greatest barriers in access to justice across our community," says Professor Caroline Fennell, Acting Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.

Civil society, community and voluntary organisations across Kilkenny working to empower people to claim their rights are encouraged to review the grants criteria and to apply."
STOCKHOLM, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Melita, the provider of nationwide fibre-powered gigabit internet in Malta and provider of the country's largest Wi-Fi hotspot network, has deployed Aptilo Service Management Platform (SMP) to enable current and future Wi-Fi services.

Melita is migrating their existing nationwide Wi-Fi hotspots and their community Wi-Fi network with over 30,000 homespots, to Aptilo SMP.

Melita, enabled by Aptilo SMP, is also the provider behind the Malta Communication Authority's (MCA) free Wi-Fi service, TechMT Wifi, which is available at popular outdoor locations such as parks and playgrounds. Tourists and the general public are asked to provide their age, gender and nationality before being granted access to the internet.

"We are proud to have been selected by Melita which has successfully provided Wi-Fi services to its customers across Malta for many years," said Aleksandar Mitov, Director of Sales Europe, Aptilo Networks. "We look forward to helping this experienced customer grow their Wi-Fi services in Malta, both in volume and functionality."

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African governments want $100bn in assistance, support for a moratorium on all external debt and some debt write-offs.

China must do more to help ease the debt burden of African countries facing economic calamity due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ghanas finance minister has said.

Africa accounts for just a fraction of global cases of the disease, but its countries are already feeling the impact, with the continents economies expected to contract, putting about 20 million jobs at risk.

My feeling is that China has to come on stronger, Ken Ofori-Atta said during a conversation on Monday with Masood Ahmed, president of the Washington-based Center for Global Development (CGD), that was posted on the think tanks website.

African debt to China is $145bn or so, over $8bn of payments is required this year  So that needs to be looked at.

African governments are calling for $100bn in assistance, including support for a moratorium on all external debt and eventually, some debt write-offs.

Experts say any effort to pause debt servicing or extend more comprehensive debt relief to developing countries will struggle without China taking on a key role in the process.

China on Tuesday said that it recognised that developing countries faced a greater challenge, but it did not mention any specific debt-relief measures that it would implement.

Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China would communicate with the relevant countries through diplomatic channels.

For countries who face debt difficulties, China will never force them, but will resolve it through consultation via bilateral channels, he said at a daily press briefing.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank are mobilising resources to support economies reeling from the pandemic. But they are also calling for wealthy nations to suspend payments on bilateral debt owed by poor countries.

For official bilateral creditors including China, which is the largest creditor to many of these countries, this is the quickest and most effective way to do their share, the CGDs Ahmed told Reuters separately on Tuesday.

Ofori-Atta currently chairs the Development Committee, a ministerial-level forum that advises the World Bank and the IMF on development issues. The two United States-based multilaterals will hold virtual annual spring meetings later this month.

Ofori-Atta said African countries were also seeking ways to increase their special drawing rights (SDR), foreign exchange reserves managed by the IMF, to shield against commercial debt defaults.

This should not happen, he said. So we should find a way to increase SDRs or for the Europeans to offer their SDRs as a way out.
Mr. Bennett also proposed that all those celebrating step out onto their balconies or into their yards at 8:30 p.m. precisely and sing The Four Questions, a popular part of the liturgy, as one people, out loud. The first line of the song  Why is this night different from all other nights?  is likely to resonate and set off many a debate around the table this year.

For those less concerned with the strictures of Jewish law on technology, an Israeli television channel will broadcast a live, star-studded Great Israeli Seder featuring popular celebrities, journalists and politicians.

The religious questions arising from Zooming this years Seder gatherings set off a fiery, Talmudic-like debate among Israels rabbis, who had to weigh whether the psychological distress caused by family separation and loneliness justified the use of screens and devices based on the principle of allowing exceptions to religious law to save a life.

A group of venerable rabbis of Moroccan descent presented a nuanced ruling in favor of allowing video chat for this year only, provided that the session starts before the official onset of the holiday at sunset, with no further clicking after that.

Some of the younger generation would be unlikely to participate in a Seder without their grandparents, they argued, and for the elderly and those living alone, a Zoomed Seder could alleviate sadness and depression and augment the will to live.
The Perspective

Atlanta, Georgia

April 6, 2020



L-R: LACC Chairman Ndubusi Nwabudike and President George Weah

I am not a lawyer. Neither do I claim to be a legal scholar nor a paralegal. I am an activist and an emerging economist. But if I were the Minister of Justice (Attorney General), I would have been prosecuting A. Ndubusi Nkwuka Nwabudike on these charges or criminal offenses by now.



Ndubusi has committed some grave crimes. These are indictable offenses under the laws of Liberia. Why isnt an indictment being drawn by now? The credibility of MOJ, Supreme Court, OSG, LNBA, LNP, LIS, LACC, The Senate, and The Presidency will ruin further if Ndubusi Nwabudike is left alone to go with impunity.



Perhaps those in authority have forgotten THE LAW. Let me remind them about what THE LAW says and requires if a hardcore criminal like Ndubusi commits grave crimes against Liberia and Liberians. In my opinion and in the context of legal applicability and/or judicial authenticity, these are charges that should be drawn against Ndubusi Nwabudike:

Perjury  Section 12.30 of Subchapter B; Falsification  Section 12.31 of Subchapter B; Forgery  Section 15.70 of Subchapter E; Fraud  Section 15.50(a) of Subchapter E; Criminal Malevolence  Section 11.14 of Chapter 11.

What does our Law say about these criminal offenses (Ref. Penal Law, Liberian Codes Revised Volume IV, Title 26. Approved July 19, 1976, and Published April 3, 1978):

1. Perjury  Section 12.30 of Subchapter B:

A person has committed perjury, a third-degree felony, if, in an official proceeding, he makes a false statement under oath or equivalent affirmation, or swears or affirms the truth of a false statement previously made, when the statement is material and he does not believe it to be true.

Argument or legal Note #1: Defendant Ndubusi lied under oath at the Supreme Court, the Liberian Senate, and the Liberia National Bar Association about being a naturalized citizen of Liberia.

2. Falsification  Section 12:30 of Subchapter B:

A person has committed a first-degree misdemeanor if in an official proceeding, he makes a false statement, whether or not material, under oath or equivalent affirmation, or swears or affirms the truth of such a statement previously made if he does not believe the statement to be true.

Argument or Legal Note #2: Defendant Ndubusis credentials/documents, including his academic transcript and official passport, are a reflection of falsification. Both documents have different dates of birth. The defendants also made some false statements and presented conflicting testimonies relative to his controversial and fake claim of being a naturalized Liberian.

3. Forgery  Section 15.70 of Subchapter E:

A person has committed forgery or counterfeiting, if, to deceive or harm the government or another person, or with the knowledge that he is facilitating such deception or harm by another person, he (a) Knowingly and falsely makes, completes or alters any writing or subject; or (b) Knowingly utters a forged or counterfeited writing or object. Forgery is a second-degree felony in Ndubusi's case.

Argument and Legal Note #3: Defendant Ndubusi forged his Certificate of Citizenship that he claimed to have gotten since 1982 under the leadership of a Military Junta. There are proofs that he also forged other relevant documents. E.g. Ndubusi has 3 different dates of birth on his Certificate of Citizenship, National ID Card, and Academic Transcript from UL. His name on these documents is spelled differently.

4. Fraud  Section 15.50(a) of Subchapter E:

A person is guilty of a first-degree felony if he knowingly conspires or colludes to defraud the Government of Liberia;

Argument and Legal Note #4: Defendant Ndubusi is guilty for fraud because he willfully lied at almost every public or private institution of being a Liberian. As a result, he fraudulently enjoyed the privileges and immunities of a Liberian citizen at these institutions. He was even preferred to serve based on the fact that he was a "Liberian citizen". For instance, he paid lesser fees at the University of Liberia as a Liberian student, and not a foreign student.

5. Criminal Malevolence  Section 11.14 of Chapter 11:

A person has committed a first-degree misdemeanor if he accuses any executive authority, judicial authority, member of the Legislature or any other public authority either by word-of-mouth, writing or by public broadcast, of conduct which constitutes the commission of a crime; provided that at the time of such accusation.

Argument and Legal Note #5: Defendant Ndubusi lied that Senator Varney Sherman of Grand Cape Mount County gave him a letter of recommendation to seek admission at the University of Liberia. He lied that he has worked with Sherman before. He also linked Chief Justice Francis Korkpoh to his letter of recommendation. It was this letter of recommendation from the Chief Justice that Ndubusi used to defraud our system for decades.

If I were the Justice Minister, these are five (5) criminal charges I was going to indict Ndubusi Nwabudike on these charges. Can Justice Minister Musa Dean give me the statutory permission to draw an indictment against Ndubusi Nwabudike?

Penalties for committing these grave criminal offenses according to Section 50.5 and Section 50.7:

Third-degree felony  a definite term of imprisonment to be fixed by the court, the maximum of which shall be three years; First-degree misdemeanor  a definite term of imprisonment to be fixed by the court at no more than one year; Second-degree felony  a definite term of imprisonment to be fixed by the court, the maximum of which shall be five years; First-degree felony  a definite term of imprisonment to be fixed by the court, the maximum of which shall be ten years.

Why isn't Ndubusi arrested, charged, prosecuted, and jailed by now? Why is he even still serving as Chairman of LACC? Those who aided and abetted this con artist of a lawyer in the commission of these grave crimes should also be made to account. The President and the Chief Justice are tied to this controversy as leading enablers of these crimes.

Those who aided and abetted Ndubusi are equally guilty of violating Section 12.5 of the Penal Law.

Section 12.5 of Subchapter A: Aiding consummation of crime: A person is guilty of aiding consummation of a crime if he purposely aids another to secrete, disguise, or convert the proceeds of a crime or otherwise profit from a crime.

Recommendation: There is an urgent need for electoral, judicial, and legislative reform in Liberia. Our systems are WEAK and very vulnerable.

Fellow Liberians, please stay home to stay safe against COVID-19. Watch out and Wise up. Stay alive and protect your families through Prevention and Precaution.



About The Author: Martin K N. Kollie is an exiled Liberian activist, columnist, and emerging economist. He can be reached via martinkerkula1989@yahoo.com






A Brazilian minister has suggested that the coronavirus pandemic is part of Chinas plan for world domination, in a tweet that allegedly mocks Chinese accents.

Abraham Weintraub, Brazils education minister, caused outrage on Sunday by implying that China, where the virus was first identified, stood to gain from it.

In an apparent attempt to ridicule Chinese accents, he substituted the letter r with the capital L. For example, he wrote BLazil instead of Brazil.

He subsequently deleted the message.

The Chinese embassy in Brazil responded by calling Mr Weintraubs post stigmatizing and strongly racist in manner.

In a statement published on Monday, the embassy said: "We demand that some Brazilian individuals immediately correct the errors they have committed and stop with unfounded accusations against China.

Yang Wanming, the Chinese ambassador to Brazil, later said that he was still waiting for an official declaration from the Brazilian government.

This comes less than a month after the Brazilian presidents son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, sparked a diplomatic spat with China by saying the country was to blame for the coronavirus.

He compared Beijings handling of the coronavirus crisis to the former Soviet Unions response to the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl.

President Jair Bolsonaro spoke to president Xi of China on the phone soon after diplomatic relations soured because of his son's comments.

Speaking of the rise in diplomatic tensions between the countries, Mauricio Santoro, an international relations professor at Rio de Janeiros state university, said: "It is becoming quite serious now, because it is escalating."

"It was bad enough with the president's son saying these things. Now it's a minister, someone who is part of the government. It's much more complicated, he added.

Brazil relies heavily on exporting goods such as soy, iron and crude oil to China.

In the first quarter of 2020, it exported $14 billion of goods to China - amounting to 29 per cent of its total global output.
A group of tourists disembark a boat for an adventure with WinK Travels./Courtesy of William Cho



By Hallie Bradley



Travel in the time of COVID-19 isn't on most peoples' minds. But it is for tour operators, who are changing the way they do things to adapt to a new way of traveling.



With fewer people opting to get out and about and the government suggesting against non-essential travel, companies like When in Korea (WinK) Travels are looking to change with the times so that people can safely enjoy travel again. William Cho, owner of WinK Travels, explained that they "are currently having to cancel the trips but believe with proper care, people can enjoy a trip without spreading the cases."



Cho, originally an electronic engineer by training, lost his job in 2008 during the financial crisis in the U.S. and decided to make a career shift into tourism. His first trip was a tour to southeastern city of Gyeongju during the spring where travelers could ride bikes leisurely beneath the cherry blossoms. Though the trip didn't make much money, it was a huge success and he's been taking tourists around the country ever since.



"We go places that we know are worth going," he explained. "There are so many festivals not worth going to. People trust us to go places that are worth visiting." Cho spends time and effort to narrow down the best spots to see in Korea, so travelers with limited time and resources don't have to.



To adapt to what might be a new way of tourism, Cho is promoting tours with new rules. Tourists must wear masks especially while on the bus. Sanitizers and antiviral wipes are at the entrance of the bus and everyone will be urged to use them throughout the trip when entering and departing the bus. Reminders to respect social distancing will also be given throughout the day. "Sign-ups are low so many trips are being canceled, but we also believe the businesses need customers [in order to] to stay open so we think we can play a part there," Cho explained.





A group of tourists enjoy smores on a fire. / Courtesy of William Cho
With radio being an essential service in SA, Jacaranda FM's programme manager Hennie Myburgh and marketing manager Leith Smith shed light on how the station has approached the Covid-19 lockdown.

Jacaranda FM's Hennie Myburgh (programme manager) and Leith Smith (marketing manager)

Are your presenters still going in to the studio? If not, how do we hear them on-air?

How did you decide on who should work remotely and who should be based in the studio?

How do news reports work during this time, with a limited amount of reporters in the field?

How does this impact advertising? From the content that gets advertised to the process of getting the ad on-air?

Does the role of non-traditional radio platforms (web, social media, etc.) change during this time?

How does a lockdown impact other station activities?

How do you approach meetings?

What measures do you put in place to keep those at the office, and people who have to visit during this time, safe?

What, in a nutshell, is your stations message or commitment to its listeners at this time?

Some presenters will broadcast live from the studio, whilst others are broadcasting remotely. Our commitment to our listeners remains that all their favourite presenters will still be on-air and that well use all the best technology at our disposal to ensure that our audience and clients receive an uninterrupted product.Radio is 24/7 and there would ordinarily already be a lot of remote work, so most of the station is able to work remotely. Remote meetings and project software enable us to keep the business running smoothly.The news team will continue to operate as usual and will continue to deliver a class-leading news service at this critical time. Resources are carefully managed to ensure safety and balance within the team.Operations are not affected during this time and we are still able to easily record, produce and place adverts on-air. We are also in constant discussions with our clients to offer them solutions tailored to their specific needs.Due to the size of our non-traditional platforms, all of them already enjoy a large amount of focus within Jacaranda FM. We continue to provide entertaining content and pertinent, trusted information to a loyal audience across all channels available to us.Although the lockdown prevents Jacaranda FM from doing any on-the-ground activities like Myschool Rocks, Workzone Takeover, as well as Straatbraai, this affords us the time to look at our digital platforms and engage with our audiences in innovative and highly impactful ways.Meetings are all done remotely on platforms such as Zoom, Skype, Hangouts, etc. We also use messaging platforms extensively to ensure that communication is clear and consistent.Our employees well-being is paramount, and we have ensured that everyone is equipped to work remotely. Within the building, there are many health and safety measures to ensure the safety of all concerned. We also offer an employee wellness program that employees and their families can access at any time.Our commitment is that Jacaranda FM will continue to provide market-leading content on all of its platforms. It will continue to entertain and inform and will be with you throughout this critical period. We are all going through what our listeners across South Africa and further afield are going through, and we understand the importance of having your finger constantly on the pulse, remaining calm and abiding by the rules. Therefore, we will ensure that we are available to assist and share experiences in a relevant, entertaining and informative manner.Stay tuned to Jacaranda FM, listen via the Jacaranda FM app  available for IOS and Android, DStv Channel 158 or tune in via the website
Perch, a Boston, MA-based technology-driven commerce company, closed an $8m funding round.

The round was led by Spark Capital with participation from Tectonic Ventures.

The company will use the funds to acquire category-leading products, build out its core team, and further invest in technology and infrastructure.

Chris Bell, CEO, Perch is a technology-driven commerce company that acquires and operates top Amazon FBA (fulfillment by Amazon) businesses with winning products in their respective categories.

Third-party Amazon FBA products make up more than 60% of all Amazon online sales, but many of the most successful entrepreneurs are looking for liquidity or dont have the resources to take their products to the next level. The company taps into this market opportunity and, through a combination of technology, operational efficiencies, and business relationships, helps these sellers to become global winners.

Perch has already acquired a number of top performers across multiple categories, including Flathead Products (silicone straws), Beachr (sand anchor for beach umbrellas), Bodymate (hip brace for Sciatica), and Aulett Home (cooking products), among others.

FinSMEs

07/04/2020
TUESDAY PUZZLE  How are you all doing? I hope you are healthy, safe and finding ways to relax, or at least feel productive while we are staying home. So far, I have cleared out two closets, cleaned my house from top to bottom and am knitting my heart out. Ive also been cooking a lot, as there is nothing like chopping vegetables into itty bitty pieces to help relieve stress. Occasionally, I think about working out, and then I laugh and consume another in a series of snacks.

Trent Evans is back and he offers us a smooth and Tuesday-easy puzzle. In addition, he is a Ph.D and clinical psychologist, and has some words of wisdom in his notes that I thought were very generous and heartfelt.

Keep on solving and hang in there with our crossword community. As Mr. Evans says, were all in this together.
Portarlington teenager Thomas Weight has wanted to do a skydive for quite some time now.

He was researching it online to see where he could do it as he wanted to do it for his birthday.

He came across skydive for life while searching the internet.

He decided to do it for charity, if he was going to do it anyway it may as well be for a good cause.

He chose Youth Suicide prevention Ireland as there is a lot of suicide and mental illness among our young and he believes we have lost too many to suicide in our own community.

Thomas's uncle Karl passed through suicide when he was 18 yrs old so he believed it would also be a good thing to do in his memory.

He will do his sky dive as soon as possible when Clonbullogue airfield is back open for business. His fundraiser is still open to sponsorship.



https://skydive.yspi.ie/thomas

Or Text YSPI SFL5480 to 50300
Sri Reddy, who is known for accusing many Tollywood biggies of harassing many aspiring actresses, has recently bashed Tamil director AR Murugadoss on social media.

In the latest Facebook post, Sri Reddy called AR Murugadoss 'uncle' and accused him of stealing movie stories. She wrote, "Murugadas uncle like to steal women v*gina and thief of movie stories. These are movie legends. sorry on tamil Industry."(sic)

Earlier in July 2018, Sri Reddy had attacked the filmmaker by stating, "Hi Tamil director AR murugadas ji. How are You? U remember green park hotel?? You promised me a role. But We had lot of , till now you didn't offer me anything."

Well, these sensational comments made by Sri Reddy has indeed sparked a controversy in the South film industry. After all, AR Murugadoss is not the first victim of Sri Reddy's attack. A few days ago, the controversial actress had slammed top actresses of Telugu film industry, Samantha Akkineni and Trisha Krishnan.

Also Read : Sri Reddy Targets Samantha Akkineni & Trisha Krishnan, Says She Has Bigger 'Assets' Than Them

In a Facebook post, Sri Reddy had stated, "Samantha lemons,trisha grapes are nothing infront of me.." (sic) Well, Sri Reddy's below the belt comments on Samantha and Trisha's body parts have angered their fans.

After all, Sri Reddy is known for fighting for women's right and against casting couch in the film industry. However, on the other hand, her comments on female actors are questioning her work. Apart from Telugu actresses, Sri Reddy also accused celebrities like Nani, Raghava Lawrence, Sundar C, Kona Venkat and others of s*xually exploiting and ruining her filmi career.
New Delhi, April 7 : Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has demanded an "inquiry" by a retired or sitting Supreme Court Judge into the Markaz issue which is at the centre of controversy for holding such a large congregation in the heart of Delhi despite prohibitory orders.

Addressing a Press Conference via video conferencing, Gehlot said, "A sitting or retired judge of the Supreme Court should conduct an inquiry so that the truth should come out as to who was at fault." He said that the issue should not be communalised, as every Indian is united in the fight against the deadily disease.

Slamming the government Gehlot said, Rahul Gandhi raised the issue on February 12 and if government had stopped the people from coming to India or screened them properly at the airports, the Virus would not have spread so much.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, who was linked from Delhi via video conferencing, said, "those who are culprit in the issue should be brought to book." But there are questions that should be answered - "why the National security advisor Ajit Doval went to the markaz at 2 a.m. in the night and talked with the Maulana and he should tell what transpired between them." asked Surjewala.

He urged the government to take urgent action against visa violators, who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin, while he said that Maulana is absconding and the security agencies are not able to trace him.

The Delhi Police has served a second notice to Mohammad Saad, Tablighi Jamaat chief, on Monday and sought additional information and documents from him pertaining to congregation of Tablighi Jamaat.

A case has been registered against him and six other members of the Tablighi Jamaat for organising a congregation because of COVID-19 in India. The Crime Branch of Delhi Police is probing the matter and Deputy Commissioner of Police Joy Tirkey is supervising it.

Maulana Saad has been served notice under section 91 (summons to produce document or other things) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The police have sought only information from him. The investigators have stated that they do not want Saad to join the probe as of now.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains in good spirits as he is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance, his spokesperson has said.

His spokesperson told journalists at a briefing on Tuesday in London that the condition of the prime minister was stable.

The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits; he has not required mechanical ventilation, or non-invasive respiratory support, the spokesman said.

Mr Johnsons personal battle with the virus has shaken the government just as the UK, now in its third week of virtual lockdown, enters what scientists say will be the most deadly phase of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Johnson, 55, was admitted to St Thomas Hospital across the River Thames from parliament late on Sunday after suffering persistent coronavirus symptoms, including a high temperature and a cough, for more than 10 days.

However, his condition rapidly deteriorated over the next 24 hours, and he was moved on Monday to an intensive care unit, where the most serious cases are treated, in case he needed to be put on a ventilator. He was still conscious, his office said.

But the absence of Mr Johnson, the first leader of a major power to be hospitalised after testing positive for the novel coronavirus, has raised questions about who is truly in charge of the worlds fifth largest economy at such a crucial time.

While Britain has no formal succession plan should a prime minister become incapacitated, Mr Johnson asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, 46, to deputise for him where necessary, Downing Street said.

At the moment, Mr Raab is presiding over cabinet meetings and also overseeing the nations fight against the coronavirus, while Mr Johnson is fighting for his own life.

Mr Johnson, however, is still in charge of the government and is issuing directions when needed, according to a cabinet statement.

If Mr Raab is incapacitated, finance minister Rishi Sunak would take on those responsibilities.

Queen Elizabeth wished Mr Johnson a full and speedy recovery and sent a message of support to his pregnant fiancee, Carrie Symonds, and his family. Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, wished Johnson a speedy recovery.

World leaders have expressed their support for the British PM, wishing him a speedy recovery, with U.S. President Donald Trump even saying he has asked American pharma companies to help British medics in Mr Johnsons treatment.

In the meantime, the UK has reported over 51,000 cases of COVID-19, and the death toll in the country has reached 5,373.

(Reuter/NAN)
(Newser)  Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have officially jumped into North American life, and they've got a brand-new venture in the works to boot. The New York Post reports that plans are underway for the semi-royal couple to launch Archewell, a nonprofit that will effectively take the place of the Sussex Royal brand they were forced to abandon. The Telegraph first reported on the foundation, which, per paperwork filed in the US in March, will serve as the parent under which a well-being website, a volunteering program, and a multimedia educational empire will all fall. They tell the paper they decided to start the organization because they wanted "to do something of meaning, to do something that matters."

story continues below

Harry and Meghan explain that the name "Archewell" stems from the Greek word "arche," meaning "source of action." "We connected to this concept for the charitable organization we hoped to build one day," they say in a statement explaining how they came up with the moniker, adding that the underlying idea was also the inspiration for the name of their son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. The Guardian notes that a new Instagram handle and other branding collateral have all been delayed for the time being, as the couple wants to join the rest of the world in concentrating on the coronavirus pandemic. They tell the Telegraph they'll offer further details "when the time is right." Forbes, meanwhile, wonders if Archewell will be enough for Harry in his new LA life or whether he "needs something more concrete." (Read more Prince Harry stories.)
A Texas home becomes a murder scene as the husband kills the wife by shooting her dead, while their young children were in the house. A family is shattered forever, leaving the children without parents and unknowing witnesses in their mother's murder.

When the authorities were conducting a welfare check at a Harris County, Texas home, the children were at home and thought their mom was resting in the bedroom. Unbeknownst to them, their mother way laying lifeless upstairs after her husband took her life with a gun.

The murder was perpetrated by Jason Armster, 37, who lived with his wife Charlene, 36, and their three children aged 4, 7, and 11. During the welfare inspection, the three children had no idea of the terrible crime that their father committed.

'I murdered my wife'

Jason did the unthinkable and just walked in the police station located at Baytown, and turned himself in for the cold-hearted murder of his wife. During his confession, he said that he shot and killed his wife, according to police reports.

Soon after his arrest, his children brought the officers to the scene of the crime, where the wife was laying cold and lifeless. These grim details were revealed on Twitter by the Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.

Also read: Wife Accidentally Kills Husband in Utah But Further Investigation Reveals a Different Story

Law enforcement officers then checked if what Jason said was true, and in their investigation, they found the cause of death. A gunshot at point-blank to the back of her skull, according to the Houston Chronicle.

After killing his wife, Armster did not have the heart to tell his children about what he did. All the while, their children did not even know their mother was dead and they thought she was just sleeping.

Husband suspects secret affair

When the investigators asked him about the murder and about the details how it happened, Armster revealed the struggles in their marriage. According to the disgruntled husband, he thought that his wife was having a secret affair behind his back.

Jason told investigators that he covered his wife with blankets to keep the children from discovering that she was already dead.

As of now, there is still no verification if Jason's allegations were true. Authorities need to do more digging on this piece of information to find out the husband's true motive in killing his wife.

Armster was charged with tampering with the evidence and a murder charge, also tampering the evidence and online criminal records, which set the bond at $120,000 for his crimes.

Domestic violence on the rise during quarantine

Authorities revealed to Houston News station KTRK-TV, that there is an increase in domestic violence reports during the past few weeks. An increase of 6% in domestic violence reports was recorded between last two weeks and the previous month. Meanwhile, neighboring Montgomery County also saw a 35% rise in domestic violence cases.

According to authorities, this might be linked with the 'stay at home' order. The stress of social isolation is unravelling some individual, that sometimes lead to violence.

Related article: Woman Who Shot, Slashed Boyfriend's Face from Ear to Ear, Given life Sentence After Years of Trial

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Turkmen District Further Restricts Daily ATM Cash Withdrawals, Card Payments

By RFE/RL's Turkmen Service April 06, 2020

DARGANATA, Turkmenistan -- Authorities in Turkmenistan's eastern Darganata district have further limited daily ATM cash withdrawals for individuals, another sign the Central Asian energy-rich nation may be cash-strapped.

An RFE/RL correspondent reported on April 6 from the district capital, Darganata, that over the weekend local automated tellers started giving clients a maximum of 100 manats per day, which is less than $30 by the official rate, and less than $5 on the black market, the main place where citizens can buy foreign currency

That is the lowest amount allowed to be withdrawn from ATMs in Turkmenistan per day since the authorities started introducing such limits since early 2018.

In February 2018, the daily limit for cash withdrawals per person was set as 1,000 manats. In November 2019, the amount was decreased to 800 manats. Last month, some ATMs started allowing people to withdraw 200 manats per day.

An RFE/RL correspondent also reported from Darganata that the daily limit for noncash transactions through bank cards in the district was set at 80 manats.

Turkmenistan's central bank established an official rate of 3.5 manats per dollar in 2015, and has not changed it since. Meanwhile, the rate on the black market is more than five times higher. Since January 2016, all currency exchange in cash has been banned.

Last week, the central bank ordered banks to pay salaries of employees of foreign companies, organizations, and entities operating in the country, only in Turkmenistan's national currency.

In March, Turkmenistan tightened controls over foreign currency in the country after China, the main buyer of its natural gas, slashed imports and global energy prices plunged.

Turkmenistan's tightly controlled economy has been struggling for months, with government revenues depleted in part to unsuccessful energy deals and low global prices for natural gas, the Central Asian country's main export.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/turkmen- district-further-restricts-daily-atm-cash- withdrawals-card-payments/30535309.html

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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The federal government has encouraged health centers to delay nonessential surgeries while weighing the severity of patients' conditions and the availability of personal protective equipment, beds and staffing at hospitals.

People with cancer are among those at high risk of complications if infected with the new coronavirus. Its estimated 1.8 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. this year. More than 600,000 people are receiving chemotherapy.

That means millions of Americans may be navigating unforeseen challenges to getting care.

Christine Rayburn in Olympia, Washington, was diagnosed with breast cancer in mid-February. The new coronavirus was in the news, but the 48-year-old did not imagine the outbreak would affect her. Her doctor said Rayburn needed to start treatment immediately. The cancer had already spread to her lymph nodes.

The cancer tumor seemed to have attached itself to a nerve, said Rayburn, who was a schoolteacher for many years. I feel pain from it on a regular basis."

After getting her diagnosis and the treatment plan from her medical team, Rayburn was focused on getting surgery as fast as possible.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus outbreak was getting worse, and Seattle, just an hour north of where Rayburn lives, had become a national focal point.

Rayburns husband, David Forsberg, began to get a little nervous about whether his wifes procedure would go forward as planned.

It did cross my mind, he said. But I did not want to bother with that possibility on top of everything else.

Two days before Rayburns lumpectomy to remove the tumor, Forsberg said, the surgeon phoned, pretty livid with bad news. She said, Look, theyve canceled it indefinitely,' Forsberg remembered.

The procedure had been scheduled at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, a facility run by Providence Health & Services. Across Washington, hospitals were calling off elective surgeries, in order to conserve the limited supply of personal protective equipment, or PPE, and to prevent patients and staffers from unnecessary exposure to the new coronavirus.

It just felt like one of those really bad movies, and I was being sacrificed, Rayburn said.

It was like we just got cut off from the experts we were relying on, her husband said.

The hospital said it would review the decision in a few weeks. But Rayburns surgeon said that was too long to wait, and they needed to move to Plan B, which was to begin chemotherapy.

Originally, chemotherapy was supposed to happen after Rayburns tumor surgery. And rearranging the treatment plan wasnt ideal because chemotherapy isnt shown to significantly shrink tumors in Rayburns type of breast cancer.

Still, chemotherapy could help stop the cancer from spreading further. But as the couple figured out the new treatment plan, they ran into more obstacles.

She needed an echocardiogram, except they had canceled all echocardiograms, said Forsberg.

They spent days on the phone trying to get all the pieces in place so she could start chemotherapy. Rayburn also started writing to her local lawmakers about her predicament.

Hospitals prioritize urgent cases

In mid-March, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee banned most elective procedures, but he did carve out exceptions for certain urgent, life-threatening situations.

It actually said that it [the ban] excluded removing cancerous tumors, Rayburn said.

Providence hospitals use algorithms and a team of physicians to figure out which surgeries can be delayed, said Elaine Couture, chief executive of Providence Health in the Washington-Montana region.

There are no perfect decisions at all in any of this, said Couture. None.

Couture would not talk about specific patients but said she assumes other cases were more urgent than Rayburns.

Were there other patients that even had more aggressive types of cancer that were [surgically] completed? Couture said. As sick as you are, there can be other people that are needing something even sooner than you do.

Couture said hospitals are burning through supplies of masks, gowns and gloves and need to make tough calls about elective procedures.

I dont like that, either, and its not the way that we want our health care system to work, Couture said.

Across the Providence hospital system, personal protective equipment is being used much faster than it can be replenished, she said.

No single standard

At the American Cancer Society, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Len Lichtenfeld is hearing from patients across the country who are having their chemotherapy delayed or surgery canceled.

There was someone who had a brain tumor who was told they would not be able to have surgery, which was, basically, and appears to be a death sentence for that patient, said Lichtenfeld.

This is uncharted territory for cancer care, he said. Hospitals are making these decisions on the fly in response to how the pandemic looks in a particular community. There is no single national standard that can be applied. I am afraid this is going to become much more common in the coming weeks.

The cancer society recommends that people postpone their routine cancer screenings  for now.

The American College of Surgeons has published guidance on how to triage surgical care for cancer patients. But Lichtenfeld said every decision ultimately depends on the availability of resources at the hospital and the pressures of COVID-19. In Washington state, which has been hit hard, hospitals are shifting surgical space and beds away from other kinds of treatment.

We need to forecast two to three weeks down the line when there are more patients that are ill, said Dr. Steven Pergam, medical director of infection prevention at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. We need to make sure theres adequate bed capacity.

Pergam said the care alliance is adjusting treatment plans and, at times, avoiding procedures that would keep cancer patients in the hospital for a prolonged period.

It really depends on the cancer and the aggressive nature of it, he said. We have looked at giving chemotherapy in the outpatient department and changing the particular regimens people get to make them less toxic.

But Pergam said they expect to keep doing urgent surgeries for cancer patients, even as the pandemic grows worse.

Christine Rayburn in Olympia was steeling herself for the months of chemotherapy to come: staying inside her home and even avoiding contact with her adult daughters, to avoid any possible exposure to the coronavirus.

Then, two weeks ago, the surgeon called again. She had persuaded the hospital to allow the surgery after all, 10 days later than initially planned.

Rayburn and her husband wonder what would have happened if they hadnt spoken up or pushed to get her lumpectomy back on the hospitals surgical schedule. Forsberg said its possible they could have ended up without the care Rayburn needed.

If we didnt say anything, in my mind that may be where we would be at, he said. But in our minds, that was not an option.

This story is part of a partnership between NPR and Kaiser Health News.
During multiple test calls in North America, we observed keys for encrypting and decrypting meetings transmitted to servers in Beijing, China, Bill Marczak and John Scott-Railton, two researchers with Citizen Lab, wrote in their report.

Zoom claim that their app uses AES-256 encryption for meetings where possible, but the university researchers found that in each Zoom meeting, a single AES-128 key is used in Electronic Code Book (ECB) mode by all participants to encrypt and decrypt audio and video. ECB mode is not recommended by security experts since patterns in the plaintext are preserved when encrypted, making it easier for malicious actors that have the corresponding keys to decrypt the data.

Citizen Lab also noted that these AES-128 keys, which can be used to easily decrypt Zoom data packets, appear to be generated  and in some cases, even delivered to Zoom users  through servers in China. The researchers suggested that the keys are being sent to China because Zoom has subsidiary offices in the country.

A scan shows a total of five servers in China and 68 in the United States that apparently run the same Zoom server software as the Beijing server, the report said.

The researchers warned that Zooms China offices are under the jurisdiction of the Chinese government, which can compel local companies to hand over information such as the encryption keys.

News of Zooms questionable encryption comes as the number of Zoom-bombing incidents increases  a growing concern as more people rely on teleconferencing as they work from home amid the COVID-19 pandemic. PC Mag reported that the teleconference platforms lack of security has prompted even the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to issue a warning to the public about the vulnerability.
A 72-year-old man from Odishas Jharpada, who died in AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, on Monday, became the states first coronavirus disease victim after his swab samples tested positive on Tuesday.

The man, who had a history of chronic hypertension, was admitted to All India Institute Of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar on April 4 after he complained about respiratory distress.

He tested positive for Covid-19 later.

Health officials said contact tracing and containment has been started.

Authorities in Odisha have ramped up Covid-19 screenings and declared several areas as containment zones after nearly 70 people came back to the state from the Tablighi Jamaats events in Delhis Nizamuddin, which has emerged as a hotspot for the coronavirus disease.

Officials in Odisha have said 68 people, including African nationals, had gone to the Tablighi Jamaats Delhi headquarters from the state and 28 came back.

Out of the 28 three, including a postman who had attended the religious congregation and returned home, have tested positive for the virus.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has also asked officials to ramp the testing process by setting up Covid-19 testing centres at MKCG Hospital, Berhampur and VIMSAR Hospitals, Burla.

Odisha would increase its sample testing capacity from 300 samples per day at present to 1000 samples in the next five days.

There are nearly 30 Covid-19 patients in the eastern state.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday disposed of a petition filed by Congress MP Rajmohan Unnithan seeking directions to open the Karnataka-Kerala border to allow movement of ambulances and transport of essential items to Kerala.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde disposed of the plea after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a joint meeting between Home secretary UoI, Kerala and Karnataka chief secretaries was held.

An agreement was reached and protocol for the passage for urgent medical treatment at the interstate border at Palapadi, Mehta said.

Earlier, Kerala High Court had asked the Central government to intervene in the matter and ensure that the blockades erected are removed to facilitate the free movement of vehicles carrying persons for urgent medical treatment across the border.

The Congress MP had last week approached the apex court seeking directions to the Karnataka government to open its border with Kerala to allow movement of ambulances and other emergency vehicles for the transport of essential items to Kerala.

Unnithan, who is an MP From Kerala's Kasaragod constituency, filed a plea seeking direction to Karnataka to open the borders with Kerala and in particular Kasargod-Mangalore border at Talappadi.

The petition sought to stay the blockade imposed by Karnataka with its border states.

The plea also sought directions to Karnataka to register an FIR and constitute a special investigation team (SIT) under the supervision of this court to enquire against the concerned authorities including the police officials whose action led to the death of two citizens.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Ramada Hotel in Belfast city centre which will act as a Community Step Down Centre alongside hospitals in Northern Ireland

A hotel in Belfast is being transformed so it can care for up to 150 recovering coronavirus patients.

The Ramada by Wyndham hotel in Talbot Street in the city centre will be used as a "step down" hospital facility for patients, who could arrive as soon as tomorrow. .

Patients recovering from Covid-19 will be discharged from hospital and moved there as part of plans to deal with an upsurge in expected number of people diagnosed in the coming days.

Northern Ireland is already in the predicted 'surge' period, which is expected to last until around April 20.

The move - a partnership between the Belfast Trust and the private provider Healthcare Ireland - aims to alleviate the strain on hospitals. It will be open for the next three months, although it may continue in the role if circumstances demand.

"As patients become medically fit, they'll need to leave hospital quickly in order to offer other patients to be admitted," Natalie Magee from the Belfast Trust told the BBC.

"So having this facility will allow us to bring patients out of hospital but where they still need care, we will provide that care and that rehabilitation."

Signs reading: 'Healthcare Ireland joint partnership with Belfast Trust - Community Step Down Centre' were seen at the entrance to the 165 bed hotel as workers wearing face masks brought in beds and furniture through doors normally reserved for tourists.

Inside, corridors were lined with hygienic plastic sheeting as work on the transformation continues.

Stormont will be paying for the costs of the lease and staff, with a commercial arrangement in place. Healthcare Ireland chief executive Gilbert Yates told BBC Newsline the focus was reliving pressures on hospitals.

"As a care home operator, we're suffering greatly throughout Covid-19. Our relatives, our families and our staff as well, so we're trying to help where we can," he said.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday that the COVID-19 deaths in the state hit a new one-day peak, with 731 people dead in the largest single-day increase in fatalities since the coronavirus crisis engulfed the state, the epicentre of the pandemic in the United States.

IMAGE: Healthcare workers wheel a person outside of the Elmhurst Hospital center as the outbreak of coronavirus disease continues in the neighborhood of Queens in New York, US. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

'The bad news is 5,489 New Yorkers have lost their lives to this virus. That is up from 4,758, the largest single day increase. That's 731 people who we lost. Behind every one of those numbers is an individual, is a family, is a mother, is a father," Cuomo said.

The state has a total of 138,836 coronavirus cases and as of Tuesday 5,489 people have died, up by 731 from Monday morning.

Cuomo said the number of newly hospitalized patients is also up from Monday. In what he described as "good news", Cuomo said daily ICU admissions and daily intubations numbers are down.

And right now we're projecting that we are reaching a plateau in the total number of hospitalizations and you can see the growth is starting to flatten. Again this is a projection. It still depends on what we do and what we do will affect those numbers. This is not an act of God that we're looking at. It's an act of what society actually does, he said in his daily media briefing.

The governor said he is coordinating with governors of New Jersey and Connecticut on plans to restart the economy and daily life.

We're not there yet. But this is not a light switch that we can just flick one day, and everything goes back to normal. We're going to have to restart that economy, we're going to have to restart a lot of systems that we shut down abruptly. And we need to start to plan for that, he said.

He said that he has spoken to New Jersey governor Phil Murphy and Connecticut governor Ned Lamont about coming up with a regional metropolitan tri-state approach to restart the economy and get everything up and running as quickly as possible.

Cuomo's grim announcement on the increase in COVID-19 deaths came after the state witnessed an effectively flat death toll for two days and saw drop in number of hospitalizations and ICU admissions, which the Governor has said could be good signs of a possible flattening of the coronavirus curve in the state.

On Monday, Cuomo had offered a slight glimmer of hope when he said the death toll in the state has been effectively flat for two days.

In the 24 hours since April 4, the death toll grew to all-time increase of 630. But on both Sunday and Monday, fewer than 600 deaths from the virus were reported in New York - 594 on Sunday, 599 on Monday.

In New York City, the number of cases had reached 68,766 and the death toll was 2,738.

Cuomo has said while the death toll is not good news, the possible flattening of the curve is better than the increases that we have seen.

His aide Jim Malatras had said based on the earliest projections, it was estimated that the pandemic peak in the state would come at the end of April and would require around 110,000 beds just for COVID19 patients.

Cuomo earlier announced the state is increasing the maximum fine for violations of the state's social distancing protocol from USD 500 to USD 1,000 to help address the lack of adherence to social distancing protocols.
It is very understandable that, in the heart of a pandemic, peoples first concern is for their family and friends. And one of the really heart-warming things about the British response is the way in which the public has embraced the NHS family in all its diversity.

Abroad, by contrast, is somewhere to escape from; to look to for illustrations of the horrors to come (Italy); to search for examples of good practice to follow (Germany and South Korea); and to seek reassurance from, that there are countries even less prepared than us (the US). The coronavirus outbreak, more than any other crisis in my lifetime, has brought two contrasting emotions to the surface: a feeling that we are all in it together, everywhere  a sense of shared humanity  alongside the protective need to look after our own.

Centuries ago, a moral philosopher posed the question: how do we weigh the relative claims on our concerns about an infected little finger in a friend or relative against millions dying in a catastrophe on the other side of the world? His point was that the finger wins, overwhelmingly.

We have, more recently, become sensitised through TV and travel to needs elsewhere. This has manifested itself in generosity channelled through development charities and, by comparative standards, a very creditable official overseas aid budget. But the relative weight (and funding) given to domestic concerns will be clear to see as coronavirus spreads in developing countries.

So far the virus has mainly hit the west, and the once poor but now well-organised and prosperous countries of east Asia, Japan and Singapore are now richer than the UK; Korea is close behind, and China is catching up fast. Yet the impact on the worlds poorest countries and peoples in Africa and south Asia, and on others in Latin America and the Middle East, will be even more devastating.

They are highly vulnerable to the spread of infection. High densities in urban settlements and refugee camps preclude social distancing, and the absence of clean running water makes hand-washing routines meaningless. Health services are already overwhelmed by poverty-related illness, mainly bacteriological, and are skeletal in rural areas. The supply of doctors is depleted, since talented people leave. There are also large groups with weakened immune systems, such as the 10 per cent of the population living with HIV across the nine countries of southern Africa. The chance of public hospitals in poor countries providing properly equipped ICU facilities to cope with the expected flood of critically ill patients is close to zero.

Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Show all 20 1 /20 Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Top: Nabi Younes market, Mosul Bottom: Charles Bridge, Prague Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Grand Mosque, Mecca Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Sagrada Familia, Barcelona Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Nabi Younes market, Mosul Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Basra Grand Mosque, Iraq Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Charles Bridge, Prague Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Taj Mahal hotel, India Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Dubai Mall, UAE Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Beirut March, Lebanon Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Gateway of India, Mumbai Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Cairo University, Egypt Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Amman Citadel, Jordan Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Beirut March, Lebanon Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Cairo, Egypt Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Cairo University, Egypt Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Victoria Memorial, India Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Amman Citadel, Jordan Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Amman Citadel, Jordan Reuters Before and after photos show impact of coronavirus around the world Sidon, Lebanon Reuters

There are some mitigating factors. There are relatively few frail elderly and, though there have been tragic exceptions, we are told that children are largely immune. Some countries faced with even more deadly epidemics such as Ebola have  with help  been impressively resilient. Outbreaks of cholera and typhoid are usually contained. Commentators in Africa wryly note the benefit of having leaders who will no longer be able to fly to Europe or the US for health treatment, so may get first-hand experience of squalid hospitals back home.

The poorest countries will need to consider whether a cut-and-paste response based on Europe, the US and China makes sense where they are. The idea that the economy should be shut down for a while to ease pressure on the health services may be a bad trade-off where the economy is already very fragile and health services already overwhelmed by more lethal diseases. Donald Trumps warning, that the cure may be worse than the disease, may be self-serving nonsense in his own country, but could actually be sensible advice elsewhere.

While many building sites continue working in London, there are scenes from India of millions of migrant construction workers  and others who have no formal employment  left destitute in the absence of a system of welfare payments. As they flee to the villages, they spread the disease. Lagos and Kinshasa will be far worse.

In any event the rural economy cant be quarantined. It depends on fixed climatic cycles and has to keep going to avert hunger. For some poor countries, paradoxically, it may make more sense to apply the permissive Swedish model, keeping their economies going where possible. So far, however, none have challenged the orthodoxy.

Even on the more optimistic scenarios there will be massive loss of life, dwarfing that of the rich world. We should care both for humanitarian and self-interested reasons. Unless and until the virus is controlled, through near-universal immunity, it could well bounce back. Travel will eventually be restored, even if only partially, with reinfection emerging. We could also be faced with floods of desperate refugees heading for the Mediterranean on a scale which dwarfs 2016.

We should remember too that the extreme financial hardship in poor countries coming down the track will have its origin in unilateral order cancellations from wealthier countries. Hundreds of thousands of horticultural workers in east Africa; similar numbers in the Bangladesh garment industry; millions in tourism in many countries will be jobless and incomeless without a furlough scheme or universal credit to fall back on.

There are five critical points of action the developed world needs to take to support developing countries and their populations:

1. The International Monetary Fund has raised its game but there is an urgent need for international agreement from its main shareholders to free up more and suspend conditions. With the collapse of exports, remittances drying up; investors taking flight; falling currencies and defaults looming on dollar debt, 80 countries are already looking for emergency financing.

2. Britain has been one of the biggest and best aid donors for the last two decades. The aid programme is needed more than ever because the charitable sector is crippled, so the budget needs boosting temporarily beyond 0.7 per cent of GDP as GDP itself shrinks.

3. Governments should recognise that it is better to channel emergency aid to support public health programmes through multilateral bodies like the World Bank working with the World Health Organisation. A Trump appointee heads the bank, which may help.

4. With many countries now caught in a debt trap with official and commercial debt, full relief is needed now. There is no time to negotiate rescheduling of burdens which were unsustainable in the first place

5. If the post-war gains in growth and poverty reduction through trade are not to be reversed, a rescue effort must be mounted to save the trading system from its looming reversion to 1930s trade warfare and protectionism.

Action starts with an acknowledgement that there is no salvation in one country. Shared problems require shared solutions, not the beggar my neighbour uncoordinated chaos we have seen so far between nations and within them.

The sooner the western world gets on top of the virus through the belated and painful, but necessary, measures we are experiencing, the easier it will be to focus attention on those most in need, but currently at the bottom of the political pile.

Sir Vince Cable is a former leader of the Liberal Democrats
India has been a significant partner of the US in the pharmaceutical sector and expects similar cooperation to continue between the two economies, a senior official has said as America has urged New Delhi to allow the sale of Hydroxychloroquine tablets to treat its rising COVID-19 patients.

"India has long been a significant partner of the US in the pharmaceutical sector. We expect this kind of cooperation to continue, and as India analyses what it needs for its domestic market and as we seek to grow the volume of drugs and PPE that are available both in the United States and also globally to respond to COVID, Alice G Wells, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, told reporters here on Monday.

Well's comments came as President Donald Trump has sought help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the sale of Hydroxychloroquine tablets ordered by the US to treat the growing number of coronavirus patients in his country, hours after India banned the export of the anti-malarial drug.

Trump said he spoke to Prime Minister Modi on Saturday morning and made a request to release Hydroxychloroquine - an old and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria - for the US.

India, so far, has not made any official decision in this regard.

However, here in the US, the Trump administration has already created a national strategic stockpile of 29 million doses of the malaria drug, anticipating that its test results on more than 1,500 COVID-19 patients in New York is yielding positive results.

On pharmaceuticals and supply chain, I think you received a very strong sort of affirmation in the call between the prime minister and the president of the fact that the US and India need to work together to respond to the COVID challenge, to be a solution to the threat posed by the virus, Wells said.

"India has long been a significant partner of the US and the pharmaceutical sector. It's one of our top imports from India in 2018. India is obviously one of the world's leaders in the supply of generic drugs. It represents a significant portion of the precursor pharmaceuticals that supply the US market, the top american diplomat said.

More than 10,000 people have died of coronavirus complications in the United States since the outbreak began in late January, Johns Hopkins University has said.

The Baltimore-based school, which has been keeping a running tally of global coronavirus numbers, on Monday said there are at least 347,003 confirmed infections in the US with 10,335 deaths.

Scientists have begun testing Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as candidates for potential COVID-19 treatments and the Food and Drugs Administration last week issued an Emergency Use Authorization for the prescription of the drugs in certain circumstances.

In addition to New York, COVID-19 patients in several states are being treated with Hydroxychloroquine. This includes Michigan and Texas as well.

Describing this as a great malaria drug, Trump told reporters on Sunday that it has worked unbelievably.

It's this powerful drug on malaria. There are signs that it works on this. Some very strong signs. And, in the meantime, it's been around a long time. It also works very powerfully on lupus, he said.

Meanwhile, Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), urging the agency to address reports of shortages of Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, antimalarial drugs typically used to treat lupus, malaria, and rheumatoid arthritis.

"President Trump's unproven claims about the drug have fuelled an increased demand for them, leaving physicians and patients that already rely on them to grapple with shortages of these essential medications," Warren said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Every time COVID -19 cases show up in a particular locality, people in the community have a similar response, at least in terms of their calls and emails to The Free LanceStar.

Theyre panicked. They want to know where the person lives, works and shops in case they passed them in the grocery store. They wonder what they should do and where they can be testedand are shocked to find out that test kits indeed are in short supply in the Fredericksburg community and throughout the nation.

The pattern started March 9, when the Rappahannock Area Health District reported its first casea Spotsylvania County man who has since recoveredand has continued as case numbers have risen in each of the five localities in the local health district.

The latest is Caroline County, which had two cases as of Monday, and questions were circulating after an employee in the Department of Social Services tested positive for COVID-19. People worried about how many people had been exposed, who would be tested for the virus and what measures the county was taking.

County Administrator Charles Culley Jr. ordered the offices closed for cleaning, which probably will keep the building shuttered all week, he said.
New White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has made his first big decision, sending Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham back to the East Wing. His next decision, however, could determine the path of his tenure working for a mercurial president.

Ms Grisham's appointment was more about loyalty than fit.

She became close to the First Lady Melania Trump while serving as her communications director and press secretary. When Sarah Huckabee Sanders departed as Mr Trump's ever-loyal top spokeswoman after a turbulent tenure during which press relations soured to new lows, the president had a decision to make.

He could have looked outside his circle and brought in a communications professional, likely with high-level government experience, to deal with reporters. Or he could have looked inside his ever-shrinking inner circle of political bomb-throwers for someone he felt he could trust  even if those on what was a very short list lacked the background and policy knowledge to quickly get up to speed pushing his message.

He chose the former. But Ms Grisham admittedly lacked the level of knowledge about policy and how it's made in Washington that even Ms Sanders and Sean Spicer developed. Whether she ever did was a mystery.

That's because she never held a formal press briefing and her television appearances were mostly on Fox News, a mostly Trump-cheering network that allowed her to sound more like a presidential campaign surrogate than a White House press secretary. She never grew into the full job description, and it does not appear Mr Trump pushed her to do so.

"In many ways, the relatively low profile of the departing White House press secretary is a reminder that President Trump really is his own chief communicator," said Michael Steel, a former press secretary for then-House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican. "And he seems to like it that way, so it's unlikely it will change."

'Reality television'

Enter Mr Meadows.

The conservative former North Carolina House member was brought on recently to replace another former conservative House member from the Carolinas: Mick Mulvaney from neighboring South Carolina.

Like Ms Grisham, Mr Mulvaney had a rocky tenure. Unlike Ms Grisham, the former acting chief of staff never fully earned the president's trust.

Rebuilding the press office and communications shop will give Mr Meadows a chance to get off on the right foot with the fickle Mr Trump. But like Mr Mulvaney, Mr Trump's two other chiefs of staff, Reince Priebus and John Kelly, were unable to put together messaging organizations or strategies that pleased the boss.

That's because, "this president is used to the show with him being the showman, and that show used to be reality television," said Martha Kumar of the Presidential Transition Project, who studies presidential relations with the press. "Any press person coming into the White House needs to be aware of that."

As Mr Trump reportedly has okayed Kayleigh McEnany, who has been a top spokeswoman for his re-election campaign, taking over as press secretary, Ms Kumar offered some advice to her and Mr Meadows.

"President Trump's view is that he wants a White House staff where there is some measure of chaos," she said. "Where others see chaos, Trump sees energy."

Alyssa Farah, a senior Defence Department spokeswoman and former press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence, is poised to become the next White House strategic communications director. And Hope Hicks, who once was communications director, has returned in another role -- but has been involved in messaging.

One Republican source who worked on Capitol Hill noted "it's not unusual on Capitol Hill for a new chief of staff to prefer a press secretary that he or she knows is loyal." That's what Mr Meadows knows, bringing some logic to the shake up.

'His own press secretary'

But Ms Farah and Ms McEnany should beware.

"It looks like there will be three people running press and messaging," Ms Kumar said. "But there really are four because the president really sees himself as his own press secretary and communications director."

"We saw that with Stephanie Grisham," Ms Kumar added. "Where she was like other press secretaries was she did just what the boss asked  it's just that this president wanted different things."

Though Ms Grisham interacted with plenty of reporters daily, including during her coronavirus self-quarantine period, she was not a big presence around the West Wing.

In some ways, the image of her legacy won't be a picture of her during a particularly historic or combative press briefings  but the blue nameplate with the white letters on her often-closed West Wing office door.

"That reflected her in-person meetings with reporters, or the lack of them. In-person contacts with reporters is just not something she did," Ms Kumar said. "Her relationships were on the phone and over email. That tends not to serve a press secretary well because you need an image of personal contact in a group setting. Press secretaries are often measured by the briefings they held.

"That gives them a chance to show their area of policy expertise," she said. "Stephanie never did that, so there was a major question about just what her role was inside the administration. Showing that expertise gives a press secretary a measure of respect among the press corps, especially when that person knows more than the reporters."
(Natural News) Though Taiwan and mainland China appear to be completely independent and separate countries, they are in fact deadlocked in a battle that has been silently raging since the end of World War II.

In a nutshell, mainland China (the Peoples Republic of China, or PRC) claims that Taiwan (the Republic of China, or ROC) is not independent but part of the PRC, while Taiwan views the PRC as an illegal state occupying mainland China.

This has created a political nightmare when it comes to the management of the coronavirus epidemic in Taiwan, with officials there accusing the World Health Organization of shilling for the communist Chinese regime and refusing to share details of Taiwans number of cases, prevention methods or anything else related to the way in which it has handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

And then Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser to the WHO, appeared to hang up on a journalist from Hong Kongs RTHK, after she posed a question about Taiwans handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Aylward then refused to answer any further questions when the journalist was reconnected, stating that they had already talked about China.

Now the WHO has been forced to issue a statement to cover up the embarrassing incident, but the impression that the WHO is a fervent supporter of communist China will linger in the minds of many. (Related: The WHO is nothing but a globalist front for communism, which is why its protecting China from coronavirus responsibility.)

The Taiwan/China debacle

The website GuideToTaipei.com explains the complicated history of China and Taiwan:

During the aftermath of World War II, infighting on the Chinese mainland resumed, with the Republic of China government (established in 1912 as the successor to the Qing Dynasty) relocating to Taiwan, and the group led by Mao Zedong (???) creating the Peoples Republic of China. To this day, the PRC has control over mainland China, while the ROC has control over Taiwan island, the Penghu archipelago, and minor islands Kinmen and Matsu, while each government claims sovereignty over the whole of China. 

As each government claims there is only one China (known as the 1992 Consensus), pressure has been put on the international community to choose whether the PRC or ROC is the sole representative of the Chinese nation. At present, the large majority of the world has official diplomatic relations with Beijing while still retaining economic and cultural ties with Taipei.

At present only 18 countries recognize Taiwans independence. (Related: World Health Organization faces NEW calls to sack leader Tedros for caving to the Chinese commies in downplaying coronavirus outbreak.)

That interview

As explained by the U.K.s Guardian, the interview between RTHKs reporter Yvonne Tong, and the WHOs Dr. Bruce Aylward, was conducted via video link and centered around international responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular how Taiwan has responded, since they have recorded a very low rate of infection and a low number of deaths.

When Tong asked Aylward whether the organization would reconsider allowing Taiwan WHO membership, Aylward didnt respond for a few seconds, and then said he could not hear the question. When Tong offered to repeat it, he replied, No, thats okay. Lets move to another one then. When Tong pressed the matter, Aylward appeared to simply hang up on her.

After RTHK reconnected the call, Tong once again asked for Aylwards comment on how Taiwan has done so far in containing the virus.

Aylwards response? Well, weve already talked about China, he said. And when you look across all the different areas of China, theyve actually all done quite a good job. With that Id like to thank you very much for inviting us to participate, he added, ending the conversation.

After the interview, Taiwans foreign minister, Joseph Wu, sent out a message on Twitter expressing his outrage  a message that was viewed by millions. Under pressure, embarrassed WHO officials put out a statement, noting that WHO membership is decided by WHO member states, not by staff, and that lessons can be learned from the way in which Taiwan has managed to contain its number of COVID-19 patients.

Stay informed, stay alive. Bookmark Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

ZeroHedge.com

TheGuardian.com

GuideToTaipei.com
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham listens during a signing of a safe third country agreement in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on July 26, 2019. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Grisham Steps Down as White House Press Secretary, Returns to First Ladys Office

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is stepping down from her role and will rejoin First Lady Melania Trumps office as chief of staff and spokeswoman, according to a statement from the first ladys office.

I am excited to welcome Stephanie back to the team in this new role, the first lady said in a statement on April 7. She has been a mainstay and true leader in the Administration from even before day one, and I know she will excel as Chief of Staff. I appreciate all that Lindsay Reynolds did over the past three years, and wish her well in her future endeavors.

Grisham, who took the job as press secretary about a year ago, said shes honored to work for the first lady.

A replacement for Grisham, who followed Sarah Huckabee Sanders in the role, hasnt yet been named. Grisham notably didnt host a traditional press briefing at any point during her tenure and had a lower profile than Sanders and her predecessor, Sean Spicer.

I continue to be honored to serve both the President and First Lady in the Administration, said Grisham. My replacements will be announced in the coming days and I will stay in the West Wing to help with a smooth transition for as long as needed.

Grisham has worked with President Donald Trump since his 2016 campaign and followed him to the White House, becoming a deputy press secretary under Spicer.

The first ladys office said her spokeswoman, Lindsay Reynolds, had resigned earlier in the week to spend more time with her family.

The move comes as Mark Meadows took over as Trumps new chief of staff. He replaced Mick Mulvaney, who served in the role for more than a year.

Last month, Grisham self-quarantined at her home after she came into contact with a Brazilian official who tested positive for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. She later reportedly tested negative for the virus, which causes the disease COVID-19.

Trump recently spoke about his administrations efforts on messaging during the CCP virus pandemic.

Weve done a poor job on press relationships, and I guess, I dont know who to blame for that, Trump said. Maybe I can blame ourselves for that. I will blame ourselves. But I think weve done a great job. I think weve done a poor job in terms of press relationship.

Trump campaign spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany will replace Grisham.
Adriel and Monae Alvarado fell in love while they were both in prison in Pennsylvania.

Trans woman Monae, had already started to take hormone replacements before being incarcerated but she hadnt yet had surgery.

At the time of her sentencing, it was policy to incarcerate pre-surgery transgender people based on their gender at birth. Adriel had been working in the laundry room when he first noticed Monae, 29.

The pair locked eyes and instantly felt a connection.



It didnt take long for the two to start dating officially, meeting in the library, gym or for movie nights to be together. In the early days of their relationship, it wasnt just finding ways to meet up that was a struggle, they also faced hostility from fellow inmates and prison staff alike.

In spite of the opposition the couple faced from both sides of the prison bars, they took their relationship to the next level, with Adriel proposing to Monae.

Although they had hoped to marry while they were both still inmates, ultimately they had to wait until Monae was released.

And now Adriel is also out and the couple is now doing everything they couldnt do when they were in prison.

In spite of the opposition they faced, the couple believe meeting in prison is the reason they have been able to overcome so much.

Adriel explained to Truly: I think being inside was the foundation that made our relationship. I saw Monae at her lowest, Monae saw me at my lowest. I saw her at her happiest, shes seen me at my happiest. Monae added: We had that unique bond in prison, so I guess what makes us stronger.

Adriel added: We wanted to get married as inmates in the prison but there was no policy in place to marry two inmates at the time. Once Monae got out, she was able to go directly to the courthouse to get the right paperwork and the couple were finally able to get married while Adriel served the remainder of his sentence. It also gave Monae the time to have top and bottom surgery ahead of their wedding day.

Monaes mother and godfather were the only family that attended, and after exchanging vows and taking pictures, the couple had to say goodbye again. Adriel said: I got my hair braided, I got my state browns pressed with starch and all that. It was in the visiting room. Nobody was there, it was just me, Monae, Monaes mother, Monaes godfather, a couple of councilors, union manager and the lady that officiated the wedding and the reverend. Monae also braided her hair and wore a white dress that she bought online.

She said: It was a happy and sad day, but mainly sad because obviously you want to spend time together. We expected when we got married that wed be together, but we had to leave each other.

When Adriel got out, the couple found themselves in the unique position of being a married couple who hadnt even done the simplest of things together.

Monae said: Our memories were in prison and we never were able to make memories out here. Now its about to happen its like its going to be like the first time for everything for us, its like starting new again.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
A student from Cranfield University in the UK has created a dashboard giving information on the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria. Nnenna Nkata, 27, is from Abia State in Nigeria and is studying for an MSc in Geographical Information Management. The dashboard formed part of the work for one of her course modules and she decided to create something for her country which is now in public use.

Creating data tools that serve humanity

The dashboard shows the extent and development of COVID-19 in Nigeria localised to state level and, as an online tool, it automatically updates with the latest information.

It took Nnenna a week to create the dashboard, integrating information from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. She says, "Data is power, and my motivation is to create useful tools with technology that can serve humanity. I could see that people in Nigeria were not aware of the spread of Coronavirus and took the opportunity to do this dashboard so they can access up to date information about their state."

Inspired to study information technology

Nnenna was inspired to pursue a career in information technology after taking a job as a computer hardware technician after High School. She went on to study Information Technology at Accra Institute of Technology and then worked for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency before joining USAID SENSE project as a Senior Information Technology Assistant all in collaboration with American University of Nigeria. Nnenna won a Commonweath Shared Scholarship place to study at Cranfield University and is still based at the campus.

"My work in the humanitarian sector showed me that there is a real lack of information and data about people, geography and area maps," she continued. "I chose Cranfield to develop skills that I can use in this area, as the course is structured in such a way to make it easy for someone without prior knowledge to migrate to. I have learned so much, beyond my expectations."

Dr Daniel Simms, Lecturer in Remote Sensing and Course Director for the MSc in Geographical Information Management at Cranfield University, said: "It's great to see Nnenna using the skills she has learnt at Cranfield to get timely and useful information out there, where it can hopefully make a real difference."

As well as giving a visual representation of the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria, the dashboard also shows information on deaths across Africa and cases in West Africa. The dashboard has garnered a lot of interest from Nigerian organisations and Nnenna is now in contact with groups who are keen for her to develop an equivalent design for Africa as a whole.

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Piers Morgan has denied being ill despite coughing for the first ten minutes of Good Morning Britain today as he begged the nation to rally behind Boris Johnson.

The presenter coughed as he urged Brits to stand behind the Prime Minister, prompting many viewers to question his health.

He responded to one to say: 'All good thanks Elizabeth, just clearing my throat after a fairly sleepless night.'

Piers Morgan has denied being ill despite coughing for the first ten minutes of Good Morning Britain today as he begged the nation to rally behind Boris Johnson

The presenter coughed as he urged Brits to stand behind the Prime Minister, prompting many viewers to question his health

The Prime Minister, who was admitted to hospital with coronavirus symptoms on Sunday, was transferred to intensive care last night.

Piers told his viewers: 'It was an extraordinary night last night. There must have been complete panic in Downing Street.

'Everyone has got to rally behind him now, no matter what you think about him he is fighting for his life, on a human level everyone has got to rally behind him.

'They would't have given him one of those beds unless it was serious, that in itself is alarming.'

He went on to blast social media users who have made fun of Johnson on Twitter.

He responded to one to say: 'All good thanks Elizabeth, just clearing my throat after a fairly sleepless night'

He said: 'I just want to say also to those people on social media who can't find it in themselves to be positive for the Prime Minister, if you are of that mindset just shut up.'

However, throughout his rallying address Piers was continuously coughing - prompting social media users to question his health.

One said: 'Piers Morgan looks ill.'

While another wrote: 'Morning guys. Is Piers Morgan okay? His eyes are red and he seems to have a cough of some kind.'

Another Twitter user said: 'I think Piers has got Covid-19 he has coughed about 10 times so far.'

One user wrote: 'Im watching you from Paris this morning. Are you feeling well, youve been coughing a bit this morning! Stay safe and keep yourself protected.'

Piers responded: 'All good thanks Elizabeth, just clearing my throat after a fairly sleepless night.'

Mr Johnson was moved to ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in central London and given oxygen after his health deteriorated sharply over just two hours

Boris Johnson is still battling coronavirus in intensive care today with 'no change' in his condition overnight - amid a wave of support from across the nation.

Mr Johnson was moved to ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in central London and given oxygen after his health deteriorated sharply over just two hours, leaving doctors fearing he will need a ventilator.

The 55-year-old was transferred to intensive care at 7pm because of breathing difficulties - forcing him to 'deputise' Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to take the reins of government.

In a round of broadcast interviews this morning, Cabinet minister Michael Gove said Mr Johnson was getting the 'best care'.

'As we speak the PM is in intensive care being looked after by his medical team receiving the very, very best care from the team in St Thomas's and our hopes and prayers are with him and with his family,' he told BBC Breakfast.

Mr Gove played down concerns that the government will be paralysed with the leader out of action.

'The Cabinet is the supreme decision making body,' he said.

The Queen is being kept informed about Mr Johnson's condition, while Mr Raab will chair a meeting of the government coronavirus task force this morning.

The PM's sharp downturn came 11 days after he first suffered coronavirus symptoms and went into isolation. He looked increasingly unwell when glimpsed in public and in 'selfie' videos posted on on social media, and ministers were then shocked by his grim appearance at a Zoom conference on Sunday.

Downing Street sources confirmed Mr Johnson is not yet on a ventilator - but was moved to intensive care to be near one if needed. Some medical experts forecasting this course of action is now 'very likely'.

His fiancee Carrie Symonds is unable to be at his side as he battles coronavirus in intensive care quarantine.

Symonds, currently six months' pregnant, is recovering after experiencing symptoms of the virus, and is now reported to have left Downing Street to isolate elsewhere.
Two Tauranga women are calling the community to take action to protect those experiencing domestic violence during lockdown.

Tauranga Womens Refuge manager Hazel Hape and Julie Sach, from Tautoko Mai Sexual Harm Support, are concerned there will be a rise in domestic violence during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Research already shows that theres an increase in family violence when you're dealing with national crises or emergency disasters, says Hazel.

She says they are already hearing of more incidents through their crisis line and from other refuges around the country.

Were really concerned that when we've looked at what's happened overseas in lockdowns theres predictions of quite a steep rise in family and sexual violence in the home, says Tautoko Mai societal change leader Julie Sach.

Were asking people to think about what it is that every family's going to need and challenge the people who are out there in the community, to do the right thing and be the person that their family needs for them.

There's lots of stresses and there's lots of pressures, but it's really important that we keep a lid on the violence and we keep peaceful homes.

It's up to the whole community to have our eyes and ears out. If youre hearing stuff then don't hesitate to call the police if youre really worried about somebody.

Julie is concerned people who are experiencing any form of abuse may have limited access to the internet or a phone to get help.

If access to the internet and to your phone is controlled, then the window of opportunity to actually connect with helping services is quite reduced. So were really worried about that.

She urges people to stay connected if they have a friend, family member or neighbour who is in a situation that involves power and control, abuse or violence.

If you get a chance, get a code word that they could say to you that would alert you to some danger so that you can get help for them.

The other thing is don't put your concerns in a text or social media message unless you're really certain that the abusive person wouldn't have access to that device.

Both Julie and Hazel say there is a lot of focus on what the victim should do but the perpetrator also needs to take responsibility.

We're really all in this together, so everybody's got their part to play, and that includes people who use violence and are worried about their use of violence, Julie says.

Reach out now, reach out early get the support you need and then your family won't have to suffer further down the line.

Tauranga Living without Violence is one organisation people can contact if they do need help, she says.

Both Womens Refuge and Tautoko Mai predominately deal with women who experience abuse but there are men who experience it as well and Julie says the message is the same.

There are men who are victims, there's far fewer of them but its still really important and use the same helplines and reach out.

There needs to be some challenging conversations around holding abusers to account and calling on them to lay down their arms and start protecting their loved ones, says Hazel.

Police Assistance Commissioner Sandra Venables says while police have not seen a significant increase in family harm calls since alert level four restrictions began, they understand that may not be a true reflection of whats happening.

We realise this is a hard time for some families and we want them to know police are still there for them. We take family harm calls very seriously and we will attend.

We urge people to call us on 111 if they are concerned for themselves or others.

Its everybodys responsibility to speak out and to keep each other safe. If you think something is not ok, say so. We also want to assure people that support services are still operating.

If you are a victim of family or sexual violence, or you feel fearful or threatened, please reach out. You have the right to be safe and feel safe.

The government has also committed funding to provide essential family violence services to support those that need help.

Ministry of Social Development Maori, communities and partnerships deputy chief executive Marama Edwards says the ministry has $3.56 million immediately available.

This includes funding to enable refuges and crisis services to work with police and health workers to provide safe accommodation and support to meet the immediate needs of people experiencing family violence during the alert 4 lockdown.

If families need help with emergency housing as a result of domestic violence they should contact Womens Refuge.

The funding also enables police and health workers to de-escalate risky situations including providing accommodation for perpetrators to allow women and children/whanau to remain safe in their own homes.

Anyone experiencing immediate danger as a result of family violence should dial 111 and ask for the Police.

The following helplines are also available to support people that dont want to call police in the first instance.
She celebrated her 42nd birthday in isolation on Monday night.

Yet it was business as usual for Myleene Klass just hours later as she was seen heading to work at Global Radio studios in deserted Leicester Square on Tuesday.

The songstress and radio host looked sensational in an elegant brocade trench coat in a nude hue while dressing things down with white trainers.

Glam factor: Myleene Klass was seen heading to work at Global Radio studios in deserted Leicester Square on Tuesday

Myleene kept her spirits up as she flashed a winning smile at photographers while strutting down the street in her elegant get-up.

The nude coat was the perfect pairing with the trainers to combine smart and casual while she upped the glam factor with a Chanel handbag.

Her hair was coiffed to perfection while she shielded her eyes from the sun with a pair of over-sized sunglasses with a fine gold trim.

Just hours before, Myleene - like many others - was forced to spend her birthday in the confines of her own home with her nearest and dearest.

Here she is! The songstress and radio host looked sensational in an elegant brocade trench coat in a nude hue while dressing things down with white trainers

Sweet: Just hours before, Myleene - like many others - was forced to spend her birthday in the confines of her own home with her nearest and dearest

She shared an adorable selfie of her whole brood on Monday when celebrating her 42 birthday in isolation. The media personality shared the sweet snap with the caption: 'My birthday party' followed by a heart emoji.

The black and white pic showed Myleene holding baby Apollo, seven months, with her two daughters Ava, 12, and Hero, eight, and partner Simon Motson.

Myleene spoke to MailOnline about her grand plans during the coronavirus crisis, declaring 'I want to be the nation's music teacher!'

Chanel-lo! The nude coat was the perfect pairing with the trainers to combine smart and casual while she upped the glam factor with a Chanel handbag

Keeping things fresh: She was glowing as she prepared for another day at work

The mother of three had a brainwave as the UK prepared to go into lockdown, realising she can offer her talents as a classically trained musician.

After discussing the stresses of homeschooling in her school mums Whatsapp group, Myleene has decided to do her bit to ease the burden on parents by launching her online music lessons, dubbed Music Klass.

'When I was a poor student working in a bar that's what I'd do, I'd sit there and play whatever,' she says, 'playing by ear has been my hidden secret that no one has ever really known that I can do!'
Andhra Pradesh: Fishermen seek more facilities to check migration

April 07,2020 | Source: The Hans India

Fishermen Union representatives here on Sunday appealed to the government to provide opportunities for fishermen in the State in order to arrest their migration to other States. The appeal was made in the backdrop of a large number of fishermen from State being stranded in other States in the wake of lockout. The fishermen from the State remained stranded in different States like Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat and others. Due to lack of opportunities locally, a number of fishermen from Srikakulam are migrating to other parts in search of livelihood.



A sea port and a fishing harbour proposed at Bhavanapadu under Santhabommali mandal, fishing jetties proposed at Rallapeta and Budagatlapalem under Etcherla mandal and Kalingapatnam under Gara mandal would go a long way in helping the fishermen. But these projects are at proposal stage only, the representatives said. They recalled that during 2018 20 fishermen from Srikakulam were detained by the Pakistan marine security forces on charge that the former had crossed into their territory. D.Sudhakar, K.Narasinga Rao, M Sriramulu, V Yerrayya, M Gurumurthy, M Rama Rao appealed to the government to complete proposed sea port, fishing harbour and jetties.
In August of 2019, Hasan Kassab, a 27-year-old civil society activist and medical student, married his sweetheart Rawan in Raqqa, Syria. There were 350 people at our wedding, there was dancing and singing. We had so much fun, Kassab said, recalling their party at the popular Greek House restaurant on the banks of the Euphrates River.

Video footage from the event shows the groom with a neatly trimmed beard in a dark gray suit and pink tie, his hands nervously clasped before him. The bride leans toward him smiling. She wears a white lace dress with gauze sleeves. A crystal-studded tiara crowns her dark hair. Family members from Kassabs al-Bosaraya tribe and Rawans Baytra tribe mill around with joyful expressions.

Their euphoria was short-lived. The next day at 6 p.m., armed militants from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) raided their home in Tabqa, 25 miles west of Raqqa. They told me, You are with ISIS," Kassab said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.

They began hitting me, and my wife started screaming. They beat and kicked her, too, before handcuffing me and hauling me off in a white van, Kassab told Al-Monitor in a telephone interview from Novi Sad, Serbia, where he studies medicine.

Kassab said he was taken to a military base in Raqqa. There were lots of soldiers there," he said. "Americans and SDF. I was taken to a room and interrogated by 10 uniformed Americans for one hour. They asked, What is your connection to ISIS? Are you funneling money to ISIS? And I responded, How can I be ISIS? I am working for a project funded by the US Department of State.

After being jailed first in Tabqa then in Kobani, and undergoing eight separate interrogations by US coalition officials on US bases, Kassab was told by one of his American inquisitors Oct. 2, You are OK. We are sorry. You can leave. The past is horrible. Forget this and continue with your life. On Oct. 29, he was finally freed.

Kassab is not alone.

Since last summer, when Kassab was detained, at least seven other Syrian Arabs working for nongovernmental organizations, typically involved in humanitarian, educational and infrastructure projects financed by the State Department, were detained by the SDF and its special forces arm, known as Yektineyen Anti Teror in Kurdish, or YAT, and interrogated by US forces.

The most recent round of detentions came in February and early March, when four Syrian Arab civil society activists  either currently or previously funded by the State Departments Syria Transition Assistance Response Team, or START  were detained by YAT in separate raids. Two of them had been detained once before last year and interrogated by coalition forces over their supposed Islamic State connections last year.

Families were denied information about why their loved ones were taken and where they were being held until all four were freed April 2.

The question of why US coalition officials would be involved in the detentions of Syrian Arab civil society activists, vetted, among others, by the National Counterterrorism Center and sponsored by START, on the grounds that they are Islamic State operatives is an increasingly pressing one.

The rash of detentions is shaking trust among Arab civilians traumatized by years of Islamic State rule, as they struggle to rebuild their lives under the Kurdish-led autonomous administration, and denting the credibility of the United States.

In response to Al-Monitors April 1 queries about why the men were being held and whether their detentions had been instigated by the US-led coalition or the SDF, coalition spokesman Myles Caggins wrote: The Coalition shares intelligence with our SDF security partners, specifically for anti-ISIS operations. The men were released from SDF custody on April 2.

Al-Monitor learned that the men were taken to a coalition base near Shaddadi in the province of Hasakah, where they were interrogated by American security personnel over their alleged ties to the jihadis.

For Jamal Mabrouk, it was his second time. In October, the 61-year-old construction engineer, who worked with Kassab in the same US-funded program, was dragged out of his home as a coalition helicopter hovered above. He was jailed for two weeks and subjected to questioning by coalition forces.

My father is an honest man," Mabrouks son, Nazim, who lives in Istanbul, told Al-Monitor. "He has nothing to do with ISIS, and everybody knows this.

He confirmed that his father had been interrogated numerous times by US coalition forces in Shaddadi. His psychological state is very bad," he said. "He is ill and he cannot talk to you.

Officials from START and the State Departments' Bureau for Near East Affairs did not respond to Al-Monitors request for comment.

Three Kurdish officials linked to the SDF and the autonomous administration told Al-Monitor that all of the detentions were carried out upon orders from the US-led coalition. The reason is that they support ISIS, or ISIS sleeper cells, and we detained them upon the request of the coalition forces because they do not cut their ties with ISIS and they keep working with them, one of the officials said.

Framing and jailing

In interviews with over a dozen activists and stakeholders in US-funded civil society projects in northeastern Syria, two theories as to why the Arab activists are being targeted prevailed. One is that the SDF and the coalition are being fed flawed intelligence, including by fellow Arabs, sometimes to settle personal and professional scores.

Civil society activists drew parallels between anonymous security reports used as a basis for the recent detentions, and the culture of snitching incentivized by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which was then embraced by the Islamic State.

The other theory is that the Kurdish-led autonomous administration is uncomfortable with the perceived power and reach accrued by the activists through US-funded projects and is seeking to subject them to their own authority through intimidation tactics.

The SDFs vetting of the population relies heavily on intel coming from local interlocutors, who often feed them with misleading information," said Dareen Khalifa, senior Syria analyst for the International Crisis Group. "Acting on poor intelligence coming from often unreliable interlocutors has led the SDF to often mistakenly direct resources to address erroneous reports of Islamic State connections while missing actual Islamic State activity.

A second issue, Khalifa said, is that the SDF is quite suspicious of civil society. The nature of the work of NGOs is foreign to the area and their attempt to operate independently from the formal SDF structures makes the administration uncomfortable and more conducive to acting on misguided reports.

Sara Kayyali, a Syria researcher for Human Rights Watch, shared similar findings.

Our understanding is that many of the arrests [of civil society activists]  certainly the ones in 2019  the ones we followed up on, happened because there were internal disagreements with the autonomous administration and the local councils. So, people would have gotten into fights with the authorities and then authorities would have arrested them in an arbitrary manner.

Kayyali continued, We have been in contact with the SDF and the US-led coalition on a number of issues, and we faced the same experience whereby they werent very responsive.

There is a lack of transparency in terms of formal communication," she said. "For us that translates into a lack of understanding about what the US-led coalition is doing on its own initiative and what the SDF is doing on its own initiative.

Another problem, according to two knowledgeable sources familiar with coalition decision-making, is that coalition officials faith in the SDF is so unshakeable that intelligence provided by SDF officials is often taken at face value.

People looked to the Americans as saviors, said a detained activist whose organization was funded by START. At the beginning, people thought that only the Assad regime could provide services. We opened a center for safe childhood, where we provided educational services and psychological support, games. People began to feel that [our] organizations have a fundamental, positive impact on society.

The activist, like three other US-funded detainees interviewed by Al-Monitor, spoke anonymously because of a fear of retribution.

Another activist who was detained last year described his ordeal in a telephone interview with Al-Monitor. SDF forces blindfolded us, handcuffed us. We were transported by military vehicles, we didnt know where we were going, because of the blindfolds.

"At the beginning, we were taken to a room that had detainees accused of being ISIS, [Syrian rebel opposition] Free Syrian Army and regime agents. When I entered and saw the ISIS people and the other sorts, I was terrified. What have I done to land myself here, in this totally undignified way? I thought.

During his questioning, a Kurdish interrogator asked him, Are you supporting terrorism? Are you supporting [Turkish-backed] Euphrates Shield [forces], or the Syrian regimes military intelligence?

The activist responded, OK, if I work for ISIS, how do I also work for the regime?

Kassab echoed his indignation, noting that he was briefly detained by the Islamic State in 2014 over his alleged complicity in smuggling a female activist from Raqqa into Turkey.

Two of the other four activists interviewed by Al-Monitor said they had received death threats from the Islamic State for their civil society work.

All of the detained activists said local and coalition interrogators treated them with professionalism and did not resort to violence.

One activist said, One should be honest. We were not beaten or tortured. Maybe some light slaps from the jail guards, hardly mentionable.

Rebuilding Raqqa

The battle for Raqqa, the erstwhile capital of the Islamic States so-called caliphate, raged from June till September 2017. The city was pulverized by massive and unremitting coalition airstrikes. Raqqa is the most destroyed city in modern times, said Donatella Rovera, a researcher for Amnesty International.

A priority of the coalition was to restore basic services so civilians could return and rebuild their homes, in part to stave off a potential jihadi resurgence. Kurds and Americans believed that turning to locals, including influential tribal leaders, to help with the effort was critical to winning hearts and minds among Sunni Arabs who dominate the area.

Mazlum Kobane, the SDFs commander in chief, is an ardent advocate of this approach.

Pressure on Arab civil society activists, however, flies in the face of such efforts, said Elizabeth Tsurkov, a fellow at the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute.

There was already a degree of distrust in the SDF and its civilian administration in Raqqa prior to the arrests among the population, which perceives the administration and SDF as controlled by people from outside their region, she said.

Tsurkov was likely alluding to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the outlawed militant group that has been fighting the Turkish army for the past 36 years, initially for independence and now for Kurdish autonomy. Many of the Syrian Kurdish cadres who currently lead the civilian and military arms of the autonomous administration joined the PKK when its now imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, ran his insurgency from Syria with the blessings of Bashar al-Assads father, Hafez.

Coughing up for the cause

From fat cats to factory workers, the PKK deems it every Kurds national duty to chip in for the cause. It would not be unusual if like-minded cadres in northeast Syria expected foreign funding for projects to be channeled to entities they either operate themselves or that are owned by individuals who are willing to cooperate with them. Such practices are construed as patriotism, not nepotism.

Kassab said that this PKK mentality assailed his organization, the Furat program, when it issued a public tender to pave three streets in Raqqa in the summer of 2019. He said the initial tranche of the US-funded project to restore the South Corniche, North Corniche and the Hazima roads was awarded June 6 to a prominent Syrian Arab contractor.

In July, Layla Mostafa, the Kurdish co-chair of the Raqqa Civilian Council, told his then-boss, Mabrouk, that they would have to cancel the tender, worth around $1 million, and give the contract to Shimal, a company allegedly linked to the autonomous administration and the object of corruption claims in anti-SDF media.

Jamal told her, We cant do this, its against the rules, and soon after I was arrested. Then, on Oct. 2, it was Jamals turn, Kassab said.

That wasnt the pairs first run-in with the Raqqa Civilian Council, Kassab said. In August 2018, Furat and Enmaa al-Karamah, another START-supported local NGO, put out a tender to procure transformers. The council told them to award it to a company called AVA, according to Kassab. We refused, he said.

He said that its no coincidence that the chairman of the board of Enmaa al-Karamah, Ahmad Mousa al-Hashloum, was, like Mabrouk, also detained twice: first in August 2019 and most recently in February  for his alleged ties to the Islamic State.

Another activist agreed that the autonomous administration was uneasy about their role: At the beginning, the Raqqa Civilian Council was upset about the US partnership with the NGOs, and that the NGOs take over some of the roles of state institutions. We tried to explain that our role and their role was complementary. Afterward, they accepted the idea, but according to what we understood, they didnt like the fact that it was a relationship that was outside their control and they couldnt supervise its creation or development.

Yet another activist who was caught in the sweep said, We felt the pressure through the signing of certain agreements, or memorandums of understanding, between us and the government, represented by the Raqqa Civilian Council. If, for example, we didnt implement the agenda of a specific party, obstacles would pop up. 'You cant do this, you cant do that, this is prohibited, you need to give the [tender] to this company,'"

The Raqqa Civilian Councils Mostafa did not respond to Al-Monitors written requests for comment.

State impotence?

Abdel Kader Moahed, the head of the autonomous administrations humanitarian affairs department, denied that the detentions of the Arab activists had anything to do with pressure to give contracts to companies designated by the Raqqa Civilian Council.

Moahed told Al-Monitor in an April 1 telephone interview: Its prohibited for anyone to interfere in [NGO] work, or for anyone to impose on them any particular option or anything else. We have 200 NGOs and charities, including 34 international NGOs. All of them work with total independence, without interference or pressure from anyone.

Moahed went on, Those four people [the activists] were arrested by American forces. There was no interference or relationship [with them refusing certain tenders]. Quite the opposite. Were really trying to push to get them freed. Yesterday I was in a meeting with the State Department, on Skype. The first thing I brought up was the issue of those detainees, and I asked the State Department to intervene on their behalf.

One of the detained activists confirmed Moaheds efforts to secure their release. It wasn't in his power as a civilian official, the activist said.

The State Department had also pressed for the activists release, according to sources with knowledge of the affair. But last summer, coalition officials initially told the State Department that there were credible grounds for detaining the activists, a source said.

Moahed said, The SDF and the coalition are taking these decisions together, and these issues are outside the control of civilians. The civilian authorities, even the American ones, appear not to be able to intervene."

Yet the pervasive feeling among Raqqas civil society activists is that the State Department abandoned them when trouble struck.

Tsurkov said, The timing of the release of the activists, after [Al-Monitor] started asking questions, indicates they were not really ISIS. If their release posed any threat, they would have been kept behind bars no matter how many journalists came asking questions.

If the exercise was intended to intimidate, as the activists contend, it achieved its purpose.

Summing up their sentiments, one said, The work environment has become very anxiety-provoking. Today, any partnership can be destroyed by information from corrupt people, from people with their own agendas. Peoples trust in these programs has started to falter. If our standing and the standing of our organizations arent reinstated, people will no longer accept partnerships with the Department of State.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 03:38:40|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on April 6, 2020 shows a closed luxury brand shop in Rome, Italy. The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 16,523 lives in locked-down Italy, bringing the total number of infections, fatalities and recoveries since the pandemic began to 132,547, according to fresh data released by the country's Civil Protection Department on Monday. (Photo by Augusto Casasoli/Xinhua)

ROME, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 16,523 lives in locked-down Italy, bringing the total number of infections, fatalities and recoveries since the pandemic began to 132,547, according to fresh data released by the country's Civil Protection Department on Monday.

Speaking during a televised press conference, Civil Protection Department Chief Angelo Borrelli confirmed that there were 1,941 new active coronavirus infections compared to Sunday, bringing the nationwide total to 93,187.

Of those infected, 28,976 are hospitalized, 3,898 are in intensive care and the rest are quarantined at home, Borrelli said.

"The number of patients being moved to intensive care has dropped for the third consecutive day," Borrelli said.

Monday saw 636 new deaths, bringing the toll to 16,523 since the pandemic first broke out in northern Italy on Feb. 21.

In addition, there were 1,022 new recoveries compared to Sunday, bringing that total to 22,837.

Borrelli said Italians have so far donated over 107.5 million euros (about 116 million U.S. dollars) to the Civil Protection Department's coronavirus emergency fund.

The Department has so far spent over 19 million euros of the donated money on the purchase of ventilators and other crucial medical equipment and supplies.

Borrelli added that he has instituted a new Civil Protection Department fund for the families of doctors and other health care workers who died of coronavirus thanks to a donation by Italian entrepreneur Diego Della Valle, CEO of Italian leather goods company Tod's.

What's more, he said, an airplane loaded with personal protective equipment "donated to Europe by the Chinese government" has been "entirely transferred to our country via the European Civil Protection mechanism."

"Thank you for this gesture of solidarity," Borrelli said in reference to European Union's decision to transfer the Chinese donation to Italy.

Also at the press conference was Luca Richeldi, who leads the Pulmonology Department at Rome's Policlinico Gemelli Hospital and sits on the Technical and Scientific Committee advising the government on how to fight the pandemic.

Richeldi confirmed news reports earlier in the day that Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) Director-General Nicola Magrini has tested positive for the coronavirus and is isolated at home

"As head of AIFA, Dr. Magrini has a crucial role and responsibility in the search for new pharmaceuticals and new therapies for the control of this virus," Richeldi said.

With regard to the pandemic, the doctor said "today's data confirms the trend we have been seeing over the past few days, which (means) we are seeing effective measures of containment of the spread of the viral infection."

While the number of daily fatalities is still high, it has decreased by more than 20 percent over the past week from March 30 to April 6, Richeldi pointed out.

Also on Monday, European Commissioner for Crisis Management in charge of European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid, and European Emergency Response Coordinator Janez Lenarcic announced on Twitter that "Italy's Civil Protection has activated @CopernicusEU to map temporary health facilities as well as gathering areas in order to have a clear understanding of the territory for the subsequent monitoring of activities and public spaces during the COVID19 emergency."

Copernicus is the EU Earth Observation Program.

Regarding the lockdown rules which have been in place for almost a month, the Interior Ministry said Monday that between March 11 and April 5, police checked over five million people and more than 2.1 million businesses for possible violations.

On Sunday April 5 alone, police across Italy checked 186,741 individuals who were outside their homes, issuing over 11,000 fines plus 47 citations for making false statements and another 25 citations for violating mandatory quarantine regulations, the ministry announced on its website.

On the economic front, according to Italian business consultancy Althesys Strategic Consultants, the "stoppage of a large portion of Italian industry" because of the pandemic will cause waste management companies "losses of about one billion euros in turnover" this year.

Urban waste will also drop by "up to 2.5 million tons" due to the closure of restaurants and retailers and falling household consumption, Althesys said, adding that the drop in consumption will cause Italy's gross domestic product (GDP) to contract "by an estimated 6 to 8 percent" in 2020 compared to last year.
Did you know that a social distance of 6.5 feet is not enough to protect yourself from coronavirus? In an alarming discovery, experts say that the coronavirus travels as much as 8 meters in the air. This new discovery might poise a dilemma on how social distancing works.

By imposing social distancing, the assumption is to lessen the spread of the COVID-19 disease through direct contact with others. According to WHO, maintaining a distance of at least 1 meter from other people is enough to protect yourself. However, a recent study showed that you might still be at risk, since the virus can travel up to 8 meters in the air.

Can coronavirus travel 8 meters in the air?

One researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has warned that the coronavirus can spread farther than previously thought. Lydia Bourouiba, an associate professor at MIT, discovered that exhalations such as sneezes and coughs send clouds of pathogen up to 27-feet, which is more than previously expected.

According to Professor Bourouiba, who was asked for comment by USA Today, World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) must revise its guidelines in social distancing:

"There's an urgency in revising the guidelines currently being given by the WHO and the CDC on the needs for protective equipment, particularly for the frontline health care workers."

Professor Bourouiba added that tiny drops still travel through the air, and will continue doing so for a certain distance, contesting the assumption of WHO about the transmission. According to WHO, 3-6 feet of distance is enough to protect yourself.

However, Professor Bourouiba argued tiny droplets of bodily fluid do not magically stop dead once they travel a certain distance. She added that the 3-6-foot social distance is not enough, as the virus can remain on air for as long as 10 minutes.

Also read: Alleged Lizard Captured by Curiosity Rover, Theorist Claims Its a Sign of Life on Mars

Dr. Paul Pottinger from University of Washington School of Medicine said that scientists needed to gather more date about cases with exhaled virus. He added, it is not how far the germs travel, but how far they travel, before becoming a zero threat.

When everyone gets infected, there would be no argument, according to Dr Paul Pottinger. Generally, the smaller the particle, the more chances of infecting anyone who can breathe it in, suck it in the nose or mouth.

But if it is saliva, snot, and spit that carry the coronavirus, it can be more infectious. According to the scientist, larger droplets will fall to the ground, which greatly lessens the risk of being inhaled. It is the lighter spray which is a problem.

Dr Pottinger contradicted claims of Professor Bourouiba, added that more cases will be infected by the enhanced spray.

He said, "It takes a certain number of viral particles, we call them 'virions,' or individual viruses, it takes a certain number of individual viruses to actually get a foothold inside the body and cause that infection to get going."

As of now, they are still not sure how many viral particles are needed to cause an infection. Adding that if the viruses did travel by air, they would have been infected by now.

The Public Health England claimed that social distancing measures were "well-established and have been discussed and planned for many years". When experts warn of contagious droplets travelling in the air for 8 meters as smaller droplets, this completely changes the way we view social distancing.

Related topics: New Coronavirus Possible Cure May Target Human Cells, Not the Virus

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I know what it is to campaign hard and to work hard, Mr. Lewis said, acknowledging that he faced some problems now, but they will not be with me forever. And I will be out there working and campaigning for Joe Biden as president of the United States of America.

Mr. Biden has not yet clinched the Democratic nomination; Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont continues to campaign too. But with Mr. Biden holding an almost insurmountable lead in delegates, his campaign has started the process of looking for a running mate. He has said he will pick a woman.

Older black voters, in particular, revived Mr. Bidens once-floundering candidacy and played a decisive role in propelling him to the cusp of the Democratic nomination. Some Democrats  including Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress and a top Biden ally  have expressed a preference for a black woman on the ticket with Mr. Biden.

I think Vice President Biden should look around, Mr. Lewis said, when asked if he believed Mr. Biden should select a woman of color. It would be good to have a woman of color. It would be good to have a woman. It would be good to have a woman who looks like the rest of America.

Mr. Lewis noted that there are plenty of able women. Black, white, Latino, Asian-American, Native American. The time has long passed, he said, for making the White House look like the whole of America.
(Bloomberg) --

Congresss near unanimity on last months $2.2 trillion coronavirus rescue bill has given way to partisan finger-pointing that threatens to poison the debate when lawmakers try to construct another emergency boost to the struggling economy.

The crisis has only worsened since President Donald Trump signed the law on March 27. But there is little consensus on next steps as patients flood hospitals in some U.S. cities and leaders extend the economic shutdown.

Trump and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer late last week exchanged biting letters accusing each other of fumbling the initial response. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blamed Democrats for distracting the nation from an emerging threat with an impeachment trial. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trumps slow response has cost lives.

The rancor was growing as the number of Covid-19 cases in the U.S. pushed past 325,000, deaths exceeded 9,200 and government data began showing the pandemics rapid and widespread impact on the worlds biggest economy. Meanwhile, the current rescue plan got off to a rocky start, as small businesses struggled to submit documents and lenders ran into trouble with the governments portal for loans.

The increasingly alarming numbers prompted Pelosi to scale back her earlier ambitions for Congresss next coronavirus stimulus package. She said Congress should update the current legislation to provide more money for small businesses and individuals. Pelosi said over the weekend she wants the legislation to get a vote this month.

Yet there isnt consensus on what the next stimulus should look like. McConnell told the Associated Press in an interview that there will be a fourth virus-related bill, but said he and Pelosi have a little different point of view about the timing of the next package and what should be included.

Even after last weeks jobless claims shattered all records, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy said he didnt think a fourth tranche of aid is appropriate at this time, adding that a tweak to the most recent legislation might be in order. He also took the opportunity to accuse Pelosi of delaying earlier stimulus packages.

Story continues

Senate Small Business Committee Chairman Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, said Congress will have to at least approve more money for small business loans created in the last virus relief bill. He said Congress could try to plus up what we did already, which wouldnt require calling lawmakers back to Washington, as long as no members object.

Were going to have to go back and do more, and probably more than once, Rubio said Monday in a CNBC interview. The House and Senate arent scheduled to return until at least April 20.

Equipment Shortages

Meanwhile, Trumps plan to nominate a White House lawyer to the newly created inspector general post overseeing coronavirus stimulus spending was panned by Democrats, who said an administration insider isnt the right person for the job.

Lawmakers in both parties are already proposing an assessment of the U.S. response to the outbreak, which has exposed shortages of equipment and the faltering efforts of the federal government to get and distribute medical supplies where needed. But even what form that takes is the subject of partisan bickering.

Pelosi said some after-action report on the governments virus response will come in time.

Representative Steve Scalise, the second-ranking House Republican lit into Pelosi on Twitter: Youd think 3 years of failed investigations & an impeachment flop would teach Dems their lesson  but apparently even a pandemic wont stop them.

Impeachment has been a running theme for Republicans in countering criticism of Trumps actions.

I think it diverted the attention of the government because everything every day was all about impeachment, McConnell said on the syndicated The Hugh Hewitt Show.

In an unusual letter responding to Schumer on Thursday, Trump also raised the impeachment as a distraction and tried to turn it on his critics.

If you spent less time on your ridiculous impeachment hoax, which went haplessly on forever and ended up going nowhere (except increasing my poll numbers), and instead focused on helping the people of New York, then New York would not have been so completely unprepared for the invisible enemy, Trump wrote.

Grim Toll

Schumer had written that as the virus outbreak spreads, and its terrible, grim toll grows more severe with each passing day, the tardiness and inadequacy of this administrations response to the crisis becomes more painfully evident.

While the November election may be far from the minds of voters now, the outbreak is going to define the fight for the White House and control of Congress. Both sides are attempting to set the narrative for the campaign, including the GOP claims the impeachment trial distracted from the emerging threat.

Based on how quickly voters pick up on partisan cues from their party, its likely to gain at least some traction with core supporters, Josh Huder, a senior fellow at Georgetown Universitys governmental affairs institute, said of that argument.

But in Trumps first public comments about the virus on Jan. 22 -- the day that the first American case was reported and one day after his impeachment trial in the Senate began -- the president said he was not worried about the virus.

No. Not at all, Trump said. And we have it totally under control. Its one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. Its going to be just fine.

The White House on Jan. 29 did announce the formation of the Coronavirus Task Force to help monitor the spread of the virus and provide updates to the president. By Jan. 31, the administration declared the coronavirus a public health emergency, announced Chinese travel restrictions, and suspended entry into the U.S. for foreign nationals who pose a risk of transmitting the coronavirus.

Concern Rising

Still, Trump continued to publicly downplay the impacts, including on Feb. 10 in interviews and a speech suggesting the outbreak would dissipate with the warm spring weather. As late as Feb. 24 -- three weeks after the impeachment trial had ended -- Trump was still saying and tweeting that the outbreak was very much under control. The next day, he tweeted criticism of Schumer for proposing that the White House request for $2.5 billion to prepare for coronavirus was inadequate.Over the same period, concern in Congress was rising, but most lawmakers werent sounding alarms.There was a Senate briefing by administration health officials on Jan. 24 but not all senators attended. Republican Senators Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Jim Risch of Idaho, along with Democrats Patty Murray of Washington and Bob Menendez of New Jersey, afterward released a tepid joint statement saying they were monitoring the outbreak and in communication with agencies on actions and precautions to prevent further spread of this virus.

Two days later, Schumer called on the Department of Health and Human Services to declare coronavirus a public health emergency, which would free up $85 million in funding for federal agencies -- a fraction of what was eventually needed.

While the virus threat by the end of January was becoming a more prominent concern for other lawmakers, it still had not fully crystallized.

On Jan. 27 Representative Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, issued a statement calling the diseases spread in China troubling and promised to provide federal health officials more funding if necessary.

But DeLauro also said at the moment, prominent medical experts believe influenza poses a far greater risk to people across the United States than the coronavirus.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton was one of the few who was early to warn about the threat from the virus. He said Tuesday on The Hugh Hewitt Show he began looking at the potential impacts of the virus in mid-January.

But, Cotton said,I have to tell you that in mid-January and late-January, unfortunately, Washington, especially the Congress, was consumed with another matter  you may recall the partisan impeachment of the president.

(Updates with Rubio comment beginning in the eighth paragraph.)

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A Russian Air Force IL-76 cargo plane

By Yang Jian

Five massive military planes from Russia and Algeria landed at Pudong airport on Saturday to pick up coronavirus prevention supplies.

The planes include two IL-76 transports belonging to the Algerian Air Force and another two from the Russian Air Force. An An-124 transport aircraft was also dispatched from Russia.

With the escalating COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world are purchasing prevention materials such as masks and hazmat suits from China. The large cargo planes are an ideal way to transport them.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China has allocated more flight schedules for the operations of cargo planes.

With the number of international passenger flights slashed to help contain the spread of COVID-19, the administration said it had also encouraged domestic and overseas carriers to use spare passenger aircraft to transport cargo.

In March, a total of 528 additional cargo charter flights have been approved, a nearly five-time increase on year, according to the administration.

At Pudong airport on Saturday, the two IL-76 planes from Algeria landed at 4am after taking off from the Kazan Airport in Russia. They flew back in the afternoon, carrying masks and other materials.

They were followed by the two Russian Air Force's IL-76 planes which landed at 5am and 7am at Pudong. They took off from Novosibirsk airport also on Saturday afternoon.

The An-124 arrived in Shanghai at around 8pm and was scheduled to fly back on Sunday.

Pudong airport has provided increased docking space for cargo planes and fast loading services.

An Algerian Air Force IL-76 cargo plane at Pudong
Boris Johnson who was hospitalised with persistent coronavirus symptoms is stable in the intensive care unit of a London hospital and has not required ventilator support for breathing, Downing Street said in a health update on the British prime minister on Tuesday.

Johnson, who had been shifted to the ICU on Monday night, remains in "good spirits" and has not been diagnosed with pneumonia -- one of the fallouts in serious COVID-19 patients.

"The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits. He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and is breathing without any other assistance," a Downing Street spokesperson said.

"He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support," the spokesperson said.

Johnson spent the Monday night in the ICU at a London hospital in a move Downing Street said was a "precaution" should the British prime minister require ventilation to aid his recovery from COVID-19.

Johnson, 55, was taken to St Thomas' Hospital in London, a specialist infectious diseases National Health Service facility, on Sunday night for "routine tests" after persistent coronavirus symptoms including a high temperature and a cough.

His condition "worsened" during the course of Monday when his doctors decided to shift him to ICU.

"The prime minister is not on a ventilator. He has received oxygen support and one of the reasons of being in intensive care is to ensure that whatever support the medical team consider to be appropriate can be provided," said UK Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove on Tuesday morning.

Johnson had tested positive for coronavirus 12 days ago and had continued to lead the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic via video conferencing from his Downing Street home.

On Monday night, he asked his First Secretary of State, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, to step in for him and the minister will be chairing his second daily COVID-19 meeting in place of the UK PM on Tuesday.

"The government's business will continue. The prime minister is in safe hands with that brilliant team at St Thomas' hospital, and the focus of the government will continue to be on making sure that the prime minister's direction, all the plans for making sure that we can defeat coronavirus and can pull the country through this challenge, will be taken forward," said Raab, who would be deputising for Johnson "where necessary" while he is in hospital.

"There's an incredibly strong team spirit behind the Prime Minister, and making sure that we get all of the plans the Prime Minister's instructed us to deliver, to get them implemented as soon as possible. And that's the way it will bring the whole country through the coronavirus challenge that we face right now, said the senior Cabinet minister.

The team spirit was on display as ministers of Johnson's top team took to social media to wish him a speedy recovery and support to his pregnant fiancee Carrie Symonds.

"My love and thoughts are with Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds and the prime minister's family. Praying for you and thinking of you," said UK Home Secretary Priti Patel in her Twitter message, alongside an image of her alongside Johnson at a temple in London on the campaign trail from the past year.

Fellow Indian-origin senior Cabinet colleague, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak, echoed the message: "My thoughts tonight are with Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds. I know he'll be getting the best care possible and will come out of this even stronger."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the world leaders who sent out their messages of support to the UK PM.

"Hang in there, Prime Minister Boris Johnson! Hope to see you out of hospital and in perfect health very soon," Modi tweeted.

United States President Donald Trump said Americans "are all praying for his recovery" as he described Johnson as "a very good friend of mine and a friend to our nation" who is "strong" and "doesn't give up".

French President Emmanuel Macron said he sends "all my support to Boris Johnson, to his family and to the British people at this difficult moment".

UK's newly-elected Opposition Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described it as "terribly sad news".

London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted that St Thomas' Hospital in London had "some of the finest medical staff in the world" and that the Prime Minister "couldn't be in safer hands".

Buckingham Palace said Queen Elizabeth II, who has been holding her customary weekly audiences with the Prime Minister over the telephone at Windsor Castle during the current coronavirus lockdown, is being kept informed about Johnson's health.

In some COVID-19 cases, patients experience breathing difficulties as the body's immune system struggles to cope and pneumonia is among the signs of the most serious cases.

Earlier in the day on Monday, Johnson had messaged from his hospital bed to say that he was in good spirits and staying in contact with his ministers to oversee the UK's coronavirus fightback despite his hospitalisation.

He was last seen in public applauding the NHS and other key workers just outside his flat in Downing Street last Thursday and posted his last Twitter video message on Friday in which he looked quite unwell as he said he was still displaying minor symptoms.

His hospitalisation comes as the number of coronavirus hospital deaths in the UK reached 5,373 and the UK's Department of Health said there were now 51,608 confirmed coronavirus cases.
Three months into the coronavirus epidemic, the Trump administration has yet to devise a national strategy to test Americans for the deadly disease - something experts say is key to blunting the outbreak and resuming daily life.

In the absence of a national plan, several states are developing their own testing systems, but the emerging picture varies widely. States with more money and a robust medical sector have devised comprehensive plans, while others lag far behind.

The White House, meanwhile, is still debating which types of tests should be sent to which regions, and how much to focus on testing Americans to see who may have developed immunity to the disease.

"Unfortunately states really are on their own," said Partners in Health medical director Joia Mukherjee, whose group is working with Massachusetts to develop the country's most extensive contact tracing network to track infected patients' interactions with others. "It's problematic at best and egregious at worst, because some states have more resources than others, some states have more leadership than others."

Public health experts say that widespread coronavirus testing is key because it would determine who is infected and needs to be isolated, as opposed to ordering the entire population to stay at home. The development and use of antibody tests, meanwhile, could identify those with immunity to the virus who are able to return to work, school and everyday activities.

Coronavirus testing in the U.S. started late and has been beset by a string of problems, including bureaucratic delays and an ongoing shortages of materials. While the number of tests have accelerated now that private companies are processing them, even the most aggressive states have just tested a small fraction of residents. New York has tested 1,645 out of every 100,000 people and Utah 1,043 people for every 100,000, for example, while Texas has tested just 297 and Georgia has tested 381. On a per capita basis, the U.S. lags behind several other countries when it comes to testing.

"Testing is getting more available," said Scott Becker, executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. "But the demand is absolutely still outstripping supply."

In recent days the White House coronavirus task force has begun debating what a national testing strategy would look like, according to several senior administration officials, with White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx and Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir taking the lead.

At a Monday task force meeting, according to a participant who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations, Birx and Giroir debated where to send the newest coronavirus tests - a version produced by Abbott Laboratories that can deliver results on site in as little as five minutes, as opposed to tests that can take hours and must be processed by a laboratory.

One senior administration official said the government hopes to devise recommendations for different populations in rural, suburban and urban areas. Officials also plan to pick different spots in the country to collect data so they can be better prepared to respond in the fall, when the virus is likely to come back.

The administration has launched a separate effort to test for antibodies, known asserology testing, to identify people with likely immunity to the virus. While these tests could be critical for longer term decisions about lifting stay-at-home orders, there is a debate about the accuracy of the tests and how they should be used.

At a White House briefing Monday evening, Giroir said an inter-agency working group was closely examining the new serology tests because "we have reason to believe that not all of them are going to perform well."

In late March, the FDA adopted an "enforcement discretion" policy on serology tests, saying they could be sold without prior authorization as long as the companies validated their data, notified the agency and made clear the tests should not be used as the "sole basis " for diagnosing active infections and had not been approved by the agency.

Since then, several tests have appeared on the market of dubious value, said the lab association's Becker, who said he recently shared his concerns about the "wild, wild West" environment with Giroir and FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn.

Giroir told reporters he was confident this effort would give America a reliable tool by next month to determine who had been exposed to the virus and could reenter society safely.

"We will have millions on the market by May, in a sophisticated way and a prospective way, that we get the surveillance we need," he said. "We can test people to see if they have been exposed, [are] immune and [can[ go back to work. And a combination of that kind of test, with the current kind of test we have now, is how America opens back up."

Officials have also indicated they want major laboratories, such as Roche Diagnostics, to provide serology tests.

In the meantime, Joe Bresee, deputy incident manager for CDC's pandemic response, said the agency has begun testing blood samples from people in coronavirus "hotspots" to determine whether those people, whether they know it or not, may have antibodies that give them some immunity.

"We hope it will give a sense of the area of water under the iceberg," Bresee said.

But some experts warn the promise of these serological tests, which use blood samples and are relatively simple to administer and process, may be overstated. And they emphasize that the federal government must invest resources now to create the capacity for widespread diagnostic tests so the nation is prepared in the coming months to try to head off a resurgence of the virus later in the year.

"Coronavirus testing should be as ubiquitous as strep testing, and maybe more so," said Scott Gottlieb, who headed the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner early in Donald Trump's presidency and is informally advising the White House as well as the governors of Massachusetts and Maryland.

Gottlieb, in a new paper co-written with experts including Mark McClellan, FDA chief during the George W. Bush administration, argues the nation needs to create a massive testing and surveillance infrastructure by late May to try to get ahead of the epidemic and prevent an autumn comeback. He said the government should focus on the mass distribution of rapid point-of-care tests to hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices.

Some Trump officials said it is too late to create a national testing strategy, and that it should have been done weeks, if not months, ago. "We were a month behind on getting testing set up, and now we're just trying to ramp up testing every single day," said one official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to be frank.

In the meantime, several states have adopted their own plans.

In Utah, the University of Utah and Intermountain Healthcare worked with ARUP Laboratories to develop mobile testing sites. On Thursday TestUtah.com was launched to allow residents to fill out an online survey to determine if they need a coronavirus test and book an appointment for a test. The venture is similar to one Trump described a month ago that has never materialized nationwide.

California Gov. Newsom assembled a task force Saturday, co-chaired by California Department of Public Health Assistant Director Charity Dean and Blue Shield of California President and CEO Paul Markovich.

One member of the state task force, who asked for anonymity to avoid disrupting help from the federal government, said California pressed ahead with initiatives like establishing eight testing hubs in collaboration with public and private universities and Kaiser Permanente because it had no other choice.

"We're making up our strategy because the federal government has been completely out to lunch," the task force member said. "We can't mobilize a health response without knowing how this disease is spreading."

Connecticut's governor has also formed a task force to develop a testing strategy. One focus is called Project Haystack, aimed at finding undocumented but contagious individuals.

"The tragedy that we find ourselves in is that we didn't do the testing early enough," said task force member David Scheer, president of a venture capital and advisory firm.

And in Maryland, where Republican Gov. Larry Hogan initially asked for a testing site, state officials are now working with Gottlieb to implement their own plan. "The request for the federal testing site is no longer our top priority," Hogan said in a recent interview.

- - -

The Washington Post's Lena Sun contributed to this report.
The first trailer for Extraction, the upcoming Netflix action film starring Chris Hemsworth in the lead role, has been released online. The film was predominantly shot in multiple Indian cities, and features several Indian actors in the cast.

In the film, Hemsworth plays Tyler Rake, a black market mercenary in the film, who embarks on a deadly mission when hes enlisted to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned international crime lord.

The trailer opens with Hemsworths character taking a huge leap off a cliff and into a pond, only to meditate underwater. Rake is built almost like a machine, jumping off moving vehicles, across buildings and punching through villains like theyre made of cardboard.

Different styles of action is teased. While Rake seems adept at close-combat, he is also a master at car chases and large scale shootouts. Golshifteh Farahani plays his close associate and handler, who informs him about the behind-the-scenes duel taking place between Indian and Bangladeshi drug lords. Rake and the boy have been caught in the crossfire.

Also read: Chris Hemsworth has a special message for Indian fans. Watch

Extraction also features newcomer Rudhraksh Jaiswal, actors Pankaj Tripathi, Randeep Hooda and David Harbour. Directed by Sam Hargrave, the film is produced by Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo, based on a script by Joe. Extraction was shot in Ahmedabad and Mumbai, and is slated for release on April 24.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Pope Francis has appeared to address the quashing of George Pell's child sex convictions days before Easter.

The head of the Catholic Church seemingly compared the cardinal to Jesus in a tweet on Tuesday.

'In these days of #Lent, we've been witnessing the persecution that Jesus underwent and how He was judged ferociously, even though He was innocent,' Pope Francis wrote.

'Let us #PrayTogether today for all those persons who suffer due to an unjust sentence because of someone had it in for them.'

Pope Francis appeared to address the quashing of George Pell's child sex convictions on Tuesday

Pope Francis exchanges Christmas greetings with Cardinal George Pell at the Clementina Hall on December 22, 2014 in Vatican City

Child sexual abuse convictions against Cardinal George Pell (pictured leaving jail) were overturned by the High Court on Tuesday, ending a three-year legal battle and setting him free

Pope Francis also appeared to comment on Cardinal Pell during his Tuesday morning mass.

'I would like to pray today for all those people who suffer unjust sentences resulting from intransigence (against them),' he said at the beginning of proceedings.

He compared the suffering of those served unjust sentences to Jesus being persecuted with 'obstinacy and rage even though he was innocent'.

Pope Francis had previously focused his morning masses and prayers on the coronavirus pandemic.

Cardinal Pell won his appeal bid to the High Court on Tuesday and walked free from Barwon Prison, near Geelong in the Australian state of Victoria, after more than 400 days behind bars.

The court unanimously found Cardinal Pell's conviction for child sex abuse should be overturned.

'There is a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof,' the full bench of seven judges said in their judgment.

Cardinal Pell released a statement saying the serious injustice he suffered had been remedied.

'I hold no ill will to my accused, I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough,' he said.

The 78-year-old said his trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church or how Australian church authorities dealt with paedophilia.

The head of the Catholic Church (pictured on April 5) seemingly compared the cardinal to Jesus in a tweet on Tuesday. 'In these days of #Lent, we've been witnessing the persecution that Jesus underwent and how He was judged ferociously, even though He was innocent,' Pope Francis wrote

Cardinal Pell's full statement I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice. This has been remedied today with the High Court's unanimous decision. I look forward to reading the Judgment and reasons for the decision in detail. I hold no ill will to my accuser, I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough. However my trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church; nor a referendum on how Church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of paedophilia in the Church. The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not. The only basis for long term healing is truth and the only basis for justice is truth, because justice means truth for all. A special thanks for all the prayers and thousands of letters of support. I want to thank in particular my family for their love and support and what they had to go through; my small team of advisors; those who spoke up for me and suffered as a result; and all my friends and supporters here and overseas. Also my deepest thanks and gratitude to my entire legal team for their unwavering resolve to see justice prevail, to throw light on manufactured obscurity and to reveal the truth. Finally, I am aware of the current health crisis. I am praying for all those affected and our medical frontline personnel. Advertisement

'The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not,' he said.

He thanked his family, advisers, friends and legal team for their support.

A little over two hours after the 10am (AEST) decision, Pell was whisked from jail to the Carmelite Monastery in the Melbourne suburb of Kew.

In December 2018, a jury found Cardinal Pell guilty of five charges, accepting evidence of one complainant that the then-Archbishop of Melbourne had sexually abused him and another 13-year-old choirboy at St Patrick's Cathedral in 1996.

One of the choirboys died in 2014, prompting the other to bring the allegations to police.

In an initial trial, a jury was unable to reach a verdict. The second jury was unanimous in its decision. An appeal to Victoria's Court of Appeal last year was unsuccessful.

Cardinal Pell has always maintained his innocence, a fact noted in the High Court's 26-page decision.

He told Victoria Police officers in Rome in 2016 that the most rudimentary interviews with staff and choirboys would tell them the allegations were 'fundamentally improbable' and 'most certainly false'.

The High Court found the Victorian Court of Appeal majority - Chief Justice Anne Ferguson and President Chris Maxwell - had failed to engage with the idea that against a body of evidence, the complainant's account was not correct.

The judges put aside the likelihood of the boys slipping away from the post-Mass procession without detection and the possibility Cardinal Pell could have exposed himself through his ornamental robes.

Cardinal George Pell leaves HM Prison Barwon in Geelong, Victoria, on Tuesday

Instead, they focused on the evidence that placed Cardinal Pell at the front of the cathedral for at least 10 minutes after Sunday Masses in December 1996.

They pointed to the fact Cardinal Pell was in the company of Monsignor Charles Portelli when he returned to the priest's sacristy to remove his vestments and there was continuous traffic in and out of the sacristy for up to 10 minutes after the altar servers completed their bows to the crucifix.

A fifth conviction relating to a second alleged incident, in which the surviving choirboy claimed he was molested by Cardinal Pell in a corridor, was also quashed.

The assumption that a group of choristers, including adults, would fail to notice the Archbishop in full regalia pin a 13-year-old boy to a wall 'is a large one', they said.

'The capacity of the evidence to support the verdict on this charge suffers from the same deficiency as the evidence of the assaults involved in the first incident,' the judges concluded.
Air New Zealand will lay off nearly 400 pilots as part of a plan to slash its workforce by 3750 employees in an attempt to survive the coronavirus crisis.

Like most airlines, it has been hit hard by the pandemic and its attached restrictions, as the world's demand for both domestic and international travel comes to a halt.

The New Zealand Air Line Pilots' Association (NZALPA), which represents 1520 of the airline's pilots said the company had told the union it intends to make 387 pilots redundant.

Air New Zealand has become the latest aviation industry victim of the coronavirus crisis as it braces to lay off 3750 employees

NZALPA president Andrew Ridling said it was in negotiations with Air New Zealand and it would fight to pave a clear path back into the company for pilots who may wish to return later.

'As we have been working closely with the airline over the past three weeks, NZALPA will continue to negotiate on getting this number reduced and finalising the agreement process,' he said on Tuesday, Stuff reports.

'NZALPA is adamant that 387 redundancies is not a final number. Now we continue the robust and thorough consultation process required under the Employment Relations Act and our specific collective agreement.'

An Air New Zealand spokeswoman would not comment on pilot redundancies specifically but said it had entered into a consultation process with staff to reduce the size of the workforce by up to 3500 roles.

'It's expected Air New Zealand will be a much smaller airline for some time even beyond the initial impact of Covid-19,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'We understand that this is a very difficult time for many Air New Zealanders.'

Staff received an email on Monday outlining the pilot job losses, with those most affected either first or second officers.

It followed an email Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran sent to staff last week warning that the airline's workforce would be reduced by 30 per cent over the next 12 months.

He said redundancies would be actioned on a last in, first off basis.

Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, Air New Zealand had about 12,500 staff worldwide, but many employees are now inactive as the company has reduced its international capacity by around 95 per cent and grounded almost half of its fleet.

The pandemic has forced Air New Zealand to ground almost half of its fleet

Last month, Air NZ applied for government assistance and was granted two loan reserves totalling $900 million dollars.

Similar redundancies have been carried out across the Tasman sea, as Virgin Australia grounded its entire fleet of 125 planes last month and stood down around 8,000 of its 10,000 staff members without pay.

Meanwhile, Qantas sent two thirds of its 30,000 workforce off the tarmac, with NZALPA also holding concerns 127 Qantas pilots and 81 Jetstar pilots could lose their jobs.

On March 18, the Australian government announced a $715million relief package would be given to the airline industry following news the country's flagship carrier, Qantas, could completely collapse.

Virgin Australia, which had been struggling before the outbreak, appealed to the government for a $1.4billion bail out last week but it was denied.
A surgical N95 respirator is pictured in Philadelphia on Friday, April 3, 2020. The respirators are in short supply due to the coronavirus pandemic. Read more

On March 25, Philadelphia closed a deal on an order of 500,000 highly coveted N95 masks to protect police, firefighters, and other first responders from the coronavirus. At $2.8 million, or $5.60 per mask, the price was inflated by about five times normal, but officials were glad to get them.

Adam Thiel, head of the citys Office of Emergency Management, knew better than to celebrate.

It is not done," Thiel, also the citys fire commissioner, said in a March 30 interview. "It will be done when I actually see them on our loading dock.

His skepticism proved to be prophetic. The next day BJs Wholesale Club, the supplier, reported the order had been canceled, for reasons unclear. The only bright spot was that the check had not been sent.

That kind of failure is a window into what has become a national scandal, the inability of governments and health-care systems to protect those on the front line of the pandemic. Hospitals were reporting delays of 3-6 months in being able to replenish key supplies, including surgical and N95 masks, according to a report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General.

Disrupted supply chains, hyper-competitive purchasing, and novice suppliers seeking quick profits are all complicating life-or-death transactions.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia officials have ordered more masks, but cant say when  or if  they might arrive.

Reliable sources

Last months mask deal was not the first to fall through, said Brian Abernathy, the citys managing director. Its one option of many options that we have pursued that havent come to fruition, he said.

The mask problem is particularly vexing because unlike simple surgical or homemade masks, the N95s block at least 95% of very small airborne particles, including those too tiny to be blocked by surgical or cloth masks. Airborne viral particles are considered one way the virus transmits, and are a particular risk in hospitals where ventilators and other respiratory treatments can lead to aerosolized particles. These masks are also fitted specifically for the wearer, forming a tight seal against the face. Because health care workers and emergency responders encounter the virus repeatedly, they need high-quality protection.

The thing about the N95 is, its not something we can make at home, Thiel said. The N95 is a little bit of a specialized thing and thats why were being aggressive about that.

The masks were scheduled to arrive, BJs informed the city, by April 3. The supplier told the city the order was canceled because it did not clear the testing facility in the country of origin, said Jeff Kolakowski, a spokesperson for the Office of Emergency Management.

There was no more explanation, he said. City officials arent even sure who manufactured the masks or where they originated.

You can place an order with vendors, Kolakowski said, but that does not necessarily mean you will get the product. BJs did not reply to several calls for comment.

Philadelphias experience isnt unusual, said Devika Daga, a volunteer in New York City with ProjectN95, an organization vetting the reliability of suppliers and manufacturers of personal protective equipment. Before this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had 38 companies registered as suppliers of N95 masks, she said. An additional 1,367 registered with the FDA in 2020, according to agency data. Untested newcomers to the field, many of them in China, are suddenly producing equipment, and distributors are seeking new sources as established ones run out of stock.

 READ MORE: The coronavirus surge is coming: Racing for supplies, Pa. hopes to avoid disaster and New Jersey fears its here

You have factories trying to seize the opportunities of this moment, Daga said. Do they go through the entire product development process? You have a lot of sort of cutting corners, and that coupled with suppliers not having established relationships.

The FDA did not reply to a request for comment.

Competition among friends

Philadelphias efforts to obtain more masks have been stymied by intense competition with, in some cases, other municipalities or states, and even the federal government, Kolakowski said.

We see competition for items between city procurement and federal purchases, he said, as both look to obtain PPE from the same vendors and manufacturers in the United States and other countries.

The city, along with making its own purchases, is relying on donations, state and federal sources, and local manufacturers, Kolakowski said.

The result, the HHS report stated, is a disrupted supply chain.

The prices are changing not only just daily, the prices are changing sometimes by the minute, Thiel said. Ive heard of commodities being purchased and either dont show up or the price is originally quoted and delivery time is originally quoted and then theres a backlog.

The competition results in a bidding war that has pushed the price of N95 masks from a dollar or less to $5 to $6 a mask. In that bidding battle, wealthier states have an advantage. The fierceness of competition led California Gov. Gavin Newsom to call for collaboration among states to purchase PPE.

An urgent need

With COVID-19 cases expected to peak soon in Philadelphia, the city anticipates needing 10,000 to 30,000 masks per day for law enforcement and emergency responders, who normally would dispose of a mask after aiding one person. The city has about 10,000 police and firefighters alone, Thiel said. In the HHS study, one hospital reported that by late March, it was using 2,000 masks daily  10 times the pre-coronavirus volume.

Area hospitals are adapting by directing employees only to use N95 masks in the most high-risk situations. Yet often health-care workers have no way to know which patients have COVID-19. They do know that other types of face coverings offer significantly less protection.

 READ MORE: First N95 medical mask imports finally reaching United States

So medical workers and their families are getting creative, with the help of local networks and donations. Anna Goodwin began a drive about two weeks ago to gather masks for her father, Christopher Goodwin, a doctor at Temple University Hospital. She has obtained 1,500 N95 and surgical masks, she said, with an additional 1,000 expected. She hasnt had time to think about why she is in the position of having to find essential safety equipment for a hospital.

Im very worried  Id say, like, 9 on a scale of 1 to 10," the 26-year-old said. "Its pretty scary.

Robert Kushner, whose brother-in-law is a doctor at Einstein Hospital, is among the American importers who recently entered the mask business. His company, UT Brands of Orange County, Calif., had since 1995 imported home goods for stores like Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohls.

His first order of 100,000 masks is en route, Kushner said, but he had to cancel an order for 500,000 masks after learning they were counterfeits. His connections in China are doing quality checks where possible. But, Kushner said, theyre liable to hear, Ive got a line out the door of people with cash who arent asking questions of me.

A dizzying array of FDA regulatory codes and a lack of cargo flights into the United States are also frustrating, he said. On Tuesday, he managed to scrounge up one small order  15 Chinese N95 masks to his brother-in-law, who has been wearing the same one for a week.

Staff writer Sean Walsh contributed to this article.
Rotunda Rumblings

Guard duty: With seven confirmed cases of coronavirus  and three deaths  at the Elkton federal prison, Gov. Mike DeWine authorized the Ohio National Guard to assist prison officials with medical support, cleveland.coms Cory Shaffer reports. DeWine emphasized that there was nothing he could do regarding the prisoners inside, who are under federal custody, but urged the Department of Justice to stop sending inmates to the facility to prevent the virus spread.

No offense: DeWine plans to expand the list of prisoners convicted of nonviolent offenses he would refer to judges for possible early release, cleveland.coms Seth Richardson reports. That update came after DeWine announced nearly 30 staffers and 10 prisoners in Marion and Pickaway correctional centers had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Case load: The state announced confirmed cases of coronavirus had climbed to 4,450, with 142 deaths Monday, cleveland.coms Jeremy Pelzer reports. That includes the first two deaths in Cincinnati, per the Cincinnati Enquirers Cameron Knight. The disease is present in 81 of Ohios 88 counties, according to the updated map from cleveland.coms Rich Exner.

Numbers game: The public continues to be caught in a numbers game between epidemiologists as conflicting figures on coronavirus modeling come to light. The University of Washington revised its models to show Ohio is in pretty good shape when it comes to resources, cleveland.coms Evan MacDonald reports.

Twin peaks? When will coronavirus cases peak in Ohio? The heads of the Ohio Department of Health and the Cleveland Clinic have different answers. Pelzer has more on what theyre predicting and why their forecasts are different.

Good news from the trends: Indications are growing that the worst might not be as bad as once feared, as shown by a series of graphics Exner put together based on Ohio Department of Health data. Ohio has not skyrocketed like New York, and the new case number per day hasnt shot up yet. Mondays increase was just 10% from Sundays total in cases. Both DeWine and Acton credit the work of Ohioans in keeping their distance from others.

Puzzling numbers? Over the weekend, Cuyahoga Countys case count increased just one form Friday to Saturday, and Summits number of cases was unchanged from Saturday to Sunday, according to the daily release from the Ohio Department of Health. That doesnt seem to follow normal trends, Exner reports. What gives? It looks like things slowed down for Summit. As for Cuyahoga, it could have been a timing issue on reporting.

Recruiting drive: Regardless of the differing models, state officials are surveying past and present medical professionals to assist with the expected surge of the disease, cleveland.coms Emily Bamforth reports. The state isnt keeping that to just doctors, either, with social workers and veterinarians also being gauged on their ability to help.

Temp work: DeWine also identified six sites that will serve as temporary hospitals during the pandemic, Richardson reports. The buildings, mostly convention centers, are located in Ohios six largest metropolitan areas and will house mildly ill patients.

More data issues: Ohio officials are trying to improve the quality of data reporting the racial background of coronavirus patients, cleveland.coms Andrew Tobias writes. Acton said Monday that many patients decline to fill out intake forms asking them for the information, and largely as a result, state officials dont know the racial background of a quarter of their COVID-19 cases, or the ethnic background of 40% of their cases. The state is working with hospitals to encourage patients to completely fill out the forms.

Abortion: A federal appeals court in Cincinnati has decided, for now, not to weigh in on a lawsuit over how abortions can be conducted during the coronavirus emergency, Tobias writes. A three-judge panel on Monday dismissed an appeal from Attorney General Dave Yost, who challenged a ruling by U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett. Barrett last week ruled that abortion clinics can continue to operate under an emergency state health order restricting nonessential surgeries, but also said abortions can be delayed under certain circumstances. Barrett has indicated he may issue a more final ruling.

Revenue cutter: In an initial sign of the hit state finances will take from the coronavirus crisis, March state tax revenues came in more than 10% below expectations, Pelzer reports.

All things local: Ohios current tax structure forcing localities to rely on income tax for their general fund revenue puts cities in a precarious spot economically, the Columbus Dispatchs Bill Bush reports. High unemployment means people arent working, which in turn means they arent paying taxes, meaning cities will be less likely to weather the financial downturn.

Vouch, thats gotta hurt: Ohio lawmakers decision to roll back some planned school vouchers has parents wondering where, or if, they can send their kids to private school, the Columbus Dispatchs Anna Staver reports. The legislature cut the list of schools deemed underperforming as part of the coronavirus omnibus legislation passed last month.

Stream of consciousness: The Democratic National Committee announced Monday that it reserved $22 million worth of YouTube ads for the general election in 14 states, including Ohio. The ads are meant to help the eventual nominee and will target Democratic voters specifically to attempt to increase turnout.

Full Disclosure

Five things we learned from the Feb. 18 financial disclosure form of state Rep. Darrell Kick, a Loudonville Republican.

1. Aside from his legislative salary, Kick reported earning up to $3,996 from oil well royalties, interest from accounts and Farmers and Savings Bank and Ameritrade and dividends from Key Corp.; $4,000 to $39,996 in dividends from Loudonville Farmers Equity, gas storage leases from Columbia Gas Transmission and non-employee compensation from Idyl Brook Dairy LLC and Idyl Wild Farms, Inc.; $50,000 to $99,999 in real estate income from Mohican Rentals; and $100,000 or more from Kicks Dairy Farm.

2. Kick reported owning common stock in Deere & Co., Exxon Mobil, Key Corp., Dover Corp., Aflac and CIFC LLC.

3. Kicks real estate investments included a set of six cabins and a self-storage facility.

4. Kick reported owing more than $1,000 at some point in 2018 to Farmers and Savings, Wayne Savings Community Bank, Chase Auto Finance, Veridian Credit Union, Apple Creek Bank, John Deere Financial and Capital One Auto Finance.

5. Kick received $2,984.80 in travel reimbursement from the Ohio House of Representatives. He also received $283 in lodging and $63.28 for boating from the Ohio Chamber of Commerce for its Salt Fork Conference. The Ohio House Republican Organizational Committee and the House Republican Campaign Committee each gave Kick at least $100 in food and beverage.

Birthdays

Former state Sen. Edna Brown

Former state Sen. and Rep. Brian Hill

Straight from the Source

This has been an eye-opening social experiment on not only how the public conducts itself in situations like this, but it also shows all the imperfections with the health system and government at both the federal and state levels. Hopefully it will be changed for the better.

-Justin Vaughn, a laid off bartender at Clevelands B-Side and Grog Shop, quoted in a cleveland.com story on the personal struggles workers in the bar and restaurant industry face right now.

Capitol Letter is a daily briefing providing succinct, timely information for those who care deeply about the decisions made by state government. If you do not already subscribe, you can sign up here to get Capitol Letter in your email box each weekday for free.
Petroleum stations in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, and other towns in the state are currently ignoring the directive of the federal government to reduce the price of petrol from N125 to N123.50 per litre.

Investigations by PREMIUM TIMES in major areas of Ibadan on Friday and Saturday revealed that majority of the petroleum stations are still selling at the old price of N125.

The Nigerian government had earlier in March announced the reduction of the pump price of petrol to N125.

A statement by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said the move was in compliance with the directives of the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources on petrol pricing.

Effective 19th March 2020, NNPC Ex-Coastal price for PMS has been reviewed downwards from N117.6/litre to N99.44/litre while Ex-Depot price is reduced from N133.28/litre to N113.28/litre, Mele Kyari, NNPC Group Managing Director said.

Again, the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency had also in April further reduced the pump price of petrol to N123.50 per litre.

Abdulkadir Saidu, the Executive Secretary of PPPRA, who announced the new pump price, said all retail outlets should start selling at the new price from April 1.

But, many marketers of the product in Ibadan are yet to obey the directive.

Checks by our correspondent in some areas such as Shasa, Ojoo, Apete, Sango, Iyaganku, Molete, Iwo Road and Akobo areas of Ibadan on Friday, Saturday and Sunday revealed that none of the stations which belong to independent marketers had adjusted its pump price to N123.50k as directed.

It was however observed that some stations which belong to the major marketers such as Total and NNPC have adjusted their pump prices as appropriate.

Some of the petroleum attendants told our correspondent that they have been instructed not to sell below N125 by their employers.

Residents lament

A resident of Ibadan, Dasola Adefabi, lamented that none of the petroleum stations in the area had adjusted its price to N123.50k.

Mr Adefabi, the Secretary General, Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS) Oyo branch said: The issue is that the public was not aware of the second reduction in price. I bought fuel at the rate of N125 per litre. I just discovered on Friday evening that the price has been reduced to N123.50. In this Sasha area along Moniya road, they are still selling at N125.

Funmi Ajala, a resident of Akobo confirmed that while major marketers had adjusted their pump price, none of the stations that belong to independent marketers had adjusted their pump price.

Mrs Ajala said Major marketers like FO, Total, Nipco have since changed to the latest price. Same as NNPC mega station on the Iwo Road-Oojo expressway. Only one independent filling station sells at the new price in our Akobo axis. And Bovas at Bodija too has complied immediately.

In Apete, Awotan, and Ajibode axis, checks revealed that none of the petroleum stations had complied with the directive.

Biodun Adebayo, a viewing centre owner who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday in Ajibode, a suburb of Ibadan, noted that he has been buying the petroleum at the rate of N125 from the petroleum stations despite the directive.

I have not seen any station selling it 123.5 here. It is N125, he said.

Another resident of Ibadan, Taiwo Jacob said, I bought yesterday for N125/litter.

Residents said the same situation is currently happening in Oyo town.

Olajide Olanipekun, who lives there, said none of the petroleum stations had complied with the directive.

I bought PMS on Wednesday 1st April, 2020 at N125 per litre in Araromi Area, Oyo Town. Just bought PMS again today. I bought it at N125 per litre in Araromi Area, Oyo Town, Oyo State, he said.

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Our correspondent gathered that what is happening in Ibadan and Oyo town is not different from what is happening in Ogbomoso, which is the second largest town in the state.

Meanwhile, Biodun Olaniran, Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomoso, told PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday that only a few stations had complied with the directive in Ogbomoso.

I am still in Ogbomoso because the stay at home met me there, so I am complying with the directive. I bought fuel last at N125. I have not been out since the reduction again but going through the news around only few stations have complied with 123.50k.

Members are free to choose between two selling prices- IPMAN

Meanwhile, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) said its members are free to choose the price that suits them as directed by PPPRA.

PPPRA in a statement issued on April 1, signed by Mr Saidu, told the retailers to choose between two price bands.

Mr Saidu in the circular obtained by PREMIUM TIMES on Monday said, In line with government approval of a new price regime effective 19th March, 2020 in which there was a provision for the establishment of a price band within which oil marketing companies (OMCs) are expected to sell at the retail stations.

Accordingly, the PPPRA wishes to further clarify the guiding price band of (effective from 1st April, 2020).

N123.50k per litre  Lower Band (LB)

N125 per litre  Upper Band (UB)

Members of the public and all oil marketing companies are to be guided.

IPMAN Secretary, Ibadan branch, Ismail Abdul-Majeed, in a circular to members of the association, asked members to freely choose between two selling price bands released by the PPPRA.

Mr Abdul-Majeed in the circular, which was obtained on Sunday, said the government reduced the depot price recently from NN133.28k to N113.28k and directed them to sell at N125.

He, however, expressed worry over the latest pump price of N123.50k, saying the government had not further reduced the depot price from N113.28k to make it commensurate with the new rate.

He urged members of the public to understand why IPMAN members would mostly sell at N125 until the Federal Government reduces its loading price from the current N113.28k.

Members can freely choose between the two (2) selling prices band as appropriate. The general public is hereby notified of the above development, Mr Abdul-Majeed said.
More behind the cutThe Surgeon General Jerome Adams is a quack, who failed in Indiana with Pence, and tweeted a silly poem downplaying the coronavirus during the MAGA ~hoax phase. Now he wants to compare the pandemic to Pearl Harbor, because hes never actually studied history, since we didnt have multiple warnings leading up to a surprise bombing attack. But I digress.Sara says the heaviness weighed on her. 911 was sad but also unifying. Which is contrary to now where we need to stay apart from each other. Her heart goes out to people going through this at home alone. Talks about mental health impacts. Meghan thinks this is an historical paradigm shift. Weekends are really long and all you do is think about this. Talks about racial inequality. Quotes stats in Michigan. Sunny expands on Meghans point on racial disparity, also a disparity in terms of economic and health care differences. Thinks the Surgeon General is part of the problem. Quotes sequence of his actions. Now a huge shift in messaging. Whoopi thinks Fauci is the only one who has any idea what theyre talking about. Doesnt trust anyone but Fauci. This didnt sneak up on us, we knew it was coming but [WH] did nothing. Meghan talks more about all the examples of inequalities. Sara says the virus is an equalizer because it hits everyone but the ability to fight it and cope with the fallout is unequal.Snake oil salesman is still promoting an unproven drug that will kill you if taken improperly. T45 says hes not a doctor, then cuts off and refuses to allow Fauci to comment. Theres nothing else to say for this segment. Theres no financial gain, its a generic sold for $0.30/pill by multiple companies, but T45 needs a hero cure to deflect from his colossal incompetence.Panel debates about MSM covering the press conferences. Sunny hates it, because he lies lies and lies some more. Meghan thinks it should be covered because hes a draconian totalitarian bully leader and this needs to be on full display to make clear to people how inept he and his team are.Modern Family is coming to an end this week. Plays clip. JTF talks about saying goodbye to the show, and his new project to help covid-19. Covers how he and husband are faring during shelter at home. Expecting a baby in July so theyre getting the nursery ready. Relates the show covering his family status to real life. Talks about Terrence McNally, in honor of his death, some actors will do a live reading of. Sara talks about, which JTF has been watching. They chat about possible casting for the show. He says he group chats with his cast members. Thinks getting Ed ONeill on Zoom is an uphill battle. Series finale airs Wednesday.Source links are below each video or section
Jobs in the hospitality and catering industry have been hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic. (Getty)

The hospitality and catering industry has been hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic with a 66% reduction in job vacancies, according to new analysis of the latest job market data.

The closure of restaurants, pubs, and bars as part of the battle against the spread of the coronavirus has taken its toll as the number of open vacancies has dropped from 51,998 to 18,645 across the country this year, the analysis by job search engine Adzuna found.

COVID-19 continues to hit the travel industry as job vacancies have fallen by 38%. Travel bans have caused many airlines to scale back across the UK, with British Airways grounding all flights from Gatwick Airport as the demand for travel collapses.

The energy industry has seen a significant downturn with job vacancies falling by 62%, opportunities for consultancy jobs are down by 54%, and HR and recruitment has seen a reduction of 54% in job vacancies.

Change in total job vacancies 2020. (Adzuna)

In contrast, cleaning and domestic help vacancies have seen an increase of 23% as demand for cleaners, domestic workers, and hospital cleaning staff continues to increase as a response to the coronavirus pandemic. Public health officials continue to stress the importance of clean working and living areas to prevent the spread of the virus, which has led to a rise in demand across the UK.

There has been a 35% reduction in total job vacancies in the UK in the last seven weeks.

Last week, business groups sounded the alarm on jobs, warning that huge swathes of the population could be laid off or furloughed in the coming weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A million people applied for universal credit benefit in just two weeks last month, suggesting redundancies have already begun en masse.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said 52% of businesses surveyed planned to use the furlough scheme. The British Chamber of Commerces survey of 600 businesses found 44% were planning to furlough at least 50% of staff in the next week.

Story continues

Read more: UK workers 'left with nothing' by small print of coronavirus support schemes

Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said: With recent developments within the travel industry and big-name brands such as British Airways, EasyJet, Jet2 and TUI all grounding flights or reviewing existing roles for their staff, its no surprise to see such a big decrease in available vacancies within the industry.

We do expect this number to continue declining as we approach the peak of the pandemic here in the UK, along with reductions across the hospitality industry. However, during these uncertain times, we are seeing certain industries such as cleaning and domestic help flourishing, or seeing a minimal impact, which is positive.
HEALTH Minister Simon Harris has signed new regulations giving gardai the power to enforce some of the Covid-19 restrictions.

Mr Harris signed the regulations in the Department of Health late on Tuesday night following a meeting with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris where the issue of giving gardai extra powers was raised.

The Minister earlier told RTE he would sign regulations to give gardai enforcement powers tonight.

"It is important that gardai have these powers in their back pocket should they be needed," he said on Prime Time.

The regulations will give An Garda Siochana the power to carry out arrests, seek prosecutions and issue fines against people who travel 2km beyond their home or fail to comply with guidelines on social distancing and the ban on mass gatherings due to the virus.

The Commissioner met with Mr Harris, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan and Attorney General Seamus Woulfe on Tuesday night.

The Commissioner is understood to have told the Government that gardai are experiencing high levels of public compliance with the current restrictions on movement.

However there are concerns over people potentially travelling across the country for the Bank Holiday weekend and issues such as cyclists travelling further than 2km.

Members of An Garda Siochana had been seeking clarity on what further powers of enforcement would be made available to them under the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020, which was passed into law last month.

A government spokesman earlier confirmed the meeting took place on Tuesday, but could provide no further details and referred to the Taoiseach's comments earlier in the week.

The issue of giving gardai more powers was discussed at length at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

While many ministers noted the strong degree of public compliance, some expressed fears that the longer the restrictions continue the more potential there is that people could stop complying with the measures.

A Cabinet minister said afterwards: "Once people realise they're not going to be punished for something they will break the rules. So this thing could breakdown."

Mr Varadkar said on Monday he did not want to sign tougher laws on enforcement at the moment.

"The last thing I want is people to come out after this emergency with fines and prison sentences and criminal convictions," he said.

"So while we can bring in tougher laws and they are ready to be signed if we need to, I don't want to do that just yet, and certainly not unless the Garda Commissioner really feels it's absolutely necessary".

A garda spokesman declined to comment on the meeting.

There are concerns within An Garda Siochana that the longer the restrictions are in place the more difficult it will be to ensure public compliance. A source said they would like the extra powers as an "insurance policy" and stressed they would be used as a "last resort".

"We can rely on people's goodwill and road traffic acts and public order acts - there is legislation we can use. But there is going to be circumstances where for instance we do not have powers of enforcement," the source said.

Mr Flanagan said on Monday that he hoped the regulations would be finalised this week.

"My department here in Justice has been working closely with the Department of Health in ensuring the completion of the regulations - which I would expect to take place over the coming days," he said.

The responsibility for signing them into law fell to Minister Harris who brought in the Act last month.
T he UK has suffered its worst day since the coronavirus outbreak began as the number of new deaths jumped by 786, bringing the total so far to 6,159.

As of 5pm on Monday, the death toll passed 6,000 up from 5,373 the day before, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.

The DHSC added that, as of 9am on Tuesday, 213,181 people have been tested of which 55,242 tested positive.

Overall, 266,694 tests have been concluded, with 14,006 tests carried out on Monday.

Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures 1 /81 Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures A deserted Westminster Bridge PA A man wearing a face mask or covering due to the COVID-19 pandemic, walks past customers sat outside a restaurant AFP via Getty Images Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Runners pass cardboard cutouts of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William during the London Marathon in London AP An empty escalator at Charing Coss London Underground tube station Jeremy Selwyn Electronic bilboards displays a message warning people to stay home in Sheffield PA A sign is displayed in the window of a student accommodation building following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mancheste Reuters People take part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions, in Londo AP People sing and dance in Leicester Square on the eve on the 10PM curfew Reuters Hearts painted by a team of artists from Upfest are seen in the grass at Queen Square, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Bristol Reuters Graffiti reads 'good luck and stay safe', as the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases grow around the world, under a bridge in London Reuters A sign is pictured in Soho, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London Reuters Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures, during a coronavirus briefing in Downing Street, London AP A person runs past posters with a message of hope, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Manchester REUTERS Riot police face protesters who took part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions in London AP An image of The Queen eith quotes from her broadcast to the UK and the Commonwealth in relation to the Coronavirus epidemic are displayed on lights in London's Piccadilly Circus PA Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images Durdle Door in Dorset Reuters Captain Tom Moore via Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Coronavirus outbreak PA An NHS worker reacts at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital during the Clap for our Carers campaign in support of the NHS Reuters Goats which have taken over the deserted streets of Llandudno @AndrewStuart via PA Tobias Weller PA Novikov restaurant in London with its shutters pulled down while the restaurant is closed London Landscapes: Hyde Park and the Serpentine, central London. Matt Writtle A newspaper vendor in Manchester city centre giving away free toilet rolls with every paper bought as shops run low on supplies due to fears over the spread of the coronavirus PA Theo Clay looks out of his window next to his hand-drawn picture of a rainbow in Liverpool, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue Reuters A young man cuts another man's hair on top of a closed hairdresser in Oxford Reuters General view of the new NHS Nightingale Hospital, built to fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London via Reuters Jason Baird is seen dressed as Spiderman during his daily exercise to cheer up local children in Stockport, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters A woman wearing a face mask walks past Buckingham Palace Getty Images A man holds mobile phone displaying a text message alert sent by the government warning that new rules are in force across the UK and people must stay at home PA Medical staff on the Covid-19 ward at the Neath Port Talbot Hospital, in Wales, as the health services continue their response to the coronavirus outbreak. PA Prime Minister Boris Johnson taking part in a virtual Cabinet meeting with his top team of ministers PA A shopper walks past empty shelves in a Lidl store on in Wallington. After spates of "panic buying" cleared supermarket shelves of items like toilet paper and cleaning products, stores across the UK have introduced limits on purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have also created special time slots for the elderly and other shoppers vulnerable to the new coronavirus. Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour PA Mia, aged 8 and her brother Jack, aged 5 from Essex, continue their school work at home, after being sent home due to the coronavirus PA Children are painting 'Chase the rainbows' artwork and springing up in windows across the country Reuters Social distancing in Primrose Hill Jeremy Selwyn A general view of a locked gate at Anfield, Liverpool as The Premier League has been suspended PA Homeless people in London AFP via Getty Images A piece of art by the artist, known as the Rebel Bear has appeared on a wall on Bank Street in Glasgow. The new addition to Glasgow's street art is capturing the global Coronavirus crisis. The piece features a woman and a man pulling back to give each other a kiss PA The Queen leaves Buckingham Palace, London, for Windsor Castle to socially distance herself amid the coronavirus pandemic PA A general view on Grey street, Newcastle as coronavirus cases grow around the world Reuters Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA Britain's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty (L) and Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance look on as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures as he speaks during a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) news conference inside 10 Downing Street Reuters The ticket-validation terminals at the tram stop on Edinburgh's Princes Street are cleaned following the coronavirus outbreak. PA Locked school gates at Rockcliffe First School in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear PA A sign at a Sainsbury's supermarket informs customers that limits have been set on a small number of products as the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases grow around the world Reuters Jawad Javed delivers coronavirus protection kits that he and his wife have put together to the vulnerable people of their community of Stenhousemuir, between Glasgow and Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" Getty Images A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A pedestrian walks past graffiti that reads "Diseases are in the City" in Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images Staff from The Lyric Theatre, London inform patrons, as it shuts its doors PA A quiet looking George IV Bridge in Edinburgh PA A quieter than usual British Museum Getty Images A racegoer attends Cheltenham in a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com A commuter wears a face mask at London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn A empty restaurant in the Bull Ring Shopping Centre Getty Images A deserted Trafalgar Square in London PA Passengers determined to avoid the coronavirus before leaving the UK arrive at Gatwick Airport Getty Images

The daily figure for the number of people tested on Monday excludes data from Manchester and Leeds because of a data processing delay, while the overall tests figure excludes Northern Ireland, the Department of Health added.

It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains in a "stable" condition in intensive care as the Covid-19 pandemic rages on.

Earlier today, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales separately declared their latest number of Covid-19 deaths. This appeared to bring the UK total up to 854 but later official Government figures recorded a 786 nationwide rise.

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NHS England said a further 758 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 5,655, up from 4,897 at the same time on Monday.

Patients were aged between 23 and 102 years old and 29 of the 758 patients (aged between 23 and 99 years old) had no known underlying health condition. Their families have been informed.

Meanwhile, A further 19 patients have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Wales, bringing the total number of deaths there to 212, health officials said.

There also have been three reported deaths of patients with coronavirus in Northern Ireland since yesterday, according to the country's Public Health Agency.

This brings the total number of deaths in the region to 73.

The number of people who have died in Scotland after contracting coronavirus is 296, a rise of 74 from 222 on Monday, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast
Dominic Raab took charge of Britains battle against coronavirus on Tuesday as acting Prime Minister  but was warned just to hold on to the steering wheel.

Mr Raab, who is First Secretary of State, was asked to deputise for Boris Johnson after he was moved into intensive care.

He has been handed a raft of powers, including the ability to take the UK to war.

At a Downing Street press conference, Mr Raab was repeatedly asked how disagreements between ministers would be resolved in the PMs absence  but while he insisted the Cabinet would remain united, he did not say who had ultimate authority.

Foreign Secretary Mr Raab faced a string of questions about how much autonomy he had. He said of the Prime Minister: Hes asked me to deputise for him for as long as is necessary, but the normal Cabinet collective responsibility and principles that inform that will apply.

Dominic Raab took charge of Britains battle against coronavirus on Tuesday as acting Prime Minister, but there is still no clarity as to whether the collective cabinet make the calls

He added: Weve got very clear directions, very clear instructions from the Prime Minister, and were focused with total unity and total resolve on implementing them so that when hes back, I hope in very short order, we will have made the progress that he would expect and that the country would expect.

Mr Johnsons spokesman said last night that his team was very clear about what their jobs entailed. In reality, even though he is acting as Britains de facto leader, Mr Raab will not enjoy the same powers as the Prime Minister.

He will not be able to stamp his authority on the Cabinet by firing rival ministers, he will have to stick to Mr Johnsons plan  and will not have a weekly audience with the Queen.

While Mr Raab insisted the Cabinet would remain united, he did not say who had ultimate authority to make the important calls

The Prime Ministers spokesman confirmed that Mr Raab and the Cabinet would be able to take military action without the consent of Mr Johnson  and the Foreign Secretary would chair any meeting of the National Security Council.

The letters of last resort, written from Mr Johnson to the commanding officer of each of the countrys Trident nuclear submarines, remain in place. The Prime Minister remains the Prime Minister, his spokesman stated.

Mr Raabs responsibilities will include chairing a daily meeting of the Cabinets coronavirus war committee. The group, which also comprises Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove, has faced rumours of tensions.

But sources close to the senior ministers last night warned no one would look favourably on any attempts to jostle for position. One Cabinet minister said: Now is not the time for a power-play, we just need to pull together.

The PM has been clear about what should happen and put in place a caretaker. I dont think there will be any challenge to that, not least because that is not what the country expects.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson (pictured on Thursday evening), who was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in London, was taken to intensive care at 7pm on Monday evening

Another Cabinet minister said no one was in the mood to ruffle feathers while the PM is ill. We are all going to be impeccably behaved and get on with it. Dom has just got to hold on to the steering wheel, they added.

A Cabinet source described Mr Raabs handling of the virus committee meeting as business-like. Hes been on the C-19 meeting since the start so he is across all the detail, the source said.

There were a lot of issues to get through and he just worked through them with the others  it was business-like. Mr Raab was seen raising his hand to his mouth on Tuesday as he exited the Foreign Office to walk over to Downing Street.

Should he be taken ill, Mr Sunak would be next in line, Downing Street confirmed. Mr Gove, who himself went into self-isolation on Tuesday after a family member displayed symptoms, said ministers and officials were working effectively together to carry out Mr Johnsons plan.

He said a decision on extending the lockdown measures would not be delayed and would be taken collectively as a Cabinet.

The person who will chair that Cabinet, the person who will make the final decision of course is the Foreign Secretary, he said. Mr Johnsons spokesman said: The Government has a very clear plan for responding to the coronavirus pandemic that has been set out by the Prime Minister.

Everybody is very clear about what needs to be done and determined to get on with the work that the Prime Minister has asked them to do.

Former Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday there was a very good system in place. He added: The Civil Service is a great machine, professional, impartial, good at preparing these decisions, and the right decision Im sure will be taken.
The Supreme Court Tuesday sought response from the Centre and the Assam government on a plea seeking release of persons kept in overcrowded detention Centres, after being declared as foreigners, in view of coronavirus pandemic.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao issued notice and sought response from Assam and the Centre by April 13 on the plea of the woman whose husband has been declared as a foreigner and is lodged in detention centre for around two years, awaiting deportation.

Advocate Mohit Chaudhary, appearing for petitioner Rajubala Das, said the man cannot be deported as the government has no proof that he is a citizen of another country due to which his present category is of a stateless person, who would have to languish indefinitely unless released.

He said the extreme urgency in the matter is that the lives of such detenues is at risk in light of coronavirus or COVID-19 due to densely populated detention camps.

Chaudhary said that on May 10 last year, the top court had ordered that illegal foreigners in Assam who have completed more than three years in detention may be released after they provide biometric details in a secured database.

The bench said it would take up the matter next Monday.

The plea filed by Das also sought direction to the Assam government not to detain any person declared as foreigner by the foreigners tribunals until it can show proof of possible deportation in the foreseeable future.

It said as per the information provided by Minister of State for Home in Rajya Sabha on March 11, there are 802 persons living in the detention centres of Assam and most of those detained are those against whom an order has been passed by the Foreigners Tribunal holding them to be foreigners.

The petitioner's husband is a declared foreigner against whom an ex-parte order was passed. His children too were declared foreigners in the same case even though there had not been any reference made against them.

"The petitioner's husband had initially appeared in the Foreigners Tribunal but thereafter remained unrepresented due to financial inability, it said.

There are many others who have contested their case but are still held to be foreigners, the plea sid, adding that they cannot possibly be deported because the Centre has no proof to show they are citizens of any other country and thereby no foreign country will be willing to accept these people.

Detention of such persons indefinitely where there is no possibility of their deportation amounts to arbitrary detention and is thereby a violation of the personal liberty of the detained persons guaranteed as a fundamental right to all persons in the territory of India by Article 21 of the Constitution of India, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The time has come to use those binoculars, because the full moon on 8 April will be the biggest and the brightest of the year 2020.

Wikipedia

This Supermoon will not appear pink though. It's named pink super moon after the spring blossom of pink phlox flowers that accompanies the Aprils full moon in the United States.

It will be visible from the moonrise on Tuesday April 7 and the moon set on the following morning on Wednesday April 8.

Note: For the people in India the moon will be visible at 8.05 am IST on Wednesday 08 April 2020.

What is a supermoon?

Wikipedia

According to NASA, The term supermoon was invented in 1979, it is used to describe what astronomers call a perigee. The super moon takes place when the full moon is at its closest to the Earth. The moon revolves around our planet in an elliptical orbit, or simply an oval orbit, and therefore has a farthest and closest point from the earth as it goes around.

The farthest point in this eclipse is known as the apogee and in kilometers it is about 405,500 from the earth on average. At its closest point, the perigee is an average distance of about 363,300 kilometers from Earth.

When the full moon appears at perigee it is brighter and larger than a regular moon and that is called the supermoon.

Pink Super moon - What is it and how is it different from the Supermoon?

This year a couple of supermoons have appeared, this pink supermoon is slated to be the biggest and brightest of the lot.

This pink supermoon is the closest the moon will get to the earth than any other Supermoons. The first full moon or supermoon came on 9 March and the last one will take place on 7 May.

Another reason to give is that the Supermoons are also seven per cent bigger and about 15 per cent brighter than the normal full moons.

The history around its name?

Unsplash

It is sad to say but Pink moons do not have even a hint of pink colour in it. It gets its name from the pink wildflowers that is Wild Ground Phlox, this flower blooms when the spring arrives in the North American.

There are some other names of this full moon which includes Sprouting Grass Moon, Fish Moon, Hare Moon and Egg Moon.

This moon is also called Paschal Moon as in the Christian calendar, this is brilliantly used to calculate the date of Easter. The first Sunday after Paschal moon is Easter Sunday.

A moon on the horizon looks bloated

When a supermoon lies close to the horizon, it can look absolutely enormous, that is the time when it's called the moon illusion combining with reality to produce a truly stunning view for the audience.

For specific reasons which are not fully understood by astronomers, a low-hanging moon looks incredibly large when hovering near trees, buildings and other foreground objects. The fact that the moon will be much closer than usual this week might work to put light on these strange effects.

So, a supermoon is rising in the east at sunset or dropping down in the west at sunrise might seem to make the moon look so large and close that you could almost touch it.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 21:51:29|Editor: huaxia

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HANGZHOU, April 7 (Xinhua) -- East China's Zhejiang Province and the country's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group jointly launched an initiative Tuesday to boost the digital development of small and medium-sized enterprises.

According to the initiative, the two sides will tap the digital potential of Zhejiang's manufacturing industries, help SMEs to build digital production and marketing systems, and expand digital international marketing channels of "Made in Zhejiang" products.

As for export-focused SMEs, Alibaba will help them to expand into new markets through platforms such as AliExpress, Lazada and Tmall World and help a subset of these SMEs transform and develop their business through measures such as resource support, fee reductions and fast-track processing.

As for the manufacturing sector, it aims at activating manufacturing belts, incubating a group of "Super Producer IP" designations, and fostering 10 digitized manufacturing clusters with production output valued at tens of billions yuan. Also, it will help 1,000 factories realize direct-to-consumer sales of over 100 million yuan (about 14.2 million U.S. dollars) within three years.

Alibaba will also establish 1,000 digitized agricultural centers across China, according to the initiative.

In addition, the e-commerce giant will help alleviate financing challenges for more SMEs by extending "immediate settlement" services until June 30. The online merchant bank of Ant Financial, Alibaba's financial affiliate, will work with hundreds of traditional banks to provide zero-contact loans to tens of millions of SMEs.

"SMEs are the lifeblood of an economy," said Alibaba Group Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang in a staff memo. "If SMEs are alive, then the economy will remain alive."

"We must turn the 'danger' brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic into 'opportunity' for SMEs to prepare for the future through digital transformation," said Zhang.
We must remember that when government commits money to support us during this pandemic, its our money being committed. We have all agreed to take on more national debt, with interest, to support vast segments of our population and economy. In effect, all Canadians have agreed to make an unprecedented, charitable donation to ourselves.

To repay this debt there are obvious choices: Either reduce pre-COVID-19 spending, raise pre-COVID-19 taxes or a combination.

But there is a third option that the Prime Minister and premiers must first act on before defaulting to the usual choices; that is the recovery of lost and waived taxes. Examples of lost tax revenues are well known: money sheltered by Canadians in off-shore tax havens; the underground economy; money laundering; those who renege on their taxes. Canadians now have every right to expect Ottawa and the provinces to finally recover these lost taxes and end the practice of tax avoidance.

But there are other categories of tax revenues we waive that also add to our national debt, every year. Canadians have earned the right to ask why we continue subsidizing expenses that individuals decide to incur in the course of doing business or their personal lives. Take a client to lunch or lease a high end car, but do it entirely at your companys expense! Likewise, give to your favourite charity or church, but from your familys pocketbook, not at the expense of COVID-19 debt-weary Canadians! And lets put an end to municipalities waiving property taxes to charitable organizations!

In the aftermath of COVID-19, boutique tax exemptions for business and individuals must be a thing of the past in light of the fact that all Canadians have just made the largest charitable donation, ever.
Japan is to impose a state of emergency in Tokyo and six other prefectures as early as today to contain the coronavirus, while the government prepares a $990bn (917bn) stimulus package to soften the economic blow.

Domestic infections topped 4,000, Jiji news reported, and 93 have died - not a huge outbreak compared with some global hot spots.

But the numbers keep rising, with particular alarm over the spread in Tokyo, which has more than 1,000 cases including 83 new ones.

"Japan won't, and doesn't need, to take lockdown steps like those overseas," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters, citing the opinion of infectious disease experts.

"Trains will be running and supermarkets will be open. The state of emergency will allow us to strengthen current steps to prevent an increase in infections while ensuring that economic activity is sustained as much as possible," he said.

An emergency, which Mr Abe said would last about a month, will give governors authority to call on people to stay at home and businesses to close.

With no penalties for ignoring the requests in most cases, enforcement will rely more on peer pressure and respect for authority, and was unlikely to be as rigorous as lockdowns in many other countries.

In a sign that corporate Japan already was heeding the call, Canon Inc announced it would close its Tokyo headquarters for 10 days starting from today.

Pressure had been mounting on the government to take the step although Mr Abe had voiced concern about being too hasty, given the restrictions on movement and businesses it would entail.

Mr Abe also said the government will launch a stimulus package of about 108 trillion yen, including more than six trillion yen for cash payouts to households and small businesses and 26 trillion yen to allow deferred social security and tax payments.

It was not immediately clear how much of that package would be new government spending.

An emergency appears to have public support.

In a poll published yesterday by JNN, run by broadcaster TBS, 80pc of those surveyed said that Mr Abe should declare it, while 12pc said it was not necessary.

His approval rating fell by 5.7 percentage points from last month to 43.2pc, the survey showed.
[April 07, 2020] Integration Partners Recognized as a 2019 East Partner of the Year by Juniper Networks

Integration Partners, a national IT services company today announced that it was recognized as a Partner of the Year by Juniper Networks (News - Alert), a leader in secure, AI-driven networks. Integration Partners was recognized in the category of America's Partner of the Year for their ability to develop innovative cloud-based solutions integrating Juniper Networks technologies and a strong overall performance and growth as an Elite partner. Integration Partner was also awarded the 2019 Americas Theater Partner of the Year. "Juniper is pleased to honor the partners who use their ingenuity and business acumen to solve customers' biggest challenges in building next-generation cloud environments. Integration Partners is among the best of the best of our global partners and we look forward to continuing to strengthen our relationship with them." Christian Goffi, Americas Head of Channels and Distribution at Juniper Networks "We are honored to receive this awar for the second year in a row. It truly highlights the value our partnership with Juniper Networks brings to our customers" said David Raftery, Chief Customer Officer at Integration Partners.



Integration Partners serves the US market specifically focusing on the Enterprise market with a full suite of offerings;  Cloud, Security, Collaboration, Core Infrastructure and Managed Services.

The Juniper Partner Advantage (JPA) program is built on the pillars of partner profitability, innovation, and expanded opportunities. It is dedicated to supporting partners with enablement, training, services offerings, and incentives programs to accelerate growth. The JPA program consists of three distinct partner levels - Elite, Select and Reseller. For more information on the JPA program, please visit www.juniper.net/partners Integration Partners is an award winning, nationwide IT services engineering firm specializing in solutions that are open, scalable and drive to greater productivity and competitiveness for our clients. Our solutions and services portfolio provide enterprises with Cloud, Security, Collaboration, Core Infrastructure, and Managed Services. Integration Partners is a privately held company headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005013/en/

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Some 73 more cases have been added to the countrys case count.

This brings the total number of cases to 287.

The Ghana Health Service indicates that the rise in the number of cases follows measures of enhanced contact tracing and testing.

Government is yet to provide details of the new patients.
Models pose with LG Electronics' new Whisen ThinQ air conditioners, Tuesday. The company said the 2020 model has an upgraded filter cleaning feature. / Courtesy of LG Electronics



By Kim Yoo-chul



LG Electronics said Tuesday it was expecting to report an operating profit of 1.1 trillion won for the first three months ended March 31, up 21.1 percent from a year ago mostly thanks to cost-saving efforts and better-than-expected sales in home appliances and televisions.



In its preliminary earnings results for the first quarter of this year, LG said it was predicting to report consolidated sales of 14.7 trillion won with an operating profit of 1.1 trillion won. LG beat earlier market expectations. Sales were cut by 1.2 percent year-on-year, despite its whopping increase in the quarterly operating profit amid the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier thoughts were LG had been expected to generate an operating profit of 850 billion won during the latest quarter.



In the statement, LG said details regarding each of its business units will be announced officially later this month. Company officials declined to comment over its recent preliminary earnings.






Phillip Romano, like just about everyone in the Bay Area, is stuck at home.

As a studio photographer, he cant work right now. So he spends his days talking to his friends and family, cooking in between conversations until its time to go to sleep. He feels lucky hes in San Francisco and not in his native New York, where the coronavirus has torn through thousands of lives. Some of his family members have died from COVID-19.

Its a very sad reality, very sobering, Romano said. Ive been spending a lot of time connecting with family. One way I do this is I show them pictures of what I cook.

During shelter in place, Bay Area residents are looking at food and cooking in a new light. For some, its become a source of exhaustion  they used to get free meals at tech offices and now they have to think about breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day. But for many home cooks, preparing a simple meal has turned into an important opportunity: a way to connect to loved ones they cant see; a way to feel normal during an abnormal time; a way to exert control when everything seems to be spiraling into chaos.

For Romano, food has always felt powerful. He grew up in a family that celebrated its Italian, Syrian and Southern roots through food traditions. Hes been making Syrian triangular spinach pies that his Southern grandmother used to make, feeling that emotional tie. The other day, he rolled gnocchi dough and tossed the little potato dumplings with marinara  his Italian grandmother taught him the technique. He still has a photo from that day, so he sent a copy to her alongside a shot of his quarantined gnocchi.

That just made her day, he said.

Alyssa Lee

San Francisco resident Alyssa Lee started working from home March 11 and hasnt left much since then. A couple of times a week, shes turned to her friends on Instagram to see what she should cook with her limited pantry in a series she calls Fridge Forage. Should she cook chicken with lemons and a package of Greek herb seasoning she found in the back of her cupboard, or chicken with dried currants and a kibbeh spice mix she lugged back from her last trip to New York?

People voted  in this case, for the Greek chicken  and she posted a photo of the result. Its a fun way to connect, especially because Lee doesnt have roommates.

It helps me feel less alone, she said.

Alameda resident Stacy Cutlers husband has been similarly posting photos on Instagram of Cutlers cooking expeditions  shes been determined to use up old pantry items from takeout soy sauce packets to slightly stale Frosted Flakes. Having limited ingredients has forced her to get creative. She cant find flour, and shes tried ordering yellow mustard three times online to no avail.

The results have meant embellishing instant ramen with eggs marinated in soy sauce and mirin, a flourish she learned about in Japanese restaurants. On a day she craved pizza but didnt have any way to make dough, she pulled out old pieces of naan from the freezer to work as the base. Simple things like eggs have started to feel more special.

Despite the challenges, Cutler finds cooking to be a comforting cycle she can return to throughout the day.

Its something I can control when theres nothing around me I can control right now, she said.

Theres a beginning and an end. That feels nice when the coronavirus toll on everyday life still doesnt have a known ending.

Strategy is something multiple home cooks discussed as being a new part of the shelter-in-place lifestyle. Theyre spacing out their use of ingredients to delay the next trip to the grocery store, thinking more about what to take out of the freezer and when  a big contrast to the old days, when they might go shopping for just a few items on a whim. Theyre making stocks out of vegetable scraps, pickling soft cucumbers and inventing dishes on the fly with a sharpened focus on avoiding food waste.

Theyre also making a lot of bread.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Oaklands Jessica Falarski always liked baking, but the time at home has led her to shape far more sourdough loaves than usual. Shes made bagels every single week since March 5, the first day she transitioned to working from home.

Jessica Falarski

Since some bread recipes require attention spread across three days, home cooks across the country have decided now is the time to start learning. Its made flour and yeast nearly impossible to find in grocery stores and online, and sourdough starter a prized gift.

Wondering what to cook during shelter in place? Join The Chronicle's Assistant Food Editor Tara Duggan from 4-5 p.m. on Thursday, April 9 for a live video cooking demo. Tara will show you how to make easy recipes using everyday pantry staples and answer all your kitchen questions. The event is open to Chronicle subscribers; sign up here. See More Collapse

A lot of Falarskis friends have asked her for some sourdough starters, but shes worried that bringing a jar to someones house isnt the safest move right now.

I joked like, I can give you sourdough starter, but let me just disinfect it first, which would mean killing it, she said.

Others are less concerned, even taping plastic baggies of starter to trees for neighbors in San Francisco. Romano, for example, loves that his friends have felt inspired to start baking bread because of the photos of crusty loaves hes posted on social media. Two weeks ago, he split his sourdough starter and biked over to a friends house, leaving it on his doorstep. On the same trip, he left a jar of homemade Nutella-like spread outside another friends house just as a sweet hello.

I think people are trying to make the best of a bad situation, and were all learning how to do that, he said. I dont know the key. I just feel like Im doing my best.

Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker
Last week, instead of our traditional April Fools Day joke, we donated $1 million to Health Research Inc. to benefit the state of New Yorks COVID-19 relief fund, based on guidance from Gov. Andrew Cuomos office. As the governor has said, right now, New York is the canary in the coal mine for our entire country. Whom we can help, and what we can learn from New York, will benefit us all.

We invited you, our Foolish community, to join us in supporting the fight to stop COVID-19 in New York or in your own community. And you responded just like we knew you would.

Thank you to everyone who contributed and was a part of this -- to the donors across The Motley Fool community from 43 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Canada, and even a member from Austria contributing to the effort.

This fight isn't over. We encourage everyone who can to continue to find ways to help others, whether it's donating to New York and the relief fund there, or getting active in your community, hometown, or state. Wherever there is a need, there's an opportunity for us as Fools to help bend the curve of this virus.

Together, we're fulfilling The Motley Fool's purpose to make the world smarter, happier, and richer.

Thank you for everything you're doing, dear Fool, including staying inside, being safe with your family, and contributing as you can to all of the great organizations and individuals that are doing their part. And thank you to all the healthcare workers and those on the front lines battling to end this global pandemic.

Stay safe, stay healthy, and Fool on.

Tom, David, and all of us at The Motley Fool

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New Delhi, April 7 : Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has emerged as the party with the highest income among regional parties, as per a report published by Association for Democratic Reform (ADR).

ADR's report analyzed the total income and expenditure incurred by 37 regional parties during financial year 2018-19. "Political parties have multiple sources of funding and thus accountability and transparency should be an important aspect of their functioning." Besides BJD, other regional parties analysed include the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the YSR Congress, the Telugu Desam Party, the Janata Dal-Secular, the Samajwadi Party, the AIADMK, the Janata Dal-United, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, etc.

"The total income declared by 37 regional political parties was Rs 1,089.60 crore. The BJD has the highest income of Rs 249.31 crore amongst all the regional parties," the ADR said, adding that the parties primarily earn their income from voluntary contributions and donations.

"YSR-C received 99.998 percent of its income from donations and contributions, while BJD received 97.41 percent of its income from grants, donations and contributions." It was stated that out of the 37 political parties, at least seven received donations through electoral bonds amounting to a total of Rs 578.49 crore.

"BJD received the highest donations worth Rs 213.5 crore or 85.64 percent of its total income through electoral bonds followed by the TRS declaring electoral bonds worth Rs 141.5 crore or 74.98 percent," it stated.

According to the report, parties primarily spent their income on election expenses. "12 out of 37 regional political parties incurred more than 50 per cent of their total expenditure on election campaign or election propaganda." YSR Congress Party spent a maximum of Rs 53.136 crore followed by the BJD which spent Rs 44.74 crore on election campaign expenditure.
New York Citys education department has banned schools from using the videoconference platform Zoom, following reports nationwide of educators sessions being hacked and disrupted .

The citys directive, first reported by Chalkbeat , urges schools and their employees to transition to Microsoft Teams as quickly as possible.

Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, told CNN on Sunday that the company is still in touch with New York City schools and is working on addressing privacy and security concerns. We made some missteps, he said.

The districts decision is likely to create more headaches for school employees who have been hurrying to keep students learning remotely during the coronavirus pandemic. But it may come as a relief to privacy advocates who have been sounding the alarm about Zoom since before the outbreak hit.

What [New York Citys schools chancellor] should do now is negotiate a contract with Zoom tthat complies with state law and protects student privacy, and train teachers on how to use this app and other apps in a more responsible manner, said Leonie Haimson, executive director of the nonprofit Class Size Matters and a student privacy expert.

Details of what happens behind the scenes with data from the videoconferencing platform continue to emerge. The Washington Post reported on Friday that hundreds of archived public Zoom meetings are posted publicly online. The New York Times found evidence that some users were able to access identifying LinkedIn profile details about other users without their knowledge or consent. More than two dozen state attorneys general have inquired in recent days about issues with Zoom.

Schools across the country are evaluating their relationship with Zoom, and several other districts, including Clark County in Nevada, have asked employees not to use Zoom. Other districts, like Conejo Unified in California, are sharing precautionary steps with teachers and staff.

Virtual school board and classroom meetings in numerous states have been interrupted by Zoombombers"hackers, including some teenagers, who post pornographic, racist, offensive or comedic imagery in an attempt to sow chaos and shut chat rooms down.

Advocates have also raised questions about the extent to which Zoom collects and shares data, a particularly sensitive issue for students using the platform for the first time to communicate with teachers.
MG ZS EV | Rs 20 lakh | THE MG ZS made a big splash in the market when it entered India. Powered by a 44.5 kWh battery pack, it can do 340 km on a single charge. The electric motor is capable of about 142 PS of power.

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SAIC-controlled MG Motor India is exploring a debut in the SUV segment, which is dominated by the Kia Seltos and the Hyundai Creta, with a petrol version of the ZS.

In January, MG Motor had launched its first fully electric vehicle in India called the ZS EV. Now the same model could be used for housing a compact petrol engine to compete in the Rs 9-15 lakh priced SUV category.

MG Motor has floated a request for quotation (RFQ) for a petrol version of the ZS which it intends to bring to the market next year, said an industry source. RFQs are floated in the market by automakers for sourcing components from manufacturers.

The ZS is as long and wide, but slightly shorter than the Seltos. MG already sells the petrol version of the ZS in the UK market where it is powered by a choice of 1.5 litre naturally aspirated and 1.0 litre turbocharged engines. The MG Hector comes powered by a 1.5 litre turbocharged petrol engine and a 2.0 litre diesel engine.

The ZS will be the fourth product by MG Motor in India after the Hector, ZS EV and Gloster. The company, however, has refused to divulge details of the new SUV due to competitive reasons.

Rajeev Chaba, president and managing director, MG Motor India said, I have no comments to make on our product pipeline. We are on course to launch our fourth product which happens next year. It is slightly early for us to reveal what that product would be. Right now our focus is on the Hector six-seater and the Gloster.

The Kia Seltos, priced at a little under Rs 10 lakh, is the largest-selling SUV in India. Since launch in June, the Seltos has seen average sales of a little over 9,100 units per month including a best of 15,000 units in one of the months last financial year.

The Hyundai Creta, meanwhile, clocked over 6,800 units in average monthly sales last year. Weeks before the nation-wide lockdown was announced Hyundai launched the all-new Creta with a starting price of under Rs 10 lakh.

The entry mid-size segment sees an average of 20,000-22,000 units a month from seven models. A year ago the monthly sales run-rate stood at around 13,000 units generated by five models. More than 75 percent of this segment is controlled by Kia and Hyundai.

Considering the demand trend, more companies are looking to place a model in this segment. Volkswagen and Skoda will have a model each in this segment. New players like Great Wall Motors and Citroen will also debut in this segment. Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors are expected to have products in this segment in the next 12-24 months.
A man was arrested on suspicion of murder and a crime scene remains in place

Police are probing the murder of three women in London in just two weeks - amid fears domestic violence is soaring during the coronavirus lockdown.

A man, 65, was arrested on suspicion of murder after the latest 57-year-old victim, who has not been named, was found dead at home, according to police.

Officers were called to a flat on Plevna Road in Enfield, north London, just after 6pm yesterday evening following concerns for the woman's safety.

Police attending the scene on Plevna Road in Enfield, north London, last night. A woman, who has not been named, was found dead at home, according to police

A Met Police spokesman said: 'Officers and paramedics attended and found a woman inside a flat with serious injuries.

'She was pronounced dead at the scene. A post-mortem will take place in due course.

'A crime scene is in place. Enquiries continue.'

Kelly Stewart (pictured), 41, was found dead in Plaistow, east London, on March 26

He said the man arrested on suspicion of murder remains in police custody.

The victim and 65-year-old man are thought to have known each other.

Enfield MPS also tweeted: 'Police were called to an address on Plevna Road, Enfield, N9 at 18:04hrs on Monday, 6 April to a report of a concern for safety.

'Officers and London Ambulance Service attended and found a woman inside a flat with serious injuries; she was pronounced dead at the scene.'

It comes as calls to the domestic abuse helpline have soared as victims are trapped with abusive partners during the lockdown.

The charity Refuge, which runs a freephone helpline 24/7, has seen a 25 per cent increase in calls and online requests for help since the lockdown.

Police and forensics officers on the scene on Dorset Road in Stockwell, south London, where Sonia Calvi, 56, and 59-year-old Edgar Daza were found stabbed to death on April 1

Meanwhile, the victims' commissioner, Dame Vera Baird, has called on the government to find extra funding for the sector to support victims and announce a strategy as it's 'another epidemic alongside Covid-19'.

Kelly Stewart, 41, was found battered to death in a churchyard in Plaistow, east London, on March 26. A 21-year-old local man has been charged with murder.

Sonia Calvi, 56, was found stabbed to death along with 59-year-old Edgar Daza at a flat in Stockwell, south London, on April 1. A 44-year-old man has been charged with two counts of murder.

A total of seven women have been murdered in London this year.
BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - German luxury fashion brand Hugo Boss AG (HUGSF.PK) said that its Managing Board and the Supervisory Board have decided to propose to the Annual Shareholders' Meeting that the dividend payment for fiscal year 2019 will be suspended. The negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the macroeconomic development are currently also leading to a significant decline in sales, profitability, and cash flow at the company. The Managing Board and the works council of HUGO BOSS agreed to introduce short-time working for Germany-based employees starting in April 2020. The Managing Board of HUGO BOSS AG will also participate in the measures to secure cash flow and voluntarily waive 40% of its basic remuneration for the months of April and May 2020. The virtual Annual Shareholders' Meeting is scheduled to take place on May 27, 2020 and will fulfill all the conditions required by the new law. On May 5, Hugo Boss will release its quarterly statement on the first three months of 2020. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Dong, the President of Ad-Vice Software & Consulting Inc and a member of CPA, will share his insights on the topic Recession & Disaster Proofing Your Agency'

Lockdown in India and in many countries around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic has hit businesses. The media and advertising industry see a big impact as advertisers look to cut back on ad-spends in a bid to control costs. The prevailing uncertainty on how long the effects of the pandemic will be felt has many agency heads looking to strategize the way ahead for their businesses.

To help quell the fears and ambiguity in the industry, The Advertising Club Bangalore is organising a webinar with Vincent Dong, President, Ad-Vice Software & Consulting Inc. and member of CPA. Dong will be speaking on the topic Recession & Disaster Proofing Your Agency, today on April 7, 2020, at 7 pm.

Speaking about this initiative Tina Garg, CEO, Pink Lemonade, who initiated this webinar and drove it with the Ad Club Bangalores management committee team support, says: At a time when everyone is wondering what the true business impact of a worldwide situation like COVID-19 is, it's priceless to hear a global view from an expert like Vincent Dong on the advertising and creative industry. This webinar will help us take some precautionary measures for the coming months and also compare notes with how our counterparts in US and Canada are dealing with the situation.

On his part, Dong says, Plan for the worst. Hope for the best. What you do or don't do during the next 90 days will be crucial in your agency's survival. With the uncertainty likely to continue, the webinar will lay down what preventive measures should be taken for businesses. It will cover the following topics:

Agency Operations

Financial Advice

10 Immediate Steps for Next 90 Days

11 Specific Action Items

Big Picture Outlook & Insights

Proactive Stability Tips

Review & Analysis of Outlays

Tune in to the webinar today, Tuesday, April 7, 2020, at 7 pm to get 'Ad-Vice' on agency operations, finance & consulting and software consulting to ensure that your business is not only ready for recession but is also prepared to face the challenges and emerge a winner.

The link to register for the webinar is https://adclubbangalore.net/ad-vice-webinar/

Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)
Varieties of uncertainty

The Cambridge team has been exploring uncertainty in its many forms for a while now. Last year, they published a theory paper, reviewing related research. At a conference of uncertainty quantification specialists about two years ago, Dr. Freeman asked attendees to write definitions of uncertainty on Post-it notes and stick them on the wall. Every one was different, she said. I have to say my favorite was: Anything and everything that can **** up a decision [insert descriptor of your choice].

The recent study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, focused on peoples reactions to epistemic uncertainty: things we dont know about the past and present but in theory could come to know, through measurement. The team is now researching perceptions of aleatory uncertainty  unknowns about the future due to randomness, indeterminacy, chance or luck. (In Latin, alea means dice or gambling.)

Most uncertainty is a mix of epistemic and aleatory elements. For instance: How many more people will get Covid-19? And once transmission is suppressed below the R0=1 threshold (the reproduction number required to rapidly reduce the number of cases to low levels), how will we avoid a rebound?

Common wisdom from the psychologists perspective is that people do not like uncertainty, especially about the future, and that it generates a negative response. (Psychologists call this ambiguity aversion.) From the statisticians perspective, the hypothesis is that people have a positive reaction and trust information more when the communicator is being open about uncertainties in facts and figures.

The motivation was to try to adjudicate between these competing hypotheses, said Sander van der Linden, a principal investigator, and a psychologist and the director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab. Ultimately we didnt find support for the notion that communicating uncertainty enhances public trust, but it also didnt substantially undermine it.

Models are the maps, not the territory

Either way, there is little to assuage our most pressing existential uncertainty: When will the pandemic end?

In the early days of the outbreak, when data was beginning to emerge from China, we were in a state of deep uncertainty, also known as radical uncertainty or Knightian uncertainty. (The economist Frank Knight distinguished between risk and uncertainty about a century ago.) Deep uncertainty is the quagmire of unknown unknowns; there are no constraints.
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge doesnt just have a grandmother in Queen Elizabeth II, he has a boss and a role model. William, who is second in the line of succession behind his father, Charles, Prince of Wales, has spent his life knowing his time will one day come to lead the British royal family. How does that impact his relationship with his grandmother, the queen? Ahead, find out more about the dynamics between the two.

Prince William had as normal a childhood as possible

The late Diana, Princess of Wales and Charles became parents when they welcomed William on June 21, 1982. Sure, William grew up living a privileged life but he also had a sense of normalcy due in large part to Diana.

Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry, and Prince William in 1987 | Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images

She insisted William and his younger brother, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend public school and do things like go to amusement parks, and occasionally, eat at McDonalds. Perhaps most important of all, Diana gave William (and Harry) a look at life outside of palace walls, taking them to homeless shelters and hospitals.

While William did many things any other child would do growing up, he also did things unique to position as the heir to the throne. Hes been studying at the feet of Queen Elizabeth his whole life meaning their relationship is somewhat complicated.

His relationship with Queen Elizabeth is reportedly half family and half business

As a mentor, the queen has reportedly been preparing William for years, giving their relationship a business quality to it. Melanie Bromley, a royal correspondent for E! News, once described their relationship as half family and half business.

While their relationship may sometimes be complicated, they are close. According to royal historian Robert Lacey, they share a special bond as the current and future leader of the royal family. William considers the queen to be the best role model and has been training to for his future role as the leader of the royal family since the age of five.

As William grew up, he spent more time with the queen getting a firsthand look at her job.

Prince William and Queen Elizabeth II in 2015 | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

When William became a teenager, she would have him at Windsor Castle and would open the state boxes and guide him through the papers, Lacey said. It was Williams constitutional education.

William, now 37, has slowly taken on more responsibility over the years.

They have a serious relationship

As the second heir in line to the throne, Williams relationship with the queen is much more serious compared to her relationships with the rest of her grandchildren. After all, shes got to be sure William is well equipt to run the monarchy. That doesnt leave much time for joking or laughing.

Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, and Prince William in 2011| Indigo/Getty Images

As Williams become the 37-year-old man he is today, hes continued to take on more and more responsibilities. Queen Elizabeth has been offloading a lot of her work to her son and her grandson, Juliet Rieden, royal author, told Nine News Australia before adding, William has really had to up the ante and take on a lot of this heavy lifting.

Prince William looked to Queen Elizabeth for advice on relationship with Kate Middleton

Even though William and the queen have a business air to their relationship, that doesnt mean he hasnt learned a thing or two about his own love life from Queen Elizabeth. When William married Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge in April 2011, he wanted to give her enough time to adjust to her new life on the public stage.

To do that he looked to his grandmother, who has managed to maintain a private life while being one of the most recognizable figures in the world. William wanted the same for Catherine and said in the couples 2010 engagement interview he wanted to give her time to adjust.

I wanted to give her a chance to see in and back out if she needed to before it all got too much, William said. I just wanted to give her the best chance to settle in and to see what happens on the other side.



Clearly, Williams learned a lot from the queen.

For more on the dynamics between Queen Elizabeth and her relatives, read up on her relationship with her sister.
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OSLO, April 7 (Reuters) - Norways rate of unemployment rose to 15.4% on Tuesday, the Labour and Welfare Agency (NAV) said, the highest level on record, up from 14.7% on March 31, as the economy ground to a halt amid efforts to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Norwegian government announced last month emergency shutdowns of many public and private institutions, including schools and kindergartens, sending the economy into a tailspin and triggering hundreds of thousands of layoffs.

Unemployment is highest in the tourism and transport sector, with 26.9% of that work force registered as fully unemployed, NAV said in a statement.

The number of registered full-time unemployed, not taking those partially unemployed or on job training into account, dropped to 10.4% from 10.7% a week earlier.

The drop is due to some 10,000 individuals who recently became unemployed and who have now reported to NAV that they had worked somewhat over the past week. They were thus reclassified as partially unemployed.

Although many job cuts were classified as temporary, such as restaurants and airlines expecting to bring back employees when restrictions are eventually lifted, economists have warned that many firms may in fact struggle to recover.

A major oil and gas producer, Norway is also suffering from a crash in the price of crude, its main export, and this industry has also announced layoffs.

The government will announce later on Tuesday whether it will modify its restrictions, currently in place until April 13. (Reporting by Victoria Klesty, editing by Gwladys Fouche)
The Ogun State Government has developed a mobile application for members of public to self-assess themselves on individual basis for the dreaded Coronavirus.

The state government had earlier launched a real time concurrently updated mobile application for health workers in March, which has been deployed to all government and private health facilities across its 20 local government areas to aid information sharing.

A statement made available on the official Twitter page of Ogun State Government signed by the Commissioner for Health, Tomi Coker, said the new application, christened, Ogun COVID-19 Assessment is not for diagnostic purpose but it is meant to determine the risk of residents exposure to the disease.

Ms Coker noted that the application is downloadable on Google play store and can also be assessed on https://t.co/XnAGM4aR7d and

https://t.co/VVoGwULmRj.

She said that responses are monitored on a dashboard at the Ministry of Health, which will flag high risk individuals as red who are promptly followed up by the State Epidemiologist.

This Mobile Application is an assessment tool for the individual members of the public on the basic symptoms of Coronavirus. It can be downloaded on Google play store. The App is not for diagnostic purpose.

Responses are monitored on a dashboard at the Ministry of Health which will flag high risk individuals as red who are promptly followed up by the State Epidemiologist, the Commissioner said.

Urging members of the public to take advantage of the mobile application, Ms Coker assured that the Dapo Abiodun led government in the state is putting measures in place to contain the disease.

Details So Far

According to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Nigeria currently has 238 confirmed cases of Coronavirus with 35 persons discharged and five deaths .

As Nigeria grapples with containing the spread of the disease, the number of confirmed cases has continued to increase with Lagos topping the chat with the highest cases in the country.

READ ALSO:

A breakdown of states where cases have been confirmed indicate that Lagos now has 120 cases, followed by FCT  48, Osun -20, Oyo  9, Akwa Ibom  5, Ogun  4, Edo- 11, Kaduna  5, Bauchi  6, Enugu  2, Rivers  2, Kwara  2 and Ekiti  2. Ondo and Benue have one case each.

Nigeria is expected to record more cases as health authorities have embarked on contact tracing to locate thousands of people who have come in contact with infected persons.
Every sale, Ms. Jones said, is cause for celebration and a vote for us to make it through this.

There are millions of small, digitally enabled ventures like hers across America. New research, based on data from 20 million websites, found that these small-scale entrepreneurs generate significant spillover benefits to their communities.

The analysis also concluded that counties with more of these ventures experienced stronger recoveries from the last recession than elsewhere, suggesting that these small web businesses can be an important buffer for individuals and local communities facing economic challenges, said Marcela Escobari, an economic development expert and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who was not involved in the new study.

The new analysis, conducted by researchers at Arizona State University and the University of Iowa, is based on a data set assembled and provided by GoDaddy, a large retailer of internet domain names and a website-hosting service.

The company is making the data publicly available on a website with quarterly and later monthly updates. So while the analysis predates the coronavirus outbreak, the regularly refreshed data should help track how a little-studied sector of the economy weathers the downturn.

The new data, the researchers said, adds an important dimension to understanding the digital economy. It is, they said, a counterpoint to recent studies that show the clustering of leading-edge technology, investment and employment in a handful of superstar cities.
NASA has released a detailed plan for an 'Artemis Base Camp' that will be home to first woman and next man on the moon in 2024.

The 13-page document highlights elements such as a terrain vehicle for transporting the astronauts around the landing zone, a permanent habit and a mobility platform to travel across the lunar surface.

The plans suggest a crew of four astronauts would call the moon home for a week at a time, but also describes accommodations with water, waste disposal systems and radiation shields if their time is extended.

The Artemis mission will use the moon as its stepping stone, allowing the crew to test robots and other technologies before exploring farther into the solar system, with Mars being their next stop.

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NASA has released a detailed plan for an 'Artemis Base Camp' that will be home to first woman and next man on the moon in 2024. The 13-page document highlights elements such as a terrain vehicle for transporting the astronauts around the landing zone, a permanent habit and a mobility platform to travel across the lunar surface

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said: 'After 20 years of continuously living in low-Earth orbit, we're now ready for the next great challenge of space exploration  the development of a sustained presence on and around the Moon.'

'For years to come, Artemis will serve as our North Star as we continue to work toward even greater exploration of the Moon, where we will demonstrate key elements needed for the first human mission to Mars.'

The last manned Moon landing happened in 1972, as part of the Apollo 17 mission.

There have only been six times that astronauts have walked on the Moon, all of which were carried out by NASA as part of its Apollo program.

The Artemis mission will build off these past efforts and push lunar exploration to new heights.

Astronauts involved in the Artemis mission will use their stay on the moon to prepare for their trip to Mars. They will be testing a range of new technologies for include lunar dust mitigation, enabling operations in extreme environments and fuel, water and oxygen production

And NASA's new report highlights the core elements needed to bring the base to life.

It describes two vehicles that would be used by the crew to get around the lunar surface.

One would be a small rover-like machine that would shuttle astronauts around the loading zone.

The second would be a larger habitable vehicle with amenities, allowing the crew to travel for up to 45-days.

NASA will also design a foundation surface habitat, which will be setup in the south pole region of the moon.

'Combined with supporting infrastructure added over time such as communications, power, radiation shielding, a landing pad, waste disposal, and storage planning  these elements comprise a sustained capability on the Moon that can be revisited and built upon over the coming decades, reads the report.

Astronauts involved in the Artemis mission will use their stay on the moon to prepare for their trip to Mars.

The Artemis mission will use the moon as its stepping stone, allowing the crew to test robots and other technologies before exploring farther into the solar system, with Mars being their next stop

They will be testing a range of new technologies for include lunar dust mitigation, enabling operations in extreme environments and fuel, water and oxygen production.

NASA hopes the team will successful develop advanced solar collection and a small, lightweight fission power system to support even longer-duration missions and operations on the Moon, and eventually for Mars and beyond.

'The U.S. is still the only nation to have successfully landed humans on the Moon and spacecraft on the surface of Mars,' the report states.

'As other nations increasingly move out into space, American leadership is now called for to lead the next phase of humanity's quest to open up the future to endless discovery and growth.'
By Park Jae-hyuk



Korea's exports to China continued their downward trend during the first three months of the year a victim of the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.



Although the downturn had a limited impact on the country's current account in February due to an increase in semiconductor exports and a rapid decline in outbound tourists, analysts warned that Korea will suffer a deficit starting in April, affected by the rapid spread of the coronavirus in the United States and Europe since late March.



According to the Bank of Korea (BOK), Tuesday, the current account registered a surplus of $6.41 billion in February, the largest since last October.



The central bank said the services account deficit narrowed to $1.45 billion from $1.54 billion a year earlier, as the decrease in the number of outbound tourists was far larger than that for inbound tourists after restrictions were imposed to combat COVID-19.



"COVID-19 affected the services account significantly, causing sharp declines in both outbound and inbound tourists," said Moon So-sang, head of the BOK's monetary and financial statistics division. "As the number of outbound tourists dropped more, however, the tourism account improved."



The goods account surplus widened to $6.58 billion from $5.42 billion, because of a turnaround in the chip industry and an increase in the number of days worked.



However, exports to China stood at $8.9 billion, down 6.7 percent from the same month last year.



"The impact of the coronavirus was significant in China in February, so exports to China dropped sharply," Moon said.



Earlier in April, data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy showed total exports dropped 0.2 percent in March year-on-year, while exports to China fell 5.8 percent.



According to analysts, this indicates the current account will worsen in the forthcoming months, reflecting the economic fallout from the pandemic.



Hanwha Investment & Securities analyst Kim Jin-myoung warned of significant shocks to exports in April.



"Despite the fast spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. and Europe in March, Korea's exports to those regions remained almost unchanged last month because of existing contracts," he said.



NH Investment & Securities analyst Kwon Ah-min also expects indicators to show that exports to the U.S. and Europe have been sluggish since late March, when confirmed cases began to rise sharply in those regions.



On top of exports, interim dividends that are supposed to be paid to foreign investors in April could deteriorate the country's current account. In April 2019, Korea suffered its first current account deficit in seven years, after $6.7 billion was paid in dividends to foreign shareholders.


The COVID-19 crisis has provided an unexpected opportunity for some seniors to learn news ways to stay connected.

New York City  As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the United States, Americans are adjusting to what it means to put their lives on hold. While the workforce has pivoted to remote arrangements and many young people are having virtual happy hours, many older Americans lack the necessary skills to stay connected through technology. But now, some organisations that serve senior populations are making strides to change that.

At New York Citys 92nd Street Y, the membership-based Himan Brown Senior Program provides classes, social groups, and other resources to 650 senior citizens. The Arts Center at the 92nd Street Y considers retirees to be the core audience for daytime programming. Between the two, hundreds of in-person classes were held on a weekly basis. On Friday, March 13, all 200 of the Arts Centers classes went online.

Had we pitched remote learning under normal circumstances, I dont think anyone would have bought in, but given the necessity of the situation [our seniors] were motivated, said Emily Coyne, programme manager at the 92nd Street Ys Arts Center, told Al Jazeera.

They saw this as the only way to stay connected in a time of isolation, she told Al Jazeera.

In order to make their offerings accessible, the team at the Y had to first select a platform. Like many offices, schools and other businesses, they chose Zoom for its user-friendly interface. At the Himan Brown Senior Program, theyre supplementing Zoom offerings with conference calls and emails for those who are less tech-savvy.

Its been a steep learning curve for everybody, said Julia Zeuner, director of the Himan Brown Senior Program, when we first started, we didnt even have everybodys email addresses.

A screenshot of an online watercolour class at the 92nd Street Y [Courtesy: 92nd Street Y]

A lack of education about how to use smartphones and computers is often the biggest challenge for senior citizens. High-school sophomore Jordan Mittler started Mittler Senior Technology in 2018 when his grandparents got a smartphone, and he realised they could not use it.

Seniors kind of missed the whole technology boom and dont know how to communicate with friends and family via text messaging and FaceTime, Mittler told Al Jazeera.

Mittler started teaching 10-week courses on the basics of computer, internet and smartphone use out of the computer lab at his school. The night before his most recent session was set to begin, all in-person courses were cancelled. With fewer than 24 hours to pivot, Mittler chose to try teaching his course over Zoom. It took a number of emails and individual phone calls, but 30 students logged on for his first online class.

I actually came up with a totally new lesson plan that morning. I figured we could put my regular class on hold and focus on the news and FaceTime, which I think were more relevant, said Mittler.

A lifeline

For senior citizens who have to take the most aggressive self-isolation measures in order to remain safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, offerings like these are a lifeline. With new technical knowledge, some seniors in quarantine are leading more socially active lives than before.

The 650 members of the Hiram Brown Program are receiving weekly check-in calls from 70 volunteer staff members, in addition to one-on-one tech support to help them attend virtual classes ranging from ceramics to chair yoga and memoir writing. The response from students has been overwhelmingly positive.

This is the first time many of our students are interacting with this type of technology, and it was kind of like they were discovering magic for the first time. Its been very heartening to see the looks of shock and joy, and surprise, Coyne told Al Jazeera.

Jordan Mittler had a similar response from his students.

Im opening up their world in ways they never thought could happen, he said.

Our silver lining in all this is that we have wanted to be able to offer remote programming to our members and to people who are homebound or in the hospital or rehab centres. Now we've built this platform that we plan to continue to use. Julia Zeuner, director of the Himan Brown Senior Program

Digital programming for the elderly has also proven beneficial for the teachers and facilitators who work with them. Teaching artists are reflecting on their practices and how best to teach something like ceramics or jewellery-making without being in the studio. For the often younger people who are working to connect with the elderly, this work provides a mutual sense of emotional fulfilment.

Its been really great for me to be sitting in on these classes and seeing all these familiar faces in a time when I am at home, not really seeing anyone other than my husband. Its been a source of comfort to keep that sense of normalcy, Coyne told Al Jazeera.

Now that groups like Mittler Senior Technology and the 92nd Street Y have built out platforms to meet the immediate needs of their communities, organisers are starting to think of ways they can continue to use technology to expand senior citizen access to programming even after the spread of COVID-19 has been contained.

Our silver lining in all this, Zeuner said, is that we have wanted to be able to offer remote programming to our members and to people who are homebound or in the hospital or rehab centres. Now, weve built this platform that we plan to continue to use.
When Nigeria closed her borders last year, part of the reason was to combat the incidence of smuggling. The customs recorded a lot of impounding at the entry points. President Buhari on Tuesday ordered that 150 trucks of impounded rice be distributed to the poor and needy.



An aide on digital media disclosed the information on Twitter. President Buhari directs the Nigeria Customs Service to release 150 truckloads of rice seized from smugglers for immediate distribution across the country. Part of the FGs palliative measures to cushion the effect of the #COVID19 Pandemic.



For the first time in as many days, Lagos did not record a new case. As at close of day Monday, six new cases were recorded with 2 each in Kwara and Edo States and one apiece in Rivers State and Abuja.





The national tally now stands at 238 with 35 discharged and five deaths. Lagos still topped with 120 cases followed by Abuja with 48 and Osun with 20 cases. All three jurisdictions are under federal lockdown.



The NCDC is meanwhile continuing with its #TakeResponsibility campaign as it shares vital information on the coronavirus pandemic and how to identify, contain and prevent its spread. It focused on self-isolation in its latest edition.



As at close of day 6th April, there were:



238 confirmed cases

35 discharged

5 deaths



For a breakdown of cases by state



In an interaction session with speaker of the lower house of the national assembly, Health Minister Osagie Ohanire defended the federal governments decision to invite Chinese experts.



According to him, these group of medics were in the frontline of Chinas management of the virus and thus they come with a skill set that no Nigerian doctor has prior. Minister of State for Health Olurunnimbe Mamora further explained that the Chinese doctors were expected to help in setting up molecular laboratories in Nigeria as well as upgrade and reconfigure existing ones.



Meanwhile, The Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman, Presidential Taskforce Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, yesterday in Abuja at the sixth joint national briefing said the Chinese medical experts were only coming to share experiences and train Nigerias medical personnel.



Theyre not accredited and cannot practice, but only coming to share their experiences. As a matter of fact, theyre in the best position of experience, since the pandemic started from their side and they were able to contain its spread. Thus, theyre only coming to share their experiences and also train some of our medical personnel, he said.



He said the invited Chinese were public health specialists and medical engineers that would support Nigerias capacity in managing the pandemic on advisory basis when necessary, while drawing from their experiences.

Source: africanews.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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WASHINGTON  In a pair of extraordinary rulings on Monday, the highest courts in Wisconsin and the nation split along ideological lines to reject Democratic efforts to defer voting in Tuesdays elections in the state given the coronavirus pandemic. Election law experts said the stark divisions in the rulings did not bode well for faith in the rule of law and American democracy.

Election cases, more than any other kind, need courts to be seen by the public as nonpartisan referees of the competing candidates and political parties, said Edward B. Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University. It is therefore extremely regrettable that on the very same day, on separate issues involving the same Wisconsin election, both the state and federal supreme courts were unable to escape split votes that seem just as politically divided as the litigants appearing before them.

Richard L. Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of a recently published and prescient book, Election Meltdown, said the pandemic had made a bad situation much worse.

Mondays performance by the courts augurs a nasty partisan divide in the judicial branch, Professor Hasen said. It threatens the legitimacy of both the election and the courts.
As many as 303 Tablighi Jamaat



members as well as attendees of the congregation organized by it in Delhi's Nizamuddin last month have been placed under quarantine at a facility near here, officials said on Tuesday.

These 303 quarantined people included 108 foreigners.

Thousands of people across the country and abroad had attended the religious event between March 13 and 15 after the Delhi government had promulgated orders prohibiting gatherings of more than 200 persons. Many of the attendees later tested positive for COVID-19 and several of them died.

"At the moment, 303 Tablighi Jamaat members along with those who attended the event in Delhi have been quarantined at the Haj Tower cum Empowerment Centre in Rajarthat. Doctors have been attending to them daily, a senior official of the West Bengal State Haj Committee said.

Of the 303 people, 195 are residents of West Bengal whereas the remaining 108 hailed from countries such as Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh and Malaysia, a health department official said.

A total of 34 people came from Indonesia, followed by 25 from Myanmar, 21 from Thailand, 19 from Bangladesh and nine from Malaysia.

"Free food and lodging facilities are being provided to those who are in quarantine in Haj Tower Cum Empowerment Centre here," the member of the centre said.

The West Bengal State Haj Committee has started offering treatment and help to Tablighi Jamaat members stranded in different places across the state due to the lockdown after instructions from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

After successful completion of the quarantine period, they will be sent home, the health department official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Surgeon General Jerome Adams has said there was 'light at the end of the tunnel' but that America will never return to the same type of 'normal' after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking on Tuesday morning, Adams said that data suggests parts of the country like New York and New Jersey are flattening their curve and that data out of Italy and Spain shows they are coming down from theirs.

If Americans keep following social distancing rules, the country will follow suit but recovery depends entirely on people staying at home, he said.

It was a less sinister tone than over the weekend, when Adams said this coming week would be 'this generation's 9/11 or Pearl Harbor' and the 'saddest of many's lives.'

More than 12,000 Americans have died from the virus and there are more than 380,000 infections with the apex still an estimated nine days away.

Dr. Adams said on Tuesday that while he still believes it will be a 'tough week', the data is optimistic.

Scroll down for video

Dr. Jerome Adams said on Tuesday morning that there was 'light at the end of the tunnel' but only if Americans stayed home for the rest of April

The @Surgeon_General Dr. Jerome Adams tells our @GStephanopoulos: There is a light at the end of the this tunnel. https://t.co/nizZpxrGav pic.twitter.com/lwDlg5kyXq  Good Morning America (@GMA) April 7, 2020

'This is going to be an incredibly sad and hard week but we've had tough times in this country before.

'We always come out of it stronger. The good news is when you look at Italy and Spain, they're seeing cases come down.

'The American people have the power to change the trajectory of this pandemic if we come together,' he said.

He repeated Dr. Anthony Fauci's suggestion that the US will never return to the 'normal' it knew before the pandemic swept the nation, but that in some ways, life could resume at the end of April.

'We know that normal is going to be a different normal, whenever we do reopen.

'We will be able to get back to some normalcy. There is a light at the end of this tunnel, if we keep doing the right thing for the rest of this month, we can start to slowly reopen in some places,' he said, adding he felt 'a lot more optimistic'.

'I'm seeing mitigation work. I'm so impressed,' he said.

Dr. Adams said that while early projections suggested the US could see as many 100,000 deaths, the reality may be far fewer.

'Initially we were looking at an array of projections based on best guesses. Now, we have data.

'The facts tell us China and South Korea are starting to reopen, Italy and Spain are on the down slopes, Washington and California are flattening their curves.

'The most important thing is to really focus on 30 days to slow the spread.

'We need you to continue doing your part. Over 90 percent of the country is actually doing the right thing right now,' he said.

Dr. Adams said cell phone data showed that the majority of Americans were staying home.

He resisted suggesting a 50-state lockdown order and said people who were following the rules deserved more credit.

'I actually think there's a lot of talk about [a national quarantine] but not enough about the fact that cell phone data that's publicly available shows most people are doing the right thing and staying home.

The number of deaths in the US continues to rise but is expected to hit its peak on April 16, according to new data

The number of new cases across the US per day continues to go up. There were 30,000 on Monday

A breakdown of the cases in the US and where the majority are. The new hotspots are expected to be Illinois and Louisiana

'People are making the right choice. This is what it comes down to. It's a the community level,' he said.

In a different interview with Today, Dr. Adams said the virus had 'humbled' many of the decision-makers in government who were not prepared for it.

'Many people at all levels just did not expect something like this to happen at this magnitude.

'So there are many lessons learned. This virus has humbled many of us. We will backtrack and try to figure out how to improve,' he said, adding that he believes the White House was making preparations for the virus for longer than it has been given credit for.

'There were preparations going on the entire time. There was work going on behind the scenes.

'This virus has humbled many of us and what I'm focused on now is helping the American people work out what to do now moving forward. We're seeing many places across the country level out the hospitalizations, ICU, their death rates. We know mitigation works,' he said.

Dr. Adams resisted confirming whether or not New York has hit its peak - as data suggests - and says he does not want to give anyone false hope.

'I don't want to say they have hit their peak yet because sometimes places will come down for a little bit and come back up again.

'People called me an alarmist when I told places a few weeks ago to pull out of elective surgeries, when I was telling people don't take the N95 medical masks because they aren't helpful for the general public to prevent them from getting coronavirus but they are needed for healthcare workers.

'I have told people this was coming and so now it's important for everyone to do their part and lower demand so we can move supplies to where they're needed to make sure my colleagues, my health care workers, my friends are getting what they need to be able to protect themselves,' he said.

Dr. Adams said that while he is urging people to stay at home at all costs, in Wisconsin, where there is an election, anyone who goes out to vote should wear a mask or a face covering.

'If you can vote remotely, I'm not familiar with what other options they have available, if you can't, maintain 6ft of distance between you and the next person and please consider wearing a cloth facial covering you can make one out of household items for just a few minutes, to protect our neighbors.

'If you go out in Wisconsin to vote, please wear one to protect your neighbor. We are all in this together,' he said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, pictured on Monday night at a White House briefing with Vice President Mike Pence, said the US would never return to the 'normal' it knew

A hospital worker removes the body of a dead coronavirus patient from Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn on Monday

On Monday night, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Americans to brace for the reality that life as they knew it will never return.

''If "back to normal" means acting like there never was a coronavirus problem, I don't think that's going to happen until we do have a situation where you can completely protect the population [with a vaccine].

'We will go back gradually to the point [where] we can function as a society. You're absolutely right.

'If you want to get to pre-coronavirus, that might not ever happen in the sense of the fact that the threat is there,' he said.

A vaccine is still months away, but there are scores of therapies in treatments that are currently being tested and studied to determine their effectiveness.

President Donald Trump then stepped back to the podium to offer his own insights on the question, declaring that he has 'total confidence' in companies working on vaccines.

He also suggested that the US economy will come back even stronger than it was before, thanks to the 'tremendous stimulus we are giving'.

Asked whether federal social distancing guidelines will be lifted on April 30 as planned, Trump declined to comment.

But he did say that those restrictions have 'exceeded expectations' for slowing the spread of COVID-19 in eight states.

Drone footage captures prisoners digging graves in hazmat suits on Hart Island as NYC eyes it as a mass temporary burial site for coronavirus victims after 437 die in a day, bringing city death toll to 3,485

Drone footage shows inmates in hazmat suits digging graves on NYC's Hart Island suggesting that coronavirus victims could already be being temporarily buried there, as morgues across the city continue to overflow and the death toll ticks up.

Drone footage taken on Thursday - which is the day bodies are buried there every week - by The Hart Island Project shows inmates in hazmat suits digging graves on the island, possibly for victims of the virus which has claimed more than 3,400 lives across New York City and sickened more than 72,000. Ordinarily prisoners are seen digging in their prison uniforms.

Mayor Bill de Blasio did not confirm whether burials for coronavirus victims had been or would take place there but told reporters Monday: 'We may well be dealing with temporary burials so we can then deal with each family later.

'Obviously, the place we have used historically is Hart Island.'

On Tuesday, there was cops and back-hoes on the island but no inmates were seen.

In a normal week, 25 bodies are buried there. According to Jason Kersten, a spokesman at the Department of Correction, which oversees the island, that number has risen to 72 since the end of March, when the virus exploded in New York City.

Hart Island is ordinarily used to bury unidentified or unclaimed bodies. It was used for bodies after the Spanish Flu.

Public officials sparked panic and disgust this week by claiming some of the dead would be temporarily buried in public parks across the city.

That suggestion, made by councilman Mark Levine, has since been dismissed but the question of what to do with the escalating body count remains pertinent.

Rikers Island inmates in hazmat suits dig graves on Hart Island on April 2. The island is where unidentified or unclaimed bodies have been buried for years. Now, the city is suggesting it could become a mass burial site for coronavirus victims. Burials ordinarily take place on Thursdays, which is when this video was filmed overhead

A wider view of the operation on Hart Island which has been used to bury unclaimed bodies in New York City for decades

A department of corrections vehicle on Hart Island on Tuesday along with trucks and a back-hoe digging mass graves

Mark Levine, a Manhattan council representative, tweeted on Monday: 'Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line. It will be done in a dignified, orderly and temporary manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take.'

The comments caused a stir, prompting Levine to clarify his remarks by saying he understood any temporary burials would be carried out on Hart Island rather than public parks.

He added: 'I have spoken to many folks in City gov't today, and received unequivocal assurance that there will be *no* burials in NYC Parks.

'All have stated clearly that if temporary interment should be needed it will be done on Hart Island.'

The mayor's spokeswoman, Freddi Goldstein, stressed that the city government was not considering using local parks as cemeteries. But she added that Hart Island, where around one million New Yorkers are already buried in mass graves, may be used 'for temporary burials, if the need grows'.

Interments of coronavirus fatalities on the island may already have taken place.

Melinda Hunt, the founder of the Hart Island Project, said drone video footage shot last week appears to show burials of COVID-19 patients who passed away.

She told CBS New York: 'Within an hour they've buried 25 bodies, so it's a very efficient system of burials.

'Hart Island has been used during the 1918 flu epidemic. Thousands of New Yorkers were buried there, diphtheria, tuberculosis.'

One former Rikers Island inmate who spent five months working on the island until February this year has also told of the grim operation that goes on there.

Vincent Mingalone said in a voiceover of the video that he worked as a team of around seven men who formed a supply chain to move the bodies from a truck to the mass grave every Thursday.

They were stacked three deep and then covered with sand and soil.

Mingalone said that he is now worried about whether there will actually be enough inmates willing to do the job. When he was incarcerated, he said no one else volunteered to do the work because they viewed it as 'ghoulish' or 'dirty' and because it was low paid compared to other prison jobs.

Since the pandemic erupted, 1,000 inmates have been released from Riker's Island, leaving fewer people to bury the bodies when they keep piling up.

Mingalone said: 'My concern was, they released a lot of sentenced inmates.

'So I don't know if they're going to get the inmate labor.

'Even when it was a full house, a lot didn't volunteer.

'They thought it was ghoulish, they thought it was a dirty job.

'It was one of the lower paying jobs compared to maybe working the car wash or cleaning or any of the other outside clearance jobs.

'A lot of people didn't want that job.

'Now it's going to be slim pickings because a lot of inmates have all been released because of this pandemic,' he said.

'WE PILED THEM THREE BODIES HIGH': FORMER RIKERS INMATE WHO WORKED ON HART ISLAND A former Rikers Island inmate who worked on Hart Island said he fears there are now not enough people willing to bury the coronavirus dead there, if it is what is decided, because 1,000 have been released and it is a 'ghoulish' job that most prisoners do not want. Vincent Minagalone spent six months incarcerated before being released this February. It is unclear what his crime was. In a voice-over of a video showing graves being dug on the island recently, he described first hand how he and others would handle them once they were brought there by the Medical Examiner's office. 'We all met at the pit, the burial site. The least we did was 11. The heaviest day I did 24 burials. I would work on the truck, pass the bodies out. I would write in wax crayon, write the name of the deceased on the side of the box, then we.. had a wood router, I'd inscribe the plot it was buried in. 'I would pass the body off the truck to 3 inmates on the bottom. They'd take it and pass it to three inmates that were in the pit. We'd just pass the box down. they'd stack them three high until the truck was empty then at that point the machine would come... it would dump the sand, We'd rake it in, in between the boxes, we did a full layer maybe a foot above the top box then came the actual soil. We'd rake it in, smooth it all out, then we'd pack everything with ply-boards when we were finished. Then we'd leave the pit until the next burial. 'The detail only consisted of six of us for the five months I was doing it - towards the end, they got about 20 of us and we were known as the hart island crew. 'We took pride in what we did, we were the only ones there for these people. Just always intrigued me that there were so many stories. We didn't know this person, we didn't see them. We always wondered was this person serving coffee? Were they a janitor in a building? What did this person do in life that they ultimately wound up here alone. 'We did the best we could with dignity. We handled the bodies carefully. We carried them gently, we did our job...we did what we had to do. 'My concern was, they released a lot of sentenced inmates. So I don't know if they're going to get the inmate labor. Even when it was a full house, a lot didn't volunteer. They thought it was ghoulish, they thought it was a dirty job. 'It was one of the lower paying jobs compared to maybe working the car wash or cleaning or any of the other outside clearance jobs. A lot of people didn't want that job. 'Now it's going to be slim pickings because a lot of inmates have all been released because of this pandemic,' he said. Advertisement

The island is home to the city's potter's field, a cemetery for people with no next of kin or whose families cannot arrange funerals.

Over the last 160 years Hart Island has been a Union Civil War prisoner-of-war camp, a psychiatric institution, tuberculosis sanatorium and a potter's field burial site.

Since 1861 more than a million people have been buried there, with trucks still arriving at the site twice a week from morgues across New York.

One there inmates from Rikers Island are paid 50c an hour to act as pallbearers and bury the dead.

The dead are interred in trenches, with babies placed in coffins, which are stacked in groups of 1,000, measuring five coffins deep and usually in 20 rows.

Adults are placed in larger pine boxes arranged according to size and stacked in sections of 150, measuring three coffins deep in two rows.

Since the first decade of the 21st century there are fewer than 1,500 burials a year at Hart Island.

Hunt, who has documented Hart Island, added that help would be needed from the military when it came time to reunite families with the deceased.

On Monday morning, nine bodies were seen being loaded into trucks outside Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn.

Melinda Hunt, the founder of the Hart Island Project, said drone video footage shot last week appears to show burials of COVID-19 patients who passed away.

She told CBS New York: 'Within an hour they've buried 25 bodies, so it's a very efficient system of burials.

'Hart Island has been used during the 1918 flu epidemic. Thousands of New Yorkers were buried there, diphtheria, tuberculosis.'

The video is narrated by a Rikers Island inmate who previously was part of the burial detail.

The narrator said during the footage: 'What did this person do in life that they ultimately wound up here alone? All we know is a name and a date of death.'

Hart Island, off the Bronx's east shore, could serve as a site for temporary interment, according to an OCME planning document for dealing with a surge of deaths from a pandemic.

The island is home to the city's potter's field, a cemetery for people with no next of kin or whose families cannot arrange funerals.

In normal times inmates from city jails each week bury some 25 New Yorkers there.

But the number of burials on Hart jumped in the last week of March to 72, according to Jason Kersten, a spokesman at the Department of Correction, which oversees the island.

Over the last 160 years Hart Island has been a Union Civil War prisoner-of-war camp, a psychiatric institution, tuberculosis sanatorium and a potter's field burial site.

Since 1861 more than a million people have been buried there, with trucks still arriving at the site twice a week from morgues across New York.

One there inmates from Rikers Island are paid 50c an hour to act as pallbearers and bury the dead.

The dead are interred in trenches, with babies placed in coffins, which are stacked in groups of 1,000, measuring five coffins deep and usually in 20 rows.

Adults are placed in larger pine boxes arranged according to size and stacked in sections of 150, measuring three coffins deep in two rows.

Since the first decade of the 21st century there are fewer than 1,500 burials a year at Hart Island.

Hunt, who has documented Hart Island, added that help would be needed from the military when it came time to reunite families with the deceased.
While most of us have been asked to practice 'stay at home'and 'work from home' to contain the spread of the infectious coronavirus, people engaged with essential services are still required to go to their workplaces as per schedule.

Banks all across the country have remained open, exposing workers to a greater risk of contracting COVID-19. Taking matters in his hands, a cashier in a Bank of Baroda branch has come up with a hot plan to keep the virus at bay.

The cashier takes the cheques from the customers using tongs and puts them down and irons them on both sides disinfect them.

Nobody has yet vouched for the efficiency of the method, but the video clip of the incident went viral on social media after industrialist Anand Mahindra posted it on his Twitter feed.

In my #whatsappwonderbox I have no idea if the cashiers technique is effective but you have to give him credit for his creativity!  pic.twitter.com/yAkmAxzQJT anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) April 4, 2020

In my #whatsappwonderbox I have no idea if the cashiers technique is effective but you have to give him credit for his creativity! he wrote.

The 27-second video has been viewed by over 262,000 times on Twitter and nearly 4,000 retweets.

Bank of Baroda commented on the thread and thanked Mahindra for appreciating the creativity of [their] staff member.

Dear Sir, thank you for sharing the video of our #BankofBaroda branch & appreciating the creativity of our staff member. #COVID19 Bank of Baroda (@bankofbaroda) April 4, 2020

Twitterati heaped praises over the ingenuity of the cashier.

While one said, Creativity and new ideas are most welcome at this time and are a huge relief to a humanity in distress. If novel coronovirus is challenging us, we shall challenge it back with our very own novel ideas! God Bless us all!

Creativity and new ideas are most welcome at this time and are a huge relief to a humanity in distress. If novel coronovirus is challenging us, we shall challenge it back with our very own novel ideas! God Bless us all! SRINIVAZ VASU (@srinivazvasu) April 4, 2020

Another wrote that the incident was an example of Incredible India.

Here are some other reactions

He can start a laundry shop after retirement  Dr Charuhas (@charuhasmujumd1) April 4, 2020
We're breaking down what you need to know about the pandemic by answering your questions. Send your questions to COVID@cbc.ca and we'll answer as many as we can. We'll publish a selection of answers every weekday online, and put some questions to the experts on The National and CBC News Network.

We've received thousands of emails from all corners of the country. Your questions have surprised us, stumped us and got us thinking, including a number of questions about mosquitoes and the physical distancing measures being taken at the CBC.

Can mosquitoes spread the coronavirus? Has that been factored into the estimates?

While there are some viruses that mosquitoes and other insects carry, the coronavirus doesn't seem to be one of them and therefore cannot be transmitted through mosquito bites, says the World Health Organization.

Jason Kindrachuk, research chair of microbiology and infectious diseases at University of Manitoba, says mosquitoes aren't something we need to worry about.

"We haven't seen this with other coronaviruses, so it would be very off for something like this to take place," he says.

I got a coronavirus test at the hospital and was told I would get a call in four or five days. It's been 10 days and I haven't heard anything. Am I supposed to presume I am negative?

We are getting a lot of questions about testing, including from Jim Y. who is waiting for his results. Ontario was dealing with a test backlog in late March which meant about 11,000 people were waiting for their results. The backlog has since been reduced to 329. Ontario has also launched an online service where the public can get their test results.

Other provinces including Alberta have also reported backlogs.

If you're waiting for a test result, Dr. Alon Vaisman, infectious disease specialist at Toronto's University Health Network, says: "You shouldn't assume you're negative."

You can find more information here about testing in each province.

Story continues

How is CBC protecting itself?

We've received a number of questions about how CBC News is practising physical distancing during this pandemic, including this email from Nathan H.

CBC newsrooms across the country are largely empty and journalists are working from home. That includes the majority of other staff as well.

Much of our radio and TV programming, including The National and CBC News Network, is being created mainly from home, with only a core group of on-air and technical staff still in our buildings. Nearly all appearances by guests, panelists and interview subjects are done by video conference or telephone.

For stories that do require news-gathering in the field, reporters and camera crews are following a rigorous process built around distancing our microphones and disinfecting gear.

"We would never compare to front-line health-care services what we do at CBC," said Brodie Fenlon, editor-in-chief of CBC News in a recent blog post. "But we believe strongly that we  play a critical role in conveying trusted, credible information in this time of crisis while also holding authorities to account for the life-changing decisions they make."

Learn more about how CBC journalists and technicians are covering the news during COVID-19 in Fenlon's Editor's Blog.

I walk my dog where there are a ton of joggers who run past me at an unsafe distance, huffing and puffing. I wear a mask. Should I be concerned about danger from their breath?

We continue to receive a lot of questions about masks and exercise, including this email from Judy L.

First of all, Judy's decision to wear a mask outside is a good idea. Canada's top doctor, Dr. Theresa Tam now says non-medical masks can help stop the spread of COVID-19.

But does she need to be concerned? Probably not, according to Dr. Matthew Oughton, director of the Royal College Training Program in infectious diseases. He says the risk of being exposed to the virus by a passing jogger is "very low."

"Generally speaking, this virus, as with many respiratory infections, is much more difficult to transmit outdoors than indoors," he says. Oughton explains that constant air movement outside contributes to a faster dispersion of the respiratory droplets and particles exerted from a passing jogger or anyone else.

"A significant exposure is usually considered to be within six feet [or two metres] for several minutes," he says. Assuming that the jogger respects physical distancing, he says "I would not be concerned that this would pose a high risk of transmitting COVID-19 or other respiratory infections."

The important thing is to practise physical distancing, by keeping two metres apart from others, as recommended by Health Canada.

Are there any other preventative measures, such as contact tracing, the government is taking?

One person with COVID-19 can spread the virus to others, and that's why it's important for public health officials to identify and locate people who may have come in contact with those who have tested positive. This is called contact tracing.

Dr. Richelle Schindler of Alberta Health Services is working on the province's COVID-19 response, and says contact tracing is "one of the best ways to contain this virus." Countries including South Korea, Japan and Singapore have been able to contain the coronavirus through aggressive contact tracing, she says.

China is using a phone app to track which of its citizens are at risk of COVID-19, but according to the New York Times, the app might also be sending personal information to the police.

Canadian officials are looking into how technology could help control the outbreak while also protecting patient privacy.

Physical distancing measures alone aren't going to be enough to stop the spread of the virus, says Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist with Johns Hopkins University. The need for contact tracing is likely to continue to increase, even as overall COVID-19 cases eventually start to level off, she says.

The federal government is calling for volunteers to help with case tracking and contact tracing. Here's where you can get more information, if you're interested in signing up.

You can also read about the measures provinces like Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador and Alberta are taking to employ and train more people to help track coronavirus cases.

We're also answering your questions every night on The National. Watch below:

Monday we answered questions about reusing N95 masks, to how the virus affects infants. Read here. Keep your questions coming by emailing us at COVID@cbc.ca.
WASHINGTON - The furloughing of the musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra has been averted with a restructured contract that will result in $4 million in savings, the Kennedy Center announced Tuesday.

The deal includes immediate pay cuts until early September, a wage freeze and a delayed pay increase and extends the current contract for a year, to 2024, according to the arts center. It avoids the open-ended furlough that was supposed to have started Monday.

The agreement is a significant step that will help ease the financial stress caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Since closing last month because of social distancing guidelines, the arts center has canceled at least 431 performances that could result in losses exceeding $20 million. The arts center remains closed through at least May 10.

The center faced widespread criticism for laying off and furloughing more than 1,100 employees, including the 96 members of the NSO, within days of learning it would receive $25 million in emergency federal funding. The musicians union called the furloughs illegal and filed a formal grievance. Kennedy Center President and CEO Deborah Rutter cited the pandemic as an exigent circumstance that gave her leeway.

The $4 million in concessions is equal to about 10 weeks of the musicians' payroll, which is roughly $400,000 weekly, according to the Kennedy Center. The now-canceled furloughs would have lasted at least six weeks.

Ed Malaga, president of American Federation of Musicians Local 161-710, said the musicians were pleased to resolve the grievance and avoid furloughs.

"I don't know why it couldn't have happened before [the furloughs were announced]," Malaga said. "The musicians had communicated with management their desire to have exactly this kind of conversation, to work collaboratively to address the issues.

"I think the musicians of the orchestra are feeling much better about the terms going forward," he said.

Rutter also expressed gratitude that an agreement was reached.

"This is an unprecedented time for all of us here in D.C. and around the world," she said in a statement. "The severe economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have unfolded at an incredibly rapid pace, requiring all of us to work together and demanding the highest levels of strategic and creative thinking to solve our problems in the long-term. We are grateful to the musicians of the NSO for partnering with us and that, together, we have found a way forward."

The Kennedy Center declined interview requests from The Washington Post following Tuesday's announcement.

The deal is a big win for the musicians, said Mark Gaston Pearce, executive director of the Workers Rights Institute at Georgetown University Law Center and former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. In his view, the furloughs violated both the collective bargaining agreement and national labor law.

"The union had them over a barrel. If they lost, the musicians would be entitled to back pay plus interest. That allowed them to engage in some bargaining," he said. "The musicians were able to negotiate some concessions which will help out the Kennedy Center and gain the added stability and security of another year [on the current contract]."

Pearce said the arts center's decision to furlough before negotiating could have been an intentional gambit by Rutter. "It certainly had a lot of shock value. Her technique might have been to punch the union in the face to see if they would fold and give up more than they would have otherwise," he said. Instead, he said it created an opportunity for the union.

Kennedy Center spokeswoman Eileen Andrews said every negotiation has a natural back and forth. "While the process isn't always elegant, we are pleased with the outcome here," she wrote in an email to The Post.

The new agreement will save the Kennedy Center $2.5 million over the next six months. The musicians agreed to a 25 percent pay cut to their minimum weekly salary through Aug. 10 and to forgo their four-week vacation period in August should the orchestra schedule events during that period. If they work between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, the end of the season, their base pay will be cut by 15 percent.

The pay cuts will end with the start of the new season on Sept. 8, but wages will be frozen and an expected salary increase will be delayed to 2021-22. The previous four-year contract has been extended a year, to September 2024. The wage freeze and deferred increase result in an additional $1.5 million in savings, according to the Kennedy Center.

Several musicians praised the orchestra committee and union leadership for the quick resolution, but they continued to question the Kennedy Center's actions and motives. One said Rutter used the pandemic to exact more concessions than this situation requires so she could address other financial problems. Another said the arts center's officials realized they would lose a legal battle if its furloughs were challenged. Both requested anonymity because they are not authorized todiscuss the agreement.

"The pay cuts are fair. We are not working, thus no money is coming to the Kennedy Center," one of the musicians added. "We all have people to take care of, mortgages, car payments, college tuition, bills and food to put on our tables. We are thankful to the committee that this issue was quickly resolved."

Pearce, the Georgetown law professor, believes the Kennedy Center didn't expect the public backlash.

"I don't think the Kennedy Center estimated the court of public opinion," he added. This coming in the wake of the federal grant, that didn't play too well."

The musicians and management have agreed to discuss ways to share new and archived content during the closure, and Malaga said orchestra members have pledged at least $50,000 over the next 10 weeks to help support the NSO administrative staff, many of whom have been furloughed until May 11, along with other Kennedy Center employees.
Photo: (Photo : Instagram/theroyalfamily)

April is a special month for the royal family, especially this year, because they will be celebrating birthdays and anniversaries while practicing social distancing.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Louis celebrate their birthdays in April. It is also a month when Prince William and Kate Middleton will be celebrating their wedding anniversary, just like Prince Charles and Camilla.

Queen Elizabeth is Turning 94

On April 21, the Queen will be celebrating her 94th birthday. The Trooping the Color parade is a celebration of her birthday but done every June. It is, however, canceled this year due to the coronavirus.

On Sunday, April 5, Queen Elizabeth made a rare speech addressing all the United Kingdom, advising everyone to have the self-discipline to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a transcript, she expressed her hope that the people will be proud of how they have fought this battle in the years to come. Adding to that, she said that those who come after them would say that the Britons of their generation were stronger than any others.

According to NPR, a cameraman wearing all protective suits took the video of the Queen at Windsor Castle outside of London, while all the other staff was in another room, as reported by BBC.

The U.K. is currently in soft lockdown wherein the people are only allowed to go out to buy the necessities, medicine, and exercise.

Prince Charles and Camilla Celebrates 15th Wedding Anniversary

April 9 marks the 15th wedding anniversary of Prince Charles and Camilla. They had their civil ceremony on April 9, 2005, at the Windsor Castle.

The Prince of Wales is currently experiencing mild symptoms after having tested positive for the coronavirus. He and Camilla are now self-isolating in their house as Prince Charles continues with his work at home.

Prince Louis Turns Two

The youngest prince of Cambridge turns two on April 23. After being exposed to the public a year ago during his "Gan Gan's" birthday celebration, Prince Louis has been making his fans wow by his big personality.

Prince William and Kate Middleton Celebrates 9th Wedding Anniversary

Finally, before the month ends, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be celebrating their 9th wedding anniversary on April 29. The couple first met as students at the University of St. Andrews and eventually got into a relationship. They got engaged in November 2010 and tied the knot on April 29, 2011.

After 9 years of being together, the couple is said to still be madly in love with one another. Kate always laughs at the prince's jokes, and she can be seen smiling at her husband with everyone else in the room. She is often caught on camera looking endearingly and smiling towards Prince William, and the prince feels the same.
Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) on Tuesday offered telephone nurse triage services to provide frontline support for COVID-19 callers to enable healthcare providers and health insurance plan staff to focus on critical case requirements.

HGS has over 1,200 nurses around the globe supporting critical functions ranging from care management, nurse advice, triage line, prior authorisation, retrospective clinical reviews, high dollar clinical reviews for claims payment integrity and personal nurse concierge care line.

"We have more than 30 years of experience in providing telephone nurse triage," said Ramesh Gopalan, Global President of HGS Healthcare.

"With significant increases in patient calls due to COVID-19, a healthcare company's ability to discern which ones require additional medical attention and which are only seeking advice is paramount. Our seasoned teams are augmenting support to allow our client's internal resources to focus on other critical case requirements," he said in a statement.

Mary Jane Konstantin, Senior Vice President and Head of for HGS AxisPoint Health, said the company is offering a turnkey solution designed to offload COVID-19 calls.

The nurse triage solution includes US-based nurses, a hotline that can integrate into an existing call tree or a dedicated number and a clinical algorithm approach that has a high correlation rate with physicians in triage quality and care recommendations.

"Using the solution, our nurses can support COVID-19 callers with self-care guidance, assess the caller's condition, and direct them to the most appropriate level of care. This can be an omni-channel solution designed for offering preferred communication choices for enhanced patient and member experience," she said.

HGS combines technology-powered services in automation, analytics and digital with domain expertise focusing on back office processing, contact centres and human resource outsourcing solutions to deliver transformational impact to clients.

Part of the multi-billion dollar conglomerate Hinduja Group, HGS has over 38,872 employees across 61 delivery centres in seven countries. For the year that ended March 31, 2019, it had revenues of 689 million dollars.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ed Miliband will return to the Labour front bench under new leader Keir Starmer, who has also handed shadow cabinet roles to his former rivals for the top job.

Mr Miliband, who resigned the Labour leadership after his 2015 election defeat and was succeeded by Jeremy Corbyn, was named new shadow business secretary.

His predecessor in the role, Rebecca Long-Bailey, has been moved to education and joins fellow former leadership contenders Lisa Nandy and Emily Thornberry in Mr Starmer's top team.

David Lammy, returns from the backbenches, having first been brought into government by Tony Blair, as shadow justice secretary.

The moves will be seen as an attempt to unite a fractured party, bringing back some names from the party's recent past while holding on to some who excelled under the previous leadership.

Mr Starmer said: "I'm proud to have appointed a shadow cabinet that showcases the breadth, depth and talents of the Labour Party. This is a new team that will be relentlessly focused on acting in the national interest to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and rebuilding Labour."

Ms Thornberry has been appointed as shadow international trade secretary, while Ms Nandy replaces her as shadow foreign secretary.

Corbyn allies also lost out, including Richard Burgon and Shami Chakrabarti.
Cardinal George Pell officiates the opening mass of World Youth Day (WYD), in Sydney on July 15, 2008.

WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images

Australia's High Court has overturned Cardinal George Pell's historic conviction for sexual abuse.

The 78-year-old previously served as archbishop of Melbourne and was also one of Pope Francis' closest advisors.

He was previously convicted of sexually abusing two 13-year-old boys in 1996 and again in 1997 at Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral.

The High Court on Tuesday unanimously concluded that "there ought to have been a reasonable doubt" as to whether Pell was guilty, essentially that there was not enough evidence to convict him.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Australia's High Court has overturned Cardinal George Pell's conviction for sexual abuse, allowing him to walk free in time for Easter.

The court announced the decision on Tuesday morning local time.

"The High Court granted special leave to appeal against a decision of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria and unanimously allowed the appeal," the judgment reads.

"The High Court found that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant's guilt with respect to each of the offences for which he was convicted, and ordered that the convictions be quashed and that verdicts of acquittal be entered in their place."

The 78-year-old previously served as archbishop of Melbourne and was also one of Pope Francis' closest advisors.

Pell was convicted of one charge of sexual penetration of a child and four charges of committing an act of indecency with or in the presence of a child on December 11, 2018. The prosecution alleged that the incidents happened on two separate occasions, once in 1996 and again in 1997 at Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral following a Sunday mass service. The alleged victims were two 13-year-old choir boys.

Pell was taken into custody last February. His legal team appealed to Victoria's Court of Appeal last year unsuccessfully.

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The High Court on Tuesday unanimously concluded that "there ought to have been a reasonable doubt" as to whether Pell was guilty, essentially that there was not enough evidence to convict him.

Pell released a statement after the High Court ruling, maintaining his innocence and calling the convictions against him "a serious injustice."

"I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering for a serious injustice," the statement read. "This has been remedied today with the High Court's unanimous decision."

"I hold no ill will toward my accuser, I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough," he continued.

"However my trial was not referendum not he Catholic church; nor a referendum on how Church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of pedophilia in the Church. The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not."

Archbishop Mark Coleridge from Australian Catholic Bishops Conference released a statement, saying that the ruling "does not change the church's unwavering commitment to child safety and to a just and compassionate response to survivors and victims of sexual abuse."

Victoria Police released a statement, saying that it respected the court's decision: "Victoria police remains committed to investigating sexual assault offenses and providing justice for victims no matter how many years have passed."

Fiona Patten, a member of the Legislative Council in Victoria, decried the ruling.

"Every Australian knows the truth about George Pell," she said in a statement on Twitter. "No amount of holy water will wash the stain off."

Catherine King, a member of Australia's parliament for the Labor Party, said in a statement she would respect the High Court's decision, but would not respect the system which allowed for abuse allegations to be covered up.

"While I respect the High Court decision I will never respect an institution, system and individual that allowed the abuse in Ballarat to not only occur but to be covered up. Love to all of our courageous survivors."

Read the original article on Business Insider
In response to Tulsa World questions, Kevin Gross, CEO of Hillcrest HealthCare System, said approximately 20% of the systems 6,700 employees  about 1,340 people  will be affected by furloughs, reassignments, or reduced hours or pay.

Gross said the difficult decisions were made to ensure that Hillcrest can provide life-saving care with the caregivers and resources it has available.

We know this is a difficult time for workers and families, Gross said in a statement. We are hopeful that these measures will be short-lived. We are grateful for the service of all staff members and we remain hopeful that over the next few months, we will return to normal hours for our employees.

Our health care workers will continue to provide compassionate and quality care to those who need us.

Gross told the Tulsa World that the furloughs affect employees in numerous roles, from administration to outpatient or surgery positions that are experiencing drops in workload or patient volumes.

He noted significant declines in routine and elective procedures as patients comply with stay-at-home directives and government mandates. Reduced hours or pay mostly affect clinic settings, he said.
Though the number of coronavirus deaths in New Jersey climbed above 1,000 on Monday, Gov. Phil Murphy said there is hope the peak curve in cases in the state is beginning to level thanks to the strict social distancing measures that have been in effect for more than two weeks.

(Theres been) a decline in the growth rate of new cases from 24% day over day on March 30th to roughly 12% day-over-day (Monday), Murphy said Monday while also expressing sympathies for the lives lost.

The projected infection chart revealed by Murphy showed an 86,000-case peak as a best-case scenario with social distancing, or a 509,000-case peak as a worst-case scenario. The peak would be between April 19 and May 11, according to the chart.

The New Jersey Department of Health provided charts of the projections for coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.

Officials announced 3,663 new cases on Monday with 86 additional deaths.

In all, 41,090 have tested positive for COVID-19, though an estimated 80 to 85% of the cases are mild or moderate. Another 47,942 people tested negative.

An update on the number of cases and deaths is expected at 1 p.m. press conference on Tuesday.

A roundup of coronavirus stories:

Tribute by fire, EMS crews held to thank Jersey Shore University Medical Center workers battling coronavirus: Dozens of firefighters and EMS workers from the towns surrounding Jersey Shore University hospital in Neptune held a tribute to those on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak on Monday evening. Vehicles streamed into the parking lot with lights and sirens, and hospital workers were greeted with a receiving line of applauding first responders.

Pink Floyd show during coronavirus lockdown a misunderstanding, lawyer says. 2nd person charged: The man police say hosted a Pink Floyd cover concert at his Rumson home in violation of the states restrictions aimed at combating the coronavirus never invited the approximately 30 partiers who cops said they found on his front lawn, his attorney said Monday.

Meanwhile on Monday, the state Attorney Generals Office said a second person was charged for his alleged role in the Pink Floyd party. The 46-year-old cursed at police as they dispersed the crowd and was the one who shouted, Welcome to Nazi Germany, according to the Attorney Generals Office.

4 more suspects said they have coronavirus during arrests: Three of the four men either spit on, coughed on or breathed heavily on police after incidents in Hamilton (Mercer County), Kearny, New Brunswick and Woolwich, authorities said. One of the men was drunk and crashed into a home, another broke into a home, a third was trying to enter parked cars and a the fourth violated a restraining order, according to officials.

Additional Jersey Shore towns closing their beaches, boardwalks, halting rentals due to coronavirus: Avalon and three of the Wildwoods announced Monday they would close beaches and boardwalks. The closure is in effect until at least May 1.

Coronavirus infects 26 staffers, residents at N.J. long-term care center: Fifteen residents and 11 staff members at a long-term care facility in Cape May County have tested positive for the coronavirus. No deaths are associated with the outbreak at the 120-bed facility, owned by Genesis HealthCare.

Husband and wife with coronavirus die alone in same N.J. hospital a week apart: Two health care workers from Palisades Park who had been married 44 years died at Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen. Both began feeling sick about three weeks ago.

Among Hudson County jail employees and inmates, 63 coronavirus cases and another fatality: A second nurse affiliated with the Hudson County jail has died, and 41 staff members there have tested positive. There are currently 771 individuals in custody there, 208 of whom are U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees.

Worldwide coronavirus cases: About 1.36 million as early Wednesday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 76,000 people have been killed and more than 289,000 have recovered from COVID-19.

U.S. cases: Nearly 11,000 people in the U.S. have been killed by COVID-19 as of 7 a.m. Tuesday. There have been a cumulative 368,000 cases. About 20,000 have recovered.

If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.

NJ Advance Media staff writers Matt Arco, Noah Cohen, Joe Brandt, Chris Franklin, Teri West, and Avolon Zoppo contributed to this report.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Lorena Duarte of Palisades Park, New Jersey, hasn't cleaned houses in more than two weeks. She's afraid to go to work and bring the COVID-19 virus home to a daughter who had a lung operation a few years ago.

Javier Martinez of Kearny, New Jersey, said all his landscaping jobs have dried up. He's searched for other work but hasn't been successful.

"The clients that give us work, they have closed their businesses and stopped their projects, and they left us up in the air,'' Martinez said. "There is no work, and we have rent coming up."

The $2 trillion stimulus package passed last month was intended to help displaced workers stay afloat as the coronavirus shuts down the economy. For immigrant laborers such as Duarte and Martinez, there'll be little financial relief coming from the government.

Day laborers negotiate work in Palisades Park, New Jersey, on July 16, 2019.

They're among the estimated 10.7 million undocumented immigrants in the USA who are ineligible for emergency federal benefits or state unemployment insurance because they don't have valid work authorization.

That's left an extra layer of anxiety for immigrants without legal status who have lost their jobs or seen work hours reduced amid the statewide shutdown of "nonessential" businesses. Many turned to local organizations for help to put food on the table and pay other expenses.

Related Video: What's in the $2T Stimulus Package?

"Right now, we have more than 200 people who have submitted a form that said they need support with food, with medication and wondering if they can be tested for the coronavirus,'' said Haydi Torres, a community organizer for Movimiento Cosecha, which connects immigrants with relief groups. "Right now, we are just calling people to see who is doing what and what gap we see in the community and try to fill those."

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The rescue package approved by Congress and the White House provides payments of up to $1,200 per person and $600 a week in additional unemployment benefits beyond what states pay. The emergency checks will go only to those with valid Social Security numbers and unemployment to people with valid work status  either U.S. citizens or those with green cards or work visas.

Your coronavirus money questions answered: Can I apply for unemployment for my second job? When does the $600 check arrive?

Coronavirus stimulus: How it helps retirement

The legislation does make free coronavirus testing available to immigrants, either through federally funded community health clinics or Medicaid programs open to green-card holders.

Some immigrant advocates lobby for the undocumented to be includedby allowing payments to those who file taxes using individual tax identification numbers, which are often used by workers without legal immigration status.

"They should include at least the individual taxpayers,'' said Diana Mejia, founder of the Wind of the Spirit, an organization that helps immigrants in New Jersey's Morris County. "They are paying taxes."

Filers who use ITINs contribute about $11.74 billion in state and local taxes each year, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington think tank.

Critics said those who work illegally get benefits and services for those taxes, including free public education for their children as well as garbage pickup and police and fire protection.

"You have an obligation to pay your taxes, and that doesn't buy you into American society as a full-fledged member,'' said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors restricting immigration. "Everybody empathizes with people losing their jobs, but these are jobs that they knew they were holding illegally in the first place, so we don't need to feel obligated to compensate people for losing jobs that they illegally held in the first place."

Almost 8 million unauthorized workers were employed in the USA in 2016, about 4.8% of the nation's labor force, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

The pandemic has hit hard at many industries where undocumented Hispanics work, including restaurants, food delivery, construction and cleaning, said Ana Flores, director of education for the nonprofit Qualitas of Life Foundation, based in New York.

"Besides being worried for their health, they are also very concerned about their economic situation," said Flores, whose organization compiled guides in Spanish on where immigrants can access food and other help in the region.

At home, worrying

Duarte, 38, who was born in Guatemala, said she stopped cleaning houses the day she found out her five children, ranging from 4 to 14 years old, would have to stay at home from school.

Lorena Duarte and Walfre Corado of Palisades Park, N.J., who have five children, haven't worked for more than two weeks because of COVID-19, and they worry how they will pay bills.

"How could I expose them if I go to work?'' she said. "I don't know where the homeowners I work for have been, and if they get it, then I could easily catch it being in their homes."

The first week, it was her choice to stay home, she said, but the following week, the homeowners she worked for canceled after shutdowns went into effect. Duarte said she would normally make $300 to $400 a week cleaning houses.

Duarte's partner, Walfre Corado, works as a painter at construction sites. He stopped working around the same time, also afraid of bringing the virus home. One of the couple's daughters had lung surgery three years ago and is susceptible to bronchitis and other respiratory illnesses, Duarte said.

The couple have not left their home, but as each day passes, they worry more about how they will pay the $1,200 rent for the house they share with her sister's family. Her sister's husband lost his job, Duarte said.

"We still need to pay electricity, food, and this is not going to end,'' she said. "The work may stop, but the bills don't stop."

Martinez, 50, said he has worked in landscaping for years and would get paid about $120 a day, some weeks working six days. Normally, when there's no landscaping jobs, he can paint and do other handy work. Even though construction has been deemed an essential work that can continue in New Jersey, Martinez said he's had no luck.

"The work has gotten difficult,'' he lamented.

Geisel Gebara, who has two sons, has not been able to work since New Jersey began statewide lockdown of nonessential businesses to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Martinez's partner and mother of his children, Geisel Gebara, would get paid about $300 a week taking care of a few of her friends' children at home. The friends have also stopped working, so that income has evaporated, Martinez said.

Martinez came to the USA from El Salvador in 2005 and said he hasn't been able to adjust his immigration status. He said he talked to attorneys, but the cost is prohibitive.

This week, he and Gebara ventured out to Newark to see if they could get food donations at a church, but the site was closed. Martinez said he planned to try again.

"I have two boys, and you know children indoors, you spend more, too, because they are eating more,'' he said. "We never expected this to happen."

Follow reporter Monsy Alvarado on Twitter: @monsyalvarado

The hydroxychloroquine debate: Why is the malaria drug in the news, and what do we know about it?

Is it safe to go grocery shopping? Helpful tips during the coronavirus pandemic

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Undocumented immigrant workers feel extra anxiety amid coronavirus
The COVID-19 pandemic has apparently not slowed down Samsungs growth by a large amount, with their current estimates even beating initial expectations. Samsung posted its earnings guidance for Q1 2020, being one of the first tech companies to do so, estimating approximately 55 trillion Korean won ($45.26 billion) in sales and 6.4 trillion Korean won ($5.26 billion) in operating profit.

Compared to Q1 2019, Samsung is expecting an operating profit YoY growth of 2.7% and an approximate 5% YoY growth in its first-quarter consolidated sales. This comes during a time when many tech companies are expecting the industry to slowdown by a significant amount as the virus outbreak wrecks havoc, disrupting supply chains and impacting sales.

Samsungs growth in earning can be explained by relatively weak Korean won, cost-saving efforts and strong demand for memory chips. The demand for memory chips arose when the virus outbreak forced people into quarantine and work from home, leading to data centres requiring more memory chips. A major part of Samsungs earnings comes from its memory components used in smartphones and data centers.

Regarding the semi-conductor markets, researchers noted that there has not been any order cuts from customers too. This points to a positive year-on-year growth estimation for the month of April and subsequently Q2 2020.

Samsungs smartphone division remained largely unaffected as most of its operations takes place in Vietnam, India and South Korea. However, Indias recent 21-day lockdown will likely affect some parts of its supply chain and restrictions in other countries may affect demand in the later quarters of 2020 too.

Source | Via
Anne Tyler knows what shes doing. She knows noisy, complaining, blaming and manipulative siblings inside and out (and their offspring and all those other people who get dragged in: babysitters, neighbors, step-aunts), the chaotic reunions and holidays, marked by hilarious and painful awkwardness, dotted with moments of grace, often offered by a particularly graceless person.

Anne Tyler knows the worn-out or angry or unappreciated mothers (and hard-working older sisters and even the men who find themselves needing to step up to that job), the marriages of miscommunication and dwindling returns, the deeply unsatisfactory (and occasionally blessed) pasts and presents of her own now-mythic Baltimore, which is nothing like The Wire, nothing like the grit and murder of The Keepers, nothing like the political rough-and-tumble of Nancy Pelosis hometown. This Baltimore is singularly Anne Tylers spool, ladder and planet. And Anne Tyler knows that memory is a powerhouse, a compass and also a liar.

Micah Mortimer, a protagonist, not a hero, is familiar to readers of Anne Tyler. Hes reasonably fit, knows how to cook a few things, washes up after dinner and is cautious and steady, and awfully pleased with his own caution and steadiness (he even calls upon the traffic gods to admire his skillful parking and good manners on the highway). Tylers protagonists are not the most exciting guys. They atone, they avoid. They worry, they fear. They set themselves uninspiringly small tasks and often fail. From The Accidental Tourist to Saint Maybe to Noahs Compass, they are passive, worried (or trying very hard not to worry), cloistered, neither witty nor fun but not without humor. They, like Micah, are clueless until something comes along (sometimes tragedy but in Micahs case, not quite) to wake them, shake them and transform them just enough to bring about a wry (not always happy) and fulfilling ending.

[ Read an excerpt from Redhead by the Side of the Road. ]

Micah is cocooned inside routine. When you meet his disorganized family, you know why: a front hall with piles of sneakers atop pruning shears and nail polish bottles, noisy, unkempt merry people wearing wild colors, dogs barking, baby crying, TV blaring, bowls of chips and dips already savaged. No one does the charms and horrors of family gatherings better than Tyler. Micah also has a lovely girlfriend, a sensible, kindhearted schoolteacher, Cass, and what she finds attractive in Micah is not apparent to this reader. And even so, Tyler is too good at what she does to let me dismiss Micah the way I want to. His barely understood grief when he has caused Cass to break up with him, his making a mess of his relationship with a young man who hopes Micah is his long-lost father is visceral and moving.
(Newser)  Colorado Springs woman Letecia Stauch reported her 11-year-old stepson Gannon missing on Jan. 27. Investigators believe she murdered him earlier that day. According to an arrest affidavit seen by People, investigators believe the 36-year-old woman killed the boy in his bedroom. "Evidence recovered from the residence and inside Gannons bedroom supports that a violent event occurred in the bedroom which caused bloodshed, including blood spatter on the walls, and enough blood loss to stain his mattress, soak through the carpet, the carpet pad, and stain the concrete below his bed," the affidavit states. Investigators say that before calling 911 to report the boy missing, Stauch contacted her 17-year-old daughter and asked her to buy trash bags, baking soda, and carpet powder.

story continues below

The daughter has refused to speak to investigators, but police say they do not believe she was present when Gannon was murdered or when his body, which was found in Florida last month, was moved, CBS Denver reports. Police say Stauch brought notes to her interviews but still changed her story, initially claiming that an intruder had raped her and held her at gunpoint on the day Gannon vanished. Al Stauch, the boy's father, was on deployment with the National Guard at the time of the murder, investigators say. He has filed for divorce. The affidavit also revealed that before the killing, Stauch searched online for jobs and apartments in Florida in California. Her other searches included "husband uses me to babysit his kids" and "police steps for our missing child." She faces charges including first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death. (Read more Colorado stories.)
Thailand registers 38 new coronavirus cases, 1 new death

THAILAND: The government reported 38 confirmed new coronavirus cases and one additional death in a briefing on this morning (Apr 7).



By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 7 April 2020, 02:33PM

Patients and nurses are separated by a transparent partition at Pranangklao Hospital in Nonthaburi province. Photo: Bangkok Post

The total of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Thailand since the virus broke now stands at 2,258, and the cumulative death toll at 27.

An additional 31 people have recovered from the disease, a number that approached the tally of new cases.

The figure of 38 new infections appears to show a declining trend from the 51 cases reported yesterday and the 102 logged on Sunday, but there is no way to know the actual number of cases and how quickly the coronavirus is being transmitted because, as is the case worldwide, very few people have been tested.

Dr Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesman of the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration, said at Government House that the latest fatality was a 54-year-old man, with no reported chronic diseases, who partied in Thong Lor area of Bangkok.

On March 13 he began to suffer from exhaustion, and the condition worsened the following day. He was admitted to hospital and put on a ventilator. A lung X-ray showed severe pneumonia and he tested positive for COVID-19.

The man died of failure of the respiratory tract yesterday, Dr Taweesin said.

The spokesman expressed his relief over the lower number of new confirmed cases  and attributed it to the new curfew.

The lower number of daily new cases and the slower increase in accumulated patients apparently resulted from the nationwide curfew starting on April 3, Dr Taweesin said.

The new 38 cases included 17 people in close contact with previous patients. Eleven of them were in Bangkok and contracted the disease from family members, colleagues and friends, Dr Taweesin said.

Seven new patients worked in crowded areas or closely with foreigners: three in Phuket, two in Bangkok and one each in Chon Buri and Krabi provinces.

Other new cases included three health workers, three visitors to crowded places and three Thais who returned from overseas. Five cases were under investigation, Dr Taweesin said.

The accumulated 2,258 patients are in 66 provinces. Bangkok recorded the highest number of 1,201 followed by 138 in Phuket, 134 in Nonthaburi, 99 in Samut Prakan, 70 in Chon Buri, 54 in Yala, 46 in Pattani, 37 each in Chiang Mai and Songkhra, and 26 in Pathum Thani.
Children sue Google for collecting face scans, 'voiceprints' of millions of students

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As numerous schools are using Googles tools to hold online classes amid the COVID-19 outbreak, two Illinois children have filed a lawsuit alleging that the multinational technology company is collecting biometric data, including face scans, of millions of students.

Seeking class-action status, the children  identified only as H.K. and J.C.  filed the lawsuit on Thursday in a federal court in San Jose, California, through their father, Clinton Farwell, according to CNET.

In their complaint, the children allege that Google is using its services to create face templates and voiceprints of children through its program that provides Chromebooks and G Suite for Education apps, including student versions of Gmail, Calendar and Google Docs, to school districts across the country.

Google has complete control over the data collection, use, and retention practices of the G Suite for Education service, including the biometric data and other personally identifying information collected through the use of the service, and uses this control not only to secretly and unlawfully monitor and profile children but to do so without the knowledge or consent of those children's parents, the lawsuit says, according to Tech Times.

Last week, Google announced a partnership with California Gov. Gavin Newsom in providing more than 4,000 Chromebooks to students across the state.

According to the complaint, the data collection violates Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, which regulates facial recognition, fingerprinting and other biometric technologies in the state.

A federal law, the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act, also prohibits sites from collecting personal information from users who are under 13 years old without parental consent.

The children are asking for damages of over $1,000 for each member of the class for BIPA violations if those violations are due to the companys negligence, or around $5,000 each for each offense committed intentionally or recklessly.

As part of a settlement last September, Google and YouTube were asked to pay $136 million to the Federal Trade Commission and $34 million to New York for allegedly violating the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act Rule.

YouTube touted its popularity with children to prospective corporate clients, FTC Chairman Joe Simons said at the time in a statement. Yet when it came to complying with COPPA, the company refused to acknowledge that portions of its platform were clearly directed to kids. Theres no excuse for YouTubes violations of the law.
A reverend has told how vicars are seeing 'immeasurable heartache' among grieving families who cannot have proper funeral services due to the coronavirus.

Kim Mannings, 30, the curate at Prescot Parish Church in Merseyside, said relatives are suffering through having to limit the number of family members at funerals.

The services can only be held at crematoriums or gravesides  not churches - and only immediate family members can attend while abiding by social distancing.

Reverend Kim Mannings, pictured with Reverend John Taylor, the Prescot Parish Church vicar

Reverend Kim Mannings is the curate at Prescot Parish Church in Merseyside (file picture)

And Reverend Mannings told Sky News: 'Normally when you go to visit a family who are bereaved, you go to their home, you shake their hands, you sit down in their living rooms, you listen as stories are told of the person who they loved so much.

'You pray for them in person and you make the promise that you'll make the service as fitting a goodbye as possible. As perfect as possible.

'And actually I can't make that promise right now, I can't make the promise that the service will be as perfect as possible because it won't.

'You're having to tell grieving families that they can't have flowers. That they can't have more than ten people at the service. They can't have the service in a church. That some relatives perhaps shouldn't be present because they're high-risk.

Reverend Kim Mannings, 30, told Sky News how relatives are suffering through having to limit the number of family members at funerals, which is causing 'immeasurable heartache'

Mourners spaced out for social distancing at a funeral at a burial ground in Chislehurst, South East London, for Ismail Abdulwahab, 13, who died after testing positive for coronavirus

'When you look around and there's key people missing there at the graveside. We're just witnessing families fall apart. We're just witnessing immeasurable heartache.

'And whilst I might believe with all of my heart that death is not the end, that Jesus walked among the mess and the death of this world and conquered death forever, we know that it really hurts now, that people are really hurting now.

'And it's those families who I will really, really be praying for this night.'

Mrs Mannings, who is married to pianist Stephen, 36, is a former secondary school religious education teacher who was ordained a priest in Liverpool last year.

The Bishop of Gloucester, the Right Reverend Rachel Treweek, has told how funerals are 'going to be different for the foreseeable future'

While weddings were banned when the lockdown was brought in on March 23 and all churches were ordered to close, funerals are still allowed to take place.

However they are subject to strict limits on numbers present and social distancing rules, with only the partner, parents and children of the deceased allowed to attend.

No wake or gathering should be now held following any funeral, and this should be scheduled for a later date - along with any larger memorial service in the future.

The Church of England has also issued recommendations on using technology to capture the event for those who are unable to be there in person.

Speaking about funerals last month, the Bishop of Gloucester, the Right Reverend Rachel Treweek, said: 'When someone we love dies, it is a time of great sadness.

'Funerals are significant events to mark the end of a person's life here on earth, and family and friends come together to express grief, give thanks for the life lived and commend the person into God's keeping.

'As we adapt to the threat of Covid-19 in our society the nature of funerals is having to change because we all need to be keeping people safe in line with government guidelines.

'However, while funerals are going to be different for the foreseeable future we remain committed to offering pastoral and spiritual support as we share the love and hope of Jesus Christ.'
Google is highlighting restaurants that offer delivery for its users as people deal with the reality of coronavirus-related lockdown.

According to 9to5Google, when users open up their Maps app they will now see shortcuts on the home screen that help them find restaurants that are relevant from a delivery standpoint.

Users will be able to order directly through the app if the restaurant supports that functionality, otherwise they will have to use a third-party service or call the restaurant directly.

Google has rolled out several new shortcuts that allows users to more easily find delivery options in the Maps app during coronavirus-related lockdowns

Those shorcuts are live in both the Android and iOS version of the app according to 9to5Google, but only in the UK, Netherlands, US, and France.

In addition to helping users find out where to order food, the addition could also help people support local restaurants still offering delivery as many of them struggle to stay afloat during widespread lockdowns.

This isn't the first tweak to Google's Maps app. Previously the tech giant tweaked Maps so that if a user search for a hospital near them, a notification would advice them to call the in advance if they suspect that they're infected with coronavirus.

Theoretically it would help increase the chances that patients receive treatment without infecting others.

Likewise, companies like Uber Eats have tweaker their own apps to help retaurants during the pandemic.

Uber Eats has rolled out new features that let users donate to local restaurants struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic (stock)

Most recently, Uber announced that it's adding a button that lets users donate to restaurants affected by an ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The button will be in-app and will feature several different suggested donations, including a baseline $2 option, according to The Verge. All of the donated amount will go directly to the restaurant, Uber says.

The company will also match contributions dollar-for-dollar going up to $3 million with proceeds going to the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund, which is managed the National Restaurant Association.
People across New Jersey are pulling on rubber gloves to protect themselves from the coronavirus.

Or theyre just doing their hair ... with a little help from their stylists.

Grays, be gone. Root regrowth? Vanquished!

No salons? No problem  home delivery to the rescue.

New Jersey hair salons and barber shops were shut down in March along with nail salons and tattoo shops to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease. So they took a cue from one of the essential businesses  restaurants  to make home color kits for their clients. The little care packages come with dye, gloves and step-by-step instructions.

Isnt box dye an option? Sure, and cheaper at the outset, but stylists warn those who frequent professional colorists against experimenting.

Mixing a box dye with whatever they have could create a problem," says Michelle Cleveland, owner of Hair Addict Salon & Extension Bar in Toms River. What if they have some sort of breakage, and we cant even help them at all?

The hope is that when things do return to normal" and businesses reopen, stylists can avoid that much-loathed phrase: corrective color."

The hair "survival kit" from Hair Addict Salon & Extension Bar in Toms River.Michelle Cleveland

Such a time-intensive (and expensive) process is often necessary to fix a bad dye job. Cleveland says a $10 box of drug store hair color could wind up costing $400 in color correction over three or four hours in a salon chair.

At the end of the day, wed rather you sit home and wait it out," she tells NJ Advance Media. (That also goes for cutting your own bangs.)

Some are embracing the natural look, taking the opportunity to let those grays and silvers flourish. In fact, Cleveland is planning a #ShowUsYourRoots contest on social media to look for the best and biggest examples of regrowth, or natural hair color growing in.

But she knows others are eager to extinguish their roots, even when other concerns  like saving lives, keeping food on the table and securing toilet paper  are much more pressing.

We appreciate that they cant wait, for whatever their personal reasons are," Cleveland says. Since her salon had to close, shes distributed more than 30 home color kits  shes calling them survival kits"  to clients. She expects that number to grow since the president extended the nationwide call to stay at home through April.

Hair is the crown you never take off," she says. It gives confidence to a woman even if its just for her eyes. People are feeling anxious and depressed. Those emotions spark something. You reach for whatever you can to make you feel better. Hair plays an important role in that.

Each time a canceled appointment approaches, the salon reaches out to a client to see if theyre interested in a kit, which includes their personalized color formulation, disposable gloves, an applicator brush and instructions (Hair Addict is also offering root touch-up spray).

The kits, which cost less than a single-process appointment with a stylist, generate income at a time when a salons only hope may be gift cards or the purchase of future services. But Cleveland says thats not the main goal.

This is not about trying to sell kits," she says. Its about trying to keep our loyal guests in a healthy condition for their hair.

Offering clients a do-it-yourself touch-up (single-process only; no bleach, highlights or balayage) is also a way to cut down on what could be an overwhelming demand for hair services once things are up and running again.

The home hair color kit provided by Guillotine Salon & Spa in Westfield.Lynne Fitzpatrick

Cleveland is not taking on new clients for home kits, she says, because the salon cant book any in-person consultations.

With professional formula, you really need to have a strand test on file," she says.

Lynne Fitzpatrick is also providing DIY root touch-up kits for her clients in Westfield.

For 23 years, shes owned Guillotine Salon & Spa (the salon takes its name from its previous incarnation, Guillotine Headcutters, which had a guillotine theme in the 1970s).

Fitzpatrick has nearly 60 clients on the list for home color kits, which cost $50 and come with dye, gloves, instructions, barrier cream to guard against staining of the skin and color remover for any spots they may have missed.

To prevent transmission of the coronavirus, the salon wipes down everything in its home color kits with Lysol before delivery.

When we first sent out the email, we were completely overwhelmed by the response," Fitzpatrick says. Theyre so grateful because it makes you feel better. If you look a little bit better, you feel a little bit better."

She says the kits have been one way to answer some of the impossible requests stylists are receiving, asking them to wear a mask and make home visits or cut hair in peoples backyards  both big no-nos in the time of social distancing.

Desperate times, she says. Were not engaging in any of that."

The salon has also run gift card promotions on social media in an effort to drum up some revenue during the long wait.

Tru Salon & Spa in Branchburg and Warren is conducting remote consultations and sending customers a professional hair color kit they can mix at home.Eric Rhoades

Fitzpatrick has received pleas from people who frequent stylists in New York  could the Jersey salon fill in? No dice. She explains that they couldnt do something like that over the phone, and that it would need to be an in-person consultation.

The New Jersey Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling tells NJ Advance Media that it does not recommend the sale of chemicals, including professional hair color, for home use, though regulations do not prohibit salons from selling and delivering such products to customers.

Consumers should be aware that some chemicals effectiveness may be compromised by premixing color for application at a later time, and that product liability protections do not apply when products intended for professional use are not used as intended, the board said in a statement.

Cleveland asks customers to sign a waiver before they receive a kit. To avoid the premixing issue, Eric Rhoades, owner of Somerset Countys Tru Salon and Spa, has opted to ship clients a prepackaged root touch-up product from a hair color manufacturer. His $45 kits come with color-safe shampoo and conditioner.

People still want and need to feel normal, Rhoades tells NJ Advance Media, even if some may dismiss hair as a trivial concern. I think theres a mental health piece to it.

After Gov. Phil Murphy announced all salons would be closed, there was an onslaught of customer interest at Rhoades salons in Branchburg and Warren  especially from people who had already been holding off for months.

The phones exploded," Rhoades says. Every client that had appointments in the near future was trying to get in within the next 12 hours.

Rhoades hopes the remote service will help his staff handle the huge wave of customers upon reopening, whenever that may be.

For now, theres another slight silver (gray) lining: There are tons and tons of very funny COVID-19 hair memes."

Have a tip? Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.
By AFP

KABUL: The Taliban will no longer participate in "fruitless" discussions with the Afghan government over a prisoner swap that had formed a key part of a deal with the US, the insurgents said.

In a tweet first sent in Pashto around midnight Tuesday Afghanistan time (1930 GMT Monday), the Taliban's political spokesman Suhail Shaheen blamed the administration of President Ashraf Ghani for delaying the prisoner release "under one pretext or another".

"Therefore, our technical team will not participate in fruitless meetings with relevant sides starting from tomorrow," Shaheen, who is based in Doha, said in a subsequent tweet in English.

The two foes have been holding talks in Kabul since last week to try to finalise the prisoner swap that was originally supposed to have happened by March 10.

Matin Bek, a member of the government's negotiating team, said the release had been delayed because the Taliban are demanding the release of 15 "top commanders".

"We cannot release the killers of our people," Bek told reporters on Monday.

"We don't want them to go back to the battlefield and capture a whole province.

" Bek added that the government was ready to release up to 400 low-threat Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture in return for a "considerable" reduction in violence, but the Taliban rejected that offer.

Washington signed a deal with the Taliban in late February that required the Afghan government -- which was not a signatory to the accord -- to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners, and for the insurgents to release 1,000 pro-government captives in return.

The imbalance is one of many aspects of the agreement that observers say give the Taliban a better deal.

In the accord, Washington promised the withdrawal of US and foreign troops from Afghanistan by July next year, provided the Taliban start talks with Kabul and adhere to other guarantees.

On Sunday, the Taliban released a statement accusing the Afghan government of violating the "peace agreement" between the US and the insurgents, even though the Taliban have killed scores of security forces since the deal was signed.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y, -- If youve joined the rapidly increasing number of unemployed Americans due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), youll get an extra $600 per week for four months as part of the $2 trillion federal stimulus package.

With the significant expansion of unemployment insurance, the federal government is giving laid-off workers $600 per week in addition to their regular state benefits. The bill, known as The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, was passed by the Senate late last month.

While many workers who have lost jobs during the pandemic earn more than what unemployment will pay, the extra $600 helps. Regular New York state benefits allow for up to $504 per week and the amount ranges based on salary.

The extra $600 will be added to regular employment checks for the week starting April 5, and will extend through July 31.

The relief package also ensures workers will receive their pay for at least four months whether or not they work for a small business, large corporation, or are self-employed. It is the largest aid bill in American history. In fact, Sen. Charles Schumer called it unemployment insurance on steroids.

MASSIVE SPIKE IN UNEMPLOYMENT

It has been reported that at least 10 million people across the country have filed for unemployment insurance during the last two weeks of March.

Unemployment benefits cover up to 26 weeks. If youre still unemployed when your state benefits expire, you may be eligible for Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC).

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

HOW TO FILE AN UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIM

You can file a claim for unemployment online at labor.ny.gov.

To file online youll need to sign up for a NY.gov account. Once youre signed up, select unemployment insurance, and follow the prompts to file. To file by phone, call 888-209-8124.

As long as you qualify for your regular state benefits, you will automatically receive the extra $600. If you have already filed, the additional $600 per week will automatically begin, however you will not receive the extra funds for weeks prior to April 5th.

The legislation also includes $250 billion for direct payments to Americans, in addition to money for small businesses, unemployment insurance, healthcare costs, and more.

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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is once again the richest person in the world, despite his divorce last year which cost him a quarter of his stake in the tech giant.

Bezos, 56  who founded the e-commerce company out of his basement in Seattle, Washington in 1994  is worth $113billion today, only a $18billion drop from his $131billion in 2019, despite giving $36billion worth of stocks to ex Mackenzie.

He managed to remain in the top spot despite the coronavirus pandemic cutting the number of people on Forbes Richest Billionaires List, bringing the total down 56 people from last year to only 2,095 in 2020.

The magazine said that only 12 days ago there were 226 more billionaires on their list, noting that of the remaining group, 51% percent were poorer than last year.

No. 1 Jeff Bezos's net worth is $113billion according to the 2020 Forbes Richest Billionaires List

The Amazon founder transferred a quarter of his Amazon stake to ex-wife Mackenzie (left) after they divorced in July 2019 following 25 years of marriage. He is now dating Lauren Sanchez (right)

Collectively theyre worth $8trillion, which is down $700billion from 2019's billionaires.

In the case of Bezos, Amazons shares have risen 15 percent since 2019.

FORBES 10 RICHEST BILLIONAIRES 2020 1 Jeff Bezos $113bn (2020) $131bn (2019) 2 Bill Gates $98bn(2020) $96.5bn (2019) 3 Bernard Arnault $76bn (2020) $76bn (2019) 4 Warren Buffett $67.5bn (2020) $82.5bn (2019) 5 Larry Ellison $59bn (2020) $62.5bn (2019) 6 Amanico Ortega $55.1bn (2020) $62.7bn (2019) 7 Mark Zuckerberg $54.7bn (2020) $62.3bn (2019) 8 Jim Walton $54.6bn (2020) $44.6bn (2019) 9 Alice Walton $54.4billion (2020) $44.4bn (2019) 10 Rob Walton $54.1billion (2020) $44.3bn (2019) Advertisement

The company has been in high demand since the coronavirus outbreak which has enforced strict social distancing measures around the world.

Whereas many companies have suffered during business shutdowns, Amazon has thrived and has even hired 100,000 new employees to cope with the surge in demand for deliveries.

Securing his position for a third year running, Bezos  whose company also offers the Amazon Prime streaming service  remained above Bill Gates on the list.

Gates, 64, has pledged $100million to help fight COVID-19 via his Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation.

He managed to gain $1.5billion in the space of a year and is worth $98billion.

Last week Bezos donated the same amount to Feeding America as food banks have become overwhelmed with people in need of assistance.

The list came out Tuesday when in the US, the virus had killed over 11,000 people and more than 368,000 were infected.

France's Bernard Arnault, 71, appeared third on the list, moving up one spot from last year, despite the family, which owns fashion giant LVMH, having exactly the same net worth.

Last November, the owners of Louis Vuitton and Sephora purchased Tiffany & Co. in what was believed to be the largest luxury brand acquisition deal ever at a $16.2billion exchange.

No. 2 Bill Gates (left) managed to gain $1.5billion in the space of a year and is worth $98billion. No. 3 Bernard Arnault (right) appeared third on the list with $76billion

No. 5 Dairy Queen owner Warren Buffet (left) dropped one spot to fourth place. Up two places to no.6 is Larry Ellison (right), 75, the founder of software firm Oracle

It's as Warren Buffet dropped one spot to fourth place. The 89-year-old owner of Berkshire Hathaway - which owns Dairy Queen, Geico and Duracell - lost a whopping $15billion.

Up two places on the top 10 is Larry Ellison, 75, the founder of software firm Oracle.

Remaining in the same spot as last year at number 6, Inditex owner Amanico Ortega, 84, was down $7billion in 2020 to a net worth of $55.1billion.

His Spanish brand Zara has pledged to make gowns for medical workers amid the coronavirus pandemic while their stores are closed in accordance with social distancing measures.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 35, has also pitched in to help out with the coronavirus pandemic; the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has promised to quadruple to testing capacity of the San Francisco Bay area.

The social media platform - which owns Instagram and Whatsapp - has also been a useful tool for information and connections while people have been stuck inside.

Zuckerberg's worth has dropped almost $8billion to $54.7billion.

The final three spots in the top 10 belong to Walmart heirs Jim, Alice and Rob Walton. They each boosted their net worth about $10billion for 2020.

Rob, 75, the eldest son of founder Sam Walton, took over business when his father died in 1993.

Jim, 71, - the youngest son - is the richest of the three despite giving away $1.2billion in Walmart stock in June 2019. Hehas a 44 percent stake in Arvest Bank.

Alice, 70, doesn't work for Walmart and spends her time curating art.

Spanish brand Zara has pledged to make gowns for medical workers amid the coronavirus pandemic while their stores are closed in accordance with social distancing measures

At no.6, owner Amanico Ortega (left) was down $7billion in 2020 to a net worth of $55.1billion. No. 7 Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's (right) worth has dropped almost $8billion to $54.7billion
Chinas Huawei Technologies, the worlds No 2 smartphone vendor, has launched its Huawei Pay service in Singapore in collaboration with Chinas UnionPay in the latest effort to expand the service globally.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Singapore was the first bank to support the service in the island nation, according to a post on Huaweis website last Friday.

UnionPay, mainland Chinas dominant bank card clearing service provider, said in a statement on Monday that Huawei Pay would work with a large number of merchants, including supermarket group NTUC FairPrice, stores under retail group Dairy Farm Group, as well as nearly 10,000 local taxis.

Almost all of Singapores ATMs and more than 90 per cent of the countrys merchants already support UnionPay cards, according to UnionPay.

Huawei will face stiff competition in Singapores fragmented mobile payments sector, with local platforms such as GrabPay, FavePay and PayNow competing with Chinese operators such as Alipay and WeChat Pay.

Alipay is a unit of Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba Group which owns the South China Morning Post.

Singapores total digital payment transactions will reach US$14.3 billion this year and are expected to grow to US$19.2 billion by 2023, according to data from market research firm Statista.

In 2016 Huawei joined UnionPay to introduce Huawei Pay in the China market and two years later the service was introduced to UnionPay cardholders in selected overseas markets, including Russia, Hong Kong and Pakistan.

Huawei Pay employs biometrics and near-field communication technology to enable in-store payments using Huawei phones. Users complete their transactions by tapping their Huawei device near the Point-of-Sale (POS) terminal instead of their credit cards.

During the special period amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, the launch of Huawei Pay services via UnionPay mobile payment has provided Singapore residents with safe and secure payment options to help them better prevent the pandemic, UnionPay said in the statement.

Story continues

Huawei Pays global push comes as consumers in China and around the world are increasingly using smartphones to settle in-store payments. Users enable Huawei Pay by adding their bank cards to the Huawei Wallet app, which is preloaded on the newly launched Huawei P40 series of smartphones.

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Chads former ruler Hissene Habre has been granted two months leave from prison in Senegal, where he is serving life for crimes against humanity.

The prison is being used to hold new detainees in coronavirus quarantine.

Habre, who ruled Chad from 1982 to 1990, was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at an African Union-backed trial in the Senegalese capital Dakar in 2016.

Dubbed Africas Pinochet, Habre was arrested in 2013 and tried in Senegal. His trial set a global precedent as the first time a country had prosecuted the former leader of another nation for rights abuses, and was seen as a landmark example of African rights abuses being tried on the continent.

Habre was convicted of rape, sexual slavery and ordering killings during his rule from 1982 to 1990. He denied accusations that he ordered the killing of 40,000 people during his rule.

AFP news agency reports that his lawyer had requested 60 daysleave for the ex-president because he was particularly vulnerable to coronavirus, according to the judges order.

Habre will serve the temporary leave at his home in Ouakam, a district of Senegals capital, Dakar, and to return to prison afterwards.

An association of victims of his regime last week said, The health crisis should not be used as an excuse for the early release of Hissene Habre.
Nobody knew it at the time, but 3 March, Super Tuesday, would be the last election night when candidates could encourage their supporters to come to rallies.

For Joe Biden, that meant a rally in Los Angeles. He had hardly begun to speak when two women rushed the stage, one after the other, screaming, Let dairy die! before being dragged away.

The protest was a coup for Direct Action Everywhere, a group of animal rights activists who had been interrupting candidates since before the Iowa caucuses. One month later, every element of it  the crowd larger than 10 people, the protesters pushing through it, the staffers grabbing them  would become impossible. No rallies, no disruption, no instant media attention.

The Biden action blew away our wildest dreams in terms of media coverage, said Matt Johnson, a spokesman for Direct Action Everywhere.

A few days later, I was talking to people in Cleveland, where the next big Biden and Sanders events were going to be held. And then, one by one, every event started getting cancelled. So, its been an adjustment.

The past decade of American politics had seen a vast new wave of protests, mass organising and direct action, from Occupy Wall Street to the Womens March, protests of Flint, Michigans water crisis and of Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court nomination, most of it on the left. The election of Donald Trump gave conservatives fewer reasons to protest while turning suburban moderates into Democratic activists. And from its inception, the Bernie Sanders campaign worked to stitch together dozens of grassroots movements into an electoral force.

Then came the novel coronavirus. Traditional protests are now violations of stay-home orders. Politicians are quarantined. Legislative chambers are empty. That has sent organisers searching for new tactics and temporarily has deprived activists of their most powerful, visible tools  right when state and federal governments are moving billions of dollars around.

This is a very new world for a lot of frontline organisers, especially for people like myself, who would never think twice about putting our whole bodies on the line for a cause, said Winnie Wong, an Occupy organiser who went on to found the grass-roots group People for Bernie and who now works for the Sanders campaign. Thats changed because we are faced with a whole new set of rules.

Ms Wong, who was arrested during the Kavanaugh protests, had spent years working on inventive ways to organise as many people as possible. After the 2016 election, organisers had more bodies than they sometimes knew what to do with. The 2017 Womens March, for example, was hardly a march at all  the largest crowd ever gathered in Washington was too big to move through the streets, so marchers stood in place, inches apart.

Animal activists stormed Joe Bidens stage on Super Tuesday (EPA)

That world has vanished, at least for now. Congressional town halls, which activists on the right and left used to pressure legislators, have been cancelled and occasionally replaced with phone-in events. Canvassing and voter registration drives, which both major political parties had invested in, were impossible. Conservative groups and Republican campaigns that had mobilised against Democrats hit the pause button, and so did the resistance, the catchall term for activists who organised against the Trump presidency.

So much of the pushback against the Trump administration was about showing up, said Tim Hogan, who helped promote Trump-era protests such as the Tax March and efforts to protect the Affordable Care Act before signing up with Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesotas presidential campaign. Massive crowds, or even decent-sized crowds, draw attention and create pressure. The question now is how you keep the pressure on without that.

Mr Hogan pointed to the scandal surrounding senator Kelly Loeffler, Republican for Georgia, who dumped stock shortly after a confidential briefing on the coronavirus, as an example of what has been lost. The story had been covered, but activists had no opportunity to pressure Ms Loeffler publicly.

The fact that you cant confront these people in the halls of Congress or in their states means theres no coverage of this back home, he said, and the pandemic is drowning out coverage of everything else, anyway. Its a double whammy.

Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Show all 25 1 /25 Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A view of empty Bourbon street in the French Quarter amid the coronavirus pandemic in New Orleans, Louisiana Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Nyla Clark, 3, accompanied by her mother, Chavonne Clark, sits in a baby stroller at a corner in New Orleans, hoping to get a few dollars from an occasional passerby. Clark was a phlebotomist with a local company until she lost her job because of the coronavirus pandemic. She is waiting for unemployment The Advocate via AP Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A man boards a streetcar Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Jackson Square, normally bustling with tourists, is seen deserted AP Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Words from Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" are painted onto plywood covering the window of a closed business AFP via Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Street performer Eddie Webb looks around the nearly deserted French Quarter looking to make money AP Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Boarded up businesses Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans The normally bustling tourist mecca of Bourbon Street lies deserted in the early afternoon Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A sign along I-10 informing persons who travel from Louisiana to quarantine AP Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A man cycles along Jackson Square AFP via Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Elena Likaj, prevention department manager at Odyssey House Louisiana (OHL) which runs a drive-through testing site, takes the temperature of New Orleans resident Peyton Gill Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A man walks his dog past a boarded up business on Frenchmen Street Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans An empty Bourbon street Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A meal is distributed at the Lantern Light Ministry at the Rebuild Center Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A woman walks in the French Quarter Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans People practice social distancing as they queue up for a meal at the Lantern Light Ministry at the Rebuild Center Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans French Quarter Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A sign is pictured in the French Quarter amid the outbreak Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A view of Bourbon Street Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans National Guard members walk down Rampart Street AFP via Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A man rides his bicycle in front of a boarded up French Quarter restaurant Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A shuttered business is pictured on Decatur Street AFP via Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans The normally bustling tourist mecca of Bourbon Street lies deserted Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A view of Canal Street Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A New Orleans firefighter works to contain an early morning fire Reuters

The new world is grimmer for working-class activists and the people trying to mobilise the very poor. Last year, organiser Cea Weaver helped bring 2,000 New York City renters to Albany to shut down the Capitol, as she put it, and win rent control from the new Democratic legislature. Since the start of March, housing advocates have taken their work online and were preparing for the end of the crisis, when they could again gather for protest.

Its unacceptable to just throw up our hands and say, Well, you know, we cant protest in person, Weaver said. Things cant just go back to business as usual, and mass mobilisations of people on the streets is [going] to be a really critical tactic.

In some ways, the demobilisation has hurt conservatives, with protesters at abortion clinics being cited for violating the new restrictions on public gatherings. It has probably hurt Democrats even more. Wisconsin activists who once packed the Capitol, for example, are unable to protest Republicans as they refuse to allow universal mail voting for the 7 April primary.

But the crisis also has short-circuited protests of the Democratic Party itself. Laurie Cestnick, who helped bring thousands of Sanders supporters from New England to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, had planned another round of protests for this years event in Milwaukee. Last week, the party moved back the date that protesters were planning around; on Sunday, former vice-president Biden told ABCs This Week that the entire convention might become virtual, with no in-person interactions.

We were organising a protest, and that is over for now, Cestnick said. People had booked places to stay, theyd arranged shared rides. We even started to book campsites, like we did last time. And clearly, we have no idea whats going to happen now. People are even more heartbroken than last time.

Organisers with more long-term goals, such as the housing advocates, are more optimistic about riding out the crisis. Jennifer Epps-Addison, the president of the Centre for Popular Democracy Action, said ruefully that her groups network of organisers had hoped to knock on at least seven million doors before the election and spend the summer registering voters at large events. But community organisers had been drawing attention to problems in the middle of the crisis, she pointed out, such as Amazon workers threatening a strike.

Recommended Journalists detained as countries restrict coronavirus coverage

Theyre called essential now, but just a few weeks ago, they were low-skilled workers," Ms Epps-Addison said. Our people are the ones who keep this economy going. The way we execute our task is necessarily going to look different, but the goal is the same: transforming our country so that we have a real social safety net and arent just putting up scaffolding during a crisis.

Other activists were in for a bigger struggle. Direct Action Everywhere had gotten plenty of attention after disrupting Biden and Sanders events and had plenty to say about the coronavirus itself.

It happens to be the case that the pandemic itself is centred on the actual issue were talking about, Johnson said. These are zoonotic diseases.

But so long as the pandemic continued, activists could not crash events to raise awareness, and most of the publics attention was consumed by the pandemic. This months Animal Liberation Conference had already been transformed into the Animal Liberation Online Assembly.

Mr Biden was not expected to attend.

The Washington Post
Matt Mooney took to Facebook on Monday to share that he had been arrested on Sunday in Donelson Park, posting a cheeky status about how he could mark detainment off his 'bucket list'

A Colorado father feels local law enforcement owe him an apology after they handcuffed him in front of his wife and daughter because they claimed he violated social distancing rules by playing tee-ball.

Matt Mooney took to Facebook on Monday to share that he had been arrested, posting a cheeky status about how he could mark detainment off his 'bucket list.'

Video shared former Brighton City Councilman Kirby Wallin showed Mooney being detained by Brighton police on Sunday.

Mooney explained to KDVR that he refused to identify himself to three officers because he was sure he hadn't done anything wrong when he was throwing the tee-ball with his daughter at Donelson Park.

'She's like, "Daddy, I don't want you to get arrested." At this point I'm thinking, "There's no way they're going to arrest me, this is insane." I'm telling her, "Don't worry, Daddy's not going to get arrested. I've done nothing wrong. Don't worry about it," and then they arrest me,' he explained.

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In the clip, Wallin describes that the father is being detained while 'playing softball with his daughter.'

'He's being taken by the Brighton police for playing softball with his daughter in an empty park,' Wallin said.

Wallin said of the arrest: 'I find it hard to believe with all the things going on in our communities, the only way to resolve a situation like this was to handcuff a father in front of his daughter.'

Video shared former Brighton City Councilman Kirby Wallin showed Mooney being detained by Brighton police on Sunday

Mooney took to Facebook to share that he had been arrested

A park sign at Donelson does say 'Closed' but in smaller print it reads, 'in groups of no more than 4 persons, parks remain open for walking, hiking, biking, running and similar activities.'

Mooney slammed the officers for being hypocritical in their following of the social distancing guidelines.

'During the contact, none of the officers had masks on, none of them had gloves on, and they're in my face handcuffing me, they're touching me,' he described.

Mooney said that he had to spend 10 minutes in the back of a patrol car before being released.

In the clip, Wallin describes that the father is being detained while 'playing softball with his daughter'

'If we're going to go ahead and start arresting people for no reason in front of their 6-year-old daughter, you're just going to cause more problems later on,' he said.

The police department alluded to the issue in a statement they posted to Facebook on Sunday night.

'The Brighton Police Department is currently conducting an investigation into a situation that occurred late this afternoon at Donelson Park,' they said in the post.

'This is an active investigation and we are unable to provide additional information until the investigation is complete.'

More than 5,100 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in the United States while some 150 people have died.
COVID-19: Aamir Khan silently made a donation to PM-Cares, Maharashtra CMs relief fund. The actor also pledged to support Laal Singh Chaddha's daily wage workers as shooting has been suspended for a while. Earlier also he was part of such contributions but didn't make noise publically.

COVID-19: Coronavirus crisis has gripped the nation, the number of positive cases is growing rapidly. Political leaders, business tycoons, and Bollywoods prominent personalities came forward to help the Government in saving lives. Indeed, each one in the nation is doing its bit by donating to Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund).

However, social media was roasting Aamir Khan for not helping in the crisis, but only a few of his close ones know that he already contributed to the PM CARES, Maharashtra CMs relief fund, a source closed to the actor revealed.

Sourced said, Aamir believes in silent donations, thats why he didnt announce it publically. The actor also extended his support to the breadwinners of his next film, Lal Singh Chaddha. Due to a 21-day lockdown, daily wage workers are the ones who are being affected badly as they have no job to support their family.

The report said, that earlier also Aamir supported such events but without any fuss. Even his most-watched show, Satyamev Jayate which was was associated with Paani Foundation (Amirs own instating) which was established with an aim to provide literacy to the grass-root people. Indeed, thats the true way to make any donation!

Meanwhile, megastars like Rajinikanth, Sonali Kulkarni, Shiv Raj Kumar, Mohanlal, Mammootty, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Chiranjeevi, Diljit Dosanjh, Priyanka Chopra Jonas featured in a short film, title Family, which explains the importance of social distancing.

Whereas actor Salman Khan is no less in spreading awareness of COVID-19. He shared a video on Twitter where he proudly accepts his fear from coronavirus pandemic.

Salman further stated, the current scenario doesnt demand bravery, staying in homes will save many lives. The actor also extended his support to labors by transferring fund to more than 25,000 workers.

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N ew Zealands health minister described himself as an idiot as he was demoted for breaching the countrys strict lockdown measures.

Dr David Clark drove his family 12 miles from their home to the beach in the early stages of lockdown.

Dr Clark said he had let New Zealanders down at a time when the government was asking the country to make historic sacrifices by staying at home.

David Clark said he had been an idiot and he understands why people are annoyed at him / Getty Images

Ive been an idiot, and I understand why people will be angry with me, he said in a statement.

The countrys prime minister Jacinda Ardern said she would sack Dr Clark - who is not a medical doctor but has degrees in theology and philosophy - under normal circumstances, but said the country could not afford massive disruption in its health sector while it was fighting the Covid-19 strain. 

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has demoted the health minister / Getty Images

Instead, she stripped Dr Clark of his role as associate finance minister and demoted him to the bottom of the Cabinet rankings.

Under normal conditions I would sack the minister of health, Ms Ardern said in Wellington. What he did was wrong, and there are no excuses."

She added: I expect better, and so does New Zealand.

Dr Clark's gaffes come as he was also criticised for staying at home in Dunedin, on the country's South Island, rather than leading New Zealand's response with officials in the capital, Wellington.

The World on Coronavirus lockdown 1 /60 The World on Coronavirus lockdown Getty Images A UK government public health campaign is displayed in Piccadilly Circus Reuters Chinese paramilitary police and security officers wear face masks to protect against the spread of the new coronavirus as they stand guard outside an entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing AP A usually busy 42nd Street is seen nearly empty in New York AFP via Getty Images Bondi Beach, Australia Getty Images Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images View of the illuminated statue of Christ the Redeemer that reads "Thank you" as Archbishop of the city of Rio de Janeiro Dom Orani Tempesta performs a mass in honor of Act of Consecration of Brazil and tribute to medical workers amidst the Coronavirus (COVID - 19) pandemic Getty Images Rome AFP via Getty Images An Indian man paddles his bicycle in front of a mural depicting the globe covered in a mask, as India remains under an unprecedented lockdown over the highly contagious coronavirus Getty Images Aerial view of the empty 9 de Julio avenue in Buenos Aires in Argentina AFP via Getty Images A view of an empty Grand Canal Reuters Las Ramblas, Barcelona, Spain Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Central cemetery in Bogota, Columbia AFP via Getty Images The facade of the Palacio de Lopez (seat of the government palace) AFP via Getty Images Miami, Florida AFP via Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Simon Bolivar park in Bogota AFP via Getty Images An LAPD patrol car drives through Venice Beach Boardwalk AP Venice Beach, California Getty Images Los Angeles, California Getty Images Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images Many shops stand shuttered on the Venice Beach boardwalk Getty Images Empty escalators are seen at a deserted train station during morning rush hour after New South Wales began shutting down non-essential businesses Reuters A nearly empty Times Square in New York AFP via Getty Images Caracas AFP via Getty Images Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador AFP via Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Midland Park in Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Civic Square at lunchtimein Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A policeman rides his motorcycle wearing a face mask in front of a closed shopping mall in Buenos Aires, Argentina AFP via Getty Images Florida Keys AP The historic Channel 2 Bridge closed to fishermen, bikers and pedestrians in Florida Keys AP The Beach on Scenic Gulf Drive near Seascape Resort in south Walton County, Florida sits empty of tourists AP Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images A deserted Rajpath leading to India Gate in New Delhi AFP via Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images Empty roads are pictured following the lockdown by the government amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Kathmandu, Nepal Reuters An empty New York Subway car i AFP via Getty Images The empty pedestrian zone is seen in the city of Cologne, western Germany, AFP via Getty Images Place de la Comedie in the city of Montpellier , southern France AFP via Getty Images An empty street in Kuwait city AFP via Getty Images A building is covered by the Portuguese message: "Coronavirus: take precaution" over empty streets in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, AP A general view shows an empty street after a curfew was imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters Parliament of Canada is pictured with empty street during morning rush hour AFP via Getty Images A near empty beach on Southend seafront in England PA Near empty Keswick town centre in Cumbria, England PA

She initially planned to continue and was backed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon over the mistake but later released a statement on Sunday saying she had quit.

New Zealand, with a population of nearly 5 million people, started a four-week national lockdown in March by closing schools, restaurants, cafes and gyms and shutting its borders to most foreign nationals.

On the first weekend, Dr Clark drove his family from Dunedin to Doctor's Point beach.

He admitted the trip to the prime minister after receiving backlash for another lockdown breach when his van, with a picture of his face on the side, was photographed at a mountain bike trail.

On Tuesday, New Zealand extended the state of national emergency for a further seven days.

Director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield said daily cases of coronavirus has dropped to 54.

It is the lowest count in nearly two weeks, taking the total tally to 1,160 with one reported death.

Mr Bloomfield said he expected the number of new coronavirus infections to continue at the same level before declining.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaks to media during a press conference at Parliament on April 07 / Getty Images

A total of 65 people have recovered from the illness overnight, which was more than the total number of cases reported on Tuesday.

Despite these promising signs, officials have urged greater vigilance especially over the Easter holidays.
George Pell's success at the High Court and release from prison brought relief to his supporters but devastated other sex-assault victims and their advocates, who fear his acquittal will deter people from reporting crimes.

The High Court unanimously found Cardinal Pell's appeal successful on Tuesday and quashed the convictions he received after a County Court jury found him guilty in 2018 of sexually abusing two choirboys in 1996.

Cardinal Pell entering the Carmelite Monastery in Kew after he was released from Barwon Prison. Credit:Channel Nine

Within hours of the judges handing down their ruling to a courtroom near empty because of the COVID-19 crisis, Cardinal Pell was released after more than 400 days in jail, was driven from Barwon Prison to Kew's Carmelite Monastery and issued a statement saying he held "no ill will" to his accuser.

"I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice," the 78-year-old said.
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At the end of a long shift in the hospital last week, I (Michael) stopped by the room of a patient before he left to go home with hospice. It hadnt been long since I gave him the news that his cancer had spread and was now incurable. I asked him what was on his mind. Looking down at his papery hands, he said he wondered what the future would hold for him. Then he glanced up at the television, which was blasting the latest COVID-19 news. Im worried, he said with a pained smile, but it feels like we are all in the same boat now.

In the midst of this global health crisis, its easy to forget that there are still those among us living with serious illness. People continue to be tethered to dialysis machines, endure daily rounds of chemotherapy, and anxiously await the results of an urgent scan. As a palliative care physician and a medical anthropologist, we know that living with serious illness often means coming to terms with difficult information. It means dealing with uncertainty about the future, making it hard to plan ahead. And it means constantly balancing feelings of hope and despair, even vacillating between the two in a single moment.

In the time of COVID-19, all of us are learning what its like to live with serious illness. We spend our days sifting through mountains of news, feeling both harrowed and overwhelmed. Existential dread permeates our social media feeds and daily conversations. And no one seems to know whether to be buoyed or worried by our prospects for the future.

How can the experiences of those who navigate serious illness every day help us make sense of these unprecedented times?

From our work, we know that people who receive a life-changing diagnosis often strain to manage a stream of information, usually from multiple sources at once: medical specialists, friends and family, the internets endless wisdom. Some people find it enticing to hear only the most optimistic projection; others are drawn to the most pessimistic. Many arent in a place to digest all the informationthey absorb only what they are ready to hear, and they remain skeptical of even expert prognoses.

If difficult news isnt carefully titrated, it can feel like drinking from a fire hose. After discovering that his stomach cancer had progressed despite a promising new treatment, Charles was unable to hear anything else. At sixty-five, he thought he would have more time. His mind lingered on the words inoperable and terminal, drowning out follow-up suggestions about starting hospice and preparing for the end of life. Until his grief was properly tended to, Charles couldnt even think about what would come next.

People with a life-threatening illness frequently find themselves adrift on a sea of uncertainty, and they typically cant count on past experience to guide them. Expectations of what life was meant to look like are dashed, and some patients feel betrayed or angry. Many crave definitive answers, in a situation almost entirely devoid of certainty. At the age of fifty-seven, Karen discovered she suffered from an inoperable brain tumor. Her hospice physician had told her that a brain tumor could behave unpredictably. From one day to the next, she might lose her ability to speak, become paralyzed, or suffer a seizure. Though Karen had come to accept that she was dying, she struggled with the volatility of her disease. I cant stop wondering, she said, Who will I be next week? What will I be able to do? Its the uncertainty thats difficult.

To live with a serious illness also means existing in two worlds. Feelings of confidence and doubt can come in quick succession or exist simultaneously. Even after signing up for hospice and making funeral arrangements, people sometimes look forward to a distant life event that they will, in all likelihood, never experience. Rashida, a woman in her fifties who was suffering from respiratory failure, had been on hospice for months. She could no longer go out without her oxygen tank, and none of her clinicians expected her to live past the summer. And yet, during each of her appointments, she talked about her plans for putting up a Christmas tree. Its deeply human to understand a dire forecast and still want to believe that things will work out.

The ways that clinicians help their patients cope with serious illness are the same ways that we can help each other through this collective crisis. Heres a place to start:

Slow down our consumption of information to manageable doses (some experts recommend 30 minutes). We might think that we want all the details, only to become overwhelmed and upset by what we find.

Allow for space and silence amidst the frenzy. Silence can be tough to tolerate. While we reflexively fill the air with noise, healing often takes place during moments of stillness. Practices like meditation and breathwork can help us sit with uncertainty rather than letting it consume us.

Remember that the effort to balance hope and fear is a struggle we all share. Allowing ourselves to embrace conflicting emotions is an effective coping strategy that can protect us from a distressing reality.

As we steel ourselves for the days and weeks ahead, the words of Albert Camusmuch quoted as they are these daysfeel as prescient as ever. It is in the thick of calamity that one gets hardened to the truth, he writes in The Plague, in other words, to silence.

Michael Pottash is a palliative care physician. Anita Hannig is an anthropologist and is the author of Beyond Surgery: Injury, Healing, and Religion at an Ethiopian Hospital.

Image credit: Copyright by Michael Lane @differentcreatures
A new building of National Specialized Children's Hospital Okhmatdyt is to open on June 1, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky reported.

"Finally Okhmatdyt is ready! On April 1, the major repairs in the new building have been completed. Now delivery and installation of the medical equipment are the only things to do. The opening is planned for June 1, to International Day of Children's Defense," Zelensky wrote on a Telegram channel on Tuesday.

The President of Ukraine noted that in such a difficult period of opposing the coronavirus epidemic, it was possible to meet the deadlines. "For years we have been waiting for the end of this long-term construction. Now more than ever it is important to have such modern hospitals, especially when the matter concerns children," he wrote.

In addition, the president emphasized that the new Okhmatdyt building was a direct example of how the 'Great Construction' project should work. "Ukrainian hospitals should be just like that," he said.
Captain removed from coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier reportedly tests positive for COVID-19

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 10:01, April 06, 2020

WASHINGTON, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Captain Brett Crozier, who has commanded aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt until his recent removal by the Navy for sounding the alarm about a coronavirus outbreak on board, has tested positive for the virus, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

The Times, citing Crozier's Naval Academy classmates, said Crozier exhibited symptoms before he was relieved of his duty on the warship Thursday.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Sunday an investigation into Crozier's actions is ongoing. "All the services at times relieve commanders without the benefit of an investigation up front because they've lost confidence in them. It's certainly not unique to the Navy," he said on CNN's "State of the Union" program.

The secretary also confirmed that there have been 155 positive tests among sailors on board the Roosevelt, that more than half of the crew have been tested, and that there have been no hospitalizations.

The Navy planned to evacuate 2,700 of the roughly 5,000 crew members on the vessel, leaving the rest on board to maintain the ship's operation. As of Saturday, 1,548 service members have disembarked the ship, and The Times, citing local hotel association, said at least an additional 400 service members will be moved to Guam hotels Sunday.

Crozier sent a five-page internal letter earlier this week to higher-ranking officials in the chain of command, pleading for help from the Pentagon to contain a COVID-19 outbreak aboard the Roosevelt by transferring 90 percent of the crew onto Guam for quarantine. The ship now docks in Guam.

"We are not at war," the captain wrote in the letter, which was first made public by the San Francisco Chronicle. "Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset - our sailors."

Crozier's ousting was announced Thursday by Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who said the captain allowed "the complexity of his challenge with the COVID breakout on the ship to overwhelm his ability to act professionally when acting professionally was what was needed the most at the time."

"In sending it out pretty broadly, he did not take care to ensure that it couldn't be leaked," Modly said. "And that's part of his responsibility."

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he supported Crozier's firing, adding "it was terrible what he did."

The Democrats, however, condemned the Navy. Democratic lawmakers in both the Senate and the House asked for a probe into the matter.

Immediately following Crozier's ouster Thursday, the Democratic leaders of the House Armed Services Committee issued a statement condemning his removal. "Captain Crozier was justifiably concerned about the health and safety of his crew, but he did not handle the immense pressure appropriately," the lawmakers said, adding that "relieving him of his command is an overreaction."

"Throwing the commanding officer overboard without a thorough investigation is not going to solve the growing crisis aboard the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt," they said.

Democratic senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland wrote a letter co-signed by 15 of their colleagues Friday to Acting Inspector General for the Department of Defense Glenn Fine, urging him to launch a formal investigation into the Navy's response to the COVID-19 outbreak on the Roosevelt, as well as its decision to fire the captain.

"It is essential that your office conduct a comprehensive investigation to avoid any potential conflicts of interest within the Navy chain of command, and we encourage you to evaluate all relevant matters associated with the dismissal and the outbreak on the ship," they wrote in the letter.

Former Vice President Joe Biden criticized the Navy's actions. "I think it's close to criminal the way they're dealing with this guy," Biden said Sunday on ABC's "This Week," adding that Crozier "should have a commendation rather than be fired."

In a Friday tweet hailing the captain, Biden said Crozier "was faithful to his duty-both to his sailors and his country."

"Navy leadership sent a chilling message about speaking truth to power," the former vice president said. "The poor judgment here belongs to the Trump Admin, not a courageous officer trying to protect his sailors."

In an op-ed carried by The Times on Friday titled "Captain Crozier Is a Hero," Tweed Roosevelt said what Crozier did to protect sailors under his command showed judgment similar to that of Theodore Roosevelt - Tweed's great grandfather and the 26th President of the United States - during the Spanish-American War.

"In this era when so many seem to place expediency over honor, it is heartening that so many others are showing great courage, some even risking their lives. Theodore Roosevelt, in his time, chose the honorable course. Captain Crozier has done the same," Roosevelt wrote.

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NGO CFI writes to CJI seeking intervention for releasing undertrials and those who are convicted for petty crimes

New Delhi, India--(Newsfile Corp. - April 6, 2020) - New Delhi based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Corruption Free India (CFI) has urged the Supreme Court to direct States' Prisons' Head or Director General of Prisons to strictly implement the apex court's order to bail out undertrials and those convicted prisoners except the Once's Convicted for Death in Prison and Death Sentences. The Supreme Court would be taking up a suo-motu writ petition - CONTAGION OF COVID 19 VIRUS IN PRISONS - on April 17. The Organisation has urged the Supreme Court to consider certain true facts while hearing the writ petition.

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In a letter to the Chief Justice of India, Advocate Pramod S Tiwari, President & Trustee Corruption Free India said, "In view of surging cases of COVID-19 in India, lives of prisoners are at stake by not releasing them till date despite the Current Situation is Violating the Article 21 of the Constitution which protects life and personal liberty. Several states have put prisoners' life at risk by being Judgmental/Detrimental on who all should be released and who should remain inside the prisons."

The Constitution has given equal rights to every citizen and if a citizen is accused of any crime, that doesn't means their rights can be curtailed. Hence, the CFI requested the CJI should take this on account and release all prisoners across the country instead of leaving the Decision Making with the High-Level Committee of the States. The CFI accused that the High-Level Committees have made a mockery of the lives of people who would be punished with death sentences due to the global outbreak and cascading impact of the COVID-19 on the lives of citizens languishing in prisons. "We have prayed that a direction should be given to the top Jail Authorities including DG Prisons across India and no decision making powers should be given to the High-Level Committees since these Committees' credibility is questionable. We have instances in Rajasthan where the Committee violated norms and prepared a list of 1328 Prisoners of their own choice. Powerful and rich prisoners of the state found their name in the list," said Tiwari, adding that even in Maharashtra High-Level Committee violated the norms.

The Maharashtra Committee, according to CFI, has classified some prisoners under sections with punishment up to 7 years should not be included. The above said directions shall not apply to the under-trial prisoners who are booked for serious economic offences/bank scams and offences under Special Acts (other than IPC) like MCOC, PMLA, MPID, NDPS, UAPA, etc. (which provide for additional restriction on grant of bail, in addition to those under CRPC and also presently to foreign nationals and under-trial prisoners having their place of residence out of the Maharashtra). CFI alleged that this order is biased and violation of the order to release prisoners by the Bench of the Chief Justice of India.

The CFI emphasised that since these high-level committees have violated the Supreme Court's directive, hence during the hearing of Writ Petition they should be charged with Contempt of the Court. In the letter to the CJI, the organisation also pointed out despite the SC Order, passed on March 23, 2020 by the Bench, the majority of the states have not released the prisoners across the country and this amounts to contempt of the Court.

Meanwhile, jail authorities have expressed their views to the media and said prisoners are safer in prisons. Mr. NRK Reddy, Director General of Prisons, Rajasthan reportedly said, "Prisoners are more safe in prisons since the jail administration is giving them food and medical facilities and if they are released then how will they go to their homes during the lockdown."

The lives of prisoners in Rajasthan are at stake and an Affidavit should be filed by the states to ensure that the Responsibility of Lives is with the Jail Administration and if deaths occur due to their negligence or lack of medical facilities and lack of immunity rich food, they should held accountable. Moreover protecting prisoners with unhygienic masks would be difficult. The CFI also highlighted the lack of Medical Facilities in Prisons and Negligence by the Prison Doctors which have been widely reported in various petitions.

"This is a time when the Judiciary, Central & State Governments should have come together to safeguard lives of millions of prisoners across India and we have urged the CJI to prosecute members of High-Level Committee of Jails & State Prisons Heads," the President, CFI said.

The letter to CJI requested that all prisoners who are under trials should be released with immediate effect except prisoners who are convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment until their last breath and death sentences should be kept isolated in prisons.

Adv. Pramod S Tiwari

President & Trustee

Corruption Free India (NGO)

A100, Amar Colony A Block, Block A, Amar Colony, Lajpat Nagar 4, New Delhi, Delhi 110024

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To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54200
Good Morning America

The Biden administration's plan to send 500 million at-home tests to Americans for free is an historic undertaking, but one that will take weeks or months to fully execute, recently released contracts and interviews with seven test manufacturers suggest. Contracts for the first two batches of tests were announced on Friday, one for 13.3 million kits from a health technology company and another for an undisclosed amount from a distribution company in Virginia that had extras on hand -- all to be distributed in an effort to reduce the massive testing shortage in the U.S. Tests won't be available to be ordered through a government website until later this month, the official said, meaning it's unlikely the average American will get free tests delivered in time for the January peak of omicron cases predicted by most models.
Remember Bhasha Mukherjee, the Indian-origin Doctor, who was recently crowned 'Miss England' in 2019? Well, she has returned to the United Kingdom to help out on the frontlines amid the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that's hit the UK pretty bad.

Doctor Bhasha Mukherjee, after winning the crown of 'Miss England' last year had taken a break from the medical profession to focus on philanthropy, as she had been invited to be an ambassador for a number of charities.

For her philanthropic responsibilities, she was in India at the beginning of March for a community charity. She also visited Africa, Turkey, Pakistan, and other Asian countries.

However, post the outbreak of COVID-19, she told a leading publication that she has returned to the United Kingdom to get back to work to her hospital that she had worked at previously.

She said that it felt wrong to be wearing her Miss England crown, even for humanitarian work, while the world faced unprecedented circumstances.

As the Coronavirus outbreak worsens in the UK, Mukherjee was getting frantic messages from her former colleagues of how the situation has taken a turn for worse, so she was determined to return. I wanted to come back home. I wanted to come and go straight to work, she added.

But before she returns to work, she is completing her precautionary self-isolation period that will end in two-weeks. Post that, she can return to work as a doctor. Theres no better time for me to be Miss England and helping England at a time of need, she further added.

Doctor Bhasha Mukherjee, relocated to Kolkata at the age of 8 with her family, she specializes in respiratory medicine.

She will be returning to work as a junior doctor at the Pilgrim Hospital.
The coronavirus pandemic obviously overshadows this years political contests, but we presumably will still have an election seven months hence, so we cannot completely ignore its potential outcomes.

Will President Donald Trumps re-election chances, which were iffy before the pandemic struck, be enhanced by his handling of the crisis  so far erratic, at best  or diminished?

Will Democrats ratify former Vice President Joe Bidens pre-crisis lock on their partys presidential nomination, or will they opt for someone else?

How will the pandemic affect Democrats chances of recapturing the U.S. Senate and Republicans ambitions to take back the House it lost in 2018?

Dan Walters: California also failed to prepare While the federal government and President Donald Trump take their lumps for failure to prepare for the pandemic, California officials, including former Gov. Jerry Brown, also were lax, columnist Dan Walters says.

Pandemic or not, California is destined to play a relatively minor role in this years national political drama. With Republicans now irrelevant in the deep blue state, its most significant political duels are those between competing factions of Democrats and three conflicts in Southern California this year are showcases. In no particular order:

Historically, San Diego, the states second-largest city, has been friendly territory for Republican politicians but has been trending blue. The citys latest and perhaps last Republican mayor, Kevin Faulconer, is stepping down and two Democrats, Assemblyman Todd Gloria and City Councilwoman Barbara Bry, finished 1-2 in the March primary and will face each other in November.

Gloria is outwardly the more liberal of the two, enjoys strong support from labor unions and other liberal interest groups and probably has the edge as the two-person duel begins. Bry, a businesswoman and former journalist, has been taking a populist save-our-neighborhoods stance, decrying efforts by Sacramento politicians to force communities to accept more high-density, multi-family housing.

The sharpest intraparty duel in Los Angeles pits the countys district attorney, Jackie Lacey, against George Gascon, who had been district attorney in San Francisco, but resigned to return to his former home and challenge Lacey.

Dan Walters: PG&E makes two deals to survive Two major actions should help PG&E's emergence from bankruptcy  a deal with Gov. Newsom and a guilty plea for the Camp Fire, columnist Dan Walters says. But what then?

Its one of many contests for state and county prosecutor positions around the nation, pitting criminal justice reformers such as Gascon, who advocate rehabilitation and treatment for felons rather than incarceration, against more traditional prosecutors such as Lacey.

Their contest is loaded with cultural crosscurrents. Lacey is a career prosecutor who moved through the ranks to become the first woman and first African-American to hold the office. Cuban-born Gascon is a former policeman who eventually became a deputy chief in Los Angeles and police chief of San Francisco before becoming that citys top prosecutor.

Lacey, who fell just shy of winning re-election outright in March, is probably the favorite seven months out, and it shapes up as a classic battle over crime and punishment.

The third big battle is also in Los Angeles  for control of the Los Angeles Unified School Districts board.

Dan Walters: Crisis reveals big financial shortcomings The economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis has revealed problems in three sectors of the state government's finances that have long been ignored, columnist Dan Walters says.

Its the latest chapter in a years-long, see-saw struggle between unions, particularly United Teachers of Los Angeles, and charter school advocates for control of the seven-member board. Unions enjoy a 4-3 majority now, but all four of their seats are up this year. Two of the four are already nailed down for the unions, but they must win runoffs for the other two to retain control. Conversely, the charter faction needs to win one of the two to regain control.

While all contests for Los Angeles Unified board seats are hard-fought, the stakes are higher now because Gov. Gavin Newsom last year signed legislation giving local school boards more power over charters. If they prevail, unions openly hope to throttle the charter school movement in the nations second-largest school district.

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how Californias state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.

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An anti-malaria drug that President Donald Trump has persistently promoted as a potential weapon against COVID-19 has quickly become a standard way of treating patients in parts of the U.S. hit hard by the pandemic.

But doctors prescribing it tell Reuters they have no idea whether it works.

Last month Trump tweeted that malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and an antibiotic called azithromycin could be "one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine."

Two days later he repeated this optimism at a news conference.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING (MARCH 23, 2020):

"The hydroxychloroquine and the Z-pack, it's looking very, very good and it's going to be distributed."

Since his statements, doctors and pharmacists from more than half a dozen large healthcare systems in New York, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Washington and California told Reuters they are routinely using hydroxychloroquine on patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

But they don't know whether patients who improve after prescription are cured by the drugs, or would have resolved the disease on their own.

The regional director of critical care at Northwell Health, a 23-hospital system in New York, said in an email to Reuters QUOTE, "I have seen hundreds of patients with severe COVID and most of these people are on hydroxychloroquine... In my opinion, although it is very early, I do not see a dramatic improvement from the hydroxychloroquine in these patients."

Hydroxychlorquine's effectiveness remains unproven. The top U.S. infectious diseases expert said as much when Trump first began promoting the treatment last month.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, SAYING (MARCH 21, 2020):

"I'm not totally sure what the president was referring to, but I believe he's referring to a report that used both hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin together to have some possibility of being in effect. Many of the things that you hear out there are what I had called anecdotal reports. They may be true, but they're anecdotal."

Story continues

Currently there are no drugs approved to treat the novel coronavirus, and doctors report facing pressure from patients demanding the drug that they've heard endorsed by the president.

The treatment isn't without risk: Potential side effects of hydroxychloroquine include vision loss and heart problems.

But doctors interviewed by Reuters say they are comfortable prescribing the drug for a short course of several days for coronavirus patients because the risks are relatively low and the therapies are inexpensive and generally available.
The Supreme Court will hear after two weeks the public interest litigation (PIL), seeking directions to provide food, water, shelter and medical aid to migrant workers and their families, including women, kids, elders and differently-abled amid the lockdown.

Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, the petitioner told a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde that the UNHRC has appreciated the orders passed by the apex court.

Srivastava had requested the top court to pass further orders for the migrant workers.

He submitted before the apex court that the UN High Commissioner for HR, Michelle Bachelet, has recorded appreciation for the Supreme Court's order in the matter of providing immediate relief to migrant workers.

The CJI said that no application has been placed before the court yet.

In his plea, Srivastava also sought direction for free transportation, one month's wage, one month's ration, rehabilitation plan, for the migrant labourers after lockdown is over.

The Central government had, during the hearing last week, filed a status report and informed that food was being provided to over 22.88 lakh people including the needy, migrant and daily wage workers, across the country amid the lockdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An Elizabethtown man is facing rape and assault charges for an incident that happened last fall, Upper Allen Township police said.

Authorities said Nicholas Campbell, 19, began talking to the victim through social media in November 2019 and raped them soon afterward.

He was arrested Monday and charged with rape, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, as well as aggravated and indecent assault.

Campbell is being held in the Cumberland County Prison on $85,000 bail.
Andrea Bocelli will give a solo performance in Milan, Italy's Duomo cathedral Sunday. (Giovanni De Sandre)

Andrea Bocelli is here to make your Easter Sunday more uplifting with "a message of love, healing and hope" as the world grapples with a global health crisis.

The Italian opera legend will give a concert Sunday in the historic Duomo cathedral in Milan, Italy, and it will be livestreamed on YouTube. The cathedral is closed to the public amid the coronavirus pandemic, so Bocelli will perform to an empty venue.

Cathedral organist Emanuele Vianelli will be Bocelli's sole accompaniment, and together they will perform spiritual songs such as "Ave Maria" and "Sancta Maria."

Bocelli: Music for Hope is scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. in Italy, which is 10 a.m. Pacific. The live performance will be seen exclusively on Bocellis YouTube channel.

On the day in which we celebrate the trust in a life that triumphs, Im honored and happy to answer Si to the invitation of the City and the Duomo of Milan," said Bocelli in a statement Tuesday. "I believe in the strength of praying together; I believe in the Christian Easter, a universal symbol of rebirth that everyone  whether they are believers or not  truly needs right now.

"Thanks to music, streamed live, bringing together millions of clasped hands everywhere in the world, we will hug this wounded Earths pulsing heart, this wonderful international forge that is reason for Italian pride... It will be a joy to witness it, in the Duomo, during the Easter celebration which evokes the mystery of birth and rebirth," he continued.

Giuseppe Sala, Milan's mayor, said in a statement: "This year, Easter will be very different for all of us. The joyous serenity that usually comes with this day, has been greatly troubled by the pandemic we are experiencing. I am sure that the extraordinary voice of Bocelli will be the embrace we are missing these days, a strong, special hug, capable of warming the heart of Milan, Italy and the world.

The Andrea Bocelli Foundation has also started an emergency GoFundMe campaign to help hospitals purchase equipment to protect medical staff from the virus.
A makeshift sign that recently appeared at the junction of Carpenter Hill Road and Monument Avenue, which leads to Bennington's Southwestern Vermont Medical Center.

Caring for Those Who Provide Care: Frontline Workers Receive, Need Support

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  Any death in a facility like the Williamstown Commons nursing home hits home for the caregivers who make the facility possible.

The 10 recent deaths in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic have been particularly painful.

"For folks who work in nursing homes, this is where [the patients live]," said Lisa Gaudet, a spokesperson for Berkshire Health Systems, which operates the 180-bed facility. "These staffs have a lot of relationships with these people. They know their families. They know their histories.

"It's also very hard for the families who can't go in and be with their loved ones."

And when deaths occur in a time of "social distancing," the mourning process is interrupted.

"Typically, without this virus, that would absolutely be happening," Gaudet said. "Staff members often attend wakes and funerals. Families come in after wakes and deaths and often visit staff, thank them. There are hugs and tears. It's very meaningful work.

"The virus has changed the profile of that for us right now."

A recurring theme in the national conversation around the novel coronavirus has been the emotional toll it has taken on doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals who deal both with the stress of trying to beat the virus and the fear that they will be infected themselves or spread it to their loved ones.

Gov. Charlie Baker mentions the heroic work of front-line workers at every opportunity. City halls and landmarks from Boston to San Francisco have been lit with blue lights to show solidarity for health care workers. The hashtag #WorldHealthDay trended strongly on Twitter on Tuesday as millions of users joined the initiative of the World Health Organization.

Locally, Berkshire Health Systems has seen an outpouring of contributions from individuals and businesses, according to a different spokesperson. And the Facebook group "Mask Makers of Berkshire County" sprang up on March 22 to unite the many area residents creating homemade masks, some of which will end up being used by workers in the field. A vehicle parade Saturday at the Vermont Veterans Home in Bennington drew hundreds of cars, trucks and motorcycles, many with signs thanking the facility's staff.

All that support, no doubt, is appreciated. But there are reasons to be concerned about the emotional health of those front-line workers.

Nurses already have succumbed to the disease in hot spots like New York City and New Orleans. In Europe, two nurses' suicides in Italy and the United Kingdom have been linked to the pandemic.

Locally, there are no reports of anything that dire, and officials are working to make sure they do not occur.

"We're in a little different position in a rural area than the metropolitan areas where they're seeing that spike and influx," said Dr. Trey Dobson, the chief medical officer at Bennington's Southwestern Vermont Medical Center.

"But it's certainly affecting our staff. They're not experiencing burnout from work at this moment. But we anticipate and work to prevent it as much as possible."

Dobson late last week talked to iBerkshires.com about his facility's efforts to provide emotional support for its staff.

"What we are seeing is anxiety and stress from staff like never before," he said. "Our strategy is to acknowledge that, talk about it frequently. Doctors talk about it. Nurses talk about it. Talking about it brings awareness."

Dobson called staff support the hospital's No. 1 priority, and it is the first topic at daily incident command meetings.

"We have to have each others' back," he said. "If we can't keep ourselves healthy, we can't take care of the community."

Dobson said SVMC does have internal and external resources available for more formal counseling, but the informal discussions are key.

"We're all in this together," he said. "It's not easy, and there is no shame in talking about it. In fact, that's what helps us get through it.

"I tell people where I'm struggling, and that's not typical in a crisis to have an incident commander talk about it."

Neither Dobson nor Gaudet last week reported any shortages of staffing because of the pandemic.

"If you work in a hospital or a nursing home or assisted living, these workers are fearful, understandably so," Gaudet said. "They don't want to bring [the virus] home to their loved ones. We've done a lot in terms of educating them and trying to help allay those fears."

And the staff at Williamstown Commons also has received outside support, she said.

"We're fortunate that we've had organizations like Hospice Care of the Berkshires provide a lot of emotional and bereavement support to the team in Williamstown," Gaudet said. "We've had mental health providers make themselves available. That, again, is so valuable when you're taking care of people. It's like taking care of your family. You're seeing them be very, very sick and knowing some of them won't recover."

And for those who do not, the mourning period will come, even if it has to be delayed.

"When this is all over and done with and we get to the other side, there will be a lot of folks wanting to do things like [wakes and funerals] to memorialize the people who have passed during this epidemic," Gaudet said.
Utah police authorities are now currently investigating the case of THC-infused candies that were distributed form Utah Food Bank last Friday.

This is after two children were hospitalized after ingesting the subtance from Nerds Rope that came along with the food packs that were being distributed. At least five more children are being currently observed and monitored after reports that they also ate the same candy.

According to KUTV, the children who were hospitalized were 11 and five years old. The five-year-old's father told the news outlet that it was the girl's grandmother who picked up the food and the young girl ate the substance-infused candy at home.

What is THC?

THC or Tetrahydrocannabinol is the main psychoactive substance in marijuana, it is responsible for most of the psychological effects of smoking pot. It is responsible for the "high sensation" that people get when ingesting the substance.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, TCH stimulates the brain to release dopamine thus creating euphoria. Furthermore, the substance also interferes with how the hippocampus, the part of the brain which is responsible for forming new memories, processes information.

THC intake can induce hallucinations, cause delusions and change the thinking process of a person. Once the perceived high comes down, a person may also experience psychomotor impairment.

Read also: Coronavirus Cure? Australian Researchers Use Anti-Head Lice Drug to Kill Coronavirus in 48 Hours

How the children got the pot-infused candies

Last Friday, the Utah Food Bank gave out 63 food bags at the First Baptist for 63 families. According to the local police, it is believed that each food pack contained 3 to 4 packages of the Medicated Nerds Ropes.

The police also claimed that the candy in the food packs that were distributed was still in the original packaging and the label included a warning label and dosage information of THC.

Based on the label, the candy contains 400mg of THC. Authorities say that the dosage is 40 times the normal dosage that an adult who uses marijuana regularly intakes. They further added that the packaging even encourages people to "Tear and Share" the pot-infused candies.

Where did the cannabis treats come from?

At the moment, the food bank is conducting an ongoing investigation of how cannabis treats ended up among the donations.

According to the president of the food bank, Ginette Bott everyone involved in the incident was mortified of what happened. She also stated that the donations that they receive and distribute come from different sources and they are already working on tracking down how the nerds were accepted with the other donations.

Moreover, Bott said that they are using their inventory information system to reach out to the carriers and track the specific location where the candies came from. She also warned that the source may be facing charges, saying that at that a product such as the TCH-infused candies come into the food chain is a criminal offense.

Authorities are currently attempting to get in contact with families who have collected food from the locations, they also said that almost half of the department's staff are already working to track down the families.

The food bank also advised anyone who have receved and ingested the Nerds to immediately come into contact with the Roy police at (801) 629-8221 so that the auhtorities can retrieve the candies.

The remaining packs of candies that were not yet distributed have already been removed from the food packs.

Related article: Should You Disinfect Your Groceries? Experts Warn Against Dangers of Washing Produce

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Nehha Pendse On Past Relationships: I Have Been Badly Hurt And Not Been Treated So Well
Description

GIS  07 April, 2020: This brings the total number of patients who have recovered from the virus to eight. The number of active cases is 253 as at now. Five patien The number of Covid-19 patients who are on the recovery path has increased today, with four additional patients who have been discharged.This brings the total number of patients who have recovered from the virus to eight. The number of active cases is 253 as at now. Five patien ts are moreover on the recovery path.

Covid-19s latest figures in Mauritius and around the world were relayed by the spokesperson of the National Communication Committee on the Covid-19, Dr Zouberr Joomaye, during the daily press briefing of the National Communication Committee on the Covid-19, held at the New Treasury Building, in Port Louis. These are:

 Twenty-four new cases have been registered over the last 24 hours with the number of positive cases standing presently at 268, as compared to 244 cases yesterday

 Contact tracing has enabled the detection of 17 cases out of the 24 new cases

 Three hundred tests have been carried out till 16 00 hours this afternoon

 The death toll remains at seven

 Three patients conditions are currently critical. They are under treatment at the ENT Hospital

 The second phase of testing for 108 patients who are under quarantine at Mauricia Hotel has been carried out today, with results expected tomorrow

 The same process will be rolled out at the level of two quarantine centres, namely, Veranda Palmar and Grand-Bay, with the testing of 160 persons

World Health Day 2020

Also present at the press briefing, the Minister of Health and Wellness , Dr Kailesh Jagutpal , spoke about World Health Day 2020 being observed today. The focus this year is the critical role of nurses and midwives and their contribution during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Minister thus paid homage to the health personnel for their dedication, courage and discipline at the forefront of the Covid-19 response. He also made an appeal for all citizens to maintain social distancing and adopt the right behavior so as to break the transmission chain. Dr Jagutpal also announced the following information:

 Mauritius to receive medical supplies (comprising personal protective equipment for the health personnel and other equipment) following a donation by the Jack Ma foundation to Africa

 Setting up of a teleconference mechanism, to allow the exchange information and advice on the Covid-19 between Mauritian medical practitioners and a specialised hospital in China. This initiative is a joint venture of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the Ministry of Technology, Communication and Innovation and Huawei.

 An online training/seminar on Covid-19, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, will be held for doctors as from tomorrow. A working session between local anaesthetists and those from Reunion Island is also scheduled

 The anti-influenza vaccination exercise for the elderly, a joint collaboration of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, and the Ministry of Social Integration, Social Security and National Solidarity, started yesterday and as at now, more than 10 000 people have been vaccinated. Health caravans are offering this service around the country.

Other information shared during the press briefing:

 Three hundred shops have been controlled for price abuse today. Inspectors from the Ministry of Commerce and Consumer Protection have accordingly visited 180 trades following complaints with regards to price abuse.

 The public is invited to call the hotline 185 to report their complaints. However, only 38 complaints have been registered so far.

#ResOuLakaz #BeSafeMoris
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix has commended members of the Sikh community for heeding the call for more blood donations after Canadian Blood Services experienced a drop in donations because of measures around COVID-19.

The community traditionally organizes a large blood drive every November, but this year brought it forward after a spike in cancelled appointments due to physical distancing requirements.

On Monday, at his daily press conference with provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, Dix used the example of the campaign as an example of community coming together to support one another at a critical time.

"People in the South Asian community of the Sikh faith, who every year launch one of the biggest blood drives in Canada, are launching a new blood drive, really at the call of Dr. Henry and many others across the country, and we're so honoured and excited by that," Dix said.

"It's such an important thing to do and really heartening to see."

Sukhdeep Singh, a volunteer with the blood drive, has donated blood for the past 21 years, and says it feels good to be recognized.

"If you're doing something year after year, and the health minister recognized it, to me it's a good gesture ... obviously, it feels great."

'It's part of our duty to society'

He says Canadian Blood Services reached out the group to solicit donations after seeing a drop in donations.

Because of physical distancing measures, Singh says the community will not be doing any clinic take-overs or mobile donation clinics. Instead, they are encouraging participants to schedule their own personal appointments to donate.

"It's part of our duty to society," Singh said. "We're enjoying all the privilege, and sometimes we ignore what we're supposed to do to the neighbourhood, the community, the country as a whole."

Shutterstock

Canadian Blood Services says there is still an urgent need for blood for patients with chronic illness or traumatic injury, and for those undergoing surgery or cancer treatments.

Story continues

The organization says it has put in place enhanced cleaning measures and stricter eligibility requirements for anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19, developed a fever and cough, or travelled abroad in recent weeks.

It has cancelled walk-in donations to comply with physical distancing measures. Any interested and eligible donors are encouraged to make an appointment.

If you have a COVID-19-related story we should pursue that affects British Columbians, please email us at impact@cbc.ca.
Bombing hospitals, clinics and other health facilities has been a standard tactic for the Syrian government in order to drive pro-rebel Syrians out of the country. It worked but now there is a serious health crisis, because of the covid19 virus, that the country is unprepared for. Not only are most of the health facilities gone but so are the medical personnel. Even many of those loyal to the government have left, usually for economic reasons. The virus may never reach many of the more remote parts of the country but in the major towns and cities, there is enough traffic coming in to bring infected travelers. Most of those who get infected and require a ventilator (a machine costing several thousand dollars that assists breathing) wont have access to one and that will increase the death toll. Currently, all of Syria has fewer than 400 ICU (Intensive Care Unit) beds, which usually means access to a ventilator. It is estimated Syria will have ten to twenty times as many covid19 patients needing ICU care. As a result, a thousand or more Syrians will die over the next few months because of the virus and lack of medical facilities. Syria is still at war. The monthly deaths are way down because the war is winding down but there are still several hundred war-related deaths a month. Civilian deaths have been way down with less than 300 in February and about a hundred in March. Covid19 deaths will be blamed on the war. At its worst the war was causing several thousand deaths a month so covid19 is seen as a minor disaster, not a major event as other nations portray it. Covid19 will cause some fear and actual sickness but 80 percent of those exposed to the virus feel nothing and half those infected show no symptoms. Most of the deaths are to patients who are already in poor health. The virus will pass through Syria leaving behind more anxiety than agony. Since 2011 the fighting in Syria has killed nearly 400,000 people, many of them civilians.

In some cases, as with prisons, the Assads see the covid19 threat as a bonus, not a problem. Many prisoners will die and for those being interrogated, there is a new incentive to talk; removal to a safe area until the virus passes.

Nationwide the covid19 threat has slowed down military operations. Troops are reluctant to invade areas where the virus may be rampant. Airstrikes and artillery are relied on more, with troops moving in only after everyone in the target areas is dead or fled. Even Islamic terrorists are warning their members to take precautions to avoid getting infected. The civilians most at risk to covid19 are the million or so living in rebel-controlled parts of Idlib province.

Turk Tribulations

Because of Syria, Turkey is now fighting a multi-front war. The most obvious front is in northern Syria where there are now over 10,000 Turkish troops plus even more FSA mercenaries facing Syrian troops backed up by Russian airpower and some Iranian mercenaries on the ground. Turkey, Iran and Russia are supposed to be allies but that alliance was never stable, and now it is dysfunctional. The less publicized war is with NATO, which has turned hot on the Greek border. Turkey sought to extort more cash and cooperation from the EU (European Union) by allowing thousands of Moslem illegal migrants in Turkey to get to the Greek border and try to cross. The Greeks, fed up with the rest of the EU abandoning Greece despite promises to accept most of the illegals who had gotten into Greece, sent troops and paramilitary police to the Turkish border with orders to fire on illegals trying to force their way in. Turkish troops threw teargas, and a few bullets, at the Greek forces to help the illegal get into Greece. The few that made it found themselves under arrest and on their way back to Turkey or country of origin.

The 2016 plan in which the EU paid the Turks nearly $7 billion to keep their Greek border free of illegals was no more. At the same time, the EU had finally united to oppose the continuing invasion of largely Moslem illegal migrants. The Moslem migrants had proved resistant to assimilation and produced a large number of Islamic terrorists and gangsters. In some EU nations that accepted a lot of Moslems the crime rate more than doubled within a decade. The cause was Moslem migrants and, even with most of the prison population now Moslems, the mayhem continued with little prospect of change. The EU had recently lost one of its largest, most prosperous and oldest members over these issues. Britain became the first EU member to quit the organizations and several others were threatening to do likewise. And the most obvious result of all this is the armed confrontation between Greeks and Turks on their common border.

Turkish public opinion is hostile to the Syrian refugees they host, as well as the smaller number of Afghan, Iraqi and other Moslem refugees. Many of these are not refugees but economic migrants willing to do whatever it takes to get into a wealthier Western nation. Europe no longer tolerates these refugees and Turks are not happy about getting stuck with them. This problem gets worse, especially for the Islamic government Turkey has had for the last two decades. This government became allies with Russia and Iran, two traditional enemies. To no ones surprise, these alliances did not work out. In order to please these new friends, Turkey risked being expelled from NATO. Worst of all, expulsion from NATO would mean the West would regard Turkey as just another poorly managed, Islamic terrorists-tolerating and unreliable Middle Eastern nation. One thing most Turks can agree on is NOT wanting to turn away from the West. The policy of being closer to Arab nations and tolerant of some Islamic terrorist or radical groups has also lost any popularity it once held. Turks have long (since World War I) been hostile to getting involved in foreign wars, especially when it involved Turkish troops getting killed. So far in 2020, Turkey has sent a lot more Turkish troops to Syria and more of them are getting killed. The Turkish voters have made it clear that the current government is likely to lose the next elections if the Syrian involvement continues. With Syria, Turkey cannot just walk away. Syria is a neighbor and over three million Syrian refugees are in Turkey and Syria itself is still a mess. Turkish and Russian forces have been shooting at each other and the Iranians are not much better.

Turkey has also gotten itself involved in the Libyan civil war. This conflict has been going on as long as the Syrian war but has been a lot less destructive. Turkey has sent about 5,000 troops to Libya, but 90 percent of them are Syrian mercenaries, which Turkey has long used in Syria. So far this year about 200 of those mercenaries have died in Libya. These mercenaries are paid more to serve in Libya, so there is no shortage of volunteers.

In Syria, these mercenaries have been getting into disputes with each other. Some of the Syrian mercs serve in units based on rebel factions they originally joined, before agreeing to work for the Turks. Some of these factions have disputes that have escalated and Turkish troops have had to be used to calm things down. It would be a public relations disaster for the Turk government if Turkish troops got into a gun battle with some of these mercenaries.

Iranian Intrigues

Iranian efforts to expand their control in Iraq and Syria are not producing the desired results. Worse, the Iraq and Syrian involvement is causing more anti-government activity inside Iran. Iran is hard hit by covid19, in part because the government dismissed the virus as a serious threat.

Despite the much reduced budget for operations in Syria, the Iranian Quds Force officers in charge convinced their bosses back in Iran that more cash was needed in Syria to prevent the Iranian effort there from collapsing. The cash has apparently come though because the Iranians have increased the pay and benefits for many of the mercenaries, including the local Syrian Sunni militias it has been recruiting. The Syrian economy is still a mess and good jobs are hard to come by. While being an Iranian merc can be dangerous, the Iranians tell the new Syrian recruits that they want them to keep doing what they have always been doing; protecting their own town or neighborhood.

Iran is also having more problems in Lebanon. There, the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia is losing more support because the first case of covid19 in Lebanon was traced to a Lebanese woman who had just returned (in late February) from Iran, where covid19 was infecting and killing lots of people, including senior clerics and politicians. Hezbollah was held responsible for covid19 breaking out in Lebanon because Hezbollah has long been recognized as an extension of the Iranian government and a threat to democracy in Lebanon. In response to this Hezbollah has gone full public servant inside Lebanon. Hezbollah members are visibly providing assistance to those who have caught covid19 and helping to maintain a nationwide quarantine. So far Lebanon has had about 500 confirmed cases and fewer than twenty deaths. In Iran, there have been nearly 50,000 infected and about 3,000 deaths. Lebanese never liked Iran very much and now there is one more reason to crank up the dislike.

April 5, 2020: In the east (Deir Ezzor province) the Syrian government is technically in control but the lack of security forces has enabled some of the ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) groups hiding out there to assert themselves and terrorize civilians with kidnappings and murder. ISIL wants civilians to provide support and not cooperate with police or soldiers who come after the Islamic terrorists. In the last week at least nine civilians have been murdered and in over a dozen rural towns and villages

April 4, 2020: The Turkish military revealed that Turkish forces in Syria had been ordered to slow down operations in order to minimize the chance of troops getting infected with the covid19 virus.

April 3, 2020: In the north (Kurdish city of Manbij) Turkish and Syrian forces confront each other and periodically open fire on each other. Usually, the only casualties are local civilians. Many of the Turkish troops are actually FSA (Syrian mercenaries) who are anti-Assad Syrian Sunnis. The Assad forces are Shia and make for a tense situation. Two senior Syrian officers were recently wounded by some Turkish shelling. This is the Euphrates River Valley and Manbij sits on the M4 highway. That highway is the main east-west highway from Aleppo to the Assad stronghold Latakia province and its Mediterranean ports.

Further east, in majority Kurd Hasaka province Turkish mercenaries confront Kurdish SDF rebels. Technically both the SDF and FSA are Syrian rebels against the Syrian government but things have changed since 2011 and now the FSA fights to keep their families safe in Turkey while the SDF fighters to keep its families safe in northeast Syria. The fighting between FSA and SDF is low key and the Turks know they have a problems with that as the SDF and FSA really do not want to fight each other. Besides the SDF has accuses to American air support that the Turks do not want to see used on the FSA, an attitude the Syrian mercs agree with.

April 2, 2020: In the northwest (Idlib province) fear of the covid19 virus getting out of control has helped maintain a fragile ceasefire. A record low hundred or so civilians died in Idlib during the last month as fighting was minimal as efforts to deal with covid19 were underway. Ground troops did not want to advance into areas where the virus was present so the few civilian casualties were from airstrikes. Covid19 kills less than one percent of those infected and will compete with all the other sicknesses and diseases already present in Idlib. The scariest aspect of covid19 is that it exists and can cause flu-like symptoms along with breathing problems. In an area where death from random gunfire, bombs and shells is a constant threat, covid19 is one of many fatal threats.

March 31, 2020: In central Syria (Homs province) another Israeli airstrike that hit the Shayrat airbase with at least eight missiles.

March 26, 2020: In the northwest (Idlib province), Turkey moved at least one American made Hawk Air Defense battery into Syria. The Turks are believed to have brought a Hawk battery into Syria (north of Aleppo) in 2018 but the Hawk unit was soon sent back to Turkey. The recent arrival of Hawk batteries is part of a major buildup of Turkish forces in Idlib and adjacent Aleppo provinces. There appear to be at least three Turkish combat brigades in Syria now, with thousands of armored and unarmored vehicles. The latter include tanks, self-propelled artillery and infantry vehicles.

March 23, 2020: The Russian Defense Minister visited Damascus to meet with the Syrian president Hafez Assad and work out the details of Russian-Syrian cooperation in Idlib province and future Russian economic projects in Syria. Assad wants to resume his offensive to clear the M4 highway between Aleppo and the Mediterranean coast. Assad also wants on understanding with Russia and what kind of peace terms Syrian will offer the Kurds.

March 22, 2020: In the east (Deir Ezzor province), there was apparently another Israeli airstrike against Iranian weapons being stored near the Al Bukamal crossing into Iraq. This border crossing is vital for the Iran-to-Mediterranean land route. This road is essential to supporting any Iranian military expansion in Syria and Lebanon. Israel has bombed it before and will apparently continue doing so. That is what will also happen to the new military base Iran is building here on the Syrian side of the border. The base is nearly complete despite several Israeli airstrikes. At that point, the Israeli airstrikes usually intensify in an effort to obliterate the completed base.

For the first time the Assad government admitted that the covid19 virus has reached Syria. Unofficially the virus had been encountered in Syria over a month earlier. The Assad government denied this for as long as they thought they could get away with it. There are still a lot of anti-Assad Syrians in Syria and they believe Assad looked the other way as Iranians infected with covid19 were allowed into the country. This happened before these Iranians experienced symptoms. One can get covid19 and not feel it for a week or two. Most countries avoid letting infected people in by imposing a two week quarantine on visitors to verify they are virus free. No such quarantine was imposed on any Iranians coming in.

March 19, 2020: Iranian military advisors are continuing to recruit local Shia into new mercenary units based in the south, near the Israeli and Jordan borders and the northeast, near the autonomous Kurdish provinces. Some of these units are for local defense but the better paid ones will get more training and better weapons so they can be moved around the country as needed.

March 18, 2020: In the northwest (Idlib province) two Turkish soldiers were killed and one wounded by a rocket or mortar shell fired by Islamic terrorists.

March 17, 2020: An Iranian IRGC commander, Mehran Azizani, had been killed while a captive of an al Qaeda group. Azizani had been captured three weeks ago and it was unclear how he died. One rumor is that it was covid19 because Azizani could be exchanged for something the al Qaeda group needed.

March 11, 2020: Outside Baghdad (Camp Taj) Iran-backed militia fired twenty rockets at NATO forces there. Two Americans and one British soldier were killed. The Katab Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Iraqi group based on the Lebanese Hezbollah, took credit for this attack. The next day the U.S. carried out airstrikes on five Katab Hezbollah facilities. One the airstrikes was across the border in Syria near the Al Bukamal crossing into Iraq. This attack killed 26 pro-Iran PMF men, who are increasingly showing up in Syria, despite Iraqi laws that prohibit that.

March 6, 2020: In northwest Syria, the last concentration of Islamic terrorists is making a last stand in Idlib province. The Syrian Army, with Russian support, has been slowly clearing the province of Islamic terrorists, despite resistance by the Islamic terrorists and Turkish forces. Suddenly there are a lot more dead terrorists and efforts are made to identify them or see if families or countries want the bodies back. So far about fifty of the dead Islamic terrorists have been identified as Pakistani. But Pakistan refuses to comment or take any action to deal with the situation.

March 5, 2020: In the south (outside Damascus) Farhad Dabiryan, an IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) commander, was killed in combat.

March 4, 2020: There were two Israeli airstrikes overnight. One was in central Syria (Homs province) and the other in the south (Quneitra province) near the Israeli Golan Heights. Both attacks apparently involved Iranian rockets or missiles being moved to Lebanon or firing positions near the Israeli border. Syria said its air defenses intercepted some of the Israeli missiles but there was no proof. Satellite photos usually show if attacks are successful by revealing destroyed buildings or other obvious damage.

March 3, 2020: The Libyan HoR (House of Representatives) government opened an embassy in Syria, in part because the Syrian are also fighting the Turks. The Libyan embassy in Syria closed in 2012 and has remained without a Libyan ambassador ever since. The HoR is one of two governments in Libya and controls about 85 percent of the country. The rival, UN backed government called in the Turks in late 2019. This Turk intervention has been condemned by most Arab nations.

March 2, 2020: In Syria, Iran threatened to support the Syrian forces if the Turks attacked. The Iranians apparently fired a ballistic missile at the advancing Turkish forces but the missile did not appear to do any damage. The Turks claim to have intercepted the missile but did not say with what. Beyond that Iranian forces stayed away.

March 1, 2020: The United States received more pleas from Turkey for military assistance to halt Russian attacks on Turkish troops in Syria. The U.S. refused to help with troops or by sending a Patriot air defense battery to Turkey. The Americans said they would do everything they could short of direct military intervention and made it clear they believed Russia was the guilty party. But the situation did not meet the criteria to trigger the NATO mutual-defense clause. That would only happen if Russia attacks inside Turkey itself. The U.S. pointed out that the Turkish presence in Syria was technically illegal, as was past and current Turkish support for Islamic terrorist groups. Other NATO members are offering Turkey military support inside Turkey, but not Patriot batteries (which had been in Turkey after 2014 to protect against possible ISIL attack) on the borders. There are still some foreign Patriot batteries guarding airbases in eastern Turkey that are heavily used by NATO aircraft. Other NATO members are not happy about Turkey letting Syrian refugees enter Europe and resent the Turks demanding more cash from the EU if the Turk border with the EU is to be closed tight one more.

February 29, 2020: Turkey demanded that Russian forces cease supporting the Syrian offensive against rebels in Idlib province. Both Russia and Iran insist they are the only legitimate foreign force allowed in Syria. The Assad government, although widely condemned for past and current atrocities has been the legitimate government of Syria for decades and did invite Russian and Iranian forces in. The Turks were invited in by the Syrian rebels who, since 2011, have been trying to oust the Assads. The problem is that Turkey has backed Islamic terror groups who are at war with the world as well as the Assads. Any nation backing or trying to use Islamic terror groups is deluding itself. Recognizing this the Turks mainly depend on the one secular Syrian rebel group, the FSA, and hire them as mercenaries. The FSA that the Turks are not fighting to overthrow the Assads but rather support Turkish efforts to establish a 30 kilometers deep security zone on the Syrian side of the border in order to keep Islamic terrorists and other undesirables (like Syrian refugees) out of Turkey.

Russia sympathizes with Turkey on the issues of Islamic terrorists and illegal migrants. Russia has to choose between Iran, which wants the Assad rule in all of Syria no matter what the cost, and Turkey while wants its security zone no matter what the cost. Russian and Turkish leaders have agreed to meet soon and discuss possible solutions. The key problem here is that Russian wants a unified Syria under a Russia-friendly government. At the moment that means the Assads and their patron Iran. The only compromise opportunities are a suitable deal on Turkish border security. The only positive factor here is that neither Turkey nor Russia wants to keep fighting each other. That is a losing proposition for both nations but the Turkish leaders have committed themselves to secure the border and the Russian leader cannot afford anything the reeks of defeat in Syria.

February 28, 2020: Russia sent two more frigates to Syria, with both ships coming from the Black Sea via the Turkish controlled Bosporus/Dardanelles channel. By international agreement, Turkey must allow passage of all warships through the Bosporus/Dardanelles route unless that puts Turkey at risk. Turkey told Russia that they would use this clause of the treaty to block all Russian shipping if Russia opposed Turkish forces in Syria. This apparently played a part in the Russian decision to stand aside and let Turkish troops inflict major damage on Syrian forces in Idlib and Aleppo provinces.

February 27, 2020: In the north (Golan Heights), Syrians reported that several Israeli helicopters crossed into Syria and attacked several targets. This came several hours after an Israeli UAV fired missiles that hit a vehicle and killed Amad Al Tawil, a senior Hezbollah commander.
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Monday to postpone the states presidential primary for two months, sparking a court challenge and adding to confusion about whether voters will be able to head to the polls on Tuesday.

The executive order from Evers, a Democrat, would delay in-person voting until June 9. Republicans swiftly asked the state Supreme Court to block the order, saying that he didnt have the legal authority to block the election and that such sweeping changes now would cause widespread voter confusion.

The maneuvering left the fate of the election up in the air less than 19 hours before polls were slated to open. Other states that were scheduled to vote this month have postponed their elections until May or June, but Republicans in Wisconsin have refused to delay.

At the presidential level, Joe Biden already has a commanding delegate lead over Bernie Sanders, and the Wisconsin results arent likely to dampen his march to the Democratic nomination. But the tumult in one of the most critical general election battlegrounds underscored the challenge of voting during a pandemic when public health officials are discouraging groups from gathering for virtually any reason to prevent the spread of the virus.

Evers himself has questioned whether he has the power to reschedule the election, but said the worsening situation, including an increase in COVID-19 deaths from 56 on Friday to 77 on Monday, made it clear there was no way to safely move forward. Evers said he was motivated by protecting public health, not politics.

The people of Wisconsin, the majority of them, dont spend all their waking hours thinking about are Republicans or Democrats getting the upper hand here, Evers said. Theyre saying theyre scared. Theyre scared of going to the polls. Theyre scared for their future. At the end of the day, someone has to stand up for those folks.

Republicans quickly took their case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which is controlled 5-2 by conservative justices. Dan Kelly, one of the conservative judges who is also on the ballot on Tuesday, recused himself from the case and then commented on Twitter that the election can be done safely and should be allowed to proceed.

We urge clerks, poll workers, and voters to stand ready to conduct the election tomorrow, Kelly tweeted.

A separate legal fight over absentee ballots was pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Given the expected fast-moving legal action, the Wisconsin Elections Commission told local election clerks it should proceed with planning as if the election would still occur on Tuesday.

Evers and Republicans initially agreed that it was imperative for the election to proceed because thousands of local offices are on the ballot Tuesday for terms that begin in two weeks. There is also a state Supreme Court election.

Evers order would allow local officials to continue serving until the June election.

Ohio saw a similar eleventh-hour flurry the day before its primary last month. After the states governor and secretary of state failed to persuade a judge to shift the election date, the state health director stepped in and ordered voting shut down. Legislators set a new, almost all-mail primary for April 28, sparking new legal challenges from voting rights groups, but a federal judge on Friday said the election could go forward.

Wisconsin Democratic state Sen. Jon Erpenbach said Republicans want to suppress turnout, particularly in Democrat-heavy Milwaukee, because that will benefit Republicans and the conservative Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, who is seeking a 10-year term.

Democrats have always been good about getting out the vote on the day of, Erpenbach said. If youre looking at the newspapers, watching TV, you know right now its dangerous.

Evers is among the governors who have issued a stay-at-home order and closed all nonessential businesses. Dozens of polling places have been closed.

Your choice is to go and vote in person and take a chance on contracting COVID-19 or stay home, Erpenbach said. What do you think people are going to do?

The state and national Democratic parties, along with a host of other liberal and voter advocacy groups, filed federal lawsuits seeking a delay in the election and other changes. A federal court judge just last week handed Democrats a partial win, allowing for absentee ballots to be counted through April 13, delaying the reporting of election results until then. But the judge, and later a federal appeals court, declined to postpone the election.

Republicans have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking that it not allow absentee ballots to be counted beyond Tuesday. They argue that partial results could be leaked. The court was considering whether to take action.

As of Monday morning, a record-high 1.2 million absentee ballots had been requested, but about 500,000 had yet to be returned. Many voters who requested ballots said they had not yet received them, including Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz.

Democrats fear that if the Supreme Court reverses the judges ruling and cuts short the amount of time those ballots can be returned and still counted, thousands of voters will be disenfranchised and not have their votes counted.

Thousands of poll workers had said they wouldnt work, leading Milwaukee to reduce its planned number of polling sites from 180 to just five. More than 2,500 National Guard troops were dispatched to staff the polls. They were also distributing supplies, including hand sanitizer, to polling sites across the state. In Madison, city workers were erecting plexiglass barriers to protect poll workers, and voters were encouraged to bring their own pens to mark the ballots.

George Dunst, 76, of Madison, who has volunteered at his local polling site for nearly every election since he retired, said hes not going Tuesday amid fears of contracting COVID-19.

No matter what safety precautions you take, theres going to be exposure, he said. Who knows who comes into the polling place?

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Bamako, Mali (PANA) - As part of the fight against the coronavirus, Malian businesspersons on Monday handed Prime Minister Boubou Cisse 500 million CFA francs being their contribution to the COVID-19 Fund set up by the government last month, the Prime Minister's Office has said
The German government said Tuesday that it will accept 50 minors from migrant camps on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios.

The transfers could begin next week, the interior ministry said in a statement. Tens of thousands of asylum-seekers live in dire conditions in Greek camps. The conditions have worsened recently due to outbreaks of coronavirus.

The worst congestion occurs in camps on five Aegean islands near Turkey where there are more than 36,000 people for fewer than 6,100 places.

Luxembourg has already agreed to take in 12 minors.

France, Portugal, Finland, Lithuania, Croatia and Ireland are also part of an EU programme to take in some of the 1,600 vulnerable minors in Greek camps.

The children and adolescents accepted by Germany "will at first be placed in quarantine for two weeks," before being housed in various regions, the ministry said.

The decision is expected to be rubberstamped at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

The European initiative was launched last month by the EU commission in order to ease the pressure on European Union member Greece.

The children concerned in the programme either have medical needs or are unaccompanied and under 14 years of age, most of them girls.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Doctors' lives are still being put at risk by a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), the British Medical Association today warned.

More than two thirds of doctors (69 per cent) questioned by the union said they do not feel protected while fighting Britain's COVID-19 outbreak.

The snapshot poll of 2,000 medics also found some feel forced to come into face-to-face contact with infected patients without the right equipment.

And doctors warned that some of the aprons and goggles they are currently relying on to fight the coronavirus crisis is 'useless'.

The BMA and other doctors' unions have repeatedly warned NHS staff will die unless frontline staff are properly equipped with protective gear.

Hospitals have taken to begging for equipment from companies and DIY stores on social media amid a nationwide shortage of PPE.

While one frontline doctor resorted to spending 90 on motorcross goggles to make improvised equipment for his team.

A demonstrator today wore a face mask outside of St Thomas' Hospital in London, where Boris Johnson is being treated, and called for more personal protective equipment for NHS staff

A woman holding up signs saying PPE is pictured this morning standing outside the hospital where the PM was admitted to last night

The demonstrator approached cars driving outside the hospital with her signs, calling for more PPE for frontline NHS medics

ARE OXYGEN SHORTAGES THE NEXT PPE? It comes as the Health Service Journal (HSJ) reported that some hospital bosses say issues with supplying oxygen to hospitals is the 'new PPE'. Some said the engineering workforce is 'spread too thin' and supplies were running low, though NHS England has said the story is untrue. A senior leader at a trust outside London told HSJ they had been trying to get more engineering support for more than a week. She said: 'It is crucial to how we align our oxygenated beds with the modelling that has been done for our region.' Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said the Government has a 'very high degree of confidence in the supply' of oxygen. Over the weekend, Watford General hospital declared a critical incident after a technical problem with its oxygen equipment. Experts first warned of an oxygen shortage in the NHS last month, saying hospitals could run out of the gas within hours if hit by a wave of coronavirus patients. Gas suppliers were told to quadruple production to help hospitals prepare and military drivers may be requisitioned to do the deliveries. Advertisement

GP practices say that, when they've appealed for equipment from the NHS, they have been told to buy their own from other suppliers.

Some staff said they have seen colleagues fall ill because of 'inadequate PPE' and others are having to buy their own.

Public Health England (PHE) last week issued updated guidance on what PPE staff should wear following weeks of confusion.

Doctors, nurses and carers were told to wear protective masks if they come within two metres of anyone who could have coronavirus.

Health leaders welcomed the move but said unacceptable shortages of equipment means doctors and nurses will still have to risk their lives to treat patients.

The BMA poll laid bare the true extent of the PPE shortage, with just 12 per cent of 1,124 hospital doctors saying they felt fully protected from the virus at work.

It also revealed that 27 per cent reported their NHS trust was running low on basic supplies such as soap.

More than half (54 per cent) of doctors working in high-risk environments, including those carrying out risky procedures such as intubating patients, said there were either shortages or no supply at all of adequate face masks.

Some 65 per cent said they did not have access to eye protection, while 55 per cent said they felt pressurised to work in a high-risk area despite not having adequate PPE.

Discussing the PPE they already have, one hospital doctor said: 'The quality of our eye protection and apron is useless.

Images of Motocross goggles, pictured, which an NHS doctor paid 90 for to protect his team on the coronavirus frontline, sparked outrage on social media

NHS DOCTOR SPENDS 90 ON DIRT BIKE GOGGLES TO MAKE 'IMPROVISED' PPE FOR STAFF An NHS doctor was forced to spend 90 of his own money on dirt bike goggles to create 'improvised' personal protective equipment (PPE) for his team fighting coronavirus, an MP has claimed. Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for health, posted an image on social media yesterday of three sets of Motocross anti-fog neon-yellow goggles. The MP for Twickenham said in a message retweeted more than 900 times that she'd been sent the picture by a frontline doctor. The products, which are retailing online for 34.99 each, and advertised by Motocross as a 'budget goggle' look similar to those used for skiing, but are designed for off-road motorcycle racing. Ms Wilson wrote: 'Utterly, utterly ridiculous. Doctors are now having to pay for their own improvised PPE equipment to keep them safe at work. 'Just been sent this from a doctor on the coronavirus frontline - he's spent 90 on [these] goggles to protect him and his team.' The post appalled social media users, with one writing: 'Yup. My colleagues doing the same. No one trusting [Public Health England] guidance which conveniently suits the lack of appropriate PP'. Advertisement

'Some of the PPE provided feels like a tick-box exercise just for psychological reassurance.'

Another anonymous doctor said: 'I am the only Muslim anaesthetist with a beard in my department.

'I am being forced to shave my beard due to unavailability of hood masks with respirator, and a bearded doctor can't pass a fit mask test.'

Some 88 per cent of GPs in contact with COVID-19 patients reported either shortages or no access at all to eye protection, and 62 per cent said there were problems with supply of facemasks.

More than half of the 599 GPs who responded said they had had to buy their own facemasks or eye protection, with only 2 per cent saying they felt fully protected against the virus at work.

One GP told the BMA: 'I feel betrayed by the Government who are not transparent enough to say that they do not have the ideal supplies and are therefore asking us to put ourselves in harms' way with sub-optimal protection.'

The survey also revealed that despite the Government pledging to ramp up testing of frontline NHS workers, only 195 respondents said they had ready access to tests.

Overall, 40 per cent of both hospital doctors and GPs said their capacity to treat patients was being hampered by colleagues being off due to self-isolation.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the BMA's council, said: 'In less than three days, nearly 2,000 doctors across the UK have told us how desperate their situation really is.

'Despite assurances from the Government that personal protective equipment is making its way to the front line, this snapshot survey reveals a very different picture - healthcare workers in the UK simply do not have enough protective equipment to keep them safe.

LEADING MEDIC SAYS 50 DOCTORS IN UK WILL DIE WITHOUT PROPER PPE A leading medic has warned 'fifty doctors in Britain will die' battling the coronavirus pandemic if frontline staff are not properly equipped with protective gear. Rinesh Parmar, chairman of the Doctors' Association, claims medics are buying their own personal protective equipment (PPE) in a bid to shield themselves from the deadly virus. He also says intensive care intensive care doctors and anaesthetists have been carrying out procedures, such as putting a patient on a ventilator, with masks that expired five years ago. Speaking to The Sun, Dr Parmar warned that if medical staff are not properly equipped that the UK could follow in Italy's footsteps, where more than 50 members of the medical community have lost their lives. Rinesh Parmar, chairman of the Doctors' Association, has warned 'fifty doctors in Britain will die' battling the coronavirus if frontline staff are not properly equipped with protective gear Advertisement

'We are weeks into the most serious health crisis this country has faced in modern times and doctors are telling us they don't have any, or don't have enough, protective equipment.

'Until now, we have been hearing anecdotal stories about shortages or a lack of PPE. This survey confirms the extent of this failure.

'Doctors report being put into situations which clearly contravene the PHE guidance issued last week.'

He said the majority of doctors reported that they had not had either the advice or the training needed to properly fit, put on and take off PPE.

'Without this training they increase their risk of exposure to virus and of spreading it,' he said.

'Increasing numbers of healthcare workers are dying from Covid-19 in the UK, including four doctors, and it is frankly disgraceful that frontline staff are still expected to work unprotected.

'We must protect doctors so they can protect patients.'

It comes after a leading medic warned at the weekend that 'fifty doctors in Britain will die' battling the coronavirus pandemic if frontline staff are not properly equipped with protective gear.

Rinesh Parmar, chairman of the Doctors' Association, claimed medics are buying their own personal protective equipment (PPE) in a bid to shield themselves from the deadly virus.

He also said intensive care intensive care doctors and anaesthetists have been carrying out procedures, such as putting a patient on a ventilator, with masks that expired five years ago.

It comes after the Government last week penned an open letter pleading for firms who can make personal protective equipment (PPE) to come forward.
Churches will be empty this Easter and Passover festivities will also take place behind closed doors owing to the COVID-19 lockdown. Christians will be obliged to turn to services broadcast on television or over social media this year owing to the coronavirus and Jews will mark the Passover holiday in their own homes rather than as communities. - Passover - The major Jewish holiday starts Wednesday evening and runs to April 16 but families are being strictly urged to mark the festival at home for their own protection against COVID-19. "Passover in confinement means Passover in security," says France's Grand Rabbi Haim Korsia, so as "not to contaminate those you love most" while remaining united in faith even at a distance. Yet awkward questions arise for those who choose to adopt the strictest interpretation of traditions such as, for example, not using electricity or being accompanied by others for a reading. For those in confinement on their own, do traditional observances allow recourse to modern get-arounds such as video-conference at least for the duration of the Passover Seder, the ritual feast which marks the start of the holiday period? Fourteen rabbis in Jerusalem have decreed in favour of on-screen participation in order to maintain contact particularly with the sick and the elderly. However, Israel's Chief Rabbinate Council is opposed, arguing it amounts to "profaning" a religious holiday. In France, home to Europe's largest Jewish community, rabbis of a liberal bent are proposing to offer a 'digital' seder forum where believers can connect and discuss such matters. - Urbi et Orbi -- and the confined - Christians celebrating Easter will see the COVID-19 confinement crimp celebrations with Holy Week services generally taking place behind closed doors. The Vatican will be no exception, where Pope Francis last Sunday celebrated Palm Sunday at a deserted Saint Peter's Basilica. His audience will likewise be watching on screens rather than physically attending his Urbi et Orbi blessing in Saint Peter's Square, a case of addressing the city and the confined world. Predominantly Catholic countries would normally see huge gatherings on Sunday (Orthodox Easter falls on April 19) -- but not this year, not even in the Mexican municipality of Iztapalapa, which usually hosts a Passion procession that sees participants lug crosses through the streets. Television and internet are stepping into the breach, however, to allow believers to participate remotely in one of Christianity's most important festivals. In mainly Catholic Spain the Archbishopric of Seville hopes its mass broadcast will draw an audience in the hundreds of thousands, while Catholic broadcasters in France will transmit mass from the pilgrimage site of Lourdes in the country's southwest. In Lebanon, Maronite and Catholic masses will be broadcast live with just a priest present while the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem is urging believers to pray at home and gather virtually over social media. Elsewhere, South Africa's Anglican Church has issued guidelines including earmarking a place in the home for prayer and to continue the local tradition of eating pickled fish on Good Friday. But the virus has forced one South African Easter traditions off the menu -- the evangelical Zion Christian Church has had to forego its annual pilgrimage to Limpopo province, southern Africa's largest Christian gathering. - Orthodox variant - Orthodox Christians concentrated largely in Russia, Ethiopia, Greece, Serbia and Ukraine, follow the Julian, rather than the Gregorian calendar, hence their Easter falls on April 19. But the extra week will make little difference when it comes to COVID-19 confinement. "The celebration of the resurrection is a celebration of victory over death. We shall certainly celebrate Easter even if it won't be possible to go to church," said Metropolitan Ilarion, a senior Russian Orthodox Church cleric. The powerful Russian Orthodox Church initially said that regional authorities had no right to close churches but Patriarch Kirill in late March called on the faithful to pray at home amid the pandemic. In the hope that COVID-19 may have abated by then, Greek, Syrian and Lebanese authorities are hoping to bring the faithful back into church on May 27 in time to see in Ascension Day. burs-kp/tib/jg/cdw/pvh Palm fronds adorned largely empty pews as Pope Francis celebrated Palm Sunday mass in St. Peter's Basilica mass on April 5. Easter services are set to take place behind closed doors
Its not just about the masks. Yes, proper personal protective equipment, or PPE, is the most important thing in the country right now. Every N95 respiratory mask is a shield against the worst-case scenarios that terrify health-care workers: being infected with COVID-19, infecting colleagues, infecting patients, infecting their families, sickness and death. This disease is a devil, and every mask can matter so much.

So yes, the United States holding up a shipment of masks at the U.S.-Canada border that was meant for Ontario  a shipment of three million, according to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, of which 500,000 were released as of Monday morning  was a big deal. But it was more than that, too.

Shortages in Ontario hospitals are entering a new stage. Ford claims the province is a week from exhausting its own stores of PPE. On Thursday of last week some hospitals in the GTA started asking employees to save N95 masks, and said they anticipated there would be a way to decontaminate and reuse them.

There are studies at Duke University and at the University of Winnipeg, led by Dr. Anand Kumar, that have shown heat and aerosolizing hydrogen peroxide, among other methods, seem to sanitize the mask. The studies arent peer-reviewed, of course. There hasnt been time.

Health-care workers are resistant to the idea of reusing masks, because it goes against everything they have been trained to do. One Toronto nurse told the Star, tensions are extreme among the nurses. The shortage is causing nurses and staff to question every time we need to use an N95; were taking shortcuts that I believe will jeopardize our health.

Some health-care workers have also been reusing goggles by cleaning them with Virox, which is said to be running low in some places. Federal PPE shipments are important  assuming, of course, they arrive. Some hospitals were already getting partial deliveries of their PPE shipments two weeks ago.

So while about 80 per cent of N95s come from China, per reporting from the Stars Marco Chown Oved, but the United States refusing to let medical equipment cross the border in any way is a massive development. The masks matter.

But its more than that, too. As one source who has had significant experience with the current American administration said, simply, Theyre starting to panic in D.C. You can feel it from here.

Canada has dealt with Americas radioactive instability for several years now, and the plan was established during NAFTA, through steel tariffs, and around that lunatic plan last week to put U.S. troops on the border. Quiet diplomacy worked that out.

But it keeps happening. And the United States is built to fail on this, in almost every way.

Its tragically, sadly perfect. In a for-profit medical system, the top employers of ER doctors are groups owned by private-equity companies, including Canadas Onex. ProPublica reported they are cutting doctor hours, because the demand for non-COVID-19 health care has collapsed, and the revenue isnt there.

Meanwhile, approximately half of U.S. workers receive health care through their employer, and 6.6-million Americans filed for unemployment in the week ending March 28. Eight states still lack stay-at-home orders, all with Republican governors. The federal economic packages thus far have ignored wage subsidies while siphoning hundreds of millions to richer recipients, and loan programs have been difficult to access for many businesses.

As of Sunday there were at least 14 states that planned to exempt religious gatherings from stay-at-home orders. There are protest church gatherings across the country, in defiance of the science.

And above it all  above the 40 years of anti-government, anti-science, anti-working-class, anti-poor, anti-public state  it is obvious to anybody who watches Donald Trump for five minutes that the man is a wicked, lying child who bluffed his way into being in charge of an aircraft carrier, and has no idea what to do now. The Associated Press reported the United States waited until mid-March to start ordering ventilators, and medical supplies.

The president is in denial, and spends every day going on television performing a grotesque improvisational opera of empty promises, disinformation and blame, while agitating to reopen the country for the sake of the stock market. Trumps allies are already starting to target the nations top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, because the doctor disagrees that there is evidence the drug hydroxychloroquine can be used to ward off the coronavirus. And hes right.

RELATED STORIES Investigations Is it time to take another look at reusable protective gear in the wake of COVID-19?

At least Canada is not alone. Red states and blue states are getting different amounts of PPE, but it sounds as chaotic as anything. After several shipments of PPE destined for the states were essentially hijacked by the federal government, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker had to go on a stealth mission to China with the owner of the New England Patriots under the guise of a humanitarian mission to secure 1.5 million masks.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported an Illinois official had to race to a McDonalds rest stop outside Chicago with a $3.4 million (U.S.) cheque to beat out other bidders for N95s. California is putting together a consortium of states to bid collectively. If only there were another way to say A Consortium of States.

So its not just Canada. But we dont have a North American ally anymore, not in the same way. We have a sick gorilla in a cage, and we have to constantly worry how it might lash out.

Canada will work the same paths it worked during NAFTA, and since. The relationship does flow both ways, as deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland pointed out. Windsor hospitals are starting to force health-care workers who were crossing the border to work in Detroit to choose Canada or the U.S., and many are choosing Canada. As Dr. Wajid Ahmed, Windsors chief medical officer, said, Its not my intention to deprive them of their staffing; I think its more about, how do we minimize the risk to our community? That could be a bargaining chip diminished, or gone.

Canada, too, has to minimize the risk. An exemption on medical supplies would be yet another accomplishment. But all we know is its going to get worse, south of us. The masks matter. But we are locked in a cage with a feverish gorilla, and its getting sicker by the day.

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Two Tablighi Jamaat members, who came back from Delhis Nizamuddin Markaz event, are among the 13 who tested positive for Covid-19 in Kerala on Monday, taking the total number of infected in the state to 327, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.

Among the 13 fresh Covid-19 cases, nine are from worst-affected Kasaragod in north Keralasix are foreign returnees and three of them are their contacts.

With the highest recovery and lowest mortality rates, the CM said, Kerala is now quite confident of containing the coronavirus pandemic but he cautioned people not to lower the guard at this juncture.

At least 142 people in Thiruvananthapuram and 78 in Pathanamhitta were tested negative on Monday. Nearly 62 people were discharged from hospitals after they repeatedly tested negative.

Pinarayi Vijayan said 125,000 beds were ready in the state and it will procure more ventilators and Personal protective equipment (PPEs) in coming days.

The chief minister expressed shock over reports that some nurses from Kerala have been infected in Mumbai and Delhi hospitals for the want of enough protective gears.

We have information that many nurses from the state tested positive and more than 100 are under observation. This is really shocking. They were not provided adequate protection. How can you wage such a war pushing front-line warriors without the proper equipment? he asked.

He said he has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard and will talk to his counterparts in Delhi and Maharashtra. Nurses from Kerala work in many hospitals across the country. Relatives of these nurses have sought an inquiry into serious lapses in Delhi and Mumbai hospitals.

Also read: In Kerala, nurses inspired by Nipah warrior Lini

The chief minister also condoled the death of 18 people from the state who succumbed to Covid-19 in foreign countries the highest in the United States which recorded eight deaths in three days. He read out their names in the briefing and said the state was helpless to do anything more in such a situation.

With the situation slightly improving the state has announced some concessions to certain sectors.

Automobile workshops, mobile-repair units, mobile recharging and selling units will be allowed to open one day in a week under strict conditions, the chief minister said.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex unveiled their future plans after officially stepping back from their roles as senior members of the royal family last month.

On Monday, a spokesperson for the couple confirmed to TODAY they plan to launch a nonprofit endeavor named Archewell.

Before SussexRoyal, came the idea of Arche  the Greek word meaning source of action. We connected to this concept for the charitable organisation we hoped to build one day, and it became the inspiration for our sons name, the couple said in a statement. To do something of meaning, to do something that matters. Archewell is a name that combines an ancient word for strength and action, and another that evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon.

They added their focus is currently on supporting efforts to tackle the new coronavirus, but faced with this information coming to light we felt compelled to share the story of how this came to be.

Harry and Meghan made the announcement as part of a response to a Telegraph news story about their planned endeavor. That story indicated the couple has plans for emotional support groups, a multi-media educational empire, and even (to) launch a wellbeing website, citing trademark filings for Archewell.

The Duke And Duchess Of Sussex Attend Mountbatten Music Festival (WPA Pool / Getty Images)

A spokesperson disputed those claims, adding many of those trademark filings were for protection purposes only and some of the things picked out by the Telegraph are rather exaggerated.

We don't have plans for support groups and the like, but we'll have more to say about Archewell in due course, the couple said in the statement.

As of March 31, Harry and Meghan officially stepped back from their roles and ceased to use the Sussex Royal brand they had curated over the years.

People magazine reported that the couple relocated from Canada to Los Angeles ahead of the coronavirus pandemic, bringing them much closer to Hollywood and Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland.

The report prompted President Donald Trump to tweet that the U.S. government wouldnt provide security to Harry and Meghan. A spokesperson for the couple then said that they have no plans to seek security protection from the U.S. government.

The former Meghan Markle also narrated a Disneynature documentary, "Elephant," which debuted earlier this month on Disney Plus.
President Donald Trump in his COVID-19 news briefing on Monday said hes considering stepping in to bring a resolution between the Navys top brass and Capt. Brett E. Crozier, who was relieved of command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after writing a widely-spread letter warning that coronavirus was spreading on the ship.

The president, boasting that he was good at settling arguments, said he had heard very good things about both gentlemen, referencing Crozier and Acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly. He said he wanted to speak with Modly and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper about the situation.

Modly on Monday told sailors that Crozier, who received resounding support from his crew and recently tested positive for COVID-19, was either too naive or too stupid to command a ship.

I may look into it, something should be resolved, Trump told reporters, without providing specifics. I may look into it in detail and Ill be able to figure it out very fast.

The president was adamant that the letters  which The San Francisco Chronicle obtained  were a mistake, arguing Crozier should have gone through his chain of command and claiming the Navy captain projected weakness.

But Trump praised Crozier for his distinguished service and advancement to the command of an $18 billion nuclear aircraft carrier, suggesting that he could potentially help save a persons career.

The letters shouldnt have been sent and shouldnt have been leaked, Trump said. Its a mistake that shouldnt have been made. Its unfair to the families of people on the ship because they get nervous. It shows weakness. And theres nothing weak about us. That ship is incredible.

The U.S. doesnt want to have letter writing campaigns, the president added.

With all of that said, his career prior to that was very good. I dont want to destroy somebody for having a bad day," Trump said.

Crozier was removed from command after his email to several in the military was leaked to the Chronicle. Crozier had written that the cramped warship prevented social distancing, noting the spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating.

When he departed the aircraft carrier Thursday night, deafening cheers came from Croziers crew.

Video shot by crew members showed several hundred sailors on the hanger deck cheering, clapping and chanting Croziers name.

More than 150 sailors on the ship have been infected with the coronavirus among a crew of more than 4,000. The ship has been docked in Guam because of the outbreak. Croziers letter urged the Navy to allow him to move thousands of crew members to the naval base at Guam for quarantine.

Esper told CNN that an active investigation remains ongoing.

Related Content:
Bernal Heights

Photos courtesy of Hillside Supper Club/Facebook

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact small businesses across San Francisco, neighborhood restaurants are among those hardest hit. Last week, Cafe du Soleil in the Lower Haight became one of the citys first publicized restaurant closures, and now, a Bernal Heights favorite is following suit.

Hillside Supper Club (300 Precita Ave.), a neighborhood eatery focusing on fresh California fare and Italian-inspired dishes, had been closed since mid-March in compliance with San Franciscos shelter-in-place order. With expenses mounting and business dwindling, co-chefs and owners Jonathan Sutton and Tony Ferrari found themselves faced with a hard decision to make.

Its tough running a small business in San Francisco already, Sutton told Hoodline in a phone interview. At the end of the day, with all the added expenses, the return is very, very small." Hillside Supper Club's forced closure due to the ongoing pandemic tipped the scales towards a permanent shuttering.

Sutton explained that his two sources of income  Hillside Supper Club and a restaurant consulting business  had both essentially ceased operations, leaving him unable to continue working and living in San Francisco.

After a rough string of weeks, Sutton and Ferrari decided they couldn't keep Hillside Supper Club running. In a letter taped to the restaurants window, they thanked patrons for their support and expressed their sadness in having to close the restaurant without a proper sendoff.

In light of the circumstances around COVID-19, we want to share the sad news that Hillside Supper Club will be closing our doors permanently. We want to thank you for your love and support over the last seven years. It breaks our heart to go out this way and not be able to continue feeding the neighborhood, seeing your smiles and hearing your laughs. We will always hold all of you in our hearts and never forget the memories we all shared.

Jonathan Sutton (left) and Tony Ferrari

Sutton says he felt an instant connection with Bernal Heights when he moved to San Francisco 10 years ago. He and Ferrari met in college on the East Coast, and both spent several years working on separate projects before finding a niche to fill in San Francisco.

Story continues

What began as a group of local friends making dinner for each other evolved into the two chefs opening a pop-up restaurant called Bernal Supper Club, which gained popularity from its Monday night presence at The Corner. Sutton and Ferrari then moved to operating their pop-up out of Caffe Cozzolino on the corner of Precita Park, becoming close with its owners and eventually taking over the lease at 300 Precita Ave. in 2013.

From the beginning, Hillside Supper Clubs menu placed an emphasis on local, sustainable food and an enticing wine menu. Most importantly, though, the founders wanted their restaurant to be known as a neighborhood gathering place, captured in its slogan Come as strangers, leave as friends.

Hillside Supper Club's pot pie was one of its most famous dishes.

Hillside Supper Club was well known in the neighborhood and beyond, gaining accolades from Food & Wine, Marie Clare, and Star Chefs. Ferrari and Sutton landed on Zagats 30 Under 30 list in 2014, a prestigious list highlighting young culinary professionals across the nation.

But after five years, the owners were already feeling the strains of operating a restaurant in San Francisco. In a letter shared by Bernalwood in 2018, Ferrari wrote,

Weve noticed a huge decrease in business, rising costs and living expenses, and the neighborhood becoming more transient for better or for worse. We feel we have tried everything we can with menu changes, pricing, marketing avenues, delivery apps, and community involvement, and were still left with too many seats empty at our tables.

Sutton and Ferrari began experimenting with more neighborhood-friendly options, adding a kids menu and weekly specials like a Thursday and Sunday prix fixe menu (a three-course meal for $40), no-corkage fee Mondays, and a pasta and wine special on Wednesdays.

It was working, Sutton said, adding that the support of the neighborhood never wavered. In fact, sales were up this year from last year, and we were off to a great start [in 2020]. But the business was caught by surprise by the quickly-escalating COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting drop in sales.

Interior of Hillside Supper Club

He said hes heartbroken to see Hillside Supper Club close so suddenly, but affirms that he and Ferrari will remain close friends, and hopes they might even be able to come back some day for another pop-up in San Francisco.

As for now, both chefs are relocating to cities where, according to Sutton, "it's a little easier to run a small business" compared with San Francisco. Ferrari has moved to Cincinnati to open Mom 'n Em Coffee with his brother. Sutton is in the process of packing up his belongings and moving back near his hometown in Washington state, where he'll be opening an Italian restaurant called Storia Cucina.

He's already taken part of his San Francisco sourdough starter  which has been alive since 1971  with him to the new restaurant. It'll be incorporated into pizza dough, so that little bits and pieces of Hillside Supper Club still live on.
Only those tested before they die are counted as COVID-19 victims, a New York City councilman said Monday, sparking fears the actual death toll could be far higher than the 3,400 already recorded.

Mark Levine tweeted: 'Now only those few who had a test confirmation *before* dying are marked as victims of coronavirus on their death certificate. This almost certainly means we are undercounting the total number of victims of this pandemic.'

The chair of NYC council health committee was commenting on how the city is 'managing its dead' with morgues, funeral homes and cemeteries 'dealing w/ the equivalent of an ongoing 9/11'.

Levine said 'on an average day' before this crisis there were between 20 and 25 deaths at home in NYC. He said there are now between 200 and 215 every day and 'most of these people are not tested for coronavirus'.

Across the nation as of Monday evening there are over 368,254 cases of the virus with hotspots in New York, Michigan and Louisiana. Deaths from COVID-19 in New York City soared to 3,485 on Monday.

The US is now barreling towards the infection's projected peak day on April 16 when experts predict there will be over 3,000 deaths in 24 hours. The death toll reached 12,035 across the country Tuesday.

Only those tested before they die are counted as COVID-19 victims, a New York City councilman said Monday, sparking fears the actual death toll could be far higher

Hospital workers are seen transporting a body to a portable morgue outside of the hospital

Military personnel walk past refrigeration trucks being used as a temporary morgue parked outside of Bellevue Hospital, New York, as the number of coronavirus deaths continues to rise

Of the situation in NYC Levine tweeted: 'A typical hospital morgue might hold 15 bodies. Those are now all full.

Mark Levine, pictured, said morgues, funeral homes and cemeteries are 'dealing w/ the equivalent of an ongoing 9/11'

'So OCME has sent out 80 refrigerated trailers to hospitals around the city. Each trailer can hold 100 bodies. These are now mostly full too. Some hospitals have had to add a 2nd or even a 3rd trailer.'

He said families report 'calling as many as half a dozen funeral homes and finding none that can handle their deceased loved ones'.

Cemeteries are said to be turning down 'most' burial requests.

Suggesting the death toll from COVID-19 may be higher than the official figures reports Levine adds: 'Its not just deaths in hospitals which are up.

'On an average day before this crisis there were 20-25 deaths at home in NYC. Now in the midst of this pandemic the number is 200-215. *Every day*.

'Early on in this crisis we were able to swab people who died at home, and thus got a coronavirus reading. But those days are long gone.

'We simply don't have the testing capacity for the large numbers dying at home.'

Coronavirus dead across New York could be temporarily buried on Hart Island as morgues across the city start to overflow.

America's coronavirus epicenter of New York is grappling with how to deal with the dead as the disease has brought the city to its knees.

As the Big Apple's death toll from COVID-19 soared to 3,485 on Monday, images of bodies covered in sheets being transported on stretchers by health workers in protective suits are a common sight outside hospitals.

Bodies are moved to a refrigeration truck serving as a temporary morgue at Wyckoff Hospital in the Borough of Brooklyn on April 6

The trucks are storing bodies that are accumulating too quickly for funeral directors to pick them up directly from hospitals.

One suggestion was that the former Cold War missile site at Hart Island on Long Island Sound, which was also used as a Civil War prison camp and a burial site during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic, would be used for temporary graves.

The mayor's spokeswoman, Freddi Goldstein, stressed that the city government was not considering using local parks as cemeteries.

But she added that Hart Island, where around one million New Yorkers are already buried in mass graves, may be used 'for temporary burials, if the need grows'.

Interments of coronavirus fatalities on the island may already have taken place.

Melinda Hunt, the founder of the Hart Island Project, said drone video footage shot last week appears to show burials of COVID-19 patients who passed away.

Levine had earlier said the city will start temporarily burying coronavirus victims in public parks in trenches dug for 10 caskets if the death roll keeps climbing past a rate hospitals and morgues can keep up with.

Levine had said: 'Soon we'll start temporary interment. This likely will be done by using a NYC park for burials (yes you read that right). Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line. It will be done in a dignified, orderly--and temporary--manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take.

'The goal is to avoid scenes like those in Italy, where the military was forced to collect bodies from churches and even off the streets.'

The comments caused quite a stir in America's most populous city, which has already been transformed by the pandemic, including in Central Park where a field hospital is tending to virus patients.

Levine later updated his remarks by saying he understood any temporary burials would be carried out on Hart Island rather than public parks.

He added: 'I have spoken to many folks in City gov't today, and received unequivocal assurance that there will be *no* burials in NYC Parks. All have stated clearly that if temporary interment should be needed it will be done on Hart Island.'

Refrigeration trucks being used as a temporary morgue parked outside of Bellevue Hospital

Bodies are moved to a refrigeration truck serving as a temporary morgue at Wyckoff Hospital in the Borough of Brooklyn on April 6

Pat Marmo manages five funeral homes across the city.

He is finding it difficult to cope with the stress generated by influx of bodies, particularly because he himself just lost a cousin and close friend to the pandemic.

Marmo said: 'The hospitals are pushing [us]. They want the people picked up [as quickly as possible] and the funeral homes don't have the facilities to handle these bodies.'

Marmo estimates that his homes are currently dealing with three times more bodies that normal and that burials will last well into next month.

'It's almost like 9/11, going on for days and days and days,' he said, referring to the worst terror strikes on US soil back on September 11, 2001, that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that the number of deaths across New York state had flattened out since Saturday's high, below 600 a day.

He suggested the state may be at the peak of its pandemic, but extended stay-at-home measures until April 29, saying now was not the time to end social distancing.
Buying a home will never be the same after the coronavirus pandemic. In the last three weeks, precautions to reduce the spread of the deadly virus have altered almost every aspect of a real estate deal, from seeing a property to signing the deed.

And yet, despite a whipsawed stock market and stay-at-home orders, properties are still being toured, inspected, appraised and sold.

As J. Lennox Scott, chairman of John L. Scott Real Estate, stated in his latest regional housing sales report, the real estate market remains in motion.

His March report saw a surge in sales activity in Portland metro homes priced below $250,000 and a frenzy for homes priced between $250,000 and $750,000. His assessments were based on low supply and the percent of new listings that received an accepted offer within the first 30 days of being on the market.

CORONAVIRUS IN OREGON: THE LATEST NEWS

Sellers at almost all levels continue to profit from the low number of residential properties for sale in Oregon, the state with the largest housing shortage in the nation.

Homeowners also benefit from the noninvasive, now accepted practice of showcasing their property through 3D imagery and video tours instead of widely marketed open houses.

When a qualified, serious buyer wants to actually walk inside, a real estate agent sets up a private showing. Owners leave, and masks, gloves and booties go on.

My client and I will each wear two pairs of Nitrile gloves and some sort of homemade respiratory barrier, usually a Lycra-like scarf, says Clayton Williams of Inhabit Real Estate in Portland. I will maintain a six-foot barrier if we are viewing together. I will prep the house for a no-touch viewing and then open the front door for them. I will position myself to enable audible communication without having to be too close to them.

Prepping the house means lights are turned on, and cabinets and doors are open so strangers dont have to touch switches or knobs. Before and after, Clorox wipes are used on surfaces.

No more than two people are allowed inside at one time, leaving other family members to hear later about their potential new home.

In this turbulent time, buyers who havent lost their source of income and have acceptable debt-to-income ratios are cashing in on mortgage rates in the historically low 3% range for properties $511,000 and under. There are now tighter lending conditions for larger loans.

Lenders are able to accept, if necessary, desktop data and drive-by appraisals if someone in the home may be ill. But more often, appraisers and inspectors are crawling into attics and under houses wearing respirators, gloves and masks to protect from asbestos, contaminants and exposure to the coronavirus.

Inspectors will not shake hands, fist bump or elbow bump" is just one of about a dozen protective measures taken by Nonprofit Home Inspections, which services Oregon and Washington state.

Another rule: The person paying for the work is asked not to be onsite.

The inspector will be available after the inspection for a video chat or phone call to answer any questions and to review the reports findings," according to posted precautions. "If the client would like to look at the home again, they should coordinate that at a different time with their real estate agent.

Charles Lewis of Nonprofit Home Inspections, which services Oregon and Washington state, uses a respirator in a crawlspace.Charles Lewis of Nonprofit Home Inspections

Most title agents are operating remotely, connecting with clients over the phone or through email, regular mail and expedited delivery services.

The First American office serving the Portland metro area posted on its website: While the rules and regulations governing the closing process are evolving rapidly in the current environment, especially with remote online notarization, First American will provide you with the most up-to-date options for your transaction.

The only face-to-face contact mandatory in trading real estate, signing a warranty deed or deed of trust, has also been altered by the coronavirus.

Notaries stand behind plexiglass barriers in offices to witness the signing or mobile notaries park next to clients cars and complete the signing, similar to withdrawals at a drive-through bank

And when the deal is done, instead of a traditional, pre-COVID-19 broom cleaning, professional cleaning services like ServPro, following CDC guidelines and using germ-killing products, are called in before properties change hands.

Everyone is doing what they can to adhere to sanitary and safety measures and keep the wheels moving, says Williams. People have real estate needs for different reasons, by choice, duress or as an investment. The uncertainty of the landscape as we progress day by day affects different audiences.

He says people still see opportunity in real estate, but the highly personalized, touchy-feely" industry has changed forever.

Social distancing made 3D modeling acceptable and that approach is not going away.

Convenience is riding on the coattails of safety, but that still benefits buyers and sellers, he says. Anything we can introduce that promotes peace of mind to every party involved and thats not cost prohibitive will be around for a long time.

Seeing a home for sale

Karim Alaeddine, a principal broker with Living Room Realty, says about 200 owners in Southeast Portland jumped into the market in an eight-day period in March, hoping to catch shoppers looking for properties priced between $350,000 and $550,000, a category that has been the target of bidding wars.

These were not desperation sales, Alaeddine says, adding that the crushing impact of a wide range of business losses and massive layoffs may come in a month or so. These are sellers who were already planning to sell, weeks or months from now, but got their properties on the market quicker while there is still multiple-offer demand.

Homes that attract first-time or downsizing buyers can sell for more than the asking price, he says.

Alaeddine has been busy. He closed a million-dollar, view property in Southeast Portlands Mount Tabor neighborhood that received several offers. On Monday, his team fielded multiple offers on a half-million dollar home.

He says local, state and federal associations set safety protocols weeks ago, and many real estate companies, like his, are even more stringent. We market the home through a social media presence and have virtual tours so buyers can have a thorough impression, he says.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) began on March 4 to issue guidelines on ways to limit exposure to the coronavirus to its 1.4 million members and their clients. The organization discouraged agents from driving clients in their car, casually accessing neighborhoods and looking inside homes for sale.

Since then, Oregon Governor Kate Brown issued stay-at-home orders on March 23, limiting activity to essential tasks. After a pause, the Department of Homeland Security deemed real estate an essential service providing safety provisions are in place.

The public is no longer invited to open houses, but agents are letting clients see rooms in a home for sale through Facebook live streams.

More often, shoppers narrow their criteria for a home and a location by conducting their initial search online by viewing photos, video walk throughs and 3D tours produced by companies like Matterport.

Unlike still photographs, traditional videos or even moving drone shots, specialized cameras can capture multiple angles in three dimensions that let potential buyers explore virtual reality spaces and even use a measuring tool to see how their furniture will fit.

Virtual tours help shoppers evaluate a home to get a first impression or review it after seeing it to get more information about rooms and the floor plan.

A modern foursquare-style house at 8064 S.E. 19th Ave. in the Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood is for sale at $799,000 by Bonnie Roseman of Living Room Realty. Living Room Realty

No one sees virtual showings replacing the human experience of walking through a house, and declines in real home showings concern Adriana Focke, principal broker and owner of Check Point Realty in Southwest Portland.

SentriLock box activity has fallen dramatically over the last 30 days to the level of activity we see during the slowest time of the year," between Christmas and New Years Day, she says.

Focke cant predict how the absence of open houses and limited showings will impact closed sales. We will only know 30 days from now, she says.

So far, sales are in line. In the month of March 2019, Multnomah County had 847 closed transactions. In March 2020, there were 890, but all were initiated before widespread measures to reduce COVID-19.

We are only really going to start seeing the beginning of the effects since the shelter-in-place order around the third week of April, says Focke. In the meantime, the data we have is not that meaningful.

With the surge in unemployment, many buyers previously on the market cannot qualify for loans, she adds.

Moving in

No one could have foreseen moving and storage companies like WayForth in Portland laying off employees and locking out about 600 customers from retrieving their furniture and other belongings.

But real estate agent Adam Elliott of Redfin saw this happen in March to his clients.

Fortunately, his clients eventually connected with a former executive of Livible, which later merged with Wayforth, and he sent a very kind email, allowing the owners to hire a former employee to help them pack a U-Haul truck.

STORAGECafe, a nationwide self-storage search website with more than 25,000 storage facilities listings, found most storage facilities have stayed open and installed ways for customers to avoid direct contact with the staff such as drive-up access and online payments.

Some storage facilities decided to delay auctions and show leniency on late fees during this time, reports Maria Gatea, senior editor at STORAGECafe's blog.

American Moving & Storage Association members can provide virtual estimates, rather than in a home. They recommend buying new moving boxes and tape instead of using recycled boxes and if youre in a vulnerable group, over 60 or have a compromised immune system, they suggest postponing a move until the pandemic is over if possible.

Elliott sees the real estate industry in uncharted territory, but his agency, Redfin, has always relied on data and virtual tours to help clients select choices.

Im still writing offers, he says. Motivated sellers are dropping prices and if youre 100 percent sure youre not losing your job, now is the right time to buy. Agents all over Oregon are quickly getting clients into escrow because there are deals to be had.

--Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072

jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman

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Want to search Oregon real estate listings and use local resources? Click here.
The global death toll is more than 76,000 with over 1.3 million infections confirmed, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness.

Here's a roundup of developments in RFE/RL's broadcast countries.

Romania

Romania's confirmed cases of COVID-19 have increased by more than 10 percent over the past 24 hours to reach 4,417, with 35 more fatalities, bring the overall death toll to 197, the country's coronavirus task force said on April 7.



The first coronavirus death was registered in Romania on March 22.



The country has been under a state of emergency since March 16, and President Klaus Iohannis announced his intention on April 6 to extend it by one month, while the government decided to postpone local elections that should have been held in early summer.



Government spokesman Ionel Danca said late on April 6 that the local officials' current mandates have been extended until December 31 at the latest.



In the western city of Timisoara, 10 newborns tested positive for the coronavirus on April 7, with Health Minister Nelu Tataru telling the media that there were suspicions the babies had contracted the virus from health-care staff.



"The mothers tested negative, but the babies tested positive so we have to consider their contacts with medical staff," Tataru told the media.



The babies have no symptoms and all but one of them, together with their mothers, have gone into self-isolation at home.



Tataru pointed to the "failures in the activities of both maternity officials and the local public health directorate" and warned severe measures will be taken if necessary.



The local public authority chief has already been dismissed.



"The staff were not wearing masks," one mother told Romanian media.

The latest case adds to worries about how Romania's system is coping with the epidemic. Doctors and nurses have spoken out in recent weeks about insufficient equipment for those treating COVID-19 cases, and many medical staff have resigned over the shortages as well as mismanagement and fatigue.



Some 700 of those infected are health-care workers.



Despite the mounting problems and lack of qualified staff, Romania sent a medical team on April 7 to fellow EU member Italy, the world's worst-affected country, to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.



The 10 doctors and five nurses arrived in Milan, where Romania's Ambassador to Italy, George Bologan, welcomed them, saying, "a friend in need is a friend indeed."

An estimated 1.5 million Romanians live in Italy.

Bulgaria

Bulgarian lawmakers have voted to donate their salaries, as well as the wages of government members, to the budget of the Health Ministry for the duration of the state of emergency declared to fight the coronavirus outbreak.



The measure, put forward by Krasimir Tsipov of the parliamentary group of the ruling center-right GERB party, was adopted by Bulgaria's 240-member National Assembly with 140 votes in favor late on April 6.



Bulgaria has been in a state of emergency since March 13. Schools and most shops are closed and there are restrictions on intercity travel and access to parks. All domestic and foreign vacation trips have been banned.



"During the state of emergency, we -- along with cabinet members and their political teams, as well as the heads of national executive agencies -- will not be receiving salaries," Tsipov told fellow lawmakers.



The measure, which will also affect selected senior officials, was supported by the Volya populist party.



"You are making me proud to be part of this National Assembly," said Volya member Veselin Mareshki ahead of the vote.

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Coverage Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region.

Bulgaria has so far reported 565 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 22 fatalities.



Meanwhile, a senior official at the Bulgarian Embassy in The Hague has been recalled after it was revealed the person was illegally charging visitors seeking assistance from the consulate, calling it a coronavirus tax.



The Foreign Ministry said on April 7 that the official was taking 5 euros from Bulgarians who visited the embassy, and 10 euros from nationals from other countries under the guise of the virus.



"Such behavior is completely incompatible with the Bulgarian diplomatic service and cannot be tolerated in any way," Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said in a statement.

Russia

The Russian Railways company has suspended dozens of long-distance routes in response to the coronavirus pandemic.



The company said it had suspended 53 routes for an indefinite period and reduced the frequency of 37 others operating across the country as of April 7.



The change included a 50 percent cut in the frequency of the popular Sapsan high-speed trains connecting Moscow with the country's second-largest city, St. Petersburg.



According to the company, the move was made due to a sharp decrease in the number of passengers using railways across the country amid restrictions on the movement of people by officials looking to slow the outbreak.



The company said that the number of refunds for tickets in April has been five times higher than the corresponding figure in April 2019, while there have been three times as many refunds for trips scheduled for May than in the same month last year.

n general, the number of tickets sold for trips in April is 40 percent lower and for trips in May it is 60 percent lower than in the same months in 2019, it added.



Russian Railways said that it would restore regular train schedules as soon as the situation allows.

Russia's coronavirus task force said on April 7 that 7,497 coronavirus cases had been registered in the country, including 58 deaths.

Government critics have warned the low numbers compared with other European nations could be a sign officials are purposely underreporting the outbreak, or that testing has been ineffective.



Some 494 persons who tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered, according to officials.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Romanian and Bulgarian Service, Reuters, Interfax, NTV, TASS, digi24.ro, g4.ro, Reuters, and hotnews.ro
There is no excuse for the irresponsible behavior of Precinct 1 Constable Ruben Tejeda in failing to inform anyone that one of his officers had contracted COVID-19.

The lack of information was potentially life-threatening, opening the door to community spread. Tejeda is an elected official, but he didnt put the public first in this instance.

It is disturbing he would use the information to safeguard his own family by self-quarantining and then selfishly fail to share this vital public health information with others working in the public building where his office is located.

Tejeda has a lot of explaining to do to the public he serves. Lets compare his actions with those of other public officials during this crisis.

When a Bexar County detention officer was recently diagnosed with COVID-19, the deputies he came in close contact with were placed on leave out of an abundance of caution. The inmates the diagnosed deputy supervised were kept in place in the jail and closely monitored for symptoms of infection.

Similarly, when two members of the San Antonio Police Department were diagnosed with COVID-19 late last month, city health officials quickly became involved. It was determined two other SAPD officers were at a high risk of exposure and went into quarantine for 14 days, in accordance with federal recommendations. One of them has since tested positive for COVID-19.

It was the proper protocol. It helped protect SAPD employees and the public by limiting spread.

Tejedas silence on this matter, and his failure to return phone calls from county officials, is no minor matter. He offices at 3505 Pleasanton Road, which also houses a justice of the peace, a tax office substation and BiblioTech, the countys all-digital public library system. It is also a satellite office for Precinct 1 Bexar County Commissioner Sergio Chico Rodriguez.

In other words, a lot of people come and go from the building.

The constables secrecy about the COVID-19 case deprived others who had come into contact with the employee from taking precautionary measures to prevent the spread to their families.

Tejeda was only forthcoming with the information after continued prodding from Bexar County Manager David Smith. The county immediately sent in a hazmat crew to disinfectant.

The facility has since been declared safe for employees and visitors by the Metropolitan Health District.

Tejeda is no political novice; he has been a constable since 1992. He should know better than to attempt a cover-up in the middle of a pandemic.
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WASHINGTON, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- American impact organization United Global Alliance (UNITED) announced a partnership with Singapore's Acumen Research Laboratories to distribute its proprietary Acu-CoronaTM 2.0 test kit and to supply the test to international governments and healthcare organizations. The announcement was made by Bachir Diagne and Ali Diallo, General Partners at UNITED, and Dr. Siew Hwa ONG, founder and Chief Scientist at Acumen Research Laboratories.

United Global Alliance logo

Acu-Corona 2.0 is an open platform, in vitro qualitative diagnostic assay based on real-time reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and that detects SARS-Cov-2 RNA in RNA samples extracted from patient specimens. The testing method received a Provisional Authorization from Singapore's Health Sciences Authority and Acumen Research Laboratories intends to seek FDA certification in collaboration with UNITED.

"The COVID-19 pandemic needs to be countered by effective testing to help in the medical efforts of diagnosis and treatment as well in implementing containment measures of contact tracing in the community and quarantine, where needed," said Dr. ONG. "We are very pleased to partner with Acumen Research Laboratories on the deployment of an immediate solution to address the pandemic crisis," said Diagne. "As an official reseller and authorized dealer of Acu-Corona 2.0., UNITED is already in touch with multiple American organizations, agencies and international governments to provide them with effective and accurate diagnostic test kits.

"Dr. Ong and her team have developed a very powerful testing method that needs to be shared at the global level," said Diallo. "The FDA certification process is the next natural step for further validation of the Acu-Corona 2.0 diagnostic test kit and UNITED will fully support this process."

The Acu-Corona 2.0 consists of two kits, one containing an RT-PCR enzyme and nuclease-free water; and another one containing some array plates with printed and dried RT-PCR primers, dual-labeled hydrolysis probes, and plate seals. The design is targeted at achieving high-throughput testing, reduced manual steps and cold-chain logistics, and overall robust results.

Acumen Research Laboratories' Acu-Corona 2.0. is part of UNITED's collaborative response initiative to address the COVID-19 pandemic crisis with immediate innovation-based solutions.

"UNITED is at the forefront of the coronavirus fight with a series of high-impact interventions in the healthcare sector," commented Diallo. "We are working on multiple fronts such as the distribution of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) with Team Connect, our Jordan-based humanitarian relief arm; hydroxychloroquine clinical research in partnership with the government of Senegal; and a health impact fund with global mission-driven investors. We are also collaborating with a leading European technology provider with the goal of leveraging our expertise in the telecom and big data spaces to build a tracking platform."

More recently, UNITED has also been actively engaged in the fight against price gouging as reported by Bloomberg.

About UNITED

United Global Alliance (UNITED) is a diversified American impact group and global venture builder with a mission to solve the world's biggest sustainability challenges. The group builds and scales mission-driven ventures and initiatives that are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. UNITED powers a wide range of solutions that address ethical trading, financial inclusion, capital access, green energy, digital divide and last-mile connectivity. The group is chaired by HRH Prince Abas bin Ali of Jordan and headed by a team of impact leaders including Ali Diallo, a 2019 White House Presidential Innovation Fellow and former Head of Global Programs at the MIT Legatum Center; Canadian entrepreneurs Bachir Diagne and Todd Friedman, co-founders of MXO Group; and Arona Sy, Director of ESTEL Business School and Sr. Partner at OnlineFormaPro, a public French company that powers e-learning solutions; and American-Indian entrepreneurs Raj Subraminian and Srini Narayanan, co-founders of United Labs.

About Acumen Research Laboratories

Acumen is a Singapore-based medical technology company that develops and commercializes molecular diagnostic tests such as its proprietary and patented AcuSept test for sepsis. Acumen also offers fully automated diagnostic medical device products that can identify clinically relevant pathogens and antibiotic resistance. Acumen is an award-winning team of scientists and entrepreneurs with strong roots based in Singapore and international partners. Acumen is led by CEO and Chief Scientist Dr. Siew Hwa ONG. Dr. ONG is the recipient of the 2017 Spirit of Enterprise Award, a national recognition that honors and celebrates Singapore's top leaders; she has also led Acumen to international recognition, with the latest accolade being the grand prize winner of the Asian Entrepreneurship Award 2019 hosted in Tokyo and establishment of Acumen operations in the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park (Suzhou, China).

Media Contact:

James Dawood

Email: [email protected]

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New Yorks Cuomo says theres a lot of pain, but officials are hopeful as hospitalisations drop compared to last week.

New York state recorded 731 new coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, marking the biggest one-day jump in the outbreak. The states death toll since the beginning of the outbreak is now 5,489, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Thats 731 people who we lost. Behind every one of those numbers is an individual. Theres a family, theres a mother, theres a father, theres a sister, theres a brother. So a lot of pain again today for many New Yorkers, Cuomo said at a briefing at the state Capitol.

The coronavirus has again made New York City ground zero in a national tragedy and the centre of a crisis that is reshaping Americans lives, liberties and fears.

At least 3,202 people have died as a result of the virus in New York City alone, according to a new count released by city health officials on Tuesday.

The September 11, 2001, attacks transformed society  You had a sense of vulnerability that you never had before, which I feel to this day, Cuomo said during a coronavirus briefing last month. There was a trauma to 9/11. But as a society, as a country, we have been blessed in that we have not gone through something as disruptive as this.

Medical staff move a patient into the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center emergency room in Brooklyn, New York. [Angela Weiss/AFP]

The coronavirus death toll has mounted in just a few weeks. New York City recorded its first on March 13, less than two weeks after confirming its first infection.

But in an encouraging sign, Cuomo reported on Tuesday that the average number of people newly hospitalised each day dropped over the past three days.

Cuomo said the latest death tally reflects critically ill people hospitalised before this week, calling it a lagging indicator.

State and city officials are cautiously optimistic the surge is beginning to level off.

Across the United States, the death toll reached about 11,000, with around 370,000 confirmed infections.

Encouraging signs?

In New York and some European hot spots, authorities were hoping that the outbreak was turning a corner, based on slowdowns in new deaths and hospitalisations.

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said that if Americans continued to practise social distancing for the rest of April, we will be able to get back to some sense of normalcy.

I want the American people to know there is a light at the end of this tunnel, and we feel confident that if we keep doing the right thing for the rest of this month, that we can start to slowly reopen in some places, he said on ABCs Good Morning America.

Adams on Tuesday said he concurred with the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that some research models have projected death totals that may prove too high, though neither would offer an alternate estimate.

The White House coronavirus task force projected a death toll of 100,000 to 240,000 a week ago, saying containing deaths to that range was possible if strict social distances measures were respected, implying it could go even higher.

Adams said that he was encouraged by recent data showing a possible flattening of the outbreak in some areas, referring to the shape of the curve when deaths are shown on a graph.

Soldiers assigned to the Javits New York Medical Station conduct check-in procedures on an incoming coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient with local emergency workers in the facilitys medical bay in New York City. [Handout/US Navy/Chief Mass Communication Specialist Barry Riley/Reuters]

Asked if he believed the death toll would come in below the dire White House task force projection, Adams said, Thats absolutely my expectation.

One of the main models on the outbreak, from the University of Washington, is now projecting about 82,000 US deaths through early August, or 12 percent fewer than previously forecast, with the highest number of daily deaths occurring on April 16.

The US governments top infectious-disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, was cautiously optimistic, however, saying that in New York, what we have been doing has been working. But he added on Monday that the return of normalcy may be some time away.

If back to normal means acting like there never was a coronavirus problem, I dont think thats going to happen until we do have a situation where you can completely protect the population  Ultimately, the showstopper will obviously be a vaccine, Fauci said during a White House task force briefing.

Worldwide, more than 1.3 million people have been confirmed infected and over 75,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are almost certainly much higher, because of limited testing, different rules for counting the dead and deliberate underreporting by some governments.

For most people, the virus causes mild to moderate symptoms such as fever and cough. But for some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause pneumonia. Close to 300,000 people have recovered worldwide.
EDWARDSVILLE  Madison County is set to receive more than $4.7 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) through its Community Services Block Grant, including more monies as a result of coronavirus relief legislation.

Madison County was notified last week it would receive an additional $1.75 million in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding through the new Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Chairman Kurt Prenzler said.

Prenzler said the challenges COVID-19 poses for families and communities is devastating and the CARES Act funding will help with the local economy.

The funding will be provided to jurisdictions that received CDBG funds for the fiscal year 2020. County board member and grants committee chair, David Michael, said hes excited to see the additional funding come into the county.

CDBG plays an instrumental role in advancing locally-driven projects that create jobs and contribute to economic growth, Michael said. Im looking forward to working with the administration in making sure this money helps Madison County communities.

CDBG provides annual grants to states and localities to invest federal dollars in communities across the country. The program has helped provide economic and housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income Americans for more than 40 years.

Madison County is a designated entitlement county, which allows it to receive CDBG funds directly from HUD rather than through the state of Illinoiss competitive funding program. Alton and Granite City are entitlement communities, which means a portion of these funds will be set aside specifically for their uses. Those two cities will receive a portion of the CARES funds as designated by HUD.

According to HUD, the new funding will help provide shelter to homeless individuals, increase affordable housing options, develop infrastructure and maintain crucial public services across the country.

Madison County Community Development administers the CDBG funding. Community Development Administrator Trudy Bodenbach said the grants committee would be working with the county board to determine how the funds will be used. She said community development will find out this week more specifics about the funding.

We will be required to follow specific guidelines on what and how the money can be used, including the types of projects, Bodenbach said.

Bodenbach said she would like to thank U.S. Congressmen John Shimkus, Rodney Davis and Mike Bost, along with U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, for their diligence in helping to secure the extra funding for Madison County.

For more information regarding state, federal and county assistance for local businesses, please follow us on Facebook at @MadCoEconDev or visit the countys website at www.co.madison.il.us.
State-run Bank of Baroda on Tuesday said it will provide financial assistance of up to Rs 1 lakh to women self-help groups (SHGs) to help meet their funding demand amid the COVID-19 crisis.

The bank has also announced an emergency credit line for farmers producer organisations (FPO/FPC) to deal with any liquidity mismatches.

Under the Additional Assurance to SHGs-COVID19 scheme, the bank will provide support to existing SHGs' facilities in the form of cash credit or overdraft or term loans.

"The minimum loan amount is Rs 30,000 per SHG and maximum loan amount granted under the scheme is Rs one lakh per member, repayable in 24 months," the bank said in a statement.

The repayment for this scheme would be on a monthly or quarterly basis and the moratorium will be for a period of six months from the date of disbursement.

For FPO/FPC, a limit of 10 per cent of the combined limits will be sanctioned with maximum amount of Rs 5 lakh with the tenor of 36 months. The moratorium period is for a maximum of six months.

For borrowers in dairy and fisheries segment, the lender will provide instant credit to farming community to meet emergent funds requirement for farm maintenance and other farm related activities due to COVID-19.

"The limit stands at 10 per cent of other agriculture sanction limit (i.e. minimum Rs 10,000) and maximum Rs 50,000 for existing regular investment credit agriculture accounts," it said.

The lender will also give an instant credit to crop loan borrowers for requirement in agriculture and related domestic purposes.

The loan limit under the scheme is 10 per cent of KCC sanction limit -- minimum Rs 10,000 and maximum Rs 50,000 -- for existing regular KCC holders.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
144,000 lose jobs in shutdown

THAILAND: More than 140,000 employees lost their jobs last month due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Department of Employment.

CoronavirusCOVID-19

By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 7 April 2020, 09:18AM

A man settles in at a homeless shelter in On Nut Soi 40 in Bangkoks Prawet district. A number of homeless people from the Hua Lamphong and Lumpini areas are being temporarily housed at the shelter to reduce their risk of contracting COVID-19. Photo: Arnun Chonmahatrakool

The Employers Confederation of Thai Trade and Industry has also estimated that from March until the end of the pandemic, at least 6.5 million will be put out of work, if migrant workers and those in the informal sector are accounted for, as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Suchat Pornchaiwiseskul, director-general of the department, said that a total of 144,861 people signed up to receive unemployment benefits in March  a 72% rise from the figure in February when 84,177 people filed for benefits, or almost 100% more than Januarys figure of 74,775.

He said that people who have contributed to the Social Security Fund for at least six consecutive months can register for the help via https://empui.doe.go.th or by phoning 1506.

Labour Minister MR Chatu Mongol Sonakul said that people who have lost their jobs because their employers had to cease their business as a result of the outbreak are entitled to 70% of their final months wage for six months up to 15,000 baht in total.

For those who resigned, the percentage falls to 45%, the minister said.

If employees have to go into a 14-day quarantine, they can register for compensation with the Social Security Office, MR Chatu Mongol added.
Leading melamine maker Thailand's Srithai Superware Plc is pushing its investment in Viet Nam, Vietnam News Agency reported.

Srithai Superware website.  Photo vietnamplus.vn

Bangkok Post quoted the firms chairman and president Sanan Angubolkul as saying that it will splash out 450 million baht (US$13.64 million) this year to expand its business in Viet Nam.

Of the total, about 300 million baht is to install new machines to increase production capacity of its PET preform and closure products at its two factories in HCM City and Ha Noi.

The remaining 150 million baht will be used to build a new melamine factory in HCM City and install new machinery at this factory.

The construction of the new melamine facility is scheduled to start in 1-2 months, with operations commencing in the first quarter of next year.

The new factory will serve the demand of the Vietnamese domestic market.

Upon the completion of the new factory, the company will have four in Viet Nam.

One is a PET preform and closure factory in Ha Noi, another in HCM City and two melamine factories in the southern hub.

With the market facing a host of negative factors, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic, Sanan expects sales to stand at 8.62 billion baht this year, 2.6 per cent lower than last year's 8.84 billion baht.

Despite the huge demand for food and beverage packaging for delivery channels, the company foresees sales in the first quarter of about 10 million baht lower than its earlier expectation. But the bottom line is likely to improve as the baht weakens from last year's rate, Sanan said.  VNS

Nguyen Kim completely bought by Thailand's Central Group Once the first and the largest distributor of home appliances, Nguyen Kim has lost its market share as its rival expanded too rapidly.
Jakarta's light rail system under construction (Photo:thejakartapost.com)

According to the Asian Development Outlook 2020 published recently by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the COVID-19 pandemic that comes with falling commodity prices and financial market turmoil will cause serious impact on the Indonesian economy, as well as the world's this year.

The situation is exacerbated by the weakening economies of several trade partners of Indonesia, the report said.

In a press release, Country Director of ADB in Indonesia Winfried Wicklein said although Indonesia has a strong macroeconomic foundation, the COVID-19 crisis has changed the direction of the country's economy, with worsening external situations and weakening domestic demand.

Winfred estimates that the Indonesian economy can gradually return to its growth track in 2021 if the government effectively takes decisive actions to address health and economic impact of the disease outbreak.

ADB is one of the organisations that lowered Indonesia's growth forecast for this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier, the World Bank said that the countrys economy will be at only 2.1 percent in 2020 if the pandemic is put under control in June.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian government recently forecast that its yearly economic growth is likely to sit at only 2.3 percent.
It was not the outcome anyone hoped for, but an exercise in cooperation involving Police, Customs and Defence succeeded in retrieving the body of a missing diver off the Northland coast.

The story began March 15 when the man failed to surface from a dive to the wreck of the Niagara - lying 121 metres deep some 40km off Whangarei after being sunk by a German mine in June 1949.

His dive buddy made it to 65 metres in an attempt to save him, but was unsuccessful.

The dive buddy called for assistance on marine radio, prompting a search of the area by the Coast Guard and HMNZS Wellington, but it was unsuccessful.

Within 24 hours, when the diver still hadnt been found, Northland SAR co-ordinator Sergeant Shane Turner knew he was probably looking at a recovery operation rather than a rescue.

It didnt look good," says Shane. "We notified the family and started planning for a recovery operation as it was likely he would be at a depth of 100 metres or more.

At this point we contacted the Police National Dive Squad (PNDS) which coordinated with Joint Forces New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Navy. Police and Navy cant dive at this depth so we have to use Police sonar and Navy equipment and expertise."

Police's Auckland Maritime Unit sent a second 12-metre rigid hull inflatable vessel (RHIB) and crew. The Navy responded with a specialist dive team, a remote underwater vehicle (ROV) and pilots.

The location of the site  40km off Marsden Point  also required a larger boat to transport the team and equipment. Customs offered their vessel Hawk V and staff to skipper it.

A team of 16 personnel from the three agencies - all specialised in different aspects of the work - spent a week working up a plan and sitting out the tail end of a cyclone.

The team monitors the ROV which located the diver's body.

Weather conditions looked favourable on March 24. Battling 21-knot winds and 1.4-metre swells they nearly made it, but were forced back. The high seas so far from shore, were a safety hazard

Wednesday, March 25, saw another attempt in improved weather. Using the ROV, the team located the diver at 121 metres and carefully retrieved his body.

The depth made it a challenging job, but the whole team was pleased to at least be able to recover a family member, friend and colleagues body. We could not have done it without the help of the Navy, Customs and our dive team, says Shane.

Supervising Customs officer Nick Sparey says the Hawk V was able to hold its position precisely over the wreck for more than nine hours, allowing the Navy to deploy an ROV from the vessel to search the wreck and for Police divers to safely deploy.

I met some of the friends and family of the diver and they were really appreciative of the efforts of all the agencies and Defence Force units involved in the recovery, he says.

We all felt it was good to be involved with being able the give the family and friends some closure in the recovery of their loved one and friend, says Hawk V skipper Scott Jones.

Senior Sergeant Bruce Adams, O/C Police National Dive Squad, seconds that.

In the end, a break in the weather enabled a huge team to go in," says Bruce.

"The depth, the conditions and the weather all combined to make this very challenging, as did the distance from shore and the high seas.

We really appreciated the understanding of family and friends who recognised the technical difficulties and had to deal with the delays caused by bad weather.

We are only sorry it wasnt a better outcome for the diver, his whanau and friends."

Bruce paid tribute to Headquarters Joint Forces New Zealand, who made the staff of the Navy Dive Team and their ROV available; the Royal New Zealand Air Force, who flew the PNDS in by Hercules; and Customs for making the Hawk V and crew available.

"These teams, and our Auckland Police Maritime Unit staff, made the job easier and doable," says Bruce.

Police DVI specialists identified the diver. An investigation will seek to establish the cause of the tragedy, which will be subject to a Coroners investigation.

-Police Ten One Magazine.
President Donald Trump listens to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at a White House briefing on March 20

Alex Wong/Getty Images

President Donald Trump's approval rating when it comes to his coronavirus response is underwater in Florida, a key swing state that's being hit hard by the pandemic.

Meanwhile, 85% of registered Florida voters approve of infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci's response effort, according to a poll published by the University of North Florida on Monday.

58% of Florida voters said they don't trust the president to provide reliable information about the pandemic, while 53% disapprove of his handling of the crisis.

Floridians also preferred former Vice President Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner, in a general election against Trump by 6 points.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump's coronavirus response isn't going over well in Florida, according to a new poll of registered voters published by the University of North Florida on Monday.

While 45% of Florida voters said they approve of Trump's response to the pandemic and 53% disapprove, 85% of these voters approve of infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci's response effort. In contrast to Trump, Fauci, who's helping lead the federal government's handling of the coronavirus, has urged stricter social distancing guidelines and a more skeptical approach to potential drugs to treat the virus.

Meanwhile, just 41% of Florida voters said they trust the president to provide reliable information about the pandemic, while 58% said they don't trust him. More than double  86%  said they trust Fauci a great deal or a fair amount.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner, also beat Trump in the Florida poll. While 40% of respondents said they vote for Trump in a general election against Biden, 46% said they would vote for the former veep.

Michael Binder, director of the UNF public opinion research lab that conducted the survey, noted that that Biden's lead is among registered voters, rather than likely voters, which is a narrower and more accurate pool of respondents.

Story continues

"I would exercise caution when looking at these numbers, first these are registered voters  not likely voters; second, the campaign season has screeched to a grinding halt and people are rightly less focused on politics," Binder said in the report. "Although, this same sample of voters when asked who they voted for in 2016, indicated a very slight advantage for Trump, suggesting that something may be changing in Florida ahead of the election."

The poll found Floridians have more trust in their Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, who refused to issue a statewide stay home order until last Wednesday following weeks of increasing pressure.

While 41% said they don't trust the governor to provide reliable information, 55% said they do. At the same time, just 51% approve of DeSantis' handling of the crisis, while 46% disapprove.

Florida has become a high-profile hotspot of the outbreak in the US as DeSantis has looked to the White House for guidance on whether to issue a statewide order. The governor repeatedly rejected calls to shut his state down, citing a lack of widespread infection across the state and arguing that many people simply wouldn't heed the order.

The UNF poll surveyed 3,244 registered Florida voters between March 31 and April 4 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.7 percentage points.

Read the original article on Business Insider
China recorded 32 new cases of confirmed infections on Monday, down from 39 cases a day earlier, 12 new cases of suspected infections (all are imported cases), and no deaths, the National Health Commission (NHC) said.



A total of 89 patients were released from hospital after being cured, while 2,365 people who had had close contact with infected patients were freed from medical observation. Serious cases decreased by 54.



As of April 6, 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland as well as the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps had reported 983 cases of imported confirmed infections and no deaths. In all, 285 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 698 confirmed cases (including 21 in serious condition) and 89 suspected cases.



So far, the NHC has received 81,740 reports of confirmed cases and 3,331 deaths in the Chinese mainland and in all 77,167 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital.



There still remained 1,242 confirmed cases (including 211 in serious condition) and 89 suspected cases. So far, 714,720 people have been identified as having had close contact with infected patients. 14,499 are now under medical observation.



On April 6, Hubei province reported no new cases of confirmed infections, no new cases of suspected infections, and no deaths. 59 patients (all in Wuhan) were released from hospital after being cured.  TradeArabia News Service
Ive seen more and more people remark on social media and elsewhere that this coronavirus shelter-in-place time is getting to them. Its not just claustrophobia or loneliness, depending on your circumstances, but a time of anxiety can hit us at our weakest spots. Ive seen Holly Taylor Coolman describe herself as the ghost of quarantine future. Assistant professor of theology at Providence College in Rhode Island, Coolman, together with her family, has been in the quarantine zone since a few weeks before the most of us started realizing it would become our life. Shes a sober voice on social media for not just keeping safe but also for nourishing the soul, body, and mind, loving your neighbor and family, and keeping the faith quite literally during these odd days. So I asked her a few questions about what were going through, for her advice and insights. We talk, too, about issues close to her heart, including adoption.

Kathryn Jean Lopez: Youve been doing this quarantine thing longer than most. Whats your best advice?

Holly Taylor Coolman: Get a routine. Even simple things like getting dressed in real clothes every morning and sitting down to a real dinner every night have helped to steady me. I have been thinking a lot about the rich resources of monasticism and the deep calm fostered by rhythms of work, rest, and prayer. This is a moment to rediscover those things.

This will have to look different for different people. Some people might benefit from extensive daily and weekly plans, and might incorporate the Divine Office or other kinds of personal prayer. We have had to be a little more modest at our house: some clear routines, with lots of flexibility.

For us, its not just a coping mechanism. It has also created new possibilities. Dinner is a more relaxed event now. No one has anywhere to go! So we have been reading a short gospel passage at the table every evening. Maybe we will even form a strong enough habit to carry it forward!

Story continues

Lopez: What was the moment you realized you really truly had to take staying home seriously and carefully?

Coolman: It happened pretty suddenly for us when, in the first week of March, we got a call from our states department of health telling us that our two high-schoolers had been exposed to the coronavirus. My husband and I decided that we would quarantine with them. That was also the moment when some very sobering stories and photos were starting to appear from China. So, within 24 hours, our household was plunged into this new reality.

Lopez: How do you do it with a house full of children? And, I think I read, an electric guitar or drums, and a guinea pig, who I gather is loud?

Coolman: Our house is an adventure, you might say. We have four kids still at home: a college student who is now back home, two high-schoolers, and a fourth-grader. And yes, a guinea pig who squeals. And a dog who barks. Our kids are fantastic. They love music and art and skateboarding and a million other things. For that reason  especially for someone like me, who is pretty introverted  they are also exhausting sometimes. Of course, I probably wear them out, too. We are not about perfect at our house. We are about trying our best and forgiving each other, and, if things go especially well, laughing together along the way. My husband is an amazingly patient and consistent person and a wonderful father. In many ways, he is our rock.

Lopez: Is it really Christian charity to stay home? How can this time help us think about Catholic social teaching in a deeper and more practical way?

Coolman: It really is Christian charity to stay home. We have some smart and committed people working hard to determine what policies are best, and, although that varies by location, they have made clear that slowing down the transmission of this virus will save lives.

I think the unusual character of this crisis can help wake us up, in a sense. The solidarity that Catholic social teaching calls for is not sentimental, and not just a matter of being nice to each other. It is a matter of contributing to the true good of the other, even when that is difficult and even when it is unfamiliar. It may be that social distancing can become a new test case in our collective imagination, reminding us of these fundamental principles.

Lopez: Tell me if Im crazy. Ive been watching Andrew Cuomo the last few days and weeks and hearing a commitment to life that Ive literally been praying for a least the better part of a decade, if not longer. Can this be something real that can last and even heal our politics surrounding abortion and assisted suicide and a whole lot more?

Coolman: I am holding my breath on this one. I have hoped and prayed for so long that we could find ways to break through the stalemate of polarization. I believe there is actually a certain groundswell of support for a whole life position that echoes Catholic teaching by emphasizing the sacredness of each and every human life. We can pray that this crisis will also give people fresh perspective.

Lopez: You ran for a local office a little while back. Why did you do it? What did you learn? What are your prayers for politics right now?

Coolman: It was not something I ever planned to do. I just saw a specific moment where I felt like I might be able to make a specific contribution. One of my goals was to run unapologetically as a candidate who was pro-life in the context of a larger whole-life commitment. I was not elected, but I heard from so many people who said that they were deeply gratified to see that position represented.

Lopez: Youre not only Catholic, youre a theology professor. How are you dealing with not being able to go to Mass?

Coolman: It is very strange, to be sure. Especially on Sunday mornings, it just feels very wrong. I have tried to remind myself, though, of the stories of saints who had to live without the Eucharist, sometimes for extended periods. The sacrament is a means to our true end, which is union with Christ and, therefore, union with God. In this Lenten season in which we have to do without it, we are pressed to look for the other avenues through which we can also seek that union: prayer and contemplation, fasting, and acts of love to those around us, in whom we can see Christs face.

Lopez: Can you even pray with a house full of children? What is your prayer like?

Coolman: Not leaving the house has definitely made it harder for me  especially when everyone else is home all the time, too! Over years of being a mother, I have come to practice prayer throughout my day, though. In recent years, I have really relied on the simple prayer of St. Faustina: Jesus, I trust in you. If there is any prayer for the present moment, I think that is it.

Lopez: One of the things Ive been talking more about over the past few years is foster care and adoption. And to be honest Im not entirely sure what to do and say about that right now  I fear that so many children are in added limbo right now because of all of the need for precautions. You must be thinking about this too, because they could have been your children. What are you thinking and how can the Christian community think more about this?

You actually wrote about foster care and adoption and Catholics and plague as this crisis was just about to start. What are your thoughts about all that now?

What more do Catholics need to pray about and discern in a particular way on foster care and adoption?

Coolman: I believe strongly that foster care and adoption are undertakings to which Christians generally and Catholics specifically are called  and for which they are especially equipped. This is true in at least a couple of different ways. We need individual households to hear this call and ask seriously whether they can offer a home to children who need one. Beyond that, though, we need communities, whether parishes or other collectives, to consider coming to this work together. In general, families do better when they are a part of a web of community. That is only more true for families in which kids are healing from earlier traumas. I am the first person to say it is very demanding work. But there are so many reasons to be optimistic about the possibilities. When people are able to get educated, when they have the larger community support they need, families can find fruitful ways to love in the midst of the demands. What could be more fitting for those of us who have been loved by God?

Lopez: Whats your advice about hope to people feeling especially anxious and even hopeless now? Out of a job? Have someone sick? Maybe sick yourself? Maybe someone you loved has died and you couldnt be there with them, and cant even have a funeral Mass or service, never mind physically be there?

Coolman: This pandemic is the kind of experience that forces us to drop pretense and ask two questions: What can I give? And what do I need? Most of us would benefit by asking first what we have to give. Maybe we drop off food or supplies to those who need it. Maybe we can be truly present to those closest to us. Even if we are weak or suffering, we can pray and we can offer that suffering for others. But it is a two-way street. Our God is a merciful God, and we are called to be merciful, too. I think that can give us the courage be honest: I need help, or I need a break. People in great distress  those who are, for example, grieving a loved one  may hardly be able to voice the words, even. But we can all reach out to other people, and to the Lord, as well, sharing our need in unapologetic vulnerability. Psalm 31:2 reminds us that Gods people have been doing this for a long, long time. It offers words we may want to use ourselves: Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue.

Lopez: Anything youve learned so far? Maybe even something small and fun?

Coolman: I have learned that if you can give the guinea pig some attention, she wont squeal so plaintively. Right now, we all just need a little extra love.

More from National Review
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said the Group of Ministers had "an extensive discussion on the prevailing situation post the lockdown" in the country. They also appreciated the Cabinet's decision to cut MP's salary for a year.

"Today the Group of Ministers had an extensive discussion on the prevailing situation post the lockdown. We shared the appreciation for the Union Cabinet's decision to reduce the salaries of all MPs for a year and also the suspension of MPLADS funds for 2 years," Singh wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

He further tweeted: "The amount saved through these decisions would be utilised in strengthening India's fight against coronavirus. The ministers also shared their insights on how we can overcome the situation and help the people to stay motivated, determined and vigilant in the battle against COVID-19."

Earlier today, Defence Minister Singh chaired a meeting of Group of Ministers on COVID-19, which was attended by among others Home Minister Amit Shah, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar, Minister for Textiles and Women and Child Development Smriti Z Irani, and Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan.

India's tally of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 4,421, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday. The total deaths stand at 117.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

By Jeyhun Alakbarov - Trend:

No staff reduction is observed at the enterprises of the Azerbaijani industrial parks, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Economy Niyazi Safarov told reporters.

Safarov made the remark during a press tour at the medical masks manufacturing enterprise that opened by the Baku Textile Factory LLC in the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park, Trend reports.

The workload of the personnel of the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park is ensured by the residents, the deputy minister added. "There is no staff reduction."

An area in the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park was allocated for the enterprise manufacturing medical masks established by Baku Textile Factory. It has the status of a resident of the industrial park.

The modern equipment brought from Turkey for the production of medical masks has been installed at the enterprise in a short period.

Over 30 jobs have been created there. The production process consists of three-shifts. By using raw materials that meet international standards ISO 17050-1, the enterprise will initially produce 120,000 medical masks daily at the initial stage. After packing the medical masks, they will be further sterilized by using special equipment.

Another production line will be launched in the coming days. At the second stage, the production volume will double and daily production will reach 200,000-250,000 medical masks. The enterprise's products will primarily be aimed at meeting the needs of the domestic market.
The Assam government is planning to impose restrictions to stop the spread of coronavirus once the Centre issues directives on the 21-day total lockdown scheduled to end on 14 April

The Assam government is planning to impose restrictions to stop the spread of coronavirus once the Centre issues directives on the 21-day total lockdown scheduled to end on 14 April. An online registration process similar to the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system will be initiated for people returning to Assam from other parts of the country.

Follow all the latest coronavirus updates here

Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said that a temporary system would be started, through which even permanent residents will require permits to enter the state. The government plans to launch a website in this regard in the next few days.

"Depending on the Centre's directive, we will launch a website for registration in three to four days. If someone wishes to return to Assam, they will have to first register themselves. This will also give us an idea of the number of people living outside the state  if lockdown is extended, we will have to think about them," said Sarma.

While a structure is still being worked out to limit the number of people availing flights or trains to return home, the risk of contagion for those availing public transport to travel within the state will require the government to set up quarantine facilities close to their 'geographical location', said the state health minister.

"If the lockdown is withdrawn, we will have to find out if we can afford 1,000 to 2,000 people from outside the state returning on daily basis. Not everyone has facilities to be home quarantined, and we will have to know their geographical location to set up quarantine facilities close to their place of living," Sarma stated, adding that the government is planning for a phased entry of people.

"The state government must have an arrangement to facilitate their return when the lockdown ends on 14 or 20 April. Suppose around 50,000 people want to return, we cannot let them enter Assam together  on 15 April, we can allow 5,000 people, another 5,000 after two days and this pattern could be followed depending on the number of people who wish to get back home. But if they don't follow the system, all measures undertaken so far to contain the spread will go to waste," explained Sarma.

The state government has also sought suggestions from public to help find a solution.

"Restriction of movement for a long time may be difficult. But people on roads may be persuaded to use mask and hand gloves as well as maintain social distance. In trains and buses also, the use of masks and gloves may be enforced. Even the use of berths or seats may be suitably staggered by the authorities," said former Assam DGP Harekrishna Deka.

"A lockdown cannot be indefinite as it will have disastrous economic consequences. Risk will always be there. Areas where active cases have been detected may remain in quarantine till signs of new cases come down to zero," he added.

As of the time of writing, Assam had recorded 26 positive cases of COVID-19, and 25 of these patients have a traceable travel history to Delhi's Nizamuddin.
New York, home to 8.6 million people, looks nothing like the bustling city were used to seeing.

Under stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic, New Yorkers cant help but feel aghast when they do venture outside and see bare sidewalks normally filled with people hustling to and fro.
On Sunday, Queen Elizabeth broadcast a speech from Windsor Castle, addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. She urged unity and resolution, self-discipline and humor, faith and hope. A whopping 24 million people in the United Kingdom watched it on television. On Twitter, the speech has almost 5 million additional views. On Instagram, it has more than 2.5 millionand on YouTube, several uploaded versions have close to or more than one million views.

On social media, the praise was unanimous from politicians, journalists, celebrities, and ordinary citizens alike. (A star-heavy sampling: A beautiful speech, tweeted Mia Farrow. Gratitude to Queen Elizabeth for her compassionate and wise leadership. Added Billie Jean King: The queens speech was terrific: short, meaningful, and full of gratitude to health care workers and compassion for the sick.) Even President Donald Trump praised her leadership: A great and wonderful woman! he said, retweeting ABC News.

Her rhetoric was calm, powerful, and apolitical. The nonagenarian referenced her own experience during WW II and the Blitza time when she, like many children across England, was often separated from her urban-dwelling parents for her safety. A time when so many had no idea when or if life would ever return to normal. So when she spoke her final lineWe should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: We will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet againyou knew she believed it.

When history looks back on this address, perhaps they will compare it to Churchills finest hour speech, also given amid great uncertainty, when the tides had not yet turned for the better. A few hours before her scheduled broadcast, the United Kingdoms prime minister, Boris Johnson, was hospitalized due to COVID-19. He is now in intensive care.

Story continues

A few hours later, Trump did a televised address of his own. He called Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker a complainer, and said that he has not performed well. He said his administration inherited a broken system when it came to tests. He plugged the use of hydroxychloroquine. Afterward, when a CNN reporter asked him about conclusive medical evidence of its efficacy, he responded, Only CNN would ask that question. Fake news. There were moments of attempted leadershipIn the days ahead, America will endure the peak of this terrible pandemic. Our warriors in this life-and-death battle are the incredible doctors and nurses and health care workers on the frontline of the fight. We pledge to them our eternal gratitude and everlasting support. But they were quickly derailed by nonsensical asides, like: They make all of us very proud. Our country is very proud. We have peoplethey love our country. The world loves our country, most of it. Probably all of it; they just dont say it. As so many of us sat on our couches, isolated, the combativeness and confusion of it only contributed to a great sense of fear.

As the United Kingdoms head of state, Queen Elizabeths speech was in name addressed to her country. But, thanks to the internet and social media, it reached every corner of the world. And at a time when so many of us yearn for truthful leadership that gives us a glimmer of hope just as the night turns the darkestit was like she was assuaging us all. (Queen Elizabeth made me cry, tweeted Rose McGowan. By comforting us and reminding us that though we may not be her British subjects, we are globally joined in this fight.)

Perhaps its wishful thinking, but maybe she was. While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavor, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal, she said, clearly and calmly, as she stared right into the camera. We will succeedand that success will belong to every one of us.

Originally Appeared on Vogue
Markets responded favourably to news of a slowdown in some countries of new coronavirus cases Markets responded favourably to news of a slowdown in some countries of new coronavirus cases (AFP Photo/JANEK SKARZYNSKI)

Hong Kong (AFP) - Equities rallied again Tuesday as investors seized on signs of a slowdown in the spread of the coronavirus in key hotspots and some governments began making plans to ease restrictions aimed at containing the disease.

Crude prices were also lifted by hopes major producers will agree to cut output this week, while the pound clawed back some of its losses that came in response to news Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in intensive care.

Asia extended Monday's rally following a surge on Wall Street, with much-needed optimism on news that fresh cases were slowing in Spain, Germany, Italy and France.

And in the US epicentre New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that for the first time the growth rate there was flat, while on Tuesday, China -- where the disease first emerged late last year -- reported no new deaths for the first time since January.

Meanwhile, Denmark and Austria have started making plans to lift restrictions slowly as they see light at the end of the tunnel.

"You can't say that we've definitely turned the corner for certain but it does appear as though that is a good sign," Mark Heppenstall, at Penn Mutual Asset Management, said.

Tokyo and Shanghai stocks were both around two percent higher, while Hong Kong added 1.7 percent, and Seoul and Taipei each jumped 1.8 percent.

Mumbai soared six percent, while Singapore piled on more than three percent and Bangkok more than five percent.

Manila and Wellington also gained, though Sydney and Jakarta slipped.

In early trade, London jumped three percent, while Paris and Frankfurt were up a little more than three percent.

"Falling infection and death rates from COVID-19 in the worst of the European and US epicentres has inspired markets that the worst of the outbreak is peaking," said OANDA's Jeffrey Halley.

"Whether that is, in fact, the case or not... a world hungry for any good news has leapt on board the recovery trade with equities, in particular, outperforming."

Story continues

Adding to the positive vibe were further measures to support economies around the world, including a trillion-dollar package in Japan and central bank moves in China.

And with the ink barely dry on a $2 trillion rescue plan passed by Congress last month, Donald Trump said he favoured another massive spending programme -- again roughly $2 trillion -- this time targeting infrastructure projects.

EU leaders are also closing in on a rescue for nations worst hit in the region, according to sources, though not at the level called for by Italy and Spain.

The bloc's finance ministers will hold a videoconference Tuesday, when they are expected to agree to use the eurozone's $443-billion bailout fund. However, it is thought they will not act on a proposal to issue "coronabonds" that would pool borrowing among EU nations.

While the mood is a little better on trading floors, analysts remained cautious.

"Still, the market will need to come up for air, as for the real economy to recover the pace of play will be dictated more by (governments') willingness to relax social distancing measures, and the COVID-19 curve would probably need to flatten much more," said AxiCorp's Stephen Innes.

- Fresh wave warning -

Rodrigo Catril at National Australia Bank warned there was still a risk of another wave of infections.

"An uplift in containment measures is great news but in all likelihood the removal of containment measures will be very slow and the full economic impact remains unknown."

In a sign of the concern about the toll on the world economy, France's finance minister said the country was headed for its worst recession since World War II, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the virus outbreak was the biggest challenge ever for the European Union.

The gains in equities were matched by an uptick in oil prices, which were also supported by hopes OPEC and other major producers led by Russia will reach a supply deal in talks on Thursday.

Prices fell to 18-year lows last week owing to a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, which have ramped up output.

"Prices recovered some of the early losses, as both Russia and Saudi Arabia suggested they would be willing to cut production but only if the rest of the world followed suit," ANZ Bank said in a note.

"The stumbling block appears to be the US, which is reluctant to join an agreement."

But with US Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette holding talks with Saudi Arabia and Russia, "the market is hopeful of some sort of agreement", the bank added.

On currency markets the pound stabilised following Monday's sell-off as it emerged that Johnson's condition had worsened after he contracted the virus late last month and was in intensive care.

- Key figures around 0720 GMT -

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 2.0 percent at 18,950.18 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: UP 1.5 percent at 24,110.58

Shanghai - Composite: UP 2.1 percent at 2,820.76 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 3.0 percent at 5,747.20

Brent North Sea crude: UP 2.5 percent at $33.89 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.8 percent at $26.80 per barrel

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0860 from $1.0794 at 2100 GMT

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 108.85 yen from 109.23 yen

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2310 from $1.2231

Euro/pound: DOWN at 88.19 pence from 88.21 pence

New York - Dow: UP 7.7 percent at 22,679.99 (close)
FILE PHOTO: An aerial view shows Kuwait City after the country entered virtual lockdown, following the outbreak of coronavirus, in Kuwait City

CAIRO (Reuters) - Kuwait's finance minister on Tuesday called for reforms in the Gulf oil producer's public finances, which have been hit by a plunge in crude prices, but said its financial position was solid.

The rating agency Fitch on Tuesday affirmed its AA rating for Kuwait's sovereign debt, citing strong fiscal and external balance sheets.

But the government is finding resistance in parliament to a proposed debt law it needs in order to be able to borrow more and have additional tools at its disposal to finance the budget deficit.

"Affirming Kuwait's sovereign rating reflects the country's credit strength and the solidity of its financial position, which is fully supported by the size of assets in the Reserve Fund for Future Generations," Finance Minister Barak Ali Al-Shitan was quoted as saying in a ministry tweet.

"But as other rating agencies are reviewing Kuwaits rating, including Moodys, there is a need to complete reforms of the public finances and boost the liquidity of the General Reserve Fund ... especially with the sharp drop in oil prices."

Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund stands at about 500% of GDP, but the portion used to cover deficits - the General Reserve Fund - is estimated at only around 50% of GDP, according to S&P Global Ratings.

Should Kuwait not pass the debt law, it is unclear whether it could face budget constraints or start drawing on the Future Generations Fund, which has happened only once before, during the Gulf War, S&P said.

Moody's last week put Kuwait's rating on review for a potential downgrade, citing a decline in government revenues due to lower oil prices.

(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah, writing by Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
A lecturer at Banking University Ho Chi Minh City (BUH) has died after falling from an apartment building following a drinking party with eight other people.

Dr. Bui Quang Tin, a lecturer in business administration at BUH, dropped from the 14th floor of the New Saigon Hoang Anh Gia Lai 3 apartment complex in Nha Be District, Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday.

According to a source close to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Tran Viet Dung, head of BUHs International Training Institute, invited Tin and seven other men to his apartment for a party earlier the same day.

The president, a vice-president, and some senior staff members of BUH were among the participants.

The party started in the afternoon, during which most of the men drank beer and spirits.

At around 4:00 pm, five of them left the place while Tin and BUH vice-president Nguyen Duc Trung stayed for a conversation and Dung  the apartment owner  cleaned up after the bash.

The location where the body of Dr. Bui Quang Tin was found at the New Saigon Hoang Anh Gia Lai 3 apartment complex in Nha Be District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, April 5, 2020. Photo: Ngoc Khai / Tuoi Tre

Dung left the place for an appointment at 5:00 pm and told his two colleagues to lock up after themselves when they left.

About 20 minutes later, Dung received a phone call from Trung informing that Tin had fallen off the building.

Dung headed back to his apartment, while the other men having joined in the party were also asked to return to the place to provide statements to police officers.

BUH has made a report of the case and cooperated with authorities in their investigation.

The State Bank of Vietnam, which manages BUH, has requested the university to assist Tins family in organizing his funeral.

The management board of BUH was also told to discipline those involved for participating in the party despite the governments request to implement nationwide social distancing amid the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic.

Police in Nha Be District are working with criminal investigators from the Ho Chi Minh City police bureau to probe the case.

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WATERLOO  A Black Hawk County District Court judge has upheld the city of Waterloos ban-the-box hiring ordinance.

On Saturday, Senior Judge John Bauercamper sided with the city in rejecting a challenge brought by a business group that alleged the provision  which bars private employers from inquiring about a job applicants criminal background until late in the hiring process  exceeded the requirements of federal or state law relating to the hiring process.

It has always been our intent to support business with this ordinance and to give access to employment to everyone in our city, Mayor Quentin Hart said Monday in response to the decision.

The City Council passed the fair chance initiative in a contested November vote. Proponents said the ordinance allows people with a criminal past to have a fair chance at landing jobs. Opponents argued it unfairly interferes with private business owners hiring decisions and would dissuade new businesses from locating in Waterloo.

The bill is set to take effect July 1.

The Iowa Association of Business and Industry sued, arguing the ordinance violated a 2017 state law and sought an injunction to prohibit the city from exercising the ordinance in January.

But Bauercamper threw out that challenge in a summary judgment, ruling the city properly adopted the ordinance under its home rule authority under the Iowa Constitution.

ABI President Mike Ralston issued a statement expressing disappointment in the judges ruling and noting the organization has already filed an appeal.

Iowa Code preempts local regulation of hiring practices that exceeds state or federal law, and Waterloos ordinance does just that, Ralston said. The district courts ruling guts the preemption statute that the Legislature passed just three years ago.

A bill still alive in the Iowa Legislature  now on hiatus until at least April 30 due to the coronavirus pandemic  would prohibit cities or counties from passing hiring laws that go beyond the scope of state law. A similar law pre-empted cities and counties from adopting their own minimum wages applies.







UPDATE: Coronavirus myths, WHO responds

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New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Tuesday (April 7, 2020) dismissed the interim bail plea of Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam case, in which he had apprehended the risk of him contracting coronavirus in the high-security Tihar Jail.

Justice Mukta Gupta, while dismissing the bail, said that the apprehension of the petitioner being infected by COVID-19 is ''unfounded as he is lodged in a separate cell with only two other prisoners and thus, is not in a barrack or dormitory where there are a number of prisons.

The court further stated that it is not the case of the petitioner that any of the two inmates residing with him are suffering from COVID-19. It also noted that the petitioner has failed to qualify on three criteria laid down by the High-Power Committee, which was set up to decongest the prisons in the national capital amid coronavirus fears.

The committee had decided not to release foreign nationals, those involved in more than one case not being on bail in others and the cases being under Prevention of Corruption Act and Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Advocate DP Singh, who appeared for the CBI, opposed the interim bail and stated that the petitioner is not entitled to bail as he did not join investigation anywhere and after a long-drawn extradition process, was extradited from Dubai. Advocate Amit Mahajan, appearing for the ED, contended that the petitioner is presently lodged at the safest place in the country being the Tihar Jail.

Mahajan said that there is no threat of the petitioner coming on contact with any COVID-19 patient and thereby, his apprehension that due to his age, and being a British national, not accustomed to Indian conditions, his immunity is low, is totally unfounded.

Michel, in his plea, moved through advocate Aljo K Joseph, had stated that his age and health condition are at risk of contracting COVID-19 infection and added that it is "far-fetched that he is likely to jump bail" when he can be procured during the trial by imposing other conditions.

The petition said that the health condition of Michel, who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail, is very critical and incompatible with the current prison status, especially with the risk of contracting COVID-19, which could have a lethal effect on the applicant.

Michel was extradited from Dubai in 2018 and is currently lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with alleged irregularities in the chopper deal. While the CBI is probing his alleged role as a `middleman` in the deal, the ED is investigating money laundering charges against him.
The European Union is discussing economic stimulus measures. EU finance ministers are due to meet today for talks on how to stave off a recession. Angela Merkel has pledged Germany's support and member states battered by the coronavirus are desperate to get the money flowing. But there's fierce debate over how to do that.
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The commerce ministry has designed an online platform for the issuance of a key document required for exports to those countries with which India has trade agreements, with a view to facilitate shipments during the COVID-19 crisis

New Delhi: The commerce ministry has designed an online platform for the issuance of a key document required for exports to those countries with which India has trade agreements, with a view to facilitate shipments during the COVID-19 crisis.

An exporter has to submit a 'certificate of origin' at the landing port of the importing country. The document is important to claim duty concessions under free-trade agreements (FTAs). This certificate is essential to prove where their goods come from.

"The platform has been designed as a single-point access for all FTAs/PTAs, for all designated Certificate of Origin (CoO) issuing agencies and for all export products, and is accessible at - https://coo.dgft.gov.in," the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said on Tuesday in a notice sent to all exporters, members of trade, designated agencies under FTAs/PTAs, and all embassies of FTA/PTAs partner countries.

It said that the certificate for exports from India to Chile under a preferential trade agreement (PTA), exports to Nepal under SAFTA and SAPTA and shipments to Korea under India-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement are already being applied and issued through this online platform.

"To further this initiative and facilitation, and in the light of current crisis, the preferential certificate of origin for exports to various other countries under following FTAs/PTAs shall also be applied and issued only from this online platform with effect from April 7, 2020," it added.

The Directorate has asked all concerned agencies to issue the certificate under the trade agreements through this platform.

Under these trade agreement, two or more trading partners significantly reduce or eliminate import duties on a maximum number of goods traded between them.

India has implemented such agreements with regions including ASEAN, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, South Asian Free Trade Area, and Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement.

The DGFT said that in view of the movement restrictions in place due to the coronavirus pandemic in India, the designated agencies will issue digitally signed electronic certificates of origin only and no hard copy will be provided.

"The applicant exporter may download the certificate, so issued, from the online platform and share the e-certificate with the authorities in the FTA partner countries.

These online certificates will maintain the same layout, appearance and validity as the paper certificates," it said.

Further, it said the electronic copy of the certificate will carry a digital signature of an authorised officer as already agreed to under the FTA/PTA.

"As and when the functioning of the issuing agency offices resumes, the Certificate of Origin, so issued on the electronic platform, will also be made available in hard copy with ink-signature of the issuing officer to the applicant exporter besides the e-certificate. The certificate issuance process will continue to remain online," it said.

It has also enlisted a procedure for exporters to apply for these certificates.
The High Court decision to allow the appeal of Cardinal George Pell will send shivers through the entire Australian criminal justice system. Their Honours have given hope to anyone who has been convicted by a jury. They have effectively said that doubt can be entertained even when the principal witness in court is unshaken in their testimony.

Cardinal Pell travelled in a four-car convoy upon being released from Barwon Prison on Tuesday. Credit:Jason South

The scales of justice are being re-calibrated. The balance has shifted. Trials will be different and appeals as well. It has never before been the role of an Appeal Court to substitute their view for the jurors. Now it is.

No one in Australia has ever spent so much money trying to undo the sworn evidence of a single witness. Millions of dollars were invested  no stone left unturned. Legions of lawyers, researchers and investigators trawled through every possible source to discredit one man telling what he alleges happened all those years ago. But in the end, none of that investigatory effort into the complainant was what made the difference. Instead, it was the evidence of witnesses on the periphery that swung the case.

The overwhelming majority of criminal trials before our courts are funded by legal aid. In every trial, pragmatic corners are cut, compromises are made. Not every point can be pursued, not every possible doubt explored. Now, with Pells case, we can all see what can happen when you do have the money, the backing to chase every possible angle.
Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

In the 11 weeks since the novel coronavirus first made its way to the U.S., Americans have been forced to conform to sweeping changes as schools and businesses made the move to shut down and governments enforced lockdowns, stating individuals must be confined to their homes to stop the spread of COVID-19. Now the IRS has made its own, unprecedented move in response to the pandemic: extending the tax filing deadline to July 15, and allowing its employees to accept tax documents via email, along with images of signatures. In a three-page memorandum sent to tax preparers and IRS employees, the Treasury Department announced that beginning March 27 the IRS is temporarily allowing its employees to accept "images of signatures (scanned or photographed) and digital signatures on documents related to the determination or collection of tax liability." It is also implementing a temporary deviation that allows IRS employees to accept documents via email and to transmit documents to taxpayers using established secured messaging systems. The move was made to make it easier for IRS employees and for taxpayers and their representatives, most of whom are now working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to carry out their functions without any human contact. But tax experts say this decision opens up a whole consortium of concerns. "These tax documents being sent have everything about the taxpayer's personal identity. Suddenly, something that hasn't been considered secure or compliant by several industry standards  transmitting sensitive data as an email attachment  is now being allowed by the IRS. Only in very select cases would this be considered okay under normal circumstances," says Jesse Wood, CEO of document-management software company eFileCabinet.

Wood says he is most concerned about the measure to allow email attachments. "If you send an attachment via email, it will be saved on all of the IRS' servers and not encrypted. So anyone with access to these emails would be able to grab the information." He says that often the IRS gets backed up and emails are left on its servers for days. "I recognize the need for certain concessions to be made so tax professionals can do their jobs without having to leave their homes. But if they're not careful, then the preparer and their clients can get caught in a very bad position. Sharing these essential tax documents electronically with clients or the IRS isn't a bad thing, but it needs to be done the right way," says Wood. The IRS is requiring an attached cover letter as a form of consent from the taxpayer, acknowledging that they understand what they are doing. Wood says "that essentially leaves all liability with the individual." Brian Streig, tax director at Calhoun, Thomson and Matza, understands the need for the IRS to implement measures to make it easier for filers and tax preparers to do their jobs during this crisis. But he adds, "I would be worried if the IRS continued to allow this beyond this point. It's definitely a security risk, but they had to have a balance."

I would be worried if the IRS continued to allow this beyond this point. It's definitely a security risk, but they had to have a balance. Brian Streig tax director at Calhoun, Thomson and Matza

Wood says that security breaches usually are the result of human error, lackadaisical security practices and a lack of common sense. "Hackers specifically target individuals and businesses and will jump on the opportunity to intercept unencrypted files." On April 2 the IRS issued a warning about coronavirus-related scams.

How to securely send your data to the IRS
EDWARDSVILLE  Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Glen-Ed Pantry is serving more clients than ever before.

But even with a smaller volunteer staff, the pantry continues to meet the needs of the community.

When Gov. J.B. Pritzker first announced a stay-at-home order for Illinois residents effective on March 17, the food pantry, located at 125 Fifth St. in Edwardsville, switched to curbside service only.

Volunteers are packing food bags indoors and then delivering the bag to the client outside. Clients will receive half the normal amount of food, but they will be able to visit the pantry every two weeks instead every 30 days.

The number of clients that the pantry is serving has grown week by week.

For the first week, it doubled from what we normally do and each week it grows by 100 percent, said Jane Ahasay, director of development for Glen-Ed Pantry. At the same time, weve cut our volunteer staff in half for their safety. We used to have eight or 10 volunteers at a time and now we have four, which allows them to have space.

Hopefully we will always have some healthy volunteers who want to come in. Some of our volunteers are in the age range where this can be rough for them and we dont want to put anybody at risk. We have some new volunteers, so that means were doing a lot more training and a lot of extra things that we dont normally do. But were happy to meet that challenge to provide for the people in our community during this difficult time.

At this point, the pantry has enough food items to meet the increased demand.

Non-food items, though, may be in shorter supply.

Our clients are no different than anybody else in that they need paper goods, especially toilet paper and paper towels, Ahasay said. They also need shampoo, laundry detergent and any kind of personal hygiene and cleaning products.

The pantry is currently able to meet the demand for food items, but Ahasay stresses that the situation could change, especially if the stay-at-home order is extended and the number of clients continues to increase.

Were holding our own right now, but we have a conversation on a daily basis about where our food is and where we can get it, Ahasay said. Im going out to make some more contacts (Monday) afternoon with some local people. Were also contacting the St. Louis Food Bank, but part of our problem is trying to get the transportation worked out.

As the number of clients continues to increase, were going to need more food to fill the demand. All donations, whether they are food, monetary or other items, we are happy to have them all.

Ahasay asks that all clients needing food should call the pantry at 618-656-7506 to make an appointment for curbside service.

Just leave us a message and we will return your call, but we are trying to do same-day service, Ahasay said.

From 10 a.m. to noon on Monday, the pantry distributed breakfasts and lunches to eligible District 7 students for the first time.

We have five lunches and five breakfasts for each student, so the parents pull up in our parking lot and open up the trunk and we place the food in there, which eliminates any exposure for either the family or our volunteers. The food is provided by the school district.

We had a light attendance from what we were expecting, so we want to make sure that we get the word out to let people know that we are doing this on Mondays. We have enough for 500 lunches and breakfasts, and we had 172 students come through today.

With Pritzkers executive order that schools across Illinois remain closed through April 30, the pantry will continue to distribute breakfasts and lunches to students on Mondays at least through the rest of the month and potentially into May if the order is extended.

I have no idea what the summer plan (for meal distribution) would be if we get to that point, Ahasay said. Like everything else, its fluid at this point.

The pantry is still open during its regular hours, 3-5:30 p.m. on Monday and Wednesday and 9-11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

For more information about curbside delivery, meals for District 7 students and donations, call the pantry, go to http://www.glenedpantry.org/ or visit the Glen-Ed Pantry page on Facebook.
New Delhi: Bollywood young gun Janhvi Kapoor put up her Insta story which showed how sister Khushi Kapoor makes sure that she stays at home amid lockdown. In a fun video, the sister bonding is clearly visible and is giving major goals.

Watch the video which was later shared by one of her fan clubs on social media.

The quarantine time seems to be bringing the loved ones closer, if not anything else. The 'stay home, stay safe' policy is important to stop the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus outbreak which has claimed thousands of lives worldwide.

Khushi Kapoor is currently studying at New York Film Academy.

On the work front, Janhvi has 'Gunjan SaxenaThe Kargil Girl', Takht, Dostana and 'Roohi Afzana' in her kitty.

'Gunjan SaxenaThe Kargil Girl' happens to be a Dharma Production. It is a biopic which tells the story of our country's first Air Force woman officer who went to war. The Kargil Girl features Angad Bedi, Manav Vij, Pankaj Tripathi, Rajat Barmecha, Neena Gupta and Vijay Varma in pivotal parts.
April 7 (Reuters) - Mongolia Energy Corp Ltd:

* TEMPORARY SUSPENSION OF COAL EXPORT HAD AND WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE ADVERSE IMPACT ON GROUP'S SALES AND CASH FLOWS IN Q1, Q2 2020

* CO BELIEVES EVEN WHEN EXPORT RESUMES, THROUGHPUT AT BORDERS DURING INITIAL PERIOD WILL BE SLOW

* CEASED MAJOR FIELD MINING OPERATIONS INCLUDING OVERBURDEN REMOVAL & COAL EXTRACTION

* PLACED PART OF MINING WORKFORCE ON FURLOUGH UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

* STOCKPILE SHOULD BE ABLE TO SATISFY EXPECTED SALES DEMAND FOR AT LEAST TWO MONTHS ONCE COAL EXPORT RESUMES Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
Home  Just In  Shanker Groups Sulav Agarwal arrested on black marketing charge

Kathmandu, April 7

Police in Kathmandu on Tuesday arrested businessperson Sulav Agarwal, a member of Shanker Group, one of the big business conglomerates of the country, for his alleged involvement in the activities that amount to black marketing.

A team deployed from the Metropolitan Police Crime Division arrested him in Naxal of Kathmandu this afternoon, according to police. He has been accused of trying to sell thermal guns used to measure temperatures at a rate three times the market price.

Police also confiscated 67 thermal guns from his possession.

Meanwhile, Agarwal, the honorary consul of Kyrgyzstan in Nepal, is also found to have misused a vehicle of a diplomatic agency. Police also confiscated the vehicle.

The conglomerate had brought seven tonnes of medical supplies from China the last weekend.

Further investigation into the case is underway.
People cross the Brooklyn Bridge on March 16.

AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

On April 6, the World Health Organization released new guidance saying that healthy people don't need to wear face masks to prevent coronavirus spread.

Masks should be for the sick, their caretakers, and healthcare workers, the WHO guidance said.

Scientists and public-health organizations can't agree on the best face-mask protocol, and the WHO guidelines go against the CDC's face-mask recommendations.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The use of face masks on healthy people during the coronavirus pandemic has been a major point of contention and confusion among scientists and the public.

On Friday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that all Americans wear face masks when they are in public.

But new guidance from the World Health Organization released on Monday says healthy people don't need to wear face masks and that doing so won't provide added protection from the coronavirus.

There's some evidence that caretakers of infected people can protect their health by wearing masks, the WHO guidance said, but "there is currently no evidence that wearing a mask (whether medical or other types) by healthy persons in the wider community setting, including universal community masking, can prevent them from infection with respiratory viruses, including COVID-19."

WHO also said community masking could lead to a "false sense of security" and cause people to ignore other evidence-based measures like handwashing and self-isolation.

WHO says masks should be saved for healthcare workers, caretakers, and sick people  everyone else should just stay home

medical coronavirus flu virus nyc street face mask gloves covid19 stores shut down closed restaurants social distancing delivery cox 38

Crystal Cox/Business Insider

WHO said masks should be reserved for people who have COVID-19 or are in regular close contact with people who have the disease, like caretakers and hospital workers.

People with COVID-19 symptoms like a cough or shortness of breath should wear masks even if they haven't tested positive, and they should self-isolate, seek medical advice from home, and practice good hygiene, including handwashing and changing their masks, WHO said.

Story continues

The organization also said that healthcare workers should use medical-grade masks, not makeshift cloth masks, when they can after one study showed that medical workers who used cloth masks were at increased risk of infection compared with those who used medical-grade masks.

"If production of cloth masks for use in health care settings is proposed locally in situations of shortage or stock out, a local authority should assess the proposed PPE according to specific minimum standards and technical specifications," the WHO report said.

Masks could slow transmission, but there's room for infection-causing human error

Some health experts believe community masking efforts can't hurt.

"The argument ... about everybody wearing a mask is not that it will prevent everyone from getting infected  it's that it will slow down transmission in the community a bit," Ben Cowling, a professor of epidemiology and a mask researcher at the University of Hong Kong's School of Public Health, previously told Business Insider. "That's already useful. Just to have even a small effect is useful."

At the same time, Cowling recognized that face masks aren't a perfect public-health tool because they allow room for user error, a point made in the WHO guidance.

WHO officials said healthy people who wear masks might touch their own faces more often than necessary, which could increase their risk for COVID-19.

Cowling said user error was a potential reason studies have yet to show community masking is effective at preventing disease spread.

"Randomized trials don't support a big effect of face masks, but there is the mechanistic plausibility for face masks to work, right? So why not consider it?" Cowling said. "If you don't wear the mask properly, and if there's a lot of chances for you to get infected, then the mask may not do a lot of good."

But with much of the world already dealing with severe outbreaks, Cowling said masking efforts for the healthy are unlikely to stop the spread at this point in time.

"I think it's too late to do a lot for the current epidemic because it's already spread such a lot, and then the cases that you're getting now are people infected two or three weeks ago. And the lockdowns that are in place will hopefully really slow down infections," Cowling said. "Adding masks now I don't think would make a lot of difference to that trajectory."

You can protect yourself without a mask

The coronavirus is typically spread through tiny droplets that are ejected when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks, and the droplets land on another person or surface.

Scientists are still studying to understand to what extent coronavirus-containing aerosols linger in the air, which would make face-mask wearing more important, Business Insider previously reported.

So far, evidence suggests that the virus does not linger in the air outside hospital settings, where certain procedures, such as intubating a patient, can aerosolize virus particles.

For people who isolate at home and practice social distancing when outdoors, aerosols are likely not an issue. Running outdoors alone without wearing a mask, for example, is safe if you feel healthy, Business Insider previously reported.

As such, WHO said, practicing self-isolation, good hygiene, and social distancing are the best ways for healthy people to stay safe. The organization said it would also update its face-mask guidance based on new information as it comes out.

Read the original article on Business Insider
In a significant development in the thick of Coronavirus, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan stated that the lockdown will be extended if the need arises. This comes as 12 more Coronavirus cases were found in Bhopal, taking the number of such cases in Madhya Pradesh to 268, a health official said on Tuesday.

"Lives of people are more important, economy can be built again but if people die, how will we bring them back? That is why, if the need arises we will extend the lockdown, a decision will be taken based on the situation," the chief minister said.

Furthermore, sources had earlier reported that Centre is mulling to extend the nationwide lockdown post-April 14, as per sources. The Centre is reportedly actively considering to extend the lockdown as many states have approached the Centre requesting the same. Currently, India's total number of cases stands at 4421, with 114 deaths.

READ: COVID-19 positive man dies in Rajasthan's Kota

States demanding extension of lockdown

While Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao has called for the extension of the nationwide Coronavirus lockdown till June 3, other states like Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu are mulling an extension of statewide lockdown. Several other states like Karnataka, Assam etc. are mulling on phased manner relaxation of lockdown post-April 14. Kerala is the only states which has declared its borders open for other state residents to come into avail treatment.

READ: Rajasthan CM seeks Rs 1 lakh cr package to empower State Govts, writes letter to PM Modi

Coronavirus crisis in India

As of date, over 4000 positive cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) - 325 have been discharged and Maharashtra reported the highest at 868. 114 deaths have been reported till date. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries. The Prime Minister has issued a 21-day countrywide lockdown starting from 23 March to April 15 and the Finance Minister has announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore package under the 'PM Gareeb Kalyan Scheme'.

READ: Centre mulls extending 21-day COVID-19 lockdown post-April 14 after states demand: Sources

READ: COVID-19: 24 more cases of coronavirus in Rajasthan
In late January, President Trump's economic adviser Peter Navarro warned his White House colleagues the novel coronavirus could take more than half a million American lives and cost close to $6 trillion, according to memos obtained by Axios.

The state of play: By late February, Navarro was even more alarmed, and he warned his colleagues, in another memo, that up to 2 million Americans could die of the virus.

Navarro's grim estimates are set out in two memos  one dated Jan. 29 and addressed to the National Security Council, the other dated Feb. 23 and addressed to the president. The NSC circulated both memos around the White House and multiple agencies.

In the first memo, which the New York Times was first to report on, Navarro makes his case for "an immediate travel ban on China."

The second lays the groundwork for supplemental requests from Congress, with the warning: "This is NOT a time for penny-pinching or horse trading on the Hill."

Why it matters: The president quickly restricted travel from China, moved to delay re-entry of American travelers who could be infected, and dispatched his team to work with Congress on stimulus funds.

But Trump was far slower to publicly acknowledge the sort of scenarios Navarro had put in writing.

One senior administration official who received Navarro's memos said at the time they were skeptical of his motives and thus his warnings: The January travel memo struck me as an alarmist attempt to bring attention to Peters anti-China agenda while presenting an artificially limited range of policy options."

"The supplemental memo lacked any basis for its projections, which led some staff to worry that it could needlessly rattle markets and may not direct funding where it was truly needed."

Navarro declined to comment for this story.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon defended Navarro's motives, calling the memos "prophetic" and saying Navarro was forced to put his concerns in writing because "there was total blockage to get these facts in front of the President of the United States."

The "naivete, arrogance and ignorance" of White House advisers who disagreed with Navarro "put the country and the world in jeopardy," Bannon said, adding that Navarro was sidelined from the task force after the memo.

"In this Kafkaesque nightmare, nobody would pay attention to him or the facts."

The Jan. 29 memo set out two stark choices: "Aggressive Containment versus No Containment."

Navarro compared cost estimates for the choices and wrote that the Council of Economic Advisers' estimates for stopping travel from China to the U.S. would be $2.9 billion per month. If the virus turned out to be a pandemic, that travel ban could extend 12 months and cost the U.S. $34.6 billion.

Doing nothing (the "No Containment" option) could range from "zero economic costs" to $5.7 trillion depending on the lethality of the virus.

On the high end, he estimated a scenario in which the coronavirus could kill 543,000 Americans.

The Feb. 23 memo did not advertise its author as did the first, but it was written by Navarro and distributed to numerous officials through the NSC. It was titled as a memorandum to the president via the offices of the national security adviser, chief of staff and COVID-19 task force, and the subject line described it as a request for supplemental appropriation.

It began: "There is an increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1-2 million souls."

He called for an "immediate supplemental appropriation of at least $3 billion" to support efforts at prevention, treatment, inoculation and diagnostics.

He described expected needs for "Personal Protective Equipment" for health care workers and secondary workers in facilities such as elder care and skilled nursing. He estimated that over a four-to-six-month period, "We can expect to need at least a billion face masks, 200,000 Tyvek suits, and 11,000 ventilator circuits, and 25,000 PAPRs (powered air-purifying respirators)."

Navarro clashed this past weekend with Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, over how widely to promote the use of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus.

But the January and February memos reveal a more substantial advocacy on his part, with detailed health and economic calculations meant to grab and hold the president's attention.

Politico first reported in late February about the existence of memos from Navarro to White House officials, while their details had not been published.

Our thought bubble: Axios' health care editor Sam Baker says Navarro's concern about the severity while acknowledging the speculative nature of modeling viruses was largely correct.

"These memos place a very big emphasis on banning travel specifically from China which, of course, Trump did," Baker says. But by Jan. 29, there were confirmed cases in 15 countries, including the U.S.

"This is not to say they're a bad idea, only that this is why public-health experts don't lean as heavily on travel restrictions. People come into the U.S. from a lot of places, and with two globalized countries, simply stopping people coming in from Wuhan was not bad but it shouldn't be shocking that it was insufficient."

Flashback: "It's going to have a very good ending for us," Trump said of the coronavirus in a speech on Jan. 30.

In a Feb. 24 tweet, he said it was "very much under control" and that the stock market is "starting to look very good to me."

The World Health Organization declared it a pandemic on March 11.

On March 17, the president said, "I've felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic."

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Subscribe to Mike Allen's Axios AM to follow our coronavirus coverage each morning from your inbox.
Imported cases surge at border

Global Times

By Ni Hao and Leng Shumei Source:Global Times Published: 2020/4/6 20:08:40

China temporarily closes Far East port with Russia

The risk of imported cases to China from neighboring countries is increasing, an official noted Monday, after a Chinese port city near Russia reported 20 imported cases from the other side in one day.

Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the National Health Commission, announced at a Monday press conference that 38 imported cases were found across China on Sunday, raising the total number to 951.

Mi said the risk of imported cases to China from neighboring countries is increasing.

Mi's remarks came after Suifenhe, a port city in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, reported 20 imported cases from Vladivostok, Russia on Sunday, raising the number of imported cases discovered in Suifenhe to 39.

The local government ordered the port closed from April 7-13 as the surging number of people entering has exceeded the port's epidemic testing capacity as well as the city's quarantine and testing capacity. The decision was made after discussions with Vladivostok authorities, the government said on its website on Friday.

Timely measures are necessary to control personnel exchanges between the two sides and prevent imported cases, Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Global Times on Monday.

Zeng called for more attention on prevention and control work against imported cases in northern China in the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Medical workers and experts from Heilongjiang Province have been rushing to Suifenhe to support the city's epidemic prevention and control work. A total of 120 such personnel are expected to arrive in Suifenhe on Monday, the Suifenhe government website said.

The local government is also recruiting volunteers to support local epidemic prevention and control work.

As the two other major ports in Heilongjiang between China and Russia have been closed, Suifenhe is facing huge pressure to control people flooding in from Russia and prevent imported cases, according to an employee from Harbin-based investment group Longjiang Trading, which is in charge of the group's business in Russia.

Many Chinese in Russia want to return to China as the epidemic eases in China, but they need to consider the infection risk during the trip, the employee told the Global Times on Monday under the condition of anonymity. He said most Chinese working in Russia are in the Far East region.

The Heilongjiang provincial health authority's website said all 20 imported cases reported on Sunday flew from Moscow to Vladivostok before entering China through the Suifenhe port. The employee said it shows the epidemic situation is worse in European Russia than Russia's Far East region.

Russia reported 6,343 COVID-19 cases with 47 deaths. Moscow had the highest number of infections in Russia.

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NASA astronaut Anne McClain on the International Space Station during the Expedition 59 mission on April 16, 2019. McClain's estranged spouse recently made a criminal claim against the astronaut, which is currently being investigated.

NASA astronaut Anne McClain's estranged wife has been charged with lying about a "space crime" that she alleged McClain committed.

In August 2019, the New York Times reported that amid their separation, Summer Worden complained that McClain had allegedly accessed Worden's bank account from the International Space Station. The accusation immediately generated a tremendous amount of media attention as, if it were true, it would be the first known "space crime" and, by taking their story to the media, Worden "outed" McClain, forcing her to become the first publicly out active astronaut (while Sally Ride was the first-ever publicly out astronaut, her sexual orientation was only revealed after she passed away in 2012.)

However, according to a statement released by U.S. Attorney Ryan Patrick from the United State's Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Texas, Worden has been charged with lying about the alleged offense.

Related: NASA Astronaut Anne McClain Refutes Space Crime Claim by Spouse

"A federal indictment has been unsealed against a 44-year-old woman for making false statements to federal authorities," the statement reads. An indictment is not a conviction and does not mean that Worden is guilty; it is rather a formal accusation of criminal conduct.

Worden asserted in her accusation that, in 2018, she opened a bank account which she blocked McClain from accessing by changing her login information. She claimed that McClain attempted to inappropriately access this account from the space station.

However, according to the new indictment, Worden and McClain shared access to multiple online bank accounts until at least Jan. 31, 2019, and Worden's login credentials were not changed to block McClain's access until then. McClain launched to the International Space Station on Dec. 3, 2018; Worden filed her original complaint on March 19, 2019, according to the indictment.

After Worden's accusations were made public, McClain, who had by then returned to Earth, responded on social media and refuted any suggestion of illegal activity on her part. "We've been going through a painful, personal separation that's now unfortunately in the media," McClain wrote. "I appreciate the outpouring of support and will reserve comment until after the investigation."

The indictment charges Worden with making false accusations of criminal activity on two separate occasions: first, when she stated these claims to the Federal Trade Commission in March 2019 and then later to NASA's Office of Inspector General in July 2019. Both bodies are conducting this ongoing investigation.

If Worden is found guilty of these charges and is convicted, she could face up to five years in prison for each of the two counts and a $250,000 fine, according to the statement.

Follow Chelsea Gohd on Twitter @chelsea_gohd . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook .
Cabin fever is doing a number on us, and a lot of people are passing the time by having an extra drink or smoke. And we get it, if you're feeling on edge because of these brand-new stresses, you might want something to take the edge off. But this is getting a little extreme, and based on a few recent news stories, it might be time to reconsider how far you're willing to go for a cigarette.

There has been an increase in corner shops, bodegas, and drugstores getting broken into as much of the world isolates. The problem is that police and other authorities are busy with other, more pressing things at the moment, and many cities are tightening up their belts and only going after violent cases. When that happens, nobody's getting caught. One exception is in Clackamas County, Oregon, where a guy broke into a RiteAid and apparently only stole cigarettes. Note, this wasn't a one-time thing; he did it twice. To the same store.

On the other side of the world, cigarette smoking ended up being what got a mafia boss nabbed. The Italian police had been tracking Cesare Cordi since August and thought they had him in an empty safehouse. Things had kind of slowed down, but apparently in a good way because a nationwide lockdown during a pandemic is a hell of a wrench to throw into an investigation and manhunt. What actually tipped them off? The glow of a lit cigarette through a window.
Actor Nitish Bhardwaj has responded to co-star Mukesh Khannas jibe on Sonakshi Sinha and her knowledge of Indian mythology and said seniors seem worthy of respect if they walk the path of empathy, adding that the same thing could have been said in a balanced and soft manner. While Mukesh played Bhishma Pitamah in BR Chopras Mahabharat, Nitish essayed the role of Krishna in the 90s popular serial that is now being rerun on Doordarshan amid lockdown in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic.

Talking to Times of India in an interview, Nitish said, Why target Sonakshi alone? Theres always a better way to say the same thing. A balanced, soft and empathetic way; and it is received better too. Seniors seem worthy of respect if they walk the path of empathy.

Also read: Irrfan watches Angrezi Medium with Radhika Madan, Pankaj Tripathi, Deepak Dobriyal as film premieres online. See pic

He also said there is a reason behind the an entire generation has little knowledge of Indias heritage, culture and literature. I would like to tell my friend Mukesh Khanna that there may be a whole new generation which doesnt know details of Indian heritage and its literature. It is not their fault. There was a sea change in Indias economic environment after 1992 that everyone started running the rat race, trying to make their careers and prosper financially.

Adding that the fault lies with the parents and not the children, Nitish told the daily, If at all we need to fault someone, which I dont think is the answer, then it is the previous generation parents, who failed to expose their children to our heritage and literature. It is also due to our myopic educational system, implemented by the British during the Raj, which leaves no room for cultural and value-based education to be a part of our regular curriculum. The pressure on parents to put their children in after-school tuitions is so high that this additional spare time cannot be devoted to imparting religious values and texts to the children. Failure to change or modify this educational system has been the failure of most governments post 1947. Any effort made to the contrary is labelled as religious fanaticism. So there are many system related faults which have resulted in this syndrome, he told the daily.

Mukesh had said recently in an interview, I think the reruns will be useful to many who havent watched the show earlier. It will also help people like Sonakshi Sinha who have no knowledge about our mythological sagas. People like her dont know who did lord Hunuman get Sanjivani for. Sonakshi attracted the comment as she had landed in controversy post her appearance on Amitabh Bachchans game show Kaun Banega Crorepati last year.

After failing to answer the question For whom did Hanuman bring Sanjeevani booti, she used one of her lifelines to choose between four options - Sugriva, Lakshmana, Sita and Rama. While she was heavily trolled online, even Amitabh could not help but school her.

Aapke pitaji ka naam hai Shatrughan, aap jis ghar me rehti hain, uska naam hai Ramayana.Aapke jitne chacha hain, wo sab Ramayan se sambandhit hain, Aapko ye nahi pata ki Lakshman ke liye laaye they jadibooti? (Your father and uncles names are derived from Ramayan, you live in a house called Ramayana. How do you not know for whom did Hanuman bring Jadibooti?), Amitabh had told her and Sonakshi responded with, Mujhe laga tha, lekin mai inke liye bahut nervous thi to chance nahi lena chahti thi (I thought it should be Lakshman but did not want to take any chance). Sonakshis mother Poonam Sinha laughed through the entire discussion as she sat among the audience.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Dog owners across Britain were today warned not to let their pets eat hot cross buns this easter because the raisins can be toxic for them.

Vets have said that it could kill them and Nicole Hellyer from Surrey has backed the message.

Her dogs, four-year-old Labrador-cockapoo cross Timmy, and Sydney, a five-year-old Jack Russell, had to be rushed to the vets for life-saving treatment after they shared a packet of hot-cross buns they found on her worktop in Camberley.

Vets are keen to avoid the traditional spike in cases where pets have to undergo emergency treatment because of eating hot cross buns.

Nicole Hellyer from Surrey had to rush her two dogs Timmy and Sydney to the vets for life-saving treatment after they shared a packet of hot cross buns they found on the countertop

They can be deadly for dogs because they contain poisonous raisins.

Nicole said: 'Although we have a stair gate on the kitchen, they got in there and Timmy obviously decided to do a bit of counter surfing and helped himself.

'When I got in, the floor was covered in mess and when I walked into the bedroom, I found empty wrappers from the hot cross buns.

'I got them straight in the car and although the dogs seemed fine - Timmy seemed full of beans, Sydney was just a little more worse for wear - I was so worried on the drive there.'

The dogs were given an injection to make them sick and were both later well enough to return home.

Vets are keen to avoid the traditional spike in cases where pets have to undergo emergency treatment because of eating hot cross buns (file image)

Nicole, 35, said 'It's a real wake-up call as to what can happen, especially as Timmy is a crafty one. I'd warn other owners not to leave hot cross buns around at any time.'

In another case, Amy James-Moore from Winchester took her 18-month-old Labrador Hetty to see the vet after she demolished half a pack of hot cross buns.

Why are raisins lethal for dogs? The exact substance that causes the toxic reaction in dogs is not yet known. However dogs of any age, breed, or gender may be affected. One of the most serious complications of grape/raisin toxicity is it can cause severe kidney damage leading to kidney failure. Symptoms include: vomiting, loss of appetite, dehydration and abdominal pain. Advertisement

Amy said 'I spotted the bag was empty and the children promised they hadn't eaten them. I knew right away it was bad news.

'The vet made her sick and you could see a huge amount of raisins coming up.

'She was feeling a bit sorry for herself and it was so scary as you just don't know what might happen.'

Dr Laura Playforth, professional standards director for out-of-hours pet care firm Vets Now, said 'It's unclear exactly what causes the toxic effects of raisins but just one can kill a susceptible dog so real caution should be taken with foods, like hot cross buns, that contain them.

'The good news is the prognosis for grape and raisin toxicity is generally good if treated early.'
YEREVAN.  Vazgen Poghosyan, chairman of the board of Yerevanshin company who is accused of bribing former chairman of the Urban Development Committee Vahagn Vermishyan, has been released on a bail of 3 million drams. Gagik Khachikyan, Poghosyans lawyer, confirmed this information to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The attorney added that his client does not accept the charge against him, and he said the charge was groundless.

As reported earlier, Vermishyan has been arrested by a court order. Six more peopleincluding Jon Farkhoyan, the former head of the Yerevan Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Armeniahave been charged in the criminal case opened against him on charges of large-scale bribe-taking.

His detention period was extended Monday for another two months by a court decision.
Shareholders might have noticed that Morgan Sindall Group plc (LON:MGNS) filed its yearly result this time last week. The early response was not positive, with shares down 2.8% to UK11.70 in the past week. The result was positive overall - although revenues of UK3.1b were in line with what the analysts predicted, Morgan Sindall Group surprised by delivering a statutory profit of UK1.53 per share, modestly greater than expected. Earnings are an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance, look at what the analysts are forecasting for next year, and see if there's been a change in sentiment towards the company. So we collected the latest post-earnings statutory consensus estimates to see what could be in store for next year.

Check out our latest analysis for Morgan Sindall Group

LSE:MGNS Past and Future Earnings April 7th 2020

Taking into account the latest results, the five analysts covering Morgan Sindall Group provided consensus estimates of UK2.85b revenue in 2020, which would reflect a perceptible 7.1% decline on its sales over the past 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are expected to reduce 7.2% to UK1.47 in the same period. Before this earnings report, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of UK3.09b and earnings per share (EPS) of UK1.55 in 2020. It's pretty clear that pessimism has reared its head after the latest results, leading to a weaker revenue outlook and a minor downgrade to earnings per share estimates.

It'll come as no surprise then, to learn thatthe analysts have cut their price target 17% to UK17.36. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. Currently, the most bullish analyst values Morgan Sindall Group at UK22.50 per share, while the most bearish prices it at UK11.50. Note the wide gap in analyst price targets? This implies to us that there is a fairly broad range of possible scenarios for the underlying business.

Story continues

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Morgan Sindall Group's past performance and to peers in the same industry. We would highlight that sales are expected to reverse, with the forecast 7.1% revenue decline a notable change from historical growth of 6.6% over the last five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the same industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 3.7% annually for the foreseeable future. So although its revenues are forecast to shrink, this cloud does not come with a silver lining - Morgan Sindall Group is expected to lag the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that the analysts downgraded their earnings per share estimates, showing that there has been a clear decline in sentiment following these results. Unfortunately, they also downgraded their revenue estimates, and our data indicates revenues are expected to perform worse than the wider industry. Even so, earnings per share are more important to the intrinsic value of the business. Furthermore, the analysts also cut their price targets, suggesting that the latest news has led to greater pessimism about the intrinsic value of the business.

Following on from that line of thought, we think that the long-term prospects of the business are much more relevant than next year's earnings. We have estimates - from multiple Morgan Sindall Group analysts - going out to 2023, and you can see them free on our platform here.

You should always think about risks though. Case in point, we've spotted 2 warning signs for Morgan Sindall Group you should be aware of, and 1 of them doesn't sit too well with us.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
US President Donald Trump has said he would be surprised if India did not allow the export of Hydroxychloroquine tablets to the United States despite a request made to New Delhi over the subject.

Last week Trump said that he has sought help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the sale of Hydroxychloroquine tablets ordered by the US to treat the growing number of coronavirus patients in his country, hours after India banned the export of the anti-malarial drug.

I would be surprised if he would, you know, because India does very well with the United States, Trump told reporters during a press briefing at the White House on Monday.

Hydroxychloroquine tablet is used to prevent and treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, among other ailments.

The drug is seen as to offer a viable therapeutic solution to coronavirus that has so far taken the lives of more than 10,000 Americans and infected over 3.6 lakhs, just in a matter of weeks.

Last month, India imposed a ban on export on Hydroxychloroquine, on which Trump is now banking heavily in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

India has received similar requests from several other countries including its immediate neighbours like Sri Lanka and Nepal. India has said that it is reviewing its export ban order.

Notably, India's decision to ban the exports of Hydroxychloroquine is driven by its desire to take stock of the domestic requirements and ensure that the country has enough in its kitty.

Reiterating that for many years, India has been taking advantage of the US on trade, Trump said that he would be surprised if New Delhi was to stop export of Hydroxychloroquine to the US.

So, I would be surprised if that were his decision. He'd have to tell me that. I spoke to him Sunday morning, called him, and I said we'd appreciate your allowing our supply to come out. If he doesn't allow it to come out, that would be okay, but of course there may be retaliation. Why wouldn't there be? Trump said.

On Monday, a senior State Department official said that India has been a significant partner of the US in the pharmaceutical sector and it expects similar cooperation to continue between the economies.

India has long been a significant partner of the United States and the pharmaceutical sector, Alice G Wells, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, told reporters during a press briefing.

The Trump administration has already created a national strategic stockpile of 29 million doses of the malaria drug, anticipating that its test results on more than 1,500 COVID-19 patients in New York is yielding positive results.

Scientists have begun testing Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as candidates for potential COVID-19 treatments and the FDA last week issued an Emergency Use Authorization for the prescription of the drugs in certain circumstances.

In addition to New York, COVID-19 patients in several States are being treated with Hydroxychloroquine, including Michigan and Texas.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Tourists wearing protective facemasks walk in front of the Eiffel tower in Paris, on March 17, 2020, just before the country locked down.

LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Image

Italy, Spain and France have the three worst coronavirus outbreaks in Europe. All are in lockdown  and there are clear signs that it is working.

It has taken between three and four weeks since the countries ordered lockdowns for daily new infections and deaths to begin to decline.

On Sunday, each country had recorded at least a two-day consecutive decline in deaths from the virus, and new recorded cases also appear to be dropping, according to figures on Worldometer.

The numbers from China, however, suggest it may take more like a month for the impact on coronavirus deaths to really be felt.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Related Video: How Long Will Social Distancing Last? It's Complicated

Three European countries hit the hardest by the coronavirus have begun to show early signs of the virus slowing, roughly three weeks after the date of their respective lockdowns.

Italy, Spain and France all reported declines in their daily death tolls from the virus on Sunday. They have also begun to show a leveling-off, or more than one consecutive day of decline, in their rate of new cases.

Italy

Italy, which still has the world's highest recorded death rate from the virus, at 15,887 deaths, was the first European country to go into lockdown on March 10.

Citizens have been barred from all but essential travel and only essential businesses remain open.



Daily new cases of the coronavirus in Italy up to April 5.

Worldometer

21 days into that lockdown, on March 30, daily new cases of the virus dropped from 5,217 to 4,050 the day before  more than a thousand fewer. Since then, those cases have risen only moderately, hovering between around 4,000 to 4,800 per day, lower than the March 21 peak of 6,557.

On Sunday  27 days after Italy was put under lockdown  the country also reported its third consecutive daily decline in deaths, at 525. At the virus' height on March 27, 919 people died in a single day.

Story continues



Daily recorded deaths from coronavirus in Italy up to April 5

Worldometer

Spain

In Spain, it has also taken around 21 days for similar indications to show in the country's death rates and rates of new infection. Having gone into lockdown on March 14, the country began what has become its third consecutive-day decline in deaths from the virus on April 3, recording 850 deaths. By Sunday, that figure dropped to 694.



Daily deaths from coronavirus in Spain up to April 5

Worldometer

New cases in Spain also began a four-day decline on April 2. On Sunday, new cases dropped steeply from 6,969 the day before, to 5,478.



Daily new cases of coronavirus in Spain up to April 5

Worldometer

France

France went into lockdown on March 17  one week after Italy did  and both deaths and new cases have slowed since April 3.

The picture there is less clear, having been distorted by a massive spike in deaths and new cases on April 2 and April 3.

The spike is from previously-unreported deaths and infections which had been recorded in nursing homes rather than hospitals. They were added to the national totals across two days even though many took place earlier.



Daily recorded coronavirus deaths in France up to April 5

Worldometer

18 days after the lockdown began, 518 people were recorded dead from the virus on Sunday in France, a huge drop from the country's peak of 1,355 on April 2. However, Sunday's numbers only show a return to levels roughly similar to those recorded before that April 2 spike.

Sunday was France's third consecutive day of declining new cases numbers  the country recorded 2,886 new cases, an encouragingly low number just 19 days after its lockdown began. However just two days prior, the country had recorded 23,060 new cases.



Daily new cases of coronavirus in France up to April 5

Worldometer

China (Hubei)

The three-to-four week timescale of lockdown affecting the spread of the virus is broadly consistent with the dates of China's lockdown of Hubei, the province where the virus originated.

Hubei, where the vast majority of China's cases were located, was locked down on January 23. Worldometer's figures show that daily new reported cases began a noticeable decline on February 14, 23 days later.

The figures are for the whole of China, but Hubei represents more than 80% of all Chinese cases.



Daily new reported cases in China up to April 5

Worldometer

The data there is also distorted by a huge spike in numbers on February 12, when the method of diagnosing the virus was broadened.

Daily reported deaths from the virus went through phases of decline and subsequent growth until February 24, a full month later. Only then, when 71 people were reported dead, did deaths more consistently begin to decline.



Daily new reported deaths from coronavirus in China up to April 5

Worldometer

In the United States, which has recorded more than twice as many infections as any other nation, there is no nationwide lockdown, though many orders are in place at the state and city level.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Till Sampling Returns up to 120 Gold Grains

Drill Program Assays Pending

More Drilling at TNT to Test New Targets

Highlights:

Dixie Creek Gold Target

Highest recorded regional till sample found to contain 120 gold grains (99 pristine) at Dixie Halo

Widespread evidence for gold mineralization along BTU SW-NE structural trend as seen in till samples, in-situ rock samples, SGH (Figure 1)

Seven drill holes now complete at Dixie Creek and other gold targets

TNT Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide ("VMS") Target

Geophysics and data evaluation ongoing - initial interpretation confirms and identifies multiple targets

Drill moves back to northern TNT ahead of final analysis of southern TNT and collar location selection

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 7, 2020 / BTU METALS CORP. ("BTU" or the "Company") (TSXV:BTU) announces the following update on exploration activities and progress at its Dixie Halo Property near Red Lake, Ontario. The Company's exploration work remains on schedule with no disruption due to the Covid-19 crisis. The Company continues to operate under safe distancing protocols while monitoring the situation and will take action as deemed necessary to safeguard its employees, contractors and community.

BTU continues to vigorously pursue both the TNT copper-silver-gold VMS-style target and the Dixie Creek target in its search for significant gold mineralization along the SW-NE structural trend across the extensive 200 km2 Dixie Halo Property.

Paul Wood, BTU CEO, said, "As everyone confronts the current challenges, we are fortunate that we are able to pursue our exploration activities unabated. We are busy on several fronts and are continuing to see success on the ground and expect to communicate regular reports of results. We believe that our aggressive work program has provided us with outstanding drill targets at both TNT and Dixie Creek and eagerly await results."

Dixie Creek - High Grade Gold Target

There are a growing number of indicators pointing to the presence of meaningful gold mineralization on the Dixie Halo property (as summarized in Figure 1) in addition to the proximity and shared geology/structures with neighbouring Great Bear Resources' flagship Dixie Project. There is increasing evidence that a significant SW-NE structure on BTU property has the potential to host significant gold mineralization.

Figure 1: Surface indications of gold mineralization across BTU Metals' Dixie Halo Property

High-gold in till sampling results indicate potential for gold mineralization related to deep seated SW-NE structures on the Dixie Halo property

BTU's recent till sampling program yielded many high gold counts despite the survey being comprised of only 20 samples. The highly anomalous samples included one sample that contained a total of 120 gold grains including 99 gold grains that were classified as pristine gold grains. Typically, gold grain counts of more than roughly 20 are considered quite anomalous so we are highly encouraged by counts over 50 and even up to 120. The very high count of 99 pristine gold grains indicates that there may be a significant gold in bedrock not far up ice from the sample location which in this case would be to the north-northeast. More information regarding the till sampling program can be found on our website at www.btumetals.com/tillsurvey.

The Company has completed three drill holes to the north of this very anomalous gold grain count in till, testing strong induced polarization ("IP") geophysical anomalies. Assays from the drill holes are pending.

Rock samples of up to 13.69 g/t gold further bolster evidence of gold source on SW-NE structure

Rock samples from various outcrops in the general area of the anomalous gold in till samples and at other locations on the property have yielded anomalous gold values with values from trace to as high as 13.69 g/t gold and are mapped on Figure 1. Most of the Dixie Halo property is covered with a blanket of glacial till, which makes it significant that some of the few outcrop areas have been shown to contain anomalous gold mineralization.

Assays pending for seven drill holes along SW-NE trend and Dixie Creek

In late 2019, the Company undertook a limited area test Spatiotemporal Geochemical Hydrocarbons ("SGH") soil sampling program, which yielded two targets that are considered to be extremely high priority drill targets for proximal gold mineralization. Only a small area of the property was covered by the SGH survey, and it is possible that other areas of the property may be equally or even more prospective for the presence of gold mineralization. In addition to the three holes drilled near the anomalous till sample, the Company has completed four drill holes in the vicinity of the SGH survey area. Assays for drill holes BTU-20-34 through 40 at Dixie Creek are pending.

Geophysical Work Continuing; Drill Returns to Northern TNT

Initial geophysical field work has been completed on the TNT target and the interpretation of the data from the various geophysical surveys is ongoing. Initial data review and interpretation shows the presence of several new targets that are being evaluated and prioritized. A follow-up drilling program targeting potential massive sulphides has commenced with the drill testing an initial geophysical target in the northern part of TNT ahead of Spring breakup.

Assays for TNT drill holes BTU-20-26 through 33 are pending and at this time no unusual delay is expected from the lab due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.

BTU VP Exploration, Bruce Durham said, "The SW-NE structural trends on BTU ground have intrigued us from our first days at Dixie Halo. These structural trends were identified by geophysical interpretation and geological mapping some of which predate our involvement in the property. These structures have the appearance of being deep seated structures and in some ways look to be similar to the "LP" structure immediately to our north crossing the Great Bear Resources Dixie property. Having conducted more rock and till sampling, we are more convinced there is excellent gold potential along several kilometres of BTU's SW-NE structure. Seven holes have been drilled in this large, extensively overburden covered area, including into targets within the Dixie Creek target located at the northeast end of the structure. While we await assay results, the drill has been moved back down to the TNT target where it is testing the first of the newly interpreted geophysical targets."

The technical contents of this release were approved by Mr. Bruce Durham, P. Geo., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Paul Wood"

Paul Wood, CEO, Director

pwood@btumetals.com

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Andreas Curkovic, Investor Relations

+1 416-577-9927

BTU Metals Corp.

Telephone: 1-604-683-3995

Toll Free: 1-888-945-4770

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and using information currently available to the Company. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and they are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. All forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at WWW.SEDAR.COM).

SOURCE: BTU Metals Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/584131/BTU-Provides-Update-on-Uninterrupted-Exploration-Program
California-based electric scooter rental company Bird recently laid off 30% of its workforce at once over a live Zoom conference call, due to the financial impact of the coronavirus on the business.

It is reportedly the fastest start-up to have achieved a $1 billion valuation, also known as "unicorn" status, but its business has been ground to a halt by lockdown measures due to the pandemic.

Bird said that it turned off the video function on the call to protect privacy and instead a slide was projected outlining additional information about employees' pay and health-care benefits.

However, Bird's method attracted anger on social media. Founder Travis VanderZanden admitted its method was "not ideal" and that "in retrospect" the company should have made one-on-one calls over the course of a few days.

Tweet 1

VanderZanden added that all managers had been asked to reach out to the affected employees following the call, to talk about the situation and that he had "personally been in contact with many."

But Bird is not the only company in the world to have been forced to either layoff employees or put them into retention schemes such as "furlough," where work is suspended but staff are still employed by a company.

Some 701,000 Americans lost their jobs in March, marking the first fall in payrolls in a decade, according to Labor Department statistics published on Friday.

Despite there being more businesses forced to have these difficult conversations, experts say there are ways to talk to employees to minimize stress in these situations.
Port restrictions and canceled flights are straining the ability to replace seafarers on board ships, further weakening global supply chains already snarled by the coronavirus pandemic.

Hubs like Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Shanghai have halted most crew transfers, while global lockdowns have complicated travel from the Philippines, which supplies about a quarter of the worlds seafarers.

At risk is the flow of goods like food, medicine and energy via commercial shipping, which accounts for about 80% of global trade. While unseen by most consumers, restrictions on crews are among the unprecedented challenges wrought by the virus, which has ground major economies to a halt.

Most ports have stopped crew changes as part of a concerted effort to prevent the spread of the virus, Philippine Transmarine Carriers Inc. Chief Executive Officer Gerardo Borromeo said. Our problem is trying to solve a complex logistics issue of getting crew onto limited flights to countries that will allow such changes at their ports.

About 100,000 seafarers each month need to be changed over from ships to comply with maritime rules that regulate safe working hours and crew welfare, according to a March 19 letter from the International Chamber of Shipping. If changeover restrictions continue there could be fewer available ships and higher freight costs, said Dario Alampay, chairman of the Filipino Shipowners Association.

Countries and ports should consider exemptions for seafarers similar to those granted to airline and health workers, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Essential medicine and equipment is already being held up in several ports in Europe, it said.

You do not want to risk working with a fatigued, overworked crew, said Alampay. Exhausted seafarers are more prone to distress and lack of focus, which can lead to accidents, he said. The longest seafarers should be on board a ship is 11 months, according to the Maritime Labor Convention.

The Philippines has about 300,000 seafarers for cargo ships and roughly 200,000 of those are currently out at sea and the rest are onshore, according to an estimate from Doris Magsaysay-Ho, president of A. Magsaysay Inc., a Manila-based shipping and manning company.

Industry and government should work together this month to establish protocols that include temperature checks and 14-day quarantines for crew changes, said Borromeo. This will likely increase shipowners costs, he said.

Another option is for shipowners to drop off and pick up crews in Manila. Some foreign ship owners are already looking at this option, according to Alampay, who said deviating on a route that runs from Japan or Singapore to Australia to change a crew in Manila could add an extra three days and drive up costs by as much as $15,000 a day for a Supramax vessel.

Luis, a seafarer who asked only that he be identified by his first name, was supposed to disembark at Egypts Suez port last month from a vessel hes been on for more than nine months. Travel restrictions in Egypt prevented him from leaving and management has told him all crew changes are suspended until mid-April, although thats subject to change.

Typical rotations on cargo vessels last between three and nine months and seafarers often work 12-hour days, six days a week.

The risk of being too long on a ship is mental and physical stress, Luis said in a message. Im worried about my family, and when I can go home. Im worried if I can go home safely. Im really tired, but I have no choice.

In China, substitution of maritime crews is limited in some ports and forbidden in others, according to a list of restrictions from marine insurer The North of England Protecting & Indemnity Association Ltd. Abu Dhabi has prohibited crew changes for three months and Singapore disallowed crew changes for the time being, though it has recently allowed some exemptions.

The 80% of global trade transported by commercial shipping include food, energy and raw materials, as well as manufactured goods and components, according to UNCTAD.

Volumes at port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc., which has terminals in nearly 20 countries, likely fell 10% to 15% last month and are expected to decline further in April, Chairman Enrique Razon said Tuesday. Terminals in Latin America are the hardest-hit, while those in Australia and Africa are holding steady, he said.

Its important to keep sea trade flowing, said Jim Aquines, 36, a chief engineer who was supposed to be deployed this month from the Philippines but remains at home. Restrictions will cripple not only seafarers but countries who rely on overseas supplies.

Photograph: Shipping containers stacked at the Yangshan Deepwater Port in Shanghai on March 23. Photographer: Qilai Shen, Bloomberg.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics COVID-19
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Dozens of medical staff at The Alfred have been cleared to return to work following a cluster of coronavirus cases in the oncology ward, but it could be months before the source of the deadly outbreak at the hospital is known.

Three cancer patients died at the hospital in the past two weeks, while another two patients and 10 staff in the haematology and oncology ward have tested positive to COVID-19.

Three cancer patient have died at The Alfred in Melbourne after contracting coronavirus. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui

The two patients remain in a stable condition, while the infected staff are isolating and recovering at home.

About 100 staff from the hospital's oncology ward were sent home and ordered to go into isolation following the outbreak, but The Age has been told a large proportion of them have since been tested and cleared to return to their normal work duties.
BOSTON  Carlos Rolon had been on the transplant list for four years, and now the 6-year-old has got a new heart.

"He's doing great. They said he's doing amazing," his mom, Sheena Cossette, told CNN.

Carlos was still in intensive care at Boston Children's Hospital after Friday's surgery, but Cossette said hospital staff hoped to be able to remove his breathing tube soon.

The boy came out of surgery before midnight, and his mom said she could see a difference right away.

"My first reaction was his color" because his skin had a bluish-gray tone before the surgery. "When I looked at him, his color was amazing," she said.

Cossette said his breathing seemed much smoother and his oxygen levels were at 100%.

"That's when I knew it was real," she said.

Carlos was born with an abnormality in his heart chambers called unbalanced atrioventricular canal defect, and had four open heart surgeries before he was 2 years old, his mom said.

He went on the transplant list in 2016, but he was still able to have a pretty normal life in Worcester, Massachusetts, and was even able to go to school.

Carlos got sicker last year and has been at Boston's Children's since Aug. 31.

Cossette talked to Carlos' primary doctor on Thursday because she was afraid that the coronavirus pandemic might delay him getting a transplant.

"A few hours later, he came up and told me he had one," she said. "And I think that was the biggest shock for me like, wow, it almost was so unreal."

Cossette and Carlos' father, whose name is also Carlos, aren't together but have been taking turns staying with him at the hospital.

The doctor came with the news just a few minutes before his dad arrived.

Both young Carlos and the donor had to be tested for COVID-19 before the transplant could go forward. CNN reached out to the hospital but has not been able to get any information about the donor.

Cossette said they waited until the tests came back negative to tell their son the news.

"His face lit up," she said, and he asked if that meant he'd be able to go home. "His biggest thing these last few weeks is he wants to go home. He misses his family. We are very big family and very family-orientated," she said. "And I said 'yes, after you get your new heart, you get to go home."

She said he might be able to go home in two or three weeks.

They won't be able to have that big family reunion right away, Cossette said, to protect him from coronavirus.

"We're going to quarantine when we go home. Yes, absolutely, because he has no immune system. His immune system was suppressed, and the biggest fear factor right after transplant is rejection," she said.

Cossette said she is grateful to the donor's family for giving Carlos a new chance at life.

The-CNN-Wire  &  2020 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
Nouakchott, 5 April 2020 (SPS) - Mauritanian Reform Party has sent a message of condolence to President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Mr. Brahim Ghali, mourning the death of Emhamed Khaddad.



"We learned in the Mauritanian Reform Party the news of the death of leader Emhamad Khadad, he was a man of courage and high values, who was a fortified bridge to ensure communication and common destiny of our Mauritanian and Sahrawi peoples," said the party.



Therefore, we send you and through you to the Sahrawi people and leadership and the family of the deceased our utmost sympathy and condolences, asking God Almighty to blessed him with his mercy, it added. (SPS)



062/SPS/T
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 22:03:37|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- China and the Netherlands should strengthen international cooperation to fight COVID-19 and build up their support for free trade, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in a phone conversation with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Tuesday afternoon.

Noting that the two countries are facing the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Li said China is willing to strengthen cooperation with the international community, including the Netherlands, to better battle the disease and jointly safeguard global public health and safety.

Li said, during the outbreak, the two governments and peoples have offered each other support and assistance, adding that China stands ready to facilitate the Netherlands' purchase and transportation of medical supplies of urgent need from China, and will continue its tight control over the quality of export products.

China hopes, Li noted, the Dutch side safeguard the safety and the convenience for the living of Chinese citizens, especially Chinese students, in the Netherlands with concrete measures.

Li stressed that both China and the Netherlands support free trade. While intensifying the anti-epidemic cooperation, the two countries should step up efforts together to safeguard the stability and safety of global industrial chains and supply chains, guaranteeing smooth international transport of goods, he added.

Rutte thanked China for providing support and convenience to Dutch fight against the epidemic, which demonstrates the friendly ties between both sides to overcome the current difficulties together.

The Netherlands has full confidence in the quality of anti-epidemic materials produced in China, and will protect the safety and convenience of Chinese nationals in the country, the Dutch prime minister said.

Rutte said the Netherlands is willing to enhance cooperation with China to promote the continuous development of bilateral relations.
LIMERICKs retail sector has received a boost after it emerged Debenhamss Irish operations will not be subject to the tough measures at its British stores.

Cross-channel, the struggling department store is to enter administration for the second time in a year, with 22,000 jobs under threat. The company has clamed the move on the coronavirus crisis.

However, this move does not impact on the firms 11 Irish stores, nor the 1,400 staff working here, including workers at the prime city centre spot at the OConnell Street/Sarsfield Street junction.

Like most of the city centres stores, Debenhams is currently not trading on public health grounds.

Fine Gael councillor Daniel Butler has welcomed the fact the chain will not close its store in the city.

Its great to hear our operations wont be affected. They are stable jobs, and we need to retain shops like this, especially with the trouble the city centre has been experiencing and the troubles its like to face going forward, he said.

I welcome the news. Hopefully things will return back to normal quickly, so we can all get back to shopping in local shops, and supporting local positions as much as we can.

A Debenhams spokesperson earlier confirmed the Irish arm of the business was not affected by the decision.

Obviously the stores in Ireland are temporarily closed owing to the current situation, but the business is still trading online and the intention is to reopen the stores once the government restrictions are lifted, they said.

Outside of Limerick, the department store also has branches including in Newbridge, Dublin, Galway, Tralee, Waterford and Cork.
Its one thing to adopt a poorly formed set of principles and foist them on others at every opportunity. Its another to apply those principles unflinchingly to ones political opponents while giving allies a free pass.

Celebrity Alyssa Milano  who is famous now mostly for having once been famous  has lately become an expert in this sort of hypocrisy, as she has cashed in her social-media currency to become a useless fixture of our increasingly useless political debates.

Unlike most of our cultural icons, she has declined to use her Twitter and Instagram accounts to fill our feeds with mind-numbing but bearable drivel about nontoxic beauty products, green smoothies, and high-intensity workouts. Instead, she has chosen to become a champion of myriad progressive causes and a star in the vast constellation of anti-Trump celebrities.

One of her more memorable crusades in recent memory was on behalf of failed 2017 Democratic congressional candidate Jon Ossoff, who attempted to win an open seat in a Georgia district in which he didnt reside. But perhaps her most vocal campaign has been as a self-fashioned leader of the #MeToo movement. In this role, she has often invoked the ill-conceived believe all women principle by which we are required to reflexively assume that every woman who alleges sexual harassment or assault is telling the truth.

During the lengthy smear campaign against Brett Kavanaugh  in which the nominees ideological opponents attempted to tank his confirmation by entertaining unsubstantiated allegations of sexual misconduct  Milano became one of the most vehement anti-Kavanaugh voices.

When one of Kavanaughs accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, gave her public statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Milano attended the hearing, sitting well within view of the C-Span and network cameras. She was there, she said, to show support for Doctor Ford, to stand in solidarity with other women, other survivors that have been through similar experiences.

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If professor Christine Blasey Ford is to be believed, and I believe she is, Brett Kavanaugh is a sexual predator, Milano wrote in a CNN op-ed in October 2018. In one tweet at the time, she shared a statement from discredited Kavanaugh accuser Debbie Ramirez. In another, she wrote:

Its was just confirmed to me by @MichaelAvenatti that the @FBI has NOT yet reached out to him about his client Julie Swetnick. They have reached out to Deborah Ramirez and her representatives.  Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) September 29, 2018

Apparently, she thought that the FBI should reach out to Michael Avenatti and Julie Swetnick, who, without witnesses or evidence, accused Kavanaugh of vicious sexual crimes.

Since the dawn of the #MeToo movement, Milano has presented herself as a consistent advocate for women, staunchly refusing to survey the available evidence in each accusation and instead mechanically adopting the position that accused men are always guilty.

No longer. In the wake of sexual-misconduct allegations against Joe Biden, whom Milano has endorsed for president, the #MeToo maven appears to have discovered the long-forgotten notion of due process.

In an interview yesterday afternoon, Milano explained her decision to continue endorsing Biden, even as she defended her position of believing womens testimony, saying that for so long, the go-to has been not to believe them.

We really have to sort of societally change that mindset to believing women, she continued. But that does not mean at the expense of giving men their due process and investigating situations, and its got to be fair in both directions.

Of the accusation against Biden, Milano went on to say, I did my work and I spoke to [antisexual harassment group] Times Up, and I just dont feel comfortable throwing away a decent man that Ive known for 15 years in this time of complete chaos without there being a thorough investigation.

In a Twitter thread last week after one of the accusations emerged, Milano wrote, I respect Lucy Flores decision to share her story and agree with Biden that we all must pay attention to it. But, just as we must believe women that decide to come forward, we cannot assume all womens experiences are the same.

#MeToo activist and Harvey Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan harshly criticized Milano for her defense of Biden. While McGowan deserves criticism for embracing the believe all women mantra and dispensing with due process, shes right to note the insincerity on display when activists such as Milano apply those principles only when its politically convenient.

Milanos pro-due-process statement on the accusations against Biden is, in essence, the correct one, just as Bidens recent defense of himself was justifiable. Due process is an essential part of the liberal legal tradition and a foundational part of our culture; theres nothing wrong with invoking innocent until proven guilty on ones own behalf or that of a friend. There is, however, quite a bit wrong with invoking this principle only when it suits you and jettisoning it when it comes to people holding political beliefs you find abhorrent.

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The cardinal had been convicted on counts related to two separate incidents when he was the archbishop of Melbourne, making him the first bishop to be found guilty in a criminal court for sexually abusing minors, according to BishopAccountability.org, which tracks cases of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

The six-year sentence, which fell far short of the 50-year maximum, was closely scrutinized, but held up on its initial appeal, which was based in part on Cardinal Pells contention that there was not sufficient evidence to support the convictions.

In its judgment on Tuesday, the High Court found that for all five charges, there were many improbabilities that had not been fully considered by the jury. There is a significant possibility, the judges wrote in summarizing the case, that an innocent person has been convicted.

The problems started, the decision suggested, with the single accuser. Because a second complainant had died before a trial began, the case was wholly dependent upon the acceptance of the truthfulness and the reliability of one mans testimony, the judges wrote.

While the jury found him credible, along with a majority of judges in the Court of Appeal, the High Court sided with a dissenting appeals court judge. That judge said that the jury ought to have had a reasonable doubt about Cardinal Pells guilt based on testimony from other witnesses who argued that the events described by the accuser did not match the cardinals regular Sunday routine.

There were other allegations that were not part of the case. In February 2019, a second trial in which Cardinal Pell was accused of touching boys in a swimming pool in Ballarat was canceled because of legal setbacks.

Karen Monument, the sister of one of the men in that case, said her brother and the family were devastated that Cardinal Pell would now walk free.
Easter is right around the corner, but churches across Oregon will not open doors to services this Sunday, April 12, in the continued effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Oregon.

In compliance with Oregon Gov. Kate Browns stay-at-home order, churches have halted public services for weeks and instead turned to livestreaming platforms to deliver video feeds of their worship services.

Is your church among them? We want to hear from you. Were gathering service information for this weekend for churches in the Portland metropolitan area.

To be included, please email the following information to events@oregonian.com by noon Thursday, April 9.

Church name, address, and denomination

Time and date of services

A link to your livestream landing page

Catholics can look to the Archdiocese of Portlands live Masses landing page at https://archdpdx.org/live-masses for links to the many parishes livestreaming Masses in English and Spanish.

Parkside Fellowship: 5755 SW Erickson, Beaverton. Baptist - Streaming services 10 a.m. Sunday, April 12 (also Good Friday, 7 p.m. April 10); https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCrGL5qq9iBREkOT8FzF3OA and facebook.com/ParksideFellowship/

Sonrise Church: 6701 NE Campus Way, Hillsboro. Baptist -- Streaming 11 a.m. every Sunday; facebook.com/sonrisechurch/

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral: 147 NW 19th Ave., Portland. Episcopalian --Streaming services 10 a.m. Sunday, April 12 (as well as Thursday-Saturday services); facebook.com/trinitycathpdx

Faith Center Aloha: 20227 SW Tualatin Valley Highway, Aloha. Foursquare Church - Streaming every Sunday, including Easter at 10 a.m.; facebook.com/fc4square/

What about your church? Email events@oregonian.com by noon Thursday, April 9.

 The Oregonian/OregonLive, events@oregonian.com
(Newser)  Ellen DeGeneres has joined the ranks of talk-show hosts returning to the airwaves from their own homes. On Monday, DeGeneres did so from her glass-walled living room, expressing a hope that she could provide a pleasant distraction from the coronavirus pandemic. (See the video.) DeGeneres, whose show had suspended production in March because of the outbreak, joked she was filming from the living room because "all the other rooms in my house are filled with toilet paper," per the Hollywood Reporter. DeGeneres also got in a joke about life in isolation: "This is like being in jail," she said. "Mostly because I've been wearing the same clothes for 10 days and everyone in here is gay."

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That particular joke didn't land well with everyone. "What a great look for Ellen as thousands of people sit in actual jail cells just hoping for the best without soap and basic protections," tweeted Variety's Caroline Framke. As for that home: Mansion Global reported in February 2019 that DeGeneres purchased a $27 million mansioncomplete with guest house, gym, and an infinity pool overlooking the oceanon 8 acres of land in Montecito, Calif., after selling a $34 million property in the same area in July 2018. In 2019 alone, DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi "sold properties for $6.98 million, $15.5 million, and $23 million," per Architectural Digest. (Michelle Obama told DeGeneres about her life in isolation.)
In actions that have far-reaching and ominous implications for democracy in America, both the Wisconsin state Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court have intervened to support the demand by Republican Party officials in Wisconsin that the state conduct an in-person election today, despite the danger of coronavirus infection for any voter who goes to the polls.

The Wisconsin election is to go forward, both the Democratic presidential primary, a statewide vote for the state Supreme Court and a state referendum, and hundreds of local contests, despite the last-minute effort by Democratic Governor Tony Evers to postpone it until June. After weeks of prevaricating, Evers issued an executive order Monday to put off the in-person voting until June 9.

As of Monday, Wisconsin had 2,440 cases of coronavirus, of which 1,256 cases and 40 deaths were in Milwaukee, followed by Dane County (Madison) with 278 cases and nine deaths, Waukesha County, 160 cases and four deaths, and Kenosha County, 104 cases and one death. There is little doubt that holding a primary election with in-person voting will drive these numbers upward.

The vote is an election in name only, however. Because of the dangers of COVID-19 infection, particularly to the predominately elderly and retired people who traditionally staff polling places, there will actually be few places for voters to cast their ballots if they attempt to do so. Thousands of poll workers have refused to participate in the election because of the risk to their health.

In the entire city of Milwaukee, with a population of nearly 600,000, only five voting stations will be open. The city was compelled to reduce the number of polling stations from the usual 180 to five because it was essentially without poll workers. Nearly half of the 85 people who have died of coronavirus so far in Wisconsin were Milwaukee residents.

Many other cities were following suit. Green Bay, for example, cut the number of polling places from 31 to only two. Only Madison, the second-largest city and a Democratic stronghold, indicated it would open the usual number of polling places. But Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said, before the state Supreme Court issued its order, I certainly hope that anyone who has any influence on the decision recognizes again that from a public health perspective, it would be a really, really bad idea to hold the election.

The Republican-controlled state legislature has achieved its wildest dreams: an election in Wisconsin in which voters in Milwaukee, the states largest city, and in many other smaller cities, are effectively disenfranchised, while voters in sparsely populated rural areas, where the coronavirus is not yet a major factor, are expected to turn out. And this has been sanctioned by a 42 vote of the Wisconsin state Supreme Court, on a party-line vote, with one Republican, Daniel Kelly, who is up for reelection in todays ballot, recusing himself.

This travesty of democracy has been further sanctioned by the US Supreme Court, which issued a ruling, shortly after the state Supreme Court decision, overturning a federal district court decision to allow more time for voters to complete and mail in absentee ballots. By a party-line 54 vote, with five justices appointed by Republican presidents overruling four justices appointed by Democrats, the high court found that the lower court had exceeded its authority and that the coronavirus emergency did not justify allowing voters to mail in absentee ballots after the April 7 primary.

In his opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh explicitly declared that the court was not taking a position on whether the primary election should be held on April 7. That was left to be decided by the state Supreme Court. This is the opposite of the position taken by a 54 Republican majority on the court in the notorious 2000 decision in Bush v. Gore, in which the US Supreme Court overturned the decision of the Florida state Supreme Court to allow a statewide recount to continue because all voters, under the Florida state constitution, had the right to have their votes counted.

The Courts order requires absentee voters to postmark their ballots by election day, April 7i.e., tomorroweven if they did not receive their ballots by that date. That is a novel requirement, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in her dissent of the 54 decision, adding, the Courts order, I fear, will result in massive disenfranchisement.

The US Supreme Court overturned the ruling made by District Judge William Conley, for the Western District of Wisconsin, which would have required counting absentee ballots mailed later than April 7 provided they were received by April 13, the legal deadline. Nearly 600,000 absentee ballots mailed to voters at their request have not yet been returned. Some 11,000 ballots had not yet been mailed out Monday morning to the voters who requested them. Given the disruption caused by the coronavirus epidemic, it is likely that tens if not hundreds of thousands of ballots will not be postmarked by April 7 and those votes will be disqualified.

In issuing Executive Order #74 to postpone the April 7 vote, Governor Evers cited language in the state Constitution which allows him to take extraordinary action which he or she deems necessary for the security of persons and property. The two top state Republicans, Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, immediately filed suit with the state Supreme Court, accusing Evers of unconstitutional overreach.

Evers had dithered over whether to go ahead with the election, even after 11 other US states with votes scheduled between March 24 and mid-May had either postponed their elections or switched to mail-ballot-only to allow voters to observe social distancing rules aimed at curbing the coronavirus infection. On Sunday, the mayors of nine Wisconsin cities, including Milwaukee and Madison, appealed to the states Department of Health Services to ban in-person voting Tuesday on health grounds.

After initially claiming he had no legal authority to postpone the vote, Evers issued the executive order Monday, with his spokesman saying conditions had changed because of the pandemic: This is an unprecedented situation in our states history, and thus this is not even really a choice, but a need in order to protect personal security to not allow in-person voting tomorrow.

The election is now supposed to go forward, putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people needlessly at risk. President Trump voiced his approval for the courts decision, writing on Twitter, The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that tomorrows election will proceed as scheduled. VOTE for Justice Daniel Kelly tomorrow, and be safe!

In an interview with the Washington Post, Lois Frank, 57, the village clerk of tiny Cambria, located in rural eastern Wisconsin, spoke of the danger clerks like her will face tomorrow. Were going to be on the front lines just like the health care workers, I just personally know a lot of clerks that do have health risks, myself included.

No in-person primaries have been held in the US since March 17 when Florida, Arizona and Illinois voters risked their lives waiting hours to vote in crowded understaffed polling stations. In the declaration accompanying his executive order, Evers compared the infection rates between Michigan and Ohio to explain why the elections needed to be postponed.

Michigan currently has 17,221 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 727 deaths, while Ohio reports 4,400 cases of COVID-19 with 142 deaths so far. Ohio actually has a larger population, and the two states are comparable in the social devastation and poverty of former industrial centers like Detroit, Cleveland and Youngstown. But Michigan held a presidential primary on March 10, in which some 1.4 million people voted, while Ohio canceled its scheduled in-person voting on March 17.

This past Saturday Evers had called a special session of the legislature to take up his belated request to postpone the primary until May 19 and to convert the election to an entirely mail-in election. The Republican-dominated assembly gaveled in and out of the special session in less than 20 seconds without taking up the governors request.

In addition to the Democratic presidential primary contest between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, the April 7 elections features the aforementioned supreme court race between Kelly and current Dane County Circuit Judge Jill Karofsky, as well as hundreds of contests for county board, school board and municipal judges.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that up to 7,000 poll workers had already made it known that they were not going to violate Evers stay-at-home order by working the polls. According to Evers own executive order, the city of Waukesha, with a population of nearly 73,000 people, would have had one available polling station. But limiting the number of stations exacerbates the danger of spreading the infection, since it insures longer lines at the polls.

Evers and the GOP had sought a deal to protect poll workers, many who are older and at higher risk of falling ill, floating a proposal to replace the older poll workers with younger ones. When this proposal, unsurprisingly, found few volunteers, Evers decided to call up soldiers from the Wisconsin National Guard to needlessly endanger themselves by manning the few polling stations that will be available.
VIENNA TWP, MI  A 31-year-old Birch Run man shot and killed himself Monday afternoon in the parking lot outside a Vienna Township Walmart, police said.

Genesee County sheriff deputies were called around 4:30 p.m. Monday, April 6 for a report of a shooting at the store, 11493 N. Linden Road, near M-57.

Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson said a sheriffs patrol vehicle had been in the parking lot doing a routine patrol check less than one minute before the call went out.

Witnesses told police the man, whose name has not been released, jumped onto the trunk of his vehicle with a 20-gauge shotgun in hand.

He fired one shot in the air, said Swanson. None of the witnesses said they thought they were in a direct line of fire.

The man then turned the gun on himself.

Swanson noted the mans family told police hed been battling with depression and thought he was acting strange on Monday.

Sadly, they were not able to give him the opportunity to choose a better path, said Swanson.

Counseling is being provided for any witnesses to the incident.

It was a shocking scene for our veteran officers and anyone else that was there, Swanson said.

The sheriff commented on the need for mental health care as people have self-isolated but also for those struggling with addiction.

Swanson spoke of recent headlines showing an increase in alcohol sales and recovering addicts missing out on meetings.

If you dont have a support system built up, theres a sad path they are walking down, he said.

Swanson also pointed to the short-term and long-term mental health issues.

Options remain available for people dealing with negative feelings, Swanson said, including online counseling, reaching out to friends and family, leaning on ones faith, or calling 911.

Our crisis teams are out there, he added.

The Genesee Health System offers a 24-hour crisis hotline at 810-257-3740 or sending a text to 741741. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached by calling 1-800-273-8255.
The COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund Board has assured of utmost transparency as it commences its mandate towards containing the spread, effects and impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition to mobilising resources, the Board is expected to support the governments efforts in the supply of medical facilities and equipment, and further support vulnerable communities with their immediate needs, including food.

The Board will fulfill its mandate with the utmost transparency and good corporate governance. The Board will make public all contributions and expenditure regularly, said Board Chair, Jane Karuku.

For accountability, the Board is working with professional services firms PwC Kenya, Deloitte Kenya and EY Kenya who are providing pro-bono assurance services, she added.

The board chair noted that the board was fully aware of the challenging economic times that Kenyans are facing arising from the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, for this reason, the Board will reach out primarily to corporate entities, development partners and multinational institutions for their contributions to the Fund, Ms Karuku said.

The Board has since received Ksh 100 million from Co-op Bank, Ksh 100 million worth of oxygen by Devki Group Chairman Narendra Raval, with UAP Group Old Mutual Faulu Foundation committing Ksh6 million for humanitarian initiatives in response to the pandemic.

Any person who may wish to donate to the Fund can send their contributions to:

Account name: Kenya COVID-19 Fund

Account number: 2042554653

Bank Name: Absa Bank Kenya PLC

Branch: Absa Towers

Branch Code: 077

Swift Code: BARCKENX

Or

MPESA Paybill: 999000

Account number: Name of organisation or individual
The national capital reported 25 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday to take the tally of infected people to 550 as the countrywide count inched closer to 5,000.

Twenty five more Covid-19 cases were reported in Delhi today. Total number of positive cases in Delhi stands at 550. Out of them 331 cases are related to the Nizamuddin Markaz, 170 cases have foreign travel/contact history and 49 cases are under investigation. Twenty people have been discharged while there have been nine deaths, the chief ministers office (CMO) said.

Follow coronavirus live updates here.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi government said that phone numbers of 1950 people related to Tablighi Jamat have been given to Delhi Police for tracing. All these people were removed from the Nizamuddin headquarter of the Markaz.

The Delhi Police has also asked visitors to the Markaz after March 1 to inform police stations in their areas.

After March 1, whoever visited Markaz Nizamuddin should inform their concerned Police stations. If they dont do so it will be considered as concealment of facts and legal action will be taken against the violators, said M S Randhawa, Delhi Police spokesperson , according to ANI.

He also appealed to hospitals to inform the police if they admit any Covid-19 patient.

I would like to appeal to all hospitals to inform us, health department of Covid-19 authorised hospitals if they admit any Covid-19 positive patient. If this is not followed it will be considered as concealment of facts and legal action will be taken, Randhawa said.

While states have expressed concern over the high number of cases among the Tablighi Jamaat members and their contacts, several opposition leaders have expressed fears that these cases were being highlighted to demonise Muslims.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury in a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind has asked him to that the Tablighi Jamaat event congregation cannot be the excuse to target the Muslim community as a whole.
The Leon Valley City Council extended City Manager Kelly Kuenstlers contract through September to help the suburban community get through the COVID-19 pandemic, but the councils Tuesday night teleconference meeting was cut short when internet trolls interrupted, shouting profanities and piping in music with pornographic lyrics.

Because of the interruption, the council deferred action on an ethics complaint leveled against Mayor Chris Riley, who has stoutly denied all allegations.

The council continued the meeting by remote for more than two hours Wednesday night without taking action. After listening to several citizens but experiencing repeated audio problems, officials reset the meeting for 5:30 p.m. Monday. The citys emergency stay-at-home order will expire that day.

Several residents reported difficulty finding out how to dial in to Wednesdays teleconference for two-way communication, as required by law, and requested the delay. Others had difficulty making a good connection.

During Tuesday nights meeting, held by teleconference because of the coronavirus restrictions, the council voted 4-1 to keep Kuenstler for five months beyond May 1, when her resignation originally was to take effect. The council also agreed to keep Police Chief Joe Salvaggio in his position; originally, the council had named him interim city manager starting in May.

With the pandemic requiring enforcement of the suburbs stay-at-home emergency order and putting a financial strain on the city, officials said it was in the communitys best interest to keep Kuenstler and Salvaggio in their current roles through Sept. 30.

On ExpressNews.com: Leon Valley city manager resigns

The council met for more than an hour in an executive session before approving an extension of Kuenstlers contract in a special meeting.

Officials said the city may still hire Salvaggio as Kuenstlers interim replacement in the fall.

City Councilor Will Bradshaw cast the lone dissenting vote against Kuenstlers contract extension, calling it unreasonable, but supported a motion, which passed unanimously, to keep Salvaggio in the chiefs position.

During the public comment portion of Tuesdays regular council meeting, residents weighed in via teleconference and emailed statements that were read aloud on two hot-button issues: a recent door-to-door survey of Leon Valley residents by police; and ethics grievances filed by City Councilor Donna Charles against Riley, who has been mayor since 2004.

Some citizens said they felt intimidated by police officers who randomly visited their homes for the survey. Others praised Salvaggio and his force for delivering groceries and medicine to seniors during the pandemic.

Riley and council members Bradshaw and Matthew Hodde said they wished Salvaggio had given the council advance notice about the survey, because they fielded calls from residents and didnt know about it.

I would have appreciated the council being informed that this was going on, Riley said. Ive lived here for 40 years, and Ive never seen police go door to door, except for in times of an emergency.

Salvaggio said the survey was meant to be a way for officers to establish relationships with residents, and he didnt want it getting mired in local politics or rumors posted on social media. The survey, conducted in part to learn which homes had surveillance cameras and other security systems, started late last year, but was not completed because of the pandemic.

We didnt want any interference with the process, Salvaggio said. If thats offended somebody to have a policeman at their door, I really dont know what to say about that. The policemen of this community are out there to serve everybody.

One resident, Janie Garcia, defended the survey as a technique common to community policing, and said the distrust it has generated is unfortunate, especially during this time with the COVID-19 issue going on.

I dont think there were any negative questions that were asked, Garcia said via teleconference. The objective, to me, was to find out, get a pulse check to see how they could do better.

On ExpressNews.com: Leon Valley grapples with COVID-19

Another key issue of interest was a finding by the citys Ethics Review Board that the mayor violated the citys home-rule charter by releasing attorney-client privileged information.

Riley released invoices submitted to the city by attorney Ryan Henry, who served as special counsel during a forfeiture hearing last year that resulted in the removal of Councilor Benny Martinez from office. Henry was paid by the city.

The board recommended no remedial action be taken against Riley.

The council was to discuss and take action on the boards decision late Tuesday. But the teleconference broke down when people from outside the city and even the state began logging on, shouting profanities before they could be muted.

I think we might just need to stop this meeting, Riley said. I dont know. This is getting out of hand.

The meeting ended less than a minute later during the public comment period when sexually explicit lyrics began playing on the live stream, and officials unplugged the teleconference.

Scott Huddleston covers Bexar County government and the Alamo for the San Antonio Express-News. To read more from Scott, become a subscriber. shuddleston@express-news.net | Twitter: @shuddlestonSA
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 20:28:02|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about the progress on the vaccine and anti-body during his visit to the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing, capital of China, March 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

As countries worldwide mark the 2020 World Health Day amid a raging COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese President Xi Jinping's remarks on global public health have become particularly meaningful.

BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Over the past seven years, Chinese President Xi Jinping has on various occasions stressed the importance of global health cooperation, expressed China's support for international health organizations, and voiced the country's determination to help improve global health governance.

His remarks on global public health in recent years, especially in the last few months, have become particularly meaningful as countries worldwide mark the 2020 World Health Day on Tuesday amid a raging COVID-19 pandemic.

Medical experts to Italy are seen before departure in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, March 25, 2020. (Xinhua/Wei Peiquan)

Back in 2013, during a meeting with then World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan in Beijing, Xi said China will continue to improve public health and enhance cooperation with the WHO.

He also expressed his hope that China and the WHO could work closer to help promote Chinese medicine and medical products into overseas markets, and jointly assist African countries to improve their disease control and public health systems to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

In March 2015, Xi pointed out in a meeting in China's Hainan province with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that preventing and controlling public epidemics is a common challenge to the international community and requires strengthening international cooperation on joint control.

Two years later, during his trip to Switzerland, Xi paid a special visit to the WHO headquarters, in which he co-witnessed with Chan the signing of a memorandum of understanding between China and the WHO pledging to step up health cooperation under the framework of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

During the meeting with Chan, Xi noted that China stands ready to enhance cooperation with the WHO in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and assisting other developing countries.

Also in 2017, in his congratulatory letter to a meeting of BRICS countries' health ministers, Xi called on relevant parties to study work in the field of traditional medicine and make joint efforts to tackle public health challenges.

"It is our common good vision that everyone enjoys good health," he said in the letter.

A medical expert from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University communicates with Kenyan counterparts via a video call in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 22, 2020. (Photo by Gao Xiang/Xinhua)

In the past several months of 2020 which witnessed a hike in global caseload of COVID-19 infections, Xi has taken each opportunity to reiterate his call for global public health cooperation against the virus.

When meeting with visiting WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Beijing in January, Xi said China attaches great importance to the cooperation with the WHO, and is ready to work with the organization as well as the international community to safeguard regional and global public health security.

In February, in a reply letter to Gates, Xi said "we are resolute in protecting the life and health of the people of China, and of all countries around the world. We are determined to do our part to uphold global public health security."

In March, when the global anti-virus fight entered a critical stage, Xi highlighted the need for international health cooperation not only in several domestic meetings on epidemic prevention and control, but also in phone conversations with foreign leaders and heads of international organizations, as well as in such global events as the Extraordinary G20 Leaders' Summit.

On March 12, Xi spoke with United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres over phone, and urged the international community to take urgent action and carry out effective international cooperation in joint prevention and control, so as to form a strong concerted force to beat the disease.

China stands ready to share its experience with other countries, carry out joint research and development on drugs and vaccines, and offer as much assistance as it can to countries where the disease is spreading, Xi said.

Iraqi staff members work at the new PCR (polymerase chain reaction) lab built by the Chinese team of experts in Baghdad, Iraq, March 30, 2020. (Xinhua)

Several days later, speaking at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, he required closer cooperation with the WHO to strengthen the analysis and prediction of the changes in the global epidemic situation, and improvement in strategies and policies to cope with imported risks.

On March 21, in a phone conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, Xi pointed out that public health security is a common challenge faced by humanity.

China, he said, is willing to make concerted efforts with France to enhance international cooperation in epidemic prevention and control, support the UN and WHO playing a core role in improving global public health governance, and build a community of common health for mankind.

Three days later, talking with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev over phone, Xi said in the battle against the current global public health crisis, the urgency and significance of building a community with a shared future for mankind have become even greater.

On March 26, in his keynote speech at the Extraordinary G20 Leaders' Summit via video, Xi said at such a moment, it is imperative for the international community to strengthen confidence, act with unity and work together in a collective response.

He called on G20 members to jointly help developing countries with weak public health systems enhance preparedness and response, and enhance anti-epidemic information sharing with the support of WHO and to promote control and treatment protocols that are comprehensive, systematic and effective. 
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Steven Mannino, who formerly operated a sandwich truck, and his long-time friend Joe Jiannetto were supposed to launch a mobile pizza delivery business in partnership with Villa Monte Pizzeria & Restaurant on April 1.

But the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak stopped this business venture in its tracks.

Thats when Mannino, whose nieces are nurses, and his partners decided they would use the operation to give back to the community.

We see how everybody in New York is coming together. We see people bringing meals to people in Manhattan, so we felt we could bring a hot meal right to first responders on Staten Island, said Mannino.

The truck will be parked each day at a different location, including the three hospital sites in the borough. It will provide hot pizza slices to nurses, doctors and other first responders for lunch, Mannino said.

This is for everyone fighting this. This is for all the doctors and nurses. But this is also for the security guards, and the janitors working hard to keep these sites clean. A janitor is just as important as a nurse right now, he added.

The truck started its delivery service by parking on Seguine Avenue near Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH), Princes Bay, on Monday.

On Tuesday, the truck will be giving out free pizza at SIUHs Ocean Breeze facility, and on Wednesday it will offer free lunch to workers at Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton.

I put the pizza on tables six feet away in individual boxes of one or two slices each. People can take which ever they prefer, said Mannino.

The pizza is heated on the truck and delivered hot to first responders, he said.

DONATIONS

Mannino said right now Villa Monte Pizzeria -- which has three Island locations in New Springville, Arden Heights and Tottenville -- is footing the entire cost for the pizzas. But they will accept donations to pay for the ingredients so they can keep the truck running throughout the pandemic, he said.

All we need is the cost for the dough, cheese and sauce, said Mannino. In fact, if they receive more donations than necessary, money will be donated to local charities, he said.

Right now we can deliver to the three hospitals. If we get donations we will go to the police precincts and firehouses, he added.

Augie, Michael and Tony Mandara, who have all been involved in the long history of Villa Monte Pizzeria & Restaurant on Staten Island. (Photo courtesy of Augie Mandara)

VILLA MONTE HISTORY

Augie Mandara, who has owned the pizzeria since 1984 with members of his family -- including his brother Tony Mandara -- said he will soon be setting up an account strictly for donations for this effort.

We always look to give back to the neighborhood," said Mandara. I started with my brothers, my father, and another partner. We are a family business, and have been very close from day one. We deliver to locations throughout Staten Island, and right now we feel anything we can do to help Staten Island first responders would be beneficial."

HOW TO DONATE

We are now working with Go In Your Purse For a Nurse, bringing gift cards to nurses and other essential workers, said Mannino. To donate, call Villa Monte at (718) 984-7100.

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Spirit of Yorkshire adds sherry finished release

Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery has launched its first sherry finished' release, Filey Bay Moscatel Finish.

Co-Founder of the North Yorkshire distillery, David Thompson, said: "We're in strange times at the moment. We've been planning this release since autumn last year. We wanted to continue with the launch, but we've evolved our plan so that it's available to pre-order now and will be delivered with free delivery to UK mainland, once it's safe to do so.

"This field to bottle single malt was initially matured in 200L bourbon casks that were filled in 2016, before being transferred to 250L Hogshead barrels from Spain that had held Moscatel, a floral and aromatic naturally sweet sherry wine, for 10 years prior to this.

"The use of bourbon casks followed by Moscatel barrels to finish creates a really interesting flavourful whisky. It's still light and soft like Filey Bay First and Second Releases, but with more layers of fruit and sweet spices.

"Whilst sherries like Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso are well known in single malt whisky maturation, Moscatel is much rarer and more unusual. Moscatel grapes are known for floral aromas of orange blossom, jasmine and honeysuckle as well as citric notes like lime and grapefruit. The grapes thrive in sandy soil and Moscatel vineyards are close to the beaches in the sherry region of Spain - making it a perfect match for our Filey Bay whisky, made here on the Yorkshire Coast."

Spirit of Yorkshire's whisky director, Joe Clark, said: "Filey Bay Moscatel Finish is soft, spicy and warming with notes of honeycomb, orange marmalade, dried fruits and cocoa. By using bourbon casks first and combining both our pot and column spirit styles, we created a light whisky in our house-style, which has then softened further and taken on more wood spice and layers of fruit from the Moscatel barrels."

Filey Bay Moscatel Finish is limited to 6,000 70cl bottles and costs 60. It is available to pre-order from spiritofyorkshire.com and orders will be fulfilled when it is safe to do so.

Spirit of Yorkshire launched Yorkshire's first single malt whisky, Filey Bay First Release in October 2019. It sold out within three months and Filey Bay Second Release was launched in January 2020.

Spirit of Yorkshire was launched in 2016 and is a collaboration between farmer and brewer, Tom Mellor from Wold Top Brewery and business partner, David Thompson.

Related articles:
South Korea had won praises from across the world for how the country conducted mass testing of COVID-19 suspects. The country that has a population of 51 million tested 395,194 individuals, in one of the most widespread COVID-19 screening anywhere in the world.

According to health experts, it was this aggressive screening that helped South Korea, which had the potential to become one of the worst-hit countries to reduce the fatalities to 162. The country had a total of 9,786 confirmed cases, and 5,408 have recovered so far.

One of the things that South Korea did was to put up a walk-in COVID-19 testing booth where anyone could just walk in and in less than 10 minutes they can get tested, and leave the site.

On Monday, India got its first walk-in COVID-19 testing facility. Kerala's Ernakulam district administration on Monday launched the first-of-its-kind contact-free Walk-in Sample Kiosk (WISK) to keep health workers safe while taking samples to test for COVID-19.

AFP

The WISK was designed by a team under Dr. Ganesh Mohan, RMO of Kalamassery Medical College.



"This is being used in India most likely for the first time. And this targetting mass screening. This will reduce the need for more PPE kits, and we will be able to test more in less time. This will first start at Kalamassery Medical College," District Collector S Suhas said.

I&PRD ERNAKULAM

"This will help us collect samples from a large number of people. There is no direct contact between the health worker and the person being tested while collecting the samples. It takes nearly Rs 40,000 to set up a WISK," he said.



"Currently, we have two WISKs. They will be used at Kalamassery Medical College where COVID-19 patients are under treatment. If required, more WISKs can be developed at short notice," he added.

I&PRD ERNAKULAM

The WISK is a small cabin that is closed from four sides with one side having a glass wall with an opening. The person being tested is seated outside the glass wall through which two rubber gloves are attached outside. The health worker has to insert a hand in the rubber gloves and collect swab samples and blood samples from the patients. The rubber gloves and the cabin is disinfected after each sample collection.

Since February, when the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in India, Kerala has recorded a total of 327 positive cases out of which 59 have recovered and 2 deaths. Till Monday, Kerala had tested 10716 samples, one of the highest in the country. Recently Kerala had also launched rapid tests with an aim to screen more suspected cases.
New Delhi: The Railways has asked cement companies to offload their goods from freight trains so that they can be used to supply essential commodities to various parts of the country.

With the lockdown in place, the national transporter is using about 50-60 rakes per day to ferry food grains but there is demand for more, the sources said.

Around 300 goods trains full of cement bags are lying idle because cement companies are in no hurry to unload them as the construction business has come to a standstill due to the coronavirus outbreak.

With the railways having waived off its demurrage and wharfage charges, companies were not losing any money by not offloading their goods, officials said.

These rakes with covered wagons are just lying there full of cement. Due to the lack of availability of labour, there is no construction work happening in the country, so cement companies are in no hurry to unload.

We have told them that if they do not unload their goods in a couple of days, we will reinstate the charges for keeping our wagons waiting, the official said.

Demurrage charges are levied for the detention of any rolling stock after the expiry of free time, if any, allowed for such detention. Wharfage is the charge levied on goods for not removing them from the railway after the expiry of the free time for such removal.

The Railways had waived off these charges during the lockdown period.

Officials said that given the huge demand for essential commodities across the country and with the movement of goods through roadways virtually negligible, it was essential to free up these trains to ferry essentials like fruits, vegetables, food grains, salt and sugar.

During the 13-day period between March 23 and April 4, the Railways loaded and carried 1,342 wagons of sugar, 958 wagons of salt and 378 wagons/tanks of edible oil (one wagon contains 58-60 tonne consignment), according to the Railways.
In a tweet, Fani-Kayode wrote: The prosecution and conviction of Funke Akindele was overbearing & unnecessary. A warning would have been enough. This is especially so after she publicly expressed remorse. The court was crowded. Why dont they prosecute those that were there as well, including the Magistrate?
With six persons testing positive for coronavirus, the number of cases in Uttar Pradesh climbed to 314 on Tuesday.

The number of infections in the state on Monday stood at 308.

Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said the number of coronavirus cases in the state has risen to 314, of which 22 have recovered.

Of the total cases, 166, which is more than 50 per cent, are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat, he said.

Coronavirus cases have been reported from 37 districts. As many as 6,073 samples have been tested, of which 5,595 have tested negative and results for the others are awaited, he added.

So far, the state authorities have identified 1,600 people associated with the Jamaat. Of them, 1,200 have been quarantined.

Thousands of people had participated in a congregation at the Tablighi Jamaat's headquarters in Delhi's Nizamuddin area last month and then travelled to various parts of the country, with many of them carrying the virus.

Uttar Pradesh has so far reported three coronavirus deaths, one each from Basti, Meerut and Varanasi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PORTLAND, Ore.  Governor Kate Brown announced on Tuesday that a new executive order will extend the ban on dining in at restaurants indefinitely, aligning it with her broad "Stay Home, Save Lives" order which already did not have a deadline.

We all want to return to a day where we can frequent the restaurants and businesses that have given Oregon its well-deserved culinary reputation and provided so many jobs for Oregonians, said Governor Brown. I wish I could say there was a date certain when that could happen. But it would be irresponsible to lift these restrictions in the middle of this outbreak."

RELATED: Many local restaurants still offering take-out or delivery after Governor forbids dine-in

Executive Order 20-14 extends the prohibition on dine-in food and drink consumption until the order is rescinded. The original order, 20-07, was only effective through April 14 "unless extended or terminated earlier by the Governor."

The extension does not come unexpected, since the social distancing measures enshrined in Governor Brown's larger stay-at-home order are likely to last until the spread of COVID-19 has been significantly curbed. Oregon health officials had already filed temporary rules end-dated beyond this summer in anticipation of lengthened restrictions on restaurants, though they said that it's highly unlikely those restrictions will last that long.

RELATED: Oregon's stay-at-home order: What does it mean and where am I allowed to go?

I will be working with my Medical Advisory Panel, the Oregon Health Authority, and local officials to continue to evaluate how and when we can begin to return to a time where public spaces are safe from the spread of COVID-19, Brown said.

The Governor issued a similar extension for an earlier order that declared an "abnormal market disruption" in Oregon for essential consumer goods and services, allowing for the state to crack down on price gouging.

This is a developing story and will be updated with more details as they emerge.
" " The madeleine is a very small sponge cake with a distinctive shell-like shape, first made in Commercy in the Lorraine region of northeastern France. Michelle Konstantinovsky

I'm not normally the type of English major to start a story by quoting Marcel Proust, but hear me out for a second. In his seven-volume novel "In Search of Lost Time" (also translated as "Remembrance of Things Past"), Proust goes off about a particular confection that couldn't be more relevant to my current situation:

"An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory..."

He goes on (and on), but spoiler alert: He's talking about a cake. A specific kind of cake that, perhaps like me, you once mistook for a cookie, but trust me, dear reader: The madeleine is no cookie. I should know, as I used my second week of COVID-19 quarantine to go on an unnecessarily deep dive into the French treat's ins and outs.

After discovering two baking pans bearing the signature scallop molds in my boyfriend's kitchen cabinets (why he had two of these casually lying around, I can't tell you), I made it my mission to master the spongy sweet (called a genoise in French). But that was back when I thought the madeleine was a pretty  if not super-boring  snack you could easily just buy at Starbucks. Little did I know that obsessively pursuing its ideal taste and shape could temporarily dull life's vicissitudes and disasters in the wake of a pandemic.

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A History of the Madeleine and the Hunt for the Hump

Madeleines have roots in the French town of Commercy and 18th century nuns supposedly sold the treats to support themselves and their schools. One legend has it that the little cakes take their name from a young servant girl named Madeleine who made them for the deposed king of Poland, Stanislas Leszczynska, when he was exiled to Lorraine. Another version of the origin story states that Jean Avice, considered the "master of choux pastry," invented the madeleine in the 19th century.

Whatever you believe to be the true birth story of the madeleine, trust me when I say just about every culinary expert and food blogger on the planet has a different idea about what makes a madeleine a madeleine. But the most characteristic and controversial feature of the snack cake has to be the hump. That stupid hump I quite honestly never noticed until my boyfriend pointed out that it's what had kept him from using those pans in the cupboard: Madeleines are supposed to have a hump and attaining the hump is hard work.

Some say the hump is all about creating a sudden drop in temperature, so chilling the batter and even freezing the pans before baking is crucial. Others are adamant that the hump (sometimes called a "belly") is only achievable through the use of baking powder which is apparently "frowned upon by purists" who say the hump is a natural product of thoroughly beaten eggs. As a completely amateur baker with no other motive than to escape from the horror show that 2020 has become, I set out on a small quest to achieve madeleine greatness.

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Batch No. 1

The Kitchn is a solid go-to source for cute, Instagram-worthy desserts, so when a quick Google search turned up their recipe for "classic French madeleines," I thought maybe I'd found victory in my first batch. Their recipe called for all the essentials  unsalted butter, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla  plus a heavy dose of lemon zest and lemon juice. Baking powder was conspicuously missing from the list, backing up my early research that "classic" and "authentic" madeleine makers simply don't use it. They also instructed to let the greased pans sit in the freezer for an hour before baking and to turn the pans midway through baking. I figured all that work would result in magically humpy madeleines, but when they emerged from the oven, my first batch of madeleines  while beautiful  were pretty flat. My boyfriend and I agreed that the extra lemony essence was a great bonus, both flavor and aroma-wise, and the overall taste was lovely. They just weren't as cakey as we'd expected. On to batch two.

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Batch No. 2

If humps were what we were going for, humps were what I would seek out. So I did. I literally Googled "Madeleines, humps" and came upon Baking Like a Chef's recipe for "perfect French madeleines." The humps in the photos were almost vulgar  these madeleines looked wildly different from the ones I'd initially baked, and the recipe author claimed she could create humps as tall as an inch and a half (4 centimeters). I had to give it a shot. This batch called for baking powder, and not an insignificant amount: 2 teaspoons, which in the baking world, can make a big difference. The recipe also called for twice the butter of the first batch and several more eggs (even after I scaled it down to make 24 cakes, not the 36 it was intended to produce). And while baking powder might be "frowned upon" by purists, holy moly, you guys  the humps were no joke. This recipe also called for the madeleines to sit in the oven for up to 10 minutes after a very short initial bake time (three minutes), and then to bake for an additional five minutes. Whether it was just the baking powder or a combination of all those elements, the result was airy, spongey, cakey, humpy goodness and my boyfriend said these were "95 percent perfect" (he missed the extreme lemoniness of batch one) which frankly, I'll take as a success.

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Batch No. 3

I figured if I was going to give it one more shot, I'd look to the icons. After taking an informal Instagram poll, my small but opinionated following made it clear that they wanted to see the results of Julia Child's recipe over Martha Stewart's, so I set out to replicate Julia's recipe, via Hungry Sofia. This one had no baking powder, a fair amount of lemon, and a relatively long baking time (15 minutes), not to mention it came from Julia freakin' Child, so I figured this would be the one to get me to perfection. I refrigerated one pan before baking, as the recipe suggested, but stuck the other in the freezer because I guess I suddenly fancied myself a scientist running an arduous and delicious experiment. The refrigerated pan batch (i.e., the one that followed the exact recipe) was less than optimal. They looked slightly anemic compared to the humpy giants of batch two, and they were browned to the point of looking overcooked. The frozen pan batch turned out prettier, but the humps were still less than impressive. And while I list off all the things we found wrong with this batch, it's important to remember that we still demolished nearly two dozen in less than a day.

In the end, I learned that despite what any culinary expert or Proustian text may tell you about what defines a "good" cake or cookie or whatever you're mixing up, the process of creating, consuming and sharing those treats is really what makes them so sweet. Also, loads of sugar.

Now That's Sweet To be fair, sugar does more than just make things sweet  it's also responsible for binding to the water and holding baked goods together. If you add too much, you won't just risk cavities and a burst of hyper energy; you may also cause your baked goods to crumble from brittleness. Skimping isn't a good idea either since that can make your baked goods rock hard, so pull out those measuring cups and use them wisely.
If you think the past seven weeks have been ugly for investors, narrow your focus a bit and take a gander at cannabis stocks.

Through the first quarter of last year, more than dozen marijuana stocks had gained at least 70% over a three-month period, and sales projections for legal cannabis kept creeping higher. Then, the bubble burst, with most pot stocks losing anywhere from 50% to 95% of their value over the past 12-plus months.

Perhaps the poster child of the boom-bust nature of cannabis investing is Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQ:ACB). Aurora, the most popular stock by a long-shot on millennial-focused online investing app Robinhood, has lost approximately 92% of its value since mid-March 2019. Now valued at a mere $0.80 per share (albeit still equating to a $960 million market cap), the question has to be raised: Could Aurora Cannabis go to $0?

Aurora Cannabis was once pegged for greatness

At one time, Aurora's outlook was promising. The company had 15 prospective cultivation sites around the world with a peak annual run-rate that was likely nearing 700,000 kilos. Inclusive of Canada, the company also had a production, research, export, or collaborative presence in 25 countries. Both the peak production potential and overseas reach were far and away tops in the marijuana industry. Having two dozen international markets at its disposal was designed to ensure that domestic oversupply never became a problem.

Aurora Cannabis also wound up hiring billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz as a strategic advisor in March 2019. Peltz has a long history of investing in food and beverage companies, which made him the perfect individual to potentially bridge a partnership or equity investment with a brand-name consumer-packaged goods company. This hiring came just months after Constellation Brands sunk $4 billion into Canopy Growth as an equity investment, and Altria Group purchased a 45% stake in Cronos Group for $1.8 billion.

Then there was Aurora's management commentary, with longtime (and now-former) CEO Terry Booth predicting at least 625,000 kilos of run-rate output by the end of the company's fiscal 2020 year (June 30, 2020), and a real chance at positive adjusted EBIDTA by the end of calendar year 2019.

It all looked great on paper, but not one lick of this vision is still in play today.

Absolutely nothing has gone right for the most popular pot stock

In November, Aurora Cannabis announced that it would be halting construction on two of its largest production farms (Aurora Sun in Alberta and Aurora Nordic 2 in Denmark) in order to conserve capital. Not long thereafter, the company placed the 1-million-square-foot Exeter greenhouse on the sale block for about $17 million Canadian. Exeter is a vegetable-growing greenhouse acquired in the MedReleaf purchase that Aurora has yet to retrofit for cannabis production. These construction halts, and the presumed sale of Exeter, essentially takes more than 400,000 kilos of peak annual output off the table.

As for Peltz, his signing as a strategic advisor has resulted in absolutely nothing. With the exception of landing a role as a supplier for PAX Labs Era vaping device, Aurora Cannabis hasn't attracted a brand-name partner, nor has it received a coveted equity investment.

And as for those visions of positive adjusted EBITDA, they've been thrown completely out the window. In fact, the real question, after perusing Aurora's balance sheet, is whether it has the ability to even survive?

On one hand, Aurora's overzealous acquisition strategy has left it with a mountain of goodwill  i.e., it grossly overpaid for the companies it acquired. Even after writing down CA$762 million in goodwill in the most recent quarter, Aurora's remaining CA$2.41 billion in goodwill dwarfs its market cap. In my view, additional writedowns are almost certainly coming.

On the other hand, the company's available cash looks wholly insufficient to cover its upcoming expenses. In mid-February, when Aurora filed its fiscal second quarter management discussion and analysis, the company forecast expected liabilities over the next 12 months of CA$373.6 million. This compares to CA$156.3 million in cash and cash equivalents and CA$26.1 million in marketable securities. The company is really down to its final option of late, which has been to issue stock like Monopoly money to raise capital. That's why the company's outstanding share count has ballooned to 1.17 billion from 16 million in about 5.5 years.

Making matters worse, selling assets may not net Aurora Cannabis the capital it needs to cover its expenses. Although it lists CA$1 billion in property, plant, and equipment on its balance sheet, the retail market for cultivation and processing assets is grim throughout Canada given the regulatory supply bottlenecks plaguing the country. Translation: Aurora Cannabis is really short of ways to raise money, aside from continuing to issue its own common stock.

But does this lack of cash mean it's going to $0? While I remain decisively bearish on Aurora Cannabis and believe it should be avoided by investors at all costs, the company's ability to halt cultivation activity, shed more jobs, and continue to issue stock at the detriment of its shareholders, will likely keep it from going to $0. However, without a stroke of good fortune in the near future, delisting from the New York Stock Exchange and further downside will await.
CHESTER SPRINGS, Pa., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Advaite, an innovative biotech company focused on developing novel diagnostics, announced today that it has delivered antibody rapid test kits to Chester County Health Department. Advaite established a collaboration with several other Pennsylvania-based companies with the intention to accelerate the commercialization and distribution of Advaite's COVID-19 rapid antibody test kits, RapCov, to support the nation's effort to contain the spread of coronavirus infection.

Advaite has worked to optimize its diagnostic reagent technology in developing its novel COVID-19 Rapid Antibody test kits. The RapCov Rapid COVID-19 Test is an in vitro diagnostic test for the qualitative detection of IgG or IgM antibodies to the COVID-19 virus in human whole blood fingerstick samples collected in CLIA certified laboratories and/or by healthcare workers at the point-of-care. Further, the test can show results in as early as 15-minutes, without the need to send blood specimens to a laboratory. This makes the RapCov Rapid Antibody test kits an ideal solution for quickly screening large populations.

Serological tests, such as RapCov Rapid COVID-19 Test, provide valuable information regarding the bodys immune response to the presence of the COVID-19 virus. IgM antibodies appear in the blood as the initial immune response to the COVID-19 virus infection within the first week after symptom onset, therefore the presence of IgM antibodies suggests a recent COVID-19 infection. IgG antibodies appear in the blood after the first week of the disease and IgG antibody titers remain elevated as immunological memory, therefore, the presence of IgG antibodies suggest a non-recent (past) COVID-19 virus infection. If IgG antibodies are present, the patient may be immune to infection with COVID-19 virus. Individuals with immunity to COVID-19 may be able return to the workforce. Serosurveys may also help to determine the rate of infection in a community, which is essential to accurately determine the infection fatality rate and plan public health related interventions. While serological assays are not well suited to detect acute infections, they support a number of highly relevant public health and medical applications.

The other Pennsylvania based companies, Frontida BioPharm Inc., Frontage Laboratories Inc., and another local biotech have joined forces with Advaite to expeditiously facilitate availability of Advaite's RapCov kits throughout the United States. Frontida, a Philadelphia based pharmaceutical manufacturing company, collaborates with Advaite as its manufacturing partner for the mass production of the RapCov diagnostic kits. Within the next 4-6 weeks, Frontida is targeting a production scale of 40,000 to 60,000 RapCov tests per day to meet the unprecedented demand resulting from the coronavirus pandemic and will be hiring additional staff to meet this demand.

Frontage Laboratories, based in Exton, Pennsylvania is one of the region's leading biopharmaceutical laboratories and will provide its expertise to develop and validate necessary bioassays to support the release of reagents which are a critical component of the testing kits.

"The ADVAITE RapCov kit represents a significant public health resource in helping contain the spread of coronavirus disease. The combined expertise of Frontida and Frontage creates a more efficient pathway for Advaite to produce these kits rapidly. This will in turn provide healthcare workers a powerful tool for assessment of the attack rate and extent of COVID19 outbreak in their communities," said Karthik Musunuri, Chief Executive Officer of Advaite. We are excited to join forces with Advaite and Frontage to provide this critical testing platform as one tool supporting our nations efforts in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing our teams manufacturing and supply chain expertise, Frontida is committed to support Advaites commercialization and deployment of the RapCov kit to healthcare and government organizations in Pennsylvania and throughout the nation said Ron Connolly, Executive Vice President and Cofounder of Frontida.

Speaking on behalf of the Chester County Board of Commissioners and the Chester County Health Department, Commissioners' Chair Marian Moskowitz said, "Chester County's is fighting the coronavirus crisis on many different fronts and undertaking the antibody blood test for our essential personnel is another weapon in that fight. We chose to work with Advaite because our evaluations showed that the company's test kits performed most efficiently and accurately. The fact that Advaite is part of the Chester County business community is a real bonus."

"When I learned of the tests from a conversation with Karthik Musunuri and saw how it would fit into the continuum of COVID-19 testing in Chester County, I spoke to the Chair of the Chester County Commissioners, Marian Moskowitz, to look into its value in achieving the testing's protocol. It did, and the county proceeded to order the test kits," said PA State Senator Andrew Dinniman.

About Advaite

ADVAITE Inc. is a biotech company focused on developing novel diagnostics and therapeutics to help patients suffering from a variety of debilitating diseases. The word 'Advaite' means 'one without a second', unrivaled or unique. At ADVAITE, we aspire to be just that. ADVAITE operates from two locations, Chester Springs, PA and Chicago, IL.

About Frontida

Frontida BioPharm, Inc. is a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization for pharmaceuticals and drug diagnostics with facilities equipped to produce over 3 billion immediate and controlled release tablets and capsules annually. With its innovative and quality-oriented team, Frontida's primary goal is to provide life-saving medicines and diagnostic tools that can improve the lives of patients who receive them. Frontida operates facilities in Philadelphia, PA and Aurora, IL.

About Frontage

Frontage is a Contract Research Organization providing integrated, science-driven, product development services throughout the drug discovery and development process to enable life science companies to achieve their drug development goals. Frontage has enabled many innovator, generic and consumer health companies of all sizes to file regulatory submissions in global markets allowing for successful development of important therapies and products for patients.

About the Advaite RapCov Rapid COVID-19 Test

The Advaite RapCov Rapid COVID-19 antibody test kit was developed in collaboration with Dr.Jun Xing, Windsor, Canada using a proprietary technology (US IP pending). The COVID-19 rapid response test utilizes immunochromatography technique for presumptive detection of anti-COVID-19 IgM and IgG antibodies in their specific bands and verifies the validity of the test with a third control band. Based on the presence or absence of IgM and IgG antibody bands, the COVID-19 rapid response test may provide presumptive differentiation between recent and past infections. In a preliminary clinical performance study, the Advaite RapCov diagnostic test demonstrated accuracy of over 94% in blood samples obtained from COVID-19 infected patients.

Disclaimers: This test has not been reviewed by the FDA. FDA review for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the RapCov Rapid COVID-19 Test is in progress (EUA # PEUA200048). Positive results are presumptive and must be confirmed by virus isolation or viral nucleic acid detection by RT-PCR for confirmation of COVID-19 virus infection. Positive results may be due to past or present infection with non-COVID-19 virus strains, such as coronavirus HKU1, NL63, OC43, or 229E. Negative results do not rule out COVID-19 infection, particularly in those who have been in contact with the virus. Results from antibody testing should not be used as the sole basis to diagnose or exclude COVID-19 virus infection or to inform infection status.

SOURCE Advaite Inc.

Related Links

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United Airlines has been hit with a class action lawsuit from angry would-be passengers demanding to be refunded for their canceled flights.

The airline slashed its flight schedules due to the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in thousands of flight cancellations for thousands more passengers.

United refuses to issue monetary refunds to passengers with canceled flights, and instead is offering customers travel vouchers, which expire in one year from the original ticket date.

In a lawsuit obtained by DailyMail.com, the passengers claim they have lost a total combined amount of $5million.

United Airlines slashed its flight schedules due to the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in thousands of flight cancellations

The airline refused to issue monetary refunds to passengers with canceled flights and instead is offering customers travel vouchers that expire in one year

The lawsuit names Jacob Rudolph 'individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated' as the plaintiff and United Airlines Holdings Inc and United Airlines Inc as defendants.

Rudolph is a police officer in Minnesota and according to the lawsuit, he purchased three tickets to travel from South Carolina back to Minneapolis on April 4.

He paid a total of $1,521.45 for the three tickets, $904.20 in tickets, $137.40 in taxes and fees, and $479.85 in additional travel options.

United ultimately canceled due to the growing outbreak in the US.

He now says he was deceived by the airline because he bought the tickets under the impression that he would be refunded if the flight was to be canceled by the airline.

Rudolph, along with the other plaintiffs, now claim that they are are entitled to a refund and because the airline canceled on them.

'The need for monetary refunds over travel vouchers is pressing now,' the lawsuit states.

'Travel vouchers provide little security in this public crisis, particularly where many individual Americans need money now to pay for basics like food and rent, not restrictive, temporary credits towards future travel.'

The suit starts out by saying that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 'opportunity and ability to travel is flat-out eliminated for many Americans, both financially and physically. A trip to the grocery store or pharmacy has been deemed a necessity and permitted; a spring break trip with family or travel for a business meeting, is not.'

DailyMail.com obtained a class-action lawsuit from angry passengers who are demanding refunds

Plaintiffs note that the airlines are due to receive about $58billion in aid through a government bailout under the CARES Act, The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

'But despite the faucet of taxpayer money that will flow its way, United refuses to comply with the law or operate in the interests of its customers,' the suit states .

Rudolph said he requested a refund for his three tickets and was denied.

'United has engaged in unfair and deceptive conduct through its policy to refuse refunds, limiting and forcing customers into a rebooked flight or travel voucher instead of returning their money,' it says.

They also claim United changed its refund policy four times within seven days regarding passenger rights when flights are altered.

The plaintiffs say they are entitled to recover compensatory damages and attorneys fees and costs.
They were advised to obey the Lao Prime Ministers Directive No.06/TTg and the Lao Foreign Ministrys Diplomatic Note No.189/BNG.APA.2 which affirm that the host government has completely closed all of its international border gates and not allowed any individuals to go through these border gates, except for trucks carrying goods and emergency cases from April 3-19.

Laos has closed all main and auxiliary border gates along the Vietnam-Laos border from March 19 to April 20. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese Government has temporarily suspended cross-border activities of individuals at main and auxiliary border gates and trails in the two countries border areas since April 1.

Therefore, Vietnamese citizens were advised to avoid travels between the two countries and strictly follow Laos COVID-19 countermeasures, and get updated on both nations regulations, the embassy noted.

It is necessary to avoid big gatherings, not leaving places of residence intentionally, going to border gates to seek ways to return home or popularising fake news related to the disease, the embassy said, suggesting Vietnamese citizens to get updated on the pandemic situation by themselves.

For support, they were recommended to contact the Vietnamese Embassy in Laos via hotline at +85 620 96 10 67 75, the Vietnamese Consulate General in Savanakhet at +85 620 98 20 86 66, the Vietnamese Consulate General in Pakse at +85 620 99 69 16 66, the Vietnamese Consulate General in Luang Prabang at +85 620 91 11 23 45, or call the Citizen Protection Hotline +84 981 84 84 84.

By the end of April 5, Laos recorded 11 infection cases.
Authorities in Maryland have discovered the body of Maeve Kennedy McKean, granddaughter of Robert F Kennedy, who went missing alongside her eight-year-old son during a canoeing trip.

Police confirmed on Monday that Ms McKeans body had been located 2.5 miles south of her mothers home in Shady Side, Maryland, where the family had been self-isolating during the coronavirus outbreak.

Charles County dive and rescue used aviation and underwater imaging sonar technology to locate Ms McKeans body on the fifth day of searching.

The 40-year-old had launched the canoe from the family residence on Thursday before reports suggest that the mother and son became stuck in the Chesapeake Bay area and capsized.

According to the Coast Guard, a passer-by reported at the time that two individuals were seen struggling to return to shore in a canoe near Herring Bay on Thursday afternoon.

An upturned canoe matching the description of the one Ms McKean and her son had used was later found.

The search for the body of 8 year-old Gideon McKean will continue on Tuesday.

David McKean paid tribute to his wife and son in a Facebook post on Friday, in which he said that it is clear that Maeve and Gideon have passed away.

Mr McKean paid tribute to his wife by saying: She was magical  with endless energy that she would put toward inventing games for our children, taking on another project at work or in our community, and spending time with our friends,

He said of his son Gideon that I used to marvel at him as a toddler and worry that he was too perfect to exist in this world. It seems to me now that he was.

Kennedy Townsend, a former lieutenant governor of Maryland and niece of the late president John F Kennedy  also paid tribute to her grandson and daughter.

My heart is crushed, yet we shall try to summon the grace of God and what strength we have to honor the hope, energy and passion that Maeve and Gideon set forth into the world., Ms Townsend said.
The Lagos State Government will from the next academic session enforce the entry age of 12 years for pupils seeking admission into junior secondary school (JSS1) to check the registration of under-aged kids.

Also, a fine of N50,000 for first offenders, N100,000 for second offenders as well as warning letters to close the school in case of further violation.

In a circular to Concerned Parents, dated March 17th, 2020, their state government said the new policy will be enforced in public and private schools to enhance compliance in the 2021 academic session.



The circular signed by Mrs. A.A. Adebowale on behalf of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education acknowledged the myriad of disadvantaged embedded in the admission of under-aged children into junior secondary schools.

She said based on the stand of the State Policy on Education, the commissioner for education has directed that the admission of children into either public or private junior secondary schools be pegged at 12 years and this would be strictly enforced by agencies of education in the state.

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The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday quashed the FIR filed against Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and disposed of the plea for his arrest for allegedly hurting the sentiment of the Brahmin community by posting an offensive photograph on social media.

The court did not find the offence made out against Dorsey and a journalist and said allowing investigation in the matter by police was absolutely uncalled for," said the petitioner's counsel Nishant Bora.

Allowing the miscellaneous petitions by Dorsey and a journalist, Justice Sandeep Mehta said, I am of the opinion that allowing investigation in the matter to be continued is absolutely uncalled for.

The court also observed that the FIR did not disclose necessary ingredients of any cognizable offence to warrant its registration and investigation.

Raj Kumar Sharma had filed an FIR with the police through the court in November 2018, alleging that a picture posted by Dorsey with some journalists holding a poster bearing the slogan Smash Brahminical Patriarchy had hurt the sentiments of the community.

Referring to the phrase ascribed as offensive, the court said these words could not be construed as having any direct link with the religious sentiment of any section of society.

The words in the poster best convey the feelings of the concerned person regarding being strongly opposed to the Brahminical patriarchal system and desirous of denouncing the same,the court said.

Dorsey and the journalist, Anna M M Vetticad, had moved court with a Criminal Miscellaneous petition praying quashing of the FIR. In December last year, the court did not quash the FIR but stayed the arrest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Matthew McConaughey and his family helped a Texas senior living facility play some bingo through the video conferencing app Zoom.

The 50-year-old actor, along with his wife Camila Alves, two of their children and his mother Joy, hosted a round of bingo with the residents of The Enclave at Round Rock Senior Living in Round Rock, Texas on Sunday.

The facility shared a video of the 'virtual bingo' event on their Facebook page Sunday, showing the Dazed and Confused star calling out two winners.

Zoom bingo: Matthew McConaughey and his family helped a Texas senior living facility play some bingo through the video conferencing app Zoom

Family: The 50-year-old actor, along with his wife Camila Alves, two of their children and his mother Joy, hosted a round of bingo with the residents of The Enclave at Round Rock Senior Living in Round Rock, Texas on Sunday

'We got I-24,' McConaughey says in the brief video, before the family starts cheering as two winners are revealed.

'Richard is waving a hammer up high, we got Charles with the iPad up high. We got two winners!' the actor adds, as his wife takes photos of all of the bingo participants who are playing through Zoom.

The video already has over 40,000 views since it was posted to the facility's Facebook page.

I-24: 'We got I-24,' McConaughey says in the brief video, before the family starts cheering as two winners are revealed

'Ever play virtual bingo with #MatthewMcConaughey? Youd be a whole lot cooler if you did! The residents at The Enclave at Round Rock Senior Living got to play virtual bingo with #MatthewMcConaughey and his family!' the video's caption began.

Thank you to Matthew, his wife Camila, and his mom Kay for hosting our residents for a few rounds of virtual bingo! Our residents had a great time playing, and they loved talking with Matthew about his family heritage and his favorite drink,' the caption concluded.

They also shared a second video, seemingly at the end of the virtual bingo session, where one of the facility's employees thanked McConaughey for joining them.

Virtual bingo: 'Ever play virtual bingo with #MatthewMcConaughey? Youd be a whole lot cooler if you did! The residents at The Enclave at Round Rock Senior Living got to play virtual bingo with #MatthewMcConaughey and his family!' the video's caption began

'I wanted to say, from all of us, we want to continue to turn a red light into a green light,' she said, as all of the residents held up green signs.

The signs featured some of the actor's most memorable quotes, such as 'Just keep livin' from Dazed and Confused, 'I checked the list of people I trust and your name ain't on it' from The Lincoln Lawyer and 'If I didn't catch a fish all day I'd find a way to kill you,' from Serenity.

The beloved actor smiled and laughed while reading all of the messages, as they all thanked each other for being there.

Green light: 'I wanted to say, from all of us, we want to continue to turn a red light into a green light,' she said, as all of the residents held up green signs

Memorable: The signs featured some of the actor's most memorable quotes, such as 'Just keep livin' from Dazed and Confused, 'I checked the list of people I trust and your name ain't on it' from The Lincoln Lawyer and 'If I didn't catch a fish all day I'd find a way to kill you,' from Serenity

The actor also announced a new video series on Instagram he's calling 'McConaugheyTakes,' revealing he's going to do something 'different' with his Instagram, where he reflects on his old movies.

'Seeing that these times with the coronavirus we're all sort of quarantining ourselves at home more, meaning we have more screen time, more things to watch,' he said.

'So I'm going to be going over a lot of my movies, giving you some fun tidbits that maybe you hadn't heard before. Maybe you'll find them funny, maybe you'll want to rent the movie because they're all out there streaming anyway.
Eight Kyrgyzstan nationals who have been quarantined in Bidar have been booked for visa rules violations by indulging in Islamic missionary activities in the district, a police official said on Tuesday.

"They had come here on a tourist visa but they are reported to be engaged in religious activities here, which they are not supposed to be doing on a tourist visa. So we have registered a case of violation of visa," the Bidar Superintendent of Police Nagesh D L told 'PTI'.

According to the FIR, these eight Kyrgyzstan nationals including Tashmatov Tilek and Anaraliev Begaly had come here on March 10 and stayed in mosques in Bidar for a few days. They had taken the help of some people from Odisha to carry out Islamic missionary activities, the FIR further read.

The Bidar SP said these foreigners have been quarantined at a rest house near the Ratkalpura mosque. The police would inform the Kyrgyzstan Embassy about their activities, he said adding it would be investigated the where all they had gone and stayed.
(TNS)  The researchers are designing machine learning and natural language processing techniques for the study. They say the project is distinctive in that it measures topics of concern, subjectivity, social distancing and public sentiment rather than predicting the spread of infection."We can see how people are reacting to news and officials' briefings about COVID-19. Are they comfortable, or are they more panicked," says Yasin Kabir, a Missouri S&T Ph.D. student developing the research. "If we can understand that, we can help officials know how to share news in a way that avoids panic."Kabir has a website detailing the information he has collected from his analysis, which began in early March. Graphics on the site highlight trending topics, public sentiment, trending topics and movement compared with the rate of infection. The public sentiment chart shows that attitudes are changing as the disease continues to spread."Early on, many people were skeptical of reports about the seriousness of the disease, and their sentiment was subjective rather than fact-based," says Dr. Sanjay Madria, Curators' Distinguished Professor of computer science, who is working on the research project with Kabir. "Slowly they realized this is real, and their outlook has become more fact-based."Geographical information in the analysis is limited to Twitter users who have enabled geotagging. About 3 million tweets about coronavirus include some kind of geographical information that helps Kabir collect information by state. Geotagging also allows the researchers to track movement between and among states."Fewer people are moving between states," says Madria. "As COVID-19 cases increase across the country, the user map on the website shows that interstate movement decreases."Madria says the research differs from most other social media research about the coronavirus. Other researchers are developing models to predict the spread of COVID-19, he says, but this may be the only project that investigates social analytics for COVID-19 study."As we analyze trending topics, we can see how thinking and behavior change over time," Kabir says. "That can help decision makers because they know how people are feeling."
Jaipur, March 27 (IANS) Amid the ongoing corona crisis, the Rajasthan government on Friday brought good news for the state government employees by announcing an increase of 5% in dearness allowance, raising the DA from 12% to 17%. (File Photo: IANS) Image Source: PK

New Delhi, April 7 : A day after Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao made a strong case for the continuation of the ongoing lockdown, Rajasthan Chief Minister has called for its phased withdrawal.

Calling both lives and livelihood important, Ashok Gehlot said on Tuesday, "After the video conference with PM, I have constituted two task forces as life is important. Another task force to see the lockdown issue which should be exited in a phased manner." This balance of life and livelihood has become the central point for all chief ministers, many of whom seem to favour a phased withdrawal of the lockdown.

Contrastingly so, earlier Rao advocated for the extension of the current shutdown saying, "The Centre and all other state governments have lost revenue during the lockdown period. The only positive outcome of this is that we are able to protect our people".

The Centre on Tuesday also held a meeting of group of ministers at Rajnath Singh's residence which has not taken any decision on ending the lockdown as yet. The biggest question in front of the government is weighing in two options -- loss of livelihood versus loss of life. However, any decision in this regard will come after PM Modi's interaction with floor leaders and chief Mmnisters where a common exit plan is to be discussed.

India is under a 21-day nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus that has so far infected more than 4400 in India and killed at least 114 people.

Latest updates on Howdy Modi Houston
A doctor who specialised in treating the elderly has died after testing positive for Covid-19.

Anton Sebastianpillai, who had a long association with Kingston Hospital in south-west London, died on Saturday, four days after being admitted to the intensive care unit, a spokeswoman said.

The consultant geriatrician, who qualified as a doctor in Sri Lanka in 1967, finished his last shift on March 20.

A spokeswoman for Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: It is with great sadness that I confirm the death of a consultant geriatrician who was part of the team at Kingston Hospital.

Dr Anton Sebastianpillai died on Saturday having been cared for in the hospitals intensive care unit since March 31.

We would like to extend our sincere condolences to his family.

Acting Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey tweeted it was very sad news and said he had been privileged to meet Dr Sebastianpillai, calling him a hugely respected consultant and author.

Extremely sad news: my thoughts are with Dr Sebastianpillais wife & son



I was privileged to meet him & discuss the NHS & Tamil history



Anton is hugely respected as a consultant & author: his Illustrated History of Sri Lanka is world class



Anton retired & returned to serve https://t.co/LQEDWNtYRF  Ed Davey MP  (@EdwardJDavey) April 7, 2020

Dr Sebastianpillai trained at the Peradeniya Medical School in Sri Lanka and qualified in 1967, according to the institution.

In an obituary notice, he was referred to as a distinguished alumnus who had authored an illustrated history of Sri Lanka.

Elsewhere, a British Pakistani GP based in east London died in hospital on Monday after it is believed he developed coronavirus symptoms.

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According to the News International, a newspaper in Pakistan, Dr Syed Haider had been receiving treatment at Queens Hospital in Romford where he died.

A staff member at the Valence Medical Centre in Dagenham, east London  where Dr Haider worked  confirmed he had died.

The News International said it had spoken to his son, named only as Dr Kumail, who described his father as a selfless man driven by his passion for his profession.

He added: Even whilst in hospital breathing his last, he was urging doctors and nurses to pay attention to other patients rather than him.

Many at his age would have retired yet his dedication to his profession was immeasurable.


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ORANGE COUNTY, Calif., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- My Green Network (MyGN) is Southern California's first shared-manufacturing space with a Type-S license that allows businesses to create, package and sell cannabis product. In January 2020, MyGN started construction on its flagship facility, a state of the art, 7,368-square-foot building in Orange County, with Michelin-inspired commercial kitchens and hybrid stations for assembly, packaging and infusion of all types of cannabis products. The MyGN facility will support 30 memberships that include comprehensive business support for start ups. With an entry point of ~$50,000, these "Green Leader" programs will nurture newcomers, providing a streamlined entry into the cannabis industry.

MyGN has strategic partnerships and an extensive network designed to make developing and launching a new product affordable. They have partnered with staffing companies, laboratories, B2B marketing platforms like FindYourGreen, powerhouse public relations and marketing firms like SNA and P2R Inc. to help their clients launch new products to market, and even funding solutions with companies like DiamondBL offering up to $100,000 for cannabis startups.

One new MyGN client shared, "It's the perfect opportunity  most companies are spending a million dollars to launch we'll pay a fraction; launch faster, generate cash flow, and establish a customer base with scalable overhead before they do," said David Aubry of Seven Point Edibles.

"We're excited to have secured these amazing partnerships! We're looking to fill our last spaces with passionate leaders in the cannabis space. We get to take their dreams and make them a reality," says My Green Network Co-founder James Shih.

About My Green Network (https://mygreennetwork.com/): Founded by internationally recognized attorneys Ken Hwang and James Shih, and visionary Maria Cordeiro, My Green Network (MyGN) is California's premier membership-based space intuitively designed for cannabis entrepreneurs. Leveraging the power of community-based collaboration to revolutionize an infamously complex industry, this "cloud-kitchen meets cannabis incubator" accelerates the journey from idea to entrepreneurship. At MyGN, membership provides exclusive access to essential elements of a successful venture: a compliant cannabis facility, an extensive network of cultivators and manufacturing partners, guidance and supervision from industry experts, licenses, legal advice and much more. Begin transforming your dream into a very real future at www.MyGreenNetwork.com. Follow @OfficialGreenNetwork on Instagram to connect with leaders that are empowering our community.

SOURCE My Green Network

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

By Ilhama Isabalayeva  Trend:

Staff reduction is not observed in Azerbaijan in connection with coronavirus, Azerbaijani Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Population Sahil Babayev said, Trend reports on April 7.

On the contrary, people, although a small number, are being hired in the strategically important organizations of the country, the minister said.

The number of employment contracts has been growing over the past 10 days, Babayev said.

"The entrepreneurs, taking advantage of the state support, must not reduce the number of employees, the minister said. The reason for canceling each labor contract is specified. The Azerbaijani government will help entrepreneurs, if they do not reduce the staff. Presently, 690,000 employees working in non-oil sphere have labor contracts."

The minister added that the further simplification of the unemployment insurance mechanism is envisaged in Azerbaijan.

Earlier, unemployment insurance was not applied to the individuals who quit the jobs on their own intention or because the employment contract term expired, Babayev said. However, from now on, the unemployment insurance mechanism will also cover the people whose employment contract term expired. The number of people in this category is at least 20,000."
SHANGHAI, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- At 7:00 pmBeijing time on April 6, Fosun hosted a global virtual conference on fighting against COVID-19 on the 39th floor of Fosun's headquarters - the Bund Finance Center in Shanghai.

On the screen, experts with a myriad of fighting COVID-19 experience from China'sShanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou and the head of Fosun Pharma's medical team in support of Hubei Province joined a group of healthcare experts and physicians from the US, Portugal and the UK, discussing the way forward in the worldwide battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on China's specific the policy guidance and clinical experience in responding to the epidemic situation, professor Zhu Chouwen, who is leader of the Zhongshan Hospital's medical team for aid to Hubei, first shared his experience of managing COVID-19 designated hospitals. Zhu said, "The National Health and Safety Commission issued seven editions of diagnosis and treatment guidance to all China's medical practitioners. Many countries have their own mechanisms and systems. It is very important to plan and diagnose, and execute the treatment plan according to the specific epidemic situation. Only by joining hands, can we win the battle against the epidemic. "

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, Fosun has actively participated in the fight against the epidemic in China and around the world, and has joined hands to provide assistance to the world. Chen Qiyu, Co-CEO of Fosun International and Chairman of Fosun Pharma, expressed his gratitude to the experts from all over the world. Chen said: "Since January 23, Fosun's Wuhan Jihe Hospital is listed as a COVID-19 designated treatment hospital. We have invested in the fight against the epidemic in all aspects. From the global procurement and donation of anti-epidemic materials to the development of diagnostic reagents and vaccines, we have been fighting for nearly three months. The infection rate of our medical staff is zero. With the joint efforts of everyone, the current epidemic in China has been effectively controlled, but the epidemic is still spreading around the world, and Fosun's global anti-epidemic actions are continuing. We look forward to such experience sharing activities for everyone, so we can provide practical help and support to each other!"

Conference highlights

Since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, Fosun has been participating in the domestic and global anti-pandemic efforts, joining hands with other forces to provide assistance worldwide. This conference features China's top health experts from Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong, including Prof. Zhu Chouwen, Deputy Director of Zhongshan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University and the leader of China's anti-COVID-19 medical team for Hubei Province; Prof. Liu Zhengyin, the Infectious Disease Section of the Department of Internal Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital; Prof. Hu Bijie, Director of Department of Infectious Diseases and Director of Department of Hospital Infection Management at Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, a member of China's expert team for COVID-19 treatment, and a member of the Shanghai medical rescue expert group; Prof. Gao Xinglin, Director of Respiratory Medicine Department of the Eastern Ward, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital and Prof. Jia Xiaomin, Chief Physician of Respiratory Medicine at The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University and the leader of Fosun Pharma's anti-COVID-19 medical team supporting Hubei Province; whilst overseas attendees included frontline hospital representatives and healthcare experts from countries and regions, such as the US, the UK, Portugal, India and African countries, who carried out in-depth experience sharing and idea exchanges with team China.

The treatment of severe patients tops as the first common concern to all the overseas hospitals. As the member of first batch among Peking Union Medical College Hospital's national team to help out Wuhan, Prof. Liu Zhengyin is the chief physician of the Department of Infectious Diseases. He, has extensive experience in the treatment of severe diseases. Based on his experience with a 63-year old patient, early clinical diagnosis is key to determine when severe illness has transformed into critical illness. Quick identification plays an important judgmental role in treatment decisions. Prof. Hu Bijie, member of the National and Shanghai COVID-19 Medical Treatment Expert Group and Director of the Infectious Diseases Department of Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, also touched the same topic when sharing the "Shanghai Experience". He said, we should pay more attention to make sure that minor syndrome and medium-level patients don't develop towards severely ill patients, while critically ill patients should not become fatal ones. Individualized treatments and rigorous follow-ups are the main elements of successful treatment for critically illness. Shanghai has adopted a strategy of centralized treatment yet management of individual patients with customized specifications. The success rate of treatment is very high, with a mortality rate of about 1.2%. He pointed out although there is no special medicine for COVID-19 yet, it is very important to use antiviral drugs correctly to avoid the abuse of hormones and broad-spectrum antibiotics drugs. In the view of the experts at the meeting, the strategy of global prevention and control is inseparable from coordination. The joint efforts should come from several basic elements: discovery of the infection source, cutting off the transmission route, and protection of vulnerable groups.

Sharing experiences: Fosun's global anti-epidemic entered into a new stage

This conference is one of Fosun Pharma's many efforts against the pandemic. At one end, there were Chinese experts well experienced in battling against COVID-19; at the other end was overseas hospitals fighting the pandemic at the front line right now. Zhu Chouwen from Zhongshan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University and the Hubei-supported medical team shared the highlights of his management experience with designated COVID-19 hospitals and opined that social distancing is the most effective measure: the only way to minimise the morbidity rate and maximise the recovery one is insisting on scientific prevention, control and treatment and continuously enhancing treatment plans and methods. Meanwhile, countries around the world should work together to combat the COVID-19 epidemics. This was followed by Dr Laura Robbins, Senior Vice President of Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, who explained the situation of designated COVID-19 hospitals in New York, as well as Prof. Steve Field, former Deputy Medical Director for NHS England; Prof. Prof Jose Paiva, Director, National Inf Dis Control & Viral Resistance Project, Portugal Ms Isabel Vaz , Chief Executive Officer, Luz Saude , Portugal, who illustrated the pandemic situations and related prevention and control progress in the UK and Portugal respectively. At present, the global pandemic situation is not positive, with the number of confirmed cases exceeding 330,000 in the US, nearing 50,000 in the UK and topping 10,000 in Portugal; therefore, the conference organised by Fosun Pharma this time offered the world "the right help at the right time".

The treatment of severe cases is one of the issues concerning attendees from overseas hospitals. As the leader of the first national anti-COVID-19 medical team and a professor at the Infectious Disease Section of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Liu Zhengyin shared on a specific topic from his experience in treating severely ill patients in the intensive care unit. From the viewpoint of the expert attendees (including Liu Zhengyin), hospitals are the front line of the battle, but as medical workers are fighting the war, we should bear in mind protection of medical staff is, another equally important battle. Since COVID-19 is highly infectious, it is not easy to keep cases infected in hospitals at zero. Prof. Hu Bijie, who once fought the SARS epidemic in 2003, had a particularly deep understanding. Having worked in the anti-infectious field for more than 30 years and rescued numerous patients at the front line, Hu shared the experience of metropolis Shanghai in the fight against COVID-19 and repeatedly stressed the importance of maintaining a sense of defence for medical workers. A veteran with similar experience, Prof. Jia Xiaomin combined his personal experience in treating patients at the Hubei General Hospital Medical and Wuhan Jihe Hospital in common ways to prevent and control COVID-19 infections at hospitals and protect healthcare workers. Speaking of the day when the hospital was removed from the list of designated COVID-19 hospitals, he slightly lamented: "Since the hospital was designated on January 23, we had been fighting for 51 straight days, treating and discharging 515 patients and achieving 0% in the fatality rate and the infection rate for healthcare workers".

Fosun's global assistance never stops

Since the outbreak of novel coronavirus, the global staffs of Fosun has been participating in this battle. On March 1, Fosun officially kick-started the second phase of its battle against COVID-19, where it jointly initiated a global aid action with other caring companies under the guidance of the national foreign aid work framework, and exported medical supplies overseas by urgently allocating global resources. As of March 31, Fosun had allocated resources to multiple hard-hit overseas countries such as Italy, the US, France, Germany, the UK, Portugal, Japan, Korea and India, having various types of health protective materials including a total of 2.523 million face masks, protective gowns and nucleic acid detection reagents delivered.

Currently, Fosun Pharma has been accelerating in its businesses of research and development of diagnostic reagents and vaccines related to COVID-19, which have obtained urgent approval from the National Medical Products Administration and the CE certification respectively, and have been exported as donations or products sold to overseas countries, including South Korea, Portugal, Hungary, Germany and Indonesia. With regards to the vaccine, Fosun Pharma has partnered with BioNTech, the world's leading mRNA therapy company, in COVID-19 vaccine development. In view of the international spread of COVID-19, Fosun's initiated global aid action still continues.

"As a multinational corporation, we hope to contribute our due efforts to helping the world win this battle against COVID-19. We very much care about the health and safety of our overseas staff and customers and will firmly stand with the people of this world against the pandemic. I believe so long as we unit together for collective wisdom and mutual help, we must be able to overcome this obstacle and beat this coronavirus," commented Guo Guangchang, chairman and co-founder of Fosun International.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1142330/Pharma_conference_1.jpg
A sharp $694 million fall the value of landlord GPT's wholesale funds suggests real estate's traditional status as a safe haven for investors is being undermined by the unfolding coronavirus pandemic.

GPT's Highpoint shopping centre in Maribyrnong, Melbourne. Credit:Paul Jeffers

Property managers and landlords regularly review the worth of their bricks and mortar holdings using independent quarterly valuations.

GPT's latest revaluation for March may be a "canary in the coalmine" for the sector. It shows a steep fall in the worth of its retail and office properties.

In a market update on Tuesday, GPT said asset values in its wholesale shopping centre fund were down 11 per cent, losing $511 million. GPT is the fund's manager, but also owns a direct 28.5 per cent stake.
[April 07, 2020] 42Gears Partners With POSIFLEX Technology India Pvt. Ltd. to Enable Remote Management of PoS Devices and Peripherals

BANGALORE, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- 42Gears Mobility Systems Pvt. Ltd. has partnered with POSIFLEX Technology India Pvt. Ltd. (PTIPL) to enable remote management of POSIFLEX PoS devices and peripherals. 42Gears, a Gartner Magic Quadrant vendor, is a leading provider of Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) tools. The company's feature-rich UEM offering, SureMDM, is known for its robustness and reliability, and is being used by businesses across sectors to manage, monitor and secure their mobile endpoints. Through this partnership, PTIPL, a leading manufacturer of peripherals and PoS devices, intends to offer improved PoS and peripheral management capabilities to its customers using SureMDM. 42Gears in-band and out-of-band device management capabilities. This will help PTIPL's customers lower the total cost of ownership by enabling remote device management and troubleshooting. Abhay Koranne, Senior Vice President at 42Gears, said, "This partnership will enable PTIPL and 42Gears to serve their cutomers better. Our product will complement the offerings from PTIPL. We provide security and reliability to the endpoints. We look forward to our partnership serving customers in the PoS and peripheral management market segment."



In addition to the device management capabilities, 42Gears' SureMDM will provide to end customers of other POSIFLEX devices, it will also enable advanced remote management of Intel AMT vPro-enabled POSIFLEX devices. Through out-of-band management, the solution will help IT admins gain full remote control of devices, remotely recover devices from security incidents, and power ON or power OFF devices (or schedule the same) remotely from a centralized web console.. "We are excited to partner with 42Gears to offer a comprehensive remote management solution to our valued customers to manage their POS and KIOSK assets remotely. This will reduce support costs and provide better visibility into asset health, thereby increasing profitability," said Baskaramoorthy D., VP-Sales at PTIPL.

To know more about 42Gears' UEM offering, SureMDM, please click here. About 42Gears 42Gears is a leading Unified Endpoint Management solution provider, offering SaaS and on-premise solutions to secure, monitor and manage all business endpoints, such as tablets, phones, desktops, and wearables. 42Gears products support company-owned as well as employee-owned devices built on Android, iOS, ipadOS, Windows, macOS, Wear OS, VR and Linux platforms. 42Gears products are used in various verticals, such as healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, education, and retail. 42Gears products are trusted by over 10000 customers in more than 115 countries. For more information, please visit https://www.42gears.com. About POSIFLEX Posiflex has designed and manufactured world-class POS solutions for more than 30 years. Since 2016, the company has acquired KIOSK and Portwell, further expanding into self-service and embedded PC offerings. The global Posiflex Group is in place to provide world-class B2B Serviced IoT solutions. Posiflex Group Press Contact: Brad Chou, [email protected] Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/517153/42Gears_Mobility_Systems_Logo.jpg



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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  As President Rodrigo Duterte agreed to extend the enhanced community quarantine, the problem remains not in the national government's budget allocation for COVID-19 response, but rather in the swift distribution of aid to those who need it the most, lawmakers claimed Tuesday.

Senate President Vicente Tito Sotto III said the decision to extend the Luzon-wide lockdown is reasonable, as it is better to be safe than sorry.

The senator also downplayed fears about budget shortage and noted that the government can always address it.

The extension is to solve the health concerns on the spread of the virus," Sotto said in a statement. "[Regarding] budget, there is no problem at all as far as I know. Govt can solve the needs for funds.

For Senator Panfilo Ping Lacson, more than the funds, the government should act with urgency on the distribution of cash aid that has already been allotted under the Bayanihan Law for the low-income families.

More than the availability of funds, the biggest challenge is in the roll out or distribution of the social amelioration funds to cover as many families hit by the ongoing lockdown, Lacson noted.

He added that this can always be made available through savings, grants, and loans.

Senator Joel Villanueva shared a similar sentiment and urged that workers in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) should also be given assistance as they continue to struggle with alternative means of income.

Likewise, we hope that our government considers providing wage support to workers in the MSME who are under the minimum wage and no work, no pay sector," Villaneuva said. "We expect that despite the initial hitch in the distribution, the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) will make the necessary adjustments to expedite the relief distribution."

Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases Spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles announced Tuesday that a 30-day grace period for the commercial rent of MSMEs will be applied, after confirming that Duterte has heeded their recommendation to extend the quarantine period until April 30.

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr. urged that a stimulus package be given to employers to enable them to continue paying their workers salaries and keep their businesses afloat at least until the end of the month.

The national government promised to utilize the 275-billion funds granted under the Bayanihan Law to give around 5,000 to 8,000 cash aid to poor families affected by the lockdown.

A one-time assistance of 5,000 for formal workers whose jobs have been suspended or temporarily closed will also be given by the Department of Labor and Employment provided that the firms submit the necessary documents of their employees.

Luzon has been placed under lockdown since March 17 while the government continues to respond to the rising COVID-19 cases.

The IATF has yet to deliberate whether the enhanced community quarantine will be expanded to Visayas and Mindanao regions, Nograles said.
Glittering gowns, perfect make-up and that million dollar smile... The red carpet of the 65th Amazon Filmfare Awards had it all with the lovely ladies who graced the night. Some excellent sartorial choices, mixed with their elegance, the awards night was a big hit for the fashion mongers. Be it Alia Bhatts pastel look or Madhuri Dixit's classic diva outfit, the 65th Amazon Filmfare awards was filled with picture perfect fashion moments, take a look.





Setting the tone peach and creamy, Alia Bhatt twirled on the red carpet in a Georges Hobeika flowing gown. Gelled back tamed hair and the plum dewy make-up elevated her easy look for the night.

Kareena Kapoor Khan exuded the summery vibe in her Gaby Charbachy number. Kareena kept her hairdo simple, her make-up soft and let her pastel gown do the talking.

Making yet another remarkable statement at the red carpet, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja took to a retro nine-yard drape from Masaba X Rhea's latest collection. Her daisy printed blouse and the shoulder dusting earrings took this ethnic look home.

Vidya Balan made a formal yet feminine statement in her Rohit Bal ensemble at the red carpet. A tight sleek bun, minimal drop earrings and red lips were a great choice to finish the look.

Our Best Debut (Female) of the year, Ananya Panday, put her best foot forward in a black and yellow ensemble by Dylan Parienty. Claiming to promote her upcoming film Khaali Peeli, she strutted down the red carpet like a flower in full bloom and caught everyone's attention.

Vaani Kapoor dazzled in a Manish Malhotra saree. Flaunting her sleek waist and draping her golden yards with finesse, Vaani was all glamour.

Doing the Dior with Elan, Radhika Apte wore the entire colour palette to the awards this year. Easy breezy, chic and

gorgeous, we loved every bit of her OOTD (Outfit For The Day for the uninitiated)

Carrying grandmother Nutan's legacy forward when it comes to grace, Pranutan Bahl made a glittering appearance at the red carpet. In her Nadine Merabi gown, she had us hooked to her sophisticated fashion statement.

Making her debut on the red carpet this year, Saiee Manjrekar opted for a metallic Gyunel gown with a thigh-high slit.

Her Jessica Rabbit hairdo and light make-up celebrated her futuristic attire.

Bhumi Pednekar opted for a delicate look. The winner sported an asymmetric Gaby Charbachy gown with subtle make-up and a small bow for her semi-tied hair.

Vibrant like a butterfly, Taapsee Pannu put her most glamorous foot forward for the night. She had all the fun playing around with her Fouad Sarika gown. Keeping the look dramatic, she opted for bold winger liner and heavy ear pieces.

Stepping out like the diva she is, Madhuri Dixit-Nene flaunted the right amount of bling in her Nadine Dhody gown. With a well-fitted silhouette, complementing jewellery and loose waves, Madhuri was a vintage Hollywood dream coming alive.

When in doubt, opt for red. Amyra Dastur's scarlet Dolly J gown was the cutest thing that night. She looked like a million bucks in her stark ember number.

Athiya Shetty wore Reem Acra's silver mirrored outfit for the red carpet. Holographic make-up and soft curls made Athiya looked lovely.

Rocking in yet another pantsuit, Ankita Lokhande made an appearance in a classic white one by Starch. Bell bottoms, a mesh shirt and heavy curls; she worked the look with maximalist elements.

Gaby Charbachy was a hit that evening because another one of our top picks was his outfit for divalicious Malavika Mohanan. Sporting a hot pink off-shoulder gown, Malavika kept her look on-fleek and fresh.

Draped in a pastel sheer saree, paired with a brighter blouse, Kirti Kulhari sealed the ethereal look with dark lips.

Making her red carpet debut this time was Alaya Furniturewala. Exuding her pixie charm in a black ensemble by Syzygy, Alaya F made it clear she's a star in the making. We sure love the crisp saree in a sea of gowns.

Stepping up her A-game, the beautiful Manisha Koirala graced the red carpet in a golden and black pantsuit by Neetu Rohra. A semi-formal bottom and a party mood top, we loved the ensemble on her.

Nushrat Bharucha set the internet ablaze in her waist high slit Yousef Akbar creation. Her tattoo visible, it was indeed a bold and a beautiful statement.

Bringing sexy back in a high slit, flowy gown was Sophie Choudry in a Gauri & Nainika number. She carried it with intrinsic grace.

Working her porcelain doll look on the red carpet, Sonal Chauhan wore a yellow floral pantsuit with a white crop top. Her runway bun and nude make-up elevated the look to perfection.

Single shoulder, with a cape sleeve, Rakul Preet Singh's shimmer grey gown by Dolly J got heads turning at the red carpet. Stunning and sexy, this lady in black was a scene stealer.

Rhea Chakraborty's Swapnil Shinde attire was an old-school classic. Contrasted with messy curls and muted make-up, Rhea rocked her noir number.

Nora Fatehi sashayed in a beautiful Sandra Mansour gown with an asymmetric hem line. Her gelled back hair,

velvety make-up and trendy plastic heels rounded off the look.

Tara Sutaria went for an all-out glam look in her single shoulder Jad Ghandour number. She looked like an enchantress with her sleek hair pulled back and smokey eyes.

No gowns for Radhika Madan. She opted for a shimmery yellow dress by Retrofete. Her plunging neckline and the bell sleeves gave her a glamorous edge.

Sharmin Segal looked ethereal in her white Solace London gown. Collecting her heavy curls in a knot and opting for soft make-up, the lady in white was a total baller.

Mouni Roy's Karleo gown gave this beautiful actor a dreamy silhouette for the soiree. The attached train added to her mystique.

Pooja Hegde opted for an all-white shimmer look for the event. Her thigh-high slit number by Myor Studios worked perfectly for the night. With air- brushed make-up and wavy hair, Pooja was all dazzle at the red carpet.

The lovely Sanya Malhotra ditched her girl-next-door vibe for a glossy golden Sharnita Nandwana gown for the awards. The gorgeous lady balanced that with dewy make-up for the evening.
Combined with STANLEY Security's emergency response management, Blackline Safety is the world's only connected gas detection vendor to deliver live 24/7 monitoring to clients around the world

Blackline Safety (TSX.V: BLN), a global leader of gas detection and connected safety solutions, is pleased to announce it has partnered with STANLEY Security, a division of STANLEY Black Decker (NYSE: SWK), to provide 24/7 monitoring and emergency response management to Blackline customers in the United Kingdom and Europe. Beginning this month in the UK and throughout Europe by the end of 2020, Blackline's partnership with STANLEY Security will centralize Blackline's monitoring and emergency response functions to streamline and enhance customer service and quality even further.

"Developing connected safety solutions for companies across the globe, Blackline Safety is a leader in employee safety monitoring in itself," said Richard Solly, Director of Monitoring Security Europe for STANLEY Security. "We are honored to join them in their life-saving mission as an extension of their safety operations team. Our global presence and years of experience will only support Blackline's top-of-the-line safety technology and services."

"When a safety incident happens, every second is critically important to saving a worker's life," said Inna Rabkin, Director of Global Safety Operations at Blackline Safety. "We are committed to ensuring our customers make it home safe at the end of every day, and we recognize that same commitment in STANLEY Security. We are proud to partner with an organization that shares our drive to maintain the highest level of safety monitoring and emergency response for our customers throughout Europe."

As a division of STANLEY Black Decker, STANLEY Security is part of one of the world's largest and most comprehensive providers of tools and security products with expansive personal safety and monitoring solutions. With more than 12,000 employees globally, STANLEY Black Decker has the experience and resources to provide industry-leading monitoring services that protect workers all across the world.

Blackline Safety Europe and STANLEY Security both hold BS 8484:2016 accreditation a key differentiator for Blackline, the only manufacturer of gas detectors to achieve this standard. BS 8484:2016, set by the British Standards Institution (BSI), is the latest criteria for lone worker safety devices and services, requiring increased reporting and tighter emergency response time. This shared accreditation will reinforce the seamless transition of 24/7 monitoring services and ensure zero impact to services currently provided to Blackline customers. STANLEY Security has also established a continuous training program for its employees across Europe to remain current on Blackline's emergency response protocols, products and features.

Blackline will transition all safety monitoring services in the UK, Netherlands and Belgium to STANLEY Security this month. Blackline will continue to transition monitoring services in other countries in Europe throughout 2020. In total, STANLEY Security will provide monitoring and emergency response management to Blackline customers in 10 countries. STANLEY Security will additionally act as backup support for Blackline's Calgary-based Safety Operations Center, increasing protection of the company's North American customers.

To learn more about Blackline's 24/7 live monitoring services, visit blacklinesafety.com/live-monitoring.

About STANLEY Security: STANLEY Security, a division of Stanley Black Decker (NYSE: SWK), is a provider of integrated security solutions defining the future of the security industry. STANLEY delivers a comprehensive suite of security products, software and integrated systems with a strong emphasis on service. STANLEY is powered by a culture of continuous innovation, providing revolutionary technology and unmatched customer service to commercial, institutional and industrial businesses and organizations. We focus on complete customer transparency and operational excellence in the five customer touchpoints: account management, installation, service, monitoring and billing. STANLEY takes pride in our signature approach to doing business offering global resources, with a local touch. As one of the world's largest and most comprehensive security providers, we're protecting what's important to you by designing, installing, servicing and monitoring an extensive array of products and solutions that span the entire security spectrum:

Intrusion Detection

Fire Alarms Monitoring

Access Control Systems

Video Surveillance Systems

Systems Integration

Personal Safety and Security Response

Patient Safety Solutions

Standards Development Strategic Planning

Software Support, Consultation and Integration

System Design, Installation, Service and Monitoring

www.stanleysecurity.com, (855) 5-STANLEY

About Blackline Safety: Blackline Safety is a global connected safety leader that helps to ensure every worker gets their job done and returns home safe each day. Blackline provides wearable safety technology, personal and area gas monitoring, cloud-connected software and data analytics to meet demanding safety challenges and increase productivity of organizations in more than 100 countries. Blackline Safety wearables provide a lifeline to tens of thousands of men and women, having reported over 100 billion data-points and initiated over five million emergency responses. Armed with cellular and satellite connectivity, we ensure that help is never too far away. For more information, visit BlacklineSafety.com and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005295/en/

Contacts:

Heather Houston, Dalton Agency

Email: hhouston@daltonagency.com

Telephone: +1 904 398 5222

Blackline Safety Europe Ltd.

12 De Grey Square, De Grey Road, Colchester, Essex CO4 5YQ UK

Blackline Safety Corp.

Unit 100, 803 24 Avenue SE, Calgary, AB Canada T2G 1P5
New Jersey is making an example of a Warren County pub accused of twice ignoring orders to shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Post Time Pub in Blairstown Township may have its liquor license revoked after criminal charges were issued on March 27 and April 2 alleging the bar served beverages for on-site consumption, in violation of the governors March 21 order closing non-essential businesses.

The state attorney general and the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control on Tuesday announced that it has ordered the pubs parent entity Billings Inc. to explain why its license should not be immediately suspended pending a full hearing. The bar has a week to respond.

(MORE: See the charges and the states argument.)

Because the statewide shutdown is meant to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, violating it is a threat to public health, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said in Tuesdays news release.

Liquor license holders who flout the take-out only rule by allowing patrons to come inside their establishments and linger for drinks are breaking the law and putting themselves, their customers, and all New Jerseyans at risk, Grewal said. To any other businesses, let this be a warning that it is no longer business as usual and we will seek compliance by bringing both criminal charges and by seeking revocation of their licenses when necessary.

The Post Time Pub has been open for takeout and delivery through the shutdown.

Hi folks! Well today is a beautiful day and we have a wonderful porch we would like the community to utilize!    ... Posted by The Post Time Pub on Friday, March 20, 2020

The best part, according to a Mach 20 post on the pubs Facebook page, was that while you wait for your food to go grab yourself a cocktail, beer or a wine in a Togo (sic) cup with a lid and enjoy it on our porch BUT we do ask you to not sit too close to your company we have a very large porch so lets keep our distance.

The shutdown went into effect the next day.

On March 27, the enforcement bureau of the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control says that a Blairstown police officer saw people lingering at the pub, drinking and conversing. The owner allegedly told the officer that she thought she could have up to five patrons at a time. The situation repeated the following week.

A call for comment to Post Time Pub on Tuesday afternoon was answered with a recording that called out police and the officer by name: We will be closed until (the officer) and the Blairstown PD can figure out whats right and whats wrong. Hopefully that will be soon. Thanks. Bye.

As of Tuesday, COVID-19 had infected 44,416 New Jerseyans and killed 1,232.

For more information on the coronavirus, consult your state health department at www.nj.gov/health and the CDC website.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @SteveNovakLVL and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Montana Free Press

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is allowing Canadian pipeline company TC Energy to begin construction this month of the Keystone XL oil pipeline in Montana, categorizing the pipeline as an essential project exempt from his statewide stay-at-home directive, despite the acknowledged threat that hundreds of out-of-state pipeline workers pose to state efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

At press time, there is one recorded case of COVID-19 in remote eastern Montanas Roosevelt County. The counties Keystone XL is slated to traverse have yet to report any cases. Current U.S. maps of COVID-19 cases show that these counties are currently the largest uninfected area in the Lower 48 states.

Officials in Valley County, where Keystone XL would cross under the Missouri River shortly after entering Montana from Canada, are working hard to keep it that way.

On March 28, Valley County officials ordered that all new arrivals to the county are subject to a 14-day quarantine, retroactively including pipeline workers who arrived as early as March 26. Bullock ordered a similar state-wide quarantine policy for new arrivals to Montana on Wednesday, April 1.

Protesters of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline carry an American Indian Movement flag in front of the federal courthouse in Great Falls, Montana, on March 6, 2020. Photo by Hunter Pauli / Montana Free Press

Valley County Health Officer Dr. Anne Millard said during an April 1 livestreamed Q&A that the 14-day quarantine applies to pipeline workers only when they are on personal time.

I cant stop the TC Energy folks from going to work, but when they are not working they really should be in their rooms and staying there, Millard said.

Valley County Public Information Officer Todd Young clarified Monday, April 6, that while the county cant stop pipeline workers from working during the county-imposed quarantine, TC Energy says the company is quarantining its workers in Montana for two weeks before allowing them on job sites.

Bullocks March 26 directive defining those allowed to work during the pandemic contains broad exemptions for health care, human services, and essential infrastructure workers. The directive says essential infrastructure shall be construed broadly to avoid any impacts on those industries. It specifically allows for construction, public works construction, maintenance operations, utilities, power generation, production of raw materials, oil and biofuel refining, transportation, petroleum and fuel, and mining.

Protesters wave anti-Keystone XL flags on the 1st Avenue North Bridge over the Missouri River in Great Falls, Montana, on March 6, 2020. Photo by Hunter Pauli / Montana Free Press

A footnote to the directive references a March 19 U.S. Department of Homeland Security memo providing federal guidelines for work considered essential. That memo includes workers for crude oil, petroleum and petroleum product storage and transportation, including pipelines, and those supporting new and existing construction projects, including, but not limited to, pipeline construction.

The governor said in a Friday, April 3, press conference that he has had conversations with everyone from the premier of Alberta to conversations with individuals at TC Energy, and that he shares local concerns about an influx of out-of-state pipeline workers.

Bullock spokesperson Marissa Perry told the Associated Press on March 30 that TC Energy holds a tremendous responsibility to appropriately manage or eliminate this risk and we will continue to monitor the plans for that response.

Asked why Bullocks directive allows for construction of Keystone XL if it poses specific concerns regarding transmission of the disease, Perry said in an email Friday that the governor adopted the DHS guidelines in whole so as not to single out specific projects, in order to maintain consistency and treat industries equitably.

According to the DHS memo, its list of essential infrastructure is advisory, and not a federal directive or standard.

Individual jurisdictions should add or subtract essential workforce categories based on their own requirements and discretion, the memo reads.

The governor continues to evaluate the measures TC Energy is putting in place to ensure they are effective in managing risk  and will seek additional measures if necessary to protect the health and safety of the community, Perry said.

Since President Donald Trump resurrected Keystone XL soon after entering office, multiple lawsuits by environmentalist and indigenous rights groups have attempted, sometimes successfully, to block construction in the courts.

Plaintiffs won an injunction in Montana federal court in 2018 that halted pipeline construction, but the Trump administration effectively overruled the courts last June, and construction was allowed to resume. A lawsuit by the same plaintiffs with the same goal and before the same judge was introduced in March, and is awaiting a ruling.

Keystone XLs potential threat to the human health has long been a cornerstone of the anti-pipeline movement, with activists often highlighting potential impacts to drinking water , as well as sexual violence associated with temporary influxes of pipeline workers, but human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus has added a new angle of concern.

In another lawsuit against the pipeline filed in 2019 by the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, plaintiffs filed an order on March 17 asking the courts to stop construction of Keystone XL due to the threat posed by the coronavirus to Native Americans on the proposed route.

Additionally, in light of the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, the transient nature of the construction workers constructing and living in these man-camps pose serious and immediate public health and safety threats to the Tribes, the filing said.

TransCanada Pushes KXL Construction Despite COVID-19 Threats. This construction would bring workers from all over to the communities along the pipelines proposed path, exposing them to a major health risk. https://t.co/mPnhgeUguM  NARF (@NDNrights) April 6, 2020

TC Energy responded to the filing by stating that the tribes failed to raise concerns about the coronavirus during public comment periods in 2014 and between Oct. 30 and Nov. 18, 2019. The first cases of what would become known as COVID-19 were reported to the World Health Organization by the Chinese government on Dec. 31. Montana officials announced the states first COVID-19 cases on March 13.

Wade Sikorskis family has been farming since 1911 in Baker, where an on-ramp to Keystone XL will allow for the export of fracked oil from the Williston Basin to refineries and ports to the south. While Sikorski says oil has been good to Baker and the rest of Fallon County, he says hes observed an intensification of severe weather during his lifetime that he attributes to climate change, and he opposes the Keystone XL pipeline for the sake of protecting the family farm from the impacts of climate change.

Indian Health Services is already under capacity. But #KeystoneXL is allowed to start construction amidst the pandemic? This is a public health crisis, and workers and surrounding communities are being put at risk. Demand any construction stop immediately: https://t.co/NXySpcplBV  Indigenous Environmental Network (@IENearth) April 1, 2020

He says the coronavirus is a whole new reason to oppose Keystone XL. Hes observed pipeline construction before, and the continuous movement of people within communities that it requires. He says a TC Energy representative told him at a company event in early March that somewhere between 600 and 800 pipeline workers will be in Baker for construction.

We have a rest home here, and in Carter County, and it just doesnt make sense to me that we would be exposing these people to increased risk without their knowledge, without their consent, Sikorksi said.

Its a pretty substantial risk that they would be taking if the virus started running rampant through here, he said.

Hunter Pauli is a Seattle-born, Missoula-based freelance investigative reporter and graduate of the University of Montana School of Journalism.

Note: This story originally appeared on Montana Free Press . It is published under a Creative Commons license

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With the virtual OPEC+ meeting where Russia and Saudi Arabia were to discuss output cuts to end the oil price war delayed Monday, oil prices took a huge beating--but Russian stocks are still hanging on. While state-backed companies saw their share prices shredded on March 9th, including major banks Sberbank and VTB as well as energy giants Rosneft and Gazprom, shedding billions, the market is still being relatively kind to them, all things considered.

On March 6th, Sberbank was trading on the LSE at $12.94 per share. By close on Monday, it was trading at $9.94. Thats not exactly the crash that many expected.

And when it comes to the top three Russian oil companies, Rosneft, Gazprom, and Lukoil, were not seeing a major share disaster at all.

Since the second week of March, Rosneft has regained most of what it had lost:

And Gazprom is largely unscathed, if not reveling in the crisis:

On March 19th, the Moscow Exchange (MOEX) hit a one-year low as global investors fled assets made risky by the oil price war and COVID-19 fears.

Yet, according to Reuters, things have changed since then; retail investors are now flooding into the Moscow market, with Gazprom winning the popularity contest. Gazprom shares were included in 23.6% of portfolios.

And today, despite the postponement of the virtual OPEC+ meeting featuring Russia and Saudi Arabia, Russias stock markets still managed to book early gains.

This is not the ideal situation for forcing Russia back to the oil debate table.

In fact, the only potential silver lining right now is that Russias oil production already dropped in the first week in April simply because it makes no sense for its oil companies to produce more when the market is already so oversupplied and storage space severely curtailed.

Related: What Happens If The World Runs Out Of Oil Storage?



Reuters reported on Monday that Russian oil production is down about 0.35% so far in April, compared to its average output in March.

Tariffs Wont Make Russia Back Down This is partly a diplomatic war at this point. That means its about saving face for all involved. The Saudis have already saved face by making it clear that this is a Russian attack on U.S. shale. But the Saudi attack on Putin is what got the virtual meeting canceled in the first place.

Throughout this game, it has been imperative for the Saudis that the United States put the blame for the oil price war squarely on Russia, noting that the Saudis have no desire to decimate the U.S. shale patch and pointing to the Kingdoms major investments in the U.S. oil sector.

But its also an existential war: With the coronavirus crushing global demand, and with Russian producers already starting to produce less simply because nothing else makes sense, an OPEC++ deal may mean nothing at all.

Indeed, James Henderson of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies told the Energy Voice: There is a genuine reluctance in Russia to cut production. The feeling is that, at this point, such a move would be meaningless given uncertainty over demand.

Regardless, Russia has less to lose, and the U.S. shale patch was the key beneficiary of OPEC+ cuts that preceded the latest combination of crises.

Why does Russia have less to lose? Its oil companies are profitable at $30 oil. Their currency is free-floating. The Russian budget is stable for years out, with a strategy that has seen Moscow boost foreign currency reserves nicely. The ruble is holding steady, despite a bit of temporary panic in March.

Related: Iraq On The Brink Of Civil War As Oil Revenues Evaporate



So, where does this leave Russias biggest stocks?

Sitting rather prettily.

When Russian markets opened on April 6th, everything was green. The RTS Index opened 2.2% higher, and the MOEX opened 0.9% higher.

But Russia isnt entirely in the clear, even if its all worth it.

Despite its ability to theoretically survive at $30 oil, indefinitely if you hear Russia tell it, it still will have a hard time finding buyers for its crude oil with Saudi Arabia flooding the market. And sooner or later, storage will max.

Additionally, the market is already pricing in production cuts that havent been agreed upon, and if those fail to happen, Russias biggest stocks--including the oil giants--will take a hit along with everyone else.

The bottom line: The Russian markets are trading on the economic hit the U.S. will take over the coronavirus. And thats where everyones hedging their bets. Russia has far more to gain by not negotiating at this point. Its gain is in Americas loss, and whatever hit it takes in the meantime is worth it. The markets would seem to agree.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Thala Ajith's upcoming film Valimai is one of the most awaited movies of 2020. The actor has been busy shooting for a long time. However, due to the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, the filming of Valimai has been stalled.

A few days ago, reports were doing the rounds in the tinsel town that Valimai team is looking at travelling to Spain in the next couple of month to shoot a high-octane action sequence. But shooting schedule of Valimai has been affected due to the Coronavirus lockdown.

But now, the buzz is that Ajith's Valimai director, H Vinoth have to shoot the action sequences in India only, as travelling might become harder after the lockdown. Earlier, director Vinoth wanted to shoot at an equally raw landscape as in Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru, for an important action sequence in Valimai. But now, as per a report published in a leading daily, he has cancelled the shoots in Spain and Morocco. Notably, the team was supposed to head there in April-May.

Thala Ajith-starrer Valimai also stars Pavel Navageethan. Produced by Boney Kapoor, the film is scheduled to be released on November 12, 2020.

For those who are unversed, after the USA and Italy, Spain is the third majorly affected country by the spread of the deadly COVID-19. Spain has 1, 40,510 Coronavirus positive cases while 13,798 Spanish people died of the disease so far.

Also Read : H Vinoth's Tweet On Thala Ajith's Valimai: What's The Truth?

On a related note, India has 4917 positive cases of COVID-19 with a death toll of 137.
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New Residential: "We do not even need to tinker with a company that cut their dividend."

Prudential Financial: "I don't want to own any insurance here."

Chemours Co. "No legal liabilities. I don't want to touch that."

Quest Diagnostics: "Nice bounce back today but it was a devastating piece that was in Atlantic magazine talking about how they didn't do the job on the test. So, of course, what do I do: I invite Quest on to the show to hear their side of the story."

Starwood Property Trust: "I do not know."

Brookfield Infrastructure Corp.: "You should be thinking about a high-quality drug or food stock, or maybe a technology company with a good yield and it's got good growth prospects. Much better."
Goal-Setting Planner I Made To Make It Through Quarantine (Template Included)

With working musicians now in self-isolation, some are finding they can easily self-motivate and continue on in secluded productivity, while others find their sudden solo time a little harder to deal with. Here we look at a way struggling musicians can add a little structure to their day.

Guest post by Christine Elise Occhino of Soundflys Flypaper

The self-quarantine mandates brought on by the global COVID-19 pandemic has the working musician world split into two camps: those that can self-motivate to continue to be productive during their time in isolation, and those who cant.

Im fortunate to have been built genetically in the former camp, but I also completely relate with those in the latter. The days are all starting blend into each other, your commute now consists of starting in the bedroom and moving to the living room and back. And the lack of physical human interaction has become draining.

But instead of thinking about this as the worst of times, and now that we know this might be our new normal for a little while, I like to try to look at the upside of a circumstance like this. For every time in the past that you said you would do something if you had the time, or that youve always wanted to try something well now youve got it!

If you play your cards right, you may even come out of this thing stronger, smarter, and with a better understanding of your personal creative practice. This is why so many musicians now are taking online courses to work on building their musical skills. But learning in isolation can still be extremely tough, so thats why we here at Soundfly have created our free Guide to Learning Things Effectively Online  to help you avoid some of the pitfalls of learning alone.

But weve also created something else, and this comes directly from my own personal experience helping people set and achieve their goals. Heres a goal-setting planner to help you get through quarantine, so you too can take it one day at a time and chip away at the things holding you back from moving your career in the right direction one-by-one.

Download the Daily Goal-Setting Planner here.

Christine Elise Occhino is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for the music business. In addition to being a vocalist herself, she is the CEO of Elise Music Group, Artistic Director of The Pop Music Academy, and owner of Stamford Recording Studio. She is also the proud Founder and Executive Director of Hope in Harmony, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that uses music to help and heal those in need. Christine is a member of the Grammy Recording Academy, the American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers, and the Berklee College of Music Alumni Association. She has spoken on many music industry panels, contributed writing for music business publications for over a decade, and currently hosts the music-based web series and podcast, Soundbytez.

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A researcher works on a hand cream in the laboratory of the perfume and cosmetics research centre of French multinational luxury group LVMH

Humans tend to have disappointingly short memories.

While history repeats itself on a shorter cycle these days, the COVID-19 pandemic marks the first time in generations that Government-mandated quarantine has been imposed around the world, providing ample time to plant the seeds of food for thought.

Being locked behind closed doors for hours on end sets the scene for reflection - probably more than were comfortable with - but it means theres no excuse to forget what we will have learned when our new normal comes to an end. In particular, how we spend our money and with whom.

Some brands stepped up to the plate early on. For example, within one week of the virus spreading in France, LVMH, the luxury umbrella company of Louis Vuitton, Moet & Chandon et al., began using their facilities to develop hand sanitiser to distribute free of charge for citizens. Kylie Jenner and COTY are working to donate one million dollars worth of hand sanitiser to donate to first responders and frontline workers.

Ralph Lauren announced last week that it was making a $10 million donating to relief efforts and MAC Cosmetics Viva Glam fund donated the same amount for the same purpose.

Dolly Parton made a personal donation of one million dollars to Vanderbilt University after learning of their cutting-edge research in developing a coronavirus vaccine. Revolve, the influencer-led brand, gave 10,000 masks, while designers like Balenciaga and Cristian Siriano are also using their resources to make face masks for hospital workers in the US. GAP and Canada Goose are making medical scrubs. Gucci has given more than one million surgical masks and supplied 55,000 medical overalls.

H&M was an early adopter of using its facilities and supply chain access to make much-needed scrubs to be supplied globally.

In Ireland, Mink, a Dublin-based nail salon donated 1,500 face masks to Holles Street after owner Kate Verling, who was pregnant with her first child, felt morally obligated to contribute. Therapie Clinic donated its entire stock of personal protective equipment (PPE) - worth 50,000 - to nursing homes and hospitals most in need.

Expand Close A researcher works on a hand cream in the laboratory of the perfume and cosmetics research centre of French multinational luxury group LVMH / Facebook

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Max Benjamin is donating all of its profits to ALONE for the month of April.

And in the hospitality sector, Irish hotel group Choice Hotels gave 250,000 worth of stays to frontline workers. Feed the Heroes, a GoFundMe to supply doctors, nurses and first responders with meals, has become a runaway success.

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What has become glaringly obvious amid the stream of press releases about companies doing their part is the deafening silence from others. Independent brands, already under insurmountable pressure, should not be expected to go deep into the red to contribute; but those that do should be rightfully celebrated all the more for making such significant financial sacrifices.

The relentless retail war between independent stores and conglomerates continues, the former of which are struggling to keep the lights on while the world is on lockdown. 'Supporting locally' is a phrase beaten into us as globalisation tightens its grip, but it suddenly has a more meaningful impact.

As the influencer backlash has already taken effect less than one month into lockdown, how and where we spend our money now and in the future has more ethical ramifications than ever.

Its unclear when the world will return to normal - and what that normal will look like. Unemployment is at a new high with 500,000 people out of work as a result of the crisis, so the redistribution of jobs will also take time and thus, so will spending of disposable income.

But when that time comes, lets remember who contributed when humanity needed them most; and try to extend our memory's lifespan this time around.
U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a working dinner with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida

MIAMI (Reuters) - Brazilian and U.S. governments signed on Sunday an agreement for development of defense projects that may give the South American country access to financing.

The agreement allows partnerships in development of defense technology by private companies, that may use public financing from both countries. Companies may request financing from the U.S. defense research fund.

Brazil's defense industry has around 220 companies and exports to around 85 countries.

Although President Jair Bolsonaro is looking for a closer cooperation with the United States in defense and intelligence, Brazil's decisions regarding 5G technology are seen as a potential hurdle, according to an Trump administration official.

In a briefing on Saturday, the official, which asked for anonymity, pointed out that the activity of Chinese company Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], a big supplier of equipment to the Brazilian telecom sector, may prevent a stronger cooperation.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu in Miami; Writing by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Oyo, one of the worlds leading hotel chains, is evaluating several measures for the long-term success of the company, while remaining committed to doing all it can for the welfare of the community at large during the Covid-19 crisis.

The company this week announced the creation of the Oyo Welfare Fund, the proceeds of which will be used for the benefit and welfare of the employees at Oyo properties, asset partners and their staff members in impacted situations such as the Covid-19 pandemic or the consequent restrictions all over the world. In the long run, this fund will also be used for the welfare of the community at large when faced with such tough situations.

Through this welfare fund, Oyo employees have the opportunity to contribute voluntarily to help those in need. The Oyo leadership team and company are further contributing Dh1.2 million ($326,673) to the Indian Prime Ministers Cares fund to support millions of people with healthcare, infrastructure, and other facilities. The company has made global investments worth of approximately Dh13 million (3.5 million) in the fight against Covid-19 and pledges to continue doing all it can to support those in need.

Commenting on the development, Ritesh Agarwal, founder and group CEO said: The current situation world over is deeply concerning to each and every one of us. We are grateful to the Oyopreneurs who have donated generously and continue to come forward to do so. I honestly believe that it is our responsibility to come together and give back the love and support we have always received from everyone.

Some initiatives by OYO, around the world:

 In the US, Oyo has offered rooms across 300+ hotels for free to all medical professionals, including doctors, nurses and first responders to ensure that they can take rest, shower or just get off their feet and recharge.

 In Malaysia, Oyo is offering complimentary rooms to medical practitioners at three of the busiest public hospitals treating Covid-19 cases in the country. For government employees and those working in essential services, we are offering relaxation of up to 50 per cent across Oyo hotels. Additionally, the company has reached out to embassies and consulates to offer discounted tariffs for tourists/guests who need a place to stay

 In the UK, Oyo hotels are available to those in need at a flat weekly price for seven days or more

 In the Philippines, Oyo is offering accommodation at discounted prices to practitioners from hospitals within a 5-kilometre radius of our hotels in Mindanao

 In India, Oyo recently partnered with Apollo Hospitals to offer sanitised beds and facilities in certain Covid-19 exclusive hotels it identified within its network in the proximity of Apollo Hospitals across six cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata) for the purposes of self-quarantine and isolation for suspected Covid-19 patients. Oyo has made outreach to relevant Ministries, state governments as well as local authorities to offer some of its properties for pay-per-use quarantine facilities at a reasonable and affordable price. Oyo is also keen to support the lodging requirements of those PGs, travellers and tourists who are stranded as well as hospital staff, air and sea crew, who are at the frontline of Indias fight against coronavirus through a combination of Oyo hotels and Oyo Life offerings.

 Since the disease started, Oyo has been distributing masks, sanitisers and other personal protective gear across markets to ensure the safety of its colleagues who were on the frontline before country-specific lockdowns

 Oyo is encouraging the highest levels of hygiene across its buildings and extended all possible support to our asset partners as they navigate through these tough times. - TradeArabia News Service
- Rapper Sarkodie wants Pappy Kojo, who is currently in Italy, back in Ghana

- In a recent tweet, Sarkodie said he will pay anything to get Pappy Kojo back home

- He explained that he wants Pappy Kojo back because he feels that rapper is not well in Italy

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

Award-winning rapper Sarkodie has stated that he will pay any amount of money to get his fellow rapper Pappy Kojo back home to Ghana.

Pappy Kojo who is currently in Italy has been trying to find ways of leaving the country that has recorded extremely high cases of the deadly coronavirus.

READ ALSO: Lockdown: Gov't to provide dry food packages and hot meals for 400,000 people

But in a Twitter post sighted by YEN.com.gh, Sarkodie said though he is also locked up, he will give anything to get Pappy Kojo back home because he is not well.

Im also locked up out here but I will pay anything to get @PAPPYKOJO back home  hes not well, he tweeted.

READ ALSO: 5 curvy photos of Gloria Sarfo as she celebrates her birthday today

However, Pappy Kojo, on the other hand, responded with a laughing emoji.

As it stands, it will be very difficult to get anyone into Ghana since President Nana Akufo-Addo has extended Ghanas border closure by another two weeks.

The president, as part of his measures to control the spread of the coronavirus, closed all of its borders.

READ ALSO: Lockdown show: Efia Odo puts her raw chest on display in new photo

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that President Akufo-Addo had stated that government would provide dry food packages and hot meals for 400,000 people during the lockdown in Accra, Tema, Kumasi and Kasoa.

According to the president, the Ministries of Gender, Children and Social Protection and Local Government and Rural Development, and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), working with MMDCEs and the faith-based organizations, have begun to provide food for up to 400,000 people and homes in the affected areas of the restrictions.

READ ALSO: Stonebwoy donates hand sanitisers, water, others to Police after coming out of self-quarantine

Accra lockdown: Fire outbreak at Haatso Agbogba | #Yencomgh

Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page.

Enjoyed reading our story? Download YEN's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news!

Source: YEN.com.gh
Dr Zaher Sahloul has been here before. He has worked in hospitals where medical staff die because they are not protected, where wards are so overloaded with critical patients that the corridors fill with beds, and where doctors have to make decisions about who lives and who dies because they cannot save them all.

He saw it all during his many humanitarian missions to his native Syria, throughout the countrys devastating nine-year civil war. But now, he is going through it all again in his hometown of Chicago on the frontlines of the fight against the coronavirus.

I never imagined that we would be facing in the US what we've been facing in Syria, says the Syrian-American, who works as a critical care specialist at two Chicago hospitals. Its ironic. These are things weve been shouting about for years there, were now seeing it at home.

Syria has often been described as the most dangerous place in the world for medical professionals. The deliberate bombing of hospitals by Syrian and Russian forces has devastated a healthcare system already ruined by years of war.

In the past few weeks, as hospitals across the US have become overwhelmed by the coronavirus, some frontline doctors and nurses have compared the wards in which they work to a warzone. Its a comparison that Dr Sahloul, who has seen both, agrees with.

It feels like a war zone. There are many parallels between Syria and what is going on in the US, he says, listing the shortages of medical supplies, of personal protection equipment and ventilators, the difficulty of allocating resources, to name a few.

Today, 55-year-old Dr Sahloul is using his experience working in Syrias conflict zones to help the city of Chicago battle its worsening pandemic. As a pulmonary and critical care specialist, he is intimately involved in shaping his hospitals response to the pandemic. The wards there quickly are filling up with coronavirus patients  some 80 per cent of emergency room admissions are Covid-19 victims.

This influx has forced hospitals to adapt. Much of the work Dr Sahloul did in Syria  as president of MedGlobal, an organisation that sends medical teams to disaster regions  was focused on helping frontline doctors and healthcare facilities to continue operating in times of crisis. That involved training physicians on how to deal with limited supplies and equipment.

In some areas in Syria, we were under siege and didnt have enough resources. They may have two ventilators for an influx of 20 patients who will need care. So we would ask, how do you manage that? How do you adapt? How do you conserve? How do you reuse? How do you reallocate your resources? he says.

For example, how do you preserve oxygen and dialysis? Instead of doing dialysis for your patients three times a week, you do it once a week. So we're doing the same thing now in the hospital.

Those decisions about how a facility must change the way it operates in a time of crisis can sometimes mean making extremely difficult choices.

These ethical questions would come up a lot in Syria, where you would have an influx of many patients and you would have to decide how to direct your resources. So you might have someone who, in peacetime, you can take to surgery and spend time saving them, but in a time of crisis you cannot afford that, and you have let them go, he says.

And that's what we are struggling with right now here in the US and Chicago. We are deciding which patient should maybe not be placed on ventilators because we don't have an unlimited number.

On Monday, the US marked a grim milestone as the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak passed 10,000. Hundreds of medical professionals have fallen ill from the virus in the course of treating patients  at least three have died in New York alone.

Again, there are parallels with Syria  if not in scale, in the details. The lack of protective equipment for doctors treating victims of chemical weapons attacks there has caused illness and in some cases death.

I remember one doctor, he was a surgeon, his hospital was inside the cave for protection but it was hit with a chlorine bomb. He continued to operate on this patient and by the time they took him to the nearest hospital that has a ventilator, he died. He had a cardiac arrest, he says.

Right now we're struggling to provide protections for physicians here.

Then there are the hidden dangers for physicians treating coronavirus patients. Managing the psychological impact on medical staff as they work through a prolonged crisis is something doctors in Syria have grappled with for some years. Extended periods of operating in a dangerous environment, and losing colleagues, takes its toll.

What we've seen during the Syrian crisis and other disasters that healthcare professionals are affected like the patients. If you do not give them the tools to be more resilient every day, when they're seeing many patients who are dying or very sick and they are struggling with making difficult decisions, then it will affect their mental health, says Dr Sahloul.

Burnout syndrome was a real thing within the critical care community before this crisis. So were providing tools to doctors and nurses to help them deal with the situation and prevent long term consequences.

While there are parallels between the work being done on the coronavirus frontlines and doctors in Syria, there are many more differences.

More than 900 medical professionals have been killed throughout Syrias war, and hospitals continue to be targeted by the Russian and Syrian governments.

Dr Sahloul calls Syria the worst humanitarian crisis of our lifetime, which makes comparisons difficult. But he adds: A disaster is a disaster.

Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire Show all 24 1 /24 Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire Aftermath of an airstrike in a chicken farm in the town of Maarat Misrin, Idlib, Syria, March 2020. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire Six displaced families were living in the farm, at least 16 people died in the late night attack. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire Maarat Misrin attack in Idlib. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire Maarat Misrin attack in Idlib. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire Maarat Misrin attack in Idlib. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Yusuf Sayman Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire IDPs are seen in a central Idlib stadium. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire Hundreds of families live in the basement and car park of the stadium. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire IDPs in central Idlib stadium. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire IDPs in central Idlib stadium. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire IDPs in central Idlib stadium. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire IDPs in central Idlib stadium. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire IDPs in central Idlib stadium. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire IDPs in central Idlib stadium. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire IDPs in central Idlib stadium. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire A scene from the Idlib market. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire A scene from the Idlib market. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire A scene from the Idlib market. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire Suleyman Suleyman, a 24-year-old Arabic teacher, is seen in the al-Barayeem primary school, which was hit by an air strike on 25 February. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire The strike killed 3 adults, forcing the school to close. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire Assadollah, a fighter just returned from the battle to recapture Saraqeb, poses for a photograph in the town of Binnish. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire A building hit by an airstrike few days ago in the town of Binnish. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire Building in Binnish town. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire Yousef Ramadan and his son are seen in the rubble of their apartment complex that was hit by an airstrike in the town of al-Fua, north of Idlib four days ago. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman) Inside Idlib: Syrians caught in the crossfire Nine were killed in the attack. (Photo: Yusuf Sayman)

And yet, the coronavirus pandemic has reached into Dr Sahlouls home life in a way that perhaps the Syria crisis did not. Like many other healthcare workers on the frontlines of the pandemic, he has had to distance himself from his family at home.

Every time he enters the emergency room in the Chicago hospital, he faces a different kind of danger than he faced in northern Syria.

My family in Syria worries about me more now, he says. My mum and dad still live in Syria and they call me every day. They say, Are you safe? Please take care of yourself. Because they see the news and the number of cases in the US, and they know that I'm on the front lines of treating this disease, he says.

And its the same thing with my family here. I mean, I can tell you that my family here is more worried about my health than when I used to go to Syria, I don't know what, maybe it's the media that is the, you know, showing what's happening to the virus every day. In Syria, the crisis was ignored.

Still, even as he treats patients in Chicago, Dr Sahloul wants people to think about those distant and desperate places that are yet to face the full force of the coronavirus and will do so with far less resources than the US.

You know, my hospital in Chicago has more ventilators than in Idlib province in Syria and Gaza Strip combined. If the coronavirus spreads in these areas, it will be beyond catastrophic.

The concept of social distancing is very difficult to enforce in a displacement camp or refugee camp where you have 15 people in one tent, and people do not have access to clean water and soap to wash their hands frequently. So be aware of them, he says.
The City of Laredo has confirmed an additional ten cases of the novel coronavirus in their 5 p.m. update, bringing the city's total to 135. A total of 13 cases have been confirmed positive today.

READ MORE: Laredo order to cover nose and mouth about to get stricter

Immediate details were not available on the cases, due to the city's policy of not releasing identifying information on coronavirus patients.

Earlier today, the city announced three additional cases, including the first affecting a member of the Laredo Police Department.

As of 5 p.m., 747 Laredoans have been tested for the novel coronavirus. 396 tests have returned negative, with another 216 persons awaiting their results. The number of recoveries, 17, and deaths, 6, has not changed.

Thirteen patients are hospitalized and two are currently under intensive care.

Today, the Laredo Police Department also confirmed the first positive case of a police officer with COVID-19. The female officer, who works in the support division, had "minimal contact with the public," according to Police Chief Claudio Trevino. Test results returned positive for the officer on Monday.

The officer is self-quarantined at home, and has been since she reported feeling sick, in accordance with guidelines set by the city health department. No other personnel from the LPD support services division has experienced any symptoms, though Laredo PD continues to monitor the situation.

The news follows the announcement of four confirmed cases in the Webb County Sheriff's Office over the weekend.

According to the data on the city's coronavirus portal, the age group most affected by COVID-19 is between the age of 40 and 49 years old. 27 cases have been reported in the age group. Citywide, coronavirus has been found mainly in women, with 68 cases found in female patients compared to 57 in males.

READ MORE: Three coronavirus cases confirmed, including first at Laredo PD

City officials also wanted to remind locals to stay home, again stressing that the Easter holiday will not be an exception to the city's current stay-at-home mandate.
FLUSHING, MI -- Flushing police Chief Mark Hoornstra has expressed concern about the growing number of gloves and masks being left in parking lots outside local businesses.

A statement was issued Monday, April 6 by Hoornstra after the city began receiving reports of people throwing the items on the ground in places open to the public.

Gloves and masks have been found in parking lots and other areas throughout town, the statement reads.

Hoornstra said hes heard of the growing problem taking place in the city and other areas, particularly outside of grocery stores.

People wear the masks and gloves into the store, and they dont want to contaminate their car, so they throw it on the ground outside their car, he told MLive-The Flint Journal Monday afternoon, noting that the practice could potentially spread COVID-19. Walk over to the garbage can and throw it out. Its really an issue of respect for fellow community members.

People caught tossing the items face a municipal civil infraction for littering, punishable by a $100 fine, but under the current situation Hoornstra said the penalty could possibly be elevated.

If the circumstances were right, we would look at some type of public health community safety violation, he noted. We would refer it to the attorneys to see what might be appropriate.

Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

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7 Apr  If there is one silver lining from having to implement social distancing to content creator Erwan Heussaff, it would be the chance to be a full-time father to his little darling Dahlia.

As reported on ABS-CBN News, Heussaff, who has been staying in Australia with his actress wife Anne Curtis since the birth of baby Dahlia last month, shared that he wouldn't have had the opportunity to spend so much time with his baby girl and see her grow if not for the current situation.

"For me, it's been amazing to be a full time dad which is something I never thought I'd be able to experience, just being at home every day," he said.

Curtis and Heussaff welcomed their first baby girl on 2 March, three years into their marriage.

As for the current situation in Australia, Heussaff said that it is not much different than what is experienced by the people in the Philippines.

"If you go online, you're berated with the news about the virus, day in and day out. It's happening everywhere in the world. It's the same thing here in Australia. They put it on the radio every hour. It's on TV every hour. The government keeps telling people to stay home," he said.

(Photo Source: Erwan Heussaff Instagram)
A Salt Lake City library is churning out 3D-printed face shields. Nurses and medical assistants in Minnesota and Arizona are being asked to take unpaid furlough because of revenue declines. Medical experts in Colorado are preparing to make choices after determining who among their Covid-19 patients they expect will live.

Across America, hospitals and the communities they serve are bracing for the worst as coronavirus cases rise in every state.

As the New York City area announces hundreds of deaths daily, hospitals in smaller cities and rural communities are scrambling to prepare, and in many cases they are already reckoning with the devastating economic crisis the pandemic has caused.

A federal watchdog agency reported on Monday that three out of four of the 323 hospitals it surveyed were treating coronavirus patients. The report painted a grim picture, with a diverse array of problems exacerbated by an insufficient number of beds, tests and personal protective equipment (PPE).

Speaking to The Nevada Independent, health care workers described the eerie, contradictory reality of many hospitals today: hallways silent with most visitors discouraged, procedures postponed and many patients kept in isolation.

And against the background of unprecedented quiet, concern is growing among nurses and other health care workers that they won't have the supplies to treat their patients and keep themselves safe.

"They've been extremely unprepared," said one nurse in southern Nevada, speaking anonymously.

"Am I going to have enough masks today?" asked one health care provider at a Las Vegas hospital. "Am I going to have to wear this same mask all day whether it's soiled or not? What is today going to look like?"

That concern was echoed by the American Hospital Association's senior vice-president of communications, Alicia Mitchell.

"Not a day goes by where we don't hear from hospitals and health systems across the country that are concerned about shortages of PPE for their heroic frontline caregivers," she told National Public Radio.

Story continues

Some unlikely individuals are stepping up to help.

At the University of Utah's J. Willard Marriott Library, librarians are working with local health authorities to produce 300 medical face shields a day.

"When we first started building our 3D printing programme back in 2013, we had no idea the scale at which our programme would expand and how we would one day play a role that would touch so many lives," Alberta Comer, the university's dean of libraries, said in an online newsletter.

Meanwhile, other preparations are under way to manage grave situations that face shields will not resolve.

In Colorado on Sunday, the Governor's Expert Emergency Epidemic Response Committee called a meeting lasting nearly three hours with its 19 members joining remotely from homes and offices, including one doctor calling in from the front lines wearing a surgical mask.

They met to discuss choices each hoped they would never need to make: how to decide who would receive potentially life-saving treatment if the virus overwhelmed the state's hospitals.

Under current circumstances, experts warned that Colorado must be prepared to suspend normal hospital decision-making protocols in favour of what are called "crisis standards of care" " carefully delineated triage protocols prioritising treatments based on how sick people are when they arrive, what underlying medical conditions they have and how many years of life they may have left.

For many, the economic fallout from the virus is proving nearly as devastating as the disease itself.

In Minnesota, the coronavirus death toll rose to 24 over the weekend. Yet one of the state's largest health systems has asked nurse practitioners and physician assistants to volunteer to take a week of unpaid leave starting on Monday.

Feeling the financial strain from non-essential procedures being halted, Fairview Health Services said it was calling on its employees to go on furlough.

"We've moved quickly to slow the spread and preserve necessary equipment by moving a majority of our visits to virtual and postponing all elective and non-urgent procedures," Fairview officials said in an interview with the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. "The result is not only a dramatic reduction in workloads ... but also a dramatic reduction in revenues."

The halt in non-essential surgeries and procedures has medical facilities all over the country feeling the pinch. In Arizona, a small hospital south of Tucson announced over the weekend that it was on the brink of closing because of financial pressure brought on by the coronavirus.

The 49-bed Santa Cruz Valley Regional Hospital must abide by a state order to increase its number of beds by 50 per cent while its income streams dry up.

"We need economic relief to keep functioning," Kelly Adams, the hospital's CEO, told The Arizona Republic. "There's a revenue problem. ... All hospitals are going to need some economic relief very, very soon."

The president of the Iowa Hospital Association, Kirk Norris, has warned that many of his member facilities won't survive the pandemic without cash infusions from the government.

"These community hospitals need cash now," he said. "They need to keep people in place. They need to stay open. And you can't lay off half of our work force. Even assuming we get back on our feet " and they say this is the next six or nine months " there will be hospitals that will not recover from this and will close in Iowa."

The same pattern is being repeated across rural America.

Last week, on the day its first coronavirus patient was admitted, the CEO of Three Rivers hospital in rural Washington state learned that the facility had only nine days left before it would run out of money to pay its staff and have to close.

Over the course of this pandemic, at least four rural hospitals have closed: two in West Virginia, one in Wellington, Kansas, and one in Carrollton, Alabama.

Even before coronavirus, rural hospitals across the US were struggling to survive, with 126 shutting down since 2011, according to the University of North Carolina's Sheps Center for Health Services Research.

Sign up now and get a 10% discount (original price US$400) off the China AI Report 2020 by SCMP Research. Learn about the AI ambitions of Alibaba, Baidu & JD.com through our in-depth case studies, and explore new applications of AI across industries. The report also includes exclusive access to webinars to interact with C-level executives from leading China AI companies (via live Q&A sessions). Offer valid until 31 May 2020.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Ramon Bilbao launches Spanish Wine Academy

Ramon Bilbao has announced it will continue with its plan to launch its Spanish Wine Academy, while also bringing forward its digital and online initiatives.

The educational programme, which is designed to showcase the quality and diversity of Spanish wines, was due to have launched in the UK in March, with events in Spain and Russia over the next two months before launching in Cyprus later in the year.

Instead, Riojas leading winery has brought its digital platform forward and it is now live with a partnership with decanter.com, and regular Instagram tastings and online wine meets around the world. The Spanish Wine Academy Youtube channel will also be unveiled as planned in June.

Carmen Gine, Marketing Director (wines) at Ramon Bilbao, said: The Spanish Wine Academy is devoted to helping trade and consumers discover the distinctive, excellent styles from the different DOs of Spain.

We launched the initiative in 2018 in Moscow, taking sommeliers on a tour of Spains key regions and on a detailed journey into the viticultural and vinification techniques behind some of our countrys top wines. The plan was always to take this onto the open road in 2020, talking to our customers and consumers around the world both online and in person - we have to acknowledge the difficulty and uncertainty of these times, but we can also still celebrate Spanish wines.

Ramon Bilbao brand ambassadors around the world have already started a schedule of online tastings and webinars, and the programme of live events will scale up over the next few months with interviews and link-ups with local market influencers and writers, and Ramon Bilbao winemakers including Rodolfo Bastida.

The programme of online tastings, which will be continuously updated, will soon be available on the Ramon Bilbao website, and local market Instagram programmes will be publicised via @bodegasramonbilbao and @ramonbilbaowine (UK).

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"We are thrilled to work with Kathy Ireland and her exceptionally talented and super creative executive team, to bring this revolutionary technology to manufacturers looking to enhance the quality of their products, as well as give their customers the added comfort of a product which is tough on harmful bacteria," says Ms. Williams. "kathy ireland Worldwide is one of the most powerful brands in the world, with Kathy named one of the most powerful women in the categories of furniture and fashion, our main target business-to-business customers. Kathy's business acumen is renowned throughout the world, and her team's talent for developing and executing creative and strategic growth plans, is second to none. This partnership is an incredible opportunity for our brand."

"We are delighted to partner with WeFresh," says Kathy Ireland, who is named one of the top ten women's health advocates by UCLA. "During this COVID-19 crisis, we're all forced to be more aware of harmful bacteria, even our new normal will require us to be as clean as we can be. Imagine destroying germs at the site of your clothing, furniture, your shoes, the pillows our kids sleep oneven the dog beds our beloved four-legged family members lounge in. WeFresh kathy ireland is a brand like no other. Incorporating this revolutionary technology by manufacturers can help keep us and our loved ones safer and healthier, as well bring an 'added-value' to a product, especially during such times."

WeFresh kathy ireland is exclusively distributed in North America for a product sold worldwide as Micro-Fresh. The technology was originally developed and crafted in 2006 in the U.K. to prevent the growth of mold on products in transit from the far corners of the world. It also has additional properties that prevent odor causing and pathogenic bacteria. Today, the brand is used as an 'added value' by over 50 retailers and manufacturers, including Marks and Spencer, Emirates Airlines, and Avon. It now serves as the 'go to' brand for innovation-conscious retailers that want to promote the freshness of their products.

In addition to preventing the growth of odor causing microorganisms, WeFresh kathy ireland products can be washed at low temperatures, decreasing the need for frequent washing which prolongs the life of the product, as well as reduces energy costs and carbon footprint.

WeFresh kathy ireland is free from restricted substances and SVHCs, OEKO-TEX Standard 100 approved in all 4 classes I-IV, and Certified DMF free. The result is a Nano-free technology that is tough on harmful bacteria but kind to the human skin. WeFresh kathy ireland has been tested and approved for safety in baby bedding and has been featured in children's footwear for nine years.

The technology behind WeFresh kathy ireland has been honored with a number of awards including the Cisco Systems National Innovation Award 2010, Ernst & Young Sustainable Business Growth Finalist 2014, Cummins Entrepreneur of the Year 2014, Goldman Sachs Business Growth Award 2015 and more.

About kathy ireland Worldwide (kiWW)

kiWW is listed as one of the most powerful brands in the world by License Global Magazine. Kathy Ireland is named one of the 19 most influential women in licensing by License Global magazine and according to Fairchild Publications, Kathy Ireland is one of the 50 most influential people in fashion. Furniture Today names Kathy one of the most influential leaders in the furniture industry. As part of kiWW's advocacy for innovation, the company also recently partnered Stellus Technologies, a Silicon Valley-based startup whose technology is redefining how companies manage and use unstructured data; as well as Padlist, an online real estate database platform which uses smart technology to make it easier and faster for renters and landlords to connect.

Kathy graces the cover of Forbes Magazine twice (2012, 2016). kiWW is responsible for billions of dollars in retail sales. kiWW is the recipient of multiple awards including several Good Housekeeping Seals. Kathy and kiWW support many non-profits including YWCA Greater Los Angeles, for which she is an Ambassador, Dream Foundation, Providence Educational Foundation, 911 for Kids/AEF, and the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Kathy is named an Ambassador for the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and is International Youth Chair for the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation.

SOURCE WeFresh
The World Health Organization is urging countries to create at least 6 million new nursing jobs by 2030 to offset a projected "global shortfall" as health-care workers across the world respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.



There are just under 28 million nurses worldwide, about 5.9 million short of what the world needs to adequately care for the growing population, according to a new report published Monday from WHO, the International Council of Nurses and Nursing Now.



The greatest deficit of nurses is in low- to low-middle income countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean region and some parts of Latin America, according to the report.



WHO recommended that countries experiencing nursing shortages should increase the number of nurse graduates by about 8% each year and improve the availability of jobs.



"Every penny invested in nursing raises the well being of people and families in tangible ways that are clear for everyone to see," ICN President Annette Kennedy said.



WHO also recommended that world leaders educate nurses in the scientific, technological and sociological skills they need to drive progress in health care as well as improving working conditions, CNBC reported.
The D.C. jail system has more confirmed coronavirus cases than all but four of 142 Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities nationwide, according to federal authorities, although its outbreak is not as widespread as those in jails in New York City, Chicago and other major urban areas. Tuesdays hearing came as the D.C. jail system has cut its population by more than 300 prisoners in three weeks.
Health experts warned that seniors, people with chronic health conditions and those with compromised immune systems would be at risk of serious illness if they contract the coronavirus.

As data released by the state Department of Health shows, they were right.

The coronavirus death toll in New York is 5,489. According to the health department's COVID-19 tracker, 86.2% of the people who died had at least one chronic health condition.

More than half of the deceased had high blood pressure and over 37% were diabetics. High cholesterol, coronary artery disease and renal disease were other common comorbidities.

"Any time anyone who has underlying medical conditions ends up with this virus or any other virus, it puts them more at risk," state Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said Tuesday.

The coronavirus has killed more men than women in New York, with men comprising 61% of the victims. A vast majority of those who died  82.4%  were age 60 and older.

But young people haven't avoided the worst of the virus. There has been one death reported in the under 10 age group and four fatalities involving people ages 10 to 19. Twenty-seven people in their 20s and 107 in their 30s perished due to COVID-19.

Geographically, downstate New York is the hardest-hit area. The five New York City boroughs and five downstate counties have reported the most deaths in the state. Brooklyn and Queens each have more than 1,000 deaths. In the Bronx and Manhattan, 816 and 750 people died after contracting COVID-19.

On Long Island, 886 people  620 in Nassau County and 266 in Suffolk County  have died.

There are some areas of upstate New York reporting a growing number of deaths. The death toll in Erie County, upstate's largest county, is up to 36. There have been 26 deaths in Monroe County and nine in Albany County.

Other data has been encouraging as state officials track the spread of the virus. The three-day hospitalization rate declined and there have been drops in daily intensive care unit admissions and intubations.

As hospitalizations drop, the number of patients discharged is on the rise. For seven consecutive days, the number of daily discharges has been at least 1,000.

However, the death toll concerns state officials. Gov. Andrew Cuomo explained that the lag between the hospitalizations and the deaths was due to the length of time a patient may spend on a ventilator. Patients who are on a ventilator could be hospitalized for an extended period. The longer they are on a ventilator, he said, the less likely it is they will recover.

For a few days, it seemed the death rate slowed. But on Monday, 731 people died  the most in a single day since the outbreak began.

At his briefing Monday, Cuomo called the virus a "deadly enemy."

"It's very hard to see the number of deaths we're having," he said. "It's frightening, it's disturbing  that amount of loss. I'm the governor of New York. I see my job as preventing that kind of disturbance and negativity and the loss for the people of the state. We like to think that we can control everything. We can't. We like to think that we can fix everything and fix all the problems for people. We can't."

Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.

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Britain's defence chief said today that the country would 'emerge a better society' after the coronavirus pandemic has passed.

General Sir Nick Carter said comparing the crisis to a war was helpful because it gives people a 'binding sense of purpose' that will help the country get through it.

Sir Nick, chief of the defence staff, also insisted it is 'business as usual' amid fears over who has the authority to take major decisions in Mr Johnson's absence.

General Sir Nick Carter, chief of the defence staff, arrives at 10 Downing Street on March 12

Police stand guard as a woman in a mask talks on a phone outside St Thomas' Hospital in London yesterday

Londoners are made homeless by an East End air raid during the Second World War in 1940

He told of a 'very clear' chain of command given the National Security Council (NSC), containing senior Cabinet ministers, is 'wrapped around' the Prime Minister.

He suggested operations would continue without disruption despite Mr Johnson being admitted to intensive care after his coronavirus symptoms worsened.

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said he could not comment about national security matters when asked if responsibilities connected to nuclear attack had been passed on to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is deputising for the PM.

In a separate interview, he claimed 'Dominic is in charge' before outlining how there are 'appropriate ways' to take decisions to keep the country safe.

Conservative Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Defence Committee, was among those seeking information as he wrote on Twitter: 'It is important to have 100 per cent clarity as to where responsibility for UK national security decisions now lies.

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove (pictured on BBC Breakfast this morning at his home in West London) said he could not comment about national security matters

'We must anticipate adversaries attempting to exploit any perceived weakness.'

Sir Nick said all the thoughts and prayers of the armed forces are with the PM.

Asked if there is a clear chain of command for the armed forces in such a situation, Sir Nick told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Yes, it's very clear I think.

'We work straight through to the Prime Minister but of course there's the National Security Council that's wrapped around him and formed of many of the Cabinet ministers and supported by the National Security Adviser.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is seen in self-isolation in Downing Street in London last Friday

'I think on that basis we're pretty confident it's business as usual as far as the operations are concerned.'

Sir Nick said he believed Mr Raab would chair the NSC and be supported by others.

Asked if he still believed six months was a reasonable timescale for the armed forces involvement in the coronavirus operation, Sir Nick replied: 'I think that was a reasonable assumption a month ago and I think we're all playing each day as it comes at the moment.'

Pressed on what the armed forces would do if there was civil unrest in the country, Sir Nick replied: 'I think it's most unlikely that we would get involved in public order at all.

'Generally speaking our role in this is to back-fill the police in those roles that don't face the public so the police force are able to manage public order on the country's behalf.'

Mr Gove, asked who is in charge in terms of defences and security, told Good Morning Britain: 'Dominic is in charge.

'I won't go into the details of the different national security decisions and protocols that there are but there are appropriate ways in which decisions can be taken in order to keep this country safe.

'The ultimate decisions are always taken by politicians and in this case the PM has asked Dominic to deputise for him, so it's Dominic as Foreign Secretary who's in charge.'
Wampsville, N.Y.  Madison County residents have been asked to continue to stay at home, except for essential workers, and follow the same alternate-day pattern for going out in public as Onondaga County.

The Board of Supervisors and Madison County Health Department requests that residents continue to take the measures for the next three weeks to aid the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

Those born in even years should only go out and shop or visit local parks on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. They also can go out on Sunday, April 19.

Those born in odd years should go out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. They can also go out this Sunday and on April 26.

We are asking residents to voluntarily double down on their social distancing efforts here in Madison County, Madison County Chairman John M. Becker said. For weeks we have been saying stay home to stop the spread of COVID-19. We thank our residents for doing their part, but we have noticed that people are becoming comfortable. They are no longer staying home. There are more and more people going to public places like stores. We cannot become complacent."

Essential workers should still go to work for their shift. As per the state order, non-essential businesses are still closed.

For concerns regarding a non-essential business that is continuing to operate, please visit the New York State Department of Labors Complaint Form or call 833.789.0470.

If you have a concern about essential businesses like restaurants, hotels, or grocery stores, please call the Madison County non-medical COVID-19 hotline at 315-366-2770.

If a resident has a concern about a large gathering happening in your area, please report the gathering by calling the Madison County Sheriffs non-emergency number at: 315-366-2311. The Sheriffs Office is enforcing Governor Cuomos executive order.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Coronavirus in NY: Cuomo extends school, business closures until April 29

Behind the Onondaga County execs latest move: Hes frustrated with coronavirus and some slackers

Instead of coronavirus patients, Syracuse hospitals swamped with empty beds

Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com
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Linkedin Tri Indah Oktavianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7 2020

The number of workers that have been laid off and forced to take unpaid leave has reached 162,416 in the capital as more than 18,000 companies in the city grapple with the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Jakarta administration has said.



Data compiled by the Jakarta Manpower, Transmigration and Energy Agency showed that as of Sunday, a total of 30,137 workers had been laid off by 3,348 companies, while another 132,279 employees had been sent home without pay.



A total of 18,045 companies in Jakarta have been affected by the coronavirus outbreak.



[The Jakarta administration] is collecting data on the number of workers who have been laid off and forced to take unpaid leave to be reported later to the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister and the Manpower Ministry, the agency wrote on its official Instagram account.



The Jakarta administration, through the agency, had issued a policy to accelerate the preemployment card program to offer subsidized job training courses and incentives to workers affected by layoffs and unpaid leave to cushion the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

______

The government needs to give funds to workers, app-based ride-hailing drivers, and small businesses. It would ease the burden of companies as part of the payment is subsidized by the government.

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A prominent South African politician who passed away last week was laid to rest in his Beloved Mercedes limousine instead of a regular casket, as per his last wish.

Tshekede Bufton Pitso, a former leader of the United Democratic Movement (UDM) in Eastern Cape, died last week, after collapsing in his driveway as he was making his way to his second-hand 1990s Mercedes E500 limousine. The former businessman had once had an entire fleet of luxurious Mercedes cars, but was forced to sell them in recent years, after falling on hard times. He did manage to buy a used E500, and even though it had broken down and couldnt be driven, he still enjoyed spending time in it and listening to the car radio. It was his favorite thing in the world and he even told his family he wanted to be buried in it when his time came. Last weekend, they honored his wish.

Photo: Facebook

A popular leader in East Cape, Chief Pitso was known as a flamboyant but staunch supporter of the UDM and people showed up in droves to attend his unusual funeral, despite the Covid-19 lockdown. The parlor in charge of the funeral told members of the press that honoring the wishes of the family in regards to the unusual coffin was difficult and stressful.

We have never had such a request before to be buried in a car and it was a difficult and stressful task to undertake, Thabiso Mantutle, director of the Phomolong Funeral Parlor, said. We had to make sure we had all the correct measurements to completely bury the car and to construct the ramp to get it in the grave and get all the correct paperwork done.

Photo: Facebook

Photos taken at the bizarre funeral show Tshekede Bufton Pitso in the driver seat of his beloved Mercedes, with the seat belt on and his hands on the wheel, as a number of people struggle to slowly lower the vehicle into the eight-feet-deep grave dug by an excavator on the Pitso familys burial plot.

My father was once a wealthy businessman and had a fleet of Mercedes cars but towards the end he hit on hard times and they went, Tshekedes 49-year-old daughter, Sefora Letswaka, told journalists. About two years ago he bought himself a second hand Mercedes Benz. It wasnt long before it broke down but he still spent much of his time in it outside the house. He couldnt drive it but that was where he was happy and spent much of his time sitting behind the wheel.

Photo: Facebook

He said when the time came he wanted to be buried in it. We listened to him and honored his wish and hope he is happy looking down on us, Sefora added.

Apparently, burying people in cars is not entirely unheard of in Africa. A couple of years ago, we wrote about a Nigerian man who honored his father by burying him in a $90,000 brand new BMW X5, and five years ago, another Nigerian businessman buried his mother in a Hummer SUV.

Photo: Facebook
An alleged drink-driver has been fined $1,652 for breaking COVID-19 laws after driving around in Victoria six times over the limit, police said.

The man, who is 37 and from South Australia, was allegedly more than six times the legal limit.

Aside from that charge, he was also fined after police who pulled him over discovered a two other people in his car - in violation of strict coronavirus rules.

Police said they noticed his Holden SUV was being driven 'erratically' and he was pulled over on Baillie Road in Horsham about 1.30am on Sunday.

They alleged his blood alcohol reading was 0.313, more than six times the legal limit.

Victorians have been banned from leaving home except for food and supplies, medical care, exercise, and work or education. An officer is seen in Melbourne on March 30 (pictured)

He was also fined $1,652 for having two passengers in the car, thanks to laws put in place in the state by its chief health officer.

Under the rules, designed to stop the spread of the deadly respiratory infection COVID-19, drivers are only allowed more than one other person in the car if they are members of the same household.

Even then, they have to be out of the house for a necessary purpose, such as a medical appointment or going to buy groceries.

Police also alleged the man was driving on a disqualified licence.

It comes after a learner driver in the state was also fined $1,652 for breaking the stage three coronavirus restrictions.

NSW Police officers were out in force at Cronulla Beach in Sydney's south on Monday, ordering anyone who wasn't exercising to move on (pictured)

Hunter Reynolds, 17, was learning to drive with her mother in the car when a police officer pulled the vehicle over.

The pair were in Frankston, Victorian, about 30km from their home in Hampton.

Since last Monday, residents in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT have been banned from leaving home except for food and supplies, medical care, exercise, and work or education.

The fines vary state-by-state.

Hunter Reynolds (pictured) was fined $1,652 for taking a driving lesson with her mother during coronavirus restrictions

The girl's mother Sharee said she did not realise driving lessons were banned.

'We didn't think for one minute that we would be doing anything wrong,' she told 3AW on Monday.

'We weren't in contact with any person, we weren't stopping anywhere, we weren't planning on visiting any destinations, we were just learning to drive.

The teenager was given a $1,652 on-the-spot fine for breaching the strict rules, but they plan to challenge it in court.

'I was just shocked, because I obviously hadn't done anything wrong, or so I thought. I was just really stressing,' the teenager said.
Tatiana Calderon says it was "very strange" to travel to Japan amid the coronavirus crisis to test her new Super Formula car for 2020.

All around the world, the pandemic has brought sport and most other normal activities to a standstill.

But the Super Formula series pushed ahead with a pre-season test.

"It was completely crazy," Calderon, also an Alfa Romeo test driver, told Blick when asked about her trip from the coronavirus hotspot of Spain to Japan.

"The situation in Spain is tense, but my new team in Japan ensured that the test would take place," she told the Swiss newspaper.

"Fortunately, there was no quarantine for us like for Italians and the Chinese when entering Japan."

Continuing to describe the atmosphere at the Fuji track, she said of the test: "Very strange. Everyone wore masks. But I'm glad to have been able to get to know my new car, my new team and a new track.

"It was great to be able to be in the car again in this global crisis. Who knows how long this is going to last," Calderon said.

"The plane from Tokyo was organised by the Spanish embassy, and it was said to be the last for possibly a very long time. It was bizarre," she described.

"The huge airport was completely deserted. There were a maximum of 100 people on the plane, all spaced out and everyone wearing masks and gloves.

"It was very strange, almost scary. Thank god everything worked out.

"Madrid is a ghost town with no buses. My sister and I had to take two taxis from the airport because they can only take one person at a time. Crazy," she added.

Calderon had hoped to get some time at the wheel of the 2020 Alfa Romeo this year, but she admits that is "probably impossible" now.

"The main thing now is that all the teams survive this crisis as unscathed as possible," she said.

(GMM)
Germany's public health authority launched a smartwatch app on Tuesday (April 7, 2020) in partnership with health tech startup Thryve to help monitor the spread of COVID-19 and analyse whether measures to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic are working.

The Corona-Datenspende https://corona-datenspende.de (Corona Data Donation) app gathers vital signs from volunteers wearing smartwatches or fitness trackers - including pulse, temperature, and sleep - to analyse whether they are symptomatic of the flu-like illness.

Results will be represented in an interactive online map that would make it possible - together with other data inputs - for the health authorities and the general public to assess the prevalence of infections down to postcode level.

"If the sample is big enough to capture enough symptomatic patients, that would help us to draw conclusions on how infections are spreading and whether containment measures are working," said Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute that is coordinating Germany`s coronavirus response.

Germany has the fourth highest COVID-19 caseload behind the United States, Spain, and Italy at nearly 100,000 but has kept fatalities down to a relatively low 1,600 thanks to early and extensive testing.

The German authorities have been more cautious than some Asian countries in using digital technology to fight the coronavirus, restrained by Europe`s strict data privacy laws and mindful of public skepticism towards any surveillance reminiscent of Nazi- or communist-era rule.

But a similar approach has been used here to model the spread of influenza while, in the United States, connected `smart` thermometers distributed by Kinsa Health have offered early insights into how quickly COVID-19 is spreading, the New York Times reported last month.

|The Corona Data Donation app, available for download in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, is voluntary and data would be processed anonymously. To register, users should enter their postcode, age, sex, height and weight.

Data shared by their connected devices would be monitored on an ongoing basis, with telltale readings such as a high temperature or disturbed sleep indicating whether an individual may have come down with COVID-19.

Project leader Dirk Brockmann said he hoped 100,000 people - or 10% of Germany`s smartwatch and fitness tracker users - would sign up. Even 10,000 would be analytically useful, he added.

The Corona Data Donation app was developed in four weeks in partnership with Berlin-based startup Thryve, a data-driven `wearable health` startup which realised earlier this year that its approach could be adapted to detect COVID-19.

Thryve approached the Robert Koch Institute with its findings, said spokesman Sebastian Wochnik. "Their epidemiologists really liked this unique solution. With more data, their models obviously work better," he said.

Thryve was founded in 2017 as a commercial spin-off from the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research, one of 72 applied research groups under the umbrella of Germany`s Fraunhofer Society.

Another branch of the Fraunhofer Society is involved in developing a European technology platform to support smartphone apps that would use Bluetooth connections between devices to help trace and warn those at risk.
New guidelines for Int'l travellers: From South Africa to Mauritius, here is a list of at-risk countries

COVID-19: How doctor-turned-politicians in India bringing ray of hope among people

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

New Delhi, Apr 07: While the country is fighting against the outbreak of coronavirus that claimed hundreds of lives in India, there are several people who are seen blaming the Centre and state governments for not acting on time to curb the pandemic outbreak.

But, little did they know that there are several doctor-turned-politicians in the government.

Taking Sanjay Jaiswal, the Bihar BJP president as an example, he can be seen receiving calls from those seeking medical advice. Meanwhile, he also field calls from his party workers and top leaders in Delhi.

Another doctor-turned-politician is Anil Jain, who is also the BJP general secretary, is seen monitoring the situation on the ground in Haryana and Chandigarh. A consultant surgeon with the Apollo Group, this politician is seen not practicing medicine after he took oath as an MP.

Coronavirus outbreak: Is India still fighting COVID-19 under local transmission phase?

However, with respect to coronavirus pandemic, this Rajya Sabha MP said that he too has recieving calls to seek his advice.

Jain further went on to say that he is focusing on logistics on the ground to ensure hospitals have supplies and patients are being looked after.

Also, former minister and Gautam Buddh Nagar MP Mahesh Sharma is focusing on the hospital chain that he runs near the national capital. There are several reports claiming that he too was examining patients at the hospital.

Fake News Buster

Nonetheless, Bhutan Prime Minister, Lotay Tshering is well-known for practicing medicine on weekends.

With these doctor-turned-politicians around, one should calmly understand the situation and follow the steps that are imposed by the government to fight the outbreak of coronavirus.
Gleason describes the possibility that she won't be able to access the drug as "terrifying." She only has a few more days before she runs out. Her pharmacy, which she contacted last week, is completely out of the medication.

But now supplies are running low across the country for patients such as Gleason who rely on the drug. As President Donald Trump has repeatedly and aggressively touted the drug as a potential cure for the novel coronavirus, hydroxychloroquine has been flying off the shelves at pharmacies. Earlier in the month, autoimmune patients could find it at a pharmacy in the area, even if it meant calling up a handful. But as of this week, several doctors told CNBC there are widespread shortages across many states, and it's gotten challenging to find it anywhere.

Hydroxychloroquine is an antimalarial drug that is also commonly used to treat a wide range of autoimmune ailments, including lupus and conditions such as juvenile dermatomyositis.

She's been taking a medication called hydroxychloroquine, sold under the brand name Plaquenil, for eight years now. It helps her avoid "flareups," she says, which often start with muscle weakness, making it difficult for her to raise her arms above her head to brush her hair. From there, she'll quickly deteriorate to the point where she'll feel pain trying to use her hands for basic tasks, including her schoolwork.

Morgan Gleason, 21, has an autoimmune condition called juvenile dermatomyositis, which causes her body's immune system to attack its own cells and tissues.

"Most of my patients up until Friday were able to get it just by calling around a lot," said Kenneth Kalunian, a rheumatologist at UC San Diego Health who treats patients with lupus, among other ailments. "But this week, so far they've been totally cut off."

The Johns Hopkins Lupus Center describes hydroxychloroquine as helping reduce flareups in some patients "as much as 50%," noting that some may be on the drug for the rest of their lives to help keep their symptoms at bay. Hydroxychloroquine is the most commonly prescribed medication for autoimmune conditions versus other antimalarials because it's generally believed to cause fewer side effects.

In recent weeks, Trump has said he believes the medication could be a "game changer" against the coronavirus. But White House advisor and leading infectious disease specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci has called for far more testing of the drug before patients with COVID-19 are urged to take it.

"The data are really just, at best, suggestive," Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CBS' "Face the Nation" on April 5. "There have been cases that show there may be an effect, and there are others to show there's no effect. So I think, in terms of science, I don't think we could definitively say it works."

But with all the anxiety about COVID-19, some pharmacists and doctors have said that healthy people are starting to request the drug just to keep it on hand. When that kind of stockpiling happens, it makes it particularly difficult for autoimmune patients such as Gleason to access the medication. Dr. James Wantuck, a co-founder and medical provider at telemedicine service Plushcare, says he's getting "daily requests" for hydroxychloroquine.

In light of the shortages, doctors treating autoimmune patients are pressing policymakers and drug manufacturers to increase the production as quickly as possible.

"I'm telling my patients to take the drug as long as they can, and to know that the patient groups, medical societies and their doctors are advocating for them," said Dr. Kalunian.

In the meantime, the data coming out of studies looking into hydroxychloroquine don't indicate it's a panacea as a treatment for COVID-19. There are anecdotes from doctors using it for their coronavirus patients, sometimes alongside other medications, but that doesn't prove that the drug should be used in a broader population. Thus far, the human trials have shown only mixed results.

"It's stressful," said Dr. Isabelle Amigues, a rheumatologist based in Denver, Colorado. "On the one hand, we understand that the government wants to give some hope. But you're taking a medication from a patient where we know it can help, and giving it to a patient where we don't know if it works."
BILLINGS, Mont. - A Canadian company said Monday that it's started construction on the long-stalled Keystone XL oil sands pipeline across the U.S.-Canada border, despite calls from tribal leaders and environmentalists to delay the $8 billion project amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This March 11, 2020 photo provided by the Bureau of Land Management shows the proposed route of the Keystone XL oil pipeline where it crosses into the U.S. from Canada in Phillips County, Mont. A Canadian company said Monday, April 6, 2020, that it's started construction on the long-stalled Keystone XL oil sands pipeline across the U.S.-Canada border, despite calls from tribal leaders and environmentalists to delay the $8 billion project amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Al Nash/Bureau of Land Management via AP)

BILLINGS, Mont. - A Canadian company said Monday that it's started construction on the long-stalled Keystone XL oil sands pipeline across the U.S.-Canada border, despite calls from tribal leaders and environmentalists to delay the $8 billion project amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A spokesman for TC Energy said work began over the weekend at the border crossing in northern Montana, a remote area with sprawling cattle ranches and wheat fields. About 100 workers will be involved in the pipeline's early stages, but that number is expected to swell into the thousands in coming months as work proceeds, according to the company.

The 1,200 mile (1,930 kilometre) pipeline was proposed in 2008 and would carry up to 830,000 barrels (35 million gallons) of crude daily for transfer to refineries and export terminals on the Gulf of Mexico.

It's been tied up for years in legal battles and several court challenges are still pending, including one that's due before a judge next week.

TC Energy's surprise March 31 announcement that it intended to start construction came after the provincial government in Alberta invested $1.1 billion to jump start work. Montana's Department of Environmental Quality on Friday issued the final state permits the company needed, agency spokeswoman Rebecca Harbage said.

Leaders of American Indian tribes and some residents of rural communities along the pipeline route worry that workers could spread the coronavirus. As many as 11 construction camps, some housing up to 1,000 people, were initially planned for the project, although TC Energy says those are under review because of the virus.

TC Energy says it plans to check everyone entering work sites for fever and ensure workers practice social distancing.

Work on the pipeline is allowed under an exemption to Gov. Steve Bullock's March 26 "stay at home" directive, which is intended to prevent the spread of the virus by discouraging many daily activities, according to state officials. But the directive did not address worker camps.

Bullock is concerned about potential risks from the virus associated with the camps, spokeswoman Marissa Perry said Monday. The Democratic governor "would want those concerns addressed prior to TC Energy and their contractors finalizing their plans of operations for those segments of construction," she said.

Opponents in January had asked Morris to block any work while the legal challenges are pending. They said clearing and tree felling along the route would destroy bird and wildlife habitat. Native American tribes along the pipeline route have said the pipeline could break and spill oil into waterways like the Missouri River.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

A hearing on the request to block work is scheduled for April 16 before U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Great Falls.

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Keystone XL was rejected twice under former President Barack Obama because of concerns it would make climate change worse. President Donald Trump revived the project and later pushed through approval after Morris issued an order to block construction in 2018.

Morris in December denied an initial request to block construction because TC Energy said at the time no work was immediately planned.

Stephan Volker, an attorney for the environmental groups asking Morris to again intervene, said the company's decision to "jump the gun" before next week's hearing was an insult to the judge.

"We are confident the court will not be bullied, and will overturn President Trumps second approval, just as he overturned President Trumps first approval, as unlawful," Volker said.

___

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The Staten Island-based Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers foundation, long known for its support of first responders and the military, has pledged $3 million to assist healthcare workers battling the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The foundation has also established the COVID-19 Heroes Fund, which has set aside an initial $1 million to provide temporary mortgage payments for families of healthcare workers who lose their lives to COVID-19, leaving behind young children.

Additionally, the fund will provide meals and personal protective equipment (PPE) to EMTs, ambulance workers and healthcare workers, beginning with those at Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC).

Our foundation has always been there for the front lines and first responders who put their lives on the line, and these doctors and nurses, these healthcare workers, are doing that today, right now, said Frank Siller, chairman and chief executive officer of the foundation.

Siller, of Westerleigh, started the foundation with his siblings in memory of their brother, Stephen, an off-duty New York City firefighter who was killed while responding to the World Trade Center on 9/11.

They are risking their lives to fight back against COVID-19, Siller said. If a healthcare worker dies, were going to help their family with mortgage payments for as long as that million dollars lasts.

Yet, Siller said, he hopes to see the initial fund continue to grow during this unprecedented pandemic, as did a similar fund established by the Siller Foundaton in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Ive never seen anything like this in my lifetime, said Siller, 67. But, after Sandy, we delivered $50 million worth of services. We raised over $12 million and turned it into $50 million worth of service, labor, craftmanship. Its not foreign for us to change on a dime and do the right thing.

Those wishing to donate to the fund should visit Tunnel2Towers.org or call 1-844-BRAVEST.

The foundation has secured an initial shipment of N95 masks and gowns, which will be distributed to hospitals in need across New York City, Siller said. He said he expects to deliver well over $1 million in PPE to hospitals in the metropolitan area.

On top of the list will be RUMC, he said. The West Brighton hospital is in need, he said, and its near and dear to Sillers heart, as most of his family was born in the hospital, formerly known as St. Vincents Medical Center.

Well be sending them 5,000 masks and 5,000 gowns to start with, Siller said. Theyll get the gowns today or tomorrow, and the masks before the end of the week.

Staten Island University Hospital also received a shipment of PPE, and the foundation will also provide two meals a day to the hundreds of EMTs and paramedics who are staying at Fort Totten Park in Queens. Those health professionals have traveled from around the country to help New Yorkers during the crisis.

Theyve left their families to care for ours, Siller said. Wed better take care of them.

Supplying meals also benefits several local restaurants that are struggling financially, Siller said.

Were primarily paying for the food and, by doing so, were making sure that some people can go back to work, some restaurants that are teetering are getting much-needed business; they can employ an extra worker or two, he said.

His late brother, Stephen, would approve the new directive, Siller said.

Hed be proud of what were doing, Siller explained. He is our inspiration, as are so many other great heroes. These are the people we want to honor by doing good. We try to live by the words of St. Francis of Assisi, who said, while there is time, let us do good. This is good and its necessary, and if it saves a few lives, well, wed be very proud of that.

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Dairy farmers across the province are dumping milk due to lack of demand from the food service industry in yet another runoff effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Producers were notified last week by the Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) that disposing of milk would be necessary on a select and rotating basis, Cheryl Smith, the organizations chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Disposing of milk is an extraordinary measure, and one that Dairy Farmers of Ontario has only ever considered in emergency situations, Smith said.

The action is driven by a dramatic reduction in demand for dairy products from food service providers and the hospitality industry, which have taken a massive hit amidst closings due to COVID-19.

But dairy farmers maintain that consumer supply chains will not be impacted and that milk and dairy products will remain on supermarket shelves  despite many grocery stores putting purchase limits on these goods.

We are working very closely with processors and industry groups to respond to the unpredictable market fluctuations that are now part of our current environment, Smith said.

Southwestern Ontario is home to more than 60 per cent of the provinces 3,600 dairy farms.

Producers will share the cost of their lost revenue, with all farmers taking lower pay for their milk to compensate those having to discard it.

While dumping milk might be a painful prospect for farmers, its one they say is necessary to maintain farm operations and be ready for future changes in supply demand.

Its heartbreaking, it really is, said Vicky Morrison, a dairy farmer in Essex County and DFO board member who represents Middlesex, Elgin, Lambton Essex and Kent counties. I stood and cried when I opened the tap this morning. Thats two days of work down the drain. Its hard to watch, but we know we have to do it.

Morrison attributes any currently empty shelves to initial panic buying sparked by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the province, but said ample milk is available to be processed and distributed, despite the disposing measures.

The DFO said they will continue to assess the situation on a weekly basis, but that its unclear when the disposing measures will be lifted.

You think youre in the safest industry in the world, that youd have security, then it turns out you dont have any more security than anyone else really, said Tommy Faulker of London Dairy Farms.

He said the milk dumping points to uncertainty and challenges throughout the dairy supply chain as producers, processors and distributors adapt to fluctuating demands. But on his farm, work continues as normal.

You cant turn a cow off like a tap, Faulkner said.

What we do for now is business as normal. In a few months, this could all be over. We kind of just have to stay the course and suffer the consequences just like everyone else in society.
Healthcare companies may be sharing details of people's illnesses and conditions with Google, Facebook and a host of advertising companies, the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) has found.

In a damning report, Helen Dixon's office says that Irish organisations are letting tracking "cookies" run riot across their websites.

In some instances, its report said, they may be allowing them to capture sensitive medical queries for the purpose of passing them on to advertising firms.

The report concluded that the situation is a "particular cause for concern".

"We are concerned special category data, such as details of illnesses or conditions a user may search for on such sites, is being shared with parties such as Google and Facebook," said the DPC report.

"In these cases, the controller may potentially be processing special category data and sharing it with third parties, including advertisers, without a lawful basis."

While not naming the companies implicated, the report highlighted one health insurer that allows trackers on its website to follow users.

"It appears likely users are being targeted based on what they search for, including health information," said the report. "The likelihood that the websites and third parties are processing special-category data, on foot of a user's searches or other interactions with health websites on which trackers are embedded, is high."

This may even go as far as tracking what users type into search fields within the website, the DPC concluded.

The DPC's findings come from an overall investigation into whether Irish companies and public sector organisations are adhering to "cookie" laws designed to curb the worst of the internet's tracking and privacy incursions.

A "cookie" is a small piece of code that tracks a web user around the internet.

The DPC concluded that few Irish websites give users the true power to opt out of setting cookies.

Of 38 organisations investigated, 32 were given an amber or red rating, signifying partial or total non-compliance with cookie laws.

A red mark means "bad practices with cookie banners, the setting of multiple cookies without consent, badly designed cookies policies or privacy policies, and a lack of clarity about whether they understood the purposes of the ePrivacy legislation".

"Most websites with cookie banners had an interface that favoured an 'accept' option, without an option to 'reject' cookies," the report said.

"Even where they did have an option to learn more about cookies, in many cases this did not include a layered option to accept or reject cookies by function. A so-called nudging approach to the web design is therefore common, with users effectively forced into accepting all cookies."
West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra on Monday wrote to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urging to release the entire sum of Revenue Deficit Grant provided by the 15th Finance Commission to the state of Rs 5,031 crores in three installments.

Mitra said the states will continue to face financial stress in a situation where revenue receipts are drying up, while the expenditure to tackle the COVID 19 crisis.

"In order to tide over this critical situation, we had made a request for advance release of the Revenue Deficit Grant provided by the 15th Finance Commission, where we urged you to release the full amount of the grant during the months of April, May and June 2020," Mitra said in the letter.

He said in the case of West Bengal, this release will amount to Rs 5,013 crores in three installments of Rs 1,671 crores, for each of the three months of April, May and June, respectively.

"But we are dismayed that the Centre has released only an amount of Rs 417 crores for the month of April, in a routine manner without taking into cognizance the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis," he added.

The state finance minister also highlighted the proposal sent by the Chief Minister to the Prime Minister of raising the FRBM limit from 3 per cent to 5 per cent for this fiscal year, 2020-21.

"May I urge that the proposals may be urgently put in place so that the State has some resources to fight the menace of COVID-19 and implement welfare measures for the people, especially poor farmers, the unorganized workers and micro and small enterprises, who among others, have been so badly impacted," Mitra added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
YEREVAN, APRIL 7, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan urges citizens to more strictly follow the coronavirus-related restrictions within this week so that the government will be able to mitigate them starting next Monday.

The PM said live on Facebook that the current figures linked with the coronavirus cases hint the government that the policy of restrictions is probably effective. I ask you to more strictly and seriously keep those restrictions so that we can start adopting a strategy on mitigating the current regime starting next Monday if the statistics gives that chance, the PM said.

He also informed that as of today there are 1,400 beds for coronavirus infected patients, but as of this moment only half of them are used, which means that the situation is not so tense. Pashinyan also said that the number of patients in critical condition has been decreased. He thanked all healthcare workers for their job.

For the first time since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Armenia the number of recovered patients is more than that of the new cases: 25 patients have recovered and 20 new cases have been confirmed in one day. As of this moment the total number of COVID-19 confirmed cases in Armenia is 853, and that of the recoveries is 87. 8 people have died.

On March 16 Armenia declared a 30-day state of emergency to battle the spread of COVID-19. The state of emergency is effective until April 14, 17:00.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
WASHINGTON - Americans and Canadians alike are used to seeing gauzy, pastel-coloured pitches for medicines, therapies and treatments on cable television. They're less accustomed to hearing them delivered live from the White House briefing room.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A bottle of hydroxychloroquine is displayed on a table outside The Resort at Texas City nursing home Tuesday, April 7, 2020, in Texas City, Texas. Dr. Robin Armstrong, the home's medical director, is treating nearly 30 residents of the nursing home with the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which is unproven against COVID-19 even as President Donald Trump heavily promotes it as a possible treatment. Armstrong said Trump's championing of the drug is giving doctors more access to try it on coronavirus patients. More than 80 residents and workers have tested positive for the coronavirus at the facility. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

WASHINGTON - Americans and Canadians alike are used to seeing gauzy, pastel-coloured pitches for medicines, therapies and treatments on cable television. They're less accustomed to hearing them delivered live from the White House briefing room.

At times, Donald Trump's nightly news conferences have come to resemble infomercials as the country's pitchman-in-chief promotes hydroxychloroquine  an anti-malarial drug more commonly prescribed for diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis that the president seems convinced carries promise for COVID-19 patients.

Trump said the U.S. has stockpiled 29 million hydroxychloroquine tablets  a strategy based on evidence that doctors, health care professionals, governors and infectious-disease experts across the country have described as inconclusive at best and downright dangerous at worst.

On Tuesday, he seized on the story of Karen Whitsett, a state Democrat from Michigan, who told Fox News this week that "she thought she was dead" before trying the drug, which she now credits with saving her life.

"I think she'll be voting for me now, even if she's a Democrat," Trump said. "I don't say that happens with everybody, but that's a beautiful story. There are many of those stories. And I say, 'Try it.'"

That's precisely the sort of message Florence Tew doesn't want to hear.

Tew, who lives in Toronto, has been taking the medication for the last 12 years to help manage lupus, which can include debilitating joint pain, rash and kidney problems. She wants nothing more than the world to find an effective COVID-19 treatment, she said  but not based on unproven theories that come at the expense of her own therapy.

"It's disheartening," said Tew, who described hearing stories online from other lupus patients being warned by their pharmacies that they wouldn't be able to refill their prescriptions  and in one case, being told by a doctor's office that they would be denied the drug entirely.

"That's when I started to really panic," she said. "You've gotten to a point where you're taking this medication and you just  you feel good, you're able to work, you're able to function, and then something throws a wrench into it."

Tew said she currently gets a monthly supply of her medication from PocketPills, a B.C.-based pharmacy service that fills, delivers and manages prescriptions online  and that's beginning to notice warning signs about the drug's availability.

Demand for the drug spiked in North America in the early days of the outbreak, not long after the president began singing its praises, said A.J. Bassi, the company's director of pharmacy services. Oversight bodies like the Ontario Medical Association and the Registered Nurses of Ontario had to issue notices to discourage doctors from stockpiling it.

Since then, although manufacturers insist that the supply of the drug in Canada is currently at typical, pre-pandemic levels, vendors are using historical purchase trends to restrict pharmacies to a 30-day limit on how much they can purchase, he said.

"If I only historically purchased 500 tablets a month, because that's how much I dispense, then that's how much they're restricting that we can purchase," Bassi said. The coming challenge will be dealing with supply-chain problems where wholesalers are forced to use ground transportation to send shipments, leading to potential restocking delays.

"Everybody's going crazy buying toilet paper  when you need some, you go buy two rather than one, because you're just  you're afraid. And the same thing in pharmacy  you're afraid for your patients, so you buy more."

So what's with the president's fixation on hydroxychloroquine?

Conspiracy theories abound, most of them revolving around Big Pharma's long-standing influence in U.S. politics and reputation as a generous campaign donor. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Trump has a small personal stake in Sanofi, a Paris-based drug maker that produces Plaquenil, the brand-name version.

"Hydroxychloroquine can cause serious adverse reactions and should not be taken without medical prescription or advice," the company says on its website. "Sanofi's hydroxychloroquine product is not indicated for use for COVID-19 in any country."

People close to Trump, including billionaire Larry Ellison, television doctor Mehmet Oz and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani have all been pushing the president to expedite approving the drug for COVID-19, the Times reported. It's also been a popular talking point on Fox News, Trump's preferred cable-news indulgence.

And Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, has reportedly been so aggressive in promoting the hydroxychloroquine theory that he got into a Situation Room confrontation on the weekend with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the face of the government's COVID-19 effort.

Navarro, citing his own research into anecdotal reports of the drug's effectiveness, has parroted the president's thinking.

"History will judge whether this was an efficacious drug," he told CNN. "Right now, in the fog of war, if that can save lives that's a good thing."

The Trump administration's enthusiasm for the drug is based on anecdotal studies conducted on a relative handful of patients, said Dr. Allen Zagoren, a surgeon and professor of public administration at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

"When you have a disease that's affecting a million people, you need to have bigger numbers to project because that could be coincidental  the disease is very unpredictable," Zagoren said.

"You need to have a big study to predict. When you start throwing stuff at the wall to see what will stick, that's garbled information  it's garbage in, garbage out."

Then there's the issue of side effects, Zagoren noted: the drug carries a host of potential issues, particularly for people with pre-existing conditions, compromised immune systems, cardiopulmonary problems  the very people who are most likely to be vulnerable to the severe effects of COVID-19 in the first place.

Hydroxychloroquine is also often administered with an antibacterial known as azithromycin that carries a heightened risk of death in patients with a pre-existing heart condition.

"If I was asked to review a case for a lawyer or the board of medicine that a physician decided to give a drug to the patient that had no proven efficacy off-label and the patient died, that's negligence," Zagoren said.

"Write the cheque, because you can't defend that."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2020.
Triton College continues to be a resource to our local community, especially during challenging times, Jensen said in a statement. Around the world and across the region, people are pulling together and deciding how to best support healthcare workers as they care for the sick. We are fortunate to be able to donate much-needed resources to support our local community.
Under the order, all places of public amusement, whether indoors or outdoors, must close, including country clubs and social clubs.

Any gathering of more than 10 people, except residents of a single residential unit, also is prohibited.

To enforce the stay-at-home order, Holcomb has created an Enforcement Response Team, led by former Judge David Cook, chairman of the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, to investigate alleged violations in conjunction with state and local health authorities.

The governor directed the enforcement team to initially encourage noncompliant businesses simply to follow the order.

But the team also has the authority to shut a business down, take steps to permanently pull any operating licenses and to refer the business owner to the local prosecutor.

"What we do today, what we do tomorrow, is going to have a direct impact on where we find ourselves two weeks from now," Holcomb said about the need to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic. "This is the time, right now, to be very mindful of our actions and our inaction, quite frankly."
Myanmar & COVID-19 Myanmar Military Doctors to Staff New Makeshift COVID-19 Hospital in Yangon

Yangon Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein (second from left) at the makeshift hospital site in Hlegu Township on Sunday. / Phyo Min Thein / Facebook

YANGONThe government of Yangon is preparing a new makeshift hospital with capacity for at least 200 COVID-19 patients on the outskirts of the city and the Myanmar military has agreed to dispatch two medical teams to staff the facility at the request of the regional government.

COVID-19 patients in Yangon are currently being treated at the Waibargi Infectious Disease Hospital. A total of 13 patients are now receiving treatment there.

The Yangon regional government said on Sunday that it is building the temporary hospital with an initial capacity of 200 beds for COVID-19 patients by converting hostels for medical use at the Central Institute of Civil Service in Hlegu Township.

Regional authorities sent a letter to the Myanmar militarys Yangon Command last Friday, informing it about the plan to open a makeshift hospital as soon as possible.

The facility is intended to treat COVID-19 patients exclusively, and around 205 health workers will be needed to run it, according to the letter signed by U Moe Hein, secretary 2 of the Yangon regional government.

The letter requested the cooperation of the Myanmar Army Medical Corps in the task, and asked the Yangon Command to notify the Yangon government about the type and number of military medics available to staff the facility.

The Myanmar military told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that it will dispatch two medical teams, each comprising 40 health care professionals, to the new hospital.

Military spokesperson Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun said the Tatmadaw would dispatch its medical teams once the hospital is ready for operation.

We learned that the hospital will be ready by April 10. We will dispatch our medical teams then, Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun said.

The Tatmadaw has prepared two teams but will start by sending one, he said. Each team will comprise 12 specialists, 10 general practitioners, 14 senior nurses, two lab technicians and two radiographers, he said.

According to the Yangon Health Department, a total of 3,412 people are under quarantine at government-designated quarantine facilities and hospitals, and 298 people are under home quarantine.

According to the ministry, 22 COVID-19 cases had been reported in Myanmar by noon on Tuesday, with one fatality.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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Press Release

April 7, 2020 'Tough times call for tough decisions'

Drilon says gov't may need to review spending program for 2020 Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Tuesday said that the government should be prepared to sacrifice some projects, even flagship infrastructure projects, in order to generate funds for COVID-19 response activities, as he urged for greater government intervention to ease the impact of the pandemic among Filipinos. "Tough times call for tough decisions. We are now seeing the far-reaching effects of the COVID-19. It is not only the poorest that are affected but also the middle class, as well as small business owners. Sadly, the government's wallet is depleting as the rest of the Filipino people," Drilon said. "Kung ang gobyerno hirap maghanap ng pera sa panahon ngayon, paano pa kaya ang ordinaryong Pilipino, ang mga nawalan ng trabaho, ang maliliit na mamumuhunan na nawalan ng negosyo," Drilonstressed. Drilon said that the lack of sufficient funds hinder the government from responding to the crisis, as he noted that there are items in the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act that remain unfunded. "It is a question of government fiscal position. Does the government have enough money to combat COVID-19?" he reiterated. "Perhaps our financial managers would be able to free up some funds that would not be utilized for the intended purpose and realign it to the amelioration programs," he said. Drilon noted that under the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highway, there are about P30.17 billion for bridge construction, P52.8 billion for asset preservation program (road construction), P113.39 billion for network development program (road widening, diversion), and P90.12 billion for flood management program. Saying that these projects will be impossible to be fully implemented within the year, Drilon said the government should realign some fundings to aid the affected sectors, pointing out that with the passage the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act, the government can free up more resources, realign and reprogram the same to appropriate responses against the crisis. "The government should reach out to all affected sectors. If we do not roll out a parallel assistance, our economy will surely collapse," said Drilon. "Families classified as middle class today are not earning any income. Likewise, small business owners risk losing their jobs and livelihood due to the lockdown. Their needs may be different but all of them need help," he stressed. The minority leader said he supports a two-week extension of the Luzon-wide lockdown, but stressed "that the government should be prepared to assist all Filipinos in distress during this crisis and ensure food supply and movement of essential goods and services during the lockdown." Earlier, the minority chief raised concerns that the lack of sufficient funds will undermine government interventions to fight COVID-19. Due to the pandemic and the lockdown, Drilon said revenue collections are greatly affected and government disbursements, which account for roughly 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, are expected to slow down. "Our tight fiscal space seriously affects the government's capabilty to address COVID-19," he said, adding that the situation makes the government dependent on loan and aid to address the pandemic, hence the slow responses.. Drilon said that the country's present fiscal space is further crippled by the COVID-19, making things more difficult for the government to respond to the crisis. Drilon noted that the lack of cash is evident, "according to the President's second report, out of the Php200 Billion Emergency Subsidy Program, only PhP100 Billion has been released. The balance shall be released 'as soon as the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) releases the certification of availability of cash'. This is indeed very worrisome." In a televised speech Monday night, the President expressed concerns that the government may not have enough money to combat COVID-19. "I'm calling on the secretary of finance to generate (funds). Magnakaw ka, manghiram ka, wala akong pakialam. Produce mo 'yung pera. Hindi ko alam kung kailan ako makahatid ng pagkain sa lahat. Hindi ko alam kung saan ako magkuha ng ng pera. Hindi ko alam kung ano ang ipagbili ko kung may magbibili," the President said.
Amsterdam, April 7, 2020 - A study published in Technology and Health Care shows that four leading brands of e-cars do not trigger electromagnetic interference (EMI) with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED). CIEDs like pacemakers and defibrillators may malfunction when they are exposed to strong electromagnetic fields (EMF) generated by powerful motors. While rare events, such errors could have serious consequences for patients. With the increasing use of electric-powered vehicles for public and private transport, there is a critical need to assess the potential risks for this population.

Electromagnetic interference is a rare, but potentially catastrophic event for a CIED patient, resulting in pauses or cardiac arrest in pacemaker patients or inappropriate shock delivery in defibrillator patients. CIED patients frequently worry about triggering such events while interacting with appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines, and metal detectors. These concerns are often based on misconceptions and myths exacerbated the limited information available to physicians about the increasing number of electronic and digital devices that emit EMF.

"Our study addresses pressing patient and physician concerns regarding the use of e-cars by patients with CIEDs and we are pleased to report that their use appears safe with current technology. Neither adverse events nor electromagnetic interference were detected while driving or charging the cars during our test," explained co-investigator Dr. Matthew O'Connor, Department of Electrophysiology, Wellington Hospital, New Zealand.

The investigators attribute the safety of the e-cars tested to the shielding used in electric cars to protect onboard computer systems from EMI. This shielding prevents high EMF levels inside the cars and likely protects CIEDs from interference. The strongest EMF levels were detected during the charging of the vehicles.

One hundred and eight CIED patients drove and charged four commercially available e-cars (Nissan LEAF, Tesla Model S P85, BMW i3, und VW eUp) on a roller-bench test, which simulates road driving in a safe environment. Roller-bench testing provides resistance and maximizes motor output and EMF, which was crucial to ensure simulating real-world EMF generation.

Given the rapidly increasing use of these vehicles for private and public transportation, this study provides important information for patients with CIEDs and is the first to do so using only fully electric cars. Hybrid cars were excluded from the study to control for maximal EMF, since the intermittent use of a combustion engine could result in too much variation in EMF exposure.

"It is important to give evidence-based advice on which devices are dangerous EMI sources and which devices are harmless so that CIED patients can avoid unfounded worries and unnecessary restrictions," commented lead investigator PD Dr. med. Carsten Lennerz, Department of Electrophysiology, German Heart Centre Munich, Munich, Germany.

The results of the study should reassure patients with pacemakers/defibrillators that the tested cars are safe for them. PD Dr. med. Lennerz cautioned, however, that while these results as encouraging, rare events may still occur, and the technologies used are rapidly changing.

###
A father has been fined after his son continued to flout the UK's coronavirus lockdown regulations.

West Midlands Police said the fixed penalty notice could be doubled and reach as much as 960 if the teenager continues to go outside without good reason.

The neighbourhood policing team in the Blakenall area of Walsall said the youngster had been out three times, prompting a warning to the boys father.

But he was unable to prevent his son from going out for a fourth time, leaving the force with no option but to issue a fine.

Commenting on the fine, Sergeant Stephen Pursglove of Walsall Police said The youth has now come to our attention on four separate occasions when he has been outside without good reason.

On at least three of these he was with other youths and on one occasion he was abusive to the officer who tried to speak to him as he ran away.

His father was spoken to after the first incident and the regulations, the reason for them and the risks to all of us, especially the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, were fully explained to him.

Despite this he has failed prevent his son going out and associating with others not of his family.

This left us with no option but to issue a fine.

If the youth goes out again without good reason and again associates with others the fine will be doubled and could reach 960

Reiterating the forces plea to stay at home, Sgt Pursglove said: We urge everyone to stay at home and only go out for a short period of exercise once a day, or to go to the shop for essential items or travel to work where it is not possible to work from home.

Some people seem to think that they will not catch the virus but they can unwittingly pass it on to others as well as catching it themselves.

Thousands of people have now died in our own country and many thousands more will die if we dont all do everything asked of us to prevent the spread of the virus.

While the vast majority of people are doing as they are asked it is a pity we now have to put ourselves at risk dealing with those who do not.
In what could be disastrous to the government's effort to contain the novel coronavirus, 50 of the 1,400 people who returned to the state attending the religious congregation of Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi have been incommunicado.

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh warned of strict action against them if they do not approach the government.

He urged those people to voluntarily come forward and get in touch with the state government authorities.

Representational Image

The state government will quarantine them and take care of them if they approach the authorities, he said.

Anil Deshmukh said the congregation organised by Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in New Delhi last month was attended by nearly 4,000 people.

Several of these attendees later tested positive for coronavirus, while some of them have died of the disease. The congregation was attended by 1,400 people from Maharashtra.

The state government has till now traced and quarantined 1,350 of them, Anil Deshmukh said. "And the remaining 50 who have returned have kept their mobiles (phones) switched off. Hence, we urge them to voluntarily approach the government," he told a news channel, said news agency PTI.

AFP

He assured that the government will take care of them to ensure the coronavirus does not spread in other parts of the state.

"For this, they should surrender before our police and cooperate with the state government. We will trace them and take strict action against them if they do not surrender before us, he warned.

The congregation which happened last month in Delhi's Nizamuddin area was attended by thousands, including foreigners and since then, India has witnessed a spike in the number of coronavirus cases.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 06, 2020 | 06:33 PM | MARSHALL COUNTY





Former Marshall County dispatcher, Maranda Hanson, has filed a lawsuit against the Marshall County Fiscal Court, including Marshall County Judge-Executive Kevin Neal.







According to the complaint, Hanson had contacted her supervisor asking why she had not been informed that other employees had been asked to quarantine due to possible exposure to the virus. Hanson reportedly didn't receive a reply.







The next day, Hanson arrived at work and allegedly saw a co-worker that had been exposed to the virus. The co-worker reportedly told her that he had been exposed to a patient who had tested positive, and his doctor recommended that he self-quarantine for ten days. The co-worker reportedly believed that because he didn't have any symptoms, he would be fine to go into work.





On March 23, Hanson was reportedly called into the office of the dispatch supervisor, Chris Freeman, and was allegedly told that her email was insubordinate and offensive. Freemen then allegedly suspended her without pay for three days. While speaking with her supervisor, she put in her two weeks notice. Soon after, she learned that she had been terminated effective March 23, the date of her suspension.







One section of the complaint references a message that had reportedly been sent by Jason Accord to Hanson on April 2. According to the message, on March 19, Freeman asked Accord, a Firefighter EMT, and Radio Dispatch Officer employed by the county, to meet with him at the old courthouse. Freeman reportedly told Accord that he wanted to meet at the old courthouse because he was concerned about COVID-19 spreading through the Dispatch Office. According to the lawsuit, Freeman told Accord that he had been working at the old courthouse to limit his exposure.





The lawsuit demands a jury trial, asks for a declaration that the county's conduct was illegal, award for the damages, award in relation to Hanson's costs, and any other relief the Court finds suitable.







You can see the previous story on this case at the link below.

A former Marshall County dispatcher has filed a lawsuit against Marshall County officials.

On the Net:
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 05:49:06|Editor: huaxia

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BUENOS AIRES, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Argentines overwhelmingly approve of the steps the government has taken to contain the COVID-19 epidemic, including a mandatory 24-day quarantine, closing schools and sealing the country's borders.

President Alberto Fernandez's administration imposed preventive, obligatory social distancing measures starting March 20 and initially through March 31, though it later extended the lockdown until April 12.

"We have to point out that the government responded well, decreeing a nationwide quarantine when the first cases of the disease emerged," political observer and academic Patricio Giusto told Xinhua.

"The effort behind this total lockdown was necessary. The big challenge moving forward is to gradually restart the economy, which was already in a very critical state," said Giusto, head of the Sino-Argentine Watch and a visiting professor at the University of Zhejiang, in China.

Jesica Leon, a lawyer and professor, agrees.

"In general, the government decision regarding the quarantine is the right one. It took action based not only on the local, but the global data and situation," said Leon.

Closing the borders "is sad, but I totally agree with that measure, because it is one of the ways of preventing the disease from circulating," Leon added.

However, she feels officials could be doing a better job at moving the physical classroom online, so students can keep up with their studies.

"The way that is being done is not the most adequate, because there are students with either too much or too little activity, depending on the region. Not all teachers or students have the same opportunities to access (online material). This disorganization creates frustration among pupils and professors," said Leon.

A recent survey by pollster Poliarquia showed as much as 89 percent of the population agrees with the decision to extend the quarantine, while 82 percent approves of the president's performance during the epidemic.

A different poll, by consulting firm Reputacion Digital, showed 78.1 percent of Argentines support extending the quarantine, while 21.9 percent are against the measure.

Retiree Jorge Rivas said the lockdown "doesn't demand anything more from us than to stay at home, and I am doing that with the tranquility of knowing that doing my part can be my best contribution."

Paola de Simone, a lawyer and post-graduate student at the University of Buenos Aires, said she was concerned that a prolonged lockdown could have a bigger impact on the economy.

"The quarantine is excessive and very long, and I wonder whether it will harm our economy even more," said De Simone.

Argentina's latest report puts the number of confirmed coronavirus cases at 1,554, including 48 deaths from the disease and 280 patients who have recovered.
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An unofficial unemployment reading, if taken right now, would "probably" come in at 12% to 13%, ex-Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said Monday on CNBC.

Unemployment Trending Higher

If unemployment is standing at 12% to 13% right now this figure would only worsen over the coming days, Yellen said. The toll continues to rise by the day and how much worse the jobs market will get is dependent on how quickly America can get back to business.

Other indicators to gauge the strength of the economy, such as credit card data, signal a "dramatic" decline in economic activity. Credit card data alone point to a second quarter GDP decline of 30% although Yellen said she has "seen far higher numbers" off other data.

Related Link: Bernanke On How Coronavirus Differs From The 2008 Economic Crisis

What A Recovery Looks Like

A "V-shape" economic recovery is the "best case scenario" and current expectation calls for a return towards work as usual by the summer months, Yellen said. While a quick and swift economic recovery is possible, it's also possible the recovery will "look worse."

"It really depends on my mind on just how much damage is done during the time that the economy is shut down in the way it is now," Yellen said.

Banking System

Compared to the prior economic crisis, the banking system as a whole is flush with superior liquidity and capitalized. But Yellen said she is "in favor" of asking banks to suspend dividends and stock buybacks. Banks tend to be reluctant to cut back on shareholder returns as doing so may signal they are "vulnerable" to market headwinds.

The relevant regulatory authorities could ask the banks to suspend dividends and buybacks ahead of an era of economic uncertainty. This would represent a "different situation" as such a request would help banks meet the credit needs of the economy.

What More Can The Fed Do

Story continues

The Federal Reserve has acted quickly and aggressively to support the economy and "pulled out all the stops," she said. The recent passing of the CARES act now implies the government has all the resources and tools to offer "massive support" to keep credit flowing.

Janet Yellen speaks during an appearance at the University of Michigan. Photo by Dustin Blitchok.

See more from Benzinga

 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) speaks at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 27, 2015. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

US and UK Politicians Call Out China for Role in Causing Pandemic

Several politicians in the United States and the United Kingdom have recently penned articles published in media outlets, calling for new action against the Chinese regime for failing to contain the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus.

Most recently, on April 5, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) penned an opinion article on Fox News, declaring that The blame for misrepresenting the nature of the coronavirus to the World Health Organization (WHO) lies at the highest levels of the Chinese government.

Smith pointed out that Chinese authorities ordered a genomics company to destroy samples of the virus, punished doctors, and detained citizen journalists.

Chinas initial coverup was exemplified by the authorities decision to silence eight doctors, among them ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, after the doctors posted on Chinese social media about a new form of pneumonia that was spreading in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

Smith said that when the coronavirus crisis concludes, it would be the time to look into who bears the ultimate responsibility for the pandemicthe Chinese regime.

He suggested that the Global Magnitsky Actwhich allows for sanctions on foreign violators of human rightscould be used to hold accountable Chinese public security officials who targeted whistleblowers and members of the press in China. Smith named one Chinese official: Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang.

Also on April 5, British MP Tom Tugendhat penned an article in the Daily Mail, also pointing to Lis case, saying he was a long line of martyrs to Chinese Communist Party power.

It [the Chinese regime] relies on a toxic brew of lies and fear to maintain power and control over its people, and this is why it has hidden the truth from the moment the virus first hit, Tugendhat said.

Tugendhat also warned about the Chinese regimes ambitions in other realms, such as pushing for global adoption of Chinese telecom firms Huawei and ZTE, which he called state-controlled institutions designed to code Beijings surveillance techniques into world communication systems.

Citing security risks, the U.S. government has banned Huawei from taking part in the countrys rollout of the next-generation 5G mobile networks. The UK decided in January to allow high risk vendors such as Huawei a limited role in its 5G networks.

Tugendhat called for a new relationship between the UK and China.

Now, more than ever, Britain needs to consider its relationship with China, our hunger for its goods and investment, he said. Do we want to import Chinas authoritarian value system as well as its products?

Damian Green, British MP and former first secretary of state, took to the British political website Conservative Home on March 31, criticizing China for its delay in informing international bodies about the CCP virus.

Green also questioned the current UK government policy of allowing Huawei into 5G. He said the debate over Huawei should cause us to examine our whole relationship with the Chinese government.

He said relations between the two countries may have to become similar to our attitude to Russia in the more peaceful stages of the Cold War. Cooperate where we can, but guard when we must.

British MP Iain Duncan Smith, writing for the Daily Mail on March 29, also criticized China for silencing Li, as well as Xie Linka, a cancer specialist at Wuhan Union Hospital who warned her colleagues about the spreading disease but was later reprimanded by police.

For too long, nations have lamely kowtowed to China in the desperate hope of winning trade deals, Smith wrote. He noted that the Chinese regime tends to flout the normal rules of behavior in every area of life.

He also called for the UK to reassess its relationship with China.

Once we get clear of this terrible pandemic, it is imperative that we all rethink that relationship and put it on a much more balanced and honest basis, he said.
In seeking ways to support our broader community, Nuria Beauty founder Naomi Furgiuele commented, "At Nuria, we love helping people with their self-care, but community is also an important part of who we are. So many of us want to help, but it can be challenging to know what to do from a distance. That's why we're thrilled to partner with Save the Children to help connect all of us to the children and communities in greatest need during this difficult time."

As the global leader in child-focused humanitarian response, Save the Children is helping ensure schools and communities have the support they need to keep vulnerable children eating and learning during the pandemic. Plus, the nonprofit has launched Coronavirus and Kids: Resources from Save the Children, to provide parents and caregivers helpful tips and free learning resources.





"Save the Children is concerned that wide-scale learning loss could be among the biggest and longest-lasting impacts coronavirus has on children across America," said Shane Garver, senior director of Save the Children's rural education programs. "With the support of partners including Nuria Beauty, we are making sure children in some of rural America's poorest communities can continue to learn and get the nutritional meals they need during these massive and unprecedented school closures."

Nuria Beauty's donations to Save the Children will continue through April 30 for all Nuria Beauty product sold through nuriabeauty.com. Consumers can learn more about the details of this promotion at https://nuriabeauty.com/help-kids-with-every-purchase/ and www.savethechildren.org/legal.

About Nuria

Nuria, meaning brightness, is designed around beauty rituals practiced by women across the world in response to local, environmental conditions. The line combines key natural ingredients with modern science to address situational skin concerns to make skin healthier and brighter. Nuria products are clean, vegan, cruelty-free, and ethically sourced. At Nuria, we aim to make a larger impact on the global community through our commitment to girls' education. Follow Nuria on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.





About Save the Children

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. Since our founding 100 years ago, we've changed the lives of more than 1 billion children. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children  every day and in times of crisis  transforming their lives and the future we share. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

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The coronavirus death toll is rising. A statewide shelter-in-place order has been in effect for nearly two weeks. Hundreds of polling sites have been shuttered and thousands of poll workers cannot fill their shifts.

Yet somehow in the midst of a deadly pandemic that has led more than a dozen states to delay their elections, Wisconsin is asking its citizens to come out and vote Tuesday.

This is what the complete collapse of a states political system looks like.

At a time when the surgeon general is warning that this week could be the nations most dangerous to date  comparing the scale of the potential loss to Pearl Harbor and 9/11  Wisconsin is on the verge of becoming the only state in April that failed to find a way to delay voting. The Democratic governor made a last-ditch plea to close the polls. The GOP-led Legislature and Wisconsin Supreme Court shut him down.

Its a civic catastrophe that never should have happened. But its also the culmination of a decade of total political war waged across one of the nations most competitive states  a Midwestern battleground poised to play an oversized role in the presidential election in November.

Ive been here 10 years watching this. I am surprised that Im surprised, former Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate said of the politics he believes pushed the election forward amid a pandemic. If anybody thinks that if we were under Gov. [Scott] Walker that this court would have ruled the same way that they have today has not been paying attention to whats been going on in this state for the last decade.

The scorched earth politics that led to this moment dates back long before the polarization of the Trump era. Hundreds of millions of dollars  much of it from outside groups  have poured into state races since 2010, when Walkers first election as governor kicked off years of acrimony that infected the states political culture at every level.

In 2016, when Donald Trump narrowly and unexpectedly defeated Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin, the states polarization rose to a new level.

Story continues

On the eve of Tuesdays election, it reached a fever pitch. The state Supreme Court  which includes Walker appointees  overturned an order by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who himself was initially reluctant to postpone the primary, even over pleas from fellow Democrats.

A source close to Evers said the first-term governor, hemmed in by the GOP-controlled Legislature, considered it counterproductive to force an issue he would not win at a time when he needed Republican help to advance a coronavirus funding package. Evers further feared if the matter went before the state court, which holds a conservative majority, he risked inadvertently creating precedent that could threaten a governors emergency powers.

As the pandemic  and pleas for delay from local mayors  intensified, Evers changed his tune, leading to Mondays order to delay the primary.

It was a refusal of the Republicans to do their job, Evers said in an interview. Theyve had some opportunities, they had an opportunity to take my proposal in special session, they didnt even talk about it. They didnt even come back with heres Plan B; Its clear they dont want to deal with this.

All of this has taken place against the backdrop of a state Supreme Court contest Tuesday in which the individual campaigns and outside groups have helped collectively spend more than $8 million.

Jim Carpenter protests Tuesdays scheduled election amid the coronavirus pandemic Monday in downtown Milwaukee.

The political and policy stakes of that contest are high: The court was responsible for upholding the controversial 2011 law that limited public workers collective bargaining rights  the measure that sparked bitter, nationally watched recall efforts aimed at Walker and a number of legislators. More recently, the court sided with Republicans in upholding a series of laws aimed at limiting Evers power. Those so-called power-grab laws were passed after Evers defeated Walker in 2018, but before he was sworn into office.

The outcome of Tuesdays Supreme Court contest  which pits Republican-backed incumbent Justice Daniel Kelly against Democratic-backed Dane County Circuit Judge Jill Karofsky  will either secure the GOPs 5-2 grip on the court or expand Democrats power at a time when the court could have a say over upcoming redistricting and other lightning rod issues.

Since turnout is expected to be low Tuesday, Republicans have an interest in seeing Tuesdays election move forward  they believe that gives their preferred candidate an advantage. Democrats, who believe higher turnout gives their candidate an edge, worry they will be at a disadvantage since polling sites in Democratic areas have been most adversely affected by the poll closures.

Milwaukee, for example, is going from 180 to just five polling sites. Its already experienced disruptions in early voting while more predominantly Republican areas of the state did not. There are so few poll workers, the National Guard has been activated to help fill the vacuum.

In most states, a Supreme Court contest would hardly merit national attention. But in Wisconsin  where the candidates are ostensibly nonpartisan  both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden have endorsed the Democratic-backed candidate. Trump has also endorsed, going so far as to single out the contest in an official White House briefing. Then, in front of the cameras, Trump accused Democrats of a political ploy by calling for a last-minute delay in the election.

The pair of rulings Monday by the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court pushing through the election and limiting absentee voting could have consequences for Novembers presidential election, when Wisconsin figures to be one of the hardest-fought swing states.

Were a tipping-point state by lots of peoples measures. Winning Wisconsin is what got Trump over the hump and is probably going to make the difference in 2020, said Sachin Chheda, a Milwaukee-based Democratic consultant. The stakes are higher here. Races matter because theyre very close. Race after race after race are won by the thinnest of margins.

Nowhere was that clearer than in 2016, when Trump won the state by just 23,000 votes. Republicans suddenly viewed Wisconsin as the state that handed Trump the presidency; Democrats looked at Wisconsin as a stinging reminder of their flagrant failures in 2016: It was the state Clinton took for granted and failed to visit in the general election.

The result only ratcheted up the stakes in subsequent state contests. To Democrats, that meant ousting Walker, a national GOP star loathed by those across the aisle. The midterm contest quickly evolved into a massive clash as well as a proxy war between the parties and various national groups on the left and the right  campaign spending hit a state record of $93 million.

Every major Democratic presidential hopeful, from Elizabeth Warren to Biden, came through the state. So did former President Barack Obama.

Evers narrowly ousted Walker, and when he did Democrats openly taunted Walker for not being able to ask for a recount. The governor had signed a law a year prior that triggered a recount only if the vote difference fell below 1 percent. Walker lost by a 1.2 percent margin.

It used to be Wisconsin was a third, a third and a third  Democrat, independent and Republican. But most of the messages that are out there now, theyre base drivers, said Brandon Scholz, a longtime Republican strategist. Theyre so focused on the base that you wonder: Is there nothing left in the middle anymore?

In both parties, there are fears that the bruising fight to delay Tuesdays election is just a taste of whats to come in the fall, when Wisconsin figures to be central to the outcome of the presidential race. Major super PACs have already been spending money for months, including Democratic PACs that began intense digital advertising last year.

Wisconsin is such a big prize, theyre going to throw a lot of money at this thing, Scholz said of the November election. Democrats cant afford to lose Wisconsin, neither can Republicans.


Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 18:15:19|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on April 7, 2020 shows a press conference of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council in Beijing, capital of China. World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in China Gauden Galea expressed gratitude to nurses on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19 at the press conference held in Beijing on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Chen Jianli)

BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in China Gauden Galea Tuesday expressed gratitude to nurses on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19.

"Right now, nurses around the world are at the frontlines of the COVID-19 fight, working tirelessly to save lives and protect others," Galea said at a press conference in Beijing.

He stressed the contribution of the nursing and midwifery professionals and called for support and protection for them.

"COVID-19 has made absolutely clear the importance of investing in the workforce of nursing and midwifery," he said.

Galea also stressed the contributions of doctors, lab technicians, public health specialists, epidemiologists, and animal health investigators.

It has never been so clear that all countries need to invest more in the entire public health workforce to build strong and resilient health systems, he said, calling it a "critical lesson" from COVID-19 that one cannot afford to miss.

Medical workers have been under great pressure over the past 70 days, and faced incredible hardships, said Mi Feng, spokesperson for the China's National Health Commission at the press conference.

The people will always remember and be grateful for their contributions, Mi said, noting that the consensus of respecting medical workers and valuing public health is enjoying popular support.
[April 07, 2020] Bank Otkritie first financial company in Russia to harness 32G FC with ADVA FSP 3000

ADVA (News - Alert) (FSE: ADV) today announced that Bank Otkritie has deployed its FSP 3000 to enable 32Gbit/s Fibre Channel as well as 40 and 100Gbit/s Ethernet services. One of Russia's largest commercial financial companies, Bank Otkritie is the first bank in the country to leverage Gen 6 Fibre Channel technology. Featuring the ADVA OpenFabric OTN cross-connect for enhanced availability, the data center interconnect (DCI) solution delivers a new level of capacity and reliability. Comprehensive, in-service assurance and rapid failure detection capabilities are provided by the ADVA ALM fiber monitoring system. ADVA's Select partner, the IT solution specialist Zettaline, also played a key role in facilitating the project. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005043/en/ ADVA's playing a key role in helping Bank Otkritie transport its mission-critical data (Photo: Business Wire) "As one of Russia's leading banks, it's vital that we provide our customers with continuous access to their mission-critical financial data. That's why the ADVA FSP 3000 combined with OpenFabric and ALM assurance technology is the ideal tool. It ensures comprehensive monitoring and testing for the highest network availability and service reliability," said Andrey Ivashenko, VP and CIO, Bank Otkritie. "By supporting 32Gbit/s Fibre Channel, this new solution has taken our storage data transport to the next stage. And, with the ADVA FSP 3000 OpenFabric aggregating lower-speed services onto high-speed wavelengths, we have the power to efficiently provide the data rates that our individual customers require."



Built on the ADVA FSP 3000, a uniquely compact and efficient optical transport solution, Bank Otkritie's new DCI network saves significantly on opex. The infrastructure delivers high-capacity Ethernet and Fibre Channel connectivity while consuming extremely low levels of power, helping Bank Otkritie to hit ambitious energy targets even as traffic continues to grow. Featuring ADVA's OpenFabric OTN cross-connect, the new solution also offers ultimate flexibility, enabling services to be turned up remotely and easily. What's more, the scalable modular design of the platform protects Bank Otkritie's investment and empowers the company to plan for further expansion. "Bank Otkritie's new network provides a significant boost in terms of capacity and efficiency. With our FSP 3000 technology, it supports the most advanced low-latency Fibre Channel services, enabling the bank to maximize the performance of flash-enhanced storage in its data centers," commented Andreas Jelinek, senior director, sales, Eastern Europe, Russia and CIS, ADVA. "Robustness and reliability were key to this project. That's why Bank Otkritie also selected our ALM solution. Specifically engineered to be a simple plug-and-play fiber assurance device, it provides continuous monitoring, enabling operators to know immediately if and where issues arise. This real-time data is key to supervising and assuring dark fiber services. And, in the event of any fiber issues, our FSP 3000 OpenFabric automatically discovers new paths, enhancing availability and quality of service."

About ADVA

ADVA is a company founded on innovation and focused on helping our customers succeed. Our technology forms the building blocks of a shared digital future and empowers networks across the globe. We're continually developing breakthrough hardware and software that leads the networking industry and creates new business opportunities. It's these open connectivity solutions that enable our customers to deliver the cloud and mobile services that are vital to today's society and for imagining new tomorrows. Together, we're building a truly connected and sustainable future. For more information on how we can help you, please visit us at www.adva.com. Published by:

ADVA Optical Networking (News - Alert) SE, Munich, Germany

www.adva.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005043/en/

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Kathmandu, April 6

The government has decided to extend the lockdown imposed to control the coronavirus outbreak by eight days, until April 15.

A Cabinet meeting held on Monday afternoon made the decision.

When the government announced the lockdown on March 23, it was said to be effective from March 24 to 31. Later, it was extended by one week, which was going to be over tomorrow.

But the government decided to extend it again as the number of coronavirus positive cases in the country continued to increase. After three positive cases were confirmed in Sudurpaschim province on Saturday, the provincial government had also requested the central government to extend the lockdown.

The high-level committee formed to control the coronavirus outbreak had also recommended the extension.

Parliament session to end

The Cabinet also decided to recommend that President Bidya Devi Bhandari end the ongoing Federal Parliament session. Of late, the meetings of both the House of Representatives and the National Assembly had been postponed frequently due to the coronavirus outbreak fears.

Adhikari appointed NRB governor

Meanwhile, the Cabinet meeting also picked Maha Prasad Adhikari as the governor of Nepal Rastra Bank.

Earlier today, a selection panel led by Finance Minister Maha Prasad Khatiwada had recommended three including Adhikari for the position.

The position was vacant for the past three weeks after the retirement of incumbent Chiranjibi Nepal.
[April 07, 2020] Tyler Technologies Schedules First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast

Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: TYL) will discuss its first quarter 2020 results during a conference call and webcast on Thursday, April 30, 2020. The teleconference begins at 10 a.m. EST and will be hosted by John S. Marr Jr., executive chairman; H. Lynn Moore Jr., president and CEO; and Brian K. Miller, executive vice president and chief financial officer. The related press release will be issued after the market closes on Wednesday, April 29, 2020. Participants can pre-register for the teleconference at the following link: http://dpregister.com/10140947. Registered participants will receive an email with a calendar reminder, dial-in number, and PIN that allows immediate access to the call on Thursday, April 0, 2020.



Participants who do not wish to pre-register may dial 844-861-5506 (U.S. callers), 412-317-6587 (international callers), or 866-450-4696 (Canada callers) and ask for the "Tyler Technologies (News - Alert)" call. A replay will be available one hour after the call ends through May 7, 2020. To access the replay, please dial 877-344-7529 (U.S. callers), 412-317-0088 (international callers), or 855-669-9658 (Canada callers) and reference passcode 10140947. The live webcast and archived replay can also be accessed at https://tylertech.irpass.com/Presentations.

About Tyler Technologies, Inc. Tyler Technologies (NYSE: TYL) provides integrated software and technology services to the public sector. Tyler's end-to-end solutions empower local, state, and federal government entities to operate more efficiently and connect more transparently with their constituents and with each other. By connecting data and processes across disparate systems, Tyler's solutions are transforming how clients gain actionable insights that solve problems in their communities. Tyler has more than 26,000 successful installations across more than 10,000 sites, with clients in all 50 states, Canada, the Caribbean, Australia, and other international locations. A financially strong company, Tyler has achieved double-digit revenue growth every quarter since 2012. It was also named to Forbes' "Best Midsize Employers" list in 2019 and recognized twice on its "Most Innovative Growth Companies" list. More information about Tyler Technologies, headquartered in Plano, Texas, can be found at tylertech.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005042/en/

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" " A group of activists protest outside of the Toledo City Council in November 2018 in an effort to get the Lake Erie Bill of Rights city charter amendment on the ballot. Toledoans for Safe Water

As politicians, business leaders and environmentalists pitch their own solutions to climate change  or deny its existence altogether  a growing network of activists is taking an alternative approach to saving the environment: giving legal rights back to nature. The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN), a network of organizations, leaders and individuals from more than 100 countries, is pushing for legal systems to recognize natural ecosystems as having rights just like humans.

Indigenous people around the world have followed these ideals for millennia, according to GARN. They've prospered and protected Earth while doing so. That's why GARN says it's time for the rest of the world to catch up.

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How Do 'Rights of Nature' Work?

"The ecosystem itself can be named as the injured party, with its own legal standing rights in cases alleging rights violations," according to the GARN website. In places like Ecuador, which is the first country to recognize Rights of Nature in its constitution in 2008, this means nature has the "right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles," according to GARN. Under the constitution, environment supporters have the legal authority to push for the ecosystems' rights, with nature itself becoming the defendant.

But Ecuador isn't the only place pushing for nature's rights. In 2010, the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth was adopted by Bolivia. The statute requires the people to "uphold and respect the rights of Mother Earth."

And like Ecuador and Bolivia, numerous other cities, foundations and activists are joining in to recognize nature's inherent rights. One of those is in Toledo, Ohio, where rights of nature gained major strides when a small group of locals fought to give Lake Erie its own rights: the Lake Erie Bill of Rights. This bill started with a handful of Toledoans who were fed up with the pollution and improper treatment of Lake Erie. The group made history with the passage of the United States' first law to recognize an ecosystem's right to exist, flourish and evolve  although getting there was anything but easy.

" " On July 28, 2015, the NASA Earth Observatory Operational Land Imager (OLI) captured this image of visible green swirling algal blooms in western Lake Erie. NASA Earth Observatory

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Lake Erie's Troubled Past

On Aug. 2, 2014, Toledoans woke up to a nightmare: no clean water. Toxins from an algal bloom in Lake Erie left half a million Toledoans without water for three days, according to the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Not only was the water unsafe to drink, it wasn't safe for locals to even touch thanks to the blooms likely caused by agricultural runoff pollution.

"We couldn't drink, bathe, prepare meals  you don't really know what to do with that information," says longtime Toledo resident Markie Miller. After just one day, even bottled water wasn't available in stores; residents had to cross state borders to get water. "You realize how much you rely on your tap water; it just shut down our city."

When the crisis passed, Miller attempted to get answers at town hall and public meetings. She wanted to know what Toledo was doing to prevent future disasters. "We were told not to ask about what caused the crisis. We were only supposed to talk about where we go from here," she says.

That's when she changed course. Miller, then in her late 20s, started attending local meetings where a group of fed-up citizens  soon named Toledoans for Safe Water.

"Everything clicked for me," Miller says. "The government had created loopholes; we were really just giving a free pass for corporate pollution. If we kept on this way, we were never going to get anywhere." The citizen group talked, planned and spent years preparing. Then in 2016, it was time to rally locals for petition support.

" " Lake Erie Bill of Rights Campaign Jankowski/Toledoans for Safe Water

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The Lake Erie Bill of Rights Is Born

Citizens were intrigued by the LEBOR. It was designed to "allow residents to bring lawsuits on behalf of Lake Erie instead of depending on state government or regulatory agencies," according to a Toledoans for Safe Water press release. This would be particularly valuable for issues like pollution or invasive species, according to Cleveland.com.

For Miller, the bill was all about positioning and protecting Lake Erie as a vital resource. With more than double the number of signatures needed to get LEBOR on the ballot, it was obvious fellow Toledoans agreed.

"It's a life support system that has to be protected, and we can only do that by having enforceable rights that we get to protect," she says.

Miller and the Toledoans for Safe Water organizers knew this was simply the first step; actually getting from petition to a vote wouldn't be easy. After corporate protests that delayed voting and a $300,000 anti-LEBOR campaign, according to Miller, LEBOR passed by 61 percent in early 2020.

" " Longtime Toledo resident Markie Miller, one of the people spearheading the LEBOR campaign, spoke to the United Nations about LEBOR on Earth Day in 2019. Toledoans for Safe Water

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LEBOR Passes and Then Is Shot Down

Of course, Miller knew the victory wouldn't last. "We had about 12 hours to celebrate our win in court before an industrialized agriculture company filed a lawsuit against the city of Toledo," she says. The company argued that this law was detrimental to their business.

LEBOR supporters rallied and protested to keep this local charter amendment alive, but in late February 2020, federal judge Jack Zouhary deemed the bill unconstitutional. "This is not a close call. LEBOR is unconstitutionally vague and exceed the power of municipal government in Ohio," he wrote.

Miller and the Toledoans for Safe Water team anticipated a negative outcome; that's why they reframed their definition of success early on. "You have to redefine what it means to win," Miller says. "The more confrontation you create, the more you cause these changes can come about. People have to start confronting the ideas and laws."

And, according to Miller, they are. Following Toledo's push for the LEBOR, the rights of nature movement is expanding rapidly across states like Hawaii, Florida and Washington. Miller  who was once shy and fearful of public speaking  spoke to the United Nations about LEBOR on Earth Day in 2019. Her team's tenacity and progress are inspiring other states to jump on board for Lake Erie. In New York State, assemblyman Pate Burke of Buffalo started pushing for a similar Lake Erie Bill of Rights in March, according to Cleveland.com. This just may just be the beginning of something big.

This story is a part of Covering Climate Now's week of coverage focused on Climate Solutions, to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Covering Climate Now is a global journalism collaboration committed to strengthening coverage of the climate story.

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING Rights of nature may be a newer concept for the masses, but it's already mainstream and respected enough to be part of the undergraduate and postgraduate environmental law curriculum at universities like the University of Benin in Nigeria, according to GARN.
Acting US Navy Secretary: Fired Carrier Captain Was 'Stupid', Committed 'Betrayal' of Sailors

Sputnik News

19:12 GMT 06.04.2020

The acting Navy Department chief blasted the recently fired captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt to the ship's crew on Sunday, saying Captain Brett Crozier had been either "too naive or too stupid" to be in command. Crozier was fired last week for penning a letter begging for help fighting a COVID-19 outbreak on the warship.

'Too Naive or Too Stupid'

On Sunday, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly flew to Guam in the Philippine Sea to speak directly to the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier that moored there after detecting dozens of cases of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus onboard. When a letter from Crozier to Navy leaders begging for help fighting the virus was leaked to the press last week, Crozier came under fire and was eventually removed from command on Thursday.

"If he didn't think, in my opinion, that this information wasn't going to get out into the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either A, too naive, or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this," Modly told the Roosevelt's crew on Sunday. "The alternative is that he did this on purpose. And that's a serious violation of the UCMJ [Uniform Code of Military Justice] which you are all familiar with."

Modly continued, saying Crozier's actions were a "betrayal of trust" of him, the chain of command and the crew.

Modly's comments were later confirmed by a Navy spokesperson.

Task & Purpose also published a recording of the speech, revealing just how furious the Roosevelt's crew was with Modly's condemnations.

"What the f**k?!" says one crew member after Modly calls Crozier "stupid."

"He was trying to help us!" yells another during the speech. At least 155 members of the crew have tested positive for COVID-19, including Crozier himself.

In this Nov. 15, 2029, photo U.S. Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), addresses the crew during an all-hands call on the ship's flight deck while conducting routine operations in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

In his letter to Navy Personnel Command, Crozier pleaded for help finding adequate quarters in which to quarantine most of his 4,000-member crew until they could all be tested for COVID-19 and the ship's interior could be thoroughly decontaminated.

"We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die," Crozier wrote. "If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset - our sailors."

'Do Your Jobs'

Modly continued his assault on the fired captain, but also chastised the crew for cheering Crozier on when he departed the ship on Friday.

"I understand you love the guy. It's good that you love him. But you're not required to love him," Modly said. "Crew of the Teddy Roosevelt, you are under no obligation to love your leadership, only respect it. You are under no obligation to like your job, only to do it. You are under no obligation, you are under no obligation to expect anything from your leaders other than they will treat you fairly and put the mission of the ship first."

"That is your duty - not to complain. Everyone is scared about this thing. And let me tell ya something, if this ship was in combat and there were hypersonic missiles coming in at it, you'd be pretty f**king scared too. But you do your jobs. And that's what I expect you to. And that's what I expect every officer on this ship to do, is to do your jobs."

The acting Navy secretary also attacked Crozier's characterization of the crisis. In his letter, which was obtained and published by the San Francisco Chronicle early last week, Crozier notably observed that "we are not at war."

"Let me tell ya something, the only reason we are dealing with this right now is a big authoritative regime called China was not forthcoming about what was happening with this virus, and they put the world at risk to protect themselves and to protect their reputations. We don't do that in the Navy."

Backlash Rages in Washington

US President Donald Trump, who is the armed forces' commander in chief, has voiced support for Crozier's termination, as has Defense Secretary Mark Esper. However, one US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters on Monday that Pentagon officials, including Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday, had recommended against firing Crozier before an investigation had been completed.

Likewise, Democratic presidential candidate and former US Vice President Joe Biden condemned the move, saying Modly had "shot the messenger."

After Modly announced Crozier's removal on Thursday, Democratic lawmakers in Washington wrote to acting Defense Department Inspector General Glenn Fine, urging him to open an inquiry into it.

"It appears a prima facie case for retaliation by the Navy against Captain Crozier may have been established," wrote Reps. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ). "We urge you to open an investigation into this matter as soon as possible." Fifteen lawmakers cosigned the letter.

Modly raged over this as well, saying Crozier had caused a "big controversy in Washington, DC," and created the image of "a martyr CO [commanding officer], who wasn't getting the help he needed."

An online petition on Change.org seeking Crozier's reinstatement has quickly gone viral. As of this article's publication, more than 253,000 people had signed the petition, which has a stated goal of 300,000 signatures.

 Sputnik

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The North East and Southwest independent school district boards each voted unanimously Tuesday to postpone their May 2 elections to Nov. 3, while the Alamo Colleges District board voted to delay its election but ask the governor to determine a different alternate date.

Several municipalities and school districts with elections scheduled for May 2 are taking action this week to reschedule them. Tuesdays decisions came three weeks after Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order allowing local governments to postpone elections as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The North East ISD board, which oversees the countys second-largest school district, has five trustee seats up for election, with all five incumbents seeking new terms and drawing challengers. Three of the challengers spoke during the public comment period of Tuesdays meeting, criticizing the board for waiting weeks after the governors directive to make a decision.

On ExpressNews.com: North East ISD board incumbents draw challengers in May 2 elections

Challenger candidates are in a holding pattern. We dont have the advantage of information incumbents may have had, said Robert Hilliard, a candidate in the District 6 race. No one wants to worry about whether they have to choose between their health and safety and exercising their right to vote.

In a presentation before the vote, Deb Caldwell, the districts director of government relations, said the staff had waited partly because there was a lot of misinformation.

We wanted to be crystal clear with what was in your authority as board of trustees to do before we brought you a recommendation, she said.

Each of the NEISD candidates who had filed for the May election will remain on the ballot in November. The winners of four of the contested seats will serve terms that expire in May 2024. The District 3 race is to fill an unexpired term that ends in May 2022.

Required Reading: Get San Antonio education news sent directly to your inbox

Southwest ISD usually holds its own election with the city of Lytle, which straddles three counties, but the change to a November date will require it to arrange for the Bexar County elections office to run it, which will mean changes to polling places for early voting and on election day, district officials said.

One change thats significant for us is that Bexar County is the  We host our own election and we do it jointly with Lytle and working with Bexar County  Bexar County will not be able to support us having our own (election) in November because of the size and magnitude of their election. So we would have to join and be on a joint election with Bexar County at that point. And so that would change some of our sites and also early voting.

The Alamo Colleges District, which has four seats up for grabs, left its election date undecided. Trustees were concerned about putting their election on a partisan and lengthy November ballot. Chairman Marcelo Casillas will write a letter to the governor requesting a different date.

Were not tied to the March primary. We should not be tied to any other election, trustee Joe Alderete said.

North East ISD trustees had been monitoring election decisions in Castle Hills and the Alamo Colleges District because of a policy requiring it to hold joint elections with other municipalities and school districts, spokeswoman Aubrey Chancellor said. Castle Hills canceled its election last week after the lone challenger withdrew. Southside ISD also voted last week to delay its bond election to November.

Staff writer Krista Torralva contributed to this report. Ashley McBride covers several school districts and the Alamo Colleges District in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | Ashley.McBride@express-news.net | Twitter: @Ashleynmcb
A man holding a protest against churches being closed during the Covid-19 crisis says he wouldnt be surprised if he is still protesting by Christmas Day.

Pensioner, Sean Barry, started his protest outside his local church in North Cork last Monday week and says he doesnt blame local clergy but a weak hierarchy".

Mr Barry is mounting his protest daily outside the closed front door of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the village of Rathcormac, which is in the Diocese of Cloyne.

He sits in a chair there for an hour every day between 2pm-3pm and is adamant he will keep that up every day until the door is open.

I know that could be a long time. I wouldnt be surprised if Im here on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, said the farmer.

He says he understands why the Catholic Church has stopped Masses, but cant see any reason why churches cant remain open for people who might want to say some prayers during the pandemic: Its just a small sacrifice to make when one considers that our forefathers risked their lives going to Mass Rocks."

He pointed out that the Church of the Immaculate Conception could easily hold 300 people.

So, therefore, it is large enough to cater for a few who would want to come in to say some prayers while adhering to proper social distancing: Im not trying to bash the Church. Our parish priest, Fr Joe OKeeffe, calls over to see me most days and I get on very well with him. I think its the hierarchy who are weak."

I know that could be a long time. I wouldnt be surprised if Im here on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

He said that at most there might be a dozen people who would come into the church at any one time to say prayers and they could all easily fit in the church while using the required social distancing: Im not talking about saying masses.

"Im just talking about letting people in to say a few prayers and light a few candles."

Fr Jim Moore, Cloyne Diocese spokesman, said they all regret the temporary closure of churches: This applies especially to parishioners who love their local church. This is a decision not taken lightly.

"It is done for the common good, and the welfare of all, especially those who are vulnerable. Even with social distancing, the surfaces of pews, shrines etc could be sources of infection at this time."

He pointed out that a number of priests are elderly and therefore vulnerable to the virus: Cocooning applies to clergy as well as everyone else over 70, as they also are called to follow the direction of public health authorities."
07.04.2020 LISTEN

The MTN Ghana Foundation as part of its commitment to support the Governments efforts in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic is donating five million Ghana cedis (GHS 5million) to go to the procurement of medical supplies including personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essentials to support frontline medical staff.

Commenting on the Foundations support, the CEO of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh, said, COVID-19 is, unquestionably, testing our societys fortitude and we all have a role to play in helping our country to overcome this global challenge. From the onset, we made a commitment to provide the needed assistance to help the country, businesses and the entire society stay connected to their work and loved ones.

Our support to date has been in that direction. This phase of our commitment is to help us directly combat the disease and to help the medical teams provide the needed care to our fellow Ghanaians. We believe that we are good together as people especially in these times when we all must pitch in to fight this pandemic. We are confident that together we will overcome this challenge.

MTN Ghana Foundation in consultation with the Ministry of Health is procuring the following items:

Virus Sampling kits - 10,000

N95 Masks - 10,000

Gloves - 10,000

PPEs (Overalls) - 7,500

PCR Machines for testing - 4

RNA Extraction Kits  3,000

Infrared thermometers- 500

Disposable bedsheets - 3,000

Mr Adadevoh said, we are in difficult times and MTN continues to review its support to the country. We continue to monitor the global situation closely and we continue to urge our employees and customers to strictly adhere to the recommendations of the World Health Organisation, Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service.

The Board Chairman of the MTN Ghana Foundation Prof. Franklin Manu said, the MTN Ghana Foundation has been at the forefront of Corporate Social Investments in the country. We believe the situation at hand needs the intervention of all Ghanaians and we are very happy to support with the purchase of these much-needed medical supplies as we complement Governments efforts in the fight against Covid-19.

Following official confirmation of COVID-19 cases in Ghana, MTN took a series of precautionary measures to ensure continuity of services and the safety of its stakeholders including employees, customers, communities and suppliers against potential infections. Other measures that the company has taken include:

Protective measures for Employees and Customers - Key among the measures include the positioning of alcohol-based sanitizers at vantage points across branches and experience centers for use by customers and employees; the deployment and use of temperature guns, personal protective equipment and practicing of social distancing.

Network resilience for Business continuity - MTN Ghana has also put in place measures to ensure that the MTN network remains resilient and supports round-the-clock connectivity as Government Agencies, Businesses and individuals resort to social distancing measures such as working from home. The company has offered extra capacity for functions such as videoconferencing and better connectivity for healthcare workers.

Free Internet connectivity to education sites - MTN has also zero-rated over 50 educational online sites (public and private) to sustain research and learning during the period. This supports a total of over 114,000 customers, consuming over 2,674 GB per day for educational purposes. MTN Ghana has also provided Ghs10,000 worth of free data to all University students on its MTN Bright Scholarship scheme.

Providing connectivity for Government portals  To support the facilitation of remote working by government agencies, MTN is collaborating with the National Information Technology Authority (NITA) to zero-rate Government of Ghana Smart Workplace Portal to enable Government workers work from home. In addition, MTN Ghana has already zero-rated several informational Government websites that are providing health and other related Covid-19 information such as the Ghana Health Service website and others.

Protecting the customer through the provision of critical health information - MTN has also provisioned short code 311 information center to facilitate information flow on covid-19/ and 0555311311 for the Ministry of Information to be used for social media services. MTN Ghana is also assisting with the circulation of safety tips received from the Ghana Health Service and promotion of the 112 national emergency line.

Free MoMo transfers and revision of MoMo wallet limits - Financial services remains critical in this period and is central to the fight against COVID-19. To this end, MTN MoMo has removed charges for transactions of GHS100 and below per day, simplified registration for merchant and Person-to-person wallets and purchases from e-commerce and other platforms. There has also been an increase in daily transaction limits and balances for the various wallet types to promote customer safety through non-cash transactions.

Mobile money merchant accounts have been deployed as collection conduits to support Government institutions like the Ministry of Finance and the First Ladys fund mobilization for COVID -19.

Support with Contact tracing - MTN Ghana has also brought to bear its leadership in the technology space by supporting the infection monitoring and contact tracing team based on the requisite legal procedures. To support this further, MTN Ghana has initiated the provision of 800 SIM Cards with 10GB data on each card to National Security and 10 Turbonet devices with 225GB data to COVID-19 RESPONSE Team for use by contact tracers.

MTN Ghana would like to assure the public that it will continue to update its measures as the situation evolves to ensure business continuity, customer safety as well as staff well-being.

About the MTN Foundation:

The MTN Ghana Foundation was established in November 2007 as the vehicle to select and implement MTNs Corporate Social Investments. MTN Ghana Foundation has three areas of focus -Health, Education and Economic Empowerment. From inception to December 2018, the Foundation had undertaken 147 major projects across the country.

Notable health projects include the construction of a Neonatal Care Center for Tamale Teaching Hospital, refurbishment of the 2nd-floor maternity block of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, construction of a maternity block for Ejisu Government Hospital, and construction of an Emergency Center for Atua Government Hospital.

Education projects undertaken include the construction of a boys dormitory for Akropong School for the Blind, construction of a six-unit classroom block for Kodjonya Millennium School, the establishment of 10 MTN ICT Learning Centers in each of Ghanas 10 regions(then) and the institution of an Innovation Hub at KNUST to promote Telecoms Engineering and Research. Key projects undertaken in Economic Empowerment include the construction of shea butter processing centers, provision of seed capital and skill training for Women of Tizaa Dini Association of Yendi and the Sung Suma Women Association of Wa.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney talks with reporters at John H. Webster Elementary School, a site for students to pick up meals while schools are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, on March 25. Read more

The coronavirus pandemic will cost Philadelphia hundreds of millions of dollars in lost tax revenue and emergency spending, forcing the city to cut its budget and reduce services and staffing, Mayor Jim Kenney said Tuesday.

Faced with decisions the likes of which have never been needed," Kenney said he would scrap the $5.2 billion spending plan that he proposed in March for the upcoming fiscal year, and present a new plan to City Council on May 1. He did not specify proposed cuts, but vowed to minimize the impact on services that help the most vulnerable residents.

Its not going to be easy, and its not going to be pleasant," Kenney said, participating in a virtual news conference via video feed from his home. But at the end of it, we need a balanced budget.

Kenneys announcement comes as city and state governments across the country are grappling with billions of dollars in lost tax revenue, and are scrambling to respond to the public health crisis. In some places, leaders have already taken action to save money; Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf laid off about 2,500 state workers last week.

Philadelphia officials have declined to give specific estimates of the coronavirus financial impact on the city, and Kenney said it will depend on how long businesses stay closed and how severe the health crisis becomes. As of Tuesday, there were 4,272 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Philadelphia and 65 deaths; public health officials say a peak is yet to come.

But an analysis by the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA) found that the city could lose between $310 million and $400 million in revenue in the current quarter, which runs from April through June. Thats on top of any losses from March, when businesses closed and social distancing measures began. (The citys March revenue report will not be publicly available until May, city spokesperson Mike Dunn said.)

Harvey Rice, PICAs executive director, said its too soon to estimate when the pandemics impact will subside or how long it will take the city to recover.

It all depends," he said. "On July 1, is everything back to normal?

PICAs estimated drop in revenue would represent a significant portion of Philadelphias quarterly revenues; the city reported $996 million for the quarter that ended in December.

Kenney said his March budget address  in which he pitched funding for antipoverty plans, a scholarship to make community college free for thousands of students, and expanded street sweeping  seems like an eternity ago."

City officials had said last year that they were preparing for a possible recession. But they had not prepared for a sudden halt to the economy caused by the closure of nonessential businesses and stay-at-home orders.

Its almost like a depression and a pandemic at the same time, Kenney said. And I dont know if the city or the country has ever gone through that, two simultaneous crises.

Philadelphia has about $439 million in its reserve fund, which officials have warned would cover just 30 days of the citys operating expenses.

City Councilmember Allan Domb said the COVID-19 crisis could cause the city to lose all of its reserves and could put us into the negative next year by a couple hundred million dollars, unless we adjust our budget going forward."

Domb said budget adjustments will be needed, and long-term recovery will require the city to expand its economy.

This isnt going to be something that were going to be able to tax ourselves out of, he said.

The citys finances are especially vulnerable in economic downturns due to reliance on the wage tax, which accounts for more than one-third of general fund revenue. Philadelphia collected $1.7 billion in wage tax revenue in the last fiscal year.

Other municipal and county governments tend to rely heavily on property taxes, which are more stable during economic downturns.

It will be a lot worse for Philadelphia and, I would argue, also for New York City than Pittsburgh, which does not have a significant wage tax, said Robert Inman, a professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania. So cities that are property-tax based are going to much less significantly affected.

An additional hit could come from the closing of Center City offices, as many who remain employed now work from home. More than a third of Philadelphia workers live outside of the city, according to city financial data. Many of those employees are now eligible to stop paying the tax during the time they are required to work elsewhere.

Other tax revenues have also dropped off, including business taxes, the use and occupancy tax, the amusement tax, hotel taxes, and the liquor-by-the-drink tax. That reality will force tough choices, Kenney said.

When theres no money, theres no money, he said. And right now we havent been taking in hardly anything.

Almost a dozen years ago, the Great Recession also resulted in significant cuts to Philadelphias budget under Mayor Michael Nutter, Kenneys predecessor. The impact was long-lasting and services were slowly restored; for example, the city only in November opened four firehouses that were decommissioned during the recession and stayed closed for 11 years.

The impact of that recession was not to this degree, but we came out the other end," Kenney said Tuesday. It wont be forever, but it will be painful.
As Americans hunker down in their homes, changing everything about where and how they spend money, credit unions are entering uncharted territory. However, one thing is certain: credit unions must continue to be compassionate banking alternative: delivering the financial support that consumers and small businesses need now and in the face of an uncertain future.

Big banks are going to do what they always do: put profit before people. Just this morning, for instance, thousands of small business owners voiced their anger on social media after being denied from Bank of Americas Paycheck Protection Loan Program. The bank stated it would only offer relief to customers that have an existing credit card or lending relationship with the bank.

While Bank of America reversed its decision only after massive criticism, the initial policy demonstrates the clear connection they draw between the payments and lending side of their business and that, for them, these decisions are purely transactional. Credit unions can stand as the compassionate financial alternative, leveraging payments to support members immediate financial needs while building long-term relationships with them.
The Progressive People's Party (PPP) has joined calls to asked President Akufo-Addo to consider a waiver on electricity bills as part of social interventions put in place to cushion Ghanaians against the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

President Akufo-Addo in a nationwide television address on Sunday announced that government will take care of the water bills for all Ghanaians for April, May and June 2020.

Although the PPP commended government for absorbing the water bills, the party in a statement said same should be extended to electricity bills.

We recommend a three months waiver on Electricity bills (GHc300/month cap for households and GHc500/month cap for commercial entities) since free and continuous access to water and electricity are necessities in our fight against the Coronavirus, PPA said in the statement signed by the National Chairman of the PPP, Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond.

Declare nationwide lockdown

The party also called on President Akufo-Addo to declare a nationwide lockdown instead of the partial lockdown in place now.

Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi are currently observing a partial lockdown currently in its second week subject to review.

The decision, according to the President is to help curb the spread of COVID-19.

However, in the press statement released by the PPP the party noted that, considering the way COVID-19 is spreading at breakneck speed, creating a severe public health emergency and its potential negative impact on families and businesses, we support the call from the Ghana Medical Association for the President to declare a nationwide lockdown.

Our best bet is to stop the infection in both directions from spreading and we recommend that, if surgical masks are limited in supply and government cannot distribute this freely to all Ghanaians, then people who do not work in the healthcare sector should stick to fabric masks, like the ones people are sewing at home, the statement added.

The PPP in the statement also urged the President to ensure that the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP) which the Finance Minister presented to Parliament, with the objective of protecting households and jobs, is managed transparently and for the benefit of all citizens.

The statement further admonished the general public to adhere to all the safety guidelines to prevent themselves from contracting the pandemic, donate blood to the national blood bank to help us avoid a life-threatening blood shortage and to put on our compassionate lenses by supporting our own indigenous businesses with stimulus packages

---citinewsroom
South Sudanese refugees practice social distancing as they wait to access a food distribution at Kakuma camp in Kenya.  UNHCR/Samuel Otieno

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is ramping up efforts to increase capacity to prevent, treat and limit the potential spread of COVID-19 among refugee communities across the East, Horn and Great Lakes region of Africa, which hosts some of the largest refugee populations in the world. Living in crowded conditions, without adequate access to water and sanitation facilities, and with precarious livelihoods and food security, refugees in the region are particularly vulnerable to the virus, both in refugee camps and in urban areas.

Following confirmation of the first cases of COVID-19 in South Sudan and Eritrea last week, all countries in the region are now responding to the outbreak. While to date there have been no confirmed cases amongst refugees, asylum-seekers or internally displaced people in the region, the need to be prepared is urgent.

UNHCR is actively engaged with Ministries of Health and other government authorities, and the World Health Organization, on the inclusion of refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people (IDPs) in national response plans. A number of countries in the region already have exemplary policies in place that allow refugees to access public health-care services. However, many refugees live in remote areas many miles from the nearest government health facilities. Others live in small, overcrowded dwellings in densely populated urban areas where they face significant challenges in adhering to guidelines around physical and social distancing.

Many of our operations in the region have provided refugees increased quantities of food and basic relief items including soap to reduce the frequency of distributions and the risks posed by queues and large crowds.

The outbreak comes on the top of existing emergency conditions in the region, where 60 per cent of refugees are experiencing food ration cuts due to underfunding. This may be further exacerbated by breaks in the regular supply chain due to a variety of COVID-19 measures, including border restrictions and controls.

The pandemic is also having a severe impact on refugees abilities to work and generate income. Many refugees have seen the business they run or work for, often as day workers, forced to close. Those who rely on cross-border trade have been particularly impacted.

UNHCR is advocating to governments to ensure refugees are included in any emergency social protection schemes, while also exploring possibilities to provide the most vulnerable with one-off cash assistance to help meet basic needs.

Schools across the region have been closed and it is estimated that some one million refugee students are currently out of school. UNHCR is working with government and non-government partners on distance-learning and digital-learning programs, building on existing partnerships with the private sector to provide online learning in Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

Across the region, UNHCR is engaged in COVID-19 awareness, prevention and treatment information campaigns, including through community groups and religious leaders, telephone hotlines, flyers, posters, bulk SMS and WhatsApp messaging, radio announcements, focus group discussions, leaflets, billboards and mural drawings.

While bolstering primary-care capacity, including isolation facilities at camp level, we are concerned that health systems across the region are in need of support, particularly to referral hospitals and intensive care units, in case the virus rapidly spreads.

We continue to support the efforts of countries across the region, together with UN agencies and NGO partners, maintaining existing programmes where possible, and implementing a number of new measures to address humanitarian needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including:

In Djibouti, more than 4,500 refugees and asylum-seekers were provided with new shelters to reduce overcrowding and facilitate physical distancing in Ali Addeh and Holl-Holl villages.

In Ethiopia, supplies of water and soap in the camps are being increased and handwashing stations are being installed, including 127 communal stations and over 14,700 household stations in Gambella refugee camp alone.

In Kenya, isolation wards have been identified with additional beds added in the countrys two refugee camps. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is being given to health workers in clinics, while an assessment is underway to identify possible new locations for field clinics to provide health care in refugee camps. The distributions of food, soap and other items have been altered to adhere to social distancing standards. Refugees who have mobile phones are sent messages communicating COVID-19 information and prevention measures.

In Somalia, shelters are being improved and provisions of relief items increased to help with social and physical distancing for the large IDP populations. High-risk IDP sites are being targeted for decongestion and upgrading of shelter and provision of relief items, with plans for UNHCR to support 27,600 IDPs living in high-density IDP sites.

In Sudan, more than 320,000 refugees, IDPs and members of host communities across the country have received soap and other hygiene relief items. A 1,000-litre water tank was installed in Beliel registration centre, South Darfur. New refugee arrivals in eastern Sudan are having their temperature taken upon arrival and monitored for two weeks for symptoms.

In Tanzania, monthly provisions of soap have been doubled and larger jerry cans have been distributed to aid with handwashing in all three refugee camps. Additional handwashing stations have been installed, including new fittings at reception centres, distribution points, markets and schools.

In Uganda, a number of measures were already in place as a result of the response to the threat of Ebola, including health and temperature screening and increased handwashing facilities in, transit and reception centres as well as in refugee settlements. In addition, distributions of soap have been increased and health workers are being provided with additional training specifically on COVID-19.

All countries in the region have introduced strict movement measures, ranging from border closures to lockdowns and curfews. UNHCR urges these countries, some of which have generously hosted refugees for decades, to continue to provide protection and access to asylum to people fleeing war and persecution during this challenging time.

A part of the broader UN Global Humanitarian Response Plan, UNHCR issued an Emergency Appeal requesting US$255 million for life-saving interventions and preparations in response to COVID-19, of which an initial $15 million has been requested specifically for countries in East and Horn of Africa. UNHCR urges the international community to provide the requested financial support needed to ensure the health and safety of refugees, IDPs and host communities during this crisis.

UNHCRs Bureau for the East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region covers 11 countries: Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda.

Relevant broadcast-quality footage is available for download on UNHCR's content platform Refugees Media.

For more information on this topic, please contact:

In Nairobi, Dana Hughes, [email protected] , +254 733 440 536

, +254 733 440 536 In Geneva, Charlie Yaxley, [email protected] , +41 795 808 702

, +41 795 808 702 In Geneva, Babar Baloch, [email protected] , +41 79 513 9549

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President Donald Trump on Monday said that Americans are praying for the recovery of a friend to the nation, UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson who was moved to intensive care unit after his COVID-19 symptoms worsened.

Trump also said that he has asked two US pharmaceutical companies to get in touch with the British government to offer their services.

Johnson, 55, was hospitalised on Sunday and undergoing tests after suffering persistent coronavirus symptoms for over 10 days after he first tested positive. He was shifted to the intensive care ward at St. Thomas' Hospital in London on Monday.

During his daily coronavirus taskforce briefing from the White House, Trump said that he had asked two pharmaceutical companies (not named) to contact Johnson's doctors to check if both he and the companies could help with the therapies in practice to treat coronavirus patients.

Trump said, "I also want to send best wishes to a very good friend of mine and a friend of our nation Prime Minister Boris Johnson. We're very saddened to hear that he was taken into intensive care ... a little while ago,"

He added, "He's been a really good friend. He's been really something very special. Strong. Resolute."

"We have made tremendous progress on therapeutics," he added. "I've asked two of the leading companies... I've asked them to contact London immediately."

Trump also said that his administration has contacted the British government to extend their help.

The President added, "We've contacted all of Boris' doctors, and we'll see what is going to take place, but they are ready to go," "When you are brought into intensive care that gets very, very serious."He added, "We are working with London with respect to Boris Johnson."

Trump also said these companies have contacted their London offices and gave ensured that they have everything that Johnson's doctors may need during his recovery.

Johnson was tested positive on March 27 and his symptoms included high temperature and a cough.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Privately held Golden Skies Ventures (GSV) has made a $2.5 billion offer to fully take over the holding company of ailing state carrier Malaysia Airlines, with financing from a European bank, its executives told Reuters on Monday.

GSV, which was set up by former Malaysia Airlines officials and professionals with aviation experience, made the proposal a month ago, as airlines around the world were hammered by travel restrictions following the coronavirus pandemic.

"(We have secured) in excess of $2.5 billion from the bank. We will take about three to four months to get the long-term financing," Chief Executive Shahril Lamin told Reuters in a phone interview.

GSV said it also has a commitment from a Japanese private equity firm to inject immediate funds into the aviation group through an equity deal.

It declined to name the firms involved, adding it was in talks with other foreign banks and private equity firms for further funding.

GSV has submitted its proposal to Morgan Stanley which has been hired by the aviation group's sole owner, sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd.

Sources have previously said Japan Airlines, domestic carriers AirAsia Group and Malindo Air have shown interest in Malaysia Airlines.

GSV said it would assume most of the airline's debt that is being held by the government in outstanding Islamic bonds.

Khazanah and Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Dmytro Razumkov is convinced that the issue of returning of occupied Donbas and Crimea can't fall by the wayside. He said so on air of 112 Ukraine TV channel.

"I have no feeling, and I understand that it's wrong to put it this way, that the question of the return of temporarily returned territories, Donbas and Crimea, just like the end of the war, may take the backseat. This is one of the key issues and key problems that are up to our state to decide", Razumkov said.

He admitted that the issue of re-integration of territories is on the top al the time - in spite of the fact that there are other problems such as coronavirus and global economic crisis.

"Are there any extra opportunities today? I think the opportunities are always there, one has to search them, use them. Sometimes it shouldnt' be spoken of in public, sometimes not in the public. The government will take care of these issues", the Speaker said.
Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour's doctor son Charlie has contracted coronavirus after working to fight the spread of the deadly illness in a New York ICU.

The 70-year-old fashion legend shared the news in a video posted on the Vogue Instagram account on Monday evening, revealing that the 35-year-old father-of-two is 'quite ill' and currently quarantining at home.

'My son is a doctor. He is currently quite ill and self quarantining at home,' she shared. 'But when he is able, he will return to the ICU at his hospital.

Speaking out: Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, 70, has revealed that her doctor son, Charlie Shaffer, has coronavirus, after treating COVID-19 patients in a New York City ICU

Brave: Charlie, 35, who has two children with his wife Lizzy, is a Chief Resident at Weill Cornell, but is currently self-quarantining at home

'I am so proud of him and so grateful to all the health workers, first responders, nurses and doctors who are fighting to reduce the spread of the virus and to save lives.'

Charles, who has two daughters with his wife Lizzy, is a Chief Resident at Weill Cornell in New York City, the US epicenter for the spread of the virus.

There are currently more than 72,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in New York City, and more than 3,400 people have died from the illness. The total number of cases in the state had reached more than 131,000 as of Monday evening.

Wintour shared the news about her son's illness shortly after urging everyone at home to follow CDC guidelines and wear masks whenever they are outside, describing it as one of the 'most important steps' people can take to 'slow the spread of this virus'.

In a piece written for Vogue.com, Wintour shared an image of herself wearing a face mask, along with her signature sunglasses, while encouraging others to follow in her footsteps by covering their mouth and nose.

'I hope that youve discovered what it feels like to wear a face mask when you go out,' she wrote. 'As we are learning from health officials, this is one of the most important steps we can take to slow the spread of this virus.

'If you dont have a mask, a simple fabric covering will do. Please follow this new guideline; it couldnt be more important.'

In her social media video, Wintour noted that the 'challenges we face are profound', but insisted that society can overcome the virus and its devastating impact by taking small steps to help those affected - both through social distancing and through charitable efforts.

Sending a message: On Monday, Wintour shared a piece for Vogue.com in which she urged everyone to wear masks whenever they go outside

Family ties: Charlie's eldest daughter, Caroline, celebrated her third birthday in quarantine on March 27, with Wintour revealing the family threw a party for her on Zoom

The clip was posted in order to raise awareness about A Common Thread, a fund started in collaboration between Vogue and the CFDA, which aims to offer financial support to Americans working in the fashion industry.

Wintour did not share any other information about her son's symptoms, and did not reveal when he first fell ill.

However, in her written piece for Vogue, Wintour did offer a glimpse into Charlie's daughter's third birthday celebrations, which took place on March 28, revealing that the family marked Caroline's special day with a digital party on Zoom.

The Vogue editrix is currently staying at her home on Long Island, where she has been throughout much of March, after New Yorkers were urged to shelter in place and work from home amid the coronavirus pandemic.

But that didn't stop her from celebrating her first grandchild, whom she named as one of the things she has been most grateful for while in quarantine.

While penning a piece for Vogue.com about the things she is most grateful for while in quarantine, she celebrated three-year-old Caroline, revealing how overjoyed the youngster was to mark her birthday with so many familiar faces.

'What else am I grateful for? My granddaughter, who celebrated her third birthday through a virtual party the other day,' she wrote, while sharing an adorable photo of Caroline enjoying her birthday cake.

'A lot of people Zoomed in and it was just a joy seeing how happy that made her.'

Like so many people, Wintour has been self isolating at home for a few weeks, and she opened up about how this has changed her perspective on so many things - particularly 'the simple pleasures' that she used to take for granted.

'I think of the simple pleasures we once took for grantedlike going to the theater, dinner with friends, coming into the officeand they seem to me like impossible luxuries,' she said.

But, Wintour noted, her experience over the past few weeks has made her all the more grateful for so many things in her life - in addition to her beloved granddaughter - a handful of which she named.

Close: Wintour, seen with her son in 2018, also wrote about the things she has been most grateful for while sheltering in place at her Hamptons home

First, the fashion icon praised those designers who have dedicated themselves to supporting healthcare workers and people in need, calling particular attention to A Common Thread, a fund started in collaboration between Vogue and the CFDA, which aims to look after American designers.

Wintour also spoke out to praise New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, applauding his hard work over the past month, while thanking him for being so 'incredibly reassuring'.

'Im not the first one to say this, but Im grateful for New Yorks governor,' she wrote. 'Governor Cuomo goes in front of cameras every day and simply levels with us about the crisis were in.

'He tells us the truth without sugar coating ita feat our president cannot bring himself to do. How incredibly reassuring that is. How lucky we are to have him.'

One of her personal pleasures while in quarantine has been artist David Hockney, who has been producing new pieces using his iPad, which he then shares with the world via social media.

As a well-known lover of art, Wintour admitted she has been finding hope in his work, particularly a rendering of daffodils that he did recently.

'I am grateful for daffodils!' she said, adding: 'David Hockneys in particular. The 82-year-old artist, whose work I have always loved, has been producing new paintings on his iPad and they couldnt be more glorious.

'His daffodils are extraordinarya vision of color, optimism and hopea reminder that these days of isolation wont last forever and that new ideas are growing all the while.'

Stay inside! Last month, Wintour shared a photo of herself staying inside her Long Island home and urged other not to go out

She said: 'There is no more important rule for all of us to follow. We must, right this moment, pledge to stay in our homes as much as we possibly can'

Wintour also took the opportunity to pay tribute to her team at Vogue, thanking them for 'rising to the occasion' and continuing to 'produced stories that Im so proud of' - while revealing that they have been working on a new issue that will seemingly be released on schedule.

The latest essay from Wintour comes just a few weeks after she shared a first glimpse into her life in quarantine, when she shared a photo of herself lounging inside her Hamptons home while wearing those signature shades.

'Like so many of you, I have been adjusting to reality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Above all else, I have been doing one simple thing, and I urge everyone to do the same: I have been staying at home,' she wrote.

She continued: 'There is no more important rule for all of us to follow. We must, right this moment, pledge to stay in our homes as much as we possibly can.

'There are, of course, health workers, emergency-response personnel, grocery store employees and others whose essential jobs we depend on. And they must go out to perform these life-saving tasks.

The end of an era: Wintour has postponed this year's Met Gala 'indefinitely' in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak

'For the rest of us, there is no debate or discussion. We must stay in our homes. That is the only way to slow the spread of the coronavirus, and to protect those who are most vulnerable to it. 

'So join me in a pledge that all of us at @voguemagazine are making today: #stayhome. There is no more valuable action you can take. We encourage you to share your own promise and comment below with a [rose emoji] to pledge to #stayhome too.'

Alongside the message, she included a rare smiling photo of herself in a chunky ivory sweater, black scarf, and dark shades inside her home.

While the editor owns a place in Manhattan, she appears to have dashed off to her bigger home in Mastic, Long Island.

According to Cafe Design, the house was built in 1820 and decorated by Carrier & Company.

She reportedly paid just $350,000 for the 5.9 acre property with four bedrooms and waterfront access back in 2013.

Last month, one of Wintour's biggest projects  the Met Gala  was cancelled due to the coronavirus.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the glitzy event is held every year, made the call after being closed by New York City.

This is the first time that the event  for which tickets can cost up to $35,000 per person  has been called off in the 22 years that Vogue editor-in-chief Wintour has chaired it, a job that she took on back in 1995 when she made her debut as the hostess of the star-studded party.

According to Vogue.com, an email sent out to staff members on Monday afternoon stated that any and all 'programs and events' due to be held by or at the Met through May 15 had been 'canceled or postponed,' 'in deference' to CDC guidance that all gatherings of more than 50 people should be called off.

The party was set to celebrated an exhibition with the theme 'About Time: Fashion and Duration,' which would have featured 160 pieces of women's fashion from the last 150 years.
A cluster of coronavirus cases has emerged in Australian hospitals after seven health workers were struck down with COVID-19.

Eight new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in an outbreak of the coronavirus linked to Tasmania's North West Regional Hospital.

At Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital six staff members have been told to self-isolate after an infectious disease nurse working there tested positive to the virus.

A clinical nurse consultant performs a mock coronavirus examination at a hospital in Brisbane last month. A cluster of COVID-19 cases has emerged in hospitals in Tasmania and Queensland

Tasmania's health department confirmed their cases on Tuesday night after the state's third coronavirus death earlier in the day.

Six staff at the hospital in Burnie in the state's north-west are among the additional cases, while one case is a recent patient and the other a close contact of a previous NWRH case.

Fifteen coronavirus cases are now linked to the NWRH, 12 of them health workers, two former patients, and the close contact.

Authorities are working to identify and contact any person who has had close contact with any of the staff.

An elderly man who died at the NWRH on Tuesday became the state's third virus death.

He was a passenger on the ill-fated Ruby Princess cruise ship, which is linked to hundreds of cases across the country.

Six staff members at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital have been told to self-isolate after an infectious disease nurse working there tested positive to the virus

Eight new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in an outbreak of the coronavirus linked to Tasmania's North West Regional Hospital

All three people who have died from the virus in Tasmania were passengers aboard the liner.

Visits to all hospitals and aged care homes are banned, with some exemptions for births, end-of-life care and the care of children.

Tasmania has 98 virus cases, with 34 people recovering.

The infectious disease nurse in Brisbane tested positive for COVID-19 after beginning to feel unwell - at which time she stayed at home and told her employer.

Metro South Public Health unit has told six other staff members who were in contact with the infected nurse to self-isolate for 14 days.
Key Highlights

From renegotiating rental deals to closing down non-performing stores, cash conservation is top priority for footwear retailers

Middle and senior management of Liberty Shoes take pay cuts up to 50 per cent

Bata to postpone increments

Bata is donating washable footwear to hospitals, also manufacturing masks

Footwear retailers Bata and Liberty are having mixed feelings. On one hand, is the deep concern of their business coming to a complete standstill because of the coronavirus lockdown, but on the other hand they do have a glimmer of hope. In the new normal post the lockdown it is the value brands that are expected to do better considering the pay cuts and job loses that are in the offing, and it's not just Bata and Liberty, but also the likes of Lakhani and Relaxo (all of them are value brands) that are likely to have a clear advantage.

"Value footwear brands such as ours should definitely be successful, but at the same time we can't put the cart before the horse, as the current situation is unprecedented and one really can't predict anything," says Anupam Bansal, Executive Director (Retail), Liberty Shoes.

"There will be a host of customer behaviour changes. While increased e-commerce shopping could be the new norm, high street stores could do better than malls. However, at this point one can't really predict," adds Bata India CEO, Sandeep Kataria. For the time being, footwear retailers are looking at every possible way of conserving cash, so that they can stay afloat in the new normal. From renegotiating rental deals to closing down the non-performing stores, cash conservation is their top priority.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus Crisis: Snapdeal goes 'local' to ensure faster deliveries amid lockdown

ALSO READ: Third-party supply chain firms see soaring demand amid coronavirus lockdown

Bansal of Liberty says while the company's shop floor employees are protected from pay cuts and job loses, the employees in the middle management and senior management are taking pay cuts up to 50 per cent. "I am not going to take a salary home for the next few months and I have told my employees just as I am renegotiating rentals with various landlords, they also need to renegotiate rentals with their respective landlords. Cash has to be conserved."

Similarly, Bata, says Kataria, is not considering pay-cuts, but it has put increments in abeyance. "The retail and footwear sectors are one of the largest employment generators and if you look at leather and footwear sector, it alone employs about 45 lakh people directly, consisting of weaker sections of the society, with women consisting 30 per cent of the workforce. Therefore, we do need government support to make sure that we are able to keep up the business and people do not lose jobs. We have already requested for help in terms of moratorium for rentals from mall owners and high street landlords. We also seek the government's support in providing subsidy for minimum wages with which our teams can be supported, also relaxation in some of the statutory payments and requirements that helps the cash flow," says Kataria.

On the other hand, Bata is also doing its bit to support the COVID-19 infrastructure. The footwear major, in the past 10 days has manufactured around 5,000 masks using the fabric that goes into making its shoe linings, at its Batanagar plant near Kolkata. These masks have been donated to the Kolkata Police. Kataria says that it is waiting for the lockdown to be lifted so that fresh stock can come in and the company is able to manufacture masks on a large-scale. "We can make both basic and medical masks once we get fresh stocks," he says. Will Bata look at masks or protective gears as a new business? "We won't look at it as long-term business but we will certainly manufacture in large-scale in the short-term to help the government fight COVID-19. This initiative will not give us revenue or profits," says Kataria.

The company has also been donating its washable footwear to hospitals across the country, the sales of which Kataria expects to grow in the long-run.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus lockdown: BigBasket, Grofers face shortage of delivery boys

ALSO READ: Coronavirus impact: ZEE5, Hotstar seize the day as India goes on binge-watch mode
The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has launched a hotline service on WhatsApp to respond to questions related to the coronavirus (Covid-19).



The service utilises artificial intelligence to strengthen communication with the public and give them fast and easy access to accurate and trusted information from official sources.



Fatma Al Khaja, director of the Customer Happiness Department at the DHA stressed the importance of the 24/7 service, which is available in English and Arabic as it will help correct false information and debunk rumours by providing the public with the necessary knowledge to take preventive and precautionary measures to protect themselves from Covid-19.



Al Khaja pointed out that the services information and frequently asked questions (FAQ) will be updated regularly to make sure they are up-to-date.



She added that the DHA will also be sending educational videos and guidelines to the public, through WhatsApp to raise awareness about how to prevent the disease.



The service provides a self-screening option and informs the public about the necessary procedures to receive the coronavirus test if necessary.



It also provides answers to FAQ related to symptoms, prevention, procedures and many more topics, based on information approved by the DHA and World Health Organization.



Al Khaja added that the new service also includes a live chat option with a DHA employee, who will provide official information. In the first few hours of its launch, the hotline received over 1,700 queries.



To access the 24/7 service, simply add 800342 to your contacts and send Hi on WhatsApp.



She called on the public to make sure they rely only on official government sources for information.  TradeArabia News Service
Botswana's president has proposed extending a state of emergency in the southern African country to last six months.

President Mokgweetsi Masisi says the measure is needed because people are not complying with restrictions on movement to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Critics worry the plan, if initiated, would put too much power in the hands of the president.

Botswanas parliament will convene on Wednesday to deliberate on Masisis proposal.

The president wants the state of emergency, declared last week in reaction to the outbreak of the coronavirus, to last six months.

Initially, Masisi had announced a 28-day lockdown period after the southern African country recorded its first six coronavirus cases, including one death, last week.

I will cause, therefore, to be a meeting of parliament at which I will seek the endorsement of parliament to extend the state of public emergency for a total period of six months, for the single purpose of dealing with COVID-19, totally based on the signs available and the advice we got from our experts, he said.

Under the state of emergency, the president will hold absolute power.

Local political analyst Lawrence Ookeditse argues such a move would pose a risk to the countrys democracy.

"For a republic, for a democracy and for a country in which the leading president and the leading party won an election on the basis of the rule of law, I think its too long a period of time. It brings in a period of instability and uncertainty, he said.

Masisi said the rule of law will be respected during the state of emergency.

Those who are schooled in law advised that it is not a suspension of the constitution, neither will it be a total abrogation of rights people hold, as courts will function. Any matter can be taken to court if anybody believes their rights have been unduly oppressed," he said.

Masisis ruling Botswana Democratic Party has control of the National Assembly, after winning 38 of the 57 seats in parliament in last Octobers general election.
Courtesy Neal Perron Photography

HADDAM  The daughter of Haddam Neck resident Neal Perron, Dharma Perron, a nursing student at The University of Vermont, chalked a message in their driveway thanking first responders for their efforts to combat coronavirus.

The list, seen in this drone shot, includes teachers, mail carriers and grocery store staff.
(Natural News) Under an emergency declaration issued by Delaware Governor John Carney, Delaware law enforcement officers were given the power to stop vehicles driving in the state solely for bearing tags from another state.

After pulling over the vehicle, police can ask questions regarding the drivers recent travels. They will also be told that they must either return immediately to their home state or carry out self-quarantine for 14 days. Those out-of-state visitors who do not self-quarantine could find themselves facing criminal charges.

However, an exception will be made for drivers who are simply passing through Delaware on I-95, I-495, or I-295 while en route to other states. Those headed to Delaware for essential business, health care, or to care for family members will also be exempt. They added that those employees from out of state who are working for essential businesses in Delaware should work from home wherever possible.

In a press release, the Delaware State Police stated that it simply isnt the right time to visit their state. They said their goal is to limit a surge in coronavirus cases that could overwhelm their hospital systems by stopping the virus from entering from other states.

State police have said they dont plan to issue any citations or tickets. Instead, they wish to educate drivers and remind them of the order from the governor that is currently in effect. Some police have already been infected with coronavirus in Delaware and other states.

Some PA residents crossing into Delaware to buy alcohol

Delaware police have also warned Pennsylvania residents not to cross the border into their state to buy alcohol. Liquor stores, which are run by the state in Pennsylvania, have been closed there and the online sale system is struggling under high demand, prompting residents to head to places like Claymont, which is just south of the border, to buy alcohol.

The co-owner of Brandywine Liquors told the media he had seen a surge in sales recently, with lots of customers coming from Pennsylvania and thanking him for keeping his store open. Other liquor stores in the area report similar upticks.

On Friday, officers conducted a checkpoint outside a Claymont shopping center, turning drivers away who did not have essential business there; no citations or arrests were issued.

Carney said in a news briefing: Were going to have to show were serious about travelers coming in state for nonessential activities.

People continuing to defy orders, hold parties

Last week, Newark police cited two tenants for violating the citys noise ordinance and a recently passed gathering ordinance that prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people in connection with a loud birthday party hosted by a University of Delaware student. Eighteen people were found inside the apartment. Police say they will continue to enforce these rules, and the University of Delaware tweeted that it was deeply disappointed by the students reckless and irresponsible choices. They added that the universitys student conduct office would be taking action.

Over the weekend, President Trump approved a disaster declaration for the state, which makes federal funding available not only to Delaware but also eligible local governments and some nonprofits to pay for emergency protective measures and direct federal assistance.

Health officials stated on Sunday that Delaware now has 673 cases of coronavirus. The state has seen 14 coronavirus deaths so far, eight of which were related to long-term care facilities across the state. Models show the state could see as many as 3,000 cases and 500 hospitalizations related to COVID-19 in the weeks to come.

Delaware has demonstrated just how seriously it is taking coronavirus, and its measures like these that have the power to help stem the spread of this deadly disease.

Sources for this article include:

Philadelphia.CBSLocal.com

Inquirer.com

6ABC.com

Fox29.com
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court on Monday issued its first ruling in a case arising from the coronavirus pandemic, refusing to extend the deadline for absentee voting in Tuesdays elections in Wisconsin by six days.

The vote was 5 to 4, with the courts more conservative members in the majority. The split, with all of the justices appointed by Republicans endorsing the result sought by Republicans and all of the Democratic appointees in dissent, suggested that the court may struggle to maintain an image of nonpartisanship as it is called on to resolve what will almost certainly be a parade of election disputes this year.

The justices in the majority, in an unsigned opinion, said the wisdom of proceeding with an election in the midst of a health crisis was not before them.

The courts decision on the narrow question before the court should not be viewed as expressing an opinion on the broader question of whether to hold the election, or whether other reforms or modifications in election procedures in light of Covid-19 are appropriate, the opinion said. That point cannot be stressed enough.
In the thick of Coronavirus, the Indian Railways will manufacture up to 1000 protective kits every day needed to protect doctors and paramedics working on the front line to treat COVID-19 patients at hospitals of Railways. Additionally, the railways is considering supplying 50% of the overalls to other medical professionals across the country. Material for all the overalls is being procured centrally at Jagadhari which is located near many big textile industries in Punjab.

"Facilities are being geared up in Railways to make up to 1000 such protective overall for Railway Doctors & Paramedics every day. Around 17 workshops would be striving to contribute to this exercise," the ministry said in a statement.

"In the days to come, the production facilities can be further ramped up. The development of this overall and innovation by Indian Railways is being welcomed by other Government agencies engaged in the war against COVID-19," added the ministry.

This comes at a time when the healthcare professions are already facing dire situations, with rising criticism over the lack of provisions for protective medical gear to tackle the viral pandemic. The Congress on Saturday lambasted the government stating that the health professionals were 'risking their lives without proper care' amid the health crisis. With regard to the specifications of the kits, the ministry said that the technical specifications are ready.

"Technical specifications of these PPEs are now ready, and material suppliers are in place. Now the production can start in right earnest. This development is a big boost to equip our doctors and paramedics on the front line of this battle against COVID -19," said the ministry.

READ: Masks, screening health status, social distancing: Railways prepares for post-lockdown services

Indian Railways deploy more resources

South Western zone of the Indian Railways has announced that almost three-fourths of the beds at Divisional Railway hospital in Mysuru have been made available for coronavirus patients. Another hospital in Bengaluru has also been made operational. South Western Railway on Monday announced, "At Divisional Railway Hospital in Mysuru, 74 beds out of 101 beds are earmarked for COVID-19 patients, with 6 HDU (High Dependency Unit) beds, 6 monitors, 2 ventilators and other essential equipment for emergencies.

A 50-bed hospital having six ICUs in Bengaluru has also become fully operational for those who had tested positive whereas, in Hubli, a 150-bed hospital, comprising of eight ICU beds, four ventilators, six multipara monitors, defibrillators and infusion pumps are available.

READ: Big achievement for Railways as DRDO clears PPE kit made by Northern Railways

Coronavirus crisis in India

As of date, over 4000 positive cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) - 325 have been discharged and Maharashtra reported the highest at 868. 114 deaths have been reported to date. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries. The Prime Minister has issued a 21-day countrywide lockdown starting from 23 March to April 15 and the Finance Minister has announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore package under the 'PM Gareeb Kalyan Scheme'.

READ: WATCH: Enter Indian Railway's Coronavirus fumigation tunnel; get 'sanitised'; Exit

READ: Railways develops low-cost ventilator 'Jeevan', seeks ICMR approval

(With Inputs from ANI)
Facebook FB has initiated a program in Italy to track the accuracy of coronavirus information circulated on its WhatsApp messaging platform, per a Reuters report.



The tech giant is working with Facta, an Italy-based fact-checking service to analyze all content being circulated by the apps users. Users are required to forward the content they come across to Facta for analysis.



Being the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe with 128,948 positive cases and around 15,887 deaths, Italy is bearing the brunt of the pandemic. The local government had ordered a lockdown across the nation that has led to a rise in the usage of WhatsApp.



The service has the potential to reach 2 billion WhatsApp users and help get reliable information to those who need it.



The current program follows the establishment of WhatsApp's Coronavirus Information Hub in partnership with WHO, UNICEF, the United Nations Development Programme and the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) in an effort to make verified information about the pandemic available to WhatsApp users.



Moreover, WhatsApp announced a $1 million grant toward the IFCN last month to support journalism from the CoronaVirusFacts/ DatosCoronaVirus alliance  a project created by the IFCN in January that includes more than 100 fact checkers in 45 countries to fight COVID-19-related fake news and misinformation.

Facebook, Inc. Price and Consensus

Facebook, Inc. Price and Consensus

Facebook, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Facebook, Inc. Quote

Other Tech Players Fighting Fake News as Coronavirus Fears Rise



Facebook has often been criticized by regulators for its privacy policy. Federal regulators have been scrutinizing how Facebook, Alphabets GOOGL Google, Twitter TWTR and others handle personal information amid rapidly increasing incidences of user data breach.



Notably, social media companies are witnessing spike in conspiracies related to coronavirus, including misleading or inaccurate claims, false testing methods and fake cures.



Facebooks latest feature addition to its platform reflects the companys continued effort toward countering coronavirus misinformation. Other social media companies are also trying to curb the spread of coronavirus misinformation on their platforms.



On Apr 3, Google announced that it is pumping in $6.5 million into fact checkers and nonprofits to ramp up its fight against coronavirus-related misinformation. Also, the search engine giant will start allowing some of its clients, including hospitals to run related advertisements on its platforms.



Notably, Twitter updated its strategy for monitoring tweets during the outbreak. The micro-blogging site removed more than 1,100 misleading and potentially damaging tweets in March after it announced a new guidance that bars content, which could prove to be harmful. This includes tweets from high-profile figures like the presidents of Brazil and Venezuela.



Last week, Apple AAPL partnered with CDC, the White House Coronavirus Task Force and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to release a new COVID-19 website and COVID-19 app currently available on the App Store in the United States to bring in more awareness about the highly contagious virus.



At a time when fake news about COVID-19 is spreading rapidly, Facebooks initiative will likely help prevent people from panicking and generate some positivity around its brand name.



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Eleven Indians are among the 106 new coronavirus cases reported in Singapore on Tuesday, taking the total number of COVID-19 patients in the country to 1,481, the Health Ministry said.

All the Indian nationals -- nine males and two females -- were infected locally, though one had a travel history to India, it said.

The patients are aged between 28 and 44.

Three of the new cases are imported, the ministry said, adding that two Singaporean nurses and a health care assistant are among the new COVID-19 patients.

A total of 39 cases are linked to clusters at foreign worker dormitories where contact tracing is still pending for 41 cases, it said.

Twenty-nine of the 627 patients still in hospital are in critical condition in the intensive care unit. The rest are stable or improving.

Thirty-three more patients have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In total, 377 patients have fully recovered from the virus.

As of April 7, the ministry has identified 17,819 close contacts who have been quarantined. Of these, 4,618 are currently quarantined, and 13,201 have completed their quarantine.

Meanwhile, the government is considering a new law, which will ban social gatherings of any size -- in homes or public spaces.

The gatherings include private parties, family or friends gatherings.

"This enables us to better regulate events and gatherings, including those that take place on private properties," Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Tuesday during the debate on the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Bill.

The authorities had previously advised against holding and participating in social gatherings with more than 10 people. Events such as conferences, concerts and sporting events must be deferred or cancelled regardless of size.

Gan, who co-chairs the multi-ministry COVID-19 task force, said the bill provides the legal basis to enforce enhanced safe distancing measures, and are temporary measures specific to the outbreak that Singapore is facing.

The proposed law would also allow the government to requisition land, property or services needed to ramp up healthcare capacity and public health capabilities under the Requisition of Resources Act that was first passed in 1985.

Gan told the House that if the number of coronavirus cases continue to rise in Singapore, it may become necessary to requisition buildings that can be converted into accommodations and care facilities.

"I am very grateful that today, many hotel and building operators have voluntarily stepped forward in this difficult period to work with the Government to support the national COVID-19 efforts. However, in a crisis like this, time is often of the essence and we cannot rely solely on commercial negotiation or the goodwill of these resource owners. We will need to move fast," he said.

Gan added that the government would exercise these powers judiciously and work closely with affected stakeholders.

As per the draft legislation, the health minister would also have the power to close premises such as workplaces, schools, recreational facilities and places of worship, to minimise interactions and reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

It allows the minister to set requirements for premises in key economic sectors or essential services that are allowed to continue operating, including having food establishments open only for take-away or delivery, and not allowing customers to dine in.

The minister would also be able to restrict the movement and interactions of individuals at their place of residence or other places, as well as their use of common areas like void decks, and shared facilities in HDB estates and private condominiums.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ever wondered what would happen if you got stuck on an island with your partner? Sounds romantic, right? Well, looks like its not all roses when it actually happens.



Recently, a couple has found themselves trapped in an eternal honeymoon in Maldives after the airports in their country shut down due to the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus.

Initially, newlyweds Olivia, 27, and Raul De Freitas, 28, were only supposed to spend six days in paradise at the Cinnamon Velifushi Maldives before heading back to their country South Africa.

The newly-wed couple arrived in Maldives on March 22 and were supposed to head back home the following weekend. However, due to the mounting travel restrictions in multiple countries, the couple had made sure to check with their travel agent before embarking on their journey, according to The New York Times.

At that point, no restrictions for their itinerary had been announced and their agent told them that all South African citizens would be allowed back home. Although, that wasn't the case and the couple is now stuck in Maldives.

Its incredible that we get this extra time, Olivia told the Times, adding that they are getting a generous discount off the usual $750 per night resort, but each day is cutting into their savings.

Everyone says they want to be stuck on a tropical island, until youre actually stuck,' Olivia said. 'It only sounds good because you know you can leave.

The couple explained that they were in the fourth day of their honeymoon when they received a notice that South Africa's airports would all be closed by midnight the following day.

They told the Times that flights back to South Africa are five hours to Doha, Qatar, where they would be subject to a three-hour layover, and then nine hours to Johannesburg. Hence, due to those complexities of leaving paradise, they would've never made it back to South Africa ahead of the country's airport closures.

In addition, they said they considered other options like taking an hour-and-a-half speedboat ride to the main island's airport. However, the Maldives had also announced their own lockdown around the same time, banning foreign travelers.

The lockdown in South Africa will last until at least April 16.
Viruses that jump from animals to people, like the one responsible for COVID-19, will likely become more common as people continue to transform natural habitats into agricultural land, according to a new Stanford study.

The analysis, published in Landscape Ecology, reveals how the loss of tropical forests in Uganda puts people at greater risk of physical interactions with wild primates and the viruses they carry. The findings have implications for the emergence and spread of infectious animal-to-human diseases in other parts of the world, and suggest potential solutions for curbing the trend.

"At a time when COVID-19 is causing an unprecedented level of economic, social and health devastation, it is essential that we think critically about how human behaviors increase our interactions with disease-infected animals," said study lead author Laura Bloomfield, an MD student in the School of Medicine and a PhD candidate in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources within Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences. "The combination of major environmental change, like deforestation, and poverty can spark the fire of a global pandemic."

A changing landscape

People have converted nearly half of the world's land into agriculture. Tropical forests have suffered the most, with some of the highest rates of agricultural conversion over the last few decades. In Africa, this has accounted for about three-quarters of recent forest loss. What remains, outside protected parks and preserves, are small islands of forest in a sea of farmland and areas where farmland intrudes into larger forested areas.

In Uganda, decades of migration and the creation of farmlands outside Kibale National Park have led to a high density of people trying to support their families at the edge of forested habitats. Ordinarily, people avoid wild primates because they are well-known carriers of disease, and many are protected by Uganda's Wildlife Authority. However, continued loss of forested habitat means wild primates and humans are increasingly sharing the same spaces and vying for the same food.

When people venture into forested areas for resources and when animals venture out of their habitats to raid crops, the chances increase for transmission of zoonotic - or animal-to-human - disease. A prime example is HIV, which is caused by a virus that jumped from wild primates to humans via infected bodily fluids.

"We humans go to these animals," study co-author Eric Lambin, the George and Setsuko Ishiyama Provostial Professor in Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences. "We are forcing the interaction through transformation of the land."

Predicting infection

Unlike previous studies that examined the issue from primarily an ecological standpoint, the Stanford study is the first to integrate landscape-level ecological factors with individual-level behavioral factors and weigh risks to human health.

The researchers began by collecting land use survey data from small-scale farmers living near forest fragments. They combined this information with high-resolution satellite imagery from the same time period to model how landscape patterns and individual behaviors together make certain people more likely to have contact with wild animals.

They found the strongest predictors of human-wild primate contact were the length of the forest boundary around people's homes and the frequency with which people ventured into these forested areas to collect small trees for construction material. Searching for these pole-like trees entails spending more time deep in primate habitats than other forest-based activities.

The researchers were surprised to find some of their assumptions turned upside down. For example, small fragments of residual forest  not larger expanses of habitat  were most likely to be the site of human-wild primate contacts due to their shared borders with agricultural landscapes.

Similarly, the researchers speculate that increasing intrusion of agriculture into forests and resulting human activities in these areas could lead to more spillover of infections from wild primates to humans worldwide.

Keeping disease at bay

The researchers suggest that relatively small buffer zones, such as tree farms or reforestation projects, around biodiversity-rich forests could dramatically lessen the likelihood of human-wild primate interaction. Using external resources, such as national or international aid, to provide fuel and construction material or monetary supplements could also reduce pressure on people to seek out wood in forested areas.

"At the end of the day, land conservation and the reduction of forest fragmentation is our best bet to reduce human-wild animal interactions," said study coauthor Tyler McIntosh, a former graduate student in the Stanford Earth Systems Program now working at the Center for Western Priorities.

###

To read all stories about Stanford science, subscribe to the biweekly Stanford Science Digest.

Lambin is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the McGee and Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources and the Medical Scientist Training Program.
Salem Countys main hospital is undergoing a renovation to help combat the coronavirus.

Salem Medical Center announced Monday it would be retrofitting rooms in the hospital to create 58 new hospital beds specifically for coronavirus patients. Every room of the hospitals third and fourth floors are being set up for negative air pressure and telemetry, and the renovations are expected to be finished in mid-April.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the Mannington Township-based hospital was licensed for 75 medical-surgical beds, 30 long-term care beds, 26 psychiatric beds, and 12 critical care beds.

But as New Jerseys cases of coronavirus surge to 41,090 as of Monday, resulting in 1,003 deaths, all hospitals are preparing to handle an influx of more patients. There are 26 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Salem County, although experts have said widespread testing is lacking across the state, particularly in South Jersey. Those numbers, however, are expected to increase.

Essentially, we are converting general medical-surgical beds into ICU beds capable of handling an influx of COVID-19 patients, Salem Medical Center CEO Dr. Tammy Torres said in a statement. The timing of this work is critical, as southern New Jersey is expected to see a spike in demand for hospital beds over the next 15 days. This additional capacity will provide extra beds, supplies, and staff to Salem County residents and to the southern region.

Salem Medical Center said it was working closely with the state and county Departments of Health along with other regulatory agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

By joining forces with the State, we are able to put as many resources as possible at the disposal of our frontline healthcare providers during this growing crisis, Salem Medical Center Chairman of the Board William J. Colgan said in a statement. Time is of the essence to stay ahead of the surge, and we will continue working closely with the State and others to ensure area residents can get the care they need. None of this would be possible without the tireless and dedicated efforts of the Hospitals medical staff, nursing staff, general staff, and administration, to whom we are all extremely grateful.

The renovation plans have drawn praise from political figures such as Assembly Deputy Speaker John Burzichell (D-District 3).

It is a proud moment for the community when we see our local hospital step up and work with the State to help be part of the solution for this unprecedented crisis, said Burzichelli. My heartfelt thanks go out to Salem Medical Centers physicians and nurses, who are serving on the front lines, as well as its Board and Administration, for their commitment to the health and safety of Salem County and for New Jersey.

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Ana de Armas arrives to the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards, 2020. (Christopher Polk/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

Actress Ana de Armas had the same reaction a lot of us would have about meeting Ryan Gosling, back when she had to audition in front of him before being cast as his love interest in the 2017 movie Blade Runner 2049.

Oh, hell yes I was nervous, de Armas revealed in the April/May issue of American Airliness in-flight magazine, American Way. I auditioned three times for [the role of] Joi, and the third time, I knew he would be there. I was shaking so badly. They put you in a room together and make you read things, to see how your chemistry is. I wish I had the tape of that meeting.

Gosling is just one of the many Hollywood heavyweights that de Armas has worked with in the past few years. Shes counted Keanu Reeves as a co-star, too, and says theyre so close now. Shes finishing up the thriller Deep Water, with Ben Affleck, who shes been photographed kissing, and soon shell play the starring role of Norma Jeane in the Marilyn Monroe story Blonde. Brad Pitt is producing that one.

Ive been very lucky  because these men are all very handsome  but the best part of it is who they are as people, de Armas said. Ive had the best partners.

Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas couple up in Los Angeles. (Photo: BG020/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Already, her most famous leading man is Daniel Craig, who will play James Bond for the final time in No Time to Die, scheduled to come in November. (He also co-starred with her on last years Knives Out.)

Her onscreen reunion with Craig almost didnt happen. De Armas, 31, was hesitant to step into the high-profile role of Bonds female sidekick.

Read more: Waller-Bridge gave voice to De Armas Bond character

Bond girls have been portrayed for so many years with a specific type of woman. I associate it with some sort of perfection and beauty standards beyond the normal. Things that I didnt match, the Cuban-born de Armas said. I was shocked when the director called me to say The character is not written yet but we want you do it.

(Universal Pictures)

Halle Berry, Michelle Yeoh, Jane Seymour and many other women have played the role over the decades.

Story continues

Usually these women [Bond girls], they need to be rescued. Or they die. Or are evil, de Armas said. I needed to read that script. And it took a little, but they sent me the scenes. It's important, because I want to bring something else to the story.

De Armass character is a CIA agent whos assigned to help Bond. She was convinced.

No Time To Die comes to cinemas in November.
CEDAR FALLS  Divided opinions across the state over Gov. Kim Reynolds not issuing a shelter-in-place order were on display Monday in the differing decisions made by two Cedar Valley city councils.

A resolution calling on Reynolds to issue a safe at home order in light of the coronavirus pandemic was debated by both the Waterloo and Cedar Falls councils. Waterloos council chose to support it in a 6-1 vote. The Cedar Falls council unanimously voted against the resolution.

First brought forward by the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors, the resolution calls for more restrictions on when people can leave their homes. It pushes for ordering all Iowans to stay safe at home except for when conducting essential activities using definitions from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control.

But from the initial comment at the Cedar Falls council, there was some skepticism about the need to push Reynolds further. While the governor hasnt issued a blanket statement, she has progressively added more categories of businesses and organizations required to close. Gatherings are restricted to 10 people or less, and officials have repeatedly called on citizens to avoid being in crowded public spaces.

Cedar Falls Councilman Frank Darrah called them pretty rigid expectations right now as debate got underway. I guess Id like a little discussion about how this is different.

After Mayor Rob Green, at the councils request, read through the extensive list of what Reynolds has ordered closed  including additions Monday  others sounded a similar note.

It does seem like there is a lot the governor is doing, said Councilman Simon Harding.

In Waterloo, the tenor of the debate was quite a bit different.

We have witnessed over the last week a dramatic increase in cases across the state as well as, unfortunately, the number of deaths related to COVID-19, said Councilman Jonathan Grieder, who sponsored the resolution.

Its absolutely imperative we have language across the state that emphasizes how serious this crisis is and that we all understand what needs to happen, added Grieder, who suggested people should only leave home if they are an essential worker or need to buy medicine or groceries.

Councilwoman Sharon Juon agreed.

A lot of what has already been given out as guidelines are very close to a lot of the other shelter-in-place orders, Juon said. The difference to me ... I think having a statewide order carries a degree of severity, of importance, of mandate. Right now, a lot of people arent taking this entirely seriously.

Councilwoman Margaret Klein cast the only vote against the measure, commending Reynolds for the job she is doing and the very careful way she is running the state and this issue. It is not heavy handed one way or the other.

Klein said the state needs to balance support for small businesses with public health needs.

In Cedar Falls, council members Susan deBuhr and Dave Sires also talked about the need to support the governors efforts.

Sires raised constitutional issues about a broader order, as well. I think we need to worry and err on the side of the First Amendment, he said.

Nick Taiber voiced concerns, too.

It amounts to political theater, he said. It seems to me like were just getting involved in political jurisdictions where were not authorized.

Councilman Mark Miller noted that Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top White House adviser who has advocated for a nationwide shelter-in-place order, recently spoke with Reynolds and expressed support for her approach. The things that she is doing functionally are the same as a stay at home order, he said.

Black Hawk County Health Department Director Nafissa Cisse Egbuonye, speaking at the Cedar Falls meeting, acknowledged the similarities. But she pressed a general concern with compliance.

At the end of the day, we do have people who are not adhering to the protocol, she said, to stay home as much as possible and maintain social distancing when out in public. She believes a statewide order would help reinforce the message.

Some Cedar Falls council members still expressed interest in presenting a stronger message to citizens, though. City Administrator Ron Gaines said his staff could work on an awareness campaign promoting guidelines and information about coronavirus precautions available from the state and national government agencies.







Coronavirus update Northeast Iowa

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University College Cork has made a premises available to the HSE to facilitate treatment for vulnerable cancer patients during the COVID-19 crisis.

Ordinarily the School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC uses its simulation centre to facilitate and support student learning.

However over the last few weeks UCC and the HSE have worked together to enable the provision of onsite clinical services at the centre, which will now be used to deliver chemotherapy to patients with cancer.

Over the weekend, staff from the Mercy University Hospital ably assisted by Army personnel moved equipment onto the Brookfield Health Sciences Complex site.

The first patients received their chemotherapy onsite in UCC yesterday, supported by the nurses and doctors they would ordinarily encounter in the Mercy University Hospital.

Chemotherapy treatments can affect the bodys immune system and reduce the persons ability to fight off infections, and this initiative will help patients with cancer to continue their treatment, while at the same time avoiding hospitals during this Covid-19 crisis.

The School of Nursing facilities are capable of supporting up to 40 patients to receive their treatments at any one time.

The simulated wards contain all the equipment ordinarily found in any hospital environment.

Professor Josephine Hegarty, Head of School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC, said: UCC is delighted to support the HSE at this difficult time and the use of the facility to support patients with cancer to receive their chemotherapy is a fantastic use of the School of Nursing and Midwiferys teaching and learning facilities.

Nurses are the frontline in the fight against Covid-19 in Ireland and elsewhere, and they have been working long hours to care for these very sick patients, many of whom are on ventilators and require very complex 24-hour care.

"I personally want to thank nurses across the country for their contribution at this time.

The centre is used to facilitate the training of undergraduate and postgraduate students including those undertaking general, paediatric, mental health, intellectual disability nursing and midwifery.

Ordinarily the school supports the education of over 1,200 undergraduate and postgraduate students across 19 programmes, and every year hundreds of students use the simulation centres extensive resources to rehearse essential skills in a safe, supportive environment.

These range from fundamental skills such as hand washing, to the advanced skills required to manage acutely unwell and deteriorating patients.

The school has a wide selection of teaching equipment including technologically advanced patient simulators, which can display vital sign parameters; such as pulse and blood pressure and respond to learners actions.

The simulation suite contains critical care rooms, set up as high-dependency areas to run acute or emergency scenarios.

The focus in these learning situations is on developing skills to support patient safety, teamwork, problem solving and crisis management which are essential skills, particularly in the current climate where teams must work together to maintain patient safety.

The School of Nursing has a well-established standardised participant programme, which involves training members of the public to act as patients and portray clinical cases in the same way to every student.

This approach is an excellent means of developing communication and interpersonal skills.

However, over the coming months, some of the patients who would ordinarily receive their chemotherapy in the Mercy University Hospital and Cork University Hospital will instead be coming to the School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC.

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On Tuesday, India removed some restrictions on the export of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which some people, including US President Donald Trump, believe to be the miracle cure for Covid-19. Theres no scientific evidence of this yet, but that hasnt stopped some countries from trying to source more of the drug.

India is the worlds largest manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine. It is also the worlds largest exporter of it. As interest around the miracle drug soared, India, on March 25, banned the exports of hydroxychloroquine and any formulation containing it  including exports from special economic zones. That blocked pending orders, including one from the US.

Over the weekend, Trump spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked for the ban to be removed for US orders. On Monday, in usual fashion, he threatened retaliation if India didnt do this, and also threw in a bit about how India has had the better of the US on the trade front (by then, India had already removed some of the restrictions). Hindustan Times learns that India has received requests for hydroxychloroquine from 20 countries, an indication of just how desperate governments around the world are to explore any possible cure for the pandemic that has infected 1.39 million people and killed over 79,000 around the world.

On Tuesday, India said it would stockpile enough of the drug for domestic use, and then, depending on availability, allow exporters to start servicing open orders. The decision on who to export to (and how much) will be taken by the department of pharmaceuticals.

India is the worlds generics factory  and it doesnt get enough credit for this, something not entirely explained by the fact that some Indian pharma companies have had regulatory and quality issues. Ciplas Yusuf Hamied made AIDS drugs affordable, helping, among other countries, South Africa, but he did so after a bruising fight with Big Pharma.

Even as it does its duty as a responsible power by helping other countries, India should use this opportunity to drive a hard bargain (or two)  for instance, there are key drugs, including those for cancer, that it should see to bring under the purview of either compulsory licensing or voluntary licensing, something that would make them accessible to millions of Indians. Indeed, Indias strong research and manufacturing base for generics, healthy vaccine development and manufacturing ecosystem, and natural advantages when it comes to clinical testing stand to give it an advantage (and a bargaining chip) in the post-Covid world.

Speaking of demand for hydroxychloroquine, Indias health ministry itself wants to build a stockpile of 100 million tablets. This is part of its planning for a worst-case scenario.

Our growing understanding (its still limited) of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, suggests that it makes sense to prepare for the worst. New research at the University of Texas at Austin seems to suggest that, in the US, even one case in a county could mean a 51% chance of an outbreak in that area. The researchers assumed that only a tenth of the cases are tested and reported  because many infections are mild, and many of the infected, asymptomatic (todays opportune moment to remind everyone why masks are a must).

Our growing understanding of Sars-CoV-2 is also beginning to help us understand that this virus is more virulent, more dangerous, and, worryingly, much more evasive than its predecessor (in terms of vintage as well as terminology), Sars-CoV-1, the virus which caused a Sars outbreak in 2002-04. Like Sars-CoV-2, that virus too originated in China, and infected over 8,000 people in around 30 countries, killing 774.

Sun Tzu said it. As did Green Day. Know Your Enemy.
The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Hameed Ali, has approved the release of 46,000 metric tons of rice, 36,495 kegs of vegetables oil and other items valued at N3.2 billion for distribution.

The Customs Public Relations Officer, Joseph Attah, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.

Mr Attah said the relief items were to boost the federal governments continuous efforts to alleviate sufferings associated with the painful but necessary ongoing lockdown in some parts of the country.

He disclosed that the items approved to be released were 46,000 metric tons or about 158 trailers, 36,495 kegs of vegetable oil of 30 trucks and 3,428 kegs of palm oil.

He listed others as 136,705 cartons of tomato paste, 2,951 cartons of spaghetti, 1,253 packets of noodles, 828 bales of wrappers and 2,300 rolls of lace fabric.

Mr Attah said only edible items certified by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for human consumption would be released to the public.

As a responsible agency of the government, Customs appreciates the opportunity of contributing its quota to the federal governments continuous efforts to provide relief for Nigerians in this difficult time.

NCS remains committed to strictly adhering to all extant laws governing seized and overtime cargoes, he added.

(NAN)
To the editor:

I am a longtime resident of Jacksonville and, like everyone else, I am deeply saddened by the closing of MacMurray College.

I have always said there is a three-legged stool that supports the uniqueness and viability of our town  the two colleges and the hospital. Now it seems that the other two legs must assume a greater share of the burden. Illinois College is an excellent institution and we are so very fortunate to have it in our community, however, my comments are related to our hospital.

There have been many changes at Passavant over the past 10 years, and I have heard negative comments about those changes from a few people  employees, past and present, as well as other members of the community. Everything changes in life, and science tells us that human beings do not like change. We have a choice to make regarding changes: we can complain and resist, or we can try to understand why the changes were made, learn to adapt and be an advocate for suggesting common sense solutions to address our concerns in a non-confrontational manner. Adapting isnt necessarily agreeing with all the changes, but realizing that complaining will not solve anything and in most cases make the situation worse.

In the past few years, my wife, my mother-in law, and I have had quite a few opportunities to visit Passavants emergency department. I would be remiss if I didnt mention the first responders and to thank them for their rapid response and quality service  they are a major asset to our medical community.

Fortunately, all of our visits to the emergency department were determined to be non-life-threatening. In every instance, we had nothing but excellent care. We were treated expeditiously by friendly, caring professionals who allayed our fears and made us feel comfortable knowing that we were in good hands. Their regular, clear communications and explanations of procedures were outstanding. Everyone from the nurses to physicians to the support staff brought their A-game. Truly Friends Caring For Friends. Thank you to all of them.

Many times since our visits, we have discussed various scenarios regarding our emergency medical needs and how different it would have been without such a wonderful hospital in our community. Yes, things have changed and they always will, thats the nature of life; however, we are so very fortunate that Passavant is here, and I hope the community appreciates our hometown hospital and will continue to support it.

Marc Steinberg

Jacksonville
The number of patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario ICUs continued to grow over the past week, but at a slower daily growth rate than the week before, according to provincial data.

Experts say thats a good sign but warn that its too early to tell what effect social distancing and other measures are having.

The data, distributed to hospitals across the province by Critical Care Services Ontario, a provincial agency set up to help the health-care system better manage critical-care resources, shows that between March 30 and April 5, the number of patients with COVID-19 in intensive-care units across the province grew at an average daily rate of 12.1 per cent. The week before that, the average daily growth rate was 43.4 per cent. As of Sunday, there were a total of 216 patients with COVID-19 in ICUs across the province, according to the data.

What were seeing in the ICU is the tip of the iceberg. Its what we call a lagging indicator, which means its like these are infections that happened weeks ago, said Dr. Jeff Kwong, a family doctor and an epidemiologist at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at U of T. He noted that some people who were infected were bound to become severely ill; now, they are showing up at hospitals.

The question is, how many more of these people are out there that are destined to end up in the ICU that just havent shown up yet?

The April 5 data, which is not released publicly but shared online by some doctors and with The Star, shows the number of ventilators in critical-care units has increased nearly 50 per cent from the end of March. There are now nearly 2,000 beds with ventilators, up from about 1,300 last week.

The province is hard at work to add even more capacity in anticipation of increased hospitalizations that require admission to ICU. This work will continue over the coming days and weeks, as Ontario receives more of the ventilators ordered and prepares for the expected peak in demand, said Hayley Chazan, a spokesperson for Health Minister Christine Elliott.

She noted that while the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in ICUs has for several days trended below the best case modelling by the province, officials are preparing for these numbers to increase.

To that end, it remains as critical as ever that Ontarians continue to heed the advice of public health officials to stay at home and avoid close contact with others.

On Friday provincial health officials warned that there could be as many as 1,600 deaths from COVID-19 in Ontario by the end of April if more stringent measures arent taken to reduce the spread of the virus. Models released by the provinces COVID-19 Command Table show that death number could be reduced to 200 if full future interventions are taken. The projections also show that even in a best-case scenario, the province will need another 900 ICU beds before the end of the month to meet demand.

Everybody should take reassurance from the fact that our public health measures so far have made a significant difference and we need everyone to stay focused in the weeks ahead, said Dr. Peter Donnelly, president and CEO of Public Health Ontario, at a press conference where the projections were revealed Friday. So stay home, stop the spread and stay safe.

Dr. Anna Banerji, a communicable-disease expert and professor at the Dalla Lana School, said it is too early to see the trend of whether social distancing is working, even with a decreased growth rate in the number of COVID-19 patients in ICUs.

She warned that if social distancing measures are loosened too soon, the growth rate of the number of people with the virus in ICUs could increase again.

What is it going to be like when we stop the physical distancing  or as the weather gets better, as more people get restless and more people want to go out to the park or beach? Banerji said. When you have a whole population of people who are not immune, the virus can spread. That is why its important to keep the physical distancing in place for now.
A judge has refused to grant legal anonymity to Julian Assanges partner after hearing claims the US had tried to obtain their childrens DNA.

Representatives of the Wikileaks founder submitted evidence to Westminster Magistrates Court claiming that American agencies had expressed interest in testing nappies discarded when Mr Assanges partner and children visited him at the Ecuadorian embassy.

District Judge Vanessa Baraitser found that, even if the allegation were true, there was no reason to believe US agencies meant to harm his young family.

She referred to the claim while rejecting the bid to anonymise Mr Assanges partner, who the court heard wishes to live quietly with her young children away from publicity.

Following a submission by the Press Association news agency to the court, Judge Baraitser ruled that the womans right to a private family life was outweighed by the need for open justice.

Key moments for Julian Assange Show all 9 1 /9 Key moments for Julian Assange Key moments for Julian Assange The situation today Assange was arrested after Metropolitan Police officers were invited into the Ecuadorian embassy on April 11 2019. How did it come to this? Ruptly TV Key moments for Julian Assange The break Assange shows the front page of the Guardian on July 26 2010, the day that they broke the story of the thousands of military files leaked by WikiLeaks AFP/Getty Key moments for Julian Assange Wanted A warrant for Assange's arrest was issued in August 2010 for counts of rape and molestation in Sweden AFP/Getty Key moments for Julian Assange Ruling The UK's Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that Assange should be extradited to Sweden to face trial Getty Key moments for Julian Assange Sanctuary Following the ruling, Assange was given asylum by the Ecuadorian governement over fears that his human rights would be violated if he were extradited, he has since remained in the embassy in London Getty Key moments for Julian Assange A friend in Pam Friend Pamela Anderson delivers lunch to Assange at the embassy in October 2016. She has since spoken against his arrest Getty Key moments for Julian Assange Arbitrarily detained A UN panel found in 2016 that Assange had been arbitrarily detained and that he had not been able to claim his full right to asylum. It urged Sweden to withdraw the charges against him Getty Key moments for Julian Assange The cat ultimatum Last year, the Ecuadorian embassy threatened to revoke Assange's internet access unless he stopped making political statements online and started taking better care of James, his pet cat. Assange accused Ecuador of violating his rights Reuters Key moments for Julian Assange Arrest Assange was arrested on April 11 2019. Ecuador revoked his asylum status and invited the Metropolitan Police in to the embassy to arrest him. Reuters

But the judge delayed making the womans identity public until 4pm on 14 April, pending a possible judicial review at the High Court.

Mr Assange was previously denied bail amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus in British jails, and the application had been supported by the unnamed woman.

The 48-year-old is being held on remand at HMP Belmarsh, in south-east London, ahead of an extradition hearing on 18 May.

During the virtual hearing, the judge also rejected a bid to delay the hearing because of the coronavirus crisis.

Mr Assanges barrister, Edward Fitzgerald QC, said there were insuperable difficulties preparing his case because of the pandemic, and requested an adjournment until September.

He told the court that he had not been able to see Mr Assange in jail and could see no viable way his client could be present in court to hear witnesses.

On Mr Assanges mental state, he told the judge: There are difficulties of the pandemic with the defendant himself. You are aware  he has well documented problems of clinical depression.

Mr Assanges treatment was on hold during the lockdown and he had been unable to see his family.

Mr Fitzgerald said: In those circumstances, in his vulnerable condition, to force him to enter a full evidential hearing in May, we respectfully submit it would be unjust. We respectfully submit it would be oppressive.

 Sweden discontinues Assange rape investigation

He stressed it was an exceptional circumstance, adding: This is not a case where second best will do, where we should just try to muddle through. The difficulties are insuperable in the current crisis.

Ruling against him, Judge Baraitser said the extradition hearing was still five weeks away and it was expected courts would resume in a fortnight despite the continuing lockdown.

She added: I cannot assume the courts will not be operating normally by then.

Mr Assange is in custody and there is some urgency of this case being heard to its conclusion.

If there was a need for a third and final hearing after the hearing on 18 May, it will be held in July.

Mr Assange is fighting extradition to the US, where he would face 17 charges under the Espionage Act and conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, over the publication of hundreds of thousands of classified documents in 2010 and 2011.

He has been held in custody since being arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London almost exactly a year ago.

He sought asylum there in 2012 while wanted under a European Arrest Warrant for interview in a Swedish rape investigation which has since been dropped.

Additional reporting by PA
Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared a state of emergency to fight new coronavirus infections in major population centres and unveiled a stimulus package he described as among the world's biggest to soften the economic blow.

Abe announced the state of emergency targeting the capital Tokyo and six other prefectures - accounting for about 44 per cent of Japan's population - for a period of about one month.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared a state of emergency to fight new coronavirus infections. Credit:AP

"We have decided to declare a state of emergency because we've judged that a fast spread of the coronavirus nationwide would have an enormous impact on lives and the economy," he told Parliament earlier.

His cabinet will also finalise the stimulus package worth 108 trillion yen ($US990 billion) - equal to 20 per cent of Japan's economic output - to cushion the impact of the epidemic on the world's third-largest economy.
Wisconsin held its presidential primary as planned Tuesday, contradicting a state-wide stay-at-home order and defying concern that the election could expose thousands of voters and poll workers to the coronavirus. Long lines, shuttered polling stations and workers in hazmat suits marked the most unsettling and confounding contest of the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination race: a vote at the height of a deadly pandemic. Democratic party officials had sought to postpone the election but were overruled by the top state court. The US Supreme Court also intervened, barring an extension of voting by mail that would have allowed more people to cast ballots without going to polling stations in person. Both courts have conservative majorities. With the Midwestern state ignoring calls to postpone the primary, as 15 other states have already done, many Wisconsinites were being forced into an agonizing decision: risk their health to fulfill their democratic right, or stay safe by staying at home. In Milwaukee, voter options were drastically reduced due to a shortage of polling station staff. The city of 600,000 normally has some 180 polling locations open, but that number reportedly has been reduced to just five, prompting long lines in an era of social distancing. Wisconsin's chief election official Meagan Wolfe called on voters to be "careful and patient" at the polls. "If you are ill and still need to vote on Election Day, curbside voting options are available," she said in a statement. At a Milwaukee polling station, staff set up lanes where some people could vote from their cars. With the new precautions in place and most polling locations closed, wait times in Milwaukee soared. The line at the Riverside University High School was hundreds of yards (meters) long, and well beyond one hour. A woman in line in Milwaukee held up a cardboard sign bearing a message reading: "THIS IS RIDICULOUS." The vote has prompted scenes unimaginable just three months ago, including elections chief Mary Magdalen Moser clad in hazmat gear as she operated her polling station in Kenosha. More than 2,400 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Wisconsin and 77 have died. The nationwide death toll tops 12,000. - 'Be safe' - President Donald Trump urged voters to "be safe," as he encouraged them to support a Republican candidate for the state's Supreme Court. Tuesday's higher profile contest is between the two remaining candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination: former vice president Joe Biden, the frontrunner, and leftist Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders, 78, opposed holding the primary as scheduled. "Let's be clear: holding this election amid the coronavirus outbreak is dangerous, disregards the guidance of public health experts, and may very well prove deadly," Sanders tweeted. The 77-year-old Biden sees Wisconsin, where he tops Sanders in polling, as an opportunity to extend his lead. He has refrained from publicly calling for the primary's postponement, saying it was up to local officials to decide. Inside Kenosha's Journey Church, voters wearing masks and gloves stood behind a plexiglass barrier. Staff repeatedly cleaned voting machines. Wisconsin forged ahead with its primary after the Democratic governor's bids to delay the election were thwarted by the Republican-led state legislature. When Governor Tony Evers sought to postpone in-person voting to June 9, the state Supreme Court overrode the order. Evers then moved to expand absentee voting by allowing mail-in ballots to be postmarked several days after the election. But in an 11th-hour ruling, the US Supreme Court voted 5-4 along ideological lines to require all ballots be postmarked by Tuesday. The decision sparked claims by Democrats of disenfranchisement because thousands of voters had yet to receive their mail-in ballots. Evers, despite remaining "deeply concerned" about holding in-person voting, expressed gratitude for those who participated. "I am overwhelmed by the bravery, resilience, and heroism of those who are defending our democracy by showing up to vote (and) working the polls," he tweeted. The US state of Wisconsin defied public health concerns and held its presidential primary as scheduled on April 7, 2020, with voters and poll workers risking exposure to the coronavirus Elections Chief Inspector Mary Magdalen Moser (left) ran a polling station in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in hazmat gear as the US state conducted its primary election despite the coronavirus pandemic A man leaves the Frank P. Zeidler Municipal Building after not being able to cast his ballot at the already closed drop-off site in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on April 6, 2020 An election observer cleans voting booths during a Democratic presidential primary election at the Kenosha Bible Church gym in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on April 7, 2020
Chinese authorities Monday stressed measures to further prevent imported COVID-19 infections through land border.

The demand was made at a meeting of the leading group of China's COVID-19 epidemic response, which was chaired by Premier Li Keqiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

Noting the rapid spread of the pandemic overseas and the rising risk of imported cases through land border, the meeting urged local authorities to hold the defense line of communities, ports and borders.

China will support the border regions to step up their lab test and medical treatment capabilities while toughening port management, quarantine inspections and traffic controls in border areas.

Stricter epidemic control measures will be imposed in economic cooperation centers and trade markets along the border. Efforts will be made to ensure smooth international freight transport on the premise of safety.

The country should integrate emergency response with normal prevention and control practices in work resumption, restoring the production order in accordance with local conditions and risk levels, the meeting noted.

Low-risk regions should optimize epidemic control measures and cancel measures adopted in earlier stage which were not in line with resuming production and living order now, while ensuring necessary epidemic control supplies and emergency response capability, the meeting said.

It called on the enterprises to implement protective protocols for employees and make reasonable arrangement for people flow to avoid unnecessary gatherings and group activities.

To guard against an epidemic rebound, Monday's meeting also urged timely report and response to situations concerning confirmed, suspected and asymptomatic cases as well as the transparent release of information.

Work should be strengthened on asymptomatic patients' medical management, epidemiological survey, quarantine and treatment, the meeting said.

Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and deputy head of the leading group, attended the meeting.
New Delhi, April 7 : Chinese smartphone brand POCO on Tuesday said it will launch its first non-smartphone device, a true-wireless (TWS) earphones in India and the product is in the pipeline.

The company had earlier confirmed the development during its first-ever virtual meet held on March 30.

The virtual fan meet, which saw more than 500 fans tune in was part of company's efforts to keep its community engaged.

C Manmohan General Manager POCO India also conducted a poll on Twitter recently asking fans to choose Poco's next category products, with options including TWS earbuds, headphones, a fitness band or watch and a gamepad.

With 38.2 per cent votes in its favour, the TWS earbuds were clearly the crowd favourite.

"Further information on POCO TWS will be shared at a later point," the company said in a statement.

The earbuds will target the budget TWS market in India and will compete against the Realme Buds Air, the Lenovo HT10 Pro and more.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 22:12:44|Editor: huaxia

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"And so, I make a new appeal today for peace at home - and in homes - around the world," said Guterres.

UNITED NATIONS, April 6 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday warned against a rise in domestic violence due to growing worries and pressures as a result of lockdowns and quarantines to contain the spread of COVID-19.

"I recently called for an immediate global ceasefire to focus on our shared struggle to overcome the pandemic," said the UN chief. "I appealed for an end to violence everywhere, now. But violence is not confined to the battlefield. For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest. In their own homes."

"And so, I make a new appeal today for peace at home - and in homes - around the world," said Guterres.

Displaced children fill water containers from a well in a building complex under construction, where hundreds of displaced families live, in Tripoli, Libya, March 2, 2020. (Photo by Amru Salahuddien/Xinhua)

The UN secretary-general noted that lockdowns and quarantines are essential to suppressing COVID-19, "but they can trap women with abusive partners."

"Over the past weeks as economic and social pressures and fear have grown, we have seen a horrifying global surge in domestic violence," said the UN chief.

He said that in some countries, the number of women calling support services "has doubled," adding that meanwhile, healthcare providers and police are overwhelmed and understaffed and local support groups are "paralyzed or short of funds."

"Some domestic violence shelters are closed; others are full," he noted.

A Palestinian child plays in the wreckage of a car at Nahr al-Bared neighborhood, southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Jan. 25, 2020. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

The UN chief urged all governments to make the prevention and redress of violence against women a key part of their national response plans for COVID-19.

"That means increasing investment in online services and civil society organizations," said Guterres.

He suggested setting up emergency warning systems in pharmacies and groceries, declaring shelters as essential services, and creating safe ways for women to seek support, without alerting their abusers.

"Women's rights and freedoms are essential to strong, resilient societies," he said.

"Together, we can and must prevent violence everywhere, from war zones to people's homes, as we work to beat COVID-19," said the secretary-general.

(Article by Xinhua Reporter Wang Jiangang; Video by Xinhua Reporter Xie E) 
Dubbing the Health Organisation (WHO) as being "very China-centric," US President Donald Trump has accused the global agency of giving "faulty" advice during the early-stage of coronavirus outbreak.

"The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China-centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?," Trump tweeted.

Trump's remarks come as the WHO is being criticised globally for its alleged collusion with China, which led to the coronavirus turning into a pandemic, claiming over 75,000 lives globally.

On January 31, the United Nations health organisation advised countries to keep borders open despite the outbreak.

The toll due to COVID-19 in the US is now more than 11,000. Johns Hopkins University is reporting 368,449 cases in the United States.

The WHO is being accused around the for hiding facts and working as a China's companion in letting the virus spread globally.

Coronavirus, which has brought the entire to a halt, was first originated in China in December last year, killing 3,300 people.

Now the virus has infected around 1.3 million people around the world and killed 75,000 people. The count is mounting.

New York-based writer Wilfred Chan wrote for The Nation where he accused the WHO of ignoring the early warnings.

Despite early warnings from Taiwanese officials, the organisation kept the island cut off from its global information networks at China's behest and now the whole world is paying the price of it.

Recently, Japan became the first country to highlight the unscrupulous collusion between the Chinese Communist Party and the WHO.

Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso has said that the World Health Organisation should change its name. It shouldn't be called the WHO but should be renamed as the Chinese Health Organisation (CHO).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde addresses a news conference on the outcome of the meeting of the Governing Council in Frankfurt, Germany, January 23, 2020.

The European Central Bank will ease collateral requirements to make it easier for banks to borrow at rock bottom rates, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The measures collectively support the provision of bank lending especially by easing the conditions at which credit claims are accepted as collateral," the ECB said in a statement.

"The (ECB) is increasing its risk tolerance to support the provision of credit via its refinancing operations, particularly by lowering collateral valuation haircuts for all assets consistently," it added.
Breakthroughs in lower wavelength ultraviolet (UV) light technology may prove useful in killing the virus on surfaces and in open areas. A Columbia University study reports it is safe on humans unlike higher wavelength germicidal lamps that can cause cancer. A board-certified internal medicine physician explains how it works.

It does not kill or penetrate our skin, but it does kill and penetrate the virus, Dr. Eddie Fatakhov told NTD. At the Center for Internal and Integrative Medicine in Alpharetta, Georgia, Fatakhov uses 222 nanometer light in his waiting rooms and air ducts to disinfect the air and surfaces.

Using UV lights to disinfect areas and surfaces has been used in other countries. For example, in Russia, certain types of UV lights have been used to disinfect the metro.

But Fatakhov said these new 222 nanometer lights could disinfect the subways while people ride in them if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves them.

This can be implemented in hospitals, all across the country, it can be implemented in our public transit system, and you know the FDA should at least take a look at, Fatakhov said.

Additionally, robots are used to disinfect hospitals with UV light, but Fatakhov says theyre slow and expensive, compared to the lower wavelength light.

You just pick up the wand and go down the hall and just kind of disinfect everything. And you can do liquid surfaces, you could do N-95, the robot cannot disinfect N-95, he said.

Older germicidal lamps that use 254 nanometer UV light can ruin N-95 masks if used to disinfect them. But Fatakhov said the lower wavelength light can disinfect personal protective equipment without damaging it.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Follow Kevin on Twitter: @KRHogan_NTD
Free Netflix, cheap internet or an unemployment allowancethese are some of the tricks criminals are using to break into phones and steal data, with phishing and other cyber-crimes recording a huge jump as more people turn to the Net during the lockdown.

In its third week, the 21-day nationwide lockdown has been ordered to break the chain of coronavirus infections, which have risen to 4,421 with 114 deaths. The order for people to stay in has seen banks and all other service providers working with skeletal staff and customers are using the internet to pay bills, transfer money and even consult doctors.

In this lockdown period, phishing and scamming of account cases have increased manifold. In Maharashtra alone, such cases have increased by to 25 percent in the last two weeks, a senior officer in Maharashtra cyber crime department told Moneycontrol on condition of anonymity.

Maharashtra has the most coronavirus cases in the country with 748 confirmed infections.

phishing cases are also at peak during this period and many complaints have been filed against it on our website, Bal Sing Rajput, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Cyber-Crime, Maharashtra, told Moneycontrol.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Click here for LIVE coronavirus updates

Phishing comes in various forms. Such messages try to induce recipients to enter passwords or other sensitive information on websites controlled by the hackers, who then use the data to take control of bank, email or other accounts.

Ashish Singh* would know. He works with one of the largest private banks in the country and his experience helped him recently dodge a phishing expedition.

This mail almost convinced me about the latest transaction in my account and urged me to download a statement to check who has sent money in my account. Thankfully, I was aware of balance in my account and account number mentioned in the mail, which did not belong to me and thereby did not download the attachment, Singh told Moneycontrol.

More people were using internet-based applications, so phishers were active and attacking them with various lucrative schemes to steal data from phones, including contact details and other sensitive data, another official said.

It was hard to track the criminals as they were based overseas or some other remote location or were using the dark web, the official said, requesting anonymity.

Its fake

Not just phishing, the cyber crime department has its hands full as rumours, fake news and hate speech spread about coronavirus through social media apps. The department is screening WhatsApp messages, Facebook, Instagram stories, Telegram posts and also Tik Tok videos.

In Maharashtra, more than a hundred cases have been registered and another three dozen individuals were being watched, sources said.

Sixty-five cases have been registered for spreading rumours, fake news and sharing hate messages on WhatsApp about COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, sources said.

Eleven cases have been filed for trying to spread panic through Facebook and three against users of the popular video-sharing app Tik Tok. Another 19 cases have been filed against users of other social media channels.

We are presently cracking down heavily on fake news, rumours and hate speeches through various technology tools. People are spreading rumours about various medicines which are useful in treating coronavirus or sending messages which may hurt communal sentiments of the state such cases are also under scrutiny, Rajput said, as he promised stern action against the perpetrators.

Fake news and vishing had multiplied across Maharashtra, said Prashant Mali, a cyber-law expert who practices in the Bombay High Court.

Vishing is phishing through voice calls. Criminals try to extract sensitive personal information through phone calls by claiming to be a representative of a bank or financial institution.

Fake news is killing citizens emotionally, vishing is killing people financially while COVID-19 killing with corona disease. I appeal to people not to answer calls from banks, credit cards or Insurance companies during this stressful situation," Mali said.

While traditional crime was down but cyber-crime was escalating. All state governments are tackling this challenging issue, said another official.

(* name changed to protect identity)
PARIS, FRANCE - APRIL 06: A woman wearing a protective mask walks past next to the Eiffel Tower during the coronavirus epidemic (COVID 19) on April 6, 2020, in Paris, France.

France has not yet reached the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, the country's health minister warned Tuesday, while the daily number of new infections and deaths has risen again in Spain.

European countries are still at odds with COVID-19, the virus that emerged in China in late 2019. In France, the second largest euro zone economy, there were 5,171 new infections and 833 more deaths from Sunday to Monday, according to the French health ministry. France is on track to be the fifth country worldwide to cross the 100,000 threshold for the number of confirmed cases.

"We are still in a worsening phase of the epidemic," Olivier Veran, the French health minister, said in a TV interview Tuesday.

Parisian authorities also announced Tuesday that people will not be allowed to do individual exercise between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. starting Wednesday, in an effort to stop joggers going out at the same time as grocery shoppers.

Meanwhile, new figures out in Spain have fueled concerns that the worse is also not yet over. The daily rate of deaths came in at 743 and the number of new cases rose by 5,478 from Monday to Tuesday, according to figures released by the health ministry.

Spanish authorities had hoped that a recent slowdown in the number of new infections and deaths was materializing. Maria Jose Sierra, deputy head of Spain's health emergency committee, said Monday that it was important to wait a few days to confirm a trend, but the number of new daily infections had been falling until that point.

Spain has now recorded 13,798 deaths and 140,510 infections so far.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Over the past nine years Purdue Universitys College of Agriculture has collected a total of 319,438 pounds of food to donate to Food Finders Food Bank during its annual food drive. This years food drive will look a little different, as the majority of faculty, students and staff are working and studying remotely due to the COVID-19 virus.

Instead of gathering food donations, the college will collect monetary contributions online. The College of Agriculture is joined in the food drive by seven other major academic units  Purdue Libraries; School of Information Studies; the colleges of Engineering, Health and Human Sciences, Pharmacy, Science and Veterinary Medicine; the Honors College; and Polytechnic Institute.

Never has it been more important to ensure that our community is strong, healthy and secure, and that means making sure everyone has access to food, said Karen Plaut, the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture. Food Finders serves 16 counties, including Tippecanoe County, and our colleges can play a critical role in providing this vital resource to Hoosiers.

The virtual food drive will run through April 17. All of the money raised will go directly to Food Finders. According to Food Finders, every dollar donated translates into roughly three meals and $25 provides approximately 75 meals. Melissa Funk, administrative assistant in Agricultures Office of Multicultural Programs, has organized the food drive over the past several years, including this years virtual drive. People are looking for ways to help right now while still maintaining social distancing, Funk said, and this is a great option to aid the community directly.

One in eight people in North Central Indiana suffers from food insecurity. With unemployment on the rise throughout the state and country due to COVID-19, those numbers are likely to rise.

For more information and to donate to the food drive, visit https://bit.ly/2V9pz4v.

Writer: Emma Ea Ambrose, 765-494-2406, eeambros@purdue.edu

Source: Melissa Funk, 765-494-9586, mjfunk@purdue.edu

Note to Journalists: A photo of corn being sold at a farmers market is available for publication on Google Drive.

Agricultural Communications: 765-494-8415;

Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu

Agriculture News Page
Cities across the country are using law enforcement officers to actively shut down and cite people found breaking stay-at-home orders put in place to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. For one Illinois mayor, enforcing the law meant - unwittingly - sending the cops after his wife.

Mayor Brant Walker of Alton, Illinois, warned his constituents that he would step up enforcement of the state's stay-at-home orders by sending police out to break up social gatherings over the weekend.

"On Friday, due to the continued increase in cases of COVID-19 in Madison County, as well as increased reports of large gatherings, particularly in some of our city parks, I directed the Alton police Department to more strictly enforce the Governor's statewide "Stay At Home" order through the use of citations," he wrote.

In a statement made on Facebook Monday, Mr Walker explained how those efforts wound up with his wife in violation of the stay-at-home order.

"At approximately 1am on Sunday morning, I was informed by the Police Chief that the Alton Police Department was investigating and stopping a social gathering in downtown Alton that was occurring in violation of the provisions of the statewide "Stay At Home" order," Mr Walker wrote. "I was also made aware that my wife was in attendance at this prohibited social gathering."

According to the mayor, he gave his wife no leeway when it came to the police enforcing the rules.

"I instructed the Police Chief to treat her as he would any citizen violating the "Stay At Home" order during this incident," he wrote. "I am embarrassed by this incident and apologise to the citizens of Alton for any embarrassment this incident may cause our City."

According to the Alton Daily News, the mayor's wife attended a party at Hiram's Tavern. The owner of the tavern was arrested on an outstanding domestic battery warrant and the others in attendance - including the mayor's wife - were given citations for reckless conduct.

"My wife is an adult capable of making her own decisions, and in this instance she exhibited a stunning lack of judgement," Mr Walker wrote on Facebook.

He said his wife would face "the same consequences for her ill-advised decision as the other individuals" attending the party.
Four years after their launch, the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are officially cut off from software support from Samsung. Both phones were on a quarterly Security update cycle and received the March 2020 security patch just last month but are now nowhere to be found on Samsungs Android Security Updates device database. Not all Galaxy S7 members are left out though as the Galaxy S7 active is still in line to receive quarterly security patches but likely not for much longer.

The S7 and S7 edge launched with Android 6.0 Marshmallow back in 2016 and got two full Android version updates up until 2018 with Android 8.0 Oreo. After that, Samsung kept providing security updates up until last month. Still, 4 years' worth of software support is rare in the Android world and is a testament to Samsungs efforts to provide excellent post-purchase customer support.

Source | Via
Queensland's rural fire volunteers can continue to conduct hazard-reduction burns to reduce bushfire risks and manage vegetation despite stringent social-distancing rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19, fire authorities say.

But bosses have told brigades to prioritise burns that benefit the wider community and they must work under new hygiene requirements.

Queensland firefighters at work on a backburn (file image). Credit:File/Martin Jones

It comes after some confusion among local volunteers over how social distancing would affect their ability to assist landowners to reduce fuel loads during the coming cooler months.

The effectiveness of hazard reduction in national parks and on private land came under intense scrutiny in the wake of the devastating fires of the last bushfire season, but the coronavirus emergency struck just as that crisis ended.
Congress flag falls off while being hoisted by interim president Sonia Gandhi [Video]

Divisive ideologies anchored in hate causing havoc on secular fabric of our society: Sonia Gandhi

Ban govt ads in media, stop foreign trips: Sonia Gandhis 5 suggestions to PM

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Apr 07: Congress president, Sonia Gandhi in a letter to Prime Minister, Narendra Modi offered five suggestions to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.

She sought a complete ban on government advertisements given to the print, TV and online media for two years.

Fake News Buster

She also asked the PM to suspend the Rs 20,000 crore central vista beautification and construction project forthwith.

She said that it would make sense to order a proportionate reduction of 30 per cent in the expenditure budget for the government of India as well. All foreign visits including that of the Prime Minister, Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, State Ministers should be put on hold.

Friendship is not about retaliation: Rahul Gandhi slams Trump's 'retaliation' remark

Exceptions can be made in case of special emergency of exigencies, she said.

The Congress president suggested all the money under the PM Cares Fund be transferred to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund as this would ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability.
Medical experts are calling for asthmatics to take regular medication during the coronavirus pandemic, as it's not known how 'at risk' the population is because of their outstanding respiratory issues.

Coughing and a shortness of breath are symptoms of having asthma and also key issues relating to positive COVID-19 cases, making specialists wary of those who have the illness.

'I couldn't imagine this being good for asthma, but there's no evidence to say how bad it is for asthma at the moment,' respiratory specialist Professor Brian Oliver at the University of Technology in Sydney told the ABC.

The World Health Organisation said people with pre-existing medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease) appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the virus on its website.

It said: 'WHO advises people of all ages to take steps to protect themselves from the virus, for example by following good hand hygiene and good respiratory hygiene.'

Coughing and a shortness of breath are symptoms of having asthma and also key issues relating to positive COVID-19 cases, making specialists wary of those who have the illness (woman wearing a mask to protect from COVID-19)

Professor Oliver was equally concerned with another disease known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, which are a group of lung disorders that block regular airflow and make it hard to breathe.

If you do have asthma he recommends taking medication to prevent a flare-up that could land you in hospital, to reduce the amount of beds Australia is using on non-COVID-19 patients.

According to Health Direct Australia 11 per cent of the population has asthma, which is approximately 2.5million people.

Slightly more women than men suffer from the respiratory disease.

If you do have asthma he recommends taking medication to prevent a flare-up that could land you in hospital, to reduce the amount of beds Australia is using on non-COVID-19 patients (pictured is a woman testing for COVID-19)

What is asthma? Asthma is a treatable lung disease Asthma is a medical condition that affects the airways (the breathing tubes that carry air into our lungs). From time to time, people with asthma find it harder to breathe in and out, because the airways in their lungs become narrower - like trying to breathe through a thin straw. At other times their breathing is normal. There is no cure for asthma, but it can usually be well controlled. Most people with asthma can stay active and have a healthy life. Source: National Asthma Org Australia Advertisement

'Asthma costs about $1.2billion a year in healthcare costs and as much as $28billion a year in total ($11,740 per person) when you take into account disability, loss of productivity, time off work, premature death and other costs caused by asthma,' the website read.

Most asthmatics will carry reliever medications, known as 'puffers', which uses a drug to relax the constricted muscles in your airway, relieving symptoms like wheezing and coughing.

Professor Oliver told the ABC that viruses have the power to make these medications less effective, leading to issues like an asthma attack.

'On a molecular level, viruses do this by desensitising the pathway through which your puffer drug is designed to work,' he said.

Professor Oliver told the ABC that viruses have the power to make these medications less effective, leading to issues like an asthma attack (woman wearing a mask waiting in a Centrelink line)

Coronavirus symptoms and how it spreads: Symptoms of coronavirus Symptoms can range from mild illness to pneumonia. Some people will recover easily, and others may get very sick very quickly. People with coronavirus may experience: fever

flu-like symptoms such as coughing, sore throat and fatigue

shortness of breath How it spreads There is evidence that the virus spreads from person-to-person. The virus is most likely spread through: close contact with an infectious person

contact with droplets from an infected person's cough or sneeze

touching objects or surfaces (like doorknobs or tables) that have cough or sneeze droplets from an infected person, and then touching your mouth or face How to prevent it Everyone should practice good hygiene to protect against infections. Good hygiene includes: washing your hands often with soap and water

using a tissue and cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze

avoiding close contact with others, such as touching Advertisement

'So if your bronchodilator [medication] isn't working, when you have symptoms [caused by inflammation in response to the virus], the drugs that should be helping you don't work as well.'

A person can safely use their inhaler every 30-60 minutes for two to three hours without significant risk of harmful side effects, Asthma Partners reported.

Even if you haven't had an attack recently, and believe yourself to be 'cured' of asthma, medical experts are asking for relievers to be on your person or within reach at all times.
The European Commission will on Wednesday consider how to craft a plan to ease the bloc out of a virus lockdown that has dealt a body blow to the economies of EU members. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will hold an "orientation debate" with commissioners by videoconference, after some EU countries announced they were already planning to relax measures. Both Austria and Denmark have said they will start phasing out restrictions from next week, while still keeping social-distancing rules and frequent hand washing instructions in place. Initially, a commission spokesman announced the meeting would set out guidelines for a bloc-wide strategy. But, just hours later, this was downgraded in a terse statement to become a debate on a "roadmap to exit the restrictive measures", amid concern about sending mixed messages about the pandemic. "The timing is delicate because member states are at different stages of the pandemic," a European source told AFP. "The commission doesn't want to risk sending a signal of relaxing (restrictions) which could be misunderstood by some member states. Better to wait until after Easter." Earlier, spokesman Eric Mamer said the commission felt it was important that EU countries lift their lockdown rules in a coordinated way. The early days of the crisis in Europe were marked by some countries taking unilateral measures, including banning the export of medical equipment even within the bloc, before Brussels intervened. Later this month the EU's national leaders will hold a video conference on the pandemic. Mamer said Austria and Denmark had informed the Commission and all member states of their decisions. "We understand that these strategies are very gradual will be implemented step-by-step, which is indeed one important element that we will certainly be highlighting as well," he said. - Struggle to coordinate - The European Union and neighbouring countries including Britain and Norway have recorded more than 600,000 cases of COVID-19, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Officials have reported more than 51,000 deaths, most of them in Italy and Spain. Lockdowns have been introduced to varying degrees across the bloc, ranging from enforced stay-at-home orders in places like northern Italy to far less restrictive advice in Sweden, where people have been allowed to gather in small numbers and freely move about. The European Commission has struggled to arrange a common EU approach, reflecting its lack of say over member states' health and policing policies. But it has managed to soften some strict border measures by states such as Austria and Poland that for a time badly crimped the flow of road freight. EU leaders are becoming increasingly alarmed at the economic damage wreaked by the lockdowns. France has warned it is facing the deepest recession since the end of World War II. At the leaders' last video conference on March 10, one participant said: "We have just slid into lockdown. We really need to find a way to get out of it." But the conundrum they face is that there is still no effective treatment or vaccine for the novel coronavirus. That, one EU official said, poses a problem if member states start to end their lockdowns "willy-nilly". European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (pictured April 2, 2020) will hold an "orientation debate" with commissioners by videoconference, after some EU countries announced they were already planning to relax measures
Months before the coronavirus pandemic has spread to different countries in the world, two governments recorded four coronavirus infections within their territory on January 25, they were Australia and Taiwan.

Both countries have a similar-sized population of 24 million people, both are islands, both have strict controls over who crosses their borders and both have steady transport and trade links with mainland China. Ten weeks later, Australia has almost 5,000 confirmed cases while Taiwan has less than 400. This has led to people asking how Taiwan has kept the virus under control when other countries have failed.

Taiwan's coronavirus response

During the SARS outbreak of 2003, Taiwan was one of the countries that had the most cases, along with southern China and Hong Kong. More than 150,000 people were quarantined on the island and 181 people died.

Although SARS is now compared to the coronavirus pandemic, it sent shockwaves through Asia and gave us a glimpse of how people will respond to future outbreaks. This helped different parts of the region to react faster to the current coronavirus outbreak and take the danger more seriously than other countries, both at a societal level and governmental level, with border controls and the wearing of face masks becoming routine as early as January in many areas.

Taiwan is known to have a world-class health care system, with universal coverage. As news of the coronavirus began to emerge from Wuhan up to early January, officials at Taiwan's National Health Command Center of NHCC, moved quickly to respond to the potential threat, according to a recent report published in JAMA.

According to the co-author of the report, Jason Wang, a Taiwanese doctor and associate professor of pediatrics at Stanford Medicine, Taiwan quickly produced and implemented a list of at least 124 action items in the past five weeks to protect public health. The policies and actions go beyond border control because they recognized that it was not enough. While other countries were still debating whether to take action, Taiwan was already on the move.

Taiwanese officials also moved to quicken the domestic face-mask production to make sure that the local supply. They also rolled out islandwide testing for coronavirus, including retesting people who had previously unexplained pneumonia and announced new punishments for spreading false information about the virus.

Also related: China City Bans Eating Cats and Dogs Amid Coronavirus

Pandemic politics

Taiwan's success in controlling the coronavirus spread has been overshadowed by the crisis in the U.S. and Europe, which also means that the lessons that should be learned to combat the virus has now passed.

It is still unclear why Western countries failed to follow Taiwan's lead two months ago when they had the chance. One factor that many observes have pointed out is that Taiwan, unlike other Western governments, is not a member of the World Health Organization or WHO.

Although WHO argues that Taiwan's exclusion from the meetings of member states does not affect the sharing of health information and guidance, observers have claimed that it has had a negative effect both during the SARS epidemic and the current crisis.

According to Vice President Chen Chien-jen, a Johns Hopkins-trained epidemiologist, Taiwan wants to help by sending their doctors, researchers, and nurses and to share their knowledge and experience with countries that need it, but right now they are unable to.



Related article: Spain Passes 10,000 Deaths Due to COVID-19, But Curve is Stabilizing

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The United Nations has announced the receipt of $236,363 (about N85 million) from the Government of Japan to support mine action service in Nigeria and also provide critical life-saving assistance to civilians and humanitarian actors in the North-east.

The United Nations Mine Action Service, the UN agency in-charge of landmines, said the assistance is to help protect these categories of persons from landmines of an improvised nature in the region.

The programme coordinator, UNMAS Nigeria, Lionel Pechera, in a statement seen by PREMIUM TIMES on Monday, lamented how hundreds of civilians, which include women and children, were killed and injured by improvised explosive devices in 2019.

Mr Pechera lauded the Japanese government for their continued commitment to mine action and the well-being of members of warring communities.

UNMAS Nigeria highly appreciates the Government of Japans support to the programme

and above all to the physical integrity and psychosocial wellbeing of civilian communities

affected by the growing and pressing threat of explosives, Mr Pechera was quoted as saying.

He further added that Japans integrated support strengthens our vital humanitarian mine action operations to ensure that critical life-saving information can be provided to mitigate the explosive ordnance risks amongst all children and adults across the three States in northeast Nigeria.

Through this effort, he said, the UNMAS Nigeria would expand the Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) in order to prevent future accidents.

He added that the contribution would also be used to conduct in-depth studies on the influence of daily life behaviours on the risk of accident in different locations.

According to the programme coordinator, it will enhance the understanding of how explosive ordnance risk education can be tailored and adopted to the specificities of children, women and men, based on their livelihood such as farming, herding, collection of wood, scrap metal collection and children at play.

Mr Pechera said the mine action would assuage the explosive risks in conflict-ravaged areas in the North-east.

In the framework of Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE), one of the main pillars of mine action derived from Mine Risk Education, UNMAS Nigeria, with the financial support of the Government of Japan, will mitigate the explosive risks within conflict affected community members, IDPs in camps and host communities, refugees, returnees and humanitarian workers.

Following 2019 progress to precisely identify needs for mine action assistance with a focus on physical and mental wellbeing, 1.5 million people have been identified immediately at risk who are in need for life-saving assistance in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, he said.

READ ALSO:

Meanwhile, the Ambassador of Japan to Nigeria, Kikuta Yutaka, reportedly said the humanitarian assistance is in tandem with the Japanese policy of development cooperation with Nigeria to promote peace and stability.

The project supports UNMASs actions to improve humanitarian access and to increase the provision of life-saving action in the North-east. It is in line with Japans Country Development Cooperation

Policy for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, of which the promotion of peace and stability including reconstruction assistance in the Northeast region is recognized as its priority, he was quoted as saying.

COVID-19

He added that the ongoing global health crisis has cast a shadow of uncertainty over one of Nigerias most vulnerable regions the North-east  thus the offer of assistance.

Even in this difficult time, Japan is committed and will continue to offer humanitarian, non-military assistance through UNMAS and other international organisations to mitigate the effect of insurgency in Nigeria, he noted.

Meanwhile, the UN appreciated the commitment of the Government of Japan towards mine action worldwide and most importantly emphasising the significant contribution made specifically to the protection of civilians and safety of aid workers in North-east Nigeria.
Dozens of Colombians broke with the country's strict coronavirus lockdown to gather in front of a tree - after an image of Jesus appeared in its branches.

The bizarre scenes took place in the town of Magangue, in the north of the country, just fours days after the country announced a lockdown to slow the virus's spread.

Locals said people began gathering in front of the tree to pray for protection from the disease and for God to rid the world of evil.

Dozens of locals flocked to this tree in Colombia in violation of the country's coronavirus lockdown after claiming an image of Jesus on the cross had appeared in the branches

'The image appeared on the night of Sunday [March 29],' local journalist Rodolfo Zambrano told Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.

'The people ran with candles and turned that place into a pilgrimage point, which has the inhabitants of the neighborhood very worried, because the faithful arrived en masse.'

He added that people were not wearing any protective gear such as masks and gloves, and were not socially distancing.

Video from the scene shows dozens of people gathered in front of the tree, looking up at an image which appears similar to a crucified image of Christ.

Local shopkeeper Agustina Diaz told reporters: 'It can clearly be seen, and everybody is praying and asking for Earth to be cured of this evil and for Magangue to be protected'.

Police were eventually called and broke up the gathering, and the crowds have not returned since.

People wearing no masks or protective equipment huddled together to pray for protection from the virus until police arrived to break up the gathering

An image of the same tree the following day shows how the figure appeared in bright daylight

Colombia declared a nationwide lockdown starting at midnight on March 24 to prevent the spread of the virus.

It followed a period curfew that was marked by protests, store lootings and riots as people panic-bought supplies.

The lockdown was initially due to last 19 days, ending after midnight on April 13, but has now been extended until at least April 27.

Under the rules of the quarantine, one person per family is allowed out to shop for essential items or carry out financial transactions.

Masks are required in stores, banks and on public transport, and restaurants are only allowed to provide deliveries.

Until the end of May, schools are suspended and the elderly are required to stay in their homes.

Like many places around the world where informal labor is common, the quarantine has created deep hardship for some Colombians and for many Venezuelan migrants.

Colombia has so far reported 1,579 cases of coronavirus and 46 deaths.
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business How IPCA Labs is best suited to reap the hydroxychloroquine opportunity IPCA being one of the largest producer globally of both the API and formulation of hydroxychloroquine has an edge
Britain has thanked Cuban rescue workers for a great gesture of solidarity in helping the stranded passengers of a cruise ship struck by coronavirus.

In a glowing letter, the UK ambassador in Havana said he wanted to express his immense gratitude and that of my country for Cubans role in the operation.

Cuba allowed the cruise ship MS Braemar to dock in Havana and allow its 682 mainly UK passengers to fly home, after other countries such as the Bahamas and Barbados refused permission because of Covid-19 infections onboard.

But 43 Cuban workers, including a pilot, dock workers, police, and transport staff all had to go into quarantine for two weeks because of their close contact with the passengers. All have now been released and reunited with their families.

During Operation Braemar, I witnessed the many qualities of the Cuban people, their humanitarian principles, kindness and hard-working attitude; facets of the Cuban character that I have come to know and love since I came to the country, British ambassador Antony Stokes said in the letter dated 2 April, the day quarantine for the workers ended.

Recommended What coronavirus revealed about national mindsets across the world

I assure those who return home today that their great gesture of solidarity will last in the memory of the passengers and crew of the Braemar, their family and friends, who are now reunited thanks to their effort.

The episode is a rare bright spot in relations between the UK and Cuba, a one-party state with a poor human rights record. The country has however won international praise for its conduct during the Covid-19 pandemic, sending more than 800 doctors abroad to work in virus hotspots as part of its long-standing policy of medical internationalism.

Cuba is still subject to a Cold War era embargo from the United States, its largest neighbour, which restricts exports including medical supplies.

A spokesperson for cruise operator Fred Olsen said at the time that no other Caribbean ports were willing to accept the ship because of local sensitivities towards Covid-19 coronavirus.

In the House of Commons at the time of the rescue, Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, said he had called the Cuban foreign minister to say the UK was very grateful to the Cuban government for swiftly enabling this operation and for their close cooperation to make sure it could be successful.

In a statement, the Cuban ministry of foreign affairs said: These are times of solidarity, of understanding health as a human right, of reinforcing international cooperation to face our common challenges, values that are inherent in the humanistic practice of the revolution and of our people.
Security forces deployed in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region have been alerted against violent attacks after inputs suggested that large groups of Maoists have started "regrouping" in the area to take advantage of the ongoing lockdown aimed at containing the spread of coronavirus, officials said on Tuesday.

A senior official looking after anti-Naxal operations in the state, worst-hit in terms of violent Maoist activities, said armed cadres of the ultras have been reported to be undertaking meetings in south Bastar districts of Jagdalpur, Dantewada and Sukma.

"The concern of Naxal attacks on security forces and others in south Chhattisgarh have increased after multiple inputs received by the agencies suggest that a large group has entered into the area from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and even Nepal."



"While the CPI (Maoist) have called for unilateral ceasefire in Odisha, no such call has been made in the Chhattisgarh area," the official said.

Some booby traps have been recovered by security forces in Bijapur district of the Bastar region in the last few days and hence security forces like the CRPF and state police have been asked to be on alert against Naxal attacks, a second official posted in Chhattisgarh told PTI.

Inputs have been received that "takingadvantage of the lockdown period and less number of operations by security forces, Maoists have conducted intensive reconnaissance in the Rajpenta and Chimilipenta areas and have also planted improvised explosive devices (IEDs)" in these areas of Dantewada and Sukma districts respectively.

The first official said security forces have also been informed about some meetings being held by senior Naxal commanders asking locals to protest against the administration for fixing a minimum price for plucking of the 'Tendu leaves' from the forests.

On Monday night, the officer based in Chhattisgarh said, the Kerlapalarea committee of Maoists blasted an IED and damaged a culvert near Renga Para on Dornapal-Jagargunda road in Sukma district.

Some new Central Reserve Police Force camps, opened deep inside along the Abujhmaad forest area, have also been alerted against possible Naxal ambushes and attacks, the official said.

Armed Naxal cadres belonging to the Malangir area committee in Chhattisgarh had also damaged the Aranpur-Potali road at ten places and rendered it unsuitable for plying of vehicles, he said.

The forces as well as civilians use this road and keeping in mind these activities, the security forces units in this area have also been asked to remain vigilant especially after sunset, the official added.

The forces, the first official said, have been asked to undertake only "intelligence inputs based" operations in the next few days and strictly adhere to the standard operating procedures to minimise risks.

The tactical counter offensive campaign (TCOC), a period in summers when Maoists undertake mega operations to increase their base and hit security forces, has also likely begun in the Bastar area with the assembly of large number of cadres over the last few weeks, he said.

About 30 CRPF and CoBRA battalions (about 30,000 personnel) apart from armed police units of the state have been deployed for anti-Naxal operations in the Bastar area that shares border with multiple states.

A purported audio tape has been released in Telugu a few days back and a man who identifies himself as the secretary of the outfit's Malkangiri-Koraput-Visakha Divisional Committee (MKVDC) has said they will not attack any government official or security forces personnel if they are providing help to villagers and tribals in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday gave five suggestions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fight against COVID-19, including ban on government ads, suspension of Rs 20,000 crore Central Vista beautification project and official foreign tours of President and ministers.

In the letter to the Prime Minister, Gandhi extended the party's support to the Union Cabinet's decision of 30 per cent pay cut from salaries of Members of Parliament to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

"Austerity measures which can be used to divert much needed funds to the fight against COVID-19 are the need of the hour," she wrote.

The five 'concrete suggestions' by Gandhi include:

1. Imposition of a blanket ban on media advertisements - television, print and online - by the government and PSUs for a period of two years. "The only exceptions should be advisories for COVID-19 or for issues related to public health. This will free up a substantial amount to alleviate the economic and social impact to covid-19."

2. Suspension of Rs 20,000 crore Central Vista beautification and construction project 'forthwith'. "At a time like this, such an outlay seems self-indulgent to say the least. I am certain that the Parliament can function comfortably within the existing historical buildings," she said. The Congress leader also stressed that this sum could instead be allocated towards constructing new hospitals infrastructure and diagonistics along with equipping frontline workers with personal protection equipment and better facilities.

3. Order proportionate reduction of 30 per cent in expenditure budget, other than salaries, pensions and central sector schemes. "This 30 per cent (i.e Rs 2.5 lakh crore per year approximately) can then be allocated towards establishing an economic safety net for migrant workers, labourers, MSMEs and those in the unorganised sector."

4. All foreign visits of president, prime minister, Union ministers, chief ministers, state ministers and bureaucrats must be put on hold. However, exceptions can be made in case of special emergency or exigencies in interest to be cleared by the Prime Minister.

5. Transfer all money under 'PM Cares' fund to 'Prime Ministers Relief Fund' for efficiency, transparency, accountability as this will ensure efficiency, transparency, accountability and audit in the manner in which these funds are allocated and spent.

Gandhi's response come a day after Prime Minister Modi reached out to top leaders from across the political spectrum, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, to discuss the situation arising out of the spread of coronavirus.

The total number of coronavirus cases in India reached 4,421, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday.Out of the 4,421 cases, 3,981 are active cases while 325 have been cured or discharged and one has migrated. The total death toll stands at 114.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Coronavirus: 18,000 people quarantined in Turkey Hosted in university dormitories for suspected infection

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, APRIL 7 - A total of 18,156 people are currently under quarantine in Turkey for suspected cases of coronavirus, said Turkish Youth Minister Mehmet Kasapoglu, who is responsible for the management of the 84 university dormitories where the quarantined people are being hosted, in 57 provinces across the country.



The majority of the suspected cases are those of people who returned to Turkey after trips abroad.



Kasapoglu said an overall total of 27,595 people have been hosted thus far in the university dormitories during the Covid-19 emergency, including 3,120 doctors and nurses.(ANSAmed).




Portland mom Becky Steckler spent much of Monday trouble-shooting.

Her two children, like tens of thousands of Portland-area students, returned to class in some form this week after an extended spring break. Since all Oregon schools closed three weeks ago, Stecklers home has transformed into a classroom as families in every corner of the state including hers have had to adjust to a new normal wrought by the global coronavirus pandemic.

Gov. Kate Brown in March ordered the states public schools to shutter until April 28 as Covid-19 spread across Oregon. As of Monday afternoon, state health officials report coronavirus has infected at least 1,132 Oregonians and killed 29.

The Oregon Department of Education anticipates Browns closure order likely will extend through the end of the year and, in an about-face from the agencys previous guidance, advised districts across the state to adopt distance learning plans by April 13.

For families who lack internet access or dont have adequate computers or other equipment to allow all their children to connect with virtual learning opportunities, that will pose a particular challenge.

Portland Public Schools launched its program Monday as did Beaverton and some other metro districts. For Steckler, whose children are a fourth-grader at Llewellyn Elementary and a seventh-grader at Sellwood Middle School, the structure provided a welcome reprieve from the patchwork of online lessons she and her husband sought out to keep the children active during the break.

Stecklers experience so far may be illustrative of what more families across the state might expect next week when all Oregon schools are expected to have launched some form of virtual education.

Theres some technical issues to work out, but like everything, the more practice we get the better its going to be, she said.

First off: The morning wake-up call.

Steckler said before schools were ordered closed, she typically rustled her children  Clara, 10, and Benjamin, 12  out of bed at around 6:30 a.m. But theyve grown used to sleeping in, which means they were up at 8 a.m. Monday.

The kids were dressed and fed an hour later. Or, as dressed as you need to be when your living room doubles as a classroom. Clara spent the day in her sweats on the first floor of the familys Southeast Portland home as her parents worked remotely in the basement.

Steckler, 49, researches new mobility, autonomous vehicles, and e-commerce for the University of Oregon while her husband, Martin Heim, 52, is a business analyst for Pacificorp.

Steckler said shes grateful the two can work from home, and that they even have jobs as record numbers of Oregonians file for unemployment.

The fact that we both have full-time jobs  and Im so thankful we both have full-time jobs  it makes me feel for all of the parents who dont necessarily have the resources, she said.

Steckler also knows her family is better off than some others in the Portland district. Her kids didnt have to borrow from Portland Public Schools stock of 45,000 devices.

The district had lent out about 4,000 Chromebooks by Monday out of nearly 7,000 requests. Another 1,800 of its students dont have internet access.

Most other districts are also making special efforts to get school-owned equipment into the hands of students who dont have what they need at home to access their schools limited online offerings.

(My children) dont have a lot of those challenges. I know not every family is fortunate in that regard, Steckler said.

State guidelines suggest elementary educators spend about 45 minutes per day on instruction while providing another two hours worth of assignments for their students. On Monday, Clara spent part of the day watching a pre-recorded video of her teacher reading a book to the class.

The rest of Claras time was split between worksheets she downloaded from Google Classroom and intermi e ttent brain breaks.

Clara, 10, is using Stecklers old laptop to access Google Classroom. Early in the day, the web browser kept blocking Clara from accessing some of the material her teacher assigned. The parental controls Steckler had set for Claras profile on the computer kept flagging the content.

The interruptions became so frequent that Steckler opened Google Classroom on her own profile to bypass the security controls. Even then, Clara had trouble downloading PDF worksheets.

She wasnt alone. Steckler had been emailing other Llewellyn parents throughout the day and one found a solution for that very problem: Opening a new incognito window let the files download seamlessly.

These are not exactly the kinds of skills I want my 10-year-old to perfect, Steckler said with a laugh.

Things went more smoothly for Benjamin, who watched his Sellwood Middle School peers give book reports for much of the morning. Hes scheduled to present his on Tuesday.

Steckler said some of Benjamins teachers have doled out assignments with firm due dates, which helps him plan his days.

Structure has also been an issue for Chris Dodge and her family in Northeast Portland. She said her daughter Mattie, a 17-year-old junior at Grant High, has had to adjust to life without the schools bell schedule. Her makeshift solution? An alarm on her phone rings every time a classroom session is about to begin.

She's learning new tricks every day and creates a to-do list daily, Dodge said. This might turn out to be a great training ground for college as she'll have to drive her own schedule and stay on top of things without me or her teachers staying on top of her.

Dodge said her biggest challenge is keeping her boys, twin sixth-graders at Mt. Tabor Middle School, on task throughout the day. She found that offering video chats with friends as a reward for Xander and Gus, both 12, worked well Monday.

Both Steckler and Dodge said theres been a steep learning curve in the transition to distance learning.

This is outside of my comfort zone by miles and Ive always admired and respected my kids teachers because its a gift I dont have at all, Dodge said. How they manage classrooms of over 30 when I can barely manage two or three is just additional cause for admiration.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD/LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday discussed the staggered lifting of the 21-day lockdown clamped in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. On the other end of the spectrum were states like Telangana and Uttar Pradesh, which suggested full extension of the lockdown.

An Empowered Group on Strategic Issues, chaired by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, considered the views of over a dozen secretaries to draw up a roadmap on the way forward. They discussed a graded exit plan and sector-wise impact assessment and demand.

Pressing issues regarding agriculture and aviation sectors were deliberated upon, a senior officer said. For instance, how many flights should be allowed in the initial stages and how many districts would require manpower and materials for harvesting, were discussed threadbare.

Concerns of farmers regarding Kharif sowing were also shared. However, officials pointed out that since agriculture and its allied sectors were on the list of the essential services, Kharif farming wont be a problem.

The plight of migrant workers was flagged with officials of the labour ministry saying another package could be announced to ensure they are provided with basic necessities like food and water.

We also discussed how to take the media and communications forward. We are evolving a plan on how to go about it in the post-lockdown phase. We are planning how to communicate (to the public) around April 14-15, and how to improve our communications, said a source who attended the meeting.

Earlier in the day, Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao suggested the extension of the lockdown beyond April 14  by one or two weeks. He shared his thoughts with PM Narendra Modi during a phone call on Sunday. KCR said: Economy no doubt is going to suffer but it could be revived back into life. But we cannot bring back lives, once we lose them.

He pointed to a report by the Boston Consulting Group, which suggested that lockdown should extend till June 3 in India for any improvement. UP appeared to echo KCR, though the word came from officials.

The lockdown will not be removed till a single person with the virus is found, said Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Awasthi. Chief Secretary R K Tiwari said it may be extended if the situation does not improve by April 14.
Timeline of Beijings CCP Virus Coverup and Canada, Taiwan Actions

When Health Minister Patty Hajdu was asked by a reporter during a press conference if the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths coming out of China can be trusted, she replied that Ottawa has no reason to believe Chinas numbers are falsified.

The question was raised on April 2 in light of a Bloomberg report saying U.S. intelligence officials have advised the White House that Beijing covered up the extent of the CCP virus outbreak in China.

Hajdu said that Ottawa relies on the World Health Organization (WHO) for coordinating the collection of data from other countries. When the reporter asked whether WHOs numbers can be trusted if Chinas cant, Hajdu accused the reporter of fuelling conspiracy theories.

Hajdus response comes at a time when an increasing number of news reports show that the Chinese regime hasnt been forthright about the outbreak, costing the world precious time in combating the spread of the virus early on, and commentaries criticizing WHO for its praise of Beijing and repeating positions favourable to the regime.

British media recently reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been advised by scientists that the number of cases of infection may have been downplayed by a factor of 15 to 40 times.

And U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that Beijing wasted valuable days at the front end of the outbreak, noting that a similar situation could unfold again if we dont get to the bottom of this.

The timeline below chronicles the early stages of the CCP virus outbreak in China and the regimes coverup, and contrasts some of the measures taken by Taiwan and Canada.

Despite being next door to China and having a notably higher population density than Canada, Taiwan has had significantly fewer cases compared to Canada.

As of April 3, Canada, with a population of 38 million, had about 12,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 150 deaths. Taiwan, with a population of 24 million, had about 350 cases of infection and 5 deaths.

The actions Taiwan took to control the spread of the virus include stopping all travel from China in the early days of the outbreak, enforcing a mandatory two-week quarantine for all those who recently entered Taiwan, and using big-data analysis to track potential carriers of the virus. Authorities also banned the export of face masks and took early action to ensure a steady supply of personal protective equipment.

Canada refused to impose any travel restrictions on Chinawhich drew praise from Beijingand until recently there were no restrictions at the Canadian border. Canadian authorities also shipped 16 tonnes of personal protective equipment to China in early February, while health professionals are now reporting a shortage of protective equipment.

Asked why Canada wasnt imposing restrictions on travel from China, Ottawa cited advice from Canadian health officials and WHO.

Canadas Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam, who has served as an adviser for WHO, also cited the organizations advice as justification for not imposing travel restrictions on China, saying: Having measures that very negatively affect a certain country thats trying very hard to do its best can impede whether this country in the future will ever share anything transparently with others. China posted the virus genome very quickly. What are they getting out of it? I think the idea is to support China.

In the early days of the outbreak, WHO advised against imposing travel restrictions on China, with Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressing respect and gratitude to China for what its doing, and saying WHO opposes any restrictions for travel and trade or other measures against China.

Wu Se-chih, adjunct assistant professor at the Taipei College of Maritime Technology, told The Epoch Times that WHO has been taking Chinas side and that this has had dangerous consequences.

The reality is that the pandemic has become serious all over the world, Wu said.

Click to enlarge the timeline

Click to enlarge the timeline. (The Epoch Times)

Read the Text Version

2019

Nov. 17:

The first person is infecteda 55-year-old from Hubei Provinceaccording to the South China Morning Post, citing government documents.

Dec. 1:

The earliest documented patient, a man in his 70s who was bedridden from a stroke, falls ill. He has no connection with the Wuhan seafood market. This case is one week earlier than the official account, which says the first patient appeared on Dec. 8.

Mid-December:

First evidence appears of human-to-human transmission among close contacts, according to a Jan. 29 study.

A patient assisted by medical staff members wearing protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus which began in the city, as he gets off an ambulance in Wuhan in Chinas central Hubei province, on Jan. 26, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Dec. 27:

A Chinese lab sequences most of the virus genome from samples from a 65-year-old patient, and reports the findings to Wuhan health officials and state-affiliated Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

Dec. 30:

Dr. Li Wenliang of Wuhan shares the report with his former medical school classmates on WeChat, warning them to take precautionary measures.

Later that day, Wuhan Central Hospital transmits a notice from the Wuhan Health Commission that warns health workers not to spread information about the unknown pneumonia, or face potential penalties.

Wuhan Health Commission issues an urgent notice, asking hospitals to report any pneumonia patients with unknown causes.

Dec. 31:

Wuhan Health Commission confirms 27 cases of an unknown pneumonia disease, but said it was preventable and controllable. It also says that there have been no infections of health workers, and no apparent evidence that the disease can spread between people.

Chinese authorities notify the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak.

Chinese authorities notify the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak. Taiwan Centres for Disease Control (CDC) start monitoring passengers arriving from Wuhan.

A computer image created by Nexu Science Communication together with Trinity College in Dublin, shows a model structurally representative of a betacoronavirus, the type of virus linked to the Wuhan COVID-19 outbreak, shared with Reuters on Feb. 18, 2020. (NEXU Science Communication/via Reuters)

2020

Jan. 1:

A Hubei Provincial Health Commission official tells a genomics company to stop testing virus samples and to destroy all existing samples.

Jan. 2:

Government-run Wuhan virology lab obtains the full virus genome. This information is not made public until seven days later.

The PLA Naval University of Engineering in Wuhan, a military university, bans entry to visitors whose body temperature is over 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a leaked internal notice.

Jan 3:

Local police call in Li and reprimand him for rumor-mongering.

The National Health Commission issues a notice to researchers to hand over virus samples to designated pathogen detection agencies or destroy them.

Jan. 5:

Taiwan CDC starts monitoring all individuals who had travelled to Wuhan over the last 14 days in case they have illness symptoms.

Honour guards perform Taiwan national flag lowering ceremony at Liberty Square, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 1, 2020. (Ann Wang/Reuters)

Jan. 7:

Li contracts the virus while treating an infected patient. He later dies of the virus on Feb. 7.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping gets involved in response by issuing the first containment order. This isnt made public until February.

Jan. 9:

WHO advises against the application of any travel or trade restrictions on China.

Xu Jianguo, a lead expert in the response team, tells Chinese state media that researchers mapped the full virus sequence two days earlier, and believe its a new coronavirus.

Jan. 11:

Chinese health authorities share the genome sequence with the WHO.

A tv grab taken from the World Health Organization website shows WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivering a virtual news briefing on the CCP virus at the WHO headquarters in Geneva on March 23, 2020. (AFP via Getty Images)

Jan. 11:

Chinese health authorities share the genome sequence with WHO.

Jan. 13:

Thailand confirms its first infectiona Chinese tourist who traveled from Wuhanin the first known case outside China.

Jan. 14:

The WHO says that Chinese authorities had found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission. It also notes limited human-to-human transmission, potentially among families is possible.

Jan. 15:

The first confirmed U.S. patient, a man from Washington state, returns from Wuhan.

Chinese officials say that the risk of human-to-human infection is low.

Jan. 21:

First case of infection reported in Taiwan. The government changes border control procedures. People travelling from high-risk areas undergo mandatory quarantine at home for 14 days. Government announces a ban on the export of face masks.

Canadian Health Minister Patty Hajdu confirms there are no plans to impose travel restrictions on travellers from China.

Jan. 22:

Canada announces passengers arriving at major airports will undergo additional questioning to find out if they have travelled to Wuhan. People showing symptoms are asked to voluntarily self-isolate for 14 days.

Travellers are seen wearing masks at the international arrivals area at the Toronto Pearson Airport in Toronto, Canada, on Jan. 26, 2020. (Cole Burston/AFP via Getty Images)

Jan. 23:

Wuhan imposes a lockdown. By then, around 5 million people had left the city without being screened for the virus. A March study estimates 86 percent of all infections were undocumented prior to the Jan. 23 travel restrictions.

Jan. 25:

Canadas first case of infection is reported in a man in Toronto who had recently travelled to Wuhan.

Jan. 27:

Authorities in Hubei Province say they will free up 100,000 hospital beds for patients.

Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang concedes that disclosures of the outbreak were not timely, but attempts to shift blame to the central government, saying he needed permission from higher-ups before releasing information.

Beijing extends the New Year holiday to Feb. 2 and closes schools indefinitely.

Taiwan combines individuals past 14-day travel history with their health card, enabling the tracking of individuals at high risk because of recent travel to affected areas.

Jan. 28:

Taiwan requires all those travelling from China to go into mandatory quarantine.

Soldiers from military chemical units take part in a drill organized by the New Taipei City government to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, in the Xindian District of New Taipei, Taiwan, on March 14, 2020. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)

Jan. 30:

The WHO declares the outbreak a global health emergency. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says WHO doesnt recommend, and actually opposes, any restrictions for travel and trade or other measures against China,while also praising China for its response to the outbreak.

Jan. 31:

The United States declares a public health emergency, imposes travel restrictions on those who have been in China in the past 14 days.

Feb. 3:

A spokesperson for Beijings foreign ministry praises Canada for not imposing travel restrictions on China, while rebuking the United States for its travel restrictions.

Feb. 5:

In response to questions from opposition MPs on travel restrictions, Canadas Chief Public Health officer Dr. Theresa Tam reiterates that WHO advises against any kind of travel and trade restrictions. She adds that having measures that very negatively affect a certain country thats trying very hard to do its best can impede whether this country in the future will ever share anything transparently with others. China posted the virus genome very quickly. What are they getting out of it? I think the idea is to support China.

Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam speaks during a news conference in Ottawa on March 26, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

Feb. 6:

Over 50 countries, including Taiwan, Australia, and the United States have announced travel restrictions on China.

A Chinese spokesperson lashes out at countries restricting travel over the outbreak, saying we deplore and oppose those countries who went against WHOs professional recommendations.

Feb. 9:

Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagnes department announces that Canada has deployed 16 tonnes of personal protective equipment such as masks and gloves to China.

Feb. 17:

Canadas Health Minister Patty Hajdu says China has been very open. Now some will say, Were they open enough? and How fast were they open? But what we know is that within a week or so they were letting the World Health Organization and therefore all of the partner countries know that they had an outbreak on their hands.

Health Minister Patty Hajdu speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Dec. 10, 2019. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

Feb. 29:

WHO reiterates that it advises against the application of travel or trade restrictions to countries experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks.

March 13:

Ottawa announces that international flights will be limited to specific airports.

Canadian Health Minister Patty Hajdu says, Canadians think we can stop this at the border. But what we see is a global pandemic, which means that border measures are highly ineffective and, in some cases, can create harm. We see that in countries that had the worst expressions, the tightest borders.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says, A number of weeks ago, in the beginnings, there was discussions on whether or not we should entirely close our borders to China the way the United States did. We did not, and we were able to manage it in a way that allowed for control and non-spread of the virus, that gives us confidence that our public health officials are giving us the right recommendations for Canada.

March 16:

Canada severely restricts international flights, refusing entry to international visitors and allowing only Americans, diplomats, and flight crews.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference on COVID-19 situation in Canada from his residence in Ottawa, Canada, on March 23, 2020. (Dave Chan / AFP via Getty Images)

March 18:

Canada and United States announce the closure of the border to nonessential traffic.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the Chinese Communist Party covered up details about the virus outbreak, warning that a similar situation could unfold if we dont get to the bottom of this.

March 22:

Ontario doctors and nurses report a shortage of personal protective equipment for health workers, calling it an urgent priority.

April 2:

Canadas Health Minister Patty Hajdu says Ottawa has no reason to believe Beijings infection and death rates are falsified, and adds that Canada relies on WHO to coordinate the collection of data from various countries. When a reporter asks whether WHOs numbers can be trusted if Chinas arent reliable, she accuses the reporter of fuelling conspiracy theories.

April 7:

U.S. President Donald Trump criticizes the WHO for being too China-centric, and says the United States will withhold funding to WHO. The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation? Trump said in a tweet.

Bowen Xiao, Eva Fu, Cathy He, and Omid Ghoreishi contributed to this report.
With the world gripped with the COVID-19 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), there is a frantic rush to find an effective drug that can be used to treat the disease.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia, in collaboration with others, have found an experimental drug that can inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 virus from infecting host cells. Their study titled, "Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 infections in engineered human tissues using clinical-grade soluble human ACE2," was published in the latest issue of the journal Cell.

In cell cultures analyzed in the current study, hrsACE2 inhibited the coronavirus load by a factor of 1,000-5,000. Credit: IMBA/Tibor Kulcsar

What were the highlights of the study?

As of today, 6th April 2020, the virus has affected 1,341,907 individuals worldwide and killed 74,476. Many of these deaths were caused by severe lung injury.

Dr. Josef Penninger, study leader, and his team are working on ways to inhibit SARS-CoV-2's capacity to infect human host cells. They write that in their previous study, they had explained the mechanism of infection caused by this virus and how angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor plays a vital role in the infection. The enzyme ACE2 has the capacity to protect the lungs from injury caused by the virus. This also provided an explanation regarding the severe lung damage, respiratory failure, kidney and blood vessels, and eventual death seen in some of the individuals.

The team wrote that the ACE2 receptor and the SARS-CoV-2 interaction could be one of the critical areas for drug targets since this is vital for the virus to infect the human host cells. They speculate that human recombinant soluble ACE2 (hrsACE2) could be vital to block the invasion of the host cell by the SARS CoV-2.

Penninger, a professor at UBC's faculty of medicine, director of the Life Sciences Institute and the Canada 150 Research Chair in Functional Genetics at UBC, said, "We are hopeful our results have implications for the development of a novel drug for the treatment of this unprecedented pandemic." He added, "This work stems from an amazing collaboration among academic researchers and companies, including Dr. Ryan Conder's gastrointestinal group at STEMCELL Technologies in Vancouver, Nuria Montserrat in Spain, Drs. Haibo Zhang and Art Slutsky from Toronto and especially Ali Mirazimi's infectious biology team in Sweden, who have been working tirelessly day and night for weeks to better understand the pathology of this disease and to provide breakthrough therapeutic options."

What was done?

Penninger and his team from the University of Toronto and the Institute of Molecular Biology in Vienna tried to find the link between cardiovascular disease, lung damage, and the protein. They explained that at present, there are no antiviral drugs that can definitively kill the virus, and this new approach could be the only option.

Dr. Art Slutsky, a scientist at the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science of St. Michael's Hospital and professor at the University of Toronto, who was part of this study explained, "Our new study provides very much needed direct evidence that a drug -- called APN01 (human recombinant soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 - hrsACE2) -- soon to be tested in clinical trials by the European biotech company Apeiron Biologics, is useful as an antiviral therapy for COVID-19."

APN01 is a recombinant human Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (rhACE2) under Phase-2 clinical development in ALI (Acute Lung Injury) and PAH (Pulmonal arterial hypertension). Recently, ACE2 has been shown to be the cellular entry receptor for the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Therefore APEIRON initiated now a clinical Phase II study in Austria, Germany, and Denmark for treatment of COVID-19 and is planning a clinical study in China in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. APEIRON Biologics AG.

For this study, the team used biomedically engineered organoids in the lab that mimicked human blood vessels and kidneys. These are essentially clumps of cells that act as the whole organ within the human body and are grown from human stem cells. On these organoids, the team then used hrsACE2 and found that it could prevent the entry of the coronavirus into the host cells. The decrease in the viral load affecting the host cells was by a factor of 1,000-5,000, they wrote.

Nuria Montserrat, ICREA professor at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia in Spain, part of the team, added, "Using organoids allows us to test in a very agile way treatments that are already being used for other diseases, or that are close to being validated. In these moments in which time is short, human organoids save the time that we would spend to test a new drug in the human setting."

For this study, they used a Swedish patient who tested positive for COVID-19 in early February 2020. The SARS-CoV-2 virus was isolated from the nasopharyngeal samples of the patient. They grew the virus in the Vero E6 cells and looked at its genetic sequence using Next-Generation Sequencing (Genbank accession number MT093571).

What was found?

The researchers wrote, "Here we show that clinical-grade hrsACE2 reduced SARS-CoV-2 recovery from Vero cells by a factor of 1,000-5,000." They added that using an equivalent of mouse rsACE2 on the cells had no such inhibitory effect of the virus on the human organoids. They add, "We also show that SARS-CoV-2 can directly infect engineered human blood vessel organoids and human kidney organoids, which can be inhibited by hrsACE2."

They wrote, "hrsACE-2 can inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection in a dose-dependent manner hrsACE2 has already undergone clinical phase 1 and phase 2 testing and is being considered for the treatment of COVID-19."

For this study, they found the efficacy of clinical-grade hrsACE2. They infected the Vero-E6 cells with different viral loads of SARS-CoV-2. They named them "103 plaque-forming units (PFUs; MOI 0.02), 105 PFUs (MOI 2), and 106 PFUs (MOI 20)," respectively. Infection of cells after an hour of administration of hrsACE2 followed by washing and incubation without hrsACE2 showed that at 15 hours post-infection, there was a significant SARS-CoV-2 infection in the cells. They tested the viral RNA in the cells using qRT-PCR.

Conclusions and implications

Penninger added, "The virus causing COVID-19 is a close sibling to the first SARS virus. Our previous work has helped to rapidly identify ACE2 as the entry gate for SARS-CoV-2, which explains a lot about the disease. Now we know that a soluble form of ACE2 that catches the virus could be indeed a very rational therapy that specifically targets the gate the virus must take to infect us. There is hope for this horrible pandemic."

The team concludes that as such, it cannot be predicted that the effects of the hrsACE2 would remain the same during the whole course of the illness. What can be seen is the prevention of the virus from infecting host cells, they wrote. They also warn that this study did not test the effect of the trial drug on lung organoids, and as lungs are one of the main organs that are damaged, the study needs further exploration. Also, human trials are needed to see the effect of the drug on actual patients of COVID-19. They sign off, "To address these issues, further studies are needed to illuminate the effect of hrsACE2 at later stages of infection in vitro and in vivo."

The study was funded by the Canadian federal government.
McDonald's UK has sent fast food lovers around the world into a frenzy after sharing a step-by-step guide to making a breakfast sausage McMuffin at home.

The simple guide has gone down a real treat and is pretty simple to make!

Here's what you'll need to do...

Method:

English Muffin: Toast until golden brown

75g Sausage Meat: Season with a pinch of salt and pepper then shape into balls.

Flatten into patty shapes and cook under a pre-heated grill for 6-7 minutes on each side (or as per instructions on packaging)

Eggs: Brush the inside of a metal ring with a little oil and place in a small frying pan. Pour in just enough water to cover the base then bring to the boil. Crack the eggs into the rings, cover the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes.

American Cheese Slice: Assemble your McMuffin by layering the patty and egg on top of a slice of cheese.

Potato: To make a hash brown, grate the potato into a bowl. Mix in an egg then season with salt and pepper.

Heat a glug of oil in a pan then add spoonful of the mix. Flatten and cook until golden brown on both sides.

And that's it! People have been sharing the results of their at home creations online...
KALAMAZOO, MI -- Although the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically changed the food service industry, the countys restaurant inspection process is still firmly in place, Kalamazoo County officials said.

All restaurants that remained opened for delivery or curbside pickup have been visited by the county, Environmental Health Chief Vern Johnson said.

Those visits focused on giving local businesses information about the Stay Home, Stay Safe executive order, Johnson said. They were not considered full inspections, he said.

There have been 15 regularly scheduled inspections recorded in the three weeks since Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered all bars and restaurants to close in-person service on March 16.

If customers or employees feel that a business is not complying with health safety guidelines or the executive order then they can alert the county by calling (269) 373-5210. The public can also view up-to-date inspection files using the searchable database of inspection files hosted by Sword Solutions for Kalamazoo County and several other Michigan jurisdictions.

The county environmental health staff has received triple the number of calls during the pandemic and have been responding to each one in-person, Johnson said. Most complaints were found to be misunderstandings of the governors executive order and were quickly resolved, he said.

Theyre essential," he said of restaurants that remain open, referencing language from the governors order. But we want to make sure that theyre not solving one problem or a need, and creating more by unnecessarily exposing folks to COVID-19. I think theyre doing a very good job.

While checking in with businesses, county employees also emphasized standing practices like hand washing and staying home when sick, Johnson said.

In response to the shortage of gloves, food inspection workers advised restaurants to prioritize when they use gloves and make sure bare hands never touch the final product, Johnson said.

As an example, Johnson said it would be safe for pizza employees to touch dough before it was set into an oven but removing a pizza would need to be handled by tongs or other instruments to avoid human contact.

Theyre providing a very essential function in our community," he said. "We have law enforcement, or medical trained personnel that are working very, very long days and long shifts, and our restaurants are filling that niche to be able to so that they can get the food that they need.

More coronavirus coverage on MLive:

Kalamazoo-area Meals on Wheels sees influx of clients during coronavirus emergency

100+ Kalamazoo restaurants, breweries serving food during the coronavirus pandemic

Attorney General tells Portage car wash it must close amid coronavirus stay-home order

Kalamazoo hospitals approved to add 405 beds for patient surge during pandemic

$505K donated to Bronson Healthcare for supplies, meals and childcare

Answers to 5 questions about Kalamazoo Countys coronavirus response

4 fun ways to enjoy Kalamazoo virtually during the coronavirus emergency

Reported coronavirus cases:
NEW YORK, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --



COVID-19 is going to affect the data center market in Southeast Asia. A detailed analysis is included in the report.







Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05758036/?utm_source=PRN







The data center market in Southeast Asia is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 6% during the period 20192025.



The data center market in Southeast Asia is witnessing growth with the increased interest from cloud providers such as Google, AWS, and Alibaba to open cloud regions. The adoption of cloud-based services will be a key driver for the market in the next few years. Increasing internet penetration is likely to aid the use of smart devices in this region. The impact of big data, IoT, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality will have a major impact on market growth in other southeast countries after 2020. Most colocation providers are involved in the construction of hyperscale data centers to colocate space to cloud service providers. In Southeast Asia, Singapore is a mature market that accounts for, followed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Singapore is the main revenue generator in the APAC region. In 2019, Google announced to expand one of its data center based in Singapore. The country will be the first country to implement 5G technology, which will be followed by other countries by the end of the forecast period. Also, incentives from government agencies will be highly beneficial for continuous investment from both local and global data center developers. Countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia are witnessing an increase in the construction from global colocation providers and REITs targeting wholesale colocation of hyperscale spaces in the market.



The following factors are expected to contribute to the growth of the data center market in Southeast Asia during the forecast period:

 5G Deployment to Increase Edge Data Center Investments

 Big Data and IoT Adoption Driving Data Center Investment

 Availability of Lithium-ion Batteries and Fuel Cells

 Adoption of Renewable Energy in Data Centers



The report considers the present scenario of the data center market in Southeast Asia during the forecast period and its market dynamics for the forecast period 2020?2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The report profiles and examines leading companies and several other prominent companies operating in the market.



Data Center Market in Southeast Asia: Segmentation



This research report includes detailed market segmentation by IT infrastructure, electrical infrastructure, mechanical infrastructure, general construction, tier standards, and geography. The Southeast Asia market has a high potential for converged and hyperconverged infrastructure as they offer scalability and flexibility to operations. The adoption of storage systems has started shifting to all-flash storage array solutions. The penetration of cloud computing, big data, and IoT technology is expected to be predominant drivers for the development of the Southeast Asia market. The server market is moving toward blade servers for developing a high-density computing environment. The adoption of organization-specific software over the cloud platform will also increase the demand for high computing servers. The market for ODM servers will also increase as service providers prefer to use servers based on specific usage. The adoption of x86 based servers is more common in the market. Dell EMC, HPE, IBM, Lenovo, Fijustu are some of the major server vendors. The market for storage drives has been growing rapidly from the last five years. The demand for high-performance I/O intensive storage solutions is increasing due to the growing number of applications such as cloud storage services from businesses across the region. The implementation of the 5G network will boost the digital economy in the region, which is likely to increase the demand for high- bandwidth networking infrastructure.



The adoption of DRUPS systems is likely to be high among data center providers in Southeast Asia. Service providers are installing on-site Diesel Rotary UPS with N+2 and N+1 redundancy. Also, renewable energy and OCP-ready colocation facilities will witness growth during the forecast period in the region. Thailand is marching toward the goal of generating 40% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030. This will be a positive sign for operators to power their facilities through clean energy. Most large data centers use 2N and N+N redundant power infrastructure solutions for UPS systems and generators. Data centers are being designed at a PUE of less than 1.5. Owing to power reliability challenges, data center operators in Southeast Asia incorporate a flexible design that supports up to 2N redundancy in power infrastructure solutions. All data centers will implement the supply of power from two different electricity grids to avoid outages. The installation of UPS systems will be mostly of over 500 kVA, and generators with over 1.5 MW with at least 48 hours of on-site fuel backup is growing.



Most data centers in Southeast Asia are designed to cool servers through water-based cooling techniques. The growing construction of data centers will aid in the adoption of multiple chillers, cooling towers, and CRAH units with N+N redundant configuration. Vendors are equipped with 2N resilient water-cooling plants with 2N cooling towers and a service corridor with dual coil CRAC and 2N power supply of up to N+25% resilience. The use of air-based cooling is less in Singapore than in other Southeast Asian countries. In Singapore, data centers are designed with hot/cold aisle containment systems and equipped with a rack size of 42U and 45U. However, the market for rack units with a size of 47U52U is expected to witness growth during the forecast period.



Singapore has several large-scale data centers, and the country is likely to witness the same during the forecast period. In 2019, Facebook and Google announced the development of hyperscale data centers, which are likely to be operational by 2020 or 2021. The labor cost in Singapore is high due to the availability of skilled workforces. In terms of security, data centers are installed with physical security and monitoring systems, including DCIM, BMS, and EMS systems. Most data centers developed in Malaysia during the forecast period will be greenfield development projects. Modular data center projects are likely to witness high growth during the forecast period. The labor cost in Malaysia is cheaper than in Singapore. However, the availability of skilled workforces will be a major challenge. CSF Group is among the prominent data center construction contractors in the region, whose expertise will play a vital role in the growth of the market in Malaysia during the forecast period.



The number of Tier I and Tier II data centers in Southeast Asia has reduced significantly over the last five years because of the increased awareness about the use of redundant infrastructure. UPS and PDU systems of Tier II data centers are equipped with minimum N+N redundancy. All other infrastructure facilities are identified to be working through the single delivery path with no redundancy in most cases. A majority of under-developed projects across the Southeast Asia region fall under the Tier III category. This trend is likely to continue during the forecast period, with several operators expecting to move to the Tier IV category based on the growth in rack power density and critical data center applications.



Most new data centers are designed to be of Tier III standards with a minimum of N+1 redundancy. They can be reconfigured with up to 2N+1 redundancy, with the incorporation of flexible data center designs. Tier IV facilities generate more revenue for the market, with focused investment on highly efficient cooling systems. They involve the adoption of a 2N+1 cooling unit. Hyperscale data centers are considered to be of Tier IV standards in the market, which is a significant boost to the data center market. As of December 2019, there were around nine Tier IV certified data center facilities by Uptime Institute certified in Southeast Asia.



Market Segmentation by IT Infrastructure

 Servers

 Storage

 Network

Market Segmentation by Electrical Infrastructure

 UPS Systems

 Generators

 Transfer Switches and Switchgears

 Rack PDU

 Other Electrical Infrastructures

Market Segmentation by Mechanical Infrastructure

 Cooling Systems

o CRAC & CRAH units

o Chiller Units

o Cooling Towers, Dry Coolers, & Condensers,

o Other Cooling Units

 Racks

 Others Mechanical Infrastructure

Market Segmentation by General Infrastructure

 Building Development

 Installation and Commissioning Services

 Building Designs

 Physical Security

 DCIM & BMS

Market Segmentation by Tier Standards

 Tier I &II

 Tier III

 Tier IV



Data Center Market in Southeast Asia - Geography



China Mobile International (CMI), Equinix, Global Switch, Google, Iron Mountain, Keppel Data Centers + Huawei, and ST Telemedia were major investors in the data center market in Singapore in 2019. Singapore is a major financial center, and hence a natural colocation hub to serve developing markets in Southeast Asia. The market for cloud computing in Malaysia is not as mature as Singapore. Malaysia has a strong potential for growth in cloud adoption because of several digital transformation initiatives carried out by organizations across industry verticals. This is driving several organizations to invest in cloud systems, which, in turn, is driving the need for local data centers. Regal Orion is a new entrant, that is involved in the development of hyperscale campus in Malaysia.



Key Country

 Singapore

 Malaysia

 Thailand

 Indonesia

 Other Countries



Key Vendors Analysis



The data center market in Southeast Asia(except Singapore) is in the nascent stage. It has a strong potential for growth as many enterprises are migrating from server rooms to cloud or colocation facilities. The market has a strong presence of players such as Cisco, Dell Technologies, HPE, Huawei, Fujitsu, NetApp, Lenovo, and IBM. The direct presence of vendors can be witnessed in a few countries. However, they offer the product through resellers to enterprises across the country. The growing data center construction in the market is prompting vendors to improve the efficiency of solutions being offered in the market.



Many countries in the region suffer from frequent power fluctuations and power outages. This will enable operators to adopt efficient power backup solutions, with UPS systems that offer over 95% efficiency. Schneider Electric, Vertiv, and Delta Power Solutions are among the providers with a strong presence in the market. DRUPS systems are mainly provided by Piller Systems, MTU On-Site Energy, KINOLT (Euro-Diesel), and Hitec Power Protection. The high price of electricity in Singapore will prompt data center operators to consider fuel cells. This may reduce the adoption of UPS systems, generators, and DRUPS systems in the market, creating competition in the market.



Prominent Data Center Critical (IT) Infrastructure Providers

 Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)

 Cisco

 Dell Technologies

 Huawei

 IBM

 Inspur

 Lenovo

 NetApp

 Fujitsu



Prominent Data Center Investors

 AirTrunk Operating

 China Mobile International Limited (CMI)

 CSL

 Digital Realty

 Equinix

 Facebook

 Global Switch

 Google

 Iron mountain

 Katalyst Data Management

 Keppel DC

 Kepstar Data Center Management

 NTT Communications

 PT Telekomunikasi Group

 Regal Orion

 Space DC

 ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC)



Prominent Construction Contractors

 Arup

 AWP Architects

 CSF Group

 DSCO Group

 Faithful+Gould

 Flex Enclosure

 Fortis Construction

 Kienta Engineering Construction

 M+W Group (Excyte)

 NTT FACILITIES

 PM Group

 Powerware Systems (PWS)

 Sato Kogyo



Prominent Support Infrastructure Providers

 ABB

 Caterpillar

 Cummins

 Delta Group

 Eaton

 Euro-Diesel

 Fuji Electric

 Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics

 Hitec Power Protection

 KOHLER Group

 Legrand Group

 Mitsubishi Electric

 MTU OnSite Energy (Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG)

 Piller Systems

 Rittal

 Schneider Electric

 Vertiv



Key Market Insights Include

The report provides the following insights into the data center market in Southeast Asia during the forecast period 20202025.

1. It offers comprehensive insights into current industry trends, trend forecasts, and growth drivers about the data center market in Southeast Asia.

2. The report provides the latest analysis of market share, growth drivers, challenges, and investment opportunities.

3. It offers a complete overview of market segments and the regional outlook of the Southeast Asia data center market.

4. The study offers a detailed overview of the vendor landscape, competitive analysis, and key market strategies to gain competitive advantage.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05758036/?utm_source=PRN



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Kroger said stores nationwide will post limits by Tuesday on the number of shoppers permitted inside stores at a given time to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus pandemic.

On Monday, Kroger said the shopper limits will vary by store size. But under Kroger's new reduced capacity limits, the number will be 1 person per 120 square feet.

So a traditional grocery-pharmacy "combo" store of 60,000 to 75,000 square feet would allow 500 to 625 shoppers at a time. Larger Marketplace stores that are 125,000 square feet or larger would permit more than 1,000 shoppers at a time.

Smaller format stores, like Downtown's 45,000- square-foot location, would only allow about 375 at a time.

Kroger is the nation's largest supermarket chain. Besides Kroger stores, the grocer operates several regional supermarket chains in 35 states, including Fred Meyer, Harris Teeter, Ralphs, Mariano's, Fry's, Smith's, King Soopers, QFC and others. The company employs 460,000 workers nationwide and operates nearly 2,800 stores.

Before the pandemic, Kroger typically handled 11 million shoppers a day.

Kroger said it used 50% of the international building code's calculated capacity as its standard to ensure the social distancing of customers.

"During this national pandemic, we are committed to adopting preventive measures to help protect the safety and health of our associates, customers and communities," said Mary Ellen Adcock, Kroger's senior vice president of operations.

Also on Tuesday Kroger said it was seeking to boost shopper and associate safety through additional steps:

 Kroger said it's encouraging associates to wear protective masks and gloves. The company has ordered masks for associates nationwide. Supplies have arrived in some regions with all locations expecting supplies by the end of this week.

Kroger said it will install plexiglass partitions to combat the spread of the new coronavirus.

 Kroger said it's following local ordinances in cities or counties that mandate employee temperature checks. Associates may also request to have their temperature taken at work. The company began testing temperature checks in its distribution centers several weeks ago and is beginning to expand associate temperature checks to stores. Currently, employees are encouraged to take their temperature before heading to work.

Story continues

 Kroger said it will also test one-way aisles in certain markets to determine to effective way of encouraging social distancing. The company didn't specify what markets will be tested.

 Kroger said it would also temporarily waive prescription delivery fees via mail or courier. Customers can contact their local pharmacy for further details.

Kevin Garvey, the president of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 75  which represents 30,000 retail workers in Western Ohio, including the Cincinnati region, told The Cincinnati Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY Network, said Kroger has struggled to obtain protective gloves, masks and hand sanitizer, but the situation is improving.

Kroger will be able to supply workers who want them with one mask and set of gloves per shift, Garvey said.

"They're delivering masks to the stores and there's plenty of gloves  hand sanitizer is still hit or miss," Garvey said. "Everybody  retail, hospitals, police  wanted these PPEs. So basically, you had to wait your turn."

Over the weekend, Garvey disclosed three local Kroger employees had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus and had been sent home on sick pay. He grimly predicted there would be more.

Garvey said retailers and other employers were caught flat-footed, unprepared to a surge in demand for protective equipment. He added the union has been pressing government officials to recognize retail workers effectively as first-responders, facing similar exposure hazards as hospital workers or police.

The latest safety measures by Kroger join other moves in recent weeks, such as installing plexiglass partitions and educational floor decals and airing of a healthy habits message via in-store radio to encourage customers to practice good hygiene and spatial awareness. Kroger has reserved special shopping times for senior customers and others more vulnerable to infection in Cincinnati and other markets. The company has also cut operating hours in several markets to allow extra cleaning and restocking.

The new caps on store traffic come after Gov. Mike DeWine ordered Thursday retail businesses to set limits on the number of customers allowed in stores at any given time. Ohio left it to stores to cap traffic because retailers operate differently.

The order takes effect Monday at 11:59 p.m., but Cincinnati-area stores will have been closed for three hours under its current COVID-19 operating schedule. DeWine's order is in effect through May 1.

On Saturday, Walmart began limiting the number of customers who can be in a store at once. Their new rule: stores will now allow no more than five customers for each 1,000 square feet at a given time, roughly 20% of a stores capacity.

Under Walmart's new rule, a typical supercenter of 200,000 square feet would only allow 1,000 shoppers at a time. A store associate will monitor the count at the door. Once a Walmart reaches its capacity, customers will be admitted inside on a 1-out-1-in basis.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Kroger to limit shoppers entering stores because of coronavirus
Coquitlam, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 7, 2020) - Greenbriar Capital Corp (TSXV: GRB) (OTC: GEBRF) ("Greenbriar") is pleased to announce that it has signed a fully executed Cooperation Agreement with China Machinery Engineering Corporation ("CMEC") of Beijing, China to be the Engineering, Procurement and Construction ("EPC") company to design, build, equip and construct the 80MW to 160 MW AC Montalva Solar project in Puerto Rico.





Greenbriar Capital Corp



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China Machinery Engineering Corporation



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After two massive hurricanes in 2017 and a crushing 6.4 magnitude earthquake on January 6, 2020 which destroyed the 990 MW Costa Sur power plant, Puerto Rico is acutely short of long term stable power generation. Finally, the value of our solar project has been recognized as a major solution to the long term energy needs of the Island, offering green, reliable, affordable and safe energy that further offers energy independence to the rate payers of Puerto Rico. A congressional report in 2017 discovered that the local utility over-paid $18 Billion of crude oil purchases from 2003 to 2017. The Montalva project offers an exit from this dangerous cycle of expensive and toxic generation of electricity from burning expensive imported crude oil.

China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) is a leading world class and premier construction and engineering company, forming one part of the USD $40 Billion dollar China National Machinery Industry Corporation (Sinomach) group of companies.

The specialization of CMEC is the construction of power projects in generation, transmission, and distribution and with its parent company is considered the 3rd largest in the world.

The company is also present in Turkey with representative offices in Istanbul and Ankara. CMEC has operated in Turkey since the mid-1980s and operations in the country accounted for a total value of projects in Turkey amounting to USD $3 Billion dollars.

Moving into investment, the CMEC announced in 2013 the creation of an investment fund, based on its own equity capital and lines of credit from Chinese financial institutions.

CMEC signed a deal with Argentina in 2010 to rehabilitate the Belgrano Cargas freight network, part a series of railways that cross the central and northern parts of the country. In 2013, financing was announced for the project with a loan of USD $2.47 billion dollars from China Development Bank to finance the bulk of costs. A second deal was signed in September 2015, doubling the original investment to USD $4.8 Billion dollars.

CMEC also built and partially owns two power plants in Nigeria, the Omotosho Power Plants in Ondo State.

In January 2016, the company signed EUR 150 million euro deal with the Bosnian city, Tomislavgrad, to build a wind farm. The project was finished in 2017.

Jeff Ciachurski, CEO of Greenbriar states "CMEC has the industrial might and horsepower to build this complex solar project for the citizens of Puerto Rico that encompasses a very large DC/AC ratio and significant battery storage systems that account for up to 45% of the rated capacity, providing power long after the sun goes down. We are honoured to be working with the dedicated and professional staff at CMEC"

About Greenbriar Capital Corp:

Greenbriar is a leading developer of renewable energy and sustainable real estate. With long-term, high impact, contracted sales agreements in key project locations and led by a successful, industry-recognized operating and development team, Greenbriar targets deep valued assets directed at accretive shareholder value. Greenbriar and its financial and legal advisors have closed over $180 Billion in renewable projects since 2003.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"Jeff Ciachurski"

Jeffrey J. Ciachurski

Chief Executive Officer and Director

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release may contain forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, constitute "forward-looking statements" and include any information that addresses activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including the Company's strategy, plans or future financial or operating performance and other statements that express management's expectations or estimates of future performance.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54190
Briefing With Dr. William Walters, Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Operations, Bureau of Medical Services; Acting Assistant Secretary Alice Wells, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs; and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Ian Brownlee, Bureau of Consular Affairs On COVID-19: Updates on Health Impact and Assistance for American Citizens Abroad

Special Briefing

Dr. William Walters

Alice G. Wells, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary

Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs

Ian G. Brownlee, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary

Bureau of Consular Affairs

April 6, 2020



MR BROWN: Hey, everybody. Deputy Spokesperson Cale Brown here. Thanks for joining the call. The State Department continued its 24/7 unprecedented mission throughout this past weekend to bring Americans home from all corners of the world. We have flights coming in from Peru, India, and Egypt, among other places, and we brought home over 43,000 American citizens since January 29th.

To help us delve into some of the statistics and  we've got three briefers joining us for this on-the-record call: Ian Brownlee, our Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary from the Bureau of Consular Affairs; Dr. William Walters, Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Operations; and Alice Wells, Acting Assistant Secretary for our Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.

You've been introduced already to PDAS Brownlee and Dr. Walters. Ambassador Wells has joined the call for the first time today to shed particular light on the historic repatriation effort from South and Central Asia. Dr. Walters will begin with some opening remarks and turn it over to Ambassador Wells. Following that, PDAS Brownlee will give the latest repatriation figures. Then we'll take a few of your questions.

Dr. Walters, go ahead.

MR WALTERS: Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks again for the opportunity to brief. I want to sort of credit our health units overseas for the work they continue to do both in support of our embassy communities in over 220 locations around the world, as well as their support to the ongoing consular effort to bring American citizens home. Current cases  domestically we're looking at 41 cases and no deaths. And overseas, in our overseas community 190 cases with one additional death bring total death overseas to three, all within locally employed staff. We would like to extend our deepest condolences to the families of those as well as the extended families  embassy family and all that are impacted. That's all I have.

MR BROWN: Ambassador Wells, please, go ahead.

AMBASSADOR WELLS: Thank you, and appreciate the opportunity to update you on how we're working with our partners in the South and Central Asia region. And I'll start off with the repatriation efforts, which in our countries present unique challenges. As of today, the United States has organized 13 flights from South and Central Asia, including special flights home for about 2,900 U.S. citizens from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.

In India, we're responding to requests for assistance from thousands of Americans located in cities and villages spread across a vast area. And so far, we've supported the repatriations of about 1,300 American citizens there despite what are lockdown conditions. In Nepal, we're bringing home Americans who have been located in remote and highly mountainous areas; for some of these Americans, coming out of the mountains after two or three weeks and seeing a transformed world. In addition to the heroic work of U.S. Government personnel throughout the region, we're really very grateful to our counterparts in South and Central Asia. Whether it's local, regional, national governments, health officials, customs and migration services, law enforcement agencies, civil aviation authorities, and airport workers, it really is a team effort.

In addition to protecting U.S. citizens, the U.S. Government is leading the world's humanitarian and health assistance response to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 21 million in a first tranche has been provided to at-risk countries and peoples in South and Central Asia. But I think even more importantly, the United States has been investing in health systems across the region for decades. And it's that longstanding cooperation on health care that's the backbone of our current efforts to help SCA countries control the pandemic.

In Central Asia, our USAID and CDC regional missions are providing assistance and sharing information. In addition to the CDC regional hub in Almaty, Kazakhstan, we also have CDC offices in New Delhi, Dhaka, and Islamabad. And we're in close coordination with our South and Central Asian partners to ensure that global supply chains producing lifesaving drugs and protective equipment are optimized to meet rapidly changing needs around the world, including in the United States.

I would just add another issue we're tracking closely is food security. As countries around the world implement new measures to limit COVID, we're tracking whether interruptions to cross-border trade and logistics could threaten food security for some of the region's more vulnerable areas and groups. And we're certainly advocating that countries in the region keep their cross-border trade in basic foodstuffs and other humanitarian goods going in a safe manner so that this public health emergency doesn't become a food security emergency.

Finally, I would note we're working in close coordination with the IMF and other international financial institutions on the process of providing emergency response funding to countries in need of such support. And we're very pleased that the World Bank announced April 2nd a total of 1.9 billion in COVID-19-related emergency response loans, of which 1.46 billion will be extended to countries in South and Central Asia. The United States annually contributes nearly 16 percent of the overall World Bank funding.

For decades, really, the United States has been a reliable partner, investing in the people and economies of South and Central Asia, and we're certainly going to be there when the process of social and economic recovery begins as well. Thank you.

MR BROWNLEE: Thank you, Ambassador  oh, sorry. Thank you, Ambassador Wells. Good afternoon to you all. As you've been hearing, our repatriation efforts continued worldwide over the weekend, including flights from Peru, India, Egypt, Nepal, and Burundi, to name a few. To date we've brought back more than 45,000 Americans, about 8,000 more since I last spoke to you all last Friday, just three working days ago. These numbers represent the unprecedented and heroic efforts of department staff around the globe working to get these folks back here.

And while the demand numbers continue to fluctuate, as you've heard me say before, I can tell you that we're seeing the scales tip mightily toward the number of Americans who have been already brought home as opposed to those who still seek our assistance, which is why I want to remind everyone today that if you are an American overseas and you're still on the fence about whether to come home or not, it's time to get off that fence. Come home now or be ready to remain where you are. The Department of State always stands ready to assist our fellow citizens overseas, but we cannot guarantee that this worldwide repatriation effort will continue indefinitely. Some Americans are waiting to see how bad it's going to get before making that call. I cannot stress this enough: Make that call now.

You've heard me talk about step.state.gov. An example of why it's so important to be enrolled in our Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, or STEP: Last Friday, one of the last commercial flights out of Moscow was canceled as the flight was sitting on the tarmac waiting to take off. We're still trying to get to the bottom of what happened with that flight, but in the meantime, the U.S. embassy in Russia, including Ambassador Sullivan, have been doing a great job of communicating with U.S. citizens there about all the possibilities to come home and what the situation on the ground really is. They've been publicly updating U.S. citizens on the situation daily since March 26th. This includes important COVID-19-related information, travel restrictions, repatriation flight information, and other safety and security information. These messages are sent to all U.S. citizens enrolled in STEP at step.state.gov and are posted daily to the embassy website. Consular officers share the same information with all concerned U.S. citizens and their loved ones when they contact the embassy for assistance.

Right now we're working on over 80 flights worldwide. We're continuing to see heavy demand from South Asia, as the ambassador just said, including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. We're working to get everyone who wants to come home a seat on a plane. We've repatriated about a thousand U.S. citizens from India alone. I'm glad the ambassador can join us today to talk about how the Department of State and the U.S. Government are working with our partners in South and Central Asia to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are also still seeing continued demand from Latin America and we continue to run multiple flights a day from Central and South America. We've repatriated over 5,600 Americans from Peru alone and we're working hard to get everyone  to get  we're working hard to get more flights scheduled from there beyond today. We've got flights leaving from Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, and others this week.

The message remains the same for U.S. citizens the world over: Enroll at step.state.gov to get the latest information from us. Keep checking your embassy's website and don't put off the decision to come home until it's too late. With that, I'm happy to take your questions.

MR BROWN: Just a reminder, everybody, if you want to get into the queue to ask a question, press 1 and 0. For our first question, can you open the line of Matt Lee?

QUESTION: Hello?

MR BROWN: Go ahead, Matt.

QUESTION: Okay, you can hear me? Good. Thank you. I just have one very brief question for Doc Walters: When you talked about the deaths overseas and you said three because there was an additional one, I thought there was three last week, but then I remembered that one of them was determined not to have been COVID-related. So does this mean now, with the three that a new  there was a new fatality, and that was confirmed to be COVID? Thanks.

MR WALTERS: Yeah, Matt, that's  you got the facts right. There were  originally there was a report of three. On further details, the third case last week was found to be non-COVID-related. We regret to state that there has been a third death overseas. It's not dual reporting; it's a new fatality.

QUESTION: Okay, all right. Thank you.

MR BROWN: Okay. For our second question, can you open the line of Shaun Tandon?

QUESTION: I had a question for Assistant Secretary Wells. You're mentioning the food security issue. I was wondering if you could expand on that a little bit. You're talking about cross-border trade, how that could affect things. Are you seeing that already? Are you seeing concerns about food security, and are there particular countries that might be at risk? I guess knowing South Asia, Nepal, for example, comes to mind with lots of the cross-border trade with India. Are there particular points of concern that you see with food security? Thanks.

AMBASSADOR WELLS: It's an issue that we're watching throughout the region, because it's natural as countries close  go into lockdown in response to COVID that unintended consequences can happen as countries prioritize domestic consumption, the repercussion or potential repercussion of those decisions.

And so whether it's the Government of Kazakhstan temporarily or potentially rationing exports of wheat and wheat flour, whether it's the closure of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, whether it's blockages that have taken place on other borders in the region, our encouragement to all is to manage the trade, to keep trade open to vital necessities, and to do this in a cooperative spirit. We all share the same health concerns and have to meet also the basic needs of our populace, and so this is an issue that we're engaging on, again, throughout the broader South and Central Asia region. Over.

MR BROWN: Thanks. For the next question, can you open the line of Kim Dozier?

QUESTION: Thanks for doing this, and sorry I missed the top of the call. I wanted to ask particularly about Afghanistan. I know the World Bank has pledged 100 million in aid and the U.S. has offered 15 million in aid to fight COVID-19, but I've had economists tell me that the budget could be up to 2 billion that should be spent. Also, I heard from Afghan officials that they haven't had clarified to them what the U.S. aid cut of $1 billion will cover. Can you clarify?

AMBASSADOR WELLS: Sure. So I'll leave broader issues of specific aid cuts to the Secretary, who will be speaking tomorrow, I understand. But the needs of the countries are  we're at the preliminary stages of assessing the needs. And just as the needs in our own country are going to be extraordinary, so are they going to be extraordinarily globally. And so we're pleased to see that the IMF, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, likeminded partners, that everybody needs to step up and to be able to provide assistance as countries deal with both the humanitarian response to the pandemic but then the knock-on effects to the economy.

Afghanistan is particularly vulnerable. This is a country where over 50 percent live below the poverty line, where you've had hundreds of thousands of Afghan citizens return from Iran, and more recently returning from Iran under conditions where they may have been carrying the virus with them. And so Afghanistan is able to draw on what has been the two decades of infrastructure that's been built up with the significant help of the United States. We're certainly  and our assistance to the health care sector in Afghanistan is substantial. Our liaison with Afghanistan both through the CDC and USAID is also substantial.

And so when the Secretary traveled to Kabul and announced that we would be reducing our assistance to Afghanistan as a result of a failure of political leaders to come together to form an  to reach an agreement on an inclusive governing arrangement, at the same time he announced $15 million to directly respond to  to enhance the government's ability to detect the disease. So we've never walked away from the Afghan people, but we certainly have deep concerns over the failure of the political leadership to rise to the challenge not just of war and peace, but also now this pandemic. Over.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR BROWN: Okay. For the next question, can we go to the line of Lalit Jha?

QUESTION: Hi, thank you for doing this call. I wanted to ask a few questions, one about the  do you have the exact figures for repatriation from India and how many more American citizens from India are willing to come back to the U.S.?

And to Ambassador Wells, about hydroxychloroquine the President spoke about, he requesting  making a request to the Indian prime minister about orders that has been put on hold. Do you know what the quantity of that order is, and have the Indians agreed to release those quantities to India, not to the U.S.?

AMBASSADOR WELLS: As I said in my remarks, I mean, about 1,300 American citizens have been brought back as of last night, and we have five additional flights scheduled this week. It's difficult to say with any certainty how many Americans intend or need assistance in repatriating to the United States. We've had over 7,000 register with the U.S. embassy and consulate.

But when it's the day of or the day before a flight and we're assembling a flight list, significant numbers of Americans choose not to take the seat that's made available to them, and they have a variety of reasons for that: their own assessment of the domestic situation, their own family obligations. I can't judge their decision making. But as Deputy Assistant Secretary Brownlee said, this is a time when we need Americans to make the decision.

So we will work through the five scheduled flights that we have, and I would note that these flights often require subsidiary flights, flights from other cities in India to reach either Delhi or Mumbai. And we'll continue that work and then assess the situation as we move forward.

On pharmaceuticals and supply chain, I think you received a very strong sort of affirmation in the call between the prime minister and the President yesterday of the fact that the U.S. and India need to work together to respond to the COVID challenge, to be a solution to the threat posed by the virus. And so India has long been a significant partner of the United States and the pharmaceutical sector. It's one of our top imports from India in 2018. India is obviously one of the world's leaders in the supply of generic drugs. It represents a significant portion of the precursor pharmaceuticals that supply the U.S. market.

And so we expect this kind of cooperation to continue, and as India analyzes what it needs for its domestic market and as we seek to grow the volume of drugs and PPE that are available both in the United States and also globally to respond to COVID. Over.

MR BROWN: Great. For the next question, can we go to the line of Courtney McBride?

QUESTION: PDAS Brownlee, you said the demand figures are fluctuating, but can you give us a sense of how many Americans roughly are still seeking assistance or how many are manifested for upcoming flights? And are there particular countries that are still challenging?

MR BROWNLEE: Yeah. Thank you very much, Courtney, for that question. As the ambassador just said, we had multiple thousands who, when we put  in India when we put the call out for expressions of interest in a flight, and yet over this weekend, our staff in India literally cold-called 800 people asking if they wanted to get on a flight today. We got 10 positive responses, 10 out of 800 calls. So that's just an indication of the uncertainty of some of these numbers we're looking at.

With that caveat in mind, let me say we're tracking about 24,000, maybe 25,000 people who have still  who are on our list as having expressed some interest. We're finding the same sort of thing in Peru  I think I've mentioned to you guys before  we literally had people show up at the airport, suitcase in hand, ready to get on an airplane, and then say, "No, I think I'm going to ride it out here." So very difficult to say for sure. The number we're tracking is in that range, 24, 25,000, and we'll see what happens as we go forward. Over.

MR BROWN: Thanks. For the next question, let's open the line of Robbie Gramer.

QUESTION: Hi, thanks so much for doing this. For Assistant Secretary Wells, you mentioned Afghans coming over the border from Iran. So based on what you're tracking, is Iran actively expelling these hundreds of thousands of Afghans or are they going of their own volition? And what type of risk does this mass movement pose to Afghanistan, both for the health of the population but also for the fragile political situation there? Thanks.

AMBASSADOR WELLS: I have no information suggesting that Afghans are being expelled from Iran. I think what we've seen over the course of the  over  of the last year or longer, far before the emergence of COVID, a return of Afghan nationals to Afghanistan as a result of the worsening economic conditions inside of Iran. And then with the outbreak of what we understand to be a sort of a virulent outbreak of COVID-19 inside of Iran, an intensified flow of Afghans across the border, so  particularly into Herat, but then obviously with the ability to spread through and to travel throughout Afghanistan.

So it does pose a challenge to Afghanistan. The regulation of the border is not such that everybody can be quarantined. The capacity is not such that everybody can be traced, and so Afghanistan has to deal with what is a potentially quite destabilizing injection of the disease into the body  the body politic. And I think you've seen President Ghani speak to this publicly. You've seen the Government of Afghanistan institute measures to try to impose greater social distancing and lockdown in Herat and in other areas of the country. It is difficult in a country with a high degree of insecurity and low levels of literacy to be able to put out the public messages as effectively sometimes as the government would like. And so, the cases have increased in Afghanistan and  like every country in the world, and the Government of Afghanistan is now left to struggle with the ramifications of it.

MR BROWN: Okay. We have one more question in the queue. Might have time for another if someone wants to queue in, but please open the line of Said Arikat.

QUESTION: Thank you. I have one quick question. I know you talked about repatriating Americans from overseas. First of all, you mentioned the window  a window while they can. Is that window going to close at any time soon? And the second part of this question: There are literally tens of thousands of Saudi students, for instance, in the United States. Is the department helping the repatriating them to Saudi Arabia or a similar condition  similar situation? Thank you.

MR BROWNLEE: Thank you, Said, for your question. Ian Brownlee here. There is no single date on which the window will close. We are looking at this country by country, and as we find that the demand for assistance in returning to the United States diminishes to almost nothing, we are terminating  we are preparing to terminate flights chartered by the State Department from those countries. At the same time, we are working closely through our Economic Bureau with the commercial carriers to assist them in restoring or in setting up commercial options coming from those countries. We've been quite successful in this regard in central and northern South America, and we are hoping to expand this, this facilitation of the restoration of commercial flights through other areas. So while the State Department's chartered flights are not going to go on indefinitely, while they are going to come to an end at certain dates around the world in different countries, we are seeking to move to provide that commercial service thereafter. Over.

Oh, I'm sorry, with regard to  maybe Ambassador Wells can speak better to the situation of Saudi citizens in the United States. I can tell you the repatriation task force is focused on bringing U.S. citizens to the United States. Over.

AMBASSADOR WELLS: Sorry, I don't have Saudi in my gambit, so I'm not able to speak to their situation. Over.

MR BROWNLEE: You're  I apologize, Ambassador.

MR BROWN: I can take that as a taken question. We'll get back to you, Said. All right, that looks like all the questions we have for today. Thanks, everybody, for joining. And thank you to our briefers for taking the time out of their busy day to talk to each of us. This is the end of the call. Contents of the embargo  of the call are lifted. Thanks again for joining.

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Elaine Donnaud Boudreau died on March 30, 2020. She was 93 years old and prepared to take her final bow. So prepared, shed picked out a pink outfit to wear at her funeral and, with tongue in cheek, had penned her own newspaper death notice.

Hi Everyone, she wrote. I've decided to write my own obituary.

Boudreau was born the year Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, Henry Ford introduced the Model A, and Huey P. Long ran for governor.

I never thought I would live to be this old, Boudreau wrote.

She and her late husband Herman were married for 61 years. They raised one daughter and three sons, who could be a real pain in the (a__) neck sometimes, she wrote.

There will be no beloved, adored, cherished, etc. in this obit, she wrote, making it understood that she intended to steer clear of sappiness. I know my kids know I love them without all that!

Yet despite the seeming lack of sentimentality, Boudreaus obituary radiated the warmth she felt for her daughter and three sons, her gaggle of grandchildren (17), great grandchildren (17) and her old and new friends.

+28 A coronavirus-era New Orleans wedding includes a cardboard family, beer waterfall and Zoom It wasnt your usual wedding. The grooms folks couldnt be there in person because of fears of traveling during the coronavirus crisis, so th

Boudreaus obit included a shout-out to her buddies at dining room table 25 in the assisted living facility where she spent her last years. Thanks, she wrote, to somebody named Tilly, who helped make her feel like she was on vacation every day.

Its unclear if Tilly was one of Boudreaus companions who joined her on her regular monthly excursions to the Treasure Chest Casino or other gambling establishments.

Please put my casino (reward) cards in my casket, she wrote in her lively self-eulogy, in case they have slot machines in heaven. Cha-ching!

In an interview, Boudreaus daughter Karen Boudreau Brechtel said that once her mom shocked her by announcing that shed hit an $11,000 jackpot playing the slots. She was full of surprises. The contents of her obituary included.

Im not sure any of us actually read it until she passed away, said Brechtel. We were like, Wow! I guess she wanted to put it out there in black and white.

Brechtel said that mom grew up in the Carrollton neighborhood and graduated from Eleanor McMain High School. She married Herman Boudreau who worked for a window washing company by day and put himself through Tulane University with eleven years of night classes. Elaine raised the kids, babysat the grand kids and kept the couples Metairie home until the Boudreaus reached retirement age, when they became world travelers.

The only continent we missed was Antarctica, Boudreau wrote in her obit, which was published in The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate on Tuesday. We rode elephants in Thailand, walked the Great Wall of China (not all of it), and went down into the Great Barrier Reef. What a blast!

Our travels stopped when Herman died in 2009, she wrote.

Brechtel said that when her mom turned 90 she decided to move into an assisted living community, where she was soon crowned the institutions Mardi Gras queen. She was known as the skirt lady, because she insisted on a skirt and sweater combo, eschewing long pants.

Boudreau had taken a bad fall at about the time the virus started hitting New Orleans. As she was being treated for a hematoma in her leg, Brechtel said, pneumonia set in. Brechtel said doctors told her it wasnt caused by the coronavirus; she tested negative for that. But the pandemic still played a role in her last days.

Her family moved her out of the assisted care facility because they wanted to be sure she was with a family member in case visits were prohibited because of the contagion. Retirement homes have become hot spots, where the virus preyed on the elderly and ill.

When Boudreau passed away, Brechtel said, one of her brothers went back to her room in the assisted care community to find the pink skirt and top shes picked out, but he couldnt find it. So the family scared up a substitute.

Ten loved ones attended Boudreaus funeral service on Tuesday.

See you in heaven and God Bless, she wrote at the conclusion of her obit.
Google Maps

San Antonio police are searching for three men after numerous houses were shot at on the East Side early Monday morning.

Witnesses said three men in a silver SUV pulled up to the 200 block of Beaver Lane just before 2 a.m. and one of the men started shooting at houses, police said.
For the first time since Israels establishment in 1948, the country will soon be ruled by two prime ministers: the first, Benjamin Netanyahu, will be the active prime minister over the coming 18 months, while the second, Benjamin Benny Gantz will be the designated prime minister in rotation and replace Netanyahu in September or October 2021. Both Benjamins will enjoy the same government perks: an official residence underwritten by the government, a fleet of official automobiles, a Shin Bet security detail and more.

To prevent Netanyahu from reneging on the rotation agreement and actually allowing Gantz to assume the premiership, an unprecedented rotation law will codify the process and put it on automatic pilot. When voting on the government, Knesset members will authorize the process, including blocking the possibility of changing it. Netanyahu and Gantz will both be sworn in as prime minister, the only difference being that one will begin work immediately and the other one later.

A date will be determined for the exchange of roles, and on it the switch will take place without the need for another vote or any kind of confirmation. On that date, Gantz will become prime minister of Israel, and Netanyahu becomes his substitute. Also according to the agreement in the making, each of the two leaders can fire ministers, but only those on their side. Netanyahu could fire or replace ministers from the right-wing/ultra-Orthodox bloc that he heads, while Gantz could do the same to ministers from Blue and White and the Labor Party entering the coalition with him.

A variety of other political innovations, contrivances and special procedures were devised in addition to those above to convince Gantz that Netanyahu has no intention of fooling him. These should also convince Netanyahu's wife, Sara, that her status will not be adversely affected after the rotation. That is, she will be able to continue as the prime ministers wife, with all the requisite perks.

Befitting Israel's status as a start-up nation, it has outdone itself on new format, stretching political creativity beyond previously imagined limits. In addition to the innovations involving the premiership, the government will have 30 ministers at the outset and later increase to 34. This is to alleviate the pressure for portfolios that senior members of the Likud and the right are putting on Netanyahu. Thus, the next government will not only be the strangest and most complicated in Israels history, it will also be the biggest.

For the moment, negotiations are once again on the shoals, with the signing of the far-fetched agreement further delayed. At the last minute, Netanyahu regretted forfeiting control of the judicial system and demanded veto power over appointments to the High Court of Justice. Meanwhile, Blue and White has been congratulating itself over the very significant negotiating achievement of gaining control over the composition of the Judicial Appointments Committee.

The assumption is that the two sides will somehow resolve the issue over the judiciary and ultimately sign the agreement. The last thing Gantz needs is a fourth election campaign after Blue and White crumbled in his hands and split into two competing parties. Netanyahu, on the other hand, is toying with the idea of a fourth election, mainly due to very positive polling. He knows, however, that elections can be tricky: you know where you stand when you enter them, but you can't predict where you'll be standing afterward.

Gantz dismantled Blue and White only after much soul-searching. He decided to believe Netanyahu and therefore violated his campaign promises: He tried initially to establish a government with the help of the Arab Joint List despite his promise not to do so. After that, he agreed to serve under Netanyahu for a year and a half even though he had promised never to do so. Gantz defends himself by arguing that he did not violate his most important campaign promise, which is also the motto of the party he founded: Israel is above all.

Gantz believes that under the current circumstances and in light of the coronavirus crisis, Israel urgently needs a unity government. That is why he went along with the deal. Instead of his promise to bring down Netanyahu in one fell swoop in the elections, Gantz now talks about replacing Netanyahu within a drawn out time frame, through rotation instead of a quick political beheading, slowly pushing him out. Meanwhile, Netanyahu has the opportunity to slowly exit center stage. He can negotiate a lenient plea bargain with the attorney general from the position of prime minister. It is better than nothing and better than another round of elections, Gantz says.

Yair Lapid and Moshe Yaalon, Gantzs former Blue and White partners, are furious over Gantz's deal, which, they say, was done behind their backs. Gantz has also created another new enemy: Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman, the architect of the previous plan to oust Netanyahu.

If they would have given me the keys and followed my plan, Netanyahu would have been replaced quickly, or at least reached the coalition negotiation table in a weakened state, Liberman told Al-Monitor. All that was needed was to take control of the Knesset [through house committees] and have the plenum adopt legislation that would prevent tasking an indicted person with composing a government. That would have pressured Netanyahu and averted a fourth election. But these generals [Gantz and his partner Gabi Ashkenazi, a former military chief of staff ] are not as smart as they think. In politics, they are absolute rookies.

This week, Gantz made the hardest decision of his life, harder than any decision he made as an officer or even as chief of staff. He now faces furious friends and quite a number of voters who believed in him. Gantz, however, is determined not to give up midway. If negotiations ultimately fail, he will find himself thrown under the political bus. It will mark the end of his political career. If real negotiations take place, and the zany government described here becomes a reality, then the chances of Gantz becoming Israels prime minister in about a year and a half will be quite high. In that case, Gantz will have the chance to jump-start his political career and do what only one other person in Israel, Ehud Barak in 1999, has managed to do before him: replace Netanyahu in the role of prime minister.
The Shiv Sena on Tuesday said the



war against coronavirus cannot be won by clapping, clanging of plates or lighting of lamps.

People "misconstrued" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal, an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said, adding that Modi should clearly spell out what it expected from citizens and those not obeying orders should be punished.

Modi last week appealed to people to defeat the coronavirus by switching off lights in their homes for nine minutes at 9 pm on Sunday amid the nationwide lockdown.

People across the country enthusiastically responded by lighting candles and diyas, and flashing lights of their mobile phones in balconies and in front of their houses.

Modi earlier urged people to observe 'Janta Curfew' on March 22, and come out briefly at their main doors and in balconies to show gratitude to health and other essential service providers, who at the forefront of the battle against coronavirus, with claps, sounds of bells and conches.

Taking a dim view of Modi's appeals, the Shiv Sena said, "Claps, thalis and lights...like this we will lose the war. There are many aspects to how people responded to these appeals. Citizens misconstrued the prime minister's appeal...either the PM cannot communicate with citizens or he himself wants such a festive atmosphere."



It said Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has been urging people to maintain self-discipline, and communicating with them while ensuring there is no confusion.

"In the fight against coronavirus, you need such a commander. We lost the Panipat battle because of rumours and lack of planning. The war against coronavirus should not end up like that and people of the state shouldn't meet the fate of Sadashivrao bhau (Marathaarmy commander in Panipat battle)," the Marathi daily said.

It said the prime minister should clearly tell people what is expected from them.

"Those who don't obey should be punished. It is not that only Markaz (referring to Tablighi Jamaat's congregation in Delhi last month) breaks rules. Are those blaming the Markaz for the coronavirus spread themselves maintaining discipline and social distancing?" it asked.

The Sena cricitised incidents of people coming out on streets with candles, torches and mobile phones and dancing, and said due to bursting of crackers there was a fire incident in Solapur.

In Wardha, BJP MLA Dadarao Keche celebrated his birthday (during the lockdown) and more than 200 people gathered for the party, it noted.

The Sena also pointed out similar incidents in other parts of the country, including that of a BJP women's wing leader at Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh firing in the air to 'chase away' the coronavirus.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Africa will not be used as a testing ground for COVID-19 vaccine. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreye...

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Africa will not be used as a testing ground for COVID-19 vaccine.





Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said this during a media briefing on Monday.





The director-general was reacting to statements credited to Jean Paul Mira and Camille Locht, two French doctors, who were seen on television discussing Africa as best destination to conduct test for COVID-19 vaccine.





The two doctors cited the use of prostitutes in Africa to carry out vaccine test for the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) as an example.

Mira, head of the resuscitation department at Cochin Hospital, also said the continent should be considered because of its perceived toughness to disease outbreaks.





But Ghebreyesus, an Ethiopian, described the statement as racist and a hangover of colonial mentality.





He condemned the statement, saying it is a disgrace on scholars in the 21st century.





The WHO director-general said the continent will not be used for such a experiment except in line with the rules governing test of vaccine all over the world.





Africa cant and wont be a testing ground for any vaccine. We will follow all the rules to test any vaccine or therapeutics all over the world using exactly the same rule, whether it is in Europe, Africa or wherever, we will use the same protocol, he said.





It was a disgrace, appalling, to hear during the 21st Century, to hear from scientists, that kind of remark. We condemn this in the strongest terms possible, and we assure you that this will not happen.
Reuters/Amit Dave

Mumbai's civic body, the Brihanmumbai Corporation (BMC) has said that it has identified over 241 containment zones in Mumbai, and also said that it would be disallowing vegetable vendors to operate in these zones.

The civic body has said that people continue to throng vegetable vendors, risking the spread of infections.

Track this blog for latest updates on coronavirus outbreak

Mumbai on April 7 reported over 100 fresh Coronavirus cases and five deaths. Till now, the city has reported over 590 cases and 40 deaths.

The civic body also said that special clinics have been established around the containment zones by doctors, nurses and lab technicians.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra reached 1,018, with 150 fresh cases being reported today. The total number of cases across the country rose to 4,789 with 124 total deaths.
The U.S. cut its 2020 oil production forecast by more than 1 million barrels a day, as collapsing crude prices and plummeting demand threaten to shutter production in the countrys biggest fields.

Production is expected to average 11.76 million barrels a day through December, down from a previous forecast of 12.99 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday. The agency also trimmed its 2021 output expectations by 1.6 million barrels a day to just over 11 million daily barrels.

The report comes just days before OPEC, Russia and other producers meet to negotiate a round of coordinated output curbs meant to stem crudes historic plunge. President Donald Trump, who has been trying to broker a deal to end the price war between the Saudis and Russians, faces pressure from his counterparts to join in a global supply-cut agreement after prices plunged to their lowest levels in almost two decades.

TUMBLING NUMBERS: Rig count posts largest single-week drop since 2015, Texas leads declines

The latest forecasts reinforce comments that Trump made just a day ago about low oil prices already forcing U.S. oil producers to cut back.

The cuts are automatic if youre a believer in markets, he told reporters late Monday. Theyre already cutting. If you look, theyre cutting back. Its the market. Its demand. Its supply and demand. Theyre already cutting back and theyre cutting back very seriously.

Massive surplus

The EIA also slashed its 2020 global petroleum supply forecast by 2.7 million barrels a day, and reported a looming supply surplus of 11.4 million daily barrels in the second quarter. That would eclipse the 10 million barrel-a-day production cut Trump has suggested OPEC+ shoulder in a bid to resuscitate the market.

The agencys 2021 forecast bottoms out at 10.91 million barrels a day in March 2021. That would amount to a production cut of almost 2 million barrels a day from the all-time high of 12.87 million barrels in November 2019.

The Energy Department attributed its gloomy production outlook to unprecedented worldwide demand impacts of Covid-19 coupled with the disruptive actions of the ongoing dispute between OPEC + nations, agency spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said in a statement. The Secretary is confident that both of these forces are temporary, and the market will recover, she said, referring to Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette.

The market rout -- spurred by coronavirus-related lockdowns and a price war for market share between the Saudis and Russians -- has already forced shale explorers to pare back their budgets. With storage rapidly filling up and nowhere for excess barrels to go, some companies are already starting to shut in wells.

Net importer

The U.S. oil industry is being wrestled to the ground by the Russians and Saudis, Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts, said before the report was released. Involuntary participation is the best way to put it.

EIA forecasts that the U.S. will return to being a net importer of crude oil and petroleum products in the third quarter of 2020 and remain a net importer in most months through the end of the forecast period. The agency expects Brent, the global benchmark crude, to average $33.04 a barrel this year, down from earlier expectations of $43.30.

The U.S. will join in a discussion of energy ministers from the Group of 20 industrialized nations on Friday that will follow the OPEC + meeting, the Energy Department said.
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The heart of American cities was cut open by Interstate roads built in a $521 billion project to connect the country, a stunning picture gallery has revealed.

Thousands were displaced as the roads cut through cities including Cincinnati, Rochester and Oakland from 1951, leading to protests and possibly fueling the civil rights movement and formation of the Black Panther Party.

Dwight Eisenhower ordered the construction of the 46,876 miles of road in the 34-year initiative in a project that saw many drawn away from America's center to its coastal edges.

Professor Nathaniel Baum-Snow, from the University of Toronto, told the Visual Capitalist that the roads led to the decline of central cities population by 17 per cent at a time when metropolitan areas were growing by 72 per cent. By 1990, upon completion of the roads, less than a third of all jobs were located in the centre.

He suggests that if the roads had never been built central cities would have grown by 8 per cent.

The gallery of aerial photos showing a birds-eye view of how cities have changed since the 1930s was put together by the Institute for Quality Communities.

Rochester: 1951 to 2014

The city's downtown was surrounded by a ring-road as construction got underway in the 1950s, with the ability to carry up to 10,000 cars a day on its Eastern side.

The New York region city, on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, was turned into one of America's first boomtowns by the construction, as people were able to travel there from across the country.

The highway wasn't popular however and, in 2017, authorities completed a $22million Inner Loop East Highway Removal Project, which saw up to a mile of the old freeway buried beneath the ground.

The six-acres that were freed up have since being the subject of several planning proposals aiming to enhance the standard of living in the area.

 Slide me  Rochester saw its downtown area surrounded by a freeway in Dwight Eisenhower's road construction plan

Providence: 1955 to 2013

The beating heart of Downtown Providence was sliced in half by the highway project, as this map clearly shows.

The Rhode Island capital saw hundreds of homes and businesses removed in the construction of the I-95. The southern area was also cleared to make way for a medical campus and parking facility.

In 2013 Providence launched the $610 million Iway project, which worked to relocate I-195 and I-95 to free up space in the downtown's jewelry district. Authorities also ordered a signature pedestrian bridge over the river to be built.

 Slide me  Providence has launched the $610 million Iway project to relocate the I-195 and I-95 freeways running through the city

Detroit: 1951 to 2010

Vast swathes of the Mid-western city were cleared for highway spurs and large-scale redevelopments, leaving its downtown area encircled by highways.

Recently, however, city authorities have taken action to remove a confusing intersection and replace it with the Campus Martius Park, which opened in 2004.

They have also been looking at removing or pedestrianizing the I-395 since 2014, due to the high crash rate, although a decision has not yet been made.

 Slide me  Detroit has set about transforming its city scape following the completion of its freeway roads connecting it to the country

Cincinnati: 1955 to 2013

The city's dense urban neighborhoods were completely destroyed in the west and downtown areas in order to make way for the giant Interstate highways.

The building project also saw the Ohio city's riverfront completely cut off from the downtown area, Fort Washington Way.

To rectify this, authorities proposed a $91million redevelopment plan in 1996, aiming to remove the highway to create 300 apartments, 76,000 square feet of commercial space and 6,000 parking spaces.

The project did so well it was expanded to a phase two, which included a further 300 apartments and offices totalling 60,000 square feet of commercial space.

 Slide me  Cincinnati, in Ohio, saw the clearance of hundreds of homes to make way for the city's freeways

Miami: 1961 to 2014

The Florida capital saw a boom thanks to the highways, as people flocked to the coastal areas. Its center was not left immune to the highways, however, as one was cut right through the middle cutting off its coastal and central areas.

A bridge was also constructed linking the city by road to a nearby island

The Institute says the roads led to the construction of 83 tower blocks and 23,000 condos in the city prior to the housing crash.

 Slide me  Miami benefited from the construction of the freeways and saw people flock to the city along with further construction work

Oakland: 1946 to 2014

This central Californian city saw its downtown neighborhoods cut apart by the I-980 and Nimitz Freeway when they were constructed, displacing many in the Latino and African-American communities.

The social disturbance caused by the highways may have led to the city's position at the heart of the Black Panther Party, which patrolled African-American areas to protect residents from the police before developing Marxist ideological undertones.

Opposition locally to the protect was so strong that developers initially abandoned construction in 1971, only to return to complete it a decade later.
Francis Conole is a candidate for Congress in New Yorks 24th District. He is an Iraq War veteran, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, a Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserves, and a Central New York native.

By Francis Conole | Special to Syracuse.com

Throughout my career in the military, I confronted a range of dynamic challenges that taught me how to respond to crisis situations. From serving on the ground in Iraq to navigating the high seas of the Persian Gulf to advising the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon, I learned key lessons that can be applied to confronting the unprecedented public health and economic emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On my second deployment on the USS Carney, I was responsible for training the crew on how to respond to damage and leading the response during crisis situations. On one fateful evening, our ship encountered a heavy storm with high seas, and began taking on an array of damage. Flooding. Fires. Freon leak. Everything was going wrong at once.

Right now, we face a global pandemic and national crisis, and everything feels like it is going wrong all at once. Now more than ever, our country needs real leadership in Washington that will put politics aside and rapidly respond to protect the American people. In the military, we confront crises through the framework of first, accurately and honestly assessing the situation and then, building the tactical, operational and strategic level plans and responses. We need to take immediate action to confront this public health and economic crisis using that same model.

First and foremost, leaders must take accurate stock of the crisis and honestly communicate to the American people. In January, scientists sounded the alarm bells about the oncoming pandemic. President Trump and his administration lost months minimizing the threat, calling it a hoax, blaming others, and overselling the efficacy of the White Houses polices. The cost of this incompetence and willful misinformation will be devastating for so many Americans.

At the tactical level, the federal government must do whatever it takes to meet the immediate public health needs and confront the growing economic fallout. Trump and his administration continue to downplay the size and scope of the needs of health care workers and other essential workers on the front lines of fighting this virus. In the military, we knew that we were backed by the most powerful country in the world and would almost always have the tools and protection we needed to accomplish our mission  our health care workers should have the same support, tools, and protection.

It infuriates me to think that our hospital workers, EMS and police, hardworking people caring for our seniors, or anyone in Central New York having to put themselves and others at risk due to a failure of our federal government to provide them with adequate protective equipment.

New York City is the epicenter of the virus, and its an all hands-on deck moment to immediately ramp up production of COVID-19 test kits, protective masks, shields and gear, as well as ventilators and hospital bed capacity to arm our doctors, nurses, scientists and first responders across the state with the tools they need fighting this virus.

The president must invoke the Defense Production Act  as he previously has hundreds of thousands of times for our military  not just for ventilators, but for all the tactical supplies needed by our health care workers.

At the operational level, we will need a coordinated full-scale public health and economic response plan. The plan will take the entire government working together and bringing together our public and private sector. It should deploy all the resources we have available to exponentially expand testing, meet the needs of our healthcare workers, and expand financial relief to small business and our hard-working families.

Last week, Washington finally took some steps to address these extraordinary health care and economic challenges, but it was long past time for Trump and Congress to act and doesnt focus enough on the working families here in Central New York that need the most help.

We need an unprecedented, multi-pronged economic response that sustains robust unemployment insurance, supports small businesses with relief and tax credits, and invests more in our food assistance programs. It is critical for leaders to prioritize the needs of working people, not bailouts for the wealthy and corporations.

Once our country has navigated out of the immediate public health and economic crisis every family is facing right now, we then need to turn our attention to the strategic plans to build a brighter future here in Central New York and across the country. This means strengthening our middle class by eliminating tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, investing in our infrastructure and clean energy, and expanding vocational job training for two-year degrees that make good paying jobs accessible and gives everyone the opportunity to succeed.

Right now, our country is facing a crisis the scales of which we have not seen in over 100 years, and there is no question the journey forward will be tough. For decades, as Central New Yorkers, we have faced tough challenges and have overcome each of them. With the power of American ingenuity and an immeasurable capacity for human kindness we, both as a community and a country, will beat COVID-19. And it starts with real leadership that takes immediate action at the tactical, operation, and strategic levels  the same formula our military uses to confront dangerous crises.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

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Photo: Rosie Greenway/Getty Images

Honor Blackman, best known for her turn as Pussy Galore in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, has died at the age of 94. According to the Guardian, Blackmans family confirmed her death on Monday. She died peacefully of natural causes at her home in Lewes, Sussex, surrounded by her family, they told the Guardian. She was much loved and will be greatly missed by her two children Barnaby and Lottie, and grandchildren Daisy, Oscar, Olive and Toby.

Before fans memorialized the British actress as a beloved Bond Girl across from Sean Connerys 007, Blackman joined The Avengers as anthropologist/judo champ Cathy Gale in 1962, a role she left after two seasons to do Goldfinger, much to the dismay of viewers. Her back-to-back action roles and judo training also inspired a book, 1966s Honor Blackmans Book of Self-Defense.

The actress would go on to a prolific career, both on the screen and on the stage, with roles ranging from Hera in 1963s Jason and the Argonauts to Laura West on 90s sitcom The Upper Hand, the British adaptation of Whos the Boss?, as well as turns on Doctor Who and Coronation Street. In 2001s Bridget Joness Diary, Blackman cameoed as Penny Husbands-Bosworth, a guest at the films Tarts And Vicars party with whom Bridgets father hopelessly attempts to flirt.
Hyderabad, April 7 : Telugu superstar Vijay Deverakonda has urged fans to use homemade masks and continue to remain safe at home.

"My loves, hope you are all staying safe. Cloth face covering will help slow disease spread. Leave the medical masks for doctors and instead, use handkerchief, use a scarf of your mom's chunni. Cover your face, stay safe. #MaskIndia," the actor wrote in his new Instagram post.

My loves,

Hope you are all staying safe



Cloth face covering will help slow disease spread.



Leave the medical masks for doctors and instead

Use a handkerchief

Use a scarf or

Use your mom's Chunni.



Cover your face, stay safe.#MaskIndia pic.twitter.com/8Zv2uNdP5a  Vijay Deverakonda (@TheDeverakonda) April 7, 2020

Vijay Deverakonda's view comes at a time when medical professionals are taking to social media, complaining about the lack of PPEs and masks.

Deverakonda isn't the only star to request fans to stay at home. From Chiranjeevi to Mahesh Babu, the biggest Tollywood stars are posting messages and videos asking fans to follow safety. Chiranjeevi even appeared in a video featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Mohanlal, Sivarajkumar and Mammootty which was shot separately in their respective homes. It gave the message to stay home and stay safe.

On the film front, Vijay Deverakonda has shot a majority portion for his Bollywood debut opposite Ananya Panday. Directed by Puri Jagannath, the film is set to be wrapped up in 2020.

-- Syndicated from IANS
Pregnancy has always been a fraught time for women, said Jean Tornatore, medical director of labor and delivery at Bridgeport Hospital. During the COVID-19 pandemic, its become even more so.

Theres a lot of anticipation that goes into this event, Tornatore said. Having (this crisis) injected into their plans for (childbirth) is extremely anxiety-provoking.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, its unknown whether pregnant women have a greater chance of getting sick from COVID-19 than the general public, or if they are more likely to get a serious illness if infected. However, the CDC also reported that pregnant women are at greater risk for getting infections in general, and that they have a higher risk of severe illness when infected with other coronaviruses, the virus family of which COVID-19 is a member.

Because the pandemic is ever-changing, Tornatore and other experts said there isnt a lot of information for obstetrician-gynecologists to reference.

The understanding of this virus and pregnancy is evolving as we speak, said Dr. Patrice Gillotti, vice chair of Danbury Hospitals Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. What we know to date: it has not been shown to be passed on vertically from mother to fetus. The virus has not been recovered in breastmilk or amniotic fluid.

Gillotti said the largest group in the United States that has been reported on is a group of 43 obstetrics patients in New York. In this group, the severity of the disease appeared to be similar to non-pregnant patients with the vast majority having mild disease and only 5 percent critical. The numbers are small, but thats all we have to date, Gillotti said.

Though much of the information has been positive, this is still a hard time to be an expectant mother, said Dr. Christian Pettker, chief of obstetrics at Yale New Haven Hospital. A lot of women are worried about getting a disease and having complications in their pregnancies, he said. And a lot are worried about coming to the hospital at all, because they think they might get infected.

To help alleviate this anxiety, Pettker said, the hospital has stepped up the use of telehealth services for appointments that dont require women to actually be in the hospital. Also, patients, doctors and any labor partner all must wear masks.

Over the past week, hospitals in the Yale New Haven Health system  which includes Bridgeport Hospital, Greenwich Hospital and Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London in addition to Yale New Haven Hospital  have moved toward testing all asymptomatic women for COVID-19 at labor.

If women have symptoms, they can get tested earlier, but Tornatore said there was reluctance to test asymptomatic women too early, because if they received a negative result, it might give them false confidence, which could lead to them getting infected after all.

Mostly, Tornatore said, doctors are just trying to take care of women at a time when theyve always been vulnerable, but are even more so now.

We are in an unfortunate situation where were kind of within something where there isnt a lot of information to look back on, Tornatore said.
An 84-year-old Culpeper man has died after a Sunday morning crash in Orange County, according to Virginia State Police.

The single-vehicle crash occurred at 6 a.m. on State Route 692 near Dowdy Lane, police stated in a news release. A 1988 GMC pickup was traveling east on Saint Just Road when the driver lost control, ran off the right side of the roadway, and collided with a tree, police said.

The driver of the GMC, William A. Brill, suffered life-threatening injuries and was transported to VCU Medical Center in Richmond. Brill later succumbed to his injuries, police said.

Police said the driver was not wearing a seat belt. The Virginia State Police was assisted by the Mine Run Fire Department and Orange County EMS.

Staff report
Vietnams Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs donated 550,000 cloth face masks to the ambassadors of five European countries to help them fight the novel coronavirusat a ceremony organized in Hanoi on Tuesday, according to the World & Vietnam Report.

The Vietnamese-made face masks, which can bar droplets, were given to the diplomats from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK, all presently battered by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the World & Vietnam Report, which is the official press agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reported.

The ceremony was attended by representatives from the Government Office, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the ambassadors of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK, and the head of the EU delegation to Vietnam.

The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted sufferings on the global community, including Europe, Deputy Minister Dung was quoted as saying.

The Vietnamese government has shared part of its resources with the said countries in hopes that they will get over the current challanges, he said.

No country can deal with this global health crisis alone, the Vietnamese diplomat remarked, adding that unity and cooperation are integral to protecting the health and safety of the people and helping cushion the immense impacts caused by the virus.

Vietnam stands ready to cooperate with the international community to contain the pandemic, the deputy minister underlined.

The ambassadors appreciated the assistance and thanked the Vietnamese government for it, expressing their gratitude to Vietnam, a country that is battling COVID-19 itself.

They underscored that their countries would continue cooperating with Vietnam in ensuring healthcare and safety for citizens as well as in trade and information sharing in order to overcome difficulties.

Vietnam has confirmed 249 COVID-19 cases, 122 of them having made a full recovery.

No fatality traced to the disease has been recorded in the Southeast Asian country to date.

Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are the country's epicenters, accounting for more than half of the number of patients.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
A teenage girl was abused by an 'aggressive' customer for not wearing gloves while working at the Coles checkout during the coronavirus pandemic.

Hayley Evans, 16, told the furious customer at Manly Corso Coles, in Sydney's northern beaches, she was following protocol by using hand sanitiser.

The shopper then phoned NSW Police to report the teenage shop assistant.

Hayley's mother, Kate Munn, said her daughter was harassed by the irate man at about lunchtime on Saturday.

Coles worker Hayley Evans (right) was abused for not wearing gloves at the checkout. Her mother, Kate (left), wrote about the incident on Facebook

'My daughter works at Coles in Manly, she's a high school student who has a part time job like zillions of other teens around the world,' she wrote on Facebook.

'Yesterday a customer harassed her for not wearing gloves, she patiently stated that gloves were optional and she'd been using hand sanitiser.'

The mother-of-three told Daily Mail Australia her daughter was working at the checkout when the incident unfolded.

'He was aggressive in his demeanour,' Ms Munn said.

'They're following the most up-to-date guidelines.'

One of Hayley's colleagues overheard the man phone police, Ms Munn said.

Despite the verbal altercation, Ms Munn said her daughter had not experienced any other 'awful' clashes with customers.

'A few people have thanked her,' she said.

Ms Munn said Coles staff are 'following the most up-to-date guidelines' during the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured: Coles staff help customers

'All front-line, essential workers are exposing themselves to a higher risk than others to ensure that the world keeps turning during this period.

'A bit of extra care, a bit of extra appreciation... It's a big responsibility.'

Ms Munn also heaped praise on Coles management who have supported Hayley throughout the ordeal and during the coronavirus pandemic.

'She was well prepared [for Saturday's incident]. Disappointed but not overwhelmed because there has been so much support from the management.

'I just want to reiterate how well supported she was by the management team. She's very comfortable and confident with the way they're communicating and handling the situation.'

'It's reassuring as a parent to know that.'

Supermarket workers have been physically and verbally abused by customers during the COVID-19 crisis as panicked customers rush to the shops to stock up on goods.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Coles for comment.

Shoppers are seen waiting outside a Coles supermarket at Firle in Adelaide, Monday, April 6

Mother shares gutwrenching photos of her exhausted daughter, 18, breaking down in tears after a gruelling shift at Woolworths

By Brittany Chain for Daily Mail Australia

A mother has shared a photo of her teenage daughter fighting back tears after she was abused by customers during her shift at Woolworths.

Debara Nydrle's daughter, Jordyn is working overtime at the supermarket in Townsville, north-east Queensland, due to frenzied coronavirus panic-buying.

Her 18-year-old daughter comes home from work feeling drained, telling stories of how she was abused by angry customers throughout the day.

The mother posted a photo of Jordyn, red-faced and teary, after a particularly gruelling shift.

Jordyn Nydrle (pictured) works at a Woolworths in Townsville, and came home after a particularly gruelling shift and cried

'Thank you to all the a**holes who think its okay to abuse Woolies staff to the point where you break them, daily, multiple times a day,' she wrote.

She described the abuse her daughter received as totally un-Australian, and said customer complaints were things that Jordyn and her colleagues 'could not control.'

A friend of the family said they were in store when Jordyn was having a particularly difficult time and 'wanted to go give her a hug,' but were worried she would get in trouble or that it would make her more upset.

Other customers said they looked forward to Jordyn's service in stores, because of her usually friendly smile and demeanour.

Ms Nydrle urged her friends and family to be kind to all supermarket employees who are working throughout this difficult period.

'Perform a random act of kindness,' she suggested. 'Thank your supermarket worker, or give them a smile, take them flowers - you can even buy them in store.'

The most important thing, Ms Nydrle said, was that customers help staff help everybody.

Woolworths worker breaks down in tears at the checkouts after being abused by rude shoppers and is comforted by a customer A photo of a Woolworths employee in tears captures the grim reality for many retail workers who are being abused by customers angry about shortages caused by coronavirus-induced panic-buying and hoarding. The photograph shared on Facebook showed an exhausted worker in tears at the self-serve checkouts after she was treated horribly by rude customers, and summed up the anguish felt by staff at Australian supermarkets. Supermarket chains have all imposed rationing to curb shelf-stripping over-buying. The shortages and the rationing had infuriated many customers who were taking out their anger on staff and other shoppers, with several instances of physical fights in the aisles as they fought over scarce items. One woman who shared the image demanded customers get a 'reality check'. A picture of a Woolworths employee breaking down in tears has offered a heartbreaking insight into the impact panic-buying is having on supermarket workers amid coronavirus 'These poor workers are being brought to tears because of the way people are treating them, blaming them and abusing them for something they have no control of,' one woman said. 'They're humans just like the rest of us, trying to make a living, trying to do the best job they possibly can for everyone at the moment. 'Before you look for someone to blame for all of this mayhem, maybe try and think about the fact that these people are just trying to do their jobs and don't need to be abused every 10 minutes just because Woolworths and Coles is out of stock. 'Be a decent human in these time you never know what someone is struggling with in their lives and you're abusing someone over not being able to buy three packets of pasta or some toilet paper.' Other retail workers responded to the photo of the crying worker with their own experiences of being rudely treated by customers. 'Walked into Woolworths wearing my Kmart uniform and got yelled at because they didnt have toilet paper. Even though I didnt work at Woolworths,' one woman said. A second said: 'As a retail worker for Dan Murphy's, we are classed as "essential". We didn't ask for this pandemic. We certainly didn't ask for sh***y customers who can't buy their bottle of Gossips and Bowler's Run. Definitely blessed to have a job still.' A third said: 'This is horrible. These poor workers are just trying to do their best. They don't have control over anything that is going on. They are there just to get your items through for you to pay. Please show some extra kindness to all retail staff, especially those working in the supermarkets at the moment.' And another said: 'So sorry these hard working people are being disrespected. What is wrong with people, can they show some respect to theses people. Disgusting behaviour.' One Woolworths employee said her store had barely opened its doors when it had to deal with an unruly shopper. 'Half an hour into the day and we already had to call security and the police. Enough is enough guys. Treat each other with respect. We are just doing our job,' she said. An employee who works for Woolworths supply chain responded to the photo of a distressed colleague by praising the workers for being on the 'frontline' during this difficult time. 'Massive appreciation to all staff, some of whom are 15 to 18, putting in massive efforts and dealing with unspeakable behaviour, you are the true embodiment of the "everyday hero",' he said. Hundreds of shoppers thanked the supermarket workers for working long hours to keep up with the high demand of essential items. 'I take my hat off to the people working for Woolies, Coles and Aldi. Would be bloody tough at the moment. And it's no ones fault that stores are out of stock. They're all trying their best,' one said. Advertisement

Woolworths have been forced to introduce an elderly hour for shoppers to combat the crowds

Supermarket shelves have been left bare of the essentials - particularly toilet paper - since panic buying began

Panic-buying has sparked violent brawls in supermarkets throughout the nation as customers rush to get their hands on in-demand groceries.

Woolworths and Coles stores have seen sales soar in recent months, well beyond what is standard for this time of year.

As a result, Woolworths created 20,000 new jobs - many are short term contracts - designed to give people now out of work due to COVID-19 a lifeline.

The new roles across supermarkets, e-commerce, supply chain and drinks businesses will allow the retailer to better meet the unprecedented demand for groceries across the country.

The move will also allow the to supermarket giant to build up their online operations in a bid to support the changing shopping needs determined by COVID-19.

Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said: 'These are uncertain times for many industries and we have an important role to play keeping Australians employed through this crisis.'

Similarly, Coles confirmed they would be hiring an additional 5,000 staff for the duration of the crisis.
Star Health Insurance and Edelweiss General Insurance are among others which have also come up with exclusive insurance policies for COVID-19.

Kolkata: Seeing business opportunity amid the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, insurance companies in the country have started offering policies specific to COVID-19 and some of them partnered with digital payment service

providers to push sales of such plans, officials said on Tuesday.

Bharti AXA General Insurance has tied up with Airtel Payments Bank to launch two health insurance plans-one

offering a lump sum amount of Rs 25,000 and another with daily benefit starting Rs 500 per day-to provide protection from COVID-19, a company official said.

In partnership with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, digital payment service provider PhonePe, operated by Flipkart

Online Services, also launched a coronavirus hospitalisation insurance policy called "Corona Care", another official said.

The policy is priced at Rs 156 with an insurance cover of Rs 50,000 for a person aged under 55 years, and the cover

is applicable at any hospital offering coronavirus treatment, he said.

Star Health Insurance and Edelweiss General Insurance are among others which have also come up with exclusive insurance policies for COVID-19.

Most of the insurance companies, which are offering the specific polices, are not asking their potential customers

to go for medical check up, but making sure that they do not have coronavirus-like symptoms, an industry expert said.

Some of the insurers are also offering products to cover expenses, including treatment during quarantine period,

he said, adding that terms of claim settlement by these companies vary and a buyer must read the document carefully before purchasing an insurance plan.

However, many industry experts "don't see much value" in buying separate policies to protect from the disease for

people who are covered under general health insurance plans.

During the dengue outbreak, several insurance companies came up with policies to protect from the vector-borne diseases, they said, adding that there are many existing health insurance plans in the market, which provide

protection from the COVID-19 disease.

The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India has already asked health insurance companies to offer

medical coverage for coronavirus infection in the country, an official said.

The Life Insurance Council also said the clause of 'force majeure' will not apply in case of COVID-19 death

claims, he said.

The regulator has also instructed insurance companies to design specific health policies covering the treatment cost

of COVID-19, including medical expenses incurred during the quarantine period, and some have already introduced the same.
Ashton Kutcher is an acclaimed actor turned venture capitalist. He has been in the headlines many times during the course of his career, beginning with his controversial marriage to Demi Moore.

These days, Kutcher still acts in projects that mean a lot to him, but he spends the majority of his time raising his children with his wife, Mila Kunis, and working on his various business ventures.

Still, fans love learning what they can about Kutcher, and about his twin brother, who has managed to do good in his own way.

How did Ashton Kutcher become famous?

Ashton Kutcher | Michael Kovac/Getty Images for WeWork

Ashton Kutcher was born in 1978 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Kutcher developed an interest in acting early and got involved in community plays. However, his plans experienced a hiccup when he was allegedly tried to burglarize his high school and was given a deferred judgment.

Although Kutcher was able to recover from the scandal and work toward becoming a good citizen, he was ostracized by the local community and it took him a while to regain his reputation.

While in college, Kutcher was discovered by a talent scout and embarked on a career in modeling. He was enjoying a successful career in modeling when he rediscovered his love of acting.

He got his first big break in the popular TV series That 70s Show, where he played Michael Kelso. He appeared on the show from 1998 until 2006. By the time the show ended, Kutcher was a huge star, and went on to appear in movies like The Guardian, What Happens in Vegas, Valentines Day, and Jobs.

Over the past few years, Kutcher has stepped back from his acting career to focus mainly on investments and business ventures, although he still acts from time to time, including in the Netflix original series The Ranch.

Ashton Kutcher has a twin brother

Ashton Kutcher has two siblings  an older sister named Tausha and a twin brother named Michael.

From birth, Michael Kutcher has suffered with various health problems, and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. He also underwent a heart transplant when he was very young, which affected Ashton Kutcher as well  especially because the two were so close and spent so much time together.

As Kutcher later discussed, I was born a twin and from the moment I came into this world I had to share it with someone. I shared every birthday, every Christmas, I shared my bedroom, I shared my clothes, I shared everything I had in this world and I didnt know that there was another way because I always had my brother with me.

How does Ashton Kutcher feel about his brother?

Michael Kutcher has managed to have a successful path in life despite his disabilities. He is the founder of an organization called Reaching for the Stars, which focuses on helping children who suffer from cerebral palsy and heart conditions. He also works as a motivational speaker, sharing the story of his struggle to help give hope to others.

In spite of Michael Kutchers happy life now, there was a time when Ashton Kutcher worried obsessively about his brother.

As he revealed in a recent speech, I spent years and years feeling bad about it, our inequalities. He also taught me that he had gifts that I didnt have. Extraordinary gifts that I didnt have, and that every time I felt sorry for him in life, I made him less. He taught me that and he gave that to me.

Clearly, the Kutcher brothers have a bond that cannot ever be broken.
Queen Elizabeth II has been the monarch of the United Kingdom for more than 65 years. Shes recognized by millions all over the globe and has embarked on royal visits to many different countries during her reign. The queen usually receives a warm welcome by the public when traveling abroad, however, that wasnt the case when she and her husband, Prince Philip, toured New Zealand several years back.

The royal pair were pelted with eggs by locals and mooned when they visited the South Pacific nation. Heres more on that nightmare trip and how the queen responded after she was hit.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip | Andrew Milligan  WPA Pool /Getty Images

Women tossed eggs at the couple and struck the queen

The embarrassing egg-tossing incident occurred in 1986, the seventh time Queen Elizabeth was on a royal tour to New Zealand.

The monarch and the Duke of Edinburgh were traveling in an open car at Aucklands Ellerslie Racecourse waving at a crowd of 42,000 schoolchildren when two women posing as crowd control began hurling raw eggs at them. Three eggs were thrown at the queen and one struck her on the thigh.

As explained in the Amazon Prime documentary The Queens Diamond Decades, The queen looked down and brushed away the mess, nodding in reply to the dukes urgent Are you all right? Detectives in the following truck bundled away two young women wearing white coats. Those closest to the queen are sure that a man threw the third egg and then melted into the crowd.

Other onlookers shouted at the suspects as police dragged them away. One of the females who tossed an egg told law enforcement officials she did so to protest against a treaty signed by the British Crown and New Zealands native Maoris in 1840. Both women were charged with assault and disorderly behavior.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip | Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Prince Philip tried to help his visibly upset wife clean up the mess and they exited the vehicle.

Queen Elizabeth joked after the incident

When Queen Elizabeth and Philip arrived in the provincial city of Napier, another protester greeted the royal couple by mooning them.

A Maori man wearing only a grass skirt emerged from the crowd and showed his buttocks which bore tattooed images. Native Maori activists said they had planned a 21-bum salute for the queen later in the visit, which would have been done to display their distaste for the monarchy. Flashing ones bare backside at another person is considered an extreme insult in centuries-old Maori warrior tradition.

After what went on the queen attended a dinner banquet and used her sense of humor to describe what had taken place and referenced how she felt about being hit with the egg.

Of course New Zealand has long been renowned for its dairy produce, she said. Though I should say, that I myself prefer my New Zealand eggs for breakfast.

Read more: Why Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip Are Living Together Again For the First Time in More Than Two Year
A federal judge in New York on Tuesday denied a request that accused serial sexual abuser R. Kelly be released from jail, rejecting claims by his lawyers that he is at high risk of contracting COVID-19.

READ THE DECISION: [PDF]

In her opinion, Ann M. Donnelly, United States District Judge in Brooklyn, NY, wrote that lawyers for R. Kelly failed to prove their client is no longer "a flight risk or a danger to the community."

News reports say 'at least 2' workers at the Chicago jail where R. Kelly is housed have tested positive for coronavirus.

Judge rejects R Kelly's request to be released due to COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak pic.twitter.com/b0sftq9fY9  Charlie De Mar (@CharlieDeMar) April 7, 2020

From reporting by Marina Fang for HuffPo:

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly rejected the attempt, pointing out that Kelly, 53, is younger than the age group that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider to be at high risk. His alleged history of abuse means that he continues to be "a flight risk or a danger to the community," she wrote in a court filing, and his lawyers have failed to prove that has not changed. In addition, Donnelly said his surgery in January, which was reportedly to repair a hernia, has been completed, and he "does not explain how his surgical history places him at a higher risk of severe illness." "While I am sympathetic to the defendant's understandable anxiety about COVID-19, he has not established compelling reasons warranting his release," she wrote Tuesday. "At present, there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the MCC in Chicago. The Bureau of Prisons has announced emergency measures to protect inmates and staff, including suspending all legal and social visits, suspending inmate facility transfers, making soap available to inmates, screening and testing inmates and staff, and modifying operations at detention facilities like the MCC to maximize social distancing." According to the Chicago Sun Times, at least two staff members at the jail have tested positive. Across the country, prisons and jails have reported COVID-19 outbreaks, and they often contain conditions that could exacerbate the spread of the virus.

READ MORE:

Federal Judge Denies R. Kelly's Request To Get Out Of Jail

[huffpost.com]

R. Kelly Must Remain Locked Up Amid Coronavirus Crisis, Judge Rules https://t.co/bIZPiAQGiK pic.twitter.com/UWYjzJMddf  NBC Chicago (@nbcchicago) April 7, 2020

Comment from the NY judge worth noting in the four-page order denying release to R. Kelly: "It appears unlikely that the trial will proceed as scheduled on July 7, 2020."  Jon Seidel (@SeidelContent) April 7, 2020
More than 130 firefighters, three aircraft, and 21 vehicles were deployed on April 4 to battle the fire.

The Kyiv police have identified a man who allegedly started a mass fire in the uninhabited exclusion zone around the decommissioned Chornobyl nuclear plant last week.

The police said on April 6 that a 27-year-old resident of the Rahivka village told investigators that he had set some garbage and grass on fire "for fun," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported.

Police launched a probe into the destruction of forestry, an offense which can be punished with hefty fines or imprisonment for up to five years.

Read alsoUkraine's SBU establishes who ordered arson attack on RFE/RL correspondent's car in Lviv

The young man, whose identity was not disclosed, has not yet been officially charged.

Earlier in the day, the State Emergency Service said firefighters and rescue teams continued to put out fires at two sites near Rahivka, adding that radiation levels in the capital, Kyiv, and Kyiv region were within the normal range. The total area affected by the fire near Rahivka was reported as five hectares.

A day earlier, Ukraine's emergency authorities said that the fire had been extinguished near the villages of Volodymyrivka and Zhovtneve, close to the exclusion zone. More than 130 firefighters, three aircraft, and 21 vehicles were deployed on April 4 to battle the fire.

The territory is the long-vacated area near where an explosion at the Chernobyl (Chornobyl) Soviet nuclear plant in April 1986 sent a plume of radioactive fallout high into the air and across swaths of Europe.

A number of regions of Ukraine this week have reported brushfires amid unseasonably dry conditions.

Fires are a routine threat in the forested region around the exclusion zone.
The parking lot of Showcase Cinemas in Lowell has been transformed, now featuring a series of tents and medical professionals in protective gear. It is the first free rapid COVID-19 testing site in Massachusetts and can serve up to 1,000 people a day and takes only 15 minutes, on average.

The on-the-spot results produced through this method will allow healthcare professionals to advise patients on appropriate treatment instantaneously, said the press release. Aiding in the effective containment of the virus.

Through the use of Abbott ID NOW COVID-19 testing, results will be produced in an average of fifteen minutes, enabling patients to be informed of the results before departing the site.

Abbott Laboratories previously won Food and Drug Administration approval for a molecular test for COVID-19, which the company says can deliver positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes.

The COVID-19 pandemic will be fought on multiple fronts, and a portable molecular test that offers results in minutes adds to the broad range of diagnostic solutions needed to combat this virus, said Robert B. Ford, president and chief operating officer at Abbott. With rapid testing on ID NOW, healthcare providers can perform molecular point-of-care testing outside the traditional four walls of a hospital in outbreak hotspots.

The city partnered with CVS Health, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency to facilitate the launch of the testing.

"The high volume of testing that will be conducted at this site will build upon the relentless work of Governor Baker and Secretary Sudders to expand the state's testing capacity, which is critically important in the effort to contain the spread of COVID-19," said City Manager Eileen Donoghue. "This site will significantly increase access to testing for Lowell residents and individuals from around the region.

Shaun Judge of Showcase Cinemas offered the use of the parking lot, which was configured to accommodate testing by MEMA over the last several days. It is located at 32 Reiss Ave., where there have been tents set up for the first 1,000 people to start making their way through on Tuesday.

Patients will need to pre-register in advance online at CVS.com in order to schedule a same-day time slot for testing.

On Sunday, CVS Health launched similar testing operations in Rhode Island and Georgia. They have also operated a drive-through testing site for first responders in Shrewsbury since March. The pilot program in Shrewsbury will be halted with the opening of the testing site in Lowell.

As of Monday, 76,429 people in Massachusetts have been tested. There have been 13,837 confirmed cases in the state and 260 coronavirus-related deaths.

Related Content:
A strong doctrine of enforceable reparation must be brought into force to compensate the injured. The United Nations and their agencies must have more monitoring and enforcement powers through tribunals rather than impotent councils and arbitral bodies.





by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne

Writing from Montreal





We are a democracywe dont achieve things by force, but through shared knowledge and cooperation

Angela Merkel





When we apply this simple but essential global process in retrospect to what happened to the world with the Covid-19 spread, we see that the exact opposite happened. The last thing we did was sharing knowledge and cooperating with each other. Individual decisions of self interest and churlish decisions for lockdowns without supporting economic and exit strategies were taken based on egoistical and political ideology. The main protagonist, and dare we say, culprit, was air transport which transports nearly 4 billion people worldwide annually. So what went wrong? The following analysis of the air transport scene is not intended to ascribe responsibility or reprehensibility to the United Nations, or its specialized agencies, which seemingly did their best post facto to address the calamitous situation. Rather, it is attempted to make some sense, albeit in a subjective sense, of the way forward in a post pandemic world order.













At the heart of the air transport equation of this issue is the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)  the specialized agency of the United Nations  which has taken tenacious and regular action to engage with the aviation community during the crisis. It continues to do so withing the parameters of its aims and objectives. The issue is how effective these efforts have been. For one, ICAOs programme, established to respond to the 2003 SARS crisis  called CAPSCA, (Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation) - however noble its purpose and intent have been, has clearly not been effective enough. This is by no means through a fault of the recommendations in the programme but rather, through the inherent structure that underlies it. The genesis of the fight against the spread of communicable diseases through air navigation lies in Article 14 of the Chicago Convention of 1944, which is the fundamental philosophy and driving force of CAPSCA, and which carries all the legal legitimacy ascribed to a multilateral treaty. The inherent defect of this provision is in the wording itself. A careful and nuanced distinction could be made between the middle of the road approach in the words of Article 14: Each contracting States agrees to take effective measures to prevent the spread by means of air navigation by maintaining close contact with the international organizations concerned. The word agrees denotes mere consent to do something that is suggested. Elsewhere in the Convention, for instance in Article 3 c) it is stated that  No state aircraft of a contracting State shall fly over the territory of another State or land thereon without authorization by special agreement or otherwise, and in accordance terms thereof. While this is not the only instance in the Convention that the word shall is used, which reflects a peremptory command, the absence of such mandate in Article 14 renders it destitute of the compulsory effect needed to obligate States to take immediate action to advise other States to take effective measures in precluding the spread of a communicable disease through air transport.





As for ICAO, there are provisions wherein the Council of ICAO could have taken some action provided there was a flow of information from the origin of the spread in China to ICAO headquarters in Montreal. One has to take a hard look at whether ICAO is both equipped and empowered to achieve its aims and objective, as prescribed in the Chicago Convention, the operative provision in this context being that ICAO should meet the needs of the world for safe, regular, efficient and economical air transport. On this basis the answer is both in the affirmative and negative. In a general sense, by no means should ICAO be found reprehensible. However ,one cannot gainsay that ICAO is able to agitate the world order by reason of its being a specialized agency of the United Nations which, through its Charter, has empowered ICAO to act on its behalf .





One thing the ICAO Council could have done was to have been more vigilant. When the Covid-19 spread was first made known to the world  an epidemic was reported in the central China city of Wuhan in January 2020, two months before the outbreak became a global health crisis  The ICAO sub-regional office located in China could have alerted the ICAO headquarters in Montreal without delay as that office knew, or ought to have known with earlier knowledge and experience gathered from the 2003 SARS crisis, that the disease could spread rapidly through air transport . Although the primary responsibility of this sub-regional office is to support improved airspace organization and management to maximize air traffic management performance across the Asia Pacific Region, that does not mean that it should not keep its eyes open for any possible implications with regard to provisions of the Chicago Convention. Furthermore, ICAOs regional office in Bangkok, the primary objective of which is to foster implementation by States of the global ICAO Standards as well as organizations Regional Air Navigation Plan, in order to provide for the safety, security and efficiency of the Asia and Pacific region air transport network, had a distinct link to Article 14 of the Chicago Convention which speaks of air navigation.





With this knowledge ICAO could have communicated with China the need to take necessary measures, to give full information, in order to alert other States of the possible threat of a viral spread through air transport. The Chicago Convention has, as a mandatory function of the Council of ICAO, the duty to report to contracting States any infraction of the Convention, as well as any failure to carry out recommendations or determinations of the Council. There is no evidence that this process was adhered to. Like everyone else, seemingly ICAO was taken off-guard.





At this juncture, this is all very theoretical and remains water under the bridge. Once this is over, the world will have to recalibrate, as it did after the plague of the 14th Century, the Spanish Flu of 1908 and the Second World War. There would have to be a drastic revision of the world order on the basis that a global crisis would need effective and enforceable global corporation and collaboration. Some of the aspects of this revitalization of the global order would require a new look at the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and their veto powers and the outworn fetishes of purblind tunnel vision of each State which still cling to their Westphalian self service interests couched in the concept of State sovereignty to the exclusion of the interests of other States. The United Nations and its specialized agencies should get together with their member States to carve out principles of State responsibility and accountability for what goes on in their countries that could adversely affect other countries. There should be consequences for delinquent States.





A strong doctrine of enforceable reparation must be brought into force to compensate the injured. The United Nations and their agencies must have more monitoring and enforcement powers through tribunals rather than impotent councils and arbitral bodies. They must be equipped to be the eyes and ears of the world. As history has shown after every pandemic, the world will bounce back economically, and the heavy burden of sovereign debt incurred on account of this killer pandemic will be overcome. But the impotence of a world destitute of the force of accountability will be with us until something is done to ensure each State has global responsibility written into its sovereignty.





Whether this would be possible in a world that is divided and is receding within the boundaries of parochial State interest is another matter.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 17:12:25|Editor: huaxia

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KUNMING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Police have caught a suspect in connection to a drug trafficking case in southwest China's Yunnan Province, with 37.5 kg of heroin seized.

After receiving a tip-off, police in the city of Kunming, capital of China's border province of Yunnan, sent a task force to investigate the case.

After a series of investigations, the local police caught the suspect trafficking drugs on March 30.

Further investigation is underway.

Yunnan is a major front in China's battle against drug crime, as it borders the Golden Triangle known for its rampant drug production and trafficking.
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Linkedin Nina A. Loasana (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 09:04 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd028e58 1 National ramadan-in-indonesia,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-quarantine,Religious-Affairs-Ministry,religious-gathering Free

The Religious Affairs Ministry has issued prayer and worship guidelines for Ramadan, asking people not to hold gatherings and adhere to the physical distancing policy to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Ramadan, expected to start on April 23 and end May 23, traditionally includes gatherings, such as breaking-of-the-fast dinners and tarawih (Ramadan night prayers), usually done at mosques.

"[...] these worship guidelines can help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and protect Muslims in Indonesia from risks of contracting the disease," Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi said in a statement on Monday.

Read also: NU, Muhammadiyah advise public to skip 'mudik in time of coronavirus

The guidelines, issued in the form of a circular, have been distributed to the ministrys regional offices throughout the archipelago.

As the COVID-19 pandemic ravages the globe with more than 1.2 million infections and 70,000 deaths, the ministry has advised Muslims to not hold joint iftars and pray at home instead.

As of Monday afternoon, Indonesia recorded 2,491 COVID-19 cases spread out in 32 out of the countrys 34 provinces, with 209 deaths.

The ministry also advised Muslims not to perform itikaf (seclusion in a mosque).

"Halal bi halal [post-Ramadan gatherings] can be held through video conference or social media platforms," the circular said.



"Besides containing guidelines for Ramadan and Idul Fitri prayers, the circular also gives directions on zakat [alms] collection and distribution," Fachrul said.

The ministry recommends that officials collect zakat door-to-door.

It also advises that officials regularly clean their offices, practice physical distancing as much as possible and wear masks when collecting and distributing zakat.
Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - April 7, 2020) - Benchmark Metals Inc. (TSXV: BNCH) (OTCQB: CYRTF) (WKN: A2JM2X) (the "Company" or "Benchmark") - is pleased to announce plans for its 2020 exploration program on the Lawyers Project in the Golden Horseshoe of British Columbia. The company is planning an expanded exploration program, including up to 50,000 metres of expansion and definition drilling that will result in a new NI43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate. The Program will commence in the early Spring and will continue into fall 2020. Multiple large drill defined Au-Ag zones, within an extensive 10km2 alteration zone at the heart of the Lawyers Project, will be tested by 4-5 drill rigs.

John Williamson, CEO commented, "Benchmark has planned an aggressive exploration program to accelerate the definition and growth of new and existing gold-silver zones at its road-accessible project. The expanded scope of work for the 2020 exploration program has been designed to advance numerous exploration targets and expand and categorize existing drill defined exploration targets into NI 43-101 resources. In parallel the company is working towards defining economic parameters, collecting baseline environmental data, geotechnical data and expanding metallurgical studies in anticipation of a future preliminary economic assessment."

Program Highlights:

Up to 50,000 metres of drilling (2 RC drill rigs and 2-3 diamond drill rigs);

Induced Polarization (IP) and Magnetotellurics (MT) geophysical survey;

Ground magnetics/VLF at multiple zones;

Detailed bedrock, alteration, and structural mapping;

Extensive soil and rock sampling across new exploration targets;

Advancing 6+ tertiary targets for new discovery potential;

Advancing Cu-Au porphyry target areas;

Metallurgical work is ongoing;

Commencing geotechnical data collection;

Baseline environmental data collection.

Drilling will focus on confirming and expanding the drill defined Cliff Creek, Amethyst Gold Breccia (AGB), Duke's Ridge and Phoenix zones. All zones have gold-silver mineralization outcropping at surface and remain open in all directions. The zones range from 500 metres (m) to 1.2 kilometres (km) strike length, +300 m widths and depths to +300 m. Cliff Creek is the most advanced target with a drill-defined, bulk-tonnage Exploration Target of 1,682,000 ounces gold equivalent (AuEq) up to 1,923,000 ounces AuEq with an average grade ranging from 1.71 grams per tonne (g/t) AuEq up to 1.73 g/t AuEq utilizing a 0.5 g/t gold cutoff (Feb. 28, 2020 news). The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target are conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource.

Benchmark will execute an expanded scope of work for the fully-funded, 2020 exploration program. The program will focus on the definition and expansion of key exploration target areas within a 10km2 radiometric anomaly, including exploration drilling at new or previously untested occurrences. Cliff Creek will see drilling along its entire 1.2 km current strike length, as well as north and south of the currently defined mineralization.

The Duke's Ridge-Phoenix trend will also see extensive drilling along its strike extent including the possible connector zone to Cliff Creek. Drilling at AGB will follow-up on excellent results from 2019 north and south of the historically mined areas and down-dip of the known mineralization. Additionally, high-priority drill targets have been defined to test the newly discovered Marmot East zone within the larger Marmot zone. The structure, mineralization, and alteration relationships at the Marmot zones are consistent with other zones on the Lawyers Trend.

Early stage grassroots exploration is planned for the Round Mountain and E-Grid areas north and west of the Cliff Creek where additional positive radiometric anomalies exist.





Figure 1: Plan view map of exploration target areas over radiometric anomalies.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6169/54222_e0991dbf84fa38db_001full.jpg

The Silver Pond Clay (SPC) and Black Lake porphyry copper-gold targets will also be explored, including drilling at SPC where clay mineralogy zonation indicates a potential porphyry source/target within 1 km of Cliff Creek. This potential porphyry target is underlain by a circular magnetic anomaly modeled from the 2018 VTEM airborne geophysical survey. The Black Lake porphyry target is defined by a large copper-in-soil anomaly and prospective stratigraphy (Stuhini-Toodogoone contact) coupled with the Black Lake Intrusive Suite which hosts part of the Kemess deposits.

Quality Assurance and Control

Results from samples were analyzed at ALS Global Laboratories (Geochemistry Division) in Vancouver, Canada (an ISO 9001:2008 accredited facility). The sampling program was undertaken by Company personnel under the direction of Rob L'Heureux, P.Geol. A secure chain of custody is maintained in transporting and storing of all samples. Gold was assayed using a fire assay with atomic emission spectrometry and gravimetric finish when required (+10 g/t Au). Analysis by four acid digestion with 48 element ICP-MS analysis was conducted on all samples with silver and base metal over-limits being re-analyzed by atomic absorption or emission spectrometry. Rock chip samples from outcrop/bedrock are selective by nature and may not be representative of the mineralization hosted on the project.

It should be noted that the Cliff Creek Exploration Target has not been optimized or pit constrained and may include ounces that have been mined. In addition, further drilling is planned in 2020 in order to mitigate the effects of the unsampled historic intervals that intersect the Cliff Creek mineralization solids and to provide material for critical metallurgical studies that are currently ongoing. The potential quantity and grade of the exploration target is conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the exploration target being delineated as a mineral resource.

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Michael Dufresne,

M.Sc., P.Geol., P.Geo., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Benchmark Metals Inc.

Benchmark is a Canadian mineral exploration company with its common shares listed for trading on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada, the OTCQB Venture Market in the United States, and the Tradegate Exchange in Europe. Benchmark is managed by proven resource sector professionals, who have a track record of advancing exploration projects from grassroots scenarios through to production.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

s/ "John Williamson"

John Williamson, Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

Jim Greig

Email: jimg@BNCHmetals.com

Telephone: +1 604 260 6977

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This news release may contain certain "forward looking statements". Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this news release and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54222
By Eduardo Simoes SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Renewed attacks on China by a member of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's inner circle soured diplomatic relations again on Monday as the education minister accused Chinese medical equipment makers of profiteering from the coronavirus pandemic. Brazil's Education Minister Abraham Weintraub suggested in a Twitter post, which he later deleted on Sunday, that the disease would help China 'dominate the world.' He referenced a cartoon character with a speech impediment to mock Chinese accents.

By Eduardo Simoes

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Renewed attacks on China by a member of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's inner circle soured diplomatic relations again on Monday as the education minister accused Chinese medical equipment makers of profiteering from the coronavirus pandemic.

Brazil's Education Minister Abraham Weintraub suggested in a Twitter post, which he later deleted on Sunday, that the disease would help China "dominate the world." He referenced a cartoon character with a speech impediment to mock Chinese accents.

The Chinese embassy in Brazil, which had traded barbs last month with Bolsonaro's son for comparing China's handling of the disease to the former Soviet Union's Chernobyl nuclear disaster, denounced the minister in a statement on Monday.

"These completely absurd and despicable declarations, with their racist character and unspeakable objectives, have caused negative influences in the healthy development of bilateral relations," the Chinese embassy tweeted early on Monday.

Brazil's Education Ministry declined comment on the matter, and Weintraub did not respond to a request for comment.

In a radio interview, the minister said he was not racist. He also redoubled his attacks on China for its handling of the pandemic, accusing Chinese manufacturers of profiteering.

Weintraub said he would only apologize in exchange for a bargain on mechanical ventilators for university hospitals.

"Have them deliver 1,000 ventilators to my hospitals and I'll go down to the embassy and say, 'I'm an idiot,'" he told Radio Bandeirantes on Monday morning.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put renewed pressure on Brazil's relationship with China, its largest trading partner and the world's main producer of medical supplies, underscoring deep fault lines in Bolsonaro's government.

Weintraub is among advisers to Bolsonaro, including his sons and Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo, who call for closer alignment with the United States and caution towards China, the main buyer of Brazil's farm goods and iron ore.

Last week, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said that China had ditched some Brazilian equipment orders when the U.S. government sent more than 20 cargo planes to the country to buy the same products.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly played down the COVID-19 respiratory disease as a "little flu", stirring up political conflicts for denouncing governors' social-distancing orders, which he sees as economically disastrous.

As the death toll from the epidemic rises, opinion polls show that an overwhelming majority of Brazilians are in favor of the restrictions to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The Health Ministry said on Sunday that new cases had doubled in the previous five days to 11,130, with deaths doubling to 486 since April 1.

More than half of the deaths have been in Brazil's most populous state Sao Paulo, where Governor Joao Doria where Governor Joao Doria on Monday extended the quarantine for 15 days until April 22, and said police have been authorized to break up public gatherings.

(Reporting by Eduardo Simoes; Editing by Brad Haynes and Howard Goller)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Snapchat has released a new lens that lets you donate directly to the COVID-19 relief fund by scanning a banknote on your smartphone.

When a note is viewed through the lens, the app uses augmented reality to show how a donation would support the World Health Organizations response efforts.

These include tracking the spread of COVID-19, providing frontline workers with critical supplies and ensuring that patients get the care that they need.

The WHO is also working to accelerated efforts to develop tests, treatments and vaccines for the coronavirus.

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Snapchat has released a new lens that lets you donate directly to the COVID-19 relief fund by scanning a banknote on your smartphone, as pictured

The lenses  which are available in 33 different countries from today  have been launched in partnership with the United Nations Foundations COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund in support of the work of the World Health Organization.

Snapchat users can access the new lens via either the lens carousel, by using Scan or via Snapcode  and it works with over 23 different currencies.

When the AR display is selected, the lens directs users to the response fund's donation web page.

'These new Augmented Reality lenses build on our efforts to support Snapchatters and our partners as we navigate this unprecedented challenge together,' a spokesperson for Snapchat said.

'We believe that Snapchatters play a critical role in stopping the spread of the virus; and weve seen increased engagement across our platform, including in Snaps sent between best friends, voice and video calling.'

Last week, Snapchat launched two other lenses in collaboration with the World Health Organization.

The lenses  which are available in 33 different countries from today  have been launched in partnership with the United Nations Foundations COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund in support of the work of the World Health Organization

Last week, Snapchat launched two other lenses in collaboration with the World Health Organization. One aims to encourage social distancing by showing how far users need to stay away from others using an augmented reality circle on the ground. The other features reminders about hand washing, the importance of not touching your face and staying at home

One aims to encourage social distancing by showing how far users need to stay away from others using an augmented reality circle on the ground.

The other features animated reminders about hand washing, the importance of not touching your face and staying at home.

According to Snapchat, these two lenses have already been loaded by almost 130 million users.
In its latest issue, Canadian Mortgage Professional has announced its Top 75 Brokers and Small Market Brokers of 2020.

Together, these trend-setting industry players posted an average funded volume of $118.8 million in 2020, and an average of 291 deals throughout the year.

A focus on core businesses, along with investing in continued broker education and improved customer experience, helped propel these winners to a new standard of excellence.
OTTAWA  As Canadians said farewell to the COVID-19-stricken Coral Princess cruise ship on Monday for their long journey home, other recently repatriated high-seas travellers coped with the emotional exhaustion of their new normal on dry land.

A day after Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said on Twitter that Canadians on the Coral Princess would be coming home, their long journey with two pit stops in the U.S. started.

There were 97 Canadian passengers aboard the ship, which left Santiago, Chile, on March 5 and docked in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Friday.

The Canadian Press communicated with two couples travelling on the ship, who said that passengers had been allowed to leave and were on a bus headed for the Miami airport.

We just touched down in Toronto, North Vancouver resident Sanford Osler said in an email late Monday night, about two hours after a charter plane bearing the Canadians was due to land.

A statement from Princess Cruises said 139 guests left the ship on Monday morning as part of an effort that gave priority to those who departed on a chartered flight to Canada. It said 274 passengers remained on board.

Earlier Monday, Gary and Sue Lyon said in an email they were on a bus waiting to board a charter flight to Toronto via Columbus and Newark.

We are all feeling relieved, happy and excited to go home. We will go home and self-isolate for 14 days, they said.

We appreciate all the crew and staff of the Coral Princess have done for us during this very challenging time. We wish them all the best.

Osler, who was travelling with his wife, Betty Ann, said all passengers were wearing masks and gloves, and that he felt physically healthy.

Physically, I feel normal ... Emotionally, Im relieved to be off the ship, obviously, and on the way home. Although now we have further uncertainties, Osler said by telephone from Florida before the flight home.

Osler said he was getting mixed signals about whether he and his wife will have to be quarantined in Toronto for 14 days before moving on to Vancouver.

Champagne tweeted Sunday that those who dont have COVID-19 symptoms would be able to return home on a charter aircraft Monday.

Upon arrival they will be screened again and subject to a mandatory 14-day self-isolation, Champagne wrote.

Two people aboard the ship have died, and 12 have tested positive for COVID-19, Princess Cruises has said. Still more are experiencing flu-like symptoms.

Cruise ships have essentially become floating Petri dishes for the novel coronavirus.

This past week Canadians on the MS Zaandam and MS Rotterdam arrived in Canada on a plane chartered by operator Holland America.

Catherine McLeod and her husband, Paul, arrived home from the Rotterdam on Friday, physically and mentally exhausted. They began their 14-day isolation in the comfort and safety of their own home.

The isolation is not difficult as we are too mentally drained to be wanting to do anything, McLeod said in an email. We are in a state of shock really as we now can reflect on the danger we faced and how lucky we are to have walked away from that situation healthy.

She praised the captain of the ship for taking swift action to lock it down and prevent further spreading of the virus.

Isolating is a small price to pay considering the possible consequences of not doing it. People who have not self-isolated are incredibly selfish fools, she said.

McLeod urged other passengers now making the journey home to persevere.

Try to be patient on the way home as there are many people who simply do not understand the gravity of this virus and the lack of social distancing just about drove me crazy, she wrote. Moronic behaviour.

Global Affairs said it is monitoring the progress of 49 Canadians and eight crew members on seven other ships.

The department says it is not aware that any of them have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

The ships are the MS Albatros, Viking Sun, MV Columbus, Costa Deliziosa, Pacific Princess, MSC Magnifica, and the Queen Mary 2.

In February, the largest cruise-ship outbreak occurred aboard the Diamond Princess ship, also operated by Princess Cruises.

The Diamond Princess was quarantined for two weeks in Yokohama, Japan, as 700 of the 3,700 people aboard became infected.

The federal government evacuated 129 Canadians from that ship and brought them to eastern Ontario for quarantine on Feb. 21, but 47 Canadians infected by the virus had to stay behind in Japan for treatment.

The Public Health Agency of Canada is telling Canadians to avoid travelling on cruise ships, but delivered that firm warning March 9, a few days after the Coral Princess set sail.

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New Delhi: The Chhattisgarh government on Tuesday (April 7) announced that the Nandan Van Jungle Safari in Naya Raipur will be sanitised thoroughly and continuous updates will be taken on the health of all wildlife. The direction has been issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Along with the Raipur jungle safari, all national parks, sanctuaries and tiger reserves of Chhattisgarh will also go under the sanitisation process.

According to report, Chhattisgarh Forest Department authorities will provide safety equipment like masks, hand gloves to all the staff, who are responsible for providing food to animals at safaris and reserves across the state.

The development comes after a tiger named Nadia tested positive for the novel coronavirus in New York, and six other big cats who developed a dry cough at the Bronx Zoo. According to Reuters, Nadia, a 4-year-old Malayan tiger, stopped eating and was the only one tested because the zoo did not want to subject all the cats to anesthesia, Calle said.

The virus that causes COVID-19 is believed to have spread from animals to humans, and a handful of animals have tested positive in Hong Kong.
A new 90 second video has been put together highlighting the plight of millions of self-employed workers who are falling through the gaps of the recently announced Government Coronavirus financial schemes intended to support them, whether PAYE Fixed term contracts, Sole Traders/Schedule D or Limited Companies.

The video has been made by a multi-award winning team including Executive Producer Jane Merkin and Composer Simon Russell, graphics by Compost Creative, marketing by Juliet Simmons at Piece of Cake and social media support, The Social Biz Experts, with the backing of Talent Manager and BECTU.

On the 25th March, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised parity of support for all workers, including the self-employed who are unable to work because of the Coronavirus. This has failed to materialise with millions falling through the gaps. We are not asking for anything more than the support on offer to those in long-term employment and dont deserve to be abandoned in our hour of need, said Jane Merkin, Freelance Executive Producer.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies estimate that 2 million self-employed workers will not benefit from the Governments financial aid schemes. Some sectors of the self- employed are being hit harder than others because of the complex and irregular nature of their employment. BECTU, the union for Film and TV workers, estimate that almost 50% of their members will not qualify for any of the new schemes on offer, and are denied access to even Universal Credit as our savings are too high.

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Seeking a better life in America shouldnt be a death sentence.

Every day, the risk of infection and even dying from COVID-19 increases for the roughly 36,000 people housed in a network of immigration detention centers across the U.S.

Yes, that includes criminals awaiting deportation. And thousands who lack documentation to remain in the country legally.

But nearly 6,000 people, federal immigration officials told the editorial board, are locked up even though they have committed no violation and even though they have already established a credible fear of torture or other persecution back home. They are asylum seekers simply awaiting further evaluation of their claims.

Here they are in yet another dangerous situation not of their own making.

The situation in immigration courts and detention centers is explosive, says A. Ashley Tabaddor, an immigration judge in California who spoke to the editorial board in her capacity as president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.

Her union has been instrumental in pushing the Department of Justice, which oversees U.S. immigration courts, to postpone hearings involving individuals not in custody until early May, citing the risk of exposure posed to judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers and court workers and respondents.

Other hearings have been moved either to video proceedings or behind glass dividers, she said. But thats not nearly enough. If the detainees themselves are allowed to become infected, they will inevitably pose risks for everyone in the system, she said.

We very quickly saw that this is a case where all of us are connected, Tabaddor said. Its rare example of where judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers are all in agreement.

So far, infection within the system has been rare. In the five detention facilities near Houston, where authorities said Monday 2,348 detainees are housed, there have been no cases of COVID-19 reported.

Thats a relief - but a paltry one, given how fast the virus has spread elsewhere.

No one appears safe from the disease, a point driven home Monday by the news that British prime minister, Boris Johnson, was admitted to intensive care as his condition worsened. Thats why communities the globe over have taken such extraordinary lengths to slow its spread. But the extreme social distancing measures that can keep us safe arent possible for everyone.

People in nursing homes, hospitals, jails and prisons face incredibly elevated risks - and so do the doctors, nurses, guards, lawyers, food service workers and others whose job it is to interact with them.

That same level of urgency exists in Americas immigration detention centers.

Related story from Houstonchronicle.com: Trump administration urged to release migrants

They should be released whenever possible, and quickly. If some who are released warrant more careful monitoring, the government should find a way to make that happen.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is trying to make their facilities safer, said Eunice Hyunhye Cho, senior staff attorney at the ACLUs National Prison Project. But she told the editorial board that those efforts wont mean anything if thousands of individuals who pose little or no risk to the community are kept behind bars.

Its virtually impossible, she said, describing efforts to keep detainees safe in crowded facilities. Its a disaster waiting to happen.

The ACLU has brought a dozen or so lawsuits demanding the release of especially at-risk detainees. So far, judges are listening. Rulings ordering the release of detainees have been issued by federal judges in Michigan, California and Pennsylvania, she said.

ICE is also listening, to some extent. A spokesman in Washington said the agency is evaluating on a case-by-case basis whether detainees should be released due to the virus, and some have been released.

Others told the editorial board Monday that the agency is likely to issue new guidance soon, perhaps even as early as overnight Monday.

We urge ICE to prioritize the health of detainees and those required to guard and care for them. We understand that some detainees, even those especially vulnerable to the virus, cannot and should not be released due to violent backgrounds, but ICE should make sure they can justify those rare exceptions.

Any reduction in population at these facilities makes it easier to keep the remaining detainees and staff safe.

Its common sense and morally imperative that individuals who pose little or no risk of violence to the community should be released. Asylum seekers who turned to America for safety and shelter should be at the top of the list.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on



Tuesday called for speeding up the process of disbursement of financial assistance to those who were stranded at places far away from their homes, within the state or in other parts of the country.

At a high-level meeting he chaired to review the coronavirus situation, Kumar noted that 3.80 lakh requests for aide have been received from migrant workers stranded in other states and financial assistance of Rs 1,000 each has been provided to 1.42 lakh by way of direct cash transfer.

Besides, efforts were being made to ensure that such people were provided with items like rice, pulses and edible oil wherever they were and messages of gratitude have been received from many such beneficiaries, most notably some residents of Vaishali district in Tamil Nadu who have sent videos on WhatsApp, sources in the Chief Ministers office said.

The chief minister also directed that seeding of ration cards with Aadhar be completed at the earliest so that the state governments resolve to reach out to every poor family with a financial assistance of Rs 1000 was achieved.

"We are treating the pandemic as an aapada (disaster) and it is a stated policy of our government that those affected by a disaster shall have the first claim on the governments resources", Kumar said.

He also took stock of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) which has afflicted a few children in some north Bihar districts and claimed one life.

He issued instructions for taking preventive measures to halt in its tracks the spread of the brain fever which had killed nearly 200 children last year.

Instructions were also issued by the chief minister for putting a check on bird flu and swine flu of which a few cases have been reported.

Besides, officials were directed to ensure that compensation be expeditiously paid to those who have suffered crop losses on account of untimely rainfall and hailstorm.

A sum of Rs 518.42 crore has been allocated for the aforementioned purpose, the chief minister underscored.

Meanwhile, several religious, social, medical and business organizations came out with contributions to the chief ministers relief fund from which money is being drawn for providing relief to those suffering economically on account of lockdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
SPRINGFIELD  Gov. J.B. Pritzker has activated about 90 additional Illinois National Guard Soldiers and Airmen from throughout the state in support of COVID-19 response operations.

This is a statewide team effort and Im proud of the vital role of our National Guard is playing in this fight against a deadly virus, said Brig. Gen. Richard Neely, the Adjutant General of the Illinois National Guard.

Approximately 35 soldiers from the 708th Medical Company, based in North Riverside, will support hospital medical screening operations at hospitals throughout the state.

About 22 airmen from the 126th Air Refueling Wing, based at Scott Air Force Base; the 183rd Wing, based in Springfield; and the 182rd Airlift Wing, based in Peoria, and two soldiers from Joint Force Headquarters, Springfield, have been activated to augment the Illinois Emergency Management Agency staff at the Unified Area Command-North at the Thompson Center in Chicago.

These National Guard service members reported to Chicago over the weekend and are now operational.

An additional approximately 30 Illinois Air National Guard Airmen have been activated to provide labor in support of the Army Corps of Engineers and McCormick Place buildout mission. About 10 airmen each have been activated from the 126th Air Refueling Wing, 183rd Wing, and the 182nd Airlift Wing. This is in addition to the 30 airmen previously activated for the first phase of the McCormick Place mission.

This brings the total number of Illinois National Guard service members directly supporting the COVID-19 response to about 520.

About 15 soldiers from the 404th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, headquartered in Normal, are assisting county EMOCs in Christian, Madison, St. Clair, Cumberland, Clinton, Washington and Jackson counties, gathering information and reporting that data to the Medical Operations Center in the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) in Springfield.

About a dozen airmen from the 183rd Wing based in Springfield, the 126th Air Refueling Wing based at Scott Air Force Base, and the 182nd Airlift Wing based in Peoria, are managing the medical operations center and information collection in Springfield for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Illinois Department of Public Health.

About 50 soldiers from the 1844th Transportation Company based in East St. Louis are supporting medical warehouse operations in central Illinois.
Bible publishers reporting jump in sales amid coronavirus fears

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Publishing companies that sell Bibles have reported an increase in purchases in recent weeks, likely connected to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

Tyndale House Publishers, a Christian publisher based in Carol Stream, Illinois, saw a considerable increase in their Bible sales last month compared to March 2019.

This includes their Life Application Study Bible sales going up 44% and sales of the Immerse Bible going up 60%, according to Jim Jewell, an executive at Tyndale.

In an interview with The Christian Post on Tuesday, Jewell said he believes concerns over the pandemic has upended almost everyones lives in some way.

It's not surprising that people turn to the comfort and clarity of the Bible in times of trouble and uncertainty, he said, adding that social media engagement for Tyndale was also growing.

On [our Facebook page for the] New Living Translation, where we post Bible verse memes, engagement was triple what it was last March and up 72% from just last month.

Jewell told CP that this was not the first time a national crisis has led to higher Bible sales. He said in the month after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Tyndale Bible sales were 57% higher than October of 2000.

Alabaster Co. of California, which was founded in 2017 and sells books of the Bible individually that have visually artistic features, reported a 143% boost in sales compared to last year.

Brian Chung, co-founder of Alabaster, told Fox News that he believed the sales jump occurred because people are looking for hope and restoration.

Even amidst suffering and financial hardship we've continued to see people engage with Alabaster by utilizing our free resources and purchasing Bibles as encouraging gifts for loved ones, Chung said.

We believe people are buying Bibles because theres a longing to connect with God, find meaning, and experience peace.

The increases in Bible sales reported by multiple publishing companies is not the only evidence indicating growing efforts among the population to find spiritual answers amid the pandemic.

According to Jeanet Sinding Bentzen, associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, internet searches for the word prayer have dramatically increased since last month.

In a preliminary draft of a paper titled In Crisis, We Pray: Religiosity and the COVID-19 Pandemic, Bentzen found that search intensity for prayer doubles for every 80,000 new registered cases of COVID-19.

In times of crisis, humans have a tendency to turn to religion for stress relief and explanation. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic is no exception, wrote Bentzen.

I document that Google searches on prayer has skyrocketed during the month of March 2020 when the COVID-19 went global.

Bentzen added that the searches surged to the highest level during the past five years for which comparative Google search data is available, surpassing all other major events that otherwise instigate intensified demand for prayer, such as Christmas, Easter, and Ramadan.

Even Denmark, one of the least religious countries in the world, sees systematic increases in internet searches on prayer, she noted.
BJP president J P Nadda on Tuesday paid tributes to soldiers who were killed in an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district.

The soldiers were killed in a fierce exchange of fire with a group of terrorists which had infiltrated from across the Line of Control in Keran sector of north Kashmir, officials had said on Sunday.

"I have received the sad our five brave soldiers being killed in an encounter with terrorists in Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir. I bow to the slain soldiers and pray for peace for their souls.

"May God give strength to the grieving families to cope with this loss," Nadda said in a tweet in Hindi.

Five terrorists were also killed in the operation which began on the intervening night of April 3 and 4, the officials had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Iffath Fathima By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Life has not been the same for this warrior in white ever since the coronavirus outbreak. She enters the ward and tenderly tends to the patients knowing fully well that she herself could be at the risk of contracting the virus.

This is our choice...this is our profession...we are here to treat our patients and free them from the virus, says a gritty Savitri S Kadam, a frontline staff nurse at KC General Hospital, who has been working at the COVID-19 ward at the hospital.

She has her morning meal at 7 am and reaches the hospital. There she dons the PPE suit, which she says, is quite suffocating.

I cant think of eating or even drinking water until our shift is done. By the time I get done it is 3 pm. For more than six hours we are without food or water and cant even use the washroom, she says.

But that is the least of her worries. Savitri has been away from her family just to ensure that her patients are well taken care of even as she ensures that her family stays safe.

As being in close contact with the patients every day is also a risk to her family, she sent her family to her native Dharwad and stays alone at home.

Savitri, who is serving as the in-charge of the COVID-19 ward, said, This is war, a fight against coronavirus, and we nurses are like soldiers. No matter how much risk we face, we need to fight this out and protect our patients.

Presently, at KC General Hospital, they have five COVID-19 positive patients and eight patients who are quarantined in the wards, and these patients are the responsibility of the nurses.

Savitri says there are five nurses responsible for the ward and each works in three shifts, with she herself working in the morning shift from 8 am to 2 pm.

Once I enter the ward, I put on my PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) after which there is no removing it until the shift is done. Meanwhile, we cant go out once our work starts. We have to be there throughout till the shift is done. Just outside the ward we have a space to sit and we stay there and I keep checking on the patients even after the shift to see if they need something. The doctors visit all the patients and stay there for around an hour or so, but here, we nurses need to be there for more than six hours, she says.

After a hard days work, when she reaches home, she is greeted by silence. My husband and children are at a risk because of me. They did not want to leave (for Dharwad). But I also cant leave my patients. So I asked them to go to Dharwad. It is difficult to stay without them, as after returning home from a tough day at work, you need someone to talk to. But I have none. However, its for my familys and my patients sake I had to send them to Dharwad. Similarly, even the other nurses who are at the COVID-19 ward have isolated themselves in separate rooms. One of my colleagues said how her three-year-old son asks her Mummy, can I come inside the room? I want to see you.

Wearing the PPE is the most difficult, Savitri says.

I pray to God to give me the stamina and strength to make my day easy while I wear the PPE. I have my morning meal around 7 am and head to the hospital. Once I reach the hospital we need to freshen up and put on our PPE suits, after which I cant think of eating or even drinking water until our shift is done. By the time I get done it is 3 pm and we have to update the nurses in the next shift on what needs to be done and then I get home by 4 pm, after which I eat my second meal. We cant wear the PPE for more than 30 minutes, but here we need to wear it for hours, and we have no choice, Savitri says.
India reported 114 Covid-19 related deaths across the country and a jump of 354 coronavirus disease cases taking the tally to 4421, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday morning.

As the country entered the 14th day of the country-wide lockdown, there 3981 active cases and 325 people have been cured or discharged or have migrated, the health ministrys data at 9am showed.

The health ministry had said on Monday that people above 60 years of age account for 63% of the 109 deaths that have occurred due to Covid-19 in India on Monday, cautioning that pre-existing conditions such as diabetes make the infection deadlier.

Follow latest updates on coronavirus here

The health ministry had released data on the coronavirus disease cases and deaths in the country based on an analysis of 4067 cases and 109 deaths.

The trends are similar to reported elsewhere in the world in which show older people are more at risk and more men die from Covid-19 than women.

The group of ministers (GoM) headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh will meet in New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss, among other issues, whether the 21-day lockdown clamped to break the chain of coronavirus infections should be extended.

Ministers and senior bureaucrats said the meeting of ministers will consider the recommendations of the 11 empowered groups set up to manage various aspects of Indias response to the pandemic.

Union home minister Amit Shah will also attend the meeting.

Click here for complete coronavirus coverage
Five days after the start of a $349 billion emergency effort to get money into the hands of small businesses, the agency at the heart of the program is emerging as its biggest bottleneck.

The Small Business Administration, lightly staffed and working with aging technology, has been caught unprepared for the onrush of demand from desperate small-business owners who urgently need these loans as the coronavirus stalls the economy. In a boom year, the agency backs $30 billion of small-business loans  about the same amount that banks are now seeking on behalf of their customers in a day.

Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, said on Tuesday that 178,000 loans totaling $50 billion had been approved for small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program that was unveiled Friday by the S.B.A. and the Treasury Department. But bankers, small-business owners and others participating in the program say very little of that money has actually reached companies seeking the cash. The delays are causing confusion and panic among borrowers, especially those who see Trump administration officials playing up the programs success. They worry they are being left behind.

The expectation that this $2 trillion package would go through Congress and that the money would be flowing three days later, that was never a realistic expectation, said Patrick Ryan, the chief executive of First Bank, a lender based in New Jersey. But I get why people are frustrated.
The City of Coweta has issued a shelter in place order for community residents effective from Tuesday, April 7 at 11:59 p.m. until Thursday, April 30 at 11:59 a.m. unless rescinded earlier or extended. The board action came Monday during a teleconference meeting of the Coweta City Council.

City Manager Roger Kolman said people must remain in their homes and only go out for essential health and welfare purposes or for going to and from work in an essential business. Other than that, he said to "stay home.

The president, CDC and governors office have come out and said the next two weeks are going to be the worst for us, Kolman said. Its best to have people stay home to avoid infecting or re-infecting other people.

Its hard to ask people to stay home and avoid commerce, but this is the only way we can control the spread of this thing. If its an essential thing, go and get it. But dont take risks you do not need to take. We need to take this seriously and work together to save lives.
Public rebuke came after former commanders letter pleading for help for his coronavirus-hit crew was leaked.

The acting US navy secretary said he was sorry for calling the commander of a coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier too naive or too stupid, drawing a response from President Donald Trump who called the criticism a rough statement.

I apologise for any confusion this choice of words may have caused, Thomas Modly said late on Monday, adding he does not believe Captain Brett E Crozier is stupid or naive.

I also want to apologise directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the carrier for any pain my remarks may have caused, he said referring to his speech that was widely reported in the media.

Modlys public ridicule came after a letter by the revered former commander pleading for help for his coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier was leaked. Subsequently, Crozier was relieved of his duties.

If he didnt think that information was going to get out into the public in this information age that we live in, then he was  too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this, Modly said earlier. The alternative is that he did it on purpose.





Crozier, who took command of the Theodore Roosevelt in November, wrote a four-page letter describing a bleak situation on board the carrier as more of his crew began falling ill.

In his letter, Crozier called for decisive action  removing more than 4,000 sailors from the ship and isolating them  and said unless the navy acted immediately it would be failing to properly safeguard our most trusted asset  our sailors.

According to a person familiar with the conversation, Defense Secretary Mark Espers staff told Modly he must apologise. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

Tone-deaf

Crew members have been taken off the ship to be tested for the coronavirus. At least 173 sailors on board the ship tested positive as of Monday, and about 2,000 of the 4,865 crew members had been taken off. The navy has offered no estimate of when the ship might return to duty.

While skewering Crozier, Modly also admonished the crew. He suggested by cheering Crozier when he departed the carrier last week, they were overlooking their most basic duty to defend US interests.

So think about that when you cheer the man off the ship who exposed you to that, he said. I understand you love the guy. Its good that you love him. But youre not required to love him.

A sailor on board the ship told Reuters news agency that Modlys speech only angered the crew.

Nobody likes what he had to say He made everyone more irritated, said the sailor, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Adam Smith, a Democrat, called on Monday for Modlys removal.

Acting Secretary Modlys decision to address the sailors on the Roosevelt and personally attack Captain Crozier shows a tone-deaf approach more focused on personal ego than one of the calm, steady leadership we so desperately need in this crisis, Smith said in a statement.

Crozier made a mistake

President Trump on Monday said he may get involved, agreeing that Modlys criticism of Crozier was a rough statement. He said Crozier made a mistake when he sent a memo to several people laying out his concerns about the crew and the virus.

You have two good people and theyre arguing Im good at settling these arguments. So I may look into it in great detail  and Ill be able to figure it out very fast, Trump said.

The president said Crozier had a good career prior to this incident, adding, I dont want to destroy somebody for having a bad day.

In his apology, Modly said he believes Crozier is smart and passionate.

I believe  he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship, he said.
B oris Johnson will be spending another night in hospital where he is being treated for coronavirus.

The Prime Minister was moved to intensive care at St Thomas' hospital on Monday night following a worsening of his coronavirus symptoms.

A Downing Street spokesman said: The Prime Ministers condition is stable and he remains in intensive care for close monitoring. He is in good spirits.

No further updates on his condition are expected until Wednesday.

A billboard van outside St Thomas' Hospital in Central London where Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in intensive care as his coronavirus symptoms persist. / PA

The latest update from the Government said that Mr Johnson had been treated with oxygen and has not had to be put on a ventilator.

Meanwhile, MPs as well as leaders around the world have been sharing messages of support for the PM.

A huge campaign has also spread across social media, encouraging Brits to #ClapforBoris just as the country has saluted NHS workers.

Dominic Raab says Boris Johnson is 'a fighter' and 'our friend'

As Mr Johnson prepares to spend another night in intensive care, a van with a digital billboard has been displaying supportive messages while driving past the hospital.

One urged people to clap for Boris tonight while another said: Stay strong Boris you get better.

Its a new day. The country and your people stand side by side to fight with you.

The van appeared to be doing loops around central London on Tuesday evening including repeatedly driving past the front of St Thomas Hospital.

Speaking at the daily Covid-19 press conference, Dominic Raab, who is deputising for the PM, said that Mr Johnson remains in "good spirits" after his first night at St Thomas' hospital.

The Foreign Secretary said: "He is not just the Prime Minister. For all of us in Cabinet, he is not just our boss.

"He is also a colleague and he is also our friend. So all our thoughts and prayers are with the Prime Minister at this time, with Carrie (Symonds) and his whole family.

The World on Coronavirus lockdown 1 /60 The World on Coronavirus lockdown Getty Images A UK government public health campaign is displayed in Piccadilly Circus Reuters Chinese paramilitary police and security officers wear face masks to protect against the spread of the new coronavirus as they stand guard outside an entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing AP A usually busy 42nd Street is seen nearly empty in New York AFP via Getty Images Bondi Beach, Australia Getty Images Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images View of the illuminated statue of Christ the Redeemer that reads "Thank you" as Archbishop of the city of Rio de Janeiro Dom Orani Tempesta performs a mass in honor of Act of Consecration of Brazil and tribute to medical workers amidst the Coronavirus (COVID - 19) pandemic Getty Images Rome AFP via Getty Images An Indian man paddles his bicycle in front of a mural depicting the globe covered in a mask, as India remains under an unprecedented lockdown over the highly contagious coronavirus Getty Images Aerial view of the empty 9 de Julio avenue in Buenos Aires in Argentina AFP via Getty Images A view of an empty Grand Canal Reuters Las Ramblas, Barcelona, Spain Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Central cemetery in Bogota, Columbia AFP via Getty Images The facade of the Palacio de Lopez (seat of the government palace) AFP via Getty Images Miami, Florida AFP via Getty Images Aerial view of the empty Simon Bolivar park in Bogota AFP via Getty Images An LAPD patrol car drives through Venice Beach Boardwalk AP Venice Beach, California Getty Images Los Angeles, California Getty Images Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images Many shops stand shuttered on the Venice Beach boardwalk Getty Images Empty escalators are seen at a deserted train station during morning rush hour after New South Wales began shutting down non-essential businesses Reuters A nearly empty Times Square in New York AFP via Getty Images Caracas AFP via Getty Images Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador AFP via Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Midland Park in Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A general view of an unusually quiet Civic Square at lunchtimein Wellington, New Zealand Getty Images A policeman rides his motorcycle wearing a face mask in front of a closed shopping mall in Buenos Aires, Argentina AFP via Getty Images Florida Keys AP The historic Channel 2 Bridge closed to fishermen, bikers and pedestrians in Florida Keys AP The Beach on Scenic Gulf Drive near Seascape Resort in south Walton County, Florida sits empty of tourists AP Surfers Paradise is seen empty in Australia Getty Images A deserted Rajpath leading to India Gate in New Delhi AFP via Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images A general view is seen of a closed Luna Park in Sydney, Australia Getty Images Empty roads are pictured following the lockdown by the government amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Kathmandu, Nepal Reuters An empty New York Subway car i AFP via Getty Images The empty pedestrian zone is seen in the city of Cologne, western Germany, AFP via Getty Images Place de la Comedie in the city of Montpellier , southern France AFP via Getty Images An empty street in Kuwait city AFP via Getty Images A building is covered by the Portuguese message: "Coronavirus: take precaution" over empty streets in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, AP A general view shows an empty street after a curfew was imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters Parliament of Canada is pictured with empty street during morning rush hour AFP via Getty Images A near empty beach on Southend seafront in England PA Near empty Keswick town centre in Cumbria, England PA

"And I'm confident he will pull through because if there is one thing that I know about this Prime Minister is he is a fighter and he will be back leading us through this crisis in short order."
Ukraine will draw respective conclusions after receiving an official clarification regarding statements made by an Iranian MP, but will in no way allow Iran to escape the responsibility for the shooting down of a Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) passenger jet near Tehran.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said this live on UA:Pershyi television channel, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"We will in no way allow Iran to escape the responsibility for the tragedy that occurred and will work with them to get the [black] boxes, to agree on the parameters of legal responsibility for what happened. And here we will act not alone but together with our partners, first and foremost, with Canada," Kuleba said.

Commenting on remarks by an Iranian deputy who called the downing of the Ukrainian plane the right thing and said that none of the perpetrators had been detained, the foreign minister recalled that Ukraine's Embassy in Tehran had sent a note to clarify Iran's official position.

Iranian lawmaker Hassan Norouzi, a member of the parliament's legal and judicial commission, said earlier that the Iranian military did the right thing by shooting down the airliner and said that nobody had been arrested for the incident.

The Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) plane (Flight PS752) heading from Tehran to Kyiv crashed shortly after taking off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport at about 06:00 Tehran time (04:30 Kyiv time) on January 8. There were 176 people on board  nine crew members (all Ukrainians) and 167 passengers (citizens of Ukraine, Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and the UK). They all died.

On January 11, Iran admitted that its military had accidentally shot down the Ukrainian passenger jet. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accepted full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian airliner.

It emerged later that the UIA plane had been shot down by two missiles of the Tor-M1 air defense system, which Iran received from Russia.

Tehran has so far refused to hand over black boxes to Kyiv.

op
Proximity means California prison inmates are at higher risk of spreading the virus. (Los Angeles Times)

The number of of California prison officials to test positive for coronavirus has jumped to 53.

The latest corrections workers who have tested positive for COVID-19 are two nurses at the states medical prison near Stockton. The California Health Care Facility, California's newest prison, was built as a central place to provide medical care to inmates from across the state. Underlying health conditions put people at greater risk for severe illness or death from the virus.

Internal prison records provided to the Los Angeles Times showed that the nurses, who worked in separate parts of the facility, tested positive on Sunday. In addition, another prison staff member is a suspected case. As a result, four sections of the large prison have been put on medical quarantine  requiring staff to wear masks and gloves at all times when in those areas.

Past prison memos showed nurses were ordered not to wear masks unless near a diagnosed patient, and were told to make plans to reuse protective gear while on their rounds to conserve in the face of short supplies.

Inmates of those housing units, however, have only been ordered to wear protective masks if they have symptoms of a coronavirus infection and leave the quarantined area. Meals are being delivered to cells, and only critical workers are allowed within.

There are no confirmed inmate cases of COVID-19 at the prison, though 17 inmates at three other prisons have tested positive for the virus.

At a hastily called status conference on California prisons amid the pandemic, a federal judge Monday told lawyers for the state to provide information on whether current plans to release some 3,500 inmates up to 60 days early could be tripled, allowing inmates to leave prison six months early. I don't see any difference between 180 days and 60 days" in terms of public safety, said U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar. I see proximate release dates as low-hanging fruit.

Tigar was part of a panel of three judges that on Saturday said it lacked authority to order mass prison releases and directed inmates lawyers to take their case to individual courts.
China is making Italy buy masks and coronavirus supplies that it had donated to Beijing just weeks earlier, a White House source claims.

Xi Jinping's Communist state last month dispatched a plane full of medical supplies, including masks and respirators, to Italy as it became overwhelmed by COVID-19.

Later reports suggested that the Chinese were selling rather than donating the kit.

But a senior Trump administration official has told The Spectator that Beijing has, in fact, forced Rome to buy back the very equipment it had donated to China at the height of the outbreak in Wuhan.

'Before the virus hit Europe, Italy sent tons of PPE (personal protective equipment) to China to help China protect its own population,' the official said. 'China then has sent Italian PPE back to Italy - some of it, not even all of it  and charged them for it.'

Members of the medical staff wearing their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) work examine a patient at the COVID-19 division at a hospital in Bergamo

It is the latest of China's PR efforts, since it lied about the extent of the virus as it ravaged their population in Wuhan, to blow up in its face.

Chinese President Xi Jinping wearing a mask as he waves to a coronavirus patient and medical staff via a video link at the Huoshenshan hospital in Wuhan last month

Two weeks ago it emerged that Spain was sending back 50,000 faulty testing kits after buying 382million worth of supplies, including ventilators, masks and gloves, from China.

And last week Beijing told countries to 'double-check' the instructions it had sent with face masks, after the Dutch government recalled 600,000 masks made in China it said did not meet standards.

The Trump official told The Spectator: 'It's so disingenuous for Chinese officials now to say we are the ones who are helping the Italians or we are the ones who are helping the developing world when, in fact, they are the ones who infected all of us.

'Of course they should be helping. They have a special responsibility to help because they are the ones who began the spread of the coronavirus and did not give the information required to the rest of the world to plan accordingly.'

A Chinese doctors who accompanied the transport gestures to staff of the Regional Emergency Emergency Company AREU as they pile boxes with supplies donated by China, containing medical equipment and personal protection devices for the whole of Lombardy

He added that China's fake news surrounding the virus had delayed America's response by at least a month by allowing the world to believe the virus was a regional problem.

Indeed, the WHO - acting on information from Beijing - was reticent to announce that coronavirus was a pandemic and told us the virus was not transmissible between humans as late as mid-January.

Meanwhile, Italy's death toll (16,523) - as well as other countries' - is higher than that recorded in China (3,331).

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is said to have been warned the Chinese figures could have been downplayed by a factor of between 15 and 40 times.

The WHO - acting on information from Beijing - was reticent to announce that coronavirus was a pandemic and told us the virus was not transmissible between humans as late as mid-January

Workers unload medical aid from a plane carrying 65 tons of sanitary aid and material from China to the Valencia regional community at Manises airport in Valencia

Downing Street sources have described China's disinformation campaign as repulsive and said it risks becoming a pariah state when the dust settles.

One source told The Mail on Sunday last weekend: 'There is a disgusting disinformation campaign going on and it is unacceptable.

'They [the Chinese government] know they have got this badly wrong and rather than owning it they are spreading lies.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and King of Bahrain Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa on Monday discussed the coronavirus crisis and its consequences on logistics chains and financial markets. During their telephonic conversation, the King assured the prime minister of his personal attention to the welfare of the large Indian community in Bahrain, an official statement said.

"The two leaders discussed the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis and its consequences, including on logistics chains and financial markets," it said.

Modi expressed his appreciation for the care and affection that the Bahrain authorities have always extended to the Indian diaspora. The leaders agreed that their officials would remain in regular touch and ensure all possible support to each other for dealing with the challenges of COVID-19. The prime minister conveyed to the King that India regards Bahrain as an important part of its extended neighbourhood. He also recalled his visit to the country last year, the statement said.
Wisconsin will hold its in-person primary election on Tuesday after the state's Republican-dominated supreme court voted along party lines to overturn the Democratic governor's bid to delay it amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier on Monday, governor Tony Evers had said he was planning to postpone the primary until 9 June to protect voters from the risk of spreading Covid-19, overriding the objections of Republican politicians in the state. He had previously opposed moving the primary himself.

However, the supreme court voted 4-2 that he did not have the legal right to postpone the vote on his own authority.

Many Democratic primaries have either been postponed  several until 2 June  or else switched to mail-in ballots, such as this month's contests in states including Alaska, Wyoming and Ohio, because of the pandemic.

Mr Evers himself had questioned whether he had the power to reschedule the election, but said the worsening situation, including an increase in Covid-19 deaths from 56 on Friday to 77 on Monday, made it clear there was no way to safely move forward. He insisted he was motivated by protecting public health, not politics.

He said: "The people of Wisconsin, the majority of them, don't spend all their waking hours thinking about are Republicans or Democrats getting the upper hand here.

"They're saying they're scared. They're scared of going to the polls. They're scared for their future. At the end of the day, someone has to stand up for those folks."

Republicans quickly took their case to the conservative-leaning Wisconsin Supreme Court, which ruled in their favour.

Dan Kelly, one of the conservative judges who is also on the ballot on Tuesday, recused himself from the case and then commented on Twitter that the election can be done safely and should be allowed to proceed.

On Thursday Donald Trump said he believed the Wisconsin primary should still go ahead.

A polling station in Waukesha, Wisconsin (AP)

Asked if he believed the governor was trying to delay the election for reasons of public safety, the president said: "I don't know. Why didn't he do it before? Excuse me. Why didnt he do this two weeks ago?"

Joe Biden has a commanding lead over his rival Bernie Sanders in the polls, despite the democratic socialist having won the state when he was running against Hillary Clinton for the nomination in 2016.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Actor Ratna Pathak Shah has said she was sceptical about targeting the middle class in her popular show from early 2000, Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai, but after watching the people around her, she now feels it was not enough.

Ratna told Times of India in an interview, Of course, Maya Sarabhai it has to be her. Tauba I dont relate to Monisha at all in real life. And in todays time definitely with Maya Sarabhai. I remember when we started shooting for the show, I often asked our writer Aatish Kapadia, kya middle class ko itna lataadna zaruri hai... (do we need to be so cruel towards the middle class). Arent we too harsh on them and is it fair after all we all are middle class.

Also read: Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra to be part of Lady Gagas One World: Together At Home live event to raise funds for Covid-19: report

She further told the daily, I definitely think of myself as a middle class person and I do things that Monisha does in real-life to save money. But when I see people around doing things, I feel hum ne shayad kum he kiya (We should have been more harsh). As Deven Bhojani said earlier, the show was much ahead of its time, the time has caught up with it. The world I feel is turning into a crazy mess that Sarabhai talked about.

Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai was aired on Star One from 2004 to 2006. Written and directed by Aatish Kapadia, it was the story of a dysfunctional family with Satish Shah (Indravadan) and Ratna Pathak (Maya) playing the parents , Rajesh Kumar (Rosesh) and Sumeet Raghavan (Sahil) essayed the roles of their sons. Rupali Ganguly played Monisha, Sumeets wife on the serial.

About working with Ratna on the show, Rupali Ganguly told Hindustan Times in an interview, I remember Ratna ji and I were sharing the make-up room and there was a big bed and a smaller one. I picked up the smaller one and was sitting with a lot of my bags around. When she entered, she told me, Tum ek kaam karo, tum yeh bada bed lelo. Tumhe zaada jagah ki zaroorat hai.

Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai is now being aired again on Star Bharat.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Maxine Roybal Lopez died at the University of New Mexico Hospital fighting COVID-19 with no family by her side.

The 71-year-old had been hooked up to a ventilator for days when she took a turn for the worse. Because hospitals have limited visitors, her daughter couldnt be there.

One of the nurses did hold my moms hand to the very end, Mariaelena Lopez said. I asked her to please do that for me.

The hospital had previously called to warn her about her mothers deteriorating condition and to ask how to proceed if her mothers heart stopped.

It was the hardest thing Id ever heard.  I couldnt understand the rapid decline, she said.

Now she is alone as she grieves her moms death.

And she is hoping that her brother, who she said has tested positive for the same virus that killed their mother, will not suffer a similar fate.

Lopezs family has been in the news a lot this past week. Her mom was the seventh person to die in New Mexico of coronavirus. And she believes her brother, Daniel Lopez, was the first person to test positive in the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Its a lonely position to be in, she said Sunday evening, quarantined in the home she used to share with her mom. Its the worst position. I wouldnt wish this upon anybody.

Left vulnerable

Maxine Lopez had a heart attack years ago that her daughter believes may have left her more vulnerable to coronavirus. Her seasonal allergies caused a cough around this time each year.

It was hard to decipher the difference between the cough theyre talking about and the cough she had, because its the same cough she normally has, Mariaelena Lopez said.

On March 24, Maxine Lopez was having trouble breathing before she went to sleep. When she woke up, her skin was gray, and her son took her to the hospital.

Maxine was tested for the virus right away, and her positive test results were in by March 27  the day after Daniel Lopez was booked into the jail.

Maxine Lopez sent her daughter a text message that same day saying she was going to be placed on a ventilator. Although she was sedated, she was fighting the tubes hooked up to her, and so to conserve her energy, she was given a paralytic.

She remained unconscious until her death on April 1.

Delivering bad news

Days later, Lopez delivered the news to her brother  simultaneously  that their mom had died of coronavirus, and that he had tested positive for it. Lopez said she concluded based on media reports that the MDC inmate who tested positive had to be her brother.

His first response was, Oh, my god, am I going to die?' she said.

Although MDC announced in a media release on Monday of last week that an inmate in its care had tested positive, Lopez doesnt believe her brother has been officially informed of his test results. All of MDCs descriptions of the inmate who has tested positive fit his situation.

Daniel Lopez was booked into the jail March 26 after reportedly failing to report to probation. He had pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2018 and had been released from MDC last April.

Lopez was sick at the time of his arrest and had been to a doctor days before that because he was having trouble breathing, his sister said.

Still, he was placed in general population, where he continuously complained that he did not feel well, but was not given medical attention, Mariaelena Lopez said.

She said her brother has had all the same symptoms her mom did. He was placed in quarantine and tested for the virus only after she called the jail to let them know that their mother had tested positive.

When I called them, I just knew in my heart that he had a good chance of being COVID-19 positive, she said.

The jail announced last week  days after the announcement about the positive test  that close to 80 more inmates were scheduled for testing, along with 17 staff members. Larry Gallegos, a spokesman for Bernalillo County, said many of those tests have come back, and all of them have been negative.

Lopez wonders what might have happened if she hadnt notified the jail, and she worries that the facilitys screening process is insufficient. Gallegos said Monday that the screening procedure implemented in light of the pandemic, which includes taking vitals and temperatures and asking a series of questions about possible coronavirus exposure, has not changed since Feb. 13. Workers are also screened when they enter the facility.

Mariaelena Lopez said she worries about other inmates, as well as for jail staff and their families. She said she plans to keep doing everything she can to try to make sure her brother gets the medical care he needs as he waits out the virus in a negative pressure room at MDC.

Hes all I have left. I dont have anybody else, Mariaelena Lopez said. I dont want to bury two people.

Mourning alone

So many of the things that are normal parts of mourning are impossible right now.

You dont have family, you dont have friends, you dont have someone to hug you to let you know its going to be OK, Mariaelena Lopez said.

She cant sit with her friends and reminisce. She cant console her niece. She cant go back to her classroom of third graders to try to find a sense of normalcy. She cant plan a memorial right away.

But she and her loved ones have found some ways to improvise.

Friends have had food delivered to her home, her aunt dropped off groceries, shes been video calling her niece and watching Netflix and shes been doing everything she can to advocate for her brother.

Still, she said, theres so much time to sit and think.

Its that idle time alone, she said. Its one of the most difficult things Ive ever gone through. Its lonely. Its truly lonely.

To say that Mariaelena Lopez and her mother were close would be an understatement.

Maxine Lopez went to work with her daughter each day. She volunteered in Mariaelena Lopez class at Kit Carson Elementary School, helping with grading, and spending time with the kids who needed a bit more attention.

She was the grandma of the classroom, Mariaelena Lopez said.

In her younger years, Maxine Lopez worked at a pharmacy and then as a change clerk at Isletas casino. She was creative  the go-to woman for wedding and baby shower centerpieces. She was known for her candy bouquets and, at school, she helped make cheerleading costumes for the Christmas parade and mariachi outfits for international day.

Mariaelena Lopez wonders if her mom could have picked up the virus before schools were closed. Students and parents are sick all the time, she said.

Lopez hopes that her loved ones will gather sometime when this is all over to remember her mom, a woman who touched countless lives.

She deserves that, Mariaelena Lopez said. I want the Kit Carson community, the teachers, the staff, and her friends and family. I want them to get around and celebrate the life that she did have.
Despite concerns about the effect of the coronavirus on businesses, German firms are still optimistic and have higher expectations for the Vietnamese market

Accordingly, German companies revenue expectations dropped significantly due to the coronavirus. The survey shows that 82 per cent report adjusting revenue targets downward because of the epidemic. 9 per cent have serious problems and expect a significant decline of more than 50 per cent. 63 per cent calculated with a loss of 10-50 per cent.

Almost all German companies in Vietnam have already got a taste of how the epidemic would affect their business activities since the coronavirus broke out. They have been feeling the initial impacts, especially because of the travel restrictions (86 per cent). 59 per cent of German companies reported that coronavirus has disrupted their supply chains while 55 per cent are experiencing cancellations of contracts and 50 per cent are rescheduling new investment plans due to the outbreak of coronavirus.

Despite the challenges, over 70 per cent of German companies in Vietnam stay committed to investing in the country and 27 per cent assume an increase in future employment. As a result of the Vietnamese government's commitment to creating the most favourable conditions for foreign investors and businesses as well as the upcoming FTA between the EU and Vietnam (which will probably come into effect this summer) economic growth will be boosted and more investors will be attracted to Vietnam.

German companies expect the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and Investment Promotion Agreement (EVIPA) to improve the business climate in Vietnam in the long run. They could enjoy investment protection with trade facilitation and increase investment in Vietnam. For the mid-term, there will be many FDI flows for high-value projects in Vietnam. German investors will bring their famous technology in management and training to the country, allow more value-added production, and reduce the waste of materials and resources.

However, German companies also express increasing concerns about demand and the economic policy framework this year. Many companies (68 per cent) think that they have taken a big hit in 2020 from the coronavirus with a major decrease in demand. 59 per cent of companies cite economic policy as one of the great factors of uncertainty for their businesses in 2020 in Vietnam. Other issues such as financing, infrastructure, and a lack of skilled workers might threaten their businesses here.
A Sydney Uber driver who raped a 17-year-old passenger snoozing in the back of his car has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years.

Onur Dedeoglu was booked to drive three school friends home in August 2018, but after two boys got out in Bondi, he turned off his driver app, parked and climbed into the back seat.

The victim woke to the driver 20 years her senior kissing her and with his hand down her trousers.

Dedeoglu was found guilty at trial of sexual intercourse without consent and two counts of assault with an act of indecency but has not shown any remorse, NSW District Court Judge Nicole Noman said on Tuesday.
Australian and New Zealand passengers on a cruise ship off the Uruguay coast will be flown home this week after coronavirus cases on the liner jumped to 128, the vessel's operator said Tuesday.

Confirmed COVID-19 cases on the MV Greg Mortimer -- currently anchored off Montevideo -- jumped from 81 to 128 on Tuesday with a medical flight for the around 100 Australians onboard expected as early as Thursday.

While flights for other passengers were still being arranged, negotiations were underway to allow New Zealanders to fly with the Australians, tour operator Aurora Expeditions said in a statement.

"The plane going to Australia is set up with medical facilities for this type of situation and will be managed in alignment with current COVID-19 protocol to ensure the health and safety of all onboard," the company said.

The aircraft, which will carry passengers who test both positive and negative for the virus, will head to Melbourne where the arrivals will be quarantined for 14 days.

Six passengers who were brought ashore in serious condition were now stable in Uruguay, the operator said.

The 104-metre (341-foot) state of the art cruise ship, built in 2019, was on a voyage to Antarctica and South Georgia organised by the Australian tour company, leaving the Argentine port of Ushuaia on March 15.

Anxious family were happy to hear flights had been organised for those onboard, with the daughter of two passengers, Jean McKinnon, telling public broacaster SBS she was remaining apprehensive until they had boarded the plane home.

"We won't count our chickens until then," McKinnon said.

"We think they'll both be positive ... it seems to have just slowly crept through the boat.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amid the ongoing tussle between



the West Bengal government and the opposition BJP over COVID-19 figures, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said eight more people have tested positive for the disease, taking the number of active cases in the state to 69.

According to the data provided by the state government, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state -- taking into account the deaths and recoveries -- stands at 87.

The Union Health Ministry, however, stated that the figure has touched 91.

Banerjee also said the death toll in the state has risen to five from three.

As many as 303 Tablighi Jamaat members, including the ones that had attended the programme at Nizamuddin in New Delhi, have been placed under quarantine at a Haj tower in the Rajarhat area of the North 24 Parganas district.

The chief minister also said that her government has identified seven COVID-19 hotspots in the state and is taking necessary measures to break the chain of transmission.

An ugly spat had broken out on Twitter between the TMC and the BJP over the COVID-19 death toll in the state, with the saffron camp's IT Cell chief Amit Malviya on Monday accusing the Bengal government of "hiding" cases and the ruling party hitting back, saying "a person with Ph.D on fake should not talk about data authenticity".

Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha had last week told a press meet that the state government was not hiding or suppressing any fact or figure in connection with the disease.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
It was another overcast day in LA.

But Kanye West brought all the sunshine anyone could ask for on his feet.

The 42-year-old fashion designer showed off a pair of unreleased bright yellow Yeezy boots while heading to his office in Calabasas, California on Tuesday morning.

Scroll down for video

Mr. Brightside: Kanye West showed off a pair of unreleased bright yellow Yeezy boots while heading to his office in Calabasas, California on Tuesday morning

It seemed to be the first time eccentric pair of shoes featuring chunky lug soles have been worn in public as they were first shown on the runway during Kanye's Yeezy presentation during Paris Fashion Week last month.

Kanye bundled up in an oversized navy blue polar fleece jacket featuring a hood over a grey T-shirt and relaxed fit light blue jeans.

Last month, Kanye debuted his latest Yeezy designs - including the bright yellow boots - at the brand's A/W 20/21 Paris Fashion Week show after a three-year hiatus from fashion runways.

Ultralight Beam: The 42-year-old rapper bundled up in an oversized navy blue polar fleece jacket featuring a hood over a grey T-shirt and relaxed fit light blue jeans

He was joined by his family including wife Kim, daughter North, sister-in-law Kourtney Kardashian, and niece Penelope Disick.

He has high hopes for the brand as told Wall Street Journal in the pages of his April cover issue: 'I believe that Yeezy is the McDonalds and the Apple of apparel.

'In order to make the Apple of apparel the next Gap, it has to be a new invention. To invent something thats so good that you dont even get credit for it because its the norm.'

West worked at the Gap as a teen.

Avant garde: The boots were first shown on the runway during Kanye's Yeezy presentation during Paris Fashion Week last month

In-depth: Kanye seen on the front of WSJ Magazine's April issue as he said 'I believe that Yeezy is the McDonalds and the Apple of apparel'

Seemingly inspired by his wife's trailblazing in criminal justice reform, Kanye has also expressed interest in helping former convicts.

West said he is eager to hire released prisoners for work in apparel manufacturing and has had discussions about building factories in the US.

The artist believes that his success in music should not limit him to other fields including fashion and evangelicalism.

He said: 'I got to live out every version of ego  rapper, I had my own [version of] Jordans, Im married to Kim Kardashian West.'

He's back: Last month, Kanye debuted his latest Yeezy designs at the brand's A/W 20/21 Paris Fashion Week show after a three-year hiatus from fashion runways

Family first: He was joined by his family including wife Kim, daughter North, sister-in-law Kourtney Kardashian, and niece Penelope Disick
07.04.2020 LISTEN

The National Communication Director of Young Democrats, a support group of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and NDC Ward Coordinator for Wuxor, Have and Sremanu in the Akatsi South Constituency of the Volta Region, Mr. Japhet Festus Gbede has warned the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) never to try fomenting any trouble during this trying time in the history of Ghana under President Akufo-Addo after he returned from Norway.

He particularly warned the partys errands communicators to stop putting out in the public domain inflammatory, fake, Hoax and malicious statements purporting to be authored by the leading members of the opposition National Democratic Congress since Ghanaians are now discerning and would not be misled as how the president was misled in the cash for seat saga and other uninvestigated fraudulent activities in President Nana Addo's government.

The Communication Director of the group who gave this warning in a statement noted that had it not been for the peaceful nature of Hon. Joshua Hamidu Akamba, the National Organizer and the Ashanti Regional Youth Organizer, Hon. Brogya Genfi, they would have match the NPP boot-for-boot in whatever they are doing to bring this country to a standstill even as the country is on its knees begging God for forgiveness.

He added that "the whole world is crying over the pandemic but because the NPP is interested in winning election 2020, the only thing their surrogates, sycophants, cowards and bootlickers within the main ruling New patriotic party kept doing is to authorize fake statements in the name of our national executives of the Opposition NDC."

The furious Japhet 1 said "they begun with our National Organizer, Hon. Joshua Hamidu Akamba and now, Brogya Genfi."

According to him, the two gentlemen for the past months hasn't granted any interviews on any platform but this faceless people within the ruling New Patriotic Party claimed they were on Power FM.

"To set the records straight, If that is the way the president asked them to fight the deadly Coronavirus, we can do ten (10) times or even more better than the NPP but it will not profit the nation anything, that is why the NDC and the leader of our party, the next President of Ghana John Dramani Mahama is investing so much in the fight against the pandemic whilst the president and his cohorts continue to tell us to hope for their upcoming three months Salaries.
JAIPUR: Bhilwara- the textile town of Rajasthan  which had once become one of the hotspots of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, has now emerged as a clear winner in the fight against the deadly coronavirus pandemic. The situation in this small Rajasthan town was so bad that till March 20, after several cases of coronavirus infections were detected, that it was being compared to Chinas Wuhan province, the epicentre of COVID-19 outbreak.

Home to over 24 lakh people according to the 2011 Census, Bhilwara had registered at least 27 positive cases and two deaths. However, the strategy adopted by the Rajasthan government and the Bhilwara district administration ensured that no new COVID-19 cases were reported in the textile town in the past two weeks.

Meanwhile, 13 out of the 27, who had tested positive for the coronavirus, had successfully recovered so far.

According to the Bhilwara Collector, Rajendra Bhatt, ''Bhilwara had reported 27 positive cases by March 20. Out of the 27 positive cases (in Bhilwara), eight have turned negative while 13 had recovered successfully. If people remain disciplined in the coming days and support the administration, we will tide over the coronavirus crisis.

Most of the people who turned out COVID-19 positive in the textile town were either hospital staffers or those who had gone to the private hospital for treatment. In a bid to tide over the crisis, the administration clamped curfew in the district and sealed the borders and carried out massive survey and screening in the urban and rural areas.

Bhatt said that the strategy in Bhilwara comprised of some crucial steps - Isolating the district; mapping the hotspots; door-to-door screening; aggressive contact tracing; ramping up quarantine and isolation wards, and readying a monitoring mechanism for rural areas.

As part of the measures, Bhilwara was completely isolated from surrounding areas and an aggressive door-to-door screening was conducted that saw about 25 lakh people getting screened, many of them more than once, Bhatt added. In all, 1,937 teams were set up in the district, which surveyed 4.41 lakh houses between 22 March and 2 April.

We identified 14,000 people with influenza-like symptoms and put them on our watch list. Our health team carried out intense follow-up of these cases, twice a day, to see if they are exhibiting any symptoms, Bhilwara CMHO Dr Mushtaq Khan said.

A report sent by the district administration to the Chief Ministers Office said a two-pronged approach was adopted to combat the COVID-19 crisis. In the first phase, starting March 20, five days before the nationwide lockdown, a curfew under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (making gatherings of five or more persons unlawful) was imposed in Bhilwara district, and only essential services were allowed to open.

City and district borders were sealed immediately, with check-posts set up at all entry/exit points.

To ensure that there are no gaps, the district magistrates of neighbouring districts were requested to seal their borders with Bhilwara. All rail services and movement of public and private vehicles were stopped, and all industries and brick kilns across the district were shut. The second phase, starting April 2, was even more drastic, as all services barring police and health were shut down.

Quarantine facilities were also ramped up. Apart from the dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, the district administration took over and converted into quarantine centres four private hospitals, each having 25 beds, as well as 27 hotels with 1,541 rooms. At present, 950 people are in quarantine centres, while other 7,620 people are in-home quarantine.

Six 247 control rooms were set up in the city, including at the collectorate, chief medical and health office, Nagar Parishad and sub-divisional office.

Several steps taken by the Bhilwara district administration yielded positive results and earned praise from the Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, who lauded the Bhilwara model of ruthless containment to curb the spread of the contagious novel coronavirus. Bhilwara model has been so successful that the Centre, according to sources, is mulling to recommend to states to adopt it in the ongoing fight against the deadly pandemic.
The global bioethanol market is expected to grow by USD 20.55 billion during 2020-2024, according to the latest market research report by Technavio. Request a free sample report

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005333/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Bioethanol Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

The demand for alternative fuels is increasing around the world due to uncertainty in global energy security, fluctuation in fuel prices, and the continued rise in emission levels. Commercial industries are beginning to rely on clean fuels as they help in reducing carbon emission levels. Renewable sources such as cellulosic plants, energy crops, and carbohydrate-containing organic products are being used to derive biofuels such as bioethanol. The adoption of bioethanol blends is increasing in the automotive industry as it is used in vehicles to minimize sulfur and hydrocarbon emissions. Thus, the benefits of bioethanol and the growing demand for continuous supply of clean fuel will boost the bioethanol market during the forecast period.

To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR41041

As per Technavio, rising investments in the bioethanol sector will have a positive impact on the market and contribute to its growth significantly over the forecast period. This research report also analyzes other significant trends and market drivers that will influence market growth over 2020-2024.

Bioethanol Market: Rising Investments in the Bioethanol Sector

Governments and private organizations around the globe are making huge investments in the global bioethanol market with the objective to develop the next generation of biofuels and also reduce volatility in the price of crude oil. Governments across the world grant special loans to industries engaged in the production of biofuels. In 2019, the Indian Oil Corp. proposed to set up a 2G bioethanol plant, which will utilize non-food biomass such as lignocellulosic feedstock and rice straw. The proposed plant will produce 10-15 billion liters of second-generation bioethanol annually. The company invested USD 98 million in this project. Thus, the rising investments in the bioethanol sector are expected to drive the growth of the market.

"Factors such as the advances in enzyme technologies and increasing preference for biofuels over conventional fuels will have a positive impact on the growth of the bioethanol market value during the forecast period," says a senior analyst at Technavio.

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This market research report segments the bioethanol market by type (starch, sugar, cellulose, and others), and geographic segmentation (North America, APAC, Europe, South America, and MEA).

The North America region led the bioethanol market in 2019, followed by APAC, Europe, South America and MEA. During the forecast period, the North America region is expected to register the highest incremental growth due to factors such as the support extended by countries in the region and the availability of lands to produce feedstock.

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Others

Geographic Segmentation

North America

APAC

Europe

South America

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Market Challenges

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Vendor Landscape

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Competitive scenario

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President Trump continued to characterize the federal government as a backstop for the states in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic in comments he made at Tuesday's taskforce briefing.

'I will protect you if your governor fails,' he told the American people. 'If you have a governor that's failing we're going to protect you,' he added.

For weeks the president has told the governors of the 50 states that they should be trying to acquire their own supplies to combat the virus - including ventilators, which Trump said Tuesday would be heading to the national stockpile in big numbers, but wouldn't hit more than 10,000 until May.

President Trump said Tuesday, 'I will protect you if your governor fails,' as he said the federal government was slowly adding tens of thousands of ventilators to its stockpile

This particular ventilator can serve seven patients at one time. Trump gave the most recent ventilator update at the coronavirus taskforce briefing on Tuesday

While 2,200 ventilators would arrive on April 13, the next batch - 5,500 - wouldn't be coming for about a month, on May 4.

'These are the ones that we're building for the most part,' Trump explained, naming Ford, General Motors and General Electric as the companies taking part.

On May 18 there would be 12,000 ventilators added to the supply, on June 1 20,000 ventilators would come in and by June 29 another 60,000 would be available, Trump said.

Overall, 110,000 ventilators would be available 'over a short period of time,' the president said.

'I don't think we'll need them. Hopefully we won't need them,' Trump said.

He told reporters that he hoped that there would be access ventilators to send to other countries including the United Kingdom, which requested 200 ventilators from the Americans earlier Tuesday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is currently in intensive care due to COVID-19, the disease brought on by the coronavirus.

'We'll have them for the future and we'll also be able to help other countries who are desparate for ventilators,' Trump assured reporters Tuesday.

Previously, Trump had complained about New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's request for tens of thousands of ventilators, suggesting the New York governor asked for a much-inflated number.

So far, New York City's been the epicenter of the virus in the United States.

On Tuesday, the president played nice with the governors, for the most part.

'I want to remind governors and emergency managers that sharing real time data with us about equipment and their needs is very imporant,' Trump said at the top of the briefing.

He added that the White House team was getting along 'very well' with the governors, before warning that if any of them failed the fedral government would swoop in.

'But the governors are working well with us over the last period of time,' Trump said.

But when Trump was asked who would be blamed if people got sick in Wisconsin for voting in-person during Tuesday's primary election, the president pointed a finger at that state's leader - Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, who had wanted the in-person voting cancelled.

'You have a Democrat in Wisconsin as governor. Ask him. That's his problem,' Trump said.

'Again, some governors fail. And I won't let them fail because when they fail I'll help, but that's run by Democrats right now,' Trump added.
Cardinal George Pell has left prison after winning his High Court appeal to overturn his conviction for sexually abusing two choirboys.

His convictions have been quashed and he has been acquitted, meaning he was allowed to walk free from Barwon prison, near Geelong, on Tuesday.

Helicopter footage from the ABC showed Cardinal Pell leaving in a black SUV in a three-car convoy at about 12.30pm.

Cardinal Pell, Australias most senior Catholic, was found guilty in 2018 of sexually abusing the choirboys at St Patricks Cathedral in Melbourne in the 1990s.

The 78-year-old had served a year of his six-year sentence he received last year.

George Pell left prison shortly after midday in a black SUV. Source: ABC

The full bench of seven judges gave a unanimous judgment on Tuesday.

"The High Court found that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant's guilt with respect to each of the offences for which he was convicted, and ordered that the convictions be quashed and the verdicts of acquittal be entered in their places," a summary of their decision, handed down on Tuesday, said.

In the summary the High Court said the unchallenged evidence of the opportunity witnesses was inconsistent to the complainants account.

George Pell is expected to walk free on Tuesday. Source: AAP

Cardinal Pells practice of greeting congregants at the Cathedral steps after Sunday solemn Mass and the church process that he must always be accompanied in the Cathedral were cited as reasons the High Court questioned the evidence put forward in the complaint.

The ongoing traffic in and out of his sacristy for up to 15 minutes after Mass was another point the court said challenged the validity of the complaint.

Pell speaks for first time after decision

Cardinal Pell has always maintained his innocence and released a statement following the decision on Tuesday.

He says he feels no ill will towards the man who accused him of child sexual abuse.

Cardinal Pell said he had consistently maintained his innocence while suffering from a serious injustice, which had now been remedied with the High Court's unanimous decision to overturn his convictions.

Story continues

"I hold no ill will toward my accuser. I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough, he said.

Cardinal Pell said his trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church or how Australian church authorities dealt with paedophilia.

"The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not," he said.

Pell will be released from Barwon Prison on Tuesday. Source: ABC

He thanked his family, advisers, friends and legal team for their support.

He lost an appeal in Victoria's Court of Appeal last year.

Victoria Police released a statement shortly after Tuesdays decision saying it respected the High Courts decision.

We respect the decision of the High Court in this matter and continue to provide support to those complainants involved, it read.

Victoria Police remains committed to investigating sexual assault offences and providing justice for victims no matter how many years have passed.

We would also like to acknowledge the tireless work on this case by Taskforce Sano investigators over many years.

More to come.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
An appeals court sided with the Trump administration on Tuesday in its effort to resume executions of federal death row prisoners, after a 16-year hiatus.

However, a legal challenge by inmates was sent back to a lower court for further review. It is therefore unclear whether, and if so when, executions might resume.

The Justice Department announced in July 2019 that it would restart federal executions and scheduled five for inmates convicted of murders and sex crimes.

The inmates challenged their executions and a trial court judge, Tanya Chutkan of Washington, temporarily halted them in November, just weeks before the first execution was scheduled.

She ruled that the federal governments execution procedure likely violates the Federal Death Penalty Act. The government procedure is for lethal injection using one drug, pentobarbital, but Judge Chutkan said that this was inconsistent with the 1994 law requiring federal executions be carried out in the manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence is imposed.

A three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit disagreed in a 2-1 ruling on Tuesday, with two judges appointed by President Donald Trump siding with the administration.

Each judge offered a separate opinion taking a different view of what the law requires for federal execution guidelines. This vacated the lower court judges order halting the executions, but sent the case back for a review of additional claims made by the inmates.

The judges who sided with the federal government were Gregory Katsas, appointed by Trump in 2017, and Neomi Rao, who was appointed by Trump in 2019. Judge David Tatel, a Bill Clinton appointee, dissented.

The Justice Department declined to comment on Tuesday on the case or whether it would schedule new execution dates while litigation is ongoing.

Cate Stetson, an attorney for the inmates, said in an emailed statement that the Trump administration had rushed the process in order to carry out executions without meaningful judicial review of the legality and constitutionality of the new execution procedures.

Lawyers for the inmates are considering their options following the ruling, including asking the full appeals court to review the case.

Robert Dunham, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Centre, said the judges decision raises more questions than it answers and doesnt give much guidance going forward.

The one thing that all the judges agree on is there are other significant factual and legal issues that the district court still needs to resolve, he said.

Generally speaking, he said, the coronavirus pandemic has meant the postponement of trials, hearings and other proceedings in death penalty cases, as well as the delay of scheduled executions in Texas.

When the resumption of federal executions was announced in July 2019, the Death Penalty Information Centre noted that opinion polls showed that support for the death penalty is at near historic lows, declining from a peak in 1994.

A 2018 poll found that 54 per cent of Americans support the death penalty, but under half believe it is applied fairly, underlining the vast racial and economic discrimination that plays out in death penalty policy. A staggering 42 per cent of people put to death in the US are black, even though African Americans account for just 12 per cent of the population.

Executions on the federal level have been rare. The government has put to death only three defendants since restoring the federal death penalty in 1988. The most recent was in 2003, when Louis Jones was executed for the 1995 kidnapping, rape and murder of a young female soldier.

In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma, President Barack Obama directed the Justice Department to conduct a broad review of capital punishment procedures.

Attorney General William Barr said in July 2019 that the Obama-era review had been completed and that executions would resume using a new single-drug procedure. The procedure is similar to the procedure used in several states but not all.

With reporting by The Associated Press
From more than a block away, Pastor Daniel McGehees thunderous voice can be heard over the soft ruffling of windswept foliage and ceaseless chirping birds, Holy Weeks welcomed springtime companions.

In recent weeks his mostly outdoor church, which brings people together through financial blessings in the form of gift cards, bill payments, car giveaways and even paying laundry, has been forced to grapple with the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Todays venue is in the carport of a small family home in north Mobile. The attendance is just seven people. Despite legal constraints placed on churches by Governor Kay Iveys order prohibiting groups of 10 or more, McGehee sees a huge opportunity for the religious community.

This coronavirus has given us an opportunity to take church outside of the four walls, said McGehee, who said that he has personally reached out to about 90,000 people with his open-air style preaching and blessings. How cool could it have been to slide into a parking lot to help us on this journey?

He added: Ive been trying to do this for 20 years, take the church to the streets.

Just like Jesus did, chimed McGehees assistant, David Melendez, who said that the pastor used his words to help him beat a severe drug addiction. Jesus saved me, but it was Daniel who had the words of knowledge. I would have been condemned.

Social distancing and the state-wide lock down have hit religious organizations particularly hard. Some churches have taken services online, while others have filled parking lots with those eager to hear soothing words during what is an anxious time for many. And some churches have closed altogether.

Not McGehees.

Instead of holding services inside one of Mobiles many impressive monuments to religion, McGehee prefers to keep it simple. On any given day, the Mobile County-born pastor can be seen in the Gulf Coasts city streets, fields and vacant lots, gesticulating with his microphone and jet-black bible.

He calls his group Rural Revival America.

On this Palm Sunday, McGehee delivered his Holy Ghost sermon to the small group sat on grey rusting foldout chairs in the crime-rich, money-poor neighborhood of Toulminville, north of Mobile.

For his loyal congregation, having a service in the carport of their home was admittedly unusual but has helped fill a void in their life brought on by the unprecedented pandemic.

I miss the fellowship from other Christians, said Keith McCall, whose mother lives in the small home hosting the days service. but this is the best we can do within the limits of the law. I really appreciate what the pastor has brought to this home.

Also at the service was Jeanette Loftin, who said that church and religion had helped her stay clean from drugs for eight years. Not being able to attend a church doesnt matter much to me, she said. I get what I need from this. "It kind of feels like a church picnic.

Oddly enough, Toulminville has some connection to global pandemics. The neighborhood is the birthplace of George C. Gorgas, the former U.S. Surgeon General of the Army between 1914-1918. Gorgas is best known for abating the transmission of yellow fever and malaria. Hes credited with saving thousands of lives during the construction of the Panama Canal, as well as instituting new hygiene measures that helped battle the tropical illness around the world.

The majority African American neighborhood is littered with churches. Some had short in-person services outside on lawns, although most seemed closed.

Rather than being surrounded by religious antiquities and artifacts that you might see in a regular church, old car tires, a rusting exercise bike, and household odds and ends were part of McGehees stage, which also backed up onto a cemetery.

He spoke in tongues for parts of the service, gave lessons on the Holy Ghost, led the singing of three songs and even talked about how he best likes to prepare fish. Covered in cheese and placed back in the oven, if you must know.

McGehees service in the carport was one of three that he was giving Palm Sunday. McGehee takes donations from his congregation that he then passes along to others in the community. This week he plans to raise $200 so he can give away 20 $10 Walmart gift cards. Last week he gave away $50 and $100 gift cards, while hes also paid for $550 worth of laundry over the last two weeks. Hes also given away 26 vehicles to people who needed them for work.

His preferred style has meant he can bring dozens of people together in the street, where he sometimes preaches from inside his new boat, towed from the back of his white Ford F-150.

However, given the coronavirus outbreak and orders from state officials, McGehee has been criticized for bringing so many people together. He has reduced the size of his services since Governor Kay Ivey passed her April 3 lockdown order.

I havent watched the news in 23 days, he said, adding that he didnt want negativity in his life. I heard about the governors order from a friend who said I needed to be careful with how many people were attending services. I didnt watch Fox, CNN, or even Mobile news. Ive been reading the bible and hunting and fishing.

He added: If I can only have nine people six feet apart, then we gonna do six and nine. People are my church.
PERM, Russia -- Today should have been my first day of vacation, Anastasia Petrova wrote on her Facebook page on the afternoon of March 23. But instead its my first day of sick leave.

During the night, I developed a high fever, the 36-year-old journalist continued. I had a sore throat and a nasty cough. I called the doctor and answered their questions about my contacts with people who had returned from abroad (there were three of them, but all had returned more than two weeks before).

She added shed been using ibuprofen in a bid to reduce her 38.4-degree Celsius fever.

Half an hour later, she wrote that a doctor had come to see her.

She wouldnt come in, Petrova wrote on Facebook. She questioned me from a meter away about my symptoms. She promised that someone would come to take a coronavirus test and that the results would come within 24 hours. In the meantime, she said I was not to leave the apartment for 14 days. But she added: Dont worry. No one has canceled the ordinary flu season this year.

That night, however, Petrova turned to Facebook again and wrote that her fever had spiked to 39 degrees and nothing was helping reduce it.

No one came to take a coronavirus test and no one returned my calls, of course, she wrote in the early morning hours of March 24. I have no congestion, but am coughing. Petrova noted that she set the privacy settings on her post to exclude her mother because I dont want to worry her.

Please dont share it with her, she added.

She called an ambulance, which took her to the hospital where she died on March 31. A journalist to the end, however, Petrovas social-media posts and text messages to friends left a moving account of her lonely last days.

Petrova was a well-known figure in this Ural Mountains city of 1 million people about 1,500 kilometers northeast of Moscow. She was the respected editor of a business-oriented newspaper called Business Interest. Tatyana Cherepanova, head of the Perm branch of the Union of Journalists, told RFE/RL that Petrova moved the newspaper from one closely tied to the authorities toward an independent line.

In conflict situations, Petrova said in an interview with the professional journal Journalist in October 2019, if we are talking about an honest businessperson who pays their taxes, we are always on the side of the businessperson.

Petrovas mother, Marina Shilova, was also a well-known local journalist.

Nastya was a hereditary journalist, said Svetlana Danilova, editor of the Business Interest website. She inherited all the best qualities from her mother -- including determination in pursuit of her goals. She was a smart, bright person. Nastya always won. She had the deceptive appearance of a Renaissance noblewoman, but was hard steel inside. It seemed as if everything came easily to her and that there was almost nothing she couldnt do.

A writer, painter, and single mother of two sons, Petrova was allergic to penicillin and had suffered several severe bouts of pneumonia over the years that left her lungs damaged.

In her next Facebook post on March 24, Petrova wrote that she sat for a long time in the ambulance in front of the infectious-diseases hospital while the paramedics argued by telephone over what to do with her. They have no instructions about where to take people or how, Petrova wrote. No one has a clear idea about anything.

In the end, she was taken to another hospital, where doctors cursed the first hospital for not admitting her.

'Quite Frightening'

Petrova was placed alone in a room with three beds, writing that as far as she could tell, many of the hospitals other rooms were similarly occupied.

They gave me a fever reducer and the standard medicines for treating the flu, she wrote. I was put on oxygen because they dont like the way Im breathing. Now Ill have to stay in isolation for two weeks or get two negative coronavirus tests.



A short while later, two respiratory therapists visited her and determined that she did not need to be placed on a ventilator. Nonetheless, she added, When an emergency-room doctor is intently studying your chart, it is quite frightening.

In the morning, Petrova gave samples for a flu test and a coronavirus test, as well as for the entire traditional array of analyses.

Now, I wait, she wrote. She posted a photograph of her breakfast, noting that it was served on disposable plastic dishware that shed been instructed to throw away in a dedicated container.

Later that day, while still awaiting her test results, Petrova wrote to a friend that neither my doctors nor I think that I have the coronavirus. She added that it isnt necessary to close anything or set up a general quarantine because of me. After an X-ray, she was officially diagnosed with pneumonia.

On March 25, she noted that for more than a day, her fever had held steady around 38 degrees. But she added that I feel as if Im constantly drowning in jelly. I dont respond to anyone -- I dont have the strength. I sleep about 90 percent of the time. Im always thirsty. My results have not come back.

The next day she wrote that her fever was on a rollercoaster. It spiked to 39 degrees until she was given medication. Then it spent five hours at 37 degrees, before rising again.

In the early afternoon of March 26, she reported that her first coronavirus test had come back negative. She confirmed that information in a second Facebook comment on March 29. Shortly afterward, she was placed on a ventilator, where she remained until she died on March 31.

In a press conference on April 1, Perm Oblast Health Minister Oksana Melekhova said Petrovas diagnosis was double pneumonia, but that officials were still awaiting the results of her second coronavirus test.

Melekhova added that people who had been in contact with Petrova had been isolated and tested for coronavirus. We have taken all epidemiological precautions, she concluded, saying she would make public the results of Petrovas test as soon as they were available.

Why Numbers Dont Tell The Full Story A daily compilation of global coronavirus cases by Johns Hopkins University is currently the most comprehensive in the world, but it relies on information provided by governments. In many countries, there are restrictions on releasing such information or reasons why the full story might not want to be told. The methodology, immediacy, transparency, and quality of this data can vary dramatically country by country.



On April 2, however, Petrovas friend, local journalist Yulia Balabanova, posted a screenshot of a text message she received from Petrova on March 29 saying that my second test was positive and that she was feeling very poorly.

I am publishing this fragment of our correspondence, Balabanova wrote in a Facebook post that has since been deleted. Nastya knew that her second test for coronavirus was positive. I dont understand why her doctors arent talking about this. I think that it is important now that there be maximum transparency and complete information.

Balabanova declined to comment further, telling RFE/RL she had already shared all the information she has.

Suspicious Numbers

A few hours after Balabanovas post, Perm health officials changed Petrovas official cause of death to double pneumonia brought on by a coronavirus infection.

Perm journalist Valery Mazanov told RFE/RL that Petrovas story shows that officials are attempting to downplay the number of coronavirus cases in the country.

By hiding such information, these irresponsible people are endangering dozens or hundreds or thousands of people, Mazanov said. After all, if a person dies of pneumonia, no one tests the people they have been in contact with.

The numbers of pneumonia cases recorded this year are one of several factors feeding concerns that the authorities have been hiding the extent of the coronavirus in Russia and that the official figures -- which on April 7 stood at 7,497 confirmed infections and 58 deaths -- may be substantially lower than the real ones.

Dmitry Zhebelev, who heads the local Dedmorzim charitable foundation which grants wishes to orphans and ill children, told RFE/RL that local officials had told him they only received official results of Petrovas second test on April 2 and they could not speak out officially before that.

He said that delays in publicizing such information could actually be beneficial because they might create the public impression that there are many undiagnosed cases at large.

It might compel some people to minimize their social contacts out of fear of being infected, Zhebelev said.

Acting Perm Oblast Governor Dmitry Makhonin responded to news of Petrovas case by acknowledging that officials had been silent about her cause of death and declaring that we must tell people the truth.

I will not tolerate lying in this regard, he said on April 2, especially by the regions Health Ministry. Patients and the public must be told immediately about confirmed [coronavirus] cases.

According to official figures, there have been 32 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in Perm Oblast, as of April 7. Two people have died, while five people have recovered.

The region has been under movement restrictions since April 2, and police, National Guard troops, and volunteer formations have been patrolling city streets to enforce official orders.

Written by RFE/RL senior correspondent Robert Coalson based on reporting from Perm by RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Yury Kuroptev
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Tue, April 7, 2020 14:01 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd03ffcb 2 World sex-workers,France,emergency-fund,income,coronavirus,physical-distancing,social-distancing,COVID-19,COVID-19-quarantine,pandemic Free

Sex workers in France on Monday asked the government for an emergency fund to compensate them for lost income, after their work was especially hard-hit by social distancing and confinement measures to combat the coronavirus.

"An emergency fund should be created to provide replacement income for the duration of confinement," the Red Umbrella Federation of sex workers' organizations said in a letter addressed to President Emmanuel Macron.

France has announced a special aid of 1,500 euros ($1,618) for independent workers who lose income due to the coronavirus lockdown that entered into force on March 17, but prostitutes are not among the beneficiaries.

Yet their business has been badly hit, leaving many, and their dependents, in "extreme financial insecurity, according to the letter.

The lockdown rules allow people to leave home only for essential outings, and then with a signed and dated self-declaration of the purpose of the excursion.

Patrolling police enforce the lockdown and issue fines for violations.

Several associations have reported cases of sex workers being expelled from their hotel rooms or apartments for being unable to pay.

The sex worker community has launched several fundraising initiatives online, but the proceeds have been insufficient.

The Red Umbrella said it feared that hard-pressed sex workers "will be forced to flout confinement... as a matter of survival."

An emergency fund, it said, is "the only solution to prevent risk-taking associated with the practice of sex work. It is a matter of public health, not only for us, but also for clients and the general public."

Prostitution is not illegal in France, though a law introduced in 2016 did make it illegal to buy sex, shifting the criminal responsibility to clients who can be fined if caught.
Posted on: April 7, 2020 1:58 PM

The communications team at the Anglican Communion Office are coordinating a #GlobalSonRise social media campaign to help churches proclaim the good news of the resurrection. Anglicans around the world are being asked to post video or text messages on Twitter at 5am in their local time, to announce that Christ is Risen.

The Director of Communications for the Anglican Communion, Gavin Drake, commented: In English, the words sun and son are homophones, and it has become traditional for churches to host SonRise services, usually outdoors, at dawn on Easter morning.

As with many other forms of public worship, the traditional SonRise services cant take place this year in many parts of the world, because of the restrictions on movement designed to curb the spread of the Coronavirus Covid-19. While primarily an act of worship, they are also a public affirmation and proclamation of the risen Christ.

News bulletins will rightly tell the story of closed church buildings and cancelled services. But we want another message to get out: the message that Christ is Risen. This is so central to our faith it is important that this message doesnt get lost amidst the reports of locked and empty churches.

The communications team have suggested a simple script based on the Easter affirmation: Christ is Risen  He is Risen Indeed, a brief Easter greeting, and concluding with the message that Jesus is Alive.

Gavin Drake said: It would be great if, on Easter Sunday, there are #GobalSonRise messages on Twitter across the world at 5 am in every time zone. It would offer a glimpse of hope amidst the fear and despair caused by Covid-19 and the restrictions which we now find ourselves living under.

Restrictions imposed by the UK government means that the Anglican Communion Office in London is currently closed. But staff are continuing to serve the Communion and are carrying out their work from their homes. The Anglican Alliance has produced a Covid-19 resource hub, drawing on expertise from across the Anglican Communion; and the communications have produced video acts of worship.

The first one, for Passion Sunday, was led by Neil Vigers, from the Anglican Communions department for Unity, Faith and Order; and the second, for Palm Sunday, was led by Canon Stephen Spencer, Director for Theological Education in the Anglican Communion. Preparations are already underway for a service for Easter Sunday. This will be led by the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon. The services are led in English, with Bible readings in a different languages from across the Anglican Communion. They will continue each week during the Covid-19 lockdown and can be found at www.anglicancommunion.org/worship.
Former Lehigh Valley congressman Charlie Dent has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, but his symptoms have been mercifully mild, he said Monday on Facebook.

A week ago, after not feeling well for a few days, Dent followed his doctors instructions and received a coronavirus test at the Lehigh Valley Health Network site near the Lehigh Valley Mall, he said. After being told the results could take eight days, he was advised within four that he had COVID-19, he said.

Unlike the sad cases reported on CNN and other media of so many people struggling for their lives in hospitals around the country, Dents case featured a mild cough along with an achy back that made for a few rough, sleepless night, he said. While he had chills and sweats at various times, he wasnt feverish, he said.

That was the worst of it for me, said Dent, a 59-year-old moderate Republican who served the 15th District from 2005 to 2018 after an earlier career in state politics. He has appeared regularly on CNN since his retirement from Congress.

In recent days he struggled to maintain his appetite and hydration, he said, losing his sense of taste, which is a common symptom of the disease. He made do with English muffins or bagels covered with peanut butter, and ice cream, he said.

The most persistent remaining symptom is a feeling of fatigue that is improving as time passes; mornings are always better than afternoons and evenings, he said.

He is working from home and taking his dog for walks while practicing social distancing, he said.

His wife Pam has experienced some of the same symptoms I have, and she had a few rough days, he said, adding she hasnt been tested. Thankfully, Pams doing better and my adult children are holding up quite well.

All three of Dents adult children -- an undergraduate, a medical student and a graduate student -- are studying remotely, he said. Theyve been handling occasional trips to the grocery store and for take-out as Dent and his wife stayed home, he said.

He regrettably watched the Netflix hit Tiger King, which he called a "depressing docuseries ... about a disturbed gun-toting, polygamous Joe Exotic, who abused his big cats, Dent said. There are some truly bizarre people in this world and Joe Exotic could provide lifetimes worth of work for many therapists.

Despite his positive test, Dent said, I count myself blessed and am grateful for good health. Witnessing people across America and the world fall victim to this deadly disease is a tragedy of epic proportions. I have no doubt we will pull though this pandemic if we remain patient, smart and exercise good judgment.

The former congressman reminds people to show appreciation to the frontline workers in health care, public safety, life-science/medical technology, trucking, logistics, agriculture, grocery stores and elsewhere who risk their well-being for the benefit of the rest of us.

He wrapped up his post by saying, Stay well. Blessings to all of you.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
India on Tuesday gifted a 10-tonne consignment of essential life saving medicines to Sri Lanka to help it battle with the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected over 180 people and killed six in the country.

The health experts in Sri Lanka have warned that the country will experience a spike in the number of the confirmed COVID-19 cases by the end of this month.

The medicines provide by India were requested by Government of Sri Lanka. The consignment was brought to Sri Lanka by an Air India special charter flight on Tuesday.

This is yet another manifestation of India's unwavering commitment to stand with Sri Lanka, in rain and in shine. Despite its own domestic challenges and constraints, India has always believed in sharing its resources and expertise with its friends and partners, the Indian embassy said in a statement.

At the initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a SAARC leaders video conference was held on March 15 to discuss ways to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

India pledged USD 10 million to the SAARC COVID-19 Emergency Fund. Subsequently, a video conference of health professionals in SAARC countries was held on March 26.

Ministry of Health of India has also started offering online training sessions for health professionals in SAARC countries.

SAARC Disaster Management Centre (SDMC) situated in Gandhinagar, Gujarat has developed a dedicated webpage pertaining to the COVID-19 situation in SAARC Member States [http://www.covid19-sdmc.org/].

Sri Lanka has been a valuable partner in all these initiatives, the Indian mission said.

The Sri Lankan doctors' trade union has warned that the number of positive cases are projected to rise within 48 days of the first confirmed case. Sri Lanka's first case was detected on March 11. The doctors say the pandemic spread would be extended in the country at least until end of June.

Sri Lanka experienced a relatively slow spread of the coronavirus pandemic. It took nearly a week for the case load to be doubled from 50 to 100.

Sri Lanka has 180 cases of infections currently with six deaths. Around 42 people have recovered.

The doctors' union said there are 42,000 people who had come in contact with the positive cases confirmed so far. They recommend tests to separate the infected with a 30 per cent who may not have proved positive despite carrying the disease.

The union said the island's health service capacity would be badly stretched if not checked now and this could lead to about 2,500 confirmed cases at the peak.

Sri Lanka is currently observing a lockdown with key districts being placed under continuous curfew.

Immigration authorities on Tuesday suspended the entry of all foreign nationals into the country until further notice.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The new coronavirus isn't biased about who it infects -- so why does data emerging from some states suggest that African Americans are bearing the brunt of the pandemic in the US? Experts say blacks are disproportionately impacted by underlying health conditions linked to poverty, face discrimination in medical care, and are more likely to work jobs that require them to leave their home. "We know that blacks are more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, lung disease," the nation's top doctor, Surgeon General Jerome Adams told CBS News on Tuesday. These chronic illnesses, which are in turn linked to poverty and structural racism, can lead to more serious forms of the COVID-19 disease. Adams, who is himself black and has high blood pressure and asthma, added: "I represent that legacy of growing up poor and black in America. "And I, and many black Americans, are at higher risk for COVID." - Emerging trend - There is no nationwide data available on COVID-19 cases by race, but a pattern of over-representation by black Americans has emerged in states or jurisdictions that are sharing the numbers. Sixty-eight percent of coronavirus deaths in Chicago have been among African Americans, who make up just 30 percent of the city's population. "Those numbers take your breath away," the city's mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday at a coronavirus briefing. "This is a call to action for all of us." The trend is repeated in North Carolina, Louisiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and the capital Washington. Doctor Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told AFP the issue was also linked to social class, with black people more likely to work jobs deemed essential that expose them to potential infection. "That population is more public facing," he said. "More bus drivers, more people taking public transportation to work, more people providing services in nursing homes, more folks working in grocery stores." - Structural bias - The problem is compounded by implicit and explicit bias that African Americans face in the medical system. Doctor James Hildreth, president of the historically black Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee told AFP that in his city, most of the initial testing took place at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Most of the patients who go to hospital systems like these have insurance, and it was only recently that three assessment centers run by the city of Nashville were built for the underprivileged and minority communities -- one of them located at Meharry's campus and run by its staff. "My point is, depending on which community you live in, and whether or not you have insurance... the chances for getting assessed are much less," he said. What's more, it's well documented that when black people seek care, they are less likely to have their symptoms believed or get adequately treated, Doctor Ebony Hilton, an anesthesiologist at the University of Virginia Medical Center told AFP. For example, black women are less likely to have their breast cancer mammograms seen by a specialist as opposed to a general radiologist, according to a 2012 study from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Black heart patients who present with elevated levels of a group of proteins indicating cardiac injury are also less likely to be seen by specialists, per a 2018 study. A civil rights group wrote this week to the US health secretary, Alex Azar, calling on him to "release daily racial and ethnic demographic data related to COVID-19 testing, disease burden and patient outcomes." This, said the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, was necessary to ensure a robust public health response, and to make certain care and testing aren't being administered in a discriminatory manner. The group said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was already collecting the information but deliberately withholding it. Hilton stressed that it was in the interests of Americans as a whole to address the problem, because -- unlike high rates of heart disease or cancer -- a wave of coronavirus spreading through the black and Hispanic population will ultimately impact everyone else. "When you have a system that's not treating these people of lower social economic status and these minority groups, they are then not being tested, they're sent back home to infect their community," she said. "Those workers who are now infected are going to the grocery store, and when the upper echelon of America are going to get their food, they will get infected too."
Mohanlal, the complete actor of Malayalam cinema has always been actively involved with charity services. As per the latest reports, Mohanlal has donated an amount of Rs. 50 Lakhs to Kerala Chief Minister's relief fund. Pinarayi Vijayan, the honoroubale Cheif Minister of Kerala revealed the update himself in the recently held press meet.

Along with the donation, Mohanlal also penned a special letter to Pinarayi Vijayan and appreciated the efforts put in by the Cheif Minister and his government to fight the coronavirus pandemic. 'These are very trying times for all of us. We deeply appreciate the safety measures and guidelines that you have set for us to contain this pandemic. Your hands on leadership in this crisis will go down in the annals of the history.', wrote the actor in his letter to the Kerala CM.

Thus, Mohanlal has emerged as the first member of the Malayalam film industry to donate to the Kerala Cheif Minister's relief fund. The netizens are now heaping praises over the complete actor for his kind gesture in these testing times.

Recently, Mohanlal had donated Rs. 10 Lakhs to the FEFKA fund for the daily wage workers of the Malayalam film industry. The reports were recently confirmed by the renowned filmmaker B Unnikrishnan, who is also the president of FEFKA. The sources close to FEFKA suggest that several prominent actors including Manju Warrier and Telugu crowd-puller Allu Arjun, who have a strong fan base in Kerala have also expressed their willingness to support the workers.

Meanwhile, the Malayalam film industry too is going through a tough time after the all India lockdown was announced, as theaters are shut down and shootings are suspended. According to the latest reports, the theaters will remain shut for another month, even after the lockdown ends. The releases of all upcoming films, including Mohanlal's Marakkar Arabikadalinte Simham have been postponed indefinitely.
Up to 25 million jobs could be lost worldwide due to the global travel slump.

That's according to the International Air Transport Association.

The estimate comes after global air travel fell 70% at the start of the second quarter.

In Europe it's even worse, with about 90% of flights not operating.

IATA says government support is needed urgently to stop carriers running out of cash.

Lufthansa may be just the latest to make its own arrangements.

Reuters sources say the German airline is hoping to raise large sums on debt and equity markets.

It's already held talks with Berlin over aid including loans from the state development bank.

The company will also shut down its low-cost unit, Germanwings.

That's a move unions view with alarm and suspicion:

(SOUNDBITE) (German) UFO GERMAN CABIN CREW UNION SPOKESMAN, NICOLEY BAUBLIES, SAYING:"This is a clear case of abuse of the corona crisis to push through a decision which was made long ago. They want to set an example to say 'if you don't obey you'll end up like Germanwings' which in fact has nothing to do with the situation at Germanwings. They can't do this at the expense of 1,400 people. They have to speak to their people and everybody has to go through this crisis together."

Other airlines have already raised money.

In March Singapore Airlines secured up to $13 billion underwritten by state fund Temasek.

Meanwhile Reuters sources say Air-France KLM is in talks over loans of up to $6.5 billion guaranteed by the French and Dutch governments.

Some investors see opportunity in the sector right now though.

Malaysia Airlines could be set for a takeover.

Private investor Golden Skies Ventures has bid $2.5 billion to take control of the ailing state carrier.

Despite the global crisis for the industry, it says it can return the company to profit within three years.
India has said it will release hydroxychloroquine hours after the US president spoke of "retaliation".

India has agreed to lift an export ban on hydroxychloroquine - a drug US President Donald Trump has called a "game-changer".

The decision came hours after Mr Trump warned of "retaliation" if India did not overturn an export ban on the drug.

India did not respond, but said it would give hydroxychloroquine to "nations that have been badly affected" by coronavirus.

Medical experts have cautioned that there is no proof it cures Covid-19.

What happened between the US and India?

President Trump, who has repeatedly and publicly touted hydroxychloroquine as a possible cure for coronavirus, called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, a day after India banned all exports of the drug "without exception".

The decision came even as Indian cases spiked - as of Tuesday, the country reported 3,981 active cases and 114 deaths due to the virus.

The next day, local media reported that India would "consider" the request.

The same day, speaking at a White House press briefing, Mr Trump said he did not "like" India's decision to ban the export of the drug. "But of course, there may be retaliation. Why wouldn't there be," he added.

India's statement on Tuesday also said that apart from "nations badly affected by the virus" it would supply the drug to neighbouring countries in "appropriate quantities" given the "humanitarian aspects of the pandemic".

The US has recorded nearly 370,000 virus cases and almost 11,000 deaths.

What is hydroxychloroquine?

Hydroxychloroquine is very similar to chloroquine, one of the oldest and best-known anti-malarial drugs.

But the drug - which can also treat auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus - has also attracted attention over the past few decades as a potential antiviral agent.

President Trump said that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved it for treating coronavirus, something the organization has denied. Mr Trump later said that it had been approved for "compassionate use" - which means a doctor can give a drug that is yet to be cleared by the government to a patient in a life-threatening condition.

Doctors are able to prescribe chloroquine in these circumstances as it's a registered drug.

In India, hydroxychloroquine could be bought over the counter and is fairly inexpensive.

But its purchase and use has been severely restricted ever since it was named as a possible treatment for Covid-19.

Does it work against Covid-19?

"Chloroquine seems to block the coronavirus in lab studies. There's some anecdotal evidence from doctors saying it has appeared to help," James Gallagher, BBC health correspondent, explained.

But crucially, there have been no complete clinical trials, which are important to show how the drug behaves in actual patients, although they are under way in China, the US, UK and Spain.

"If it truly has a dramatic effect on the clinical course of Covid-19 we would already have evidence for that. We don't, which tells us that hydroxychloroquine, if it even works at all, will likely be shown to have modest effects at best," Dr Joyeeta Basu, a senior consultant physician in India, told the BBC.

Despite the fact trials are yet to conclude, people have begun to self-medicate - with sometimes disastrous consequences.

There have been multiple reports in Nigeria of people being poisoned from overdoses after people were reportedly inspired by Mr Trump's enthusiastic endorsement of the drug.

An article in the Lancet medical journal also warns hydroxychloroquine can have dangerous side-effects if the dose is not carefully controlled.

This lack of certainty has prompted social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to delete posts that tout it as a cure - even when they are made by world leaders. BBC
Even as the entire nation is under the lockdown to combat the deadly coronavirus COVID-19, people across the country have been flouting guidelines and venturing outside their homes. During this crisis, the people of a small village in Uttar Pradesh are setting an example by imposing restrictions on themselves so that they don't fall prey to the deadly pandemic.

The villagers of Ghat village in Meerut District of Uttar Pradesh has vouched to not step out of their homes. The entry and exit points in the village have been closed and outsiders denied entry. When the villagers return from the fields, they first wash their hands and use sanitizer at the border before entering the village.

The women have said that they will stay hungry but will not leave the house, in a measure to drive away coronavirus. At the grocery and ration shops, circles have been made at a distance of two metres each to maintain distance.

A silence has spread in the village as all the doors remain closed and people strictly stay inside their homes. The elderly are guarding the thresholds of their homes so that their children do not venture outside the boundaries.

The youth in the village are doing shifts of two hours announcing with a loudspeaker that no one should leave the house. The villagers have stopped buying goods from outside and are managing with village ration and goods. The sanitisation workers have been spraying disinfectant all over the village.
China, according to its official stance, is now on a road to recovery, even as the situation continues to deteriorate in the US. At this important juncture, a new investigation has revealed that the US might have been slow in reacting and closing its borders effectively.

According to the New York Times, 430,000 people arrived in the US on direct flights from China after Chinese officials first disclosed the virus outbreak on January 3. Of them, tens of thousands flew directly from Wuhan, and about 40,000 after US President Donald Trump ordered a travel restriction on February 2  ...
The United Nations is advocating an immediate global action to end all forms of violence against women and girls in the midst of a global effort to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across the world.

Reports from countries in every region show that the lockdown and social isolation, coupled with increased social and economic pressures, are leading to an increase in violence in the home, the United Nations News reported on Monday.

UN backs global action to end violence against women and girls amid COVID-19 crisis

Countries have been on lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19, a deadly respiratory disease caused by the Coronavirus. It has infected over a million people globally and caused over 60,000 deaths.

Speaking on the seriousness of the violence against women and girls, the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, said statistics showed that one in three women will experience violence in their lives before this pandemic broke out.

In Papua New Guinea, where I commemorated International Womens Day last month, the rate is even higher, at two in three, she said.

According to her, my concern today is for all women across the world, who are suffering even more now, due to the extra-economic and social stresses caused by a radical shift away from normal life.

She highlighted that this stress is leading to an increased danger of violence.

Its clear that when women and girls are locked down in their homes with abusive partners, they are at much greater risk than ever before, she said.

She said the upsurge in violence is not limited to one country or one region.

Ms Mohammed said media reports are documenting an increase in violence across the globe  from Argentina to China, Germany, Turkey, Honduras, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States to name just a few.

And the worry is that these figures only reflect reporting. Domestic violence is typically grossly under-reported. In the case of restricted movement and limited privacy, women are finding it difficult to phone for help. So, the likelihood is that even these figures represent only a fraction of the problem.

She said the availability of data is not the same everywhere, particularly in developing countries.

Complex situation

Ms Mohammed said women, who are suspected of exposure to the coronavirus are faced with being thrown out onto the street in the midst of lockdown.

We are seeing not just a huge increase in the number of women and girls being abused but also a greater complexity to the violence being perpetrated, she said.

Abusers are taking advantage of isolation measures, knowing that women are unable to call for help or escape. All of this is happening against a backdrop of health and social services that are overwhelmed, under-resourced, and have shifted to manage the implications of the virus, she said.

She lamented that civil society organizations, which may have previously helped victims of violence are unable to operate and the domestic violence shelters that have been able to remain open are often full; shelter managers are not equipped and scared to take in new victims because of the virus.

Actions to be taken

She said all actors have a responsibility to perform, from individuals to governments, from the UN to business and civil society.

Ms Mohammed said gender-based violence must be at the centre of all domestic plans on COVID-19 response.

There are innovative actions being taken that should be both commended and replicated. In Argentina, for example, pharmacies have been declared safe spaces for victims of abuse to report. Similarly, in France, where grocery stores are housing pop-up-services and 20,000 hotel room nights have been made available to those women who cannot go home, she said.

She said the Spanish government has told women that they are exempt from the lockdown if they need to leave the home because of abuse.

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Both Canada and Australia have integrated funding for violence against women as part of their national plans to counter the damaging fallout from COVID-19, she said.

Recommendations

Ms Mohammed appealed to governments in all countries to dedicate funding in national COVID-19 response plans for domestic violence shelters.

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Government should increased support to call-in lines, including text services so reports of abuse can take place discreetly, online legal support and psychosocial services for women and girls.

She said the United Nations is prioritising protection services for women by providing humanitarian support, which includes some of the poorest and most unstable parts of the world.

The UN is building on the Spotlight Initiative, a large-scale partnership with the European Union to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, she said.

She highlighted that the initiative is also aiming to increase core support to womens organizations providing services and who are at risk with the shift in funding priorities.

In this unprecedented and unpredictable global crisis, the United Nations remains committed to protecting and supporting women, wherever they are in the world, she said.
A truck driver went on a stabbing spree Tuesday morning at a highway truck stop in eastern Tennessee, killing three employees and wounding a customer before he was fatally shot by a law enforcement officer, the authorities said.

The attack happened just before 7 a.m. at a Pilot Travel Center off Interstate 40 in Knox County, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which did not immediately offer a motive for the stabbings.

The suspect, Idris Abdus-Salaam, 33, of Durham, N.C., was holding a knife and refused to drop it when law enforcement officers confronted him in the truck stops parking lot, the bureau said. One of the officers fired several shots at Mr. Abdus-Salaam, who died at the scene, according to the bureau. It did not say how many rounds hit Mr. Abdus-Salaam.

The three truck stop employees who were killed were Joyce Whaley, 57; Patricia Denise Nibbe, 51; and Nettie R. Spencer, 41, investigators said. All three women died at the scene. The condition of the fourth victim, who the authorities said was hospitalized and was a customer, was not released.
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
A Samsung phones shop is closed during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in New Delhi, India, on April 3. AFP-Yonhap



By Kim Yoo-chul



Despite the spread of COVID-19, Samsung Electronics said its operating profit for the first quarter of 2020 will rise, year-on-year.



In a statement Tuesday, the tech giant said it was expecting to report 6.4 trillion won during the first three months of the year, up 2.73 percent from the same period last year. Quarterly sales reached 55 trillion won, up 5 percent, year-on-year.



Samsung Electronics didn't announce the performance of each of its divisions as it plans to detail the specifics of the earnings later this month.



Local brokerages estimated earlier that Samsung's operating profit for the quarter would be around 6.09 trillion won.






London, April 7 : UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been moved to intensive care in a London hospital after his coronavirus symptoms worsened, was not "on a ventilator", but has "received some oxygen support", said Cabinet Minister Michael Gove on Tuesday.

"The Prime Minister is not on a ventilator, he has received oxygen support and of course one of the reasons for being in intensive care is to make sure that whatever support the medical team consider to be appropriate can be provided," the Metro newspaper quoted Gove as saying to the BBC Radio 4, adding that if Johnson's condition changes the government will make an official statement.

Gove's remark comes after the 55-year-old Prime Minister was moved to the ICU at the St Thomas' Hospital in London on Monday evening after his condition worsened, 11 days after he tested positive.

The Cabinet Minister further said: "The doctors, the nurses and the other staff there will be making appropriate medical decisions and they have our full support in the amazingly important work that they do." When asked whether he knew if Johnson had been diagnosed with pneumonia, Gove told the BBC 4 Radio: "I'm not aware of that but I think it's also important to recognise that all of us are thinking about the Prime Minister's condition.

"If there are any changes in his condition - will ensure that the country is updated." Announcing the news of Johnson's hospitalization on Monday night, a Downing Street spokesman said: "Since Sunday evening, the Prime Minister has been under the care of doctors at St Thomas' Hospital, in London, after being admitted with persistent symptoms of coronavirus.

"Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the Prime Minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the intensive care unit at the hospital.

"The Prime Minister has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is the First Secretary of State, to deputise for him where necessary." Johnson first announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19 on March 27, stating that he had "mild symptoms" of the virus.

His fiancee, Carrie Symonds, who is pregnant with the couple's first child, said two days earlier that she was "on the mend" after spending the "past week in bed with the main symptoms of coronavirus".

World leaders - including US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron - have expressed their support for Johnson.

While Trump has offered help to treat the Prime Minister, Macron said said he sent "all my support to Boris Johnson, to his family and to the British people at this difficult moment".

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said his thoughts were with Johnson and Symonds, while Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was "sending every good wish", the BBC reported.

Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May, and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn both said their thoughts were with him.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also wished him a "speedy and full recovery", and nd Mayor of London Sadiq Khan tweeted that St Thomas' Hospital had "some of the finest medical staff in the world" and that the Prime Minister "couldn't be in safer hands".

The news about Johnson's health came as the number of coronavirus hospital deaths in the UK reached 5,373 - an increase of 439 in a day.

The Department of Health and Social Care said there were now 51,608 confirmed coronavirus cases.
Julian Assange's extradition hearing will go ahead next month after his lawyer failed in his bid to postpone the case amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Wikileaks founder, 48, is wanted in the US for allegedly conspiring with army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to expose military secrets between January and May 2010.

A US grand jury has indicted Assange on 18 charges - 17 of which fall under the Espionage Act - including conspiracy to receive, obtain and disclose classified diplomatic and military documents.

Julian Assange, 48, pictured leaving Westminster Magistrates Court in London on January 13 this year. The Wikileaks founder's extradition hearing will go ahead next month (file photo)

The Australian national did not appear at his hearing via video-link from HMP Belmarsh at Westminster Magistrates' Court today.

Assange's barrister Edward Fitzgerald QC said it was 'wholly impossible' to communicate with Assange amid the chaos and expressed concerns about the impact the virus would have on his mental health.

He asked for an adjournment to the extradition hearing scheduled for 18 May so key witnesses could be physically 'seen and heard' despite plans to have them appear via video-link.

The lawyer said Assange has been cut off from psychiatric treatment due to the self-isolating measures imposed within HMP Belmarsh.

But District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said video-link appearances are 'routinely made' in court.

The judge said there was a strong public interest in the case and the witness statements should be heard openly where possible.

Arguing for an adjournment to the May hearings, Mr Fitzgerald said: 'The threat he is at present under in light of the current circumstances in Belmarsh and his vulnerability means he could not participate in a full evidentiary hearing.

'Really the basic point is we have not been able to have any reasonable communication with him at present. We can't have access to him physically in prison we can't have access by video-link and sending correspondence to him means very, very long delays and sometimes doesn't get to him.

'There's a long history of inadequate access to him even before Covid-19. The government restrictions in these grave times mean we haven't been able to take details from numerous witnesses in this country, in the US, Germany and further afield.

'It is wholly impossible to inform him of the product of the work we are doing. Staff are in short supply.

'Although the coronavirus has affected possibilities by video link the problem whether he may be able to hear and see what is going on in court.

'If there are witnesses being heard by video-link that simply would not be possible. He would not be able to hear and see all that went on in court.

Westminster Magistrates Court (pictured). The judge said there was a strong public interest in the case and the witness statements should be heard openly where possible (file photo)

'That's even assuming his lawyers can be in court and we can all be in the same building. He simply would not have a fair hearing.

'A telephone hearing is ruled out because he needs to be able to hear and see what is going on and to be seen and heard.

'Then there are the effects of the pandemic on the defendant himself. You're aware that he has well documented problems of clinical depression.

'He had previously had treatment for that but his therapy sessions cannot go on nor can visits from his family.

'In those circumstances with the physically dangerous environment and with his psychiatric care being reduced we submit it would be unjust for him (to have a full evidentiary hearing).'

Judge Baraitser said: 'The defence are applying to adjourn the hearing. 18 May is still five weeks away and the global picture is likely to be very different then.

'This is an unpredictable situation but I cannot assume courts won't be operating normally then.

'In relation to extradition hearings at this courthouse these are expected to resume from 20 April with the requested persons attending the hearings in person.

'With this in mind it is my current intention to hear as much of this case as possible in May. Mr Assange is in custody and there is some real urgency in this case being heard.

'The use of video-link for witnesses is routinely made and it would be entirely appropriate for these witnesses to use the video link to give their evidence.'

Judge Baraitser said Assange's partner's statement was relied upon to prevent his extradition by showing his family ties to the UK.

The judge said: 'It was not clear how disclosure of her name would have an impact on the proceedings.

'Her statement was relied upon to demonstrate community ties to this jurisdiction for him to stay here with his partner and children.

'My starting point is that there is a strong public interest in full and contemporaneous reporting in extradition proceedings. It is for the parties seeking to derogate from open justice to provide clear and cogent evidence.'

Assange went into hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden for sexual offence allegations dating back to 2010 which he has always denied.

In November Swedish authorities dropped the rape allegations but he was jailed for 50 weeks last April after breaching his bail conditions when the asylum period granted to him expired.

Meanwhile, a claim that US agencies expressed an interest in testing DNA on nappies, when Assange's partner and children visited him in the Ecuadorian embassy, was also aired in court.

A judge found that even if the allegation were true, there was no reason to believe US agencies meant harm to Assange's young family.

Ms Baraitser referred to the claim as she had turned down a bid to grant Assange's partner anonymity, during a hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

The court heard how the unnamed woman wished to lived "quietly" with her young children, away from the glare of publicity that Assange attracted.

Mr Fitzgerald had applied for the anonymity order after the woman made a statement in support of Assange's earlier failed bail application.

Following a submission by the PA news agency via telephone conference to the court, Judge Baraitser ruled that the woman's right to a private family life was outweighed by the need for open justice.

But the judge delayed making the woman's identity public until 4pm on April 14, pending a possible judicial review at the High Court.
A registered nurse at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, who raised $12,485 on GoFundMe to buy much-needed protective medical supplies for herself and her colleagues, was suspended from her job over the weekend, hospital officials said Tuesday.

Olga Matievskaya, 48, of Livingston, used some of the donations to buy about 500 masks, 4,000 shoe covers and 150 jumpsuits to protect staff and patients from spreading the virus, according to the report in ProPublica. In all, more than 100 people donated to the campaign.

The hospital suspended Matievskaya for distributing unauthorized protective gear. The suspension ended Monday, according to Linda Kameteh, the hospital spokeswoman.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage

The GoFundMe campaign was disabled on Friday after Matievskaya said the goal had been reached.

We are forever grateful for your support in these hard times, she wrote. We doubled our initial goal and it was agreed that we have enough to keep us going for a few weeks. Again, thank you so much for your kind words and your kind giving hearts. Stay well, stay healthy, I love you all so much!

Matievskaya did not respond Tuesday to requests from NJ Advance Media for comment.

The hospital on Tuesday defended its decision to suspend Matievskaya, saying bringing the unauthorized equipment into the hospital placed staffers and patients at risk.

We think its great that people donated money, Kameteh told NJ Advance Media. However, we need to know whats coming in (to the hospital). We need to know our patients are safe. We need to know that our staff is safe.

The hospital on Tuesday released the following statement:

We appreciate every effort made by the public and our staff to help secure the medical supplies, that we, like so many other hospitals desperately need, during this time. It is equally important that we ensure the safety of these supplies through a standard vetting process. This is for the protection of our patients and employees. No employee is allowed to distribute medical supplies within the hospital at their own discretion. The nurse in question has returned to work after a one-day suspension. By following the CDCs guidance for extending the use of PPE and supplies we continue to ensure that every clinician has the PPE needed to safely treat COVID-19 patients.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.
The conference call will take place on TODAY, April 7 at 4:30pm EST.

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 7, 2020 / IMC International Mining Corp (CSE: IMCX ) (OTCPINK:IMIMF ) (FRA:3MX) (the "Company" or "IMC"), announces that the Company will hold a conference call today, Tuesday, April 7 at 4:30pm EST. The call, hosted by GoldStocks.com, will be open to all current & prospective shareholders and interested parties. The purpose of this call will be to discuss the recently announced acquisition of Thane Minerals Inc. ("Thane") and to provide an overview of the company's developments and direction. The call will also discuss the recent engagement of CME Consultants Inc. to conduct exploration and prospecting on the Companys Thane Property, including the Cathedral Prospect. The call will be hosted with Chairman of IMC International Mining Corp, Mr. Greg Hawkins and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Thurston.

Mr. Hawkins holds a BSc in Geology from the University of Alberta and an MSc in Mineral Economics from McGill University. Mr. Hawkins is currently a Director of New Pacific Metals Corp. (NUAG) and was the founding project consultant and/or founding Director of seven public and private exploration/development ventures (Brohm Mining, Dayton Mining, Nevsun Resources, Banro Resource Corp., Tagish Lake Gold Corp., African Gold Group, Yellowhead Mining Inc.) and has participated in or been responsible for the definition of at least one mineral resource/reserve in every case, with six of those cases resulting in production in the USA, Chile, Ghana, Mali and DRC. These ventures collectively have accounted for over $2.1 billion in market cap at the companies' respective peaks.

Shareholders and all interested parties are invited to participate in the conference call hosted by GoldStocks.com. The call will start promptly at 4:30 pm EST on Tuesday, April 7, 2020. The toll-free dial-in number for the call is +1 844-854-2222. Conference call access code is 872827. Investors whom are unable to tune in live, will have access to the recording on GoldStocks.com and on IMC's Website shortly after.

Story continues

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Brian Thurston

Chief Executive Officer and President

ABOUT INTERNATIONAL MINING CORP.

IMC International Mining Corporation is a junior exploration and development company. It is focused on creating shareholder value through the advancements of its assets which include the Cathedral Property in Northern British Columbia and the Bullard Pass Property in Arizona. The Company continues to look for further assets in North & South America as it increases its asset portfolio. International Mining will utilize its heavily experienced management team to evaluate assets that provide shareholder value.

IMC continues to evaluate additional properties to add to its portfolio of mining assets.

About GoldStocks.com

Gold Stocks (GoldStocks.com) is the top online destination for all things Gold & Mining Stocks. GoldStocks.com covers all the mining sectors top news, updates, articles and provides real-time research tools via QuoteMedia, Inc.

INVESTOR RELATIONS:

i r@internationalmining.ca

1 (604) 588-2110

https://imcxmining.com

Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to statements regarding the Acquisition, and the Company's business and plans, including with respect to undertaking further acquisitions, completing the Acquisition of Thane and carrying out exploration activities in respect of its mineral projects. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance and developments to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, the risks that the Acquisition does not complete as contemplated, or at all; that the Company does not complete any further acquisitions; that the Company does not carry out exploration activities in respect of its mineral projects as planned (or at all); and that the Company may not be able to carry out its business plans as expected. Except as required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation and does not intend to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information in this news release. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and makes no reference to profitability based on sales reported. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release.

The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this press release.

SOURCE: IMC International Mining Corp.





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/584167/IMC-International-Mining-Corp-Announces-Corporate-Conference-Call-with-Chairman-Greg-Hawkins-CEO-Brian-Thurston




EUGENE, Ore. -- The parents of a patient who went to local child psychologist Craig Steinberg are speaking out after the man's child pornography arrest.

RELATED: TWO MEN, INCLUDING LOCAL PSYCHOLOGIST, ARRESTED FOR CHILD PORN

David Van Wie and his wife Sydney Plavins, who had been sending their teenage son to Steinberg for the past two years, were shocked when they heard the news of the charges Steinberg has been accused of.

It made me really sick to my stomach, and it made me really concerned for my family members and other people Ive seen coming in and out of Craigs office," said Plavins.

Sgt. George Crolly of the Springfield Police Department said this type of situation, as awful as it is, is all too common.

Often times people that commit these types of crimes are people who have access to children, through one way or another," said Crolly.

Van Wie said after he heard about the charges Steinberg was facing, he looked further into the psychologist his son had been seeing and came across something disturbing Steinberg had written on his Psychology Today profile.

Youll find a section that talks about how he is available to children who have no father or need a father figure in their life. Looking back on that now it makes me worry that he is trying to bring in vulnerable children, whether for grooming or his own personal use," Van Wie said.

Van Wie and Plavins said they are most concerned for children on the spectrum who were patients of Steinberg because they said children with autism are even more vulnerable to abuse.

It was really disturbing to realize I was really off on reading this person who I was allowing a family member to spend time alone with," Plavins said.

Today Steinberg was arraigned at Lane County Circuit Court and charged with 10 felony counts of encouraging child sex abuse.

Crolly said this investigation is not related to the investigation of Matthew Werner, who is also facing child pornography charges in Springfield.
Honda Motor Co's Acura NSX luxury sports cars are seen in assemble line at the company's Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville

TOKYO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co <7267.T> and Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> on Tuesday said they had furloughed thousands of workers at their U.S. operations as the coronavirus pandemic slashes demand for cars in the country.

A spokesman for Honda, which employs about 18,400 workers at plants in Alabama, Indiana and Ohio, said the Japanese automaker would guarantee salaries through Sunday, having suspended operations on March 23. The plants will be closed through May 1.

Nissan said it was temporarily laying off about 10,000 U.S. hourly workers effective April 6. It has suspended operations at its U.S. manufacturing facilities through late April due to the impact of the outbreak.

Operations at Honda's Powersports plant in South Carolina, which makes all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), have been suspended since March 26.

Automakers are facing a dramatic drop in sales in the United States, the world's second-largest car market, after some states barred dealers from selling new cars while "stay-at-home" orders are in place. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV on Monday extended its shutdown of U.S. and Canadian plants until May 4.

Toyota Motor Corp has halted its U.S. and Canadian production through April 17 <7203.T>. A Toyota spokesman said it has not furloughed full-time U.S. employees.

(Reporting by Maki Shiraki in Tokyo and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Jason Neely and Paul Simao)
WhatsApp has made the biggest change yet in the battle against fake news. The specific motivation this time is the misinformation about the Coronavirus, or COVID-19. WhatsApp says it is now limiting the ability to forward a message to just one chat at a time. This is a move that is being implemented worldwide and you should see this change in behavior on your WhatsApp instant messenger todayit may not be immediate, but will reflect sometime in the next few hours. This is the second time WhatsApp has limited the ability to forward messages on the platform. Last year, WhatsApp had limited users from forwarding messaging to just five chats at a time. But do note, this change refers to highly forwarded messages, which means this has reached you after passing through a chain of at least five users.

Last year we introduced users to the concept of messages that have been forwarded many times. These messages are labelled with double arrows to indicate they did not originate from a close contact. In effect, these messages are less personal compared to typical messages sent on WhatsApp. We are now introducing a limit so that these messages can only be forwarded to one chat at a time, says WhatsApp in an official statement. That experiment had worked well. The Facebook-owned messaging platform suggests that there was a 25% decrease in message forwards globally, because of the reduced virality limits.

This change refers to highly forwarded messages, which means this has reached you after passing through a chain of at least five users

There are two sides of the coin

We know many users forward helpful information, as well as funny videos, memes, and reflections or prayers they find meaningful. In recent weeks, people have also used WhatsApp to organize public moments of support for frontline health workers, says the company. However, they have also noticed seen a significant increase in the amount of forwarding which users have reported back as overwhelming and potentially contributing to the spread of misinformation. We believe its important to slow the spread of these messages down to keep WhatsApp a place for personal conversation, they say.

WhatsApp is not fighting a lonely battle

Last month, the Delhi Government had announced new tougher measures to tackle the spread of fake news in the region, particularly after the riots in Delhi which got an over-enthusiastic communal angle on instant messages and WhatsApp forwards, Facebook posts and Twitter conversations.

If you are now caught forwarding fake news or sharing messages or posts that could incite tensions, violence or are remotely provocative, incendiary or instigative, you could end up in jail for up to 3 years. The Committee on Peace & Harmony of the Delhi Legislative Assembly has also launched a WhatsApp service as well as an email helpline where citizens can report any inflammatory messages that they may have received on WhatsApp, any instant messaging platform or any social media site.

You should see this change in behavior on your WhatsApp instant messenger todayit may not be immediate, but will reflect sometime in the next few hours

Coronavirus cures and remedies became popular on WhatsApp

This crackdown by WhatsApp should come as no surprise. Social media platforms and instant messaging apps had become the medium of choice for those spreading incorrect facts about absolutely unverified treatments for Coronavirus, possible remedies and preventive measures. None of them work, except the preventive measures suggested by doctors and authorities around the world. In fact, these can be extremely dangerous, and the consensus is to stay away from such informationand most definitely not spread this misinformation among the WhatsApp Groups you may be a part of.

Last year was not easy either

The fake news on WhatsApp has been in prominence for about a couple of years now, and it was only to be expected that the spread of misinformation, and worse still communally charged posts, would gain prominence on messaging platforms ahead of the Lok Sabha elections last year. It was around this time that WhatsApp had introduced the first set of limits on message forwards, as well as the clear labelling to differentiate a forward from a personal message.

Have You Also Read?

Fighting Fake News on COVID-19: What Indias Social Media Companies are Doing
Only five N95 masks will be provided to each doctor, nursing officer, technical staff, security guard and maintenance staff for 20 days at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

"N95 masks to be disinfected by individual users and re-used at least four times each, whereby these will suffice for about 20 days" the circular issued by AIIMS read.

Earlier on Saturday, AIIMS New Delhi administration had said that there is no shortage of Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE) for the healthcare workers at the institute.

"AIIMS administration reiterates that there is no shortage of PPEs for health care workers (HCW) at the Institute" read the statement from Medial and Protocol Division, AIIMS, New Delhi.

Personnel Protective Equipment acts as the first line of defence for the medical personnel treating COVID-19 positive patients.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NORWALK  Many city residents are not getting out much these days. But those who do notice the green buds of spring and black concrete parking lots are speckled with whites and blues from discarded plastic gloves, masks, wipes and paper towels.

As coronavirus cases in Norwalk rose to 625 as of Tuesday, people are taking measures to protect themselves by wearing gloves and other gear while out in public.

However, many of those items are finding their way on the ground instead of the trash after theyve been used.

And its not going unnoticed. Some Norwalk residents are calling out the offenders as littergloves as Norwalk resident Lindsay Lewis has dubbed them.

Lewis, a nanny and lifelong Norwalk resident, said it was about three weeks ago when she first noticed a crazy amount of blue Latex gloves and antibacterial wipes in the parking lots of Stew Leonards, ShopRite, Stop and Shop and CVS.

It was infuriating me, she said. Its astonishing to me people are doing that as opposed to holding onto them and throwing them away in their own garbage or placing them in garbage outside in the parking lot.

Lewis began a Change.org petition to draw more attention to the issue, calling for signage to increase awareness, litter receptacles and bags to place contaminated items to protect essential workers. The petition also calls for people to report those littering and strict fines for offenders.

Last week, Mayor Harry Rilling asked police to increase enforcement on littering after receiving reports of used gloves being discarded on sidewalks and in parking lots. Norwalk police said they havent responded to any littering incidents yet, but have received reports of people finding discarded personal protective equipment.

The police department posted on social media last week, asking people to use the proper receptacles for these items.

The use of this equipment is encouraged along with social distancing, but we want to keep our city clean, said Lt. Jared Zwickler, spokesman for the department.

According to Connecticut State Law, fines for littering range from $100 to $500.

Some residents, like Michael Suchenski, are taking action by leaving lined trash cans in front of their homes for people to dispose of their gloves and personal protective items. Suchenski posted a photo of his own community trash can in a Norwalk Facebook group, encouraging others to do the same and is calling local businesses urging them to address the issue as well.

If we each put one lined garbage can in front of our house marked for gloves, masks etc., think of the difference we all will make cleaning up the Norwalk, he wrote.

erin.kayata@hearstmediact.com
While Connecticut residents are quarantining inside their homes during the coronavirus pandemic, words of encouragement have been popping up on sidewalks and street corners.

Click through the slideshow to see how some Connecticut residents are bringing cheer to their neighborhoods.
T he Government has admitted that it does not intend to lift the nationwide coronavirus lockdown imminently after the initial three week period.

Downing Street confirmed that the review of isolation measures would not go ahead on the scheduled date this Monday and said it would instead take place after the three-week mark.

Speaking at the daily Covid-19 press conference on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the worst thing the country could do was take its foot off the peddle in terms of social distancing.

It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the strict measures would be reviewed in "three weeks" after first introducing them last month.

Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty and Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab attend a COVID-19 Digital Press Conference at 10 Downing Street / via REUTERS

Asked whether the Government had decided to extend the lockdown, Mr Raab said: In terms of the review, we are not at that stage yet.

We will take any decision when the time is right, based on the facts and the scientific and medical advice.

Our number one and overriding focus right now is on conveying the key message which is that everyone needs to keep adhering to this guidance.

There is a long Easter bank holiday weekend coming up, warm weather and we understand people are making big sacrifices to follow this guidance.

London during Coronavirus lockdown - In pictures 1 /66 London during Coronavirus lockdown - In pictures A woman jogging near City Hall, London, the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK in lockdown PA An image of Queen Elizabeth II and quotes from her broadcast on Sunday to the UK and the Commonwealth in relation to the coronavirus epidemic are displayed on lights in London's Piccadilly Circus PA A pedestrian walks past a billboard reading "Please believe these days will pass" on Broadway Market in east London AFP via Getty Images Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge Getty Images Boris Johnson Jeremy Selwyn Sun-seekers cool off in the water and sunbathe on the riverbank at Hackney Marshes in east London AFP via Getty Images Ed Davey is shown on screens as he speaks via videolink during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, London PA A herd of fallow deer graze on the lawns in front of a housing estate in Harold Hill in east London AFP via Getty Images A woman wearing a mask crosses a bridge over Camden Lock, London PA An empty Millenium Bridge PA A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" is seen on an underground station platform Getty Images People push to enter the Niketown shop in Londo AP Jo Proudlove and daughter Eve, 9, follow the daily online "PE with Joe" Joe Wickes' exercise class on "Fancy dress Friday Reuters Police in Westminster Jeremy Selwyn Waterloo station looking empty PA Getty Images A quiet Parliament Square Getty Images PABest A man walks along a passageway at London's Oxford Street Underground station the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK in lockdown to help curb the spread of the Coronavirus PA Social distancing markers around the camel enclosure at ZSL London Zoo PA A police car patrols Greenwich Park in London PA The Premier League in action in front of empty stands AP Novikov restaurant in London with its shutters pulled down while the restaurant is closed. A deserted Piccadilly Circus PA A general view is seen of a deserted Trafalgar Square AFP via Getty Images Getty Images The iconic Abbey Road crossing is seen after a re-paint by a Highways Maintenance team as they take advantage of the COVID-19 coronavirus lockdown and quiet streets to refresh the markings Getty Images A view of 20 Fenchurch Street (the 'Walkie Talkie' building) in the City of London, the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus PA A deserted Chinatown PA A person looks at graffiti on a JD Wetherspoon pub in Crystal Palace, south London. Wetherspoons workers have described founder Tim Martin's lack of support for his chain's 40,000 employees as "absolutely outrageous" PA The London ExCel centre that has been turned into a makeshift NHS Hospital and critical care unit to cope with the Coronavirus pandemic PA The Palace Theatre, which usually shows the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play, sits in a deserted Shaftesbury Avenue PA The Sondheim Theatre, which usually shows the Les Miserables musical, sits in a deserted Shaftesbury Avenue PA Two members of a British Army mounted regiment exercise their horses in Parliament Square AP Westminster Bridge is deserted PA A quiet Canary Wharf Underground Station PA An empty street and bus stop at St James's Park AFP via Getty Images Whitehall Jeremy Selwyn A quiet Canary Wharf Underground Station PA A single pedestrian walks past The national Gallery AFP via Getty Images London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn Kings Cross and St Pancras Jeremy Selwyn Buckingham Palace looking empty in London, PA London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn Kings Cross and St Pancras Jeremy Selwyn London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn London's Carnaby Street empty as shops closed after a lockdown was announced in the latest bid to stop the spread of coronavirus through the UK AP A quiet Jubilee line westbound train carriage PA A single pedestrian walks past The national Gallery AFP via Getty Images A quiet Canary Wharf Underground Station PA Empty Embankment Jeremy Selwyn

It is helping, it is contributing to our ability to tackle the coronavirus. The worst thing now would be to take our foot off the peddle, to ease up on that and risk losing the gains that have been made.

It is absolutely critical that people keep up that discipline and the vast majority will. We hope everyone will follow that example.

Pressed again on whether the Government will announce if lockdown measures will continue beyond next week, Mr Raab said: The critical thing is to take evidence-based decisions and so weve said that we will take any review once weve got the evidence that the measures are working.

"And having the kind of impact taking past the peak which means that they can be responsibly done. Were not at that stage yet.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Chis Whitty also weighed in to stress the importance of being confident that the country is "beyond the peak" of the epidemic.

He said the Government could then "start making it clear what combination of things and over what period of time seems a sensible combination to take us through.

Because as I said yesterday there are a large number of different things we need to take into account here in terms of the impact on health.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaking in Government Buildings, Dublin, as he briefs the media on the latest measures Government Departments have introduced in response to Covid-19.

The Taoiseach has said he does not think tougher laws will be needed to ensure people comply with Covid-19 restrictions.

Emergency legislation passed in March provides for extensive new powers for gardai to police peoples movements in the context of the emergency and arrest people who fail to comply with their instructions.

However, new regulations have not yet been signed off by the Government.

Speaking in Dublin on Monday, Leo Varadkar said people have been compliant with the measures.

Whether it is people self-isolating for 14 days or obeying the rules around social distancing, I am proud that we as a country have been able to do that by consent, he said.

Do you know the difference between self-isolation and restricted movement? Find out all you need to know here: https://t.co/kR7PLZF9TL #coronavirus #COVID19 #StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/tN4fSxO4zq  HSE Ireland (@HSELive) April 6, 2020

The coronavirus death toll in Ireland rose to 174 on Monday, with 16 further deaths reported.

There were 370 new confirmed cases, taking the overall total to 5,364.

Mr Varadkar added: We have regulations on the table that are ready to sign if we need to bring in the kind of enforcement powers that exist in other countries. I dont want to be in a position where we are criminalising people for going more than two kilometres from their house without an adequate excuse. The last thing I want is people to come out of this emergency with fines and prison sentences and criminal convictions.

I know that is the approach in other countries  I dont think that is our way.

I think we can achieve what needs to be achieved by consent and the public being on board. That has been the case in the vast majority of scenarios.

We can bring in tougher laws and they are ready to be signed if we need to. I dont want to do that just yet unless the Garda commissioner feels it is absolutely necessary.

Mr Varadkar said the Government is working on childcare for healthcare workers during the emergency, but it needs to be cleared by the public health team.

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He said: There are essential workers in the economy and in the health service who are struggling and want to get to work but cant because childcare is not available to them. A number of proposals are being worked up and it is taking much longer than we would have liked. I understand peoples frustrations  public health has to be the number one concern.

While we are ready to push the button in terms of providing childcare for essential workers, we need clearance from the public health team and that it in itself does not become a public health risk or allow the virus to be spread. It is now an issue of public health clearance and we have not got that yet.

Mr Vardakar has said he will be working as a doctor one day per week for the duration of the Covid-19 emergency.

He said he has already completed one shift as a doctor to assist with contact tracing. He revealed on Sunday that he rejoined the medical register in March and is setting aside one day per week to help with the fight against Covid-19.

So far it has just been a telephone clinic. We will see how it goes but the idea is to set one session aside per week to do that. It is a gesture of support for all of the people who work in our health service and everyone beyond our health service who are contributing to our health service, he said.

It also gives me a chance to take the temperature of our health service and to talk at least once a week to people who are working in the health service, see how things are going and to see what challenges they are facing.

I wont be giving regular reports on it and there wont be any photo-ops. It will just be something I am doing quietly once a week for the duration of the emergency.

Meanwhile, the head of the GP association has said Covid-19 community assessment hubs will keep patients from overburdening the hospital system while being treated by healthcare staff.

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Community assessment hubs for Covid-19 will begin accepting their first patients this week.

The Health Service Executive said 12 to 15 of the assessment hubs will be in place by the end of the week.

The hubs provide facilities for people who need to self-isolate, those who are sick and people who are awaiting a test result.

The vice-president of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) Dr Nuala OConnor said the hubs will keep patients from overburdening the hospital system.

She said: We are trying to make sure that as the figures increase that we can make sure not to overburden the emergency rooms and healthcare systems if at all possible.

A number of private-only consultants have expressed concern about the terms of the new temporary HSE locum contracts.

Last month, the Government announced it had reached agreement with private hospitals across the State to use their facilities for the treatment of both Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 patients.

Some 500 consultants working at these hospitals who currently treat private patients only are to receive temporary HSE locum contracts to cover their work during the health crisis.

In a statement, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, the representative body of consultants working in private hospitals, said that under the proposed terms of these contracts, consulting rooms will be forced to shut to outpatients, for both current and future private outpatients.

Dr Oisin OConnell, respiratory consultant, said: The current contractual arrangements proposed by the HSE would result in the withdrawal of private hospital consultants ability to provide ongoing care to their existing patients.

It would equally prevent private patients presenting with new medical issues from being treated.

It's important to know the symptoms of #COVID19 and what to do if you experience them so that we can help slow the spread. #ItsInOurHands pic.twitter.com/t1FeQGDm7Z  HSE Ireland (@HSELive) April 5, 2020

Without access to consulting rooms, private patients with urgent and ongoing medical needs will now present for care to emergency departments at acute public hospitals  all of which are already experiencing pressures in managing Covid-19.

Private-only consultants believe the solution to this issue lies in a contractual arrangement which enables these consultants to meet their obligations under the proposed HSE temporary locum contracts but also permits them to continue to treat their private patients outside of their HSE contract hours.
Some of Americas fast-food workers are finally getting face masks and emergency sick days to help get them through the coronavirus outbreak. Now the challenge for labour activists is to capitalize on the moment to win permanent improvements in pay and benefits.

The rank and file wouldnt normally be in position to make demands in a job market thats suddenly teeming with millions of newly unemployed people. But with restaurant drive-thru and pickup services continuing through the pandemic, restaurant workers braving the front lines have won the moral high ground to ask for more protection from their employers. And, in many cases, theyve gotten it  a rare victory for employees in an industry known for its resistance to organized labour.

With public sympathy on the workers side, groups such as Fight for $15 argue that now is the time to seek more lasting change. But itll be tough. Sales at restaurants and franchises have dropped precipitously, with no recovery in sight. Even before COVID-19 swept across the U.S., restaurant workers were having a tough time getting traction on better pay and benefits because companies argued they were in a dogfight for customers and couldnt afford them.

In response to recent employee pleas, McDonalds Corp. said last week that it will shift its policy to allow employees to wear masks and is working to supply them. The chain is now offering paid sick leave, though only to workers at the five per cent of restaurants owned by the corporation. Some workers at franchised locations could receive emergency paid leave under provisions designed for small businesses in the federal coronavirus response act.

Restaurant Brands International Inc., owner of chains Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, said it was sending out 15,000 thermometers to its restaurants to check workers temperatures upon arrival for shifts. The company did not respond to a request for information about its mask policy or paid sick days.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. said that it has also changed its policy to allow employees to wear masks and is looking to purchase them. It had previously said it will provide two weeks paid medical leave for those with the virus and will allow sick workers to stay home without pay if they feel its unsafe to come to work.

Dominos Pizza Inc. is making franchisees purchase non-medical grade masks and gloves for restaurant staff. The protective gear will begin arriving in restaurants this week, and thermometers also are being sent to all stores.

These safety steps followed ones taken by some groceries, which have installed Plexiglass shields to protect cashiers, and big-box stores, which have provided masks and added wage increases.

Massive unemployment

But permanent raises and health benefits are going to be harder to come by for most U.S. restaurant workers.

More than three million of them have already lost their jobs, according to the National Restaurant Association. Now, with so many potential hires available, managers trying to keep their businesses alive are unlikely to spend money to meet employee demands.

The Titanic is sinking and crew grievances arent at the top of the list of things that theyre trying to work through at the moment, said Aaron Allen of Aaron Allen & Associates Global Restaurant Consultants. While worker danger may be higher than ever, the pandemic has altered the dynamics. When you go to a massive amount of unemployment, it shifts from buyers market to sellers market, he said.

Unfortunately I think were taking a step back here, said Rob Hunziker of Advanced Restaurant Sales, a restaurant brokerage, agreeing that restaurant employees are unlikely to see permanent higher wages or other benefits now.

This has not stopped Fight for $15 from pushing for safer workplaces. It has led recent strikes at McDonalds restaurants throughout the U.S. protesting working conditions, lost hours and pay cuts.

The most recent strike, over the weekend in Los Angeles, followed a McDonalds employee testing positive for COVID-19. Before McDonalds changed its policy, some of the chains workers said they werent allowed to wear masks or gloves on the job. The weekends protest included demands for protective equipment, as well as a paid two-week quarantine period.

McDonalds has not commented directly on the Fight for $15 demands, but provided a statement from the owner-operator of the impacted Los Angeles location. The restaurant has been closed for sanitizing and the sick employee and those in contact with that employee are being paid during a 14-day quarantine.

New realities

Just a few months ago, Taco Bell was trying to lure in new managers with six-figure paychecks  which the company says is still on track. But these types of incentives, which appeared to herald a new era for restaurant workers amid low unemployment, will likely disappear.

While some chain restaurants are now paying little more per hour as so-called hazard pay, the increases are temporary. Chipotle, for example, is raising hourly pay 10 per cent from March 16 through April 12.

And public health concerns have also led some restaurants to provide sick workers with emergency paid leave. But these arent permanent improvements.

The labour organization effort faces long odds, since the restaurant industry has had very low rates of unionization, says Brishen Rogers, a labour expert at Temple Universitys Beasley School of Law.

But Fight for $15 is still pushing, arguing that the outbreak has made health benefits even more vital. Weve always been fighting for health care, paid sick leave and protection on the job for all workers, said Jamilah Allen, a worker at Freddys Frozen Custard & Steakburgers in Durham, North Carolina, and a leader of the group, and right now we need it more than anything else.

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Aaron Broderick had been very, very drunk, the court heard

A funeral-goer who became violent toward gardai was "particularly hostile" to the officers, a court has heard.

Aaron Broderick (27) was arrested for hurling abuse at the officers outside a pub after a family funeral.

Judge Michael Walsh fined him 300.

Broderick, a father-of-two, from Clogher Road, Crumlin, pleaded guilty to threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour and violent behaviour in a garda station.

A garda sergeant told Dublin District Court the incident happened at 9.30pm last February 23. Gardai were called to the Kestrel pub in Walkinstown, where the accused was refusing to leave.

The gardai told Broderick that he was not welcome at the premises and told him he had to leave.

He became threatening and abusive and continued to be violent when taken to the garda station, the court heard.

Escapade

Broderick had two young children, his lawyer said.

There was a family funeral on the day and the accused became "very, very drunk".

He was asked to leave and did not.

"He was very abusive to the gardai and continued with this escapade right down to the garda station," Judge Walsh said.

What happened was not in Broderick's nature and it had never happened before, the court was told.

His lawyer asked Judge Walsh to consider leaving him without criminal convictions.

He could come up with a contribution to charity, he said.

The judge said he had to take the accused's conduct into account and the fact he had been "particularly hostile" to gardai.

Judge Walsh said he had come across many cases where people "settle down" after they were arrested.
The Chandigarh administration on Tuesday made it mandatory for people to wear masks in public places to check the spread of the novel coronavirus.

We have made it mandatory for people in Chandigarh to wear masks or cloth on their face from Wednesday, the Union Territory of Chandigarh Adviser Manoj Parida said here.

He said anybody flouting the order will be warned by the police. However, the decision regarding levying penalty on violators is yet to be taken, Parida said.

He said Chandigarh will be the first Union Territory (UT) which has made wearing masks mandatory.

The UT of Chandigarh has reported 18 coronavirus cases so far and of them, seven have been cured, Parida said.

Besides, the administration has also decided that the payment of water and electricity charges and payment of house rent, including for rehabilitation colonies, will be deferred, he said.

Chandigarh administrator V P Singh Badnore on Tuesday held a meeting to view the situation here.

Parida informed Badnore that the number of positive cases had come down in Chandigarh to 11 because of curfew measures and observation of social distancing by residents.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Antoinette Franklin, 86, from New Orleans died from coronavirus

Three sons and their elderly mother from Louisiana have all died from coronavirus within days of one another.

Antoinette Franklin, 86, from New Orleans along with her sons Herman Franklin Jr., 71, Anthony Franklin Sr., 58 and Timothy Franklin, 61, all died from the disease between March 20 and 30.

'My uncle passed, my grandmother passed, my dad passed, then my other uncle passed,' Anthony Franklin Jr. said to NBC News.

'It was literally like seven to eight days apart. It's horrific.'

Herman Franklin died on March 20. Anthony Franklin Sr., passed away on March 26 and is survived by his two children, their mother and a fiancee. Timothy Franklin died on March 30.

The three brothers and their mother all tested positive for coronavirus, according to the New Orleans Coroner's Office.

It is not clear if they were tested for COVID-19 before or after they died and their underlying causes of death have not been revealed, however all four of them became ill at the same time.

Timothy William Franklin was 61, left, while his brother Herman Franklin was 71, right

Anthony Franklin St. was 58 and passed away on March 26

'I want the world to know if it happened to the Franklin family it could happen to any family,' Jacqueline Franklin, wife of Anthony Franklin Sr., told WDSU.

'Let's take this serious. My children have to bury their father, their precious grandmother and their uncles.'

New Orleans has emerged as one of the early U.S. hot spots for the coronavirus.

The death rate in New Orleans is almost twice that of New York, with doctors and public health officials blaming the Big Easy's high levels of obesity and related ailments.

'We're just sicker,' said Rebekah Gee, to the Wall Street Journal, who until January was the health secretary for Louisiana and now heads Louisiana State University's healthcare services division.

New Orleans residents suffer from obesity, diabetes and hypertension at rates higher than the national average, conditions that doctors and public health officials say can make patients more vulnerable to COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory disease.

New Orleans (above during the lockdown) remains a national virus hotspot. The death toll in the city is now at 409. The city's Mardi Gras celebrations had been blamed for causing the virus to spread so rapidly across the state but underlying health conditions are also to blame

Orleans Parish, which encompasses New Orleans, has a rate of 37.93 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 people. Pictured: Elena Likaj, prevention department manager at Odyssey House Louisiana began testing bikers for coronavirus at a drive-thru testing station in the city

Some 97% of those killed by COVID-19 in Louisiana had a pre-existing condition, according to the state health department.

Diabetes was seen in 40% of the deaths, obesity in 25%, chronic kidney disease in 23% and cardiac problems in 21% according to publicly released data last week.

The CDC also reported 39% of residents have high blood pressure, 36% suffer from obesity and 15% have diabetes.

In New Orleans, hospitals have been reporting cases across the generations, such as in the Franklin's case.

Family members often suffered from the same medical conditions before becoming sick, leaving them similarly vulnerable to the coronavirus despite their age gaps.
Cincinnati: Ohio's most prominent Democrat on Tuesday endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president, with his state's extended primary three weeks away.

Then Vice President Joe Biden, left, speaks with Senator Sherrod Brown at union Labor Day picnic in Ohio in 2011. Credit:AP

US Senator Sherrod Brown said in a statement that Biden fights for Americans who are working hard but struggling to achieve better lives, supporting what Brown calls the "dignity of work."

"And as we face both a public health crisis and an economy in turmoil, we need a steady hand more than ever," Brown said.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders' campaign declined to comment. While Sanders and Brown have often been aligned in Washington, Brown also endorsed Hillary Clinton over Sanders in the 2016 presidential race.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  Actress Iza Calzado has fully recovered from COVID-19. She thanked her supporters for praying for her all throughout her fight with the viral disease.

Iza tested positive for the new coronavirus disease on March 28, her manager confirmed.

I guess, I just want to express how grateful I am and then I would forever be expressing that, she told CNN Philippines.

Her husband, Ben Wintle, also expressed his gratitude for their family, friends, and supporters.

Its obviously great to have people praying for us and messaging us, Ben said.

Iza narrated her experience of getting diagnosed and her story of recovery. She said that her early symptoms were dry throat, and cough, but she did not have high fever yet on the onset of the disease.

However, she refused to share about the specific treatments she received at the hospital, as advised by her doctor.

I was told by my doctor that perhaps; it would not be wise to disclose what they give me because people might start buying them and taking them on their own.

The Health Department reported 414 new cases of the novel coronavirus disease in the country Monday, raising the total number at 3,660. There are now 163 fatalities, and 73 recoveries.

Globally, COVID-19 has infected over 1,277,000 people, according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 global tracker. Of these, over 69,500 resulted in death, with Italy so far recording the highest number of fatalities. Meanwhile, some 264,000 patients have already recovered from the disease worldwide.
A complaint was filed against school board member Rhonda Thurman's statements on shutting down small businesses due to the coronavirus.

Ms. Thurman said it came from the group Hamilton United. Kendra Young, leader of the group, denied that it was. She said, "It appears the image Ms. Thurman has been sharing online is missing both the senders name and a signature line. If either of these items were visible, you would not see Hamilton County United, nor any teacher who considers themselves part of HCU (or any teacher's name at all, in fact), included in any way. Ms. Thurman has merely assumed that teachers are responsible for the complaint, which is in fact, not the case."

The letter to Supt. Bryan Johnson and other members of the School Board said Ms. Thurman expressed displeasure about her beauty salon on Highway 58 being closed.

It quoted her as saying, "I am going to give this two more weeks and then those who want to work should be allowed to work."

It quotes her as saying, "After two weeks, Americans should remember the government cannot do anything without the consent of the governed."

The group said her statements move beyond expressing opinion and calling for others to disobey orders relating to efforts to curb the coronavirus.

Ms. Thurman responded, "Just wanted to share the latest from Hamilton County United. Seems they think they can squelch my First Amendment rights by writing a complaint to the School Board and the Superintendent. This shows how little they know about how the School Board functions.

"First of all, I don't answer to the Superintendent. The Superintendent answers to the School Board. Second, what do they think the School Board is going to do to me for expressing my opinion about anything?

"This complaint, besides being ridiculous, is rift with inaccuracies. My Facebook post on April 1 said, "Have you noticed the people who tell you that you cannot work have not missed a paycheck?" Is that statement in error? I was not complaining about just my being unable to work (as I told these liberals on Facebook, everything my husband and I have is paid for so, I will be fine.) It is not about me but, the millions of others who are unable to work and are losing their businesses and small business is the engine that runs this country.

"I said that small business would go about two more weeks and then those who want to work should be allowed to work. Well, guess what? It has not been one week since my original Facebook post and President Trump is talking about letting small businesses open back up! There is also a Town Hall article, April 5, 2020, 12:01 AM, titled, "I'm Mad as Hell, and I'm Not Going to Take This Anymore" by Wayne Allyn Root. This article could have been written by me. Mr. Root says, those who want to work should be allowed to work with face masks restrictions, and those who want to stay home, should at home. Exactly what I said.

"This bunch also has a problem with me quoting Thomas Jefferson from a sentence in the Declaration of Independence. I said, "Americans should remember that " the government cannot do anything without 'the consent of the goverened." It tells you all you need to know about this bunch that they found this sentence radical. I bet they did not even know that phrase was put into the Declaration of Independence by Jefferson as "a pillar of American government" to insure that citizens have a right to design and participate in government, either directly or through elected representatives, and DEMAND that government grant them civil liberties and equal treatment under the law." I find it quiet ignorant of history that this bunch has a problem with one of the pillars of American Democracy.

"This radical bunch insulted my customers by calling them decrepit. One of my 90 year-old customers made the statement on MY Facebook that she had to do her own hair this morning and it "made me cuss China". Anyone with a brain would know this was a joke. But not this bunch. They attacked her and called her racist (the only argument liberals know). They even went so far as to post her picture along with some of my other "supporters" to "out" them. An old liberal trick to try to silence them. This is when I shut the conversation down. My friend is 90 years-old and has been a dear friend and customer for 45 years. She still cuts and weed eats her own grass and drives anywhere she wants to go. She does not deserve these liberal attack dogs going after her. Shame on them.

"This bunch also said, "Ms Thurman, along with her supporters, took this opportunity to mock and attack anyone expressing a dissenting opinion." YOU were on MY Facebook page. Why did you not get off if you could not take the heat?

"I argued that the government did not have the right to pick winners and losers. Small businesses regardless of what they do, have the same rights as big box stores to make money.

"I still say, that doctors and scientist do not have the authority to shut down businesses. If so, who gives them that power? It is not in the Constitution.

"I also still say, "If the virus is going to kill me, I cannot change that. The Lord knew the day I was going to die." So, what is the problem with that statement, unless you do not believe in God?

"This bunch says that I also ignored CDC advice and took my 84 year-old mother (she is really just 83), and two friends to lunch during this time. There is nothing in this statement that is true. I only took my mother to her friend's house who is caring for his wife with Alzheimers, to keep her from driving to East Brainerd herself. (My mom goes where she wants). She took them lunch not, TO lunch (no restaurants were open or I would have taken them ou to eat.) We set a card table up on the patio and ate lunch outside. This bunch is right, I did all of this unapologetically and if I get ready to do it again, and I probably will, it is none of this bunch's business.

"I did not give up my First Amendment rights when I was elected to the school board and I am sure not going to give them up for this bunch.

"With the lack of knowledge this bunch has about American history, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and basic civil rights and liberty, they are making this way too easy."
More than half of Africas 54 countries have closed their land, air and sea borders to fight the spread of the coronavirus. Aid organizations fear the restrictions may stop or delay important assistance to the people.

Africa now has more than 7,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The continent also has to deal with hunger, armed conflicts and swarms of crop-destroying locusts.

If humanitarian aid is stopped by the outbreak, the results will be catastrophic, the medical group Doctors Without Borders warned in a statement last week.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported at least 32 countries have now closed their borders. This has forced aid organizations to negotiate for emergency flights and find pathways for humanitarian efforts.

The Vaccine Alliance GAVI said that at least 21 poor countries, mostly in Africa, face shortages of important vaccines because of border closures or flight cancellations. The United Nations had said earlier that some countries were refusing to accept shipments from nations with coronavirus outbreaks.

Problems with locusts

The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, or FAO, added that flight restrictions are also hurting efforts to control large groups of locusts in East Africa.

The continent is experiencing the worst locust outbreak in 70 years. And the flight restrictions have delayed the arrival of pesticides to control the insects.

Cyril Ferrand leads the FAOs support program for East Africa. He told Reuters that without the pesticides to control insects, there could be 4 million more people struggling to feed their families.

The locusts came from Yemen and have damaged crops in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. It is the second swarm of locusts to attack the area. It has come just as new-season crops are being planted. Ferrand warned if the insects are landing on these young crops, then these farmers will be facing a 100 percent loss.

Humanitarian pathways

Shortly before South Africa began its three-week lockdown, the World Food Program, or WFP, negotiated a pathway to send shipments of food through the country to other southern African nations.

Lola Castro is the World Food Programs director for southern Africa. She said the lockdown affected the program. She urged that its extremely important that food systems continue ... (and) also be able to move across borders.

A recently released FAO document on the coronavirus notes that restrictions during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014-2016 caused a lot of hunger. It said the suffering worsened as the lockdown led to labor shortages at harvest time and farmers were unable to bring their crops to market.

Im John Russell.

The Associated Press and the Reuters News Agency reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English.

_________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

locust  n. a type of grasshopper that travels in large groups and can caused destruction by eating crops

swarm  n. a large group of bugs

pesticide  n. a chemical that kills bugs

lockdown  n. to completely shut down a community

outbreak - n. the sudden appearance of a disease

catastrophic - adj. something that is terrible for many people

shipment - n. an item that is sent from one place to another
A deputy in north Alabama is recovering after being bitten by a police dog from another department.

The dog, which belongs to the Decatur Police Department, bit the Morgan County sheriffs deputy after the dog was sent to chase two teens running from a traffic stop, authorities said.

Decatur police spokeswoman Emme Long said the dog, which has been with the department for two years, is back to work today. The dog was not in violation of any training, she said. It was doing what it was supposed to.

The situation began when sheriffs deputies were called to investigate a report of gunfire on Nesmith Street near Hartselle. Mike Swafford, a sheriffs office spokesman, said a witness described a vehicle in the area.

On the way to the scene, deputies spotted a vehicle matching that description and attempted a traffic stop, Swafford said. Deputies chased the vehicle into Decatur city limits, where two people jumped from the car near Bromwich Street and ran.

When Decaturs K9 handler released the dog to chase the suspects, the dog instead bit the sheriffs deputy.

Mike Swafford, a sheriffs office spokesman, said the situation involved bad timing.

The deputy happened to pull up and get out of the car just as (the dog) was released, he said.

The K9 handler was quickly able to get the dog to release, Swafford said.

He let go when he was told to, Swafford said.

The deputy was bandaged at Decatur Morgan Hospital and sent home to recover. Swafford said as of now the deputy is expected to be out of work until Friday.

Sheriffs deputies charged two 19-year-olds, Luis Angel Ortiz and Jordan Fuqua, with attempting to elude. Ortiz was also charged with multiple counts of failing to stop at a stop sign, driving on the wrong side of the road, driving without lights and driving without possession of a license.

Swafford said the investigation into the report of shots fired is ongoing, but there werent any injuries reported. Because the location is in the countys jurisdiction, its not illegal to fire a gun.
Cramped tooth and claw in vast cages, hundreds of dogs pass the day sleeping, fighting, or waiting to be fed at a controversial Thai shelter that does not believe in adoptions and blames a drop in donations on the coronavirus. Launched in 2013, "Aunt Ju's Shelter for Stray Dogs" has long relied on donors to feed more than 2,000 stray canines and 300 cats living under their care. But there has been a massive decrease in donations in recent months, and they have taken to Facebook to appeal to animal lovers with photos of dogs in their crowded facilities. "It may be... due to the COVID-19 outbreak that has made people donate less," caretaker Yutima Preechasuchart told AFP, during a recent visit to one of its sites in Pathumthani province, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from central Bangkok. Hundreds of dogs are packed into humid rooms behind a rusted fence, where playful fights and territorial clashes occur as the shelter's employees attempt to clean the concrete floors with a hose. Some suffer from gashes and are kept in small cages, where the staff redress their wounds with gauze. The dogs go through more than 60 bags of food daily, costing between 20-30,000 baht a day ($600-$910), Yutima says, but current donations only gets them 30 bags a week. She defended her shelter's policy of refusing to adopt them out. "We cannot be certain that (the owners) will love them as much as we do," she says, and declined to elaborate on what plans her organisation has if they were to completely run out of food. A non-profit based in Phuket said the conditions at Aunt Ju's were "ridiculously overcrowded" and questioned how hygienic the site can be with so many dogs crammed into a single, indoor room. "If you donat believe in an adoption program... then that's just hoarding," said Soi Dog Foundation's operations director Sam McElroy. The foundation -- which found homes for more than 900 animals last year -- is itself in "uncharted waters", says McElroy, due to the province-wide lockdown to curb the spread of the virus. Thailand currently has 2,220 cases of coronavirus infections, including 26 deaths.
Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle 2018

Former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. and his wife, Candy, have made a $2.65 million donation to a Florida hospital to help in the fight against the coronavirus.

The Tampa Bay Times reported Tuesday that the money given to Tampa General Hospital was part of an overall $7.65 million donation. The money has been donated over a five-month period, according to the paper.
Stock Markets Today LIVE Updates: Sensex rallies 1,372 points, Nifty soars over 350 points in opening session; IndusInd Bank up

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On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to roll out an unprecedented economic stimulus, equal to 20 percent of economic output, as his government vowed to take all steps to battle deepening fallout from the coronavirus.

Nikkei futures opened lower but were 2.3 percent above the cash close. The yen eased 0.01 percent as traders awaited more details on the governments stimulus package.

Hong Kong futures were up and Australia futures also rose in early trade.

Asian markets looked poised on Tuesday to attempt another day of gains after stocks rallied on signs of a slowdown in coronavirus-related deaths, as oil prices resumed their decline on doubts about a potential Saudi-Russian pact to cut output.

At 09:01 hrs IST, the Sensex is up 928.30 points or 3.36% at 28519.25, and the Nifty up 381.70 points or 4.72% at 8465.50.

Benchmark indices are trading positive in the pre-opening session with Nifty above 8400.

However if the pandemic proliferates and there is global recession then it would be a double whammy for the economy as it will have to bear the brunt of both domestic and global demand destruction, KPMG report said.

In the second scenario where India is able to control COVID-19 spread, but there is a significant global recession, the KPMG report said India's growth is expected to be in the range of 4-4.5 per cent.

The KPMG report presented three scenarios to explain the economic effects of COVID-19. In the scenario of quick retraction across globe by April-end to mid-May, the report said "India's growth for 2020-21 may be in the range of 5.3 to 5.7 per cent, though this scenario looks distant at this moment".

It said the three major contributors to GDP -- private consumption, investment and external trade -- will all get affected due to the spread of the pandemic.

India's growth could slip below 3 percent in the current fiscal if COVID-19 proliferates within India, lockdown extended and global economy slips into recession, a KPMG report said.

The market timings have been revised in order to "minimise these risks" and to ensure that market participants maintain adequate checks and supervisory controls while optimising thin resources and ensuring safety of personnel, it said.

The market will open at 10 AM instead of the current 9 AM and closing timings too have been revised to 2 PM for all segments. The lockdown has adversely impacted the functioning of financial markets, the RBI said.

The RBI has reduced the trading hours of debt as well as currency markets from Tuesday in view of the lockdown following the outbreak of coronavirus. The revised market timings will be effective during 7-17 April, 2020, the central bank said in a circular on Friday.

About 766 shares have advanced, 93 shares declined, and 35 shares are unchanged.

At 09:17 hrs IST, the Sensex is up 1,224.05 points or 4.44 percentat 28815.00. The Nifty up 338.90 points or 4.19 percent at 8422.70.

IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the top gainers on the S&P BSE Sensex.

All 30 Sensex stocks were trading in green at 9.22 AM. Private bank stocks are leading gains at this hours.

We know that your efforts have been frustrated with system issues, policy questions and slower than usual responses, the Small Business Administrations regional offices wrote to bankers on Saturday evening, according to an email seen by Reuters.

Since the program opened on Friday, banks have struggled to access the clunky system and the paperwork involved has changed more than once, industry sources said.

Three banking officials told Reuters US lenders were unable to process loan applications for hours on Monday after the SBAs online portal crashed around midday. A senior administration official denied the SBA system had crashed, and said the agency continued to process loans and add lenders.

The problems with the program, which is jointly administered by the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Treasury Department, threatened to delay putting much-needed funds into the hands of small businesses hurt by the coronavirus crisis.

The US governments $350 billion small-business rescue program was plagued by paperwork and technical issues as it lurched to the end of a fourth day on Monday, with some banks experiencing major glitches with the processing system, according to industry groups, bankers and an email seen by Reuters.

The benchmark exchanges on Wall Street ended over 7 percent in overnight trade.

Authorities in Italy and Spain were looking to ease lockdowns after steady falls in coronavirus-related fatality rates.

MSCIs broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose almost 1 percent, after places that took the worst hit from the virus saw an easing in fresh cases and deaths.

Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul rallied up to 2 percent.

(We have secured) in excess of $2.5 billion from the bank. We will take about three to four months to get the long-term financing, Chief Executive Shahril Lamin told Reuters in a phone interview.

GSV, which was set up by former Malaysia Airlines officials and professionals with aviation experience, made the proposal a month ago, as airlines around the world were hammered by travel restrictions following the coronavirus pandemic.

Privately held Golden Skies Ventures (GSV) has made a $2.5 billion offer to fully take over the holding company of ailing state carrier Malaysia Airlines, with financing from a European bank, its executives told Reuters on Monday.

The yen was supported against major currencies after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveiled fiscal stimulus worth almost $1 trillion to offset the economic impact of the coronavirus.

The pound clawed back some recent losses against the dollar, but sentiment for sterling remains fragile after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to intensive care after his coronavirus symptoms worsened.

The dollar fell against the yen on Tuesday as US stock futures erased gains and traded lower in a sign some investors remain concerned about the economic shock posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

It was Indonesias largest bond deal and the first time a 50-year dollar deal has been issued in Asia, not including rolling hybrid transactions, according to the term-sheet.

The deal was finalised in the US overnight and sold in tranches of 10.5 years and 30.5 years, worth $1.65 billion each, and a $1 billion 50-year tranche.

Indonesia has raised $4.3 billion in its first so-called pandemic bond, which included the longest-dated dollar debt tranche ever issued in Asia, according to a term-sheet seen by Reuters.

The rupee rose 21 paise to 75.92 against the US dollar in the early trade on Tuesday.

India, the worlds main supplier of generic drugs, has lifted restrictions on the export of 24 pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines made from them, the government said in a statement.

Market trimmed early gains as the Sensex was trading 1141.42 points or 4.14 percent higher at 28,732.37 while the broader Nifty was up 313.95 points or 3.88 percent at 8,397.75 at around 10.20 am.

And the larger the universe of players, the more difficult it will be to implement an agreement

All this has sent prices up, although the when, how, and who of the potential deal remain unclear.

Of list of G20 countries, only a handful have any significant oil production, and even fewer have any sort of export capabilities. Chief among these is the US, but other major producers include Brazil, Canada and Mexico.

The growing momentum for some sort of agreement among major oil producers to reduce the worlds massive oversupply hinges on cooperation from countries beyond OPEC+, notably the US, but how realistic is this? Saudi Arabia is looking toward oil producers among the G20 nations to bolster any OPEC-plus actions.

The whole market looks like a different planet now after concept of alliance of Saudi-US showed depth of crisis facing the global oil industry as well as its growing importance to the US economy but not at the stage of something that is being seriously considered. Yet, there remains confusion in market as indeed, immediately, Russia shot down the idea that there was some agreement.

The crude prices surged by 30 percent, skyrocketing for its largest single day percentage gain in history of crude markets on a single tweet from President Trump that Saudi Arabia and Russia would cut production by 10Mb-15Mbpd, said Motilal Oswal Institutional Equities.

DeHaat has raised $12 million (Rs 83 crore) in Series A round led by Sequoia India, with participation from FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank.

Based in Gurgaon and Patna, and founded in 2012 by IIT, IIM and NIT alumni, DeHaat is a technology-based platform offering full-stack agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of high quality agri inputs, customised farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling their produce.

Agritech platform DeHaat on Tuesday said it has raised $12 million (Rs 83 crore) from investors, including Sequoia India, for business expansion.

With the railways having waived off its demurrage and wharfage charges, companies were not losing any money by not offloading their goods, officials said.

Around 300 goods trains full of cement bags are lying idle because cement companies are in no hurry to unload them as the construction business has come to a standstill due to the coronavirus outbreak.

With the lockdown in place, the national transporter is using about 50-60 rakes per day to ferry food grains but there is demand for more, the sources said.

The railway has asked cement firms to offload their goods from freight trains so that they can be used to supply essential commodities to various parts of the country, sources said.

The manufacturing operations in all of its locations have been either scaled down or suspended, it said adding that consequently, the capacity utilisation is expected to go down significantly during this lockdown period.

On 25 March, the Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel said the company has decided to scale down or suspend production during the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As the 21-day lockdown period is nearing end, private steel maker JSW Steel has started preparing to scale up its production.

But at the same time the South Korean tech giant is also expecting a bigger hit to its mobile and consumer electronics sales in the current quarter as the novel coronavirus sweeps through Europe and the United States - key markets for its premium smartphones and TVs.

The global leader in semiconductors is benefiting from higher demand for chips from laptop makers and data centres amid the coronavirus-driven shift to working from home.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Tuesday its first-quarter operating profit likely managed to rise slightly from a slump a year earlier, as solid chip sales helped cushion the blow from the coronavirus pandemic on smartphones and TVs.

Gradually introduced by major stock markets since the late 1990s, auctions held in the final minutes of trade were initially seen as an efficient, hard-to-manipulate way to establish end-of-day prices.

Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which runs Norways $950 billion sovereign wealth fund, said the growing popularity of end-of-trade auctions reflects deep structural changes, including that more money is managed by bigger firms.

The sharp rise in trading volumes during closing auctions at global stock markets requires more innovation by brokers to capture value for buy-side investors, one of the worlds largest asset managers said on Tuesday.

The food is distributed through its Foundations network of non-government organisations (NGOs). Apart from the Foundation, the initiative is supported through funds contributed by CRISIL employees.

Under The 10K meals project, the administration team is utilising the currently idle kitchen facilities at Crisils Powai office to be able to offer meals ensuring safety and hygiene protocols.

Starting at about 5000 meals a day, the facility has been scaled to provide 10,000 daily meals in a few days.

CRISIL has opened up its corporate kitchen facility at its Mumbai headquarters to prepare hygienically cooked, nutritious meals on a daily basis to the economically weaker sections of the society.

IndusInd was the top gainer in the Sensex pack surging 15.45 percent while Axis Bank (9.52 percent), HCL Tech (9.09 percent) and Mahindra & Mahindra (9.04 percent) also zoomed in the morning trade

Market rebounded as the Sensex surged 1408.44 points or 5.10 percent to 28,999.39 while Nifty was up 398.10 points or 4.92 percent at 8,481.90 at around 11.10 am.

"As a large part of ECOR territory is under LWE (left wing extremism) influence areas, keeping an eye 24x7 on all fixed and moving assets in addition to activity centres is a challenge during lockdown. ECoR has, in a first on IR, deployed drones to keep a 24x7 vigil on the entire ECOR territory," he added.

"During lockdown, assets like coaches, PRS counters, etc. are out of sight being not in use and locked. This is in addition to the assets in use - yards signalling infrastructure, stations, relay rooms, goods sheds, wagon stock. RPF staff has to ensure safety of each of these assets, whether in use or not," said Principal chief security commissioner, ECoR, Raja Ram.

In a first, the East Coast Railway headquartered at Bhubaneswar has deployed drones to guard its assets lying idle in yards due to the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, officials said.

Speaking about the partnership, USISPF president Mukesh Aghi said, "American companies are continuing to step up in all ways possible to help citizens of India during these extraordinary circumstances.The partnership is a win-win between American industry's technological capabilities and the urgent need to solve the education challenges that India's students face during this health crisis.

USISPF and Zoom will work with the Government of India, state governments, and non-profit organizations in education to ensure that the maximum number of school going children are able to access Zoom's technologies free of cost and continue their education virtually at an extremely challenging time.

The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) is partnering with Zoom Video Communications to provide free access to video technologies for K-12 education institutions in India.

Total vehicle sales across categories had also declined by 15.85 percent at 2,04,98,128 units April-February of 2019-20 as compared to 2,43,58,082 units in the comparable period previous fiscal, according to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

During the April-February 2019-20 period, passenger vehicle sales had declined by 14.68 percent to 26,32,665 units as against 30,85,528 in 2018-19.

Before the outbreak, the Indian auto sector was already suffering from a prolonged slump.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on India's automobile industry will be clear once the ongoing lockdown is lifted and there is clarity on the time taken by supply chain to resume optimal production, according to a top Nissan Motor India official.

Spot gold was down 0.2 percent at $1,657.67 per ounce, after rising to a four-week high earlier in the session. The metal climbed 2.8 percent on Monday. US gold futures rose 1.7 percent to $1,723.

Gold prices eased from a four-week high on Tuesday, as the U.S. dollar and global equities strengthened on signs of a slowdown in coronavirus-related deaths.

The company seeks to "to gain confidence from passengers to return to travel sooner" after it suspended commercial flights in late March in wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The technology, developed in cooperation with Australian company Elenium Automation, will be trialed starting late April and throughout May 2020 through volunteers and outbound passengers, Efe news quoted the airlines as saying in a statement on Monday.

UAE flag carrier Etihad Airways announced that it would trial a new technology at the Abu Dhabi airport that allows to spot travellers with medical conditions, potentially including the early stages of COVID-19.

The Smart World and Communication Business of L&T Construction has secured a large order from the Indian Army to establish an unified network management system to manage, support and operate the countrywide Armed Forces Network under the NFS, the company said in a statement.

Though the company did not mention the exact value of the contract, as per its project classification, the value of a large order ranges between Rs 2,500 crore and Rs 5,000 crore.

Engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro on Tuesday said it has won a ''large'' contract from the Indian Army for setting up an advanced IT-enabled system to operate the Armed Forces network under the Network of Spectrum (NFS).

Labour shortage is already curtailing rabi harvesting. Construction, trade, transportation and hospitality, too, may face temporary shortages. In the medium term, however, the impact of COVID-19 would result in more unemployment rather than labour shortage, the research report said.

Lack of inter-state migrant labourers may create some shortage but the situation may not turn alarming unless migrants from the same state, too, do not return to work. Worker-deficit states such as Maharashtra, Delhi and Punjab may, however, feel the impact more, the report said.

Labourer shortage, it is being feared, can hinder economic recovery. The shares of interstate migrants in overall migration and employment are estimated at 15 percent and 20 percent, respectively, it said.

Reverse migration of workers since the COVID-19 outbreak has serious public-health implications. With basic sustenance support from the government for three months, many interstate migrants may not return to work soon, according to a research report by Anand Rathi Share and Stock Brokers.

The worlds main oil producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia are likely to agree to cut output at a meeting on Thursday, although that would also depend on the United States doing its share, sources told Reuters.

Brent crude was up by 73 cents, or 2.2 percent, at $33.78 a barrel after falling more than 3 percent on Monday. US crude was up by 97 cents, or 3.7 percent, at $27.05 a barrel, having dropped nearly 8% in the previous session.

Oil rose on Tuesday amid hopes that the worlds biggest producers of crude will agree to curtail production as the coronavirus pandemic ravages the global economy, even as analysts cautioned the cuts may do little to boost demand.

The government will issue the same amount of additional government bonds to fund the extra budget, with a construction bond issuance at 2.3290 trillion yen and deficit-covering bonds at 14.4767 trillion yen, the draft showed.

Japan will compile a supplementary budget worth 16.8057 trillion yen ($154.45 billion) to help fund stimulus spending to combat its coronavirus outbreak, according to a draft of the spending plan obtained by Reuters.

On concerns of financial health, IndusInd Bank, promoted by Hinduja Group, has seen withdrawal of bulk deposits from the banks after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) superseded the board of Yes Bank in the early March.

As a result, the bank's current account savings account (CASA) ratio slipped to 40.5 percent during the fourth quarter of 2019-20 from 42.4 percent in the third quarter.

Deposit base of the bank declined to Rs 2,02,303 crore in the quarter ended March as against Rs 2,16,713 crore in the previous quarter, the bank said in a late-night regulatory filing on Monday.

IndusInd Bank has reported a 7 percent decline in deposits during the March quarter due to withdrawals triggered by the Yes Bank crisis.

Dunzo's no-contact delivery will ensure that Britannia essentials such as biscuits, cakes, rusk, croissants, milkshakes, wafers, ghee and dairy whitener, are delivered safely and securely to users across Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai, it said

Customers can avail Britannia products through the Dunzo app in under an hour of ordering from the 'Britannia Essentials' store, a joint statement said on Tuesday.

Britannia Industries has partnered with on-demand e-commerce platform Dunzo on home delivery of all its products.

"However, due to the nationwide lockdown, there was a substantial drop in recruitment activity in the last 10 days, which resulted in overall drop of 18 percent in hiring," said Goyal.

According to Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer at Naukri.com, the hiring activity for the first 20 days on March 2020 saw only a 5 percent decline.

The retail sector saw 50 percent drop in hiring, followed by auto/ancillary (38 percent), pharma (26 per cent), insurance (11 percent), accounting/finance (10 percent), IT-software (9 percent) and BFSI (9 percent), according to the ''Naukri JobSpeak Index'' for March 2020.

Overall hiring activity in India declined by 18 percent in March, with travel and airlines, hospitality and retail industries witnessing a massive 56 per cent drop in offering jobs as compared to March last year, leading job portal Naukri.com said on Tuesday.

IndusInd Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack followed by Axis Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra.

Benchmark indices continued to extend the morning gains as Sensex soared 1639.51 points or 5.94 percent to 29,230.46 and Nifty was up 474 points or 5.86 percent at 8,557.80 at around 12.20 pm.

The court also noted that Singh was also allegedly involved in a money laundering case.

Justice Mukta Gupta denied him the relief, saying Singh was allegedly involved in offences punishable with more than 7-year sentence and that too in more than one case and "hence does not qualify to be released" as per criteria laid down by a high powered committee.

Singh had cited COVID-19 infection risk as a reason for seeking the relief.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of ex-Fortis promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh, arrested for alleged misappropriation of funds from Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL).

The asset classification will be according to RBI guidelines. The customer will not be reported as defaulter during the moratorium period. The regular reporting to credit bureaus shall commence after the repayment holiday period.

For the borrowers who have already paid installments after 1 March 2020, required adjustments will be made so that moratorium is applicable for the remaining instalments till 31 May 2020.

Accordingly, moratorium will be avilable to all the existing borrowers across India. Moratorium will be allowed on all installments falling due between 1 March 2020 and 31 May 2020, it said.

CreditAccess Grameen Limited (CAGL), a microfinance institution has in accordance with the loan moratorium guidelines issued by RBI on 27 March 2020, framed its loan moratorium policy.

"The platform has been designed as a single-point access for all FTAs/PTAs, for all designated Certificate of Origin (CoO) issuing agencies and for all export products, and is accessible at - https://coo.dgft.gov.in," the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said on Tuesday in a notice sent to all exporters, members of trade, designated agencies under FTAs/PTAs, and all embassies of FTA/PTAs partner countries.

An exporter has to submit a 'certificate of origin' at the landing port of the importing country. The document is important to claim duty concessions under free-trade agreements (FTAs). This certificate is essential to prove where their goods come from.

The commerce ministry has designed an online platform for issuance of a key document required for exports to those countries with which India has trade agreements, with a view to facilitate shipments during the COVID-19 crisis.

"The economic slowdown aggravated by the ongoing health crisis is manifesting itself in the form of a hit to sales with buyers postponing their purchase decisions," JLL India said in its quarterly report.

The sale of residential units decreased by 29 per cent to 27,451 units in the Q1 of 2020 calendar year as against 38,628 units in the year-ago period.

Housing sales fell 29 percent during January-March period across seven major cities to 27,451 units while the value of unsold inventories swelled to Rs 3.65 lakh crore as buyers postponed their buying decisions amid COVID-19 outbreak, according to JLL.

All the sectoral indices are trading in the green. IndusInd Bank surged nearly 18 percent while Axis Bank was up over 15 percent.

Market soared to days high in the afternoon trade as Sensex soared 1857.18 points or 6.73 percent to 29,448.13 and Nifty was up 538.30 points or 6.66 percent at 8,622.10 at around 1.10 pm.

"Market sentiment will continue to be driven by the trend in corona virus cases globally as well as in India," Sanmukhani added.

Pharma sector rallied the most after the government lifted restrictions on the export of 24 pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines made from them. Pharma stocks have been gaining of late as the sector is better placed to navigate the crisis during the COVID-19 outbreak even though the challenges faced by it are all the same, he said.

"Meanwhile, investors also took positive cues from the news that India may attract $1.3 billion in passive flows as the country has moved into a new regime in which the FPI limit has been increased to the sector foreign limit. Broad-based buying was witnessed in the market with all sectors trading with healthy gains," said Sanmukhani.

Signs that intensity of coronavirus spread is declining in highly affected areas of the US and Europe kept the sentiments upbeat, he said.

Tracking firm global cues and value buying in fundamentally strong stocks, the stock markets were trading on a firm note with a gain of over 6 percent, said Sundar Sanmukhani, head-fundamental research desk, Choice Broking.

The problem is, can you feed 60 million people at the rate you can get people through the stores with that social distancing? one industry executive told Reuters.

Whats more, the lockdown has temporarily transferred the eating out market - bars, cafes, restaurants, school meals and workplace canteens - to the home, shifting about 30 percent of the nations food consumption back to stores.

Industry executives speaking on condition of anonymity said they expected a jump in demand once Britons under lockdown had worked through supplies amassed at the start of the crisis and as shoppers stocked up for the long Easter weekend holiday.

Britains big supermarkets fear they wont be able to supply the countrys 60 million people without longer opening hours or a relaxation of social distancing rules introduced to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

We believe this conservatism has roots in the fact that Asia has experienced more crises than the West in recent years.

We note that companies in Asia appear to have much more insulation in terms of sustainability of cash outflow items such as capital expenditure and dividends relative to their Western counterparts, Jim McCafferty, head of Asia-ex-Japan equity research at Nomura in Hong Kong, said in a note.

Analysts say that while Asian companies are also pressured by factory shutdowns and falling demand this year, their higher cash flows could help to sustain dividend payments.

Asian firms appear better equipped to pay stable dividends compared with their western counterparts that are constrained by highly levered balance-sheets and a need to preserve cash during the coronavirus outbreak. As major global central banks push interest rates to near-zero, yield-seeking investors are on the hunt for assets that provide a stable income.

States revenues are unlikely to be adequate in the current circumstances so this is where the RBI will have to step in much more aggressively, said Upasna Bhardwaj, senior economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has already raised short-term borrowing limits to help tide over the funding crunch, but more outright support from the central bank is going to be critical, analysts said.

States are slashing salaries, demanding an increase in borrowing limits and asking for fund transfers from New Delhi as their tax revenues dry up due to large scale travel restrictions to contain the spread of the flu-like respiratory disease.

The companies have taken the decision because of the reduced demand in the market after the lockdown, which has impacted logistics movement, the sources said adding that buyers are also reluctant in placing orders.

As per industry sources, SAIL and Tata Steel have scaled down production by about 50 per cent.

State-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and private player Tata Steel both contribute about 20 per cent to India's total steel production.

Facing reduction in demand due to the lockdown in the country, steel makers SAIL and Tata Steel have reduced their output by about 50 percent, according to sources.

IndusInd was the top gainer in the Sensex pack soaring nearly 18 percent followed by Axis Bank and ICICI Bank.

Market extended the early gains as Sensex surged 2017.71 points or 7.31 percent to 29,608.66 while the broader Nifty was up 581.65 points or 7.2 percent at 8,665.45 at around 1.45 pm.

And they urged the international community to waive this year's debt repayments from poorer countries, including $44 billion due from Africa.

In an open letter to governments of the Group of 20 nations, the leaders, ministers, top executives and scientists also called for $35 billion to support countries with weaker health systems and especially vulnerable populations, and at least $150 billion for developing countries to fight the medical and economic crisis.

Many former global leaders and other VIPs urged the world's 20 major industrialised nations to approve $8 billion in emergency funding to speed the search for a vaccine, cure and treatment for COVID-19 and prevent a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) in January ordered an investigation into business practices of the two e-commerce giants, but the High Court in Karnataka state put it on hold after Amazon argued the CCI did not have sufficient evidence to order it.

The appeal will likely be heard later this month at a time when both Amazon and Flipkart are battling slowing sales and logistical challenges during Indias lockdown to tackle the coronavirus which has resulted in supply chain disruptions.

A retail group has asked a court to allow the restart of an antitrust investigation into Amazon.com Inc and a Walmart unit that is on hold following a legal challenge by the companies, a court filing seen by Reuters showed. Amazon and Walmarts unit Flipkart did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Extending its help, group has started providing health and hygiene kits to police personnel across the country which includes face masks, hand sanitisers and immunity-boosting medicines.

We have earmarked a fund of Rs 21 crore towards relief efforts... Out of this pledged amount, a sum of Rs 11 crore is being contributed to PM CARES Fund by Dabur India and other entities in the Group, said Dabur India Ltd chairman Amit Burman said.

The group will also provide assistance to people engaged in frontline efforts to fight the virus and support to members of vulnerable sections of the society and migrant workers, who are the hardest hit by this pandemic, , according to a statement.

Home grown Dabur group on Tuesday pledged Rs 21 crore to support the relief efforts and help the immediate needs of people affected from the COVID-19 pandemic.

IndusInd jumped nearly 19 percent followed by Axis Bank and Maruti.

The domestic equities continued the rally as Sensex surged 2151.67 points or 7.80 percent to 29,742.62 while the broader Nifty was trading 617.80 points or 7.64 percent higher at 8,701.60 in the afternoon trade.

Railways is also considering to supply 50 per cent of the innovated PPE garment to other medical professionals of the country.

"Facilities are being geared up in Railways to make up to 1,000 such protective overall for railway doctors and paramedics every day. As many as 17 workshops would be striving to contribute to this exercise," the national transporter said in a statement.

The PPE overall will offer much needed protection to railway doctors and paramedics working on the front line of COVID care at hospitals of Railways.

Railways, which has got a nod from the DRDO for making personal protection equipment (PPEs), has now set a target of manufacturing around 1000 of them in its 17 workshops every day.

The telecom company however said the issue has been resolved.

Most of the complaints were from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Jaipur, Pune, Ernakulam and Gurugram.

More than half the complaints were about data services only and some subscribers even reported complete network outage in their area.

According to the Down Detector, which tracks network outage of apps and mobile networks, there was a sudden spike in complaints around 11.20 am from various locations.

Several subscribers of Vodafone Idea on Tuesday reported poor call and data connectivity issues. However, Vodafone Idea on twitter said the issue has now been resolved.

As many as 1,695 shares have advanced, 458 shares declined, and 161 shares are unchanged.

The equity benchmark indices are all set to register biggest single-day gain since 2009 as Sensex surged 2234.28 points or 8.10 percent to 29,825.23 and the broader Nifty was trading 630.05 points or 7.79 percent higher at 8,713.85 at around 2.30 pm.

IntelliSmart will work in collaboration with all stakeholders to procure, deploy and provide operations and maintenance for the smart meter infrastructure, it said in a statement.

The company, formed in 2019, is a joint venture of Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) and National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF). It is entrusted with the task of implementing, financing and operating the smart meter rollout programme of power distribution companies.

IntelliSmart Infrastructure, which would implement the government's smart electric metres project across the country, on Tuesday announced appointment of Anil Rawal as its Chief Executive Officer.

The look of the new Low Rider S is really rooted in the legacy of the Low Rider models of the 1980s, that has a devoted following which has spread world-wide from origins in Southern California, and in the recent Dyna-based Low Rider S model," Harley-Davidson vice president of Styling and Design Brad Richards said in a statement.

The cruiser is built around a Harley-Davidson Softail chassis enhanced by premium suspension components tuned for aggressive riding.

American cult bike manufacturer Harley-Davidson on Tuesday said it has launched Low Rider S in India priced at Rs 14.69 lakh (ex-showroom).

On Friday, the rupee had settled at 76.13 against the US dollar.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 75.92 and gained further ground to touch the day's high of 75.60. The Indian unit finally settled for the day at 75.64, registering a rise of 49 paise over its previous close.

The Indian rupee surged by 49 paise to 75.64 (provisional) against the US dollar on Tuesday, taking cues from positive equity market sentiment.

This will provide affordable housing to low-income households in India based on the Facility for Accelerating Financial Inclusion in Asia.

PNB Housing Finance has signed an agreement with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to raise 75 million dollars (about Rs 568 crore) with co-financing of 25 million dollars (about Rs 190 crore) by Citibank to finance mortgage loans in the affordable housing segment.

IndusInd jumped nearly 23 percent followed by Axis Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra.

The market continued the rally in the late afternoon trade as Sensex surged 2476.15 points or 8.97 percent to 30,067.10 and the broader Nifty was trading 711.40 points or 8.8 percent higher at 8,795.20 at around 3 pm.

"In the wake of unprecedented crisis due to COVID-19, the Ministry of Shipping has been taking pro-active steps to ensure smooth running of shipping and port operations, ease the hardships, and at the same time, following the restrictions imposed during the lockdown," the Ministry of Shipping said in a statement.

Total traffic handling at major ports has also increased marginally by 0.82 percent to 705 million tonnes (MT) during the last fiscal.

The government on Tuesday said it is committed to maintaining smooth operations across its shipping ports and has initiated a number of steps, including waiving rentals and thermal scanning of 46,000 crew and passengers, in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.

The LPG production has now been cut by 25 percent while there has been a 50 percent cut in petrol and diesel production, the company said in a press release.

MRPL normally produces 2,500 tonnes of LPG, 20,000 tonnes of diesel and 2,500 tonnes of petrol.

The demand for diesel and petrol had fallen sharply after the lockdown was announced.

Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) has cut down production of petrol and diesel by half.

With the number of vehicles on roads falling sharply in the lockdown period due to the coronavirus spread, the public sector Mangalore Refinery and

"The minimum loan amount is Rs 30,000 per SHG and maximum loan amount granted under the scheme is Rs one lakh per member, repayable in 24 months," the bank said in a statement.

Under the Additional Assurance to SHGs-COVID19 scheme, the bank will provide support to existing SHGs' facilities in the form of cash credit or overdraft or term loans.

The bank has also announced an emergency credit line for farmers producer organisations (FPO/FPC) to deal with any liquidity mismatches.

State-run Bank of Baroda on Tuesday said it will provide financial assistance of up to Rs 1 lakh to women self-help groups (SHGs) to help meet their funding demand amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Restricted Group 2 was the first Investment Grade rated issuance (rated BBB-/Baa3/BBB-) by a renewable business in India and was widely recognized by global capital markets and international publications, it added.

The portfolio includes the Restricted Group 1 & 2 projects, which had recently raised USD 862.5 million from the international bond markets, the statement said.

The JV houses 2,148 GW operating solar projects across 11 states in India, the company said in a statement.

French energy firm Total SA on Tuesday said it has invested Rs 3,707 crore to set up 50:50 joint venture with Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) through its step-down subsidiary.

APRA asked banks and insurers to limit discretionary capital distributions so that they have sufficient capacity to continue essential functions like lending and underwriting insurance.

But the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) stopped short of giving an official directive, even as central banks across the world have restricted plans to return capital to investors as the outbreak threatens earnings and disrupts operations.

Australias prudential regulator on Tuesday asked banks and insurers to consider deferring dividend payouts or use buffers like dividend reinvestment plans until the impact of the coronavirus pandemic is better known.

"Wood Mackenzie projects that India could face over 21.6 percent or 3 gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind installations being delayed as a result of the country's lockdown," it said in the report.

While wind projects would be hit by supply and labour disruptions in the peak season, solar photovoltaic (PV) installations are expected to be hit hard as the industry is heavily dependent on Chinese PV module imports, which have been disrupted due to coronavirus.

India could face over 21.6 percent of 3 gigawatts (GW) of solar power and wind energy projects being delayed due to the nationwide lockdown imposed to check the spread of coronavirus, Wood Mackenzie said in a report.

The CIABC sent letters on Monday to chief ministers of 10 states -- Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

It said the need to close on-shops (bars) is well understood in light of social distancing.

The body noted that the nationwide lockdown has resulted in the shutdown of all wholesale and retail shops selling alcoholic beverages.

The Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC) has urged 10 states to allow sale of alcoholic beverages saying that a blanket ban during the lockdown to contain coronavirus has resulted in sale of illicit and spurious liquor while causing burden on exchequer.

IndusInd was the top gainer in the Sensex pack zooming over 22 percent followed by Axis Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra.

As many as 1,813 shares advanced, 535 shares declined, and 189 shares remained unchanged during trading.

Sensex surged 2,476.26 points or 8.97 percent at 30067.21 while Nifty was up 708.40 points or 8.76 percent at 8792.20 at close.

The equity benchmark indices ended in the green after opening on a positive note and Sensex reclaimed 30,000-mark on Tuesday.

"In the wake of unprecedented crisis due to COVID-19, the Ministry of Shipping has been taking pro-active steps to ensure smooth running of shipping and port operations, ease the hardships, and at the same time, following the restrictions imposed during the lockdown," the Ministry of Shipping said in a statement.

Total traffic handling at major ports has also increased marginally by 0.82 percent to 705 million tonnes (MT) during the last fiscal.

The government on Tuesday said it is committed to maintaining smooth operations across its shipping ports and has initiated a number of steps, including waiving rentals and thermal scanning of 46,000 crew and passengers, in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.

. @flyspicejet operates Indias first cargo-on-seat flight. Co carries 11 tons of vital supplies in passenger cabin & belly space from Delhi to Chennai, B737 passenger aircraft to do five rotations today carrying crucial supplies pic.twitter.com/Ke3Ei1xKlt

The LPG production has now been cut by 25 percent while there has been a 50 percent cut in petrol and diesel production, the company said in a press release.

MRPL normally produces 2,500 tonnes of LPG, 20,000 tonnes of diesel and 2,500 tonnes of petrol.

The demand for diesel and petrol had fallen sharply after the lockdown was announced.

Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) has cut down production of petrol and diesel by half.

With the number of vehicles on roads falling sharply in the lockdown period due to the coronavirus spread, the public sector Mangalore Refinery and

"The minimum loan amount is Rs 30,000 per SHG and maximum loan amount granted under the scheme is Rs one lakh per member, repayable in 24 months," the bank said in a statement.

Under the Additional Assurance to SHGs-COVID19 scheme, the bank will provide support to existing SHGs' facilities in the form of cash credit or overdraft or term loans.

The bank has also announced an emergency credit line for farmers producer organisations (FPO/FPC) to deal with any liquidity mismatches.

State-run Bank of Baroda on Tuesday said it will provide financial assistance of up to Rs 1 lakh to women self-help groups (SHGs) to help meet their funding demand amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Restricted Group 2 was the first Investment Grade rated issuance (rated BBB-/Baa3/BBB-) by a renewable business in India and was widely recognized by global capital markets and international publications, it added.

The portfolio includes the Restricted Group 1 & 2 projects, which had recently raised USD 862.5 million from the international bond markets, the statement said.

The JV houses 2,148 GW operating solar projects across 11 states in India, the company said in a statement.

French energy firm Total SA on Tuesday said it has invested Rs 3,707 crore to set up 50:50 joint venture with Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) through its step-down subsidiary.

APRA asked banks and insurers to limit discretionary capital distributions so that they have sufficient capacity to continue essential functions like lending and underwriting insurance.

But the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) stopped short of giving an official directive, even as central banks across the world have restricted plans to return capital to investors as the outbreak threatens earnings and disrupts operations.

Australias prudential regulator on Tuesday asked banks and insurers to consider deferring dividend payouts or use buffers like dividend reinvestment plans until the impact of the coronavirus pandemic is better known.

"Wood Mackenzie projects that India could face over 21.6 percent or 3 gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind installations being delayed as a result of the country's lockdown," it said in the report.

While wind projects would be hit by supply and labour disruptions in the peak season, solar photovoltaic (PV) installations are expected to be hit hard as the industry is heavily dependent on Chinese PV module imports, which have been disrupted due to coronavirus.

India could face over 21.6 percent of 3 gigawatts (GW) of solar power and wind energy projects being delayed due to the nationwide lockdown imposed to check the spread of coronavirus, Wood Mackenzie said in a report.

The CIABC sent letters on Monday to chief ministers of 10 states -- Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

It said the need to close on-shops (bars) is well understood in light of social distancing.

The body noted that the nationwide lockdown has resulted in the shutdown of all wholesale and retail shops selling alcoholic beverages.

The Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC) has urged 10 states to allow sale of alcoholic beverages saying that a blanket ban during the lockdown to contain coronavirus has resulted in sale of illicit and spurious liquor while causing burden on exchequer.

#MarketAtClose | Market records the best trading day in % terms since May 2009; in absolute terms, market posts the biggest single-day gains ever pic.twitter.com/HZ4lUk0D9n

IndusInd was the top gainer in the Sensex pack zooming over 22 percent followed by Axis Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra.

As many as 1,813 shares advanced, 535 shares declined, and 189 shares remained unchanged during trading.

Sensex surged 2,476.26 points or 8.97 percent at 30067.21 while Nifty was up 708.40 points or 8.76 percent at 8792.20 at close.

The equity benchmark indices ended in the green after opening on a positive note and Sensex reclaimed 30,000-mark on Tuesday.

Stock Markets Today Latest Updates: The equity benchmark indices ended in the green after opening on a positive note and Sensex reclaimed 30,000-mark on Tuesday.

Sensex surged 2,476.26 points or 8.97 percent at 30067.21 while Nifty was up 708.40 points or 8.76 percent at 8792.20 at close.

As many as 1,813 shares advanced, 535 shares declined, and 189 shares remained unchanged during trading.

IndusInd was the top gainer in the Sensex pack zooming over 22 percent followed by Axis Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra.

Market soared to days high in the afternoon trade as Sensex soared 1857.18 points or 6.73 percent to 29,448.13 and Nifty was up 538.30 points or 6.66 percent at 8,622.10 at around 1.10 pm.

Market rally continued the Sensex surged 1505.16 points or 5.46 percent to 29,096.11 and Nifty was up 434 points or 5.37 percent at 8,517.80 at around 11.30 am.

Market trimmed early gains as the Sensex was trading 1141.42 points or 4.14 percent higher at 28,732.37 while the broader Nifty was up 313.95 points or 3.88 percent at 8,397.75 at around 10.20 am.

India, the worlds main supplier of generic drugs, has lifted restrictions on the export of 24 pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines made from them, the government said in a statement.

Sensex rallies 1,372 points, Nifty soars over 350 points in opening session; IndusInd Bank up

Benchmark indices are trading positive in the pre-opening session with Nifty above 8,400- level. At 09:01 hrs IST, the Sensex is up 928.30 points or 3.36 percent at 28519.25, and the Nifty up 381.70 points or 4.72 percent at 8465.50.

Asian markets looked poised on Tuesday to attempt another day of gains after stocks rallied on signs of a slowdown in coronavirus-related deaths, as oil prices resumed their decline on doubts about a potential Saudi-Russian pact to cut output.

Hong Kong futures were up and Australia futures also rose in early trade.

Nikkei futures opened lower but were 2.3 percent above the cash close. The yen eased 0.01 percent as traders awaited more details on the governments stimulus package.

On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to roll out an unprecedented economic stimulus, equal to 20 percent of economic output, as his government vowed to take all steps to battle deepening fallout from the coronavirus.

Equity investors kicked off the week encouraged by the slowing death toll from the virus across major European nations, including France and Italy. US stocks rallied on Monday, with the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq Composite all gaining more than 7 percent.

Markets started the trading week with a more positive tone following early signs of improvement in virus data for key hot spots, ANZ Research economists said in a morning note.

Emerging market stocks rose 2.66 percent at the start of the week. MSCIs broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 2.77 percent higher.

The governors of New York and New Jersey pointed to tentative signs that the coronavirus outbreak in their states was starting to plateau but warned against complacency, while across the Atlantic British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus, was taken to intensive care, driving down the pound.

Reported cases of coronavirus, have exceeded more than 1.27 million globally and 70,395 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

Oil futures resumed their decline, falling more than $1 per barrel on Monday, after Saudi Arabia and Russia delayed a key meeting aimed at resolving growing excess supplies at a time the pandemic has pushed down demand.

Prices had previously notched two sessions of double-digit gains on hopes the producers would meet and agree to production cuts.

Gold prices rose, touching a fresh 3-1/2-week high.

Demand for gold, seen as a store of value, has jumped as governments around the world roll out stimulus packages to soften the economic blow of the pandemic, but effectively diluting their currencies.
South Africa: President calls on SA to maintain social distance

President Cyril Ramaphosa has again emphasised the importance of social distancing in the fight against COVID-19 in South Africa.

He has called on South Africans to abide by the regulations that have been published by government during the 21-day lockdown and to take the virus seriously.

In terms of compliance, we are finding that many of our people throughout the country are abiding by the lockdown and the regulations, he said during a visit to the Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation COVID-19 Command Centre at Rand Water, in Johannesburg, earlier today.

Government, he said, is still doing an assessment on the effectiveness of the lockdown.

If we had not locked down South Africa as we have  I can tell you that the infection rate would have been higher that what we have. The lockdown has been an important measure that we have used to save lives and to contain the spread of the pandemic.

He said government was right now focussed on stopping the spread of COVID-19 cases and deaths as well.

This as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 1749. It has claimed the lives of 13 people in South Africa.

Communications Minister

President Ramaphosa, in response to a question regarding Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams alleged violation of the lockdown rules, said he had called her to meet with him.

This after former Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training Mduduzi Manana shared a picture of the two, along with others, having a meal at his house.

I have seen the picture of Minister Ndabeni-Abrahams sitting at the luncheon with a number of friends and other people. I have asked her to come and see me, so she is going to come and see me and I am going to have a discussion with her about the impact of visuals, the President said.

According to the 21-day lockdown regulations implemented by government, people are only allowed to go to stores to get essential items or if they are rendering essential services.

According to the picture posted - and later deleted by Manana - Ndabeni-Abrahams stopped by Mananas house for a meal on her way back from executing essential services duties.

The President said he would be going straight home after his work engagement, so as to abide by the lockdown regulations.

Command Centre

His visit to the command centre on Tuesday comes as more than 400 000 water tanks are being distributed in areas that have water shortages throughout the country.

Many of our people did say they dont have access to water and that led us to immediately embark on a massive project of distributing water tanks throughout the country, President Ramaphosa said.

He said Rand Water has become the nerve centre for monitoring the distribution of water.

Rand Water itself distributes up to 80 percent of water usage in the country. There are obviously still some challenges, but we are going to overcome them.

I would say that COVID-19, as much as it is a pandemic that we dont need in our lives, has given us an opportunity as a country to work in a different way to reach out to our people and deliver the most important resource that any human being needs - which is water, President Ramaphosa said.

He said as government distributes the water throughout the country, it should assist in reducing the levels of infection.

During his visit, President Ramaphosa was briefed on the operations of the centre in response to the outbreak.

The command centre was initiated flowing from the Presidents announcement of the country being in a State of National Disaster due to the onset of the coronavirus, thus the need for urgent responses to the pandemic.

The Ministry of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation has been tasked with a responsibility of ensuring that there is water for all communities in order to flatten the curve and to stop the spread of the virus.

Minister Lindiwe Sisulu led the Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation team that briefed the President on the operations of the command centre.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
A knife-wielding robber put shop staff in fear by shouting "coronavirus" and chasing a security man during a raid at a Dublin store, a court has heard.

Gardai said the raider had his face covered when he went into the shop but this fell down as the threat was shouted.

Kevin Brosnan (39), who was arrested with more than 600 in his pocket, appeared at Dublin District Court charged with robbery.

Judge Patricia McNamara refused bail and remanded him in custody, for the directions of the DPP.

Mr Brosnan, of Ardmore Park, Tallaght, is charged with robbery at Centra, Old Bawn Shopping Centre, Tallaght, on April 2.

Objecting to bail, the garda said he was on patrol when it was reported there was a robbery at a store.

On the way there, a radio update described the robber and said he had changed clothes.

Some time after, the garda spotted a man matching the description - the accused.

Lotto

As they spoke to Mr Brosnan, the garda asked him to take his hands out of his pockets. When he did he had a large sum of cash in his left pocket, totalling 630. He also had lotto receipts that could only have come from that shop, the garda said.

The garda believed these had been taken in the robbery and Mr Brosnan was arrested at 8.42pm. He made no reply to the charge after caution.

The garda said it was alleged the accused entered the shop at 8.30pm, holding a knife and with a scarf or clothing covering his face.

This dropped and it was alleged he shouted "coronavirus" at the guard and threatened him by chasing after him.

The garda said the accused's face was visible on CCTV as it was completely uncovered when he shouted "coronavirus." This was not audible on CCTV but staff had made statements alleging it.

The garda said although the accused had different clothing when arrested, he still wore a distinctive black hat with a red design and the same footwear.

Defence solicitor Michael Hennessy said the robber on CCTV was wearing a hat and the bottom half of his face was covered and while at some point the covering came down, the person was not clearly identifiable. Mr Hennessy said he had seen the footage and added: "It's not him."

Mr Brosnan would abide by conditions, including signing on at a garda station if granted bail, Mr Hennessy said.

He would also observe a curfew and be contactable on mobile phone.

Judge McNamara said shouting about having coronavirus was a threat. It was a contagious disease and could be fatal.

She said while the accused was presumed innocent, she was satisfied the garda had made a case for refusing bail.

The accused was remanded in custody to appear at Cloverhill District Court later this week.
Nitish Has This To Say To Mukesh Khanna

Nitish was quoted by TOI as saying, "I would like to tell my friend Mukesh Khanna that there may be a whole new generation which doesn't know details of Indian heritage and its literature. It is not their fault. There was a sea change in India's economic environment after 1992 that everyone started running the rat race, trying to make their careers and prosper financially. If at all we need to fault someone, which I don't think is the answer, then it is the previous generation parents, who failed to expose their children to our heritage and literature."

Nitish Adds

He also added that the new generation might not know many things about the Indian heritage due to myopic educational system which was implemented by the British during the Raj, which left no room for cultural and value-based education to be a part of our regular curriculum. "Also, parents put a lot of pressure on their children in after-school tuitions, which (that time) could have been utilised to learn about the religious values." He also feels that there are many system related faults which have resulted in this syndrome.

Why Target Sonakshi Alone?

The actor further added, "Why target Sonakshi alone? There's always a better way to say the same thing. A balanced, soft and empathetic way; and it is received better too. Seniors seem worthy of respect if they walk the path of empathy."

On Ekta Kapoors Mahabharat

When asked about Ekta Kapoor's version of Mahabharat, which went off air abruptly, Nitish felt that although Ekta is creative, the channel didn't give her adequate time to do research on the subject, because of which her team failed to mount the show responsibly in terms of casting, dialogues and screenplay. He did not comment on Siddharth Kumar Tewary's Mahabharat as he hasn't watched it.
Following an appeal to the Foreign Office, the doctor will now resume her post

She was left stuck in India after the

She was left stuck in India after the country

Miss England winner and junior doctor Dr Bhasha Mukherjee has returned to the UK to assist the nation's healthcare workers amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The pageant queen, from Derby, who had taken a break from the medical field to pursue overseas charity work after winning Miss England in 2019, was left stuck in India when the country's Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a nation-wide lockdown.

However following an appeal to the Foreign Office, the 24-year-old doctor will be taking to the frontline to help her NHS colleagues in controlling the spread of the virus which has now claimed the lives of 6,159 people in the UK.

Dr Mukherjee, who was born in Kolkata, India, before moving to Derby at the age of nine, said after learning about the pandemic she wanted to 'go straight to work'.

Dr Bhasha Mukherjee, from Derby, has returned to the UK to assist the NHS amid the coronavirus outbreak

The Miss England 2019 winner had taken a break from the medical field to pursue humanitarian work in India earlier this year

The pageant queen was left stuck in India when the country's Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a nation-wide lockdown

She told CNN: 'I wanted to come back home. I wanted to come and go straight to work.'

The junior doctor, who worked at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire, returned to England on Wednesday after the British High Commission in Kolkata were able to find a flight back home for her.

After seeing her appeal on the MailOnline British Deputy High Commissioner Nick Low secured the doctor a flight back to the UK via Frankfurt.

He later took to Twitter to write: 'Bhasha, the Almighty sprinkled stardust on you the day you were born. Can't wait to see your vlog-there's a career on screen waiting for you.

'But Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, needs you and I know that's where to want to be. Glad to have helped you on your way!'

Now back on home turf, the doctor is ready to help her fellow colleagues in their fight against the pandemic.

The doctor continued: 'It was incredible the way the whole world was celebrating all key workers, and I wanted to be one of those, and I knew I could help.'

She added: 'There's no better time for me to be Miss England and helping England at a time of need.'

The junior doctor, who worked at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire, returned to England on Wednesday

The doctor (pictured left and right after returning home), who was trapped in India following a country-wide lockdown, returned to the UK last week

British Deputy High Commissioner Nick Low (left) with Dr Bhasha Mukherjee (right) prior to her flight back to the UK

Dr Mukherjee began her first shift as a junior doctor in August 2019, just hours after being crowned Miss England.

Last month she flew to India alongside her mother Mita to carry out a four-week humanitarian tour of India on behalf of Coventry Mercia Lions Club.

However as the coronavirus pandemic worsened in early March, the Indian government imposed a country-wide lockdown and cancelled all flights, leaving Dr Mukherjee unable to board her flight booked for March 21.

The doctor was separated from her mother when the pair were unable to board the same flight back to Kolkata.

Dr Mukherjee said she had been feeling 'guilty' hearing about NHS staff working 13-hour shifts, but was unable to get home to the UK until Nick Low stepped in to secure her a flight

The beauty queen was able to arrive back to the UK after seeking the help of the British government

The pair were also due to fly to Pakistan the following week for their next trip.

Despite telling passengers the delay was due to a technical fault, airline staff eventually said the plane had been grounded indefinitely.

The doctor previously said: 'It was such an anxiety provoking situation. I thought how am I going to get home and back to work.

'There were hundreds of people just standing there in the airport with their bags desperately trying to get on a flight and leave. I was just sat on the floor crying.

'Everyone was crying, desperately trying to get home. I felt like a refugee.'

Dr Mukherjee then travelled to her aunt's house in Kolkata, West Bengal, to self-isolate and set about contacting Pilgrim Hospital to ask if she could resume her post while also seeking the help of the UK government to enable her to fly home to Britain.
T he first patients have been admitted to the NHS Nightingale hospital in London's ExCel Centre as the coronavirus pandemic rages on.

Those being admitted will already be on a ventilator and will remain at the hospital until their course of ventilation is finished, the hospital's chief medical director said.

A spokeswoman declined to say how many people were being treated at the custom-built facility in the capital's Docklands.

The ExCel was transformed into a huge field hospital with a capacity for 4,000 patients as cases and deaths in the capital continue to soar.

Inside the first NHS Nightingale Hospital

The hospital will initially take on 500 coronavirus patients who are being transferred from other intensive care units in the capital.

An NHS Nightingale London spokeswoman said: Our first patients have now been admitted to the NHS Nightingale London, as planned.

There is also treatment capacity available in other hospitals across London to complement the care being provided at the London Nightingale.

In only nine days, the 87,328 square metre venue - which usually hosts corporate and music events - was turned into more than 80 wards, each with 42 beds.

The UK's first coronavirus field hospital was opened by Prince Charles on Friday.

Prince Charles opened the hospital on Friday / PA

Others are being built in Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow, Belfast, Bristol and Harrogate.

It comes as a US healthcare giant on Tuesday gave the green light to its doctors and nurses to volunteer to work saving lives at the Nightingale Hospital.

HCA, whose London hospitals include the Portland where the Duchess of Sussex gave birth, will pay the salaries of any of its more than 1,600 medics who put their names forward for jobs at the Nightingale.

The NHS Nightingale will grow into one of the biggest hospitals in the world as it begins treating patients.

Those admitted to the hospital will already be on a ventilator and will remain at the Nightingale until their course of ventilation is finished, the hospital's chief medical director said.

Coronavirus patients suffering from other serious conditions - such as cardiac issues - will be cared for at other specialist centres.

A combination of NHS staff, contractors and up to 200 military personnel took part in construction - which was completed in just nine days.

Some workers are reported to have taken on 15-hour shifts to get the work done as quickly as possible.

NHS Nightingale Hospital - In pictures 1 /33 NHS Nightingale Hospital - In pictures Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA General view of the new NHS Nightingale Hospital via Reuters Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Medical equipment is labelled and prepared for use by NHS staff at the ExCel centre PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Medical equipment is labelled and prepared for use by NHS staff at the ExCel centre in London PA Natalie Forrest, Chief Operating Officer of the Nightingale Hospital at the ExCel centre PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA Work being carried out at the ExCel Centre, where the new temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital will be PA The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA AP The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA The new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA Work being carried out at the new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA Work being carried out at the new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA Worker at the new NHS Nightgale Hospital at London's ExCel Centre PA

Up to 16,000 staff may be required to run the facility at full capacity.

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Hundreds of volunteers from the St John Ambulance charity with differing levels of clinical training have volunteered to help out with operations, with around 100 expected to work every shift.
Shannon Sickles (right) and Grainne Close, leave Belfast city Hall, Monday December 19, 2005, as the first set of civil partnership ceremonies for gay couples in the UK take place in Northern Ireland. (Paul Faith/PA)

Gay couples faced unjustified discrimination while denied the opportunity to marry in Northern Ireland, the Court of Appeal ruled today.

But with changes to the law meaning same-sex weddings can now take place in the region, senior judges decided not to make a formal declaration on any human rights breach.

The verdict came in challenges by two couples to the previous ban on them getting married.

Grainne Close and her partner Shannon Sickles, along with Chris and Henry Flanagan-Kane, brought proceedings over the earlier prohibition.

In 2005 they became the first couples in the UK to enter civil partnerships, cementing their relationships in ceremonies at Belfast City Hall.

However, it was not until January this year that same-sex marriage became legal in Northern Ireland - bringing it into line with the rest of the UK and Republic of Ireland.

The regulations were passed by Westminster before the restoration of devolved government at Stormont.

MLAs had previously voted on same-sex marriage five times - with a narrow majority in favour of its introduction back in November 2015.

However, the Democratic Unionist Party deployed a petition of concern mechanism to block the motion.

Lawyers for the two couples sought to judicially review the Department of Finance in a bid to have the ban which then existed declared unlawful.

It was contended that they were subjected to discrimination on the basis of their sexuality.

In 2017 a judge dismissed the case, finding that it was a matter for the Stormont administration rather than the courts.

Appealing that determination, counsel for the couples claimed the State's failure to include the people of Northern Ireland in same-sex marriage legislation breached their human rights.

Delivering judgment today, Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan acknowledged the impact of moves in 2015 to legalise gay marriage in Scotland and the Irish Republic.

There are "strong ties of kinship and friendship" between Northern Ireland and those two countries, he noted.

"People who were married in those jurisdictions did not have their marriages recognised here and those who had formed civil partnerships here were prohibited from solemnising marriages in their own neighbourhood unlike their friends and relatives in those jurisdictions," he said.

"In our view the events of 2015 and their consequences increasingly called into question the balance between the interests of those favouring tradition and the interests of those

denied the opportunity to be seen as equal and no longer separate."

Sir Declan confirmed: "We are satisfied that it was clear by the time of the delivery of the first instance judgment in this case in August 2017 that the absence of same-sex marriage in this jurisdiction discriminated against same-sex couples, that a fair balance between tradition and personal rights had not been struck and that therefore the discrimination was not justified."

But he concluded: "In light of the legislative developments, there is no purpose to be served by making a declaration under... the Human Rights Act."




Thirty-six US nationals stranded in Himachal in the wake of the lockdown imposed to arrest the spread of novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) were evacuated from Dharamshala on Tuesday.

The tourists were evacuated by the embassy of the United States of America in collaboration with the district administration.

The travellers were putting up in hotels and guest houses in McLeodganj and Dharamshala since curfew was imposed in the district on March 23.

Kangra deputy commissioner Rakesh Kumar Prajapati said an embassy officer had arrived in Dharamshala on Monday to oversee the evacuation.

The tourists were first sent to Chandigarh in two buses arranged by the embassy. From there they will be flown to the US in special flights, he said.

131 tourists including 31 foreigners stranded in HP

One hundred and thirty-one tourists, including 31 foreign nationals, are currently stranded in Himachal Pradesh amid the lockdown imposed due to coronavirus, the state government said on Tuesday.

Principal secretary (revenue) Onkar Chand Sharma, who also heads the Covid-19 task force, said all the foreign nationals in the state are being taken care of and are safe. He said a total of 160 foreign tourists were stranded in HP when the curfew was imposed in the state on March 24.

So far, 109 foreign nationals have been evacuated by embassies of their respective countries and 31 are still stranded in the state, he said.

Sharma added that tourists are being evacuated by the concerned embassies. The state government is coordinating the embassies in the evacuation process. He said the embassy evacuated 24 Spanish tourists on April 4.

Authorities are in regular touch with stranded foreign nationals and all possible help is being provided to them, he said.

Meanwhile, Kangra deputy commissioner Rakesh Kumar Prajapati said that initially 122 foreign nationals have been evacuated from the district since the curfew was imposed.

Eighteen foreign nationals from four countries left the state from March 24-30, while as many as 51 travellers from 11 countries were evacuated on March 31 by their respective embassies. Fifteen foreigners left the state district from April 1 to 4 and a batch of 37 US nationals was evacuated on Tuesday.

Of the evacuees, 42 were from the USA, 31 from France, 10 each from Russia and Germany and six from Spain, five from Israel, three each were from Japan and Canada.

Two tourists each were from Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia and one each from Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Britain, Philippines and Hungary.

All the foreign nationals who are still in the district are being provided every possible help, Prajapati said.
T his week the Jewish community will be celebrating Passover in circumstances that could not have been imagined only a few weeks ago. A festival that over the centuries has been celebrated as the ultimate family moment will for so many be marked in a very different way. The coronavirus outbreak has fundamentally changed our way of life. At a time when the synagogues are closed and movement is restricted, Passover may well be an isolated one where we cannot be together with our friends, family and loved ones, and all of my thoughts are with everyone celebrating during this difficult period.

Passover is also a fitting moment for me to acknowledge the pain and hurt that the Labour Party has caused Jewish people in recent years Anti-Semitism has been a stain on our party. I have seen first-hand the unacceptable and unimaginable levels of grief and distress it has caused many in the Jewish community and beyond. It is why my very first act on becoming leader over the weekend was to apologise for the hurt that has been caused. I want to apologise again and reiterate my pledge to tear out this poison by its roots.

But I accept that an apology alone is not good enough. I know that ultimately I will be judged, not on what I say, but on what I do. Tackling anti-Semitism within the Labour Party must be a priority and I want to set out the steps I am taking to begin to restore trust with the Jewish community.

It starts by listening. Today I will be holding my first set of talks with leaders of the Jewish community, including the Jewish Leadership Council, Jewish Labour Movement and the Board of Deputies, to talk about how we can work together to stamp out anti-Semitism from the Labour Party  and indeed across the country  once and for all.

My door will always be open and I accept that rebuilding trust will take time. If we are to restore trust, we must be open and transparent from the beginning.

If you are anti-Semitic, you cannot and should not be in the Labour Party. Ill leave no stone unturned in this fight

Second, we must fully co-operate with the Equality and Human Rights Commissions inquiry into allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. We must throw open the books and the files and give the commission access to any politician or any member of staff they wish to interview. We must acknowledge we have a problem and be candid in our response. We must shine a light on where we have failed and where we have made mistakes, and work with the commission to implement the recommendations it puts forward later this year.

However, we cannot wait until the commission completes its inquiry before we get a grip on this situation. People do not believe the processes we have in place at the moment are adequate. I will therefore begin work immediately to deliver on my campaign pledge to establish an independent complaints process.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer unveils his new-look shadow cabinet

I will also be requesting that a report on all outstanding cases of anti-Semitism within the party is on my desk by the end of this week and that there is a timetable for their resolution. Clear cases of anti-Semitism must be dealt with robustly and swiftly if peoples faith is to be restored.

And once the coronavirus pandemic is over, I will be closing the Labour Partys offices for a day and inviting representatives of the Jewish community to come in and facilitate a days training for all members of staff on anti-Semitism. We have to be honest that this a cultural problem and that only by listening and learning can we change that.

The principle of what I want to achieve is clear: if you are anti-Semitic, you cannot and should not be in the Labour Party. No ifs, no buts.

I will leave no stone left unturned in the fight against anti-Semitism. That is my promise to the Jewish community. My test for success will be the return of Jewish members and those who felt that they could no longer support us because of anti-Semitism.
The mounting number of New York's coronavirus deaths has stayed "effectively flat" over the past two days, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday, offering a glimmer of hope that the state may be at a peak even as the country braces for what the Trump administration is calling the "toughest week" yet in the fight against the pandemic.

While the state has recorded 4,758 total deaths, with an additional 599 from the day before, it's only a slight uptick from the 594 added two days ago, Cuomo said, and shows a "possible flattening of the curve" that is "better than the increases we have seen."

He added that total hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions and intubations are down, crediting how people are largely adhering to social distancing guidelines in place over the past three weeks and are following a new way of life, which has upended the nation's workforce. But he advised that "now is not the time to be lax," and that even if New York does not see a continual spike in cases and is potentially at its apex, it could be stuck at this plateau for a painfully long time.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

"If we're plateauing, we're plateauing at a very high level," the governor told reporters during his daily briefing from the state capital of Albany. "We are at a red line. People can't work any harder. The staff can't work any harder. Staying at this level is problematic."

Cuomo said he is extending his executive order that has kept schools closed and nonessential workers at home through April 29.

New York remains at the center of the coronavirus outbreak with more than one-third of all cases in the United States and about half of the deaths, which has put a tremendous strain on the state's health care system. Medical workers have complained about the lack of personal protective equipment and the need for more resources, including staffing, as the crisis deepens.

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Two field hospitals in Manhattan  one in Central Park and the other at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center  have been operating in full swing to relieve overburdened hospitals.

Adm. Brett P. Giroir, the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, warned Monday on "TODAY" that in addition to New York, other virus hot spots, including New Jersey and Detroit, are set to reach a peak number of hospitalizations and deaths this week.

Other places that have seen a swift spread of the coronavirus, including New Orleans, aren't projected to see their highest point of cases until later.

"No one is immune from this virus. It is a brand new virus," Dr. Giroir said. "Whether you live in small-town America or you live in the Big Apple, everyone is susceptible to this and everyone needs to follow the precautions we've laid," he said referring to continued social distancing.

Over the weekend, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, asked all Americans to limit even essential trips to grocery stores and pharmacies in an effort to curb the virus' spread and save lives. She declined to say how many people could die in the worst-hit places.

Surgeon General Jerome Adams also told "Meet the Press" on Sunday that this week will be a Pearl Harbor and 9/11-like moment in the face of an exponential growth in deaths from COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

News

That sentiment was echoed in a memo Sunday to the staff at Columbia University's Department of Surgery, in which chief surgeon Dr. Craig Smith gave a blunt assessment about what they will be seeing in the coming days.

The fight against the virus, he wrote, is "our Gettysburg, our Somme, our Iwo Jima, our Khe Sanh, our Fallujah."

"I do know that right now we are waist-deep in execution, in the fog of war," Smith added.

Dr. Bret Rudy, the senior vice president at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, said he anticipates this week will be bustling for the hospital, which already has one of the busiest emergency departments in the borough.

"We continue to see patients that require care in the intensive care units as we see those numbers change," Rudy said Monday on MSNBC. "We already have plans in place for how we will care for increasing numbers should that need arise during the next week."

But what remains unknown is whether New York can effectively marshal its resources and medical supplies as it grapples with additional cases during this peak week. Cuomo, who said Monday that "everybody is overcapacity," expressed confidence that New York will be prepared.

Cuomo tweeted Monday evening that President Donald Trump has agreed to allow the 1,000-bed USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship temporarily docked in New York City, to begin accepting coronavirus patients.

#BREAKING: I spoke to the president and he has agreed to our request to treat #COVID patients on the USNS Comfort.



This means 1,000 additional beds staffed by federal personnel.



This will provide much-needed relief to our over stressed hospital systems.  Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 6, 2020

The ship was initially brought in to admit non-COVID-19 cases in the city to help overwhelmed hospitals, but Cuomo said the shift is needed because there are fewer non-coronavirus trauma incidents occurring during the pandemic.

On Monday morning, the Javits Center reported caring for 36 patients, including some who don't have the coronavirus. It has the capacity for 2,500 beds.

At the field hospital in Central Park, which was constructed in 48 hours and resembles a tent city, about 40 coronavirus patients were being treated Monday, including three in intensive care, Dr. Elliott Tenpenny said on MSNBC. The facility allows for nearly 70 beds and can take 10 patients who require ventilators. The youngest patient is 20 years old.

Patients "could be here weeks," said Tenpenny, of Samaritan's Purse, the evangelical Christian organization that setup the field hospital. "Even two to three weeks for the sicker patients."

During a news conference Monday at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio applauded local companies that have transformed their businesses to sew reusable hospital gowns and masks.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

He said 9,200 gowns would be created by the day's end, with some 320,000 manufactured by the end of April. Last week, hospitals across the city used a total of 1.8 million surgical gowns, and another 2.5 million are expected to be needed this week.

"We will leave no stone unturned," de Blasio said in the securing of more personal protective equipment for hospital workers. "We will be as creative as we need to be."

But New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said resources remain desperately needed, and that America's largest city requires about 1,000 to 1,500 ventilators to meet the capacity for the next week and that the 600,000 N95 masks it received from the federal government is "a fraction of what we need."

Still, Cuomo on Monday said that no one in New York has died because of a ventilator or staffing shortage at a hospital.

U.S. Army Major Sean Shirley holds a meeting with staff in the Javits New York Medical Station intensive care unit (Barry Riley / US Navy via Reuters)

With the coronavirus showing no sign of abating in the long term, another concern remains  how New York City can keep pace with the number of burials.

Mark Levine, the chair of the New York City Council's health committee, initially tweeted Monday that a city park will be needed to cover the surge because cemeteries cannot handle the volume of bodies. New York officials, he added, wanted to "avoid scenes like those in Italy, where the military was forced to collect bodies from churches and even off the streets."

But the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner responded that it is not considering temporary burials in New York City parks, and Levine walked back his comments, tweeting that "if the death rate drops enough, it will not be necessary."

De Blasio also told reporters that "if we need to do temporary burials, we have the ability to do that," but the city is "not at the point where we're going to go into that."
PHILADELPHIA, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Joseph W. St. Geme, MD, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Physician-in-Chief at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), has been named the 2020 recipient of the Joseph W. St. Geme, Jr. Leadership Award, an honor that is bestowed by the Federation of Pediatric Organizations (FOPO) and is named after his father, a renowned and celebrated pediatrician. Dr. St. Geme will receive the award during the 2021 Opening General Session of the Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting in Vancouver, BC.

FOPO established this award in 1988, shortly after the premature death of Dr. St. Geme's father, with the intent to recognize a pediatrician who is a role model as a clinician, educator, and/or investigator. Recipients must have a record of broad and sustained contributions to pediatrics that will have a major impact on child health and must have "created a future" within the field of pediatrics. "I am deeply honored to receive this award," said Dr. St. Geme. "My dad inspired me to pursue a career in pediatrics. He died when I was a senior resident, but he has remained a role model for me and has had a profound influence on my career."

Dr. St. Geme has an impressive record of sustained contributions that have advanced child health and the profession of pediatrics. He has held leadership roles with numerous professional organizations, including the American Board of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Pediatric Society, the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs, the Society for Pediatric Research, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, the World Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Dr. St. Geme is a consummate educator and mentor. He has received teaching and mentoring awards from students, residents, and graduate students and has supported the career development of countless trainees and faculty. He has served as principal investigator on numerous NIH training grants for fellows and NIH institutional career development awards for early-stage faculty. In addition, he helped to establish the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital-Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society Research Conference, which includes a major emphasis on the career development of physician-scientists in pediatric infectious diseases. He is also Co-Chief Editor of Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics, the highly regarded textbook that serves as a reference for pediatricians worldwide.

Beyond his role as a mentor and educator, Dr. St. Geme is an award-winning, internationally-renowned scientist who studies the molecular and cellular determinants of bacterial pathogenicity, with a focus on Haemophilus influenzae and Kingella kingae, two model mucosal pathogens that are common causes of pediatric disease. His research group has made fundamental discoveries that have advanced the understanding of bacterial adherence, protein secretion pathways, polysaccharide synthesis pathways, virulence regulation, and evasion of innate immunity, with an impact on the development of molecular diagnostics, new vaccines, and novel antimicrobials.

"Dr. St. Geme is an impressive physician-scientist and educator and a remarkable colleague at CHOP, where he has shown tremendous leadership and achievement," said Madeline Bell, President and CEO of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "We congratulate him on this well-deserved award."

FOPO comprises seven national pediatric associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Board of Pediatrics, the American Pediatric Society, the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs, the Association of Pediatric Program Directors, and the Society for Pediatric Research.

About Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals, and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 564-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu

Contact: Dana Bate

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

(267) 426-6055

[email protected]

SOURCE Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Related Links

http://www.chop.edu


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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse)  Tue, April 7, 2020 16:05 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd04c827 2 Books Marvel-comics,comic-book,COVID-19,coronavirus,marvel Free

Marvel has recently announced that it will be giving away a month of free access to some of its most popular comic books through its Marvel Unlimited subscription service.

The company is offering access to a curated list of 12 titles featuring the Avengers, Spider-Man, Black Widow and Captain America on Marvel Unlimited until Monday, May 4.

Among them are "Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates Vol. 1," "Captain America: Winter Soldier Ultimate," "X-Men Milestones: Dark Phoenix Saga" as well as "Black Widow Vol. 1: S.H.I.E.L.D.'S Most Wanted," which will surely help you wait for the November release of the new "Black Widow" film.

Comics lovers can access these free titles by downloading the Marvel Unlimited app via the Apple or Google Play app stores and select the "free comics" option on the landing page.

No payment information or trial subscriptions will be required for the selection of free comics, which will be updated monthly.

Read also: National Emergency Library releases over 1.4 million digital books for free

Meanwhile, Sotheby's recently announced the private sale "DC Complete: The Ian Levine Collection," offering comics lovers the opportunity to acquire every title released by American publisher DC Comics between 1934 and 2014.

The collection features more than 40,000 titles amassed over the decades by British DJ Ian Levine, with Richard Austin, Head of Sotheby's Books & Manuscripts Department in New York, describing it as "the holy grail for comics collectors."

The Ian Levine collection notably includes first appearances of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, the Flash, the Justice League of America, Lex Luthor, the Joker, Two Face and more.

While the asking price of the Ian Levine collection has not been revealed, the auction record for a comic was achieved in 2014 when Action Comics #1 fetched $3.2 million on eBay.

Widely credited for marking the beginning of the Golden Age of comics, Action Comics No 1 is valued as the most expensive comic book in the world.

Copies of the comic book series have broken several sales records in the past, going under the hammer for $86,000 in 1992, $150,000 in 1997 and $1.5 million in 2010.
Penneys has topped the list of most valuable brands in Ireland

Penneys has climbed two spots to top the list of most valuable brands in Ireland this year.

The fashion retailer, with a brand value of 2.4bn, has overtaken AIB in second position and long-standing leader, Guinness, according to a report from consultancy group Brand Finance.

Drinks brands dominated the top ten, with Baileys jumping 12 places to seventh, while Jameson came in ninth, having dropped one place.

Also in the top ten most valuable brands in Ireland were Ryanair, Smurfit Kappa, Bank of Ireland, DCC, and Ardagh Group.

Simon Haigh, managing director of Brand Finance Ireland, said: Congratulations to Penneys for taking the top spot in the Brand Finance Ireland 25 2020 ranking and being named Irelands most valuable brand.

Only time will tell whether the retailer can hold on to this position in the long-term, however, following unprecedented times.

Elsewhere, while neither Kerry Group or Glanbia featured in the top ten, Kerry along with two of its brands (Denny and Richmond) and three Glanbia businesses (ThinkThin, Optimum Nutrition, and BSN) made it into the top 25 list of most valuable brands.

Brand Finance calculates the values of brands using the Royalty Relief approach. This involves estimating the likely future revenues that are attributable to a brand by calculating a royalty rate that would be charged for its use to arrive at a brand value.

Meanwhile, the report warned that Irish companies could potentially lose up to 14pc of their brand value following the outbreak of the coronavirus.

The brand value of the worlds 500 biggest companies is set to potentially lose up to an estimated 1tn as a result of the global pandemic, with the aviation sector being the most affected, according to the Brand Finance Global 500 for 2020.

The report assessed the impact of Covid-19 based on the effect of the outbreak on enterprise value, compared to what it was on 1 January this year.

The spread of the coronavirus has forced almost all retailers to shut their doors across Ireland, while pubs and restaurants are also closed.

The aviation sector has also taken a massive hit from the virus, with flights across the world cancelled.
The Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard police blotter of arrests from police agencies around Central New York has been updated today.

Most of the new arrests are from the last couple weeks. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many police agencies that normally provide arrests are not able to do so. Therefore the numbers of weekly arrests are significantly lower than usual.
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Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung  Tue, April 7, 2020 08:53 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd028310 1 National COVID-19-in-Indonesia,Bandung-West-Java,street-vendors,slow-business Free

Gagan, a cake seller in Bandung, West Java, said he had barely made any money in the past weeks since authorities had imposed a physical distancing policy that required people to limit outdoor activities to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The 29-year-old usually peddled his baked goods on Jl. Gardujati to earn around Rp 300,000 (US$18) per day before the pandemic reached Indonesian shores. Now, he was making almost no money.

Another street vendor, Enung, who made a living by selling nasi kuning (yellow rice with side dishes) near several schools on Jl. Dokter Radjiman, also had a similar experience. The stay-at-home policy, which included students, caused her losses of up to Rp 200,000 in daily income.

The Bandung Street Vendors Association (APPKL) said that between 900 and 1,500 members had lost their incomes during the health crisis.

"They had stopped selling goods for almost three weeks," said APPKL Bandung head Iwan Suhermawan on Sunday.

The majority of affected vendors were those who sold food and clothing. Other vendors who sold basic commodities such as rice, fruit and vegetables were still surviving.

An online survey that the Bandung Legal Aid (LBH Bandung) conducted from March 26 to April 1 showed that unskilled laborers like street vendors and small businesses were among the most vulnerable to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.

"At least 526 out of the total 1,253 respondents reported a loss of income from their businesses," said Harold Aron of LBH Bandung's survey team. He added that the majority of respondents also hoped to receive government assistance, including loan relief.

Social movement Generasi Baru Dapur Indonesia (new Indonesian kitchen generation), together with APPKL Bandung, has launched the Bantu Pedagang Kecil (help small traders) crowdfunding program to distribute food aid to street vendors.

Generasi Baru Dapur Indonesia chairwoman Christine Effendy said that the program had so far distributed 600 packages, with each package containing rice, sugar, cooking oil, chicken, vegetables and milk.

"The next batch of aid will be distributed on April 7," Christine said, and that the beneficiaries had been divided into clusters to ease distribution and minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection. (vny)
When its finally safe to release ourselves from social distancing and entertain with friends again, Tony and Martel Hale would like to have you over. In fact, the Emmy winners (she for makeup, and he for Veep) designed their three-bedroom Los Angeles home, where they live with their daughter, Loy, to be just the type of welcoming respite where their loved ones can walk in, kick off their shoes, watch an episode of RuPauls Drag Race, and maybe even stay the night. (Theres a guest house with a Murphy bed for that.)

And should you be the lucky recipient of a dinner party invitation at the Hales, the Southern pair (shes from Anniston, Alabama; he grew up in Tallahassee, Florida) probably serve up cheese straws and a one-pan rosemary-lemon chicken, a Southern Living recipe thats their go-to. We love to have people visit, Tony says. When someone walks into the house, we want them to feel joy. Theres a cozy, sit-by-the-fire, have-a-glass-of-wine vibe to the house. Who among us couldnt use a little of that right now?

When the couple moved into the Studio City ranch house five years ago, they called upon friend and Martin & Brockett interior designer Jason Martin, who had worked on their first house in Griffith Park, to give it a homey feel. I wanted it pretty, and I wanted it Southern; a bit modern, and a bit traditional, says Martel in her Alabama drawl. And a relaxed feel was key: I remember saying I dont want to sacrifice comfort for something just being cool or looking good, Tony says.

So Martin filled the space and its guest house with tufted furniture, cozy monochromatic shades, and the kind of showers youd want to spend all day in. The couples master bedroom is a prime example of their comfort-based philosophy: You could literally roll from the bed onto a tufted sofa, then right onto cozy overstuffed ottomans, never once encountering a hard surface.

Story continues

Tony Hales L.A. Home Is a Cozy, Sit-by-the-Fire Refuge

Photo: Liesa Cole

The couples homey atmosphere is also thanks to plenty of personal touches, like the Saturday Night Live costume sketches lining a wall in the kitchenMartel salvaged them from the trash when she was on the makeup team there in the late 90s to early 00s. Their kitchen table was a wedding present from Martels mother. In the living room, the couple hung photographs by a production coordinator from Arrested Development. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tonys Veep costar, told them about the artist whose work they now display in their powder room. But most importantly, the pair and their daughter use every room of the house. Theres a puzzle on our dining room table as we speak, Martel says.

See the video.

As Martin can attest (he and his husband have been hanging out with the Hales on an almost-weekly basis for the last 16 years) their unpretentious love of home and hosting isnt just a line. Even during my interview with the duo and in subsequent emails, Tony and Martel invited me to come over the next time Im in L.A., a request Im holding them to when this is all over. Thats whats so exciting about having a home with a design aspect to it, Tony says. Its a real gift to anybody who comes into the house. Its a service to them. I just want you to have just a real, restful time here.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday night split along ideological and partisan lines to stop a plan for extended absentee voting in Tuesday's Wisconsin primary, turning aside pleas from Democrats that thousands of the state's voters will be disenfranchised because of disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The ruling was 5-4, with the court's conservatives in the majority.

The decision followed a familiar pattern on the court. But it was striking that in a case with partisan implications in the midst of a national crisis, the court could not find a way to overcome its usual differences.

In its brief order, the court majority said a plan ordered by a district judge and approved by an appeals court to extend absentee voting for a week was "extraordinary relief and would fundamentally alter the nature of the election."

A "critical" point, it said, was that the relief was more than had been asked for by Democrats and liberal groups.

The unsigned opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch said Brett Kavanaugh granted a request from the Republican Party to put the plan on hold.

The lower court's decision "contravened this court's precedents" and violated the Supreme Court's repeated instruction that "lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election."

All of the court's conservatives were nominated by Republican presidents.

The court's liberals -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, all nominated by Democratic presidents -- objected sharply.

"This court now intervenes at the 11th hour to prevent voters who have timely requested absentee ballots from casting their votes," Ginsburg wrote.

She said it "boggles the mind" that the court majority was trying to apply the court's usual rules in an unprecedented time of national turmoil.

"While I do not doubt the good faith of my colleagues, the court's order, I fear, will result in massive disenfranchisement," Ginsburg wrote. She noted delays in a crush of applications for absentee ballots.

"A voter cannot deliver for postmarking a ballot she has not received."

Ginsburg said the majority had misplaced its priorities.

"The concerns advanced by the court and the applicants pale in comparison to the risk that tens of thousands of voters will be disenfranchised," she wrote. "Ensuring an opportunity for the people of Wisconsin to exercise their votes should be our paramount concern."

Lower courts had said voters should have another week -- until April 13 -- to return absentee ballots, because the state was unable to accommodate in-person voting.

The Supreme Court had not been asked to review the other legal wrangling in the state, as the governor moved to postpone the election, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled he lacked authority.

Instead, the justices were considering legal victories Democrats and liberal groups won last week in federal court.

U.S. District Judge William Conley declined to postpone in-person voting, but extended absentee voting until April 13, and a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit on Friday upheld much of Conley's ruling.

On Saturday, Wisconsin Republicans and the Republican National Committee brought the issue to the Supreme Court.

Lawyers for the Republicans said the appeals court's decision "creates a fundamental unfairness that undermines the integrity of the election" and would encourage gamesmanship.

"Absentee voting should not be a procedure that gives some voters dramatically different incentives and information than others, permits advocacy groups to strategically chase down ballots that were not cast on election day, and otherwise disrupts Wisconsin statutes that aim to separate cleanly the time for ballot casting and ballot counting," lawyers said in their brief.

But lawyers for Democrats said that not recognizing the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the election would be irresponsible.

The plans devised by the lower courts are "reasonable remedies for the extreme, unprecedented circumstances that tens of thousands of Wisconsin voters are likely to face: either they venture out to vote in person and risk their health and the health of others, or they forfeit the right to vote through no fault of their own," their brief said.

They said judges have the power to demand that local officials not announce any results from the election until April 13, which would contain Republican concerns about gamesmanship.
SANDPOINT, Idaho  Inside an old factory building north of Boise, a few dozen people gathered last week to hear from Ammon Bundy, the man who once led an armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge.

The meeting, which appeared to violate orders by Gov. Brad Little of Idaho to avoid group gatherings, was an assertion of what Mr. Bundy said was a constitutional right to peacefully assemble. But Mr. Bundy said he also hoped to create a network of people ready to come to the aid of those facing closure of their businesses or other interference from the government as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

If it gets bad enough, and our rights are infringed upon enough, we can physically stand in defense in whatever way we need to, Mr. Bundy told the meeting. But we hope we dont have to get there.
 Close Donald Trump threatens to adjourn both chambers of congress

Donald Trump has said the US will investigate a conspiracy theory surrounding the coronavirus suggesting it originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and was originally intended as a weapon for use in biological warfare, with secretary of state Mike Pompeo urging Beijing to come clean on the matter.

While the president was triggering a new constitutional crisis by threatening to adjourn Congress on Wednesday over a minor political grievance, his supporters were staging protests across the country against ongoing stay-at-home orders, with armed demonstrators chanting Lock her up! outside the offices of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer.

After teasing out the release of a set of "guidelines" for state and local government to begin reopening during the pandemic, the president unveiled his MAGA-referencing "Opening Up America Again" plan, which he said could allow some states to begin reopening "literally tomorrow" despite criticisms that the plan doesn't offer any worker protections or consistent enforcement to prevent a spike in outbreaks.

He said his guidelines offer a "phased, deliberate approach" for states to re-open businesses, after the president has grown impatient with a stalled economy in the wake of the pandemic.

Mr Trump said "a national shutdown is not a sustainable long-term solution."

The president told governors on Thursday that "you're going to be calling the shots" despite telling Americans just days earlier that he has "total authority" to end quarantine and other mitigation efforts.

Ronald Klain, who led the Ebola response under former president Barack Obama, said that the "plan" is "barely a PowerPoint."

Meanwhile, the president's approval rating dropped six percentage points within the first weeks of April, marking the largest point drop in his presidency, according to Gallup.

His current 43 per cent rating, however, still hovers above his 40 per cent average.

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US bullying shows more during coronavirus outbreak: Gov't spokesman

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 6, IRNA -- The spokesman of the Government of Iran said on Monday in his second video press conference that the bullying behavior of the United Stated was more clearly manifested during the time of the coronavirus outbreak.

Regarding the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), Ali Rabiei said that there has been some, though not enough, progress with the INSTEX. Europe should do more than what it has started with the INSTEX.

Rabiei said that there have been some results in liberating a part of the Iranian assets to buy the necessary medicine and to help people's livelihood.

Touching on the issue of the loan Iran has requested from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he said that the IMF has not yet officially rejected Iran's request.

Regarding the restrictions during coronavirus outbreak, he said there is no special issue in treatment; "we had the appropriate infrastructures".

Thanking the medical staff of the country on behalf of the government, he expressed condolences to those who have lost someone in the coronavirus outbreak.

He added the most important thing in fighting the epidemic is individual hygiene. Ministry of Health has made many protocols.

Head of Iran's Health Ministry's Public Relations Office Kianoush Jahanpour said on Monday that 24,236 people out of a total of 60,500 infected with the coronavirus have survived while 3,739 have unfortunately succumbed to death.

Jahanpour said that 2,274 new affected cases have been detected and 136 people died due to the deadly virus since yesterday.

The Iranian official noted that 4,083 cases are in critical condition.

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Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen (R) speaks to the media beside Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Council of Ministers Bin Chhin, wearing a face mask as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, during a press conference at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, April 7, 2020.

Cambodias National Assembly will proceed with a review of draft legislation authorizing a state of emergency to contain the spread of the coronavirus, despite concerns that the bill has not been adequately vetted and Prime Minister Hun Sen saying Tuesday that there is no need to invoke it any time soon.

Leng Peng Long, spokesman for the one-party National Assembly, told RFAs Khmer Service that the parliaments permanent committee has received the draft Law on Governing the Country in a State of Emergency for assessment and will submit it to lawmakers for a vote by Friday latest.

He confirmed that the draft law is nearly identical to one that was leaked last week, prompting New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) to warn that it contained vague clauses that would provide Hun Sen with a means to run the country by fiat if enacted.

Leng Peng Longs comments came on the same day that Hun Sen said the outbreak in Cambodia does not currently warrant invoking a state of emergency and that he is reluctant to do so because it would kill the countrys economy.

Nonetheless, Hun Sen said, such a law is needed if the situation becomes dire in Cambodia, where authorities have so far confirmed only 115 cases of COVID-19the disease caused by the coronavirusand no deaths.

Critics have said that it is not the time to place the country under a state of emergency, he said.

I am aware of that, but we need a tool on hand so that if we are losing control of the situation, we can enact a state of emergency.

Hun Sen, who only weeks ago dismissed concerns over the pandemic, waved off suggestions that he is using the crisis to give himself even greater control of Cambodia through the proposed legislation.

Please leave the work to usthe person who has the most power is the prime minister, he said.

But San Chey, director of the Cambodia-based Affiliated Network for Social Accountability, cautioned the government to refrain from pushing through a law that requires further review.

It isnt necessary to place Cambodia under a state of emergency at this moment because COVID-19 hasnt seriously impacted the country yet, he said. The draft law should be delayed because more discussion is needed.

Eng Chhai Eang, deputy president of the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), told RFA from self-imposed exile that Hun Sen is likely to use a state of emergency to persecute anyone who poses a threat to his power, without the fear of international condemnation.

His intention is pass power to his family members, he said, adding that although Hun Sen succeeded in November 2017 in dissolving the CNRP through a Supreme Court ban over the oppositions alleged involvement in a plot to topple the government, not even members of the [ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP)] want a family dynasty.

Hun Sen will use the [state of emergency] if someone opposes him, Eng Chhai Eang said.

Worker wages

Also on Tuesday, Hun Sun announced that the government will be unable to pay workers laid off by garment factories hit with supply chain disruptions for raw materials from China, where the coronavirus was first discovered in December in Hubei provinces Wuhan city, as originally promised.

In February, the prime minister pledged that workers would be paid 60 percent of the current minimum monthly wage, equivalent to around U.S. $115, for up to six months in the event that production was suspended, and provided that the workers attend vocational training.

Because of the situation [with COVID-19], each worker will get only U.S. $70, he said, adding that they will not be required to go to training to qualify for the money.

Hun Sens comments came as the Ministry of Labor announced that the government will be suspending the April 13-16 Khmer New Year celebrations, and that workers will not be given holiday until an appropriate time, when the crisis comes under control.

While the coronavirus outbreak in China has thrown production for Cambodias garment industry into disarray, observers have suggested that even tougher losses are in store for factories and workers when combined with an expected drop in orders from buyers in the European Union, in anticipation of a return to tariffs on some Cambodian imports.

The EU in mid-February announced plans to suspend tariff-free access to its market under the Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme for around one-fifth of Cambodias exports, citing rollbacks on human rightsa decision that would reinstate taxes on garments and footwear beginning Aug. 12, unless it is overturned by the blocs governments or its parliament.

The suspension, which Hun Sen has shrugged off and called an attack on Cambodias sovereignty, will result in a loss of around U.S. $1.1 billion of the countrys annual U.S. $5.8 billion in exports to the bloc, some 75 percent of which are made up of clothing and textiles.

On Tuesday, Hun Sen mocked the EU, saying that Cambodia had budgeted to stave off the impact of a crisis on its workersmore than 600,000 of whom are employed in the garment industry.

But Ath Thon, president of the Cambodian Labour Confederation, warned that the significant reduction in wages for furloughed workers will leave them in financial ruin and called on the government to put in place additional measures to protect them.

Before [the outbreak], they were making more than U.S. $200 and they still faced difficulties, so what can we expect will happen now? he asked.

Ath Thon said he will request that the government reconsider decreasing payments to workers and order banks to defer payments on their loans during the crisis.

A worker who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity said the governments payments will only help workers for a limited period of time, noting that she needs money to pay for rent and food in the city where her factory is based, as well as to send home to family members.

According to the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), more than 90 factories have suspended operations and at least 1,500 workers have lost their jobs since the beginning of the outbreak.

No release for prisoners

Meanwhile, the General Department of Prisons spokesman Nuth Saona said Tuesday that there are no plans to release political prisoners or prisoners serving sentences for minor crimes, despite a warning from HRW over the weekend that the government take urgent measures to reduce the risk that the countrys severely overcrowded jails will suffer coronavirus outbreaks.

Government measures are already in place inside Cambodias prisons to mitigate the spread of the virus, he told RFA, adding that his department is working with the Ministry of Health to combat the outbreak.

Cambodia on March 25 suspended visiting rights for anyone except people who obtain medical certificates and undergo temperature checks upon entering prisons, and instructed prison chiefs to quarantine all new detainees for two weeks but has provided little detail about the measures.

But sources told RFA that authorities have yet to implement the measures nationwide in jails where prisoners have limited access to soap and water, as well as hand sanitizer, and are held in cramped conditions with others.

According to official statistics, as of March 2020, Cambodia had nearly 39,000 inmates nationwide, among whom more than 20,000 inmates are serving jail terms for drugs-related offenses. Inmates with court rulings or final judgments number around 10,000, while the rest are held under pre-trial detention.

On Sunday, HRW urged authorities to immediately release people who should not be in custody, including pretrial detainees held for minor offenses, and political prisoners. The group also recommended alternatives to detention for prisoners with underlying health conditions, older prisoners, and women who are pregnant or held with small children.

It said that to reduce the risk of transmission in prisons, the government should routinely monitor all patients for symptoms, immediately test those who become ill, isolate those who test positive, and quarantine prisoners who were in close contact with those found to have COVID-19.

Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Iranian Health Officials Call CCP Virus Tolls a Bitter Joke

China's official virus figures are 'not trustworthy,' Iranian health official says

Iranian health officials have called into question Chinas reporting of its CCP virus toll, saying the true figures are likely higher.

After the virus spread, it became evident it wasnt as China reported, said Minoo Mohraz, a health ministry official and member of Irans COVID-19 taskforce, AFP reported.

Theyre currently retracting many of their articles and their figures and studies have not been very correct, she said, adding that with what we know of their scientific studiestheir figures are not trustworthy.

Another task force official, Hamid Souri, an epidemiologist, said Chinas figures were far from the truth, basing his remarks on Irans assessment of the spread of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, and the high fatalities it has caused around the world.

Bitter Joke

It comes days after Irans health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour came under fire for pointedly calling into question Chinas virus figures.

Jahanpour, who is also a medical doctor, made the remarks at a press conference and by tweet on Sunday, The Guardian reported.

He said China made it seem as if the CCP virus was like the flu but less deadly.

Calling the virus data presented by China a bitter joke, he said it led governments to downplay its threat, The New Arab reported.

If in China they say an epidemic was controlled in two months, one should really think about it, Jahanpur wrote.

Based on the epidemiological information and reports provided by Chinese researchers, 11 academic centers in the world [initially] considered the novel coronavirus to be less dangerous than at least type-A influenza. Todays findings prove it wrong. And we trust our own findings more, he wrote, The New Arab reported.

He was attacked on Twitter by the Chinese ambassador to Tehran, Chang Hua, who called on him to respect realities and the great efforts of the people of China.

I suggest that you read their news very carefully in order to draw conclusions, Hua said, The Guardian reported.

Following the Chinese officials reproach, Jahanpour struck a diplomatic note, saying he was only saying that Iran does not agree with Chinas epidemiological assessment of the virus.

Relations are typically warm between Iran and China, a top trading partner, particularly in oil exports.

But critics say Teherans reporting on the virus is also misleading.

According to Worldometer, which uses official Iranian sources, the virus has killed more than 3,800 and infected over 62,500, with some 27,000 recovered.

According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), parliament members and local officials in some of Irans virus hotspots said the death and infection tolls announced by the central regime are grossly understated.

Public-health expert Kamiar Alaei, co-founder and co-president of the New York-based Institute for International Health and Education, said mid-March that the real number of COVID-19 infections in Iran could be five times higher than official numbers reported at the time, RFE/RL reports.

Other experts say that not only are the real figures likely higher, but the Iranian regimes lack of transparency and mismanagement of the outbreak fanned the pandemic.

Faisal Al-Rfouh, a professor of political science and international studies at the University of Jordan, called it an act of betrayal.

I believe the Iranian government betrayed their people so they didnt announce the extent of the coronavirus and they didnt take the needed measurements to limit or minimize the extent of it in the Middle East, Al-Rfouh told The Epoch Times in a statement.

Figures from the U.S. Institute of Peace indicate Iran has spread the pathogen to 23 countries, with cases as far away as North America, Europe, and New Zealand.

Even China, the initial center of the pandemic, reported 11 cases of the infection from Iran on March 5.

Venus Upadhayaya contributed to this report.
Providing Leading Private Fund Admin Services and Driving Growth

CINCINNATI, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ultimus Fund Solutions (Ultimus), a leading independent provider of fund administration, accounting, and investor solutions to traditional and alternative fund managers, is pleased to announce the addition of Edward (Ned) Siegel as Senior Vice President of Business Development within Ultimus LeverPoint . This hire reinforces the focus on Ultimus alternative fund administration services, complementing its acquisition of LeverPoint Management last year which expanded the companys footprint in that space.

In his role at Ultimus LeverPoint, Siegel will be part of a team responsible for driving new business growth of the firms private fund administration services . He joins Ultimus with extensive institutional experience and professional accomplishments, previously working at two large private fund administrators with a focus on private equity, credit/debt, hybrid, hedge and real estate administration services.

Were excited to have Ned join our team, helping us continue to build our brand and presence in the private fund space as one of the leading, independent administrators, said Gary Harris , EVP Head of Sales for Ultimus. Neds extensive experience and relationships will further help us to execute on our market strategy for this important segment of our business, and win new and larger mandates.

David MacPhee , Chief Executive Officer of Ultimus LeverPoint, had this to say about Ultimus and Siegel, Since joining forces with Ultimus, weve been able to scale our business with further investments in technology, service capabilities and resources. The addition of Ned to the team will help propel our growth and were glad to have someone with his tremendous product knowledge and industry connections on board. He also stated, With Ultimus support and Neds capabilities, well continue to provide the differentiated high-quality service that were known for while we grow the business.

Story continues

Prior to joining Ultimus, Siegels most recent role with The Bank of New York Mellon was Director of Business Development within the alternative investment services group. Before BNYM, Siegel acted in several capacities at State Street Corporation in Boston, including serving as the Head of North American Sales for the alternative investment solutions segment, focused in private equity and real estate administration services. Siegal earned his bachelors degree from McGill University and an MBA from Boston University. He will be working out of the Ultimus LeverPoint Boston office.

About Ultimus LeverPoint

Ultimus LeverPoint Private Fund Solutions is a leading fund administrator committed to providing a complete spectrum of solutions to private equity, venture capital and hedge fund clients. We provide accounting and fund administration solutions to over 230 firms with approximately $90B in assets. Our asset management clients represent a diverse range of alternative fund types and structures ranging in size from first time firms with $50M AUM to established firms with $19B AUM.

Whether outsourcing a new fund, or transitioning existing funds, Ultimus LeverPoint serves as a seamless extension of your firm  a partner in growth. From traditional to complex structures, our team of over 250 associates provide operational excellence, in order to meet every need and dedicated to helping investment managers keep pace with the constantly changing regulatory and market demands, while providing quick solutions to new challenges. For more information, visit ultimusleverpoint.com .

About Ultimus

Ultimus Fund Solutions is a leading provider of full-service fund administration, accounting, and investor solutions to support the launching and servicing of registered funds, private funds, and public plans. The company also offers customized structures designed for the unique needs of pensions, endowments, foundations, and other large institutions. Ultimus deep commitment to excellence is achieved through investments in best-in-class technology, compliance programs, organization-wide cyber security efforts, and hiring seasoned professionals.

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio with offices in other major cities such as Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York, Ultimus employs more than 750 seasoned accountants, attorneys, paralegals, application developers, fund administrators, compliance specialists, and many others with years of experience in the financial services industry. Servicing over 1,200 total traditional and private funds, Ultimus helps investment managers and fund families flourish in todays increasingly sophisticated and dynamic investment landscape. For more information, visit www.ultimusfundsolutions.com .





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CONTACT: Marketing@ultimusfundsolutions.com
India will supply paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine in "appropriate quantities" to all neighbouring countries and nations who badly need the medicines in wake of coronavirus crisis. The Ministry of External Affairs' announcement on Tuesday came after United States President Donald Trump threatened "retaliation" if India refused to supply these essential medicines.

Saying the matter should not be politicised, the MEA has said the reason behind curbing its supply was to first ensure India had adequate supply. "We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic. We would therefore discourage any speculation in this regard or any attempts to politicise the matter," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said. He added India had always maintained the international community must display strong solidarity and cooperation in view of the pandemic.

Explaining the rationale behind banning these drugs in the first place, Srivastava said like any responsible government, India's first obligation was to ensure there were adequate stocks of medicines for the requirement of its own people.

Also read: Coronavirus: Trump calls Modi for hydroxychloroquine, but Indian makers at China's mercy

Hydroxychloroquine tablet is used to prevent and treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, among other ailments, while paracetamol is used to treat pain and fever.

Countries like the United States have been seeking India's help to allow the sale of hydroxychloroquine tablets to treat the growing number of coronavirus patients. During a White House briefing on Monday, Trump said he would be surprised if India refused to supply these medicines. Threatening India of retaliation, Trump said he spoke to PM Modi on Sunday morning. "If he (Modi) doesn't allow it to come out, that would be okay, but of course there may be retaliation. Why wouldn't there be?" he added.

India, the world's main supplier of generic drugs, had restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines, including paracetamol, a common pain reliever also sold as acetaminophen, in March.

Under pressure from the US and various other countries, India withdrew ban imposed on export of 12 bulk drugs -- raw materials for finished drugs -- and essential medicines like antibiotics and vitamins, on April 6.

Also read: Coronavirus Live Updates: 354 COVID-19 positive cases in last 24 hours; India's active count at 3,981
Up to one in five children who catch coronavirus need hospital care and the deadly infection is more common in boys, official US figures show.

Fifty-five per cent of the 2,500 coronavirus cases in under-18s were boys, a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found. Forty-two per cent were girls, while the gender was unknown for another three per cent.

Compared with adults, children are less likely to suffer the tell-tale symptoms and may not show any signs of the virus at all. And they are far less likely to be admitted to intensive care (two per cent) or die (0.1 per cent), according to the analysis.

A separate CDC report of almost 75,000 patients also showed exactly how different conditions raise the risk of developing coronavirus complications in adults.

For example, half of former smokers or diabetics needed to be hospitalised and/or placed in intensive care because of complications.

But the figures also showed only 1.3 per cent of the 7,000 patients for which there was full data available for were current smokers. In comparison, around 14 per cent of US adults smoke.

Other studies in China have also had surprisingly low rates of smokers, and one team of scientists from Wuhan - where the pandemic began - even suggested smokers may actually be at lower risk.

Leading experts who have scoured all of the available evidence collated on smoking and COVID-19 warn smokers are at higher risk of complications.

But they say the current warnings about smokers being at higher risk of catching the infection are based on assumptions and further trials are needed.

Coronavirus is more prevalent in boys, analysis of children with coronavirus in the US found. The CDC reports that a third of the paediatric cases were found in New York City

Compared with adults, children are less likely to have the tell-tale symptoms and may not show any signs of the virus at all. Pictured: Around 73 per cent of US children have a fever, cough or shortness of breath, compared with 93 per cent of adults

The CDC research on children, part of the weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, found an estimated 5.7 per cent to 20 per cent of 2,500 children needed hospital care. Infants under the age of one were most at risk of needing hospitalisation (pictured)

The CDC research on children - called Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Children - formed part of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

More than 355,000 people in the US have tested positive for the disease, with coronavirus-related deaths crossing the 10,000 mark on Monday.

Among 149,760 COVID-19 cases in the US analysed, the age had been reported in 99.6 per cent.

Although children under age 18 make up 22 per cent of the US population, they account for only 1.7 per cent of diagnosed cases (2,572).

Forty-two per cent of infected children were girls and 55 per cent were boys, which matches up with data on adults, in which 53 per cent were males. In thirteen per cent of cases, the gender was not reported.

Several studies have reported a majority of COVID-19 cases among men and a higher fatality rate compared with women.

Previously scientists have theorised that higher smoking rates or alcohol use have been behind gender disparity of COVID-19 cases, because both habits are linked to health conditions.

But this cannot explain the differences in infants and teenagers.

The researchers said the higher rate of boys testing positive 'suggests that biologic factors might play a role in any differences in COVID-19 susceptibility by sex'.

WHY ARE MALES - BOTH MEN AND BOYS - MORE AT RISK OF COVID-19? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today reported that 57 per cent of child coronavirus cases were boys, and 53 per cent of adult cases were men. Several studies have reported a majority of COVID-19 cases among men and a higher fatality rate compared with women. Until more research helps to conclude why, there are several schools of thought. Adults The disparity between adult men and women has largely been put down to behaviours, including drinking alcohol, smoking, and eating unhealthily. Dr James Gill, a locum GP and honorary clinical lecturer, Warwick Medical School, said theories lie on the assumption that simply men dont look after their bodies as well, with higher levels of smoking, alcohol use, obesity and other deleterious health behaviours. These would put men at a higher risk of health conditions - which has been confirmed to be detrimental to COVID-19 outcomes. The sex differential in smoking is especially marked in some countries such as China, where 50 per cent of men smoke compared to five per cent in women. However, Dr Gill said: 'Whilst smoking is a plausible factor, globally, across various different cultures, where smoking rates do differ, we are still seeing the sustained difference in mortality between men and women. 'Whilst we dont have a definitive answer on why there is a difference between how men and women respond a COVID19 infection at the immunological level - yet - currently it is a fair assumption that there will be a significant interplay between the biology and the environmental facts.' Children The slight increase in boys being infected with coronavirus compared to girls cannot be the result of behaviours such as smoking. Philip Goulder FMedSci, professor of immunology in the Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, explained how males and females have genetically different immune responses, which would be present from birth. He said: 'It is becoming increasingly recognised that there are substantial differences in the immune system between males and females and that these have significant impact on outcome from a wide range of infectious diseases. 'Several factors contribute to this, but these include the fact that females have two X chromosomes compared to one in males, and a number of critical immune genes are located on the X chromosome. 'In particular, the protein by which viruses such as coronavirus are sensed is encoded on the X chromosome. As a result, this protein is expressed at twice the dose on many immune cells in females compared to males, and the immune response to coronavirus is therefore amplified in females.' This effect can be seen in how the body responds to vaccines. The immune response throughout life to vaccines and infections is typically more aggressive and more effective in females compared to males, Professor Goulder said. Advertisement

Females are believed to have a stronger immune system due to genetic differences, making them more resilient to fight off infections like SARS-CoV-2.

Philip Goulder, professor of immunology in the department of paediatrics, University of Oxford, said: 'It is becoming increasingly recognised that there are substantial differences in the immune system between males and females and that these have significant impact on outcome from a wide range of infectious diseases.

'Several factors contribute to this, but these include the fact that females have two X chromosomes compared to one in males, and a number of critical immune genes are located on the X chromosome.

'In particular, the protein by which viruses such as coronavirus are sensed is encoded on the X chromosome.

'As a result, this protein is expressed at twice the dose on many immune cells in females compared to males, and the immune response to coronavirus is therefore amplified in females.'

However, it could simply be that females are less likely to show symptoms, and therefore be diagnosed.

Information on hospitalisation status was available for around a third of the US child coronavirus cases studied by CDC.

An estimated 5.7 per cent to 20 per cent needed hospital care.

Babies under the age of one are most likely to be in that group, according to the government's first in-depth analysis.

Between 0.58 per cent and two per cent (15 children) were admitted to intensive care, and three sadly died.

The rates for children are significantly lower than for adults between 18 and 65, up to a third of whom require hospital care with up to 4.5 per cent needing intensive care.

CDC researchers emphasised the findings are still based on incomplete data, as most cases lacked information on disease symptoms, severity or patients' underlying conditions.

But despite the limitations, the data show COVID-19 may be producing different symptoms in the young.

That confirms published studies from China, where the virus originated, suggesting the illness known as COVID-19 might be overlooked in children even as they are spreading it to adults.

Where data was available, it was found that 56 per cent of children had a fever, compared with 71 per cent in adults.

Cough was a symptom in 54 per cent of children versus 80 per cent of adults. Shortness of breath developed in 13 per cent of those under 18 versus 43 per cent of adults under age 65.

Muscle aches and pains, sore throat, headache, and diarrhea were also less common in children. One child who tested positive for the disease had no symptoms at all.

A third of the paediatric cases were found in New York City, which has become the epicentre of the US outbreak.

Some 23 per cent were from the rest of New York, 15 per cent were in New Jersey and 29 per cent were from the rest of the country.

A separate CDC report aimed to breakdown the risk of coronavirus complications - which has already been done for Chinese and Italian patients.

Of 122,653 cases, information on underlying health conditions and known risk factors was available for 7,162 (5.8 per cent).

The data showed 28 per cent of current smokers and 47 per cent of former smokers needed to be hospitalised or placed in intensive care.

But only 2.3 per cent of the CDC cases had a history of smoking, which doesn't represent the 14 per cent smoking rate in the general population.

HOW DO OUTCOMES COMPARE IF COVID-19 ADULT PATIENTS HAVE OR HAVEN'T GOT A HEALTH CONDITION?



Hospitalised ICU Underlying health condition Underlying health condition Age Yes No Yes No 19-64 18.1-19.9% 6.2-6.7% 8.5-9.4% 1.8-2% 65 + 41.7-44.5% 16.8-18.3% 20.8-22.2% 5.8-6.3% Total 19+ 27.3-29.8% 7.2-7.8% 13.3-14.5% 2.2-2.4%

HOW MANY PATIENTS WITH EACH CONDITION NEEDED HOSPITAL CARE? Underlying health condition Total in data Percentage that were hospitalised Percentage that went to ICU Recovered without hospitalisation Hospital status unknown Diabetes 784 32% 19% 42% 7% Chronic lung disease 656 23% 14% 55% 7% Heart disease 647 37% 20% 37% 5% Former smoker 165 28% 20% 48% 4% Current smoker 96 23% 5% 64% 8% Pregnant 143 22% 3% 50% 25%

A separate CDC report also showed exactly how different conditions raise the risk of developing coronavirus complications. Half of former smokers or diabetics needed to be hospitalised and/or placed in intensive care. Pictured, ventilation for coronavirus patients

It either means the data doesn't include enough smokers, or that smokers are at less risk of catching the coronavirus in the first place.

Studies of coronavirus patients who smoke have produced contrasting findings - at least one study has suggested they are at lower risk of getting infected.

The data analysis showed one in ten diagnosed patients had diabetes - the most common problem. Less than half of these patients recovered at home.

Two-thirds of patients with heart disease (nine per cent of cases studied), needed care in hospital or ICU.

The findings reveal what scientists have been warning off for weeks - those with health conditions are more likely to become seriously ill.

Up to 30 per cent of those with existing health conditions had to be hospitalised, compared to around 7.6 per cent of COVID-19 patients who were typically healthy.

Some 14 per cent with pre-existing health problems were admitted to an ICU, compared with 2.3 per cent of those without.

More than seven in ten people receiving hospital care - because their symptoms were persistent - were people with existing conditions.

This rose to eight in ten for people receiving ICU care, which includes ventilation or intravenous fluids.

A staggering 94 per cent of deaths were reported in those with at least one health condition.

WHAT ARE THE OUTCOMES FOR US COVID-19 PATIENTS DEPENDING ON WHAT HEALTH CONDITION THEY HAVE? Underlying health condition/% Not hospitalised Hospitalised, without ICU ICU Hospitalisation status unknown Diabetes (10.9%) 6% 24% 32% 10% Chronic lung disease (9.2%) 7% 15% 21% 9% Heart disease (9%) 5% 23% 29% 6% Immunocompromised condition (3.7%) 3% 6% 9% 4% Chronic kidney disease (3%) 1% 9% 12% 2% Chronic liver disease (0.6%) 1% 1% 2% 0.20% Former smoker (2.3%) 2% 4% 7% 1% Current smoker (1.3%) 1% 2% 1% 2% Pregnancy (2%) 1% 3% 1% 7% Neurological disease (0.7%) 0.30% 2% 2% 1% One or more conditions (37.6%) 27% 71% 78% 41%

Coronavirus warning for smokers: Experts says addicts face a greater risk of complications - but Chinese studies suggest they may be LESS likely to end up in hospital in the first place

Smokers face a greater risk of coronavirus and put their loved ones at risk, according to a stark warning from Public Health England.

Health chiefs said there has 'never been a more important time' to quit the habit than now because of the ever-worsening outbreak in Britain.

PHE also claimed family, including children, will also be at a higher risk of serious COVID-19 complications, as a result of inhaling secondhand smoke.

They based their advice on a 'small but impactful' study in China, which suggests smokers are more likely to see their disease progress.

But one team of experts from Wuhan - where the pandemic began - were mystified after finding smokers were less likely to catch the deadly virus in the first place.

However, leading experts who have scoured all of the available evidence collated so far say the proof is scarce and warnings are based solely on assumptions.

Scientists have called for further trials to clarify if smoking poses a real threat, but admit, in general, smokers are more susceptible to infection.

The tiny hairs inside the airways and lungs, which help move pathogens and mucus away, are often damaged by the toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke.

Smokers face a greater risk of coronavirus and put their loved ones at risk, according to a stark warning from Public Health England.

The largest study which analyses health profiles of patients is published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Of the 173 patients who had severe symptoms, 16.9 per cent of them were current smokers and 5.2 per cent had previously smoked. In comparison, of the patients with less-severe symptoms, 11.8 per cent were current smokers and 1.3 per cent were former smokers

Researchers at the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University made the conclusion that only 1.4 per cent of 140 hospitalised patients were smokers

A study of 41 patients found that none of the 13 patients who needed to be admitted to ICU were current smokers. In contrast, 11 per cent (three) of those who did not need intensive care were smokers

One study of 140 coronavirus patients found that among the 58 patients who severely ill, 3.4 per cent (two people) were current smokers and 6.9 per cent (four) were former smokers. In comparison, of the 82 with milder symptoms, none were current smokers and 3.7 per cent (three) were former smokers

WHAT DO THE FIVE STUDIES LOOKING AT SMOKERS SHOW? Leading experts who have scoured all of the available evidence collated so far say the proof smoking raises the risk of coronavirus is limited. The group of experts even admitted warnings made by health chiefs were based mainly on assumptions, given the known infection risks of smoking. The team, based at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and the University of Crete in Greece, reviewed five of the first studies on smoking and COVID-19. Research showed smokers do face a greater risk of suffering complications but others suggested they were less likely to be infected in the first place. The review of the evidence, led by Harvard's Dr Constantine Vardavas, was published in the journal Tobacco Induced Diseases. Study 1: Wei Liu and colleagues at three tertiary hospitals in Wuhan, China. How many people were involved? 78 How many of them were smokers? Unclear Where were the results published? Chinese Medical Journal What did it find? The patients who progressed had a 'significantly' higher number smokers compared to the patients who got better  27 per cent compared three per cent. Study 2: Guan et al at 552 hospitals in 30 provinces or regions of China. How many people were involved? 1,099 How many of them were smokers? A total of 12.6 per cent (137) were current smokers and 1.9 per cent (21) were former smokers. Where were the results published? The New England Medical Journal What did it find? Among the 173 patients with severe symptoms, 16.9 per cent (29) were current smokers and 5.2 per cent (nine) were former smokers. In comparison, 11.8 per cent (108) of the 926 with milder symptoms were current smokers, and 1.3 per cent (12) were former smokers. In the group of patients that either needed mechanical ventilation, admission to an ICU or died, 25.5 per cent were current smokers and 7.6 per cent were former smokers. But in the group of patients that did not have these adverse outcomes, only 11.8 per cent were current smokers and 1.6 per cent were former smokers. Study 3: Jin-jin Zhang and colleagues at No. 7 Hospital of Wuhan, China. How many people were involved? 140 How many of them were smokers? Some 6.4 per cent were either current smokers (two) or past smokers (seven). Where were the results published? Allergy What did it find? Among the 58 patients who severely ill, 3.4 per cent (two people) were current smokers and 6.9 per cent (four) were former smokers. In comparison, of the 82 with milder symptoms, none were current smokers and 3.7 per cent (three) were former smokers. Study 4: Fei Zhou and colleagues at Jinyintan Hospital and Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital, Wuhan, China. How many people were involved? 191 How many of them were smokers? Six per cent (11 people) were current smokers Where were the results published? The Lancet What did it find? Among those that died (54), nine per cent (five people) were current smokers. Of those who survived, four per cent (six people) were smokers. Study 5: Chaolin Huang, of Jin Yin-tan Hospital, Wuhan, China, and colleagues. How many people were involved? 41 How many of them were smokers? Seven per cent (three people) were current smokers Where were the results published? The Lancet What did it find? None of the 13 patients who needed to be admitted to ICU were current smokers. In contrast, 11 per cent (three) of those who did not need intensive care were smokers. ARE THE STUDIES REPRESENTATIVE OF THE REAL SMOKING POPULATION? In all of the studies, fewer than 15 per cent of the patients were smokers - a figure that clashes with China's smoking rate. The WHO says 300million people in China smoke - roughly a fifth of the country's total population and a third of the world's total. Data from a national survey conducted by China in 2015 found up to 60 per cent of men between the ages of 45 and 64 smoke. British researchers were clueless as to why the NEJM study, the largest studies on this topic, had such low rates of smokers (12.6 per cent), especially given 28 per cent of patients were between 50 and 64. Advertisement

In a statement, PHE said: 'If you smoke, you are not only putting yourself at greater risk of developing severe disease from the COVID-19 virus, but those around you exposed to second hand smoke, including children, are also put at increased risk.

'The repetitive hand to mouth movement provides an easy route of entry for the virus, putting smokers at greater risk of contracting COVID-19.'

PHE said COVID-19 - the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus - attacks the respiratory system, 'which explains why smokers are at greater risk'.

It pointed to one 'small but highly impactful survey' which took place at The Central Hospital of Wuhan, China. Wuhan is the city where the pandemic began in December.

Doctors followed 78 COVID-19 patients with pneumonia for two weeks, to assess how their health profile affected their outcomes. The findings were published in the Chinese Medical Journal.

The patients whose conditions worsened had a 'significantly' higher number smokers compared to the patients who got better  27 per cent compared three per cent.

Researchers who led the study also concluded that a history of smoking was a risk factor for disease progression, increasing the odds by 14 times.

The study was one of five evaluated by a team of experts led by the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, who aimed to settle whether the debate over whether smokers should be concerned.

All of the five studies reviewed looked at either the risk of infection, disease progression or death among smokers in Chinese patients.

The largest of them all, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February, involved 1,099 patients.

Of the 173 patients who had severe symptoms, 16.9 per cent of them were current smokers and 5.2 per cent had previously smoked.

In comparison, of the patients with less-severe symptoms, 11.8 per cent were current smokers and 1.3 per cent were former smokers.

In a group of patients that either needed mechanical ventilation, admission to an intensive care unit, or ultimately died, a quarter were current smokers  more than twice the rate than in patients who did not have such adverse outcomes.

It confirmed the findings of a smaller study in Wuhan which showed more than ten per cent of COVID-19 patients who were severely ill were either smokers or former smokers.

In comparison, of those with milder symptoms, none we current smokers. Just under four per cent had smoked previously, the findings in Allergy show.

Another study of 191 patients, published in The Lancet, showed a higher proportion of smokers among victims (nine per cent) than survivors (four per cent).

But not all the evidence suggests a negative prognosis for smokers. A study published in The Lancet made no connection between serious COVID-19 illness and smokers.

Among 41 patients, none of the 13 who needed to be admitted to intensive care were current smokers, the team in Wuhan said. But there were smokers in the group who fared better.

Similarly, researchers at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University - whose work was not included in the meta-analysis - were mystified after finding smokers were less likely to catch the deadly virus in the first place.

They made the conclusion that only 1.4 per cent of 140 hospitalised patients were smokers.

Writing in the journal The Lancet, the researchers added: 'The exact underlying causes of the lower incidence of COVID19 in current smokers are still unknown.'

But they admitted: 'The outcome of SARSCoV2 infection in smokers may be more severe.'

Although further research is warranted, smoking is 'most likely associated with the negative progression and adverse outcomes of COVID-19', the Harvard team concluded in the journal Tobacco Induced Diseases.

Doctors across the world have echoed the concern and called for further trials, aware that smokers generally are in danger of picking up more infections.

Dr James Gill, a locum GP and honorary clinical lecturer, Warwick Medical School, said: 'Possibly one of the biggest reasons smokers are at increased risk of respiratory infections is the impairment and death of the cilia in the airways and lungs.

'In simple terms, the airways are lined with cilia - small brush-like hairs - these structures provide an absolutely vital function in moving mucous, inhaled debris and potentially infectious agents out of the airways and lungs before an infection can take hold.'

Dr Tom Wingfield, a senior clinical lecturer and honorary consultant physician, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), highlighted the tendency of smokers to have a health condition.

They have higher rates of high blood pressure, high disease and chronic lung, 'all of which themselves are risk factors for severe COVID-19'.

But Professor Gordon Dougan, department of medicine, University of Cambridge, said it's 'too early' to make a call on whether smoking impacts COVID-19 infection.

'However, we do know that smoking does impair normal lung function in many ways,' he said.

Professor John Newton, director of health improvement at PHE said: 'In light of this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, there has never been a more important time to stop smoking. Not only for your own health but to protect those around you. It will also help alleviate the huge pressures on the NHS.'

WHY MAY SMOKERS BE MORE AT RISK OF SEVERE CORONAVIRUS? Dr James Gill, a locum GP and honorary clinical lecturer, Warwick Medical School, said: 'Smoking is a significant risk factor for coronavirus infections and, in fact, infections generally. 'There are many interlocking factors as to why smoking reduces the bodys ability to fight an infection. 'Possibly one of the biggest reasons smokers are at increased risk of respiratory infections is the impairment and death of the cilia in the airways and lungs. 'In simple terms, the airways are lined with cilia - small brush-like hairs - these structures provide an absolutely vital function in moving mucous, inhaled debris and potentially infectious agents out of the airways and lungs before an infection can take hold.' Increased levels of carbon monoxide in the blood, a by-product of smoking, blocks the blood's ability to carry oxygen to cells in the body. It puts smokers at a pre-disposed disadvantage if they catch coronavirus, considering the disease leaves patients unable to get enough oxygen into the bloodstream due to lung inflammation. Dr Tom Wingfield, a senior clinical lecturer and honorary consultant physician, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), said: 'Smoking both increases someones vulnerability to infection (repetitive touching of hand-to-face and hand-to-mouth) and reduces their ability to fight against it resulting in more severe disease.' He highlighted the tendency of smokers to have a health condition, such as high blood pressure, high disease and chronic lung, 'all of which themselves are risk factors for severe COVID-19'. Professor Gordon Dougan, department of medicine, University of Cambridge, said: 'The real danger lies in the lung and systems damage COVID causes. It will make people more vulnerable to secondary bacterial and viral infections. It is known that lung damage per say does that. 'I would recommend that people stop smoking but, having lost my own sister to lung cancer, know it is not easy.' Advertisement




As Covid-19 spreads throughout the United States, life has changed so rapidly and in so many ways that a lot of families are left wondering how to adapt to this new lifestyle. Schools have extended spring break vacations or cancelled in-class sessions for the remainder of the semester to minimize the spread of the virus to their students. Custody orders exist for giving the parties direction when they cant come to an agreement amongst themselves. So many people, though, depend upon a clear, unambiguous order to give them direction on what they can and cant do because theres no hope of an agreement with the other party. So, what do people do when the world is changing on a daily basis and balancing the health and safety of ones child must be balanced against another parents rights?

Co-parenting under normal circumstances is difficult enough but add in a global health crisis and it seems like a recipe for disaster. Parents who are normally able to co-parent may find that now theres an issue with communication because of fear and/or panic by one or both parents. Parents who could never co-parent before may experience a meeting of the minds for the first time as they prioritize the safety and wellbeing of their child as paramount.

Courts at all levels have attempted to keep up as schools and governments make changes to address the rapid spread of the Coronavirus. The Texas Supreme Court has stepped in to assist with clarifying some of the various common issues that have arisen regarding possession schedules. For instance, the Texas Supreme Court issued an emergency order on March 17, 2020, clarifying that all parties with a possession order were to continue to follow those orders as if the childrens school was still in session. This helped to clarify the differentiation between the school extending Spring Break with whether the non-custodial parent was able to maintain possession of a child until school resumed. As various cities and counties have instituted shelter in place policies, the Texas Supreme Court once again issued an emergency order on March 24, 2020, that again clarified that these policies did not affect a parents right to possession of a child under their court order.

While the courts have been able to provide guidance on the effect of this global crisis on possession orders, there is little to no guidance on how to balance a parents right to possession with the mandates regarding quarantining. All too often people forget that the conservatorship rights and duties include the duty to provide information to the other parent and that other parents right to receive information. And what about a childs right to convalesce rather than bounce around from house to house because of a custody order?

If a child is running a high fever and coughing, the other parent not only has a right to know about those conditions, but there should be a conversation about whether it is advisable to remove the child from the home in which those symptoms began for purposes of a court-ordered period of possession. Neither parent should receive a windfall of time with a child as a result either of a global crisis or a childs illness, but the childs needs should always be first priority. When in doubt, the recommendations of professionals should always be followed with as much deference to the rights of the other parent as possible. Make sure to document all communication with the other parent so that you can establish all efforts to keep him or her informed of the childs progress and status. If a child is required to be quarantined, the other parent should receive frequent electronic communication with the child to supplement the time that they would have otherwise received and make up possession time once the child is fully recovered should be discussed. If possible, a timeline of when custody exchanges can resume should be set and modified as needed so that the other parent can plan appropriately.

Bear in mind that, while desperate times call for desperate measures, judges can tell when a party is attempting to take advantage of a situation. Because the highest state court has already established that each party is to continue to abide by their court-ordered possession schedule, its important that each party do whatever they can to ensure compliance with all aspects of their court orders. However, compliance with the courts orders doesnt begin and end with the possession order and the courts first priority is to protect the best interest of the child. This crisis, as all others before it, will pass in time. The hope is that parents will find a way to work together to ensure that their childrens health and safety are not further collateral damage of this pandemic.
Sugar-coated warning Call it their creative best or worst, owners of a sweetmeat chain in Kolkata are presenting the deadly coronavirus with a different taste, literally. Before you decide to boycott the shop, Hindustan Sweets, and warn others about it, here is the deal.

They are selling a sandesh, shaped like the novel coronavirus, with a red spherical body covered with spikes. By blending one of Bengal's most savoured sweetmeat with the name of the pandemic, the owners aim to lift "the spirits of the people". To buttress this claim, they are also giving a pamphlet bearing ...
Rockets hit near foreign oil firms in Basra amid alert in Iraq

Iran Press TV

Monday, 06 April 2020 10:44 AM

Several rockets have landed near offices of foreign and Iraqi oil companies in the southern city of Basra, the military says, amid warnings of false-flag US operation aimed at creating further unrest in the country.

Police said three Katyusha rockets, launched at around 3 a.m. local time on Monday, hit the Burjesia district which houses foreign oil workers and offices of both foreign and Iraqi oil companies, west of Basra.

No damage or casualties have been reported in the district which has been largely empty in recent weeks due to the evacuation of almost all foreign personnel over the coronavirus pandemic.

According to two officials with state-run Basra Oil Co. (BOC) which oversees oil operation in the south production and export operations had not been affected by the attack.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

Police sources said they found a rocket launcher and some unused rockets in a close farmland area.

In recent months, the high-security Green Zone in the capital, Baghdad, has been repeatedly targeted by Katyusha rockets.

The US military has used such attacks as a pretext to pressure the Iraqi government to disband the country's popular anti-terror groups, which are now integrated into Iraq's regular armed forces, and staged airstrikes on their positions along with Israel.

The latest developments come after reports that the Pentagon has ordered military commanders to plan for an escalation of American combat in Iraq.

Last week, Iraq's anti-terror resistance groups reiterated their readiness to counter any possible attack by US occupation forces, saying that they are also on high alert for any false-flag US operation.

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Bot Ban Hang supports automated messages to assist businesses to save time and optimise their communications

With the seed capital of half a million dollars, the company will expand its customer base for the product Bot Ban Hang.

Founded at the end of 2017, Bot Ban Hang is one of Vietnam's first chatbot platforms which supplies professional messages to answer queries and aid customer interaction for online businesses.

More than 14,700 businesses have installed Bot Ban Hang and the app has attracted 10 million customers or more from five countries such as Vietnam, Taiwan, the United States, Korea, and Japan. The company attracted over 14,000 businesses and 10 million customers from Vietnam.

Bot Ban Hang's notable features include building up a list of potential customers for each user, saving customers' search history, and arranging an experiential journey for them with the companys products, as well as interacting with customers. With these useful attributes, the platform helps not only the company to generate revenue and save 80 per cent of online time and 60 per cent of workforce but also helps customers to have an enjoyable and fulfilling online trading experience.

Along with blockchain, AI, and big data, chatbots have been a startup trend in Vietnam since 2017. The most commonplace applications are Google Assistant of Google, Cortana of Microsoft, and Messenger of Facebook. These platforms aid people by serving as digital personal assistants and help with online transactions and customer care services. Besides, there are more commercial activities which are prevalent among people like booking, shopping, searching, and goods inquiries that are all supported.

With the enormous benefits it brings about, chatbots are now popular among tech companies, especially startups. Every day, there are more than 11,000 chatbots on Facebook being used.
User Data

It turns out that all those frantic Google searches people make when they feel sick can be leveraged as a valuable public health tool.

A team of scientists from Harvard and University College London has found that spikes in Google searches for symptoms of COVID-19 coincide neatly with outbreak hotspots, according to an opinion piece in The New York Times by data scientist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz  a system that could help public health experts better track, predict, and manage the coronavirus pandemic.

Lump Sum

To clarify, no one is reading your particular searches. Rather, the teams in-progress research, shared on the preprint server ArXiv, shows that aggregate trends in Google searches correlate with COVID-19 outbreaks.

Its not a new technique: scientists previously found a link between Google searches and syphilis outbreaks. Stephens-Davidowitz also wrote that doctors also tried to use Google data to track swine flu, but in that case the data was too messy to be useful because people were googling symptoms out of fear rather than because they were sick.

New Insight

In particular, the Harvard and London researchers found a link between searches for I cant smell, as an example, and coronavirus outbreaks that matched some countries official data.

And while it would take a fair bit of extrapolation, that new correlation could hypothetically help health officials track and better plan for the outbreak in countries with spotty or missing data.

READ MORE: Google Searches Can Help Us Find Emerging Covid-19 Outbreaks [The New York Times]

More on disease tracking: Syphilis Google Searches Help Public Officials Predict New Cases

The post Scientists Are Spying on Google Searches to Track the Coronavirus appeared first on Futurism.
Rentec Direct offers landlords and property managers online tools to effectively communicate with tenants and manage properties online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rentec Directs property management software allows landlords and managers to effectively manage issues and communicate with tenants remotely and without compromising anyones health or safety," explains Nathan Miller, president of Rentec Direct.

Highest-rated property management software provider, Rentec Direct, offers vital tools for landlords and property managers who need online solutions to adhere to social distancing requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic. These online tools from Rentec Direct help landlords and property managers run business operations remotely and provide tenants with essential services.

Rentec Direct gives landlords and property vital tools to conduct business remotely including options to: communicate with tenants, offer places to rent, and collect rent online.

Maintaining a great landlord-tenant relationship is all about communication, especially during these challenging times, explains Nathan Miller, president of Rentec Direct. Rentec Directs property management software allows landlords and managers to effectively manage issues and communicate with tenants remotely and without compromising anyones health or safety.

Through a Tenant Portal, landlords and property managers can give their renters the means to pay rent online, submit maintenance requests, and review important property information. Rentec Direct also provides options for online leasing, like online rental applications and electronic signatures, to help those seeking a place to live to find a home in the safest way possible.

The online tools provided by Rentec Direct, help landlords and property managers stay connected with their residents and complete essential business to help renters pay rent, complete maintenance requests, and find a place to live.

More information about essential online tools for remote property management can be found here: https://www.rentecdirect.com/blog/manage-rental-properties-remotely/

###

About Rentec Direct

Rentec Direct offers industry-leading property management software and tenant screening solutions for real estate professionals. Features include online rent payments, tenant and owner portals, the industrys largest vacancy listing syndication network, full property, tenant, and owner accounting, 1099-MISC reporting and more. Rentec Direct received the Real Estate Company of the Year Award in the 2019 American Business Awards, has been named to the Inc 5000 List of Fastest-Growing Private Companies for three years in a row (as of 2019), and also was included on the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Entreprenuer360 list for Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America. http://www.rentecdirect.com
ROME - Italian authorities said Tuesday they were investigating the countrys biggest nursing home where 70 residents died last month, in a stark reminder of the difficulties Europe faces in accurately counting its pandemic victims, particularly among the elderly

Lombardy regional Gov. Attilio Fontana said he had opened a commission of inquiry into the deaths at Milans Pio Albergo Trivulzio home, given published claims by a doctor and a union leader that management downplayed the risk of infection and wrongly attributed the causes of death. La Repubblica newspaper said Milan prosecutors had opened a criminal investigation.

The Trivulzio home, which has 1,000 residents, disputed the Repubblica report, saying it had abided by all health care precautions, that COVID-19 tests simply werent available for its sick residents, and that the number of dead was in line with its 2019 toll.

Nursing home deaths have come to represent a significant hidden toll from the pandemic in Europe, since many elderly were never tested for the coronavirus, were never hospitalized and their deaths were never counted in official virus tolls.

There is an underestimate of deaths in nursing homes, its futile to deny it, said Dr. Giovanni Rezza, head of infectious disease at Italys National Institutes of Health.

He dodged questions about why residents werent being tested en masse, but acknowledged that entire clusters of infection had been traced to nursing homes, including at three facilities in central Lazio, far from Europes main epicenter in the north.

Its not just Italy. Authorities in the Madrid region, where more than 3,300 elderly have died at nursing homes, enacted an emergency response plan last month which included sending troops to disinfect buildings. In late March, they made a shocking discovery, finding residents living in squalor among the infectious bodies of people suspected of having died of COVID-19.

In a normal month about 1,000 deaths are reported at Madrid regional nursing homes but now the rate is around 3,000, said regional president Isabel Diaz Ayuso, though she noted it is very difficult to know whether they died of the virus or something else.

Catalonia has also been hit hard, with 909 deaths reported at nursing homes by Monday.

The Italian Health Ministrys deputy minister, Pierpaolo Sileri, told Radio Capitale that inspectors backed by the Carabinieris health care squad would gather documentation from the Milan facility as well as other nursing homes that have seen huge numbers of dead during the pandemic.

One thing is certain, where there are fragile people and critical situations in nursing homes, there are more risks and its correct to go and check, Sileri said. Milan isnt the only case in Italy; there have been similar situations near Catanzaro, in Sicily and in Lazio. Im not identifying only one place, were checking across the board.

The toll has been so high that Italys National Institutes of Health launched a specific study for nursing homes nationwide to try to get a handle on what went wrong. Preliminary data released last week, based on responses from 236 of the 4,629 eldercare facilities in Italy, found a 9.4 per cent death rate in February and March, with only a fraction of them classified as COVID-19.

The survey found 87% of the responding facilities reported a lack of protective equipment for medical personnel and that 36% were suffering from staffing problems because so many staff were infected. Another 23% reported having no information about how to contain the virus in the facility.

The association of doctors in the hard-hit Lombardy region estimated that 600 of the 6,000 elderly in residential facilities in Bergamo province alone had died  an astonishing 10% toll.

Fontana, the Lombardy governor, said he had authorized a commission to investigate the real situation in all the regions nursing homes, which are run by a combination of public, private, and religious entities. A separate commission was created for the Trivulzio home.

Despite the heavy toll at the Milan facility and nursing homes nationwide, Italys new infection rate continued to slow Tuesday with the lowest number of new cases since mid-March, bringing the official total to 135,586. Another 604 people died, bringing the worlds highest toll to 17,127.

Italys commissioner for the virus, Domenico Arcuri, welcomed the easing on new infections. But he warned Italians not to think that they can now put aside stay-at-home orders, particularly with Easter weekend coming.

Be careful with illusions and mirages, he said. We are not at few steps from the exit of the emergency, we are not close to that hypothetical X hour that will quickly bring us back to the previous situation. Nothing could be more wrong than fantasizing about an imminent moment.

Spain on Tuesday, meanwhile, saw a slight rise in the number of recorded deaths and coronavirus infections to 13,800 and 140,000 respectively. Health officials attributed the uptick to a backlog of reporting new data over the weekend.

___

AP writers Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, Aritz Parra in Madrid and Frances DEmilio in Rome contributed.
US condemns sinking of Vietnam fishing vessel by Chinese Coast Guard

By Drake Long 2020-04-06 -- The United States said Monday it was "seriously concerned" by the recent sinking of a Vietnamese fishing vessel by the China Coast Guard and accused Beijing of exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to expand its "unlawful claims" in the South China Sea.

Vietnam has accused the China Coast Guard (CCG) of sinking the fishing boat near the disputed Paracel Islands in the early hours of April 2 and lodged an official protest to Beijing. China claims that the Vietnamese boat sank itself after ramming a CCG ship.

The State Department statement left little doubt about who it considered to blame. Spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus described it as "the latest in a long string of PRC actions to assert unlawful maritime claims and disadvantage its Southeast Asian neighbors in the South China Sea." PRC refers to the nation's formal title, the People's Republic of China.

"Since the outbreak of the global pandemic, Beijing has also announced new 'research stations' on military bases it built on Fiery Cross Reef and Subi Reef, and landed special military aircraft on Fiery Cross Reef," Ortagus said, referring to artificial islands constructed by China. "The PRC has also continued to deploy maritime militia around the Spratly Islands."

She said U.S. shares the position of the 2016 Law of the Sea tribunal decision that dismissed China's maritime claims to the area.

"We call on the PRC to remain focused on supporting international efforts to combat the global pandemic, and to stop exploiting the distraction or vulnerability of other states to expand its unlawful claims in the South China Sea," Ortagus said.

Among the six claimants in the South China Sea, China and Vietnam's rivalry is perhaps the most intense. Both claim sovereignty over the Spratly island chain and the Paracels, which lie further north. There are periodic confrontations between their vessels.

In the latest incident, Vietnamese media reported that last Thursday, at about midnight, a fishing boat named the 'QNg 90617' from Quang Ngai province had gone missing nearby Woody Island, a Chinese-occupied outpost in the Paracels. A search by other Vietnamese fishermen in the area allegedly revealed the presence of a China Coast Guard ship. The CCG returned the eight fishermen from the missing ship to Vietnam the next day.

In a statement Friday, the CCG blamed the fishing vessel for ramming a CCG ship, the 4301, and subsequently sinking itself. "In the early hours of April 2, the Vietnamese fishing vessel QNg 90617 illegally entered the waters of the Xisha Islands to engage in fishing activities," the release said, using the Chinese name for the Paracel Islands.

"It sank after hitting China Coast Guard 4301. All eight crew members were rescued by our coastguard," the statement said.

Vietnam's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nam Le Thi Thu Hang accused the China Coast Guard of sinking the ship instead. "The Chinese vessel committed an act that violated Vietnam's sovereignty over Hoang Sa," she said Friday, using the Vietnamese name for the Paracel Islands, "and threatened the lives and damaged the property and legitimate interest of Vietnamese fishermen." The ministry also asked for the fishermen to be compensated by China.

Vessel-tracking software used by Radio Free Asia does not show the presence of either Vietnamese fishing vessels or CCG ships in the Paracel Islands at the time of the incident, but the Vietnamese fishermen shared photos of CCG ships 4301, 3001, and 4001 with Thanh Nien, a Vietnamese newspaper, after their return. One photo clearly shows the QNg 90617 sinking into the ocean.

Satellite imagery shows a CCG ship docked at Woody Island on Mar 30, right before the incident, and two CCG ships, including one of a much larger class, patrolling Woody Island's northeast on April 4.

Copyright  1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content April not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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As COVID-19 captures global headlines, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned Tuesday that the world needs nearly six million nurses.

The UN's health agency along with partners Nursing Now and the International Council of Nurses (ICN) underscored in a report the crucial role played by nurses, who make up more than half of all health workers worldwide.

"Nurses are the backbone of any health system," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

"Today, many nurses find themselves on the frontline in the battle against COVID-19," he noted, adding that it was vital they "get the support they need to keep the world healthy."



The report said that there are just under 28 million nurses on the planet.

In the five years leading up to 2018, the number grew by 4.7 million.

"But this still leaves a global shortfall of 5.9 million," the WHO said, pointing out that the greatest gaps were in poorer countries in Africa, southeast Asia, the Middle East and parts of South America.

The report urged countries to identify gaps in their nursing workforce and invest in nursing education, jobs and leadership.

ICN chief executive Howard Catton told a virtual briefing that infection rates, medication errors and mortality rates "are all higher where there are too few nurses".

Furthermore, "shortages exhaust our current nursing workforce", he added.

In fighting the pandemic, Mary Watkins, who co-chaired the report for Nursing Now, called for urgent investment in virus tests for healthcare workers.

"We have a very high proportion of healthcare workers not going to work because they're afraid that they've been infected and that they can't prove that they have not got the infection -- or that they've had it, and they're over it," she said.

Catton said that 23 nurses had died in Italy and cited figures suggesting that around 100 health workers had died around the world.

Meanwhile he said there were reports of nine per cent of health workers being infected in Italy and "we're now hearing of rates of infections up to 14 percent in Spain".

He also cited reports of "completely unacceptable and reprehensible" attacks on health workers battling COVID-19, largely due to ignorance about their work, combined with countries not doing enough to protect them.

"COVID is putting it into a very stark lens for us all," he said, though he welcomed the growing appreciation in some countries of nurse's work.

Catton said that could help change perceptions of the value of nursing -- which in turn might help make it a more attractive profession.

Beyond COVID-19, Watkins said many wealthier countries were not producing enough nurses to meet their own healthcare needs, and were therefore reliant on migration, exacerbating shortages in poorer countries.

"Eighty per cent of the world's nurses only currently serve 50 per cent of the world's population," she noted.

Catton warned of risks that richer countries would rely on the Philippines and India to "supply the world with nurses", which could lead to significant shortages in India.

The experts said nursing remains female-dominated and needed to recruit more men.

"There is clear evidence that where there are more men in any profession in the world, the pay and the terms and conditions improve," Watkins said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Islamabad, April 7 (IANS) Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Pakistan government has cancelled Baisakhi celebrations scheduled to begin on April 14 at the Gurdwara Punja Sahib in Punjab province, in which 3,000 Sikhs from India and 2,000 from elsewhere were to participate.

Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Deputy Secretary Shrines, Imran Gondal said on Monday that a meeting of the ETPB and the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbadhank Committee (PSGPC) unanimously decided that there would be no Baisakhi celebrations at the shrine in Hassanabdal city this year and the scheduled visits of Sikh pilgrims has been cancelled, reports Dawn news.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs has already been informed of the decision, he said, with onward communication for the Foreign Office and the Indian government regarding the development and that the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi would not issue visas to pilgrims this year.

"We have monitored the situation closely in recent days and worked with government departments including the PSGPC and other stakeholders. We are committed to following the guidelines set by the federal government to ensure a safe environment for our Sikh pilgrim guests and we would not risk their health amid the global coronavirus outbreak," Dawn news quoted Gondal as saying.

He said Pakistan gave all Sikh representative bodies the green light in November 2019 that Pakistan would issue 3,000 visas to Indian pilgrims who wanted to participate in the Baisakhi festival, as well as limitless visas for pilgrims from other parts of the world.

The ETPB had also issued a schedule for Indian pilgrims that was shared with the Indian government.

Security, boarding and lodging arrangements had been finalised at all the temples the pilgrims would visit.

PSGPC General Secretary Sardar Ameer Singh, a leading organiser, said the decision was made to prevent all risks to public health and safety.

Deciding to cancel the event was not easy, he said, as the Sikh community around the world has great emotional, religious and cultural attachment to the event.

He added that only symbolic Baisakhi celebrations will be observed at Gurdwara Punja Sahib, Dawn news reporred.

Singh said that the high priests of Akal Takht - the highest religious authority in the Sikh faith - have already announced that Baisakhi celebrations around the world would be smaller in scale due to the coronavirus epidemic.

Tens of thousands of Sikhs typically participate in Baisakhi celebrations every year.

In 2019, more than 15,000 pilgrims visited the gurdwaras in Hassanabdal.

--IANS

ksk/
Chinese Rush to Stock up on Grains, Flour and Cooking Oil

Click Here to Our YouTube Channel for More Videos

Chinese people in many locations rush to buy rice, flour and cooking oil. Authorities have refuted rumors about food shortages in the coming months, but Chinese citizens continue to stock up on food, as they no longer trust the Chinese regime.



Location: Ezhou City, Hubei Province

Date: Around March 31, 2020

Man in the background: They rush to buy rice and cooking oil. So many people here.

Man in the background: All grain shops have been ordered to close. They cannot sell anymore.



Location: Huangshi City, Hubei Province

Date: March 31, 2020

Inside a Walmart Store

Woman 1: Why are you buying so many (6 bags of rice, 5 big bottles of cooking oil)?

Man: Hmm.



Location: Chongqing City

Date: Around April 1, 2020

Man in the background: I am at Metro Supermarket in northern Chongqing. Take a look to see how long the line is. A large number of shoppers and all have loaded the carts with rice, cooking oil and flour.



Location: Chongqing City

Date: Around April 1, 2020

Woman: Those who came here to buy rice and cooking oil there is no more left in the store.

Woman: See, everywhere people rush to buy rice and cooking oil. There are traffic jams everywhere. People are afraid that someday they wont have enough rice to eat.
A recent discovery by University of Arkansas physicists could help researchers establish the existence of quantum spin liquids, a new state of matter. They've been a mystery since they were first proposed in the 1970s. If proven to exist, quantum spin liquids would be a step toward much faster, next-generation quantum computing.

Scientists have focused attention and research on the so-called Kitaev-type of spin liquid, named in honor of the Russian scientist, Alexei Kitaev, who first proposed it. In particular, they have looked extensively at two materials -- RuCl3 and Na2IrO -- as candidates for this type. Both have small quantum spin numbers.

"Traditional candidates are pretty limited to only these two," said Changsong Xu, a researcher in the Department of Physics and first author of a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

In their recent work, U of A physicists have greatly expanded the number of materials that might be candidates as Kitaev quantum spin liquids by looking at materials with higher quantum spin numbers, and by putting materials under physical strain to tune their magnetic states.

"Suddenly, we realize there are dozens of candidates we can propose," said Xu.

Quantum spin liquids are defined by their unusual magnetic arrangement. Magnets have a north and south pole, which combined are called dipoles. These are typically produced by the quantum spin of electrons. Inside a magnetic material, dipoles tend to all be parallel to each other (ferromagnetism) or periodically alternate their up and down direction (antiferromagnetism).

In the case of hypothetical quantum spin liquids, dipoles aren't as well ordered. Instead, they exhibit unusual ordering within a small distance of each other. Different ordering creates different types of spin liquids.

Xu, along with Distinguished Professor of Physics Laurent Bellaiche and colleagues in China and Japan, used computational models to predict a Kitaev quantum spin liquid state in materials such as chromium iodide and chromium germanium telluride. The work, which was supported by grants from the Arkansas Research Alliance and the Department of Energy, will give researchers many more materials to study in a search to prove the existence of quantum spin liquids, said Xu.
NALCO has made a contribution of Rs 5 crore, while its employees have pledged their one-day's salary amounting to Rs 2.6 crore to the PM CARES Fund.

New Delhi: State-run NALCO on Tuesday said it has contributed a sum of Rs 10.2 crore to tackle the coronavirus crisis.

NALCO has made a contribution of Rs 5 crore, while its employees have pledged their one-day's salary amounting to Rs 2.6 crore to the PM CARES Fund.

Further, the employees of the PSU have also contributed their one-day's salary amounting to Rs 2.6 crore to CM's Relief Fund, Odisha.

"Nalconians stand with the nation and people of Odisha in the fight against Covid-19. Nalco contributes Rs 5 crore and one-day salary of employees amounting to Rs 2.6 crore to PM CARES Fund. Also contributes Rs 2.6 crore to CM's Relief Fund, Odisha (contribution of one day salary of employees)," the PSU said in a tweet.

National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO) is a navratna PSU under the ministry of mines. The company has integrated operations in mining, metal and power sector.

In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, NALCO has taken several measures "to ensure the wide circulation of Do's & Don'ts in its offices and townships," an official said.

Besides, isolation wards have also been set up at the hospitals of the PSU to treat the suspected or infected patients.

The company's plants and townships have been sanitised to combat the menace, along with the extensive awareness campaigns to fight the pandemic.
As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals are at the crux of it all and key to the resolution of the emergency. They have been hailed heroes for this very reason, and across Europe and the rest of the world, neighbourhoods and cities have been applauding their heroism.

Healthcare professionals, and this includes nurses and midwives, are on the front line of the battle with COVID-19 pandemic. And although this years World Health Day theme was conceived without a thought to the threat of a pandemic, we even celebrate them more at this crucial time!

On April 7 every year the world celebrates World Health Day, a day set aside to create awareness of a specific health theme to highlight a priority area of concern for the World Health Organisation.

This years theme, the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, focuses more on the vital role played by this cadre of staff within healthcare systems. No doubt this will resonate well with a lot of us in this region of the world with under-resourced health systems. Nurses and midwives play a vital role in our healthcare system, oftentimes being the only available workforce within a given health facility in a community.

The price of heroism

In a country such as Nigeria where doctors are in limited numbers and mainly function at the expert level of human resources for health; nurses and midwives provide the day to daycare, are more in contact with patients and are likely to be more at risk during pandemics.

At about mid-March, Nursing Times reported that the International Council of Nurses was getting reports from its member associations of increasing deaths of nurses who have contracted COVID-19. In Italy, so far, 10 per cent of health care workers (HCWs), totaling over 6,000, have been infected in their fight against this virus, most of them doctors and nurses. In Spain, over 100 doctors and nurses have died from the virus, with a similar increasing death toll of HCWs in the US, UK, France, etc. In one particularly heartbreaking death of a nurse, Kelly had texted his sister Im okay. Dont tell Mom and Dad. Theyll worry, while on ventilator care at the hospital where he worked.

But amidst this rising death rate of HCWs across Europe and America is a little ray of hope from Germany, with so far the lowest death rate from the disease, even as it is seeing the same age category of people infected. It has in part been attributed by Epidemiologists to Germanys robust public health care system, with a 40,000 ICU bed capacity and a highly larger number of nurses to patient ratio. In fact, Germany has the highest number of this at a significant 13.8:1,000.

While in Nigeria, with a total estimate of 128,918 registered nurses and 90,489 midwives, we have on average one nurse to 1000 patients in hospitals, but with this number more likely to be concentrated in the urban areas due to reasons we are perhaps more familiar with.

The global outlook in terms of nurses/patients ratio is also nothing to cheer. The standard recommendation, for instance, is that in critical care units such as ICUs (intensive care units) the ratio is to be 1:1 for the sickest patients or 1:2 or 1:3 for patients who are acutely ill but stable. On general care units, the nurse to patient ratio is set higher, for example, 1:5 or 1:8 depending on the type of unit and the needs of the patient(s).

In our situation, this is a rather worrisome statistics that underscores the dearth of nurses/midwives in the country. In fact, estimates have put the country as running on a 32 per cent average deficit of this category of HCWs.

How is this fight looking like for us as our nurses and midwives are the only line of defence most of our communities would have during this period? We examine the crucial role nurses and midwives have been playing in infection control at our primary care units, especially with the endemicity of Lassa fever, and the emerging COVID-19 pandemic which has to date over 200 persons infected in Nigeria, more than a million cases worldwide and projected to rise further. With an increased rate, there will be more strain on health systems and human resources, especially nurses and midwives in Africa, along with them.

A nurses perspective

Mindful of the issue, Premium Times had collated a number of voices of nurses and midwives currently on the field at COVID-19 isolation centres across the country. In what seems like a cry of dissatisfaction with the working tools, and staff welfare, nurses/midwives at our frontline have expressed their opinion on the lack of appropriate gear and pre-field deployment practice or simulation of infection control measures.

But the risks from COVID-19 seem to be already apparent from the news of rising cases among nurses and other healthcare workers. According to the United Nations, nurses are working in under-protected settings in many parts of the world. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and in particular the much needed N95 face masks are in severe shortages. Nurses at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, New York had staged a protest, for instance, demanding PPE. Watching and reading stories of shortages in Europe makes us wonder what number we have and plans of bridging the gap if/when shortages start happening as we are seeing elsewhere.

In the mentioned report by Premium Times, the chairperson of the association of nurses and midwives, University College Hospital, Ibadan had mentioned the need for . . . nurses attending to those tested positive must be trained, perhaps pointing to the fact that infection prevention and control strategies are not part of our focus at primary levels of care.

Avoiding HCW fatalities

All evidence and history also point to the fact that nurses are always disproportionately affected in the face of an outbreak, epidemic or pandemic. Take the SARS epidemic, for example, healthcare workers, which primarily include nurses, accounted for one-fifth of the disease incidence rate.

However, recent studies on infection control among HCWs in Nigeria, have consistently emphasised the importance of knowledge, skills and practice behaviour of basic infectious disease control principles for survival. This is because apart from providing the needed care for sick patients at contact points, there is an increasing report of HCWs contracting infections for which they are treating patients. This is an important issue to look at since these usually lead to the death of such HCWs themselves, and they become points at which such infections re-enter the community, especially in a circumstance of an epidemic.

In one study that looked at the effect of training on infection control among nurses in selected Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria, the results showed that most nurses became more experienced at infection control as they stayed more on the job, with occasional training adding to this experience. Furthermore, training tended to boost this vital skill set significantly.

Similar findings were observed in another study that looked at Infection Control and Practice of Standard Precautions Among Healthcare Workers in Northern Nigeria. Here although a majority of the HCWs reported good knowledge of universal precaution and infection control, recognise handwashing technique, sterilisation process, and various equipment used for personal protection, and appropriate handling of waste as essential technique of universal precautions for infection control, there was an almost all percentage of workers having no knowledge of vital policy guidelines such as the National Injection Safety Policy and Policy on Sharps Disposal. A majority of the sampled HCWs had not also received any training on infection control in the last two years.

Also during the Lassa fever (LF) outbreak of 2018, research looking at infection control among HCWs at the designated treatment centre for LF in Ebonyi State, it was found that those with better knowledge on infection prevention and control were those directly involved in the responsible units and had mostly spent an average of 15 years in the facility.

On the whole then, what this deficit in infection prevention and control readiness, coupled with the available number of nurses/midwives in our communities, tells is the dire situation we are perhaps running into.

A Gap to be filled?

Although several healthcare programmes are implemented across the country with a focus on infection control, these efforts seem to have been single, and without a focus on epidemic awareness and preparedness at our basic levels of care. The HIV epidemic saw the development of the Infection Prevention and Control Manual, focusing on safe injection for Health Workers in 2015. But this may have only been put in place among nurses/midwives working with an HIV/AIDS programme.

One study in Northern Nigeria identified the need for formal and periodic refresher training. We may have therefore been missing an important part of being ready for a disease outbreak; having trained our nurses/midwives poorly on infection control and disease surveillance. As this outbreak may show here too, it is not all about the available equipment, PPEs when used incorrectly do not have many advantages and may even pose greater harm.

We consequently call for the protection of these heroes with in-service training that is extensive and supported by job aids pasted on facility walls, to save nurses/midwives lives who are on the frontline of the pandemic.

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Iran has not asked and will never ask US for medical assistance: FM spox

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Mon / 6 April 2020 / 13:44

Tehran (ISNA)  Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed that Iran has not asked and will never ask the United States to help Tehran in its fight against the new coronavirus.

During a press conference on Monday that was held online due to the outbreak of coronavirus, Mousavi said, "The U.S. is trying to keep Iran under the difficult situation due to fighting the coronavirus and using this opportunity to maintain more pressure on Iran and force us back to the negotiation table but without doubt we have never asked and will not ask the US to help us in our fight against the outbreak. But America should lift all its illegal and unilateral sanctions on Iran".

"If there was an official request for the lifting of US' sanctions, we have made these requests through official and public channels. We have sent letters to presidents and foreign ministers of other countries, as well the Secretary General of the United Nations to disregard the US unilateral and illegal sanctions," he added.

"All of Iran's actions show that the Islamic Republic doesn't recognize the US' sanctions and asking for removal of the sanctions," Mousavi emphasized.

End Item



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Once the borrowing limit is reached, there will be no legal authority under which public debt can be issued.





by Mangala Samaraweera





Due to legal complications, there may also be delays in drawing down the $128 million (Rs. 24.4 billion) soft-loan granted by the World Bank Group for fighting COVID-19.









For the period of January 01, 2020, to April 02, 2020, the Government has borrowed Rs. 650.15 billion through Sri Lanka Development Bonds, a dollar-loan from the China Development Bank and primary auctions of Treasury bills and Treasury bonds. Furthermore, Central Bank holdings of Government securities and other data on Central Bank open-market-operations suggest significant direct monetary financing of the deficit. This will add to the sum of government borrowings.





The borrowing limit, approved by a resolution of Parliament on 23 October 2019 for the period 1 January 2020 to 30 April 2020, is Rs. 721 billion. Last year, the Treasury issued 194 billion in bills and bonds between 3 April 2019 and 30 April 2019. Therefore, it is almost certain that a breach of the borrowing limit is imminent.





Once the borrowing limit is reached, there will be no legal authority under which public debt can be issued. As a result, the government may face insurmountable challenges in raising the funds necessary for managing this crisis. Due to these legal complications, there may also be delays in drawing down the $128 million (Rs. 24.4 billion) soft-loan granted by the World Bank for fighting COVID-19.





Therefore, in light of these urgent and unforeseen requirements arising from the pandemic, I urge the government to immediately move a resolution in Parliament to raise the borrowing limit. I am certain the entire Parliament will support such a resolution that responsibly increases the borrowing limit.





( The writer is former Minister Finance, The Government of Sri Lanka)
Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, is rejoining the staff of Melania Trump, the first lady, and Kayleigh McEnany, a campaign spokeswoman, will replace her  the latest shake-up in a communications office that has seen almost constant turnover under President Donald Trump.

McEnany has been a vocal defender of Trump on television, the main role the president has long believed the press secretary should play, according to current and former advisers.

Her hiring is the first major personnel move by the incoming White House chief of staff, former Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina. It was first reported by CNN.

Grisham, who never held a press briefing in her nine-month tenure as the presidents spokeswoman, will become Melania Trumps chief of staff, replacing Lindsay Reynolds, who resigned, according a statement from the first ladys office.

Also joining the White House press staff will be Alyssa Farah, a top spokeswoman at the Defense Department who once worked for Vice President Mike Pence, according to people briefed on the moves. Farah is close with Meadows, whose longtime congressional aide, Ben Williamson, will also join the communications team as an adviser.

Farah will be the director of strategic communications, and Williamson will be the senior communications adviser, officials said. They are expected to add to the current communications team.

It is unclear whether McEnany will revive the traditional role of a White House press secretary  answering questions from reporters in a daily briefing. Meadows wants her to focus on defending the president on television, according to people familiar with the move.

McEnany, 31 and a graduate of Harvard Law School, was a frequent surrogate for the president, touting Trumps policies on network television before she formally joined Trumps reelection campaign.

Her television outings, like others who have defended Trump, have often been at the extreme end of the administrations talking points.

For instance, in a video of McEnany on the Fox Business show Trish Regan Primetime from Feb. 25, circulated by Andrew Kaczynski of CNN, the new press secretary said, We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here, we will not see terrorism come here, and isnt that refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama?

Since McEnany made that statement, more than 350,000 people in the U.S. have been infected with the coronavirus.

Meadows has clashed with Grisham, a Trump loyalist who was one of the few remaining advisers who worked on the presidents 2016 campaign, targeting her as someone he wanted to replace, according to administration officials.

The communications shop has long been a focus of complaints within the White House, dating back to the first months of Trumps term.

Trump, who sees himself as his own best spokesman, has frequently complained about his media coverage. Grisham was rarely on television, but she was known for aggressive exchanges defending her boss on Twitter.

She also was among the few administration officials who fought for reporters to have access to high-profile events on the presidents trips to authoritarian countries, getting into a physical fight with officials in North Korea when they tried to block access to the U.S. media while Trump was on a trip to Asia.

In a release describing Grishams new role, Melania Trump said that Grisham has been a mainstay and true leader in the administration from even before day one, and I know she will excel" as the chief of staff.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Cardinal George Pell Conviction Unanimously Overturned by High Court

Decision a reflection of our 'commitment to the presumption of innocence,' said Sydney Archbishop

Australias highest court on Tuesday acquitted former Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell of sexually assaulting two teenaged choirboys in the 1990s, freeing the 78-year-old cardinal after 404 days in jail.

The High Court ordered Pells convictions be quashed and verdicts of acquittal be entered in their place, ending the most high profile case of alleged historical sex abuse to rock the Roman Catholic Church.

The seven judges of the High Court agreed unanimously that the jury in the cardinals trial ought to have entertained a doubt about his guilt. Pell, who has maintained his innocence throughout the lengthy court process, cannot be retried on the charges.

I hold no ill will toward my accuser, I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough, Pell said in a statement shortly before he was driven away from the maximum security Barwon Prison near Melbourne.

The Vatican had no immediate comment on a verdict that comes in the middle of Holy Week, the period leading up to Easter, the most important day in the Christian calendar.

Pope Francis, who appointed to overhaul the Vaticans vast finances in 2014, said previously he would comment only after all avenues of appeal had been exhausted.

The decision was delivered to a largely empty courtroom in Brisbane because of national restrictions on travel and public gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Pell, who is known for his conservative views, remained a cardinal but lost his treasurer role last year when he became the highest ranked Catholic official worldwide to be jailed for child sex offences.

He was serving a six-year sentence on one charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16 and four charges of an indecent act with a child under 16, which the plaintiff said took place when Pell was archbishop of the city of Melbourne.

Pells first trial with over 20 witnesses ended in a hung jury. The jury at his second trial in 2018 unanimously found him guilty. Pell did not take the stand at either trial.

A lower appeal court had upheld Pells conviction, but the High Court found it had failed to properly consider evidence that should have raised doubt that he was guilty.

Pells accuser, one of two boys the archbishop was alleged to have assaulted, had said the offences took place shortly after Sunday masses, in the priests sacristy and corridor of St. Patricks Cathedral in Melbourne, while Pell was robed.

The High Court judges pointed to evidence from church officials at Pells trial that he typically spent time talking to congregants on the church steps after mass, he was always accompanied by a priest while robed, and the sacristy was usually a hive of activity after mass.

The lower appeals court and the trial jury watched a video of his accusers testimony, described by the prosecutor as powerful and persuasive. But upon questioning by Pells barrister, several of the High Court judges raised whether it was proper for the appeals court to have viewed select segments of evidence from the trial, rather than all the evidence that was presented to the trial.

The High Court did not view it and said it should not have been necessary for the appeal court to have viewed it.

The second alleged victim in the case died in 2014 of a drug overdose. His father, who is pursuing a civil case against Pell, said through his lawyer Lisa Flynn he was in shock and furious a conviction by a unanimous jury had been overturned.

Our client says he is heartbroken for (his sons friend, the accuser in the case) who stuck his neck out by coming forward to tell his story, Flynn of Shine Lawyers said.

Messages of Support for Abuse Victims at Devastating Time

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said the acquittal would be welcomed by many and devastating for others.

The result today does not change the Churchs unwavering commitment to child safety and to a just and compassionate response to survivors and victims of child sexual abuse, said Archbishop Mark Coleridge, president of the conference.

Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher, acknowledging that some people would struggle with the courts decision that may reopen old wounds, said that the High Courts decision was a reflection of our commitment to the presumption of innocence.

He said that justice for victims is never served by the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of anyone.

Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird said the case had divided opinions in legal circles and the general community, and particularly in his diocese because of Cardinal Pells early connections there.

Now that the highest court in the land has given a judgement, I hope this will bring some sense of resolution to all those affected by the proceedings, Bishop Bird said on Tuesday.

The whole process of trials and appeals has been distressing, most immediately for those directly involved in the court proceedings but also for others in the community, including victims and survivors of abuse and their families.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said it was dismayed and heartbroken by the outcome.

This is a disappointing ruling that only exacerbates the mistrust survivors feel, SNAP Australia said in a statement.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the day was very challenging for people who have been sexually abused by clergy.

I make no comment about todays High Court decision, he said. But I have a message for every single victim and survivor of child sex abuse: I see you. I hear you. I believe you.

By Sonali Paul

The Australian Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump has removed the inspector general tasked with overseeing how the federal government's coronavirus relief package is spent.

After Trump signed $2.2 trillion in federal spending, a panel of inspectors general from across Cabinet departments were tasked with ensuring it was distributed and spent as intended. The panel chose Defense Department Inspector General Glenn Fine as its chair, but Trump ousted him from the department on Monday, thus removing him from the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.

News of Fine's ouster started circulating Tuesday, and a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed he was removed both from office and the committee to Politico. Michael Bromwich, a Justice Department inspector general under former President Bill Clinton, declared it "the latest step in the president's wholesale assault on the inspector general community" in a tweet.

2/2 Glenn Fine was selected by his peers to chair the panel of IGs responsible for overseeing all aspects pandemic response spending. His 25-years experience in the IG community and his reputation for independence and integrity clearly posed a clear and present danger.  Michael R. Bromwich (@mrbromwich) April 7, 2020

Trump has since designated EPA Inspector General Sean O'Donnell as the Pentagon's temporary IG and head of the accountability committee, and nominated Jason Abend, a senior policy adviser at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to fill Fine's role. The panel of inspectors general will be able to select a new chair to oversee the massive spending bill soon.

More stories from theweek.com

Dr. Anthony Fauci cautiously predicts kids will return to school next fall, 'but it's going to be different'

More than half of Americans think China should pay coronavirus reparations, poll shows

What America needs to do before lockdown can end


Several states in the country have approached the Centre to extend the 21-day lockdown, which is supposed to be in place till April 14, sources in the government said on Tuesday.

A senior government official confirmed to HT that the Centre was mulling over it as several states have come forward with request against withdrawing nationwide lockdown, which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24.

Sources said the lockdown could be extended for at least till the end of this month.

India has reported 114 Covid-19 related deaths across the country and a jump of 354 coronavirus disease cases taking the tally to 4421.

Here what states, including Telangana and Maharashtra, have said:

Madhya Pradesh

The lives of people are more important, the economy can be built again but if people die, how will we bring them back? That is why, if the need arises we will extend the lockdown, a decision will be taken based on the situation, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, according to news agency ANI.

Telangana

Chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has cautioned that if the lockdown is lifted it could cost lives and that it is the reason the country has seen very few cases.

It is true that the countrys economy has taken a beating during the lockdown period. Telangana, too, suffered heavily  our revenue was just Rs 6 crore in the last six days, against the expected revenue of Rs 2,500 crore. But we can always revive the economy once this crisis is over, but we cannot bring back the lives of the people who could die in large numbers if the lockdown is lifted, he said.

He said it will be difficult to control people if the lockdown is lifted.

All the efforts we had put in all these days, braving financial loss, would go waste if the situation comes back to square one due to the lockdown being eased, Rao said.

Rajasthan

Chief minister Ashok Gehlot said the lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus has to be lifted in phases and not as soon as the 21-day period ends on April 14.

We cannot withdraw lockdown immediately. It has to be done in a phased manner, that is what I feel, Gehlot said at a press briefing through video conferencing.

Karnataka

State medical education minister Dr K Sudhakar hinted that the lockdown could be extended beyond April 14th in the states red zones.

The state has identified parts of capital Bengaluru, Mysore, Nanjangud, Gauribidnur, Bidar and Mangalore as red zones as they account for a bulk of the positive cases in the state.

Sudhakar said while speaking to the media that they would consult with the Centre and other relevant officials and the state might take a call to lift the lockdown in the red zones only in phases.

Assam

Assams health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has also hinted towards extending lockdown in the state.

If the lockdown is lifted by April 14 or 20, we will face challenges, Sarma was quoted as saying by a local news portal.

Sarma added that the challenge would be to quarantine all the people stranded outside Assam who will come back as soon as the lockdown order is lifted.

Uttar Pradesh

Awanish Kumar Awasthi, the states additional chief secretary (home), said that following the recent spike in Covid-19 cases, the lockdown in the state is likely to continue.

The state government wishes to make it clear that the lockdown is not likely to be lifted until there is a single coronavirus case in the state. The lifting of the lockdown means UP has become coronavirus free, Awasthi said at a press conference in the state capital.

Punjab

Suresh Kumar, Punjab chief ministers chief principal secretary, has also pointed that the lockdown is expected to continue in most parts but issue curfew passes to allow harvesting from April 15.

A final call will be taken on April 12 or 13, Suresh Kumar said on Sunday.

Maharashtra

State health minister indicated last week that the government may extend the lockdown by a couple of weeks, especially in Mumbai and other urban areas of the state.

Lifting it fully in a city like Mumbai is unlikely, health minister Rajesh Tope said on Friday.
A MOTHER accused of pouring boiling water over one of her 18-month old twin sons has been charged with attempting to murder both children.

The woman (37) allegedly left one of the boys with 18pc scalds on his face and head, and held a knife while telling a Tusla worker she wanted to kill her sons.

She had been facing one count of assault causing harm to one of the children but today the more serious charges of attempted murder of both were brought.

Judge Colin Daly remanded her in custody, to appear in court again next week. The woman, who cannot be named, is detained at the Central Mental Hospital.

Today, Gda Aisling Carroll told Dublin District Court the accused made no reply when charged.

The offences are alleged to have happened at her home in the west of the city on October 9 last year.

The woman had been refused bail when she first appeared in Blanchardstown District Court at the time.

Objecting to bail at last October's hearing in Blanchardstown District Court, Gda Carroll said it would be alleged that the woman, a mother-of-five, poured boiling water over one of her twin sons while she was on a supervised access visit from hospital.

Sergeant Geraldine McManigan said there was a fear that the accused would interfere with witnesses.

She said it would be alleged the woman made a number of threats to kill her children while on the access visit.

Gda Carroll said that the woman had come to Ireland in 2002 and her husband had since left the country.

A Tusla worker told the court that she took the woman on a supervised access visit from the hospital to her home.

"She repeatedly asked me for access alone with her twin sons," she said.

"At one point she went in the kitchen with one of the boys. Then I heard the child crying," the Tusla worker said.

"I went into the kitchen and she had flicked boiling water at the boy's face and head. He has 18pc scalds and is in intensive care with a tube in his mouth. The child was scalded. He was soaking wet. He was boiling hot.

"She said she wanted to kill her children and picked up a knife. The front door was locked but I opened it and then she locked it again. She was clearly saying that she wanted to kill her children."

Defence solicitor Damien Coffey said at the time his client had an Irish passport and had been admitted to a psychiatric unit.

Refusing bail at the October hearing, Judge David McHugh said "this lady appears to be suffering from acute psychiatric difficulties."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gives a press conference March 17 about the coronavirus outbreak. Johnson himself has contracted COVID-19. (Matt Dunham / Associated Press)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, hospitalized with the coronavirus, remained in an intensive-care unit overnight but was in stable condition, was not on a ventilator and wasn't suffering from pneumonia, a spokesman for his office said Tuesday.

The prime ministers office said Tuesday that, aside from receiving oxygen treatment, Johnson was breathing without any other assistance. It added that the British leader was stable and in good spirits.

Asked whether Johnson had been diagnosed with pneumonia, not uncommon for patients sick enough to be hospitalized for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, a spokesman for the prime ministers office said, That is not the case, no.

Oxygen treatment is a standard treatment for respiratory distress caused by COVID-19. The most serious cases require intubation and use of a ventilator that mechanically carries out some or all of a patients breathing functions. Johnson, 55, has not needed a ventilator, the prime minister's office said.

Britain has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, with more than 5,300 deaths reported. A number of people in Johnsons inner circle have also fallen ill or suspect they have been exposed to the virus, including senior Cabinet minister Michael Gove, who said Tuesday he was self-isolating after a family member experienced mild symptoms.

Johnson was admitted to the hospital Sunday evening and moved to intensive care about 24 hours later. Messages of support for the premier, the first known head of government to be seriously sickened by the virus, poured in from world leaders, political colleagues and ordinary Britons.

Concerns mounted, however, as to whether Johnson's aides had sought to minimize the seriousness of his condition. His office initially described his hospitalization as being for tests, and a tweet from his account hours before his transfer to the ICU said he was in good spirits.

Before being hospitalized, Johnson deputized his foreign minister, Dominic Raab, to handle government affairs as needed. Raab, 46, said late Monday that the governments business will continue. Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, said Johnson was receiving the very, very best care possible from medical personnel at St. Thomas Hospital, just across the Thames from Johnsons official Downing Street residence. But Gove said the virus has a malevolence that is truly frightening.

Johnsons fiancee, Carrie Symonds, who is pregnant, has said she is recovering from coronavirus symptoms.

President Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, on Monday night called Johnson strong, resolute and said the prime minister doesnt quit, doesnt give up. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted his support for the ailing prime minister, his family and Britons at this difficult time. The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram telling Johnson that his energy, optimism and sense of humor will help combat the disease.
A boy wears a mask in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Getty Images)

Closing schools may have a marginal impact in combating the coronavirus outbreak, research suggests.

Schools, colleges and nurseries in the UK shut their doors indefinitely after the final bell on 20 March.

While the vast majority of deaths have occurred in the elderly or already ill, children can pass the infection to the vulnerable, where it may trigger a respiratory disease called COVID-19.

To uncover the benefits of the governments drastic move, scientists from University College London (UCL) looked at 16 studies investigating the benefits of school closures for several coronavirus strains.

The circulating strain is one of seven that are known to infect humans. Others include severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers).

Results suggest closing schools has only small effects in combating highly-infectious pathogens where children are not the main drivers of infection, like the coronavirus.

Experts largely welcomed the good quality research, with one calling for schools to reopen as soon as practicable.

Another pointed out while closing schools alone may have limited effectiveness, the move is combined with extreme social distancing during the UKs lockdown.

A girl wears a mask while playing in a park in Shanghai, China. (Getty Images)

The coronavirus is thought to have emerged at a seafood and live animal market in the Chinese city Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, at the end of last year.

It has since spread into more than 180 countries across every inhabited continent.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Live: Follow all the latest updates from the UK and around the world

Fact-checker: The number of COVID-19 cases in your local area

6 charts and maps that explain how COVID-19 is spreading

Since the outbreak was identified, more than 1.3 million cases have been confirmed, of whom more than 285,400 have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Incidences have been plateauing in China since the end of February, and the US and Europe are now the worst-hit areas.

Story continues

The UK has had more than 52,200 confirmed cases and over 5,300 deaths so far.

Globally, the death toll has exceeded 75,900.

Coronavirus: The benefit of school closures is limited

As of 18 March, 107 countries worldwide had shut schools in an attempt to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

We know from previous studies that school closures are likely to have the greatest effect if the virus has low transmissibility and attack rates are higher in children, said UCL study author Professor Russell Viner.

This is the opposite of COVID-19.

Data on the benefit of school closures in the COVID-19 outbreak is limited but what we know shows their impact is likely to be only small compared to other infection control measures, such as case isolation, and is only effective when other social isolating measures are adhered to.

Additionally, the costs of national school closures are high  childrens education is damaged and their mental health may suffer, family finances are affected, key workers may need to stay home to look after children and vulnerable children may suffer most.

With nearly 90% of the worlds students (more than a billion and a half of young people) out of school, more data and robust modelling studies are urgently needed to help us identify how countries can, in time, safely return students to education.

A volunteer gives a mask to a child in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. (Getty Images)

Closing schools did not generally support the fight against Sars

Many experts were sceptical about the decision to close schools, arguing children did not appear to be driving coronavirus transmission.

With Britons being told to work from home if they can, some experts worried elderly grandparents may be called upon to provide childcare.

The UCL research found school closures in in China, Hong Kong and Singapore during Sars were not generally supported.

A COVID-19 model suggests keeping children at home will reduce the total number of deaths in the UK by between 2% and 4%.

School closures have been shown to slow flu outbreaks, however, the UCL scientists argued the two viruses cannot be directly compared.

COVID-19 is thought to have a high basic reproduction number, which could make school closures even less suitable.

The basic reproduction number is the number of people a patient statistically goes on to infect.

For example, if it is is three, every patient statistically infects three others.

In mid-February, scientists from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine estimated the coronavirus basic reproduction number fluctuated between 1.5 and 4.5 before travel restrictions were introduced in Wuhan, stressing substantial uncertainty.

Professor David Heymann, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, previously told Yahoo UK basic reproduction numbers change daily as new information comes in.

Nevertheless, the UCL scientists concluded school closures have only small effects in infections with a high reproductive number, such as COVID-19.

A woman and child wear masks in Kyiv. (Getty Images)

Government faces hard questions about when and how to open schools

This is an important study that confirms what many of us suspected, namely the public health benefits of school closures were not proportionate to the social and economic costs imposed on children and their families, said Professor Robert Dingwall from Nottingham Trent University.

It also underlines how the assumptions used in modelling the COVID-19 pandemic may rest on very flimsy foundations in terms of scientific evidence.

This work suggests UK schools could, and should, begin to reopen as soon as practicable after the initial wave of cases has passed through.

The biggest risk may come from gatherings of parents, grandparents and other carers at the school gate rather than anything that happens inside.

Dr Samantha Brooks, from Kings College London, stressed even when children are not at school, it should not be assumed that means social distancing is automatically assured.

Scientists from Kings recently looked at studies investigating whether children continued to mix when schools were closed during infectious outbreaks.

All 19 studies suggested the youngsters still left their home or were cared for by people they did not live with.

Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, however, supported the decision to close schools.

His models on how the coronavirus could progress was a key influencer in the governments response to the outbreak.

While school closure as a measure on its own is predicted to have a limited effectiveness in controlling COVID-19 transmission, when combined with intense social distancing it plays an important role in severing remaining contacts between households and thus ensuring transmission declines, said Professor Ferguson.

While this new paper reviews some of the modelling our group undertook of school closure for less intensive mitigation, it did not include our results for school closure in combination with other lockdown measures.

Dr Charlotte Jackson, from UCL, was also more optimistic about the effect school closures could have.

Speaking when schools were shut, she said: Closing schools aims to reduce contact between children, reducing the risk of them being infected and also of them passing the infection on to people in other age groups.

The idea is this will slow down transmission, so the outbreak takes longer and has a lower peak.

There are also operational considerations. It is difficult to keep schools open if many teachers are unable to come to work or if children are ill or kept home by concerned parents.

Professor Viner argued the UK government has to ask hard questions about when and how to open schools.

Interventions in schools, such as closing playgrounds, keeping students in constant class groups/classrooms; increasing spacing between students in classes, reducing the school week and staggering school start and break times across years or classes, should be considered, if restrictive social distancing policies are to be implemented for long periods of time, he said.

The coronavirus, colds and flu all commonly cause fever. (Yahoo UK)

What is the coronavirus?

The coronavirus tends to cause flu-like symptoms, including fever, cough and slight breathlessness.

It mainly spreads face-to-face via infected droplets expelled in a cough or sneeze.

There is also evidence it may be transmitted in faeces and can survive on surfaces.

In severe cases, pneumonia can come about if the infection spreads to the air sacs in the lungs.

This causes them to become inflamed and filled with fluid or pus.

The lungs then struggle to draw in air, resulting in reduced oxygen in the bloodstream and a build-up of carbon dioxide.

The coronavirus has no set treatment, with most patients naturally fighting off the infection.

Those requiring hospitalisation are offered supportive care, like ventilation, while their immune system gets to work.

Officials urge people ward off the coronavirus by washing their hands regularly and maintaining social distancing.
Richwood, TX (77531)

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Partly cloudy skies in the morning will give way to cloudy skies during the afternoon. High 61F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph..

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Cloudy. A few sprinkles possible. Low 49F. Winds light and variable.
We have people, out of the kindness of their heart, have volunteered to drive around and witness ballots and deliver them to the clerks office, said Matt Lederer, the Democratic Party chairman in Outagamie County, in the Fox Valley between Milwaukee and Green Bay. Were making phone calls and we're doing our best but so far, Im hearing that the turnout seems low.

Republicans, meanwhile, said they knew of few problems outside of Milwaukee, which has long been portrayed by the states conservatives as the source of Wisconsins problems. There was little sympathy.

Everybody had a fair opportunity to vote, said Dennis Gasper, the Republican Party chairman in Sheboygan County. Nobodys having a problem voting. I went by a number of our polling places and theres no lines out in the country.

Black voters in Milwaukee are hit hardest by coronavirus.

Milwaukee is the epicenter of Wisconsins coronavirus pandemic, and the black community in Milwaukee is among the most ravaged. As of Tuesday afternoon, Milwaukee countys coronavirus dashboard showed black Americans made up 626 of the countys 1,387 confirmed cases, and 36 of its 51 deaths.

The numbers informed the fear among residents who decided to vote Tuesday, braving crowds and even some hail to cast their ballots. Milwaukee had a massive drop off in poll workers ahead of Tuesdays election, forcing the city to close all but five of its polling station. Some residents had to wait more than two hours, while covering their faces with makeshift masks and trying to maintain proper social distancing.

Everything has changed, said Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, a native of Milwaukee. And folks had more time to figure this out, and we dont.

Mr. Barnes said it was already clear that the coronavirus pandemic had upended the states political landscape. He said the city should be commended for releasing such race-driven data on the virus, and that elected officials had to be creative in their solutions moving forward, as typical forms of political organizing, like rallies or door-knocking, wont work.
Status distinguishes SoftServe's deep expertise in the financial services domain for aiding customers in reducing risk, improving fraud detection, and decreasing compliance costs

AUSTIN, Texas, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SoftServe, a leading digital authority and consulting company, has achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Financial Services Competency status. This designation recognizes SoftServe for providing deep expertise to help organizations manage critical issues pertaining to the financial services industry, such as risk management, cloud enablement, core systems implementations, data management and processing, navigating compliance requirements, and establishing governance models.

Achieving the AWS Financial Services Competency differentiates SoftServe as an AWS Partner Network (APN) member that has demonstrated relevant technical proficiency and proven customer success, delivering solutions seamlessly on AWS. To receive the designation, APN Partners must possess deep AWS expertise and undergo an assessment of the security, performance, and reliability of their cloud solutions.

"By achieving AWS Financial Services Competency status, SoftServe has the demonstrated proficiency to deliver proven service, solutions, and customer experience for our clients," said Ivan Leshko, VP, client success at SoftServe. "Our team is dedicated to helping customers in the financial services industry achieve their business goals by leveraging the agility of AWS."

AWS is enabling scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solutions from startups to global enterprises. To support the seamless integration and deployment of these solutions, AWS established the AWS Competency Program to help customers identify Consulting and Technology APN Partners with deep industry experience and expertise.

SoftServe helps financial services companies around the world digitally transform by incorporating innovative solutions that make it easier to engage across physical and digital channels to address unique client requirements and business challenges.

About SoftServe

SoftServe is a digital authority that advises and provides at the cutting-edge of technology. We reveal, transform, accelerate, and optimize the way enterprises and software companies do business. With expertise across healthcare, retail, energy, financial services, software, and more, we implement end-to-end solutions to deliver the innovation, quality, and speed that our clients' users expect.

SoftServe delivers open innovation-from generating compelling new ideas, to developing and implementing transformational products and services.

Our work and client experience is built on a foundation of empathetic, human-focused experience design that ensures continuity from concept to release.

We empower enterprises and software companies to (re)identify differentiation, accelerate solution development, and vigorously compete in today's digital economy. No matter where you are in your journey.

Visit our website, blog, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

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07.04.2020 LISTEN

The Bono Regional Communications Officer of the biggest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress has said that ''being decisive is all about achieving the intended results'' and not about long talks.

This seems to be a reply to what the National Organizer of the governing party, the New Patriotic Party, Sammy Awuku said on Saturday, 4th April 2020 in the Eastern Region during an exercise to disinfest the markets within the region.

The New Patriotic Party's National Organizer has said that the coronavirus pandemic would have worsened but for the decisiveness of the president to take bold steps in difficult situations such as this.

Reacting to this statement from Mr. Sammy Awuku, the NDC's Bono Regional Communications Officer argued that countries that have recorded cases of coronavirus have had their presidents taken up effective measures to curb this pandemic and that the approach by president Akufo-Addo cannot be compared to his colleague presidents.

Mr. Akowuah added that before a decisive president takes up any decision, that president would have considered the vulnerable group and the requisite arrangements made cushion them so that they do not be victims of circumstances. The Regional Communication Officer opined that if president Akufo-Addo was a decisive president, then he, President Akufo-Addo should have made known to the public about the packages he had put in place for the ''kayayes'' at the affected lockdown regions and not to leave them in these distraught situations.

The President, His Excellency Akufo-Addo on the 27th March 2020, announced a two-week partial lockdown in the epic centres in Greater Accra, Greater Kumasi, Tema, and Obuasi after Ghana had earlier on recorded its first two (2) cases on 12th March, a step many health professionals and experts had called for days but for the indecisiveness of president Akufo-Addo until Ghana started recording an exponential cases coronavirus. This delayed step by the president, to many, including Dr. Grace Ayensu-Danquah, led to the spread of the virus in Ghana if the government had listened to their advice long ago.

Mr. Akowuah cited an example that Police at Ejisu in the Ashanti Region on Tuesday, 31st March intercepted two cargo trucks which were transporting over 70 head porters, popularly known as kayayei, to Walewale in the North East Region.

This occurred during the two-week partial lockdown of Accra, Tema, Kumasi, and Obuasi and described it as avoidable if the president was on top of issues.

Mr. Akowuah advised Mr. Sammy Awuku to concentrate on how to organize his party primaries and allow the health professionals and the experts to speak on the coronavirus pandemic, be submissive and take the advice from the likes of Dr. Grace Ayensu-Danquah, the Ghana Medical Association and the NDC COVID Team of experts and put the needed measures in place to curb the community spread and not to sing political praises when the frontline workers have been threatening to lay their tools down for lack of personal protective equipment (PPEs) to protect them from being infected when attending to suspected cases of this novel coronavirus and pleaded with the Akufo-Addo government to make available the $100m as announced by him to procure PPEs to the various hospitals.

The Regional Communication Officer, therefore, expressed appreciation to the Former President and the Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama for his donation of 100 PPEs to the Ridge Hospital on Sunday, 29th March and 650 Medical items worth of Gh390,000.00 to the Tamale Teaching Hospital and the other hospitals on Saturday, 4th April 2020.
Thomson Reuters First-Quarter 2020 Earnings Announcement and Webcast Scheduled for May 5, 2020

Conference call and webcast scheduled for 8:30 a.m. EDT

TORONTO, April 7, 2020 -- Thomson Reuters (NYSE, TSX: TRI) announced today that its first-quarter 2020 earnings will be issued via news release on Tuesday, May 5, 2020.

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Steve Hasker, president and chief executive officer, and Mike Eastwood, chief financial officer, will host a conference call and simultaneous webcast that morning at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Discussions may include forward-looking information.

You can access the webcast by visiting the "Investor Relations" section of the Thomson Reuters website. Registration for the webcast is now open. Additionally, an archive of the webcast will be available following the presentation.

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is a leading provider of business information services. Our products include highly specialized information-enabled software and tools for legal, tax, accounting and compliance professionals combined with the world's most global news service - Reuters. For more information on Thomson Reuters, visit tr.com and for the latest world news, reuters.com.

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Mysuru: Families of home-quarantined people in some places in Mysuru district are reportedly facing a social boycott.

Mysuru district superintendent of police C B Rishyanth said the police have been receiving complaints that these families are being denied rations, vegetables and milk and are being asked to vacate their house and leave the locality.

The officer warned that there would be strict action by the police if any home-quarantined family is denied supplies or are forced to leave a locality. Criminal cases will be booked, he warned.

There are 1334 people home-quarantined in Mysuru. They include international passengers, and over 230 primary and secondary contacts of those had tested positive for Covid-19. Then there are 53 people who returned from the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in mid March. This includes two religious leaders who belong to Tablighi Jamaat who arrived in Mysuru in January are isolated in a designated facility in Mysuru.

Among districts in Karnataka, Mysuru has the second highest number (35) of Covid-19 positive cases after Bengaluru. Among them, 24 are from the positive cluster at the pharmaceutical company Jubilant Generics at Nanjangud including 15 employees and nine of their contacts (11 from Nanjangud and 13 from Mysuru city).

And eight of those who tested positive in Mysuru are religious leaders belonging to the Tablighi Jamaat who arrived in Mysuru from Old Delhi and visited various mosques in Mysuru, Mandya and Bengaluru.

And three other tested positives here include a Keralite (P27), a Dubai returnee, and his close relative (P 60) from Mysuru, and one more Mysurean who had returned from Dubai. The reports of 70 more people are awaited.
Laois businesses are being asked to donate gloves and masks to protect volunteers helping in the community during the Covid-19 emergency.

Laois Chamber, an umbrella group for over 100 businesses in Laois, has put out the call.

Bernie Everard is the CEO and explained where the protective gear will be used.

"Laois Partnership have volunteers who are putting food hampers together and delivering them. They are running low on personal protective equipment," she said.

The volunteers are packing and delivering free food hampers to vulnerable people, collecting and delivering fuel, prescriptions and food to isolated older people in the community.

"In the business world a lot of companies would have gloves or aprons lying idle in warehouses, maybe for painting work. This will help volunteers a lot. It is amazing what businesses are doing already with donations," she said.

It is all part of the effort directed by the Laois Community Response Forum which is led by Laois County Council.

"Laois Chamber are delighted to be part of the Laois Reponse Forum headed by Laois County Council," Ms Everard said.

Please contact bernie@laoischamber.ie if you can help.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Leon Neal/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to an intensive-care unit after his coronavirus symptoms worsened on Monday.

Johnson's spokesman said he was admitted to the hospital Sunday for "persistent coronavirus symptoms."

Research that has tracked clinical outcomes for ICU patients doesn't yet give a complete picture of outcomes for the most severe coronavirus cases.

But in the short term, studies show that most coronavirus patients who enter the ICU stay in the hospital for at least a few weeks.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved into an intensive-care unit after his condition deteriorated on Monday. Johnson was admitted to the hospital on Sunday for "persistent coronavirus symptoms" and was put in intensive care at about 7 p.m. in London on Monday, his spokesman said.

While 80% of COVID-19 cases are considered mild  a broad term referring to patients who do not require hospitalization  severe cases can involve pneumonia-like symptoms and respiratory failure. In an intensive-care unit, some patients are placed on a ventilator that enables them to breathe. Johnson's spokesman said the 55-year-old prime minister is not on a ventilator and is in stable condition on Tuesday.

A study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that coronavirus patients were admitted to the ICU in 4.9% to 11.5% of the 2,449 cases analyzed. About 53% of ICU admissions from February 12 to March 16 were patients older than 65.

Here's what research has found so far about the outcomes for patients admitted to the ICU.

An elderly person arriving on a stretcher to the NYU Langone Health Center hospital on March 23 in New York City.

ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

Preliminary studies ended too soon to know longer-term outcomes for ICU patients

Several studies have collected data about patient outcomes in the ICU, but most lasted only a few weeks  and at that point, a majority of the ICU patients in question were still in critical care. So existing research isn't sufficient to draw conclusions about what happens to ICU patients in the longer term. But in the short term, scientists have found that most ICU patients stay in the hospital at least a few weeks.

Story continues

Research published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at critically ill patients who were admitted to ICUs in Lombardy, Italy, between February 20 and March 18.

Of the 17, 713 people who tested positive for the coronavirus in Lombardy during that time period, 1,593 (9%) were admitted to the ICU. About 82% of those ICU patients were male.

At the conclusion of the study on March 25, 26% of the ICU patients had died. Another 16% of patients had been discharged from the hospital, while the remaining 58% remained in intensive care.

A security worker outside St Thomas' Hospital in London after Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted Sunday for coronavirus symptoms.

Getty

In the UK, a study of 2,249 coronavirus patients admitted to critical care as of Friday found that 346 patients  15%  died in the ICU. Another 15% of the critical-care patients were discharged, and the remaining 70%, 1,559 patients, were still in critical care on Saturday, when the research ended.

A smaller study in the US looked at 24 patients with COVID-19 who were admitted to the ICU in nine Seattle-area hospitals from February 24 to March 9. The findings showed that the average length of an ICU stay among surviving patients was 14 days. Half of the patients died after one to 18 days in intensive care. Four of those 12 patients had a do-not-resuscitate order.

"Mortality among these critically ill patients was high," the authors concluded.

Five of the surviving 12 patients were discharged from the hospital, four were discharged from the ICU but remained in the hospital, and three remained in the ICU on ventilators as of March 23.

A nasal ventilator pictured as a patient infected with COVID-19 was treated in a pulmonology hospital in Vannes, France, on March 20.

Reuters/Stephane Mahe

Those findings were similar to another study, published March 19, which looked at 21 patients admitted to the ICU at Washington state's Evergreen Hospital from February 20 to March 5. As of March 17, 67% of those patients had died, and 24% remained critically ill at the end of the study. Only two patients had been discharged from the ICU.

The trend held true in China, too: Of the 41 coronavirus patients first identified in Wuhan  the city where the coronavirus pandemic originated late last year  13 were admitted to the ICU by January 4, according to a study published in the journal The Lancet. Five of those ICU patients died by January 22, while seven were discharged from the hospital. The remaining patient was still in intensive care when the research finished.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

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Bitterly cold. Sunny skies. High --19C. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

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WASHINGTON - An appeals court sided with the Trump administration Tuesday in its effort to resume executions of federal death row prisoners but sent a legal challenge by inmates back to a lower court for further review. The decision leaves unresolved for now whether, and if so when, executions might resume.

The Justice Department announced over the summer it would restart federal executions after a 16-year break and scheduled five executions. Inmates challenged their executions and a trial court judge temporarily halted them, ruling that the federal governments execution procedure likely violates the Federal Death Penalty Act. A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court disagreed in a 2-1 ruling Tuesday, with two judges appointed by President Donald Trump siding with the administration. The judges vacated the lower court judges order temporarily halting the executions but sent the case back for a review of additional claims made by the inmates.

The Justice Department declined to comment Tuesday on the case or whether it would schedule new execution dates while litigation is ongoing.

Cate Stetson, an attorney for the inmates, said in an emailed statement that the Trump administration had rushed the process in order to carry out executions without meaningful judicial review of the legality and constitutionality of the new execution procedures. Lawyers for the inmates are considering their options following the ruling, including asking the full appeals court to review the case.

Robert Dunham, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said the judges decision raises more questions than it answers and doesnt give much guidance going forward.

The one thing that all the judges agree on is there are other significant factual and legal issues that the district court still needs to resolve, he said.

Generally speaking, he said, the coronavirus pandemic has meant the postponement of trials, hearings and other proceedings in death penalty cases as well as the delay of scheduled executions in Texas.

Executions on the federal level have been rare. The government has put to death only three defendants since restoring the federal death penalty in 1988, most recently in 2003, when Louis Jones was executed for the 1995 kidnapping, rape and murder of a young female soldier.

In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma, President Barack Obama directed the Justice Department to conduct a broad review of capital punishment procedures. Attorney General William Barr said in July that the Obama-era review had been completed and that executions would resume using a new single-drug procedure. The procedure is similar to the procedure used in several states but not all.

In their challenge, the prisoners said the Federal Death Penalty Act requires that federal executions employ procedures used by the states in which they are carried out. The judges who heard the appeal of the case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit disagreed. The judges who sided with the federal government were Gretory Katsas, appointed by Trump in 2017, and Neomi Rao, who was appointed by Trump in 2019. Judge David Tatel, a Bill Clinton appointee, dissented.

___

Gresko reported from Arlington, Virginia. Associated Press reporter Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.
Mumbai, April 7 : A video featuring on-set shots of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in her early Bollywood days, from a film that was never completed, has been doing the rounds of social media all of Tuesday.

Aishwarya had started worked on the film titled Radheshyam Sitaram about 23 years ago, and it co-starred Suniel Shetty. However, the film never released.

In the video, Aishwarya wears an ethnic purple lehanga with a matching embellished choli, and is decked up with heavy jewellery and make-up.

In the video, she can be seen filming a nineties-style dance dancing and smiling while shooting.

If only for the sake of its collectors' value, the video has been wowing fans.

Reacting to the post, a user commented: "Lovely. Always adored her." Another one wrote: "Can't take my eyes off her." On the work front, Aishwarya was last seen in the 2018 musical film "Fanney Khan", co-starring Anil Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao. She will be next seen in Mani Ratnam's upcoming film.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
The coronavirus hasnt changed this, Republicans here say. For Trump supporters, the one thing more frightening than a pandemic is the idea of weathering it in a socialist country, something many of them believe Democrats are pushing America toward.

Anxieties  the real and imagined, sincere and sinister  have long propelled Mr. Trumps success. And now, as the Democratic Party veers further left on issues like health care and immigration, his ability to stoke them could be critical to piercing this blue stronghold of South Florida. If he succeeds, it would complete his coronation as the Florida Man of the modern Republican Party.

Since his election, the president has held 10 rallies across the state. That Mr. Trump included Florida in his so-called Thank You tour in December 2016 was fitting: His victory scrambled long-held wisdom about what it takes to carry this perennial battleground. Mrs. Clinton may have tallied more voters than any Democratic nominee since Jimmy Carter in cities like Jacksonville, where a strong showing has historically been central to Democratic victory. But Mr. Trump so toppled turnout models in rural and blue-collar counties that it didnt matter.

Some 20,000 voters flocked to the Amway Center in Orlando for the presidents re-election campaign kickoff rally last summer, many of them for the same reasons. With Mr. Trump, they feel seen and emboldened after years of feeling belittled by the leadership in both parties.

And when it comes to the coronavirus crisis, they dont feel that Mr. Trumps early dismissive attitude toward the threat was dismissive at all; rather, it was his attempt to stay positive and not incite panic.

I think thats why President Trump has been really out front, said Lee Green, a Republican in The Villages, a retirement community northwest of Orlando. So that people will stay calm, and not be silly. Few if any say they are concerned about Mr. Trumps falsehoods or divisiveness.
Kabul: The incidents of crime and incidents of increasing day by day are not taking any time to stop. Every day, a new case comes to the fore all over the world which shakes a person deep inside. Every day, someone succumbs to some crime or accident and loses his life. Due to which, fear and panic is increasing among hundreds of people living nearby. Security agencies are being questioned by Malawi Abdullah Aq Aslam Farooqui, the mastermind of the terrorist attack in the gurdwara of Kabul recently. The attack on the gurdwara was carried out to re-unite the shattered IS organization and encourage it. Farooqui was arrested in Afghanistan on Saturday. He is the emir (head) of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). On March 25, 27 people, including an Indian citizen, were killed in the attack on the gurdwara.

150 Health workers of Pakistan arrested for seeking rescue kit

Farooqui and 19 other people arrested: According to the Directorate of National Security of Afghanistan (NDS), Farooqui was arrested along with 19 others on the basis of intelligence. The arrested terrorists include Masauddaula, Khan Muhammad, Salman and Ali Muhammad. They are all Pakistani citizens. Farooqui has confessed to his relationship with Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI during interrogation. There are also indications that he got the green signal from the ISI for the attack on the gurdwara. Besides the Afghan security forces, the Taliban is also engaged in action against IS because the IS is hurting the interests of the Taliban to increase its influence. After starting operations in Afghanistan from 2015, the IS rapidly spread its foot. When the Taliban realized his danger, he started killing IS militants in retaliation.

Corona increases in New York, preparing to built mass grave

Many organizations have changed Farooqui: Pakistani citizen Farooqui was earlier a member of the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba. After this, he joined the Tehreek-e-Taliban. After this he joined the terrorist organization IS and in April 2019 he was appointed as the head of ISKP in place of Malawi Zia ul Haq Aq Abu Umar Khorsani. Farooqui belongs to the Mamjai tribal community and is a village near the Afghanistan border in Pakistan.

Ireland PM registers himself as doctor to treat his people from corona
South Africa: COVID-19 cases rise to 1 749, 13 confirmed deaths

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says as of Tuesday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is 1 749.

There is also another death, bringing the total to 13 deaths. It was a male who had stage 4 prostate cancer at Parklands Hospital. We convey our condolences to the family of the deceased, the Minister said during a briefing with the Motsepe Foundation.

He said they were concerned about developments at St Augustines Hospital. He said 66 people tested positive over the past few days.

About 48 of them are staff. The Provincial department is engaging the hospital, with a view to closing parts of the hospital down.

We hope the fumigation process will start soon there. We have also assigned specialists there. We must always be on the lookout. The infection can seep in from any institution. We must now trace all the contacts. It is a matter of serious concern and we are dealing with it, the Minister said.

He said the number of patients who are being treated, are slowly recovering, adding that mass testing has also started in all provinces.

With regards to personal protective equipment (PPE), the Minister said they do not have at the moment enough patients to exhaust the pre-existing stock.

Everyone is anxious. Healthcare workers are nervous. But it is possible for them to point out where the shortages are, so we can move stock around, Mkhize said.

As stock comes in, we will start preparing for the period after. So we are preparing ahead. We dont even have a hundred people in hospital at the moment countrywide.

Private sector partners with government

The Motsepe Foundation today donated much-needed PPE to the Department of Health that will last the State eight weeks.

This will go a long way in safeguarding health workers who are in the frontline caring for the COVID-19 patients.

The organisation delivered the PPE to Minister Mkhize to distribute to nine provinces.

The handover is against the backdrop of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) approaching the labour court to compel the Department of Health to provide PPE due to the lack of masks, gloves and sanitisers in health facilities.

Mkhize thanked the Motsepe Foundation for their contribution.

Top of the list is 200 000 surgical masks and thank you for your swift action and generous donation, Patrice and Precious [Motsepe], he said, adding that the PPE is an important contribution.

This stock was intercepted. [And] we were able to pay upfront using the Motsepe Foundations donation.

Mkhize said the partnership between government and the private sector is key and that hes expecting more consignments to come in because of such collaborations.

He said the government also worked with India and China which helped the deliveries to come through to our shores.

Two key areas of fighting this infection. One is lockdown, sanitation and hygiene. The second is to make sure the sick get better. Here our health workers are key and, in the frontline, Mkhize stressed.

Limited access to supplies worldwide

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has noted that theres limited access to supplies such as gloves, medical masks, respirators, goggles, face shields, gowns, and aprons worldwide. According to the agency this shortage is sparked by the rising demand, panic buying, hoarding and misuse and as a result is putting the health workers lives at risk and leaving them vulnerable as they take care of the coronavirus patients.

Without secure supply chains, the risk to healthcare workers around the world is real. Industry and governments must act quickly to boost supply, ease export restrictions and put measures in place to stop speculation and hoarding. We cant stop COVID-19 without protecting health workers first, said WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

WHO estimates that 89 million medical masks are required for the COVID-19 response, 76 million for examination gloves, while 1.6 million goggles are needed each month across the globe.

Last week, the Deputy Health Minister Joe Phaahla made the assurance during a ministerial press briefing where he said the government would be getting stock this week. - SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
On March 29, Gov. Andrew Cuomo postponed the planned April 28 presidential primary and special elections to June 23. The postponement was supported by both Republican and Democratic Elections Commissioners throughout New York state. This move protected poll workers and voters from exposure to COVID-19 and the combination of both elections saved local governments much needed funds. However, this order alone is not enough; New York must allow more of its citizens to vote from the safety of their homes during this crisis. The New York state Assembly and Senate should not end its session without fixing our absentee voting procedures in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.

In addition to calling for the postponement of the April 28 primary, the New York State Election Commissioners Association also called upon the governor and Legislature to expand absentee balloting when a state of emergency exists due to pandemic disease. Currently, New York state law requires an excuse to vote by absentee. Most common excuses are temporary or permanent illness/infirmity and being absent from the county you live in on Election Day. There is a movement to alter the constitution of New York state to remove the excuse option but because of our arcane Constitutional Amendment process, the earliest this can be done is in 2022. However, the Legislature could act today to alter the current absentee language to address the needs of voters now.

There are two bills in the New York state Senate today that would meet this moment in history.

S8015A, sponsored by state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, would add threat of spreading communicable disease in a pandemic to the temporary illness section of NYS Election Law 8-400. This would assure voters that they have a right to choose this option to request an absentee. S8130, sponsored by Sen. Zellnor Myrie, would allow email receipt of absentee ballot applications. This could eliminate postage costs for the first step in the absentee ballot process and make it easier for boards of elections and voters to process the larger amount of absentees that can be expected this year.

It is imperative the Legislature pass these bills immediately so the measures can be in place for all elections in 2020. While it is hoped that the COVID-19 crisis will be better in June, many experts posit that some amount of social distancing will still be needed well past November. At-risk citizens afraid of being infected by this deadly disease deserve the right to cast their vote safely without risking challenge from partisans hoping to win an election. Reducing the Election Day population by allowing a more accessible absentee process, as well as early voting measures passed last year, can help us protect workers, voters and the Democratic process.

While some have suggested a Vote By Mail system be put in place and eliminate Election Day voting as a solution, this option, unfortunately, is not yet viable in New York. The constitutional question of this option is still a huge barrier for conversion in 2020. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of voters are placed in inactive status because Boards of Elections do not have current or sufficient addresses. Without the ability to mail out ballots to these voters, they will be disenfranchised. Additionally, we currently count absentee voters 10-14 days after Election Day and a large "Vote By Mail" operation would not allow us to know winners on election night. Continuing the No Fault absentee constitutional change next year, enacting online and automatic voter registration, and changing the absentee ballot canvassing rules are needed for a Vote By Mail system and realistically are two to three years away.

The best path forward is to quickly expand absentee balloting now. The Legislature should act and not rely on an executive order from the governor so these changes would be permanently in place for future emergencies. They should not end session until these bills are passed and the governor should sign them as soon as possible. Acting now will give boards of elections direction for the upcoming June combined elections as well as November. Voters should not have to choose between their health and participating in our democracy. Pass these bills now so we can be prepared for all elections in 2020 and beyond.

Dustin M. Czarny is Democratic caucus chair of the New York State Election Commissioners Association and an Onondaga County election commissioner.
The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship is pictured attached to the Earth-facing port on the International Space Station's Harmony module. In the right foreground is the European Space Agency's (ESA) Columbus laboratory module which is attached to the Harmony module's starboard port. Credit: NASA.

A Russian rocket rolled out to its launch pad today as a new crew gets ready for liftoff to the International Space Station.

Meanwhile, the Expedition 62 crew will send off a U.S. cargo craft on Tuesday packed with science and hardware.

Russia's Soyuz MS-16 crew ship stands at its launch pad in Kazakhstan today after rolling out from its processing facility at daybreak. The rocket will launch on Thursday at 4:05 a.m. carrying NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. The new Expedition 63 trio will dock to the rear port of the Zvezda service module at 10:15 a.m. to begin a 195-day mission. NASA TV will broadcast the launch and docking activities live starting at 3 a.m.

NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir are loading the final critical research samples aboard the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship today. Dragon will splashdown in the Pacific Ocean carrying live mice, plant cells and other biological samples for analysis on Earth. Dragon is also packed with station hardware including spacesuit components for servicing and inspection.

Morgan will be monitoring departure activities when ground controllers command the Canadarm2 robotic arm to release Dragon on Tuesday at 9:15 a.m. EDT. This will end a 29-day stay at the Harmony module. Live NASA TV coverage begins at 8:45 a.m.

Station Commander Oleg Skripochka is getting ready for his departure when he Morgan and Meir return to Earth on April 17. The veteran cosmonaut will be packing the Soyuz MS-15 crew ship with personal items and station cargo over the next week-and-a-half.

On-Orbit Status Report

The crew will work late into the nominal crew work day today to prepare Dragon for unberth and release tomorrow morning. The next daily report will resume on Wednesday, April 8th.

Payloads

Over the weekend:

CASIS PCG 10: The crew transferred five sample cards into MELFI to freeze in preparation for a return on SpX-20. Microgravity Crystallization of Glycogen Synthase-Glycogenin (CASIS PCG 10) uses the microgravity environment aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to grow larger, higher resolution versions of two proteins, glycogen synthase 1 and glycogen synthase 2. Understanding the structure of the human glycogen synthase protein will expedite the discovery of treatments for obesity, rare glycogen storage disorders, and potentially cancer.

Multi-use Variable-g Platform (MVP2 Cell-03): The crew removed 5 Emory Modules and associated hardware from the MVP2 and prepped the contents for SpX-20 return. This project studied the generation of cardiomyocytes, specialized heart muscle cells, for use in research and clinical applications. Specifically, the team is studying the differentiation of these heart cells from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), adult cells that have been altered to reinstate characteristics of natural stem cells. Simulated microgravity studies have allowed the team to increase the yield, purity, and survival of cardiomyocytes derived from iPSCs, and true spaceflight conditions are expected to further enhance these effects. Understanding how microgravity improves cardiomyocyte differentiation will enable the team to create clinically relevant heart tissue for use in regenerative medicine, disease modeling, and drug discovery.

NanoRacks Module-9: The crew opened the blue clamps and shook tubes 4 and 5 to deactivate them. Tubes 4 and 5 contain experiments which study the effect of microgravity on the growth of Trametes versicolor mycelium, and the effect of microgravity on the growth of Pyropia respectively. Module-09, which contains several mixture tube experiments, was then restowed for return on SpX-20. The experiments use NanoRacks MixStix, miniature laboratories activated by space station crew and eventually returned to the student teams on Earth for analysis.

NanoRacks Science Box (aka NanoRacks Black Box): The crew un-cabled and removed the NanoRacks Science Box from EXPRESS Rack and prepped it for SpX-20 return. NanoRacks-Black Box is a key part of NanoRacks' next generation International Space Station platforms. This new platform is specially designed to provide near-launch payload turnover of autonomous payloads while providing advanced science capabilities for customers, including use of robotics, new automated MixStix and NanoLab-style research. Black Box is a locker-sized platform that accommodates up to 18U of payloads.

Space Tango MultiLab Locker (TangoLab-2): The crew removed card 012 and Cube BOST_FLW01 from the TangoLab-2 facility and prepared them for SpX-20 return. TangoLab-2 is a reconfigurable general research facilities designed for microgravity research and development and pilot manufacturing in the ISS.

Veggie PONDS: The crew took photos of plant growth areas and front of the PONDS units with covers off. Although moisture was observed in the wick and felt area, no plant growth was seen. The ground team is assessing their delayed ground control version of the experiment to determine possible causes or the lack of seed germination. Organisms grow differently in space, from single-celled bacteria to plants and humans. Future long-duration space missions will require crew members to grow their own food. Therefore, understanding how plants respond to microgravity and demonstrating the reliable vegetable production on orbit are important steps toward that goal. Veggie PONDS uses a newly developed passive nutrient delivery system and the Veggie plant growth facility aboard the ISS to cultivate lettuce and mizuna greens which are to be harvested on-orbit, and consumed, with samples returned to Earth for analysis.

Today's activities:

Mouse Mission-5 (MM-5): The crew performed the activities necessary to transfer the JAXA MM-5 mice to SpX-20 for return to the ground. The purpose of this mission is to analyze any alterations of the gene expression patterns and the effects on the germ-cell development of mice exposed to a long-term space environment.

OsteoOmics-2: The crew removed the samples for their locations in the GLACIER and MELFI freezers/refrigerators and prepared them for return on SpX-20. Millions of Americans experience bone loss, which results from disease or the reduced effects of gravity that can occur in bed-ridden patients. OsteoOmics tests whether magnetic levitation accurately simulates the free-fall conditions of microgravity by comparing genetic expression osteoblastic cells, a type of bone cell, levitated in a high-field superconducting magnet with cells flown in low-Earth orbit. This information helps scientists determine the molecular and metabolic changes that take place in magnetic levitation and real microgravity.

Space Cells-01: The crew retrieved Space Cells-01 samples (4) from the CGBA (Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus) and stowed them for SpX-20 return. Space Cells-01 examines gene expression changes and genetic mutations in hemp and coffee plant cells in microgravity. Cell cultures spend approximately one month on the space station then return to Earth for analysis of their physical structure and gene expression and are compared to preflight parameters. Results could help identify new varieties or chemical expressions in the plants and improve understanding of how plants manage the stress of space travel.

Systems

SpX-20 Cargo Operations: Today the crew will complete the final SpaceX-20 mission cargo transfers; including the packing of Double Cold Bags (DCB) that are used to preserve time critical science. Following the final cargo loading, the crew will egress the Dragon vehicle, close the hatch, rotate the Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM) Controller Panel Assemblies (CPAs), and will close out the Node 2 nadir vestibule. Dragon is scheduled to depart the ISS on Tuesday, April 7th at 8:05am CT.

Completed Task List Activities:

None

Today's Ground Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Dragon Unberth

Look Ahead Plan

Tuesday, 4/7 (GMT 098)

Payloads:

No utilization activities

Systems:

Dragon Release

Wednesday, 4/8 (GMT 099)

Payloads:

AMOS overview

AstroPi

CBEF

MHU-5 cleanup

Systems:

Crew Arrival Prep

Potable Water Dispenser (PWD) Sample Collect

SSC1 Relocate

Acoustic Monitor Setup for Crew Worn Measurements

Thursday, 4/9 (GMT 100)

Payloads:

AMOS

Food Acceptability

Veggie PONDS

Systems:

62S Soyuz arrival activities

Environmental Health System (EHS) Acoustic Monitor Setup

ISS Safety Briefing

Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Full Fill

Today's Planned Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Space Cells-01 CGBA Retrieval

Crew Departure Preparations for Return to Earth

Cold Stowage Double Coldbag Pack

Cupola Window Shutter Close

Dragon Vestibule Configuration for Demate

Dragon Cable Photograph

Crew Command Panel (CCP) Cable Deroute

Crew Command Panel (CCP) Cable Route and Checkout

Dragon Egress in Preparation for Departure

Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM) Controller Panel Assembly (CPA) Rotation, Installation, and Closeout

Dragon Vestibule Outfitting Kit (VOK) Gather

ISS Crew departure preparation

JAXA Mouse Mission Item Gathering

JAXA Mouse Mission 5 Post Feed Transfer

JAXA Mouse Mission 5 Water Refill 2

JAXA Mouse Mission 5 Post Feed Transfer Preparation

MERLIN EXPRESS Rack Uninstall, Transfer, and Handover

Node2 HD Camera Activation

OsteoOmics-2 Glacier Sample Removal

OsteoOmics-2 MELFI Sample Retrieve

Robotic Workstation (RWS) High Definition (HD) Monitor Downlink

Robotic Workstation (RWS) High Definition (HD) Monitor Deactivation

Polar Handover, Transfer and EXPRESS Rack Install

Pressure Management Device (PMD) Equipment Setup Part 1

Pressure Management Device (PMD) Equipment Setup Part 2

Robotic Work Station (RWS) Dragon Release Procedure Review and Briefing

Robotic Workstation (RWS) Teardown

Space Biofilms MELFI Sample Retrieval Operation 1

Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) Dragon release and departure monitoring

Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) Dragon Release from Node 2 Nadir (N2N) Preparation

N2 Deck MPEV close

N2 Deck MPEV open

Transfer Center Stack

Cargo Transfer to Dragon

  disassembly

Control of the closed state of a window SM 6,8,9,12,13,14 cover

LBNP () training (preliminary)

Exercise Data Downlink

Regeneration of Micropurification unit () 1 cartridge

Recharging Samsung tablet in 61S

Preparation of Items for 61S Return and Disposal

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After growing tenfold in the last decade, India's restaurant sector fears for the future when a nationwide lockdown is eventually lifted, with customer numbers and spending expected to plunge in the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

India, which has recorded more than 4,000 coronavirus cases and over 100 deaths, has been under a three-week lockdown since March 25, and officials say that may be extended in some hotspots.

Even when the situation normalizes however, restaurateurs fear that business will not bounce back in a hurry and people will socialize less in crowded restaurants.

"From the people's perspective they're not going to have the money to spend," said Ashish Kothare, a veteran restaurateur in India's IT hub Bangalore.

"People will start saving for a rainy day and fear psychosis will set in," said Kothare, whose plans to start a delivery-only kitchen have been shelved for now because of the lockdown.

India's $50 billion restaurant industry is already set to lose an estimated $9 billion this year, and that could force a quarter of the nation's restaurants to shut down, according to the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI).

A.D. Singh, founder of Olive Group of Restaurants, fears reduced customer numbers due to greater social distancing will sound a death knell for many restaurants in cities such as Mumbai and New Delhi, where rents are sky-high.

"We will have to shut at least four or five restaurants," said Singh, who operates dozens across India.

While the food services industry across the globe is expected take a hit, the situation in India is especially grim given the large percentage of people employed in the informal economy who have no safety net or alternate income.

Restaurateurs say they are now looking to cut employment, shelve expansion plans and rework their business models to be able to cope, as sharp salary and job cuts in other sectors may set the customers' incomes back by years.

Reuters spoke to at least 10 restaurant operators, who were either planning to shut some of their businesses or shelving plans to open new ones.

The NRAI estimates more than 1.5 million jobs will be lost in the restaurant sector amid the fallout.

Anurag Katriar, who is president of the NRAI and runs popular outlets like Indigo Deli, said that after April he "might not be able to pay salaries at all".

Also Read: Ex-Fortis promoter Shivinder Singh seeks bail on coronavirus ground; HC rejects plea

Also Read: Coronavirus pandemic: When and how lockdown will be lifted? A primer
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday tweeted on the occasion of World Health Day and urged the citizens to extend their gratitude towards nurses and healthcare workers who are battling against the Covid-19 menace.

Today on #WorldHealthDay, let us not only pray for each others good health and well-being but also reaffirm our gratitude towards all those doctors, nurses, medical staff and healthcare workers who are bravely leading the battle against the COVID-19 menace, PM Modi tweeted.

The Prime Minister also reiterated the importance of maintaining social distancing in the fight against coronavirus.

PM Modi also hoped that the day will inspire people to focus on their personal fitness and health.

Today on #WorldHealthDay, let us not only pray for each others good health and well-being but also reaffirm our gratitude towards all those doctors, nurses, medical staff and healthcare workers who are bravely leading the battle against the COVID-19 menace.   Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 7, 2020

This #WorldHealthDay, let us also ensure we follow practices like social distancing which will protect our own lives as well as the lives of others. May this day also inspire us towards focusing on personal fitness through the year, which would help improve our overall health, PMs tweet read.

This #WorldHealthDay, let us also ensure we follow practices like social distancing which will protect our own lives as well as the lives of others. May this day also inspire us towards focusing on personal fitness through the year, which would help improve our overall health.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 7, 2020

United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres posted a video message on the occasion and said that the healthcare workers and nurses make everyone proud and instil inspiration.

Guterres said that the world is grateful to all health workers who are putting up a fight against coronavirus.

World Health Day this year comes at a very difficult time for all of us. We are more grateful than ever to all of our health workers fighting the #COVID19 pandemic. You make us proud and you inspire us. We stand with you and we count on you, Guterres tweeted.

World Health Day is celebrated every year on April 7. This years World Health Day theme is dedicated to honouring the indefatigable work of nurses and midwives across the globe.
1. Yes. The downtown area needs a good draw. Some quality taverns would be a plus.

2. Yes. Too many storefronts are vacant. Bars could help to bring in needed revenue.

3. No. Putting a number of bars downtown is just asking for trouble. Dont change things.

4.No. Several churches have located downtown. Putting bars close by would be a bad fit.

5. Unsure. It would depend on how the law is written and what standards are enacted.

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Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said that as of 10 p.m. Monday no inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Dunn spoke with members of the Legislatures prison oversight committee through a video conference call this morning about ADOCs preparations and response for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two ADOC employees have tested positive. Dunn said one passed the quarantine period and is doing well. The other is still within the quarantine period and showing no signs of serious illness, the commissioner said.

The agency has conducted 43 COVID-19 tests, the commissioner said. Physicians are evaluating inmates on an individual basis to determine whether they need to be tested, according to protocols Dunn said are established by state and federal health officials.

The prison system set up new restrictions March 16 on visitation, movement of inmates and checking employees before admitting them to facilities. Those with symptoms or a fever of 100.4 degrees or higher are not admitted.

On March 20, the ADOC notified counties it would not be accepting inmates into ADOC custody for 30 days. Dunn said the prison system is working to revamp its intake process with a goal of resuming admissions on April 20, as scheduled.

That will be assessed based on current conditions when we get to that date, Dunn said. But right now thats what were planning for.

The commissioner said facilities are being retrofitted with quarantine areas to allow intake to resume.

Dunn said he knows its just a matter of time before an inmate will test positive. He said the ADOC is seeking additional spaces, including the possibility of field hospitals or other alternative sites.

We have done a pretty thorough infrastructure assessment so we know what each facilitys capability is, Dunn said. And admittedly, some facilities have greater capability than others to quarantine in the event of a positive inmate test.

The commissioner said the system has put in special protocols to protect and monitor inmates who are most vulnerable to serious illness, including those in infirmaries and at Hamilton Aged and Infirmed Center.

We have a pretty clear identification of those inmates that would be considered aged and infirm or immune-compromised, have heart disease, diabetes, all of those things that are high risk factors, Dunn said. And were taking additional measures within the prison system to protect them.

Rep. Jim Hill, R-Moody, asked Dunn if the ADOC was considering establishing guidelines to move inmates who are older or have health conditions to community corrections programs. Dunn said an initiative to release inmates to community programs would have to involve the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles.

But Terry Abbott, spokesman for the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, said the board has no role in the community corrections program.

Dunn said so far there has not been a major problem with staff absenteeism because of the pandemic.

A lot of folks are pulling together," Dunn said. Im very proud of the staff. The staff obviously is one of our biggest concerns.

Related: Advocates call for Alabama to release prisoners amid COVID-19 crisis.

Related: Alabama prison systems COVID-19 plan anticipates widespread infection, deaths, National Guard intervention.

This story was updated at 2:08 p.m. to add statement saying that Pardons and Paroles is not involved in community corrections.
An Indian-origin man was charged with breaching stay at home' notice in Singapore on Tuesday.

According to the chargesheet, Palanivelu Ramasamy, 48, was given a stay-home' notice on March 21 by an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officer, Channel Asia reported.

However, Ramasamy, a newspaper delivery man, allegedly left his apartment in Block 105 Towner Road on March 30 without reasonable excuse. He is accused of using public transport to travel and deliver newspapers.

Ramasamy is set to plead guilty later this month under the recently enacted regulations for breaching stay-home notice, in the first charging of its kind.

For breaching a stay-home order under the Infectious Diseases (COVID-19 - stay orders) Regulations 2020, Ramasamy could be jailed for up to six months, fined a maximum of SGD10,000 or both.

Similarly, a Chinese-origin man was charged on Tuesday for breaking his stay-home order after the man posted photos of having bak kut, a Chinese pork dish, at a hawker centre.

Alan Tham Xiang Sheng, 34, is accused of exposing others to the risk of infection when he had reason to suspect that he was a case, carrier or contact of a disease. He was charged under the Infectious Diseases Act.

He returned to Singapore from Myanmar on March 23 this year and was issued a 14-day stay-home notice, requiring him to stay home until Apr 6.

The notice requires a person to stay in their residence at all times throughout the two-week period.

According to the chargesheet, Tham knew he was a suspected contact of a person with COVID-19 and was subjected to the stay-home notice.

However, he allegedly exposed others to the risk of infection by appearing in public places including the Koufu Food Centre at Changi Airport Terminal 3. Once a stay-home' notice is issued, authorities check the suspected virus cases using text messages, GPS location via their mobile phones, random phone calls and house visits.

Those who receive a phone call will have to take photos of their surroundings to verify their whereabouts, according to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA).

They will also need to monitor their health closely, with temperature checks twice daily and for respiratory symptoms like cough and breathlessness.

Tham, who turned up in court wearing a mask a day after completing his stay-home notice, was unrepresented.

When District Judge Adam Nakhoda asked what he intended to do, Tham said: "I plead guilty to this, because I already explained everything but it's like ... they don't take what I'm trying to say."



The judge set a date for him to plead guilty later this month and adjourned the case.

Meanwhile, seven food and beverage (F&B) outlets and one retail store have been issued advisory letters for not implementing adequate safe distancing measures, Enterprise Singapore (ESG) said on Tuesday (Apr 7).

The outlets are ChiCha San Chen at Jem and Tampines 1, Kaffe and Toast at Clementi Mall, Koi at VivoCity and Jurong Point, Nakhon Kitchen at VivoCity, Ya Kun at JEM and Courts at Tampines Mall, reported the Channel.

Despite multiple reminders to rectify and adhere to the measures, the outlets did not comply, ESG said in a press release.

In March, the government introduced safe distancing measures in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the island nation. This includes incorporating mobile payments and ensuring there is enough space between customers lining up in queues.

The ESG's surveillance teams conduct regular checks and work with businesses who may need guidance on implementation.

About 10,000 F&B and retail outlets in shopping malls have been checked so far, ESG said.

Majority have implemented safe distancing measures and some are in the process of rectifying their measures, it added.

The ESG also reminded businesses to comply with the new measures, which include the closure of non-essential services and a ban on dining at F&B establishments during the month-long circuit breaker period starting Tuesday.

The agency is looking to deploy twice as many Safe Distancing Ambassadors during this time, it added.

The Ministry of Health has put the regulations into effect from March 26 to give legal force to safe distancing measures and provide enhanced enforcement for breaches of stay-home notices.

The coronavirus has claimed six lives and infected over 1,300 people in Singapore.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 65-year-old man deliberately coughed and spat on food in a Massachusetts grocery store.

The man, from Duxbury, was tackled to the floor by other shoppers before the police arrived at the Stop & Shop in Kingston, Massachusetts.

The man was taken to hospital as a precaution but police say they do not think he has deadly coronavirus, which has killed more than 10,000 people and infected more than 360,000 in the US alone.

A 65-year-old man deliberately coughed and spat on food in a Massachusetts supermarket and was tackled to the floor by bystanders

Witnesses said the 'extremely aggressive' man tried to punch an employee who intervened after he was seen coughing and spitting on produce.

The employee responded by hitting the man in the face. The man was then dragged to the floor by onlookers.

Video footage recorded at the scene shows the man - whose name has not been released by police - being held down by three other men.

One can be heard shouting 'don't try to get up'.

The shoppers kept the man on the ground before the police arrived at the Stop & Shop in Kingston, Massachusetts

If the man returns to the shop, he will be arrested for trespassing, the Patriot Ledger reported.

Kyle Mann, 18, who recorded the video, said: 'I was shopping in the produce [aisle], when all of a sudden I turned the corner.

'I saw a worker and the man yelling with other people watching.

'While that was happening, I heard them talking about him spitting and coughing on the produce, which is how I learned what happened seconds after I arrived and shot the video.'

Any items that could have been contaminated have been thrown away by staff and the area has been deep cleaned and disinfected.
According to health officials, Elon Musk's ventilators can't be used for Coronavirus patients and is doing more harm than good. Elon Musk donated 40 ventilators to New York City's hospital system earlier this week, however the devices aren't powerful enough to use in ICU. Health officials have warned that using Musk's ventilators on coronavirus patients could spread the virus further rather than prevent it.

Special thanks to @Tesla for a donation of 40 ventilators to our team at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst #inQueens. These will be essential in the fight against the #coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/X3EwUxGFMl  NYC Health + Hospitals (@NYCHealthSystem) March 31, 2020

Musk purchased and donated BiPAP machines, however hospitals need ventilators that are more invasive than BiPAP and CPAP machines. BiPAP machines by ResMed are "bi-level, non-invasive ventilators however it is a 5-year-old device that is not fulfilling the purpose as intended. Most doctors don't even consider this device as a ventilator.

 Reuters

A report by NPR also claims that these ventilators can "possibly increase the spread of infectious disease by aerosolizing the virus. The American Society of Anesthesiologists and officials in King County, Washington CPAP have warned against using these machines.

However, not all is lost as some experts are suggesting machines donated by Elon Musk is a sleep apnea device that can help patients with mild coronavirus symptoms. The machine can assist patients in breathing albeit not for patients with serious symptoms. While Musk may have donated the wrong machine for fighting Coronavirus, it could still come in handy at hospitals.

Source: NPR, Financial Times
Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) boss Major General Mohamed Badi has rubbished claims by Governor Mike Sonko that he is overstepping on his mandate.

Sonko issued a statement on Saturday canceling the planned deployment of all county workers. He claimed the NMS and the Public Service Commission have no jurisdiction over Nairobi county employees, adding that the responsibility remains with the Nairobi County Public Service Board.

There is a Presidential Directive expressly prohibiting all public gatherings. It is therefore the height of impunity for the newly created Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), through the Public Service Commission (PSC), to purport to summon 6,052 employees of the Nairobi City County Government to KICC on Monday and Tuesday next week to collect the alleged letters of redeployment, with total disregard to the great risk they shall be exposing to these employees as the country battles with the COVID-19 pandemic

The public gathering called by the NMS, through the PSC, scheduled for Monday, April 6th and Tuesday, April 7th, 2020 is hereby CANCELLED until further notice. This is in line with the Presidential Directives issued to combat the spread of the Corona Virus, said Sonko.

During the issuance of letters at Uhuru Park on Monday, Maj-General Badi stated categorically that he is in charge of all the human resource and assets, including vehicles in the Health, Transport, Public Works and Urban Planning dockets.

Governor Mike Sonko personally signed the Deed of Transfer and handed over the four key functions to the National Government and Im the one in charge of those functions now. I officially took them over on March 18, 2020, and on top of that, the Nairobi County Assembly had a Special Sitting where they approved the handover of those functions to me, said Maj.Gen Badi.

Adding: I have control over the personnel and even the assets including vehicles as well as the offices that had been assigned to these four departments which are now under my control.
Casual nurses in South Australian public hospitals who have had their shifts cut or lost their jobs are calling on the state government to allow them to help with the COVID-19 fight.

Following the ban of non-urgent elective surgeries in public hospitals, hundred of casual nurses have been left without work.

They are ineligible to access government income subsidies as they are government employees.

Casual nurses in South Australian public hospitals who have had their shifts cut or lost their jobs are calling on the state government to allow them to help with the COVID-19 fight. A nurse is seen at the Mount Barker Hospital in Adelaide

State parliament resumes on Tuesday with the opposition calling for those nurses to be deployed in roles to help stop the spread of the virus, like contact tracing or phone calling vulnerable residents.

Opposition Health spokesman Chris Picton said nurses are staring down unemployment at a time when they are needed most.

'We can't leave our nursing heroes unable to pay their bills and forced onto Centrelink queues,' he said.

'We must do everything we can to look after our health heroes, just as they look after us.'

The state's Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation chief Elizabeth Dabars said the branch was also calling on SA Health to provide guidance on PPE usage for nurses, midwives and personal care workers after weeks of requests.

'We have lost patience waiting for the evidence-based guidance,' Ms Dabars said.

'In the absence of available guidelines from your employer, ANMF is directing members to use the level of PPE that they feel is appropriate for the situation and assures their safety.'
Three people released in connection with the murder of Robbie Lawlor in Belfast on Saturday have been released unconditionally.

Two men, aged 30 and 33, and a 17-year-old boy were questioned by detectives investigating the murder of the 36-year-old.

A 27-year-old man who was also being questioned was released unconditionally on Monday.

Lawlor, from Coolock in the Republic of Ireland was shot multiple times outside a house in the Etna Drive area.

Police believe a single gunman was involved in the killing.

Lawlor has been linked to the murder of Drogheda teen Keane Mulready-Woods whose dismembered remains were found in various locations of north Dublin in January.

Police are asking anyone with any information about the murder to contact detectives on 101 quoting reference number 562 04/04/20, whilst anyone with CCTV, dashcam or mobile phone footage recorded in the area of Etna Drive and Kingston Court on Saturday is asked to upload it to Major Incident Public Portal, which can be accessed from any device with internet access on https://mipp.police.uk/operation/PSNI20P04-PO1
A US healthcare giant has given the green light to its doctors and nurses to volunteer to work saving lives at Londons new Nightingale Hospital.

HCA, whose London hospitals include the Portland where the Duchess of Sussex gave birth, will pay the salaries of any of its more than 1,600 medics who put their names forward for jobs at the Nightingale.

It will also allow other staff to help out while staying on full pay in a move intended to help the NHS cope with the unprecedented challenge of tackling the coronavirus crisis.

The offer of help follows an appeal by the NHS for volunteers to work at the new Docklands hospital  which has been built in less than a fortnight for Covid 19 patients  and was communicated in an email sent to his staff by John Reay, the chief executive of HCA Healthcare UK.

In it, Mr Reay says that there is an immediate need .. for HCA UK colleagues, both clinical and non-clinical, to volunteer to work at NHS Nightingale Hospital.

Inside the first NHS Nightingale Hospital

Mr Reay adds: I know your expertise is much needed for the hospital and I hope you will now volunteer to help. Thank you in advance to those of you that step forward.

His email, which was accompanied by a separate email to managers urging them to encourage staff to volunteer, makes clear that those who go to help at the Nightingale will remain HCA employees and continue to receive their normal pay. That is intended to remove any deterrent to volunteering.

Announcing the move formally today, Mr Reay said there had already been a great response and added: "Uniting across the healthcare sector has never been more important, and I am proud that we, and indeed the whole independent sector, are able to support the NHS by providing vital resource, equipment and expertise.

"We are treating NHS patients in our hospitals, and we have asked HCA UK colleagues, both clinical and non-clinical where they have the capacity, to volunteer to work at NHS Nightingale Hospital. We are deeply honoured to have this opportunity to be part of the national response to the coronavirus pandemic.

HCA Healthcare UK, which is part of the US healthcare giant, Hospital Corporation of America, runs six private hospitals in London.

It has also provided 22 ventilators so far to the NHS after being told that each will save 20 lives and provided beds in its hospitals for NHS patients to ease the pressure on health service.

Its hospitals include the Portland, where the Duchess of Sussex, Victoria Beckham, Liz Hurley and the Duchess of York have all given birth, and the Wellington Hospital, which is the largest private hospital in Britain.
Hospitals in Tasmania have banned visitors in a bid to stop the spread of deadly coronavirus.

As of midday on Tuesday family and friends will not be able to visit their loved ones under strict new social-distancing measures.

Two people have died from COVID-19 in Tasmania, out of 89 cases. A total of 34 people have recovered.

Visits will only be allowed for people visiting their partners after childbirth, parents visiting their dependent child, and 'compassionate and end-of-life reasons', ABC reported.

Six workers and one patient have been tested positive to COVID-19 in North West Regional Hospital (pictured) in Burnie, Tasmania

The new restrictions come after six workers and one patient tested positive to COVID-19 in North West Regional Hospital in Burnie.

'This outbreak shows how quickly, how easily, these matters can take hold and we need to ensure we get on top of it,' Premier Peter Gutwein said.

Tasmania's first victim was a woman in her 80s who died in the hospital on March 30.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

The second victim was an elderly man who died on March 31 at Royal Hobart Hospital.

'It serves as a warning to us all that these are going to be tough and difficult times and we must all do our part to keep Tasmania safe,' Mr Gutwein said last week.

'This virus is deadly, this virus will kill you, take the necessary steps.

'Social distancing and abiding by the rules will save your life ... stay home and save lives.'

The Premier also said compassionate and end-of-life visits will be allowed for aged care residents.

'What we don't want over the Easter period is people with time on their hands thinking 'what we'll do is pop over and see mum and dad',' Mr Gutwein said.

'We want to ensure we keep the most vulnerable in the state safe.'

The strict new measures are expected to be reviewed in two weeks as Australia pushes to slow the curve of COVID-19.

Australia currently has currently recorded 5,895 positive cases of COVID-19 with 2,315 recoveries.

The national death toll sits at 45 as Australians are urged to maintain social distancing and self-isolation over the Easter period.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the fuel subsidy regime under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration is a monumental fraud; a huge and unpardonable scam against our nation.

In a statement signed by Kola Ologbondiyan, National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, the party chargeed officials of APC-led government to stop lying to Nigerians and tell the truth of how trillions of naira, claimed to have been paid as subsidy, was cornered by APC leaders and members of the cabal in the Buhari Presidency.

The PDP described Mondays declaration by the NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, that there will be no more subsidy and under-recovery as dramatic.

The statement reads:

Our party notes that if the Federal Government is running away from its subsidy policy, the substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources, President Buhari or his minister of state, Timi Sylva, should muster the courage to announce this to Nigerians through a policy statement.

Our party holds that this sudden announcement of an end to fuel subsidy and commencement of a deregulation regime of the oil sector is a desperate step by the Buhari administration to stave off an investigation into the siphoning of trillions of naira by APC leaders using phony subsidy claims.

The PDP invites Nigerians to note how President Buhari set the stage for unprecedented subsidy looting under his regime.

It would be recalled that in his bid to smear the PDP, President Buhari, while leading the agitation against the decision by the PDP administration to deregulate the oil sector in 2012, declared that fuel subsidy does not exist. He had called the subsidy regime and its operators a fraud.

Rather than riding on this declaration on assumption of office, the Buhari Presidency provided official cover for the cabal and APC leaders to use his ascendancy to power to engage in underhand dealings, plunder our nations subsidy resources, pillaged trillions of naira from the oil cashbox, only to now turn around to announce an end to subsidy, seeing that there is nothing left to steal with the current international price crash.

We ask, could this be the reason behind Mr. Presidents inability to make any concrete statement on the exposed subsidy scam under his administration in the last five years?

Could it also be the reason the oil subsidy, which Nigerians where enjoying under the PDP, was adjudged a fraud but suddenly ceased to be a fraud from 2015 till Monday, even when Nigerians no longer enjoyed any benefit from the payout within this period?

Nigerians now know the reason the APC administration had refused to allow for an independent inquest into the alleged N1.4 trillion oil subsidy sleaze through which certain APC leaders were benefiting from alleged N58 hidden toll per litre which Nigerians were forced to bear for years, after fuel price was increased by the APC administration from PDPs subsidized cost of N87 to N145 per litre.

It is now clear to all why the APC administration had resorted to muddling up oil revenue transactions, refused to open up on federation equity of crude while frustrating free flow of information on product exchange and revenue remittances, and why they have been promoting reports on imaginary pipeline losses as well as other opaque and non-transparent transaction in a sector that is directly under the supervision of Mr. President.

This is in addition to the over N14 trillion stolen through various shady oil subsidy contracts, including the stolen N9 trillion detailed by the leaked NNPC memo and the N1.1 trillion worth of crude stolen with 18 unregistered vessels linked to APC interests, all of which the Buhari Presidency had refused to investigate despite demands by Nigerians.

The PDP therefore insists that the decision of the APC-led administration to embrace subsidy now that oil price had crashed cannot foreclose the irretrievable demand for forensic audit of all the fraudulent under-recoveries, through which funds meant for subsidy were diverted to private pockets of APC leaders.

The PDP is also demanding a forensic audit of over-bloated 60 million litres of petrol that NNPC claimed it was importing under its former GMD, Dr. Maikanti Baru, to justify the fraudulent subsidy pay out.

The PDP urged the National Assembly to stand on the side of Nigerians, expose all those involved, who got what in this huge scam against our nation as well as take steps to recover the over N14 trillion stolen by the cabal and certain APC leaders and channel same for the welfare of Nigerians especially at this critical time.
(Newser)  The parents of two kids killed in an Arizona flash flood in November have been hit with charges after those children, plus one of their young nieces, all drowned in the floodwaters. A spokesman for the Gila County Sheriff's Office confirmed to People that Daniel Rawlings was charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter, as well as seven counts of child abuse. His wife, Lacey Rawlings, was also charged with seven counts of child abuse. Daniel Rawlings was said to have been behind the wheel Thanksgiving weekend of a military-style vehicle that allegedly drove around a barricade erected to keep people from using a crossing over the swollen Tonto Creek. The vehicle got caught up in the rushing waters, and while Daniel and Lacey Rawlings managed to escape the vehicle with two of their children and two of their nieces, three children were swept away, per KPHO.

story continues below

Those children were IDed as the Rawlingses' 5-year-old son, Colby; 6-year-old daughter, Willa; and 5-year-old niece, Austin. Although Daniel Rawlings said "no comment" when asked for one by KPHO, Bruce Griffen, Daniel Rawlings' attorney, tells the station his client is "disappointed" about the charges against him. Lacey Rawlings had earlier blasted "keyboard warriors" and told the outlet that people don't understand what the family is going through. "Everybody's a critic," she said, per People. As of Monday, Daniel Rawlings hadn't yet been arrested, as the coronavirus outbreak has complicated logistics, Griffen says. "Everyone recognized that Mr. Rawlings is not a flight risk," he says, adding he's not the lawyer for Lacey Rawlings. A preliminary hearing for Daniel Rawlings is set for April 21, though it's not clear if virus shutdowns will affect that date. (Read more flash floods stories.)
P.B OTOKUNORs OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT AKUFO ADDO 



COVID19 IMPACT MITIGATION MEASURES: TRICKS or TREATS?



Tuesday, 7th April, 2020



Good Morning Mr. President yesterday, in your COVID 19 National Address, you outlined a series of interesting impact mitigation measures ostensibly in response to some of the key short term to medium term economic mitigation measures recommended by Former President Mahama in an address on Saturday 4th April. Not only does this response give meaning to the importance of collective involvement in the battle against this dreaded enemy, but also illuminates the supremacy and importance of the Social Democratic ideology of the NDC, a philosophy that drives shared common welfare for the people. It is in the spirit of this same philosophy that through our Leader, the NDC has dedicated itself to join in the frontline of this battle in full non-partisan solidarity with the government.



Mr. President, permit me to commend you for the various impact mitigation intervention announced, but also to quickly add quite frankly, that we wish we could trust you sir. Your promises so far and what you deliver are very far apart.



First of all Mr. President, the need for this intervention at this time cannot be over emphasize, so its announcement can not represent a favour to the people.



Mr President, just a mere cursory analysis of the situation, brings out three major fundamental areas of economic distress for families, that may present a livelihood challenge under this lockdown situation.

Mr President the first of these needs is the provision of Food. Available evidence shows that about 15 million Ghanaians operate in the informal sector and some 13 million live by what is described as hand-to-mouth. This means if they do not move a single day, they do not eat. Therefore, for this people a lockdown simply means, no food to eat. This brings into importance, the role and purpose for establishing the National Buffer Stock Company, another Mills-Mahama legacy. I take delight in your announcement that feeding arrangement will be made for some 400,000 individuals by some Faith Based Organisations in collaboration with the MMDAs and NADMO.



Mr. President, I think this provision is woefully inadequate, as it constitutes only about 3% of the people who may need food support in this lockdown. This is the time for the government to take full responsibility and design a transparent food distribution plan for the entire country, especially the lockdown areas. As it stands now, your announcement raises more questions than answers. What is the selection criteria for the 400,000 individuals? How many square meals per day? Which areas or settlements are qualified for the feeding arrangements? How many household qualify for the distribution of the dry food stuffs?



Mr President, I think we should be guided by our food-riots history and our obviously less than robust food security systems, and speedily setup of an efficient and a robust food distribution regime. The failure to do this makes nonsense of all the public health measures and renders the lockdown directives ineffective. In fact as it stand now, the lockdown is already experiencing compliance challenges, a typical example is the situation I experience in Agbogbloshie market last Thursday, where people had thrown caution to the wind and are briskly flouting all social distancing protocols in search of food. The markets remain crowded across the affected cities, because of the need for food. When people start experiencing food shortages both in terms of availability and affordability, no measure of restriction and its enforcement can be effective. Then what becomes of our stay home, stop the spread campaign? The restriction begins to face resistance, rendering all the control protocols needless and drawing the nation closer to an imminent chaos.



Mr. President the second of the critical needs, is the provision of regular and affordable supply of electricity and/or fuel. Available evidence shows that over 85% of Ghanaian households have access to electricity and as you may already be aware, electricity has become an indispensable commodity in our livelihood, especially if you have to stay home. With all the financial challenges associated with this lockdown, one would have expected a truly workable and equitable social mitigation intervention that takes into prior consideration accessibility, availability and affordability of electricity. While it is commendable to introduce a measure to absorb the water bills for all Ghanaians for the next three months, I believe that you would have served the large mass of people, better and more equitably if you had tackled electricity cost. It appears you chose a timid path and made a choice of convenience rather than necessity. Indeed the data shows that only 18% of the entire Ghanaian population have access to potable drinking water out of which 8.5% are rural water supply systems. Rural water supply is ostensibly free sir.



Mr. President dont you agree with me, it would have been more useful and beneficial to a large mass of our people, if for example the electricity bills of households below a certain threshold of consumption is absorbed by the government for the said period, whiles those in the middle consumption brackets are given a 50% reduction in the tariffs for the same period?



Dont you think a socially responsive government should also consider reducing fuel prices drastically, especially as global prices of fuel plummets to as low as about US$ 26.41per barrel?



Dont you think this would have been an effective way to alleviate the cost of managing public transport, especially as you have directed to load only half of its passenger capacity in compliance with the social distance protocol? This certainly would have made it possible for drivers to make ends meet to survive the lockdown.



Dont you think such a decision will also help to reduce the cost of running household generators as electricity continuous to be unreliable and unstable even after your directives to the ECG against same? Well, it appears your directive itself may be unreliable and unstable, just as the electricity supply, because, just some few days ago, GRIDCO was in the news decrying the lack of sustained financing to fuel various dual power generation plants, even though crude oil prices are currently as low as $26.41 per barrel. This according to GRIDCO accounts for the intermittent power outages we are experiencing in several parts of the country.



Mr. President need I draw your attention to what your other counterparts are doing in their countries? Some have taken very bold and decisive steps to offer free electricity as can be seen in Togo and DR Congo. Our friends in Nigeria are also on the verge of enrolling same as reported widely on the news web in the link below https://www.channelstv.com/2020/04/05/covid-19-reps-seek-2-month-free-power-supply-to-nigerians/



As it stands now, the water bill intervention could only benefit the privileged more than the targeted vulnerable and underprivileged in society. This is because 65% out of the 76% urban dwellers who have access to pipe borne water are in the middle to upper class brackets, hence may not necessarily have water bill payment problems. Majority of our urban dwellers who rely on this pipe borne water are those who carry Kufour gallons, buckets and head pans to go fetch water and pay between 20 pesewas to GHC 1 per fetch. Before I leave the water-bill business, may I ask what measures you have put in place to eliminate politicization and rent-seeking in the water tankers distribution plan?



Mr. President the other important need we need to address is money. Your counterparts are providing financial support to their citizens even in advanced countries. What are you doing sir? I took an exciting note of the measure to pay all health professionals 50% allowance on their basic salary, only to be disappointed in less than 24hours by your Information Minister, who claimed the gesture is for only a few frontline health professionals working in COVID 19 isolation centers. Mr. President I want to believe the minister misspoke, if not, kindly provide us the needed clarification on what really you meant, so that we can settle this confusion.



Finally Mr. President I have realized that all the interventions you announced may require some GHC1billion (US$ 200 million). This is double the amount of money you mention in your maiden address. What happened to the first US$ 100 million announced? Is the initial amount different from this US$ 200 million? Is it true that you are drawing the US$ 200 million from the National Stabilization Fund? The fund established by President Mahama amidst your fierce opposition?



Mr. President was it tricks or treats when you said My father Mahama left me very little inheritance so bear with me? It does appear that, but for President Mahamas legacies in government, we would have been really doomed as nation in this Coronavirus crisis. Dont you agree with me?



When it came to the isolation Centers, President Mahamas Legacy hospitals were there,



When it came to mass testing of COVID 19 cases, President Mahamas Legacy Onuador Vans were there,



When it came to emergency spending on COVID 19, President Mahamas Stabilization fund was there,



When it came to public health education, President Mahama in opposition is still there,



When it came to dealing with the shortage of PPEs for our health professionals, opposition leader John Mahama was still there.



Well, I heard you donated your 3 months future salary to the COVID 19 fund, good one, but Mr. President dont you think we need the money now to fight the pandemic, so as to prevent the crisis from extending beyond the next two months? Or was it a salary advance your were requesting from the Controller and Accountants General? If that is the case, can all public sector workers be allowed to benefit from such arrangements? As you may be aware things are tighter in this lock down situation, and all may need salary advance.



Mr. President let me once again commend you for listening to President Mahamas advice on how to deal with this crisis, experience they say is the best teacher, Im sure you agree with me on this one. Well, since you have shown to listen to President Mahamas advise please kindly consider as a matter of urgency the following proposals, they may be exceedingly useful;



Cancel the 50% increment in the Communication Service Tax (CST) and negotiate with Telcos to reduce their prices for airtime and data, in exchange for a free extension of licenses for 6-months and other incentives.

Scrap taxes on essential products such as sanitizers, wipes, food, among others to make these items readily available and accessible for our people.

Reprogramme the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) program, to target more poor and needy households in this time of crisis.

In conclusion, Mr. President let me bring to your attention that one of your officers have shot an innocent citizen in cold blood at Ashaiman in a Rambo Style enforcement of the restriction of movements. It actually happened several hours before your address to the nation and I didnt hear you talk about it. Did your handlers failed to brief you or you chose not to mention it? Well, I think I remember you mentioning that it was unpatriotic for people to share foreign videos as if it was what is happening in Ghana. What about Ashaiman sir?



Mr. President what about your favorite quote by Daniel W. Snare who said We can build our economy back to life, but we cannot bring dead people back to life. Dont you think all the officers may have to live by this favorite quote of yours? I have seen you tweet about the health of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, can you do same about the Ashaiman incidence, at least to express your condolence to the family for their unfortunate loss?



Is it tricks or treats, Mr. President? Thank you for your attention.



May God bless us all and make our Nation greater and stronger.

Yours in the struggle for a Better and Prosperous Ghana,



Cde. Peter Boamah Otokunor

(NDC Deputy General Secretary  Operations)

Source: Otokunor









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Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 20:26:08|Editor: xuxin

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HARARE, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday sent a goodwill message to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who is in intensive care at a British hospital after being struck by COVID-19.

"On behalf of the people of Zimbabwe, I wish Prime Minister @BorisJohnson a speedy recovery and return to good health.

"We stand in solidarity with him and the British people during these challenging times," Mnangagwa said on his Twitter handle.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has risen to 10 in Zimbabwe after one more person tested positive to the virus on Monday.

Zimbabwe is currently under a 21-day national lockdown that ends on April 19.
More than 5,000 people took part over the weekend in a virtual "hackathon" in Switzerland to generate fresh ideas for how to deal with and combat COVID-19

More than 5,000 people took part over the weekend in a virtual "hackathon" in Switzerland to generate fresh ideas for how to deal with and combat COVID-19, organisers said Monday.

The event, backed by Swiss authorities, kicked off on Friday evening and ran through the weekend, and on Monday evening the organisers announced the 42 best projects.

A total of 4,610 people signed up and, with the support of some 500 mentors, were separated into hundreds of teams tasked with tackling more than 190 different challenges, including generating ideas on how better to protect those most vulnerable to the new coronavirus, data against fake news and the impact of quarantine on mental health.

The 48-hour event also including morning yoga sessions, online concerts and a dance party.

"It has been a mind-blowing success," Christoph Birkholz, the event's co-initiator, told AFP. "It is beyond words."

He said the event was inspired by large-scale recent hackathons in Germany, Estonia and Poland, but that the Swiss event was aimed to appeal to non-techies, who made up a majority of participants.

Among the participants was Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset, the head of the Swiss parliament along with 25 other parliamentarians, as well as representatives from a broad range of professions, including medicine, education and science.

The large numbers of people joining the event, using online tools that many were not familiar with, had posed some challenges, Birkholz said, adding, though, that it was also a great opportunity.

"Many of the participants have never used the Slack tool. Many didn't know what Zoom is. So I think that is an intended side effect, a sort of experience learning of the tools that everyone currently needs," he said.

The projects highlighted included a long line of apps, including one to help patients write their advanced health directives, a real-time tracking app of bed availability at all Swiss hospitals, and a mobile education app to help teachers keep track of their remote-learning students' progress.

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But they also included more analogue projects, including a possible book project reflecting on Switzerland's post-COVID-19 future.

Each of the highlighted projects will each receive 1,000 Swiss francs ($1,020, 950 euros) in funding, with the possibility to apply for additional funding from a pool of 250,000 francs, the organisers said.

"This is not the end of a process," Birkholz said. "I hope it is just the beginning."
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Apr. 07, 2020 | PADUCAH

By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 07, 2020 | 11:11 AM | PADUCAH

A Hopkinsville man whose prison sentence was recently commuted by former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin after pleading guilty to charges stemming from his role in a 2014 sexual assault is now facing a federal child porn charge related to the same incident.



United States Attorney Russell Coleman says 24-year-old Dayton Jones is charged via a federal Criminal Complaint with one count of producing child pornography. Authorities say the charge stems from video Jones shared online of a sexual assault he participated in at a house party against an unconscious teen.



Jones previously pleaded guilty in Christian Circuit Court to charges of sodomy, wanton endangerment, and distribution of material depicting the sexual performance of a minor. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.



Bevin Commuted Jones' sentence during his final days in office in 2019, a move that has sparked some controversy.



Jones now faces a mandatory minimum 15-year sentence in federal prison, and could spend up to 30 years behind bars. He also faces a $250,000 fine, and supervised release of five years to life.




(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The United States plans to start a strategic dialogue with Iraq in the middle of June and plans to discuss all key issues on bilateral agenda, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a press briefing on Tuesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th April, 2020) The United States plans to start a strategic dialogue with Iraq in the middle of June and plans to discuss all key issues on bilateral agenda, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a press briefing on Tuesday.

The United States has proposed a strategic dialogue with the government of Iraq to be held in the middle of June," Pompeo told reporters. "All strategic issues between our two countries will be on the agenda, including the future presence of the US forces."
Posted on: April 7, 2020 1:56 PM

The new Assistant Curate for the Offa Mission Area, a group of churches along the English-Welsh border in North Wales, made history last week after being licenced by video-conferencing. Heather Shotton should have been licensed during a service at St Marys Church in Ruabon on Passion Sunday (29 March) but the service was one of thousands cancelled across the UK by restrictions designed to curb the spread of Covid-19.

She was licensed during a virtual service on the Zoom video conferencing platform. Heather Shotton was in one place, along with her husband; but was joined online by clergy from six other churches; and the Archdeacon of Wrexham, John Lomas, who carried out the licensing.

Priests can only operate under licensed from a bishop, he said. There are clergy like Heather who had already been placed and were awaiting their license before the present crisis. This would normally take place within a service at their new appointment. So as not to create difficulties and gaps in mission the bishop asked if we could conduct the licensing virtually.

We used the form of service that had been prepared for Heathers welcome and licensing. I brought clergy together from Heathers former church, St Giles in Wrexham and her new Mission Area which includes Ruabon, Chirk and Penycae and we did the service and the license by Zoom.

Heather needed to sign the licence so it has been posted to her.

Heather Shotton is a former nurse in the Royal Navy. Prioe to her new appointment she was an Assistant Curate in Wrexham Mission Area.

The service had been planned for Sunday and I had been expecting to be sharing it with lots of parishioners, friends and colleagues, she said. We were disappointed when that couldnt happen but fortunately we were able to use todays technology to do the licensing virtually. It was quite surreal but lovely at the same time and although there were only a few of us present, I still got the feeling of everyone supporting me.

There will be a service of welcome when the church reopens to which all will be invited.

Following Heather Shottons licensing, two further priests were licenced virtually in the Church in Wales. The Bishop of Monmouth, Cherry Vann, licensed two new parish priests for the Monmouth area. Tim and Karen Dack, a married couple, recently arrived in Wales from New Zealand. On Thursday (2 April) Karen was licensed as priest in charge for the Monmouth Rural Group and Tim as priest in charge of the Monmouth Town Group.

When the church buildings re-open, they be inducted as Mission Area Leaders for their respective areas.

Bishop Chery Vann said: Once we are allowed to gather in our church buildings again, they will both be licenced and inducted as incumbents and there will be parties and a proper welcome for both of them.

Covid-19 restrictions have forced the Church in Wales to postpone many of the events planned to mark its centenary last Wednesday (1 April). The Church in Wales was part of the Church of England until its independence and disestablishment 100 years ago.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 15:30:48|Editor: huaxia

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Teachers hands out face masks to students in Huizhi Middle School in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, April 7, 2020. Students in the final year of junior high schools or vocational schools returned to school on Tuesday in Shaanxi. (Xinhua/Liu Xiao)
Even before President Donald Trump warned India of possible retaliation if the ban on export on hydroxychloroquine was not lifted on Monday, the Modi government had communicated to all countries including US about the change in the policy to facilitate supply of critical drugs through institutionalised channels.

The empowered committee chaired by PM Modis principal secretary PK Mishra took a decision on Monday to lift export restrictions on 14 drugs and allow the export of hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol after an assessment of potential domestic demand and existing supplies.

It is not only about hydroxychloroquine or the US. Indian pharma industry supplies HIV drugs to 8 million patients in south Africa, paracetamol to the UK, 80 % of all drugs to the neighbourhood including Maldives and Mauritius, and will supply hydroxychloroquine to big countries affected by the coronavirus like the US, Spain, Germany and Brazil. For the past three days since the DGFT put a ban on export of hydroxychloroquine on April 4, the empowered committee has been meeting to reconcile the demands of the health ministry and the pharmaceutical industry. We informed all the countries including the US about the change in policy. It is a matter of record, said a senior South Block official.

According to sources, the change in the export policy of critical drugs was communicated to the countries concerned through the External Affairs Ministry early on Monday. The DGFT was told to issue a notification to this effect.

The formal announcement by the foreign ministry was made on Tuesday.

Also Read: Coronavirus case count to guide Indias lockdown future

Anurag Srivastava, the external affairs ministry spokesperson attributed the decision to the humanitarian aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic battle. We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic, he said.

Behind PM Modis decision to lift the export ban is the message that India will not walk out of any commitment on critical drugs particularly at a time when the world is fighting the coronavirus, people familiar with the development said.

India has a $ 50 billion pharma industry that employees a vast force and caters to critical drugs for large parts of the world. Some countries such as Maldives, Seychelles and Mauritius are completely dependent on the Indian industry for its supplies.

Also Read: Theres light at the end of the tunnel | Opinion

Since the US companies had placed hydroxychloroquine orders on 100% export-oriented units in India, the much-needed drug will be supplied almost immediately with the pharma companies sitting on a drug pile.

President Trump had called up PM Modi on Sunday, the day after the DGFT banned hydroxychloroquine export on April 5. The government decided to relax the restriction after satisfying itself that India had enough stocks of essential drugs to meet any possible requirement of the health ministry.

The DGFT notification on licensing hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol is in the works and will be issued any time soon.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shishir Gupta Author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (2011, Hachette) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (2014, Hachette). Awarded K Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 by Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) and the 2011 Ben Gurion Prize by Israel. ...view detail
Mercy University Hospital in Cork wants people to help it buy vital equipment to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The public acute hospital is preparing for a surge in the number of patients who have become seriously ill with the coronavirus over the coming days.

Money raised from the public appeal will be used to buy intensive care beds as well as intravenous pumps, syringes and portable suction machines to help patients with their breathing.

Chief executive of the Mercy University Hospital Foundation, Micheal Sheridan, said any donation will contribute to the effort to purchase critical equipment:

It will also ensure that a team of clinical psychologists will be on hand to help our frontline staff through this crisis by giving them the emotional support they need to keep going."

We are so grateful to all of the staff at the Mercy and to those who have returned to the frontline. They spend their lives putting others before themselves and now its our duty to help them.

Cork has the second-highest number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 cases in Ireland and staff at the hospital are bracing themselves to receive a record number of patients within days.

Dr Chris Luke, who worked as an emergency consultant at the hospital, came out of retirement to join the frontline during the health crisis.

He is urging people in Cork and Munster to support the hospitals Covid-19 fundraising appeal, emphasising that it is needed now more than ever.

Right now, staff at the Mercy University Hospital are responding magnificently to prepared for the task ahead of them, he said.

However, Dr Luke said there is only so much that doctors, nurses and staff can do with the current resources: We expect there to be a big surge in the number of Covid-19 cases arriving at the Mercy University Hospital over the coming days and weeks.

A former Emergency Physician at the Mercy University Hospital, Dr Chris Luke is calling on the publics support which he says is needed now more than ever.

"This will put huge pressure on beds, space equipment and staff."

Dr Luke said many patients will need to be treated in the hospitals intensive care unit and they will need to buy more ICU beds as well as additional medical supplies: Your support will help us bridge the gap between our ICU and the rest of the hospital, allowing us to provide the earliest most advanced critical care we can.

The hospital is already working with members of the defence forces to construct temporary shelters outside the hospital to maximise site capability.

You can donate to the public appeal at:

www.mercyfundraising.ie/covid-19-appeal

or on the Hospital's official Facebook page

The latest restrictions in operation since Friday, March 27 mandate that everyone should stay at home, only leaving to:
Would you lie down on a bed that someone else has tested during the coronavirus pandemic?

Some Americans apparently are doing just that, because certain mattress stores, including locations of the nation's largest mattress retailer, are still open during the COVID-19 crisis.

No. 1 seller Mattress Firm, which has more than 2,500 stores throughout the country, confirmed that some of its locations are still open and said it's taking necessary precautions to protects its employees and customers.

Some smaller mattress shops are also still operating, though stores in California and some other states are closed due to stay-at-home orders that are stricter than in other states. They say they provide an essential service and should be allowed to continue operating.

"Some areas are permitting our stores to stay open based on local orders since furniture and bedding products are still a need for local consumers with family members who may be quarantined in the same home, family members who are sheltering together unexpectedly, and consumers who moved into new homes prior to the commencement of the crisis, among other reasons," Mattress Firm CEO John Eck said in emailed comments provided to USA TODAY through a spokesperson.

"We are reviewing all orders closely to ensure we are in compliance. Depending on the area, we may have phone only contactless stores operating or private appointments, and like many retailers currently operating, were offering the option for contactless, doorstep delivery."

Mattresses are offered for sale at a Mattress Firm store on Dec. 6, 2017, in Chicago.

In Columbus, Ohio, Liberty Freight Furniture and Mattress owner John Corriveau said it would be short-sighted to deem mattress sales as non-essential.

I sell lift chairs and adjustable beds. I sell to group homes," Corriveau said.

But he was also open to the general public for more conventional items as of late March.

I cant say were closing down, but were not asking them to come, Corriveau said.

Some mattress companies are arguing that they're essential businesses because they sell household consumer products, said Michael Magnuson, founder of independent mattress information site GoodBed.

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"And in New York, there is apparently a loophole that allows you to operate your business if it can be staffed by only one employee (which for many mattress stores is typical anyway)," he said in an email.

How they stack up: These are the most (and least) liked mattresses, according to J.D. Power

Mattress competition intensifies: Chinese 'dumping' has slashed mattress prices, but at a cost to the U.S. bedding industry

Tempur Sealy, which sells the Tempur-Pedic brand, said all of its 62 U.S. stores have closed temporarily.

"The safety and health of our customers and employees remains paramount during this time," Tempur Sealy spokesperson Erin Maratea said in an email.

Bed-in-a-box company Casper said it has also closed all of its physical stores but continues to sell mattresses online.

From Reviewed: The best mattresses in a box of 2020

Mattress Firm CEO Eck said the retailer has "adopted heightened sanitation efforts at all stores."

Those steps include "enhanced, regular cleaning of high-touch points," "providing customers with pillow napkin protectors for them to use while lying down on a bed" and asking employees to stay home if they don't feel well or are uncomfortable working, according to a company blog post.

Eck said in the blog post that some customers need to buy a mattress immediately because they "have found themselves in a situation where they have additional family members who may be sheltering together in the same house, some unexpectedly, or they recently moved prior to this crisis, and they all need a place to sleep."

Despite some stores remaining open and online sales continuing, the mattress industry is still suffering from the crisis. It's yet another blow for a sector that has been roiled by intense competition, over-expansion and scandal in recent years. Mattress Firm survived a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 2018 but not without closing several hundred locations.

"Mattresses tend to be pretty cyclical with the economy since they're the type of purchase that you could put off (unlike an appliance, which can break and stop functioning completely, for example)," Magnuson said. "Online sales seem to be a little more resilient but are still negatively affected."

Contributing: Keith BieryGolick of Cincinnati Enquirer

Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Can you buy a mattress during coronavirus? Yes, in some places
Virgin Australia has introduced major changes to its frequent flyer program amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The airline has suspended customers ability to transfer of points from its Velocity scheme to partner Singapore Airline's KrisFlyer plan under the changes made last week.

It has also limited the purchase of retail gift cards using points to once a day.

The changes come as Virgin Australia tries to stay afloat after grounding most of its flights last month after strict travel restrictions were put in place to slow the spread of the deadly disease.

Virgin Australia has limited the purchase of retail gift cards using points to once a day under the changes made last week

The airline also suspended customers ability to transfer of points from its Velocity scheme to partner Singapore Airline's KrisFlyer scheme

Airlines earn revenue by selling loyalty points to credit card companies or retailers. It stays in their pockets as 'unearned revenue' until the customer uses them on flights or products.

As Virgin has no new revenue coming in, the company will be trying to halt loyalty members using up their points and draining their cash flow, Credit Suisse analyst Paul Butler told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Virgin had $497 million in its loyalty scheme last year, while rival Qantas had $2.4 billion in unredeemed frequent flyer revenue.

Analysts believe Virgin could use up its liquidity in three to six months, half as long as Qantas, which should last 12 months.

Virgin has asked the Government for a $1.4billion bailout to keep the airline from folding during the pandemic.

However, senior cabinet ministers appear reluctant to handover the cash.

Virgin had $497 million in its loyalty scheme last year, while rival Qantas had $2.4 billion in unredeemed frequent flyer revenue

The company's chief executive Paul Scurrah said it would be 'temporary support, not a handout'.

'We want to work with government on how best to design this but it will be a repayable loan.'

He said Australians benefited from having competing airlines, resulting in fairer prices.

However, some aviation industry experts have suggested a monopoly would not last long given Australia is a lucrative market.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said his company was not seeking a bailout. However, he said because Qantas' revenue is three times higher than Virgin, if Virgin gets a $1.4 billion loan, it should get a $4.2 billion loan.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said if the government bails out Virgin it would have to do the same for other companies.

'We can't just pick and select individuals and winners out of this,' he told The Australian.

Mr McCormack, who is also transport minister, has suggested Virgin should raise capital from its shareholders.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese said regional Australia will be hurt if one of the major airlines falls through.

'If there is one airline, there will be higher prices. If there is one airline, there will be less routes,' he told reporters in Sydney.

Mr Albanese raised the issue with Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a meeting on Thursday evening.

Passengers from around the world are set to be repaid $57.5 billion in air travel ticket refunds, according to Flightradar24.com data.

The government has waived fees for airlines as part of more than $700 million in measures to help Australia's ailing carriers.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Virgin Australia for comment.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The coronavirus seems to have overtaken every aspect of our lives, from the mundane task of buying toilet paper to the very pressing question of when your spin class will resume. Now its even delaying your tax deadline.

That bill from Uncle Sam will come eventually, though, which means over the next few weeks  or months  Americans and their accountants will be busy trying to squeeze every last dime out of their refunds and taking stock of household expenses.

For many two-career couples, this annual budgeting exercise can become pretty dispiriting. Once you tally up the costs of nannies, daycare, commuting, dry cleaning, housekeeping, meals out and other work-related expenses, the marginal benefit of an additional salary can shrink close to zero. If one partner decides to quit, its the one with less potential earning power: often a wife.

It may be tempting to use this grim calculus to renew calls for subsidized childcare and more generous parental leave. But a recent staff discussion note from the International Monetary Fund found that theres a bigger swing factor: the way we file our taxes.

Switching to a system where everyone files separately, whether or not youre married, would lead to a 15.5 percentage point jump in womens labor-force participation, the IMF found, compared with a 1.6 percentage point rise for instituting 18 weeks of paid maternity leave and 4.8 percentage points for halving the cost of childcare.(1) That would amount to adding more than 20 million women to the U.S. workforce, based on back-of-the-envelope calculations.(2)

To understand why, take a look at this striking example from Edward McCaffery, a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and author of Taxing Women. Hes outlined a hypothetical scenario of a family where the husband (lets call him Joe) makes $60,000 a year and the wife (lets call her Mary) stays home with their two kids. Mary has been offered a job for $30,000 a year. However, once you factor in federal income taxes, social security, state and local taxes, not to mention the related expenses of going back to work, Joe and Mary would end up with just a net $1,000 increase in their joint income.

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This comes down to whats called the secondary-earner bias. Marys first dollar doesnt start getting taxed at $0, as Joes would, but rather at $60,001, because joint filers are recognized as one unit of income. Thanks to the U.S.s progressive marginal rates, successive portions of income get taxed at higher levels  the first bracket starts at 10%, the next at 12%, the following at 22%, and so on. The system is problematic for spouses who are on the margin about working, as McCaffery puts it. Seen this way, its easy to understand why Mary would get discouraged.

The math is even more deflating for a woman whose spouse makes, say, half-a-million dollars. Shed start getting taxed at $500,001, which could push her into the highest bracket right off the bat. We cant exactly say shes hard up with that handsome family income but if she opts to stay home because her salary gets gobbled up by taxes, that costs the workforce a talented person. Multiply that out across all the women on the margin and you get a sense of why this invisible problem has such a big impact. The International Labour Organization found that narrowing the gender gap in participation by 25% in five years could boost global gross domestic product by 3.9%.

McCafferys book published more than two decades ago, yet the secondary-earner bias hasnt gone away  which makes you wonder where joint filing came from and why the U.S. has stuck with it all these years.

Federal income taxes have existed since 1913. At that point, everyone filed separately. The tax was highly progressive; for the 1918 tax year, the rate schedule had no less than 49 brackets. This created an incentive to spread income to family members. For example, a man earning $10,000 in 1930 would pay 6% in taxes, or $600, while two individuals earning $5,000 would pay 3% each, for a total of $300. Rich men, in particular, got pretty clever about moving income to their wives.

That same year, the Supreme Court ruled that this practice was legal in the states entitling wives to half their husbands assets acquired after marriage, so-called communal property states. This ended up creating a massive discrepancy: Couples in other states were paying 40% more in federal taxes, according to H&R Block Inc. Partly to address this, Congress introduced joint filing in 1948.

It wasnt until the 1990s, with the publication of McCafferys book, that the public began to worry this system was keeping women like Mary out of the workforce. (Until that point, the debate circulated almost exclusively among policy wonks.) Yet proposals to move toward separate filing met stiff resistance. One of the loudest critics was conservative lioness Phyllis Schlafly, who argued that theres no such thing as gender neutral tax policy and sought to protect the traditional one-earner household. Another argument was that taxing the family as a unit more closely reflects patterns of household consumption. Though advocacy for separate filing eventually lost momentum, the book The Two-Income Trap, by Amelia Warren Tyagi and Elizabeth Warren, recognizes the struggles of dual-earners.

To clear up any confusion, married filing separately isnt the answer. Such couples often go into a higher tax bracket and miss out on certain benefits, or those perks get phased out, according to Jackie Perlman, Principal Tax Research Analyst from H&R Blocks Tax Institute. Thats why most people file jointly: Of the 153 million tax returns filed for the 2017 tax year, 55 million were joint filers(3) and just 3.2 million were married filing separately.

A sensible, centrist way forward, then, would be to make separate filing optional for all taxpayers. The U.S. is in a small minority of countries where married taxpayers still file jointly. Those that once followed the American model slowly began to shift to separate filing as low female labor-force participation became too costly, McCaffery has written. In Sweden, for example, research shows that the sharp increase in working married women came as a result of the individual tax reform of 1971. Employment in this demographic would have been 10 percentage points lower in 1975 if the 1969 statutory income tax system had still been in place then, the study found.

No one likes to think about taxes. Its a lot easier to get excited about issues more of us understand, like subsidized childcare and longer parental leave. But if were going to cheer the lengthening list of companies that are coming to the table  at long last  with family-friendly policies, its worth educating ourselves about the issues that will make a bigger difference.

(1) The IMF analysis applies to middle-class working mothers of preschool children. It reduces the cost of childcare per child to 5% of family income from 10%, and excludes some women who benefit from federal programs.

(2) Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

(3) This includes surviving spouses.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Rachel Rosenthal is an editor with Bloomberg Opinion. Previously, she was a markets reporter and editor at the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

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To fight the increasing cases of novel coronavirus in the city, the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said that the government has chalked out a '5 T plan' - 'testing, tracing, treatment, team work, and tracking and monitoring.

Speaking to the media, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said along with these steps, the government is well prepared in dealing with up to 30,000 active cases in the city.

Explaining each T, he said corona test will be the first step, under which the government will go for mass random tests.

"If there is no testing, how will we know who is infected and who is not? We will do mass tests for coronavius like South Korea did."

He said South Korea identified every single patient through mass tests.

"We will get one lakh test kits from Friday and will carry out random tests for spot suspected and confirmed cases, partially at the hotspots," he said.

The next step will be tracing, Kejriwal said, after a person tested positive.

"We will trace his/her movement. Their contacts will be asked for quarantine. Many people in Delhi were asked for self-quarantine. Mobile numbers of 27,702 people were shared with the police to ensure they were following the directions of the government. We will also ask police to trace the phones of 2,000 Tablighi Markaz attendees," Kejriwal said.

He said Delhi has so far reported 525 positive cases.

"We have about 3,000 beds for only COVID-19 patients, including LNJP with 1,500 beds, G.B Pant with 500 beds, Rajiv Gandhi Hospital with 450 beds apart from several private hospitals," Kejriwal said.

Currently, Kejriwal said, total 2,950 beds are reserved for COVID-19 patients.

"If the patient count increased, we will keep GTB Hospital for COVID-19 cases as well... even if Delhi has 30,000 active cases, we are well prepared."

Explain the steps in case of such a scenario, he said the Delhi government will make arrangements in hospitals, hotels, and even banquet halls to quarantine/isolate the patients.

"We will have 8,000 beds in hospitals, 12,000 hotel rooms and 10,000 rooms at banquet halls and guesthouses.... The most serious -- those already suffering from other disease and above the age of 50 --- will be kept in hospitals while others will be accomodated elsewhere," the Chief Minister said, adding the rooms outside the hospitals will also have all medical facilities.

Kejriwal said not just rooms but the government will need more ventilators, oxygen and other equipment. "We have made the calculations and are ready."

Kejriwal said the PPE kits were a major issue but the Centre has helped in this regard. Also, the Delhi government has asked for the kits from some companies. "We will get the kits directly from companies from the next week."

The fourth T, he said, is teamwork.

"No one can fight COVID-19 alone. All governments are working as a team. The people and government should also work as a team. Doctor and nurses are the most important part of the team."

Kejriwal said the opposition and ruling party are working together.

"I will talk to all the MPs in Delhi on Wednesday," Kejriwal said. In Delhi, all the seven Lok Sabha seats are represented by the BJP.

On the fifth T, tracking and monitoring, Kejriwal said he will personally track everything and ensure things fall in line.

"I am personally monitoring the situation and the preparations. I am sure if we are well prepared, we will be able to win this fight against coronavirus."
To help health workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi has donated 15,000 N95 masks to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here.

He had earlier donated Rs 1 crore to the Prime Minister's Citizens Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM-CARES) Fund to aid the fight against the novel coronavirus that has claimed 114 lives and infected 4,421 people across the country.

I have ordered supply of 15,000 N95 masks to AIIMS for 25 lakh for protective use by doctors and the support staff today. Supply would be made in four to five days to AIIMS, Dwivedi said on Tuesday.

The step has been taken in consultation with AIIMS.

It is a small help to the white warriors who are struggling for us despite danger to their lives. Let us move beyond clapping and lighting (lamps), which was good. This way we can become compatriot warriors in arms. Help hospitals near you, Dwivedi said.

Dwivedi had earlier said the problems being faced by poor people and migrant workers are grave and people should come forward to help them by donating to the prime minister's fund.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
T he coronavirus crisis may have forced us all inside as the country is put on lockdown, but at least there are some stellar dramas on the Spring schedules.

ITVs latest drama Quiz takes an in-depth look at the Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? coughing scandal that gripped the nation in 2001 and saw Major Charles Ingram and his wife Diana accused of stealing a million pounds from Britains favourite quiz show.

Heres everything you need to know about the upcoming drama

When is Quiz on TV?

Quiz premieres on Monday, 13 April at 9pm on ITV.

Host: Michael Sheen as Chris Tarrant in the drama / PA

The series will consist of three one hour episodes and be broadcast over three consecutive nights.

Who is in the cast of Quiz?

Successions Matthew Macfayden stars as the accused contestant, Major Charles Ingram, while Sian Clifford (Fleabag) plays his wife, Diana.

Michael Sheen plays former Millionaire host Chris Tarrant (complete with fake tan and blonde wig), while Helen McCrory will star as the judge in the inquiry.

The show is written by James Graham, who wrote the 2017 stage edition, and is directed by Stephen Frears, who previously directed on A Very English Scandal and 2006 film The Queen.

Clifford and Macfayden as the infamous couple (ITV / Left Bank Pictures) / ITV/Left Bank Pictures

What is Quiz about?

Quiz is an in-depth look at the 2001 scandal that rocked game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.

Major Charles Ingram took the top prize, but was never officially awarded his million pound cheque after members of the production team noticed a suspicious amount of coughing coming from fellow contestant Tecwen Whittock.

Both the major and his wife were then accused of defrauding the show and having an accomplice in the audience.

Following a trial at Southwark Crown Court, the Major and Diana were given a suspended sentence of 18 months, while Whittock had 12 months. They were each fined 15,000 and ordered to pay 10,000 towards prosecution costs. The Ingrams were also asked to pay additional defence costs, with their total coming to 115,000.

The real Charles and Diana Ingram outside Southwark Crown Court in April 2003 / Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Is Quiz based on the stage play?

Yes it is - with writer James Graham serving as the writer and executive producer of the television version. He based the play on 2015 book Bad Show: The Quiz, the Cough, the Millionaire Major - which asked whether the Ingrams may have been innocent.

After a successful run in Chichester, the stage version of Quiz transferred to London's West End in March 2018, and was previously scheduled to tour the UK this year - however, the coronavirus crisis has scuppered these plans.

The show was nominated for two Olivier Awards, for Best New Comedy and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Keir Charles, who played Chris Tarrant on stage.

25 underrated movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime 1 /33 25 underrated movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime The Miseducation of Cameron Post  Netflix Chloe Grace Moretz plays the titular role in this powerful drama. After shes discovered kissing the prom queen, Moretzs character is sent to the gay conversion camp called Gods Promise, where she rallies together with fellow disciples in the face of terrible adversity. Booksmart  Amazon Prime Video Olivia Wildes directorial debut Booksmart is an inspired comedy and coming-of-age movie, and one of the funniest films of last year. Swots Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) head out for a night of partying, realising theyve forgotten how to have fun during their high school studies. Captain Fantastic  Netflix In this quirkier than a Wes Anderson convention, this comedy drama centers around a family who have grown up in isolation, with father Ben (Viggo Mortensen) teaching how to live their lives away from capitalist society. Paris is Burning  Netflix This groundbreaking documentary captures the spirit of the trailblazing ball culture of 80s New York, taking us into the lives of the African-American, Latino, gay and transgender communities who made it one of the most influential LGBTQ+ movements of the 20th century. Blindspotting  Netflix This uniquely styled comedy drama follows a man with just days left on his sentence, whose future is thrown in doubt after witnessing a police shooting. Its much funnier and quirkier than it sounds, trust us. Whats Eating Gilbert Grape  Amazon Prime Video This early 90s cult classic follows Johnny Depps young shop clerk in small town America, tasked with looking after his obese mother and mentally impaired younger brother. Theres also one of the first movie performances from Leonardo DiCaprio to look out for. Ingrid Goes West  Netflix Take a trip with Aubrey Plazas outsider Ingrid, as she travels to Venice Beach to infiltrate the Insta-fabulous life of her favourite influencer in this dark, oddball comedy. Dolemite is my Name  Netflix This Netflix drama is a real return to form for Eddie Murphy. Plenty of people were calling for him to be recognised during awards season for his performance as Rudy Ray Moore, the star of blaxploitation films in the 70s. Private Life  Netflix Private Life is one of the few Hollywood movies of recent times that tackles the subject of middle-aged couples trying to have children. Its sensitive and quietly devastating, featuring the best Paul Giammatti performance in years and a great turn from Kathryn Hahn. Okja  Netflix We told you Boon Jong-Ho would be back. A genetically-enhanced super pig and a young girl form an unlikely and beautiful friendship in this gem, going head to head with a superfood conglomerate. This Netflix original was dismissed as vegan propaganda by some when it came out in 2017, but its so much more. Blinded by the Light  Amazon Prime Video A love letter to the songs of Bruce Springsteen, based on the memoirs of Sarfraz Manzoor and directed by Bend It Like Beckhams Gurinder Chadha, this movie is a coming-of-age tale that will resonate with most viewers  fans of the Boss, or not. Atlantics  Netflix This Cannes prize-winning debut from filmmaker Mati Diop tackles a challenging subject matter  the tragic deaths of migrants at sea  in a surprisingly life-affirming way, following a love story at the very edges of human capabilities. Annihilation  Netflix This brilliantly weird high-concept sci-fi is one of the best original Netflix movies yet, following cellular biology professor Natalie Portman as she ventures deeper into a mysterious zone called the Shimmer. Think heart of darkness with added aliens. Under the Skin  Amazon Prime Video In Scarlett Johanssons impressive, varied and sometimes controversial career, Under the Skin stands out as her strangest movie. Here she plays an alien life form who drives around Scotland in a van seducing men, only for them to meet terrifying, unexpected fates after visiting her apartment. The Tale of Princess Kaguya  Netflix Netflix users are blessed with the Studio Ghibli back catalogue on demand. Theyre all worth checking out, of course, but while the likes of My Neighbour Totoro get all the praise, 2013s The Tale of Princess Kaguya features some of the studios most breathtaking animation and elegant storytelling, and is one of our top picks. The Wife  Netflix Glenn Close can count herself unlucky not to have picked up a long-awaited Oscar for her towering performance in this subtle drama, playing a woman who questions everything after her self-obsessed husband received the Nobel Prize. The Two Popes  Netflix Critics including the Standards Charlotte OSullivan tipped this two-hander drama for success at the Oscars a while back. Its gone under the radar slightly since then, but the performances from Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio respectively are electric. Blue Ruin  Netflix Bloodthirsty revenge flick Blue Ruin is a slow-burning delight, and one that might easily go unnoticed on Netflix without an A-list cast to entice viewers. Its a violent and visceral watch at times, but its also a compelling look at human endurance and the impacts of reopening old wounds. Cube  Amazon Prime Video More high-concept sci-fi, this time in the form of an independent Canadian movie from the 90s, where a group of friends find themselves trapped in a maze of cube-shaped rooms, all booby-trapped and not what they seem. Its bonkers, in the best way. American Animals  Amazon Prime Video This esoteric take on the heist movie centres around the real library robbery at Transylvania University, where a group of students attempted to steal a collection of rare books. The movie cuts from dramatisation to documentary footage, and is well worth exploring. Filth  Amazon Prime Video James McAvoy throws the kitchen sink at his performance as a troubled and misanthropic detective in this uniquely distressing and compelling drama, featuring all the guts and grime youd expect from an Irvine Welsh adaptation. The Ritual  Netflix Horror films following inexperienced groups of travellers into the woods have become a sub-genre all of their own, but The Ritual is better than most. This supernatural horror is intelligently done and genuinely scary in places, with strong performances from the likes of Rafe Spall. 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Quiz was unique as it incorporated elements of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire's unique game play element into the production, with audiences asked to vote at the start of the play on a fastest finger first-type as to whether they believed the Ingrams were innocent, and to vote again at the end.

Speaking about the play, Graham told the Standard: "Back then in 2001 I was obsessed with the idea that a middle class, middle aged couple would try and steal a million quid in front of the cameras.

"Its not British fair play. But what if the Major had just been coughing and it had been edited so they looked guilty?
Washington: President Donald Trump has asked leading US companies working on coronavirus drugs to "contact immediately" UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's doctors and offer "help" to his "good friend" who was moved to an intensive care unit at a London hospital after his coronavirus symptoms worsened.

Johnson, 55, was tested positive for coronavirus more than 10 days ago and was admitted to the hospital a day earlier, which Downing Street said was done as part of a precautionary measure.

On Monday, he was admitted to the intensive care unit of St Thomas' Hospital in London after his condition worsened, a development that sent shock waves throughout the world.

"We are very saddened to hear that he (Johnson) was taken into intensive care this afternoon a little while ago, and Americans are all praying for his recovery," Trump told reporters during his daily press conference at the White House on Monday.

Trump said he had asked "leading companies" to "contact London immediately" about solutions.

"We'll see if we can be of help. We've contacted all of Boris' doctors, and we'll see what is going to take place, but they are ready to go, but when you get brought into intensive care that gets very, very serious with this particular disease," the president said.

"He has been a really good friend; he has been really something very special strong, resolute, doesn't quit, doesn't give up," Trump said.

He said the administration has contacted all of the doctors of the UK Prime Minister.

Noting that the US has made tremendous progress on therapeutics, Trump said he has asked two of the "leading" US companies, who have come with the solutions, to contact London immediately.

"They have offices in London, major companies but more than major, more than size they are genius and I had a talk with four of them today, and they speak a language that most people don't even understand, but I understand something that they have really advanced therapeutics and therapeutically and they have arrived in London already," he said.

"Their London office has whatever they need, and we will see if we can be of help," Trump added.

Johnson tested positive for the respiratory illness March 27, the first major world leader to publicly acknowledge having COVID-19. His symptoms include a high temperature and a cough.

Earlier on Monday, Johnson tweeted that he had a "comfortable night" and was in "good spirits" while receiving regular briefings from his Cabinet and government advisers.

According to Johns Hopkins University, there are over 1.34 million confirmed coronavirus cases across the world and over 74,000 people have died due to the disease.
Infighting between Turkish-backed militants in Ras al-Ayn has left several dead and many wounded, although the cause of the infighting is not known writes Al-Masdar.

Turkish-backed militants in northeastern Syria were involved in a deadly firefight on Sunday, resulting in several dead and wounded, Kurdistan 24 reported.

According to the publication, at least eight Turkish-backed militants were killed during the firefight, with many more reportedly wounded as a result of the violence in Hassakeh Governorate town of Ras al-Ayn.

The clashes between the two armed groups lasted for hours in the main street of the town and in a neighborhood near the Turkish border. With violence started after a conflict about sharing shops and stores left by their owners who fled the town after the Turkish incursion in October, Ibrahim, a Syrian Arab worker who asked to conceal his true name for security reasons, told Kurdistan 24.

The civilian source told the publication he was passing through the main street of Ras al-Ayn when the clashes first erupted: I was going to be killed, but I managed to hide in a shop for hours until the clashes halted.

It is not clear what caused the infighting in Ras al-Ayn on Sunday; however, the Turkish-backed militant factions in the Euphrates River Valley region have often clashed with one another over stolen goods and occupying spaces in captured areas.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
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Less than 30 seconds passed before Crystal Zyzanski called out to Randal Zyzanski, and Randal Zyzanski turned and saw his father shoot her in the neck, records allege.

When asked why his father would shoot his ex-wife, Randal Zyzanski told police, "Because he's a (expletive) psychopath," records state.

Randal Zyzanski said his father blamed Crystal Zyzanski for Randal's prior arrests and threatened at one point to kill her, records say. Randal Zyzanski claimed he told his father, "No, you'd have to kill me first."

During his interview with detectives, Randal Zyzanski said several times that he loved Crystal Zyzanski and had several emotional outbursts, records state. Police thought his emotions included grief, anger and sadness.

A family friend who was in the house told police he ushered Crystal and Randal Zyzanski's three children into another room after the shooting. Police helped the children leave the home through a window, records state.

Frank Zyzanski ran out a back door of the home and drove away in a white Ford pickup truck, records state.
Q: Someone asked about the free will template that Texas was supposed to have by now, and you mentioned that the form has not been made available yet. You said that in the meantime, if you need to sign a new will, the only options are to prepare one yourself or hire an attorney. In this age of pandemic and social distancing, where thousands are dying each day, can you elaborate on the statement you made about preparing one yourself? How is this done? I and many of your daily readers are probably really curious right now.

A: Many types of documents can be signed online using remote online notarization.

When you buy or sell a house, much of the paperwork associated with the sale is signed that way. However, under Texas law, wills need to be witnessed by two people who are in the physical presence of the person signing the will.

And wills that are self-proved also need to be notarized by a notary who would typically be present at the signing. A self-proved will is one which eliminates the requirement that witnesses testify at the probate hearing after the person dies, so they are much preferred over wills that are not self-proved.

Until a week or two ago, some lawyers were meeting their clients in the parking lot outside their offices. While the clients sat in the car, the notary and witnesses would stand at a safe distance while the signing took place. Even this method of signing a will is avoided now.

So for the next few weeks or months, there will be almost no signings of wills prepared by attorneys.

But there are other options.

First, if the situation is a real emergency, and you have a lawyer who is still working (presumably from home), a will can be prepared that is witnessed but not notarized. That will can be emailed to the client who would then need to find two witnesses who are not beneficiaries under the will. Even that might not be possible at this time. (The will could be made self-proved later if the testator and witnesses all got together again in the presence of a notary.)

Second, a will does not need to be witnessed if it is entirely in the handwriting of the person making the will. You could probably find a lawyer who is willing to greatly shorten the wording of a will so that you could copy it by hand in your own handwriting. If you do that, and then sign and date it, you would have a valid will.

And of course, you could try to write out your will yourself. But be very careful if you have anything other than a standard estate, such as first marriage, two children, a house, cars and a handful of accounts. For instance, if you have children from other marriages or relationships, a family business, or valuable or unusual assets, the planning can get tricky.

The following is a very simple form designed for use by a married person. (Each spouse must have his or her own will.) This form should be used only as a temporary holographic will until such time as you can have a more comprehensive and machine-printed will prepared, preferably by an attorney.

No part of the will can be typed or printed by a machine. Even though the following appears in a typed format with fill-in-the-blanks, you would need to copy it by hand and add appropriate wording where the blanks appear, so that it is written entirely in your own handwriting. No witnesses are needed when a will is just in your handwriting. If you are not married, you can remove the parts about a spouse. And if you do not have minor children, the last full paragraph can be skipped. If you have other persons you want to name as beneficiaries (you might not have children, for example), or if you want to make bequests of cash or other specific items, you would need to edit this form before using it. But be careful when doing so.

And dont forget that your will does not dispose of property which passes by beneficiary designation, transfer on death arrangement, or which you own with someone else as joint tenants with rights of survivorship.

Importantly, the following form does not constitute legal advice, nor does it create any attorney-client relationship.

I, ____________________, a resident of __________ County, Texas, revoke all of my prior wills and codicils and declare this to be my last will.

If I am married and my spouse survives me, I give my entire estate to my spouse. If I am not married or my spouse does not survive me, I give my entire estate to my descendants who survive me, per stirpes. If neither my spouse nor any descendant of mine survives me, I give my entire estate to my heirs at law.

I appoint my spouse as independent executor of my estate. If I am not married or my spouse is unable or unwilling to act, I appoint ____________________ as independent executor of my estate, or if he/she is unable or unwilling to act, I appoint ____________________ as independent executor of my estate.

No action shall be required in any court other than the probating and recording of this will and the return of an inventory and list of claims, if required. No bond shall be required of any executor. Any executor shall have all of the powers granted to trustees under the Texas Trust Code. If appropriate, the executor may make distributions in any manner provided by law for distributions for the benefit of minors or persons under any other legal disability, including the Texas Uniform Transfers to Minors Act.

If my spouse does not survive me, I appoint __________________ as guardian of the person of any child of mine who is under a legal disability at the time of my death. If for any reason and at any time __________________ is unable or unwilling to act, I appoint __________________ as guardian. No bond or other security shall be required of any guardian.

Executed on ____________________, 20____.

___________________________________

Testator

The information in this column is intended to provide a general understanding of the law, not legal advice. Readers with legal problems, including those whose questions are addressed here, should consult attorneys for advice on their particular circumstances. Ronald Lipman of the Houston law firm Lipman & Associates is board-certified in estate planning and probate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Email questions to stateyourcase@lipmanpc.com.
VANCOUVERRecent co-operation between Beijing and Ottawa over medical equipment  China sent millions of masks to Canada to help battle the coronavirus  could be good news for two Canadians being detained in mainland China, according to one expert on relations between the two countries.

Charles Burton, a former diplomat and China expert with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, said part of the reason China could release Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, is fear they could catch COVID- 19 while in detention at secret locations in China.

I think thats a legitimate concern, Burton said. They are going to be in very crowded conditions, the standard of hygiene is very low and clearly theyre going to be in a weakened state because of the constant interrogation and the lousy food.

If one of the men were to die in custody, it could strain relations between Canada and China even further at a time when Beijing is hoping the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to pry Canada away from its relationship with the United States, he added. So, its something Beijing will likely try to avoid.

But at the same time, a former ambassador to China for Canada said he thinks Beijings friendly face is just a diplomacy mask, and that Spavor and Kovrig will remain in custody.

Over the weekend, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said millions of masks from China were on the way to Canada after Ottawa procured them.

When China was in the midst of its outbreak in January, Canada sent a reported 16 tonnes of medical supplies there. And China recently made a similar donation back to Canada.

Kovrig and Spavor were arrested in China in late 2018 shortly after the Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Huawei, a Chinese tech company close to the communist government, was arrested in Vancouver en route to Mexico at the behest of the U.S.

Meng faces numerous charges in the states, including those related to fraud, and is currently under house arrest in one of her Vancouver mansions fighting extradition.

Meanwhile Kovrig, a consultant, and Spavor, a businessman, were arrested and hit with what many experts say are bogus charges of espionage in retaliation for the Meng arrest. They are being held in secret locations in China.

But, Burton said, if the tactic is meant to pressure Canada into releasing Meng, it hasnt worked and China may be ready to give up on it to try to warm relations again. He says it seems Beijing is hoping poor handling of the response to the pandemic by American officials could be an opportunity to come between Washington and Ottawa.

Burton says Chinas tactics with Kovrig and Spavor has worked against them because its created so much popular bad will.

I think theyd probably go back to trying to leverage people who are close to the government to get some sort of decision on Wanzhou.

Washington has also demanded that China release the two men.

However, Canadas former ambassador to China, Guy Saint-Jacques, isnt optimistic the two are close to being released.

Saint-Jacques said China is likely sending the masks as part of a public relations move because it botched its own handling of the coronavirus at the start of the outbreak. He doubts it will result in any concrete measures to mend relations such as releasing the men.

The fact is that China has embarked on what I call its mask of diplomacy, he said.

Mainland China is also making efforts to paint its authoritarian system as superior during the crisis and handing out medical supplies to other nations is part of the effort, he said.

Chinese companies, including Huawei, have been donating supplies to Canada.

Controversy has also swirled around the back and forth of medical supplies with some criticizing community groups of straining Canadas supplies by purchasing masks and other items to send to China during the height of its outbreak.

Some of those community groups have ties to the United Front Work Department, the Chinese Communist Partys organization responsible for attempting to influence politics in foreign countries.

In Australia the Sydney Morning Herald reported similar efforts. Ten days ago, the paper reported a major Chinese government backed property company told its staffers to gather supplies to send back to China.

Read more about:
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump made a rare appearance in the Situation Room on Sunday as his pandemic task force was meeting, determined to talk about the anti-malaria medicine that he has aggressively promoted lately as a treatment for the coronavirus.

Once again, according to a person briefed on the session, the experts warned against overselling a drug yet to be proved a safe remedy, particularly for heart patients. Yes, the heart stuff, Trump acknowledged. Then he headed out to the cameras to promote it anyway. So what do I know? he conceded to reporters at his daily briefing. Im not a doctor. But I have common sense.

Day after day, the salesman turned president has encouraged coronavirus patients to try hydroxychloroquine with all of the enthusiasm of a real estate developer. The passing reference he makes to the possible dangers is usually overwhelmed by the full-throated endorsement. What do you have to lose? he asked five times Sunday.

Bolstered by his trade adviser, a television doctor, Larry Ellison of Oracle and Rudy Giuliani, a former New York mayor, Trump has seized on the drug as a miracle cure for the virus that has killed thousands and paralyzed American life. Along the way, he has prompted an international debate about a drug that many doctors in New York and elsewhere have been trying in desperation even without conclusive scientific studies.

Trump may ultimately be right, and physicians report anecdotal evidence that has provided hope. But it remains far from certain, and the presidents assertiveness in pressing the case over the advice of advisers like Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the governments top infectious disease specialist, has driven a wedge inside his coronavirus task force and has raised questions about his motives.

If hydroxychloroquine becomes an accepted treatment, several pharmaceutical companies stand to profit, including shareholders and senior executives with connections to the president. Trump himself has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine.

I certainly understand why the president is pushing it, said Dr. Joshua Rosenberg, the medical director at Brooklyn Hospital Center. Hes the president of the United States. He has to project hope. And when you are in a situation without hope, things go very badly. So Im not faulting him for pushing it even if there isnt a lot of science behind it, because it is, at this point, the best, most available option for use.

A senior physician at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, where doctors are not providing the drug, however, said the current demand was worrisome for patients on it chronically for rheumatic diseases. At St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, another doctor said his staff was giving it to coronavirus patients but criticized the president and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for cheerleading the drug without proof. False hope can be bad, too, he said.

The professional organization that published a positive French study cited by Trumps allies changed its mind in recent days. The International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy said, The article does not meet the societys expected standard. Some hospitals in Sweden stopped providing hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus after reports of adverse side effects, according to Swedish news media.

But Cuomo told reporters Monday that he would ask Trump to increase the federal supply of hydroxychloroquine to New York pharmacies, allowing the state to lift a limit on purchases. There has been anecdotal evidence that it is promising, Cuomo said, while noting the lack of a formal study.

Trump first expressed interest in hydroxychloroquine a few weeks ago, telling associates that Ellison, a billionaire and a founder of Oracle, had discussed it with him. At the time, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the host of televisions The Doctor Oz Show, was in touch with Trumps advisers about expediting approval to use the drug for the coronavirus.

Giuliani has urged Trump to embrace the drug, based in part on the advice of Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, a self-described simple country doctor who has become a hit on conservative media after administering a cocktail of hydroxychloroquine, the antibiotic azithromycin and zinc sulfate.

In an interview Monday, Giuliani denied any financial stake and said he spoke with Trump only after the president had already promoted the drug publicly. Giuliani said he turned to the issue after researching former Vice President Joe Biden in Ukraine, a project that led to the presidents impeachment.

When I finished Biden, I immediately switched to coronavirus and I have been doing an enormous amount of research on it, he said. As it happened, Zelenko was born in Ukraine, and when they first spoke, Giuliani accidentally called him Dr. Zelenskiy, mixing up his name with Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Giuliani said he brought a prosecutors experience to his research. One of the things that a good litigator becomes, is you kind of become an instant expert on stuff, and then you forget about it, he said. I dont claim to be a doctor. I just repeat what they said.

The Food and Drug Administration, which has approved hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for malaria and lupus, issued an emergency order late last month allowing doctors to administer it to coronavirus patients if they saw fit. Trump said the federal government would distribute 29 million doses and that he had called Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India requesting more.

Fauci made his concern clear last week. I think weve got to be careful that we dont make that majestic leap to assume that this is a knockout drug, he said Friday on Fox News. We still need to do the kinds of studies that definitively prove whether any intervention, not just this one, any intervention is truly safe and effective.

The same day, Laura Ingraham, a Fox host, visited Trump at the White House with two doctors who had been on her program promoting hydroxychloroquine, one of whom made a presentation on its virtues, according to an official, confirming a Washington Post report.

The next day, Peter Navarro, the presidents trade adviser, who has been assigned to expedite production of medical equipment and become an advocate of the drug, upbraided Fauci at a White House task force meeting, according to people informed about the discussion.

Navarro arrived at the meeting armed with a thick sheaf of papers recounting research. When the issue was raised, according to a person informed about the meeting, confirming a report by Axios, Navarro picked it up off a chair, dropped it on the table and started handing out copies.

Navarro, who earned a doctorate in economics from Harvard, defended his position Monday despite his lack of medical credentials. Doctors disagree about things all the time. My qualifications in terms of looking at the science is that Im a social scientist, he said on CNN. I have a Ph.D. And I understand how to read statistical studies, whether its in medicine, the law, economics or whatever.

Trump made clear Sunday whose side he took in Navarros confrontation with Fauci. At his briefing after the meeting, he said it was wrong to wait for the kind of study Fauci wanted. We dont have time, the president said. We dont have two hours because there are people dying right now.

Some associates of Trumps have financial interests in the issue. Sanofis largest shareholders include Fisher Asset Management, the investment company run by Ken Fisher, a major donor to Republicans, including Trump. A spokesman for Fisher declined to comment.

Another investor in both Sanofi and Mylan, another pharmaceutical firm, is Invesco, the fund previously run by Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary. Ross said in a statement Monday that he was not aware that Invesco has any investments in companies producing the drug, nor do I have any involvement in the decision to explore this as a treatment.

As of last year, Trump reported that his three family trusts each had investments in a Dodge & Cox mutual fund, whose largest holding was in Sanofi.

Ashleigh Koss, a Sanofi spokeswoman, said the company no longer sells or distributes Plaquenil in the United States, although it does sell it internationally.

Several generic drugmakers are gearing up to produce hydroxychloroquine pills, including Amneal Pharmaceuticals, whose co-founder Chirag Patel, is a member of Trump National Golf Course Bedminster in New Jersey and has golfed with Trump at least twice since he became president, according to a person who saw them.

Patel, whose company is based in Bridgewater, New Jersey, did not respond to a request for comment. Amneal announced last month that it would increase production of the drug and donate millions of pills to New York and other states. Other generic drugmakers are ramping up production, including Mylan and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.

Roberto Mignone, a Teva board member, reached out to the team of Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and senior adviser, through Nitin Saigal, who used to work for Mignone and is a friend of Kushners, according to people informed about the discussions.

Kushners team referred him to the White House task force and Mignone asked for help getting India to ease export restrictions, which have since been relaxed, allowing Teva to bring more pills into the United States. Mignone, who is also a vice chairman of NYU Langone Health, which is running a clinical study of hydroxychloroquine, confirmed Monday that he has spoken with the administration about getting more medicine into the country.

Dr. Daniel H. Sterman, the critical care director at NYU Langone Health, said doctors there are using hydroxychloroquine, but data about its effectiveness remained weak and unsubstantiated pending the study. We do not know whether our patients are benefiting from hydroxychloroquine treatment at the present time, he said.

New York Citys Health and Hospitals Corp., which runs its public hospitals, is advising but not requiring doctors to use hydroxychloroquine based on a trial showing a decreased cough and fever with mild side effects in two patients, Dr. Mitchell Katz, who oversees the hospital system, said by email Monday.

Dr. Roy M. Gulick, the chief of infectious diseases at Weill Cornell Medicine, said hydroxychloroquine was given on a case-by-case basis. We explain the pros and cons and explain that we dont know if it works or not, he said.

Doctors at Northwell Health and Mount Sinai Health System, are using it as well. At the Mount Sinai South Nassau County branch on Long Island, doctors have employed a regimen of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin pretty much since day one with mixed results, said Dr. Adhi Sharma, its chief medical officer.

Weve been throwing the kitchen sink at these patients, he said. I cant tell whether someone got better on their own or because of the medication.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
MILAN, April 6 (Reuters) - Italian oil and gas group Eni said on Monday rockets that landed in southern Iraq had fallen some distance from its Zubair field and operations continued.

"All personnel of the field are in a safe condition and production hasn't been affected," an Eni spokeswoman said.

Three rockets landed on Monday near U.S. oil service company Halliburton's site in Basra, without causing casualties, the Iraqi military said earlier on Monday.

"The episode was relatively far from our camp," the Eni spokeswoman said.

(Reporting by Stephen Jewkes, editing by Giulia Segreti)
KALAMAZOO, MI -- In anticipation of a rising number of COVID-19 cases, Kalamazoos hospitals have received state approval to add beds to their facilities.

Bronson Methodist Hospital was approved for an additional 300 beds, according to Michigan Department of Health and Human Services records. The hospital is now licensed for 734 beds in total.

Ascension Borgess was approved for an additional 105 beds, according to MDHHS records. The hospital normally has 424 beds, spokesperson Chris Hunt said, which increased to 529 beds after the approval of additional beds.

Five new coronavirus cases were announced in Kalamazoo County on Monday, April 6, bringing the countys total to 58. The total number of COVID-19 cases statewide increased to 17,221 on Monday, and the largest one-day increase of 110 new deaths brought Michigans death toll to 727.

Bronson Healthcare reported Monday that 10 COVID-19 positive patients are being treated at Bronson Methodist Hospital. Ascension Borgess has declined to disclose the number of COVID-19 patients being treated at its facilities.

Out of respect for patient privacy, we will not be releasing data on the number of patients who are being tested or treated for COVID-19 at our facilities, Ascension Borgess said in a statement.

In Bronsons application to the state for a Certificate of Need, the hospital outlined its COVID-19 plan, noting that the ability to make the additional beds operational will be dependent on staffing.

The plan is to use additional beds in existing patient rooms by moving from single occupancy to double, as well as converting other spaces, according to the application. An estimated 17 beds could be added to the critical care unit, 41 beds could be added to the women and children unit and 91 beds could be added to the medical and surgical unit, the application states.

Available space for 112 of the additional beds could be found in Bronsons prep and recovery unit, post-anesthesia care unit, surgery A unit, infusion unit, admit unit and endoscopy unit, according to the application.

The project does not involve the purchase or lease of space, nor renovation or construction, according to the application.

A second phase of the COVID-19 response plan would add 112 beds into the medical office pavilion, the application states.

Bronson plans to redeploy staff members who are not currently in clinical roles, but are clinically licensed, according to a statement from Denise Neely, senior vice president of Bronson Healthcare and chief operating officer and chief nursing officer of Bronson Methodist Hospital.

She listed nurses who work in education, quality and safety and management as examples of employees who could return to patient care.

We are currently identifying those staff members and will refresh them on current processes before they return to clinical care, Neely said. "We are also calling on retirees who may be willing to return to the workforce.

Ascension Borgess included a plan in preparation for the expected patient surge, which consolidates units not currently in use and turns them into an Intensive Care Unit with 12 beds, according to the application.

An additional 11 ICU beds would be moved to the post-anesthesia care unit. The beds would be added as needed due occupancy, according to the application.

An additional 44 beds can be set up on the outpatient short stay unit on the ground floor of the Stryker Center on Borgess campus. Those beds would accommodate non-ICU COVID-19 inpatients, according to the application.

Another 50 non-ICU beds can be placed in the Lawrence Education Center. The hospital estimates a renovation of approximately 15,000 square feet of the educational space to make it ready for patients, according to the application.

Ascension Borgess did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publishing.

More coronavirus coverage on MLive:

Kalamazoo nurses concerned about reassignment to Detroit, a COVID-19 hotspot

Kalamazoo businesses partner to produce face shields for healthcare workers

Stryker announces limited-release medical bed for coronavirus response

Michigan orders quicker reporting of coronavirus deaths by physicians, funeral homes

PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops ) and when you go into places like stores.

Its not too late to get your flu shot! While the influenza vaccine does not protect against COVID-19 infection, it can help keep you healthy during the flu season.

MORE MICHIGAN CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE HERE.

Below is a county-by-county map of Michigan tracking confirmed COVID-19 cases, followed by a map of possible exposure sites and a chart based on the states daily reports. The maps will be updated as more reports are released.

If you are reading this story on mobile and cant see the map, click here to view it on the web.
The Government is believed to have been urged to let 15,000 prisoners out of Britain's jails after nine inmates died across seven different sites.

Three were inmates at HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire, with others being held at Birmingham, Manchester, Altcourse in Merseyside, Belmarsh in South East London, Whatton in Nottinghamshire and a female prisoner at Low Newton, County Durham.

Some 107 prisoners had tested positive for coronavirus in 38 jails as of 5pm on Sunday. There are 19 prison staff in 12 jails who have contracted the virus as well as four prison escort and custody services staff.

Meanwhile medical advisors are said to be asking the Government to release 15,000 inmates across England and Wales to protect other prisoners and staff.

The recommendations were set out by Public Health England and the Prison Service after a submission by the Prison Governors' Association, reported the Daily Star.

The PGA wrote: 'Our members have reported to the PGA National Executive Committee that Public Health England and HMPPS require a reduction of 15,000 prisoners in order to truly safeguard prisoners and staff.'

The Ministry of Justice has so far said up to 4,000 low-risk prisoners in England and Wales will be temporarily released to try to control the spread of the virus.

Three inmates have died at HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire after contracting coronavirus

The news comes as MPs are set to grill Justice Secretary Robert Buckland about how the justice system is coping during the coronavirus outbreak.

Campaigners have hit out at the decision to hold today's Commons Justice Committee hearing in private, prompting fears ministers could be escaping public scrutiny.

The committee said it could not take place in public or through a publicly available broadcast as normal 'owing to current restrictions on parliamentary capacity, partly caused by the virus'.

Instead there will be live tweets posted on social media during the course of proceedings with a press release and a note 'summarising the hearing' published afterwards, rather than a full transcript or recording being made available.

MPs are set to grill Justice Secretary Robert Buckland (pictured outside Downing Street in London on March 17) about how the justice system is coping during the coronavirus outbreak

Committee chairman Bob Neill said in a statement that he 'shares concerns' about the meeting being less open than would usually be the case.

But he added that the House of Commons does not have capacity to record and broadcast the meeting, which the committee finds 'as frustrating as anyone'.

On Saturday the Ministry of Justice announced up to 4,000 low-risk prisoners in England and Wales will be temporarily released from jail.

It follows a similar decision to free pregnant prisoners and those behind bars with babies.

More than half of criminal and civil court buildings have been closed in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus, with only urgent hearings taking place, while prosecutors were issued guidance on how to prioritise cases.

The Prison Officers' Association said on Sunday that two staff members at Pentonville Prison in North London had died after suffering Covid-19 symptoms,

Bovil Peter and Patrick Beckford were both support staff workers at the jail, and were believed to be aged in their 60s.

POA national chairman Mark Fairhurst said: 'My thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved with these tragic deaths - two at the same prison is very concerning.'

Mr Fairhurst said he did not know if either of the men had any underlying health conditions.

Public Health England, the Prison Service and the Prison Governors' Association have been contacted for comment today over the claims about 15,000 prisoners.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: 'Our priority is to protect our staff, the NHS and save lives, and we have robust and flexible plans in place to do that.

'We will temporarily release up to 4,000 risk-assessed prisoners and are working to identify publicly owned sites that could be used to house temporary prison accommodation to further ease pressure on the permanent estate, separate prisoners and reduce the spread of the virus.'
A Vietnamese soldier at the Spratly Islands. Photo courtesy of the World & Vietnam Report under Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Vietnam has rejected and protested China sending two diplomatic notes to the U.N., laying claim to Vietnamese territories in the East Sea.

One of the diplomatic notes was sent by China to the United Nations (U.N.) on March 23 in response to the Philippines. It claimed illegally that China has sovereignty over the Spratly Islands and adjacent waters, has sovereignty and jurisdiction rights over relevant sea areas, seabeds and subsoil. It also said that it has "historic rights" in the East Sea, internationally known as the South China Sea, based on "historical and legal evidences."

The other note was sent December 12 last year in response to Malaysia. It also made the illegal claim that China has sovereignty over islands in the East Sea, including the Pratas, Spratly and Paracel Islands and the Zhongsa Qundao. What China calls the Zhongsa Qundao are the Macclesfield Bank and the Scarborough Shoal. China also mentioned its "historical rights" in the East Sea.

A diplomatic note sent by Vietnam's Permanent Mission to the U.N. on March 30 said: "Vietnam protests China's claims in the aforementioned diplomatic notes. These claims seriously violate Vietnam's sovereignty and jurisdiction rights over the East Sea."

Vietnam has full legal basis and historical evidence to assert its sovereignty over the Spratly and Paracel Islands in accordance with international law, the note stressed.

Vietnam considers the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to be the sole legal basis that comprehensively and absolutely dictates the scope of rights over sea areas between Vietnam and China.

"Vietnam protests claims on the East Sea that go over boundaries as stated in UNCLOS, including claims regarding historical rights. These claims hold no legal value," Vietnam asserted in is diplomatic note.

Vietnam's consistent stance on the aforementioned issues has been affirmed multiple times in several documents issued at the U.N., as well as in statements sent to relevant international entities. Vietnam requests that the U.N. Secretary General issues its diplomatic note to all member nations of UNCLOS as well as members of the U.N., the note said.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including waters close to Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
A new documentary about Carole Baskin and the case of her missing ex-husband has been announced, following the success of Tiger King.

Although the bonkers Netflix documentary mostly focused on tiger trader Joe Exotic and his rivalry with animal rights activist Baskin, many viewers became fascinated with one of the shows subplots: the disappearance of Jack Don Lewis.

The US channel Investigation Discovery has announced plans to air exclusive footage that will strive to answer questions about the case.

Love her or hate her, Carole is now in the centre ring of the big cat circus, said Investigation Discovery in a statement.

Is she a selfless crusader and protector of animals, who found unimaginable strength despite the mysterious disappearance of her husband? Or are we witnessing Carole Baskins master plan finally take effect? Despite her claims of innocence, did she orchestrate the disappearance of Don Lewis to seize control of his fortune, consolidate power and lay waste to her foes.

No one seems to be talking  except for one man  and that man is the centre of IDs upcoming investigative series.

The man in question is Exotic, who will apparently reveal secrets that only he knows.

In Tiger King, Exotic alleged that Baskin killed Lewis, who vanished in 1997.

His case is still considered open by Florida police who issued a plea for new information in the wake of Tiger King.

Baskin has denied any involvement in Lewiss disappearance and called Tiger King salacious and sensational. She said: It has a segment devoted to suggesting, with lies and innuendos from people who are not credible, that I had a role in the disappearance of my husband Don 21 years ago.

Louis Theroux, who interviewed Exotic for his 2011 documentary Americas Most Dangerous Pets, recently shared his views on the tiger traders belief that Baskin fed the body of her ex-husband to her tigers after murdering him.

My opinion is, it seems very unlikely, he said.
The underlying logic of Italys welfare system, which offers little support for those without tax contributions, remains intact. So Mr. Esposito and his family are relying on weekly food parcels from a community center. Without their help, he said, we just wouldnt have anything to eat.

Even workers who are in the system can fall through the cracks. Lucia Vitale works at the Naples airport for about half the year, catering to the hundreds of thousands of tourists who arrive from March onward. For the other half of the year, she and seasonal workers like her can claim unemployment benefits. But those benefits have now run out. And they cant get help from the government because, Ms. Vitale said, we dont fit into the right categories.

The government has granted a one-time payment of 600 euros, around $650, to the self-employed and to seasonal workers in the tourist sector. But Ms. Vitale technically works in the transport sector, so she cant apply for the support. For now, she too is getting by with handouts from volunteer organizations.

The situation for many is bleak. Everyone here is having problems now, Mr. Gallinari, the florist, said. There are lots of people who are going hungry. You can see that their behavior is beginning to change. Reports of social unrest across the region  shopkeepers forced to give away food, even some thefts  have ruffled a usually close-knit community. The other night I caught some kids trying to break into my garage, Mr. Gallinari said. This is new for us.

Even so, such incidents are rare. More striking  and representative of neighborhood life in Naples  has been a groundswell of community initiatives, to fill the void of absent state support. Some have set up a mutual aid help line so that volunteers can deliver food and assistance. And certain shops have begun encouraging customers to cover a shopping bill for someone unable to pay, in the Neapolitan tradition of the caffe sospeso, or suspended coffee.

The vulnerable workers of Naples, and the south more generally, need more help. The 400 million euros, close to $432 million, the government has set aside for food stamps is not enough. Now there is talk that the governments next budget might include an emergency income, covering those so far overlooked.

But the budget isnt due until later in the month. For workers locked out of state support, dependent on community assistance and increasingly desperate, that isnt soon enough.

And for insecure workers across the world, the siren is ringing.

Bethan Jones and Fabio Montale are translators in Naples, Italy.

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Workers at a Birmingham-based shopping service are planning a nationwide work stoppage as the coronavirus crisis continues to disrupt American life.

Shoppers for Shipt announced Monday they plan a walk off for Tuesday (April 7) if demands are not met for safety improvements, better pay and other measures arent met by the company purchased by Target in 2017.

The size and scope of the walk out is still unclear. A Shipt spokesperson on Monday afternoon told AL.com they have not seen a drop off in shoppers scheduling themselves for Tuesday shifts.

A blog post on Medium outlined the issues with the shopping service that delivers groceries to shoppers who place orders online. It calls for more personal protective equipment for shoppers who traverse potentially crowded store aisles in place of the customer.

They also want $5 hazard pay per order and expanding its sick pay program. Shipt shoppers currently get 14 days of sick pay if they can prove they tested positive for COVID-19 or they were ordered to quarantine by a doctor or health official.

The policy needs to include Shoppers who are either too high risk to work or doctors note advising them to stay home, the blog post on Medium reads. Additionally, Shoppers should not have to go through hoops to get this pay.

Walk-off organizers did not respond to an interview request from AL.com as of publication of this story.

A Shipt spokesperson responded to each of the six major demands made by the shoppers organizing the walk off.

On the topic of sick pay, Shipt says the existing policy had been worded in a way to prevent fraudulent claims and each case would be reviewed individually. Workers who test positive for COVID-19 will receive paychecks for their average weekly earnings (including tips) from the previous four weeks.

The company also stated it had secured a limited supply of PPE equipment that it provided to its most vulnerable shoppers in the first wave. Starting next week, every Shipt shopper will be able to pick up gloves and a mask at Target locations.

In response to the request for $5 of hazard pay per order, Shipt says it is using promo pay typically used around busy times like the holidays to entice shoppers to work when demand rises and help dries up. The company is paying up to four times the amount of the normal promo pay, Shipt says.

In-app ratings below five stars will be waived, Shipt stated, because The last thing we want you to worry about right now is a low rating  any delivery you can complete makes a difference.

Shoppers with Shipt are also unhappy with two recent cuts in pay. A new formula for calculating the compensation per order used in a number of markets has substantially cut the take-home pay, workers contend. Shipt says this is still a trial program in select markets, none of which are in Alabama.

Then last week, pay for canceled orders was dropped to $5 when it had been as high as $30.

Shipt competitor, Instacart, faced a similar shopper strike last week with workers demanding similar safety protections. The company responded by providing each shopper a reusable facemask, hand sanitizer and a thermometer, The Hill reported. Also last week, grocery workers at Amazon-owned Whole Foods held sick-outs at locations nationwide in hopes of improving protection from the fast-spreading pandemic.

Four workers at large national grocery store chains died in recent days, The Washington Post reported Monday. They include workers in Maryland, Chicago and New York, The Post reported.

Target bought Shipt in December 2017 for $550 million in cash. The plan was to expand same-day delivery of Targets offerings while still delivering groceries from other stores. Shipt operations are still based in Birmingham.

The company announced March 20 it was hiring thousands of new shoppers to meet the exploding demand resulting from the health crisis. Among the demands listed in the walk-off notice dealt with the new employees. It claims orientation was suspended to accommodate the surge in demand, so the new shoppers are not adequately trained to meet the needs of consumers.

Shipt says it suspended its orientation program for two weeks during the influx of new workers but anyone who missed the training can retroactively take the courses.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.
A State of Michigan Department of Health and Human Services office that is currently closed due to COVID-19 in Detroit, Mich., on March 26, 2020. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

Healthy 24-Year-Old Detroit Man Died 12 Days After Showing COVID-19 Symptoms

A few weeks ago, a healthy 24-year-old young man from Michigan with no previous underlying health conditions suddenly experienced some physical complications.

Ben Hirschmann, from the Detroit suburb of Roseville, suddenly got what seemed to be COVID-19 symptoms and died just 12 days later, dropping dead in his parents living room, FOX2 reported.

The young mans mother, Denise Hirschmann, shared her story with news outlet WXYZ and said her son had a video appointment with a doctor who told Ben he had to self-quarantine since he seemed to be having COVID-19 symptoms.

Denise said the symptoms her son was having did not get better, so he made another appointment with the doctor on March 31.

The doctor told the young man again to stay home and self-quarantine. He said the symptoms Ben had were probably due to a cold and prescribed him some cough medicine.

The next morning at 6:30 a.m. on April 1, Ben died and an autopsy showed he passed away from acute pneumonia, a symptom of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

Denise said his son woke up that morning and told her he wanted to go to the hospital, so Denise called 911.

I got him out into the living room sat him down and he coded, his eyes went into the back of his head and I started CPR EMS got here they could not revive, Denise told FOX2.

His lungs were filled with disease, she said. How would I ever know that the next day my son would be dead.

Ben was denied a test for the CCP virus. His father told FOX2 that if medical officials would have intervened when he was feeling unwell and showing these symptoms, his life could have been saved.

Denise said the way doctors are currently being forced to treat patients, not seeing them in person but via a video appointment, is putting everyone at risk.

She told WXYZ that Bens father, a two-time cancer survivor with lung disease, is now also showing symptoms from the virus and is getting the same instructions from doctors as her son.

It shouldnt be, lock everyone up and then when theyre ready to die take them to the hospital and hope we have a ventilator, she told FOX2.

Ben worked as a political intern for state Senator Pete Lucido of Macomb County, was heavily involved in the Republican Party, and loved politics.

Senator Lucido said Ben was a wonderful individual who cared about people and wanted to make sure people were taken care of.

Lucido said he is currently working on finding a way for doctors to get better access to patients and proposed drive-ups to check patients, but said that there are many challenges during the pandemic, especially in getting the required staff.

From NTD News
A hug from mum really is the best medicine, with a new study showing that babies are most relaxed when being cuddled by a parent.

Japanese infants as young as four months showed slower heart rates during hugs from their parents compared with hugs from a stranger.

Infants under a year old showed longer intervals between their heart beats when they were being hugged than when they were merely being held  suggesting greater levels of relaxation.

However, the researchers advise mothers not to hug too tight  heart beat intervals were quicker when the youngsters were on the receiving end of a 'tight hug'.

The study offers some of the first evidence that hugs  and not just a hold  play an important role in early bonding between parents and their children.

Images show how holds, hugs and tight hugs were administered. Tight hugs caused the infants beat intervals to speed up compared with the hug

'We know that children love to be hugged by their parents,' said study lead author Professor Sachine Yoshida, of Toho University in Tokyo, Japan.

'But what surprised us as scientists is how little we know about hugging.'

The team examined heart rate responses in infants less than one year old during a hold, a hug and a tight hug, as well as the heart rate of the parents.

They also looked at what happens when a female stranger who had experience in childbirth and parenting did the hugging instead of either parent.

Graphic shows that interbeat interval (IBI) - a sign of calmness - was higher when infants were receiving a hug from their mother than a hold or a tight hug. IBI was also higher when both mothers and fathers were giving the hugs, compared to a stranger

WHAT IS INTERBEAT INTERVAL? Interbeat interval (IBI) is the time between each heart beat in mammals. IBI increases mean there is more time between beats, while decreases in IBI mean the heart is beating more rapidly. In this study, a long IBI is was associated with calmness and relaxation in infants, while a short IBI could have been an indicator of stress. IBI is imaged as waves on the display of an electrocardiogram. They can vary from beat to beat. Advertisement

The researchers report that parents and infants both showed an increase during a hug in the interbeat interval (IBI) on an electrocardiogram.

IBI is the time between a particular waveform that measures electrical activity of the heart. The increased time indicates a slowed heart rate.

'The infants older than four months old showed a high increase ratio of heartbeat intervals during hugging by their parents than by female strangers,' Professor Yoshida said.

'Parents also showed a high increase ratio of heartbeats intervals by hugging their infants.

'We found that both infants and parents come to relax by hugging.'

Likewise, infants did not show an increased IBI during a hug from the female stranger.

Infants younger than four months didn't show the same IBI increase during a hug, suggesting they didn't make the same distinction as older infants between being held and being hugged.

Infants less than four months did, however, have a slowed heart rate when a parent's hand put pressure on their back during their hug.

Infants younger than four months didn't show the same RRI increase during a hug, the researchers reported

The calming effect of the hug could only be detected on infants who were neither crying nor fussy.

'Your baby loves to be hugged and loves how you hug your baby,' Professor Yoshida said.

'Even though infants cannot speak, they recognise their parents through various parenting methods, including hugging, after four months old at latest.

'We hope that knowing how your baby feels while being hugged helps ease the physical and psychological workload of taking care of infants too young to speak.'

The findings were published in the journal iScience.
The total number of coronavirus cases in Iran has risen to more than 62,000 and the death toll is nearing 4,000, according to health ministry data announced on Tuesday (April 7, 2020), but a senior official suggested the true number of infections might be far higher.

Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told state television that a further 133 people had died from the virus overnight, bringing Iran`s death toll to 3,872. Nearly 4,000 infected people are in a critical condition, he added.

The total number of coronavirus cases has reached 62,589, with 2,089 new infections, Jahanpur said.

However, a member of Iran`s National Coronavirus Combat Taskforce, Hamid Souri has put the number of cases in the nation of 83 million at "around 500,000", the state news agency IRNA reported.

"Many people with milder symptoms have not been detected," it quoted Souri as saying on Monday.

The government in Iran, which is the Middle Eastern country worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, has denied accusations of covering up the scale of the outbreak.

Doctors and several lawmakers have previously said the number of coronavirus cases and fatalities are much higher than official figures suggest.

Iran`s Health Minister Saeed Namaki told state TV on Tuesday that some 70 million Iranians had now been screened for the virus. This figure could not be independently confirmed.

"We urge people to stay at home and follow the guidelines," Namaki said.

Iran`s President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday "low-risk" economic activities would resume from April 11, while calling on Iranians to respect social distancing advised by health authorities to contain the spread of the virus.

Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday that the United States should stop preventing Iran from selling oil.

"What we want is for (U.S. President Donald Trump) to STOP preventing Iran from selling oil & other products, buying its needs & making & receiving payments," he wrote on Twitter.

Iran wants to export a minimum of 700,000 barrels per day of its oil and ideally up to 1.5 million bpd if the West wants to negotiate with Tehran to save a 2015 nuclear deal, two Iranian officials and one diplomat told Reuters last year.
A tweet by the Chinese Ambassador to India about 50 thousand masks donated by Chinas Guangdong Province to the Indian state of Gujarat has sparked mixed reactions on the microblogging site Twitter. Under global speculation that China has been selling the donated exports of ventilators, surgical masks, and personal protective gear to countries such as Italy, some commenters lashed out.

The tweet garnered over 964 likes and was shared 182 times. An aggravated user wrote in the comments section saying, Return the masks to China. While another wrote, Thank you, I am from Gujarat. Let's beat this virus, lauding the countrys initiative. The medics in the frontline have reported that due to the onslaught of the patients in the recent past, protective masks and other personal protective equipment have to be reused to account for the critical shortage. According to media reports, thousands of medical equipment and test kits sold by China to Europe at marked-up prices were returned as defective.

50K masks donated by Guangdong Province of China to its Sister State Gujarat have arrived in India today. Hand in Hand we stand to overcome this difficulty #Covid19  Sun Weidong (@China_Amb_India) April 6, 2020

That's Indian spirit we need to keep up even after this pandemic is over     (@onlyonenetra) April 6, 2020

I think they are sending back our MASK which india had supplied them in Feb.. they r doing publicity to look good in World's eye.. @China_Amb_India world will not accept this #maskpropogada https://t.co/aMjSSNztD0  Kairav Adhvaryu  (@kairav5) April 6, 2020

Sir also donate ventilators ..   (@ahmedmoiz819) April 6, 2020

Thank you China, this is brotherhood.  Stay Home, Stay Safe  (@Ketul1Indian) April 6, 2020

What action government of China is taking on exporters of faulty medical supply to different countries?    (@grah_mantri) April 6, 2020

Read: US Tiger Testing Coronavirus Positive Prompts Preventive Measures In Several Zoos

Read: 'ThankYou Coronavirus Helpers' - Google Honours Public Health Workers And Researchers

N95 Counterfeits

More recently, in another challenge, N95 counterfeit respiratory masks advertised as "certified by U.S. safety regulators" were pulled down from websites in India. The Valpro Ranger 821 and 821V masks were being promoted on Midas Safety websites across eight countries, including China, as per the media reports.

Read: Coronavirus UK: Police Speak To Wayne Rooney For Meeting Kyle Walker During Lockdown

Read: Coronavirus: 65-year-old Woman Tests Positive In Maha's Jalna
This company article has been removed.
Zoom, which on Friday stopped development of new product features so it could focus on fixing various privacy and security issues, clamped down even further on security weaknesses over the weekend.

The company on Saturday switched on default password settings and waiting rooms for users of its Free Basic tier and those with a single account on its cheapest paid tier, such as K-12 eduction accounts. All meetings that use a Personal Meeting ID (PMI) will now need a password, and password settings that had been disabled will be re-enabled. As a result, passwords will be required for instant meetings, for participants joining by phone and when a new meeting is scheduled.

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan acknowledged in an interview with CNN on Monday that the company moved too fast as the COVID-19 crisis unfolded and should have enforced tighter security to protect users. The company also acknowledged in response to research from the University of Torontos Citizen Lab that its encryption efforts need more work.

The company has seen a surge in the use of its platform in recent weeks, as self isolation in response to the pandemic ramped up the demand for video software. As its popularity has boomed  both for business and personal use  and the companys stock price rocketed, underlying vulnerabilities in the platform have become apparent.

Referring to the latest security changes, Zoom said schools using its software will have the new password settings locked permanently, while others with free accounts, or paid accounts with a single licensed user, can remove the requirements if the want.

(Zooms waiting room feature has also been enabled by default to let hosts vet participants before letting them in to a meeting.)

Zoom-bombing, where intruders have been able to access video meetings that were not password protected, has led to serious privacy concerns, with uninvited attendees harassing online A.A. meetings and church meetings, for example. The FBI last week warned of unauthorized access to virtual classrooms and recommended that users change security settings to protect meetings.

Meanwhile, Elon Musks SpaceX aerospace company apparently banned the use of Zoom by its 6,000 employees because of privacy and security worries, according to Reuters. Zoom has also come under fire for a vulnerability that enabled hackers to steal passwords on Windows devices, though that flaw has since been addressed.

More recently, New Yorks Department of Education also banned the use of Zoom, with teachers and administrators barred from using it due to concerns about Zoom-booming, according to The New York Post. A letter to staffers said Zoom should be replaced with Google Hangouts Meet or Microsoft Teams.

Zoom CEO apologizes for recent issues

Yuan published a blog post last Wednesday detailing the companys response and said that over the next 90 days Zoom will direct necessary resources to better identify, address, and fix issues proactively.

We are also committed to being transparent throughout this process. We want to do what it takes to maintain your trust, he said.

Measures include a freeze on feature development, with Zoom engineers told to focus on trust, safety and privacy issues.

The company also plans to work with third-party experts to review security for consumer use of its platform; create a council of CISOs to discuss security best practices; create a transparency report in relation to requests for data, records, or content; expand Zooms bug bounty program; and conduct white box penetration tests to identify other security issues.

Yuan will also host weekly webinars to provide privacy and security updates.

Zoom needs to prove it's enterprise-ready

Zoom is going above and beyond by putting its roadmap on hold to address recent concerns, said Raul Castanon, senior analyst for workforce collaboration at 451 Research / S&P Global Market Intelligence. This should help restore confidence with enterprise users, assuming the company comes up with a clear list of improvements after the 90-day period.

Zoom is getting a lot of attention with the pandemic, and the security issues could actually be an opportunity for the company to prove it can address privacy and security for its enterprise customers, he said.

However, Zoom still has a way to go in terms of ensuring that its platform is ready for enterprise use.

"Yuan contradicts himself with his comment about Zoom being developed for enterprise customers with full IT support and not a broader set of users, Castanon said. It is true that the pandemic is uncovering opportunities for improvement  not just for Zoom, but for most vendors  but the security flaws that have come up show the platform is not quite enterprise-grade. Yuan could have been better off without that remark.

In another privacy incident, Zoom is being sued in California for sharing user data with Facebook. Zoom said in a March 29 blog post that it has never sold user data in the past and has no intention of selling users data going forward, and would remove the Facebook SDK (software development kit) from its iOS client, which it said was responsible for collecting device data.

Castanon commended the way Zoom handled privacy issues related to the Facebook SDK.

Zoom will be okay, but this incident will further damage Facebooks reputation, he said. Mark Zuckerberg should pay close attention to Eric Yuans detailed response about how Zoom is addressing security and privacy concerns.
Hospitals in Washington state  the original epicentre of the USs coronavirus crisis  are running dangerously low on personal protective equipment as they prepare for a critical two week period, a top official has warned.

While a new projection released by experts at the University of Washington suggests the state may have hit its peak of total medical demands on April 2, more than a week earlier than estimated for the nation, doctors will not know for another week or two.

They have warned that social distancing measures must remain in place and that people ought not to relax their guard. The state has recorded 372 deaths so far and at least 8,384 confirmed infections.

On Monday, governor Jay Inslee ordered schools to stay shut until the end of the academy year. At the same time, he returned 400 ventilators to the federal government for use in New York state.

We simply cannot take the chance of reopening on-site instruction in this calendar school year, he said from the state capital, Olympia. We cannot risk losing the gains we have made after the peak of this pandemic presumably will have passed.

Meanwhile, even as experts lowered their projected death toll for the state to between 557 and 741, down from 1,600, the Washington State Hospital Associations senior VP, Beth Zborowski, told The Independent its members faced a tough struggle. Read the Q&A below:

Q What is the current situation being confronted by hospitals across the state. Are there shortages of equipment such as ventilators or gowns. How severe is this shortage and what are the potential impacts?

A The biggest challenges our hospitals are facing are lack of personal protective supplies like masks to ensure staff stay healthy. By order of our governor, all non-urgent procedures that can safely be rescheduled for three months have been cancelled to preserve supplies and space in our hospitals. The governor has also ordered everyone to stay home (with the exception of essential workers or when folks need food or medical care) to slow the spread of the virus. (People can still be outside, but they cant congregate and must stay 6 feet apart.)

Given the behaviour of the virus, it will still be another week or two until we see how much this has slowed the spread.

One of the big goals of slowing the spread is that it will help hospitals keep from getting overwhelmed. We are starting to collect data about discharges after Covid hospitalisations, as we are hearing some success stories of patients being discharged to finish their recovery at home. Were doing alright at the moment, but the state is setting up field hospitals in anticipation of greater need for capacity.

As for supplies, our state is dangerously low on personal protective equipment.

We are working closely with our state and federal government to secure as many supplies as possible from the USs Strategic National Stockpile. Manufacturers are quickly ramping up their production of these supplies, and weve even heard of our member hospitals receiving some wonderful donations (like Elon Musk and Tesla sending 50,000 N95 masks to the University of Washington).

If hospitals were to run out of supplies, they wouldnt have the supplies they need to protect themselves from the virus. We havent heard of facilities running out, but supplies are low, and we are doing everything we can to help them get what they need.

Q How many patients are currently being treated for Covid-19 in WA hospitals?

A While we know the total number of confirmed cases [currently at least 8,384], were do not currently have data on the number requiring hospitalisation.

 Cassie Sauer on lack of ventilators: 'This should not happen in America its immoral'

Q Experts suggest there will be an increase in the number of infections in the coming weeks. What are your expectations or projections about the number of patients you will see? What sort of impact might this have. Is there a danger of hospitals being overwhelmed?

A Yes, we are preparing for an increase in the number of patients who will need medical care due to Covid-19. We dont know just yet what that will look like, but we are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.

In a worst case scenario, if the entire regional system was overwhelmed, there may need to be a move to crisis standards of care where the health system moves from giving the very best care to each individual to determining what can save the most people. There has been a lot of thought put into these plans over years as part of disaster preparedness.

We are working to do our very best not to reach that point, which is why we are advocating to get the additional resources we need and to coordinate among hospitals to share resources in the event of a surge. No individual organisation would move to crisis standards of care, it would only happen if the whole regional health care system was overwhelmed.

Q What are hospitals doing to prepare for any anticipated increase. Are they getting sufficient help from state or local authorities? What more could Donald Trump do to help?

A The field hospitals and delaying of surgeries are helping create space in the health system. We have gotten support from the state and federal government (including state support for our hospitals), but the biggest thing we need are more supplies and more testing capacity. Specimen collection kits and the supplies needed to run tests are still in short supply. Expediting those is of top importance.

Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Show all 25 1 /25 Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A view of empty Bourbon street in the French Quarter amid the coronavirus pandemic in New Orleans, Louisiana Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Nyla Clark, 3, accompanied by her mother, Chavonne Clark, sits in a baby stroller at a corner in New Orleans, hoping to get a few dollars from an occasional passerby. Clark was a phlebotomist with a local company until she lost her job because of the coronavirus pandemic. She is waiting for unemployment The Advocate via AP Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A man boards a streetcar Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Jackson Square, normally bustling with tourists, is seen deserted AP Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Words from Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" are painted onto plywood covering the window of a closed business AFP via Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Street performer Eddie Webb looks around the nearly deserted French Quarter looking to make money AP Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Boarded up businesses Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans The normally bustling tourist mecca of Bourbon Street lies deserted in the early afternoon Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A sign along I-10 informing persons who travel from Louisiana to quarantine AP Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A man cycles along Jackson Square AFP via Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans Elena Likaj, prevention department manager at Odyssey House Louisiana (OHL) which runs a drive-through testing site, takes the temperature of New Orleans resident Peyton Gill Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A man walks his dog past a boarded up business on Frenchmen Street Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans An empty Bourbon street Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A meal is distributed at the Lantern Light Ministry at the Rebuild Center Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A woman walks in the French Quarter Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans People practice social distancing as they queue up for a meal at the Lantern Light Ministry at the Rebuild Center Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans French Quarter Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A sign is pictured in the French Quarter amid the outbreak Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A view of Bourbon Street Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans National Guard members walk down Rampart Street AFP via Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A man rides his bicycle in front of a boarded up French Quarter restaurant Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A shuttered business is pictured on Decatur Street AFP via Getty Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans The normally bustling tourist mecca of Bourbon Street lies deserted Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A view of Canal Street Reuters Impact coronavirus is having on Louisiana and New Orleans A New Orleans firefighter works to contain an early morning fire Reuters

Q What has been the impact on your staff of this pandemic? What steps are being taken to help ensure their physical and mental safety? Have you seen a lot of people falling sick themselves?

A The health care teams in our member hospitals are on the front lines every day and they are doing remarkable work. Our number-one priority is keeping them protected from Covid-19 exposure and ensure they remain well. Every member we have talked with is concerned about keeping staff well physically and mentally and are taking steps to take care of their staff, from providing meals to leading mindfulness exercises and yoga stretching breaks. We have not seen a large number of staff getting sick at this point, but it is something we are concerned about.

Q The president has suggested the social distancing ordered last week may come to an end in a few weeks. Meanwhile, Governor Inslee has ordered a stay at home declaration. What do you think is the correct approach for Washington state to combat the disease?

A We believe social distancing is critical for preventing the spread of the virus, and we are following the guidance from the Washington State Department of Health and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on best practices. Prematurely ending social distancing measures could be lethal to our most vulnerable residents.
Boeing will conduct another unmanned test flight to demonstrate the Starliner spacecraft after its first attempt failed to reach the ISS. According to The Washington Post, the repeat flight will take place in October or November, which means the aerospace corporation likely wont be able to launch a crewed flight this year. SpaceX, on the other hand, recently assured NASA and space fans that it will still conduct its first manned flight in May. If everything goes according to plan, the newer company will be ferrying astronauts to the ISS before Boeing can.

In a statement about the repeat flight, Boeing said:

The Boeing Company is honored to be a provider for the Commercial Crew mission. We are committed to the safety of the men and women who design, build and ultimately will fly on the Starliner just as we have on every crewed mission to space. We have chosen to refly our Orbital Flight Test to demonstrate the quality of the Starliner system. Flying another uncrewed flight will allow us to complete all flight test objectives and evaluate the performance of the second Starliner vehicle at no cost to the taxpayer. We will then proceed to the tremendous responsibility and privilege of flying astronauts to the International Space Station.

The Starliner was supposed to dock with the International Space Station in December, but it didnt reach the correct orbit. A team from NASA and Boeing later investigated the incident and found flaws in the latters testing procedure that caused the failure.

Apparently, the aerospace giant divided its tests in small chunks instead of conducting longer ones that simulate the whole process from launch to docking. Because of that, the company didnt realize that the spacecrafts onboard computer time was miscalibrated by 11 hours, preventing its thrusters from firing at the right time. Further, the team found a critical software defect that couldve led to the loss of the spacecraft.

Boeing has to ensure that the Starliner can safely reach the space station before it can fly with a crew onboard. NASA told The Post in a statement that it has accepted the proposal to fly the mission again and will work side-by-side with Boeing to resume flight tests.
CHICO, Calif. - A local housing assistance program and a public university are teaming up to help house students in Chico during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Chico Housing Action Team otherwise known as CHAT and Chico State want to make sure 16 Chico State students have a roof over their heads in the coming days.

Currently, CHAT is leasing one four bedroom home to four students in need.

They would pay around $300 a month.

It all goes through Chico State - who prioritize housing for students who don't have enough to make a deposit for an apartment or simply don't have a co-signer.

CHAT wants to house students as quick as possible, due to the coronavirus pandemic stay-at-home order in place.

"Being without housing really will contribute to spreading the virus," said Leslie Johnson, a member of CHAT, adding "people cant shelter at home if they don't have a home."

Johnson continues saying "a lot of people are not necessarily sleeping outside but some might be sleeping in a car or they might be couch surfing. Students really do need their own place where they can study effectively."

CHAT has only leased one home so far but they will lease more homes for the 12 other students.

CHAT says they are in need of donationed furniture for those student homes like beds, tables, or lamps.

On top of the housing aid - CHAT will also provide students with a counselor to help them navigate through life.

CHAT is still building homes for as many people during the pandemic.

CHAT recently announced it would withdraw plans for building "Simplicity Village."

That project would have included 33 tiny homes housing 46 seniors.
New Delhi, April 7 : The trailer of Chris Hemsworths upcoming film "Extraction" is finally out and it runs high on action, drama, emotion and wit by taking the Hollywood actor on a thrilling ride through the bylanes of India, for a deadly mission to take on an Indian and Bangladeshi drug lord.

The Netflix India shared exclusive guns blazing first look of the film on April 7. "Extraction" traces the journey of Tyler Rake (Hemsworth) who is a fearless black market mercenary with nothing left to lose when his skills are solicited to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned international crime lord.

The film was predominantly shot in multiple Indian cities, Bangladesh and Thailand.

The over three-minute clip opens with Hemsworth's character taking a huge leap off a cliff and into a pond, only to meditate underwater. What follows is a glimpse into the skills of Rake -- from jumping off moving vehicles, across buildings and punching through villains.

The trailer makes it clear that the film, originally titled "Dhaka", is about weapons dealers and drug traffickers. The clip also teases many action scenes, fights and chase sequences.

The thriller is directed by Sam Hargrave and produced by "Avengers: Endgame" director duo Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, as well as Mike Larocca, Chris Hemsworth, Eric Gitter, and Peter Schwerin.

In the film, Pankaj Tripathi and Priyanshu Painyuli play the role of biggest drug lords of India and Bangladesh, Golshifteh Farahani is on the operations team. David Harbour also makes an appearance and seems to be an advisor. Indian actor Randeep Hooda's role is still a mystery as he was missing from the trailer.

Another thing to look forward to in the film is a great background score, which seems to edgy. Also starring Rudraksh Jaiswal, the film will release on Netflix on April 24.
[April 07, 2020] Special Report on The COVID-19 Epidemic Forecasts (Issue 2)

HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An", the "Company" or the "Group", HKEX: 02318; SSE: 601318) today published a second report on The COVID-19 Epidemic Forecasts by Ping An Smart City Research Institute, Ping An Macroeconomic Research Institute and Ping An Healthtech Research Institute. Overview (View full report) 1. The epidemic shows a three-wave global spreading trend. The cumulative number of confirmed cases globally has exceeded 1 million. It is estimated that the cumulative number of confirmed cases will exceed 2 million around Apr. 15. As of 12 p.m. China Standard Time on Apr. 4, there have been more than 1 million confirmed cases globally. It is expected that this current wave of infection, mainly in Europe and the U.S., will reach a peak of new confirmed cases by Apr. 15. The cumulative number of confirmed cases will exceed 2 million around Apr. 15. The first wave of infections occurred in China, the second wave is dominated by developed countries in Europe and North America, and the third wave is expected to occur in densely populated developing countries in Asia, Africa and South America. 2. Second wave: The number of newly confirmed cases in major European countries began to decline at the end of March, in line with our Mar. 20 prediction. We predicted that major European countries and Iran would reach the peak of daily new confirmed cases around the end of March. Newly confirmed cases in Italy peaked on Mar. 22, Spain on Mar. 27, Germany on Mar. 28, Iran on Mar. 31, and France on Apr. 1. The peaks of new confirmed cases in Italy, Spain, and Germany were in line with our predictions on Mar. 20 and the peaks in Iran and France were two days later than predicted. 3. Second wave: The arrival of the peak of new confirmed cases in the U.S. will be in mid-April, later than originally predicted. The main reason is the U.S. has had fewer tests than some European countries during the same period, but is showing a higher test-positive rate. The U.S. added 34,168 new cases for a record high on Apr. 5, and the peak of new confirmed cases is still to come. The main reasons are: 1) Although the cumulative number of tests per million of population in the U.S. has increased from 47 to 4,933 since the implementation of containment measures, the test volume is still about 50% lower than that of European countries and South Korea during the same period, i.e. Italy at 10,870 per million, Germany at 10,962 and South Korea at 8,875; and 2) The eight U.S. states with the most severe epidemics have a test-positive rate of more than 20%. New York and New Jersey were 40.7% and 45.6% respectively, higher than Italy's 18.6% and Germany's 10.8%. Also, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in these eght states exceeds 200,000. Based on our analysis, we now expect the peak of new confirmed cases in the U.S. to occur between Apr. 9 and Apr. 15. The peak of new confirmed cases may reach 39,000 to 60,000, and the final cumulative confirmed cases in mid-May may reach 870,000 to 1.65 million.



4. Second wave: The new confirmed cases in the U.K., Turkey, and Canada are expected to start to decline around mid-April. The number of new confirmed cases in these three countries have been growing rapidly recently. According to the current trend, the three countries will reach the peak of new confirmed cases around Apr. 15. Among them, Turkey and Canada belong to the Medium rate infection scenario (estimated infection rate is 0.05% to 0.2% of the total population), and the U.K. belongs to the Higher infection rate scenario (estimated infection rate is 0.2% of the total population). It is estimated that the peak of new confirmed cases will arrive between Apr. 8 to Apr.12 for Canada, Apr. 9 to Apr. 13 for the U.K. and Apr. 13 to Apr. 17 for Turkey. The cumulative confirmed cases in mid-May is expected to be: 130,000 to 180,000 in the U.K., 110,000 to 150,000 in Turkey, and 35,000 to 50,000 in Canada. 5. Third wave: The epicenters of outbreak are predicted to be developing countries in Asia, South America and Africa, especially India, Indonesia and Brazil. India, Indonesia, and Brazil have populations of 1.38 billion, 270 million, and 210 million, respectively, making them the most populous countries other than China and the U.S.. At present, the testing volume per million population in the three countries is only 50 in India, 23 in Indonesia and 215 in Brazil, far lower than the volumes in Europe and the U.S.. India's test-positive rate is less than 10% of the average of other countries. Assuming that the test-positive rate in India reaches the level of Europe and the U.S., the current number of infections in India may actually be 220,000.

In Africa, the number of confirmed cases is currently only 9,064. However, considering that Africa accounts for one-sixth of the world's population and has relatively low levels of medical resources, it is also a likely epicenter of outbreak for the third wave. 6. The ratio of confirmed cases in a seven-day period to the number of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds in a country significantly affects the fatality rate. Since about 20% of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 will develop into severe cases. The level of confirmed cases compared to the number of ICU beds is an important ratio. A low ratio of 1 or below indicates there may be sufficient ICU beds for the number of severe cases implied by the level of confirmed cases in the population. A higher ratio indicates there may not be enough ICU beds for the number of expected severe cases. 1) A low ratio of confirmed cases to the number of ICU beds would likely result in fatality rates of 0.9% to 2%. For example, the ratio of the peak confirmed cases in a seven-day period to the number of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds in China (excluding Hubei) is 0.08 and South Korea is 0.43. 2) A moderately high ratio would likely result in fatality rates of 2% to 4%. In Germany, the ratio of the peak confirmed cases in a seven-day period to the number of ICU beds is 1.7. 3) A high ratio would likely result in fatality rates of 4% to 10%. In Iran, the ratio of the peak confirmed cases in a seven-day period to the number of ICU beds is 4.4, and the U.S. is above 2.7. 4) A very high ratio would likely result in fatality rates of more than 10%. The ratio of the peak confirmed cases in a seven-day period to the number of ICU beds in Italy is 5.9, Spain is 12.8, and France is 6.6. About Ping An Group Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. ("Ping An") is a world-leading technology-powered retail financial services group. With over 200 million retail customers and 516 million Internet users, Ping An is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. Ping An has two over-arching strategies, "pan financial assets" and "pan health care", which focus on the provision of financial and healthcare services through our integrated financial services platform and our five ecosystems of financial services, health care, auto services, real estate services and smart city services. Our "finance + technology" and "finance + ecosystems" strategies aim to provide customers and internet users with innovative and simple products and services using technology. As China's first joint stock insurance company, Ping An Group is committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate reporting and corporate governance. The Company is listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai. In 2019, Ping An ranked 7th in the Forbes Global 2000 list and 29th on the Fortune Global 500 list. Ping An also ranked 40th in the 2019 WPP Millward Brown BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list. For more information, please visit www.pingan.cn. Disclaimer This research report is based on current public information that we consider reliable, but we do not represent it is accurate or complete, and it should not be relied on as such. The information, opinions, estimates and forecasts contained herein are as of the date hereof and are subject to change without prior notification. We seek to update our research as appropriate, but various regulations may prevent us from doing so. Other than certain reports published on a periodic basis, the large majority of reports are published at irregular intervals as appropriate in the analyst's judgment. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/special-report-on-the-covid-19-epidemic-forecasts-issue-2-301036966.html SOURCE Ping An Insurance Group Ltd.

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Amid the rising coronavirus COVID-19 cases in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday (April 7) unveiled a 5T plan to curb the spread of the deadly virus in the national capital. The 5T plan unveiled by CM Kejriwal includes testing, tracing, treatment, teamwork and tracking.

Following into the footsteps of South Korea, CM Kejriwal told the media that his government has decided to conduct at least one lakh random rapid tests in hotspots across the city in the coming days. He added that Delhi government has already conducted around 5,000 tests.

Kejriwal said that Delhi government will continue tracing contacts of those who have tested positive for coronavirus. We have an efficient team of doctors who will identify and quarantine those who have been contact with positive patients, Kejriwal said. He added that Delhi Police will be provided details of these people and they will ensure that these people remain in quarantine at home and do not mingle with the public.

According to Delhi chief minister, treatment of coronavirus patient is a very important step to check the spread of this disease. He informed the media that 3,000 patients beds have already been set up in different hospitals across the city for this purpose. We have strategised to take over in phases more hospital beds, hotels, banquets and dharamshalas if the numbers increase, he said. Kejriwal added that his government is also planning to takeover 12,000 hotel rooms if the number of coronavirus cases jump suddenly.

CM Kejriwal stressed that teamwork was very important to fight COVID-19, urging everyone to help the government agencies in eradicating the coronavirus menace.

The AAP chief said that he will personally tracking and monitor the implementation of all plans at ground level. My responsibility will be tracking and monitoring of the plan. I will see to it that it is followed through, Kejriwal said.

It is to be noted that Delhi has reported 523 COVID-19 cases so far, including seven deaths. Delhi has the third highest positive cases, after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
A four-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia, who tested coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive in New Yorks Bronx Zoo on Sunday has raised concerns about the risk of cross-species transmission. But to detect such transmission and the risk of future pandemics, a lot of resources need to be invested in surveillance of animals as well to understand how Covid-19 is impacting them. Uma Ramakrishnan, associate professor, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru, and senior fellow, Wellcome Trust, underlined the need to study possible reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.

Q. Is there a chance that the virus will find a new animal reservoir outside China?

A. Its possible, but overall, humans are the most numerous species on earth and currently, the virus is infecting them.

Q. How can scientists track animal reservoirs?

A. This is a great question! We could. First, conduct a survey among asymptomatic wildlife/possible reservoirs and look for Covid-19 sequences. We would do this most likely in bats because they carry a high burden of viruses. We could also look for situations where bats are in contact with humans such as the bat harvest we have studied in Nagaland. Second, test animals that show symptoms in zoos or the wild. Regardless, what we will need to do is lots of surveillance! This will require lots of fieldwork and sampling, as well as detailed molecular characterisation and testing, and also genome sequencing to better understand the transmission dynamics (where is spillover happening, from which species to which species). This is an exciting field but poorly represented in India. Almost no such work exists.

Q. What does the tiger testing positive in Bronx Zoo tell us about the susceptibility of wildlife to the virus?

A. Not too much, just that tigers can get infected naturally.

The papers that have been published already told us this, but in that case, the cats were infected on purpose. Here, the tiger contracted it possibly from an asymptomatic carrier. What we do not know is how are tigers affected in general. Is there mortality? And, at what rate?

Q. What does this mean for wildlife?

A. In zoos, contact between humans and captive animals is high. Is this the case at all in the wild? It might be that the chances of transmission are much lower for wild animals (while could be a chain: humans to macaques to tigers, for example), and does this happen? These are all questions that would need to be addressed from both a basic and applied perspective.

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Rabbi Kara Tav is the manager of spiritual care services and a palliative care chaplain at a hospital in New York City. Her Facebook feed in recent weeks has been an almost unbearable portal into the suffering she lives with each day. The pandemic was real to her long before many of us saw its effects. The hospital chaplains who minister to the sick and dying in the COVID-19 era are witness to special kinds of suffering and solitude. I reached out to Tav in the hope that she could share some of her story. Our conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

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Dahlia Lithwick: I have a pretty cartoonish idea of what chaplains do. Can you tell me what your days looked like before the COVID-19 era? How are chaplaincies organized? What proportion of patients seek spiritual care?

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Kara Tav: In health care chaplaincy (as opposed to university chaplaincy or prison chaplaincy or any other kind), I am called a multifaith chaplain. While I was in rabbinical school, I did additional training to become a chaplain. The additional training is very hands-on. I did 7,400-hour units of clinical pastoral education, working in hospitals with multifaith groups. (Basically we were like one of those jokes: A rabbi and a priest and an imam walked into a bar  ) We use an action-reflection model to learn skillseach of us would minister to patients in hospital and then write up our visits (with pseudonyms) as a type of script to review with our supervisor and our group, i.e.:

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CHAPLAIN: Hello, Mr. Schwartz, how are you doing? I am [X], your chaplain. I wonder if you would like a visit? MR. SCHWARTZ: What the hell is a chaplain? I thought those were guys who came to read you your last rites!

We would bring these scripts back to the group and read them together, each of us playing a role from the script. Then we would receive feedback during the reading: Why did you ignore that question? I like that prayer. How dare that doctor interrupt you? What will you do differently next time? And so on.

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In addition to the verbatim, we had intensive group therapy during which the supervisor tried to help us learn about what we personally bring into the room and how to park that outside, and then later, we learned psychology, some medical terminology and whatnot, educational theory. We visited patients, ran spirituality groups, ministered to staff and families and each other. It was brutal. After this, a chaplain does 2,000 hours of additional work (about two years) in hospital before becoming board-certified, which completes the process.

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A chaplain offers nonmedical care for the patient, staff, and family. It is much like Father Mulcahy on M*A*S*H, actually. He dealt with the socio-religio-cultural needs of everyone. The entire camp became his flock. I have met ultra-Orthodox men in lockdown psychiatric units who wanted to confess that they didnt believe in God, and Muslim families who wanted to bury their loved ones in Pakistan but were afraid to ask their nurse to help them because, well, America. I love to advocate for the patient, the staff, the neediest. Love to. This is the second time I have worked as a director of a department. I like the combination of management/mentoring and direct service.

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And suddenly you are doing this work behind a mask? Behind a Zoom screen? With families over the phone? Im guessing none of this is how you ever wanted to do this work?

No. I hate the phone. I never want to communicate without eye contact or body language. Not about such things as life and death and ethical dilemmas. The mask isnt newmany patients have infection precautions and you have to suit up to go in. That takes practice, but like all things, you learn it. Donning and doffing is a skill like any other.

Youve been posting about ethical challenges, and I am wondering what they are and how they get resolved in the world of chaplaincy.

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It depends on the times and the hospital system. Generally, ethical dilemmas in hospital are around agency or proxy. As in, does a patient have agency to make their own medical decisions (even if they are weird or unwise medically) or questions about who has proxy to make decisions for the patient? There are issues about transgender patient rites to be called by, treated as, put in units with people of their correct gender, etc. Advocacy. A chaplains theological voice adds to the hospitals business and medical voice, to round out the decision-making, and force it to say about patients as real people.

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Right now, or leading up to where we are now (keeping in mind that Ive only been at this hospital for six weeksyes, started a job at the outset of a pandemic), I was deeply concerned about the institution having a policy so that doctors would feel supported when triaging patients for resources. I was starting to hear docs talk about resources running low and how to behave if that happened. There was terror behind their eyes. And then things changed daily. The system fell back on the policy they wrote around the SARS epidemic that they really didnt need. And now, our docs have to make very difficult decisions without a lot of guidance. There is an excellent ethics doc with whom I work, but things move very, very, very quickly. He takes calls all day and all night. He calls me once a day and once a night to check in or to tell me whats happening.

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And then there are the other nonsexy decisions about resuscitation. If an 88-year-old woman with COPD is on a respirator and coding her will definitively put a team of five young, healthy docs and two or three young, healthy nurses at serious risk of death, but her son says he wants her resuscitated, do you have to do it? Hes her proxy. Its the law. But the chances that the intervention will save her is .000000000001.  These are not easy calls to make. How can I help? I can tell the docs that the universe decides who lives and who dies, not them.

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What are the other ways in which the coronavirus has made your job harder?

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This has made my job hell. Normally my job is to listen, to comfort, to pray for healing.

Now my job is to pray for a swift and merciful death for most of my patients. I hold weeping, sweaty-faced nurses through gloves and masks, to whom I promise their work is meaningful and changing lives. I promise them that its OK to feel bone-tired, that everyones living with nightmares that theyre going to get sick. I have spent this morning making condolence calls (30 deaths over the weekendwe normally have five).

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A hard question: You write about how different faiths demand different end-of-life rituals. How do you manage that in a time of such need and also such scarcity?

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I hold weeping, sweaty-faced nurses through gloves and masks, to whom I promise their work is meaningful and changing lives.  Rabbi Kara Tav

Well, we do our best. We know as much as we can about different traditions and we also have distributed a blessing for medical or other staff to offer when no chaplain is available to honor a death.

Another hard question: Does any of this affect the way you think about God?

Well, theres a short answer and a long answer to that question.

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The short answer is: absolutely not!

The long answer is that my understanding of God is best summed up by my understanding God not as causing our misfortunes but having created a world of inflexible laws. I do not believe that the painful things that happen to us are punishments for our misbehavior, nor are they in any way part of some grand design on Gods part. Tragedy is not Gods will, so we need not feel hurt or betrayed by God when tragedy strikes. God can be present to help us overcome it, precisely because we can tell ourselves that God is as outraged by it as we are. I was strongly critiqued for holding this theology throughout rabbinical school, for its simplicity. But Harold Kushners ideas (that I have represented weakly  sorry) were a foundational comfort to me in my earliest tragic experience and have been consistently dependable. I cant believe in a God that gives 2-year-olds cancer or kills thousands of fishermen at sea. I just cant imagine God wanting to destroy Gods own image, Gods own creations. My God is all compassionate, never judging.

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The patients dying alone, sometimes not speaking English. This is the stuff of nightmares. You have written so powerfully about the aloneness in death.

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Dahlia, dying is something no one can do with us. We all die alone. Being with someone (as in, physically present when they die) is an idea we love because it gives us closure and peace. It is about us, not the patient. The patient is dying. That is their work alone. But not having the closure you want is very hard and sad and a frightening thought.

There is a recurring theme in what you write, about how desperately we all need to listen. I wonder what you are listening for and also what you hear?

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One of my best CPE supervisors taught me that a chaplain hears differently. A chaplain hears behind the words and into the heart. I dont know exactly how to describe it, but its true. I was in a family meeting that was very contentious in my first week at this hospital. I visited this very sick woman who hasnt opened her eyes in several days, whose family is up in arms about how to proceed with her care for her. I witnessed her open her eyes and says in the meekest whisper of a voice: I want to get off this merry-go-round. I want to go home. Everyone was shouting about whether she should go home to her daughters house or to a nursing home.  I sat in this family meeting in which everyone around the table was arguing and the doctor had lost her cool and the pulmonologist was trying to quiet everyone, and I asked if I could speak. I say, maybe she was asking to go home and we should grant her that wish. Maybe we should let Gods will on Earth be done on Earth as it is in heaven (thats from the Lords Prayer). And let her gohands gesture skywardhome. That kind of hearing seems like a no-brainer, but really it is about being not invested in outcome or knowledge or being right. Its about hearing the patients heart.
President Donald Trump has warned India that the US may retaliate if it did not export anti-malarial drug Hydroxychloroquine despite his personal request, saying he would be surprised in case of a negative outcome as New Delhi has good relations with Washington.

Hydroxychloroquine, an old and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria, is seen as a viable therapeutic solution by President Trump to coronavirus that has so far killed more than 10,000 Americans and infected over 3.6 lakh within weeks.

Last week Trump said he has sought help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the sale of Hydroxychloroquine tablets ordered by the US to treat the growing number of coronavirus patients in his country, hours after India banned the export of the anti-malarial drug.

"I would be surprised if he would, you know, because India does very well with the United States," Trump told reporters during a press briefing at the White House on Monday.

Last month, India imposed a ban on the export on Hydroxychloroquine, on which Trump is now banking heavily for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

India has received similar requests from several other countries including its immediate neighbours Sri Lanka and Nepal. India has said that it is reviewing its export ban order.

Notably, India's decision to ban the exports of Hydroxychloroquine is driven by its desire to take stock of the domestic requirements and ensure that the country has enough in its kitty.

Reiterating that for many years, India has been taking advantage of the US on trade, Trump said that he would be surprised if New Delhi was to stop export of Hydroxychloroquine to the US.

"So, I would be surprised if that were his decision. He'd have to tell me that. I spoke to him Sunday morning, called him, and I said we'd appreciate your allowing our supply to come out. If he doesn't allow it to come out, that would be okay, but of course there may be retaliation. Why wouldn't there be?" Trump said.

His remarks came at a time when both countries are in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended the anti-malarial drug for those involved in the care of suspected or confirmed cases of the coronavirus and also, for the asymptomatic household contacts of laboratory confirmed cases.

On Monday, a senior State Department official said that India has been a significant partner of the US in the pharmaceutical sector and it expects similar cooperation to continue between the economies.

India has long been a significant partner of the United States in the pharmaceutical sector, Alice G Wells, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, told reporters during a press briefing.

The Trump administration has already created a national strategic stockpile of 29 million doses of the malaria drug, anticipating that its test results on more than 1,500 COVID-19 patients in New York is yielding positive results.

Global scientists, racing against time to find either a vaccine or a therapeutic cure to the virus, have begun testing Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as candidates for potential COVID-19 treatments and the FDA last week issued an Emergency Use Authorization for the prescription of the drugs in certain circumstances.

In addition to New York, COVID-19 patients in several States are being treated with Hydroxychloroquine, including Michigan and Texas.

Based on some initial results, the Trump administration is banking heavily on using Hydroxychloroquine for the successful treatment of coronavirus.

According to Trump, the drug is yielding positive results. If successful, he told reporters that it would be a gift from heaven.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Queen has praised the selfless commitment and diligence of health professionals around the world as she marked World Health Day in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a post on social media, the monarch passed on her thanks from herself and the Royal Family and noted the vitally important roles of doctors, nurses, midwives and other health workers.

Her post comes two days after she thanked NHS staff as well as other essential workers in a rare televised address to the nation and the Commonwealth.

On Tuesday, she said: In testing times, we often observe that the best of the human spirit comes to the fore; the dedication to service of countless nurses, midwives and other health workers, in these most challenging of circumstances, is an example to us all.

She added: My family and I send our enduring appreciation and good wishes.

Read more: Coronavirus: 'Nobody else alive could have done that'  Queen wins praise for her message

Queen Elizabeth thanked NHS staff as they battle the coronavirus. (Getty Images)

The message was shared with a video of members of the Royal Family, including Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall; the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince Edward and Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, meeting health workers both in the UK and abroad.

It also included images from the current crisis, with a medic wearing a face mask and a visor outside a hospital.

The Queen made only the fifth televised address outside of her annual Christmas message on Sunday evening, sharing a message of comfort and support to the UK and the Commonwealth in the time of COVID-19.

The Queen meets Lily Conkan, eight, as she opens the new premises of the Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospital. (Getty Images)

In the broadcast, which was watched by 23 million people, the 93-year-old said: I want to thank everyone on the NHS front line, as well as care workers and those carrying out essential roles, who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all.

I am sure the nation will join me in assuring you that what you do is appreciated and every hour of your hard work brings us closer to a return to more normal times.

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She also thanked people for staying at home, noting how difficult separation can be by comparing it with her own childhood, when she and her sister were sent to live in Windsor during the Blitz.

In the moments after her message aired, Number 10 confirmed the prime ministers condition had worsened and he was taken to hospital in London.

Read more: Queen's message: Four other times the Queen gave a special address

The Queen at Alder Hey in Liverpool in 2016. (Getty Images)

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

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On Monday, Boris Johnson was transferred to the intensive care unit at St Thomass, and he has asked Dominic Raab to deputise for him.

Following the Queens message on television and radio, she also wrote to Canada and Australias governor-generals as the head of the Commonwealth.

In a message to Canadians, she said: In the coming weeks and months, the people of Canada will need to continue to work together to ensure the health and vitality of our communities. I know that Canadians will remain optimistic and will rise to the challenges ahead.

And telling Australians her thoughts were with them, she continued: While it can be difficult to remain hopeful in such challenging times, especially following the summer's devastating bushfires and recent flooding, I am confident that the stoic and resilient nature of the Australian people will rise to the challenge.

Coronavirus: what happened today
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Kalen Schlatter is appealing his conviction and life sentence for the first-degree murder of Tess Richey, according to a notice of appeal filed last week.

The two listed grounds for the appeal are that the judge wrongly admitted the evidence of two undercover officers who were placed into the cells of a police station with Schlatter, then 21, after his arrest, and that the judges charge to the jury was imbalanced.

The handwritten notice of appeal was submitted by Schlatter himself and is dated March 25, 2020  the day that he was automatically sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years for strangling and sexually assaulting 22-year-old Richey in an alley off Church Street. Surveillance video showed the two walk into the alley together at 4:14 a.m. on Nov. 25, 2018, and Schlatter leave alone 45 minutes later. Richeys body was found in a stairwell in the alley by her mother and a friend days later.

Your sexual appetite led you literally to take an innocent young woman by the hand down a path to her death, Superior Court Justice Michael Dambrot said in his brief sentencing decision. To satisfy your lust, you took her life... you stole a large piece of the fabric of the very being of the members of her family and friends and, I could not fail to observe, you shed no tear for their losses.

A jury found Schlatter guilty of first-degree murder after deliberating for three days, the last jury trial in Toronto to end amid the COVID-19 court shutdown.

An appeal hearing date has not been set.

The Toronto police were sharply criticized for failing to investigate Richeys disappearance properly. Her case was among those which prompted the police board to commission a sweeping review of how Toronto police handle missing-persons investigations.
South Korean Embassy in Iran announced on Monday that the country is planning to ship a medical package worth two million dollars to Iran, Trend reports citing IRNA.

In a tweet on Monday, Embassy wished uprooting the disease and better days, the donation has been made by the South Korean people to the Iranian people.

Medical items worth of 200,000 dollars including PCR sets and disinfectant pumps have already delivered to Iran by South Korea.
[April 07, 2020] Help Stop the Spread of COVID-19 at TrackMyTemp

Today, TrackMyTemp.org goes live to crowdsource human temperature data and give researchers and governments the information they need to fight COVID-19. Human body temperature data is important because it is an early indicator of corona virus infection, even before test results can be obtained. Using TrackMyTemp.org, people worldwide can easily, voluntarily, securely, and anonymously log their daily temperature for free, using a smart phone, tablet, or computer, and a home thermometer. The data will be sorted geographically and made available to researchers while preserving the anonymity of the sender. With this invaluable information, experts can create a real-time heat map to predict better when, where, and how to deploy resources to serve those in need, slow the spread of the virus, and plan the timelines and locations of distancing measures, and later, a return to more normal patterns of life. SAFE and SECURE:

All of this is done without an account, or ever sharing your name or email address. Participants simply request a personalized Virtual Thermometer from the website, where they'll enter their current body temperature taken by their own thermometer, and their age range, as average temps change with age That thermometer receives a unique web page link, enabling the user to return to it.



For the service to work, people will have to allow location sharing, but the site modifies their location from their phone or computer to ensure anonymity. Nowhere is anyone's identifying information stored, so there's nothing to hack. That's how TrackMyTemp.org preserves the safety and identity of participants. Only you control your Virtual Thermometer link. Users then bookmark their Virtual Thermometer to access it easily for daily readings and a running temperature history. Access Codes can be shared between loved ones - say, to check up on an elderly relative without bothering them, the same way you'd share any web page link.

What about ne'er-do-wells entering false data? This solution runs on the honor system and we are all in the fight against COVID-19 together, but TrackMyTemp is also protected from bots or any non-human interaction and has advanced statistical analytics in the backend that will sideline anyone repeatedly entering bad data. All of us wish that we could do more to fight COVID-19. TrackMyTemp.org provides the means to do just that, from home, safely, anonymously, for free. Future Applications:

Flu season happens every year, around the world. Even diseases like Dengue Fever and Malaria have local outbreaks that could be greatly curtailed by this preemptive data set. TrackMyTemp stands to become a powerful way for the world's population to help monitor and prevent the spread of infectious diseases and give health and government officials the info they need to plan the deployment of resources and response measures. About:

TrackMyTemp Foundation is a nonprofit company created in Reston, Virginia, by CargoSense, a logistics intelligence company, which donated its technology and knowhow for this express purpose. There is no data sharing between the two organizations. Quotes:

"We don't have herd immunity - so we have to use herd intelligence." ~ Rich Kilmer, CEO, CargoSense View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005139/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
On Sunday night, an estimated 28 million people watched a prerecorded speech by British monarch Queen Elizabeth II on the coronavirus pandemic.

The four-minute speech, broadcast on BBC One, ITV, Channel 5, Channel 4, Sky News and the BBC News Channel, was the Royal Familys appeal to Keep Calm and Carry On faced with a global social crisis ravaging millions.

Speaking from Windsor Castle, amid the gilt rococo surrounds of the White Drawing Room, the stony faced and immaculately coiffed 93-year-old monarch invoked a mythical spirit of shared sacrifice. The personal embodiment of hereditary privilege and obscene wealthwho is worth an estimated 1.6 billionlectured working people on the need for national unity, self-discipline and restraint.

The Queen delivering her address at Windsor Castle

Queen Elizabeth, who decamped from London weeks ago with Prince Phillip to the Berkshire countryside, surrounded by a retinue of servants in the worlds largest occupied castle, described the pandemic as, A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all.

Her speech sought to paper over the explosive social divide revealed by the pandemica truly impossible task. Carefully crafted, her address featured cut-away shots of National Health Service (NHS) nurses, doctors and paramedics, supermarket warehouse staff, and construction workers building the NHS Nightingale field hospital in Londons Docklands which may soon hold thousands of patients.

Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it, she declared.

Expunged from the Queens narrative was any hint of the mounting public fury over horrific conditions endured by NHS staffdeprived of masks, gloves and other essential personal protective clothing, and of ventilators to treat the dying. Of bus and train drivers, warehouse and delivery workers, whose lives have been needlessly sacrificed to the criminal incompetence, negligence and greed of the political and financial elite.

Instead, the Queen sought refuge behind the outpouring of public support for the NHS, claiming, The moments when the United Kingdom has come together to applaud its care and essential workers will be remembered as an expression of our national spirit; and its symbol will be the rainbows drawn by children.

Not since Margaret Thatcher invoked St Francis of Assisi on the steps of Number 10 in 1979 has there been such a cynical invocation of social harmony. In reality, the only symbols remembered by millions in the months and years ahead will be of body bags, doctors and nurses forced to wear bin liners and homemade goggles while intubating patients lucky enough to access a ventilator, empty supermarket shelves, and graphs charting the daily rise of pandemic victims. While the Queens 71-year-old son Prince Charles received immediate testing and the very best treatment imaginable for mild symptoms of coronavirus, NHS doctors and nurses in repeated contact with those wracked with disease have been denied testing and succumbed themselvesto date at least a dozen have died.

These are the symbols of an entirely preventable global pandemic, repeated across Europe, the United States and Asia.

Notably, the Queen made no reference in her speech to the Prime Minister. Like his mentor Donald Trump, Boris Johnson personifies the ignorance, incompetence and indifference to human life of the capitalist class. He has now been hospitalised, a victim of his own reactionary policies of herd immunity.

According to BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell, the Queens decision to deliver Sundays address was made in close consultation with Downing Street. The Guardian reported, A senior No 10 official said the palace and the prime minister, Boris Johnson, have been speaking throughout about the timing. Just one hour after the Queens speech, Number 10 announced that Johnson had been admitted to hospital after being diagnosed with coronavirus 10 days previously and showing signs of worsening health.

The entire media was on hand to promote the Queens call for national unity. The night before, Channel 5 televised The Queen Mothers Blitz, a documentary showing The Queen Mothers efforts to improve the British peoples morale during the Second World War and how her personality and determination made a remarkable difference to the war effort. Needless to say, the BBC omitted any reference to the royal familys support for Hitler.

By Monday morning, Britains media had declared with one voice that the Queens speech was an historic masterstroke. We will meet again: Queen urges Britons to stay strong (Guardian); Queens coronavirus speech: Ambitious words to reassure and inspire (BBC); Better days will return. We will meet again (Telegraph); The Queens address has lifted our spirits (Telegraph); As mother of the nation her words spoke volumes (Telegraph); Brits unite in awe of Queens speech: Nobody could have rallied the country, the world the way she did (Evening Standard).

Why is this nauseating blanket of sycophancy necessary? In the face of a crisis of the entire social order, the political and moral authority and legitimacy of capitalism has been shattered. Yesterdays Financial Times editorial warned of social unrest unless governments act quickly to reduce the death toll from coronavirus, introduce widespread testing and containment, and provide hospitals with resources to deal with the surge in patients.

The Queen, who has weathered nearly a century of global class struggle as a conscious representative of the oldest and most experienced ruling class on the planet, sought to preempt an emerging social eruption. BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond noted, There was no talk of fighting, of struggle, of conflict. Instead she spoke of more peaceful national traitsself-discipline, quiet, good-humoured resolve and fellow-feeling.

Standing at the apex of the British state, the Queen was issuing orders to its underlingsthe working class, the producers of all wealththat it must do as it is told, accept the situation and above all not question the existing social order. She even suggested that self-isolation was an opportunity to slow down, pause and reflect, in prayer or meditation!

This message was warmly endorsed by Labours new leader, Sir Keir Starmer, who tweeted Sunday night, The Queen speaks for the whole country and our determination to defeat coronavirus.

Starmers Twitter account was immediately inundated with angry replies. Being holed up at Windsor Castle with hundreds of rooms and acres galore and not having to worry about running out of loo paper or vital supplies doesnt really speak for me! wrote Julie Ambrose.

Did she give up the crown jewels to benefit the food banks? Did she open up Buckingham Palace to the homeless to be safe whilst on her isolation trip? No, I didnt think so, wrote Stevelkeys. Did she mention if she too has been forced to sign a DNR [Do Not Resuscitate] order, like others her age? wrote another.

Social reality cannot be fixed by a royal sticking plaster, even one administered by the Queen herself. Her desiccated nationalist appeals to the memory of the Blitz and the British spirit are a ridiculous anachronism and pure political fiction. The coronavirus pandemic is a global crisis and requires a global solution, based on the unification of the worlds working class in the struggle for socialism, i.e., a social and economic order that prioritises human need not private profit.

The concluding lines of the Queens speech invoked the lyrics of Vera Lynns World War II song, Well Meet Again, which promised soldiers a future sunny day. In her own speech on Sunday, the Queen also told working people, We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return.

Better days for whom? The working class should reject the Queens demands for endurance, delivered in the lap of luxury. One day the film of her speech will be a museum exhibitdemonstrating to future generations the stupidity, irrationality and hypocrisy of the Royal Family and all it represents.
Guest Column Five Lessons for the World from COVID-19

A local priest blesses coffins that have been piling up in a church, due to a high number of deaths, before they are taken away by military trucks as Italy struggles to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Seriate, Italy on March 28. / Reuters

The coronavirus has infected over a million people and taken thousands of peoples lives, due primarily to flawed governance and weak coordination among nations. The infection rate and death toll continue to risea catastrophe born of our failures and lack of preparation.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic is also a wakeup call for the world to reassess its governance systems and its priorities around innovation, as well as ethical and moral questions. The pandemic has already given the world five bitter lessons.

#1: Reassess the Balance of Military and Health Expenditures

Almost every nation spends billions of dollars on its military. Nations compete to build weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), including nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and military vehicles ranging from drones to aircraft carriers.

As world leaders zero in on this security competition, it has led to the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union and is now surfacing again in tensions between the United States and China.

The combined military expenditure of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) permanent members is more than a trillion dollars. If this amount were invested instead in healthcare, millions of people would see the benefits in terms of preventing and combating disease. Similarly, in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), some countries spend more on their militaries than they do on health care.

Many of these countries now rely on donations to fight the coronavirus, including financial aid and equipment like virus testing machines, from foreign countries and the World Health Organization. Private banks, companies and individuals have to donate medical supplies such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and masks as well as money to support these governments to combat the virus.

Most countries spend billions of dollars annually on their military capabilities but such powers can do little to combat the pandemic. COVID-19 has already shown the worlds leaders they must reassess their choices to spend more on their militaries than on health.

#2: Strengthen Coordination

The number of COVID-19 cases and the pandemics death toll worldwide show a failure of coordination among countries.

Since Donald Trump began pursuing his American First foreign policy agenda, many experts have argued that multilateralism is dead. The impacts of weak coordination among nations have been clear in the efforts to fight terrorist groups like ISIS and combat wildfires in the Brazilian Amazon and Australia.

The outbreak of COVID-19 is only the tip of the iceberg. There are a plethora of lingering challenges such as transnational terrorism, climate change, natural disasters and other diseases. It is crucial for the world to learn its lesson and strengthen coordination among nations to address future challenges.

#3: Future of Technology

Developed countries have spent billions on exploring the unknown, beyond our geographical boundaries. These efforts range from biological engineering and the Internet to smart cars, quantum computing and autonomous weapons systems.

Some technological advances are helpful in preventing and combating COVID-19. In Italy, for example, doctors used robots to check the pulses of highly infectious patients on life support. But the future of technology, for instance the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI), must focus more on designs that support humans, rather than bringing destruction.

#4: Refrain from Unethical and Immoral Behavior

The origins of COVID-19 are hotly contested. Some claim that COVID-19 originated with animals at a wet market in Chinas Wuhan city. Some people eat wild animals such as bats, pangolins, tapirs and snakes, and there have been claims that these animals transferred the virus to humans. On the other hand, China has accused US military delegates of bringing the virus to Wuhan when the city hosted the Military World Games in October 2019. There is another conspiracy theory that China designed the virus as a biological weapon and it was mistakenly released from the lab.

Whether or not these theories are true, any country that develops biological weapons must scrap these plans immediately. Likewise, China must give up its appetite for wildlife. Both of these pursuits are unethical and immoral, and if humans continue with these sorts of activities, we will suffer from more deadly and contagious diseases in the future.

#5: Prepare for the Future

The COVID-19 pandemic also gives the world a lesson on how to prepare for future challenges. The world has sufficient time to zero in on innovations that can predict, prevent and mitigate crises, disasters and diseases before they happen. Based on the lessons from COVID-19, the world must initiate a global platform to design effective, realistic and coordinated plans for future generations.

If we learn the lessons of the pandemic, we will be like the ant that spends the summer saving food for the winterprepared for what comes. But if we fail to learn the lessons, we will be like the grasshopper that dies in the winter.

Joe Kumbun is the pseudonym of an analyst based in Kachin State. He can be reached at [email protected].

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In Iran, a mosque has been converted into a factory to make face masks in order to help the country fight the novel coronavirus outbreak. Iran is among the worst affected countries in the world, which is battling to contain the spread of the virus amid massive economic sanctions. According to reports, women who would normally attend to visitors travelling to old battlefields of Iran-Iraq war have volunteered to join the fight against the deadly disease.

Read: UN Calls For Global Ban On Wildlife Markets To Prevent Future Pandemics

Media reports suggest that around 15 women have volunteered to make face masks using table-top sewing machines. The women are reportedly members of the Basij, a volunteer militia loyal to Iran's Islamic establishment. The women usually visit the old battlefields of the Iraq-Iran war from the 1980s that youths from the country visit during the Persian New Year as part of their education. However, due to lockdown in the country and strict travel ban, this year the women have decided to help in producing face masks instead.

Read: Facebook Launches Survey To Help Researchers Better Monitor Spread Of COVID-19

According to data by worldometer, Iran has recorded 62,589 confirmed coronavirus infections so far, of which more than 2,000 cases came in the last 24 hours. Iran has one of the highest death tolls anywhere the world with over 3,800 deaths as of April 6. There are currently 31,678 active cases in the country with 3,987 of them under critical condition.

Read: Queen Elizabeth 'kept Informed' Of British PM's Condition After He Moved To Intensive Care

Coronavirus outbreak

The Coronavirus infection has claimed nearly 76,300 lives across the world and has infected over 13,62,000 people globally since it first broke out in December 2019. China was the most affected country until last month before Italy and Spain surpassed it to record the most number of deaths anywhere in the world due to COVID-19. The United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Iran have also overtaken China in terms of death toll related to COVID-19. The virus is believed to have originated from a seafood market in China's Wuhan city, the epicentre of the disease, where animals were reportedly being traded illegally.

Read: COVID-19: Husband's Adorable Gesture For Wife Undergoing Chemo Wins Internet

(Image Credit: AP)


Registered nurse Patty Pinedo takes the temperature of Sally Kimani, who is moving into a makeshift shelter in a West L.A. hotel. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

They trickled in by taxi, chauffeured by van, on bicycle and on foot. Like guests in times not dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, they checked their bags, registered and received their room keys.

But it wasn't the usual well-heeled crowd that arrived Monday afternoon at this West Los Angeles hotel, where rooms normally go for $389 a night. The guests were coming from nearby shelters and street encampments.

The hotel, on the outskirts of Century City, began taking in homeless people on Friday. By midday Monday, its 130 rooms were more than half full, and the guests kept coming, sent  and sometimes delivered  by outreach workers who have been combing their caseloads to find those most vulnerable to COVID-19 and offer them lodging.

The Times is withholding the hotel's name to discourage people who are not on the list of referred guests from showing up. It is the first of what will be dozens of hotels opened by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to get seniors and medically fragile people off the streets and out of overcrowded shelters.

Sarah Dusseault, chairwoman of LAHSA's governing commission, said it hopes to secure 15,000 hotel rooms that have been idled by the stay-at-home orders that have shut down much of the state.

"This is an audacious goal," she acknowledged. "We're working hard to make it a reality."

Operating agreements are in place with 11 hotels already and more are in the works, Dusseault said. About 1,700 rooms are expected to be available by the end of next week.

Omar Spry, who normally works as an L.A. housing inspector, pushes a cart of residents' bags into a Westside hotel that has been turned into housing for the homeless during the coronavirus pandemic. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

In addition to the hotel in West Los Angeles, a Canoga Park motel was converted into a makeshift shelter within the past few days.

The hotel program is the most ambitious of various efforts by L.A. city and county officials to prevent a potential devastating spread of the novel coronavirus among homeless people. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has been converting city recreation centers into shelters. Sixteen are now open with a capacity of about 1,100.

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The county's Office of Emergency Management also has secured about 900 rooms in hotels and trailers for patients to use for quarantine or isolation if they have tested positive for the virus or have been exposed.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles County's Homeless Initiative and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority are working together to provide secure housing with individual hotel and motel rooms, medical supervision and meals for those who do not have COVID-19 symptoms, but are vulnerable to it.

It's a complex undertaking. The negotiations are being conducted on behalf of Los Angeles by state real estate experts. The county's Homeless Initiative is executing the contracts and LAHSA is setting up the hotels. In the case of the hotel in West L.A., LAHSA and its main contractor, the St. Joseph Center in Venice, have taken over managing it, too.

On Monday, baggage checker Omar Spry placed each piece of luggage in a zippered tent that could be heated to 120 degrees to kill bedbugs. His regular job is a housing inspector for the city of Los Angeles.

Security guards Nick Karwani, left, and Abdul Nasir check the bags of residents of a West L.A. hotel that has been turned into housing for the homeless during the coronavirus pandemic. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

At a counter in the garage labeled #1, registered nurse and contract worker Patty Pineda took each guest's temperature and conducted a basic health screening.

At a table marked #2, security officers searched everyone's bags.

Case managers wearing the green T-shirts of the St. Joseph Center then ushered the homeless-people-turned-hotel-guests into the lobby for an orientation.

The immediate commitment is to provide them a home for 90 days, said Ahman Chapman, spokesman for the homeless authority. The hope is that they will be able to leave to a permanent home, not back to the streets.

"There are many things we're learning that are new," Chapman said. "Everybody's had to adapt."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  President Rodrigo Duterte believes there is enough reason to include middle-class Filipinos as beneficiaries of the government's cash aid program. But funding is a different story.

The President on Monday night responded to the appeal of Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla for the national government to extend subsidy to middle-income families from his province. The governor said that although these families rent homes in subdivisions, they still live through their monthly paychecks, adding they are "barely surviving."

Duterte described Remulla's appeal as "valid." He backed his appeal that middle-class families also need financial help, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

"Itong namang yung tawag natin na sa middle income, eh yung kanila nakaupa lang ng bahay na medyo maganda sa subdivision then may kaunting pera sila para de-deposito nila for the rainy days. Now what is really very sad is that the rain has arrived," he said during his second weekly address to the nation after he was granted special powers by the Congress.

[Translation: The middle-class earners are those who are able to rent homes in subdivisions. They have set aside some money for emergencies. The problem is, the emergency is now here.]

He added, "I agree. I know the political economic horizon of the country."

The government is currently giving monthly financial assistance to the "poorest of the poor" or those who depend on their daily wage or have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 outbreak through the special amelioration program. But as it is, Duterte said more funds are needed to fulfill his administration's promise to distribute 5,000 to 8,000 to indigent families.

Related: Duterte worries over funding needs for COVID-19 cash aid program

The President said the government is working "double time" to also provide for the needs of the middle class.

"Well try to remedy whatever kung may mapulot pa tayo sa daan," he said.

[Translation: We will try to find a solution if we find more funds.]

Funding sources

The government can still tap around 639.35 billion for its COVID-19 response, Duterte said in his second report to Congress on the government's COVID-19 response.

Part of this is a 300 billion loan from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Bulk of the possible funding for the response to the pandemic comes from dividends remitted early to the government by various government agencies and corporations and unused funding.

A total of 189.82 billion from the 2019 and 2020 budgets may be discontinued, Duterte said, and realigned towards fighting COVID-19.

The Health Department has so far recorded 3,660 cases of COVID-19, 163 deaths and 73 recoveries.

CNN Philippines Xave Gregorio contributed to this report.
When Sujit Vakkalanka felt symptoms of COVID-19, he worried about his health. But the 31-year-old from India was also concerned about the visa allowing him to work in the U.S. (Sujit Vakkalanka)

WASHINGTON  When Sujit Vakkalanka felt he was showing symptoms of COVID-19, he was, naturally, worried about his health. But as the 31-year-old from India waited for the results of his test, he was also concerned about something else: the visa allowing him to remain working in the U.S.

As with many foreign doctors on the front lines of the pandemic in America, Vakkalanka's H-1B visa is tied to his employment, and he fears he could lose his status if he remains sick and is unable to return to work promptly at a hospital in southwest Virginia.

"If you don't keep working, you might sometimes be deported," the internist said.

Vakkalanka said he wasn't surprised he was running a fever. The hospital has seen multiple cases of coronavirus, including a patient he treated directly. And when two practitioners with symptoms went into self-isolation, he was called in on a day off. Professionally, he had no qualms about going to work.

"This is our profession," he said. "This is our job."

On Saturday, his test results came back negative, but he was told to remain in self-isolation until the symptoms subside. But beneath his sense of duty lies the anxiety over his visa  already uncertain given that it is due to expire, after three years, at the end of June, and the federal government has suspended routine visa services and premium processing for H-1B renewals due to the coronavirus outbreak. That leaves thousands of foreign medical professionals in immigration limbo.

It's an added weight to bear, said Vakkalanka, and others in the same boat, as they fight the pandemic.

"This feeling that you might be deported in the next three months should not be constantly haunting you, day in and day out," he said. "It's one more thing to worry about."

For those with families in the U.S., the fear runs even deeper. When a foreign doctor on a non-immigrant visa dies in the U.S., dependent family members immediately lose their visa status and could face deportation, they worry.

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"It's one more thing to worry about," says Dr. Sujit Vakkalanka. (Sujit Vakkalanka)

"God forbid an extreme scenario. Imagine our family," said Rahmath Begum, an Indian doctor in Mississippi and mother of three. "We have been here for almost 15 years."

Vidit Bhargava, a 32-year-old pediatric critical-care fellow working within Stanford University's healthcare system, is anxious too. Also from India, Bhargava has been working in the U.S. since 2014 on a J-1 non-immigrant visa and has been accepted to a full-time position in Alabama. With visa processing services scaled back, the H-1B visa he needs for the new job is in jeopardy.

"There is a real possibility that once I'm done with this process, not only [may I not] have a job; I may be an illegal immigrant in a country where I'm sweating it out every day in the hospital," he said.

At week's end, there were already 28 COVID-19 cases in the Stanford hospital system, officials said, amid concerns there wasn't enough protective equipment for doctors.

"Nobody is fearful in the hospital of taking care of people. What people are fearful of is that we may expose ourselves to the risk if there aren't ways for us to protect ourselves," he said. "Anytime a patient has any respiratory illness, all of those patients end up coming to the ICU.... There isn't enough personal protective equipment. Within the next couple of weeks we're expected to run out."

Amid the high stakes, Bhargava wishes he didn't feel the additional pressure of visa uncertainty.

Rahmath Begum, an Indian doctor in Mississippi and mother of three, worries about her visa status and that of her family. (Rahmath Begum)

"The last thing I want to think about is prioritizing my visa status when there's so much else to be done," he said. "It's actually terrifying when I think about the fact that I've invested so many years of my life here.... [I could] have no job security, no security of where we live."

In Indiana, another Indian doctor seeking to transition from a J-1 to an H-1B said he has been treating 14 infected patients.

"Trump says that this is a war. And we are fighting a war. We are like soldiers," said the physician, who asked to remain anonymous for fears over his visa status. "While we're fighting on the front lines  you really want to give 100%, and all your thoughts should be on one thing. The [visa] stress can be difficult."

Besides foreign doctors already on American soil, more than 4,000 incoming international medical graduates who last month matched with U.S. residency programs remain in limbo. They're in need of J-1 visas before July, but with so many American consular services shut down globally, it's a race against time.

"There's generally a lot of anxiety in the air about what's going to happen, because so much of it is really out or our control right now," said Basim Ali, a 24-year-old Pakistani who matched with a medical residency program in Texas.

Ali said he is in touch with hundreds of other medical trainees across the world who have been accepted to U.S. programs and estimates that each has invested $10,000 to $15,000 in the process.

"People draw loans sometimes to make sure they don't fall short," he said. "My investment in this process is now several years old."

Experts said the need for foreign medical professionals is key to remedying the medical crisis in the U.S.

"If we have any decrease in the number of healthcare providers, let alone [the fact that we're] needing more, then we're at risk of not being able to treat people," said William Pinsky, president and chief executive of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates.

Pinsky said he is optimistic the issue will be sorted out, after weeks of dialogue led to a State Department update he views as a commitment to process J-1 and H-1B visas for physicians.

A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson said petitioners can submit a request to expedite their cases if they meet the criteria.

But many medical workers remain unclear about their status, and Memphis-based immigration lawyer Greg Siskind contended that "it's still a big mess."

"They put out basically one or two sentences cryptically to say that they're going to treat doctors differently than everybody else, but the communication was poor, and it's still not entirely clear exactly what they meant."

Siskind believes the process could be far simpler, pointing to a State Department decision recently to waive in-person interviews for H-2 temporary work visas, which he noted is the category used for workers in President Trump's hotels.

"Why do they even have to be doing in-person interviews at all [for doctors]?" he asked. "You mean to tell me that hotel workers are important enough that you can waive the interview process, but doctors are not?"

To immigration lawyers like Siskind, the system was flawed even before the coronavirus pandemic. Thousands of Indian doctors on H-1Bs are currently on 20-year waits to receive coveted green cards, he said.

"We just want to maximize the number of colors that are in the healthcare system right now," he said. "And as far as we know, there's not a single person at any of these [government] agencies where it's their job right now to figure this out."

Malhotra is a special correspondent.
The death toll due to novel coronavirus rose to 114 and the number of cases in the country climbed to 4,421 on Tuesday, according to the Union Health Ministry.

While the number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 3,981, as many as 325 people were cured and discharged, and one had migrated, it stated. The total number of cases include 66 foreign nationals.

According to the ministry's data updated at 9 am, three new deaths were reported from Rajasthan, while Tripura recorded its first coronavirus case.

Maharashtra has reported the most coronavirus deaths at 45, followed by Gujarat at 12, Madhya Pradesh nine, Telangana and Delhi seven each, Punjab six and Tamil Nadu five fatalities.

Karnataka registered four deaths, while West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have recorded three fatalities each. Two deaths each have been reported from Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala. Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have reported one fatality each, according to the health ministry data.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

However, a PTI tally based on figures reported by states directly on Monday night showed at least 138 deaths across the country, while the confirmed cases reached 4,683. Of them, 359 have been cured and discharged.

There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures, compared to the numbers announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states.

The highest number of confirmed cases are from Maharashtra at 748, followed by Tamil Nadu at 621 and Delhi with 523 cases. Kerala reported 327 COVID-19 cases, Telangana 321, Uttar Pradesh 305 and Rajasthan 288 cases. Andhra Pradesh reported 226 coronavirus cases.

Novel coronavirus cases have risen to 165 in Madhya Pradesh, 151 in Karnataka and 144 in Gujarat. Jammu and Kashmir has 109 cases, West Bengal has 91, Haryana 90 and Punjab 76 cases of the infection.

Thirty-two people were infected with the virus in Bihar while Uttarakhand has 31 patients and Assam 26. Odisha reported 21 coronavirus cases, Chandigarh 18, Ladakh 14 and Himachal Pradesh 13 cases.

Ten cases each have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Chhattisgarh. Goa has reported seven COVID-19 infections, followed by Puducherry with five cases. Jharkhand has reported four cases and Manipur two. Tripura, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported one case of the infection each.

"State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation," the ministry said on its website.
GREATER LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)- Small businesses are hurting now more than ever. Governor Holcomb has ordered non-essential businesses to remain closed for another two weeks. Thats why the Greater Lafayette Commerce is doing their part to provide resources for businesses during this tough time. However, some local businesses like Diggz Formals say that those resources may not be enough.

"We have had a growth every month and this year was looking excellent at least a good 20 percent growth," says Lori Harth the Owner of Diggz Formals.

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, Diggz Formals was doing well. Now, since all proms have been canceled and Harth has been forced to close her doors things are looking a lot different.

"It's been a nightmare March and April are our primary selling months for prom gowns, said Harth. In the first part of March, it was announced that schools were going to be closed for an extended period of time and then they completely canceled everything so it's really killed us."

Greater Lafayette Commerce says while small businesses are being hurt the most, other larger businesses will start to feel the effects of COVID-19.

"With the longevity of this pandemic it will get to the point where other industries are being affected as well," said Andrew Antonio the Vice President of Chamber and Quality of Life at Greater Lafayette Commerce.

That's why the organization is offering resources on its website to help all businesses through this tough time.

"We are trying to put together some webinars we've actually got one coming up called storefront strategies it's on different restaurants and retailers that are doing really innovative things," said Antonio.

While there may be resource options available, for some specialty shops like Lori Harth's those options aren't ideal.

"On that small business loan it says you can get funding for rent and utilities and it's only two and half months, added Harth. That would not help us at all because we will not have any revenue in those two and a half months."

That's why Greater Lafayette Commerce says shopping local is more important now than ever before.

"Those local businesses really depend on us now more than ever, added Antonio.

Greater Lafayette Commerce says one way for retail shops to retain their customers is to offer ordering over the phone or online. For a list of resources, the Greater Lafayette Commerce is making available click here.
A reader with a PhD in engineering and 35 years experience in advanced data analysis wrote to us regarding Swedens experience so far in dealing with the Wuhan coronavirus without locking down the country. He reports:

I did a quick look at the data coming out of Sweden with the data obtained from Worldometer, and have plotted the data on a per capita basis (positive cases vs 1M population) for Sweden and the US as well as an exponential fit to the data. The exponential fit was obtained by using -=0.3 for both countries, where  and  are the rates of infections and removals in the population, respectively. The quotient of / is the contagion rate or R0 (R-naught) and the WHO is estimating R0 to be between 2.0 and 2.5 for this virus.

Two extremely interesting observations can be seen in the data. First, although Sweden had a higher initial case count on March 4 than the US, their positive cases are approximately 670 per 1M population on April 5th and now below the US per capita rate of 1020 per 1M population. Second, the early infection rate for both Sweden and the US are essentially identical. The dashed red lines in the plot, as noted above, are a fit to the data using an identical slope of 0.3. But then Sweden breaks the curve (i.e. changes the infection rate) without any extraordinary measures.

Something very interesting is going on with this virus. Im sure some of the differences between Sweden and the US can be explained by overall population density, the number of large cities, number of people per household, etc. but the fact that Sweden has broken the curve without draconian measures should force a reexamination of our current models and lockdown strategy. Further, it is likely that Sweden will not experience a second wave of the virus since it appears that they can continue their current lifestyle without serious economic implications until a cure of vaccine is found, which is exactly what we need in the US.
Coastal erosion could put the future of the existing tunnel on the railway line between Bray and Greystones in doubt by 2035 unless urgent action is taken, an internal report by Iarnrod Eireann has warned.

The company says investment in excess of 100m will be required to implement measures to safeguard key sections of the Dublin-Rosslare line, including the Bray Head tunnel.

An internal report on the issue of coastal erosion said: "Drastic consequences will result if action is not taken immediately. Urgent strategy planning is required with rapid intervention of solution measures essential."

The Iarnrod Eireann board was informed last October that the tunnel now only has a life expectancy of 15 more years in a 'do-nothing' scenario.

The Bray Head tunnel, also known as No 4 tunnel, is the longest in a series of tunnels on the single-track line between Bray and Greystones, at just under one kilometre.

The tunnel itself was constructed in 1917 as a result of the need to move the track inland due to coastal erosion.

The report said the Dublin-Rosslare line had two key vulnerable sections, including a 60km stretch between Dublin and Wicklow. The other is a 17km section between Wexford and Rosslare Europort.

It warned that the frequency of bridge collapses, the washing away of embankments and seawater spilling on to sections of track have been increasing and will continue to do so in the years ahead due to higher waves and more frequent storms.

Iarnrod Eireann chartered engineer Aidan Bermingham said there were more instances of such events in the past 20 years than in the previous 100.

Based on coastal erosion forecasts by the OPW, Mr Bermingham said the main tunnel, which is around 45 metres from the sea, would be lost by 2050.

An Iarnrod Eireann spokesperson said a large number of ways of protecting the Bray Head Tunnel were under consideration but moving it was "the last option".

The options include the construction of a man-made offshore island to dissipate the energy of the sea and a breakwater or "beach nourishment", which involves adding sand to the coastline.

Folly

It is understood the company hopes to apply for planning permission for any remedial action required in early 2021.

The Bray-Greystones route, which first opened in 1855, included tunnels and viaducts designed by British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

However, coastal erosion over the decades meant the line had to be moved inland on a number of occasions, including the requirement for construction of several new tunnels.

The high maintenance costs due to rockfalls, landslides and erosion eliminated all the original viaducts and cliff sections, which led to it becoming known as 'Brunel's Folly'.
By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators on Monday said Mastercard Inc's plan to buy part of Scandinavian payments group Nets is a significant threat to competition in Europe based on information from six countries including Britain.

The U.S. payments group disagreed with the EU's assessment and said it hoped to finalise the deal by the end of the second quarter.

Mastercard announced plans in August last year to buy three divisions of European rival Nets, covering corporate clearing, instant payments and e-billing.

The bid for Scandinavia's largest payments processor is part of a wave of consolidation in the sector as credit card companies and banks look to capitalise on a growing market triggered by the switch from cash to mobile payments.

The European Commission, which acts as the EU's antitrust enforcer, said it had accepted a request from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Britain to take over the case.

Based on the information provided by the six national competition agencies, it said the deal "threatens to significantly affect competition" in the Nordic area, the European Economic Area and in Britain.

Mastercard will now have to gain EU approval for the transaction, the Commission said in a statement.

Mastercard said it disagreed with the assessment that the deal could have an adverse impact in the United Kingdom or any EU country.

"We have been working with the European Commission in order to expedite this process," Mastercard said in a statement.

"We hope to be in a position to complete the acquisition before the end of the second quarter of 2020."

The EU antitrust watchdog's preliminary review of mergers takes 25 working days, which can be extended to about four months if there are serious concerns.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by David Goodman)
Chris Evans has been known to criticise President Trump in the past. Hes likened another Republican, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, to the Simpsons character Smithers, the yes-man to baddie Mr. Burns.

You might have noticed, though, The Captain America star is taking a more neutral political stance now, at least on social media.

Its part of the launch of his political website, A Starting Point, which is expected to go live this spring.

Im going to take my foot off the gas [of social media] for a little bit until we get this thing up and running, Evans says in the April/May issue of Esquire.

Actor Chris Evans attends the "Lobby Hero" cast meet and greet at Sardi's on February 16, 2018. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)

Evans explains that hes sat down to interview 160 elected officials over the past year for the website. The idea is to offer them up in two-minute videos featuring politicians taking various sides of an issue, with the goal of breaking down a topic from various perspectives to make them simple and concise for everyone to understand.

Read more: Evans not keen on Marvel return

The problem is that, at least for those initial interviews, most of the people he spoke with are on the same side.

A lot of Republicans didnt want to sit with me, Evans tells the magazine.

A big exception was Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, who spoke with him in February. Cruz documented the meeting  and how much it thrilled his daughter to meet the superhero in the flesh  on Twitter.

Just sat down for an interview w/ @ChrisEvans Really nice guy. Caroline came up to DC to meet him. Almost nothing in the Senate impresses an 11-year old; introducing her to Captain America was pretty awesome! pic.twitter.com/PWK5Os9yL3  Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 12, 2020

Evanss mother, Lisa Capuano Evans, reveals to Esquire that, in fact, her son almost didnt take his most famous role. He was afraid of how it would affect his life.

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His biggest fear was losing his anonymity, she tells the magazine. He said, I have a career now where I can do work I really like. I can walk my dog. Nobody bothers me. Nobody wants to talk to me. I can go wherever I want. And the idea of losing that is terrifying to me.

Nearly a decade later, the Knives Out star said its unlikely that hell put on his Captain America costume again, and hes put much of his focus into the website. Studying politics has been a big job.

Actor Chris Evans (L) and Lisa Evans attend Marvel's "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", 2014. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

We were just so aware of the fact that we werent in our lane, Evans says of himself and his business partner, actor and director Mark Kassen. There was so much to learn, starting with the vernacular. Like, you dont say the word politician; you say elected official.

Still, Evans continues to act. Hell show up next in the Apple TV + show Defending Jacob, about an assistant district attorneys 14-year-old son being charged with murder.

I dont put myself in a box. I dont have some huge plan in terms of what my goals are, Evans says. I just kind of wake up and follow my appetite. Im at a point in my life now where I have the very, very fortunate luxury of pursuing what I want to do. And I dont corrupt that process by thinking about how other people see me.
William & Mary selects new chief information officer

Edward Aractingi has been selected as William & Marys next chief information officer and will begin at the university June 10.

Aractingi currently serves as chief information officer at Marshall University in West Virginia, where he has also worked as an adjunct professor. As W&Ms CIO, he will lead Information Technology, a critical partner in every aspect of learning and work at the university.

William & Marys previous chief information officer, Courtney Carpenter, retired in August last year after 24 years at the university, and longtime Deputy Chief Information Officer Bernadette Berni Kenney has led IT in the interim.

We welcome Ed Aractingi and his arrival to William & Mary during this critical time. We sought a technology leader with a deep commitment to our educational and research mission  who would be a great partner for faculty and staff leaders, and someone with a strong strategic orientation towards the future, said W&M President Katherine A. Rowe. Ed is someone who I am confident will advance Berni Kenneys terrific work as interim CIO. On behalf of the whole university  our students, faculty and staff  it is a pleasure to be able to thank Berni for her true and inspiring leadership in this essential role.

As chief information officer for W&M, Aractingi will report to Amy Sebring, whose own role will expand on July 1 to chief operating officer. He will also have a strategic reporting line to the president and serve on the presidents cabinet. Among his responsibilities, Aractingi will bring together diverse groups to identify and implement strategic, university-wide IT solutions for teaching, learning, research and operations.

After an extensive search with high interest nationally, Ed emerged as an exceptional leader, with a deep knowledge of the transformational capabilities that technology has on the way that we teach, learn, communicate and work, said Sebring, who led the search committee and currently serves as vice president for finance and technology. His commitment to higher education, passion for students, firsthand knowledge of the challenges faculty face, and his thoughtful communication style will serve him and the university well as we look to meet our strategic goals.

In his current role at Marshall, Aractingi has directed the IT department and its many teams, including enterprise applications, information security, the infrastructure communications and data center, customer services, digital media and the ID office. He has managed the strategic and tactical operations of the organization and worked closely with faculty and students through classroom partnerships and collaborations.

Among his many accomplishments, Aractingi built a coalition across campus to apply data analytics to decision making and support student success, expanded WiFi coverage, deployed a robust identity management platform, fostered research collaborations with faculty and established a Technology Exploration and Innovation Research Lab focused on students. He is a recipient of the universitys Dedication to Student Life Award, selected by the student body.

We are excited to begin working with Ed in support of teaching and learning innovation, said search committee member Mark Hofer, a professor of education and director of the Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation. His experience at Marshall building teams and structures that enable innovation through exploration and design thinking will provide excellent collaborative opportunities with the studio to support faculty and students as we explore new possibilities at William & Mary.

His empathy for both students and faculty uniquely positions him to provide leadership and proactive support of teaching and learning with emerging learning technologies.

Aractingi has worked for Marshall since 2003 when he was a graduate research assistant for the College of Information Technology and Engineering. In 2004, he became a senior IT associate and served in that role for two years before taking a position in technical services for Cabell Huntington Hospital. In 2009, he returned to the universitys staff as the director of IT infrastructure systems. In 2014, he became assistant vice president for IT and deputy CIO for the university until 2016 when he became the CIO.

In addition to his work in IT for higher education, Aractingi has also worked as an adjunct professor at Marshall since 2006, teaching computer science classes in the College of Information Technology and Engineering. He was also an adjunct for Strayer University from 2010 to 2015 and earned the universitys Provost Circle Award in 2013. He is the recipient of and principal investigator for several federal grants, including one from the National Science Foundation for a project to build a higher-speed research network to better access on- and off-campus resources. Additionally, he has served as a review panelist on National Science Foundation research panels.

I am thrilled to be joining William & Mary on its journey of continued innovation especially at this momentous stage of strategic planning, said Aractingi. I am deeply honored to be selected to lead the exceptionally talented technology team.

Prior to his work at Marshall, Aractingi founded and led ACS Consulting Services, which provided clients network installation, systems administration, web design and development, systems analysis and support.

He has presented at conferences around the country and has served as a member of multiple professional organizations and committees. He served as co-chair of the Internet2 collaborative innovation program advisory group, a member of the CIO advisory council for the smart campus, co-chair of the Internet of Things working group for Internet2, a member of Educause IT Governance, Risk & Compliance Advisory Committee, and a member of the Leadership Board of CIOs.

He is also highly involved in the community and serves on the Huntington City Mayor Gigabit City Committee, the St. Joseph Grade School Advisory Board and the Holy Spirit Orthodox Church Parish Council Board. In 2016, he joined the transition team for Gov. Jim Justice as a member of the infrastructure committee and currently serves on the Governors Commission for Census Complete Count.

Aractingi holds a bachelors degree from Damascus University, a masters degree from Marshall and a Ph.D. in information technology from Capella University.

It is exciting to know how much William & Mary values technology as a key strategic asset and as a transformative power for advancing the institutions teaching, learning and research, said Aractingi. I look forward to partnering with colleagues across all areas and collaborating with the leadership team, deans, faculty, staff and students.
Iceland has tested about 5 percent of its 360,000 residents for coronavirus, according to CNN.

The founder of DeCODE, a biotech company which has done about 9,000 of these tests, told the news site that about 50 percent of positive cases are asymptomatic.

Keep in mind that fewer than 1 percent of the 9,000 tests came back positive. Iceland is offering free coronavirus testing of the general, non-symptomatic, non-quarantined population through DeCODE.

The rest of the testing occurs at National University hospital of Iceland in Reykjavik for patients showing symptoms.

The comment from DeCODEs founder sheds some new light on the testing situation. The DeCODE testing is separate from the numbers released by Icelands government on March 25, which showed 737 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Iceland. Of those, 52 were positive without symptoms -- about 7 percent.

The country is claiming that it is testing the highest percentage of any country in the world.
Australians should use tap-and-go payments or wash their cash with soap to protect against coronavirus, financial experts have claimed.

Many restaurants and retailers have banned cash payments to protect against the spread of the deadly virus which can be transmitted on coins or banknotes.

And although the World Health Organisation has not issued any explicit warnings about hard currency, some experts say people should take precautions.

One central bank issued a statement advising shoppers and retailers on how to properly clean their coins and banknotes to ensure they are not contaminated with coronavirus.

The Bank of Thailand has advised shoppers and retailers on how to properly clean their currency during the coronavirus pandemic

The Bank of Thailand suggest disinfecting currency by soaking it in soap solution or dishwashing liquid for a short period.

The notes should then be rinsed with water before being gently dabbed with a cloth and placed under the sun to dry,' the bank said.

But the bank warned against using washing powder or bleach and said baking or boiling money may damage the notes'.

To be one the safe side, they stressed using cards is a far safer option during the pandemic.

People should use digital payment methods wherever possible, to avoid touching banknotes and coins which may be contaminated with the virus, the bank said.

Dr Andrew Stewardson, an infectious diseases physician at Monash University believes its very plausible COVID-19 could be passed on by handling cash.

A supermarket employee wipes disinfectant over card payment surface as a growing number of retailers restrict the use of hard currency to protect against COVID-19

He says, If someone with coronavirus coughed into their hand and did not perform hand hygiene before taking a banknote from their wallet, the disease could live on the surface of the note and possibly infect a second person.

It would be reasonable to move from cash to card where feasible without disruption,' Stewardson said.

For situations where cash is unavoidable, routine hygiene measures will substantially reduce any potential risk.
It will be directly deposited in bank accounts if the government has that information available from a tax return. If someones 2019 taxes havent been filed, the government will use information from the 2018 return to calculate the payment and determine where to send it. Social Security benefit statements can be used as well.
Vedanta Ltd on Tuesday said it will distributearound three lakh mealsto labourers, daily wage earners and slum dwellersin the national capital as part of efforts to support communities during the current coronavirus lockdown.

"Vedanta Ltd...has been distributing 10,000 meals per day to daily wage earners, slum dwellers and labourers sinceApril 1. Around 70,000 meals have been distributed till date to families in Old Delhi, Laxmi Bai Nagar, Ram Nagar, Sarojini Nagar and Gole Market. Under this initiative, around 3 lakh meals will be distributed around Delhi by the end of the month," leading metal and mining firm said in a statement.

The families comprising of daily wage earners, slum-dwellers and labourers have been adversely impacted due to the current lockdown implemented to combat the deadly coronavirus.

This initiative of Vedanta is in partnership with the district administration, in which the meals are being distributed to affected areas as per thedirection from the district administration.

"The daily wage earners are our lifeline in our everyday life. Our Chairman Anil Agarwal has been in the forefront of extending all support to feed daily wage workers with our 'Meals for All' initiative. We have partnered AkshayaPatra who are extending this support to feed the needy inDelhi,said Ritu Jhingon, CEO of Nand Ghar project, Vedanta Ltd.

For this initiative, Vedanta has collaborated with AkshayaPatra Foundation, a non-profit organisation that runs the mid-day meal scheme in government and government-aided schools across India.

Nand Ghar is committed to the Prime Minister's national vision of eradicating child malnutrition, providing education, healthcare and empowering women with skill development.

We are immensely grateful to Vedanta for their support in these crucial times. Their generous contribution will enable us to serve freshly cooked meals to thousands of people from vulnerable communities, affected by the nation-wide lockdown. We are thankful to Chairman Anil Agarwal and Vedanta Group for providing us with the opportunity to serve the marginal society in NCR.

"Their timely involvement gives us the confidence to commit to the service of the people of our country," AkshayaPatra Foundation Chief Marketing Officer Sundeep Talwar said.

Vedanta has also set up a dedicated fund across the country to combat the widespread outbreak of deadly COVID-19. The fund will help in supporting the livelihood and healthcare of the daily wage workers, employees and contract workers and will provide timely help to communities in and around various plant locations of the company.

Moreover, Vedanta and its subsidiaries are working closely with communities across their locations on multiple development initiatives to combat the spread of the virus. All mobile health vans in operational areas of Vedanta Ltd will help in preventive healthcare extended to the local communities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WILLIAMSPORT  A Lycoming County contractor has pleaded no contest to two charges related to the discharge of approximately 63,000 gallons of treated brine water from a natural gas well pad in 2017.

Jason Dupont, owner of Double D Construction and Excavating of Montoursville, entered the plea Tuesday to charges of pollution of waterways and a Clean Streams Act violation.

Double D was responsible for monitoring the transfer of treated brine water from a million-gallon tank to a smaller one so it could be trucked from the well pad in Eldred Twp. north of Warrensville in Lycoming County.

The same worker fell asleep in a truck for about 30 minutes early on Nov. 12, 2017, and for 45 minutes the following morning while a 21,000-gallon tank overflowed.

Some of the fluids went into a tributary of Loyalsock Creek.

County Judge Marc F. Lovecchio honored a plea agreement and fined Double D $7,500 with $2,500 going to the Pennsylvania Fish Fund and $5,000 to the Clean Water Fund.

The company also must make a $5,000 contribution to the Susquehanna Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

The business, which is shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, has two years in which to pay the $12,500 but could seek an extension.

By pleading no contest, Dupont did not have to admit to the allegations in charges filed by the state attorney generals office.

The co-defendant in the case, Inflection Energy, headquartered in Denver, Colo., is tentatively scheduled to plead guilty May 1.

It is accused of not reporting the first spill that was smaller than the second one.

Inflection paid a $170,500 civil penalty levied by the Department of Environmental Protection after the spill but Double D was not cited.

The charges against Double D state that it was the job of the employee, who was working a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift with no set days off, to turn off the pump when the float was within 2 feet of the top of the tank.

The worker was fired that Nov. 13 and the pump now has a hard shutoff and Inflection requires monitoring when it is operating, court documents state.

As part of a remediation effort, Inflection removed and disposed of more than 3,600 cubic yards of impacted soil, DEP said. It also monitored groundwater and private water sources.

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They all want therapy, but with the novel coronavirus descending on Illinois, face-to face meetings are, in many cases, too dangerous. Instead, Chicago-area therapists are turning to an option that some hadnt even tried before the pandemic began. Theyre using teletherapy, in which the therapist and the patient communicate through videoconferencing platforms including Zoom, TokBox, FaceTime and Doxy.me, with computer screens allowing both sides to read visual cues such as winces, half-smiles and eye-rolls.
Texas property insurer of last resort for wind and hail in counties along the states coastline is temporarily reducing the amount of premium due in order to issue a policy and providing 75 days to pay the remaining premium.

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) said its actions are in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The changes are effective immediately and will remain in place for all new business and renewals until we determine it is no longer necessary.

Any TWIA policyholder who is experiencing financial challenges due to the COVID-19 crisis can use this option. Interested policyholders and their agents do not have to notify TWIA if they are using this option.

TWIA outlined the details of the new payment options:

How this Temporary Payment Option Works

Pay at least 25% of the full premium prior to the effective date to have a policy issued. No later than 75 days from the policy effective date, the remaining balance is due.

If the policyholders balance is not paid within the 75-day period, TWIA will issue a Notice of Cancellation (NOC) that states the policy will cancel if the delinquent balance is not paid by the end of the 15-day NOC period.

Invoices Will Still Show a 30-Day Due Date

The policyholders invoice will still show the due date as being 30 days from the effective date, but this notice may be disregarded. Payment will be due as described in 2. above (see: How this Temporary Payment Option Works).

Payment Options

At this time, the 25% premium down payment cannot be paid by EFT or ACH. It must be paid by check or money order and mailed to TWIA. Payment must either be received by TWIA on or before the effective date of the policy, or mailed on or before the effective date of the policy using one of the following United States Postal Service (USPS) methods:

USPS Registered Mail

USPS Certified Mail

USPS Priority Mail Express

Regular mail that is hand-cancelled by USPS

TWIA is evaluating system changes that could enable this payment by EFT or ACH.

Premium Financing

If a policyholder is considering the use of premium financing, they may want to discuss their options with those companies before taking any action. This includes policyholders who are interested in making the initial payment themselves and premium financing the balance; this option would be offered at the discretion of the premium financing company.

For TWIA to accept a premium finance agreement, it must first be signed by the policyholder.

Reinstating Policies Cancelled for Non-Payment

If a policy is cancelled for non-payment (of either the initial 25% minimum or the remaining balance) and the property owner wishes to reinstate their policy, it will be considered new business.

Renewals

TWIA must receive at least 25% of the full policy premium in order to issue a policy and provide coverage. This applies to both new business and renewals.

Agent Commissions

Agents will continue to receive the full commission when a policy is issued under this temporary payment option (i.e. when the down payment is received).

Source: TWIA

Topics Carriers Catastrophe Natural Disasters Texas Windstorm
104 people and 26 vehicles are involved in the firefighting

Rescuers continue fighting the fire in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. As of the evening of April 6, about 20 hectares of grass lawn and forest floor were still on fire. This was reported on the website of the State Emergency Service.

Grass and forest floor are burning in separate cells next to Poliske village, Volodymyrivka village. Zhovtneve village and Rudnia-Ososhnia village.

"104 firefighters and 26 vehicles are involved in the firefighting (including one Mi-8 helicopter, which produced 19 discharges of water, with a total volume of 38 tons)," the message reads.

The State Emergency Service also assures people that the radiation background in Kyiv and Kyiv region is within normal limits and does not exceed the natural background values.

As we reported earlier, on April 4, a large-scale forest fire began in the Chornobyl exclusion zone. The fire claimed the area of 20 hectares.

Later, it was reported that the fire in the Chornobyl exclusion zone is put out successfully, and the radiation background is back to normal. The investigation group will get to the site to look into the incident.
Hungarys opposition parties slammed the governments economic protection measures in connection with the novel coronavirus epidemic as inadequate and weak.

At a press conference held by the Socialists, the Democratic Coalition (DK), Jobbik, Parbeszed, LMP and Momentum parties, Jobbiks Gyorgy Laszlo Lukacs said Hungarians interests would be best served if parliament passed legislation only related to protection efforts, for example laws making face masks mandatory [in public] and providing the necessary supplies.



Lukacs said the government bill before parliament contains legislation that has nothing to do with protection efforts. He decried government legislative attempts to make a major investment confidential and help oligarchs expand their estates.



Regarding measures announced by Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday, Lukacs said they were a PR move rather than a solution.



Socialist leader Bertalan Toth (pictured on top) welcomed the 500,000 forint (EUR 1,360) bonus for health-care workers, but said social workers, post office and retail employees also deserved protective gear and financial recognition. Regarding the package of bills before parliament, Toth insisted the prime minister was exploiting the tragic situation to give land, money and privileges to his oligarchs.



Gergely Arato, DKs deputy group leader, called on the government to accept the European Unions financial help and channel those resources towards protection efforts and helping those in difficult circumstances.



DK has also called for single pension supplements graduated inversely to the size of the pension. A 50,000 forint (EUR 137) supplement should be paid to retirees with smaller pensions while the better off would receive 10,000 forints, party lawmaker Laszlo Varju told an online press conference.



The proposal is part of a 20-point economic and social rescue package worth 3,000 billion forints that DK has submitted to parliament. If state of emergency restrictions last for longer than six months, the supplement payment should be automatically repeated, he said.



Parbeszeds Bence Tordai accused Orban of playing the dictator and throwing the constitution and the EUs basic treaty under the bus to deflect from how small and weak the protection plan was. The priority should be to ease the suffering of the sick and those losing their jobs, he said, calling for the introduction of a basic income during states of emergency.



LMPs Antal Csardi said weakening local authorities on the frontline of protection efforts worked against the response efforts to the virus. Local authorities are using their own resources to take care of the elderly, patients in quarantine and potential virus carriers, he said, accusing the government of failure to provide funds.



Momentum spokesman Miklos Hajnal warned that the fate of those losing their jobs due to the epidemic was still uncertain, as was compensation for those losing most or all of their income.



Independent lawmaker Bernadett Szel called for a solidarity tax on people who profited from their connections to the government. She also called for large investments to be halted and for the practice of siphoning monies from the economy and government propaganda to cease.



In response, ruling Fidesz called the oppositions behaviour during the epidemic outrageous and shameful. While Hungarians lives and jobs are on the line due to the epidemic, the opposition is still busy finding ways for opposition mayors and local authorities to avoid shouldering the tasks and costs weighing on everyone, the party said in a statement.



MTI Photo: Szilard Koszticsak
Ho Sok Fong, trans. from the Chinese by Natascha Bruce. Two Lines, $16.95 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-931883-98-6

Malaysian writer Hos excellent debut collection features women pushed to the margins of society. In The Wall, a highway construction project transforms a neighborhood. After a little girl who lived in a nearby apartment building is run over and killed, a barrier is built between the highway and the back of the apartment building. The life of a woman called next-door aunty is disrupted by the presence of the wall, which blocks sunlight and her back door. In Ho's sly fantastical tale, the auntys body gradually adjusts, becoming thin enough that she can slip through the foot of space between door and wall. In Aminah, a young woman with that name born to a Muslim father applies to the Syariah Court to leave Islam. The application is denied, and she is ordered to stay at a rehabilitation center. In her despair and frustration, she wanders the grounds at night in her sleep, naked, spurring crises of faith among the teachers and wardens. In Wind Through the Pineapple Leaves, Through the Frangipani, another Aminah lends further insight to resisting a Muslim rehabilitation center (Reading from the Quran mends mouths, but they sin by mispronouncing syllables. They sin by secretly skipping pages), and Aminah begins imagining a froglike angelic apparition. Ho's vivid imagination and keen eye for womens pain, gracefully translated, are hallmarks of a deeply talented writer. (Apr.)
Standard Chartered Bank has come forward as the first entity to support an indigenized, affordable, portable and invasive ventilator prototype being developed by IIT Kanpur and its incubated company Nocca Robotics along with the Indian Angel Network.

Standard Chartered Bank has approved a generous CSR funding that will be used for research and development of the prototype, followed by testing of the device and clinical trials.

"We are extremely grateful to Standard Chartered Bank for enabling our efforts towards fighting this global pandemic through their generous funding. Given the urgency of proper and ample healthcare facilities at this time for patients of COVID-19, this fund will help us in the timely roll-out of the device swiftly and in time," said Professor Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT Kanpur.

He hopes and wishes this gesture by Standard Chartered Bank will motivate other corporates to come forward to assist IIT Kanpur in its research efforts to mitigate the impact of this global pandemic.

"As a socially responsible Bank which has been in the country for over 160 years, we decided to contribute in this common fight against COVID-19 and ensure a safe and healthy environment for our citizens and communities," said Karuna Bhatia, Head of Sustainability, Standard Chartered Bank.

The ventilator design has been conceptualized by Nocca Robotics in such a way that it can be manufactured on a large scale at multiple sites using materials easily available with Indian suppliers and manufacturers.

The ventilator is also capable of working with medical airline and oxygen as well as ambient air and oxygen, thus making it usable in a variety of different conditions.

The ventilator will also be connected to a mobile phone to control the device and monitor critical information. Since it will require very low wattage to run, it can be powered using solar panels.

It is also noteworthy that the ventilator will be priced at a fraction of the cost proposed by competitors across the world developing similar devices.

Also, as opposed to the non-invasive ventilators being currently developed, this design will be of the invasive kind, keeping in mind the needs of COVID-19 patients for respiratory support.

Nocca Robotics and IIT Kanpur have created a consortium of bio-medical engineers, doctors, R & D leaders, supply chain and MedTech businesses to harness their expertise and take the design from the idea to the actual product.

The entire project is being coordinated by Prof Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering and Professor-in-Charge, Startup Innovation & Incubation Center Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sheryl Pabatao could hear machines beeping furiously through the phone when she told her hospitalized mom Susana that her husband of 44 years died from the coronavirus. Laying in a bed two floors above him in the same facility, Susana was waiting for her own COVID-19 test results.

I could hear her vitals going down," Sheryl Pabatao said of the March 26 phone call. Then, the line went silent.

A half-hour later, Sheryl Pabatao said her 64-year-old mother called her back sounding defeated. Doctors put Susana Pabatao on a breathing and feeding tube later that night  and she fought for four days before dying.

Even though my parents were in the same hospital, they werent able to see each other, Sheryl Pabatao said. I dont know how that feels to lose the love of your life of four decades.

Her parents, both health care workers from Palisades Park, New Jersey, who had underlying conditions including diabetes, began feeling ill about three weeks ago. The weekend prior, the family had a small gathering after an uncles death, and a majority of the 12 people at the service ended up sick, Sheryl Pabatao said.

On March 17, Sheryls father, Alfredo Pabatao, 68, started experiencing a fever that reached 102 degrees. He went to his doctor two days later, who told him to go to an emergency room. He admitted himself that night to Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, where he works as a transport aide, walking patients from room to room.

That night, Susana Pabatao, an assistant nurse at a nursing home, started experiencing symptoms too. She had a fever that fluctuated, but hovered around 103 degrees. So Sheryl Pabatao and her mother tried to get tested.

For three days in a row, the pair woke up at 7 a.m. to wait in line at the Bergen County Community College test site. Her mother, tired, fought through her illness while waiting for hours in their car. But the site hit capacity each time, and they were turned away.

Sheryl described the experience as frustrating and helpless.

Susana Pabatao waiting on line at the Bergen County Community College coronavirus test site before being turned away. "It's frustrating," her daughter said.

By March 23, with her husband still hospitalized and on a ventilator, Susana Pabatao had trouble breathing and swallowing. Her fever reached a high of 103.9 degrees. Finally, Sheryl Pabatato was able to convince her to also go to the hospital where her father was.

She said she didnt want to go because she didnt want to be alone, Sheryl Pabatao said.

At the hospital, Sheryl Pabatao said her mother was doing well until her father died on March 26.

When Sheryl Pabatao told her mother the news, she tried to calm her down. But Susana, sounding resigned to the illness, asked her daughter to find her parents life insurance and 401K paperwork. Susana also asked Sheryl to locate her Do Not Resuscitate order because she wanted to sign it.

She said I cant do this anymore. Im having such a hard time breathing ... I dont want any tubes on me, Sheryl Pabatao said. I said Mom, I know youre sad. But please dont say this. Youre not going to die. I was just trying to put positivity on her.

That night, Susana Pabatao had a rapid decline in vital signs, and doctors intubated her.

Sheryl and her siblings debated whether they should ask the physicians to remove the breathing tube at their mothers wish, but ultimately decided to let her fight the virus.

Four days later, she died. Alfredo Pabatao ultimately tested positive for the virus about six days after being swabbed, but the family is still waiting for Susanas results.

She tried to fight. But she had no progress or regression. We were probably just keeping her alive," Sheryl Pabatao said.

Her parents met in their early 20s, when the two were neighbors in the Phillipines each dating different people. Both broke up with their significant others, and gravitated toward each other, Sheryl Pabatao said. After dating for seven months, they got married and immigrated to the U.S. in 2001.

She says shell remember her parents as simple people, who loved going on walks together, shopping and traveling.

Sheryl Pabatao hopes her parents story pushes others to take social distancing guidelines to heart.

My parents went from 0 to 100, Sheryl Pabatao said. I think people need to take this seriously. We all need to care for each other at this point. This is the time to care for our community and our neighbors."

Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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On the occasion of World Health Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked people to not just pray for each others health but also express gratitude towards doctors, nurses and healthcare workers

On the occasion of World Health Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked people to not just pray for each others health but also express gratitude towards doctors, nurses and healthcare workers who are on the frontline in the fight against coronavirus.

Modi urged people to ensure that they practise social distancing to contain the spread of coronavirus. May this day also inspire us towards focusing on personal fitness through the year, which would help improve our overall health, he tweeted.

This #WorldHealthDay, let us also ensure we follow practices like social distancing which will protect our own lives as well as the lives of others. May this day also inspire us towards focusing on personal fitness through the year, which would help improve our overall health.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 7, 2020

World Health Day is observed on 7 April and as per the World Health Organization (WHO) the day celebrates the work of nurses and midwives and reminds world leaders of the critical role they play in keeping the world healthy.

Apart from PM Modi, many other leaders also thanked medical professionals on World Health Day 2020.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres paid tribute to health workers who are leading the battle against COVID-19. In a video message, he said healthcare workers make us proud and inspire us.

World Health Day this year comes at a very difficult time for all of us. We are more grateful than ever to all of our health workers fighting the #COVID19 pandemic. You make us proud and you inspire us. We stand with you and we count on you. pic.twitter.com/laENQX4HfK  Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) April 7, 2020

The Congress party applauded each and every frontline worker who is putting life at risk in the battle against coronavirus. As you continue to protect human lives in these testing times, the nation stands in solidarity with you, read the tweet.

This World Health Day, we salute each and every frontline worker who is putting their life at risk in this battle against Coronavirus. As you continue to protect human lives in these testing times, the nation stands in solidarity with you. pic.twitter.com/4MEhU4L8xt  Congress (@INCIndia) April 7, 2020

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy paid tribute to doctors, nurses and paramedics for their selfless service at this critical moment.

This #WorldHealthDay, my salutations to all those, including Doctors, Nurses, Paramedics among others, who are providing selfless service at this critical moment fighting #COVID19.

We are grateful for your service #IndiaFightsCorona#WorldHealthDay2020 pic.twitter.com/ZhWm3ja4Ho  G Kishan Reddy (@kishanreddybjp) April 7, 2020

Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan Sachin Pilot said we all stand united to ensure everyone remains safe and healthy.
I have a drawer in my bedroom that's filled with defunct tech. It consists of old PDAs, bricked smartwatches and wearables that no longer work. Like many of you, I've realized that gadgets don't last forever. As Engadget Senior Editor Devindra Hardawar recently pointed out, every smart device you love will probably die, whether it's because the device can't be updated anymore, or the company goes out of business -- this is the reality of modern electronics.

Or is it? Turns out, it doesn't have to be. Sometimes, if they garner enough of a fanbase, it's possible for so-called obsolete gadgets to get a second lease on life. Sometimes, thanks to the combination of open-source software and a passionate community, beloved gadgets can live on for years after they've supposedly run their course.

Rebble: Pebble's return

One of the best examples of that is the Pebble. Having raised over $10 million on Kickstarter, the smartwatch effectively put the crowdfunding site on the map (it remained the most funded project on Kickstarter for years). And that was just the original; subsequent iterations like the Pebble Time and the Pebble 2 would also break Kickstarter records. The latter raised over $12 million while the former raised a whopping $20 million, and is still the number one most funded project on Kickstarter to this day. Despite the arrival of the Apple Watch and Android Wear, it's clear that Pebble had a devout following.

David Groom, known online as "ishotjr," was one of them. He was an early backer, and eventually acquired every single Pebble device that he could get his hands on. When the company announced that third-party developers could create smart straps for the Pebble Time, he was especially excited. "I was like, no way," Groom, a self-described hardware hacker, told Engadget. "I could interface my Pebble with an Arduino and stuff! I was freaking out." He was so excited about it that he traveled all the way from his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan to a hackathon in Boulder, Colorado. The long trip was worth it, however, because he wound up winning the contest. "That was the turning point. I met all the Pebble people, and everyone was so awesome. I was deep in it."

Groom ended up throwing himself into the Pebble community. He helped organize local events, curated the app store, and even co-authored a book on Pebble development. "I was doing the maximum amount of Pebble stuff I could," he said. He would also spend a lot of time in Pebble-related Slack and Discord channels. "We have this community, mostly thanks to Pebble's amazing developer relations team."

In late 2016, however, the tide turned. Groom and his friends heard of layoffs at Pebble, as well as rumors that it would be shutting down. Then the news broke of the Fitbit acquisition. "That really accelerated the level of freakouts," he said. "We all panicked." After all, a smartwatch isn't much use if the apps won't work.

But instead of suffering quietly, the Pebble developer community took action. "We were downloading everything we could," said Groom. "People wrote scripts to grab all the SDK, the documentation, all of it." Two days later, Rebble, a resource site for all things Pebble, was born. In Rebble's inaugural blog post, Groom wrote: "The aim of Rebble is to bring the many disparate efforts under a single banner, concentrating energy and enthusiasm to maximize the likelihood of continuance and resurgence of Pebble as a platform." From then on, the crew got to work reverse engineering APIs, writing documentation and attempting to build a new home for users.

Fitbit did support existing Pebble devices for a while, but the company ultimately pulled the plug on June 30th 2018. Mere months before that, however, Groom and co. introduced Rebble Web Services, a replacement for Pebble's soon-to-be shut down servers. Surprisingly, Rebble even worked with Fitbit to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Katharine Berry, a Rebble co-founder, said in a blog post that the team was grateful for Fitbit's support: "[Fitbit has] been keeping the Pebble servers running even longer than they'd originally announced, and they've given us some needed extra time to come up with a solution for you. If Fitbit had not purchased Pebble, it's likely that the Pebble servers would have shut down with no notice at all."

Several years later, and the Rebble website is still going strong, with over a hundred thousand or so users still making use of their Pebbles. Rebble is able to keep it all going thanks to Patreon donations and the work of a handful of volunteers. When asked what sort of technical skill I'd need to load Rebble onto my Pebble, Groom said all I needed was the ability to click on a link. "There's a how-to section and an FAQ as well," he added. There's even customer support. "We have a whole customer service system," Groom said. "There's a support ticket system, and a Discord channel where people can ask for help."

Chumby's resurrection

Pebble is not the only gadget that has survived long past its expiration date. Remember the Chumby? The cute smart alarm clock debuted in 2006, long before Amazon revealed its Echo Show smart display. It offered quick, glanceable information like the weather, Facebook and Twitter posts, RSS feeds, digital photos and video streams. "The Chumby was introduced shortly after WiFi was introduced," Andrew "bunnie" Huang, Chumby's founder, told Engadget. "To rewind to those times, there were no smartphones, and if you wanted to use your computer away from your desk, it meant dragging an ethernet cord to your bedside."

Despite its adorable nature, the Chumby was really more of a proof-of-concept for the underlying software which was meant to be run on TVs as well as PCs. In fact, Sony used a modified Chumby OS for the now-defunct Sony Dash, which was similarly dubbed as a "personal internet viewer" designed to sit on your nightstand.

With the recession in 2008 and the arrival of the iPhone, Chumby's days were numbered. Plus, instead of using Javascript/HTML5 for its widget framework, it used Adobe Flashlite, which grew out of favor with developers; Adobe eventually retired support for it. Still, Huang said that nearly 100,000 Chumby units were sold (Sony Dash sales, however, are unknown). Without the service, they would be effectively useless.

But this was another case where a beloved gadget found new life. Duane Maxwell, who was the CTO and one of the founders of Chumby, continued to support it long after Chumby ceased operations in 2012. As the primary author of the control panel, he said he knew more about the overall system than pretty much anyone associated with the company.

"A couple of volunteers, including myself, continued to manage the system for about a year until the money ran out to support the back end," Maxwell told Engadget in an email. "There was a company hired by the creditors that was supposed to sell the assets of the company, and although they did manage to find buyers for the furniture etc, they did not have the expertise to sell the intellectual property or electronics."

So, Maxwell formed a company called Blue Octy LLC, and made a cash offer to the shareholders. It was accepted, which gave him ownership of the physical servers as well as the software, domains, databases, documentation, trademarks and copyright. After some time completely rewriting the backend to "more contemporary software standards" he's managed to update about 100 widgets and added almost 30 more.

"By the time I was done, from a user-facing standpoint, the new system was functionally identical to the original Chumby backend service," said Maxwell. That said, it cost a lot of money to host the server and keep it running, and he was only one person. So, he created a tiered subscription. If all you wanted to do with your Chumby was to use it as a cute alarm clock that played music, there was no cost. But as soon as you wanted to add widgets back into the mix, that would cost $3 a month. Thankfully, that subscription is per user, so if you had more than one device, that price would cover all of them.

"We also provide email support and occasionally repair devices," said Maxwell. "The new system came online in 2014 and has been running continuously since." When Sony discontinued the Dash, Maxwell was able to allow Dash owners to use its service too.

Further, Maxwell's wife manages "The Chumby Store," which sells replacement parts such as power supplies. "Some users donate devices they no longer want, which we refurbish and sell as well. Those folks that don't want subscriptions, but still want to provide financial support can also buy charms, stickers and other swag."

The night of the living dead... gadget

The Pebble and Chumby are just two examples of so-called obsolete gadgets that have been brought back to life. There was the Nabaztag, a WiFi-enabled robotic bunny released in 2005 that conveyed information through wiggling its ears, changing colors and making sounds. It officially died in 2011 when the Mindscape company ended support for it, though it was resurrected later through open source means. Last year, the original design team even ran a successful crowdfunding campaign to bring the Raspberry Pi-based version of it back to production. Still, this appears to be a one-time project, and it's also clearly meant for those with quite a bit of technical know-how.

Then there's Berg's Little Printer, which was a strange yet adorable internet-connected receipt printer that debuted in 2012 but shuttered in 2014. The idea behind this quirky gadget was that you could print out the weather report, to-do lists and your daily schedule, all on physical paper with little fuss and low cost. Berg did turn the printer's commercial code into an open online platform called Sirius, but unless you had some technical knowledge, your Little Printer was still a brick. In 2019, however, a company called Nord Projects resurrected it with a brand new iOS app plus a new feature: you could use it to send and receive messages from other Little Printers. Think of it as a text, but in physical form. At the point of this writing, the service still seems to be up and running, so existing Little Printer users can try it out if they wish.

There are likely other devices that have survived obsolescence -- maybe even some of your favorites -- but they're obviously a pretty rare phenomenon. For the most part, we still caution most consumers that their favorite connected gadgets won't last. But who knows, if their fanbase is passionate enough, and if there's someone out there willing to spend time and energy keeping them alive, then it might be worth it to hold on to your old gadgets just a little while longer. Not only is that good for the environment, it's good for the pocketbook too. It could even mean a less cluttered junk drawer.

Images: Engadget (Pebble watch); Getty Images (Chumby with coffee): All others are press images.
The company reported in March that it was responding to a surge in demand for Tyvek apparel because of the coronavirus outbreak, and that production of Tyvek had increased about 20% so far this year compared with the same period last year.

The plant also makes the bullet-resistant material Kevlar and the fire-resistant material Nomex, used by the military, police officers and firefighters, as well as in industrial environments.

The safety and well-being of our employees continues to be our top priority, Smartt said in an emailed response to questions. We have implemented safety plans and protocols based on World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control guidelines and recommendations to help prevent the spread of the virus, and to ensure we continue providing a safe and healthy workplace for our essential employees.

The company said that all employees who are not needed for the continuous operation of its manufacturing processes are now working from home.

We have limited visits to the site, and are practicing social distancing and sanitizing common areas in the plant more frequently, Smartt said.
An MoT centre in Belfast has been transformed into a coronavirus testing facility.

It follows the setting-up of a drive-through testing centre at the citys SSE Arena car park at the weekend to allow health care workers to be tested for Covid-19.

Now the Boucher Road vehicle testing centre will also be used, with other vehicle testing centres to be assessed for their suitability.

A MOT testing centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland which is being used as a drive through testing location for Covid-19 (Justin Kernoghan/PA)

Infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon said she is delighted that her department can play its part in the fight against Covid-19.

It is important that we all work together in the fightback against Covid-19. Keeping people safe is my number one priority and I will continue to do all I can within my department, freeing up any resources we have, to support the health minister and all our health trusts in the fight against this deadly virus, she said.

Through use of our MoT centres, we are delighted to be able to support the health minister and play our part in helping to rapidly increase testing to help save lives.

Testing is a vital component in our effort to fight back against Covid-19.

On Tuesday, it emerged that another 97 new cases of Covid-19 had been detected, with a further three patients dying with coronavirus, bringing the total number of reported deaths in Northern Ireland to 73.

The number of individuals tested for Covid-19 is 9,158.

The Public Health Agency gave the total number of confirmed cases in the region as 1,255.

(PA Graphics)

Health minister Robin Swann said the rapid expansion of testing is a key priority for his department.

We know that many members of the healthcare workforce who are currently undertaking home isolation are keen to return to work as soon as possible to support colleagues at this critical time, he said.

I understand that it has been a frustrating and worrying time for those staff who have displayed symptoms of Covid-19, or those whose family members have symptoms.

Story continues

The rapid expansion of testing capacity has been a key priority and we have been working with the Public Health Agency and HSC Trust colleagues to significantly increase the number of healthcare workers who can access testing for Covid-19.

Vehicle testing has been suspended during the initiative.

The department for communities said all HGVs, trailers and buses with an MoT will be issued with a three-month Temporary Exemption Certificate (TEC).

All four-year-old cars will be given a TEC for six months, from the date that their MOT test should have been due.

Meanwhile work is under way to addresses issues in relation to taxis.
They were given to a jury to examine, offered to three Supreme Court judges to try on, and used by George Pell to prove he had not molested two choirboys.

The heavy vestments worn by the cardinal made it impossible for him to have exposed himself to the boys in Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral, he always said.

Cardinal Pell is finally a free man today after the High Court quashed his convictions for sexually abusing the 13-year-olds in 1996.

The 78-year-old had been found guilty by a Victorian County Court jury in December 2018 of one count of sexual penetration of a child and four counts of committing indecent acts.

The assaults were found to have taken place in the sacristy of St Patrick's, where Cardinal Pell was then archbishop, and happened straight after he had celebrated Sunday mass.

Much of his High Court appeal focused on whether he could possibly have abused the choirboys in a window of five or six minutes.

Scroll down for video

Cardinal George Pell always maintained it would have been physically impossible for him to expose himself to a pair of 13-year-old choirboys. His vestments included an alb, chasuble, stole and cincture

Pell was been found guilty of five sexual offences against two 13-year-old boys committed in the sacristy of Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral when he was archbishop there in 1996. Those convictions were overturned by the High Court on Tuesday

Cardinal Pell's barristers had long argued it was not possible for him to be alone in the sacristies only a few minutes after the end of Mass.

Numerous witnesses took to the witness box at his trial to back the notion the crimes could not have been committed.

The High Court on Tuesday agreed the evidence ought to have provided the jury with a reasonable doubt.

Through two County Court trials, a Court of Appeal hearing and up to the High Court, Cardinal Pell's lawyers maintained it was impossible for him to have committed the crimes alleged against him.

A key argument in the cardinal's defence was that he could not have assaulted the boys in the robes he was wearing on the day of the main alleged offences.

Cardinal Pell's vestments that day included an alb - a white tunic which reached the feet and had two slits to allow access to trouser pockets but no zips or buttons.

The alb was secured tightly around the waist with a knotted rope cincture, which also secured a stole hanging around his neck, and over the alb was a decorative heavy chasuble which had no splits or openings.

Only one of Cardinal Pell's accusers gave evidence at trial against the man who rose to become the Vatican's treasurer. The other alleged victim had died of a heroin overdose and had denied ever having been abused.

The living complainant's evidence was not given in public but some of it was revealed from the bar table during the course of Pell's County Court trial.

George Pell in his cardinal's regalia when he was Archbishop of Sydney celebrating Easter Sunday Mass in 2011. He was the most senior Catholic figure to be convicted of child sex crimes

Pell was originally found to have exposed himself and forced a boy to perform oral sex on him inside the sacristy of St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne (pictured). He always maintained his innocence

The surviving choirboy had alleged that Pell had caught him and his friend swilling altar wine and said something like 'What are you doing here?' or 'You're in trouble'.

'There was this moment where we all just sort of froze and then he undid his trousers or his belt, like he started moving underneath his robes,' he said.

How Cardinal Pell argued for freedom The timing of the alleged assaults was impossible. It was not possible for Pell to be alone in the sacristies only a few minutes after the end of Mass. It was not possible for Pell to be robed and alone in the priests' sacristy after Mass. It was not possible for two choir boys to be sexually assaulted in the priests' sacristy after Mass by Pell undetected. It was not possible for two robed sopranos to leave an external procession without being noticed. The criminal acts attributed to Pell were physically impossible. No one corroborated the second incident though the complainant said it happened in the midst of a 50-person choir. County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd erred in not allowing Pell's defence to present a video in his closing arguments, and that there was a 'fundamental irregularity' in how Pell was arraigned at trial. Advertisement

'He pulled [the other boy] aside and then he pulled out his penis and then grabbed [the other boy's] head.'

He said the other boy struggled while Pell's hands were around his head and shoulders.

The surviving choirboy said Pell then turned his attention to him and put his penis in his mouth.

'Archbishop Pell was standing. He was erect and he pushed it into my mouth.'

Psychologist and former priest Terry Laidler sat through almost all of the trial and told ABC's Law Report a set of robes was produced and sent to the jury room.

Cardinal Pell's trial barrister Robert Richter QC described the complainant's version of events as a 'far-fetched fantasy'. He said his client's cumbersome multi-layered robes would have prevented access to his genitals.

The prosecution had argued it was still possible for Cardinal Pell to expose his penis to the boys while robed because of the slits in the alb.



Sacristan Max Potter told the County Court that Pell would never have worn the alb on its own. Rather it would be under a chasuble and possibly a dalmatic, another thick layer of liturgical clothing.

'The weight of those vestments are not light,' Mr Potter had said. It would be 'inhumanly possible' for Cardinal Pell to have exposed himself through the robes.

Cardinal Pell's former Master of Ceremonies Monsignor Charles Portelli also disagreed with the suggestion the then archbishop could have exposed himself through the secured alb.

'The whole point of the cincture is to keep the alb in place.'

As an archbishop, George Pell was required to wear heavy vestments which a retired priest told broadcaster Alan Jones would make it impossible for him to easily expose his genitals

The vestments were so heavy that Cardinal Pell required help robing and disrobing and Monsignor Portelli could recall only two occasions the senior cleric had not required his assistance in five years.

Last year an 86-year-old priest gave an insight into how Cardinal Pell's robes would have restricted him in a note he sent to 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones.

The priest said any Catholic cleric celebrating mass wore so many vestments it was difficult to even go to the toilet.

The cardinal's vestments were so layered and cumbersome the jury's finding that he forced a 13-year-old boy to perform oral sex upon him was 'ridiculous'.

'The cardinal archbishop has so many clothes on at the exact time of the offence that it would be physically impossible to do what he's charged with,' the priest said.

Even a 'lowly priest' was required to wear several layers of liturgical clothing when celebrating mass. 'And all this is tied around my waist tightly with a cincture,' he said.

'Standing still just waiting to be told to enter the sanctuary every morning I am praying that I might not have a quick call of nature and have to rush to the toilet.

'Simply because it is almost impossible to get to my belt and zipper under the weight of all these clothes. That is the basic reason the charge is so ridiculous.'

Cardinal Pell, pictured leaving the Victorian Supreme Court in August 2019, had served 13 months of a six-year sentence which had a minimum term of three years and eight months

Cardinal Pell had risen to be the most senior Catholic in Australia and the third most senior in the world. He was the highest ranking cleric in his church to be found guilty of sexual offences against children.

The High Court's decision to quash the convictions overturned an earlier ruling by the Justices Anne Ferguson, Chris Maxwell and Mark Weinberg of the Court of Appeal.

All three Court of Appeal judges had examined Pell's robes. Christopher Boyce QC for the Crown had even suggested they try them on but it is unclear if they did.

Justices Ferguson and Maxwell both voted to uphold Cardinal Pell's convictions, while Justice Weinberg voted to partly grant his appeal.

Jesuit priest, lawyer and academic Father Frank Brennan addressed the vestments issue in a piece he wrote for Catholic publication Eureka Street in February last year.

Fr Brennan attended some of Pell's court case and wrote at the time that he was 'very surprised' and 'devastated' by the original guilty verdicts.

'Witnesses familiar with liturgical vestments had been called who gave compelling evidence that it was impossible to produce an erect penis through a seamless alb,' Fr Brennan wrote.

'An alb is a long robe, worn under a heavier chasuble. It is secured and set in place by a cincture which is like a tightly drawn belt.

'An alb cannot be unbuttoned or unzipped, the only openings being small slits on the side to allow access to trouser pockets underneath.

'The complainant's initial claim to police was that Pell had parted his vestments, but an alb cannot be parted; it is like a seamless dress.

'Later the complainant said that Pell moved the vestments to the side. An alb secured with a cincture cannot be moved to the side.

'The police never inspected the vestments during their investigations, nor did the prosecution show that the vestments could be parted or moved to the side as the complainant had alleged.'

Cardinal Pell had served 13 months of a six-year sentence which had a minimum term of three years and eight months.
LANSING, MI -- With a record number of claims being filed for unemployment benefits in the State of Michigan, officials say theyve already begun adding more staff to help take calls and guide residents through the process.

During a call with reporters Tuesday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer acknowledged the difficulty some people are having in filing their claims.

Its a very clear necessity that we need more help answering calls and processing claims, Whitmer said.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor reported 311,086 unemployment claims were filed in Michigan for the week ending March 28. That followed a week where 128,006 claims filed in Michigan. Michigan officials say the state has already received more applications for unemployment in the last two weeks than it did in all of 2019.

More than 440,000 unemployment applications have been filed since March 8, which represents roughly 1 in 10 working Michiganders. Updated claims numbers will be released Thursday and officials expect those numbers to surpass already record-breaking levels of applications. The overwhelming amount of inquires has put extra pressure on the various systems used to file or check on the status of a claim.

However, Jeff Donofrio, the Director of the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity says help is on the way. Donofrio said the state has already increased the number of call-takers from 150 in early March to more than 300 as of last week. The state is also working with a third-party contractor to add more call-takers and will team with Michigan Works to add call-takers as well. Last Friday, the unemployment website was shut down for upgrades needed to handle to increased traffic.

Donofrio said changes are also being implemented to streamline the process and communication with applicants. And while the process has been a struggle for many Michiganders, Donofrio says the majority of people are seeing results.

Ninety-five percent of people are getting through and filing their claims without any problem," Donofrio said. We appreciate the patience people are showing as we try to process these massive amount of claims.

Whitmer says she will be directly involved with helping Michiganders this week as she plans on answering phone calls and processing claims. She went on to say its very important that state is equipped to handle the claims as people are stressed out and need guidance when applying for unemployment.

Donofrio added the state remains committed to ensuring every Michigan worker gets the money they are entitled to through the state and federal unemployment programs.

Michigan residents can file an unemployment claim by visiting Michigan.gov/UIA or calling 866-500-0017. When filing, you are asked to file on specific days based on your last name in order to reduce volume. If you file online and your last name starts with A-L you can file claims on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays. Last names beginning with the letters M-Z are asked to file claims Sundays, Tuesdays or Thursdays. Anyone who couldnt file during specified time windows can file on Saturdays.

If you call to file, last names starting with A-L are asked to call between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays or Wednesdays, while those with last names starting with M-Z are asked to call on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Friday is open to anyone to call.

PREVENTION TIPS

Michigans State Emergency Operations Center is coordinating state-government resources and the response to the coronavirus spread. It has shared the following tips:

What you can do to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases:

 Always cover coughs or sneezes with a tissue or sleeve.

 Stay home if you are sick and advise others to do the same.

 Avoid close contact with people who are sick.

 Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.

 Wash your hands often with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds.

 Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol, if soap and warm water are not available.

 Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces(computers, keyboards, desks, etc.).

 Its not too late to get your flu shot! While the influenza vaccine does not protect against COVID-19 infection, it can help keep you healthy during the flu season.

READ MORE

Complete coverage at mlive.com/coronavirus

For second day in a row, Michigan reports over 100 coronavirus deaths

Its been four weeks since Michigans first confirmed coronavirus cases. We mapped its spread through the state

Produce for restaurants now bundled for residents: 5 things that give us hope amid coronavirus crisis

Tuesday, April 7: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

In unusual session, Michigan lawmakers OK 23-day extension of coronavirus state of emergency
[April 07, 2020] WEBSCALE LAUNCHES CORE, TARGETING SMALL TO MEDIUM-SIZED STOREFRONTS ON MAGENTO 1 AND 2

SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Webscale , the Any Platform Commerce Cloud, today announced the launch of Webscale Core, an affordable, fixed cost cloud hosting solution for small to medium-sized (SME) ecommerce storefronts. Initially targeting businesses on Magento (1.x, 2.x, Community and Enterprise versions), Webscale Core leverages the companys expertise with the platform, gained from managing thousands of storefronts, while delivering the same powerful features, deep insight and control it provides to many of the worlds leading online brands. With more than half of all Magento sites still on the, soon to be end-of-life, M1.x version of the platform, most of whom are SME businesses, Webscale Core doubles down on the companys commitment to continue its support of this large community. Webscale Core delivers the best of the cloud, with its pervasive capacity and infrastructure availability, in an affordable hosting plan that is unique in its support of all Magento store types, regardless of their version and size. With Webscale Core, any SME merchant can now get access to the same, proven platform that supports massive brands such as Alex & Ani, Shinola, Regal Cinemas, Swarovski and Watsco. We are entering a period of human history unlike any other, and the demands being placed upon online businesses to deliver has never been greater, said Sonal Puri, CEO, Webscale. Webscale Core is a simple commitment to bringing, to smaller merchants, the benefits of our many years experience managing multiple platforms like Magento in the public cloud, without the crippling high monthly fees or aggressive revenue sharing models that punish success. Designed for fast-growing businesses, those with seasonal shifts in traffic, or for those just starting their online journey, Webscale Core offers affordable, fixed cost hosting, and is targeted at storefronts with traffic up to 50,000 visitors per month. Pricing does not change by the size of the shopping cart or total revenue. By doing this, Webscale commits to making ecommerce applications of all sizes successful, while enabling owners to solely focus on building their online businesses. Security, Performance, Availability and Support/strong>



Security, performance and scalability challenges are common with entry-level, single-server and static hosting solutions, where low cost often equates to a substandard user experience and a lack of reliability. These features form the cornerstone of Webscale Core, all delivered via its uniquely distributed data plane. Security includes a web application firewall (WAF) with blacklisting, whitelisting and geo-blocking, OWASP Top 10 threat protection, one-click DDoS attack mitigation and Web Controls, simple, customizable DIY policies to protect against common attack patterns. Webscale Core improves performance by keeping page load times fast, using content and mobile optimization, Dynamic Site Cache for caching HTML and associated content, optimized cache control to minimize unnecessary cache purges, as well as optimizing non-critical third-party assets by deferring or downloading assets in parallel.

With high resiliency and no single point of failure, Webscale Cores data plane offers 100% availability, able to dynamically scale out and in, to handle traffic surges. Webscales self-healing capability ensures the application server automatically recovers from health failures, and TLS terminations ensure that application infrastructure is continuously offloaded from compute-intensive activity. Unlike other managed hosts serving the SME segment with single server solutions, Webscale follows cloud-ready architecture guidelines to ensure online success for its customers. Support for Webscale Core hosted storefronts is provided 24x7 by Webscales award-winning support team , offering both cloud and application-level expertise, with a guaranteed response time SLA for critical incidents. Webscale Core applications can also be heavily customized with powerful add-ons as the storefront and traffic grows, a full list of which can be found on the Webscale Core plan page here: https://www.webscale.com/plans About Webscale Webscale, the Any Platform Commerce Cloud, is the leader in hyperscale cloud management, automation and hosting. Delivered as-a-Service, the Webscale platform allows businesses of all sizes to benefit from infinite scalability, load balancing, high performance, outage prevention, improved security, and simple management in multi-cloud environments, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. Webscale enables digital transformation for B2C, B2B, and B2E e-commerce and enterprise customers in nine countries and for seven of the Fortune 1000 businesses. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, with offices in Boulder, CO, and Bangalore, India. For more information, visit www.webscale.com . Follow us on LinkedIn , Twitter , and Facebook . Media Contact: Andrew Humber

Webscale

[email protected]

+1 (408) 416 7943

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Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous nights highlights that lets you sleep  and lets us get paid to watch comedy. If youre interested in hearing from The Times regularly about great TV, sign up for our Watching newsletter and get recommendations straight to your inbox.

A Border Wall for Your Face

On Friday, President Trump said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Americans to wear masks outside of their homes, simultaneously suggesting he would not be doing so himself.
Most Victorian students will learn from home when school returns next Wednesday and Year 12 exams will be postponed until at least December, in an unprecedented move to slow the spread of coronavirus.

If the pandemic is still not under control by the end of the year, VCE students could receive their ATAR without sitting final exams, but the Premier and Education Minister have reassured students there would be no need for a "Year 13".

Premier Daniel Andrews outlines plans for the 2020 school year on Tuesday morning. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui

The General Achievement Test for VCE and VCAL students will move from June to October or November, the number of School Assessed Courseworks (SACs) will be reduced and universities will be asked to delay the start of the first semester in 2021.

All vulnerable students and children of essential workers will be allowed to return to the classroom for Term 2, and "small groups" of Year 12 students will be allowed to attend school for short periods of time if they cannot do the coursework at home (for example, a practical chemistry lesson).
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/06/2020 -- A recent market intelligence report on Syringe Market takes a closer look at the major driving forces, restraints and opportunities anticipated to shape the future of the Syringe Market for the forecast period, 2019 - 2024.



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U.S. State Department spokesman Morgan Ortagus Monday condemned China for sinking a Vietnamese fishing boat, calling it an assertion of an "unlawful" claim.

Ortagus said the U.S. was "seriously concerned" on learning about the incident that took place near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. He said the the incident was another act by China to assert "unlawful maritime claims and disadvantage its Southeast Asian neighbors in the South China Sea."

On Thursday, a Chinese coast guard vessel rammed and sank the boat owned by Tran Hong Tho, a native of the central province of Quang Ngai, with eight fishermen onboard as they were fishing off the Phu Lam (Woody) Island in Vietnams Hoang Sa Archipelago (Paracel Islands). Vietnam calls the South China Sea the East Sea.

The U.S. State Department spokesman also noted that Beijing has rolled out new research stations on military bases it has built on Fiery Cross Reef and Subi Reef, and landed special military aircraft on the Fiery Cross Reef since the onset of the global pandemic.

Maritime militia has also continued to be deployed by China around the Spratly Islands, Ortagus said, adding that Chinas infamous nine-dashed line had been deemed "an unlawful maritime claim by an arbitral tribunal convened under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention in July 2016, a position shared by the U.S. Government."

Ortagus called on Beijing to remain focused on working on the Covid-19 pandemic with the international community and to cease its exploitation of "the distraction or vulnerability" of other countries to expand its claims in the South China Sea.

Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Thi Thu Hang had demanded Friday that China investigates the incident and " take strict action against the Chinese vessel and refrain from repeating such acts in future as well as pay proper compensation for the damage caused to the Vietnamese fishermen."

"These actions of the Chinese vessel have infringed on Vietnam's sovereignty over the Hoang Sa Islands and endangered the lives and properties of Vietnamese fishermen," she said.

China's actions also go against the common view of senior leaders of the two countries on treating fishermen humanely; as well as the Vietnam-China Agreement on Basic Principles Guiding the Settlement of Maritime Issues. They also violate the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and negatively affect negotiations for a Code of Conduct in the waters, Hang said.

The move has increased tensions, caused destabilization and is not beneficial to the maintenance of peace, stability and cooperation in the region, she added.

Hang had reiterated that Vietnam has full legal basis and historical evidence under international law to assert its sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos.

The Vietnam Fisheries Society has also called on the Government Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government agencies to ensure China pays compensation to Vietnamese fishermen for sinking their boats.

The Quang Ngais Fisheries Society said that after sinking the Vietnamese boat, the Chinese vessel had picked up eight Vietnamese fishermen and taken them to the Woody Island. Upon receiving news of the sunken ship, three other Vietnamese fishing boats tried to rescue then, but were chased away by the Chinese vessel. Two of the vessels were captured and towed to the island.

At 2 p.m. Thursday, China released the two fishing boats and eight fishermen. A day later, Vietnamese authorities received the detained Vietnamese fishermen safely.

China seized the Paracel Islands from South Vietnam by force in 1974, and has since been occupying them illegally.

In 2014 China brought an oil rig, Haiyang Shiyou 981, and installed it in waters off the Paracel Islands, changing the status quo in the waters. Since then, Chinese ships have chased after and rammed many Vietnamese fishing vessels near the islands in Vietnamese waters.
March 3, 2003 and in a bar on sumptuous Lumley beach overlooking Freetowns spectacular peninsula, Gibril Massaquoi seems nervous. He has arrived an hour late to our meeting, leaving his transistor radio on and cocking his ear nervously for each news bulletin. The former Sierra Leonean rebel asserts he has a clear conscience but also says he fears arrest by the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), a court set up by the United Nations with the governments accord to judge those most responsible for crimes committed in the civil war from 1991 to 2002.

Massaquoi, former commander of the RUF who became the top grass for the prosecution before the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Six days later comes the first wave of arrests. Massaquoi is questioned along with two other former top commanders of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) ex-rebel group. It is a facade. In reality, it is Massaquoi who has delivered his two former comrades Issa Sesay and Morris Kallon into the hands of the SCSL prosecutor. He has been collaborating with the court for several months and has become its top grass, as a former prosecutor once said. He has recorded dozens of hours under questioning, recounting the war, how the RUF operated, its links to Liberian president at the time Charles Taylor and some of his lieutenants, their arms and diamond trafficking. Sesay and Kallon are imprisoned. Several years later they will be convicted and given heavy sentences. As for Massaquoi, he benefits from a guarded residence and dedicated attention from the services of the SCSLs prosecution and witness protection offices. He is the main insider informing Sierra Leone trials. He testifies for the prosecution. Then in August 2008, with his task complete, he is discreetly sent to Finland with his wife and children, escaping any prosecution for the crimes of which numerous witnesses have accused him.

Massaquoi was soon employed by the rebels to keep a stockpile of weapons and ammunition. He rose rapidly in the ranks. A year later, from mid-1992 to the end of 1993, he led a group of about 100 men.

The early days of a lord of war

Massaquoi was 21 years old when, in March 1991, the RUF entered Sierra Leone from Liberian territory. In Liberia, the civil war had already been raging for 15 months, with all its atrocities, its murderous madness and its thousands of child soldiers. This is where the RUF had trained and armed itself. The RUF offensive launched ten years of civil war in Sierra Leone.

Massaquoi was at that time teaching at St. Pauls High School in the town of Pujehun, in southern Sierra Leone. In May, RUF rebels entered Pujehun. Massaquoi fled to a village about 10 kilometres away. Then he returned to the town, where he was soon employed by the rebels to keep a stockpile of weapons and ammunition, before undergoing three weeks of military and ideological training. He rose rapidly in the ranks. A year later, from mid-1992 to the end of 1993, he led a group of about 100 men, the Alligator Forces. At the end of 1993, he met Foday Sankoh, founder and leader of the rebellion. Massaquoi continued to rise in rank. He became commander of a battalion of about 400 men. In mid-1994, he became a captain, according to the often fantasist promotions granted within the armed movement.

But it was really in 1996 that he came out of the shadows. He accompanied Sankoh to Cote dIvoire to sign the first peace agreements between the rebellion and the civilian government. Massaquoi became spokesman for the RUF. He was at Sankohs side, now his special assistant, when the RUF leader was placed under house arrest in Nigeria. He had the rank of major when, on 25 May 1997, a military coup in Freetown overthrew the government democratically elected a year earlier, annihilated the peace agreement and sealed the alliance between those who drenched the country in blood from 1991: the Sierra Leone Army and the RUF.

Suspected of treason

On August 2, 1997, Massaquoi landed in the Sierra Leonean capital. He was appointed member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, the AFRC, the new junta installed by non-commissioned officers. Massaquoi was one of the representatives of the RUF. In October, however, he was arrested by his comrades on suspicion of treason. In mid-February 1998, the West African intervention forces gained control of Freetown and re-established the civilian government. They found Massaquoi in the central prison and kept him there, again for treason, but against the civilian government. He was acquitted, but he was still there on January 6, 1999, when his former AFRC comrades led a lightning assault on Freetown. The attack was dubbed Operation No Living Thing. The capital was set ablaze with fire and blood, marking the height of violence and cruelty in this conflict.

The attackers, after invading two thirds of the peninsula, were quickly pushed back. But Massaquoi, like all those incarcerated in the central prison, regained his freedom. He resumed his career as a rebel.

After Operation No Living Thing in January 1999, the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown was devastated and Massaquoi regained its freedom.  Seyllou Diallo / AFP

In the midst of the official disarmament phase, RUF commanders took some 500 UN peacekeepers hostage. For the international community, this was too much. The hostage crisis was to sign the death warrant of the RUF.

Endgame for the RUF

New peace agreements were reluctantly signed in July 1999 in Lome, Togo. They provided the RUF with political legitimacy. Sankoh and a few other members of the rebellion settled in Freetown and entered the government. A large UN force was sent to ensure the expected transition to peace. Massaquoi was still at Sankohs side, holding the rank of lieutenant colonel. The RUF appeared to be winning the day.

That was until that crucial first week of May 2000, when, in the midst of the official disarmament phase, RUF commanders took some 500 UN peacekeepers hostage. For the international community, this was too much. Public opinion in Sierra Leone was definitively turning against the duplicity of the RUF leader and against this rebellion which had never been popular. The hostage crisis was to sign the death warrant of the RUF.

Massaquoi was in the company of Sankoh when his residence was surrounded by a mixture of civilians, traditional hunters and soldiers. Several civilians were killed in a brutal exchange of fire. Massaquoi, one of the two men in charge of the residence security, managed to escape. Sankoh was captured. He was to die in prison three years later, before he could be tried by the SCSL. In one year, a strong foreign intervention would defeat the RUF. In January 2002, the Sierra Leonean civil war was officially over.

Massaquoi had the dubious privilege of having been a member of both the RUF and AFRC, the two armed factions that, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, are responsible for more than 70% of the abuses documented. He was expected to stand trial and he knew that. But he still had one card left to play: to cooperate with the prosecutor.

International prosecutors chief informer

And so came the time for justice in Sierra Leone. Two institutions worked concurrently: a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which operated between 2002 and 2004 and produced an extremely valuable report on the causes of the conflict, its conduct, its actors and the multiple and serious human rights violations that accompanied it; and a Special Court, established by the United Nations in agreement with the government, to try those who bear the greatest responsibility for the crimes.

Massaquoi had the dubious privilege of having been a member of both the RUF and AFRC, the two armed factions that, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, are responsible for the largest share of crimes committed  together, more than 70% of the abuses documented. He was expected to stand trial and he knew that. But he still had one card left to play: to cooperate with the prosecutor.

David Crane, first prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, granted immunity from prosecution to Massaquoi in exchange for his cooperation.  Ben Curtis / Pool / AFP

It was the American Alan White, head of Investigations at the new Special Court, who met him shortly after his arrival in Sierra Leone in mid-2002. There was no shortage of former combatants willing to testify and cooperate. Massaquoi was immediately more cooperative than the others. He had dealt directly with Sankoh, with former Liberian president Charles Taylor, whom the prosecutor wanted to indict, and with his RUF link, Benjamin Yeaten, who was also of interest to the investigators. Massaquoi had information seriously implicating them in the trafficking of arms and diamonds. He knew by heart the structure of the RUF as well as those responsible for crimes committed by both the RUF and the AFRC. Massaquoi also served the court by recruiting other insiders.

According to members of the prosecutors office, he was not among those bearing the greatest responsibility for the crimes, the official criterion for selecting individuals to be prosecuted. As far as I know, it was Massaquoi who contacted Al White to meet him. He told us everything and agreed to collaborate with us. The Chief Prosecutor said yes and granted him immunity. In Liberia, we focused our investigation on Taylor. Never once did the name Massaquoi come up in that investigation, says Gilbert Morissette, who questioned Massaquoi at length.

According to the Commission, he personally fuelled the tensions surrounding the UNAMSIL hostage-taking crisis. He was a central part of the chain of command of the RUF. Massaquoi bears an individual share of the responsibility for the deterioration in the security situation in Sierra Leone.

The Truth Commissions accusations

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission thought differently. It noted that Massaquoi  who testified to the Commission  was among the ten members of the RUF high command and said this personal assistant to the groups founding leader was influential. The Commission holds Gibril Massaquoi responsible for the torture and summary executions of up to 25 RUF members in the Pujehun District in 1993, it said.

Massaquois role in the hostage-taking of UN peacekeepers (UNAMSIL) is also highlighted. According to the Commission, he personally fuelled the tensions surrounding the UNAMSIL hostage-taking crisis. He was a central part of the chain of command of the RUF. He was duplicitous in his presentation of the RUF position to the outside world. Massaquoi bears an individual share of the responsibility for the deterioration in the security situation in Sierra Leone. For the commissioners, the duplicity of Massaquoi, convinced that he could overthrow the civilian government including by force of arms, was total.

Recommended reading Reparations in Sierra Leone: news from the periphery of transitional justice

An elegant, intelligent killer

The Commission explained it treated the former rebels testimony with extreme caution. Massaquoi was unique in the RUF in that he remained an enigma to many of those around him throughout the war. He was well-educated and therefore able to pass himself off as an administrator to the outside world.

According to the Commission, Massaquoi evaded questions about his own role in military operations. Yet, it adds, numerous testimonies from his former accomplices establish that he fought fiercely at the front line, commanding units during vital military operations. The analysis is implacable: In the prosecution of military and political strategy after Lome [peace accords], Massaquoi was Sankohs Special Assistant in every sense. His position was the closest to a de facto second-in-command.

Lansana Gberie, a renowned expert and author on Sierra Leone and Liberia (and Sierra Leones ambassador to Switzerland and the UN in Geneva since 2018), met with Massaquoi many times in Freetown while he was under the protection of the court. He describes him as follows: He was one of the very few who was literate. He was handsome, very smooth, intelligent and articulate. He looked smart and clean. He would talk about others, not about his own role as a brutal person. [But] he was very brutal and he definitely killed people. There is no way he would have raised at that level without being a participant. I dont buy that. He was a killer but it was difficult to see it as a person.

In such investigations, you cant prosecute everybody, explains Alan White, former head of investigations at the SCSL. He helped us identify the targets. The value of the information was so significant that we could verify it.

The SCSLs most precious informer

In such investigations, you cant prosecute everybody, explains Alan White, former head of investigations at the SCSL. He helped us identify the targets. The value of the information was so significant that we could verify it. Massaquoi was the UN courts most precious informer. He was more important than Mike Lamin, another top RUF member who also worked with the prosecutor, perhaps under Massaquois influence. Massaquoi was the most important of all, says Morissette. To me he was probably the most important one, confirms White.

In October 2005, Massaquoi testified in the trial of three former AFRC leaders. He did so publicly, without masking his identity or face, even though he was a protected witness. This was unusual for a witness of his status. In 2007, under the escort of the special court, he was in Chicago to testify against a Liberian who fought in Liberia and Sierra Leone and was accused of torture and violating immigration laws.

A respectable life in Finland

And so in August 2008, he left for Finland to start a new life in the industrial university city of Tampere. Massaquoi started learning Finnish at university. The Center for Peace and Conflict Research invited him to participate in its seminars and to speak there, without really knowing who they were dealing with. In one of these workshops, in 2010, he was identified as a coordinator. He apparently spoke very little about his past or his role in the trials in Freetown. According to a member of the university who wished to remain anonymous, he led a respectable life.

During this period, he submitted a manuscript to the expert eye of Lansana Gberie, who shared it with Stephen Ellis, one of the most renowned scholars on these conflicts in West Africa in the 1990s and an expert witness before the Special Court. Already in 2005, when he testified in court, Massaquoi said he had written 500 pages on the conflict. But his manuscript was useless, says Gberie. It was full of embellishments and outright lies to make him appear heroic.

Massaquoi did not arrive in Finland as a protected witness but as a relocated witness. By appearing and speaking under his real name in public events, particularly at university, some people considered that the Sierra Leonean had, in effect, waived any possible right to protection.

Civitas Maximas investigation

It was in 2018 that, on the basis of an important initial testimony, the Swiss NGO Civitas Maxima which for several years had been investigating Liberians suspected of serious crimes during the two Liberian civil wars, decided to deepen its research on the alleged role of Massaquoi in Liberia, as opposed to Sierra Leone. It focused especially on the period 2001-2002, between the end of the fighting in Sierra Leone and his collaboration with the Special Court, a period during which the second Liberian civil war was raging.

Alain Werner, director of the NGO Civitas Maxima, at the origin of the investigation on Massaquoi in Liberia.

The NGO discovered facts of a magnitude and nature that go to the heart of the organizations mandate, according to its director Alain Werner, who is particularly familiar with the case. From 2003 to 2008, Werner worked in the office of the prosecutor of the Special Court in Freetown. The fact that Massaquois presence in Finland was publicly known and revealed on the Internet seemed to remove the obstacle of witness protection. Indeed, according to Finnish judicial sources, Massaquoi did not arrive in Finland as a protected witness but as a relocated witness. At the time, Finland did not have a national witness protection programme. By appearing and speaking under his real name in public events, particularly at university, some people considered that the Sierra Leonean had, in effect, waived any possible right to protection.

In August 2018, Civitas Maxima informed the Finnish judiciary of its research. In October, the Finnish public prosecutor gave a green light to the investigation. In Finland, explains Thomas Elfgren who is leading the investigations in this case, bilateral agreements are not binding on the public prosecutor in criminal matters. If there is reason to believe that a national or permanent resident has committed crimes, there is an obligation to investigate. We have very strict standards. If an individual has committed crimes, he cannot be given immunity. We are obligated by law to look into the case, he explains.

Why would Massaquoi have continued to go and get his hands dirty in Liberia when he could slip away and extricate himself from ten years of war by keeping a low profile in Sierra Leone?

Controversy over the Finnish investigation

At the end of 2018, the Finns contacted representatives of the Special Court. Officially, the SCSL had closed, but as with all international tribunals that have completed their work there is still a residual mechanism in place to manage a number of ongoing tasks, such as requests for the early release of convicted persons or witness protection. According to several sources, the representatives of the Mechanism expressed their concern. But the Finns replied that their investigation did not touch on the mandate of the Special Court since the alleged facts took place in Liberia, whereas the Special Court only had jurisdiction over crimes committed in Sierra Leone.

In 2019, Finnish police officers visited Liberia three times. They gathered more than 90 testimonies that convinced them they had a solid case. According to several sources, with the agreement of the Mechanism they also interviewed at least three of the individuals whom Massaquoi helped convict and who are currently serving their sentences in a prison in Rwanda.

There is controversy among Massaquois protectors, supporters of the lawsuit and experts about the credibility of the allegations against him. Why would Massaquoi have continued to go and get his hands dirty in Liberia when he could slip away and extricate himself from ten years of war by keeping a low profile in Sierra Leone? It doesnt make sense to me, from a probability point of view, says Lansana Gberie. In 2001-2002, he had fallen out with his friends because of money. He was finding a way out. I wouldnt think a guy like this would be stupid enough to go back to Liberia. But maybe, who knows? Some RUF guys went to Liberia, a bunch of them. He might have been among them. He knows Liberia quite well. I dont know. I would like to see what they found.

The Massaquoi case was born, shaking up the international legal community: Can we and should we prosecute a former insider who helped a UN court?

Trafficking and serious crimes

There are some public indications of his presence in Liberia. In October 2001, a report by the UN Panel of Experts on Liberia noted that the relationship between the RUF and Liberia had continued, despite a split among Sierra Leonean rebels between those embracing disarmament and those willing to continue fighting. RUF units were then fighting in parts of Liberia, the experts note. They also reveal that in August 2000, police were surprised during a raid on a Lebanese businessmans home to find Massaquoi with a bag containing $15,000. They mention another incident, dating from July 2001, when the same Massaquoi filed a complaint for having been swindled in the purchase of 69 vehicles for the RUF, after giving $110,000 in cash and 2,600 carats of gold. The presumed origin of the money was the diamond trade from Sierra Leone.

But in Finland, Gibril Massaquoi is accused of far more serious and numerous crimes: crimes against humanity and war crimes, including for murder, torture and rape. On March 10, 2020, seventeen years to the day after he shamelessly put his former rebel friends in the hands of international justice, Gibril Massaquoi was in turn picked up by a national police force denying him any special status. The Massaquoi case was born, shaking up the international legal community: Can we and should we prosecute a former insider who helped a UN court?

WANT TO LEARN MORE? THE MASSAQUOI AFFAIR: SPECIAL REPORT ON THE JUDAS OF SIERRA LEONE (PART 2) Gibril Massaquoi, the main informer for the prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), was arrested in Finland on 10 March. This is the first time that a UN court insider has been prosecuted by a national court without prior agreement. And this sows discord between former members of the SCSL. Should it be criticized? Were the dice loaded from the start? Here is the second part of our exclusive investigation. [READ MORE]
Year 12 Exams Now a National Issue in Australia Thanks to CCP Virus

Concerns surrounding disruptions to year 11 and 12 have risen this week with teachers, students, and parents worrying about the results students will get amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. Federal education ministers are meeting April 7 to address the problem of how the assessments will work for 2020.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on April 6 even floated the possibility of extending year 12 into next year. In Queensland, the education board has dropped some final assessments to ease the burden on teachers and students. While in New South Wales, exams will proceed as scheduled without any special considerations. The result has been a large amount of confusion nationwide, especially for those students applying to universities in other states and territories.

Regional NSW year 12 student Pierce Gourley is currently positive about his predicament. He believes that if his teachers can make the most out of the situation, and his exams can be graded with respect to the changes, he should not have to repeat year 12.

Hes also being realistic about the abrupt changes to how classes are being conducted. I dont think teachers will be able to get the most out of the software because they dont have the time, he said.

Pierce Gourley completing online studies for year 12 studies at his home in Yass, New South Wales April 7, 2020. (Courtesy of Kim Gourley)

His mother Kim Gourley, believes that the year 12 students for 2020 should be given alternate avenues into university since for some, another year in school would be a major set-back.

I think that this years cohort should be allowed to apply based on school assessment marks and recommendations from their respective schools or in some other appropriate manner as deemed by the Universities and the Board of Education, she said.

One university agrees with this recommendation. The University of Tasmania has introduced a schools recommendation program, that will grant students into most of their courses based on a recommendation from their schools, not just their results. Quota courses like medicine will be exempt from this change.

No Single Fix to the Problem

Media spokesperson for Australian Capital Territorys (ACT) Minister for Education and Early Childhood Yvette Berry said in an email to The Epoch Times on April 6, that grading for both year 11 and 12 students is being considered as a national issue.

Education Ministers are working together urgently to resolve this issue to ensure that students are not disadvantaged, said Berry.

The problem is that not all states and territories have the same finals processes. NSW, for example, has final exams that are worth up to half of a students final grade with trial exams sometimes making up the other half. In South Australia, the external exams are worth 30 percent. While the ACT has an accumulative process where the students grades are weighted on class assessments and credit points and an external exam scales their results.

This diversity makes it hard to apply one fix to the problem. The answer some believe is to boost overall scores. But failing that it may be necessary to change university admissions procedures.

One university leading the way in this is the University of Western Australia. It announced that this year it would offer an alternative admissions pathway, admitting students on the basis of predicted ATAR results, calculated on the students year 11 result as well as a special tertiary admission test.

Sydney sigh school closed due to Covid-19 March 6, 2020. (Brook Mitchel-/Getty Images)

It is a measure applauded by Peter Hutton, a former principal and a convener of the Futures Schools Alliance.

There are huge mental health impacts to the current situation and its unfair to put kids through preparing for an exam period thats going to be called off. They should be saying every young person in 2020 who has the prerequisitesand they obviously do need some form of pass-fail prerequisitescan go to university, Hutton told The Guardian.

It remains to be seen whether this measure will be applied to all universities Australia wide. Universities Australia, the peak body for the education sector, CEO Catriona Jackson noted in The Guardian that its impossible to say what will happen.

This unprecedented situation is changing so rapidly that the impacts on both universities and schools six, nine and 12 months from now just arent possible to predict, Jackson said.
Since Mayor Ron Nirenberg ordered residents to stay at home and all nonessential businesses to close last month to stop the spread of the coronavirus, authorities have observed violations at hundreds of locations.

In all, the city has counted at least 880 violations, including a North Side bar still selling beer, a South Side beauty salon still cutting hair and people not standing 6 feet apart while waiting to pick up food at a West Side restaurant. In the vast majority of cases, a simple warning was enough to gain compliance.

But none has tested the citys resolve to enforce its measure more than Planet K.

At the smoke shop chain, patrons are accustomed to shopping for pipes, paraphernalia and other irreverent gifts and supplies with a countercultural vibe. Last week, authorities had made a total of 21 visits to Planet K locations across the city, repeatedly issuing warnings and citations even as its employees said the chains owner, Austin resident Michael Kleinman, was refusing to shut down and forcing them to keep working.

Finally, on Sunday, the city revoked its certificate of occupancy for a Planet K on Austin Highway, authorizing the disconnection of all electric, gas and water service there due to risk to life. It is the only instance so far of such a governmental clampdown here during the pandemic.

CURBSIDE: An updated list of San Antonio restaurants offering takeout and delivery

This led Kleinman to reluctantly close his shops here  at least temporarily. On Monday, he said the cities of Austin, San Marcos, Bryan and Universal City still were allowing him to operate, the latter by curbside. A notably litigious owner who has appeared in a T-shirt with the slogan Less Government, More Fun, Kleinman has vowed to sue if the city doesnt reverse its interpretation of his stock as nonessential.

The fact that we are being jacked around by San Antonio and nowhere else in Texas means theyre violating our equal protection under the law, Kleinman said. Weve tried to comply with these idiots. Weve done our best to comply with the city of San Antonio. But where theyre wrong, theyre wrong.

Kleinman, 68, insisted that Planet K qualified as essential under Gov. Greg Abbotts recent statewide order, in part because it sells household necessities such as vitamin supplements, candy, drinks, soda and beer, that many have come to rely on to manage their health.

He added, We sell smoking accessories. We sell sexual aids. You know people need the sexual aids now more than ever. What do you think theyre doing at home? I mean, this is outrageous. But we still sell everything the convenience stores sell.

Assistant City Manager Rod Sanchez was unfazed.

Hes going to lawyer up and sue us, Sanchez said. We said, Fine. We started with this one (on Austin Highway). But were keeping an eye on the others.

On Monday, someone had posted a sign at the Planet K on Austin Highway urging visitors to call Councilwoman Jada Andrews-Sullivan to protest its closure. Across the city, a location on Goliad Road also was closed, although two employees stood behind the counter inside.

On a chalkboard by the front door, someone had responded to the prompt Before I die  by scrawling, I want to smoke so much I pass out, wake up hungry to eat a triple burger from Whataburger.

Kleinman had agreed to close the Goliad location on the first day of the mayors order, according to city records. The same process played out at two other locations that day.

But a week later, Planet Ks across the city remained open for business. At a location on West Avenue, a city official called police after employees there insisted that Abbotts order had superseded the mayors declaration as it pertained to Planet K.

Manager not cooperating, city records said. Manager was told that she would continue to receive a fine every day they were in violation.

By Thursday, a Planet K on Evers Road had received no fewer than seven warnings. At the Goliad location, employees insisted that Kleinman was forcing them to stay here and work and keep the store open. Again, police were called. Over the phone, Kleinman refused to close.

That day, authorities began issuing Planet K citations that now total at least seven. Last week, the city had issued just four other citations  to a vape store on Austin Highway and to three men playing with a BB gun outside an apartment complex in the South Texas Medical Center.

Violations carry a potential $2,000 fine or possible jail time.

Our approach is first educate, warn, then cite, Sanchez said. Pretty much all our citations have been to Planet K.

If Kleinmans history is any guide, he wont go down without a fight.

Ten years ago, the business owner tried to carry a spat with the city of San Marcos over a junked car-turned-cactus planter all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. (It declined to hear the case, he said.) In 2018, he won a suit against the city of Austin over a sandbar that had formed in a river behind his property from runoff. A few months later, he sued the city of Bryan over its sign ordinance.

Im a constitutionalist, Kleinman said Monday. I believe in the Constitution of the United States. And the government apparently doesnt.

bchasnoff@express-news.net
The federal governments $349 billion program to help small businesses cope with the coronavirus is already running out of funding, forcing Congress to act to add more money.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he would try to pass a bill as early as Thursday using a parliamentary procedure that would not require senators to return to Washington.

In just a few days, this program has become overwhelmingly popular,

McConnell said the program has become overwhelmingly popular .... But it is quickly becoming clear that Congress will need to provide more funding or this crucial program may run dry. That cannot happen.

The House could use the same procedure as the Senate to clear the measure and send it to President Donald Trump for his signature.

Many small business owners have told me they only have days or weeks left before they have to stop paying workers or shut down completely," said Rep. Andy Kim, d-3rd Dist., a member of the House Small Business Committee. "Congress should pass an increase in support to small businesses as soon possible to give our small business owners the peace of mind of knowing the funds will be there to get them through this crisis.

The paycheck protection program, part of the $2 trillion stimulus law, provided forgivable low-interest loans to small businesses to help them pay salaries, mortgage interest, rent and utility costs for eight weeks.

If the businesses keep their workers on the payroll, they dont have to pay back the money.

The more money small businesses receive to keep their employees, the less time they will have to spend gearing up once they can reopen, said Tom Bracken, president and chief executive of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.

This should not be an underfunded program, this should be an overfunded program, Bracken said. The companies will have their employees engaged and they wont have to go out and hire.

New Jersey has more than 861,000 small businesses, 11th highest in the U.S., according to the state Business Action Center.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he wanted $250 billion more for the program, according to White House pool reports.

Well be running out of money pretty quickly which is a good thing in this case, President Donald Trump said.

Small businesses apply for the loans through approved Small Business Administration lenders. While most small businesses already can request the loans, independent contractors and self-employed individuals must wait until Friday.

But small businesses immediately ran into problems, both with trying to apply online and with a lack of federal guidance for banks trying to make the loans, according to U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

Just how dire the situation is for small businesses was evident when the National Federation of Small Business Small Business Optimism Index fell by 8.1 points in March, the largest monthly decline ever recorded.

As they go through this difficult time, small business owners remain fearful that time is not on their side and shutting doors may be inevitable, said Eileen Kean, state director of NFIB in New Jersey.

If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook.

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Virginia Tech is moving all summer classes online, and has imposed a hiring freeze as fallout from the coronavirus pandemic continues.

The university announced Monday it would move all courses, labs and programs over the summer online. That includes new student orientations, conferences and agricultural sessions scheduled to take place on campus.

At this time, we expect that all summer programs, events or activities that would require a gathering of participants that cannot be moved online would be cancelled, according to a university statement.

Tech has not made any decision on changing the fall semester, a university spokesman said.

Also on Monday, Tech Provost Cyril Clarke and Dwayne Pinkney, chief business officer, updated faculty and staff on how they should plan for the economic fallout from the coronavirus.

While we do not yet have a complete picture of the pandemics impact on the university budget, every unit should prepare for a university-wide budget reduction in 2020-21, they wrote.

As of Monday, only jobs considered essential can be filled, and no offers can be made without approval from high-level university officials.

Newly-funded positions and those that are open due to previous resignation, retirement, or termination of appointment contracts are to be left unfilled until further notice, Clarke and Pinkney wrote.

University officials find themselves at the mercy of the General Assembly, which is hoping to meet partially outdoors April 22 to finish updates to the state budget.

Gov. Ralph Northam last week announced a state employee hiring freeze and asked state agencies to scrutinize their budgets to save costs.

In their message, Clarke and Pinkney also asked staff and faculty to eliminate all discretionary spending, including the hiring of consultants or purchase of equipment not deemed essential.

Clarke and Pinkney noted that many colleges rely on resources generated by summer session to support their overall college budget. Therefore, it is important for colleges to shift high demand seat-based summer courses to an online format to ensure the availability of course offerings.

A major factor in planning the universitys budget is the tuition rate, which depends on the final form of the state budget.

A university Board of Visitors meeting that would have set tuition rates last week was scrapped for a virtual update on how the university was responding to COVID-19.

A Tech spokesman said the board is planning a late April meeting, but that could be pushed into May or June.

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Ayushmann Khurrana has lent his support to raise funds for India's fight against the coronavirus.

He has featured in a Bollywood anthem 'Muskurayega India' - an initiative to raise donations for PM-CARES Fund and the Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund.

The anthem also features Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Vicky Kaushal, Kartik Aaryan, Rajkummar Rao, Sidharth Malhotra, Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Kriti Sanon, Kiara Advani and Ananya Panday.

Talking about the initiative, the 'Dream Girl' actor said, "In a crisis such as this every drop of help counts and as responsible citizens of this nation, we all have to do as much possible to help our brothers and sisters. We will need all the help to make our nation bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic. The moment I heard that the members of my industry are uniting for an initiative that helps raise funds, I readily agreed."

Ayushmann shared that he was touched by the lyrics of the song instantly because it fits the sentiment of the nation.

"This song resonates the situation that we are in today and hopes for a brighter and better future and it connected with me instantly."

"We all need to be positive at a time like this. We have been resilient. We have been patient and we shall overcome. We need to stay united and fight this together," he added.

Ayushmann thanked all the Bollywood stars who came forward to support the cause.

He said, "It has Akshay Kumar sir who is again lending his massive support and leading this initiative which is a brainchild of producer Jackky Bhagnani. I'm honoured to be a part of this campaign and I thank all the members of my industry for joining the cause."

On Monday, in an attempt to boost positivity amid testing times, Bollywood's prominent actors like Akshay Kumar, Kartik Aaryan, Tiger Shroff, Taapsee Pannu, Kiara Advani, joined hands and launched 'Muskurayega India'.

The song is an attempt to uplift the spirit of togetherness during the unprecedented crisis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Among the coronavirus sweeping disruption of the restaurant business is the lunch trade, as legions of office workers are now scattered to different neighborhoods, working out of their homes.

As quarantines drag on, some of the bosses are buying lunches for their employees. Its intended as a pick-me-up for the workers as well as a boost for neighborhood restaurants that offer carryout and delivery.

Sixteen workers at Conshohocken-based Lighthouse Life, a financial-services company, are getting $25 a week to order food. Among the restaurant picks are Metropolitan Diner in North Wales, Pizza Box in Ambler, Angelos Italian Kitchen in Horsham, the Grotto Pizza in Wilmington, Tonys Pizza in North Wales, the Nudys Cafe in Devon, and Jimmys Barbecue in Malvern.

One Lighthouse Life staffer said he was planning to add to the $25 to also cover a meal for a Bryn Mawr Hospital employee.

The 89 employees of Pavone Marketing Group who work out of Center City and Harrisburg got an email last week: We recognize that the monotony of sheltering in place may be starting to get to you. And wed also like to support local businesses who arent as fortunate as we are in this time of uncertainty. So, please order take-out from a local restaurant (value of up to $100) and enjoy a meal on PMG.

The result, says Elise Brown of Pavone: Instant employee morale booster. Pavone owns and operates a food-and-beverage marketing agency called quench, whose clients include StarKist, Sun-Maid, Herrs, Turkey Hill, and Del Monte Fresh, so generally, food is always on our minds, Brown says.

Among the Pavone employees picks are Olly, Puyero, and Square Pie in Queen Village, Campbells Place in Chestnut Hill, Veda and Zama in Center City, Angelinos in Fairmount, the Pub of Penn Valley in Narberth, Malos Pizza & Pasta in Collingdale, Vintage Bar & Grill in Abington, Little Hen in Haddonfield, Italian Affair in Glassboro, and the Santuccis pizza location in Northeast Philadelphia.

Someone at Pavone really wanted to break the monotony and ordered sweets from Franklin Fountain in Old City.

Our hope is that other organizations out there can use this as a catalyst to doing similar things, said Jared Scott, the companys chief marketing officer.
Instead of providing the doctors and other medical staff, who are at the forefront in fighting the coronavirus pandemic with proper medical equipment, the Imran Khan government in Pakistan has allegedly suppressed their voices as they protested seeking their own safety.

Police baton-charges and arrests doctors

According to news agency ANI, Police in Pakistan has arrested doctors and medical personnel who are protesting inadequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and other medical equipment. According to Pakistan's Young Doctors Association (YDA) president Dr Yasir Achakzai, YDA and paramedical staff in Balochistan staged a protest on Monday against the unavailability of PPEs in their fight against coronavirus, reported Dawn.

They were later baton-charged by security forces and dozens of them were arrested near Red Zone, he alleged. Razzaq Cheema, Quetta deputy inspector general police, confirmed that police had arrested dozens of protesting doctors which looks like an act of high-handedness.

'We assured we are serious in solving rest matters'

Following this, YDA announced the withdrawal of services from government hospitals. Khan said, "We suspend all our services following highhandedness of police." A video allegedly from the protest scene has also emerged as a proof of the arrests. In a tweet, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan announced that he met YDA doctors and assured them of his government's full cooperation in their battle against COVID-19 and in meeting their demands.

I personally gave a sitting and met YDA doctors...and assured we shall solve their contract employees issue, new posts advertized and rest..and assured we are serious in solving rest matters.



But, its inappropriate to lock MS offices and put locks on them. pic.twitter.com/pVRflLQRf0  Jam Kamal Khan (@jam_kamal) April 6, 2020

Khan was joined by PML-N President and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif in condemning police behaviour.

READ | Pakistan pushing Coronavirus Infected terrorists into Kashmir

READ | Keran ops: Army thwarts Pak infiltration bid in Kashmir; 5 terrorists killed

Strongly condemn the torture & arrest of the doctors & paramedics in Quetta. It belies logic how those at the front lines of the fight for our collective well-being and survival are being humiliated merely for demanding protective kits. Truly shameful behaviour!  Shehbaz Sharif (Stay at home to stay safe) (@CMShehbaz) April 6, 2020

PPP co-chair Bilawal Bhutto Zardari termed the act as "state thuggery" and lashed out at the Imran Khan-led PTI government for the violence against the doctors. The number of confirmed Coronavirus cases in Pakistan on Monday soared past 3,600 with the maximum number of COVID-19 cases being reported from its Punjab province.

READ | Ex-Pak cricketer believes Umar Akmal should not be allowed back, says PCB has been lenient

READ | Waqar Younis criticises Mohammad Amir & Wahab Riaz for letting Pakistan cricket down

(With ANI inputs)
LONG BEACH, CA - MAY 11, 2020 - - Scially distanced bikers and walkers, against a backdrop of the Queen Mary, make their way along pedestrian and beach bike path on the first day that Long Beach reopened the path on Monday May 11, 2020. The city of Long Beach eased a few of its public health restrictions, allowing under certain guidelines the reopening of pedestrian and beach bike paths, tennis centers and courts. Beach bathrooms are also reopening, but the parking lots and beaches still remain closed. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) (Genaro Molina/Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

The San Francisco Bay Area suffered one of the nation's earliest outbreaks of COVID-19, but cases from Southern California and the Central Valley are outpacing it, threatening a much larger population, according to a Times analysis of county health data.

Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Kern, Stanislaus and Tulare counties are now seeing faster rates of newly detected coronavirus cases than any of the counties in the Bay Area, the Times analysis found.

And with more than 6,000 confirmed cases in L.A. County alone, chances of exposure are increasing rapidly.

If you have enough supplies in your home, this would be the week to skip shopping altogether, L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Monday.

Without everyone taking every possible precaution, our numbers can start skyrocketing, she said. It really is time for those people who maybe havent taken this seriously before ... this would be the week to stay home ... and it may be next week as well.

While California has yet to see the worst of the pandemic, there were signs that some of the more dire predictions might not come to fruition.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has tried to prepare the state for the worst-case scenario, said California had enough ventilators to lend 500 to the Strategic National Stockpile to help New York and other COVID-19 hot spots facing shortages of the desperately needed medical devices.

We want to extend not only thoughts and prayers, but were also extending a hand of support with ventilators, Newsom said during a news briefing Monday in Sacramento.

Newsom said lending the ventilators was possible because hospitals throughout California have procured thousands of them in the last few weeks, increasing their ventilator inventory from 7,587 to 11,036.

Also Monday, the influential Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, an independent population health research center at the University of Washington, predicted a significantly lower death count in California than its earlier models, based on new data from Spain and Italy.

Story continues

On March 26, the center forecast 6,109 deaths in California during this outbreak, a number seen by many at the time as overly optimistic. On Monday, the institute reduced that projection to 1,783, with a range of uncertainty of 1,400 to 2,400 and the last death occurring on May 20.

The peak in patients is forecast to roll through hospitals on April 15, and the worst day for fatalities two days later, with 70 deaths.

The numbers changed largely because seven locations in Italy and Spain "appear to have reached the peak number of daily deaths," the researchers wrote in their update. They no longer had to rely solely on data from Wuhan, China.

"The time from implementation of social distancing to the peak of the epidemic in the Italy and Spain location is shorter than what was observed in Wuhan," they wrote. "As a result, in several states in the US, todays updates show an earlier predicted date of peak daily deaths, even though at the national level the change is not very pronounced."

New data also changed how the team weighed the effects of different social distancing factors  closed schools, stay-at-home orders, shutting down nonessential businesses  in its calculations.

The researchers' model projects that the last death from the virus in the United States will occur on June 22 and that the nation's total death toll will be 81,766, within a range of uncertainty of 49,431 to 136,401.

The states expected to be hit hardest: New York, 15,618 deaths; New Jersey, 9,690; Massachusetts, 8,254; and Florida, 6,770.

Epidemiologists have questioned the reliability of any prediction model, given the number of uncertainties plugged into the algorithms  erratic human behavior, spotty testing, possible under-reporting of deaths.

"When you multiply uncertainty with uncertainty, you get larger uncertainty," said Dr. Loren Miller, a physician and infectious diseases researcher at the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. "And that's where models are limited. They can make guesses about what will happen, but they can be way off in either direction. Too optimistic or too pessimistic."

Other models have projected far bleaker statistics. And critics of the University of Washington model have expressed fears that the Trump administration relies on it too heavily because it paints a brighter picture than others.

And all this could be just the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Others could follow in weeks, months or years.

California state officials expect that the peak of this outbreak will not be reached until mid-May and high infection rates could last into summer.

The number of new cases in L.A. County has been rising steadily, with the number of daily new cases increasing from about 300 a week ago to between 422 and 720 in the last several days.

While the rate of growth slows near the peak, the sheer numbers get bigger every day. Doubling 10 cases in a single day is a high rate of growth. Doubling 6,000 cases in five days is a much slower rate of growth  with a much bigger impact.

Cases in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties are now taking about four to five days to double, while Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Solano are taking six to seven.

The pace is slowing down even more in San Francisco, where the doubling time is every 10 days, and in the original epicenter of Californias outbreak, Santa Clara County, where the doubling time is now every 11 days. In mid-March, this was happening every four days.

Los Angeles County saw its fastest rate of coronavirus cases in late March, when it was taking just about every two days for coronavirus cases to double, the Times analysis found.

The Inland Empire is seeing a sharp rise in infections, with San Bernardino County reporting 157 new cases Monday, for a total of 530, a 42% jump.

Part of the reason for the faster pace of coronavirus cases in Southern California could stem from the Bay Area acting earlier to implement a stay-at-home order, said Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist and infectious diseases expert at UC San Francisco.

The Bay Area shocked the nation on March 16 when it was the first region in the nation to announce a shelter-in-place policy ordering residents to stay at home as much as possible.

The measures extended to Southern California on March 19, when Gov. Newsom announced a statewide stay-at-home order on the same night Mayor Eric Garcetti issued his own for the city of Los Angeles.

Case counts can be problematic in tracking the course of this coronavirus outbreak, given the limited availability of testing.

But they can still be helpful because they also translate to how many people are being seen in the hospitals to be treated for the COVID-19 disease, so theyre reasonably accurate, and I dont think theres any big differential between Northern and Southern California in terms of ease of obtaining tests, Rutherford said.

Times staff writers Ryan Murphy, Soumya Karlamangla and Phil Willon contributed to this report.
An earlier version of this story had an incorrect number for Air Force suicides in the first quarter of 2019, which made for an incorrect comparison with 2020 in a headline.

The Air Force confirmed Tuesday that it has logged 34 suicides so far in 2020, down seven from the same period for 2019, a year that set a record for self-inflicted deaths in the service.

Briefing slides obtained by the San Antonio-Express-News showed that 20 active-duty airmen, five in the Air Force Reserve and three in the Air National Guard, had taken their own lives in the first three months of the year. The Air Force said six of its civilian employees have committed suicide so far this year.

Total force suspected deaths by suicides are slightly lower this year than the same time period in 2019, said Brig. Gen. Claude K. Tudor, director of Air Force Resilience. It is too early to draw any conclusions on this or to know if this represents a trend.

However, the Department of the Air Force remains laser-focused on helping our forces and families strengthen their resilience in this current environment of physical distancing and isolation, he added. Our forces and families are the most vital resource we have.

More Information Air Force suicides continue to climb Suicides among active duty, guard and reserve personnel in the U.S. Air Force: 2020 - 28 through March 31 2019 --- 112 2018 --- 80 2017 --- 86 2016 --- 85 2015 --- 94 2014 --- 86 2013 --- 72 2012 --- 75 2011 --- 70 2010 --- 80 2009 --- 66 2008 --- 53 2007 --- 59 2006 --- 60 2005 --- 49 2004 --- 72 2003 --- 58 Source: U.S. Air Force. Civilians not included in these totals. See More Collapse

In all, 41 airmen and civilians died by their own hand in the first quarter of last year. By midsummer the numbers had spiked so high that the Air Forces chief of staff, Gen. David Goldfein, raised the alarm, ordering a tactical pause to raise awareness.

It wasnt clear if the coronavirus pandemic played a role in the 2020 deaths, which were not listed by month. Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Alan Peterson, director of a post traumatic stress disorder research consortium at UT Health San Antonio, said while suicides could rise among civilians because of coronavirus, that might not be the case for those in the military.

The militarys got a lot of protective factors, he said. Theyve got health care, theyve got a job, theyre going to get paid, and so if anything you would think there might be potentially a spike in suicides in civilians whereas the military might stay very stable.

In its worst year for suicides on record, the Air Force saw at least 112 suspected and confirmed suicides among active-duty, Reserve and Air National Guard personnel in 2019  a 40 percent jump from the year before and the highest total since the Air Force began keeping track in 2003.

The previous record was set in 2015, when 94 airmen took their own lives.

On ExpressNews.com: Air Force sets a new record for suicides

Another briefing slide, made available by the enlisted airmen group Air Force amn/nco/snco and posted on its Facebook page, showed that the San Antonio-based Air Education and Training Command had among the most suicides last year of any major command in the service.

The AETC and the Air Combat Command each had 16 suicides, accounting for nearly a quarter of the years total, which included civilians working for the Air Force. ACC is the largest command at 78,246 airmen, while AETC is second with 61,755.

The Air Force Global Strike Command followed with 15 suicides in 2019, while the Air Force Reserve Command had 15, Air National Guard had 14 and Air Mobility Command had 13.

Department of the Air Force civilian suicides totaled 25 last year.

Air Force suicides have been stubbornly high since the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. In ordering the tactical pause last summer, Goldfein said in a July 3 letter to Air Force commanders that suicide was killing more of our airmen than any enemy on the planet.

He had reason for alarm. At installations in San Antonio alone, five suicides were recorded through summer 2019  as many as had been logged in all of 2018. Joint Base San Antonio has since declined to provide the numbers of suicides at JBSA-Randolph, -Fort Sam Houston and -Lackland, home of Air Force basic training and a hub of technical schools.

Tudor, the Air Forces resilience program director, said taking care of each other has never been more challenging as it is in this environment. It is imperative we each do our part by continuing to check in on our wingmen and care for each other during this time of increased stress and uncertainty.

On ExpressNews.com: Grim toll of suicides reaches a new milestone

Peterson, a psychologist who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said part of the problem is that commanders hold their jobs only for a short span of time.

On average a commander is in their position for about two years, and basically every commander needs to somehow make their mark, to show what theyve done, have something to say that they really made a different while they were in command, Peterson said.

Retired Army Col. Carl Castro, a professor and research director for University of Southern Californias Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families, agreed.

You can talk until youre blue in the face and the problem is these leaders will rotate out and there will be another group of leaders who will make the same mistake the previous group made and it will just continue. Its why were kind of chasing our tail, he said.

Just one suicide has occurred so far this year in the training command, while seven were logged in the combat command, six in the mobility command, five in the reserve command and three in the Air National Guard. A handful of other commands had much smaller numbers.

There are many stress points that can contribute to suicide. A portion of an Air Force graphic titled Suicide Deep Dive Lessons Learned said nine in 10 suicides were by males. Men account for 80 percent of Air Force personnel.

So far this year, 30 of the 34 victims were men. Only 17 of the 137 dying by suicide last year were women. Most of the airmen killing themselves last year and so far in 2020 were enlisted and married, with many between 23-30. The majority used a handgun.

A third of all suicide victims had a failing relationship in the last three months of life and communicated their intention to kill themselves to a significant other. The Air Force also found the percentage who used drugs and alcohol was higher among those who attempted suicide than among those who succeeded in killing themselves.

Asked what might reverse the avalanche of suicides across the armed services, Peterson and Castro said the only sure things are evidence based-studies that take time to carry out.

One of them Peterson is involved in is at Fort Hood. Castro, in turn, has a study proposal that would look at social networks as a way of disrupting suicidal behavior. He noted that all the things the Pentagon has done to stop suicides havent worked, and characterized efforts to repeat those programs as Einsteins definition of insanity  doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Castro said the attitude among commanders he has talked to is often, Im not waiting two years for a research study!

So well just like experiment with everybody and hope it works out, Castro said. Its got to stop.

sigc@express-news.net
In an effort to stay safe while covering the global coronavirus pandemic, Associated Press journalists are recording movement restrictions in Southeast Asian cities by filming empty streets from the safety of their cars.

Normally busy streets were clear Tuesday in Singapore, where the government last week began imposing "circuit breaker" measures to prevent the increase of COVID-19 transmissions in the country.

Last Friday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had announced the closure of schools and most workplaces for a month.

Most workplaces, except for essential services and key economic sectors, are closed starting Tuesday, and schools will be closed from Wednesday.

As of Tuesday, the island state has reported a total of 1,375 cases, with six deaths and 344 recoveries.

Malaysia's nationwide movement control order enforced by the government will remain until April 14.

It has a total of 3,793 cases, the highest number in Southeast Asia.

Kuala Lumpur's downtown, full of malls and plazas, was mostly closed and deserted.

The president of the Philippines extended its monthlong lockdown to April 30, requiring millions of people in the country's main northern region to stay home amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Rodrigo Duterte said Monday in a late-night televised speech that the government was desperately looking for more funds for a massive cash and food aid.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks.

But the virus is highly contagious and can be spread by those with mild or no visible symptoms.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and could lead to death.
We all have seen things that we very much look forward to sacrificed for the public good, he said. This is why it is more important than ever for all of us to redouble our efforts on staying at home, with the exception of truly essential needs.
Emergency rooms across the US are seeing less than half of usual number of heart attack patients as beds are filled by those infected with coronavirus.

A Twitter poll by Angioplasty.org - a community of cardiologists - found that doctors reported a 40 percent to 60 percent reduction in hospital admissions for heart attacks.

Nearly one-fifth of physicians reported more than a 60 percent reduction in cardiology patients.

Healthcare workers say they are surprised by the findings because they expected to see more heart attacks occur during the pandemic.

Not only do upper respiratory infections like COVID-19 increase the risk of heart attacks, but stress - which may occur during a pandemic - is known to at least double the risk heart attacks.

An informal poll found that most cardiologists report a 40% to 60% reduction in hospital admissions for heart attacks

Cardiologists were surprised because they expected to see more heart attacks occur during the pandemic. Pictured: Medical staff move a patient into the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center emergency room in Brooklyn, New York, April 7

One theory is that patients may prefer to experience their symptoms at home than risk being infected with coronavirus at a hospital. Pictured: Healthcare workers take patient into the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, April 6

One reason that patients may be staying home is that they would rather experience their symptoms at home than risk being infected with coronavirus at a hospital.

When they finally do arrive at a hospital, they are either in the late stages of a heart attack or their health has deteriorated.

Doctors in Hong Kong observed a similar trend and wrote in a letter in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes that many patients sough medical attention after hospitals allowed non-essential visits

'It is understandable that people are reluctant to go to a hospital during the COVID-19 outbreak, which explains the potential delays in seeking care,' they wrote.

'Delays in seeking care or not seeking care could have a detrimental impact on outcomes.'

And these aren't the only countries where doctors see the worrisome trend.

In Spain, researchers looked at emergency procedures performed the week of February 24 to March 1 (before the outbreak) and for the week of March 16 to March 22 (during the outbreak).

They found a 40 percent drop in emergency procedures for heart attacks, according to a report in REC: Interventional Cardiology.

Dr Harlan Krumholz, a professor of medicine at Yale and director of the Yale New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, say people may also be eliminating habits that lead to hear attacks in the era of social distancing.

'Maybe we have removed some of the triggers for heart attacks and strokes, like excessive eating and drinking or abrupt periods of physical exertion,' he wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times.

'This theory merits research but seems unlikely to explain the dramatic changes were observing.'

Doctors are now encouraging patients at risk for a heart attack to not wait to seek treatment if they feel they are experiencing this health emergency.

'Angioplasty, also called PCI (Percutaneous Coronary Intervention), can open the artery and restore blood flow, almost always using a stent,' wrote Burt Cohen, the editor in Chief of Angioplasty.org, on Monday in a blog post.

'If this can be done quickly, the heart muscle recovers and virtually no damage is done. If not, the heart muscle will die, resulting in heart failure, decreased quality of life, potential future heart attacks, and earlier cardiac death.'

Worldwide, more than 1.4 million people have been infected and more than 81,000 people have died.

In the US, there are more than 383,000 confirmed cases of the virus and more than 12,000 people have died.
Stephen Spillman, freelance / Chronicle

After five years, University of Texas at Austin President Gregory L. Fenves will step down in June to lead Emory University in Atlanta.

Fenves addressed his decision in a letter to the Longhorn community on Tuesday morning, as students finish the remainder of the semester online because of the coronavirus pandemic. Fenves said his new role as Emory University president begins Aug. 1. He will continue to lead UT through its pandemic response until his last day on June 30, Fenves said.
The U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps infantrymen pride themselves on being some of the biggest badasses on every block they roll into. They have more similarities than differences, but they are unique forces. Here are 5 ways you can tell Marine and Army infantry apart:

Note: For this comparison we are predominantly pulling from the Army's Infantry and Rifle Platoon and Squad field manual and the Marine Corps' Introduction to Rifle Platoon Operations and Marine Rifle Squad. Not every unit in each branch works as described in doctrine. Every infantry unit will have its own idiosyncrasies and units commonly change small details to deal with battlefield realities.

1. Platoon Organization

(Photo: US Marine Corps Cpl. Artur Shvartsberg)

Army and Marine Corps rifle platoons share many elements. They are both organized into larger companies, both contain subordinate squads organized into fire teams, and both employ the rifleman as their primary asset. The Army platoon has a radiotelephone operator and a medic. The Marine platoon has a radio transmitter operator and a corpsman who fulfill the same functions.

The Marine Corps rifle platoon contains three rifle squads. Each squad is led by a sergeant who has three fire teams working for him, each led by a corporal. The fire team leader typically carries the M203 grenade launcher slung under his M16. Operating under him are the automatic rifleman, assistant automatic rifleman, and rifleman.

The Army platoons contain smaller squads. An Army rifle squad leader is typically a sergeant or staff sergeant who leads two four-man fire teams. Each Army fire team consists of a team leader, an automatic rifleman, a grenadier, and a rifleman. Note that the Army squad is using a dedicated grenadier in place of an assistant automatic rifleman. Typically, one rifleman in each squad will be a squad designated marksman, a specially trained shooter who engages targets at long range. Also, the Army has an additional squad in each platoon, the infantry weapons squad. This squad has teams dedicated to the M240B machine gun and the Javelin missile system.

Both Marine Corps and Army infantry platoons operate under company and battalion commanders who may add capabilities such as rockets or mortars when needed.

2. Weapons

(Photo: US Navy Mass Communications Petty Officer 2nd Class Kim Smith)

The Army typically gets new weapons before the Marine Corps. It moved to the M4 before the Marine Corps did, and soldiers are more likely than Marines to have the newest weapons add-ons like optical sights, lasers, and hand grips. Marines will get all the fancy add-ons. They just typically get them a few years later.

When the Army needs a rocket or missile launched, they can use SMAWs, AT-4s, or Javelins. For the Marine Corps, SMAW is the more common weapons system (they can call heavier weapons like the Javelin and TOW from the Weapons Company in the battalion).

The Army is quickly adopting the M320 as its primary grenade launcher while the Marine Corps is using the M203. The M320 can be fired as a stand-alone weapon. Either the M320 or M203 can be mounted under an M16 or M4.

3. Fires support

(Photo: US Marine Corps)

Obviously, infantry units aren't on their own on the battlefield. Marine and Army rifle units call for assistance from other assets when they get bogged down in a fight. Both the Marine Corps and the Army companies can get mortar, heavy machine gun, and missile/rocket support from their battalion when it isn't available in the company. For stronger assets such as artillery and close air support, the services differ.

Marines in an Marine Expeditionary Unit, an air-ground task force of about 2,200 Marines, will typically have artillery, air, and naval assets within the MEU. Soldiers in a brigade combat team would typically have artillery support ready to go but would need to call outside the BCT for air or naval support. Air support would come from an Army combat aviation brigade or the Navy or Air Force. Receiving naval fire support is rare for the Army.

4. Different specialties

(Photo: US Navy Phan Shannon Garcia)

While all Marines train for amphibious warfare, few soldiers do. Instead, most soldiers pick or are assigned a terrain or warfare specialty such as airborne, Ranger, mountain, or mechanized infantry. Ranger is by far the hardest of these specialties to earn, and many rangers will go on to serve in Ranger Regiment.

The Marine Corps categorizes its infantry by weapons systems and tactics rather than the specialties above. Marine infantry can enter the service as a rifleman (0311), machine gunner (0331), mortarman (0341), assaultman (0351), or antitank missileman (0352). Soldiers can only enter the Army as a standard infantryman (11-B) or an indirect fire infantryman (mortarman, 11-C).

5. Elite

Army Rangers conduct a mission in Afghanistan. (Photo: US Army)

Marines who want to push themselves beyond the standard infantry units can compete to become scout snipers, reconnaissance, or Force Recon Marines. Scout snipers provide accurate long-range fire to back up other infantrymen on the ground. Reconnaissance Marines and Force Recon Marines seek out enemy forces and report their locations, numbers, and activities to commanders. Force Recon operates deeper in enemy territory than standard reconnaissance and also specializes in certain direct combat missions like seizing oil platforms or anti-piracy.

Soldiers who want to go on to a harder challenge have their own options. The easiest of the elite ranks to join is the airborne which requires you to complete a three-week course in parachuting. Much harder is Ranger regiment which requires its members either graduate Ranger School or get selected from Ranger Assessment and Selection Program. Finally, infantry soldiers can compete for Special Forces selection. If selected, they will leave infantry behind and choose a special forces job such as weapons sergeant or medical sergeant. Infantrymen can also become a sniper by being selected for and graduating sniper school.

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We Are The Mighty (WATM) celebrates service with stories that inspire. WATM is made in Hollywood by veterans. It's military life presented like never before. Check it out at We Are the Mighty.
A 40-year-old civil engineer here



has claimed that policemen took him to NCP minister Jitendra Awhad's bungalow instead of the police station, where the minister's men thrashed him for posting a morphed photo.

The victim, in a police complaint, also alleged that he was beaten with a bamboo stick and belt in front of the minister.

The alleged incident took place on Sunday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked people to light diyas or torch to show a 'collective resolve' against coronavirus.

Anant Karmuse, a resident of Ghodbunder, had posted a photo morphed with Awhad's face and a lit-up match stick with a caption, "I protest against the person who has edited the photo."



"On Sunday night, two policemen came to my house and said that they wanted to take me to the police station as their superior wanted to enquire about some case," he said.

Karmuse said the policemen then took him to Awhad's bungalow. "Upon reaching there, 10 to 15 men were already present, the security guard informed the minister and soon those men started beating me. They thrashed me with lathis, belt, and bamboos after the stick broke," he said.

Thane police PRO Sukhada Narkar said an FIR has been registered against unknown people following the complaint.

Awhad took to Twitter, posting a screenshot of a photo that was morphed and said, "Do you support this pervert. Will you tolerate this done against you or your family member. I don't support lawlessness."



Leader of opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday demanded removal of Awhad from the state cabinet for the alleged assault on the engineer.

"This is a serious incident where private bodyguards of a minister beat up a civilian by bringing him to his home. The minister was present when the man was being thrashed," the BJP leader and former chief minister said.

Former NCP leader and BJP MLC Niranjan Davkhare also took to Twitter to show how the man was beaten brutally and said that no action was taken against Awhad's 'goons'.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine on Monday said his country expects "an immediate explanation from Iran" about a controversial statement made by an Iranian lawmaker about the downing of a Ukrainian airliner in January.

On Sunday the mid-level cleric and lawmaker, Hassan Norouzi, said the Iranian military had been right in shooting down a Ukrainian passenger plane in January because it was no longer "under the control of the tower and appeared to be controlled by America".

He also claimed that the same plane had been to Israel the week before the incident and appeared to have been tampered with and rigged there.

"We expect an immediate explanation from Iran on this statement. It shows full disrespect for human lives. Dozens of families from Iran, Ukraine, Canada, Sweden, UK, and Afghanistan lost their loved ones in the attack against [the] defenceless civilian aircraft," Vadym Prystaiko wrote in a tweet.

The passenger plane was downed over Tehran on January 3 by two missiles fired by a Revolutionary Guard air defense unit killing all 176 passengers and crew members. The Revolutionary Guard took "full responsibility" for the incident after three days but has attributed the shooting to "human error".

Norouzi also claimed that no one had been arrested over the incident, but on Monday the Head of Armed Forces Judiciary Organization of Iran, refuted the statement and said one individual who presumably fired the missiles is held in detention and some others have been subpoenaed.

He did not make any comments about Norouzi's more controversial remarks about the reason for firing missiles at the plane.

Iran has also refused to hand over the black boxes of the downed airliner to other countries for decoding despite not having the technology of reading the data in Iran.
Denmark plans to reopen day care centres and schools on April 15 as a first step to gradually relax a three-week lockdown to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, the countrys prime minister said on Monday.

The Nordic country, which was one of the first in Europe to shut down, has seen the number of coronavirus-related hospitalisations and deaths stabilise over the past week.

It is now trying to balance the need to keep its population safe and the economic risks of a deep recession, tough decisions that many other governments around the world have lying ahead of them.

This will probably be a bit like walking the tightrope. If we stand still along the way we could fall and if we go too fast it can go wrong. Therefore, we must take one cautious step at a time, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a media briefing.-

Denmark on March 11 announced closure of schools, day cares, restaurants, cafes and gyms, and shut all borders to most foreigners.

Frederiksen day care centres and schools for children in first to fifth grade will reopen on April 15, which will allow parents to return to a normal workday.

All remaining restrictions including a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people would stay in place until at least May 10, while a ban on larger gatherings would remain in place until August.

Frederiksen cautioned that the gradual reopening would only happen if the numbers stay stable and she urged all Danes to stick to the governments guidelines on social distancing and hygiene.

The number of daily deaths slowed to seven on Sunday from 14 on Saturday and 18 on Friday, while the number of hospitalisations has fallen slightly over the past week. Denmark has reported 187 coronavirus-related deaths and total of 4,681 infected.

If we open Denmark too quickly again we risk that infections rise too sharply and then we have to close down again, Frederiksen said.

Denmark is the second country in Europe to provide dates and details on a gradual reopening of its coronavirus lockdown after Austria earlier on Monday said it was preparing for a resurrection the day after Easter by reopening some shops.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Oakland

Photo: Shelley Z./Yelp

Here's everything you need to know about Oakland's restaurant scene this week. In this edition: downtown has lost a deli but is getting a new fried chicken spot, while a bit further uptown, a cocktail and snack market has launches.

Openings

Downtown

Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken (1430 Broadway)

Photo: Albertino M./Hoodline Tipline

Tennessee is famous for inventing hot chicken  extremely spicy fried chicken seasoned with a heavy dose of cayenne and other spices. Now, a Memphis-based chain specializing in hot chicken is plotting its first Oakland location.

Hoodline's veteran tipster Al M. alerted us that Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken is readying to set up shop at 1430 Broadway, formerly home to Foot Locker. The chain has 30 locations across 13 states, but this will be its first in the Bay Area.

The menu at Gus's is simple: breasts, thighs, legs and wings, accompanied by Southern sides like mac and cheese, baked beans or greens. For dessert, there are pies, from chocolate chess to sweet potato.

Gus's didn't respond to an inquiry about its opening date, or whether it plans to open for takeout only during the COVID-19 shutdown.

But it will have some competition when it arrives: World Famous Hotboys, an Oakland-born eatery specializing in hot chicken, opened in December just two blocks away, at 1601 San Pablo Ave. (For those craving the dish, it's offering takeout seven days a week.)

Uptown

Viridian Market (2216 Broadway)

Photo: Anonymous/Hoodline Tipline

Opening its doors just a month prior to the start of the COVID-19 shutdowns, Asian-American-themed bar Viridian has had a rough start. But it's bouncing back with a to-go market, selling bottled cocktails like the Tomato Beef (tequila, tomato water, basil eau de vie) and the Lemon Glass (Toki whiskey, lemon grass, red berry consomme).

A cocktail for two is $20, while those seeking to stock up can opt for the "Big Baller," a 12-serving bottle for $80. Wine, vermouth and a couple of beers can also be taken to-go.

Story continues

In addition to food, Viridian is offering a small selection of food that customers can finish preparing at home, including steam-your-own barbecue pork buns and bake-your-own coffee-white-chocolate cookie dough. Pints of hojicha ice cream or vanilla Greek yogurt are also on offer, complete with toppings.

Hours for the market are 3-9 p.m. daily. Call or text (510) 393-9333 to pick up an order; payment is accepted on-site or via Venmo.

Closed

Downtown

Buongiorno Gourmet Express (1226 Broadway)

PHOTO: ALBERTINO M./HOODLINE TIPLINE

Buongiorno Gourmet Express is no more, according to tipster Al.

The deli has removed signage on the exterior and "appears to be cleaning up," Al said. Its phone has been disconnected.

Specializing in breakfast sandwiches, doughnuts and pastries in the morning and soups and sandwiches at lunchtime, Buongiorno catered to a loyal office crowd. Yelpers expressed particular fondness for its husband-and-wife owners.

Photo: Buongiorno Gourmet Express/Yelp

Thanks to our tipster Al M.! Have you noticed a new addition to (or subtraction from) Oakland's food landscape? Text a tip and a horizontal photo to (415) 200-3233, and we'll look into it.
Fever, cough, and shortness of breathing are the most commonly known symptoms of COVID-19, but there are six mild symptoms that no one should ignore according to a recently published article.

It was made clear right from the very beginning by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the significant symptoms of having COVID-19, and these are fever, cough, and shortness of breathing. However, it was discovered by doctors and experts that there is an even more extensive range of symptoms that should not be ignored.

CDC AND WHO LIST OF COVID-19 SYMPTOMS

The CDC has three significant symptoms, while the World Health Organization has an extensive list of COVID-19 symptoms. This information is essential because, based on the report of WHO for February in their WHO-China Joint Mission, it was found that 80 percent of COVID-19 patients have mild to moderate symptoms.

The CDC has listed only three symptoms because it is the most common symptom in the United States, according to Dr. Richard Watkins, an infectious disease physician at Northeast Ohio Medical University.

Here are the three symptoms based on the list of CDC:

1. Fever

Fever is the most common sign of COVID-19. If the body temperature is 100.4 F or higher, then a person needs to call for a local health authority to monitor his or her condition.

2. Cough

People with COVID-19 experience a dry cough, along with other symptoms. This means that a person coughs without producing any phlegm or mucus.

3. Shortness of Breath

Difficulty breathing is now a more advanced symptom. Patients who have difficulties in breathing are experiencing severe symptoms. Dr. David Cutler said that during this stage, a patient feels like not getting enough air to breathe.

Here the list of symptoms based on the record of the World Health Organization:

The World Health Organization gathered data and analyzes the symptoms experienced by nearly 56,000 patients in Wuhan, China, where the virus originated. They ranked the symptoms based on how frequently the patients experience it.

Here are the rankings:

Fever (87.9%)

Dry cough (67.7%)

Fatigue (38.1%)

Sputum production (33.4%)

Shortness of breath (18.6%)

Sore throat (13.9%)

Headache (13.6%)

Muscle aches and pains (14.8%)

Chills (11.4%)

Nausea or vomiting (5.0%)

Nasal congestion (4.8%)

Diarrhea (3.7%)

Coughing up blood (0.9%)

Red eyes (0.8%)

It is evident that while the CDC has listed three symptoms, the World Health Organization, in its joint mission with China, has recorded 14 symptoms.

MILD SYMPTOMS THAT YOU SHOULD NOT IGNORE

While it is true that the symptoms listed above are significant, there are also mild symptoms that you should not ignore, and this is supported by the British Rhinological Society, British Association of Otorhinolaryngology, and American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS).

Here are the six mild symptoms:

1. Lost sense of smell

American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery said that "This has been seen in patients ultimately testing positive for the coronavirus with no other symptoms. It could potentially be used as a screening tool to help identify otherwise asymptomatic patients, who could then be better instructed on self-isolation."

It was also found that 2 out of 3 COVID-19 patients in Germany experienced a lost sense of smell, while 30 percent of COVID-19 patients in South Korea experienced the same.

2. Fatigue

Dr. Susan Besser said: Your body is working hard to fight the virus, and that requires a lot of energy. It doesn't leave much energy left over for you," For her, it is now a surprise anymore if the body of the patient gets weak.

3. Sputum Production

Dr. Cutler said that sputum production is common to other respiratory-related diseases. However, it is vital to take note and do not assume that you have COVID-19 if you are experiencing it.

4. Sore Throat

If the excess mucus drips down the back of your nose and throat, this can irritate your throat. Constant coughing is also a significant factor, according to Dr. Besser.

5. Aches, Pains, and Headaches

Dr. Cutler said: "When you get a viral infection, often you get a fever and that fever response can cause the body to feel achy all over. We see that with the flu and other infections as well."

6. Diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting

Dr. Besser has some theories about why this happened to some patients. She said: "It's possibly due to increased drainage from postnasal drip into the stomach-that can cause issues," She also added that this is also how the virus behaves to some patients.

Read related article: SYMPTOMATIC: Experts Unveil Ways to Treat Yourself at Home
OVER 4.72bn/-revenue was collected from fisheries activities in Kagera Region within a period of two years, Officer in-charge of the Lake Victoria Surveillance Unit, Efrazi Mkama has disclosed.

He noted that the revenue was equivalent of 144.3 per cent performance while the target was to collect about 3.27bn/-.

He elaborated that during 2017/18 financial year the target was to collect 1.44bn/- while actual collections stood at 1.86bn/-, implying 129.2 per cent performance.

During 2019/19 fiscal year the department had targeted to collect 1.83bn/ but managed to surpass the target by collecting about 2.86bn/-(approximately 156.3 per cent).

The performance was due to tax adherence and continued education to the fishing communities on importance of paying tax, he said.

He, however, raised a concern following increasing water levels due to ongoing rainfall where several infrastructure including buildings on landing sites had been submerged.

He cautioned fishing communities plying Lake Victoria to adhere to weather updates released by the Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) and ensure that their vessels and passengers are equipped with lifesaving gadgets to avoid drowning.

The East African Community has designated the lake basin as an economic growth zone, with the potential to develop into a major economic region.

The fisheries are vital in creating employment opportunities, mostly rural-based, thereby helping to reduce rural-urban migration.

Fish is also a rich source of animal protein for human consumption and provides raw material (fishmeal) for processing animal feeds.

The fish industry is one of the sectors that contributes to GDP and has continued to be an important source of foreign exchange earned from fish exports.

Besides, the fish industry contributes to the national and local government revenues through levying of various taxes, levies and license fees.

The sector has also contributed directly and indirectly to the improvement of physical infrastructure and social facilities, such as roads, schools and hospitals, particularly in remote fishing communities.

Based on current stock estimates, the lake has the potential to yield fish valued at over 800 million US dollars annually on a sustainable basis.

Further processing and marketing the fish in the local and export markets could provide opportunity to generate additional earnings.

Currently, however, only about 500,000 tonnes of fish is landed annually, with an average landing value of approximately 600 million US dollars.
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A handful of states run by Republican governors still havent issued stay-at-home orders as the coronavirus outbreak worsens across the country, with more than 367,000 cases and nearly 11,000 deaths nationwide.

On her program on Monday night, Rachel Maddow tore into these governors, saying they are singlehandedly turning their states into ticking coronavirus time bombs.

That is allowing the virus to spread unchecked in those states, the MSNBC host said. That will ultimately grow the number of people who have tested positive, the number of people who get sick, the number of people who need to get hospitalized  and the number of people who die.

Video:

Maddow said:

Were also watching the long-term, where governors still even now, in some states are refusing to take statewide action, which allows the unchecked growth of their states eventual case numbers, right? States that do not have stay-at-home orders, where people are not being broadly told to stay home, and so people broadly arent. That is allowing the virus to spread unchecked in those states. That will ultimately grow the number of people who have tested positive, the number of people who get sick, the number of people who need to get hospitalized, the number of people who need intensive care, the number of people who need ventilators, and the number of people who die. The more you let it spread, the more all of those numbers will rise and those case numbers and all of the attendant consequences will go up, the longer you have people going to work and having gatherings and doing their usual communal stuff day after day after day while this highly infectious virus circulates in every single state because weve got it in every single state. Nevertheless there are still governors that dont have stay-at-home orders and are defending their decision not to and are defying all advice, and theyre just letting their case numbers, what will eventually be their case numbers balloon and balloon and balloon with each passing day. And so in the long term, we will reap the reward of that as well.

The lack of action in GOP-led states wont be felt for weeks

Some Republican governors, like Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, have come out with swift action to slow the spread of this virus. This proactiveness has shown to be effective in flattening the curve.

In other Republican states, though, governors have refused to take this deadly threat seriously, allowing the virus to spread unchecked and putting their people at risk.

So while there is some light starting to emerge at the end of tunnel, specifically in New York and Louisiana, two states that have Democratic governors, the lack of bold action in some GOP-led states has likely created a ticking time bomb that will erupt down the road.

Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter
Police in Texas are searching for an 18-year-old girl who claimed in a series of Snapchat videos to have tested positive for and to be "willfully spreading" the coronavirus.

The teenager, identified by police in Carrollton, near Dallas, as Lorraine Maradiaga, faces a charge of making a terroristic threat.

IMAGE: Lorraine Maradiag (Carrollton, Texas, Police Department / via Facebook)

"We have no confirmation Maradiaga is actually a threat to public health," police said in a statement Sunday. "We are, however, taking her social media actions very seriously."

Jolene DeVito, a Carrollton police spokeswoman, said it is unclear when the videos were recorded.

"People started tagging us and sharing the videos on Saturday," DeVito told NBC News on Monday.

One of the videos circulating on social media is believed to have been taken at a COVID-19 drive-thru testing site, DeVito said. In it, a health care professional can be heard telling Maradiaga that she needs to go home and wait for test results.

Another video shows Maradiaga at a store, DeVito said.

"I'm here at Walmart about to infest every motherf------, because if I'm going down, all you motherf------ are going down," she says in the video, according to DeVito.

Another video later shows Maradiaga in a car, coughing into the camera.

According to DeVito, in a subsequent video, Maradiaga said: "If you want to get the coronavirus and f-----' die, call me. I'll meet you up and I will shorten your life."

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Police attempted to reach Maradiaga at her home Sunday but were unsuccessful.

"Her family has been cooperative with us, but she was not home at the time," DeVito said.
A Day in the Life of Five Librarians, Part 5



Justin Hoenke, team leader of libraries and community spaces for the Wellington City Libraries in New Zealand, has been talking to all types of library staffers for A Day in the Life, his column in. Among other things, he asks them about their typical days, moments that made them proud, their current projects, and how they balance their library work with the rest of their lives. Heres a look at his columns from October 2019 to April 2020, which have been lightly edited and condensed for the web.

Part 1 of this series is available here .

Part 2 of this series is available here .

Part 3 of this series is available here .

Part 4 of this series is available here .

You can read the full interviews in Information Today, starting with the September 2017 issue.

If youre doing something exciting at your libraryespecially during this time of uncertaintythat youd like to share, email itletters@infotoday.com or tweet @ITINewsBreaks .

The Authentic Librarian

Public library folks working in youth services are some of the most passionate and authentic human beings you will ever meet. There must be something about their specific line of work that encourages this. They work hard, they stand up for their patrons, they tell it like it is, and they are committed to their work. When a public library has a strong youth services program, it is headed for success.

Keisha Miller is a youth services librarian whos having an authentically positive impact on her community. As the teen librarian and volunteer coordinator at the South Orange Public Library in New Jersey, shes an advocate for the teens in her community, helping them get ready for adult life with great volunteer programs such as VolunTEEN.

I THINK THAT TEEN LIBRARIANSHIP IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS OF PUBLIC LIBRARY WORK, BECAUSE YOURE CONNECTING WITH A TOUGH AUDIENCE. TEENS ARE FUTURE TAXPAYERS, AND LIBRARIES NEED THEIR SUPPORT IN THE FUTURE. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PROGRAMS, EVENTS, AND OUTREACH THAT YOU ARE PROVIDING TO YOUR TEEN AUDIENCE?

Being a teen librarian is one of the most rewarding things Ive been able to do in librarianship. Teens can be fickle, and earning their trust and commitment allows things to fall into place. This is true to the VolunTEEN program Ive been doing, now in its 10th year. Since its inception in 2009, it has taken years of tweaking the program before getting it to where it currently is. At first, it was challenging to get teens to commit to volunteering. The idea that theyd have to do something for free was daunting. But after explaining the benefits of it, and incorporating interesting programs, it was a win-win. Over the years, hundreds of teens have participated. With thanks to the Municipal Alliance and partnerships with local businesses and organizations, Ive been able to sustain this program.

During the school year, I have an afterschool program called Teen X Change. Because of its success, I created a summer edition where I invite guest speakers from various backgrounds to stop by and hang out with teens. While this is a part of the VolunTEEN program, theres an emphasis on communication and leadership skills.

YOUR LIBRARY IS IN ESSEX COUNTY, WHICH USA TODAY CALLED ONE OF THE MOST DIVERSE COUNTIES IN THE USA BACK IN 2014. IN THAT PIECE, YOU NOTE THAT YOUVE ALWAYS SAID THAT THE PUBLIC LIBRARY IS THE LIVING ROOM OF THE COMMUNITY. HOW IS YOUR LIBRARYAND YOUR WORK AS A TEEN LIBRARIANFILLING THAT ROLE?

South Orange shares a school district with our neighboring town, Maplewood. Once the weather breaks, teens travel to South Orange, making the library one of their stops. There is a group of teens who come in to play Dungeons & Dragons after school, and Friday is their day. And at the beginning of the week, when perhaps homework and projects are the focus, the library is a place for teens to collaborate on ideasand a space that offers recreationall while maintaining an environment where theyre learning independence. Isnt this what you do in the living room?

CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT SERVING A VERY DIVERSE COMMUNITY? WHAT ARE SOME STRATEGIES, PLANS, AND EVENTS AT YOUR LIBRARY?

I couldnt imagine working anywhere else, although if I had to, the skills that Ive learned and have been able to develop in South Orange would definitely come in handy! I have replaced the word diversity with inclusion. South Orange is a town that has someone from every corner of the world, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, ability, sexuality, religion, or socioeconomic status. To serve a community with a robust makeup of people is special. People in South Orange love their library. As library professionals, we all know libraries are more than books. Being able to partner with community organizations is essential in making visible what the library does. So many of my peers who work as teen librarians speak of creating spaces for teens in the library. With the partnership from fellow teen librarian Emily Witkowski of Maplewood Memorial Library and the South Orange-Maplewood Community Coalition on Race, we were able to conceive the idea of Giving Teens a Voice, a two-part program in which teens discussed race and race relations. Because of this program, Witkowski and I were recipients of the New Jersey State Librarys Multicultural Program Award in 2018. Due to the positive feedback from teens and their parents, well look forward to doing this program, though with a different approach, in the fall of 2019.
The lifting of the 10-week lockdown on Wednesday came after only three new coronavirus cases were reported in the city in the previous three weeks, and a day after China reported no new deaths for the first time since January.

Within the city of 11 million, tough rules are still in place to prevent the virus from regaining a foothold. Officials continue to urge everyone to stay at home as much as possible. Schools are still closed.

Wuhan is still a profoundly damaged city, our correspondents write. Sickness and death have touched hundreds of thousands of lives, imprinting them with trauma that could linger for decades.

Here are the latest updates and maps of where the virus has spread.

In other developments:

The Times is providing free access to much of our coronavirus coverage, and our Coronavirus Briefing newsletter  like all of our newsletters  is free. Please consider supporting our journalism with a subscription.
A 15-year-old schoolboy has turned his bedroom into a factory churning out face visors for staff on the frontline of the coronavirus fight.

Harry Cooper from Middlesborough is making them on a 3D printer he got for Christmas and is handing out the safety equipment free of charge.

Harry has been raising money for the materials he needs with a funding page so that he can continue manufacturing the desperately needed PPE.

He's already taken over 100 orders from key workers such as health care assistants, community workers, dentists and shop assistants.

Harry Cooper (pictured) from Middlesborough is making them on a 3D printer he got for Christmas and is handing out the safety equipment free of charge

Harry said: 'I have the printers and have been using them to make the bands that go around your head. I enjoy making things and like a challenge so it was a no brainer to help key workers out at the same time.

'We have about 100 going out to community carers and care homes. I just wanted to do my bit.'

His mother Donna, 46, a primary school teacher from Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, said: 'He was like a dog with a bone when he realised he could help with the shortage of protective equipment.

Harry (pictured wearing one of visors he made) has been raising money for the materials he needs with a funding page so that he can continue manufacturing the desperately needed PPE

'He did his research and when he figured out he could make visors for people he jumped at it.'

Harry plans to produce three visors every 39 minutes with the use of three printers - one which was donated by a well-wisher.

Harry will have his joiner father Nigel, 52, on hand to help with packaging along wither brother Alfie, 12 and sister Emily, 19.

Harry plans to produce three visors every 39 minutes with the use of three printers (pictured) - one which was donated by a well-wisher

Donna added: 'We are just waiting for materials to arrive and then it's just going to be non stop production of them.

'Nigel and I have agreed to help deliver them to whoever needs one locally, so it's going to be all hands on deck soon. We all just want to help in any way we can, so this is our contribution.'

Paperboy Harry has also written a note to each one of his customers to say he will shop for their essentials if they need him.

'He's such a good lad,' Donna added. 'We are immensely proud of him and will do everything we can to support him.'

Harry will have his joiner father Nigel, 52, on hand to help with packaging along wither brother Alfie, 12 and sister Emily, 19. Pictured: part of the visors

Public Health England say that any clinician working in a hospital, primary care or community care setting within two metres of a suspected or confirmed coronavirus COVID-19 patient should wear an apron, gloves, surgical mask and eye protection.

Eye and face protection provides protection against contamination to the eyes from respiratory droplets.

Government advice says this can be achieved using a surgical mask with an integrated visor, a full face shield or visor, polycarbonate safety spectacles or equivalent.

His mother Donna, 46, (pictured) a primary school teacher from Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, said: 'He was like a dog with a bone when he realised he could help with the shortage of protective equipment'

Their guidance adds that regular corrective spectacles are not considered adequate eye protection.

Much like the mouth and nose, the eye contains a mucous membrane, via which the virus has a passage to the rest of the body.

The virus is most likely to enter in through these membranes after people touch an infected surface before touching their face.

Paperboy Harry (pictured) has also written a note to each one of his customers to say he will shop for their essentials if they need him

Harry is not the only one who has been creating visors to help health care workers.

Daniel Mooney, 32, who works for a computer game company in Dublin has also been using his 3D printer to make visors.

His group of five volunteers can print about 75 protective visors each day, he told The Irish Times.
The number of patients with Covid-19 in Naas Hospital has reached 20, according to HSE figures. The hospital is 11th in a list of hospitals with the most coronavirus cases.

There are currently two patients in the Intensive Care Unit in Naas  compared to between 10 and 20 in ICU facilities in some Dublin hospitals.

This latest data, which was collected up to Saturday and released on Sunday, also shows that Naas Hospital has a further 20 patients showing Covid-19 symptoms but are awaiting test results.

Coo Kildare currently has the third-highest number of cases of all counties with 175, according to figures released last night.

A significant jump of 33 new cases was recorded between Wednesday and Thursday last week.

Apart from Naas Hospital, other Covid-19 patients from Co Kildare who require hospitalisation may be located in Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise or Tallaght Hospital.

Up to last evening, Dublin has the most cases overall at 2,692 followed by Cork (362) in second place and Wicklow (142) in fourth place after Kildare.

The data released on Sunday also showed that Naas had 100 vacant acute beds while it had just one ICU bed available.

In terms of hospitals, Beaumont in Dublin has the most Covid-19 cases on site at 110 followed by other hospitals in the capital such as St James' (83), the Mater (76), Tallaght (72), St Vincent's (68) and Connolly (54).

Hospital locations outside Dublin with Covid-19 cases include: Cavan (33), Letterkenny (27), Limerick (25), Drogheda (24), Naas (20), Cork University Hospital (19) and Galway University Hospital (18).

Capacity



The HSE said on Monday that the capacity to test for the coronavirus will be doubled from this week, to around 4,500 tests a day.

A network of laboratories and 50 community test centres have been set up across the country.

An Isolation Assessment Unit has been set up in recent days in the car park of Naas Hospital.

The HSE also said it has managed to secure a supply of reagent, which is a crucial component in the testing process, despite a global shortage.

A German supplier is also now testing around 2,000 tests from Ireland a day.

Public health doctors have warned the next seven days are crucial to reduce the peak of the virus.

They have reiterated their call for people to stay at home where possible and to self-isolate if they display any symptoms.

In an update issued yesterday afternoon, the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group (DMHG) which covers County Kildare, commended local healthcare staff for their heroic efforts during the current crisis.

The DMHG also said people observing strict Covid-19 restrictions has saved lives and have given health services in the area vital time to prepare.

Temporary transfer



The officials said two services have been temporarily transferred from Naas Hospital to the nearby Vista Primary Care in Naas.

These are the Oncology Haematology Day Services and the Warfarin clinic.



DMHG CEO Trevor OCallaghan said: Every effort has been made prior to this virus arriving in Ireland to ensure that we would be as ready as we could be in the circumstances and in the best possible position to protect and safeguard public health.

Public Health Medicine specialist Dr Ruth McDermott said: Staying at home will help us all to slow the spread of the virus, and that is giving us the opportunity to prepare all parts of the service.

Here is the full statement from the HSE Dublin South, Kildare & West Wicklow Community Healthcare and Dublin Midlands Hospital Group

HSE management across the Hospitals and community services today issued a message of thanks to the people living in the community for their support of staff during the current crisis.

Management from HSE Dublin South, Kildare & West Wicklow Community Healthcare, the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group, the Department of Public Health and the National Ambulance Service said the action of the people of Ireland in recent weeks will save lives, and have given services in the area vital time to prepare.

CEO of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group Trevor OCallaghan said: We thank and commend all our staff for their incredible efforts at this time. They have already gone above and beyond the call of duty as our health service faces extraordinary demands. I am immensely proud of all our staff as they rise to meet the unprecedented challenge posed by Covid-19. I want to thank all staff for the inspiring work being carried out in making advanced preparations. Every effort has been made prior to this virus arriving in Ireland to ensure that we would be as ready as we could be in the circumstances and in the best possible position to protect and safeguard public health.

An area Crisis Management Team with representatives of all HSE services has been meeting several times a week since early February to put in place extensive preparations for the impact of Covid-19 on services. To date, these preparations have included:

 Increasing bed capacity across the entire healthcare system in order to facilitate additional ICU beds, acute beds, transitional and step-down care. This includes working with private hospitals and HSE Long Term Care Facilities.

 Establishing a Self-Isolation Centre at City West.

 COVID19 Community Testing sites have been established in Lucan (Co. Dublin), Tallaght (Dublin 24), Sir John Rogersons Quay (Dublin 2) and Newbridge (Co, Kildare). These sites are by appointment only. If you have symptoms of COVID19 contact your GP by telephone in the first instance. Your GP will decide if you fall into the category for testing.

 Supporting community response forums set up by local authorities.

 Planning to provide 4 community assessment hubs, which will begin to open by the end of this week. These facilities will allow General Practitioners (GPs) to refer members of the public with Covid-19 for a medical examination.

 Working with private hospitals and HSE Long Term Care Facilities to increase bed capacity in the acute hospital system and ensuring critical services continue to be provided.

 Oncology Haematology Day Services at Naas General Hospital has temporarily relocated to Express Centre in Affidea, Vista Primary Care, Naas.

 Warfarin clinic from Naas General Hospital has temporarily moved to Affidea in Vista Primary Care Centre, Naas.

 Temporarily relocating the Oncology Day Ward at Tallaght University Hospital temporarily to the HSE Intergraded Academic Primary Care Centre, Tallaght Cross.

 Visiting restrictions remain in place across all Hospitals and long term care facilities. Any updates will be included on the HSE website and can be viewed here

 A recruitment campaign has been launched for all healthcare staff, including student nurses and midwives, across our Hospitals. You can view the ad on HSE LinkedIn or on the following twitter @DMHospitalGroup or visit here

 A Healthcare Staff recruitment campaign in on-going across the HSE https://www.hse.ie/eng/ services/news/newsfeatures/ covid19-updates/oncall/

Chief Officer of HSE Dublin South, Kildare & West Wicklow Community Healthcare, Ann OShea, who chairs the HSEs area crisis management team said:

We have seen a huge redeployment of staff across our services, and our staff have risen to this challenge as they move to screening centres; returned to clinical duties and increase their working hours where they can. Their efforts will help us to provide care for the people of Dublin South, Kildare & West Wicklow Community Healthcare.

We thank the people of Dublin South, Kildare & West Wicklow Community Healthcare for their support at this time. That support takes many different forms, and it means so much to our hard-working staff. In particular, we want to thank everyone who has helped a healthcare worker with childcare, as every extra hour that you can facilitate a staff member to work is a huge help.

With visiting restrictions in place at all hospitals and residential centres, staff are doing everything possible to support patients and residents and to help them keep in contact with relatives and friends. We know that visiting restrictions are very difficult, and that some people have not been able to see their loved ones for many weeks now. Our staff are doing everything possible to make sure all patients and residents are kept safe and well.

Most importantly, we are still providing vital services and we are still here for the people of Dublin South, Kildare & West Wicklow.

Specialist is Public Health Medicine Dr Ruth McDermott, thanked the people of Dublin South, Kildare & West Wicklow for adhering to guidelines and staying at home as much as possible.

Staying at home will help us all to slow the spread of the virus, and that is giving us the opportunity to prepare all parts of the service. We would like to remind you that when you leave your home for essential reasons, that you continue to keep two metres apart from anyone not in your household. Also, please maintain regular hand washing, regular cleaning of surface and always remember to catch your coughs and colds. Its more important now than ever,

Emergency Services continue as normal and are open 24/7 for people who are seriously ill or injured and if their life is at risk. Stroke and heart attacks are life-threatening medical emergencies. If you or someone else is showing signs of a stroke or heart attack, dont wait, call 999.
Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) launches new telemedicine program, providing virtual physician consults for new and existing patients. We know that the world we live in right now is uncertain, and changing rapidly, but were here to offer patients a chance to regain some control over the situation by using this time to stay connected virtually with a specialist.

Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) has been a national leader in infertility care and IVF for nearly 3 decades. During this pandemic, while SGF will continue to monitor the evolving situation and adhere to state and local prevention and safety guidelines, the practice intends to remain open for select treatments and appointments, including virtual physician consults and diagnostic testing.

We know that the world we live in right now is uncertain, and changing rapidly, but were here to offer patients a chance to regain some control over the situation by using this time to stay connected virtually with a specialist. Patients have many questions about what this crisis means, how might COVID-19 affect a pregnancy, how can they interpret the changes happening in the world around them through a lens of wanting to start a family, and so on  and were here to help patients navigate these unchartered waters and be in a better position to move forward when the time is right, said Eric A. Widra, M.D., SGF Chief Medical Officer.

SGF patients can seamlessly connect virtually face to face with SGF physicians through their phone, smart phone, tablet, or computer, making it easier to make progress, save time, avoid travel, and keep distance and protect themselves and their community.

We all know how time-sensitive fertility treatment is, when every month can seem like an eternity. We know how innate the desire is to have a baby, and many have been waiting months or years already. By using the simple tools we have at our disposal, we can put time back on our side by completing the first few steps of the process now. When patients feel like theyre at a standstill, frustration and despair can easily creep in, and patients lose hope. Were here to help them restore their hope, added Widra.

During a virtual consult with new patients, SGF physicians review medical histories, answer questions, order diagnostic testing, and help chart a coursebased on the results of testingfor obtaining a pregnancy, as safely and quickly as possible.

While some SGF locations are temporarily closed, many remain open for select treatments and fertility testing, which includes three simple tests for the female and one for the male. SGF advises testing of both partners up front before any treatment can begin, as infertility affects both partners equally.

Many patients are not letting COVID-19 stop them from making progress, and were encouraged by that. In surveying patients after their virtual consults, 96% would recommend the experience to a friend or family member, added Widra.

SGF will be ready to resume full service operation as soon as limitations are lifted and its deemed safe to do so. Patients who complete the initial stages of the processconsultation and evaluationwill be on a fast-track to starting or growing their family with the help of SGF.

One thing we know for certain, the SGF community is one of resilience and determination, said Widra. We will get through this together.

For SGFs most up-to-date policies and guidelines on COVID-19, visit ShadyGroveFertility.com or follow SGF on Facebook or Instagram.

To schedule a new patient virtual physician consult, call 888-761-1967 or fill out this brief form.

About Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) SGF is a leading fertility and IVF center of excellence with more than 85,000 babies born and counting. With 38 locations throughout FL, GA, MD, NY, PA, VA, D.C., and Santiago, Chile, we offer patients virtual physician consults, individualized care, accept most insurance plans, and make treatment affordable through innovative financial options, including treatment guarantees. More physicians refer their patients to SGF than any other center. Call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com.
Countries around the world have implemented aggressive broadband network changes during the COVID-19 pandemic  including the assigning of additional spectrum and the provision of free data.

These measures were taken to ensure people remain connected during lockdowns taking place globally.

South Africa has also published regulations for the telecommunications sector to help it fight against the COVID-19 outbreak.

The relaxation of spectrum regulations to ensure high-demand spectrum can be temporarily licensed to operators is one of the new regulations.

The government added that those with access to high-demand spectrum must make connectivity available at speeds of up to 10Mbps to 104 district virtual education institutions.

Additionally, licensees must ensure that local education websites are zero-rated.

Fibre speed upgrades

In South Africa, fibre network operators have also taken it upon themselves to upgrade user line speeds at no extra charge.

According to the schedules of the fibre networks, the line speed upgrades have all been implemented.

On the mobile side, FNB Connect announced all of its customers will receive 1GB of free data during the lockdown.

It will also double the data allocation on its Top Up Lifestyle plans, and has reduced once-off data bundle prices by up to 55%.

Globally, other countries and networks have implemented their own measures to keep people connected during the coronavirus pandemic.

MyBroadband spoke to Huawei about the initiatives it has seen implemented across the world  as detailed below.

United States  Spectrum granted for 60 days

The USAs FCC chairman Ajit Pai recently announced the Keep Americans Connected Initiative.

This initiative encourages service providers to take a pledge that includes the following:

Not terminating services to residential or small business customers unable to pay their bills due to pandemic-related disruptions.

Waive late fees that these customers could incur due to late payment.

Open their Wi-Fi hotspots to any American who needs them.

The FCC has also granted temporary authority to various wireless companies to use additional spectrum in order to meet their customers needs.

Major network providers such as AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon have all been given access to additional spectrum.

Saudi Arabia  Assign all remaining spectrum

Saudi Arabia has committed to assigning all of its remaining spectrum to network providers STC, Mobily, and Zain.

This spectrum is for the 700MHz and 800MHz bands.

It has been assigned on the condition these network providers go live with it in three weeks and offer free access to specific websites.

Thailand  10GB at 100Mbps

On 23 March, Thailand announced a new policy that would reduce telecommunications expenses while promoting working at home.

This included networks being encouraged to give each person 10GB for free each month, for the next three months.

This will be funded by the first payments from the countrys 5G spectrum licence auction, held in February.

Thailand has also helped provide fixed-broadband speeds of at least 100Mbps to citizens.

Spain  Network operators take special measures

In Spain, leading network operators have offered their customers various resources to improve their digital lives during the lockdown.

These measures include:

Telefonica  Free 30GB for 2 months and free access to Movistar and Lite applications for 1 month.

Free 30GB for 2 months and free access to Movistar and Lite applications for 1 month. Vodafone  Unlimited data for all small and medium businesses, and access to Gift Peques Pack  including content from Disney and Nickelodeon

Unlimited data for all small and medium businesses, and access to Gift Peques Pack  including content from Disney and Nickelodeon Orange  Free 30GB data for Orange Love and Orange Go customers and 1-month free access to the Children Max TV package.

Free 30GB data for Orange Love and Orange Go customers and 1-month free access to the Children Max TV package. Yoigo  Free Sky TV for three months.

Australia  Mobile networks offer additional data

Australian networks are offering customers bonus data and other benefits.

These include:

Vodafone  Customers offered 5GB bonus data for use over a month, beginning 27 March. Prepaid customers will receive a once-off 3GB bundle of bonus data with their next recharge.

Customers offered 5GB bonus data for use over a month, beginning 27 March. Prepaid customers will receive a once-off 3GB bundle of bonus data with their next recharge. Telstra  Prepaid customers will get 10GB additional data within 30 days if they have an active recharge of over $40. Postpaid customers will receive 25GB of data within 30 days.

Now read: FNB Connect gives customers 1GB free data and slashes bundle prices
Niamey, Niger (PANA) - Nigerien President Issoufou Mahamadou celebrated Tuesday the 9th anniversary of his coming to power, an anniversary that comes in a context characterized by a double security and health crisis
Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca) has announced that it has completed preparations for the repatriation of Saudi citizens who have been stranded abroad because of the Covid-19 travel restrictions, said a report.

"Gaca is ready to receive returnees at Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport, Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport, and Dammam's King Fahd International Airport, following the completion of certain measures and health procedures, said a report in Saudi Press Agency citing a statement from Gaca president Abdulhadi bin Ahmed Al-Mansouri.

Al-Mansouri stated that Gaca, in cooperation with the relevant government agencies, is working to provide flights for the citizens' return plan, in coordination with the national carrier Saudi Arabian Airlines, the report said.
(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.







FTSE 100 - WINNERS







easyJet, up 25%, International Consolidated Airlines, up 14%. The airlines were higher amid signs of a slowdown in the spread of the coronavirus and as some governments begin making plans to ease restrictions aimed at containing the outbreak. "A recession still remains a given; but hopes are rising that it could well be manageable and not turn into a depression, and that is boosting airlines and travel shares this morning, a sector that has so far borne the brunt of the huge sell-off since February 21. Easyjet and British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines are leading the gainers in the airline sector, while hotels are rallying too," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.







Carnival, up 24%. The embattled cruise ship operator said it has raised USD2.53 billion in total through its previously announced share issue and note offering. The company raised USD575 million through the issue of 71.9 million shares at USD8 per share. On Thursday last week, Carnival had downsized its share placing to 62.5 million shares, after originally saying it would offer USD1.25 billion worth of stock. The final total of 71.9 million shares issued includes 9.4 million shares taken by underwriters in a full exercise of their option to purchase additional shares. Amid the fundraise, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has taken a sizeable stake in Carnival, a US regulatory filing showed on Monday. The Public Investment Fund - the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia - now holds a 8.2% stake in cruise operator Carnival, or 43.5 million shares. The company separately said Tuesday it raised USD1.95 billion via issue of 5.75% convertible senior notes due 2023.







FTSE 250 - WINNERS







Cineworld Group, up 25%, The cinema chain has suspended scheduled and upcoming dividend payouts in an effort to conserve cash during the Covid-19 lockdowns. The movie theatre operator said it will not pay either the 2019 fourth-quarter dividend of 4.25 cents or any quarterly dividends for 2020. It is restricting capital expenditure to preserve cash and also is in spending discussions with its landlords, film studios and major suppliers. Executive directors have agreed to defer full payment of salaries and bonuses, the company said, adding that the fees of non-executive directors have also been deferred. All of Cineworld's 787 cinemas across 10 countries are closed as a result of Covid-19. Cineworld added it is discussing ongoing liquidity requirements with its revolving credit facility banks. "It is worth noting that predictions for the death of cinema have been made before, notably in the 1950s and 1980s when the advent of TV and home video respectively led to declines in admissions, but the industry ultimately recovered. Cineworld and its investors will hoping for a repeat this time," said AJ Bell' Russ Mould.







Travis Perkins, up 17%. Exane BNP raised the builders' merchant to Outperform from Neutral.







FTSE 250 - LOSERS







Assura, down 7.7% at 77.10 pence. The healthcare property investor said it has raised GBP185 million through the placing of 240.2 million shares at 77 pence each. The placing price represents a discount of 7.8% to its closing price of 83.5p on Monday. On Monday, Assura said it intended to raise around GBP180 million through a placing in order to fund its development and acquisitions pipeline worth GBP165 million. Within the GBP165 million pipeline, GBP85 million are on-site development opportunities due to be completed by December, GBP67 million are acquisition opportunities consisting of individual properties, all due to be completed within the next three-to-six months. The final GBP17 million are asset enhancement capital projects aimed at growing rental income.







OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS







Halfords Group, up 18%. Peel Hunt raised the car parts and bicycle retailer to Buy from Hold.







Restaurant Group, up 7.1%. The restaurant chain owner was upgraded to Buy from Hold by HSBC.







By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 15:12:52|Editor: huaxia

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China's medical supplies for 18 African countries arrive at the Kotota International Airport in Accra, capital of Ghana, April 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Xu Zheng)

"The Chinese experience on prevention, control management, diagnosis, treatment and nursing is very useful for other countries. As far as the provided medical assistance is concerned, it is appreciated at very difficult time," Tzogopoulos told Xinhua.

by Keren Setton, Chen Wenxian

JERUSALEM, April 7 (Xinhua) -- As the world is struggling to curb the spread of COVID-19, Israeli experts have said that the pandemic is a common threat to humankind, and global cooperation is needed to prevail over the borderless virus.

As of Monday, a total of more than 1 million cases have been reported with almost 63,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Although countries have adopted measures such as closure of their borders, the virus has still quickly spread among nations, haunting more than 200 countries and regions.

"Public health is a common good and COVID-19 makes no discrimination. This is a global fight against a common invisible enemy," said Dr. George N. Tzogopoulos, a research associate at Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, and a senior fellow at the European Institute of Nice and the Democritus University of Thrace.

Bruce Aylward, an epidemiologist who led an advance team from the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks during a press conference of the China-WHO joint expert team in Beijing, Feb. 24, 2020. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli)

But in recent years, several countries have turned inward, backing down from international engagement.

As the United States scaled down its contributions to international organizations and adopted an "America First" policy, the price of this decision has not been fully exposed yet. Coupled with a lackluster response from a less than cohesive European Union, it appears the power division on the global stage is being re-arranged.

"Over the last few years, irresponsible politicians in various parts of the world have deliberately undermined trust in international cooperation," said Professor Yuval Noah Harari, a historian with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a bestselling author with the book "Sapiens: a Brief History of Humankind."

"Unfortunately, due to the lack of leadership, we are not making the most of our ability to cooperate," said Harari.

Shoppers line up outside a supermarket in Washington D.C., the United States, April 3, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

Harari told Xinhua that there are several ways in which cooperation can be enhanced -- countries that have already coped with the pandemic should share their information; production of medical equipment should be coordinated between countries; doctors and nurses from less affected countries should be sent to those places that are hard hit; and a global economic safety net should be created.

"Data from all over the world should be shared openly and speedily in an effort to contain the epidemic and develop medicines and vaccines," said Harari. "Global coordination can overcome bottlenecks in production, and can make sure that the equipment goes to the countries that need it most."

Technology has also played a key role in the increasingly globalized world to tackle the pandemic.

A woman wears a face mask amid covid-19 outbreak in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on April 4, 2020. (Photo by Rahel Patrasso/Xinhua).

"Our interconnected nature allows us to share information and tools, among them what we have found so far as the best way to fight the virus," said Dr. Yonatan Freeman from the Political Science Department at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "This gives us an advantage that during other pandemics in history we did not have."

"Social media also allows the general public to take part in this fight," Freeman told Xinhua.

When the virus first hit China and its influence was unknown, it was unclear how it would weather the storm. But months later, China has successfully controlled the spread of the virus.

Some experts have said that China's position has been solidified, and further enhanced by helping other countries fight the pandemic.

A timeline of China's response to COVID-19 was released Monday, chronicling some main facts and measures that China has taken in the global joint anti-virus efforts, including timely releasing information, sharing experience in epidemic prevention and control, and advancing international exchanges and cooperation.

Chinese medical experts share their experience in COVID-19 prevention and control with health experts and officials from Venezuelan Health Ministry, in Caracas, Venezuela, March 31, 2020. (Xinhua/Salgado)

"China has shown it has been responsible," said Freeman. "They are using the event to show they have been transparent and that they have done what they have done not just for their own good, but for the world's good."

As Chinese industries gradually return to normal levels of production, the huge force could be critical for countries who are now at the peak of the virus outbreak and are struggling to cope.

According to Israel's leading airline El Al, an Israeli aircraft carrying 20 tons of medical equipment from China landed Monday at Ben Gurion International Airport. The aircraft is the first of 11 El Al planes to bring essential medical equipment to Israel as part of efforts in the fight against the pandemic.

Donations from the Chinese-American community in Palos Verdes in Southern California, the United States, March 26, 2020. (Photo by Maggie Wang/Xinhua)

"China can not only take a leading role in producing the necessary equipment, but also make sure it is distributed fairly," said Harari, adding that "I hope China continues to do this and even intensifies its efforts."

"The Chinese experience on prevention, control management, diagnosis, treatment and nursing is very useful for other countries. As far as the provided medical assistance is concerned, it is appreciated at very difficult time," Tzogopoulos told Xinhua.

"It is one way for China to show that it is able to project power," Freeman told Xinhua. "Even if the situation abroad is deteriorating, China will not turn a blind eye." 
Wow. What a week.

Only a few days ago I was sitting at my desk in Lausanne, Switzerland, wondering how I should approach my mooting assignment on human rights and international law. Now I am 11889 metres above sea level and under four hours away from Brisbane International Airport.

Something came up

When choosing where to complete my exchange semester, I imagined that choosing Switzerland would mean peacefully living in a country that discussed international relations yet avoided all of the effects of real-world issues.

To say that things have been taking unexpected turns lately would be an understatement.

I didnt particularly want to add to the discussion of COVID-19, but the precautions that countries all over the world are taking has completely interfered with my expectation of the next few months.

As a result of packing up and traveling home with such short notice and not enough sleep, this is my first chance to really process what is going on. For the last two years, I have had this abroad study in mind. After completing several trees worth of paperwork, I was finally there; at university in Switzerland, meeting new people, travelling to new places and using my French day-to-day. Everything was living up to my expectation of how this semester would go; until the coronavirus made news.

I dont want my focus to be on the coronavirus, but I am really thankful that through this situation, I am able to see how God is in control, whether our expectation matches reality, or not.

Even good plans can change

Often when I think about God stepping in and taking our plans in a different direction, I assume that it is because the plans were not pleasing or honouring to Him.

At first, I was a little bit confused when the idea of returning to Australia early came about. As a result of putting so much prayer and thought into living overseas for six months, I knew that it was where God wanted me to be. Despite this confidence, I questioned if I had come to Switzerland out of my own will and was ignoring Gods intentions for me.

My other thought was, perhaps I should stay in Switzerland and endure the tests and trials that come along. All of these thoughts spun around in my head as I tried to articulate them to my parents over the phone.

I stumbled across Romans chapter 8, verses 31-39. It speaks of how we, through Christ, are more than conquerors and that nothing is able to separate us from His love. A pastor at my church once said something about this passage that opened my eyes to reality a little bit more. He said, how can we be conquerors if there is nothing to conquer?

These thoughts helped me realise that this coronavirus situation is not righting my wrongdoing; it is actually just part of the reality that Jesus told us about. As followers of Christ, we were never promised a perfectly blissful life. In fact, Jesus tells us that we will face difficulties during our time on earth.

I have told you these things, so that in me may you have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

(James 16:33)

Sometimes, even good plans change.

Why?

Because that is the reality of life on this side of heaven.

But with God, we can be comforted by the reality that God is in full control during these times.

Our reality as children of God

The general connotation of the saying expectation versus reality presents reality as the negative aspect. Admittedly, I have written from this same perspective thus far. However, I believe that as children of God, the reality that we are presented with far exceeds any expectation that we could imagine.

Steven Furtick, founder and lead pastor of Elevation Church, has a series of short motivational podcasts that speak truth derived from the Word. One of my favourites is titled I can handle it.

This podcast gives us a reality check of what we are promised as followers of Christ. Considering the current situation of COVID-19 and how it is affecting the lives of people throughout the world, I think it is important to remind ourselves of the following points that Steven makes:

Today is a new day. It will bring brand new blessings and brand new battles. But within every uncertainty, there is hidden possibility.

And my confidence is not in my circumstances. The Spirit of God is my supply.

Im steady under pressure and ready for whatever cause whatever comes my way today, the outcome is; I overcome. Christ is in me. I am enough. I can handle it.

And He who called me is faithful. His strength in me is greater than any pain I feel or enemy I face. The promise of God is mine for the taking. Every plan He has made is guaranteed to come to pass.

So bring the battle. Im ready now. Ive got something for Goliath. I can handle it.

Im not nervous about whats next cause my eyes are on the throne. I trust the One whos in complete control.

And whatever happens, I can handle it.
Mayank Singh By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: It was a proud moment for the people of Kodagu district when Lt Gen CP Cariappa took command of Indias elite 1 Strike Corps at Mathura on Friday. Lt Gen Cariappa became the Corp Commander and the District boasts of rare distinction of three Lieutenant Generals serving the army simultaneously.



Kodagu is a small and beautiful mountain district of Karnataka and is well known in the world for coffee and its brave warriors, men and women, serving in all services. Talking only of Indian Army there are 90 posts at the rank of Lieutenant General.

Lt Gen PC Thimmaya and Lt Gen CB Ponnappa are the other two generals. Lt Gen Thimmaya is the Army Commander at the Army Training Command and Lt Gen Ponnappa is the Chief of Staff at the Northern Army Command. All three officers are a product of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla and joined the army at different times. Lt Gen Ponappa is the junior-most who joined the Army in June 1985.

Lt Gen CP Cariappa was commissioned in June 1984 into the 4th Battalion of the Rajputana Rifles. He served in UN Peacekeeping Forces at Mozambique (Africa) and Iraq- Kuwait. Prior to taking over command of elite 1 Corps, he was the Military Secretary to the President of India at New Delhi. The officer on taking charge emphasized that his priority is fight against COVID-19 threat.'

Kodava population: 1.25 lakh



Number of Kodava Lieutenant Generals in Indian Army at present: 3 pic.twitter.com/tq6iIJM4nQ  Kodagu Connect (@KodaguConnect) April 4, 2020

At present Lt, Gen PC Thimmaya is the seniormost coorgi officer, who became Army Commander on 1 November 2018. He was the best cadet in pre-commission training at Indian Military Academy and was awarded the Sword of Honour. He got commissioned into 5th Battalion of the Mechanised Infantry in June 1981.



He commanded Armys 10 Corps and was the Commandant, Army War College at Mhow before becoming Army Commander. Like the other two officers he also had UN Stint, was a Military Observer in UN Mission, Angola. He also was Defence Attache in the High Commission of India in Bangladesh. He assumed the command of Army Training Command in Nov 2018.

Lt Gen C Bansi Ponnappa is Chief of Staff of the prestigious Northern Command since Feb 2020. He was commissioned into 2 MAHAR Regiment in Jun 1985 and later commanded the same unit. The officer had two UN Tenures. He was in Somalia under UNOSOM-II and North Kivu Brigade of UN Peace Keeping Force in the Democratic Republic of Congo.



These officers follow in the footsteps of illustrious predecessors like Field Marshal K M Cariappa and General Kodendera Subayya Thimayya. Field Marshal Cariappa was first Indian Commissioned Officer, first Indian General and then first Commander-in-Chief of India.

A total of eleven officers from Kodagu have occupied top posts in the Army so far. This apart, Kodagu also boasts of having 20 Major Generals and four Air Marshals, which undoubtedly makes Kodagu, the Land of Generals.

Although, with time the numbers of people joining forces from the district have fallen, steps are being taken to regain it. The district has its own War Memorial with names of all martyred soldiers of Kodagu. A museum in the name of former Army Chief General Thimmaiah is also being constructed. The Kodava Legacy in the Army will continue.
I CROSSED Boris Johnson in the foyer of the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin.

He stopped me and asked in his plummy drawl: "Do you know where I can get the papers? I mean 'real' papers?"

I mustered my most withering look "'Real' - Boris?" I asked.

The future UK Prime Minister went into his well-known bumbling utterances, which I took to be diffusive attempts at an apology. I interrupted by directing him to the nearest newsagents out on Baggot Street where he would surely get some "foreign papers."

For once I can be definite about the date. It was January 1990 and both Boris Johnson - the quaintly titled "common market correspondent" for the London Daily Telegraph - and this writer were among a group of Brussels-based journalists flown to Dublin at the expense of the hard-pressed Irish taxpayer. It was the start of Charlie Haughey's six-month stint as "president of Europe", so no expense was spared.

Boris Johnson had arrived in the EU capital in March of 1989 and he was based there until 1994. This writer arrived in Brussels in June 1989 and stayed far longer - but that's a story for another time.

The exchange at the Shelbourne Hotel was typical of Mr Johnson's propensity to drop clangers. He has never travelled well beyond the confines of his upper-class privileged world.

I had thought such people were really a fictive creation to populate books about English boarding schools - but I was soon to learn that they really exist.

Being a foreign correspondent in Brussels was just his second "real job" after school in Eton and college at Oxford. By his own admission, he lost the first job, as a leader writer on The Times of London, after "dropping a clanger" so bad that he was sacked.

I was soon to learn that he had redeeming features and one of these was self-deprecation and an ability to tell a story against himself. He told me about his sacking on a train journey from Brussels to Luxembourg in late 1989.

He was also something of a slob who ate sporadically and badly, heavily reliant on takeaway food, and his clothes often looked like he had slept in them - sometimes because he had.

An incident at the outset of that same 1990 trip from Brussels to Dublin sums up this slobishness. Johnson happened to be ahead of me in the check-in queue at Brussels airport.

Through the broken zip of his battered hold-all bag peered a pinstriped suit. It was rolled up in a ball and resembled a large but strangely coloured bath towel.

A nattily-dressed English journalist colleague beside me had pointed to this unmissable sight and opined, with the strange mix of indulgence and disapproval: "Now that typifies Boris!"

If anybody told me then, or over any of the succeeding four years in which he reported from Brussels, that he was a future British Prime Minister, I would have summoned those men in the white coats. Yes, Boris was even more of a Tory fogey then than he is now.

In many ways, the ensuing decades have allowed him to advance easily from "young to old fogeydom". But he was always hard to miss with his unmistakable mop of blond hair and generally bumbling air.

The French and Germans found he satisfyingly fitted their stereotypical view of what "un Anglais a Bruxelles" should look and sound like. Briefings and press conferences were still conducted in French in Jacques Delors's European Commission.

Boris spoke rather good French as he had his early schooling in Brussels. But it was heavily accented, making him sound like a bass baritone version of Peter Sellers impersonating an Englishman, impersonating a Frenchman.

Add the phoney French accent to the debate about whether Boris's persona was natural or an act, which still goes on. Discussions among the Brussels press corps, across all nationalities, about "Boris" were frequent, animated and often focused on how much of Boris's persona was in fact an act.

But his ambition to succeed in journalism and, soon afterwards, politics, was no act. Most journalists compete for stories.

The keen rivalry between Boris and his British colleagues was compounded by his enthusiastic taste for strange Eurosceptic tales in line with his paper's anti-EU stance.

"I was 'Borised' again," was a common complaint among his colleagues, when the phone went in Kitty O'Shea's or the The Old Hack bars which are just across from the EU Commission headquarters. Once Boris Johnson got his journalistic legs under him, he became something of a legend with a passing acquaintance with the truth.

While EU officials argued his reports were at least taken out of context, there was never much more about it, until the next time. In a biography by his former colleague, Sonia Purnell, he is frankly recalled by colleagues as "stretching" facts until the storyline was rather threadbare.

Boris was a protege of the Daily Telegraph editor, Max Hastings. Attending a drinks party in the rather ramshackle Brussels 'Telegraph' offices, I was compelled by a series of long letters from Hastings which were pinned to the walls.

These letters were a detailed but usually positive appraisal of Boris's writings. They challenged him on words and phrases, and advised him to avoid being colloquial, even at the risk of being perceived as "pompous."

It was an extraordinary example of intense mentoring. The Hastings-Johnson connection went on for some 20 years as Boris continued as a Telegraph columnist after being elected a British MP and eventually being paid fabulous sums of money.

But Hastings has long ago ceased being a fan of Boris Johnson, who he insisted was not prime minister material.

"Most politicians are ambitious and ruthless, but Boris is a gold-medal egomaniac," Hastings wrote in October 2012, just as Johnson's prime ministerial candidature finally came on the agenda.

The name - Boris - is central to his identity and quest for power. It began accidentally and was later chosen deliberately to help Alexander Boris Johnson stand out from the crowd.

Back in 1964 his young, cash-strapped student parents, Stanley and Charlotte, were on a trip to Mexico from New York. Charlotte was pregnant and dreading a 20-hour bus trip back to the USA.

A kindly Russian emigre, Boris Letwin, whose daughter Stanley knew slightly, gifted them airline tickets. After her son's birth in New York on June 19, 1964, Charlotte kept her promise to include her benefactor's name on her new son's US birth certificate.

In family circles, and among old friends, the tousle-haired politician is still known as "Al". The surname sounds quintessentially English. But here, again, a large element of accident occurs. In fact, his great grandfather, Ali Kemal, was Turkish.

Kemal's first wife was English and her son, Boris's grandfather, took her maiden name just after World War I. Osman Johnson worked hard at becoming quintessentially English, took to calling himself "Johnny" and his son, Stanley, was raised in this atmosphere.

Brussels has loomed large in much of Boris Johnson's life. His father, Stanley Johnson, joined the European Commission when the UK joined in 1973. That brought the family to the EU capital and saw Boris attend the European school there.

Little of that matters now as Boris Johnson lies desperately ill with coronavirus in hospital in London. He is a strange man but also strangely likeable.
Southwest Airlines, which has pared down its Bay Area-Hawaii network to a pair of daily Oakland-Honolulu flights, said it expects to resume some canceled service to the islands in late May and June.

The biggest impediment to Hawaii travel is an order issued by Governor David Ige last month mandating a 14-day quarantine for everyone arriving in the state, including both residents and visitors. Iges order is due to end on May 20, unless he decides to terminate it earlier.

Southwest now plans to revive daily Oakland-Maui flights on May 21, followed by a restoration of San Jose-Honolulu and Sacramento-Honolulu service on June 7. The airline will also add a new California-Hawaii route on June 7, kicking off daily flights from San Diego to Honolulu.

The carrier has continued to operate a reduced schedule of inter-island service linking Honolulu with Kauai, Maui and Kona on the Big Island, and said it expects to resume Kona-Maui service although it didnt give a date.

We checked Southwests Oakland-Maui fares for the last week of May and found Wanna Get Away rates starting as low as $238 roundtrip. (That's cheap, but not as cheap as the $198 fares we saw a few months ago.) We found the same starting price for San Jose-Honolulu roundtrips during the third week of June, although those lowest-tier fares appeared to be going fast. (Wanna Get Away fares are non-refundable but can be applied to future travel.)

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The airlines June schedule update, issued this week, also shows a resumption of some international routes that it had canceled. On June 7, it will revive service to Cancun from Denver and Baltimore/Washington and from Denver to Los Cabos. Also starting on June 7 is a resumption of flights from BWI to Nassau, Bahamas; Orlando to Montego Bay, Jamaica; and Tampa to Havana.

Southwests overall operation in June will include just over 2,000 flights a day, about half its original schedule. Thats roughly equivalent to its May operation. The airline noted that although overall activity in June will be down by 50 percent, it is maintaining service to all of its domestic cities and protecting more than 80 percent of the itineraries offered in its earlier schedule.

Customers already booked to travel in June and whose journeys will be impacted, soon will hear from us with any changes to their specific travel plans, Southwest said. The vast majority will include new flight times, new flight numbers, or changes in routing. Travel credit for customers who cancel a flight scheduled to operate before June 30 will now be valid through June 30, 2021, Southwest noted.

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TANAISTE Simon Coveney has said the Covid-19 crisis will mean an increased role for the State in peoples economic affairs and a single-tier health service.

Mr Coveney said Fine Gael and Fianna Fail hope to agree a broad framework document later this week that will show other parties, including the Greens, Social Democrats and Labour, that politics is going to be different.

The two civil war parties are attempting to form a coalition Government in the coming weeks but will need the support of a group of Independent TDs and/or a third party to have a majority in the Dail.

Speaking to Today with Sean ORourke on RTE Radio, Mr Coveney signalled that the new Government envisages a greater role for the State in areas like the health service and elsewhere.

I think one thing that this crisis is reinforcing in many people's minds is that there does need to be an increased role for the state in protecting people and their well-being, not just in terms of healthcare but also in terms of their economic interests, Mr Coveney said.

He said that close to 850,000 people are relying on the State for their income either through direct welfare payments or the States wage subsidy scheme.

We are essentially moving away from a two-tier health system where the state now has, on a temporary basis through this emergency, taken over private hospitals to provide comprehensive public health care, on the basis of need as opposed to income, he said.

Read More

Mr Coveney said the next Government would look to introduce a single-tier health service under the Slaintecare plans.

We are committed to a single tier health system - thats what Slaintecare all about. The question is how do we do it, how long it takes, how much it costs and how do we afford to do that.

He said it was clear that in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis the role of the State, in terms of its relationship with the private sector, will be different.

Mr Coveney again ruled out involving Sinn Fein in any government, claiming a unity government would not work and would in fact lead to a general election in the autumn.

The Fine Gael Minister said the State would have to borrow a lot of money and run significant deficits for a period of time when the crisis subsides.

He also sent his best wishes to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who has Covid-19 and was admitted to intensive care on Monday night. He said he had been in touch with Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, who is deputising for Mr Johnson and that the Prime Minister is clearly very, very sick.
Journal Staff report

Two researchers with the Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base are among 10 with the Air Force Research Laboratory honored as the 2019 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Awards recipients.

The award recognizes Department of Defense employees for contributions, achievements and dedication to mission, Air Force officials said in a news release.

The recipients within the Space Vehicles Directorates at Kirtland Air Force Base are Brian Kasch and Maj. Gordon Lott.

Kasch, a research physicist, won the 2019 John L. McLucas Basic Research Award for his work in advancing precision sensors based on atomic physics.

We get to take some of the most promising ideas and turn them into something useful, Kasch said in a statement.

Lott is the Quantum Sensing and Timing program manager with the Space Vehicles Directorate. He won the 2019 Air Force Research and Development Award for his work on bringing new timing technologies to position, navigation and timing infrastructure.

The program I work with has an amazing group of scientists and engineers, Lott said. Getting to explore and develop technologies for Air Force applications is an unparalleled experience. The combination of talented people and mission is great.

We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to newsroom@abqjournal.com.

Dr. Brian Kasch

Maj. Gordon Lott.
Deaths from the coronavirus in New Jersey increased to 1,003 on Monday while total positive tests for COVID-19 increased to at least 41,090 people infected, officials said.

The latest numbers published on the state Department of Healths website show 3,663 new coronavirus cases in the state and another 86 deaths. The state also announced 47,942 people have now tested negative for the coronavirus.

Gov. Phil Murphy urged people to continue to stay home unless travel is necessary and keep social distance as the state begins to see encouraging signs the spread of the virus could be slowing. The so-called curve in New Jersey was beginning to level out with peak cases possible between late April and early May, Murphy said.

Murphy arrived at the daily briefing in Trenton wearing a face mask, as the federal government recently recommend.

What youre doing is making a difference. We have enough data now to say that comfortably, the governor said, while cautioning that any wavering in that effort could produce disastrous results.

Heres a roundup of coronavirus news:

N.J. projects peak of 86K to 509K coronavirus cases. Strict social distancing needed for best case, Murphy says: Gov. Murphy on Monday said New Jersey residents need to continue to strictly follow to his orders to stay home and practice social distancing to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The governor also offered projection charts for the peak in coronavirus cases for the first time.

Staff of overrun N.J. hospital breaks down in tears after EMS comes to its rescue: Overrun with COVID-19 patients, University Hospital was stretched to its limits Saturday morning. Off-duty nurses, medics and EMTs and a helicopter crew moved in to help.

USNS Comfort hospital ship to now accept patients from N.J. hospitals: Some of the 1,000 beds on the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort that docked in Manhattan last week coronavirus will be allocated to patients from New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy said.

Cops closed 44 businesses, cited 842 people for violating coronavirus lockdown in Newark in 1 week: Newark police have citied hundreds of offenders in the week since the states largest city and three neighboring municipalities as part of an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Many LBI beaches closed to outsiders due to coronavirus: Beaches in Long Beach Township are now closed to all but full-time residents and people who own homes on Long Beach Islands largest municipality as officials try to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Pink Floyd show during coronavirus lockdown a misunderstanding, lawyer says. 2nd person charged: The man police allege hosted a Pink Floyd cover concert at his Rumson home - in violation of the states restrictions aimed at combating the coronavirus - never invited the approximately 30 partiers who cops said they found on his front lawn, his attorney said Monday.

To the jackasses violating N.J. coronavirus lockdown rules, get with the program, Murphy says: Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday called out all jackasses and knuckleheads who are not following the states strict rules to fight the coronavirus to get with the program.

We know who you are and we will not relent, Murphy said, referencing the Pink Floyd cover band concert in Rumson where attendees shouted at police who arrived to break it up.

Gloucester County announces first coronavirus testing site: The county will open its first drive-thru coronavirus testing site on Wednesday at Rowan College of South Jersey in Deptford Township.

Coronavirus cases in the United States: There were 362,759 cases reported in the country as of Monday afternoon, according to information from the the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The center logged 10,689 deaths nationwide.

If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.

NJ Advance Media staff writers Matt Arco, Jeff Goldman, Spencer Kent and Matt Gray contributed to this report.

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
By Trisha Roy and Manas Mishra (Reuters) - British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline will invest $250 million in Vir Biotechnology Inc and collaborate to develop potential antibody treatments for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, the companies said on Monday. Vir's shares rose as much as 34% following the news of GSK's investment, priced at $37.73 per Vir share, a 30% premium to the stock's Friday close.

By Trisha Roy and Manas Mishra

(Reuters) - British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline will invest $250 million in Vir Biotechnology Inc and collaborate to develop potential antibody treatments for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, the companies said on Monday.

Vir's shares rose as much as 34% following the news of GSK's investment, priced at $37.73 per Vir share, a 30% premium to the stock's Friday close. GSK was up about 2%.

Vir's shares, trading at $35.60 on Monday, have more than doubled in the year up to Friday's close.

Drugmakers across the globe are rushing to develop a treatment or vaccine for the fast-spreading coronavirus that has killed over 68,400 people globally. There is currently no approved treatment for the disease.

"We are transferring antibodies that recovered patients have made, that have presumably helped them recover, to new patients," said Vir Chief Executive Officer George Scangos.

Vir's approach, which is different from plasma therapy that involves giving newly infected patients the blood component that carries antibodies, lets it select the best antibodies out of the plasma, and makes it more convenient to administer.

Cowen analyst Phil Nadeau says GSK's selection of Vir as its partner in the race to identify COVID-19 treatments is encouraging, adding that GSK's expertise combined with Vir's demonstrated ability to identify antibodies should help accelerate the collaborative programs.

Initial focus will be on accelerating development of Vir's investigational treatments, VIR-7831 and VIR-7832, and then directly starting with a mid-stage trial within the next three to five months, the companies said.

GSK has so far focused on providing adjuvants, efficacy boosters that play a vital role in many vaccines, as part of its efforts to find potential vaccines against the coronavirus.

Experts have said it could take 12 to 18 months to develop a coronavirus vaccine.

This is California-based Vir's second partnership with a major drugmaker for the development of a potential coronavirus treatment, having last month signed a letter of intent with Biogen Inc.

Gilead Sciences Inc is also testing its drug remdesivir as a potential coronavirus treatment.

Moderna Inc, which started testing its vaccine candidate in people last month, signed deals with the U.S. government in March to produce massive quantities of coronavirus vaccines.

(Reporting by Trisha Roy and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Shounak Dasgupta and Shinjini Ganguli)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The idea of a digital census has the right to exist, but a classic census should be held. It is currently unclear whether the state will have enough funds to carry out the census this year.

"There are several scenarios for implementation. In particular, Dmytro Dubilet [ex-minister of the Cabinet of Ministers] suggested conducting a digital census. This idea also has the right to exist. But the classic census, about which demographers and sociologists talk, should be carried out. I cannot say whether the state is ready to spend money on it [classic census] at least this year. Besides, its preparation cycle is long enough," Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleh Nemchinov said in an interview with the UA-Times online media outlet.

The minister is convinced that a "window of opportunity" for carrying out the census in the near future has already been missed. "In order to conduct a census in 2020, even in 2021, we would have to start this process in March," the official stressed.

At the same time, Nemchinov said that he had talked with Chairman of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine Ihor Verner and was convinced that the test estimate of the population size had been carried out "with sufficient quality and on the interesting basis". At the same time, Nemchinov added that the error was significant enough, though within the statistical spread.

"That is, the estimate of the existing population was carried out well enough. This does not remove the issue of a comprehensive population census. These are the requirements of the United Nations. This is a requirement of the ruling party," the minister noted.

Earlier it was reported that the census would cost the state UAH 3-4 billion. According to the results of the trial (test) census conducted by the Government of Ukraine, 37 million 289 thousand people lived in Ukraine as of December 1, 2019.

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WASHINGTON - The District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia saw their biggest single-day increase in fatalities related to the novel coronavirus Monday, with deaths up to 169 as officials warned that the region could become one of the country's next hot spots and hospitals prepared for a surge.

Data released in D.C. - which for the first time Monday included a breakdown by race - showed that deaths are disproportionately concentrated among black residents, as has been the case elsewhere in the country.

There was a 114% increase in confirmed coronavirus cases in the D.C. region in the past week, according to data analyzed by The Washington Post. From Friday through Monday, there were an average of 393 new cases a day - up from an average of 70 new cases a day March 22 through March 24.

Of the new cases last week, 40% originated in Prince George's County and Montgomery County, Maryland, where as of Monday evening there had been 23 and 19 deaths, respectively. D.C. and northern Virginia each accounted for 30% of the new cases.

Officials said that hospitals are seeing increases in the number of patients who need critical care but that the medical facilities are not overwhelmed.

In Virginia, 538 patients were hospitalized with covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. An additional 656 people were in state hospitals awaiting coronavirus test results. In Maryland, 1,059 people were hospitalized and 184 had been released from isolation.

D.C. officials have not been disclosing how many people are hospitalized with covid-19. But on April 1, the city's top public health official said that about 14% of people who tested positive for coronavirus were hospitalized and that the average age of a hospitalized person was 59.

"We have definitely seen a steady increase in the number of patients who are both positive with covid-19 and people who are getting sick with covid-19," said William Borden, chief quality and population health officer with the George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates. "We have not yet seen the inflection point where it's gone up to exponential growth. But that could happen at any point."

The rising cases across the Washington area are probably a combination of increased infections as well as a greater access to testing, Borden explained. A similar spike in the number of hospitalizations would be a dangerous red flag for heath officials.

"We think we're still in the calm before the storm," said Leslie Simmons, the executive vice president of LifeBridge Health, whose five Maryland hospitals are beginning to see an influx of patients in need of ventilators.

Simmons said the critical-care unit at Carroll Hospital in Westminster was in overflow status last week after seeing a rise in patients from Pleasant View Nursing Home in Mount Airy.

That meant that some critical-care patients were being treated on a different floor, in a unit that is normally used for intermediate care, she said. The LifeBridge hospitals have not yet had to open tents or conference rooms to care for patients but have surge plans in place to do so if necessary, she said.

As of Monday, the critical-care unit at Carroll was back at normal capacity.

The D.C. government on Monday released coronavirus data broken down by race for the first time, showing that black residents are disproportionately represented among the dead.

Fourteen of D.C.'s 24 covid-19 fatalities were black, or about 58%, the city reported. Black residents constitute about 46% of the population in D.C.

Data released by other jurisdictions, including Michigan and Chicago, also shows that black residents have been disproportionately affected.

That data and other reasons prompted more than 80 members of the Maryland House of Delegates to sign a letter calling on the state to release racial data for the coronavirus, saying it is necessary "to ensure proper attention is placed on addressing any health inequities in real time."

Del. Nick Mosby, D-Baltimore City, who has been pushing for the data for weeks without success, is leading the effort.

Mosby said more granular data is necessary to successfully engage the community and determine how resources should be used to reduce the spread of the virus.

"Without that data, you are literally shooting in the dark," Mosby said.

A spokesman for Maryland's Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, Mike Ricci, tweeted Monday thanking Mosby and saying the governor's office received the message and would work on it.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, was asked about the racial disparity at a news conference Monday. "All deaths concern me," she answered. She said the 58% figure is "somewhat higher, not much," than the overall share of black residents in the city.

The city only had the races of about half of the roughly 1,100 people who tested positive for the coronavirus. Of those cases where race was available, nearly 6 in 10 are black and a quarter are white.

Virginia has reported races of residents who tested positive for coronavirus but not for fatalities. But the state did not have the races of more than half of the nearly 3,000 people who tested positive.

Of the 1,340 for which racial data was available, about 29% were black. About 20% of Virginians are black.

As of Monday afternoon, there were 8,028 positive covid-19 cases in Maryland, Virginia and D.C. There were big jumps in cases across the three jurisdictions Monday, bringing the total in Maryland to 4,046, with 2,881 in Virginia and 1,101 in D.C., according to The Post's tally.

"We're starting to heat up quite a bit," Hogan said during a Fox News radio interview Monday. "We're now considered a hot spot."

Bowser said Monday that she has made clear that her city is vulnerable to a wave of cases, noting that she warned on Friday that 1 in 7 residents could be infected and hospitalizations could peak in July.

She explained that she told President Donald Trump and Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus coordinator, of her concerns over the growth in cases in D.C. and across the region. Birx subsequently warned this weekend that the region could be a next hot spot.

Birx said she hopes that social-distancing efforts will slow the spread so the region will not follow the same trajectory as New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. She urged residents to stay home as much as possible, including avoiding the grocery store and pharmacy. Bowser has not gone that far, but she said residents should limit trips as much as possible.

Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, both Democrats from Maryland, said public health officials have told them cases in the region are expected to rise with a potential peak of early May, but they stressed that the situation is fluid and that not enough tests are being conducted to get a true picture of the current threat.

They said hospitals and health centers have universally said they need more personal protective equipment for doctors, nurses and medical workers.

"We have been incredibly frustrated with the shortage of PPE and testing and ventilators in this region and throughout Maryland," Van Hollen said. "As of today, I'm afraid . . . we don't have supplies we need."

"There may be areas of our state that may not be able to deal with the influx of patients," Cardin said.

Vice President Mike Pence announced Monday evening that the Washington region would receive some of the ventilators that were loaned by California to the national stockpile. He said 200 will go to Maryland and 50 will go to D.C.

Some hospital administrators were more reluctant to sound the alarms about an influx of cases in the greater D.C. region.

"I think any populated area that has a fair density that did not do social distancing early on to really try to mitigate it is at risk for being an area with more cases," said Jordan Asher, senior vice president and chief physician executive at Sentara Healthcare. "I can't stress enough the impact of social distancing and when it got started and how well are people adhering to it."

Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, a 183-bed hospital in Prince William County, has a plan to double its bed count by adding to rooms and putting beds in operating and pre-op rooms, recovery rooms, conference centers, and classroom space, he said.

The hospital is looking for space outside its footprint and expects to be able to move non-covid-19 patients to the Dulles Expo Center, a space identified by state officials as a possible temporary hospital. The system is also continuing efforts to preserve personal protective equipment by disinfecting equipment that can be reused and limiting non-urgent surgeries, Asher said.

Gene Ransom, chief executive of the Maryland State Medical Society, said he is not sure how hard Maryland will be hit but that he knows the state is doing all it can in terms of preparedness.

Hogan has said his plan to add 6,000 beds is ahead of schedule and that the state is rapidly recruiting medical personnel. Ransom said his biggest concern also is the lack of PPE, which he said he hears about daily from physicians concerned it will exacerbate the spread of the virus.

Bob Atlas, head of the Maryland Hospital Association, said all of the state's four dozen hospitals are low on protective gear.

"But no one is out, at this point," he added.

The University of Maryland Medical System, which includes 13 hospitals across the state, instituted a mandatory masking policy Monday, requiring that everyone in acute care and ambulatory facilities wear them.

The goal of the new policy, effective immediately, is to reduce the spread of covid-19 through asymptomatic carriers, said chief executive Mohan Suntha. The system will provide the masks, he said.

UMMS is also looking for emergency staffers to assist in a potential surge, according to its website.

Hospitals in some larger systems have designated themselves hubs for treating covid-19, including MedStar Washington Hospital and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

- - -

The Washington Post's Ovetta Wiggins, Kyle Swenson, Laura Vozzella, Angela Fritz and Candace Buckner contributed to this report.
HALIFAX - Nova Scotia-based undergarment manufacturer Stanfield's Ltd., has secured two contracts worth over $28 million to supply the federal and Nova Scotia governments with hundreds of thousands of protective gowns for front-line health-care workers in the fight against COVID-19.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jon Stanfield, president and CEO of Stanfield's Ltd., stands in one of the production areas of the garment manufacturing company in Truro, N.S. on Tuesday, March 31, 2020. The Nova Scotia Health Authority says it has signed a contract with undergarment manufacturer Stanfield's Ltd. of Truro, N.S., to purchase protective gowns for health care workers in the province.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

HALIFAX - Nova Scotia-based undergarment manufacturer Stanfield's Ltd., has secured two contracts worth over $28 million to supply the federal and Nova Scotia governments with hundreds of thousands of protective gowns for front-line health-care workers in the fight against COVID-19.

Company CEO Jon Stanfield told reporters Tuesday the $24 million federal contract will see it supply 2.6 million gowns  100,000 per week  beginning the first part of May and ending the last week of October.

The $4.32 million agreement with Nova Scotia would see 480,000 gowns supplied over a 16-week period, with the first of 30,000 gowns each week to be delivered the week of April 15.

Stanfield said the Truro, N.S., company worked with Health Canada to have the disposable gowns approved over a span of just 10 days.

"This is truly an amazing feat, understanding the complexities of integrating government and private sector business in normal times. But as we all know we are in unprecedented times," he said.

Stanfield said the company worked with emergency room doctors in Truro to hone specifics for the design and fit of the gowns. The material is produced by another Truro company, Intertape Polymer.

Stanfield said his company laid off most of its 200-member workforce on March 16 and would now be able to immediately bring back 72 sewers.

He said there are plans to hire up to 108 people, and more workers could be needed in the future. The factory will be reset to accommodate 72 people per shift for two shifts.

In addition, the federal contract allows Stanfield's to continue to contract some work from outside the province.

"So beyond Truro, we will employ potentially people in New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec as well," Stanfield said. "I don't think it's going to be a challenge to find the people  we just have to give them training as quick as we can so they can hit the output level."

He said there was little retooling required at the factory, although equipment needed to be moved around to get the right physical spacing for workers.

New sewing equipment was also ordered at a cost of between $500,000 and $800,000.

The Nova Scotia Health Authority said in a news release Tuesday that its infection prevention and control team has supported the configuration and standards to be used in the factory during production.

Health authority CEO, Dr. Brendan Carr, said with the number of COVID-19 cases increasing daily in Nova Scotia, there is an expectation that more people will require hospitalization.

Carr said that means the need for front-line health-care workers to use personal protective equipment will also increase.

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We have been very heartened to see the community support for our health-care staff, including remarkable efforts by local manufacturers such as Stanfields to quickly shift their focus to produce critical equipment to support the care of those most affected," Carr said.

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said Tuesday that the province currently has about a month's supply of various forms of personal protective equipment for health workers.

"This (contract) will add on top of that with the ability for us to order more," said McNeil.

The company's contract with the Nova Scotia government has an option for an eight-week extension to manufacture 240,000 more gowns at a cost of $2.16 million.

Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Stanfield's was among several firms that had received letters of intent to manufacture personal protective equipment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2020.
The Carolina Quarantine of 1918

Remembering The Days Podcast  Bonus Episode

Today's COVID-19 landscape of quarantines and sickness bring to mind another pandemic  the 1918 influenza outbreak that hit hard on the University of South Carolina campus. One young student, Gadsden Shand, answered the call of duty and helped keep many of his classmates alive.

Transcript

The Carolina Quarantine of 1918

Schools, churches, businesses  closed. Mass gatherings  prohibited. Fear of contagion  widespread.

Those are the watchwords of our lives these days in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. They also describe what was happening just over a hundred years ago during the 1918 flu pandemic.

Im Chris Horn, your host for Remembering the Days, and this episode is about the perseverance of one student during that century-old pandemic. Its a story that took place right here on the campus of the University of South Carolina.

A wave of the 1918 flu pandemic began in the spring of that year, the first cases popping up in Kansas in the United States along with a smattering in Europe and Asia. The influenza then picked up steam and hit hard in the fall, just as the final battles of World War I were drawing to a bitter end. Cases of the Spanish Flu, as it was called, became rampant, and eventually one-third of everyone living on Earth at that time  some 500 million people  became infected. An estimated 50 million died.

At the University of South Carolina, 86 cases had been reported by October. The campus was quickly quarantined to try to slow the spread, but more than 300 of the universitys 900 students got sick.

That student population of 900 included about 400 trainees in the War Departments brand new Student Army Training Corps. These would-be soldiers couldnt defend themselves from the potent strain of flu that would end up taking the lives of 10 times more Americans than were killed during World War I.

Gadsden Shand was one of the student trainees. Shand was just 15 years old when he enrolled at the university and 16 when the flu pandemic hit.

He was captain of one of the training corps companies, and when most of his comrades fell ill, it was up to Shand to take care of them.

When he was 99 years old, Shand recalled that experience with University archivist Elizabeth West. He told her, quote, Oh, they got deathly sick, and the amazing part about it was, it all happened in one day. All of them. Except two of us.

The university had a small infirmary back then, across the street from what is now the Womens Quad. University administrators turned Woodrow College and the college gymnasium (what we now call Longstreet Theater) into makeshift quarters for sick students. They gave Shand some dormitory space to tend to his trainees.

I couldnt even find a doctor, they were all so busy, he said. So, I looked after the whole company, had to feed them and clothe them and everything else. I managed to get by with it somehow.

Pause for a moment and think about what that must have been like. Day after day attending to dozens of sick young men, all of them coughing, wheezing, running fever. Night after night of wondering when it would all come to an end,

Shand hoping all the while that he would not get sick himself.

Doctors and nurses on the frontlines of todays COVID-19 pandemic no doubt feel the same, doing their best to take care of, in some cases, too many patients. And praying they wont fall ill themselves.

Sadly, six of the student trainees on the University of South Carolina campus died because of the 1918 flu, but all of the men in Shands company survived.

The Student Army Training Corps was disbanded just about a month after it was launched  the sudden end to World War I had all but eliminated the need for more young Army officers. But when nearly all of his fellow soldiers-in-training were deathly ill, fighting for their lives against an invisible enemy  one young man at the university, Gadsden Shand, answered the call of duty and kept his men alive.

Thats all for this episode of Remembering the Days, a production of the Office of Communications and Public Affairs at the University of South Carolina. From everyone here, be safe, stay well and remember that in times of crisis, there are always heroes among us.

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Queen Elizabeth's speech on the coronavirus pandemic is no doubt inspiring, heartwarming, and soothing amidst the uncertain times. As she addressed the Brits, she made several hopeful comments about triumphing over this coronavirus pandemic.

Not only did she made Britons feel a little bit securer over the future, but she also made people around the world admire her tenacity and resilience, being a beacon of light in such dark times. The pandemic, after all, is affecting over 110 countries, and her speech carries weight not just in the United Kingdom but also in all other countries.



Shortly after her speech; however, a Facebook post has spread about her lambasting the Filipino citizens and praising the Philippine President. In this post, Queen Elizabeth's face during the speech is placed prominently into the picture. Beside the image of her face is a statement in quotation marks that read, "Pres. Duterte is the kind of leader who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. Filipinos are very fortunate to have him. Seriously, he looked so overworked. He may not be perfect, but he truly loves his country. The Philippines doesn't have the worst government. It has the worst citizens."



Naturally, given that the PH is presently not just experiencing the coronavirus crisis but also a political crisis where some groups of citizens are at arms against the imposed quarantine, the post got shared by those who are committed and supportive of their President.



According to Factrakers, however, this is a fake quote, one of the many already made about President Duterte. In the past, there had been one of Meredith Gray saying essentially the same thing - that Duterte has mad skills in handling Covid-19, and the Filipinos are the worst citizens. Grey is merely a fictional character in the hit series "Grey's Anatomy," so that was an obvious fake.



Also, even without Factrakers reporting on it, anyone who would have tuned in to the speech would know that the Queen certainly did not mention the PH president, let alone any other president of any nation.



She instead made use of the time to uplift the low spirits of the British and mentioned other things the world need to hear (Read: Queen Elizabeth II: 5 Things To Note From Her Majesty's Coronavirus Address).

The speech went quite viral, and has been praised repeatedly for its hopeful content. According to Vogue, it is just the message that the world needs right now. "Together, we are tackling this disease. I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it," she said.



The only time she even mentioned other countries was when she highlighted that this battle is a global one and emphasized the need to cooperate. Only then can this virus be eliminated successfully.

"While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavor," she said. "Using the great advances and science and our instinctive compassion to heal, we will succeed," she added.



The Queen added that when the time comes, that the virus is gone, the success will be celebrated by each and every person in the world. Right now, everyone should take comfort that even though there are still going to be more challenges, better days will come back. "We will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again, we will meet again," she heartwarmingly added.

Check out the viral Facebook post circulating now:

READ MORE: [UPDATE] Queen Elizabeth II In 'Good Health' After Coronavirus Scare
The government is working with stakeholders in the financial, health and pharmaceuticals sector to locally produce Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs)in the country to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.



The move, which has already commenced will see the delivery of some 3.6 million face masks in the next ten days to be distributed to people especially frontline workers to help fight the disease.



Also, an additional five companies would commence sewing some PPEs this week to increase the country's inadequate stock.



Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, the Minister of Health disclosed this when he received Ghanas share of the consignment of medical supplies donated by the government of China to other 17 African countries in Accra on Monday.



Among other supplies, Ghana received about 3000 of N95 face mask used in Intensive Care Unit, 800 infrared thermometers, 10,000 protective face mask, 2500 disposable overall, 2500 medical goggles, 10,000 hand gloves and 10,000 disposable shoe cover.



Countries to benefit from the gesture aside from Ghana are Nigeria, Senegal, Gabon, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea.



The rest are Cote dIvoire, Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Togo, Benin, Republic of Congo, Cape Verde, Sao Tome, and Principe.



Mr Agyemang-Manu thanked the Chines government for the support adding that the donation would help the logistics challenges facing the country was facing.



Ghana never expected to record a case of COVID-19 but unfortunately, the country had recorded cases and had observed some levels of community spread of, which the government had steps to trace and test.



We made an effort to prevent the disease from coming to Ghana but we did not fully achieve the expected results. As a proactive measures officials are doing intensive testing in hotspots to make sure that we go after the disease. We are undertaking many measures to halt the spread, he said.



The systems for health in West Africa is fragile and has not positioned itself strong enough as China did so we need support from outside...but governments are responding positively to reduce the spread,



He said going forward, it was important people begin to wear a protective mask to prevent the spread.



Mr Agyemang-Manu appealed to the public to adhere to the proactive measures outlined by health experts which include regular hands washing, observe social distancing, and staying home.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Gov. Phil Murphy and other officials, including state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli, will host a 1 p.m. briefing to provide an update on the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 1,000 people in New Jersey in the past month.

The press conference can be viewed on the governors YouTube.com channel. NJ Advance Media will add the live stream to this post when it becomes available.

The governor is usually joined by State Epidemiologist Dr. Christina Tan, and State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan and Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness Director Jared Maples. The list of speakers for Tuesday includes Department of Education Commissioner Dr. Lamont Repollet.

Murphy has frequently referred to people caught violating the states strict social distancing rules as knuckleheads. On Monday, he threw in an even more pejorative term  jackasses.

So vile and so unacceptable. I just cannot fathom, the governor said when referencing the Pink Floyd cover band concert in Rumson where attendees hurled criticism at police who arrived to break it up. They criticisms included F-the police and welcome to Nazi Germany.

To all the jackasses out there and all the knuckleheads out there, get with the program," Murphy said Monday.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 15:24:37|Editor: xuxin

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SYDNEY, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Australian authorities have continued to enforce strict social distancing laws, leaving iconic beaches empty as the local death toll from COVID-19 grew.

Normally teeming with tourists from around the world, two of the world's most famous beaches, Manly and Bondi, were eerily empty with police helping to enforce closures of public areas.

On Tuesday the country's death toll reached 45, with close to 6,000 confirmed cases nationally.

Written in the sand at Bondi were the words "stay home", a message which most Australians appear to have heard and followed.

A drive-through testing clinic also opened at Bondi, helping authorities tackle a spike of cases there, which is suspected to be due to a large number of travellers frequenting the area in past weeks.

On Monday a 21-year-old man was forcibly removed from the beach by police after he jumped a guard rail to try to reach the water.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said that people should get used to the new rules as they are the "new normal".

"Not having physical contact, socially distancing is, at the very minimum, a way of life for us," Berejiklian told reporters on Tuesday.

"Because we have to be honest with ourselves -- until a vaccine is found, there is no simple way to deal with this issue."

Australian prime Minister Scott Morrison and Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy echoed the sentiment, saying that any relaxing of federal distancing laws would be based on hard evidence.

The Federal Government released modelling which it was using to coordinate the response to COVID-19 which suggested that measures were working, but Morrison said that the decision to lift isolation measures would not be made lightly.

"You don't want to make decisions based on poor data. We've got to let the scientists do the work properly and not meet arbitrary timeframes," Morrison said.

"There is no map for this, we're in uncharted territory. There won't be one issue that determines that... we'll learn from those that have trialled things."
OTTAWA - There's a question asked each year by Jews as they begin the Passover holiday: "Why is this night different?"

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA - There's a question asked each year by Jews as they begin the Passover holiday: "Why is this night different?"

It's asked as a way into the telling of the Passover story, an ancient tale of the enslavement of Jews in Egypt, and their eventual freedom, that is at the heart of the holiday beginning Wednesday night.

Michelle Devorah Kahn, 30, stands in her Ottawa kitchen, in this handout image, as she shows off her shelves organized and ready for the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins April 8 at sundown. Usually, Kahn travels to celebrate the holiday with her family but COVID-19 means this year, shes staying home. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

But this year, the question takes on new meaning.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the cancellation of gatherings large and small, and religious observances are not exempt.

It's led to a debate about the Passover seder, the evening event that sees families welcome those from near and far to tell the Passover story, eat traditional and symbolic foods, and sing prayers and songs.

Public health and government officials have stressed that though it may hurt, the gatherings need to be cancelled this year. The message was repeated by the deputy prime minister Tuesday.

"This year celebrations will feel very different as all of us find ways to meet with our families and friends virtually rather than in person, but it is absolutely crucial that we continue to follow these rules to protect our families, our friends, our neighbours and our country," Chrystia Freeland said.

Religious leaders are saying the same. A consortium representing Orthodox Jews issued an extraordinary communique Monday, saying people need to stay home. Previously, its message was that seders were OK, if particpants had quarantined for two weeks first.

"Travel to other cities, or visits with family even within your city, should be cancelled," the statement said.

It's left people like Michelle Devorah Kahn wondering how to pack as much meaning into the holiday.

Kahn, 30, and her husband live in Ottawa, their parents in Montreal and Toronto. They usually travel to be with them for Passover. Her mother's house, she said, is normally packed to the rafters with people, the table laden with food.

But this year, Kahn will stay in Ottawa and prepare a simple supper with her husband.

"We'll do the best we can, with what we have," she said.

There will be other changes to mark a pandemic Passover.

Ordinarily Kahn gets rid of all the products in her house that aren't kosher for Passover. But this year, she has a stockpile of staples because of the pandemic, and she's not giving them up.

Kahn said her family also avoid using electricity on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays, but they are making an exception so they can use Zoom, the video-conferencing software.

Though a "Z-eder" might not have the same feel as seder, being able to "be" with her parents matters more, she said.

"It is going to be a unique Passover," she said. "And maybe one of our most memorable."

Religious and community leaders have moved to address how people can abide by the laws and customs of Passover in the midst of the pandemic.

Beyond Zoom, there is the issue of kosher for Passover goods. Ingredients prohibited on Passover can be found in a range of items. In Toronto, a group of health-care providers worked with the body that oversees which products are or aren't kosher to declare all hand-sanitizers OK; the sources of the particular alcohol in some sanitizers might put the products in question.

But regardless, they pointed out, it's usually best to just wash your hands.

A ritual washing of hands is part of the seder itself, and multiple jokes are circulating online about how it has suddenly become the most important part.

Kahn said she also sees resonance in another element, the plagues. Part of the Passover story involves 10 plagues experienced by the people of Egypt for refusing to free the Jews.

Kahn said while it's easy to see COVID-19 as a plague, as people suffer and die, it also forces seders back to the basics.

"What the story is about is our freedom, and this year we don't feel so free."

An opportunity to rethink what and how seders can be run was part of this year's Passover prep for PJ Library, a not-for-profit that runs engagement and literacy programs for Jewish families across North America.

Recognizing that many families would be running their own seders for the first time, they updated their Passover resources to include videos and a "cheat sheet" to help people make sense of the ritual and stories.

There's a lesson to be found in the three symbolic foods of Passover, said Meredith Lewis, the director of content, education, and family experience for PJ Library.

The unleavened bread, known as matzah, the bitter herb and a shank bone point to the individual experience of Jews in their homes in ancient Egypt, waiting for their eventual release from slavery.

"This year, we are in our houses with our families, under this cloud," she said.

"But we must remember that now  and then  on the other side of the door eventually was freedom."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2020.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz blasted Saudi Arabia during a radio interview in Houston on Tuesday for damaging the Texas oil economy by driving down prices.

What theyre doing is taking advantage of this public health crisis to try to bankrupt Texas shale producers, Cruz said in an interview with conservative radio host Michael Berry on AM 740 KTRH radio.

Cruz said the Saudis have tried to deflect criticism by claiming Russia is to blame, not them.

Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

But Cruz said in a recent call with the Saudi ambassador he made it abundantly clear he is not buying that argument.

Russias our enemy, he said he told the ambassador. They behave like our enemy and we treat them like our enemy. Youre supposed to be our damn friend.

Cruz said he left the ambassador with a stern warning that if the Saudis continue waging an economic war against Texas there will be a price to pay.

If youre going to behave like an enemy, you can damn sure expect to be treated like an enemy, he said.

Cruz said he thinks his message to the ambassador was loud and clear.

As Russia and Saudi Arabia have upped production, the price of crude has fallen from near $60 a barrel to under $20 at one point.

Last week, President Donald Trump said he was having talks with Russia and Saudi Arabia and said they may be ready to drop oil production by 10 million or 15 million barrels, which could help boost prices.

Russia and OPEC, which includes Saudi Arabia, are expected to meet Thursday to discuss oil production.
Promote first, communicate foremost. Number two, straighten out the administrative lines. Number three, get in sense of the economy. Follow every step in orderas if you dont, you will contractand you won't be able to economize on what you don't have.

On March 31, PR agency JOTO PR Disruptors held its first TOP COVID-19 Summit: Quarantined Press Conference in what will be a bi-weekly webinar series covering multiple industries and topics. Led by Moderator Karla Jo Helms, Chief Evangelist and Anti-PR Strategist of JOTO PR Disruptors, the 3-hour press conference featured a panel of experts from the healthcare, supply chain, finance, technology, and eCommerce industries to discuss what is happening in regards to each panelists zone of expertise. This diverse group provided real-time information as consumers and businesses all over the world tackle pivoting and pushing forward amidst COVID-19.

We put together our panel based on requests from media and our contacts who are searching for stories of help, hope and solutions that are being implemented in one industry or business that could possibly be applied to other industries and businesses, Helms says. All these industries are interrelated and interdependent. What is affecting one is affecting another in ways that we might not see. Likewise, what is helping one could also help another. The leaders on this panel want to help.

A few notable talking points during the press conference included:



SUPPLY CHAIN: John Kearney of Advanced Training Systems discussed recent impacts on the supply chain and the trucking industry, specifically highlighting the increased closures of truck stops, driver schools, and even DMVs.

ECOMMERCE: Monica Eaton-Cardone of Chargebacks911 touched on issues many industries are faced with in seeing more and more chargebacks from consumers throughout the crisis.

HEALTHCARE: Steve Treff and Barbara Rambo of MC-Rx gave insight on the prescription medication industry and the growing use of mail-in prescriptions. Dr. Craig Escude of Health Risk Screening (HRS Inc.) talked about how COVID-19 implicationssuch as social distancingparticularly impinge on individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

TECHNOLOGY: Mike McLaughlin and Marivi Stuchinsky of Technologent mentioned how many companies are adapting to establish and operate as remote workforces. Jim Vicatos of Choice IoT answered questions coming in about internet bandwidth and connectivity specifics (such as 5G and LTE). Sky Cassidy from MountainTop Data discussed some best practices when it comes to marketing and communication for companies during COVID-19.

FINANCE: Elliot Dinkin of Cowden Associates, Inc. cited information and data surrounding the subject of employee retention, options, and solutions as related to COVID-19. Jeff Mount of Real Intelligence, LLC expanded on financial advising topics like liquidity, money management, and more.

After the press conference, attendees with questions for the panelists or about these industries were encouraged to contact press@jotopr.com for more information. Additionally, JOTO PR Disruptors is currently putting together a resource guide for consumers and businesses to include informative tools, data, and other resources from industry experts as discussed during and after the press conference. Going forward, Helms says future press conferences will be shorter in length, with each event aimed to be more targeted and geared towards hearing from industry-specific experts to offer real-time insight, information, and solutions on their response to the current pandemic. At the end of the webinar, Helms stressed the importance of communication, which she says is critical in persevering through this crisis as a community.

This is not the time to cut back on your communications. In all my years of crisis management, we operated on a primary principle: nature abhors a vacuum. And in a time of crisis, it seems that people tend to communicate lessdo not fall into this. It's a trap. And those that don't follow the correct sequence of expansion during a financial crisis will contract and come out smaller, Helms says. Promote first, communicate foremost. Number two, straighten out the administrative lines. Number three, get in sense of the economy. Follow every step in orderas if you dont, you will contractand you won't be able to economize on what you don't have.

While the panel of experts is still being determined, the second event of the TOP COVID-19 Summit: Quarantined Press Conference bi-weekly series will focus on the healthcare industry and is scheduled for Tuesday, April 14th from 2-3PM EDT. All are welcome to attend. For more information and to sign up, visit the events registration page.

About JOTO PR DisruptorsTM:

After doing marketing research on a cross-section majority of 5,000 CEOs of fast-growth trajectory companies and finding out exactly how they used PR, how they measure it and how they wanted the PR industry to be different, PR veteran and innovator Karla Jo Helms created JOTO PR and established its entire business model on those research findings. Astute in recognizing industry changes since its launch in 2009, JOTO PRs team utilizes newly established patterns to create timely PR campaigns comprising both traditional and the latest proven media methods. This unique skill enables JOTO PR to continue to increase the market share and improve return on investment (ROI) for its clients, year after yearbeating usual industry standards. Based in Tampa Bay, Florida, JOTO PR is an established international public relations agency. Today, all JOTO PRs processes are streamlined PR services that have become the hallmark of the JOTO PR name. For more information, visit JOTO PR online at http://www.jotopr.com.

About Karla Jo Helms:

Karla Jo Helms is the Chief Evangelist and Anti-PR Strategist for JOTO PR. Karla Jo learned firsthand how unforgiving business can be when millions of dollars are on the lineand how the control of public opinion often determines whether one company is happily chosen or another is brutally rejected.

Being an alumna of crisis management, Karla Jo has worked with litigation attorneys, private investigators and the media to help restore companies of goodwill back into the good graces of public opinionKarla Jo operates on the ethic of getting it right the first time, not relying on second chances, and doing what it takes to excel.

Karla Jo has patterned her agency on the perfect balance of crisis management, entrepreneurial insight and proven public relations experience. Helms speaks globally on public relations, how the PR industry itself has lost its way and how, in the right hands, corporations can harness the power of PR to drive markets and impact market perception.

###
Contracting Covid-19 does not always mean death, and if we in Vietnam remain patient, we can beat the disease.

Cap Thi Yen

Sometimes I wonder, what are those viruses doing in my body? Ive been experiencing a little pressure in my chest, you see.

Would they attack and damage my lungs? Ive been reading stories of foreign patients with Covid-19, telling how they had suffered fever, coughs, breathing difficulties and pain all over their bodies, many having been killed. "Will tomorrow feel worse than this?" I asked myself.

Its been ten days since I flew back to Vietnam from the U.K. on March 22 and entered quarantine. This is the first day I started to show symptoms.

Previously, I was totally fine. Without the test, I would never have doubted I had been infected.

It was around dawn of March 27, when I was officially confirmed Covid-19 positive  "Patient 155" in Vietnam.

That evening when I had been transferred from a quarantine camp to Bac Lieu General Hospital in southern Bac Lieu Province, a wave of messages arrived. Many of my friends and acquaintances sent me screenshot photos of the news they had seen, asking me if it was true. "Is this really you, Yen. How come you got infected?"

Yes, yes its me. But why me? That flight carried 300 passengers and only a few got infected, including me. I burst into tears, feeling nothing but fear.

When the epidemic broke out in the U.K. and kept spreading, I did not dare go anywhere rather than to school and supermarkets. I always wore a face mask when going outside, keeping the alcoholic gel with me and at school. I regularly went to the restroom to wash my hands with soap and water. In many cases, I even used a napkin to cover the knob when opening a door.

When returning to Vietnam, I wore a face mask at the airport. I even wore gloves and kept washing my hands whenever I could. By the time it was announced I had contracted the new coronavirus I still felt totally healthy.

But those messages kept arriving to my phone, bearing tons of questions. They did not help though, I was shocked and worried.

At the time, sitting alone in a hospital room of 12-square-meters, I was frightened of those messages even more than the virus, well aware they only revealed how much people cared for me.

I called my parents and kept crying as I talked.

By the time I wrote these lines, I had stopped counting my days in quarantine.

Vietnamese Covid-19 patients take a group photo as they are released from the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, April 1, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh.

A day as a Covid-19 patient at Bac Lieu General Hospital starts at 6 a.m. for me.

A nurse wakes me via phone, asking me to collect my breakfast and new clothes. After, I make my bed, complete my morning hygiene routine and eat. The nurse then sends a message to a group chat of Covid-19 patients, reminding us to check our own temperature and get changed so staff could pick up our old clothes to wash.

Today, April 1, my temperature is 36.3 degrees Celsius. I have not run any fevers but started to notice some fatigue, chest pain and an uncomfortable feeling in my nose.

Past nine oclock, doctors come to check my blood pressure, gather blood samples as well as throat and nasal swabs for testing. Ive always been a fearful person, so the first day my blood was drawn, I screamed and cried so loud doctors and other patients rushed to check on me.

"How are you feeling today? Do you feel any sore throat, chest pain? Do you cough or sneeze?" are routine questions. Following my answer, doctors always tell me: "Thats good. Keep fighting!"

"Do you lack anything? Is there anything you need?" nurses ask. But I know how hard they are working so I remain content with what I have.

For medicine, I take two pills twice a day.

After lunch and a nap, I feel a little less tired. The afternoon is for studying. I am a student at the Foreign Trade University in Hanoi. After completing my junior year, I accessed a transitional program (top-up) to study at the University of Huddersfield in England. I had been at Huddersfield only two months when the school announced temporary closure and a switch to online classes until the end of July. During this period, students will have a three-week Easter break, starting March 30. After July, students will commence summer break before starting a new semester in September. As such, I do not have to go to school for five months and with the lockdown about to be applied in England, I had decided to go home, as soon as I can.

Back in Vietnam, the Foreign Trade University in Hanoi did not have an Easter break yet it had already started a new semester, so I registered for one subject, and today is my first online class. Studying online is not a problem for me since I have been doing so from high-school. The class today was great, the teacher had such as good sense of humor and getting the chance to interact with others really lifted my mood.

I receive video calls from my parents, other family members and friends every day. Everybody tries to cheer me up and make me feel better. I also entertain myself by watching funny videos, laughing by myself. Yet when the sun goes down and there are no more rays of sunshine slanting through the window and the canopies behind the patient rooms, when the dark arrives and covers everything, I feel homesick.

Right after returning to Vietnam, I had been transferred to a quarantine camp in Bac Lieu, which is almost 2,000 km (1,242 miles) away from my hometown in Hung Yen Province of northern Vietnam. I used to wonder how I would return home after everything is over and was worried because flights and traffic have been limited. But now, I have stopped thinking about that because I know I will have to stay isolated at hospital for weeks to come. When my parents suggested they would come visit me, I told them they should stay where they were to curb the infection spread. Besides, even if they were in Bac Lieu, they could not meet me directly. So Ive been telling myself to be stronger, because what if one day I am all alone in the U.K. and get sick there?

In the past few days, Ive tried to make myself look good, even when there is nobody watching. I wear some lipstick, so that when I look into the mirror, I would see a prettier me and feel more confident and cheerful.

Ive been wearing my blue patient uniform every day and letting my hair down as it is supposed to, but today, Ive decided to do up my hair, changing it a little. Not bad at all, I told my reflection in the mirror, and noticed my face had got a little fatter.

Then I grab a bottle of water and drop some on the rose flowers in the room. I look at them for a while and smile to myself. Out there in many other places in this world, there are a lot of people who have already contracted the new coronavirus but have been told to quarantine themselves at home, and there have been people who recovered from the disease on their own without any help from doctors and nurses.

I am young, I have a good immune system and until recently, the only symptom I have experienced is the pressure in my chest. I HAVE TO STAY STRONG.

Im writing these words not to fool people into thinking Covid-19 is not scary. In fact, everybody should know by now the disease is super contagious and has taken the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world in a short period of time.

But if you are unlucky enough to contract the virus, please do not freak out. It is not really that terrible. For me, Ive been feeling good thus far. And more importantly, if being pessimistic is no help, why not be optimistic?

*Cap Thi Yen is a 21-year-old Vietnamese woman who lives in Hung Yen Provinces An Thi Town. She is a student at Huddersfield University in the U.K. On March 22, she landed in Can Tho on Vietnam Airlines flight VN50, seat 2K. She showed no symptoms when quarantined at Bac Lieu Provinces Military School. Once her samples tested positive, she was transferred to Bac Lieu General Hospital for treatment. The opinions expressed are her own.
This time last year, Kate Good was putting the final touches on her Easter dinner plans. The big ham was ordered. The recipes for dessert and side dishes in place. Daffodils ready to go into vases. The linens accounted for more than a dozen family members to gather at her Houston home.

How very different this Easter will be.

Against a horrific backdrop of mounting coronavirus deaths and diagnoses in the country, American Christians have approached Holy Week with religious and dining traditions in flux. Just like Passover, rituals have been upended as nearly the entire country is isolating against a global pandemic. Faith is everlasting; the makeshift Easter dinner transient. At least for 2020.

But after so many days of self-quarantine where meals have become rote, Good said she still plans to make Easter special, even if it is for just her and her husband.

I think we need to have a day that does not feel like every other day, so I am planning a fun afternoon to celebrate Easter, said the principal for multifamily development and operations for Hunington Properties. We cant have people over, but I still want to do something celebratory that feels different from the routine.

RECIPE: Maple-Glazed Ham

So she ordered her Honey Baked Ham, looked up a recipe for corn pudding; she plans on ordering a cake from Three Brothers Bakery and getting flowers at H-E-B.

There are foods we want every holiday. This year, some of that might not happen, said Bridget Lancaster, executive food editor and co-host of Americas Test Kitchen and Cooks Country on public television. We have to be easy on ourselves. This is something we cant control.

That means forgiving you might not have your traditional roast lamb or glazed ham  and if you do, it might be smaller and shared with fewer people. Or have access to fresh vegetables or enjoy that dessert your aunt brings.

Even if youre having burgers off the grill, if thats what you can manage for Easter, its still giving thanks for whats on the table and the people who are still around you, Lancaster said.

Taste of Home, the magazine and website fueled by user-generated recipes, has seen traffic spike for recipes that reflect the ways we are now cooking and baking at home during COVID-19. And for Easter, the popular searches have been for topics such as recipes to feed two and four; recipes for small groups; and how to cut down recipe yields.

RECIPE: Feta Asparagus Frittata

As we planned our Easter offerings, we made sure to have lots of options for celebrations that would include fewer people at the table this year during social distancing, said Jeanne Sidner, content director for Trusted Media Brands, which publishes Taste of Home. Now that the reality has set in that we arent doing big Easter brunches or dinners, were starting to see traffic to these new pieces.

Still, classic Easter recipes for dishes such as au gratin potatoes, scalloped potatoes and sugar-glazed ham remain popular, Sidner said, suggesting that those who can are holding tight to their traditional Easter meals.

Jim Logan hopes such is the case. The president of Logan Farms Honey Glazed Hams, which has five retail stores in Louisiana, Mississippi and Houston, fears his ham sales will tank this Easter season. Foot traffic to the Houston store at 10950 Westheimer has been light, with only a fraction of calls placing orders. Hes had to offer free delivery within a 25-mile radius  a service hes never done for his bone-in, spiral-cut, hickory-smoked glazed hams.

He said if hes lucky he might do half the business he did last year. I think about it all day  when I wake up and when I go to sleep, Logan said. Im a little guy; Im on the bottom of the food chain. Im nervous. The business side of me doesnt want to be that pessimistic, but I cant help but wonder.

RECIPE: Texas Garlic Mashed Potatoes

As a small businessman in a food-service industry that has been rocked to its core, Logan is hardly alone. Restaurants, caterers, bakers, bartenders, farmers, specialty-food producers  theyre all facing a new way of doing business and a broken food chain.

Easter will be a challenge for all of us this year with COVID-19, said Elizabeth Stone, president and executive chef of The Stone Kitchen Catering & Special events in Houston.

One suggestion she has to ensure Easter traditions is to prepare the traditional meal and deliver parts of it to various family members who on Easter can join on a Zoom video call.

Everyone could pray, celebrate and eat together virtually, the longtime Houston caterer said. I think during these trying times, to have some sense of normalcy is important. Good food and good memories are healing to the soul. Easter is a time to celebrate the wonderful blessings in our lives, and sharing a meal together celebrating Easter, even though virtually, is still a true gift.

greg.morago@chron.com
Former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia will stay out of a courthouse for several more months.

U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lellings office said his trial, scheduled for May, has been pushed back to Sept. 14

He is accused of soliciting bribes from marijuana businesses seeking to open in the Southeastern Massachusetts. In total, prosecutors say Correia pocketed about $600,000 in bribes.

Correia pleaded not guilty to the charges. Speaking to reporters outside of the courthouse following his arraignment, Correia maintained his innocence.

He was already awaiting trial on charges that he defrauded investors in his startup, SnoOwl. He was arrested, then released on several conditions in October.

Correia survived the City Councils attempt to remove him from office as a Bristol County Superior Court judge sided with him in court. Days later, however, he announced he was suspending his re-election campaign and taking a leave of absence.

Cliff Ponte, president of the Fall River City Council, was appointed acting mayor in Correias absence, while Correia continued to collect his $119,000 annual salary and retain his title until his term expired in January.

Paul Coogan, a longtime employee of the Fall River Public Schools and two-time member of the citys school committee, won the mayoral race with 79% of the citys vote. He took office in January.

Correia was elected to the office in 2015 at 23 years old, making him the youngest mayor in Fall Rivers history.
Security forces raided two militant hideouts in former Taliban strongholds in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border on April 7, killing seven militants, the military said.



Four militants were killed in the first raid in North Waziristan, which in recent years was the base of several local and foreign militant groups, according to a statement by the military.



Three more militants were killed in the former tribal region of Mohmand, the statement said.



Security forces seized a cache of weapons from both militant hideouts, the military said.



It wasn't immediately clear what militant group was raided and the military provided no further details.



The military's claim could not be independently confirmed.



The Pakistan Taliban had been based in North Waziristan until 2017 when the military launched a series of large-scale operations that it claimed had dismantled the militants' network and killed, arrested, or dislodged many of them.



However, violence has continued in the region.

With reporting by AP and dawn.com
Amazon is tracking its warehouse staff and will fire them for failing to socially distance themselves from their co-workers.

Workers at facilities across the United States are said to have received letters from their employer explaining they could be sacked after just one warning.

A number of Amazon employees have walked out in recent days over conditions and pay amid the coronavirus pandemic. One worker told CNBC it is understood cameras would be used to watch and review staff for any potential violations.

An Amazon spokesman told DailyMail.com they are taking 'intense measures' to ensure safety, adding: 'Weve had some instances of employees intentionally violating our clear guidelines on social distancing at our sites, which endangers both the individual and their colleagues.'

It is understood workers will be warned if they are caught failing to follow the new rules. They may then be fired if are found to have broken them for a second time.

The spokesman added: 'Individuals who intentionally violate our social distancing guidelines will receive two warnings  on the second documented offense, termination may occur.'

A worker wearing a protective mask and gloves carries Amazon.com Inc. boxes during a delivery in the Bronx borough of New York

Amazon employees hold a protest and walkout over conditions at the company's Staten Island distribution facility on March 30

Workers at facilities across the United States are said to have received letters from their employer explaining they could be sacked after just one warning

The US is now barreling towards the infection's projected peak day on April 16 when experts predict there will be over 3,000 deaths in 24 hours. The death toll reached 12,035 across the country Monday.

One worker in Illinois welcomed the move, saying: 'It was very hard to get into peoples heads that they need to abide by this. People really werent paying a lot of attention. But we dont want anybody to do anything thats unsafe.'

Staff at an Amazon delivery facility in Chicago protested Saturday, looking for more protections as they work. Police who broke up the vehicular picket were told they should be 'ashamed' of themselves, Patch.com reports.

Their colleagues in New York City also walked out last week and one worker was fired after protesting at the Staten Island facility.

Grocery and warehouse workers - many in low-wage jobs - are manning the frontlines amid worldwide lockdowns, their work deemed essential to keep food and critical goods flowing.

They are insisting employers pay them more and provide masks, gloves, gowns and access to testing.

A driver wears a protective mask while traveling in an Amazon delivery truck in New Rochelle, New York

Protesters are seen at Amazon building in Staten Island on March 30

Major grocery stores across the US report first employee deaths Top supermarket chains across the United States are reporting their first COVID-19 employee deaths after at least four staffers at retailers like Walmart and Trader Joe's died. Uncertainty amid the coronavirus pandemic has fueled stress among workers afraid of contracting the disease from customers and unexpected store closures. Two Walmart employees at the same Chicago-area store, a Trader Joe's worker in New York, and a greeter at a Maryland Giant grocery store passed away in the last two weeks. The Washington Post reports that thousands at grocery store staffers nationwide continue to work as 368,254 Americans were infected with COVID-19 and 11,000 died. Those numbers include grocery store employees who have complained of not having protective gear - like face masks and gloves - during shifts. Dozens have tested positive for the coronavirus. Experts said the influx of employee infections and deaths could likely affect grocers' ability to both maintain and add new staff. At the moment, Walmart, the largest private employer in the United States, announced they would hire 150,000 workers, while Kroger will boost staff by 10,000. Several grocers' are incentivizing potential workers with promises of masks, gloves, hand sanitizer and an extra $2 an hour. Advertisement

In a handful of states - Minnesota and Vermont were the first - have given grocery workers a special classification that allows them to put their children in state-paid child care while they work.

Unions in Colorado, Alaska, Texas and many other states are pressing governors to elevate grocery workers to the status of first responders.

To alleviate the concerns of some their workers Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, said it is rolling out face masks and temperature checks at all its U.S. and European warehouses by next week.

The company has also been in contact with the CEOs of two coronavirus test makers as it considers how to screen its staff and reduce the risk of infection at its warehouses, according to internal meeting notes seen by Reuters.

Worker at the Chicago facility who went on strike over the weekend said they were concerned about a lack of communication when one of their colleagues tested positive for the virus.

One driver said: Two people got confirmed with coronavirus and they never told us it was in the warehouse. The drivers also, we've got to go in the warehouse, load our vans and everything.

'There is no such thing as social distancing [in there] because you're all up close on each other.'

Amazon say they have made 'several changes to align with social distancing guidance' including increased cleaning and disinfecting at sites, no longer holding stand-up meetings during shifts, and a new cell phone process for those who need to be in contact with their families or childcare providers'.

A spokesman told the DailyMail.com: 'Our employees are heroes fighting for their communities and helping people get critical items they need in this crisis. Like all businesses grappling with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we are working hard to keep employees safe while serving communities and the most vulnerable.

'We have taken extreme measures to keep people safe, tripling down on deep cleaning, procuring safety supplies that are available and changing processes to ensure those in our buildings are keeping safe distances.

We are committed to protecting our employees through our preventative health measures, enhanced cleaning and sanitation, and a broad suite of new benefits, including extended paid leave options for fulltime employees, additional $2 per hour, double time for overtime, and paid time off (PTO) benefits for regular part-time and seasonal employees. We enforce strict 6 social distancing on our property and throughout our facilities.

'We also communicate when a COVID-19 case is confirmed in one of our buildings to all individuals who work at that site not just to those whove come in close contact with the diagnosed individual.'
Photograph: John Phillips/Getty Images

Faced with a global coronavirus pandemic that is increasingly centered upon the US, Donald Trump has touted several drugs that he claims can help tackle the outbreak.

In March, the US president used a press conference to promote the use of hydroxychloroquine, a common anti-malaria drug, to treat Covid-19, saying: I sure as hell think we ought to give it a try.

Related: Chloroquine: Trump's misleading claims spark hoarding and overdoses

He followed this with a tweet that claimed the use of the drug in combination with azithromycin, an antibiotic, could be one of the biggest game-changers in the history of medicine. On Sunday Trump again touted hydroxychloroquine, saying there are some very strong, powerful signs of its potential as a Covid-19 therapy.

Trump has been repeatedly contradicted by public health experts including his own top infectious diseases adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, who has warned that there is only anecdotal evidence that the drugs could be helpful.

Confronted with this disparity Trump, who has repeatedly made false and misleading assertions throughout the coronavirus crisis, responded by telling reporters that Im a smart guy and Ive been right a lot. The Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity have been promoting hydroxychloroquine on their shows.

Last week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided hydroxychloroquine with an emergency use authorization to use on coronavirus patients in some circumstances. State officials in New York have said that about 4,000 seriously ill patients are now being treated with the drug.

But with some Americans turning to unconventional, and potentially deadly, treatments for coronavirus, medical experts have called for considered, accurate information to avoid exacerbating the pandemic.

Last month an Arizona man died and his wife was left in critical condition after the couple took chloroquine phosphate, an additive used to clean fish tanks that is related to the composition of the anti-malaria treatment promoted by Trump.

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Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure, the woman told NBC, before advising: Dont take anything. Dont believe anything. Dont believe anything that the president says and his people  call your doctor.

Here are the key things to know:

What is hydroxychloroquine?

Hydroxychloroquine, also known by its brand name, Plaquenil, is a drug used to treat malaria. It is a less toxic version of chloroquine, another malaria drug, which itself is related to quinine, an ingredient in tonic water.

It is also readily available to Americans  already approved as a malaria and anti-inflammation treatment by the FDA  where it is an off-the-shelf drug with various low-cost generic versions. Despite the emergency use order, the FDA has not conducted clinical trials to fully ascertain whether the drug is an effective treatment for Covid-19.

Why is Trump touting it?

Trump was influenced by a widely publicized study in France where 40 coronavirus patients were given hydroxychloroquine, with more than half experiencing the clearing of their airways within three to six days. This apparent improvement is important as it would curtail the timeframe in which infected people could spread Covid-19 to others.

However, experts have warned that the study is small and lacks sufficient rigor to be classed as evidence of a potential treatment. The French health ministry has warned against the use of hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19, with Olivier Veran, Frances health minister, saying that it shouldnt be used by anyone with the exception of serious forms of hospitalization and on the collegial decision of doctors and under strict medical supervision.

What does the evidence show?

The French study followed work by Chinese researchers which suggested that hydroxychloroquine can slow infections from Sars-CoV-2, the virus behind Covid-19, by blocking it from entering cells in the body. But more recent, albeit small-scale, research from China has shown that patients who were treated with the drugs fought off coronavirus no more quickly than those who didnt get it. Indeed, one patient given hydroxychloroquine severely worsened in condition while four patients on the medicine developed signs of liver damage and experienced diarrhea.

Regardless of these findings, any drug being used for a certain purpose before full clinical trials are completed is, by definition, untested and unproven. Its too early to say if hydroxychloroquine can have a major benefit or not.

The European Medicines Agency, an agency of the EU, has said hydroxychloroquine should not be taken by coronavirus patients except for clinical trials or emergency use programs.

Are there any downsides to this drug being in demand?

Like many drugs, hydroxychloroquine comes with a number of potential side-effects. These include headaches, dizziness, stomach pain, weight loss and mood changes.

Worse, a sudden surge in demand for hydroxychloroquine risks shortages of the drug for those who need it most. Hydroxychloroquine is able to keep lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease, in check but some people with the condition have complained they are now unable to find Plaquenil. Trumps pushing of the treatment has caused many Americans, whether they need it or not, to stock up on the drug.

What should people do instead?

The latest Chinese research suggests that using hydroxychloroquine is no better than more conventional coronavirus treatments, such as bed rest, antiviral drugs and oxygen inhalation. There are about 40 different research efforts around the world to find a vaccine, which may take a year or more, while scientists rummaging around in the existing medical cabinet have identified some other drugs that may be repurposed to tackle Covid-19. But this work, too, will take time.

Conclusion?

There is no magic cure for this pandemic, no matter what Trump says.

Due to the unprecedented and ongoing nature of the coronavirus outbreak, this article is being regularly updated to ensure that it reflects the current situation at the date of publication. Any significant corrections made to this or previous versions of the article will continue to be footnoted in line with Guardian editorial policy.
A lizard in Australia appears to be capable of simultaneously laying eggs and giving birth to live babies, something that has never previously been observed.

The finding comes from scientists at the University of Sydney who spent years studying the three-toed skink, more formally known as Saiphos equalis.

Researchers have long known the skink is capable of 'bimodal reproduction,' meaning they can either lay eggs or carry babies internally, but it was always assumed they would rely on one method or the other.

Scientists from the University of Sydney observed the three-toed skink giving live birth and laying eggs at the same time, something no one has ever documented before

This marks the first time researchers have observed the animal reproducing through both methods at the same time, according to a report in Vice.

In the past, 150 species are believed to have made the evolutionary transition from laying eggs to reproducing through live birth, suggesting the skink might be caught in an evolutionary transition between two states.

'We dont know which "direction" evolution is taking,' University of Sydney's Camilla Whittington told Vice.

'In some environments, egg-laying might be more advantageous than live-bearing. In that situation, we would predict that egg-laying would persist.'

Previous research has shown that three-toed skinks tend to rely on different reproductive methods in different climates.

In hotter and drier regions like Sydney, for instance, the three-toed skinks generally lay eggs to reproduce.

In colder climates like New South Wales, meanwhile, they will more often carry their young internally and eventually go through a live birth.

'Theres a prominent evolutionary hypothesis called the "cold-climate hypothesis"' Whittington said, 'that states that live-bearing might be advantageous in cooler climates, and the distribution of these lizards seems to fit that prediction.'

'However, there is so much about the biology of these lizards that is still a mystery that we cant say for sure yetwhich is why we are continuing to work on this species.'

Past research had shown the three-toed skink was capable of switching between the two modes of reproduction in different climates, but no one had thought they could do both at the same time

One possible explanation, according to the team, is that the animals might be adapting to growing climate instability, which has made seasonal weather both more extreme and less predictable.

According Whittington, as the global climate continues to change, 'the adaptive advantages of egg-laying versus live-bearing may also change, which might push populations towards egg-laying or live bearing,'

'We predict that reversals from live-bearing back to egg-laying might even be possible, because of the similarities in gene expression of egg-laying and live-bearing three-toed skinks.'
Kylie Jenner's best friend Anastasia 'Stassie Baby' Karanikolaou has found a fun way to self isolate.

The model is working on her tan as she proved on Monday when sharing a photo in her light pink bikini while in the backyard of her Los Angeles home.

The caption for her alluring post read, 'Rose all day' as she held onto a glass of rose wine with a Dior bag next to her lounge chair.

Chilled: Kylie Jenner's best friend Anastasia 'Stassie Baby' Karanikolaou has found a fun way to self isolate. The model is working on her tan as she proved on Monday when sharing a photo in her light pink bikini while in the backyard of her Los Angeles home

The cover girl added the credit Treasures New York to her post.

Last week the stunner shared flashback images from her trip to the Bahamas where she had on a red string bikini.

The star has also been busy as a talk show host. She has been hosting the Stassie Karanikolaou's #DoYourPart Instagram Live series.

Jenner was her guest last week.

Standing tall: Last week the stunner shared flashback images from her trip to the Bahamas where she had on a red string bikini.

The back story: Here her backside is on display as she walked up the sandy beach

During a game of 'Would You Rather,' the appearance took a NSFW turn when the 22-year-old makeup mogul was asked if she would rather her partner 'have a weird accent when having sex or be completely silent.'

'I would rather he be completely silent,' admitted Jenner, who could not utter her answer without cracking a visible smirk.

'Really?' asked Karanikolaou, who seemed shocked by Jenner's response.

'Absolutely. I could not handle the weird accent,' replied the Kylie Cosmetics CEO.

Talk show diva: The star has also been busy as a talk show host. She has been hosting the Stassie Karanikolaou's #DoYourPart Instagram Live series. Jenner was her guest last week

Though there was one exception to Kylie's rule: if the 'weird' accent was 'natural', it is a go.

'Unless he had a weird accent, like naturally. If he had an accent, fine.'

She continued to clarify: 'If he didnt have an accent and then when were intimate, he starts talking in a weird accent...absolutely not!'

Last month Stassie took to social media to let young people know they have to do their part to stop the spread of coronavirus and stay indoors.

The blonde model stripped down to her black undies to get her fans' attention.

'Ive been social distancing and self quarantining for days now, not that i feel sick, just doing my part in taking the precautions to make sure everyone stays safe,' began the star as she was seen cooking in her kitchen.

'You may not be worried because youre healthy and will be fine but you could still be a carrier and affect others with low immune systems.

'Its not just about you. we all need to do our part to keep everyone safe from this.

'I know its a scary time but the best thing to do is not believe everything you read and stay educated.'

Good work: Karanikolaou let young people know they have to do their part to stop the spread of coronavirus and stay indoors

Read this please: The blonde model stripped down to her black undies to get her fans' attention. 'Ive been social distancing and self quarantining for days now, not that i feel sick, just doing my part in taking the precautions to make sure everyone stays safe,' began the star as she was seen cooking in her kitchen

And then she added some helpful information: 'Mayor garcetti is doing a daily facebook live with constant updates on whats happening, if you dont have facebook like me, @ncentineo is streaming it on his ig live everyday.'

She closed with: 'And yes im in cooking in my undies because i can and not because my foster pup peed on me. Stop hoard buying, foster a dog if you can, wash your hands & stay home '

Stassie came to fame when she started spending time with the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star earlier this year after Kylie stopped hanging out with Jordyn Woods after the Tristan Thompson/Khloe Kardashian cheating scandal that involved a kiss at a house party.

Stassie also talked to People about her new swim line.

'Im very picky with my swimwear and the designs that I think are flattering,' she said.

'For the line, I was very particular with how everything fit and designed it to be flattering on every body type, not just mine. I wanted everyone to feel and look good in it.'

She also said she prefers string bikinis.

And the star added that Kylie helped her with the line: 'We love to twin. Its a cute, fun thing we started and now we just run with it. The twinning never stops!'

She made Kylie try on her designs.

Posing at home: On Monday Kylie shared this image where she was modeling tie dye

Baby Stormi: And the 22-year-old makeup mogul also said her daughter's hair was getting really long as she styled it up

'I made all of my friends come for a try-on party and test all the samples so I could see how it looked on each of my their bodies. I took everyones feedback and put it back into the designs and this is what we have now. The process was definitely a group effort and we collectively came up with it together. Im really happy with how it came out.'

Stassie also talked to UsWeekly about her new swim line.

'I have literally over 1,000 bikinis at my house and Im very specific about the fit, the styles, what I like and what I think is flattering on everyones different body types,' Karanikolaou said.

'I got inspo from my friends and their feedback.  We had a lot of fitting parties with different samples and I took what they were saying and edited it and came out with our styles,' she added.
WASHINGTON  Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned after mishandling the firing of the captain of the COVID-19-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt, Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced Tuesday.

Esper accepted Modly's resignation letter Tuesday morning and said it was voluntary on Modly's part.

"He resigned on his own accord, putting the Navy and sailors above self so that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and the Navy as a whole, can move forward," Esper said in a statement.

This morning I accepted Secretary Modly's resignation. With the approval of the President, I am appointing current Army Undersecretary Jim McPherson as acting Secretary of the Navy. pic.twitter.com/FvfgOwuXw4  @EsperDoD (@EsperDoD) April 7, 2020

Esper named Army Undersecretary Jim McPherson, a retired admiral, to succeed Modly as acting Navy secretary until a permanent secretary is confirmed by the Senate.

President Donald Trump, at Tuesday's White House coronovirus task force briefing, said he had "no role" in Modly's resignation.

"He didn't have to resign but he did it for his country," Trump said.

Modly survived his initial decision to fire Capt. Brett Crozier, the aircraft carrier's skipper whose leaked email to Navy officials showed him pleading for help as the coronavirus swept through the Roosevelt's 4,800-member crew. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations, voiced support for Modly's move.

Modly's decision to fly to Guam to visit sailors and explain his decision in a profanity-laced speech proved to be his undoing. He apologized Monday for his speech.

Modly had disparaged the former captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, calling him "too naive or too stupid" to command the stricken aircraft carrier.

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Navy Secretary Thomas Modly apologized for calling a Navy captain stupid.

"Let me be clear, I do not think Capt. Brett Crozier is naive or stupid," Modly said, according to the statement released by the Navy. "I think, and always believed him to be the opposite."

His apology came hours after Trump vowed to look into the matter. Trump called Crozier's email a "mistake," but he said Crozier had "a very good career," and he was reluctant to "destroy" it.

Trump reiterated Tuesday that Crozier shouldn't have written the letter. "He didn't have to be Ernest Hemingway."

Modly's speech drew fire from lawmakers calling for his ouster, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, said he supported Esper's decision to accept Modly's resignation. Reed asked for an inspector general's investigation.

"It is my understanding that acting Secretary Modly removed Capt. Crozier against the advice of senior Navy uniformed leadership and without completion of a proper investigation," Reed said in a statement.

The previous Navy secretary, Richard Spencer, was fired for his handling of another controversial case. That one involved Trumps intervention in the case of Navy Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes. He was acquitted of murder but convicted of posing with a corpse.

On Tuesday, the Navy reported 230 positive coronavirus cases among the crew of the Roosevelt after testing 79% of them. About 2,000 sailors have been moved to facilities on shore in Guam, where the ship is docked.

The Roosevelt is the only coronavirus-stricken ship deployed  Guam is not its home port. Four other affected ships have not left their home ports. The affected sailors from the other ships have been isolated.

However, testing for COVID-19 has been limited to larger ships, and the Navy does not know how many smaller vessels at sea might be affected, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and also a member of the Armed Services Committee. The Defense official agreed that testing is limited but said deployed ships have had limited or no contact with the outside world and are considered low risk.

COVID-19 in the military: Cuts to training, recruiting, travel bans creating stress

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Navy's Modly is out after mishandling virus-plagued ship
Elizabeth Morrison began touring homes virtually at first. Just days before Los Angeles prohibited in-person showings, she donned a mask and gloves to visit a home that caught her interest. Her offer on a house in South L.A. was accepted. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

It's a Sunday, a day when home shoppers would normally pack open houses. Luke Smith arrives solo to a Redondo Beach listing, angles his laptop toward the front door so its camera can capture the scene and enters the two-bedroom condo.

"This property is listed for $819,900," the real estate agent for Rex tells his client, a video director who is 30-plus miles away watching on his own computer in a Beverly Hills apartment. "One of the first things you will notice when you do walk in is that breeze. I have that patio door open."

The novel coronavirus has shut down large swaths of the U.S. economy, leading to millions of layoffs and the closure of bars, malls and events. And it has slammed the real estate industry. Applications for loans to purchase a home have plunged, and deals are falling out of escrow.

But sales activity hasn't completely stopped, at least not yet. Those who are determined can still buy a home. They just have to navigate the strangest market ever.

From the state on down, California governments have issued stay-at-home orders but deemed aspects of the real estate industry essential. That has allowed home sales to continue in an increasingly complicated fashion.

Traditional open-house viewings are banned in California. Some buyers are touring houses virtually or taking part in individual showings with agents who stand six feet away.

Appraisers are conducting more drive-by-valuations, and buyers are watching inspections via video call.

If you are ready to close, a masked and gloved notary may show up to your doorstep to get signatures that must be completed in person.

"This is what it looks like during these times," software salesperson Spencer Gattinella said in a text, while sharing a photo of him and his wife in masks, signing the paperwork for a five-bedroom San Clemente house on a pop-up table in their current driveway.

Many people were searching for a home before the coronavirus was an issue. Now, along with their agents, they are feeling their way through rapidly changing rules.

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"Everybody is trying to figure out what to do," said Tregg Rustad, a Los Angeles agent with Rodeo Realty. "How can we do this responsibly, how can we be safe, how can we not spread anything?"

Elizabeth Morrison had been looking about a year for a house in the Los Angeles area when Gov. Gavin Newsom issued his stay-at-home order.

The San Fernando Valley renter long wanted to stop paying "someone else's mortgage." And even though the coronavirus outbreak mostly wiped out her industry  she's a vice president for a major live events company  she was hoping her employer would bounce back after only a temporary rough patch. She was still interested in buying, even hopeful that with the market seizing up she might find a deal.

Morrison started touring homes virtually. She found a house she was willing to see in person, a fixer-upper in Los Angeles' Crenshaw district. Donning a mask and gloves, and staying six feet away from the real estate agent, she visited the house two weekends ago.

She got in just under the wire. A few days later, Los Angeles added "in-person showings of housing for lease and sale" to its list of banned activities  a move that will probably freeze the market further.

"I would never buy a home for almost a million dollars sight unseen," said Morrison, whose $750,000 offer was ultimately accepted. "It's too big of an investment."

The city of Los Angeles appears to be the only local entity yet that has gone that far, according to the California Assn. of Realtors  which means, given the maze of local municipalities, some shoppers need only expand their search if they want to see a place in person.

Walk just a block from the home Morrison is buying, and you'll find yourself outside city limits in an unincorporated county area.

Lotus Lou, a spokeswoman for the California Assn. of Realtors, said the county's rules, along with the state stay-at-home order, allow in-person showings as long as stricter local rules don't ban it and social distancing is practiced.

The Realtors say there should be no more than one agent and two other people in a house at a time. And there should also be a warning. "Sellers and buyers must be expressly made aware of the risks of showing and visiting properties: that it may be dangerous or unsafe and could expose them or others to coronavirus," the group said in recent guidance to members.

Alex Comisar, a spokesman for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, did not respond to questions about whether consumers could tour a home in the city for sale or lease by themselves without an agent.

The state Department of Public Health said it "supports the actions being taken by Realtors to enforce physical distancing during this time."

The county health department on Monday confirmed that in-person showings, where people practice social distancing, are indeed allowed in areas covered by its order. But separately, as the death toll mounted, county officials urged people to avoid going outside this week and even refrain from shopping, if they have enough supplies.

Morrison said she felt relatively safe during her tour, noting that she followed the guidance of the time. But if her deal falls through she wouldn't want to see another house in person, even in places where it's allowed.

"It's more terrifying every day," Morrison said, noting that the understanding of how the virus spreads and who is at risk seems to change constantly.

Redfin said requests for agent-led video tours soared nearly 500% between the week that ended March 14 and the week that ended March 21. Rex said its virtual home-tour traffic rose steadily in March, with the growth rate climbing as more governments directed people to stay home.

Although few probably would purchase a home without stepping inside, Smith, the Rex real estate agent, said it's possible to put down an offer that's contingent on eventually seeing it.

The new environment is also placing a premium on vacant homes, said Suzanne Seini, chief operating officer of Active Realty, which has offices in Corona, Irvine and downtown San Diego.

"There are buyers who are not even interested in going in a seller's home right now" if they still live there, she said.

Some sellers also aren't interested and are pulling their homes off the market. Part of that is safety, but it's also because selling into a crazy, declining market isn't the best strategy unless you have to.

Firm home-sale and price data won't be available until later this month, at the earliest. But early measures show the market is turning.

Applications for a mortgage to buy a home fell 17% during the week that ended March 27 in California. That followed a 23% decline a week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Assn.

Redfin said asking prices for newly listed homes in the U.S. have also started to dip.

Sellers who are willing to have someone in their home are asking agents to bring only people who are serious about pulling the trigger, said Sean Sadri, an agent with Active Realty.

Sadri said he is already restricting in-person tours for prospective shoppers on his own  a decision he can make because, like most agents, he's an independent contractor.

"If it's just someone looking for a home who's on the fence ... I am not going to put myself out there," he said.

Others have less flexibility. A salesperson for a major home builder in Southern California said he's required to show homes to whoever shows up unless they have COVID-19 symptoms or know they have been exposed to someone with the disease, even if they are months or years away from buying.

"Being around any more people than I have to scares me," said the employee, who asked for anonymity because he feared retaliation from his employer. "What are we doing calling selling homes essential?"
Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked his ministers on Monday to prepare for a "new normal" once the lockdown is lifted. He also said that the country needs to prepare for a long battle against coronavirus, during a video Cabinet meeting. PM Modi said that the country needs to work towards mitigating the economic impact of coronavirus. The Prime Minister also emphasised on the need to continuously monitor the situation and said the planning should be done keeping in mind the possibility for further spread of the virus.

The Prime Minister emphasised on the need for a graded plan to gradually restart activity outside coronavirus hotspots. He also asked the ministries to formulate guidelines for social distancing and other safeguards for companies. However, commuting during coronavirus spread might still remain a challenge in the country.

Also read: Coronavirus Live Updates: 354 COVID-19 positive cases in last 24 hours; India's active count at 3,981

As India approaches the end of the 21-day lockdown next week, there are indications that some level of lockdown might still remain in place. For instance, trains, metros and buses might remain suspended, while only take-away services might be allowed for restaurants in the beginning.

PM Modi has already asked his ministers to prepare a list of ten priority areas and ten decisions to focus on after the lockdown. One of the focus points may be promoting Make in India and boost local manufacturing. This comes as the experts and economists have pushed for the need to enhance local manufacturing and reduce the dependence on other nations.

Also read: Coronavirus: India to supply anti-malaria medicines after US threatens retaliation

PM Modi added that the crisis gave an opportunity to India to become self-dependent in the medical sector.

While the fight will be long, no one should get tired or give up (na thakna hai, na harna hai), said PM Modi in a video message to party workers on BJP's 40th foundation day. He added that the country has shown resolve and solidarity in these trying times.

INDIA CORONAVIRUS TRACKER: BusinessToday.In brings you a daily tracker as coronavirus cases continue to spread. Here is the state-wise data on total cases, fatalities and recoveries in one comprehensive graphic.
One of the best ways that we can unite together and make a real difference is on Election Day. We want to remind our supporters all over the country that their local and state elections are vitally important, and we need to remember that we can use our vote to support our law enforcement.

The National Police Support Fund, a grassroots political organization committed to aligning the interests and needs of police officers within the political process, launched their 2020 Voter Initiative today.

National Police Support Fund is encouraging all of their supporters to stand with police and vote for candidates that do the same. The organization is reaching out to their hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens across the country to remind them that their vote matters in these upcoming elections.

We stand together to support our police officers within todays volotile political atmosphere, says Simon Lewis, Executive Director of National Police Support Fund. One of the best ways that we can unite together and make a real difference is on Election Day. We want to remind our supporters all over the country that their local and state elections are vitally important, and we need to remember that we can use our vote to support our law enforcement.

National Police Support Fund proudly counts tens of thousands of Americans among its members. Citizens from all walks of life who are joined together by their common respect for the rule of law and are united in their support for the police officers who put their lives on the line every day in their communities.

Lewis went on to say, Our organization is committed to defeating the anti-police sentiment that is sadly becoming more and more common. Your vote can help defend our officers against the political war waging against them. We invite everyone to sign our pledge and commit to voting for candidates that stand up for our police and the rule of law.

You can add your name to the National Police Support Funds pledge here: http://www.nationalpolicesupportfund.com/vote

National Police Support Fund is a national political organization organized under Section 527 of the IRS Tax Code. Contributions made to National Police Support Fund are not tax-deductible. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
Hong Kong: Patient mix-up being probed

(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The Centre for Health Protection today said it is looking into how a man was sent to hospital for COVID-19 instead of his son who tested positive for the virus yesterday.

Centre for Health Protection Controller Dr Wong Ka-hing said at a press briefing that the case involved a Nepali man whose family was sent to a quarantine centre yesterday because they were close contacts of confirmed cases.

The Department of Health has sent an apology to this family of three members. Actually they have been staying in same unit in the quarantine centre. Because we just got the information that the father was wrongly sent to the hospital, whereas the son (who tested) positive had stayed, that happened yesterday, so now we are rectifying the situation for both.

Dr Wong noted that since the centre was only notified of the case yesterday, more time was needed to ascertain exactly what happened.

He added that other confinees staying at the same quarantine centre were unlikely to be affected.

We have sent an apology to the family and we will investigate how it happened. So it may be too early to tell the exact reason behind (it).

But I do not think this particular incident will affect the other people who are staying in quarantine centre because the family itself stayed in a unit.

This story has been published on: 2020-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
LAKEWOOD, Ohio, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine revealed that Roundstone has been selected for its inaugural Inc. 5000 Series: Midwest list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Roundstone was formed in 2003 to help employers save on their health benefit plans by allowing companies to control and proactively manage their health care costs. Unlike traditional insurance companies who retain health care cost savings as profits, employers with Roundstone pay only for what they use while keeping the savings.

Born of the annual Inc. 5000 franchise, this regional list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the Midwest economy's most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses.

"It is a privilege to be recognized among this select group of highly successful companies," says Mike Schroeder, President of Roundstone. "In these unprecedented times, we are more determined than ever to help small to mid-size businesses offer their employees affordable health benefits without sacrificing quality."

"The companies on this list demonstrate just how much the small-business sector impacts the economies of each Midwest state," says Inc. editor in chief Scott Omelianuk. "Across every single industry, these businesses have posted revenue and growth rates that are beyond impressive, further proving the tenacity of their founders and CEOs."



Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Series: Midwest, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, metro area, and other criteria, can be found at inc.com/inc5000-series-midwest-2020 .

About Roundstone Management Ltd.

Roundstone Management, Ltd. (Roundstone) based in Lakewood, Ohio is an insurance organization offering small to mid-size employers (20-1,000 employees) a proven health insurance strategy that helps business owners access affordable health insurance for their employees  paying only for the healthcare they use while keeping the savings. For more information on Roundstone, visit the company website at www.roundstoneinsurance.com

Contact:

Mike Schroeder, President

Roundstone Management Ltd.

[email protected]

440-617-0333

SOURCE Roundstone
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, April 6, 2020 (ECA) - The Bureau of the Sixth Session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD) has met and adopted an action plan establishing key priorities for implementing key messages from the forum that was held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, in February.

Chaired by Zimbabwes Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister, Mr. Paul Mavima, this was the Bureaus first meeting since the adoption of the Victoria Falls Declaration on the Decade of Action for Sustainable Development in Africa.

The Decade of Action calls for accelerating sustainable solutions to all the worlds biggest challenges, ranging from poverty and gender to climate change, inequality and closing the finance gap.

With the coronavirus pandemic raging on the continent, members of the bureau recognized the unprecedented and serious challenges being caused by COVID-19 and noted with grave concern the growing loss of human lives and huge negative economic and social impacts of the crisis on the continent.

Africa, they agreed, was likely to be disproportionately affected by the pandemic given the regions underlying vulnerabilities.

The Economic Commission for Africas (ECA) recent analysis on the impact of the pandemic estimates that economic growth on the continent is expected to drop from 3.2 percent to 1.8 percent. As of March 2020, a decline of 1.4 percentage points is expected from the effects of COVID-19. Africas Finance Ministers have called for an initial support package of US$ 100 billion in 2020 to cushion their nations from impacts of the pandemic.

The bureau agreed that COVID-19 reinforced the need for stronger global and regional partnerships if the sustainable development goals are to be fully achieved and to build resilience to social, economic and environmental shocks and calamities.

Member States and other actors were urged to take urgent and collective measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, provide the necessary support to affected communities and address the social and economic implications of the pandemic.

Bureau members, Zimbabwe (Chair), the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Liberia and Morocco, pledged their full commitment to expand outreach, and to take and promote concrete actions in following-up and implementing the outcomes of the sixth ARFSD.

The action plan, which will be implemented with the support of ECA, regional organizations and the rest of the UN Development system, recognizes the challenges and need for quality and timely data and statistics for evidence-based planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting on the 2030 Agenda and the African Unions Agenda 2063.

The Bureau is expected to finalize by August, the strategic framework of the Solidarity Fund for Statistical Development in Africa, as agreed in the Marrakech Declaration of the Fifth session of the regional forum; and develop a regional strategy to operationalize the Victoria Falls Declaration on the Decade of Action and delivery for sustainable development and key messages of the sixth regional forum by November 2020.

Outcomes of the Victoria Falls forum will be conveyed to the 2020 meeting of the High-level political forum on sustainable development to be convened under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Council in July.

The Bureau committed to contribute to strengthening the capacity of member States and catalyse concrete multi-level actions to follow-up and implement outcomes of the regional forum by carrying out advocacy campaigns at key conferences and other events at global, regional, sub-regional and national levels.

Members also agreed that they will take forward and expand initiatives to strengthen the capacity of subnational authorities in selected countries to conduct Voluntary Local Review to better domesticate and bolster local action to accelerate implementation of the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063.

They requested the ECA, which supported the virtual meeting as the Secretariat, and its partners to develop a monitoring and evaluation tool that will enable tracking and comparability of progress of implementation across countries in the region.

The ARFSD is an intergovernmental forum convened by the ECA in collaboration with the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank and agencies of the UN system.
A note has been sent to the Iranian authorities to obtain official explanations of Iran's position.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said Ukraine, together with international partners, will not let Iran shun responsibility for the downing of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight PS752 on January 8, 2020.

Speaking on UA:Pershyi TV channel, he said the Embassy of Ukraine in Tehran had already responded to a statement by Iranian lawmaker Hassan Norouzi about the allegedly "correct" actions of the Iranian military who brought down the Ukrainian plane.

In particular, a note was sent to the Iranian authorities to obtain official explanations of Iran's position.

Read alsoIran military "did well": MP claims no arrests made in PS752 downing case

"As is the case in our country, lawmakers may say whatever they want to raise their rating inside the country, rely on facts, manipulate facts... We must rely on official information, so when we get official information from Iran, we will draw the relevant conclusions," Kuleba said.

"But we will by no means allow Iran to avoid responsibility for the tragedy that happened, and we will work with them to get the black boxes back to agree on the parameters of legal liability for what happened," the minister said.

Kuleba added Ukraine would not act alone, but together with international partners, primarily with Canada.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Kyiv-bound UIA flight PS752 crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport in the early hours of January 8. It was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members on board. Two passengers and the crew members were Ukrainians. There were also 82 citizens of Iran, 63 citizens of Canada, 10 citizens of Sweden, four citizens of Afghanistan, three citizens of Germany and the United Kingdom each. There were no survivors.

On January 11, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani officially admitted that the Ukrainian airliner had been shot down by accident as a result of a "human error" and that those responsible would be held accountable.

On February 2, intercepted communications between Tehran Airport's air traffic control tower and the second pilot of Iran's Aseman Airlines flight at the time of the crash of flight PS752 were released by TSN.Tyzhden. Tehran blamed the Ukrainian authorities for leaking what it described as confidential evidence, and said it would no longer share investigation materials with Ukraine.

On February 14, the Iranian Foreign Minister said Iran did not plan to hand the black boxes over but it would not decrypt their data without the participation of the parties concerned.

On March 23, representatives of Ukraine and Iran agreed on a further interaction algorithm to establish the causes of the tragedy and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-08 02:26:57|Editor: huaxia

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OTTAWA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that demand for critical equipment, such as test kits and ventilators, is urgent across the country because of the huge increase in COVID-19 cases in the country.

Trudeau said many Canadian companies have offered to produce those medical supplies.

"To keep our frontline workers safe and care for Canadians with COVID-19, we need a sustainable, stable supply of these products, and that means making them at home," he said at his daily news conference against the COVID-19 crisis in Ottawa.

Trudeau said his government is working with some Canadian companies to produce up to 30,000 ventilators. Now there are about 5,000 ventilators in Canada, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

"We need to be ready for any and every circumstance. The opportunity to make sure we have ventilators available is extremely important. We certainly hope we won't be needing all those ventilators," Trudeau said. But he did not say when they will be ready.

Canadian Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand said on Tuesday that Canada received 8 million surgical masks from China on Monday. Canada expects more deliveries from China in the days to come, Anand said.

Canada has sourced more than 230 million surgical masks, and over 60 million have been delivered to date, she said.

In Canada, all provinces and territories except Nunavut have cases of COVID-19.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 17,827 people were confirmed to have the coronavirus in the country, 374 of whom died, according to CTV.
COMPANY BEGINS SCALE PURCHASES OF GENVIRO! COMPONENTS, CREATING PACKAGING USING FDA EUA LABELING GUIDANCE, APPLICATION IN PROCESS FOR GENVIRO! AT-HOME SCREENING KIT

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 7, 2020 / Decision Diagnostics Corp. (OTC PINK:DECN) through its subsidiary Pharma Tech Solutions, Inc. the manufacturers and design specifiers for the GenViro! Covid-19 Swift Kit, is an 18-year old, diabetes and now disease testing bio-technology development firm, high-level manufacturer, quality plan administrator, FDA registered medical device customer support organization, and exclusive worldwide sales and regulatory process agent for its own proprietary regulated medical devices, announces today that the company has received the Pre-EUA Acknowledgement letter from the U.S. FDA for device (serial number) PEUA200232, GenViro Covid-19 Screening Kit. This grant by the FDA is a major milestone in our GenViro! Covid-19 test kit development, now beginning its 7th week since we became aware that our manufacturer and R&D professionals were living and working at Ground Zero of the Korean Covid-19 epidemic.

DECN received the Pre-EUA Acknowledgement and device serial number on Saturday, April 4, 2020. Later on this same day FDA counsel had several exchanges with FDA EUA staff. In one of those exchanges, the FDA provided Guidance for our final product testing.

Keith Berman, CEO of Decision Diagnostics commented, "We filed our final application with the FDA for EUA approval on April 3, 2020, taking out all reference to our at-home use Covid-19 kit. We submitted the application late in the afternoon EDT, and incredibly we received our Pre-EUA Acknowledgement the morning of April 4, 2020, less than 24 hours later, and on the weekend. We were so stunned by the rapid acknowledgment that we waited almost two days to inquire whether the acknowledgment was what we have come to know as the "Pre-EUA." We were assured that this letter from the FDA and the device serial number assigned are exactly what we had been hoping for."

As early as Saturday April 4, it was clear that the FDA review staff was aware that our methodology was different than those slower and older methods that had received FDA EUAs, or were in review. Although the testing requested will be rigorous, it appears that testing will require 30 known Covid-19 positive samples and 30 known Covid-19 negative samples, all samples based on venous blood. The company is now looking to contract with a hospital or commercial laboratory to complete this testing.

Mr. Berman continued, "Upon receipt of these acknowledgments from the FDA, we contacted our partners in Korea, and provided specifications for all of the major components required for the GenViro! kit that are not used or a part of our GenUltimate! TBG product. Today our partners began ordering these components to begin build, assembly and bench testing for the post-prototype version of GenViro!, Point of Care kit. These activities will become part of the completion of our Design Specifications file and Design History file for Genviro!, and are necessary components of all FDA cleared medical devices. "

The company plans to discuss in the coming days how we intend to identify the various coronaviruses through GenViro!. Reading that discussion will be a unique opportunity. The method the company intends to use will be based upon earlier products shepherded by Messrs. Berman and Musho. We expect industry people will be surprised.

ABOUT DECISION DIAGNOSTICS CORP

Decision Diagnostics Corp. is the leading manufacturer and worldwide distributor of diabetic test strips engineered to operate on legacy glucose meters. DECN's products, the GenUltimate! ("Sunshine") diabetes test strip, its GenAccord! Enhance ("Caterpillar") strip and meter systems for the uninsured and under-insured, its GenChoice! ("Ladybug") test strip now in the later stages of FDA 510(k) prosecution, and its GenUltimate! Precis products manufactured for International markets are designed to operate efficiently and less expensively on certain glucose meters already in use by almost 7.5 million diabetics worldwide. With new inspired technology diabetic test strips already in the final stages of development, DECN products compete on a worldwide scale with legacy manufacturers currently selling to 71+ percent of a $15+ billion at-home testing market. The company's new GenViro!TM product designed to test for the Coronavirus Covid-19, is not yet available in the United States or Puerto Rico but Emergency Waivers are in process. Now that we are a part of FDA review, and the product concept which had been presented to officials in Washington, DC is now part of the review and approval process.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This release contains the company's forward-looking statements which are based on management's current expectations and assumptions as of April 6, 2020, regarding the company's business and performance, its prospects, current factors, the economy, and other future conditions and forecasts of future events, circumstances, and results.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Decision Diagnostics Corp.

Keith Berman (805) 446-2973

info@decisiondiagnostics.co

www.genultimate.com

www.genultimatetbg.com

www.pharmatechdirect.com

SOURCE: Decision Diagnostics Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/584102/DECN-Receives-Pre-EUA-Acknowledgement-Letter-And-Product-Serial-Number-From-US-FDA-For-GenViroTM-Covid-19-Screening-Kit-For-Professional-Use
We won't bury the lede: we're presenting our first-ever Slowtwitch Indoors race on Zwift this Thursday night, in our Hilly Vanilli timeslot. For our first race, we also thought that we'd give you a taste of the finest climb that Zwift has to offer. So we're storming up Road to Sky: 12.4 miles, 3,753 feet of climbing. Please follow our category guidelines when signing up (understanding that, when climbing, you're likely going to be holding a higher average than you might otherwise find yourself in on a "normal" day). Bring your climbing legs, turn the fans up on high, and go.

In terms of our other Slowtwitch Indoors Rides:



Ride of the Valkyries, Tuesday 6 AM Eastern

Our women's only structured training workout sticks to Watopia's Waistband this week. Although everyone is banded together, there's still plenty of hard work to be done this week. This week's workout is "The Bends."



Tuesday Structured Training, Tuesday 7 PM Eastern

Another one of our structured training workouts, Tuesday's night time ride will have you headed to Richmond. Although the structured training element will take the sting out of the climbs over the second half of the course, the workout will still be a difficult ride -- you can thank Slowman himself for this week's workout.



Rise and Grind, Thursday 5:35 AM Eastern

This week's early-morning power exhibition covers a little bit of everything in London. We take on the Keith Hill After Party course. This should work out so that we keep groups together until the final climb, at which point the gloves will come off. This week, you'll have Mark and Matt for the B group, Alex and myself for the C group, and Shaun will head up the Ds. As a reminder: please register for the correct category! Ride leaders will look to average the middle of the w/KG range for their respective groups. If the fence is available, we do use it to zap flyers.





Slowtwitch Indoors Runs

We Noticed: Lionel Sanders and the Ronde Van Zwift

We're still keeping everyone on May Field for the time being, with approximately 33 minutes of running all together and messaging. Yours truly will be trying to hop on for this Wednesday's 7 AM edition of the run. As always, you have (as of this writing) 3 more sessions you can possibly join this week: tonight (Monday) at 7 PM Eastern, Wednesday at 7 AM Eastern, and again Wednesday evening at 7 PM Eastern. Socially distancing doesn't have to mean going at your run alone -- it just means we're going to keep meeting virtually.Did you catch Ronde Van Zwift this weekend? Three laps of Richmond with cobbled climbs, 27.6km, Matt Stephens and Jorg Ludewig on commentary sounding just about the equals of Phil Liggett and Jens Voigt.Slowtwitch Forum favorite triathlete Lionel Sanders wiped the floor of Canyon Zwift CCand the rest of the pro cyclists. Ludewig is fluent in English but brings just enough German in to make for good copy. Sometimes triathletes like to kick cyclists asses andLionel is really doing this at the moment, he said. Its very difficult to crash on Zwift, even for Lionel Sanders. Youll hear the unconscious dissing of triathletes during the webcast, but the announcers did lavish praise where praise was due. People werelaughing about him, said Ludewig, but, here we have the results.Its a short watch, very compelling, but if you really want to get to the meat of it, start watching about a half-hour in. Oh, and Canyon got the last laugh on this one. Yes, Lionel beat up on Canyons team of professional cyclists riding his Canyon.Have fun in Watopia, everybody. We'll catch up next week.
Among the 116 fresh COVID-19 cases reported from Mumbai on Tuesday were two cases from Dharavi, the densely-populated urban slum sprawl, which has added to the worries of the Brihanumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The total number of coronavirus positive cases in Mumbai now stands at 642 with 40 deaths so far, including six new victims, a BMC release said.

According to the BMC, at least four of the six new deceased had comorbidities.

With two more persons testing positive for coronavirus, the number of cases in Dharavi now stands at seven.

Similarly, two new coronavirus positive cases were found in Dadar, including a 69-year-old man from Chitale Peth.

While the man is admitted to Kasturba Hospital, his five close contacts were quarantined, the civic body said.

Another cause of concern for the BMC is that the rise in the cases is attributed to at least 55 people, who all were close contacts in the high risk containment areas in the mega city, being found positive during tests.

"The rise in the cases is seen because 55 patients are diagnosed amongst the contacts in the high risk containment areas as a result of screening clinics and vigorous contact tracingefforts by the health teams. All the high risk contacts are given timely attention andtested," it said.

The BMC on Tuesday checked over 550 people at its special OPDs and admitted 221 people at hospitals, as per the release.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was on Monday admitted to intensive care after being hospitalised with coronavirus, with foreign minister Dominic Raab to take over his duties where necessary, his Downing Street office said.

Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the prime minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital, said the Downing Street press release.

The PM has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputise for him where necessary, it added.

The prime minister was moved in case he needed to use a ventilator, the government added.-

Johnson was admitted to St Thomas Hospital in London on Sunday with a temperature and a cough after testing positive for coronavirus on March 27, becoming the most high-profile world leader infected with the disease that has spread rapidly across the globe.

The 55-year-old had been self-isolating in his Downing Street flat but on Sunday evening was driven to a nearby state-run hospital on the advice of his doctor.

Officials said it was a precautionary step but questions had earlier been raised about whether the Conservative leader could still run the country.

The British government was criticised for initially refusing to follow other European countries in requiring people to stay home as the virus spread.

And Johnson himself said in early March that he was still shaking hands with people.

But two weeks ago he ordered a nationwide lockdown and Britain is now in the grip of a serious outbreak.

Over 50,000 cases and more than 5,000 deaths have been recorded so far, with a latest daily toll of 439.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock and the heir to the throne, Prince Charles, have both been infected with coronavirus, although they have since recovered.

In response to the crisis, Queen Elizabeth II made a rare public address on Sunday night, evoking the spirit of World War II and urging Britons to stay united.

We will be with our friends again, we will be with our families again, we will meet again, she said.

 Working non-stop 

Housing minister Robert Jenrick told BBC television that the prime minister had been working phenomenally hard during the crisis, adding that he would be finding it very frustrating to be ill.

Johnson is not known to have any underlying health issues, although he has struggled with his weight, but some questioned if he should have taken more time off.

Junior health minister Nadine Dorries, who also had coronavirus but has recovered, added: Many with #COVID19 are felled by fatigue/temperature and use isolation to sleep and recover.

Boris has risked his health and worked every day on our behalf to lead the battle against this vile virus.

Sarah Vine, a newspaper columnist and wife of senior cabinet minister Michael Gove, added: Boris has worked non-stop throughout his illness  and now we see the result.

 Persistent symptoms 

US President Donald Trump said he was hopeful and sure Johnson would recover, calling the prime minister a friend of mine and a great leader.

Johnsons pregnant partner, Carrie Symonds, moved out of Downing Street after some staff fell ill. But she said on Saturday she had just spent a week in bed with symptoms, although she has not been tested.

Johnsons spokesman would not confirm a report in The Times newspaper reported that the prime minister had been given oxygen treatment.

Doctors will be monitoring important vital signs such as oxygen saturations, said Rupert Beale, group leader at the cell biology of infection laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute.

He said they would also check Johnsons blood to see what the immune response to the virus looks like, and to assess liver and kidney function, and may also perform an electrocardiogram to check the heart.

Dominic Raab: Boris Johnsons de facto deputy

When Boris Johnson announced he had tested positive for coronavirus, Downing Street said Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab would deputise if the British prime minister was incapacitated.

Few expected him to do so, as Johnson and his office repeatedly maintained the prime ministers symptoms were mild.

But after Johnson was taken to hospital on Sunday night, and transferred to intensive care just 24 hours later, Raab now looks set to be in charge for the foreseeable future.

Raab was one of the most prominent figures in Britains protracted and divisive process to leave the European Union, serving as Brexit minister under former premier Theresa May.-

He quit after just three months in November 2018 in protest at Mays doomed divorce deal with Brussels that he said offered too many concessions.

But when Johnson became Conservative party leader and prime minister after Mays resignation in July last year, Raab was catapulted back into government.

His role as foreign secretary also carries the title first secretary of state, implying seniority over all other ministers except the prime minister and making him his de facto deputy.

The 46-year-old, who has law degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge universities, had ambitions himself for the top job, challenging Johnson for the Tory leadership after May quit.

Often combative, he holds a black belt in karate and is a keen boxer.

 High ambitions 

Raabs tilt for the top job marked him out as a threat to former London mayor Johnson due to his even more strident pro-Brexit views.

But he trailed in sixth in the leadership contest after a stuttering campaign that was marked by rows over his past views on militant feminism and preparedness to suspend parliament to force a no-deal Brexit.

His spell in the Brexit ministry also floundered, and was notable for his admission he hadnt quite understood the economic importance of the port in Dover.

As a recognised eurosceptic, Raab became the public face of Brexit but May also put a senior civil servant in charge of leading the negotiations with Brussels.

That left Raab personally and politically frustrated and unable to stop the plan May settled on.

 International lawyer 

Raab made much of his back-story in his leadership campaign.

His Czech-born Jewish father came to Britain in 1938 as a six-year-old refugee. He died of cancer when Raab was 12 and his mother brought him up in the Church of England.

He competed in karate for 17 years, making the UK squad.

After studies, he became an international lawyer at London legal firm Linklaters before joining the Foreign Office in 2000 as an advisor.

Raab was posted to The Hague in 2003 to head a team focused on bringing justice to war criminals including Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic and Charles Taylor.

From 2006 to 2008, he was chief of staff to the Conservatives home affairs spokesman David Davis while in opposition.

 Climbing the ranks 

Raab entered parliament in 2010 in the ultra-safe Conservative seat of Esher and Walton in the stockbroker commuter belt southwest of London.

He was named Newcomer of the Year in The Spectator magazines Parliamentary Awards.

The same year, May, then interior minister, slapped Raab down for calling feminists obnoxious bigots.

He caused major problems for the then-prime minister David Cameron in 2014, with a backbench amendment on curbing the power of judges to block deportations under European rights laws.

Nearly 100 Conservatives supported him, singling him out as an up-and-coming force.

Cameron put Raab on the most junior government rung in the justice ministry in 2015, but he dropped off when May became prime minister in 2016.

Keen to freshen up the government with some younger faces a year later, May made him the junior minister for courts and justice.

She moved him across to become the junior housing minister in January 2018 then bumped him up to the Brexit job six months later.

Raab denied claims by his former diary secretary that he insists on the same lunch every day  reportedly a chicken and bacon sandwich, a smoothie and a mixed fruit pot.

Raab is married to Erika Rey-Raab, a Brazilian marketing executive. They have two young sons, Peter and Joshua.

SOURCE: AFP
ORANGE  The Edge Fitness Clubs, headquartered in Orange, has donated cleaning supplies including gloves, disinfectant spray and hand sanitizer to Yale New Haven Health System, which includes Bridgeport Hospital, Greenwich Hospital, Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, Westerly Hospital, Yale New Haven Hospital and Northeast Medical Group. https://www.ynhhs.org/ . To donate, email donationsppe@ynhh.org. All items should be in original unopened packaging.

Partnered with their cleaning company, Diversified Building Services, the Edge Fitness Clubs team collected an entire truck full of supplies to donate from various locations across Connecticut and delivered them March 30. The donation included 48 boxes of gloves, 172 large rolls of disinfecting wipes, 76 cans of Lysol spray, 4 cans of Lysol wipes, 6 packages of foaming hand sanitizer, 2 bottles of Purell, 3 bottles of disinfectant concentrate (192 spray bottles full). Diversified Building Services donated 2 cases disinfectant spray concentrate plus bottles, 2 cases of HDQc2 with discharge system. Smart Services Plumbing and Heating provided a box truck to bring the supplies to the donation center.

Following the direction of local and state governments, Edge Fitness closed all of its locations as of March 16 at 2 p.m., until further notice, with a primary focus on the health and safety of all members and employees.

Masks for Heroes has launched

NEW HAVEN  To raise awareness and money to buy emergency certified equipment, a statewide program to provide masks to emergency personnel and those most in need to fend off the pandemic virus (jewishnewhaven.org/masksforheroes/) has begun.

The grassroots partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven will distribute Level 1, FDA approved masks to hospitals, first responders and other frontline emergency workers to combat the Covid-19 virus. At least 500,000 of the masks have already been distributed throughout Connecticut, Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-86th District, said. But hundreds of thousands more will be needed. Candelora said the today marks the official start of the grassroots, charitable effort.

Community fund distributes COVID-19 grants

NEW HAVEN  The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven President and CEO Will Ginsberg and United Way of Greater New Haven President Jennifer Heath recently announced the first round of grants totaling $600,900 from the Greater New Haven COVID-19 Community Fund has been distributed to 28 organizations.

The fund, which launched March 20, was created to get resources quickly to nonprofit agencies serving Greater New Haven's residents, particularly those individuals most disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. The initial grants from the Fund focused on agencies providing frontline healthcare and basic needs services, which serve seniors, people with disabilities and those who are experiencing homelessness or who are economically disadvantaged. In addition to the financial relief provided by the funds, these grants are helping providers reduce the spread of COVID-19.

To make these grants, The Community Foundation and United Way Staff reached out to nonprofits on the front lines providing basic needs and health services to assess their needs, using a common set of questions. The aim was to gather information without burdening the organizations already under stress with having to complete an application. The results of this outreach were reviewed and voted on by an ad-hoc volunteer committee made up of current and former Community Foundation and United Way board members. Members of the Committee are Khalilah L. Brown-Dean (bio), Andrew Eder (bio), Judith Meyers (bio), Flemming Norcott, Jr. (bio), Marcella Nunez-Smith (bio), and Diane Young Turner (bio).

Going forward, grants will be made from the Greater New Haven COVID-19 Community Fund on a rolling basis. Staff will continue to listen to organizations to more fully understand the issues they face. These ongoing conversations will help our ability to meet organizational and community needs as our funds evolve over time. The Community Foundation has raised more than $1.1 Million in donations from individuals and contributed $500,000 to the Fund. As fundraising continues through the outbreak and recovery phases of the crisis, the Fund will adapt and adjust to the emerging needs of the community.

Members of the community wishing to donate to the Fund can do so at www.cfgnh.org/covid19fund .

Plumb Library remains closed; fees waived

SHELTON  The Plumb Memorial Library and Huntington Library remain closed during the coornavirus pandemic, based on state recommendations. Patrons are asked to keep their books and other materials until the library reopens; fines will be waived.

We will be keeping in touch with our patrons through our Facebook page: Shelton Library System and through a special email we have set up for this purpose SheltonLibraryQuestions@gmail.com, staff said in a statement. We will attempt to remotely answer reference questions, comments or concerns.No book donations will be accepted until after we reopen.

Patrons can remotely attend storytimes through a Zoom link at sheltonlibrarysystem.org and join Huntington Children's Librarian Jessica Prutting at storytime or on Facebook with Maura Gualtiere's Facebook page: Miss Maura's Programs. Or download ebooks, audiobooks, movies, tv series, music or comic books by visiting our website at sheltonlibrarysystem.org .

Community grants available

NORTH HAVEN Text: The North Haven Rotary Club is now accepting applications for its 2020 community grants program. This grant money comes from club fundraisers throughout the year, and is intended for area organizations and projects that benefit their community. If your project is funded then we will award the funds during our annual community recognition luncheon (to be scheduled). A representative from your group must attend to receive funds. Applications must be submitted through the club website  nhrotary.org  by April 30.
Pakistan recorded a sudden spike of 577 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of COVID-19 patients to 4,005 on Tuesday.

A senior official warned that the situation can go out of hands.

According to Ministry of National Health Services, Punjab registered the maximum number of 2,004 cases, followed by Sindh 986, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 500, Gilgit-Baltistan 211, Balochistan 202, Islamabad 83 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) 19.

So far 54 people died due to the disease, while 429 have recovered.

As many as 39,183 people have been tested so far.

At least 50 prisoners in worst-hit Punjab province have tested coronavirus positive.

Inspector General Prisons Shahid Baig told PTI that some 20 cases have been reported in the camp jail Lahore and the remaining in others.

Baig said the outbreak stemmed from a Pakistani citizen who was arrested over narcotics smuggling in Italy and handed over to Pakistan last month. He was diagnosed on March 23.

The increase in the number of new cases came despite hectic efforts by the government to curtail the spread of the deadly infection.

The government has extended partial lockdown till April 14 and constantly asking people to stay indoors and follow social distancing.

Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Tuesday directed his commanders to provide full support to the federal and provincial governments in combating the novel coronavirus pandemic



Sindh government spokesman Murtaza Wahab termed the sudden increase in the COVID-19 cases as a big threat and urged people to follow guidelines before it is too late.

"Pakistan got its 1st COVID-19 patient on 26th February. We got our 1000th patient in 29 days. The 2000th patient in 7 days, 3000th patient in 5 days & probably the 4000th patient in 3 days. This is how serious the situation is. Pakistaniyo plz wake up before it is too late," he tweeted.

Meanwhile, a 64-year-old doctor died due to coronavirus at a hospital in Sindh where he was admitted after his condition started worsening.

Dr Abdul Qadir Soomro became the first health worker to succumb to the deadly infection in Sindh, fanning concerns among health professionals who have been vigorously demanding steps for the protection of their colleagues.

Addressing a press conference, Planning Minister Asad Umar along with Advisor on Health, Zafar Mirza, said the government has provided 39,500 personal protective kits to the provinces so far, while further medical equipment, including ventilators, will be provided directly to the hospitals from Thursday.

They said Pakistan has a capacity of performing 3,000 coronavirus tests per day in 18 functional laboratories across the country, which would be enhanced to 25,000 per day by the end of this month.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has also announced Rs 1,200 billion financial package to help vulnerable people and businesses.

Meanwhile, medical staff across Pakistan have complained for weeks over the severe shortages of safety equipment in hospitals as they treat patients suffering from the coronavirus.

Police on Monday arrested doctors and medical staff in Balochistan for protesting over the lack of protective gears.

According to President Young Doctors Association Yasir Khan, more than 150 doctors and paramedics have been arrested.

The doctors and medical staff wanted to protest outside the Chief Minister House when the police baton-charged them.

The protest came after more than a dozen doctors contracted the virus reportedly while discharging their duties.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed on Monday criticised the government for lack of efforts to combat the coronavirus, saying "nothing is being done on ground".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) anxiously awaiting the rescheduled emergency meeting of the group on Thursday, Nigeria has expressed its readiness to contribute to the effort to strengthen and stabilise the oil market.

The Nigerian head of delegation to OPEC and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipreye Sylva, said in a statement on Monday that Nigeria is committed to play its role to bring a consensus that would be to the mutual benefit all.

The Government of Nigeria wishes to assure the Nigerian and international communities that it is watching developments in the oil and gas industry with keen interest. Specifically, Nigeria is very mindful and appreciative of the role of Saudi Arabia and other members of the OPEC family.

As Nigerias Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, I will continue to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on our, and the global, economy.

In our consultations with global industry stakeholders in the lead up to the OPEC+ meeting scheduled for Thursday, April 09, 2020, the Nigerian Government will take a position that is in the best interest of our short term and long-term economic forecast.

It is well known that Nigeria has always collaborated with key OPEC members such as Saudi Arabia in maintaining a balanced position that has helped to make OPEC one of the most successful global institutions in recent history.

Nigeria intends to maintain this team spirit even as it takes into account, the position of OPEC strategic allies, such as Russia and its allies.

As always, the driving force of our OPEC policy is first the stability of our national economy as well as the stability of the global economy, which is heavily dependent on OPEC and its strategic partners, popularly referred to as OPEC+.

Nigeria, like the rest of the world, has been hit by the Global Pandemic, COVID-19, and is prepared to join the rest of the world in making the necessary sacrifices needed to stabilize the crude oil market; and to prevent what is likely to be a major global economic meltdown, the minister said.

The emergency meeting of the group and other members was earlier scheduled for Monday in an attempt to strike a deal to cut production output to strengthen crude oil prices.

READ ALSO:

The meeting which was expected to be a virtual video conference was scheduled at a time OPEC daily basket crude oil price plunged to an all-time low level of $16.87 per barrel last Wednesday.

In an attempt to halt the plunge, OPEC secretariat officials said Saudi Arabia, the groups largest producer, called the meeting expected to involve Russia and other non-OPEC allies, in an attempt to reach a consensus on output cuts to halt the rapid slide in crude oil prices in recent times.

The United States President, Donald Trump, had said he was able to prevail on the Saudi Arabia to convene the meeting to allow members end the price wars and agree on production cuts to restore balance to the oil market.

The low oil price has negatively affected U.S. shale producers, many of whom had to stop oil production due to the cost of production.

The last time OPEC attempted to take a decision on a 2.5 million barrels cut, Russia mobilised its allies to frustrate the Saudi Arabia-led effort, resulting in a decline in price below $30 per barrel.

With the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus hitting hard on the global economy, crude oil prices have continued to drop since then, withNigeria forced to review its budget fundamentals and benchmarks for the 2020 fiscal year.
Project Baseline, a new website to facilitate screening and testing of people potentially infected with the COVID-19 virus, became available on Sunday. Verily, a company owned by Google parent Alphabet, launched the site.

Access requires a Google login, and assistance currently is limited to residents in two counties in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In addition to administering the website, Verily, which focuses on health and life sciences, is working with state, local and federal authorities to establish testing sites in the Bay Area.

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai also announced the companies are partnering with the federal government on a COVID-19 education and prevention, and a local resources website, expected to go live late Monday.

The sites focus is on best practices for prevention, with links to authoritative information from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as well as helpful tips and tools for individuals, teachers and businesses.

Privacy Concerns

Before Verilys testing site was 24 hours old, there were signs it already might be having traffic problems.

When I tested it [(Monday], after answering questions in a way that would qualify me in terms of geography and lack of initial symptoms, it said its not accepting any more applicants, said Michael Arrigo, an expert witness in healthcare who lives in the Bay Area.

It seems like its not allowing people to be screened in the counties where they could be screened, he told TechNewsWorld.

Google did not respond to our request to comment for this story.

The Verily website raises privacy concerns, Arrigo noted.

Its not clear to consumers that the information Verily is gathering is being given to entities not covered by HIPAA, he explained.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

HIPAA, the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, protects the privacy of healthcare information collected in the United States.

Verily is interested in capturing a lot of information, Arrigo continued, but there should be more information up front for the consumer.

At this point, the benefits of the site are unclear, he said, but one thing thats clear is theres tremendous benefit for Google in collecting data.

Google Responds to COVID-19

The new website launches were among a number of things Pichai said the Alphabet companies were doing in response to the spreading coronavirus, including the following:

Taking down thousands of dangerous or misleading videos about the virus on YouTube and removing false and harmful information on Google Maps, such as false reviews and bogus information about healthcare locations.

Blocking hundreds of thousands of ads attempting to exploit the pandemic, including a temporary ban on ads for medical masks and respirators.

Making a commitment of US$50 million through Google.org to the global COVID-19 response.

Matching up to $5 million in donations to the WHOs new COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

Awarding a $500,000 grant to a team of researchers, epidemiologists and software developers at Boston Childrens Hospital working on HealthMap, a website that provides up-to-date trends of emerging public health threats and outbreaks.

Creating COVID-19 public service announcements through the $25 million Google Ad Grants crisis relief program.

Establishing a COVID-19 fund to provide paid sick leave to temporary staff and vendors who miss work because they have potential symptoms of the virus or are quarantined.

In this unprecedented moment, we feel a great responsibility to help, said Pichai. Well keep doing everything we can to deliver on our mission, and help people take care of themselves and their communities.

Free Team Software

While few high-tech companies can launch as large a response to the coronavirus as Google has, other companies have found ways to contribute to the cause. Cloudflare, for example, is making its Cloudflare for Teams product  which allows employees to collaborate from home  free to small businesses for six months.

Small businesses are responsible for the creation of two-thirds of net new jobs, noted Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince.

Unfortunately, they are much more vulnerable to even minor interruptions in their operations. Oftentimes their margins are so thin that any significant new expense or reduction in revenue can cause them to fail, he pointed out.

While the impact of the Coronavirus is being felt by businesses large and small, I am worried the impact on small businesses could be especially devastating, Prince added. Small businesses have always been there for us and we want to be there for them during this time of increased strain  .

In addition to offering its team software for free, Cloudflare has established an online business hub where small businesses can see technology services available to them for free or at a low cost.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Companies operating with an expanded work-at-home workforce should be cautious, said Marty Puranik, CEO of Atlantic.Net, a cloud hosting company in Orlando, Florida.

Bad actors will try to take advantage of your situation. Youre going to have a lot of new remote workers, so you need to have policies and procedures in place to make sure they dont fall for phishing scams and wire money where it isnt supposed to be sent, he warned.

The security industry should take the lead and educate people on remote worker security, Puranik told TechNewsWorld.

Zoom for Kids

Employees wont be the only folks hanging around the house during the pandemic. Theres also some 400 million students worldwide, many of them looking for something to do. Among the companies addressing the problem is Caribu, which is offering its video-calling app for free during the virus outbreak.

With the app, kids can create virtual playdates where they can read books from the Caribu library of popular titles, play games and color together on screen.

Kids are feeling the effects of the outbreak, but dont always understand why grandma cant come visit, why the special family spring break trip may have been canceled, or why theyre out of school for weeks, said Caribu CEO Max Tuchman.

Everything we do is about creating more meaningful connections, and thats what we think is most important right now  keeping families connected in the most engaging way, he continued.

Were like Zoom for kids, Tuchman added.

Taking the Lead

Technology companies have to take a leadership role in the battle against COVID-19, urged Gene Munster, managing partner at Loup Ventures, a venture capital firm in Minneapolis.

Its an ironic leadership position because governments message for the past year has been about breaking up Big Tech. Now we have an example of why its good to have Big Tech, he told TechNewsWorld.

Big Tech has some of the best AI talent in the world, and in these situations they can help with everything from understanding how these diseases are transmitted to working on vaccines, Munster added.

Big Tech has the potential to reach large numbers of people with information of substantial benefit to them, Julian Sanchez, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C., told TechNewsWorld. But it remains to be seen  because of all the misinformation weve seen circulating  whether theyll be a net positive force as this crisis unfolds.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

Trend:



Turkmenistan and Russias Tatarstan have discussed bilateral cooperation in the chemical industry, Trend reports with reference to Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.

The discussion was held in a videoconference format on April 6, 2020.

The parties highlighted the importance of construction of the complex mineral fertilizers plant in Turkmenistan.

The president of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov paid a business trip to Russias Turkmenistan last year. Within framework of the visit, a Memorandum on cooperation in the development of the chemical industry of Turkmenistan was signed between Turkmenhimiya State Concern and Russia's Integrated EnergoDevelopment - Holding Management Company (IED - Holding).

Turkmenkhimiya State Concern was established on April 24, 2004. It was created to provide the state with mineral fertilizers and chemical products, as well as to export them abroad.
 Company to Initiate a Global Randomized Clinical Trial to Treat Patients with COVID-19 

 XPO1 Inhibitors have Previously Demonstrated Preclinical Activity Against Numerous Respiratory Viruses (Including SARS-CoV) and Associated Inflammation 

 BOSTON sNDA Submission on Target for Q2 2020 

 Management to Host Conference Call Today at 8:30 AM ET 

NEWTON, Mass., April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. (KPTI) today announced plans to initiate a global randomized clinical trial for low dose oral selinexor in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19. Selinexor, marketed as XPOVIO, is currently approved at higher doses by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. Selinexor is an oral, selective inhibitor of nuclear export (SINE) compound which blocks the cellular protein XPO1. In addition to its roles in cancer, XPO1 also facilitates the transport of several viral proteins from the nucleus of the host cell to the cytoplasm1, and it amplifies the activities of pro-inflammatory transcription factors. SINE compounds have been shown to disrupt the replication of multiple viruses in vitro and in vivo. They have also been shown to mediate anti-inflammatory and anti-viral effects, including respiratory infections, in several animal models. In particular, SINE compounds have recently been identified as having the potential to interfere with key host protein interactions with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.2

Selinexor is currently the only XPO1 inhibitor approved for commercial use by the FDA and has been extensively tested in clinical trials across numerous cancer indications worldwide since 2012. The proposed clinical trial to treat hospitalized patients with COVID-19 would be the first study of an XPO1 inhibitor in patients with severe viral infections.

While Karyopharms clinical development strategy until now has been focused on patients with various types of cancer, there is increasing evidence that XPO1 inhibition could play an important role in the treatment of patients with viral infections including SARS-CoV-2, said Sharon Shacham, PhD, MBA, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Karyopharm. As the medical community is urgently seeking innovative ways to address the COVID-19 pandemic, based on recent scientific data, we have decided to evaluate the potential for selinexor in the treatment of patients with COVID-19. We look forward to working with clinical investigators and regulators across the globe as expeditiously as possible to determine the next steps for this new initiative. Additionally, we continue to move our oncology programs forward including the expected submission of our BOSTON supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) in the second quarter of this year.

Story continues

Given the globally devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, innovative strategies and collaborative efforts are critically needed to bring effective treatment options to patients, who are so desperately in need. I am highly encouraged by the scientific rationale of studying selinexor, which targets both virus and immune-mediated injury, for treatment of patients with severe COVID-19. My staff, colleagues, and I and look forward to working with Karyopharm to better understand the role of this novel approach in improving patient outcomes of COVID19, said Thomas J. Walsh, MD, Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Microbiology & Immunology, Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University.

SINE XPO1 inhibitors have demonstrated activity against over 20 different viruses, including the RNA viruses, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other common causes of respiratory infection. XPO1 inhibition has been identified in several assays as having potential activity against SARS-CoV-2, although specific animal models have not been available to date. One of the most important aspects of COVID-19 is the marked pulmonary inflammation with high levels of cytokines such as IL6, IL1, IFNg and others. Along these lines, selinexor and other SINE compounds have demonstrated potent anti-inflammatory activity through the inhibition of Nuclear Factor kB (NF-kB), leading to reductions in all of these cytokines in a variety of models, and this may be particularly beneficial to hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

Karyopharms clinical program in COVID-19 is not expected to impact the timing or prioritization of other key Company milestones, including the planned submission of a sNDA for XPOVIO (selinexor) in combination with once-weekly Velcade (bortezomib) and low-dose dexamethasone as a new second line treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (based on the BOSTON Phase 3 trial), which remains on schedule for the second quarter of 2020. Additionally, Karyopharm has sufficient supply of selinexor for current and expected commercial supply for patients with multiple myeloma, for ongoing clinical trials in patients with various cancers, as well as for this proposed study in patients with COVID-19.

About COVID-19 and the Potential Role of XPO1 Inhibition

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that emerged from the Wuhan region of China in December 2019 shares similarity to the original SARS coronavirus, SARS-CoV.3 SARS-CoV was responsible for a 2003 human outbreak of respiratory disease. As such, the wealth of research that has been performed to date on SARS-CoV can serve as important data for predicting the behavior of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. The role of XPO1 (also called CRM1) in SARS-CoV replication and pathogenesis was first described in 2009.4 XPO1 is solely responsible for exporting certain SARS-CoV proteins, including 9b5, N6, S7, Orf34 and Orf68 out of the nucleus. Blockade of XPO1 is therefore expected to inhibit viral assembly. In a recent analysis using VIPER-based identification of Master Regulator proteins, selinexor was ranked in the top 18 of more than 400 screened drugs (top 4.5%) for interfering with virus-host interaction in SARS-CoV infected bronchial epithelial cells.9 In another study, verdinexor, one of Karyopharms investigational drugs that is highly similar in structure and biological activity to selinexor, was identified as a drug with the potential to pharmacologically interfere with the interactions of several of the SARS-CoV-2 proteins with their human targets, and was recommended for evaluation in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 viral infection.2 Similarly, a recent bioinformatics study identified XPO1 together with three other proteins, including NPM1, HNRNPA1 and JUN, as hub proteins with the highest number of functional connections within 119 host proteins that interact with the human SARS-CoV.10 Of note, both NPM1 and HNRNPA1 interact directly with XPO1 in normal cells, and JUN is involved in inflammatory responses, including those associated with viral infections.

Severe influenza infection shares many of the features of SARS-CoV infection. Verdinexor demonstrated potent inhibition of influenza viral replication, even when given four days post-infection (Figure 1).11,12 In addition, verdinexor induced reductions in markers of disease pathology and improved survival in influenza models in mice and ferrets (Figure 1).11,12

Figure 1: In a mouse H1N1 influenza model, delayed (up to 4 days) verdinexor treatment: (A) significantly reduces influenza virus levels; (B) ameliorated lung injury; and (C) improved survival is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ea80c453-8192-4bea-b8f8-74f7ff5670d2

XPO1 is also responsible for the nuclear export and functional inactivation of several of the major anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and cytoprotective transcription factors including IkB, PPARg, RXRa, HMGB1 and Nrf2.13 Conversely, blockade of XPO1 leads to nuclear retention and functional activation of these critical proteins. High levels of XPO1 are found in multiple inflammatory conditions and may amplify ongoing inflammatory responses leading to severe organ, including pulmonary, damage.14 In a mouse model for sepsis, selinexor treatment increased survival following a lethal dose of endotoxin (Figure 2).15



Figure 2: In a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced sepsis model, selinexor (A) attenuated lung injury, (B) reduced serum cytokines levels, (C) reduced macrophage and polymorphonuclear (PMN) subpopulations in the peritoneal exudate and improved survival is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/964c3643-480c-4cc0-a7df-5b2165502349

In addition, selinexor reduced inflammatory cytokine secretion including TNFa, IL-6 and IFNg while reducing the numbers of macrophage and polymorphonuclear neutrophils in the mice peritoneal cavity (the site of the LPS injection).15 Importantly, treatment with selinexor attenuated the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)-like lung injury observed in this model. Selinexor therapeutic effects were achieved through the inhibition of the inflammatory NFkB pathway, induction of the anti-inflammatory effects of the DNA binding protein HMGB1 by inducing its nuclear retention and reductions in cytokine levels including TNF-a and IL-6.15 These findings are significant as COVID-19 disease severity including respiratory symptoms correlates with the patients cytokine levels. Severe disease is characterized by increased interleukin (IL)-2, IL-7, granulocyte-colony stimulating factor, interferon- inducible protein 10, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, macrophage inflammatory protein 1-, and tumor necrosis factor-.16 Moreover, predictors of fatality of 150 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Wuhan included elevated IL-6 (p<0.0001).17



Together, these results suggest that SINE compounds such as selinexor could provide both anti-viral and anti-inflammatory activities in patients suffering from severe COVID-19 and therefore warrants clinical investigation.

Conference Call Information

Karyopharm will host a conference call today, Tuesday, April 7, 2020, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time, to discuss selinexor as a potential treatment for hospitalized patients with COVID-19. To access the conference call, please dial (855) 437-4406 (local) or (484) 756-4292 (international) at least 10 minutes prior to the start time and refer to conference 6734579. A live audio webcast of the call will be available under "Events & Presentations" in the Investor section of the Company's website, http://investors.karyopharm.com/events-presentations . An archived webcast will be available on the Company's website approximately two hours after the event.

About XPOVIO (selinexor)

XPOVIO is a first-in-class, oral Selective Inhibitor of Nuclear Export (SINE) compound. XPOVIO functions by selectively binding to and inhibiting the nuclear export protein exportin 1 (XPO1, also called CRM1). XPOVIO blocks the nuclear export of tumor suppressor, growth regulatory and anti-inflammatory proteins, leading to accumulation of these proteins in the nucleus and enhancing their anti-cancer activity in the cell. The forced nuclear retention of these proteins can counteract a multitude of the oncogenic pathways that, unchecked, allow cancer cells with severe DNA damage to continue to grow and divide in an unrestrained fashion. Karyopharm received accelerated U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of XPOVIO in July 2019 in combination with dexamethasone for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) who have received at least four prior therapies and whose disease is refractory to at least two proteasome inhibitors, at least two immunomodulatory agents, and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody. Karyopharm has also submitted a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) with a request for conditional approval of selinexor. A supplemental New Drug Application was submitted to the FDA seeking accelerated approval for selinexor as a new treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and selinexor has received Fast Track and Orphan designation and Priority Review from the FDA with a scheduled PDUFA date of June 23, 2020 for this patient population. Selinexor is also being evaluated in several other mid-and later-phase clinical trials across multiple cancer indications, including in multiple myeloma in a pivotal, randomized Phase 3 study in combination with Velcade (bortezomib) and low-dose dexamethasone (BOSTON), for which Karyopharm announced positive top-line results in March 2020. Additional, ongoing trials for selinexor include as a potential backbone therapy in combination with approved myeloma therapies (STOMP), in liposarcoma (SEAL) and in endometrial cancer (SIENDO), among others. Additional Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 studies are ongoing or currently planned, including multiple studies in combination with approved therapies in a variety of tumor types to further inform Karyopharms clinical development priorities for selinexor. Additional clinical trial information for selinexor is available at www.clinicaltrials.gov .

For more information about Karyopharms products or clinical trials, please contact the Medical Information department at:

Tel: +1 (888) 209-9326

Email: medicalinformation@karyopharm.com

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

Thrombocytopenia

XPOVIO can cause thrombocytopenia, leading to potentially fatal hemorrhage. Thrombocytopenia was reported as an adverse reaction in 74% of patients, and severe (Grade 3-4) thrombocytopenia occurred in 61% of patients treated with XPOVIO. The median time to onset of the first event was 22 days. Bleeding occurred in 23% of patients with thrombocytopenia, clinically significant bleeding occurred in 5% of patients with thrombocytopenia and fatal hemorrhage occurred in <1% of patients.

Monitor platelet counts at baseline, during treatment, and as clinically indicated. Monitor more frequently during the first two months of treatment. Institute platelet transfusion and/or other treatments as clinically indicated. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of bleeding and evaluate promptly. Interrupt and/or reduce dose, or permanently discontinue based on severity of adverse reaction.

Neutropenia

XPOVIO can cause neutropenia, potentially increasing the risk of infection. Neutropenia was reported as an adverse reaction in 34% of patients, and severe (Grade 3-4) neutropenia occurred in 21% of patients treated with XPOVIO. The median time to onset of the first event was 25 days. Febrile neutropenia was reported in 3% of patients.

Obtain neutrophil counts at baseline, during treatment, and as clinically indicated. Monitor more frequently during the first two months of treatment. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of concomitant infection and evaluate promptly. Consider supportive measures including antimicrobials for signs of infection and use of growth factors (e.g., G-CSF). Interrupt and/or reduce dose, or permanently discontinue based on severity of adverse reaction.

Gastrointestinal Toxicity

Gastrointestinal toxicities occurred in patients treated with XPOVIO.

Nausea/Vomiting

Nausea was reported as an adverse reaction in 72% of patients, and Grade 3 nausea occurred in 9% of patients treated with XPOVIO. The median time to onset of the first nausea event was 3 days.

Vomiting was reported in 41% of patients, and Grade 3 vomiting occurred in 4% of patients treated with XPOVIO. The median time to onset of the first vomiting event was 5 days.

Provide prophylactic 5-HT3 antagonists and/or other anti-nausea agents, prior to and during treatment with XPOVIO. Manage nausea/vomiting by dose interruption, reduction, and/or discontinuation. Administer intravenous fluids and replace electrolytes to prevent dehydration in patients at risk. Use additional anti-nausea medications as clinically indicated.

Diarrhea

Diarrhea was reported as an adverse reaction in 44% of patients, and Grade 3 diarrhea occurred in 6% of patients treated with XPOVIO. The median time to onset of diarrhea was 15 days.

Manage diarrhea by dose modifications and/or standard anti-diarrheal agents; administer intravenous fluids to prevent dehydration in patients at risk.

Anorexia/Weight Loss

Anorexia was reported as an adverse reaction in 53% of patients, and Grade 3 anorexia occurred in 5% of patients treated with XPOVIO. The median time to onset of anorexia was 8 days.

Weight loss was reported as an adverse reaction in 47% of patients, and Grade 3 weight loss occurred in 1% of patients treated with XPOVIO. The median time to onset of weight loss was 15 days.

Monitor patient weight at baseline, during treatment, and as clinically indicated. Monitor more frequently during the first two months of treatment. Manage anorexia and weight loss with dose modifications, appetite stimulants, and nutritional support.

Hyponatremia

XPOVIO can cause hyponatremia; 39% of patients treated with XPOVIO experienced hyponatremia, 22% of patients experienced Grade 3 or 4 hyponatremia. The median time to onset of the first event was 8 days.

Monitor sodium level at baseline, during treatment, and as clinically indicated. Monitor more frequently during the first two months of treatment. Correct sodium levels for concurrent hyperglycemia (serum glucose >150 mg/dL) and high serum paraprotein levels. Treat hyponatremia per clinical guidelines (intravenous saline and/or salt tablets), including dietary review. Interrupt and/or reduce dose, or permanently discontinue based on severity of adverse reaction.

Infections

In patients receiving XPOVIO, 52% of patients experienced any grade of infection. Upper respiratory tract infection of any grade occurred in 21%, pneumonia in 13%, and sepsis in 6% of patients. Grade 3 infections were reported in 25% of patients, and deaths resulting from an infection occurred in 4% of patients. The most commonly reported Grade 3 infections were pneumonia in 9% of patients, followed by sepsis in 6%. The median time to onset was 54 days for pneumonia and 42 days for sepsis. Most infections were not associated with neutropenia and were caused by non-opportunistic organisms.

Neurological Toxicity

Neurological toxicities occurred in patients treated with XPOVIO.

Neurological adverse reactions including dizziness, syncope, depressed level of consciousness, and mental status changes (including delirium and confusional state) occurred in 30% of patients, and severe events (Grade 3-4) occurred in 9% of patients treated with XPOVIO. Median time to the first event was 15 days.

Optimize hydration status, hemoglobin level, and concomitant medications to avoid exacerbating dizziness or mental status changes.

Embryo-Fetal Toxicity

Based on data from animal studies and its mechanism of action, XPOVIO can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. Selinexor administration to pregnant animals during organogenesis resulted in structural abnormalities and alterations to growth at exposures below those occurring clinically at the recommended dose.

Advise pregnant women of the potential risk to a fetus. Advise females of reproductive potential and males with a female partner of reproductive potential to use effective contraception during treatment with XPOVIO and for 1 week after the last dose.

ADVERSE REACTIONS

The most common adverse reactions (incidence 20%) are thrombocytopenia, fatigue, nausea, anemia, decreased appetite, decreased weight, diarrhea, vomiting, hyponatremia, neutropenia, leukopenia, constipation, dyspnea, and upper respiratory tract infection.

The treatment discontinuation rate due to adverse reactions was 27%; 53% of patients had a reduction in the XPOVIO dose, and 65.3% had the dose of XPOVIO interrupted. The most frequent adverse reactions requiring permanent discontinuation in 4% or greater of patients who received XPOVIO included fatigue, nausea, and thrombocytopenia. The rate of fatal adverse reactions was 8.9%.

Please see XPOVIO Full Prescribing Information available at www.XPOVIO.com .

References

1 Widman, D. et al. In vitro toxicity and efficacy of verdinexor, an exportin 1 inhibitor, on opportunistic viruses affecting immunocompromised individuals. PLoS ONE. 2018. 13(10): e0200043. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0200043

2 Gordon, D. et al. A SARS-CoV-2-Human Protein-Protein Interaction Map Reveals Drug Targets and Potential Drug Repurposing. bioRxiv. 2020. 03.22.002386. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.22.002386

3 Zhu, N. et al. China Novel Coronavirus Investigating and Research Team. A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. N. Engl. J. Med. 2020. 382. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001017

4 Freundt, E. et al. Molecular Determinants for Subcellular Localization of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Open Reading Frame 3b Protein. Journal of Virology. 2009. 83:13. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19403678

5 Sharma, K. et al. SARS-CoV 9b Protein Diffuses into Nucleus, Undergoes Active Crm1 Mediated Nucleocytoplasmic Export and Triggers Apoptosis When Retained in the Nucleus. PLoS ONE. 2011. 6(5): e19436. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0019436

6 McBride, R. et al. The Coronavirus Nucleocapsid Is a Multifunctional Protein. Viruses. 2014. 6. https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/6/8/2991

7 Ujike, M. et al. Two palmitylated cysteine residues of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus spike (S) protein are critical for S incorporation into virus-like particles, but not for MS co-localization. Journal of General Virology. 2012. 93. https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.038091-0

8 Sims, A. et al. Release of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Nuclear Import Block Enhances Host Transcription in Human Lung Cells. Journal of Virology. 2013. 87:7. https://jvi.asm.org/content/87/7/3885

9 Ongoing research being conducted at Columbia University and DarwinHealth, led by Drs. Andrea Califano, Gideon Bosker, Mariano Alvarez and Pasquale Laise.

10 Zhou, Y. et al. Network-based drug repurposing for novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV/SARS-CoV-2. Cell Discovery. 2020. 6:14. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41421-020-0153-3

11 Tamir S, et al. Anti-influenza and anti-inflammatory activity of KPT-335, a Selective Inhibitor of Nuclear Export (SINE), in mice and ferrets. Poster presented at: The 27th International Conference on Antiviral Research. 2014 May 12-16; Raleigh, North Carolina.

12 Ralph A. Tripp, Ph.D., University of Georgia.

13 Tajiri, N. et al. A Nuclear Attack on Traumatic Brain Injury: Sequestration of Cell Death in the Nucleus. CNS Neurosci Ther. 2016. https://doi.org/10.1111/cns.12501

14 Perwitasari, O. et al. Verdinexor, a Novel Selective Inhibitor of Nuclear Export, Reduces Influenza A Virus Replication In Vitro and In Vivo. Journal of Virology. 2014. 88:17. https://jvi.asm.org/content/88/17/10228

15 Wu, M. et al. KPT-330, a potent and selective CRM1 inhibitor, exhibits anti-Inflammation effects and protection against sepsis. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2018.07.112

16 Huang, C. et. al. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Lancet. 2020. 395. https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2820%2930183-5

17 Ruan, Q. et al. Clinical predictors of mortality due to COVID-19 based on an analysis of data of 150 patients from Wuhan, China. Intensive Care Med. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-020-05991-x

About Karyopharm Therapeutics

Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. (KPTI) is an oncology-focused pharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel first-in-class drugs directed against nuclear export and related targets for the treatment of cancer and other major diseases. Karyopharm's Selective Inhibitor of Nuclear Export (SINE) compounds function by binding with and inhibiting the nuclear export protein XPO1 (or CRM1). Karyopharms lead compound, XPOVIO (selinexor), received accelerated approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2019 in combination with dexamethasone as a treatment for patients with heavily pretreated multiple myeloma. A Marketing Authorization Application for selinexor is also currently under review by the European Medicines Agency. A supplemental New Drug Application was recently accepted by the FDA seeking accelerated approval for selinexor as a new treatment for adult patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). In addition to single-agent and combination activity against a variety of human cancers, SINE compounds have also shown biological activity in models of neurodegeneration, inflammation, autoimmune disease, certain viruses and wound-healing. Karyopharm has several investigational programs in clinical or preclinical development. For more information, please visit www.karyopharm.com .

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include those regarding Karyopharms expectations and plans relating to selinexor as a potential treatment for hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19; the initiation and design of a global randomized clinical trial to study this potential application of selinexor, including the dosing regimen; submissions to, and the review and potential approval of selinexor in this indication by, regulatory authorities, including the anticipated availability of data to support such submissions, timing of such submissions and actions by regulatory authorities and the potential availability of accelerated approval pathways; and the therapeutic potential of and potential clinical development plans for Karyopharms drug candidates, including the impact of a selinexor clinical trial on the timing or prioritization of other key company milestones, such as its expected submission of a supplemental new drug application in the second quarter of 2020 for XPOVIO in combination with once-weekly Velcade and low dose dexamethasone. Such statements are subject to numerous important factors, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Karyopharm's control, that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from Karyopharm's current expectations. For example, there can be no guarantee that Karyopharm will successfully complete necessary clinical development phases of selinexor in this indication; that data from a clinical trial of selinexor would support its use in treatment of hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19; that regulators will approve the use of selinexor in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19, or that such approval will be made on an accelerated timeline. Further, there can be no guarantee that any positive developments in the development or commercialization of Karyopharms drug candidate portfolio will result in stock price appreciation. Managements expectations and, therefore, any forward-looking statements in this press release could also be affected by risks and uncertainties relating to a number of other factors, including the following: the risk that the COVID-19 pandemic could disrupt Karyopharms business more severely than it currently anticipates, including by reducing sales of XPOVIO, interrupting or delaying research and development efforts, impacting the ability to procure sufficient supply for the development and commercialization of selinexor or other product candidates, delaying ongoing or planned clinical trials, impeding the execution of business plans, planned regulatory milestones and timelines, or inconveniencing patients; the adoption of selinexor for treatment of COVID-19 in the commercial marketplace, the timing and costs involved in commercializing selinexor for such indication or any of Karyopharms drug candidates that receive regulatory approval; the ability to retain regulatory approval of selinexor for such indication or any of Karyopharms drug candidates that receive regulatory approval; Karyopharm's results of clinical trials and preclinical studies, including subsequent analysis of existing data and new data received from ongoing and future studies; the content and timing of decisions made by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory authorities, investigational review boards at clinical trial sites and publication review bodies, including with respect to the need for additional clinical studies; the ability of Karyopharm or its third party collaborators or successors in interest to fully perform their respective obligations under the applicable agreement and the potential future financial implications of such agreement; Karyopharm's ability to obtain and maintain requisite regulatory approvals and to enroll patients in its clinical trials; unplanned cash requirements and expenditures; development of drug candidates by Karyopharms competitors for indications in which Karyopharm is currently developing its drug candidates; and Karyopharms ability to obtain, maintain and enforce patent and other intellectual property protection for any drug candidates it is developing. These and other risks are described under the caption "Risk Factors" in Karyopharms Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 26, 2020, and in other filings that Karyopharm may make with the SEC in the future. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, Karyopharm expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Velcade is a registered trademark of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.

Contacts:

Investors:

Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc.

Ian Karp, Vice President, Investor and Public Relations

857-297-2241 | ikarp@karyopharm.com

Media:
3 1 of 3 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Show More Show Less 2 of 3 LI WENLIANG/Getty Show More Show Less 3 of 3





The number of coronavirus cases rose by one in Midland County on Monday as the city of Midland Health Department reported one new confirmed case.

The 27th confirmed case is a male in his 40s, tested by Midland Health, according to the city. The male has been self-isolating at home, and his source of exposure is contact to known case, the city reported.
Until late January, Charles Lieber was living a private life as an elite scientist in America. His laboratory at Harvard University studied things like how to mix small electronics with the brain.

More so, during his free time, he developed prized pumpkins in front of his residence.

Then, towards the latter part of January, the FBI came to arrest him. Presently, this American scientist is facing charges of trading his skills, knowledge, and expertise for money and not telling the truth about it.

Prosecutors claimed Lieber set up a China-based lab to be paid with hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Chinese government and then denied involvement in the said money to the American investigators.

Also, Peter Levitt, the scientist's lawyer, declined to speak with NPR about the accusations. Nevertheless, others closely watching and following the case said it raises essential doubts on scientific openness.

READ: Report Says Brazil Lacks COVID-19 Tests and Other Equipment

5 Facts about Lieber

The latest strain of coronavirus said to be accountable for COVID-19 is said to have appeared from a food market in China, specifically in Wuhan in December last year. Nevertheless, according to theories, Lieber was the one who created this deadly infection, which has now infected over 1 million and killed over 70,000 people worldwide. While investigations are ongoing and the allegations have yet to be proven (right or wrong), here are some facts you need to know about the American scientist.

Lieber is a Well-Known American Chemist

Considered a pioneer in both nanotechnology and nanoscience, Lieber has significant contributions in the use of nanoelectronic mechanisms in biology, not to mention having been a mentor to many nanoscience leaders.

In 2011, the chemist was acknowledged as the decade's leading scientist due to his accomplishments in the field.

READ NEXT: From Liquor to Antiseptics: How a Venezuelan Distillery Is Responding to COVID-19

He Authored Several Nanoscience Papers

Since Lieber started his career as a chemist, he has published around 400 papers in various peer-reviewed journals. He has also contributed to numerous nanoscience books.

More so, he has invented over 50 U.S. patents, as well as applications, and continues to research within his field of expertise. Lieber's present work concentrates on electronics, specifically those "within the central nervous system."

He Worked for Two of America's Leading Universities

In the late 80s, he served at Columbia University's Department of Chemistry as an Assistant Professor. After five years, he transferred to Harvard University. To date, he is holding a joint appointment at Harvard's Chemical Biology and Department of Chemistry.

A Self-Confessed Competitive Professional

In his past interviews, Lieber admitted he felt the pressure in getting things done fast, and, ideally, first. He also admitted always wanting "to break new ground." He added, too, that what he likes to do as a chemist or scientist, is to work hard on things that have not yet existed in other studies.

READ MORE: 6-Minute Burials: Cemetery Prepares for Major COVID-19 Impact in Latin America

He Was Arrested for Allegedly Partnering with a Chinese University

As mentioned, Lieber was arrested in late January on charges of falsifying his statements to law enforcement on a supposed collaboration he had with a Chinese university.

With this, officials found that in 2013, Lieber wrote an agreement between Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) and Harvard University to conduct advanced studies.

The Chinese government allegedly forged the partnership to gain an advantage in both military and economic advances.
Level of Radiation in Ukraine's Chernobyl Spikes Above Normal Rate Amid Forest Fires - Lawmaker

Sputnik News

02:46 GMT 06.04.2020(updated 02:50 GMT 06.04.2020)

Ukrainian firefighters continue to combat a fire that originated in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, established after the nuclear disaster of 1986, with the fire reportedly covering 20 hectares.

The level of radiation in Ukraine's Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is 14 times higher than the normal rate, as forest fires are still raging in the area, according to Ukrainian lawmaker Egor Firsov.

"[Here] is the bad news - the radiation is above normal in the epicentre of the fire. As you see in the video, the [radiation dosimeter] shows 2.3 mR/h, while the norm is 0.14 mR/h", Firsov wrote on his official Facebook page on Sunday.

Firsov believes the cause of the forest fires was arson.

"As it often happens now, someone set the grass on fire first, and then the fire spread to the trees...", Firsov wrote.

The lawmaker also called for a higher arson penalty.

On Sunday, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES) said it was dealing with a fire in the Exclusion Zone that has spread to an area of 20 hectares. It also added later that the radiation level in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, does not exceed the 15-year-old standard of 0.014 mR/h.

"As of 15 hours, the radiation background in the city of Kiev and the Kiev region is within normal limits and does not exceed the natural background [level of radiation] (the city of Kiev is 0.014 mR/h, the Kiev region is within 0.012 mR/h). The maximum allowable natural background [level of radiation] is 0.05 mR/h)", the SES said.

The emergency service also shared a video on its YouTube page showing fire raging in the area.

Massive fires started in Chernobyl's forests on Saturday. The authorities have since been trying to extinguish the fires with the help of aviation and about 50 tonnes of water so far.

The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was established after a nuclear accident occurred at the No. 4 nuclear reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in April 1986. The disaster resulted in a large number of people displaced and vast areas contaminated.

A Sputnik

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A Kalyan Dombivali Municipal



Corporation official was on Tuesday suspended for allowing a marriage function last month which was attended by a Qatar returnee who then went on to test coronavirus positive and possibly also passed on the infection to others there.

Incidentally, the Doha returnee, whose presence at the marriage led to the suspension of the official, was discharged on Monday night after recovery from COVID-19.

The order to place Dombivali Divisional Ward Officer Bhagaji Bhangre under suspension was issued by KDMC Commissioner Vijay Suryavanshi, officials said.

"The marriage function took place on March 19, at a time when the state and Centre had told civic officials to not allow gatherings as the attendees could end up getting infected with coronavirus. He has been suspended for dereliction of duties," he said.

The Epidemic Diseases Act, which gives authorities extensive powers like lockdown and quarantine to combat an outbreak, had been invoked in Maharashtra on March 13, he pointed out.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Treasury Wine Estates considered "all options" including the sale of Penfolds, its US business or other operations before deciding that a demerger of Penfolds to create two ASX-listed wine companies was its preference.

Australia's biggest wine company announced plans on Wednesday to look into a demerger of Penfolds by the end of calendar 2021. It comes after a wide-ranging strategic review, and while not a forgone conclusion, a Penfolds spin-off seems likely.

"We consider all options and have looked at all different options," Treasury boss Michael Clarke said. "What we're putting forward is strategically what the board thus far has approved for us to look at, to work on and to execute."

Penfolds could become its own listed company. Credit:Justin McManus

The Treasury CEO, who leaves the role mid-year, said "a tonne of work" had already been done on a potential Penfolds demerger and "there will be more work going on. And then obviously we'll update the market at the appropriate time".
(Natural News) The Democrats operate under the political mantra, Never let a good crisis go to waste, which means, simply, use such incidents to our advantage to push through agenda items that normally would not have a chance.

One of those items is perpetual vote fraud and election theft.

You may recall that in California during the 2018 midterm elections, Democrats managed to flip several traditionally Republican congressional seats in red districts using a state-approved vote fraud method called ballot harvesting.

What is it? As former U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) noted in a column at Fox News:

The process of ballot harvesting should be illegal for very good reason. It violates the chain of custody, exposing the ballot to potential manipulation by campaign operatives or nonprofit political groups. They could harass voters to turn in ballots, assist them in filling them out, and potentially lose ballots that dont support the candidate the ballot harvester is paid to help.

Thats exactly what happened in the Golden State. Democrats flipped seven reliably Republican House seats after ballots for Democratic contenders were found as much as a week after the election.

Now, congressional Democrats want to take this vote-fraud scheme nationwide with the help of their old buddy and fellow socialist billionaire George Soros, who is in on it with them.

And they are planning to use the coronavirus pandemic as the vehicle to get it done.

As reported by Breitbart News, Marc Elias, Hillary Clintons former campaign attorney who works for a law firm  Perkins Coie  that financed (using money funneled from Clintons 2016 presidential campaign) the bogus Russia dossier, outlined changes he says the U.S. needs in order to fix voting rules before the 2020 election.

Democrats would not be supporting this method of balloting if they didnt think it would help them

Basically, it reads like a manual, How to steal an election.

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1246843355490811905

There are only two voting reforms the country really needs and those are:

 All voters must cast ballots in person, to preserve that chain of custody that Chaffetz discussed. Thats the only way to ensure integrity and that the vote cast actually came from the person casting it.

 All voters should be made to show valid, government-issued IDs  to prove residency, citizenship, age, and legal status. We have to show our ID to buy liquor and cigarettes, to get into a federal or state courthouse, to board a commercial flight, and for a variety of other reasons. That we dont have to prove who we are to elect our leaders and vote on measures is absurd.

We established better voting procedures in the countries we invaded and then occupied over the past two decades; remember seeing Iraqis with purple fingers signifying they had cast ballots (so they couldnt go somewhere else and vote two, three, four times)?

We dont do that in America becauseracism/bigotry/inequalityor some such BS.

Mail-in balloting and allowing people to go around harvesting ballots is such a blatant violation of trust and integrity only a Marxist Democrat could love those techniques. It is such an easy, effortless way to steal an election that it reminds us of voting in authoritarian dictatorships like North Korea, Saddam Husseins Iraq, Cuba, and even Venezuela  where the authoritarian winds up with some ridiculous percentage of the vote.

Democrats would not be supporting this method of balloting if they didnt think it would help them not only gain power but keep it. Otherwise, what would be the point? Because we know they dont really believe in democracy once they are in power.

While simpletons, idiots, and virtue-signaling morons claim Donald Trump is the real totalitarian threat, its the Donkey Party that is attempting to swipe our democracy.

Sources include:

Breitbart.com

FoxNews.com

TheNationalSentinel.com
Commuters shared photos of busy London Underground services again this morning despite the coronavirus lockdown.

Only key workers and those who are unable to work at home are meant to use the Tube, leading to millions staying away. But cuts to services has seen some people squeezed into confined carriages, further risking the spread of the deadly Covid-19.

Angry commuters today called the situation 'ridiculous' and a 'mess' as they shared pictures of crowded platforms and trains with travellers standing just inches away from each other in tweets to London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

It came as a record high of 854 coronavirus deaths were announced in the UK today, taking the total to 6,227, with 51,608 confirmed cases and Prime Minister Boris Johnson still in intensive care.

Angry commuters today called the situation 'ridiculous' and a 'mess' as they shared pictures of crowded platforms and trains with travellers standing just inches away from each other

One Central Line commuter wrote on Twitter: 'Another day, another mess up at Leytonstone. Social distancing impossible

One Central Line commuter wrote on Twitter: 'Another day, another mess up at Leytonstone. Social distancing impossible.

'The lack of a service is causing too many people on a platform/tube carriage (approx 100 this morning). Do your bit for the country and fix this.'

Another Tube user also raged at the situation, tweeting: 'Why isn't enough being done... this is ridiculous.'

The number of passengers using the Tube has plunged during the lockdown, with 94% fewer on some days last week compared with the time last year. This has meant most trains are largely empty.

However, because the number of services has been dramatically reduced, key workers who still need to travel have been forced to pack into a smaller number of carriages at some busy points in the day.

In response, Mr Khan has insisted he is unable to run any more services because a third of TfL staff are off sick or in coronavirus self-isolation.

Today, Mr Khan again repeated the same message and urged Londoners to stay at home.

Yesterday, he revealed that ten public transport workers in London have died of coronavirus amid a growing row over the lack of personal protection equipment (PPE) for drivers.

The Mayor said the victims, eight of whom were bus drivers, died in the last few days.

He told Sky News: They are in my thoughts and prayers, and my condolences to their families. It reminds us actually, one of the heroic frontline workers are transport workers.

Transport bosses are furious with Transport for London (TfL) for refusing to provide drivers with protective equipment, including gloves and masks.

Unions Unite and Aslef have said public transport workers are risking their own safety to provide a service for essential workers.

Today, Sadiq Kahn again tweeted to urge Londoners to stay at home, and said it was not possible to put on more services for key workers because a third of TfL staff were sick

A slide from the presentation given by Sir Patrick Vallance last week, showing the huge reduction in use of the tube, bus, trains and car usage

Aslef official Finn Brennan said: Every day brings fresh news of friends, family members and colleagues being struck down by this terrible virus.

Unlike politicians and managers, frontline transport staff cannot work from home. Everything possible must be done to protect their safety.

Tube drivers and other TfL staff are risking their own health and that of their families by leaving home to provide transport for vital staff.

By refusing to close non-essential workplaces, the Government is endangering their safety and that of other key workers who rely on public transport.

Similar concerns have been raised by Londons bus drivers.

Over the weekend, a bus driver called James told Sky News: Buses not being deep cleaned, we can see they arent even being touched.

Drivers are not being given masks or even gloves now because we are being told to wash our hands multiple times throughout the day which would be great but since all the shops are shut a massive majority of us dont even have toilets or sinks to wash our hands.

Yesterday, Mr Khan revealed that ten public transport workers in London have died of coronavirus amid a growing row over the lack of personal protection equipment (PPE) for drivers

Mr Khan said he has been lobbying government almost on a daily basis to get PPE for transport workers.

It comes after Mr Khan blamed commuters for packing public transport rather than ramp up services across the capital.

He said last week 'too many people are not staying at home' and again insisted they could not run any more services as he admitted only around half of all trains are now going during rush hour.

There are waits of up to 20 minutes between trains when usually it would be three to five minutes, leading to more busy carriages and platforms packed with key workers with no choice but to go to work.

Mr Khan told Good Morning Britain last Wednesday: 'Transport for London staff are working their socks off. 30 per cent are self isolating or have symptoms. We are providing max services we can - of the 13 lines on TFL  all but two are working'.

He added: 'There is a concern that still too many people who really, really should not be going to work are using public transport during the rush hour and the key message is unless you really have to get to work, work from home, and if you do have to go into work, please avoid the rush hour.'
The Archbishop calls for 24-hours of prayer from 7 pm tonight to the same time tomorrow. The toll in the city-state is over 1300 infections, six victims and 320 recoveries. For Msgr. Goh the virus has shown the inadequacy of governments in containing the spread. He prays for mercy from God for a wounded humanity.

Singapore (AsiaNews) - "We are facing one of the most demanding crises of our time", because in recent history "no disease or virus" had affected a large number of people in such a short period of time, killing thousands of them around the planet .

This is what the Archbishop of Singapore Msgr. William Goh says, announcing a special event involving the whole diocese, to call for an end to the new coronavirus pandemic that has also affected the city-state.

"As your pastor - he adds - I invite you to join me in a 24 hour prayer, fasting and penance that starts tonight at 7 and ends tomorrow 8 April, Holy Wednesday, at the same time".

In recent weeks, the local government had allocated a 30 billion euro fund for the fight against Covid-19. The city-state had distinguished itself - along with South Korea and Vietnam - among the nations of the continent and the world that best knew how to counter the spread of the virus.

However, in recent days the disease has returned in circulation and the authorities have isolated two dormitories in which more than 20 thousand foreign migrant workers reside. To date there are 1309 total cases, six confirmed victims and 320 recoveries.

Illustrating the day of fasting and prayer, the archbishop of Singapore stresses that governments around the world have understood their inadequacy "in containing the spread of the virus or in preventing deaths". "We have not yet found a vaccine for this virus - he adds - and it could take several months for scientists to find a way to stop the infection. If men can do nothing, only God is able to do something "because, as Matthew (19:26) says" for men this is impossible, but for God everything is possible ".

All preventive measures, support for health care workers and sick people in Covid-19 "are not enough" continues Msgr. Goh. "We need to pray and intercede together as Church for Gods mercy and divine intervention in the world. Whilst it is true that this disease has purified humanity of greed, arrogance, removed many sins of the flesh from humanity, and restored the beauty of creation, we also must ask God to be merciful to humanity who are suffering the loss of lives of their loved ones.".

The Archbishop continued: "So please join me in praying for divine mercy and intervention to save the world not just from Covid-19 but that through this pandemic, the world may come to its senses and recognize that man does not have full control over the world regardless of how technologically and militarily advanced we are. Only God alone decides because He is the Lord of life and death. Indeed, Holy Wednesday is called Spy Wednesday. We who have betrayed the Lord by our sins and suffering the judgment of God, must therefore repent and pray for conversion of humanity so that this Covid-19 pandemic can be eliminated from the face of the earth
Weeks before declaring a national emergency as he dismissed concerns of a looming coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump was warned at least twice by his top trade adviser that the outbreak could cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars

In a January memo to the National Security Council, Peter Navarro warned the White House that an outbreak could likely lead to the deaths of half a million people in the US.

That memo called for an immediate ban on travel from China, reportedly as Mr Navarro sought to ramp up a trade war with the country.

Another memo, from February, said as many as 2 million Americans could die and warned that "now is not the time for penny-pinching or horse-trading" as the president waged political battles with his Democratic critics in Congress.

The first memo was sent to the National Security Council on 29 January, and the other was sent directly to the president on 23 February, according to Axios, which obtained copies of the memos.

Axios reports that the memos were dismissed at first as White House officials were sceptical of Mr Navarro's "anti-China" motives, according to an unnamed senior administration official

Without citing projections, the actions recommended in his memos were seen by White House officials as potentially rattling markets and misappropriating trillions of dollars.

Mr Navarro had compared cost estimates for imposing travel restrictions on China, pointing to a loss in $2.9 billion a month or as much as $35 billion in the event of a pandemic with a year-long ban imposed.

A February memo warned of an "increasing probability of a full-blown Covid-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1-2 million souls".

He called for an "immediate" appropriation of $2 billion for virus prevention and treatment, as well as the needs for mobilising health worker and "at least a billion" face masks, thousands of Tyvek suits, 11,000 ventilators, and 25,000 respirators.

Recommended Trump aide pushed into limelight clashing with coronavirus task force

On 24 February, the day after that memo was sent, the president said on Twitter that the virus was "very much under control" and that the stock market is "starting to look very good" to him.

The resurfacing of the memos follows reports that Mr Navarro sparred with Dr Anthony Fauci over the use of a controversial malaria drug that the president has promoted as a "game changer" against the virus, despite Dr Fauci and other health officials stressing the dangers of implementing medicine that has not been clinically tested or scaled to treat coronavirus patients.

Mr Navarro has emerged as a fierce proponent of an "America first" ideology fuelling the president's economic policies.
[April 07, 2020] Quorum Health Corporation Reaches Agreement with Majority of Lenders and Noteholders on Prepackaged Recapitalization Plan

Quorum Health Corporation (NYSE: QHC) (the "Company") today announced that it has entered into a Restructuring Support Agreement (the "RSA (News - Alert)") with a majority of its term loan lenders and noteholders on a "pre-packaged" plan to recapitalize the business and significantly reduce the size and cost of the Company's debt. Under the terms of this pre-packaged plan, Quorum Health will reduce its debt by approximately $500 million. To implement the plan, Quorum Health filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the "Court"). The operations of Quorum Health and its hospitals are unaffected and all facilities are open and available to provide patient care. The Company's subsidiary, Quorum Health Resources, is also continuing to provide the same high quality services to its hospital, health system and healthcare provider clients. Quorum Health-affiliated hospitals are focused on ensuring employees, physicians and providers can continue to provide quality care to the patients and communities they serve. The intent of the plan is to ensure that patients and families experience the same care that exists today. Employees will be paid their wages and benefits in the ordinary course for the work they perform. In addition, the parties to the RSA have agreed and have requested Court authority to pay suppliers in full for goods and services provided before and after filing. "We believe the financial restructuring plan announced today will strengthen our business and enable our community hospitals to continue the important work they are doing in addressing the COVID-19 crisis, as well as serve their patients and communities," said Bob Fish, Quorum Health Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer. "Quorum Health has been transparent about the need to restructure our debt over the past year. We believe the RSA will significantly reduce our debt and annual interest expense and better position our company, our affiliated hospitals, and our hospital management and consulting company, for future growth. The RSA will also build on the significant progress we have made to strengthen our operations. We are grateful for the support of our financial stakeholders, which we believe represents a statement of confidence in our business and enables us to move through this process on an expedited basis," Fish continued. In connection with the RSA and the expected Chapter 11 filing, Quorum Health has received a commitment for debor-in-possession ("DIP") financing consisting of $100 million, from certain of its existing noteholders. Upon Court approval, the new financing and cash generated from the Company's ongoing operations will be used to support the business during the court-supervised process. The Company has also received a $200 million equity commitment from certain noteholders that will be funded upon completion of the case and used to pay various costs and reduce debt.



Additional information can be accessed by visiting Quorum Health's website at QuorumForward.com or calling Quorum Health's Restructuring Hotline, toll-free in the U.S. at (866) 977-0859, or (503) 597-7702 for calls originating outside of the U.S. Court filings and other documents related to the court-supervised proceedings are available at a website administered by the Company's claims agent, Epiq Corporate Restructuring, LLC, at https://dm.epiq11.com/Quorum. McDermott Will & Emery LLP and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz are serving as the Company's legal counsel, MTS (News - Alert) Health Partners, L.P. is serving as its financial advisor and Alvarez & Marsal North America, LLC. is serving as restructuring advisor.

About Quorum Health Corporation Quorum Health Corporation is an operator of general acute care hospitals and outpatient services in the United States. Through its subsidiaries, the Company owns, leases or operates a diversified portfolio of 23 affiliated hospitals in rural and mid-sized markets located across 13 states with an aggregate of 1,950 licensed beds. The Company also operates Quorum Health Resources, LLC, a leading hospital management advisory and consulting services business. More information about Quorum Health Corporation can be found at www.quorumhealth.com. Forward-Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects, believes, targets or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. The Company's actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain risks and other factors, which could include the following: risks and uncertainties relating to the Chapter 11 Cases, including but not limited to, the Company's ability to obtain Court approval with respect to motions in the Chapter 11 Cases; the effects of the Chapter 11 Cases on the Company and on the interests of various constituents; the length of time the Company will operate under the Chapter 11 Cases; the potential adverse effects of the Chapter 11 Cases on the Company's liquidity or results of operations and increased legal and other professional costs necessary to execute the Company's financial restructuring; the conditions to which the Company's debtor-in-possession financing is subject and the risk that these conditions may not be satisfied for various reasons, including for reasons outside of the Company's control; the Company's trading price and the volatility of the Company's common stock and the effects of the Chapter 11 Cases on the Company's continued listing on the New York Stock Exchange; and the effects and the length of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as well as other risk factors set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company therefore cautions readers against relying on these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on the Company's behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. All such statements speak only as of the date made, and, except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The terms "QHC," "Quorum Health," "the Company," "we," "us" or "our" refer to Quorum Health Corporation or one or more of its subsidiaries or affiliates as applicable. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005274/en/

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The coronavirus outbreak has become a worldwide emergency, and has led to serious concerns about medical shortages, including the availability of prescription drugs. While some states, including Pennsylvania, are trying to cap the price of prescription drugs, sometimes by creating so-called affordability boards, their policies will only lead to greater shortages and threaten public health.

Despite the good intentions behind these affordability boards, a new report by my colleagues at the American Consumer Institute details how price controls will ultimately reduce consumer access to prescription drugs, most particularly low-cost, affordable generic drugs.

Through state legislative efforts, Maryland and Maine have established drug affordability boards to regulate the price of prescription medication, and Pennsylvania is now considering following suit with House Bill 2212. The boards are empowered to set price controls when cost increases cross a given threshold or if the price of a drug challenges the affordability of the state healthcare system.

As the American Consumer Institute report highlights, from Nixon-era price freezes to contemporary rent control, government mandated prices below the market equilibrium simply do not work. Much like other proposals to cap the price of prescription drugs, such as the Trump administrations International Price Index, price ceilings risk disincentivizing research and development in the worlds most vibrant medical research industry. In the long run, this may limit consumer access to novel treatments.

These boards only target individual drugs and, consequently, they could do little to address the enduring, gradual rise of drug prices more generally. A clear example of this myopia is the case of insulin. Despite tragic stories of countless Americans skipping insulin doses due to the high cost of the drug, recent price hikes fall short of the fixed thresholds that would invoke an investigation by Pennsylvanias proposed affordability board.

Even if the board were to consider prescription medications like insulin on the basis of their popularity, consumers who rely on lesser-known drugs would be overlooked. These boards do little to tangibly benefit the majority of consumers who rely on prescription drugs but struggle with costs as they are today.

Price controls also risk penalizing the most cost-competitive generic medications. Approximately 90% of prescriptions filled in the United States are for generic drugs, and they constitute the backbone of affordable medication for consumers.

Many of those generic medicines are not the drugs driving high spending, but are instead, saving patients and state governments billions. In fact, in 2018, generics saved Pennsylvania a total of $13.7 billion, with Medicaid accounting for $2.3 billion and commercially insured patients saving $6.4 billion.

Price controls are an ad hoc effort to treat the symptom, rather than the underlying cause, of high prescription drug prices. Rather than penalizing consumers through knee-jerk, outdated interventions, affordability boards should focus on cleaning up the opaque pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) industry. As middlemen between insurers, pharmacists, and drug manufacturers, PBMs accrue billions upon billions of dollars worth of savings that could be passed onto consumers.

Similarly, cost-effective generic drugs and biosimilars should be prioritized on Medicare Part D formularies. By encouraging price competition and helping consumers choose the cheapest alternative,more than $4 billion in out of pocket expenses could be saved by reorganizing formularies.

The coronavirus is here. Despite the good intentions behind state-led efforts to lower the cost of prescription medication, the spread of price caps will eventually backfire on the consumers they seek to help. In lieu of focusing on further price increases, Pennsylvania lawmakers should address the factors that have already made prescription medication so unaffordable for consumers.

Oliver McPherson-Smith and Steve Pociask write for the American Consumer Institute, a non-profit educational and research organization.
"We have worked with the administrators, students and teachers of De La Salle for nearly two decades, so we deeply appreciate how essential the school is to our community," said Rob Stuart, President and Chief Executive Officer, OnPoint Community Credit Union. "As we continue grappling with the impacts of COVID-19, support of the education community is needed more than ever. We hope our support will inspire the DLSNC community at this critical time by assuring the students and teachers that they will have adequate space to learn, grow and explore on the other side of COVID-19."

DLSNC currently serves 280 students in its current building, which is owned by Portland Public Schools. The capital campaign is raising funds for a new campus that will accommodate more than 350 students, expanding access to its distinctive combination of strong academics and real-life work experience.

"As the largest sponsor of DLSNC's corporate work study program, we have supported more than 150 students over the years," said Jackie Dunckley, Chief Talent Officer, OnPoint Community Credit Union, and Chair of Board of Trustees, De La Salle North Catholic High School. "De La Salle teachers and students have become our friends and colleagues and we are proud to stand by them and support them at this time."

OnPoint is currently the largest employer-sponsor of DLSNC's Corporate Work Study Program. This partnership, which began when the school opened in 2001, has allowed 158 students to work in an entry-level position throughout the credit union with 100 percent of OnPoint's students going on to graduate. In addition to gaining professional insight, skills development and personal growth, students earn 50 percent of their school tuition. Participating students also graduate with valuable work experience.

"We are so grateful for our longstanding partnership with OnPoint Community Credit Union," said Oscar Leong, President of De La Salle North Catholic High School. "Their ongoing support of our students over the years, and now, at this critical juncture in our campaign, is amazing. Our future and permanent home will enable us to serve more students and provide them with the state-of-the-art facilities that will allow us to thrive and reach new heights."

ABOUT ONPOINT COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION

OnPoint Community Credit Union is the largest credit union in Oregon, serving more than 395,000 members and with assets of $6.5 billion. Founded in 1932, OnPoint Community Credit Union's membership is available to anyone who lives or works in one of 13 Oregon counties (Benton, Clackamas, Columbia, Crook, Deschutes, Jefferson, Lane, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, Polk, Washington and Yamhill) and two Washington counties (Skamania and Clark) and their immediate family members. More information is available at www.onpointcu.com or 503-228-7077 or 800-527-3932.

ABOUT DE LA SALLE NORTH CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL

De La Salle North Catholic High School opened in 2001 to provide a rigorous, faith-based education to students from the Portland area who would not otherwise have access to a reliable college-preparatory education. An average of 98% of graduating seniors have been accepted to college, more than two times the rate of peers with similar backgrounds and demographics. Students at De La Salle North Catholic High School attend class four days a week and work for a local company one day a week as part of the Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP). The CWSP provides work experience, business contacts and helps offset the cost to educate students. By the time they graduate, each student has the equivalent of one full year of real-world work experience. A nationwide, independent rating agency has identified De La Salle North Catholic High School as the most diverse private high school in all of Oregon. De La Salle North Catholic is a member of the Cristo Rey Network, is sponsored by the Lasallian Christian Brothers and belongs to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland/Western Oregon. www.delasallenorth.org.

SOURCE OnPoint Community Credit Union

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The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday put all employees of Intelligence Bureau (IB) under home quarantine, after one of the officials allegedly came in contact with a COVID-19 patient.

Speaking to ANI, Prem Chandra Choudhary, Commissioner, BMC, said: "We have asked all IB employees to home quarantine on Monday after one of the employees came in contact with a COVID-19 positive person. All the employees will be kept in home quarantine till April 19."

He further added that the IB office is being sanitised by BMC and a team from the Health Department will visit the office and residence for inspection.

India's tally of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 4,421, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday.

Out of the 4,421 cases, 3,981 are active cases while 325 have been cured or discharged and one has migrated. The total death toll stands at 114.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Climate change encouraged colonization of South Pacific Islands earlier than first thought

Research led by scientists at the University of Southampton has found settlers arrived in East Polynesia around 200 years earlier than previously thought.

Colonisation of the vast eastern Pacific with its few and far-flung island archipelagos was a remarkable achievement in human history. Yet the timing, character, and drivers of this accomplishment remain poorly understood.

However, this new study has found a major change in the climate of the region, which resulted in a dry period, coinciding with the arrival of people on the tiny island of Atiu, in the southern group of the Cook Islands, around 900AD.

Findings are published in the paper, 'Human settlement of East Polynesia earlier, incremental and coincident with prolonged South Pacific drought' in the journal PNAS.

"The ancestors of the Polynesians, the Lapita people, migrated east into the Pacific Ocean as far as Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, reaching them around 2800 years ago. But for almost 1500 years humans failed to migrate any further into the pacific," explains lead researcher, Professor David Sear of the University of Southampton. "Our research gives us a much more accurate timescale of when people first arrived in the region and helps answer some key questions about why they made their hazardous journey east."

A team of geographers, archaeologists and geochemists from the UK, New Zealand and the US, worked with the people of Atiu, to collect core samples of lake mud, charting over 6000 years of history. Back in the labs in UK and US, the mud samples were subjected to a range of analyses including new techniques for reconstructing precipitation, and detecting the presence of mammalian faeces.

Apart from fruit bats, the Southern Cook Islands never had mammal populations before humans settled there, so when the researchers found evidence of mammal faeces alongside other evidence for landscape disturbance and burning, it was a clear sign of the arrival of people. Within 100 years the first settlers, most likely from Tonga or Samoa, changed the landscape by burning native forest to make way for crops.

The team, including undergraduate and postgraduate students from the universities of Southampton and Washington, as well as scientists from Newcastle, Liverpool and Auckland universities, also examined lake sediments from Samoa and Vanuata. Using this data, they found evidence for a major climate change which coincided with the newly established arrival time of the settlers.

The data revealed a major change in the climate of the South Pacific region with the main rainbands that bring water to the archipelagos of Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji migrating north. The result was the driest period in the last 2000 years.

This led the researchers to conclude that, alongside growing populations, water stress drove decisions to make dangerous voyages, aided by changes in winds that enabled easterly sailing. Soon after the arrival of people to Atiu, the climate changed again. Rain returned to the eastern Pacific - supporting a rapid (c. 200 years) settlement of the remaining islands of Polynesia.

Professor Sear adds: "Today, changing climate is again putting pressures on Pacific island communities, only this time the option to migrate is not so simple. Within two centuries of first arrival those first settlers changed the landscape and the ecology, but were able to make a home. Pacific islanders now live with modified ecologies, permanent national boundaries and islands already occupied by people. The ability to migrate in response to changing climate is no longer the option it once was."

###

This research was supported by grants from the NERC, Explorers Club and Royal Geographical Society. The team wishes to acknowledge the support of the peoples of the Cook Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu.

Notes to Editors

1) For interviews with Professor David Sear, please contact Peter Franklin, Media Relations, University of Southampton. Tel 07748 321087 Email p.franklin@southampton.ac.uk

2) For more about Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Southampton visit: https:/ / www. southampton. ac. uk/ geography/ index. page

3) The University of Southampton drives original thinking, turns knowledge into action and impact, and creates solutions to the world's challenges. We are among the top 100 institutions globally (QS World University Rankings 2019). Our academics are leaders in their fields, forging links with high-profile international businesses and organisations, and inspiring a 22,000-strong community of exceptional students, from over 135 countries worldwide. Through our high-quality education, the University helps students on a journey of discovery to realise their potential and join our global network of over 200,000 alumni. https:/ / www. southampton. ac. uk

4) https:/ / www. auckland. ac. nz/ en. html https:/ / www. washington. edu/ https:/ / www. ncl. ac. uk/ https:/ / www. liverpool. ac. uk/ https:/ / www. gla. ac. uk/ research/ az/ suerc/ nercfacilities/ lifesciencemassspectrometryfacility /

5) https:/ / nerc. ukri. org/ https:/ / www. explorers. org/ https:/ / www. rgs. org/

This story has been published on: 2020-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
When Texas senior Grayson Chapman found out her high school prom was canceled, she was heartbroken as she was looking forward to wearing the dress she already purchased for the milestone event.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Chapman's prom was scheduled for March 28 at Highland High School in Nolan County. On the same day the prom was planned, Chapman's mother, Jaci, decided to cheer her daughter up by hosting a "porch prom" at her home in Sweetwater, which is about 40 miles west of Abilene.

READ MORE: The latest news and features about coronavirus in San Antonio

From twinkling lights dangling from the porch ceiling to a decorative table, Chapman's mother told mySA.com she tried her best to create a "prom-like" moment for her daughter. Chapman's two siblings Maura and Crae also dressed up for the family-only event.

"We put a speaker out, ordered some Whataburger and just made sure she had fun at this porch prom set-up," Chapman's mother said. "With everything going on, we are trying to find the silver lining in things."

The "porch prom" involved the family members that lived in the house as well as an uncle and cousin who live close by, Chapman's mother said, adding that they kept all the festivities outside.

READ ALSO: 'We like to party': San Antonio family drives around neighborhood passing out tacos

Chapman said she "enjoyed" the prom her mother put together and hopes other seniors try it as well.

"Sadly, we are missing out on all these memories, but it's small things like this that will take your mind off things and help make it a little bit better," she said.

For graduation, Chapman said her high school hasn't decided on whether to have it virtually or in-person. She said her mom, however, might put together a "porch graduation."

Priscilla Aguirre is a general assignment reporter for MySA.com | priscilla.aguirre@express-news.net | @CillaAguirre


US Surgeon General Jerome Adams speaks at a coronavirus briefing at the White House on March 14, 2020, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin listens in the background.

Alex Brandon/AP

The White House appears to have silenced Surgeon General Jerome Adams after he publicly remarked on how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting minority groups in the US.

Adams hasn't attended a press briefing since April 10, when he made controversial remarks suggesting that minority communities were engaging in risky behaviors that might make them more prone to catching the virus.

But health officials told Politico that Adams's silencing is a loss because he is one of the few members in the US government discussing the outbreak's impact on communities of color.

One former health official told the outlet that Adams sometimes goes "off-script," but said "his heart is in the right place."

Limited data has shown that African Americans are being disproportionately impacted by the outbreak.

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Related Video: What Could Be the Fastest Way to End the Coronavirus Crisis?

The White House appears to have silenced Surgeon General Jerome Adams, one of the only voices speaking about how the coronavirus outbreak is impacting minority communities, according to a new report from Politico.

Adams hasn't attended a press briefing since April 10, when he made controversial remarks about the transmission of coronavirus in minority communities, suggesting that they were engaging in behaviors that might make them more prone to catching the disease.

"Avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs," Adams had advised communities of color at that news conference. "We need you to do this, if not for yourself, then for your abuela. Do it for your granddaddy. Do it for your Big Mama. Do it for your Pop-Pop."

Since then, he hasn't been invited to take part in a White House coronavirus press briefing, and has gone from making more than ten TV appearances in a week to just one last week.

The White House and Surgeon General's office did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Story continues



People wait in line in their cars to get tested for COVID-19 at Roseland Community Hospital on April 3, 2020.

E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Health officials told Politico that Adams' silencing has been a loss, as he's been a major advocate for communities of color, and one of the few members in the US government discussing the outbreak's impact on minority groups.

"No one at the task force is really talking about this, consistently, but Jerome," one official at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told Politico.

Another former HHS official told the outlet that Adams tends to get in trouble when he goes "off-script," but said "his heart is in the right place."

The report comes as limited data shows African Americans dying of the coronavirus at disproportionately higher rates

While there remains limited information on the disease's impact by race in the US  just four states have broken down their coronavirus cases by race so far  existing data shows that African Americans have an outsize risk of getting a case of COVID-19 so severe that it leads to death.

Data from Michigan shows that while African Americans make up 14% of the state's population of 1.4 million, they represent 40% of the coronavirus deaths in the state

It is a similar story in Illinois, where 528 African Americans have died out of a recorded 1,349 deaths, representing 39% of the total figure. The black community in the state numbers 1.8 million, or 14.6% of the population.

The African American community has been disproportionately affected in Kansas and North Carolina as well, according to the data released by the two states.

In Kansas, where just 6.1% of the state's population is black, 31 out of the total 100 coronavirus deaths were African-American.

In North Carolina, black people make up 39% of the total coronavirus cases, despite only accounting for 22% of the total population.

Dr. Lisa Cooper, a medical expert and social epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told US News & World Report that broader social disadvantage was the reason black people are worse hit.

She noted that "as a group, African Americans in the US have higher rates of poverty, housing and food insecurity, unemployment or underemployment, and chronic medical conditions, and disabilities."

Dr. Camara Jones, a family physician, epidemiologist, and visiting fellow at Harvard University, also told ProPublica: "This is the time to name racism as the cause of all of those things. The over-representation of people of color in poverty and white people in wealth is not just a happenstance  It's because we're not valued."

A phenomenon called the "Tuskegee Effect"  a phenomenon referring to African Americans being less likely to seek medical help for ailments because of a mistrust of a historically racist US health system has also been cited.



President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at a White House coronavirus briefing on March 26, 2020.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

It is also possible, however, that the Illinois and Michigan data are skewed by the fact that the largest coronavirus outbreaks in those states are in Chicago and Detroit, which both have large African American populations.

While it appears that black communities are being harder hit by the outbreak, demographic information has by and large been a missing puzzle piece to the understanding of the virus.

According to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday, 65% of the cases had no specified race.

Kristen Clarke, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said it was "astounding" that the CDC has not collected more complete demographic data, according to Politico.

"The department of Health and Human Services has not offered a concrete plan about how it intends to tackle the problem in front of us," Clarke told reporters on Monday.

"The fact [is] they do not have race information tied to all of their data. We know that our communities are being ravaged by COVID and the federal government has a role to play."

Kirsten Nordlund, a spokesperson for the CDC, told Politico that it has been a challenge to get demographic information from health systems that are extremely busy tackling the pandemic.

"Health departments try to get complete information on every case, but during a large-scale pandemic it is understandable that these health departments may not be able to gather all the information about each case," Nordlund said.

"We are exploring using other avenues to supplement this information when possible."

Read the original article on Business Insider
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Kylie Jenner bares it all as she revealed her deepest, darkest secret -- in bed.

In her best pal's Instagram Live Series both Jenner and Stassie Karanikolaou did the good ole "Would You Rather?" challenge where they are being asked some racy questions

The beauty mogul revealed that she would rather have a "silent" sex partner and admits she cannot handle someone with a "weird fake accent."

However, the 22-year-old reality star gave an exemption that it will be totally fine if the person already has a natural accent.

"Unless he had a weird accent, like naturally. If he had an accent, fine," Jenner told Karanikolaou.

Aside from sharing intimate details in her sex life, the "Keeping Up with the Kardashian" star was asked whether she wants to have a conversation with her future or past self and she chose the future.

Kylie's Babies Other Than Stormi

She was also asked which one she will get rid of, cats or dogs? Jenner answered cats because she is a dog person.

True enough, the Kylie Cosmetics founder really loves dogs.

Interestingly, she owns eight of them, including Italian greyhound named Bambi and Norman or Normi for short.

The two dogs have an Instagram account dedicated to them with nearly 400,000 followers but have not been updated since October 2017.

Aside from her Bambi and Normi she also has three more dogs with the same breed which she calls Harley, Rosy, and Sophia.

No to Nude Photos

Furthermore, with Jenner and BFF's #DoYourPart IG challenge, the "KUWTK" star mentioned that she'd rather give up her phone for life than everyone being able to see what's on her phone.

"Sometimes I look up weird s-t on Google, or random s-t, and I hate opening my Google to weird things. It's embarrassing, and if 160 million people had to see that I'd choose never using my phone again," she explained.

The youngest self-made billionaire cleared that she "don't send nude" photos of her to anyone.

In her Youtube channel, Jenner together with Karanikolaou, Yris Palmer and her assistant, Victoria Villarroel played a game of "Who's Most Likely To," the group was asked who was most likely to have their nudes leaked.

While Kylie was confident enough for her answer, the girls pointed out the 22-year-old Karanikolaou, who admitted that she and Villaroel have taken nude photos together and have sworn that they have not sent them to anyone.

The girls also defended themselves when asked which one is the best at keeping secrets.

Palmer, who is a Latina and Salvadoran descent answered all of them because they kept Jenner's biggest secret which is her pregnancy with Stormi.

Confirming Pregnancy Rumors

In 2018, rumors sparked that the Kylie Skin founder is pregnant to her first child with then-partner Travis Scott.

Jenner, on the other hand, confirmed her pregnancy through her Instagram account three days after she gave birth on Storm on February 1.

Meanwhile, her older sisters never confirmed nor denied the speculations to the public.

READ MORE: Girl or Boy? Gender of Katy Perry's Baby REVEALED!
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After a period during which many people asked why he was making so few public appearances, Joe Biden has started making public appearances. They have not, however, had the hoped-for effect of giving the national Democratic Party (and, in general, the cause of evidence-based decision-making) a commanding public presence during the coronavirus crisis.

Bidens Sunday appearance on ABCs This Week With George Stephanopoulos helps explain why. Heres a clip:

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This interviewyou can watch the whole thing hereis not the Disaster Biden that one might have feared. None of the ideas he conveys are problematic, off-message, excessively generous to the Republican Party, or inadequate to the scope of the current crisis. (At one point Biden says that Congress will need to pass at least two further rescue/stimulus bills.) But neither are they inspiring, illuminating, or even informative; generally speaking, if you dont come into a Joe Biden appearance with an understanding of the subjects hes discussing, youre not going to leave with one either. Here he is, for example, ostensibly explaining that a fair election needs to take place in November regardless of whats going on with the coronavirus:

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But we cannot let thisweve never allowed any crisis from a Civil War straight through to a pandemic in 17, all the way aroundin 16we have never, never let our democracy take second fiddle. We can both have a democracy and elections and at the same time protect the public health. But I think its time we start thinking about how were going to hold elections, whether were going to have to spend a lot of time figuring whether we dois it going to mostly be by mail, which is not the preferred route for everyonehow are we going to do that? How are we going to make it available to everybody?

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Biden leaves out the critical piece of information that completes the first part of his thought, which is that elections were held during the Civil War and the flu pandemic (which was in 1918, not 1917 or 1916). You can hear him trying to wrap the idea into a catchphrase about playing second fiddle, but he mashes everything together such that it works neither as exposition nor sound bite. When he moves on to ostensibly proposing a solution to the problem, he brings up voting by mail, only to immediately say that some people dont like that idea, then asks rhetorically what should be done, which is generally the question that voters want candidates to answer, not pose. As with so much of what Biden says, it is two paragraphs of white noise.

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Compare this with some of the answers that Washington governor and onetime Democratic presidential candidate Jay Inslee gave to Jake Tapper during CNNs State of the Union on March 29.

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Heres Inslee answering a question about coronavirus testing:

Well, we have a desperate need for the testing kits. Weve beenhad some considerable success building up the capacity to analyze the samples when theyre taken, the University of Washington has been successful, weve done some really good things there  but we simply dont have the materials to take the test itself, some things as simple as the swabs. When the little vialswhen you put the swab in it to send it to the lab, it needs a particular medium in it to preserve it. We just do not have those simple things. And thats why we have got to mobilize the entire manufacturing base of the United States, like we did in World War II, for things as simple as these testing kits. This is so severe in my state I have had a person have to drive 300 miles to pick some up to deliver them40 vials. So we have a desperate need for all kinds of equipment, and we need a full-scale mobilization of the incredible manufacturing base of the United States, like we started on Dec. 8, 1941. I think thats what we need.

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Inslee is speaking off the cuff, so this doesnt read like a polished piece of writing, but consider what hes able to do in a limited amount of space. He hits a positive note by explaining what parts of the testing process are working, then conveys the concept of a transport medium, which is one of the things running short, in easy-to-understand terms. He gives a tangible example of how difficult it is to find supplies (a 300-mile drive for 40 vials), then describes whats needed (large-scale government coordination) using an easy-to-understand comparison. In further answers, Inslee would mention having had conversations with Elon Musk and Army and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials about ventilator supplies and field hospitals, signaling a willingness to work with the private sector and the Republican administration without undermining his central point about the urgency of a more ideologically left-leaning response.

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In an appearance this Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press, Inslee gave an even punchier version of the WWII line that alluded to Trump advisers new strategy of claiming that states should have had their own pandemic stockpiles in place:

This is ludicrous that we do not have a national effort in this. To say were a backup, I meanthe surgeon general alluded to Pearl Harbor. Can you imagine if Franklin Delano Roosevelt said: Ill be right behind you, Connecticut. Good luck building those battleships?

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Inslee might be a good face of the party right now, particularly given that his state, despite being the first to suffer a coronavirus outbreak, has a flatter curve than any other to be significantly affected. But his path to the nominationlike the paths of other lesser-known establishment-friendly regional politicians who have demonstrated effectiveness in recent weekswas blocked by Biden. Inslee has also gotten less buzz about potentially replacing Biden on the ticket, should he become sick, than New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has. (Cuomo, despite New Yorks relatively slow response and higher rate of cases, benefits from holding his virus press conferences in the media capital of the country.) On the plus side, Inslee is doing very well with bloggers and people on Twitter, and that counts for something, right? No? Im hearing that it does not, so I guess Jay Inslee will have to simply be happy with having saved many of his constituents lives by doing a good job.
Lucknow, April 7 : More than 31 localities in various districts in Uttar Pradesh have been sealed completely, preventing any movement in the areas. The localities that have been sealed off are those where Coronavirus positive cases have been found in the past 48 hours.

Ten localities were sealed on Monday in Rae Bareli district after two Tblighi Jamaatis, who had returned from Delhi, tested positive for Coronavirus.

Superintendent of Police, Rae Bareli, Swapnil Mamgain said that 200 policemen have been deployed in Nagar Kotwali area and the entire locality has been sealed after two Jamaatis, who had returned from Nizamuddin Markaz and were staying in a 'dharmashala', had tested positive. He said that fire and health workers are continuously sanitizing the areas.

Similarly, Khairabad in Sitapur district was sealed after eight Bangladeshis living in a house owned by one Sadiq in the area tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday.

In Lucknow, the entire Sadar Bazaar area was sealed on Friday evening after 12 members of Tablighi Jamaat were found staying in a mosque and 11 of them tested positive for the deadly virus.

Ramesh Bhasin, a resident of the Sadar Bazaar that has been sealed, told IANS on phone that they are not even being allowed to stand at their door or talk to neighbours through the windows.

Four localities have also been sealed in Varanasi. They include Madanpura, Bajardiha, Gangapur and Lohta.

Besides, various localities in Pratapgarh, Hathras, Ghazipur, Azamgarh and Kanpur have also been sealed.

"All the sealed areas are being subjected to a massive sanitization drive and movement has been stopped to prevent the spread of infection," said a senior police official.

When asked the need for sealing off a locality in the lockdown period, the police officer explained, "In the lockdown, movement is very restricted and people can move out only if there is an emergency situation. However, when we seal an area, no one is allowed to step out of their houses and we reach out to them in case of an emergency." Additional Director-General of police, law and order, P.V. Ramasastry said that district police chiefs and two police commissioners have been issued a set of instructions, including setting up of a rapid action team (RAT) and a nodal corona cell in co-ordination with other departments, for effective handling of any situation arising out of Corona spread in the state.

"A standard operating procedure (SOP) which includes a proper way to tackle risk areas as per international standards has been shared with the districts," he said.

He added that necessary equipment required for launching any operation has been made available to police chiefs of all the districts in the state.
National Australia Bank will temporarily close more than one in 10 of its branches, as social distancing rules lead to a sharp drop in the number of people doing their banking in person.

The lender on Monday said it had closed about 20 of its 635 Australian branches so far in response to coronavirus, and the number of outlets closed would rise to 70 this week.

NAB will temporarily close more than one in 10 of its Australian branches. Credit:Bloomberg

As part of the closures, which may be lifted further in months ahead, the bank is re-training 700 staff to work digitally with customers, at a time when call centres are being swamped with cries for help from borrowers.

ANZ Bank had on Monday also closed 58 of its branches, while Westpac has had up to 30 of its branches closed in recent weeks, while Commonwealth Bank had 16 of its branches shut.
Bill Gates has revealed he is willing to spend billions in the hunt for a coronavirus vaccine, arguing that it is the only way to get the world back to normal.

The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropic billionaire said he is already in talks with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National institutes of Health (NIH) about how to 'accelerate' the critical research.

He has already put funding behind seven vaccine makers to allow them to build factories, but has called on countries to do more.

He has also made $20million available to three initiatives in the US and UK aiming to study the effectiveness of known drugs in treating coronavirus infections.

The virus has paralyzed the globe and lead to the postponement of sporting events including the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Bill Gates said his foundation was talking to the CDC, NIH and pharmaceutical companies about how they could help 'accelerate' vaccine research

The Microsoft co-founder revealed seven vaccine makers had received funding during an interview with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show

The philanthropic billionaire said he hoped the money would accelerate vaccine development

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is ready to put billions behind finding a vaccine, he told Kiro 7 yesterday.

'Our foundation is trying to be as helpful in a very constructive way as possible,' he said. 'That's why I've talked to the head of pharmaceutical companies.'

'We've also talked to a lot of behavioral agencies including CDC and NIH about how we work together on the vaccine and the drugs.'

Speaking on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah yesterday Gates revealed how he plans to help fund vaccine research.

'Our early money can accelerate things,' Gates said. 'Even though we'll end up picking at most two of them, we're going to fund factories for all seven.

'(It's) so that we don't waste time in serially saying which vaccine works and then building the factory.

'The only thing that really lets us go back completely to normal and feel good about sitting in stadiums with lots of other people is to create a vaccine and not just take care of our country but take that vaccine out to the global population.'

Pictured are the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the US since January up until now

President Donald Trump stands in front of a chart labeled Goals of Community Mitigation showing projected deaths in the United States after exposure to coronavirus during the daily coronavirus response briefing at the White House in Washington on March 31

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation confirmed they were exploring using funding to 'get the process (of building vaccines) moving'.

'Many of the current vaccine approaches are novel and have never been scaled for a commercialized product,' they said.

'Enhancements of global manufacturing capacity are clearly required given the population-level scale at which a Covid-19 vaccine will need to be given.'

The Foundation has already awarded $20million to three institutions in the US and UK to fund clinical trials aiming to study the effectiveness of repurposed drugs in combating coronavirus.

The recipients are the University of Washington, University of Oxford and La Jolla Institute for Immunology.

'These grants to leading institutions in their fields will advance our understanding of how existing drugs and antibodies can contribute to addressing the pandemic we're facing around the world,' said the Foundation's chief executive, Mark Suzman.

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Gates said the pandemic is a 'nightmare scenario' but that fewer Americans will die than the 240,000 predicted if the government changes the way it tests people.

He has pushed for a nationwide shutdown, limited domestic travel and administering more targeted testing to stop the overflow of patients at hospitals unable to cope with the surge in numbers.

'Well, if we do the social distancing properly, we should be able to get out of this with the death number well short of that,' Gates told Fox News Sunday.

'This is a nightmare scenario because human-to-human transmittal respiratory viruses can grow exponentially. And you know, if we had kept on going to work, traveling like we were, you know, that curve would never bend until you had the majority of the people infected and then a massive number seeking hospital care and lots of lots of deaths.'

The US is predicted to see its worst day in the coronavirus outbreak in 11 days when more than 2,000 people are expected to die.

Bill Gates said: 'If we do the social distancing properly, we should be able to get out of this with the death number well short of that'

Gates believes that by obtaining test results within 24 hours, the US will be able to quickly identify those an infected person has come into contact with so they can be isolated and slow the spread.

While there are strict international travel restrictions, Gates focused on the importance of domestic boundaries too.

'Well, when you have finite resources you need to allocate them to where there's the most need,' Gates told host Chris Wallace. 'Certainly because people move around the country, we have to have the shutdown or else you'll have exponential growth. It will spread back into other parts of the country.'

The outbreak was identified in Wuhan, China in November with the first case in the US January. As early as February, before any lockdowns, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated $10million to help fight the virus.

Gates has criticized the government's delay in taking precautions and serious action after the outbreak.

'Between 2015 and 2020, less than 5 percent of what should have been done was done,' Gates said.

Gates is pictured in a 2015 TED talk where he warned about 'microbes' being the enemy in the next pandemic. 'Between 2015 and 2020, less than 5 percent of what should have been done was done,' Gates said Sunday

During the interview from Microsoft's Skype service, Gates admitted that he wakes up every morning thinking the pandemic is only the subject of his nightmares.

But he said compared to a disease like small pox, COVID-19 'isn't the worst case'.

'The one percent mortality rate when your system is not overloaded if that was small pox that would be 30 percent,' he explained.

'So this is super, super bad, but we will eventually get a vaccine. Even before then, if we do the right things we'll be able to open up significant parts of the economy,' he said.

'Once you're in the crisis you're doing your best to deal with this.'

He added: 'I'm sure you know, once we get past this, we'll look back, understand what we could have done differently, and make sure that we're not letting it happen again, particularly because it could be even worse in terms of the fatality rate.'

As many as 1,277,962 cases of coronavirus have been detected worldwide, according to John Hopkins University, and 69,527 deaths linked to the disease have been reported so far.

Italy has been the worst affected, reporting 15,887 deaths, followed by Spain that has seen 12,641 deaths and France that has recorded 8,078 deaths due to coronavirus.

New York has recorded the seventh highest number of deaths due to coronavirus worldwide at 3,048 at the time of writing.
A Verizon technician working in Manhattan, New York.

Mark Von Holden/AP Images for Verizon

Verizon has quietly canceled in-person technician visits for customers who need internet installed and repaired at their homes and businesses amid lockdown orders.

Verizon's website said Tuesday morning that "technicians will not be able to enter" homes or businesses, but appeared to change the policy shortly after to reflect that the company is simply "minimizing" at-home work.

Several Verizon customers have written on Twitter that their technician visits have been canceled, and others have been told they can't get service installed until November.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Verizon, one of the largest internet service providers in the US, has quietly canceled installations and repairs for customers as a precaution "to keep our employees and customers safe."

Several people have written on Twitter that their in-person visits from technicians have been canceled, and others say they're being told appointments for installations are not available until November.

Video: Flight Attendants Explain How Coronavirus Has Affected Their Jobs

Information posted to Verizon's website has not helped to clarify the status of the company's in-person technician visits. On Tuesday morning, Verizon's webpage for coronavirus-related FAQs said that technicians "would not be able to enter your home or business to install new services or to do repair work." Shortly after, the website was changed to say that Verizon was "minimizing" in-home installation work.

A Verizon spokesperson told Business Insider the company was limiting in-home visits "to medical emergencies and critical installations."

Verizon is one of the largest internet service providers in the US, and provides Fios, broadband, and voice services to an estimated 25 million residences and 5.8 million businesses.

Internet access at home has become an essential service for hundreds of millions of people who are working remotely, taking classes online, and spending more time at home amid lockdown orders and shelter-in-place directives to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus disease. Verizon is one of the dozens of internet and telecom providers who have pledged to keep customers connected amid the pandemic by declining to terminate service to those who can't pay, waiving late fees, and opening up WiFi hotspots.

Story continues

Verizon customer Michael Barbour told Business Insider that he received a text message from Verizon canceling his installation appointment the day before it was scheduled, and did not provide any further information about how he can get his internet up and running.

"Out of an abundance of caution related to COVID-19 and for the safety of our customers and employees, Verizon has suspended new installation work at this time," the text message read. "We will reach out to reschedule at a later date."

Barbour works for a chemical supplier for large corporations making products to fight the coronavirus outbreak, a job that's been deemed "essential" amid New Jersey's lockdown orders. He told Business Insider that without internet, he may be forced to go into the office to do his job.

Verizon has also limited its service at its owned and operated retail locations, reducing hours for employees and moving to pickup-only transactions as of March 30. Verizon wrote in a recent update on its website that all customers who visit stores are "required to wear a mask or cloth face covering." If they don't, they'll be asked to leave and reschedule their appointment.

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Messaging app Snapchat on Tuesday introduced a new augmented reality-based donation lenses to help World Health Organization (WHO) in the fight against novel coronavirus.

Snapchat users can now scan 23 international currency notes across 33 countries through the apps camera, and this will bring up an AR visualization of how donations are being used by the WHO.

Users will get to know about the WHOs immediate response efforts to track the spread of novel coronavirus, provide essential care to patients, and ensure critical supplies for health workers.

This move by Snapchat is aimed at encouraging users to donate for the cause. Users can also urge their friends to do the same by sending Snaps of the experience.

The company said media publishers covering COVID-19 on its Discover platform will give Snapchatters the option to swipe up to donate directly from their content.

To date, over 445 Discover Stories or Shows have been produced on COVID-19, and over 68 million have viewed COVID-19-related content on Snapchat, the company said in a post.

Snapchat has made these lenses in partnership with UN Foundation's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund to support the WHO.

Last month, the company came up with its 'Here For You' search tool to help users with their coronavirus anxiety and other mental health issues.

It also introduced two new augmented reality lenses last month to promote social distancing.

Snapchat said its lenses have reached almost 130 million people across the world.
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Already worried to start the year about the possibility of an economic slowdown, the confidence of Bay State employers in the economy in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic plummeted in March to near Great Recession levels as unemployment soared and commerce ground to a halt.

Economic advisors to the state's largest business trade group predict a recovery is still three to six months away and could be slow.

The timeline for a rebound is also wholly dependent on the ability of public officials to control the spread of COVID-19, and the effectiveness of the social restrictions that have tilted the economy into decline.

"The unprecedented one-month erosion of business confidence represents the unique set ofcircumstances that have changed almost every aspect of life during the past month," said Raymond Torto, professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the chair of the board of economic advisors to Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

AIM, which represents about 3,500 employers in Massachusetts, planned Tuesday morning to release the results of its newest business confidence survey, which will show the largest monthly decline in confidence in the economy since the organization began its index in 1991.

Confidence in the economy among many of the largest Massachusetts employers fell 21.9 points to 40.2 on a 100-point scale in March, the first time the marker has moved into pessimistic territory since October 2013.

To put the drop in perspective, AIM said the previous record for a single-month decline was 9.6 points in October 1998. Employer confidence in the economy is just seven points higher than at its lowest point during the Great Recession in February 2009.

"Massachusetts companies are trying to map out their futures in the face of government orders to cease operations and the uncertainty of forces beyond the scope of traditional economic models," Torto said in a statement.

The release of the March survey results coincides with a virtual gathering of Beacon Hill leaders and experts planned for Tuesday to help lawmakers improve their understanding of how the economic upheaval will influence tax revenues, and therefore the state's budget for this year and next.

Early estimates suggest the loss of at least a few billion dollars in revenue that the state would otherwise be using to support more than $44 billion a year in spending on payroll, debt, pensions and services like education, health care, food stamps, and rental vouchers.

Sales and income taxes could be particularly hard hit as workers have lost their jobs and non-essential businesses shuttered their physical businesses last month.

In Massachusetts, a record 181,062 people filed initial unemployment benefit claims during the week ending March 28, about a 22 percent increase over the prior week. The unemployment rate in Massachusetts had been hovering at 2.8 percent as of January, but is sure to spike.

Northeastern University economist Alan Clayton-Matthews, who will participate in the Legislature's roundtable Tuesday, said the initial unemployment claims filed last week suggest an unemployment rate of 10 percent.

"Even big universities will be hit hard if students can't or won't come back to campuses in the fall," Clayton-Matthews said. "Several sectors such as tourism and travel are likely to lag when the pandemic is over; and the loss of income during the pandemic may keep the economy from 'bouncing back' quickly when the pandemic is over  it's not like there will be a pool of savings supporting pent-up demand like there was after WWII."

The AIM index is based on a survey of more than 140 employers, and has been conducted monthly since July 1991 based on a scale of zero to 100, with 50 being neutral. The index has twice peaked at 68.5 in 1997 and 1998, and hit its low of 33.3 at the depths of the Great Recession in February 2009.

All the indicators in the survey were down, AIM reported, including a 29.5 point drop in business conditions, an 18.1 point decline in the future index measuring expectations for six months from now and a 12.2 point dip from March in the employment index, as unemployment claims in Massachusetts have skyrocketed in recent weeks.

The employment index, AIM said, has lagged business confidence in recent years because of a "persistent shortage of workers."

Edward Pendergast, managing director of Dunn Rush & Co, said that if by June the state can begin to relax some of its "shelter in place" guidelines, then by September the economy might start to rebound.

"It will take at least three more months for the economy to roll," he said.

Barry Bluestone, a Northeastern University professor of public policy, echoed that timeline, suggesting that much of the money that will flow to consumers and businesses from the $2 trillion relief package passed by Congress will be used for necessities like rent, car payments and necessities like groceries, but very little will be pumped into circulation as long as businesses are closed.

"So, I don't think there is any chance for the economy to recover very much until the virus itself is under full control ... and that is now at least three to six months away," Bluestone said in a statement. "The slow response by the federal government to the original outbreak is responsible for the length we will have to endure this tragedy. No matter how much it spends now on stimulus cannot make up for that response delay."

Michael Tyler, chief investment officer for Eastern Bank Wealth Management, called the federal relief bill a "crisis-aversion lifeline," more than a stimulus bill.

The federal aid package made billions in financial support available to small businesses around the country, including loans that could be forgiven by the government if a company can keep its employment levels at pre-virus levels.

AIM Executive Vice President Chris Geehern said the group is not asking the state or federal government for any other support measures at this point in time to allow companies to "process the significant federal resources already made available."

Once these are absorbed, we will be able to determine any addition areas of need, Geehern said.
WHAT YOU GONNA DO WHEN THE WORLDS ON FIRE? (2019) Rent or buy on Amazon, FandangoNOW, Google Play, iTunes and Vudu. This documentary weaves four stories together to paint a portrait of the troubles plaguing African-Americans in the South, mainly in New Orleans. Theres a teenager teaching his younger brother how to defend himself as shootings become a regular occurrence; a bar owner struggling to keep her business afloat; a group called the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, which protests police violence against young black men, and a chief with the Mardi Gras Indians who is working to keep the tribes cultural heritage alive. Ben Kenigsberg named the movie a Critics Pick in his review for The Times. Although the people in the film may have been let down by institutions, he wrote, they draw strength from one another.

TERRACE HOUSE: TOKYO 2019  2020 Stream on Netflix. If youre searching for a quiet escape from coronavirus news, this Japanese reality series will do the trick. Back for Part 3, the show follows six young men and women living in a glamorous house in Tokyo. In the first episode, Haruka tells Peppe whether or not she will take him as her beau, and Ruka shares some personal news.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Some residents of a southern New Mexico village, immigrant advocates and others are raising concerns about an influx of workers in the community as part of the effort to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall during the coronavirus outbreak.

Theyve asked the states top elected officials to step in after the federal contractor working on the project began erecting portable housing.

The request reflects growing worries on both the northern and southern U.S. borders over construction workers bringing the virus to areas with sparse health care services.

Opponents of the work effort argued in a letter that public health orders issued by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham are aimed at limiting groups of people and contact to keep the coronavirus pandemic from worsening.

We respectfully ask that you do everything within your power to halt the influx of out-state-workers into our border communities to protect the safety and health of rural New Mexicans and border communities, their letter reads. The lives of New Mexicans are depending on it.

In remote northern Montana, work began over the weekend on the Keystone XL pipeline. Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock says concerns about planned worker camps that could house as many as 1,000 people each need to be resolved before sponsor TC Energy finalizes its construction plans.

For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

Despite a clampdown on peoples movements across much of the U.S., the border wall and pipeline work are exempt from stay-at-home restrictions. Even in New Mexico, the public health orders carve out exemptions for infrastructure operations such as public works construction and the repair and construction of roads.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees contractors working on the border, told The Associated Press last week when concerns were first raised that the agency follows federal guidelines but declined to share specifics on how its protecting public health during construction.

Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, has long been a critic of President Donald Trumps immigration policies and the plan to build more sections of the border wall. Her administration was unsuccessful in its efforts last year to sue federal immigration authorities over their handling of the surge of asylum seekers.

Lt. Gov. Howie Morales said Monday that the workers posed an additional risk. The work is happening near Columbus, a village of less than 1,500 people about 80 miles (130 kilometres) west of El Paso, Texas.

Morales has been in contact with Columbus Mayor Esequiel Salas about the 40 to 60 workers coming into the community. He said those workers will have to go to grocery stores and pick up food from local restaurants and that means more contact in the community.

The national emergency right now is not building the border wall. The national emergency is the health crisis that were dealing with, Morales said, stressing that the focus should be on building the capacity of the health care system.

Ray Trejo, co-ordinator with the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, was in Columbus on Monday and saw the rows of portable housing. His group is among those that signed the letter with the ACLU of New Mexico, the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty and others.

While we all do our best to stay at home and adhere to the governors guidance, these individuals pose an uncontrollable threat to our community as they work side-by-side in close quarters and travel in and out of our city and patronize local businesses. They should be gone tomorrow, Trejo said.

The federal contractor, Texas-based SLS, was awarded nearly $790 million last year to install steel bollards in southern New Mexico.

Promises of border security were a highlight of Trumps 2016 campaign. Bolstered by the immigration surge in 2019, he pushed a goal to have 500 miles (800 kilometres) done by early next year. More than 100 miles (161 kilometres) have been built, most of it replacing decades-old inadequate barriers.
POLICE, ZAECA, and DPP have been urged to improve record keeping of drugs abuse related cases, in order to have reliable assessment of the drugs business in the country.

Mr Salum Mattar, the Officer in-charge (Pemba), Office of the Second Vice- President informed officers from the institutions involved, that curbing the drugs menace also requires reliable data.

When we have reliable data as a result of good recording, the statistics will help us evaluate the situation of drug abuse in the country. Work hard to minimize data discrepancy on arrests and charges in court linked to drugs business, Mattar said during a meeting with stakeholders in Pemba.

Social distancing was considered during the meeting.

Officers from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Police, and Zanzibar Anti-corruption and Economic Crime Authority (ZAECA) met in Chake Chake Pemba to discuss challenges in fighting illicit drug abuse in the Isles.

The Director of the Zanzibar Commission for National Co-ordination and Drug Control, Ms Kheri Yangu Mgeni Khamis, said the anti drug abuse campaign has been going on well and that the stakeholders meeting in Chake Chake was necessary in setting up and improving strategies for drug control.

It is estimated that Zanzibar has more than 10,000 illicit drugs users, data that indicates that illegal importation and trafficking were still rife.

The government is constructing a modern drugs addicts Rehab centre in Unguja central district in efforts to help users recover.
The flag with a color photo of the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan figures that landed shopkeeper Sonam Dhargye in jail at a religious festival in February 2015. He was released April 4, 2020 after serving his full five-year term.

A Tibetan shopkeeper jailed for carrying a flag with a color photo of the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan figures at a festival in 2015 was released and returned to his family in Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) at the weekend after serving his full five-year term, sources familiar with the case told RFA.

Sonam Dhargye was released on April 4, and returned to his home in Sowa Village in Ngaba county.

Outwardly he looks to be fine. But his family have decided to take him to the doctors for a thorough physical checkup, said the source

Dhargye was detained in Ngaba in Aprl 2015, two months after he attended the Monlam festival at Ngatoe Gongma Monastery, where he carried a blue religious flag with a world peace symbol and a 8x10-inch color photo of the Dalai Lama, and two other prominent Tibetan exile figures, the source said.

At the end of April that year, he went to Ngaba county to buy merchandise for his shop. It was there the Chinese police took him into custody at the market in Ngaba county and sentenced him for five years, said the source.

It is not known if Sonam Dhargye had any legal representation when he was tried and sentenced.

Reported by Palden Gyal for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul.
Experts here have called for spreading awareness among people to dispel their fear of catching infection during last rites of COVID-19 suspected or positive cases.

They urged the authorities to spread awareness in this regard after two incidents where people refused to cremate bodies of coronavirus victims were reported in the state.

Family members of a 69-year-old woman who died of COVID-19 in a private hospital in Ludhiana, had refused to accept her body and cremate it, forcing the district administration to perform her last rites.

In another such incident, residents of Verka village in Amritsar did not allow the cremation of Padma Shri awardee Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa.

The villagers had refused to allow the cremation of the Gurbani exponent fearing spread of the disease.

If all the government mandated protocols are followed while performing last rites for such bodies, there is no need to fear, the experts said.

D S Bhullar, president of Punjab Academy of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology said there was no need to worry when transportation and cremation of a body of a COVID-19 suspected or confirmed case takes place in line with the protocols set by the government.

He said the body is packed in a double layered body bag which is disinfected with hypochlorite solution.

Besides, a team wearing PPE takes the body to the cremation ground in an ambulance, Bhullar added.

One should not worry as the cremation takes place while following all the guidelines. There is no chance of spread of virus, he said.

Professor of Department of Sociology, Panjab University, Rajesh Gill told PTI on Tuesday that, Humanity is tested when there is crisis and we need to wake up the sensitivity of people.

She said there was a need to launch an awareness drive to tell people that that they need to give respect to the bodies.

People need to be told what kind of precautions they need to take for cremation and how health authorities will cooperate with them and how they should go about it, she said.

The government should spread awareness through TV, radio and other media, she added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Crisis Management Team co-ordinating all HSE services across the South East in the fight to identify, contain and stop the spread of Covid-19 has appealed to the general public to continue adhering to the public health guidelines.

The chair of the CMT, Kate Killeen White (Chief Officer, South East Community Healthcare) has also thanked all healthcare staff and their families, patients and their families, the many statutory and voluntary bodies active in the effort and those working in essential businesses at this time. The HSE is especially proud of staff at all levels for their commitment and dedication as we respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The South Easts HSE Crisis Management Team (CMT) includes participation from University Hospital Waterford and South Tipperary General Hospital (of the South/South West Hospital Group) and

Wexford General Hospital and St. Lukes General Hospital Carlow/Kilkenny (of the Ireland East Hospital Group). The South Easts Public Health Dept., National Ambulance Services and Emergency Management, Environmental Health officers and the HSEs estates (technical services, property and maintenance) and procurement (equipment and supplies) services are also involved  in addition to South East Community Healthcare (which delivers community/primary care, health and wellbeing, elderly and disability care and mental health services).

The CMT wishes to assure communities in counties Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford that extensive preparations for the impact of Covid-19 on services are in place. This includes:

 Increasing bed capacity across the entire healthcare system inclusive of ICU beds, acute beds, transitional and step-down care beds.

 Putting in place arrangements to open self-isolation facilities should they be needed (the HSE will update the public in the South East about these facilities shortly).

 Establishing five main testing centres across the region (with additional facilities available if required).

 Supporting Community response forums set up by the five local authorities.

 Planning to provide community assessment hubs, which will begin to open this week. These facilities will support members of the public with Covid-19 whose GP has determined they need a medical examination.

 Working with private hospitals in Waterford and Kilkenny to increase bed capacity in the acute hospital system and ensuring critical services continue to be provided.

Speaking, as Ireland enters what she sees as a critical phase in the battle against the coronavirus, the CMT chair Kate Killeen White said: Community and individual actions are vital to reducing the spread of virus. My acute hospital and public health colleagues want to impress upon everyone that this is a matter of life or death. As outlined at www.hse.ie/coronavirus, there are simple but very effective steps we all must take each and every day. They include:

Staying at home as much as possible.

Washing your hands properly and often.

Reducing the number of people you met and interact with each day.

Avoiding large groups or crowded areas and do not travel more than two kilometres from home.

Maintaining a distance of two metres with other people.

Working at home.



The over 70s and extremely medically vulnerable people should stay at home at all times and avoid face-to-face contact. Even within the home, they should minimise all non-essential contact with other members of the household. Ask family, carers or neighbours for help to ensure you have the support you need. Employers of essential workers should enable and facilitate physical distancing between employees and other measures. If sick, especially with fever, cough or other respiratory symptom, do not go to work, stay at home, phone your doctor.

These simple actions work. I know they can be difficult for people at times but it is absolutely vital we follow the advice  it gives us all a chance to meet this unprecedented challenge.
DTH service providers make interactive channels free till April 14, while a university offers its online learning platform to institutions

Cooking channels are among the most watched additional service channels provided on DTH services for a fee. Now the channels will be available for free till April 14.

Chennai: You can now learn cooking from top chefs, pick up dance moves and watch documentaries on cars, history, space and other interesting topics for free. DTH service providers Tata Sky, Dish TV and Airtel Digital TV are offering their interactive channels for free until the end of the current lockdown, April 14.

Also, keep the kids entertained with channels dedicated to cartoons and rhymes, and find workouts for yourself on fitness channels.

Tata Sky is opening access to 10 such channels, while Airtel and Dish TV offer four channels each.

Tata Skys free channels are Dance Studio (channel number 1230, Fun Learn (664 and 668), Cooking (127), Fitness (110), Smart Manager (701), Vedic Maths (702), Classroom (653), English learning (660 for Hindi viewers and 1424 for Telugu), Beauty (119), and Javed Aktar (150).

In addition, Tata Sky also offering TV viewing on credit. Give a missed call on 080-61999922 from your registered mobile number, if you are unable to recharge your account and would like the DTH service to continue. This offer can be availed for seven days .

Airtel Digital TV viewers can check out Aapki Rasoi cooking channel on 407, Airtel CuriosityStream on 419 to watch documentaries and TV series, Airtel Senior TV for elderly family members on 323, and Let's Dance to take virtual dance lessons on both Indian classical styles Bharatanatyam and Kathak as well as Western dance forms Jazz, Hip Hop, and Salsa among others on 113.

Dish TV subscribers get Ayushmaan Active for senior citizens on 130, Fitness Active on 132, Kids Active Toons on 956, and Kids Active Rhymes on 957.

Apart from DTH services providing education services free, and learning apps such as Byjus, Toppr, and Extramarks offering free access to lessons, now Himachal Pradesh-based Shoolini University is offering its virtual classrooms free to institutions that are keen to teach students online.

AI-based Technology Company Aaddoo has been working with the university for the past six months to develop a system whereby students can attend live lectures through virtual classrooms. Students can use a laptop or even their smartphones to ask questions and get answers in real time, participate in real-time quizzes, polls, games and so on.

The platform also provides teachers with insights on individual students over a period of time.
Grocery stores in Massachusetts will have to operate at 40% of their standard occupancy under an updated guidance, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said Tuesday.

The guidelines, which will be released later in the day, will impose occupancy restrictions on stores in hopes of preventing the spread of COVID-19. The occupancy restrictions will apply to both employees and customers, Polito said during a news conference at the Massachusetts State House.

The increased restrictions come after Market Basket announced an employee at its Salem store died from an illness related to the coronavirus, and two others tested positive.

As of Monday, 13,837 people have tested positive for the coronavirus and 260 people have died, according to figures from the state Department of Public Health.

The state does not specify how many of those who tested positive are grocery store employees, who are considered essential workers in Massachusetts.

Two weeks ago, the Baker administration implemented guidelines that require grocery stores to set up a marked social distancing line at least 6 feet from all checkpoint counters. Under those rules, stores must also close at some point in the evenings to give employees time to restock shelves.

Those same guidelines instructed grocery stores to set aside hours for older shoppers to keep them away from the masses and minimize their exposure to the coronavirus.

Due to the risks grocery store employees face at work, some grocery stores have offered increased wages or bonuses.

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Clipper Realty Inc. (NYSE:CLPR), which is in the reits business, and is based in United States, saw significant share price movement during recent months on the NYSE, rising to highs of US$11.37 and falling to the lows of US$4.45. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether Clipper Realty's current trading price of US$4.52 reflective of the actual value of the small-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Lets take a look at Clipper Realtys outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change.

Check out our latest analysis for Clipper Realty

What's the opportunity in Clipper Realty?

Good news, investors! Clipper Realty is still a bargain right now. My valuation model shows that the intrinsic value for the stock is $8.69, which is above what the market is valuing the company at the moment. This indicates a potential opportunity to buy low. However, given that Clipper Realtys share is fairly volatile (i.e. its price movements are magnified relative to the rest of the market) this could mean the price can sink lower, giving us another chance to buy in the future. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for share price volatility.

What kind of growth will Clipper Realty generate?

NYSE:CLPR Past and Future Earnings April 7th 2020

Future outlook is an important aspect when youre looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Although value investors would argue that its the intrinsic value relative to the price that matter the most, a more compelling investment thesis would be high growth potential at a cheap price. In the upcoming year, Clipper Realtys earnings are expected to increase by 88%, indicating a highly optimistic future ahead. This should lead to more robust cash flows, feeding into a higher share value.

Story continues

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? Since CLPR is currently undervalued, it may be a great time to accumulate more of your holdings in the stock. With a positive outlook on the horizon, it seems like this growth has not yet been fully factored into the share price. However, there are also other factors such as financial health to consider, which could explain the current undervaluation.

Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping an eye on CLPR for a while, now might be the time to enter the stock. Its prosperous future outlook isnt fully reflected in the current share price yet, which means its not too late to buy CLPR. But before you make any investment decisions, consider other factors such as the track record of its management team, in order to make a well-informed investment decision.

Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters  the fundamentals  before you make a decision on Clipper Realty. You can find everything you need to know about Clipper Realty in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in Clipper Realty, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Two senior health officials believe the coronavirus outbreak may kill fewer Americans than some recent projections, indicating tentative signs that the death toll was starting to level off in New York and other hot spots, Reuters reported.

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said he agrees with the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that some research models predict overall mortality rates that may be too high, although none of them provide an alternative estimate.

The White House coronavirus task force predicted that the death toll from coronavirus in the US could reach 100,000 to 240,000. According to it, controlling deaths to that range is possible if strict measures of social distance are followed.

Adams said in an interview with ABC News on Tuesday that he was encouraged by recent data showing a possible flattening of the outbreak in some areas.

When asked if he believed that the death toll would be below the terrible forecast of the White House target group, Adams said, thats absolutely my expectation.

I feel a lot more optimistic, again, because Im seeing mitigation work, he said. According to him, he agreed with CDC director Robert Redfield that deaths could fall short of totals that some computer models showed.

The governors of New York, New Jersey, and Louisiana have indicated preliminary signs that the outbreak of the coronavirus may begin to go plateau, but warned of complacency.

The death toll from coronavirus in the United States has exceeded 10,000, and the number of confirmed cases has exceeded 367,000.

Redfield stated that social distancing was effective.

If we just social distance, we will see this virus and this outbreak basically decline, decline, decline. And I think thats what youre seeing, Redfield said. I think youre going to see the numbers are, in fact, going to be much less than what would have been predicted by the models.

The University of Washington's research model, one of several cited by leading healthcare authorities, predicts that by August 4, the death toll from coronavirus in the US will be 7,766.
What can Sri Lankan Muslims do at this moment in time? Unfortunately, Sri Lankan Muslim are divided on this issue. There is not any unanimous agreement among Muslims on this subject.





by Dr SLM Rifai

Views expressed in this article are the author's own





This issue has generated some heated debates among some sections of Sri Lanka communities today. Various media personnel and politicians have been debating this issue in public to create some unwanted social bitterness and misunderstanding. These days social media are full of debates and discussions about this issue. Its regrettable that we may create a big fuss about this issue. Today, this nation needs the support and cooperation of all communities at this crucial movement to wipe out this deadly pandemic. Security forces, medical professionals and civic servants are working hard, day and night to prevent the spread of this virus. Yet, some section of politicians and religious groups are creating an unnecessary rift on this matter.













This is a health problem. Sri Lanka is blessed with some of the best medical experts (Doctors and health workers). Doctors should decide whether to bury or to burn the dead bodies of the victims. Due to their deep insight and knowledge regarding the infectious diseases and virology, they could decide what to do. Theyre educated and trained to be objective in their profession. They cannot read this issue on any racial or religious line, instead they will seek to aid this problem from a medical perspective. They are trained in certain medical ethics and moral principles. They must follow some professional code of conducts in their careers. Neither politicians nor religious leaders could interfere in their profession. They should never mix up their professional ethics with politics and religion. They know well what is best in a critical situation like the one currently.





Sri Lankan government should have sought advice of medical experts on this issue. A team of Sinhalese and Muslim doctors should have studied this issue from an objective medical and health perspective. Yet, politicians want to put their noses in all matters, rather than seeking the advice of experts in their fields. Politicians in western countries follow the instruction of experts and yet, in Sri Lanka politicians influence experts so much so, that they are told what to do and what not to do. I personally, do not think Muslim community would have objected any decision taken by medical professionals on this matter. Sri Lanka has some of the best medical experts. Why dont they have a say? There is no unanimous agreement on this issue among medical experts. W.H.O (World Health Organisation) clearly says that people's religious rites must be respected when people die by this deadly virus. It clearly stipulates that bodies can be buried or cremated. It states that the families needs and social customs for funeral should be respected. If customs vary, each social group should be provided with a designated area, with the relevant materials, to be able to exercise their own traditions with dignity.





It is reported that the Sri Lankan government has studied the guidelines of W.H.O on this matter. According to the guidelines of W.H.O, dead bodies of corona virus victims could be buried, and many countries bury dead bodies of corona victims. If W.H.O could stipulate that dead bodies can be buried as UK and Italy, why is it that Sri Lanka dont do the same? Its because they have created their very own guidelines, so they can cremate the dead bodies. It is reported that the Sri Lankan government too agreed to let the Muslim community bury the corona victims. However, some extreme political influencers have decided to cremate dead bodies of Muslims for some political reason. As far as evidence goes, it could be suggested it was done to punish the Muslim community. This is nothing but a scandal for political revenge on the Muslim community. This is because of their vote who overwhelmed the opposition candidate in the last presidential election. This is a sensitive issue for ordinary Muslims. Nevertheless, the Sri Lankan government has failed to honour the religious feeling and sentiment of Muslim community. This is indeed a political disgrace and humiliation for the Muslim community. Some argue that this is a violation of fundamental human rights for Muslims in Sri Lanka.





This action by this government is a slap on the face for the Muslim community. This government lacks the political will to respect the minorities and honour their religious sensitivity. Sri Lanka will never become another Singapore. If some section of this government is holding grudge to suppress the minorities Its sad to say that some section of Sinhalese politicians and media are doing this. Hiru TV and Derana have been doing this for long time. They have been picking up some isolated events and incidents out of contexts to incite violence against the Muslim community. They have been using (cut and paste) tricks to defame Muslims. Unfortunately, some politicians have been supporting these media outlets. This is a violating a fundamental human right of Muslims in Sri Lanka. The final wish of each Muslim on earth is to be buried peacefully in a Muslim burial ground and yet, to deny this basic human right is morally and ethically wrong.





What can Sri Lankan Muslims do?





What can Sri Lankan Muslims do at this moment in time? Unfortunately, Sri Lankan Muslim are divided on this issue. There is not any unanimous agreement among Muslims on this subject. Some argue that Muslim victims of this virus must be buried otherwise, it would be a disrespect to human dignity. Islam tells us to respect the human body after death. Islam tells us to bury it on earth. Muslim community find it hard to absorb the notion of cremation of Muslim bodies. For some cultural, religious and social reasons, they cannot oppose on this. It is the duty of Muslims to fulfil some funeral rituals upon dead bodies. If reliable medical experts advice that the performance of these rituals on the dead bodies is detrimental and harmful to communities, Islamic law allows Muslim community to avoid the performance of some funeral rituals. This is a highly unlikely situation.





According to some schools of thought, cremation of dead bodies of Muslims is allowed in Islamic law in some critical conditions. If this is only way to protect human lives, there is no harm in doing this. Islamic law permits to do some unlawful things under compelling conditions. If someone is compelled to do some un-Islamic rituals or un-Islamic practice under some compelling circumstance, there is no guilt for Muslims to do such thing. There are many textual evidences to substantiate this point. If, Muslims are under immense compelling situations, then they cant help but to obey what government dictates. So, the Muslim community is not sinful in this case if they cant bury their dead bodies. If It is beyond their control and capability to do so. We are living as a second minority in Sri Lanka, and the application of Islamic law is not always viable in this country. So, we are not asked by the Almighty beyond our limit and limitations. Therefore, we may consider this option if we are forced to do this by coercion. This is to avoid some unwanted rift and communal bitterness. Furthermore, the general philosophy of Islamic law is to always protects human welfare and human interest. Protecting human lives is one of the most important fundamental principle of Islamic law. So, if there is no option for the Sri Lankan government except to burn bodies of corona virus Muslims, the we must cooperate with that move. Yet, Italy in its peak in the corona crisis has allowed for the burial of Muslim victims. Likewise, many other countries too have given permission for Muslim communities to bury their victims. Sri Lanka is not in any critical situation such as Italy or any other European countries. Therefore, allowing the burial of Muslim victims is not yet a problematic issue





99% of Sinhalese people arent bothered if Muslims are to be buried, yet some element of far-right extreme political wings and their cohorts are trying to make politics out of it. The Muslim community should not try to generalise this issue or exaggerate this issue. We have been living for centuries with the Sinhalese community. The Muslim community has been immensely contributing to this nation in many ways. This has been duly acknowledged and appreciated by Sinhalese leadership throughout Sri Lankan history.





Sri Lankan communities are united in time of disasters, and calamities. We have seen them during the tsunami and flood disasters. This corona virus has united the entire nation. Its pleasing to see temples, churches and mosques all are cooperating with one another to abolish this virus. Its also pleasing to see people of different faiths care about each other in this difficult time. its gratifying to see that Buddhist temples are distributing food to Sinhalese, Muslim and Tamil families without any discrimination or prejudice. Its also wonderful to see that people are coming together as one family in this difficult time. its magnificent to see a sense of blooming brotherhood, love affection, kindness and humanism among Sri Lankan communities during this time. Although, politicians are showing their true colours, Sri Lankans are kind and loving. So, this kind of political miscalculation and revenge should not create any communal tension or any unnecessary social problem in Sri Lanka.





Finally, it is reported that some prominent persons and members of some Islamic organization have met his excellency president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to discuss this matter and come to term with it. They have agreed to form a team of committee to study this issue objectively. This is an excellent idea to examine both sides of argument and find some viable solutions. Sri Lanka badly needs unity among all communities to fight this virus. This is a health hazard to this nation. So, we should not play politics with it. the health and welfare of nation should get priority above all communal and political interest. The post corona period will be a challenging one for Sri Lanka. So, unity among all Sri Lankans is a must to survive all economic troubles in coming days. We must be wise and sensible in this difficult time. All communities put the country first beyond all our communal and racial limits and limitations.




Bruce Springsteen will kill some time during the coronavirus quarantine to play deejay from his New Jersey home.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artist will show up live on his own SiriusXM channel, E Street Radio, channel 20, on Wednesday, April 8 at 10 a.m. to spin some of his favorite discs  or more likely fire up some digital files from his favorite artists.

The Boss will not be performing.

While many artists have moved to online alternatives for bringing music to fans during the COVID-19 pandemic, this is Springsteens first-announced foray into the field. He does have plenty of streaming content available for fans including his film Western Stars and the Netflix version of his Springsteen on Broadway performance.

Springsteen and the E Street Band were rumored to be releasing a new album and mounting a tour in 2020 but those plans have been scuttled due to the global pandemic.

For those who dont subscribe to the satellite radio service, it is streaming free through May 15 at siriusxm.com.
A former Bangladeshi military captain, who was sentenced to death for assassinating the country's founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, was arrested in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal confirmed ex-captain Abdul Majed's arrest and said he had been sent to court to "exhaust legal options".

Majed was one of the six absconding ex-Army officers who were handed down capital punishment after their trial in absentia.

Minister Kamal said previous reports indicated Majed was hiding in India and that he was arrested from Dhaka upon his return.

The minister said Majed, a self-confessed killer, was not only involved in Bangabandhu's killing on August 15, 1975 at his private Dhanmandi residence but was also involved in the subsequent murders of four national leaders in high security Dhaka Central Jail on November 3 in 1975.

Majed's predawn arrest was led by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the police in Mirpur based on a tip-off.

"Majed was near a shrine in Mirpur when policemen arrested him," an official said.

After the arrest, a magistrate court sent the sacked Army captain to jail. Majed appeared in Old Dhaka Court Complex wearing white pyjama and pants. He was handcuffed with a bulletproof police jacket and helmet.

"Majed was brought to the court at around 12.15 pm. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate A M Zulfikar Hayat passed his order at 12.55 pm asking the police to send him to jail," a police officer said.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Hemayet Uddin said Majed told the court that he was hiding in India and returned home recently.

"Majed said he arrived in the country on March 15 or 16 from Kolkata. He claimed that he was hiding there (India) for about 23 years," the Daily Star quoted Uddin as saying.

Majed was not allowed to give any statement as according to the law convicts do not have the right to do so at this stage of legal proceedings.

Legal experts said a report on his arrest would now be sent to the Dhaka District Judge's Court, which originally tried the killers of Bangabandhu.

"The stipulated time for appeal against death penalty expired long ago. Majed now can just seek Presidential mercy unless the Supreme Court decides to consider any plea on his part," a Supreme Court lawyer said.

Twelve ex-military officers were sentenced to death for the August 15, 1975 killing of Bangabandhu and most of his family members, except daughters Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, who were in West Germany at the time. Hasina, the eldest of Bangabandhu's five children, is the current prime minister of Bangladesh.

Five of the ex-military officers were hanged at Dhaka Central Jail on January 28, 2010, after protracted legal procedure. The trial process began in 1996 when an indemnity law was scrapped as it was protecting the assassins.

The hanged lieutenant colonels were Syed Farooq Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Mohiuddin Ahmed and sacked Major Bazlul Huda, while sacked Colonel Rashed Pasha died of natural causes in Zimbabwe where he was in hiding.

Farooq Rahman, Shahriar Rashid Khan, Mohiuddin Ahmed of the Artillery faced trial in the judge's court in person.

Huda was extradited from Thailand and Lancer Mohiuddin was sent back from the United States after the then district judge Golam Rasul delivered the judgment.

Majed was one of the remaining fugitives believed to be hiding abroad with no confirmed whereabouts.

The fugitives include key mastermind of the August 15, 1975 coup plot ex-lieutenant colonel Abdur Rashid. The Interpol has issued red alert against these fugitives believed to be hiding in several countries including Pakistan. Two of the fugitives have taken refuge in the United States and Canada, one of them is said to have directly shot Bangabandhu.

The government is trying to extradite them but Canadian law has declined the request citing legal provisions.

After the August 15, 1975 carnage, Majed was rehabilitated in civil service during the subsequent regime of former military dictator-turned politician Ziaur Rahman as an ex-cadre official and posted as the director of National Savings Department.

He fled the country while serving later in the finance ministry along with most of the other 1975 coup plotters as the 1996 general elections brought Awami League back to power which vowed bring justice to the killers of Bangabandhu.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
FAIRFIELD, N.J., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the MD1 Program, the world's largest provider of EMS physicians supporting EMTs, paramedics, firefighters and police on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, announced that it has received a $25,000 grant from the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey. The generous grant of emergency funding will be used to develop a dynamic, state-of-the-art training program for first responders, and provide much-needed personal protective equipment, like masks, gowns and gloves.

The MD1 Program provides medical oversight to thousands of first responders who are working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic and provides highly trained EMS physicians to the scenes of their emergency medical calls. The MD1 physicians also train EMTs, paramedics, firefighters and police on all of their medical protocols, which are constantly changing during the pandemic.

"The grant we received from the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey enables us to reach more first responders and support them during this unprecedented pandemic," Dr. Mark Merlin, founder and CEO of the MD1 Program said. "This is crucial because the job they do every day, the tasks they perform automatically, are all different now, and they're changing every day."

"We are pleased to grant $25,000 to the MD1 Program to support them in their efforts to educate and support first responders during the coronavirus pandemic," Marsha Atkind, Executive Director and CEO of the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey said. "Our dedicated first responders are on the front lines of this emergency and we are privileged to provide training and equipment to help keep them safe."

The MD1 Program plans to use the funds to develop comprehensive training that can remain dynamic, as protocols for fighting COVID-19 are changing every day.

About MD1, Inc.

MD1, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation that brings doctors to the site of emergency situations. MD1 brings the emergency room to the patient by deploying highly trained emergency physicians to the sites of crashes, accidents, strokes, heart attacks, natural disasters, mass casualty incidents and other emergencies requiring advanced life support. The MD1 physicians work as a team with emergency response personnel, all dedicated to ensuring that the most critical patients are alive when they reach the hospital. Our physicians can perform ultrasounds, diagnostic testing and surgical procedures, right there in the field. MD1 is not associated with any single hospital system, does not charge for its services and relies on private donations to fund its operations. More information is available at www.MD1Program.org .

Contact:

Kristen Ryan

MD1 Program

[email protected]

844-631-3627 ext 4

www.MD1Program.org

SOURCE MD1 Program

Related Links

https://md1program.org


Even before there were 5G flagships, its Realmes Pro series that really plastered its name in peoples minds. The Realme Pro smartphones were probably one of the few smartphones that could compete toe-to-toe with Xiaomis offerings at that time. Now in its fifth iteration, the Realme 6 Pro takes on the Poco X2 and a Redmi Note 9 Pro along with some of its own siblings like the Realme X2. Now this is also the first Realme number series with the Pro tag to go beyond Rs 15,000. Is the hike justified? Among many other choices, Is the Realme 6 Pro the one you need? Lets find out 

Performance

The Realme 6 Pro is powered by the new Snapdragon 720G. Its a mid-range chipset based on an 8nm manufacturing process and features Kryo 465 Gold and Silver cores clocked at up to 2.3GHz. The SoC comes with an Adreno 618 GPU which is also present in the Snapdragon 730G. The G in the name entails Qualcomms Elite Gaming suite of features. Additionally, theres up to 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB UFS 2.1 storage. We received the top-most variant for review and straight off, it feels far too smooth for a mid-range smartphone. Heres what the benchmarks say 

The Snapdragon 720G performs neck to neck with the Snapdragon 730G. The Realme 6 Pro scored 281462 on AnTuTu, slightly lesser than the SD730G on the Poco X2, while on Geekbench 5 CPU, it scored 571 and 1676 on single and multi core tests respectively. Even on Mobile Xprt and PCMark Work 2.0, there was no telling these two smartphones apart.

The GPU numbers werent available for the Poco X2 (Xiaomi decided to play the spoilsport once again!) but comparing the frames rendered on three GFXBench tests show the Adreno 618 on the SD730G is better-performing than the same Adreno 618 on the Realme 6 Pro. Cant be the same, technically but since Qualcomm doesnt disclose too much about its GPUs, theres no telling whats going on here. For now, GPU performance follows the hierarchy with SD730G offering more for the back than the SD720G, at least as far as the Realme 6 Pro is concerned. Lets see what happens in gaming 

Gaming

I played Call of Duty: Mobile and PUBG Mobile on the Realme 6 Pro and the results were quite impressive for a phone in this segment. Check out the video for more deets.

Call of Duty: Mobile ran at 60 FPS with a decent 84 percent stability while PUBG Mobile ran at 30 FPS with an impressive 100 percent stability with all settings maxed out. Interestingly, dialing down the graphics on PUBG Mobile pushes it to 40FPS, but it doesnt touch 60 FPS.

Looking at the CPU performance while gaming, the Snapdragon 720G does seem to have enough resources to push for higher frame rates but the two prime cores were capped at 1.9GHz, whereas it has a threshold of 2.3GHz. But without knowing the GPU performance theres no way to tell, and GameBench doesnt show metrics from Adreno GPUs.

Software

The Realme 6 Pro is indeed quite fast from the get go but there are chinks in this armour which seem to be teething issues from the new UI. This one runs on the new RealmeUI which is basically a fork of ColorOS 7, but refined with flatter icons and a more stockUI-ish feel. Its not really close to how fast a Realme flagship smartphone feels, but you get most of the software features in the Realme 6 Pro. That includes a OnePlus-like focus mode, game space and some impressive privacy-friendly features. Call blocking, personal data protection and payment protection are only some of them.

The app drawer is enabled by default and the 90Hz refresh rate display really makes it feel slick and smooth. Compared to the Poco X2, itll feel slightly jumpy, but its far smoother than the 60Hz panels weve had previously in this price range. Theres also not much of an impact on battery-life at 90Hz refresh rate. I didnt really see a significant battery drain during my usage.

Now the bad side to this deal. The Realme UI is riddled with preinstalled apps that are mostly duplicates of Google services already offered and common across all Android devices sold outside China. The phone has its own cloud backup service, an app market, a games market and more. These are uninstallable and will flood the notification panel (which also happens to be the first thing you see on the lockscreen) with a barrage of headlines, mostly spam and clickbait. Some of which stink of scams to steal your money! Most of the stinky notifications I got was from the default browser app and you cant uninstall it.

Camera

What it takes away from an ad-riddled software experience, it makes up for it in terms of the camera performance. This is one place Realme has focused hard with a dedicated cross-border imaging team and the results show in their camera tuning. There are a total of six cameras on the Realme 6 Pro. Four at the back and two drilled into the display. All six of them work independently, making it one of the most versatile camera setup on a smartphone in this price range. How are the results? Pretty damn good if you ask me!

Primary Lens - 64MP with 26mm f/1.8 lens

The 64MP primary sensor is the Samsung ISOCELL GW-1, the same sensor Realme has been using its flagship and high-end devices. And the optimisations in place on the Realme 6 Pro results in sharp, well detailed photos with balanced tones, good dynamic range and lots of details.

By default, the camera takes photos at 16MP after binning pixels 4-in-1. The results as you can see are pretty good. I wouldnt have thought a mid-range smartphone has taken these a year back. If I do have to poke holes, itd be against Realmes Dazzle Colour mode. The image enhancing mode seems to have been tweaked to produce more saturation and contrast, often too much. These two photos show how big of a difference it makes

The Dazzle mode does come useful in cases you want to take photos of lush, green landscapes but personally, Id like to have the choice of adding that extra splash of colour on my photos.

Ultrawide Lens - 8MP with 13mm f/2.3 lens

The 8MP ultrawide lens maintains consistency with the primary camera and applies the same colour tones and sharpness levels which is rare in this segment. The ultrawide mode is also quite responsive and lets you control the object you want to focus. Furthermore, the very little distortion in the photos, which also means a big chunk of the frame is cropped out to stabilise it.

Telephoto lens - 12MP lens with 54mm f/2.5 lens (2x optical, 5x hybrid zoom)

(At 2x optical zoom)

(At 5x hybrid zoom)

The consistency in image quality also extends over to the telephoto lens. Its adept at capturing detailed textures on far-off objects. We tested it against statues and foliage and the results were above average in both cases.

Macro lens - 2MP with 22mm f/2.4 lens

The 2MP macro lens is the weakest link in this camera setup. Its the only mode that feels amateurish and seems to have been including for the sake of it. On paper it is able to close-in on objects that are just 4cm away, but the results are hazy, noisy images even under natural light with minimal details.

Portrait mode

The portrait photos are good enough for social media. It uses depth information from the telephoto lens and can produce some sharp photos of fellow humans and pets. Personally, Id turn off the beauty filter for more realistic results, but thats just me. The beauty mode will smoothen skin, remove blemishes and make you look fairer.

Lowlight Photos

The Realme 6 Pro uses

Battery life

Despite a gaming-heavy processor, lots of camera sensors and a 90Hz display, the Realme 6 Pro manages to last well over a day. The 4,300mAh battery was a tough nut to crack with our video loop test with the device managing to run well over 27 hours before dying out. Games like CoD: Mobile drained 3 percent battery after 15 minutes of gaming while a 30-minunte binge of Tiger King on Netflix drained the battery by around 4 percent. Both these numbers are on the lesser side, and lesser is better when it comes to battery drop.

The 4300mAh battery also tops up under an hour thanks to the 30W VOOC charger. We managed to get 50 percent of the battery charged in less than 30 minutes which is pretty neat, especially when you have to be on the move most of the day.

Design and display

The Realme 6 Pro is perhaps the best looking device the company has made in this price range. This time, Realme has used glass on both sides, Gorilla Glass 5 to be precise and the finish has a streak of lightning at the back that radiates as light shines on it. Stellar stuff, and I believe a lot of people may buy it based on the looks alone.However, the frame itself is polycarbonate with thick reinforced edges. The screen stretches dangerously to the edges though, so any drop might end up damaging the panel, Gorilla Glass or otherwise.

The Realme 6 Pro also feels firm and sturdy in hand. The screen size may have increased but the body itself feels compact and can be used on the go. The side-mounted fingerprint sensor has its pros and cons. The good part is you press the power button and scan your finger at the same time making the unlock process near-instant if done right. And it's scarily accurate. The Fingerprints section in the Settings app has two options - Light Touch and Firm Touch. With the former, even the gentlest press will trigger the scanner while the latter needs you press slightly harder, which in my opinion is the better option to prevent accidental unlocks. Which you will get while using the side-mounted fingerprint sensor on the Realme 6 Pro. Just want to peek at your notifications on the lockscreen? Nope. Home screen it is. There needs to be way to make it contextual.

Speaking of which, the 90Hz display is fast and smooth but its not the brightest. I struggled to read text on the screen under the sun and the colours looked all faded. Indoors, it's just too vibrant. The panel is at the vivid screen mode by default which explains the punchy colours. You can tone it down a bit if you want by selecting the 'Gentle' screen mode..The panel also has a cooler tint which becomes more obvious using the dark mode.

Bottomline

The Realme 6 Pro comes across as a well-rounded device with the right mix of hardware that adheres to the latest market trends. A high refresh rate display, a gaming-oriented processor, multi-camera setups and more makes the Realme 6 Pro an enticing buy. And in it's quest of being in vogue, the Realme 6 Pro goes over the Rs 15,000 mark. More than that, a big downside to recommending the device are the pesky ads and notifications that flood the phone within hours of use. The Realme 6 Pro offers a consistent camera performance, long battery life and decent gaming.
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United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday promised additional supplies of LPG to help meet the government's three free cooking gas cylinders to poor during April-June.

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said he spoke to UAE Minister and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc) chief executive Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber.

"At my request, Dr Jaber assured me of additional LPG supplies from @AdnocGroup to meet the free supply of three LPG refills during April-June period to over 8 crore Ujjwala (PMUY) beneficiaries as part of the economic package announced by the Government," Pradhan tweeted.

Indian refineries have cut run-rates in view of slump in fuel demand resulting from an unprecedented nationwide lockdown that has shut businesses, suspended flights, stopped trains and driven most vehicles off-road.

But the reduced run-rates of refineries also means the lower output of LPG. Cooking gas demand has, however, seen a surge and India is relying on imports to keep supply lines going.

UAE not just supplies crude oil to India but is also a major source of LPG.

As part of its economic stimulus to help poor overcome hardships caused by a three-week nationwide lockdown, the government has promised 3 cylinders of 14.2-kg each to poor women who got free cooking gas connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana since 2016.

Besides cooking gas, the government is also giving free foodgrainsto poor and cash to some.

Pradhan had previously spoken to Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman for additional LPG supplies.

"Had an excellent meeting with my good friend MoS and @AdnocGroup CEO H.E Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber via video conferencing," Pradhan said. "Have assured of full support in the sourcing of crude oil from @AdnocGroup for India's strategic petroleum reserves."



He said the comprehensive strategic partnership with the UAE has grown from strength to strength and the two nations have "agreed to work closely in the coming days to strengthen India's energy security, including in our strategic petroleum reserves program".

Last month, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) had declared force majeure on crude purchases from the Middle East on plummeting fuel demand.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi, April 7 : Multiple state governments and experts have requested the Central Government to extend the ongoing 21-day lockdown further and the Modi government is considering their suggestions, say government sources.

This comes a day after Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao made a strong case for the extension of the ongoing lockdown. Rao had advocated for the extension of the current shutdown saying, "The Centre and all other State Governments have lost revenue during the lockdown period. The only positive outcome of this is that we are able to protect our people." KCR also cited reports of the Boston Consulting Group survey, which asked for ruthless measures like extension of the lockdown till June.

The government's group of ministers on Tuesday met at Defense minister Rajnath Singh's residence where the issue of post shutdown scenario came up but no decision was taken on when to end it, said sources who attended the meeting.

The biggest question in front of the government is weighing in two options -- loss of livelihood versus loss of life. However, any decision in this regard will come after Prime Minister Modi's meeting with floor leaders and chief ministers where a common exit plan is to be discussed.

IANS reported on April 2 itself that the lockdown may not just end on April 14 itself, as initially planned. Prime Minister Modi was believed to have told chief ministers in his last CM conference that it is a 'long drawn battle', something he reiterated on Monday while he was addressing party cadres on the occasion of the BJP's Foundation Day.

Soon after the CM conference by Prime Minister, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, from his Twitter account, declared: "The Prime Minister said that the State Government should not lift the lockdown immediately from April 15 but it should happen in phases. Precautions should be taken that there is no crowding." However, the government hasn't made any assertion so far whether it is going to extend the current lockdown or not. But government sources have indeed confirmed that the Modi government is considering the requests to extend the shutdown.

For how long will the second lap of extension be if extension takes place, is still premature, insists the source. Any decision will be taken after the next chief ministers conference when each CM will come back with their own exit plans after forming task forces, as requested by PM Modi. Also there is a meeting by Modi scheduled with floor leaders of Parliament which may be used to build a consensus decision rather than an imposed decision.

Government sources indicate that the situation was complicated ever since the Tablighi Jamaat congregation led to steep rise in coronavirus infections as well as fatality tally.

As on Tuesday morning, India has surpassed 4400 coronavirus cases with 114 deaths at least.

Latest updates on Howdy Modi Houston

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, we are living in the United States of Propaganda.

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When Marvin Gordons wife, AnneMarie, was admitted to the hospital in early March for a slight seizure, he expected to see her home in a matter of weeks. Now shes in quarantine at the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre after contracting COVID-19 from a health-care worker, and Gordon isnt sure when his wife will be able to come home.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Marvin Gordons wife, AnneMarie, was admitted to the hospital in early March for a slight seizure, he expected to see her home in a matter of weeks. Now shes in quarantine at the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre after contracting COVID-19 from a health-care worker, and Gordon isnt sure when his wife will be able to come home.

"They kept leading her to believe she was going to be released that weekend or in the next few days and they kept prolonging it, and finally they had to admit that they couldn't release her because she had tested positive," Gordon said in an interview Monday.

Gordon said his wife had been admitted to the hospital, showing no COVID-19 symptoms, around March 11. Just days later, the hospital went on lockdown and Gordon was no longer able to visit. After a few weeks, Gordon said he was told his 86-year-old wife was being moved to another room in the hospital.

"They gave me the impression that they'd moved her to a quieter room, I didn't know that they'd put her in seclusion," he said. "For the last week or two she hasn't even been let out of her room, because she's in strict isolation."

After pressing staff at the hospital for information, Gordon said he was told this past Friday his wife had been in contact with a nurse at the hospital who had tested positive for COVID-19.

On Thursday, the Health Sciences Centre reported that four nurses had tested positive for the virus, with 40 total nurses, 30 hospital workers, 20 support staff, 15 security officers and an unspecified number of doctors in self-isolation.

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Asymptomatic nurses have been asked to return to work before the end of the 14-day isolation period to help mitigate the shortage of health-care workers, the province has said.

"I'm depressed at times. If they had told me the truth it would have been better," Gordon said.

"I had to pry everything out of them because they didn't admit that she was in quarantine, they just told me that they had put her into a different room and I accepted that."

Gordon, 84, has a compromised immune system due to chemotherapy, so seeing his wife would put him at risk. Originally, he said, the hospital had planned to send her home for care, but decided she would stay in isolation after learning of his condition.

Gordon said he has not heard from Public Health officials about his wifes condition, but is waiting for doctors to give AnneMarie the all-clear before he can see her again.

The Free Press reached out to Health Sciences Centre for comment on nurse-to-patient transmissions. The hospital was unable to respond by publication time due to high volume of media requests.
Former Deputy General Secretary for the National Democratic Congress (NDCs), Koku Anyidoho, has strongly appealed to the Akufo-Addo government to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to give special roles to the military to instil discipline in the country as Ghanaians have become slaves to the practice of democracy.



According to him, the use of the military personnel by President Akufo-Addo to clean up the gutters in Accra as it used to be in the era of former President Jerry John Rawlings is the surest way to keep the environment clean as the civilians have disappointed the country with regards to sanitation and hygiene.



Speaking on Okay FMs 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, the former Deputy Chief Scribe of the largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says Ghanaians through the passage of the 1992 constitution which gave birth to freedom of speech have rather enslaved the country.



Citing the role of Salifu Amankwa as an example, Koku Anyidoho said that Ghanaians spoke against his work of instilling discipline and keeping Kwame Nkrumah Circle clean and when he was eventually taken out of Circle, the place has now become a dumping site.



What I am happy about is that the military personnel are cleaning the gutters . . . we drove away Salifu Amankwa from Circle and now Kwame Nkrumah Circle has become a dumping site. So, we have become slaves to our freedom of speech, he mentioned.



Taking a cue from the decision of President Akufo-Addo to use the military to clean up the gutters, the former Director of Communications at the Presidency under the late President Mills encouraged the President to find a special role for the military to play.



He further suggested to the Akufo-Addo government to adopt some military tactics and discipline in this country where going forward, there must be 6 month prison term for both owners of houses without toilet facilities and tenants occupying them.



Going forward, anybody who will build a house without toilet facility and those who will rent those houses must be punished. If we dont begin to adopt some military tactics and discipline in this country, we arent going anywhere. The owner of the house without toilet facility and the tenant who goes for such a house must be jailed for 6 months, he suggested.







Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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In yet another case in the state, a family in Amritsar refused to claim the body of a coronavirus victim, forcing the district administration to perform his last rites, officials said on Tuesday.

Similarly, a family in Ludhiana on Monday had refused to accept and cremate the body of a 69-year-old COVID-19 positive woman. The administration there had too perform her last rites.

According to an official release, the 69-year-old Amritsar man, a retired superintending engineer at the civic body there, had died at an private hospital on Monday.

His family did not respond to the administration when it asked them to claim the body, it said.

Thereafter, officials approached the family, but they did not come forward for the last rites.

The official release said the daughter of the deceased is pursuing an MBBS course and none of his family members reached the cremation ground where he was consigned to flames.

Initially, the man had tested negative for COVID-19 at the Government Medical College in Amritsar.

But when his condition did not improve, he was shifted to a private hospital, where he tested positive for the disease.

Civil Surgeon Amritsar Prabhdeep Kaur Johal said, A few days ago, he tested negative for the infection at the GMC lab. Then he went to a private hospital which declared him positive in their preliminary report. Thereafter, we took his samples again for confirmation and found him positive for COVID-19."



In another such incident in Amritsar, residents of Verka village did not allow the cremation of Padma Shri recipient and former Golden temple Hazuri Raagi Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa.

The villagers had refused to allow the cremation of the Gurbani exponent fearing the spread of the disease.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Gobardhan Das, Professor at Special Centre for Molecular Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has said that countries with mass BCG immunization are "likely to have better resistance" to coronavirus compared to other parts of the world.

"For coronavirus, we currently do not have a vaccination but some people are working with BCG as there seems to be some correlation with vaccination. In countries like Spain, where there is no vaccination, the death and occurrence rate of COVID-19 is high, while in Portugal where there is vaccination the death rate is quite low. So indeed, there is some correlation," Das told ANI here.

He was asked if countries like India, where BCG immunisation is given, are better prepared to tackle the spread of coronavirus. BCG protects against tuberculosis (TB) disease.

Das said that scientists and researchers should stay focused and search for the medicine and vaccine for COVID-19, even though "every virus infection has its phase and search for the cure can take three to four months."

He said India is doing much better than most of the other countries in preventing the spread of the disease.

"India is doing much better than most other countries in combating COVID-19. The early lockdown imposed by the Modi government did well to prevent the spread and social distancing is also doing its bit in controlling the spread. Had it not been for the Nizamuddin case the curve would have been really flat," he said.

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in India climbed to 4,789 on Tuesday, as per the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.

The data says that 124 people have died while 353 patients have been cured/discharged (one migrated). Maharashtra reported the highest number of 868 cases, followed by Tamil Nadu 621 and Delhi 576.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Daily updated graphs illustrating the rising COVID-19 death rates in different countries raise hopes that we can understand the impact of the virus and work out how to stop it from spreading further. But when comparing countries as different as South Korea, China, Italy and the UK, we may find the impression of how different interventions work is obscured by many other factors.

These countries differ in many important ways, including demographics, civil disobedience, population density, patterns of social interactions, air quality and genetics. Italy, for example, has regions with older populations than many other countries. And European societies are unlikely to ever accept the draconian interventions used in China and South Korea.

From a scientific perspective, and in the absence of better models, the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland  which are culturally, economically, politically and geographically similar  may, serendipitously, represent a powerful intervention trial.

Currently, 15 million people here have been assigned to a lockdown, while a further 10 million have been asked to simply act responsibly. While it is too early to have definite answers about what works best, interesting insights can already be gleaned.

The Swedish approach to COVID-19 could not be more different from its neighbours, placing much of the responsibility for delaying the spread of the virus and protecting the vulnerable in the hands of the public. Its now April and, albeit with some restrictions, Swedish bars, restaurants and schools remain open.

Under the blue skies and blazing sun Sweden has enjoyed lately, people have flocked to parks and beaches, bars and cafes. Nevertheless, Sweden has a high number of people living in single households, and citizens are generally respectful of public health advice and guidelines.

Our World in Data/wikipedia , CC BY-SA

This all contrasts the far more assertive physical restrictions imposed in the culturally similar neighbouring countries. Across the borders in Denmark, Norway and Finland, schools closed weeks ago and movement has been severely restricted.

New research

A report just out from the group leading the UK governments COVID-19 simulations estimates the spread of the virus within 11 European nations. An important metric in this setting is the reproduction number: how many people someone with COVID-19 in turn infects. A number that is larger than one indicates that the epidemic is in its growth phase, whereas a number of one or less indicates the epidemic is fading.

As of March 28, the reproduction numbers for Sweden and Norway are estimated to be 2.47 and 0.97 respectively, with Denmarks around one. Unsurprisingly, the spread of the virus is also estimated to be among the highest in Sweden (3.1% of the population infected) and lowest in Norway (0.41% of the population), likely reflecting the radically different containment strategies. This compares with 9.8% and 2.5% for Italy and the UK, respectively.

Indeed, one Swedish academic has predicted that up to half the Swedish population will be infected by the end of April. Although it is probably too soon to see a clear effect of interventions on mortality rates, by April 1, COVID-19 deaths in Sweden accounted for 24 per million citizens, whereas in Norway it was only eight deaths per million. Finland was lower still with just three per million.

The virus transmission rate is important, as the faster it spreads, the more condensed the burden of mortality will be and the higher the peak burden hospitals will be forced to endure. The core objective of epidemic suppression is to minimise the number of daily hospital admissions in order to maintain a functioning health care system, even if the total deaths is eventually the same.

When the burden substantially exceeds capacity, hospitals collapse, casting staff and patients into the medical dark ages. So staying within capacity is paramount. In preparation, each of the Nordic countries have conducted detailed simulations to estimate the extent to which the hospitals will need to surge.

Those simulations show that the overall burden is expected to be similar across countries, resulting in about 528 to 544 deaths per million. Importantly though, unlike its peers, Sweden is likely to take the hit sooner and over a shorter period, with the majority of deaths occurring within weeks, rather than months.

Thats despite the fact that Sweden has the lowest number of ICU beds per 100,000 people (5.8), with Denmark (6.7), Finland (6.1) and Norway (8.0) all being better prepared. They all, however, lag far behind Germany at more than 29 beds per 100,000 people, being more similar to the UKs 6.6. And concerns are being expressed in Sweden about inadequate protective equipment for frontline medical staff.

In the event that Sweden has pitched it right, the other Nordic countries will find the strain on hospitals is well within capacity. But, if the opposite is true, health care professionals in Sweden will face the fight of their lives.

The long run

This may make it sound like an intensive strategy is crucial. But there are strong counter arguments. As those living through a lockdown will attest, the psychological burden can be considerable  theres a reason the incarcerated are sent to solitary for harsher punishment.

Consider too that the effects of intensive restrictions on freedom of movement wanes over time as social disobedience increases. Deploying milder containment strategies, as Sweden has done, which are followed by nearly all, may be more effective than strict interventions that are frequently flouted. Here, it will be interesting to see how Sweden compares to the other Nordic countries, which may have been able to achieve high levels of compliance with voluntary social distancing.

Theres also the perpetual danger of epidemic resurgence where herd immunity  whereby enough people have been infected to prevent the virus from spreading further  has not been achieved. Sweden is likely to reach herd immunity faster, so its not impossible that it will see fewer additional outbreaks of the virus than its neighbours. And there are numerous economic arguments too.

There is no knowing at this stage how the interventions adopted by Sweden and the other Nordic nations will play out. But within weeks, this will start to become clear. From this, we will learn much about the delicate balance between strategic under- and overreaction in the face of an infectious disease pandemic.

And what we learn may serve other nations where COVID-19 is still emerging or where second and third waves hit, as well as future societies facing other global pandemics, which are certain to come.

Paul W Franks, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology, Lund University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
London, 7 April 2020 (SPS) - The Western Sahara Campaign UK has mourned the passing of Emhamad Khadad, a member of the National Secretariat of the Polisario Front, Coordinator with the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), on last Tuesday after long illness.



Below is the full text of the condolence message addressed to President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Mr. Brahim Ghali:



His Excellency Brahim Ghali



Secretary-General Polisario Front



President of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic



4 April 2020



Your Excellency



We are sad to learn of the passing of Emhamed Khadad.



This a great and tragic loss. Khadad was a great and inspiring representative of his people,



a determined and skilled diplomat in the struggle for self-determination. He was an inspiration to us, always wanting to support the work of the Western Sahara Campaign UK.



He was instrumental in supporting the work of solidarity campaigns, realising the importance and opportunity of challenging the plunder of Western Saharas natural resources and supporting legal challenges in all jurisdictions including WSCs challenge.



In this difficult time, our thoughts are with his family, and with the Saharawi people, for whom he fought so fiercely. Please on behalf of his family and the Saharawi people accept our condolences. We shall miss him greatly.



In solidarity



Mark Leuthford



Chair



John Gurr



Co-ordinator (SPS)



062/SPS
HOUSTON, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Yuma Energy, Inc. (NYSE American: YUMA) ("Yuma", "Company", "we" or "our") announced today that it has been notified by its lender, YE Investment LLC, (" YE " or the " Lender "), an affiliate of Red Mountain Capital LLC.("Red Mountain"), that all outstanding payments under its existing Credit Agreement are currently due and that its Restructuring Agreement with Red Mountain has been terminated.

In a press release issued on March 20, 2020, Yuma disclosed that it was not in compliance with the various terms of the Restructuring Agreement and related credit arrangements, and no further funds were available to Yuma under the facility. Please refer to our prior press releases and prior filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for more comprehensive information regarding the agreements and transactions.

On March 30, 2020 the Company disclosed that effective March 26, 2020, J. Christopher Teets, who was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors on September 30, 2019, resigned as a member of the Board of Directors of Yuma Energy.

On April 3, 2020, Yuma Energy and its related affiliates received written notice from Red Mountain that numerous defaults and events of default have occurred and are continuing under the Credit Agreement and the other loan documents, including failure to pay interest within the time provided and failure to comply with other covenants. Consequentially, Red Mountain has terminated all loan commitments and has accelerated the payments including accrued interest, fees and other obligations, are now due immediately. Also, Yuma received simultaneous written notice from Red Mountain that the Restructuring Agreement and related Voting Agreement have been automatically terminated.

As disclosed in September 2019, YE Investment, LLC, an affiliate of Red Mountain, purchased all of the Company's outstanding senior secured bank indebtedness and related liabilities under the Company's senior credit facility (the "Credit Facility"). The Credit Facility was then modified to reduce the outstanding principal balance from approximately $32.8 million, plus accrued and unpaid interest and expenses, to approximately $1.4 million (the "Modified Note"). Yuma also entered into a Restructuring and Exchange Agreement (the "Restructuring Agreement") with Red Mountain and affiliates, which was to result in the i) exchange of the Modified Note for a new convertible note that would be convertible into Yuma common stock, and ii) conversion of the Company's Series D Preferred Stock into Yuma Common stock. Finally, in December 2019, the parties entered into an amendment to the Restructuring Agreement and Credit Facility under which Red Mountain provided an additional two-year senior secured delayed-draw term loan for up to $2 million, maturing on September 30, 2022, from which the Company has drawn $850,000 to date. The transactions contemplated by the Restructuring Agreement were subject to stockholder approval pursuant to NYSE American rules and requirements, and the Restructuring Agreement included a termination right in the event such stockholder approval was not received by December 31, 2019.

Mr. Anthony C. Schnur, Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Restructuring Officer of Yuma commented, "Despite our efforts to remedy our financial distress and evaluate strategic alternatives over the past few months, we have not come to a mutually agreeable understanding with Red Mountain regarding the extension/modification of the Restructuring Agreement, Modified Note and related agreements. We are disappointed that YE and Red Mountain, our Senior Lender and majority owner of our Series D Preferred stock and holder of approximately 10% of our outstanding common stock, have taken this action. Our ability to make timely interest payments has been hampered by the dramatic collapse in oil prices, certain well failures, and economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 virus. The acceleration of all outstanding payments demanded by Red Mountain at this time will likely force the Company to cease our business plan, sell assets or possibly take other remedial steps such as seeking bankruptcy protection."

Continuing Uncertainty

The Company's audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2018, included a going concern qualification. The risk factors and uncertainties described in our SEC filings for the year ended December 31, 2018, the quarter ended March 31, 2019, the quarter ended June 30, 2019, and the quarter ended September 30, 2019, raise substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern.

About Yuma Energy, Inc.

Yuma Energy, Inc., a Delaware corporation, is an independent Houston-based exploration and production company focused on acquiring, developing and exploring for conventional and unconventional oil and natural gas resources. Historically, the Company's activities have focused on inland and onshore properties, primarily located in central and southern Louisiana and southeastern Texas. Its common stock is listed on the NYSE American under the trading symbol "YUMA."

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"). Any and all statements that are not strictly historical statements constitute forward-looking statements and may often, but not always, be identified by the use of such words such as "expects," "believes," "intends," "anticipates," "plans," "estimates," "potential," "possible," or "probable" or statements that certain actions, events or results "may," "will," "should," or "could" be taken, occur or be achieved. We caution that these statements by their nature involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially depending on a variety of important factors, including, among others: our ability to raise additional funding as needed; our ability to pay our debts as they come due; rights that Red Mountain has under outstanding loan and other agreements, including security interests in our assets and their rights to foreclose on such security interests; the ability of the Company to enter into an amended, extended and modified credit facility; the ability to maintain sufficient liquidity to fund operations; the ability to remain listed on the NYSE American; the ability to continue as a going concern; the risk of being forced into, or determining to seek, bankruptcy protection; and the ability to use net operating losses to offset cancellation of indebtedness income. The Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, recent current reports on Form 8-K, and other SEC filings discuss some of the important risk factors identified that may affect the Company's business, results of operations, and financial condition. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

For more information, please contact

Carol Coale

Managing Director

Dennard Lascar Investor Relations

713-529-6600

[email protected]

SOURCE Yuma Energy, Inc.

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ISTANBUL  A prominent Turkish journalist became the target of two criminal complaints late Monday evening after posting a tweet implying the state might require citizens to contribute personal savings to help fund the national coronavirus response.

Fatih Portakal, a popular and often critical anchor at the Fox News channel in Turkey, where the network is considered oppositional to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), was accused of spreading lies and manipulating the public on social media, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency on Tuesday.

Both Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Banking Regulation and Supervision Authority filed criminal complaints against Portakal hours after he shared the tweet, highlighting the limits on free speech afforded to media professionals amid the pandemic in Turkey, which remains among the worlds top jailers of journalists.

The government and the judiciary are taking every opportunity to crack down on prominent journalists because they dont want alternative dialogues established in the public opinion, Erol Onderoglu, the Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders and Bianet media freedom rapporteur, told Al-Monitor.

He added, The aim is to prevent criticism and reaction from opposition circles.

The news comes after Erdogan launched a national donation drive last week, asking citizens to help provide financial assistance for individuals and families impacted by the coronavirus. As of today, health officials have reported 34,109 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Turkey and 725 deaths resulting from the virus.

During a speech yesterday in which Erdogan promoted the donation drive, the president alluded to historical emergency measures imposed during the nations War of Independence, known as National Tax laws, which allowed the government to seize citizens personal wealth and belongings to aid the nation.

Portakal reacted to the speech in a tweet Monday night, asking, What if they ask for money from those who have deposits or savings by invoking the National Tax orders? He suggested citizens might not get their seized savings back from the government. To date, no such measures have been applied in Turkeys coronavirus response.

Ahmet Ozel, a lawyer for Erdogan, said Tuesday that Portakals tweet was an utter lie, while the Banking Regulation and Supervision Authority alleged the journalist had intentionally damaged the reputation of the banking institution. Neither Portakal nor Turkish Fox News responded to requests for comment.

By making an example of Fatih Portakal, the state is showing they will not hesitate in going after those who alert people to possible threats, like a deeper financial crisis, Onderoglu told Al-Monitor, referring to the economic toll the coronavirus may have on emerging markets like Turkey.

On Tuesday, the Interior Ministry announced it had identified 616 suspects sharing "unfounded and provocative social media messages about the coronavirus" and that 229 of them had been detained. Among the Twitter users detained in recent weeks was a popular anonymous account known as Ankara Kusu, or Ankara Bird, whose owner now faces terrorism-related charges.

Halk Aygun, a veteran journalist with the oppositional Halk TV network, was also arrested Friday for ridiculing Erdogans national donation drive. Last month, in a case unrelated to the coronavirus response, Murat Agirel and three journalists with the independent news outlet Odatv were arrested for a report that named a Turkish intelligence officer killed in Libya earlier this year.

The arrests come as members of the Turkish Parliament debate proposals that would release up to a third of Turkeys prisoners to reduce overcrowding in the nations penitentiaries and help slow the spread of coronavirus within jails. The measures exclude political prisoners such as jailed journalists, who would remain behind bars.

Outside prisons, the Turkish state has gradually rolled out stricter measures on citizens to encourage self-isolation and social distancing precautions. Curfews were imposed on senior citizens and unemployed people under 20 years of age, while the majority of domestic travel now requires government authorization.

Dr. Bulent Nazim Yilmaz, secretary general of the Turkish Medical Association, has previously criticized the lack of coronavirus data from the Health Ministry. He told Al-Monitor that government transparency on the pandemic had improved following the establishment of a COVID-19 informational website.

Yilmaz also said the recent increase in tests administered within Turkey were a very positive development, adding he would like to see the current daily number of tests, about 20,000, double to 40,000 or 50,000.

Testing should increase as much as possible, Yilmaz told Al-Monitor.
State officials are fast-tracking the process of approving requests to add thousands of new hospital beds for patients diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Michigan hospitals received state approval to add 4,146 new beds to treat COVID-19 patients in the last three weeks. The state signed off on 55 requests submitted from March 18 to April 6, according to a document the Department of Health and Human Services shared with MLive.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered MDHHS to expedite the approval process so hospitals can quickly increase the number of hospital beds. Her March 17 executive order allowed any licensed hospital to expand regardless of number of beds or location," and gave MDHHS the authority to issue emergency approvals.

MDHHS spokesperson Lynn Sutfin said most requests are being approved within the same business day. As of April 6, the state approved the creation of 3,931 hospital beds, 210 nursing home beds and 22 long-term acute care beds.

St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor was granted the largest single-site request, receiving approval on March 27 to add 592 beds to the Washtenaw County hospital. Bronson Methodist Hospital secured approval Saturday to add 300 new beds in Kalamazoo, the second-largest request approved thus far for a single location.

Ascension Health received approval to add 996 beds at 13 facilities spread across nine counties. A third of those beds are going to facilities in Oakland County, where the second-largest concentration of confirmed COVID-19 patients live.

MDHHS approved several requests from St. Joseph Mercy Health System adding 917 new beds at hospitals in Pontiac, Howell, Ann Arbor and Chelsea.

Henry Ford Health System secured approval for 334 new beds at hospitals in Dearborn, Clinton Township, West Bloomfield Township and Jackson.

Representatives for Ascension and Henry Ford could not be reached for comment Tuesday. A St. Joseph Mercy spokesperson did not return to a request for comment before this story published.

Most of the applications approved thus far will put new hospital beds outside Oakland and Wayne counties, two hot spots for confirmed COVID-19 cases. Oakland and Wayne counties are home to 67% of all residents confirmed to be carrying the coronavirus, but hospitals in those areas submitted fewer requests for expansion.

As of Monday, 645 beds new were approved for hospitals in Oakland County and 315 beds were approved for hospitals in Wayne County.

Meanwhile, Washtenaw County hospitals received approval for 737 beds, 563 beds were approved for hospitals in Kent County and 456 beds were approved for Macomb County.

There are 687 emergency room beds and 304 adult intensive care beds still available in two emergency management regions that cover the southeast corner of the state, according to MDHHS. There are nearly 8,000 total hospital beds available in those two regions.

State and federal officials have also partnered to bring temporary field hospitals to Southeast Michigan.

Whitmer announced the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi will serve as the second alternate care facility, accompanying TCF Center in Detroit to add 2,000 new beds. MDHHS and the Michigan National Guard partnered with FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to coordinate the creation of two sites.

Additional locations across Michigan are up for consideration to serve as alternate care facilities while the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continues to grow.

There have been 18,970 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 845 deaths, as of Tuesday. A total of 43,503 Michigan residents have been tested.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus.

Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

Read more on MLive:

Tuesday, April 7: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Its been four weeks since Michigans first confirmed coronavirus cases. We mapped its spread through the state

Michigan coronavirus timeline: Its been four weeks since states first confirmed case

The eerie streets of a deserted downtown Detroit amid the coronavirus stay-at-home order

Michigan police relax enforcement of speeding, other minor violations during coronavirus pandemic

Conoravirus upends Michigans Class of 2020: This isnt the senior year that anyone wanted'

MichMash: Medical supply shortage has businesses stepping up amid coronavirus pandemic
YEREVAN.  Zhoghovurd daily of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes. The coronavirus has forced the RA government to make some changes for the future in the form of governance.

The RA Ministry of Justice proposes to make a change that will enable to hold the sittings of the government and the ministerial committees from distancethrough the online platform.

The justification for this draft states that the need to adopt this draft is due to the state of emergency caused by the epidemic, the curtailing of the free movement of people and the chance communication, while ensuring as much as possible the normal functioning of the work through electronic means of communication.

However, they also emphasize that in addition to the current situation, the fact that there may be other cases when it will be necessary to hold the abovementioned sessions online should also be considered realistic.
After a high-speed chase through Limestone County on Monday, police arrested three people for trafficking drugs. Police also filed charges of violating Alabamas state health order, which closed non-essential businesses to slow the spread of coronavirus.

The chase began when an Alabama state trooper tried to stop a driver for speeding on Interstate 65. The trooper and a Limestone County sheriffs deputy chased the vehicle to Thach Road near Alabama 251.

Police found multiple guns, 196 ecstasy pills, plus MDMA and marijuana inside the vehicle, according to the Limestone County sheriffs office.

Stephen Young, a sheriffs office spokesman, said three people were charged with violating the state health order because drug trafficking is non-essential."

The following people were arrested and booked into the Limestone County Jail:

Kendricuz Hodges, a 22-year-old from Meridian, Mississippi, is charged with drug trafficking, possession of a concealed weapon without a permit and violating the state health order.

Ladarius Fowler, a 19-year-old from Cuba, Alabama, is charged with drug trafficking, possession of a concealed weapon without a permit and violating the state health order.

Samantha Menefee, a 22-year-old from Clarksville, Tennessee, is charged with drug trafficking, possession of a concealed weapon without a permit, violating the state health order, attempting to elude, reckless endangerment and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The charge of violating Alabamas state health order is punishable by a fine of up to $500. The Alabama Department of Public Health issued the order, which tells Alabamians to stay home except to perform essential activities.

Please DO NOT call 911 to ask about what you can or cant do under this stay at home order or to report people violating... Posted by Limestone County Sheriff's Office on Saturday, April 4, 2020

Young said deputies arent pulling over drivers at random to verify whether they are complying with the state health order.

We dont just stop people for no reason  we cant, he told AL.com. These suspects werent stopped for no reason."
A new study has found that COVID-19 coronavirus can survive on face masks for seven days and on banknotes, stainless steel and plastic surfaces for days.

The researchers from University of Hong Kong (HKU), however, said that the deadly virus can be killed by household disinfectants, bleach or washing of hands with soap and water.

The findings of the study were published in The Lancet journal.

"SARS-CoV-2 can be highly stable in a favourable environment, but it is also susceptible to standard disinfection methods," said the researchers, including Leo Poon Litman and Malik Peiris, both from HKU's School of Public Health.

The study showed that coronavirus remains on printing and tissue paper for less than three hours and it survives on treated wood and cloth for two days.

The researchers, however, noted that a detectable level of infection remains on the outer layer of a surgical face mask even after seven days.

"This is exactly why it is very important if you are wearing a surgical mask you don't touch the outside of the mask," Peiris said.

"Because you can contaminate your hands and if you touch your eyes you could be transferring the virus to your eyes," he was quoted by South China Morning Post.

The researchers also said that the results did "not necessarily reflect the potential to pick up the virus from casual contact," as they studied laboratory tools as part of their research.

In March, a study published in journal Nature had claimed that COVID-19 coronavirus can remain infectious on some surfaces for days.

The study done by American researchers had found that virus can survive on plastic and steel for up to 72 hours, but did not last more than four hours on copper or 24 hours on cardboard.
The Holy Week has begun, but people would have to spend it at home amid the COVID-19 crisis, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell reminded the public during his daily coronavirus update press conference on Friday.

"There are no vacations because there is an order to temporarily suspend all [nonessential] activities in the public and private sectors," he said.

READ: Mexican President Ignores Coronavirus Warnings, Shakes Hands with El Chapo's Mother

In a recent article, the health minister said mitigation efforts aim to flatten the epidemic curve or lower the rate of transmission so that infections spread over time instead of suddenly spiking. To make this possible, people must stay at home.

Lopez-Gatell, also an epidemiologist, said, "if we don't move around, the virus doesn't move around, and there isn't the transmission. Stay home, don't go on vacation, stay where you are."

As of Sunday morning, there were 2,143 confirmed cases and 94 deaths from coronavirus infection in Mexico. Meanwhile, 5,209 suspicious cases were being investigated.

In a press briefing, Lopez-Gattel said Sunday that Mexico would reach Phase 3, the most intense of transmission, in two or three weeks.

Of the 94 deaths, 42.5 percent had previous health complications associated with hypertension, 38.30 percent suffered from diabetes, and 35.11 percent had health issues with obesity.

The majority of the deaths were recorded in Mexico City with 15, followed by Jalisco with six and Baja California and Sinaloa with five each. Fifty-eight percent of the confirmed cases are men, while forty-two are women.

According to Lopez-Gatell, there is no evidence that the masks have been successful in slowing the spread of the virus in other countries, but people can use them as an "auxiliary prevention measure."

The statement comes after a coronavirus expert at the National Autonomous University and authorities in the United States recommended that citizens wear face masks.

ALSO READ: Sorry, Miss Chiquita Is at Home; Popular Brands Take On Social Distancing

Experts believe masks lower the chances of transmission by people who are infected but are asymptomatic or showing no symptoms.

"It's common for waves of information to rise with the hope of finding alternatives [to physical distancing] ... but the popularity of this information doesn't necessarily correspond with the scientific soundness of evidence," he said.

However, he urged the public not to use N-95 respirator masks, as they are for medical personnel.

During the Sunday briefing, the health minister said the Mexican government sent a plane to China, which returned Monday. The aircraft was used to transport medical supplies necessary to shield the health personnel from the possible transmission.

Lopez-Gatell said that it was still too early to be able to observe the effects of preventative measures on the spread of the virus. Yet, so far, the public has been "satisfied" with the initiatives undertaken.

Since there's still a long way to go before the end of the pandemic, he stressed that everyone's cooperation is vital to mitigating its effects.

"It's clear that no one is exempt from the risk [of infection]. We can't give ourselves the luxury of discord, of believing that we can save ourselves individually. I'm making a call for patience with an attitude of compassion and solidarity that will keep us united today and tomorrow."

Although New Mexico's stay-at-home order has closed church doors, people can still "attend" Eucharistic masses in the comfort of their own homes as churches stream their sermons online.
Ukraine starts importing onions from Russia over domestic price hikes  expert

14:27, 07.04.20 2890

Shipments of Russian onions are expected not to be very large as the quality is not very good.
Owner Sends His Dog to Buy Cheetos From Shop Amid CCP Virus Lockdown

The content is not available due to expiration.
COLUMBUS JUNCTION (AP)  Tyson Foods said Monday that it has suspended operations at a large pork processing plant in southeastern Iowa where more than two dozen workers have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Spokesman Gary Mickelson said the suspension went into effect on Monday at the plant in Columbus Junction. He said it will last for the duration of this week and be revisited at that point.

Mickelson said the plants 1,400 workers would continue to be paid this week despite the suspension.

He said the company was diverting livestock shipments that were scheduled to be delivered to Columbus Junction to other plants in the region, such as Waterloo and Perry.

The plant processes and packages fresh pork that is sent to retail and food service customers.

Tyson said that it has taken several steps to try to protect plant workers, including taking temperatures before their shifts and increasing cleaning and sanitizing of breakrooms, locker rooms and other areas.
Photograph: Darren Hauck/Getty Images

Laquesha Ellis couldnt figure out why her voter registration could be stricken. The 31-year-old has lived with her two sons in the same gray shingled duplex in a majority black neighborhood for years.

Related: 'Over our heads in chaos': Wisconsin on edge of election fiasco amid pandemic

Yet when the Guardian told her her name was one of one in 14 Wisconsin voters at risk of being removed from the voter rolls for potentially having changed addresses, Ellis was surprised. I still live here. Thats not right, she said. Every vote is supposed to count.

Approximately 232,000 Wisconsin voters are on this list after being identified by a complex matching system. In 2016, Donald Trump won the presidential election in Wisconsin by 22,748 votes, or less than 1%.

A new Guardian analysis has found voters in zip codes that were predominantly black or heavily populated by students were nearly twice as likely to be flagged for removal. These populations are also more likely to vote Democrat.

The Guardian also interviewed 100 people on the list and found that over a third either hadnt moved at all, or had moved locally. Many were unaware they had to re-register.

The right to vote could be taken away, regardless of who you are or where you live, said Megan Gall, national data director for All Voting is Local, an advocacy group. Eligible voters should never get kicked off the registration rolls.

The Covid-19 pandemic is adding further complications. Wisconsin and other states are now pushing mail-in balloting rather than voting in person. But if voters are erroneously dropped from the rolls, they might never receive those ballots in the first place.

In 2016, Wisconsin joined the Electronic Registration Information Center (Eric), a multi-state partnership that helps its members keep their voter rolls current by comparing data between government sources such as the post office and Department of Motor Vehicles, to see who might have moved home. A year later, Wisconsin deactivated roughly 308,000 registrations, but eventually, the state reinstated approximately 7,000 voters who were erroneously struck off.

Story continues

In 2019, the state decided it wouldnt remove voters from the rolls until 2021, to avoid making the same mistake before this years presidential election. Yet in November, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (Will), a conservative non-profit law firm, sued the Wisconsin Elections Commission, claiming it violated state law by putting off the cancellations.

The removals have so far continued to be blocked, but Will is asking the Wisconsin supreme court to hear the case before the election.

Will president Rick Esenberg has argued that the process wont disenfranchise voters because they can register at the polls on election day. But in-person voting may be hampered by the coronavirus outbreak.

This Will lawsuit says: lets deactivate these people immediately and get them to register again. But that defeats the whole purpose, said Reid Magney, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Election Commission. The more people who have to re-register on election day, the longer the lines are.

The zip code in Wisconsin where voters had the greatest odds of being put on the list of potential movers was composed entirely of student housing for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Here, one in four voters, who are likely to vote Democrat, got a mover letter from the state.

Its not hard to see why college students  who have notoriously unstable addresses while they are in school, often changing one or more times a year  would be flagged, said Kenneth Mayer, a political science professor at UW-Madison.

This can lead to confusion. Tommaso Tonelli, a 20-year-old sophomore at the university who was flagged by the Eric system, didnt know how to update his address. There are certain places I can go on campus, Im pretty sure, he guessed.

Wylie Boelter wasnt sure why he was on the list. I mean, I moved to a different place, but still in Madison, he said.

Having to re-register could prove an obstacle for student voters. Under the states current law, students can use a school ID to register to vote only if it meets certain criteria. If they use a student ID, they have to provide additional documentation.

Tammy Patrick, a senior advisor at the Democracy Fund, a nonpartisan organization focused on election administration, said students are stuck in a residency grey area. Theyre often able to register to vote but may not be required to get a drivers license in that state, meaning they may lack the identification necessary to vote.

Areas populated by black voters had the second highest rates of voters being flagged for removal, according to the Guardians analysis. Twelve percent of voters in majority black zip codes were at risk of removal, compared to 7% of voters statewide. But about a third of the 37 voters interviewed in these areas said they hadnt moved.

All of these zip codes were in Milwaukee, where African Americans make up nearly 40% of the population. The city plays a critical role in elections: High turnout there helped Barack Obama win the state twice, and low turnout contributed to Trumps success in 2016, said David Canon, a political science professor at UW-Madison.

Kenneth Dixon, 57, who was also flagged, said he has never moved out of his neighborhood. But he wasnt surprised that those in his predominantly black Milwaukee zip code, were likely to be on the list.

So that is how they are trying to win the election for the Republicans? he said. Aint that a coincidence.

Kyesha Rembert, whose zip code is 94% black, registered to vote at her cousins home, where she has lived for three years after losing her job. Yet her mail is sent to her moms address nearby.

When she went to vote in a local election in February, she was told by a poll worker that her name was flagged. Though she was allowed to vote, she was left confused. I vote in every election, so I dont know why Im on the strike list, she said.

Socioeconomic factors in some of these neighborhoods mean that some residents are more likely to change addresses. Remberts zipcode has one of the nations highest incarceration rates and two thirds of children live in poverty, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in 2018.

You are affecting a population that is already, in some cases, a more vulnerable population on so many levels, Canon said. Making them less likely to be able to vote is just not something that should be tolerated.

While Wisconsins method of maintaining voter rolls can be reliable, its margin of error could mean tens of thousands of voter registrations are wrongfully deactivated.

The timing of this is the critical thing. You dont want to be doing this in the months leading up to the presidential election, Canon said. If you do a purge like this on a big scale, youre gonna catch 10,000 to 15,000 people that shouldnt have been removed. 

Though the state hasnt deactivated anyone on the list yet, the back-and-forth of the Will lawsuit could still discourage voters.

Zina Noel, a student from a majority black community in Milwaukee, said she has had trouble voting and getting absentee ballots from the state for years. Noel, who is pursuing her PhD, has moved between universities such as Harvard, and technically should be allowed to vote from her permanent address at her parents house.

But when she got the letter about losing her registration status, it was the final straw. It seems fitting that there would be a big purge of voters in mostly Democratic and black areas, Noel said. Thats what happens when you live in the black part of Wisconsin.

She registered instead in Minnesota, where she is living for only few months.
New Delhi, April 7 : The All India Institute of Medical Sciences Delhi, on Tuesday issued a circular on N95 masks, asking the healthcare workers to re-use them after disinfecting the masks.

The circular said, "It is imperative that in accordance with the evidence based on scientific literature, these 95 masks are to be disinfected by individual users, by keeping them in open after use or by other methods, and re-used at least 4 times each, whereby these will suffice for about 20 days".

According to the circular, AIIMS will provide the N95 masks to each healthcare worker, involved in direct patient care. This includes, doctors, both Faculty and Residents, nursing officers, technical staff, security guards and maintenance staff.

The masks will be provided to doctors from all departments through representative Heads of the Departments. Nursing officers and security guards, who are posted in patient care areas, will be provided the N95 masks through nursing officials, while the maintenance staff will be given the mask as and when required.

Each healthcare worker shall be provided 5 N95 masks.

The circular was issued by Medical Superintendent of AIIMS Dr D.K. Sharma with the approval of AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
YEREVAN, APRIL 7, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan chaired a regular meeting on April 7, which discussed solutions to those socio-economic problems arising from the coronavirus crisis.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister, the Premier was briefed on the process of implementing 9 programs meant to deal with the economic impact of COVID-19. Information was provided on the amount of economic and social assistance provided so far and on the process of developing procedures for specific social activities.



Daily monitoring is ensured by the government departments concerned, which report back the findings to the Prime Minister. Nikol Pashinyan instructed to complete work on approving the implementation order of social activities, so that beneficiaries could be assisted as soon as possible.

The meeting went on to discuss the proposals developed by the Armenian State Interest Fund (ASIF) in a bid to support the ongoing investment programs. During the exchange of views that followed, the speakers came up with new ideas and recommendations concerning the mechanisms and standards of implementation of target programs based on the public-private sector partnership principle, as well as on risk management toolkits.



The Prime Minister tasked officials in charge to develop investment support scenarios with accurate definition of spheres, standards and restrictions.
C hina has reported no new Covid-19-related deaths for the first time since health authorities began putting out daily figures.

The Chinese National Health Commission said there were 32 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, down from 39 on Monday, as well as 12 suspected cases. All arrived from overseas, the commission said.

The spread of the virus has been slowing for weeks in China, after the Government introduced a strict lockdown in Wuhan, the city where the outbreak began.

But the country has warned of a second wave of coronavirus, which it said is brought in by international visitors.

Authorities say they are taking no chances in the city amid fears of a second wave / AFP via Getty Images

China has closed its borders to foreigners and significantly cut the number of international flights arriving in the country.

But the lockdown is set to end in Wuhan on Wednesday for people with a green code - meaning they are virus-free - on a healthcare app for smartphones.

People with a red or yellow code - meaning they are infected or have recently been in contact with someone with the virus - will remain in quarantine.

Wuhan, China: Convention Centre turned into a hospital for Coronavirus 1 /16 Wuhan, China: Convention Centre turned into a hospital for Coronavirus The view of the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center on February 4th.2020 in Wuhan.Hubei Province,China. Wuhan epidemic prevention headquarters started converting three existing venues, including a gymnasium and an exhibition center, into hospitals to receive patients infected with the novel Coronavirus Getty Images Reuters AP REUTERS AP Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images AP AP AP AP

China has had 81,740 confirmed coronavirus cases as of Monday, according to authorities. 3,331 people have died after contracting the virus.

But some hold the official figures in doubt. A leaked US Intelligence report cited by Bloomberg said that China was deliberately underreporting the extent of the virus.
7 April 2020

ANANDA DEVELOPMENTS PLC

("Ananda" or the "Company")

UPDATE ON MEDICAL CANNABIS GROWING LICENCE

The Directors of Ananda Developments Plc provide the following update to shareholders.

The Home Office application

A second round of questions relating to the application to grow >0.2% THC cannabis has been received from The Home Office. Responses are being formulated and it is expected that a physical visit to the growing location will be undertaken by Home Office representatives in the next couple of months, subject to the lock down requirements of the COVID-19 emergency.

MHRA

In addition, the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency) has requested a meeting to discuss the application, its research aims and objectives, and how the objectives will assist in progressing the medical cannabis sector in the UK.

Ananda's Medical Cannabis Growing Plans

Ananda has a see through 50% interest in DJT Plants Limited ("DJT") which has made an application to grow >0.2% THC cannabis in Lincolnshire. Its partner is the JEPCO Group, comprised of JEPCO Limited and Anglia Salads Limited ("JEPCO"). DJT's proposal is to commence growing up to 1,105 cannabis plants in Lincolnshire, and to ultimately increase to growing on an area up to 30 hectares (accommodating approximately 300,000 cannabis plants). The practical growing will be undertaken by JEPCO, which has previously grown medical cannabis in the UK for a large pharmaceutical company.

The initial objective is to stabilise 13 strains of cannabis to have low variability and high predictability, in collaboration with Dr Dedi Meiri's laboratory in Israel, which it is hoped may be useful to treat a range of conditions such as Parkinson's Disease, epilepsy and neuropathic pain. The Directors believe that Dr Meiri is one of the world's foremost researchers in medical cannabis, with one of the most sophisticated cannabis analytical laboratories in the world. Ananda's ultimate objective is to convert the genetic stabilisation growing to commercial growing, when demand builds in the UK medical cannabis industry and when the regulatory and legal framework allows.

JEPCO has successfully grown medical cannabis in the UK to very high standards, (for the pharmaceutical industry) and at low cost. The Directors believe a UK source of medical cannabis will be well received, especially given the possibility of global supply chains continuing to break down.

DJT Plants Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of DJT Group Limited which is 50% owned by Tiamat Agriculture Limited, which is a 100% subsidiary of Ananda Developments Plc.

-Ends-

The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

ANANDA DEVELOPMENTS PLC

Chief Executive Officer

Melissa Sturgess



Investor Relations

Jeremy Sturgess-Smith +44 (0)7717 573 235

ir@anandadevelopments.com PETERHOUSE CAPITAL LIMITED

Corporate Finance

Mark Anwyl

Allie Feuerlein



Corporate Broking

Lucy Williams

Duncan Vasey +44 (0)20 7469 0930 STANFORD CAPITAL PARTNERS LIMITED

Joint Corporate Broker

John Howes

Patrick Claridge +44 (0)20 3815 8880 CELICOURT COMMUNICATIONS

Mark Antelme

Ollie Mills +44 (0)20 8434 2643

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.
ANN ARBOR, MI  The University of Michigan Health Systems policy on personal protection equipment is preventing healthcare employees from getting additional masks to use while treating coronavirus patients, nurses said.

University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council union leaders say continued negotiations with its employer are coming up empty over a policy that prevents workers from bringing in their own PPE, including N95 respirator masks, which allow healthcare workers to treat COVID-19 positive or suspected patients.

110 Michigan Medicine employees test positive for COVID-19, officials say

The hospital only allows employees to use masks and other PPE that it supplies to avoid faulty or fraudulent equipment use, spokeswoman Mary Masson confirmed. The decision follows an FBI warning of scammers who may take advantage of the stressed supply chain, she said.

At this time, Michigan Medicine has the resources we need to provide care for every patient and keep our healthcare personnel and our team members safe, officials said in a statement. Because we cannot guarantee PPE acquired elsewhere is clean, properly fitted, and meets FDA requirements, Michigan Medicine will not permit our team members to use masks brought from home in our facilities."

Hospital Supply Chain Services employees assess supply shipments and donations to ensure safety and compliance with FDA regulations, Masson said. The hospital would work with employees who can get more N95 masks and other PPE, so long as they are vetted by Supply Chain Services.

17 new coronavirus cases confirmed in Washtenaw County

It hasnt been that easy, Katie Oppenheim, the nurses union chairwoman, said. She said the group may have access to N95 masks through the American Federation of Teachers, a union that also represents healthcare professionals, but have not been able to confirm they would be accepted. The union is willing to work with Supply Chain Services to vet the equipment and has contacted it but not heard back, she said.

Union leaders want to ensure more PPE is allowed into the hospital regardless of source, Oppenheim said. Union leaders worked with executives on Friday to broaden the policy but have yet to reach a solution, she said.

We have had many, many people who have been willing to go out and with their own funds, spend a lot of money to purchase equipment, so that they can take care of these patients, Oppenheim said. Because of course, that's what we want to do. We want to take care of these patients, nobody's saying they don't want to do it, they just want to be safe.

Whitmer says federal partnership is improving, but Michigan hospitals dangerously low on coronavirus supplies

The number of masks available through the American Federation of Teachers has not been determined yet, Oppenheim said. UMPNC wants to ensure that privately owned PPE can be used in the hospital before it requests supplies that could be diverted away from others in need, she said.

While hospital officials assure supplies are adequate, they have said they are looking at preserving the supply while preparing for a potential surge, including sterilization and reuse of equipment. In a video news conference last week, Vikas Parekh, an associate clinical officer for Michigan Medicine, said the system was evaluating supply conservation methods. He assured the hospital had enough equipment in the inventory.

We are also taking aggressive measures to conserve and potentially reuse PPE when that is safe and effective," Parekh said when asked about the hospitals PPE supply.

Nurses began preserving masks about a week ago, Oppenheim said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration loosened its recommendations on reuse Friday after a supply shortage was identified.

But we believe that, of course, we should be better than that, she said. We should use the minimum, but we should have the best protection. And if in fact they have a shortage, why wouldnt you want to let people use their own? ...Its better than just a plain paper mask.

Some healthcare industry groups, like the American Medical Association and the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, issued statements supporting employee-supplied protective equipment during the pandemic.

This is a devastating illness for so many people, Oppenheim said. We want to be there like nurses always are, but we need the right equipment to do so.

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Hash Bash 2020 held online as police make sure Diag stays clear
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, right, speaks during a daily meeting on COVID-19 in Sejong city, Tuesday. The government said it's considering introducing electronic tagging wristbands for people under self-quarantine. /Yonhap



By Kim Se-jeong



The government said Tuesday it was debating whether to force those undergoing two weeks of self-quarantine to wear electronic tagging wristbands as more people have been caught defying the regulation designed to help curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.



The debate has raised some concerns over whether it would constitute an unconstitutional invasion of privacy despite its efficacy. There are also apparently some technical problems.



The issue of electronic tagging to monitor people under self-quarantine arose after some defied the government imposed restriction and left the facilities they were self-isolating in.



Police across the country have identified 75 self-quarantine regulation violators, as of Tuesday. Among them were a couple in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province who, after intentionally leaving their phones at home, visited an art museum, shops, a gas station, a school, two Lotto outlets and restaurants over a five-day period.



Currently, 46,566 people are under self-quarantine orders.






NEW YORK, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --



Get an in-depth analysis of COVID-19 impact on global baby stroller market.



The baby stroller market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 6% during the period 20192025.







Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05881119/?utm_source=PRN







The global stroller market is primarily driven by high birth rates in APAC and Middle Eastern countries. Brazil, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are expected to witness a stable growth rate in the baby stroller market size over the next five years. Increasing healthcare facilities, declining infant mortality rates, and rising disposable incomes in these regions are expected to aid the growth during the forecast period. The launch of hospital-oriented schemes in governmental hospitals in APAC and Middle Eastern regions provides equal access to inpatient care, reduce healthcare expenditures, and increase awareness about body hygiene. With the improvement in healthcare and reduced mortality rate, opportunities to provide value-oriented baby care products and accessories in these regions increases the demand and preference for baby strollers.



The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the baby stroller market during the forecast period:

 Reduced Infant Mortality due to Healthcare Advancements

 Expansion of Nuclear Families & Growth in Women Employment

 Growth in e-stroller



The study considers the present scenario of the baby stroller market and its market dynamics for the period 2019?2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The study offers both the demand and supply aspects of the market. It profiles and examines leading companies and other prominent companies operating in the market.



Baby Stroller Market : Segmentation



This research report includes detailed market segmentation by product type, seat type, distribution, and geography. Standard strollers have a high preference among parents. Durability and versatility are the major factors that are making these prams highly popular. However, certain common features that influence consumer buying behavior include well-padded seats, convertible designs, canopy expansion, shock absorption, telescoping handlebars, roomy baskets are likely to increase adoption. A majority of demand can be witnessed from countries such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, on account of the increase in disposable incomes and growth in nuclear families.



While single strollers are the dominant segment in terms of revenue and unit shipment, the rise in the number of second and third childbirths, especially in the urban areas of MEA, Latin America, APAC, and certain parts of Europe has increased the demand for double prams. Further, affluent parents and consumer groups of US and Western European countries invest in expensive convertible prams that can be customized to accommodate the second child when needed. Convertible strollers are expected to witness an increase in demand during the forecast period. The segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 4% during the forecast period. The APAC region is estimated to pose an incremental revenue of over $150 million in the next five years.



As prams are comparatively expensive and require a lot of pre-purchase research as parents are willing to invest in high-quality and durable strollers, which contribute to the growth of offline distribution stores such as supermarkets, hypermarkets, departmental and specialty stores. The penetration of offline stores is more prominent in APAC and Latin America, where the awareness and benefits of baby prams are comparatively low. As most of the end-users in the region are first-time buyers, they tend to be more experimental in their purchase decisions. However, the increasing number of young parent communities and the growing relevance of consumer education on childcare have contributed to the popularity of online marketplaces for baby products. The trend of e-commerce sites and internet penetration has enforced the majority of parents to rely on online sources to compare several brands. With North America and Europe being major markets for the online distribution channel, APAC and Latin America are expected to witness rapid growth in the online segment during the forecast period.



Market Segmentation by Product Type

 Standard

 Lightweight

 Jogging

 Travel Systems

Market Segmentation by Seat Type

 Single

 Double

Market Segmentation by Distribution

 Offline

 Online



Insights by Geography



The penetration and acceptance of prams is high in North America and Europe. However, China, with more childbirths annually, has contributed to the growth of the APAC market along with considerable revenue generation from South Korea, Japan, and Australia. The preference of prams is region-centric, and the importance is given based on demography, age, lifestyle, and geographical trends. For instance, despite a large difference in the number of units sold in the baby stroller market in APAC and North America, the high selling price in the US and Canada can be a major differentiator that can pose a challenge to APAC vendors.



Market Segmentation by Geography

 Europe

o Spain

o Germany

o Italy

o France

o UK

 North America

o US

o Canada

 APAC

o South Korea

o China

o Japan

o Australia

o India

 Latin America

o Brazil

o Mexico

 MEA

o Turkey

o Saudi Arabia

o South Africa

o UAE



Insights by Vendor



The global baby stroller market is highly fragmented, and the market is characterized by the presence of diversified global, regional, and local vendors. With global players increase their footprint in the market due to vast infrastructure and R&D support, regional vendors may find it increasingly difficult to compete in terms of reliability, technology, and price. The competitive environment is likely to intensify further with an increase in innovations and M&As. In this competitive environment, vendors have to develop innovative prams and incontinence products with a high focus on safety and convenience.



Key Vendors

 Artsana

 Newell

 Dorel

 Goodbaby

 Uppababy

Other Vendors

 Evenflo

 Bumbleride

 Bugaboo

 Britax

 Brevi Milano

 Baby Trend

 Stokke AS

 Hauck

 ABC Design

 Emmaljunga

 Peg Perego

 Seebaby

 My Babiie

 Shenma

 Roadmate

 Combi

 Air Buggy

 Babyhug

 Joovy

 R for Rabbit

 Nuna

 Thule

 Joolz

 Hartan

 iCandy

 Babyzen

 Maclaren

 Aprica



Key Market Insights

The analysis of the baby stroller market provides sizing and growth opportunities for the period 20202025.

 Provides comprehensive insights on the latest industry trends, forecast, and growth drivers in the market.

 Includes a detailed analysis of growth drivers, challenges, and investment opportunities.

 Delivers a complete overview of segments and the regional outlook of the market.

 Offers an exhaustive summary of the vendor landscape, competitive analysis, and key strategies to gain competitive advantage.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05881119/?utm_source=PRN



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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At least 1,445 of 4,780 Covid-19 cases in India are linked to a congregation held last month in Delhi at Tablighi Jamaats headquarters that has since emerged as a hot spot of the disease, the Union health ministry said on Monday as state governments continued to warn of strict action against those who attended the gathering but have failed to report for testing.

Officials in states like Odisha and Madhya Pradesh said a few attendees have turned out to be super-spreaders of the disease. A person, who attended a congregation in Bhopal where certain attendees of the Jamaat congregation in Delhi were also present, spread the virus to 18 members of his family and turned a housing society in Bhuvaneshwar into a Covid-19 hotspot, according to an Odisha health official.

A person, who attended the Jamaat event in Delhi, is believed to have spread the disease to another 16, who attended the Bhopal congregation, including the Covid-19 positive person from Bhuvaneshwar, according to an official of the Bhopal district administration.

Three people linked to the Jamaat have been identified in Uttarkhand for having spread the disease to another 28 in the state. All [28] persons tested positive for Covid-19 did not attend the Nizamuddin [Delhi] congregation [of Jamaat]. Many of them got the virus from the attendees, said a Uttarakhand health department official, who did not wish to be named. As on Monday, 708 people in the state have been found to have been linked to the Delhi congregation.

The Union home ministry said at least 25,500 Jamaat followers and people who came into their contact have been quarantined across India. In Haryana, five villages have been sealed after it was found that some foreign nationals linked to the Jamaat had stayed in those villages, said Union home ministry joint secretary Punya Salila Srivastava.

Tamil Nadu recorded 50 fresh positive cases on Monday. They include 48 people, who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi last month, state health secretary Beela Rajesh said. A total of 621 people in the state have tested positive for Covid-19 while four have died.

The Assam government on Monday warned Jamaat followers to report to authorities or face legal action. Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said action will be taken under the Disaster Management Act, which provides for up to two years in prison. Except for one, all other 25 Covid-19 positive cases detected in the state are linked to the Jamaat congregation in Delhi.

After receiving data from different sources, we had to trace 617 persons from Assam who attended the [Delhi] event and had since returned to the state. We have been able to collect samples from 491 of them while 128 are yet to be located, Sarma said.

Of the 278 Covid-19 positive cases in Uttar Pradesh, 138 are linked to the Delhi event, said additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi. He added police have identified 1,499 Jamaat members and quarantined 1,205 of them. Awasthi said their samples were being sent for tests.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Covid-19 cases in the national capital had reached 523. They include 330 linked to Jamaat.

The Gujarat police on Monday said they have so far identified and traced 126 people from the state, who had attended the Delhi congregation of the Jamaat. Around 12 of them have tested positive. Gujarat has so far reported more than 140 Covid-19 cases and 12 deaths.

A case was registered against 16 people, including seven minors, associated with Tablighi Jamaat in Chhattisgarhs Korba district on Monday for allegedly hiding their travel history and resisting medical screening, police said. A 16-year-old boy, who tested positive for Covid-19 on April 4 and is admitted to a hospital in Raipur, is among them, they said.

Authorities at the Narela Quarantine Facility in New Delhi have approached the police against some Tablighi Jamaat attendees for allegedly misbehaving with sanitation and health Staff. As per the complaint, two persons allegedly defecated in the corridor area of the facility.

Meanwhile, an FIR has also been registered against some of the attendees admitted to the LNJP Hospital in Delhi for allegedly spitting towards the Operation Theatre.

RSS criticises Tablighi Jamaat

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Monday in an attack on the Tablighi Jamaat said the organisers should have been sensible and called off the congregation in Delhis Nizamuddin.

Addressing the media via video-conferencing, joint general secretary of the RSS Manmohan Vaidya said: The spread of the virus has definitely increased because of the event Tablighi Jamaat organised in the capital If their leadership would have taken a decision and cancelled it on time it would have been good.
At a time when daily deaths from the coronavirus have exceeded 1,000 across the country, when the disease has already claimed more than 10,000 Americans, when the U.S. surgeon general says the American people should brace for the hardest, saddest week of their lives, our president should be an unwavering source of strength and leadership for the entire nation.

Sadly, Donald Trump has been unable to provide this guidance, all too often veering off into unscientific distractions, political bickering and unfounded optimism. On one issue after another, he has fallen short.

He openly feuds with governors he doesnt like, claiming theyre exaggerating the number of ventilators they need. He suggested they would get more supplies from the federal government if they praised his response to this crisis. He refuses to encourage the remaining states  all with Republican governors  that havent closed non-essential businesses or issued stay-at-home orders to take those vital steps. His administration lags in making sure the limited supplies which are available get to the places that need them most.

The president continues to push the unfounded claim that hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat malaria, arthritis and lupus, is some kind of magical cure against the coronarvirus. Dr. Anthony Fauci and other experts have said repeatedly that it is not the immediate solution we need, that anecdotal claims about its value deserve further study but cannot be relied upon.

Its a disturbing record, at the very time the American people want to know they have a steady, resolute force in the Oval Office, just as we did after Pearl Harbor or the 9/11 attacks.

In the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth reassures the nation with a rare public address, inspiring confidence and praising the sacrifice of the medical workers and average people fighting this scourge. In our country, Trump fires the inspector general who correctly alerted authorities about his alarming telephone conversation with the Ukrainian president.

No, President Trump didnt cause this virus, and few people expected that a pandemic like this could change our way of life so suddenly. But now that its here, we must attack it in a logical, comprehensive manner. Frankly, at this point it may be too much for Trump to step up to the awesome duties of his office. He keeps acting as if we can get over this blip, if not by Easter then soon thereafter. We have to get back to work, he says. We have to open our country again. We all wish we could, but serious people understand that we are weeks away from that goal at a minimum.

If Trump cant or wont lead this battle, he should step aside and let competent political and scientific leaders do their jobs  and give them all the resources they need. There are people out there who are doing all they can to save lives and reduce infections, and they must be supported. That is the only way we can truly end this nightmare soon and save as many lives as possible.
By Nathan Layne (Reuters) - A tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York City has tested positive for the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in the first known case of a human infecting an animal and making it sick, the zoo's chief veterinarian said on Sunday. Nadia, the 4-year-old Malayan tiger that tested positive, was screened for the COVID-19 disease after developing a dry cough along with three other tigers and three lions, the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the zoo, said in a statement. All of the cats are expected to recover, it said.

By Nathan Layne

(Reuters) - A tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York City has tested positive for the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in the first known case of a human infecting an animal and making it sick, the zoo's chief veterinarian said on Sunday.

Nadia, the 4-year-old Malayan tiger that tested positive, was screened for the COVID-19 disease after developing a dry cough along with three other tigers and three lions, the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the zoo, said in a statement. All of the cats are expected to recover, it said.

The virus that causes COVID-19 is believed to have spread from animals to humans, and a handful of animals have tested positive in Hong Kong.

But officials believe this is a unique case because Nadia became sick after exposure to an asymptomatic zoo employee, Paul Calle, chief veterinarian at the Bronx Zoo, told Reuters. Calle said they did not know which employee infected the tiger.

"This is the first time that any of us know of anywhere in the world that a person infected the animal and the animal got sick," Calle said, adding that they planned to share the findings with other zoos and institutions. "Hopefully we will all have a better understanding as a result."

While the other tigers and lions were also exhibiting symptoms, the zoo decided to test only Nadia because she was the sickest and had started to lose her appetite, and they did not want to subject all the cats to anesthesia, Calle said.

"The tigers and lions weren't terribly sick," he said.

Nadia underwent X-rays, an ultrasound and blood tests to try to figure out what was ailing her. They decided to test for COVID-19 given the surge in cases in New York City, the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States.

The first tiger at the zoo, which has been shut since mid-March, began showing signs of illness on March 27, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Veterinary Services Laboratories, which performed the test.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Company clarifies no affiliation to delivery service in Canada

LOS ANGELES, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, INC. (OTC Grey: PNPL) (the Company or Pineapple Express), a publicly traded company in the legal cannabis industry that through its portfolio of assets offers operational management, technology, IP licensing, Cannabis property rentals, and equity in cannabis retail and production facilities, today provided an update regarding its pending rebranding to Pineapple, Inc.

Management commented that the name change has been filed with the state of Nevada and is anticipated to take effect on or about April 15, 2020. In addition, the Company is in the process of submitting the name change to FINRA. It is important to emphasize that we made this name change in recognition of the broadening scope of our corporation, said Matt Feinstein, Director for the Company. This change has no effect on our operations, our stock, or any of our shareholders.

Once effective, the Companys branding will be clearly identifiable through use of official company logos (pictured below).

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e07054ef-c36c-4fcf-8b57-4a0ce09304fe

Management also clarified that its portfolio asset, Pineapple Ventures, Inc. (PVI) has well-established, ongoing operations serving California medicinal and recreational cannabis customers through its statewide delivery service PineappleExpress.com, as well a growing national footprint at PineappleWellness.com, which delivers hemp-derived CBD nationwide.

PVIs logos and trade names for its brands of Pineapple Express and Pineapple Wellness are included below and are pending trademark and service mark registrations.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ac6d34ce-55ed-4a71-a78e-17aef6f076ce

Company management also elaborated on an unrelated Canadian entity whose operations and press releases may have caused brand confusion with Pineapple Express, Inc. and PineappleExpress.com.

Story continues

We want to make it clear that we are not operating in Canada, have not licensed our brand name to any other operation, nor do we have any affiliation with this Canadian entity, stated Pineapple Express CEO, Shawn Credle. At this point, we are seeking all available remedies to limit brand confusion from occurring with other industry participants regarding our Pineapple Express brand and our cannabis delivery portal at pineappleexpress.com ."

About Pineapple Express, Inc.

Pineapple Express, Inc. (the Company or Pineapple Express) is based in Los Angeles, California. Through our operating subsidiary Pineapple Express Consulting, Inc., as well as our portfolio asset, Pineapple Ventures, Inc. (PVI) we provide capital to our canna-business clientele, lease real properties to those canna-businesses, take equity positions and manage those operations, and provide consulting and technology to develop, enhance, or expand existing and newly formed infrastructures. Pineapple Express is built to become the leading portfolio management company in the U.S. cannabis sector. The Companys executive team blends enterprise-level corporate expertise with a combined three decades of experience operating in the tightly-regulated cannabis industry. Pineapple Expresss strategic asset integration has provided it with the infrastructure to support its subsidiaries with cost-effective access to all segments of the vertical: from cultivation and processing, to distribution, retail and delivery. With its headquarters in in Los Angeles, California Pineapple Expresss portfolio company, PVI, is rapidly increasing its footprint throughout the state and looking to scale into underdeveloped markets.

Forward-Looking Statements:

All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release are forward-looking statements, which may often, but not always, be identified by the use of such words as expects, anticipates, intends, estimates, plans, potential, possible, probable, believes, seeks, may, will, should, could or the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These factors include uncertainties as to the application and enforcement of U.S. and state federal laws in the cannabis industry (including to the Companys business activities and the business activities of some of its customers and counterparties), ability to attract new canna-business clientele, successfully implementing the Companys growth strategy (including relating to the Companys intention to create a nationally branded and vertically integrated chain of cannabis retail stores under the Pineapple Express name and anticipated development of Company-owned cultivation and processing facilities), dependence on key Company personnel, timing of the filing the Companys Form 211 with FINRA and clearing related comments, obtaining approval for the Companys common stock to be quoted on one of the three OTC Markets, changes in economic conditions, competition and other risks including, but not limited to, those described from in the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 1, 2020 (the SEC), and other filings and submissions with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligations to update these statements except as may be required by law.

Company Contact:

Matthew Feinstein, Director

Pineapple Express, Inc.

Office: 877-310-PNPL





Attachments
In Shakespeares time, shutting theaters to slow the spread of bubonic plague was a regular occurrence. With extra time on his hands and the ability to work in relative solitude, the great playwright penned some of his greatest works.

Todays theater makers, of course, have many more avenues for staying connected and keeping their art alive during a time of pandemic-prompted shutdown. The options run the gamut, from radio to live streaming to virtual reality. And, above all, there is Zoom  the video conferencing app that has become the go-to social platform, seemingly overnight, for making connections from the comfort of ones home.

Michael Burns and Kat Koppett, co-directors of regional improv troupe Mopco, have explored many of Zooms creative possibilities. For the troupes live performances, actors work together on the Zoom platform while simultaneously being broadcast onto YouTube Live. There, suggestions from the audience  a key component for improv  arrive via chat. The company recently transitioned from a mostly virtual approach, with live actors performing in the theater but no in-house audience, to fully remote. It has also discovered tricks for accomplishing feats that would be impossible in the non-virtual world, like using Snapchat filters to instantly transform into outlandish characters.

Zoom is also the driving force behind Quarantine e-Theatre, a live reading event which started as a casual conversation among a trio of actor pals who wanted to keep practicing their craft during this period of social distancing. This is a way for us to flex that muscle even if its bare bones, and no budget, and sometimes the microphone cuts out, says Evan Jones, one of the groups co-founders along with David Rook and Brian Sheldon. For his part, Sheldon adds that the project is more than just a way to pass the time. I dont want to do theater, he says. I need to do theater.

And then there is Troy Foundry Theatre, the boundary-breaking brainchild of artistic director David Girard, which is known for its post-apocalyptic aesthetic. Company members are currently meeting on Zoom to devise a digital experience inspired by the short stories of Russian writer Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, an artist whose bold work was suppressed during the Soviet era  and meshes well with the current need to work in isolation.

Like other companies, Troy Foundry had to scramble to replace its season when the world changed. Yet the transition was relatively seamless: much of the companys work, such as the curation of materials for devising original pieces, was already being done digitally. A collection of small projects was simmering on the back burner. And sitting in the companys back pocket was a dark-web themed piece, "Mad Deep Dish," a creation of Die-Cast in Philadelphia originally conceived as a companion to 2019s Yellow and designed to be experienced online, that could easily be made ready for release. As Emily Curro, the companys producing executive director, describes it: Our company was literally made for end-of-the-world programming.

Student programs

The concept of the world ending, at least in a figurative sense, was a motivator for members of the Scotia-Glenville High School drama club. When my classmates and I were told that we would not be able to perform our production of High School Musical that we had put months of effort into, we were absolutely devastated, says the club's president, Sophia Benny. A meeting on Zoom with the shows director, Michael Camelo, prompted Benny and classmate Elaina Murdock to begin an internet talk show, Capital Drama Club, built around the idea of interviewing peers in other schools whose shows also had been canceled.

Theater was the one thing in high school that kept me sane, says Camelo, who graduated from Scotia-Glenville in 2006. (It) made me get through some of my toughest days and, honestly, kept me alive. I went through a terrible depression when I was younger, and drama club saved me.

Sentiments like that illustrate the importance of the arts in education. Albanys Playhouse Stage Company recently launched a weekly social media series of free, youth-oriented theater activities. Programming includes voice classes, dance classes, toddler sessions and script analysis for advanced students. Like other online programs, its reach has the potential to extend beyond the borders typically served by the organization. Weve been overwhelmed by the response, says Owen Smith, the companys producing artistic director.

Another youth theater organization, Drama Kids International, has a worldwide reach as well as representation in the Capital Region; its local chapter enjoys an enrollment of over 500 students ages 5-18. Though the crisis shut down in-person classes as preparations were underway for the annual spring production, instruction was restarted recently on Zoom. To sponsor student tuition and pay staff salaries, the chapter has also started a dramatic relief fund to help parents who have experienced financial hardship.

Our students are our families, explains artistic director Jillian Becker. Were hoping were giving them a small piece of normalcy in a completely upside-down world.

Improvisation is the heart of everything we do, adds chapter owner and director, Deanna Stickles-Bach. When life doesnt follow the script you improvise.

That approach is appropriate for older students as well, such as the Siena College cast and crew of Romeo and Juliet, who saw their production indefinitely postponed when it was all but ready to open.

Krysta Dennis, who serves as producer of creative arts at the college, says that a number of possibilities are being considered for keeping the piece alive. These include a virtual reality experience, with a feel akin to the Choose Your Own Adventure game-book series. VR is an area Dennis has previously explored through productions such as her World War I-era piece Dutch. The VR approach would eliminate the need for an in-person audience, but Dennis notes that filming would require performers and a recording crew to be together in the same space.

That may or may not be possible in the foreseeable future, but Dennis remains committed. (Its) very important for our students to see that we do value their work, she says. We need to make art for this moment, as best we can.

An acting class for adult students held at the Theatre Institute at Sage has also adapted to the needs of the moment. Lora Lee Ecobelli, artistic director of Blue Horse Repertory Company and Acting School, has begun offering free classes on Zoom to keep her students up to speed with their work and connected to one another. One of the things I am most proud of at Blue Horse Rep is the strong community that we have created over the years, she says. I am hopeful that we will all come back stronger.

Building connections

The kind of connection-building is a common desire for many. Morgan Heyward established her company, Illuminate Theatre, in 2017 as a way to connect persons of color and respond to her own encounters with prejudice and lack of opportunity. In response to COVID-19, she recently started a Zoom series called Talk Back Tuesdays. Its intention  serving as a place to check in, share work and express challenges  is currently focused more on conversation than performance. But she intends to let it grow organically. I want to kind of create a structure then let it blossom in whatever way we all need it to, she says.

Another offering aimed at creating neighborhood conversation is the Living Room Series from Troy Foundry Theatre, which features a diverse assortment of Troy-based artists offering question-and-answer sessions each weekend on Facebook Live. And Troy-based, Shakespeare-focused group Will Kempes Players has also just announced its Bardcast Weekly podcast series, which will include play excerpts and discussion.

Meanwhile, in the world of relatively old-school technology, Siena College radio personality Sean Baldwin has been recording radio dramas. Initially, he gathered actors at the WVCR studio; now he does it remotely, using post-production sound techniques to give the impression of the cast being all together. The results are broadcast in the 10 p.m. time slot of his Friday night music show, The Pipeline, which has been rebranded as Ghostlight Radio. The name is a reference to the small light left on stage to prevent the space from going completely dark.

The ghost light serves an important purpose, literally and figuratively making sure that nobody trips on anything on the way out, but also to still show that theres life in an otherwise empty theater, he explains. Id like to think that, in whatever small way, were keeping that ghost light on for people until life goes back to some semblance of normal.

The silver lining

To be sure, the coronavirus crisis is a dark cloud  but its not one without a proverbial silver lining. Illuminate Theatres Heyward sees opportunities that have become more accessible to those who cant just get on a bus and go to the city, like free classes and workshops from big players in the industry. And at Blue Horse Rep, Ecobelli sees a push forcing everyone to be creative.

Quarantine e-Theatre has put out a call for locally-written plays, offering writers a chance to hear their work read aloud and get live audience feedback following the performance. The group has also tied fundraisers for local theater companies to its live events; its most recent raised over $2,000 for Albany Civic Theater. The more people that see us, the more people that see this new work, then the more people that support these theaters that would otherwise be in trouble during this pandemic, says Jones.

As improvisers, we are made for this moment, adds Mopcos Koppett. Everything is thrown up into the air, and its all different and we have to adapt. She notes what she sees as the gifts of this unique time in our history: greater access to work with creative partners around the globe, opportunities to develop new formats and to stretch ones creativity.

But she also feels it important to note that, in terms of the virus impact on society, We are at the beginning of this story (were) kind of settling into what may be a very long middle. There is real hardship. People are already losing people, and already suffering. It feels important to bracket all the gifts with acknowledgement of that.

Fact box

Online drama

Blue Horse Repertory Company:

https://www.bluehorserepertory.com/

https://www.facebook.com/BlueHorseRepertoryCompanyActingSchool/

Drama Kids of the Capital Region:

https://dramakids.com/albany-ny/

https://www.youtube.com/user/dramakidsalbany

Ghost Light Radio:

https://www.wvcr.com/

https://www.iheart.com/live/wvcr-fm-the-saint-6306/

Illuminate Theatre:

https://www.facebook.com/IlluminateTheatre518/

Mopco:

https://www.mopco.org/

https://www.youtube.com/user/MGBurns57

Playhouse Stage:

http://www.parkplayhouse.com/

https://www.facebook.com/playhousestageco

Quarantine e-Theatre:

https://www.facebook.com/Quarantine-e-Theatre-106682200990803/

Scotia-Glenville High School Capital Drama Club:

https://www.scotiaglenvilledrama.com/capital-drama-club

https://www.instagram.com/scotiaglenvilledrama/

Siena College Creative Arts:

https://www.siena.edu/departments/creative-arts/

Troy Foundry Theatre:

https://www.troyfoundrytheatre.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TroyFoundryTheatre/

https://www.die-castphilly.org/mad-deep-dish

Will Kempes Players:

https://www.willkempesplayers.com/

https://www.facebook.com/willkempesplayers/
UPDATE (4/8): COVID-19 death toll breaks 300 in Pa.: 20 more dead in, around Lehigh Valley; 29 in Philly

COVID-19 killed 78 Pennsylvanians as the novel coronavirus has spread across all of the states 67 counties, the Pennsylvania Department of Health announced Tuesday.

The number of coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania grew to 14,559, up 1,579, and the states death toll rose to 240 in the health departments daily COVID-19 update. All deaths have been adults.

Counted among Tuesdays newly reported deaths are 30 people in Philadelphia, a dozen in Montgomery County and four in the Lehigh Valley.

Lehigh and Northampton counties each reported two more deaths, bringing the Lehigh Valleys COVID-19 toll to 24. The counties have released some information about where deceased residents lived, but had not yet provided updates as of midday Tuesday.

Nearby counties also reported more fatalities:

One person died in Berks County , which now has four dead.

Four new deaths in Bucks County bring the toll there to 21.

One person died in Monroe County , its 12th death.

Montgomery County now accounts for 30 of Pennsylvanias COVID-19 deaths, second to Philadelphia where 58 have died.

The spike in deaths is a nearly 33% increase from the previous day, and the largest daily total reported to date. Tuesdays reported deaths alone outnumber Pennsylvanias death toll just a week ago, which was 63.

Tuesdays jump is in part due to a lag in reports over the weekend, state Health Secretary Rachel Levine said during the daily briefing for media.

Meanwhile, the 1,579 new coronavirus cases statewide represent a 10.8% increase from the day before, the lowest day-to-day percentage increase since Pennsylvanias first cases were identified March 6. However, three of those new cases were identified in Elk and Jefferson counties, the only two counties yet to report any coronavirus patients.

The virus is now statewide. As of Tuesday, three counties have more than 1,000 cases: Philadelphia, with 4,012; Montgomery County with 1,359; and Lehigh County with 1,146.

Levine said the state is closely watching trends in both cases and deaths. She said it is assumed the states official case count is lower than the real number, that mild cases are going untested. More important, she said, is protecting against a potential surge of serious cases that will strain hospital resources.

During the health departments daily media briefing, Levine said 664 of Pennsylvanias COVID-19 cases are in health care workers and first-responders, and 674 are in long-term living facilities like nursing homes.

She also said 51% of the states hospital beds, and 40% each of the intensive care beds and ventilators are still available.

The health department does not release data on recoveries because the definition may vary from place to place. However, it does say that 76,719 tests have come back negative for the coronavirus.

Adults aged 65 and older account for half of the states 1,145 hospitalizations since March 6, though people aged 25-49 still make up 42% of total cases.

Of those hospitalized, 548 require a ventilator.

All deaths have been adults, most of them aged 65 or older. Levine said a significant number have underlying health conditions that may have contributed to their deaths.

If you may have been exposed or exhibit the symptoms of COVID-19  fever, cough and shortness of breath  contact your healthcare provider.

For more information on the coronavirus, consult your state health department at health.pa.gov and the CDC website.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @SteveNovakLVL and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
FILE PHOTO: The sun is seen behind a crude oil pump jack in the Permian Basin in Loving County

By Rania El Gamal, Alex Lawler and Katya Golubkova

DUBAI/LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Major oil producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia are likely to agree to cut production at a Thursday meeting but only if the United States joins the effort, aimed at coping with the disastrous effect of the coronavirus on fuel demand, three OPEC+ sources told Reuters on Monday.

Worldwide oil demand has dropped by roughly 30%, or about 30 million barrels a day, at the same time that Saudi Arabia and Russia have been flooding markets with extra supply.

Last week, in response to a weeks-long market rout, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, started talking about cutting production, but want other non-OPEC nations to participate, particularly the United States.

Without the U.S., no deal, one of the sources said.

Two OPEC sources said Thursday's meeting would be held by video conference at 1400 GMT.

The United States has not committed to taking part in any deal, which U.S. President Donald Trump has said could take 10% to 15% of world supply off the market. U.S. companies cannot coordinate production due to antitrust laws.

The White House has said it was encouraging talks between the other countries, instead. Major U.S. oil companies and industry groups are opposed to mandated cuts, which would be an extraordinary step in the United States.

On Friday, G20 energy ministers and members of some other international organisations will hold their own video conference, hosted by Saudi Arabia, a senior Russian source told Reuters. Efforts to get the United States involved in the production cut deal will be on the agenda, the source said.

Russia and Saudi Arabia have long been frustrated that curbs by OPEC and others have left a gap that has been filled by shale oil firms in the United States, which became the world's biggest producer.

That frustration led in part to March's collapse of an OPEC+ supply deal that has propped up oil prices for three years.

Story continues

U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said on Fox Business Network on Monday that U.S. production was already starting to fall due to the plunge in crude prices.

"In the United States we have a free market and the industry will adjust on its own," he said. U.S. Energy Department officials did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Following the collapse of the OPEC+ deal, Riyadh and Moscow blamed each other and launched a battle for market share, sending oil prices to their lowest in two decades. That has strained the budgets of oil-producing nations and hit higher-cost producers in the United States. [O/R]

Scrambling to secure a bigger market share, Saudi Arabia raised crude output to 12.3 million barrels per day (bpd) on April 1 and said it planned to export more than 10 million bpd. With by far the world's biggest reserve of extra capacity, Riyadh has insisted it will no longer carry what it considers an unfair burden of cuts.

ANTITRUST ISSUES

While antitrust laws prohibit U.S. oil producers from taking steps to push up oil prices, curbing output would be legal if state regulators or the federal government set lower production levels, antitrust experts said.

The U.S. authorities have yet to indicate what, if any, action they might take.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said OPEC+ cuts could amount to around 10 million bpd, or some 10% of global output. Russian production reached 11.29 million bpd in March.

A Russian government and an industry source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 10% might not be enough to steady the global oil market given the weakness of demand.

"I think the whole market understands that this deal is important and it will bring lots of stability, so much important stability to the market, and we are very close," Kirill Dmitriev, one of Moscow's top oil negotiators, who also heads Russian's sovereign wealth fund, told CNBC.

Dmitriev was the first to make a public declaration last month about the need for an enlarged supply pact, potentially involving producers outside the OPEC+ group.

The Russian energy ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

(Additional reporting by Olesya Astakhova and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow, Dmitry Zhdannikov and Ahmad Ghaddar in London and Tim Gardner in Washington; writing by David Gaffen; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
New Delhi, April 7 : The Tablighi Jamaat story refuses to die down as more details emerge of the sheer scale of irresponsibility and mishandling of the situation by the organisers of the Islamic religious gathering and the police.

The Delhi Police probe seems to be going nowhere and is just a probe only in name. The police it seems have not woken up from their stupor after allowing the event to go ahead in the first place, and that too despite the police station in south-east Delhi located barely a few hundred metres from the Nizamuddin Markaz.

The Jamaat parked buses virtually at the gate of Nizamuddin police station to ferry devotees to the Markaz.

Teams of the Delhi Police Crime Branch seem to be making a spectacle in the name of solving the case even as Delhi Fire and Health Department have cleaned sanitized the Jamaat headquarters.

DCP Joy Tirkey of the Crime Branch team investigating the case, comes daily with a few Assistant Commissioners of Police (ACP), inspectors, and havaldars to survey the premises but they only end up roaming around and wandering up and down the nine floors of the deserted building.

The silence of the top police officers involved in the case is deafening. If the Delhi Crime Branch is really investigating then why have they not found anything yet in four days? If the police have found something during the probe, then why are they shying away from revealing the true facts? Whether Jamaat chief Maulana Saad has indeed "disappeared" or the police know his whereabouts is also a point of speculation.

According to sources and intelligence of the Delhi Police itself, "Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, who is wanted, is not absconding. The Delhi Police Crime Branch and Maulana Saad's aides are in constant touch with each other. Neither is Maulana is missing. " Saad's aide told IANS that "Maulana Saad has not run anywhere. He is in contact with the police. Maulana Saad has not commited any crime that will make him run away from the police. When the time comes, Maulana Saheb will tell everything." In such a situation, the Delhi Police Crime Branch personnel arrive every day donning the corona protective suits to search the empty Markaz building. What does it point to? Two days ago, IANS spoke on the phone to Kotwal Inspector Karmaveer Singh of Kandhla police station in Shamli district of UP. He said, "In my area, there is a large farmhouse of Maulana Mohammad Saad Kandhlavi. Maulana Saad was never seen there. We are keeping an eye on the crowd with drone cameras during the lockdown in routine check. But Saad was not seen there." It is obvious that if indeed the Maulana was evading the Delhi Police then they would definitely have sought help from the Kandhla police. But in response to a question, the Kandhla inspector said, "No, Delhi Police has not asked for any help from us as yet about Maulana Saad." In such a situation, the question now arises that, is Maulana Saad really in the "range" of Delhi Police? If yes, then what for are the Crime Branch teams daily going to the deserted Markaz? If the Maulana has escaped beyond the jurisdiction of Delhi Police, then why has the force not yet issued an alert to the police of nearby states where there might be potential hideouts of Saad?

Recently, there were reports in the media that Saad could be hiding in Mewat in Haryana which is a prominent centre of the Jamaat. Some have said that Saad might not be in Mewat but in Uttar Pradesh.

However, a senior UP Police STF official told IANS: "No, till now Delhi Police has not asked for any help from us. Everything depends on the Delhi Police. We are engaged in searching for the missing Tablighis in our state."
A young war veteran who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder when he returned from serving in Afghanistan took his own life after the system failed him, a coroner has ruled.

Former Australian Army private Jesse Bird, 32, was found dead in his Melbourne home in June 2017 after the Department of Veterans' Affairs knocked back multiple pleas for assistance.

He had $5.20 in his bank account at the time of his death, which came weeks after he was informed by the department his permanent impairment claim had been rejected.

Former Australian Army private Jesse Bird took his own life in 2017, aged 32

Mr Bird's ex-girlfriend Connie Boglis (pictured with Jesse) has previously slammed the Department of Veterans' Affairs over the lack of support to him. He took his own life after the system failed him, a Coroner has ruled

An associated claim for incapacity payments was still being processed and was later approved after Mr Bird's death.

Coroner Jacqui Hawkins handed down her findings into Mr Bird's death on Tuesday, where she ruled he was let down by the system designed to help him.

'There appeared to be a lack of care, attention and proactive support, leaving Jesse with the belief that the only choice he had was to give up,' the Coroner said.

'The mountainous paperwork, complex terminology, extensive legal and medical requirements, subsequent delays and financial stressors all appear to have exacerbated his mental illness.

The Coroner also recommended a string of changes, including a public awareness campaign for veterans and simplifying the claims process.

Mr Bird was a private with the Townsville-based 1RAR Infantry Battalion before he was deployed to serve in Afghanistan in 2009, where he witnessed a friend killed improvised explosive device while on duty.

Mr Bird was discharged from service due to an injured shoulder that required an operation when he returned from Afghanistan in 2010.

He developed post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder and alcohol abuse as he struggled to hold down a job and became financially reliant on his parents.

A defence department review into Mr Bird's death in 2017 made 19 recommendations to overhaul the compensation process.

The Departments of Defence and Veterans' Affairs says it will 'carefully consider' the findings and will provide a response to the Coroner.

Jesse Bird (right) served in Afghanistan in 2009 before he was discharged and returned home in 2010

Jesse Bird (right) is pictured with his siblings, brother Brendan (left) and sister Kate (centre)

'Any Australian veteran who needs help and wishes to access mental health support is encouraged to reach out,' the department statement read.

'Open Arms  Veterans & Families Counselling provides 24-hour free and confidential counselling, group programs and suicide prevention training to former and currently serving ADF personnel and their family members.'

Connie Boglis was in a two year relationship with Mr Bird after the pair met online in 2014.

She previously blamed the department for her ex-boyfriend's decline in mental well-being before he took his own life.

'It breaks my heart that he felt so let down, that he had to make that decision,' Ms Boglis told Daily Mail Australia in 2017.

'Jesse had enough. He fought as hard as he could.'

For confidential support call Lifeline: 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636.
This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
TRUMP, BIDEN HAVE PHONE CHAT OVER CORONAVIRUS

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trump said he had a really wonderful, warm conversation with Joe Biden about the coronavirus outbreak.

He gave me his point of view, and I fully understood that, and we just had a very friendly conversation, Trump said at his daily press briefing yesterday.

The president said he and Biden agreed not to share the details of their conversation  but confirmed an earlier statement from the Biden campaign that the Democrat offered suggestions" on how to address the pandemic. Biden had said he'd like to share with Trump some lessons he learned from dealing with similar crises during the Obama administration.

But Trump added: It doesn't mean that I agree with those suggestions."

CONFUSION REIGNS AMONG SMALL BIZ OWNERS SEEKING LOANS

NEW YORK (AP)  Small business owners hoping for quick loans from the government are in a holding pattern  waiting on their bank to either take their application or, if it did, send them the money.

Business owners began submitting applications to banks, credit unions and other financial institutions late last week, or at least trying to. If successful, owners received notifications that their applications had been received, but for many, they hadnt gotten word as of yesterday afternoon.

Two of the nation's largest banks, J.P. Morgan Chase and Citibank, aren't yet set up to take applications. That leaves their small business customers to worry that the $349 billion the government has budgeted for the relief loans will run out before they can apply.

COVID-19 OUTBREAK AFFECTING WIS. PRIMARY

MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Voters in Wisconsin face a choice today: vote in a presidential primary election or heed warnings from public health officials to stay away from large crowds during the coronavirus pandemic.

Hours after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers issued an order postponing the election for two months, the conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court sided with Republicans who said he didn't have the authority to reschedule the race on his own. Conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court quickly followed with a ruling that blocked Democratic efforts to extend absentee voting.

Story continues

The decisions leave Wisconsin as the only state with an election scheduled in April that is proceeding as planned.

CHILDREN SICKENED BY DONATED THC-TAINTED CANDY

SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  Two Utah children have been released from the hospital after ingesting THC-infused candy that was in donated bags of food.

Dozens of families picked up the bags filled with several items Friday at a Baptist church in Roy, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City, KUTV reported.

Authorities say the candy containing the main psychoactive component in marijuana was packaged like Nerds ropes, distinguishable only by the word medicated above the candy logo. The children hospitalized after eating it are expected to make a full recovery.

Utah Food Bank staffers were horrified to learn what happened, and say they are doing more screening to make sure nothing like it will happen again.

BODY OF JFK NIECES DAUGHTER RECOVERED FROM BAY

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP)  The body of the daughter of former Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend has been found in about 25 feet of water and recovered. Meanwhile the search continues for her son  after the two went missing following a canoeing accident last Thursday.

The body of 40-year-old Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean was found about 2.5 miles south of her mothers residence in Shady Side, Maryland. The recovery came after a days-long search that involved aviation and underwater imaging sonar technology.

Authorities say they will resume searching today for McKeans son, 8-year-old Gideon McKean. The search began after authorities got a report of two people on a canoe in the Bay that seemed overtaken by strong winds.

SHARK KILLS AUSTRALIAN WILDLIFE WORKER

BRISBANE, Australia (AP)  A shark fatally mauled a young Australian wildlife worker on the Great Barrier Reef.

Queensland officials say today that the 23-year-old victim worked for the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.

Police say the man was in the water, returning to a vessel chartered by the service when he was attacked yesterday near North West Island. He suffered extensive injuries to his leg and arm and died at a hospital hours later.

Detective Senior Sergeant Tony Anderson says the ranger had been doing maintenance work before the attack. The victim was the last person out of the water.

There have been at least three shark attacks on the Great Barrier Reef over the past 18 months.
Doctors from around the world are seeing if the gas that gave us the 'little blue pill' will also help treat the novel coronavirus as it continues to spread.

Nitric oxide is a colorless gas helps blood vessels dilate, which in turn leads to increasing the amount of oxygen flowing throughout the body.

It's been used to treat newborns with heart defects and led to the development of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra.

Now, scientists from three US states and three European countries are testing to see the drug can provide oxygen to starved blood vessels in the lungs and spare patients from needing ventilators.

Nitric oxide is a colorless gas helps blood vessels dilate and has been used to treat newborns with heart defects and helped lead to the development of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra (file image)

Three US states and three European countries are beginning a trial in which coronavirus patients will inhale nitric oxide through a CPAP machine. Pictured: EMTs wheel a sick patient to a waiting ambulance in New York City, March 28

Doctors hope the treatment, which will be done 20 to 30 minutes a day, twice daily, for two weeks, will kill the virus and help mitigate lung damage. Pictured: A woman arrives by ambulance to Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, April 5

Nitric oxide was found to be so important that it was named Molecule of the Year in the journal Science in 1992.

What's more, in 1998, three US researchers won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 'for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.'

For years, doctors have been using blends of nitric oxide/oxygen blends in critical care to dilate blood vessels to treat infants with birth defects.

This is often breathed in as gas as a last resort method before a baby has to be put on an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine, which pumps and oxygenates a patient's blood outside the body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest.

Nitric oxide is also sometimes given to diabetes patients, who have low supplies of the molecule, which can lead to vascular damage.

Additionally, the gas has been found to have antiviral properties against different types of coronaviruses.

This was proven when nitric oxide was tested on patients during the 2002-2003 pandemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which is a cousin of the new virus.

'It's a pretty remarkable drug,' Dr Lorenzo Berra, the critical-care specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and the leader of the new trial, told the Boston Herald. 'It has a risk profile that is minimal.'

A new international clinical trial is now being overseen by Mass General and taking place at hospital in Massachusetts, Alabama, Louisiana, Austria, Italy and Sweden.

Coronavirus patients, with mild to moderate cases, will inhale nitric oxide through a CPAP machine for 20 to 30 minutes a day and two times a day for two weeks.

Researchers hope that the gas will 'kill' the virus in the lungs, mitigate damage done to the lungs, and reduce the number of patients who need to go on a ventilator.

The machines, which help people breathe, are currently in short supply in several states.

A second trial has been proposed that would enroll healthcare workers who are routinely exposed to patients with coronavirus.

In this study, medical personnel would inhale a high dose of nitric oxide for 10 to 15 minutes at the start and at the end of every shift.

'We have tremendous confidence this therapy will alter the devastating effects of CoVID-19 but we must test it,' Dr Keith Scott, a professor of pediatrics, surgery & medicine at Louisiana State University Health - Shreveport, said in a statement.

'If results show promise, and since this gas is already FDA approved, wide spread use could begin immediately.'

In the US, there are more than 368,000 confirmed cases of the virus and more than 11,000 deaths.
Efficacy of Anti-Coronavirus Drug Tops US Treatment Debate

By Ken Bredemeier, Chris Hannas April 06, 2020

The debate over the usefulness of an antimalarial drug to treat U.S. coronavirus victims is pitting President Donald Trump against the country's top U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

With the U.S. coronavirus death toll increasing by hundreds a day, Trump at daily news briefings regularly touts the use of hydroxychloroquine, calling it a potential "game-changer" to save lives.

"What do you have to lose? Take it," the president said in a White House briefing over the weekend. "I really think they should take it. But it's their choice. And it's their doctor's choice or the doctors in the hospital. But hydroxychloroquine  try it if you'd like."

Fauci, often standing a step or two away from the U.S. leader in the White House briefing room, says data showing possible hints of success from use of the drug in treating coronavirus patients is "at best suggestive" and not based on scientific studies. He is the longtime director of the country's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Trump on Sunday seemed weary of Fauci publicly stating yet again that scientific evidence of the drug's success inm treating coronavirus patients is lacking. When a reporter asked Fauci about medical evidence supporting use of the drug, Trump cut him off from answering, telling the reporter," Do you know how many times he's answered that question? Maybe 15."

A contentious debate over the use of the drug erupted at a coronavirus task force meeting in the White House situation room on Saturday between Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro and Fauci, who consistently has voiced skepticism and caution about use of the drug.

"This drug could save lives," Navarro told CNN on Monday. "We are at war here. We're trying to make sure as few people die as possible."

But Navarro also acknowledged, "There are downsides to this. There can be in some cases negative effects. It's related to [the] heart and related to vision."

He said that ultimately, use of the drug must depend on agreement between doctors and their patients after they have discussed possible side effects.

Navarro downplayed the weekend argument with Fauci, saying, "If we didn't have disagreement and debate in the Trump administration, this administration wouldn't be as strong as it is."

Navarro, a social scientist with a doctoral degree but not a medical doctor, said initial studies from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus first appeared, show use of the antimalarial drug is promising as a treatment. Fauci mostly dismisses the reports, saying they were not conducted under rigorous scientific testing protocols.

Navarro said the U.S. has a stockpile of 29 million tablets of the antimalarial drug, adding that "virtually every New York (coronavirus) patient is given hydroxy." The country's biggest city is at epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S.

The debate over hydroxychloroquine comes as Trump, Fauci and Surgeon General Jerome Adams all are warning Americans they face daunting days ahead, as the U.S. death toll mounts rapidly to more than 10,000, and with 347,000 confirmed cases of the infection.

"This is going to be the hardest and saddest week of most Americans' lives, quite frankly," Adams told "Fox News Sunday." "This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to be localized. It's going to be happening all over the country."

Trump, speaking to reporters at a Sunday evening briefing, expressed some optimism, saying there is a "light at the end of the tunnel," while noting the difficult circumstances that lay immediately ahead.

"The next week and a half, two weeks, are going to be, I think, they're going to be very difficult," Trump said. "At the same time, we understand what they represent and what that time represents. And hopefully, we can get this over with, because this is a very horrible thing for the world."

Fauci said that stay-at-home orders that cover 41 of the country's 50 states and social distancing guidelines take time to show their effects.

"What you're hearing about potential light at the end of the tunnel doesn't take away from the fact that tomorrow, the next day, are going to look really bad," Fauci said.

Trump has not issued national lockdown orders like those in Italy and Spain, preferring to leave that decision to state governors. Most have given their own order, but nine have not.

Fauci said the people in the nine states are "putting themselves at risk" by not self-isolating, even if their governors have not issued stay-at-home orders.

"This virus does not discriminate" whether one lives in a small community or a large city," Fauci said.

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Photo: wikimedia commons Wikipedia Whitehorse, Yukon

Yukon says it has placed enforcement officers at its boundaries and at the Whitehorse airport to get details of travellers self-isolation plans, their contact information and to look for any symptoms of COVID-19.

The government says officers were stationed on Monday at five checkpoints from British Columbia and one from the Northwest Territories.

Yukon's government says in a news release that anyone travelling through the territory is required to self-isolate for 14 days.

It says people going through to Alaska or the Northwest Territories are required to complete their transit within 24 hours of their entry.

Those passing through have also been warned to avoid unnecessary contact with others when they stop for food or fuel.

The medical health officer says all seven recorded cases of COVID-19 in Yukon are connected to travel outside the territory or to known contacts.

The territory has not had any known cases of community transmission.
(Newser)  Human remains found in a pit off I-93 near Salem, NH, more than 50 years ago have finally been identified thanks to a criminalist who manually plotted a fingerprint. First came failed attempts to identify the remainsburied in 1969 and then exhumed in 2012through DNA and fingerprinting. Though Timothy Jackson of the New Hampshire State Police Forensic Laboratory had obtained what he thought was a single usable fingerprint, there was no match in various databases. He eventually realized that was because the finger was so deteriorated that it was missing the epidermis, or topmost layer of skin. The remaining dermal layer showed two rows of ridges "that ultimately grow out to one" on the epidermis, Jackson tells the New York Times. So to get a usable print, he opted to "plot the individual characteristics, or the minutiae, myself."

story continues below

That prompted a possible match within the FBI database. Jackson and two other examiners agreed they had the left middle finger of one Winston Richard Morris, who was shot at least six times in the head about three months after his May 1969 release from Vermont State Prison, per the Union Leader. Also known as "Skip," the 30-year-old had visited Boston and Glastonbury, Conn., before the last sighting of him in Burlington, Vt., on July 2513 days before the remains were found. Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan Morrell describes Jackson's work, prompting an active homicide investigation, as "pretty remarkable," per the Times. But a modest Jackson, who spent 10 years as a fingerprint examiner at the Army crime lab, credits new technology and "old school" police work. "[It's] very easy for me because I'm old school," says Jackson, who will retire in July. (Read more cold cases stories.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 19:42:59|Editor: huaxia

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BEIRUT, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned on Tuesday rocket attacks against cities in Saudi Arabia, the National News Agency reported.

The statement described the attacks as "a flagrant violation of national sovereignty" of Saudi Arabia and "a violation of international law" which exposed the safety of civilians to risk.

The ministry welcomed the efforts made by all stakeholders in the Yemeni crisis to reduce escalation and reach a political solution that secures an end to the conflict.

Saudi Arabian air defenses intercepted two ballistic missiles on Saturday night launched by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group towards Riyadh and the city of Jizan, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported on Sunday.
By PTI

AMRITSAR: In yet another case in the state, a family in Amritsar refused to claim the body of a coronavirus victim, forcing the district administration to perform his last rites, officials said on Tuesday.

Similarly, a family in Ludhiana on Monday had refused to accept and cremate the body of a 69-year-old COVID-19 positive woman.

The administration there had to perform her last rites.

According to an official release, the 69-year-old Amritsar man, a retired superintending engineer at the civic body there, had died at a private hospital on Monday.

His family did not respond to the administration when it asked them to claim the body, it said.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 LIVE

Thereafter, officials approached the family, but they did not come forward for the last rites.

The official release said the daughter of the deceased is pursuing an MBBS course and none of his family members reached the cremation ground where he was consigned to flames.

Initially, the man had tested negative for COVID-19 at the Government Medical College in Amritsar.

But when his condition did not improve, he was shifted to a private hospital, where he tested positive for the disease.

Civil Surgeon Amritsar Prabhdeep Kaur Johal said, "A few days ago, he tested negative for the infection at the GMC lab. Then he went to a private hospital which declared him positive in their preliminary report. Thereafter, we took his samples again for confirmation and found him positive for COVID-19."

In another such incident in Amritsar, residents of Verka village did not allow the cremation of Padma Shri recipient and former Golden temple Hazuri Raagi Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa.

The villagers had refused to allow the cremation of the Gurbani exponent fearing the spread of the disease.
In an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 cases in Grand Island, the Grand Island Police Department will enforce the city park and GIPS school property closures with citations.

The closure of city parks does not include city sidewalks, the hike and bike trail system and lake walkways (Pier Park Lake, Sucks Lake and Eagle Scout Lake walkways). However, users of those walkways must be using them for their intended purpose and are encouraged to maintain social distancing.

Additionally, the Grand Island Police Department will proactively patrol and respond to complaints of gatherings of more than 10 persons, particularly during the upcoming holiday weekend, says a news release. If these gatherings include persons who are not permanent residents of that address, we will enforce the Directed Health Measures with discretion accordingly.

This will be done in accordance with the Directed Health Measure.
Amy Schumer seemed to be going a little stir-crazy as she gave fans a quick isolation update on Instagram Tuesday.

The Trainwreck star shared a short clip of herself looking beyond bored while lying down on the couch with her dog Tati.

'Quarantine is like,' the mother-of-one captioned the post, which was taken from the comfort of her New York home.

Stir-crazy: Amy Schumer seemed to be suffering from a bit of cabin fever in a new Instagram update from home

Amy was in perfect self-isolation attire, donning cozy pants and a blue tee shirt to relax on her leather couch with furry little Tati curled up around her belly.

The day seemed to be uneventful, as the comic stared off beyond the camera blankly.

Tati began to move around and as she walked away, Schumer tilted her head to look for a second before melting back into the couch.

Simple things: 'Quarantine is like,' the mother-of-one captioned the video with dog Titi

Comfy: Amy was in perfect self-isolation attire, donning cozy pants and a blue tee shirt to relax on her leather couch

Minimal effort: Tati began to move around and as she walked away, Schumer tilted her head to look for a second before melting back into the couch

Though she seemed a little down today, Amy's been making the most of her self-isolation time with son Gene, 11-months, and husband Chris Fischer.

The family has been staying safe at home, save for their regular walks with Tati.

They made a very special stop during a recent stroll, stopping to visit Amy's dad Gordon but from a very safe distance.

Family affair: Amy's been making the most of her self-isolation time with son Gene, 11-months, and husband Chris Fischer, seen together March 31 above

Amy shared social media of the family making a visit to her dad at his NYC nursing home, where he gets care for his multiple sclerosis.

Of course, they kept a safe social distance from her dad, who is immunocompromised, waving from the sidewalk with a sign that read 'Hi Grandpa! We love you!'

Schumer and her husband Chris Fischer tied the knot in Malibu, California in 2018 and welcomed Gene the year after.
President Trump said Sunday night that he is considering a second round of direct payments to Americans to offset the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.Trump said at his daily White House press briefing on the coronavirus.Most Americans are set to receive direct payments as part of a $2.2 trillion stimulus package signed into law by President Trump. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is also reportedly moving to put together another bill to provide Americans more cash.Trump said the White House is looking at "a different way of doing it" from what Pelosi is proposing, adding that his administration is on target to deliver the first federal payments to families in "a couple of weeks."Under the bill passed by Congress, individuals are eligible for payments up to $1,200, but that amount declines for those with an adjusted gross income higher than $75,000 a year. The $1,200 payment drops by 5% of every dollar above $75,000, or $50 for every $1,000.The benefit doesn't apply for individuals with incomes over $99,000.Married couples with combined incomes up to $150,000 would receive $2,400, subject to the same phaseout that applies to individuals. The payments would be phased out entirely for couples making $198,000 or more. Families also get $500 per dependent child under the age of 16.About 120 million U.S. taxpayers will qualify for direct payments from the federal government under the bill, according to an analysis by one think tank.Unemployment is expected to soar to 15% during the second quarter of the year, while the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is set to plunge by 34% as the coronavirus slams the nation's economy, according to a forecast by Goldman Sachs released on Tuesday.The new forecast, titled "The Sudden Stop: A Deeper Trough, A Bigger Rebound," was published on Monday and says it isThe investment bank's previous report, headlined "A Sudden Stop for the U.S. Economy," had predicted only a 24% drop in the GDP for the second quarter (which includes April, May and June). That report predicted the unemployment rate jumping to 9%.the Goldman Sachs analysis noted.The unemployment rate skyrocketed, with a record-setting 3.3 million initial jobless claims for the week ending March 21, nearly five times the highest on record. For the week ending March 28, 6.6 million workers filed for their first week of unemployment benefits, according to the Department of Labor, setting another record.But the latest forecast offered a glimmer of hope, predicting a "V-shape" recovery in which the plunge will be followed by a spike.the forecast said.Goldman Sachs also said the $2.2 trillion economic relief package passed by Congress last week should help alleviate longer-term problems.the said.
Amidst the Coronavirus lockdown, Bollywood actors are encouraging their fans to stay at home and make the most out of this quarantine period. During this time, social media has played a very important role as the actors are able to reach out to their fans. One of these actors is Nora Fatehi. Nora is popularly known for her fantastic dance moves in several Bollywood dance songs. Recently, actor Nora Fatehi has shared a throwback picture on her social media account.

Street Dancer 3D actor Nora Fatehi took to her Instagram account to share a throwback picture. From the picture, it looks like Nora Fatehi is remembering her vacation days during this Coronavirus lockdown. In the picture, Nora Fatehi is posing in the streets of Malta, Europe.

Also Read: Nora Fatehi's Charming Smile In All THESE Pictures Will Surely Steal Your Heart

Alos Read: Nora Fatehi Stars In The Hilarious 'Coronasito' Version Of Fonsi's Song 'Despacito'

Check out the Throwback picture posted by Nora Fatehi

In the picture, Nora Fatehi has donned floral top and shorts. The actor has accessorized her outfit with hoop earrings and red wedges. The 28-year-old actor has left her hair open as she poses for the picture. Nora Fatehi is sporting her tan look in the picture. Nora Fatehi captioned the picture as "I want that tan back #malta .."

Several fans of Nora Fatehi commented on this picture. The picture has garnered about 4 lakh likes in just about 2 hours. Here is a look at what the fans have commented on Nora Fatehi's throwback picture.

On the work front, Nora Fatehi was last seen in the dance film Street Dancer 3D. In the film, Nora Fatehi was sharing the screen space with Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor, and Prabhudheva. The film received a great response from the audience. Nora Fatehi will be next seen in the film Bhuj: The Pride of India.

Also Read: Nora Fatehi's Photos With Varun Dhawan That You Should Not Miss; See Here

Alos Read: Nora Fatehi Reveals Struggle In Early Days Of Career; Says 'I Worked As A Waitress'

Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment.
10. And finally, maybe a bit of privacy was all they needed.

Ying Ying and Le Le, two giant pandas at a Hong Kong zoo, could never quite get in the mood. But after 13 years of living together  most recently, in a visitor-free amusement park thanks to the pandemic  the two successfully mated on Monday.

Pandas only have a mating season of just a few days per year and a famously low libido, so the prospect of expanding the vulnerable population was cause for celebration in the world of animal conservation. Itll be a while before we know whether the patter of tiny panda paws is on the way.

Have a romantic night.

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While medical teams were battling the novel coronavirus day in and out; economies crashed and markets suffered, some of the evil minds from the real estate industry were rejoicing. Read Leewardists' latest comic panel, on Firstpost.

The novel coronavirus outbreak is forcing us to think about how our lifestyle choices have added to its massive and uncontrollable spread.

There's an undeniable truth hovering  that professions also play a significant role in how they help in the time of indefinite lockdowns. The real estate industry and the architecture fraternity play a vital role in terms of providing decent livable spaces during such times. Whether that role is fulfilled or not is the bigger question.

This comic is a take on how we, as a small but significant industry, question our existing systems and practices to contribute in a better and a much more responsible way.

***

While medical teams were battling the virus day in and out, economies crashed, and markets suffered. The marginalised migrants failed to find homes while the rich had to give up on their social lives!

One of the major stakeholders were the construction industry and the evil corporations of builders. Some architects and real estate developers who rejoiced in this time came up with a project titled CORONA HILLS'.

We present to you the brochure for this celebrated project designed by RichBuilders.inc and the StarArchitect. Read the brochure here.

***

Anuj Kale is an architect and an urban designer and founder of Leewardists (a group of storytellers mainly from the field of architecture and urban designing who have set out to bring some change in the design fraternity through stories, comics with a pinch of dry humour). He loves to make comics and narrate stories. Shreya Khandekar is an architect and a writer who has been a part of Leewardists and writes for issues about architectural education and practices.

For more illustrations from team Leewardists, check their Instagram page.
Domtar Corporation UFS plans to temporarily suspend operations of its Kingsport, TN mill and the A62 paper machine at its Ashdown, AR mill for three months on account of the unfavorable business conditions due to the coronavirus pandemic.



The operation suspension will reduce the companys uncoated freesheet paper production capacity by 144,000 short tons during the three month-period resulting in the layoff of about 304 employees at its Kingsport mill and 142 employees at the Ashdown mill. Moreover, the pandemic has strained demand for communication paper as offices, businesses and schools are closed in response to the governments restrictions to curb the spread of the virus.



The Pulp and Paper segment contributed 83% of revenues in 2019, producing more than 4 million metric tons of softwood, fluff and hardwood pulp at its mills. The segment includes the design, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of communication papers, specialty and packaging papers, as well as softwood, fluff and hardwood market pulp.



The pulp and paper industry has been designated as an essential by both the United States and Canadian governments. Domtars pulp and paper mills support critical infrastructure, supply chains, manufacturers and distributors in delivering crucial materials, which are significant components in the production of vital items in the healthcare, food packaging and food processing industry.



Meanwhile, the companys other facilities are fully operational and continue to ship products to all states and provinces without any supply disruption. The company is committed to operate its business efficiently in order to fulfill customers demand, while ensuring health and safety of its personnel.



Recently, Packaging Corporation of America PKG announced to temporarily idle both paper machines and the sheet-converting operation at its Jackson, AL mill to match supply with demand. The operations will stay suspended in May and June and resume on Jul 6, 2020. The company will lower paper production by approximately 70,000 tons and retrench about 340 employees as a result of temporary suspensions of its operations.



Price Performance



Domtars shares have depreciated 55.9% in the past year compared with the industrys 40.4% decline.

Story continues





Zacks Rank & Key Picks



Domtar currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).



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Daqo New Energy has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 29%. The companys shares have surged 119.4% in the past year.



Impala Platinum has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 26.5%. The companys shares have soared 214.3% in a years time.



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COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, attacks the lungs. In the most severe cases, patients need ventilators to breath, but by then it might be too late. A majority of people put on the machines are dying from the disease.

There is something you can do that might prevent this worst-case scenario.

Dr. Sarfaraz Munshi of Queens Hospital in London says that, if youre starting to have COVID-19 symptoms, you should undertake breathing exercises that will help your lungs fight the illness, thus making it less likely youll need hospitalization and ventilation.

Once you have an active infection, you need to get a good amount of air into the base of your lungs, he says in a YouTube video. He says people should do the exercises as soon as they begin to show COVID-19 symptoms, and that its not a bad idea to try them even when youre healthy and symptom-free.

Please watch this doc from Queens Hospital explain how to relieve respiratory symptoms. For last 2 weeks I've had all symptoms of C19 (tho haven't been tested) & did this on doc husband's advice. I'm fully recovered & technique helped a lot.https://t.co/xo8AansUvc via @YouTube  J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 6, 2020

Do relatively simple breathing exercises really work? J.K. Rowling, for one, swears by them. The Harry Potter author said on Monday that she had coronavirus symptoms for two weeks and diligently followed Munshis advice. She wrote on Twitter that shes now fully recovered & technique helped a lot.

Below is Dr. Munshis explanation of how to do the exercises. Watch the video to see him demonstrate.

The way it will work is, you will take five deep breaths in, and each time you will hold your breath for five seconds," Dr. Munshi says. "On the sixth deep breath, you will take it in and do a big cough [to open up your lower airways], covering your mouth. You will do this twice, and then you will lay flat on your bed [on your front], with a pillow in front of you, taking slightly deeper breaths for the next 10 minutes. Because youve got to understand that the majority of your lung is on your back, not on your front. By lying on your back you are closing off more of your smaller airways, and this is not good during the period of your infection.

You might find it hard to believe that breathing exercises can actually waylay a deadly respiratory illness.

Dr. Kathryn Dreger, a professor at Georgetown Universitys medical school, explained in a recent New York Times op-ed piece what happens to lungs that are being attacked by COVID-19, and it helps explain why Dr. Munshis exercises could indeed make a difference.

She wrote:

When we take a breath, we pull air through our windpipe, the trachea. This pipe then branches in two, then again into smaller and smaller pipes finally ending in tiny tubes less than a millimeter across called bronchioles. At the very end of each are clusters of microscopic sacs called alveoli.

The lining of each sac is so thin that air floats through them into the red blood cells. These millions of alveoli are so soft, so gentle, that a healthy lung has almost no substance. Touching it feels like reaching into a bowl of whipped cream.

Covid-19 changes all that.

It causes a gummy yellow fluid, called exudate, to fill the air sacs, stopping the free flow of oxygen. If only a few air sacs are filled, the rest of the lung takes over. When more and more alveoli are filled, the lung texture changes, beginning to feel more like a marshmallow than whipped cream.

When those air sacs become clogged, the lungs stiffen up. Oxygen levels in the patient dramatically fall, and the heart struggles to function properly. A ventilator can help, but only so much. Said one doctor whos treating COVID-19 patients on ventilators: I feel like Im trying to ventilate bricks instead of lungs.

Once a patient is on a ventilator, [d]octors are left with impossible choices, Dr. Dreger wrote. Too much oxygen poisons the air sacs, worsening the lung damage, but too little damages the brain and kidneys. Too much air pressure damages the lung, but too little means the oxygen cant get in. Doctors try to optimize, to tweak.

For patients lucky enough to survive this ordeal and be removed from ventilators, some are likely looking at lifelong severe health problems.

With this context, Dr. Munshis breathing and coughing technique makes sense. That said, its certainly not a cure-all, and how much it truly helps is unknown.

If you do develop COVID-19, monitor your symptoms closely and stay in touch with your doctor. If youre having trouble breathing, you might need to be hospitalized.

The majority of people who get the coronavirus recover.

-- Douglas Perry @douglasmperry
Ambuj Sonal

In the backdrop of the spread of the novel COVID -19 virus, the central and state governments in India have notified several advisories/guidelines on precautionary measures that must be undertaken for the safety and well-being of citizens.

The government has also made several appeals to people to avoid deducting wages or salaries of those employed under them in these trying times.

This makes it important to analyze the duties of employers in protecting the interests of their employees, as also the rights of the employees.

Employer's duty of care

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

State laws in India relating to the health and safety of employees are derived from the directive principles of state policies (DPSPs) enshrined under Part IV of the Constitution of India. Whilst DPSPs are directive in nature, they are fundamental for making laws by central/state governments. The DPSPs, inter alia, envisages provisions in relation to the health and strength of workers/employees and securing just and humane conditions of work and are regarded as principles that set the path towards a welfare state.

At present, Indian laws prescribing the duties and liabilities of an employer towards the health and safety of the employees are sector-specific. Some legislations providing such obligations of the employer are Factories Act, 1948, Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, and Employees State Insurance Act, 1948.

In absence of comprehensive legislation addressing occupational health and safety of the employees and an employers duties and obligations towards the same, the principle of duty of care of an employer towards the health and safety of its employees is well recognized under certain statutes.

For example, under the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2017, every employer is required to take certain measures relating to the health and safety of the workers including cleanliness, lighting, ventilation, and prevention of fire.

In July 2019, The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2019 (Code) was introduced in the Parliament which specifically prescribes an employers duty of care towards its employees. The Code seeks to regulate the health and safety conditions of workers in establishments with 10 or more workers.

No termination or wage cuts

The Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India has issued an advisory to all public and private establishments with a request not to terminate employees and contractual workers or reduce their wages during the COVID-19 situation. Various other state governments such as Maharashtra, Haryana, and Delhi have also issued similar advisories.

Legally, these advisories are not binding upon the employers as the same does not have a sanctity under any notifications or legislation. However, the employers may take note of the notification issued by the Government of Telangana by which it has been directed that the lockdown period in the State of Telangana shall be declared as paid holiday for all categories of employees. This notification has been issued under the provisions of the Telangana Shops and Establishment Act, 1988.

Considering the current epidemic, while the advisories issued by several state governments in relation to non-termination and non-deduction of wages of employees do not have a binding effect, the state governments are empowered to issue a direction in this regard under their respective Shops and Establishment legislations.

It is most likely that the other state governments will follow the action of the Government of Telangana and issue relevant notifications or government orders directing the employers not to terminate or deduct the wages of the employees in these uncertain times.

Suggestion to employers

The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), established under the Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has issued Guidelines for Workplace of COVID-19 Cases

The Workplace Guidelines provide for simple ways to prevent the spread of COVID -19 at the workplace and sets out certain suggestions relating to maintenance of hygiene and cleanliness at workplaces.

Given the rapid spread of novel COVID-19, employees at the workplace (which are permitted to operate during lock-down) are more susceptible to health risks associated with the same. In such circumstances, an employer is expected to provide for health and safety measures in a manner, which safeguards the employees from being a victim of COVID-19. It is the legal duty of care of an employer towards its workforce which must be given careful consideration by the employers.

Ambuj Sonal is Principal Associate, Pioneer Legal
According to Haberler, an anonymous person(s) has(have) damaged the bust of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk installed at one of the schools in the Turkish province of Hatay.

News about the incident was reported when photos of the damaged bust were posted on social websites.

Police have launched an investigation into the incident.
A Sale Or A Sham: Rosneft Ditched Venezuelan Assets, But Will It Shed U.S. Sanctions?

By Todd Prince April 06, 2020

As oil markets tumbled to near 20-year lows amid an unprecedented energy-industry crisis made by man and nature, Russia's largest oil company issued a terse press release with big news: it would be exiting Venezuela after 10 years and billions of dollars in investments.

In the surprise March 28 statement, Rosneft said it concluded the sale of assets in the tense, troubled South American nation to an unnamed firm that is wholly owned by the Russian government.

Rosneft said it will receive in exchange 9.6 percent of its own shares, cutting the government's stake in the oil company -- which is headed by Igor Sechin, a close and long-standing ally of President Vladimir Putin, and has acted essentially as an arm of the state -- to less than a controlling one.

The announcement plays into a geopolitical struggle involving both volatile energy markets and the fate of Venezuela, where Russia has helped a leader considered illegitimate by the United States and many other governments remain in power.

The company's statement gave no reason for the sale, but energy analysts said it was clearly driven by U.S. sanctions imposed on two of its trading arms just weeks earlier for selling and transporting Venezuelan crude oil in violation of a 2019 U.S. embargo.

After the United States hit Rosneft Trading SA and TNK Trading International with sanctions in February and March respectively, Chinese state oil company Sinochem said it would not buy any crude from Rosneft -- a major blow to the Russian company's strategy. Rosneft has been seeking a greater share of the large, lucrative Chinese market.

Shortly after Rosneft issued the statement, its spokesman Mikhail Leontyev made it clear the company wants the sanctions lifted, saying that it had to protect the interests of its shareholders -- which include BP and Qatar -- and now expects Washington "to fulfill its publicly assumed responsibilities."

However, U.S. removal of the sanctions isn't automatic. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the two trading companies must "take concrete, meaningful, and verifiable actions" to support democratic order in Venezuela as part of the condition for sanctions removal.

Elliott Abrams, the U.S. special envoy for Venezuela, said on March 31 that the United States would study Rosneft's sale before making a decision.

"We're trying to find out more about that [transaction]. What is the company? What activities will it undertake? Will it take 100 percent of what Rosneft is doing or less than that? That's not clear yet," Abrams said.

Angola Connection?

Russia eventually said the assets were bought by Roszarubzhneft, a newly created company whose name translates as an abbreviation of "Russia Foreign Oil."

Registration documents identify the director as Nikolai Rybchuk, according to Russian media outlet RBC, which reported that no one with that name appears in any commercial corporation, raising questions about why he was chosen.

However, it said that a man with that name was deployed several times to Angola, first serving as a translator at the Soviet Embassy from 1978 to 1980 amid a civil war, and later as a military attache. Most recently, he represented Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation in Angola.

Sechin served as a military translator in Angola in the 1980s as the Soviet Union and United States supported opposing sides in the long civil war that was viewed as a Cold War proxy fight.

Though their time in Angola may have overlapped, there is no concrete evidence that the two know each other, RBC said.

Neither Rybchuk nor the Kremlin have said what Roszarubezhneft plans to do with the assets, which include several oil-production joint ventures, oil-industry service assets, and trading operations.

The political-risk consultancy Eurasia Group said that the new company is likely to have a "limited capacity to quickly replace" Rosneft's outsized role in Venezuela's oil sector in the near future, though that could change down the road.

Shell Game?

Analysts said the OFAC may be interested in whether Rosneft actually loses control of the assets.

"On paper it looks like a sham divestment. So, if I were the OFAC, I would think real hard about whether they think there is enough there to lift the sanctions," said Brian O'Toole, a fellow at the U.S.-based Atlantic Council think-tank and a former senior adviser at the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

"The key is how these assets were moved. Is there a true divestment strategy here or is it essentially just a shell game?" he said.

O'Toole said the sale resembles the attempt by Arkady Rotenberg, Putin's former judo instructor, to spare his drilling company Gazprom Bureniye from U.S. sanctions by selling it to his son Igor Rotenberg. The United States later imposed sanctions on Igor Rotenberg.

Observers said the purchase by an abruptly created company brought to mind the 2004 auction in which an unknown firm called Baikalfinansgrup -- registered days earlier -- bought the main assets of jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's dismantled giant Yukos. The assets were then acquired by Rosneft, making the state-owned oil company headed by Sechin Russia's biggest.

The United States did lift sanctions on three companies owned by sanctioned Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska after he agreed to cede control. The companies also agreed to have a majority of independent directors on the board and submit to tough new reporting requirements.

O'Toole said it could be difficult for the United States to legally prove that Rosneft's trading units are benefiting from the Venezuelan assets now owned by Ruszarubezhneft or any ongoing crude sales from Venezuela.

And Rosneft could seek to sue if the United States decides against the removal, he said.

"The last thing [the OFAC] would want to do is lose in court," O'Toole said.

Europe is also a factor: The sale of the stake in Rosneft cuts the Russian government's ownership to about 41 percent, opening the possibility for the European Union to remove its own sanctions, which are partially premised on the state owning a controlling stake.

EU officials will review the bloc's Russia sanctions ahead of a late June summit at which EU leaders will decide whether to keep the punitive measures in place.

An EU source told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity that the government's loss of control over Rosneft "very well might be an issue" to discuss but that there are other criteria involved, such as the role various companies have played in the annexation of Crimea.

Money And Power

Rosneft has invested billions of dollars in Venezuela's oil industry since 2010 -- in part, analysts say, as an element of a Kremlin strategy to gain influence in the backyard of the United States.

Relations between Washington and Caracas have been badly strained since the now-deceased socialist strongman Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999. Russia has helped Nicolas Maduro -- who succeeded Chavez after his death in 2013 and is considered illegitimate by dozens of countries including the United States, in part due to human rights concerns -- to hold onto power.

William Courtney, a former U.S. ambassador and now a Russia analyst at the Rand Corporation, a Washington-based think tank, said the Kremlin's interest in Venezuela is part of a larger strategy of allying with states where it can act to "throw the U.S. off balance" and potentially wrangle concessions from Washington and the West in other areas.

It is also driven by a desire to have greater influence over the global oil industry: Venezuela is not among the top 10 oil producers but has the world's largest proven reserves.

In January 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration imposed sanctions on state oil company PDVSA in an attempt to cut off the Venezuelan government's main source of revenue and pressure Maduro to step aside in favor of Juan Guaido, whom the United States considers the legitimate leader.

As other foreign oil companies cut their involvement in Venezuela following the sanctions, Rosneft stepped up, handling as much as 80 percent of the trade in Venezuelan oil by early 2020, The Washington Post reported.

Rosneft bought Venezuelan oil at a significant discount, earning as much as $120 million a month as it sold it abroad in defiance of the U.S. sanctions, the paper reported. Russians worked with Venezuelan officials to design ways to avoid U.S. sanctions.

The United States warned Russia and Rosneft that it would take action if it did not stop selling Venezuelan oil, though some doubted that Washington would go so far as to impose sanctions on a company that produces about 5 percent of the world's oil.

The U.S. sanctions against Rosneft's trading arm came just as the demand for oil plummeted globally due to the spread of the coronavirus, driving benchmark oil prices below $20 a barrel at times. Venezuelan oil sells at a discount to benchmark prices.

More Pressure On Maduro?

Abrams said Rosneft's decision to sell its assets was a "clear reaction" to the collapse of oil prices and drop in demand. Venezuela's daily oil production has fallen about a third from the end of last year to around 500,000 barrels at the end of March, he said.

"Rosneft is now losing money. Its joint ventures can't sell crude oil for a profit. Its trading activities around the world -- trying to sell Venezuelan oil -- are really in trouble," he said.

Moises Rendon, the director of the Future of Venezuela Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Rosneft's decision still came as a surprise to many in Washington and in Caracas.

"Rosneft has been the financial arm of Russia to provide Maduro with liquidity and financial aid. While he still has Russia's geopolitical support, he must be concerned that he doesn't have its financial help anymore," Rendon said.

Sergei Melik-Bagdasarov, who was appointed Russia's ambassador to Venezuela a day before the sanctions against Rosneft Trading were announced, downplayed the significance of the sale in an apparent attempt to reassure Maduro's government of Moscow's continued support.

"Don't worry! This is about the transfer of Rosneft's assets in Venezuela to Russia's government directly. We will remain together going forward," he wrote on Twitter on March 28.

In a tweet the same day, Maduro said that he had received a message from Putin confirming his support "in all areas" of the bilateral relationship.

Putin held a "lengthy" conversation with Trump on March 30, during which they discussed the oil-market turbulence and Venezuela, among other things. Neither side provided details.

The Trump administration signaled a shift in its Venezuela strategy the next day, saying it would lift sanctions on Caracas -- a move that would benefit Russia -- if Maduro's party and the opposition form a new government without him.

Maduro needs to convince his government "that he still has Putin's support" if he wants to hold on to power, said Rendon.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-rosneft- ditches-venezuela-assets-u-s- sanctions-/30534209.html

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Seoul, April 7 : LG Electronics is likely to launch a new 5G-enabled and cheaper smartphone under a new brand name next month.

The smartphone will be cheaper than Samsung's Galaxy S20 premium smartphone but will house all the features a flagship smartphone is expected to have, reports The Korea Times.

The company has announced that it would ditch the G brand, which the company had used for its premium smartphone series, while retaining the V brand for flagship lineups.

The smartphone is expected to utilise any of Qualcomm's 5G-enabled Snapdragon 765 or 765G processors.

The device may come with a dual-screen attachment accessory.

The company is also rumoured to improve design in a bid to revive the glory days of the Chocolate phone, which happened to be the company's most popular line till date.
The GMR-led Hyderabad International Airport on Tuesday handled a special passenger charter flight of the carrier - Air India to evacuate over 90 US nationals from Hyderabad city.

As per the flight itinerary, the special flight - AI 1617(Arrival)/AI 1618 (Departure), an airbus A 320 landed at Hyderabad International Airport yesterday at 3.12 pm from Mumbai and departed with the US-bound passengers at 4.15 pm to Mumbai. The flight was a purely domestic one and operated from the main Passenger Terminal Building of Hyderabad International Airport. As per the flight itinerary, the passengers were to be further connected with Delta Airlines from Mumbai to their final destination in the US.

In coordination with the US consulate and the Telangana State government, a group of 98 adults and 1 infant US-bound passengers arrived at the airport at around 1 pm from various parts of the city. All these passengers were serviced through the fully-sanitised main passenger terminal building, which has been kept ready for evacuation operations.

On March 31, GHIAL had handled a group of 38 German nationals who flew by a special flight of Air India which ferried the passengers from Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai to Frankfurt. On March 28, the airport serviced a special medical evacuation flight of IndiGo, which dropped its 8 crew members bound for Hyderabad and departed to Chennai with 5 stranded IndiGo crew members.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Many of Brooklyn's Hasidic Jewish community gathered for the funeral of a beloved rabbi on Sunday despite being ordered to stay home by the governor and after NYPD cops broke up a different funeral hours earlier.

The funeral was for Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Meislish, 80, and was in Williamsburg on Sunday night. Mourners flocked to the streets to pay their respects without wearing masks or gloves, ignoring social distancing guidelines despite repeated pleas from local government leaders to stay at home.

Hours earlier, NYPD officers broke up the funeral of Rav Yosef Kalish, 62, in Brooklyn's Borough Park.

Both men died from the virus but that did nothing to deter the crowds of mourners.

The Yeshiva World, a Jewish news outlet, reported that the NYPD responded to Kalish's funeral with mobilization units. A police chopper reportedly flew overhead and officers begged mourners to stand at least 6ft apart but were ignored.

Mourners gather on Sunday for the funeral of Rav Yosef Kalish (pictured). The NYPD descended on that funeral to urge people to social distance but a different funeral took place hours later

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has begged the Jewish community to start following the guidelines.

At his daily briefing on Tuesday, when asked about the funerals, he said: 'I am sure the NYPD will be doing what they need to do.

'I made it clear yesterday - these regulations are not just pleas. You can be fined for it.

'People have to understand. I understand religious gatherings, I understand the orthodox community, I am close to them and have been for many years.

'[But] now is not the time for large gatherings. We paid this price already. We've learned this lesson. That was New Rochelle and Westchester,' he said, in reference to the two suburban towns which saw explosive coronavirus rates per capita due largely in part to a lawyer who attended a bar mitzvah and other religious ceremonies before being diagnosed, which led to a spike in cases.

'You do no one a service by making this worse and infecting more people,' Cuomo said on Tuesday.

On Monday, he increased the individual fine for people who flout social distancing rules from $500 to $1,000.

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday that he understood why the Orthodox community wanted to still gather but that they shouldn't due to the public health risk

So far, there have been 4,100 calls to 311 - New York's non-emergency number - for people breaking social distancing rules. Only 21 summonses have been issued.

Religious leaders in the Orthodox communities of New York say they are telling people to stay at home.

'It's a puzzle to me how some people know and still don't comply,' Yosef Rapaport, an Orthodox journalist, told The Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Its report says some of the neighborhoods of Brooklyn with the largest Orthodox populations, like Williamsburg, Midwood and Borough Park, are among those with the highest rates of coronavirus in the city.

In New York state, 731 people died between Monday and Tuesday.

The number reflects people who were brought to the hospital when cases were still growing every day but who were unable to recover.

There is now a reduction in the daily rate of new infections, suggesting New York is flattening the curve.

Cuomo has nonetheless extended lockdown until April 29 and says people must continue to stay at home.

'This is not an act of God,' he said on Tuesday, adding: 'Social distancing is working. It is working.'
A grieving husband was not allowed to say goodbye to his wife before she died from coronavirus, despite already contracting the deadly illness himself.

Two people aged in their 70s were the latest to die from COVID-19 in Western Australia, taking the state's toll to six and the nation's to 48 on Tuesday.

A man who had been on board the Artania cruise ship died at Joondalup Health Campus while a woman who had travelled overseas died at Royal Perth Hospital overnight.

The woman's husband, who also has COVID-19, was denied permission to see her in hospital and remains at a Perth hotel.

A grieving husband was not allowed to say goodbye to his wife before she died from coronavirus in Western Australia. Health Minister Roger Cook said on Tuesday the 'difficult decisions' are determined by medical staff

A man who had been on board the Artania cruise ship died at Joondalup Health Campus while a woman who had travelled overseas died at Royal Perth Hospital overnight.Pictured: Crew members from the cruise ship Artania are seen isolating in their cabins in Fremantle on Monday

When questioned by reporters about who made the call, Health Minister Roger Cook said the 'difficult decisions' are determined by medical staff.

'I'm not going to second guess the decisions of the clinicians on the front-line but I'll make inquiries,' he said on Tuesday.

'Obviously they're making decisions on an ongoing basis in very difficult and dangerous circumstances.

'We make difficult decisions all the time and the clinicians have many years experience, training and guidelines within the clinical framework.'

Mr Cook said welfare checks were being conducted on all return travellers holed up in hotels and the grieving husband would receive extra support.

'We're obviously doing welfare checks on all Western Australians and indeed everyone in these hotels and other facilities,' he said.

Premier Mark McGowan (pictured) was said he was 'not a doctor' when questioned by journalists over the decision

A couple are seen wearing masks while taking a photo in Perth on March 27

'In his case, we'll obviously be taking extra efforts to make sure his well-being is looked after.

Premier Mark McGowan was said he was 'not a doctor' when questioned by journalists over the decision he would have taken.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

He referred to Australia's first coronavirus fatality, James Kwan. The 78-year-old died in Perth after contracting the virus on Diamond Princess cruise ship.

'I spoke to Mrs Kwan, whose husband passed away, I gave her a call and had a talk to her,' Premier McGowan recalled.

'It was very very sad. She couldn't go and see him in his final hours. For that family it's obviously traumatic and tragic and beyond description.

'But I'm not a doctor, I wasn't there, I don't know the reasoning.

'Our health workers are working very very hard under much trauma and much difficulty and they're making decisions on a daily basis.'

There are 5,906 coronavirus cases across Australia and 48 people have died.
Shares of Allegiant Travel Company ALGT have lost 41.5% compared with the industrys 40.3% decline in the past month.

Alike most of its peers, Allegiant has been hit hard by its flagging fortunes due to the sharp drop in air-travel demand in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, which marred its prospects in the process.

Coronavirus Doldrums Hamper Allegiants Prospects

Due to the coronavirus-induced vanishing demand for leisure travel, Allegiant plans to reduce capacity by 15% for April and May. In fact, the company expects deeper capacity cuts (between 30% and 35%) in the coming days as demand is likely to face significant erosion moving ahead.

Allegiant apart, other carriers, namely JetBlue Airways JBLU, Alaska Air ALK and Spirit Airlines SAVE trimmed capacity following feeble demand due to the COVID-19 hazard.

Additionally, to tackle this unprecedented crisis, Allegiant suspended its quarterly dividend payouts and buybacks. It is also looking to curtail costs on account of depleting revenues. Some cost-cutting measures include freezing recruitment and halting construction of the Florida resort. Also, Allegiants high-debt levels are worrisome.

Southbound Estimate Revisions

The bearish sentiment surrounding the stock is evident from the Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings being revised 50.6% downward in the past 60 days to $8.52.

Additionally, Allegiant carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

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As of today, the 6th of April 2020, 364,723 Americans have been infected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19 disease. There have been 10,781 deaths due to the infection, as the nation faces difficulty implementing a comprehensive nationwide lockdown to ensure social distancing.

SARS-CoV-2 has infected persons in over 200 countries and territories and was declared a global pandemic on the 11th of March 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). Researchers and epidemiologists across the world have advocated social distancing as an effective method to prevent the spread of this highly infective virus from person to person.

Whilst the US is advocating social distancing, it is still weighing up the difficult choice of closing schools nationwide to prevent transmission from one person to another or keeping them open, so healthcare workers are not stuck at home caring for their children.

A "closed" sign outside of a public school in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The state closed all schools in March 2020 to thwart the spread of the novel coronavirus. Image Credit: Ayman Haykal / Shutterstock

The study

A new study used mathematical modeling to explore the benefits and risks of closing down the schools to prevent new cases and the possibility of absenteeism among health care workers because they need to care for their children at home and the ultimate effect of the step on reducing the risk of deaths due to COVID-19. The study titled, Impact of school closures for COVID-19 on the US healthcare workforce and net mortality: a modeling study was published in the latest issue of The Lancet Public Health journal.

The team writes at the outset that it is clear that mandatory closures of the schools could reduce the number of new cases and thus reduce the risk of deaths due to infectious diseases such as influenza and other respiratory viruses. They add that these early studies, however, have never considered the effect of these school closures on the healthcare labor force. This study, they wrote, was to assess the potential benefits from school closures weighed against costs of healthcare worker absenteeism associated with additional childcare obligations. The researchers added that they also assessed the importance of the contribution of healthcare workers would have to be in reducing mortality for their absenteeism due to childcare obligations to undo the benefits of school closures in reducing the number of cases.

What was done?

The researchers looked at data from the US Current Population Survey to see the dynamics of the families in the country and the child care options of the health care providers in the US. From there, they identified the portion of healthcare workers who are most obliged with child care needs when the schools are closed. They write that from these numbers, they tried to identify the critical level at which the importance of healthcare labor supply in increasing the survival probability of a patient with COVID-19 would undo the benefits of school closures and ultimately increase cumulative mortality.

What did they find?

In the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 3 million individuals between January 2018 and January 2020 to assess the family structure and probable within-household childcare options for healthcare workers. They identified those most likely to require additional childcare for children aged 3-12 years old in the event of school closures by type of healthcare occupation nationally and across different states, assuming that early childcare for children aged under two years remains open. They found that 28.8 percent of the healthcare workforce needed to provide child care to their children aged 3 to 12 years. They wrote, the US healthcare sector has some of the highest childcare obligations in the USA. They assumed that presence of an older sibling over the age of 13 years or a non-working adult at home and still found 15 percent of the healthcare workforce needed to be a home to provide childcare if schools were closed.

Looking at the different workforce in the healthcare sector they noted that 22 percent of nursing personnel, 21 percent of the physicians assistants, 19 percent of the diagnostic technicians, 13 percent of the nursing and home health care force who are single parents and help care for elderly in nursing homes and 16 percent of physicians and surgeons would find it difficult to arrange for alternative child care options in case of school closure. Childcare needs in case of school closure were highest in each of South Dakota, Oregon, and Missouri at 21 percent, they wrote.

Within the health care system, they found that a 15 percent case reduction in COVID-19 could be seen from school closings, and this would cause a 2 percent reduction in death rates. However, in the hypothetical scenario (where a non-working adult or older sibling looked after the dependent children at home when schools were closed), a 15 percent decreased healthcare workforce would reduce the survival probability per health care provider by 17.6 percent.

They wrote, Our model estimates that if the infection mortality rate of COVID-19 increases from 200% to 235% when the healthcare workforce declines by 150%, school closures could lead to a greater number of deaths than they prevent.

Conclusions and implications

Professor Eli Fenichel from Yale University in the USA who co-led the research said, Closing schools comes with many trade-offs, and can create unintentional childcare shortages that put a strain on the healthcare system. Healthcare workers spending less time providing patient care to look after their children can directly influence the development of an epidemic and the survival of those patients. Understanding these trade-offs is vital when planning the public health response to COVID-19 because if the survival of infected patients is sufficiently sensitive to declines in the healthcare workforce, then school closures could potentially increase deaths from COVID-19.

Co-lead author Dr. Jude Bayham from Colorado State University, USA said in his statement, The US healthcare system appears disproportionately prone to labor shortages from school closures, particularly among those healthcare workers providing infection control in nursing homes. These potential healthcare workforce shortages should be a priority when assessing the potential benefits and costs of school closures, and alternative child care arrangements must be part of the school closure plan. Fenichel added, Closing schools and distancing, in general, is about bending the curve to stay below hospital capacity and reduce COVID-19 mortality, but how we distance to bend the curve can also influence the hospital capacity we need to stay below. We need to account for both.

The authors of the study concluded that closure of the schools could be beneficial in reducing the number of cases but would increase unintended childcare obligations. They suggest, potential contagion prevention from school closures needs to be carefully weighted with the potential loss of healthcare workers from the standpoint of reducing cumulative mortality due to COVID-19, in the absence of mitigating measures.
Matthew McConaughey Hosts Senior Bingo Night During Pandemic

Matthew McConaughey Sets a Standard for Kindness in Troubled Times

In times of crisis, some people fall apart and others show true character. Oscar-winning A-list actor Matthew McConaughey is emphatically among the latter group: he recently spent an evening hosting a virtual bingo game for seniors quarantined in a living facility in Austin, Texas.

RELATED: Coronavirus At-Home Essentials

McConaugheys good deed was only made public when the living facility, The Enclave at Round Rock Senior Living, posted a short clip of the festivities to their Facebook page. In the video, the star can be seen surrounded by his family, calling out numbers and celebrating when one senior finally wins.

The Enclave senior living facility later released this statement: Thank you to Matthew, his wife Camila, and his mom Kay for hosting our residents for a few rounds of virtual bingo. Our residents had a great time playing, and they loved talking with Matthew about his family heritage and his favorite drink.

His actions are especially commendable given how difficult these times are for seniors, in particular. Because they are at greater risk of suffering lethal health consequences from COVID-19, most senior living facilities have issued even stricter lockdown instructions than have been levied on the general population. That means no visitors, and no outside visits, except for brief periods of outdoor exercise. For a group of people already isolated from friends and family, these changes are obviously painful to bear, which makes gestures like Matthew McConaugheys all the more kind and uplifting.

We should all take a page out of Matthew McConaugheys book: in difficult times, the smallest gestures of kindness and charity can make a big difference in other peoples lives. Take a moment to contact your loved ones  especially those most vulnerable and isolated. Theyll appreciate it more than you know.

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SCHOHARIE - A month after telling the National Transportation Safety Board that it would not take up recommendations for improving limousine passenger safety in the wake of the 2018 Schoharie limo crash that killed 20, the Trump administration says it is still looking into the matter and conducting its own investigation into the tragedy.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, informed the NTSB last month that it had no intention of requiring limousines to have rear passenger seatbelts after an NTSB safety report into the 2018 crash advocated for the federal government to adopt such regulations. New York adopted a similar rule earlier this year.

The NTSB report released last year concluded that none of the passengers in the stretch Ford Excursion involved in the Schoharie crash were wearing seatbelts at the time the limo crashed into a ditch next to the Apple Barrel Country Store in Schoharie on Oct. 6, 2018. The limo crashed after its brakes failed, killing all 17 passengers and the driver as well as two bystanders in the popular tourist attraction's parking lot.

Although the seatbelts in the Excursion were not accessible to the passengers, the NTSB suggested some passengers could have survived had they been wearing properly installed seatbelts, noting that the limo's passenger cabin was left mostly intact after the impact.

"The (NTSB) report does not show that belt use would have caused the passengers to survive such a high-severity crash," James Owens, the acting administrator of the NHTSA, wrote the NTSB in a terse letter dated March 10. "The exceedingly severe nature of the Schoharie crash, including the detachment of seats from the bottom of the vehicle, prevents us from concurring with an assertion that the tragic outcome would have changed had there been belt use."

After the NHTSA letter was first made public Monday in a story by the Times Union, New York's Congressional delegation immediately called on Owens and the Trump administration to reverse course. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and others have been pushing legislation that would force the NHTSA to adopt new limo seatbelt regulations after the NTSB report was issued last fall.

In a letter to Owens, Schumer and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said they were "deeply distressed" by the NHTSA's letter to the NTSB.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

"The NTSBs interim recommendations highlight the fact that certain vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating between 10,000 pounds and 26,000 pounds fall into a category that does not contain robust seatbelt regulations or standards, unlike vehicles below or above these weights," the letter from Schumer and Gillibrand states. "NHTSAs decision not to address this 'limo loophole' is baffling and dangerous for limousine passengers."

Around the same time that Schumer and Gillibrand's staff made the letter public Tuesday, the NHTSA appeared to soften its stance on at least looking more closely at the NTSB recommendations and revealed that it is also conducting its own investigation into the crash. The NTSB is also working on its own final version of its investigation that would reveal its version of the cause of the tragedy.

"The Schoharie crash of the 2001 Ford Excursion stretch limousine crash was a horrific, high-speed crash that tragically killed 20 people, including the driver," the NHTSA said in a statement given to the Times Union on Tuesday. "NHTSA welcomes NTSBs analysis of this tragedy, and continues to pursue its own special crash investigation of this crash and will determine if any necessary actions are required upon the completion of our investigation and analysis."
MINNEAPOLIS, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vidscrip is the leading digital communications platform that allows physicians to pre-record video messages for patients. Today, Vidscrip announced that it has launched an important new program, in collaboration with AstraZeneca, one of the world's leading biopharmaceutical companies, to bring COVID-19-specific messaging to all US physicians, at no cost, during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

"AstraZeneca is proud to sponsor this program as part of our efforts to support those on the front lines of this healthcare crisis," said Rachele Berria, MD Ph.D., Vice President, US Medical, Biopharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca. "We are pleased to be working with Vidscrip in providing this unique platform to help healthcare professionals communicate accurate and timely information to their patients about COVID-19."

AstraZeneca's collaboration with Vidscrip will equip medical professionals with a powerful tool during the current public health emergency to provide answers to their patients' frequently asked questions about Covid-19 and the pandemic. Healthcare professionals using the COVID-19 Vidscrip program can provide their patients with important information on COVID-19, thereby helping patients make decisions about their medical condition and treatment plan. This form of patient engagement has been shown to improve clinical and operational outcomes. The following video animation demonstrates how Vidscrip works.

"There has never been a time when healthcare providers have had a greater need to stay connected to their patients and have less capacity to do so efficiently," said John Brownlee, CEO and Founder of Vidscrip. "Our technology platform is perfectly positioned to ensure that patients get the right information, at the right time, from their own trusted care team. We are grateful to AstraZeneca for helping to make this program possible," Brownlee added.

VidScrip: A Simple, Easy-to-Use, Healthcare Communications Delivery Platform

During this pandemic, healthcare providers are struggling to keep up with their patients' nearly insatiable demand for information on COVID-19, while working with fewer resources to provide patients with information. Vidscrip's technology allows healthcare providers to customize patient engagement in minutes through a virtual recording studio. Medical professionals record videos from their own computers by answering an interview-format series of questions. Once completed, the videos can be posted on their patients' preferred communications channels. Vidscrip saves physicians' time and improves efficacy by allowing patients to view the content as many times as needed and, by coming from a patient's trusted medical professional, drives patient engagement.

"Vidscrip is a prime example of a cutting-edge company thriving here in Minnesota's Medical Alley, the global epicenter of health innovation and care. The safe communication from providers to patients they enable is critical in the fight against COVID-19, and it's encouraging to see more people getting access to their platform," said Shaye Mandle, CEO of the Medical Alley Association, one of the leading healthcare and med tech industry groups in the country.

During the COVID-19 public health emergency, the Vidscrip program is available at no cost to healthcare providers via a sponsorship from AstraZeneca. For more information about the COVID-19 education program visit www.vidscrip.com/COVID19 .

Members of the media interested in speaking to medical professionals across the country who are available to speak about Vidscrip and the far-reaching impact of today's announcement on patient care include:

Archelle Georgiou , M.D., Minneapolis - based Chief Medical Officer at Starkey Hearing

, M.D., - based Chief Medical Officer at Starkey Hearing Howard Luks , M.D., NYC- based orthopedic surgeon

, M.D., NYC- based orthopedic surgeon Todd Brandt , M.D., Minneapolis -based urologist

, M.D., -based urologist Alex Tatem , M.D., Indianapolis -based urologist

, M.D., -based urologist Scott Faucett , M.D., M.S., Washington, D.C. -based, orthopedic surgeon

About Vidscrip

Vidscrip is a digital health technology and services company based in Minneapolis, MN in the heart of Minnesota's Medical Alley. Vidscrip is revolutionizing patient engagement with a simple, web-based platform that records doctor's own answers to frequently asked questions, and shares them with patients through channels they already use, like their doctor's web page, or links sent directly to patient's phones Vidscrip's platform and services allow healthcare providers to easily create "video prescriptions" that help their patients better navigate care episodes by delivering the right information, at the right time, from the right source - the patient's own doctor. Vidscrip was founded in 2012. For more information, visit vidscrip.com and follow on Twitter @vidscrips .

SOURCE Vidscrip

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https://www.vidscrip.com


LIVE Updates | File image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing the nation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 7 spoke to Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tarikand and discussed ways to limit the impact of COVID-19.

"Spoke to His Majesty Sultan of Oman about COVID-19 and how to limit its impact," the prime minister tweeted.

Modi said he also expressed thanks to the Sultan for his personal attention to the well-being of the Indian community in Oman.

An official statement said the two leaders discussed the health and economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the steps being taken by their countries.

"They agreed that both countries would extend all possible support to each other in dealing with the crisis," it said.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The Sultan assured the prime minister of the safety and well-being of the Indian community in Oman in the present situation.

He also thanked Modi for the recent support provided by his government to Omani citizens in India.

The prime minister reiterated his condolences for the demise of Late Sultan Qaboos.

He conveyed his best wishes for Sultan Haitham's reign and for the peace and prosperity of the people of Oman.

He stressed that India regards Oman as a very important part of its extended neighbourhood.
Posted on April 6, 2020

We are collaborating with FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, in an effort to identify misinformation and to ensure news consumers get the facts.

Its a seemingly simple question that has divided experts and nations since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak: Should members of the public who arent sick use face masks to limit the spread of the disease?

For months, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintained that the only people who needed to wear face masks were people who were ill or those who were treating them. That notion stemmed from the idea that basic medical masks do little to protect wearers, and instead primarily prevent sick people from spewing infectious droplets from their noses and mouths. Plus, limited supplies needed to be prioritized for frontline health workers. The World Health Organization agreed.

But some countries took a different tack, suggesting and even requiring the use of masks in certain instances when people were outside their homes. Many scientists, too, began to suggest that a more widespread mask policy might be a good idea.

Then, after days of speculation, President Donald Trump announced on April 3 that the CDC was recommending that people use cloth face coverings in crowded places, even as he emphasized the measure was voluntary and said he would not be following it.

So with the masks, its going to be, really, a voluntary thing, he said. You can do it. You dont have to do it. Im choosing not to do it.

Citing new data that a significant portion of people infected with the novel coronavirus can spread the virus to others even when they dont have symptoms, the agency revised its recommendation, saying that people should wear cloth face coverings whenever people must go into public settings.

A cloth face covering is not intended to protect the wearer, but may prevent the spread of virus from the wearer to others, the updated CDC website now reads. This would be especially important in the event that someone is infected but does not have symptoms.

While the tide has turned toward a more pro-mask approach in the U.S., some experts have reservations about the policy. Cloth masks are poorly studied, and there isnt much real-world evidence to recommend medical masks to the general public. Such guidelines could also exacerbate shortages of medical masks or backfire if people dont wear their coverings properly or if they are lulled into a false sense of security.

At the same time, other scientists point to lab studies that indicate a broader adoption of masks, even of less effective do-it-yourself models, could still be helpful. And its possible widespread mask use could keep people from touching their faces and help convey the severity of the pandemic.

Well review some of the research and thinking behind face masks and explain why opinions are divided. But first, its important to recognize that despite the debate, on the most important issues, most experts agree:

If there is a benefit to having healthy people mask up, the effect is likely to be small. No one should assume they are protected by a face mask, and its critical that people continue to stay six feet away from others and keep washing their hands. As the CDC says, cloth coverings are not a substitute for social distancing.

Health care workers should receive priority on medical masks, and ideally should be using N95 respirators when treating people with COVID-19.

What Masks Do

Depending on the design, masks can limit the spread of a disease from an infected person in whats called source control, and/or they can protect the wearer from becoming infected.

In the case of COVID-19, transmission of the virus is thought to occur primarily through respiratory droplets, which can land in other peoples mouths or noses when infected people cough or sneeze. The droplets can also contaminate surfaces that others then touch before touching their faces.

Here, basic surgical masks  loose-fitting, disposable masks  might be helpful because if someone who is sick is wearing one, their infectious droplets could be trapped in the mask. Doctors and nurses wearing such masks may also be protected somewhat since theyre likely to be coughed or sneezed on.

But researchers also suspect the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, can linger in the air in very small droplets known as aerosols, which can be inhaled by people nearby. A study published on March 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine called aerosol transmission plausible, finding in an experiment that the virus remained viable in machine-generated aerosols for up to three hours, although half of the particles werent infectious after about an hour. Theres not a lot of clarity yet about how much of a role this mechanism plays in spreading the virus  and its unlikely that this allows the virus to travel long distances  but scientists are increasingly confident that it can happen to some degree.

I believe that it is likely that all of the routes of transmission come into play here, said occupational health professor Margaret Sietsema of the University of Illinois at Chicago, meaning the disease can be inhaled and therefore the best line of defense is a respirator.

Respirators include the oft-cited N95 masks, which are disposable, tight-fitting masks that create a seal on the face and include a specialized filter that captures at least 95% of the airborne particles that pass through it. (To avoid confusion, from here on out, we will not refer to any respirator as a mask.)

In contrast to the N95s, surgical masks are not intended to provide protection against aerosols. As a CDC blog explains, surgical masks are designed to provide barrier protection against droplets, however they are not regulated for particulate filtration efficiency and they do not form an adequate seal to the wearers face to be relied upon for respiratory protection.

Limited Evidence, Divergent Views

Sietsema, who recently reviewed the evidence on masks for the University of Minnesotas Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, recommends N95 respirators for health care workers interacting with COVID-19 patients, but doesnt think theres enough evidence to support a broader masking policy that includes healthy people.

Masks might be able to reduce transmission by capturing the larger droplets infected people spew, but that only applies if a person is symptomatic, she said, and she argues that anyone with symptoms shouldnt be in public spaces anyway.

I do not believe a mask would reduce transmission prior to being symptomatic because air will never choose a path of more resistance (going through the mask)  it will simply go around the mask, she said in an email.

She also expressed concern that mask recommendations would lead people to ease up on social distancing and could complicate efforts to preserve surgical masks for frontline health care workers.

Other scientists, however, disagree, and say that while masks wont be fully effective, they are likely to be better than nothing.

Benjamin Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong, doesnt buy the idea that surgical masks have no utility for the general public.

Certainly I could believe they would work /better/ when used by healthcare workers, particularly when used in combination with other protective equipment and behaviors, he said in an email, but it is a big jump to say they are essential when worn by healthcare workers but useless when worn by others.

In a just-published study Cowling co-authored in Nature Medicine, researchers found that surgical masks reduced the amount of respiratory virus people expelled while breathing and coughing into a specialized machine.

Previously, another study by Cowling and others using a similar setup found that surgical masks reduced the amount of influenza RNA researchers could detect from both small and larger respiratory droplets. The effect was much stronger for larger droplets, but the study indicates the masks can reduce aerosols to a limited degree.

These types of studies suggest surgical masks can limit the spread of respiratory viruses in theory, but they are still a step away from showing that masks are an effective public health measure in the general population.

After all, in practical use, masks could be detrimental if people let up on social distancing, end up touching their faces more, or if they constantly touch the outside of the mask, which could be contaminated.

Even those who support wider public mask use acknowledge that this type of direct evidence is lacking. In a Lancet Respiratory Medicine commentary article advocating more rational use of face masks to fight COVID-19, the authors described the available evidence as scarce.

While some studies have evaluated a variety of face masks in hospitals or other heath care contexts, relatively few have tested whether face masks are effective in the community  and the ones that do exist have been inconsistent or have not observed large effects.

Cowling, for instance, told us the best evidence would come from randomized controlled trials, and directed us to his systematic review of 10 trials testing face masks for their ability to limit flu transmission in places such as households or dorms. Although a number of the trials struggled with getting people to actually wear the masks  suggesting that with higher compliance, there might be an impact  the review found no significant reduction in influenza transmission with the use of face masks. Many of the trials, too, were too small to come to any firm conclusions.

Based on the summary of the randomized control trials, there may be some, but not very large, effects, said Elaine Shuo Feng, a statistician and epidemiologist at the University of Oxford and the lead author of the Lancet Respiratory Medicine commentary, in an interview.

Still, she thought it was prudent for countries to begin considering face masks. Not enough evidence doesnt mean the intervention itself is not effective, Feng said. And in this situation, I think the best way is to rely on all the available non-pharmaceutical interventions.

Cloth and DIY Masks

Compared with surgical masks or respirators, very little research has been done on cloth masks.

In 2015, researchers published the first randomized controlled trial of cloth masks, and found that hospital workers in Vietnam were 13 times more likely to come down with an influenza-like illness when wearing a cloth mask rather than a disposable surgical one.

The cloth mask group also had higher rates of respiratory infection than the control group, which sometimes wore surgical masks per the hospitals standard practice. However, because there wasnt a group that wore no masks at all, the researchers couldnt tell whether cloth masks still might have provided some protection to wearers.

he finding of a much higher rate of infection in the cloth mask arm, the authors wrote, could be interpreted as harm caused by cloth masks, efficacy of medical masks, or most likely a combination of both.

A few other studies have looked into how well certain fabrics or designs fare in the lab at blocking droplet and particle transmission. But as the authors of the trial in Vietnam noted in an article addressing their papers relevance to COVID-19, none of these masks have been tested in a clinical trial.

A 2013 study testing household materials for masks found that cotton T-shirts likely had some ability to filter out bacteria and viruses, but the masks were far less effective than surgical masks. The group concluded that a homemade mask would be better than no mask, but should only be considered as a last resort.

In a more rigorous 2010 test, researchers with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health bombarded T-shirts, towels, sweatshirts and scarves with nanoparticles to evaluate the filtration potential of DIY mask fabrics. While the materials performance paled in comparison to an N95 respirator and the authors noted that they provide only marginal respiratory protection, most fabrics caught at least some of the particles.

Linsey Marr, a Virginia Tech engineering professor who studies virus transmission, cautioned that people should not rely on homemade masks to prevent inhalation of viruses in the air, but she had some practical tips for those pursuing their own designs.

The material should be thick and densely woven, like a kitchen towel or heavyweight t-shirt, and the mask should fit tightly around the nose and mouth with no gaps, she told us in an email.

As the National Academy of Sciences explains in a 2006 report on the possible use of improvised face masks during a pandemic, a tighter fabric structure may do a better job of filtration, but does have some trade-offs. s the tightness of the structure increases, the breathing resistance increases, thereby affecting the users comfort while using the device, the report says, noting this may affect usage.

If You Wear a Mask

For those who choose to wear a mask, Feng recommended learning the proper technique to reduce accidental infection from the mask itself. As demonstrated in a WHO video, the key is to not to touch the outside of the mask  and to wash your hands if you do.

The CDC also offers advice and a few patterns for those creating their own masks.

But most critically, dont think a mask protects you or exempts you from social distancing or hand washing. As Feng told us, its better to stay home.


Grupo Modelo, which produces and exports several popular Mexican beer brands, including Corona, Pacifico and Modelo, will be temporarily suspending production and sales after its breweries were deemed non-essential by the Mexican government.

The company posted the announcement on Twitter, stating it is halting production and pledging its total commitment to slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

Grupo Modelo announces that this Sunday it will complete the process of suspending its production and marketing operations for beer, according to their press release. The company added that the suspension was part of an agreement with Mexicos federal government, as one of many extraordinary actions to attend to the health emergency generated by SARS-VoC2 virus.

The Mexico brewery has already donated 300,000 bottles of hand sanitizer for distribution to hospitals and medicals centers. Further efforts toward fighting the fighting are expected to come soon as well.

Earlier this week, Mexico declared a health emergency after surpassing 1,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country, according to a Reuters report. By Thursday, the country reported at least 1,500 cases and 50 deaths.
By Sam Richards

Bay City News Foundation

MARTINEZ (BCN)

The city of Martinez and a Texas-based real estate company have formally agreed to keep negotiating for a sale of 297 acres of hilly land south of state Highway 4 -- part of it believed to have been part of environmentalist John Muir's estate -- for preservation as open space.

The Martinez City Council, at an April 1 special meeting, approved an agreement to continue negotiations with the Richfield Real Estate Corporation for a sale of the hilly land between Alhambra Avenue and Alhambra Valley Road to the city. It is about a mile south of the home of Muir, which is now a National Park Service historical site.

The newest agreement runs until mid-July, and could be extended into January 2021.

Martinez and Richfield (and Richfield's predecessor company Richland Development Corp. have had a long history with this piece of land. Richland originally approached the city in July 1990 with the first housing plan for that land.

In July 2011, the City Council approved Alhambra Highlands, a 109-single-family-home development on 76 acres within the 297-acre parcel. But there were delays in construction, with a soft housing market at the time, and physical challenges in building on the hilly terrain.

Richfield then agreed to delay project grading until at least April 2014 to give outside parties time to explore buying the land to keep it as open space. No such parties stepped up.

In July 2016, five years after the Richfield housing project was approved, city officials began talks with the Texas-based developer to buy the land to preserve as open space. To date, the city and Richfield have not been able to come to terms on a sale.

Area conservationists have long been encouraging this sale. A small part of the 297 acres is believed to have originally belonged to environmentalist Muir, and they see Alhambra Highlands as a link in the envisioned John Muir Heritage Trail, a 17-mile loop incorporating existing trails in nearby Briones Regional Park, the John Muir National Historic Site (Mount Wanda) and surrounding areas.

Meanwhile, plans for the housing project remain alive, with Richfield proceeding with various approvals needed to build.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
People wearing protective suits is seen at a street market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on April 6, 2020. (Aly Song/Reuters)

A City Traumatized: Lockdown Easing, Wuhan Residents Fret Over Future

WUHAN, ChinaLi Xiaoli has been hard at work in recent days at the car dealership she owns in Wuhan, making sure she has enough sanitizer and protective gear for the companys long-awaited reopening.

The 49-year-olds home city will on April 8 finally start to lift a lockdown that has trapped millions for more than two months after the Chinese industrial powerhouse became the epicenter of a global CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.

People will be allowed to leave the city via road, rail and air, and more non-essential businesses will open their doors again, providing the first glimpse of what life could be like after a lockdown.

But conversations with residents like Li and others suggest that it is far from simple. Many are still coming to terms with the scars of an outbreak.

Some are counting the costs of lengthy business shutdowns, while others still fear infection, especially from asymptomatic patients, and are reluctant to leave their homes.

People wearing face masks buy vegetables at a street market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on April 6, 2020. (Aly Song/Reuters)

It is also unclear what the Chinese regime plans to do to rejuvenate the city, how it will commemorate what residents now describe as a great calamity, and whether more will be done to hold the city government accountable for the outbreaks severity. The Wuhan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When I heard about the lifting of the lockdown, I didnt feel particularly happy, said Guo Jing, a resident who runs a hotline for women facing workplace discrimination. I actually felt very anxious. There are many issues that we are not sure can be resolved: employment, will patients continue to experience long-term effects, and for those who died, how will we remember them?

Threat of Extinction

Reminders that Wuhans fight against the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, is far from over are everywhere.

Tall barriers surround many housing compounds, with signs plastered at gateways asking people to display green mobile phone health codes or present documents showing a valid reason to go out. There is little evidence those restrictions will be loosened soon.

Although shops and restaurants have started reopening across much of China, thousands remain shut in Wuhan.

A girl wearing a face mask crosses a barricade in Wuhan, Chinas central Hubei Province on April 7, 2020. (Noel Celis /AFP) via Getty Images)

There are big pressures of course, Li said, adding that she counts herself lucky that she was able to continue paying wages throughout the shutdown.

A letter published online last week by more than 160 hospitality firms asked the Wuhan government for rental rebates, loan assistance and wage support, saying the CCP virus and its after effects posed the threat of extinction, to more than 80,000 businesses.

Cancellations across the city for the traditional reunion dinner, which took place just after the Jan. 23 lockdown on the eve of the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, amounted to about 1 billion yuan in losses in a single day, the letter said.

Consumer confidence will take a long time to recover, the letter said. It was a sentiment many in Wuhan echoed.

English teacher Kuang Li said he planned to stay home long beyond Wednesday, until he is asked to return to work.

Personally Im still scared of the virus, and I feel that the outdoors still isnt safe, Kuang said.

A resident volunteer hands over vegetables to a resident outside a community in Wuhan in central Chinas Hubei Province, China, on April 6, 2020. (Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Trauma Just Beginning

The mental toll and social stigma faced by recovered patients and Wuhan residents are also lingering questions.

Many people Reuters interviewed on Wuhans streets over the past week wept while recounting their experience.

Residents sought to cope with the lockdown in different ways, some by immersing themselves in hobbies like cooking, others by engaging in daily prayer meetings online. Panic, fear and helplessness were common emotions.

Du Mingjun, who set up a 24-hour mental health hotline when the lockdown started, said it had received roughly 2,300 calls, some from medical workers, but most from ordinary citizens who had been quarantined or were trying to adjust. She plans to carry on the hotlines work for a while longer.

For some groups of people, the trauma might be just starting, she said.

By Brenda Goh

Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.
Hyderabad, April 7 : A Hyderabad-based vaccine maker and an Australian university have joined forces to develop a prophylatic, active, single-dose immunisation against coronavirus.

In this cross-continental collaboration, scientists from Indian Immunologicals Ltd and Griffith University (Australia) will develop a 'Live Attenuated SARS - CoV-2 vaccine' or Covid-19 vaccine using the latest codon de-optimisation technology.

The vaccine is expected to provide long-lasting protection with a single dose administration with an anticipated safety profile similar to other licensed vaccines for active immunization.

Indian Immunologicals Ltd Managing Director, Dr K. Anand Kumar, said: "IIL is committed to addressing critical public health needs by engaging in this research collaboration. The mission at IIL is to develop and supply vaccines that support the One Health initiative. IIL has taken up this initiative to develop a vaccine candidate for the pandemic - COVID-19. IIL's leadership in producing safe and affordable human and veterinary vaccines will enable us to progress well in this endeavour." On completion of research, the vaccine strain is to be transferred to IIL, who will work on clinical trials with the country's regulator, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, to further conduct clinical trials which will be taken up in a phased manner.

Professor Suresh Mahalingam, of the Menzies Health Institute at Griffith University, said: "As this vaccine will be a live attenuated vaccine, it is expected to be highly effective by providing very strong cellular and antibody immune responses against the virus. The other benefit of a live-attenuated vaccine is a proven track record for economical large-scale manufacturing and well-known regulatory approval pathway." Headquartered at Hyderabad, IIL intends to use its existing Vero cell platform technology for mass production of the vaccine.

Indian Immunologicals Ltd is the market leader in veterinary biologicals and the third largest animal health and human health player in India. Set up by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1982, it pursues a one health approach to improve and extend lives. IIL is one of the largest producers of Foot and Mouth disease vaccine in the world and was the first company in India - and the second globally - to launch the purified Vero cell rabies vaccine for humans (PVRV).
Hyderabad, April 7 : India's youngest state Telangana, like other states and countries, is celebrating World Health Day on Tuesday at a time when COVID-19 has brought everything to a standstill and impacted even the delivery of healthcare services to non-COVID patients.

With 11 deaths and nearly 400 COVID-19 positive cases, Telangana is one of the states with a high number of infections.

However, health experts say as the first state to order a total lockdown and with effective implementation of the restrictions and social distancing it is showing the way to many other states in the country.

In its nearly six-year journey as a state, Telangana has improved in many public health parameters.

In the overall health index rankings released by the National Institution of Transforming India (NITI) Aayog last year, Telangana was in the 10th position among 21 larger Indian states. It improved its ranking by a notch compared to 2018.

The state ranked amongst the top three states for two consecutive years (2018 and 2019) in providing better medical care through public sector health facilities.

Though Telangana performed well in key health indicators such as Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) and under-five mortality rate, its performance was found wanting in other key indicators such as sex ratio at birth and low birth weight among newborns.

Among the southern states, Telangana is lagging behind Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

"Overall in the country southern states are doing very well compared to other states. If you compare with the best, may be Telangana has to further move up the ladder but it is reasonably okay and on track," Dr S. Shantha Kumari, President Elect, Federation of Obstetrics & Gynaecological Society of India, told IANS.

Health department authorities pointed out that the government's initiatives during the last six years were focused on improving the reproductive and child healthcare services.

According to Socio Economic Outlook 2020 of the state, Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) has reduced from 92 in 2013 to 76 in 2017. The IMR has steadily declined from 34 in the year 2014 to 29 in the year 2017 and Under-5 Mortality Rate decreased from 40 in the year 2014 to 32 in the year 2017.

The introduction of a 'KCR Kit' scheme (with cash and kind support for items necessary for pregnant women for a safe delivery) has increased the institutional deliveries in public institutions from 31 per cent to 60 per cent.

The latest official figures for MMR are yet to come out but Shantha Kumari believes it has come down to below 70. "If the same trend continues the state can bring it down to a single digit to be on par with the European countries." As the burden of non-communicable diseases is at about 60 per cent, the government plans to conduct awareness activities, which will be carried out on a large scale through Health and Wellness Centres (HWC) to sensitize people on lifestyle diseases.

The state is implementing the Aarogyasri Scheme (AS), a unique government sponsored health insurance scheme with the aim to assist families below the poverty line and protect them against a 'catastrophic' health expenditure.

The state has 1064 health facilities with beds, seven teaching hospitals and 14 specialty hospitals, 31 districts hospitals, 19 area hospitals.

Hyderabad, a major metropolis, has the biggest concentration of health facilities both public and private.

"Rural Telangana probably needs upgradation of medical services," feels Suchitra Ella, Joint Managing Director, Bharat Biotech, a leading vaccine maker.

Telangana had 10 districts at the time of its formation in 2014 but they were recently reorganized into 33 districts. Suchitra Ella believes bifurcated districts would facilitate better administration and better health services.

"Hyderabad has a good reputation of private and public medical services. The city is known for the best of the health services and medical treatment," said Suchitra.

She believes that Hyderabad has the added advantage of a strong backbone of pharma and vaccine industry. "No other city has half a dozen large numbers of human vaccine manufacturers and a strong pharma industry. Hyderabad has the unique advantage." The fairly good infrastructure in public health institutions in Hyderabad has come handy for the state to deal with the COVID-19 situation. Gandhi Hospital, one of the biggest teaching hospitals in the state, has been turned into the nodal centre to deal with the cases. The Institute of Preventive Medicine, known as Fever Hospital, and Chest Hospital are also tackling the suspected cases.

(Mohammed Shafeeq can be contacted at mohammed.s@ians.in)
Investors will be glad to see the back of the first three months of 2020, after the coronavirus outbreak meant that the first quarter of the year proved brutal.

In the UK, the month of March saw some of the biggest daily drops in the FTSE 100's history, but the second biggest one-day fall on record was also accompanied by the second greatest one-day rise.

But how have the world's leading stock markets fared against the UK and each other since the coronavirus started making headlines at the start of the year?

The FTSE All Share has been one of the worst-hit stock markets across the globe since the start of the year, while the MSCI China has been among the least impacted

Market performance from 1 January to 1 April by total return Region Index Total Return (%) UK FTSE All-Share -25.13 Europe MSCI Europe ex UK -20.22 US S&P 500 -14.53 Emerging Markets MSCI Emerging Markets -20.57 Japan Topix -14.80 Asia ex Japan MSCI AC Asia ex Japan -15.01 China MSCI China -6.20 Source: FE Analytics

The bad news for many British investors who will have a fair dollop of home bias in their portfolios is that the UK has been among the hardest hit of major global stock markets since the start of 2020

The FTSE All-Share index, which is broader than the headline-grabbing FTSE 100, racked up a total return including dividend payouts of minus 25.1 per cent between the start of the year and end of March.

That's considerably worse than the US S&P 500, which had a minus 14.5 per cent total return and even the MSCI Europe excluding UK measure of the continent's major listed firms, which was down 20.2 per cent.

Over the same period, the MSCI Emerging Markets index was down 20.6 per cent, while Japan and Asia excluding Japan were down about 15 per cent, but China, where Covid 19 first emerged was down just 6.2 per cent.

The FTSE 100 suffered its second worst day in its history on Thursday 12 March, followed by its second-highest rise just five days later

The UK stock market's rollercoaster ride

This year has been tough for investors and March was a particularly tumultuous month.

The week of 16 March began with some of the worst market drops in years, with the FTSE 100 down 8.5 per cent on the Monday.

Worse came on Thursday that week however after the World Health Organisation officially declared the outbreak of Covid-19 a pandemic the night before.

The UK's blue-chip index fell an eye-watering 10.9 per cent - its second greatest one-day drop in its history - and it was a similar story across the world, with US stocks down 9.5 per cent, and Europe down 12.4 per cent.

Different steps to manage the pandemic by governments had a knock-on effect on sectors through the month, such as individual national lockdowns and the ban on travel from Europe by the US, which had major consequences for airlines, tourism and business.

The UK Government also held its Budget in March announcing the first of critical contingency plans to manage the economic hit of the virus, with further measures to support employees - paying 80 per cent wages inf companies put them on furlough - and the self-employed emerging over the month.

As with any unknown situation, the slightest bit of clarity can make the biggest difference, which was proven on 24 March - the morning after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the strict new measures for people in the UK to stay at home.

This coincided with the closing of Donald Trump's deal with Congress to shore up the US economy in the face of the outbreak.

The FTSE 100 jumped 9 per cent, or 452.12 points, to 5446.01, its second-biggest daily rise since its inception, despite warnings that Britain was heading for 'a recession of the scale we have not seen in modern history'.

At the end of trading on 6 April, the FTSE All Share was down 27.5 per cent on its mid-January peak.

Over the past decade, investors in the UK's stock market indices are still up, but the past three months have wiped out a sizeable chunk of their gains

Don't panic sell in the storm This is the first global stock market decline of its kind in that it has been prompted by a health pandemic, but experts urge investors to remain calm and not make any knee-jerk reactions. 'Longstanding investors who recall the Russian debt crisis, the Dot Com bubble and the Global Financial Crisis, will know that market will eventually recover, that it doesnt make sense to panic sell in the eye of the storm and that times of turmoil do in fact present buying opportunities,' warned Jason Hollands, of Tilney. 'While markets are likely to remain volatile in the near term, Im in no doubt that the impact of the coronavirus on financial markets will be transitory. Weve seen such big day to day swings, up as well as down, trying to trade around short term moves is a mugs game. 'However, for investors focused on the longer-term  whether markets rise or fall next week  at these levels there are clearly opportunities for those able to feed cash in.'

China fares best in Asia

Despite being the original epicentre of the outbreak of the virus, China was one of the best performers between January and April, with the MSCI China down by 6.2 per cent since 1 January in total return terms.

The biggest drop the index saw was 8.1 per cent on 16 March - when almost all markets across the globe were hit.

Jason Hollands of Tilney said: 'This might surprise those unfamiliar with the shape of markets and who have read about the massive economic disruption in China.

'It was the first country to be hit by the virus but current indications are that the outbreak may have peaked, with no new growth in infections in recent days. South Korea, which was also impacted early on, has seen infection rates decline.

'Market sentiment is clearly highly sensitive to data developments and news flow at the moment and it is the escalation of cases in the developed nations and response of authorities that is driving bearish sentiment.

'But dont forget, this can work both ways round and any perceived turning point over the coming weeks in stemming the spread of the virus or it peaking, will likely help reset market sentiment.'

Japan, which has so far recorded only 85 deaths, has been hit worse in stock market terms with the TOPIX down by almost 15 per cent.

Europe suffers

With the world's highest death tolls from the coronavirus recorded in Italy and Spain, Europe is now considered the new epicentre of the pandemic.

The MSCI Europe excluding UK index fell 20.2 per cent between the start of the year and end of April.

Drilling down further, both Germany and France were down 22 per cent, while Spain and Italy were down 25 per cent, according to FE Analytics.
Authorities in Illinois said a couple found dead in a Chicago suburban home has been ruled a murder-suicide.

Investigators working on the case said that apparently the man killed his girlfriend and later turned the gun on himself because he feared she had contracted the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus and infected him with the disease, according to a press release from the Will County Sheriffs Office (WCSO).

WCSO deputies were dispatched to the home for a welfare check around 8 p.m. Thursday on Bruce Road in Lockport Township after the parents of Patrick Jesernik worried after not hearing from their son.

Police said that arriving officers found two separate individuals at the residence lying on the floor with obvious signs of trauma to their heads.

The bodies were identified as 54-year-old Jesernik and his girlfriend, 59-year-old Cheryl Schriefer.

Both of the deceased were found with a pool of blood formed around their heads in separate rooms inside the residence, according to the release.

An autopsy was performed and revealed the couple both died as a result of a single gunshot wound to the head.

Officials concluded that Jesernik had shot his girlfriend at close range in the back of her head before shooting himself.

A loaded revolver containing two spent shell casings and three live rounds were located near Patricks body, the statement said. There were no signs of a struggle, and the home was neat and orderly.

Families arriving on the scene said Jesernik prompted the fear that he and Schriefer had contracted the CCP virus. His girlfriend was tested just two days ago after she was having a hard time breathing.

The couples family said Jesernik and Schriefer had not received their test results yet, but this was not confirmed and was just to their own knowledge.

Authorities said at the time of the autopsy they both tested negative to COVID-19.

During the current CCP virus pandemic, officials at the WCSO said the vast majority of 911 calls so far involved domestic disputes and crisis intervention calls.

Some experts fear that the further the COVID-19 crisis spreads across the United States, and the more people are placed under lockdown, a surge in domestic violence is possible.

The WCSO said in the release that when anyone is a victim of a domestic violence situation, the Will County Courthouse remains open for individuals in need of obtaining an order of protection.

Chicago is currently under a stay-at-home order that will last until at least April 30. Currently, the most populous city in Illinois has confirmed 5,043 CCP virus cases as of April 6, according to the official City of Chicago website.
President Donald Trump has approved New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's request to treat COVID-19 patients on the the Navy hospital ship the UNS Comfort docked in Manhattan.

Cuomo had told reporters on Monday that he was 'going to call the president this afternoon and ask him to shift the USNS Comfort from non-COVID to COVID'.

In New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in US, the number of cases continue to skyrocket and hospitals are scrambling to keep up with the demand.

According to the chair of the New York City Council Health Committee, the death toll is actually even higher than reported because not all of the dead are being tested for the virus amid a shortage of kits.

Hours after Cuomo's interview, Trump confirmed that he spoke with the governor and agreed to use the ship, originally intended to take in non-COVID patients from overwhelmed hospitals, for coronavirus patients.

President Donald Trump announced Monday he has approved New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's request to treat COVID-19 patients on the the Navy hospital ship the UNS Comfort docked in Manhattan

The USNS Comfort arrived in New York City on March 30 to take in non COVID-19 patients to alleviate the burden of New York and area hospitals . The ship pictured docked at Pier 90 on Manhattan's Upper West Side on April 3

'We hadn't had that in mind at all, but we're going to let him do it,' Trump said Monday.

'It's set for Covid,' the president said, adding that the ship has been approved to treat New Jersey patients as well.

The USNS Comfort, a beacon of hope for the East Coast, arrived in New York City on March 30.

'That was not supposed to be for the virus at all and under circumstances, it looks like more and more we'll be using it for that,' Trump said Sunday. 'The ship is ready and if we need it for the virus, we'll use it for that.'

Despite Trumps announcement Monday, Joint Staff Surgeon Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs, the top medical doctor for the military, said the ship was already treating coronavirus patients.

'That was not supposed to be for the virus at all and under circumstances, it looks like more and more we'll be using it for that,' Trump said Sunday. 'The ship is ready and if we need it for the virus, we'll use it for that.'

However the military's top doctor says that the Comfort has already begun to treat coronavirus patients, prior to Trump's announcement

He stated: 'Our commitment has been that if a patient comes to us, we would take care of them.'

'Have we had patients who ultimately were determined to have coronavirus on the hospital ships? Yes. And we're taking care of them, just like we're taking care of all the other patients going forward,' Friedrichs added.

So far the Comfort has treated fewer than five coronavirus patients, a defense official said to CNN.

In total the Comfort has treated 41 patients.

The ship has come under fire for seeing so few patients despite the dire need for medical experts to combat the coronavirus outbreak on the shore.

Despite the drastic demand, there are currently some 1,200 crew aboard the USNS Comfort who are idle, with a lack of patients due to the strict protocols in place that has seen them refuse to take certain medical conditions.

The ship was initially refusing coronavirus patients and had a list of 49 other medical conditions they would not treat on board, but did not disclose what those were.

As reported by the New York Times, an outbreak on board the Comfort would be disastrous and would quickly spread, cutting off the ship's operations.

All crew are required to stay on board through the duration of the mission to New York and were forced to go into a 14-day isolation before it began to ensure they had no symptoms.

In the Big Apple the number of cases has soared to 72,181 and 3,485 deaths.

According to the chair of the New York City Council Health Committee Mark D. Levine, the death toll is much greater than reported because not all of the dead entering the city's morgues were tested for the virus prior to their passing

According to the chair of the New York City Council Health Committee Mark D. Levine, the death toll is much greater than reported because not all of the dead entering the city's morgues were tested for the virus prior to their passing.

'Early on in this crisis we were able to swab people who died at home, and thus got a coronavirus reading. But those days are long gone. We simply don't have the testing capacity for the large numbers dying at home,' he noted.

'Now only those few who had a test confirmation *before* dying are marked as victims of coronavirus on their death certificate. This almost certainly means we are undercounting the total number of victims of this pandemic,' Levine added.

'And still the number of bodies continues to increase. The freezers at OCME facilities in Manhattan and Brooklyn will soon be full. And then what?'

'To recap: Nothing matters more in this crisis than saving the living. But we need to face the gruesome reality that we need more resources to manage our dead as well. Or the pain of this crisis will be compounded almost beyond comprehension,' he added.
Detectives have arrested an on-the-run thug who was wanted over a violent knife attack which left another man in a critical condition.

A 25-year-old man suffered serious injuries to his chest and lung after being knifed in the Inchicore area of Dublin last week.

Gardai quickly identified a suspect aged in his mid-30s and closely associated with gangland target Michael Frazer.

Frazer survived six attempted murders between March 2014 and August 2017.

The knife suspect was arrested on Sunday night on suspicion of carrying out a knifepoint robbery in the Bluebell area earlier that evening.

Frazer's pal was detained in possession of a blade and cash after allegedly robbing two people along the canal.

He is being held in relation to the incident but will also be quizzed over the violent knife attack last week.

"The victim is involved in criminality and hasn't made a statement to date and is unlikely to," a source told the Herald.

"But excellent CCTV which shows the attack has been recovered, and detectives are working towards bringing charges in the investigation."

The Herald previously revealed that the man injured in the stabbing is a dangerous mobster from the Drimnagh area who issued threats from his hospital bed in the aftermath of the attack. The young thug is well-known to gardai, having been jailed for firearms offences in the past.

He is an associate of Kinahan cartel killer James Quinn.

Quinn (36), from the capital's south inner city, is serving a 22-year jail sentence in Spain for the September 2015 gun murder of Gary Hutch - the murder which started the Hutch/Kinahan feud.

Revenge

His associate is understood to have suffered a punctured lung after being stabbed with a large knife and was treated in a Dublin hospital's intensive care unit but has since been discharged.

After his release, gardai received credible intelligence he was actively seeking revenge.

Gardai are investigating a possible motive for the violent knife attack, including that it was over a stolen batch of heroin.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia imposed on Monday a 24-hour curfew in the capital Riyadh and a number of cities effective immediately and until further notice, as a precautionary measure against coronavirus spread, state news agency (SPA) reported.

The cities are Tabuk, Dammam, Dhahran, Al-Hofuf, Jeddah, Taif, Al-Qatif, Al-Khobar. Entry and exit between cities is still under ban. Residents are allowed to leave their houses only for essential needs inside their residential area, and between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. only, SPA added.

(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Adamu Mohammed, a brother of Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, has regained freedom from his abductors.

The victim, popularly called Yaya Adamu, was kidnapped on March 25.

The Chief of Staff to the Bauchi governor, Ladan Salihu, shared clips of Mr Mohammeds reunion with his family Tuesday evening.

Another family member who confirmed the release also shared photographs of Mr Mohammeds moments with his family members and sympathisers.

The abduction occurred on March 25 at a local shop Mr Mohammed frequents.

The unknown gunmen swooped on their target and left without any resistance.

Bauchi police spokesperson, Kamal Darri, had told PREMIUM TIMES that the kidnappers did not immediately make contact for any ransom.

This newspaper is unable to ascertain if ransom was eventually paid before the mans release from his abductors.
Perhaps the most poignant dynamic in the upcoming Netflix film Tigertail is the arranged marriage between impoverished Taiwanese factory worker Pin-Jui and Zhenzhen, his factory boss daughter.

Depictions of such relationships often remain archaic: the husband an oppressive, dominating figure, the wife a subservient, quiet caregiver. But writer and director Alan Yang told NBC News in a phone interview from his Los Angeles home that he sought to complicate the concept of the arranged marriage by giving the spouses more equal weight in the storyline and drawing from his observations of his own mother.

My goal in creating any show or movie is really to just be as empathetic as possible to every character and treat every character as if they're the main character of the movie, Yang said. I think one of the reasons I was able to do that in this movie is because in some ways that represents my mom," he said of Zhenzhen.

"It's not literally her, but I know what my mom went through and I know what happened after my parents got divorced. And I know how hard she worked and how she built her own life in this country and put herself through college and became a teacher.

Image: Alan Yang (Earl Gibson III / Getty Images file)

While many Asian Americans from immigrant families are aware of the massive upheaval their parents endured en route to the United States, they are often unfamiliar with the full breadth of loss tied to the old country and the trauma of adjusting to foreign surroundings. Detailed accounts of parents frequently devastating experiences are kept mysteries, locked away behind a complicated mix of cultural barriers and a will to forge ahead in their new world.

They dont have the tools. Its not necessarily their fault, Yang explained. Its the way they were raised.

Tigertail, Yangs self-proclaimed love letter to his family, takes an intimate look at Pin-Jui, a Taiwanese immigrant  the younger version played by Hong-Chi Lee and current version portrayed by Tzi Ma  the love he left behind in his home country, and the generational gap in communication within his family. The director, whose movie is a heavily fictionalized portrayal of his own fathers coming to America story, said that the project was an organic part of deepening his own understanding of his parents lives and humanizing them beyond their roles as authority figures.

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Making the movie went hand-in-hand with a process of getting to know my parents better already  We were on that trajectory and the movie helped. I think there's no doubt about that, Yang said. I think it's a two-way street. It's me reaching out and being more open with them and them doing the same with me, and I feel closer to them than ever before. ... It's becoming an adult and realizing that your parents are people, too.

Told through a series of flashbacks to a young Pin-Juis life in Taiwan and his early years in America, Tigertail is littered with distinctive cultural references woven together by Taiwanese, Mandarin and English.

As specific as the arranged marriage reference feels in a Hollywood movie, Yang says he didnt feel pressured to bend away from the cultural marker, or any of the others in the film, or make the film more palatable to those outside the Asian community. He argues that audiences may not have any historical knowledge of Taiwan, or skill in Mandarin or Chinese, but can value raw and real material.

There's something about the real thing and having some level of authenticity that people respond to, he said. I watched this movie The Battle of Algiers the other day. It's one of the masterpieces. I didn't know very much about the Algerian War, but you watch it, you get the people who made the movie knew what they were doing and they did the research and you feel safe in their hands, and then you can start following the human emotional stories that are taking place in that context.

Yang admits that its an odd time to promote a movie, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic still affecting populations across the world. Its even more so daunting to be sharing a very Asian American story during a time in which hate attacks toward those in the community have been on the rise. Ma himself was outside a grocery store in Pasadena, California, when a driver rolled down his window and told him that he should be quarantined.

But maybe, Yang said, a movie like Tigertail is timely given the surreal circumstances so many are living in. It can give the Asian American community some sense of unity, he believes.

I had really wished that the country had progressed beyond this point, but it clearly hasn't, he said. I think that film can be a way for Asian Americans to come together and watch something that reinforces their strength and their perseverance and their level of sacrifice and coming to this country.

For those outside the Asian American community, Yang said there are universal themes that transcend race.

You know, it's about how we show love to our families, how we talk to the people we love, how we're honest with them, or not honest with them and vulnerable with them or not vulnerable with them, he said. It's a universal story of love and passion and love lost and regret.
There is life beyond covid-19 for the great majority of people who have been infected by the coronavirus. But the escape from this pathogen is a journey fraught with uncertainties, starting with the most basic question: "Am I really over it?"

Does being recovered according to government guidelines mean a person is definitely no longer infectious? Does having covid-19 once mean you have immunity to the disease? If so, for how long?

Such questions have vexed Ritchie Torres, 32, a New York City Council member from the Bronx. He has been through the full course of the disease, and his doctor has declared him recovered. He no longer has to self-quarantine and can assume he's immune to further infection, his doctor said.

Yet Torres remained holed up in his apartment.

"When you're possibly carrying a deadly virus, there's no margin for error. So the safest thing to do is to assume the worst and stay home," Torres said.

In the war against the coronavirus, recovery is an example of "the fog of war," as Torres puts it. He's not alone in feeling apprehensive and uncertain. Survivors don't really know where they stand with the virus. Some may still be rattled, emotionally, psychologically, and can face stigmatization as they reenter what passes for society these days.

This is a new, still-enigmatic disease. Virologists have scrutinized the genome of the virus and found it sufficiently similar to the SARS coronavirus that caused a 2003 epidemic in China that they simply named it SARS-CoV-2. But this new virus behaves differently. For those who get infected, it's less likely to result in death than its viral cousin. Yet it spreads far more efficiently, and often stealthily.

The incubation period lasts roughly five or six days on average, and a person can shed virus for a day or two before becoming symptomatic, epidemiologists believe. By the time an infected person feels sick and goes into isolation or treatment, the virus may have already laid hold of several other people.

The symptoms, which may include fever, fatigue, headaches, muscle aches, coughing and loss of smell, are caused by the body's immune system trying to thwart the virus. Those symptoms don't shut off automatically once the virus is largely obliterated. Whether and to what extent a person remains infectious after the symptoms are gone is unclear.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published guidelines for when a person who has been self-isolating at home with covid-19 can cease doing so. The guidelines feature two paths to recovery. One is when a person receives two negative covid-19 tests at least 24 hours apart. But as everyone knows by now, it has not always been easy to get even one test, much less two.

Thus, the CDC also embraces a second standard for discontinuing self-quarantine, which the agency dubs the "Time-since-illness-onset and time-since-recovery strategy": A person can stop self-isolating if fever-free for three days without the use of fever-reducing medication, has seen "improvement" in respiratory symptoms such as cough and shortness of breath, and at least seven days have passed since the onset of symptoms.

The CDC guidelines include a footnote that reflects the uncertainties about the virus: "This recommendation will prevent most but may not prevent all instances of secondary spread. The risk of transmission after recovery, is likely substantially less than that during illness."

The CDC has not published data for how it came up with its guidelines for patients, which echo the guidelines established for health-care workers who have contracted the virus and are needed back on the job.

The gold standard for determining if a patient is no longer infectious would be a cell culture, in which isolated virus would be placed in cells to see if it could still reproduce, said Andrew Noymer, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Irvine. But that's highly labor-intensive and expensive, Noymer said.

"There is no way - zero way - we can do viral cell culture at wide scale," he said.

That leaves, for now, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which are capable of detecting tiny traces of the coronavirus. They can be hair-trigger sensitive, however, Noymer notes. The presence of a minute scrap of coronavirus genetic material can register as a "positive" result even if the patient is no longer infectious. The presence of virus particles does not necessarily mean that the virus is still viable.

Amid these uncertainties, covid-19 patients may lack confidence they've left the coronavirus behind.

"People are sending mixed signals when you are allowed to leave quarantine," said Noah, who tested positive for the coronavirus in early March. (Noah, who works in sales in New York City, spoke on the condition that his last name not be used because of stigma related to having the virus.)

When he came down with the illness, his chest tightened dramatically, forcing him to use his asthma inhaler for the first time in years. Early-morning chills were so severe he took hot showers at 4 a.m. Noah and his wife did not leave their apartment for 12 days.

Noah's doctor said Noah could exit quarantine after 72 hours passed without symptoms. But the building managers where he lives requested that Noah receive additional tests to confirm he was virus-free. Noah has declined to ask for them, believing the limited supply of tests should go to other people.

"We're basically inside for 23 hours a day," he said. He leaves his apartment to exercise and complies with New York's physical-distancing rules. He asked to donate his blood plasma at Mount Sinai Hospital but has not heard back. When he contacted medical professionals about opportunities to volunteer, their messages were clear, he said: "Just stay in my house."

Julie Thalyer, a 57-year-old kindergarten teacher, was part of the outbreak in New Rochelle, New York. Her illness started with a fever and chills March 7, and she did not feel better until March 20. She was taken to a hospital emergency room twice when she found herself gasping for air.

After being discharged, she was told by doctors to self-isolate for seven more days. On the eighth day, she put on a mask and gloves and went to the supermarket to buy food, intending to make dinner for her son. But then her son sent her an article about how some patients in China were still testing positive long after they had officially recovered. She abandoned the dinner plan and returned home.

Three days later, researchers called her to tell her she had antibodies to the coronavirus - but a nasal swab had come back positive for the virus. They told her she was probably still infectious.

"Every answer I get is: 'This is all new and we're still figuring it out.' And that's downright scary," Thalyer said.

Alison McGrath Howard, a D.C. clinical psychologist who tested positive for covid-19 in early March, no longer has a fever, and her respiratory symptoms have improved. The health department declared her recovered and said she no longer had to self-quarantine. But the management company where she lives has told her to disinfect everything she touches in the building if she leaves her apartment.

And she doesn't feel 100%. She still has a bit of a cough and fatigue. Her doctor told her that her symptoms are probably post-viral and that she's no longer contagious, but there's no way to be completely sure.

"I don't know whether I'm really not contagious, and I don't know whether or not I'm immune," she said.

SARS-CoV-2 could act like other coronaviruses that circulate in humans and cause colds. If so, a person who had the disease would probably be immune to catching it for a while. A year or two. One study of the original SARS coronavirus, which caused an epidemic when it emerged in China in 2003, showed that infected people had a full suite of antibodies to it for an average of two years but that afterward the antibodies declined.

That said, people who have had covid-19 might not experience as severe an illness the next time they got it, because of partial immunity. This remains conjectural. Science says: Stand by for further data.

Diana Berrent, a 45-year-old mother of two on Long Island, woke March 13 with a 102-degree fever and tremendous pressure on her chest. She tested positive for the coronavirus, but most of her symptoms cleared up after about three days, and she was never hospitalized. Her husband and kids ended up getting the virus, presumably from her, she says. They had milder cases.

Berrent said she has been given conflicting guidance on when it is safe to interact with others. One doctor told her he didn't know. A county health worker told her 14 days from the date of her positive test, but then another person said she needed two negative tests at least 24 hours apart.

She asked how she could get those tests. She was told they weren't available.

She saw that New York City had put out guidance that mimicked the CDC guidance. She decided the best course of action was to stay at home.

"I don't feel comfortable being around anybody, to take a chance you could infect a single person," Berrent said.

Last week, she started a group, called Survivor Corps, that she hopes can ease the burden on health-care workers.

"We could hold the hands of the dying without their loved ones, cheer on women in labor and, ultimately, we can go back to work," she said.

Jadon Hartsuff, the rector at All Souls Episcopal Church in Washington, is another recovered covid-19 patient who hopes to do something positive. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he quit his job and joined the Army, even though that required that he conceal his sexual orientation, he said. Now, he would like to volunteer for research studies, including the National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project, but hasn't gotten a response.

Hartsuff has a letter from the D.C. government affirming he has recovered from covid-19 and no longer has to self-isolate. Even after he got the letter, a health official called every day to "check in" and asked questions about his condition.

"I keep telling you the same thing over and over again! I've been asymptomatic for weeks!" Hartsuff would say. "Please use your time now for people who are sick!"

Eventually, they stopped calling.

Washington Post columnist David Von Drehle has written about his protracted battle with a covid-19-like illness (he was told by an emergency room doctor that he probably had it and to isolate himself but never got tested). Fully recovered, he was walking in his neighborhood one recent day and a woman in a car at an intersection, roughly 12 feet away, recognized him and engaged him in conversation. He took a step toward her. "Oh, don't come any closer!" she said.

Says Von Drehle, "Once you get branded with the scarlet C, how do you ever get it off?"
Stephanie Grisham, White House Press Secretary, listens during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, March 12, 2020.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is leaving that role to become Melania Trump's chief of staff and spokeswoman, the first lady announced Tuesday.

"I am excited to welcome Stephanie back to the team in this new role," Melania Trump said in a statement. "She has been a mainstay and true leader in the Administration from even before day one, and I know she will excel as Chief of Staff."

President Donald Trump's campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany will replace Grisham as White House press secretary, NBC News reported later Tuesday, citing three sources familiar with the matter.

McEnany did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment.

Grisham had served as the first lady's communications chief before taking on the additional roles of White House press secretary and communications director last June.

In her more than nine months as White House press secretary, Grisham, 43, never held a traditional briefing in the White House press room  a regular task for nearly all other modern press secretaries.

"I continue to be honored to serve both the President and First Lady in the Administration," Grisham said in the statement. "I will stay in the West Wing to help with a smooth transition for as long as needed."

NBC reported that Pentagon spokeswoman Alyssa Farah is also expected to join the White House communications team. Farrah previously worked for Vice President Mike Pence and is a former congressional aide to Mark Meadows, who is now Trump's chief of staff.

Lindsay Reynolds, who served as Melania Trump's chief of staff for more than three years, resigned earlier this week "to spend time with her family," the first lady's statement said.

"I appreciate all that Lindsay Reynolds did over the past three years, and wish her well in her future endeavors," Melania Trump said.

Grish TWEET

The shake-up of the White House communications team came just over a week after Meadows formally resigned as North Carolina congressman to begin his new role as chief of staff.

A senior aide to Meadows did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on Grisham's relocation within the White House.

Late last month, White House deputy communications director Jessica Ditto announced that she would depart that role, reportedly to enter the private sector.

While Grisham had abandoned the rostrum of the James S. Brady briefing room in the White House, Trump and his coronavirus task force have used it regularly in recent weeks to discuss the U.S. response to the pandemic.

Grisham rarely gave one-on-one interviews on camera with the press, outside of Fox News, where she appeared frequently. But she did make news about the coronavirus in mid-March, when she told CNBC she was working from home as a precaution after exposure to a delegation of Brazilian officials who visited Mar-a-Lago, at least one of whom later tested positive for the virus.

Grisham was announced as Trump's third press secretary on June 25, succeeding Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who had served in that role after taking over from Sean Spicer in the summer of 2017.

-- CNBC's Lauren Hirsch, Christina Wilkie and Brian Schwartz contributed to this report.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday demanded an inquiry by a sitting or retired Supreme Court judge to fix responsibility for the Delhi congregation of Tablighi Jamaat.

He said questions should not be raised on the ground of religion because any person from any caste or community can commit a mistake and only those at fault should be punished.

"An inquiry by a sitting or retired Supreme Court judge should be conducted in the Nizamuddin episode to make clear who all are responsible. Those who are at fault should be booked and punished. It will also make clear whether there was any mistake on part of the administration," Gehlot told PTI here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Georgia named among the most resistant countries to COVID-19 - GeorgianJournal
After a chaotic series of emergency orders and legal challenges, Wisconsins election unfolded Tuesday against the backdrop of a country waging war with a surging global pandemic.

President Trump urged voters to head to polls tweeting "Wisconsin, get out and vote NOW for Justice Daniel Kelly. Protect your 2nd Amendment."

In a response to ABC News' Rachel Scott, who asked if the president should be responsible if people get sick after voting in person, Trump accused Democrats of raising concerns about the matter only after he made an endorsement.

"All I did was endorse a candidate. I don't know anything about their lines. I don't know anything about their voting," he said.

"Safety, safety, safety, right?" Trump added. "All of a sudden they want safety. Before I did the endorsement they didn't talk about safety. It was fine, for months it was fine. It was always going to be and now I endorse and they want safety."

Last week, President Trumps campaign manager, Brad Parscale, slammed Democratic front-runner former Vice President Joe Biden for wanting the election to go forward.

"@JoeBiden , the man who claims he has all the answers to the virus crisis, wants the people of Wisconsin to risk their lives because hes so desperate to be the nominee. SAD!" he tweeted.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin Democrats pledged to not mobilize in-person voting on Tuesday, in order to keep voters safe. The state Democratic Party also called on the state GOP to do the same.

State Rep. Gordon Hintz, the Democratic minority leader in the state Assembly chose to sit out of Tuesday's election to avoid the risk of voting in-person after his absentee ballot was never sent.

"It's definitely a bad time for Wisconsin and for democracy in our state and country," Hintz told ABC News in an interview Tuesday.

Hintz is among nearly 10,000 Wisconsin voters who never received an absentee ballot after requesting one. He requested a ballot on March 22.

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In battleground Wisconsin, one of the most crucial states in November, the spring election careened toward chaos in the 24 hours before polls were to open, with partisan debates over how the election should proceed.

The states top Democrat, Gov. Tony Evers, and state Republican lawmakers spent the days leading up to the election at sharp odds after the governor reversed his stance on postponing the election late last week.

Tensions escalated between the two parties on the eve of the election after Evers issued an executive order delaying in-person voting until early June. The abrupt move was a reversal for the governor, who for weeks said he could not change the election "on my own" -- meaning without the GOP-controlled state legislature.

Evers acted only after state lawmakers refused to postpone the election in a special session, saying at a press conference on Monday the "circumstances have changed." The election includes the Democratic presidential primary between former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, as well as general elections for the state Supreme Court and local races.

MORE: Wisconsin Supreme Court blocks order by governor suspending in-person voting, putting Tuesday's election back on track

"I cannot in good conscience stand by and do nothing," Evers said. "The bottom line is that I have an obligation to keep people safe. I've tried for weeks to meet Republicans in the middle to find common ground and figure out a Wisconsin solution, but at every turn, they fought all the way to the United States Supreme Court, even the most basic and common sense proposals to ensure a safe and fair election."

State Republicans swiftly challenged his emergency action, filing a motion with the state Supreme Court. Within hours, the conservative-leaning bench blocked Evers order in a 4-2 decision. One justice, Daniel Kelly, who is up for election on Tuesday, recused himself from the case.

Evers said the order was his last available course of action.

"This is it ... this will be the last avenue that we're taking," he said at a press conference Monday. "There is not a Plan B, there's not a Plan C."

In this Feb. 6, 2020 file photo, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers holds a news conference in Madison, Wis. (Steve Apps/AP)

Republicans scored another victory in a separate lawsuit also seeking to postpone the election, this one before the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation's highest court, voting 5-4 along ideological lines, reversed a lower court's ruling that had extended the deadline for absentee ballots by six days.

The court ruled that absentee ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday and arrive by April 13 to be counted. As of Monday, nearly 1.3 million absentee ballots had been requested, an unprecedented number, and 12,000 ballots had not yet been sent to voters. Only about 57% of absentee ballots that were sent have been returned.

Running an election on empty

In the wake of the legal wrangling, election officials held an emergency meeting late Monday night to determine how to apply the latest court rulings to the election. Among the issues was a debate about when clerks can report the election results under the order from the U.S. Supreme Court. The lower federal court had ruled that clerks could not begin reporting results until 4 p.m. on April 13. The state's chief elections official, Meagan Wolfe, said Monday night that the state would still follow that guideline.

"Election night results will not be made available until the 13th," she said.

Wisconsin, which has 2,500 confirmed cases of COVID-19, is one of a shrinking number of states that are moving forward with in-person voting despite the coronavirus outbreak. Fifteen states and one territory have postponed elections due to the coronavirus.

On Tuesday morning, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes invoked an expletive, and some sarcasm, to describe the day of the election.

"Good morning and welcome to the [S***] Show! Todays episode has been produced by the Supreme Court and directed by the incomparable Speaker and Senate Majority leader duo. Buckle up, this ones sure to disappoint!"

For weeks, voters were strongly encouraged to vote absentee while state leaders, mayors, and local clerks tried to minimize the spread of coronavirus on election day. Efforts to enforce social distancing at the ballot box were hampered by a shortage of poll workers, which required consolidating polling sites.

Nearly 60% of Wisconsin municipalities reported a shortage of election volunteers, and 111 jurisdictions reported they could not staff even one polling place. As a result, Milwaukee, the state's largest city, will have only five polling locations instead of the 180 that historically operate on election day. Local officials said there could be as many as 4,000 to 5,000 voters at each of the five polling sites on Tuesday.

MORE: Wisconsin mayors seek to scrap in-person voting in last-ditch effort

After a number of polling sites consolidated, Wolfe said on Monday that she is "not aware at this point of any place that is stating that they're unable to open" on election day. She said that "nearly 2,500 service members with the National Guard" will be deployed to fill any shortages of poll workers.

In an effort to safeguard both voters and volunteers, the state procured nearly 6,000 liters of hand sanitizer, about 7,000 rolls of paper towels, and at least 750,000 disinfecting wipes to distribute to county clerks on election day. Poll workers will be wearing masks and gloves -- but it's still unclear how many of them will actually show up.

The election is moving forward as planned despite repeated pleas from local officials for state leaders to delay the election.

Hudson, Wis., city clerk Becky Eggen displays some of the health alert and social distancing signs Monday, April 6, 2020, that were to be used in Tuesday's election, postponed by the governor Monday afternoon. (Glen Stubbe/AP)

The mayor of Madison, Satya Rhodes-Conway, criticized the decision, saying, "The Wisconsin Supreme Court is moving ahead with the April 7 election in reckless disregard for public health and the constitutionally protected right to vote. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong with this election, not because of the pandemic, but because of cruel choices made by Republican politicians and their pet judges."

Neil Albrecht, the executive director for the city of Milwaukee Elections Commission, told ABC News in an interview on Friday, "I don't think anything about this election moving forward, both in terms of democracy or in terms of public health, is beneficial."

State Supreme Court race becomes epicenter of partisan battle

Some Democrats argued that Republicans pushed to move forward with the election for political gain. On the ballot is a state Supreme Court seat that could be instrumental in voting rights and election cases ahead of the November general election, in which Wisconsin will play a significant role.

"It's outrageous that the Republican legislative leaders and the conservative majority on the Supreme Court in Wisconsin are willing to risk the health and safety of many thousands of Wisconsin voters tomorrow for their own political gain," Sanders said in a statement late Monday night. "Let's be clear: holding this election amid the coronavirus outbreak is dangerous, disregards the guidance of public health experts, and may very well prove deadly."

MORE: 'I don't think you really can' make the election safe: Wisconsin gears up for next primary amid coronavirus

Kelly, the incumbent judge who was appointed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2016, is defending his seat against local circuit court judge and former prosecutor Jill Karofsky. Although the election is intended to be nonpartisan, Kelly nabbed a complete endorsement from President Trump last week, while both Biden and Sanders backed Karofsky.

The race has been the focal point of the debate between Republicans and Democrats over delaying the primary.

"There's a common sense element to this," Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Andrew Hitt told ABC News. "If you can go out and vote on election day, please go out and vote because we have an important Supreme Court race. And we also have important local government races."

MORE: Biden and Trump campaigns haven't called on Wisconsin to postpone primaries amid pandemic

A win by Karofsky would cut into the conservative majority on the bench, which could be crucial as the court weighs a closely watched case about voter purges. The state is poised to clear more than 200,000 voters from its rolls. Kelly has recused himself from the case.

The states nonpartisan elections commission, which oversees the states elections, argued that those voters do not need to be removed from the rolls until 2021. But Republican-aligned groups would like to see the removal happen before the general election in November.

"Republicans have calculated that fewer people voting benefits their candidates," Heck said. "They are petrified that a huge voter turnout will result in Justice Kelly losing his reelection, and its as simple as that.

The new term of the state Supreme Court does not begin until Aug. 1, Heck said, contradicting the notion that postponing the election would leave a vacancy on the bench.

This report was featured in the Tuesday, April 7, 2020, episode of Start Here, ABC News daily news podcast.

"Start Here" offers a straightforward look at the day's top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, the ABC News app or wherever you get your podcasts.

As nation battles coronavirus, Wisconsin election forges on with in-person voting originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Nina DeLorenzo

Emergent BioSolutions, life sciences company, has hired Nina DeLorenzo as senior VP-global public affairs.

The 25-year veteran joins the Gaithersburg, MD-based company from French pharmaceuticals giant Sanofi, where she was chief of staff, external affairs in Paris.

Earlier, DeLorenzo served as VP-international affairs at AbbVie, PA director at Pfizer, senior manager international PA at Schering-Plough and senior director communications & PA at PhRMA lobbying group.

She also did a nearly two-year stint at the State Dept. during the Bush II presidency.

At Emergent Bio, DeLorenzo is in charge of external affairs, corporate communications, advocacy and corporate social responsibility.

On April 2, the company unveiled a partnership with the US government to expedite development of a plasma-derived therapy for patients with COVID-19.

It received a $14.5M grant from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to fund the effort.
Chad's ex-dictator granted home arrest amid virus threat: Former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre has been granted 60 days of home arrest by Senegal's Justice Ministry because of the coronavirus threat in the prison where he is serving a life sentence. Habre, in his late 70s, is at greater risk because of the large number of arrested people taken to Cap Manuel prison, the ministry said. "Habre is an international political prisoner who has been entrusted to us by the international community . . . his security is the responsibility of the state of Senegal," Justice Minister Malick Sall said. Habre was sentenced in 2017 by the Extraordinary African Chambers for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during his time in power from 1982 to 1990.
Chinas Communist Party owes world an apology, compensation for COVID-19 pandemic, cardinal says

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Amid numerous reports pointing to the responsibility of the Chinese Communist Party in putting millions of lives and the global economy at huge risk due to its lies about the coronavirus outbreak, Cardinal Charles Bo of Myanmar has called on China to apologize to the world and pay compensation for the damage caused.

There is one government that has primary responsibility for what it has done and what it has failed to do, and that is the CCP regime in Beijing, the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Yangon wrote in an op-ed published in UCA News.

The cardinal clarified that it is the CCP that has been responsible, not the people of China, and no one should respond to this crisis with racial hatred toward the Chinese.

He stressed that when the virus first emerged, the authorities in China suppressed the news.

Instead of protecting the public and supporting doctors, the CCP silenced the whistleblowers. Worse than that, doctors who tried to raise the alarm  such as Dr. Li Wenliang in Wuhan Central Hospital who issued a warning to fellow medics Dec. 30  were ordered by police to stop making false comments, he wrote.

Anonymously speaking to Bloomberg, three officials said the U.S. intelligence community noted in a classified report to the White House last week that China lied about the extent of the COVID-19 outbreak, under-reporting the number of infections and deaths.

The reality is that we could have been better off if China had been more forthcoming, Vice President Mike Pence said on CNN earlier this week. What appears evident now is that long before the world learned in December that China was dealing with this, and maybe as much as a month earlier than that, that the outbreak was real in China.

Apart from Chinas lies about the spread of the new coronavirus, which originated in the city of Wuhan in Chinas Hubei Province late last year, many suspect that the virus accidentally escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan.

Jim Geraghty, a senior political correspondent at National Review, wrote about a documentary film by YouTube creator Matthew Tye on the coronavirus outbreak which suggests the same.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology in China posted a job opening last November, asking for scientists to come research the relationship between the coronavirus and bats, Geraghty wrote.

The same institute posted a second job posting last December. The translation of a part of that posting said a large number of new bat and rodent new viruses have been discovered and identified, the correspondent added.

Geraghty acknowledged that theres no definitive proof that COVID-19 originated from a bat at either the Wuhan Center for Disease Control & Prevention or the Wuhan Institute of Virology, as that would require much broader access to information about what happened in those facilities in the time period before the epidemic in the city.

However, he concluded, that it is a remarkable coincidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was researching Ebola and SARS-associated coronaviruses in bats before the pandemic outbreak, and that in the month when Wuhan doctors were treating the first patients of COVID-19, the institute announced in a hiring notice that a large number of new bat and rodent new viruses have been discovered and identified.

"The CCPs conduct is symptomatic of its increasingly repressive nature. In recent years, we have seen an intense crackdown on freedom of expression in China," the cardinal added in his op-ed. "Lawyers, bloggers, dissidents and civil society activists have been rounded up and have disappeared. In particular, the regime has launched a campaign against religion, resulting in the destruction of thousands of churches and crosses and the incarceration of at least one million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps."

As of early Saturday, there were more than 1.1 million confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease caused by the novel coronavirus around the world and 60,115 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. In the United States, the number of cases stood at 278,458 with 7,159 deaths.

A doctor leading the Samaritan's Purse coronavirus response at a field hospital in Central Park warned this week that its serious.

This is not something to think this is the end of the world, but it is not something thats also to dismiss, Dr. K. Elliott Tenpenny told The Christian Post at the site of the field hospital. Its serious. Its a serious disease. Its not the end of the world. Were going to make it through this, but it is serious and anyone that says differently I dont believe theyre speaking truthfully.
Bayview, Mission Bay

Raff Distillerie hand sanitizer | Photo: Courtesy of Carter Raff

Merchants citywide are seeing a significant decline in revenue thanks to the ongoing shelter-in-place order, and among those are industrial businesses like distilleries.

While a recent temporary law to support restaurants and bars was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom allowing to-go cocktails , that's not enough for businesses like Raff Distillerie and Seven Stills Distillery. To help keep their doors open, both companies are re-tooling their operations to produce something much harder to find right now than booze: hand sanitizer.

Outside shot of Raff Distillerie in the Bayview District | Photo: Courtesy of Carter Raff

Raff Distillerie (1615 Innes Ave)

This year, Raff Distillerie had plans to celebrate its second anniversary in the Bayview District. Since the shelter-in-place went into effect, business has dwindled, and the majority of the staff was laid off. Now, owner Carter Raff spends his time trying to keep the company afloat.

The Bayview community has been extremely welcoming since we moved into the neighborhood in 2018," Raff told Hoodline. Raff is a fifth-generation San Franciscan, and has produced spirits for nine years. All of our beverage labels are based on San Francisco history," he said.

On a regular day, you can go to Raff Distilleries tasting room to sample and purchase a selection of his crafted rums, gin, vodka, and their signature drink, Emperor Nortons Absinthe. Thats my baby," Raff said.

Raff Distillerie plans to sell hand sanitizer citywide, but is starting with the Bayview community. You can purchase an 8 oz. bottle for $10, or 16 oz. for $18 on Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Hours are subject to change  check their website or call (415) 610-7486.

Hand Santizer made by Seven Stills | Photo: Courtesy of Tim Obert

Seven Stills (100 Hooper St.)

Seven Stills, another Bayview distillery that opened its doors in 2016, recently closed their tasting room to focus on their new headquarters in Mission Bay. Similar to Raff Distillerie, they're dealing with the business hardships of the shelter-in-place order, but they continue to sell their regular products online, along with 30 oz. bottles of their in-house hand sanitizer.

Story continues

Co-owner Tim Obert told us that they are prioritizing health care workers and nonprofits for distribution. There are people forced to work and dont have a choice," Obert told Hoodline. They are risking their lives and not able to get the supply they need. They are out there keeping the community safe, so we need to make sure that we keep them safe.

The Seven Stills crew in action shipping hand sanitizer | Photo: Courtesy of Tim Obert

Seven Stills has been in production for two weeks and so far has provided 10,000 32 oz. bottles to Kaiser Hospital. Their goal is to also donate 1,500 to public works and 500 to SFPD.

Distilleries are the only businesses that have the supplies and capacity to provide this, and I feel like its our responsibility to step in," Obert said.

You can purchase a bottle of the hand sanitizer on the Seven Stills website for $24.99, not including shipping. Youll also have the opportunity to pay it forward, by donating a bottle to one of the nonprofit organizations listed on the site.
GLASGOW, Scotland, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Amphista Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company creating first-in-class cancer therapeutics that harness the body's natural processes to selectively and efficiently degrade and remove disease causing proteins, today announced the closing of a USD $7.5m Series A round, led by Advent Life Sciences. Seed round funders the Scottish Investment Bank, with backing from the Scottish Growth Scheme, and the European Investment Fund joined the round, along with new investor, US-based life sciences BioMotiv.

Amphista's CEO Nicola Thompson said, "This international financing provides Amphista with a firm foundation to underpin a Series B round to progress our oncology pipeline to the clinic. Our vision is to create a leading protein degradation company on the global stage that delivers ground-breaking new medicines to patients in areas of high unmet need."

Raj Parekh, General Partner at lead investor Advent Life Sciences said, "We are excited to support Amphista in its next stage of development. The Company has a potentially unique approach to targeted protein degradation when compared with traditional proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) platforms. We believe that Amphista has great potential with its differentiated proprietary technology to address traditionally undruggable targets."

Satish Jindal, CEO of BioMotiv, and newly appointed Amphista Chairman, commented, "We are a mission-driven accelerator, and we are excited by Amphista's focus to rapidly produce potent bifunctional small molecules to augment the body's own processes to remove disease-associated proteins. We see huge potential to accelerate Amphista's breakthrough technology platform into medicines."

Amphista's scientific founder, Professor Alessio Ciulli, based at the University of Dundee, is an internationally renowned expert in the field of targeted protein degradation (TPD). "Highly specific TPD is a transformative new modality for tackling previously undruggable targets with high therapeutic value," said Ciulli.

Amphista's TPD small molecules instruct the cell to degrade the target directly rather than activating or inhibiting the target protein function. As protein-protein interactions are involved in disease progression, removing the target protein provides a clear therapeutic advantage over simple inhibition. Specifically, Amphista's platform is independent of traditional E3 ubiquitin ligases used by the field, potentially expanding the available target scope of TPD approaches and should overcome recently identified PROTAC resistance mechanisms.

About Amphista Therapeutics

Amphista Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company creating first-in-class therapeutics that help harness the body's natural processes to selectively and efficiently degrade and remove disease causing proteins. The company's pipeline of novel small molecules that cause targeted protein degradation (TPD) is focused on challenging diseases including cancer. Amphista is a spin-out of renowned TPD expert Professor Alessio Ciulli's labs at the University of Dundee, and is based in BioCity Glasgow, Scotland. The company is funded by leading life science investors including Advent Life Sciences, the European Investment Fund, the Scottish Investment Bank, and BioMotiv. For more information, visit http://www.amphista.com/

About Advent Life Sciences

Advent Life Sciences founds and invests in early- and mid-stage life sciences companies that have a first- or best-in-class approach to unmet medical needs. The investing team consists of experienced professionals, each with extensive scientific, medical and operational experience, a long-standing record of entrepreneurial and investment success in the US and Europe and is particularly focused on supporting entrepreneurs and founders to take innovative new medical entities from concept to approval. The firm invests in a range of sectors within life sciences, principally drug discovery, enabling technologies and med tech, always with an emphasis on innovative, paradigm-changing approaches. Advent Life Sciences has a presence in the UK, US and France. For more information, please visit AdventLS.com

About the Scottish Investment Bank

The Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) is the investment arm of Scotland's national economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise, operating Scotland-wide in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).

SIB's activities support Scotland's SME funding market to ensure businesses with growth and export potential have adequate access to growth capital and loan funding. It helps ambitious Scottish companies get the right level of funding from the right sources at the right time, through building relationships with both domestic and international investors.

SIB manages a suite of co-investment funds including the Scottish Co-Investment Fund, the Scottish Venture Fund and the Energy Investment Fund on behalf of the Scottish Government. SIB is also an investor in Epidarex Capital's Life Sciences Fund and administers the Scottish Loan Scheme, with funding secured from the Scottish Government's Scottish Growth Scheme.

Furthermore, SIB provides funding into LendingCrowd, Scotland's marketplace lender providing loans to SMEs, and Maven's Regional Buyout Fund (MBO) that offers financial support for management buyouts (MBOs) and helps existing management teams acquire businesses from their owners so they can continue to flourish.

SIB's team of financial readiness specialists help companies prepare for new investment and access appropriate finance.

About BioMotiv

https://www.biomotiv.com

BioMotiv is a mission-driven accelerator associated with The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development, a $340 million initiative focused on advancing early stage breakthrough discoveries from research institutions into medicines. Led by a highly accomplished and passionate team of veteran biopharma experts, BioMotiv's innovative model efficiently aligns resources and capital to select, fund, manage and advance a portfolio of drug development programs.

Media contacts:

Amphista Therapeutics

Nicola Thompson, CEO

[email protected]

Scius Communications

Katja Stout

[email protected]

SOURCE Amphista Therapeutics
The Assam Police on Tuesday booked an opposition MLA for sedition and other offences for allegedly making provocative, communal and false statements on Covid-19 and the treatment of patients in the state.

Police said Aminul Islam, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) legislator from Dhing in central Assam was picked up from his residence on Monday night and arrested Tuesday morning after interrogation.

He had allegedly stated in an audio clip doing rounds in social media that there was a conspiracy to target a particular community in the garb of Covid-19 and those in quarantine could be killed.

Follow coronavirus live updates here.

Islam has been arrested under several sections of IPC for charges including criminal conspiracy, spreading disaffection amongst communities etc, Assams Director General of Police (DGP) Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta said.

Islam was produced in a local court in Nagaon on Tuesday and was sent to judicial custody for 14 days.

A government release stated that Islam was arrested because of communal and false comments made in the clip.

He has been booked under sections 120(B)-criminal conspiracy, 124A-sedition, 153A-promoting enmity on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc. and 295A - deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings.

We have seized his personal digital accessories (PDAs) and are processing them as per law. We have found several clippings in his mobile, which we will have to test digitally, the DGP said.

In the past few days Islam has posted several posts on social media platforms questioning the governments handling of the Covid-19 patients and those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month.

There are at present 28 positive Covid-19 cases in Assam and 26 of them are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event.

The patients are being treated at several government hospitals across Assam. Many others who came in contact with them have been kept in quarantine facilities.

The quarantine centres are worse than detention centres. I heard that even those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation one or two months ago have been kept in quarantine and their family members are not allowed near them, Islam is reportedly heard claiming in the clip, which HT has accessed.

Hindustan Times could not verify the authenticity of the clip.

Assam has six detention centres lodged inside jails to keep those declared foreigners by foreigners tribunals. Another big detention centre, which can house around 3,000 people, is under construction.

The legislator allegedly said that people kept in quarantine have not been tested for Covid-19 and are being kept there despite not having any symptoms associated with the disease.

I doubt that these people in quarantine may be killed with some lethal injection and the authorities will claim they died due to coronavirus. There is conspiracy going on to show that these people brought the virus from Nizamuddin Markaz, and kill them inside quarantine facilities, the MLA allegedly said.

Several AIUDF MLAs contacted by HT refused to comment on the matter general secretary (organisation) AIUDF who has the same name as the MLA said the lawmakers comments were not the partys official line.

Islams comments at such a time are unfortunate, but those are not the partys official stand and are his personal views. Hope the government also takes action against elected representatives from other parties who have made sensitive comments about the present situation, said Md Aminul Islam, the AIUDF general secretary.

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At the European epicentre of the war against COVID-19 is the besieged country of Italy. Total deaths have already exceeded those in China and the daily tallies reach frighteningly into the hundreds.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

At the European epicentre of the war against COVID-19 is the besieged country of Italy. Total deaths have already exceeded those in China and the daily tallies reach frighteningly into the hundreds.

Simply put, Italy is in dire straits. And it is getting much-needed help, not from the United States or the European Union (EU), but from the struggling and impoverished country of Cuba (its first time assisting Italy).

Curiously, Canada doesnt have much experience at sending its medical professionals abroad to assist in emergency situations. So when a fellow G7 country such as Italy finds itself facing an unbelievable human catastrophe, it probably doesnt think about reaching out to the Canadians. Thats too bad.

The Cuban government, however, has a storied history of responding to myriad natural disasters, pandemic outbreaks, humanitarian crises and even specific medical ailments (including blindness and exposure to radioactive material). The country is institutionally prepared to provide thousands of doctors and health professionals at very little notice, and at very little or no cost (depending upon the wealth of the country in question).

It goes without saying that Cuba has become extraordinarily proficient at this sort of thing  medical internationalism, "armies in white coats" or doctor diplomacy, if you will  since the early 1960s. Its efforts at responding to the Ebola crises in West Africa have been characterized by the international development community as truly inspiring and heroic.

It is worth emphasizing here that Cuba has its own problems with the novel coronavirus  having recently closed its borders to millions of fun-seeking tourists (including many Italian visitors). But even with the loss of incredibly important tourism revenues and experiencing its own shortages of personal protective equipment, the country has offered a generous helping hand to Italy (and without asking for anything in return).

In late March, Havana dispatched a Cuban health brigade consisting of 52 personnel  36 doctors, 15 nursing graduates and a logistics specialist. Prior to that deployment, the Cubans had sent COVID-19 medical missions to Venezuela, Suriname, Jamaica, Grenada and Nicaragua.

Like previous battles against the deadly Ebola virus, the crisis in Italy poses a serious danger to the safety and well-being of Cuban health-care workers. In the impactful words of intensive-care specialist Leonardo Fernandez, "We are all afraid, but we have a revolutionary duty to fulfil, so we take our fear and put it to one side."

For the most part, they will be heading to the COVID-19-ravaged northern region of Lombardy (after a formal request for help was made). This is where the death toll on a single day, March 21, reached 546.

Working alongside medical professionals from China and Venezuela, the Cuban brigade will be assigned to a field hospital in Bergamo. As the regional health adviser, Guilio Gallera, remarked pointedly: "This highly specialized personnel have participated in the fight against Ebola and know how to treat this type of disease."

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It is also important to note that the Cuban biotech sector has been undertaking some groundbreaking work in the area of vaccines and pharmaceuticals (including the development of 22 drugs for the novel coronavirus). Some in Cuba are even suggesting that they have already developed a drug cocktail (Interferon alfa-2b) that can be used to treat people with the COVID-19 infection.

Not surprisingly, Cubans take a great deal of pride in their medical deployments abroad. It is a constant reminder to the citizenry of what Fidel Castro meant when he stated in a late 1999 speech, "More than doctors, they will be the most precious guardians of human beings; apostles and creators of a more humane world."

This explains, in part, why a tiny Caribbean country can punch well above its weight internationally. It also doesnt hurt that the Cuban government seeks to convert this goodwill from countries into support for Cuba within international fora and enhanced commercial relations.

For many Cubans, though, its all about international solidarity, a keenly felt sense of selflessness and compassion and a remarkable personal commitment and responsibility to assist those in need wherever they may live in the world. As the national co-ordinator of the Cuban Residents in Italy explained, "Our land does not offer what it has left over, our nation shares what it has."

Now, imagine what this planet would like if other highly industrialized countries thought that way. No one is saying that Cuba is perfect, but there is much that Canada, and other nations, can learn from their international solidarity practices.

Peter McKenna is professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.
"People have their health to lose," she said. "Your heart could stop." Trump's interest in the drug was piqued in part by coverage on conservative media. On March 16, Fox News ran a segment on a small French study promoting the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in treating the coronavirus. Hours later, lawyer Gregory Rigano appeared on a prime-time show and said evidence suggested it could rid the body "completely" of the virus. Almost instantly, just as the projections of the virus' impact on the nation grew more dire, the drug's promise bounced around the echo chamber of the conservative media. Just three days later, Trump himself made the first mention of the drug.

Among the loudest voices in the President's ear has been Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, who has spoken to Trump about the drug and advocated it in interviews and his new podcast. He has had, as guests, several experts touting the drug and made a few late-night phone calls to the White House residence. "I discussed it with the President after he talked about it," Giuliani said. "I told him what I had on the drugs. Others around him believe it too." The President's son, Donald Trump jnr, on Friday tweeted a link to an article about the drugs' possible success and added: "Waiting for others to write this up. The Democrats and the media must be really upset because they tried to destroy @realdonaldtrump for being hopeful that this would be the case." In a heated Situation Room meeting of the White House's coronavirus task force on Saturday, Navarro challenged the top US infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, over his concerns about recommending the drug based only on unscientific anecdotal evidence. Navarro, who has no formal medical training, erupted at Fauci, raising his voice and claiming the reports of studies he had collected were enough to recommend the drug widely, according to a person familiar with the exchange who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the blow-up.

Fauci has repeatedly said current studies provide only anecdotal findings that the drug works. In response, Navarro told CNN on Monday, "I would have two words for you: 'second opinion'." Loading Hydroxychloroquine is officially approved for treating malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, not COVID-19. Small, preliminary studies have suggested it might help prevent the new coronavirus from entering cells and possibly help patients clear the virus sooner. But those have shown mixed results. Doctors are already prescribing the malaria drug to patients with COVID-19, a practice known as off-label prescribing. Research studies are now beginning to test if the drugs truly help COVID-19 patients, and the US Food and Drug Administration has allowed the medication into the American stockpile as an option for doctors to consider for patients who cannot get into one of the studies. But the drug has major potential side effects, especially for the heart, and Fauci has said more testing is needed before it's clear that the drug works against the virus and is safe for such use.

Navarro told Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends that doctors in New York hospitals are already distributing the drug to COVID-19 patients and that healthcare workers are taking it in hopes of being protected from infection. Loading Asked about his credentials for pushing the drug, Navarro cited his doctorate in social science and said that "in the fog of war, we might take more risks than we otherwise would." He added, "I'd bet on President Trump's intuition on this one." Administration officials say Trump's embrace of the drug stems from his desire to provide "hope" for the American people as the death toll mounts and he looks to avoid political consequences of the outbreak. Some limited studies have been conducted on the use of hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic azithromycin in concert to treat COVID-19, but they have not included critical control groups that scientists use to validate the conclusions.

Administration officials say Trump's embrace of the drug stems from his desire to provide "hope" for the American people as the death toll mounts. Researchers in China, for instance, reported that cough, pneumonia and fever seemed to improve sooner among 31 patients given hydroxychloroquine compared with 31 others who did not get the drug, but fewer people in the comparison group had cough or fevers to start with. US President Donald Trump urges the use of a drug he has learnt about through right-wing media. Credit:Bloomberg Many questions have been raised about another study in France. Some 26 people given hydroxychloroquine in that test were not counted in the final results, including three who worsened and were sent to intensive care, one who died a day after testing negative for the virus and one who stopped treatment because of nausea. The French study was published in an International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy journal. The society's president wrote on its website that the report "does not meet the society's expected standard."

At least one other world leader has also promoted the drugs. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has touted the benefits of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, saying he's heard reports of 100 per cent effectiveness when administered in the correct dosages. Across Europe, there has also been a recent spike in demand for the drugs even as regulators caution against their unlicensed use. 'Two words: second opinion': Economist Peter Navarro, Trump's trade adviser. Credit:Bloomberg Last week, the European Medicines Agency warned doctors that since there is no proof yet of the drugs' effectiveness, they should be used only in clinical trials or under emergency use provisions. The jump in demand for the drugs has meant in some instances that patients who rely on hydroxychloroquine for lupus or other conditions are seeing their supplies diverted for COVID-19.

If hydroxychloroquine is proven to work well against COVID-19, its sales would jump, but pharmaceutical analysts say they don't know of any company or individual that stands to make a windfall. That's because there's so much competition and the vast majority of prescriptions filled are for generics. For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death. India says it will lift a ban on some drug exports including hydroxychloroquine after Trump threatened retaliation if India failed to send the anti-malarial drug to the United States. Foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said in a statement on Tuesday that having confirmed sufficient supplies for India's needs, export restrictions "have been largely lifted." AP, Reuters
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was admitted to hospital on Sunday (April 5) due to persistent COVID-19 coronavirus symptoms, was taken into intensive care unit (ICU) on Monday (April 6), Downing Street said.

Johnson was moved to the ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in London and UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab has currently taken Johnson's charge to run the affairs of the government.

A spokesperson for No 10 Downing Street said: "Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the Prime Minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital. The PM has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is the First Secretary of State, to deputise for him where necessary."

The spokesperson added that the PM Johnson is receiving excellent care and the NHS staff are working with dedication.

Earlier on Monday, PM Johnson had messaged from his hospital bed that he was in 'good spirits' and was in touch with his ministers to keep stock of the coronavirus fightback launched by the UK despite his hospitalisation.

Referring to PM Johnson's health condition, US President Donald Trump said, "Were very saddened to hear that [Johnson] was taken into intensive care this afternoon, a little while ago, and Americans are all praying for his recovery. Hes been a really good friend. Hes been really something very special: strong resolute; doesnt quit; doesnt give up."

It is learnt that PM Johnson was admitted to hospital on Sunday after doctor advised him to do so. Sources said that the doctors advised PM Johnson to visit a doctor after he continued to have a fever despite remaining in self-isolation for around seven days.

"Last night, on the advice of my doctor, I went into hospital for some routine tests as I'm still experiencing coronavirus symptoms. I'm in good spirits and keeping in touch with my team, as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe," Johnson said in a Twitter post.

"I'd like to say thank you to all the brilliant NHS staff taking care of me and others in this difficult time. You are the best of Britain. Stay safe everyone, and please remember to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives," he added.
To the editor:

As a long-time SVSU political science professor, I feel compelled to respond to Karla Dickerson's recent letter. It seems that she doesn't fully understand how Congress, and the governance of the District of Columbia work.

Congress is comprised of two equal chambers, and it is certainly appropriate for both to have input into a $2 trillion spending bill. To criticize the House for making certain that the bill include provisions that serve their constituents assumes that the proper action for the majority party in the House is to be docile and accept whatever bill the Senate Republicans send them.

I can confidently assert that if the roles were reversed, a Republican controlled House would not roll over and embrace a Chuck Schumer led bailout bill. Secondly, Ms. Dickerson laments there were funds appropriated for Howard University, and "the artsmuseums, libraries" As mandated by Congressional law, the governance and funding of DC largely remains in the hands of Congress. Unlike all other municipalities, DC cannot look to their states and city councils for assistance during this extraordinary time. If the residents and workers of DC are to receive the help that is available to citizens elsewhere, it must come from Congress. This includes Howard University, which also has a hospital as part of its campus.

Finally, I want to note that museums, libraries, theaters, etc. are also work places, and their employees are as deserving of assistance as those who work at our hair salons, gas stations, restaurants, etc. Indeed, much of the DC economy depends upon its extensive array of these "destination" businesses and locations. I would argue that if the bill did not ensure assistance for the workers and residents of DC, Congress would be remiss in their oversight of our nation's capital.

ROBERT LANE

Midland
Mortuary employees wearing face masks transport a coffin of a COVID-19 coronavirus victim at La Almudena cemetery on April 04, 2020 in Madrid, Spain. Carlos Alvarez | Getty Images

The coverage on this live blog has ended  but for up-to-the-minute coverage on the coronavirus, visit the live blog from CNBC's U.S. team. Global cases: At least 1,341,907.

Global deaths: At least 74,476.

Most cases reported: United States (366,614), Spain (136,675), Italy (132,547), Germany (102,453), and France (98,959). The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University as of 7:45 a.m. Beijing time. All times below are in Beijing time.

7:41 pm: UK minister confirms he is now self-isolating

Cabinet Minister Michael Gove has confirmed he is in self-isolation after a member of his family displayed symptoms associated with the new coronavirus. He said he has not experienced symptoms himself and is continuing to work from home.  Holly Ellyatt Tweet

7:07 pm: Here are three charts looking at the pace and scale of the coronavirus pandemic

6:30 pm: Another UK minister self-isolates, media reports

Cabinet Minister Michael Gove is understood to have gone into self-isolation for seven days after a member of his family displayed symptoms of COVID-19, Sky News and other news agencies reported Tuesday. Gove is the latest in a string of U.K. politicians and officials who have self-isolated after they, or family members, displayed symptoms of the virus. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains in intensive care in hospital after his coronavirus symptoms worsened Monday.  Holly Ellyatt Tweet:

5:30 pm: Spain sees uptick in daily deaths

Spain has reported 5,478 new cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 140,510 on Tuesday, the health ministry said. The number of deaths has risen by 743 cases to 13,798, that's above the 637 deaths recorded the previous day.  Holly Ellyatt Tweet

4:47 pm: Japan declares state of emergency, prepares near $1 trillion stimulus

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared a state of emergency to fight coronavirus infections in major population centers, and has unveiled a stimulus package worth 108 trillion yen, or $990 billion. Abe announced the state of emergency targeting the capital Tokyo and six other prefectures  accounting for about 44% of Japan's population  for a period of about one month, Reuters reported. "We have decided to declare a state of emergency because we've judged that a fast spread of the coronavirus nationwide would have an enormous impact on lives and the economy," he told parliament earlier. His cabinet will also finalize the stimulus package  which is equal to 20% of Japan's economic output  to cushion the impact of the epidemic on the world's third-largest economy.  Holly Ellyatt

4:20 pm: Russia's daily rise in coronavirus cases goes above 1,000 for first time

The number of coronavirus cases in Russia rose by more than 1,000 for the first time to reach 7,497 in the past 24 hours, the Kremlin's crisis response center said on Tuesday. The number of reported cases rose by 1,154 while the death toll rose to 58, up 11 from yesterday, the center said. It said it had conducted 795,000 tests.  Holly Ellyatt

4:06 pm: WhatsApp curbs message forwarding to slow spread of coronavirus misinformation

Facebook's messaging app WhatsApp has tightened up limits it has on message forwarding to curb the spread of misinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic and bogus medical treatment. It said in a blog post Tuesday that is now restricting users to sharing forwarded content to one chat at a time. "We've seen a significant increase in the amount of forwarding which users have told us can feel overwhelming and can contribute to the spread of misinformation. We believe it's important to slow the spread of these messages down to keep WhatsApp a place for personal conversation," it said. It said it was working directly with NGOs and governments, including the World Health Organization and over 20 national health ministries, to help connect people with accurate information.  Holly Ellyatt

3:32 pm: World leaders rally round UK's Boris Johnson who remains in intensive care with coronavirus

World leaders have rallied around U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, sending him their best wishes and wishing him a speedy recovery after his admission to an intensive care unit Monday evening as his coronavirus symptoms worsened. President Donald Trump sent his best wishes to the prime minister Monday and told a press briefing that: "All Americans are praying for him, he's a friend of mine, he's a great gentleman and a great leader." Tweet French President Emmanuel Macron and Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez were among other leaders that sent messages of support to Boris Johnson, his family, and the British people.  Holly Ellyatt

3:26 pm: Kremlin's coronavirus aid to the West is controversial

Russia has been accused of sowing misinformation and distrust in Europe over the coronavirus pandemic, and its efforts to send aid to the U.S. and Italy  two of the worst affected countries  have been met with skepticism. However, Andrey Kostin, president and chairman of VTB Bank, told CNBC Monday that Russia did not expect anything in return for its recent assistance to Italy, which included medical personnel, ventilators, masks and protective suits. Others believe that Russia is using the medical aid as a propaganda tool.  Holly Ellyatt

Vehicles of the Russian Defence Ministry deliver medical equipment to planes of the Russian Aerospace Forces before it's sent to Italy. Russian Defence Ministry

3:19 pm: Domestic travel in the US, Australia and Southeast Asia could resume by June

Domestic travel within North America, Australia and Southeast Asia could be on course to return to normal by June if current efforts aimed at curbing the coronavirus outbreak are successful, according to the CEO of Australia's largest travel agency. International travel, meanwhile, could be on hold for another six months, Flight Centre's Graham Turner told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia." "My feeling is, and this is in places like Southeast Asia, Australia, North America, the domestic side of things will start picking up, start returning to normal, mainly on government dictates, in June," he said.  Karen Gilchrist

3:05 pm: COVID-19 pandemic may be the breaking point for Hong Kong businesses

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, cosmopolitan cities like New York and London have been virtually locked down and streets are empty, but Hong Kong has managed to avoid a complete lockdown even though there's been a steady rise in cases over several months. Hong Kong reported its first coronavirus case on Jan. 23. Despite the city's high density and a population of more than seven million, it has recorded 914 cases of coronavirus to date, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Still, more and more restrictive measures have been in place. Many employees have already been working from home and schools have been suspended, but restaurants and bars have mostly operated as usual  at least until recently.  Uptin Saiidi

2:57 pm: France's lockdown would last for as long as necessary

France's Health Minister Olivier Veran said the country's coronavirus outbreak hasn't reached its peak and that lockdown measures would last for as long as necessary, reported Reuters. The minister told broadcaster BFM TV that the country is "still in a worsening phase of the epidemic," according to the report. The country has been in lockdown mode since March 17, closing all but essential businesses. France has registered one of the largest outbreaks in the world. Cumulative cases of COVID-19 in the country have reached 98,984, with 8,911 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.  Yen Nee Lee

2:30 pm: Germany confirms 3,834 more cases, 173 additional deaths

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany rose by 3,834 to 99,225, according to the latest data by Robert Koch Institute, a federal government agency responsible for disease monitoring and prevention. That's the second consecutive day that the country reported fewer than 4,000 cases  down from around 6,000 per day over the last few days, data by the institute showed. Germany also reported another 173 deaths, taking its tally to 1,607 since the outbreak, showed the data.  Yen Nee Lee

1:21 pm: Thailand reports 38 new cases, one more death

Thailand has confirmed another 38 cases of the coronavirus disease, taking its tally to 2,258, reported Reuters, citing the government's Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration. The Southeast Asian country also reported one additional death relating to the disease, the report said. That brings Thailand's total fatalities to 27 since the outbreak.  Yen Nee Lee

12:07 pm: Philippines extends lockdown to end-April

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has agreed to extend lockdown measures in his country until April 30, reported Reuters. The measures that restrict movement and gatherings were due to end next week, according to the report. As of Monday, the Philippines has reported 3,660 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to the country's Department of Health.  Yen Nee Lee

9:55 am: South Korea reports fewer than 50 cases for the second day running

South Korea on Tuesday reported 47 new cases of infection for the second day running. There were six additional deaths. On Monday, the country reported the same number of new cases  one of the lowest daily reported numbers for the country since late February when the outbreak spread exponentially within its borders. South Korea has altogether reported 10,331 cases of infection and 192 people have succumbed to the illness caused by the virus, according to data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. South Korea is generally praised for its efforts to reduce the spread of infection by mass testing its people and adopting strict measures to quarantine and track those who affected.  Huileng Tan

9:13 am: Los Angeles sees slowing growth in coronavirus cases

The city of Los Angeles and all of Los Angeles County both reported the first single-digit percentage point increases since the crisis ramped up in March, the city's mayor, Eric Garcetti, said during a Monday briefing on the local response to the breakout. The city added 192 confirmed coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 2,851, while the county had 420 new cases for a total of 6,360. The city and county increases were both up 7%. "Mondays are usually statistically a little bit lower, not as many people working on Sunday, fewer tests. But even with that, this is good news," Mayor Garcetti said. "It shows that what you are doing is working."  Jordan Novet

8:56 am: China reports 32 new cases, no deaths for the first time

China's National Health Commission (NHC) reported 32 new cases, and no deaths as of April 6  the first time the country posted no deaths since January when it started publishing daily updates. That brings the country's total to 81,740 confirmed cases, and 3,331 deaths, according to the NHC. Separately, there were 30 new asymptomatic cases, where people tested positive for the virus but did not show any symptoms. China started including asymptomatic cases in its daily reports starting April 1. (Updated at 11:29 a.m.)  Huileng Tan

8:20 am: Asia markets jump in early trade

Stocks in Asia jumped in Tuesday morning trade on rising hopes that the spread of the global coronavirus pandemic may have slowed. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 surged 3.09% in early trade while the Topix index gained 2.66%. Over in South Korea, the Kospi rose 2.18%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia gained 2.1%. Data over the weekend suggested the number of daily U.S. coronavirus cases is slowing, although it is still too early to determine a lasting trend. Death tolls in some of the world's coronavirus hot spots, including Spain and Italy, also showed signs of easing.  Eustance Huang

8:10 am: Japan's leader Abe says fiscal spending to battle pandemic will total $357 billion

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said fiscal spending under Japan's massive stimulus package to tackle fallout from the coronavirus pandemic will total 39 trillion yen ($357 billion), according to a Reuters report, citing local news agency Jiji. On Monday, Abe said the government will roll out an economic stimulus package worth 108 trillion yen, equal to 20% of economic output, the report said. Reuters reported that the package, to be confirmed by the cabinet on Tuesday, far exceeds the one compiled in the wake of the 2009 financial crisis totaling 56 trillion yen in size, with fiscal spending of 15 trillion yen.  Weizhen Tan All times below are in Eastern time.

7:03 pm: White House health advisor Fauci says we will never get back to 'normal'

The world may never get back to what is considered "normal" before the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China a little over three months ago and spread to more than 1.3 million people across the world, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said. Fauci, in answering a question about whether the world would get back to normal before a vaccine is approved, said we will gradually be able to "function as a society. But you're absolutely right, if you want to get to pre-coronavirus, that might not ever happen in the sense that the threat is there." COVID-19 has spread to almost every country in the world, killing more than 74,000. "When we say getting back to normal we mean something very different from what we're going through right now because right now we are in a very intense mitigation," Fauci said. Noah Higgins-Dunn

6:45 pm: WHO says there's a global shortfall of 5.9 million nurses as world battles coronavirus pandemic

The World Health Organization is urging countries to create at least 6 million new nursing jobs by 2030 to offset a projected "global shortfall" as health-care workers across the world respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nursing is the largest occupational group in the health-care sector, accounting for roughly 59% of health professions, WHO says. There are just under 28 million nurses worldwide, about 5.9 million short of what the world needs to adequately care for the growing population, according to a new report published Monday from WHO, the International Council of Nurses and Nursing Now. The greatest deficit of nurses is in low- to low-middle income countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean region and some parts of Latin America, according to the report, which looked at 191 countries using data between 2013 and 2018. More than 80% of the world's nurses work in countries that account for half of the world's population, according to the report's findings. Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

6:39 pm: Trump says there's light at the end of the tunnel with vaccine and treatment research

While the coming days in the nation's coronavirus fight look bleak, President Donald Trump gave Americans some reason to hope. "There's tremendous light at the end of the tunnel," he said at a White House press briefing. "Currently, ten different therapeutic agents are in active trials and some are looking incredibly successful," he said. "But they have to go through a process and it's going to be a quick process based on what the FDA told me." He said another 15 potential treatments are working toward clinical trials, "so they're advancing rapidly." Trump echoed comments made earlier Monday by World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said the research to develop vaccines and treatments to fight the coronavirus has "accelerated at incredible speed." Tedros said more than 70 countries have joined WHO's trial to accelerate research on effective treatments and "about 20 institutions and companies are racing to develop a vaccine." Noah Higgins-Dunn

3:15 pm: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in intensive care after coronavirus condition 'worsened'
New Delhi: In an attempt to curb the spread of misinformation related to coronavirus, WhatsApp has decided to limit the frequently forwarded messages by users to one chat at a time. This limit will be in place once a message has been previously forwarded five times or more. The move comes at a time when several nations, including India, are initiating measures to tackle the spread of rumours and fake news related to the pandemic on social media platforms.

"We are now introducing a limit so that these messages can only be forwarded to one chat at a time...We've seen a significant increase in the amount of forwarding which users have told us can feel overwhelming and can contribute to the spread of misinformation," the Facebook-owned WhatsApp said in its blog on Tuesday.

The company said it believes it is important to slow the spread of these messages to keep WhatsApp a place for personal conversation.

The company, which has over 400 million users in India, said its previous steps of setting limits on forwarded messages to constrain virality had led to a 25 per cent decrease in message forwards globally at a time.

With billions of people unable to see their friends and family in person due to COVID-19, people are relying on WhatsApp more than ever to communicate, WhatsApp stated. "People are talking to doctors, teachers, and isolated loved ones via WhatsApp during this crisis. That's why all your messages and calls on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted by default to give you a secure place for your most personal conversations," it added.

WhatsApp is also testing a feature that would display a small magnifying glass next to any frequently forwarded messages.

Users will then be able to click that and be taken to a web search for the message, with the intention of letting them find articles that may debunk the message or shed further light on any claims found within it -- and not forward them on if they find the message is not true.

In mid-March, even as many states had begun imposing curbs and movement restrictions to fight the spread of coronavirus pandemic, WhatsApp had rolled out 'Coronavirus Information Hub' to provide simple, actionable guidance for health workers, educators, community leaders, non-profit entities, local governments and local businesses that rely on WhatsApp to communicate.

Indian government's dedicated WhatsApp chatbot MyGov Corona Helpdesk, which aims to provide timely updates and help citizens clear their queries on COVID-19, has already garnered over 2 crore users.

Last year, WhatsApp launched the 'forward' label with double arrows to indicate that the message did not originate from a close contact. It also limited message 'forwards' to five chats at a time. This led to a 25% decrease in people sending forwarded message on the platform, WatsApp said.

Frequently forwarded messages are indicated with a double tick on top of WatsApp.

(With PTI inputs)
COVID-19 has had an unimaginable impact on nearly every aspect of daily life for consumers and businesses alike around the world. Currently, the disease shows no sign of slowing down, and the concern for how this will impact American lives and businesses continues to grow. With the rising concern of the economy, the U.S. Congress has responded in a big way, negotiating a historic, bi-partisan $2 trillion stimulus package in hopes of breathing life into our struggling economy.

The stimulus package will offer relief to consumers and businesses alike, and like most legislation, can be complex, so well outline some of the major provisions that will impact businesses in todays blog post.

What is included in the stimulus package?

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, is the largest economic stimulus package in modern history. The bill includes $2 trillion in tax provisions and other stimulus measures, including emergency business lending. The infusion of cash promises to provide assistance for struggling American businesses and families, as well as healthcare workers that are standing on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19.
WSE Submission by the Investor of motions to the antimonopoly authority for consent to take control over the Company

Management Board of Work Service S.A. ("Issuer" or "Company"), with reference to the Current Report No. 12/2020, 12/2020/K and 14/2020, hereby informs that today the Company received information that Gi INTERNATIONAL S.R.L., wholly owned by Gi Group SpA ("Investor"), submitted motion to the competent antimonopoly authority in Romania, concerning allowing the Investor to take control over the Company. According to the information provided by the Investor, the Investor is in the process of preparing other motion to the competent antimonopoly authority, which will be submitted at a later date.

Obtaining the consent of the relevant antimonopoly authorities for the Investor to take control over the Company and its affiliates is one of the conditions precedent to the transaction with the Investor, set out in the investment agreement concluded between the Company and the Investor on 13 February 2020. Legal basis: Article 17(1) MAR _Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council _EU_ No 596/2014 of 16 April 2014 on market abuse _Regulation on market abuse and repealing the Directive 2003/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Directives 2003/124/EC, 2003/125/EC and 2004/72/EC. Signatures: Iwona Szmitkowska - President of the Management Board Jarosaw Dymitruk - Vice-President of the Management Board
The Coal India-arm South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) in Chhattisgarhs Korba district has sent about 50 employees to home quarantine after they attended a religious event, Business Standard has reported.

The move was taken after a participant of the religious gathering tested positive for the novel coronavirus, said the report.

The religious event was held on April 3, in which people  all belonging to a minority community  participated by defying the health guidelines and also curfew-like lockdown imposed by the Chhattisgarh government, said the report, citing Korba district administration.

After the event, one of the persons present in the event was tested positive for coronavirus. The person had been admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Raipur.

Coronavirus LIVE updates

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Among the other participants, about 50 were working with a coal mining project of SECL. Taking note of it, the SECL management issued an order asking the employees not to report on duty and stay in the 28-day home quarantine starting April 6.

These employees were part of mining operation in the underground mine of the SECL, said the report.

Meanwhile, state-owned CIL has developed a sanitising chamber for disinfecting its mine workers and containing the spread of the deadly coronavirus that has wreaked havoc across the world.

The sanitising chamber at one of the mines of SECL has already been commissioned, an official told news agency PTI. Each worker of SECL at the Bartunga Hill Mine in Chhattisgarh enters the sanitising chamber where a disinfectant is sprayed over the full-body, making the worker safe and sanitised, the official said.

Follow our full coverage here
Australia has suffered its deadliest day yet in the fight against coronavirus, as experts warn of an 'explosive resurgence' of cases if people don't obey social distancing measures this Easter long weekend.

Seven Australians died of COVID-19 on Tuesday, taking the nation's death toll to 48.

The latest casualties included an international traveller in his 70s who caught the deadly respiratory infection on the Arcadia cruise ship, and a woman in the same age bracket who is believed to have contracted the virus overseas.

Despite the spike in deaths, Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed on Tuesday that it appeared Australia was flattening the curve as the number of newly diagnosed cases decreases daily.

But health advisers warned Australia would wade back into dangerous waters quickly if people stop abiding by social distancing measures.

Government data presented today showed the number of new daily cases spiked at 460 on 28 March and has been decreasing since. On 6 April there were 104 new cases.

One of the scientists who worked on new modelling released today suggested Australia has passed the peak of the infection rate but faces an 'explosive resurgence' if restrictions are relaxed.

So far 48 people have died from coronavirus in Australia, including seven deaths confirmed on Tuesday

Data presented today shows how Australia's new coronavirus cases have been decreasing since 28 March

Australians have been urged to avoid the beach on the Easter long weekend to ensure there is not a resurgence in the virus. Pictured: Shelly Beach on Sunday, April 5

Professor James McCaw of Melbourne University's Doherty Institute warned: 'We expect to see a further decline in cases... [but if we] went back to normal we would see a rapid and explosive resurgence in epidemic activity.'

Mr Morrison said it is crucial that people stay home during the Easter long weekend.

Temperatures are expected to reach a comfortable 28C and sunny in Brisbane, 27C in Perth and 21C in Sydney, but families have been urged to resist the temptation to head to the nearest beach to celebrate.

The PM warned that people who flout social distancing rules could cause the rate of increase to pick up once more.

'Failure to stay at home this weekend would completely undo everything we have achieved so far together - and potentially worse,' he said.

On Tuesday the government released the Institute's modelling based on global data, showing how restrictions reduce the spread of the virus.

If no action were taken, 89 per cent of Australians might catch the virus and only 15 per cent of people requiring ICU beds would get one, causing mass deaths.

That is a 'horrendous scenario' which is highly unlikely, Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said.

A woman wears a mask on a near-deserted street in Sydney's CBD following an outbreak of coronavirus

Medicall personnel testing for coronavirus dress in full protective equipment to minimise the spread

Scott Morrison (right today at a press conference) has told Australians to stay at home this Easter to save lives

The above graphic shows how Australia's infection rate has slowed down (above)

With social distancing measures and strict quarantine of the sick, the proportion of people infected is 12 per cent and only five per cent require some medical care, meaning the health system can cope.

In Western Australia, an additional 10 new cases were diagnosed overnight, bringing the total known infections to 470. Of the new cases, nine are in metro areas while one is regional.

Nationally, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases soared to 5,906 by Tuesday afternoon.

Premier Mark McGowan said people can't be complacent, despite the overall infection rate lowering.

'This is a marathon, not a sprint,' Mr McGowan said.

'Even though the numbers in WA are promising  we have no reason whatsoever to get complacent now.'

Earlier on Tuesday, a 14th Ruby Princess cruise ship passenger died in Tasmania.

The Ruby Princess cruise ship is docked in Port Kembla, near Wollongong, as a criminal investigation begins into why 2,700 passengers were allowed to disembark in Sydney Harbour on March 19 despite multiple travellers displaying symptoms of coronavirus.

The investigation will cover the actions of the port authority, ambulance, police, NSW Health and ship operator Carnival Australia.

The ship is expected to spend up to 10 days in Port Kembla as its 1,040 crew members undergo medical assessments, treatment or emergency extractions.

What does the coronavirus modelling show? If no measures are taken The theoretical modelling finds an uncontrolled COVID-19 pandemic scenario would overwhelm our health system for many weeks. 89 per cent of people would catch the virus, with 38 per cent requiring some medical care. ICUs would be stretched well beyond capacity for a prolonged period. Only 15 per cent of people requiring ICU beds would be able to access one, even with the expanded ICU capacity in the model. This graph shows three scenarios based on no restrictions (grey), quarantine (light blue) and social distancing (dark blue) With quarantine and isolation Quarantine and isolation would reduce the proportion of people who would catch the virus to 68 per cent, and those needing medical care to 29 per cent. Only an estimated 30 per cent of people requiring ICU beds would be able to access them. With social distancing restrictions If social distancing measures reduces transmission by 25 per cent, the proportion of people infected would be 38 per cent with 16 per cent requiring some medical care. Eighty per cent of people who need ICU beds could access them. With a 33 per cent reduction in transmission due to social distancing, the proportion of people infected is 12 per cent and only five per cent require some medical care. In that scenario, everyone who needs an ICU bed over the course of the pandemic could access one. The modelling finds our ICUs will cope if we continue to have effective social distancing, increase our health system capacity, and isolate people with the virus and their close contacts. This table shows the proportion of each age group who require hospitalisation if they are infected with the disease Advertisement

Premier of Western Australia Mark McGowan speaks to the media during a press conference regarding coronavirus

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Some 200 have symptoms of infection. Two of the crew members were taken off the ship on Sunday for medical assistance.

Border Force officials and health workers will reportedly board the ship and test crew members displaying coronavirus symptoms as well as deliver medical supplies.

The ship will remain docked at the port for up to 10 days, with no crew to be let off without permission from NSW Police commissioner Mick Fuller.

NSW police said the Ruby Princess will dock 'to allow for safer access for medical assessments, treatment, or emergency extractions of her crew'.

'The berthing will be conducted under strict health and biosecurity guidelines and will not pose a risk to employees at the port or the broader community,' a police spokeswoman said.

'She will also be refuelling and restocking provisions, as required for her home journey.'

Mr Fuller said NSW Police will work closely with the 1,040 crew members on the ship, who are from 50 different countries.

'Obviously the health and wellbeing of the crew members is essential,' he said.

'Between NSW Health, NSW police and the emergency management team a plan has been developed that will be around isolation on the ship.

'And then from that, from that 10-day period of isolation we can then continue to work with Carnival in relation to repatriation of the individuals on the ship.'

A Ruby Princess cruise ship passenger in his 80s has died from coronavirus in hospital, taking Australia's death toll to 48

Labor's health spokesman and Shadow Minister for the Illawarra and South Coast Ryan Park accused the NSW government of trying to 'dump' its problems on the Illawarra.

'It is unbelievable that in the cover of darkness the vessel that has been the epicentre of coronavirus in NSW sails into the harbour,' he told reporters at Port Kembla on Monday.

'Everyone wants to see the crew on board this ship get the medical attention they need and deserve, but the majority of health and hospital resources are located just a few kilometres from Sydney Harbour.

'It beggars belief that a government has made a decision to move this ship down to the Illawarra when they have a large number of ICU beds and hospital resources located within close proximity of Sydney Harbour.'

Mr Park said he is 'extremely concerned' that an influx of sick crew members needing medical treatment will put a strain on Wollongong Hospital and its intensive care capacity.

The Ruby Princess cruise ship is docked in Port Kembla, near Wollongong, as a criminal investigation begins

The ship will remain docked at the port for up to 10 days, with no crew to be let off without permission from NSW Police commissioner Mick Fuller
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung has symbolically handed over 550,000 made-in-Vietnam antibacterial masks as gifts from the Vietnamese Government and people to help their counterparts of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.

At the event (Photo: VNA)

Attending the handover ceremony in Hanoi on April 7 were the ambassadors of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, and the ambassador, head of the European Union Delegation to Vietnam.

Speaking at the event, Dung said amid the current global medical crisis, no single country could effectively contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

International cooperation and enhancing solidarity are important factors to protect the health and safety of people, helping to mitigate the great impacts of the epidemic, he said.



Vietnam always stays ready to work closely, share experience and join hands with countries and the international community to take necessary measures, within bilateral and material frameworks such as the ASEAN-EU, G20 and the United Nations, with the determination to contain and soon push back the epidemic, Dung added.



The participating ambassadors highly appreciated and thanked the Vietnamese Government and people for their valuable assistance to France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK in this difficult moment.

Though Vietnam has been heavily affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, the country has been willing to share resources, provide medical services and create favourable conditions for foreign citizens in Vietnam over the past time, including the treatment of infected persons, they said.

The ambassadors also pledged to closely coordinate and step up cooperation with Vietnam in protecting the health and safety of people, maintain cooperative relations and trade, share information and offer mutual support to overcome the current difficulties.

Vietnam presents 500 COVID-19 test kits to Indonesia

Health workers conduct quick test for the SARS-CoV-2

The Vietnamese Government has handed over 500 Made-in-Vietnam COVID-19 test kits to Indonesia.

Indonesian Ambassador to Vietnam Ibnu Hadi underlined that the support is the result of cooperation between the Indonesian Embassy in Vietnam and the Vietnamese Embassy in Indonesia and Vietnams Ministry of Science and Technology.

The kit, named Light Power IVASARS-CoV-2 1stRT-rPCR (VA.A02-055H), which uses the WHO-approved RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) lab technique, is manufactured by the Viet A Corporation. It allows for 50 tests, with results obtained after just an hour using samples taken from the throat or respiratory tract.

The kits were delivered to Professor-Dr. Sri Oemijati of the Laboratory for Infectious Disease Research in Jakarta.

As at April 7, Indonesia had reported 2,491 COVID-19 cases, including 209 fatalities an 192 recoveries.

Military Region 7 presents medical equipment to Cambodian army

At the handing-over ceremony

The High Command of Military Region 7 of the Vietnam Peoples Army (VPA) on April 7 handed over medical supplies and equipment to some units of the Cambodian Royal Army to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The supplies include 50,000 face masks, 1,000 liters of hand sanitiser, 1,000 items of protective gear, and 200 kg of Cloramin B.

Addressing the handing-over ceremony at the Xa Mat international border gate in the southern province of Tay Ninhs Tan Bien district, Major General Nguyen Truong Thang, Vice Commander of Military Region 7, wished Cambodian generals, officers, soldiers, and their families well on the occasion of the upcoming Khmer new year festival.

He said the VPA and the Cambodian army have cooperated closely in the fight against the disease and expressed a hope that the supplies will help Cambodian military units improve efficiency.

The general suggested that units of the two sides stationed along border areas strengthen cooperation in preventing the spread of the disease.

Military Region 7 also presented 30,000 face masks and 500 million VND (21,450 USD) to Vietnamese Cambodians to help them over this difficult time.VNA
A message with a video clip is all over Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp asserting that U.S. authorities have arrested Dr. Charles Lieber, a Harvard professor, for creating COVID-19 and selling it to China.

The claim was that the professor was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for cooperating with China in developing the coronavirus. The rumor was found to have spread by India Today, an Indian news journal, which has a close association with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Lieber was arrested for fraud

This was debunked by the India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) that found the claim to be misleading. Dr. Charles Lieber was arrested in January 2020 for lying and fraud towards U.S. federal authorities involving funds he had allegedly received from China.

One YouTube video posted on Facebook claims in a coronavirus conspiracy theory that turned out to conflate a real news story with misinformation.

"The coronavirus was invented and patented in the USA and then planted in China," the YouTube headline indicated.

Lieber visited the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China to honor the founding of a lab he was credited by the said university with contributing to launch and supervise the WUT-Harvard Joint Nano Key Laboratory.

Officials from Harvard had not approved the laboratory and were not aware of it until early 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Also, they did not know that while conducting his research, Lieber received grants from the Department of Defence and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). According to federal authorities, Lieber was also being paid at a maximum of $50,000 a month by WUT, plus at least $150,000 in for living expenses.

Also read: Chinese Patient Had COVID-19 for Record-Breaking 49 Days

No link between Lieber and coronavirus leak

Lieber, chair of Harvard's chemistry department and nanoscale materials chemist, was arrested on January 28th by federal agents. The doctor was accused of rendering false statements to government agencies about his contribution to China's "Thousand Talents" program and with the Wuhan University of Technology.

There was no connection between his arrest and the coronavirus.

Facebook users including Alex Alvarez and Meera Singh have shared the viral video that showed a clipping of the U.S. news channel "WCVB" with the caption, "USA just discovered the man who manufactured and sold the #coronavirus to #China. Dr #CharlesLieber, head of the chemistry and biology department at #HarvardUniversity, USA. He was just arrested today according to American department sources."

The suspicion of Lieber playing a vital role in creating the coronavirus was further ignited by remarks made by Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, who said on Fox News in February that the possibility of whether the coronavirus was released by a Wuhan lab was one "we at least have to ask."

The rumors gained more traction after the U.S. law enforcement detained two Chinese citizens simultaneously with Lieber's arrest.

One of the Chinese nationals was depicted in a Facebook user's viral post as allegedly smuggling vials of "sensitive biological samples" to bring to China.

According to the fact-checking website Snopes.com, "The DOJ (Department of Justice) announced three separate arrests in January 2020."

"The first was Lieber. The second involved Yanqing Ye, a lieutenant in the Chinese army accused of stealing U.S. research. And third was Zaosong Zheng, who stole 21 vials of biological research. While these three arrests all involve people lying about their ties to China, they took place at different universities and are not related."

Related article: China Province Imposes New Coronavirus Lockdown, Fears of Second Wave



@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Laura Kuka Valois baking business boomed before the coronavirus crisis. But with communions, confirmations and weddings cancelled so were all the orders for her Great Kills-based custom baking business, Lauaras Cupcake Shack. To make matters worse her husbands restaurant sales plummeted at The Corner House BBQ in Grant City and its dessert orders disappeared. Yet the resourceful Valois jumped on what Staten Islanders seemed to need most -- toilet paper.

Communion season got wiped out. My whole cake business completely went from 20 cakes a week to like two. So I had to come up with something quick since I needed to bring in money, said Valois.

Two weeks ago she started crafting toilet paper-shaped custom cakes. They come garnished with a can of Lysol, Purell bottle and a face mask, available in any flavor batter and finished with buttercream frosting or fondant. Shes shipped 45 around Staten Island so far.

Kiddie Cakes of Pleasant Plains (@kiddie.cakes.si via Instagram) also riffed on the TP panic with their spare roll" in fondant flair.

The custom baking crowd also conjured up their own kiddie creations for the stir-crazy.

"So since kids were home form school I figured let them make their own cupcakes. It can be a fun activity to fight boredom, Valois said. I put it on Facebook and got 40 orders.

- Cakes by Laura Kuka Valois in the coronavirus crisis include toilet paper shapes and Lysol cans. Laura Kuka ValoisLaura Kuka Valois

Renatos in Port Richmond (@RenatosPastry via Instagram) offers DIY cannoli packages.

Last weekend Maria Yandoli aka Fancy Donut Designer of Heartland Bagels II in Rossville (@Maria_HeartlandBagels2) offered a limited supply of Ariel, Belle, Batman and Lego-themed doughnut kits. With the Rossville bakery temporarily closed her goodies were delivered for a small fee.

Morettis Bakery of West Brighton (@MorettiCakes via Instagram) also boxed doughnut kits" for tasty fun. For $18, supplies include toppings like marshmallows, colorful sprinkles and frosting along with six, fresh fried doughnuts.

I put cookies inside the the package so its cute! said Cinzia Leon, the pastry chef and co-proprietor.

Some bakers like Leon and Valois ship borough-bound creations with Jordan Berber of Rossville Delivery who deals only with prepaid orders to ensure contact-less shipments.

The downside to such volume in a coronavirus world is that baking ingredients are in short supply, says Valois, and pricing on staples has spiked.

Valois complained that eggs recently cost her $40 a case whereas a month ago they were $18 on sale. Her produce vendors price increases have made fresh fruit toppings costly options on cakes. This weekend she went to several stores in search of confectioners sugar. She found just what she needed at an Acme in Marlboro, N.J.

She said, As long as Im able to be creative I can keep on baking."

Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@sidadvance.com.

**** FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE IN NEW YORK *****

Dim sum at East Pacific are baked, steamed and fried in sweet and savory varieties. One day after the coronavirus crisis it will return to the Staten Island Mall. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri) Staff-Shot

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Ukraine has expressed its strong protest in connection with the implementation by Russia of another draft for military service in Russia-occupied Crimea, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has said.

"Such actions by Russia is a gross violation of international humanitarian law, which prohibits Russia, as an occupying state, from forcing protected persons to serve in its armed or auxiliary forces. It is also forbidden to exert pressure and conduct propaganda in favor of voluntary entry into the army, as well as to transfer protected persons outside the occupied territory," Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a statement release on Monday evening.

The ministry said military conscription in the context of the coronavirus pandemic is especially cynical.

"The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine demands Russia cancel the call for military service in Russia-occupied Crimea and ensures the unconditional fulfillment of its international obligations as an occupying state," the Foreign Ministry said.
An advertisement for Samsung Electronics Co. Galaxy smartphones is displayed atop a building in the company's mobile business factory in Gumi, South Korea, on Sunday, April 5, 2020.

South Korean tech giant Samsung said Tuesday its operating profit for the three months that ended in March likely rose from a year ago and beat expectations slightly.

Samsung said it expects 6.4 trillion Korean won ($5.23 billion) in first-quarter operating profit for 2020, up 2.7% from the 6.23 trillion won it posted for the same period a year earlier. Analysts predicted Samsung to estimate its operating profit for the quarter to be 6.2 trillion ($5.05 billion) won, according to Refinitiv SmartEstimate, Reuters reported.

The company said it expects first-quarter consolidated sales of 55 trillion won, up almost 5% from a year ago.

Samsung shares rose 1.85% on Tuesday. It is one of the first major tech companies to report earnings estimates for the January-March quarter in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

The virus outbreak has led to growing concerns over demand for smartphones and other consumer electronics. Temporary closure of some Samsung factories and retail stores around the world is likely going to have an impact on sales. The company did not break down the operating profit and consolidated sales numbers for each of its business units in Tuesday's guidance.

But a relatively weak Korean won, cost-saving efforts and strong demand for memory chips are set to drive the company's earnings, according to SK Kim, executive director and analyst at Daiwa Securities.

He explained on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that the virus outbreak has pushed more people to work from home and make their purchases online. That is boosting demand for memory chips from data centers, which they support a variety of internet services.

"This will continue to drive memory price high in the second quarter, which will offset weakness on the mobile as well as the TV (business)," Kim said.
A medical worker takes a patient into a special coronavirus intake area Tuesday at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. (Getty Images)

New York state set a one-day record of 731 deaths from COVID-19 on Monday even as a drop in new hospitalizations suggested that the rate of infections could be slowing down, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.

New York remains the hardest hit state, with 5,489 deaths, Cuomo said. New Jersey is next with 1,232 deaths, followed by Michigan with 845, Louisiana with 582 and California with 395, according to officials and data reporting. Nationwide, more than 12,000 people have died.

At the same time, New Yorks overwhelmed hospital emergency rooms have started to see a drop in new coronavirus patients, with the three-day average falling from a peak of 1,294 late last week to 529, according to Cuomo's office. Admissions to intensive care units decreased more dramatically, from a three-day average of 395 last week to 89 on Monday, Cuomo said.

Cuomo, who has vowed stricter enforcement of stay-at-home orders to keep restless New Yorkers from venturing outdoors to enjoy the warmer spring weather, said the slowdown in hospitalizations showed social distancing was working.

I know its hard, but we have to keep doing it, Cuomo said, warning that any letup risks a new spike in casualties.

This is not an act of God that were looking at; its an act of what society actually does, Cuomo said.

In New York City, at least 3,202 people have died from the coronavirus, a toll that now exceeds the 2,753 victims killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center.

More than 17,000 coronavirus patients were being treated Tuesday in the state's hospitals. Cuomo said he spoke twice with President Trump on Monday about having the Navy hospital ship Comfort treat COVID-19 patients, rather than just people suffering from other ailments. Trump agreed to do that, he said.

The president, to his credit, moved expeditiously, Cuomo said.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, shown last month, said on Tuesday that 731 people had died in the state on Monday. (Getty Images)

Cuomo also said hed begun talks with the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut about starting to plan a gradual return to normal business, so that the entire region coordinates the reopening of schools and businesses once its deemed safe.

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Were not there yet, but this is not a light switch that we can just flick one day and everything goes back to normal, he said.

As that planning begins, though, many New Yorkers are grieving.

We talk about numbers, but that 731 people who we lost, behind every one of those numbers is an individual, is a family, is a mother, is a father, is a sister, is a brother, so a lot of pain again today for many New Yorkers, he said.

New Jersey also hit a record of deaths in one day, losing 232 people on Monday, beyond the 1,000 already reported, Gov. Phil Murphy announced.

Its almost unfathomable, folks, when you look at that  1,232 lost lives, Murphy said.

Murphy ordered all state and county parks closed on Tuesday, saying far too many people were gathering in ways showing that they think social distancing doesnt matter.

Nothing could be further from the truth, Murphy said.

Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Illinois also each reported a single-day record in fatalities on Tuesday.

The calls for Americans to remain vigilant come amid rising concerns that African Americans appear to be dying from COVID-19 at a rate that exceeds their proportion of the population, particularly in Michigan, Louisiana, Illinois and North Carolina.

"People in higher poverty have higher morbidity rates, and there is a racial component to that, undeniably, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said on SiriusXM radios "Signal Boost" show.

Nationwide, public health authorities have released scant data on the racial disparities. U.S. Surgeon Gen. Jerome M. Adams, who is black, said Tuesday that a disproportionately large share of African Americans have underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk for COVID-19.

"We know that blacks are more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, and I have shared myself, personally, that I have high blood pressure, that I have heart disease and spent a week in the ICU due to a heart condition, that I actually have asthma and am prediabetic," Adams told "CBS This Morning." "So I represent that legacy of growing up poor and black in America, and I and many black Americans are at higher risk for COVID."

At a White House briefing, President Trump said the initial numbers on racial disparities were "very nasty."

It doesnt make sense, and I dont like it, he said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he was very concerned about the impact on African Americans, but that nothing could be done about it in the near term.

In Detroit, a predominantly black city that has been a hot spot for COVID-19, Mayor Mike Duggan reported a record 26 new coronavirus deaths on Monday, bringing the city's total to 219. But he said the rate at which the daily number of deaths was doubling was starting to slow down, suggesting that stay-at-home orders were working.

Detroit, he said, is "at a very dangerous time if we dont stick with what were doing.

"We have some really bad days ahead of us," Duggan said. "Were going to lose a lot of our neighbors in the coming days. Its going to get worse before it gets better.

There remain eight states where governors, all of them Republican, have declined to order residents to stay at home: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah. Several other Republican governors have imposed such orders in the last few days in their states: Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. South Carolina's order took effect Tuesday.

Wisconsin voters line up in Milwaukee, where only five of 180 polling sites were open on Tuesday in an election Republican state lawmakers refused to postpone. (Associated Press)

In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday ordered the state's beaches reopened, superseding local jurisdictions' attempts to close them.

In Wisconsin on Tuesday, gloved and masked voters lined up by the thousands in defiance of the Democratic governor's stay-at-home order to vote in the presidential primary and other contests after Republican lawmakers refused to postpone the election and courts declined to allow changes.
Bismah Malik By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Despite the COVID-19 pandemic set to result in a near-certain global economic recession, Indias investment ecosystem has been abuzz with fundraising updates over the past week with more than $700 million in capital raised by start-ups. Even as the hospitality, travel, aviation and retail sectors took a hit, investors put their money into ed-tech, fintech, food delivery, bio-tech and omni-channel retail platforms.

Flipkart founder and serial investor Sachin Bansal dominated the limelight with an infusion of nearly Rs 3,000 crore ($392 million) in his financial services firm: Navi Technologies. Navi had earlier acquired tech firm Mavenhive and car insurance firm DHFL Insurance, besides making investments in various start-ups. Mukesh Ambanis Reliance Industries, meanwhile, has reportedly put in $65 million (Rs 500 crore) in education platform Embibe.

The fresh infusion comes barely a month after RIL acquired a major stake in Embibe for Rs100 crore. With schools and colleges shut throughout the country, ed-tech platforms across the country have reported a 100-150 per cent increase in user base in March. Although food delivery majors Zomato and Swiggy witnessed a 50-60 per cent drop in order volumes, both have managed to secure funding during the period.

Swiggy has raised $43 million in a Series 1 round from Ark Impact, Samsung Ventures and Mirae Asset Capital, raising its valuation to $3.6 billion. Rival Zomato has received a fresh $5 million from Pacific Horizon. Interestingly, omni-channel beauty and personal care retailer Nykaa also saw fund infusions, raising $13 million (Rs 100 crore) from US hedge fund Steadview Capital, bringing its valuation to $1.2 billion.

With the pandemic gathering momentum, investors also turned to start-ups working in the med-tech, ed-tech and fintech space. Bengaluru-based bio-tech start-up Med Genome raised $55 million (Rs 419 crore) from global investor LeapFrog in the latest round, which the company says it will utilise in consolidating research on drug disxovery as well as clinical genome testing across tier-1 and -2 cities. Others who saw funding during the past week include Lido Learning ($3 million), JusPay ($21 million), Furlenco ($10 million) and Recko ($6 million).
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a telephonic conversation with his Swedish counterpart Stefan Lofven and Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tarik. They discussed the challenges faced by their respective countries in the wake of the novel coronavirus crisis. PM Modi and Lofven agreed to collaborate and encourage data exchange between Indian and Swedish researchers and scientists. They also promised to not only provide assistance to stranded citizens but also optimise the availability of medical supplies for tackling COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the Oman Sultan and the PM pledged support to each other's nations in dealing with the ongoing crisis. Moreover, Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tarik gave an assurance about the safety and wellbeing of the Indian community in Oman and thanked PM Modi for the support provided to Omani citizens. Reiterating his condolences for the demise of late Sultan Qaboos, the PM conveyed his best wishes for the prosperity of Oman under Sultan Haitham bin Tarik's reign. While Sweden has registered 7,206 COVID-19 cases and 477 deaths, Oman has witnessed 295 cases and two casualties.

Exchanged thoughts with @SwedishPM Stefan Lofven about the COVID-19 pandemic and ways to fight it. We agreed to explore opportunities for supporting each other, including on research initiatives. https://t.co/8HLwBzWga4  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 7, 2020

Read: Ministry Of Health Issues Document On Management Of Suspect & Confirmed COVID-19 Cases

Spoke to His Majesty Sultan of Oman about COVID-19 and how to limit its impact. Also expressed thanks for HM's personal attention to the well-being of the Indian community in Oman.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 7, 2020

Read: COVID-19: Centre Readies 'Cluster Containment Strategy' For Delhi, Mumbai, Bhilwara, Agra

The coronavirus crisis

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a complete lockdown in the country until April 14 to tackle the challenge posed by the COVID-19 crisis. Currently, there are 4421 confirmed novel coronavirus cases in India out of which 326 people have recovered while 114 individuals have lost their lives. On April 5, people across the country heeded PM Modi's appeal and lit a lamp, candle or torchlight to express solidarity with fellow citizens and to vanquish the darkness caused by the novel coronavirus. Apart from the PM's Cabinet colleagues, multiple Chief Ministers including Pinarayi Vijayan, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy participated in this initiative.

Read: Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Centre Mulls Extending Lockdown Post-April 14; Cases At 4421

Read: Modi Govt Plans 2 Covid Strategies Post-April 14; For 'lockdown & Non-lockdown' States
Internally displaced Zeinabou Sawadoga, 42, is surrounded by family in the grounds of her relative's courtyard in Kaya, Burkina Faso where she is now seeking shelter.  UNHCR/Sylvain Cherkaoui

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has warned more lives are at a risk in Burkina Fasos Centre Nord and Sahel regions where hundreds of thousands of displaced people, including small children, are being forced to sleep out in the open at the mercy of the elements.

An estimated 350,000 people now need urgent access to adequate shelter and water to help them cope with desert-like conditions in remote parts of Burkina Faso. Fresh insecurity is driving more people from their homes every day.

UNHCR was already alarmed that a chronic lack of resources was threatening a major humanitarian disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic is now further aggravating what is already a complex mix of crises.

We are in a race against time to prevent more human suffering. People are in desperate need of shelter in remote locations and facing harsh weather conditions. We are calling on all humanitarian actors to increase resources.

Burkina Faso is currently the worlds fastest-growing displacement crisis with close to 840,000 people have been displaced by conflict and drought in the last 16 months. Nearly 60,000 were forced out of their homes in the month of March alone.

Despite the increased deployment of security forces, armed groups continue to wreak havoc in the countrys Centre Nord and Sahel regions, attacking police and military, civilians, schools, health centres, teachers and health workers alike.

UNHCR staff are regularly hearing harrowing accounts from survivors on the run. People speak in horrifying details of attacks on their villages, where men and boys are killed, women raped, homes pillaged and schools along with other infrastructure are destroyed.

UNHCR is working with the local authorities and its other humanitarian partners to rush additional shelter and relief supplies to the displaced, but with increasing insecurity and limited resources, it is going to be hard to reach all of those in need. Many displaced are living in dire conditions in overcrowded locations. Many are sleeping and living under trees.

Rampant insecurity is having an adverse impact on the humanitarian response as it severely hinders access by humanitarian actors to reach people in need - those forced to flee and the communities hosting them all desperately need shelter, food, water, protection, health, education.

The health system of Burkina Faso has been dramatically affected, at the time when the country is also facing the COVID-19. Borders have been closed since last week, and movement has been restricted to and from towns and cities with confirmed coronavirus cases.

While stepping up our efforts in the Sahel to ensure the protection of those fleeing violence, UNHCR is also adapting its operations on the ground to support the national response to the public health emergency to include refugees and IDPs and host communities.

So far, we have provided shelter to some 50,000 displaced people and work continues round the clock to cover all in need.

The lack of water in the Sahel region is also a significant challenge. UNHCR is building facilities to store some 15,000 litres of water near the town of Dori in the Sahel region as work continues with the local authorities to allow connecting displacement sites to the national water supply network.

In coordination with Burkinabe authorities, we are also exploring relocating displaced people to Goudoubo refugee camp in Dori in the Sahel region  as some of the displaced are living in and around the city, a few kilometres away. The camp emptied less than a couple of weeks ago, after Malian refugees rushed back to Mali following attacks and ultimatum. At the camp, water, sanitation and health facilities are already available.

Relevant broadcast-quality footage is available for download on UNHCR's content platform Refugees Media

For more information on this topic, please contact:

In Dakar, Romain Desclous, [email protected] , +221 786 396 385

, +221 786 396 385 In Burkina Faso, Moussa Bougma, [email protected] , +226 253 40 522

, +226 253 40 522 In Geneva, Charlie Yaxley, [email protected] , +41 795 808 702

, +41 795 808 702 In Geneva, Babar Baloch, [email protected] , +41 79 513 9549

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Health Officials link surge of coronavirus cases to Faith Assembly Church in Redding

In Shasta County, the official tally has reached 21 confirmed cases, with three deaths. The latest case is a man in his 90's. He is now isolated at a local medical facility. Shasta health representatives are now linking what they call quote "a higher than expected" number of cases to the Faith Assembly Church in Redding. That church stopped holding public events three weeks ago, and are now contacting anyone who may have been exposed.

North State COVID-19 case numbers

In Butte County, the number of confirmed cases is also growing. There are now 12 cases throughout the county. Glenn County has two positive cases, Tehama County has one, and Yuba County has 11. Sutter County has 17 cases, and Plumas County has three positive cases. Modoc, Trinity, and Lassen counties have zero cases. As a reminder, some counties public health officials are only releasing updated numbers, nothing more. If the county releases more information on a patient, it will be posted, HERE

Shasta County authorities are stepping up to fight COVID-19

Shasta County is in preparation mode for battling coronavirus cases, opening its emergency operations center. Health and Human Services, the sheriff's office, Cal Fire, and the Shasta County Fire Department will now all work together under one unified command to respond to coronavirus situations.

Chico introduces virtual participation for City Council

Happening tonight, the Chico City Council meeting will go virtual - due to coronavirus safety concerns. Rather than the usual in-person meeting, participants can attend via the internet. Those wishing to, can comment on agenda items in advance through what's being called the "engaged Chico civic engagement" program. Those comments must be submitted up to 30 minutes before the meeting starts.

Wisconsin holds its primary election in the middle of a pandemic

Despite the conflict between lawmakers, Wisconsin will move forward with its presidential primary today. The State Supreme Court blocked an executive order by the state's Democratic governor to postpone that vote and other local elections until June with many poll workers vowing not to show up and National Guard brought in to help run a reduced number of precincts.

Nationwide COVID-19 case numbers

The number of coronavirus cases continues to rise across the country. Nationwide the total number of confirmed cases reached 368,000. The death toll nearly is 11,000 and nearly 20,000 have recovered. In California, there are now over 16,000 confirmed cases, with 388 deaths. The bulk of California cases is in Los Angeles with over 6,000 confirmed.
The Calgary government is planning to provide sustained support for the most critical housing needs amid the current pandemic.

As reported by CBC, a city document has shown that low- and moderate-income will be the focus of the $104-million annual tranche to be set aside by the government.

Among the documents foremost proposals is that of a rent bank able to provide two months of rental funding to low-income tenants. This is to ensure that they wont enter into default and get evicted.
The Duchess of Rothesay at her desk in Birkhall at Balmoral. (PA)

The Duchess of Cornwall has said the hardest part of self-isolation is not being able to hug her grandchildren, as she was reunited with her husband after 14 days on her own.

Camilla had to self-isolate for two weeks after Prince Charles tested positive for COVID-19.

Despite her own test returning negative, she followed government guidelines to protect herself from catching the disease.

On Monday, the 72-year-old left her room at Birkhall, in Balmoral, Aberdeenshire, and wasted no time in getting back to work.

Camilla, who is known as the Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland, thanked the 750,000 NHS volunteers who have signed up to support the health service by taking shopping and essentials to vulnerable people or by calling those who are isolated.

And she called an isolated elderly person herself, having a conversation with Doris Winfield, 85, from Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, who has spent the last two weeks self-isolating.

Read more: Coronavirus: Queen praises 'selfless commitment' of healthcare professionals on World Health Day

Charles and Camilla had to self-isolate after Charles tested positive for the virus. (Getty Images)

Winfield has three daughters and is able to speak to them regularly, but said she misses the active social life she used to enjoy, and lives on her own.

Clarence House said she and the duchess spoke about the difficulties of being separated from family, with Camilla admitting missing hugging her grandchildren.

Camilla has five grandchildren from her first marriage to Andrew Parker-Bowles. Her son Tom has two children and her daughter Laura has three.

She and Winfield said the ability to keep up with family digitally helped, and discussed their shared love of Agatha Christie novels.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

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Winfield said the chat with Camilla meant the world to me, adding: Ive been incredibly lonely over the last couple of weeks and it was wonderful to talk to her.

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We talked about life in isolation and shared hobbies, she was very interested in my family and how I was coping without them. Its really cheered me up.

Read more: Queen says 'better days will return' as she addresses nation and Commonwealth

Camillas phone call drew attention to one element of the NHS volunteer service, which will help those who are having to self-isolate to protect themselves from COVID-19.

It could include those over 70, or those who live alone and are in the vulnerable category because of an underlying health condition.

Volunteers will be offered tasks from Tuesday on the GoodSAM app, and will be able to list themselves as on duty to carry out jobs.

Camilla, president of the Royal Voluntary Service, said: As the proud president of the Royal Voluntary Service, I wanted to send my warmest thanks to all the NHS volunteer responders who have come forward in unprecedented numbers to offer help to the NHS.

Royal Voluntary Service has been working with the NHS to recruit people in England who can assist those who are most in need of practical and emotional support at this time.

Thankfully, the charity has a long and remarkable history of bringing willing volunteers together with the isolated and lonely.

That experience is needed more than ever in these challenging times.

And today many more NHS volunteer responders will get in touch with the people they have so kindly offered to help.

Everyone working in the NHS is under unimaginable pressure day and night in this crisis.

I feel sure that the presence of so many wonderful volunteers will encourage, as well as support, them.

I salute each one of you  and thank you with all my heart.

Read more: Coronavirus: 'Nobody else alive could have done that'  Queen wins praise for her message

Health secretary Matt Hancock said: I want to thank every single person who signed up to be an NHS volunteer responder  their incredible generosity means we can now start helping those most in need across our communities and, in turn, support our heroic NHS staff and social care staff as they continue their outstanding work.

Coronavirus is one of the greatest challenges our country has faced, and it is truly awe-inspiring to see our whole nation coming together to help each other at this difficult time.
Dont look now, but we have a scandal in our midst.

At least that is what I see on the Reporter-Telegram Facebook page.

Mayor Patrick Payton got himself in a social media jam toward the end of a letter printed in the Tuesday Reporter-Telegram and on mrt.com when he wrote I believe each one of us knows the higher calling and will readily accept (sacrifice and serving others). There will be those who refuse to sacrifice and serve, but if the majority choose the value of service and sacrifice toward and for others, it will negate the minority. Rather than waiting to see what civil liberty has to be taken away for the safety and security of our neighbor, let us voluntarily relinquish our rights in order to sacrifice and serve for the greater good and well-being of our neighbors. We are our neighbors keeper.

Uh-oh. Did you read what social media herd read? He wants to take their guns. At least that is what those on social media are saying. And the chorus believes he isnt stopping there.

Shawn Riddle wrote on our Facebook page, Those who forsake liberty for a little safety will not get it and deserve neither.

Aaron Mays wrote, Everyone cool with a mayor threatening to take away your civil liberties for the greater good?

RELATED: Payton: We must be our neighbors keeper

Victoria Costilla Saul wrote, We already have made of our rights slowly taken or weakened by this kind of mentality. Much blood has been spilled for us to have our freedoms and rights. No. Will not give my rights up.

Yes, they were quoting Ben Franklin, having a Political Science 300-level discussion on civil liberties, bringing up the lives lost at Normandy and debating whether Payton was fit for the position. They were missing the point.

The mayor doesnt want to impose more regulations, ordinances, laws or orders on the community. If he did, he would have done so by now. As it stands, Payton has not endeared himself to local physicians, who have begged for more stringent rules to be put into place.

As I read Aaron Pachlhofers comment, Payton never read Orwell, huh?, I wondered if social media commenters read articles and reports that Payton has examined just about every other citys allegedly more strict, shelter in place ordinance and properly characterized them as nothing different than what is currently in place in Midland. Payton, every step of the way, has correctly put Midlanders ability to make the right decisions ahead of politics.

Look mayor if you cant do the job just step down, Aubrey Mayberry write.

And that comment might be missing the point most of all. It was Payton, less than three months into the job, who didnt back down from the challenge, did not mince words about Midlanders needing to take this seriously and would not allow government to step in with unneeded regulations. He has butted heads with the medical community and members of the Midland City Council to prevent city government from becoming overbearing. It was also Payton who put our community on notice about coronavirus before other communities.

And that early education appears to have paid off. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Midland County  knock on whatever wood you can find -- trail just about every higher population county in West Texas (El Paso, Lubbock, Potter, Randall, Taylor and Ector). And, yes, the repeated calls by Payton and Dr. Larry Wilson for social distancing and doing whats right are having an impact.

I dont think it is a coincidence that a community educated early and often is on the right end of such a list. I dont think it is dumb luck that while Midland is around the 26th most populated county in the state, it ranks around 33rd in coronavirus cases.

Did the mayor really need to bring civil liberties into the conversation without more context? Probably not. It was a slight gaffe from one of our communitys best communicators. Did it take away from the message, not for those who read the entire letter? It was more of the same. Facebook commenter Jim Cox knows.

(Payton) needs to dumb down what he is saying, so it is clear. Hes advocating self-control, Cox wrote.

Apparently, I was wrong. There isnt a scandal at all.

--

An earlier version of this column misrepresented the feelings of Midland's Sara Spector, who is a supporter of the mayor and his op-ed in the Reporter-Telegram this week. Editor Stewart Doreen apologizes for the error.
The High Court of Australia on Tuesday unanimously acquitted 78-year-old Cardinal George Pell of child sex offences, in a major relief to the country's most senior Catholic.

Once the Vatican's third-ranking official, Pell was released from Barwon Prison outside Melbourne after serving 13 months of a six-year sentence.

He was sentenced in March last year to six years in prison with a non-parole period of three years and eight months.

The High Court ruled in its judgement that there is a "significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof".

Pell was Vatican Treasurer and the highest ranking Catholic official to ever be publicly accused of child sex offenses.

The court released a statement explaining the decision which renders Pell's earlier convictions of sexually abusing two choir boys in the 1990s null and void.

"Today, the High Court granted special leave to appeal against a decision of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria and unanimously allowed the appeal.

"The High Court found that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant's guilt with respect to each of the offences for which he was convicted, and ordered that the convictions be quashed and that verdicts of acquittal be entered in their place," the court wrote.

The unanimous decision was made less than a month after the High Court heard two days of legal arguments from the defence and prosecutors.

Pell, the former top aide of Pope Francis, said in a statement: ''I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice".

"This has been remedied today, with the High Court's unanimous decision. I look forward to reading the judgment and reasons for the decision in detail.

"I hold no ill will toward my accuser. I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel. There is certainly hurt and bitterness enough," he said.

Pell was serving a six-year jail term after his conviction two years ago for abusing two choirboys in the 1990s, while he was the archbishop of Melbourne.

He was accused of committing the crimes after he found the boys swigging altar wine in the priests' sacristy after mass in Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral.

His defence appealed to the High Court that the court failed to take proper account of evidence.

On Tuesday, the High Court granted his application for special leave and unanimously acquitted him.

Last year, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had suggested that Pell was likely to lose his Order of Australia honour as a result of the court outcome.

In 2005, Pell became a Companion of the Order of Australia for his contribution to the Catholic Church.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three children were burnt alive in a village in Sindh, Pakistan on Sunday. The incident occurred at Shakil Mahar village near Dad Leghari in district Ghotki of Sindh. The bodies of the children have been completely charred and the Police said they could not be identified. The fire engulfed five houses, it is being reported. All the goods and valuables in them have been turned into ashes.

The cause of the fire could not be determined immediately, however, it is being reported that the fire broke out when a stove in one of the houses malfunctioned. But not everyone is buying it. Rahat Austin, a lawyer and an activist, claimed that the houses were set on fire and according to him, a woman was also severely burnt as a consequence. His tweet, which we are not embedding here due to extremely graphic content, can be seen here.

According to Austin, Bari Khan Patafi, an MP from the Pakistan Peoples Party, visited the place but no action has been taken thus far. We appreciate that step sir but please address the real issue. Beating around Bush is of no use, he said. Austin said that another incident of arson had occurred at Umeed Ali Rindh village, tehsil Chhachhado, in Tharparker, Sindh. Seven houses are said to have been burnt in that incident.

Non-Muslims in Pakistan and Hindus especially are persecuted greatly by the Muslims of the country. Women are raped at an alarming frequency, forcibly converted to Islam and life is made hell for them. To help the non-Muslims of the country, the Indian Parliament has passed the Citizenship Amendment Act which reduces the residential requirement for naturalization from 11 to 5 years.
Broadcast Journalist Kojo Yankson has raised some questions about President Akufo-Addos 5th national address on the update on coronavirus in Ghana.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced some intervention measures to support for citizens on Sunday, April 5, 2020 in his fifth update on COVID-19 epidemic. Some of the presidents interventions includes no water bills for 3 months, constant supply of electricity, free transport for health workers, distribution of food, money among several other things.



Kojo has commended President Akufo-Addos timely intervention and how Ghanaians are excited about it but he has however raised some questions concerning the presidents speech. Package for the health workers; very exciting packages full of so many goodies for those who are on the frontline.



Firstly, The Joy News Anchor believes the president has neglected the private health sector in his intervention measures for health workers.



Am wondering what does this mean for the private sector? They are not included in this as far as I can tell, but they are also on the frontline. So the question is; if they are not part of such intensives, will it end up being a disincentive for them? Could we start to see some of these private hospitals having workers not very willing to risk their lives on the frontline simply because the package for them is not as great as it could be?



He also raised questions about Electricity Company of Ghana(ECG) and how they can be able to provide uninterrupted power supply as announced by the president and why they have to wait for the presidents order before they carry out their responsibility and where government is going raise funds to provide constant electricity and water supply.



He also questioned as to how the soft loan president announced can be accessed and who qualifies to access it, testing of contacts tracing, the method of distribution of hot meals being distributed by NADMO to vulnerable citizens and how it may be politicised, the manufacturing of face mask, ventilators in Ghana among other things. Kojo also asked how transparent the testing process is.



Watch the full video below:





Source: Eugene Osafo-Nkansah/Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Alleged Russian crime boss to be held in detention until mid-June

 Moskva news agency, Kirill Zykov

11:42 07/04/2020

MOSCOW, April 7 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court on Tuesday upheld a lower courts ruling to extend detention of an alleged crime boss Oleg Medvedev, known as Oleg Shishkanov, until June 12, RAPSI was told in the courts press service.

The man was arrested in-mid July 2019 and placed in detention on allegations of occupying a top position in the criminal hierarchy (a new article in the Criminal Code of Russia).

He became the first well known defendant in a thief article case in the Moscow metropolitan area.

Investigators believe that Medvedev (Shishkanov) is implicated in gambling, prostitution organization, drug and arms trafficking and was involved in kidnapping and killing the lawmaker of the Moscow Regions Ramensky district Tatiana Sidorova and members of her family in 2012.




U.S. Forces in Korea personnel carry out "smell test" at the entrance to once if its sites. Stars and Stripes reported that the U.S. Army garrison in Daegu is carrying out an olfactory test to gauge whether a person might have COVID-19 or not. / Yonhap



SEOUL, South Korea  The Army garrison in Daegu, the center of South Korea's coronavirus outbreak, is trying a new way to sniff out people who may have the respiratory disease  a smell test.



Beginning Friday, people trying to enter U.S. installations in the southeastern city were being randomly asked if they can smell apple vinegar as part of the health screening process that has been in place since the outbreak began on Feb. 20.

"We are now performing random smell tests at the entrance gates of Camps Walker, Carroll and Henry to help better detect personnel who may be infected by COVID-19," the garrison said Friday on its Facebook page, using the virus' official name. "Those personnel who cannot detect the screen will be further screened."



Officials said Sunday the test began on an experimental basis at Camp Walker this weekend and would likely be expanded to the other bases in coming days.



Medical organizations have pointed to mounting evidence that anosmia, the loss of smell or taste, may be an early indicator of the highly contagious virus, although it has so far been largely anecdotal.



Army Garrison Daegu was the first military base to implement a strict screening regimen that includes temperatures checks and a questionnaire to determine potential exposure by location.



Those procedures have been emulated on bases across the divided peninsula and in other countries since the virus has become a global pandemic, infecting more than 1 million people and killing more than 56,000.



Daegu, a city of 2.5 million people, was hard hit with more than 60% of South Korea's 10,236 cases as of Sunday, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



Eight of the 18 cases affiliated with the U.S. military in South Korea were at USAG Daegu, including the first soldier to be infected who was stationed at Camp Carroll.



However, Daegu military officials believe those infections occurred off-post.

"We have not had a single transfer of the disease on our base," garrison commander Col. Edward Ballanco said Thursday in a Facebook live community update. "This will be another step that we can take to prevent that from happening."



The smell test was modeled on a similar process employed at local hospitals, he added.

"It won't be every car. We're just going to experiment with this and see how it works and how it goes," he said, displaying a plastic cup with a sponge soaked in vinegar.



The process was adapted over the weekend, with the garrison saying it would use soaked cotton swabs that could be handed to each individual, then immediately discarded.



People who don't have a sense of smell or who are allergic to vinegar were instructed to inform the screeners about their condition.



The World Health Organization has said it is probing a possible link between anosmia and coronavirus but has not yet listed it as a symptom.



The most common symptoms of the disease caused by coronavirus are fever, fatigue and a dry cough, although some patients may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea, according to the WHO.

ENT UK, a group representing ear, nose and throat doctors in Britain, said in a guidance document last week that significant numbers of patients in countries with high coronavirus rates, including South Korea, had developed anosmia.

The American Academy of Otolaryngology  Head and Neck Surgery also established a "COVID-19 anosmia reporting tool for clinicians."



Researchers at King's College London found that 59% of 579 respondents who reported suspected coronavirus symptoms to an app and tested positive for the disease reported loss of smell or taste, the BBC reported.

"When combined with other symptoms, people with loss of smell and taste appear to be three times more likely to have contracted Covid-19 according to our data, and should therefore self-isolate for seven days to reduce the spread of the disease," Tim Spector, a King's professor who led the study, was quoted as saying.



(Stars and Stripes/Tribune News)


The mother of a Co Kildare man stranded in New Zealand has appealed for the Irish government to intervene.

Gary Kelly (22) from Broadford in north west Kildare and his Co Tipperary girlfriend Emily Healy and are stranded amid a Covid-19 lockdown in Christchurch.

The couple have had two flights cancelled in recent weeks - the latest was due to depart next week but the airline is no longer flying.

Both have already lost their jobs in the construction industry due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

Gary's mother Christine Kelly (above) said: "Gary was hoping to get home from New Zealand on April 15 but unfortunately his flight was cancelled again.

She added: "So I am begging the Irish Government to help him home as they have no income coming in."

Christine said: "At the moment they are going to leave Christchurch on Sunday evening. They have a flight over to Auckland and then a flight from there to Doha then to Dublin all going well please God.

"If the flight is cancelled, they will be left homeless, so taking a big risk but have to do it to get home."

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Minister Simon Coveney have helped more than 1,800 citizens to get home since becoming stranded abroad due to Covid-19 restrictions.

A week ago, the Department of Foreign Affairs arranged a charter flight from Peru to Dublin with more than 100 Irish people and their families on board. Another repatriation flight was chartered from India.

Last week a Kilcock woman Aoife Murphy received help from the Irish Embassy in Buenos Aires in Argentina which provided provided personalised repatriation letters which allowed her to get through police checkpoints on the way to Buenos Aires Airport.

There are also believed to be Irish citizens stranded in India, Thailand, and Pakistan, where flights have been grounded or reduced.

Gary had previously booked flights from Christchurch to Dublin in late March only to discover they were cancelled at the last minute as the country tightened travel restrictions amid the pandemic.

Gary previously called on the Irish government to establish welfare payment plan for citizens stranded abroad.
A police department in Texas is searching for a woman who it says allegedly claimed to be spreading COVID-19 on purpose.

The Carrollton Police Department said Lorraine Maradiaga, 18, was "seen on social media claiming to be COVID-19 positive and willfully spreading it."
A pharmacy worker wears a protective mask shows a box of Plaquenil on March 25, 2020 in Paris, France.

Chesnot/Getty Images

President Donald Trump has a distant financial link to Sanofi, the French pharmaceutical company that produces a drug that is being trialed as a possible coronavirus treatment

The link was first highlighted by The New York Times, which described it as "small."

Calculations by Business Insider suggest the stake  held via a trust and a mutual fund  is worth no more than $1,305.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly endorsed chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine at his press briefings as an experimental treatment to fight COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

Some of Trump's associates also have financial ties to Sanofi, according to The Times.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump reportedly has a "small personal financial interest" in a drugmaker that produces hydroxychloroquine, a drug he has been enthusiastically touting as a possible treatment for the new coronavirus, according to a Monday New York Times report.

"As of last year, Mr. Trump reported that his three family trusts each had investments in a Dodge & Cox mutual fund, whose largest holding was in Sanofi," The Times wrote. Sanofi is a French drugmaker that produces hydroxychloroquine pills under the brand name Plaquenil.

A mutual fund is a portfolio that pools together money from several investors and then invests across various asset classes such as stocks, bonds and other forms of debt.

Business Insider followed the paper trail and concluded that the holding has a maximum value of around $1,300, only slightly larger than similar holdings by Trump funds in Google parent Alphabet, FedEx, and the French bank BNP Paribas.

Here is the logic:

The Dodge & Cox holdings are mentioned in this disclosure form, logged with the US Office of Government Ethics in May 2019.

Each of three family funds list a holding in the Dodge & Cox International Stocks Fund, valued between $1,000 and $15,000.

Story continues

The funds are managed by JP Morgan without any input from Trump.

According to a prospectus dated December 2019, the Dodge & Cox fund in question has Sanofi as its largest holding at 2.9%.

If all three Dodge & Cox holdings are worth the full $15,000  $45,000 in total  then a 2.9% share of that is $1,305.

Assuming, each holding is the minimum $1,000  a total of $3,000  then the 2.9% stake would equate to $87.

Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond for comment.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly endorsed chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as experimental treatments to fight COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, starting around March 21.

Since then, Sanofi's share price has risen around 16%, from $78.67 at market close on March 20 to $91.12 at time of publication on Tuesday.

The drugs are often used for the prevention and treatment of certain types of malaria. They are also used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and a few other conditions.

While large trials are underway, however, there is no clinical evidence so far that proves these drugs are effective against COVID-19. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for use in experimental COVID-19 treatment.

Trump repeated his endorsement of these medications during a Sunday evening press briefing, stating that the US now has a stockpile of over 29 million hydroxychloroquine pills.

"What do you have to lose?" he said repeatedly, at one point adding: "If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn't do it early."

President Donald Trump holds a press briefing with members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force on April 5, 2020 in Washington, DC. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recommendation that all Americans should wear masks or cloth face coverings in public settings.

Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images

Others within Trump's circle also have ties to Sanofi, according to The Times.

One of Sanofi's largest shareholders is Fisher Asset Management, a fund set up by major Republican donor Ken Fisher.

A fund previously run by commerce secretary Wilbur Ross also invests in Sanofi, according to the report, though Ross said in a statement that he was "not aware" of the company's involvement with Sanofi, nor was he personally involved "in the decision to explore [hydroxychloroquine] as a treatment."

And according to ProPublica, employees who were formerly compensated or employed by Sanofi went on to work at several federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, and the Office of Management and Budget.

Despite the optimism surrounding chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as potential COVID-19 treatments, the drugs can cause severe side effects, and misuse has led to poisoning and even death.

Short-term side effects of the medication include nausea, abdominal cramps, and vomiting. Serious side effects or prolonged treatment include liver failure, hearing loss, and muscle paralysis.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned last month against taking the drug without medical supervision. Some people took nonpharmaceutical chloroquine phosphate, a chemical used to clean home aquariums, instead of the medications approved by the FDA.

The CDC added that overdosing on the medication or taking it inappropriately could lead to severe toxicity.

A man in Arizona died after self-medicating with a fish tank cleaner that contained chloroquine phosphate, according to Arizona's nonprofit health system Banner Health.

Read the original article on Business Insider
* Four LNG tankers carrying U.S. cargoes on the way to China -data

* Beijing has started to grant tax waivers to importers -sources

* Tariff has dropped to zero though VAT still applies -source

* Companies to apply for tax waiver on monthly basis -source

By Jessica Jaganathan and Chen Aizhu

SINGAPORE, April 7 (Reuters) - Tankers carrying U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) are on their way to China after Beijing started granting tax waivers to some importers, according to shipping and trade sources.

This is the first time since March 2019 that shipments have resumed after a long-standing trade war that saw China raise tariffs on LNG imports from the United States to 25% last year.

Four LNG tankers are currently enroute to China after loading cargoes last month in the United States, shiptracking data from Refinitiv and data intelligence firm Kpler showed.

The tankers are expected to arrive in China between late April and early May, according to the data. One of them, SK Resolute has diverted at least twice, but is now heading to Tianjin, China, after loading its cargo from the Cameron LNG plant in Louisiana, the data showed.

Two others, Cool Explorer and Hoegh Giant, loaded from Sabine Pass, Louisiana, according to the data, and are now also heading to Tianjin, where China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) and Sinopec operate LNG terminals.

The fourth tanker, Palu LNG, loaded from Corpus Christi, Texas, on March 25 and changed its destination to Tianjin on Monday. It is due to arrive at the Chinese port on April 21, Refinitiv data showed.

Beijing has started granting tax waivers to LNG importers, three China-based sources familiar with the matter said, although details on the companies that have received exemptions on the tariffs were not clear.

One of the sources said the tariff has dropped to zero, although a separate value-added tax of 10% still applies.

Companies are asked to apply for tax waivers on a monthly basis and are required to report to the government once transactions are concluded, said another of the sources, a Chinese gas trader.

Story continues

China announced in February it would grant exemptions on retaliatory duties imposed against 696 U.S. goods after both sides reached a phase 1 trade deal that took effect on Feb. 14. Firms were supposed to submit their applications on March 2.

Asian LNG prices <LNG-AS> dropped to a record low last week as demand plunged in several key importers, including India, where lockdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus have restricted industrial output.

In China, though, where such measures are starting to be eased in some areas, demand is recovering as people get back to work and LNG shipments to China are expected to rise, two Singapore-based traders said. (Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan and Chen Aizhu; Editing by Tom Hogue)
United Airlines Holdings Inc. was sued by a passenger for refusing to issue refunds for canceled flights, three days after U.S. regulators ordered airlines to reimburse customers.

The passenger, Jacob Rudolph, filed the suit in federal court in Chicago on Monday, saying he was denied a refund request for three plane tickets he purchased in January to travel to Minneapolis/St. Paul from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, on April 4.

United has engaged in unfair and deceptive conduct through its policy to issue refunds, limiting and forcing customers into a rebooked flight or travel voucher instead of returning their money, Rudolph said in his suit, which seeks class-action status.

International travel association says airlines cant afford refunds Insurance Journal offers this excerpt from comments by Alexandre de Juniac, IATAs director general and CEO: Passengers have the right to get their money. They paid for a service that cannot be delivered. And in normal circumstances, repayment would not be an issue. But these are not normal circumstances. If airlines refund the $35 billion immediately, that will be the end of many airlines. And with that an enormous number of jobs will also disappear. So whats to be done? The simple answer is that airlines need time. And that is why I am supporting airlines (and our partners in the travel and tourism sector) in their request for governments to delay the requirement for immediate refunds. We propose vouchers that could be used for future travel or refunded once we are out of this crisis period. This would buy the industry vital time to breathesurviving the crisis so that they are ready to fly when better days arrive. Thats our proposal to travelers. But it is not just their understanding that we need. Our travel agent partners are caught between the airlines and consumers. We are reaching out to them to create a structure for managing a voucher system that will be good for consumers, agents and the airlines. I know that this is far from ideal. But the alternative is even worse. Without this flexibility, airlines will collapse, and jobs will disappear. Accepting a voucher or delayed refund today will mean that the airlines will be around for when we have our freedom to travel restored.

Airline passengers throughout the U.S. are increasingly taking to social media to air their frustration at not being able to get refunds for trips canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday reminded carriers that they are required to reimburse fliers for fares and fees.

Dawn Eldridge@dawnzo8 Replying to United Airlines@united

How dare you refuse refunds. Wedding cancelled in Hawaii end of month due to Covid. I wont be able go for reschedule date due to financial hardship. I bought travel insurance but they wont honor for pandemic. Shame on you United. I dont want the credit!

Sent via Twitter for iPhone. View original tweet.

Rudolph said he was denied a refund for the more than $1,500 he spent on the tickets and told he could rebook the flights or receive a credit for travel within a year of the original travel date.

United spokeswoman Leslie Scott declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the company hadnt been served yet. The airline has put new policies in place since the emergence of the virus to give customers flexibility by allowing them to change travel plans without a fee, such as by rebooking or receiving a credit for future travel, she said.

Eligible passengers can request a refund if their flights have been severely adjusted or service to their destination suspended either due to government mandates or United schedule reductions related to Covid-19, Scott said, referring to the disease caused by the virus. We are proud of the role our company and our employees play during this crisis and continue to operate to nearly every domestic destination as well as six international markets across the globe, including our partner hubs.

Photo: A United Airlines plane departs Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia on April 6. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Lawsuits USA Aviation
Congratulations are in order to baby boomers, who are rediscovering the joy of marijuana in later life.

According to new research published Monday in the journal JAMA, marijuana use among American seniors over the age of 65 doubled between 2015 and 2018, CNN reported. While back in 2006, a mere 0.4 percent of seniors over 65 reported using marijuana products in the past year, that percentage leapt up to 2.4 by 2015, only to double again by 2018, when 4.2 percent of seniors said theyd used marijuana in the past year.

According to the papers authors, much of this increased marijuana use among older adults may be attributed to a growing curiosity about marijuanas medicinal uses. What Im seeing in my clinic are a lot of older adults who are very curious about cannabis to treat this or that chronic disease and symptoms, Dr. Benjamin Han, an assistant professor of geriatric medicine and palliative care at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and one of the papers co-authors, told CNN.

However, the papers authors have added that marijuana use among aging adults could actually pose significant health risks. As a geriatrician, I worry about any kind of prescribed medicine or substance use  anything that has any kind of psychoactive effects, Han told CNN. I worry about things like dizziness, falls. I worry how it may interact with certain medical conditions.

Other health professionals have also pointed out the potential risks that could result from marijuanas interaction with other drugs commonly prescribed to and used by members of the elderly population. Moreover, health experts have noted that many older adults returning to marijuana use after several decades may not be prepared for the ways the drug has changed since their first round of youthful experimentation back in the 20th century.

Weed has been getting stronger over the past few decades, study co-author Joseph Palamar, an associate professor of population health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told CNN. A lot of these seniors dont take dosing seriously, especially edibles. They think Whats the big deal? I used to do this when I was a kid.'

According to Palamar, however, todays marijuana is a very different situation. Frankly, its not your fathers weed  but hes using it anyway.

Subscribe here for our free daily newsletter.

The post Marijuana Use Is on the Rise Among Seniors Over 65 appeared first on InsideHook.
The District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia saw their biggest single-day increase in fatalities related to the coronavirus on Monday, with deaths up to 169 as officials warned that the region could become one of the country's next hot spots and hospitals prepared for a surge.

Data released in DC - which for the first time on Monday included a breakdown by race - showed that deaths are disproportionately concentrated among black residents, as has been the case elsewhere in the country.

There was a 114 per cent increase in confirmed coronavirus cases in the DC region in the past week, according to data. From Friday through Monday, there were an average of 393 new cases a day - up from an average of 70 new cases a day from 22-24 March.

Officials said that hospitals are seeing increases in the number of patients who need critical care but that the medical facilities are not overwhelmed.

In Virginia, 538 patients were hospitalised with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. An additional 656 people were in state hospitals awaiting coronavirus test results. In Maryland, 1,059 people were hospitalised and 184 had been released from isolation.

Emission changes across US after Coronavirus restrictions Show all 12 1 /12 Emission changes across US after Coronavirus restrictions Emission changes across US after Coronavirus restrictions NO2-concentrations-us-NEW-YORK-1.jpg Weighted mean NO2 concentrations in cities across US. They are weighted using quality information provided by the satellite data provider. Descartes Labs Emission changes across US after Coronavirus restrictions New York Descartes Labs Emission changes across US after Coronavirus restrictions Denver Descartes Labs Emission changes across US after Coronavirus restrictions Denver Descartes Labs Emission changes across US after Coronavirus restrictions Chicago Descartes Labs Emission changes across US after Coronavirus restrictions Chicago Descartes Labs Emission changes across US after Coronavirus restrictions Detroit Descartes Labs Emission changes across US after Coronavirus restrictions Detroit Descartes Labs Emission changes across US after Coronavirus restrictions Houston Descartes Labs Emission changes across US after Coronavirus restrictions Houston Descartes Labs Emission changes across US after Coronavirus restrictions Los Angeles Descartes Labs Emission changes across US after Coronavirus restrictions Los Angeles Descartes Labs

DC officials have not been disclosing how many people are hospitalised with Covid-19. But on 1 April, the city's top public health official said that about 14 per cent of people who tested positive for coronavirus were hospitalised and that the average age of a hospitalised person was 59.

We have definitely seen a steady increase in the number of patients who are both positive with Covid-19 and people who are getting sick with Covid-19, said William Borden, chief quality and population health officer with the George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates. We have not yet seen the inflection point where it's gone up to exponential growth. But that could happen at any point.

The rising cases across the Washington area are probably a combination of increased infections as well as a greater access to testing, Mr Borden explained. A similar spike in the number of hospitalisations would be a dangerous red flag for heath officials.

We think we're still in the calm before the storm, said Leslie Simmons, the executive vice president of LifeBridge Health, whose five Maryland hospitals are beginning to see an influx of patients in need of ventilators.

Ms Simmons said the critical-care unit at Carroll Hospital in Westminster was in overflow status last week after seeing a rise in patients from Pleasant View Nursing Home in Mount Airy.

That meant that some critical-care patients were being treated on a different floor, in a unit that is normally used for intermediate care, she said. The LifeBridge hospitals have not yet had to open tents or conference rooms to care for patients but have surge plans in place to do so if necessary, she said.

As of Monday, the critical-care unit at Carroll was back at normal capacity.

The DC government on Monday released coronavirus data broken down by race for the first time, showing that black residents are disproportionately represented among the dead.

Fourteen of DC's 24 Covid-19 fatalities were black, or about 58 per cent, the city reported. Black residents constitute about 46 per cent of the population in DC.

Data released by other jurisdictions, including Michigan and Chicago, also shows that black residents have been disproportionately affected.

That data and other reasons prompted more than 80 members of the Maryland House of Delegates to sign a letter calling on the state to release racial data for the coronavirus, saying it is necessary to ensure proper attention is placed on addressing any health inequities in real time.

Nick Mosby, a Democratic delegate for Baltimore City, who has been pushing for the data for weeks without success, is leading the effort.

Recommended How black Americans are disproportionately dying from coronavirus

Mr Mosby said more granular data is necessary to successfully engage the community and determine how resources should be used to reduce the spread of the virus.

Without that data, you are literally shooting in the dark, Mr Mosby said.

A spokesperson for Maryland's Republican governor Larry Hogan, Mike Ricci, tweeted on Monday thanking Mr Mosby and saying the governor's office received the message and would work on it.

Muriel Bowser, the Democratic mayor of DC, was asked about the racial disparity at a news conference on Monday. All deaths concern me, she answered. She said the 58 per cent figure is somewhat higher, not much, than the overall share of black residents in the city.

The city only had the races of about half of the roughly 1,100 people who tested positive for the coronavirus. Of those cases where race was available, nearly six in 10 are black and one-quarter are white.

Virginia has reported races of residents who tested positive for coronavirus but not for fatalities. But the state did not have the races of more than half of the nearly 3,000 people who tested positive.

Of the 1,340 for whom racial data was available, about 29 per cent were black. About 20 per cent of Virginians are black.

As of Monday afternoon, there were 8,028 positive Covid-19 cases in Maryland, Virginia and DC. There were big jumps in cases across the three jurisdictions Monday, bringing the total in Maryland to 4,046, with 2,881 in Virginia and 1,101 in DC, according to a tally by The Washington Post.

We're starting to heat up quite a bit, Mr Hogan said during a Fox News radio interview Monday. We're now considered a hot spot.

Ms Bowser said on Monday that she has made clear that her city is vulnerable to a wave of cases, noting that she warned on Friday that one in seven residents could be infected and hospitalisations could peak in July.

She explained that she told president Donald Trump and Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus coordinator, of her concerns over the growth in cases in DC and across the region. Ms Birx subsequently warned this weekend that the region could soon become a hot spot.

Ms Birx said she hopes that social-distancing efforts will slow the spread so the region will not follow the same trajectory as New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. She urged residents to stay home as much as possible, including avoiding the grocery store and pharmacy. Ms Bowser has not gone that far, but she said residents should limit trips as much as possible.

Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, both Democrats from Maryland, said public health officials have told them cases in the region are expected to rise with a potential peak of early May, but they stressed that the situation is fluid and that not enough tests are being conducted to get a true picture of the current threat.

They said hospitals and health centres have universally said they need more personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors, nurses and medical workers.

We have been incredibly frustrated with the shortage of PPE and testing and ventilators in this region and throughout Maryland, Mr Van Hollen said. As of today, I'm afraid . . . we don't have supplies we need.

There may be areas of our state that may not be able to deal with the influx of patients, Mr Cardin said.

Vice president Mike Pence announced on Monday evening that the Washington region would receive some of the ventilators that were loaned by California to the national stockpile. He said 200 will go to Maryland and 50 will go to DC.

Some hospital administrators were more reluctant to sound the alarms about an influx of cases in the greater DC region.

I think any populated area that has a fair density that did not do social distancing early on to really try to mitigate it is at risk for being an area with more cases, said Jordan Asher, senior vice president and chief physician executive at Sentara Healthcare. I can't stress enough the impact of social distancing and when it got started and how well are people adhering to it.

Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Centre, a 183-bed hospital in Prince William County, has a plan to double its bed count by adding to rooms and putting beds in operating and pre-op rooms, recovery rooms, conference centres, and classroom space, he said.

The hospital is looking for space outside its footprint and expects to be able to move non-Covid-19 patients to the Dulles Expo Centre, a space identified by state officials as a possible temporary hospital. The system is also continuing efforts to preserve PPE by disinfecting equipment that can be reused and limiting non-urgent surgeries, Mr Asher said.

Gene Ransom, chief executive of the Maryland State Medical Society, said he is not sure how hard Maryland will be hit but that he knows the state is doing all it can in terms of preparedness.

Mr Hogan has said his plan to add 6,000 beds is ahead of schedule and that the state is rapidly recruiting medical personnel. Mr Ransom said his biggest concern also is the lack of PPE, which he said he hears about daily from physicians concerned it will exacerbate the spread of the virus.

Bob Atlas, head of the Maryland Hospital Association, said all of the state's four dozen hospitals are low on protective gear.

But no one is out, at this point, he added.

The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), which includes 13 hospitals across the state, instituted a mandatory masking policy on Monday, requiring that everyone in acute care and ambulatory facilities wear them.

The goal of the new policy, effective immediately, is to reduce the spread of Covid-19 through asymptomatic carriers, said chief executive Mohan Suntha. The system will provide the masks, he said.

UMMS is also looking for emergency staffers to assist in a potential surge, according to its website.

Hospitals in some larger systems have designated themselves hubs for treating Covid-19, including MedStar Washington Hospital and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. 

The Washington Post
Indias First Real-time Technology to Intensify Centralised COVID Surveillance

In a major COVID-19 pandemic Public Health initiative, the Public Health and Family Welfare Department, Govt of Telangana, swiftly deployed Indias first automated COVID  19 Monitoring System App developed by Vera Smart Healthcare to identify, undertake live surveillance, track, monitor, and provide real-time analytics to Chief Minister and the Health Department.

COVID  19 Monitoring System App, developed in a record time to deal with the pandemic, enables live surveillance, monitoring, tracking, reporting, and major bulletins. The analytics by the app also facilitate assurance to the stakeholders by providing the facts and figures in their fingertips.

The system empowers each health-caller to handle 1500+ calls, and simple chatbot interaction every day with a patient, to ensure that the symptomatic or confirmed positive, quarantined and is under treatment, helping to strengthen the COVID contacts outreach significantly. The callers will also persuade and remind the patient to self-administer the prescribed treatment, to maintain social distancing, as well as give a reminder to stay home and stay safe.

This user-friendly app is developed by the US and Hyderabad based, early stage start-up Vera Smart Healthcare, which had earlier helped Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu, to create detailed health profiles for more than 50000 people across these 3 states in a record number of days.

Vera has introduced the first-ever mobile hospital in India to help increase healthcare accessibility in rural areas covering most of the Indian villages. The company focuses on building smart hospitals in India along with its technology partner Fellow.

Announcing the successful deployment of Veras COVID  19 Monitoring System App, Director of Public Health Dr. G Srinivas Rao, for COVID surveillance, commended Vera Smart Healthcare expertise to handle COVID surveillance complexities, understand the protocol, and developing the technology platform in a record of 3 days.

The system has helped us first, track and monitor the foreign returnees; community spread and already hospitalised for severe acute respiratory infection (SARS) very early to control spread of COVID pandemic in the state.

Vera Centralised COVID Monitoring System is a timely technology innovation, eased the pain off by effective surveillance, and deploy a meticulous tech-enabled method to collate vital data, at the click of a button empowering active associates across the state, from the hierarchical polity to bureaucracy to the front line ASHA & ANM workers, to make COVID  19, a history. Dr. Srinivas stated

The Monitoring System which is built on a digital platform, erases human errors, and provides accurate information. The quick turnaround, and the innovative psyche, has initiated improved surveillance, tracking  effective monitoring, and supervision. Dr. Srinivas added.

Explaining its benefits, Dharma Teja Nukarapu, Founder and CEO of Vera Healthcare stated Our technology is based on IoT, Smart devices, GPS and Geotag via a super lite centralized App  COVID  19 Monitoring System, which is installed in the phones of all associates from the ground level till the Chief Ministers Office. The system was built by Vera in record time. Every stakeholder got comprehensive training on using the App.

Among the vital features of the app is Geotagging and GPS tracking of the home quarantined person, to ensure that he/she is not breaching the law of quarantine. With instant trace and trackability, accurate information is pushed to the authorities even if there is a breach. Every detail reported reaches the Chief Ministers Office through various updaters like the ASHA worker, Doctor, Police, concerned Bureaucrat.

Vera Healthcare is now readying to release a batch of SMART PATCH which tags the patient geographically, monitors and disseminates his / her real-time health progress Dharma Teja added.
It's official: Murray State becomes member of Missouri Valley Conference
New Delhi: Smog engulfs the national capital as the air quality worsens, on Nov 15, 2019. The air pollution emergency in Delhi has aggravated with the air quality index (AQI) spiking sharply to 528 on Friday morning.The AQI on Thursday was much lower Image Source: IANS

New Delhi, April 7 : Air pollution in the national capital region remained in the moderate category on Tuesday, with a 63 per cent reduction in nitrogen oxide poisonous gas.

"Under the influence of approaching western disturbance, rainfall is expected today and tomorrow. Isolated thunderstorms can lead to local dust uplift," stated System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR).

The overall air quality index (AQI) stood at 106 in the city. "Consider reducing prolonged or heavy exertion. Take it easy if symptoms such as coughing or shortness of breath occurs," stated the advisory.

The quality of air was in the "good" category last week, but spiked on March 6 after people burst crackers to "challenge the darkness" as a sign of participation in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for switching off lights and lighting diyas and lamps to fight against the coronavirus crisis.

The SAFAR model further suggested the overall AQI is likely to improve and be in the lower end satisfactory or touch good category on April 8.

Meanwhile, AQI in Pune, Ahmedabad and Mumbai was docked in the "satisfactory" category at 54, 95 and 73, respectively.

Improvement in air quality across the country can be attributed to the low vehicular traffic and emission from industries due to country-wide lockdown.
Single radio personality Sami Lukis has revealed what it's really like going on a 'digital date' during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Australian presenter said she recently met a man on a dating app before they decided to lock in a time for 'virtual drinks' after days of exchanging messages and talking on the phone.

The 49-year-old penned a piece for 9Honey explaining how she prepared for her first 'digital rendezvous' just like any other regular date.

Single radio personality Sami Lukis (pictured) has revealed what it's really like going on a 'digital date' during the coronavirus pandemic

'I showered, shaved my legs (don't ask, I don't know why?) did my hair and makeup, popped on my favourite frock and a bra for the first time in two weeks,' she said.

'The only difference to my pre-date ritual was the 20 minutes I spent trying to find the most flattering lighting and the most appropriate backdrop for our FaceTime sesh, ie. one that gave him a glimpse into my home without revealing too much.'

The media personality said she felt just as anxious before she dialled in as she would normally walk into any first date.

Following her first virtual date, she said it was 'much more enjoyable than I expected' after the pair chatted non-stop for an hour while she 'downed' two glasses of wine from her living room.

'And then, instead of that awkward "Well, this has been lovely" good-bye hug, it was a smile and a gawky wave as we both pressed end on our phones,' she said.

Sami said she was very impressed with her first experience with digital dating and she would do it again.

'For a start, coronavirus is the ultimate conversation starter. We're all connected by this crazy state of confusion and disbelief at what's happening in the world right now, so we've got something in common to talk about,' she said.

Sami said she was very impressed with her first experience with digital dating and she would do it again

The dos of dating during coronavirus DO embrace the idea of technology and how you can use it for good with dating. DO get creative with how you date and if you're someone who is more of a drink first dater, have a drink together. Do dinner if that's more your style. DO show someone you care by ordering them meal delivery for a special date or sending them a gift to show you are thinking of them. Advertisement

The don'ts of dating during coronavirus DON'T be afraid to message and chat to someone a bit on the phone before you commit to a face-to-face date on FaceTime or Houseparty. DON'T just chat on a date. You could even introduce something fun and unique like a challenge or a game or a house tour - so it's not just two people talking. DON'T think you have to date alone. Double dating is a great way to handle the nerves of a virtual first date. Advertisement





Earlier this week, Sydney relationship expert Dr Nikki Goldstein revealed ways to date while the population is social distancing and self isolating amid COVID-19 crisis.

'The biggest asset we have right now is video platforms, where we can see other clearly as though we were sitting across the table but it's how we use these that makes a difference,' Dr Goldstein said.

But, she added, you shouldn't jump head first into a FaceTime, Skype or Zoom date.

Instead, you need to treat this as you would any other dating experience and text a little and chat over the phone first, before you 'commit to some face-to-face conversations'.

Once you do feel ready to speak to someone and see their face at the same time, Dr Goldstein said it's a good idea to treat the first FaceTime chat as an actual date.

'Are you more a drink first dater? If so, then both grab a beverage and pretend as though you are at your local bar,' she said.

'If it's dinner, then order some take in and have a meal while chatting about all the things you would normally.'
Mysuru: A health emergency has been declared in Malavalli taluka in Mandya district of Karnataka after three local residents tested positive for the Covid-19 virus on Tuesday. One of them is a 65-year-old male and the other two are 32-year-old males.

These three were among seven people from this area who went to Delhi to attend religious events at the Nizamuddin Markaz. But this was not in March, but in early February.

Therefore, authorities believe that their exposure to the Covid-19 virus took place not in Delhi but here in Karnataka, when they mingled with a subsequent batch of Tablighi Jamaat congregants who returned to these parts after attending events there in mid-March, when the super spreader was active.

These three men also were in contact with eight religious leaders belonging to Tablighi Jamaat from Delhi who have tested Covid 19 positive in Mysuru.

But the latter could not have been the source of their infection because the religious leaders had come to Mysuru in January itself.

According to Mandya deputy commissioner M V Venkatesh, the three men from Mandya went to Delhi on February 4, and attended a Tablighi Jamaat congregation there.

On the return journey, they reached the Yashwanthpur railway station on February 14 at 1.30 am, and took a taxi to the Satellite bus stand. There, they boarded a KSRTC bus at 2 am and reached Maddur at 4 am. They drove to Malavalli in a Maruti 800. They were in Malavalli from February 15 to March 28. They visited Bannur on March 28.

At Malavalli, from March 23 to March 29, the three men were in contact with the Tablighi Jamaat religious leaders from Delhi. These religious leaders had come to Mysuru on 27 January and were in Mysuru till mid March. From March 13 to March 23, they were in Nagamangala in Mandya district, and in Malavalli in Mandya district from March 23 to March 29, staying at a mosque in Eidgah mohalla.

Following the nationwide lockdown on March 25, they moved into a room next to the mosque and continued their religious activities. They were identified at the Bannur checkpost while returning to Mysuru.

Subsequently, eight of them tested positive for Covid-19 and are now being isolated at the designated hospital in Mysuru.

After the three positive cases came to light today, the Malavalli administration has thrown a containment zone over a 3 km radius from where the three men lived. A further 5 km radius has been declared as a buffer zone.

Entry into and exit from this zone has been banned for the next 28 days. Rations and vegetables will be delivered to the door step of each of the 2,84,000 households in Malavalli.

Also 170 teams of health workers are being formed to contain the virus within Malavalli for the next 28 days. Two nodal officers are being appointed for every 50 houses. A door-to-door health survey has begun.

The Mandya district administration has identified 36 people in Malavalli and 24 people in Nagamangala who came in contact with those religious leaders. All of them have been quarantined.
Members of the Chinese People's Armed Police wearing protective masks march through Tiananmen Square during a national mourning in Beijing on April 4, 2020. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Tyranny Versus Free World: Responses to Pandemic Expose Dark Side of Communism

The Chinese regime responded to the pandemic by covering up and silencing whistleblowers, then when it was too late to ignore, it enacted brutal, draconian measures on its own citizensall while propaganda was spread internally through state-run media.

The U.S. response meanwhile was humane, spotlighting the contrast between a free societys handling of a crisis versus that of a tyrannical regime. Experts told The Epoch Times that free speech and freedom itself is core to how effectively a government responds to crisis, emphasizing the values of transparency and compassion.

During the early stages of the CCP virus outbreak, which first emerged in Wuhan in December 2019, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) muzzled and arrested doctors, citizen journalists, scholars, and business people who sought to expose the truth about the virus.

Li Zehua, a former anchor for Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, was the third video blogger arrested in the outbreak epicenter of Wuhan. His story is just one of many similar stories of censorship as documented by The Epoch Times.

I dont want to shut my eyes and ears.  Im doing this so that more young people like me can stand up, Li, 25, said in a passionate speech live-streamed on YouTube before police entered a hotel he was staying in and presumably detained him.

He at first refused to let them in. He turned his camera on and began alluding to the student-led Tiananmen pro-democracy protests in 1989, which came to a bloody end after Beijing deployed tanks and guns. I feel that its unlikely that I will not be taken away and quarantined, he said, shortly before he opened the door.

The police confiscated his phone and laptop and cut off the signal.

Justin Haskins, editorial director of The Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank, said the CCP consistently puts itself above the needs of the Chinese people, and the rest of the world, too.

The coronavirus crisis is no different, he told The Epoch Times. Evidence clearly shows the Communist Party silenced people concerned about the spread of the virus to protect its own interests, and as a result, its very likely thousands of people have died who otherwise would not have.

A China insider told The Epoch Times in January that public health authorities also attempted to cover up the severity of the virus by limiting the number of diagnostic kits sent to Wuhan hospitals.

As the number of CCP virus cases grew and officials couldnt censor everything, officials in Wuhan began sealing the buildings and doors of residents.

One of these residents, a father of two who wasnt allowed to leave his apartment because his father was diagnosed, wondered how many more days he could carry on, citing a shortage of cash and skyrocketing food prices.

Chinese authorities have also shut down the internet in some areas. Commentators believe the authorities have been using this method to restrict netizens ability to talk freely about whats happening on the ground.

Draconian Tactics

There are countless examples of the CCPs draconian actions against its own citizens; The Epoch Times has reported on many of them. Beijing has deliberately masked the total number of COVID-19 cases in China in a bid to safeguard its image both nationally and internationally.

In March, in the commercial district of Humen town in Dongguan city, which is lined with shops belonging to middle- and high-end fashion brands, riot police were deployed by the CCP to take care of merchants and punish them for still operating, footage showed. Store owners struggled to pay their rent.

In Xiaogan city, Hubei Province, residents were mandated to buy food through community managers, but some purchased cheaper vegetables through their own personal network and had the food delivered. A community manager reported these residents, spurring Chinese police to arrive and arrest them. Residents were outraged upon seeing the police and organized a group protest.

In one Wuhan community, footage showed local cadres giving food to residentsbut this was limited to one free apple per household. Chinese citizens also complained about being treated like animals at Wuhans many checkpoints.

In one case, footage showed an old man being beaten by Chinese security forces because he tried to pass a checkpoint after failing to provide his QR code.

In yet another example of Chinas thuggish tactics, a family of four in Anlu City, Hubei Province, was publicly humiliated and paraded through the streets by police on Feb. 14 for playing poker at home. Police also ordered them to publicly read out a repentance letter afterward. After reading the statement, the family was forced to stand for a long period of time before being allowed to return home.

When a system of government puts the welfare of the collective before the rights of individuals, human rights abuses always follow, and thats exactly what has happened in China, said Haskins, who is also the editor-in-chief of Stopping Socialism.

The Communist Party isnt interested in protecting human rights, and it never has been. Its primary goal is always to maintain its own power, at any cost, Haskins said. Youll see governing officials say and do whatever it takesincluding lieto keep people from doubting their role in society.

Corruption is also rampant in tyrannical societies like Beijing. In one instance, surveillance footage depicted local Chinese officials allegedly looting a grocery store in Wuhan, triggering a wave of anger online. At one point, the owner tried to close the shop, but was stopped by a Chinese officer who let his colleagues in to take more goods.

In February, the Wuhan government also began to send CCP virus patients with mild or moderate symptoms to makeshift hospitals with inhumane conditions. These hospitals, set up in places such as stadiums and school gyms, are rampant with unsanitary conditions and lack medicines and treatment, videos posted by patients have revealed.

Some trapped inside were on the edge of a mental breakdown and began to destroy furniture out of frustration and anger. Others began fighting with each other.

Free Speech

Sarah Repucci, vice president of research and analysis at the U.S.-based human rights group Freedom House, said that in an emergency situation, free speech enables the government to learn the reality of what is happening and respond more quickly.

If people dont feel safe speaking out, theyre less likely to spread information that is crucial for helping to contain the pandemic, she told The Epoch Times. The solution to misinformation is not to censor.

Although many countries still struggle to handle the pandemic effectively, Repucci said that with time, free societies are more likely to keep restrictions proportionate and limited in duration to the health threat.

Less free societies are more likely to use the emergency to justify repression that consolidates their power, she said. That is the risk for the long term.

China ranks 177 out of 180 in the 2019 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index. The regime is also expelling U.S. journalists based in China who work for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, highlighting the countrys dismal track record on press freedom.

Etienne Deffarges, health care policy expert and member of the Executive Council of the Harvard School of Public Health, told The Epoch Times, It would be much easier to believe the flattering Chinas official statistics if they were validated by a thriving and independent media. China has recently pushed the narrative that there are zero, or few new cases of the virus in the country.

Haskins said that without free speech, virtually no other freedoms are possible, noting that in China, there is no such right.

Free speech helps  make it more likely that government will be held accountable for its failures and abuses, Haskins said.

Free World

Michael Barone, a political analyst and emeritus fellow at American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think tank, said countries such as Taiwan and South Korea quickly enacted strict but not draconian measures to stop the spread of the CCP virus with a transparency thats a vivid contrast with the concealment and lies that are standard practice in the Peoples Republic of China.

I think there is a shocking contrast between the behavior and performance of Communist-ruled China and those of its neighbors with a similar ethnic and/or cultural heritageTaiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Barone told The Epoch Times.

Barone expanded on that argument in an opinion piece for the Washington Examiner, writing, Its clear that regime character makes an enormous difference.

Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong have shown how people raised in Chinese or Chinese-influenced cultures of social cohesion and observation of rules can perform well in a situation of unanticipated stress, he wrote, adding how the countries effectively screened passengers from China, distributed record numbers of protective masks, and introduced intensive testing.

President Donald Trump acted relatively quickly to the CCP virus as well, on Jan. 31 barring entry to the United States from foreign nationals who had been in mainland China.

The United States measures to slow the spread of the CCP virus are much more humane than Chinas. U.S. residents in some of the harder-hit areas of the country are being told to stay home if possible, and everyone is recommended to maintain safe social distances.

Meanwhile, federal assistance from the government was enacted quickly, with Trump recently signing a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill meant to fuel the fight against the pandemic and sustain the economy. The package was the largest stimulus package in the nations modern history.

The United States also never employed draconian measures or thuggish tactics against its own citizens.

Deffarges said the countries who have been responding to the virus well have shown close cooperation and harmony of communication between federal and local governments, something he criticized the United States for not following.

But he noted that free societies will eventually prove better than authoritarian regimes at handling this pandemic crisis, provided they enjoy both good governments and public trust.

Over the next 1218 months, solutions to beat the pandemic will likely come from the United States unique combination of leading academic medical centers and national institutes of health and private enterprises, large and small, Deffarges said.

In the U.S., Franklin Delano Roosevelt enjoyed immense trust at the outset of World War II, and used this trust to mobilize the whole of U.S. industry in the war effort, he said.

Cathy He and Eva Fu contributed to this report.
The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected almost every country in the world and India is no exception. To control the spread, the Indian government has imposed a mandatory countrywide lockdown from March 24, 2020 until April 14, 2020.

Only establishments and workplaces that provide essential services can continue operations, subject to adopting necessary measures to contain COVID-19.

This update discusses the impact of the lockdown and important measures that employers should consider in ensuring the health and safety of their employees.

Also Read: Coronavirus: Companies assure employees of no layoffs as businesses take a hit

Mandatory lockdown of workplaces

The Indian government's order directs all commercial establishments, private offices, industrial establishments and factories to remain closed for twenty-one (21) days starting on March 24, 2020. However, this order is not applicable to certain categories of workplaces, including inter alia:

Hospitals and medical establishments, including their manufacturing and distribution units, chemists and medical equipment shops

Banks and insurance companies

Establishments providing telecommunication, internet, broadcasting and cable services

Establishments providing information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services to essential service providers

Print and electronic media

Cold storage and warehousing service providers

Capital and debt market services, and

Factories manufacturing essential commodities

In addition, factories which require continuous processing may be operated subject to prior state government approval.

Given this situation, it is imperative for all companies to assess if they come under the list of exempted workplaces notified by the Indian government in order to continue normal operations.

Practically speaking, several businesses may not squarely come under the exempted categories, but could still be considered to be a crucial supplier or support service for an essential service provider.

In this case, it may be helpful for companies to engage in a discussion with the concerned state government and check if they can continue their operations.

Also Read: Coronavirus insurance covers to be withdrawn if cases spike

Mitigating measures to be adopted by employers exempt from lockdown

Workplaces that provide essential services and are exempt from the lockdown have to adopt certain measures to contain COVID-19. These workplaces also have to comply with any directions that may be issued by the jurisdictional health department. In this regard, certain key points should be borne in mind.

Travel restrictions: The order issued by the Indian government provides that personnel engaged in providing essential services will be permitted to use public transport. If employees are using public transport to travel to work, they may be asked to show proof indicating that they are employed with an essential service provider. To this end, an employer can consider issuing a letter to all its employees stating that it is an essential service provider and the employees are, therefore, permitted to attend the workplace. Flexible workplace: To the extent possible, the employer should rotate its staff, reduce the number of people who need to be in the office, and try to implement a "work from home" policy for those employees who can manage their duties remotely. Also, if any employee expresses concern in attending the office, the employer should try and mitigate the employee's concern, failing which the employee should be permitted to work from home, if possible. Health and safety measures: Employers should inform employees of the best hygienic practices (such as washing their hands for 20 seconds and building immunity by adopting a healthy lifestyle) and also encourage them to seek COVID-19 information from reliable sources like the government or the World Health Organisation's (WHO) website. Employees should be advised not to pay heed to informal communications, which often contain misleading information and can lead to unnecessary panic. Further, employers should temporarily discontinue biometric attendance systems and sanitise workspaces on a regular basis. Employers must ask employees to get a check-up if they or any family members show any symptoms of COVID-19 and require such employees to self-isolate. If possible, employers should regularly screen employees using infrared thermometers. Group health insurance: As a best practice, if they do not have one in place already, employers should obtain a good health insurance cover for their employees on an urgent basis. Leave: Employees should be instructed not to attend the office if they show any symptoms of COVID-19 or are otherwise unwell. Employers should provide paid leave to employees suffering from COVID-19 symptoms without insisting on medical certificates, as getting these from doctors or hospitals can be time-consuming. This facility should also be extended to employees who are in self-quarantine, which is mandated by the government authorities. COVID-19 leave or quarantine leave can form a part of an employee's available annual or sick leave as per the existing leave policy. Reporting obligations: If an employer comes to know that any employee is suffering from COVID-19 symptoms and is refusing to self-isolate or seek medical help, the employer should use its best efforts to prevent such employees from coming in contact with other employees, and must immediately report the employee to the relevant government authority.

Key issues for employers who are not exempt from lockdown

Set out below are a few key points to be noted by employers who are not providing essential services, and may or may not be able to continue operations from home.

Availability of resources: Organisations that are required to work remotely should ensure that employees have adequate access to cloud servers and teleconferencing or videoconferencing facilities.

Organisations that are required to work remotely should ensure that employees have adequate access to cloud servers and teleconferencing or videoconferencing facilities. Termination of employment: In view of the COVID-19 outbreak, The Ministry of Labour and Employment issued a notification on March 20, 2020, advising all employers to refrain from terminating the employment or deducting wages of their employees (including casual and contract workers). The notification mentions that even if a place of employment is non-operational, the employees would be deemed to be on duty. Certain state governments have also issued similar advisories. Given this, it may be difficult for employers to retrench or let go of employees or deduct their wages, and in case of wrongful termination claims by employees, courts will surely rule in favour of the employees. Having said so, if an employee is suspected of suffering from COVID-19, the employer can deny employment or defer the joining date of such an employee, primarily, to protect other employees from the infection. Irrespective of the foregoing, these are trying times, and employers should deal with these matters sensitively and after seeking legal counsel.

In view of the COVID-19 outbreak, The Ministry of Labour and Employment issued a notification on March 20, 2020, advising all employers to refrain from terminating the employment or deducting wages of their employees (including casual and contract workers). The notification mentions that even if a place of employment is non-operational, the employees would be deemed to be on duty. Certain state governments have also issued similar advisories. Given this, it may be difficult for employers to retrench or let go of employees or deduct their wages, and in case of wrongful termination claims by employees, courts will surely rule in favour of the employees. Having said so, if an employee is suspected of suffering from COVID-19, the employer can deny employment or defer the joining date of such an employee, primarily, to protect other employees from the infection. Irrespective of the foregoing, these are trying times, and employers should deal with these matters sensitively and after seeking legal counsel. Cybersecurity: For organisations working remotely, employers should ensure that robust cyber security measures are in place to avoid phishing of confidential information. Employers should ensure that all office computers and laptops (as well as the personal equipment of employees) have adequate anti-virus and malware protection and secure access to office systems and servers. Employers should inform employees to be cognizant of phishing e-mails and should set up an alternate communications network in case the office network is compromised.

Data privacy considerations

While employers should take the necessary steps to identify employees who are suffering from or who may be infected by COVID-19 by seeking information in relation to their travel history and health data, they should ensure strict confidentiality and adhere to the provisions of the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, which deal with the processing of sensitive personal data (including health data).

Having said so, if an employer seeks personal health-related information of an employee, especially in the wake of a declared pandemic and in the public interest, there is a strong likelihood that it may not be construed as a breach of privacy.

(The author is Partner, Majmudar & Partners, International lawyers)
Over the past few weeks, US President Donald Trump has been accused of modern-day piracy and even crime against humanity for his handling of the global shortage of medical supplies and securing of personal protective equipment (PPE) for the United States by hook or by crook.

Now Trump has threatened that "there may be retaliation" if India does not agree to export hydroxychloroquine, a key anti-malarial drug that the scientific community is still debating over its effectiveness to treat coronavirus.

REUTERS

"I would be surprised if he (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) would, you know because India does very well with the United States," Trump said adding that "I don't like that decision, I didn't hear that that was his decision. I know that he stopped it for other countries. I spoke to him yesterday, we had a very good talk and we'll see whether or not that's his... For many years, they've been taken advantage of the United States on trade. So I would be surprised if that were his decision. He'd have to tell me that. I spoke to him Sunday morning, called him, and I said, we'd appreciate you allowing our supply to come out. If he doesn't allow it to come out. That would be OK. But of course, there may be retaliation. Why wouldn't there be."



BCCL

He was responding to a question on India banning the export of the medicine due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Last month, the Indian Council of Medical Research or ICMR had recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine for treating healthcare workers serving coronavirus patients and India had also banned the export of the same.

On Tuesday, India lifted the ban and decided to export anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to several countries including those in the neighbourhood on a case-by-case basis in sync with its commitment to the international community to fight the coronavirus pandemic. With regard to paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), they will be kept in a licensed category and their demand position would be continuously monitored. However, the stock position could allow our companies to meet the export commitments that they had contracted," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said.

Despite the fact that there is not enough evidence to prove the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 Trump has been doubling down on it, calling it a game-changer.

MEDIMAGES

Earlier, Germany accused Trump of modern piracy after a consignment of masks on its way to the Berlin police was intercepted in Thailand and diverted to the US. Other countries including Brazil, Spain, and Canada had also accused the Trump administration is aggressively outbidding them, leaving them unable to buy badly needed PPE.

AFP

The US has also invoked the Defense Production Act which allows the federal government to dictate the production and delivery schedules of private companies. In response, Canadian and German leaders have expressed dismay but say they will not formally retaliate against the United States.

The US had also accepted medical supplies from Russia and China recently.
Hong Kong: RTHK must uphold charter

Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Edward Yau today said Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) has to make sure the One-China Principle is not undermined.

Mr Yau made the statement at a media session after attending the Legislative Council Finance Committees special meetings.

He said: I think I have made it crystal clear in my earlier public statement. And I also fully explained at the meeting with the LegCo Finance Committee just now.

We are focusing on RTHK, both as a government department and a public service broadcaster, that they have the obligation to uphold and abide by the Charter of RTHK.

Also, as a government department, of course we all uphold the One-China Principle, which is a fundamental constitutional right.

That is why I think we have a duty to remind RTHK, being part of the government departments and also the only public service broadcaster in Hong Kong, to make sure that this principle is not being undermined.

This story has been published on: 2020-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Finland's Embassy in Kyiv: Reports on charter flights for Ukrainian seasonal workers not confirmed

11:20, 07.04.20 1854

The Embassy promises to inform Ukrainians as soon as the situation related to travelling to Finland changes.
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Global Paper Towels Market By Application/End-User (Value and Volume from 2019 to 2025) : At Home & Away From Home (AFH)



Market By Type (Value and Volume from 2019 to 2025) : , Rolled Paper Towels, Boxed Paper Towels & Multifold Paper Towels



Global Paper Towels Market by Key Players: Procter & Gamble (P&G), SCA, Georgia Pacific, Kimberly-Clark, Cascades, Kruger, Metsa Tissue, Heng An, WEPA, Asaleo Care, C&S Paper, Essendant Inc (Boardwalk), Oasis Brands & Seventh Generation



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Chapter 1 Global Paper Towels Market Business Overview

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Chapter 4 Manufacture Market Breakdown

Chapter 5 Sales & Estimates Market Study

Chapter 6 Key Manufacturers Production and Sales Market Comparison Breakdown

..

Chapter 8 Manufacturers, Deals and Closings Market Evaluation & Aggressiveness

Chapter 9 Key Companies Breakdown by Overall Market Size & Revenue by Type

..

Chapter 11 Business / Industry Chain (Value & Supply Chain Analysis)

Chapter 12 Conclusions & Appendix



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KAMPALA  Members of Parliament sitting on the finance committee have protested government proposed excise duty increment on fuel prices especially now when the country is facing a pandemic of COVID-19 disease.

The minister of finance Matia Kasaija has Tuesday formally introduced the Tax Bills to the House where its proposing to slap an increment of 150 shillings on both petrol and diesel and then 100 shillings increment on kerosene.

However, the MPs disagreed with government saying by such tax increment will only suffocate the economy that is already struggling because of the shock of coronavirus.

Hatwib Katooto, (Katerera county) noted that its abnormal to increase the price of kerosene when people in the village cannot afford the current one.

Elijah Okupa (Kasiro County) says it is not of any essence to increase prices when the economy is facing trouble, this will be inserting more burden to it.

Amos Lugoloobi, (Ntenjeru north) MP suggested that by now, government would be thinking of cutting the budget to finance the crisis instead of putting pressure on it.

He says in a situation of a crisis the country cannot be seen to be raising taxes.

The Agogo district woman MP Akello Franca urged that it was insensitive for government to increase taxes in this period when the fuel pump prices for Uganda in the East Africa region are the highest.

She adds that this will stifle the economy hence urged that the minister to withdraw these measures in the spirit of supporting the economy.

Related
More governors are canceling in-school instruction for the rest of the academic year, leaving superintendents and their academic teams to figure out how they will make up for what could be profound learning losses for millions of students.

Will they run summer school? Would they even have the money to do that? Should they start the 2020-21 year earlier? Can they require longer school days in the upcoming year?

Those optionssome more feasible than othersare what superintendents are weighing right now as it becomes increasingly likely that few, if any, schools will resume in-person instruction this academic year. Already, at least 15 states have either ordered or are recommending that schools not re-open this spring.

I do think there will be gaps when kids come back, said Jason Kamras, the superintendent of the Richmond Public Schools in Virginia. I think there is going to be the coronavirus slide.

While many districts are providing remote learning, the quality and quantity of those efforts are highly variable. Analysts at the Center on Reinventing Public Education in Washington state have been collecting and reviewing dozens of districts remote education plans .

Mostly, CRPE has found good assignments, but not robust instructional plans, said Sean Gill, a research analyst.

For the most part, we are not seeing a lot of instruction, however you may want to define it: whether its a teacher on Zoom or a teacher doing check-ins. Thats not something we have seen as much, Gill said.

What weve seen is more districts are providing general resources or they are providing directed curriculum, where the curriculum has kids at a certain place or time. Those interactive programs do help kids learn and do give them feedback. But whether teachers are looking at that data as they normally would and then supplementing that with targeted instruction doesnt seem to be happening yet.

How districts decide to make up for that slide depends on a host of factorsmany beyond their control.

The biggest wildcard is when the coronavirus will be under control and when public health officials will deem it safe enough for social distancing to end.

Another is what state governments do. Already, in most states, governors have mandated how long schools must stay shuttered. Some governors or state education officials could also order the steps that schools must follow to make up for the lost learning time.

Then theres the looming recession, caused by the near total shutdown of the economy. Most districts, which are heavily reliant on state funds, may have no choice but to go along with state recommendations, said Noelle Ellerson Ng, who leads policy and advocacy for the AASA, the School Superintendents Association.

But there are also local factors that may constrain what districts can do to make up for lost time. Do they have enough in their contingency funds to pay for summer school for all or nearly all students? Is there enough staff available to teach during the summer and will labor contracts need to be negotiated to make that possible? What about bus drivers to transport students?

Education Week interviewed five superintendents, who talked about the ideas and solutions they are considering for making up for lost time.

Jason Kamras, superintendent, Richmond Public Schools, Richmond, Va.

The district created a daily instructional schedule for every subject at every grade level. Those lessons are pre-packaged and available on a weekly basis on the districts website. Teachers recorded video lessons addressing each standard and the district built in independent practice for students. Its also set up on-demand tutoring.

But the district is not requiring teachers to teach every day. They are encouraged, but not mandated, to check-in with students.

We are working around the clock, seriously, to provide as much as we can now, Kamras said. But we know that even with the best resources and the best of intentions that does not replace the time a child has with a teacher. We are thinking about, do we start school earlier, do we extend the day, do we make the next year longer? We are thinking about all kinds of things to help provide supports to fill in those gaps.

Summer school for all kids may be off the table for Richmond. Virginia has a stay-at-home order through June 10. Even if that order is lifted by then, school buildings will have to be cleaned and prepared for students. Additionally, the district planned to have three new schools ready for occupancy by mid-to-late August. If those buildings are not ready, the districts enrollment zones will be affected, Kamras said.

We already know there are massive opportunity gaps in our schools here in Richmond, Virginia, and around the entire country, and that, as we all know, has negative consequences largely for kids of color and low-income kids, Kamras said. And this closurewhile necessary, and I support itis only going to exacerbate those opportunity gaps. I think as we look towards next year, and frankly as we look toward the next several years, its going to mean that we need to invest even more in closing those opportunity gaps than we already were. Because I fear this closure is only going to make them worse.

Deborah Gist, superintendent, Tulsa Public Schools, Tulsa, Okla.

Oklahoma has closed its school buildings for the rest of the academic year, so keeping students engaged in remote schooling for such a prolonged period is a major concern for Gist. Thats why teachers there are focused on students social-emotional needs, as well as academics, she said. Students home life and emotional state will dramatically impact their ongoing connection and engagement with distance learning.

We are definitely planning to do what we can to support our students to overcome that, Gist said.

Planning for summer school is under way, Gist said, but whether the district can provide a full program to every student is unclear. Finances are also a big source of uncertainty and may limit what the district can do to make up for lost time. With Oklahomas heavy reliance on oil, and oil prices plunging, Gist is bracing for additional budget cuts on top of what the district experienced from the Great Recession.

We know that we are going to have to pay attention to [learning loss], because we know that we are going to see challenges with our students being out of school, Gist said. Even though we are confident that our teachers are going to do everything they can and our whole team is focused on this, we know that its not going to be the same for every familyWe anticipate that it will be some combination of additional supports for childrenwhether thats summer or something during the school year. But we are also watching the finances very closely.

Randy Poe, superintendent, Boone County Schools, Florence, Ky.

When Poe shut down his districts schools in March, he thought it would be for just a few weeks. He started using non-traditional instruction days that were built into the calendar, like snow days. Now with the closure expected to last the rest of the school year, Poe is keeping instruction going online.

About 92 percent of the districts 20,000 students are keeping up using the remote learning option, while the rest have printed course packets delivered to their homes.

When students return, teachers will first assess them to see where they are and then decide how to proceed. Still, Poe thinks a combination of extended learning days, possibly in the summer, will be part of the districts plan.

If the pandemic hasnt eased and social distancing guidelines are not relaxed by July or August, then whatever the district does to help studentswhether its extended school days, targeted enrichment for students after school, or an extended school yearwill be incorporated into the new school year, he said.

See Also: Coronavirus and Schools

We are not going to be able to catch up in one to two weeks, Poe said. This is going to be a situation where you are going to have to apply extended school services over the entire school year next year.

While some students may need help reviewing a few concepts, others may need targeted support.

We are going to have to look at personalizing this over the next year for all the different students that we have, he said.

Joseph Meloche, superintendent, Cherry Hill Public Schools, Cherry Hill, N.J.

Teachers are regularly checking in with studentsand the district distributed nearly 2,000 Chromebooks to students who needed them. But replicating the in-school experience with distance learning will be a huge challenge, said Meloche.

Teachers spent their first week reviewing content with students and strengthening their skills, with very little new material, except in Advanced Placement classes.

The district has not yet decided whether it will do end-of-year assessments online. Meloche is still hoping to have students back in the buildings before the school year ends in mid-June.

But he and his team are also beginning to think about what the beginning of 2020-21 ought to look like.

What should we do differently? What types of questions do we need to ask that are different? And what can we provide for kids during the months of July and August beyond the traditional summer reads and recommendations for families and children to rehearse and prepare for those school-type skills? Meloche said.

When the district reopens depends on many factors, such as whether students progressed as far as the district expected them to while learning online and feedback from local stakeholders, including students.

I think listening to those student voices about what their current experience is, is going to be incredibly vital, he said. Its vital right now.

While a focus on student learning is paramount, Meloche is also concerned about students emotional well-being.

Their social and emotional wellness is our first priority, Meloche said. Safety and security are at the top of any list and then their social and emotional wellness. Those things have to be met and connected with before we can venture into the pool of academics and starting discussions about content and development of skills and that kind of stuff, which we do a pretty decent job with.

Raquel Reedy, superintendent, Albuquerque Public Schools, Albuquerque, N.M.

Reedy said district leaders, despite the unprecedented disruption to the last weeks and months of this school year, should take a longer view of students educational careers. Most students will miss what may amount to one-quarter of in-school instruction this academic year. Thats out of the more than 13 years of schooling they get from kindergarten through the end of high school, she said.

Albuquerque is running a virtual learning program and purchased 18,000 Chromebooks to deliver to students who did have not devices at home. About 8,000 have been distributed so far. The district has a partnership with the local PBS station to provide four hours of programming for students daily, including a bilingual hour in Spanish and English. And its working with the city to expand the number of hot spots available to students who dont have access to the internet.

She anticipates that teachers will need to start planning for the new school year earlier to develop programs to help students catch up. Theyll likely have to adjust where they normally pick up in the curriculum.

We need to say, OK, youve always been able to start X unit in your language arts class or in your chemistry classYou may need to spend some time reviewing with the students the different concepts and the foundational information they need to have before you can start unit X, Reedy said. Reviewing is never a bad thing. But again, bringing kids up to snuff as far as whats required, what skills they need, what knowledge they need to have before you can enter a unitwhich is good teaching practices anywaywell want to reinforce that.

The district has already extended online instruction through June, with additional extensions possible, for seniors to get the credits they need to graduate.

Still, Reedy and other superintendents think that with teachers and students forced to adapt to online learning almost overnight, the in-class experience will be very different when they return.

While schools have always talked about flipped classrooms and other ways to incorporate technology into the classroom, actual practice has largely remained the province of a few dedicated teachers. Now, with the coronavirus closures, everyone had to make the leap.

I think the comfort level that teachers are going to have as a result of being pushed into this is going to reap some real benefits as far as instruction and the use of different modalities, Reedy said. It will [look different] because students and teachers have put themselves in a different [level] so to speak, and stretched themselves in ways that they have never truly been asked to do.
India on Monday received 1.70 lakh personal protection equipment (PPE) coveralls donated by China, the Union Health Ministry said. Along with the domestic supplies of 20,000 coveralls, a total of 1.90 lakh coveralls will now be distributed to hospitals and will add to the 3,87,473 PPEs already available in the country as of now, it said.

Supply lines from abroad opened up today with the receipt of 1.70 lakh Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) coveralls from China which have been donated to the Government of India, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in press release.

A total of 2.94 lakh PPE coveralls have been arranged and supplied by the Centre till now to states, the ministry said.

In addition to this, 2 lakh domestically produced N-95 masks are also being sent to various hospitals. Including these, over 20 lakh N-95 masks have been supplied by the government of India.

"About 16 lakh N-95 masks are presently available in the country, and this figure will increase with the fresh supply of 2 lakh masks," the ministry said.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Major portions of the fresh supplies are being sent to states with comparatively higher number of cases such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Rajasthan.

Supplies are also being sent to central institutions like AIIMS, Safdarjung and RML hospitals, RIMS, NEIGRIHMS, BHU and AMU, it said.

"The commencement of foreign supplies marks a major milestone in our efforts to procure personal protection equipment for the battle against COVID-19," the ministry said.

An order for 80 lakh complete PPE kits (including N-95 masks) had been placed on a Singapore-based platform earlier and now it has been indicated that supplies will commence from April 11 with the first installment of 2 lakh, followed by 8 lakh more soon thereafter, it said.

"Negotiations are in final stages with a Chinese platform for placing an order of 60 lakh complete PPE kits, which will also include N95 masks. Separate orders for N95 masks and protective goggles are also being placed on some foreign companies," the ministry said in its statement.

Giving a further fillip to domestic capabilities, the Northern Railways has developed a PPE coverall, in addition to the PPE coveralls and N-99 masks developed by DRDO earlier, it said.

"Efforts are now being made to start mass production of these products," the ministry said, adding existing N-95 mask producers have increased their capacity to about 80,000 masks per day.

In all, orders have been placed for 112.76 lakhs standalone N95 masks and 157.32 lakhs PPE coveralls. Out of these, 80 lakh PPE kits will include N95 masks, it said,

"The objective is to achieve a supply of about 10 lakh PPE kits per week. Looking at the number of patients in the country, sufficient quantities are available for the moment. Further supplies are expected within this week," the ministry said.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
KABUL, April 7 (Reuters) - The Taliban on Tuesday broke off talks with the Afghan government on a prisoner exchange, a main step in peace talks being brokered by the United States after it agreed on a troop withdrawal pact with the militants.

Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Islamist insurgent group's political office in Qatar, said on Twitter a technical team would not participate in "fruitless meetings" and the release of their prisoners was being "delayed under one pretext or another".

The late February pact between the United States and the Taliban, under which U.S.-led international forces will withdraw in exchange for Taliban security guarantees, is the best chance yet of ending the 18-year war.

But peace hinges on talks between the U.S.-backed Afghan government and the militants. A prisoner exchange is meant to build confidence on both sides for those talks.

A spokesman for the government said it would maintain its work on the prisoner release plan.

"We ask the Taliban to not sabotage the process by making excuses now," said Javid Faisal, a spokesman for the National Security Council in Kabul.

The Taliban suspension of the talks could lead to an escalation of violence, which in turn could threaten the plan to withdraw U.S. troops, a major objective of President Donald Trump.

A three-member Taliban team arrived in Kabul last month from Qatar to begin the prisoner exchange process. Last week, Afghan officials said they would release 100 Taliban prisoners who were sick or over the age of 50.

In exchange, the Taliban were expected to free 20 members of the Afghan security forces. Ultimately both sides would aim to release the 6,000 prisoners they are holding.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed the arrival in Kabul of the Taliban team as good news.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Pompeo last month travelled to Kabul and the Qatari capital of Doha in a bid to nudge the prisoner process forward.

Afghan government officials have said the Taliban were demanding the release of senior commanders involved in some of the most violent attacks in recent years. (Reporting by Abdul Qadir Sediqi in Kabul Writing by Rupam Jain Editing by Robert Birsel)
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday spoke to Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tarikand and discussed ways to limit the impact of COVID-19.

"Spoke to His Majesty Sultan of Oman about COVID-19 and how to limit its impact," the prime minister tweeted.

Modi said he also expressed thanks to the Sultan for his personal attention to the well-being of the Indian community in Oman.

An official statement said the two leaders discussed the health and economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the steps being taken by their countries.

"They agreed that both countries would extend all possible support to each other in dealing with the crisis," it said.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 LIVE

The Sultan assured the prime minister of the safety and wellbeing of the Indian community in Oman in the present situation.

He also thanked Modi for the recent support provided by his government to Omani citizens in India.

The prime minister reiterated his condolences for the demise of Late Sultan Qaboos.

He conveyed his best wishes for Sultan Haitham's reign and for the peace and prosperity of the people of Oman.

He stressed that India regards Oman as a very important part of its extended neighbourhood.
The closure of school campuses across Texas could stave off the permanent closure of one Beaumont ISD middle school for at least a year, after the state paused all accountability scores for the 2019-20 school year.

The one-year accountability pause in response to the disruption caused by the novel coronavirus, is similar to one given to school districts in Southeast Texas after the devastation of Tropical Storm Harvey in 2017.

Related: Harvey waivers could save local schools in danger

Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School is in its fourth year as a failing campus, in terms of the Texas Education Agencys accountability rating system; and as of February, district efforts to find a partner to operate the school were unsuccessful.

The move by the state follows an executive order last month that waived all mandatory standardized testing in order to take the pressure of teachers scrambling to move instruction online for at least a month to avoid in-person exposure amid a growing number of coronavirus cases.

While we continuously work to ensure our A-F Accountability System paints an accurate picture of school performance, these unprecedented circumstances have forced all of us to change and adapt, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said. Given we wont have underlying information to assess performance, we wont be assigning accountability letter grades for the 2019-20 school year.

With this newest action, BISD has only received one letter grade in the last three school years  a C for the 2018-19 school year.

A district spokesperson declined to comment on the exclusion of accountability scores, saying they are still processing information and do not have more to share at this time.

Related: Failing BISD school approaches deadline for turnaround

While the campus wont face closure next year, the same consequences await if they receive a failing score in the 2020-21 school year, according to a TEA release.

The rating does not break the chain of consecutive years of unacceptable ratings for purposes of accountability interventions and sanctions, the TEA said. An overall rating or domain rating of D or F for the 2018-19 school year and an overall rating or domain rating of D or F for the 2020-21 school year will be considered consecutive years for the determination of multi-year unacceptable status.

The district, which has struggled with issues of accountability and discipline in recent years, made the move in early 2019 to partner with charter schools at Fehl-Price Elementary School, Jones-Clark Elementary School and Smith Middle School to prevent their closure or state takeover after all three spent years in improvement required status.

Officials with Bob Hope School said in November that they were in talks with BISD to partner at a fourth elementary campus.

Related: Bob Hope School says it will partner with BISD to operate 1 campus

BISD currently has eight schools with an F rating.

The district in February discussed possible solutions that could give them more time to turn the campus around, including pulling together in-district principals to run the campus.

Weve had some talks with principals about maybe forming an in-district partnership with some of our strong principals and maybe do the work ourselves. BISDs Chief Innovation Officer Jody Slaughter said at the February board meeting. Principals in many districts across the state have established their own non-profit organizations with governing boards who oversee the operation of the school.

The non-profit governing board would ensure that the school the principal is operating meets agreed-upon performance standards. All partnerships must (annually) report their performance on agreed-upon standards.

Also at the time, Superintendent Shannon Allen said the TEA was aware of the districts ongoing efforts.

Top hits: Get Beaumont Enterprise stories sent directly to your inbox

I have had numerous conversations about where we are with all of our SGS work with TEA  as well as specific conversations about King, Superintendent Shannon Allen said earlier this year. TEA is aware we are making a good faith effort to identify a partner.

System of Great Schools (SGS) is a TEA initiative to support Texas school districts that are committed to increasing the availability of excellent schools.

Schools across the state were ordered last week to maintain distance learning until at least April 3, as the number of cases of coronavirus continues to climb.

Before the action was taken by the TEA, the district also had applied for waivers due to significant class time lost as a result of Tropical Depression Imelda, which caused the district to shuffle campuses and several schools to miss more than a month of instruction in 2019.

isaac.windes@hearstnp.com

twitter.com/isaacdwindes
President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the White House on April 6.

Alex Brandon / AP

At his daily coronavirus press briefing, President Donald Trump said he had a "really wonderful, warm conversation," with Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden.

He said they spoke about the coronavirus, and that he understood Biden's point of view.

In stark contrast to the positive phone call, in late March Biden released an ad criticizing the president for his role in the coronavirus pandemic, saying Trump failed the US when it needed him the most.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump had a "really wonderful, warm conversation," with Democratic presidential front runner and former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday.

Trump spoke about the call at his daily coronavirus press briefing. He said: "I also spoke just a few minutes ago with Vice President, former Vice President Biden who called."

"We had a really wonderful warm conversation, it was a very nice conversation. We talked about pretty much this [the coronavirus], this is what we talked about," he said.

Trump said Biden, who currently leads the national delegate count over Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, gave him "his point of view," which he said he fully understood. He said Biden had suggestions, although that didn't mean he agreed with them.

Biden's campaign issued a statement on the call, according to ABC News, which called it a "good call." Campaign spokesperson Kate Bedingfield wrote that Biden, along with sharing suggestions for actions to take, "expressed his appreciation for the spirit of the American people in meeting the challenges facing the nation."

Less than a fortnight earlier, Biden released an ad criticizing the president for his role in the coronavirus pandemic in the US. The ad juxtaposed comments made by the president alongside a tally showing cases rising across the country, Business Insider previously reported.

Story continues

Biden posted the ad on Twitter, and above the ad it said: "In times of crisis, American presidents have always stepped up to meet the moment. But all we've gotten from Donald Trump are lies, excuses, and scapegoats. Trump has failed our country at a time when we need him most."

Yet according to Trump, Monday's conversation was "very friendly" and lasted about 15 minutes.

"It was really good, really nice. I appreciate his calling," he said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Uncertain times and prolonged isolation are affecting many in the community, especially the elderly population. Senior Services has been regularly checking up on seniors, making sure they are stocked up on meals and checking on their wellbeing.

Senior Services has closed its centers where individuals could have congregant meals and participate in group activities. The organization has also temporarily suspended its Meals on Wheels program beginning March 27 to help safeguard the health of both its volunteers and senior citizens, but not before making sure individuals were well-stocked with frozen and shelf-stable food items.

They do miss connections, said Senior Services Executive Director Charlie Schwedler, adding that many seniors are concerned, but resilient.

To maintain a connection with seniors, staff and board members are making routine phone calls. According to Schwedler, Senior Services makes 1,000-1,200 calls a week to talk about whether there is a need for food, to warn people of scams concerning the economic impact payments and to simply offer a friendly voice to talk with.

Were trying to do our best. The whole board is engaged, said Joy Buchanan, Community Connections coordinator for the Daily News and president of Senior Services board of directors. Everything that were hearing from Senior services, people are happy, but they need contact.

Seniors and other Midland residents may be able to engage by different methods. Senior Services is providing online fitness classes including Zumba and yoga; registration is available at www.seniorservicesmidland.org/online-fitness-classes/. Individuals are encouraged to take breaks from news outlets and social media, connect with friends and family over the phone or video calls, try new hobbies and, if possible, take a walk while maintaining a safe distance of six feet from others.

Senior Services can be contacted at 989-633-3700.

Michigan recently received just over $7.5 million  including more than $5 million for home-delivered meals and more than $2.5 million for congregate meals  to help provide meals to older adults as the state responds to the COVID-19 pandemic and wants to make seniors aware of food delivery programs.

These programs  available to Michigan residents over age 60  provide meals through home delivery and pick up services during the current pandemic.

COVID-19 is a threat to Michiganders, particularly older adults who are most vulnerable to complications related to the virus, said Dr. Alexis Travis, senior deputy director of the Aging & Adult Services Agency at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). Nutrition services are a lifeline for the nearly 100,000 older adults we serve through these programs. We are pleased to have additional resources to ensure more older adults in need here in Michigan have access to meals during this time.

Seniors who need extra support at this time can now sign up for assistance including meal delivery, delivery of non-perishable food items, and daily wellness-check calls, through the MDHHS coronavirus website.

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, signed into law on March 18, provides the additional funding for the nutrition services programs authorized by the Older Americans Act of 1965.

In addition to meals, Older Americans Act programs provide a wide range of services, such as help with bathing and dressing, rides to doctors offices, education on managing chronic illnesses, support for family caregivers, and much more. Provided by a network of community-based organizations, such as Area Agencies on Aging, local community and senior centers, faith-based organizations, and other non-profit service providers, these programs work together to help millions of older adults each year stay healthy and continue to live independently.

Older adults who need assistance can request help through the MDHHS coronavirus website or contact their local area agency on aging.

For more information about COVID-19, visit Michigan.gov/coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus. For more information about the Older Americans Act nutrition programs, contact your local area agency on aging.
michael barbaro

From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[music]

Today: The militarys handling of the coronavirus has cost both the captain of an aircraft carrier and the head of the Navy their jobs. Eric Schmitt on the crisis inside the Navy. Its Wednesday, April 8. Eric, tell me about this letter.

eric schmitt

So this letter dated March 30, 2020, is written by Captain Brett Crozier. Hes the commander of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier thats been in the Western Pacific. Several of his sailors have come down with the virus, and he has been doing all he can to get the entire crew, nearly 5,000 sailors 

michael barbaro

Wow.

eric schmitt

 off the ship. This letter  its really an act of frustration. In fact, let me just read you from the letter. Subject line: Request for Assistance in Response to Covid-19 Pandemic. First paragraph reads, BLUF (bottom line up front): If required, the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt would embark all assigned sailors, set sail, and be ready to fight and beat any adversary that dares challenge the U.S. or our allies. The virus would certainly have an impact. But in combat, we are willing to take certain risks that are not acceptable in peacetime. However, we are not at war. And, therefore, cannot allow a single sailor to perish as a result of this pandemic unnecessarily. Decisive action is required now. And he then goes on, in the next three or four pages, to explain why its so difficult aboard an aircraft carrier. The cramped quarters, the fact that everybodys eating in the same dining halls and sharing the same restrooms. And theyre going up and down the ladders of this ship, and they cant but help but being very close together. In other words, its a social distancing nightmare.

michael barbaro

Right.

eric schmitt

In fact, he ends the letter with this: Keeping over 4,000 young men and women on board the T.R. (Teddy Roosevelt), is an unnecessary risk and breaks faith with those sailors entrusted to our care. Hes basically saying the most important thing here, since theyre in peacetime, is the health of the crew. Get them off. Get them safe. Get them well. And in his view, the Navy is not helping him fast enough with enough supplies to do that.

michael barbaro

Help me understand that. What exactly prompted this captain to write this letter to his superiors in the Navy?

eric schmitt

So we need to go back to early March. The Theodore Roosevelt was scheduled to make a port call in Da Nang, Vietnam. Vietnam borders China. So there was concern by Captain Crozier and many of his staff about the obvious impact of the Covid-19 virus there. But in checking with Navy health officials, they told him that there were very few cases in Vietnam at that time  at the beginning of March  and they were mostly in and around Hanoi and in northern Vietnam, several hundred miles north of Da Nang, where the U.S.S. Roosevelt would go. This was an important show of American military strength at a time when China is reasserting itself militarily in the South China Sea. It was important for the United States to follow through on its strategic commitments, and demonstrate to the government of Vietnam that it was willing to go ahead with this visit.

michael barbaro

So this ship showing up at a port in Vietnam is considered strategically important for United States national security.

eric schmitt

Thats right. So despite Captain Croziers concerns, the Roosevelt docks in Hanoi, and nearly 5,000 sailors and crew members pour into the city of Da Nang, going out to restaurants, going out to bars, going out to what sailors do in port calls. Now at the end of their port call, the sailors and crew get back on the ship. And so as the Roosevelt pulls out of Da Nang, Captain Crozier is still concerned. Because even though his crew has shown no open signs of infection, in his mind a clock is ticking  roughly a 14-day clock in which the symptoms could appear. After which, theyll feel theyre more or less in the clear. And as they approach the end of the 14 days, Captain Crozier and his top aides believe theyre almost clear. And literally on the last day of that period of time that theyre watching, the first two sailors test positive for the virus. And the captain knows he has a huge problem on his hands. So the first two sailors who are infected with the virus are immediately flown off the ship. Captain Crozier, realizing that the infection is probably spreading silently through the crew, speeds up a scheduled visit to Guam, which is the home of a major naval base, a major naval hospital. And its over these next four days that the captain, working with his immediate boss and admiral on board the Roosevelt, as well as others up his chain of command, are doing all they can to follow through on the guidance that we now know. How many sailors can we get off this ship into some kind of quarantine basis? He wants to have proper social distancing. And, obviously, he wants to treat the sailors who are increasingly in numbers testing positive. But by March 30, we know Captain Crozier feels the Navy is not moving fast enough to help him. All his pleas, while they may have delivered some aid and some relief, theyre not getting the crew off fast enough. Theyre not getting supplies to the ship quickly enough. And so he writes this letter, and he sends it over an unclassified email to about 20 other people, all naval personnel. But by sending it over an unclassified email and not the usual classified system the Navy has, the captain almost certainly knows somebody will leak it to the media. And thats probably what he wants. Some kind of outside force to apply pressure to the Navy to respond faster to what he believes is essential.

[music]

michael barbaro

So what happens after Crozier sends this letter?

eric schmitt

So the letter is sent, and within a day, its leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, and it causes an immediate firestorm. The Navy Secretary Thomas Modly is outraged. First of all that this letter has leaked. And he had just had a conversation with Captain Crozier the night before, basically asking, have you got everything you need? Do I need to do anything more? And according to Modly, the captain said, you know, Id like things to go faster, but I realize youre doing as much as you can. So I think Modly feels a little bit blindsided by this. And the next day on April 2, he calls a press conference.

archived recording (thomas modly) Im here today to inform you that today at my direction, the commanding officer of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, Captain Brett Crozier, was relieved of command by a carrier strike group commander Rear Adm. Stuart Baker.

eric schmitt

Secretary Modly reads a statement saying he is dismissing Captain Crozier.

michael barbaro

Wow.

archived recording (thomas modly) I lost confidence in his ability to continue to lead that warship as it fights through this virus to get the crew healthy, and so that it continued to meet its important national security requirements.

eric schmitt

Basically says hes lost confidence in him.

archived recording (thomas modly) I would like to send a message to the crew of the Theodore Roosevelt and their families back here at home. I am entirely convinced that your commanding officer loves you.

eric schmitt

He may be a great officer most of the time. He may be well beloved by his crew. But in this case 

archived recording (thomas modly) But its my responsibility to ensure that his love and concern for you is matched by his sober and professional judgment under pressure.

eric schmitt

 hes blown it.

archived recording (thomas modly) OK, thank you.

eric schmitt

And so by the next day, back out in Guam, Captain Crozier is packing up his things. And as he walks down the gangway off the ship to an awaiting car, and its a scene  its just remarkable, Michael. And the whole crew thats gathered, hundreds in this huge hangar bay are chanting and cheering for the captain.

archived recording (crew) (CHANTING) Captain Crozier. [APPLAUSE] Captain Crozier. [APPLAUSE]

eric schmitt

Captain Crozier. Captain Cozier.

archived recording (crew) Captain Crozier. [APPLAUSE]

eric schmitt

Captain Crozier.

archived recording (crew) Captain Crozier. [APPLAUSE] archived recording (crew member) The GOAT, the man for the people.

eric schmitt

Theyre thanking him, because by now, theyve read the letter. They know whats happened here. And this is kind of his valedictory as he leaves, and gets into the car, and drives off to this really stunning ovation.

archived recording (crew) [CHEERS] archived recording (crew member) Now thats how you send out one of the greatest captains you ever had!

eric schmitt

And this only makes the Navy brass back in Washington even angrier.

[music]

michael barbaro

Well be right back. Eric, the scene you just described on the U.S.S. Roosevelt, I mean, it seems very clear from that that the Navy is not just at odds with the captain of the ship, but with its own sailors there. So how did that huge gap form between the top brass and the rank and file?

eric schmitt

So in part, that division is created essentially by the priorities that the military overall has. What the militarys job is, its first to be ready for combat. The secretary of the Navy, the defense secretary  they have to worry about threats and how they would respond to them. Whereas the captains immediate view is that he is worried about the health of his crew. But theres another important factor in all of this, and thats President Trump. For these civilian leaders back in Washington at the Defense Department and the Navy, theyre worried of how President Trump is going to view this. And theyve got good reason to worry.

archived recording Now President Trump has ignored advice from his military, and absolved three U.S. service members accused of war crimes. Mr. Trump pardoning 

eric schmitt

The president has actively meddled in criminal investigations in the military.

archived recording The president also pardoned 

eric schmitt

Has intervened on the behalf of accused war criminals.

archived recording He was charged with the murder of an Afghan bomb maker.

eric schmitt

And overturned their punishments repeatedly.

archived recording And Mr. Trump reinstated Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher to the rank of Chief Petty Officer after he was convicted of posing with the corpse of an ISIS detainee.

eric schmitt

In fact, the last Navy secretary was fired 

archived recording The Navy secretary is out, asked to resign over his handling of disgraced Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher. Richard Spencer 

eric schmitt

 in trying to deal with one of these interventions that the president did. And so the president has gotten into the heads of civilian leaders, including the Navy.

[music]

So what Mr. Modly said, in fact, was he worried that the president had seen what had happened about this letter being released. The president would intervene and order the captain to be dismissed before the Navy could even act on it. And that would be further embarrassment to the Navy. Mr. Modly was basically trying to preempt the president from doing what he feared he might do.

michael barbaro

So what happens after the Navy secretary, possibly preempting the president, fires Crozier?

eric schmitt

So on Monday, Mr. Modly, trying to tamp down the furor of his dismissal of the captain, flew 8,000 miles to Guam to address the crew.

archived recording (thomas modly) The American people believe in you.

eric schmitt

Aboard the ship, he gets on the intercom system, and in a 15-minute obscenity-laced tirade 

archived recording (thomas modly) Everyones scared about this thing. But Ill tell you something, if the ship was in combat and there were hypersonic missiles coming at it, youd be pretty [EXPLETIVE] scared too. But you do your jobs.

eric schmitt

 criticizes Captain Crozier.

archived recording (thomas modly) It is my opinion that if he didnt think that information was going to get out into the public, in this information age that we live in, then he was A, too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this. archived recording What the EXPLETIVE?

eric schmitt

And then he rebukes the crew 

archived recording (thomas modly) So think about that when you cheer the man off a ship.

eric schmitt

 for cheering this guy.

archived recording (thomas modly) And let me say one other thing. Everything Im telling you guys right now I will never, ever, ever throw you guys under the bus in Washington, or anywhere else. In the media, anywhere else.

eric schmitt

He tells them how much he respects them and will never throw them under the bus. And then finally he says 

archived recording (thomas modly) Theres never a situation where you should consider the media a part of your chain of command.

eric schmitt

 under no conditions and in no situation should you go to the media with your complaints.

archived recording (thomas modly) Because the media has an agenda. And the agenda that they have depends on which side of the 

eric schmitt

And of course, the irony is that the audio of Mr. Modlys speech was almost immediately leaked to the media, which is why you can hear it now.

archived recording (thomas modly) They use it to embarrass the Navy. They use it to embarrass you.

eric schmitt

And this did not go over well. You had a number of retired Navy officers, lawmakers reacting, outraged that he would not just criticize the captain, which hed already done, but criticize the crew. This was just too much. And by Monday night 

archived recording May I please follow up on what you said with regard to Captain Crozier.

eric schmitt

 the president is asked about it.

archived recording (donald trump) Been a bad day, will be a bad week. archived recording Does that mean  archived recording (donald trump) Yeah, Im going to look into it.

eric schmitt

And for the president, who had initially supported Captain Croziers firing, now he seems to be having second thoughts.

archived recording (donald trump) It looks to me like hes an outstanding guy.

eric schmitt

Trumps says maybe hes not such a bad guy after all.

archived recording (donald trump) You know, maybe I can help the situation out. I mean, you guys are saying why is the president getting involved? Well, I like to solve problems. Its a problem.

eric schmitt

And so theres a hint that the president may once again intervene in this case.

michael barbaro

But not the way that the Navy secretary feared. In the opposite way.

eric schmitt

Thats right, and maybe reinstate the captain. Thats when shortly after that 

archived recording In a letter overnight, Modly writing, I want to apologize to the Navy for my  

eric schmitt

 Mr. Modly issues this late night apology.

archived recording I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid. He is smart and passionate. I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain.

eric schmitt

And by late Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Modly resigns. And it just kind of underscores the turmoil within the ranks of the Navy right now. But it also kind of shows the turmoil within the Pentagon overall, in this kind of revolving door, because remember, Mr. Modlys an acting secretary. He replaced a guy who was fired last November. And he in turn will be replaced by another acting secretary. So the Navy leadership now has gone through three different secretaries in just a few short months.

michael barbaro

Eric, youve been covering this from the moment that letter became public, and you have been covering the military for years. And what do you make of this entire episode?

eric schmitt

It is extraordinary. And I think what you have here is a conflict between, in many ways, the kind of storied history of the United States military, specifically the United States Navy, with its hierarchy  its chains of command  set against a very unusual enemy, this once in a century pandemic, and also a very unusual and unpredictable president. And caught in the middle of all this are the sailors. The sailors aboard the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, with pandemic spreading through their ranks, even as they sit on the docks in Guam. And its those sailors who are kind of looking both to their captain, their now departed captain, and to Washington for some help. How do we get out of this? And how do we get back to our mission safely?

michael barbaro

Whats the answer? I mean, what has happened to these 5,000 sailors on the U.S.S. Roosevelt?

eric schmitt

Well, roughly half of the sailors have come off the ship. Some are in quarters on the naval base in Guam. Some have been put up in private hotels. There are more than 150 cases of sailors whove tested positive. So this process will go on for no doubt weeks until the crew is healthy enough, and the ship is clean enough again for the crew to get back on and go on its way and continue its mission.

michael barbaro

Eric, it sounds like Captain Crozier pretty much got what he asked for. The military is more or less emptying this ship and putting people in quarantine, right?

eric schmitt

I think youre right. And most important, he got the Navy to focus its attention even more on these sailors, which is what he wanted all along.

michael barbaro

What do you expect is going to happen to Captain Crozier?

eric schmitt

Well, Captain Crozier right now is in quarantine in Guam. He actually tested positive for coronavirus himself. So he is waiting. Friends say hes doing OK right now. But otherwise, the Navy has said he would be reassigned to his desk job in San Diego. But with all the twists and turns of the last few days, the man who fired Crozier has now been fired himself. And theres talk that Captain Crozier could possibly be reinstated. Theres a petition going online with more than 250,000 signatures demanding that he be reinstated. So the fate of Captain Crozier is still to be decided.

[music]

michael barbaro

Thank you, Eric.

eric schmitt

Thank you, Michael.

michael barbaro

Well be right back.

[music]

michael barbaro

Heres what else you need to know today. China has ended its lockdown of Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus epidemic began, allowing residents to travel in and out of the city for the first time in 76 days.

archived recording [SPEAKING CHINESE]

michael barbaro

The news was greeted with chants and singing in Wuhan, where 50,000 people were infected with the virus and more than 2,500 died from it.

archived recording [SINGING IN CHINESE]

michael barbaro

And on Tuesday, President Trump removed the federal official overseeing how trillions of taxpayer dollars from the coronavirus stimulus package are spent by his administration.

archived recording (anderson cooper) Is this a wise move? I mean, shouldnt somebody be watching over this? archived recording (nancy pelosi) Yes, and the president thinks he should be the one, and thats exactly upside down.

michael barbaro

The stimulus bill specifically required such oversight, prompting Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on CNN, to immediately denounce the presidents move.

archived recording (nancy pelosi) The presidents sending in some of his loyalists, so this is really a problem.

michael barbaro

Finally, thousands of Wisconsin voters headed to the polls on Tuesday at the height of the pandemic, after Republican lawmakers blocked an attempt by the states democratic governor to postpone the election.

archived recording (voter) This is so wrong. This is just so wrong. This election should have been called off.

michael barbaro

Many voters expressed fury over the situation, saying that they should not have to choose between their health and their right to vote.

archived recording (voter) You know, theyre telling us to stay in the house, and, you know, stand six feet from each other. But then, one of the most important times, theyre forcing us to come out here in a group. Stop playing politics with our lives. You know, thats what Im feeling.

michael barbaro

The results of the election, including the presidential primary, are not expected until Monday.

[music]

michael barbaro
The biggest hot spot of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the capital of Madhya Pradesh has been found nowhere else but at the directorate of the state health department, which is tasked with controlling and containing the disease across the state.

Four more employees from the directorate tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday, said officials, adding to the 15 officials from the facility, including two IAS officers, who had tested positive over the past few days. Among those infected include principal secretary, health services, director, National Health Mission, two additional directors, a joint director, and four deputy directors.

The test reports of several other people at the centre are still awaited, amid allegations -- yet unsubstantiated -- at the centre that some of those infected hid their symptoms, leading to the spread.

As a result of the outbreak in states anti-Covid headquarters, about 150 employees in the directorate are now in self-quarantine, said three officials aware of the matter who asked not to be named. The control room in the directorate is almost dysfunctional, one of the officials said.

At this time, certain Apps have been handy for us. We interact with each other through video conferencing with the help the apps and monitor the situation in the entire state. Those who have been found positive are also trying to contribute to managing the administrative affairs, said a second official from the facility.

A third official said that work was continuing.

The only problem is the lack of effective communication. A new person who takes over will take some time to understand the situation. All the government of India advisory first comes to the directorate and then its is communicated to the district and block level, the third official added.

At the same time, however, allegations were flying through the state administration about whether the outbreak could have been contained.

According to a leader of the Health departments employees association, the sons of at least two senior officials had concealed that they recently travelled to the US, which is now the country worst affected by Covid-19. The officials continued to visit the secretariat and the directorate and also attend meetings with other top and junior officials. They were seen suffering from cold and cough, he said, asking not to be named.

Another employee at the centre said that since some of the officials who went to Indore several times on procurement trips should have stayed in home quarantine rather than coming to the directorate building.

Indore is a certified Covid-19 hot spot that accounts for 151of the 256 cases reported in the state till Monday evening.

In light of these charges, the state administration issued a statement on Sunday night, saying that all precautions were taken and there was no oversight.

In none of the advisories issued by the central government there was any advisory against travel to the US. The principal secretarys son returned on March 16 and his medical examination was conducted at the international airport at New Delhi. He remained in self-quarantine till March 30, and doesnt have any symptoms. On the principal secretary testing positive on April 4, the samples of other family members were sent for a test and no one were found having symptom of coronavirus, the statement issued by the department of public relations of MP government said.

When contacted, additional director, health, Sapna Lovanshi said: All the department officials and employees are discharging their duties with dedication while following the norms of social distancing.

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The Supreme Court has declined to take up the case of a Texas death row inmate who asked for a new trial because he believed the judge who presided over his case was antisemitic.

Randy Halprin, who is Jewish, was a part of the Texas Seven, who in 2000 escaped prison, robbed a sporting goods store and fatally shot police officer Aubrey Hawkins.

Lawyers for Mr Halprin claimed that an investigation into Judge Vickers Cunningham, who sentenced him to death row, found that he was antisemitic and used racial slurs.

They allegeed that the judge threatened to stop paying for his daughters law school, if she didnt break up with her Jewish boyfriend.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was deciding on Mr Halprins Supreme Court appeal, wrote: the facts underlying this petition are deeply disturbing.

Recommended Death row inmate scheduled to die loses last attempt at life in prison

She added that Mr Cunningham had created a living trust for his children that would have withheld payments had they married nonwhite non-Christians.

Although Ms Sotomayor declined to hear his case, she wrote that Mr Halprin deserves a fair trial and believes that the Texas courts considering Halprins case are more than capable of guarding this fundamental guarantee.

Tivon Schardl, one of Mr Halprins lawyers, said that they would continue to seek a new, fair trial, in a statement.

Mr Halprins claims of bias against Mr Cunningham are still under review by a Texas court and Ms Sotomayor revealed that his execution has been stayed while they consider if bias infected his trial.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press
SALEM, Ore. -- A group of inmates concerned about contracting COVID-19 have filed a lawsuit against Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and the leaders at the Department of Corrections.

The civil rights lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by the Oregon Justice Resource Center on behalf of the inmates, alleges the DOC has not taken the necessary steps to slow the spread of the virus inside its institutions where more than 14,000 inmates live.

Last week, DOC Director Collette Peters told Oregon Public Broadcasting in an interview her agency was doing everything they can to keep people safe but acknowledged the challenges of social distancing in a prison.
Haryana DGP Manoj Yadava on Tuesday asked senior police officers in the state to take stern action against those spreading rumours or vitiating communal harmony in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

In a written communication to police commissioners and DSPs, Yadava asked them to accord the highest importance to prevent such incidents by taking stern action against anti-social elements.

The DGP has asked them to focus on the maintenance of law and order by strictly enforcing the lockdown across the state, a spokesperson of state police said in a statement here.

According to the spokesperson, keeping in view some reported incidents of targeting of a particular community, the DGP asked all police officers to be on alert and take precautionary measures.

Such incidents not only result in rumour-mongering and misinformation but have the potential to damage the social fabric and vitiate the communal harmony, the DGP told police officers, adding that such issues divert the focus of the administration from the fight against COVID-19.

So far, the state police have arrested 25 people for attacks on members of a particular community.

The DGP said police have so far arrested 32 people for spreading fake or rumors on social media after registering 56 cases.

He urged people to follow the lockdown norms by staying at home.

He warned that anyone involved in spreading fake news/derogatory statements on social media or try to vitiate the communal harmony would be dealt with sternly.

Meanwhile, launching a crackdown against bootleggers, the Haryana Police on Tuesday said it has arrested 449 people for involvement in illegal storage/transportation/sale of liquor in 392 cases.

Over 1.01 lakh bottles of illicit liquor were seized during the lockdown period, police added.

After the lockdown was imposed, the state government had ordered the shutting down of liquor vends across the state.

In addition, police have also impounded five cars, a motorcycle and two used in the illegal transportation of liquor, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Navdeep Singh Virk said in a statement.

A maximum (51) cases against bootleggers were registered in Faridabad district followed by 43 in Hisar and 38 in Rohtak, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 05:15:30|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Deputy Justice Minister Mahmoud Abbasi said on Monday that Iran is in talks with some countries to exchange prisoners amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, official IRNA news agency reported.

"Given the current sensitive situation and outbreak of coronavirus, we are in talks with the countries to exchange prisoners," Abbasi said, noting that the follow-ups through the Foreign Ministry and Interpol have yielded positive results.

Currently, 2,600 Afghan convicts are prepared to leave for their country and some central Asian states have agreed to exchange prisoners, Abbasi was quoted as saying.

Iran's judiciary has already freed 100,000 prisoners on bail amid the virus concerns.

Iran is the worst-hit country by the pandemic in the Middle East, with 60,500 confirmed cases and 3,739 deaths as of Monday.
The UN human rights body has urged nations to release individuals detained without sufficient legal basis, including political prisoners, as the world body stressed the need to take a very close look at incarcerations and reduce overcrowding in prisons to prevent catastrophic rates of COVID-19 infection.

Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said recently in Geneva that some countries have been announcing prisoner releases of varying numbers, including of specific at-risk groups such as pregnant women, people with disabilities, elderly prisoners, those who are sick, minor and low-risk offenders, people nearing the end of their sentences and others who can safely be reintegrated into society.

"We urge states to release every person detained without sufficient legal basis, including political prisoners, and those detained for critical, dissenting views," Colville said.

"We stress that with respect to people fairly convicted of serious crimes recognised under international law, or prisoners who might pose serious risk to others, they should only exceptionally be considered for temporary release from custody during the course of the pandemic," he said.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' spokesperson Stephane Dujarric on Monday said that the UN chief "believes that member states need to take a very close look at incarcerations during a time of COVID-19. It's something the High Commissioner for Human Rights has spoken out about."



Dujarric was responding to a question about the release of prisoners in Kashmir.

He added, "As for the situation in Kashmir, he (Secretary General) very much believes that any political solution must take into consideration the issue of human rights."



Last week, Michelle Bachelet, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, has appealed to prevent "catastrophic" rates of infection, as the number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases continues to rise worldwide.

Colville added that the UN agency continues to urge all countries to review who is being held and to take measures as soon as possible to ensure the physical distancing necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19 becomes feasible.

He noted that Iran has increased releases to around 100,000 inmates -- representing 40 per cent of the entire prison population -- and that Indonesia has announced that it would free 30,000 individuals convicted of minor crimes, including drug use.

"And we understand India and Turkey are similarly considering or in the process of releasing a large number of inmates," he said.

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to free 11,000 prisoners lodged in 71 jails in the state amid the COVID-19 outbreak in India.

The Tihar Prison authorities in Delhi also said they are planning to release around 3,000 prisoners to ease congestion in jails over the coronavirus threat. Other prisons in India are also taking similar steps.

Concerns remain about Syrian detainees.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has described the situation in all official prisons and makeshift detention facilities in Syria as "alarming".

Well before the COVID-19 outbreak, the OHCHR warned of overcrowding in central prisons and in facilities run by the four government security branches as the nine-year civil war still rages, and in the Sednaya military prison.

Previous reports from the UN office have highlighted deaths in these facilities, including as a result of torture and denial of medical care.

Vulnerable people detained in Syria include the elderly, women, children and many with underlying health conditions -- some of them as a result of ill-treatment and neglect, experienced while in detention, the OHCHR said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Newsfrom Japan

Tokyo, April 7 (Jiji Press)--Canon Inc. <7751> said it will close its Tokyo headquarters and four offices in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Tuesday through April 17 due to the spread of the novel coronavirus in the metropolitan area.

The headquarters has some 6,000 employees, while the Kawasaki offices engage in research and development. All employees will be off in principle during the period, while the minimum number of workers needed to continue business will work from home, according to the Japanese camera and office equipment maker.

At Hitachi Ltd. <6501>, some 50,000 employees in Tokyo will continue to work from home once the government declares a state of emergency over the virus.

Employees in other areas will also work from home if asked to do so by local authorities, the electronics and heavy machinery maker said.

Olympus Corp. <7733> will extend the work-from-home period to May 1 for some 8,000 group workers in the capital. The measure will expand to include Hokkaido as well as Osaka, Kyoto, Saitama, Kanagawa, Chiba, Aichi, Nara and Fukuoka prefectures, the camera and medical device maker said.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
Jessica Giesey

Shake Shack fans are in for a treat  if they can wait a few days for it to be delivered.

The national chain restaurant is offering do-it-yourself kits to make its popular burgers, albeit missing the produce-based ingredients.
UK travellers stranded overseas have expressed anger at the amount of time and money it is taking them to get home.

One woman said she is spending every waking moment trying to return.

A 75 million operation to charter flights from destinations where commercial routes have been severed due to the coronavirus pandemic was launched by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office last week, but demand for seats appears to be outstripping supply.

Two rescue flights chartered by the Government will repatriate British nationals from the Philippines on Tuesday.

Further flights will operate this week from India, South Africa and Nepal.

Shekhar Sharma, a 42-year-old banker from London, has lived in the UK for the last 16 years but is stranded in India after visiting his parents.

He has registered for a rescue flight from Delhi to London and paid the 581 fee, but has been told that only gets him a spot on a waiting list.

He said: The UK seems to be the last country to be trying to bring people back home.

There are 20,000 people who have registered to try and get back from India, so it does not seem like the effort they are putting in is nearly enough to get people home.

Story continues

I have now been waiting in Delhi for 15 days to try and get home.

I am lucky because I am in a position to pay, but when a normal return flight is between 500 and 600, to charge 581 for one way seems a lot.

The UK Government promised it was spending 75 million to get people home, but where has that money gone? These fares do not seem subsidised at all.

Mr Sharma is particularly eager to return to London as he only has enough medication left to last him for three days and he is due to start a new job soon.

I really do not want to be out of a job in the current situation, he added.

Carina Rees, 22, from Swansea, has become stranded in India with her partner Oskar Fields, 23.

The pair left home in early February and planned to travel around India and Sri Lanka until at least June, but want to cut their trip short due to the coronavirus outbreak.

They have both paid for a seat on a rescue flight from Delhi, but do not know when they will get home.

Ms Rees said: We travelled all around the North before arriving in Agra. When we turned up, we were told that the hotel was no longer accepting foreigners, and to find somewhere else to stay.

We had to try five or six hotels before we found someone who managed a guest house willing to let us stay.

Then the country got put into lockdown and we were told we would not be able to leave Agra  we only had four hours notice so didnt have time to travel anywhere else.

We spent 18 days in Agra living on instant noodles and biscuits. The owner of the guest house was lovely but our room didnt have a window or air-conditioning.

We are now in Delhi and are waiting to find out if we can return home. We have paid for the flight but we dont actually know when it will be.

A family of nine, who did not want to be named, went to Cape Town, South Africa, for a wedding on March 11 but cannot get home as the country has closed its airspace.

The group, including a toddler and a seven-year-old child, were unable to get seats on earlier flights after the airspace closure was announced.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said more than 2,000 UK nationals have so far been repatriated on charter flights from seven different countries (Victoria Jones/PA)

A family member told the PA news agency: On the 26th, with no way home, I registered with the High Commission/Foreign and Commonwealth Office that we were here and needed to get home.

I didnt even get confirmation of that registration until the 31st.

Since then Ive spent every waking moment trying to find out how we can get home.

Finally the repatriation flights were announced. We are having to pay 856 per person for those flights. Thats just short of 7,000 for my family. Up until now we still dont have confirmation we have a flight. Just got to sit and wait.

The woman added that their travel insurance provider has indicated that the family are not covered as the circumstances fall under an act of God exclusion.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said more than 2,000 UK nationals have so far been repatriated on charter flights from seven different countries, including Peru, Ghana and Tunisia.

Last week, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps estimated that around 300,000 UK travellers were stranded.
Airbnb said private equity firms Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners will invest $US1 billion ($1.6 billion) in the US home rental company, bolstering its finances at a time when the coronavirus outbreak has roiled the travel and leisure industry.

The investment, which was mixture of debt and equity, raises Airbnb's cash reserves to around $US4 billion. The company said it would use the funds primarily to attract more hosts, or homeowners who list their properties for rent on the company's platform.

Silver Lake is one of the most high-profile tech investors and has made high-profile bets on the likes of Twitter, Dell and Waymo, the self-driving unit of Alphabet. Credit:Ryan Stuart

Silver Lake and Sixth Street were among around 20 investors which approached Airbnb about investing in the company, according to people familiar with the matter.

"While the current environment is clearly a difficult one for the hospitality industry, the desire to travel and have authentic experiences is fundamental and enduring. Airbnb's diverse, global, and resilient business model is particularly well suited to prosper as the world inevitably recovers and we all get back out to experience it," Silver Lake Co-CEO and Managing Partner Egon Durban said in a statement.
Donald Trump said he could step into an internal US Navy dispute about a fired aircraft carrier commander who was fired by the service's top civilian official for raising concerns about coronavirus spreading through his crew.

"I don't want to destroy somebody for having a bad day," the commander in chief said of Captain Brett Crozier.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly fired the commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt after a letter he wrote about the virus infecting his crew leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Mr Modly on Monday said the letters show Mr Crozier was too "stupid" to command such a massive war ship.

The president declined to comment on that, other than saying it was a "strong statement."

But he told reporters he is hearing "good things about both men," and might have little choice but to get involved.
Egypts reserves of staple food commodities are sufficient and secure, the cabinet said this week, reassuring the public about the countrys food security amid the Covid-19 crisis and with the approach of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.



However, some observers warned that there could be increases in food prices. According to Gamal Siyam, a professor of agricultural economics in Cairo, there could be rises in food prices due to shipping difficulties and increases in insurance costs on cargoes. He cited the partial halt in exports from Brazil as a result of work stoppages in the countrys ports as an example.



Meanwhile, Reuters said this week that traders said on Sunday the countrys state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), could ask suppliers to offer prices on a cost and freight (C&F) basis instead of free-on-board (FOB), in a report on Egyptian market sentiment.



GASC normally asks for wheat prices from suppliers on a FOB basis with freight offered in a separate tender, it added.



Siyam also said that some countries had hinted they could halt the export of staple goods, which may encourage other countries to toe the same line.



According to press reports, Kazakhstan, one of the worlds leading wheat exporters, has stopped its wheat, carrot, sugar and potatoes exports. Serbia is no longer exporting sunflower oil, among other items. Russia said it was following the situation on a weekly basis to decide whether it would stop exporting certain items.



President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi called on the government to make sure supplies of strategic goods were available at a time when global fears are rising about the availability of food supplies amid the coronavirus pandemic.



This led to the cabinet announcement on Friday that Egypts strategic reserves of wheat were sufficient for four months, even before harvesting the new crop in mid-April.



According to Siyam, the government should increase the price of wheat to encourage farmers to provide more to the Egyptian market and reduce exports. An ardeb of wheat is currently priced between LE800 and LE850, whereas last years delivery prices ranged between LE650 and LE700.



GASC had prepared an international tender to buy wheat on 1 April but then cancelled it in a move that confused some traders.



For Hussein Al-Boudi, a member of the Chamber of Food Industries at the Egyptian Federation of Industries, there could be problems on the international wheat market should China announce it will buy large quantities of wheat, affecting the amount available.



Egypt annually consumes about 9.5 million tons of wheat, of which only three million tons are locally harvested, to produce its subsidised baladi bread. The country imports two-thirds of its wheat consumption from Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia, and France, and it also imports six million tons of more refined wheat, used in making pastries and not used for baladi bread.



Egypts wheat imports go down in April and May when the local crop is harvested, Al-Boudi added.



According to agricultural expert Nader Noureddin, global food markets could see drastic changes and skyrocketing prices reminiscent of what was seen in 2008 and 2010. Farmers in Egypt who had previously exported to Europe and the US had then had to send their produce to local markets at reduced prices as a result of the halting of exports, he said.



Kazakhstan has stopped its wheat exports, and other countries have halted food exports temporarily or permanently, including India and Vietnam, along with Malaysia which is also no longer exporting wheat. Noureddin said export bans could be adopted by other countries, despite the fact that this year wheat and rice were produced in record-breaking amounts, exceeding the worlds needs by 40 per cent.



In Egypt, wheat, fava beans, and lentils are harvested in April, providing the country with a six-month reserve of wheat and a two-month reserve of fava beans and providing a breathing space until quiet returns to world food markets.



Last year, Egypt imported 8.6 million tons of yellow corn, which represents about 70 per cent of animal, poultry and fish feed. The country also cultivates around three million tons of yellow corn to meet its consumption of between 10 and 14 million tons a year.



According to a study by the Institute of Field Crops, Egypt imports 5.7 million tons of oil and oil seeds annually, more than 85 per cent of which is from the US, France, Ukraine, and Malaysia. Its local sunflower crop also provides some security in food oils.



For Noureddin, at the present time it would be better for developing countries that import foodstuffs to rely on themselves in planting staple and strategic crops to reduce their food imports and save foreign currency.



Meanwhile, Egypts sugar reserves are sufficient until August, said Hassan Sl-Fendi, head of the Sugar Division at the Egyptian Federation of Industries.



Egypt consumes three million tons of sugar and produces about two million tons a year. It normally imports a third of its sugar consumption from Brazil, the worlds largest producer of raw sugar, and India and also imports refined sugar from Europe.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 9 April, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Students from Wagner College and the Jewish Foundation School of Staten Island on Tuesday celebrated the 100th birthday of Alex Steinberg, a Holocaust survivor who lives in a senior residence in the borough.

The students, members of Steinbergs family and others sang Happy Birthday to him in both English and Hebrew, followed by students from Wagner College singing a short Fiddler on the Roof melody  LChaim, or To life.

To respect the New Yorks social distancing guidelines in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the celebration was held via a Zoom video call.

In addition to the students, Linda Greenberg, Ruth Ann Gutman and Manny Sals, members of the Wagner College Holocaust Center Advisory Board and Mashie Kopelowitz, the assistant principal of the Jewish Foundational School, joined on the call.

After wishing Steinberg a happy birthday in Hungarian, one of the 10 languages Steinberg speaks, a middle school student from the Jewish Foundation School said, Happy hundredth birthday ... I respect you because I also have Holocaust survivors in my family.

Alex, you are an inspiration, the Wagner College Holocaust Center wrote on Facebook.

L'Chaim sung to Holocaust Survivor for 100th Birthday Happy 100th Birthday sung to Holocaust survivor Alex Steinberg by students of Wagner College (WC) and Jewish Foundation School of Staten Island (JFS). Bethany Friedman and Ruth Kupperberg, interns of the WC Holocaust Center, serenaded Alex with songs from Fiddler on the Roof. Shimmy Zucker of JFS offered a Birthday message in Hungarian. Bethany started "Shir Levav" [means: Sing from the Heart] to link WC students and survivors about a year ago. This joy lit up everyone's day in these difficult times. We recalled all Alex (born 1920) survived in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Russia and in Bergen-Belsen during the last years of the Holocaust. Alex: You are an inspiration! Ad 120. Thanks to all who made this call so special. Posted by Wagner College Holocaust Center on Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Originally from Czechoslovakia, which was later absorbed by Hungary, Steinbergs family narrowly escaped deportations and massacres in August of 1941. He was later conscripted for harsh labor in Miskolc, Hungary, and faced brutal punishments, according to My Germany, A Jewish Writer Returns to the World His Parents Escaped  a biography by Steinbergs son, Lev Raphael.

In the winter of 1942, Steinberg was sent to Russia with 150 others and would be one of only two dozen to return. Amid a massive retreat of Hungarian, Italian and German troops, Steinberg managed to find a Hungarian uniform in the ruins of a truck and passed through the retreating armies for a month before he was accused of killing the man whose uniform he stole.

While he escaped imprisonment, he was later captured in 1944 and sent to the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp, where he managed to obtain false identity papers that linked him to a neutral country.

That, coupled with his language skills, enabled him to be deemed a kapo," an individual who was assigned by German guards to carry out specific tasks, the biography said. Steinbergs father died in Auschwitz a few days before liberation.

After his own liberation, he traveled to the United States in 1950 with his wife, Helen Klaczko Steinberg, and had two sons. He now lives at Park Lane at Seaview on Staten Island.

After his birthday celebration, the Wagner College Holocaust Center wrote: This joy lit up everyones day in these difficult times.
A mother who was infected with coronavirus has died while going through labour, it has emerged.

The victim died at the Whittington Hospital, in Archway, North London, following the delivery of the child, who has survived.

It is not known if the woman had any underlying health issues, and an investigation into her death has been launched by the coroner.

Hospital staff were said to be completely shocked and 'in tears' following the death.

A woman infected with coronavirus died at the Whittington Hospital, in Archway, North London, following the delivery of her child, who has survived

A source told The Sun: 'Amid all the trauma being seen across maxed-out hospital wards by our NHS heroes, this tragedy has totally poleaxed staff.

'There is a huge sense of disbelief at the unfairness of this devastating death.

'Senior hospital workers were in tears. The only consolation is that the baby survived the mum's death.

It is not known if the woman had any underlying health issues, and an investigation into her death has been launched by the coroner

The woman's family have been left 'devastated' by her passing. Her baby is believed to be doing ok, and is not thought to have tested positive for the bug.

Whittington Health NHS Trust said: 'This case has been referred to the coroner to determine the cause of death.'

The saddening news comes after a newborn baby in England became the world's youngest patient to test positive for coronavirus.

Hospital staff were said to be completely shocked and 'in tears' following the death

The child's mother was rushed to hospital in March with suspected pneumonia but her positive result was only known after the birth.

The pair are being treated at separate hospitals as the mother's condition is understood to be worse than the baby's.

The newborn is being treated at North Middlesex Hospital where they were born, while the mother was moved to a specialist infections hospital.

A newborn baby in England has become the world's youngest patient to test positive for coronavirus (stock image)

The baby is being treated at North Middlesex Hospital where it was born, and the mother has been moved to a specialist infections hospital

After doctors learned of the mother's positive result, the baby was tested very soon after its arrival, according to The Sun.

Doctors are trying to establish how the newborn contracted the virus, either through the womb or during birth.

A source said: 'Staff in contact with both patients have been advised to self-isolate.

'Health officials are urgently trying to find out the circumstances behind their infections.'
The Combined troops of Nigerian Military and Niger Republic have dealt another deadly blow to terrorists at Kure village along Tumbun Rago and Tumbun Fulani general areas in Borno State, the defence Headquarters says.

The Acting Director, Defence Media Operations, Bernard Onyeuko, a brigadier general, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.

Mr Onyeuko said the recent encounter was in continuation of the ongoing clearance operations in the North East Theatre of Operation against the elements of Boko Haram and Islamic States of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists.

He explained that the combined troops of 403 Special Forces Brigade Baga, Nigerien troops supported by Air Task Force of Operation Lafiya Dole had a fierce encounter with the terrorists in the area on Monday.

He said the terrorists suffered heavy casualties and an unconfirmed number escaped with gunshot wounds.

Some of the items recovered include; one Gun Truck, one Anti-Aircraft Gun and one Motorcycle.

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Other items recovered are one Light Machine Gun, one AK47 Rifle and magazine, 227 rounds of 12.7 mm ammunition and 10 rounds of 7.62 mm special ammunition.

There were no casualty or equipment losses by the military forces in the encounter.

Members of the public are once again requested to continue to cooperate and support the security forces with credible information that could aid and hasten the completion of the ongoing clearance operations, he said.

(NAN)
A case has been registered



here against a coronavirus-infected man who allegedly did not disclose that he had returned from Dubai and went on to organize a post-funeral ceremony after his mother's death.

Around 1,500 persons attended the customary feast organized by the accused on March 20, according to the police.

His careless behavior probably led to at least 11 other persons including his wife catching infection, a health official said on Tuesday.

The man, who worked as a waiter in Dubai, returned here on March 17 following his mother's death but did not tell the district authorities about his travel history amid the coronavirus outbreak, said a police official.

On March 20 he organized the customary 13th day post- funeral rituals and a feast for the community, said inspector Vinay Yadav of Civil Lines police station.

The accused violated the orders of district authorities that those who had returned from abroad must isolate themselves at home, said inspector Yadav.

Arond 1,500 persons attended the feast organized by the accused, he said.

Chief Medical and Health Officer of the district R C Bandil said that on March 27 the man and his wife turned up at the government hospital with COVID-19 symptoms, and tested positive for the disease.

On April 3, ten persons who had attended the feast were also found to have contracted the infection.

As of Monday, over 30,000 persons were quarantined at home in the district, Bandil said. Most of the persons who attended the feast hav been traced, he added.

A First Information Report was registered against him on Monday night under IPC sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), inspector Yadav said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are now starting their new lives as non-royals, with the couple immediately packing their bags from their quiet sanctuary in Canada to move to an A-list celebrity exclusive compound in Malibu.

While it may seem that the decision to move was Meghan's, as she is reportedly set to take on Hollywood and begin the lifestyle that she has always wanted, it was not hard for her to convince Prince Harry to live a celebrity life.

The Sun's source reported that the 35-year-old prince is reportedly "smitten" and "starstruck" over the whole thing.

Many commentators have questioned whether the Duke is cut out for the Hollywood celebrity lifestyle. But according to a former friend of the Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry has nothing to worry about.

"I think Harry will like the change of scenery and the kind of attention they will be getting," the said former friend shared.

Maybe Prince Harry had a change of heart, especially after telling everyone that he and his wife had to escape the royal spotlight back in January.

However, his dilemma would have been more sympathetic to many, had he not left the media hotspot of the U.K. and exchange it for Los Angeles. With that said, a lot argue that the real reason they left the royal family behind was not because of privacy or media but because of the celebrity lifestyle they both wanted.

The Duke of Sussex is not even called Prince Harry anymore, as he is now Hollywood Harry, according to CCN.

Reports of them moving have also been damaging to the couple because as they hide out in Los Angeles while freeloading on Prince Charles' millions of dollars, the British royal family is holding the fort back home.

Although several other reports said Prince Harry was concerned for his father, who was diagnosed with coronavirus in March, the Duke of Sussex did not return to Britain and instead hid behind closed doors as he and Meghan "take their much-need break."

Meghan's former unnamed friend told The Sun that she was not surprised that Meghan and Prince Harry sped up their move to Los Angeles instead of returning to the U.K. to join and help the royal family.

"They weren't even a consideration for her, it's been obvious from the start," said the source.

The said friend continued by saying Meghan's relationship with the royal family seemed to be dependent on her freedom to have a role "that she felt was big enough for her."

"She wanted it her way, and she wanted it quickly - she was never wanted to change the timeline for them," the source added/

The source furthered that stories of security issues, border closure, and taxes in Canada are just some convenient excuses of the couple in order to put their plan into action.

The release of Meghan's first project post-Megxit "Elephant" was also great timing.

The publication's source further detailed that the Duchess of Sussex was delighted to be able to persuade her husband to move their lives to her hometown at such a fast pace.

"Anyone who knows her knew that this is where it was headed as soon as she saw she wasn't happy with how things were in the UK."

Everything is negotiable for Meghan Markle, according to the source. When things are not in her favor, the former "Suits" star "is prepared to cut her losses."

READ MORE: Prince Harry Banning Meghan Markle From Doing THIS To The Royal Family
A young man, who pretends to be mad, was caught on the streets of Asaba in Nigeria when he was trying to change his clothes in an uncompleted building by people who knew him very well.



He was caught by his relatives who lived in Asaba, and he was asked to confess to people that he is not mad.



The man was identified as Benson John, who is from rivers state, had travelled to Asaba to pretend as a mad man before coming back to be rich.



According to the man, he went to do money rituals after he had suffered on the street for many years and the only thing the native doctor told him to do was to act like a mad man for five years before his ritual process can be completed and after then he will be a rich man.



The man said he decided to travel to delta state where he thought nobody will recognise him and was declared wanted by his people in rivers state after two years, according to the man he has served his punishment for three years now before he was seen by his relative in Asaba.



He said, he has been on the street of Asaba pretending to be mad eating from the waste bin and begging people for money, but he was never mad.

Source: browngh.com









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A statewide shutdown and stay at home orders during the coronavirus pandemic didnt keep a Lehigh County man from trying to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex, police said.

The 14-year-old girl was actually a Bethlehem police detective, and 23-year-old Anthony Burian-Miller was caught Monday trying to meet the girl for sex in a city shopping center, police said.

Burian-Miller, of the 900 block of Cold Spring Road in Lower Macungie Township, was arraigned Monday afternoon on charges of unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of a cellphone.

He was released on $25,000 bail. Efforts to reach Burian-Miller were not successful.

Bethlehem police Det. Michael DiLuzio said he posed as a 14-year-old girl on Kik app and on April 1 answered Burian-Millers ad seeking fun because he allegedly caught his wife cheating on him.

During conversations over three days, DiLuzio repeatedly said he was 14 years old. Burian-Miller asked about the past sexual experiences of the girl, and if she was okay with their age difference, court records say.

At one point, Burian-Miller allegedly discussed getting the minor an Uber to bring her to his apartment because his car was in the shop.

Burian-Miller also repeatedly asked the girl if she was a police officer, and worried about getting caught, DiLuzio said.

On Monday, Burian-Miller discussed meeting with the girl, and asked if it would be okay if he had her lift her shirt when she got into his car to make sure she wasnt wearing a wire, court records say.

At about 1 p.m. Monday, Burian-Miller was parked near the agreed-upon meeting spot in the 2600 block of Easton Avenue in Bethlehem, police said.

Burian-Miller was arrested and, in an interview with police, reportedly admitted having the conversations with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl.

Burian-Miller told officers he drove to the shopping center to meet the girl, but only to tell her not to meet men online, police said. Officers said they found a seemingly new wrapped condom in his wallet.

He stated multiple times that he had messed up and that he knew what he did was wrong," the affidavit says.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email her. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A father who raped his daughter and threatened to kill her if she told anyone will be let out of jail early after his sentence was deemed too harsh.

The man from Bundaberg, in south-east Queensland, was jailed for nine years in 2019 after sexually abusing his daughter from age four to 11 between 2005 and 2011.

In 2018, he pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and five counts of indecent treatment of a child and was eligible for parole in March, 2023.

But he will now be eligible for parole in September, 2021 after a court ruled the judge should have taken into account the time he had already served for an armed robbery sentence, News Mail reported.

A Queensland father will be released from jail early after appealing his sentence for sexually abusing his daughter between 2005 and 2011 (file image)

The first instant of abuse came in 2005 when the father tried to digitally rape his daughter in the bathroom - threatening to kill her if she told anyone.

He then forced her to perform oral sex on him in the bathroom when she was nine, before raping her as she cried out in pain.

In 2017, the young girl secretly recorded her father admitting the abuse where he told her he felt guilty and had been abused himself.

He was sentenced to four years prison for armed robbery but was released on parole in 2017 after serving two years.

His sentence for abusing his daughter was to be served at the same time as the remainder of his armed robbery sentence.

The father appealed the sentence to the Queensland Court of Appeal because the judge hadn't considered the time already served.

The father will be now be eligible for parole on September 16, 2021.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday said that the model adopted by his government in checking the spread of coronavirus in Bhilwara, has set standard in fight against the pandemic.

He added that the first case in Rajasthan was reported on March 2, 2020, and strict measures were taken in the state on the very first day.

The Bhilwara border was sealed on March 19 after we found a doctor being corona positive and it is becoming a learning ground now. In Bhilwara, 3,000 teams were formed that reached 32 lakh people. We reached nearly six lakh homes and screening was done, Gehlot said while addressing a press conference through video conferencing.

The chief minister further said that the same Bhilwara model will be replicated across the state, including in Ramganj in state capital Jaipur, which has become the new Covid-19 hot spot.

A 45-year-old man from Ramganj, who returned from Oman via Dubai on March 13, has become a superspreader, transmitting the virus to at least 19 family members and sparking fears of community transmission.

Gehlot also said that Rajasthan will start rapid testing of coronavirus in the state within a week as his government has ordered 10 lakh testing kits from China which will be received soon.

Bhilwara reported a surge in Covid-19 cases after two doctors got infected with Sars-Cov-2 virus, which later spread to another 25 patients, necessitating a massive screening exercise of the districts entire 28 lakh population and curfew in the district.

With 27 cases, the district was considered the worst hit in Rajasthan and for a few days, at the national level too.

Bhilwara, about 250 km south of Jaipur with about 48 per cent of the districts total 2.8 million people mainly engaged in cultivation.
New Delhi, April 7 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine a PIL seeking uninterrupted food supply and medical treatment for animals in zoos amid the three-week nationwide lockdown.

A bench of Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice L. Nageswara Rao asked Sangeeta Dogra, petitioner-in-person, to amend the petition including the prayer for medical check-up and treatment of animals in zoo, and posted the matter for further hearing on April 13.

Dogra cited a recent incident in New York, where a four-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia in Bronx Zoo contracted the deadly coronavirus from a caretaker, who was asymptomatic at the time.

She insisted before the court that Delhi Zoo, under Essential Services Act, has ensured its food supply for the animals during lockdown, but similar information has not been shared with other zoos in the country. Dogra contended food for the animals in the zoos is sourced through slaughter houses. Since there are no slaughter houses on the premises of the zoo, then it is extremely difficult to get from outside during the lockdown.

Dogra informed the apex court that Hyderabad Zoo had also sent samples of animals for testing of coronavirus on March 5. This signifies that in-house doctors are required for treatment of the animals. On this argument, the bench replied that as per its information animals don't die of coronavirus. The petitioner argued that they are capable of getting virus from the humans and transmitting them.
Chennai, April 7 : The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund (CMPRF) has received about Rs 79.74 crore as donations from the public and organisations towards coronavirus relief works, said the state government.

In a statement issued here, the government said a sum of Rs 79.74 crore has been received till April 6, after Chief Minsiter K. Palaniswami appealed to the people, corporates and others to contribute generously for coronavirus relief measures.
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Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung  Tue, April 7, 2020 14:59 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd045bdd 1 National COVID-19-West-Java,COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,coronavirus,West-Java,West-Java-Governor-Ridwan-Kamil Free

The West Java administration is set to implement a curfew across 27 cities and regencies in the country's most populous province to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease.

The implementation of the curfew aims to further limit the movement of people during the public health crisis, West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said.

"The [West Java] Police chief has agreed to this plan as long as the [local administrations] coordinate with police units," Ridwan said in a written statement on Monday.

The governor had ordered local authorities in the province's cities and regencies to immediately plan the curfew, which he said was part of efforts to push residents to be more disciplined as West Java might soon submit a request to the central government to implement large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) in the region.

Ridwan said he had yet to submit the request as the provincial administration was awaiting comprehensive data and mapping on the coronavirus spread in its 27 cities and regencies, including the results of massive COVID-19 rapid testing administered in West Java.

It will be difficult to support our PSBB request if we are not in possession of comprehensive data, he said.

I urge regional heads to check with their respective health agencies and report the [rapid test] results to the provincial administration as soon as possible. The faster we receive the data, the easier it will be to map the COVID-19 spread."

Read also: COVID-19: Health Ministry grants Jakartas request to impose large-scale social restrictions

Once submitted and approved, the PSBB implementation in West Java will particularly focus on areas that share borders with Jakarta -- the national epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak -- so that policies to curb the disease transmission can be synchronized, he said.

We have to be on a similar wavelength with the Jakarta administration on this matter," he added

Authorities in West Java -- the second hardest-hit by coronavirus in the country after Jakarta -- recently distributed 61,000 rapid COVID-19 testing kits to 27 cities and regencies. At least 15,000 people in the region have taken the rapid test.

So far, 677 individuals have tested positive for the disease [from the rapid test]," Ridwan said last week. "This is a huge number."

Out of the 677 individuals that tested positive for COVID-19 in the rapid tests, 310 of them were students at the Police Officer Candidate School in Sukabumi, while 266 of them attended a religious seminar held by Bethel Church of Indonesia in Lembang.

The rapid tests will be followed by swab tests using polymerase chain reaction kits for those that tested positive. As of Tuesday, the massive rapid testing sessions are still ongoing.

According to the official count, West Java has recorded 263 infections, with 29 fatalities as of Monday afternoon, while its neighboring province and capital Jakarta has recorded 1,232 cases and 99 deaths. (dpk)
NEW DELHI: The Centre is said to be considering requests from several state governments to extend the 21-day lockdown, which is set to end on April 14 amid fears that not doing so will lead to a rapid escalation in coronavirus cases across the country. Highly placed government sources on Tuesday (April 7, 2020) claimed that in view of the request made by several state governments, the Centre is mulling to either extend the lockdown or only a partial lifting of restrictions.

The state governments are of the view that an extension or lifting of restrictions in a phased manner is the only way to avoid a coronavirus epidemic that will otherwise be difficult to tackle.

India has so far escaped a big surge in cases after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked its 1.3 billion people to stay indoors in the world`s biggest lockdown last month that authorities have enforced tightly. However, shuttering down the USD 2.9 trillion economy has left millions of daily wage workers and labourers without work and forced them to flee to their homes in the countryside for food and shelter.

The chief ministers of the states of Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Assam, UP, Madhya Pradesh etc, which had been hit by a rash of cases linked to Islamic religious outfit Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi, had called for extending the lockdown.

Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao had on Monday said that the country could take the hit to the economy and that it was more important to save lives. "I am for the lockdown of the country furthermore after April 15. Because we can recover from the economic problem. But we cannot get back lives," K. Chandrasekhar Rao told reporters.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also favoured a phased withdrawal of the lockdown, saying it cannot be done immediately after the 21-day period ends. Addressing a press conference through video conferencing, he said saving lives is important and no step should be taken that would endanger lives.

"We cannot withdraw lockdown immediately. It has to be done in a phased manner, that is what I feel," Gehlot said when asked about the right time is to lift the countrywide lockdown over coronavirus. He said a decision on withdrawing the lockdown will, however, be taken after the recommendations of a task force set up in this regard are received.

MP CM Shivraj Singh too endorsed the view on extending lockdown. India has 4,421 coronavirus cases and 115 deaths, comparatively less than some countries such as the United States where fatalities from the respiratory disease has topped 10,000.

PM Modi, who has faced criticism for ordering the lockdown with barely four hours' notice. is due to make a decision this week about whether to extend it. The leaders of the eastern states of Assam and Chhattisgarh said that they would like to keep the state borders closed or allow only restricted entry while they dealt with the infections.

"As and when the lockdown is withdrawn, we have to regulate those wanting to come to Assam," said Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Meanwhile, Union Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday chaired a Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting to decide the plan of action by the Centre on COVID-19.

The meeting took place at Singh`s residence. However, there was no decision taken on whether to end the lockdown on April 14 or extend it, in the meeting, the sources said. At the moment, the Centre seems to be weighing in two options - loss of livelihood versus a loss of life. However, any decision in this regard will come after PM Modi`s meeting with floor leaders and Chief Ministers where a common plan on lockdown is to be discussed.

Discussion on availability and smooth passage of essential supplies and particularly to Corona hotspots were discussed in the meeting as well, the informed sources said.

The meeting was attended by Home Minister Amit Shah, I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan among others.
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham is departing her post without ever having briefed the press corps  and will return to a key role in the office of First Lady Melania Trump.

She will be replaced by Kayleigh McEnany, a Trump loyalist who has vigorously defended the president at his campaign rallies and in TV interviews. It was unclear Tuesday whether McEnany would resume the daily press briefings that were once a mainstay of the high-profile press secretary position.

Grisham will give up her role to serve as the first lady's chief of staff, days after it was revealed that new White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows had begun discussing her possible replacement and plotting a shakeup.

Kayleigh McEnany will be named White House press secretary, after serving as spokeswoman for the Trump presidential campaign

McEnany was already drawing fire online Tuesday as word spread of her appointment for comments she made in a televised Fox News interview where she lavished praise on her boss and said the coronavirus would not 'come here.'

'This president will always put American first,' McEnany said in comments posted by CNN. She added: 'We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here ... and isn't it refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama,' McEnany told Fox interviewer Trish Regan, who lost her position after issuing an on-air coronavirus tirade.

The Feb. 25th comments did not accurately predict what transpired. On Tuesday, there were nearly 400,000 U.S. cases, with more more than 11,000 dead of the virus.

Grisham took over as White House press secretary last summer, but never briefed reporters from the podium of the briefing room. In recent weeks, President Trump has been personally briefing the press on the latest developments in the coronavirus response. Trump held court for two hours on Monday, as U.S. deaths in the outbreak passed 10,000.

The first lady's office confirmed Grisham's switch in a statement.

'I am excited to welcome Stephanie back to the team in this new role,' said Melania Trump in her statement. 'She has been a mainstay and true leader in the Administration from even before day one, and I know she will excel as Chief of Staff.'

'If true, how ironic that the press secretary would hear about being replaced in the press,' said White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, in a statement about new chief of staff Mark Meadows discussing her possible replacement

Trump thanked outgoing chief of staff Lindsay Reynolds, and said Grisham would assume her new role 'effective immediately.'

'I continue to be honored to serve both the President and First Lady in the Administration,' said Grisham. She said she would stay in the west wing 'to help with a smooth transition for as long as needed.'

Donald Trump's new communications team Kayleigh McEnany - press secretary McEnany has been a vocal defender of Donald Trump's at his campaign rallies. Also focused on getting out Trump's message through TV hits around the country. Kayleigh McEnany She holds a Harvard Law degree and previously served as press secretary for the Republican National Committee. It was not immediately clear if she would resume the practice of press briefings by the press secretary. She is married to Sean Patrick Gilmartin, 29, a Major League Baseball relief pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays. He also pitched for the Mets and the Orioles. Alyssa Farah - director of strategic communications Farah is a former aide to Vice President Mike Pence who is a spokeswoman at the Pentagon. She previously worked for Meadows as communications aide to the former House Freedom Caucus chair. She had an $11,000 tax lien placed on her Washington, D.C. home in 2017, according to records. Alyssa Farah Stephanie Grisham - chief of staff to First Lady Melania Trump Grisham served as press secretary for nine months. She did not hold a White House press briefing, although she sat for numerous interviews on Fox News and other conservative outlets. She previously worked closely with the first lady as her press secretary. She traveled extensively with Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. Stephanie Grisham Advertisement

CNN was the first to report Grisham's new role. The move is part of a broader communications shakeup.

Additionally, Pentagon spokeswoman Alysa Farrah will serve in Grisham's other role: as director of strategic communications.

Meadows is also bringing on Ben Williams, his chief of staff from his congressional office to the communications team, to be senior adviser for communications, according to the New York Times.

White House deputy press secretaries Hogan Gidley and Judd Deere are expected to remain in their roles although more staff hires for the comms shop could be announced in the coming days.

The personnel moves come days after it was reported that Meadows had privately discussed the possibility of replacing Grisham  who was at home under self-quarantine at the time following her exposure to a Brazilian official at Mar-a-Lago March 7 who later tested positive for the coronavirus.

A day earlier, President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that Meadows would be his new chief of staff, replacing Mick Mulvaney.

Grisham has been criticized for failing to hold a single press briefing during her tenure, even while conducting multiple TV interviews with Fox News and conservative outlets.

She took over after predecessor Sarah Sanders had virtually ended the White House briefing, a Washington ritual that forces the White House to confront a range of questions about political and policy decisions.

Grisham has countered that President Trump has made himself accessible to media in other ways. As the coronavirus outbreak has begun to hit in full force, Trump has taken over daily briefings at the White House along with the coronavirus task force.

The president seems to embrace the responsibility, holding a session that exceeded two hours Tuesday, and has bragged online about how many people are watching.

Farah, 30, was communications director in Meadows' office when he was an influential conservative voice and head of the House Freedom Caucus. She also served as a spokesperson for Vice President Mike Pence.

McEnany served as Trump campaign secretary but garnered the presidents attention during the 2016 campaign, when she was a vocal supporter of his campaign during her frequent cable news appearances as a political commentator. She was given the job of Republican National Committee press secretary after Trump won the White House and later moved to his re-election campaign.

Grisham, 43, bonded with Trump as a member of his small campaign staff, then served as deputy to press secretary Sean Spicer before becoming spokeswoman for First Lady Melania Trump.

Meadows has spoken about bringing on Pentagon spokeswoman Alyssa Farah

Meadows gave up his North Carolina congressional seat to serve as Trump's fourth chief of staff

Farah became Pentagon press secretary after holding the same position for Vice President Mike Pence

President Trump has gone for four chiefs of staff and three press secretaries

Alyssa Farah, Department of Defense Press Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Media Affairs, poses for her official portrait in the Army portrait studio at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., Sept., 30, 2019

In the East Wing, Grisham will replace Lindsay Reynolds, who was named Melanias chief of staff in February 2017, shortly after President Trump was sworn into office.

Grisham and Reynolds hate each other, a source familiar with the East Wing told DailyMail.com. The person also noted Reynolds fights with everyone although tensions between staff in the East Wing and staff in the West Wing are a common feature in both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Reynolds was one of the few White House staffers with previous experience in the building. She was associate director of the White House Visitors Office under President George W. Bush.

And she is the daughter-in-law Mercer Reynolds, a big time Republican fundraiser. She was an elementary school teacher before she joined the Bush administration and ran an event planning business before coming to the Trump White House.

Reynolds family  including her husband and three children  stayed in Ohio while she worked for the first lady. Reynolds commuted back-and-forth from Cincinnati, balancing her government work with her family life.

Lindsay did a great job helping Mrs. Trump get settled in, said Anita McBride, who was chief of staff to Laura Bush and knew Reynolds in that administration.

She has been there before, McBride told DailyMail.com, adding she knew her way around the White House.

Grisham never severed her ties to the East Wing, serving as the first ladys spokesperson in addition to her West Wing roles.

And, despite her move across the building from her spacious East Wing office to the high-profile press secretarys office, which is just down the hall from the Oval Office, Grisham and Melania Trump stayed close, speaking to one another frequently.

Grisham joined the Trump team during the 2016 campaign, when she served as press wrangler for Donald Trump.

That experience could come in hand as the first lady has vowed to campaign for her husband in his bid for re-election. She was scheduled to do fundraisers in Beverly Hills, California, and at the Winter White House in Mar-a-Lago before the coronavirus outbreak halted travel.

Melania Trump was not well served during the 2016 race, when she drew fire for giving a speech at the Republican National Convention that drew from an earlier speech given by Michelle Obama. A staffer took the blame and apologized.
According to the embassy, a group of five Vietnamese nationals from Burkina Faso have been trying to find a way home for more than two weeks after getting on board an Ethiopia Airlines flight on March 21.

They transited Ethiopia and arrived at Bangkoks Survanabhumi International Airport in Thailand on March 25, where they were scheduled to catch a connecting flight to Hanoi the same day. However, the group missed it and could not get another flight home because none was available.

They have been repeatedly refused entry by Thai authority for not being able to present evidence of negative testing for the SARS-CoV-2 that cause COVID-19 as well as a health insurance covering at least US$100,000.

The situation has become worse after Thailand declared a state of emergency on March 26 to contain the spread of the virus, introducing more rigorous restrictions including the closing of all border crossings and ban of entry of all foreigners.

The Vietnamese embassy has been actively working with Thai authorities to seek a proper solution for the stranded people. It has provided them with food and other necessities and helped them file a request to Thai authorities requiring not to be sent back to Ethiopia.

On April 5, many Vietnamese expats in Thailand donated food and necessary supplies to these people in response to the call of the embassy.

The embassy advised Vietnamese citizens worldwide to not select Thailand as a transit destination to avoid such situation and recommended Vietnamese in Thailand to strictly comply with local preventive measures against the widely-spreading disease.
RESTON, Va., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE:LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, has been awarded a new task order by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to enhance, upgrade, and maintain the agency's e-Services and Integrated Customer Communications Environment (ICCE) platforms. The single award, hybrid firm-fixed price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract has a six-month base period of performance and four one-year option years with a total value of approximately $69 million, if all options are exercised. Work will primarily be performed at IRS locations in Austin and Dallas, Texas, New Carrollton, Md., and Vienna, Va.

Under the task order, Leidos will provide software programming and updates to the agency's e-Services suite of software applications supporting tax practitioners and third parties doing business electronically with the IRS. Leidos will also support the software development, enhancement, and operation of ICCE, a suite of phone and web-based applications developed for taxpayers, facilitating responses to their questions using automated services. Both platforms are essential to creating modernized services that reduce cost for the IRS and facilitate secure and timely processing for taxpayers. Additionally, Leidos will collaborate with the IRS to improve its third party registration system, external facing APIs, and data sharing with federal agencies to help support future opportunities in-line with IRS' business strategy.

"We are proud to support the IRS' improvement in the tax administration process," said Art Ibers, senior vice president and manager of the Exploration and Mission Support operation at Leidos. "Our expertise in software programming and development will help enhance system functionality, increase system up-time and reduce costs for our customer, while supporting the agency's critical initiatives."

About Leidos

Leidos is a Fortune 500 information technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company's 36,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $11.09 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2020. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.



Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended January 3, 2020, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.

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Workers go about their duties at a section of the Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province, on Feb. 18, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Hospital Construction Workers in Virus Epicenter Speak Out Against Mistreatment

When touting the Chinese regimes response to the current epidemic, Chinese state media often mention the rapid construction of two field hospitals in the central city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.

In late January, the Wuhan municipal government announced the construction of two field hospitals, Leishenshan and Huoshenshan, in order to handle the large number of local patients infected with CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. The two hospitals began taking in patients in early February.

But behind the propaganda, Chinese construction workers for the two hospitals shared their experiences of being exploited and suppressed by local authorities.

In an article published on April 6, Radio Free Asia (RFA) spoke to two workers who took part in the construction of one of the field hospitals, Leishenshan. The workers spoke of their meager payment for the construction work and how they were silenced by local authorities when they tried to speak up about their mistreatment.

For the past two days, [Chinas state broadcaster] CCTV was running stories [of field hospital construction workers]  But the two interviewees were fake. They did not represent us, how we have been unfairly treated, Mr. Zhu, from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, told RFA.

Zhu said many of his fellow workers petitioned authorities for proper compensation, but local police clashed with them. Local police took away construction workers who were in the fight and locked them up for a few hours, he said.

We tried to petition our cases to the municipal government. We got close to the front doors of the government building, but police officers beat us up with batons and electric batons, Zhu explained.

Zhu said the foreman who recruited him, Mr. Xiao, told him that workers like him were paid about 500 to 800 yuan (about $70 to $113) for the construction job. However, Xiao said that the labor dispatch company he worked for earned 1,000 yuan (about $140) commission from each worker.

Laborers for this project were hired by third-party contractors.

Zhu explained that he would have a hard time finding work in his native Shenzhen, as he just worked in Wuhan. Many local communities have barred entry to people who recently traveled to Wuhan, fearing that they have the virus and would spread it.

Another construction worker and Hubei resident, Mr. Chen, told RFA that he and several workers were working in Guangdong province when they saw a job recruitment notice for building Wuhans field hospitals in mid-February.

After 10 days of construction work for Leishenshan, Chen said he and his fellow workers got a total payment of roughly 5,000 yuan (about $706).

Chen complained that they were placed under quarantine for the duration of constructionfor over a monthduring which they could not leave their temporary shelters. They were only allowed to go to the construction site for work.

Chen said they petitioned their mistreatment to Wuhan authorities and China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Corporation, a state-run company tasked with building the two field hospitals, but neither party responded to their cases.

After their petition, they were given temporary jobs at other construction sites undertaken by the corporation, said Chen.

Eventually, Chen said he saw the payroll sheets for the workers at Leishenshan, which clearly stated that they were supposed to earn $2,700 yuan (about $140) daily. Chen said he had no idea what had happened to the money they were supposed to receive.

RFA, citing an unnamed source, said that local police had visited the temporary shelters for the workers, and told them not to speak to foreign journalists.
Isolation and distancing is the order of the hour. The tension remains as many of us wonder if weve acted fast enough to prevent the tsunami of cases seen in other countries. Yet in the midst of the rapid announcements and measures there is an isolated pocket of our lives, home.

Order and Chaos

Its a place of control in a chaotic situation. Im not new to working from home but never before has structure been more important for me. Organising and ordering are how Ive been building a bulwark against the turbulence beyond my walls.

Physical

Its an ongoing process but my abode has never been so tidy. The clutter is being sorted and either belongs somewhere or is being disposed of. belongings are being ordered and surfaces cleaned. Perhaps its procrastination, but there is also a catharsis to the act of categorising and sweeping my space into line.

Mental

Discipline is the foundation for my days and the schedule, my tool to build my palisade. I work, I workout, more work, food, then work until its time to cook, relax and sleep. I enjoy the focus, but it also keeps me distracted from looking over the parapet. I find it easy to get drawn into endless reading and speculation over this novel virus, COVID-19. But I dont help anyone by engaging in fruitless speculation and so I protect my concentration with a scaffolding of habit.

Spiritual

Have I built an extra barricade, somewhere I did not intend? Wisdom says that our isolation is our best defence for us and our neighbours. Our own care is vitally important in this time. But once again Ive been leaning on my own capacities. This isnt the world I started the year in but how can I hope to continue as a Christian in this time without a habit of prayer and reading the Bible!

Humble

I threw myself into the challenge of adapting my life to the wild reality that has overcome us. With strength and discipline I tried to tame the challenging times ahead. But I know so little of what is on the horizon of tomorrow. It is foolish to think that I will be able to hold myself up alone. Godly wisdom, in this day, is to build on the grace of him who has a home prepared for us, free from tears and sickness. Only then can I hope to truly be anchored.

Readiness

Exercising social distancing is a critical act to show love to those around me. But I need to remind myself that the way to maintain that is to construct my days on a foundation of the Gospel, not on my own strength. That way when we emerge, having weathered this storm, I can be spiritually well and ready to help my community with love and action.
In Mali, unidentified gunmen killed 25 soldiers and wounded six others in an attack in the Gao region on Monday, army spokesman Diarran Kone told local media.

Investigations are still ongoing on the ground, the official said.

Northern Mali is under siege from armed jihadist groups with links to Islamic State and al Qaeda. Since 2012, militants have carried out violent attacks in northern and central Mali, killing thousands of soldiers and civilians.

Last year, at least 456 civilians were killed and hundreds more wounded in central Mali alone, according to Human Rights Watch.

The bloodshed has worsened despite the presence of more than 11,000 UN peacekeepers in Mali and around 5,000 French troops across the region.

Malis government said Sunday that militants killed 37 people last month in violent attacks on communities in the Bandiagara and Bankass areas of the central Mopti region.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said in February that his government was seeking talks with militant groups in an effort to end an insurgency that has engulfed the country.

However, in a statement released last month, al Qaeda-linked Jamaa Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) said, there can be no talking about negotiations under the shade of occupation, before the departure of all French forces and their followers from Mali.

JNIM also called on the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA to leave, saying it was echoing the demands of Malian protesters, some of whom have called on foreign troops to withdraw.
[April 06, 2020] iSIGN Media Announces the Signing of an Agreement with Corbiz Strategies to Introduce Safety Alert Messaging ("SAM") to Retirement Homes

TORONTO, April 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- iSIGN Media Solutions Inc. (iSIGN or Company) (TSX-V: ISD) (OTC: ISDSF), a leading provider of interactive mobile proximity marketing and public security alert solutions, today announced the signing on an agreement with Corbiz Strategies (Corbiz) to introduce iSIGNs Safety Alert Messaging (SAM) technology solution to retirement homes across Canada.

Corbiz is a Canadian company that specializes in the creation of business plans; marketing analysis and strategies, including brand identity, customer engagement, sales objectives and training. They have pre-existing business relationships with thousands of retirement homes across Canada and understand how SAM can be utilized as a communications tool both within the home for staff and residents and beyond the home for the families of residents. As does iSIGN, Corbiz sees SAM as tool that homes can use for sharing COVID-19 information quickly and also sees SAM as a method to send normal communications concerning home news, event announcements, etc. to residents both now and in the future. I consider SAM to be a perfect tool to provide a contact point for residents and their families, stated Ms. Kimberley Mills, Chief Executive Officer of Corbiz. I believe that as SAM can reduce administrative time currently being spent on communicating with the families of residents, that the conversion into paid subscription at the end of the no-charge period or even before is very probable. SAM is a technology based mobile messaging system that enables the controlled broadcast of critical information to registered recipients . Registered recipients can be as broad as the general public, or as narrow as salaried and contract employees and can be assigned into various sub-groups, allowing for messages to be directed only to specific groups or to everyone, depending on needs. Due to SAMs message received alert function, SAM messages are more obvious to recipients when they are received than simple texts and email. As SAM supports iOS and Android in-app messaging, the SAM app is available in both theGoogle Play and Apple app stores. Broadcasters log into the SAM dashboard via their web browser, create and then send messages to their registered recipients in a matter of minutes. Sent messages are stored within the dashboard for later reference as required until the sender deletes them.



Corbiz shares iSIGN desire to help combat the spread of COVID-19 and aid in the return of normalcy to everyday life and as such, is offering their services on a no-charge basis during this crisis situation. About iSIGN Media

iSIGN, a Canadian company based in Toronto (Richmond Hill), Ontario is a data-focused, software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that is a pioneering leader in the areas of location-based security alert messaging and proximity marketing utilizing Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity in complete privacy. Creators of the Smart suite of products, a patented interactive proximity marketing technology, iSIGN enables the delivery of messages to mobile devices in proximity, with real-time reporting and analytics on a variety of metrics. 2019 winner of Richmond Hills Innovator of the Year award. Partners include IBM, Keyser Retail Solutions, Baylor University, Verizon Wireless, TELUS and Mtrex Network Solutions. www.isignmedia.com

About Corbiz Strategies

Kimberley Mills is the CEO and Founder of Corbiz Strategies. With her extensive knowledge and over fifteen years of experience within the seniors housing industry, Kimberley brings her expertise and exuberance to every project in her care. She understands all facets of retirement living and consistently delivers creative marketing solutions and strategies. The Corbiz team is comprised of highly skilled professionals each with unique skill sets. www.corbizstrategies.com Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may include certain forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations, which involve risks and uncertainties associated with iSIGN Medias business and the environment in which the business operates. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking, including those identified by the expressions anticipate, believe, plan, estimate, expect, intend and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect iSIGN Medias current expectations regarding future results or events. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations. iSIGN Media assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements.  2020 iSIGN Media Solutions Inc. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. Company contacts: Alex Romanov

President

iSIGN Media Solutions Inc.

[email protected] Corbiz Strategies

Kimberley Mills

Chief Executive Officer

[email protected] Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor Its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the accuracy of this release.

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Former Ecuador president Rafael Correa was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for corruption during his 10-year term in office, the attorney general's office said on Tuesday.

Correa, who was president from 2007-17 but now lives in exile in Belgium, was one of 18 people convicted of bribery, the attorney general's office said on Twitter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
U.S. President Trump believes local oil production output cuts will happen automatically thanks to the nature of the free market, he told reporters this week.

I think the cuts are automatic if you are a believer in markets, Trump said at his daily coronavirus press briefing. He also added that the U.S. had not been officially asked to take part in any production cuts.

If they ask me, Ill make a decision, the U.S. President said.

Trumps remarks follow a meeting with U.S. oil producers last week, at which some observers believe a production cut was discussed. One Texas railroad commissioner has already suggested that the state cuts some production to weather the effect of the oil price crash. In contrast, oil companies have launched a lobbying campaign with the White House calling for protectionist measures against Saudi Arabia and Russia, including sanctions and import tariffs.

Meanwhile, Russia has signaled that it would only cut if the United States cuts, too. Saudi Arabia is also likely to be unwilling to go it alone this time. Whats more, from a global supply perspective, if the United States does not join the cuts, their effect on prices will be doubtful.

The U.S. remains the major global producer, still at 13.0 million [barrels per day] as of last week, one IHS Markit analyst told MarketWatch. The production numbers that the EIA puts out in its weekly petroleum status report are estimates, and production growth may have started to go down as producers idle rigs and cuts spending plans. However, the fact remains that the U.S. is the top oil producer, and if it does not adjust its output, Russias and Saudi Arabias willingness to curb production will make little sense for prices.

One could argue that Trumps call on OPEC and Russia to cut production goes counter to his belief in the free market, but it is also true that U.S. producers would be forced to cut output with or without an international agreement if their breakeven prices are higher than the price at which oil is actually trading.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
A teenage boy and a girl were found hanging from a tree here and it is suspected that they took the step as their families didn't approve of their relationship and they couldn't flee home due to the lockdown, police said on Tuesday.

The boy's family members, however, alleged that he was killed and then the body was hanged.

The 18-year-old boy and the 17-year-old girl were missing since Sunday night and they were found hanging from a neem tree in Malawian area here on Monday, ASP Rajesh Kumar said.

"As their relationship was not approved of by their families, it appears that they wanted to flee but couldn't get any vehicle due to lockdown. Due to this, they might have taken the extreme step," he said.

The bodies were handed over to their family members after post-mortem, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As part of its measures to contain the COVID-19 spread, Tyson Foods, Inc. TSN has suspended operations in its pork plant this week, at the Columbus Junction, Iowa. The company said that this step was taken as more than 24 cases of coronavirus were detected at the facility in Iowa. This is likely to affect the overall production at a juncture where consumer demand is increasing in grocery stores.



Nonetheless, management is making efforts to reduce the impact of supply-chain disruptions, given consumers soaring demand. In this regard, the company informed that it will shift the livestock supplies, which were to be delivered to the Columbus Junction plant, to some other pork plants in the area.



The temporary closure of the Iowa pork plant reflects Tyson Foods focus on ensuring safety, while the planned shift highlights its commitment toward minimizing business disruptions. Apart from this, the company is taking other measures to maintain safety and cleanliness amid the growing virus scare.









Incidentally, Tyson Foods is implementing high-level deep cleaning and sanitizing at its facilities, which may also require a day of suspension of production. Further, the company is planning to use infrared temperature scanners in some locations. Moreover, as social distancing is the key to contain COVID-19, Tyson Foods is creating dividers between workplaces with an aim to expand space between employees. Additionally, the company is working with federal agencies to obtain personal protective equipment like face covers for workers.



Apart from this, last week Tyson Foods said that it will pay around $60 million as bonuses to its 116,000 frontline employees and Tyson truckers in the United States. The eligible candidates will receive a bonus of $500 during the first week of July, in addition to the other support announced by the company amid the pandemic. The companys thank you bonus is a response to workers commitment toward continued production to meet consumers demand for groceries in such challenging times.



Well, the fast-spreading coronavirus has not only spiked up the demand for food, but also for other essentials like toilet papers, disinfectants, masks, gloves, packaged water, infant supply medicines, and related staples. As a result of the burgeoning demand, retail behemoths like Walmart WMT, Costco COST, and Dollar Tree DLTR have to restock their shelves faster than usual.



Meanwhile, lets see how far the aforementioned efforts can help Tyson Foods amid the outbreak. Shares of this Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) company have lost 37% in the past three months compared with the industrys decline of 24%.



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WFH for Private offices in Delhi, restaurants & bars to be shut as Omicron-led to sudden rise in Covid cases

Lata Mangeshkar admitted to ICU in Mumbai Hospital after testing positive for Covid

With no COVID-19 case, Meghalaya to relax lockdown from 15 April

India

oi-PTI

Shillong, Apr 07: With no coronavirus cases, the Meghalaya government has decided to lift the lockdown in place to combat the COVID-19 pandemic on April 15.

"The cabinet also decided to extend the closure of schools till April 30. It directed the government officials, who were given a holiday during the lockdown, to resume work from April 15," read an official statement after a cabinet meet.

road construction work and allied activities sanctioned by the state government in the previous fiscal will begin on April 15.

Fake News Buster

Weekly markets and private transportation will be allowed to function from April 15, deputy chief minister Tynsong said.

Daily wagers will get Rs 700 per week under the Chief Minister's Relief Against Wage Loss scheme and the financial assistance will be transferred to the eligible beneficiary's account, he said.

Daily wagers registered under Building and Other Construction Workers Act, those holding MGNREGA job cards, casual and contractual wage workers in government and semi- government departments and farmers registered under 'PM-KISAN' are not entitled to receive the benefits of the scheme, Tynsong said.

Centre contemplates extension of lockdown, following request by states

The cabinet urged around 2,192 residents of Meghalaya, who are stranded in other states due to the lockdown, not to return home till the April end.

The state has not reported any coronavirus infection yet.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, April 7, 2020, 16:43 [IST]
1 of 2

Now Microsoft reveals UI features of its first foldable Android phone



Surface Duo is Microsofts first step into the Android hardware market and it is one of the most ambitious projects announced by Microsoft lately. For Java and Kotlin app developers, Microsoft has now shipped a new preview of its dual-screen layout control. This project has also revealed new control and UI elements of Microsofts Android experience. In the new developer documentation, Microsoft explained how Surface Duo will work with different screen orientations. The company also shared details of the new screen modes supported by its first Android phone.



Microsoft says Surface Duo supports Screen Helper that contains four functions to allow apps to recognize where the hinge is on the display. Surface Duo can run apps in both portrait and landscape orientation, so apps should be able to use entire screen estate if the device is used unfolded or if the user wants to.



Apps can also recognize the size of the two screens and span across two screens when initiated by the user. So as it turns out, apps will run on the Surface Duo in all possible layouts, including single-screen, both screens, and in portrait and or landscape mode with two different apps. Read More...


The statue of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, is seen inside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Feb. 12, 2009. (Karen Bleier/AFP via Getty Images)

Lincolns Example, and Trumps Battle With the CCP Virus

Commentary

In the midst of our national panic over the CCP virus, with a pair of doctors essentially running the country via daily press briefings from the West Wing, and the media sniping at President Donald Trumps every word and deed, it might be wise to step back and see how another commander in chief handled the relationship between the press and the White House during the greatest crisis this country has faced: the U.S. Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, just as the tectonic forces that had been pulling the country apart for decades finally ripped it in half. The slaveholding South, resolutely Democratic, opposed him immediately.

Little more than a month after his election, South Carolina seceded from the Union, followed in quick succession by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, all before Lincoln had even taken the oath of office on March 4, 1861. A month later, the Confederacy fired on Fort Sumter and the war was on.

Thrust into a position no American president had ever experienced before, Lincoln determined at once that there could be no compromise with the Souththat either the nation would survive by force of arms or it would perish.

Although it wasnt until March 1864 that he found the right general to prosecute the war with the same zest for total victoryUlysses S. GrantLincolns determination to win by any means necessary saw the nation through. That determination included the suspension of civil liberties, the muzzling of the press, and a blithe disregard for the judiciary that would horrify Americans today.

His actions were fully warranted. Washington sat mostly undefended, directly across the Potomac River from Virginia, the most important state of the Confederacy and the home of its capital, and was located on land ceded for the federal district by the slave state of Maryland.

Although Maryland never seceded, it actively hindered Union troop movements, and was rife with rebels, including John Wilkes Booth, who would later assassinate the president a week after the surrender at Appomattox. In response, Lincoln suspended the constitutional writ of habeas corpus without congressional approval, enabling military officials between Washington and Philadelphia to throw potential enemy agents into prison indefinitely and without trial.

When a man named John Merryman, who had been imprisoned on suspicion of sabotage in May 1861, petitioned for his day in court, the request was granted by Chief Justice Roger Taney, writing in his capacity as overseer of the U.S. District Court of Maryland. Lincolns action, said Taney (a racist Democrat, and the author of the infamous Dred Scott decision in 1857) was invalid.

Lincoln simply ignored the ruling, and later expanded his order to include the whole country, justifying the suspension with exigent circumstances. Hundreds were arrested, including a sitting congressman from Maryland named Henry May and former Ohio congressman Clement Vallandigham, a leader of the anti-war, peace Democrats known as Copperheads, after their resemblance to poisonous snakes. Vallandigham was tried by a military court for sedition and banished to the Confederacy on Lincolns orders.

The presidents actions were approved by Congress, ex post facto, in 1863.

Lincoln and the Press

But it was the behavior of the press that especially infuriated Lincoln, and he waged war on the media of his day with gusto. Pro-Democrat newspapers in the North denounced Lincoln as a tyrant, a despot, a fiend, and a monster for his abrogation of some civil liberties, and many openly advocated for a peace treaty with the Confederacy that would allow the South to maintain slavery.

But as Lincoln and Grant came to understand that the peculiar institution of slavery would have to be destroyed, and that what might have begun as a conflict over states rights had become a battle to free the slaves, their tolerance for dissent ran out.

In May 1864, Lincoln closed two New York City newspapers, the Journal of Commerce and the New York World, suspended their mailing privileges, and arrested their owners, for publishing a fake news story that he was about to draft 400,000 men into the Union Army. (Just the year before, New York had been rocked by the deadly Draft Riots, which had resulted in more than 100 deaths.)

Lincoln also seized the Independent Telegraph System, which had transmitted the reports. There were similar actions elsewhere; in Lincolns view, many papers had crossed the line between opposition and sedition.

For his part, Grant regarded reporters as little better than spies, revealing troop movements to the enemy, while his principal deputy, William T. Sherman, thought they should be shot.

If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast, observed Sherman.

President Donald Trump speaks during the daily briefing on the CCP virus, novel coronavirus, in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on April 6, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Trumps Battle

In the battle with the Chinese Communist Party virus, Trump has called himself a wartime president, and has even echoed Lincoln in characterizing the coronavirus as a great national trial. In response, the national media, which skews almost entirely Democrat, has treated him the same way the Copperhead press treated Lincoln, battering him daily with vituperation and invective that might make their 19th-century forbears blush.

No word or deed goes unexamined, nor hidden real motives not sought out. No charge is too slanderous, no ridicule underserved. Any change of mind or of plan or personnel in response to circumstances is instantly mocked and subjected to a generally specious fact check by members of the media whose sole frame of reference is partisan politics. Realizing that this is their last chance to bring him down before the election, the ladies and gentlemen of the press have carried water for the Chinese Communistseven to the point of admitting a correspondent from Hong Kongs Phoenix TV, a Chinese Communist independent propaganda outlet, to the April 6 press briefing.

Perhaps the White House Correspondents Association would better serve the country if the seats at the CCP virus briefings were filled by science and medical reporterswriters who can ask informed questions of the medical men and womeninstead of the usual nattering nabobs of negativism.

A preening political press corps that studiously ignores the incoherent gibberings of Joe Biden, their partys front-runner for the nomination, in an effort to aid him to defeat Trump can hardly be relied upon for an impartial consideration of the facts when it comes to the administration. Nor can they be counted on to ask non-medical questions that might actually matter, including: on what constitutional grounds has the First Amendments guarantees of the free exercise of religion and the freedom of assembly been summarily abrogated?

The answer to that will go a long way toward answering just how serious the pandemic is, under which circumstances the Constitution will be restored, and just how far Trump is prepared to go in his capacity as a wartime president. The dishonest Copperhead media might not like the answer, though; if the virus is as deadly as the president and other world leaders say it is, they may soon find themselves in the same predicament as the newsmen of Lincolns day: shut down for sedition. And they will have thoroughly earned it.

Michael Walsh is the author of The Devils Pleasure Palace and The Fiery Angel, both published by Encounter Books. His latest book, Last Stands, a cultural study of military history, will be published later this year by St. Martins Press. Follow him on Twitter @dkahanerules.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
by Phelim Kine - Undark Magazine

Doctors, nurses, and other health workers are the acknowledged heroes of the Covid-19 pandemic. So why do so many online commentators apparently want Dr. Anthony Fauci dead?

Fauci, the U.S. governments top medical voice on the pandemic and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, now requires a personal security detail due to a torrent of threats to his safety. The anonymous online sources of those threats absurdly label him a Trump opponent and characterize his public health recommendations to contain the novel coronavirus as inaccurate and reflective of a politicized agenda. These allegations have prompted a stream of bilious online invective against Fauci, with hashtags like #FauciFraud and #FireFauci.



Got questions or thoughts to share on Covid-19?

Email Undark at covid19@undark.org.

The online smears, threats, and disinformation against a public health official would be obscene under any circumstance  and they are especially so now, in light of the prudent, science-backed measures and precautions Fauci has championed to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. But these calumnies also underscore how health workers have become targets for people  official and unofficial, in the U.S. and worldwide  seeking to inhibit and undermine sound, evidence-based medicine that saves lives and alleviates suffering.

The earliest of these threats could be seen in the Chinese governments persecution of medical whistleblowers in the pandemics original epicenter in Wuhan city. They include Dr. Li Wenliang, whose December 30, 2019 warning to the public via social media of the severity and contagiousness of the novel coronavirus resulted in police detaining him and threatening him into silence.

Another Wuhan-based whistleblower currently under threat is Dr. Ai Fen. She publicly disclosed two weeks ago that government officials had silenced her and other doctors, preventing them from publicly disclosing the severity of the outbreak. Ai has gone missing and is assumed to have been detained by the authorities. Revelations this week that the Chinese government has deliberately misrepresented the severity of the outbreak and its death toll in China perpetuate an environment in which Chinese doctors will continue to have to choose between honoring their professional ethics and risking official reprisals for doing so.

Government threats against health workers urging sound, science-based medical approaches to addressing the pandemic arent limited to Chinese authoritarians. Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro has subjected his health minister, Dr. Luiz Henrique Mandetta, to withering criticism and threats of dismissal for questioning Bolsonaros unwillingness to adopt essential measures to mitigate the outbreak among Brazilians. Bolsonaro has sought to undermine Brazilian states lockdown measures designed to flatten the curve of infection by calling for Brazilians to return to work. Mandettas pleas that doing so would result in catastrophic loss of life from Covid-19  one that he warned would collapse the countrys health system by the end of April  prompted Bolsonaro to respond: Some will die. Im sorry. Thats life.

Other state leaders are demonstrating contempt for the expertise and lives of health workers by ignoring their pleas for a more robust state response to the worldwide shortages of medical personal protective equipment (PPE), such as N95 masks. An egregious example of this callous disregard came last week from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who called health workers who have contracted and even died from Covid-19 in the line of duty lucky because they died for the country.

Such politicized, anti-science backlash against health workers seeking to contain a deadly public health threat have disturbing and far-reaching implications  and they are everywhere. Even in the U.S., reports have surfaced of hospital staff being threatened with firing if they speak out publicly about the lack of resources  masks, gloves, and even tests for themselves and their growing rosters of patients. And its not just threats: As Bloomberg reported last week, the firings have already begun. Hospitals are muzzling nurses and other health care workers in an attempt to preserve their image, Ruth Schubert, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Nurses Association, told the news outlet. It is outrageous.

This is a time when we need our health workers to be fully engaged in their work and to have their fears and concerns given the highest consideration. The respective plights of Fauci and Chinas health care whistleblowers, and the steamrolling of health workers concerns in the Philippines and Brazil, can have a pernicious chilling effect on health workers entrusted to ensure public health best practices in addressing the pandemic.

We need to stand with the doctors, nurses, public health specialists, and others who are leading efforts to address the pandemic. And that requires ensuring that medical science, public health best practices  and the professional health workers who implement them  are supported, not threatened or silenced.

Phelim Kine oversees the research and investigations team at Physicians for Human Rights, a U.S.-based non-profit organization using medicine and science to document and advocate against mass atrocities and human rights violations globally.

This article was originally published on Undark. Read the original article.
Some of the world's largest oil producers will meet to discuss a historic production cut later this week, with energy analysts split over the prospect of non-allied partners, including the U.S., signing up to a deal immediately thereafter.

An emergency meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC partners, sometimes referred to as OPEC+, will be held on Thursday, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage global oil demand.

OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC leader Russia are seen as likely to agree to cut production in an effort to arrest an oversupplied market, but only on the condition that the U.S. joins a global pact, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources.

President Donald Trump said Monday that OPEC hadn't asked "that question" yet, but suggested U.S. oil production had already fallen anyway.

Crucially, G-20 energy ministers will convene for their own extraordinary meeting one day after OPEC+ producers sit down for talks.

International benchmark Brent crude traded at $33.87 a barrel Tuesday morning, up around 2.5%, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) stood at $27.04, more than 3.7% higher.

Brent fell over 3% in the previous session, with WTI down more than 7% amid fading hopes of an unprecedented supply cut. Both benchmarks have fallen more than 50% from their January peak.
Good Morning, welcome to Information Nigerias Newspaper headlines for today, 7th April 2020.

Here are the major headlines.

Chinese Doctors Would Be Quarantined On Arrival  Gbajabiamila

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila has revealed their resolve on how the Chinese doctors and nurses expected in the country will operate.

Coronavirus: Buhari Orders Distribution Of 150 Trucks Of Rice To Nigerians

Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning says President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered distribution of 150 trucks of rice seized by Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to the 36 states of the Federation.

COVID-19: 385 Americans Evacuated From Nigeria

The United States of America has evacuated 385 nationals from Nigeria over the Coronavirus pandemic.

Ganduje Extends Stay At Home For Civil Servants By Two Weeks

Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has announced the extension of the stay at home order for civil servants by another two weeks beginning from Tuesday, April 7, 2020.

Coronavirus: Kaduna Records Five New Cases, Traces 119 Contacts

The Kaduna State government says it has recorded a new case of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing the total number of confirmed positive cases in the state to five.

Coronavirus: 137 Canadian Nationals Flown Out Of Nigeria

According to reports, 137 nationals of Canada have been flown out of Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Monday.

Buhari Warns Against Social Media Addiction During Lockdown

Dr Nimota Buhari, Department of Behavioural Sciences, University of Ilorin (Unilorin), has warned Nigerian not to overexpose themselves to social media because of lockdown.

Coronavirus Is Blessing In Disguise  Anthony Okogie

Former Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos, Catholic Church, Anthony Okogie says Coronavirus outbreak in Nigeria is a blessing in disguise. According to Okogie, the pandemic has exposed Nigeria as a country where the quality of leadership is of low grade.

Niger Relaxes Curfew, Asks Civil Servants To Resume Work

Niger state government has asked the state civil servant to resume work and also announced a relaxation of the curfew imposed on the state as a measure against the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Lockdown: Reps Seek 2-Month Free Power Supply To Nigerians

The speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila has announced that the lower chamber is currently proposing a bill that would ensure Nigerians enjoy two months of free electricity as the country locks down over the novel coronavirus.
Photo: BIV

The B.C. Securities Commission has issued its first investor warning about a company being aggressively promoted by marketers for its purported COVID-19-related initiatives.

Revive Therapeutics Ltd. is a Toronto-based junior company trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange and a reporting issuer in B.C.

The BCSC warning on Monday follows a similar alert on April 2 from Germanys Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, as the company also trades on the Frankfurt Exchange.

The German regulator, according to the BCSC, is warning that buy recommendations are currently being made on a large scale in the form of market letters and emails.

The promotions in Germany make aggressive claims about Revives potential success in treating COVID-19 and the prospects of investors receiving large profits.

Prior to the pandemic, Revive purported to be a cannabis and psychedelic life sciences company researching liver disease treatments via CBD (marijuana).

In February, the company also announced ventures into magic mushrooms.

Revive traded for as low as three cents per share last December, and on March 18 the company, with shares trading at five cents, announced it closed a private placement of 33.5 million five-cent units for $1.67 million.

The company subsequently issued a number of COVID-19 news releases in an apparent shift of priorities following the rapid escalation of the pandemic in the West.

On March 20, the company announced it would be exploring the use of a little-known drug as a potential treatment of COVID-19. Then, on March 24, the company announced hiring infectious disease expert Dr. David Boulware from University of Minnesota to assist its future clinical programs. The next day another news release was issued announcing a partnership with Pharm-Olam LLC to manage the firms COVID-19 studies. On March 30, the companys COVID-19 research goals advanced further to, according to the news release, seek to advance its product pipeline to human clinical studies.

On April 2, shares more than doubled, to 12 cents per share, since its first COVID-19 news release on March 18.

Revives new CEO Michael Frank issued a new release April 3 distancing the company from the marketing and promotion companies making claims of profit.

Revive, stated Frank, has learnt that buy recommendations and letters are being circulated in Germany. The Company, along with the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority of Germany (BaFin) suggests shareholders fully understand these materials.

Frank stated, Revive has not paid any compensation for activity that addresses target prices.

Also on April 3, Frank issued another COVID-19 news release about the company filing a meeting request with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Revive did pay for some publicity in B.C. via stock tout Equity Guru, which did not speak to potential profits in its March 30 article but rather addressed much of the information provided in Revives recent COVID-19-related news releases.

Revives accumulated deficit is $10.9 million, as of June 30, 2019. While reporting no revenue, its past president Fabio Chianelli and CEO Craig Leon, who both left the company last December, earned $250,000 each in annual salary, according to the 2019 audited financial statement. The company spent $124,808 on research costs and $285,727 on professional fees last year.

The BCSC stated that investors should exercise caution when considering aggressive promotions as a basis for investment decisions as these promotions may make false claims of large profits. At this time, there is no vaccine or any health product that is authorized to treat or protect against COVID-19.
By AFP

SAO PAULO: The epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Latin America, Brazil's Sao Paulo state, has said it expects 111,000 deaths in the next six months, and extended its stay-at-home measures another two weeks.

The forecast -- an official projection, the state government said -- would appear to put Brazil on track to become one of the worst-hit countries in the world.

The global death toll from the virus currently stands at 74,807, according to Johns Hopkins University tracker.

CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES

Sao Paulo, the teeming industrial hub where the new coronavirus first appeared in Latin America, has confirmed 4,620 cases and 275 deaths so far.

Governor Joao Doria, who closed non-essential businesses on March 24 and advised people to stay home, said containment measures would be needed for at least two more weeks or the situation would get far worse.

"If we continue seeing people in the streets and gathering unnecessarily, we will go to more restrictive measures," he told a news conference.

Police are already authorised to break up crowds by force if necessary, he said.

ALSO READ | COVID-19: Brazil Prez Jair Bolsonaro defends move to open businesses even as cases surge

Without containment measures, Sao Paulo -- whose capital is the mega-city of the same name -- would register 270,000 deaths in the next six months, said the head of the state's public health research institute, Dimas Covas.

Brazil has been the Latin American country hit hardest by the new coronavirus, with 553 deaths and more than 12,000 confirmed cases so far.

Health experts warn under-testing means the real number is likely much higher.

Sao Paulo, a state whose population of 46 million makes it about the size as Spain, has seen more infections and deaths than any other.

The state is probably facing another 1,300 deaths this week, Covas said.

The governor has openly clashed over containment measures with far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who claims they are needlessly wrecking the economy over a disease he has compared to a "little flu."
HALIFAXNova Scotia has recorded its first death related to COVID-19  a woman in her 70s with underlying medical conditions.

Premier Stephen McNeil issued a statement saying the woman died Monday in a hospital in eastern Nova Scotia.

I had hoped this day would never come and Im deeply saddened that a Nova Scotia family is going through this, McNeil said. My deepest condolences go to the family and friends who are grieving today.

Nova Scotia was the last province in Canada to report its first cases of COVID-19. That was on March 15. The province declared a state of emergency a week later.

Since then, 310 cases of the viral illness have been confirmed, with 103 cases added since the weekend began. The confirmed cases  17 of which were added Tuesday  range in age from under 10 to over 90.

Eleven people with COVID-19 were being treated Tuesday in Nova Scotia hospitals.

This virus is dangerous, McNeil said. We have to work to slow it down to protect ourselves, those we love and everyone in our communities so that no other family has to suffer a loss like this.

While most cases in Nova Scotia have been connected to travel or a known case, the province has confirmed cases are now being linked to community spread.

A 78-year-old retired police officer in Newfoundland became the first person in Atlantic Canada to die from COVID-19 complications on March 30. The province recorded a second death  a 61-year-old woman  on Monday.

By Tuesday morning, there were more than 16,600 confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 in Canada. Quebec was reporting about 8,500 cases and Ontario had about 4,300.

Across Canada 323 deaths had been reported  more than three quarters of them in Ontario and Quebec.

Most people diagnosed with COVID-19 experience mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, and the majority of those who contract the virus recover. Some may have few, if any symptoms, or may not know theyre infected because symptoms of the novel coronavirus are similar to a cold or flu.

However, for some, including Canadians aged 65 and over, those with compromised immune systems and those with underlying conditions, the illness can be much more severe. Among the Canadians diagnosed with the illness so far, fewer than 10 per cent have required hospitalization, with fewer than five per cent of cases requiring admission to the ICU.

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Last month, when local residents were told to stay home in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus, emergency 911 calls for family violence increased 18 percent compared to the same time in 2019, officials said Tuesday.

In unincorporated areas of Bexar County, alleged family violence offenses  not calls  jumped 11 percent to 150 in March, up from 135 the year prior, the Bexar County Sheriffs Office reported.

This is obviously a big concern for us because domestic violence thrives on secrecy, police Lt. Jesse Salame said. The community needs to be aware that although we are limiting our interactions with friends, families and neighbors, we have to be mindful that these situations are occurring.

In San Antonio, the increase in 911 calls to SAPD is not necessarily indicative of more offenses. It could mean that more victims are aware help is available and seek it out.

Still, officials said the increase is worrisome, given that victims could be trapped at home with their abusers for extended periods of time.

Resources for family violence victims: Call 911 in the event of a life-threatening emergency. To make a safety plan or report suspected abuse, call the police department's non-emergency line at 210-207-SAPD. Seek shelter or other resources through Family Violence Prevention Services' 24-7 hotline at 210-733-8810. Submit an application for a protective order online at bexarcountyprotectiveorders.org or learn more about the process by calling the Bexar County Family Justice Center at 210-631-0100. See More Collapse

Victims of domestic violence, in normal life, are vulnerable and are isolated by their abusers, said Crystal Chandler, executive director of the Bexar County Family Justice Center. But there are moments when they have openings to seek out services, like when they are going to the grocery store. Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic, they are confined with their abuser and further isolated from the resources they previously relied on.

Marta Pelaez, president and CEO of Family Violence Prevention Services, the nonprofit that runs the local shelter for women and children, said the increase in 911 calls and offenses is especially troublesome because far fewer people have been calling the local family violence crisis hotline run by her nonprofit in recent weeks.

To me, that says the victims are there, they are being victimized, they are being hurt, but they are not seeking services, Pelaez said, referring to decrease in calls to the hotline. That is concerning.

Family violence continued to take its toll in Bexar County last month.

Jose Heriberto Mojica Hernandez Jr., 19, is facing charges of capital murder in the fatal stabbing of his mother, Raquel Hernandez Mojica, 41, and sister, Andrea Hernandez, 22.

Sherry Lee Marburger, 47, was arrested in connection with the death of her husband, Jon Marburger, 47, a U.S. Border Patrol agent. And Maria Delrosario Mendez, 52, recently was accused of fatally shooting her partner, Jose Tellez, 32.

To ward off more violence, officials Tuesday initiated other ways for victims of family violence to apply for a civil protective order online and by mail  that allow for social distancing.

Issued by a judge, a protective order requires an alleged abuser to stay away from the applicant or face criminal charges. Such an order can also can be granted in cases of human trafficking, sexual assault and stalking.

Victims of family violence should continue to reach out and seek these services, Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said. Victims shouldnt think they should endure abuse because they are safer at home. They need to reach out to the proper authorities, who can help them figure out the best plan moving forward.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg urged residents to contact family and friends and to report possible abuse by calling 911 or the citys nonemergency line.

We know that domestic violence and child abuse happen behind closed doors, and so we want to remind people to check on their loved ones during this time to ensure their mental well-being and physical safety, he said.

Advocates adapt

Chandler, who runs the Family Justice Center, the one-stop shop where victims of family violence can apply for protective orders, said she began to worry early on about the impact coronavirus could have on victims.

A former family violence judge and prosecutor, she is well-versed in the dynamics of family violence and how abusers can manipulate and control their victims.

COVID-19 is another tool for abusers to use to exercise power and control over victims, Chandler said. Weve already seen that happening. We had one survivor reach out for help after her abuser had thrown away all their groceries. Or weve heard stories of abusers telling children that Mommy is going to die from COVID-19.

Studies show that family violence is caused by an abusers deeply held beliefs of superiority and control. Perpetrators will often blame their actions on other people, alcohol or drug use, or other circumstances  like the stress of losing a job.

A person is an abuser because they use power and control to dominate a person, Chandler said. That is true regardless of any of those other triggers. Other issues, like drug use, can cause an already abusive person to have a shorter trigger, a shorter fuse, so to speak. But its not the cause of the violence.

In March, Chandler began meeting with her staff to figure out how the Family Justice Center could adapt to the coronavirus outbreak.

Chandler, through emergency funding allocated by the centers board, bought cell phones and laptops for her staff, allowing advocates and counselors to provide many services online, including counseling.

They also finalized the plan to offer protective order services online  something Chandler had wanted since she was appointed to oversee the Justice Center in January 2019.

We had started that process, but after seeing what was happening with the COVID-19 pandemic, I sped up that timeline, she said.

Starting in March, victims of family violence could apply for a protective order by downloading the application online and submitting it by email or mail. The form is available in English and Spanish.

And starting this week, they can use an all-digital application on the agencys website.

Once they apply for an order, staff from the District Attorneys Office contact the victim and other witnesses by phone.

People who meet the legal criteria for obtaining an order will be required to meet with staff in-person but only to sign a sworn affidavit. To obtain a protective order, applicants must prove that family violence occurred and is likely to occur in the future, according to Texas Family Code.

We dont want victims to fear getting help because of the virus, Chandler said. Its important for victims to know that we are still here. We havent gone away. We are still ready, willing and able to serve as a lifeline for you.

She said her staff is continuing to process applications for protective orders at the same rate as  if not higher than the same time last year.

Pelaez said her nonprofit continues to provide services as well, albeit remotely in some circumstances.

We are first responders, Pelaez said. Our moral compass that guides us is to save life, which makes us first responders. We will continue to provide the same level of services that we have always provided.

Emilie Eaton is a criminal justice reporter in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Emilie, become a subscriber. eeaton@express-news.net | Twitter: @emilieeaton
Former Deputy General Secretary for the National Democratic Congress (NDCs), Koku Anyidoho, has described calls for a total lockdown as empty propaganda and noise.



The NDC stalwart however stopped short of singling out anyone for criticism.



But it is on record that both the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the Ghana Medical Association and other notable individuals called and are still calling for a total lockdown of the country to contain the spread of the ravaging coronavirus pandemic in the country.



The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Friday, March 27 announced a partial lockdown of Greater Accra, Kasoa, Tema and Greater Kumasi as part of measures to contain the spread of the pandemic.



The measures took effect on Monday, 30th March, at 1 am. Though essential service providers and personnel are exempted from the restrictions on movement, some Ghanaians have taken advantage of that to step out of their homes and mingle with others, thus defeating the intended purpose the partial lockdown.



This has led to calls for government to completely lockdown the entire country or the epicentres of the COVID-19.



Reacting to such calls on Okay FMs Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Koku Anyidoho reiterated that they are simply borne out of panic, empty propaganda and noise without scientific data.



Something that he [the President] said yesterday that I was happy was that, going forward every decision that I will Take will be based on science, meaning based on data, research-driven and not empty propaganda and noise . . .



 . . those people who are calling for full lockdown, on what statistics are they basing their call on? Total lockdown based on what data? Because people are locked down in the USA and UK and so there should be lock down in Ghana? Do we have the same circumstance in those countries they are comparing us to? he quizzed.



To him, President Akufo-Addos comment on science shows that he is not making panic-driven decisions for the country in the midst of the novel coronavirus.



 . . So, this is not the time for the President to panic and so far he has proven that he is not going to panic . . . he has shown us the way forward and added that this week is crucial . . . he is not talking out of a vaccum.



People want the President to copy blindly to shut the country down out of fear and panic as it has happened in other countries. I support the President 100 per cent for not panicking and going for total lockdown; it is gradual process, he mentioned.





Listen to him in the video below





Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
[April 07, 2020] The Europe data center market by investment is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 1% during the period 2019-2025

NEW YORK, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --



COVID-19 is going to affect the data center market in Europe. A detailed analysis is included in the report.







Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05770928/?utm_source=PRN







The Europe data center market by investment is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 1% during the period 20192025.



The data center market in Europe has witnessed a significant boost due to the implementation of the general data protection regulations (GDPR) in May 2018. The adoption of GDPR has prompted several cloud service providers to establish data centers in Europe. AWS opened its cloud region in Sweden (2018). Microsoft opened its cloud region in Switzerland (2018), Germany (2019), and is planning to open a cloud region in Norway (2020). Microsoft is also expanding its presence with the construction of data center buildings in the Netherlands. Apart from investing in data centers across the Netherland, Belgium, and Ireland, Google has announced to open a cloud region in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2020. Hence, the implementation of data protection and privacy policies in Europe is expected to contribute to the global data center market growth.



Another major factor driving the growth is increased investment by colocation service providers in the Europe colocation market. In Western Europe, Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands continue to witness high investments, with Ireland's contribution likely to grow significantly in the next few years. In terms of colocation investments, Sweden dominates the market, followed by Norway. Therefore, the increased investment in the expansion and construction of data center projects across Europe is influencing the market.



The following factors are expected to contribute to the growth of the Europe data center market during the forecast period:

 Increase in Procurement of Renewable Energy

 District Heating Concept to Gain Traction Across Europe

 Increased use of Lithium-ion Batteries & Fuel Cells in Data Centers

 5G Installation increasing Edge Data Centers Deployment

 Increased Tax Incentives aiding Data Center Investments



The report considers the present scenario of the Europe data center market during the forecast period and its market dynamics for the forecast period 2020?2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The report profiles and examines leading companies and several other prominent companies operating in the market.



EUROPE DATA CENTER MARKET SEGMENTATION

This research report includes a detailed segmentation by IT infrastructure, electrical infrastructure, mechanical infrastructure, general construction, tier standards, and geography. The IT spend in Europe is growing significantly YOY with Western Europe and the Nordic region contributing to maximum share. The demand for servers is expected to grow during the forecast as service providers expand their presence globally. Cloud servers are likely to a popular choice among enterprises due to the growing demand for cloud platforms in the region. In terms of storage, enterprises have shown increased interest in the procurement of all-flash storage infrastructure. The adoption of NVMe flash storage in Germany is the highest in the region. In terms of networking, the region is mainly dominated by Ethernet switches, especially 25/40/100 switch ports. However, the adoption of 200/400 GbE ports will have a significant impact on data center interconnection solutions.

The growing adoption of cloud computing services in Nordic leads to an increased number of IT infrastructure components. Finland, Sweden, and Denmark are the leading contributors to cloud adoption with a minimum of 50% of enterprises opting for cloud computing services. The increased construction of facilities in the region is likely to be the major boost for the IT infrastructure segment and related sub-segments. Besides, the growing investment in data centers and the implementation of GDPR are fueling the growth of the server market over the past two years.



The European market has a strong potential for UPS systems due to the increasing greenfield construction, especially greater than 10 MW. The market is expected to witness high adoption of scalable UPS solutions. The UK, Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Ireland are the major power infrastructure revenue contributors. Several facilities have adopted flexible designs to facilitate the installation of dual power feeds to the facility, 2N redundant UPS and PDU systems, and N+1 generator systems. The use of water-based cooling includes water-treatment plants and systems that can aid the consumption of water up to 20%. However, the major challenge in the region is the non-availability of skilled workforce to maintain data center infrastrcture management. The hyperscale market growth is likely to fuel the procurement of 48V DC UPS systems. The facilities built in the Nordic region mostly procure >2 MW capacity generators. In Nordic, most facilities are powered through renewable energy sources with grid stability of over 95%, which reduces the procurement of redundant generator systems.







Several data centers in Western Europe support free cooling systems, which include adiabatic coolers, evaporative coolers, and free cooling chiller systems. The use of these systems will continue to grow among European countries because the region offers free cooling for a minimum of 5,000 hours per year. A few facilities also use chillers that facilitate cooling by using outside air and water-based cooling during summers. Most facilities in the Nordic region adopt free cooling techniques. The Nordic data center market facilitates free cooling for over 8,400 hours per year, and the use of free cooling systems will continue to add revenue during the forecast period. All Central and Eastern European countries support free cooling of over 6,000 hours annually. Many facilities have been equipped with in-direct evaporative/adiabatic coolers. A few facilities have also adopted water/glycol-based cooling systems along with highly efficient DX-based CRAC systems to cool facilities.



Western Europe is the most prominent data center construction market in Europe . Many facilities are designed and built to cover an area of over 100,000 square feet. The demand for data centers has increased revenue opportunities for multiple contractors and sub-contractors. Most enterprise data center operations include the procurement of modular infrastructure solutions from local service providers, thereby increasing the growth of the modular data center market. Jones Engineering, ISG, Red-Engineering, Kirby Group, and Mercury Engineering are key players providing construction services in the UK. In terms of physical security, several facilities are constructed with multi-level security. There is a growing demand for IP video surveillance systems in the market. Service providers are securing their facilities with 3-meter-high secure perimeter fencing with extensive CCTV control, vehicle lock to the site entrance, and biometric readers in data halls with 24/7-year on-site security. The growing hyperscale data center market will be a major boost to contractors and sub-contractors operating in the market. Most of these projects are built in collaboration with global data center construction contractors and sub-contractors.





Data center facilities are increasingly certified as Tier III by the Uptime Institute due to their high standard design and construction. Tie IV facilities are seen in Norway , the Netherland, Denmark , Ireland , Belgium , Italy , the Czech Republic , and Switzerland , which is contributing toward hyperscale investments. Tier IV data centers are equipped with at least 2N+1 redundancy in every infrastructure that makes the facility fault-tolerant, with some facilities having 2N+2 redundancy in few critical infrastructures such as UPS systems and PDUs. The contribution of hyperscale developers is aimed at making facilities that are fully fault-tolerant to provide customers with satisfaction while connecting with cloud-based services in the region.



Market Segmentation by IT Infrastructure

 Servers

 Storage

 Network

Market Segmentation by Electrical Infrastructure

 UPS Systems

 Generators

 Transfer Switches and Switchgears

 Rack PDU

 Other Electrical Infrastructures

Market Segmentation by Mechanical Infrastructure

 Cooling Systems

o CRAC & CRAH units

o Chiller Units

o Cooling Towers, Dry Coolers, & Condensers,

o Other Cooling Units

 Racks

 Others Mechanical Infrastructure

Market Segmentation by General Infrastructure

 Building Development

 Installation and Commissioning Services

 Building Designs

 Physical Security

 DCIM & BMS

Market Segmentation by Tier Standards

 Tier I &II

 Tier III

 Tier IV



INSIGHTS BY GEOGRAPHY

The implementation of GDPR has been a strong driver for the growth of data center market in Western Europe . Hyperscale operators are involved in the rapid expansion of the cloud platform across Western Europe . The market will witness the continuous adoption of cloud services among SMEs, with the increased interest shown toward the digital transformation of businesses by adopting solutions such as IoT, big data, and artificial intelligence. The demand for smart devices, coupled with growing internet penetration, will fuel the growth of data centers and corresponding infrastructure in the region.

The market in Nordic is a matured market with hyperscale operators and cloud service providers as a major contributor in terms of investment. Denmark received the highest investment from hyperscale operator (Facebook) and colocation service providers such as Digiplex, GlobalConnect, and Interxion. The data center market is dominated by Russia & Czech Republic , Austria , Poland , and Serbia. Colocation service providers are major investors. The Central European government is accelerating the adoption of cloud services and moving toward e-governance. In the Central and Eastern Europe data center market, Poland is in the process of developing e-governance, which aims to bring government services and information together on a single platform. Central and East Europe is fast emerging as a center of gaming developers and software development houses, with several companies emerging as the fastest-growing ones in the region.

Key Country

 Western Europe

o UK

o Germany

o France

o Netherlands

o Ireland

o Others

 Nordic Region

o Denmark

o Finland & Iceland

o Sweden

o Norway

 Central & Eastern Europe

o Russia & Czech Republic

o Poland & Austria

o Others

KEY VENDOR ANALYSIS

By IT infrastructure, the adoption of ODM-based infrastructure solutions is gaining traction among enterprise operators in the European region. The deployment of OCP-ready data centers by colocation operators has aided in this growth. In terms of electrical infrastructure, Eaton , Schneider Electric, Legrand, Vertiv, ABB, and Socomec have a strong presence in the market.

Prominent Data Center Critical (IT) Infrastructure Providers

 Arista

 Atos

 Broadcom

 Cisco

 Dell Technologies

 Extreme Networks

 Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE)

 Hitachi Vantara

 Huawei

 IBM

 Inspur Group

 Inventec

 Juniper

 Lenovo

 NEC

 NetApp

 Oracle

 Pure Storage

 Quanta Cloud Technology

 Super Micro Computer

 Wistron (Wiwynn)

Prominent Data Center Investors

 3data

 Apple

 Aruba S.P.A

 AWS (Amazon Web Services)

 Bahnhof

 Bulk Infrastructure

 Colt Data Centre Services (CCS)

 CyrusOne

 Digiplex

 Digital Realty

 Equinix

 Facebook

 Global Switch

 Google

 Interxion

 Microsoft

 Multigrid

 NDC Data Centers

 NTT Communications

 Scaleway Data Center

 STT GDC

Prominent Construction Services Providers

 AECOM

 Arup Group

 Bouygues

 Cap Ingelec

 DPR Construction

 Etix Everywhere

 Flex Enclosure

 Future-tech

 ISG

 Jones Engineering

 Kirby Group Engineering

 KMCS

 Linesight

 LUPP Group

 Mace Group

 Mercury Engineering

 M+W Group

 NCC

 Red Engineering

 Skanska

 SISK Group

 Structure Tone

 Winthrop

Prominent Infrastructure Providers

 ABB

 Airedale Air Conditioning

 Alfa Laval

 Asetek

 Bosch Security Systems

 Caterpillar

 Cummins

 Delta Group

 Eaton

 KINOLT (Euro-Diesel)

 Hitech Power Protection

 KOHLER (SDMO)

 Legrand

 Nlyte Software

 Piller Power Systems

 Riello UPS

 Rittal

 MTU On Site Energy (Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG)

 Schneider Electric

 Socomec Group

 STULZ

 Trane ( Ingersoll Rand )

 Vertiv

KEY MARKET INSIGHTS INCLUDE

The report provides the following insights into the Europe data center market during the forecast period 20202025.

1. It offers comprehensive insights into current industry trends, forecast, and growth drivers about the Europe data center market.

2. The report provides the latest analysis of share, growth drivers, challenges, and investment opportunities.

3. It offers a complete overview of segments and the regional outlook of the Europe data center market.

4. The study offers a detailed overview of the vendor landscape, competitive analysis, and key strategies to gain competitive advantage.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05770928/?utm_source=PRN



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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WASHINGTON - As he stares down a pandemic, economic collapse and a political crisis of his own, President Donald Trump thinks he may have found a silver bullet: hydroxychloroquine.

He hears about the controversial anti-malarial drug on the phone from friends in New York, including from his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. He hears about it in White House meetings from some advisers eager to please the boss, who share anecdotes of the drug working on coronavirus patients. And he hears about it on television, from physicians on Fox News Channel panels who tout its efficacy.

In fact, Fox host Laura Ingraham and two doctors who are regular on-air guests in what she dubs her "medical cabinet" visited the White House on Friday for a private meeting with Trump to talk up the drug, according to two White House officials and another person familiar with the meeting.

Never mind that hydroxychloroquine is an unproven treatment for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and is still in the testing stages, or that it has dangerous side effects, or that medical professionals are divided on its capability. The infectious-disease expert on Trump's own coronavirus task force, Anthony Fauci, has privately pleaded with the president to be more cautious.

But Trump - who famously has said he trusts his gut more than anything an expert could counsel him - is again letting his impulses guide what he tells a locked-down nation eager to return to normal.

In the past several days, he has been advocating that people infected with the coronavirus consider taking hydroxychloroquine in consultation with their doctors. He remarked Sunday that "a lot of people are saying" patients should take the drug, and he called it "a very special thing."

As the president has said repeatedly, "What do you have to lose?"

Trump's swift embrace of hydroxychloroquine - as well as azithromycin, which he has hyped as "one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine" - illustrates the degree to which the president prioritizes anecdote and feeling over science and fact. It also has provoked an ugly divide within a White House already besieged as it struggles to make up for lost time in slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

The president has frequently clashed with or undercut scientists leading the effort against the virus, from equivocating on whether to wear masks in public to repeatedly pressing to reopen businesses sooner than advised by public health experts.

Hydroxychloroquine is still being studied for its effectiveness in treating covid-19, but the Food and Drug Administration already has approved it for malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. That means doctors can prescribe the drug for covid-19 or other ailments on an off-label basis. The agency also has authorized the emergency use of the drug from the Strategic National Stockpile for some hospitalized patients.

Many doctors are reportedly taking the medication themselves as a potential preventive measure and are giving it to their patients, especially in New York, which has by far the largest number of coronavirus cases in the country.

Kenneth Raske, chief executive of the Greater New York Hospital Association, which represents all of New York City's hospitals, said clinicians have reported that "the jury is still out" on the drug. Still, he said he did not believe the side effects were so deleterious that it should be avoided.

"We're using those drugs extensively," Raske said. "It's not as if this is a distant conversation. The drug has been around for a long time. I think everybody is going into this eyes wide open."

Over the weekend, Trump's task force decided to rush-deliver hydroxychloroquine to hospitals and pharmacies in the New York area, Detroit, New Orleans and other coronavirus hot zones, provided that the medicine be administered to patients only on the advice of their doctors.

"In peacetime, the conservative approach would be correct," Peter Navarro, a trade adviser who recently was named the administration's Defense Production Act policy coordinator, said in an interview. "In wartime, with the potential of mass casualties, you may have to be more forward-leaning and accept additional risk."

The action came after Trump met with Ingraham, who has been enthusiastically promoting hydroxychloroquine on her 10 p.m. Fox News show. She brought along two guests of her program - Ramin Oskoui, a Washington-based cardiologist, and Stephen Smith, a New Jersey-based infectious-disease specialist - and Trump asked that FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn attend as well.

Smith made a detailed presentation to Trump about his view on treatment, putting an emphasis on the benefits of hydroxychloroquine based on his own experiences and studies, according to two White House officials and a person familiar with the meeting.

Trump listened intently, they said, and emerged from that meeting seemingly determined to advocate for hydroxychloroquine to be more widely used.

Smith, who has known Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for decades and has treated more than 100 covid-19 patients, said in an interview Monday that he walked Trump through a spreadsheet and other documents about how hydroxychloroquine works and through its uses during hospitalization.

"I'm a guy who looks at data," Smith said. "I came as a scientist and physician. I trained under Dr. Fauci and respect him a lot." He described Hahn as "supportive."

The FDA declined to comment on the meeting. A senior administration official said the session appeared to be an effort to press Trump to ratchet up his public support for the drug. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said Hahn has been flexible in handling the drug but wasn't comfortable endorsing it before trials are completed. Efforts to reach Oskoui by email and phone were not successful.

During Saturday's task force meeting, Navarro pushed hard for the drug. He showed up with a folder of statistics and papers to forcefully argue the case for using the drug and got into a fight with Fauci over its efficacy, as first reported by Axios.

Navarro said the disagreement "isn't a real debate. It's Kabuki theater for political junkies." Earlier, however, Navarro sounded provocative during an appearance on "Fox & Friends," a morning show Trump often watches.

"I think history will judge who's right on this debate, but I'd bet on President Trump's intuition on this one," he said.

The tension between Trump's faith in an unproven drug and the hesitance of public health experts to endorse it was evident at Sunday's White House news conference, when CNN correspondent Jeremy Diamond asked Fauci for his opinion on hydroxychloroquine. Trump interrupted and said Fauci did not have to answer the question, and he scolded Diamond for asking. Fauci was silent.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley insisted "there is no daylight" between Trump and Fauci regarding the drug and accused the media of trying to create "soap opera-like drama."

Hydroxychloroquine has a number of serious side effects, chief among them its impact on the "QT interval" - the time it takes for the heart's electrical system to reset between contractions, which push blood into the vascular system and around the body, according to Mark Gladwin, chairman of the department of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh school of medicine. This raises the risk of heart arrhythmias - irregular heartbeats - that can be fatal, he said.

With many covid-19 patients arriving at hospitals in emergencies, it is not always possible for doctors to know what other drugs a patient is taking or conduct an electrocardiogram, making use of the drug dangerous, Gladwin said.

Because hydroxychloroquine hasn't been studied in valid large-scale research, doctors can't know the appropriate dose for any patient. Also, covid-19 is causing a heart infection, myocarditis, in some of the most seriously ill patients.

"The heart may already be involved in this virus," Gladwin said. "And now we're adding a drug that prolongs the QT [interval]. We have no idea what that will do in the setting of a patient with covid-19."

Scott Gottlieb, who served as FDA commissioner earlier in the Trump administration, said that the data on hydroxychloroquine is "very preliminary" and that the drug has been used widely in the United States and Europe without "any obvious benefit." Clinical trial data is needed, he said. Meanwhile, he added, "We should focus on the drugs that are most likely to be transformative," such as antibody drugs that are under study.

FDA spokesman Michael Felberbaum said, "The FDA's role is to make independent, science-based decisions to bring new therapies to sick patients as quickly as possible, while at the same time supporting research to further evaluate whether these medical countermeasures are safe and effective for treating patients infected with this novel virus."

Hydroxychloroquine had rarely come up in official task force meetings before Saturday's explosive Navarro-Fauci discussion, which ended after Vice President Mike Pence and senior adviser Jared Kushner stepped in, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions.

Trump's focus on hydroxychloroquine stems from a place of desperation and an optimism that the drug will work, even if the science is not conclusive, allies said. As one person put it, "The president lives in a world of wishes and hope."

"It's the only thing anyone has held out as offering an immediate reprieve from what's become his greatest challenge - and political threat," said a former senior administration official who, like some other officials interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment. This official described the president's "overwhelming desire for a silver bullet to make it all go away."

Trump's aides are giving him reason to believe. White House officials compiled upbeat news articles about people who said they were helped by the experimental drug. And on Monday, an email blast went out to administration aides with the subject: "CORONAVIRUS FLAG: LA doctor seeing success with hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19," linking to a story from KABC in Los Angeles.

"The president is talking to so many people in New York - friends, Wall Street guys, real estate guys," one White House official said. "He's hearing about this drug, and he's seeing his own optimism repeated back to him on Fox News. It's all self-reinforcing. An echo chamber."

Trump has pressured Hahn to make more favorable statements about hydroxychloroquine and has regularly raised it with him, according to two White House officials with knowledge of the discussions.

At times, Trump has grown frustrated because some of the doctors in his administration - including Hahn and Fauci - have conceded privately that there is some anecdotal evidence that the drug may work, but they will not state so publicly at the president's news conferences, these officials said.

Another regular on Fox News, New York-based oncologist William Grace, has emerged as an influential voice in Trump's orbit despite having no formal links to the government. Grace has appeared regularly on Ingraham's show, touting hydroxychloroquine.

Grace said in an interview that as he has tracked the pandemic as a self-described "interested physician," he has become convinced that the "drugs are working, that fewer people are having to go to the respirators at places like Lenox Hill hospital."

Grace is not a spokesman for the hospital or approved to speak about its use of hydroxychloroquine on patients. When Ingraham posted a tweet on March 20 about Grace's comments regarding the hospital, Twitter deleted it for violating the platform's policies, and the hospital said in a statement that "his views are his own and do not represent the hospital."

Grace has continued to speak out, and has been communicating with Navarro.

"I don't know of a single institution anywhere that's not treating inpatients with hydroxychloroquine," Grace said. "It's being implemented very quickly all over. You've never seen such speed."

Peter Lurie, a top FDA official in the Obama administration who is now president of Center for Science in the Public Interest, said he was concerned that Trump's campaign for hydroxychloroquine undercuts the FDA's fundamental philosophy on approving drugs.

"When the president says, 'What have you got to lose?' that is profoundly different than what the science-based agencies have been trying to communicate to the public for decades," Lurie said.

- - -

The Washington Post's Lenny Bernstein contributed to this report.
AMSTERDAM, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Datacenter.com, the international carrier-neutral data center-as-a-service company, announced today that Jochem Steman, has notified the Company that, after four years at Datacenter.com, he has decided to step down as Chief Executive Officer and leave the company in the coming months. Steman has become well known both in the company and in the industry for his dynamic and forward thinking leadership style that has proven to produce black and white results.

Steman, who joined in 2016, has played a key role in design and execution since the foundation of Datacenter.com. He shaped and built the DNA of the Datacenter.com organization. No successor has yet been appointed for Steman.

"It has been a tremendous privilege to serve as the CEO of Datacenter.com," commented Steman about his time with the company. "I've been with Datacenter.com since the company was founded and I have hugely enjoyed my time at Datacenter.com and found the work extremely fulfilling and rewarding. I am incredibly proud of the market position we have secured and maintained in a highly competitive landscape. Something which would been next to impossible to achieve without such a talented team working together."

Steman continued, "That said, I do believe it is now time to move on to the next stage of my career, to continue pursuing new challenges. I am confident that I am leaving the company both financially and operationally strong at an extremely exciting time in its development and with a very bright future ahead. I am very confident that Datacenter.com will continue to deliver value for her shareholders and customers alike, while continuing to build momentum."

Steman was one of the founders of the company in 2016. Since then he has played a key role in the design and execution of all aspects of Datacenter.com, crafting the DNA of the organization. No successor has yet been appointed for Steman, who leaves quite large boots to fill.

Datacenter.com's high-end data centers are located at key internet junctures throughout the world, providing fast access to telecom providers as well various internet services that value "low latency" connections. It offers customers high capacity colocation based on their power consumption. Its services are custom-made to meet client critical IT infrastructure needs both today and into the future.

There's no word yet where Steman plans to next apply his remarkable set of skills and experience.

About Datacenter.com

Datacenter.com is motivated by the belief that all companies seeking data center and colocation offerings should have access to greater efficiency and flexibility at a reasonable price. With our state-of-the-art data center services, we meet the market's growing need for energy-efficient, highly interconnected and modular colocation facilities, in which organizations can flexibly and securely host their critical IT infrastructure while cloud computing needs are addressed. Datacenter.com's customized, reliable and innovative data center solutions are accompanied by the company's best-in-class customer support. Datacenter.com is a proud member of the European Data Centre Association (EUDCA). To learn more about Datacenter.com, visit https://datacenter.com or follow Twitter @datacenter_com or Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/datacenter.com

Contact information:

Datacenter.com Netherlands B.V.

Keienbergweg 22

1101 GB Amsterdam, The Netherlands

[email protected]

Phone: +31-(0)-20-2384-200

SOURCE Datacenter.com
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on ABCs Good Morning America that he absolutely expects the number of coronavirus deaths in the U.S. to fall under the White House coronavirus task forces projection of 100,000 to 240,000 deaths. Adams said he feels a lot more optimistic thanks to data indicating the number of new cases is slowing in some areas.

A record 731 New Yorkers died of coronavirus in the past day, bringing the states overall death toll from the virus to nearly 5,500 people. However, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that deaths are a lagging indicator and that state projections show a flattening of the curve, noting that the number of new hospitalizations is falling.

The University of Washington COVID-19 forecasting model now predicts that fewer hospital beds, ventilators and other equipment will be needed in the U.S. than previously thought, and that the virus will peak in some states sooner than expected. However, the conclusions conflict with other models that paint a more dire picture.

U.S. Treasury officials are preparing to ask Congress to add another $200 billion to replenish the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program, a small-business loan program. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said Tuesday he hopes to hold a Senate vote Thursday on the new funding.

By the numbers

World cases and deaths: 1,381,014 confirmed cases, 76,507 deaths

U.S. cases and deaths: 378,289 confirmed cases, 11,830 deaths

Ohio cases and deaths: 4,450 confirmed cases, 142 deaths, 1,214 hospitalizations

General information

Coronavirus timeline: How the coronavirus spread from cases in China to Ohio in less than three months

Coronavirus in Ohio: Department of Health opens call center to field questions, open 7 days a week

Ohio is under a state of emergency because of the coronavirus. What does that mean?

Coronavirus patients can take a turn for the worse two weeks into the illness, experts say

Kids and coronavirus: Children have come down with COVID-19, but usually with milder symptoms

Coping with coronavirus: Guide aims to ease fear of pandemic disease

MetroHealth Dr. Amy Ray offers helpful coronavirus advice in video

Can you have coronavirus without knowing it? Absolutely.

Loss of smell may be early symptom of coronavirus

Heres how much it costs to get coronavirus treatment

Heres what you should do right now to get your piece of the coronavirus bailout: Unemployment and small business aid

Risk/mitigation factors

Hypertension could be a leading factor in coronavirus deaths: Heres what to know

How will coronavirus affect allergy sufferers?

Heres why mitigating the pandemic curve matters

What you might not know about using face masks to protect against coronavirus

Will the shingles vaccine help me fight coronavirus? No. Heres why

Coronavirus update: Virus could live up to 24 hours on cardboard, 3 days on plastic and steel, study says

Coronavirus and lungs: How do smoking, vaping, air pollution affect respiratory illnesses?

How humidity could help fight coronavirus

ACE2: How researchers think coronavirus attacks cells, and how it could be stopped

Coronavirus and the lungs: Does COVID-19 cause more severe pneumonia or ARDS than other viruses?

Could coronavirus travel through the air? What new research says

Antibody coronavirus tests could deliver faster results, better understanding of reach

Will wearing a mask protect me from coronavirus? The answers arent that simple

Hygiene/etiquette

Washing your hands: Best public restroom etiquette in the age of coronavirus

How to protect yourself from coronavirus: An infocomic goes viral

Ohio health department chief regularly cites school study on hand-washing. What does it say?

How to keep your car clean to reduce risk from coronavirus

Coping at home

Compiling a COVID-19 coronavirus quarantine prep kit: What you should have on hand at home

Should I take elderberry supplements to ward off flu, coronavirus?

Homemade hand sanitizer to battle coronavirus? Dont use denatured alcohol -- or vodka

10 essential tips to working from home during the coronavirus outbreak

Working from home? These 10 must-have items will make the transition easier

Comfort TV options you can stream if things get too quiet while working from home

Have a back-up plan for pets in case you get sick with coronavirus, Cleveland APL says

Coronavirus and food: 5 things to know for novice chefs at home

Worried about coronavirus on your food? 165 degrees is universal safe cooking temperature, but not often necessary

How to avoid a census worker coming to your door during coronavirus crisis

FAQ: Everything you need to know about getting Ohio unemployment amid coronavirus outbreak

What to read during coronavirus isolation: Cleveland authors, literary leaders offer book recommendations

40 podcasts to enjoy during coronavirus isolation

8 at-home baking projects to combat coronavirus boredom and stress

8 at-home activities that dont involve TV or books

350+ Greater Cleveland restaurants offering takeout, deliveries

Stuck at home? How to make it a place of order, comfort and joy

12 essential grocery items for your coronavirus pantry

Ordering takeout for dinner? How to do it safely in the age of coronavirus

Travel

Could Ohio shut down travel for coronavirus quarantine?

Travel in the age of coronavirus: Some Clevelanders cancel trips, others wait and see

Ohio to returning snowbirds: Self-quarantine if you plan a return to the Buckeye State

Closings/cancellations

Coronavirus closings, restrictions and delays in Ohio for Tuesday, April 7, 2020
The outbreak and lockdown have thrown up a number of challenges, such as layoffs, pay cuts and a general slowdown.

Many subscribers after their unsuccessful attempts to use the scheme have taken to social media to voice their complaints, as the EPFO website and grievance portal suffer outages and its customer helpline remains unreachable.

For Karan Arora, the recent announcement that subscribers could withdraw part of their employee provident fund (EPF) to help tide over the COVID-19 crisis had sparked hope.

The Jaipur-based technical recruiter had been laid off 10 days earlier as his employer, a US staffing agency, struggled with business.

He had made an application on March 24 and expected to receive the money swiftly in light of the new reforms.

However, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) asked him to wait, saying the nationwide lockdown had affected its own operations, including claim settlements.

The Union labour ministry on March 28 amended the EPF scheme to allow members to withdraw non-refundable advances - either their basic wages and dearness allowance for three months or up to 75 per cent of their total account, whichever is less - in the event of a pandemic.

With COVID-19 being an ongoing pandemic, these benefits currently extend to member employees across India, even those still in service.

The retirement fund body had committed to fulfilling such requests within three days so that relief would promptly reach workers and their families in a time of need.

The outbreak and lockdown have thrown up a number of challenges, such as layoffs, pay cuts and a general slowdown.

Many subscribers after their unsuccessful attempts to use the scheme have taken to social media to voice their complaints, as the EPFO website and grievance portal suffer outages and its customer helpline remains unreachable.

In response to most such applicants, since April 3, the EPFOs Twitter account has written: Due to the lockdown and consequent movement restriction, the functioning of the office has been affected and claims settlement has also been affected.

E-mails from Business Standard seeking comment remained unanswered by the EPFOs head office in Delhi and the Mumbai regional office.

One of the challenges experts had predicted in availing of this scheme was the requirement of KYC compliance, in the absence of which employees would have to request their workplaces to validate the claims.

However, in recent cases, even those with the requisite KYC compliance have had their applications put on hold.

Arora has company in other disappointed EPF members.

The day he was laid off was also the day Delhi-based Gaurav Sharma, sole earning member of his family, lost his father to a prolonged illness.

As his bank balance ran low, Sharma says he made a claim on March 22, which has remained under process since.

Where Arora has borrowed money from a friend to cover expenses, including rent, student loan EMIs, and household purchases, Sharma has been checking his bank account and frustratedly tweeting at the EPFO handle every day over the last week.

In Mumbai, marketing professional Divya Naik applied for withdrawal in February, during a phase of unemployment.

Her claim was approved mid-March but no payment has been forthcoming.

Her complaints have been closed without resolution, too, citing the lockdown.

What is the point if we cannot access our hard-earned money now, says Naik, who has since found a new job.

Fortunately, I am not in urgent need of funds anymore but there are others who cannot afford to wait.
A Senegal judge has granted Chads former dictator Hissene Habre two months leave from prison, where he is serving life for crimes against humanity, as the jail is being used to hold new detainees in coronavirus quarantine.

Habre, who ruled Chad from 1982 to 1990, was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at an African Union-backed trial in the Senegalese capital Dakar in 2016.

A Chadian commission of inquiry estimated 40,000 people were killed by his regime.

After he was overthrown, Habre fled to Senegal and for more than 20 years lived freely in an upmarket Dakar suburb with his wife and children.

Dubbed Africas Pinochet, Habre was finally arrested in 2013 and tried by a special tribunal set up by the African Union under a deal with Senegal.

His trial set a global precedent as the first time a country had prosecuted the former leader of another nation for rights abuses, and was seen as a landmark example of African rights abuses being tried on the continent.

Since his conviction, the ex-leader in his late 70s has been serving his sentence in a penal establishment in Cap Manuel, at the tip of the peninsula where Dakar is located.

His lawyer Mamadou Diawara had requested 60 days leave for Habre as, due to his age, he was particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the judges order obtained by AFP on Monday.

Judge Boubacar Ndiaye noted that the Cap Manuel prison has been selected by the Senegalese authorities to hold newly arrested detainees in solitary confinement while they are under quarantine to avoid possible spread of COVID-19 in jail.

He granted a 60-day temporary leave to Habre, to be served at his home in Ouakam, a district of Dakar, and ordered him to return to prison on its expiry.

An association of victims of his regime last week said the health crisis should not be used as an excuse for the early release of Hissene Habre.

Senegal has registered 226 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and two deaths.
PEN Photon Energy invests in RayGen Resources

The Management Board of Photon Energy N.V. informs that it has entered a strategic partnership with the Australian technology company RayGen Resources Pty Ltd. ('RayGen') in order to develop global renewable energy projects suitable for the roll-out of RayGens unique solar power and electricity storage technology.

Photon Energy will act as a project developer and EPC contractor and  where suitable  as an equity investor in the projects, which will be supplied by RayGen. The partnership includes the development of a 100 MWp/1000 MWh solar-plus-storage project. As part of this strategic partnership, Photon Energy has also made a minority equity investment in RayGen. Photon Energy's CEO Georg Hotar said: Our investment in RayGen is our first step into the upstream segment of the solar industry and it comes at a crucial time. The elimination of solar energys intermittency and ensuring its 24-hour availability at grid-competitive cost is the holy grail and RayGen has found it. Our partnership with RayGen will enable us to address a vast new universe of opportunities both on-grid as well as in off-grid remote locations including islands. We are thrilled to be working with RayGens team on pushing the boundaries of the solar energy industry in the coming years. With this investment and partnership with RayGen we are tackling head-on the problem of intermittency of solar energy. The RayGen PV Ultra module is the most efficient way to convert solar energy into electricity to date. Combining high efficiency concentrated PV generation with thermal absorption and storage, it achieves the highest energy density of any solar technology available today. The RayGen technology is a massive step forward providing cost effective base load, inertia and on-demand power as an integral part of our future energy supply. Photon Energy is very excited to be working with the RayGen team on both optimizing EPC outcomes and on developing utility-scale projects globally, added Michael Gartner, Managing Director of Photon Energy Australia. RayGen has developed a world-leading, low-cost solar-plus-storage solution by combining its proprietary PV Ultra solar technology  which co-generates electricity and heat  with a tailored electro-thermal storage cycle, called Thermal Hydro, that uses existing industrial equipment to deliver high-performance low-cost electricity storage. PV Ultra generates electricity and heat from sunlight focused onto a tower-mounted photovoltaic receiver. The PV Ultra receiver contains around 400 PV Ultra modules, each generating 2.5 kW of electricity and 5 kW of heat. The total is 1 MW of electricity and 2 MW of heat for a combined 3 MW of power per PV Ultra field. PV Ultra is a modular system  it can be scaled up and scaled down in 1 MW units to suit a variety of projects and customers. Thermal Hydro is a low-cost, large-scale, long-duration energy storage system developed by RayGen. Taking advantage of PV Ultras unique capacity to cogenerate electricity and heat, Thermal Hydro efficiently stores thermal energy in two insulated water reservoirs with a 90C temperature difference. RayGen has adapted a thermal storage technology widely used in northern European district heating systems for this unique electricity storage application. When required, firm power is dispatched through a thermally driven Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) engine, a proven generation technology utilised in geothermal generation systems. RayGen is thrilled to be working with Photon Energy to accelerate the deployment of our technology. RayGen is delighted to have found a strategic partner in Photon Energy who shares our mission to accelerate the clean energy transition. Moving toward 100 per cent renewable energy will require storage solutions that can store power cost-effectively for hours, days or weeks and be deployed at large scale around the world. With the calibre of Photon Energy's team and their breadth of experience with developing and operating solar projects worldwide, RayGens technology can soon be operating across a range of countries and sectors, helping to make the shift to renewable baseload power a reality, said Richard Payne, CEO of RayGen. For its flagship solar-plus-storage project, RayGen is proposing to build a fully dispatchable renewable energy facility that will deliver 4 MW of solar generation and 3 MW/50 MWh (17 hours) of storage at a project site Carwarp in north-west Victoria. RayGen recently concluded an agreement for AUD 3 million in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to conduct a technical and commercial feasibility study for this project. The solar power plant will provide Australias National Electricity Market with day-night renewable electricity. The project will also supply synchronous power where it is critically needed in the West Murray region.
New York: In several hours on Tuesday, Dr Ashley Bray performed chest compressions at Elmhurst Hospital Center on a woman in her 80s, a man in his 60s and a 38-year-old who reminded the doctor of her fiance. All had tested positive for the coronavirus and had gone into cardiac arrest. All eventually died.

Elmhurst, a 545-bed public hospital in Queens, has begun transferring patients not suffering from coronavirus to other hospitals as it moves toward becoming dedicated entirely to the outbreak. Doctors and nurses have struggled to make do with a few dozen ventilators. Calls over a loudspeaker of Team 700, the code for when a patient is on the verge of death, come several times a shift. Some have died inside the emergency room while waiting for a bed.

A refrigerated truck has been stationed outside to hold the bodies of the dead. Over the past 24 hours, New York Citys public hospital system said in a statement, 13 people at Elmhurst had died.

Its apocalyptic, said Bray, 27, a general medicine resident at the hospital.

Across the city, which has become the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, hospitals are beginning to confront the kind of harrowing surge in cases that has overwhelmed health care systems in China, Italy and other countries. On Wednesday evening, New York City reported 20,011 confirmed cases and 280 deaths.

More than 3,922 coronavirus patients have been hospitalized in the city. Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday offered a glimmer of hope that social-distancing measures were starting to slow the growth in hospitalizations statewide. This week, the states hospitalization estimations were down markedly, from a doubling of cases every two days to every four days.

It is almost too good to be true, Cuomo said.

Still, hospitals are under siege. New York Citys hospitals run the gamut from prestigious teaching institutions catering to the elite to public hospitals providing care for some of the poorest communities in the nation. Regardless of whom they serve, few have been spared the impact of the pandemic: A flood of sick and fearful New Yorkers has besieged emergency rooms across the city.

Working with state and federal officials, hospitals have repeatedly expanded the portions of their buildings equipped to handle patients who had stayed home until worsening fevers and difficulty breathing forced them into emergency rooms. Elmhurst, among the hardest-hit hospitals in the city, is a prime example of the hardships medical centers and their staffs are facing across the country.

Elmhurst is at the center of this crisis, and its the number one priority of our public hospital system right now, the citys public hospital systems statement said. The front line staff are going above and beyond in this crisis, and we continue surging supplies and personnel to this critical facility to keep pace with the crisis.

Dr. Mitchell Katz, the head of the Health and Hospitals Corp., which operates New York Citys public hospitals, said plans were underway to transform many areas of the Elmhurst hospital into intensive care units for extremely sick patients.

But New Yorks hospitals may be about to lose their leeway for creativity in finding spaces.

All of the more than 1,800 intensive care beds in the city are expected to be full by Friday, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency briefing obtained by The New York Times. Patients could stay for weeks, limiting space for newly sickened people.

Cuomo said on Wednesday that he had not seen the briefing. He said he hoped that officials could quickly add units by dipping into a growing supply of ventilators, the machines that some coronavirus patients need to breathe.

The federal government is sending a 1,000-bed hospital ship to New York, although it is not scheduled to arrive until mid-April. Officials have begun erecting four 250-bed hospitals at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Midtown Manhattan, which could be ready in a week. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday on Twitter that construction was ahead of schedule, but that could not be independently confirmed.

Officials have also discussed converting hotels and arenas into temporary medical centers.

At least two city hospitals have filled up their morgues, and city officials anticipated the rest would reach capacity by the end of this week, according to the briefing. The state requested 85 refrigerated trailers from FEMA for mortuary services, along with staff, the briefing said.

A spokeswoman for the citys office of the chief medical examiner said the briefing was inaccurate. We have significant morgue capacity in our five citywide sites, and the ability to expand, she said.

In interviews, doctors and nurses at hospitals across the city gave accounts of how they were being stretched.

Workers at several hospitals, including the Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, said employees such as obstetrician-gynecologists and radiologists have been called to work in emergency wards.

At a branch of the Montefiore Medical Center, also in the Bronx, there have been one or two coronavirus-related deaths a day, or more, said Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, a nurse. There are not always enough gurneys, so some patients sit in chairs. One patient on Sunday had been without a bed for 36 hours, she said.

At the Mount Sinai Health System, some hospital workers in Manhattan have posted photos on social media showing nurses using trash bags as protective gear. A system spokesman said she was not aware of that happening and noted the nurses had other gear below the bags. The safety of our staff and patients has never been of greater importance, and we are taking every precaution possible to protect everyone, she said.

With ventilators in short supply, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, one of the citys largest systems, has begun using one machine to help multiple patients at a time, a virtually unheard-of move, a spokeswoman said.

Elmhurst Hospital Center opened in 1832 and moved to its current Queens location in 1957, making it one of the oldest hospitals in New York City.

In the neighborhood it serves, Elmhurst, more than two-thirds of residents were born outside of the United States, the highest such rate in the city. It is a safety-net hospital, serving mainly low-income patients, including many who lack primary care doctors.

Queens accounts for 32% of New York Citys confirmed coronavirus cases, more than any other borough and far more than its share of the citys population. It also has fewer hospitals. Elmhurst is one of three major hospitals serving a large population and is centrally located, which in part explains why it is busy in normal times and even busier now.

Medical workers said they saw the first signs of the virus in early March  an increase in patients coming in with flulike symptoms before the alarm had been fully raised in the city and the country. Tests results were taking longer then, but they eventually confirmed that many of these patients had coronavirus.

In the weeks after, the emergency room began filling up, with more than 200 people at times. Every chair in the waiting room was usually taken. Patients came in faster than the hospital could add beds; earlier this week, 60 coronavirus patients had been admitted but were still in the emergency room. One man waited almost 60 hours for a bed last week, a doctor said.

The patients coming in now are sicker than before because they were advised to try to recover at home, doctors said.

Like other hospitals, Elmhurst has come perilously close to running out of ventilators several times; other hospitals have replenished its supply.

Despite the more optimistic projections by the state about hospitalization rates, the crowds outside of Elmhurst have not thinned out.

The line of people waiting outside of Elmhurst to be tested for the coronavirus forms as early as 6 a.m., and some stay there until 5 p.m. Many are told to go home without being tested.

Julio Jimenez, 35, spent six hours in the emergency room on Sunday night after running a fever while at work in a New Jersey warehouse. He returned on Monday morning to stand in the testing line in the pouring rain. On Tuesday, still coughing, eyes puffy, he stood in line for nearly seven hours and again went home untested.

I dont know if I have the virus, Jimenez said. Its so hard. Its not just me. Its for many people. Its crazy.

Rikki Lane, a doctor who has worked at Elmhurst for more than 20 years, said the hospital had handled the first wave of this tsunami. She compared the scene in the emergency department with an overcrowded parking garage where physicians must move patients in and out of spots to access other patients blocked by stretchers.

Family members are not permitted inside, she said.

Lane recalled recently treating a man in his 30s whose breathing deteriorated quickly and had to be put on a ventilator. He was in distress and panicked, I could see the terror in his eyes, she said. He was alone.

Michael Rothfeld, Somini Sengupta, Joseph Goldstein and Brian M. Rosenthal c.2020 The New York Times Company
Iran records 3,872 coronavirus deaths

The total number of cases climbed to 62,589, with 2,089 new infections, while 3,987 infected people were in a critical condition.

Irans coronavirus death toll rose to 3,872 with 133 deaths in the past 24 hours, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told state TV on Tuesday.

IRAN IS STRUGGLING TO SHIELD ITS ECONOMY

ader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has approved the withdrawal of one billion euros from the countrys sovereign wealth fund to help fight the coronavirus epidemic, President Hassan Rouhanis official website said on Monday.

Shut out of international capital markets and facing a further hit to its finances with the collapse in global oil prices coming on top of US sanctions, Iran is struggling to shield its economy from the coronavirus pandemic.

Rouhani said in late March that the government was seeking approval for the withdrawal of the money from the sovereign wealth fund.

The money will be used for the needs of the health ministry and the unemployment insurance fund, the statement on the presidency website said, adding that Rouhani had thanked the supreme leader for his move.
Cynet (http://www.cynet.com) today announced the official opening of the company's North American sales operations in Boston. The new office follows the recent appointment of Mr. Avi Mileguir as vice president of sales for the cybersecurity innovator. In conjunction with this announcement, the company is also announcing a hiring initiative to staff the new location with an expert team of sales engineers, channel managers and inside sales professionals.

"Security is one of the highest priorities in IT, requiring company executives and the technology providers that support them to monitor the effectiveness of their cybersecurity strategies and processes," said Eyal Gruner, Founder and CEO of Cynet. "No longer is it sufficient to rely on a patchwork of systems as it now requires a more intelligent and integrated approach. As this includes the team behind the technology, we welcome Avi and look forward to leveraging his expertise as we expand the adoption of our automated breach protection platform."

Now overseeing Cynet's North American sales and area operations, Avi Mileguir's mission at Cynet is to deliver the company's message to a broader array of potential customers. Avi joins Cynet from customer hijacking prevention provider, Namogoo, where he drove sales for the company as SVP, Global Sales since 2017. Prior to Namogoo, Mileguir was vice president of strategic accounts for CloudLock, which was recently acquired by Cisco. While at CloudLock, he led the enterprise sales team in North America and worked with Fortune 1,000 companies in the commercial market. Before that, he was the general manager and vice president of sales for Harmon.ie, a pioneer in enterprise collaboration.

Along with this key appointment, Cynet is formally announcing the company's first Boston-area business center and launching a new hiring initiative for 2020 to build out the company's sales infrastructure for North America. The Cynet office is located in the Back Bay area, one of the most up and coming business locations in Boston. With the new sales center, the company is expanding its physical presence as demand for enterprise-class cybersecurity solutions rise.

"Cynet is currently hiring in several areas, including sales engineering, channel managers, support and inside sales professionals," said Mileguir. "While the company is extremely proud of the software development, operations and business development teams it has assembled to date, we now have significant hiring plans for the next 9 months as we support customer requirements for our powerful brand of breach protection software."

Cynet 360 for the Enterprise and Solution Providers

Cynet's native-built cybersecurity platform prevents the full spectrum of cyber-attacks across all surfaces. It is the first solution of its kind to converge multiple security technologies with a 24/7 cyber SWAT team, defending all domains of an organizations network, including endpoints, networks, files and users. The platform and service team protect the entire enterprise environment by correlating users, files, network traffic and host activities with a complete team of threat prevention and detection professionals and tools, along with preset and custom auto-remediation policies for post-compromise actions.

Tweet this: @Cynet Expands North American Sales Operations with New Leadership and Business Offices - https://bit.ly/2UgxHCE

Resources

To learn more about Cynet:



Visit Cynet at https://cynet.com

Follow Cynet on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/cynet360

Follow Cynet on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/cynet-security/

Visit the Cynet blog on the subject: https://www.cynet.com/blog/2020-state-of-breach-protection-survey/

About Cynet

Cynet 360 is the worlds first autonomous breach protection platform that consolidates and automates Monitoring & Control, Attack Prevention & Detection and Response Orchestration across the entire environment. Cynet 360 pioneers the use of Cynet Sensor FusionTM to continuously analyze all activity signals from the protected environment: user activity, process behavior and network traffic to provide threat protection of unmatched accuracy coupled by automated remediation workflows for all core attack vectors. Cynet 360 eliminates the need of complex multi-product security stacks, making robust breach protection within reach for any organization, visit: https://www.cynet.com.
A man who was shot dead after setting himself on fire and charging at officers had doused a woman in petrol before running from police.

Emergency services rushed to a home in Sunnybank Hills, in Brisbane's south on Monday night, after receiving reports of a domestic violence incident.

Police were called to the Wynne Street house at 9pm when the man doused a woman in fuel before fleeing the home.

A 43-year-old man was shot dead by police after he allegedly set himself on fire at a McDonald's car park in Sunnybank Hills, south of Brisbane on Monday night

Officers found the 43-year-old man at 10pm at a McDonald's carpark on McCullough Street, The Courier Mail reported.

The man poured more petrol on himself in the car before setting himself alight and charging towards the officers.

Officers tried firing less-lethal shots in an attempt to stop the man from running towards them.

A police officer opened fire on the burning man and shot him in the chest as he came within metres of them.

They then extinguished him and attempted first aid but he died a short time later.

A crime scene was declared and the Ethical Standards Command will investigate the incident on behalf of the coroner.
TAMPA, FL, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Primo Water Corporation (NYSE and TSX:PRMW) (the "Company" or "Primo"), formerly Cott Corporation (NYSE:COT; TSX:BCB), a leading provider of direct to consumer bottled water and water filtration services in North America and Europe, as well as a leading provider of water dispensers, purified bottled water, and self-service refill drinking water in the U.S. and Canada, today announced that the Company will release its first quarter ended March 28, 2020 financial results before the markets open on Thursday, May 7, 2020.

Primo will host a conference call, to be simultaneously webcast, on Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. A question and answer session will follow management's presentation. To participate, please call the following numbers:

First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call

North America: (888) 231-8191

International: (647) 427-7450

Conference ID: 6669955

This is a live, listen-only dial-in telephone line.

Webcast for First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call

A live audio webcast will be available through the Company's website at www.primowatercorp.com. The webcast will be recorded and archived for playback on the investor relations section of the website for two weeks following the event.

2020 Annual Meeting of Shareowners

This year, out of an abundance of caution, to proactively deal with the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and to mitigate risks to the health and safety of our shareowners, associates and other stakeholders, the Company's 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareowners will be held solely by remote communication, in a virtual-only format on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 8:00 a.m. ET.

The meeting can be accessed by shareowners at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/PRMW2020 using the control number on their proxy card, voting instruction form or Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials. Primo Water Corporation has designed the format of the 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareowners to ensure that shareowners are afforded the same rights and opportunities to participate as they would at an in-person meeting and to enhance shareowners' access, participation and communication through online tools.

Guests can listen to the meeting at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/PRMW2020, but only shareowners may communicate or vote at the meeting.

At the meeting, shareowners will be asked to receive the financial statements for the year ended December 28, 2019 and the report on those statements by Primo's independent registered certified public accounting firm, elect directors, approve the appointment of Primo's independent registered certified public accounting firm, hold a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation, and transact any other business that properly may be brought before the meeting and any adjournment of the meeting.

The meeting will be recorded and archived for playback on the investor relations section of the website for two weeks following the event.

ABOUT PRIMO WATER CORPORATION

Primo (formerly Cott Corporation) is a pure-play water solutions provider with a leading volume-based national presence in the North American and European direct to consumer industry for bottled water, a top five position across point of use or water filtration within our 21-country footprint as well as leading positions in water dispensers, purified bottled water, and self-service refill drinking water in the U.S. and Canada. Our platform reaches over 2.5 million customers across North America and Europe and is supported by strategically located sales and distribution facilities and fleets, as well as wholesalers and distributors. This enables us to efficiently service residences, businesses, and small and large retailers.

Corporate Website: www.primowatercorp.com

SOURCE Primo Water Corporation

Related Links

https://primowatercorp.com/


Dublin, April 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Industrial Refractory Material Market - Forecasts from 2020 to 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The industrial refractory materials market is expected to surge with a CAGR of 3.45% to achieve a market size of US$27.593 billion by 2025 from US$22.507 billion in 2019



The market is expected to propel in the forecast period owing to the immense utilization of refractory materials in various end-use industries. The major industries include steel and foundry industry, glass, and cement among others. The growing iron and steel industry is driving the growth of the global industrial refractory materials market in the forecast period. Refractory materials are resistant to heat and are used in providing linings for high-temperature furnace, reactors, and other processing units. The increasing construction activities worldwide along with the growing urbanization is further providing an impetus in fueling the demand for refractory materials driving the market growth. The growing global automotive industry is also contributing to the market growth in the forecast period. Additionally, the growing adoption of consumer electronics, especially in the developing economies of the world is driving the market growth in the forecast period. This is due to the growing middle-class population, rising disposable income, and increasing family income.



By geography, North America and Europe are expected to hold a significant market share due to the construction activities in these regions with significant construction spending, especially in the North American region. The Asia Pacific region is anticipated to be the largest market due to the growing construction industry with rapid urbanization. Also, the growing middle-class population is providing a huge consumer base for the utilization of refractory products in their day-to-day activities which include automobiles, smartphones, cutleries and many more.



Furthermore, the increasing investments in infrastructural development in APAC countries leading to the increasing construction activities at home, hospitality, and commercial and industrial sectors, are further boosting the growth of the global industrial refractory materials market over the next five years. In addition, the growing electronics industry and the rising automotive industry with the purchase of new vehicles is driving the market growth. Moreover, advancements in technology in the refractory materials resulting in the development of innovative products such as advanced ceramics are burgeoning the growth of the global industrial refractory materials industry.



The globally growing steel industry is fueling the growth of the global industrial refractory material market during the forecast period



According to the World Steel Association (WSA) forecast, the global steel industry will continue to proliferate with China as the leader followed by India, Japan, and the United States. In 2019, the steel demand in China grew by 7.8% in order to achieve a production of 900.1 Mt (approximately). While, steel demand in the other parts of the world grew by over 2.0%, mainly driven by more than 4.0% growth from the emerging economies of the world excluding China.



Furthermore, as the innovations in steel products continue to proliferate, this is continuing to show favorable growth prospects for refractory materials in the forecast period. As per the WSA stats, in 2017, an investment of 5.9% of the total revenue was made by the steel industry in projects, research, and process improvement. Hence, notable investments in the steel industry are further propagating the market growth in the forecast period. In addition, the innovative breakthrough technologies for the development of steel are helping in curbing carbon emissions, aiming at the lowering of carbon footprint.

Other factors driving the growth of the iron and steel industry include the growing construction sector which include the infrastructure and real-estate segments. Also, the steel consumption is widely utilized in shipbuilding, automotive industry, consumer electronics, electronics, and industrial goods production, hence driving the market demand.



By industry, glassmaking is expected to hold a significant market share, propagating the market demand during the forecast period



The global glass industry is expected to grow with a significant growth rate. The growth is mainly attributed to the surging demand for glass in wide applications which include varied residential and commercial infrastructure projects. Also, the soaring demand for glass substrate from the transportation industry, electronics and semiconductor sector, especially from the developing economies of the world are driving the market demand. On the global level, the Asia Pacific region is expected to be the largest market for glass consumption, especially float glass with the increasing urbanization, robust demand for housing, and investments by the glass manufacturers. Other user countries include China, Germany, USA, France, Japan, Spain, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Egypt, India, and Sri Lanka.



Furthermore, the glass industry is a highly concentrated one, for example, in the case of the production of flat glass alone, there are four companies dominating the global market. This includes Nippon Sheet Glass (NSG) Group, Asahi Glass Company (AGC), Saint-Gobain, and the Guardian Group.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction

1.1. Market Definition

1.2. Market Segmentation



2. Research Methodology

2.1. Research Data

2.2. Assumptions



3. Executive Summary

3.1. Research Highlights



4. Market Dynamics

4.1. Market Drivers

4.2. Market Restraints

4.3. Porters Five Forces Analysis

4.3.1. Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.3.2. Bargaining Power of Buyers

4.3.3. Threat of New Entrants

4.3.4. Threat of Substitutes

4.3.5. Competitive Rivalry in the Industry

4.4. Industry Value Chain Analysis



5. Industrial Refractory Materials Market Analysis, by Composition

5.1. Introduction

5.2. Clay-Based

5.3. Non-Clay Based



6. Industrial Refractory Materials Market Analysis, by Industry

6.1. Introduction

6.2. Metallurgical

6.3. Glassmaking

6.4. Ceramics

6.5. Others



7. Industrial Refractory Materials Market Analysis, by Geography

7.1. Introduction

7.2. North America

7.2.1. North America Industrial Refractory Materials Market, By Composition, 2019 to 2025

7.2.2. North America Industrial Refractory Materials Market, By Industry, 2019 to 2025

7.2.3. By Country

7.2.3.1. United States

7.2.3.2. Canada

7.2.3.3. Mexico

7.3. South America

7.3.1. South America Industrial Refractory Materials Market, By Composition, 2019 to 2025

7.3.2. South America Industrial Refractory Materials Market, By Industry, 2019 to 2025

7.3.3. By Country

7.3.3.1. Brazil

7.3.3.2. Argentina

7.3.3.3. Others

7.4. Europe

7.4.1. Europe Industrial Refractory Materials Market, By Composition, 2019 to 2025

7.4.2. Europe Industrial Refractory Materials Market, By Industry, 2019 to 2025

7.4.3. By Country

7.4.3.1. UK

7.4.3.2. Germany

7.4.3.3. France

7.4.3.4. Others

7.5. Middle East and Africa

7.5.1. Middle East and Africa Industrial Refractory Materials Market, By Composition, 2019 to 2025

7.5.2. Middle East and Africa Industrial Refractory Materials Market, By Industry, 2019 to 2025

7.5.3. By Country

7.5.3.1. United Arab Emirates

7.5.3.2. Israel

7.5.3.3. Saudi Arabia

7.5.3.4. Others

7.6. Asia Pacific

7.6.1. Asia Pacific Industrial Refractory Materials Market, By Composition, 2019 to 2025

7.6.2. Asia Pacific Industrial Refractory Materials Market, By Industry, 2019 to 2025

7.6.3. By Country

7.6.3.1. Japan

7.6.3.2. China

7.6.3.3. India

7.6.3.4. Australia

7.6.3.5. Others



8. Competitive Environment and Analysis

8.1. Major Players and Strategy Analysis

8.2. Emerging Players and Market Lucrativeness

8.3. Mergers, Acquisitions, Agreements, and Collaborations

8.4. Vendor Competitiveness Matrix



9. Company Profiles

9.1. RHI Magnesita GmbH

9.2. Saint-Gobain

9.3. Shinagawa Refractories Co.,Ltd.

9.4. Krosaki Harima Corporation

9.5. HarbisonWalker International

9.6. CoorsTek Inc.

9.7. Morgan Advanced Materials plc

9.8. Refractory Minerals Co., Inc.

9.9. Allied Mineral Products, LLC



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/okacpq

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900
The MTN Ghana Foundation as part of its commitment to support the governments efforts in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is donating five million Ghana cedis (GHS 5million) to go to the procurement of medical supplies including personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essentials to support frontline medical staff.

Commenting on the Foundations support, the CEO of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh, said,

COVID-19 is, unquestionably, testing our societys fortitude and we all have a role to play in helping our country to overcome this global challenge. From the onset, we made a commitment to provide the needed assistance to help the country, businesses and the entire society stay connected to their work and loved ones. Our support to date has been in that direction. This phase of our commitment is to help us directly combat the disease and to help the medical teams provide the needed care to our fellow Ghanaians. We believe that we are good together as people especially in these times when we all must pitch in to fight this pandemic. We are confident that together we will overcome this challenge.

READ ALSO: Ashaiman shooting: John Mahama joins residents to demand justice for man shot by soldier

MTN Ghana Foundation in consultation with the Ministry of Health is procuring the following items:

 Virus Sampling kits - 10,000

 N95 Masks - 10,000

 Gloves - 10,000

 PPEs (Overalls) - 7,500

 PCR Machines for testing - 4

 RNA Extraction Kits  3,000

 Infrared thermometers- 500

 Disposable bedsheets - 3,000

Mr Adadevoh said, we are in difficult times and MTN continues to review its support to the country. We continue to monitor the global situation closely and we continue to urge our employees and customers to strictly adhere to the recommendations of the World Health Organisation, Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service.

The Board Chairman of the MTN Ghana Foundation Prof. Franklin Manu said, the MTN Ghana Foundation has been at the forefront of Corporate Social Investments in the country. We believe the situation at hand needs the intervention of all Ghanaians and we are very happy to support with the purchase of these much-needed medical supplies as we complement Governments efforts in the fight against Covid-19.

Following official confirmation of COVID-19 cases in Ghana, MTN took a series of precautionary measures to ensure continuity of services and the safety of its stakeholders including employees, customers, communities and suppliers against potential infections. Other measures that the company has taken include:

Protective measures for Employees and Customers - Key among the measures include the positioning of alcohol-based sanitizers at vantage points across branches and experience centers for use by customers and employees; the deployment and use of temperature guns, personal protective equipment and practicing of social distancing.

Network resilience for Business continuity - MTN Ghana has also put in place measures to ensure that the MTN network remains resilient and supports round-the-clock connectivity as Government Agencies, Businesses and individuals resort to social distancing measures such as working from home. The company has offered extra capacity for functions such as videoconferencing and better connectivity for healthcare workers.

Free Internet connectivity to education sites - MTN has also zero-rated over 70 educational online sites (public and private) to sustain research and learning during the period. This supports a total of over 114,000 customers, consuming over 2,674 GB per day for educational purposes. MTN Ghana has also provided Ghs10,000 worth of free data to all University students on its MTN Bright Scholarship scheme.

READ ALSO: 7 Mahama recommendations that will boost COVID-19 fight in Ghana

Providing connectivity for Government portals  To support the facilitation of remote working by government agencies, MTN is collaborating with the National Information Technology Authority (NITA) to zero-rate Government of Ghana Smart Workplace Portal to enable Government workers to work from home. In addition, MTN Ghana has already zero-rated several informational Government websites that are providing health and other related COVID-19 information such as the Ghana Health Service website and others.

Protecting the customer through the provision of critical health information - MTN has also provisioned shortcode 311 information center to facilitate information flow on COVID-19/ and 0555311311 for the Ministry of Information to be used for social media services. MTN Ghana is also assisting with the circulation of safety tips received from the Ghana Health Service and promotion of the 112 national emergency line.

Free MoMo transfers and revision of MoMo wallet limits - Financial services remains critical in this period and is central to the fight against COVID-19. To this end, MTN MoMo has removed charges for transactions of GHS100 and below per day, simplified registration for merchant and Person-to-person wallets and purchases from e-commerce and other platforms. There has also been an increase in daily transaction limits and balances for the various wallet types to promote customer safety through non-cash transactions.

READ ALSO: COVID-19: There will be no water for customers who owe us - GWCL to Ghanaians

Mobile money merchant accounts have been deployed as collection conduits to support Government institutions like the Ministry of Finance and the First Ladys fund mobilization for COVID -19.

Support with Contact tracing - MTN Ghana has also brought to bear its leadership in the technology space by supporting the infection monitoring and contact tracing team based on the requisite legal procedures. To support this further, MTN Ghana has initiated the provision of 800 SIM Cards with 10GB data on each card to National Security and 10 Turbonet devices with 225GB data to COVID-19 RESPONSE Team for use by contact tracers.

MTN Ghana would like to assure the public that it will continue to update its measures as the situation evolves to ensure business continuity, customer safety as well as staff well-being.

Government of Ghana to absorb water bills for the next 3-months | #Yencomgh

READ ALSO: Ghanaian medical doctor creates full-face mask for protection against COVID-19

Get interactive via our Facebook page.

Source: YEN.com.gh
European governments fear often overcrowded prisons are virus timebombs during this pandemic and are looking at early releases and other ways to reduce the risk for those behind bars. The issue of those locked up while whole countries were locked down was discussed during a video conference of EU justice ministers held on Monday. EU justice commissioner Didier Reynders, who also took part, tweeted that the impact of COVID-19 was looked at, along with "measures taken relating to the functioning of (the) justice system". Croatia, which chaired the meeting in its role holding the rotating EU presidency, said there was an exchange of information on prison and pre-trial detention in relation to the pandemic. While no EU-wide policy has yet emerged, individual member states have already taken steps to reduce penitentiary populations, aware that social distancing is impossible for those incarcerated. France, for instance, has since mid-March reduced its prisoner and detainee population by nearly 10 percent, by putting off custodial sentences for less-serious crimes, suspending terms for medical reasons, freeing some who were jailed awaiting trial, and allowing early release. That has cut its number of inmates to 66,300, the French justice minister told AFP last week -- though many of its 188 prisons are overcrowded. - Alternative to prisons 'imperative' - Greece has taken similar measures to release 1,500 prisoners. Non-EU member Britain, too, has announced the early release of 4,000 prisoners with less than two months left on their sentences, barring those convicted of violent, sexual or paedophilia crimes or posing national security threats. The human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, an organisation promoting rights and democracy whose membership goes well beyond the EU, called on Monday for more countries to follow suit. "The resort to alternatives to deprivation of liberty is imperative in situations of overcrowding and even more so in cases of emergency," Dunja Mijatovic wrote in a statement. At the same time, prisons in some countries have cut visiting rights for inmates' lawyers and banned those for family members, sparking episodes of unrest in Italy and in Sweden. In Romania, three prisoners died and another two were wounded in a riot that broke out in a prison in the northern town of Satu Mare, reportedly because of curtailed visiting hours. While confirmed cases of infection are currently relatively low, concerns are swiftly intensifying that the virus could take hold within prisons, where convicts share cells, showers and eating halls. Prison staff also complain they lack sufficient protective gear to safely carry out their duties. - Death toll mounting - Already in Italy, a 76-year-old inmate and two guards have died of COVID-19. Another 19 of the country's 58,000 prisoners have tested positive, along with 116 guards, according to official figures given last week. In Spain, one female prisoner and a guard have died. Another six prisoners are infected, its interior ministry said. France also has recorded the deaths of one prisoner and one guard, along with another 48 prisoners infected as well as 114 guards. In Britain, two guards at London's Pentonville prison died last week after coming down with COVID-19 symptoms, their union said. Belgium has reported that 32 of its guards have tested positive, as have four inmates. Those figures underline the growing risk in penitentiaries. In Russia, Eva Merkatcheva, a member of a prisoners' rights group known as the Commission of Observers, told AFP that "the situation in Russian prisons could quickly become a catastrophe, especially in holding centres where detainees are squeezed together in sometimes overcrowded cells". As a stopgap measure to try to prevent prison revolts in this time of crisis, authorities in certain countries have eased some conditions inside. France has rolled out free television, telephone credits and assistance for those in need. Spain has handed out smartphones to allow prisoners to make video calls.
Boris Johnson remains stable in hospital with coronavirus symptoms after spending the night in intensive care.

The UK prime minister had already been at St Thomas Hospital in central London for tests and observation since Sunday, but his doctors later advised he be admitted to intensive care after he experienced breathing difficulties.

Johnsons official spokesman said he had been receiving standard oxygen treatment but had not required a ventilator to assist his breathing and does not have pneumonia.

The Queen has sent a message to Johnson's family and his pregnant partner Carrie Symonds, saying they were in her thoughts and that she wished him a full and speedy recovery, Buckingham Palace said.

The Duke of Cambridge and the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall have also sent messages wishing Johnson a speedy recovery.

Britons have been urged on social media to Clap for Boris outside their homes on Tuesday evening.

The PM was understood to be conscious when he was moved to intensive care at about 7pm on Monday, as a precaution should he require ventilation to aid his recovery.

Johnson, 55, was last seen in public last Thursday when he joined the nationwide 'Clap for carers'. (PA)

A woman with a #PrayForBoris sign on her bicycle in central London as the PM was in intensive care fighting the coronavirus. (AP)

"The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits," his spokesman said on Tuesday.

"He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support."

His spokesman rejected claims that Number 10 had sought to hide the seriousness of his condition from the media.

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab, centre, is in charge of the government's response to the coronavirus crisis while the PM is in hospital. (PA)

Meanwhile, former prime minister David Cameron told ITV News: All of us are praying for Boris and thinking of him and praying and thinking of his family.

Boris is very tough, very resilient, very fit person, I know that from facing him on the tennis court and Im sure hell come through this.

His absence leaves a vacuum in leadership at a crucial time in the UKs response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which so far has killed more than 5,300 patients.

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab will deputise for Johnson where necessary, on the prime ministers instruction.

Story continues

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Live: Follow all the latest updates from the UK and around the world

Fact-checker: The number of COVID-19 cases in your local area

6 charts and maps that explain how COVID-19 is spreading

Raab could be set to lead the country in the battle against coronavirus for some time, with the PM unable to resume work for an extended period.

Johnson, 55, was admitted to hospital on Sunday after his coronavirus symptoms had persisted for 10 days, for what Downing Street said were precautionary tests.

Flowers arranged to read "I love NHS" outside London's St Thomas' Hospital, where the PM is being treated for coronavirus. (AP)

Police officers outside St Thomas' Hospital in central London, where Boris Johnson is being treated. (AP)

But in a dramatic statement at just after 8pm on Monday, a spokesman announced: Since Sunday evening, the prime minister has been under the care of doctors at St Thomas Hospital, in London, after being admitted with persistent symptoms of coronavirus.

Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the prime minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the intensive care unit at the hospital.

When it became clear that he had to be moved to intensive care, the prime minister told an aide that Raab should deputise for him.

The spokesman confirmed that Johnson had been unable to speak directly to Raab since he has been in hospital.

If Raab were to fall ill, under the established Cabinet order of precedence he would be replaced by chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Senior Cabinet minister Michael Gove has been forced to self-isolate, because a member of his family was showing symptoms.

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab, right, said during Monday's coronavirus press briefing he last spoke to the prime minister on Saturday. (PA)

The prime ministers admission to intensive care raised concerns that he had been pushing himself too hard, continuing to lead the work of government while in self-isolation.

However, former Tory Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said it was natural that he should want to carry on for as long as he could.

The truth is, hes prime minister. He was elected to run this country, and no prime minister is going to suddenly say Look, Im not well, Im just gonna let somebody else do it.

Johnsons condition means his fiancee, who is pregnant with their first child, is unable to visit him in hospital.

She said at the weekend that she is on the mend after herself being forced to self-isolate after displaying symptoms of the disease.

Johnson very likely to need ventilator

The prime minister is extremely sick  with many coronavirus patients who need intensive care requiring invasive ventilation, an expert has said.

Derek Hill, professor of medical imaging at University College London (UCL), said the PM could be given a breathing aid known as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), which bridges the gap between an oxygen mask and full ventilation.

CPAP uses pressure to send a blend of air and oxygen into the mouth at a steady rate, thereby boosting the amount of oxygen that enters the lungs.

The prime minister was last seen when he tweeted a video message update about his condition on Friday, when he still had a temperature but was not in hospital. (Twitter)

But Prof Hill said many COVID-19 patients eventually progress to invasive ventilation.

This is for people whose illness is so severe they are struggling or unable to breathe for themselves.

A mechanical ventilator either does all the breathing for the patient, or assists the patients own breathing.

Prof Hill said it was unclear whether Mr Johnson was breathing on his own, or with the help of a ventilator.

PM and partner Carrie Symonds receive outpouring of support

World leaders and Johnsons colleagues from across British politics were quick to offer their support to the prime minister and his family within minutes of the news on Monday night.

Newly-elected Labour leader Keir Starmer said it was terribly sad news and he was thinking of the prime minister, while SNP House of Commons leader Ian Blackford also wrote of his concern.

The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, tweeted he was thinking of the prime minister and his pregnant fiancee, Carrie Symonds, who previously said she was on the mend after suffering from coronavirus symptoms.

Keeping fighting Boris. Whole country behind you #BackBoris  Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) April 6, 2020

Boris is one of the strongest people I know. Thinking of him, Carrie and his family tonight. Get well soon, the country needs you.  Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) April 6, 2020

Sajid Javid, who resigned as chancellor earlier this year, and former leadership rival Jeremy Hunt added to the messages of concern.

And away from parliament, Labour mayor of London Sadiq Khan praised the St Thomas Hospital staff, where the PM is being treated, while Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon added to the outpouring of support.

Friends and opponents of times past also offered their support, with former prime minister David Cameron tweeting: Thinking of @BorisJohnson and his family tonight. Get well soon. You are in great hands and we all want you safe, well and back in @10DowningStreet.

Buckingham Palace confirmed the Queen was being kept informed by Downing Street about the condition of Mr Johnson  the 14th prime minister of her reign.

Prime minister Boris Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds, outside Downing St in December. (PA)

My thoughts are with the PM and his family - sending him every good wish https://t.co/tjpadJq6bq  Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) April 6, 2020

Internationally, US president Donald Trump added: I want to send our very best wishes to a very good friend of mine and a friend to our nation, prime minister Boris Johnson.

Were very saddened to hear that he was taken into intensive care this afternoon and Americans are all praying for his recovery.

Hes been a really good friend. Hes been really something very special: strong, resolute, doesnt quit, doesnt give up.

But when you get brought into intensive care, that gets very, very serious with this particular disease, he added.

READ MORE: Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Live: Follow all the latest updates from the UK and around the world

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Coronavirus: 6 charts and maps that explain how COVID-19 is spreading around the world

French president Emmanuel Macron was the first major leader to send his wishes, tweeting: All my support to Boris Johnson, his family and the British people at this difficult time. I wish him well.

Meanwhile, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted his solidarity and wishes to his UK counterpart.

These are difficult days for our countries, but from strength and unity, we will be able to win this battle. A hug to all the British people, he added.

And Irelands deputy leader Simon Coveney added: Everyone in Ireland is tonight wishing @BorisJohnson well. This is a difficult time for the UK and its Govt. We in #Ireland wish the PM a speedy recovery.

---Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK---
LONDON - With Prime Minister Boris Johnson in an intensive care unit with covid-19, the British government and its response to the coronavirus crisis is being led by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, a Johnson loyalist with a markedly different style than his boss.

Unlike the United States, Britain doesn't have clear succession rules. There is no one with the title "deputy prime minister." But even before Johnson was first taken to the hospital Sunday evening, he had nominated Raab to stand in for him if needed.

Now, that means Raab, 46, is chairing national security meetings and daily covid-19 teleconferences.

Raab is known to be extremely faithful to Johnson, which may explain why he was tapped. Even as he was assuming the leadership role, Raab was keen to stress that he would focus on implementing Johnson's directives.

"There's an incredibly strong team spirit behind the prime minister," Raab told the BBC late Monday. He said that the team was "making sure that we get all of the plans the prime minister's instructed us to deliver to get them implemented as soon as possible."

Raab ran against Johnson in last summer's Conservative Party leadership race, pitching himself as someone who would deliver Brexit without "bluff and bluster." But his campaign never really took off, and after he was knocked out of the race, he moved quickly to back Johnson.

Whereas the prime minister is a flamboyant, informal, confident - some might say overconfident - politician who for years has been known to Britons on a first-name basis, Raab is "the driest Thatcherite in the Cabinet," said Steven Fielding, a political expert at the University of Nottingham.

Fielding questioned whether Raab's communication skills were up to the job at a moment Britain is looking for strong leadership. "Unless he grows into the role damn quick, Raab isn't a very reassuring figure," he said.

"He sweats an incredible amount, and, whatever the reason, it's not a good look if you're looking for reassurance," Fielding said. Raab repeatedly dabbed his face during one much-commented-on speech in 2018, when he was Britain's Brexit secretary. "Sweaty Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab feels the heat," ran a headline in the Daily Mail.

He has his fans, too. Stewart Jackson, a former Conservative lawmaker, wrote in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday that Raab may be an "anti-Boris," but he's also "clever, self-assured and even tempered yet also cautious, managerial, unsentimental and taciturn."

"It's only in the white heat of this international crisis that the attributes of this serious and competent politician will be really tested and where Dominic Raab can and will excel," Jackson wrote.

Raab was raised in Buckinghamshire and studied law at Oxford and then Cambridge. He has spoken movingly about his father, a Czechoslovakia-born Jewish refugee who settled in Britain in 1938 at age six. Most of his father's family, Raab said, were "systematically murdered for no other reason than they were Jews."

In 2010, he was elected to Parliament in an ultra-safe Conservative seat in Surrey, a county close to London where he lives with his wife and their two sons. He quickly became known as a rising star in the Conservative Party, attracting attention for his productivity, competency on foreign policy, and for writing a book, along with four other Conservative lawmakers, about their vision for the party. In 2011, he won "Newcomer of the Year" at the Spectator magazine's parliamentary awards.

That same year, Raab clashed with Theresa May over his views on feminism - he accused feminists of "obnoxious bigotry." Still, as prime minister in 2018, May gave him his first cabinet position.

Raab's stint as Brexit secretary was a short one. He was widely criticized by pro-European Union figures for saying he "hadn't quite understood" how reliant Britain's trade was on the Dover-Calais crossing. He resigned after four months, saying he couldn't support the concessions that were being made.

When Johnson became prime minister, Raab was back at the top table, this time as foreign secretary, one of the four "great offices of state."

Fielding said many of Britain's big decisions about its coronavirus response - the lockdown restrictions, the testing targets, the ordering of ventilators - had been made and that, for the short-term, "it's a question of making sure those decisions are applied."

"Britain can do without a prime ministerial figure for a few days," he said. "If it's a question of a month, then certain decisions will have to be made."

Michael Gove, a senior Conservative politician who some people see as Johnson's No. 2, told ITV that decisions about lifting Britain's social distancing restrictions would be made collectively as a cabinet, but that, ultimately, the final decision-maker was now the foreign secretary.
Vote before the big day. As of now, 39 states let voters show up at municipal offices or other community centers to cast their ballots in the week or two before election day.

As of now, 39 states let voters show up at municipal offices or other community centers to cast their ballots in the week or two before election day. Dont vote on a touchscreen. Computerized touchscreens are exactly the kind of hands-on surface that health experts have warned can spread the coronavirus easily. Voting on one of them is like shaking 300  or more  strangers hands in a single day, Mulroy explained.

Computerized touchscreens are exactly the kind of hands-on surface that health experts have warned can spread the coronavirus easily. Voting on one of them is like shaking 300  or more  strangers hands in a single day, Mulroy explained. Vote by mail. All states let people vote by absentee ballot if they wont be in their voting district on Election Day, for instance if they are traveling. About two-thirds of the states let anyone who wants to do the same, whether theyll be home on Election Day or not. They simply call up their local election office and ask for a paper ballot to be mailed to them. When they get it, they fill it out and mail it back or drop it off at a municipal office before Election Day. The remaining states require voters to certify that theyre sick, elderly, out of town, or otherwise unable to vote on Election Day before being allowed to vote absentee. Those states could loosen their rules, opening absentee voting to anyone who wants to do it.

Welcome to this weeks Future of Security newsletter. Lets get started:, with hackers looking to exploit both public anxiety and disoriented bureaucracies to gain access into systems and networks, according tosecurity reporter Lucas Ropek.He points out that, In recent weeks, reports have shown that many ransomware hackers are taking advantage of public fears surrounding COVID-19, largely by using phishing emails disguised as informational PSAs or updates from health organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or World Health Organization (WHO). Other strategies are even more devious: fake coronavirus tracking apps or informational websites that are really just malware-ridden traps set for unsuspecting users.Many businesses and governments have hastily introduced work-from-home programs, and have key personnel under quarantine, creating the likelihood of weakened security controls, Brett Callow, a threat analyst with Emsisoft, toldAnd expect an increase in the number of attacks on health-care providers and personnel. Last year, 764 health-care providers were hit with ransomware attacks.The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the ransomware spikes may well coincide with the COVID-19 peak, creating a perfect storm, Callow said, referencing the predictions that the virus may peak during the mid-summer months, likely in July.While many expect states to increase the option of voting by mail, a couple have decided to increase their use of mobile online voting . Thereports that two states will soon announce that theyll offer voters who have disabilities the option to cast ballots using mobile phones in upcoming primary elections so they dont have to risk going into polling places. The option will extend to voters in the military or state residents who are based overseas. The source for this information was Sheila Nix, president of Tusk Philanthropies. She would not reveal the states or the vendor behind the project, according toreporter Joseph Marks.Those states will join West Virginia, which became the first to try statewide mobile voting for military and overseas voters in 2018 and has already announced it will expand to voters with disabilities during its upcoming primary June 9, wrote Marks. Nix said shes also talking with about half a dozen other states about potentially using mobile voting for some residents, which would be a significant expansion for a system that has otherwise been tried for just a handful of counties since 2018 and typically just for military and overseas voters.The argument in favor of mobile voting is that it will reduce the potential exposure of voters to the virus. But cybersecurity experts continue to warn that online voting systems continue to lack the kind of protection needed to ensure that digital vote tampering cannot happen.Already mentioned is the increase in the number of people who expect to vote by mail. Steven Mulroy, law professor in Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Election Law at the University of Memphis, has some additional suggestions The tech giant has to offer cybersecurity help to political campaigns at reduced prices under its Defending Democracy Program. The services will be available to campaigns for federal, state and local elections and will include checking their systems for cybersecurity best practices and responding to hacks after they happen.The new service, called Election Security Advisors , will give political campaigns and election officials hands-on help securing their systems and recovering from cyberattacks. In addition, Microsoft will extend its threat notification service to cover the offices of U.S. election officials and the U.S. Congress as they work remotely, along with Microsoft 365 for Campaigns to state-level campaigns and parties. The company is also publishing its public policy recommendations for securing elections, including ways to secure them while confronting the COVID-19 public health crisis.
Pastor recovering from COVID-19 says I cried out to God

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A Virginia pastor who became sick during a ministry trip to North Carolina in mid-March and tested positive for the new coronavirus shared the experience he had with severe and horrific symptoms of the COVID-19 disease and also with God as he cried out to Him for a chance.

Pastor Kenny Baldwin of Crossroads Baptist Church in Fairfax County was preaching in North Carolina when he started feeling unwell and went to urgent care, according to WUSA90.

He tested negative for the flu and strep but his fever shot up to 105 degrees with chills and aches. Soon, he felt something in his chest and tested positive for pneumonia. He was sent back home with medication and instruction.

However, when his condition got worse, he got back to the hospital and was admitted and kept in isolation at Inova Fairfax Hospital, he told ABC13News.

The doctor basically said with this disease you're going to get worse fast or you're going to hold on and eventually get better, and we don't know which one it will be, he was quoted as saying. I was begging, God, please just give me a chance. Please get me through this.

He said all he had was the Lord. I saw God and experienced Him in a way like never before and He reminded me that His promises are true and that His word stands and that He never leaves or forsakes us.

People around the world prayed for him. The pastor was given hydroxychloroquine, which is prescribed to treat and prevent malaria. Its the same medication that President Donald Trump called a miracle drug, although more testing is awaited. I have nothing but praises for that drug, Baldwin said.

On March 19, the United States Food & Drug Administration announced that they were investigating the usage of the drug chloroquine to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19 cases. Studies are underway to determine the efficacy in using chloroquine to treat COVID-19, explained the FDA. While there are no FDA-approved therapeutics or drugs to treat, cure or prevent COVID-19, there are several FDA-approved treatments that may help ease the symptoms from a supportive care perspective.

Baldwin said he supports the call for everyone to stay at home and prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The church is not the building, he said, its the people so we are still the church no matter what.

He continued, I think the challenge for all of us is to understand that our relationship with God is not contingent on physical gatherings and being in a structure. Our relationship with God is a spiritual relationship and our faith is growing. We are being built through this and need to trust Him, and value life and the people who matter.

Baldwin is currently recovering at home and is hoping to be well enough to preach on Easter.

As of early Sunday, there were more than 1.2 million confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease caused by the novel coronavirus around the world and 64,774 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center.

In the United States, the number of cases stood at 312,146 with 8,499 deaths.

A doctor leading the Samaritan's Purse coronavirus response at a field hospital in Central Park warned earlier this week that its serious.

This is not something to think this is the end of the world, but it is not something thats also to dismiss, Dr. K. Elliott Tenpenny told The Christian Post at the site of the field hospital. Its serious. Its a serious disease. Its not the end of the world. Were going to make it through this, but it is serious and anyone that says differently I dont believe theyre speaking truthfully.

President Donald Trump warned that this week or next week "will probably be the toughest week." "There will be a lot of death, unfortunately. But a lot less death than if this (precautions) wasnt done."
In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday evening that beginning Wednesday, a new curfew will be enforced across the Holy Land for Passover.

On Wednesday, before the Passover seder, everyone will remain at their home starting at 6:00 pm until the next day at 7:00 am, Netanyahu said in a statement, CBN News reports.

I know that this is very onerous but there is simply no choice. We will strictly enforce the lockdown, he added.

According to the New York Times, for this duration, residents are required to remain in their homes without any visitors, including immediate family.

The Prime Minister then recalled the mass gatherings that occurred during Purim holiday celebrations last month and noted that the Passover restrictions were being introduced to avoid further spread of the virus during Passover, which, like Purim, traditionally elicits large gatherings.

We saw what happened one month ago with the events of Purim holiday. The virus contagion had spread in broad circles. I say here in the clearest way possible: Passover will not be Purim, he asserted.

According to the New York Times, the Israeli government will also be enforcing bans on travel within the country during Holy Week.

Reportedly, between 7:00 pm Tuesday and 6:00 am Friday, all travel between cities is banned in Israel.

In addition to the Passover restrictions, the Israeli government is also enforcing restrictive measures that require residents to stay within 100 meters of their homes, barring food and medical supplies shopping and other essential trips.

Netanyahu did offer a glimmer of hope, however, suggesting that the virus rate of spread in Israel is slowing which could allow for restrictions to slowly begin to be lifted following Passover.

I am pleased to inform you that there are positive signs on the horizon. We are moving forward with preparations for the scenarios regarding the exit from the crisis, the Prime Minister said.

At the time of this writing, Israel has 9,006 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 62 deaths and 683 recoveries.

Photo courtesy: Getty Images/John Theodor

Kayla Koslosky has been the Editor of ChristianHeadlines.com since 2018. She has B.A. degrees in English and History and previously wrote for and was the managing editor of the Yellow Jacket newspaper. She has written on her blog since 2012 and has also contributed to IBelieve.com and Crosswalk.com.
Alajogun had said on her Instagram page a week ago that people should help the NHS staff to minimize the spread of Coronabirus, by staying in your home, we know its a very difficult situation but to quickly get rid of this Virus ,we appreciate you all.
Multilingual police officers step up at airports and communities

By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2020-04-07 17:46

It was 4 am at Pudong Airport. A number of travelers arrived at Terminal T2. Among them were some foreigners. After completing his immigration inspection procedures, a young expat walked to the work team of Jingan District stationed at the airport and said hello very shyly. Zhao Yayun, a police officer of Jingan who can speak fluent English, came up and helped the young man in filling out the health declaration form and going through the registration for 14-day quarantine. After thanking the team, he said to Zhao, I will tell my American friends that you guys really did a great job.

Born after 1990, Zhao is a police officer in Jingan. As a member of the Jingan public security bureaus foreign language emergency unit, she was dispatched to work at Pudong airports entry points for two weeks.

Formed during the COVID-19 outbreak, the foreign language emergency unit is the first of its kind in Shanghai. With an average age of 30, the team can communicate with expats in 11 languages including English, Japanese, Korean, Russian, French and Italian. As Shanghai now faces the pressure of controlling imported cases of COVID-19, they are making their contributions at airports and communities with their language abilities.

(Some members of the foreign language emergency unit participate in a video recording)

A nice first impression for expats at entry points

The reinforcement experience at Pudong airport makes me realize the responsibility of we young public security personnel is not limited to our jurisdiction, we can also guard the national border for our country, said Zhao. After putting on the protective gear, she was on the frontline.

(Zhao Yayun works at Pudong airport.)

On March 13, Zhao received a German teenage girl from flight CA936 (four of its passengers had a fever). The girls body temperature was 37.8 Celsius degrees. All of a sudden, Zhao became nervous, but calmed down as soon as she could and tried to comfort the girl. She helped to send the girl to quarantine points. Fortunately, Zhao felt a relief that there was no news of confirmed cases of teenagers in the following days.

As a foreign language talent, Zhao is good at both English and Korean. But she said that communication in foreign languages is just a method to achieve smooth transmission of information. Speaking of her work experience at the airport, she said, We are the guardians of Shanghai and also represent inbound tourists first impression on the city. Each of us is a reflection of Chinas youth.

Shanghai is now running a closed loop management from entry points to residential communities or quarantine points. Zhao and her colleagues from Jingan have so far escorted more than 400 expats to their homes or quarantine points.

Online interpretation services for communities

At present, apart from working in airports, railway stations and communities, members of the emergency unit also provide online interpretation services.

On March 12, an Italian couple who had just arrived in Shanghai was greeted by community police Zhang Fengni and some neighborhood committee staff. After introducing herself, Zhang called her colleague Bai Wenchao. Bai is an Italian major graduate from SISU (Shanghai International Studies University). Buongiorno, sono un poliziotto del commissariato di Jingan dellufficio della pubblica sicurezza della municipalita di Shanghai. Parlo italiano, said Bai to the Italian couple in their familiar language.

In their conversation, Bai informed the Italians of the citys anti-epidemic measures and reminded them to avoid counterfeit products when purchasing protective goods (like face masks and infrared thermometers).

(Bai Wenchao talks to the Italian resident via a video call)

Bai is a police officer from the economic investigation department. Since he joined the emergency unit, he has been on standby 24/7 to offer online interpretation services for his colleagues.

As well as Zhao Yayun, Zhang Fengni and Bai Wenchao, there are other police officers who are good at foreign languages like Japanese, Russian, French and German.

The foreign language emergency unit was established to strengthen the closed loop management of inbound travelers from the perspective of the police department, according to Zhang Xin from the Jingan public security bureau.

Farewell to broken English

On April 3, police officer Hua Yiwen from Pengpu Town Police Station gave a live-stream class to her peers. In the course, she shared oral English words and phrases frequently used by personnel when receiving foreigners. Also a SISU graduate, Hua is good at English.

(Hua Yiwen gives a live-stream class to her peers)

Since late February, Jingan public security bureau has opened English classes on a weekly basis. Key words, phrases and sentences related to COVID-19 have been added due to the epidemic. All police officers in Jingan can watch the classes on a cell phone. Foreign language learning now plays an important part in improving the police personnels development, said Xu Xin from the training division of Jingan Public Security Bureau.

As the prevention and control of imported COVID-19 cases in the city demands more of police officers, the foreign language emergency unit has made a learning card on which there are key phrases and sentences to be used when officers communicate with foreigners, as broken English is now not enough to make expats better understand the citys anti-epidemic measures.

To help those who have difficulty in pronunciation, Zhao Yayun also recorded an audio file. People can scan the QR code on the learning card to hear the correct English pronunciation.

(The learning card and the handbook of anti-epidemic tips)

Together with ICS (International Channel Shanghai) and the Shanghai Call Center (962288), the unit has also drafted a handbook of anti-epidemic tips in six foreign languages to help expats better cooperate with the city in its containment of the coronavirus. The handbook has been distributed to many public places and eight consulate generals.

In the following days, the unit will continue to provide more specific and professional guidance for expats when they resume work, as well as public security involving foreign affairs and preventive education.

(Photos and video provided by Jingan Public Security Bureau)
Finance minister Paschal Donohoe told his colleagues yesterday that over 500,000 people in Ireland were in receipt of the Unemployment Benefit, almost 10,000 in receipt of illness benefit, and almost 40,000 businesses registered with Revenue for the Wage Subsidy Scheme.

The total additional health spend, including the further funding required for the Covid-19 National Action Plan, will amount to up to 2bn.

Tax revenues in the previous month were nearly 1bn lower than in March last year, a decline of over 20%. VAT receipts in March of this year were half the level they were last year, and aggregate State spending was 1.1bn ahead of profile.

The Cabinet heard that although the impact on the public finances will be significant, the State will be able to fund the increased deficit.

Mr Donohoe also asked the Government to approve an amendment to the Insurance (Amendment) Act 1978 to remove an ambiguity about the ability of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (the SBCI) to offer guarantees to finance providers.

The SBCI is operating both the Covid-19 Loan Scheme as well as the Credit Guarantee Scheme which are helping smaller businesses to deal with the crisis.

The SBCI facilitates State-backed loan schemes, meaning the banks offer loans that are guaranteed by the SBCI, and then counter-guaranteed by the European Investment Bank Group, ensuring that banks only take a small proportion of the risk and are therefore more willing to lend to small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Government said the amendment required will only need to make a change to one section of the act.

Cabinet briefings are now held between two separate rooms, keeping Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tanaiste Simon Coveney apart, ensuring one of the two will be able to lead the country should the other become ill, with some Cabinet members located across the two rooms, and the remaining members joining the meetings via video conference.

The Government approved an emergency contribution of 15m towards the costs of operating certain passenger ferry services for three months. The routes  Dublin/Cherbourg and Rosslare/Fishguard, Pembroke, Cherbourg, and Bilbao  are operated by Irish Ferries, Stena Line, and Brittany Ferries.

The support package will be restricted to the five designated routes, and will be targeted at compensating the gap between specified costs and revenues generated on the services. Transport companies will continue to pay shipping companies for the services on these routes as usual.

In education, universities, and colleges will not be holding written, oral, or practical assessments in examination centres during the pandemic.

Higher education institutions have finalised alternative assessment arrangements, with options including online exams, written assignments, or rescheduling, with new arrangements being communicated to all students.

Higher education minister Mary Mitchell OConnor has asked all institutions to focus on those about to graduate.

I can reassure students and their parents that high standards are being maintained and a clear pathway to qualification is still available, she said.
Six health workers wounded in Mondays attack, blamed on Haftars forces, on hospital treating coronavirus patients.

The United Nations has condemned the shelling of a hospital in Tripoli, calling it a clear violation of international law as Libya struggles to prepare for an outbreak of the new coronavirus.

On Monday, projectiles struck the grounds of the Al Khadra General Hospital located in an area held by the internationally recognised government near a front line, injuring at least six health workers.

Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a news conference held via video link that the UN was appalled to learn of the shelling.

He read out a statement by Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya, Yacoub El Hillo.

At a moment when people in Libya needed nothing more than a safe home and functioning medical facilities, we received the news of yet another attack on a hospital, the statement said.

This is a clear violation of international humanitarian law  It is unacceptable at a time when healthcare and health workers are vital in our fight against a global pandemic, said Laerke quoting El Hillo.

A deplorable strike like this, resulting in senseless damage of a most needed medical facility, cannot be justified, said Laerke.

The local council of Abu Salim district said the hospital was hit by rockets fired by the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) of renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar, which has been attempting to capture Tripoli since last April.

Abu Salim council posted photographs showing damaged cars in the hospital grounds.

Six wounded

Al Jazeeras Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Tripoli, said that six health workers were wounded in the attack.

The hospital sustained substantial damage in the attack. Not only it is one of the largest hospitals in Tripoli, it is the only one dedicated to COVID-19 patients, who were recently transferred there, Abdelwahed said.

Libyas health infrastructure has been badly reduced by years of chaos and conflict since the 2011 uprising against strongman Muammar Gaddafi, and aid agencies have warned it is poorly prepared to withstand a major coronavirus outbreak.

Libya has confirmed 18 cases of the virus so far, but despite the pleas of the UN for a ceasefire, the conflict has escalated sharply over the past two weeks.
A healthcare worker dons protective gear before attending to a COVID-19 patient in intensive care at the Vall d'Hebron hospital in Barcelona, Spain. (Pau Barrena / AFP/Getty Images)

The memory of seeing dozens of coronavirus-infected senior citizens isolated at a nursing home in northern Spain haunts Juan Gonzalez.

Gonzalez, director of training for an emergency health team that serves the Asturias region, recently responded to a nursing home where seniors who were not infected were separated from those who were ill, which he agreed made sense. But seeing the 80 or so seniors left behind for treatment amid the deadly virus while his team relocated the healthy made a powerfully sad impression on Gonzalez, one he cannot shake no matter how he tries.

I barely get a couple of hours of sleep. I wake up in a panic, startled," he said recently at Transinsa, an emergency transport service with 150 ambulances.

"It is a war without bombs," said Gonzalez, who also struggles with knowing that colleagues may become infected while doing their jobs. "We are on the front line and sometimes what protects you is a double-edged sword. If you touch a contaminated surface with the glove, the glove is the enemy.

Spain, one of the nations hardest-hit by the coronavirus, has seen ambulance companies report hundreds of workers stricken by COVID-19, according to data from the country's National Federation of Ambulance Cos., or ANEA. The 17 autonomous regions in Spain mainly hire private health transport companies for emergency services.

Healthcare workers wearing protective suits tend to COVID-19 patients at the Vall d'Hebron hospital in Barcelona, Spain. The country is among those hardest-hit by the coronavirus. (Pau Barrena / AFP/Getty Images)

The country had recorded more than 135,000 cases of people infected with the coronavirus and more than 13,000 deaths as of Monday.

Emergency service centers throughout Spain and elsewhere receive calls all day, with numbers much higher in recent weeks because of the coronavirus.

"All the centers are overloaded at the moment. We have a lot of calls from the elderly, people up to 103 years old," said Eva Salas, head of the Transinsa ambulance service coordination center based in the city of Oviedo, in the Asturias region.

For the country's nearly 29,000 emergency health technicians, there is no respite. The emergency call center, which operates 24 hours, is bombarded with requests for help with coronavirus cases.

Story continues

In less than a month, that ambulance company had performed more than 1,000 coronavirus transfers and 2,000 home tests. Every person who tests positive or who is suspected of having the coronavirus has to be transferred by ambulance from home to a medical center.

"We try to have as few casualties as possible. The situation generates fear and a lot of stress among our colleagues, but we must remain calm," said Carlos Paniceres, director of Transinsa.

A call for help came into the office related to COVID-19. Manuel Lopez and his colleague Carlos Valdes prepared to respond.

They joked as they put on their protective equipment, though there also was a sense of concern. A few hours before, they had been notified that two of their former ambulance crew members had tested positive for the coronavirus.

As Lopez drove the ambulance, the sound of the siren, almost as strong as the smell of disinfectant, broke the sepulchral silence that for days had dominated the streets of Spain. The country's 47 million people have been living in confinement since March 14 per government orders to try to contain the virus.

A woman received them at her apartment. Upon seeing the paramedics in protective gear, she quickly said she thought she was suffering from allergies or the flu, not the coronavirus.

Her words were cut short by her dry cough and breathing difficulty. She put on a protective mask. She said her chest hurt.

Over the course of a day, Valdes and Lopez make up to four transfers to hospitals. It's a tiring task. Cleaning the ambulance after each trip can take up to 45 minutes.

In some cases, emergency workers face concerns about adequate protective equipment while dealing with the workload.

Spain recorded more than 135,000 cases of people infected with the coronavirus and more than 13,000 deaths as of April 6, 2020. (Pau Barrena / AFP/Getty Images)

"We have twice as many casualties, either because they have the virus, or because they have isolated themselves. We are facing a workload that has never been seen before," said Carlos Magdaleno, president of the National Federation of Ambulance Cos.

Magdaleno said hundreds of ambulance workers have decided to isolate themselves for fear of infecting their families.

The Health Ministry and the General Council of Official Assns. of Psychologists of Spain recently set up a helpline to provide psychological support for people who are struggling amid the pandemic. The telephone service is aimed at managing outbreak-related stress and discomfort.

"Physically we are exhausted, but more so mentally. When the day is over, you collapse, Gonzalez said.

Psychologist Raquel Villa, who meets with emergency technicians to offer assistance in coping with traumatic experiences, said her 12-year-old daughter was sent to live with her grandparents in the countryside to try to keep her from being infected.

"Post-traumatic stress is going to be society's pandemic disease after this is over," Villa said.




But parents like me are also worried about having to take their kids, or themselves, to the doctor for issues not related to covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Not only do these injuries tax the currently overburdened health-care system, but by going to the doctor, we are potentially exposing ourselves to the virus. Or if we are unwitting, asymptomatic carriers, we risk exposing others.
Even as most Americans are under orders from their governor to stay at home to slow the spread of the coronavirus, leaders in a handful of states have steadfastly refused to take that action, arguing it's unneeded and could be harmful.

Nine governors have refused to issue statewide mandates that people stay at home, but local leaders have taken action in some of those states. North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas are the only states where no one is under a stay-at-home order.

The lack of action from those governors  even as they take other steps such as closing schools and limiting the size of gatherings  has frustrated health experts and left some residents puzzled.

If social distancing maneuvers are going to work, they're most likely going to work if you do them early," said Arthur L. Reingold, a professor and infectious disease expert at the University of California-Berkeley. The longer you wait, the harder it is for them to have a substantial impact on transmission of the virus.

That also has been the message of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert, who has said all states should have statewide orders that people remain at home.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought life to a near standstill in most parts of the world. Daily routines have halted as countries take drastic measures to check the spread of COVID-19. India, home to a fifth of the world population, is under lockdown for nearly two weeks now. The government is considering a calibrated exit from the 21-day shutdown imposed on March 25. Lives remain locked at homes, and politics and world matters take a back seat as nations grapple with an invisible enemy. Here is a closer look at neighbourhoods held hostage by the deadly virus. (Image: Shome Basu)

Emergency service workers remain busy at an apartment in Noida. The health department has set up makeshift offices in various parts of the country to deal with the crisis. (Image: Shome Basu)

Banks are functioning with a few staff. (Image: Shome Basu)

Thousands of migrant workers were stranded in cities after the country's sudden lockdown announcement over coronavirus. Many have walked hundreds of miles to reach their villages. (Image: Shome Basu)

While pharmacies remain open, people are finding it difficult to reach them in the absence of transport facilities. (Image: Shome Basu)

A discarded pair of protective gloves and a facemask. (Image: Shome Basu)

The national capitals Nizamuddin area, the headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat, has emerged as one of the COVID-19 hotspots after a large number of TJ workers suspected of being infected with the novel coronavirus were taken from its headquarters and sent off to quarantine centres. (Image: Shome Basu)

A Skype call to near and dear ones under the lockdown. (Image: Shome Basu)

Food products stacked up at an upper-class home. (Image: Shome Basu)

Thousands of Indians are working from home to curb the spread of COVID-19. (Image: Shome Basu)
SALEM, Ohio  It looks like the $30 million set aside for farmers conservation efforts this year through the H2Ohio initiative is shrinking, following unexpectedly high sign-up numbers and budget issues from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement released today, Dorothy Pelanda, Ohio Department of Agriculture director, said nearly 2,000 farmers submitted applications to enroll more than 1.1 million acres in the program in the Maumee River Watershed.

Additionally, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Mike DeWine ordered state agencies, March 23, to cut spending up to 20% for the rest of this fiscal year and the next. So, the ODA is considering making adjustments to its budget for the H2Ohio program.

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a necessary reevaluation of ODAs budget for the H2Ohio Initiative, Pelanda said.

The statement did not specify how much of the original funding would still be available after the budget reevaluation. The ODA said it would communicate with farmers on the status of H2Ohio once it had more details.

This April 7 announcement comes just over a week after the ODA walked back a deadline extension for farmers to apply for H2Ohio funding. The administration said March 18 that it would extend the deadline to June 2, in response to COVID-19 concerns.

Then, March 30, it announced that the deadline would be moved back to its original date, March 31. The ODA called the second deadline change an effort to preserve resources for the program.

In July 2019, the general assembly set aside $172 million to fund the initiative over two years.

Of that, $30 million was set to offer funding for farmers in the Maumee River Watershed to improve their conservation efforts this year.

While funding was limited to farmers in that watershed for 2020, it was expected to later expand into other parts of the state. The rest of the budget for this year was planned to be used for wetlands created and improving water quality by addressing failing septic systems and preventing lead contamination.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on April 7 that the COVID-19 deaths in the state hit a new one-day peak, with 731 people dead in the largest single-day increase in fatalities since the coronavirus crisis engulfed the state, the epicentre of the pandemic in the US.

"The bad news is 5,489 New Yorkers have lost their lives to this virus. That is up from 4,758, the largest single day increase. That's 731 people who we lost. Behind every one of those numbers is an individual, is a family, is a mother, is a father," Cuomo said.

The state has a total of 138,836 coronavirus cases and as of April 7, 5,489 people have died, up by 731 from the morning of April 6.

Cuomo said the number of newly hospitalised patients is also up from April 6. In what he described as "good news", Cuomo said daily ICU admissions and daily intubations numbers are down.

And right now we're projecting that we are reaching a plateau in the total number of hospitalisations and you can see the growth is starting to flatten. Again this is a projection. It still depends on what we do and what we do will affect those numbers. This is not an act of God that we're looking at. It's an act of what society actually does, he said in his daily media briefing.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The Governor said he is coordinating with Governors of New Jersey and Connecticut on plans to restart the economy and daily life.

We're not there yet. But this is not a light switch that we can just flick one day, and everything goes back to normal. We're going to have to restart that economy, we're going to have to restart a lot of systems that we shut down abruptly. And we need to start to plan for that, he said.

He said that he has spoken to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont about coming up with a regional metropolitan tri-state approach to restart the economy and get everything up and running as quickly as possible.

Cuomo's grim announcement on the increase in COVID-19 deaths came after the state witnessed an effectively flat death toll for two days and saw drop in number of hospitalizations and ICU admissions, which the Governor has said could be good signs of a possible flattening of the coronavirus curve in the state.

On April 6, Cuomo had offered a slight glimmer of hope when he said the death toll in the state has been effectively flat for two days.

In the 24 hours since April 4, the death toll grew to all-time increase of 630. But on both April 5 and April 6, fewer than 600 deaths from the virus were reported in New York - 594 on April 5, 599 on April 6. In New York City, the number of cases had reached 68,766 and the death toll was 2,738.

Cuomo has said while the death toll is not good news, the possible flattening of the curve is better than the increases that we have seen.

His aide Jim Malatras had said based on the earliest projections, it was estimated that the pandemic peak in the state would come at the end of April and would require around 110,000 beds just for COVID-19 patients.

Cuomo earlier announced the state is increasing the maximum fine for violations of the state's social distancing protocol from $500 to $1,000 to help address the lack of adherence to social distancing protocols.
Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, on Monday said the states rapid response team (RRT) has identified at least 75 persons who have had contact with persons who tested positive for COVID-19.

Two people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Kwara. One is a recent returnee from the UK while the other is the wife of another returnee who died of suspected COVID-19 at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the teaching hospital suspended a professor it said misled the hospital medical staff by not providing information that a patient he brought to the hospital had COVID-19 symptoms and was on self-isolation. The patient later died while his wife later tested positive for COVID-19.

On Tuesday, Mr AbdulRazaq told a news briefing in Ilorin that he has also signed a regulation, dated April 6, to give legal backing to the governments measures to contain the pandemic in Kwara State  and said the highlight of the law includes sanctions against anyone caught endangering public safety in whatever form or seeking to unfairly profit from our collective vulnerability and need for essential commodities at this time.

The governor said the contacts  who have since begun isolation in line with COVID-19 protocol include staff of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) who attended to a suspected case who died in the facility last Thursday.

Our job is cut out for us and we are definitely not dropping the ball. Contact tracing by the Rapid Response Team of the medical advisory committee has so far netted 75 persons who have had contacts with the cases and the suspected case at UITH, Mr AbdulRazaq told the live press briefing in Ilorin, flanked by top government officials and statesmen already drafted into Kwaras COVID-19 response effort.

This is a trying moment for the whole of mankind. But we are definitely not helpless or without reasonable preparation in Kwara State. We are also blessed with committed professionals who are up to the task and willing to stand up and be counted at this time  while also taking all precautions.

COVID-19 is a global pandemic. Contracting it is neither a death sentence nor an indication of guilt. We urge Kwarans to avoid crowded space, isolate themselves, and call our helplines if they have just returned from places of interest in the last three weeks. The government will quickly extend the ongoing fumigation exercise to these places of interest, including Offa, where contamination may have occurred as a result of this infectious disease. Notwithstanding our preparation, we are not ashamed to say that Kwara State will be glad to get all the help it can receive at this moment.

Mr AbdulRazaq said the administration is doubling down on its sensitisation efforts across various media platforms, including calling on traditional rulers to help spread the message in the hinterlands.

The governor said the government is utterly disappointed at the development at the UITH, demanding immediate suspension of Professor Alakija Salami for his role in the controversy.

The government is utterly disappointed at the breach of trust that played out in the UITH case. Without prejudice to the internal investigation by UITH, we demand immediate suspension of Professor Alakija Kazeem Salami and every other official of UITH whose professional misconducts brought us down this path, he said.

Finally, Kwarans, this is no time to panic. Please stay calm. The Government will do everything to keep you safe. But we also need you to play your own role. Stay at home. Keep social distancing. Avoid crowd. Prioritise personal hygiene. And please do not spread unverified news.

The government has commended corporate bodies and private individuals who have donated to the counter-COVID-19 campaign.

The government is grateful to Sterling Bank Plc for the donation of N30m; Olam Investments for giving us 30 tons trailer load spaghetti, 300 bags of rice, and 50 cartons of sunnola oil; the Christian Association of Nigeria for the gift of cartons of kings vegetable oil and 100 cartons of (70g) Golden Penny; Dr Samuel Akinlaja of Peace Standard Pharmaceuticals for the gift of 5,000 (70ml) bottles of hand sanitisers.

We are equally thankful to Ibrahim Olaiya and Sons of Olak Petroleum for giving us N5m; Arshov Solution Cleaning Service for donating 8 cartons of indomie noodles, 10 cartons of bottle water, 2 packs of toilet rolls, 3 packs of spaghetti, and 3 bags of semovita; Adesokan Ibilade Joel for the gift of N100,000; Afolabi Hammed of Haphoo Unisex fashion school for the gift of 29 pieces of locally made face masks; MD Chelfcom Construction Company Nigeria Ltd for giving us N1.5m; a secondary school teacher at ECWA Secondary School Igbaja Mrs Aboyeji Janet Shola for giving us a quarter of her monthly salary; and a student, Mohammadu Sanni Machido for the gift of a part of his savings N3,760. These gifts mean everything to the administration as it ramps up efforts to contain the virus and reach out to the poorest of the poor.

Rafiu Ajakaye

Chief Press Secretary to the Governor/

Spokesman for the Technical Committee on COVID-19.

April 7th, 2020.
After taking a break from her career as a junior doctor in order to represent her country in the Miss World pageant in December 2019, Miss England 2019 title holder, Bhasha Muhkerjee returned to the United Kingdom to continue her career and help the country in battling the coronavirus pandemic.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Mukherjee has previously planned to hang up her stethoscope and keep her focus on humanitarian work up until August of this year, after she was invited to become an ambassador for several charities.

In an interview with CNN, the doctor and beauty queen said that she was invited to several countries including Africa, Turkey, india, and Pakistan and promote charity work of some organizations.

Early in March, the 24-year-old beauty queen has stayed in India for four weeks in behalf of a development and community charity, Coventry Mercia Lions Club as their ambassador. The sprearheaded donation drives of stationery items in schools and also represented the charity in presenting monetary doantions to home for abandoned girls.

However, as the coronavirus crisis in UK worsened, Murkherjee started to receive messages from her colleagues at the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Eastern England where she used to work. They were telling her how challenging the situation in the country already is due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

After receiving the messages, Mukherjee then contacted the management of the hospital and informed them that she wanted to return to work and be in the frontlines as they combat COVID-19. She also said that wearing her Miss England crown while people around the world were already dying from the diseases did not feel right, even if it was for humanitarian work. She also said that she wanted to help her colleagues who were working very hard.

Read also: WATCH: Nurse Demonstrates How Fast Germs Spread Even When Wearing Gloves

Mukherjee also said that while doing humanitarian work, she is still expected to put on a crown and look pretty, and she felt bad about it saying that she wanted to come back home go straight to work and help people.

A Doctor before she was a Beauty Queen.

Mukherjee also stated that she felt that the reason that she got her degree in the first place is to be able to help in times of need. She also noted that there is no better time to be part of the health care sector than right now.

Furthermore, she expressed her amazement in the way the world is celebreating the frontliners amid the crisis and that she wanted to be one of those who are helping the world survive.

Thus, the doctor turned beauty queen has decided to take off her crown, put on her scrubs and a stethoscope over her shoulder once again.

On Wednesday, she finally returned to the UK saying that she is going to be Miss England and help England at the same time. According to reports, Mukherjee's return is indeed very helpful since she specializes in respiratory medicine and SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19 targets a person's respiratory system.

At the moment, Mukherjee is still under self-isolationfor two weeks before she will be able to return to work.

Related article: COVID-19 Cheers: Philippines Frontliners in 'Money Heist,' 'Power Rangers,' 'Black Panther,' Colorful PPEs

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  The government's "early announcement" of extending the Luzon-wide quarantine is crucial in helping slow the spread of the coronavirus, the special adviser to the national task force on COVID-19 says.

Dr. Tony Leachon, speaking to CNN Philippines on Tuesday, commended what he called a preemptive move by the government, which he said will buy the country more time to address the pandemic.

I think ang galing ng ginawa ng Presidente sa pag-announce [ng extension] nang earlier, Leachon said.

[Translation: I think it was a great decision by the President to announce the extension at an earlier time.]

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nogares, who is COVID-19 interagency task force (IATF) spokesperson, announced Tuesday morning that President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the recommendation of the IATF to extend the quarantine to 11:59 pm of April 30. The quarantine period was originally scheduled to end on April 12.

That gives us three weeks right now, instead of two weeks, Leachon said. We have time to do the mass testing right now, we have time to go to the COVID hospitals, we [can do] all these measures at an earlier time. Bumabawi tayo.

The special adviser added that the country has not yet seen the peak of the outbreak.

We are going up to the peak eh, we havent reached it yet, he said, citing data from Johns Hopkins University. He also stressed that with the extension of the quarantine, efforts to contain the viral disease must be executed with excellence.

Dapat with rigor and details tayo," he noted."At dapat everyday ang meeting nito, whether we are actually achieving our goals day-to-day."

[Translation: Our anti-COVID-19 plans must be executed with rigor and details. We should hold meetings everyday to assess if our goals are being achieved.]

What happens after April 30?

Once the Luzon-wide lockdown is lifted after April 30, Leachon said that preventive measures must still be strictly exercised.

Actually, I think the new normal is social distancing, he said. We will maintain that, yung hygienic measures. We will develop a way of life na malinis tayong lahat.

He emphasized the need to be uncomplacent when it comes to such measures in order to prevent a second wave of COVID-19 outbreak.

Leachon singled out Singapore which is currently facing a second wave of the pandemic. The country had initially garnered praise for its early response to the coronavirus disease.

Ang nangyari naging complacent sila, Leachon said. [Translation: What happened is that they became complacent.] The city-state announced on April 3 that it will be closing all schools and offices to prevent escalating infections.

Leachon also called for an intensive surveillance of the country until a vaccine for COVID-19 is developed. According to scientists, the coronavirus vaccine may take about 18 months to develop for mass production.

As of April 7, the health department has recorded 3,764 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country. The death toll is now at 177, while a total of 84 patients have already recovered.
The government has extended the validity of identity cards due to the health crisis.

On Tuesday morning, the Luxembourg government announced it would extend the validity for identity cards, following a proposal made at the government council on 1 April. Identity cards will be valid for three months following the end of the state of emergency.

Identity cards belonging to residents who moved during the crisis were still valid after March 1, 2020. This will also be the case for cards that expired after that date.

The extension of the validity period by three months after the state of crisis will allow municipalities to take the necessary steps. However, residents who need to travel will have to renew the card as soon as possible, as it is not certain that an expired Luxembourg document will be accepted by foreign authorities, despite the extension.

The Ministry said requests for obtaining identity cards can be submitted on Guichet.lu, or to the State Information Technology Centre (appointment to be made by e-mail: eid.helpdesk @ ctie.etat.lu or by phone at 247-82000). Citizens can also apply at

the municipality of residence by querying the operating procedures of the service and justifying the urgency of their request.
Iggy Azalea is currently under lockdown amid the coronavirus outbreak and she's been vocal about how bored she is.

The Australian-born rapper shared an Instagram Stories update on Monday, indicating that spending several weeks in quarantine was wearing her down.

She captioned a video clip, in which she pulls funny faces: 'A pyjama party everyday sounds fun until you're 21 days in'.

Bored: Iggy Azalea (pictured) is currently under lockdown amid the coronavirus outbreak and she's been vocal about how bored she is. The rapper shared an Instagram Stories update on Monday, indicating that spending several weeks in quarantine was wearing her down

In the clip, the performer had her blonde hair pulled back and wore a full face of makeup.

She was rugged up in pair of grey velvet pyjamas and used a brightly coloured Instagram filter.

Late last month, the 29-year-old told fans she was going to watch the 2019 film Cats - which was universally panned - to help pass the time.

She captioned a video clip, in which she pulls funny faces: 'A pyjama party everyday sounds fun until you're 21 days in'

She wrote on Twitter: 'I mean... am I about to watch "Cats"... I am that bored.'

A fan told the US-based artist: 'Don't do it, it's so bad.'

Iggy, who was born Amethyst Amelia Kelly, replied: 'So bad that it becomes ironically good?'

'I think that you should not, it's horrible (or at least that's what everyone is saying),' another follower told the Fancy hitmaker.

Tune in: Late last month, the 29-year-old told fans she was going to watch the 2019 film Cats - which was universally panned - to help pass the time

A fan told the US-based artist: 'Don't do it, it's so bad' but she did anyway

After a short time passed, she tweeted: 'To clarify no one actually told me this was singing the entire time.' Pictured: Taylor Swift in Cats

In defense of the film, Iggy said: 'You can't say something is terrible with any kind of authority if you admit to not having actually seen it at all.'

She then added: 'I'm about to go and see for myself.'

After a short time passed, she tweeted: 'To clarify no one actually told me this was singing the entire time.'

She later added: 'Whelp those were some talented cats, there's no denying that.'
A hunt is underway to find a man who allegedly attacked a young woman on a Melbourne bus after she told him to take his feet off the seat.

The Footscray woman, 20, was travelling on a Route 220 bus from Sunshine to the CBD when a male passenger put his feet on her seat.

The woman asked the man to remove his feet from the seat, only for him to stand up and allegedly repeatedly punch her in the head as the bus travelled along Footscray Road.

Pictured is a man police believe can assist with inquiries into the alleged incident

The man was last seen getting off the bus at the intersection of Dudley Street and Wurundjeri Way in Docklands.

The woman suffered minor injuries.

Victoria Police have released CCTV images of a man who they believe can assist with their inquiries into the March 12 incident which happened at around 10.30am.

The man is described as being of African appearance, aged 30-40, 175cm tall with black afro-like hair with short sides and a comb in it, a beard and diamond earrings.

He was wearing a brown tweed jacket, light-coloured shirt and pants, brown leather shoes and carrying a cross-body bag.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Police released CCTV footage of a man they believe can assist with their inquiries
A uthorities have found the body of the grand-niece of former US President John F. Kennedy, who went missing with her son in a boating incident last week.

Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, a human rights lawyer and professor at Georgetown University, went into the Chesapeake Bay off Maryland to fetch a missing ball with her son Gideon on Thursday evening.

The family were self-isolating at their relative's coastal Maryland home, husband David McKean said in a Facebook post. They were playing with a ball outside when someone kicked it into the water.

"They got into a canoe, intending simply to retrieve the ball, and somehow got pushed by wind or tide into the open bay," he added.

Mr McKean said that his wife and son were next seen half an hour later much further out to sea by an onlooker.

Police found their overturned canoe later that evening.

Ms McKean's body was found by a diving search-and-rescue team on Monday, police said.

The search for Gideon's body continues.

JF Kennedy in London 1 /4 JF Kennedy in London Eerie: the couple bore a striking resemblance to JFK and Jackie O Tia Cox Tour: the motorcade drove around London Tia Cox Classic: many were impressed with the presidential car Tia Cox Engine trouble: the old car appeared to have some problems Tia Cox

Mr McKean said Ms McKean was "magical" and "the brightest light I have ever known", while Gideon was "deeply compassionate" and "courageous".

Ms McKeans mother Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a former senior Maryland politician, said on Friday night. With profound sadness, I share the news that the search for my beloved daughter Maeve and grandson Gideon has turned from rescue to recovery,

Our Maeve devoted her life to helping societys most vulnerable. She did everything with her full self and her whole heart. She gave the best hugs, sang loudly and out of tune, danced, wrestled, argued, forgave. Maeve shone. The fire emanating from her soul warmed us all.
A member of the medical service of Spanish automobile manufacturer SEAT checks a ventilator manufactured at the company's factory in Martorell near Barcelona, on April 7, 2020. (Pau Barrena/AFP via Getty Images)

CCP Virus Deaths in Spain Near 14,000 as Pace Ticks Up

Deaths from the CCP virus in Spain neared 14,000 on April 7 as the pace of deaths ticked up for the first time in five days.

Spain, one of the hardest-hit countries in the world, recorded 743 deaths overnight, bringing the total to 13,912.

Spains official death toll is the second-highest worldwide, but official reports from China and Iran are believed to be severely manipulated.

While the 5.7 percent increase was slightly above that on April 6, the proportional daily increase was still just half of that reported a week ago.

Maria Jose Sierra, deputy chief of health emergencies, said in a statement that oscillations are normal. What matters is to see the trend and the cumulative data, she said. The latest data included some delayed notifications from the weekend, she added.

Some 63,093 patients have been hospitalized, of whom 7,069 are in intensive care units, both small increases from April 6. Spanish authorities also said the total number of confirmed cases climbed by more than 5,000 to 140,510, which is 3.7 percent, in a nation that once saw a daily increase in cases of 22 percent.

Spanish soldiers patrol the streets of Valencia on April 7, 2020. (Jose Jordan/AFP via Getty Images)

The number of people who fully recovered from COVID-19 also rose by about 2,800 to 43,208.

Most of the new deaths were in Madrid and Catalonia, Spains most affected regions.

A lockdown implemented last month has Spaniards holed up at home except for essential trips. For restrictions to be lifted, officials say testing has to be widened, to find carriers who may have mild or no symptoms.

A growing body of evidence points to infected people being able to pass on the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, even if theyre not showing symptoms. Up to 1 in 4 patients will never show symptoms, U.S. authorities have stated.

Spains government is planning mass, quick antibody tests in coming days. Cadena SER radio said about 62,000 people would be tested twice with an interval of 21 days to see the effect of any easing of measures on contagion.

Ambulance workers push a wheelchair with a patient at a nursing home during the CCP virus outbreak in Leganes Madrid, near Madrid, on April 2, 2020. (Juan Medina/Reuters)

The Ministry of Health said on April 7 that it acquired 5 million rapid antibody detection tests and started distributing more than 1 million of them. The tests will primarily be used at nursing homes, health centers, and hospitals. Theyll be used in conjunction with standard PCR tests for the virus.

Hospitals in various areas reported a drop in severe cases after the influx in March caused severe overloads. Only 138 new patients were admitted overnight to intensive care units nationwide.

Mari Angels Rodriguez, a nurse at the Hospital Josep Trueta hospital in Girona in northeastern Spain, said the volume of work in the intensive care unit had fallen a lot.

The collapse in the first few days was brutal; everyone was coming to emergency services, all the usual causes as well as all the possible cases of COVID-19, she told AFP. What wears me out the most is seeing young and middle-aged people, without chronic conditions, who arrive in moderate shape and quickly end up in the intensive care unit.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Great Flu| Period: 1918 | Symptoms: Fever, dry cough, fatigue, difficulty in breathing, bad cold | Also known as Spanish flu, it infected 500 million people around the world, killing over 50 million. (Image: wikimedia.org)

Emily Badger and Quoctrung Bui

As the first local influenza deaths were counted in the fall of 1918, officials in Minneapolis moved quickly  more aggressively than even state health officials thought was wise  and shut down the city. They closed schools, churches, theaters and pool halls, effective midnight on October 12.

Across the Mississippi River, St. Paul remained largely open into November, with its leaders confident they had the epidemic under control. Fully three weeks after Minneapolis  with The St. Paul Pioneer Press pleading In Heavens Name Do Something!  St. Paul ordered sweeping closures, too.

Both cities, relative to the worst-hit parts of the country, escaped steep death tolls. But the mortality rate in Minneapolis was considerably lower than in St. Paul. And as researchers today look back on those interventions, it appears the economy in Minneapolis emerged stronger, too.

The comparison between the Twin Cities is instructive today not just for what it tells us about the health benefits of social distancing, but also for what it says about any economic costs that come with it.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

In 1918, cities that committed earlier and longer to interventions like banning public gatherings and closing schools didnt fare worse for disrupting their economies for longer. Many of those cities actually had relatively larger gains in manufacturing employment, manufacturing output and bank assets in 1919 and into the next few years, according to a new study from researchers at the Federal Reserve and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This is particularly clear among Western cities that had more time to prepare for a pandemic that hit the East Coast first.

For cities with the most aggressive interventions, theres no trade-off apparent in this data between saving lives and hurting the economy.

If anything, these places do better, said Emil Verner, an economist at MIT, who wrote the paper with Sergio Correia and Stephan Luck of the Fed.

The reasons this would be true arent particularly hard to understand. But the same logic has been questioned today by elected officials and commentators who fear that social distancing in response to the coronavirus may not be worth the costs in shuttered businesses and unprecedented unemployment rolls.

The pandemic itself is just so destructive to the economy, so any policy that you can use that directly mitigates the severity of the pandemic can actually be beneficial for the economy, Verner said. Stricter interventions actually make it safer for economic activity to resume, and they mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic itself on mortality.

This second point was particularly important in 1918, because that pandemic devastated prime-working-age adults.

It was a very gendered economy where the breadwinners were almost exclusively men, said Howard Markel, who directs the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan. The fewer men that died who could then go and pursue their work once it ended meant that those families were better off than those that lost that breadwinner, who would then become potentially destitute.

Markel and a separate team of researchers previously compiled the historical records that tell us today how cities reacted to the 1918 influenza, and how many deaths were counted as it wore on. Their earlier work showed that cities that adopted interventions early, held them in place longer and layered them together  for instance, closing schools, banning public gatherings and isolating sick residents  were more successful managing the epidemic and reducing fatalities.

The new research by Verner and colleagues adds economic data to that record. Of course, some cities had stronger economies going into the pandemic, or were affected disproportionately by economic shocks that had little to do with the influenza outbreak. West Coast cities, for instance, were more affected by agricultural booms and busts around the end of World War I. But the underlying pattern the researchers found held even when they took into account economic and demographic differences between cities.

One simpler way to see this is to compare cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul that are geographically close and were relatively similar in other ways at the time. On the West Coast, even as cities had more time to prepare, Los Angeles declared a state of emergency and banned all public gatherings early on, while San Francisco focused instead on urging residents to wear masks in public, which proved ineffective. Pittsburgh delayed closing its schools longer than other Eastern industrial cities like Cleveland, and it fared worse.

The comparison between the Twin Cities in 1918 is instructive today not just for what it tells us about the health benefits of social distancing, but also for what it says about any economic costs that come with it. (New York Times)

In local news accounts at the time compiled by Markel and colleagues, there are plenty of examples of business owners who objected to the closings, even lobbying to roll them back. In Atlanta, theaters and movie houses complained of their losses, as did retailers in Columbus, Ohio. Cleveland hotels lost an estimated $200,000. In Philadelphia, saloons claimed they lost $350,000.

But theres less evidence that people were worried about lasting economic damage from those public health measures, as some Americans are today, including, at times, the president. Americans in 1918 were accustomed to more localized boom-and-bust economies, Markel said. They didnt have 401(k)s they were checking daily, or instantaneous access to news about the stock market.

In Minneapolis at the time, the newspapers reflected few such dire concerns about the economy, especially as the good news of the end of World War I in November competed with stories about the pandemic.

The city was almost schizophrenic: People were celebrating these victories while they were clearly worried about the fact that people were getting ill, said Iric Nathanson, who writes about the history of the Twin Cities and has researched the 1918 pandemic there. But there were never screaming headlines about the flu epidemic in the paper. I dont think anybody had assumed there was going to be a long-term economic fallout.

The outlook today is clearly grimmer. The economy is now global, leaving local communities susceptible to coronavirus effects on the other side of the world. And so much of the modern service-sector economy in the U.S. is contingent on people getting together  on planes, in restaurants, at theatres, in tourism hubs.

But this lesson from 1918 is probably still true today: Its the pandemic that really hurts the economy, not the things we do to try to contain it.

c.2020 The New York Times Company
Pakistani forces initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation at 7:40 am on Tuesday (April 7) by firing with small arms and shelling with mortars along LoC in Mankote sector in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir. Sources told Zee Media that Indian Army retaliated befittingly to unprovoked ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops.

The ceasefire violation happened just a day after five Indian soldiers got martyred in operation against the terrorists at the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

On Sunday (April 5), Indian Army had said that a total of nine terrorists have been eliminated in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir by security forces. According to Army, the terrorists were killed in two separate operations.

Five terrorists were killed on Sunday during an anti-infiltration operation in Keran sector of North Kashmir. The terrorists were killed when they were trying to infiltrate across the Line of Control (LOC) by taking advantage of the bad weather.
According to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) public health professor Jonathan Fielding, chief of the Los Angeles Department of Public Health from 1998 to 2014, the decline of vital public health infrastructure, which included the loss of workforce staff and resources, perhaps began even prior to the start of his tenure in that office.

Politicians and media pundits have accepted that mass sickness and death are the inevitable product of the COVID-19 outbreak. Entirely absent from their lips are the words eradication of disease.

Along with the lack of COVID-19 tests, which remain lifesaving and vital, Dr. Fielding told the Los Angeles Times on March 20 that the biggest obstacle facing public health authorities is the inability to track every single new presenting case back to its origins for as many steps and persons as necessary to find the initial infection in a given community.

That was one of the first things we needed to do, and it can make (and would have made) a huge difference, Fielding told the Times. Its very disappointing how slow we were in the United States.

Had this been done, each infected person would have been isolated immediately. In other circumstances, where the disease is treatable, therapy would start right away, such as when a new case of tuberculosis is diagnosed. All household and workplace contacts would have been urgently identified, quarantined and tested. If the newly quarantined individual became ill from a virus for which there was no primary front-line treatment, they would have received effective care as needed.

Successfully combating COVID-19 is a process wholly dependent on painstakingly testing, isolating and quarantining every single diagnosed person. There is no other way to halt a communicable disease, including in an era of vaccine availability.

These are long-established and elementary principles that have guided public health departments for generations, halting attacks by microbes and viruses, including smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, polio and many others. Why, then, have these principles been ignored with reckless abandon when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are the funding agencies for the 50 states and the several thousands of local health departments in most of the over 3,000 counties in the US. Historically, the local departments have been variously staffed with a designated public health officer, testing laboratories, a public health nurse, access to trained epidemiologists, and a workforce to interview diagnosed disease cases to identify and locate other human contacts and exposures.

Last year, Public Health Director for Riverside County Kim Saruwatari warned California state lawmakers at a Senate and Assembly hearing in Sacramento that they were courting disaster when and if the populace encountered a pandemic, given the succession of budget cuts enacted over the previous 10 years.

She told the Times last week that her department was left with fewer trained staff to conduct case investigations and contact tracing, fewer epidemiologists to assist with analysis, fewer lab staff and less funding for updated laboratory equipment. Funding cuts of 30 to 40 percent by the CDC and HHS affected all but one of Californias 58 counties.

The executive director for the Health Officers Association of California, Kat DeBurgh, told the Times that budget cuts for public health closed 11 testing labs in as many counties in recent years. We can definitely see that the public health workforce has drastically shrunk and never recovered, she said. That really shows at a time like today.

States across the country faced similar cuts. Between 2008 and 2017, some 55,000 public health workers jobs were destroyed in over 3,000 public health departments.

These cuts reduced the capacity for these health departments to prevent illness and loss of life, John Auerbach, president of the public health advocacy group Trust for Americas Health (TFAH), told the Times. Their impact is being illuminated in an all too real fashion by the novel coronavirus.

The TFAH estimated last year that, at a minimum, US public health is underfunded by $4.5 billion. Cuts to public health infrastructure were carried out by both Democratic and Republican administrations.

In 2012, President Obama diverted $6 billion from public health funding to cover physician reimbursements that had been cut from Medicare. Another $450 million was taken from public health funding to set up the Affordable Health Care insurance markets.

In 2018, President Trumps massive tax cut for the wealthy slashed $750 million from the CDC. That same year, the CDCs monitoring of novel virus emergence in 49 countries was reduced to 10 nations, which excluded China.

From 2003 to 2019, the CDCs funding for state and local preparedness for extreme weather events, epidemics, and the opioid crisis was cut by a third. Meanwhile, the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP), which functions to stockpile equipment needed for health emergencies, was cut in half.

In 2017, there were 18 declared public health emergencies compared to 29 in the previous 10 years. Nonetheless, in 2018, 17 state governments cut public health funding, including Texas, Alaska and Maine, which all slashed their budgets by more than 12 percent, according to a 2019 report issued by the TFAH. Of the $3.5 trillion spent on health care in 2017, only 2.5 percent was spent on public health.

In the fall of 2018, Trumps HHS secretary Alex Azar diverted $260 million in CDC funds so that they could be used to lock up immigrant children in the southwestern concentration camps, according to The Hill. Another $13 million used for the same project was taken from the National Cancer Institute, and $5.7 million from a CDC HIV prevention project.

The $750 million in cuts to the CDC funding for fiscal year 2019 included $236 million for chronic disease prevention, $146 million for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, $102 million for emerging and zoonotic (infectious diseases jumping from species to species), $52 million for environmental health, such as lead poisoning prevention, $20 million from injury prevention and control, $30 million for public health and preparedness and response, and $78 million for immunizations.

The disinvestment in public health programs will only cost this nation more in the end, Laura Hanen, then interim director of government affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told The Nations Health, the publication for the American Public Health Association, in 2018.

The budget makes deep cuts that will negatively impact the CDC and state and local health departments to do their jobwhich is to keep our communities healthy and safe, she said.

The destruction of the countrys public health infrastructure over the last 30 years has left the countrys population disastrously exposed. As hundreds die every day, the political establishment has been more concerned with keeping the stock market afloat than protect workers from the onslaught of this deadly pandemic.

There was nothing inevitable about the current public health crisis. Rather, it is a predictable outcome of years of budget cuts to the nations public health infrastructure.
We are open for business, said Corra Group Co-Founder, Gordon Basichis. We are working remotely but we are able function and offer background checks domestically and globally."

Corra Group is open for business during the Covid-19 crisis and is structured to provide background checks domestically and internationally. The El Segundo, California based service is able to assist with employment screening and due diligence services.

We are open for business, said Corra Group Co-Founder, Gordon Basichis. We are working remotely but through our new working format we are able function and correspond with our clients and researchers. Granted, as with most companies right now, there can be delays, but we are getting a return on most background checks.

There are states where the county courthouses are closed, said Basichis. So there are delays with different criminal records searches and civil records searches. This is to be expected, given the Covid-19 pandemic and the caution many states are using to keep their public workers safe. Then in some counties we are able to access criminal and civil records without any issues. Motor Vehicle Records Searches are still returning in most states in about a minute or so. This is significant because logistics is just so important right now to assure delivery of vital products to people around the country.

Basichis pointed out that Corra Group is still conducting international criminal searches as well as international civil searches and international education verification. He allowed that this process can be spotty as many universities are closed and this can cause significant delays. He noted that some countries are denying access right now to criminal records as the pandemic overload is just too much to handle.

Many businesses are closed right now, said Basichis. However, we see with our clients that many businesses are up and running, albeit not as smoothly as in normal times. But these are not normal times. Businesses are looking to function remotely now, and it has taken a while to work out the kinks. I saw that last week remote business interaction was starting to gain traction and find its way, and our clients are getting the hang of it.

Trucking and transportation are a critical factor, said Basichis. Drivers are delivering supplies to our cities and people in need. The same could be said for retail workers in essential businesses. These are crazy times and Corra Group, along with everyone else, is thinking of ways to get through this.

Summary: Corra operates as Corra Group and Corra Global Research and is a full service employment screening company that offers the full range of background checks, due diligence, and business research to industries throughout the United States and around the world.
Cambodian workers pack betel nuts at the Pak Klong Talad flower market in Bangkok, a day before the Thai government declared overnight curfews in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, April 1, 2020.

The Thai cabinet on Tuesday approved borrowing to fund U.S. $58 billion in financial packages to help the health sector combat COVID-19 and to stabilize an economy that has reeled from knock-on effects of the pandemic.

A large portion of the packages, which total close to 2 trillion baht, will go into assisting businesses bounce back from the economic shock and into handing out subsidies to farmers  a major segment of the national workforce that has been hit hard during the crisis, officials said.

The Central Bank recently predicted that the country's economy could shrink by 5.3 percent this year because of the coronavirus, the worst since the 1997 financial crisis that rippled through the rest of Asia.

Today, we announce that COVID-19 is our national agenda, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha said after presiding over a routine cabinet meeting.

We would arrange for an emergency decree to be able to seek a 1 trillion baht loan. The first 600 billion baht is for public health concerns and the other 400 billion baht is to aid the economy, Prayuth said without giving details on the loans except to say they could come from foreign sources.

In late March, the government asked 3 million citizens who do not work for the government and are not enrolled in social security to sign up for a remedy package. It would provide them with a 15,000 baht ($458) subsidy and an additional 10,000 baht ($305) loan. More than 20 million signed up within the first few days.

The original package, which did not list a specific amount to be spent, will be infused with an additional 400 billion baht ($12.2 billion), the government announced. In addition, the package increases the subsidy to 30,000 baht ($917) and will be extended to cover more people, including farmers, Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana said in a separate press conference on Tuesday.

He said the cabinet decided to pass another decree enabling the Bank of Thailand to use 900 billion baht ($27.5 billion) in funds to provide aid to established businesses.

The decree would empower the Bank of Thailand to firstly, grant soft loans to aid small and medium entrepreneurs in the amount of 500 billion baht ($15.2 billion), Uttama said.

The other 400 billion baht ($12.2 billion) would be used to provide a six-month moratorium for established firms who have bonds maturing in 2020 and 2021.

Prayuth and Uttama did not elaborate on when the decrees would take effect.

The two officials called on parliament to consider cutting spending by 80 billion baht ($2.4 billion) to 100 billion baht ($3 billion) across the board in this years budget to provide additional COVID-19 funding.

The cabinet decision was announced on the same day COVID-19 cases increased by 38 to 2,258 and deaths increased by one to 27 from Monday.

Globally, more than 80,700 people have died and at least 1.4 million have been infected, according to the latest data compiled by disease experts at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.

Im glad that the increment is less than last week, said Dr. Taweesilp Wissanuyothin, the spokesman for the governments center to fight COVID-19. At that time, the number of cases were increasing by more than 100 in a day.

Regional economic efforts

Throughout South and Southeast Asia, leaders have stepped up with financial assistance to aid their citizens who have seen their livelihoods crippled by COVID-19.

In Indonesia, the government has raised $4.3 billion through bonds to fund its COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts, including one for 50 years, Reuters news service reported on Tuesday.

The bond deal was finalized in the United States on Monday and includes a 10.5-year and 30.5-year bond of $1.65 billion each along with the 50-year bond for $1 billion.

On Sunday, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina unveiled nearly $8 billion in additional financial aid to stimulate the nations economy where key industries including garment manufacturing have been battered by the pandemic. The additional stimulus brought to $8.5 billion Bangladeshs overall COVID-19 economic stimulus package.

Meanwhile in Malaysia, the government on March 27 announced a stimulus package allocating $29.6 billion for public welfare, $23.1 billion to support businesses, and $460 million to bolster the economy under what it dubbed as The People-Centric Economic Stimulus Package. The government allocated another $2.3 billion on Monday to help small businesses.

Previously, the government granted a six-month delay on most loan payments, beginning on April 1, to ease economic suffering caused by COVID-19, according to the Central Bank.

In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte late last month announced a $3.9 billion stimulus package, calling in the largest economic aid spending in Philippine history. Duterte said the money was to assist informal sector workers and people whose income has dried up amid a health crisis that has virtually shut down the country.

Days later, police arrested at least 20 people who were part of a protest group in Manila who took to the street to demand food and relief supplies. Later that day, Duterte, in a nationally televised address, ordered police to shoot them dead if protesters committed violent acts against officers.

Wilawan Watcharasakwet in Bangkok contributed to this report.
The downtown skyline is seen in Sydney

(Reuters) - The Australian financial regulator on Tuesday urged banks and insurers to consider deferring dividend payouts or use buffers like dividend reinvestment plans until the impact of the coronavirus pandemic is better known.

But the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) stopped short of giving an official directive, even as central banks across the world have restricted plans to return capital to investors as the outbreak threatens earnings and disrupts operations.

APRA asked banks and insurers to limit discretionary capital distributions so that they have sufficient capacity to continue essential functions like lending and underwriting insurance.

"Banks and insurers have a critical role to play in supporting Australian households, businesses and the broader economy during this period of significant disruption caused by COVID-19," the regulator advised in a letter to the sector.

Media representatives for the Big Four banks did not immediately returned requests for comment.

The regulator said dividends will need to be at a "materially reduced level" even when a board is confident that it can approve a dividend before conducting stress tests that will need to be discussed with APRA.

APRA added it expects boards to appropriately limit cash bonuses for executives and initiate other capital management plans on a pre-emptive basis, to maintain customer confidence and continue lending.

Analysts had already forecast that Australia's Big Four banks may cut dividends in coming weeks due to the pandemic.

(Reporting by Rashmi Ashok in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Paulina Duran in Sydney; Editing by Edmund Blair and Giles Elgood)
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Boris Johnson remains in intensive care at St Thomas Hospital in London, after he was admitted on Monday night as his coronavirus symptoms worsened.

According to official figures published on Monday afternoon, in the UK:

Another 403 hospital patients in England who tested positive for coronavirus have died, taking the total number to 4,897.

The patients were aged between 35 and 106, and 15 of them had no known underlying health condition.

London has recorded the most deaths  129. The Midlands has seen 75 and the North East and Yorkshire 67.

Coronavirus was a factor in almost 5% of all deaths in England and Wales in the week leading up to March 27.

Global cases of the virus have now surpassed 1.3 million and almost 75,000 people have died worldwide.

Heres the latest on Covid-19:

Boris Johnson spends night in intensive care

The prime minister has been hospitalised with Covid-19 symptoms.

Boris Johnson spent the night in intensive care, after being moved there as his coronavirus symptoms worsened.

The prime minister is understood to be conscious and was moved at about 7pm on Monday as a precaution should he require ventilation to aid his recovery, No.10 confirmed.

Michael Gove has said Johnson received oxygen support at St Thomas Hospital but is not on a ventilator.

He is not on a ventilator. The prime minister has received some oxygen support, Gove told LBC.

He is kept, of course, under close supervision. By being in intensive care if there is further support he needs it is there at hand. But the prime minister has not been on a ventilator.

Earlier he told BBC Breakfast: As we speak the prime minister is in intensive care being looked after by his medical team, receiving the very, very best care from the team at St Thomas and our hopes and prayers are with him and with his family.

Johnsons plight has prompted well wishes from leaders and people around the world.

US president Donald Trump said...

Continue reading on HuffPost
- Geneva Wood was taken to a life care centre after suffering stroke in December 2019

- Her family asked doctors to test her for coronavirus upon showing symptoms of the deadly disease which she tested positive to

- The old woman was among 19,814 patients out of 367,659 reported cases in USA who have since recovered from the pandemic

An elderly woman in Washington DC, USA had said her last prayer and bid her family bye knowing she was not going to survive coronavirus but she did.

Geneva Wood, a 90-year-old grandmother, had perhaps seen it all having suffered a stroke in December 2019 that saw her being taken to a life care center for a month.

READ ALSO: Coronavirus effects: Uhuru Kenyatta appeals to landlords to reduce rent

Doctors told Geneva Wood's family she would die from coronavirus. Photo: CNN News.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Saburi afungwe kwa miaka 10 gerezani, apendekeza Rais Uhuru

On recovery from the mild stroke, Geneva's family asked she be tested for coronavirus given that fact that she might have interacted with infected patients at the centre, CNN reported.

The tests came out positive and to the old woman, it was a death sentence considering her age and pre-existing health condition.

Geneva Wood said potato soup and prayers saved her life. Photo: WhatsNew2Day.

Source: Facebook

"I said to the doctor, this is the end. I'm not gonna make it and I want to see my family. And that was my only wish and desire was to be able to talk to my children again,"she recounted.

Her daughter, Cami Neidigh, said doctors who were handling her mother told the family she was not going to pull through and they drove to the hospital to share their last moments with her.

"By the next day, we were in there saying goodbyes," Cami told CBS News adding that she tapped her mother to tell her she had fought a hard battle.

Asked what she thought of her miraculous survival, the patient said a prayer and cup of potato soup from her children did the magic.

"It's super great to be able to reach out and touch my kids and give them a hug or give them a kick. Well, potato soup. You know, all my life whenever I got sick all I wanted was potato soup. But I was leaving with peace and that I wanted them to know that I loved them and enjoyed them," she added.

Geneva was among 19,814 patients out of 367,659 reported cases in USA who have since recovered from the pandemic.

The US recorded 10,943 deaths and 8,983 other cases marked as critical and serious as on April 7.

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Couple names new born twins Corona and Covid | Tuko TV

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Screengrab taken from Boris Johnsons twitter account of the Prime Minister who has been moved to intensive care

A Northern Ireland consultant in infectious diseases has said Prime Minister Boris Johnson could be ventilated for up to two weeks in an intensive care unit if he needs the treatment after his coronavirus symptoms worsened.

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said Mr Johnson, who is 55, is not on a ventilator but has had some oxygen support and if his condition changes the government will make an official statement.

In a statement on Tuesday, a No 10 spokesperson said the Prime Minister was stable overnight and "remains in good spirits".

"He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance," they said. "He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support."

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Brandon Lewis has said the PM is "fully conscious".

Dr Cillian Quinn, who himself overcame Covid-19, said that the recovery rate for those who fall ill from the virus is "very variable" and depends on their state when they were first taken to intensive care.

"It's probably too early in the course of the epidemic to make definitive measurements in terms of who recovers," he said on BBC's Good Morning Ulster.

"We do know that when people are ventilated, that they tend to be ventilated for quite a long time and that can be for up to 14 days in some circumstances."

He said that while Boris Johnson may have been reasonably well shortly after arriving in St Thomas' Hospital in central London, staff often see conditions of patients rapidly deteriorate.

The Prime Minister spent a seven-day period of isolation in Downing Street before being admitted to hospital.

Dr Quinn said: "There's generally a fairly rapid increase in oxygen requirements over a number of hours, something like 12 hours or so and that generally manifests with patients looking reasonably well and sitting comfortably on wards but what you tend to notice is the oxygen requirements are gradually going up.

"We know once we get to certain oxygen requirement of around 60%, we would definitely be getting involved with intensive care colleagues to provide extra support to patients.

"Some patients can deteriorate very, very rapidly with a hyper-inflammation type syndrome and that can develop further with increasing respiratory infiltrates and often what looks like on a chest x-ray something similar to heart failure," said Dr Quinn, who works in London but is originally from Silverbridge in Co Armagh.

The doctor, who suffered from mild symptoms including chest tightness and a cough, said Mr Johnson is currently sitting in "the danger category", which usually takes place around seven to 10 days after the onset of symptoms.

"No patient is taken to intensive care lightly so obviously his oxygen requirements have increased quite significantly and he is going to need some extra support.

"Whether that will get to the point where he needs ventilation or not, who knows - but it had clearly got to a situation where he couldn't be managed on a ward level."
A senior African American politician has denounced as devastating a report that black people made up up to 70 per cent of coronavirus deaths in her city.

As anecdotal reports are increasingly being backed up by data to show people of colour in the US make up a disproportionate number of those both being infected and dying from the virus, Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot launched a new effort to urge people to remain at home to try and limit its spread.

Its devastating to see those numbers, Ms Lightfoot said. And knowing theyre not just numbers, theyre lives. Theyre families and communities that have been shattered.

Ms Lightfoot said Chicago could not erase decades of health disparities in a few days or a week.

Yet she added: We have to impress upon people in these communities that there are things that they can do, there are tools at their disposal that they can do to help themselves.

The comments from the mayor come amid mounting evidence that people of make up a greater proportion of people being infected, and those dying.

Research by Chicagos WBEZ radio channel suggested that 70 per cent of coronavirus deaths in the city, which is emerging as a new hotspot, were of African American residents.

The COVID-19 virus is killing black residents in Cook County at disproportionately high rates, according to early data analysed by WBEZ, it said on its website. In Chicago, 61 of the 86 recorded deaths  or 70 per cent  were black residents. Blacks make up 29 per cent of Chicagos population.

The report about the impact in Illinois, followed one by ProPublica last week that came to a similar conclusion after studying data from neighbouring Wisconsin.

As of Friday morning, African Americans made up almost half of Milwaukee Countys 945 cases and 81 per cent of its 27 deaths in a county whose population is 26 per cent black, it said. Milwaukee is one of the few places in the United States that is tracking the racial breakdown of people who have been infected by the novel coronavirus, offering a glimpse at the disproportionate destruction it is inflicting on black communities nationwide.

Experts say there are several reasons for this, among them the fact that because of limited access to healthcare, people of colour may have more underlying health problems that make them more vulnerable to the virus.

No, this does not surprise me, Aimee Allison, founder of She the People, a group that works to promote the political power of women of colour, told The Independent.

Over the last couple of decades weve seen conservative forces destroying the social safety net. And its meant black communities and brown communities and indigenous communities, have pre-existing conditions that make individuals more susceptible to the worst ravages of Covid-19, she said.

Those pre-existing conditions are caused by socio economic factors. You cant shelter in place if you dont have shelter.

She added: It lays bare bones what the underlying problem is, and what the solution is going forward.

 Coronavirus: Most affected countries around the world

Tyler Moran, director of the Immigration Hub, a group that fights for the right of immigrants, has been campaigning to extend coronavirus testing and treatment to undocumented migrants  something currently not available.

Everyone has pointed out the virus doesnt know borders, it doesnt know immigration status. And right now, its not only undocumented immigrants who are ineligible for coverage but also many immigrants of lawful status, she said.

People of colour are disproportionally not covered. They dont have healthcare, and theyre disproportionately impacted by the virus and also by the economy and the layoffs. And so, not only are they not eligible for healthcare, but not everyone is eligible for the cash relief.

Chicago is among several cities with large black populations that are considered hot spots for the coronavirus, including New York, Detroit, Milwaukee and New Orleans.

Figures released by Michigan health officials last week showed African Americans, who make up 14 per cent of the states population, made up 35 per cent of cases statewide and 40 per cent of deaths.

Additional reporting by Associated Press
Stock prices of Lupin Ltd witnessed a jump of over 3 percent during early morning trade on Tuesday. The share price rise came a day after Lupin launched generic mycophenolic acid delayed-release tablets in the US market.

Stock prices of Lupin Ltd witnessed a jump of over 3 percent during early morning trade on Tuesday. The share price rise came a day after Lupin launched generic mycophenolic acid delayed-release tablets in the US market.

The tablets, available in 180 mg and 360 mg strengths, are used treatment or prevention of organ rejection in patients receiving kidney transplants.

The companys share stood at Rs 713 at 11.20 am, up by Rs 41.05, from its previous closing on the BSE. The stock price had ended 13.05 per cent higher at Rs 654.80 on April 3, 2020.

The stock opened at Rs 698.75 and reached a high of Rs 713 at 11.20 am and low of Rs 673 at 10 am.

Lupins share prices had plunged over 54 per cent in the last one month, hovering around Rs 225.

The new Lupin product is a generic version of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation's Myfortic delayed-release tablets.

The company said the tablets can also be used in pediatric patients at least 5 years of age and older who are at least 6 months post kidney transplant.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) had earlier given the nod to Lupins alliance partner Concord Biotech Limited (Concord).

According to the Lupin, it registered annual sales of approximately $156 million in the US of mycophenolic acid delayed-release tablets.

Headquartered in Mumbai, Lupin develops and sells a wide range of branded and generic formulations, biotechnology products and APIs in over 100 markets in various countries.

Lupin is a major player in the cardiovascular, anti-diabetic, and respiratory segments. It invests 9.6 per cent of its revenues on research and development.
A man fatally shot his girlfriend and then himself after he suspected she had contracted Covid-19.

Patrick Jesernik, from Illinois, and his partner Cheryl Schriefer, who had lived together for eight years, were found dead in their residence on Thursday.

A statement by the Will County Sheriffs Office revealed that officers went to Mr Jeserniks residence at around 8pm to conduct a welfare check.

After finding all the doors and windows of the property locked from the inside, the police, alongside fire personnel, forced entry into the property and found their bodies in separate rooms.

Family told officers that Mr Jesernik had been scared that he and Cheryl had contracted the COVID-19 virus, and that Cheryl was tested two days ago, the statement read.

Ms Schriefer had been having trouble breathing in the days leading up to the deaths, but the sheriffs office revealed that both she and Mr Jesernik subsequently tested negative for Covid-19.

The authorities confirmed that there was no record of domestic abuse at the residence and a check of both deceased individuals was also conducted which showed very limited police contact.

The Sheriffs office highlighted that the majority of calls they are receiving during the coronavirus pandemic are related to domestic abuse and crisis intervention.

They added that as a reminder, if anyone is a victim of a domestic violence situation, the Will County Courthouse remains open for individuals in need of obtaining an order of protection.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, upwards of 356,942 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 10,524.
A drop in cars on the road may be encouraging some motorists to drive at higher speeds and panic-buying of alcohol could be leading to increased drink-driving, a leading road safety expert has warned.

Victoria's road toll has been higher than for the same period last year despite a drop in traffic due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Peak-hour traffic on the Tullamarine Freeway on March 26. Credit:Justin McManus

Since businesses started enforcing working-from-home arrangements one month ago, there have been 18 road deaths  one more than during the same stretch last year.

As we enter the typically dangerous Easter period on Victoria's roads, the state's road toll sits at 75, only three deaths below 2019 levels, which was the worst year for fatalities since 2016.
A police department in Illinois is under fire after an officer was filmed escorting a pair of black men out of a Walmart who were wearing masks to safeguard themselves against the coronavirus.

Jemon Best, of Belleville, posted the video to Youtube - under the alias Halo Dale - after he and Diangelo Jackson, of Wood River, experienced the 'terrifying' ordeal at the Wood River Walmart.

While it is unclear as to when the event transpired, the video was first posted online on March 18.

Scroll down for video

Jemon Best, of Belleville, posted the video to YouTube after he and Diangelo Jackson, of Wood River, experienced the 'terrifying' ordeal

In the brief clip, both Best and Jackson can be seen with their masks partially removed as they walk through the store. The officer had instructed the pair to take the masks off, the Telegraph reports.

'This officer behind us just followed us in the store,' Best states in the video. 'He just followed us from outside and told us that we can not wear masks...'

'There is a presidential order, there is a state order and he is following us right out of the store.'

Best shares that the officer also told him that he couldn't film the altercation on his phone, but did tell the duo that his body-camera was collecting footage.

While it is unclear as to when the event transpired at the Wood River Walmart, the video was first posted online on March 18

'This officer behind us just followed us in the store,' Best states in the video. 'He just followed us from outside and told us that we can not wear masks...'

'We are being asked to leave for being safe,' the pair assert.

As they continue exiting the store, a woman stops the officers and begins talking to him.

'We are getting kicked out of Walmart for wearing masks,' Jackson shouts, to the amazement of other store customers.

Best declares: 'Aye so coronavirus is real. This police officer just put us out for wearing masks and trying to stay safe.'

The clip comes to a close with the pair walking out of the store as someone in the background talks about a city law about masks.

Wood River Police Chief Brad Well told the Telegraph that the video is taken out of context, claiming that not as many people were wearing masks as with current times.

'There's not much I can say,' said Wells. 'I backed the officer by what he tells me. Just like anything, there's more to the story.'

Best shares that the officer also told him that he couldn't film the altercation on his phone, but did tell the duo that his body-camera was collecting footage

The chief added that the officer 'was mistaken when it came to the store's policy prohibiting masks' and that it was 'the one error' made during the altercation.

Wells added that the two escalated the issue by stating they were harassed.

'They immediately went into the race issue,' said Wells. 'He (the officer) didn't kick them out of the store or refuse entry.'

But Best asserts that he never made called the officer out for being discriminatory directly.

'I don't know if he was having a bad day,' said Best. 'I've never said that the guy was racist. All I'm saying is that his actions were suspect.'

Wood River Police Chief Brad Well told the Telegraph that the video is taken out of context, claiming that not as many people were wearing masks as with current times

He explained that rather than show identification to the officer, he and Jackson chose take the masks off.

'Being a young African-American male, it's kind of hard when you interact with the police because you don't know what state of mind they're in,' said Best.

'I was just more worried about him doing something he's not supposed to do.'

Wells said that the department would investigate the incident if a complaint was filed, adding one had not yet been done.

'I don't have an official complaint (from them),' said Wells. 'If they did make an official complaint, there is a component in law enforcement allowing things to be investigated.'

Best's encounter strikes a similar cord for other Black men and men of color across the United States during the coronavirus pandemic.

In the brief clip, both Best and Jackson can be seen with their masks partially removed as they walk through the store. The officer had instructed the pair to take the masks off

The sentiment comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise that all people wear masks when out in public.

'I don't feel safe wearing a handkerchief or something else that isn't CLEARLY a protective mask covering my face to the store because I am a Black man living in this world. I want to stay alive but I also want to stay alive,' said Aaron Thomas, an educator in Ohio.

'There is still the nuance of race that dictates our lives and the way we move through spaces, even in these turbulent times.

'So until I get a proper and official face mask ima have to run the grocery store like it's 1993 and I'm on Supermarket Sweep.'

Best's encounter strikes a similar cord for other Black men and men of color across the United States during the coronavirus pandemic

On Friday, the CDC advised for people to wear 'cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.'

In the United States, bandanas are associated with gang affiliation and violence, Cyntoria Johnson, an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University, explained to CNN.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department, Blood and Crip street gangs have used colorful bandanas or rags as a system of identification.

The department also describes the 'uniform of Hispanic gangs' as including 'a bandana tied around the forehead similar to a sweatband.'

'People of color have to make conscious decisions every day about the way they show up in the world and are perceived by others, especially the police,' Johnson added.

For Andrea Young, executive director of the ACLU of Georgia, the CDC's mask guidance was 'one more instance of racial insensitivity that pervades the response to this pandemic.'

'To date, neither federal nor Georgia state officials are addressing the racial disparities in access to healthcare, access to the internet and the ability to work from home. Black Americans are suffering disproportionately from this pandemic,' Young said.

The sentiment was shared by ReNika Moore, director of the ACLU's Racial Justice Program.

Data released on Monday shows that death rates by race-ethnicity are highest for black residents in Chicago

'For many black people, deciding whether or not to wear a bandana in public to protect themselves and others from contracting coronavirus is a lose-lose situation that can result in life-threatening consequences either way,' Moore said.

'Not wearing a protective bandana goes against CDC recommendations and increases the risk of contracting Covid-19, but wearing one could mean putting their lives at risk of getting shot or killed because of racially-biased targeting.'

The news comes as black populations are becoming the largest groups of people being infected with the coronavirus in cities across the country.

The numbers are particularly alarming in cities with large African American populations like Chicago, New Orleans, Detroit and Milwaukee, which are becoming hotspots for the coronavirus.

In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that more than half of Chicagoans who have died from COVID-19 are African Americans.

'We are all in this crisis together but we are not all experiencing this crisis in the same way,' Lightfoot said Monday.

Black residents in Chicago accounted for 72 per cent of deaths from COVID-19 complications and 52 per cent of positive tests for the coronavirus, despite making up only 30 per cent of the city's population, according to the city's public health agency.
Students who needed to pass a Regents exam to graduate this June will not be penalized by the cancellation of this years tests because of the COVID-19 pandemic, state education officials announced on Tuesday.

The state Education Department is granting an exemption from the test, as long as students have passed the class.

In addition, students who have previously taken a Regents and not passed, but completed their required course, will be allowed to graduate, according to a news release.

The decision also applies to students who have failed a course and are going to retake it in summer school. Those students will not be required to pass a makeup Regents typically administered in August, as long as they pass the class.

The state on Monday announced that it was canceling this years Regents exams to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

We are putting the safety of children, families and educators first, while ensuring that the hard work done by our students and teachers is honored, Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa said in a news release. These are extraordinary decisions for an unprecedented time, and we thank our school communities for their support and continuing dedication during the statewide school closure.

The state Board of Regents also agreed to delay by one year implementation of new tests for grades 3-8 based upon the states new Next Generation Learning Standards. Instead, the current tests will be used for another year. The new tests based upon the revised science standards have been delayed until the spring of 2023.

This years grades 3-8 standardized tests were canceled because of the pandemic.

Local school officials welcomed the decision on the Regents exams.

The Regents would have been challenging to prepare for under the current circumstance. It appears that this will keep students that were currently anticipating a spring Regents from being negatively impacted, said Granville Superintendent Tom McGurl in an email.

McGurl added that he is also grateful that schools will have more time to put the new curriculum standards in place.

Whitehall Superintendent Patrick Dee also said he was happy with the states decision.

I believe that students were treated very fairly with the guidance that has been provided by the state Education Department, he said in an email.

Glens Falls City School District Superintendent Paul Jenkins pointed out that students will still be required to complete the course to earn credit.

The exemption of the exam does not eliminate the need to complete the course, he said.

Lake George Superintendent Lynne Rutnik said she did not believe the loss of the Regents exams would affect students motivation. She said the Class of 2020 has been one of the most academically motivated groups of seniors she has seen in her tenure.

I could not be more impressed with the seniors commitment to keep connected to counselors and faculty and staff, demonstrating their commitment and perseverance in these uncharted waters, she said in an email.

The New York State School Association also praised the decision.

No student should be denied course credit or a high school diploma or otherwise penalized due to these extraordinary circumstances, said Executive Director Robert Schneider in a news release. Guidance issued by the state Education Department focuses on ensuring learning outcomes and standards, rather than on testing. In our view, that is the proper focus.

The states largest teacher union, New York State United Teachers, also said it was the right call.

This is the right decision that will allow our students and their families to first and foremost focus on being safe and healthy without having to stress about preparing for traditional end-of-year exams this June, said President Andy Pallotta in a news release.

Reach Michael Goot at 518-742-3320 or mgoot@poststar.com and follow his blog poststar.com/blogs/michael_goot/.

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Albert Conner has been to every doctor's appointment, every test and everychemotherapy appointment with his wife Kelly Conner since she was diagnosed with breast cancer in January.

When Conner, a father of three, found out that he would not be able to attend his wife's chemotherapy appointment because of hospital restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, he showed his support in a different way.

MORE: 'If they lose me to COVID: Doctors tweet to her children resonates with parents

Albert Conner, 44, held a sign outside MD Anderson Cancer Center in Sugar Land, Texas, that read, "I can't be with you but i'm here." It also said "love you" and included a thank you to staff working inside the hospital's walls.

"I didnt feel right not being a part of it because I had promised her that I would be there every step of the way and I felt like I would be breaking my word," Albert Conner told "Good Morning America." "I just got a poster board and our kids and I colored it."

Kelly Conner, 40, thought her husband was at home in Missouri City, Texas, because she had just driven herself to the hospital after telling him she would be fine to go alone. Then, she received a text from him saying he was outside in the parking lot.

"As soon as he texted me, I just kind of lifted up in my chair a little bit to peer out the window and he was just right there," she said. "It immediately brought tears to my eyes and I felt a love for him right then in that moment, that he would do that for me."

PHOTO: Kelly Conner takes a selfie with her husband Albert Conner in the background at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Sugar Land, Texas. (Kelly Conner)

"I think I kind of gasped and the nurse turned around and said, 'Whats wrong?' And then she saw I was looking out the window and she looked out and started to tear up too," she recalled.

MORE: Nurses share powerful moment of prayer from hospital roof

Albert Conner said he got attention from the nurses, with several of them walking outside -- knowing they'd have to go through a screening process again to get back inside -- to personally thank him.

Story continues

"A few of them said I was the reason that they come to work," he said. "The attention made me uncomfortable but it made me feel good and was very touching."

PHOTO: Albert Conner held a sign for his wife as she received chemotherapy at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Sugar Land, Texas. (Kelly Conner)

Albert Conner said he made a poster board-size sign because he wanted to make sure his wife could see it no matter where he was in the parking lot. It was just by luck that he parked outside the room several floors above where Kelly Conner happened to be assigned that day.

Kelly Conner's chemotherapy sessions are expected through the end of May, after which she will undergo surgery and radiation. She will soon start a new chemotherapy drug that is more aggressive and will make each chemotherapy session longer.

The Conners said they both were initially upset but completely understand the hospital's rule temporarily barring visitors in order to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

"When you just reflect on everything and think about all the nurses and doctors and other patients, it makes perfect sense," said Albert Conner. "You really cant argue it. You just have to support it any way you can."

Still, Albert Conner said he plans to find ways to support his wife. He voluntarily closed his locksmith business so that he can stay at home with his family and not endanger his wife, who is immunocompromised and is working from home for her job.

PHOTO: Kelly Conner undergoes chemotherapy at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Sugar Land, Texas. (Kelly Conner)

The family hopes they will be there when Kelly Conner rings the bell at the end of her chemotherapy treatments.

But if not, Albert Conner said he will ring a bell outside the hospital for her.

"This [coronavirus pandemic] is inspiring people to come up with creative ways to continue to show their love and support for family," said Kelly Conner.

Husband holds sign outside for wife who has to go to chemotherapy alone because of coronavirus originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Tue, April 7, 2020 08:41 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd02790a 2 World Donald-Trump,Joe-Biden,coronavirus,COVID-19,infection,pandemic,US,health Free

Democrat Joe Biden and President Donald Trump finally spoke by phone Monday, both sides confirmed, ending days of teasing and squabbling between the presidential election rivals to discuss the national coronavirus upheaval.

The call marked a rare moment of unity for the country seven months before election day and during a frightening health and economic crisis.

"We had a really wonderful warm conversation," centered on the pandemic, Trump said at a regular briefing by his coronavirus task force.

"He gave me his point of view and I fully understood that," Trump said, adding they spoke for about 15 minutes. "I appreciate his calling."

Biden's communication director confirmed the two men had "a good call."

Biden "shared several suggestions for actions" the administration can take "to address the ongoing coronavirus pandemic," Kate Bedingfield said on Twitter.

He also "expressed his appreciation for the spirit of the American people in meeting the challenges facing the nation," she added.

The idea of a telephone call between Trump and Biden, who is self-isolating at home like much of the country, had been in the air for days.

Last week, Trump said he'd "love to speak with" Biden, adding, "I always found him to be a nice guy."

On Thursday, Biden responded that he was "happy to hear he'll take my call."

But if Republican Trump sat all weekend by the phone, he was left disappointed -- and by Monday morning the pair were back to trading barbs.

"What ever happened to that phone call he told the Fake News he wanted to make to me?" Trump complained on Twitter.

Gone was the "nice guy" description -- the tone was back to Trump's default mode when it comes to Biden, whom he has claimed to be losing his mental faculties, smeared with corruption allegations, and nicknamed "Sleepy Joe."

Mocking Biden's suggestion that the Democrats may have to hold their nominating convention online if coronavirus remains a threat this summer, Trump insinuated Biden was dodging having to appear in public.

Hitting back on Twitter, Biden told Trump that whether the Democratic convention is safe to stage or not will "depend on you stepping up and doing what needs to be done to handle this pandemic."

Despite the bickering, the two men still had each other's numbers.
Martin Shkreli, the convicted former drug company chief executive known as Pharma Bro, wants to get out of prison so he can help research a treatment for the coronavirus, his lawyer said Tuesday. Defense attorney Ben Brafman said that he will file court papers asking federal authorities to release Shkreli for three months so he can do laboratory work under strict supervision. His client  best known before his arrest for drug price-gouging and his snarky online persona  is housed at a low-security prison in Allenwood, Pa.
(CNN) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is receiving "standard oxygen treatment" and is breathing without assistance, his spokesperson said Tuesday, a day after being transferred to intensive care with coronavirus.

Johnson's condition is stable and he "remains in good spirits," his spokesperson said. He has not required required invasive or non-invasive ventilation and does not have pneumonia.

The Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab would chair meetings of the National Security Council if any was needed while he is deputizing for the Prime Minister. Raab and the UK's Cabinet have the authority and ability to respond in the PM's absence on military action, the spokesperson said.

Raab, 46, is running the country from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with the support of government officials, but cannot hire and fire ministers. Decisions relating to Covid-19 would be taken in the usual way through the daily morning meeting, chaired by Raab, and other ministerial groupings.

Buckingham Palace and the Queen have been regularly updated on the PM's condition. The Cabinet Secretary and Principal Private Secretary will maintain contact with the palace on the Prime Minister's behalf, Downing Street said. But the weekly audiences with the Queen would not continue for the time being.

The spokesperson said that despite the lack of a formal succession procedure in the UK, there was an established order of ministerial precedence, with the top finance minister, Rishi Sunak following Raab. The "letters of last resort," sealed documents written by the Prime Minister to ballistic missile submarine commanders in cases of a nuclear attack, still stand. "The Prime Minister remains the Prime Minister," the spokesperson said.

The UK lockdown will remain in place with the government "focussed on stopping the spread of the infection." The spokesperson said that if there were evidence that more needed to be done to slow the rate of transmission, "we would be prepared to do that."

US Donald Trump said at a Monday news conference that his administration had been in contact with Johnson's doctors. The spokesperson said the government was "grateful for all of the warm wishes the PM has received overnight" and "confident he is receiving the best care from the NHS. Any treatment he receives is a matter for his doctors."

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove told BBC Radio 4's Today program earlier that Johnson was "receiving the very best care" at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, after being taken into intensive care at 7 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET) on Monday.

"And of course, one of the reasons for being in intensive care is to make sure that whatever support the medical team consider to be appropriate can be provided," Gove said.

Gove later said he was self-isolating at home because a member of his family was showing coronavirus symptoms. Gove said on Twitter that he was not displaying any symptoms and was continuing to work. He's the latest in a long line of British government ministers and advisers to be forced into isolation.

Johnson's hospitalization has highlighted the lack of a formal line of succession in the UK government. Johnson, 55, nominated the Foreign Secretary, Raab, who also holds the title of First Secretary of State, to deputize for him "where necessary." But there is no official deputy recognized by UK law or the country's largely unwritten constitution.

Few formal powers are invested specifically in the UK prime minister and key decisions are taken collectively by the Cabinet or its sub-committees. Many statutory powers are held by individual secretaries of state. But in recent decades, holders of the UK's top political office have adopted a more presidential style, and the sweeping nature of the ruling Conservative Party's most recent election victory was attributed to Johnson's personal appeal with voters.

"The Prime Minister has a team around him who ensure the work of government goes on," Gove told the BBC. He said Johnson had a "stripped-back diary" last week to make sure he could follow the medical advice of his doctors.

Gove confirmed that Raab was now in charge of seeing through Johnson's plan to tackle the novel coronavirus. "Dominic [Raab] takes on the responsibilities of chairing the various meetings the PM would've chaired but we're all working together to implement the plan that the PM has set out," he said.

But Gove sidestepped a question about who held the "nuclear codes," saying he would not discuss national security issues.

Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House of Commons defense select committee, tweeted good wishes to Johnson but added: "It is important to have 100% clarity as to where responsibility for UK national security decisions now lies. We must anticipate adversaries attempting to exploit any perceived weakness."

Johnson was taken to hospital on Sunday evening. At the time, Downing Street said the decision was a precaution because he continued to suffer from a cough and a fever ten days after testing positive for the coronavirus. But his condition deteriorated on Monday, Downing Street said, and he was moved to the intensive care unit at St. Thomas' Hospital.

Gove told Sky News on Tuesday morning that Cabinet ministers were not told about the Prime Minister's deteriorating condition until nearly an hour after Johnson was taken into intensive care.

Asked whether the government had been up front with the public about Johnson's condition, and whether the Cabinet had been taken by surprise, he replied: "Yes we were. The [daily coronavirus] briefing that was given at 5 o'clock was given at a time when we didn't know about the deterioration in the Prime Minister's condition."

"We were informed subsequently. The Prime Minister was admitted to intensive care at 7 o'clock, and that information wasn't given to us in government -- to those in the cabinet -- until just before 8 o'clock."

The coronavirus has hit the top of the British government hard. The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, said on March 27 that he had the virus, on the same day that chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, announced that he would begin self-isolation after displaying Covid-19 symptoms. Neil Ferguson, a top UK government adviser on the virus, said on March 18 he believed he had been infected. Various other senior government ministers and advisers have been forced to self-isolate.

Politicians around the world sent best wishes for the Prime Minister's recovery.

UK Treasurer Rishi Sunak said on Twitter that his thoughts were with Johnson and his pregnant fiancee, Carrie Symonds. "I know he'll be getting the best care possible and will come out of this even stronger," he said.

Symonds has also experienced Covid-19 symptoms but said over the weekend she was "on the mend."

The leader of the UK's House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, said: "I know the thoughts and prayers of everyone across the House are with the Prime Minister and his family right now. We all wish him a speedy recovery."

Keir Starmer, the newly elected leader of the UK's main opposition Labour Party leader, tweeted: "Terribly sad news. All the country's thoughts are with the Prime Minister and his family during this incredibly difficult time."

Former Prime Minister Theresa May, who was replaced by Johnson in the country's Brexit crisis, wrote on Twitter said her "thoughts and prayers" were with Johnson and his family. "This horrific virus does not discriminate," she added.

French President Emmanuel Macron sent his "support to Boris Johnson, to his family and to the British people at this difficult moment," wishing him a "speedy recovery at this testing time."

Irish leader Leo Varadkar, who has returned to work as a doctor during the outbreak, tweeted that Johnson was "in our thoughts" on Monday night and wished him "a rapid return to health."

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's First Minister, said everyone's thoughts at her Scottish National Party were "with the Prime Minister and his family right now" while Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his thoughts and prayers were with his "dear friend," adding: "The people of Japan stand with the British people at this difficult time."

President Donald Trump said on Monday: "We're very saddened to hear that he was taken into intensive care this a little while ago. He's been a really good friend. He's been really something very special. Strong. Resolute."

"We've contacted all of Boris's doctors, and we'll see what is going to take place, but they are ready to go," Trump continued. "When you are brought into intensive care that gets very, very serious."

"We are working with London with respect to Boris Johnson."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Boris Johnson is 'stable' in ICU amid questions about who's running the UK"
Riding in tanks through the desolate streets of Lima, Peru's Navy continued their night patrol efforts to ensure people are following the lockdown measures established to battle the coronavirus.

Peru's police had been conducting nighttime enforcement patrol efforts since President Martin Vizcarra declared a state of emergency as deaths began to mount and ordered people to stay home.

But over the weekend, military tanks and other resources were added to assist with night patrols in the city and some border areas.

On Monday evening, armored vehicles drove through the streets of Lima and Callao to ensure people weren't breaking the curfew between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m (23:00 GMT and 10:00 GMT).

Peru was among the first in Latin America to close borders over the coronavirus pandemic, deploy the military and require people to stay in their homes due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The month-long quarantine has forced 32 million Peruvians to remain at home.

As of Monday, Peru had 2,561 confirmed coronavirus cases, and 92 reported deaths.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.
The consumer affairs ministry is monitoring prices of essential commodities, including that of onion, after a coronavirus positive case in Maharashtras Nashik led to a shutdown of Lasalgaon, Asias largest onion trading hub.

A Covid-19 positive case came to light in Nashik on March 30, forcing suspension of operations in Lasalgaon, which subsequently affected the supplies. However, an official of the market said the operations in most onion markets in Nashik will resume on Tuesday.

Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

We, at Lasalgaon, have decided to resume trading on Tuesday (April 7). The district collector ordered the shutdown because the corona positive patient was a major bakery supplier who regularly supplied pav (Indian bread) to the entire area, Narendra Wadhwane, the secretary of the Lasalgaon agriculture produce market committee or APMC, said on Sunday.

While markets in Nashik are closed, onion supplies from Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have continued.

Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh account for over nearly two-thirds of late kharif onion crop, which is the crop that has hit markets now, said Shirish Jamdade, a horticulture department official in Pune.

APMCs are state-regulated bodies that run wholesale markets in the country.

According to a government note, state officials have compiled a list of all onion traders and suppliers and shared the list to counterparts in various states to facilitate supplies.

The principal secretary of the state agricultural marketing recommended market committees to tell farmers to bring harvest pre-packed in gunny backs to speed up trade. Since the lockdown, 1,650 truck load of onions have been dispatched by traders of Nashik to various parts of the country, which has helped in maintaining in steady supplies, the government note said.
Chandigarh, April 7 : In Punjab as family members have been staying away to perform the last rites of suspected or confirmed coronavirus disease, it is government functionaries who have been coming forth and doing rituals religiously.

Out of 79 patients, in seven coronavirus deaths, three such instances came.

In the latest instance on April 5, the last rites of a woman were performed by officials in Ludhiana city as the family refused to cremate the body fearing transmission of virus.

In another case, the cremation was performed by revenue staff as the entire family was in quarantine.

In a third incident in Amritsar district last week, people did not allow a place in their village for cremating Padma Shri Nirmal Singh Khalsa, former Hazoori Raagi of the Golden Temple.

"The (last rites) document may be comprehensive but the real trouble lies when nobody, including the sons and daughters as well as staff at the cremation ground, are willing to touch the body," Special Chief Secretary K.B.S. Sidhu, who is in-charge to monitor state-wide coronavirus cases, informed in a tweet.

"It is here that field revenue agency, with tehsildars and naib tehsildars at the forefront, does the job.

Stressing the need to recognise and encourage the officers and officials who went above and beyond the call of duty, Sidhu quoted the case of Harbhajan Singh, who died of covid-19 on March 29 at Moranwali village in Hoshiarpur district.

"His entire family was in isolation ward as they had tested positive. Nobody from the village came forward to assist in performing the last rites," he said.

Patwari Jagir Singh of Moranwali was assigned the task of arranging the cremation. He performed his duty without any hesitation.

"Jagir Singh, along with many others from his fraternity, is quietly doing their duty in these exceedingly difficult times. They deserve our applause and appreciation," said Sidhu.

He applauded Hoshiarpur Deputy Commissioner Apneet Riyait for honouring Jagir Singh for his noble gesture.

In the latest case, officials of local administration performed the last rites of Ludhiana resident Surinder Kaur, 69, on April 5 as his family refused to own her body and asked the administration that it was their duty to perform her cremation.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Iqbal Singh Sandhu through a video said the family reached the cremation ground but preferred to remain seated in the car that was parked 100 m away from where the body was consigned to the flames.

He said the entire ritual was performed by Duty Magistrate Jasbir Singh.

Now the district administration would hold her abhog' in a local gurdwara on April 11 by pooling money.

Regarding the cremation of former Hazoori Raagi of the Golden Temple, Nirmal Singh Khalsa, paranoid locals of Verka village located on the periphery of Amritsar city protested for hours and even locked the cremation ground gate to prevent the local administration from the cremation, fearing it would spread the coronavirus and endanger lives.

After hours of persuasion, the locals agreed and offered a secluded common land for his last rites that was held late in the evening amid the presence of government functionaries and the son of the deceased.

Condemning the incident, Akali Dal President Sukhbir Badal said the state government should have taken steps to ensure the mortal remains of the great 'ragi' were not disrespected.

Khalsa's aunt, son, grandson, his associate and associate's wife have tested positive for coronavirus after his death.

Terming as unfortunate the delay in Khalsa's cremation on April 2 due to "unfounded fears", Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said this was because of misinformation and issued directives that no such incident take place in future.

He said he has asked the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police to ensure proper compliance of the government instructions by all health and other officials at the district-level.

"Every deceased person deserves proper cremation and there is a laid down health protocol on handling the body of a deceased COVID patient. This must be duly followed," an official statement quoting the Chief Minister said.

(Vishal Gulati can be reached at vishal.g@ians.in)
Many Fukushima residents have expressed concern over a possible scheme to release diluted radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the sea or air in the prefecture.

The government on Monday held the first meeting to hear local opinions on ways to handle the wastewater accumulating at the plant.

The water, after treatment, still contains tritium and some other radioactive substances. It has reached roughly 1.2 million tons, stored in nearly 1,000 tanks at the plant.

A government panel earlier reported that releasing the wastewater into the sea or air are realistic options on the condition that it is diluted below the required standards.

The prefectural governor and local representatives from seven commercial and fisheries organizations attended the meeting held in Fukushima City.

Many voiced concern over damage caused by rumors that would be connected to the release. The head of a local fisheries association said fishers oppose the discharge of the water into the sea, stressing the need to ensure the livelihood of young fishermen.

Some attendees argued that if the release of the diluted water is safe as the government says, officials should also discuss it with the residents of other prefectures.

Others said the government should not jump to a conclusion at a stage where the understanding of the matter among the public is not very deep.

Some people were willing to accept the discharge in the prefecture on the condition that compensation would be provided for loss from groundless rumors.

The government plans a similar meeting in the prefecture on April 13.
A BJP legislator in Karnataka on



Tuesday alleged that some of the attendees of the Tablighi- Jamaat event in Delhi have been 'purposely evading' testing for coronavirus despite appeals, and said such it was "not wrong" to shoot such people.

Accusing them of indirectly indulging in an act of terrorism, MLA M P Renukacharya, who is also a political secretary to Chief Minister Yediyurappa, however said, it was wrong to blame the whole community for the misdeeds of few.

Tablighi-Jamaat congregation held at Nizamuddin in Delhi last month has turned out to be thehotbedof COVID-19 spread in the country.

"... one thing is true, some of those who had been to congregation at Nizamuddin, despite appeal made by PM and CM, purposely are trying evade citing religious reasons," he said.

Speaking to reporters in Davangere, the BJP MLA said it looks like while dying they want to kill others also.

If those who had returned after attending the Jamaat had gone to the doctor there would'thavebeen any problem, Renukacharya said.

Charging some of the attendees with indulging in "anti- national" deeds, he said it was not wrong to say that those spreading virus are indirectly indulging in terrorism.

Further calling those purposely spreading virus on religious grounds as "traitors," he said, "those who attended Tablighi-Jamaat congregation and have not come out for treatment and escaped, government should not protect them.. it is not wrong to shoot them with a bullet."



"Because of some people, everyone, whole country will have to suffer... at leastnow they have to cooperate,"he said.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa during an interview to a channel on Monday had warned of action against those blaming the entire Muslim community for isolated incidents.

BJP state General Secretary Arvind Limbavali questioning the intentions of attendees of Tablighi-Jamaat congregation, who have not come out for medical consultations, urged the government take strict action against them.

"enough time has been given, those who have not come out arrest them in 24 hours... they are the ones who are cause of spreading...

there is no question of any religion in this, this is a matter of health of the society and state," he said.

On Tablighi-Jamaat congregation attendees, the government said from around 920 people samples that have been collected so far, 623 are negative, 27 positive, remaining results are still awaited.

The government is yet to share total number of people from the state who had attended the congregation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 18:04 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd058e87 1 Business social-restriction,Indonesia,Airlines,air-passenger-traffic,Ngurah-Rai-International-Airport,Angkasa-Pura-I,BPS,tourist-arrivals Free

Passenger traffic at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali, fell by 15 percent in the first quarter of this year, as the resort island grapples with a drop in tourist arrivals as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura I (AP I), which operates Ngurah Rai Airport and 14 others in central-eastern Indonesia, Balis main airport saw a drop in passenger traffic to 4.66 million in the January-March period from 5.39 million in the same months last year.

But it seems that the worst is yet to come as tourist arrivals have continued to drop amid fears of COVID-19.

Bali Tourism Agency head I Putu Astawa revealed in Denpasar on Saturday that tourist arrivals had fallen about 95 percent from before the first cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Indonesia on March 2.

He added that an average of 500 travelers arrived in Bali every day; that compares to between 10,500 people and 11,000 people a day in 2019.

Tourist arrivals in Bali are currently dominated by Australians as the number of tourists from other countries, especially China, has dropped significantly, he said as reported by Antara news agency.

Read also: Tens of thousands of flights canceled in Indonesia because of COVID-19

During the first quarter of this year, AP I recorded 17.78 million passengers in its 15 airports across Indonesia, an 8.11 percent drop from 19.3 million in the same period last year. The operator also reported that cargo traffic at its airports had dropped by 16.98 percent to 121.12 million kilograms (kg) in the first quarter this year from 145.89 million kg in the same period in 2019.

In line with the drop, the operator also reported a decline in aircraft traffic to 175,143 flights in the first quarter from 184,085 flights during the same period last year.

The decline began after Indonesia unveiled its first confirmed COVID-19 case at the beginning of March, AP I president director Faik Fahmi said in a statement.

He added that traffic dropped further after the government imposed social restrictions to halt the spread of the disease in mid-March.

AP I manages 15 airports in central and eastern Indonesia, including Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar; Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java; Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport in Makassar, South Sulawesi; and Sam Ratulangi International Airport in Manado, North Sulawesi.

According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), foreign tourist arrivals in January and February fell by 11.8 percent to 2.16 million people from 2.45 million people during the same period last year.
Arizona now has over 2,000 cases of the new coronavirus and the states death toll from the disease has topped 50, state health officials reported Saturday.

The Department of Health Services reported 2,019 cases statewide with 52 death as of Saturday morning, up from 1,769 cases and 41 deaths as of Friday.

Also Saturday, Gov. Doug Ducey announced that Arizona has an agreement with Honeywell to produce over 6 million N95 face masks for the state over the next 12 months and that the Department of Health Services would deliver them to counties for distribution to health, safety and emergency response workers.

All 15 of Arizona counties have diagnosed coronavirus cases but over half of the states cases and deaths were in Maricopa County, which includes most of metro Phoenix.

Maricopa County health officials reported 1,173 cases  58% of the statewide total  and 28 deaths, 54% of the statewide fatalities. The state listed two fewer cases in Maricopa County.

Arizona reported its first diagnosed case, a man in Maricopa County who had returned from travel to Wuhan, China, on Jan. 26. The second case wasnt reported until March 2, also in Maricopa County.

Arizona reported its first coronavirus death, also in Maricopa County, on March 20.

Other Arizona counties with the most cases as of Saturday morning included Pima (326), Navajo (177,) Coconino (147) , Pinal (89) and Yavapai (43), as reported by the state Department of Health Services.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Honeywell announced March 30 that it was adding manufacturing capabilities at its Phoenix campus to produce N95 masks in support of the federal governments response to the outbreak.

Im grateful to Honeywell for stepping up and partnering with Arizona to help get these masks to our doctors, nurses and EMTs on the front lines, Ducey said in a statement.

Honeywell said it anticipates the mass production of masks will create 500 jobs and that the company has begun recruiting, hiring and training manufacturing workers at its Phoenix site.

Honeywells announcement said some masks produced in Phoenix would go to the federal government for the national stockpile but that the company also would have capacity to produce masks for states and other American healthcare and emergency response organizations.

Honeywell said its Phoenix operation would continue to produce aircraft engines and auxiliary power units.

In other Arizona coronavirus developments:

The state Department of Corrections will now allow its officers to wear non-medical masks at work in prisons, the Arizona Republic reported, citing guidance issued by Corrections Director David Shinn. A corrections lieutenant earlier filed a whistleblower complaint saying officers were barred from wearing protective equipment because Shinn believed it would scare inmates.

New guidelines issued Friday by federal officials recommend that Americans wear face coverings when in public.

Northern Arizona University President Rita Cheng announced that the university was offering 25% credit on housing and dining charges to students who choose to move out of university housing by April 16 because of the outbreak, the Arizona Daily Sun reported.

Pima County has seen a spike in distress calls from hikers apparently due to an increase in trail use by inexperienced hikers because of the coronavirus outbreak, the Arizona Daily Star reported. Deputy James Allerton said search and rescue deputies answered 17 distress calls from hikers in the past two weeks, up from the half-dozen theyd normally expect.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics COVID-19 Arizona
After rumors OPPO has officially confirmed that it will introduce the Ace2 5G, the companys new 5G smartphone in China on April 13th. This comes after the Reno Ace that was introduced back in October last year. On weibo, in an open letter OPPO VP Brian Shen said that the Reno Ace, the first generation of OPPO Ace series phone was introduced 180 days back featuring the first 65W super flash charge fast charging along with 90Hz refresh rate screen. Now the company is ready to bring Ace2, which will be independent of the Reno series.

The phone got certified by TENAA recently revealing the specifications of the phone. 3C certification has confirmed the same phone with model number PDHM00 with support for fast charging up to 65W, same as the predecessor. Zhang Jialiang, head of OPPOs VOOC Flash Charge division confirmed that the companys 40W wireless fast charging tech will be available commercially this year, so we can expect this in Ace2.

OPPO Ace2 5G rumored specifications

6.5-inch (2400  1080 pixels) Full HD+ AMOLED HDR display with 90Hz refresh rate, up to 1000 nits brightness, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut

2.84GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 865 7nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 650 GPU

8GB LPDDR5 RAM with 128GB storage / 12GB LPDDR5 RAM with 256GB storage

Android 10 with ColorOS 7.1

Dual SIM

48MP rear camera with LED flash, 0.8um pixel size, PDAF, OIS, EIS, 8MP 116 Ultra Wide Lens, 2MP macro, 2MP mono lens

16MP front-facing camera

Stereo Speakers, Dolby Atmos

In-display fingerprint sensor

Dimensions: 160.075.48.6mm; Weight: 185g

5G SA/NSA, Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ax (22 MU-MIMO), Bluetooth 5.1, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou, USB Type-C, NFC

4000mAh (Typical) / 3910mAh (minimum) battery with 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 Flash Charge, 40W wireless fast charging

OPPO Enco W31

Yesterday the company teased a new audio product announcement on April 7th. As expected, the company is indeed introducing the Enco W31 wireless earbuds in China on April 13th along with the Ace2. This was introduced in India price at Rs. 4499 last month along with the Enco Free, but the company didnt share much info and the sale for the earbuds got delayed due to the current situation.

The earbuds have intuitive touch controls and comes in white, black and pink colors. We should know the price of OPPO Ace2 5G and Enco W31 earbuds when they are introduced next week.

Source 1, 2, 3
A Dublin-based company has claimed before the High Court that the HSE has failed to honour a contract for the provision of 350 medical ventilators to treat those who contract the Covid-19 virus.

Narooma Ltd, which provides various services to the pharmaceutical and life-science industries, claims that late last month it entered into an agreement to source and sell intensive care unit medical ventilators, for a sum of just over 7.4m, to the Health Service Executive (HSE).

However, Narooma claims the HSE has failed to comply with the contract and has not paid it the money, with the result that it cannot provide the HSE with the ventilators.

The company says that while the alleged failure to fulfill the contract is damaging to its business and reputation, it also says that the performance of the contract impacts on the "health of the nation", particularly those who contract the virus.

The "swift shipping and delivery of the ventilators", it says, "is critically urgent."

As a result of the alleged breach Narooma has sued the HSE. It seeks various orders including one compelling the HSE to transfer the sums due to Narooma under a contract it claims the parties entered into on March 27 last.

It also seeks orders restraining the HSE from taking any steps to avoid its obligations under the contract, as well as an order preventing the defendant from purchasing similar types of ventilators until the sums allegedly due under the contract have been paid to Narooma.

Today, Mr Justice Michael Quinn granted Narooma's lawyers, on an ex-parte basis, permission to serve short notice of its proceedings on the HSE.

Matt Jolley BL, for Narooma, told the court that one of the services the company provides is to help source and provide medical devices to healthcare professions.

The company, which is based in Swords, Co Dublin, also ensures that all items are in full conformity with European health, safety and environment protection regulations.

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic the company has been particularly focused on that activity, counsel said.

Counsel said that under the agreement the ventilators were due to be shipped to Ireland from the Far East in three tranches between April 20 and May 15 next.

Counsel said it was also agreed that his client was to be paid by the HSE by the close of business on March 30 last.

However, counsel said that the money has not been paid, with the result that the ventilators cannot be provided by his client to the HSE.

Counsel said that undertakings were sought from the HSE that it would abide by the contract, but none have been given.

Counsel said that correspondence from the HSE after the payment deadline had passed said that a new due diligence was being carried out before any payment could be processed.

Narooma claims that this was the first time that such due diligence was raised by the defendant.

All parties were aware of what was involved in the deal when the contract was entered into, Narooma claims.

The explanation given for the non-payment is flawed and is an effort to delay and frustrate the performance of what it says is a binding contract between the parties, it claims.

The matter will return before the court later this week.
The Centre has begun using integrated command-and-control centres (ICCCs) designed for Prime Minister Narendra Modis ambitious National Smart Cities Mission, an urban renewal and retrofitting programme, for real-time surveillance and monitoring of coronavirus disease (Covid-19)-affected districts across the country.

States have converted the smart cities ICCCs into war rooms for real-time data monitoring using the central data dashboard to provide information about the status of Covid-19 positive cases in various administrative zones of these cities, the officials aware of the development said. The war rooms are also being used for tracking people under quarantine and suspected Covid-19 cases.

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh are among the states that are using the command centres for closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance of public places, geographic information system (GIS) mapping of Covid-19 positive cases and global positioning system (GPS) of healthcare workers.

The Centre is coordinating with the states through our central command centre at Nirman Bhawan in New Delhi. States are also using it for predictive analytics (heat maps) for virus containment across different zones of their respective cities. Were also doing real-time tracking of ambulances and disinfection services, a senior government official said.

The Centre is collaborating with district administration, police and civic authorities to monitor suspected Covid-19 cases. The government aims to use the infrastructure for developing predictive analytics using heat maps and taking action in monitoring the movements such as geo-fencing and running periodic health checks on those who are suspected to be suffering from Covid-19.

States are also using it for providing virtual training to doctors and healthcare professionals, providing medical services through video conferencing, tele-counselling and tele-medicines. The Smart Cities Mission technology is leveraging the technology to collaborate with doctors across these designated cities to provide online medical consultation facilities to the people. The guidelines, issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) in collaboration with NITI Aayog and the Indian Medical Council, allow doctors to write prescriptions based on telephonic, textual or video conversations  chat, images, messaging or e-mails. The risk of the spread of Covid-19 is vastly reduced, as many doctors, who arent in the frontline of combating the viral outbreak, dont need to step out of their homes, the official said.

All the operators are given daily tasks such as monitoring quarantined citizens and passengers who came from abroad recently and also answering frequently asked questions regarding Covid-19, he added.

The initiative comes at a time when the Centre is considering to resume movement and commercial activity in districts, where no Covid-19 cases have been reported to date after the ongoing 21-day nationwide lockdown enforced since March 25 to contain the Covid-19 is lifted. In an interaction with chief ministers on Friday, PM Modi told the states to formulate a common exit strategy to ensure staggered re-emergence of the population after the lockdown is done away with.

The empowered group on Covid-19, led by Niti Aayog, is also seeking support from international bodies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) for providing technical support in monitoring and surveillance mechanisms. A meeting of the empowered group with the UN is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, according to the officials aware of the development.

How states are monitoring

In Maharashtra, which has reported 891 Covid-19 positive cases and 52 deaths to date, local administrations such as the Pune Smart City Development Corporation Limited (PSCDCL) has collaborated with Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to develop an integrated data dashboard. Each case of the city has been mapped using geo-spatial information systems and the authorities are monitoring the areas and creating buffer zones where patients were tested Covid-19 positive, an official said.

The city administration is developing a containment plan by using heat-mapping technologies and predictive analytics, as the earmarked zones are constantly getting updated on the dashboard. For instance, Naidu Infectious Disease Hospitals activities are being tracked through this mechanism. The dashboard also monitors the quarantine facilities and tracks the health of suspected patients and their contacts placed under home quarantine.

Tamil Nadu, which has reported 621 Covid-19 positive cases to date, has deployed a team of 25 doctors at an ICCC and each of them has been tasked to keep a watch on 250 quarantined people.

In Chennai, 25 doctors are engaged in the ICCC. Each of them has been asked to monitor 250 quarantined people and give them moral and psychological support. They will also prescribe medicines, if required. In Vellore, 118 Covid-19 suspects are mapped with individual health experts for advice. Their contact details and medical history have also been shared. Besides, theyre being counselled regularly, the official said.

Similarly, in Uttar Pradesh, the ICCCs are being used for tracking health services across the state. UP has reported 308 Covid-19 positive cases so far.

The ICCCs keeping a tab on health services in Kanpur, Aligarh, Varanasi etc. Tele-medicine is offered via video-conferencing facility. In Aligarh, doctors are deployed at the ICCC between 11 am and 8 pm to enable telemedicine and video-conferencing facility using a dedicated WhatsApp number, the official said.

Similarly, Madhya Pradesh (MP) has deployed a team of doctors at the ICCCs for counselling and monitoring.

The state has reported 256 Covid-19 positive cases so far.

In Bhopal, the ICCC is being used as a helpline and tele-counselling centre for local residents. Medical officers are working there in shifts to attend to peoples healthcare needs.

In Ujjain, two doctors are stationed at the ICCC 24x7, who are talking to people over the phone or video-conferencing facility and giving them health tips real-time based on their symptoms. The authorities have operationalised 40 Medical Mobile Units (MMU) to distribute prescribed medicines to people. In Jabalpur, dedicated Rapid Response Team (RRT) and Mobile Action Unit (MAU) are present on the ground across civic wards to coordinate with ICCC officials regarding screening, ambulance, quarantine etc. the official said.

Medical teams are stationed at ICCCs to provide any immediate medical attention via the helpline. Trained professionals resolve the queries raised by the public at an initial stage and then these calls are connected to a designated doctor. The counselling helps to reduce panic among the callers. The doubtful cases are being encouraged to consult a doctor, he said.

In Gujarats Gandhinagar, the contact details of grocery stores for all the sectors have been provided to local residents. While the Surat Municipal Corporation has published an online dashboard that provides a consolidated count of those people who have tested Covid-19 positive and deaths along with those who are either suspected or recovered from the viral outbreak. The dashboard provides the trends and patterns of the spread of Covid-19 across Surat. The civic authorities also tabulate the latest available data such as the distribution of cases on the basis of age, gender and zones.

The first lot of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) governments Smart Cities Mission aims to develop 100 citizen-friendly and self-sustainable urban settlements, which will be measurable only by the next year when the first 20 of them are completed. Under the mission, the setting up ICCCs for each city is a vital step. The ICCCs are designed to enable authorities to monitor the status of various civic amenities in real-time. Initially, it was aimed to control and monitor online water and power supply, sanitation, traffic movement, integrated building management, city connectivity and also internet infrastructure.
Hollywood model Lori Harvey sparked pregnancy rumors once again.

Social media users are speculating about the 23-year-old possibly having a baby on the way with her rap icon boyfriend, Future.

After Lori posted on Instagram of what seemed like an innocent video of T-Pain and Lil Jon on her TV, eagle-eyed fans noticed that there was a sonogram printout sitting to the right of her television screen.

Many fans were excited for Lori, asking if she was indeed expecting.

However, The Shade Room debunked the rumors, saying that the sonogram belonged to her sister Morgan Hawthorn.

This was not the first time Lori was on the front page of Hollywood websites.

The step-daughter of TV icon Steve Harvey made headlines early this year after being warned that Future might have pegged her as another baby momma. After all, it is believed that the rapper has as many as ten children with eight different mothers.

On Valentine's Day, Lori posted a video of Future's romantic gesture of scattering rose petals, putting up romantic candles and a heart-shaped board made of roses in her Beverly Hills home.

Comments poured on the Instagram post of Sof Lori, which range from "How are you going to clear it up" up to "He's trying to get you pregnant!"

Lori allegedly responded to the last comment that she is "already pregnant." However, it was never confirmed.

Steve Doesn't Approve?

Lori's relationship with Future is getting stronger, even after Steve Harvey's insistence that he has nothing good to say about her daughter's relationship with the rapper.

When the 62-year-old host was walking around Hollywood, a paparazzi asked him, "How do you feel about your daughter dating Future?" and "Do you approve of Future?" to which he responded with, "I don't know nothing about that."

Lori also did not listen to her mother's advice from 2015. The model made headlines in December when a video surfaced of her mother Marjorie warning her to steer clear of rappers.

Marjorie told her daughter, "I know you just started dating this year, but no athletes, no rappers."

Spoiling Lori

Since late last year, Future had spoiled her much-younger girlfriend this year when they made their relationship known to the public.

The 36-year-old went all out for his girlfriend's 23rd birthday with a massive party in Jamaica.

In a video Lori shared on her Instagram, she was seen jumping on a private jet, which was filled with scattered rose petals. The plane had the model's friends on board as they were headed to Montego, Jamaica.

Arriving there, the group was welcomed by gold balloons that read out "Happy Birthday Lori" in their massive mansion.

On her way to her room, she was surprised with even more rose petals and candles that lead to the bed.

However, The Shade Room pointed out that Future's exes, Joie Chavis and Brittni Mealy, had both previously showed off similar rose petal situations.

The Shade Room even shared a video collage of all three women relishing in their gifts from Future.

Aside from the trip, Lori Harvey also showed off an expensive gold Rolex she got for Christmas. The rapper tends to buy his girlfriend's expensive watches, as ex-girlfriend Chavis took to her Instagram also to show off her diamond watch.

The couple also took a trip to Africa, where Future was headlining for a concert in Lagos, Nigeria.

Later on, they were spotted in a Las Vegas bar celebrating New Year's Eve together.
The Tuscaloosa News

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP)  The trial of a former NASA astronaut charged in a car crash that killed two girls in 2016 is now scheduled to begin in June.

Tuscaloosa County Circuit Judge Allen May issued an order Monday setting James Halsells reckless murder trial for June 8. In-person courthouse proceedings are shut down statewide because of the new coronavirus, but May entered a written order without a hearing.
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Linkedin Dzulfiqar Fathur Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 13:26 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd03b38c 1 National COVID-19,doni-monardo,Jokowi,novel-coronavirus,PCR-test,rapid-testing Free

The country's COVID-19 task force will administer more polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which are believed to be more accurate than rapid tests.

It turns out that not all rapid tests are effective, the task forces head, Doni Monardo, said during a virtual meeting with the House of Representatives on Monday.

Thus we will procure more PCR test kits.

A PCR test detects whether a person has contracted the novel coronavirus by swabbing the nose and throat, while the rapid test detects whether a person has been exposed to the virus through a blood sample. Experts have repeatedly cast doubt over rapid tests, which they claim give less accurate results than PCR tests.

We will still administer rapid tests but there are consequences, said Doni. Rapid tests usually need to be administered more than once. Some people that test negative via the rapid test have tested positive using the PCR method or vice versa.

Doni, who also heads the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), said separately that the government had disbursed Rp 14 billion (US$849,643) to the Jakarta-based Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology to increase its capacity to conduct PCR testing.

Read also: Carry out proper mass testing with PCR, experts say

President Joko "Jokowi" Jokowi has called on the Health Ministry and the COVID-19 task force to speed up PCR and rapid testing to obtain clear data on confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the country.

The government is expecting the delivery of PCR test kits from South Korea. Seouls LG Corp plans to provide 50,000 test kits for Indonesia, according to a press release issued by the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister on Monday.

Doni said the government had disbursed 500,000 test kits for rapid testing across the country as of Monday.

Jakarta, the national epicenter of the outbreak, has performed the rapid test on 24,015 people across the province as of Monday. Of them, 589 people returned positive results.

West Java, the second-hardest hit province, found 677 people with COVID-19 from rapid tests performed on 22,000 people in 27 cities and regencies.
PHOENIX, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Copperstate Farms Management, LLC, a vertically integrated cannabis company in Arizona, is answering increased product demand while prioritizing patient and employee safety at its dispensary and cultivation operations during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. As the top cannabis wholesaler in Arizona and home to one of the largest greenhouses in North America, Copperstate Farms is an invaluable part of the state medical marijuana supply chain.



Our number one priority is to keep our employees and our customers safe during this period of uncertainty and fluidity from the coronavirus issue. We are following the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as all government executive orders and are continually changing and updating our processes and work flows. Additionally, we have seen medical cannabis demand increase across our wholesale and retail channels, stated Copperstate Farms CEO Pankaj Talwar.

Parent company to retail brand Sol Flower, Copperstate Farms has taken a proactive approach and instituted extra precautions at its dispensary locations in Tempe and Sun City, Arizona.

Sol Flower has reduced store hours allowing staff additional time to deep clean and sanitize high-touch surfaces and high-traffic areas as well as move to a one shift model. Patients are encouraged to order online for pick-up at the dispensaries. In Tempe, Sol Flower has three new express pickup windows to improve wait times.

Sol Flowers mixed-use dispensary retail concept in Sun City with public-facing cafe and classroom, has temporarily suspended workshops and dining services to help flatten the curve. The location is also instituting a 1:1 patient advocate to patient ratio to limit dispensary capacity and has expanded its express pickup area to serve patients more efficiently.

Copperstate Farms has implemented social distancing measures at all facilities and visitors are no longer allowed at its 40-acre grow in Snowflake, Arizona.

For more information visit CopperstateFarms.com.

About Copperstate Farms Management, LLC:

Established in 2016, Copperstate Farms Management, LLC, is a vertically integrated cannabis company headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. The company is a licensed producer and distributor of medical cannabis in the U.S. and operates a 1.7-million-square-foot facility and 40-acre greenhouse grow in Snowflake, Arizona. Copperstate Farms is the parent company of multiple product suites and dispensary retail concept Sol Flower, which includes a public-facing cafe and wellness classroom. The multi-use dispensary brand has locations in Tempe and Sun City, Arizona.

Copperstate Farms is dedicated to bringing growth to the local and state economy through the hiring of local laborers, material suppliers, and contractors. For more information, visit CopperstateFarms.com.
Rebecca Judd has revealed the clever hack she uses to extend the life of her floral arrangements at home.

The 37-year-old WAG shared her secret with fans so they too could have fresh flowers 'last forever' during the coronavirus lockdown.

Bec, who is based in Melbourne, revealed that by using her ingenious method she was able to re-purpose flowers from Christmas, months later!

WAG Rebecca Judd revealed the clever hack behind keeping her flower arrangements looking fresh during coronavirus lockdown over the weekend

Tagging local business, Flowers By Brett Matthew John, Bec praised their 'preserved and dried' arrangement options.

The mum-of-four explained to 9Now that she uses preserved flowers around her house, and especially likes that she can enjoy hydrangeas year-round.

Bec often shares footage of her arrangements in the family's new $7.3 million Melbourne mansion.

Stylish! Bec often shares footage of the arrangement in the family's new $7.3 million Melbourne mansion

Helping hands: Bec often had a team of florists install the arrangement at her home, with preserved and dried floral arrangements estimated to last up to 12 months if properly cared for

'BLISS. Flowers are preserved so they last forever': Bec showed off a colourful fresh-looking posy by her bedside table on the weekend

The florals are usually installed by florists in her home, and feature a mix of both fresh and preserved flowers.

She showed off a colourful fresh-looking posy by her bedside table over the weekend, writing: 'BLISS. Flowers are preserved so they last forever.'

It's believed preserved and dried floral arrangements can last up to 12 months if properly cared for.

Proud parents: Rebecca (right) and AFL star husband Chris Judd (left) share eight-year-old son Oscar, five-year-old daughter Billie, and three-year-old twin boys Tom and Darcy

Rebecca and her AFL star husband Chris are proud parents to eight-year-old son Oscar, five-year-old daughter Billie, and three-year-old twin boys, Tom and Darcy.

The couple wed in a lavish ceremony in 2010, and in a chat with Daily Mail Australia last year Bec said they were 'done' with building their brood.

'Having four, you've got to spread your love. You keep adding more into the mix... I wouldn't want to do it to them! We started early, we finished early. We are done!'
The impact of and difficulties caused by the Covid-19 crisis regarding the care and management of some of the country's most vulnerable people was highlighted in several cases mentioned before the High Court today.

The cases came before Mr Justice David Keane, who was asked to make various orders in relation to persons, some of whom are deemed at high risk of severe illness or death if they contract the virus, who are either wards of court or in the process of being made wards of court.

None of the individuals in question can be identified for legal reasons.

In one case, involving a man aged in his 80s with dementia that was before the court last week, Mr Justice Keane was told that concerns remain about the man's ability to grasp the risks to himself and others associated with the coronavirus emergency.

The man, who is described as being very pleasant and affable, had difficulties understanding social distancing and that older persons had been advised by the government to stay indoors.

The court heard that despite being advised by a variety of people, including his court-appointed guardian, the man had not complied with court orders confining him to his home and had been reported as going to a local shop twice in the one day.

An independent medical visit will assess the man's man capacity in the coming days and the HSE is seeking to find a suitable place for the man.

The judge, following an application from David Leahy Bl, who acts for a solicitor whom the man had previously given power of attorney to, agreed to extend orders previously granted confining the man to his home.

In another separate case the court was also updated on the condition of a ward of court who suffers from anorexia.

The young woman, who also has an underlying condition, has been treated at a variety of locations in Ireland and the UK.

It was proposed by her doctors that she be admitted to a facility in the UK, where she had previously been treated.

However, due to Covid-19 she cannot return there for the time being.

The judge was told she is self-isolating at home, and there were concerns about her weight falling below 37.5kg. However her situation was being monitored and she was in contact with various medical professionals several times a week, the court was told.

Another case, where consent was sought from the court to operate on a middle-aged woman with the mental capacity of a young child who has breast cancer, heard she was due to have undergone surgery this week.

However, due to the current pressure on hospitals and surgical lists, her procedure has been put back. It is hoped that she will undergo surgery as soon as possible, the court heard.

In another case, a judge was also formally asked by the HSE to approve the transfer of a man, who sustained serious injuries following a road traffic accident, from the hospital he is in to a nursing home which the court heard is Covid-19 free.

The judge, who was told that the virus has been detected in the hospital, approved the transfer.

The judge also approved the transfer of a man with a variety of complex intellectual and psychiatric conditions, including paedophilia, from a secure facility in the South of the country to one in the East of Ireland.

The court was told while the transfer was seen to be in the man's best interests due to the improvements he has been making, his family were objecting on grounds including that the move could result in him contracting the virus.

Mr Justice Keane said he was satisfied from the evidence before the court that the move would be of benefit to the man, where he would be allowed to take part in structured activities that he enjoys.

The judge, noting the family's concerns, said the man was no more at risk from contracting Covid-19 at the new facility than he is at his current location.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  Around 24,500 people have been tested for coronavirus infection, but more tests should be done to get a "clearer picture" of the COVID-19 crisis in the country, a Cabinet official said Tuesday.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III told CNN Philippines' News Night that around 29,000 tests were conducted. He explained that a person goes through an average of two to three tests to confirm a possible infection.

"It's not enough. The daily testing load is about 2,000/2,500 and we need to scale this up to about 8-10,000 per day and that will now allow us to have more robust data to really have a clearer picture of the COVID situation in the Philippines," Duque said.

He said authorities, particularly the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, will use the data to decide on whether to lift the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine or further extend it beyond April 30.

"Unless we are able to test about 8,000-10,000 a day, it will be difficult to say anything that's premature so let's take it one step at a time," Duque said.

The inter-agency task force announced an even bigger target: 20,000 tests per day by April 27.

Aside from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, nine other facilities can now conduct COVID-19 tests independently.

READ: PH now has 10 accredited labs to conduct COVID-19 testing

The number of COVID-19 cases nationwide has risen to 3,764. This means more than 80 percent of the 24,500 people tested for COVID-19 were negative for the viral disease.

A total of 177 patients succumbed to the virus, while 84 got well.

President Rodrigo Duterte has placed Luzon under enhanced community quarantine since March 17 to contain the spread of the virus.

When asked if the President should have imposed the stay-at-home order earlier, Duque said, "I don't think so because we were actually governed by the available data."

"Science and evidence" will also be the government's guide in deciding when to lift the Luzon-wide lockdown, he added.
Buckling under naked pressure applied by US president, New Delhi agrees to export paracetamol and hydroxychloroquin

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government hastened to comply after Donald Trump warned of retaliation if India did not export the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to the United States to help it fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

An official statement released in New Delhi said the drug will indeed be exported to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic and will also be licensed to neighbouring countries that are dependent on India to fight the pandemic.

Though the US was not specifically named in the Indian statement, it is understood that the drug will indeed be exported to the US.

India also said Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and paracetamol will be kept in a licensed category and their demand position would be continuously monitored but that the stock position could allow our companies to meet the export commitments that they had contracted.

The Indian statement insisted that like any responsible government, our first obligation is to ensure that there are adequate stocks of medicines for the requirement of our own people.

New Delhi cautioned against an unnecessary controversy and attempts to politicise the matter, arguing that India has always maintained that the international community must display strong solidarity and cooperation.

Trump spoke to Narendra Modi on Sunday, requesting supply of HCQ to the US. Responding to speculation in the US that India may not export the drug, the US president was quoted as saying on Monday evening (Tuesday morning IST): So, I would be surprised if that were his (Modis) decision. He'd have to tell me that. I spoke to him Sunday morning, called him, and I said we'd appreciate your allowing our supply to come out. If he doesn't allow it to come out, that would be okay, but of course, there may be retaliation. Why wouldn't there be? I would be surprised if he would, you know, because India does very well with the United States.

So this morning, India fell in line, with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) saying, "In view of the humanitarian aspects of the pandemic, it has been decided that India would licence paracetamol and HCQ in appropriate quantities to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on our capabilities. We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic. We would therefore discourage any speculation in this regard or any attempts to politicise the matter."
Cash-strapped parents are being forced to pay nursery fees or risk losing their child's place, campaigners have told Money Mail.

The coronavirus lockdown has caused all schools and nurseries to shut, with only the children of key workers catered for.

But some parents, who are now looking after their children while also working from home, are still being billed.

Mother-of-two Carla Turnbull (pictured with husband Robbie and children Riley, four, and Lucia, two) took action after her children's nursery indicated it would charge in the lockdown

It comes as nurseries in England are now relieved of paying business rates. They are also able to claim 80 per cent of staff wages from the government and get loans of up to 5 million.

Some pre-schools have waived or cut charges for children who can't attend, but others are continuing to charge full fees. Some have even told parents they may lose their children's places if they do not pay up.

The average annual cost of sending a child under-two to nursery for 25 hours-a-week in Britain has risen by 5 per cent in just a year to 6,844, according to the Coram Family and Childcare Trust.

The cost of sending a two-year-old is up 4 per cent to 6,590.

Mother-of-two Carla Turnbull (pictured) decided to take action after her children's nursery indicated it would charge full fees in a lockdown.

The teacher and her husband, Robbie, 35, pay 270-a-month to send Riley, four, and Lucia, two, to their local Mama Bear's nursery in Bristol for one-and-a-half days a week.

Riley's attendance is subsidised by 30 hours of free childcare offered by the Government to working parents of three- and four-year-old children in England and Wales.

But last month, days before the lockdown began, the nursery wrote to parents indicating it would charge full fees if it was unable to accept children due to staff sickness, nursery closure or an event outside its control.

Carla, 33, says: 'I understood that the nursery may have to charge some fees to cover its staff salaries and other costs like rent.'

But she says it seemed unnecessary to charge parents full fees when they were not looking after their children.

She adds: 'Their outgoings would be lower. It was like they were making a profit during a time of crisis.'

Some pre-schools have waived or cut charges for children who can't attend, but others are continuing to charge full fees (stock picture)

After Carla raised the issue with her local paper, the Bristol Post, the nursery said it would reduce April fees by 70 per cent for parents whose children could not attend.

Last Friday it confirmed these parents would also not have to pay anything in May.

Carla has also amassed more than 1,500 signatures on a petition asking the government to ban nurseries from charging full fees during lockdown.

She says: 'I am pleased my nursery has stepped forward to do the right thing, but others need to do the same.'

Tony Driffield, co-owner of Mama Bear's, says: 'Our initial communications were issued even before schools and nurseries were ordered to close. We have since adapted our policies.'

Nurseries are currently free to set their own fee policies.

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran has written to education secretary Gavin Williamson to call on the Government to allow childcare providers to benefit from the 25,000 grants available to small and medium-sized businesses.

She says: 'I have heard of some parents being told that if they do not pay their fees they may lose their child's place at the nursery.

'This is obviously particularly distressing if a parent has lost a job or had a pay cut.'

Industry figures have argued that the sector has been underfunded for years and there is not enough government support to ensure their businesses' survival.

Purnima Tanuku OBE, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, says most nurseries are not charging parents for places that children cannot take up.

She adds: 'This means they have serious cash flow problems, as much of the government funding will not come through until May or June.'

Richard Blunden, group managing director of Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries  the third biggest nursery chain in the UK  says: 'We are not in any way looking to make a profit out of this. We want to ensure nurseries are able to look after children when this is over.'

A Department of Education spokesman says it is continuing to fund councils for free childcare entitlements even if children are not attending.

He adds: 'We have also put in place a significant package of financial support including a business rate holiday for many private providers and the coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to support workers.'

f.parker@dailymail.co.uk
As of now, there are 270,098 of those, who recovered from coronavirus

Open source

First, let's start with the obvious things here. The numbers of infected and dead from Covid-19 per day are huge, but we should not forget about another graph of those, who recovered from the virus.

As of now, there are 270,098 of those, who recovered, including 28 persons in Ukraine.

Moreover, as many countries report, the number of people coping with coronavirus is constantly increasing.

And some cases of recovery can really set in a positive way.

Elderly people are considered the main risk group for Covid-19 disease. But a serious part of these very elderly people by their example proves the opposite.

For example, a 104-year-old Italian has become the oldest person in the world who recovered from Covid-19.

Ada Zanusso, an Italian woman aged 104, has recovered from coronavirus -- making her the world's oldest known survivor.

Open source

The woman fell ill on March 17. She was later diagnosed with coronavirus.

Prior to this, the Italian city of Rimini reported the recovery of a 101-year-old man who had been under treatment for a week, but was later checked out and returned to his family.

Similar cases have recently occurred in Iran. Iranian patients aged 100 and 106 were cured of the virus.

The good news comes from Italy. For example, yesterday it became known that the number of patients began to decrease in the intensive care units.

Good news also came from Spain. They recorded a decrease trend.

A lot of celebrities, who have become infected with the virus, contribute to the further fight against it.

In particular, not so long ago it became known about the recovery of Pink, who had been previously infected. In addition, she has financially invested in the further struggle for other people, donating $ 1 million.

What's up with the vaccine? It is being developed, it is being tested in a number of countries, but in general, most likely, it would not appear sooner than in a year.

Almost all countries have joined the search for a vaccine. Which in any case should speed up the process as much as possible. And this, judging by the periodic reports from various countries, actually happens.

One of the latest messages came from Turkey. They tested the coronavirus vaccine on animals. And they developed antibodies.

According to professor Ates Kara from Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine Department of Child Health and Diseases, "it's time to check if it can help people."

Authorities turn to the citizens. First of all, they inform on how the country will live on and what specific measures will be taken.

But there are appeals that are aimed at moral support for residents. Such appeals often come from the monarchs.

In particular, Queen Elizabeth II addressed the British. She rarely addressed the British during her reign. But here the situation has changed.

Queen Elizabeth II expressed the hope that in the future everyone would be proud of how the British met these difficulties.
A Cypress H-E-B employee who was last at work in early April tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the company said on Monday.

The employee worked at the Cypress Market H-E-B located at 24224 Northwest Freeway, according to a news release from H-E-B.

The person last went to that store on April 2. Other workers at the location who were "directly affected" were notified and the store has been deep cleaned multiple times since then, according to the release.

Destinations revealed: Data shows where Houston-area residents are going amid pandemic

A Houston H-E-B employee previously tested positive for the virus, the company announced last Tuesday.

That individual worked at the MacGregor Market H-E-B located at 6055 South Freeway, according to a news release from H-E-B.

The person last went to that store on March 20. All other workers at the location were notified, according to the release.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Exclusive: As Harris County deputy battles coronavirus, his wife tries to save him from afar

H-E-B has been widely praised since the virus gained momentum in the U.S. for having started planning for the COVID-19 crisis in January.

As the pandemic worsens nationwide, supermarket chains are beginning to report employee deaths. Concerns about their workers, deemed essential by the government, are on the rise.

H-E-B on March 20 announced a temporary $2 hourly pay raise for its employees to thank them for working during the pandemic. The raise was set to expire April 12.
Venture Underwriters Inc., a division of Allstar Financial Group, has expanded its Chicago underwriting team to include commercial underwriting veteran Chris Barrow.

Barrow joins Chicago office as vice president specializing in commercial general liability. The office will be relocating to 200 S Wacker Drive in Chicago as part of this expansion.

Barrow started his career as a claims adjustor at Crawford & Company before moving into underwriting at Western World Insurance Group. He also held various underwriting roles with increasing management responsibilities at Crum & Forster Specialty, and most recently, at Vela Insurance Services, where he served as vice president and Chicago branch manager.

Barrow has extensive experience in underwriting construction, products, hospitality and premise-based risks. He holds a Construction Risk and Insurance Specialist (CRIS) designation from the International Risk Management Institute, Inc. (IRMI).

Venture Underwriters Inc. underwrites surplus lines risks that are produced exclusively by wholesale brokers.

Source: Venture Underwriters Inc.

Topics Underwriting
(Bloomberg) -- The coronavirus pandemic has pressured nearly every corner of the global economy, but analysts continue to see sunny days ahead for cloud computing and the ecosystem that surrounds the technology.

The sub-sector is seen as a rare bright spot in the current environment, particularly as the outbreak pushes more people to work remotely, contributing to a long-term trend of rising demand. The boost is expected to be broad based, helping software companies, communication firms, and chipmakers that focus on data-center products, which are processors used in cloud computing.

The lasting impact of Covid-19 could actually be a net positive, wrote Richard Baldry, an analyst at Roth Capital Partners. Cloud-based communication companies should see increased customer activity, at least once operational bandwidth returns to a somewhat more normal level for prospects. He listed Five9, Medallia, eGain and LivePerson as names that could see stronger demand and which were trading at valuations he views as attractive.

So far this year, the Global X Cloud Computing ETF -- an exchange-traded fund that tracks an index of companies involved in the space -- is down 6.4%. A different ETF, the First Trust Cloud Computing ETF, is down 9.2%. Both have outperformed the S&P 500s drop of more than 15% over the same period.

According to Wedbush, the pandemic has thrown sales cycles, procurement/IT departments, and budgets into a tornado-like state of chaos, resulting in unprecedented risks to IT spending. Even in this environment, analyst Daniel Ives wrote, cloud remains a theme; he expects $1 trillion to be spent on cloud computing over the coming decade.

Ives named Microsoft as the Rock of Gibraltar cloud stock to own, but said the trend would also support the cloud-computing businesses of both Amazon and Alphabet.

Earlier this week, Bank of America referred to cloud-focused chipmakers as a shining house in [a] tough neighborhood, referring to the headwinds facing other areas of the industry. Analyst Vivek Arya expects cloud capex to rise 13% in 2020. While this is down from a prior view of 16% growth -- the lower estimate reflects the most current Covid-19 headwinds -- it represents a robust acceleration from 2019, when capex grew just 3.5%.

Story continues

The firm listed Broadcom, Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Marvell Technology and Intel among the chipmakers most exposed to this trend. Nvidia has been one of the rare semiconductor gainers this year, and analysts have pointed to its data-center business as a tailwind.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) After weeks of field trials, the country's first locally-developed test kits for COVID-19 detection finally received the green light for public use.

The Food and Drug Administration last week issued a certificate of product registration for the GenAmplify COVID-19 rRT-PCR Detection Kit, the low-cost test kit invented by a team of scientists from the University of the Philippines National Institutes of Health, the Philippine Genome Center, and The Manila HealthTek Inc.

READ: How a team of Filipino scientists developed a COVID-19 test kit

The product just like the other approved imported test kits is seen to expedite the process and turnaround period for COVID-19 testing in the Philippines, which has recorded over 3,600 cases of the disease as of Monday.

But how does the local-made test kit differ from the other rapid test kits and previous tests?

CNN Philippines spoke to the inventor of the product, Dr. Raul Destura, Deputy Executive Director of the Philippine Genome Center.

Real time PCR technology

The product features a PCR technology, which identifies the Ribonucleic acid (RNA) of the virus in a rapid speed until it is detected by a computer.

Batch test results out in a day

While the PCR method can only take about an hour, Destura said laboratory officials are likely to conduct batch testing to save cost and operation time.

"So even if it finishes in an hour and a half, if you do batch testing, it will probably take you a day to get the results," Destura told CNN Philippines' The Source.

Currently, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa, which conducts the most number of COVID-19 tests in the country, also requires a 24 to 48-hour window for the process.

Baseline cost is 1,320, but can reach 3,500 with hospital processing

The baseline value for the product is at 1,320. However, Destura said this could increase pending additional processing and operational costs of hospitals.

"When we did our calculation, if they're going to make it really affordable to everybody, it will probably cost in an area between 2,000, if they would add additional costs to the processing and all of the things that you need around the patients, to around 3,500," he said.

Not exempted from false positives and negatives

Just like other technologies, the lead scientist said the product may still be subject to false positive and negative tests.

Destura said there are three scenarios where one test can get a "false negative" result: (1) If the samples were poorly collected; (2) If there is not enough virus in the sample; and (3) If processing is incorrect.

A false positive result can meanwhile be attributed to a possible contamination of a sample from one that previously tested positive, he added.

"Good laboratory practice is very crucial in reducing false positivity and false negativity in terms of this technology," Destura noted.

26,000 test kits and counting

Destura said there are 26,000 test available, but manufacturers are also seeking to increase the number to meet the country's demand. He added their current manufacturing runs from 8,000 to 10,000 tests per day.

One kit equals 20 tests

Destura said the team stuck with the term "tests" to refer to the product, so as to avoid confusion with the numbers. He revealed that one kit contains about 20 tests in a box.
The Southern Illinois Music Festival Orchestra performs at Carterville High School Performing Arts Center. The two-week festival slated to start May 31 is postponed until later in the year. (Photo provided)

2020 Southern Illinois Music Festival is postponed

by Pete Rosenbery

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic are prompting postponement of the annual Southern Illinois Music Festival.

Edward Benyas, festival director, said he hopes to run a scaled-down music festival later this year  either in mid-August just before Southern Illinois University Carbondale fall 2020 classes are set to start, or in mid-December, after fall semester finals.

It all depends on the course of the virus and when it is safe to program, said Benyas, who is also professor of oboe in the SIU School of Music. There are plans to run the same ambitious festival, including two Italian operas, Beethovens 9th and much more, in June 2021, he added.

This years regularly scheduled festival was set for May 31 through June 14, with performances and concerts in various locations throughout the region, including Shryock Auditorium, Marion High School, University Museum at SIU Carbondale, University Mall in Carbondale, Carterville High School, the Du Quoin and Cairo public libraries, Christopher Civic Center and the Anna Arts Center.

The pandemic did force the Southern Illinois Symphony to cancel performances in March and April.

Free previous SIFest music streams available

Benyas has uploaded roughly two dozen prior Southern Illinois Music Festival performances, including operas, ballets and orchestral programs on the School of Musics YouTube channel for people to enjoy. Once you reach the page, click playlists, then the SIFest playlist. There are currently 26 SIFest videos available, in addition to Southern Illinois Symphony Orchestra performances and other concerts.
An article on the Case New Holland website from 2018 said the facility employs around 650 people to manufacture combine harvesters, windrowers and other heavy-duty equipment used to plant and harvest crops.

Agriculture is essential for a safe and reliable food supply, Schaefer said. Supporting local agriculture is now more important than ever, and we take this responsibility serious.

Anderson said there have been no reported cases at the Case New Holland site.

"We are very pleased and grateful that CNH has taken proactive measures at this time to reduce the spread of COVID in our district," she said in an email.

Schaefer said the Grand Island plant, which has a medical clinic on-site to treat employees and retirees, had already taken steps to combat the virus by deep-cleaning and trying to spread out workers.

Grand Island is home to several large manufacturing or food processing sites. At least 13 workers have tested positive for COVID-19 at the JBS USA beef plant in town. Work continues at that plant, because the federal government considers food production an essential job and service.
During the past two decades we have seen an increasing frequency of coronaviruses but they have been largely contained to specific parts of the world.

However, investors can expect more "Black Swan" coronavirus outbreaks that may turn into pandemics, as the world becomes increasingly connected. Along with the benefits of globalisation, comes the risk of the rapid spread of contagion.

BlackRock's chief executive Larry Fink says when we eventually exit this crisis the world will be very different. Credit:Bloomberg

Scientists have been warning that coronaviruses continue to pose a threat following the demise of SARS almost 20 years ago after it had spread across Asia. Like COVID-19, it was first detected in China.

Of course, the pandemic, above all, is a tragedy for the loss of life it causes.
A sense of death stalking the hospital ward, fear of dying alone, tearful despair and disarray at home, solitude, anger and the desire to share, or change their life: 12 people from different parts of the world who have survived COVID-19 share emotional and harrowing stories of the pain and fear after catching the virus: - A painful 'roller coaster' - With no pre-existing health conditions, South Korean engineering professor Park Hyun, 47, said he'd originally thought the coronavirus was "not my problem", until he developed symptoms and ended up in intensive care in the southern city of Busan. It had started with a dry cough and sore throat, he said, followed a few days later by a shortness of breath so severe he fainted while waiting for a hospital coronavirus test. It came back positive and he was admitted to hospital where his condition fluctuated wildly every day and several times he thought he would die. "It was like a roller coaster," he said. "I was feeling like there is a thick plate pressuring my chest and also needles poking my chest." Some of his symptoms may have been the side effects of his treatment, he believes. But after eight days and two negative tests, he was discharged. "I had a very bad situation," Park said. Whenever his condition was slightly better "I was thinking that might be my last time where I can write something in my life," he added. "So I tried to write something short on Facebook to share with friends." - 'Death prowls' the ward - Cardiologist Fabio Biferali spent eight days "isolated from the world" at Rome's Policlinico Umberto I hospital in an orthodontics department that had been converted into an intensive care unit. Describing the pain he felt as "strange", the 65-year-old said it almost resembled having a little monkey on his back, just like one of his patients had described it to him. Oxygen therapy is painful and finding a radial artery is difficult, he said. "They would do it up to twice a day. Being a doctor helped me bear the pain. Other patients would desperately shout 'enough' 'enough'." The hardest part were the nights, alone with his fears. "I couldn't sleep, anxiety invaded the room... nightmares came, death prowled," he said. "I was afraid of dying without being able to cling on to the hands of my family and friends, despair overcame me." While medical staff were covered head to toe in protective gear, Biferali said he found some solace in being able to see their "affectionate" eyes behind the glass masks and hear their voices. "Many were young, doctors on the front line. It was a moment of hope." - Going to 'gate of hell and back' - Wan Chunhui, 44, said he was "terrified" at first but that going to the "gate of hell" and coming back to survive the virus had transformed his outlook on life. "I think the biggest change for me is that my way of looking at things is different now," said Wan, who spent 17 days at the makeshift Huoshenshan Hospital in the Chinese city of Wuhan, in central Hubei province, where the outbreak began. "I feel really calm about everything, really calm... I went to the gate of hell and came back. I saw with my own eyes that others failed to recover and died, which has had a big impact on me." He had initially isolated himself to protect his family after getting a temperature, but, still feverish a couple of days later, he walked an hour to hospital. Tests were not available but he was prescribed antibiotics and flu medication and asked to quarantine himself at home due to a hospital bed shortage. "I was terrified at first," he said. "But I went back home, switched to a positive mood, and braced myself for the situation. Anyway it?s pointless to panic," Wan told AFP. The 44-year-old investor and married father of a nine-year-old daughter already suffered from high blood pressure before the virus. At home, he began recording his illness in an online diary, but a bad cough set in and he was admitted to hospital. Hormone therapy helped lower his temperature, although he remained short of breath, but medical supplies were scarce, Wan said, and healthcare workers wore poor-quality protective suits and rubbish bags as shoe covers. Wan was transferred to one of the two field hospitals built for virus sufferers in Wuhan, a well-supplied centre, he said, where he was treated mostly with Western medicines. - Keeping the faith - Song Myung-hee, 72, was afraid of dying alone after being infected during a service at the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the southern city of Daegu, a secretive religious group at the centre of South Korea's coronavirus outbreak. She was at the same event as the woman known as Patient 31, a 61-year-old who attended four services before being diagnosed with the virus. Song was quarantined at home as a precaution but remained asymptomatic for several days before the virus struck suddenly with a severe cough. "I could not sleep at all," she told AFP. "It lasted for two days. I had to hold a plastic bag at all times because I kept on coughing up phlegm. "Then my face started swelling. I was scared I might die alone." Facing an influx, no hospital beds were available at the time in Daegu, so she was taken to Seongnam, 220 kilometres (137 miles) away. "I was relieved when I entered the hospital room -- because at least there, I knew I wouldn't have died alone," she said. The Shincheonji Church leader has apologised over its role in the spread of the disease but, despite her family's pleas, Song is resolute about staying a member. "I'm never leaving my church, it doesn't matter what other people say." - Comes and goes in waves - "The best way to describe it is: when you are at a high altitude, you struggle to breathe," said Christine, 28, from South Africa, who suffers from syringomyelia, a disorder affecting the spinal cord. Two days after being in contact with a sick work colleague, the analyst said she felt the first symptoms and COVID-19 was confirmed. Her partner, lawyer Dawie, 30, could not take the test because "the system was already under a lot of pressure" but within a few days had the same symptoms. Self-isolated, the couple who did not wish for their full names to be published, continue to work from home. Sometimes they wondered if they were overreacting because some days they felt fine, Dawie said. "Within days, it fluctuates. You get chilled and later on you feel better...The worst for me was last week... I was really short of breath... I called my doctor. She told me to look at the signs showing that I am not getting enough oxygen. "You should look at your fingernails if they turn blue," he said. - Despairing at home - French housewife and mother-of-three Djemila Kerrouche said the worst part was the challenge her three children faced continuing their school work while confined at home. After developing symptoms, she wore gloves and a mask at home and didn't touch food, she said, but two of the children -- who are aged six, 11 and 19 -- were already coughing. "My children put themselves under great pressure, they want to succeed at school," said the 47-year-old from Mulhouse in eastern France, which has been badly hit by the pandemic. "Their teachers give them work as if the situation were normal," she said. "The big one is preparing for her bac (end of secondary school exam) and I see her cry when she can't manage and I can't hold her in my arms, console her, help her." "My moral is rock bottom. I can't stop crying..." - Shock and solitude - Marisol San Roman, a sociologist and student from Argentina, said she was shocked to find she had the virus and described the "total solitude" of being infected. She is thought to have caught COVID-19 at a farewell dinner in Madrid after the closure of the Instituto de Empresa business school where she was studying, before returning home to Argentina. "I'm 25, I'm young, I'm in good health -- it's mad," she said, expressing her shock. Her 65-year-old father with whom she lives avoided her, leaving her food at the door of her room. On her own, she treated a lung infection and gauged the oxygen saturation rate in her blood. "Coronavirus is an illness which is lived in solitude, in total solitude," she said. Her case went viral after she gave Skype interviews to the media, and she said she received several insults via social media for having returned to the country when she was carrying the virus. She has tried to stop the stigmatisation associated with having it, she said. On her instagram account she writes of wanting to be a kind of social conscience, warning people to be aware, that "this isn't a joke, being young doesn't immunise you against anything and that the coronavirus isn't flu". - Sharing our experience with others - Entrepreneurs Julia, 27, and Megan, 35, wanted to share what they went through to help others after being among the 50 first cases recorded in South Africa. They caught the virus, with three other family members, on a ski trip to Switzerland, probably in a bar. The two women, who didn't want their full names published, are behind the @livingcoronapositive instagram account, which documents their recovery, responds to questions and aims to "bring some light and positivity to this dark time". They all experienced different versions of the symptoms; some mild, others lasted a week, they said. On testing, they said, "having a large earbud stuck down the back of your nose is not pleasant but it's quick". And their advice, said Megan, is to remember that "stress, anxiety and panic are normal human reactions to something as massive and unknown as this pandemic! So please be kind to your loved ones who feel out-of-control. They need your love and reassurance." - Anger - Frenchman Charlie Barres, 29, works in hospitals in his job as a physical educator and worries about the added strain the pandemic is putting on the health system. "Warnings about the state of the system don't date from yesterday. Not so long ago, the caregivers were on strike... And now, it's blowing up. At the same time, we're on a disaster footing in hospitals," he said. Married and with a two-year-old son, he was confined at his Paris home after the disease began with chills and a sore throat. A doctor diagnosed him. "The tests are expensive and they keep them for the complex cases," he said. After two days of feeling bad, he began to improve gradually. His son has been ill and his wife suffered headaches and a bad throat, he said. - Patient zero - Thirty-three year-old Lorena's aunt was Ecuador's "patient zero", who had returned from holiday in Spain to a family welcome home party with about 30 people in late February in the southwestern city of Babahoyo. "Already on her arrival she wasn't well... She told us she had felt feverish during the trip and that a lot of people were coughing" on the plane, Lorena, a teacher, said. Her 71-year-old aunt was hospitalised in Guayaquil, the epicentre of Ecuador's outbreak, and the virus was confirmed a week later. When the family, themselves isolated and tested, then saw now former health minister Catalina Andramuno announce five coronavirus cases during a press conference on TV, they realised "it was us!', Lorena said. Her aunt later died, and a dozen family members were infected, including Lorena, who has now recovered. burs-dp/kjm/txw A healthcare worker in a protective suit attends to a COVID-19 coronavirus patient at a hospital in Barcelona The new coronavirus has reached almost every corner of the planet, confining nearly half of humanity to their homes and turning life upside down for billions Just three months ago, few people even knew the word "coronavirus" but as the disease continues to spread across the globe, it has become a watchword for the daily life of billions Number of deaths and hospitalisations due to COVIOD-19 in France, Spain and Italy, since March 17
Rishi Sunak will take over prime ministerial duties if Dominic Raab is struck down by coronavirus while Boris Johnson is incapacitated, No 10 has revealed.

The order of so-called designated survivor was revealed as Downing Street described Mr Johnson as stable and in good spirits  also disclosing he does not have pneumonia and has still not required a ventilator.

The spokesman declined to say whether he was able to sit up, or talk to anyone, but revealed he has still not spoken directly to Mr Raab, despite asking him to stand in wherever necessary.

And he warned the lockdown would continue automatically after Easter Monday  the end of the original three weeks of restrictions  unless ministers decided otherwise.

There is no legal need for it to be renewed, it is not something that would lapse, the spokesman said.

Revealing Mr Sunak is next in line if Mr Raab cannot carry on working, he said: The chancellor would follow on from the foreign secretary.

Mr Raab will not be given the honour of a weekly audience with the Queen, No 10 said, because they have been suspended while Mr Johnson is out of action.

However, the spokesman confirmed he did have the power  with the agreement of the cabinet  to take the UK to war if it was deemed necessary, even a nuclear conflict.

The first secretary of state [Mr Raab] and the cabinet have the authority and ability to respond in the prime ministers absence, he said.

Coronavirus: London on lockdown Show all 29 1 /29 Coronavirus: London on lockdown Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man walks down a deserted Camden High Street Photos Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Goodge Street Station is one of the many stations closed to help reduce the spread Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown An empty street in the heart of Chinatown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown People in masks in Chinatown a day after the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A near-empty Piccadilly Circus during the first week of lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Sonja, my neighbour, who I photographed while taking a short walk. It was nice to briefly chat even from a distance Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple sit on the empty steps of the statue Eros in Piccadilly Circus Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Making sure I stay two-meters apart  DArblay Street, Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A mannequin behind a shop window. UK stores have closed until further notice Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A notice displayed on a shop window in Camden Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown As part of the lockdown, all non-essential shops have been ordered to close.Image from Camden High Street Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A skateboarder wearing a mask utilises his exercise allowance in the Camden area Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Communities have been coming together in a time of need Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman stands alone in a deserted Oxford Street. Up until a few weeks ago, on average, half a million people visited the street per day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple walk hand in hand down a street in Soho, a day before the stricter lockdown was announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown During the first week of March, shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities ahead of a countrywide lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Many supermarkers are operating a queuing system to make sure only a limited amount of customers are allowed in at anyone time Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Stay Safe  Curzon cinemas are temporarily closed under the new measures Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Pubs, restaurants and bars were ordered to shut as part of the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street There are fears that coronavirus could lead to permanent closure of struggling shops Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden Town is eerily silent on a normal working day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Shops and supermarkets ran out of hand sanitisers in the first week of the lockdown. As we approach the end of the second week most shops now have started to stock up Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty streets around Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A noticeboard on Camden High Street urges the public to stay at home Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street, one of Londons busiest tourist streets turns quiet Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Thriller Live confirmed its West End run ended in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty and eerie Soho streets after stricter rules on social distancing announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman pauses for a cigarette on Hanway Street, behind Tottenham Court Road Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man steps outside onto Hanway Street, that sits behind what is usually a bustling retail hub Angela Christofilou

Downing Street also rejected Donald Trumps bizarre claim that he was sending Mr Johnson medical aid, saying: We are confident the prime minister is receiving the best possible care from the National Health Service.

On his latest condition, in St Thomas' Hospital, in Westminster, he said: The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits.

He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.

The description suggests he has not been given an intensive treatment known as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), a step short of receiving a tube into the windpipe.

The spokesman also rejected any suggestions that No 10 had not been fully candid with the public about the seriousness of Mr Johnsons condition, insisting: "We have been fully frank.

And he dismissed the idea that a badly-needed ventilator might be being kept aside in case the prime minister required it  arguing there was significant spare capacity in the hospital and across the country.

Mr Raab was seen coughing earlier, but was said to be fine to host the daily press conference later, as he deputises for Mr Johnson.
While the majority of people with COVID-19 won't require hospitalization, those who do are likely to seek medical help as a result of acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, a severe lung injury common in patients with critical illnesses. At present, there is no effective treatment for ARDS other than supportive care with mechanical ventilation.

A team of physician-scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) -- part of Beth Israel Lahey Health -- are now enrolling patients in a clinical trial to evaluate a common anti-clotting drug for the treatment of COVID-19-positive patients with ARDS. The newly launched trial follows a special report the team published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery that suggested the use of a drug called tPA could reduce deaths among patients with ARDS as a complication of COVID-19.

Epidemiological models predict that thousands of Americans will require mechanical ventilation in the coming months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, far exceeding the estimated 200,000 ventilators currently available in the United States.

"As the global pandemic of COVID-19 begins to oversaturate the world's medical capacity to accommodate a surge of patients with ARDS, it's critical we consider how existing therapies that are widely available may be of use in this unprecedented public health emergency," said the special report's lead author and clinical trial investigator, Christopher D. Barrett, MD, a senior surgical resident at BIDMC and a research fellow at MIT.

"If effective and safe for the treatment of ARDS in patients with COVID-19, tPA could save lives by reducing recovery time and freeing up more ventilators for other patients in need."

An anticoagulant naturally produced by the body, tPA was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1996 for use in patients experiencing heart attack, stroke and pulmonary embolism. Researchers have considered the use of anti-coagulant drugs to reduce ARDS-induced death for two decades. Though the approach has never been widely adopted or formally FDA-approved, a clinical observation made about a subset of patients with COVID-19 induced ARDS made the idea seem newly relevant.

"We're hearing anecdotally that a subset of patients with COVID-19 induced ARDS are clotting abnormally around their catheters and IV lines," said senior author, Michael B. Yaffe, MD, PhD, an attending surgeon in the departments of Acute Care Surgery, Trauma, and Surgical Critical Care, and in Surgical Oncology at BIDMC. "We suspect these patients with aggressive clotting are will show the most benefit from tPA treatment, and this new clinical trial will reveal whether that's the case."

Led by Yaffe, Barrett, and colleagues from BIDMC's Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, including Shahzad Shaefi, MD, and Department Chair Daniel S. Talmor, MD, MPH, the tPA clinical trial is now open and enrolling patients with COVID-19 induced ARDS admitted to BIDMC. Next steps will include identifying biomarkers -- measurable characteristics such as blood levels of clotting factors -- to help more accurately determine which patients are most likely to respond to tPA as a treatment for ARDS, said Yaffe, who is also a Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The collaborative research was facilitated by Beth Israel Lahey Health COVID-19 Innovation Hub -- an effort led by Gyongyi Szabo, MD, PhD, Chief Academic Officer at Beth Israel Lahey Health -- to address the emerging challenges related to the pandemic.

Since the publication of the special report on March 23, Barrett and Yaffe have already heard from physicians across the country eager to try tPA for the treatment of COVID-19 induced ARDS. Because the medication is an FDA-approved drug already in widespread use for patients who have had heart attacks or strokes, doctors are permitted to prescribe it for off-label usage.
US President Donald Trump warned India of possible retaliation if it doesn't allow the export of Hydroxychloroquine tablets to the United States (US). Donald Trump last week urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to relax India's ban on hydroxychloroquine tablets so that the drug could be used to treat COVID-19 patients in the US. "So, I would be surprised if that were his decision. He'd have to tell me that. I spoke to him Sunday morning, called him, and I said we'd appreciate your allowing our supply to come out. If he doesn't allow it to come out, that would be okay, but of course there may be retaliation. Why wouldn't there be?" Trump said during a press briefing at the White House on Monday. Hydroxychloroquine tablet is used to prevent and treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, among other ailments.

Donald Trump had requested India for anti-malarial drugs, hours after India banned the export of the anti-malarial drug. Similar requests have been made by India's other neighbours such as Sri Lanka and Nepal. The export ban order is being reviewed, India said. On Monday, a senior State Department official said that India has been a significant partner of the US in the pharmaceutical sector and it expects similar cooperation to continue between the economies.

Meanwhile, the total number of deaths owing to coronavirus pandemic in the United States topped 10,000 as of 1.20 pm local time, according to the data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. On the other hand, China reported no coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, the first time since it started publishing daily figures in January.

Also Read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: Country's active COVID-19 cases at 3,851; death toll rise to 111

Also Read: Coronavirus in India: Telangana CM KCR urges PM Modi to extend lockdown by two weeks
DETROIT - A judge has cleared the way for a trial or financial settlement in the case of a Detroit man who spent 25 years in prison before proving that a gun seized from his mother couldnt have been a murder weapon.

U.S. District Judge Paul Borman said retired police sued by Desmond Ricks dont have immunity in the lawsuit. The case centres on a murder conviction that was overturned in 2017 after students at the University of Michigan law school reopened the case.

Experts agree that bullets removed from the victim couldnt have been fired from a Rossi-style handgun owned by Ricks mother.

A 1992 report from the Detroit gun lab has not simply been impugned, Borman said last Thursday, but rather has been indisputably shown to be wrong.

The Associated Press on Tuesday sent an email seeking comment to an attorney for the city.

Ricks claims he was intentionally framed in the fatal shooting of a friend, Gerry Bennett, outside a burger joint. He is seeking more than $100 million. There was no dispute that Ricks was at the Top Hat, but he insisted he had no role in the shooting.

Ricks, 53, was released from prison after 25 years, mostly on the weight of a gun experts affidavit. David Townshend said bullets recovered from the victim and discovered in police storage werent the ones he examined when he was hired by Ricks defence lawyer in 92.

Other experts, including one retained by the city during the litigation, also said the bullets couldnt have come from the type of handgun held up as the murder weapon.

A jury can determine whether police intentionally or, at least, recklessly falsified or fabricated the conclusion in their report, Borman said in a 78-page opinion.

During arguments last fall, a city attorney, Jerry Ashford, denied there was a grand conspiracy to pin the murder on Ricks by firing bullets from his mothers gun and then presenting them as critical evidence.

At worse, its a mistake in judgment, Ashford said of the report by the police gun lab. Theres no malice here.

Ricks said he hopes the city now negotiates a settlement. Separately, he was awarded $1 million under a state program that compensates the wrongly convicted.

There are no more games to be played. Otherwise Ill let a jury decide, Ricks said Tuesday.

___

Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwhiteap
" " NASA's historic Beach House today. It hasn't changed much since 1963. NASA

Astronauts are driven, disciplined, physically fit and trained to solve complex problems in high-stakes situations. That doesn't make them any less human. Sometimes, they just want to get away from it all  from the press, the physicians and the rigors of flight prep. You've got to make time to sharpen the saw.

But whether they like it or not, today's space travelers are international celebrities. They've got the Midas touch: Everything about them is interesting and pretty much everyone wants to chat them up. So where on Earth can these people find a little seclusion?

Well since 1963, NASA's kept a bungalow on the east Florida coast. Closed to the general public, it's been a welcome retreat for generations of astronauts. Barbecues and bottle-signings are cherished pastimes at the hideaway. So are fond farewells; historically, this was the last place where many space-bound crews got to visit their families before launch time.

Here's the story of the Kennedy Space Center Beach House and Conference Center (or "the Beach House" for short).

" " This undated photo shows the house as it looked when it was purchased in the early 1960s as the Kennedy Space Center expanded along the north side of Cape Canaveral. NASA

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Rockets by the Sea

Florida and the NASA go a long way back. In 1961, it was decided that the agency would build a new launch center on Florida's Merritt Island (technically a peninsula, by the way). Other sites were considered, including New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range, where the first atomic bomb exploded 16 years prior.

Proximity to the Atlantic Ocean gave Merritt Island a strategic advantage; rockets launched there could streak across the ocean without disturbing populated areas. Latitude was another plus. Florida is reasonably close to the equator, where Earth's rotation speed is at its fastest. When you set off a rocket in the Sunshine State, the vessel can save fuel by capitalizing on this principle.

Today, Merritt Island is the home of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), a world-class spaceport. NASA wasn't the first group to take an interest in this region, however. The U.S. military had been testing missiles on nearby Cape Canaveral since 1949. And then came the snowbirds. Vacation homes and other seaside properties sprouted like daisies in the postwar economy.

One piece of real estate was a two-story beach house constructed in 1962. Really, it was just another wood-framed building in the Neptune Beach subdivision  at first.

Partnering up with the Army Corps of Engineers, NASA bought the entire development in 1963 for $31,500 (a little more than $266,800 in today's dollars). Neighboring houses and a gas station were cleared away, but this Plain Jane cottage escaped the wrecking ball.

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As Isolated as Mars

Situated on government-owned land, the Beach House is well off the beaten path. In his 2006 memoir, astronaut Richard "Mike" Mullane said the place was as "isolated as Mars."

Originally called the "Astronaut Training and Rehabilitation Building," it started out as a home away from home, a place where crewmembers could get some shuteye on overnight stays. As the decades passed, the bungalow evolved into more of a hangout spot.

Astronauts could drop by individually or as a crew. Many also chose to take their spouses and families over. By design, though, this isn't the easiest spot to access.

Space shuttle vet Robert Springer (who flew missions in 1989 and 1990) recalled that he and his crewmates used to borrow the key from a NASA staff member. Spontaneous visits were not encouraged. One day, payload specialist Samuel Durrance waltzed over with some colleagues  but forgot to give the administrators any advance notice. On their way back, the group was met by a S.W.A.T. team.

Guests had to play by the house rules: For example, young children were barred from the premises during astronaut quarantine periods.

" " Because the Beach House is located on Cape Canaveral, it provides spectacular views of many of Kennedy Space Center's launch pads. Flickr/ Rod Herrea

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Sand, Sharks and Cookouts

The Beach House has entertained its share of politicians and diplomats. To this day, it remains an active meeting place for government organizations.

But among space history buffs, this midcentury relic is remembered first and foremost as an explorer's waystation. The stories that have unfolded here could fill a room  and they run the gamut from silly to sobering.

There was the time Springer and a crewmate went for a dip in the ocean, only to be met by a helicopter full of frantically-waving airmen. It turned out the swimmers had gotten a little too close to an enormous gang of sharks. Unaware of the danger, and oblivious to the warning, the astronauts waved back.

Rest assured, the sharks didn't hurt anybody. Nor did they stick around for one of the Beach House's greatest traditions: Prelaunch barbecues. Shortly before a space crew takes off, it's customary for them to gather with family members at the cottage, where drinks are imbibed and choice meats enjoyed.

Sometimes, the guests get dinner and a show. Former KSC deputy director James A. "Gene" Thomas witnessed a cosplay prank at one of these beach parties. The mission being toasted that day was set to include Franklin Story Musgrave, a legendary astronaut who happened to be bald. Just for kicks, the rest of his crew decided to impersonate Musgrave at the barbecue. Everyone showed up with rubber latex sheets on their heads and nametags that read "Hi, I'm Story."

" " Another longstanding tradition at the Beach House involves outgoing crewmembers signing a wine bottles before they blast off. By now, a few decades' worth of spaceflights have been chronicled on bottlenecks and wine labels. Flickr/ Rob Herrea

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Signature Moments in Wine

Another longstanding tradition at the Beach House involves alcohol. It's customary for an outgoing crew to sign a wine bottle before they blast off. Official mission logos usually adorn the mementos. By now, a few decades' worth of spaceflights have been chronicled on bottlenecks and wine labels.

Relegated to a tasteful cabinet display, the boozy artifacts make interesting decor. Other items photographed at the Beach House include a framed lighthouse painting, festive drums and some desktop coconut artwork.

Hurricane Matthew did a number on the bungalow in 2016, necessitating massive repairs inside and out. Once the kitchens, bathrooms, multiple walls and most of the second floor had been overhauled, the cottage reopened July 25, 2018.

We reached out to the Kennedy Space Center, which informed us that the Beach House isn't currently being used by any astronaut crews. But who knows? Maybe that'll change in the near future; NASA does want to "put the first woman and next man on the moon" by the year 2024.

No doubt future occupants will feel mixed emotions at the old Beach House. Most astronauts do, along with their loved ones. "As a spouse, you know you're coming out here to say goodbye, and you don't know if it's the last time," explained Mullane's wife, Donna, in a 2010 interview with NASA.

Yet by many accounts, fear intermingles with excitement. From the bungalow, visitors have gotten some spectacular views of eager rockets: ships ready for launch and lying in wait at the space center.

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING The Apollo 12 crew blasted out of the Kennedy Space Center Nov. 14, 1969. Richard Nixon was there to see it, making him the first sitting president to ever witness a NASA launch firsthand.
By Kariymah McLary

Right now I am afraid. I know that is true of most of the country as the coronavirus paralyzes the nation. But many people are finding different ways to protect themselves and cope. They can distance themselves socially, while having virtual happy hours with friends so they dont feel so alone. They can wash their hands every time they come into contact with mail or go to the grocery store, and they can hoard hand-sanitizer and cleaner.

But I am afraid for my husband. He is in prison. And in prison he cannot do these things we have been told are necessary to try to remain safe. He is almost never six feet apart from his prisonmates. He is in close proximity to their germs, to disease, and to the guards who come in and out of the prison on a daily basis, bringing in whatever exposure they have had. He is prohibited from having hand sanitizer, soap is limited, and health care is inadequate. My husband is lonely, but he is not alone, and this situation is dire. It is one faced by the 2.2 million people incarcerated in this country.

This situation will have catastrophic effects when the coronavirus starts to spread through prisons  which public health officials have said is a matter of when, not will. It will spread like wildfire and people will die. Because of people entering and exiting prison every day, it will impact entire communities. And so I am frightened.

I am also angry, because it does not have to be this way. Our prisons in Pennsylvania are overcrowded and full of people who pose no risk to public safety. People are there for far beyond what is necessary to protect public safety. Pennsylvania has 5,400 people serving a life without parole sentence and an additional 2,400 people serving virtual life sentences  sentences that all but guarantee a person will die in prison. An astounding 22 percent of Pennsylvanias prison population is over 50  the types of older, infirm people particularly at risk of COVID-19. If we dont reverse course, this number will continue to grow. Few of these individuals over 50 are dangers to the community. Yet there they sit, behind bars.

We could have brought many people home through the Board of Pardons, but so far it has been an abject failure. Just last session, the board denied numerous applications for commutation from people who should be brought home  in part because of the votes of Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who has repeatedly used his position on the board to serve as the main dissenter to deny peoples applications.

This includes people such as Pedro Reynoso, who, although convicted of murder in 1994 and sentenced to life without parole, has identified at least 10 people who said he was in the Dominican Republic for his sons baptism at the time of the killing. Even the victims sister has said Reynoso is innocent. He is now battling stage-three cancer.

It also includes Edward Printup, who at 19 killed his step-father, who physically abused him and sexually abused his sister for years. Printup has such an exceptional record in prison that Corrections Secretary John Wetzel supports his release.

The list includes Craig Datesman. He was convicted of murder nearly 40 years ago and has since maintained a remarkable misconduct-free record and served as a mentor and leader in prison. The victims sister has said, Our brother would have wanted him released.

These stories are examples of the hundreds of people who have served long sentences and should be at home before the coronavirus hits and not sitting ducks in prison. They are part of the population most vulnerable to its lethal effects.

The Board of Pardons can reverse course and call an emergency session to get cases of people who do not need to be in prison, especially the elderly and the sick, to the governors desk so he can grant clemency. There are many who fit that category.

The Board of Parole can bring many people home immediately. They can release those who have served minimum sentence unless there is clear evidence they will pose a threat. For some the parole board should not even need hearings. These individuals should just go home. The governor can join them in taking action by expanding compassionate release.

For too long the Board of Pardons has treated release like a gift to be doled out only to a few, and the Parole Board has denied too many. Those decisions have left the Department of Corrections on the verge of a crisis. There are just four ventilators available for the entire prison population. The Board of Pardons and the Board of Parole must act now to get people home.

Kariymah McLary is a member of the Free Ballot Incarcerated Voter Family Network and the wife of a prisoner sentenced to life without parole in a Pennsylvania state prison.
The Tennessee Historical Commission, the state agency that is designated as the State Historic Preservation Office, on Tuesday announced the addition of nine properties to the National Register of Historic Places. They include school buildings, a fire lookout tower, a water tower, houses, an archaeological site and an update to a historic district.



Tennessee has a tremendous inheritance of important historic places that are highlighted by the diversity of these recent National Register listings. said State Historic Preservation Officer and Executive Director Patrick McIntyre.



The sites added to the National Register of Historic Places are:



Mound Bottom (Mound Bottom State Archaeological Area  Cheatham County)

In 1971 the Mound Bottom State Archaeological Area was listed in the National Register for its statewide importance as a prehistoric Native American site. The Tennessee Division of Archaeology was awarded a Historic Preservation Fund grant to continue research into this significant site. Managed as part of the Harpeth River State Park, the Mid Cumberland Mississippian site consists of several earthen mounds, residential footprints, cemetery areas, a petroglyph site and secondary mounds. New research has revealed that Mound Bottom was one of the first mound centers in the Central Basin and that it was a political center of the region. This new research helps us understand the cultural shifts in the Southeast during the Mississippian period (AD 900-AD 1400).



Sitka School (Milan vicinity - Gibson County)

Gibson Countys Sitka School was completed in 1942 for African American students in the Milan area. Just as the Milan Army Ammunition Plant was being built, the African American community, Gibson County School Board, and Public Works Administration worked to construct the 2-room school building for grades 1 through 8. Prior to the Sitka School, African American students were taught at Moores Chapel Church in Milan. Although the well-known Rosenwald School program was not used for Sitka, the school received assistance from the Anna T. Jeanes Foundation, also known as the Negro Rural School Fund. The program provided Jeanes Supervisors who taught, helped raise funds and worked throughout the community. Sitka School operated until circa 1966.



Crescent School (Greeneville - Greene County)

Constructed between 1923 and 1925, the Crescent School served elementary school students in Greeneville until it closed in 1981. Kingsport architect Allen N. Dryden, Sr. designed the school and additions that were built in 1955 and 1961. The Colonial Revival style of the school building is illustrated in the symmetrical design, multiple-light windows, bell tower and pedimented entries. Originally the school had 7 classrooms, offices and a large room on the main floor. Four classrooms and a basement space for kitchen and cafeteria were added in 1955, with another 3 classrooms added in 1961. After the school closed, a Save Crescent School movement resulted in a former student buying the property in 1999 and adapting the building for office use, a purpose it still serves today.



Stanton School (Stanton  Haywood County)

The Stanton School was constructed in 1948 for African American students in the rural community of Stanton. Grades 1 through 8 were taught in the 4-room school building until 1969, when schools were required to desegregate. The Colonial Revival design of the school is seen in the multiple light windows, central entry with sidelights and transom and symmetry of the exterior. In form and design, the school resembles Rosenwald School plans, a program that funded schools for African American students in the South from circa 1917-1932, but it post-dates the Rosenwald program. The school building is owned and maintained by the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church.



Ripley Fire Lookout Tower (Ripley - Lauderdale County)

The Ripley Fire Lookout Tower is a circa 1970, 80-foot tall steel structure with a cab for observation of the surrounding area. Also on the property are a circa 1970 cabin for the lookout operator and a circa 1970 service building for vehicles. The lookout tower was built by the Aeromotor Company of Chicago, Illinois for use by the Tennessee Division of Forestry. It provided a panoramic view of the surroundings, allowing an operator in the cab to spot any fires. The state once had 208 fire lookout towers but as technology and forestry practices changed, many have been lost or are no longer used. The Ripley tower is one of the last built for the Tennessee Division of Forestry.



Englewood Water Tower (Englewood  McMinn County)

The 144 Englewood Water Tower is an iconic feature of the community. Situated prominently just outside of the business district, the town of Englewood showcases the tower on its web page. When the Depression-era Public Works Administration program offered funding to build a public water system for the town, 97% of the community approved. The water tower was erected in 1937, using the most advanced design available, which combined an elliptical bottom with a conical top. The new system not only supplied the community, but it helped in reviving Englewood by bringing in new industry. The water tower is no longer used by the town and a local preservation group has

been established to preserve the structure.

Gladys MaDear Bennett House (Memphis  Shelby County)

The Gladys MaDear Bennett House was moved to this location in north Memphis circa 1955, the same year Gladys and Harvey Bennett purchased the house. The Bennetts were a family of successful African American entrepreneurs during a time of segregation and Jim Crow in the South. Gladys started Gladys School of Domestic Arts in the 1940s and continued to run the school at this location. She was a seamstress and the school was equipped with sewing machines, cutting tables, and racks for clothes. Her husband Harvey helped the business by bringing in a steam press from his company Macks Cleaners and Hatters. Gladys sister Cora Crawford operated the Subway Beauty Salon in the house. The house is still owned by the family.



Webb Hotel (Rock Island  Warren County)

Crab Orchard stone and cedar shingles distinguish 2-story Craftsman style Webb Hotel. Built in 1909, other architectural features of building are the wide eaves, large front porch with Crab Orchard columns and an abundance of large windows. The Webb family moved their hotel enterprise to Rock Island, shortly before there was a boom in tourism due to the construction of the Great Falls dam, and resulting lake, in 1915. Conveniently located close to the railroad station, the hotel was a prime location for vacationers getting off the train. In addition to offering rooms, the Webb family served meals to guests. The hotel was sold out of the Webb family in the 1930s and continued to operate as a boarding house and hotel until the mid-20th century.



Hincheyville Historic District (Franklin  Williamson County)

The Hincheyville Historic District was listed in the National Register in 1982 due to its importance as Franklins first suburb and for the quality and variety of architecture in the district. The subdivision was platted in 1819 as a residential neighborhood adjacent to the citys commercial downtown. With the passage of 38 years since the listing, the city of Franklin was awarded a matching Historic Preservation Fund grant to update the nomination. The revised document includes additional information on the architecture and history of Hincheyville and updates descriptions of the houses in the district. Most houses in the district date from circa 1830 to circa 1950; styles range from 19th-century Greek Revival to 20th-century bungalows.
The Punjab government on Tuesday gave a 24-hour deadline to all those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin in New Delhi last month, but went into hiding, to report to the nearest police station or else face criminal prosecution.

A spokesperson of the state health department said all those, who attended the congregationand were currently in Punjab, should report and appear for COVID-19 screening within the next 24 hours.

Out of the 467 people who attended the religious gathering, the Punjab Police have traced 445 persons so far, the spokesperson said.

Of them, 350 have undergone coronavirus tests and 12 have tested positive for the infection. The results of 111 samples have tested negative, spokesperson said.

The results for the remaining 227 were awaited, said the spokesperson.

Due to the sensitivity of the issue, the remaining Tabligi Jamaat participants have been asked to come out for testing and join hands with the state government to eliminate this disease from the country, spokesperson said.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has already issued an advisory on March 28 and, in its continuation, reiterated its directions to all the Chief Secretaries/Advisors to Administrators of all States/UTs and DGPs in this regard on April 4.

The Tabligh-e-Jamaat''s Markaz in Nizamuddin West had emerged as a hotspot of coronavirus, following which a major area had been sealed and an FIR lodged against its cleric for violating government orders.

Authorities across the country have swung into action to trace the contacts of those who went to the gathering, attended by hundreds of people, including from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NFU Mutual has pledged a farming and rural community support package worth 32m to help the countryside through the coronavirus pandemic.

The package includes donating millions to charities, as well as rural and mental health causes, to help support the countryside through the crisis.

At a local level, the insurer has set up a 1m Emergency Coronavirus Fund to be released through its agency network to help local charities and communities across the UK.

There will be an added 750,000 donation to the NFU Mutual Charitable Trust, enabling donations of up to 1m to support national organisations.

NFU Mutual is also making a 50,000 donation to affiliated charity, the Farm Safety Foundation, to support and extend its mental health work during this period of isolation.

Elsewhere, the rural insurer is developing a range of insurance cover changes. These will include increased cover for farmers, alongside continued availability of its existing uncollected milk insurance, and free extended public liability cover for farmers selling their own produce directly to the public.

To help the majority of farmers who are self-employed, NFU Mutual has announced it will include insurance for Covid-19 in Personal Accident and Group Personal Accident policies.

The move aims to help keep income flowing in if the farmer and farm workers are unable to work due to contracting coronavirus.

The group is expected to provide 12m worth of pay-outs for members affected by the virus in 2020.

Chairman of NFU Mutual, Jim McLaren, said British farmers and growers are playing a 'vital role' in the national effort, despite facing 'enormous challenges themselves'.

"Adding protection for farmers will support the agricultural industry when the nation needs it most," he said.

"Our wide-ranging 32m support package includes financial support for rural charities, together with additional insurance cover to help our members.

"Our 300 agent offices, based in the heart of our rural communities, will also be distributing funds to local causes."

NFU Mutual has also brought in new procedures to enable claims to be processed and paid quickly and without the need for contact.

It will provide an automatic 15% increase in property sums insured, to ensure customers are protected if an agent or valuations firm cannot access property that may have increased in value during the outbreak. The increase to cover is worth an estimated 24m.
Equity benchmark indices closed nearly 9 per cent higher on Tuesday due to firm global cues and value buying amid tentative signs that coronavirus may be levelling off in the United States and Europe.

There was broad-based buying and most sectors traded with healthy gains. Pharma stocks rallied after the government lifted restrictions on the export of 24 pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines made from them.

The BSE S & P Sensex closed 2,476 points or 8.97 per cent higher at 30,067 while the Nifty 50 jumped 708 points or 8.76 per cent up at 8,792.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive zone with Nifty private bank gaining by 11 per cent, pharma by 10.4 per cent, auto by 9.4 per cent, FMCG by 8 per cent and IT by 7.4 per cent.

Among stocks, the top gainer was included IndusInd Bank which zoomed 25 per cent after its promoter the Hinduja Group initiated talks with sovereign wealth funds and pension funds, including Canada's CPPIB and Singapore's GIC Pte Ltd, to raise nearly 500 million dollars.

Axis Bank gained by over 20 per cent and ICICI Bank by 13 per cent. The other prominent winners with double-digit gains included Grasim, Dr Reddy, Hindustan Lever, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindalco and Maruti.

Meanwhile, Asian stock markets rallied for a second day, buoyed by tentative signs the coronavirus crisis may be levelling off in New York and receding in Europe even though global coronavirus cases kept rising.

Japan's Nikkei rose by 2 per cent and erased most of last week's losses after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised a massive 991 billion dollar economic stimulus package -- equal to 20 per cent of GDP.

Following a 7 per cent surge on Wall Street overnight, Hong Kong's Hang Seng moved up by 2.12 per cent, South Korea's Kospi by 1.77 per cent and Shanghai composite by 2.05 per cent.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A private hospital in the city



has set up a tailoring unit on its premises to stitch personal protective equipment (PPEs) for its doctors, nurses and support staff, amid a shortage in supply of masks, gloves and full body suits.

The four-member tailoring unit at Charnock Hospital in New Town area has sewed more than hundred protective suits from cotton sheets - primarily used for making surgical gowns.

"The decision to make PPEs on our own was taken after we found that private suppliers were having difficulties in delivering them on time. We didn't want to put pressure on the government by asking for protective gears," hospital managing director Prashant Sharma said.

The suits -- custom-made for the users - are soft, inexpensive and non-absorbent, he said.

"We have already distributed one pair of three-ply masks among the doctors and other medical staff. We are preparing the gears at least seven days in advance. Given the heat and humidity, each suit is made keeping the comfort factor in mind," Sharma explained.

The protective suits are re-useable, but we dispose them off after single use, he added.

Heaping praise on the tailors, a senior consultant at the hospital said, "The PPEs are durable and provide full body protection. I feel safe wearing them."



Another private hospital in the city -- earmarked for COVID-19 patients however, said it had been assured of a steady supply of protective gears by the government.

"We need 120 PPEs every day, along with N95 masks. We are sourcing some from our vendors, and the state government is also supporting us with suits and masks. We have been assured of a steady supply," a senior official at AMRI in Salt Lake said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The federal government of Nigeria has declared Friday, 10th April and Monday, 13th as public holidays to enable Christians celebrate Easter.

This was made known in a statement on the official Twitter handle of the federal ministry of interior.

The Federal Government has declared Friday, April 10 and Monday, April 13 as public holidays to mark the 2020 Easter Celebration.

The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola who made the declaration on behalf of the Federal Government, urged Christians in the country to emulate the outstanding characteristics of Jesus Christ amongst which are tolerance, love, peace and compassion.

Read Also: Buhari Orders Distribution Of 150 Trucks Of Rice To Nigerians

Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola further called on them to use the occasion of this years Easter Celebration to pray for Nigeria and the entire world at this time of global emergency of COVID-19 Pandemic.

The Minister appealed to all Nigerians to continue to support the efforts of Government towards fighting the Coronavirus Disease. He reminded them of the need to adhere strictly to the measures put in place by relevant authorities towards preventing the spread of the virus

in the country particularly, through the observance of social distancing, in addition to regular personal hygiene and sanitary practices.

While wishing Christians a peaceful Easter Celebration, he assured that the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration would continue to cushion the effects of the pandemic on the lives of Nigerians, especially with the palliative measures already put in place.

MINISTRY OF INTERIOR

ABUJA PRESS RELEASE

FG DECLARES FRIDAY 10, MONDAY 13, APRIL 2020 AS PUBLIC HOLIDAYS TO MARK EASTER CELEBERATION#Thread!  Ministry of Interior (@MinOfInteriorNG) April 6, 2020

The Federal Government has declared Friday, April 10 and Monday, April 13 as public holidays to mark the 2020 Easter Celebration.  Ministry of Interior (@MinOfInteriorNG) April 6, 2020

The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola who made the declaration on behalf of the Federal Government, urged Christians in the country to emulate the outstanding characteristics of Jesus Christ amongst which are tolerance, love, peace and compassion.  Ministry of Interior (@MinOfInteriorNG) April 6, 2020

The Minister appealed to all Nigerians to continue to support the efforts of Government towards fighting the Coronavirus Disease. He reminded them of the need to adhere strictly to the measures put in place by relevant authorities towards preventing the spread of the virus  Ministry of Interior (@MinOfInteriorNG) April 6, 2020

in the country particularly, through the observance of social distancing, in addition to regular personal hygiene and sanitary practices.  Ministry of Interior (@MinOfInteriorNG) April 6, 2020

While wishing Christians a peaceful Easter Celebration, he assured that the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration would continue to cushion the effects of the pandemic on the lives of Nigerians, especially with the palliative measures already put in place.  Ministry of Interior (@MinOfInteriorNG) April 6, 2020
BALDWIN CITY, Kan., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Baker University recently awarded the second Ada Hopkins Lake Endowed Scholarship to Sidney Alaimo, from Bolivar, Missouri. The scholarship provides full tuition, fees, on-campus housing, meals, and books. The Ada Hopkins Lake Endowed Scholarship was established in 2019 with a $2 million gift from Baker alumnus Joseph Lake, who graduated from Baker in 1941. He met his wife, Jan (Cutter), at Baker and they had three daughters: Sally, Margaret and Nancy.

Baker University awards Sidney Alaimo, from Bolivar, Missouri, the Ada Hopkins Lake Endowed four-year scholarship. Photo: Savannah Christopher Baker alum Joseph Lake established a scholarship for his mother Ada Hopkins Lake, who was an teacher, always stressed the importance of having an education.

Baker University alumnus Joseph Lake, '41, established the scholarship to honor his mother, Ada Hopkins Lake.

"Baker University is so grateful to the Lake family for their incredible generosity and true commitment to our university. They are continuing the Lake's legacy of providing an education to future generations of Baker students," said Baker University President Lynne Murray.

Throughout his life, Lake knew that he wanted to help students not just attend college but also focus on their education without having to work while in school like he had. He arrived at Baker with $8 in his pocket and worked several jobs while he was a student.

After graduating from Baker and serving in the U.S. Army Air Corp, Lake's fascination with the new medium of television led to a lifelong career. He started by selling TV advertising and retired as the general manager of the CBS affiliate in Sacramento, California. His professional success and deep appreciation for education led him to fund a scholarship at Baker University to honor his mother, who had been a teacher and stressed to Lake the importance of an education and attending college.

"He wanted to give the gift to students so they wouldn't have to worry about meals and food and where they were going to sleep at night," said Lake's daughter Margaret. "He wanted them to have a chance to just be students, to benefit from just being students."

The inaugural scholarship was awarded last year. The second student to benefit from Lake's vision and generosity is Sidney Alaimo. She was selected after participating in Baker's Scholarship Competition Day in December and was chosen for this need-based scholarship on the strength of her leadership qualities and academic accomplishments.

"When you are trying for something but don't expect anything, that's when you get the results you want. Winning the Lake Scholarship was the opportunity of a lifetime that I really needed," said Alaimo.

Showing her initiative and diligence, Alaimo graduated from high school a semester early, making it possible for her to start her college career a semester before the scholarship takes effect. Earning the Lake scholarship will allow Alaimo, who plans to major in Spanish and minor in art and history, to stretch her educational dollars to be able to earn a master's degree in art therapy and graduate with little to no debt.

About Baker University

Founded in 1858 as the first university in Kansas, Baker is a private institution that educates traditional and nontraditional students through small classes, innovative instructors, and rigorous course work. Fortune 500 CEOs, New York Times best-selling authors, and Super Bowl champions all proudly claim Baker as their alma mater. The university is home to four schools: College of Arts and Sciences, School of Nursing, School of Education, and School of Professional and Graduate Studies. Baker offers undergraduate through doctoral programs. Learn more: bakerU.edu.

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Linkedin Asip Hasani (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya  Tue, April 7, 2020 11:40 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd034734 1 National COVID-19,coronavirus,virus-korona-indonesia,virus-corona,social-restriction,surabaya,Tri-Rismaharini,East-Java,khofifah-indar-parawansa,health-ministry Free

The Surabaya administration in East Java is pondering the idea of submitting an official request for large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) with the central government, as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increase across the city.

The citys COVID-19 mitigation task force spokesperson, M. Fikser, said the administration was assessing its readiness to impose the policy.

Relevant agencies are analyzing the impact of the policy. We have to finish the assessment before submitting the request, Fikser said on Monday.

President Joko Jokowi Widodo issued a government regulation on PSBB last week, requiring provinces or cities to obtain a permit from the Health Ministry prior to imposing the policy. Regional heads have to submit the request alongside data on the increase of cases and proof that transmission had occurred in their region.

The request would then be discussed by an expert team appointed by the health minister, who must make a decision within two days after the submission of the request.

Read also: Anies slams red tape in pandemic fight

Fikser went on to say that Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini would submit the request with the East Java provincial administration once the assessment was completed.

Risma has vowed to impose stricter measures to contain the outbreak, even without reporting the measures to East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa. Among measures taken were the partial closures of 19 roads connecting the provincial capital city to surrounding areas.

Surabaya has been the city hardest-hit by the disease in the province, as health authorities confirmed 84 COVID-19 cases as of Monday with six fatalities. Surabaya satellite city Sidoarjo has also recorded 18 cases.

Authorities mapped at least six clusters of the disease, including a manasik haji (haj rehearsal) at the Sukolilo haj dormitory in Surabaya organized by the Religious Affairs Ministry from March 9 to 18.

At least 20 confirmed cases have been linked to the event. Three of them died, including Blitar Religious Affairs Agency head M. Solekan.

Surabaya was not the first city to move to impose PSBB in the province. Malang Mayor Sutiaji announced in mid-March his policy to lock the city down, following the confirmation of the citys first two confirmed COVID-19 cases in February. The policy, however, was immediately annulled and corrected by the mayor himself.

Trenggalek regency has also closed most roads connecting the region, leaving only three national roads open.

Read also: Indonesias strategy to combat COVID-19: What we know so far

Governor Khofifah has been giving the cold shoulder to mayors and regents wish to impose stricter measures to contain COVID-19, asserting that the administration doesnt use the term lockdown.

She warned on Sunday regents and mayors to first consult with her before requesting to impose PSBB in their respective regions.

An official with the provincial COVID-19 task force, Joni Wahyuhadi, had repeatedly talked about the provinces wish to reach herd immunity, rather than confining its residents.

We will continue all these curative measures for those suffering from the disease, while we wait to reach the herd immunity stage, he told journalists last week.

According to the official tally on Monday, there were 189 confirmed COVID-19 cases across the province with 14 fatalities. Meanwhile, 40 people have also recovered from the disease, according to the health authorities. (kuk)
Boeing will send its Starliner astronaut capsule back to space without a crew this Autumn to complete a test flight it failed in December.

During the December test, a series of software glitches and an issue with the spacecraft's automated timer resulted in it failing to dock with the ISS as planned.

Investigators later determined the capsule could have been destroyed in flight, twice, as a result of the mistakes in the Boeing on-board software.

Boeing spokesman Jerry Drelling said if the repeat of the aborted test goes well then it will send astronauts into space on the following mission.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk's SpaceX is expected to become the first commercial company to fly astronauts to the International Space Station as early as next month.

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Boeings first Starliner spacecraft on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. NASA says the craft came 'perilously close' to total destruction in the December test flight

In December, a glitch in the mission timing software caused Starliner to run to a different time than expected - it was 11 hours ahead.

This timing glitch triggered burns and control movements too early into its flight toward the International Space Station (ISS).

As a result, the craft burned up fuel that it needed to get to the station and was forced to abort its mission and return to Earth.

In February, a NASA safety review panel found that Boeing had narrowly missed a 'catastrophic failure' in the botched test.

The space agency recommended examining the company's software verification process before letting it fly humans to space.

'Flying another uncrewed flight will allow us to complete all flight test objectives and evaluate the performance of the second Starliner vehicle at no cost to the taxpayer,' Boeing said in a statement.

Boeing said earlier this year that it took a $410 million charge in its fourth-quarter earnings, to pay for a potential repeat of the aborted test.

NASA officials held back on ordering a redo because they 'didn't think it would be sufficient' to address all of the concerns raised in the safety review.

Boeing's Starliner (rendered) may have been able to avoid having to abort a mission in December by undergoing a skipped software integration test

An agency official said NASA would be making additional recommendations to take into account as part of any future test flight without a crew.

NASA hired Boeing, along with SpaceX, to transport astronauts to and from the space station, and ease the space agency's costly reliance on Russian rockets.

SpaceX is on track to launch two NASA astronauts aboard its Dragon crew capsule next month after a series of successful test flights.

It will be the first human launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida since NASA's space shuttle programme ended in 2011.

SpaceX's first test flight of its crew Dragon a year ago, without a crew, was successful.
[April 07, 2020] DriveNets and Tellence to Double Bucharest R&D Team

DriveNets, the builder of the Worlds' Largest Disaggregated Routers for Communications Service Providers, to hire 50 additional engineers after reaching its Q2 2020 recruitment target a quarter early RA'ANANA, Israel and BUCHAREST, Romania, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DriveNets, the webscale networking software company today announced that based on the success of their current Bucharest based team, they will double the team size  growing it from the current 50 to 100 by the end of 2020. The center of excellence will strengthen the companies' technological leadership in working with Tier 1 service providers to build their networks for the next 20 years. With the COVID-19 pandemic creating unprecedented traffic growth reported by service providers globally, it is expected that the need for high-scale low-cost networking solutions such as DriveNets Network Cloud solution will increase. In September 2019 Tellence, a leading provider of high-tech Software & Engineering services, created a significant R&D center for DriveNets and have now successfully trained and integrated with the Israel based teams ahead of schedule. DriveNets and Tellence are now seeking software engineers with expertise in Networking, NFV/SDN & Cloud Solutions, Customer Support Engineers with deep understanding of Networking Routing & Switching protocols & Networking Quality Assurance Engineers. Tellence is recruiting developers and support & QA engineers who are experienced in routing, Layer 2, BSP & scalable elastic Software architectures, state of the art web front-end & back-end solutions, DevOps, and QA - Manual & Automatons. It is also looking for domain experts in the following areas: Protocols: BGP (UC,LU), IS-IS, OSPF, OPSF-TE, RSVP, LDP, VPN & MVPN

FrontEnd: React, NodeJS, JS, CSS, UI/UX DriveNets' Network Cloud is significantly disrupting the service providers market with the highest-scale distributed disaggregated cloud native router software currently on the market. DrveNets is challenging incumbent routing solutions and their economic model. DriveNets Network Cloud is already in various testing phases with tier 1 service providers worldwide. The company was named the No.1 Startup in Israel by Globes for 2019 and one of the 47 enterprises to bet your career on by Business Insider.



In addition to closing a $117 million Series A Round, which was led by Bessemer Partners and Pitango Ventures, DriveNets has several prominent private investors which include John Thompson, chairman at Microsoft and former CEO of Symantec, Steve Luczo, former CEO and current chairman of Seagate and former CEO of Palo Alto Networks, Mark McLaughlin. "DriveNets is impressed with the speed with which these very talented engineers have learnt the ropes and become part of our team. Their expertise, dedication and strong teamwork have already made a great impact on the breadth and quality of our solution. Tellence has been a valuable partner to us and we feel confident that our international team is now honing the technology that will upend the way service providers build their networks for greater scale and profitability." - Ido Susan, CEO and Co-Founder, DriveNets

"Tellence is proud of the strong contribution the Romanian team has already made to DriveNets releases and are excited to double the team of local talent." - Leo Radu - Tellence Co-Founder & Romania General Manager "In the last 6 months Tellence and DriveNets have achieved a fast and productive integration of the Romanian teams to the core of Drivenets research and development groups, now spanning over all areas of expertise, including routing, management, chip programming and devops. We are ready to grow in all these areas at an incredible pace." - Amir Krayden, VP R&D Customers, DriveNets About DriveNets DriveNets helps Communications Service Providers (CSPs) take advantage of the greatest demand surge in Telco history, substantially growing their profitability by changing their technological and economic models. DriveNets' solution - Network Cloud changes the traditional networking architecture that has been in place for the past twenty years by adapting the architectural model of hyperscalers to Telco-grade networking. Network Cloud is a cloud-native software that runs over standard white-boxes, radically simplifying the network's operational model, offering Telco-scale performance at a much lower cost. DriveNets, founded by Ido Susan and Hillel Kobrinsky was founded by two successful Telco entrepreneurs. Susan previously co-founded Intucell, the company that invented the Self Optimizing Network (SON) which was acquired by Cisco in 2013 for $475 million. Kobrinsky founded the web conferencing specialist, Interwise, which was acquired by AT&T for $121 million. About Tellence Tellence, established in 2012 by a group of technology professionals, Tellence is a leading provider of high-tech Software & Engineering services. The company is focused on Research & Development and Customer Engineering Support and its Engineering Solution Center handles software development, quality assurance & customer support. Tellence operates in a broad range of industries: Automotive, Telecommunications, Cyber Security, OTT, Broadcasting, SatCom & Semiconductors. The name "Tellence" is a combination of technology and excellence. In keeping with its name, Tellence offers innovative and advanced solutions that are flexible in providing each customer with the right offering for their needs and scope, as well as deep operational and development experience. The result: uncompromising service that provides the customer with the highest quality solution while also saving them significant costs. Media Contact:

Judith Arkush

[email protected]

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Kyiv will not allow Tehran to evade responsibility for downing the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight in January and is awaiting official explanations of the statement of an Iranian parliament member that "the Iranian military did well by downing the passenger plane," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

"The embassy has sent a note requesting official explanations of the Iranian stance. [...] We need to rely on official information. We will draw relevant conclusions after we receive official information from Iran. However, we will never allow Iran to evade responsibility for the tragedy and will be working with it in order to acquire the black boxes. [...] We will not be acting alone, instead, we will pool efforts with our partners, first and foremost Canada," Kuleba said on the national television.

According to the television channel Al Arabiya, a representative of the Iranian Parliament's Legal and Judicial Commission, Hassan Norouzi, said that "the Iranian military did well by downing the passenger plane."

UIA flight PS752 performed by a Boeing 737-800 on the route from Tehran to Kyiv crashed in the vicinity of Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport soon after takeoff on January 8. None of the 167 passengers and nine crewmembers survived the crash.

Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Aerospace Forces Amir Ali Hajizadeh assumed full responsibility for the crash of the Ukrainian plane.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-03-18 20:51:01|Editor: Liu

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Chinese ambassador to Namibia Zhang Yiming (L) and Namibia's Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula attend a donation ceremony in Windhoek, Namibia on March 18, 2020. Namibia's Health Ministry on Wednesday received 1,000 COVID-19 reagent testing kits from China at an event held in Windhoek. (Photo by Musa C Kaseke/Xinhua)

WINDHOEK, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's Health Ministry on Wednesday received 1,000 COVID-19 reagent testing kits from China at an event held in Windhoek.

Receiving the kits on behalf of the Namibian government, the Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula commended the assistance being given by the Chinese government during the time of need.

"We admire and are grateful for the assistance China is giving beyond its own borders," he said adding that donation of the testing reagents would complement the testing kits acquired by the Namibia Institute of Pathology.

Shangula said the move ensures the further cementing of ties between the two nations.

Chinese ambassador to Namibia Zhang Yiming who handed over the donation said that more concrete support is expected to come from China as a symbol of the all-weather friendship.

"This donation is part of our assistance," he said, highlighting that the donation will help strengthen the preparedness against any possible outbreak in the country.

Meanwhile, Shangula in a weekly update on the situation, urged the nation to remain calm and to cooperate with the Health Ministry and other agencies in a move to defeat and break the transmission of the virulent disease.

Currently, Namibia has recorded two confirmed positive cases, which are currently being monitored and under quarantine. As of Tuesday, the 24 cumulative suspected cases that were reported in Namibia all tested negative, Shangula said.
Bareilly: At least 42 people were arrested a almost 150 were booked under Section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC ) for allegedly attacking a police team when they were trying to enforce lockdown in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly. The attack on policemen took place on April 6.

"Locals attacked two policemen when they were trying to enforce lockdown in Karampur Chaudhary village under Izzatnagar Police Station in Bareilly today. Later, a mob of around 200 people created ruckus at the police station," Bareilly City SP Ravindra Kumar told PTI. "IPS Abhishek Verma and some other police personnel have sustained injuries in the attack. We have taken some people into custody and booked them under Section 144 of CrPC, relevant sections of IPC," he added.

He added that police have video of the incident that they will punish the people involved in it. "We have videos of the incident and we will identify the people involved in this. We have identified a few of them, rest will be identified and punished. We will deal with this hooliganism strictly," he added.

Meanwhile, six more persons tested positive for coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 314. Of the total cases, 166, which is more than 50 per cent, are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat, Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said. So far, the state authorities have identified 1,600 people associated with the Jamaat. Of them, 1,200 have been quarantined.

Coronavirus cases have been reported from 37 districts.

Uttar Pradesh has so far reported three coronavirus deaths, one each from Basti, Meerut and Varanasi.
Almost forgotten amid a life-or-death debate about voting procedures was a Democratic presidential race that is still not formally finished: former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders were both competing for delegates in Wisconsin, though neither man campaigned actively in the state. Mr. Biden, with a nearly insurmountable delegate lead overall, was expected to carry the primary, but in a strange byproduct of the tangled judicial rulings there would be no results released until next week.

It was not only the Democratic presidential primary on the ballot on Tuesday in Wisconsin: there was intense competition over a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, with one of the justices in the conservative majority battling for re-election. The winner will be in position to cast a deciding vote on a case before the court that seeks to purge more than 200,000 people from Wisconsins voter rolls.

The panel has been a bulwark of Republican dominance in the state over the last decade, along with a G.O.P. majority in the State Legislature that has entrenched itself through aggressive gerrymandering.

Like so much else in Wisconsin, the scene was markedly different outside the main urban areas. Republican county chairs boasted about their smooth process throughout the day, with short lines and ample room for a smattering of voters who often showed little signs of the current health crisis  no masks, no gloves. In Sheboygan County, about an hour north of Milwaukee up the Lake Michigan shore, Dennis Gasper, a Republican Party official, said he drove around local polling places and found no issues.

All the clerks have figured out how to deal with the coronavirus thing, so nobody should be having a problem voting, Mr. Gasper said.
Seeking energy independence, the United States gave relatively free rein to domestic producers and, under President Barack Obama, legalized crude oil exports for the first time since the 1970s. Putin improved the efficiency of Russias industry and used oil revenue to fill up a $570 billion reserve fund  about a third of gross domestic product. Under MBS, the Saudis have also amassed a sovereign wealth fund and reduced their debt-to-GDP ratio to just 25 percent.
'It is a bigger challenge for Mumbai because we have a dense population and people are staying in very, very small rooms.'

'So even if there is one case, then it can spread to you know, four or five people are staying together.'

IMAGE: Health workers shift a man suspected of coronavirus in Dharavi, Mumbai, to a hospital, April 2, 2020. Photograph: Prashant Waydande/Reuters

As of 8 am on Monday morning, Mumbai reported 406 cases of COVID-19.

Twenty-nine new cases, and counting, were found in the last 24 hours.

And the city has recorded some 30 dead.

The congested, closely-packed city has many grim hot spots and the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation releases lists daily, on its Twitter account, of details of new cases.

Dr Daksha Y Shah is one of the protectors of our city, working tirelessly around the clock, in her special capacity, with her team and her able seniors, to hold the tidal wave back.

Deputy Executive Health Officer for the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, Dr Shah is also the city TB officer and has navigated Mumbai through tuberculosis, H1N1 and malaria crises.

She tells Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com about the progress Mumbai is making on different fronts to halt the march of COVID-19.

What is the situation in Mumbai presently? Has the lockdown helped as expected?

Now, it is too early to say whether the lockdown has helped, but obviously our testing facilities have really gone up like anything.

Can you quantify that?

We have done more than 10,000 tests in Mumbai alone. Definitely the more you test, the more you diagnose.

And are you going to be able to scale testing up further?

Yes, I think right now we're working at the full capacity.

So that's like a how many tests, roughly, per day? Or is that hard to say?

Per day, I won't be able to say because I think in one particular lab, they are doing more than 200 in a day. I think different, different labs are doing say up to 300 to 400 also.

We have around 10 labs and some have capacity of a 100 also, some are capacity of 50.

We have activated our home collection team. So we don't want all the people to come to the centres and raise the transmission.

Suppose a patient has been identified as a positive and he is in an isolation center, and for testing his close contacts, we send the teams to the homes and then we bring the samples to the labs. And then if anyone is positive, we isolate and the rest is home-quarantined.

So that's how our strategy is.

Are you seeing a lot of asymptomatic people?

Yes, we do see around 30 per cent patients who are asymptomatic and a lot of them are from the contacts itself.

We are doing very rigorous contact tracing. We are identifying the patients among the contacts also. A lot of positives are among the contacts.

Do you still need to scale up the testing more? Are you looking for more testing facilities or more test kits?

If a kind of rapid test which is available (it would help).

The thing is the PCR test (polymerise chain reaction) takes a little more time and looking at the lockdown, a lot of our technicians are finding it difficult to reach and you know, so many other factors.

And PCR is a very advanced test and so it requires that technical capabilities to conduct PCR.

So definitely, some simpler test, if it is approved, would be really good

It's too early to say but are there any signs of the curve flattening? Any positive signs?

I wouldn't be able to say right now. We are testing so many so our numbers are going up.

I would say that we are into the fourth week right now. And we have reported 300 plus cases in Mumbai. So...

Maharashtra Health Minister Mr (Rajesh) Tope spoke about extending the lockdown.

For Mumbai, wouldn't it be good to extend the lockdown? What is your feeling?

Yeah, it should be extended.

But I think the (city's) people also should be equally kind of, you know, (willing to) participated in it. Like it's very difficult for people in Mumbai to sit at home.

It would be kind of important. I'm sure there are so many technical experts who are advising the government and they'll take those decisions,

IMAGE: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation workers fumigate a locality in Mumbai, April 3, 2020. Photograph: Shashank Parade/PTI Photo

But from like a from a medical point of view?

I would say yes, it would be advisable.

The high-risk individuals should be taken care of. At least they should not roam around. We know that they capture infection fast and they are at the high risk even of mortality.

It will be really important that the whole group of high-risk people they are quarantined.

But the problem is that if the younger people, with no risk, go out in a family then they bring it back to the high-risk members. So that means the whole group/unit -- the young and old -- in a high-risk family should stay home?

Yes, they go out and they come back and (bring) some infection. That's also there.

So it has to be done for certain family units?

Yes.

So it should be a lockdown for a little extended time, but I don't know how that will affect the economy and all other things.

What are the challenges of containment and protecting slum areas?

It is a bigger challenge for Mumbai because we have a dense population and people are staying in very, very small rooms.

So even if there is one case, then it can spread to you know, four or five people are staying together, as compared to the other countries, where there is possibility of having a separate rooms or even in the non-slum areas there.

So, definitely that's going to be a challenge, within the slum areas.

So the task for Mumbai is much more difficult?

I'm sure there are, sort of, parallels in New York or China. But Mumbai is really unique.

Is it much more difficult to identify potential carriers for every positive case in Mumbai?

See right now, at least for every positive contact, we are testing all the immediate contacts, like high-risk contacts. And the other contacts we are home quarantining.

In slum areas, suppose we identify a patient and we put them in an isolation ward, but then if their other contacts have to be home-quarantined it's not possible for them to remain in the home. Then we are actually shifting them to some lodge and some hostels.

This is the whole exercise that we have undertaken. If it is not possible for them to remain in the slum areas, we give them an alternate, much more spaced-out accommodation.

This is an important step which we are taking. Like we are allowing people to go and stay in better, less crowded facilities.

Are you taking lessons from any other place, which may have had similar challenges, like maybe in China. Or for Mumbai, the situation being so unique, there's no nobody to take lessons from?

We are looking at you know, some of the digital technology where we are kind of defining the containment zone then we are also trying to see if we can track the people.

Of course, right now there's a lockdown, so people should not go out and should not go out of the quarantine. But this kind of technology also could be used.

I've seen the use of booths. So now, I think, in one or two labs, were establishing the booth for collection of the throats swab. So the patient doesn't have to travel much. Even within the hospital it's been made a little easier for the collection of the throat samples.

And many new (types of) technology and diagnostic kits are on the way, I guess.

I heard that in China they have given some wristbands and everything.

But of course, right now, I believe, a lot of our home quarantined are not coming out. We are enforcing them with the police.

If there are people who are seen going around and they are not listening to the home quarantine, then we also have police teams who are helping us and we are taking measures to ensure that they remain in the houses.

What is it that the city's people are not yet understanding about this virus and what are some of the signs that show that people are understanding the situation?

See the people are aware. It's not that they're not aware.

But it's kind of a casual attitude, you know, like: 'Okay, nothing is going to happen, nothing like that to us'.

And sometimes it is, you know, the tiredness of just sitting at one place, not working and then just having this media bombardment all the time. They get affected and they want to go out and have some fresh air and all that.

Multiple factors for why people may not take it seriously.

Overall, I see that people have understood the severity and all.

But there are still few people, or I would say, a lot of people who have who have not taken it seriously.

In the beginning, there was a lot of talk about this virus mainly seriously affecting older people or people with existing pre-existing conditions. But as this illness has continued and spread around the world, a lot of young people have fallen prey and died. Not just, say smokers, but young, healthy people.

This is a virus infection. So you are going to get infected.

That again is a research question. What has gone wrong and whether (the virus) is changing.

I would not be able to comment as a physician, because I am more into administration.

But, of course, the virus might be behaving differently.

IMAGE: Inside an isolation ward. Photograph: PTI Photo

In Mumbai, do our frontline doctors have enough personal protective equipment (PPE)?

As of now, in all our isolation centres, we do have sufficient PPE equipment and a lot of the material has been acquired. We are procuring definitely.

We have a different department which is doing all this work. We are procuring and it's on the way and it is in process.

But right now in Kasturba hospital (central Mumbai), which is a major isolation facility we have all the PPE kits and other isolation facilities and masks and kits available.

What is your area of concern in this battle against the pandemic? And this is probably the worst thing that you have ever seen in your life, right?

I have seen H1Ni (bird flu) outbreak and some malaria outbreaks.

I have yet to see anything more than that.

I really hope it does not go to the level, like what I am looking at in New York and all that.

So this has not been worse than the H1N1 and the malaria outbreaks you have seen?

Not yet. Of course, we don't want to progress to that level.

And what is your area of concern?

Concern is, of course, I would say, for manpower.

And exhaustion. Amongst the medicals, the para-medicals and the administrators because a lot of, many challenges will come up if it goes more.

What is your day like? What time do you begin and when do you end and what are your hours like.?

I begin at nine and I end at nine or maybe sometimes -- yesterday I came home at 11.30 pm.

We work more than 12 hours, maybe 15 hours. And in the middle of the night there are many calls. The whole health department.

Not only the health department. The engineering department. A lot of people of the administrative category. All are working hard.
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Linkedin Made Anthony Iswara (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 14:41 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd043c30 1 Business South-Korea,BKPM,Bahlil-Lahadalia,investment-coordinating-board,hazmat-suit,protective-gears,APD,COVID-19 Free

Textile company PT GA Indonesia, a foreign direct investment enterprise owned by South Korean investors, has gotten the governments nod to distribute hazmat suits to the regions as the country fights the COVID-19 outbreak.

The company has also committed to delivering protective gear needed by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), according to the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM).

We are thankful for the BKPMs fast response when we submitted our distribution license application as our license was completed in an hour, PT GA Indonesia president director Song Sung-wook said during BKPMs visit to the companys factory in Bogor, West Java, on Monday, as quoted in a statement circulated by the BKPM.

Read also: At least 18 doctors have died in the fight against COVID-19

We are ready to increase our production as long as the raw materials are available, he added.

Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto said in a meeting with the House of Representatives on Thursday that the shortage of protective gear and medical workers to administer tests and provide treatment for the disease were impeding the country's efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.

As of Monday afternoon, at least 2,400 people were infected by the disease with more than 200 fatalities, official data showed. Dozens of doctors and nurses have also fallen victim as they fight on the front-lines, with hospitals expressing concerns over depleting protective gear.

BKPM head Bahlil Lahadalia said during the factory visit that producers needed to be protected from production disruptions as the world was scrambling for raw materials, especially from South Korea and China, to make protective gear.

"We'll take strict action against those who intentionally complicate things for protective gear producers. We should be grateful that the producers are already producing them since high-quality raw materials are currently rare," said Bahlil, adding that he would prioritize domestic hospital needs in the gear distribution.

Read also: Fashion shops, civil groups work hand-in-hand to cope with virus impact in Yogyakarta

GA Indonesia, along with five other South Korean garment producers in West Java grouped under the consortium of Indonesia-Korea Network Foundation (IKN) and Korean Association Bandung, strive to accelerate efforts to fulfill protective gear demand in Indonesia.

As many as 500,000 hazmat suits have been sent by the consortium to the regions as of April 3, according to the BKPM. The governments of South Korea and Indonesia have agreed to work together to provide raw materials and distribution licenses for such materials in a swift manner.

Going forward, the consortium plans to produce up to 100,000 pieces of protective gear per day.
In an "abominable" act of



misconduct after failing to get a favourable order, a lawyer cursed a Calcutta High Court judge, swearing he be infected with coronavirus, provoking the judge to recommend contempt action against him.

Justice Dipankar Datta admonished the lawyer, Bijoy Adhikary, for failing to uphold the dignity of the court and acting in a manner "not behoving a member of the noble profession," while directing him to reply to the contempt rule within a fortnight from the date on which it is served upon him.

Justice Datta also directed that the matter be heard by an appropriate division bench having the mandate to hear criminal contempt matters upon reopening of the court after summer vacation.

The Calcutta High Court has been hearing only very urgent matters since March 15 owing to the coronavirus outbreak, and from March 25, it is taking up such matters only through video conferencing.

Claiming urgency, Adhikary had moved the court of Justice Datta seeking a stay on the auction of a bus of his client by a nationalised bank for default in loan repayment.

Noting that the bus had been seized by the bank on January 15, the court refused to grant an urgent hearing.

As the judge began dictating the order, a furious Adhikary repeatedly tried to interrupt him, thumped a table and banged the microphone on it.

"Adhikary was warned to behave but instead of heeding to such warning, he was heard to say that my future shall be doomed by him and for such purpose, he cursed that I be infected by the coronavirus," Justice Datta noted in the order.

"Adhikary was curtly told that neither do I fear dooming of my future nor being infected by the virus; the majesty of the Court is what is paramount in my mind and to uphold that a rule for contempt could be issued against him," the judge wrote.

The lawyer seemed not to care and "was found to be unrelenting in shouting at the top of his voice, not behoving a member of the noble profession and thereby undermining the dignity and prestige of this Court."



Holding that the conduct of Adhikary, apart from being "abominable", prima facie amounted to criminal contempt, Justice Datta issued a suo motu rule for contempt against the lawyer on March 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ukraine joined the decision of the Council of the European Union on the expansion of restrictive measures against Syria adopted on 17 February 2020.

This is stated in the Declaration by High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries concerning restrictive measures against Syria.

On 17 February 2020, the Council [of the European Union] adopted Decision (CFSP) 2020/212 implementing Council Decision 2013/255/CFSP. The Council Decision adds eight natural persons and two entities to the list of natural and legal persons, entities or bodies subject to restrictive measures in Annex I to Decision 2013/255/CFSP. The Candidate Countries Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania, the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia align themselves with this decision, the declaration reads.

As noted, the aligned countries will ensure that their national policies conform to this Council Decision.

The European Union takes note of this commitment and welcomes it, the Declaration by the High Representative underscores.

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Global anti-money laundering watchdog FATF will review Pakistan's performance to meet international commitments in the fight against terror financing during a meeting scheduled to be held in China in June.

Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.

Currently placed on the FATF's 'grey list', Pakistan has been scrambling in recent months to avoid being added to a list of countries deemed non-compliant with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations, a measure that officials here fear could hurt its economy, which is already under severe strain.

The global watchdog will review Pakistan's performance to meet international commitments and standards in the fight against money laundering and terror financing at its meeting slated to be held in Beijing on June 21-26, Dawn news reported.

It is not yet clear if the meeting could be postponed due to the global coronavirus pandemic which broke out in central China's Wuhan city.

In February, the FATF gave Pakistan a four-month grace period to complete its 27-point action plan against money laundering and terror financing committed with the international community when it noted that Pakistan had delivered on 14 points and missed 13 other targets.

A senior government official said Pakistan's performance would be reviewed at the joint working group meetings of the FATF and Eurasian Group scheduled in Beijing and the assessment would lead to a final announcement in October this year if Pakistan should move out of the grey list.

He said certain action points were yet to be complied with the commitments mainly because of ongoing coronavirus lockdowns.

He said that Pakistan had put in place a broad-based strategy for taking necessary actions to complete outstanding commitments with the FATF in February and was actively making progress.

The FATF announced on February 21 that all deadlines given to Pakistan to complete the 27-point action plan had expired and yet only 14 items had largely been completed, leaving 13 unaccomplished targets.

It strongly urged Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by June 2020 or else it would be moved to the list of monitored jurisdictions, commonly known as a blacklist.

"Otherwise, should significant and sustainable progress especially in prosecuting and penalising TF (Terrorist Financing) not be made by the next Plenary, the FATF will take action, which could include the FATF calling on its members and urging all jurisdiction to advise their Financial Institutions (FIs) to give special attention to business relations and transactions with Pakistan," the FATF said in a formal announcement in February.

The FATF had noted "recent and notable improvements" but "again expresses concerns given Pakistan's failure to complete its action plan in line with the agreed timelines and in light of the TF risks emanating from the jurisdiction".

Pakistan has to show compliance with 13 remaining action points in eight key categories. The country has to demonstrate that remedial actions and sanctions are applied in cases of Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act (AML/CFT) violations, relating to TF risk management and TFS (Terror Financing Sanctions) obligations.

Pakistan has to demonstrate that competent authorities were cooperating and taking action to identify and take enforcement action against illegal money or value transfer services and prove the implementation of cross-border currency and 'bearer negotiable instruments' controls at all ports of entry, including applying effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions.

It also has to demonstrate that law enforcement agencies are identifying and investigating the widest range of TF activity and that TF investigations and prosecutions target designated persons and entities, and those acting on behalf or at the direction of the designated persons or entities besides showing TF prosecutions result in effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions.

Pakistan's outstanding action areas also include effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions (supported by a comprehensive legal obligation) against all 1,267 and 1,373 designated terrorists and those acting for or on their behalf, including preventing the raising and moving of funds, identifying and freezing assets (movable and immovable), and prohibiting access to funds and financial services.

It will have to demonstrate enforcement against TFS violations, including administrative and criminal penalties and provincial and federal authorities cooperating on enforcement cases and prove that facilities and services owned or controlled by a designated person are deprived of their resources and the usage of the resources.

The FATF plenary had formally placed Pakistan in the grey list in June 2018 due to 'strategic deficiencies' in its AML/CFT regime after a push from India supported by the US, the UK and some European countries.

Pakistan then committed at the highest level to a 27-point action plan but failed to meet deadlines. It has finalised major amendments to at least a dozen of its laws to meet FATF requirements by June, according to the report.

The FATF currently has 39 members, including two regional organisations -- the European Commission and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

India is a member of the FATF consultations and its Asia Pacific Group.
FAIRFIELD  A fifth resident has died from coronavirus, according to First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick. The state reported there were 113 cases in town as of Wednesday night.

In an update sent to residents Tuesday night, Kupchick said the man who died was 72 years old. She said the number of cases in town had increased by 25 in the past 48 hours.

According to Health Director Sands Cleary, modeling shows that we will likely see a peak of COVID-19 activity in our community on or about April 15th, she said. Accordingly, the medical community expects overwhelming demands will be placed on our health care system and health care providers during the coming weeks.

Kupchick also reiterated that residents will face fines if they enter any of the closed parks, beaches and recreational areas in town. The decision to move from encouragement to enforcement became effective Monday.

The first selectwoman advised residents to wear coverings over their mouth when in public in light of a change in Centers for Disease Control guidelines. She said Fairfield had instituted a mask policy for town employees. A guide showing residents how to make their own masks can be found on the town website.

Kupchick also said a nonprofit Fairfield COVID-19 Relief Fund was launched on Tuesday and the town is looking for donations. The fund, she said, aims to provide limited, one-time assistance to Fairfield residents who have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. She said use of the funds must be directly related to the effects of the virus.

It is anticipated that requests for assistance may be greater than the funds received, Kupchick said. The ability to provide assistance will be based on the amount of money raised for this purpose, the validity of each request, and demonstrated need.

Finally, Kupchick said town officials met with all of the grocery stores to get an update on operations and food supplies. She said they relayed residents concerns about some employees not wearing masks and gloves at the stores and strongly encouraged they make it a priority.

All stores noted that they continue to receive regular deliveries of most items, including some items that remain in high demand, such as eggs, paper products and cleaning supplies, she said. To address the high demand and shortages, the stores are attempting to identify alternate supply sources for high demand items as they remain in limited supply and frequently sell out.

According to Kupchick, the upcoming holidays will put a strain on those commodities. She asked that residents not overbuy products so that residents who need them can purchase them.

Also, in following CDC guidelines, shopping trips should be limited to one person per household, Kupchick said. Spouses, partners, and children only add to the risk of exposure.

Kupchick said the town had the technology to stay socially connected while remaining physically distant.

We will get through this together if we stay apart, she said.
Every fifth small business in Ukraine may shut down due to the quarantine imposed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

These are the results of an express survey conducted by the European Business Association among representatives of small and microbusiness  participants of the Unlimit Ukraine project.

According to the survey, 18% of respondents consider closing their businesses, 78% report losses of income up to 75%, and only 4% stand out with increased profits for the company. The economic impact of a coronavirus pandemic is extremely severe for small businesses, the EBA informs.

The Association notes that small business must overcome this crisis with the fewest losses possible, because a successful small business is a benchmark of a progressive economy and the basis of a strong middle class. Small business provides employment, however, due to the slowdown in business activity, some will have to reduce the staff size and cut the salaries.

Thus, among the respondents, 41% plan to adjust the salaries of staff, 33% have not yet decided, and 26% of business owners will keep the current size of salaries. It will be necessary to reduce the number of employees in 31% of enterprises, while 21% are undecided and 48% of respondents do not plan any staffing cuts, the report reads.

As noted, the entrepreneurs, perhaps, are most worried about the uncertainty of the current situation. In circumstances when the duration of quarantine and changes in consumer behavior are hard to predict, it is almost impossible to elaborate any scenarios for business development. The decline in number of orders, the disruption of procurement and delivery terms, the paralyzed sales channels are just a few problems facing small businesses. While many companies have a substantial decrease in their revenues, expenditures remain virtually unchanged (rent, utilities). More worries added up with shifting to the remote work and organizing employee transportation when the movement is restricted.

Despite all the challenges of the situation, entrepreneurs remain optimistic for the most part. Thus, 47% will look for new development opportunities in case of the indefinite duration of the quarantine. At the same time, 22% of respondents will have to close their businesses. However, due to the unpredictability of the situation, business sentiment may change, the EBA adds.

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Russian Zastava UAV, which was shot down by Ukrainian troops in Donbas the day before, is in service with 12 units of the Russian Armed Forces.

"At present, it is known that Zastava UAV is in service with at least 12 units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, including eight units whose servicemen have been repeatedly recorded in the OSINT investigations of InformNapalm as direct participants in the aggression against Ukraine in Donbas," the InformNapalm community reports.

According to the InformNapalm data, new Zastava unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is designed for reconnaissance and adjustment of fire.

The UAV has been manufactured at the Ural Works of Civil Aviation in Yekaterinburg (Russia) since 2012 under the license of the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and is a licensed copy of the Israeli lightweight Bird-Eye 400 UAV valued at $2 million.

"Various modern Russian UAVs and electronic warfare system devices often come to a focus of research. They are direct and indisputable evidence of Russian military aggression against Ukraine in Donbas," the analysts emphasize.

According to them, at least eight different types of Russian UAVs have been spotted in Donbas as of 2020: Granat-1, Granat -2, Granat-4, Forpost, Orlan-10, Eleron-3CB, Tachyon, and Zastava.

As reported, the Command of the Joint Forces Operation reported on April 5 that the Ukrainian military had shot down Russian Zastava UAV near the Svitlodarsk arc in Donbas.

Photos: informnapalm.org

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As he worked tirelessly liaising with military planners, councils and medical personnel over the nightmarish logistics for the delivery of hundreds of thousands of food boxes to our most vulnerable, there emerged one controversy that Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick had not anticipated.

It did not concern who was or was not entitled to a food box. Or where each box should be left to best protect the self-isolating in the pandemic. Or how to accommodate those with allergies. Or even how much loo roll each should contain.

No, no, no. The most contentious decision turned out to be Jenricks choice of biscuit  the Custard Cream!

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick dutifully delivering food parcels in Tonbridge, Kent

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick (pictured) displaying the contents of his food parcels

Other food box items include toilet paper, fruit, bread, non-perishables, pasta and cereal

Perhaps, with its double layer of crisp, crunchy biscuit, creamy middle and fancy Baroque-style moulding, complete with swirling letters and Victorian-inspired fern design, he thought it seemed a bit more special than a Rich Tea, Digestive, Jaffa Cake (arguably, not really a biscuit) or even a chocolate Bourbon.

Maybe he thought that a packet or two might perk up those otherwise rather prosaic-sounding food boxes full of beans, cans of soup, teabags, cornflakes, fresh fruit, pasta and potatoes.

As Mr Jenrick, MP for Newark, put it: I have always been partial to a biscuit, particularly when I am in the house on my own, raiding the cupboards. So we had a big debate about what people might like, and there was a strong view that we should have some good biscuits  and Custard Creams were certainly high up there.

The most contentious decision turned out to be Jenricks choice of biscuit  the Custard Cream!

Which is all very well, but we Brits feel very strongly about our biscuits. Who can forget the 2009 furore when, fearful he would give away something too personal, then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown refused not once but 12 times to reveal his favourite biscuit during an interview with online forum Mumsnet, which always asks politicians this searching question.

(For the record, Boris likes Chocolate Digestives, David Cameron favours oatcakes, Ed Miliband is a Jaffa Cake man, Nick Clegg likes Rich Tea if dunked and Hobnobs if not and, naturally, Jeremy Corbyn never eats biscuits because of all that nasty sugar.)

Obviously social media has gone into a frenzy of debate. Some, happily, considered Mr Jenricks an inspired choice  nostalgic, for these tricky times. Another hailed it a good honest British biscuit and eulogised about the luxurious creamy centre and crisp crumbliness.

He thought it seemed a bit more special than a Rich Tea, Digestive, Jaffa Cake (arguably, not really a biscuit) or even a chocolate Bourbon (pictured)

Ed Miliband is a Jaffa Cake man, according to online forum Mumsnet

Whereas Prime Minister Boris Johnson likes a Chocolate Digestive (pictured)

Others considered it a strategic selection, applauding the occupational therapy offered by being able to eat first the top, then scrape off the iced middle bit by bit with your teeth, and later the bottom, which might better fill 12 long weeks than a boring old Ginger Nut.

Writer and broadcaster Rae Earl tweeted: British Governments decision to put Custard Creams in food boxes for vulnerable people during #CV19 is a GREAT one. Rich Tea Too fragile. Digestive Too medical. Bourbon Too frivolous. A Custard Cream can take the dunking & come out the other end. A biscuit for our times. But top chef Sally Clarke was astonished anyone would get het up about such a lowly, tasteless (in my humble opinion) and dreadful biscuit.

Meanwhile, the dunking brigade  those who cant eat a biscuit without first dipping it in their tea  insist Custard Creams are far inferior to Hobnobs, Digestives, Bourbons and almost any other biscuit. One said: Everyone knows that the Hobnob is the don when it comes to dunkable biscuits.

David Cameron favours oatcakes (pictured), according to online forum Mumsnet

Shortbread (pictured) a second favourite for Brits after the Jaffa Cake

Naturally, it was only a matter of time before the health and safety brigade got involved.

Really Custard Creams are the most dangerous biscuits to eat, warned one officious chap. There are more biscuit-related accidents with Custard Creams than any other biscuit. Google dangerous biscuits. CC is No 1 every time.

And hes right. I kid you not. After all, biscuit-related injuries are hardly uncommon. According to a 2009 survey, 25 million Brits have been injured during a tea or coffee break, with 500 needing hospital treatment a year.

Of these 500, a third of adults were apparently scalded by hot beverages while dunking, 26 per cent choked on crumbs and one in ten broke a tooth or filling.

If that isnt silly enough, the rest either dropped a biscuit tin on their foot, fell off a chair reaching for the biscuits, poked themselves in the eye with a biscuit or were bitten while feeding one to an animal. One incredibly daft man got stuck in wet concrete after wading in to retrieve a stray biscuit.

Even better  Mindlab International, the research group that somehow found the time to conduct the survey, also carried out a what they called a Biscuit Injury Threat Evaluation (BITE)  testing the physical properties of 15 popular types of biscuits.

Britain's top teatime nibbles 1. Jaffa Cake (This entry was highly contentious, with many biscuit eaters pointing out that these are, of course, cakes, not biscuits) 2. Shortbread 3. Bourbon 4. Chocolate digestive 5. Custard cream But perhaps, now so many people are being reacquainted with the hallowed Custard Cream, by this time next year it will have toppled the Jaffa Cake from its biscuity throne *According to a 2019 survey by kitchen appliance manufacturer, CDA Advertisement

The result? You guessed it. With a risk rating of 5.63, the Custard Cream is Britains deadliest biscuit, five times more hazardous than Jaffa Cakes, with an almost harmless 1.16 risk rating. If we seem bonkers about biscuits in Britain, its probably because we eat so many. Each year we chomp 420,000 tonnes, or 2.6 billion worth  103 packets per household. (Though far more in Manchester, the UK biscuit capital, where 96 per cent of people eat at least one daily biscuit.)

Originally made for sailors and soldiers from flour and water, it wasnt until the 17th century that the idea came for aerating the flour and eggs to make a sponge cake that was dried in the oven  hence biscuit, which means twice-baked in French  and, hey presto, we got sponge fingers. And then in the 19th century came the invention of afternoon tea and we really embraced biscuits as something to be enjoyed with  or dunked in  your tea, and hailed them as a true British phenomenon.

The Custard Cream was invented in 1908 and has been enjoyed in its millions ever since. In 2011, John Stevenson, Tory MP for Carlisle  perhaps, not coincidentally, home of the McVities factory  entered it in a competition to celebrate British design against such engineering triumphs as the Rolls-Royce Trent aero engine and the Land Rover. Unsurprisingly, it did not win.

According to one survey, the Jaffa Cake is Britains favourite biscuit  though many dismiss this on the basis it is actually a cake. They prefer to rely on a rival YouGov survey that lists McVities Digestive, in its plain and chocolate-covered forms  as Britains most popular choice, selling 4.4million a day.

And perhaps therein lies the problem for Mr Jenrick. As he mobilises an operation on a scale not seen since World War II, I applaud him for his energy, but I cant help wondering: what if the recipients would prefer a Digestive?
Conor Walsh and his Irish crewmates have come ashore after a month at sea and now find themselves in a "weird" new world.

"I went in for a hug and everyone was backing away from me," Conor, 16, said not long after he and eight other Irish crew that had been dropped off in the Port of Cork by the tall ship Tenacious.

Around 40 crew were on board the vessel as part of a trip organised by the Jubilee Sailing Trust charity.

Conor, from Crosshaven and a fourth year student at Presentation Brothers in Cork city, was among an eight-strong Irish contingent who left for Antigua via Britain by plane on March 7.

The ships original passage was to be from Antigua to Greece, stopping in Gibraltar, but due to the Coronavirus pandemic, everything changed.

Amid the diversions, they refuelled in the Azores in the mid-Atlantic, but all on board were not allowed onshore.

David Longmore, Hollywood, Co Down with Twins Conor and Jack Galligan, Greystones picture on their arrival at Kennedy Quay, Cobh, Co Cork after spending three weeks on the sail training tall ship the SV Tenacious. Picture: Dan Linehan

Conor said the ship was refused entry at ports in southern England on its way back and his parents, Sue and Nick, requested if the vessel could divert to Cork Harbour, which meant sailing a more northerly route.

Thats what ultimately happened and at lunchtime on Tuesday the Port of Cork made the necessary arrangements to facilitate the Irish on-board to come home.

The first thing Conor noticed was the plethora of facemasks on show.

Speaking about the extend of the current restrictions: "I dont think any of us really knew. None of us have our phones."

The SV Tenacious passing Roches Point in Cork, on its way to drop off eight transition students who have spent the last three week onboard. Picture Dan Linehan

Conor has been sailing since he was four but others on board, including those affiliated with the UK Help for Heroes organisation, were novices.

All worked together but the extent of pandemic lockdown efforts has come as something of a shock:

A few days after we left the Port of Antigua we were told the world had basically gone down the toilet.

Conors mother, Sue, described the dramatic changes on dry land since Conor departed a month ago as "bonkers" while Conors father, Nick, said the Irish crewmates  seven from Dublin and another from the North  are back to a situation that is "very strange".

"Im a blinds manufacturer, now Im making face shields," he said.

"Everything has changed, how we interact has all changed."

Conor Walsh, Crosshaven, Charlie Kavanagh, Greystones and Taidgh Hamilton Crowe, Dun Laoghaire on his arrival at Kennedy Quay, Cobh, Co Cork after spending three weeks on the sail training tall ship the SV Tenacious. Picture: Dan Linehan

According to Sue: "Things started going pear-shaped here and I didnt want them in the UK.

"I didnt want them coming back in a ferry so I asked could they divert to Cork."

Both Sue and Nick paid tribute to the charity and the Port of Cork for ensuring everyones safe return from what has become a modern-day version of Homers Odyssey.

Conor is one of three boys in the family and Sue summed it up: "It was hilarious that I was less worried about my son in the middle of the Atlantic."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 16:13:02|Editor: huaxia

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A 12-member Chinese medical expert team dispatched by the Chinese government shared their experience on how to handle COVID-19 cases with their Filipino medical counterparts at a briefing session on Monday.
T ributes have poured in for a highly regarded surgeon who lost his battle with coronavirus in intensive care.

Associate cardio-thoracic specialist Jitendra Rathod died at the University Hospital of Wales on Monday morning after becoming infected with the Covid-19 strain.

The married father-of-two was described as an "incredibly dedicated surgeon who deeply cared for his patients" by the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.

The first minister of Wales Mark Drakeford said Mr Rathod was a very highly regarded doctor, while health minister Vaughan Gething said he was deeply saddened by the news.

On Tuesday, Public Health Wales said there were 291 new cases of Covid-19 , bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 3,790. A further 19 deaths were reported, taking the number of deaths in Wales to 212.

Jitendra Rathod, associate specialist in cardio-thoracic surgery at University Hospital of Wales died from Covid-19 / PA

"It is with profound sadness that we must inform you that Mr Jitendra Rathod, associate specialist in cardiothoracic surgery at the University Hospital of Wales, has passed away," The Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said in a statement.

"He died early this morning on our general intensive care unit after testing positive for Covid-19.

"Jitu had worked in the department of cardio-thoracic surgery since the mid-1990s and came back to UHW in 2006 after a brief stint abroad.

"He was an incredibly dedicated surgeon who deeply cared for his patients. He was well-liked and greatly respected by one and all.

The board added that his commitment to the speciality was exemplary and he is survived by his wife and two sons.

"We will miss him greatly," it said.

Mr Gething told a press conference in Cardiff that a small number of healthcare workers with symptoms or confirmed cases of Covid-19 were in intensive care .

He said Mr Rathods death showed that no matter what your expertise or achievement in a particular field of life, this can directly affect you.

Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services Vaughan Gething paid tribute to the surgeon / PA

Of course the Prime Minister is in intensive care and I wish him well and hope that he recovers, Mr Gething said.

It reiterates why its so important for people to follow the rules.

We have not set up rules to intervene and interrupt the way that people are used to living their day to day lives because we can  weve done this because we have to, to save lives.

And each death, and each human story about that, including this leading cardio-thoracic surgeon, I think reinforces the point and the purpose of what we are doing.

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Mr Gething said the Welsh Government would not be making individual figures of healthcare workers in hospital with coronavirus publicly available.

Theyre relatively low numbers now but its important, again, to be honest, that we know that a number of our frontline health care workers will have Covid-19 at various points during the pandemic, he said.

These are people who may have that from community transmission, or indeed from the work they do, and it reinforces why personal protective equipment re-provision is my number one priority.

Mr Drakeford told BBC Breakfast: It just tells us this virus is no respecter of persons, or place, which is why it is so important we all do absolutely everything we can to protect one another from its impact.

More than 15,000 tests have been conducted on over 13,000 people in Wales since testing began on January 29, with negative results in almost 75 per cent of cases.

Wales currently has capacity to carry out 1,100 tests per day but this is expected to rise this week, Mr Gething said.

A drive-through testing site at Cardiff City stadium is expected to be operational on Tuesday and will test up to 200 key workers per day.

Three further testing sites, including one at Rodney Parade stadium in Newport, will be open in the next seven to 10 days.

People who need a test will be identified by their employer and given a time slot to attend, Mr Gething said.

The positive cases, by health board area, are: 1160 in Aneurin Bevan, 244 in Betsi Cadwaladr, 943 in Cardiff and Vale, 578 in Cwm Taf, 244 in Hywel Dda, 58 in Powys and 490 in Swansea Bay.
New Delhi, April 7 : Taking preventive measures amid lockdown, the Border Security Force (BSF) has asked its formations to extend leaves of their personnel, due to join this month, up to April 21.

The BSF has communicated the decision to each personnel on leave through telephone.

"Instructions have been issued to all the BSF formations that leave of personnel should be extended up to April 21. To avoid any communication gap, they are telephonically informed," the BSF said in a statement, here on Tuesday.

The step has been taken as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of Covid-19 among the personnel on duty.

The 2.5 lakh-strong force is mandated to guard 3,323 km India-Pakistan and 4,096 km India-Bangladesh borders.

The BSF has circulated similar instructions to its training institutes informing them that no one from such units be allowed to move out till April 21. "The centres where training programmes are running and are due to end in coming days have been directed to hold any movement till April 21," the statement said.

"No movement before April and stay wherever you are," it said.

The COVID-19 toll has risen to 114 and confirmed cases to 3,981 across the country. The 21-day lockdown was imposed on March 24 midnight to break the coronavirus transmission chain.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security to deliver keynote on securing IT assets and maintaining operations; virtual conferences planned nationwide through the end of May

HARTFORD, Conn., April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Data Connectors, representing the largest cybersecurity community in North America, announced today it is continuing its series of Virtual Cybersecurity Summits with an event this week for executives in the Hartford, Connecticut area. The conference follows last weeks conference for Los Angeles-area cybersecurity professionals, which drew more than 900 registrants.



The 2020 Hartford Virtual Cybersecurity Summit takes place this Thursday, April 9th.

A keynote presentation from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tops the full-day agenda, which will also feature industry expert presenters and virtual exhibits from cybersecurity solution providers.

As CISAs Regional Cybersecurity Advisor in New England, its my job to work closely with industry leaders, technical experts, and academic leaders throughout the region, said Ron Ford, of DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). And even though we will not be meeting in person, the insights and advice we can share with each other through the Virtual Summit will be of immense value. The development of best practices and policies must not stop at this time; quite the contrary, they are more important than ever.

Ford will discuss the linkages between cyberspace and physical systems, and what companies must do to reduce those vulnerabilities. Resilience, he notes, is just as important as defense.

Share this story on Twitter via click-to-tweet, here: https://ctt.ac/y3Wsa

Data Connectors, which has conducted physical conferences since 1999, has rapidly responded to the COVID-19 crisis, moving its scheduled events online. And the cybersecurity community has responded to the opportunity: registration for last weeks Los Angeles Virtual Summit was more than three times as large as those who traditionally sign up for the physical conference, making this the firms largest event by that measure.

Story continues

The Virtual Summit will also feature an interactive panel discussion with some of the top Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) from organizations in the Greater New England area, including:

Jason McKay, CIO and VP of Business Process, Riggs Distler Company

Michael Poczobut, CISO and Sr. Director of Technical Operations, BCBC of Vermont

Andrew Neblett, Director of Information Technology, Ridgefield, CT

Attendees will ask questions and interact online with the CISOs, as well as each other and the organizations who will feature their solutions at the event. Solution providers for the New England Summit include RSA, Mimecast, Zerto, BeyondTrust, Check Point and Verkada.

The Summit will take place on Thursday, April 9, 2020 and start at 8:30am Eastern time. Registration is free for qualified professionals, who can also obtain Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits for participation. More information can be found at www.dataconnectors.com/hartfordpr .

Data Connectors Virtual Summits are planned through the end of May in Detroit, Portland, Des Moines, Louisville, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Canada-East (covering Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal). The firm will continue its physical, in-person Cybersecurity Conference Series after the COVID-19 crisis has subsided.

Details for all events can be found at dataconnectors.com/attend

About Data Connectors

Since 1999, Data Connectors ( dataconnectors.com ) has facilitated the collaboration between cybersecurity professionals and solution providers. Today, the community comprises over 650,000 members and 250 active vendor partners. Members enjoy informative education from industry luminaries, innovative solution providers and government agencies such as the FBI, InfraGard, US Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security. Data Connectors brings live conferences to over 45 cities across North America each year, and also provides interactions with the community via virtual conferences, Web Briefings, and regular communications.

Note to reporters: If you wish to attend these sessions at no charge, please contact Michael Hiskey, Chief Strategy Officer, at +1.636.778.9495, or info@dataconnectors.com.
In 2017, AT&T fitted a cell tower in St. George with new antennas to provide home and business internet service in rural Dorchester County. Many other rural areas still ack it. File/Thad Moore/Staff
The police in Ondo State have denied arresting the suspected killers of Funke Olakunrin, the daughter of the leader of Afenifere, Reuben Fasoranti.

The polices statement counters claims by Afenifere spokesperson, Yinka Odumakin, that four suspects had been arrested in connection with the murder.

Mrs Olakurin was gruesomely murdered by suspected herdsmen in July last year at Kajola along Ore-Ijebu Ode expressway while on her way to Lagos after visiting her father in Akure, Ondo State.

She was shot in her Toyota Landcruiser SUV and later died in spite of efforts to save her life.

Some other vehicles were also ambushed in the incident and several persons, including her driver, kidnapped, but were later rescued.

Her murder happened at the height of kidnappings and gun attacks by herders in the south west region, a development that spurred the leaders of the region into action, leading to the creation of Amotekun as a regional security network.

Afenifere had repeatedly accused the police of tardiness in the handling of the case.

Mr Odumakin first hinted on Monday that four suspects had been arrested by the Special Anti-robbery Squad(SARS) in Ondo State relating to the murder, and that police had taken in the driver of the deceased, who had earlier been released from custody.

The news of the arrest immediately gained prominence as it was widely reported.

But when PREMIUM TIMES reached the Police Public Relations Officer in Ondo State, Tee Leo-Ikoro, on Monday, he said no arrest had been made.

We will be happy to arrest the suspect, but as of today, the suspects are yet to be arrested by the Ondo State Command, he said.

The police spokesperson said the news of the arrest of the suspects must be the work of purveyors of fake news.

Mr Ikoro later issued a statement denouncing the report and insisting that the police were still investigating.

However, a statement by Mr Odumakin on Tuesday, further heightened the controversy as he urged journalists to ignore the denial of arrest statement by the police command.

Kindly disregard the statement credited to the Ondo Police PRO on the above subject, he said.

The regular Police in Ondo state has behaved so irresponsibly on the murder of Mrs Funke Olakunrin in the last 9 months.

But for SARS that has now apprehended the suspected killers, we would have lost confidence in the organization.

We were shocked that the regular police in Ondo released the car in which Mrs Olakunrin was killed to the family the day after the incident without any forensic.

It was after Afeniferes complaint to the police at the highest level that they came to take the car for forensic after seven days of people touching the car with no report to the family till date. They just asked them to come and take the car that they were done with it.

They were not going to do any autopsy on her until we insisted one must be carried out.

They never deemed it necessary to brief the family once in the last 9 months.

But the SARS who arrested the suspected killers formally briefed Papa Fasoranti last Saturday showing the responsible face of the police.

The 94-year-old Pa Fasoranti who has been having sleepless nights in the last nine months has resumed normal sleep since SARS briefed him on the arrest.

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The driver who was on the wheel when Mrs Olakunrin was killed and went with the killers was treated with kid gloves by the regular police in Ondo but the SARS has taken him in yesterday after he failed to report for days despite repeated invitations.

Once again we commend the SARS for the wonderful job they have done and we wait for thorough investigation that will lead to diligent prosecution.

Responding to Mr Odumakins state, Mr Leo-Ikoro said the Afenifere spokesperson misunderstood the mission of the SARS personnel who visited the Afenifere leader.

According to him, the visit of the SARS operative was to seek the permission of the Afenifere leader to allow his driver to come and identify some persons arrested to see if they were the suspects in question.

That does not mean the suspects who murdered his daughter had been arrested, said Mr Leo-Ikoro.

We are investigating that case like you know, the SARS here and the federal SARS, both of them are working.

Now the federal SARS came with some alleged suspects in that case; they needed identification, and you know that the driver of that late woman stays with the chief.

What they did was to go there to see whether chief could allow them have that driver to identify those people, that was all.

They have not arrested these people and say they are the ones who did that, it was to see whether the driver could identify any of them as being one of those who took part in that incident.

Mr Leo-Ikoro said he believed Mr Odumakin might have misunderstood the submissions of the operatives to mean the arrest of the suspected killers.

I have spoken to Yinka himself and I told him what happened and I also spoke to the SARS Commander in Ondo and he told me exactly what happened, he added.

There is no way they will make any arrest and the Commissioner of Police here will not know and there is no way we will make any arrest and the Inspector-General of Police will not know.

We will be happy to make the arrest, but this one is not correct and there is nothing to hide.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 04/07/2020



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

star Tom Brooks is apologizing for asking Darcey Silva if she "put weight on" during their breakup conversation that aired during Sunday night's episode of : Before the 90 Days' fourth season."Did you put weight on?" Tom asked Darcey at a restaurant during the latest : Before the 90 Days episode."What was that?" Darcey asked in reply, seemingly in shock. "Yeah, good. Wonderful. Enjoy your life."Tom took to Instagram on Monday with an apology after receiving backlash for his rude body-shaming comment to Darcey, who apparently had her heart broken by Tom when he chose to move on with another woman."I'm not perfect. I make mistakes. We all make mistakes. We all have said things that we wish we could take back, unfortunately we can't," Tom wrote."I acknowledge what I did was very inappropriate! I truly am sorry for what I said and take full responsibility for it."Tom added, "The edit is out of context, but still if I hadn't of said it, couldn't have been used. #apologise."Sunday night's episode featured Darcey from Connecticut and Tom from England meeting in New York City to hash out their issues after spending a lot of time apart with little communication.Darcey thought she and Tom were going to work on their relationship, but the conversation essentially turned out to be an opportunity for the businessman to dump Darcey in-person."Tom, I know about your new girl," Darcey said, referencing photos she had found of Tom looking cozy with a blonde woman."Yeah. The person you are talking about is from three weeks ago," Tom said.Tom told the cameras he had met someone named Shannon in Milan during Fashion Week several weeks earlier while he and Darcey were spending time apart.Tom revealed he and Shannon enjoyed some drinks and spent the night together but he hadn't told Darcey about this woman because he was still "confused about a few things."Tom then dropped a bombshell and told Darcey, "I met someone who loves me the way I wanted to be loved.""I'm not okay with that," Darcey replied.Tom accused Darcey of having his heart in her hands but being preoccupied with other things, such as her former relationship with Jesse Meester "I kind of felt jealous because I wish I could've loved you the way he did, because your idea and notion of love is not me," Tom said."You had it with him, and I love you in a different way. I love you like you're my sister. I ended up feeling like you were my sister or a friend," he continued."Oh boy, well you should have told me that before we got in the sack," Darcey fired back. "Awkward.""I'm saying that now," Tom repeated.Darcey believed Tom was deflecting problems onto her to make himself feel better. Tom noted he wanted to stay friends, but Darcey wasn't having it and she wanted a clean slate."Move on with your life. I don't want anything to do with you. You are nothing to me right now," Darcey told Tom."I am glad. And try not to ruin the next one," Tom noted.Darcey felt Tom had never respected her as a partner, a lover, or a friend. She then paid his coffee bill and mumbled under her breath that she was happy to move on because she had "bigger and better coming."And that's when Tom asked Darcey, "Did you put weight on?""What was that? Yeah, good. Wonderful. Enjoy your life," Darcey griped."I will now that you're not in it," Tom said."Good, same here. Good riddance. Thank God," Darcey responded, before venting to the cameras Tom is "disgusting" and "not a nice person."Tom claimed there was nothing worth holding onto from his relationship with Darcey and their romance was 100 percent over and done with.Darcey insisted she was glad her relationship was finished and he should've told her that over the phone weeks ago.Darcey cried and told the cameras, "He's not perfect! That's not someone I want to be around. I don't deserve to be treated that way, and no one will take advantage of me ever again."Darcey joined the franchise when she starred on Seasons 1 and 2 of : Before the 90 Days with her now-ex Jesse.On Season 3 of : Before the 90 Days, Darcey was shown traveling to England to pursue what she believed would be a fairy-tale romance with Tom, and the pair fell in love during her trip.However, Darcey and Tom's flame quickly fizzled out once Darcey returned to the United States and attempted to make a long-distance relationship with the busy Tom work out.Want spoilers? Click here to visit our Spoilers webpage!
Just two weeks before Mahesh Subramanian was hoping to receive a 15 percent salary hike and a Rs 35,000 performance bonus. On April 7, a mail hit his inbox informing him of the tough economic condition. The offshore centre (or global in-house centre) he was working for in Hyderabad informed him that the appraisal process would be delayed till mid-September.

The novel coronavirus (or COVID-19) pandemic has led to a lockdown across the country. Amid this, the glimmer of hope for annual appraisals have also dimmed with companies deferring any hike till further notice. While hikes were anyways expected to be muted, with threats of a slowdown since January, a few sectors like e-commerce, retail, digital marketing and ITeS were expected to be outliers.

Global in-house centres (GICs) were expected to offer the highest level of hikes to Indian employees. GICs are offshore centre that perform servicing functions for large multinationals. India has more than 1,000 GICs that have set up to leverage the countrys highly-skilled and low-cost talent pool.

Also Read: IIT, IIM students lose job offers; what happen's next?

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Industry sources said while companies do not want to create panic among employees, appraisals this year would be highly unlikely.

In March, India's largest construction and engineering company Larsen & Toubro (L&T) said it is deferring the extra salary revision - which was planned from March 1 till the end of July. The management said the decision had the backing of its employees.

A lockdown has impacted the revenue of companies across India. Uncertainty around when the lockdown will be lifted and an extension of weak demand has led to companies saving costs and postponing hikes.

Given that the bigger concern (due to COVID-19) is how many jobs will go and how many will stay, the focus is on conservation, Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder and Executive Vice-President, TeamLease Services, told Moneycontrol. It is inevitable that appraisals will be impacted. It is not because of lack of good performance, but because of the current scenario, she added.

If this was only India-centric, those working in multinational corporations would have been spared. However, considering that COVID-19 has impacted operations across the globe, appraisals across companies are being hit.

Human resource professionals told Moneycontrol that even in companies where the appraisal letters have been handed out, they are slowly being withdrawn.

It is understood that capital conservation is the biggest priority. This is also understood among employees because we would be forced to hand out pink slips, said the head of human resource at a mid-sized bank.

For now, employees across companies have been told that the process is deferred. If the COVID-19 curve is flattened by June, it is likely that the previously announced appraisals would be honoured from September onwards.

Chakraborty said appraisals are much lower in the order of prioritisation for companies and added that it is a very distant scenario.

Appraisals follow the April to March cycle in most companies. Based on the performance of the individual and the company in the previous year, a rate of salary hike is fixed by the human resource team in discussion with the reporting managers.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
THE COLLINGSWORTH FAMILY PARTNERS WITH SAMARITANS PURSE TO BRING HOPE AND HEALING TO A WORLD IN NEED

April 6, 2020
Emergency services taking a man to hospital after the incident in Ardglen Place on Sunday night

A man was in a critical condition in hospital yesterday after he was stabbed in north Belfast.

It happened in the Ardglen Place area of Ardoyne on Sunday at around 10.30pm.

Police were approached by a 29-year-old on Etna Drive who stated he had been stabbed a short time earlier by three males in Ardglen Place. The man had stopped his car when he was approached by the males who stabbed him in the arm and back before making off. The man was taken to hospital for treatment where his condition is described as critical but stable. A 19-year-old woman, who was also in the car at the time, was not injured.

Three males, two aged 18 and one aged 20, have been arrested.

The stabbing comes after the killing of Robbie Lawlor in the area on Saturday.

North Belfast SDLP councillor Paul McCusker said the community "has had enough trauma and shock" over the weekend at an already frightening time and "don't deserve this". "Those intent on continuing to cause harm or misery on the community need to go away," he added.

Police appealed for anyone who witnessed the incident or anyone who has any information that can assist with the investigation to contact detectives in Musgrave Police Station on 101 quoting 1456 05/04/20.

Alternatively information can be passed anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Higher number of daily deaths reported in Spain, as Japan declares state of emergency over COVID-19 pandemic.

France has become the fourth country to register more than 10,000 deaths due to coronavirus, while New York reported 731 new fatalities, the highest overnight jump since the beginning of the outbreak.

Meanwhile, Spain on Tuesday recorded a slight increase in the daily death toll for the first time in five days, with 743 people succumbing overnight.

Japan declared a state of emergency amid a spike in coronavirus cases, as Singapore began a partial lockdown and other countries extended stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of the disease.

In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was diagnosed with coronavirus late last month, was moved to intensive care in a London hospital after his condition worsened on Monday evening.

Globally, the number of people diagnosed with the virus now exceeds 1.3 million. More than 74,500 people have died while nearly 285,000 have recovered, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Here are the latest updates:

Tuesday, April 7

20:45 GMT  Brazils health minister warns of respirator shortages

Brazils Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandettahas warned that the country faces serious problems of availability of respirators.

The Latin American countrys coronavirus cases reached 13,717 while the death toll stands at 667.

20:10 GMT  Comparing COVID-19, SARS and MERS

The new coronavirus outbreak has spread rapidly around the world, affecting more than 183 countries and territories, infecting over a million and killing more than 80,000 people.

This is not the first time an international health crisis occurred due to the spread of a novel coronavirus or other zoonotic (animal-originated) viruses, such as influenza that created the swine, bird and seasonal flu epidemics in recent history.

Here is a comparison of the information and data we have on COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, with similar recent coronavirus-related diseases.

19:35 GMT  Mnuchin seeks additional $25bn in small business relief

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he wants Congress to approve an additional $250bn for a small business relief programme by Friday.

Mnuchin, speaking at the White House, said the additional funds would supplement a $350bn relief programme launched last Friday, which is aimed at helping small businesses impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.

If you dont get the loan this week, there will be plenty of money for you next week, he said.

19:30 GMT  How is coronavirus benefitting technology companies?

Many people are no longer physically shopping or eating in restaurants. Flying to the worlds favourite destinations is now far from reality.

The measures we are taking to protect ourselves during the coronavirus pandemic are disrupting businesses globally.

But staying at home with our only window to the outside world being an internet connection and a device is changing our consumption habits and benefitting major tech companies.





18:55 GMT  Slovenia could soon loosen coronavirus restrictions

Slovenia could start easing its coronavirus lockdown as soon as next week if the current trends continue, Prime Minister Janez Jansa said.

Positive experiences allow us to study and plan loosening some restrictions starting next Tuesday if some conditions are met, Jansa said in a televised address.

He added that factories and service providers that can ensure the safety of their workers and customers through the use of protective gear and other cautionary measures, could be among the first to be allowed to resume operations.

18:35 GMT  What COVID-19 reveals about educational inequality in Ghana

Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang, a lecturer at the University of Ghana, is looking for new ways to carry on teaching his students.

He has no other choice. Ever since Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo ordered last month the indefinite closure of all schools to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, many of the countrys higher educational institutions began exploring options in online learning.

I plan to use WhatsApp and Zoom to make the classes more interactive, said Opoku-Agyemang, who teaches literature courses at the Accra-based universitys Department of English. I will also be having guest artists and guest lecturers join in. The artists will use Instagram Live, while the guest lecturers will probably use Zoom.

Read more here.

18:25 GMT  UN condemns attack on Tripoli hospital

The United Nations condemned the shelling of a hospital in Tripoli, calling it a clear violation of international law as Libya struggles to prepare for an outbreak of the new coronavirus.

On Monday, projectiles struck the grounds of the Al Khadra General Hospital located in an area held by the internationally recognised government near a front line, injuring at least six health workers.

Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a news conference held via video link that the UN was appalled to learn of the shelling.

Read more here.

17:56 GMT  France death toll tops 10,000

France has become the fourth country to register more than 10,000 deaths due to coronavirus, with 7,091 recorded in hospital and 3,237 in old age homes, according to a government official.

A total of 7,131 people were being treated in intensive care, top health official Jerome Salomon told reporters, warning that the epidemic is continuing its progression.

Italy, Spain and the United States are the other three countries to have recorded more than 10,000 deaths.

17:47 GMT  Tunisia announces strict penalties

Tunisians infected with coronavirus could be prosecuted for manslaughter if they contaminate others by disobeying the health ministrys instructions, according to officials.

If someone who is sick does not self-isolate as required in line with health ministry instructions, and they contaminate someone else, we will pursue them under the penal code, Interior Minister Hichem Mechichi told reporters.

If that cross-contamination results in death, they can be prosecuted for manslaughter.

Tunisia has registered 22 deaths amid 596 cases of coronavirus.





17:30 GMT  Turkeys death toll reaches 725, total cases 34,109

Turkeys has announced 3,892 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking it total number of infections to 34,109.

The death toll rose by 76 to 725 while to the number of recoveries stood at 256, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told a news conference.

17:10 GMT  Qatar cases rise by 225 to 2,057, total deaths six

Qatar reported 225 new coronavirus cases, taking its total number of infections to 2,057, according to the countrys public health ministry.

It said the death toll rose by two to six, adding that 150 have so far recovered.

      Latest update on Coronavirus in Qatar#__ #YourSafetyIsMySafety pic.twitter.com/N7PUss5AFS     (@MOPHQatar) April 7, 2020

16:50 GMT  Japans Abe unveils massive $1 trillion aid package

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday declared a state of emergency to fight coronavirus infections in major population centres and rolled out a nearly one-trillion-dollar stimulus package to soften the economic blow.

The state of emergency, giving authorities more power to press people to stay at home and businesses to close, will last a month and be imposed in the capital, Tokyo, and six other prefectures, accounting for about 44 percent of Japans population.

It is no exaggeration to say that Japans economy, and the world economy, is facing the biggest crisis since post-war right now. We will protect the employment and life at all costs, Abe told a news conference.

Read more here.

16:40 GMT  UK cases not accelerating but too early to call a peak

The governments Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance said that while Britain is not seeing an acceleration in the number of coronavirus cases, it remains too early to tell whether the outbreak is peaking.

There is a fairly steady increase in numbers. Its possible we are beginning to see the beginning of change, in terms of the curve flattening a little bit. We wont know that for sure for a week or so, Vallance said at a news conference. But what were not seeing is an acceleration.





16:30 GMT  Trudeau: Still work to do to ensure acquisition of US medical supplies

Canada still has more work to do to persuade Washington to continue supplying it with medical supplies, despite the US officials having agreed to allow the export of 500,000 masks, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

Trudeau told a briefing that the masks  ordered by the province of Ontario to help fight the coronavirus  should arrive on Wednesday. Canadian officials had pressed their US counterparts over the weekend and on Monday after Ontario complained the shipment had been blocked.

16:20 GMT  UKs Raab reassures public, says PM Johnson is breathing without ventilator

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab reassured Britons, saying the heath of Prime Minister Boris Johnson is breathing without assistance and continues to be monitored in critical care.

Raab, who is acting as Johnsons deputy, said the British leader had remained stable overnight and was receiving standard oxygen treatment.

He has not required any mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support. He remains in good spirits and in keeping with usual clinical practice his progress continues to be monitored in critical care, Raab told a news conference.

Im confident that hell pull through because if theres one thing I know about this prime minister, hes a fighter. Hell be back at the helm leading us through this crisis in short order.

Raab has assumed some of Johnsons responsibilities as the prime minister receives treatment [Peter Summers/Getty]

16:00 GMT  Coronavirus is gutting US car sales, and autoworkers are worried

As the United States braces for what President Donald Trump warns will be a very, very deadly period, with deaths from coronavirus expected to peak over the next two weeks, down south in Montgomery, Alabama, Joyce Oswald, 52, is feeling anxious about the future.

But its not just the threat to physical health she fears. Oswald is deeply concerned about the toll the coronavirus pandemic could take on her familys financial wellbeing.

Her husband Charles and her two brothers-in-law work with about 3,000 other people at the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama plant on the outskirts of Montgomery. On March 18, the company temporarily suspended production to clean its facilities after an employee tested positive for COVID-19, and then reopened to essential workers only.

Read more here.

15:50 GMT  Canada coronavirus cases rise to 17,063, total deaths 345

Canadas has confirmed 1,241 new coronavirus cases, bringing its total number of infections to 17,063, data from the public health agency showed.

It said deaths rose to 345 from 293 the previous day.

15:45 GMT  New York records deadliest day in coronavirus crisis

New York reported its deadliest day in the coronavirus pandemic, with 731 new deaths in the state to a total of 5,489 fatalities even as Governor Andrew Cuomo said that hospitalisations appeared to be reaching a plateau.

The death count for April 6 of 731 marked an increase from the prior days 599 new deaths, Cuomo told a daily briefing on the coronavirus.





15:35 GMT  Singapore coronavirus cases rise by 106 to 1,481

Singapores Health Ministry reported 106 coronavirus cases, most of them locally transmitted, taking the city-states total to 1,481.

It said 39 were linked to clusters at migrant workers dormitories. Singapore has quarantined workers in three dormitories after they were linked to several cases of the disease.

Singapore has announced what it calls a circuit breaker to deal with a spike in coronavirus cases; it will last into the start of next month forcing the closure of most businesses, as well as schools [Roslan Rahman/AFP]

15:30 GMT  Czech lawmakers approve extending state of emergency to late April

Czech lawmakers approved a motion to extend a state of emergency over the coronavirus the coronavirus until April 30, a shorter period than what the government had wanted.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiss government had sought a one-month extension to May 11 for the state of emergency, which allows the cabinet to curb some rights of citizens, including freedom of movement or enterprise, and gives it more flexibility in areas such as public procurement.

15:10 GMT  Dow surges almost 900 points on slowing coronavirus cases

United States stocks surged again on Tuesday extending Mondays rally on hopes that the coronavirus crisis has plateaued, while energy stocks climbed on mounting hopes for a ceasefire in the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 887.61 points or 3.91 percent to 23,567.60 in the early minutes of trading in New York. The S&P 500 index- a gauge for the performance of US retirement and college savings plans  jumped 3.34 percent higher while the Nasdaq Composite Index traded 2.77 percent higher.

Read more here.

15:00 GMT  Life may never get back to normal, says US coronavirus scientist

Normal life around the world before the coronavirus pandemic struck may never return, the top US scientist tackling the outbreak said.

Dr Anthony Fauci said at a White House press briefing that gradually countries will again functions as a society but if you want to get the pre-coronavirus, that might not even happen in the sense that the threat is there.

If back to normal means acting like there never was a coronavirus problem, I dont think thats going to happen until we do have a situation where you can completely protect the population Ultimately, the showstopper will obviously be a vaccine, he said.

Read more here.

14:50 GMT  Trump administration to keep critical medical equipment in the US

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the Trump administration will focus on keeping critical medical items in the United States.

Right now, given the great need for PPE [personal protection equipment] in our own country, our focus will be on keeping critical medical items in the United States until demand is met here, Pompeo told a State Department news conference.





14:30 GMT  England football association chief warns of losing clubs

Greg Clarke, the chairman of Englands Football Association, has warned that clubs across the country could vanish as their finances collapse under the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Clubs and the players union, the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), have been unable so far to reach an agreement on wage cuts and deferrals to help clubs during the suspension of action.

Football faces economic challenges beyond the wildest imagination of those who run it. The pandemic will be followed by its economic consequences, and all business sectors will suffer, Clarke said in a speech to the FA Council.

We face the danger of losing clubs and leagues as finances collapse. Many communities could lose the clubs at their heart with little chance of resurrection.

In the face of this unprecedented adversity, all the stakeholders within the game from players, fans, clubs, owners and administrators need to step up and share the pain to keep the game alive, he said

14:00 GMT  US Vice President Pense to brief lawmakers on coronavirus outbreak

US Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to brief members of congress on the countrys coronavirus outbreak, his spokeswoman said said in a Twitter post.

Pence will hold four separate conference calls with House Democrats, House Republicans, Senate Democrats, and Senate Republicans to provide an update and take questions on the coronavirus, Katie Miller said.

13:50 GMT  Queen Elizabeth wishes PM Johnson a full and speedy recovery

Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom has wished Prime Minister Boris Johnson a full and speedy recovery and sent a message of support to his pregnant fiancee and his family.

The queen sent a message to Carrie Symonds and to the Johnson family, Buckingham Palace said.

Her Majesty said they were in her thoughts and that she wished the prime minister a full and speedy recovery.





13:40 GMT  Millions of aviation jobs at risk due to coronavirus outbreak

The International Air Transport Association has warned that 25 million jobs across the world were at risk due to the coronavirus virus, urging governments for support amid warnings that carriers were running out of cash.

It said global air travel saw a 70 percent drop at the beginning of the second quarter, with European flights down 90 percent.

12:53 GMT  Benin orders citizens to don face masks

The West African state of Benin ordered residents in key cities and towns to wear face masks in the countrys attmept to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The country of 11 million follows a growing number of nations where it has now obligatory to wear masks in public.

An official statement said the order covered 12 areas under a cordon sanitaire  including the capital Porto-Novo and the largest city, Cotonou  and come into effect from Wednesday.

All movement in and out of these areas is already banned, gatherings and public transport are restricted and bars are closed.

12:40 GMT  Syrian refugee to join UKs NHS to help with coronavirus efforts

A Syrian refugee living in the United Kingdom tweeted that he would be joining an army of cleaners to help his local hospital in London.

London has been my home since leaving Syria, and the least I can do is making sure my neighbours and the amazing NHS staff are safe and sound, Hassan Akkad said.

Akkad fled the war-torn Syria after being jailed for anti-government protests, escaping first to Turkey, and then moving from there to the UK. He was formerly an English teacher in the Syrian capital Damascus.

Honoured to join an army of cleaners disinfecting Covid wards our local hospital after receiving training. London has been my home since leaving Syria, and the least I can do is making sure my neighbours and the amazing NHS staff are safe and sound. #StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/7XkBwSiXW8  Hassan Akkad   (@hassan_akkad) April 7, 2020

12:35 GMT  Why is Boris Johnson in intensive care and who is caretaker PM?

Britains Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is the first world leader to be hospitalised with COVID-19, was transferred to an intensive care unit on Monday, shortly after he was first admitted to St Thomas in London.

On March 27, Johnson said he had tested positive for the virus and went into immediate self-isolation in a flat at Downing Street.

Read more here.

12:30 GMT  UK minister Gove is self isolating as family member has COVID-19 symptoms  ITV

British Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove is self isolating as a member of his family is displaying COVID-19 symptoms, an ITV reporter said.

Gove, one of the most senior members of Prime Minister Boris Johnsons government, continues to work, ITV said.





12:10 PM  UK PM Boris Johnson battling coronavirus  latest updates

The spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a media briefing said the PM was in good spirits after the conservative leader was moved to intensive care on Monday evening.

Here are the latest updates:

Johnson is breathing standard oxygen without any other assistance, requiring no mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.

The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits.

Weekly audiences with the Queen will not go ahead in the PMs absence.

UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab cannot hire or fire minister as he deputises for Johsnon.

An update on Johnsons condition will given later in the day.

11:49 GMT  Germany plans new curbs on foreign takeovers

German ministers plan to approve Wednesday a new law tightening checks on foreign takeovers of the countrys companies, aiming to keep critical production and knowhow within its borders.

The weekly cabinet meeting will deal with the updated foreign investment law, government sources told AFP news agency.

Already in progress before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the plans have been lent fresh urgency by shortfalls of critical supplies.





11:25 GMT  EU to agree virus bail-out but not coronabonds

EU finance ministers hope to agree a coronavirus economic rescue package for the worst-hit member states on Tuesday, but will fall short of demands from beleaguered Spain and Italy.

The EUs 27 finance ministers are to hold a videoconference where, at the least, they should strike a deal to use the eurozones 410-billion-euro ($443-billion) bailout fund.

But, with deep divisions between the rich northern countries and the heavily-indebted south, they are expected to put aside  for now  a proposal to issue coronabonds to pool public borrowing.

11:05 GMT  Go easy on the sake when stuck at home, Japanese brewer cautions

A Japanese sake brewery has warned against binge drinking at home as more Japanese are expected to hunker down indoors after the government stepped up calls for people to stay at home to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Asahi Shuzo, whose premium Dassai is served in high-end restaurants worldwide, said imbibing at home was not a bad thing  as long as tipplers avoided going too deep in their cups.

When you cant go out, the stress will gradually get to you. So its important to seek relief by playing games or enjoying a drink, the company said on its website.

We suggest drinking a moderate amount, slowly, it said.

10:50 GMT  Coronavirus testing methods: Key questions answered

The World Health Organization and other experts say mass testing for COVID-19 would allow positive cases to be isolated and help identify those who came in contact with them, helping to curb further transmission.

But how does testing happen and how does it help?

Read our story to find out.

10:40 GMT  Swiss coronavirus death toll rises to 641

The Swiss death toll from the new coronavirus has reached 641, the countrys public health agency said, rising from 584 people on Monday.

The number of positive tests also increased to 22,242 people from 21,652 on Monday, it said.

The government is due to give an update later on Tuesday on the epidemic situation.

10:30 GMT  Nollywood star arrested for breaching coronavirus rules

A popular Nigerian actress was arrested for throwing a birthday party during a lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus in the countrys financial capital, Lagos.

Funke Akindele, a Nollywood film star popularly known as Jenifa, was accused of hosting guests at the bash for her husband in their upscale residence in Lekki on Saturday.

Akindele party sparked anger online after she appeared in advertisements calling on Nigerians to observe social distancing [File: Ameyaw Debrah/CC]

Read the full story.

10:24 GMT  Putin: Sense of humour will help UK PM recover

Russian President Vladimir Putin wished British Prime Minister Boris Johnson a speedy recovery from the coronavirus, saying his optimism and sense of humour would help him get better.

I would like to express my sincere support at this difficult moment for you, the Kremlin quoted Putin as saying in a message to Johnson.

I am sure that your energy, optimism and sense of humour will help to defeat the disease.

10:05 GMT  WHO warns against easing virus measures too early

The World Health Organization (WHO) has no blanket recommendation for countries and regions for easing measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, but urged them not to lift them too early, a spokesman said.

One of the most important parts is not to let go of the measures too early in order not to have a fall back again, said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier in a virtual briefing.

Its similar to being sick yourself if you get out of bed too early and get running too early you risk falling back and having complications, he added.

Its #WorldHealthDay! Today, we celebrate the work of nurses & midwives by showing our appreciation for their bravery, courage & resolve in the global #COVID19 response. Tell us who your favourite nurse or midwife is .

#SupportNursesAndMidwives  https://t.co/ZFkbyJFmG0 pic.twitter.com/02Skex6uW8  World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 6, 2020

10:00 GMT  Malaysia reports 170 new cases, 1 death

Malaysian health authorities reported 170 new coronavirus cases, raising the cumulative tally to 3,963 cases as Southeast Asias third-largest economy grapples with the highest infection rate in the region.

The latest data includes one new death, raising total fatalities to 63.

09:45 GMT  Iran records 133 new coronavirus deaths

Irans coronavirus death toll rose to 3,872 with 133 deaths in the past 24 hours, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told state TV.

The total number of cases climbed to 62,589, with 2,089 new infections, while 3,987 infected people were in a critical condition, he said.





09:40 GMT  Spain reports 743 new coronavirus deaths

The pace of coronavirus deaths in Spain ticked up slightly for the first time in five days, with 743 people succumbing overnight to reach a total of 13,798.

That compared to 637 people who died during the previous 24 hours in the nation with the second highest toll of fatalities in the world from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Total cases rose to 140,510 from 135,032 on Monday, the health ministry said.

09:20 GMT  Japan approves stimulus package worth $993bn

Japans government approved an emergency economic stimulus package worth 108.2 trillion yen ($993 billion), with fiscal spending of 39.5 trillion yen, aimed at battling the deepening fallout from the coronavirus, government officials said.

In the package, the government referred to the pandemic as the biggest crisis the global economy has faced since World War II.

09:17 GMT  Indonesia records biggest daily rise in cases

Indonesia confirmed 247 new coronavirus infections, taking the total to 2,738, according to a health ministry official.

Achmad Yurianto reported 12 more deaths, taking the total to 221, while 204 people had recovered.

More than 14,300 coronavirus tests have been carried out.

This NHS nurse in the UK is urging people to stay indoors as medical staff continues to tackle #coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/Z6iHon97RV  Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 7, 2020

09:00 GMT  Philippines reports 14 new coronavirus deaths

The Philippines health ministry reported 14 new coronavirus deaths and 104 additional infections.

Deaths have reached 177 and total cases 3,764, Health Secretary Francisco Duque told a news conference.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier in the day extended to the end of April strict quarantine measures on the countrys main island implemented to contain the outbreak.

08:46 GMT  Japan PM declares state of emergency over virus

Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared a month-long state of emergency in Tokyo and six other prefectures to ramp up defenses against the spread of the coronavirus.

Abe said there would be no European-style lockdowns. The state of emergency will empower Tokyos Governor Yuriko Koike and heads of six other designated prefectures to urge people to stay inside and to call for businesses to close.

All of those measures will be requests that cannot be enforced with penalties for violations.

As I decided that a situation feared to gravely affect peoples lives and the economy has occurred I am declaring a state of emergency, Abe said.

08:00 GMT  Former Chad president temporarily released from jail

A judge in Senegal has granted Chads former President Hissene Habre two months leave from prison, where he is serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity, as the jail is being used to hold new detainees in coronavirus quarantine.

Habre was arrested in 2013 and tried by a special tribunal set up by the African Union under a deal with Senegal [File: EPA]

Habre, who ruled Chad from 1982 to 1990, was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at an African Union-backed trial in the Senegalese capital Dakar in 2016.

Read more here.

07:40 GMT  Russias daily rise in cases passes 1,000

The number of coronavirus cases in Russia rose by more than 1,000 for the first time to reach 7,497 in the past 24 hours, the countrys crisis response centre said.

The number of reported cases rose by 1,154 while deaths rose by 11 to 58, the centre said.

07:30 GMT  British PM Johnson not on ventilator, says minister

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who spent the night in intensive care with a deteriorating case of coronavirus, has been given oxygen but is not on a ventilator, a minister said.

The prime minister has received some oxygen support, senior cabinet minister Michael Gove told LBC radio, adding that he has not been on a ventilator but it was there if needed.

Read more here.

A general view of St Thomas Hospital in London where Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in intensive care after experiencing persistent symptoms of COVID-19 [Kate Green/Anadolu]

07:20 GMT  Finland extends border controls until May 13

Finlands government has extended and tightened border controls restricting travel to and from the country until May 13 in order to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Finland has followed with mounting concern neighbouring Swedens liberal pandemic strategy, fearing cross-border commuters could speed up the spread of the virus in northern parts of Finland with an ageing population and limited intensive care resources.

The governments aim is to further reduce movement in the inherent commute area across the borders with Sweden and Norway, Finlands government said in a statement.

06:45 GMT  Boris Johnson still in intensive care: Cabinet minister

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is still in intensive care but his team are working together to fight the coronavirus outbreak, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said.

As we speak, the prime minister is in intensive care, being looked after by his medical team, receiving the very, very best care from the team at St Thomas and our hopes and prayers are with him and with his family, Gove told BBC television.

Read more here.

06:30 GMT  Hundreds of animals die at Pakistan pet markets

Abandoned when Pakistans largest cities went into lockdown, hundreds of caged cats, dogs and rabbits have been found dead inside pet markets hurriedly shuttered as the coronavirus spread.

Animals still alive in the corner of Karachis sprawling Empress Market were rescued only after activists appealed to the authorities for access, AFP news agency reported.

When we got inside, the majority of them were dead, about 70 percent. Their bodies were lying on the ground, Ayesha Chundrigar, who runs ACF Animal Rescue, told AFP.

06:00 GMT  Dubai extends closure of commercial activities

Dubai, the commercial hub of the United Arab Emirates, has extended the closure of commercial activities until April 18 as part of efforts to contain coronavirus, the Dubai Economic Department said in a statement on Twitter.

During this period, sectors exempted from the lockdown will operate as usual, the statement said.

Dubai announced a two-week lockdown starting on April 4 at 8 p.m. (1600 GMT) to disinfect the emirate and contain the coronavirus.

A general view of deserted Al Ras district, famous for its gold and spice markets, after a full lockdown, following the coronavirus outbreak in Dubai, United Arab Emirates [File: Christopher Pike/Reuters]

05:55 GMT  Germanys coronavirus cases rise to 99,225

Germanys confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 3,834 in the past 24 hours to 99,225, rising again after four consecutive days of drops, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed.

The reported death toll rose by 173 to 1,607.

05:38 GMT  No change in Boris Johnsons condition: Reuters

There has been no change in Boris Johnsons condition, two sources close to him said on Tuesday, after the British prime minister was taken into intensive care following a deterioration in his coronavirus symptoms.

Johnson was given oxygen on Monday and taken to an intensive care unit at a central London hospital in what Downing Street said was a precautionary measure after his condition had worsened.





Hello. This is Saba Aziz in Doha, taking over from my colleague Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.

05:30 GMT 

I will shortly be handing over the blog to my colleagues in Doha.

Before I go a brief summary of the mornings developments:

Donald Trump and other world leaders have been showing their support for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who has COVID-19 and was moved to an intensive care unit on Monday night.

Japans prime minister Shinzo Abe is preparing to announce a state of emergency that will include Tokyo. Hes also preparing a record rescue package for the economy,

Singapore has started a partial month-long lockdown amid a sudden surge in cases, while the Philippines is extending its lockdown of Luzon for the rest of April.

China reported no new deaths from the coronavirus for the first time since it started publishing data in January.

04:50 GMT  Japan readies record economic stimulus package

Japans government is finalising its biggest-ever stimulus package worth 108 trillion yen ($990bn)  equal to 20 percent of economic output  to cushion the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the countrys economy.

The measures are expected to include cash payouts to households and small businesses as well as deferred tax payments.

More on that story here.

04:30 GMT  Singapore tables bill for safe elections during coronavirus outbreak

Singapores government has tabled a bill to ensure that if a general election were called during the COVID-19 outbreak, it could be held safely.

The city-state began a month-long partial lockdown on Tuesday to try and curb a sharp rise in coronavirus cases and does not have to go to the polls until early 2021.

However, the government, which controls nearly all the seats in parliament, has said it is not ruling out holding the ballot before the deadline.

Some opposition parties have said would be a health risk.

The Elections Department said the temporary arrangements would the ensure the safety of voters, candidates and election officials, should the next General Election (GE) take place amid the COVID-19 situation.

03:50 GMT  World leaders send support to UK Johnson in COVID-19 battle

World leaders, including US President Donald Trump, have been sending their support to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson after the 55-year-old was taken into intensive care in a London hospital.

Johnson, who won an election last December, also received good wishes from across Britains political spectrum.

More on that story here.

President @realDonaldTrump expressed America's well wishes to Prime Minister Boris Johnson for a speedy recovery. pic.twitter.com/C3AfUuuVyv  The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 6, 2020

03:30 GMT  New Zealands health minister demoted after taking family to beach

New Zealands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has demoted the countrys health minister for breaching nationwide lockdown rules but rejected his offer to resign because it could jeopardise plans to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Health Minister David Clark drove his family to the beach in the early stages of a lockdown that started in late March.

Under normal conditions, I would sack the minister of health. What he did was wrong and there are no excuses, Ardern said in Wellington.

Instead, she demoted Clark to the bottom of cabinet rankings and stripped him of his role as associate finance minister.

I expect better and so does New Zealand, she said.

Clark said in a statement that he had been an idiot.

03:05 GMT  South Koreas delivery drivers pay price for online shopping spree

Like many other people cooped up in their homes during coronavirus lockdowns, South Koreans have turned to delivery  for basic supplies, meals and other goods.

Delivery drivers like Ha Woong, already required to make super-fast deliveries, now find themselves with even more work. And this is taking a toll on their health.

But their push for better working conditions is on hold.

Kelly Kasulis has more on the story here.

02:50 GMT  Human Rights Watch urges Philippines action on prisons

Human Rights Watch is urging the Philippines to reduce the number of inmates in its jails amid concerns of a serious outbreak of the coronavirus in the worlds most overcrowded prisons.

The group said the number of prisoners stood at 215,000 as of November 2019, in a system with the capacity for 40,000 inmates.

It called on the authorities to release those detained or convicted for low-level and non-violent offences.

02:35 GMT  Philippines Duterte extends Luzon lockdown until end of April

The Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has extended the lockdown of the countrys main island of Luzon, including Manila, until the end of April.

The measures were due to come to an end next week and cover more than half the population of the Philippines. Many of Manilas poorer residents were already struggling.





02:30 GMT  Jakarta governor gets approval for restrictions

Anies Baswedan, the governor of Jakarta, has been given the Health Ministrys approval to impose strict social restrictions in the Indonesian capital, according to detik.com and other Indonesian media.

A Health Ministry official told Reuters news agency, however, that the ministry had yet to give its approval for the measures.

Menkes telah menyetujui usulan Anies Baswedan untuk menerapkan PSBB. Setelah itu, Anies bisa melakukan tindakan-tindakan pembatasan yang dirasa perlu. https://t.co/DxpHdfGnOr  detikcom (@detikcom) April 7, 2020

02:05 GMT  Japans Abe expected to announce state of emergency

Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to announce a state of emergency later on Tuesday covering Tokyo and six other prefectures.

Abes due to speak to the media at 7pm (10:00 GMT) after discussions with a panel of experts.

The government is also planning to finalise a stimulus package worth 108 trillion yen ($990 billion)  equal to 20 percent of Japans economic output.

Japan and countries overseas and facing their biggest crisis in recent years because of the coronavirus outbreak, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Tuesday.

01:20 GMT  China reports no new coronavirus deaths for first time

Chinas National Health Commission has reported no new coronavirus deaths for the first time since it started publishing figures on the virus late last year.

The milestone comes as the country prepares to lift all travel restrictions on Wuhan, the city where the virus first emerged at a seafood market late last year.

After a 76-day lockdown, #Wuhan, the hardest-hit city by #COVID19 outbreak in #China, will lift its outbound travel restrictions on Wednesday. As the city is preparing to spring back to normalcy, disinfection work in transportation hubs is currently in progress. pic.twitter.com/F3SRjgSb69  Global Times (@globaltimesnews) April 7, 2020

Latest data shows 32 new cases of coronavirus nationwide, all of them imported.

There were also 30 new asymptomatic infections bringing the national total to 1,033. About a quarter of those were also imported from overseas, the commission said.

23:30 GMT (Monday)  Save the Children launches $100m appeal

Save the Children has launched a $100m appeal  its biggest ever  to help children and their families in some of the worlds most fragile nations during the coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic is now spreading across the worlds poorest countries further crippling health systems where children are already missing out on life-saving treatment for malaria, pneumonia and malnutrition, Save the Childrens Chief Executive Inger Ashing said in a statement. It will leave many children without caregivers, out of school and in danger. We only have a matter of weeks to take swift action that will determine how many lives we can save.

Save the Children estimates about 1.5 billion children around the world are out of school, which in poorer nations could increase the risk of them being forced into work or marriage, it said.

23:45 GMT Monday  UN Security Council to hold first coronavirus talks on Thursday

The UN Security Council is expected to hold its first meeting on the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, diplomats have told AFP news agency.

Meeting confirmed for Thursday, one diplomat told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity. It was to be held behind closed doors at 3pm (19:00 GMT).

Nine of the 10 non-permanent members formally requested a meeting with a presentation by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, last week.

Last week, the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution calling for international cooperation and multilateralism in the fight against COVID-19  the first text to come out of the world body since the outbreak began.

Im Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur with Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

You can find all the updates from yesterday (April 6) here.
Bayern Munich defender David Alaba called the suggestion that a Covid-19 vaccine should be trialled first in Africa as "a kind of racism I could never imagine".

'Racist decision to start trial in Africa'

During a debate on television channel LCI last Wednesday about plans to see if a tuberculosis vaccine would be effective against coronavirus by trialling it in Europe and Australia, two French doctors sparked controversy.

Jean-Paul Mira, head of intensive care at the Cochin hospital in Paris, and Camille Locht, head of research at the Inserm health research group, suggested the method should first be tested in Africa.

Former Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba and ex-Cameroon attacker Samuel Eto'o spoke out against the comments, with Alaba joining them on social media.

Alaba tweeted: "Trying a #Covid19 [vaccine] in Africa??? Are these two guys doctors or clowns?

"This is a kind of racism I could never imagine. Disgraceful and unacceptable! We all have to stand together and work hand in hand to fight this virus."

Africa is the continent that has been least affected by the coronavirus pandemic, but the total number of cases reported has now exceeded 9,000, with 444 people dead.
Trump has aggressively touted hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus despite a lack of evidence that it works. (John Lockher / Associated Press)

Under pressure from President Trump, the Indian government Tuesday lifted a ban on the export of hydroxychloroquine, paving the way for the anti-malaria drug to be shipped to the U.S. for use against the coronavirus.

The decision came after Trump appealed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a phone call, then told a White House news conference Monday that India could face retaliation if it didnt release the drug.

"I said, 'We'd appreciate your allowing our supply to come out,'" Trump said of his call with Modi. "If he doesn't allow it to come out, that would be OK. But of course there may be retaliation. Why wouldn't there be?"

Trump has aggressively touted hydroxychloroquine as a possible game changer in the pandemic despite a lack of conclusive evidence that it works to treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The U.S. gets nearly half its supply of the drug from India.

Indias foreign affairs ministry said restrictions against the export of hydroxychloroquine and several other drugs were largely lifted after the government had ensured there were sufficient supplies to meet domestic need.

New Delhi had stopped exports just days earlier amid a global rush to stockpile the drug, which was developed nearly a century ago to battle malaria and is also used to treat autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

Hydroxychloroquine, which is already being used by doctors in the U.S. and other countries to treat the coronavirus, has sharply divided Trumps pandemic task force.

White House trade advisor Peter Navarro has championed the drug, which has been shown in limited studies in France and China to reduce some symptoms of COVID-19. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has pushed back against those claims, saying the drug has not been subjected to rigorous clinical trials.

The drug can also have severe side effects, including heart damage.

Story continues

Still, as Trump tries to show that the U.S. is turning the tide against a virus that has sickened more than 360,000 Americans  by far the most in the world  the Food and Drug Administration last week authorized the experimental use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients.

President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wave after a "Namaste Trump" event in Ahmedabad, India, Feb. 24, 2020. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

Trump has often accused India of unfair trade practices, but he enjoys a warm relationship with Modi, who threw a giant stadium rally for the president when he visited India in February.

Modis decision divided India, which is grappling with its own widening coronavirus epidemic. With nearly 5,000 Indians having tested positive for the virus despite one of the lowest rates of testing in the world, the outbreak is threatening to crush Indias overstretched healthcare system.

We should ramp up production and build our national stockpile before we start exporting, said K.M. Gopakumar, legal advisor to the Third World Network, a nonprofit think tank that focuses on the pharmaceutical industry. My concern is that, in a couple of months, when the pandemic surges in African nations, will India be able to send them drugs as well? America is not the only country depending on us.

Ashok Madan, executive director of the Indian Drug Manufacturers Assn., praised Modis decision on humanitarian grounds.

Indias giant generic drug industry was committed to being the pharmacy of the world, Madan said. We are nowhere withering from our responsibilities.

The race to secure drugs amid the pandemic has seemingly skated over regulatory problems in Indias $37-billion pharmaceutical industry.

Ipca, one of the leading producers of hydroxychloroquine, was banned from exporting products from three facilities to the U.S. in 2015 after FDA inspectors found the Indian company was manipulating raw data and test results to meet quality-control checks.

But last month the company told Indian regulators that the FDA had lifted the ban because of the growing demand for hydroxychloroquine.

Some in India also worry about a double standard in the U.S. drug market.

One of the most promising treatments for COVID-19, an antiviral drug called remdesivir, which was originally developed to fight Ebola, is made by the U.S. pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences. Last month, the FDA designated remdesivir an "orphan drug," potentially limiting its availability  a decision that sparked such a fierce backlash that it was rescinded two days later.

Countries should work together, especially at a time of crisis," Gopakumar said. "So a good question worth asking right now is, will [the] U.S. government give us remdesevir when the time comes?

Times staff writer Bengali reported from Singapore and special correspondent Krishnan from Goa, India.
Tuesday, April 7, 2020

1) Successfully Navigating the COVID-19 Crisis Requires Action Now

CLAREMONT, CA Businesses can take definitive actions today to position themselves for success in today's pandemic crisis environment and beyond, according to The Society for the Advancement of Consulting (SAC). Thirty tips from top independent consultants around the globe have been curated in the new eBook, Successfully Navigating the Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic. "The question is what can executives do now to not just navigate through the evolving crisis, but to also best position their organizations for calmer weather ahead," said Lisa Anderson, Executive Director of SAC. The eBook includes advice from top experts in such areas as organizational development, finance, supply chain, strategy, marketing, and leadership.

Linda Popky linda@popky.com

Executive Director Society for the Advancement of Consulting Claremont, CA

909-630-3943

http://www.newsreleasewire.com/229873

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2) When Covid-19 is in Your Prison

I was a prison doctor for 30 years and battled a different virus at the start of my career in 1987. It was HIV, and killed many young men before we had any drugs that worked. COVID-19 can kill more AND medical and custody staff can bring it into their homes and the community. WHICH WAY WHAT WE DO NOW MATTERS. If you have ever worked in a prison you know that 'social distancing' will not work. How do you do that when 120 men sleep in one room, share 10 toilets, one urinal and 12 showers (when they are all working, which is rare.)

Dr. Karen Gedney kgedneymd@gmail.com

Carson City, NV

775-720-8611

http://www.newsreleasewire.com/229805

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3) Free Webinar Quarantine Quickstart for Organizing Game Plan:

Barbara Hemphill Offers Post-Crisis Guide for Success & Happiness Free Webinar Quarantine Quickstart for Organizing Game Plan: Barbara Hemphill Offers Post-Crisis Guide for Success & Happiness During a recent interview on the James Lowe Radio Show, Barbara Hemphill, author of Less Clutter More Life, and founder of the Productive Environment Institute, told listeners about a timely free proposal that will allow people to take a step towards organizing their personal and professional lives during the current crisis. A series of edited radio show podcasts, seen below, revealed the main problems people have in organizing, largely emotional, and how to break through such barriers to tackle the most recalcitrant problems again and again.

Barbara Hemphill barbara@BarbaraHemphill.com

Raleigh, NC

919-349-9247

http://www.newsreleasewire.com/229772

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4) After Covid 19 - The World Will Never be the Same Again, It Will be Better

Let's put all that bad stuff aside for a few minutes and focus on some good news.  Overnight, opportunities will present themselves to those who are looking, the US economy will take off like a rocket, faster than it fell when Covid 19 became a household word. Millionaires will be made as the world finds and adjusts to doing business in new and better ways.

 Much like what happened after 911 with security, there will be almost unlimited funds available for cleaning, sanitation, and maintenance. Being a janitor, housecleaner or maid will go from being seen as a dead-end job (by some), to a profession that is in demand, important and respected, based on science and the need to maintain a safe and healthy environment in the future.

 The education system as we know It will cease to exist. Replaced by homeschooling, on-line training, and alternative learning programs that challenge, entertain and develop minds much better than butts in chairs for 12-20 years.

 Everybody who can, will work from home (at least most of the time), saving transportation costs, reducing the use of fossil fuels and clearing highways like they were in 1964, leaving office buildings empty for yet unidentified uses.

 No more cash, checks or visits to the bank or cash machine. Financial transactions will be done electronically, even our beloved credit cards will disappear as money goes online, touch-free and wireless.

 No more filling out needless forms and waiting to see the Doctor, Tele-medicine, remote testing and monitoring will speed up the process, give better results and lower costs.

 Shopping on-line will replace retail stores and shopping centers, until 3D printers make what you need, when you want it, at home, for 1/3 of the cost.

 There will be a mass exodus from major metropolitan areas as people spread out, looking for more space and once again seek a simpler, slower, safer life, out of town.

 Transportation will change, there will be far less travel. Conventions, trade shows, seminars, and workshops will be online to expand reach, reduce costs and travel. You won't go places unless there is no other way to get the job done.

 Restaurants, hotels, casinos, and amusement parks will see a substantial drop in business as consumers go local and learn to enjoy take out and dining at home.  Family, community, and faith will replace parties, drugs, fighting, and destructive anti-social behavior because it leads to a better, safer and more satisfying way to live longer.

 Research, ingenuity, passion, and compassion will find ways to end or at least manage crime, homelessness, and disease.

 Realize that it's going to take at least 30  45 days to break the chain of viral transmission if everyone applies the basic principles of safety and infection control.

Enjoy your 30-day paid vacation, just don't go anywhere. You've probably never taken 30 days off since you started working, do it now. This will give you time to clean your glasses. Chances are you'll see your life, family and situation differently after looking at yourself in the mirror for 30 days. What may shock you the most is how fast things will change. No segment of business or society will remain untouched or unimproved by the changes that will take place over the next few years. Welcome to the future! What was yesterday's norm will be gone forever as old ways are replaced by Apps, software and robotics.

Wm R. Griffin bg1@ccsml.com

Cleaning Consultant Services

Seattle, WA 206-682-9748

http://www.newsreleasewire.com/229751

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5) Coronavirus Help - Astrology Predicted Huge Disruption in 2020

The coronavirus (COVID-19) is turning life upside down, and it's tempting to give in to fear and panic. "Astrology can help you avoid those pitfalls," said Astrologer Anne. "And it can ease anxieties by helping you see the bigger picture." Astrology Predicted 'Wild Year' In 2020 Astrology predicted that 2020 would be a "wild year." "Disruption can lead to fear, but you can overcome fear and anxiety with astrology and the 'cosmic facts' about 2020," said Astrologer Anne. Get the details now in Astrologer Anne's latest article, Coronavirus Help, https://astrologeranne.com/891/coronavirus-get-the-facts-astrology-predicted-2020-disruption-covid-19/

Anne Nordhaus-Bike anne@annenordhausbike.com

AstrologerAnne.com

Chicago, IL

773-229-0024

http://www.newsreleasewire.com/229696

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6) Five Ways Marketers Can Mobilize and Find Inspiration During the Pandemic

This story, 5 Ways Marketers Can Mobilize and Find Inspiration During the Pandemic, was originally published by Adweek.

There's no other way to say it: We are facing an unprecedented international crisis in COVID-19, a pandemic that's rapidly unfolding before our eyes. The information evolves daily. The road ahead is tough to see. But one thing is clear: The hard work has just begun. Stopping the spread requires each and every one of us, with cross-sector industry support. As I continue to think about how best to help in the days, weeks and months ahead, I recognize how much I've learned as I've watched our partners show up, raise their hands and go all-in. We're all in this together, so I want to share what I've learned so far with the hope that these insights help others.

Everyone who can help wants to; they just need a job to do

A member of my team told me that her neighbor built a spreadsheet to give fellow neighbors a way to share the specific ways they could help each other, anything from "I can tutor geometry over FaceTime" to "I'm happy to pick up groceries for anyone who is unable." They also included any specific needs they might have. Everyone wanted to help, and many have unique skillsthey just needed the spreadsheet to translate goodwill into action. In less than 24 hours, it had nearly 600 contributors. This example holds true at the corporate level, too. Some CEOs are able to say, "Use our production resources." Others are able to deploy their creative teams or donate media. They just need the spreadsheet. This is the power of convening. When messaging can change overnight, do what you can today As our understanding of COVID-19 evolves so rapidly, the wait-and-see approach can be tempting. What if we create messaging that quickly becomes outdated?

During catastrophes like 9/11 or Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, our efforts were more about recovery than prevention. The COVID-19 crisis is different. The virus is spreading so quickly that there's no time to worry about the expiration date of today's message, not if it's needed today.

There's no such thing as a competitor Media, tech and digital companies are generating unbranded, platform-agnostic creative that can be used by anyone who wants it because getting out the message about social distancing, personal hygiene and mental health is the priority right now.

The uniting principle is that it's all hands on deck time. Peer pressure can be positive We can't just meet people with the right message at the right time. We have to get people to relay that message to others who trust them: in texts, on phone calls, in workplace Slack channels, on social media accounts.

Scale and speed are imperative.

The message must spread faster than the virus. This is a moment for irreversible empathy Before this pandemic, millions of people woke up not knowing how they'd put dinner on the table or how they'd pay their medical bills.

As the number of people who find themselves in this situation soars, so too does the number of people who understand at a visceral level what instability feels like.

As we move through these next weeks, it will be critical to reflect on how we can deploy what we learn not just to address the coronavirus pandemic but also to recognize severe hardship, insecurity and inequality in all forms as we rebuild.

And we will rebuild. No one can offer us certainty right now, and increased empathy doesn't pay anybody's grocery bill. But as I see the unprecedented response rise up to meet this unprecedented crisiseach time I speak with someone desperate to help in any way they canI am reminded of my hope.

The post 5 Ways Marketers Can Mobilize and Find Inspiration During the Pandemic appeared first on AdLibbing.org.

Meg Rushton MRushton@adcouncil.org

The Advertising Council

New York, NY (212) 922-1500

http://www.newsreleasewire.com/229866

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Nikhil Siddhartha recently announced that he is postponing his wedding with lady love Dr Pallavi Varma due to the Coronavirus lockdown. Nikhil and Pallavi's wedding was fixed on April 16 but now, the actor revealed that he has to postpone it because they don't have any choice.

Nikhil was quoted by Times Of India as saying, "In the current situation, I don't think it would be possible for us to get married. We have no choice but to postpone it." Nikhil announced his wedding a week after actor Nithiin, who was also set to get hitched on April 16 with his girlfriend Shalini. Sadly, he also had to postpone it.

After Telangana CM KCR's announcement to ban all public gatherings in March, Nikhil had said that nothing can stop him from getting married on April 16. However, after temples being shut due to the lockdown, Nikhil had no other option but to postpone his wedding.

Joking about the entire situation, Nikhil said, "Imagine, it took me so long to decide on getting married and when I finally did, this happens (laughs)." "We don't know how long this situation will last. Everybody is a little upset that the wedding is getting postponed, but we all understand that safety is the topmost priority right now. We are in a crisis so this is not the right time for a celebration," he added.

Also Read : Nithiin's April Wedding Called Off Due To The Coronavirus Pandemic

The Arjun Suravaram actor hopes that things will normalise soon. Speaking about the preparation, Nikhil Siddhartha said, "All the wedding shopping and other preparations are done and from our side, we're ready to take the plunge. If things get normal by next month, we'll get married in May."
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have joined the well wishes that have poured in for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he is being treated for COVID-19.

After testing positive for the coronavirus, Johnson, 55, was taken to St Thomas Hospital in Westminster on Sunday as his symptoms persisted.

On Monday evening, it was reported that he was moved to the ICU as a precautionary measure, which prompted concern for the Prime Minister and his pregnant partner Carrie Symonds, despite an update that Johnson was stable and in good spirits.

Expressing their own concern, Prince William and Kate Middleton shared a brief message of support for the Prime Minister on their Kensington Palace Instagram.

Our thoughts are with the Prime Minister and his family, who like so many in the UK and around the world are affected by coronavirus, the statement read. We wish him a speedy recovery at this difficult time, it concluded, signed with a W, indicating that William had written the message.

The Queen also sent a message to Johnson and his family.

Her Majesty said they were in her thoughts and that she wished the Prime Minister a full and speedy recovery, the Royal Familys official Twitter shared.

The Queen delivered a rare televised speech to the nation this weekend as the severity of coronavirus in the UK and worldwide escalated.

Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast

Watched by nearly 24 million people, the Queen offered her support to the nation and her thanks to those on the frontlines.

I want to thank everyone on the NHS frontline, as well as careworkers and those carrying out essential roles, who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all, she said. Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it, she continued.
The Central government is mulling extending the nationwide lockdown beyond April 14 to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic following requests from several states and experts, government sources said on Tuesday.

However, sources did not indicate if a final decision has been taken on the matter, and Joint Secretary in the Union health ministry Lav Aggarwal said, "no decision on extending lockdown as yet (taken), please don't speculate."



India is currently under the 21-day lockdown since March 25, with only essential services exempted, to contain the fast-spreading virus, which has claimed more than 75,800 lives globally and afflicted over 13.5 lakh people across 183 countries.

"A lot of state governments as well as experts are requesting the Central Government to extend the lockdown. The Central government is thinking in this direction," a source said, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked countrymen to be ready for a long battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, and exhorted people to not feel tired or defeated while expressing confidence that India will emerge victorious in the fight.

Chairing a meeting of the council of ministers through video conferencing on Monday, Modi had clearly indicated that the lifting of the lockdown in one go is very unlikely while discussing the modalities of lifting it.

The Prime Minister also asked the ministers whether the restrictions should be lifted sector-wise or district-wise, a source said.

Reiterating that lockdown measures and social distancing norms need to go hand in hand, Modi also told ministers to popularize Aarogya Setu app in the rural areas and grass root institutions.

Several chief ministers have favoured the extension of the lockdown in the country to contain the fast-spreading virus, as the number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 4,421 and death toll touched 117.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said his government will extend lockdown if need arises, while his counterpart in Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot said the state cannot withdraw the lockdown immediately, and it has to be done in a phased manner.

In a statement to mark two weeks of lockdown, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said the next one week of the lockdown is "critical" for evolving an exit strategy as the data regarding the spread of coronavirus will have a bearing on the decision to be taken by the government.

He also appealed to the public to abide with whatever decision is ultimately taken by the government and cooperate with the same spirit that has been evident so far, "even if it meant to continue with some degree of hardship beyond April 14".

On Monday, Telangana chief ministerK Chandrashekhar Rao had said he will appeal to Prime Minister Modi to extend the lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus in the country.

Also Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary R K Tiwari said,"there is still time for the lockdown and we will review the situation and then decide" on lifting it.

Since there is no vaccine to fight COVID-19, the government has stressed that social distancing is the only way to check the spread of the virus. Lockdown is considered the best way to keep people indoors.

Inter-state travel by public transport, including trains and buses, is banned, and so is domestic and international air travel.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Health/Science

Iranian official backtracks after calling Chinese Covid-19 figures a joke Guardian. Bill B: Of course hes right. But you got to give him credit, doing something like this in Iran takes guts.

UK

Boris Johnson moved to intensive care as condition worsens Financial Times. Looks like his karma caught up with him quickly on this one. He got sicker quickly, which is the pattern when the infected develop viral pneumonia. From the article:

Mr Johnsons allies said the prime minister remains conscious at this time and that his move to the ICU was a precaution in case he should need ventilation. The NHS website explains that intensive care units are for those who are seriously ill or recovering from surgery. It adds: Most people in an ICU have problems with one or more organs. For example, they may be unable to breathe on their own.

As most of you know, the success rate with ventilators is not high. An overnight update:

U.K. officials say Boris Johnson was receiving oxygen treatment at St Thomas Hospital in London to help his breathing, but was conscious and not on a ventilator https://t.co/gFvSawRVvO  Bloomberg Politics (@bpolitics) April 7, 2020

Full-scale emergency: what the papers say about Boris Johnsons move to intensive care https://t.co/IDQ5ELGXtC  Guardian news (@guardiannews) April 7, 2020

Boris Johnson is in ICU. Heres what happens if he becomes too ill to remain prime minister Business Insider

Britain could be worst coronavirus-hit nation in Europe with 66,000 deaths in the first wave of the outbreak  three times as many as expected in Italy Daily Mail

British 5G towers are being set on fire because of coronavirus conspiracy theories The Verge (Kevin W)

UK Government Encourages Social Distancing With In-Game Health Messages CNET

Coronavirus: Sophie Raworths deserted London BBC. From a few days back, but a memorable photo essay.
On Sunday, Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, announced the company has delivered 20 million masks, and is "working with suppliers to design, produce, and ship face shields for medical workers." Through a spokesperson, Apple says it will deliver 1 million face shields by the end of this week, and it has already made its first delivery this past week to Kaiser medical facilities in the Santa Clara Valley.

That means Apple's latest product launch is one that most of us will never buy or need--and that's a good thing. In fact, they aren't for sale. Apple is donating them.

Apple is dedicated to supporting the worldwide response to COVID-19. We've now sourced over 20M masks through our supply chain. Our design, engineering, operations and packaging teams are also working with suppliers to design, produce and ship face shields for medical workers. pic.twitter.com/3xRqNgMThX -- Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 5, 2020

In addition, Cook revealed the number of masks donated from Apple's supply chain has now reached 20 million. These are the N95 respirator masks that filter out most airborne particles, including the virus that causes Covid-19.

At a time when masks and shields and other forms of personal protective equipment (PPE) are in high demand and hard to come by, efforts like Apple's make a real difference. Face shields are an especially important piece of PPE for doctors and nurses who are on the frontlines of treating patients with highly infectious diseases.

In an email, the company said it's working with hospitals and government officials to deliver the shields where they're needed most. Apple has one of the largest and most advanced manufacturing supply chains of any company, meaning it's in a unique position to produce and deliver supplies quickly. Its size and scope give it the ability to source materials, aid in design, and increase production capabilities.

Here's the thing: This is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect from a company like Apple. Not because it's cool, or because it makes a lot of money. But because it can. Apple is in a position to help those who need it.

Most of the time, Apple focuses its resources and efforts on building products for its customers. The company is constantly working on the next generation of iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and Macs. It designs new software and invents new features--often delivering them in ways we hadn't expected.

But now, with all of its stores outside of mainland China closed "until further notice," the company has another mission--helping our healthcare workers fight a battle on everyone's behalf. What these frontline medical workers need more than anything isn't a new iPhone. It's a fighting chance. That's exactly what a mask gives them. It's why face shields are important.
3 hour Slow TV special The Chocolate Factory: Inside Cadbury Australia premieres this Saturday on SBS.

Im not sure if the idea of watching pouring chocolate is going to be as mesmerizing as the landscapes seen on previous Slow TV outings.

But Im assured it also includes drone shots in Mackay of the cane fields and the entire journey of the chocolate from the sugarcane fields of Queensland to the dairy farms in Tasmania, before heading to the factories.

Ironically it will screen against Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory on Seven and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory on Nine.

In an Australian television first, this fourth iteration of Slow TV takes viewers from the sugarcane fields of Queensland to a dairy farm in Tasmania before revealing the slow journey of millions of Easter eggs and bunnies inside the Cadbury factories in Hobart and Melbourne.

Like its predecessors, this three-hour visual feast will highlight Australias multicultural and Indigenous history with fascinating stories from our past.

Indulge your tastebuds and marvel at the creation of the iconic Easter Egg and Chocolate Bunny, the two best-selling chocolate products in Australia during Easter. In 2020 alone, Cadbury will produce 477 million Easter Eggs and 14 million Chocolate Bunnies, which requires 6,014 tonnes of cocoa, 87 million litres of milk and 54 million kilograms of sugar.

The epic journey begins with two of the core ingredients in chocolate  sugar harvested from the fields of north Queensland and milk from a dairy farm in northwest Tasmania. Then its inside the chocolate factory where they are mixed with the third core ingredient  cocoa, imported from Ghana.

Revel in the Willy Wonka-inspired haven of Cadburys chocolate factories as the ingredients are slowly transformed into Easter eggs and bunnies in a hypnotic rhythm of melting, rolling, drying, shaping and wrapping before going to market. Sprinkled throughout this visual delight will be enthralling chocolate facts set to a rousing original score by Amanda Brown and Caitlin Yeo.

An innovative style of television which invites the viewer on an immersive journey, Slow TV first originated in Europe. SBS introduced local audiences to the genre in 2018 with The Ghan  Australias Greatest Train Journey. Despite some critics labelling it the most boring thing on television and a train to nowhere, it was an SBS ratings hit with 1.75 million viewers* (Combined Metro + Regional).

7:30pm Saturday April 11 on SBS.
Florida state employees working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic will be eligible to receive workers compensation coverage under a recent directive from CFO Jimmy Patronis.

In a March 30 order, Patronis directed the Division of Risk Management to provide workers compensation coverage for state officials whose responsibilities require them to interface with individuals who are potentially infected with the coronavirus.

Under the CFOs directive, state agencies can choose to opt-out of coverage. As of the date of the order, the Division of Risk Management had received 36 claims for COVID-19. Additionally, the Florida League of Cities said the Florida Municipal Insurance Trust will cover first responders COVID-19 claims. While the severity and duration of recovery for COVID-19 varies with each patient, generally individuals recover after two weeks.

The Florida Department of Financial Services said the order was necessary because current statute doesnt speak to global pandemics, and it would be an uphill battle for public officials to get covered.

These folks provide essential state services to protect Florida communities, DFS told Insurance Journal in an e-mail.

The benefits will include coverage for a portion of lost wages, medical costs, death and disability benefits.

DFS said Patronis is continuing to evaluate this public health crisis and will continue to work with state leaders, bankers, insurers, and private companies to protect Floridians.

Claims will be administered through the DFS Division of Risk Management and the Bureau of State Employee Workers Compensation Claims.

If were going to ask our public servants to fight this pandemic on our behalf, they have to know weve got their backs if they get sick. COVID-19 is taking some of our public servants off their feet for weeks. Workers compensation insurance was developed to provide our public servants a way to cover a portion of their lost wages and medical costs, so their families dont have to worry as much, Patronis said. Providing this important coverage to our men and women on the front line is just the right thing to do.

Topics COVID-19 Florida Workers' Compensation
"(The man) indicated he did his normal routine on Monday, March 16, which included playing pickleball and then going to lunch with a number of the other pickleballers and then doing other errands around the community. He had no symptoms; he was not aware of any problems."

Ploehn said on the evening of March 16, the man became ill. The next morning, he called his doctor and was tested for coronavirus. At that time, the man isolated himself in his home. The test result came back positive March 21.

"He had been doing normal, routine activities the week prior, including going to St. Patrick's Day celebrations, and was active in the community," Ploehn said in the video. "He had no idea he was carrying the virus or when he could have been infected."

Ploehn asked residents to take the pandemic seriously.

"We can't see it, we can't touch it, we don't know what it looks like. You have to remain very vigilant that you are keeping your physical distance, that you are not in gatherings, that you're not going to places where people are. Let's stay away from each other right now."

He said the fitness center, library and family museum were immediately closed and being thoroughly cleaned.
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has urged chief minister Mamata Banerjee, her council of ministers and the members of legislative assembly (MLAs) to take a pay cut for a year to help the Central governments bid to tackle the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.

APPEAL MLAs and Ministers in WEST BENGAL @MamataOfficial to take 30% pay cut for a year to boost govts Covid-19 efforts, Dhankhar tweeted early in the morning on Tuesday.

He also highlighted the fact that President Ram Nath Kovind, governors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his council of ministers have already taken a pay cut. PM, MPs, Union Ministers @narendramodi take 30% pay cut for a year to Covid-19 efforts. President, VP, and Governors also take 30% pay cut for a year, he tweeted.

On March 31, Banerjee had, however, tweeted that she doesnt take any salary as the Bengal CM or as a lawmaker.

I do not take any salary as an MLA or a Chief Minister and I have also foregone my MP Pension despite being a seven-time Member of Parliament. I come from limited means. My primary source of income is from my creative pursuits, the royalties I generate from my music and books, Banerjee tweeted last week.

On April 2, the Bengal government had announced austerity measures under which no new scheme will be taken up and all construction works will stop except urgent repairs and maintenance for which approval has to be taken from the finance department. The drive has been initiated because of the massive unexpected expenditure to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak across the cash-strapped state.

Dhankhar, whose acrimonious relation with the state government has been in news for months, had earlier contributed Rs 10 lakh to the chief ministers emergency relief fund and Rs 5 lakh to the Prime Ministers relief fund.

Banerjee has also donated Rs 5 lakh each to the Prime Ministers National Relief Fund and the state Emergency Relief Fund to help combat the spread of Covid-19.
ALBANY  The state budget approved last week includes several policies supporting women, including the elimination of the so-called "pink tax" and the legalization of gestational surrogacy, but it left out legislation to close a loophole in state law that makes it harder to prosecute sexual assaults.

The final spending package, which annually includes policy items unrelated to the state's financial health, outlawed gender-based pricing discrimination, while also promoting legislation that would support families, and, in turn, women, legislators said. But lawmakers could not agree on a bill that would have ensured that attorneys can fully pursue cases alleged rapists or sexual offenders who commit crimes while the victim is voluntarily intoxicated.

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who helped lead the state's anti-"pink tax" campaign in February, said the legislation's passage "was an important statement of our priorities." The phenomenon refers to the extra amount that women are often charged for goods, like razors, shampoo, dry cleaning and health products, solely because they are the target consumer base.

Under the law, the attorney general can file a complaint against a company that appears to upcharge women's products, and the business would then have five days to explain the discrepancy. Similar products can be priced differently if the cost or time of manufacturing the item varies, but if a company does not provide such a reason, civil fines can reach up to $500 per violation. The legislation, Hochul said, "has a lot of teeth."

She also highlighted the paid sick leave policies included in the budget, which she said may benefit women more than their male counterparts. About two-thirds of minimum wage jobs are held by women, she said, who then may also be the primary caretakers of children.

The legislation provides employees with five days of paid sick leave at workplaces with five to 99 employees and seven days of paid leave at places with more than 99 employees. Employers with fewer than four employees are expected to provide five days of unpaid leave.

"Theyre sick but they have no sick days," Hochul said. "Thats a scary spectacle, to consider that someone has to go to work or else their family doesnt eat."

The budget package authorizes paid gestational surrogacy, allowing gay couples and those with fertility issues to pay a person to carry their child. The legislation details the responsibilities of the intended parents, while also including protections for women who carry the children in a section of the bill labeled the "Surrogates' bill of rights."

I had fertility issues when I attempted to get pregnant with my second child, so I am well aware of the pain and suffering that is attached to wanting a child, Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Westchester County and a sponsor of the legislation, said in a release. This law will allow families to avoid much of that pain by giving them the opportunity to have a family in New York and not travel around the country, incurring exorbitant costs simply because they want to be parents.

Meanwhile, a measure fell out that would have tightened the penal law to clarify that a person cannot consent to sexual activity if they are voluntarily intoxicated. Currently, the law mandates that someone cannot give consent if they are "mentally incapacitated," defined only as being involuntarily intoxicated. The gap makes it harder to prosecute cases in which a victim purposefully drank alcohol or took drugs.

Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, D-Bronx, a sponsor of the rape intoxication loophole legislation, said she was not told why the matter was ultimately taken out of the budget. The budget is negotiated annually by leaders from the Senate, Assembly and the governor's office; the loophole legislation was taken off the table by the Assembly, her office said.

"It is abhorrent when someone uses alcohol to take advantage of another person," Assembly Majority spokesman Michael Whyland said in an email. "We were not able to come to a resolution to this very sensitive and serious issue."

In the meantime, both the Senate and the governor's office are pushing forward on the legislation, hoping to take up the matter at a later date.

"Because of the urgency of it ... my priority is this bill," Biaggi said, adding that the Legislature should reconvene through remote means before the formal session calendar ends on June 2.
Forrmer Lagos governorship aspirant, Babatunde Gbadamosi, has reportedly been released by the police after he was taken into custody.

The former governorship candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) was arrested by the Lagos Police Command for attending actress, Funke Akindele-Bellos house party at her residence on Saturday.

Information Nigeria recalls the actress and her husband, Abdulrasheed Bello got arraigned and sentenced to 14-days community service and a fine of N100,000 on Monday.

Read Also: Court Sentences Funke Akindele, Husband To 14 Days Community Service

Gbadamosi, who was amongst those that attended the party despite the governments ban on social gatherings, took to social media to apologize for his misleading action.
Mumbai/Nagpur, April 7 : It was a momentous Tuesday for Nagpur man Khushroo Poacha when Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray called him up and took an overview of his charitable activities, done without donation of a single rupee.

"I was shocked and awed when the Chief Minister himself called and asked for details of my small work. I never expected that my humble efforts would attract attention at such a level," said Poacha, his voice quivering with excitement.

The development came hours after IANS (on April 5) highlighted the story of Poacha, a Superintendent with Central Railway's Commercial Department in Nagpur, who has single-handedly collected Rs 4 million food and aid in the Covid-19 pandemic season.

When industrialists, corporate houses, celebs, businessmen and the wealthy are jostling to donate staggering sums of money, Poacha proved that he also 'cares' - without an NGO, donations or a fat bank account.

"Thackeray Saab sounded quite puzzled how I managed all this without financial aid, but expressed his happiness that a citizen from Maharashtra was doing it. I felt honoured when he not only offered all help from the government, but suggested I should assist the administration's ongoing efforts," Poacha told IANS.

The Nagpur-based Parsi with a charitable soul hit upon the strategy to feed thousands using his goodwill, personal and professional contacts through social media, collecting food and aid from the kind around the world for the needy and poor in India.

During the coronavirus pandemic, he single-handedly collected food and aid that has benefited over 6,000 families, and also two tonnes of rice to feed more than 60,000 poor.

Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavlamban Mission president Kishore Tiwari was all praises for Poacha who immediately responded to his SOS on April 5 by despatching a truckload of dry-food rations for nearly 550 farmers' widows and their families for the next 10 days.

For the ongoing pandemic relief work, Poacha deploys help requests through a series of WhatsApp groups, and his websites, www.sevakitchen.org and www.indianblooddonors.com and apps, which in turn are supported by www.donatekart.com that assists him to source all his needs.

"Requests go through www.donatekart.com and donors make their contributions, which are routed to my supplier from where I pick up the stuff required. There is no monetary involvement at any stage," he explained.

"We have set up 21 Seva Kitchens in India, mostly at cancer or children's hospitals or schools where people can get good, nutritious food absolutely free. Besides, we have installed 'Neki Ka Pitara' (Fridge of Kindness) at these locations for the poor and needy," Poacha said.

The Seva Kitchens, each serving around 3,000 meals a day, and 'Neki Ka Pitara' are functional in Nagpur (9), Hyderabad (4), one each in Bengaluru, Palwal (Haryana), Sawantwadi, Thane, Navi Mumbai (all in Maharashtra).

He mentions with pride a Seva Kitchen in Guldasta School, Sarita Vihar of New Delhi, manned by an '80-year-young' sprightly Vimla Kaul.

"My volunteers, a dedicated band of around 1,000, maintain an uninterrupted flow of supplies to the needy, irrespective of the region, caste or religion," he said.

"Most importantly, it remains anonymous both ways - we don't know who is a beneficiary and they don't know about the benevolent," said Poacha, who roughed it out in life from 16 years of age when he lost his father, but became the family breadwinner by joining Indian Railways.

Poacha, 52, who lives with wife Fermin and their 7-year daughter Tunisha, is linked with major social groups and organisations, like the Sant Nirankari Seva Dal, "who silently work, without bothering about any publicity or photo-ops" to help the needy.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)
Dont go to work. Dont see your friends. Dont visit your grandmother in the nursing home. Dont bring food to your sister who works at a hospital. Dont hold your wifes hand while she gives birth. Dont play together. Dont pray together. Dont hug.

Of the many cruelties of the coronavirus pandemic, this is one of the hardest to accept: In a time when all we want is to be close to the people we care about, closeness is the one thing we cant have.

Six feet has never felt farther away.

Psychologists are worried about the long-term effects of our new, socially distant reality. Decades of research has shown that loneliness and isolation are associated with high blood pressure, chronic inflammation, weakened immune systems and a host of other health issues.

Recommended The loneliness of the coronavirus lockdown is insidious

But there is also hope in the data. Studies have revealed that human connection  something as simple as getting an offer of help from a stranger or looking at a picture of someone you love  can ease pain and reduce physical symptoms of stress. People who feel supported by their social networks are more likely to live longer. One experiment even found that people with many social ties are less susceptible to the common cold.

For everyone quarantined in solitude, aching and afraid for far-flung family and friends, this science can provide some solace. A supportive phone call, an empathetic ear, an expression of love  these things can bolster the immune system on a molecular level. Whether you are the recipient or the giver, kindness is good for your health.

Helen Walters chats to her mother Gillian using video calling, as people find alternative ways to celebrate Mothers Day (PA)

There are powerful protective effects that we shouldnt ignore, says Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University. And the extent to which we cannot only be open to receiving support from others ... but be a source of support to them, can potentially help us all get through this.

Without a vaccine or an antiviral that can work against covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, social distancing is one of the most powerful tools to combat it. Reducing interactions between infected and healthy people slows the spread of the virus, buying hospitals and public health officials time to treat the influx of sick people.

But a global pandemic is a tough time to be alone.

Apparently our bodies think they dont need to worry about viruses when were not around other people

Humans are a social species, says Naomi Eisenberger, a neuroscientist at the University of California at Los Angeles. Our brains and bodies have evolved to count on the closeness of others. Surrounded by family and friends, we feel safe from predators and secure that we will be cared for if were hurt.

But when we are on our own, or even when we just feel friendless, our bodies gear up for danger. Our nervous systems produce norepinephrine, a hormone associated with the fight or flight response. Inflammation  the way the immune system heals wounds and fights off bacterial infections  goes into overdrive. (Ironically, our anti-viral response is suppressed when were lonely. Apparently our bodies think they dont need to worry about viruses when were not around other people.)

That response may have been adaptive for our distant ancestors, who needed it to avoid death by sabre-toothed cat. But modern humans face more abstract threats, ones we cannot easily fight or flee. Loneliness leaves people in a state of constant, unhealthy unease  their blood pressure elevated, blood sugar levels high. If this state persists for too long, it can contribute to chronic health conditions such as diabetes, atherosclerosis and heart disease.

People applaud from flats in London during the Clap for our Carers campaign in support of the NHS (Reuters)

In a survey of 70 studies involving more than 1 million people from around the world, Holt-Lunstad found that people who lived alone were 32 per cent more likely to die over a given period. People who reported feeling lonely were 26 per cent more likely to die, and people who experienced social isolation  defined as few or infrequent contacts with other people  were 29 per cent more likely to die. Even when the researchers adjusted for age, outside health conditions, nationality, gender, smoking habits and a host of other traits, this trend persisted.

In a separate analysis of 148 studies involving more than 300,000 people, Holt-Lunstad found that people who were more socially connected were 50 per cent less likely to die over a given period. The correlation was even stronger than the one revealed by the isolation studies.

Alienation may hurt us, but kinship is a still more powerful balm.

One of the most important things kindness can do is ease our reaction to stress. In one experiment at Bert N Uchinos lab at the University of Utah, dozens of undergraduate students were brought into an empty room, seated in a chair and told they had been accused of shoplifting. They had three minutes to formulate their responses.

Simply thinking about a supportive person can activate a part of the brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which is associated with overcoming fear

Their hearts began to race. Their blood pressure spiked. Stress hormones flooded their systems.

But in some instances, before leaving the room, the experimenter would tell the student: If you need me for any reason or if you have any questions, dont hesitate to ask me. I appreciate your participation in this experiment, and Id like to be helpful to you should you need any help.

In those cases, the students hearts didnt beat quite so fast. Their stress responses were much less extreme.

This data suggest that simply having potential access to support is sufficient to foster adaptation to stress, Uchino and his colleagues wrote.

Des Kay (right), the founder of Kingston-based charity Save the World Club, and volunteer Paul Cockle collect surplus food from Aldi in southwest London (PA)

Other research shows that looking at a picture of a loved one can make pain feel less intense. When people with strong support networks are asked to do complex mental math, their blood pressure stays lower and there is less of a stress-related chemical in their saliva. Simply thinking about a supportive person can activate a part of the brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which is associated with overcoming fear.

Scientists call this the buffering effect. The sense of security that people get from their friends and family allows them to meet stressful situations with a calmer physiology, Eisenberger says.

This, in turn, can lead to a stronger immune system. Many of the hormones involved in stress  cortisol, which stimulates the production of sugar; epinephrine and norepinephrine, which increase heart rate and elevate blood pressure  hinder immune cells ability to function.

This may be a consequence of how stress evolved, according to Uchino. The idea is that anxiety and stress co-opted the immune system to deal with threats that are external, he says.

Its hard to prove an evolutionary theory, but the implications are undeniable: Anything that psychologically affects us also affects our immune system, Uchino says.

Lara Atella (right) and Mariam Sufi (left) begin a webcam yoga class at Hot Yoga Capitol Hill in northeast Washington (AP)

For a long time, immunologists and social scientists didnt really talk to each other, he adds, And now we have to.

All of the researchers expressed concern about the effect of a period of prolonged isolation on people around the globe. What will the mental health impact be on people with few social ties? How will people in unhappy or abusive relationships fare when forced to stay at home? Will avoiding people and mistrusting strangers become a habit that persists once the pandemic is over, affecting our interactions for years to come?

Were living a very different and worrisome time, Uchino says. Not just at the biomedical level but at the psychosocial level as well.

This makes it all the more important for people to maintain their ties to one another, Holt-Lunstad says. Call and text and talk over web video. Wave to neighbours. Sing from the balcony like an Italian tenor.

And do something kind for someone else, researchers say. Studies have shown that prosocial behaviour, such as volunteering, curbs physical symptoms of stress. Remember that the coronavirus quarantine is a collective act of altruism  a sacrifice for the health of strangers as well as loved ones.

We shouldnt even think of what were doing as social distancing, Holt-Lunstad says. She prefers the term physical distancing. Its a reminder that the virus may have forced us apart, she says, but it doesnt have to make us alone.

 The Washington Post
(Newser)  On Friday, the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt gave its fired captain an emotional sendoff, cheering and chanting his name as walked off the ship in Guam. On Monday, the Roosevelt hosted an event that was less of a feel-good moment. Thomas Modly, the acting Navy secretary who removed Capt. Brett Crozier last week, addressed the crew over a loudspeaker, the Wall Street Journal reports. Modly gave the crew an earful. He defended his decision to relieve Crozier, who had written a letter to his bosses asking for help with a coronavirus outbreak on the shipand then distributed itwhile blasting him. "If he didnt think, in my opinion, that this information wasnt going to get out into the public, in this information age we live in," Modly told the crew, "then he was either too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this."

story continues below

The speech was filled with profanity and included shots at Crozier's integrity. A crew member described it as "whiny, upset, irritated, condescending," per the New York Times. Sailors have to "keep their shit together and take care of each other," Modly told them. He called Crozier's actions a "betrayal" and referred to his attempt to be a "martyr." Crozier has tested positive for the coronavirus. Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, criticized Modly's words, saying, "These dedicated sailors deserve better from their leadership." In a statement later to the Times, Modly said that he hadn't listened to the recording of his speech, but that "the spoken words were from the heart." He added, "I stand by every word I said, even, regrettably any profanity that may have been used for emphasis." (Read more coronavirus stories.)
The international medical humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said it is supporting the Bihar government by providing crucially needed personal protective equipment for frontline healthcare workers in fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

The list of equipment includes N-95 masks, eye/face protection, gloves and high quality body protection. In addition, viral transport mediums used in the testing of COVID-19 patients are being provided, MSF said in a statement.

The total value of the donation is valued at over Rs 1.1 crore, it added.

The equipment will be used by medical staff at Nalanda Medical College and Hospital, and other facilities in Bihar to ensure their safety, the MSF said.

"It is critical to reinforce and protect healthcare personnel who are the first line of response against the disease. Responding to epidemics and assisting vulnerable populations in crises is something the MSF has done over many decades globally," Doctors Without Borders, India Country Director Prince Mathew said.

In the next few weeks, the MSF will also potentially support the Bihar state health authorities in the direct management of patients through facility decongestion preparedness, he added.

"Across the world, MSF has witnessed that shortages of personal protective equipment are commonplace, leaving healthcare workers on the frontline exposed. This can severely hamper the ability and capacity of any healthcare system to save lives," the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hong Kong: Officials' pay adjustments explained

The remuneration of the Chief Executive and politically-appointed officials of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has all along been adjusted according to the established mechanism.

The Hong Kong SAR Government said the mechanism is in accordance with the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Remuneration Package & Post-office Arrangements for the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR.

It is also in accordance with the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Remuneration for Members of the Executive Council & the Legislature, & Officials under the Political Appointment System of the Hong Kong SAR in 2005 and 2016.

The Legislative Council Finance Committee approved in 2017 the proposed annual adjustment mechanism for the cash remuneration for politically-appointed officials in accordance with the change in the average annual Consumer Price Index (C) with effect from July 1, 2018, the Government said.

Additionally, it approved in 2005 the pegging of the remuneration for the Chief Executive at 112.5% of that for the Chief Secretary with effect from July 1, 2007.

The latest adjustment to the remuneration of the Chief Executive was on July 1, 2019 which was made according to the change in the Consumer Price Index (C), it said, adding the relevant expenditure is reflected in the estimated expenditure for the salaries in 2020-21.

To show that the governing team is fighting the disease and riding out difficult times with the public, the Chief Executive and all politically-appointed officials announced in February that they would donate one month's salary to the Community Chest for charity purposes.

This story has been published on: 2020-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
CHIPPEWA COUNTY, MI  Another regional health department is urging individuals to limit travel to the Upper Peninsula amid the outbreak of COVID-19 in the state.

One day after the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department warned residents about an influx of people from densely populated areas of Michigan where the virus is spreading rapidly, the Chippewa County Health Department issued a similar advisory for the eastern part of the U.P.

Chippewa County is home to Sault Ste. Marie and is one of the U.P.s most populated counties.

While the Upper Peninsula does not have the high number of positive cases found in other areas, the virus is here  even in counties without a confirmed positive case, the advisory reads.

Everyone should assume that the virus is in your community. Please remember that even if you have no symptoms, you may still have the virus.

Western UP sees influx of people coming from areas of high coronavirus spread

Chippewa County health officials are also reminding would-be travelers that resources in the Upper Peninsula are limited. War Memorial Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie is the only hospital in the Eastern U.P. with intensive care beds.

During normal operations, the hospital has six ICU beds and while the hospital has increased its capacity by 50 percent, space is still limited compared to hospitals in the Lower Peninsula. Rural areas in the U.P. may also make it harder for help to arrive quickly in an emergency.

We must all be responsible in carefully following the governors orders, practicing social distancing, limiting trips to the stores and wearing a mask when you are unable to social distance appropriately, the advisory continued.

By following these steps, we will help keep ourselves, and others, healthy allowing the hospital to be available for the very sick.

Anyone who must travel to the Upper Peninsula should come well stocked and remain in quarantine for at least 14 days.
The Virginia Creeper Trail is the latest outdoor recreation opportunity in Southwest Virginia to be declared off-limits to the public.

The U.S. Forest Service and the towns of Abingdon and Damascus, through which the 34-mile trail passes, announced the temporary closure effective 5 p.m. Monday in an effort to help curb the coronavirus outbreak. It was the latest shutdown of trails and other outdoor sites that have grown increasingly popular in recent weeks amid the pandemic, which has left many people with time on their hands but fewer places to spend it.

Recent overcrowding along portions of the trail, concern for increasing the burden on local Emergency Medical Services and the health and safety of all trail users were the driving forces behind this decision, Matthew Crum, president of the Virginia Creeper Trail Conservancy, said in a news release Monday. The decision follows local, state and federal measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Best known as a biking trail, the Virginia Creeper runs along a former railroad right of way and also is popular among hikers, runners, horseback riders and cross-country skiers. The trail runs from Abingdon to Whitetop Station in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area.

The move came as more parts of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests were shut down, and several federal agencies considered closing the entire Appalachian Trail.

The National Park Service on Sunday closed a 27-mile segment of the trail in Roanoke and Botetourt counties that includes McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs. Nearby Dragons Tooth is on Forest Service land and had been closed earlier.

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By Azernews





By Akbar Mammadov

The so-called elections organized by Armenian is Azerbaijans occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region on March 31 were strongly condemned and rejected by the international community, Azerbaijani Foreing Ministry said in the statement on April 6.

"Any election will be possible only after the withdrawal of the Armenian occupying forces, return of the expelled Azerbaijani population to their places of origin, and restoration of dialogue and cooperation between the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of the region," the statement said.

The statement also stressed that international organizations including the Non-Aligned Movement, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, European Union, NATO, Turkic Council, GUAM, European Parliament, TURKPA, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, as well as many states made statements declaring these so-called elections and their results illegal.

"Having the Non-Aligned Movement, the second largest political platform after the UN which unites 120 countries, as well as numerous other organizations and states among those rejecting this illegal act, once again clearly demonstrates that the world community rejects the aggressive policy of the Republic of Armenia and its consequences", the statement reads.

"We once again underline that elections in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan may be held only within the Constitutional framework of the Republic of Azerbaijan and full participation of the entire population of the region," the ministry stated.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Groups efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
On Monday, Northampton County government said that 10 staff members and three residents at its Upper Nazareth Township-based nursing home Gracedale had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and a fourth resident had died from complications related to the pandemic.

Early this week as well, the parent company of the private nursing facility Genesis HealthCare Lehigh Center, in Lower Macungie Township, announced 27 residents and 22 staff members tested positive and three of those residents had died.

On Tuesday, the Lehigh County government was far more vague, saying its Cedarbrook Senior Care and Rehabilitation staff and residents have been touched by COVID-19, and while they expect more cases, there doesnt seem to be a widespread outbreak. The county previously said one of its contract food services workers at the Allentown campus had tested positive.

A county spokeswoman did not immediately respond to phone and email requests for specifics about staff and resident positive tests and the number of, if any, deaths. The news release directs media questions to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which has said it wont offer specifics beyond the more general case and death figures it releases every day.

The Lehigh County Coroner Eric Minnich said he hasnt been advised of any coronavirus deaths from Cedarbrook facilities.

Cedarbrook, in March at the Allentown campus and the annex in Fountain Hill, suspended regular group activities, discontinued visitation, worked feverishly to build up supply inventories as much as possible during these unprecedented times, built a COVID-19 isolation ward and initiated staff screening protocols, Tuesdays news release said. A week ago it took the extreme step of fully isolating each of the 15 units of Cedarbrook, the news release said.

The newest step is currently being communicated to resident families.

Undoubtedly, this will be tough on our residents who have already been without regular group activities for nearly a month, the county said. However, we felt it was the right decision as we watch the Lehigh Valley become a true hotspot in the state.

As of noon Tuesday, there had been 1,146 cases in Lehigh County with 10 deaths and 774 cases in Northampton County with 14 deaths, department of health records show. The state totals were 14,559 cases and 240 deaths, records show. As of Monday, there were 674 cases tied to long-term care facilities in the state, according to a government briefing.

As a way to connect families with Cedarbrook residents, Lehigh County suggests video conferencing technology to keep up their spirits.

Cedarbrook has been very fortunate" when it comes to community support, as it has enough masks to pass out to all staff each week and N95 masks when the medical situation warrants it, the news release said.

The county looks forward to the day the pandemic is beaten and officials will be able to properly thank those who lent support, the news release said.

Lastly, we want to thank all of our brave, dedicated staff who are working so diligently during this challenging historical moment of time, the news release said.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Iran draws 1bn from sovereign wealth fund to fight virus

Iran Press TV

Monday, 06 April 2020 4:33 PM

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has approved a government request for tapping into the sovereign wealth fund to finance the current nationwide fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reports in the local media on Monday said that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had extended his appreciation to the Leader for approving the request while ordering government agencies to do the appropriations with regards to the fund.

Rouahni said in a letter addressed to the Plan and Budget Organization of Iran that the funds should be used to supply drugs and vital medical equipment needed by the Iranian health ministry, adding that purchasing those items from domestic suppliers should be a priority.

The president also ordered part of the fund to go to the social security system as the spread of the new coronavirus has caused a surge in applications for unemployment benefits across Iran.

The fund drawn from Iran's sovereign wealth fund comes on top of billions of dollars spent by the government to finance the anti-pandemic fight and to mitigate the economic impacts of the disease.

The government approved last week to pay around $5 billion in cheap loans to businesses affected by lockdown measures to contain the virus.

More than $250 million has also been provided to the Iranian health ministry and other health care providers to help them see to the patients suffering from the virus.

Iran has almost been on its own in the fight against COVID-19 as a series of harsh economic sanctions imposed by the United States has seriously hampered government's access to foreign-supplied equipment and drugs needed to contain the pandemic.

However, the country has relied on domestic industries to battle the virus with labs and hospitals using home-made testing kits, protective equipment and other vital devices like ventilators as they struggle to go through the pandemic.

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Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick, one of three officials elected to regulate the Texas oil and gas industry, is asking state officials to extend a monthly deadline for production taxes to help companies weather record low prices.

In a public letter delivered on Monday, Craddick asked Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar to extend the monthly deadline to file crude oil and natural gas production taxes for three to six months.

Under state law, production taxes are due on 25th day of the month following the production month. Crude oil prices crashed in early March going from $43 per barrel down to $20 per barrel in less than two weeks as a price between Russia and Saudi Arabia exacerbated a global supply glut and shutdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic cut demand  leaving the industry to scramble for survival.

"A delay in filings may make the difference for companies giving them time and the needed flexibility to get through this crisis," Craddick wrote.

Oil Bust: Railroad Commission to hold production cuts hearing

In response to the pandemic, the Texas Comptroller's Office recently extended deadlines for franchise tax filings for all companies. Chris Bryan, the agency's communications director, said the Comptroller's Office has been monitoring oil prices and has been speaking with various industry groups on tax issues.

Comptroller Hegar is working to assist all Texas businesses that have been impacted by this crisis, while at the same time ensuring those responding to this historic healthcare emergency have the resources they need," Bryan said. "The agency must ensure that all Texans can weather both the economic and medical challenges ahead, and the Comptrollers office will continue to focus on securing the best possible outcome for all Texans."

Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association President Ed Longanecker said the 3,000-member organization has been speaking with the Railroad Commission, Comptroller's Office and Governors Office on a wide range of issues, including taxes and regulatory reporting requirements.

"The Texas oil and natural gas industry is under an immense amount of pressure, which will have a reverberating impact on our state economy," Longanecker said.

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[April 07, 2020] Glassbox Raises $40 Million to Power the Modern Digital Experience

NEW YORK, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Glassbox, the leading analytics platform used to optimize user experiences on web and mobile applications, today announced a $40 million Series C funding round led by Brighton Park Capital. As part of the investment, Lisa Hammitt, Global VP of Data & AI at VISA and Special Advisor to Brighton Park, and Zachary Gut, a partner at Brighton Park, will join the board. Existing investors include Updata Partners, Ibex Investors, Gefen Capital and CEIIF bringing the company's total funding to $70 million. Glassbox's pioneering technology equips enterprises with a new generation of visibility over their digital platforms. Companies are able to receive a complete playback of every digital customer journey, identify vital trends and patterns to optimize the customer experience and maximize efficiency. Founded by Yaron Gueta, Hanan Blumstein and Yoav Schreiber, the company's platform is the only solution that captures data both on the server and client side, providing key consumer insights. The news comes after a record first quarter and 2019 for Glassbox, with revenue more than doubling for the third year in a row. Glassbox believes it can maintain the strong momentum this year through helping companies navigate the digital world. "Even in these extremely difficult times, digital traffic is surging nd companies are focused on how to communicate with new and existing customers digitally. Our technology helps the most sophisticated companies in the world map, protect and grow their digital assets," said Yaron Morgenstern, CEO of Glassbox. "The Glassbox platform bridges the gap between traditional APM and front-end marketing solutions with thousands of users across different departments using our technology. We are on a mission to help great companies achieve excellent digital outcomes, and our investors' confidence in us at this moment in time is inspiring."



"Glassbox stood out as the best product in an important, growing market," said Zach Gut at Brighton Capital. "The company's approach enables businesses to seamlessly enhance their capabilities and remain competitive in a rapidly evolving world defined by digitization. We are thrilled to be partnering with Glassbox's talented team and join them on their exciting journey." Glassbox will be using the funding to expand their teams globally, as well as invest in further enhancing their products. The company is already working with leading enterprises across a host of industries including many Fortune 500 companies.

About Glassbox: Glassbox empowers organizations to manage and optimize the entire digital lifecycle of their web and mobile customers. Leveraging unparalleled big data, behavioural analytics, session replay, free-text search, application monitoring, and machine learning capabilities, Glassbox enables enterprises to see not only what online and mobile customers are doing but also why they are doing it. Most importantly, Glassbox informs and facilitates action based on those insights that can lead to enhanced customer experience, improved conversion ratios, higher sales, agile IT troubleshooting, and also improved regulatory compliance and faster customer disputes resolution. Glassbox's solutions are used by medium to very large enterprises globally across a wide range of verticals. Founded in 2010, Glassbox is headquartered in London, with offices in New York and Tel Aviv. www.glassboxdigital.com Media Contact:

Joseph Moses

[email protected]

+1 929-237-1932 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/glassbox-raises-40-million-to-power-the-modern-digital-experience-301036575.html SOURCE Glassbox

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The acting US Navy secretary who fired an aircraft carrier commander for raising concerns about coronavirus spreading through his crew then called him "stupid" and "naive" in a profanity-laced speech to those sailors has resigned, the latest scandal to rock the Trump administration.

Donald Trump, the commander in chief, appeared to side with the ousted captain on Monday night, calling him a good man with stellar service record. Modly fired the commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, Captain Brett Crozier, after a letter he wrote about the virus infecting his crew leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle. As he left his ship, Mr Crovier's crew gave him a rousing send-off, prompting Mr Modly's appearence on Monday.

The president on Monday declined to comment on Mr Modly "stupid" allegation, other than saying it was a "strong statement."

But he told reporters he is hearing "good things about both men," and might have little choice but to get involved. It seems he let his feelings be known internally, and Mr Modly was gone less than 24 hours later.

Thomas Modly came under fire from many sides after his handling of the matter, with top congressional Democrats calling for his resignation.

"Sadly, Acting Secretary Modly's actions and words demonstrate his failure to prioritize the force protection of our troops," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. "He showed a serious lack of the sound judgment and strong leadership needed during this time. Acting Secretary Modly must be removed from his position or resign."

It was not long before he did just that, with the Trump White House deciding this was one fight with Democrats it did not want to start.

The White House did not immediately name a permanent nominee, which would require Senate confirmation at a time when senators are back home, riding out the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Trump, who prefers "acting" secretaries, could opt to merely name another temporary top Navy civilian leader.

Griffin Connolly contributed to this report.
Deep in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil, where rivers are the only highways, the coronavirus pandemic is sharply limiting boat traffic, leaving villages even more cut off from the world than before. Canoes, motor boats and ferries are the cars, trucks and buses of the Amazon, bringing people and goods to remote communities that can only be reached by river -- sometimes with a journey of more than a week. But because of the pandemic, authorities in Amazonas state have restricted river traffic to essential travel, seeking to stop the spread of the virus in a region that could be particularly vulnerable to it. Cargo transport is operating normally, but passenger transport is restricted to exceptional circumstances such as medical emergencies and essential services like paramedics and police, said Jerfeson Caldas, regional coordinator for national health agency Anvisa. Even those trips are bound by special rules: boats can only operate at 40 percent of their passenger capacity, and must supply water, soap and hand sanitizer. The restrictions amount to the jungle equivalent of the isolation measures now in place for around half the world's population. "Amazonas depends on rivers for more than 85 percent of the transport we survive on. Unfortunately, people here are now living a sad reality because of this crisis," said Alessandra Martins Pontes, a transportation planning expert at Amazonas Federal University. - Hammock distancing - Passengers usually make the trip on "regionals," big diesel-engine ferries that replaced the steam-powered paddle boats of the 19th century. Travelers typically sleep on hammocks they bring themselves, slung one above the other like bunk beds. But not in the time of COVID-19. The authorities have ordered all hammocks be placed a minimum of two meters (yards) apart. Amazonas is the biggest state in Brazil, a densely forested expanse of more than 1.5 million square kilometers (600,000 square miles), equal to about the size of Peru and Ecuador combined. It has registered 532 cases of the new coronavirus so far -- mostly in the state capital, Manaus -- with 19 deaths. The fear is what will happen if the virus progresses into the rainforest, particularly the indigenous communities that live there. Indigenous peoples are particularly vulnerable to imported diseases, as they have been historically isolated from germs against which much of the world has developed immunity. Remote indigenous communities have been decimated in the past by diseases including smallpox and flu. Authorities reported last week that a first indigenous woman had tested positive for the new coronavirus in Amazonas, a health worker from the Kokama ethnic group who came into contact with an infected doctor. - Natural isolation - The transport restrictions affect hundreds of families, indigenous or not, that live from fishing and gathering in stilt-house villages along the Amazon and its tributaries. "Movement is very limited now. Outsiders can't even go to the protected nature reserves" where most of those families live, said Edervan Vieira, a technical adviser to an association of farmers and fishermen in Carauari, a week's trip upriver by boat from Manaus. No COVID-19 cases have been reported here yet. But he says he worries about the economic effects of the transport restrictions on families that depend on sales of their surplus produce to buy whatever they cannot make locally. "We have what we need to survive here: fruit, fish, cassava flour," said Maria Cunha, 26, who lives in the protected nature reserve of Medio Jurua. "But living in the forest also brings its challenges.... What worries us is if we have to go to the city for an emergency, because that's when we would risk bringing the virus back home." Authorities in Amazonas state in northern Brazil have restricted river traffic to essential travel, seeking to stop the spread of the coronavirus in a region that could be particularly vulnerable to it The transport restrictions in Brazil's Amazonas state affect hundreds of families, indigenous or not, that live from fishing and gathering along the Amazon and its tributaries There are fears of what will happen if the coronavirus progresses into the Amazon rainforest where vulnerable indigenous communities live
Nollywood actor and comedian, Uche Maduagwu has sent out a word to the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

The actor, in his post, pointed out that the government should apply the same speed used in arresting, Funke Akindele, in helping Lagosians during the lockdown.

Mr Maduagwu went further to say that Lagosians will forever be grateful if the governor could achieve that.

READ ALSO  There Would Be Lot Of Breakups, Separations After Coronavirus  Uche Maduagwu

Sharing on Instagram, the actor wrote in part: Dear Governor Babajide Sanwoolu, Lagosians will be forever thankful if you apply the speed the Nigerian Police used to arrest Funke Akindele into distributing food materials and stipend to them during this covid19 lockdown in Lagos.

See His Post Here:
Several Oregon officials have been sued by prison inmates, who allege the Department of Corrections has not done enough to prevent an outbreak of coronavirus at Oregon prisons.

The class action suit names seven defendants, including Gov. Kate Brown, Department of Corrections Director Colette Peters and several other top prisons officials. The federal suit does not seek any money, but asks prison administrators to provide adequate medical care, access to cleaning supplies and testing for those who may have been exposed. The plaintiffs also want a judge to order prisons to allow six feet between prisoners and to release inmates if prisons are too full to comply with social distancing guidelines.

The seven inmates identified in the lawsuit represent four different prisons: Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem, Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Salem and Columbia River Correctional Institution in Portland.

The suit noted the steps that corrections officials have taken prevent the spread of the virus, such as suspending outside visits. But it alleges the measures fall short of recommendations from prison healthcare and epidemiology experts.

The Department of Corrections announced that its first employee had tested positive on April 1. An inmate at a different facility was reported to have tested positive the following day.

CORONAVIRUS IN OREGON: THE LATEST NEWS

The employee who tested positive worked in the A Block of the Oregon State Penitentiary, according to the lawsuit. The employee stopped working March 13 after showing symptoms of coronavirus. After the employees positive test results came back, the prison officials locked down the A Block, where inmates may have been exposed to the infected employee.

But the lawsuit alleges officials failed to tell inmates or take preventative actions after the worker first showed symptoms.

Several inmates from Oregon State Penitentiarys A Block were transferred on April 1 to Columbia River Correctional Institution, the lawsuit said. But despite federal guidelines, those inmates were not quarantined.

The plaintiffs range in ages from 35 to 76, and all have pre-existing health conditions that make them especially vulnerable to coronavirus, including chronic respiratory issues or chronic kidney disease, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs allege that they have no way to self-impose the recommended six-foot social distancing guidelines in any of their living spaces at the prison. The suit also pointed to the close contact prisoners have with each other in shared living areas, dining halls and bathrooms.

The poorer health of prisoners may be due in part to the conditions inherent to living in correctional facilities, such as overcrowding, isolation, exposure to communicable diseases, inadequate ventilation, poor nutrition and restricted physical activity, the lawsuit said.

One plaintiff, who is assigned to the hazard clean-up crew, has to clean up vomit, blood and other bodily fluids. The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiff was given a cleaning solution called Waxie Solsta 710, which is not an EPA-registered disinfectant effective against coronavirus.

The suit said Oregon correctional facilities and hospitals are not equipped to handle a prison outbreak and rely heavily on outside hospitals to treat patients, yet those facilities may not have the capacity to take in prison patients during the coronavirus outbreak.

However, a new forecast of the states coronavirus caseload concluded Monday that COVID-19 hospitalizations likely will not exceed capacity.

Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR

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Bethel Church shifts to online healing rooms, now majority of calls related to stress from coronavirus

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In a move promoted as faith-filled and wise, Bethel Church, the Redding, California, megachurch of over 11,500 people which also runs a school of supernatural ministry, has shifted their popular healing rooms to online events weeks after suspending their faith healing ministry at hospitals due to the new coronavirus.

Now most of their healing is related to stress from the virus.

As the local and global community come together to address the Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation, Bethel Church is seeking to promote health across the community. In moments like these, we do not partner with fear, but choose to lean into faith and hope, as well as practicing wisdom and safety, the church announced on March 20.

We are actively encouraging health practices and precautions to our whole community. We believe that wisdom, modern medicine, and faith are meant to work together, and express the value for each in the pursuit of on-going health and healing. We continue to remain in close communication with Shasta County Public Health to be aware of their recommendations for Shasta County, the church said.

While all in-person meetings and gatherings at the church have been suspended until further notice to comply with social distancing restrictions in California, Chris Gore, the churchs head of healing, told The Washington Post that their 700 healers are now working seven days a week online from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And the most common ailment among the approximately 100 calls they get daily from around the world are mostly related to stress about the coronavirus, Gore told the publication.

In a post on his Facebook page, Gore promoted Psalm 91 in a message urging Christians not to partner with fear.

Whats happening in the world is just horrible. Its heart breaking to see the loss of lives. So many of these people are the elderly and people with underlying health issues and weakened immune systems. I have written the last few posts mentioning not partnering with fear, he wrote on March 29.

I think we can all agree that fear is a real thing. I personally dont like the words fearless or no fear as we all experience fear but it is a matter of how we respond to fear we experience that counts. This virus has created so much fear in the world. Science tells us that prolonged fear will weaken your immune system and that makes us more vulnerable to this virus. I refuse to partner with fear, Gore added.

I encourage you today, yes we have some facts going on in the world but Jesus is not the spirit of fact or fear, He is the spirit of truth and the Prince of peace. Fact is we have a virus, truth is He is the protector, savior, redeemer, healer, and restorer. Im working hard to stay in and to stay partnered with peace. I pray that you will also encounter peace in this storm. Declare with me today that fear is not my friend I pray that this attack will quickly come to an end and the loss of precious lives would stop. #Shalom#Peace#FearisNotyourfriend#Psalm91, he wrote.

The CDC says fear and anxiety about the coronavirus can be overwhelming and cause strong emotions in both adults and children. Some symptoms of stress can include: Fear and worry about your own health and the health of your loved ones; changes in sleep or eating patterns; difficulty sleeping or concentrating; worsening of chronic health problems; worsening of mental health conditions, as well as increased use of alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs.

In order to better cope with stress related to the coronavirus, the CDC recommends taking breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news stories, including social media as hearing about the pandemic repeatedly can be upsetting.

Eating healthy balanced meals, exercising and meditation and avoiding alcohol and drugs were also said to help with managing stress.
A Chandrapur resident who recently returned from Indonesia and is quarantined at neighbouring Nagpur in Maharashtra has tested positive for coronavirus, an official said.

The man is a member of the Islamic organisation Tablighi Jamaat and since he has not come back to Chandrapur after returning from Indonesia, the district administration is trying to gather more information about him, the official said on Monday.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click here

Four couples from the district went to Indonesia in February and flew back to Delhi in the third week of last month. They later took a domestic flight and reached Nagpur where they were kept under quarantine at an MLA hostel, the official said.

None of them has since returned to Chandrapur, which is located about 150 km from Nagpur.

Read: Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths

One of these persons, who is a member of the Tablighi Jamaat, tested positive for coronavirus in Nagpur on Monday, the official said.

When contacted, Chandrapur Collector Dr Kunal Khemnar said, "We have sought details of the person as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus in the district. After getting all details of his travel history, we will decide the course of action."

A religious congregation organised by Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in Delhi last month has emerged as one of the COVID-19 hotspots in the country.
With China much in the news, the establishment media missed a chance to recall America's greatest promoter of the communist regime, who died 50 years ago.

"Anna Louise Strong, the American who spent most of her life writing books and articles extolling the virtues of communism, died today of a heart attack in Peking, where she had lived for the last 12 years," the New York Times reported on March 30, 1970.

In China, the Nebraska-born Strong championed Mao Zedong, whom she first interviewed back in 1946. The Communist Party chairman set up Strong with an apartment, automobile, secretary, cook, and maid. Strong dutifully recycled the regime's propaganda in her monthly "Letter from China," but the American felt bound to carry out other duties.

Chairman Mao deployed "Red Guards" against anyone who might be at odds with his revolutionary goals. As some veterans of the group recalled in 2014, the Red Guards were "shock troops" and "executioners," who "persecuted, tortured, or even killed millions of Chinese, supposed 'class enemies.'" This did not trouble Mao's favorite American journalist.

"Strong joined the Red Guard movement," the New York Times obituary noted. For that task, the American socialist boasted previous experience in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the reign of Josef Stalin.

"One must not make a god of Stalin, he was too valuable for that," wrote Strong in her 1935 I Change Worlds. Stalin was then collectivizing agriculture in the USSR, and the independent farmers known as "kulaks" stood in the way.

Stalin sought to abolish the kulaks "as a class," and to that end he planned a famine in Ukraine, which claimed millions of lives. For Strong, "Stalin had merely authorized what farmhands were already instinctively doing."

From her post on the Moscow News, Strong defended Stalin's purge campaigns and show trials. She also wrote for the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and The Nation and prided herself on fooling American readers.

Daughter of a Congregationalist minister, Anna graduated from Oberlin College and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, writing her thesis on the psychology of prayer. She quickly converted to the socialist faith, which does not hold truth in high regard.

Strong practiced the "saintly mendacity" and "heroic lies" that British historian Paul Johnson charted in Modern Times. Strong deployed in defense of the Soviet Union and Communist China during the reigns of the worst mass murderers in human history, the nadir of the regimes' depravity. In all of American history, it's hard to think of a more loathsome, evil person than Anna Louise Strong.

If American news anchors knew her record, perhaps they wouldn't be so eager to amplify the propaganda of China's communist regime, which charges that the United States launched the coronavirus crisis.

Lloyd Billingsley is a policy fellow at the Independent Institute.
Ukrainian aviation will need two years after quarantine to restore its previous traffic  Krykliy

The restoration of the former air traffic in Ukraine may take one and a half to two years, Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy said.

"Our forecasts are the following: if we start reactivating a little in June, then by the end of the year we'll reach about half of the passenger flow that was earlier. But in general, aviation is inertial. Therefore, we will return roughly to the previous passenger traffic in about a year or two," he said during an online meeting of the European Business Association on Tuesday.

Krykliy noted that the plans are to ensure the financial ability of state enterprises and airports for their work and the speedy recovery from quarantine.

At the same time he added that "there isn't enough budget in Ukraine to save every enterprise," therefore, programs are needed to support them.
WASHINGTON  The acting secretary of the Navy resigned Tuesday after his handling of the coronavirus outbreak on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt prompted sharp criticism.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a statement that he had accepted acting Secretary Thomas Modlys resignation Tuesday, the day after Modly apologized for having criticized former Roosevelt commanding officer Capt. Brett Crozier to the carriers crew.

Esper said Modly had offered to resign so the Navy could move forward.

Modly removed Crozier, a Santa Rosa native, from command of the Roosevelt after the captain wrote a letter to superiors pleading for more efforts to evacuate the carrier in Guam as a coronavirus outbreak spread. The letter was obtained and published by The Chronicle. Modly blamed that on Croziers decision to copy more than 20 people on his letter.

Modly then delivered a speech to the crew onboard the ship, disparaging Crozier as stupid or naive, comments for which he apologized late Monday.

There were 230 confirmed cases of coronavirus among the carriers crew as of Tuesday, the Navy said. Nearly 80% of the 5,000-person crew has been tested, with more than 2,000 testing negative. Crozier, 50, tested positive for the virus.

About 40% of the Roosevelts sailors have been moved ashore.

In his weekly memo to the Navy, Modly explained his decision to resign and apologized again for his actions.

The crew deserved a lot more empathy and a lot less lecturing, Modly wrote in the memo, which the Navy provided to The Chronicle. My lack of situational awareness due to my emotions of the moment did the exact same thing to MY ship, as I would hold you accountable for as you lead yours. I brought incoming fire onto our team and I am convinced that the fire will continue unrelentingly until the target is gone. I know what I have to do save the ship.

Modlys actions handling the outbreak had spurred criticism from Democrats in Congress. They objected both to the Navys initial response to protect sailors and Modlys firing of Crozier and speech on the ship.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, called for Modlys resignation on Tuesday, as did several other members of the Bay Area delegation.

President Trump said Tuesday that he had no role in Modlys resignation and didnt even know him, but Ive heard he was a very good man.

Asked about Crozier, Trump said, He didnt have to be Ernest Hemingway. He made a mistake, but he had a bad day.

Esper said Army Undersecretary Jim McPherson will serve as acting secretary of the Navy.

There are no winners here, retired Adm. James Stavridis, former NATO supreme allied commander Europe, told The Chronicle. Acting Secretary Modly did the right thing for the Navy, and his resignation will tamp down the emotion over the crisis on USS Roosevelt.

Modlys speech to the crew on Monday came after hundreds of sailors chanted Croziers name when he departed command. In a 15-minute speech, Modly disparaged that heros send-off and criticized Croziers actions, according to audio obtained by The Chronicle.

If he didnt think ... that this information wasnt going to get out into the public, in this information age that we live in, then he was too naive or too stupid to be commanding officer of a ship like this, Modly said. The alternative is that he did it on purpose.

Modly is a Naval Academy graduate and a former helicopter pilot, who left service to pursue a business career. Before becoming undersecretary of management in 2017, he worked for the accounting firm PwC.

He took the acting position in November, after the previous Navy secretary was forced out over a dispute with Trump about intervening in the war-crimes case of a Navy SEAL.

After his speech to the Roosevelt, which was so tone deaf, he was doomed, said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C.

Modly could have salvaged his position, Cancian said, if he stuck to his basic argument  that Crozier hadnt fully informed Navy officials of the situation aboard the Roosevelt and had allowed his letter to get into too many hands.

Mark Blakewood, whose son serves on the Roosevelt, had called for Modlys removal and was pleased at the news.

Mr. Modly can now join the rest of us while we stay at home and witness how the Navy responds to providing proper aid and support to the brave men of the USS Teddy Roosevelt and others in the Navy, Blakewood told The Chronicle.

Chronicle staff writer Matthias Gafni contributed to this report.

Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent and Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com, jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan, @joegarofoli
The Justice Department is urging federal prosecutors across the country to focus on investigating and bringing cases related to Chinese efforts to steal American intellectual property.

John Demers, the DOJs assistant attorney general for national security, said the DOJ is looking for all 94 U.S. attorneys to bring cases related to the so-called China Initiative, which began in 2018 under then-attorney general Jeff Sessions.

These cases take time, they sometimes involve classified evidence, which can complicate both the investigation and later the prosecution and how you charge the case, Demers told Politico. But we wanted to signal to the U.S. attorneys that we understood that, and nonetheless we wanted them to focus their resources on this and that we were going to approve these charges and we wanted them to move forward.

In January, the Justice Department charged Chinas largest smartphone maker, Huawei Technologies Co., an $8.4 billion firm protected by Chinas Communist party, with a laundry list of crimes including conspiracy, money laundering, bank and wire fraud, flouting U.S. sanctions on Iran, and obstruction of justice.

Meanwhile, cases have appeared around the country, especially at universities, against academics who fail to disclose or lie about foreign government funding in their applications for grants from the U.S. government.

Last month, former West Virginia University professor Dr. James Patrick Lewis pled guilty to fraud after entering into a contract with China to work on the countrys Thousand Talents Plan, which is designed to attract and recruit scientific talent to bolster Chinese interests.

The DOJ in February also charged four Chinese military hackers with conducting a cyberattack against credit reporting agency Equifax that stole the information of 150 million Americans.

Theyve made it clear: If they cant develop it, theyre going to steal it, said Jay Town, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, a member of the DOJs China Initiative.

More from National Review
Deputy Information Minister, Pius Enam Hadzide has patted the back of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for rolling out a three-month free water policy for Ghanaians.



According to him, this policy clearly shows that President Akufo-Addo feels the pains of Ghanaians.



By way of sympathizing with them, he declared the absorption of water bills from March to June, to lessen their burden.



"We have a president who is sympathetic and thinks about his people. It is for this reason that he has put measures in place so that in this difficult time, what government can do to support people to bring respite as well as free them from hardship within the limitations," he told Afia Pokua on Okay FM.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his fifth address to the nation Sunday [April 5, 2020] instructed all water tankers, publicly and privately owned to ensure that there is constant water supply to all vulnerable communities.



He noted that "the Ghana Water Company Ltd and the Electricity Company of Ghana have been directed to ensure the stable supply of water and electricity during this period. In addition, there will be no disconnection of supply."









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Fund for creative workers  "A Sustaining Arts Practice Fund," an initiative of the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, will award a total of $100,000 to artists, architects and designers in the St. Louis area who are facing financial hardship caused by the pandemic. The 50 $2,000 grants will be drawn from an endowment established at Washington University in 2004 by Emily Rauh Pulitzer. Apply by May 29 at samfoxschool.wustl.edu/asapfund.

Thank you, medical heroes  Soccer Master is using proceeds from the sale of T-shirts to supply meals from locally owned restaurants to St. Louis health care workers. The #ThankYouSTLMedicalHeroes shirts are $20-$22 at soccermaster.com. Soccer Master is a St. Louis-based soccer specialty shop

Free eyeglasses  Eye Thrive, a nonprofit organization that provides free replacement glasses to children, has expanded its service. Glasses are now available to children with current prescriptions from both Eye Thrive and outside providers. Children must be between 4 and 18 years old and live in the St. Louis area. More information: eyethrive.org.
By Ofeliya Afandiyeva

Russia is ready to supply combat aircraft to Azerbaijan, local media reported citing the Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan on April 7.

Within the framework of military-technical cooperation between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation, a delegation of specialists of the Azerbaijan Air Force visited the enterprises included in the Russian military-industrial complex.

Members of the Azerbaijani delegation visited Russian military plants producing Su-35 and MiG-35 fighter jets. During the meetings with the representatives of Rosoboronexport, one of the leaders in the global arms market of Russia, and the management of military plants, Azerbaijani side expressed its interest in purchasing the most modern fighter jets made in Russia, the statement posted on the official website of the ministry said.

During briefings, Azerbaijani delegation was informed about the tactical and technical characteristics of aircraft, combat capability, armament, production, operation and maintenance of aircraft in general.

The Russian side, in turn, expressed its readiness to deliver combat aircraft to Azerbaijan in a quantity that meets the needs of the Azerbaijan Air Force.

Azerbaijani military pilots have performed practical flights on MiG-35 aircraft at Russian military airbases.

In addition, it is worthy to mention that according to the Global Firepower survey center, Azerbaijan ranks 53rd for the strength of its army worldwide, leaving behind many CIS and regional countries.

It is also known that cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan in the military sphere is of a strategic nature and is increasingly developing.

Note that Rosoboronexport is the sole state intermediary agency for Russias exports/imports of defense-related and dual use products, technologies and services. The agency was set up in 2000 and is charged with implementation of the policy of the State in the area of military-technical cooperation between Russia and foreign countries.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
US President Donald Trump has offered help to treat UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson who was moved to intensive care in a London hospital after his coronavirus symptoms "worsened".

"I have asked two of the leading companies, these are brilliant companies... They have done an incredible jobs. And I have asked them to contact London immediately," Efe news quoted Trump as saying in a daily press briefing on Monday.

"We will see if we can be of help. We have contacted all of Boris' doctors and we will see what is going to take place, but they are ready to go," he added.

Trump did not reveal any further details but said that "when you get brought into intensive care, it gets very, very serious with this particular disease".

"So, the two companies are there. And with what they are talking about, and it's rather complex and has had really incredible results. We're working with the FDA and everybody else, but we are working with London with respect to Boris Johnson," he said.

The President said he "found (Johnson) to be a fantastic person, a fantastic warm strong smart guy. He loves his country, you see that. He fought like hell for his country".

The 55-year-old Prime Minister was moved to the ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in London on Monday evening after his condition worsened, 11 days after he tested positive.

Johnson first announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19 on March 27, stating that he had "mild symptoms" of the virus.

His fiancee, Carrie Symonds, who is pregnant with the couple's first child, said two days earlier that she was "on the mend" after spending the "past week in bed with the main symptoms of coronavirus".
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday issued a stern warning to doctors who denied treating coronavirus patients after five more infected persons died, amid speculation that the country may face a massive hike in COVID-19 cases in the coming days of April.

"I want to know their names...they are incapable of performing as doctors, she said this while exchanging views on the coronavirus situation with public representatives and government officials from Chittagong and Sylhet.

Hasina said doctors who denied treating patients have no rights to continue their jobs. She also announced special incentives and health insurance for doctors, others providing services during the crisis.

She also praised doctors mostly in government hospitals, calling them frontline soldiers in the war against coronavirus.

"We want to reward the brave health workers, including doctors, nurses and others who are working day and night to provide health care services to the people in this critical time...and a special health insurance scheme will be introduced for them, she said.

"(But) those who lack sense of humanity do not deserve incentives."



Her remarks came a day after a 22-year-old postgraduate student of the Institute of Education and Research at Dhaka University (DU) died after some top Dhaka hospitals refused to treat him on suspicion of coronavirus.

Hasina said the license of doctors of those private facilities should be rescinded.

A spokesman of the private hospitals earlier sought incentives claiming the private health facilities provide two thirds of healthcare services in the country while in an apparent response to the call Hasina asked them to prove first their performance in serving distressed humanity.

"Prove your feelings for humanity in the coming few months, only then we will consider incentives for you as well," Hasina said.

Hasina also said that the country may face a massive hike in coronavirus cases in the coming days of April as per the on-going trend across the world.

We have got some reports, which said there will be a massive hike in Bangladesh. But, do not be worried as we are prepared to overcome the crisis, she said.

Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research Director Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora in her daily briefing said that five more deaths and 41 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours.

The COVID-19 toll now stands at 17 and cases of infection at 164, she said as the new cases suggested the highest number of deaths and infections in a day since the first case was detected on March 8 in Bangladesh.

Flora said the fresh cases were detected by testing samples collected from 792 suspects in one day while 20 of the 41 infected people were detected in Dhaka and 15 in Narayanganj, the port city on the outskirts of the capital.

She also said, among the five deceased, four were male and one female. Off them two were above sixty years old, two were between age of 50 to 60, another one was between 40 to 50 years old.

Bangladesh on Monday suspended prayers for the public at mosques across the country in a bid to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs issued an emergency notice restricting the congregation in mosques. The ministry urged the public to pray at home.

Bangladesh on Saturday extended the nationwide transport shutdown till April 11.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi, April 7 : In a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, here on Tuesday, expressed "serious concern" over a particular community being blamed for the Covid-19 spread by certain sections.

"The organisers of Tablighi were irresponsible. This, however, can't be an excuse to target the Muslim community as a whole. Unless stopped, it will disrupt the people's united struggle against the Covid-19 pandemic," Yechury said.

The CPM General Secretary said many congregations, religious and otherwise, had taken place despite the government's orders banning such gatherings. "Even Parliament functioned till the eve of countrywide lockdown being declared," he said.

A floor test was held in Madhya Pradesh, a new government was sworn in encouraging defections. "All those who attended such gatherings must be tested forthwith and isolated to contain the further spread of the pandemic." Yechury said.

"As the custodian of the Constitution, I hope you will not allow communal polarisation in these trying times when the country needs to be united in its fight against an enemy that doesn't distinguish on the basis of identities of religion, caste, class, etc. Please impress upon 'your government' that what is needed is human empathy not criminalisation," Yechury wrote.

In the letter, he also talked about harshness the people were facing due to the lockdown.
All the Tablighi Jamaat members who returned to Maharashtra from Nizamuddin Markaz have been identified, the Maharashtra Home Ministry sources said.

Most of them are traced and quarantined; swab samples have been taken from them. Few of the returnees have still not been traced but police has reached their last known location and it seems that they are trying to hide.

The home ministry has asked them not to hide and come before the authorities and get tested. It has warned them that if they do not show up, they will not only be harming themselves healthwise but will also attract penal action for defying law during the imposition of the Epidemic Diseases Act in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mr. Raabs suitability for leading the country through a time of national crisis is another matter. While the prime minister and his team trust him more than Mr. Johnson does most senior cabinet ministers, Mr. Raab is a relative unknown to the public and is seen to lack warmth as a speaker.

But even if Mr. Raab defies his critics, there are limits to how much a high-performing de facto deputy can achieve. The British system is not built for a situation in which its leader is absent for a prolonged period of time  let alone during a national crisis. There are not clear guidelines for who takes power if the prime minister is incapacitated. And Mr. Raab is not carrying out all of Mr. Johnsons duties: He is not working from 10 Downing Street, he will not meet with the queen, and he does not have the power to fire or hire members of the cabinet.

Since Mr. Johnson became prime minister, power has been broadly balanced among the four ministers tasked with heading the coronavirus subcommittees: Mr. Raab, Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Michael Gove. There have been repeated reports of egos clashing behind the scenes over who leads the public response, competing briefs and turf wars. Now they must put their differences aside and find a way to work their competing interests into a joint plan.

The government has been reluctant to even discuss what an exit strategy from the lockdown might look like, on the grounds that it could lead people to relax social distancing. In truth, its also because there are rival views in government on what should happen: Some ministers think the lockdown must be eased in the coming weeks to salvage the economy, while others see that as a damaging gamble on peoples lives.

But this is the kind of decision that should rest only with an elected prime minister. Those sending Mr. Johnson well wishes are doing so not only for his own well-being but also for the sake of the country. The best hope is that he makes as speedy a recovery as possible.

Mr. Raab used Tuesdays government news conference to tell the public that he believes Mr. Johnson will be back at the helm leading us through the crisis in short order. But if that is not possible, serious thinking needs to be done on how major policy decisions should be made and by whom. The current arrangement is not suited to a prolonged absence of the prime minister.

Katy Balls (@katyballs) is the deputy political editor of The Spectator.

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Hours after Bollywood producer Karim Morani revealed that his daughter Shaza Morani had tested positive for COVID-19, her actor-sister Zoa has also been infected, according to family sources.

Shaza, who had returned from Sri Lanka in the first week of March, showed no symptoms but was admitted to Nanavati Hospital here, on Monday.

According to sources, Zoa, who had returned from Rajasthan around mid-March, tested positive for COVID-19.

"She had tested today for COVID-19 and her results came positive by evening. She is in Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, whereas Shaza is under medication at Nanavati."

"Shaza will be tested again after two days. As of now, the immediate family, house helps are also getting tested. They are all under quarantine," a source told PTI.

Earlier in the day, Morani had said that both the daughters were under observation. "Shaza had no symptoms but has tested positive. Zoa, my other daughter, has a few symptoms so we got both of them tested. Zoa, however, tested negative. Both have been admitted to Nanavati hospital. They are in isolation and under observation," Morani had said.

The producer has backed many Bollywood films, including Shah Rukh Khan's "Ra.One", "Chennai Express", "Happy New Year" and "Dilwale".

As of Monday evening, the number of coronavirus cases rose to 4,281 in India with the pandemic claiming 111 lives.

Follow @News18Movies for more
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

By Samir Ali - Trend:

The execution of the act of pardon for clemency of a number of persons signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has been completed, Trend reports on April 7.

According to Almammad Nuriyev, a member of the Public Committee that oversees correctional facilities under the Ministry of Justice, all 176 prisoners have been released.

Having examined the appeals sent to the head of state by a number of convicted persons over 65 who need special care because of their age and state of health due to the spread of coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in the world, and their family members, given the state of health of the convicts, their behavior during the period of serving the sentence and based on the principles of humanism, 176 convicts were released.

In general, during the period of independence in Azerbaijan, 66 acts of pardon and 11 acts of amnesty have been signed.
A top White House adviser starkly warned Trump administration officials in late January that the coronavirus crisis could cost the United States trillions of dollars and put millions of Americans at risk of illness or death.

The warning, written in a memo by Peter Navarro, President Donald Trumps trade adviser, is the highest-level alert known to have circulated inside the West Wing as the administration was taking its first substantive steps to confront a crisis that had already consumed Chinas leaders and would go on to upend life in Europe and the United States.

The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenceless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil, Navarros memo said. This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.

Dated Jan. 29, it came during a period when Trump was playing down the risks to the United States, and he would later go on to say that no one could have predicted such a devastating outcome.

Navarro said in the memo that the administration faced a choice about how aggressive to be in containing an outbreak, saying the human and economic costs would be relatively low if it turned out to be a problem along the lines of a seasonal flu.

But he went on to emphasize that the risk of a worst-case pandemic scenario should not be overlooked given the information coming from China.

In one worst-case scenario cited in the memo, more than a half-million Americans could die.

A second memo that Navarro wrote, dated Feb. 23, warned of an increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1.2 million souls.

At that time, Trump was still downplaying the threat of the virus. The administration was considering asking Congress for more money to address the situation, and the second memo, which circulated around the West Wing and was obtained by the Times, urged an immediate supplemental spending appropriation from Congress of at least $3 billion (U.S.).

This is NOT a time for penny-pinching or horse trading on the Hill, Navarro wrote in the second memo, which was unsigned but which officials attributed to him. It was unclear whether Trump saw the second memo, whose contents were first reported by Axios.

The second memo seemed aimed at members of the White House Task Force established by Trump to manage the crisis, and reflected deep divisions within the administration about how to proceed and persistent feuding between Navarro and many other top officials about his role and his views.

Any member of the Task Force who wants to be cautious about appropriating funds for a crisis that could inflict trillions of dollars in economic damage and take millions of lives has come to the wrong administration, the memo said.

Among other things, the memo called for an increase funding for the government to purchase personal protective equipment for health care workers, estimating they would need at least a billion face masks over a four-to-six-month period.

The administration ended up asking for $2.5 billion. Congress then approved $8 billion.

Navarro is now the administrations point person for supply chain issues for medical and other equipment needed to deal with the virus.

The January memo written by Navarro was dated the same day that Trump named a White House task force to deal with the threat, and as the administration was weighing whether to bar some travellers from China, an option being pushed by Navarro.

Trump would approve the limits on travel from China the next day, though it would be weeks before he began taking more aggressive steps to head off spread of the virus.

Questions about Trumps handling of crisis, especially in its early days when he suggested it was being used by Democrats to undercut his reelection prospects, are likely to define his presidency. Navarros memo is evidence that some in the upper ranks of the administration had at least considered the possibility of the outbreak turning into something far more serious than Trump was acknowledging publicly at the time.

Neither Navarro nor spokespeople for the White House responded to requests for comment.

The memo, which was reviewed by the New York Times, was sent from Navarro to the National Security Council and then distributed to several officials across the administration, people familiar with the events said. It reached a number of top officials as well as aides to Mick Mulvaney, then the acting chief of staff, they said, but it was unclear whether Trump saw it.

Navarro is a well-established China hawk who has long been mistrustful of the countrys government and trade practices. Both Navarro and Matthew Pottinger, the chief deputy at the National Security Council, were among the few officials urging colleagues in January to take a harder line in relation to the growing threat of the coronavirus.

But their warnings were seen by other officials as primarily reflecting their concerns about Chinas behaviour  and their concerns look more prescient in hindsight than they actually were, other officials argue.

With the subject line Impose Travel Ban on China? Navarro opened the memo by writing, If the probability of a pandemic is greater than roughly one per cent, a game-theoretic analysis of the coronavirus indicates the clear dominant strategy is an immediate travel ban on China.

Navarro concluded at one point: Regardless of whether the coronavirus proves to be a pandemic-level outbreak, there are certain costs associated with engaging in policies to contain and mitigate the spread of the disease. The most readily available option to contain the spread of the outbreak is to issue a travel ban to and from the source of the outbreak, namely, mainland China.

He suggested that under an aggressive containment scenario, a travel ban may need to last as long as 12 months for proper containment, a duration of time that at that point some White House aides saw as unsustainable.

The travel limits subsequently imposed by Trump did not entirely ban travel from China, and many travellers from the country continued to stream into the United States.

Navarro was at odds with medical experts like Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, who had argued that such travel bans only delay the eventual spread.

Navarro alluded to that debate Saturday during a separate argument with Fauci in the Situation Room about the whether the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was effective in treating or preventing the virus, according to two people familiar with the events.

In the memo, Navarro cautioned that it was unlikely the introduction of the coronavirus into the U.S. population in significant numbers will mimic a seasonal flu event with relatively low contagion and mortality rates.

He noted the history of pandemic flus and suggested the chances were elevated for one after the new pathogen had developed in China.

This historical precedent alone should be sufficient to prove the need to take aggressive action to contain the outbreak, he wrote, going on to say the early estimates of how easily the virus was spreading supported the possibility that the risks were even greater than the history of flu pandemics suggested.

Read more about:




Haiti - Covid-19 : Important meeting between PM and representatives of the UN and WHO/PAHO





Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe in his weekly meetings with the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization and (WHO/PAHO) held an important meeting with Helen La Lime, Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations in Haiti and his deputy Bruno Lemarquis and Dr. Luis Codina, WHO/PAHO representative in Haiti.



The care and coordination structure put in place by the Ministry of Public Health and Population, the control and prevention systems at border points, the socio-economic impact of the multifaceted crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, were at the center of exchanges that lasted almost an hour.



This meeting was an opportunity for the Head of Government to reassure international partners of the merits of each measure adopted at the highest level of the State. Measures which aim to give a proportional response capable of slowing the spread of the pandemic on the national territory.



Prime Minister Jouthe also took care to inform the delegation about the finalization of the isolation and care centers for contaminated people, the setting up of the structure responsible for managing, coordinating humanitarian aid, increase the number of nursing staff by providing them with appropriate medical equipment.



At the end of this meeting, the participants reiterated the will of the international community to support the efforts of the Haitian Government in its fight against the Coronavirus Covid-19.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Early data shows the coronavirus is hitting black and brown Americans especially hard. But spotty government data collection and publication could prevent resources from flowing to the communities most ravaged by the pandemic.

In Florida, five counties have revealed that black and Latino Covid-19 patients are getting hospitalized and, in some places, dying at higher rates than white patients. In Michigan , African Americans make up 14 percent of the states population but accounted for 33 percent of the Covid-19 cases and 41 percent of deaths as of Monday.

And when Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Monday that his state would begin releasing preliminary data on race and coronavirus deaths, he said he had a disturbing note: Slightly more than 70 percent of all the deaths in Louisiana are of African Americans.

That deserves more attention, said Edwards, whose state is about one-third African American, according to the Census Bureau.

But the majority of states either arent actively ensuring collection or arent releasing full racial and ethnic data on those tested and treated for coronavirus. And without that data, two dozen health professionals and policymakers told POLITICO, it will be difficult to provide communities of color the resources to treat and recover from coronavirus  and to diagnose it in the first place.

We cannot have a colorblind policy, said Stephen Thomas, director of the University of Marylands Center for Health Equity. With a colorblind policy  Hey, we're all in this together  we'll be left with an explosion of Covid-19 concentrated in racial and ethnic minority communities.

Covid-19 has pushed to the forefront longtime health disparities among black, brown, Native American and other minority populations in the country. Health professionals have warned that black and Latino populations are at potentially greater risk of severe illness from the coronavirus, due to prevalent comorbidities such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and asthma.

Story continues

Minority groups are also less likely to have health insurance, complicating their ability and willingness to seek treatment for illnesses.

If you look at pretty much any disease process, African Americans have higher rates or poorer outcomes for those diseases, said Dr. Ebony Hilton-Buchholz, an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care at the University of Virginia. Were seeing that race literally is an independent risk factor for many of these disease processes. And its heightened [under Covid-19].

Harder hit, but trouble getting tested

One dataset shows that minorities appear to have more difficulty getting tested for coronavirus. A team of doctors at the Universities of Virginia and Pittsburgh, partnering with the data-tracking firm Rubix, used data from seven states and more than 103 hospital groups and patient advocacy networks to show that thousands of minority patients were not receiving testing for the coronavirus despite showing symptoms.

Hilton-Buchholz pointed to New York, New Orleans and Atlanta as cities that are behind on equitable testing practices. Despite being home to large black and Latino populations, Louisiana is the only one of those three states that has released racial-ethnic data about testing, diagnosis or hospitalization from Covid-19. In Virginia, where Hilton-Buchholz practices, 53 percent of racial-ethnic data is listed as unreported.

This is probably one of the most important lessons that we've learned from [Hurricane] Katrina, [from] the 2008 financial crisis: If we're not paying attention to data that is disaggregated by race and ethnicity, the efforts that we often put in place wash right over those communities and miss them, said Michael McAfee, CEO of PolicyLink, a research institute focused on racial equity.

In Milwaukee County, Wis., as of Monday, African Americans make up almost half of confirmed coronavirus cases and 73 percent of the 45 deaths  compared with 26 percent of the county population. A big reason why we see higher rates of Covid-19 in the [black] community is the institutional, historical, currently ongoing issue of lack of resources, and institutional and individual effects of racism, said Dr. Benjamin Weston, director of Medical Services for the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management. It certainly isn't coincidence why that community suffers the greater burden of the vast majority of diseases in our county.

Its an issue being raised in Congress, which has already passed legislation to spend $2 trillion in emergency funds combating the epidemic and its economic effects. Last week, five Democratic legislators sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services seeking the collection and release of coronavirus information related to race and ethnicity. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and several colleagues are planning to follow up with a letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asking for more reports on prevalence of coronavirus among people of color.

The CDC did not respond to questions about whether it has issued guidance to the states about gathering demographic data or if it plans to release racial and ethnic data on coronavirus.

Jeff Lancashire, a spokesperson for the CDCs National Center for Health Statistics said the CDC will release demographic data on Covid-19 deaths, but not for a while.

Some of the gaps can be attributed to testing labs that are submitting reports with fields left blank or missing information. Effectively transmitting complete demographic data isnt a new problem, said Janet Hamilton, head of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. But public health experts are now in a situation where we need the information instantaneously, Hamilton added.

The public health reporting piece has been deprioritized and we're now seeing the effects of public health reporting consistently deprioritized year after year, Hamilton said. We don't have a first-century data superhighway because public health has been so underfunded for so many years.

New York, which has been a national hot spot for the disease, has not released racial and ethnic data. A spokesperson for the state health department said such data has not been part of our intake collection, but it is working to incorporate it going forward as part of our constantly evolving public health response.

California isnt releasing racial and ethnic data, saying the public health department is continually assessing what information can and should be made public. A Georgia health department spokesperson said race and ethnicity is one of the questions on the form used by facilities to report testing results but the state, which is 32 percent black, is not releasing the data.

And many states and organizations that are gathering racial data are still suffering from gaps in the reporting. An analysis of reports in one Indiana database found that 59 percent of tests came back without any race. Every group is undertested based on the data we have, said Brian Dixon, of the Regenstrief Institute, who attributed the under-reporting to a combination of manual data entry and pressure to return rapid results.

Maria, your district is in trouble

Philadelphia City Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez got a call on March 28 from Dr. Kathleen Reeves, a senior associate dean at Temple Universitys Lewis Katz School of Medicine.

She was like, Maria, your district is in trouble, said Quinones-Sanchez, who represents a largely Latino community. She said they were getting an increase of Latinos testing positive for coronavirus and they were very concerned.

Reeves said her concerns were based on totally anecdotal information. Some of our practitioners thought they were seeing more Hispanic patients who were positive than other patients," she said.

But its impossible to know for certain how much trouble Quinones-Sanchezs district and other Philadelphia neighborhoods are in. The state of Pennsylvania is not collecting data on the race and ethnicity of people who contract coronavirus, though the city of Philadelphia has collected and released some limited figures showing about half of coronavirus cases in the city are African American.

The issue is especially important because decisions about setting up testing centers might be missing the most affected areas, Reeves said. Minority neighborhoods across the country have often been the last to see coronavirus testing sites set up, and Reeves noted that people without a car cannot access the drive-through sites in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia 7th District City Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez attends a hearing at City Hall in Philadelphia, Monday, April 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Maryland state legislator Nick Mosby, who represents West Baltimore, feels as though hes banging his head against the wall. For two weeks, Mosby has pleaded with the states public health department to release data he believes it has gathered on the race and ethnicity of those being tested for the novel virus.

We need the data right now, Mosby said. There's no way that you are reporting on age and gender, but in the same breath, you can't report out on race.

In email exchanges with Maryland public health officials, Mosby was told the state health exchange would develop a plan of action to include race and ethnicity in its Covid-19 data. But progress on that plan wont come until roughly April 10. Mosby sent a letter to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Monday requesting he release racial data on testing, positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

David Holtgrave, a professor of public health at the University of Albany who worked on the HIV epidemic at the CDC in the 1990s, said it would be very impactful for the CDC to make a strong statement telling states how critically important it is to report and make public demographic data and health disparities.

But without widespread testing, racial and ethnic data will be incomplete, he said.

Only when you get to that more widespread use of testing are you going to be able to start to really look at which communities are differentially impacted, said Holtgrave. And we need to get there as quickly as we possibly can.

Darius Tahir contributed to this report.
The Jharkhand High Court on



Tuesday asked the state government to approach the Centre for providing it with more COVID-19 testing kits as the present strength of the equipment is not sufficient.

The bench of Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad also directed the state government to set up testing facilities at more places.

In response to a March 31 letter emailed by senior counsel Inderjit Sinha, the bench had on April 3 asked the state government about measures taken by it to contain COVID- 19 and the availability of protective equipment and testing kits.

The court on Tuesday heard submissions of the counsels of the Jharkhand government and state-run the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) here.

"We have heard the parties. Reply has been filed on behalf of the State as well as RIMS, Ranchi and reply of Union of India was already available on 03.04.2020.

"However, having only 5000 testing kits and more than 1,50,000 persons having been quarantined till date, in our opinion, that number of testing kit is not sufficient. Therefore, the State Government should approach the Central Government for providing more testing kits and for creating testing facilities at more places," the bench said in its order.

The court said it has hope that the Centre would take adequate steps if the state government approached it for more testing kits and testing facilities.

The bench observed said that people are required to be monitored intensively and it should be ensured that they did not come out from their homes.

The court said the number of private homes where people have been home quarantined was not clear from the advocate general's submission.

The bench sought further reply from the state on April 17 when the matter would be heard again.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
HONG KONG: Equities rallied again Tuesday as investors seized on signs of a slowdown in the spread of the coronavirus in key hotspots and some governments began making plans to ease restrictions aimed at containing the disease.

Crude prices were also lifted by hopes major producers will agree to cut output this week, while the pound clawed back some of its losses that came in response to news Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in intensive care.

Asia extended Monday's rally following a surge on Wall Street, with much-needed optimism on news that fresh cases were slowing in Spain, Germany, Italy and France.

Tokyo and Shanghai stocks were both around two percent higher, while Hong Kong added 1.7 percent, and Seoul and Taipei each jumped 1.8 percent.

Mumbai soared six percent, while Singapore piled on more than three percent and Bangkok more than five percent.

Manila and Wellington also gained, though Sydney and Jakarta slipped.

In early trade, London jumped three percent, while Paris and Frankfurt were up a little more than three percent.

"Falling infection and death rates from COVID-19 in the worst of the European and US epicentres has inspired markets that the worst of the outbreak is peaking," said OANDA's Jeffrey Halley.

Adding to the positive vibe were further measures to support economies around the world, including a trillion-dollar package in Japan and central bank moves in China.

And with the ink barely dry on a $2 trillion rescue plan passed by Congress last month, Donald Trump said he favoured another massive spending programme again roughly $2 trillion this time targeting infrastructure projects.

EU leaders are also closing in on a rescue for nations worst hit in the region, according to sources, though not at the level called for by Italy and Spain.

The bloc's finance ministers will hold a videoconference Tuesday, when they are expected to agree to use the eurozone's $443-billion bailout fund. However, it is thought they will not act on a proposal to issue "coronabonds" that would pool borrowing among EU nations.

While the mood is a little better on trading floors, analysts remained cautious.

"Still, the market will need to come up for air, as for the real economy to recover the pace of play will be dictated more by (governments') willingness to relax social distancing measures, and the COVID-19 curve would probably need to flatten much more," said AxiCorp's Stephen Innes.
Alex Salmond, former Scottish first minister and ex-leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), currently a chat show host for RT, was acquitted March 23 at the High Court in Edinburgh, Scotland, of 13 sexual offence charges, including attempted rape, against nine women.

Salmond was found not guilty on 12 counts, while one was found not proven, which legally amounts to the same thing. The verdicts were by majority from a jury, nine of whose members were female. Had Salmond been found guilty on the most serious charges, he would have faced years in prison.

He indicated his intention to publish a book and reveal more of the affair after the coronavirus crisis was over. Some of his political allies were more vocal.

Joanna Cherry, a lawyer, and the SNPs Justice and Home Affairs spokesperson in Westminster, said, As a feminist, lawyer and former specialist sex crimes prosecutor I fully support the right of all women who make a complaint of a sexual crime to have their complaint properly investigated. However, I also support due process and the principle of innocent until proven guilty. Cherry also criticised the Scottish government and her own party over how complaints against Salmond were handled.

Former Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill, writing in the Scotsman, stated that only the tip of the iceberg came out during the trial. He warned of WhatsApp groups from a coterie of leading party individuals...seeking to do much more than simply a citizens duty of cooperating with the police.  A few have acted despicably and many of us feel a breach of trust. To whom do these individuals work and for what purpose are they acting?

The outcome threatens to break the SNP wide open, setting Salmond and his supporters against his successor and current first minister, Nicola Sturgeon. It also exposes the partys deeply right-wing, anti-democratic and militarist character.

The case followed an investigation by the Scottish government into Salmonds alleged sexual misconduct, which the Scottish government admitted in court was tainted by apparent bias. Salmond won a 2019 judicial review against the government he once led, and was awarded 512,000 in compensation, having crowd-funded his legal expenses.

The judicial review was not the end of the matter, however. On January 24 of last year, Salmond was charged on two counts of attempted rape and 12 of sexual assault following a Police Scotland investigation based on allegations passed to them by the Scottish government.

Twenty-two police officers were set to work on the case and conducted interviews with 386 people. All the charges related to events between 2008 and 2014.

The trial saw claims made that were impossible to verify, implausible and sometimes disproven in court. Witness H, a former leading official in the Scottish government, told the court of two alleged incidents when Salmond made unwanted sexual advances towards her, both in 2014. Salmonds defence team called on witnesses, who were able to confirm to the jury that Witness H had not been in attendance at the dinner after which Salmond was alleged to have attacked her.

Witness H told the court she did not report either event until November 2017, when she started experiencing flashbacks simultaneous with the emergence of the #MeToo right-wing feminist movement worldwide. She did not contact the police, but instead spoke to the SNPs compliance officer, Ian McCann. Witness H was reported as saying she wanted the incident on Salmonds SNP record, should he attempt return to frontline politics. A text message from McCann was read in court that stated, We will sit on that and hope we never need to deploy it.

Another text from Witness H, sent to another of the complainants against Salmond, was read in court. I have a plan. And means we can be anonymous but see strong repercussions. An earlier text, from 2015, was also presented, in which Witness H texted an SNP officeholder about a personal project she had. She asked if Alex will be OK with her project. Would be great to be working with him again, she continued.

Other witnesses gave accounts of minor incidents that happened many years previously, if at all. Woman A, a leading government official, said that over a three-week period in 2008 Salmond would habitually greet her with a slobbery kiss on the lips, and touched her back and backside. Witness C said Salmond touched her leg in a government car some time in 2011. Salmond said he had apologised to Witness F for his behaviour during a boozy encounter in Bute House.

Woman J said Salmond, one evening in Bute House, imitated a zombie then tried to kiss her and touched her leg. Woman G gave evidence that Salmond tried to recreate a suggestive scene on a Christmas card, grabbed the womans wrists and tried to kiss her.

Salmond told the jury that he wished he had been more careful with peoples personal space, but there was no intention whatsoever to offend. He insisted he had never had non-consensual relations with anyone. He was of the opinion that, for a variety of reasons, events are being reinterpreted and exaggerated out of all possible proportion. He accused Witness A, a senior official in the Scottish government, of encouraging others to exaggerate or make claims against him.

After the acquittal, it was reported that Salmonds QC, Gordon Jackson, had been prevented by the judge, Lady Dorrian, from presenting a block of evidence showing, in Jacksons words, there was [a] concerted effort made by people in the government to influence this process, to get it as best they could in terms of criminal prosecution. The texts included one sent by Leslie Evans, permanent secretary to the Scottish government, after the judicial review in 2019. The text, sent to another leading official, read, We may have lost the battle, but we will win the war.

Commenting on the implications of the affair for Nicola Sturgeon, Herald writer Ian MacWhirter noted, There are questions about what Ms Sturgeon knew about the complaints about Mr Salmond and when she knew about them. But a far bigger question is the extent to which she acquiesced in this attempt to destroy the politician, who was her mentor and closest political ally for decades.

Mr. Salmond could have gone to jail for the rest of his life. In the era of MeToo and Harvey Weinstein it is extremely difficult for men in public life to mount defences against charges like these. Ms Sturgeon avoided giving evidence in this High Court, but she will have to answer to the parliamentary inquiry, currently suspended.

She continues to defend Mr Salmonds accusers, who remain in their posts even after their allegations were dismissed by the highest court in the land. I cant name these people because, even though the jury did not believe them, they still enjoy anonymity.

MacWhirter noted that the Scottish Crown Office has questions to answer too, about why it went ahead with this prosecution when so many of the charges were obviously de minimis.

Further investigations are said to be in the hands of the Metropolitan Police, trawling Salmonds time in London as a Westminster MP, while elements of the Scottish press have continued to blackguard him. He has been the subject of what appears to be a sinister campaign emerging from within the SNP and the Scottish government, taken up by Police Scotland, the Crown Office, #MeToo supporters and backed by sections of the media. It exposes the anti-democratic forces within the SNP and the British establishment, and once again underscores the right-wing character of #MeToo.

Earlier this week, First Minister Sturgeon was forced to retract her proposal, under the cover of a particularly draconian Coronavirus Bill, to abolish jury trials for the duration of the crisis, rather than merely postpone cases, as in England.

Commentary has centred on the possibility of Salmonds return to active political life and re-applying for SNP membership, which he dropped to defend himself legally. He is said to be seeking nomination for a seat in the Scottish parliamentary elections next year.

There have been growing tensions between the Salmond and Sturgeon factions for years now. Salmond is considered more willing to force the issue of a second Scottish independence referendum, in defiance, if necessary, of Westminster and the British government. Much of the SNPs nationalist membership, many of whom joined after the 2014 referendum, are frustrated at Sturgeons resistance to another poll, which she has been hinting of ever since the Brexit vote of 2016, and the collapse of the Remain campaign to delay or reverse Brexit.

What has brought this to an extraordinary pitch, however, is Salmonds broadcasting career, taken up since 2017. The first episode of Salmonds show for the Russian government-backed RT was aired November 16, 2017, which coincides almost exactly with the point at which allegations against Salmond began to emerge.

Salmonds move drove sections of the British media and foreign policy establishment apoplectic. Sturgeon herself at the time said she would have advised against RT and suggested he seek a different channel. SNP Member of the European Parliament Alyn Smith told a Scottish paper, What the f**k is he thinking?

Jon Snow, Channel 4 TVs lead news presenter, railed against Salmond, asking, Wouldnt Scottish television give you a slot, wouldnt they pay you enough? The Russians are paying you the most, why do you think theyre doing that? Labour peer George Foulkes, a Privy Council member, said, He is like a tool of the Russians by doing thisit is close to treason.

Salmonds pursuit of a lucrative broadcasting career and a platform for his views cut across the efforts of the SNP and Sturgeon to ingratiate themselves with the British and US military apparatus. The SNPs policy on Trident nuclear weapons has been to couple longstanding calls for their removal to a replacement with fast jets and warships capable of integrating into NATOs North Atlantic drive against Russia. In 2015, Sturgeon told the United States Council on Foreign Relations that the SNP considers itself a key ally of the United States and supportive of the sanctions against Russia and [has] been a voice of support within the UK for the governments position.

The SNPs defence spokesman in Westminster, Stewart McDonald, has repeatedly denounced RT, while criticising the British government for not doing enough to back the fascistic regime in the Ukraine against Russia. In 2018, McDonald insisted the then-Tory government of Theresa May should oppose the Nord Stream 2 oil pipeline and the security threat that it so obviously represents to the United Kingdom and the [NATO] alliance.
Our health care workers who are most at risk are unable to use proper precautions due to a limited supply of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE)  masks, gloves, gowns and other materials.

Stamford Health has 3,400 employees. How many masks should they be going through every day? Does the average employee wear one mask per shift? Two? What about those dealing with contagious patients, where it must be one set of PPE per patient? A hospital of this size would go through, at the very least, 15,000 masks a day. Not to mention gloves and gowns.

As of Sunday, we had 652 confirmed infections in Stamford, meaning close to one in every 200 residents is confirmed to have COVID-19. The peak of the curve will be here soon, in what is presently the largest outbreak area in the country. Ensuring our first-responders and medical providers have enough PPE is critical.

It is not just hospitals that face this dilemma. Nursing homes are in dire need of better protective measures. First-responders  police, fire, EMTs  who are asked to protect us must also be able to protect themselves. Workers at rest stops on highways are waiting for protective gear from their corporations, while having to contend with a lack of health insurance. We can no longer ignore that our preparation is insufficient.

For example, how are we protecting incarcerated individuals of all ages who are in closely confined quarters? A three-month sentence for theft should not be commuted to a death sentence?

Our health care workers stories are sadly repetitive. From the nurse who must sanitize a used mask and wear it several times, to those fashioning their own masks with less-protective materials, to those having to care for patients while wearing no mask.

As a state representative, I find myself ashamed to continuously wonder how to reply to such messages. I keep responding that my office is working hard at pushing to get those PPEs. While March 11 was our unexpected last day in Hartford as legislators,the work needing to be done was only beginning.

Not only must we change how government prepares for times of crisis, we must be able to modify how we take action in the midst of a crisis, and learn to be ready for the next one. Be it years from now, or in case of the influenza pandemic from a century ago  when it calmed down during the summer months, and reappeared even worse as weather turned cooler.

The story of PPE acquisition is unfortunately, not as simple as calling up a manufacturer or a distributor, and placing an order. At present, the main hubs of distribution for medical supplies are Denmark, China and India. This is where the products are manufactured, and then doled out to the numerous companies around the world. At this time, to purchase directly, one must go through independent brokers who have developed relationships with factories. This is a significant difference to how business is transacted in the United States.

On March 12, I started looking into crucial needs for the most vulnerable. By March 17 I forwarded my first potential source of PPEs to the state. On March 21, Dominick Cingari, of the family that owns the local Grade A/Shop Rite stores, shared with me a source of materials  the local vendor they are using to make certain their employees are adequately protected. On March 24, I spoke with Chung Ting (one of my best friends), whose trade is to represent factories from Asia to the rest of the world. He said he will try to help find stocks but that I had to explain to those who pull the trigger to do it quickly and with 100 percent upfront deposit (the norm for China/Hong Kong). A couple of days later I received a call from the local vendor who told me he had access to ventilators. Those sources have access to most of what the hospitals need. Also, a source close to the French government supplied another contact in China. These contacts were shared with the state.

However, with governments from all over the world competing for a limited supply, the protection of frontline nurses and doctors will become a bidding war. Right now, masks (the high quality 3M N95 1860) that are normally $1 each are priced at $3.50 -$7 each.

If we order a couple of hundreds of thousands of pieces, our order could be last priority and might never get filled, while a substantial order gets a better price, priority and shipping quote. Yet, we are seeing that the states have no procurement process in place to work with other states. Bureaucracy keeps us from being united.

There have been some successes. We are told that 6 million masks will soon arrive in Connecticut. However, this stockpile is not going to be enough  now, or for the next event.

What is a possible solution? If ever there were a time for a public-private partnership, that time is now.

The State of Connecticut is now predicting a tax-revenue shortfall, and a potential deficit due to lost business in 2020. If these concerns, along with the vetting of vendors creates a delay, and in turn slows the ability to protect all of our most vulnerable, it is unacceptable. The money, and thus the solution, is right in front of us  a system to collect funding from wealthy individuals and private corporations, so Connecticut (hopefully in league with other states), can leverage its standing to acquire supplies. A system, not unlike a public-private partnership, but with an emphasis on public health.

Stay safe. Stay home. Take care of one another. We have a long way to go, but we can and will get through

Please continue giving support and utmost respect to all our essential workers, who are our soldiers on the frontline!

David Michel is a state representative from Stamford.
The model or average price for a kg of onion was Rs 6 on Monday -- the lowest in this late kharif and rabi harvesting season, so far. While poorer quality kharif onions traded at Rs 3 a kg, the price of export quality was Rs 9 a kg.

Image used for representational purpose. Photograph: ANI Photo.

Fearing their onion stock may get spoiled owing to the low shelf life of the late kharif variety and the demand disruption caused by the nationwide lockdown, farmers in Maharashtras Nashik district are selling their produce at a loss -- for as low as Rs 3 a kg against the cultivation cost of Rs 6 a kg.

With the benchmark Lasalgaon mandi remaining closed for the past four days after the entire Nipad taluka was quarantined following Covid-19 cases there, farmers in the district are queueing up at the nearby Vinchur mandi.

The model or average price for a kg of onion was Rs 6 on Monday -- the lowest in this late kharif and rabi harvesting season, so far. While poorer quality kharif onions traded at Rs 3 a kg, the price of export quality was Rs 9 a kg.

According to traders, onion demand has fallen 30-40 per cent since the lockdown on March 25 forced the temporary closure of hotels, restaurants and roadside eateries.

Farmers are in a hurry to sell onion, especially of the late kharif variety, fearing spoilage. With most market yards closed, farmers have pushed their supply to the Vinchur agricultural produce market committee (APMC). As a result, the model onion price has fallen to as low as Rs 6 a kg, said Narendra Wadhvane, secretary, Lasalgaon APMC.

Total arrivals of onion at the Vinchur mandi jumped unusually high -- at 2400 tonnes -- on Monday. This was almost twice the usual daily arrivals.

Though transportation of onion, which is an essential commodity, is allowed, movement of the vegetable remains highly restricted.

Also, exports have come to a standstill because of fewer overseas orders. According to experts, exports are likely to remain subdued as major importing countries, too, are battling the pandemic.

Onion prices have declined sharply over the last few days. Also, there is a bumper output in Nashik, which feeds onion to the entire country, said Arun Kale, secretary, Nashik APMC.

In retail, onion is selling currently at Rs 30 a kg because of weak supply. Also, the impact of the latest price decline will be seen in the retail market in 7-10 days.

Onion farmers are currently passing through distress because they are not able to recover even the cost of cultivation. The cost of onion cultivation stands at Rs 5.50-6 a kg in most parts of Nashik. In some areas where irrigation facility is unavailable, the cultivation cost goes up to Rs 7-8 a kg.

Farmers, especially of small and medium farmers, do not have adequate storage capacity and they cannot afford to pay for storing their produce in public warehouses. They do not have any option but to sell their produce at a loss. Large corporates, stockists, and warehouse keepers take advantage of such a situation  they buy cheap and store it for selling in the lean season, said Wadhvane.
It's a big-box breakout.

Costco and Walmart shares are higher for the year, bucking the sharp market sell-off, with Americans stockpiling as coronavirus lockdowns stretch on.

Though both have broken out, Oppenheimer's head of technical analysis, Ari Wald, said one has the edge over the other here.

"We like them both. We're bullish on both Costco and Walmart. Of the two, Costco is the standout," Wald said Monday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." "It's really based on our bullish view on U.S. large-cap growth but broadly the stock has been on our buy list since April of 2018, and although it has become near term overbought in our relative work as it has outperformed through the sell-off, we still like it."

Costco is up 5% in 2020, while the S&P 500 has fallen more than 16%.

"The reason [we like it] is that our focus here on the market is on long-term recovery. And we like that Costco has been able to outperform during market rallies in recent years as well.  It's really one of the few stocks that is also in a consumer staples sector that's been able to do this. So, we like Costco. It's a triple A-rated outperform by our fundamental analysts, rates well in our trend work and top down tail winds based on our view on growth," said Wald.

Nancy Tengler, chief investment officer of Laffer Tengler Investments, said Costco's fundamentals are strong, but grows concerned after its recent rally.

"We're out of Costco based on valuation. We got out at the end of last year at kind of the levels we're at now. We'd owned it in 2017. Loved the story. Loved the fundamentals but the valuation got a little bit rich for us," Tengler said during the same segment.

Costco's gains since late 2018 have pushed its valuation to 33 times forward earnings. Comparatively, the S&P 500 trades at 16 times.

"We're still in Walmart. It's one of our largest holdings. Again we don't necessarily think that the near-term growth in sales is sustainable, but we love the e-commerce store in this particular name. It's just also gotten a little bit rich, and we've actually been trimming back our holdings," said Tengler. "I wouldn't be chasing them here. Great companies. Be patient."

Disclosure: Laffer Tengler Investments holds Walmart.

Disclaimer
If youre driving less because of the coronavirus  and who isnt  you might be able to get a break on your auto insurance premiums, automatically in some cases or else by asking.

Some of the nations largest auto insurers are offering across-the-board cuts nationwide. GEICO said Monday its providing a 15% credit to auto and motorcycle policies that come up for renewal between April 8 and Oct. 7. The credit will also apply to new policies purchased during this period.

GEICO said the credit will save the average customer with a $1,000 semi-annual premium $150.

Also on Tuesday, Liberty Mutual Insurance said it would give customers with Liberty and Safeco personal auto insurance policies nationwide a 15% refund on two months of their annual premium, pending regulatory approval. That follows Mondays announcement from Allstate, which said it is working with state regulators to give most auto policy customers nationwide a shelter-in-place payback equal to 15% of their April and May premiums.

Among smaller companies, American Family Insurance said it will give customers a one-time refund of $50 for each car it covers. Next Insurance, which caters to small businesses, is reducing its April general liability and commercial auto premiums by 25%.

In California, your safety record, miles driven and years of driving experience, in that order, must be the top three factors that go into your auto premium. Because of this, drivers in California get the biggest savings when they drive less, according to a survey published in 2018 by the Consumer Federation of America.

On March 24, the Consumer Federation of California Education Foundation filed a petition asking state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to require insurers to immediately let customers know they could be entitled to a rate cut if their mileage is reduced because of unemployment or stay-at-home orders. Longer term, it asked Lara to begin a rule-making proceeding that could empower the commissioner to order rate cuts in this or similar emergencies that reduce driving on a widespread basis, said Richard Holober, the federations president.

The 2018 study compared premiums in 12 cities nationwide and found that only in Los Angeles did drivers see consistent savings for lower mileage driving. In Los Angeles, premiums dropped by an average of 8.7% for every reduction of 5,000 miles per year. Very low-mileage drivers (2,500 per year) paid an average of 30% less than very high-mileage drivers (22,500 per year).

Outside of California, drivers saved only 1.6% on average for every 5,000-mile reduction, and very low mileage drivers paid only 6% a year less than the road warriors.

Allstates proposed 15% rate reduction is still on the low end of whats due, but in the midst of a crisis, its a good start, said Douglas Heller, the California federations insurance expert.

The California Department of Insurance said it is reviewing Allstates rate filing for a 15% premium discount to determine whether it needs the departments approval. In a statement, Lara called it a step in the right direction.

Identifying myself only as a customer, I called my own insurance company this week to ask about a rate reduction, since my spouse and I are now working from home. It agreed to reduce our premium starting the next day until our policy renews in August. The refund we are getting represents 27% of our six-month premium, but had it started in February, it would have amounted to 34% of the six-month premium.

Scott Dauenhauer of Murrieta in Riverside County said he contacted his insurance company, Kemper, on Friday and got a rate reduction equal to 11% of his annual premium just by calling and reducing the expected miles traveled.

Judy Hiramoto of San Francisco said she contacted her State Farm insurance agent on March 26 and again on Monday to ask for a rate break because shes now driving no more than 8 miles a week.

He refused to do so, stating that my rate will be readjusted in August 2020 when the policy is reviewed for the next term, she said in an email.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

At State Farm, we are closely monitoring our automobile insurance loss trends and are considering how best to take this into account and return value to our auto insurance policyholders. We expect a decision in this regard by the end of the week, State Farm spokeswoman Gina Morss-Fischer said in an email.

Although Proposition 103 requires that safety record, mileage and driving experience have the greatest influence on auto premiums in California, insurers may consider a host of lesser factors that could impact what, if any, discount they might get. These include the customers marital status, vehicle age and type, coverages chosen, deductibles, and multi-line, good student and loyalty discounts, according to the Insurance Information Institute, a trade group.

Janet Ruiz, a spokeswoman for the institute, said customers should call their insurance company and inquire about a discount.

Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, a trade group, said that in California, auto customers could not get a discount just because theyre driving fewer miles.

An insurer in California would not be permitted to provide a rate cut without submitting a filing with the Department of Insurance, he said. However, we are also checking with the (department) to see if there is an easier, allowed path, he said.

Any time policyholders advise their company about a change to their risk profile, the company must consider whether a premium adjustment is warranted, insurance department spokesman Michael Soller said in an email. Depending upon the nature of a particular insurers rating plan, a company could revise the premium without a rate filing. He urged consumers to contact the Departments hotline (800-927-4357) in the event an insurer is not responsive.

In a statement, Lara said, Consumers and businesses need rate relief now and we need insurers to move with all possible speed to reassess their risk profiles in light of Californias proactive shelter in place efforts. He added, The Department of Insurance has already been looking at this issue and sees the issue as broader than just private passenger automobile insurance mileage, and we will have an announcement in the near future.

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpender
Instagram influencers have been slammed for trying to score free food and alcohol from businesses struggling through the coronavirus pandemic.

Actor Harry Cook was outed online after asking wine company P & V Wine + Liquor Merchants for free alcohol in exchange for social media promotion.

Restaurant critic John Lethlean exposed the 28-year-old's direct messages with the small Sydney-based wine company.

Cook messaged P & V on Instagram to ask them if they did 'collabs'.

When the company asked if he had anything specific in mind, Cook replied: 'I was wondering if you'd consider sending a complimentary case once a month in exchange for some social media promotion?'

Cook went on to boast about how the wine company could benefit from his reach on social media, revealing he had 78,000 combined followers on Twitter and Facebook.

Actor Harry Cook (right) asked wine merchants P & V Wine + Liquor Merchants for free alcohol in exchange for social media promotion (left)

But he was quickly shut down by the wine merchants, who blasted his offer as 'totally uncool'.

'We're in here working our asses off to support a near devastated hospitality industry with ramifications on primary producers and winemakers who are at the brink in a destroyed industry and you want a free dozen wines a month for social posts? Nah,' the company responded.

Mike Bennie, who co-owns the business which specialises in family-owned products, told Daily Mail Australia that Cook's approach was 'insensitive' and in poor timing.

'Harry really didn't read the room very well,' Mr Bennie said.

'Asking people who are really deeply affected by the pause on the hospitality industry is a pretty poor judgement of how to approach supporting those in need in this very difficult time.

P & V Wine + Liquor Merchants (pictured) owners blasted Harry Cook's approach as 'insensitive' and in poor timing

'We're not even a business that requires social media help from 'influencers,' we're the last business who would need that.

'It continues the discussion around what's important right now about society and doing good deeds, and the right and wrong way to go about supporting those in need.'

Cook also copped fierce backlash from other Instagram users for his behaviour during the pandemic.

'Seriously! At this time! When all small businesses are going under.... shame,' someone wrote.

'Culture of wannabe influencers. Put them in stocks and pelt them with rotten produce,' said another.

Other companies on the receiving end of influencer collaboration offers have shared the cringeworthy pitches they have been sent during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Leaked Instagram messages shared online showed a Sydney-based food blogger ask a restaurant for a free takeaway meal.

The blogger, whose identity was hidden from the screenshots, wrote: 'Just wondering if u be interested for me to introduce your takeaway meal for people to enjoy as that way they can enjoy your food at the moment.'

The restaurant rejected the offer, responding: 'Sydney food places are closing down and you still want a freebie?'

Leaked Instagram messages also showed a Sydney-based food blogger ask a restaurant for a free takeaway meal

The blogger was blasted for trying to capitalise on the demise of restaurants amid mass closures.

'Surely this is a time when the food blogging 'community' could attempt to redeem themselves by promoting any food outlets offering takeaway??,' one person wrote.

'The sense of entitlement and audacity of some of these 'influencers' is staggering,' wrote another.

'That is disgusting. At at time when people losing their jobs, they should do the right thing and pay for themselves or if they aren't in a position to do so, send a message of support,' another comment read.

Travel blog Places All Day was also outed after asking a well-known Sydney hotel for a 'Covid Collab'.

The blog owner proposed the collaboration so the popular hotel could stay 'relevant'.

'If your budget permits, we would love to work with you collaboratively,' the pitch read. 'If you would like to work with us  I can send you our updated rates.'
Big number: 70 per cent, the percentage of Canadian small businesses surveyed by grassroots advocacy group Save Small Business who indicate they will not be able to make rent by May 1

A decade ago, when I moved to Corktown  a tiny neighbourhood in downtown Toronto just west of the DVP  it was a wasteland for retail and restaurants. Aside from a few hidden gems, there was little in the immediate area beyond condo construction sites and empty old buildings, neither of which offered decent food.

Its slowly changed in the years since, with the addition of the kinds of things good neighbourhoods need. Weve added cool coffee shops, friendly neighbourhood pubs, great food spots and a bunch of other businesses, many of them independently owned.

Now Im worried about losing it all to COVID-19.

All of that neighbourhood character slowly  oh so slowly  added over the years is now at risk.

Thats not hyperbole. The numbers for small business in Toronto right now are depressing as hell. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business found that 32 per cent of their business members who have closed due to the pandemic arent sure if theyll be able to reopen  a number thatll likely rise as shutdown orders continue. Restaurants Canada says about 800,000 of the 1.2 million jobs in the food service industry have already been lost.

Save Small Business, a grassroots organization pushing for more government support, reports that 70 per cent of 20,000 business representatives surveyed say they expect to be in default on their rent after May 1.

And while governments have taken some positive steps to support some companies, the response so far hasnt yet directly addressed the most pressing need for small retail and restaurant business right now: the rent is too damn high.

While the Ontario government has put a pause on residential evictions, theres been no similar move to halt commercial evictions, leaving businesses vulnerable to finding their doors locked by landlords if they fail to make a rent payment in full.

Thats particularly concerning in Toronto, where prior to the pandemic landlords were showing a willingness to keep commercial units vacant for long periods of time. With evictions still permitted, unscrupulous landlords could use COVID-19 as an opportunity to turf long-leased tenants with the hope of securing more rent or selling their building for redevelopment on the other side of the pandemic.

To avoid that, governments need to first remove the possibility of eviction. Give landlords no choice but to negotiate with their current tenants. To make the finances work, a policy paper by Save Small Business and the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas is recommending a federal program where the government pays up to 60 per cent of any rent reduction offered to commercial tenants, to a maximum of $6,000 per month.

That would be a darn good start. But the most important thing needed from all levels of government is a clear statement of principles. Hundreds or thousands of businesses closing does not need to be an inevitable part of the COVID-19 response.

The goal should be simple: zero small businesses should fail due to the pandemic. Do whatever it takes.

That might sound audacious, but taking a leap and starting a business is also audacious. People mortgage their homes and empty their savings accounts to pursue their dream of running a shop or restaurant. And now many of them are facing failure  and personal financial ruin  due to circumstances entirely beyond their control. Nobody should be blamed for not considering a worldwide pandemic when drawing up their business plan.

At city hall, theres recognition that these kinds of heartbreaking scenarios are unfair. Coun. Brad Bradford has been leading the response to small business as part of Mayor John Torys economic recovery task force. Hes written to Premier Doug Ford asking for a halt to commercial evictions. But so far theres been no action from Queens Park.

It needs to come, and quick. Theres more at stake here than balance sheets or bankruptcies. Our neighbourhoods will feel the loss of every shop or restaurant that doesnt make it through this.
The total number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan sharply increased to 4,004. The death toll has reached 55.

Punjab has the highest number of coronavirus cases with the tally standing at 2004. The province accounts for more than half of Pakistan's COVID-19 cases.

According to Dawn, 429 people have recovered from the deadly virus.

Sindh has 986 cases, meanwhile, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have 202 cases and 500 cases respectively.

Police here on Monday arrested doctors and medical staff, who were protesting over the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits for safety while treating coronavirus patients.

President of the Young Doctors Association Yasir Khan told Geo News that over 150 doctors and paramedics were arrested.

Last month, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced a multi-billion stimulus package to combat the deadly coronavirus.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
THE ball is now in Parliaments court after the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) Charles Kichere, yesterday tabled his maiden audit reports for the year ending June 30, 2019 in the House, uncovering massive irregularities in Central and Local Government Authorities (LGAs) and Public Entities (PEs).

The submission of the audit reports in the Parliament now opens doors for lawmakers to go through review, debate and suggest appropriate punitive measures against the culprits.

Soon after presenting the 2018/2019 annual audit reports in the House in the afternoon, the CAG briefed journalists on the rot he had revealed within different entities.

Flanked by the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Naghenjwa Kaboyoka, and Deputy Chairperson of the Local Authorities Committee (LAAC), Abdallah Chikota, Mr Kichere asked responsible authorities to work on his recommendations to avoid further misuse of public funds.

The CAGs review at the National Identification Authority (NIDA), realised that the Authority had not recovered the advance payment amounting to 28.2bn/- paid to M/s IRIS Corporation Berhad of Malaysia (Contractor) for the procurement and supply of goods and equipment for National ID system.

Even though the contract had expired since March 14, 2018, exactly two years ago, the report says, 33 ICT equipment supporting Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) machines were missing in various Councils.

The missing equipment are laptops, cameras, disks, derma log, solar and adapter, said Mr Kichere.

The report shows that there was inefficiency in handling and resolving tax objections within the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA).

I noted that TRA has lodged objections with total taxes of 84.6bn/- by taxpayers that were outstanding beyond the allowable period as specified in TRA Service Charterthe delay in settlement of tax objections have a negative impact on revenue collection targets since these cases tie up a substantial amount of taxes, he said.

The CAG report further revealed that fuel levy and transit charges amounting to 7.06bn/- collected TRA was not transferred to Roads Fund Board (RFB).

At the National Electoral Commission (NEC), the CAG noted serious significant procurement issues in the 2018/2019 report including among others, irregularities in the contract for supply of pole tents for NEC worth 6.3bn/-.

On issues of procurement, the CAG noted that Ministry of works, Transport and Communications (Vote 62) paid TTCL for procurement of battery cells, connectors and other accessories for replacement in the National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB) sites worth 1.6bn/- without Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry and TTCL.

I also noted that five audited entities made procurement of goods and services worth 5.4bn/- without contracts contrary to the legislation.

Besides, I noted that the Ministry of Agriculture (Vote 43) procured agricultural chemicals worth 3.3bn/- but the same were not distributed to the intended beneficiaries. Delays may cause the chemicals to expire before use, said Mr Kichere.

According to the CAG, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism along with its affiliates executed unbudgeted activities known as Urithi Festival Celebration and special Television channel for broadcasting tourist attraction Tanzania Safari Channel, at a cost of 2.58bn/-without prior approval of the National Assembly.

The CAG report further uncovered poor expenditure management within Public Entities including irregularities the transfer of fund by Fire and Rescue Force for construction of head office in Dodoma amounting to 1.7bn/-.

There was also irregularities on the payments made by Tanzania Police force for construction of various infrastructures amounting to 806.7m/-, exorbitant costs for hiring chairs, tents and private vehicles by the Tanzania Peoples Defence Force (489.8m/-), fraudulent EFD receipts issued to Tanga Regional Secretariat amounting to 70m/- as well as inappropriate use of imprest account by the Tanga Regional Secretariat which cause loss of 615.7m/-.

The CAG audit of embassies of Brazil, Algeria and Sweden noted exorbitant rental charges for Diplomatic Residential Houses amounting to 1,02bn/- and inadequately supported payments by five embassies running to 645m/-.

The five embassies in foreign countries are Canada, Burundi, Russia, Sweden and Japan.




Laois native, Channel 4's Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick has given his opinion on Tiger King, the number one hit series on Netflix.

Professor Noel was chatting to RTE's Ray D'Arcy on his radio show this Monday April 6.

Ray asked him what was his opinion of the show that everyone seems to have watched during Covid-19 quarantine.

It features the eccentric lives of private zoo owners in the US who breed exotic big cats. The series eventually spiralling out of control into a true murder-for-hire story.

Professor Noel said while he hasn't seen it, his nurses told him about it.

"If it doesn't involve Bono I haven't watched it. I have not seen that programme, I don't know anything about it, I've been busy managing the practice and making sure that everybody gets looked after and the animals get looked after in emergencies, as well as we are allowed to do," he told Ray D'Arcy.

"But I think that one of the things that I'm hearing from my nurses is that again it reflects our moral responsibility for animals. We can't just use them for our benefit. We have a moral responsibility now more than ever it is time to step up to that," he said.

Professor Noel Fitzpatrick who is from Ballyfin has a new podcast called Animal People available on Spotify and iTunes.

The world-class orthopaedic-neuro veterinary surgeon is managing director of one of the largest veterinary referral centres in the UK, Fitzpatrick Referrals. His television show The Supervet is in its 15th season with millions of viewers.
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Lawmakers went to Albany last week to vote on a $177 billion state budget.

The budget includes authorizing spending cuts of up to $10 billion during the coronavirus outbreak.

It will allow businesses with between five to 99 employees to give employees at least five days of job-protected sick leave per year and businesses with 100 or more employees with at least seven days of paid sick leave.

The budget bans fentanyl analogs and will allow law enforcement to prosecute the manufacturing, sale and distribution of those analogs. It will also give the State Department of Health Commissioner the ability to add other analogs to the list of controlled substances as they appear on the market.

Lawmakers were able to make some adjustments to the 2019 Criminal Justice Reform Law -- or Bail Reform Law -- by giving judges more discretion over the release including mental health referrals and requirements to attend counseling. It also added several offenses that can be bail eligible, including sex trafficking offenses, money laundering in support of terrorism in the 3rd and 4th degree, child pornography offenses, repeat offenders, and those who commit crimes resulting in death.

The budget also included the "New York Hate Crime Anti-Terrorism Act" which puts together a "domestic act of terrorism motivated by hate" crime as a new A-1 class felony punishable by up to life in prison without parole.

Legalizing marijuana did not make it into the budget for the second year in a row. Cuomo said several details needed to be worked out within the legislature before it could be considered and lawmakers were unable to do so because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Heres what Staten Island elected officials have to say:

STATE SEN. DIANE SAVINO

The Senator voted yes for the budget and was in Albany for the vote.

The coronavirus has led to many unexpected and unprecedented obstacles for this years budget process, it was one of the toughest that I have ever voted for in my career. However, there are some silver linings that will protect New Yorkers and help families struggling during this time, Savino said.

Savino applauded:

$40 million emergency relief package to the state prepare for future public health crises.

Immediate Unemployment Insurance with no waiting period for New Yorkers who lost their job during the crisis.

Authorizing the $3 billion Restore Mother Nature Bond Act which includes:

$1 billion for restoration and flood risk reduction.

$700 million for climate change mitigation.

$550 million for open space land conservation and recreation.

ASSEMBLYMAN MICHAEL CUSICK

Assemblyman Cusick voted yes for most of the budget and was in Albany for the vote. The assemblyman voted against a portion of the budget that dealt with publicly financed campaigns.

This years budget was very difficult given the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and the deficit which could be as high as $16 billion, but I supported the overall budget package and I will continue to monitor the states financial situation going forward. Importantly, in recognition of the unprecedented situation we are in, the Legislature added a provision that will allow the Governor to react to the rapidly changing fiscal reality, Cusick said. It is our duty to keep the government moving forward and operating on behalf of the residents

Cusick applauded:

Unemployment Insurance funding, in anticipation of higher unemployment claims as a result of COVID-19, by $1.05 billion.

Tax cuts for the middle class including one for people earning between $43,000 and $161,550 who will see their income tax rates reduced from 6.85% to 6.09%. For people making more than $161,550 but less than $323,200, their income tax rate will be 6.41%.

He praised banning synthetic opioid analogs.

And preserving the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge Resident Discount as well as bail reform and the New York Hate Crime Anti-Terrorism Act."

ASSEMBLYMAN CHARLES FALL

Fall voted for the overall budget and was in Albany for the vote.

We should not be investing money into a commission designed to address public financing of campaigns when we are in a budget shortfall during a national pandemic. We were not able to reject the proposal to transition the Medicaid pharmacy benefit from managed care to fee for service that was recommended and approved by the Governors appointed Medicaid Redesign Team. We will keep this on the radar and address the workgroup on the importance of obtaining additional time to evaluate the complexities of the 340B program.

Fall applauded:

Preserving the resident toll for the Islands brides and funding for the Camelot substance abuse treatment facility..

Enacting a tobacco control policy that requires manufactures of vaping products to disclose to the Department of Health public information regarding ingredients, by-products, or contaminates in their product.

Investing $1 million to partner with organizations to help veterans, law enforcement and first responders with suicide prevention efforts.

Expanding college student enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

ASSEMBLYWOMAN NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS

Malliotakis was in Albany and while she voted for some parts of the budget, she said she voted against parts of the budget which included additional borrowing.

It's been a long-fought battle but we persisted and were able to achieve significant changes to the botched bail reform adopted by the governor with one-party rule in last years budget, said Malliotakis. Not only did we add a significant number of offenses to those that qualify for bail, we added provisions to stop unlimited chances by ensuring that a person who either commits a crime after being released on their own recognizance, is on probation or is on post release supervision will have to face a judge in court who will be able to set bail. I'm happy to have

Malliotakis applauded:

Fixes to bail reform and a number of offenses to the list of qualifying offenses that are eligible for bail including: Class A-I felony drug offenses; Sex trafficking; Money laundering in support of terrorism in the 3 rd and 4 the degrees; Promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child; Promoting a sexual performance by a child; Any crime that is alleged to cause the death of another person; Criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation, strangulation in the 2nd degree, or unlawful imprisonment 1st where committed against a member of the same family or household The subway sex offender ban, which allows both courts and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to issue orders of protection, or administrative prohibition orders, to individuals who commit unlawful sexual acts in MTA facilities.

ASSEMBLYMAN MICHAEL REILLY

Reilly was there for the vote but did not vote for any part of the budget because there were a number of policy areas he did not agree with.

This is definitely an unusual time for the people of our state, but make no mistake, it has been business as usual for Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Early this morning, the New York State Legislature voted to approve a record-setting $177 billion budget for the states upcoming fiscal year  albeit several days late and chock-full of the same wasteful expenditures and negative policies that New Yorks middle- and working-class families have unfortunately become familiar with, Reilly said.

Reilly applauded:

The increase in funding to the schools by $95.6 million more.

Increasing the states Excelsior Scholarship Program.

Making the Buy American Act was made permanent.

Being able to secure $1 million in new to support suicide prevention services for the New York City Police Department.

SENATOR ANDREW LANZA

Did not respond to requests for comment.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.
ATLANTA - Civil rights icon and Georgia Rep. John Lewis is backing Joe Biden for president, giving the prospective Democratic nominee perhaps his biggest symbolic endorsement among the many veteran black lawmakers who back his candidacy.

We need his voice, the 80-year-old Lewis told reporters ahead of the campaigns Tuesday announcement. He described the 77-year-old Biden as a man of courage, a man of great conscience, a man of faith, and said the former vice-president would help us regain our way as a nation.

A 17-term Atlanta congressman, Lewis is battling pancreatic cancer but said hed travel around America for Biden if social distancing guidelines are eased amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Lewis tailored a message to younger black voters whove not backed Biden with the same enthusiasm as older African Americans.

I would tell young people the story of Selma and Montgomery and Mississippi, Lewis said, remembering being beaten nearly to death by Alabama state troopers as he marched for voting rights in 1965. If we fail to vote, we dont count. The vote is the most powerful, nonviolent tool we have in society, and we must use it.

Lewis did not name President Donald Trump but said pointedly, We have a choice.

Black voters have anchored Bidens primary coalition, starting with overwhelming support in South Carolina. A Feb. 29 victory there propelled Biden through victories that yielded an insurmountable delegate lead over Bernie Sanders before the COVID-19 virus prompted more than a dozen states, including Lewis Georgia, to delay their primaries.

Bidens team once viewed Georgias March 24 contest as a likely knockout blow for Sanders. Georgia is now set to vote May 19, so Lewis blessing at this point is more about his national profile than any heavyweight status at home.

Perhaps the most visible living representatives of black Americans civil rights struggle, Lewis was one of the original Freedom Riders. The group rode buses through the segregated South in the early 1960s to challenge Jim Crow laws. They were beaten at multiple bus stations along the way. In March 1965, Lewis was among those battered and gassed by authorities on Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, as they tried to march to the Capitol in Montgomery.

I gave a little blood on that bridge, almost died, Lewis said Monday.

In 1963, he was a lead organizer of the March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his best-known address. Lewis was in Indianapolis in April 1968, campaigning for presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, the night King was assassinated in Memphis. Kennedy would be assassinated eight weeks later.

Biden was a young law school student at the time and now frequently cites King and Kennedy as his two political heroes. Biden credits the civil rights movement, decades before hed become vice-president to Barack Obama, the nations first black president, as the inspiration for his political career. Still, Biden sometimes overplays his social action in that era.

As a first-term U.S. senator from Delaware, Biden pushed for the extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which had been adopted after Lewis marches. Biden fought against redlining  banking standards that made it difficult, if not impossible, for black families to secure mortgages in white neighbourhoods. But Biden also was a leading critic of court-ordered busing to force integration of public schools. He notes that many black parents joined whites in opposing busing, and he points to redlining as the real structural impediment to school integration.

Early in his 2020 campaign, Biden recalled the civility of that 1970s Senate, despite its roster of several avowed racists elected during the Jim Crow era. He clarified that hed fought his older colleagues on matters like voting rights but found common ground on issues unrelated to race.

Young African American commentators excoriated Biden as anachronistic and unfit to lead Democrats in 2020. Lewis joined several older black lawmakers to defend Biden  and illuminate generational fissures on the left.

Nodding to the partys diversity, Biden has promised his administration would look like the country. Hes committed to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court upon his first vacancy. Hes pledged to name a woman as his running mate.

It would be good to have a woman of colour as vice-president, Lewis said, stopping short of saying he expects such a move.

Though Lewis avoided explicit criticisms of Trump during his remarks, he alluded to Bidens campaign theme that is directed squarely at the Republican incumbent. Bidens election, Lewis said, would redeem the soul of America.

Lewis memorably tangled with Trump days before the presidents inauguration in 2017. Lewis said he did not see Trump as a legitimate president, prompting Trump to blast Lewis as all talk and denigrate his majority black district as crime infested and falling apart. Among other markers, the Atlanta-based district includes Coca-Cola world headquarters, site of the 1996 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, Kings church and burial site, Jimmy Carters presidential library and museum, the Georgia Capitol and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

___

Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game.
The Island of Sao Tome and Principe confirmed its first four Covid-19 cases on Monday.

The confirmation was made by the prime minister, Jorge Jesus, who said the test which was sent to Gabon came back positive.

No other information was given about the patients.

This makes Sao Tome the 52nd country in Africa to confirm a case, leaving Comoros and Lesotho virus free.

The continent as of Monday night had a total of 9,864 confirmed cases, 486 deaths, and nearly 1000 recoveries.

In Libya, a rebel leader, Mahmud Jibirl, who led the forceful removal of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, died on Sunday after contracting the deadly virus.

The 68-year old had been hospitalised for two weeks in Cairo, Egypt  the secretary of the Alliance of National forces party, Khaled al-Mrimi, confirmed.

Hisham Wagdyn, the director of the Egyptian hospital, revealed that Mr Jibril was admitted to the hospital on March 21 after suffering a heart attack before testing positive for the coronavirus and being quarantined.

Mr Jibril died in Egypt which has a total of 1,322 confirmed cases, 85 deaths, and 259 recoveries. His country Libya has a total of 18 confirmed cases, 1 death, and 1 recovery.

READ ALSO:

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisations Director-General Tedros Adhanom, in a press briefing called for unity across all nations in the world.

We have said consistently that were all in this together, and we can only succeed together. We need an all-of-society approach, with everyone playing their part, he said.

In regard to a statement made earlier by French scientists who suggested the use of Africans as guinea pigs for COVID-19 research, he refuted this saying Africa cannot and will not be the testing ground for any vaccine. The hangover from such colonial (mentality) has to stop.
Since the start of 2019, measles epidemic has infected more than 341,000 people and killed some 6,400 in the DRC.

Mongala Province, DRC  Three months ago, Alphonsina Ekima emerged from the narrow jungle path leading to her village in the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to find a huddle of people gathered around her house.

Confused, she asked her neighbours what was happening. No one replied. Eventually, somebody broke the news. Her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Marie Bwana, was dead.

I lost control, I fell down on the ground and cut my leg, Ekima said, pointing to the scar. The women gathered around to help me get into my house.

Since the start of 2019, the DRCs measles epidemic has infected more than 341,000 people and killed some 6,400, taking almost three times as many lives as Ebola over the same period.

The actual mortality rate might be much higher, up to four or five times higher than what we see in official numbers because there are a lot of health structures that are not functioning properly, said Karel Janssens, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) head of mission in the DRC.

So, theres a lot of community deaths that are not reflected in some of the official reports.

While Ebola infections dry up, bringing the DRCs almost 20-month outbreak close to an end, measles still rages on. The disease has spread to all 26 provinces of the vast country but has received a fraction of the funding and attention from international donors.

Channelling attention and resources to the Ebola outbreak, donors and government officials were blindsided by the developing measles catastrophe, while the nations ailing infrastructure and healthcare system stymied an effective response. And now, the coronavirus pandemic has been unleashed on the world, complicating an already challenging situation.

Its obvious the priority will be given to COVID-19 in the coming weeks and months, said Vincent Sodjinou, the head of the World Health Organizations (WHO) measles response.

The priority [before] was on Ebola, and it wasnt easy to mobilise funds, he added. For measles, it was difficult for us to fight. It was a daily fight.

At a measles isolation unit in Boso Manzi, Wana Mabele, left, comforts Dobo Mahbanza, her three-year-old baby who is going blind, as a nurse monitors her health [Lisa Murray/Al Jazeera]

For Marie, the youngest of Ekimas eight children, the fight started with a fever and a cold.

In the night, she developed complications, she had problems breathing, her body hurt everywhere, Ekima recalled. She couldnt sleep; she was always changing positions.

Like almost 20 percent of the DRCs population who are severely food insecure, Ekima and her husband have been struggling to grow enough to feed their family from their small plot of land, let alone produce a surplus to sell. And, despite the governments policy to provide free measles treatment, local health centres continued to charge patients, according to Sodjinou.

Unable to afford medical fees and concerned at her daughters deteriorating state, Ekima took her to a traditional healer  to no avail.

The next day, while her husband took Marie back to the traditional healer, Ekima went to wash clothes at the local stream.

She never saw her daughter alive again.

After recovering from measles at an isolation unit in Boso Manzi, Mariane Mbese and her three-year-old Kosenge Mbese prepare to return to their village in rural Mongala province in DRC. After catching measles almost two weeks earlier, unvaccinated Mbise became very thin and developed malnutrition [Lisa Murray/Al Jazeera]

Last year, the DRCs Ministry of Health led an effort to vaccinate 18 million children against the measles across the country, using $22m of donor funding  excluding MSFs contribution.

In comparison, USAID alone has spent $569m since the start of the Ebola outbreak, according to the US State Department, while the total funding for the Ebola response is unclear.

Spending much of her time at her farm far from Macau, Ekima was not aware of a government-led vaccination campaign in December. But even if Marie had received the vaccine, it may not have worked.

All seven of a neighbouring familys children received the government-administered vaccine. But their mother, Madda Maddo, said they all subsequently contracted the disease and the youngest, Ephraim Liwewe, died.

Measles itself is not lethal, but sufferers can develop complications such as pneumonia as well as eye and respiratory issues that can be fatal. People with weakened immune systems, such as those suffering from malnutrition or malaria, are particularly vulnerable.

In countries with advanced healthcare, the measles vaccine works upwards of 85 percent of the time, according to Patricia Tanifum, a measles expert at the WHO. But in remote corners of the DRC, where the health system and road network have suffered decades of conflict, underfunding and neglect, the virus thrives.

Some five million children in the DRC are acutely malnourished, which means the effectiveness of the vaccine is reduced. When vaccinated, malnourished children are less able to develop the immunoglobulin against measles, leaving them vulnerable, Sodjinou said.

Meanwhile, about 1 percent of rural areas have access to electricity from the national grid, making it hard to deliver and store temperature-sensitive vaccines such as measles that need to be kept between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius (35.6 and 46.4 Fahrenheit).

If not kept in the right range of temperature  it would be correct to compare it to a water injection given to children, said Philippe Mpabenda, MSFs head of measles response in Boso Manzi.

Furthermore, local health workers often lack the technical knowledge to oversee vaccinations and manage the cold-chain, the process of storing and moving vaccines in a cool environment.

A convoy of motorbikes carrying chilled vaccines crosses a log bridge on the 10-hour journey to Boso Manzi [Lisa Murray/Al Jazeera]

Race against time

The challenge of transporting an effective vaccine from a factory to a village like Macau is a logistical nightmare. The DRC is about seven times the size of Germany but has less than 0.5 percent of the paved roads compared to Germany.

Sometimes you can find a village which is 100km (62 miles) from the health centre, and they dont have a motorbike or cold-chain, said Sodjinou.

Unreliable census data going back to the 1980s means that some communities in the DRC record more than 100 percent measles vaccination coverage yet, according to Sodijnou, a 2018 study organised by the WHO revealed that the actual vaccination coverage across the country was only 57 percent.

In response to the continued crisis, MSF launched various emergency vaccination campaigns since the end of 2018 to help slow the spread of the disease.

In one of these campaigns last month, half a dozen motorbikes carrying large blue cool-boxes containing the vaccine bounced down the dirt track towards Ekimas village, crossing log bridges, dodging burning thickets of bamboo and overcoming multiple breakdowns and flat tires.

It is a race against time to deliver the vaccine before it overheats in the equatorial sun.

Nine hours later, and shortly after sundown, the team arrives with their precious cargo in Boso Manzi, the nearest town to Macau.

The fleet of motorcycle drivers wearily unload cool-boxes into MSFs temporary warehouse  a white tent lined with refrigerators powered by a series of generators.

A local health worker prepares a measles vaccination in Bolutu village [Lisa Murray/Al Jazeera]

After checking the 2,900 vials are intact, the temperate log for each cool-box is plugged into a computer. Seconds later, a graph appears, showing every change in temperature since leaving the manufacturers warehouse in India.

This is just the first phase of a herculean effort.

Over the next 10 days, the vials will be loaded back onto the motorbikes and transported to villages such as Macau, and deeper into the forest, to reach children missed in previous vaccination efforts.

After overcoming logistical challenges in reaching remote communities in the DRC, the cost per vaccine increases five-fold, according to Sodjinou.

It is already too late for some.

Inside the last of a row of four dilapidated tin-roofed hospital buildings in Boso Manzi, Wanea Mabela comforts her three-year-old daughter, Dobo Mabanza, on a rusting iron bed. For the past two weeks, this has served as a measles isolation ward for surrounding villages, some people travelling as far as 90km (56 miles) to reach it.

After falling sick with measles less than two weeks earlier, Dobo Mabanza is now going blind.

I feel so guilty, says Mabela as she cradles her baby. Im afraid people might say its because I didnt get to the vaccination and so my daughter fell ill.

Living an hours walk from the local health clinic, Mabela was unable to take her daughter to get vaccinated in the December campaign. The same day, her child fell sick.
Peter Navarro.

Andrew Harnik/AP Images

The Trump administration received at least two memos  one in January and another in February  from his top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, forecasting various possibilities for the human and economic costs of the coronavirus outbreak.

The second memo, addressed directly to President Donald Trump on February 23, said as many as 2 million people could die.

Some senior officials apparently thought Navarro was being an alarmist.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump's top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, sent a memo to the National Security Council in January that predicted hundreds of thousands could die from the novel coronavirus with a loss of trillions of dollars for the economy, The New York Times reported on Monday.

Navarro sent at least one other memo, in February, with both warning of a grave impact if the coronavirus outbreak were not contained in the US.

Both memos were published Monday by Axios. In the first memo, sent January 29, Navarro wrote that as many as 543,000 Americans could die, costing the country $5.7 trillion. The memo described the possibility of both a "seasonal flu-like" outcome and a "pandemic flu" outcome but suggested the pandemic was likely given Americans' lack of immunity against the new virus.

"The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil," the January memo said. "This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans."

One senior administration official who spoke with Axios described being wary of Navarro's intentions given his hawkish stance on China. The January memo advocated a travel ban on China, which the Trump administration later implemented.

"The January travel memo struck me as an alarmist attempt to bring attention to Peter's anti-China agenda while presenting an artificially limited range of policy options," the unnamed official told Axios.

Story continues

Almost a month later, Navarro sent another memo, this time addressed to Trump directly, warning that as many as 2 million people in the US could die from the virus.

Axios said both memos were circulated around the White House and multiple agencies by the NSC.

In his first memo, Navarro cited an estimate by the White House Council of Economic Advisers that banning travel from China would cost $2.9 billion a month, or $34.6 billion if implemented for a year, which he recommended.

According to The Times, White House aides at the time thought a yearlong travel ban on China would be "unsustainable."

The Times described Navarro and Matthew Pottinger, the chief deputy at the National Security Council, as being among only a few officials at the time who were arguing for a more stringent approach to containing the coronavirus.

In his second memo, which Axios said was not signed by Navarro, he requested $3 billion for immediate aid to "support efforts at prevention, treatment, inoculation, and diagnostics."

This time he warned that as much as a third of the country could be infected, with 1 million to 2 million deaths.

Read the original article on Business Insider
False: Banks and its branches will not be closed during the lock down

Fake: No joint initiative launched to collect information on Indians stuck in Brazil

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Apr 07: There is a rumour doing the rounds stating that a joint initiative has been launched to collect information of Indian nations stuck in Brazil owing to the coronavirus outbreak.

The message on the social media says, 'hi, as a joint initiative with the embassy, we are collecting information of all Indians stuck in Brazil. Kindly fill this Google form.'

Fake News Buster

India in Brazil, the official Twitter page of the Embassy of India, Brazil said the above claim is false. There is no such joint initiative with private individuals, the Embassy and Consulate General of India, Sao Paulo to collect information relating to Indians. This is a false claim it has also been clarified.

Beware of these fake ids in the name of PM Cares Fund

Further it is said that people are advised not to share personally identifiable information with non-government entities. The embassy is directly in touch with the Indian nationals in Brazil and would request any information, if needed directly.

1. This is a false claim. There is no such joint initiative, with private individuals, of the @indiainbrazil and @cgisaopaulo to collect information of Indian nationals. pic.twitter.com/X6upTgFbct  India In Brazil (@indiainbrazil) April 5, 2020

Brazil's President, Jair Bolsonaro is the only leader in the world to reject the consensus of scientists on the gravity of the coronavirus. He has dismissed COVID-19 as a little flu and remarked that we all die someday. He has also urged Brazilians to leave isolation and return to work, while defying the advise of the World Health Organisation.
The Oklahoma House has granted sweeping new powers to the governor to respond to the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

The House met in special session and approved the resolution under the never-before-used Catastrophic Health Emergency Act, which gives Gov. Kevin Stitt the authority to temporary suspend laws and regulations that interfere with the states ability to respond to the outbreak.

It also gives the governor the authority to redirect state employees and other resources, including state funds, from one agency to another, among other things. The measure now heads to the Senate, which is expected to approve it.

Some House and Senate members wore masks and gloves as they filed onto the floor in groups of 10 or less to cast their votes. Some members in the House also voted by proxy, a move authorized under new rules approved last month.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.

The House and Senate are expected to convene in regular session later Monday to approve tapping the states Rainy Day Fund to shore up an estimated $416 million hole in the state budget for the fiscal year ending June 30.

The number of coronavirus cases in the state surpassed 1,300 on April 6 and five more people died of COVID-19, the Oklahoma State Department of Health reported. There are at least 1,327 cases and 51 COVID-19 deaths, and health officials expect that number to continue to rise.

President Donald Trump declared a major disaster in Oklahoma on Sunday, making more federal funding available for recovery efforts.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics COVID-19 Oklahoma
April 07, 2020 / 10:53 PM IST

The novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic has spread across 184 countries. Today is the fourteenth day of India's 21-day lockdown. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India stands at 4,789. The Union Health Ministry has said that 124 people have died due to the disease.

The US has the highest number of confirmed cases followed by Spain, Italy, Germany and France. The outbreak is having a major impact on global economy and the stock market. Catch the latest updates here:

Globally, there have been over 13.5 lakh confirmed cases of COVID-19. At least 74,850 people have died so far.
Reaching Geauga Countys significant Amish population requires a different approach than with the general public, but Geauga County Health Commissioner Tom Quade said Amish leaders have taken steps to help protect their community from the novel coronavirus.

As of 2017, Geauga County had more than 18,600 Amish residents according to Amish America. Its the second largest Amish population in Ohio after Holmes County and the fourth largest in the country.

Quade said he first reached out to Geaugas Amish schools following Gov. Mike DeWines March 12 announcement that schools would be closed. Letters were sent out to the individual schools informing them that the order affected them as well.

He then got a call from the Amish schools superintendent, who told Quade he should have reached out to him. Quade said in a phone interview that he was unaware that there was an Amish superintendent. Theyve had several conversations since then.

After that initial conversation, Quade met with Amish school board members and talked with them about the challenges and risks that come with the COVID-19 pandemic.

With technological limitations, Amish schools needed to take a different approach to distance learning. Quade said the schools put a pretty good strategy in place. A small group of students come into the school to pick up lesson plans. That group leaves and another enters. Quade said to outsiders it may seem like the schools were still open, but they are complying with the states order.

Quade said the Amish superintendent was the first in the county to reach out and ask if they should anticipate an extension of the school closure order.

Theyve actually been reaching out to us, its not just been a matter of reaching out to them, Quade said. Theyve actually been very proactive and its very different than if you just listen to the comments that came in.

Quade said hes also spoken with Amish bishops and said that several churches have closed. In a paper that services the Middlefield area, Geauga Public Health put together a one-page FAQ that is mailed directly to Amish subscribers.

Recently, Quade along with Geauga County Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand and Middlefield Village Mayor Ben Garlich put together photos to demonstrate social distancing.

Garlich is putting weekly COVID-19 updates on the villages website. He also sent the most recent (April 3) letter to all Amish bishops. Garlich said he wants the message applied to Amish and non-Amish alike.

I am concerned for all our residents and businesses and we owe it to ourselves and others to follow suggested social distancing and hygiene, Garlich said.

Quade said the Amish are complying with the states orders just as well as the general public, but said that greater compliance is needed overall.

We just drive down the street and you can see all the people that are still walking around doing non-essential things, Quade said. So I dont know if anybodys taking it as seriously as they need to, but its not a particularly Amish problem. I think theyre taking it as seriously as the general public.

My concern is that (no one is) taking it seriously enough, but all you can do is lead the horse to water. Were trying to get them all to start drinking a little bit.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will struggle to pay for their security and their current lifestyle amid the coronavirus crisis, a royal expert has claimed.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved to California in March after they stepped down as senior members of the royal family.

But they are now facing footing their estimated 4million security bill themselves - which may be difficult for the couple who have no current source of regular income, according to royal expert Omid Scobie.

Speaking on the Heir Pod podcast, the commentator said the couple will not be immune to financial difficulties, with the pandemic most likely preventing them from pursuing commerical opportunities.

He said: 'They have spent the last few years not earning a living. As a royal, your expenses are covered but you don't earn a salary. It will be very tough for them especially in the few months ahead.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will struggle to pay for their security and their current lifestyle, a royal expert has revealed. The couple are pictured in London in October

'No-one knows when there is an end date to this. This could follow us for some time.'

Scobie, who is a regular contributor to Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar continued: 'For Harry and Meghan, on top of the difficulties they have had with the press, there has been this underlying issue of who pays for security moving forward.

'It is something the couple were very conscious of - that from March 31st it would have to be done by themselves.

'They didn't want to leave themselves open to further attacks.'

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved to California in March after they stepped down as senior members of the royal family. But they are now facing footing their estimated 4million security bill themselves - which may be cause for concern to the couple. Meghan is pictured at the Royal Albert Hall in London in March

CTV's Laney Lui added: 'Security is not cheap. For them, you are dealing with multiple personnel and round-the-clock at that. You have to also account for that and travel and other expenses.'

She continued: 'This all goes back to the curiosity about their future plans and what they will be. They are going to have to have a pretty significant income to cover that and their lifestyle.'

The issue of the couple's security was raised when President Donald Trump tweeted that the US taxpayer would not pay for their bill, following their move to Malibu, where they are currently self-isolating with their 11-month-old son Archie.

Last week, the Mail revealed Harry and Meghan agreed to pay for the cost of their security personally.

Their security personnel will reportedly consist of former SAS soldiers at a cost of 400 per operative per day.

Prince Charles will continue to pay for the upkeep of his son and daughter-in-law for the first 12 months of their new life out of his private funds, not the Duchy of Cornwall. But it is understood that this money will not be used for their protection.

A Sussex spokesman said: Security costs are being personally covered by the couple.

The development suggests that the Sussexes have negotiated a clean break, in which they will now receive no public money, only funding from Prince Charless personal fortune until they start to earn an income of their own.

A source said: The Prince of Wales supports them privately but the duke and duchess also have their own money. They are paying for this themselves. The duke has been adamant on that.

The Sussexes' quick fire reply came hours after Mr Trump said the couple should foot the bill for their bodyguards, now they have moved across the border to LA from Vancouver where Canadian police helped with security.

It comes as the couple announced they are launching a new charitable foundation named Archewell. They also revealed the Greek word in the project Arche  meaning source of action  was the inspiration behind the name of their son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, baby Archie is pictured above with his mother and father in South Africa in September last year

The bill for their security while living in Canada, which includes a roster of nine highly skilled British officers shuttling between the UK and US, is estimated to be as much as 8 million a year and is covered by British taxpayers through the Metropolitan Police budget. They also received support from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Royal sources had said that if Harry and Meghan wanted help with security from the Secret Service in the US, which protects international diplomats, a request would have to be made to the State Department.

It comes as the couple announced they are launching a new charitable foundation named Archewell.

Meghan and Harry said they 'look forward' to getting started with the foundation, which will replace their Sussex Royal brand.

Harry and Meghan also revealed the Greek word in the project Arche  meaning source of action  was the inspiration behind the name of their son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

Further details about the organisation have been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The couple said an announcement will be made 'when the time is right'.

Their plans comes just one day after the Queen addressed the UK regarding the coronavirus pandemic.
US president Donald Trump has said Americans are praying for the recovery UKs Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a friend to the nation, who was moved to the intensive care unit after his Covid-19 symptoms worsened.

Boris Johnson was taken to the hospital on Sunday and was undergoing tests after suffering persistent coronavirus symptoms for over 10 days after he first tested positive. The 55-year-old UK leader was shifted to the intensive care ward in Londons St Thomas Hospital on Monday.

He is in ICU as a precaution should he require ventilation to aid his recovery, officials have said.

I also want to send best wishes to a very good friend of mine and a friend of our nation Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Were very saddened to hear that he was taken into intensive care ... a little while ago, Trump said during his daily coronavirus task force briefing from the White House.

Hes been a really good friend. Hes been really something very special. Strong. Resolute, he said.

Also read: What you need to know today

Trump also said his administration has contacted the British government to extend their help.

Weve contacted all of Boris doctors, and well see what is going to take place, but they are ready to go When you are brought into intensive care that gets very, very serious, he said.

We are working with London with respect to Boris Johnson, the US president added.

Trump said that he had asked two US pharmaceutical companies (not named) to contact Johnsons doctors to check if both he and the companies could help with the therapies in practice to treat coronavirus patients.

We have made tremendous progress on therapeutics Ive asked two of the leading companies... I have asked them to contact London immediately, he said.

Trump also said the two companies have contacted their London offices and ensured that they have everything that Johnsons doctors may need during his recovery.

Boris Johnson was tested positive on March 27 and his symptoms included high temperature and a cough.

(With agency inputs)
The National Guard is being deployed to a Chelmsford nursing home to conduct widespread COVID-19 testing, officials said Tuesday.

Numerous residents of the Palm Center, at 40 Parkhurst Road, have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, according to a news release from Police Chief James M. Spinney.

The National Guard will arrive at the nursing home later today, Spinney said, adding that the testing is being done out of an abundance of caution and does not suggest a wider danger in Chelmsford as a whole.

The decision to deploy the National Guard followed discussion from Chelmsford leaders, the state Department of Public Health, and administration at the Palm Center facility, the statement said.

The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in its scale and spread, Spinney said. We are fortunate to have great partnerships and excellent chains of communication among municipal first responders, our Chelmsford health department, state health officials and administrators at the Palm Center. The health and safety of our most vulnerable residents comes first for everyone.

Last week, the National Guard was deployed to a nursing home in neighboring Littleton. All 85 residents of that nursing home have been tested for the virus.

COVID-19, a respiratory illness, has spread quickly in places like nursing homes.

As of Monday afternoon, 260 Massachusetts residents have died from illness related to COVID-19, according to the state Department of Public Health. At least 13,837 people have tested positive for the virus.

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Kathmandu, April 7

The ruling Nepal Communist Party and the main opposition Nepali Congress will be busy in internal meetings of their own parties in Kathmandu on Tuesday.

The NCP has called a meeting of the partys secretariat at 4 pm today, according to the party spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha. The partys general secretary Bishnu Prasad Paudel says the meeting will discuss the government response to the Covid-19 crisis and further steps to be taken in the future.

Meanwhile, the main opposition party is holding a meeting of the partys senior officials in the residence of party president Sher Bahadur Deuba on Tuesday. The partys spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma says the party is likely to announce how it can support the governments efforts to counter the crisis after the meeting.
DUBLIN, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Traction Transformers Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global traction transformers market is currently witnessing a healthy growth. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to expand at a CAGR of 4.5% during 2020-2025.



The growth of the high-speed rail sector and significant advancements in railway infrastructure are among the key factors driving the growth of the market. Furthermore, the rapid electrification of rail networks is expected to increase the demand for traction transformers across the globe.



The governments of emerging nations are implementing favorable policies to improve the existing transportation facilities and optimize rail systems. Widespread adoption of traction transformers in both traditional and next-generation locomotives to support faster-commuting networks, the rapidly increasing number of passengers and diversifying travel routes are further driving the product demand.



In addition to this, growing awareness regarding the utilization of energy-efficient products for reducing the environmental damage caused by outdated technologies is resulting in the increasing adoption of AC transformers worldwide. Also, since these transformers are not dependent on conventional sources of energy, such as crude oil and coal, they offer an eco-friendly and convenient solution.



Other factors, including innovations to develop equipment with minimal noise, carbon emissions, power losses and operating costs, are projected to create a positive outlook for the market.



The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined with some of the key players being ABB Ltd., Alstom SA, EMCO Limited, Hind Rectifiers Ltd., International Electric Co., Ltd., JST Transformateurs, Schneider Electric SA, Setrans Holding AS, Siemens AG, Wilson Transformer Company, etc.



Key Questions Answered



How has the global traction transformer market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the rolling stock?

What is the breakup of the market based on the mounting position?

What is the breakup of the market based on the overhead line voltage?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the market?

What is the structure of the global traction transformer market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the market?

Key Topics Covered



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Traction Transformer Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Type

6.1 Tap Changing

6.2 Tapped

6.3 Rectifier



7 Market Breakup by Rolling Stock

7.1 Electric Locomotives

7.2 High-Speed Trains

7.3 Metros

7.4 Others



8 Market Breakup by Mounting Position

8.1 Underframe

8.2 Machine Room

8.3 Roof



9 Market Breakup by Overhead Line Voltage

9.1 Alternative Current (AC) Systems

9.2 Direct Current (DC) Systems



10 Market Breakup by Region

10.1 North America

10.2 Europe

10.3 Asia Pacific

10.4 Latin America

10.5 Middle East and Africa



11 SWOT Analysis

11.1 Overview

11.2 Strengths

11.3 Weaknesses

11.4 Opportunities

11.5 Threats



12 Value Chain Analysis



13 Porters Five Forces Analysis

13.1 Overview

13.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers

13.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

13.4 Degree of Competition

13.5 Threat of New Entrants

13.6 Threat of Substitutes



14 Price Indicators



15 Competitive Landscape

15.1 Market Structure

15.2 Key Players

15.3 Profiles of Key Players

15.3.1 ABB Ltd.

15.3.1.1 Company Overview

15.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.1.3 Financials

15.3.1.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.2 Alstom SA

15.3.3 EMCO Limited

15.3.4 Hind Rectifiers Limited

15.3.5 International Electric Co. Ltd.

15.3.6 JST Transformateurs

15.3.7 Schneider Electric SA

15.3.8 Setrans Holding AS

15.3.9 Siemens AG

15.3.10 Wilson Transformer Company



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/52d2nd

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

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En Denschdeg huet d'Luxair matgedeelt, dass si vum 4. Mee un nees welle fleien, fir LuxairTours ass de 16. Mee geplangt.

Keng einfach Zaite sinn et jo och fir dLuxair, wou zanter dem 23., respektiv dem 24. Maerz keng Fliigere mei fleien, ausser nach vereenzelt fir Maintenance-Zwecker.

De Fluchtrafic bei der nationaler Fluchgesellschaft bleift dann och weiderhin, bis op dmannst den 3. Mee inclus ausgesat. Ereischt vu meindes, dem 4. Mee u soll et freistens nees mat Liaisoune weidergoen.

DFligere vu LuxairTours bleiwen iwwerdeems bis de 15. Mee emol weider um Buedem.

Clienten, dei schonns en Ticket haten, an der Zait wou keng Fligere fleien, an direkt bei der Luxair gebucht haten, kreien e Bong gescheckt mam Montant, deen ewell bezuelt gouf.

Ween iwwert eng Agence gebucht huet, soll sech och un des adresseiere fir weider Informatiounen.

Offiziellt Schreiwes

Coronavirus (COVID-19): LUXAIR & LUXAIRTOURS ARE BY YOUR SIDE Given the extraordinary circumstances caused by the worldwide Coronavirus crisis, we have temporarily suspended our flight operations. Our Luxair flights will take off again on May 4, 2020 and our LuxairTours holidays activities will be resumed as from May 16, 2020.

Updated on April 7, 2020:

Since the past weeks, the accelerated spread of the Coronavirus COVID-19 and associated governmental measures, have a significant impact on the everyday life of all of us. The health and safety of our passengers and our people are always our top priority. Consequently, we had to decide to temporarily suspend our Luxair & LuxairTours operations as follows:

- Luxair flight operations from 24 March to May 3, 2020 included

- LuxairTours holiday operations from 23 March to May 15, 2020 included

Over the past days, we focused our efforts, energy, and resources to fly back home thousands of customers from all over Europe and Northern Africa. We also set up an exceptional commercial policy to ensure the best possible solutions for the cancellation of holiday packages and flights.

LuxairTours commercial policy for cancelled holiday packages

All LuxairTours travel package arrangements (including Metropolis) have been cancelled between 16 March 2020 and 15 May 2020 included. Customers who have booked via Travel Agencies are requested to contact them for further information.

Customers who have booked directly with LuxairTours will receive a voucher corresponding to the amount already paid to LuxairTours. The voucher will be sent automatically to affected customers and will contain all details about the conditions of use. Customers do not need to contact us. However, this process might take a few weeks considering the huge volume to handle. This exceptional measure has already been approved by the French, German and Belgian authorities, while Luxembourg authorities have decided to suspend the refunds during the period of the crisis.

Customers who had to fly back home earlier than planned between 16 March 2020 and 22 March 2020 are also entitled to receive a voucher. The amount of the voucher will be equivalent to the number of non-used accommodation nights and must be requested via our contact form.

Commercial policy of Luxair and LuxairTours (flight only) for cancelled flights

1. Your have a booking for a Luxair or LuxairTours flight before April 20, 2020:

All cancelled flights have been automatically refunded, unless you decided to modify or cancel your booking before the official cancellation date. More details and information about the conditions for all flights before April 20, 2020 can be found in our FAQ Section at the bottom of this page.

2. You have a booking for a Luxair flight scheduled between April 20, 2020 and May 3, 2020 or a LuxairTours flight scheduled between May 1 and May 15, 2020:

We will automatically propose you upon your discretion either a voucher equivalent to the value of your ticket increased by 10% or the refund of your ticket. There is no need to take any action and to file a request

3. You have a booking for a Luxair flight with a departure scheduled between April 20 and May 3 and a return starting from May 4, 2020 onwards or a LuxairTours flight scheduled between May 1 and May 15, 2020 and return starting from May 16, 2020 onwards:

We will automatically propose you upon your discretion either a voucher equivalent to the value of your ticket increased by 10% or the refund of your ticket. There is no need to take any action and to file a request

Remark: The list of Luxair flight destinations and LuxairTours flight destinations can be found on our destination overview page here .

Important:Due to a large number of requests, our processing times for rebooking and refund are currently being extended. The average answer time is 14 days.

Restart of Luxair flights & LuxairTours holiday activities

Please be assured that we are already preparing for the future after the crisis. We are working closely with the official authorities, to ensure that we are always aligned with the latest official guidelines, and hope that the situation will have improved significantly by then.

- Luxair will resume its flight operations as from May 4, 2020.

- LuxairTours (holiday package & flight only) will start its holiday activities as from May 16, 2020.

We sincerely thank you for your trust and your loyalty! Let's hope together to see us back onboard very soon. You will find all our flight and holiday offers on www.luxair.lu and www.luxairtours.lu .

Free re-booking policy for all new flight bookings

More flexibility, more travel confidence for your future flights

Luxair has set up exceptional commercial terms and conditions on its entire network to make your travel plans more flexible:

For all new flight bookings done from 13th March until 30th April 2020 and for any travel dates within the next 365 days, you will be able to change your travel dates without any change fees to any later travel date within 365 days of your initial booking date  regardless of the initial fare purchased (including FlyCLASSIC and FlyPLUS fares). If desired, you may even change your travel dates several times without any change fees.

Detailed Conditions for all new bookings:

The new change policy is valid for the entire flight network of Luxair & LuxairTours (flight only)

The departure and destination airports must remain as they are, unchanged

If the original fare is no longer available, the fare difference must be paid

The re-booking must be made before the original travel date

FlyFLEX and FlyBUSINESS tickets can always be changed and also refunded free of charge

If you are booking via our website (luxair.lu), mobile app or our customer service centre, you can change your travel dates simply online via My Booking . If you are booking through an offline or online travel agency, please contact your agency and they will take care of this change accordingly.

High demand in our Customer Service Centre. The telephone lines are currently overloaded. We kindly invite you to carefully read all Info & FAQs and to contact us only via our contact form.
FlightList PRO, the full-charter-market platform, includes all 16,402 aircraft and 3,622 operators worldwide, all 7,058 aircraft and 1,679 operators in the U.S., and is the only source for all 511 floating fleet charter aircraft from 48 operators, the fastest growing segment in jet charter.

In demand right now for COVID-19 supply and medical transport, FlightList PRO includes a searchable database of 2,070 certified cargo and air ambulance aircraft.

Current subscribers of FlightList PRO are among the industry's most experienced; 80% have arranged charter more than 10 years, and 26% more than 20 years.

FlightList PRO sent the following letter to all subscribers on Monday:

---------------------------

April 6, 2020

We hope this finds you and yours safe and healthy.

A founding goal of FlightList PRO was to support the air charter industry; brokers, operators and users. One way to do that is by providing a 100%-of-market, productive resource at a minimal cost.

During these unprecedented times, with the passenger air charter industry down a reportedly 60% and more, we know many are struggling. To help, we are waiving your next monthly charge.

We love general aviation and air charter, have made our careers in it, and are personally active in various sectors. And we love you for having the same passion.

During this time, we want to increase support to you, and support to the industry, even though FlightList PRO operating costs remain the same.

There is nothing you need to do. Your next scheduled billing is waived.

Thank you for your part in the industry, and for using FlightList PRO as your resource. We are here for you.

Sincerely,

Rick Colson, Partner

Bob Bruosta, Partner

FlightList PRO

888-788-0135

---------------------------

About FlightList PRO. Supporting the Air Charter Industry.

Leading air charter brokers, operators and travel professionals take advantage of free and low cost full-market support from FlightList PRO to grow their service level, their business and their bottom line. Founded in 2014, the full functioned platform includes aircraft and operator multi-search capabilities, all safety ratings by operator, floating fleet search and quote requests. Request a free month of access here. Subscriptions are $99/month-to-month for 3 users. Charter broker accreditation, jet charter directories, and a public Charter Broker Directory are available. More about FlightList PRO here.

Contact:

Caden C. Colson

NewFlight Intelligence, LLC

888-788-0135

SOURCE FlightList PRO

Related Links

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Maryland police said Monday night that they have recovered the body of Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, a 40-year-old granddaughter of former Sen. Robert Kennedy, who disappeared along with son Gideon, 8, last Thursday when their canoe was evidently swept into the Chesapeake Bay. Maryland Natural Resources Police said they found McKean's body in 25 feet of water about 2.5 miles south of the waterfront home of her mother, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. They will resume the search for Gideon's body on Tuesday.

McKean and her son got into a canoe to retrieve a ball that had landed in the water. The canoe was found Thursday. The family was at Townsend's waterfront home to isolate from the COVID-19 coronavirus. McKean, the executive director of the Georgetown University Global Health Initiative, and her husband have two other children, ages 7 and 2. Townsend was just a teenager when her father was shot dead and just 12 when her uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. Her cousin John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash off Martha's Vineyard in 1999.

More stories from theweek.com

Dr. Anthony Fauci cautiously predicts kids will return to school next fall, 'but it's going to be different'

Democrat Amy McGrath raises more money than Mitch McConnell in 1st quarter

What America needs to do before lockdown can end


The women pointed out all the precautions that were taken by the workers Tuesday and how even the writing tools for voters would not be overlooked.

If they take a pen, they keep the pen, Hinickle said.

Voter C.J. Bolssen, who works for a tire company in Sun Prairie, said he has voted in person his whole life and would never consider voting by absentee ballot. His decision to vote Tuesday and not wear a mask relates to his faith in Jesus Christ, he said.

Some people are really, really scared even to leave their house and its understandable, he said. But Im not scared at all. Im a Christian, and I feel like Im covered in the blood of Christ and he protects me from anything. Nothing is bigger than him.

Voter and railroad worker Adam Gaffney said he missed the deadline to vote by absentee and was worried about the coronavirus because of his 12-year-old son with cystic fibrosis.

I dont know what the right answer is, Gaffney said of voting Tuesday. If they could have postponed it, that might have been better, but they should have started that process a lot earlier.

Follow Noah Vernau on Twitter @NoahVernau or contact him at 608-695-4956.

Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Environmentalists are no longer relying on government regulators and oil companies to monitor methane pollution in the nation's largest oil field, they are using planes, helicopters, mobile vans and sensors on top of cell phone towers to get their own data that will be released to the public.

As part of the PermianMap project, the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund has teamed up with the University of Wyoming and Pennsylvania State University to intensify independent and third-party monitoring of methane emissions in the Permian Basin of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

Focusing on the western end of the Permian known as the Delaware Basin, EDF reported in its first batch of figures that oil wells, pipelines and other equipment have an estimated methane leak rate of 3.5 percent, already triple the Environmental Protection Agency's rate. That leak rate is equal to wasting and releasing 1.4 million tons of methane per year -- enough to meet the annual needs of every home in Houston and Dallas combined.

"We're hoping by releasing this data that we'll be encouraging companies and regulators to reduce emissions sooner rather than later," said Colin Leyden with EDF's Austin office.

Coronavirus: Pandemic affects Permian Basin flaring for better or worse?

The PermianMAP project comes out of time when environmentalists are running out of patience with the industry and regulators to curb methane emissions and other pollution from oil wells and pipelines.

EDF and the two universities have been working on the PermianMAP project since the fall. The first batch of data comes from those months of work while new findings will be released every two weeks through December.

"This is the future," EDF scientist David Lyon said. " We don't have to wait until the end of the year for industry-reported data."

In 2022, EDF plans to launch a methane-monitoring satellite to monitor emissions around the world. Although the organization is not disclosing costs of the PermianMAP project, Lyon said prices for emissions-tracking technology have fallen dramatically.

"The entire cost of the project was less than the cost of a developing a single well in the Permian Basin or less than many CEO salaries," Lyon said.

Fuel Fix: Get daily energy news headlines in your inbox

Elizabeth Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the industry-funded group Texans For Natural Gas, said that the industry welcomes new ways to identify methane leaks and reduce emissions, but that the data in the PermianMAP project only represents a snapshot in time.

"Longer-term trends actually show a decline in methane intensity in the Permian," Caldwell said.

Read the latest oil and gas news from HoustonChronicle.com
Pressure to declare an emergency grew after several days of record new infections in Tokyo, though the numbers are far smaller than in many parts of the world Pressure to declare an emergency grew after several days of record new infections in Tokyo, though the numbers are far smaller than in many parts of the world (AFP Photo/Behrouz MEHRI)

Japan on Tuesday declared a month-long state of emergency over a spike in coronavirus cases, ramping up efforts to contain infections but stopping short of the strict lockdowns seen in other parts of the world.

The government has come under mounting pressure to tackle an outbreak that remains small by global standards but has raised concerns among Japanese medical experts, with warnings that local healthcare systems are already overstretched.

Announcing the measures, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged the Japanese people to draw on the sense of togetherness seen after the country's devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown in 2011.

"We are again facing a great difficulty. However, if we work together once again with hope, we will rise to the challenge and move forward," he said.

"We will beat the virus, we will defeat the virus and we can overcome the ordeal of this state of emergency."

The move allows governors in seven affected regions including Tokyo to ask people to stay indoors and request that businesses close, but there are no enforcement mechanisms and no penalties for those who fail to comply.

"Although a state of emergency is declared, it won't mean a city lockdown as seen overseas," Abe said, pledging public transport would run as normal and roads would not be blocked.

But he urged people to take the declaration seriously, telling citizens "everything will depend on your actions."

And he warned that people would have to reduce contacts by 70-80 percent if the emergency was to be lifted in a month.

Pressure to declare an emergency grew after several days of record new infections in Tokyo, though the numbers are far smaller than in many parts of the world, with around 80 cases reported on Tuesday.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has already asked residents to avoid unnecessary outings and work from home, but had pushed for an emergency declaration to give her requests legal strength.

Story continues

Seven regions are covered by the month-long declaration: Tokyo, neighbouring Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama, the western hub of Osaka and neighbouring Hyogo, and the southwestern region of Fukuoka.

The measure will last through to the end of the Golden Week holiday, one of the country's biggest travel periods.

- 'Lives at stake' -

"It may cause inconvenience in daily life, but I call for everyone's cooperation because lives are at stake," Koike told reporters earlier.

The measure also allows governors to commandeer property for medical purposes and close public facilities like schools, many of which have already shut down.

The economic impacts of the declaration and the broader global pandemic have raised concern of a recession in Japan, with Abe saying Tuesday that the domestic and global economy face their "biggest crisis since World War Two."

His cabinet earlier approved plans for a stimulus package worth around $1 trillion, or 20 percent of gross domestic product.

Japan has so far been spared the sort of virus outbreak seen in parts of Europe and the United States, with close to 4,000 confirmed infections and 80 deaths.

- Public backing -

In a bid to ease the pressure on hospitals, those with mild symptoms will be treated in hotels and other facilities -- including some that were to be used for this year's now-postponed Olympic Games, Abe said.

The government has also pledged to step up testing capacity and the number of beds and ventilators available to treat those in serious condition.

The measures are relatively relaxed compared to other parts of the world, a function of Japan's legal system, which restricts the government's ability to limit the movement of citizens.

In the capital, people expressed support, with some saying they felt it should have been declared sooner.

"When you see on TV what's going on in New York with the cases doubling within three, four days, it really sends chills down my spine," 76-year-old Mitsuo Oshiyama told AFP.

"I don't understand why the government waited so long."
At 10 a.m. Monday, landlord Camden Property Trust launched a $5 million giveaway where tenants struggling financially as a result of the coronavirus pandemic could apply for up to $2,000 per apartment to help with living expenses.

By 10:16 a.m., the money was gone.

Approximately 2,520 online requests were made by residents from across Camdens 56,107-unit apartment portfolio before a message popped up that the money was spoken for and the program was closed.

We were surprised it went that fast, but thats what it was for, Ric Campo, CEO of Houston-based Camden, said Monday afternoon.

'VORTEX OF PROBLEMS': Landlords face uncertainty as rents are due

The company announced its $5 million relief fund last week. Residents in rental good standing that had not already given move-out notices could qualify if they were able to show reasonable proof of a layoff, furlough or that they were in some way struggling due to COVID-19. The program was done on a first-come, first-served basis.

When the giveaway ended in 16 minutes, Campo said discussions followed about whether the company should have offered less money per apartment.

We wanted it to be significant," he said. "Camdens average rent is $1,400 to $1,500 nationwide, so we wanted it to be looked at as a significant enough of a gesture."

THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE: What will the post-pandemic office look like?

A team has been verifying the applications and the checks will begin to go out Tuesday.

Camden, a publicly-traded real estate investment trust, owns interests in and operates 164 multifamily properties with 56,107 units across the United States. Houston is its largest market, with 9,301 units.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 27

By Nargiz Sadikhova  Trend:

First coronavirus cases have been detected in Kazakhstans Pavlodar and Atyrau regions, Trend reports with reference to Kazakhstans Ministry of Healthcare.

One coronavirus case was registered in Pavlodar region and three more in Atyrau region. Earlier on Mar. 27, seven coronavirus cases were also reported in Almaty city where 20 coronavirus hotspots were officially confirmed.

Thus, a total of 125 coronavirus cases were confirmed in Kazakhstan as of 15:00 (GMT +6) on Mar 27, including 60 cases in Nur-Sultan, 48 in Almaty city, 4 in Karaganda city, 3 cases in Zhambyl region, 3 in Atyrau regions, 2 in Shymkent city, 1 in Almaty region, 1 in Aktobe region, 1 in North Kazakstan, 1 in Akmola region, 1 in Pavlodar region. Thus, coronavirus has officially been confirmed in all three largest cities of Kazakhstan and 7 out of 14 countrys regions.

By a decision of State Commission on Provision of Emergency State under the president of Kazakhstan, quarantine regime has been introduced in Kazakhstans Nur-Sultan and Almaty cities at 00:00 (GMT +6) on March 19, 2020, due to the coronavirus outbreak.

On March 15, 2020, Kazakhstans President Kassym Jomart Tokayev signed a decree introducing an emergency state in Kazakhstan due to coronavirus outbreak, which came in force from 08:00 (GMT +6) on March 16 and will last till 08:00 on April 15, 2020.

First two cases of coronavirus infection were detected in Kazakhstan among those who arrived in Almaty city from Germany on March 13, 2020. The latest data said that the overall number of coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan is 125 people.

The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019.

As of today, over 537,000 people have been confirmed as infected. The number of people killed by the disease has surpassed 24,100. Meanwhile, over 123,300 people have reportedly recovered.

Several countries are working on a vaccine against the new virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11.
At his coronavirus press conference on Saturday, April 4, President Donald Trump emphasized again that we have to restart business. But Allergy and Infectious Disease director Dr. Anthony Fauci has subtly if indirectly demurred on the possibility of such a restart. That puts Trump closer to virus checkmate than he realizes. He has moves, but they come from the misunderstood and misreported program of Swedish Voluntary Mitigation.

Dr. Fauci remarkably states that America can restart as soon as there are no more deaths or even positive infections. The problem is that may never happen. The social separation of the CDC/NIH reduces immediate hospitalizations, but also limits community immunity. So as soon as social separation ends, the second wave of infections begins. Under the CDC/NIH plan, the population over 60 will remain in continuing peril for years, unless a vaccine becomes available. And that also may never happen, as it did not for AIDs.

That is the virus checkmate: Social separation prevents community immunity, so attempts to restart the economy may also restart the virus. For a third of the population, quarantine never ends. Dr. Fauci understands the implications of his policy. Trump and his team need to move out of virus checkmate now.

Swedens misunderstood virus policy was aimed at the second wave. Health Authority epidemiologist Anders Tegnell recommended to the government a form of voluntary self-isolation, largely of the older population. Trump has dismissed this policy (as first proposed for the UK), as just ride it out do nothing, but that is inaccurate. Sweden sought to develop the 80% herd immunity that causes the virus to die out, while protecting the elderly and infirm. This was the answer to the second-wave problem now facing Dr. Fauci. As for immediate consequences, Dr. Tegnell was blunt: There is no evidence at this point that doing more at this stage would make any difference.

That is a close call, since Swedish infection, hospitalization and death rates are higher than neighboring Norway, which went into full lockdown. On the other hand, the Swedish population appears to be self-isolating without an economy shutdown. Although the cafes of Stockholm are open, they are mostly frequented by the young, and traffic congestion this past week in Stockholm has actually been noticeably lower than in Oslo, Norways capital.

Within days President Trump will establish a back to normal task force. That is when the U.S. must confront the fact that our Social Isolation policy leaves us open to the second wave. That task force will inevitably - even if not explicitly - propose a variant to the Swedish plan. All New Yorkers who know Donald Trump know that he will resist.

Outside New York, Donald Trump is known for his flamboyant projects and even more flamboyant personal life. In New York, he is also known as our #1 germaphobe. Twenty-five years ago, a real-estate colleague invited me to a lunch with Trump, but cautioned, as lunch ended, dont try to shake his hand. He is a total germaphobe. Sure enough, even though pleasant and eager to chat, Trumps hand remained at his side, and I quickly withdrew mine! As Trump wrote in his third book, One of the curses of American society is the simple act of shaking hands. Trump is profoundly appalled at the coronavirus, and at each death. How will he react when Dr. Fauci tells him the plan of the reopen business task force may mean more deaths?

In Sweden, the left-wing government of Prime Minister Stefan Lvfen has thus far withstood critics like Prof Cecilia Soderberg-Naucler, a virus researcher at the Karolinska Institute. They are leading us to catastrophe. What will President Trump do when Fauci warns him of catastrophe?

Hopefully Trumps instincts will guide him to escape virus checkmate by focusing not on a hypothetical vaccine, but on therapeutics to diminish risk to those developing severe cases while the Community develops immunity. There is already much discussion of Hydroxychloroquine used for malaria, Ivermectin used for animal parasites , and many others. Trump would have to overrule Fauci, which he is loath to do. But as businesses shut forever in the coming weeks, tenants balk on rent, and landlords balk on mortgages, the death of business will compete with the death of patients. This past week mall owner Taubman warned tenants of elite malls like Short Hills, NJ and Stamford town center, CT that rent must paid . But how will fashion retailers, who have no customers and a useless season of inventory, respond? The snowball is about to begin.

President Trump has said that the "Next two weeks are going to be very, very deadly. We are really coming up into a time that's going to be very horrendous. That is equally true for American business. Can Trump accept the Swedish escape from virus checkmate? Well know soon enough.
Valerie O'Mahony, Margaret McKiernan, Dr Derek Power, Nuala Walshe, Marie OConnor, Professor Josephine Hegarty and Dr Ayman Amasayb pictured at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC

University College Cork (UCC) has opened a centre to deliver chemotherapy to patients with cancer during the Covid-19 crisis.

Part of its School of Nursing and Midwifery has been transformed to facilitate treatment for vulnerable cancer patients who would normally attend Mercy University Hospital and Cork University Hospital in the city.

The first patients received their chemotherapy onsite in UCC yesterday, supported by the nurses and doctors they would ordinarily encounter in the Mercy University Hospital. The new centre is expected to function for months.

Its happening in a simulation centre in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, which is normally used to facilitate and support student learning but are now working wards.

Preparations between UCC and the HSE have been going on for weeks and, over the weekend, staff from the Mercy University Hospital, helped by army personnel, moved equipment onto the Brookfield Health Sciences Complex site.

The initiative will help patients with cancer to continue their treatment, while at the same time avoiding hospitals during this COVID-19 crisis. Chemotherapy treatments can affect the bodys immune system and reduce the persons ability to fight off infections, making patients extremely vulnerable to the virus

The School of Nursing facilities are capable of supporting up to 40 patients to receive their treatments at any one time and contain all the equipment ordinarily found in any hospital environment.

UCCs Head of School of Nursing and Midwifery Professor Josephine Hegarty said they were delighted to support the HSE at this difficult time and described it as a fantastic use the facility.

Normally, the centre is used to facilitate the training of undergraduate and postgraduate students including those undertaking general, paediatric, mental health, intellectual disability nursing and midwifery.

Every year, hundreds of students use the simulation centres extensive resources to rehearse essential skills ranging from hand washing, to the advanced skills required to manage acutely unwell and deteriorating patients.

The simulation suite contains critical care rooms, set up as high-dependency areas to run acute or emergency scenarios.

The focus in these learning situations is on developing skills to support patient safety, teamwork, problem solving and crisis management which are essential skills, particularly in the current climate where teams must work together to maintain patient safety.
A South Korean soldier wearing a banner reading "Covid-19 Free" and a protective mask stands at a temperature screening point at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, on Monday, March 9, 2020. SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images

"Broad testing" of people for the coronavirus as was done in South Korea could significantly slow the spread of the disease in parts of the United States that now have relatively few cases of COVID-19, an infectious diseases expert said Tuesday. But it remains to be seen whether enough reliable coronavirus tests and sufficient supplies of related equipment can be deployed in those regions, which include large swaths of the Western U.S., quickly enough to flatten the disease's upward curve there. South Korea has been lauded for knocking down a COVID-19 outbreak after employing an aggressive strategy of testing more than 440,000 people for the virus, along with other mitigation measures.

The United States currently is engaged in an emergency effort to "flatten the curve," or the rate of increase in new COVID-19 cases, in order to avoid overwhelming the capacity of hospital systems and to lower the death rate from the virus. Dr. Angela Caliendo said Tuesday that South Korea's experience "shows you the importance of testing." "I do think the testing they did in South Korea was very important in controlling their outbreak," said Caliendo, an infectious diseases professor at Brown University's Alpert Medical School.

With their widespread testing program, South Korean authorities were able to identify infected people, isolate them and trace their contacts with other people, who then also could be tested. If the United States had adequate testing, "you could consider areas of the country that are at different points of the virus" spread progression, Caliendo said during a call with reporters arranged by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. And if those areas' residents received "more broad testing" than the levels seen elsewhere in the U.S. "you could imagine where you would mimic, in some regions at least" the experience of South Korea in suppressing the spread of COVID-19, she said. "There are areas in this country that have not been hit" to the same extent as other areas, she noted. Caliendo said that South Korea benefited from having several companies that produce chemical reagents used in virus testing. Getting broad-based testing of Americans could take some time. Dr. Kimberly Hanson, a professor of pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine, said on the conference call that currently, unlike the early days of the outbreak in the U.S., there are about two dozen types of coronavirus tests available for rapidly screening people. "Our goal is to test everybody who has symptoms in the community," Hanson said. "We don't have enough testing right now where we are able to test everybody who is symptomatic, but we are ramping up really well." But in the meantime, she said, "The main limitation we're facing now is actually having shortages of other pieces around the tests themselves," such as swabs and tubes to collect samples. "We've faced some serious shortages of swabs," Hanson said. "We have colleagues who are faced with shortages of the reagents." Hanson also noted that states that have been "hotbeds" of COVID-19 outbreaks are seeking more testing done than elsewhere. Data reviewed by CNBC shows wide variations in the amount of tests per capita throughout the U.S. A number of states that could, as Caliendo suggested, see a lower outbreak curve if they adopted a South Korea-type testing regimen are among those states with the lowest number of tests per capita currently. Both Hanson and Caliendo mentioned the need to improve the quality of testing. "Overall, what we have on our hands right now are good tests, but no test is perfect," Caliendo said.
As government steps up efforts to #FlattenTheCurve to contain the spread of Covid-19 in South Africa, socially-responsible organisations are embracing the health crisis through strategic collaborations or generous contributions. In response to the urgent call from those fighting Covid-19 on the frontlines, Regent Business School has mobilised its nationwide innovation hubs or iLeadLAB to produce Personal Protective Equipment or PPE.

We have prototyped a series of face shields and splash protection masks using 3D printed parts, explains Dr Ahmed Shaikh, Managing Director of Regent Business School. These are now being produced 24/7 at our iLeadLABs in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg while observing social distance protocols and other stipulated health guidelines. The PPE will be distributed, at no cost, to healthcare workers in select public healthcare facilities nationwide.The global shortage of PPE is a blow to healthcare professionals who are in the midst of a fierce battle against Covid-19. PPE is critical to protect them against contracting the virus and plays a crucial role in helping turn the tide of the pandemic.Regent Business School's prototype protective facial shields and masks will be used by those testing and treating members of the public for Covid-19. The first batch was printed in a matter of days and production hasnt stopped since, says Dr Shaikh. He adds, The true grit of a nation is revealed during times of crisis, like this one. We are facing an undeniably powerful adversary  and an invisible one at that. Our institution is grateful to be able to meaningfully contribute to the fight against Covid-19 by producing and donating life-saving essential gear.For more details on Regent Business School's prototype PPE, kindly email az.ca.tneger@latigid
Produced by Strathearn School, the shields have been donated to a number of hospitals initially to protect ophthalmologists carrying out face-to-face eye examinations in emergency departments across Belfast

Colleges and universities in Northern Ireland have been praised for their significant contribution to the fight against coronavirus.

Health Minister Robin Swann and Economy Minister Diane Dodds hailed the education sector for creating personal protective equipment (PPE) and joining the research to find a vaccine for the virus, while students have volunteered for the health service workforce.

Mrs Dodds said the Southern Regional College, North West College and South West College are working together to manufacture facial visors for health service staff.

Belfast Met is also making PPE and South Eastern Regional College has made reusable face masks being donated to care homes. Meanwhile, many other colleges are gathering PPE they have on campus and donating it to local health trusts.

Mr Swann also welcomed the contribution of medical and nursing students from universities. "Around 500 final year medicine and nursing students at Queen's University have agreed to join the frontline and support the NHS directly," he said.

"Final year adult and mental health student nurses at Ulster University have also entered the healthcare workforce as part of emergency plans to assist with the Covid-19 response."

Elsewhere, an east Belfast grammar school has produced a series of bespoke medical shields, designed specially to protect frontline NHS workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

Produced by Strathearn School, the shields have been donated to a number of hospitals initially to protect ophthalmologists carrying out face-to-face eye examinations in emergency departments across Belfast.

Andrew Atkinson, head of technology at Strathearn, explained that the concept came about following a discussion with a family friend who is an ophthalmologist.




President Muhammadu Buhari

The Federal Government has begun the release of 70,000 metric tonnes of assorted food items to vulnerable Nigerians, as part of efforts to cushion the effect of the lockdown in some states.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, made this known on Monday at the official hand over of 12,500 metric tonnes of assorted food at the Minna Silo Complex in Niger.

He said the 12,500 metric tonnes of items released from the 25,000 metric tonnes capacity silo complex in Minna, comprised 10,000 metric tonnes of maize and 2,500 metric tonnes of garri.

This, according to him, is to officially launch release of the 70,000 metric tonnes of garri, maize, millet and sorghum from six silo complexes across the country.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the release of 70,000 metric tonnes of assorted food items to vulnerable Nigerians.

This is part of efforts to cushion the effect of the lockdown in some states of the federation as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nanono, who handed the food items over to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, said it was in compliance with President Buharis approval.

He said, Our mission here is to hand over about 12,500 metric tonnes of garri and maize. Maize 10,000 tonnes, garri 2500 tonnes.

The logistics is purely NEMA affairs. Ours is to hand over to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs. I assure you that by tomorrow NEMA would have to be here.

Anybody that knows of garri knows that what we have here is high quality garri.

The minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, Farouq, who received the items on behalf of the ministry, assured that the items would get to the beneficiaries in affected states based on an already well planned modality for distribution.

NEMA is in charge of the logistics to distribute these items to the population that is affected by the lockdown.

I am here in my capacity as the minister to receive these items and NEMA has started sending trucks to take the relief to affected states.

We have two states plus FCT. Those are the states that are mostly affected and they are the ones that are been locked down as pronounced by Mr President.

We have a structure in place from the national down to state and the local government areas.

They are the team that will implement the modality, which we already have in place.

25 per cent of the population of the state are the ones we are going to reach out to and these are the vulnerable,she said.

Dr Suleiman Haruna, the Director of Food and Strategic Reserve in the ministry of agriculture and rural development assured that the food items being released were in good shape.

He disclosed that the food items in the other silo complexes were equally ready for loading and distribution by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

He said, my responsibility here is to ensure that the right quantity in good condition in terms of the food items are released to the public by NEMA.

We are releasing from the 25,000 metric tonnes silo complex here in Minna, 12,500 metric tonnes.

As I am talking to you right now Gusau is loading ready to commence lifting. Also in Dutsin Ma same operation is going on.

We are also ready in Lafia. In total we have 70,000 metric tonnes. 12500 from Minna, Lafia 5000 metric tonnes of millet and 1500 metric tonnes of garri.

In Dutsin-Ma Katsina State we will be moving 17,500 metric tonnes and out of this we have 12500 of maize and 5000 of Sorghum.

In Adamawa also we have 12,500 metric tonnes of Maize and 5000 metric tonnes of Sorghum and finally in Ilesha we will be moving 1000 metric tonnes of garri..(NAN)
These days, when the coronavirus reminds us that life can be stranger than fiction, one might reconsider strange legends of old. Legends like Manitou's "healing waters," for example.
House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., told Al-Monitor today that Democrats are considering renewing last years push to cut off US support to the Saudi-led coalition that is fighting Yemens Iran-backed Houthi rebels as part of Congress annual defense authorization bill.

There was bipartisan support last time, just not enough bipartisan support to overcome the objections of [Senate Armed Services Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla.] and others in the Senate and at the White House, Smith told Al-Monitor on a conference call with reporters. So, that will certainly be on the table.

While Democrats failed to defund US support for the war last year, Smith argued that the increased pressure on the coalition prompted the United Arab Emirates to for the most part exit the conflict.

I want to keep the pressure on all parties involved, including, by the way, the Iranians and the Houthis, who are also part of this, to reach a peaceful settlement, said Smith. And whatever the best thing we can do to push in that direction, we are going to do.

Why it matters: Democrats could have an opening to renew the fight to end US support for the Saudi coalition in this years defense bill as Riyadhs oil price war with Russia drags on. The price war has alienated traditionally pro-Saudi Republican senators, many of whom represent oil-rich states adversely impacted by low energy prices. They have served as Riyadhs last line of defense against legislation targeting the kingdom over the Yemen war and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

That includes Inhofe, who has called on President Donald Trump to slap tariffs on Saudi and Russian oil. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., has gone even further, threatening not to bring any pro-Saudi Arabia legislation to the floor and not to oppose any anti-Saudi Arabia legislation until the kingdom proves itself worthy of our support.

Smith also revealed that during last years negotiations on the defense bill, Republicans had insisted on adding a provision that would have allowed the United States to aid the Saudi coalition in response to Houthi attacks from Yemen.

The problem is thats kind of a back-door angle, said Smith. We havent in legislation to date authorized any US involvement in the civil war in Yemen. So, I will not accept a restriction that also opens a huge window to us authorizing military action in that way.

Whats next: Smith said Democrats would finish drafting the initial version of their defense bill by May. He hopes that the Armed Services Committee would be able to vote on the legislation as soon as Congress returns from its lengthy recess that the coronavirus pandemic has prompted.

Know more: Congressional Correspondent Bryant Harris takes an in-depth look at how Saudi Arabia has lost its formerly stalwart Republican defenders on Capitol Hill amid the oil price war. And be sure to read his story detailing the Trump administrations $73 million cut in humanitarian aid for Yemen despite the COVID-19 threat.
British Foreign Secretary Raab, 46, was named, before Prime Minister Boris Johnson's condition worsened, to handle government business "where necessary." (Luke MacGregor / Pool Photo )

If Boris Johnson dies or is incapacitated, who steps in? In the short term at least, that would be his foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, who was deputized by the British prime minister before he was taken to the hospital suffering from COVID-19.

But somewhat surprisingly for one of the worlds oldest parliamentary systems of government, prime ministerial succession is not entirely clear in Britain, whose constitution is unwritten.

Johnson, 55, was moved Monday to the intensive-care unit at a London hospital, his office said. Raab, 46, was named, before the prime ministers condition worsened, to handle government business "where necessary," but the longer term  if the need arose  would probably prompt some questions.

Johnson is a head of government, not a head of state. That would be Queen Elizabeth II, and the royal line of succession is well-enshrined: The throne would pass first to her eldest son, Prince Charles, 71, then Charles eldest son, William, 37, and then Williams three young children, in order of birth.

Under Britains political system, the prime ministers job can change hands fairly abruptly. Johnson is the third prime minister since the countrys 2016 vote to leave the European Union.

If a prime minister is sidelined for any number of reasons, which can range from death to a vote of no confidence, members of his or her party  the Conservatives, in Johnsons case  elect a new leader, whose tenure as prime minister is then formally approved by the queen.

In an unexpected emergency, one of three senior Cabinet members would probably be tapped to step in pending a party vote: the chancellor of the exchequer, the home secretary, or the foreign secretary, currently Raab.

In addition to being foreign secretary, Raab, a member of Parliament for the last decade, holds the title of first secretary of state, which signifies the ranking Cabinet minister after the prime minister.

So far, Raabs writ has extended only to chairing government meetings, like the coronavirus Cabinet one he presided over Monday, before Johnsons condition worsened.

Story continues

He appeared on television late Monday, shortly after the deterioration of Johnsons condition was announced, saying that the governments business will continue and the prime minister was in the safe hands of medical staff at St. Thomas Hospital, one of Londons largest public hospitals.

There is an incredibly strong team spirit behind the prime minister, Raab told the BBC. He said plans put in place by Johnson before his hospitalization to fight Britains coronavirus outbreak would be implemented.

Experts said that technically, Britains government can function without a prime minister in place. And Britains civil service is more empowered than that in many countries to carry on day-to-day business.

Raab took over as foreign secretary in July 2019, a post he retained after Johnsons Conservatives overwhelmingly won general elections in December. He served as Brexit secretary under Johnsons predecessor, Theresa May.

Anand Menon, an analyst who often comments on government affairs, said if Johnson were incapacitated, Raab would be his stand-in until the Conservative Party elected a new leader, since Johnson deputized him before being taken to the hospital.

But particularly in light of chaos caused by the coronavirus, with public gatherings no longer possible, the normal party convention and vote to pick a new prime minister could take weeks or months.

Seven British prime ministers have died in office, according to gov.uk, an official government website, but none recently.

The last, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, was Henry John Temple, Lord Palmerston, who died in 1865.

Special correspondent Boyle reported from London and Times staff writer King from Washington.
Russia has been accused of sowing misinformation and distrust in Europe over the coronavirus pandemic, and its efforts to send aid to the U.S. and Italy  two of the worst affected countries  have been met with skepticism. However, Andrey Kostin, president and chairman of VTB Bank, told CNBC Monday that Russia did not expect anything in return for its recent assistance to Italy, which included medical personnel, ventilators, masks and protective suits. "We're not enemies, we're friends to the West, to Europe, to America," he told CNBC's Squawk Box Europe. "Of course, we can't solve the problems of Italy or other countries, but where we can show our support and provide real assistance we'll be doing this." The country labeled the lorries of equipment it sent to virus-stricken Italy in March: "From Russia with love."

Loading medical equipment aboard planes of the Russian Aerospace Forces for sending it to the Italian regions worst hit by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Russian Defence Ministry

Tweet However, the gesture might have backfired, with Italy's La Stampa newspaper quoting anonymous political sources as saying that 80% of the equipment was of little or no use. Russia's defense ministry hit back at the article, calling it anti-Russian fake news. The Italian authorities did their best to thank Russia for its help, while defending its journalists and their right to freedom of expression.

From Russia with love

There was already speculation that Russia's sending of aid was not purely altruistic and that it was designed to nudge Europe to lift Crimea-related sanctions on Russia sooner rather than later. Italy, which has remained something of an ally with Russia, supports the lifting of sanctions imposed in 2014 for Russia's annexation of Crimea and role in a pro-Russian uprising in Ukraine. Daragh McDowell, head of Europe and Central Asia at Verisk Maplecroft, told CNBC Monday that Russia's shipments of medical supplies "are not aimed specifically at sanctions relief so much as they are part of a broader propaganda campaign of burnishing Russia's image abroad and existing ties with particular states." He added that the decision to send aid to Italy was likely taken to capitalize on the pro-Russia sentiment of the right-wing Lega Party which could perform well at the next Italian election. Russia has also sent a cargo plane of medical equipment (which it called "humanitarian aid") to the U.S. and McDowell said the image of Russian planes delivering aid to America is one that the Kremlin believes will boost Putin's domestic standing. "As has been reported, the particular ventilators shipped to the United States were made by a subsidiary of Rostec, a state corporation which remains under sanctions, meaning the U.S technically violated its own restrictions by purchasing them," he noted. However, the act could backfire, McDowell added, given that Russia is at the start of its epidemic and could need that equipment itself. "A severe pandemic outbreak (in Russia) leading to large-scale illness and death will be impossible to conceal," he said. "In that scenario, the sight of Russian planes flying medical equipment abroad that the Kremlin is currently using to create an impression of global influence is likely to become a liability when dealing with an angry public."

Pushback

The European Union (EU) has also accused Russian media of deploying a "significant disinformation campaign" against the West. An EU document, seen by Reuters and reported on March 18, said the campaign aimed to worsen the impact of the coronavirus, generate panic and sow distrust. An EU database recorded almost 80 cases of disinformation about coronavirus since Jan. 2.2, the report noted. Russia denied the allegations, calling them unfounded. The accusations continue, however. On Monday, the U.K. accused Russia of spreading disinformation following reports in the country that U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was on a ventilator, after being admitted to hospital Sunday night due to persistent coronavirus symptoms (he tested positive for the virus on March 26). It was revealed Monday night that Johnson had been moved to intensive care, although the government said in a statement that he was conscious and not on a ventilator. Kostin said Russia was not overly optimistic about the potential impact of COVID-19, given how the virus has spread in Europe, but added that Russia had taken strict measures in good time. Not everyone agrees, however, as the lockdown in Moscow was only imposed a week ago, later than measures introduced across vast swathes of Europe and the U.S.

Vehicles of the Russian Defence Ministry deliver medical equipment to planes of the Russian Aerospace Forces before it's sent to Italy. Russian Defence Ministry
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages globally, the African continent has not been severely affected. Overall, Africa  a continent of 1.2 billion people  has reported 9,310 cases. Looking at Nigeria, despite being the most populated country in Africa, it has just reported 232 cases, 5 deaths and discharged 32. As encouraging as Nigerias COVID-19 situation is, however, it is very possible that cases are being missed, especially along Nigerias land borders.

As a public health physician in Nigeria, I have worked in communities along these land borders and seen firsthand how porous they are. Some of them are farmlands, some are forests while some are parts of households. Apart from a few portions that serve as official crossings, the land borders are pretty much open for all. This has always bothered me, and I have spoken about this weakness previously.

Countries located around Nigerias vast land borders include Cameroon (north east and south east); Republic of Benin (north west and south west); Chad and Nigerias Republics (northern) and the Atlantic Ocean via the Bight of Biafra (Southern). As at April 5 2020, these countries reported the following numbers of cases of COVID-19: Cameroon (306); Niger (98) Benin (13) and Chad (8).

With closure of international borders in the country, public health authorities had heaved a sigh of relief and focused on tracing and testing more than 6,000 people who were exposed to COVID19 as a result of international travels and their contacts. Then, on April 1, 12 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Nigerias south west state of Osun. These cases were Nigerians traveling by road from the neighboring Republic of Benin. This highlights the risks that exist along Nigerias vast international borders.

Indeed, Nigerias land borders have been part of the countrys weakest link in epidemic preparedness for a long time and now must be prioritized in order to stem the count of COVID-19 cases. These are four ways to markedly reduce the threat of importing COVID-19 and other infectious diseases through these land borders.

Social distancing is one of the proven measures to limit the spread of coronavirus, so we must learn to change our behaviour to save lives. Photo: Nigeria Health Watch

First, train communities located along Nigerias international land borders in risk communication, so they understand how infectious diseases are spread, who to call when cases are suspected and their roles in preventing transmission of infectious diseases, including COVID-19. There are lessons to learn from a survey conducted by EpiAFRIC in 2016 at Idiroko  a border community located between Nigeria and Benin Republic. A total of 397 questionnaires were administered in the survey. The result showed that 36% believe that spiritual healers can cure or treat infectious diseases; 33% say that they drink traditional herbs to avoid germs; and 63% do not know who to contact to report a suspected case of Ebola to ask questions. Fifty-three percent agree that land crossing at Ipokia should be closed if there is any outbreak in neighboring countries; 67% trust the government/ministry of health to give reliable health information to them; and 78% chose radio, television (67.5) and Facebook (35.5%) as preferred sources of information on infectious diseases.

Second, increase cross-border collaborations between national public health institutes, port health, customs and immigration services in all countries involved. To mitigate the occurrence of infectious disease, they must collaborate to share data, learnings and intelligence. For instance, the lack of such collaborations may be the reason for these recent COVID-19 cases that came in from Benin Republic. Joint training of officers from these different arms of government is also very important. This would ensure the officers establish personal as well as official relationships that could improve information sharing.

Testing for COVID-19. Photo: Banque Africaine de Developpement

Third, improve access to healthcare in border communities and engender positive health-seeking behaviors. When community members fall sick, the first place they should go for healthcare is within the public health system. As it currently stands, data show otherwise  chemists and community pharmacies are the first places people seek care. In fact, Nigerias 2016 national health accounts showed that total health expenditure was $10 billion: out-of-pocket expenditure was $7.7 billion and $2.6 billion of out-of-pocket expenditure was spent in chemists and pharmacies (this was more than twice the total donor health support in same year). Any communities along these land borders without universal access to healthcare is a weak link in prevention, detection and prevention of infectious diseases.

Fourth, train drivers who convey passengers along these international land borders on epidemic preparedness. They must be educated on their roles in preventing cross-border transmission of infections. This training is for their good too because their close proximity to passengers exposes them to COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.

Tackling the limitations of Nigerias vast land borders would not happen overnight. However, government, civil society, the private sector, donor-funded programs, health workers and community leaders must begin to prioritise this intervention one community at a time.

Infectious diseases do not respect borders. Public health interventions should not too.

Dr. Ifeanyi M. Nsofor, is a medical doctor, a graduate of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the CEO of EpiAFRIC and Director of Policy and Advocacy at Nigeria Health Watch. He is a a Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity at George Washington University, and a 2006 International Ford Fellow. You can follow Ifeanyi on Twitter @ekemma.
(Natural News) The epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak could shift back to Asia, as the number of new cases in the region rose again this weekend.

In mainland China, health authorities reported a surge in coronavirus cases over the weekend. The National Health Commission (NHC), the countrys lead agency for coronavirus response, reported 125 asymptomatic cases, as well as 69 confirmed cases, bringing the countrys total to 82,665 as of Monday evening. The NHC also said that most of the new cases were from people who had entered China from abroad.

A case of local transmission involved a person who traveled from Hubei province to the southern province of Guangdong, according to provincial authorities. In response, the provincial health commission raised its risk level from low to medium in certain parts of Guangdong province.

Meanwhile, another province in central China has placed a large number of people in total lockdown for fear of a second wave of coronavirus infections. Local officials ordered residents of Jia county in Henan province to stay home, according to a notice on the countrys official microblog account. The notice also revealed that only people with special permits are allowed to leave their homes, provided they wear face masks and have their temperature taken.

The country has already barred all foreigners from entering amid concerns that international arrivals could trigger a second wave of infections.

CIA: Official figures from Beijing could be underreported

From reporting thousands of cases a day during the epidemics peak, Chinese health authorities are now saying that China is seeing fewer coronavirus cases and more days without local transmission.

According to reports from state media, President Xi Jinping, in a conference with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, has expressed confidence that the country has already hurdled past the virus. (Related: Tucker Carlson: The WHO helped China cover up coronavirus.)

After hard work, China has shown a trend of continuous improvement in epidemic prevention and control, quoted the report. I am confident that the Chinese people will be able to overcome this epidemic and achieve their intended economic and social development goals.

As the country deployed medics and sent aid to other nations hit hard by the coronavirus, it has faced criticism over its own handling of the virus and its lack of transparency throughout the outbreak.

A report by the Central Intelligence Agency concluded that official tallies for coronavirus cases and fatalities are grossly misrepresented. In the report, published in the New York Times, the agency suggested that the Chinese government itself might not know the extent of the virus. Reports from the epicenter in Wuhan and other places could be unreliable, as many officials fear that reporting high numbers could lead to punishment or worse.

While China has trumpeted the success of its draconian lockdown measures in flattening the curve, health experts have raised concerns that the figures released by the Chinese government are incomplete. The NHC, for instance, did not include in its report the number of asymptomatic cases until last week.

In a news conference on Wednesday, Robert OBrien, the U. S. national security adviser, took note of Beijings controversial figures.

Theres no way to confirm any of those numbers, he added. Theres lots of public reporting on whether the numbers are too low.

Japan poised to declare state of emergency

Last week also saw a surge in new cases in Tokyo, with over 1,000 confirmed cases bringing Japans total caseload to 3,654, according to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University. In response, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is poised to declare a state of emergency in Tokyo and six other regions to stymie the coronavirus spread and prevent a major outbreak in the worlds biggest city.

Under the month-long state of emergency, governors of affected prefectures will have additional powers to close schools and businesses. However, they cannot order citizens to stay home.

In Japan, even if we declare a state of emergency, we will not close cities as seen in foreign countries. Experts have told us that there is no need for such a step, Abe said.

Not one single person is infected in North Korea, says health officials

A senior health official from Pyongyang has said that North Korea remains free of the deadly coronavirus. In a statement, Pak Myong Su, director of the anti-epidemic department of North Koreas Central Emergency Anti-Epidemic Headquarters, insisted that the countrys measures, in particular, its early border lockdown with China and strict containment, meant that no one in the country has contracted the coronavirus.

We have carried out preemptive and scientific measures such as inspections and quarantine for all personnel entering our country and thoroughly disinfecting all goods, as well as closing borders and blocking sea and air lanes, added Pak.

However, military experts are doubtful, saying that the hermit kingdom  which shares its borders with China and South Korea, the two hardest-hit countries during the outbreak  is particularly vulnerable, and its assertion could potentially be a cover-up.

I can tell you that is an impossible claim based on all of the intel that we have seen, explained Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of United States Forces Korea. I can tell you that is an impossible claim based on all of the intel that we have seen.

Learn more about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic at Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

Asia.Nikkei.com

SCMP.com

NYTimes.com 1

NPR.org

UK.Reuters.com

NYTimes.com 2

BBC.com

Coronavirus.JHU.edu

ChannelNewsAsia.com
Indian pharma industry on Tuesday said there is enough stock of hydroxychloroquine in the country, and drug firms are ready to ramp up the production to meet domestic as well as export requirements.

India has decided to partially lift the ban on the export of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine in sync with its global commitment to deal with coronavirus pandemic.

On March 25, India had banned the export of hydroxychloroquine in the midst of concerns that the drug could be used to fight COVID-19.

India is the largest exporter of the drug.

Officials said India would export the drug on a case-by-case basis after meeting all the domestic requirements.

"India manufactures 70 per cent of the world's supply of hydroxychloroquine. Companies like Zydus Cadila and IPCA are the major manufacturers of hydroxychloroquine in the country," Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) Secretary General Sudarshan Jain told PTI.

The production capacity is sufficient to meet the current demand. If the need arises, the companies are committed to ramp up production, he added.

"The government has withdrawn the restrictions on 12 products and its formulations. Various scenarios are being assessed and it will be the endeavour to meet both the domestic demand and export obligation for Paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine," Jain said.

The objective is to minimise speculative buying and hoarding in these trying times and ensure balance in distribution for patients and segment who need them, he added.

In similar vein, Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association (IDMA) Executive Director Ashok Kumar Madan said: "India needs around 24 million tablets per year as on date for the three indications --- malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, it was being used".

India currently has an annual installed capacity of around 40 metric tonne of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) of hydroxychloroquine. With this capacity, "we can make around 200 million tablets of 200 mg," he added.

So this indicates, that India currently has spare available capacity. Now, "we have to see how much would the country's requirements for the drug would grow for both treatment and prevention of COVID-19. The companies have already started ramping the capacity," Madan said.

Hydroxychloroquine has suddenly come into limelight after the recommendation for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19, he added.

The major API makers for the drug in the country are Zydus, Ipca and Mangalam Drugs. The major formulation makers of hydroxychloroquine are Ipca , Zydus, Wallace Pharmaceuticals and Cipla, Madan said.

India exported hydroxycholoroquine API worth USD 1.22 billion in April-January 2019-20. During the same period exports of formulations made from hydroxycholoroquine was at USD 5.50 billion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BAAR, SWITZERLAND / ACCESSWIRE / April 7, 2020 / Swiss Patrimonium Asset Management AG, a EUR 3 bn private market investor, announces the first closing of its latest Private Equity Fund, the Patrimonium Private Equity Fund SCSp, at EUR 100m. Target Fund size is EUR 200m.

The first closing is supported by institutional investors from Europe and Switzerland, as well as family offices.

The Fund has already completed its first investment and currently negotiates further investments and add-ons. The raise puts Patrimonium's latest fund in the position of taking advantage of the upcoming cycle's opportunities with excellent and reasonably priced acquisition targets.

Patrimonium Private Equity focuses on the lower mid-market in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). The excellent track record of its investment team builds on a hands-on buy-and-build approach and a focus on the digital transformation of its portfolio companies.

**

Media Contact

Patrimonium Asset Management AG

Mr. Francois Hutter, Media Relations

+41 58 787 00 08 / +41 79 213 49 04

media@patrimonium.ch

About Patrimonium

Patrimonium Asset Management AG (PATRIMONIUM) is a Swiss independent alternative investment management company regulated by the Swiss Financial Markets Authority (FINMA). PATRIMONIUM offers investment opportunities in real estate, private debt, private equity and infrastructure to Swiss qualified and international professional investors. The group is mainly active in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It employs over 50 professionals with offices in Lausanne, Zurich and Zug. PATRIMONIUM manages more than CHF 3 bn in assets. For more information, please visit www.patrimonium.ch



Patrimonium Asset Management AG, Zugerstrasse 74, CH - 6340 Baar

SOURCE: Patrimonium Asset Management AG via EQS Newswire





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/584192/Patrimonium-announces-first-closing-of-its-latest-Private-Equity-Fund-at-EUR-100m




Some 75 major markets across the 18 municipalities and districts in the Volta Region have been disinfected.

This is to tame bacteria and viruses that could transmit any form of infections to market users in the region.

The exercise which was part of a national exercise ordered by President Akufo-Addo, also covered lorry parks, shops, stores, restaurants, chop bars and all businesses close to the targeted markets.

To this end all markets and adjoining businesses in the region remained closed on Saturday, April 4, 2020 to ensure the success of the exercise.

In Ho, the Volta Regional capital, the exercise scheduled to start at 5am started at about 7 am after some preliminary resource mobilisation.

The Exercise which is under the auspices of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development brought together a combined personnel of about 4000 drawn from National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Zoomlion Ghana and coordinated by the National COVID-19 Emergency Control team.

A delegation from the Regional Security Council and Health Directorate led by Regional Minister, Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa inspected the exercise in some municipalities and districts.

Speaking to journalists in Ho, the Minister commended the level of enthusiasm of the personnel on the ground and commitment to duty.

He also commended residents for the strict compliance to the directive to keep shops and businesses closed.

He said, Im highly impressed by the level of compliance, there is not a single soul in the market. Even the shops around the market here; the compliance rate is quite high so we appreciate the level of cooperation that we enjoyed from the people, it shows that were engaging the stakeholders and they are also committed to the fight against this COVID-19 epidemic.

Dr. Letsa further stated that, the virus is a threat to development and that the government is committed to combating it out of the country. Its a threat to our survival and everybody is committed to supporting His Excellency the President to achieve the purpose of protecting Ghanaians.

Speaking on illegal entry from neighbouring Togo through the Volta region, the Minister indicated that the Regional Security Council has birthed some critical measures to make sure no one come into the country illegally especially through the unapproved routes.

---Daily Guide
While our country focuses on the medical care of so many Americans, we shouldnt forget that our mental health is under assault. During these times of crisis, we are proud of our partners and our team for helping scale this type of learning to the masses so quickly," said Ron Zamir, AllenComm CEO.

AllenComm has partnered with the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry to create free online guides that provide coping skills for getting through the COVID-19 lockdown. COVID-19: Tips for Facing the Lockdown is a free digital guide designed by AllenComm and written by Dr. Barbara Stanley Professor of Medical Psychology at the Columbia University Psychiatric Department. This follows a guide released last week, COVID-19: 5 Tips to Face Your Anxiety. These free resources are designed as a public service by AllenComm and Columbia University during these critical times.

Staying inside poses many challenges. For some, it's loneliness and isolation; for others, it's coping with being in close quarters with family members or roommates, says Dr. Stanley. There are simple, tried and true techniques that psychologists have developed that we can all use to get us through this difficult time.

COVID-19: Tips for Facing the Lockdown addresses common frustrations caused by being stuck in the house. The guide is laid out in easy-to-navigate modules and covers helpful topics such as regulating your mood, using mindfulness to accept what cant be changed, finding ways to treat yourself, harnessing the power of changing up your routine to alter your perspective, and finding ways to preserve or strengthen your relationships. This free resource can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection on their mobile device or computer. These guides can also be hosted on corporate, educational and governmental learning management systems free of charge. Contact AllenComm for more information.

As L&D leaders, we are committed to sharing these effective coping skills to the public at large, said Ron Zamir, AllenComm CEO. While our country focuses on the medical care of so many Americans, we shouldnt forget that our mental health is under assault. During these times of crisis, we are proud of our partners and our team for helping scale this type of learning to the masses so quickly.

About AllenComm

For over 35 years, AllenComm has partnered with Fortune 100 companies to create and scale unique, innovative learning solutions. Extensive instructional design experience, innovative learning technologies, and agency-level creative teams enable AllenComm to stand out in the learning landscape. Considered one of the top ten firms of its kind in the country, AllenComm wins over 40 awards year after year for their tailored learning solutions. With internal workforce and experience, AllenComm is uniquely positioned in the learning space to meet multiple needs from small to very large change management projects. Partnering with AllenComm to supplement and support human capital management needs has helped customers reduce expenses, shorten onboarding periods, and raise the impact of sales and compliance efforts.

For more information, visit allencomm.com.

About Columbia University Department of Psychiatry

The Columbia University Department of Psychiatry is one of the largest in the country in terms of faculty size as well as state, federal, and foundation research support. They are currently among the top-ranked in the nation for Psychiatry in the US News & World Report Best Hospital rankings, as well as in psychiatric research funding from the National Institutes of Health. They have extraordinary clinical, educational, and research resources. Their faculty includes over 400 psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and neurobehavioral scientists. Clinical facilities and laboratories of the Psychiatry Department are located in a large number of institutions and healthcare systems. These include New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, the New York State Psychiatric Institute, the New York State Office of Mental Health, and the Washington Heights Community Mental Health Center. The Department of Psychiatry also houses the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, the Mind/Brain Institute, a Howard Hughes Research Institute and the Stanley Center for Applied Neuroscience of Bipolar Disorders.
New Delhi: Tamil Nadu on Tuesday (April 7) recorded 69 new coronavirus COVID-19 cases, of these 63 are linked to Tablighi Jamaat's congregation at Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz, putting the total tally in the state at 690. The state also reported one more death which now reaches seven.

According to reports, the 64-year-old female patient died today was admitted to a hospital in Chennai. Notably, 19 COVID-19 positive have been discharged.

Tamil Nadu's Health Secretary Beela Rajesh said, "the patient had comorbidities of hypertension and diabetes. There has been some debate over the degree of testing, particularly that of people who have recent travel history to countries impacted by the Coronavirus."

The health secretary stated that preventive measures were far more important, adding "For its benefit, Tamil Nadu, which ranks second only to Maharashtra in total positives, also does maximum testing."

"Today one may test negative but tomorrow the same person may test positive...what is important now is to practice social distancing as that is the only way to contain the spread of virus," Rajesh said.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami launched district wise helpline numbers to help farmers sell their produce, sort out transport, pass and storage issues.

The Chief Minister also waived off cold storage fees for fruits and vegetables till 30th April, ahead of mango harvest, according to a statement by Tamil Nadu CM Office.

In Karnataka also, 12 new positive coronavirus cases were confirmed, taking the total number of affected in the state to 175, the Health department said. Among the 12, four had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation from March 13-18. One person each hailed from Bagalkote and Bengaluru Rural, besides two from Bengaluru city.

In Kerala, positive cases witnessed a marginal increase with nine new patients, including two who had Tablighi link, in the state.

Meanwhile, Nizamuddin West in Delhi has emerged as a major epicenter for the spread of coronavirus in different parts of the country after thousands of Tablighi Jamaat members participated in a religious congregation from March 1-15, and travelled to different states across the country.
Both Hill Country and Texas Jacks have laid off employees, too, and those who remain on duty have taken salary cuts to keep the lights on. If the staffs are demoralized on any level, you cant detect it in the barbecue. My takeout meals from Texas Jacks and Hill Country exhibited all the hallmarks of high-quality cue: tenderness, smokiness, suppleness, seasoning. The barbecue even traveled relatively well, the meat retaining much of its essential moisture after trips that lasted 25 minutes or more. I ate my takeout order from Federalist Pig in the car; it was an impulse purchase as I was driving through AdMo, like buying candy in the checkout line. I savored every bite of it, as if I had been deprived of smoked meats for years, not weeks. Sounds like stress eating to me, right?
Iranian health officials cast doubt on Tuesday on China's reporting of its novel coronavirus toll, saying the figures appear to be too low.

"After the virus spread, it became evident it wasn't as China reported," said Minoo Mohraz, a health ministry official who is also a member of Iran's coronavirus-fighting taskforce.

"They're currently retracting many of their articles and their figures and studies have not been very correct," she said, quoted by state agency IRNA.

"With what we know of their scientific studies... their figures are not trustworthy." Another taskforce official said China's figures were "far from the truth", based on COVID-19's spread and high fatalities worldwide.

Hamid Souri, an epidemiologist, said "distorted data leads to distorted decision-making".

Iran's health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour came under fire on Sunday after saying China's reporting of its COVID-19 figures was a "bitter joke".

He was slammed on Twitter by the Chinese ambassador to Tehran, Chang Hua, who called on him to "respect realities and the great efforts of the people of China", where the pandemic originated.

Jahanpour later retreated and tweeted that "China's support of Iran in these trying times is unforgettable".

Iran-China relations are usually warm as Beijing is one of Tehran's top trade partners, especially in oil sales.

Iran says the virus has killed more than 3,800 and infected over 62,500 in the Islamic republic.

But there has been speculation abroad that the real number of deaths and infections could be higher.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BRIDGEPORT  Police are currently trying to locate a teenager who has been missing since Feb. 25.

Christine Smith, 17, was desribed by officials as a black female, who is five-feet, six-inches tall, 165 pounds and has brown eyes and black hair.
Jerusalem, April 7 : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to coordinate efforts to curb the outbreak of the novel coronavirus during a phone call, the prime minister's office said.

Addressing the nation on his government's efforts against COVID-19 on Monday, Netanyahu said he and Putin agreed to cooperate in the purchase of medical equipment, as Israel suffers a short supply of testing kits for coronavirus and respirators, reported Xinhua news agency.

"They also agreed to enable movement between Russia and Israel so that citizens of the two countries will be able to return home," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

Israel is currently in lockdown with 8,904 people diagnosed with the coronavirus and 57 fatalities, according to the health ministry's latest figures.
United Airlines Holdings Inc. was sued by a passenger for refusing to issue refunds for canceled flights, three days after U.S. regulators ordered airlines to reimburse customers.

The passenger, Jacob Rudolph, filed the suit in federal court in Chicago on Monday, saying he was denied a refund request for three plane tickets he purchased in January to travel to Minneapolis/St. Paul from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, on April 4.

United has engaged in unfair and deceptive conduct through its policy to issue refunds, limiting and forcing customers into a rebooked flight or travel voucher instead of returning their money, Rudolph said in his suit, which seeks class-action status.

Airline passengers throughout the U.S. are increasingly taking to social media to air their frustration at not being able to get refunds for trips canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday reminded carriers that they are required to reimburse fliers for fares and fees.

How dare you refuse refunds. Wedding cancelled in Hawaii end of month due to Covid. I wont be able go for reschedule date due to financial hardship. I bought travel insurance but they wont honor for pandemic. Shame on you United. I dont want the credit! Rudolph said he was denied a refund for the more than $1,500 he spent on the tickets and told he could rebook the flights or receive a credit for travel within a year of the original travel date.

United spokeswoman Leslie Scott declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the company hadnt been served yet. The airline has put new policies in place since the emergence of the virus to give customers flexibility by allowing them to change travel plans without a fee, such as by rebooking or receiving a credit for future travel, she said.

Eligible passengers can request a refund if their flights have been severely adjusted or service to their destination suspended either due to government mandates or United schedule reductions related to Covid-19, Scott said, referring to the disease caused by the virus. We are proud of the role our company and our employees play during this crisis and continue to operate to nearly every domestic destination as well as six international markets across the globe, including our partner hubs.

About the photo: A United Airlines plane departs Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia on April 6. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
NCP MP Supriya Sule on Tuesday



questioned Delhi Police's decision to give permission to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month, and also its 'failure' to stop riots in February.

Several of those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting later tested positive for coronavirus.

"Two things come to my mind, without any (involved) in it....I want to ask these questions as a citizen," the Baramati MP said during an interaction through Facebook.

"Riots broke out in Delhi when (US) President Trump visited (in February). What was the police commissioner there doing?



"Eight or ten days later, the Markaz meeting (organised by the Tablighi Jamaat) took place in Delhi. The same commissioner gave the permission. What exactly the administration was paying attention to? How come the administration let these things happen within a span of ten days?" the NCP leader said.

"What was the Delhi administration exactly doing then?" Sule asked.

She was not seeking to politicise the issue, she added.

To a Facebook user's demand that Kondhwa and Sayyed Nagar areas in Pune be sealed and those who attended the Jamaat's gathering (and returned to these areas) be tested, Suleassured that authorities in areas where participants from Nizamuddin event returned were dealing with these issues.

Sule also praised the Maharashtra government and police for not giving permission to a similar event in the state.

She, however, added that this was no time to play

The NCP leader welcomed the Union cabinet's decision to slash the salaries, allowances and pensions of Members of Parliament by 30 per cent for one year and to use the money for the fight against coronavirus.

On the cabinet's decision to suspend the MP Local Area Development (MPLAD) fund, she said she was not opposed to it.

"But I did not get one thing. MPs get Rs 5 crore to carry out development works in their constituencies...we are not opposing the Centre using that fund. But we at least have the right to question what will be done with that money," she said.

She also slammed those circulating video clips on social media which can create a rift within society.

Sule praised doctors, nurses and police personnel who are doing their duty during the virus outbreak and appealed people to stay at home to check the contagion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As India combats the unprecedented global pandemic, Marico Limited extends support to the government, citizens, support workers and medical fraternity. With the rapidly escalating spread of COVID-19, it is imperative for every member to come together and unite their efforts towards providing relief to all affected communities. Living by the ethos Marico was built on to make a difference; our resources and efforts are directed towards multiple stakeholders.

Commenting on this situation Saugata Gupta, Managing Director and CEO, Marico Limited said, At Marico, community sustenance has been at the core of our business for last three decades. As we stand united against COVID-19, we extend our support to the communities we live in and to the front-runners in this battle  medical professionals, the police force, primary healthcare workers, emergency services staff and fellow citizens who have been worst affected in this crisis. We are ably supported by our own heroes including our manufacturing teams, supply chain teams, our distribution partners and sales teams. We have increased the safety measures and adopted necessary precautions to keep these heroes safe, who are working tirelessly in their attempt to deliver essential products to our consumers safely in compliance with the government guidelines. We salute their perseverance and thank them for making a difference.

Our outreach in this fight against COVID-19 encompasses several areas to which we have committed an initial outlay of INR 8 Crore.

#MaricoUnitedAgainstCovid19

Safety and Hygiene Kits : With a commitment to safeguard lives of those who are fighting the battle on-ground primary healthcare workers, the police force and emergency services staff we are providing them with personal protective equipment like face masks, sanitizers, hand wash, thermometers etc. The distribution of these kits has already begun in Mumbai and in Jalgaon (Maharashtra) as we continue to expand our reach to include more beneficiaries across multiple states. We also plan to partner the government in its rehabilitation initiatives.

Meals program: In partnership with various government agencies we are providing meals and dry rations for migrant labourers, the police force, and health-workers, poor and elderly people during this time. We are working with CII and FICCI under the able guidance of Ministry of Consumer Affairs and other Government authorities for this initiative. We have also partnered with Swiggy and Zomato to deliver these meals. The meal delivery has commenced in Mumbai and dry rations are being provided in Thane District, Aurangabad (Maharashtra) and Baddi (Himachal Pradesh) as we work together with various industry bodies and our partners to scale up the delivery of meals and dry rations across multiple states.

Contribution to PM Care Fund

As the government continues its valiant efforts to fight the pandemic, Marico also pledges contribution to the PM Care Fund.

Innovate2BeatCOVID challenge

With an aim to support our medical infrastructure, Marico Innovation Foundation (MIF) has launched a unique, nationwide platform called #Innovate2BeatCOVID. It invites med-tech entrepreneurs, corporates and innovators to share existing cost-effective and innovative solutions to combat short supply of ventilators, personal protective equipment and other respiratory solutions that can aid the medical fraternity. As the pandemic progresses, the dynamic grand challenge may expand to other items of critical need in consultation with medical experts. Marico Innovation Foundation along with the A.T.E. Chandra Foundation and Harsh Mariwala in his personal capacity will offer total grants worth INR 2.5 Crore to the most impactful innovations. The challenge has received an overwhelming response already with 1000+ applications.

Supporting Each Other

Marico members are united in the fight against COVID-19 in this hour of need. We have together created a fund through voluntary member contributions aided with equivalent contribution from Marico Limited, through which we will help the front line teams of our business partners who are working on-ground ensuring the availability of essential Marico products to consumers. Apart from securing them with personal protective equipment, they will be given extra monetary help under COVID Assistance. In addition to this, in the event of any person being detected positive with Covid-19 and hospitalized, Marico will provide medical assistance.

Members at the manufacturing facilities

As we continue to adhere to all Central and State Government guidelines and orders in carrying on our operations, our manufacturing teams are working to the best of their abilities to make available the much needed essential products to consumers. Apart from personal protective equipment and increase in the frequency of disinfection and fumigation, we have established strict social distancing measures and have implemented mandatory thermal scanning. Entry and exit from the plants during shift timings are demarcated to avoid gathering of members at the gate. Minimum two metres distance is maintained between each of the work stations. Additionally, each site has identified a dedicated isolation room with necessary facilities.

This is a difficult time for most nations across the world, with this health crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of people and has impacted the global economy. In this hour of need we are stepping up to make a difference to our people, our partners and citizens alike. Above all we are committed to serve our consumers to the best of our abilities with products which are essential to them safely and securely.
The stimulus law provided $349 billion for the initiative, known as the paycheck protection program. Larry Kudlow, the top White House economic adviser, said Tuesday morning that the program had funded 178,000 loans at a value of $50 billion since it opened applications on Friday.

But the debut has been plagued with problems, with lenders and potential borrowers alike encountering difficulties navigating it. It has stretched the limits of the Small Business Administration, which typically backs $30 billion of small-business loans in a boom year  about the same amount banks are now seeking for their customers in a day. Small-business owners, bankers and other participants have said that very little of the billions disbursed have actually reached companies in need of the money, which are desperate for it.

Under the terms of the program, businesses that maintain their staffing levels and use the bulk of the money to cover payroll costs will not need to repay their loans.

Many economists warned lawmakers  before, during and after the debate on the $2 trillion law  that small businesses would need significantly more help from the government in the face of an outbreak that has brought entire sectors of the economy, including dining and hospitality, to a halt.

Any delay in availability of funds for business owners, or even the perception that there might not be enough money to go around, could cripple companies and potentially throw workers into unemployment. The typical small business cannot survive less than a month without incoming revenue, according to research by the JPMorgan Chase Institute.

It is quickly becoming clear that Congress will need to provide more funding or this crucial program may run dry, Mr. McConnell said. That cannot happen. Nearly 10 million Americans filed for unemployment in just the last two weeks. This is already a record-shattering tragedy, and every day counts.

With lawmakers scheduled to remain in their districts and home states until at least April 20, approval of such funding would require unanimous agreement between both parties in both chambers.
S chools have been answering the urgent call for more protective equipment for frontline NHS staff during the coronavirus pandemic by using their design and technology workshops to make shields and masks.

As communities across the UK pull together to fight the outbreak, school staff have been eager to help in any way they can.

Doing his bit to help, the head of design and technology at Uppingham School in Rutland, Clive Simmons, has spearheaded a project to produce essential face visors for NHS staff, using laser-cutting equipment at the school.

And, to help ramp up production, Mr Simmons set up a JustGiving page to raise money for materials and to buy more equipment.

Clive Simmons, head of design and technology at Uppingham School, has joined the national effort to make visors for NHS staff / Uppingham School

My target was to raise 500 to make around 1,500 masks, he said.

However, the response has been incredible, and after just three days we have raised more than 7,000.

Weve been overwhelmed by the generosity of our community and friends of the school  their support will help us to make a huge difference to local healthcare teams.

The first batches of visors are being given to North West Anglia NHS Trust, as well as GPs and nursing homes in Rutland and Lincolnshire.

Staff at Park House School in Newbury, Berkshire, have also been fundraising to buy essential materials needed to make protective equipment for NHS staff.

Like other schools, teacher Wendy Hayes launched a fundraiser to help pay for materials / Park House School

With 100 face shields already made and sent out to hospitals, and more than 2,000 raised in donations, the production line will be ramped up by teacher Wendy Hayes, who is leading the project.

Mrs Hayes has been making the visors using a public computer-aided design software programme and a 3D printer in her classroom.

Staff at Park House School in Berkshire using their equipment to make visors / Park House School

The school has been inundated with requests for help from all over the country after it posted photographs of Mrs Hayes work on its Facebook page and hopes to liaise with other design and technology departments in the UK to make sure as many requests as possible are met.

Mrs Hayes told the Evening Standard: "On my own, I initially created 36 in a day, which I photographed and were posted to the Park House School Facebook page and Twitter, and since then its gone crazy.

"One thing I think it would be great to let the NHS and frontline workers know, is if they are struggling to get hold of the visors, they should get in touch with the design and technology department at their local secondary school, as they may find that they are also already doing this, and can potentially provide a stop gap until the masks can be procured through official channels.

"Were all trying to produce as quickly as possible, and so many other D&T departments are doing their bit."

Park House Schools headteacher Derek Peaple said: I am absolutely in awe of what Wendy is doing.

It epitomises a very special commitment to our local and wider community, and the extraordinary work being undertaken by our health and care workers.

NHS staff at Princess Royal Hospital wearing visors made by Thomas Adams School in Shropshire / Thomas Adams School

Elsewhere, also using the skills of its hard-working teachers, Thomas Adams School in Wem, Shropshire, plans to make 100 face shields a day in its design and technology department.

The first batch is heading to the respiratory ward at Telfords Princess Royal Hospital, where the school also donated more than 60 pairs of safety glasses and science goggles.

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The teachers said they will continue to make as many as possible, with the help of donated materials.

Headteacher Mark Cooper said: This a brilliant use of staff skills and our school equipment to help key workers who are facing exceptionally challenging situations on a daily basis.

Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures 1 /81 Coronavirus hits the UK - In pictures A deserted Westminster Bridge PA A man wearing a face mask or covering due to the COVID-19 pandemic, walks past customers sat outside a restaurant AFP via Getty Images Boris Johnson addresses the nation on the Coronavirus lockdown Andrew Parsons Runners pass cardboard cutouts of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William during the London Marathon in London AP An empty escalator at Charing Coss London Underground tube station Jeremy Selwyn Electronic bilboards displays a message warning people to stay home in Sheffield PA A sign is displayed in the window of a student accommodation building following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mancheste Reuters People take part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions, in Londo AP People sing and dance in Leicester Square on the eve on the 10PM curfew Reuters Hearts painted by a team of artists from Upfest are seen in the grass at Queen Square, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Bristol Reuters Graffiti reads 'good luck and stay safe', as the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases grow around the world, under a bridge in London Reuters A sign is pictured in Soho, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London Reuters Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures, during a coronavirus briefing in Downing Street, London AP A person runs past posters with a message of hope, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Manchester REUTERS Riot police face protesters who took part in a 'We Do Not Consent' rally at Trafalgar Square, organised by Stop New Normal, to protest against coronavirus restrictions in London AP An image of The Queen eith quotes from her broadcast to the UK and the Commonwealth in relation to the Coronavirus epidemic are displayed on lights in London's Piccadilly Circus PA Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas' hospital Getty Images Durdle Door in Dorset Reuters Captain Tom Moore via Reuters Mia, aged 8, and Jack, aged 5, take part in "PE with Joe" a daily live workout with Joe Wicks on Youtube to help kids stay fit who have to stay indoors due to the Coronavirus outbreak PA An NHS worker reacts at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital during the Clap for our Carers campaign in support of the NHS Reuters Goats which have taken over the deserted streets of Llandudno @AndrewStuart via PA Tobias Weller PA Novikov restaurant in London with its shutters pulled down while the restaurant is closed London Landscapes: Hyde Park and the Serpentine, central London. Matt Writtle A newspaper vendor in Manchester city centre giving away free toilet rolls with every paper bought as shops run low on supplies due to fears over the spread of the coronavirus PA Theo Clay looks out of his window next to his hand-drawn picture of a rainbow in Liverpool, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue Reuters A young man cuts another man's hair on top of a closed hairdresser in Oxford Reuters General view of the new NHS Nightingale Hospital, built to fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London via Reuters Jason Baird is seen dressed as Spiderman during his daily exercise to cheer up local children in Stockport, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues Reuters A woman wearing a face mask walks past Buckingham Palace Getty Images A man holds mobile phone displaying a text message alert sent by the government warning that new rules are in force across the UK and people must stay at home PA Medical staff on the Covid-19 ward at the Neath Port Talbot Hospital, in Wales, as the health services continue their response to the coronavirus outbreak. PA Prime Minister Boris Johnson taking part in a virtual Cabinet meeting with his top team of ministers PA A shopper walks past empty shelves in a Lidl store on in Wallington. After spates of "panic buying" cleared supermarket shelves of items like toilet paper and cleaning products, stores across the UK have introduced limits on purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have also created special time slots for the elderly and other shoppers vulnerable to the new coronavirus. Getty Images People on a busy tube train in London at rush hour PA Mia, aged 8 and her brother Jack, aged 5 from Essex, continue their school work at home, after being sent home due to the coronavirus PA Children are painting 'Chase the rainbows' artwork and springing up in windows across the country Reuters Social distancing in Primrose Hill Jeremy Selwyn A general view of a locked gate at Anfield, Liverpool as The Premier League has been suspended PA Homeless people in London AFP via Getty Images A piece of art by the artist, known as the Rebel Bear has appeared on a wall on Bank Street in Glasgow. The new addition to Glasgow's street art is capturing the global Coronavirus crisis. The piece features a woman and a man pulling back to give each other a kiss PA The Queen leaves Buckingham Palace, London, for Windsor Castle to socially distance herself amid the coronavirus pandemic PA A general view on Grey street, Newcastle as coronavirus cases grow around the world Reuters Matt Raw, a British national who returned from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan in China, leaves quaratine at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside PA Britain's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty (L) and Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance look on as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures as he speaks during a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) news conference inside 10 Downing Street Reuters The ticket-validation terminals at the tram stop on Edinburgh's Princes Street are cleaned following the coronavirus outbreak. PA Locked school gates at Rockcliffe First School in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear PA A sign at a Sainsbury's supermarket informs customers that limits have been set on a small number of products as the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases grow around the world Reuters Jawad Javed delivers coronavirus protection kits that he and his wife have put together to the vulnerable people of their community of Stenhousemuir, between Glasgow and Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images A sign advertising a book titled "How Will We Survive On Earth?" Getty Images A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask today in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A pedestrian walks past graffiti that reads "Diseases are in the City" in Edinburgh AFP via Getty Images Staff from The Lyric Theatre, London inform patrons, as it shuts its doors PA A quiet looking George IV Bridge in Edinburgh PA A quieter than usual British Museum Getty Images A racegoer attends Cheltenham in a fashionable face mask SplashNews.com A commuter wears a face mask at London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn A empty restaurant in the Bull Ring Shopping Centre Getty Images A deserted Trafalgar Square in London PA Passengers determined to avoid the coronavirus before leaving the UK arrive at Gatwick Airport Getty Images

In London, Marc Rogers, head of design and technology at Bancrofts School in Woodford Green, has also put his skills to work to produce 32 visors a day.

He has even got requests directly from parents of children at the school who work for the NHS.

Marc Rogers, head of design and technology at Bancrofts School in London / Bancrofts School

I found prototypes of the various components online and decided to build the Prusa MK 3 developed by the 3D printing company Prusa, he said.

Each 3D printed frame takes one and a half hours to complete, so to make best use of time we set the 3D printing in stacks of four overnight. The visors can then be constructed the next morning.

Visors made by Thomas Adams School in Shropshire, ready to be given to NHS staff / Thomas Adams School

The visors are placed in sealed bags for three days after they have been manufactured to avoid any virus being passed on, before being picked up and delivered to the NHS.

Like other schools which are fundraising, Mr Rogers is worried he might run out of materials and has asked if local businesses can provide spare any supplies for the initiative.

We will continue to do this as long as we have the resources, he said. We do foresee that souring the materials will become a problem.
New Delhi: A lawyer has moved the Supreme Court seeking the evacuation of her daughter and other Indian students stranded in the UK because of the ban imposed last month on international flight operations as part of measures taken to check the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

Madhurima Mridul, the lawyer, filed a public interest litigation days after her husband, Delhi high court judge Siddharth Mridul, recused himself when a plea came before him on March 20 seeking the evacuation of a student from Scotland. The judge said his daughter was stranded in London while recusing himself. Siddharth Mridul heard a matter on March 27 regarding evacuation of Indians from Kazakhstan.

Many such students are exposed to a greater risk of contracting COVID-19 due to being crammed into packed hostels with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities during the current lockdown imposed in the UK and are fighting for their survival, the lawyer said in her petition.

The Supreme Court heard the petition on Tuesday and directed the Centre to respond to it by Monday.

The petition said India is probably the only country to have stopped the return of its citizens while other countries are making all possible efforts to repatriate theirs stranded abroad.

It is also pertinent to note that countries with far greater incidence of mortality like China, Spain, Italy, Iran, South Korea and United States of America, too, have not imposed any embargo on the return of their nationals from foreign shores, the petition said.

India has evacuated hundreds of its citizens from countries like Iran and Italy, which are among the worst-hit by the pandemic.

The petitioner cited data she has collected and said there are about 20,000 Indian students in the UK, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care in hospital after his coronavirus symptoms worsened. The pandemic has killed over 5,000 people in Britain.

The petition said the students were finding it hard to survive on their limited available resources even as the threat of contracting the virus looms large. Given the present circumstances, the students lives are at great risk without the basic necessities to sustain themselves. Many of these students are running out of finances and facing shortage of food and water. They have not been able to access any protective masks, gloves or sanitizers and are worried about contracting the deadly virus while miles away from their loved ones in India.

Advocate Sunil Fernandes, who argued the petition, said a golden opportunity was lost recently when Indian flights were chartered by the UK and Germany this month to evacuate their citizens stranded in India.

The last of these flights returned from London empty on Tuesday. As of now, about 380 students are stranded at the Indian High Commission in London.

A bench of Chief Justice of India S A Bobde and justice L Nageswara Rao, which heard the matter, sought to know the number of Indian students stranded and asked solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Centre through video conferencing, about any alternate evacuation plan.
BEIJING (Reuters) - A gun attack in a mining area in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has killed three Chinese nationals, China's official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday, citing the Chinese embassy in the mineral-rich central African country.

The attack took place on Saturday in the northeastern province of Ituri, which borders Uganda and South Sudan, Xinhua said, without naming the mine in question or the company operating it. "Three Chinese citizens were unfortunately killed," it added.

The DRC is the world's biggest producer of mined cobalt - a key ingredient in batteries for electric vehicles - and one of Africa's biggest copper producers, although its key copper-cobalt producing region is in the southwest, far from the site of the attack.

The country has attracted billions of dollars in investment from Chinese miners in recent years despite security risks. Canadian gold miner Banro, which owns mines in Maniema, a DRC province south of Ituri, suspended operations last year after several of its mines were overrun by armed rebels.

The Chinese embassy has asked the Congolese government to "take effective measures to protect the lives and property of Chinese citizens" in the DRC, as well as to expedite an investigation into the killings, Xinhua said, noting that the embassy had repeatedly advised Chinese citizens against travel to Ituri due to the presence of armed groups.

The embassy did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment on Monday, a public holiday in China.

(Reporting by Tom Daly; additional reporting by Helen Reid in Johannesburg; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
The current debate over the discontinuation of the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) shines a light on the issue of devolution of powers.

After India became independent and the Constitution was written, the political class, within and outside the Congress, consciously chose a weak form of federalism, in which the Union government had preponderant powers which not only overshadowed those of the constituent units, but could often override them.

This was largely a historically contingent choice, driven mainly by the uncertainties and chaos caused by Partition, and also because of the need to integrate into the nation-state still in the making regions at that point imperfectly assimilated  the North East and princely states, for example.

At some critical junctures, such as war, it could be necessary to further centralise governmental authority  and such, indeed, has been the case  through the invocation of various forms of emergency provisions. At some junctures, however, decentralisation and devolution of powers, de facto if necessary, is a better idea. The COVID-19 crisis presents precisely such an extended moment in the history of the nation-state. The current debate over the discontinuation of the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) shines a light on the issue of devolution. We shall discuss this in a bit.

It is clearly not possible for the Union government to tackle the current emergency from the ramparts of the North Block. State governments will have to bear the brunt of containing the transmission of the novel coronavirus, and, in fact, are doing so. Similarly, as a matter of fact, state governments will have to devolve power to district authorities and allow them the elbow room to exercise discretion, because local conditions and contingencies often require bespoke solutions. The fact that one size cannot fit all is hardly in the realm of advanced astrophysics.

Take the case of Bhilwara district in Rajasthan. Faced with a crisis occasioned by the infection of a doctor from unknown sources, the district health authorities were sufficiently alarmed to launch a customised and thorough campaign of containment, which included a kind of zero-tolerance implementation of a lockdown, accompanied by the sealing of the districts borders. This was followed by identification of potential clusters and extensive mapping of contacts, isolation of high-risk individuals and collection of samples for rapid testing. Finally, not sequentially, however, there was a blanket screening exercise to identify people exhibiting symptoms of influenza.

Following Bhilwaras success to date, it has been reported that the Centre is pondering using this model as a template for every district in India. Its a no-brainer that, if possible, these measures should be followed everywhere. The problem is that India probably does not have the resources to replicate this model in every district. Most states would struggle, and probably fail, to put in place the necessary infrastructure and deploy the necessary personnel to emulate Bhilwara. Even Rajasthan would probably not be able to do it. It must be pointed out, though, that the fact that Bhilwara had the autonomy to chart its own course says a lot about the flexibility available in Indias federal structure.

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The point is that it is probably not necessary or useful for every district in India to try to follow Bhilwara, because their problems will almost always be dissimilar. Resources must be used with discretion, even though, as a rule of thumb, all states must try their utmost to amplify testing. Extensive testing is the only basis for sequestration and treatment. And, to what extent and how the current lockdown can be modified is a decision that can be taken by the Central government only on the basis of extensive testing, because that will provide both localised cartographies and the overall picture.

It goes without saying, practically, that if some form of modification or relaxation is considered the desirable option, the details of the decision cannot be taken by the Central government. It must allow state governments to decide how and where to relax the lockdown. At the very least, it must allow itself to be led unreservedly by the advice tendered and decisions taken by state governments, which, in turn, must be led by local authorities.

With the issue of considering the lockdown afresh and the equally important issue of the distribution of resources paramount at this point, such lack of coordination can be disastrous. Thus, all important decisions must be taken by the Central government in consultation with state governments. While the convening of an all-party meeting, scheduled for 8 April, is important, it is also necessary for Delhi to have, if necessary, numerous meetings with the states, possibly in the shape of chief ministers. It is in this context that the suspension of the MPLADS is relevant. The decision taken on Monday could have been preceded by such consultations. It is arguable that for the interim, instead of suspending the scheme, the central government could have directed MPs to spend their corpus only on programmes related to containing the pandemic. This would have made available at constituency-level authorities, meaning district downwards, the funds and flexibility to run their operations, obviously in consultation and coordination with higher authorities.

At the same time, it needs to be noted that funds and physical resources  equipment  need to be disbursed and supplied quickly and fairly. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, for instance, asked the Central government last Wednesday to release funds already due  to the tune of at least Rs. 25,000 crore  to help the state in its campaign to contain the coronavirus. In the context of the suspension of the MPLADS, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, while questioning the centralisation of resources, has also complained that the Centre has allocated Rs. 157 crore to Kerala, which has 314 COVID-19 cases, while Gujarat, with only 122 cases, gets Rs. 622 crore.

The specific merits of these two cases cannot easily be adjudicated. It could well be argued, in the first case, that the sum Banerjee has asked for cannot be disbursed in one tranche because other states, too, need funds, while, in the second case, it can be argued that Gujarat is several times larger and more populous. But at the same time, Banerjees demand is not preposterous, neither is Tharoors statement completely off the mark.

The point, therefore, is precisely that competing claims must be met fairly, and must be seen to be met fairly. The only way for that to happen is continuous engagement and consultation not only between the Centre and the states, but between states as well, as the migrant problem has tragically underlined.
Recognizing outstanding staff All Hands on Deck is a new series profiling staff members working tirelessly behind the scenes to help Emory continue its academic and health care missions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Know someone we should consider? Email suggestions to l.douglasbrown@emory.edu.

The announcement March 11 was simple and to the point: Effective immediately, Emory University will extend spring break for students until Sunday, March 22, 2020, and transition to remote learning for graduate and undergraduate classes on Monday, March 23, 2020.

The actual transition, however, would be a mass undertaking for Emory College: More than 500 faculty members from a broad array of disciplines had less than two weeks to move from a classroom setting to remote learning for 6,000 undergraduates, now scattered across the country and the world.

Sara Jackson Wade, senior associate director of summer programs for Emory College, including Emory College online and the Emory pre-college program, was prepared. On March 5, she and Emory College lead web developer Brian Williams, along with marketing specialist Donna Morgan  with a sense of what was to come  had quickly built out a website to assist faculty with Academic Continuity and Remote Teaching Resources.

Brian has done an incredible job, Wade says. I had content I wanted to put up on the website, and he has made it beautiful and navigable, polished and professional. I dont believe we have ever met face-to-face but I feel like I know him well now. Strange time, but those are the silver linings.

They were way ahead of the curve, says Beverly Cox Clark, director of Emory College communications. Sara also worked one-on-one with faculty and departments to get them prepared and continues to provide support.

Sally Gouzoules, associate dean for International and Summer Programs, says Wade has been working with teams across the university, and they have all relied upon her expertise to get things up and functional. The reason were not in crisis is, simply put, Sara Wade. Ive never seen anyone rocket up to new levels of responsibility so quickly and with such unflappable poise.

Wade is quick to say it was a team effort and that she was fortunate enough to be well positioned to lead the charge.

Five years ago, we started offering online courses for the college, which was an initiative that I oversaw, she says. Primarily it was for online courses we offered during the summer, and there was a comprehensive program we put faculty through  they had a year to develop a course, as well as an eight-week training program developed and run by Leah Chuchran, the Colleges instructional designer, and we offered support during that time.

By January, COVID-19 was on their radar. The part of our office that handles study abroad programs had been deep in the weeds with coronavirus since the beginning of the year, deciding when to bring students home from China and Italy, then all the overseas sites, Wade says.

Very soon afterward, the conversation turned to helping our faculty now, Wade says.

Teaching in new formats

Partnering with Emorys Center for Faculty Development and Excellence and Library and Information Technology Services, crash courses were offered in how to use available remote-teaching technologies, such as Zoom and Canvas. Instructional workshops were recorded for wider availability.

The priority was to help all faculty make an emergency transition to remote learning. We had about 60 faculty in the College who had previously completed our training, Wade says. And another couple of dozen who had taught online at other institutions.

The faculty had less than two weeks to make their remote courses a reality. Many who had previous online teaching experience instantly become peer consultants, helping others in their departments.

I have been very lucky, in that my experience has been relatively smooth, says Elizabeth Kim, a lecturer in Emory Colleges Department of Psychology who is currently teaching Psychology 205 (child development) to 58 students remotely and Psychology 760 (graduate practicum) to nine students.

This is primarily because I had taken the Emory College Online Teaching Strategies course and had some course materials already prepared as a result. Its been nice to take what Ive learned and share that with my colleagues as we rapidly transitioned to online instruction.

Christine Ristaino, senior lecturer in Italian, says she enjoys teaching online. It feels as though you can almost read your students minds because they can write in the chat box and you can seamlessly work their questions into what you teach as they ask them, she says. I also love that it feels as though Im visiting them and having a nice chat at their house. This helps me to get to know them better. On the other hand, I would like to be there for my students in person during this difficult time, so thats hard.

I feel like faculty have done an amazing job, pivoting so quickly, Wade says. Faculty have to step back and decide what methods and tools are best for their courses, taking into account the size of the class, the type of material they need to communicate and the format they are most comfortable teaching in.

In a remote teaching week one pulse survey, 85% of Emory College faculty agreed that they had been provided the right tools and resources to be effective while teaching online. And we are continuing to work with faculty who need additional support, Wade says.

Focusing on students needs

Understanding must also be extended to students who cant attend synchronous classes because of time zone differences or limited access to technology. Students are not penalized if they cant connect, Wade says. Faculty members record and post their classes. There is quite a bit of flex.

Kristin Phillips, a senior lecturer in anthropology, says she considers what health or financial difficulties her students might be grappling with alongside their coursework, and if they have the technological access to make it work.

I appreciated the communications coming to faculty from the College to be as human as possible in this re-design, she says. The victories feel really good. I've tried to tighten the learning expectations for the class and also the assignment structures. The participation, both written and in Zoom class, has been really engaged and students are coming well-prepared.

Emory College is assisting faculty who teach graduate classes as well. Jim Hoesterey, associate director of the graduate Division of Religion, says the support has been invaluable.

The students have many frustrations at this point, but Zoom has offered, perhaps ironically, a sort of human connection in online class, and especially during office hours, where Emory Together feels like much more than a slogan, he says.

Most challenging, Wade says, are performance and studio classes like art, music and dance, and lab-based courses. But I will say, faculty members are making it work, figuring out creative solutions and really interesting integration.

Ive worked longer hours over the past month than I probably ever have, and Im tired, says Wade, who also has three children at home  ages 5, 8 and 10  that she is home schooling around work projects. For a situation I wish none of us have had to experience, it has also been one of the most encouraging and fulfilling times Ive ever had professionally.

Ive never been more impressed by Emory. Its inspiring to watch everyone do what needs to be done. Just quick, nimble responses to whatever comes up, with a real focus on students.
Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane informed that 15 tests were conducted by the Goa Medical College Hospital on Monday and all of them have tested negative for COVID-19.

The total number of coronavirus positive cases in Goa is seven.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said that the government will conduct an extensive health survey from April 11 to April 13.

He said that the survey will map the travel history of people and check whether anyone has symptoms like that of COVID-19.

"An extensive survey would be conducted from April 11 till April 13. The health survey will map the travel history of people and check whether anyone is having symptoms like that of COVID-19," he said.

He said that 7,000 to 8,000 government servants, including teachers and Anganwadi workers, will go house-to-house booth-wise.

"Our government servants including teachers and Anganwadi workers will visit every house booth-wise. By engaging 7000 to 8000 government servants, the survey would be conducted on three days," Sawant said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Brussels: Austria and Denmark have announced plans to reopen their societies after coronavirus lockdowns, hoping they may have already weathered the worst of the first wave of the pandemic.

Belgium, France, Spain and others are similarly examining how they will loosen some restrictions on public life. But European leaders are cautious because some countries that have sought to return to normal, such as Singapore and Japan, have seen waves of new infections.

A medical worker performs a mouth swab on a patient to test for COVID-19 in a tent extension of the Rigshospitalet Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark. Credit:AP

Both Austria and Denmark plan to lift restrictions in stages. In Austria, small shops are slated to reopen on April 14, with larger stores to follow on May 1. Restaurants, hotels and schools may be able to reopen in mid-May - though that decision will be assessed at the end of April. Strict rules about masks, social distancing and the number of people allowed into a shop at any one time will remain in place, but public events may resume in July.

In Denmark, the plan is for nursery and primary schools to reopen on April 15, while companies will resume business gradually.
In contrast with China and other countries where the disease spread slowly, in Brazil more than 300 people started the epidemic; most were passengers flying in from Italy

Italy was the main origin of the individuals who first brought the novel coronavirus to Brazil, according to a study by Brazilian researchers in collaboration with colleagues in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

The COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Brazil between February and early March.

"In contrast with China and other countries, where the outbreak began slowly with a small number of cases, it was started in Brazil by more than 300 people, most of whom came from Italy. The virus spread very quickly as a result," said Ester Sabino, one of the authors of the study. Sabino is a professor at the University of Sao Paulo's Medical School (FM-USP) and headed the university's Institute of Tropical Medicine (IMT-USP) between 2015 and 2019.

Most of these people came from Italy to Sao Paulo City, where the first cases of the disease in Brazil were notified, but some went to other destinations, including Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Salvador, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza, Recife, Vitoria and Florianopolis, contributing to the nationwide spread of the disease.

The study was supported by Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP under the aegis of the Brazil-UK Center for Arbovirus Discovery, Diagnosis, Genomics and Epidemiology (CADDE). The results are reported in an article published in the Journal of Travel Medicine.

The researchers estimated that 54.8% of all cases of COVID-19 imported into Brazil by March 5 derived from people infected in Italy, followed by passengers who flew in from China (9.3%) and France (8.3%).

They also estimated that 24.9% of all infected people flying to Brazil during the period traveled from Italy to Sao Paulo, and that Italy was the start of five of the ten main routes for infected travelers coming to Brazil (via China, France, Switzerland, South Korea and Spain).

To identify the main routes for the importation of COVID-19 to Brazil, the researchers analyzed February-March 2020 data for passengers traveling to any Brazilian airport from 29 countries with confirmed cases of the disease.

They estimated the proportion of infected travelers potentially arriving in Brazilian cities from each country and for each route based on the total number of passengers flying to any Brazilian airport during the period, country populations and the number of cases notified by these countries as of March 5, 2020.

The estimates were corroborated by the Brazilian Ministry of Health's official data on notified cases, showing that 14 of the first 29 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in Brazil had just been to Italy. Six of them (23.1%) were notified in Sao Paulo.

"It was very clear that Sao Paulo would be the epicenter of the epidemic in Brazil because it was the final destination for the largest number of infected people coming mainly from Italy," Sabino said.

Focus on internal mobility

According to Sabino, who led the genome sequencing of the coronaviruses isolated from the first two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Brazil, sustained community transmission of the disease now prevails and the authorities should focus on restricting internal mobility in order to contain the epidemic.

This means restricting the mobility of the inhabitants of Sao Paulo, where most of the confirmed cases in Brazil have been notified.

"Sao Paulo and to a lesser extent Rio de Janeiro will be the hubs from which the virus spreads to the rest of the country, so people should be prevented from leaving these two cities," she said.

Continuation of sequencing

The researchers led by Sabino continue to sequence SARS-CoV-2 isolated from Brazilians diagnosed with COVID-19. At one point they had to stop because some of their members were thought to have been infected.

"We had to shut down the lab, but we're back now and will analyze whether we can sequence a larger number of viral genomes," Sabino said.

The speed with which the disease spread around Brazil has disrupted the group's plans. "Transmission of the virus is proceeding so fast that the sequencing data can't help us understand how the epidemic is spreading as we planned," Sabino said.

The researchers expected to be able to sequence viruses as sporadic cases of the disease were notified in order to keep track of the transmission trajectory and contribute to the design of a containment strategy, but the number of cases arriving at the lab simultaneously turned out to be too high.

"It won't be possible to control the epidemic with sequencing alone. It's spreading very fast, and we can no longer track all the cases," Sabino said.

The number of genomes sequenced worldwide from infected patients has almost reached 800. These sequences are being made public, and can be used for research on primary resistance to help develop promising antiviral drugs against the virus, Sabino explained.

"When a candidate drug is found, a database of viral genome sequences will certainly be useful for this purpose," she said.

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About Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at http://www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at http://www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe.
The brand new Netflix limited series Unorthodox was released last month. Unorthodox is based on a memoir written by Deborah Feldman that was published in 2012. The book is a tale of how she escaped a particularly oppressive sect of the Hasidic Jewish community in New York, and found freedom in Berlin. In the television series, the character who portrays Feldman is a woman named Esty Shapiro. An actress from Israel, Shira Haas, took on the challenge of playing Esty in this intensely emotional story. She recently explained how she prepared forand masteredthe lead role in Unorthodox.

[Spoiler alert: a few spoilers for Unorthodox below].

Actress Shira Haas in 2015 | Larry Busacca/Getty Images

Actress Shira Haas played the lead, Esty Shapiro in the Netflix series

Haas recently talked to IndieWire about her experience prepping for the challenging role. Esty, the protagonist in Unorthodox, goes through a harrowing experience. Not to mention, she lives in a tight-knit community that not many people know much about.

It did require me to do a lot of research, Shira Haas, the actress who plays Esty recalled. Haas told IndieWire she read Deborah Feldmans memoir the a few times. In addition, the actress watched interviews and lectures about Hasidic Jewish community. Haas remembered learning the rituals, which are very different, and the language, of course.

What was Haas known for before Unorthodox? IndieWire writes:

After landing her breakout role in the Natalie Portman-directed A Tale of Love and Darkness, she appeared opposite Jessica Chastain in Niki Caros The Zookeepers Wife, as well is in Shtisel, which was a small hit internationally.

Unorthodox star Shira Haas on preparing for the language

Anna Winger recently told Variety that she and Karolinski specifically wanted Jewish actors for the Jewish characters in Unorthodox.

They decision that we would only cast Jewish actors in Jewish roles, in part because of the language, Winger explained. Many of the characters in Unorthodox speak a very specific dialect of Yiddish. Haas had to learn the specific Williamsburg dialect of Yiddish.

This meant that Haas had to essentially learn a new language for the role. She arrived in Berlin two months before filming began in order to study Yiddish, IndieWire reported.

I went to sleep with Yiddish and I woke up with Yiddish, she told the publication. Haas explained the reasoning behind her thorough study:

It was so important to me to know my lines well and to know what I was saying, so that when I came to set I wouldnt have to think about it, so I would be able to actually be in the scene. It was a major part of preparing for the role.

Unorthodox lead says fellow cast mates and the crew helped her acting as well

What helped her really get into character, however? The clothing. Haas said:

I remember somebody putting the costumes on me and I almost felt immediately like Esty, like all the effort I put into the emotional part had a physical reaction as well  For Esty, her costume is also an emotional journey shes going through.

The Israeli actress also told IndieWire the amount of women holding the creative reins  from creators Anna Winger and Alexa Karolinski to director Maria Schrader and many members of the camera crew helped her feel comfortable, as well.

Not to mention, the actor who plays Yanky, Estys husband, is a man named Amit Rahav. He is an old friend of Shira Haas.

It really felt like a mishpocha, as you say in Yiddish, kind of like a family in a way, Haas said. We had such a good relationship, and it was nice to know that I can really trust him to feel very, very free.

Author of Unorthodox Deborah Feldman, in Berlin | Christophe Gateau/picture alliance via Getty Images

Overall, Haas was grateful she ahd the opportunity to perform in Unorthodox. Haas explained:




Dino Melaye

A former lawmaker who represented Kogi West Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Dino Melaye, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to perish the idea of inviting Chinese doctors to Nigeria amid the Coronavirus pandemic.

Recall that the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, had last week disclosed that a special cargo aircraft will leave Nigeria in a few days to collect items, which include Personal Protective Equipment and ventilators.

He was also quoted as saying, Of great interest is that an 18-man team of medical experts from China, including doctors, nurses and other medical experts shall come along with the flight to assist us.

Reacting on his Twitter page, Dino Melaye urged Buhari to stop the invitation of the Chinese doctors.

According to him, if their arrival leads to outrageous increase in COVID-19 cases, the Federal Government and Minister of Health will be held responsible.

PMB please stop the invitation of Chinese Doctors to Nigeria. Our Doctors are doing well in the circumstance.

Let them go to countries with escalating cases of Coronavirus. If they come and there is outrageous increase in cases, we will hold the FG and minister of Health responsible.
A man walks between beds at a shopping mall, one of Iran's largest, which has been turned into a centre to receive patients suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Tehran

DUBAI (Reuters) - The total number of coronavirus cases in Iran has risen to more than 62,000 and the death toll is nearing 4,000, according to health ministry data announced on Tuesday, but a senior official suggested the true number of infections might be far higher.

Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told state television that a further 133 people had died from the virus overnight, bringing Iran's death toll to 3,872. Nearly 4,000 infected people are in a critical condition, he added.

The total number of coronavirus cases has reached 62,589, with 2,089 new infections, Jahanpur said.

However, a member of Iran's National Coronavirus Combat Taskforce, Hamid Souri has put the number of cases in the nation of 83 million at "around 500,000", the state news agency IRNA reported.

"Many people with milder symptoms have not been detected," it quoted Souri as saying on Monday.

The government in Iran, which is the Middle Eastern country worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, has denied accusations of covering up the scale of the outbreak.

Doctors and several lawmakers have previously said the number of coronavirus cases and fatalities are much higher than official figures suggest.

Iran's Health Minister Saeed Namaki told state TV on Tuesday that some 70 million Iranians had now been screened for the virus. This figure could not be independently confirmed.

"We urge people to stay at home and follow the guidelines," Namaki said.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday "low-risk" economic activities would resume from April 11, while calling on Iranians to respect social distancing advised by health authorities to contain the spread of the virus.

Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday that the United States should stop preventing Iran from selling oil.

"What we want is for (U.S. President Donald Trump) to STOP preventing Iran from selling oil & other products, buying its needs & making & receiving payments," he wrote on Twitter.

Iran wants to export a minimum of 700,000 barrels per day of its oil and ideally up to 1.5 million bpd if the West wants to negotiate with Tehran to save a 2015 nuclear deal, two Iranian officials and one diplomat told Reuters last year.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Additional reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Gareth Jones and Raissa Kasolowsky)
MixMode, Inc., a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based AI-driven cybersecurity intelligence platform, closed a $4m Series A round of funding.

The round was led by Entrada Ventures, with participation from existing investors Keshif Ventures and Blu Venture Investors.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its AI-powered network traffic analytics platform and to accelerate the growth of its worldwide network of customers and partners.

Led by John Keister, CEO, and Dr. Igor Mezic, CTO and chief scientist, MixMode provides a platform for security analysts, which brings in multiple streams of data including network data, public cloud data and feeds from existing security tools such as endpoint, firewall, and SIEM. The MixMode Network Traffic Analytics platform leverages Third Wave AI, utilizing an advanced unsupervised learning model to address major security issues facing teams and to predict the networks future activity.

The company is based in Santa Barbara with an additional office in San Diego.

FinSMEs

07/04/2020
State police right now are trying to educate Pennsylvanians about Gov. Tom Wolfs stay-at-home order to fight the coronavirus but that forbearance wont last forever, one of the forces leaders said Tuesday.

Were warning, were encouraging, were educating but eventually if theyre not compliant well move to an enforcement position, said Lt. Col. Scott Price, the deputy commissioner of operations. If folks dont comply then we will begin issuing more citations.

Only a few of those have been handed out so far, he said. One, for $200, was issued to a York County woman who was out for a drive. A couple who were outside drinking in Lancaster County and two 19-year-olds who were driving around in Columbia County also were ticketed.

Judging from what Price said during Tuesday afternoons over-the-phone press conference, those citation issuances might have gotten ahead of the official give them a warning policy.

Nor are troopers confronting people to see if theyre breaching the stay-at-home edict, which is meant to curb the spread of COVID-19, Price said. We dont stop cars simply to determine what someones reason for traveling might be, for example, he said.

At the same time Wolf is ordering people to stay at home, other state officials are encouraging sportsmen to hit the roads and streams for the two week earlier than normal opening of trout fishing season.

Fishing is an allowable activity, although social distancing should be practiced with other anglers, Price said. And, he said it is advisable to engage in those activities close to home.

There are indications the coronavirus restrictions are being heeded by most Pennsylvanians and are working, Price said.

One gauge is the traffic flow on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Price said non-commercial traffic on the pike is down by 76.5 percent, while commercial traffic has dropped by 27.5 percent.

Yes, he said, Pennsylvanians are getting the message.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is receiving 'standard oxygen treatment' and is breathing without assistance, his spokesperson said Tuesday, a day after he was transferred to intensive care with coronavirus.

Johnson's condition is stable and he 'remains in good spirits,' his spokesperson said. He has not required invasive or non-invasive ventilation and does not have pneumonia.

But the seriousness of the Prime Minister's condition at a time of national emergency, combined with the lack of a formal succession procedure for heads of government in the UK, has raised questions about who is leading the country.

Johnson has nominated his Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, to deputize for him 'as necessary' but there is no recent precedent for a sitting UK prime minister becoming incapacitated for a lengthy period.

In its daily update to reporters, Downing Street moved to head off concerns, stressing that Raab was running the country from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with the support of government officials.

Raab would chair meetings of the National Security Council if any were needed while he was deputizing for the Prime Minister, a spokesperson said. Raab, 46, and the UK's Cabinet have the authority and ability to respond in the PM's absence on military action, the spokesperson added.

Decisions relating to Covid-19 would be taken in the usual way through the daily morning meeting, chaired by Raab, and other ministerial groupings. But Raab would not have the power to hire and fire ministers or officials, the spokesperson said.

The UK lockdown will remain in place with the government 'focused on stopping the spread of the infection.' The spokesperson said that if there were evidence that more needed to be done to slow the rate of transmission, 'we would be prepared to do that.'

Who is running the UK?

Few formal powers are invested specifically in the UK prime minister and key decisions are taken collectively by the Cabinet or its sub-committees. Many statutory powers are held by individual secretaries of state. But in recent decades, holders of the UK's top political office have adopted a more presidential style, and the sweeping nature of the ruling Conservative Party's most recent election victory was attributed to Johnson's personal appeal with voters.

'The Prime Minister has a team around him who ensure the work of government goes on,' a senior Cabinet minister, Michael Gove, told the BBC earlier. He sidestepped a question about who would take decisions in the event of a nuclear attack, saying he would not discuss national security issues.

Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House of Commons defense select committee, tweeted good wishes to Johnson but added: 'It is important to have 100% clarity as to where responsibility for UK national security decisions now lies. We must anticipate adversaries attempting to exploit any perceived weakness.'

Buckingham Palace and the Queen have been regularly updated on Johnson's condition, Downing Street said. The Prime Minister's two most senior officials, the cabinet secretary and his principal private secretary, will maintain contact with the palace on the Prime Minister's behalf, but the weekly audiences with the Queen will not continue for the time being.

The Queen has sent a message to Johnson's pregnant fiancee Carrie Symonds and the Johnson family. 'Her Majesty said they were in her thoughts and that she wished the Prime Minister a full and speedy recovery,' Buckingham Palace said.

The Duke of Cambridge also sent his best wishes. 'Our thoughts are with the Prime Minister and his family, who like so many in the UK and around the world are affected by coronavirus,' said Prince William.

Johnson's spokesperson said that despite the lack of a formal succession procedure in the UK, there was an established order of ministerial precedence, with the top finance minister, Rishi Sunak following Raab. The 'letters of last resort,' sealed documents written by the Prime Minister to ballistic missile submarine commanders in case of a nuclear attack, still stand. 'The Prime Minister remains the Prime Minister,' the spokesperson said.

US President Donald Trump said at a Monday news conference that his administration had been in contact with Johnson's doctors. The Prime Minister's spokesperson said the government was 'grateful for all of the warm wishes the PM has received overnight' and 'confident he is receiving the best care from the NHS. Any treatment he receives is a matter for his doctors.'

Gove told BBC Radio 4's Today program earlier that Johnson was 'receiving the very best care' at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, after being taken into intensive care at 7 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET) on Monday. Gove later said that he was self-isolating at home because a member of his family was displaying coronavirus symptoms. Gove said on Twitter that he did not have any symptoms and was continuing to work.

The coronavirus has hit the top of the British government hard. The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, said on March 27 that he had the virus, on the same day that the chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, announced that he would begin self-isolation after displaying Covid-19 symptoms. Neil Ferguson, a top UK government adviser on the virus, said on March 18 he believed he had been infected.

Various other senior government ministers and advisers have been forced to self-isolate. Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister's senior adviser, who self-isolated soon after Johnson's diagnosis, has not yet returned to work, Downing Street said.

Johnson was taken to hospital on Sunday evening. At the time, Downing Street said the decision was a precaution because he continued to suffer from a cough and a fever ten days after testing positive for the coronavirus. But his condition deteriorated on Monday, Downing Street said, and he was moved to the intensive care unit at St. Thomas' Hospital.

Gove told Sky News on Tuesday morning that Cabinet ministers were not told about the Prime Minister's deteriorating condition until nearly an hour after Johnson was taken into intensive care.

Asked whether the government had been up front with the public about Johnson's condition, and whether the Cabinet had been taken by surprise, he replied: 'Yes we were. The [daily coronavirus] briefing that was given at 5 o'clock was given at a time when we didn't know about the deterioration in the Prime Minister's condition.'

'We were informed subsequently. The Prime Minister was admitted to intensive care at 7 o'clock, and that information wasn't given to us in government -- to those in the cabinet -- until just before 8 o'clock.'

Words of support

Politicians around the world sent best wishes for the Prime Minister's recovery.

Finance minister Sunak said on Twitter that his thoughts were with Johnson and his fiancee, Symonds. 'I know he'll be getting the best care possible and will come out of this even stronger,' he said.

Symonds has also experienced Covid-19 symptoms but said over the weekend she was 'on the mend.'

The Speaker of the UK's House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, said: 'I know the thoughts and prayers of everyone across the House are with the Prime Minister and his family right now. We all wish him a speedy recovery.'

Keir Starmer, the newly elected leader of the UK's main opposition Labour Party leader, tweeted: 'Terribly sad news. All the country's thoughts are with the Prime Minister and his family during this incredibly difficult time.'

Former Prime Minister Theresa May, who was replaced by Johnson in the country's Brexit crisis, wrote on Twitter said her 'thoughts and prayers' were with Johnson and his family. 'This horrific virus does not discriminate,' she added.

French President Emmanuel Macron sent his 'support to Boris Johnson, to his family and to the British people at this difficult moment,' wishing him a 'speedy recovery at this testing time.'

Irish leader Leo Varadkar, who has returned to work as a doctor during the outbreak, tweeted that Johnson was 'in our thoughts' on Monday night and wished him 'a rapid return to health.'

President Trump said on Monday: 'We're very saddened to hear that he was taken into intensive care this a little while ago. He's been a really good friend. He's been really something very special. Strong. Resolute.'

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect Hoyle's role.
THE Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children at the weekend said 289 people had completed a 14-day mandatory quarantine and tested negative.

Data issued by the Ministrys Public Health Emergency Operation Centre further shows 146 people are under a mandatory 14-day quarantine and 389 people are under surveillance.

So far, there are 24 cases of coronavirus, one death and three recoveries have been reported in the country.

The cases have been reported in four regions, including Dar es Salaam (13), Zanzibar (7), Arusha (2), Kagera (1) and Mwanza (1).

One patient each in Dar es Salaam, Kagera and Arusha regions have recovered. The first case in Tanzania was reported mid-last month.

These numbers tell us one thing that the coronavirus contagion is not all that bad as thought and the government has to a great extent contained the disease.

However, some critics in the community are still not comfortable with the statistics, especially the number of infections reported so far.

Most people look at the number of cases reported in the East African region, where Kenya leads, to question the data issued by the Ministry of Health.

Although the country has yet to launch mass testing for Covid-19, some ground statistics may suggest the level of infections.

For instance, some institutions such as religious institutions, hospitals and supermarkets are taking body temperature before one enters their premises.

Dar es Salaams Full Gospel Bible Fellowship Church for the three consecutive week takes worshipers body temperatures before entering the house of God for their three Sunday services and those visiting the church for various services on weekdays.

FGBF, with a single church building in Mwenge, Da es Salaam, says in the past three weeks has yet to find anyone with above normal temperature38 and above degrees Celsius.

On Sunday, the three services attended by roughly 3,000 worshippers and about 80 per cent attended the services in the past three weeks.

Mlimani City, the largest shopping mall in the country, for the past week measured people temperatures before entering the mallbut none was found with above normal body temperature.

Also International Eye Hospital takes temperatures of those attending eye clinic. The Muslim and non-Christian communities are not behind in implementing preventive measures.

Though data for other institutions were not immediately availed, the number of FGBF church worshipers and those visiting Mlimani City Mall on a daily basis suggests that the level of infection is not as bad those questioning the government data.

Yes, body temperature is not a hundred-and-one per cent sure that one is infected nor not since it is not showing the level of infection in society, but it suggests that if same people tested for three weeks with no sign of high temperature, then society should believe the data issued by the government.

Lets trust the government data and adhere to recommended preventive measures.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday addressed the media on the prevailing coronavirus situation in the national capital and said that the administration will conduct one lakh random tests for coronavirus in citys hotspot areas.

Will give police phone numbers of Tablighi Jamaat event attendees to trace, ascertain whether they moved in nearby areas, Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal said that the administration has devised a 5-step plan after talking to experts to control the spread of coronavirus in Delhi.

This is a 5 Ts plan, the Delhi CM said. Kejriwal said the first T of the 5 Ts plan is testing.

We have ordered kits for the testing of 50,000 people. The kits have started arriving. We have also placed orders for the rapid test of 1,00,000 people. The deliveries of kits will begin by Friday. Random tests will be done at hotspots. Detailed tests will also be done: Delhi CM https://t.co/U89MbypURe  ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2020

If you dont test, you wont be able to find out which houses have been affected. Itll go on spreading. South Korea identified every single individual through large scale testings. We are now going to do large scale testings like South Korea, he said.

With as many as 523 people testing positive for coronavirus in the national capital, Delhi accounts for the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in the country. 7 people have died from the infection here while 19 people have made a recovery, as per the health ministrys data.

Two criminal cases have been registered by Delhi Police against members of the Tablighi Jamaat for their conduct at quarantine centres in the national capital, a top Delhi Home Department official on Tuesday.

The number of coronavirus cases in the country on Tuesday rose to 4,421 which accounts for 3,981 active Covid-19 cases in the country. 114 people have lost their lives to the deadly contagion while 325 patients have been cured or discharged.
As the world goes through a deadly pandemic that is causing social disruption and economic loss, religion can be an essential source of individual comfort and communal solidarity. In Turkey, however, the Religious Affairs Directorate  Diyanet, the countrys main religious body that works directly under the presidency and coordinates most religious activity for the Sunni Muslim majority  has been embroiled in controversy over its response to the pandemic. At a time when fast-implemented public policies have been shown to be essential to saving lives, the Diyanet could have significantly helped Turkey battle the pandemic. Yet, Diyanet is under fire for not only failing to do so but probably even helping spread the outbreak to remote rural areas.

Diyanet is in the crosshairs over three main incidents. First among them is the umrah fiasco. Muslims from all around the world visit holy sites in Saudi Arabia throughout the year, not just during the hajj period. Those visits  called umrah  involve large congregations where social distancing is difficult. Most participants from Turkey are retirees over 65, who are considered high risk for the novel coronavirus.

All umrah visits from Turkey are coordinated through Diyanet and its affiliated institutions and approved travel agencies. As journalist Rusen Cakir explains, those trips, attracting tens of thousands of people from all corners of the country, are a significant source of income for Diyanet.

The umrah trips were not stopped until Feb. 27, which was simply too late to help. According to Diyanet head Ali Erbas, 21,000 pilgrims had yet to return from Saudi Arabia by March 15. Why were these groups allowed to travel when Ankara was already taking measures against the outbreak? In late January, Turkeys Health Ministry successfully brought home and quarantined Turkish citizens from China. By Feb. 23, Turkey had stopped flights to Iran and imposed a stringent quarantine for those returning from the country. Still, elderly people were allowed to travel in large crowds to Mecca.

Upon their return, less than a third of the umrah travelers were haphazardly quarantined. Some of those kept in isolation tried to escape and complained they would get sick in the quarantine conditions.

Diyanet had announced that the returnees who were not quarantined were screened with thermal cameras and advised to self-isolate. Yet, as is tradition, many returnees accepted guests and some of the visits were shared on social media.

To make matters worse, members of the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) claimed that returnees were given medication to conceal rising fevers prior to reaching the thermal cameras at customs. The medication allegedly allowed potentially symptomatic coronavirus patients to escape medical surveillance and return to their hometowns.

As confirmed COVID-19 cases and fatalities rose at an alarming rate, public criticism intensified. Even members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) could not keep quiet. For example, Recep Ozel, a senior AKP lawmaker from the western province of Isparta, posted  and later deleted  a tweet that out of 268 confirmed cases in Isparta, 245 were umrah returnees.

The central province of Konya is another region heavily hit by the virus. Fahrettin Yokus, a Good Party parliamentarian from Konya, lamented, Judging by the statements of the health minister, most of those who lost their lives are umrah returnees. The head of Diyanet is responsible for that.

According to a senior member of the Turkish Medical Association, one umrah returnee has infected 257 people in Konya alone.

In early April, Diyanet denied responsibility and claimed that no fever medications had been administered to returnees. The directorate said it would initiate legal action against those making the claims.

Besides the controversy over the umrah trips, Diyanets handling of Friday prayers has also been called a fiasco. Friday is the holy day for Muslims, when men congregate in mosques, standing shoulder to shoulder to pray. Despite warnings from the Health Ministry, Diyanet continued to hold Friday prayers until March 16, when it announced that due to the pandemic, Muslims are expected to pray at home. Members of different Islamic orders said they had expected Diyanet to make an announcement sooner as Islamic law clearly states that all needed precautions are to be taken during a medical emergency.

On March 27 a Friday prayer session was held at the mosque of the presidential palace in Ankara, now referred to as VIP prayer. While the rest of the nation was told to pray at home, a group of selected men were invited to pray at the palaces mosque, while observing social distancing guidelines. Diyanet shared videos and photos from the event on social media, generating an uproar across Turkish society, including various religious orders and Islamist leaders furious over Diyanets disregard of Islamic traditions and laws. The notion of selected participants goes against the whole idea of oneness without any social stratification during Friday prayers.

The criticism was so intense that the pro-government daily Sabah reported that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was unaware of the VIP prayer. In an effort to save face, Diyanet announced that every Friday an imam would lead a prayer session at a different empty mosque, in accordance with social distancing rules.

The public reaction highlights how Diyanet has come to represent the concerns of AKP elites rather than ordinary Muslims in Turkey. The gap between Diyanet and the public has become more visible.

On March 31, the government blocked fund-raising campaigns by CHP-run municipalities to help residents worst hit by the pandemic, with Erdogan calling the efforts a state within a state.

Meanwhile, Erdogan launched his own nationwide campaign, asking the public to donate money to help those in need. Diyanet promptly expressed support for Erdogans campaign, announcing a fund for zakat. All Muslims who have the financial resources to do so are expected to pay annual zakat, a form of alms-giving. Diyanets April 1 fatwa read, Its religiously permissible for the zakat to be collected and distributed to those in need via the solidarity campaigns launched nationally in these days.

Yet the lavish spending of Diyanets top echelons and their apparent inability to relate to the financially struggling masses have compounded public anger. Even Islamists working for the government are disturbed, as several of them told Al-Monitor. I decide who is best suited for my zakat, not the government, one said.

Diyanet is a vast entity with almost 120,000 employees and a bulky budget. Many have come to question whether the institution is contributing enough to society, especially in the time of a pandemic. Although Diyanets TV channel reports that affiliated entities are reaching out to those in need, there is no information available as to how much is delivered and who is eligible for the aid.
New Zealands health minister has described himself as an idiot after he flouted his countrys lockdown measures to go on a trip to the beach with his family.

David Clark drove his family 12 miles to the beach in late March during the early stages of the lockdown.

In a statement, Mr Clark, who offered to resign for breaching the restrictions, said: Ive been an idiot, and I understand why people will be angry with me.

He had earlier admitted to driving his van to a park near his home to go mountain biking.

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealands prime minister, said on Tuesday that she had not accepted Mr Clarks resignation offer because it would jeopardise the countrys coronavirus response.

Ms Ardern said: Under normal conditions I would sack the minister of health. What he did was wrong, and there are no excuses.

I expect better, and so does New Zealand.

As a result of his actions, Mr Clark has been demoted to the lowest cabinet ranking and has lost his additional role as associate finance minister.

He is not the only senior official to fall foul of new coronavirus-related restrictions. On Sunday, Scotlands chief medical officer resigned for breaching the UKs lockdown measures by visiting her second home twice.

New Zealands lockdown measures came into force in late March and will last at least four weeks.

On Tuesday, the country extended its national emergency for the second time for a further week.

So far, 1,160 people have tested positive for the virus in New Zealand and one death from the virus has been confirmed.

Ashley Bloomfield, the director-general of health, said on Tuesday that the daily number of new Covid-19 cases had fallen to 54, the lowest amount in almost two weeks.

Despite this, officials have urged people to stick to the restrictions in place over Easter.

Ms Ardern said: Now is not the time to change any of our behaviours.

Agencies contributed to this report
NEW YORK - The coronavirus body count in New York state held steady Monday for the second consecutive day at about 600 deaths - a statistic that gives officials some cautious reason to hope that the pandemic may be cresting there.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said that regardless of whether his state was seeing the worst of the covid-19 crisis, it was vital for people to stay home to keep downward pressure on the disease's spread and announced that he was doubling the fine for anyone found breaking the rules.

"While none of this is good news, the possible flattening of the curve is better than the increases we have seen," Cuomo said during a news conference, referring to a hypothetical graph charting numbers of infections. Two days of data is not nearly enough to identify a trend, but officials said there were other glimmers of hope, including significant declines in the past two days in the number of new people hospitalized, admitted to intensive care units and intubated.

New York remains the most severe area for the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, with more than 130,000 residents testing positive for the virus, far more than any other state. Officials cautioned that it is impossible to know whether New York has reached the apex or whether the recent numbers are a lull before worse ones.

"If we are plateauing, we are plateauing at a very high level, and there's tremendous stress on the health-care system," Cuomo said. "This is a hospital system where we have our foot to the floor and the engine is at red line, and you can't go any faster."

With about 16,000 coronavirus patients in New York hospitals, health-care professionals said Monday that their resources are strained but still sufficient to meet demand.

In the NYU Langone hospital system, which includes six inpatient facilities in the metropolitan area, the number of new patients has "appeared to level off over the past few days," spokeswoman Lisa Greiner said. The facilities have enough ventilators for the current caseload - "every single patient that required a vent received one," she said.

Northwell Health has 19 hospitals in the region and has treated 3,300 confirmed coronavirus patients. About 1 in 4 of those patients ended up in intensive care, and 20% have needed a ventilator to breathe. Northwell is using about 80% of its ventilator capacity. "We feel we have what we need, but being at 80%, that could slide quickly," spokesman Terry Lynam said.

Later Monday, in a move expected to help ease the strain on the city's health-care facilities, Cuomo said President Donald Trump had agreed to use the 1,000-bed hospital ship USNS Comfort, which is docked on New York's West Side, to treat patients with covid-19, the disease the novel coronavirus causes. That's on top of 4,000 temporary beds being constructed at the nearby Javits Center convention hall - giving New York significant extra capacity to handle the sick.

Initially, it was envisioned that both facilities would treat only non-coronavirus patients, but those plans quickly evolved amid complaints from hospital leaders frustrated that both the Comfort and the Javits Center were nearly empty while the city's doctors and nurses were being pushed to the breaking point.

The governor warned that, even if this week marks the peak of the crisis, the rules barring nonessential commerce and prohibiting gatherings will have to stay in effect until at least the end of April.

"We have been behind on this virus from day one, and this virus has kicked our rear end," Cuomo said. "We underestimate this virus at our peril, and we learned that lesson - this is not the time to slack off what we're doing."

As of Monday, the coronavirus had killed 4,758 people in New York state, most of them in the city. More ICUs are being built at emergency hospital sites in and around the city. And while the governor sounded a hopeful note that the extra resources will be enough to give care to all who need it, others emphasized that it's still too soon to know whether New York has turned the corner.

"It's too soon to celebrate," said Stephen Morse, an epidemiologist at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "We'll know later this week if the trend continues, and we should start to see a sustained decrease in the numbers."

On Long Island, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, a Democrat, said officials there had seen one of the smallest increases in critically ill patients "in a long time now."

On Monday, 26 new patients were admitted to county hospitals, compared with a week and a half ago when there were about 100 a day, Bellone said.

"If in fact we are reaching that plateau, it means that social distancing is working," he said. "But that does not mean we take our foot off the pedal now." He said the worst thing that could happen now would be if "we see some positive news and say, 'OK, now we can start adjusting our life and getting back to normal.' "

The second-hardest-hit state is neighboring New Jersey, where Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said he's seeing early signs that the crisis may soon stabilize.

"While we are not anywhere close to being out of the woods yet, we are clearly on the right path to get there," he said. The social distancing effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus "is starting to pay off, even with the lag time in getting test results back."

New Jersey has 41,090 confirmed cases, but the daily increase, which was about 24% a week ago, was down to 12% on Monday. The state's death toll stands at 1,003, including Jersey City Councilman Michael Yun, who died over the weekend after contracting the virus, the governor announced.

While officials hoped this week might be the worst New York has to face, they were preparing for even greater losses and the possibility of having to create temporary graves if the current pace overwhelms funeral homes and mortuary services in the city.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, was reluctant to go into much detail about the city's plan Monday, saying only that officials were prepared to deal with the prospect of burying covid-19 victims where they could be tracked and later exhumed for burial elsewhere once the crisis has passed.

"We may well be dealing with temporary burials," de Blasio said at a news conference. Historically, the city has used Hart Island as a potter's field site for burials of those whose families or estates were unable to pay for their interment, but the mayor was tight-lipped about whether that location would be used for those who died of covid-19.

"There will be delays because of the sheer intensity of this crisis," the mayor said. "We're going to try to treat every family with dignity. . . . The focus right now is to try to get through this crisis."

Mark Levine, chairman of the New York City Council's health committee, tweeted Monday that victims might be buried in city parks, but other officials sounded a note of caution.

"We're not interring anyone in city parks at this time," said Aja Worthy-Davis, a spokeswoman for the chief medical examiner's office in New York. The city's surge plan for influenza pandemics includes a section on temporary burial in parks as a "potential option. But it is not being put into play right now," she said.

Although the hospital morgues are dealing with high body counts, morgues in the city's five boroughs, plus the morgues in tents outside Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital and others, have not reached their limits, officials said.

The city also has dispatched about 80 refrigerated trucks to hospitals, each capable of holding 45 to 100 bodies.

- - -

Craig and Barrett reported from Washington.
First Vietnamese national contracts COVID-19 in Cambodia

A female tourist has become the first Vietnamese citizen to be infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) virus in Cambodia, following an announcement by the Cambodian Ministry of Health on April 7.

The statement issued by the Cambodian Ministry of Health notes that the 27-year-old patient originally entered Cambodia on March 10 and went on to be diagnosed with the coronavirus on April 6. She is currently receiving treatment at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh.

Amid the neighbouring country enduring complicated developments relating to the COVID-19 epidemic, Vo Tuan Ngoc, Counselor of the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia, stated that the embassy will work closely with the Khmer-Vietnam Association and other relevant agencies to urge Vietnamese citizens to take preventative measures to protect themselves.

In addition, the embassy has been striving to regularly provide Vietnamese nationals with updated information on the pandemic, whilst also urging citizens to strictly abide by health recommendations set out by the Cambodian government. This includes advising them to avoid crowded places and halt all but essential travel.

At present, there has been 115 recorded cases of the COVID-19 in Cambodia, although so far no fatalities have been reported.

Hanoi trade union helps over 50,000 workers affected by COVID-19

The Hanoi Federation of Labor has introduced a raft of measures to support more than 50,000 workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to statistics from the federation, as at April 3 a total of 3,610 enterprises with 121,273 employees were directly affected by the disease. Of the enterprises, 896 had to suspend operations.

The federation therefore took 1.5 billion VND (about 64,000 USD) from its budget to help 1,500 disadvantaged trade union members working in local businesses and producers as well as non-public educational facilities.

Trade unions in the capital have to date provided support to 50,558 affected workers and also presented 915,000 face masks, 52,417 bottles of sanitiser, protective gear, medical equipment, and food, together with nearly 7 billion VND in cash, for local COVID-19 prevention and control efforts.

The federation has set up working groups to actively implement measures to ensure security, social order, and safety among the trade unionists.

Indonesia: Large-scale social restrictions imposed for Jakarta to curb COVID-19

A woman is seen wearing mask on a street in Jakarta to prevent COVID-19 transmission.

Jakarta will intensify measures to restrict peoples movements after being granted permission by the Indonesian government to implement large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) to slow the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The city had already implemented large-scale social distancing policies but they had now become legally binding to all residents, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan told an online press conference on April 7 evening.

Starting on April 10, gatherings of more than five people will be prohibited, Anies said, and public transportation services will limit passenger numbers to 50 percent of capacity and restrict their operational hours from 6 am to 6 pm.

Private vehicles could still enter Jakarta, but a limit will be imposed on the number of passengers allowed in each vehicle, the governor added.

The Jakarta administration and the central government will provide financial aid for low-income people affected by the PSBB policies, he noted.

The same day, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the Indonesian government will distribute cash aid for 3.7 million people in Jakarta and 1.64 million people the capital's satellite cities, such as Bogor, Depok and Bekasi in West Java, and Tangerang in Banten. Each beneficiary will receive 600,000 IDR (37.11 USD) that is supposed to be sufficient for three months.

Jakarta has been the countrys hardest-hit by the COVID-19 which has reported 1,552 confirmed cases, including 144 deaths, as of April 8 morning.

In Thailand, 111 new infections and three deaths have been recorded on April 8, pushing the total cases in the country to 2,369 with 30 deaths. It has raised concerns that the numbers were going back up to 3 digits again after Thailand recorded a drop to only 38 new infections on April 7, the lowest in weeks.

On March 26, Thailand invoked the emergency decree with the aim of limiting people's movements and forcing them to stay at home in a bid to stop the spread of the virus.

More than 620 people nationwide have been prosecuted for defying the decree, according to Prayuth Phetchakhun, deputy spokesman of the Office of the Attorney General (OAG).

Violators are liable to a jail term of up to two years and/or a fine of up to 40,000 THB.

Thailand sees increasing demand for drive-through COVID-19 tests

The demand for drive-through COVID-19 tests in Thailand has been increasing in the recent time as the pandemic is raging the Southeast Asian country.

Vejthani Hospital in Bangkok is offering this service at the price of 6.500 baht (198 USD) for both Thais and foreigners.

To qualify for the drive-through test, the persons body temperature should be around 37.5 Celsius (normal body temperature).

The person must show no other symptoms such as coughing, runny nose and having difficult breathing, as well as have no travel history and no visitation to high-risk places since the outbreak began.

If the person has suspected symptoms, he or she has to undergo the standard test at the hospital which could cost around 10,000 baht (304 USD) instead. At Vibhavadi Hospital, the test also costs 6,500 baht and if the result comes out to be positive, the cost for the test will be free.

The hospital said it has administered more than 2,256 drive-through tests between March 18 and April 5 and the demand has been increasing.

Thailand reported 38 new COVID-19 cases and one death on April 7, bringing the total numbers to 2,258 and 27 respectively. Meanwhile, 824 patients have recovered./

Ethnic Vietnamese present medical equipment to Thai province

The association hands over the relief to the hospital of Udon Thani province

An association of ethnic Vietnamese in the northeastern Thai province of Udon Thani has handed over nearly 1,500 plastic face shields to the province in an attempt to curb the spread of the COVID-19.

Association Chairman Luong Xuan Hoa presented 1,050 shields to local authorities and 400 others to the provincial hospital on April 7.

Members of the Vietnamese community, he noted, are working to produce more face shields as gifts to hospitals and others engaged in the fight against the global pandemic.

If the disease lingers on, the association will adopt measures to provide food and necessities to the disadvantaged in the province, he added.

Udon Thani is home to the largest number of ethnic Vietnamese in Thailand, at about 60,000.

As at April 8, Thailand had reported a total of 2,369 COVID-19 cases, including 30 fatalities. Bangkok had seen the largest number of infections with 1,223, followed by the neighboring province of Nonthaburi and the tourist island of Phuket./.

Samsung Vietnam contributes VND10 billion to COVID-19 fight

Samsung Vietnam has raised a total of VND10 billion in cash to support the countrys on-going battle against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.

Of the total figure, VND7 billion was donated to the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee with the remainder of the sum going to VFF chapters in the northern provinces of Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen where the group operates factories.

In addition, the enterprise has offered a range of high-end smartphone products that can serve in testing activities and assist the Vietnamese government in deploying technological applications as a means of boosting COVID-19 prevention measures.

Simultaneously, Samsung Vietnam has also provided large-screen televisions which will allow local authorities to closely monitor the situation as it unfolds.

Choi Joo-ho, general director of Samsung Vietnam, affirmed that the group is ready to join the government in the fight against the COVID-19 and to help protect the health of the community.

He expressed his belief the country will overcome this current difficult period by utilising the combined efforts of the entire society, businesses, and organisations nationwide.

Previously, Samsung Vietnam had launched a rescue program to assist Vietnamese farmers who were badly affected by the COVID-19 epidemic.

Most notably, the groups staff have participated in fund raising programs launched by the company in response to the appeal for public support to boost the fight against the virus.

VNA supports national fund to fight COVID-19

The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) on April 8 presented 100 million VND (4,250 USD) to the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a ceremony for receiving the assistance, VFF President Tran Thanh Man expressed his gratitude to staff, reporters, and editors at the State news agency, adding that the two organisations have worked closely together to publicise VFFs activities to the public.

He also spoke highly of the role and participation of the media in general and VNA in particular in updating the public about the COVID-19 situation, ensuring the prompt publication of Party and State guidelines on disease prevention.

VNA General Director Nguyen Duc Loi pledged that the news agency will bolster its reporting on COVID-19 prevention and control in the time ahead, sparing no effort to fulfil the tasks entrusted it by the Party, State, and people.

On the same day, the VFF received 300 million VND from the Ministry of Education and Training, 50 million VND from the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance, and 150 million VND from the University of Economics and Technical Industries.

Man said that three weeks since the launch of a fighting fund, donors have presented cash and kind worth more than 770 billion VND (32.58 million USD), while another 129 billion VND (nearly 5.5 million USD) has been raised through the National Humanitarian Portal./.

Four more COVID-19 patients recover

As of April 8 afternoon, 126 COVID-19 patients in Vietnam have fully recovered.

Four more COVID-19 patients have been given the all-clear on April 8, bringing the total number of recovered cases to 126.

Among the four patients, three were treated at the Can Gio hospital for COVID-19 in Ho Chi Minh City. Two of them are South African nationals, and one Vietnamese.

The fourth patient, a Vietnamese, was treated at the Cu Chi acute respiratory disease hospital, also in Ho Chi Minh City.

Those newly-cured patients will continue to stay in quarantine and have their health monitored for the next 14 days.

Vietnam had 251 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of 6am on April 8.

Embassy helps Vietnamese in Germany overcome COVID-19

The Vietnamese Embassy in Germany will assist the nearly 180,000 Vietnamese people living, working, and studying in the country in overcoming difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Ambassador Nguyen Minh Vu said on April 7.

Ambassador Vu called on the Vietnamese community to continue following regulations and warnings from the German Government and strengthen solidarity to overcome the crisis.

He reminded people that those displaying symptoms like a high fever or shortness of breath should promptly visit a hospital for treatment.

He hopes that associations and businesses will continue to publicise the regulations the German Government has introduced.

The embassy had prepared a series of events to celebrate the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and Germany, he explained, but the pandemic has forced the cancellation of all large gatherings.

The embassy has regularly updated information from the German and Vietnamese Governments, especially regarding entry-exit regulations, on the websites of the embassy and the Consulate General.

Since Germany and the EU are tightening border controls and many airlines have cancelled flights, the embassy has supported Vietnamese citizens seeking to return home. No Vietnamese citizens have been stranded at German airports, he added.

Hanoi imposes lockdown on Ha Loi Village

Me Linh Districts Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control imposed a lockdown on Ha Loi Village, Ha Nois Me Linh Commune on Tuesday afternoon.

Me Linh Districts Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control imposed a lockdown on Ha Loi Village in Ha Nois Me Linh Commune on Tuesday afternoon.

The decision was made following news that the country's 243rd COVID-19 patient, confirmed on Monday, lives and had attended a wedding ceremony in the village during his incubation period.

The Peoples Committee of the district will provide free food for all 2.973 households in the village during the lockdown, which run from April 8 to May 5.

During that time, villagers have been told to stay at home, and only one family member is allowed out to collect food each day.

The 243rd patient is a 47-year-old man, from Me Linh Commune, Me Linh District in Ha Noi. He took his wife to Bach Mai Hospital for a health examination on March 12 and returned home the same day. The couple had lunch at a restaurant opposite the hospital and did not return to the hospital.

Last Friday, he took his wife to the Ha Noi Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital for examination without declaring that he and his wife had visited Bach Mai Hospital on March 12 as per the requirements of the Ministry of Health.

It resulted in 63 doctors and nurses from the Ha Noi Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital being put in quarantine at the hospital on Monday.

On Wednesday morning, a neighbour of the patient 243 in Ha Loi Village was confirmed as the 250th patient after having tested positive for the disease.

Ha Nam quarantines 30 doctors, locks down one village

Some 30 doctors and medical workers in Ha Nam General Hospital have been quarantined for contacting the 251st COVID-19 patient.  Photo thanhnien.vn

Ha Nam Provinces Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control has decided to quarantine 30 doctors and medical workers in Ha Nam General Hospital for contacting the 251st COVID-19 patient.

The decision was made at an urgent meeting at midnight on Tuesday after the committee received test results showing the patient was positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The committee also immediately imposed a lockdown on Village Ngo Khe 3, Binh Nghia Commune, Binh Luc District at midnight on Tuesday. The 251st patient lives in the village.

As per the Ministry of Healths bulletin announced on Wednesday morning, the 251st patient is a 64-year-old Vietnamese man. Since March 20, he was being treated at the Department of Gastroenterology in the Ha Nam General Hospital where his son and daughter-in-law, who live in Ha Noi, had been taking care of him. The man tested positive for COVID-19 on April 7. This source of his infection is under investigation.

The committee had sprayed disinfectant at the hospital and implemented epidemiological surveillance for all relevant people at midnight.

COVID-19 affects relocation of Indonesian capital

The project to move the Indonesian capital from Jakarta to North Penajam Paser in East Kalimantan might be delayed by COVID-19.

The project to move the Indonesian capital from Jakarta to North Penajam Paser in East Kalimantan might be delayed by COVID-19 as the government shifted some of its budget to pandemic relief efforts, according a government official.

Jodi Mahardi, spokesperson of the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, said there have been no further talks on the budget for the project as the ministry is following orders from President Joko Widodo to focus on fighting COVID-19.

The ministrys focus now is to seek appropriate measures to cope with the pandemic as instructed by the President, Jodi said.

He added that the government has been reallocating spending in non-critical and non-urgent categories to anti-coronavirus programmes.

Although a large amount of investment in the new capital development is expected to come from private investors, the government has also allocated around 6.3 billion USD from the state budget for the project over the next five years.

Most of this money was supposed to be spent on land clearance and construction of basic infrastructures at the end of 2020.

Ward chairman suspended for allowing karaoke bar to remain open

The karaoke bar on Minh Khai Street, ong Ngan Ward, Bac Ninh Province. Photo thanhnien.vn

The Peoples Committee of Tu Son Town, Bac Ninh Province, has decided to suspend Pham Quyet Tien  chairman of the Peoples Committee of ong Ngan Ward  for seven days.

The move came after the town committee reported on Monday that Sao Bang Karaoke Shop on Minh Khai Street, ong Ngan Ward, was still open during the imposition of social distancing to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 under Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucs order.

The town committee also told the authorised agencies to strictly deal with the karaoke bar for violating regulations on COVID-19 pandemic prevention.

Agencies were asked to clarify the responsibility of the head of the wards police office for letting the karaoke bar stay open.

The town committee assigned vice chairman of the Peoples Committee of ong Ngan Ward Ta uc Huy to be in charge and manage work during Tiens suspension.

Another 27 COVID-19 patients recover, total at 122

Eleven COVID-19 patients have recovered and discharged from the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases on Tuesday.  Photo courtesy of the hospital

Another 27 COVID-19 patients have recovered and were discharged from hospitals on April 7, bringing the countrys total to 122 cases being given the all-clear in Viet Nam.

They include seven foreign patients and 20 Vietnamese patients from six health facilities across the country.

This is the second time a large number of COVID-19 patients have been declared as recovered and discharged from treatment facilities in a day in Viet Nam.

Previously, on March 30, the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases also said goodbye to 27 patients who had recovered from COVID-19.

The 27 patients recovering today are thanks to constant efforts from treatment facilities of Viet Nam, showing significant progress of the health sector in treating COVID-19 patients, said Luong Ngoc Khue, deputy head of the Treatment Subcommittee of the Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

At the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, there are 11 recovered patients, including 10 Vietnamese and a female French citizen. They were the country's 21st, 72nd, 84th, 111th, 116th, 136th, 137th, 192nd, 197th, 200th and 222nd cases. All are in a stable condition.

The recovered patients in full are:

Patient 21, male, 61, living in Ba inh District, Ha Noi, was admitted to the hospital on March 7. His three tests have been negative for SARS-CoV-2 on March 25, April 1 and 3.

Patient 72, female, 25, French nationality, was admitted to the hospital on March 14. The patients test on March 31 had a weak positive result. However, her tests were negative on April 2 and 3.

Patient 84, male, 21, living in Phuong Mai Ward, ong a District, Ha Noi, was admitted to the hospital on March 19. The patients test showed negative result on March 29 and weak positive result on April 1. His final two tests confirmed negative for SARS-CoV-2 on April 3 and 5.

Patient 111, female, 25, living in Hai Hau, Nam inh Province, was admitted to the hospital on March 22. Her test results showed a weak positive on March 27 and negative on March 30 and April 3.

Patient 116, male, 29, in Hoai uc District, Ha Noi, was admitted to the hospital on March 21. His tests showed a positive result on March 27 and negative results on March 30 and April 2.

Patient 136, female, 23, Vietnamese nationality, was admitted to the hospital on March 24. Her test results showed positive on March 28 and negative on March 31 and April 3.

Patient 137, male, 36, living in Yen Thanh District, Nghe An central Province, was admitted to the hospital on March 23. His three tests were negative three times on April 2, 3 and 5.

Patient 192, female, 23, living in Ly Nhan District, Ha Nam Province, was admitted to the hospital on March 29. She tested positive on March 29 and negative on April 1 and 4.

Patient 197, male, 41, living in Thanh Oai District, Ha Noi, was admitted to the hospital on March 30. His tests were negative on March 30, April 4 and 5.

Patient 200, female, 61, living in ai Tu District, Thai Nguyen Province, was admitted to the hospital on March 29. She tested negative three times on March 29, April 1 and 4.

Patient 222, female, 28, living in Long Bien District, Ha Noi, was admitted to the hospital on March 23. Her tests showed a positive result on March 23 and negative on March 26 and 29.

At the Cu Chi field hospital in HCM City, there are four patients discharged, including two Vietnamese, one American and one Canadian. Patients who were declared cured include: Patient 95 (male, 20, Vietnamese nationality); Patient 96 (female, 21, Vietnamese nationality); Patient 119 (male, 29, United States nationality); and Patient 120 (male, 27, Canadian nationality).

At the Can Gio COVID-19 Treatment Hospital, there are four patients, including two Vietnamese patients; one UK and one Brazilian. They include: Patient 98 (Male patient, 34, British national); Patient 142 (male, 26, Vietnamese nationality); Patient 159 (male patient, 33, Brazilian nationality); and Patient 160 (female, 30, Vietnamese nationality).

Patient 150, male, 55, Vietnamese nationality, also has recovered and was discharged from the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases today.

At Hue Central General Hospital, there are two British patients discharged. They are: Patient 30 (female, 66) and Patient 31 (male, 49). The British couple left the hospital on Tuesday morning, meaning there are no more confirmed cases in Hue.

At Sa ec ong Thap General Hospital, there are four Vietnamese patients discharged, including a 9-year-old girl. They include: Patient 101 (female, 26); Patient 102 (female, 9); Patient 103 (male, 23); and Patient 104 (female, 33).

Patient 123, female, 17, Vietnamese nationality, also recovered and was discharged from the Binh ai District Medical Centre in Ben Tre Province today.

All patients will continue to be isolated and monitored for the next 14 days.

Group of Ha Noi residents do their bit in fight against COVID-19

A group of Ciputra apartment's residents in Ha Noi prepare meals for doctors and health workers in the fight against COVID-19.  Photo laodong.vn

A group of residents living in the Ciputra apartment complex in Ha Noi have raised VN1 billion (US$42,600) to help the fight against COVID-19.

They are collaborating with a private enterprise, Khoa Huy Hoang Ltd.Co, to provide meals for doctors and health workers in two branches of the Ha Noi-based National Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

The group members in co-ordination with a local restaurant prepare raw materials, cook, and transport about 640 meals (including a soup, fruit and rice with meat) every day, of which 360 are for ong Anh District branch and 280 for Ha Noi branch.

"We want to share with the doctors and health workers, who are day and night on the front line struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic," L., a resident of Ciputra who contributed to the fund and helped prepare the meals, said.

Ms. L, asking to remain anonymous, said the meals, worth VN50,000 each, for doctors and health workers will be maintained regularly every day until the COVID-19 pandemic ends in Viet Nam.

A representative of the resident group said: "After talking with the Social Work Department of the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, we learned that the doctors and health workers were in need of meals.

Therefore, we have coordinated with a restaurant to prepare a menu for the hospital to choose from.

Phuong Van uc, a representative of the resident group, said: We want hygienic and nutritious meals for doctors and health workers, who are helping patients fight against COVID-19.

Currently, the members are helping the staff of Khoa Huy Hoang Co., Ltd. in meal preparation and delivery during the week.

To ensure that the delivery of meals to the two hospital branches was done by 5pm, members begin cooking at 1pm.

All members are enthusiastic and happy when participating in this social work, L. said.

After being carefully boxed, meals will be delivered to cars to be taken to two hospital branches.

With the fight against COVID-19 entering a difficult stage, hundreds of thousands of doctors and health workers across the country are living away from their families for a long time, day and night they were taking care of sick patients.

In particular, on the front lines against the pandemic, like at the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, there are a high number of patients who are under treatment and isolation.

Financial assistance provided to workers affected by COVID-19 pandemic

A landlord in Binh Phuoc Province, who has reduced rent for tenants, presents masks to renters.

Financial assistance from the Government, organisations and sponsors is being given to many businesses and individuals affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

In HCM City, local authorities will allocate VN1.8 trillion (US$77 million) to provide allowances to 600,000 workers who have been affected by the crisis, including job losses. The allowances will be provided for a maximum of three months, beginning this month.

Affected workers in industrial parks, export processing zones and Sai Gon Hi-tech Park, as well as teachers at private kindergartens, will be the beneficiaries.

The HCM City Labour Federation has raised a fund of nearly VN8 billion ($343,198) to support 4,700 workers who have lost their job due to COVID-19.

The Labour Federation in eight districts has called on 93 landlords to reduce rental fees from VN100,000 to VN1 million per month for 4,500 workers. Many of the landlords have presented rice and other essential items to workers who rent their rooms. Workers have been allowed to pay rent at a later date.

Nguyen Thi Giam of District 8 has reduced rent on 200 rooms for workers, while Nguyen Thi Xuan Ha of District 8 has donated 20 kilogrammes of rice and is taking care of children of workers who rent her rooms. She has also decreased their rent.

Pham Ngoc Lan, chairwoman of the Labour Federation in Tan Phu District, said that monthly rent for rooms in the district has been reduced from VN1.8 million  VN2 million to VN800,000  VN1.4 million.

Le Thi Thu Huong, who rents a room in Tan Phu Districts Tay Thanh Ward, said that her rent was reduced by 50 per cent.

The Labour Federation in the neighbouring provinces of ong Nai, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc and others have called on landlords to reduce rent.

In ong Nai Province, more than 27,000 workers at 29 enterprises have seen their working hours cut or have lost jobs because their enterprises have gone bankrupt.

Le Huu Hien, chief of the ong Nai Provinces Labour Federation, predicted that more and more enterprises in the province will be affected, leading to an increase in job losses.

According to the ong Nai Province Employment Service Centre, the number of unemployed visiting the centre for unemployment benefits has increased.

Last month, nearly VN120 billion from the provinces unemployment insurance fund was paid to unemployed workers in the province.

As many as 6,600 people who have lost jobs have been introduced to new jobs by the centre.

In Binh Duong Province, more than 500 landlords have exempted or reduced rent for people affected by the pandemic.

Several of them have exempted 100 per cent of rent for two months, and others have exempted rent for this month. Landlords who have reduced a part of the rent have also presented food to tenants who rent their rooms.

In the first quarter, 34,900 enterprises in the country temporarily suspended operation or were dissolved, an increase of 2 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Vietnamese donate thousands of protective medical items to Czech hospitals Protective health supplies, such as socks, masks and gloves are donated by Vietnamese people in the Czech Republic to Motol University Hospital in Prague. (Photo: VNA)

Vietnamese people in the Czech Republic have donated thousands of protective health supplies, such as socks, masks and gloves alongside other necessities for local medical workers who are on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic response in Prague.

The sought-after items have been collected by Vietnamese volunteers in just three days in response to the call for help by the Na Homolce Hospital and Motol University Hospital in the capital city.

The donations were presented to the two hospitals on April 6 as a gesture of motivation for Czech health workers who have been working day and night to care for an increasing number of COVID-19 patients.

Deputy Director of Na Homolce Hospital Mgr. Ivana Kirchnerova expressed her gratitude for the wonderful gifts from the Vietnamese community. We are deeply touched and appreciate what the Vietnamese community has done for us, she said.

Not only in Prague, similar support has also been sent by Vietnamese expats to major hospitals in other cities across the Czech Republic, such as Ostrava, Brno, Plzen and Teplice.

Since early last month, Vietnamese people have shown their solidarity with the Czech community in the fight against the COVID-19 through a number of charity and relief projects.

They have worked alongside locals to make homemade masks to donate to ill-equipped medical, police and emergency units in the European country.

Many Vietnamese restaurants and food stores have offered police as well as health and emergency workers free food and drinks like tea and coffee.

They have also presented thousands of masks and protective gloves to the governments of Vyssi Brod, Cesky Krumlove, Ricany and Vectek, and hospitals in Znojmo and Prague.

Ha Nam province holds urgent meeting following new COVID-19 infection

The steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control of northern Ha Nam province held an urgent meeting on late April 7 after a local man had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 but authorities havent found out exactly where he contracted the coronavirus from.

This patient is a 64-year-old resident in Binh Nghia commune of Binh Luc district, who has been undergoing treatment at the Ha Nam General Hospital since March 20. He was confirmed as a COVID-19 case by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology on late April 7.

Director of the provincial Department of Health Le Quang Minh noted that the source of the infection hasnt been identified.

The patient, who has many other diseases like hepatitis, cirrhosis, gout and pneumonia, is currently quarantined at the provincial General Hospital.

Shortly after the notification of this case, the local health sector has carried out an epidemiological survey of all patients, medical workers and visitors at the General Hospital and disinfected the entire facility. Medical workers and patients at the department where the COVID-19 patient has been receiving treatment have also been quarantined, Minh noted.

Ngo Khe 3 hamlet of Binh Nghia commune, Binh Luc district, where the COVID-19 patient resides, has been put in isolation.

Addressing the meeting, Vice Chairman of the Ha Nam provincial Peoples Committee Nguyen Duc Vuong stressed that this is a serious and complex case, so it is necessary to take drastic disease prevention and control measures.

As of April 8 morning, Vietnam had recorded 251 COVID-19 cases, 122 of them or 49 percent of the total have fully recovered.

Hanoi maps out scenario to fight COVID-19 at Level 4

Hanoi has mapped out a scenario for Level 4 of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, under which all forces involved in the fight will receive training, its Department of Health has announced.

The capital aims to minimise fatalities during the pandemic and prevent infections at hospitals and between medical workers and patients.

The department has ordered the stepping up of screenings and quarantine at medical facilities, Deputy Director of the department Tran Thi Nhi Ha said.

Under the scenario, patients 100 to 300 will be transferred to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases No. 2 in the outlying district of Dong Anh. Patients from 301, meanwhile, will be admitted to Bac Thang Long, Me Linh, Duc Giang, Thanh Nhan, Ha Dong, and Dong Da hospitals.

Local medical facilities that violate regulations on COVID-19 prevention and control will be suspended or have their operation certificates revoked, Ha said.

Hanoi has prepared the equipment and human resources needed to combat the pandemic, she added.

Cambodia announces three main tasks in COVID-19 fight

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks at the conference (Photo: en.freshnewsasia.com)

Cambodia has unveiled three main tasks which the government has been carrying out in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking in a press conference held on April 7, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said the country works to prevent external cases of COVID-19, prevent the spread of the disease in the local community, and treat all the patients to full recoveries.

In a message to the national committee for COVID-19 combat, he emphasised that Cambodia must ensure the sufficiency of face masks, protective clothing and sanitiser.

As of April 7, Cambodia had confirmed 115 COVID-19 cases, with 58 having fully recovered.

Meanwhile, Indonesias Technology Assessment and Application Agency (BPPT) said it is working to produce 100,000 rapid diagnostic test kits in the next one or two months.

Research and Technology Minister of Indonesia Bambang Brodjonegoro said on April 7 that the country has been developing two types of test kit, a non-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnostic test kit, or rapid diagnostic test kit, and a PCR diagnostic test kit that requires a swab test.

Though the rapid diagnostic test kit is not as accurate compared to the PCR diagnostic test kit, it is hoped to help authorities to perform initial screenings.

Bambang added that Indonesia has developed a portable ventilator using nearly 100 percent local components. The ventilator has been tested by the Health Ministry, hospitals and doctors before mass production.

Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said that Indonesian industries are ramping up their capacity to produce the medical equipment required to combat COVID-19 and will potentially export the products to other countries.

About 35 companies will produce some 18.3 million pieces of protective gear by early May, he added.

Vietnamese, Lao health officials discuss ways to fight COVID-19

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long and Lao Minister of Health Bounkong Syhavong have agreed to set up a connection system to provide technical assistance in the prevention and test of COVID-19 and treatment of patients.

During a teleconference on April 7, the officials also consented to propose the Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group (Viettel) to support a connection line for Laos, especially between hospitals of the two countries so that they can share experience and methods in treating COVID-19 infection cases.

Apart from a relief package given to Laos in early April, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health has also pledged to provide its Lao counterpart with additional medical equipment such as diagnostic tools, face masks, and protective clothing, Long said.

He added that although Vietnam has been damaged by the disease, the Ministry of Health still stays ready to offer all possible support to its Lao counterpart to push back the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bounkong, for his part, thanked the Vietnamese Government and people for their assistance, saying that it has been a major source of encouragement for the country in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic./.

Thai House Speaker: AIPA parliamentarians should help others in COVID-19 fight

Speaker of the House of Representatives of Thailand Chuan Leekpai has recently showed his support for Vietnamese National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngans call for ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) member states to jointly protect ASEAN against the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his letter in reply to Ngans March 30 letter, Chuan Leekpai stressed that its time for all to take actions.

AIPA parliamentarians have the responsibility to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with civilians to help them overcome difficulties caused by the pandemic, he noted.

The speaker also expressed his backing for the leadership role of Ngan as the Chair of the 41st AIPA General Assembly, as she had a quick response to the regional situation by appropriate actions of the legislative body.

Suggesting the organisation of an extraordinary teleconference if necessary, Leekpai said that regional cooperation is essential at this time to jointly protect ASEAN against the COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 30, the Vietnamese top legislator sent a letter to heads of the organisation's members, calling for their engagement in the fight against COVID-19.

In the spirit of cohesive and responsive, she proposed AIPA members to join hands to protect the common home ASEAN in face of the pandemic.

Ngan wrote that peoples in ASEAN and the globe are facing an unprecedented threat for decades - the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her position, she expressed her sympathies to the peoples in the bloc as well as the mankind over the losses caused by COVID-19.

More than ever, the ASEAN Community needs to uphold the spirit of solidarity, sharing, mutual assistance and support amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Ngan stressed.

Vietnam Airlines offers free transport for health workers, medical equipment

An aircraft of Vietnam Airlines

National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines has launched a programme offering free travelling for health workers engaged in epidemic prevention and control work and the transport of medical equipment on its domestic routes, said a representative of the carrier on April 7.



Starting from April 9 until April 30, the airline will present free air tickets to doctors, nurses and health experts who are sent on missions related to the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.



This is another effort in the national flag carrier's programme Flights of Nation to assist with the country's epidemic control work since the COVID-19 broke out in Vietnam. Aside from passenger flights which had brought Vietnamese citizens and foreigners home, Vietnam Airlines has operated flights carrying necessities such as face masks, protective clothing and medical equipment.



It has carried 100,000 face masks, protective clothing, testing systems and COVID-19 test kits as gifts from the Vietnamese Government and people to their Lao and Cambodian counterparts.



Earlier, the airline also carried over three tonnes of protective clothing and medical masks from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi free-of-charge, and 10 ventilators funded by Temasek Foundation from Singapore to Vietnam./.

Hanoians come together to fight COVID-19

Donors receive certificates honouring their contributions

The Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Committee in Hanoi on April 7 received over 10 billion VND (429,200 USD) in cash as well as goods worth 162 million VND from offices, religious organisations, enterprises, and individuals in the capital to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

President of the VFF Hanoi Nguyen Lan Huong said she very much appreciated the contributions and added that the city now has more resources and equipment for its disease prevention and control efforts.

Tackling the disease will continue to be a complex matter into the foreseeable future, with Huong expressing a hope that businesses and donors will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the city.

The committee will work with the citys Department of Health to ensure that the funds and goods are allocated in a transparent manner.

The VFF Hanoi has handed over 40 water purifiers to the Department of Health, which will be installed at local hospitals, and provided 130 million VND and 2,600 face masks to 26 inter-sectoral COVID-19 prevention and control stations around the capital.

It has received a total of over 27 billion VND to date in support of the fight against COVID-19.

Health Ministry receives medical supply donation

The Health Ministry on April 7 received medical supplies for SARS-CoV-2 testing worth 1 million USD from real estate group CapitaLand.

The supplies include chemicals and the Vietnam-made LightPower iVASARS-CoV-2 1stRT-rPCR PLUS KIT (VA.A02-055G) test kits.

Speaking at the hand-over ceremony in Hanoi, Patrick Liau, General Director at CapitaLand, said the company hopes that the aid will give the Vietnamese Government more resources in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.

CapitaLand, one of the biggest real estate developers in Asia, has been invested in Vietnam for over 25 years. The company, along with its CapitaLand Hope Foundation, has engaged in supporting disadvantaged children in Vietnam for years.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long thanked the company for standing side by side with the Vietnamese Health Ministry in the anti-COVID-19 fight, saying that the gift is an encouragement for the health sector./.



Vietnamese workers in RoK receive free face masks

People line up to buy face masks in Daegu of the RoK (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)

Vietnamese workers in the Republic of Korea (RoK) will be given ten face masks each free of charge for use in two weeks amid the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country.



This will also apply to workers who stay in the country illegally and those not joining the countrys health insurance. They could come to the nearest labourer support centres to receive the masks.

Vietnamese workers are eligible for allowance during the 14-day self quarantine and will not be penalised if unable to extend their residence permission during the period.



When they fully recover from the COVID-19 or complete the quarantine period, the workers could go to immigration offices to apply for extension of their stay.



However, if they leave the assigned facilities during the quarantine period, workers may receive hefty fines, or have their visa cancelled, or even be deported./.

Bac Ninh province applies pay-to-stay quarantine service

A check-point for COVID-19 prevention in Bac Ninh (Photo: bacninh.gov.vn)

People who come from or passing through COVID-19 hit areas will have to pay for concentrated quarantine when arriving in the northern province of Bac Ninh from April 7.

Under a new document on urgent measures to cope with the COVID-19 signed by the Chairwoman of the provincial Peoples Committee, exceptions will be made for those who have finished quarantine in other localities or have been certified by authorised agencies.

Those who perform special duties, providing food or essential necessities, shuttle buses for workers or experts are also included. However, they have to show their working schedule and contact persons and implement disease prevention measures as required by local authorities.

Meanwhile, local residents will have to undergo a 14-day self-quarantine period at home if they have come from or passed through the pandemic-struck provinces and cities.

The measure is issued to curb the spread of disease in the locality and ensure the effectiveness of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucs Directive 16 on COVID-19 prevention and control.

The provincial Peoples Committee asked agencies and local administrations to strictly follow the PMs order on social distancing.

For businesses whose experts and workers from or passing through Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces arriving at Bac Ninh to work, they should be asked to restrict contact with others and keep a minimum distance of 2m when in contact. A private working area should be arranged for them and their health should be monitored regularly.

Local administrations are requested to collaborate with the provincial health department, the police and relevant agencies in supervising quarantined people. All violators should be strictly dealt with, according to the document.

Earlier, the province has set up six checkpoints to monitor people and vehicles entering the locality.

Thailand delays school reopening until July

Illustrative image (Photo: Bangkok Post)

Thailands cabinet on April 7 approved a proposal of the countrys Ministry of Education to postpone the reopening of all schools for the new semester from May 16 to July 1, part of measures to control the COVID-19 epidemic.



Government spokeswoman Narumon Pinyosinwat said the ministry will change learning methods to suit the curriculum at all levels for the 2020 school year.



Speaking after the cabinet meeting, Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan said classes would be moved online. The ministry would prepare both teachers and students for online classes, and take into consideration the capabilities and differences of each location.



However, he gave no indication when online classes would begin.



Thailand reported 38 new COVID-19 cases and one death on April 7, bringing the total number to 2,258 and 27 fatalities. Meanwhile, 824 have recovered.



The rate of infections may be on the decline compared to the 51 new cases recorded one day earlier and 102 on April 5.

Cambodia cancels Khmer New Year festivals amid COVID-19 outbreak

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on April 7 that he has decided to cancel the Khmer New Year celebrations scheduled for April 13-16 in a bid to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Speaking at a press conference, Hun Sen said State institutions and private firms should continue to work as usual, noting that the cancelled five-day holidays will be offset when the COVID-19 is over.

The government wants to reduce the travelling of people to prevent the spread of infection from one place to another. This m,easure is to prevent the people from contracting the virus, he was quoted by a local newspaper.

The same day, Tourism Minister Thong Khon said as from April 7, Cambodia will temporarily close all massage parlors and health spas across the country.

Earlier this month, the country ordered the temporary closures of all schools, karaoke clubs, cinemas and museums nationwide. All religious gatherings at public areas were also banned.

The Southeast Asian country has so far recorded a total of 115 COVID-19 cases, with 58 patients cured.

Thailand to launch training schemes for jobless amid COVID-19

Thailand will launch training programmes for unemployed people as part of the third series of its government's stimulus measures to ease the impact of the COVID-19 on the economy, said Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak.

The Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Ministry is set to organise training programmes for 40,000 workers who lost their jobs because of the pandemic, said Supachai Pathumnakul, deputy permanent secretary of the ministry.

He noted the training programmes are estimated to cost 144 million THB (4.5 million USD) and will be funded by the central budget in fiscal 2020.

The programmes will be supported by 80 universities, covering language skill development for tour guides, tourism and business management for entrepreneurs, and farm-related development.

Each programme will take 10 days and trainees will receive a daily allowance of 200 THB a day.

The ministry also plans training programmes to upskill and reskill workers in advanced technology, notably for the 12 targeted industries, aiming to benefit 50,000 workers.

It expects the training programmes to be implemented by May or later, once the Thai government lifts the state of emergency,

The third stimulus package is expected to be finalised and presented for cabinet approval this month. It is designed to provide comprehensive and continued assistance for all groups of people affected by the virus and keep the economy running without disruption.

Millions of labourers in Southeast Asia could lose their jobs as economies grind to a halt due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte on April 7 approved the extension of lockdown and quarantine measures covering more than half of the population in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Restrictions of movement and gatherings have been in place in and around the capital Manila since nearly a month ago./.

Nearly 1,200 curfew breakers nabbed in Thailand

Nearly 1,200 people were arrested over the last three nights in Thailand for violating curfew that has been imposed since April 3 to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They were spotted on the roads and at varied places during the six-hour curfew, from 10:00 p.m. to 04:00 a.m. (local time) daily, the Thai police said on April 6.

Those curfew breakers, found to have had no understandable reasons for remaining outside of their home, would be faced with legal actions in court under the current emergency rule.

They included adolescent motorcyclists on the roads, groups of alcoholic drinkers or drug users and groups of indoor gamblers, among others.

The same day, Thailand decided to extend the restriction of all flights to the country from April 6 to the end of April 18 in an effort to contain the pandemic.
Ms. Irizarry, who loves to cook, spent the last Sunday in March putting the recipe to use in her Astoria, N.Y., kitchen.

Maqluba literally means upside down in Arabic. So creating this dish was a testament to the discipline, memory and anticipation of a trip to Jordan with EscapingNY. Perhaps, in todays times, it was also a testament to a world turned upside down, she said.

Ad-libbing also has its merits. After canceling their stay at Twin Farms, an adults-only Relais & Chateaux retreat in Vermont, Ross and Jordi McGraw reenacted parts of their romantic getaway at Mr. McGraws parents house in Pennsylvania, where they had decamped to self-quarantine.

After putting their toddler son to bed, the McGraws cracked open some nice wine (carted, with other essentials, from their Manhattan apartment). The bucolic setting and mountain views rang faintly of Vermont. A Jacuzzi added a dash of five-star-ish luxury. And the movie My Friend Dahmer, about the serial killer and sex offender Jeffrey Dahmer, stood in for Twim Farms annual Murder Mystery Weekend  Ms. McGraw, a freelance writer, loves murder mysteries.

It was quite the opposite of the weekend we had planned, Ms. McGraw, 33, said. But you can only stress about things so much; we were lucky that we had a place to go, that we were all healthy and safe, and that we had a sleeping baby.

Ms. McGraw knows shell eventually make it to Twin Farms, which ranks high on her travel bucket list. EscapingNY has rescheduled Ms. Irizarrys Jordan tour for later this year. And Mr. Pollak and Ms. Palenzuela remain hopeful that at least some part of their nearly half-year sabbatical  which would have taken them from Europe and the Middle East to Hawaii, and eventually to Vietnam  will materialize.

In our mind, were not thinking of it as canceled. As delusional as that sounds, I think thats whats helping us stay sane. Everything seems bleak right now, so we figure wed do our part and stay inside, lay low and see what happens, Ms. Palenzuela said.
James Argent has shared a throwback snap from his time in rehab in Thailand.

The former TOWIE star, 32, flew to Thailand earlier this year after friends and family feared he had attempted a second 'overdose' due to his drug and drink addiction.

Now back in the U.K, Arg reminisced on when he fed and watered elephants as he called them his 'spirit animals' in the post, which he shared on Instagram on Tuesday.

'Spirit animal': James Argent shared a throwback snap from his time feeding the elephants while in rehab in Thailand on Instagram on Tuesday

Arg wrote: "Nature's great masterpiece, an elephant. The only harmless great thing."I LOVE Elephants so much. They are my spirit animal. It made me so happy to feed, clean & water them!'

Ferne McCann commented: 'You look so happy', while another fan added: 'recovery suits you, goodness'.

A third chimed, 'Wow Arg keep up the good work you are bossing this', while a fourth follower typed: 'you look so well'.

A fifth added: 'You look very happy Arg'.

Recovery suits you! Fans on Instagram rushed to compliment Arg on how well he was doing

Lean on me: James, left, is reportedly getting a helping hand from his supportive longtime friend Mark Wright, right, in adjusting to life after 'rehab'

James is reportedly getting a helping hand from his supportive longtime friend Mark Wright in adjusting to life after 'rehab'.

According to The Sun, Mark, 33, and his wife Michelle Keegan, 32, have remained in touch with the TOWIE star throughout his challenges, and most recently since he returned to the UK from Thailand.

A source said: 'Mark was straight on the phone to James to make sure he is OK. Theyve spoken a lot and James knows that Mark is there for him. Michelle will be too. They both think the world of him and want him to get back to his very best.'

According to the friend, Arg has struggled somewhat since returning to his native Essex, given the recently mandated nationwide coronavirus lockdown but is 'looking to the positive and making sure he gets plenty of rest, eats right and does a bit of exercise everyday.'

Home sweet home: James was pictured last week with his girlfriend Gemma Collins after returning to the U.K

MailOnline has contacted representatives for James Argent and Mark Wright for comment.

The troubled star was taken to hospital for the second time in two months last year after friends and family feared he had attempted a second 'overdose'.

Paramedics rushed to his 1.3million home in South Woodford, Essex in December, where they found the star 'disorientated' shortly before friends - including Mark - rallied around in a bid to help him get the support he needs.

Loved up: Arg will also have the support of his girlfriend Gemma Collins. Pictured in May 2018

Insiders told MailOnline: 'Mark was at his house for around six hours to support him. This was after Arg had been to hospital and come home again...

'Arg cant afford rehab but Mark and other close friends and family are clubbing together to put him in a good place so he can overcome this.'

'He has realised he needs help with his recent addiction issues and with his weight loss battle, so has turned to professionals.

'Arg is receiving some of the best care in the world and so is in an environment to finally improve his physical and mental state.'

The reality star returned to social media in February following his stint in rehab, as he announced he was set to take on a residency at pal Elliott Wright's Marbella restaurant.

However, with both Spain and the UK on lockdown amid the coronavirus crisis, it is unlikely the star will be able to take it on.

Arg had been due to perform at Olivia's La Cala's Famous Thursday events on selected dates from April until September.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of ex-Fortis promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh, arrested for alleged misappropriation of funds from Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL)

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of ex-Fortis promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh, arrested for alleged misappropriation of funds from Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL).

Singh had cited COVID-19 infection risk as a reason for seeking the relief.

Justice Mukta Gupta denied him the relief, saying Singh was allegedly involved in offences punishable with more than 7-year sentence and that too in more than one case and

"hence does not qualify to be released" as per criteria laid down by a high powered committee.

The court also noted that Singh was also allegedly involved in a money laundering case.

The high powered committee, headed by Delhi HC judge Justice Hima Kohli, was constituted on orders of the Supreme Court for laying down criteria for release of convicted

and under trial prisoners to prevent over-crowding of prisons and ensure social distancing in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
Zaandam, the Netherlands, April 7, 2020 - Ahold Delhaize announces today that together with its local brands, it has deployed more than 170 million on COVID-19 relief and support efforts so far. These efforts range from health and safety measures for associates and customers, to enhanced benefits for frontline associates, to charitable donations to support local communities.

"In this time of acute need we see people coming together across all our communities to help each other through this pandemic," said Frans Muller, Ahold Delhaize President and CEO. "Ahold Delhaize and all our local brands in the U.S., Europe, and Indonesia are taking substantial measures to ensure the safety of both associates and customers in response to the significant challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fighting this requires everyone's support and I am pleased with our efforts to date."

Muller continued, "I want to recognize the resilience and courage demonstrated by all the medical and emergency professionals working on the front line. Our own sector has also proven to be vital at this time - supported by associates across all our brands, in our supply chains, and at our support offices. Their determined efforts and the care and teamwork they exhibit every day fill me with pride. I am both impressed and humbled by their actions in this time of great need. Finally, I am grateful to customers in all the communities we serve for respecting social distancing guidelines and local health regulations that help protect not only themselves but our associates as well."

Fighting COVID-19 is requiring all these efforts and more, including the following actions already taken:

For associates

To further safeguard associate health, local brands across Ahold Delhaize have introduced additional safety and protective measures for associates, totaling 44 million. Among the protective measures included are plexiglass shields at registers and new store flow patterns to maintain social distancing.

Local brands in the U.S., Europe, and Indonesia are recognizing the considerable and exceptional efforts associates are taking by enhancing pay and / or associate benefits.

Ahold Delhaize brands are providing further economic support to communities, with their combined commitments to hire more than 40,000 associates. Local brands are liaising especially with displaced people in industries that have been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as travel, tourism, and hospitality.

Local brands across Ahold Delhaize have also enhanced associate assistance programs to provide health and wellbeing support.

For customers

All local brands across Ahold Delhaize have introduced new in-store signage and other markers to help customers cooperate in maintaining social distancing protocols.

Across the U.S. and Europe, our brands have introduced special opening hours for the elderly and other vulnerable populations as well as essential personnel who are responding to the crisis.

Some brands have also established special grocery delivery services for healthcare workers.

Local brands have further enhanced already stringent cleaning and hygiene measures, like cart cleaning before and after use.

For communities

Collectively, the Ahold Delhaize brands have so far committed nearly 20 million to charitable donations to support the following: local food banks, feeding first responders in critically hard-hit areas, national and private health systems, the Red Cross, and to medical facilities to further research on COVID-19.

Cautionary notice

This communication includes forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts may be forward-looking statements. Words such as so far, through, ensure, further, maintain or other similar words or expressions are typically used to identify forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict and that may cause actual results of Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V. (the "Company") to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the Company's public filings and other disclosures. Forward-looking statements reflect the current views of the Company's management and assumptions based on information currently available to the Company's management. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and the Company does not assume any obligation to update such statements, except as required by law.










By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 04/07/2020



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

star Peter Weber has finally addressed rumors regarding his relationship with Kelley Flanagan , saying they're not dating right now but it's possible they will in the future!Peter and Kelley, whom Peter eliminated before hometown dates on 's 24th season, have been self-quarantining with each other in her hometown of Chicago, IL, for about two weeks now amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.Given flirty photos of the pair roaming the streets in Chicago surfaced online late last month and they've since posted a playful TikTok video, fans have been speculating there is something romantic going on between them."Are we dating? No. Do I love spending time with her? Absolutely. We're not dating. Could I see that in the future? I'm always transparent -- yeah, of course," Peter told Nick Viall on The Viall Files podcast."I could definitely see that in the future. I'd be extremely lucky and very happy if that happened... I think the world of her."Nick asked Peter why he seems so reluctant to date Kelley if he could absolutely envision them being together."Of anyone, I'm the last person that needs to rush into any kind of relationship. I just had an engagement that didn't work out. I just was trying to pursue things with another woman that didn't work out," Peter admitted.During 's live finale on March 10, Kelley, who was sitting in the audience, watched an indecisive Peter break off an engagement to Hannah Ann Sluss and then reconcile with his supposed true love, Madison Prewett , whom he officially split from on March 12, just two short days after the finale aired."That's why, right now, I'm just taking it really, really slow," Peter continued."[Kelley and I] are just enjoying each other's time and company, and I've been very honest with her, and she agrees... I've been through an emotional roller coaster."Peter explained in detail how he and Kelley began spending time with each other just through chance meetings, even before aired its live finale on March 10 and Peter announced his breakup with Madison two days later."There's a lot of stuff that people don't know. Honestly, my relationship with Kelley has been a lot of things that are just kind of very serendipitous. You go all the way back to the very beginning -- us running into each other before any of this stuff started... Obviously, the show happened and it didn't work out for us on that show," Peter told Nick."Over the Super Bowl, I was in Miami and I had the opportunity to go to the Super Bowl with my brother, and I ran into her on the Saturday night before the Super Bowl... I had just broken up with Hannah Ann."Peter said he saw Kelley -- whom he met and connected with even before began filming last year when the pair bumped into each other in a Malibu hotel -- and his "jaw just dropped.""I was like, 'What?! No way! What are the odds?' We've run into each other randomly on both coasts of the United States. Like, that's insane, completely unplanned!... I just gave her a hug and that was it... It was just a crazy coincidence and a brief, 'Hi, how are you? How are you doing?' I gave her a hug and we ended up getting out of there," Peter shared.Peter's relationship with Kelley on , which began filming in September 2019, was apparently not indicative of the chemistry and dynamic they share off-screen."Kelley was not good for the show. She was not comfortable ever and never felt in her element. She was almost too smart for the show, she was always two steps ahead and trying to overthink it," Peter insisted."Our relationship on the show, it didn't really play out in the best way for us. It just wasn't going to work on the show if it was ever going to work out for us, if that makes sense."Peter then fast-forwarded to a couple of weeks ago, when he was out with Dylan Barbour and Devin Harris "I was texting [ Demi Burnett 's ex-fiancee Kristian Haggerty], asking her if she wanted to come out with us. She comes out with us, she's with Kelley. Me not knowing this, they show up, I see Kelley again... jaw drops," Peter said."I was like, 'This is insane! What are the odds of this?!' So we chat, we end up hanging out and that's when I got her number. We started to communicate and just stay in touch."Peter told Nick his friendship with Kelley resulted in the pair choosing to quarantine with each other."She's always been supportive of me... Long story short, I wasn't working so I thought I'd go out there [to Chicago] and spend some time with her, take her mind off some [family] things. And that's what I did," Peter explained."I flew out to Chicago right when everything was starting to hit with the quarantine stuff... and it kind of just became a thing where we've always gotten along really well, and just had really good chemistry.""We just enjoy each other's company," the pilot elaborated, "and I just decided to quarantine up here with Dustin as well. He lives in Chicago."Peter, who had been quarantining himself in his parents' home in California prior to traveling to Chicago, noted he thought it would be safer to not go home since he's still working for Delta Airlines as an essential employee and could be subjected to coronavirus.As season aired earlier this year, rumors swirled that Kelley and Peter were secretly dating, but she later put that speculation to rest and confirmed that was not the case Kelley -- who is apparently Peter's mother Barbara Weber's favorite from 's 24th season -- told Us Weekly last month after the finale Peter needed to "figure out his own stuff.""I met Peter outside of the show and he was so sweet, he was amazing, and I think that the show may have gotten to him a little bit," Kelley said at the time."Right now, I think it's time for him to just reflect on himself and figure out... what he wants [and who] Peter Weber really is... Right now he should just focus on himself and do his own thing."For as long as Kelley remains single, she'll apparently be a hot commodity in Bachelor Nation.Not only did ette alum Mike Johnson hint that he's interested in Kelley , but she was also previously linked to Nick, who starred on 's 21st season.Kelley and Nick posted a photo with each other from a party Chris Harrison hosted in Los Angeles in March on Instagram and Chris commented on the picture that the pair looked "so cozy" together at the event.Nick, however, subsequently insisted there's nothing going on between them and he was well aware posting the photo would cause a stir.Interested in more news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
DETROIT, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- MISS DIG 811 supports the State of Michigan and Governor Whitmer's Executive Order 2020-21, "Stay Safe, Stay Home." MISS DIG 811 encourages Michigan residents to postpone all digging during this time to limit field personnel exposure to COVID-19.

MISS DIG 811 requests all digging projects be postponed until after the Executive Order is lifted. If a Michigan resident still chooses to dig, they are required under Public Act 174 to contact MISS DIG 811 by calling 811 or placing a web request at missdig811.org. After placing the request, residents must check for a positive response at status.missdig811.org before digging.

Residents can also request underground utility information at a single address for planning purposes through MISS DIG 811's e-Plan at newtin.missdig.org/e-suite/. The request is sent to facility owners/operators who provide general information regarding the location of underground utilities for proposed projects. MISS DIG 811's e-Plan is a web-based planning tool. It is for planning purposes only and cannot be used for digging.

For more information about MISS DIG 811 and safe digging practices, visit www.missdig811.org.

About MISS DIG

MISS DIG System, Inc. is a Michigan Non-Profit Corporation that operates as the Underground Utility Safety Notification System for the entire state. MISS DIG 811 has received over 21 million locate requests resulting in nearly 189 million transmissions since 1970.

MISS DIG 811 provides this free service to homeowners, excavators, municipalities and utility companies via their web-based locate requests - elocate.missdig811.org and rte.missdig811.org, or by placing a toll-free call to 811 or 800-482-7171. MISS DIG 811 processes that locate request by contacting over 1,700 members, who then come out and locate their facilities. The mission of MISS DIG System, Inc. is to safeguard the public, environment, property, and utility infrastructures and promote utility damage prevention through a quality, cost-effective process for our customers.

SOURCE MISS DIG 811

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SEATTLE (dpa-AFX) - Amazon.com decided to donate 8200 laptops, worth more than $2 million, to elementary students in Seattle Public Schools (SPS) to help towards the continuous learning plan during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. SPS is the largest K-12 school system in Washington State to ensure that each student graduates ready for college, career and life. SPS works in close partnership with non-profit organization Alliance for Education and other education stakeholders to create programs and raise funds to provide this. The permanent, direct-to-student donation from Amazon will provide all SPS students access to a device while at home so they can participate in the continuous learning program online. Amazon is working with SPS to ship laptops directly to students, who can keep the laptops permanently with them. Amazon's laptop donation is expected to be a game-changer to fill a critical gap for thousands of Seattle students and provides them with the resources to quickly transition to online learning during this pandemic. SPS will prioritize the laptop donations for elementary students who otherwise do not have access to a device at home. This Amazon donation also kickstarts a new fund - the 'Education Equity Fund' - to support students furthest from educational justice in accessing the technology, technical support and additional learning resources required to continue to learn during the COVID-19 crisis. Amazon is also supporting SPS students and their families by removing the most basic barriers to learning such as the need for food, clothing, and housing, through the Right Now Needs Fund. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
[April 07, 2020] The Independent Physician Association of America (TIPAAA) Selects LiveCare Telehealth/RPM Technology Solution for a Widescale Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) Program for its 300,000+ Physician Members during the devastating COVID-19 pandemic

NEW YORK, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- LiveCare announced that it has been selected as the preferred provider of remote patient monitoring for members of The Independent Physician Association of America (TIPAAA), the leading trade association serving independent and integrated physician associations in the U.S. TIPAAA currently represents nearly 700 organization members/affiliates in 39 states and more than 300,000 U.S. physicians affiliated with IPA's. "We are excited to partner with LiveCare. We Need More "Game Changers" like LiveCare to Effectively Manage our Growing High-Risk Patient Population," said TIPAAA President and Chief Executive Officer Albert Holloway, MBA, MHA. This progressive company has created the Link+, first smart two-way real-time audio/video Home Smart RPM Hub which allows patients to communicate with their Providers. The Link+ automatically connects with FDA Approved Remote Patient Home Monitoring Devices to help monitor hypertension, diabetes, obesity, SPO2 with heart rate, and temperature to yield a complete picture of a person's overall well-being. With the COVID-19 crisis, technology such as The Link+ can help save many lives and opens the doors to many physicians that need to be in close touch with their patients. The Link+ powered by LiveCare's capability of doing this is very valuable during difficult and challenging tmes with COVID-19.



"We are thrilled to partner with TIPAAA and its IPA and physician members to help provide a Widescale RPM Program for their physicians members during the Coronavirus," said Peri Avitan, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of LiveCare. The LiveCare Link+ is critically essential during the Coronavirus emergency because medical information and diagnostics can be performed remotely so that elderly, disabled and other patients using the LiveCare system do not have to travel to physicians' offices, hospitals or other locations where they might be exposed to Coronavirus or might expose other persons. You can see more details about the Program at LiveCare's website: www.LiveCareUSA.com, email [email protected] or call 800-993-4233.

About LiveCare

LiveCare has brought the Remote Patient Monitoring Industry into the 21st century by creating the Link+, 4G Smart Home Gateway that integrates all the Medical Devices in the patient's home by using a touch-free Syncing Process. The Link+ helps overcomes the significant RPM deployment challenges, monitor chronic care patients and increasing better patient outcomes. About TIPAAA

The IPA Association of America (TIPAAA) is the leading trade association serving Independent/Integrated Physician Associations. Founded in 1994 in Oakland, California, TIPAAA provides a wide range of products, services, and educational programs designed to help operate effectively and successfully in managed care. The association has nearly 700, chapters/affiliates in 39 states and more than 300,000 Physicians affiliated with IPAs. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-independent-physician-association-of-america-tipaaa-selects-livecare-telehealthrpm-technology-solution-for-a-widescale-remote-patient-monitoring-rpm-program-for-its-300-000-physician-members-during-the-devastating-covid--301036254.html SOURCE LiveCare

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LONDON, ENGLAND / ACCESSWIRE / April 6, 2020 / Global Gate Capital, a global investment management firm, has recently exchanged and completed on the acquisition of 25 Maddox Street.

The Mayfair freehold is well positioned on Maddox Street, which links Bond Street with Regent Street. It is within 200 metres of the Crossrail entrance to Bond Street Station on Hanover Square.

The building comprises 31,746 sq. ft., with two retail units and a restaurant on the ground floor and six floors of office accommodation.

Later this year, Global Gate Capital has the opportunity to reposition the building through a comprehensive refurbishment. It is intended that Global Gate Capital will relocate their London office to part of the building in 2021.



25 Maddox Street, Mayfair, London

Rudy Sayegh, CEO of Global Gate Capital, said, "Our focus on agility has allowed us to act quickly and seize opportunities that present significant value in times of turbulence. We are long-term investors, and this acquisition demonstrates our strong belief in the future prospects of London. The United Kingdom represents one of our core markets and will continue to be a focus in the years to come."

Tim Russell, Principal at Global Gate Capital, said, "We are delighted to have acquired 25 Maddox Street, with its excellent location and opportunity to add value in the short to medium term. We quickly mobilised our team to meet the vendor's tight timescales and completed the acquisition in cash. The property is a complementary addition to our growing U.K. real estate portfolio, and we look forward to securing further deals in the near future."

Michael Elliott advised the vendor. Taylor Wessing was the legal advisor for Global Gate Capital.

Global Gate Capital is an investment firm that manages multiple asset classes through its group of companies and specializes in real estate, private equity, credit, and wealth management. GGC has been investing in real estate since its inception and has deployed significant AUM in the asset class. It has a team of senior real estate professionals focused on sourcing properties and subsequently adding value. With offices in Geneva, London, New York, Dusseldorf, and Dubai, Global Gate has grown its assets under management to over USD 4.0B since its founding in 2013.

CONTACT:

Tim Russell

Principal

Global Gate Capital

+44 7702 559057

SOURCE: Global Gate Capital

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/584111/Global-Gate-Capital-Acquires-Mayfair-Freehold
Labour shortage, it is being feared, can hinder economic recovery

Reverse migration of workers since the Covid-19 outbreak has serious public-health implications. With basic sustenance support from the government for three months, many interstate migrants may not return to work soon. Labour shortage, it is being feared, can hinder economic recovery. The shares of interstate migrants in overall migration and employment are estimated at 15 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Lack of interstate migrant labour may create some shortage but the situation may not turn alarming unless migrants from the same state, too, do not return to work. Labour deficit states such as Maharashtra, Delhi and Punjab may, however, feel the impact more. Labour shortage is already curtailing rabi harvesting. Construction, trade, transportation and hospitality, too, may face temporary shortages. In the medium term, however, the impact of Covid-19 would result in more unemployment rather than labour shortage, according to a research report by Anand Rathi Share and Stock Brokers.

Huge reverse migration poses a serious challenge. With the threat to sustenance at the workplace post the Covid-19 outbreak, vast numbers of migrant workers set off for native places. This has opened up the serious threat of rural contagion, which can result in medical exigencies, extended lockdown and diversion of more funds to fight Covid-19 rather than aid economic activities.

Migrant workers may delay returning to work. Factors such as harrowing experiences during reverse migration, basic sustenance support from the government till Jun20, increased rural labour demand during the monsoon (Jun-Sep20) and anticipated slow normalisation of labour demand on the withdrawal of the lockdown, may delay a part of interstate migrant workers returning to their workplaces. This, it is feared, may create labour shortages and, thereby, further hinder an economic recovery.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

Relatively modest role of interstate migrant workers. While the net figure of interstate migration is large  over 25 lakh a year  it accounts for less than 15 percent of overall migration 62 percent being from the same district, 24 percent from other districts of the same state. Similarly, our estimates suggest that just about 20 percent of the employed are interstate migrants.

Delay in return of interstate migrants unlikely to be crippling. Even if a large part of interstate migrants do not return to work, it is unlikely to create a huge problem, as labour demand after the lockdown is expected to climb slowly. Yet, if migrants from the same district/state also delay returning to work, that can create a serious labour shortage.

Maharashtra, Delhi and Punjab most vulnerable. These states attract interstate migrant workers the most. A delay in return of migrant workers would impact these states more.

Agriculture, trade, transport and hospitality likely to be more impacted. With high proportions of elementary/low-skilled workers, these sectors are more likely to be hit.

Already rabi harvesting is being impacted and perishable agricultural and allied products are being destroyed due to lack of transportation, demand and storage facilities.

Unemployment, a bigger issue than labour shortage. While labour shortage can persist for up to six months, we expect the longer-term impact of Covid-19 in terms of worsening of the already precarious employment situation in the country.
(Newser)  Two newly surfaced memos show that White House adviser Peter Navarro began sounding the alarm about the coming coronavirus disaster in the US in late January. Both memos were circulated in the West Wing and at various federal agencies, though it is not clear whether President Trump was shown either one. The New York Times and Axios are reporting on both of them:

Jan. 29: "The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil," Navarro wrote in a memo addressed to the National Security Council. "This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans." In a worst-case scenario, he cited 500,000 American deaths. He also called for "an immediate travel ban on China."

story continues below

Feb. 23: In this memo, Navarro warned of an "increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1.2 million souls." He also said Congress would need to act fast on financial help. "This is NOT a time for penny-pinching or horse trading on the Hill." This memo was addressed to President Trump, though it's not clear whether he ever saw it.

In this memo, Navarro warned of an "increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1.2 million souls." He also said Congress would need to act fast on financial help. "This is NOT a time for penny-pinching or horse trading on the Hill." This memo was addressed to President Trump, though it's not clear whether he ever saw it. Next moves: On the same day as the January memo, Trump named a coronavirus task force led by VP Mike Pence. Trump also put restrictions in place on travel from China, as Navarro recommended. Both the Times and Axios, however, point out that Trump's public comments around the time of both memos did not acknowledge the scope of the threat Navarro was laying out. Navarro's second memo seems to have been aimed at members of the task force who were skeptical of moving aggressively, per the Times.

On the same day as the January memo, Trump named a coronavirus task force led by VP Mike Pence. Trump also put restrictions in place on travel from China, as Navarro recommended. Both the Times and Axios, however, point out that Trump's public comments around the time of both memos did not acknowledge the scope of the threat Navarro was laying out. Navarro's second memo seems to have been aimed at members of the task force who were skeptical of moving aggressively, per the Times. One view: Axios talks to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who faults the "naivete, arrogance and ignorance" of (unnamed) White House advisers who disagreed with Navarro and prevented his views from reaching Trump. "In this Kafkaesque nightmare, nobody would pay attention to him or the facts." The Times notes that Navarro is a hardliner on China and that it's possible others were skeptical of his alarm because of that.

(Navarro clashed with Dr. Anthony Fauci over the weekend on how aggressively an anti-malarial drug should be used.)
Libya's GNA Accuses LNA of Violating Peace Deal During COVID-19 Crisis

Sputnik News

08:04 GMT 06.04.2020(updated 08:46 GMT 06.04.2020)

CAIRO (Sputnik)  The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) has accused the Libyan National Army (LNA) of violating a ceasefire deal during the coronavirus pandemic, adding that the GNA was ready to cease hostilities in Libya in response to calls by the United Nations and members of the European Union.

GNA's Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj has told Sputnik that recent actions by his rivals were jeopardising the lives and security of the country's citizens.

"Unfortunately, the aggressor [LNA] continues to violate the truce, attacking residential areas in the capital of Tripoli every day resulting in civilian casualties, including children and women, he stated, adding that the rival party had underestimated decisions taken by the international community.

Sarraj said that the GNA gives priority to the interests of Libyans, as "it is our national duty".

"I think that the international community is well informed of our position on this aspect. The Government of National Accord has responded to all calls to cease hostilities, the last of which was issued by ambassadors and representatives of the eleven countries' governments, as well as by the United Nations and the European Union. It was on 18 March, [and it would] allow local authorities to combat the coronavirus epidemic", Sarraj said, when asked whether the western-based Libyan government was ready to reduce tensions in the country.

He also stressed that participants of the Berlin conference on Libya, held in January, are not adhering to the decisions made during the event and "continue to play a negative role" in the crisis.

"[Former UN Special Representative on Libya] Ghassan [Salame's] efforts were concentrated on achieving a consensus between foreign countries, which had an impact in Libya, participated in the Berlin conference and approved its results. Unfortunately, they did not respect these decisions and continued to play a negative role in the Libyan crisis", Sarraj said.

Sarraj also expressed his gratitude to Salame, who resigned on 2 March due to health problems, for his efforts to resolve the Libyan conflict.

"The resignation was a surprise, it happened under the pretext of health problems. We thank him and wish him well", Sarraj said.

As of Monday, Libya's National Centre for Disease Control has registered 18 coronavirus cases and one coronavirus-related death in the country.

In March, the embassies of seven nations, the EU mission to Libya, and the Tunisian government, called on the warring parties in Libya to immediately halt hostilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Sarraj has expressed support for the international call to cease hostilities in the war-torn Arab republic.

In January, an international conference on Libya took place in the German capital of Berlin, with Russia, the United States, the EU, Turkey, and Egypt among its participants. The sides agreed to a ceasefire and for third parties to not be involved in the conflict.

A Sputnik

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) is coming under some of the greatest pressure it has experienced in its 72-year history  to force the closure of live animal markets to prevent future pandemics.

More than 200 conservation groups across the world have signed an open letter calling on the organisation to do all it can to prevent new diseases emerging from wildlife trade and spreading into global pandemics.

Scientists say the evidence points to Covid-19 originating from animals  most likely bats  in wet markets where live and dead creatures, from dogs and hares to turtles, are sold as food and slaughtered on demand.

Previous epidemics, including severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed nearly 800 people in 2002-3, and Ebola, which has killed at least 11,300 people, have also been linked to viruses caused by hunting bush meat or other wildlife consumption.

Ever since evidence of the Covid-19 link to Wuhans wet markets was revealed earlier this year, experts worldwide have called for such places to be shut down because of the risk of starting dangerous diseases.

The new joint letter calls on the WHO to recommend to governments worldwide that they bring in permanent bans on live wildlife markets and close down or limit trade in wildlife to reduce the threat to human health.

In February, the Chinese government temporarily banned such markets, although there is evidence some sellers have started up again or are dealing online.

Recommended China promotes bile from caged bears to treat coronavirus

The experts also want the use of wildlife, including from captive-bred animals, to be unequivocally excluded from the organisations definition and endorsement of traditional medicine. Last year the WHO added traditional Chinese medicine, which uses animal body parts, to its influential global compendium.

Conservationists say the WHO should work with governments and international bodies such as the World Trade Organisation to raise awareness of the risks the wildlife trade poses to human health and society.

It should also support and encourage initiatives that deliver alternative sources of protein to people who survive on eating wild animals.

The letter, coordinated by wildlife charity Born Free and its Lion Coalition partners, is backed by organisations including the Bat Conservation Trust, International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Zoological Society of London.

At the same time, world leaders are receiving a science-based white paper from Humane Society International, warning that Covid-19 is a tipping point that governments globally must not ignore and asking governments to help the traders involved to find new livelihoods as quickly as possible.

Without action, the emergence of another coronavirus-based disease in the future is a practical certainty, the paper says.

In the UK, the paper is being sent to foreign secretary  and effective deputy prime minister  Dominic Raab, health secretary Matt Hancock and environment secretary George Eustice.

The United Nations biodiversity chief has also added her weight to demands for a global ban on wildlife markets. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema said the change could prevent new pandemic diseases from spreading.

The message we are getting is if we dont take care of nature, it will take care of us, she told The Guardian, but cautioned poor commmunities would need support to prevent them trading illegally and driving species extinctions.

Markets selling live animals  both captured from the wild and bred in captivity  are popular in southeast Asia but also exist in Africa and South America.

The Chinese government encouraged them to expand and become more commercial during the 1980s.

Mark Jones, the head of policy at Born Free, said the trade in wild animals was not only bad for the welfare of millions of individual animals but was also a major factor in global declines in wildlife.

We need to dig deep and reset our fundamental relationship with the natural world, rethink our place in it and treat our planet and all its inhabitants with a great deal more respect, for its sake and for ours, he said.

A global response to curb wildlife trade is clearly needed to prevent further human health crises Mark Jones

Once Covid-19 is hopefully behind us, returning to business as usual cannot be an option.

Separate research by wildlife charity WWF has found high levels of public support in Asia for closing illegal and unregulated wildlife markets and the wildlife trade.

The survey, conducted in Hong Kong, Japan, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam, found 93 per cent of people supported eliminating illegal and unregulated markets.

Influential organisations including the RSPCA, Humane Society International, Peta, the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, World Animal Protection and Four Paws International have all spoken out against wildlife trading since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

Even before Chinas temporary ban, some of the countrys own researchers called for a crackdown.

Dr Jones added: The World Health Organization has a mandate to promote human health, keep the world safe, and protect the vulnerable.

We are asking the WHO to advise governments to permanently close down wildlife markets, and to curb the commercial trade in wild animals for food, traditional medicines and the myriad of other uses for which wildlife is exploited.

A global response to curb wildlife trade is clearly needed to prevent further human health crises, and to reverse the unprecedented decline in the natural world.

The Independent, which is running a campaign against the wildlife trade, has asked the WHO whether it is considering making any recommendations to world governments.
The Management of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital hereby suspends Prof A.K. Salami as a Senior Consultant in the hospital. This is as a result of his unethical conduct in the admission, management and eventual release of the corpse of a suspected COVID-19 patient who died in the hospital on the 3rd of April, 2020, he said in a statement.
Former Deputy General Secretary for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho, has described as brilliant the idea of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to empower the local industry to begin to manufacture Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for Ghanaians and the health workers in the wake of the COVID-19.



President Akufo-Addo on Sunday, April 5 2020, addressing the nation on the state of the novel coronavirus in the country announced that in order to meet the global challenge with the PPE, the local industry will on Tuesday, April 7 2020 begin to produce face masks and other PPE.



Commenting on Okay FMs 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Koku Anyidoho wondered why it took the COVID-19 pandemic for the country to realise its ability to focus on the local industry to produce certain things that are needed in the country without giving them as contracts to individuals to import from China.



The interesting aspect of the President's speech is that on Tuesday, April 7 2020, our local industries are going to start producing face masks and other PPE. Brilliant idea he mentioned and so it means that Ghana has the capacity to produce. So, all these years, what were we doing? We have been giving contracts to people to go to China to bring in PPE and other things which we could have manufactured locally, he said.



The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Atta Mills Institute asserted that the novel coronavirus has pushed out the creativity in Ghanaians to begin to invent some forms of technologies to assist in the fight against the COVID-19 and other basic needs of Ghanaians.



God is telling us something through this COVID-19 and He does it so many ways. It means that we have the capacity to think but because these Chinese people are there so supply us what we want, we dont think but rather we import things from China. Now, we will begin to produce locally, he averred.



He was optimistic that never again are we going to import things into the country by giving the contract to one person to import goods that we can produce locally.



He stressed that after the COVID-19 pandemic, the resilient of Ghanaians to produce locally will be in full force; urging that the Akufo-Addo government must give incentives to the local industries to produce locally.



We will all build the local industries that Kwame Nkrumah wanted to build and after all, President Akufo-Addo has said that the necessity is the mother of inventions. Out of this COVID-19 necessity, we will invent a lot in the country, he mentioned.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Winfrey spoke to The Associated Press recently from her home in Santa Barbara, California, where she has been sheltering in place since early March, She said she had chosen Hidden Valley Road before the virus became widespread, but says it's even timelier now, because of its story of a baffling and horrifying illness. She was also personally drawn to the narrative, explaining that a young student from the school she runs in South Africa has three siblings diagnosed with schizophrenia.
The first couple to participate in COVID-19 vaccine trials in Wuhan, central Chinas Hubei province, returned home on April 5 after a 14-day isolation and medical observation period.

The certificate of appreciation awarded by the COVID-19 vaccine research team to Zhang Jing and her husband. (Photo provided by Zhang Jing)

Zhang Jing and her husband Zhao Wei were among the 108 Chinese volunteers who had been injected with an experimental vaccine for COVID-19 in the first clinical trial of its kind in the country.

They were awarded a certificate of appreciation by the COVID-19 vaccine research team for their contribution to the first stage clinical trial for the vaccine. Medical teams will pay the couple regular visits over the next six months.

We will work to support our family after returning home. Its not an earth-shattering story, said Zhang Jing, a 32-year-old nurse.

Zhang Jing (L) and Zhao Wei (R) receive the vaccine by injection. (Photo/He Xiaogang)

On Jan. 22, while driving from Wuhan to their home in Anlu, Zhang learned about the epidemic outbreak in the city. When she heard that medical workers had come to Wuhan from across the country to help fight against the virus, she decided to join the battle.

On Feb. 6, Zhang returned to her post with her husband serving as her driver. When the couple received a text message on March 17 looking for healthy adults aged between 18 and 60 to volunteer for vaccine trials, they signed up to take part, and were eventually selected for the experiment.

Whats there to be afraid of? replied Zhang when asked by her husband whether she was worried about the consequences of her decision.

I believe in our country, Zhang said, adding that she also has faith in the research team led by Chen Wei, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
He said: People of Chad, leave us alone, this operation is not approved by the Quran. It is not the will of the Prophet Muhammed but if you want to continue, God will help us too because he is bigger than you.
The citizen infected with the coronavirus in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) was born in 1957, his family members are also suspected of being infected with the coronavirus, and the residents of Mirik village of Kashatagh region have been self-isolated. This is what Minister of State of the Republic of Artsakh Grigory Martirosyan informed during an urgent press conference today.

According to him, the citizen had arrived from the city of Artashat of the Republic of Armenia on March 30. The Ministry of Health of Artsakh immediately isolated the citizen at the medical institution in Kashatagh region as soon as there was a suspicion that the family members of that citizen who live in Artashat were infected with the coronavirus. This took place on April 2, Grigory Martirosyan said, adding that the family members of the citizen living in Artashat have also tested positive for coronavirus.

The Minister of State also said the circle of people who had had contact with the citizen was known in advance. There are 17 people, and they are also self-isolated, he said, adding that the citizen infected with the coronavirus didnt have symptoms.
Australians are at risk from an "explosive resurgence" of COVID-19 if social controls imposed to fight the pandemic are relaxed, top scientific advisers have warned in a new alert on long-term economic shutdowns.

The federal government's expert advisers predicted a surge in hospital admissions over the next fortnight from the spread of the coronavirus but forecast an easing in the pressure over time as the social curbs took effect.

The advice is founded on two scientific papers published on Tuesday after Prime Minister Scott Morrison released official modelling showing hospitals will have enough intensive care beds if the pandemic is contained to its current growth rate.

"What is absolutely clear is that if we relaxed any of the current measures, that would turn into an explosive outbreak driven by community transmission and we would be in a very poor situation very quickly," said University of Melbourne professor James McCaw.
The demands on the nations delivery drivers are immense, but even after the death of a worker, few expect change.

Seoul, South Korea  In the middle of last month, a delivery driver for Coupang, South Koreas biggest online marketplace, was found dead between the fourth and fifth floors of the apartment building where he was supposed to be delivering a package.

The man, known only as Mr Kim, was in his 40s and had only been doing the job for a month.

The official cause of death was heart disease, but the tragedy convinced Ha Woong, a 34-year-old delivery worker at the same company, to step up his campaign for better pay and shorter hours.

I think he died from overwork and the pressure to deliver packages quickly, Ha said. I think poor working conditions led to this  I always knew something like this would happen.

South Koreans jokingly call their country delivery nation and its citizens delivery minjok  which translates roughly to delivery race or delivery people.

Sometimes for no fee at all, South Koreans can get meals delivered to campsites, park grounds or their homes in less than an hour and with a minimum order as small as $8. Coupangs Rocket Wow delivery service promises customers their packages by dawn and people can often return items they bought by simply leaving them in front of their door.

Older apartments in South Korea tend not to have lifts and drivers make scores of deliveries every day [File: Yonhap via EPA]

We get everything delivered as if we are Prime members, said Andrew Eungi Kim, a professor of sociology at Korea University, referring to the rapid delivery service offered by Amazon, the worlds biggest online retailer. Because everything gets delivered so fast and at such a cheap rate, I think we just love to order things online.

While the March death of the Coupang delivery man was all over the national news headlines, Kim is sceptical that the incident will lead to real change.

Coupang told South Korean reporters that the worker who died had half the customary workload because he was a new hire. At the same time, competition for jobs is growing  despite the conditions  because there are fewer opportunities elsewhere.

Work anyone can do

In the delivery service industry, I have never heard of a shortage of workers. Its the kind of work that anyone can do, Kim said. As a sociologist, Ive observed the kind of men and women who deliver things to my house, and it really ranges from a young person to someone who definitely looks like hes in his 60s, if not older.

With the outbreak of COVID-19 making people reluctant to go out, the outbreak has further fuelled demand for delivery services.

Ive heard that more and more South Koreans are ordering online because of coronavirus, Woo Ye-jin, a 25-year-old university student told Al Jazeera. I was so surprised when I saw delivery services in other nations  When I studied abroad in New Zealand, I was shocked that I had to wait 20 days for something I bought online and pay for shipping.

Coupang reported record-breaking numbers of orders at the beginning of the outbreak. On a single day in late January, Coupang said it received 3.3 million next-day delivery orders. That is a huge increase from the year before when Coupang broke its record of the time by delivering 1.7 million purchases to homes in a single day.

For Ha, this has meant a lot more work.

One year ago, he was delivering packages to about 80 households a day. Now, he visits between 130 and 150 homes, and he claims that some of his colleagues reach as many as 180.

Older apartment buildings often do not have elevators, so the delivery workers have to run up and down the stairs. It is often hard physical labour for Ha and his colleagues, on top of the long hours.

If companies cant change this, I think they need to compensate accordingly for the amount of deliveries we do a day, and to also think about our safety and health, Ha said.

He added that many delivery workers are tracked by a GPS system and awarded a score based on how many packages they can deliver, as well as how quickly they drop them off. The higher the score, the better the pay.

In some parts of the country, we have so much to deliver that were forced to start work even earlier. Thats the reality we irregular workers are forced to face, he said. If I am fast and do my colleagues deliveries, that means I take a bowl of rice right from his hands.

Delivery workers for Coupang load packages before leaving to deliver them; the company prides itself on its super-speedy delivery [Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters]

Making a living is an increasingly hard slog for many of South Koreas working class. According to 2019 numbers, the average irregular worker made 1.72 million won (about $1,400) a month, which is far less than the 3.16 million won ($2,572) regular South Korean workers took home over the same period.

Talks on hold

The number of irregular workers in the country also rose from 6.61 million in August 2018 to 7.48 million in August 2019, according to Statistics Korea. It was the highest since the South Korean government began recording the number of gig workers some 17 years ago.

In Korea, almost all delivery workers are not employees of the delivery services. They are self-employed individuals, and they get a share of money per delivery  thats it, Kim said. And because theyre not employees of these services, if they die while doing their work, the delivery service companies are not responsible.

The number of packages may soon rise again as the South Korean government resumes campaigns urging citizens to keep social distancing and stay home. The number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases have hovered about 100 per day, but experts have warned that a new outbreak could happen at any time

Coupang also recently announced that it will step up efforts to boost delivery workers safety in the face of COVID-19 by providing regular health checkups to workers and remote health counselling services.

For now, Ha is doing what he can to keep up the hustle and continues to deliver packages at least five days a week.

But even as the coronavirus has highlighted the struggles of the countrys army of delivery drivers, the outbreak has brought an end to discussions on improved conditions.

We have long been negotiating with the company on reducing deliveries, changing how we are evaluated and overall system reform, which has forced us to work in an atmosphere of endless competition, he said. But for the time being, negotiations are indefinitely suspended because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Mitch S Shin contributed to this report.
The Vought F4U Corsair is, without doubt, one of the most potent and charismatic fighter aircraft to emerge from WWII. With its unconventional, inverted gull-wing profile and brutish good looks, not to mention its legendary accomplishments, it is no wonder that the type has captured the imaginations of so many aviation-minded people. The aircraft is of complex manufacture though, with its largely spot-welded construction and all-but impossible to re-manufacture main spar. However, the Corsair has been experiencing a renaissance of sorts in recent years, with the restorations of several projects previously thought impossible to complete. Even so, Corsairs rarely come up for sale on the open market, and command significant attention when they do.

As it happens, one of our sponsors now has a magnificently restored example available for the discerning collector. Platinum Fighter Sales recently listed Graham Hoskings former Honduran Air Force F4U-5N for sale in Tyabb, Australia. Nobby Bartsch restored this fighter for Hosking to her present pristine condition at his shop, Aerotec, in Darwin, Australia over a seventeen year period. Currently residing on the Australian Civil Register as VH-III, this Corsair is a night fighter variant. She rolled off Chance-Voughts production line in Dallas, Texas during 1951 under a U.S.Navy contract. This Corsair, was one of about twenty examples which the Fuerza Aerea Hondurena, the Honduran Air Force, acquired via various avenues during the mid-1950s.

The Honduran government parted with their Corsairs in the late 1970s, although they retained one example, F4U-5N Bu124715/FAH609, for historical purposes. This is the aircraft in which Major Soto Henriquez reportedly downed two F-51 Mustangs and an FG-1D Corsair during combat against El Salvador on July 17th, 1969  the last time piston-engined fighters fought each other in the skies.

The Hondurans sold the rest of their Corsairs as a job lot to Hollywood Wings of Long Beach, California during 1978. Seven of these Corsairs were complete, and in good enough condition to fly under their own steam back to the USA (just!), while the dismantled components from ten other examples made the journey by rail.

The aircraft which Hollywood Wings acquired included the following:

Model Bu.No. FAH Serial Delivery Method

F4U-4 Bu.96885 FAH618 rail

F4U-4 Bu.96995 FAH614 flew

F4U-4 Bu.97059 FAH617 rail

F4U-4 Bu.97280 FAH615 flew

F4U-4 Bu.97288 FAH612 flew

F4U-4 Bu.97320 FAH616 rail

F4U-4 Bu.97382 FAH611 rail

F4U-4 Bu.97388 FAH610 rail

F4U-4 unk unk rail

F4U-5N Bu.122179 FAH604 flew

F4U-5N Bu.123168 FAH603 rail

F4U-5NL Bu.124447 FAH602 rail

F4U-5NL Bu.124486 FAH606 flew

F4U-5 Bu.124493 FAH608 rail

F4U-5NL Bu.124560 FAH601 flew

F4U-5NL Bu.124692 FAH607 rail

F4U-5N Bu.124724 FAH600 flew (after repairs for belly landing)

The epic flight of the seven Corsairs which made the daring journey home by air has been documented elsewhere, but is worthy of a movie! All of them made it safely back to the USA, although one of them, Bu.124724, had to belly land enroute in Belize due to a landing gear malfunction. Even so, the durable fighter made it home by air following a period of frenetic repairs.

The ten examples which came home by rail did so in component form. In those days, there wasnt as much worry about which parts went into which aircraft upon reassembly. It was often simply a case of matching together whichever parts fitted together most expediently. As such a number of airframes from the group coming by rail ended up with as a mixture comprising parts from various airframes. Such is the case with VH-III. After much sleuthing, the restorers believe that her center section came originally from Bu.123168/FAH603, so that is how they identify her. Without doubt though, she is an exemplary example of her breed, as Rob Foxs photographs so ably testify! [Many thanks to Rob Fox for granting permission to use his photos!]

Her journey to Australia is an interesting story. The Walt Disney Company bought the aircraft in 1987, gifting it to the Royal New Zealand Air Force in exchange for their assistance in making the film, The Rescuers. The RNZAF Museum hoped to convert the aircraft into an earlier F4U-1D variant to represent one of the many such Corsairs which they operated during WWII. However, they pretty quickly realized that this would not be an easy exercise. Instead, in 1996 they exchanged the airframe for Graham Hoskings Merlin-engined Warhawk project (P-40F 41-14205  which they have since restored as a P-40E). Graham then began the long, long effort to restore this aircraft, which finally culminated in a triumphant first flight in May, 2014. The fighter is currently the only airworthy example to wear its Honduran markings, which only adds to its exotic nature  the fighter is sure to turn heads wherever she goes!

For her current specs visit Platinum Fighters
In a joint statement released by the newspaper publications, Dainik Bhaskar, Dainik Jagran, Eenadu, Hindustan, Patrika Group, Amar Ujala, Daily Thanthi, Sakshi, Dinamalar, Deccan Herald, Hindustan Times and Divya Bhaskar, have stated that newspaper distribution has stabilised in most parts of the country, barring a few cities. The coalition of newspaper publishers have stated that newspaper distribution has been categorised as an essential commodity by the Government for the right reasons.

The statement notes that, "In the early days of the lockdown, like most businesses, we too struggled with setting up production processes which would have to be compliant with the very notion that newspapers were safe and not carriers of virus. We had to move swiftly to address the sanitisation at the plant floors, education, safety and sanitisation of the vendor network and the safety of our large workforce. Many of you in some of the cities are finding some disruption in receiving the newspaper, however the newspaper distribution across India has largely stabilised, ranging from 75-90 per cent of the base number of February, with the exception of a few cities."

It adds, "We have undertaken education and sensitisation drives with our reader base to apprise them of the safety measures we have deployed at every level to make the newspaper safe in their hands."

The statement also notes that given the reader has a greater amount of time on their hands, time spent on reading newspapers has overall gone up by 50%.

Newspaper publishers faced significant disruption in distribution, especially in Mumbai, in the early days of the lockdown until April 1.
By Alexander Cornwell

DUBAI (Reuters) - United Arab Emirates carrier flydubai will reduce pay for its employees for three months from April due to the impact of the global coronavirus crisis on its business, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

Airlines around the world have been hammered by the outbreak that has virtually halted international travel. Flydubai has suspended scheduled operations.

"This decision has not been taken lightly. It has been made to offer some stability at a time of uncertainty and to minimise the impact on all its employees when the normal pattern of life has been disrupted," the spokeswoman told Reuters.

The spokeswoman did not say by how much pay would be reduced but said senior employees would contribute a greater share and that measures had been taken to reduce the impact on junior staff. Other employee benefits would not be affected, she said.

A flydubai employee, who requested anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to press, said pilots and engineers would be paid half their basic salaries and cabin crew would be paid 25% less.

Fellow Dubai state airline Emirates, which has also suspended passenger flights, has already said staff wages would be temporarily reduced.

When asked if flydubai would seek state assistance, the spokeswoman said the airline continued to manage its liquidity carefully.

"We are working closely with our financial partners and key stakeholders including our aircraft lessors, financial institutions and airport authorities to explore different options in these unprecedented times."

(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Susan Fenton, Jane Merriman, Kirsten Donovan)
Mitch McConnell wants to have another round of small business bailouts on the Senate floor by Thursday in an expansion of the Paycheck Protection Program.

'It is quickly becoming clear that Congress will need to provide more funding or this crucial program may run dry. That cannot happen,' McConnell said in a statement Tuesday.

McConnell said he is working with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to deliver the additional $250 billion in relief for small businesses before the end of this week.

The Paycheck Protection Program aims to help small businesses ensure their employees receive paychecks and that their businesses stay open in the wake of the pandemic.

It was originally passed in an economic stimulus bill last month with $350 billion.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is aiming to get an additional $250 billion approved for small business relief by bringing the measure to the Senate floor on Thursday

McConnell said he is working with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to get the expansion on the Paycheck Protection Program to the floor for a voice vote before the end of the week

Here people stand in social-distanced unemployment lines in Arkansas after losing their jobs in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Unemployment claims have reached an all-time-high in the U.S. as millions filed for the benefits in the last few weeks

Coronavirus continues to surge in the U.S., and by Tuesday claims 11,000 Americans' lives

'The small-business Paycheck Protection Program needs more funding,' McConnell asserted in his statement. 'Congress needs to act with speed and total focus to provide more money for this uncontroversial bipartisan program.'

McConnell is aiming to get the measure passed with a voice vote on the Senate floor Thursday.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio, the chairman of the Small Business Committee, estimated the program needs an additional $200-$250 billion.

Democrats want to pass another massive economic stimulus bill after fears emerged that the $2.2 trillion package passed last month will not do enough to help small businesses and those out of work from the coronavirus crisis.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told lawmakers Monday that the phase four package would 'easily' cost more than $1 trillion, two officials on a conference call told The Washington Post.

The next bill House Democrats propose will seek to issue another round of direct checks to Americans, extend unemployment aid to those who have lost their job or are furloughed and increase assistance for small businesses.

Donald Trump along with congressional leaders have expressed the phase three bill did not do enough to give immediate relief.

Lenders have been flooded with applications for funding since the Paycheck Protection Program launched Friday.

The loans are capped at a maximum of $10 million for businesses with fewer than 500 employees and it is lawmakers' hope that it will cover roughly two months of essential costs  like paying rent and keeping employees on the payroll.

The program also ensures that the government will forgive the debt if businesses don't lay off workers.

House Democrats are looking to get another massive economic stimulus bill passed, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says would 'easily' cost another $1 trillion

Conservative freshman Senator Josh Hawley is going against other Republicans by claiming he wants the government to fund companies more so they can keep employees on the payroll

Schumer, along with a group of Senate Democrats, did not say whether they would block the request for more money for small businesses to ensure some of their priorities are included in the next aid package.

The Democratic leader said during a call with reporters that 'one of our very highest priorities' is raising compensation for essential workers, including health-care workers, grocery clerks, transit employees and other essential workers.

The president has signaled support for some Democrat-backed ideas, like expanding help for small-business owners, issuing new bailout checks for households and including infrastructure projects, but Republican leaders have called for more corporate aid.

While Democrats are rushing toward another bill, with Pelosi hoping for a vote on the House floor in the coming weeks, most Republicans are more cautious, claiming they want to see how the phase three package works before steaming ahead with a fourth.

'The ink's barely dry on the $2 trillion that just got signed into law, the direct payments haven't hit yet,' said Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) in an interview on Monday. 'When we're spending this kind of money, we've got a responsibility to see what works and what doesn't.'

Freshman Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, however, is the exception to Senate Republicans.

The GOP lawmaker is pitching a proposal for the phase four bill where the federal government would directly finance companies so they can pay their workers so millions could stay on the payroll as 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits the last week of March.

He calls this the 'survival then surge' strategy as most states have issued some sort of stay-at-home or lockdown order, causing further economic turmoil.

While the GOP usually doesn't push for more government intervention in the economy, Hawley told Politico Monday that the economic severity in the country is 'much bigger and much more severe than many other people anticipated.'

'We seem to be on a roller coaster that is currently plunging down,' Hawley continued. 'I personally do not want to ride that roller coaster and find where the bottom is. And I don't think American workers should be forced to.'

Donald Trump has signaled he agreed with several Democrat-backed proposals for the fourth bill, like expanding assistance for small businesses, funding infrastructure projects and sending more direct checks to Americans

The number of U.S. deaths from coronavirus have continued to skyrocket  reaching 11,000 on Tuesday

The U.S. also has reported more confirmed cases of the virus than any other country

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was among those pushing for a slower approach, but has since acknowledged that a fourth bill may be needed with a specific focus on health care and bolstering the hospitals and other centers.

Republicans have also signaled a much less ambitious plan than Hawley's in the fourth package  instead wanting to focus on extending benefits that were included in the last package, like relief for small businesses and unemployed individuals.

Independent Senator Angus King said the next package needs to be more of an expansion on phase three, or a 'COVID 3.1 to correct and amplify the work done in the bill.'

'I don't think the steps taken thus far are fully adequate. But it's hard to define what the next steps should be until we assess how the current program is working,' he said in an interview Monday.
The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) filed three lawsuits Monday challenging the "failures" of the New York State Department of Health (DOH) and two New York hospitals, Montefiore Medical Center and Westchester Medical Center, alleging the entities aren't doing enough to protect nurses treating Covid-19 patients.

All three suits allege shortcomings such as inadequate personal protective equipment, a lack of training for registered nurses redeployed from hospital units to meet the staffing needed to treat the high number of Covid-19 patients and unsafe working conditions for high-risk employees.

"More than seven in ten of our nurses are reporting exposure to Covid-19 and most are still untested. These lawsuits were filed to protect our nurses, our patients and our communities from grossly inadequate and negligent protections," NYSNA Executive Director Pat Kane said in a news release. "We cannot allow these dangerous practices to continue."

New York governor extends stay-at-home order

The New York State Nurses Association has 42,000 members, according to the court documents. So far nearly 1,000 union members have tested positive, including at least 150 at Montefiore, according to the filing.

At least 84 nurses in the union have been hospitalized with the virus, and at least six nurses are known to have died from the virus after contracting Covid-19 while working, court documents say.

Suit seeks injunction against New York State Department of Health

In a lawsuit filed against the New York State Department of Health, the nurses union requested an injunction from the New York Supreme Court alleging multiple failures to protect the health of nurses, patients and the public.

The suit seeks to enforce Gov. Andrew Cuomo's April 13 "directive" that each direct care nurse be given at least one N95 respirator daily. The suit also cites a Department of Health advisory that spells out conditions that would allow health care personnel to return to work seven days after the onset of Covid-19 symptoms.

The suit is asking the Department of Health to rescind that advisory and issue a new one.

"The DOH's dereliction of its statutory charge has created a public nuisance, as New York's hospitals have turned into petri dishes where the virus is allowed to spread, unchecked by basic protective equipment and measures," attorneys for the union said in a memorandum of law in support of a temporary injunction and temporary restraining order.

The lawsuit asks the court to issue a preliminary injunction directing the department of health to rescind all directives instructing hospitals to require sick nurses to return from quarantine in less than 14 days if they still are symptomatic and order the department to fulfill its statutory mandate to ensure that nurses have adequate protective equipment and other appropriate safety measures to protect them from contracting Covid-19.

Jonah Bruno, the director of communications for the New York State Department of Health, declined to comment on the pending litigation.

"We are deeply grateful for the ongoing efforts of New York's health care workers to reduce the spread of Covid-19 by testing people who may be infected and treating those who are most in need," Bruno said in a statement to CNN. "The State of New York continues to take every step necessary to ensure that health care workers, particularly those who are sampling and providing direct care, have the support and supplies needed to address this unprecedented public health emergency."

Suit says nurses at Montefiore Medical Center not given enough PPE

A complaint filed by the Nurses Association in federal court for the Southern District of New York says the union is bringing a lawsuit on behalf of the approximately 3,000 nurses it represents at the Montefiore Medical Center, alleging the nurses are facing workplace hazards that are causing or are likely to cause "imminent death or serious physical harm" as they work to treat patients during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The suit alleges the hospital system is not providing enough personal protective equipment like masks, inadequate Covid-19 testing, and is requiring nurses who have been given isolation orders to use their own paid time off, rather than what they describe as the state-mandated paid leave.

They also say Montefiore is requiring nurses to return to work after seven, rather than 14, days of quarantine.

"Right now, the Hospital is like a war zone," the suit alleges. "The RNs there are treating large numbers of very sick and frightened patients, and are doing so with inadequate and often ill-fitting equipment, often in rooms that have not been properly converted to deal with Covid-19 patients, often working while they are sick because they have been forced back to work too early, often in practice areas where they have never been trained, and generally without adequate testing to ensure they are fit to work without infecting others."

"NYSNA leadership has chosen to attack a system, and the commitment of thousands of their colleagues, who have followed the Governor's emergency orders and are selflessly doing all they can to fight Covid-19 and save lives," a Montefiore spokesperson told CNN.

The suit asks for relief from the court, since the union and hospital are currently in arbitration, and by the time any decisions are made "it will be too late to remedy the harms" caused by the hospital system.

The suit asks for the hospital to provide an adequate number of protective masks like N-95 respirators that are not re-used day after day, nonpermeable gowns and negative pressure rooms so that disease-infected air doesn't linger, or air filters to cleanse the air of particles of the virus.

The suit also asks for the hospital system to provide leave for nurses so that they are not forced to work while sick with Covid-19 symptoms, as well as coronavirus testing on demand for nurses.

Westchester Medical Center calls suit "a distraction"

A lawsuit filed against the corporation that runs the Westchester Medical Center on behalf of 1,600 registered nurses who work there claims the nurses are experiencing "severe and pervasive workplace hazards that are causing or are likely to cause the nurses imminent death or serious physical harm."

NYSNA met with WMC officials January 28 to discuss preparedness measures, according to the filing.

The lawsuit alleges that in that meeting WMC officials "assured NYSNA that they were making all necessary plans to prepare for the virus." The nurses are sent into the "war zone" without adequate resources, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit details complaints from nurses at the hospital alleging the hospital is rationing N-95 masks and gowns, failing to properly train nurses redeployed to other departments and in some units failing to properly ventilate Covid-19 patient areas to minimize exposure risk.

The lawsuit also claims WMC officials have refused to reassign pregnant nurses to units that do not treat Covid-19 patients, unless the pregnancy has entered the third trimester.

The suit alleges the hospital system is not providing enough personal protective equipment such as masks, provides inadequate Covid-19 testing and grants insufficient sick days for nurses to recover after getting sick with the contagious virus.

The suit also alleges the hospital system required nurses to use personal sick leave time when they start to experience Covid-19 symptoms. In order to access the emergency sick leave guaranteed under New York law, the lawsuit claims the hospital requires nurses to obtain an individual order from their county's department of health.

A spokesperson for the hospital said they cannot comment on pending litigation, but said the allegations are wrong.

"We know, and our care providers know, that the allegations in NYSNA's lawsuit are wrong," the spokesperson for Westchester Medical Center Health Network said in a statement to CNN. "Our focus is, and has always been, protecting our workforce, which has been aligned from the outset in treating the most severely ill patients battling Covid-19. NYSNA's lawsuit is irresponsible and a distraction from this work, and a disservice to all who are valiantly caring for these patients every day."

The union asks the court in the lawsuit to issue a declaration that Westchester Medical Center is violating state labor law and compel the hospital to address the concerns. The lawsuit also asks the court to compel the hospital to stop refusing statutory medical leave and allow union members to freely speak to the media.
VANCOUVERA higher proportion of Canadians are anxious about their economic situations during the COVID-19 outbreak than during the height of the global financial crisis in 2008, a new Research Co. poll has found.

Fifty-two per cent of Canadians say they have worried frequently or occasionally about the safety of their savings in the past month.

This is 15 percentage points higher than the results of a similar poll conducted by the Vancouver-based Vision Critical data firm in September 2008, following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers investment bank.

This means that people are more worried about their finances now than they were about a global crisis caused by the collapse of financial markets, Mario Canseco, president of Research Co. told the Star.

Half of Canadians have also been concerned about their investments over the past four weeks, while slightly fewer are anxious about unemployment affecting their household, such as not being able to pay their mortgage or rent.

This high level of economic uncertainty is very unusual, says Canseco, adding that polling at other times of the year rarely shows more than 20 per cent of Canadians worrying about paying their bills.

But at least it seems that Canadians are mindful that things could be worse.

A majority of Canadians (52 per cent) expect the domestic economy to perform better than Italys in the next six months.

And almost two-thirds of Canadians (65 per cent) say they plan to keep their current long-term strategy, which suggests that most expect stock markets to rebound.

Top economic concerns vary across the country; In Ontario, people are the most worried about the safety of their savings, Albertans are the most worried about unemployment affecting their household, and British Columbia residents are most worried about being able to pay mortgage or rent.

This makes sense because here in B.C. we have been talking about the cost of housing for so long. Its the number one concern here compared to other parts of the country, Canseco said.

This shows there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Its a difficult situation, but levels of public satisfaction with Canadian government handling of COVID-19 remain high.

The Research Co. results were based on an online survey of 1,000 adults from March 30 to April 1, weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Meanwhile, a Monday survey showed Canadian consumer confidence posting its biggest ever weekly drop as the COVID-19 crisis shut down much of the nations economy.

The Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index, a composite gauge based on telephone surveys of households, declined sharply for a second week, sinking to the lowest level since the Great Recession more than a decade ago.

The plunge coincided with the start of extensive nationwide lockdowns that have triggered mass layoffs.

At the same time, there are signs that efforts by policy-makers to mitigate the impact with new spending and stimulus are working  the sharp decline in sentiment is largely driven by worsening expectations about the outlook for growth rather than concerns about personal finances.

Every week, Nanos Research surveys 250 Canadians for their views on personal finances, job security and their outlook for both the economy and real estate prices.

With files from Bloomberg

Joanna Chiu is a Vancouver-based reporter covering both Canada-China relations and current affairs on the West Coast for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @joannachiu
Johnny Depp only wanted to protect Amber Heard, but he only got a chopped finger in return.

In an exclusive video released by DailyMail.com, Depp can be seen recalling how he got his infamous finger injury in the past.

According to the 56-year-old "Pirates of the Caribbean" star, he intentionally trapped his middle finger in a door in pursuit of protecting his ex-wife.

"And so I said that it was caught in the door in these huge accordion doors at this house, that wasn't the case at all," Depp revealed. "She smashed, she threw a vodka bottle at me and my, my hand was resting on the marble of the bar like that."

He went on and narrated how the first bottle failed to touch his skin and only went past his ear.

However, Heard threw the second bottle -- a larger one -- from a distance before it smashed to his finger, which he eventually nicknamed "little Richard."

The tip of his finger was too injured that even its bone got wholly shattered.

"I mean, it looked like Vesuvius and then I got infections. I ended up with MRSA twice, so it was very complicated," Depp said with a wry smile.

The actor also reminisced how hard he tried to get his finger back before dealing with his then-wife who chopped it off.

The publicized clip was only a small part of the videotaped legal dispute made by his former lawyer, Jake Bloom.

His fans saw a glimpse of his poor finger for the first time, aside from when it was still covered up during his final filming days for "Pirates of the Caribbean" and during the premiere of "Black Mass" at the BFI London Film Festival way back in October 2015.

Heard's Different Version?

Before their supposed trial on March 23 (which eventually got canceled due to coronavirus pandemic), a series of alleged text messages from Depp was read out in court by The Sun's representatives, Adam Wolanski, QC, and their columnist Dan Wootton.

The actor and The Sun's team are currently in a libel battle for the publication's article about Depp being abusive toward Heard.

The said messages revealed that the 56-year-old "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" actor once pushed Heard by hitting her on a ping-pong table before allegedly molesting her.

"That night the complainant shoved Ms. Heard into a ping-pong table, threw bottles through window panels of a glass door, then grabbed Ms. Heard and tore off her nightgown," the statement read, referring to the March 4, 2015 incident.

During the said heated fight, Depp accidentally cut off his finger and texted his doctor to ask for some advice about his injury.

"I cut the tip of my middle finger off. What should I do? Except of course go to the hospital," Depp allegedly texted. "I am so embarrassed for jumping into anything with her. [Expletive] in the world. JD."

Twelve days later, Depp sent another text message to Dr. Kipper, thanking the doctor for taking care of him. The same message revealed that the actor mentioned that he was the one who chopped his left middle finger off, and its scar should be a reminder not to cut it off again.
When Ellie Bradish and her husband showed up Tuesday morning at Milwaukee's Riverside University High School, it was their third attempt to vote in Wisconsin's spring elections. The absentee ballots they requested never showed up, she said. The couple tried to vote at a drive-through site last weekend, but the wait was two hours long.

So they took their final chance in person despite fears of coronavirus infection, trying to keep a safe distance from the hundreds of others waiting in line.

"We decided to risk our lives to come vote," said Bradish, 40. "I feel like I'm voting for my neighbors, all the people who don't have the luxury to wait this long."

The snaking lines in Milwaukee and other cities illustrated the fallout from the Wisconsin Supreme Court's order to proceed with Tuesday's elections over the objections of the governor and public health officials - and showed the determination of many voters to participate despite the pandemic.

The nearly unprecedented challenge for election officials hit hardest in Milwaukee, which opened five voting locations out of the typical 180 because of worker shortages, and Green Bay, which offered two polling locations instead of the usual 31 and had waits of two to three hours.

But confusion and partisan rancor reigned across the state after a series of events Monday, when Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, tried to suspend in-person voting but was defeated in court by the GOP-controlled legislature.

Republicans argued that canceling elections would sow chaos, while Democrats accused them of trying to suppress voter turnout to help a conservative incumbent on the state Supreme Court.

The drama in Wisconsin offered a preview of what could play out in upcoming primaries - and possibly in the November election - as the health crisis upends voting across the country.

The state court's decision late Monday made Wisconsin the only state to proceed with a presidential primary this month, defying the public health emergency that led more than a dozen other states to postpone their contests.

"It's unlike anything I've seen in 30 years of local government," said Dale Peters, city manager of Eau Claire.

Voters cast ballots in thousands of local elections, as well as in the race between former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for the Democratic presidential nomination. The results will not be released until Monday, according to the state election commission.

Sanders was outspoken in urging the state to postpone the election, saying last week that "people should not be forced to put their lives on the line to vote." Biden deferred to state officials, saying that absentee ballots are preferred but that in-person voting could take place as long as voters kept a distance and poll workers cleaned equipment.

The hotly contested Supreme Court race, between conservative Daniel Kelly and liberal candidate Jill Karofsky, attracted the most attention among the day's contenders - including a tweet from President Donald Trump.

"Wisconsin, get out and vote NOW for Justice Daniel Kelly," the president wrote. "Protect your 2nd Amendment!"

Some voters complained that they had to go to the polls in person after requesting absentee ballots that never came, while others said they were too fearful to vote because of the risk of infection.

According to a tally compiled by the state election commission, more than 9,000 requested absentee ballots had not been sent to voters as of Tuesday, though some officials cautioned that the figure was not up to date.

The day began with long waits in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Waukesha.

Outside Riverside University High School, anger mixed with resolve at the end of the line of about 400 voters, who alternated between standing six feet apart and drawing closer together as they shuffled forward. A poll worker handed out light-blue masks.

"I have to wait," said John Carter, a retired bus driver, 71. "I have to cast my ballot. I don't have anything going on, except the legs get tired. I'm an old man."

Normally, he said, he walks four blocks to his neighborhood polling site, and it takes 20 minutes, tops. Like many, Carter felt angry.

"I think the Republicans in Madison wanted this," he said, shaking his head.

Leaders of the GOP-controlled legislature defended their position, saying they advocated for voters to cast absentee ballots.

In a video interview Tuesday with The Journal Times of Racine, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told voters they were "incredibly safe to go out."

Vos, who was dressed in head-to-toe personal protective equipment as he volunteered as an election inspector in Burlington, said it "made no sense" to delay in-person voting because there is "no guarantee that in May or June, we are going to be safer."

The election proceeded after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4 to 2 late Monday that Evers' order exceeded his constitutional powers as governor.

Dissenting Justice Ann Walsh Bradley accused the court's majority of "risking the health of our families, neighbors and friends."

As of Tuesday morning, the Wisconsin Elections Commission reported that 1,273,374 absentee ballots had been mailed and that 864,750 were returned. The latter figure already exceeds the record 830,763 absentee ballots received in the 2016 general election.

But many voters still turned out in person, despite the health risks.

In the morning, Rosie Redmon, 79, sat in her wheelchair at the front of the line at Riverside University High School. She arrived with her son and daughter-in-law at 5:45 a.m., knowing that the polling location would be packed.

"I'm a voter," she said. "I do not miss voting." Absentee was never an option - too much can go wrong, she said.

Redmon, like a majority of voters in line, is African American. She wore a mask and latex gloves.

"I sleep in my mask," she said. "People laugh, but this is serious."

Neil Albrecht, executive director of the city's election commission, said Milwaukee's five voting sites were processing ballots as quickly as possible, but he acknowledged an average wait time of an hour to two hours.

He credited patient voters and poll workers who were diligently moving people through the lines as quickly as possible, keeping the process running smoothly.

"I believe they are the true heroes of the very unfortunate decision that was made yesterday" to continue the election, Albrecht said. He was referring to the poll workers, who were being supplemented by about 170 National Guard troops spread throughout the city, plus at least four city public health workers at each site.

Meg Wartman, the Waukesha County clerk, said that although the line at the city of Waukesha's single voting place was long when polls opened, it quickly disappeared. She said several of the county's towns set up drive-through voting locations for people who preferred staying in their cars.

In a statement Tuesday, Evers urged Wisconsinites to "stay as safe as possible."

"I am overwhelmed by the bravery, resilience, and heroism of those who are defending our democracy by showing up to vote, working the polls, and reporting on this election," he said.

Still, thousands of poll workers refused to show, saying they were being asked to risk their health as the coronavirus spreads.

"I don't understand the logic of why this election has to be held today," said David Tschida, who previously served as a chief election inspector for the city of Eau Claire.

The exodus left administrators scrambling. Reid Magney, spokesman for the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said officials had to hire more workers and deploy the National Guard to assist 111 municipalities that last week warned that they didn't have enough poll workers to open a single voting location.

"We're not aware of any municipality where somebody is showing up and there's no place to vote in that municipality," Magney said.

Voting proceeded smoothly in the capital, Madison, and surrounding Dane County, according to the county clerk. Unlike Milwaukee, which is more than twice as big, Madison was able to secure enough poll workers to open 66 voting sites, Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said.

Turnout was light, he said, in part because so many Dane County residents voted by mail but also, he feared, because voters were staying home out of concerns about infection.

Multiple voters told The Washington Post that they had not received their requested absentee ballots.

Marcelia Nicholson, a member of Milwaukee's board of supervisors, said she made her request March 21, but the ballot had not arrived by the end of Monday.

Nicholson was up for reelection Tuesday, and while she was running unopposed, she was unsure whether she would be able to cast a vote for herself.

"I do not consider this a legitimate election, and I myself have experienced disenfranchisement," she said. "If I'm having that issue, as a high-information voter who shows up for every election, how many other people are being disenfranchised? Even one would be too many."

In Eau Claire, Deann Mattson, 66, said she requested an absentee ballot three weeks ago, but it did not arrive. So she donned a teal face mask and headed to the polls.

Mattson said her polling site was well-sanitized, and she expressed hope that "in November, if this mess isn't over, that things go as good."

Still, if she had her way, the election would have been done by mail.

"I'm not too happy with the Republican Party," said Mattson, a registered Democrat. "I just don't think it's right to put people in harm's way because they want to try to suppress the vote. Government shouldn't do everything they can to stop you from having your voice."

Many voters have asked to be reissued absentee ballots that never arrived, Albrecht said, but state law forbids the city from doing so.

For those people, "your only option is in-person," he said. "I think this is a very sad situation."

- - -

Larson reported from Eau Claire, and Simmons from Milwaukee. The Washington Post's Scott Clement, Sean Sullivan, Matt Viser and David Weigel in Washington contributed to this report.
A political asylum seeker from Yemen is pleading with the Home Office to process his case before his wife and five children are forced to return to their home country where he says they will be at risk of persecution.

Ali al-Bukhaiti, 43, a former politician who fled Yemen in 2015 after speaking out against government forces, arrived in the UK by plane in August and immediately claimed asylum in the hope that he would soon be able to apply for his family, who are currently in Jordan, to join him.

But he has received no word from the Home Office eight months on, and his familys residency permit in Jordan has now expired, leaving them liable to be sent back to Yemen.

The countrys civil war, which began in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies launched a bombing campaign to oust the Iran-backed Houthis and restore the government, has killed and injured more than 18,400 civilians and left 80 per cent of the population in need of humanitarian assistance.

To make matters worse for the family, Mr al-Bukhaitis eldest daughter, 17-year-old Tujan, is on trial in Jordan. She is facing charges of blasphemy for sharing her fathers criticism of both sides in the Yemeni conflict on social media.

Amnesty International has condemned the Jordanian authorities over the trial, accusing them of breaking international law by violating the teenagers right to freedom of expression. It has urged them to drop this case immediately and allow her to continue with her studies.

Mr al-Bukhaiti said the charges against his daughter, as well as the heavy targeting of civilians in Yemen and his vehement criticism of all parties involved in the conflict, would place his family in grave danger in Yemen.

Speaking to The Independent, he said: When I arrived in the UK I thought maybe finally Id be able to express myself without retribution. Id hoped that within a few months I would be able to be reunited with my family, but I was surprised that it looks like the UK is not so welcoming, even when the case is so clear and justified.

My family is very much afraid, especially after the court case regarding my daughter. Theyre feeling unsettled and unsafe. Being sent back to Yemen would pose a great danger to them, and after Tujan was tried and incited, the risks became greater.

My biggest fear is that anyone who carries extremist ideas may attack my daughter. She is facing the consequence of my belief in my freedom of expression.

Meanwhile, Mr al-Bukhaiti has not accepted asylum support from the Home Office and is currently renting an apartment in Kilburn, but said the delay in processing his case and the fact that he was unable to work while waiting was causing him to suffer financially and mentally.

The al-Bulhaiti family have been split up for months (Ali al-Bukhaiti) (Ali Nasir Qaed Al-Bukhaiti)

Mr al-Bukhaiti said his inability to work had left him unable to send money back to his family and prevented him from attending a number of international conferences about the Yemeni conflict to which he has been invited.

This asylum system is failing. People like me are capable of working and only need protection, but because of how the system is being run, it pushes you after a while to start thinking about how to apply for support, even though you dont want to do this. I dont want to reach the point where I have to start taking money from the British public, he said.

I arrived in the UK energised. I thought not being able to work would be a temporary thing and I would get back working and helping from here. But it has been eight months, which has affected my ability to be productive. Its affecting my mental health.

Home Office figures published in February revealed more than half (57 per cent) of asylum seekers in Britain now wait longer than six months for a decision on their case. Ministers are facing mounting calls for asylum seekers who have waited more than six months for a decision on their claim to be given the right to work.

Mr al-Bukhaitis solicitor Nath Gbikpi, an immigration lawyer at Wesley Gryk LLP, said the case illustrated how the Home Office unnecessarily prolongs asylum seekers trauma and vulnerability.

She added: Asylum seekers are left in limbo, often without the right to work and having to rely on the assistance of the government or the goodwill of friends or charities. Those who have had to leave family members behind also have to worry about their safety and wellbeing.

Recommended Surge in asylum seekers waiting longer than half a year for decision

I understand the pressures the Home Office is currently experiencing, however, there should be a system to review cases at an early stage and expedite those who need to be expedited, whether because of family members left behind or other particular vulnerability of the asylum seeker.

A Home Office spokesperson said: We are committed to ensuring asylum claims are considered without unnecessary delay so that individuals in need of protection can start to integrate and rebuild their lives as soon as possible.

Asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute are provided with free, fully furnished accommodation while applications are considered. We also cover utility costs and provide a cash allowance to cover other essential living needs.
He was one of 14 detainees being treated at outside hospitals for the virus; as of Sunday evening there were 220 other detainees with confirmed infections being treated for mild-to-moderate symptoms at the jail, the sheriffs office said.
New South Wales Labor leader Jodi McKay has accused Premier Gladys Berejiklian of trying to 'cover up' the Ruby Princess debacle.

She said a police investigation was not enough and royal commission was needed to find out why 2,700 passengers were allowed off the ship without proper health checks on 19 March.

Since that day there have been over 600 coronavirus infections linked to the ship and 13 deaths.

'Not only is this one of the greatest public health failures in New South Wales, but it is unfortunately being followed by a cover-up,' Ms McKay said on Tuesday.

New South Wales Labor leader Jodi McKay (pictured) has accused Premier Gladys Berejiklian's government of trying to 'cover up' the Ruby Princess debacle

On Sunday, NSW Police announced it would investigate whether national bio-security laws and state laws were broken.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the investigation would centre on 'discrepancies' regarding information provided by Carnival about sick patients.

When questioned by reporters today, he did not rule out the possibility of manslaughter charges if evidence was found that ship staff hid or downplayed coronavirus infections or if the decision to allow passengers off was negligent.

A specialist team of officers was preparing to board the ship to seize documents and digital evidence on Tuesday.

Ms McKay welcomed the police probe but said the NSW government needs to launch a more thorough inquiry.

She said: 'How can the community trust that this will not happen again, unless there is a transparent, independent inquiry with the powers of a royal commission?

'My message today to the Premier is please stop the cover-up.'

Attorney-General Christian Porter on Monday backed the NSW Police investigation.

NSW Police Rescue officers watch as the Ruby Princess, with crew only onboard, docks at Port Kembla, Wollongong on Friday

'Of course, there's a whole range of offences, including civil fraud, that may have been possibly committed and that's what the investigation is about,' he told ABC Radio.

'If those offences can be substantiated by evidence then they would be very, very serious indeed.'

The Ruby Princess docked at Port Kembla near Wollongong south of Sydney on Monday morning with 1,040 crew on board.

Timeline of Ruby Princess fiasco March 18: The Ruby Princess issues an urgent mayday call for an ambulance for two of its passengers presenting with coronavirus-like symptoms 24 hours before the ship is allowed to dock in Sydney. March 19: The Ruby Princess arrives in Sydney Harbour. More than 2,700 guests are allowed to disembark without adequate health checks. March 25: Australian Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram says New South Wales Health is responsible for letting coronavirus patients disembark the ship. March 29: Several crew members are evacuated and taken to hospital after being diagnosed with coronavirus. April 2: A 66-year-old crew member is taken off the Ruby Princess for medical treatment. More than 200 crew members are sick and in self-isolation. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian defends the actions of NSW Health and the Australian Border Force and points the finger at the Ruby Princess. She claims staff onboard may have misled NSW Health about the extent of illnesses in passengers. April 3: Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton alleges Ruby Princess' operators weren't transparent about the health of crew: 'It was 'clear that some of the companies have been lying about the health of passengers and crew on board'. April 4: Leaked emails show NSW Health knew of the coronavirus risk on board the Ruby Princess before allowing its thousands of passengers to disembark. April 5: A criminal investigation is launched into how passengers were able to disembark without health checks April 8: A team of 30 detectives from state crime, counter terrorism and marine area command start investigating the handling of the Ruby Princess coronavirus scandal. The first briefing into the investigation is held. April 9: NSW Police clad in PPE equipment raid the vessel, questioning its captain and searching for evidence in a rapid escalation of the criminal investigation. April 11: NSW Health confirms that at least 46 crew members of the Ruby Princess cruise ship have contracted COVID-19 April 13: NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller says patient zero on board may have been a crew member serving meals to hundreds of passengers April 15: NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian announces an independent special commission to investigate the Ruby Princess fiasco April 23: With 500 crew left on board, the Ruby Princess left Australian waters to sail to Manila in the Phillipines Advertisement

Commissioner Fuller says this will make it easier for the 200 crew members showing coronavirus symptoms to get medical treatment.

'The reason we need to dock it is because of the regular supplies that need to go on the ship,' he told reporters on Monday.

'Taking sick crew off at sea is a complex and dangerous task.'

NSW Health recently boarded the Ruby Princess with the help of Aspen Medical to assess the health of the crew.

Aspen Medical executive chairman Glenn Keys said the crew don't need to leave the ship for treatment.

'In our view, they can be treated on board,' he told ABC Radio.

'The ship's been good in spreading the crew out to make sure there is enough room. They've got fresh air and the treatment they need.'

Ruby Princess owner Carnival Australia says the company is assisting the police investigation.

'In addition to willingly participating in the investigation, Carnival Australia will vigorously respond to any allegations of which there must now be full disclosure and the basis for them,' a spokesman said in a statement.
By PTI

SHEOPUR: A couple in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district has named their newborn son as "Lockdown" to celebrate the "collective resolve" shown by people of the country to defeat coronavirus on the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The boy was born to Raghunath Mali and his 24-year-old wife Manju, both residents of Bachheri village in Sheopur district, at a private hospital on April 6.

When asked about the reason behind naming his son as "Lockdown", which evokes feelings of anxiety among people in view of the ongoing three-week restrictions on movement, Mali, a farmer, said it would forever remind them about this unprecedented period.

"My wife gave birth to a boy on Monday. When it comes to mention his name on birth certificate, I and my wife decided to name him 'Lockdown'," Mali said.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 LIVE

The farmer also said that his wife eagerly agreed to the idea.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a call for a 21-day lockdown to protect the country from coronavirus.

The entire country is united in this time of crisis and to make this event memorable, we have named our son 'Lockdown'," the couple said.

Around four days back, a couple from neighboring Chhattisgarh had named their newborn twins as 'Corona' and 'Covid'.

The couple had said the names symbolises triumph over hardships.

The twins - a boy and a girl - were born during the ongoing novel coronavirus-enforced nationwide lockdown.
Chicago

Americans in overwhelming numbers are actively avoiding others as much as possible and taking additional steps to protect themselves from the coronavirus, according to a survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that shows how concerns about infection have grown sharply in the past six weeks.

The survey finds Americans are increasingly isolating, washing their hands and avoiding touching their face. Large portions of the country are confronting layoffs and pay cuts and are adjusting to kids forced home from school and day care amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has upended American life and the nation's economy.

Half of Americans now say they are extremely or very worried that they or a family member will be infected by the virus. That is up from 31 percent who said the same in mid-March and 22 percent who said so in February. Another 34 percent are somewhat worried, while just 16 percent say they are not worried.

The spike in concern comes as the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, has grown to about 1.3 million worldwide and about 340,000 in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University. Containment efforts have canceled in-person classes for most of the country's students, thrown more than 10 million people out of work and put 90 percent of the population under stay-at-home orders.

Confronted by the seriousness of the pandemic, Americans are more likely than they were in mid-March to report taking protective steps. Today, 94 percent of Americans say they are staying away from large groups, up from 68 percent. Somewhat fewer, though still an overwhelming majority, 86 percent, say they are avoiding other people as much as possible.

Most states are now under a statewide stay-at-home order, while in the remaining states some orders have been issued at the city or county level. But there are not wide differences in behavior based on where a person lives, according to the poll. Americans in states that were not under a statewide stay-at-home order on or before March 26 were about as likely as Americans in states that were under such a directive to say they were avoiding contact with others.

"To me it was just common sense," said Richard Walker, 62, of St. Augustine, Fla., who said he and his family began making changes weeks before Gov. Ron DeSantis last Wednesday issued a statewide stay-at-home order.

Walker said that he and his wife are no longer watching their 3-year-old granddaughter once a week and that their 33-year-old daughter is doing their grocery shopping. To celebrate his son's birthday on Tuesday, the family gathered in the son's driveway  staying at least 10 feet apart  and sang "Happy Birthday." The party continued later via FaceTime, a video phone app.

"It's all you can do right now," Walker said.

The change in behavior isn't limited to staying at home or avoiding groups. Ninety-two percent of Americans say they are washing their hands more frequently and 70 percent are avoiding touching their face. About half, 52 percent, now report stocking up on extra food, compared with 35 percent who said they were doing so earlier in March. Still, just 16 percent say they are consulting with a health care provider.

While the public's concern has risen overall, there still remain partisan differences.

Republicans are far less worried than Democrats about themselves or a relative being infected with the coronavirus. Just 35 percent are extremely or very worried, compared with 61 percent of Democrats who are highly concerned. Another 4 in 10 Republicans are somewhat worried, and about another quarter are not worried.

Still, the share of Republicans who are very worried has grown from just 21 percent in AP-NORC's mid-March poll.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

The widespread closing of schools and day cares also has caused concern. Among parents with a child in school or day care, nearly all, 96 percent, say it has closed. About a third of them say they are extremely or very concerned about their child falling behind academically, with another third somewhat concerned.

Mia Morris, of Atlanta, said she and her kids, ages 18 and 16, are doing the best they can to adjust to online learning. Morris, 41, is in a technical school program that has moved to online classes, and she watches a 7-year-old who is navigating first grade.

"It's hard because we're not used to it, but we all pull together and help each other," Morris said. And when they still don't know the answers, there's another option: "We go to Google a lot."

The closing of businesses and global economic uncertainty have widely impacted working Americans. Among those who were employed prior to the outbreak, 23 percent say they or a household member has already been laid off, 38 percent scheduled for fewer hours, 27 percent taken unpaid time off and 26 percent had wages or salary reduced.

In all, about half of workers have experienced at least one form of lost household income. Those with lower incomes and without college degrees are especially likely to say households have been hit by layoffs.

Kyle Beason, of Bowling Green, Ohio, said he and his girlfriend both have had their hours slashed at the manufacturing plant where they work, from 40 hours per week to a low of 24 hours because the appliance makers who buy the parts they produce aren't placing as many orders. The 26-year-old said the couple is still able to pay the bills, but that could change if things don't improve soon.

"I'm hoping that people do what they need to do  stay home as much as they can or stay away from people  so we can get over it," Beason said.
Solar panels seen at Dau Tieng Solar Power Complex in the southern Tay Ninh Province in September, 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran.

The government has scrapped the incentive tariff rate for solar power and approved a new price of VND1,640 (7.09 cents) a kilowatt-hour for this year.

The feed-in-tariff, 24 percent less than the earlier 9.35 cents, will be applicable for 20 years starting May 22 for projects approved in policy before November 23, 2019, that begin commercial operations before December 31 this year.

For all subsequent projects, there will be a bidding mechanism.

The southern province of Ninh Thuan, a solar power hotspot, has been exempt from the change. Approved projects that begin commercial operations this year will enjoy the old tariff for 20 years.

The government has also fixed the tariffs for rooftop solar at VND1,943 (8.38 cents) and floating solar at VND1,783 (7.69 cents).

The decision ends a nine-month wait for investors after the 9.35-cent rate expired on June 30 last year.

The high tariff set off a scramble to build solar farms, culminating in the establishment of 91 of them last year with a total capacity of 4,550 MW.

It overloaded the national grid, engendering an upgrade to the transmission infrastructure.

Solar plants with a total capacity of 25,000 MW have been licensed so far against the governments target of 4,000 MW by 2025.

Experts have said that Vietnam, especially the southern region, has great potential for solar power development thanks to the large number of sunshine hours.
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump replaced acting Pentagon Inspector General Glenn Fine Monday night, a move that removes Fine as the top watchdog for COVID-19 stimulus.

Fine had been selected by fellow inspectors general to chair the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee. The inspectors general created the committee to oversee the roughly $2 trillion stimulus deal, passed last month by Congress and signed into law by Trump to mitigate the economic damage caused by the pandemic.

The committee chairman was given the power to issue subpoenas and investigate officials inside and out of government.

Trump signaled his displeasure with the law's oversight provision when he issued a relatively rare signing statement. Trump said he would ignore portions of the law demanded by some Democrats to give Congress additional visibility into the stimulus spending, arguing that those requirements would infringe on the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.

"Yesterday, the president nominated Mr. Jason Abend for the position of DoD inspector general," Dwrena Allen, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon inspector general, said Tuesday. "The same day, the president also designated Mr. Sean W. O'Donnell, who is the Environmental Protection Agency inspector general, to serve as the acting DoD IG in addition to his current duties at the EPA.

Glenn Fine "is no longer on the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee," a spokeswoman for the Pentagon inspector general said.

"Mr. Fine is no longer on the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee."

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who chairs the Oversight and Reform Committee, said that by removing Fine and other watchdogs, Trump seeks to undermine oversight of the White House's "chaotic" response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Trumps actions are a direct insult to the American taxpayers  of all political stripes  who want to make sure that their tax dollars are not squandered on wasteful boondoggles, incompetence or political favors," Maloney said in a statement.

Story continues

Fine will take a secondary job at the Pentagon.

Fine had been acting inspector general at the Pentagon since 2016. In his previous role as inspector general for the Justice Department from 2000 to 2011, he received high marks from Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project On Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group.

She said Tuesday that Fine was removed probably to ensure he would not oversee stimulus spending.

"There's no question in my mind that the president's sudden interest in filling this vacancy is to undercut Fine's role running the pandemic recovery," Brian said.

President Trump signs the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief stimulus bill.

Last Friday, Trump fired Michael Atkinson, the inspector general who informed Congress about an anonymous whistleblower complaint that described Trumps pressure on Ukraine to investigate Democrat Joe Biden. The complaint led to Trumps impeachment, though he was acquitted in the Senate.

Trump, Bryan said, "is taking a wrecking ball across the IG community."

Trump blasted a report Monday from the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general on problems facing hospitals dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic that cited a shortage of tests and long wait times. When asked about the findings, Trump declared them "wrong," asked for the inspector general's name and suggested the conclusions were tainted by politics.

Fine will take up his old post as principal deputy inspector general at the Pentagon, Allen said.

Fact check: What's true and what's false about coronavirus?

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Trump replaces watchdog overseeing spending of stimulus
The Cayuga Indian Nation of New York is receiving nearly $90,000 in coronavirus relief funds to help with its low-income housing program, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Tuesday.

An $88,028 grant for the nation, which owns properties in Cayuga and Seneca counties, is one of $200 million in Indian Housing Block Grants made throughout the United States to help American Indian tribes with their COVID-19 response.

When President Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) into law, he wanted to ensure that American Indian Tribes received the assistance they needed to combat the coronavirus, said HUD Secretary Ben Carson in a press release. HUD remains committed to providing Tribes with the tools they need during this national emergency to continue to create safe, affordable housing opportunities for their communities.

The new funding follows an announcement in February that the Cayugas were awarded a $287,948 grant under the regular Indian Housing Block Grant program.

That grant announcement came the day before the Cayuga Nation Police Department, under the leadership of federal representative Clint Halftown, raided, seized and demolished buildings on nation property in Seneca Falls that had been controlled by a Cayuga faction that doesn't recognize Halftown as the tribe's authorized leader. A week later, violence broke out after a group of Cayuga Nation chiefs held a press conference to condemn Halftown's action.

Following those incidents, HUD had said it was reviewing the situation to see if the federal funding administered by Halftown would be impacted.

"HUD is very aware of the situation, has been monitoring it closely, and has been coordinating with our sister agencies including the Department of Interior," the agency told The Citizen in March. "HUD will review our legal authorities with our Office of General Counsel and make a determination as to the next steps."

HUD officials were not immediately available for comment on Tuesday, but issued a statement on Wednesday:

"The CARES Act mandated that HUD allocate the new IHBG funding using the FY2020 allocation formula," the agency said. "This new funding must be used to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19. Since the Cayuga Nation received a grant allocation in FY2020, they were once again eligible to receive a grant allocation under the CARES Act. HUD is currently monitoring the Cayuga Nation's IHBG program."

IHBG funds can be used by tribes to develop or renovate housing, manage housing, crime prevention and safety activities and "model activities that provide creative approaches to solving affordable housing problems in Indian Country," a HUD press release said.
Betty Williams, who has died aged 76, was the Nobel prize-winning activist who had campaigned for peace in Northern Ireland in the Seventies and continued to support a multitude of causes for over 40 years.

This was largely through Peace People, a group she co-founded in 1976, and on a worldwide stage through the Nobel Womens Initiative.

Elizabeth Smyth was born in 1943 in Belfast to a Catholic mother and a Protestant father who worked as a butcher. Following education at St Dominics Grammar School she left aged 15 and took an office job.

The Peace People group owed its origin to a tragic sequence of events that began on 10 August 1976 when British soldiers shot and killed Danny Lennon, a 23-year old IRA volunteer and driver. Lennons car careered off the road and crashed into the family of Anne Maguire. She lost three children, as Joanne (eight) and Andrew (six weeks) died immediately and John (two) died the next day in hospital. Anne took her own life four years later.

Williams blows a whistle for peace at a Belfast rally in 1976 (Getty)

Williams, who was driving nearby, had heard the gunfire and was one of the first to arrive at the scene. Following the tragedy, she was motivated to create a petition calling for a cessation of the hostilities which soon gathered 6,000 signatures. In the days that followed a march of several hundred people passed close to the house of Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Annes sister, who was moved to join the campaign.

The subsequent gathering of the newly formed Womens Peace Movement saw a crowd of some 10,000 people come together at Andersonstown in west Belfast on a pilgrimage to the graves of the children who had died. The march was disrupted by members of the IRA who called the groups members dupes of the British. Unintimidated by these threats, the movements demonstration the following week brought 20,000 people into Ormeau Park, Belfast.

Working together with the journalist Ciaran McKeown, Williams and Corrigan Maguire established the Peace People group, as it is known to this day. The groups first declaration, penned by McKeown, was straightforward and to the point: We have a simple message to the world from this movement for peace. We want to live and love and build a just and peaceful society.

Their marches brought many thousands to the streets of Belfast, Dublin and London. Peace People said that within six months of their founding, violence had dropped by 70 per cent and would never return to the rate of death and destruction experienced at the height of the Troubles.

The activist with the Dalai Lama in 2014 (Getty)

Williams and Corrigan Maguire were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that year for their work in seeking to bring an end to the conflict in Northern Ireland. Williams took readily to the role of peace ambassador, travelling worldwide and meeting with figures including the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela.

Williams left Peace People in 1980, while Corrigan Maguire has remained as the organisations president. Williams then spent the next two decades in the United States, where she lectured extensively, before returning to settle in the Irish republic.

In 2006 she helped to found the Nobel Womens Initiative, together with Corrigan Maguire and others. The organisation seeks to work for peace, justice and equality. Asked about the role of women in changing the world, Williams said: Dont kill my child, its easy to remember, and you didnt give birth to your baby for someone to take its life.

She was the subject of a 2018 documentary Betty Williams: Contagious Courage, directed by Dawn Gifford Engle.

She is survived by husband James T Perkins who she married in 1982 and her two children.

Betty Williams, peace campaigner, born 22 May 1943, died 17 March 2020
Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, shown in 2004, will remain in federal prison in Texas. (Associated Press)

A judge has denied a request from disgraced former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca to be released from federal prison in Texas because of the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson ruled Sunday that although 77-year-old Baca faced a heightened risk of contracting COVID-19, releasing him from custody on bail would not mitigate the threat to his health. The judge pointed out the precautions taken in federal prisons, including the screening of staff and the end of social visits, along with the risks posed by a return trip to Southern California and the higher infection rate in L.A. County.

"Sadly, there is no safe location," Anderson wrote in his decision.

The judge also denied Baca's request to have his conviction and sentence vacated.

Baca, who was found guilty of thwarting a civil rights investigation into his departments troubled jail system and lying to federal investigators about the obstruction, had argued that the use of an anonymous jury amounted to a violation of his constitutional rights. Anderson rejected the claim.

"Sheriff Baca intends to appeal this decision immediately and hopes the 9th Circuit, unlike Judge Anderson, will exercise its discretion and compassion to grant him bail at this time," defense attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement Monday, noting that his client was in "the late stages of Alzheimers disease."

Baca is about two months into a three-year prison term at the Federal Correctional Institution La Tuna, a low-security prison outside El Paso. He's among a cast of inmates seeking release amid the global coronavirus pandemic, including former Colombian drug kingpin Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela, 81, and Michael Cohen, 53, the former personal attorney to President Trump.

Baca was convicted in 2017 but remained free on bail until February as his lawyers pressed his case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That court upheld the conviction, and in January, the Supreme Court denied a request to review the case.

Federal prosecutors had opposed Baca's release while fighting to have his conviction and sentence vacated. In a filing last week, the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles reminded Anderson of his own comments when handing down a prison sentence: The once-respected sheriff had committed a "'gross abuse of the public trust,' 'blind obedience to a corrupt culture' and betrayal of the 'core values'" he once espoused." The prosecutors were unswayed by Baca's bid for exceptional treatment.

"The court previously noted that an Alzheimers diagnosis should not be a 'get out of jail free' card," federal prosecutors wrote, "and that should remain true today."
'It can lead to mass malnutrition.'

IMAGE: A migrant worker and his family walk along the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway in Palghar, Maharashtra following the coronavirus lockdown. Photograph: Mitesh Bhuvad/PTI Photo

"The first thing migrant workers will do once the lockdown ends is immediately try to go back home and catch up the harvesting season."

"If harvesting is affected in their local areas, it will have a huge impact on their food security," says Professor Pusphpendra Kumar Singh, Chairperson, Centre for Development Practice and Research, a Patna-based centre of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

A sociologist, Professor Singh has worked with ActionAid International at its offices in Patna, Brussels and Colombo. He also worked as a researcher with the planning division, UNICEF, New Delhi and the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi.

In a conversation with Rediff.com's Archana Masih, Professor Singh explains what lies ahead for the India's vast migrant population in wake of the coronavirus crisis. The first of a two-part interview:

What are the problems and uncertainties confronting the migrants -- both for those who have returned home and those who have not?

According to newspapers and other sources 1.8 lakh migrants have returned to Bihar. But there are many who are still in different locations in the country.

The number of seasonal migrants -- those who migrate for more than 1 month and less than 6 months from rural to rural or rural to urban areas -- that number should be around 28 to 30 lakhs.

At this time of the year, rural to rural migration is low because the harvesting of wheat has still not begun.

I would say that 20 lakh to 22 lakh migrants must be in different parts of the country.

They may have their own social network and may not want to come back immediately. If you consider half of the around 20 lakhs -- around 10 lakh would like to return -- which means there are more than 8 lakh Bihari migrants who are at different places.

People have walked which shows a desperation, but only those who are within a radius of 300 to 400 kms of their homes would have walked.

Those in Mumbai, Kerala, Arunachal or Jammu still remain at those places.

Most of the people who have returned to Bihar are from Delhi or from neighbouring areas or from Eastern UP. It was easier for them to commute compared to the others.

The migrants from distant places who have managed to return are those who could find place on trains, but there were hardly any trains -- there were some from Mumbai to Patna or Pune to Patna, but train travel options were limited.

What are the problems they are facing or likely to face?

Hunger is a real problem.

Seasonal migrants would have borrowed money, had they earned money they would have sent remittances, some may have waited to bring the money with them.

A large number of migrants must be without money.

We know, for example, in places like Delhi there are community kitchens, but the migrants have to walk sometimes as much as 5 kms to get there.

So people are really finding it difficult to access food. Maybe they go to the community kitchen for one meal in the evening because there is no transport and they are eating just one meal a day.

The accessibility to ration shops is also a problem for migrants which is adding to their problem of sourcing food.

They also have no means to buy rations and cook. Most of them eat by the roadside or are 4-5 individuals who have hired a room to stay.

They live in different kinds of conditions, not like a middle class home where there is a dedicated kitchen, bedroom, bathroom etc.

Also, there is no portability of ration cards. The ration will go to the family member at source, but at his end, he will still need to buy at the market price.

In some places like in Delhi, it is said they are opening ration shops and not asking for ration cards. This facility would help those who have access, but most of the people will be without any access to their ration cards or free ration.

Those who depend on savings or remittances of migrants at home will also be finding it difficult because this is a lean agriculture season.

Added to that there are a still a considerable amount of people without ration cards -- there are problems related to Aadhar cards and biometric-related problems.

o such issues are also depriving 10% to 15% of the people with ration cards with no access to food.

So families left behind in villages are also facing problems.

IMAGE: Migrant workers and their families at Kalyanpuri in East Delhi walk to their villages. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo

How is lack of work going to have a long-term impact on migrants?

Many people who are in different places for work -- for example, a garment factory in Mumbai, their accommodation is often inside the unit.

In such places, the unit owners get small contracts and are marginally better than the workers they employ. Those who were lucky enough to leave in the beginning by train have gone back, those who haven't now depend on their own network.

So there is overcrowding in many places which is counter-productive to social distancing.

They are sharing their resources so that they don't go hungry, but are fast losing those resources with no way to replenish them.

The first thing they will do once the lockdown ends is to immediately try to go back home and catch up the harvesting season.

The harvesting season provides seasonal migrants the opportunity to secure their food and is part of their food security.

If harvesting is affected in their local areas, it will have a huge impact on their food security.

Debt will also be a problem for some migrants who would have borrowed money first to travel from their homes for work outside and then may have borrowed again to make their way back because of the lockdown.

The coronavirus crisis is being tackled as the government's foremost, urgent priority. How does this affect other government welfare schemes that the poor depend on?

It depends on how the State machinery is equipped to provide these schemes like the midday meal, ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) and other schemes.

At present, there are conflicting reports that at some places it is happening, at other places it is not. In some places, they are trying to provide cooked food to homes and some places nothing is happening -- so many conflicting reports.

The downside is that it can lead to mass malnutrition.

In many places OPDs and public health centres are not functioning or are not functioning optimally. This will disturb antenatal care, immunisation services and the treatment of routine illnesses.

Education of children who go to village schools is also a problem because unlike the middle class, these children do not have access to smartphones and laptops.

In urban India, among the middle and particularly upper middle class, it is possible to impart education through the Internet, but what about rural students?

As it is, government education quality is low and this current situation has stymied the education system. We don't know what is happening to Kasturba hostels or government orphanages.

We don't know what is happening to homeless children and those who live on railway stations.

Do you think migrants who have come back home will be able to return soon? The opportunities of employment in villages will be limited which is why they left in the first place.

People don't have much option. They would like to return and that depends from area to area and on their confidence to return to their places of employment. They would need the assurance that those states are safe from coronavirus.

Till they have that confidence, they will stay back. It will take some time.

In the informal sector, the producers will have a very hard time. In places like Bhiwandi's power looms with 13 lakh to 14 lakh workers -- these looms have already suffered a lot. They work on very small margins.

The employers are not rich and the network of employers are small capital holders, it will be a struggle for them too. If they are providing for the export sector, then the forward network chain will also be affected.

It is not as if once the lockdown is over, they will be asking their workers to return. It will take some time to restart the production process.

It is a pandemic and with new cases coming up in Maharashtra people may not want to go back.

It will depend on the overall message going out.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 19:33:55|Editor: huaxia

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Ambulances head to the Gare d'Austerlitz train station to evacuate coronavirus patients from the Ile-de-France region to the Brittany region to free up intensive care beds in Paris, France, April 1, 2020. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard/Xinhua)

The only way that the pandemic will be overcome is when everyone has immunity either from being exposed to the virus or taking a vaccine that provides the immunity, said Dr. Gauden Galea, WHO representative in China.



BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The global numbers for the novel coronavirus infections are growing rapidly and are clearly far from having reached the peak, an expert from the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday.

The only way that the pandemic will be overcome is when everyone has immunity either from being exposed to the virus or taking a vaccine that provides the immunity, said Dr. Gauden Galea, WHO representative in China, at a press conference.

"Until such a time, we are given what we might call the old-fashioned public health methods that have stood the test of time. We need to assess the risks at levels that range from at the top of country-level down to the individuals," he said, who called for "testing, testing and testing" to improve risk assessment and prevention measures such as hand washing and respiratory etiquette.

Active case finding and contact tracing, as well as the principle of early identification, reporting, isolation and treatment adopted by China, are also important to stemming the spread of the virus, according to Dr. Galea.

He also stressed the attitude of solidarity and cooperation at national and international levels for the world to defeat the pandemic. 
On its official website, Viet A Technologies JSC describes itself as a pioneer in disseminating hi-tech tests in the health sector.

Scientists believe that in the context of the rapid coronavirus spread all over the world, testing as much as possible is the best method to locate people who need to be quarantined.





Vietnam is one of a few countries that can produce test kits to discover coronavirus. The test kits are made by the Military Medical Academy and Viet A.



They give results with 100 percent accuracy rate after two hours and satisfy criteria of the biological kits guided by CDC and WHO. The Ministry of Health of Vietnam has granted a license for mass production.

Scientists believe that in the context of the rapid coronavirus spread all over the world, testing as much as possible is the best method to locate people who need to be quarantined.

The test kit utilizes RT-PCR and realtime RT-PCR, made on an ISO 13485 production line and ISO Class 8 testing lab.



The kit is prepared in the form of solution, which is effective for testing samples from the upper respiratory tract (nasopharynx, throat rinses), lower respiratory tract (sputum, alveolar fluid, intubation, pleural fluid) and blood.



The National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology has confirmed that the bio-kit has been recommended to detect nCoV.



Viet A Technology JSC specializes in molecular biology, with capital of VND1 trillion, located in Phu Nhuan District, HCM City. The company has a team of experts with more than 10 years of experience in the field of molecular biology.



This is also the first team in Vietnam that very early successfully put into business the kits using realtime PCR technology and molecular hybrids.



The company is fully equipped with the necessary machines for the study and application of molecular biology such as PCR, real-time PCR and centrifuges.



The company has over 15 latest-generation real-time PCR machines, including ones serving large hospitals, namely the Central Hospital of Can Tho and Hue Central Hospital.



According to Phan Quoc Viet, general director of Viet A, the company and the Military Medical Academy started to work on the bio-kit in December 2019, when the epidemic appeared in China.



Viet A is the only company in Vietnam which has Ministry of Healths license for nearly 15 similar bio-kits.



At present, Real-Time RT-PCR is the only method considered effective to discover coronavirus. Only WHO, CDC, China, the UK, Germany, Singapore, Vietnam and South Korea have virus test kits.



According to Viet, in the application of molecular biology techniques to make test kits, Vietnam does not lag behind other countries. Vietnams kit is "ready to use", which means it can be used immediately, and there is no need for further preparation steps like the kits of other manufacturers.



Viet A can make 10,000 kits a day and if necessary, can raise the capacity to 30,000.

Linh Ha

How did Vietnam develop its SARS-CoV-2 test kits? SARS-CoV-2 virus test kit, developed and produced by the Military Medical Academy and Viet A Technology Company, is an important and necessary tool to help control Covid-19 in Vietnam.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Europe needs enormous public spending right now  not to deliver stimulus in the usual sense, but to meet the immediate costs of fighting Covid-19, including generous income insurance to the people whose jobs are evaporating. What Europe most certainly does not need is to get bogged down in a debate about the best long-term solutions to an urgent problem.

If the EU were a true fiscal union like the U.S., it could spend in support of its member governments, borrowing the necessary funds and servicing the resulting debt with the taxes it collects. The EU has its own currency, yet by design it remains a fiscal nonentity, with only a small budget and no tax base. Yes, Europe should change its constitution to address this state of affairs, but that would require far-reaching and time-consuming deliberations  and theres no time for that right now.

Thats the trouble with the proposal for so-called Coronabonds, the proposed collectively issued EU debt to support spending on the pandemic. This innovation presupposes workable answers to some very hard questions.

Collective borrowing isnt just a matter of getting governments to agree to emergency outlays and to jointly guarantee the debt, which is difficult enough. Since the EU collects no taxes, the governments would also have to say how the cost of servicing the bonds would be allocated across the member states. Thats even harder. The design would affect the credibility of the joint guarantee and hence the way the debt was priced in financial markets. Fiscally prudent northern EU countries, led by Germany, would be worried about moving irreversibly toward a transfer union that would put their taxpayers on the hook for the spending of fiscally imprudent southerners such as Italy.

Europe will need to have this debate eventually. When it does, the best solution would be a permanent EU-wide spending program  such as a joint unemployment insurance scheme  with an EU-wide tax instrument sufficient to pay for it over the course of the business cycle.

Story continues

But getting to agreement on anything of that kind is out of the question at the moment. Any method of emergency spending that brings this underlying disagreement to the surface risks holding up the spending. Any species of Eurobond, including Coronabonds, falls into the trap.

In the short term, theres no need for these complications. The crucial thing is for the European Central Bank to stand willing to buy debt issued by the EUs individual governments  in whatever quantity is required to stop the cost of servicing that debt from rising.

Initially, Christine Lagarde, the new head of the central bank, was reluctant to deliver the kind of whatever it takes message her predecessor, Mario Draghi, issued after the financial crash. She went so far as to say that spreads were not the banks concern. But thats all changed. The ECB has not only resumed large-scale quantitative easing but has supplemented it with a new Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program capable of buying 750 billion euros of assets.

The PEPP is a first installment of Lagardes whatever it takes. And contrary to her earlier position, that programs ability to contain spreads on Italian and other risky debt will be the measure of its success. With this in place, and the readiness to expand it if required, national governments can and should borrow freely to cover the immediate costs of an adequate response to the emergency.

Europe has other options as well  notably lending from the European Stability Mechanism, which could supplement the ECBs actions, so long as its rules on loan conditionality were relaxed and the stigma of drawing on its funds was neutralized. The European Investment Bank could also scale up its operations, and a limited European Commission scheme (called SURE) to support higher spending on unemployment benefits is under discussion. But an appropriately activist central bank is the vital, irreplaceable and (for now) sufficient ingredient.

There will be objections that allowing the ECB to play this role only delays the debate that Europe will eventually need to have about fiscal capacity. True enough. Some might even call this approach a fraud. Also true, in a way. After all, unconstrained bond-buying is a form of fiscal policy, something the ECB is supposedly forbidden to do. The longer large-scale asset purchases go on, the more creative the bank will have to be in bending the rules so that it can keep on buying the debts of particular countries, skewing the composition of its assets and raising questions about when, how and even whether these positions will be unwound.

So yes, this necessary ECB activism is a kind of cheating that only delays the eventual reckoning. Sooner or later, all this will have to be confronted. For now, later will do.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Clive Crook is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and writes editorials on economics, finance and politics. He was chief Washington commentator for the Financial Times, a correspondent and editor for the Economist and a senior editor at the Atlantic.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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Unfortunately, theres no way for the public to know. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not providing nationwide data about covid-19s impact on African Americans, Latinos or other racial and ethnic groups. The CDC customarily reports such data, but it has not done so with covid-19. Many states and counties are also not publishing the information. As of Tuesday, the CDC had not responded to inquiries about whether it has the demographic data and isnt releasing it, or simply isnt tracking the information.
Former President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday presented Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and pairs of Gum Boots to health workers at Effia-Nkwanta Hospital.



The donation aims at supporting their work towards the management of the COVID-19 disease.



The presentation is part of a total of 650 PPE and 650 gumboots procured by Mr. Mahama, who is also the Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for distribution to a number of medical facilities across the country.



The Western Regional Chairman of the NDC, Nana Kojo Toku made the presentation on behalf of the former President.



As part of his contribution to fight the virus, the former leader formed the COVID-19 Technical Team to assist in public education.



Following this, he also engaged in making the donations to major health facilites with quality health items including PPE's on behalf of the NDC.



Making the donation on his (Flagbearer) behalf, Nana Kojo Toku thanked the countrys frontline health workers for their dedication, hard work and sacrifice as the nation grapples with the coronavirus.



Nana Toku was accompanied by other members of the NDC Regional Executive body including Joseph Nelson, Regional Secretary of NDC, Japhet Baidoo, Regional Organizer, and a member of the NDC COVID-19 Team Dr. Grace Ayensu-Danquah.



He urged government to work faster to ensure the urgent supply of the required protective clothing and logistics for the health workers to maintain their confidence as they come into contact with hundreds of people during these times.



Dr Joseph K. Tambil, who received the items thanked President Mahama for the support, pledging that the hospital will put them to good use.



As part of Mr. Mahamas support for the countrys health workers, a quantity of PPEs and gum boots have already been presented to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the Ho Teaching Hospital, Cape Coast Teaching Hospital and Koforidua Government Hospital.



Speaking at a ceremony on Saturday to announce the supply of the materials, President Mahama said he was deeply touched by the enthusiasm and the sacrifice of the health workers, adding that "I, John Dramani Mahama, appreciate you all, and Ghanaians appreciate you all".



He also lamented the non-availability of protective clothing for the health workers.



"I must quickly add that it is not a good thing that health workers, across the country, still, do not have personal protective equipment. This is obviously because we did not plan early as a country and our importation of test kits was also late. Also the demand for test kits and PPEs have outstripped supply globally"

Source: Mahama









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Ola launches 'Ola Emergency' for essential medical trips in Bengaluru

India

pti-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Apr 07: Ride-hailing platform Ola on Tuesday announced the launch of 'Ola Emergency' to enable riders to book non-COVID-19 medical trips, which do not require ambulance, to over 200 hospitals in Bengaluru.

The service has been launched in collaboration with the Karnataka Health Ministry, and the company is looking at expanding the category in other major cities soon.

"'Ola Emergency' is available in Bengaluru starting today with a network of cars that are equipped with masks and sanitizers and will be operated by specially trained drivers," Ola said in a statement.

To book an 'Ola Emergency cab,

Users can select the category 'Enabled for Hospitals' on their Ola app,

Enter the drop location from a list of available hospitals in the city Ola has enabled over 200 hospitals on its app to provide the service and ensure cabs are used only for essential medical travel. The service will be available across Bengaluru and is slated to soon launch in other major cities. B Sriramulu, Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka said after the lockdown, all 108 ambulances are being used for COVID-19. "To ensure citizens are not troubled, Ola has come forward and will transport people with all cases of medical trips and emergencies that are non-ambulatory (does not require ambulance) in nature from their homes to the hospital and vice versa, for a minimal charge. This permission has been provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to provide an essential service to the citizens in need," he said. Ola is working with the authorities to ensure all drivers and cars are equipped with essential protective equipment like masks and sanitizers, and will ensure the service is used only for medical travel that is non-COVID-19 and non-ambulatory (does not require ambulance) in nature like dialysis, chemotherapy, scheduled check-ups and physical injuries among others, the statement noted. Customers will be charged a nominal fare to compensate driver-partners for their services, it added. "Ola Emergency will help thousands of citizens get access to quick, convenient and safe transport for trips from home to hospital and vice versa, amidst the minimal availability of transportation during this time. With a dedicated network of sanitised cars and trained drivers, the service will be available 24x7 on the Ola app for citizens of Bengaluru," an Ola spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that the company will continue to collaborate with the Centre and state governments to provide mobility solutions for essential travel and make similar services available in more cities soon. Last week, Ola had collaborated with the Karnataka government and stakeholders like the Corona Task Force, to help ferry senior citizens in need of medical support across Bangalore, and Hubli-Dharwad.
OTTAWA - The federal government is stepping up efforts to produce ventilators, face masks and surgical gowns in Canada, while it continues to try to get millions of pieces of equipment ordered from international suppliers actually shipped to the country.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA - The federal government is stepping up efforts to produce ventilators, face masks and surgical gowns in Canada, while it continues to try to get millions of pieces of equipment ordered from international suppliers actually shipped to the country.

That includes an order of 500,000 N95 respirator masks from Minnesota-based 3M, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said should arrive in Canada on Wednesday, while acknowledging the duel with U.S. President Donald Trump over medical supplies is not entirely over. 3M reached a deal with the White House to continue delivering its products to Canada and Latin America late Monday.

"We continue to work with Americans," Trudeau said in his daily briefing to Canadians outside his Ottawa home Tuesday.

"As I've said, we've had constructive and productive conversations that have assured that this particular shipment comes through, but we recognize there is still more work to do," he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland later added that there are more shipments expected from 3M and all of them should arrive as expected, but that there are orders with other U.S. suppliers that have not been given clearance to be exported yet.

Canada's main argument to the United States is that they are reliant on raw materials, manufactured goods and health-care professionals from Canada, and that both countries will do better if neither blocks those supplies or people from crossing the border.

As of Tuesday, Canada has recorded more than 380 deaths due to COVID-19, and hundreds of Canadians remain hospitalized in critical condition fighting the respiratory illness. Nationally, the number of confirmed cases grew to just under 17,900.

Quebec on Tuesday projected that in the best-case scenario, COVID-19 will peak in that province in about 11 days, and kill 1,263 people by the end of April. In the worst-case scenario, more than 8,860 Quebecers will die in that timeframe, though provincial officials anticipate the final outcome based on current data will fall closer to the best-case numbers.

Later, Alberta unveiled a probable scenario, which projects between 400 and 3,100 deaths by the end of the summer. An elevated scenario would have between 500 and 6,600 deaths.

Last week, Ontario estimated between 3,000 and 15,000 Ontarians will die of COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic.

The federal government has not yet released national projections.

The main message from Ottawa on Tuesday was about efforts to get the needed medical equipment. Procurement Minister Anita Anand said more than 230 million surgical masks and 75 million N95 respirator masks have been ordered but cautioned the global supply chain is so fragile they cannot guarantee how many of those will actually arrive.

A 3M mask which health care workers are in dire need of is shown in Mississauga, Ont., on Friday, April 3, 2020. Health officials and the government has asks that people stay inside to help curb the spread of the coronavirus also known as COVID-19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Front-line medical workers remain in desperate need of personal protective equipment, including gowns and N95 masks.

Trudeau said to ensure a stable supply, Canada has to make a lot more of these things at home  and that the country is not alone in not having what it needed on hand.

"The entire world was unprepared," he said.

Almost 5,000 Canadian companies stepped up with offers to help make needed equipment, including apparel companies making surgical gowns, using materials provided by construction and auto manufacturers. Canada did not produce the material typically used in the gowns, but some companies discovered material used in air bags or house wrap could work instead.

Trudeau also said Canada is working with several companies to get 30,000 new ventilators made in Canada. His office later clarified that only 1,020 new ventilators have actually been ordered, from Toronto-based Thornhill Medical. However, there are letters of intent with other companies for up to 29,000 more.

Access to ventilators is a main issue for treating critically ill patients with COVID-19-induced pneumonia, and a lack of ventilators in hard-hit countries like Italy forced doctors to choose which patients would get one and which would not.

As the virus started to rampage across Canada a few weeks ago, inventories found about 5,000 ventilators across the country and provinces have been trying to order more. Few provinces have indicated how many they think they need, and it's also hard to gauge exactly how many patients are on a ventilator right now because provinces report statistics differently.

On Tuesday, Quebec reported 164 patients in intensive care, but not specifically the number on ventilators. Ontario reported 233 patients in intensive care, of which 187 were on a ventilator, while Manitoba reported 12 hospitalized cases of COVID-19, and six in intensive care.

Ontario already placed an order for 10,000 new ventilators, and as of Monday had nearly 2,000 critical care beds with ventilator capacity, up from almost 1,300 a month ago. Ontario's COVID-19 projections released last week expect the illness to peak in late April, with at least 1,200 patients in intensive care.

Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Meanwhile, federal aid packages to help unemployed workers and struggling companies are beginning to roll out this week.

Top-ups to GST rebates for lower-income Canadians are set to go out April 9, the same day the first Canadians might see their $2,000 from the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

Treasury Board President Jean-Yves Duclos said Tuesday more than 966,000 Canadians applied for the benefit Monday, the first day applications were accepted. That is, he said, about the same number of people who apply for employment insurance over six months. It also included only those with birthdays in the first three months of the year, as the government is staggering the application process to avoid overloading the system.

Nearly 3.7 million Canadians have now applied for employment insurance or the emergency benefit since mid-March, said Duclos, and more than three million applications have already been processed. Anyone who applied for EI because of COVID-19 after March 15, will automatically be processed by the CERB program instead.

The government's increased wage-subsidy plan is also moving forward. Trudeau said Tuesday the government shared its proposed legislation with opposition parties. They are now negotiating on when to hold an emergency session of the House of Commons to pass the bill.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2020
As more and more Americans are forced to stay home during the escalating coronavirus pandemic, the crisis has created a pressure-cooker situation for domestic violence victims, exacerbating stressors and isolation that can make for a deadly mix.

Several cities are already reporting jumps in domestic violence cases or calls to local hotlines. Some shelters around the country say they're full  some after reducing their capacity to maintain social distancing  and struggling to help survivors. And with gun sales setting records, advocates worry that the next few weeks could be especially dangerous.

"Domestic violence is rooted in power and control, and all of us are feeling a loss of power and control right now," said Katie Ray-Jones, the CEO of the National Domestic Violence Hotline. "We're really bracing for a spike post-COVID-19  that's when law enforcement and advocates and courts are going to hear the really, really scary stuff going on behind closed doors."

Oklahoma City police responded to more than 3,100 domestic violence calls last month, a number that increased by 300 from March of last year.

An expert told sister station KOCO that the coronavirus pandemic could be linked to that increase.

"The coronavirus situation is having families stressed out," said Angela Beatty, senior director of Domestic Violence Victim Services at the YWCA. "That absolutely increases the risk of violence in families and violence against women and children."

While police and advocates haven't seen jumps in domestic violence cases across the board, some hot spots are emerging around the country.

Of the 20 large metropolitan police departments that provided data to CNN, nine saw double-digit percentage jumps in domestic violence cases or 911 calls in March, either compared to the previous year or to earlier months in 2020.

Not every department provided standardized numbers  some counted domestic violence-related 911 calls, while others tallied confirmed cases or arrests.

Portland, Oregon had a 27% increase in domestic violence arrests between March 12 and 23, 2020, as compared with the same period in 2019, police said. Boston had a 22% jump in domestic assault and battery reports between March 2019 and March 2020, and Seattle had a 21% increase in reports of domestic violence during the same time period.

But advocates worry that with victims stuck in close proximity with abusers, there are many others who are unable to safely reach out for help.

"I imagine that that is the tip of the iceberg," said Anne DePrince, a University of Denver psychology professor who studies domestic violence.

"You're forced in a situation with your abuser where you're around each other, and you don't really have the relief of being other places," Beatty said. "So, it does create a situation almost like where it's the pot is ready to boil over or powder keg is ready to explode."

CNN contributed to this report.
Legislative leaders, NCPA issue statement on electronic meetings

Local boards are streaming their meetings.

Senate leader Phil Berger and the North Carolina Press Association have issued a joint statement on how local government bodies can continue to meet under a statewide emergency order that requires social distancing and bans assemblies of more than 10 people.

"As the COVID-19 crisis continues, local governments across North Carolina are going to be making critical decisions to help protect the well-being of their residents," Berger said Monday. "Thanks to modern technology, electronic meetings are easier than ever before."

"During these unprecedented times, we know that local governing boards have to make tough decisions quickly. In order to do so, many boards are turning to electronic measures to conduct business," Berger (R-Rockingham), House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) and NCPA Executive Director Phil Lucey said. "State law allows for electronic meetings, and we encourage boards to utilize them. Boards should follow the guidance from the Attorney Generals Office about conducting meetings electronically with proper notice, and ideally, at no cost to individual viewers or listeners.

"Now, more than ever, North Carolinians need to know and understand the decisions their elected officials are making. They also need to prioritize their health and safety. Providing citizens with access to their elected leaders through audio or video streams gives them the ability to stay connected with their government while staying home."

The legislative leaders and NCPA director cited an opinion from Shannon Cassell, a special counsel for Attorney General Josh Stein, who predicted that courts would "view efforts to remain transparent through a lens of reasonableness."

"Due to the unprecedented circumstances we are all faced with, and the fact that local governing bodies conducting meetings remotely is not expressly prohibited by statute, I conclude that local governments can carry out necessary meetings electronically and remain in compliance with Open Meetings Laws," Cassell said.

The Henderson County Board of Commissioners and Hendersonville City Council have been ahead of the curve, adopting rules for electronic meetings with limited in-person attendance. The county's rules, which apply only during a state of emergency, preserve the public notice requirement, requires polling of members one by one to hear their yes or no vote and allows for public comment via email or postal mail.

Were not attempting to change the normal pattern, Commissioner Bill Lapsley said last week when the board adopted the special rules. Once we get through this current situation, this option isnt out there."

Chairing an electronic meeting of the French Broad MPO, Lapsley said "worked pretty good but the issue that really stood out to me" was the inability to see the vote. "When were all together, when the chair called for a vote we can see each other."

The solution to that, the board agreed, is to poll commissioners out loud.
President Trump hoped to run as the anti-socialist opposite of Bernie Sanders. Now he's telling businesses what to do and handing out money to millions of Americans. (AFP / Getty Images)

Ive been telecommuting for decades, so for me sheltering in place isnt remotely the burden it is for a lot of Americans. But it does make the job of following politics more difficult for two reasons.

First, to a certain degree, politics are on lockdown too. To the extent the Democratic primaries are in the news, its mostly as a public health story, thanks to Wisconsins debate over whether to carry on with in-person voting Tuesday (ultimately nixed by Gov. Tony Evers) and questions of how to conduct a convention while social distancing. Bernie Sanders  who is still running, by the way  wants to debate the presumptive nominee Joe Biden again, but very few in the party are interested in that. Biden himself is running a pandemic version of a front porch campaign via teleconference from his home office.

The second reason is more vexing: Nobody has any clue what post-pandemic politics will look like. On the left, some fantasize about somehow replacing Joe Biden with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which makes a lot of sense given his impressive performance of late, except for the near impossibility of actually orchestrating such a handoff. Meanwhile, progressive groups, still licking their wounds over the almost instantaneous marginalization of Bernie Sanders, are suddenly seeing their massive grassroots organizations starved of money and the ability to organize.

The situation on the right is even more opaque. For good or ill, the pandemic has made President Trump an even more central figure in our politics, thanks to the role the White House plays in a national emergency and his nightly, often rambling, news conferences.

Thats not all to the GOPs advantage. For one thing, Trumps refusal to admit any error in how hes handled the crisis has had the unintended effect of starving Republicans of some useful talking points. Mitch McConnell tried to float the idea that the Democrats impeachment fixation distracted the president from following through after the travel ban with a more robust response to the pandemic when it would have made a difference, but Trump, himself, threw cold water on that.

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Regardless, as the right gears up for either a Trump win or a lame duck presidency amid a hard period of recovery, its possible to glean some contours of post-pandemic Republican politics.

Trump was always going to be the nominee, but his set of issues has been reshuffled entirely. He was all set to run on a roaring economy, pitting himself against socialism  even though his preferred foil, Bernie Sanders, was sidelined on Super Tuesday. Now, the economy has headed south, and our anti-socialist president is ordering businesses to do the governments bidding and handing out direct cash payments to millions of Americans.

Trumps vacillation between the need to clamp down on the virus and his desire to open up the economy is somewhat symbolic of the broader divides on the right. Longtime MAGA consigliere Stephen Bannon tells the New York Times that the GOPs commitment to limited government is gone forever. At the same time, others in the Trumpist orbit, like Donald Trump Jr., are still pushing the idea that all the corona hype is overblown and just part of an effort to take down his dad.

Somewhere in the middle, conservative politicians and intellectuals are trying to find a less Trumpcentric path. Long before the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, Sen. Marco Rubio and a coterie of eggheads were firing salvos at unfettered capitalism  as if that described the status quo at any point in the last century of American politics  and offering a blueprint for common good capitalism. Meanwhile, Nikki Haley, Trumps former U.N. ambassador (for whom my wife worked), resigned from the board of Boeing last month in protest over their request for a federal bailout. It was a principled stand, but its anyones guess whether corporate bailouts will be as unpopular on the right as they were before the pandemic.

But if its hard to know whether crony capitalism will remain out of favor, you can count on China to stay in the doghouse for years to come.

Thats good news for one politician worth watching: Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Long a China hawk, Cotton is credited with convincing Trump to implement the China travel ban (though Trump didnt go as far as Cotton wanted). He deserves credit for spotting the threat and speaking out early on. Widely assumed to have presidential aspirations, Cotton has also deftly managed to avoid being seen as a Trump yes-man  like, say Sen. Lindsey Graham  while remaining a favorite of the presidents.

If the GOP ultimately sours on the presidents handling of the crisis, Cotton would be ideally situated to highlight his prescience. But thats a long way off yet, and for now its worth noting that Cotton is running ads supporting the presidents response to the pandemic.

@JonahDispatch
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

The COVID-19 pandemic has shut Santa Fes International Folk Art Market, the largest of its kind in the world.

The markets board of directors canceled the market Tuesday, as it joins the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Traditional Spanish Market and the Native Treasures Market in closing due to the pandemic.

It became quite evident in the last 10 days it would be impossible, said Stuart Ashman, IFAM CEO. Borders were closing; quarantines were required.

Were all disappointed, but underlying it all is theres this disease around the world.

The July festival would have marked its 17th year on Santa Fes Museum Hill.

The market exerts a $13 million impact on the Santa Fe community, including restaurants, hotels, car rentals and shopping. It draws tens of thousands of visitors in a worldwide revenue source for artists. Since its inception, it has generated more than $34 million in revenue, with the majority of the money returning home with the artists.

This year 160 artists from 57 countries were scheduled to attend, with anywhere from 22,000 to 24,000 visitors, Ashman said. Forty percent of the shoppers are from out of state. This year, new artists were expected to come from Iraq and China.

Market organizers are looking at other ways to support the artists, Ashman said.

One of the ways is to create an online market, he said. Were also asking the artists to make a one-minute video on their phone working in their shops and talking about what (the market) means to them.

For some artists, the money produced accounts for 80% to 90% of their income, Ashman said. For cooperatives, the estimated figure is from 30% to 40%.

For all of them, its the most significant event of the year, he said.

All artists accepted into the 2020 market will be automatically accepted into the 2021 event.

The market generates $240,000 in gross receipts taxes.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8)  British journalist Piers Morgan praised Filipino healthcare workers in the United Kingdom for saving peoples lives.

Morgan described Filipino nurses as unsung heroes in the Tuesday telecast of Good Morning Britain.

Amazing number of Filipinos working in NHS (National Health Service), are unsung heroes. Thank you to all the Filipinos who are here, doing all this, he said.

Morgan added that people sometimes forget the extraordinary workforce in the healthcare service.

Its worth bearing in mind when we talk about immigrants in this country, these are the immigrants currently saving people's lives. Coming here and actually enriching our country and doing an amazing job, he said.
I believe she passed away, said Ms. Solis, who led the familys increasingly frantic search for Ms. Correa from her bedroom in the Bronx, where she was isolated with coronavirus-like symptoms. But where?

She added: If she went to Jamaica Hospital, dont they have cameras who show who goes in and out? Isnt there paperwork to show when she arrived?

Hoping for help, Ms. Solis reached out last week to The New York Times, which contacted Jamaica Hospital on her behalf on Monday morning.

The hospital said in a statement to The Times on Monday that it could not find a patient with Ms. Correas name or birth date: May 12, 1946. The hospital declined to comment further, citing medical information privacy laws.

The suffering at Ms. Correas compact, three-story house in Woodhaven started in late March. Amparo Holguin, Ms. Soliss mother who also lived there, had felt sick for about a week with gastrointestinal symptoms. She went to an urgent care facility, where, despite her elevated heart rate, blood pressure and temperature, a doctor gave her a diagnosis of simple gastroenteritis and prescribed antibiotics, according to paperwork from that visit. There was no mention of coronavirus.

By the following afternoon, March 24, Ms. Holguin, also a diabetic, could not recognize family members. She was talking about God and gibberish, Ms. Solis said. She was breathing heavily, so they made a pot of steam to ease her airways. Then her blood sugar spiked and she collapsed in the living room.

Ms. Solis, 49, was instructed by a 911 dispatcher to give her mother CPR as they waited for an ambulance. Ms. Holguin could not be revived. Her body lay in the living room until 11 p.m. that night, Ms. Solis said, when they were lucky enough to find a funeral home to take her away.
Dame Vera Lynn was known as the forces' sweetheart. (Getty Images)

As the Queen gave a special message in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, she harked back to her own childhood in the Second World War, and quoted the Forces sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn.

On Sunday evening, the Queen said: We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.

The final words echoed the song of Dame Vera, who rose to fame during the Second World War and lifted the spirits of Britons, and soldiers, during the Blitz.

The chorus to the song, recorded by Dame Vera in 1942, is: We'll meet again, Don't know where, Don't know when, But I know we'll meet again some sunny day.

Read more: Coronavirus: Queen says 'better days will return' as she addresses nation and Commonwealth

Speaking to Saga magazine in 2009, Dame Vera said: I always tried to choose cheerful songs, that soldiers missing their wives and sweethearts could relate to.

We weren't psychologists, but we understood that it was important to express the right meaning, and we put a lot of effort into getting the songs right.

She didnt get an official hit when it was first released, because the chart did not exist, but a compilation album of her songs which was released in 2009 went to number one, making her the oldest living artist to get to the UK top spot. She was 93.

Dame Vera Lynn became the Forces' Sweetheart during the Second World War. (Getty Images)

The classic song has been covered by Rod Stewart, Sheridan Smith, and Katherine Jenkins, among others.

Dame Vera released her own message of hope just over two weeks ago, as she celebrated her 103rd birthday.

Read more: Coronavirus: 'Nobody else alive could have done that' - Queen wins praise for her message

In a video message she said: We are facing a very challenging time at the moment, and I know many people are worried about the future.

Im greatly encouraged that despite these struggles we have seen people joining together.

They are supporting one another, reaching into the homes of their neighbours by offering assistance to the elderly and sending messages of support and singing into the streets.

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Music is so good for the soul, and during these hard times we must all help each other to find moments of joy. Keep smiling and keep singing.

In another message, calling on people to pull together, she said: I am reminded of World War Two, when our country faced the darkest of times and yet, despite our struggles, pulled together for the common good and we faced the common threat together as a country, and as a community of countries that joined as one right across the world.

Dame Vera was born in East Ham, London, and rose to fame while performing for the troops during the war in countries including Egypt, India and Burma.

Her best-known songs include The White Cliffs Of Dover and Therell Always Be An England.

The Queen also spoke of her own involvement in World War Two. She mentioned her first ever broadcast, as Princess Elizabeth, with her sister, the late Princess Margaret.

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Dame Vera Lynn with a cutout of herself after she was named personality of the century. (Press Association)

Broadcasting from Windsor Castle aged 14, the then princess spoke to children around the country to offer comfort.

It reminds me of the very first broadcast I made, in 1940, helped by my sister. We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety.

Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones. But now, as then, we know, deep down, that it is the right thing to do, she said on Sunday evening.

Read more: Queen's message: Four other times the Queen gave a special address

Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret making a broadcast to the children of the Empire during World War Two. (Getty Images)

During her Childrens Hour broadcast on October 13 1940, Princess Elizabeth sent her best wishes to the children who had been evacuated from Britain to America, Canada and elsewhere.

In the crackling radio message, she said: Thousands of you in this country have had to leave your homes and be separated from your fathers and mothers.

My sister Margaret Rose and I feel so much for you as we know from experience what it means to be away from those we love most of all.

Margaret, then aged 10, joined in to say goodbye.

The Queen went on to serve in the Army, training as a mechanic.

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Linkedin Eisya A. Eloksari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 11:41 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd034f5f 1 Business Telkomsel,broadband-internet-service,telco-operator,internet-connection,COVID-19,self-quarantine,social-distancing,physical-distancing Free

Telecommunication company PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) has reported a 16 percent increase in its broadband traffic as the public continues to follow physical distancing measures amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Telkomsel president director Setyanto Hantoro said in a statement on Monday that the company had seen increases across multiple sectors such as e-learning, online meeting apps and online gaming.

The rise in broadband traffic is dominated by e-learning application usage, such as Ruangguru, universities e-learning centers and Google Classroom, he said, adding that all three applications saw a more than 5,400 percent surge in usage.

Read also: Indonesian telcoms record data traffic surges as people start staying home

The company also gained new subscribers who registered for its free 30-gigabyte data quota for e-learning apps.

The subsidiary of state-owned telecommunication company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) also saw a more than 443 percent increase in usage of online meeting applications such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and CloudX Telkomsel.

CloudX Telkomsel is a cloud-based integrated communication service that provides features such as online meetings for their corporate clients, which were launched in January. Corporate customers who are hosting meetings can enjoy free subscription and a one month 60 GB internet quota to access CloudX Meeting services.

Meanwhile, we have observed that social media traffic has been more stable, Setyanto said, adding that online gaming traffic grew 34 percent.

Read also: Its time to buy cheap bluechip shares, say securities analysts

He went on to say that the telco operator had also optimized all its available frequencies to ensure stable network connection, especially in residential areas and hospitals.

Telkomsel has also partnered with the Communications and Information Ministry and the COVID-19 task force to disburse up-to-date information to the public through instant messaging.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) will meet on Tuesday to discuss childcare provisions for healthcare workers.

Creches and schools were closed last month, leaving many healthcare workers with no childcare.

On Monday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government is working on childcare for healthcare workers during the emergency, but it needs to be cleared by the NPHET.

There are essential workers in the economy and in the health service who are struggling and want to get to work but cant because childcare is not available to them.

National Public Health Emergency Team will meet this morning on its ongoing work on #Covid19 #coronavirus. As it meets I want to thank them, led by our @CMOIreland for its tireless work. Following their expert advice, every single one of us is helping save lives. Lets keep at it  Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) April 7, 2020

While we are ready to push the button in terms of providing childcare for essential workers, we need clearance from the public health team, and that it in itself does not become a public health risk or allow the virus to be spread.

The coronavirus death toll in Ireland is 174, with 16 further deaths reported on Monday.

There were 370 new confirmed cases, taking the overall total to 5,364.

Government ministers will also be briefed on the latest developments on Covid-19 at a Cabinet meeting, and whether restrictions can be lifted.

Chief medical officer Tony Holohan said a formal recommendation will not be made until Friday.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday issued an order stating that families of healthcare personnel will receive an ex-gratia of Rs 1 crore if they die after contracting the infection while on duty combatting the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

The healthcare staff will include any person attending a COVID 19 patient. They are doctors, nurses, para-medical staff, sweeper or any other staff, whether a temporary or permanent employee, in government or private sector. If these people expire by contracting the disease during the discharge of his or her duty, then his or her family shall be compensated with ex gratia amount of rupees one crore, posthumously.

A statement read, "Any person attending COVID 19 patients including a doctor, nurse, para-medical staff, sweeper or any other staff, whether a temporary or permanent employee, in Government or Private Sector, if expire by contracting the disease during discharge of his/ her duty, his/ her family shall be compensated with ex gratia amount of Rupees One Crore, posthumously."

It added, "Upon receiving the recommendation from the Medical Superintendent/HOD/In-charge of the Hospital/Medical Institution, the recommendation will be processed by Health & Family Welfare Department, GNCT of Delhi and shall be put up through Minister (H&FW) for the approval of Hon'ble Chief Minister.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that it was 'unselfish' of acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly to resign his post but noted he had 'no role' in getting rid of the official who caused a firestorm for his administration with his profanity-laced tirade to the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

'I had no role in it,' the president said at his daily White House press briefing, adding that 'the whole thing was very unfortunate.'

He said he would not have asked Modly to resign.

'I had heard he did because he didn't want to cause any disturbance for our country. Because he wouldn't have had to resign. I would not have asked him,' Trump said. 'But he did that I think just to end, end that problem. I think in many ways that was a very unselfish thing for him to do.'

He said again that Captain Brett Crozier shouldn't have written his letter that criticized the Navy for its response to his request for aid to the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which had a coronavirus breakout.

'The captain shouldn't have written a letter. He didn't have to be Ernest Hemingway,' Trump said.

He declined to say what he thought should happen to Crozier, saying that was in the hands of Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

'They're going to look at it,' he said. 'They are going to do is take it under regular Navy channels to see what they want to do. He made a mistake but he shouldn't have done that.'

Modly submitted his resignation letter to Esper on Tuesday morning as pressure was mounting on the administration to take action in the wake of Modly's handing of the situation on the air craft carrier.

This morning I accepted Secretary Modlys resignation,' Esper said in a statement. 'He resigned of his own accord, putting the Navy and the sailors above self so that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and the Navy as an institution can move forward.'

President Donald Trump said it was 'unselfish' of acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly to resign his post but noted he had 'no role' in getting rid of him

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resignedTuesday as lawmakers pressured President Donald Trump to take action

Acting Under Secretary of the Army James McPherson, left, (seen with National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley) will be the new acting secretary of the Navy

Captain Brett Crozier washing dishes last Thanksgiving in the scullery while the USS Theodore Roosevelt was underway in Pacific so junior crew members could get time for holiday meal

In an effort to contain the fallout from Modly's action, Esper emphasized the health and safety of the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt come above all.

He noted that his three priorities are: 'First, protect our people, which means putting the health, safety, and welfare of the USS Theodore Roosevelts crew first; Second, maintain the war fighting readiness of the U.S. military, which means getting the Roosevelt back to sea, and on patrol, as soon as safely possible, and third, fully supporting the whole of government/whole of nation response to the coronavirus.

Esper tapped Acting Undersecretary of the Army, James McPherson, to succeed Modly as acting secretary of the Navy until a replacement can be nominated. He noted he spoke to President Trump after he accepted Modly's resignation to update him on the situation.

McPherson is a retired rear admiral and was the former judge advocate general of the Navy. Before his career in the Navy, he was a military policeman in the United States Army.

Modly's resignation came amid mounting criticism of his handling of the coronavirus outbreak on one of the Navy's air craft carriers. Several Democratic lawmakers had called for his head.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi was one that said Modly should resign or be removed from office as was the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Navy.

'Acting Secretary Modlys actions and words demonstrate his failure to prioritize the force protection of our troops. He showed a serious lack of the sound judgment and strong leadership needed during this time. Acting Secretary Modly must be removed from his position or resign,' she said in a statement.

'I no longer have confidence in Acting Secretary Modly's leadership of the Navy and believe he should be removed from his position,' said Congressman Adam Smith, the Democrat from Washington who chairs the armed services panel.

Several lawmakers were furious when Modly relieved Captain Brett Crozier of his command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after a letter the captain wrote berating the Navy for its handling of a coronavirus outbreak on the ship went public.

But that fury reached the boiling point after Modly flew 8,000 miles to Guam over the weekend to address the crew of naval aircraft carrier, which was docked there so sailors could be treated for virus.

In a 15-minute speech, blasted over the ship's PA system, Modly went on a tirade against Crozier, calling him 'naive' and 'stupid' for writing something that ended up being leaked to the media.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Rep. Adam Smith, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, demanded President Donald Trump fire his acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly issued the apology statement above on Monday evening after President Trump said he may step in to settle the situation

Modly's remarks imploded after they were made public. Defense Secretary Mark Esper ordered him to apologize, CNN reported, and President Trump indicated he was going to step in and settle the situation.

Modly did offer an apology but it didn't save his job.

'I want to apologize for my recent comments to the crew of the TR,' he said in a statement late Monday evening. 'Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive or stupid. I think, and always believed him to be the opposite. We pick our carrier commanding officers with great care. Captain Crozier is smart and passionate.'

'I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation of his ship,' he added.

'I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused. I also want to apologize directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused,' Modly said.

In a scathing memo to Navy officials, Crozier pleaded to be able to take the Roosevelt to dock to try and contain the growing out break of coronavirus on the ship.

'We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die,' Crozier wrote in the four-page missive.

Several people - including lawmakers and his sailors alike - hailed him as a hero for his words. His crew applauded him as he descended the gang plank of the ship after Modly removed him from command.

As of Tuesday, 230 crew members of the Roosevelt had tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Navy officials. There are over 5,000 sailors on board.

President Trump acknowledged Modly used 'tough language' when he addressed the sailors and said he may wade into in the situation.

President Trump said Captain Brett Crozier made a mistake when he sent a letter decrying the Navy's response to a coronavirus outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt but said he shouldn't have his career destroyed for 'having a bad day'

'Believe it or not, I am good at settling arguments. I'm good at settling these arguments. So I may look into it in great detail, in detail. I'll be able to figure out very fast,' the president said at his daily press briefing on Monday.

But Trump also said Crozier shouldn't have sent the memo. He added, however, that the captain had a great career prior to the incident and shouldn't have that destroyed for 'having a bad day.'

'With all of that said, his career prior to that was very good. So I'm going to get involved and see exactly was going on. I don't want to destroy somebody for having a bad day,' the president said.

'He shouldn't be writing letters like that. But it happens. Sometimes I'll write a letter that I'll say I wish I didn't send it. Not too often but it happens,' Trump said.

When pressed, President Trump declined to say what he may do for Crozier but said he would speak to Modly and Esper about it.

'The only thing that has played right up here with me is that I looked at his record,' Trump said, pointing to his head as he talked about Crozier. 'He's been an outstanding person. If he wasn't, I wouldn't even be talking about this. He's been an outstanding person. He's had a very exemplary military career.'

The president then went on to praise Crozier's military record: 'He started off as a helicopter pilot. They called him chopper. He was a great helicopter pilot. Takes tremendous skill. Then he went to F-16s or f-18's and he was tremendous pilot and then he was very smart, he studied nuclear energy and he was fantastic and very few people have the aptitude, that they have the mentality to do that. Nuclear energy is very complex, it's very hard, very few people can do it. And he did it well.'

Trump repeated that the captain merely made 'a mistake' in sending the missive and indicated Crozier shouldn't have to pay for it with his military career.

'He made a mistake. He made a mistake. And maybe we are going to make that mistake not destroy his life,' he said.

Pressure is increasing on President Donald Trump to take action against his acting secretary of the Navy

Thomas Modly, President Trump's acting Navy secretary, told sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt that their fired captain was 'naive' and 'stupid'

Modly, in his speech to the crew of the Roosevelt, blasted the captain for going outside the chain of command.

'If he didn't think, in my opinion, that this information wasn't going to get out into the public, in this day and information age we live in, then he was either A) too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this. The alternative is that he did this on purpose,' the navy secretary said in remarks obtained by the Daily Caller.

After Modly called Crozier 'naive,' a person on the ship is heard shouting 'shut the f*** up,' on an audio recording of the address.

Modly originally defended his remarks.

'I have not listened to a recording of my remarks since speaking to the crew so I cannot verify if the transcript is accurate. The spoken words were from the heart, and meant for them. I stand by every word I said, even, regrettably any profanity that may have been used for emphasis. Anyone who has ever served on a Navy ship would understand. I ask, but don't expect, that people would read them in their entirety,' he said in a statement after the speech leaked.

A handout photo made available by the US Navy shows medical staff taking a swab sample for COVID-19 testing aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt at Apra Harbor, Guam

Captain Brett Crozier was relieved of his duties after a memo he wrote complaining the Navy wasn't doing enough to help with a coronavirus outbreak on his ship went viral

Acting Navy Secretary Tom Modly, seen with President Donald Trump at the December Army-Navy game, said he fired the captain because he thought Trump would want him to

Modly also used his speech to the crew to attack the media for printing Crozier's memo.

'I'm gonna tell you something, all of you, there is never a situation where you should consider the media a part of your chain of command,' he noted in his remarks. 'You can jump the chain of command if you want and take the consequences, you can disobey the chain of command and take the consequences, but there is no, no situation where you go to the media, because the media has an agenda, and the agenda that they have depends on which side of the political aisle they sit. I'm sorry that's the way the country is now but it's the truth and so they use it to divide us and use it to embarrass the Navy. They use it to embarrass you.'

He then went on to complain about the hate being levied at him for firing the 'hero' captain, as Crozier is being referred to by supporters online.

'I cannot control or attempt to change whatever anger you have with me for relieving your beloved CO. If I could offer you a glimpse of the level of hatred and pure evil that has been thrown my way, my family's way and they are taking care of people on the shore who are busting their asses to get them off this ship. They aren't taking shots at them. They're asking how can we help them,' Modly said.

In his 15 minutes of remarks, Modly lectured the crew to do their duty and stop complaining even as he complained about his treatment after his decision to relieve Crozier.

'I'm gonna give ya little bit of advice to make this important  and often difficult  job far easier on yourselves. My best advice to you is don't ever be  don't ever worry  about being loved for what you do. Rather, love the country you are asked to defend. Love the constitution you pledged your life to protect. And, most importantly, love the people you are ordered to lead. Make sure they eat before you do, care about their families as much as your own, be invested in their success far more than your own accomplishments. Nurture their careers more than you pursue your own advancement and value their lives to the point that you will always consider their safety in every single decision you make,' he said.

He told the crew: 'You are under no obligation to love your leadership, only respect it. You are under no obligation to like your job, only to do it. You are under no obligation, you are under no obligation to expect anything from your leaders other than they will treat you fairly and put the mission of the ship first.'

Then he went on: 'That's your duty. Not to complain. Everyone is scared about this thing. And let me tell ya something, if this ship was in combat and there were hypersonic missiles coming in at it, you'd be pretty f***ing scared too. But you do your jobs. And that's what I expect you to. And that's what I expect every officer on this ship to do, is to do your jobs.'

Modly also brought up former Vice President Joe Biden, who said the decision to relieve Crozier was 'close to criminal.'

'It's not about me. The former Vice President of the United States Joe Biden suggested just yesterday that my decision was criminal. I assure you that it was not. Because I understand the facts and those facts show that what your captain did was very, very wrong in a moment when we expected him to be the calming force on a turbulent sea,' he told the crew, many of who have hailed Crozier a 'hero' for his actions.

'There was very little upside in this decision for me. You can believe that or not. I made a decision for the Navy I love, for the Navy I serve in and now serve for, and mostly for the sailors I am responsible for. Not just here but on nearly 300 other ships in the fleet. Your captain's actions had implications for them too. Imagine if every other CO also believed the media was a proper channel to air grievances with their chain of command under difficult circumstances. We would no longer have a Navy. Not long after that, we would no longer have a country,' Modly added.

In his 15 minutes of remarks, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly lectured the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt to do their duty and stop complaining even as he complained about his treatment after his decision to relieve Crozier.

In this Nov. 15, 2019, photo U.S. Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), addresses the crew

Many sailors on the Roosevelt praised Crozier for his actions and for being a leader when the sailors needed him.

'He had legitimate concerns about his sailors, asked for help in a respectful and honorable way, and then they relieved him of duty' one Roosevelt sailor told The Wall Street Journal.

'Seriously, that's crazy. If anything the guy deserves a promotion. That's the type of leadership they lack, but the type they need,' another said.

The acting Navy secretary defended his decision in an interview with The Washington Post, where he explained he fired Crozier because he thought that was what President Trump would want.

'I didn't want to get into a decision where the president would feel that he had to intervene because the Navy couldn't be decisive,' Modly said: 'If I were president, and I saw a commanding officer of a ship exercising such poor judgment, I would be asking why the leadership of the Navy wasn't taking action itself.'

He said he did not speak to anyone in the White House before he made his decision.

But Modly also recounted how his predecessor, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, 'lost his job because the Navy Department got crossways with the president' in the case of former Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher.

'I didn't want that to happen again,' Modly said.

And the president made it clear he agreed with the decision to terminate Crozier.

'I thought it was terrible, what he did, to write a letter. I mean, this isn't a class on literature. This is a captain of a massive ship that's nuclear powered. And he shouldn't be talking that way in a letter,' Trump said.

Captain Brett Crozier was relieved of his command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt on Thursday, two days after his letter calling to evacuate the aircraft carrier was leaked in the media. Video posted to social media on Thursday shows hundreds of sailors aboard the ship bidding a raucous farewell and saluting their fired commander

Trump went against Spencer's recommendation and reversed a demotion Gallagher received from the Navy.

Gallagher was accused of multiple offenses during his final deployment to Iraq, including the murder of a prisoner of war. Ultimately, a court only convicted him on one count. He was sentenced to time served and demoted.

Modly recounted that situation in his interview with The Post.

'I put myself in the president's shoes. I considered how the president felt like he needed to get involved in Navy decisions [in the Gallagher case and the Spencer firing]. I didn't want that to happen again,' he said.

Modly is a graduate of the Naval Academy who spent seven years as a U.S. Navy officer before working in the private sector. He's served as acting secretary of the Navy since November.

The Pentagon failed to provide DailyMail.com with the rank Modly held when he left the Navy or to confirm that he left with an honorable discharge.

In early March, the USS Theodore Roosevelt made a stop in Vietnam. As it headed back out to sea, crew members began falling ill to the coronavirus with the highly contagious disease spreading rapidly throughout the ship.

The numbers rose from from three initially to more than 150 sailors affected.

In his memo, Crozier complained about the limitations of the coronavirus test, saying seven who tested negative displayed symptoms of infection one to three days later.

He also pointed out the ship's close quarters made it unable to comply with the recommended social distancing guidelines.

He wrote that bunk space, shared meals and bathroom spaces are 'most conducive' to spreading the disease.

'With the exceptions of a handful of senior officer staterooms, none of the berthing onboard a warship is appropriate for quarantine or isolation,' he noted.

After the memo went viral, Crozier was relieved of command.

Modly defended his decision, saying he had his chief of staff reach out to Crozier directly after he learned of the outbreak on the ship.

'That message and all the contents of that message was perfectly fine for him to send to people in his chain of command in a confidential way so they could get acting on it. He, in fact, could have given it to me, either my chief of staff, or to me, as I asked him to do when I first reached out to him on the ship when we first found out that there were COVID cases here,' he told the Roosevelt sailors in his speech.

The outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt (seen docked in Guam on March 27) was first reported days after the ship concluded a historic five-day visit to Vietnam from March 4-9. Officials say they are still working to trace the origins of the outbreak

Sailors say morale quickly plummeted after the first COVID-19 cases were reported on the vessel, which provided the perfect environment for an outbreak given its close quarters. The ship is seen docked in Guam on March 27

And he told The Washington Post he was shocked when the missive from Crozier, which was sent to an email distribution list Modly wasn't on, went public.

'I was flabbergasted,' Modly said. 'My only conclusion was, 'he's panicking.' It was so out of character.'

Officials say they are still working to trace the origins of the outbreak on the ship and have not positively determined whether it began in Vietnam.

Data from the Vietnamese Ministry of Health suggests that the number of COVID-19 cases in Vietnam doubled during the five days the Roosevelt was docked at Tien Sa port in Da Nang.

But sailors were largely unfazed by the virus as they went on shore leave in Da Nang, even as the number of cases across the world skyrocketed.

Two Naval Academy classmates of Crozier who remain close to the family revealed that he had tested positive for COVID-19 to The New York Times on Sunday.

The classmates said Crozier began to show symptoms of the disease before he was relieved of his command.

A spokesperson for the Navy told the Times on Sunday that the captain has been reassigned to the headquarters of the Naval Air Forces Pacific command in San Diego.

Before resuming his duties, however, Crozier must complete a quarantine period.

News of Crozier's diagnosis comes on the heels of a report claiming that the top US military commander and the most senior naval officer were opposed to Crozier's dismissal but were overruled by the Trump administration.

General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, believed that the Navy should have allowed an investigation into the letter written by Crozier to run its course.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Sunday backed Modly's decision to fire Crozier

Defense Secretary Mark Esper initially sided with the officers, according to The Washington Post.

Esper on Sunday defended Modly's decision to fire Crozier.

'I think acting Secretary Modly made a very tough decision - a decision that I support,' Esper told CNN on Sunday.

'It was based on his view that he had lost faith and confidence in the captain based on his actions.

'It's just another example (of) how we hold leaders accountable for their actions.'

Esper was asked if the Trump administration moved too quickly to fire Crozier instead of allowing the military to complete its probe into the matter.

The defense secretary replied that it was 'not unheard of' for the Navy to fire a senior officer before an internal investigation is complete.

'All the services at times relieve commanders without the benefit of an investigation up front because they have lost confidence in them,' Esper said.

'It's certainly not unique to the Navy.

'The Navy has a culture of swiftly and decisively removing captains if they lose confidence in them.'

READ NAVY SECRETARY MODLY'S FULL SPEECH TO THE CREW OF THE TEDDY ROOSEVELT When I first hear you had COVID cases on here, I was actually planning on being here last Tuesday after I went to see the Mercy off in Los Angeles. So I want you to know that no one in my level has been ignoring the situation here from the very beginning. I reached out to your CO through my chief of staff very, very early on in this crisis. On Sunday, I told him that I wanted to come out to the ship and if it would be OK or if it would be too disruptive. I told him that because I wanted to be able to help, if there was anything else he needed as this massive effort was under way, to get you guys healthy and clean and safe. He waved me off. He said he felt like things were under control. He had been concerned a day or so before that things werent moving quickly but things He still wanted to get more beds. But he didnt think it was necessary. He also talked to my chief of staff and emailed back and forth with him. On Sunday night he sent that email and that email went out to a broad audience of people. I know that I mention that it was over 20. We believe it was forward to far more, even more than that. And immediately it was picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle which published sensitive information about the material condition of a naval war ship. If he didnt think, in my opinion, that this information wasnt going to get out into the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this. [A voice is heard saying loudly What the f***?] The alternative is that he did this on purpose, and thats a serious violation of the Unitary Code of Military Justice which you are all familiar with. That message and all the contents of that message was perfectly fine for him to send to people in his chain of command in a confidential way so that they could get acting on it. He in fact could have given it to me, through my chief of staff, or to me, as I asked him to do when I first reached out to him on the ship when we first found out that there were COVID cases here. He was a betrayal of trust with me, with his chain of command, with you, with the 800 to 1,000 people who, with your shipmates on shore right now, busting their asses every day to do what they need to do to convert what they do in a normal day to get you guys off of here, get you safe, get you healthy, get you clean and get you back on this ship where you are supposed to be. It was betrayal and I can tell you one other thing. Because he did that, he put it in the public form and its now become a big controversy in Washington D.C. and across the country, about a martyr CO who wasnt getting the help he needed and therefore had to go through the chain of command, a chain of command which includes the media. And Im gonna tell you something, all of you, there is never a situation where you should consider the media as a part of your chain of command. You can jump the chain of command if you want and take the consequences, you can disobey the chain of command and take the consequences, but there is no, no situation where you go to the media, because the media has an agenda, and the agenda that they have depends on which side of the political aisle they sit. Im sorry thats the way the country is now but its the truth and so they use it to divide us and use it to embarrass the Navy. They use it to embarrass you. While youre out here dealing with something that this country hasnt had to deal with in over 100 years, and the world hasnt ever dealt with anything like this on this scale. The American people believe in you and they think that of all the people in the world that can keep their s**t together in something like this, its the United States Navy and our sailors. And theyre stressed. They may be stressed and they may be tired. They may be scared but theyre keeping their s**t together and theyre taking care of each other and theyre taking care of the people on the shore who are busting their a** to get people off this ship. Theyre not taking shots at them. Theyre asking how can we help them, what can we do. How can I help the E-3 that works for me? Im an E-4. Im concerned. What do I do to help the E-2s and E-3s om this ship? Thats your duty. Not to complain. Everyones scared about this thing, and let me tell you something. If this ship was in combat and there were hypersonic missiles coming at it, youd be pretty f***ing scared too. But youd do your jobs. And thats what I expect you to. And thats what I expect every officer on this ship to do, is to do your jobs. One of the things about his email that bothered me the most was saying that we are not at war, that we arent technically at war. But let me tell you something. The only reason we are dealing with this right now is a big authoritarian regime called China was not forthcoming about what was happening with this virus, and they put the world at risk to protect themselves and to protect their reputations. We dont do that in the Navy. We are transparent with each other, using the proper channels with each other, and thats what we are supposed to do and what were expected to do. Ive got your list of questions. Ive very, very thankful to have gotten them. I know theyre all sincere. I dont think there is an agenda in any of these. But theres a lot of them and Im gonna answer every single one of them. But Ive got to do it respectfully, and Ive got to take some time so you understand all the nuances of the questions you are asking, and theres a lot of them here. So rather than answer them all today, Im gonna taken them back with me to Washington and Im going to answer them. And let me say one other thing. Everything that Im telling you right now, I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever throw you guys under the bus in Washington or anywhere else in the media, anywhere else. And I dont expect you ever to do that to your shipmates either, the ones on the shore right now who told me when Captain Croziers email made it to the San Francisco Chronicle after working 15-hour days, they were demoralized because they knew what they had bene doing for you guys since the 25th of March to get you guys what you need. And the other thing you need to understand is that we are in Guam. Its a U.S. territory but they have their own government and their own healthcare problems and theyre scared too, just like every other part of the world. And the governor of Guam has stuck her neck out big time with their own population to say that she is willing to open up hotel rooms all over this country  or this state, this territory  so that sailors from the USS Teddy Roosevelt can go and be safe. Because she believes that you all are her brothers and sisters, who are protecting this place for her citizens, so shes willing to put all that at risk to take care of you guys. And she told me today that when Captain Croziers letter came out to the public, she then had to deal with them, all her constituents, who are saying: Holy c**p, whats happening? Were going to have 5,000 people with COVI in our city without proper health care and everything else So think about that when you cheer the man off the ship who exposed you to that. I understand you love the guy. Its good that you love the guy. But youre not required to love him. I want to share something with you that I read at the Navy Academy graduation in 2018. I said it to the graduating class, but Ive expanded it a little. As officers and sailors of the United States military, you are given tremendous responsibility to respect and protect those who are placed under your command. The American people entrust you with their sons and daughters. And they place their security and the security of our nation in your hands. Do not expect to be loved by everyone for this, even though it may happen. As Secretary Mattis, my former boss, was fond of saying to us who were so honoured to work for with in the Pentagon he said your job is to protect the nation. So Im gonna give you a little bit of advice to make this important, and often difficult, job far easier on yourselves. My best advice to you is dont ever be, dont every worry, about being loved for what you do. Rather, love the country you are asked to defend. Love the constitution you pledge your life to protect. And most importantly, love the people you are ordered to lead. Make sure they eat before you do, care about their families as much as your own, be invested in their success far more than your own accomplishments. Nurture their careers more than you pursue your own advancement and value their lives to the point that you will always consider their safety in every single decision you make. Its only through this level of servant-leadership that you will maximize and empower those you lead to meet the demands that will face us in this century. And those demands are getting more complicated every day as were all learning. But its also going to incur incredible personal satisfaction during your time of service. Crew of the Teddy Roosevelt, you are under no obligation to love your leadership, only to respect it. You are under no obligation to like your job, only to do it. You are under no obligation  you are under no obligation to expect anything from your leaders other than they will treaty you fairly and put the mission of the ship first, because it is the mission sof the ship that matters. You all know this, but in my view, your captain lost sight of this and he compromised critical information about your status intentionally to draw greater attention to your situation. That was my judgment and I judged that it could not be tolerated of the commanding officer of a nuclear [powered] aircraft carrier. This put you at great risk, even though I am certain that he never thought it would. I am certain that he loved you all, as he should, but he lost sight of why the Teddy Roosevelt exists and why fate brought you all here together in the middle of this COVID crisis. Your nation back home is struggling. No-one expected this pandemic so we are all working our way through it. Your fellow sailors in the states are volunteering, putting on uniforms and running into the fire in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and New Orleans. Ive seen them: no fear, running right into COVID. Nothing is easy. Is this for anything? But from the very beginning, we have been engaged from my level down to bring you the help that you need as fast as we possibly could. Understand it takes time to flex up for a crisis this unique. Teddy Roosevelt has to stand strong as warriors, not weak like victims. The Teddy Roosevelt has to work its way through this with grace, not panic. The Teddy Roosevelt has to demonstrate to the citizens back home that it has its act together and that its knocking down this virus just like it would knock down the Chinese or the North Koreans or the Russians if any of those nations were ever so stupid to mess with the big stick because they thought she was vulnerable. I cannot control or attempt to change whatever anger you have for me for relieving your beloved CO. If I could offer you a glimpse of the level of hatred and pure evil that has been thrown my way, my familys way over this decision, I would. But its not about me. The former vice-president of the United States, Joe Biden, suggested just yesterday that my decision was criminal. I assure you that it was not, because I understand the facts and what those facts show was that what your captain did was very, very wrong in a moment when we expected him to be the calming force on a turbulent sea. There were very little upside in this decision for me. You can believe that or not. I made a decision for the Navy I love, for the Navy I served in, and now serve for, and mostly for the sailors I am responsible for, not just here, but on nearly 300 other ships in the fleet. Your captains actions had implications for them too. Imagine if every other commanding officer also believed the media was a proper channel to air grievances with their chain of command under difficult circumstances: we would no longer have a Navy. Not long after that we would no longer have a country. Still I understand that you may be angry with me for the rest of your lives. I guarantee that you wont be along. Being angry is not your duty. Your duty is to each other, to this ship, and to the nation that built it for you to protect them. Even in the midst of unexpected crisis, it is the missions of this ship that matters. Our adversaries are watching and that is why we are here. We will get you the help that you need. You have my personal word on it. The commanding officer had my personal word, from day one. Whatever else you may think of me, I dont go back on my word. And when it comes to the Teddy Roosevelt, whether you hate me or not, I will never, ever, ever, ever give up the ship. And neither should you. Thanks for listening and Ill get the detailed answers to your questions to you sometime this week. Go Navy. Advertisement
Responding to the state governments call, private hospitals in the state capital have started attending to limited number of patients after prior appointment.

The appointments are scheduled in a manner so that there is no overcrowding.

I do follow up of my patients between 11 am and 1 pm every day. The timing has been informed to all my patients over the telephone, said Dr Anoop Agrawal, secretary of the UP Orthopaedic Association, who owns a hospital in Faizullaganj.

Even if the OPD hall can accommodate 50 people we ensure only 5 come at a time and sit at a distance from each other, said Dr Sandip Kapoor, director Health City Hospital in Gomti Nagar.

EMERGENCY OPDs ATTENDING TO LIMITED PATIENTS KGMU is treating 100 patients in emergency OPD against 7000 odd patients who were treated on normal days. In Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences 120 patients are being treated. On regular days 8000 patients are treated here. Similarly 70 to 80 patients are being treated in Balrampur hospital against 4000 odd patients it would treat on normal days. Civil hospital gets 5000 patients usually. Now, only about 50 are being treated in emergency OPD. Private hospitals/clinics usually attend to 25000 patients. Now, the number is limited to little over 2000.

Every day appointment is given over the telephone to ensure keeping in view only one patient comes every 25 minutes. Hence one patient and one attendant remain in OPD at any given time, said Dr Adarsh Kumar a senior plastic surgeon in Indira Nagar.

For urgent operations the doctors have devised a new plan.

After following all protocols we perform only one such operation on a day, said Dr Vaibhav Khanna, a microvascular surgery expert.

We have ensured that apart from all emergency departments the diagnostic facilities like CT, x-ray , MRI remain open 24x7 right through the lockdown period, said Dr Mayank Somani, CEO Apollomedics super speciality hospital, in Alambagh.

The operations that can be postponed are being scheduled tentatively for April end. Many hospitals have offered their entire set up to the government to be used for isolating patients suffering from novel coronavirus. This move would help the state health department acquire them at five day notice.

THE ISSUES

Those suffering from chronic ailments of liver and kidney or respiratory problems arent able to get relief immediately for they require a doctor who is free to attend to them.

Not all hospitals have a big OPD area.

There are about 400 single doctor clinics too in the city with small waiting area. Such doctors are either not seeing patients or doing so after prior appointment. A doctor who usually visits two to three clinics is going to just one these days, said Dr PK Gupta, former president IMA Lucknow.

This is causing trouble for many patients as against the 40000 odd patients who would turn up at various OPDs, at present only 10000 are getting medical treatment, he said.

Also those hospitals where the staff is not trained in maintaining highest sanitation protocol are avoiding to see patients in person, said Dr Anoop Agrawal.

Doctors also said that majority hospitals do not have PPE kits for doctors or medical staff.
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Linkedin Brandon Bernandus and Kristoforus Sugiarno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 15:35 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd04c316 3 Opinion COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,social-distancing,pandemic,vaccine,lockdown Free

In the midst of the global chaos resulting from the coronavirus outbreak, many have wondered about the ending to this pandemic.

While it remains blurry at this point, we can imagine three possible endings to this global health crisis, and based on the current situation we can also predict how the story will unfold for Indonesia.

First is complete containment. In this scenario, countries would successfully identify all positive cases and separate them from the non-infected. By doing this, the virus is isolated and will then be extinct. End of story. Thus, if done right, this would be the fastest ending to our pandemic story. However, at this point, complete containment has become more challenging as the spread of COVID-19 has become too pervasive. As a comparison, one of the most successful cases of virus containment was SARS in 2002, with around 8,000 cumulative cases spreading across 26 countries. COVID-19 cases already top 1 million across more than 100 countries.

So far, China and Singapore are the best examples of complete containment scenarios thanks to draconian government regulations and disciplinary actions.

Second is herd immunity, which is becoming more and more mainstream these days. If it remains true that reinfection is nearly impossible, the idea then is that most of the population get infected, recover, and thus develop immunity to the virus.

The question is how many people would need to be infected and recover? Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) estimates that it would require around 50 percent of the population to be immune to develop herd immunity against COVID-19. That is a lot of people to take care of.

Now, how can we ensure that those who are infected will recover instead of dying? This is where the idea of flattening the curve comes into the equation. To limit the number of fatalities, a population needs to spread the number of cases that will occur over a longer period of time (by slowing down the infection rate through social distancing and self-quarantine measures), while concurrently enhancing the capacity of the healthcare system.

MIT scholar Joscha Bach mentioned that dampening the spread to a level that is compatible with the US current medical system capacity would mean spreading the length of the epidemic out over more than a decade. Imagine dampening the spread to a level of Indonesias current medical system capacity.

Third is vaccine development. This scenario remains the most viable now as once the vaccine is mass produced and distributed, the world will undoubtedly recover. Nevertheless, experts predict that it will take around 12 to 18 months (early to mid-2021) until a vaccine is ready.

Lets assess where Indonesia is likely to end up.

As discussed earlier, complete containment would be the fastest ending to this story. However, this scenario requires an extremely disciplined society and a strict government policy. An extreme lockdown (not partial) in China has allowed it to contain the virus and achieve zero new cases in a single day. However, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has declared that lockdown is not the route Indonesia is taking due to several political and economic considerations.

Singapore's extreme chase down has allowed the city-state to isolate the virus by strictly separating the infected from the non-infected. However, this will also not likely be our governments option due to the countrys democratic values and concern over citizen privacy. Looking at this, the complete containment scenario is very unlikely to happen for Indonesia.

This leaves us with two remaining scenarios, herd immunity or the development of a vaccine. As previously discussed, waiting for herd immunity while maintaining a low number of fatalities might take a multitude of years, and a vaccine would probably have been developed by then. Hence, the most likely ending to our story is the vaccine development scenario.

This means that our pandemic story will end in 12-18 months, or sooner depending on the discovery of the vaccine. However, what happens until then is what truly determines the ending to Indonesias pandemic story.

Currently, the COVID-19 death rate in Indonesia is reported to be around 9 percent, one of the highest in the world. This can only mean one thing: our healthcare system is not prepared to face the current and coming wave of the virus outbreak. In addition, the lack of discipline among Indonesians in performing social distancing does not help the situation. Thus, at this point, we can only foresee a dark ending to our pandemic story.

Nevertheless, there is always a plot twist in every story. If the government can manage this right and put up a good fight, minimum damage can be achieved. Serious measures to improve our healthcare capacity need to be taken. Standardization of treatment protocol, the right preparation of medical facilities, ensuring a sufficient supply of consumables, medical instruments and medicines, as well as securing pools of medical talent are prerequisites to twist the plot of our story

As much as the government can do, all this effort would in no way be optimal without the support of every one of us. It is of paramount importance that we contribute to minimizing the number of casualties by slowing down the spread of the virus through keeping ourselves at home and minimizing social interactions as much as possible. Lets be the plot twist to our pandemic story.

***

Strategy consultants at a company based in Jakarta

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
The month of April, though barely a week old, has been brutal for Tamil Nadu in its fight against coronavirus. In a flash, the number of Covid-19 cases soared from 67 at the end of March to 690 as on April 7. Of these, 637 are linked to those returning from the Tablighi Jamaat conference that was held in Delhi in mid-March. Here are five ways in which the government, faced with the prospect of an exponential spread of the virus, has acted to bring the situation under control.

Surveillance, containment: Chennai is one among the 10 worst-affected cities in the country, recording at least 149 cases. On April 5, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) launched a 90-day, door-to-door survey of every household in the city for Covid-19 symptoms. Nearly 16,000 healthcare workers armed with personal protective equipment and trained to ask the right set of questions will visit close to a million buildings in the city to record Covid-19 symptoms and create a disease database, SP Velumani, the minister for Municipal Administration, Rural Development and Special Programme Implementation, said.

Those with symptoms would instantly be taken to the closest Covid-19 medical facility. Adhering to what is now referred to as the Bhilwara model, based on the way that the state authorities locked down Rajasthans Bhilwara, one of the first coronavirus clusters to emerge in the country in March, Chennai has already sealed off high-risk areas that reported multiple Covid19 cases. Nine areas of the city that accounted for nearly 20 cases have been declared containment zones. An area within a five-kilometre radius of such neighbourhoods are completely isolated, disinfected daily and citizens are simply not allowed to leave their homes. Health workers survey nearly 3000 houses in each of the nine hotspots every day.

Ramped up testing: The governments testing and isolation efforts, until the Tablighi Jamaat incident, were focused largely on air-passengers and those with a history of overseas travel. Rather than stigmatise the attendees, the government started a helpline towards the end of March so that they could self-identify and seek testing. This has worked in favour of the state: more than 1431 attendees have been traced so far. However, since many are from rural areas, the state has directed its identification efforts there. After the go-ahead from the Indian Centre for Medical Research for using antibody tests which return quicker results, chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami announced on April 5 that the state had placed an order for 100,000 rapid test kits. State health ministry officials said that a bulk of it would be sent to smaller towns and rural areas.

Essentials supplied: The effectiveness of lockdown depends in large measure on the states ability to deliver essential goods and services to people in a manner that keeps them safe at home. The states well-oiled Public Distribution System (PDS), Amma Canteens and welfare schemes have helped no doubt, but the smooth supply of vegetables has been one of Tamil Nadus biggest successes in this crisis. The government has set aside Rs 3280 crore for measures such as a Rs 1000 cash support scheme and delivering free rice, lentils and cooking oil through PDS shops. In many parts of the state, local authorities deliver a three-kilo weekly supply kit of vegetables for a nominal Rs 100. To further ease the strain on the healthcare system, the CM has also announced a subsidy of 30% capital investment with a cap of Rs 20 crore for new manufacturers of invasive ventilators, masks, drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and vitamin C tablets. He also announced sops for farmers, including a waiver of cold storage user fee, loans up to Rs 10 lakh to farmer producer firms, as well as exempted traders from paying 1% market fee for procuring farm produce.

Farmer cooperatives: Four months ago, Tamil Nadu handed over a large part of the management of fruit and vegetable supply chain to farmer producer companies (FPC). FPCs are for-profit cooperatives that can be formed with 10 or more farmers as shareholders. Its activities can range from production and procurement to marketing and even export. Such cooperatives now run nearly 10 primary processing centers (PPC) in the big horticultural regions such as Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri. Since the FPC are farmer-owned companies, they find it easier to procure vegetables at a price that is fair to both farmers and consumers. There are cold storage facilities at all the PPCs. The farmer cooperatives are now playing a big role in door-delivering pre-packaged five-kilo vegetable boxes for Rs 250 in cities like Chennai and Coimbatore. Gagagdeep Sigh Bedi, Tamil Nadus agriculture secretary and agriculture production commissioner has been a big advocate of farm sector reforms in the state. We invested nearly Rs 480 crore in this PPP scheme and it has come in handy in the time of a huge crisis. The FPCs now account for about 5-10% of Chennais daily vegetable supply. The horticulture department has started its own ecommerce door delivery platform a few days ago that makes 1000 deliveries a day in Chennai. We have 3700 mobile vegetable units currently and plan to add 500 each day, Bedi told HT.

Social distancing measures: In order to ease overcrowding in markets, Tamil Nadu converted bus stations in towns and cities into vegetable markets. The state has some 120 farmers markets where farmers can sell their produce directly to consumers. To manage social distancing and avoid chaos and crowding, nearly 60 farmers markets were relocated to bus stands that are now empty because of the lockdown. The concrete flooring of the bus stands makes it easier to disinfect; bus stands are usually centrally located; and the large open architecture of bus stands make it easier to install disinfectant tunnels and prevent physical contact between people, Bedi said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 15:13:02|Editor: xuxin

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CANBERRA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- George Pell, once the most powerful Australian in the Catholic Church, has walked free from prison after the nation's highest court overturned his child sexual abuse convictions.

Cardinal Pell, 78, had been serving a six-year jail sentence after a jury in 2018 convicted him of sexually abusing two choirboys in the 1990s, when he was the Archbishop of Melbourne - a decision that was upheld by the Victorian Court of Appeal in a two-to-one verdict in August 2019.

In a unanimous 7-0 decision delivered on Tuesday, the High Court of Australia ruled that there was not enough evidence to convict Pell "because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof."

"The High Court found that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant's guilt with respect to each of the offences for which he was convicted, and ordered that the convictions be quashed and that verdicts of acquittal be entered in their place," the judgment said.

The decision, which was delivered in front of a near-empty court because of COVID-19 social distancing measures, comes less than a month after the court heard two days of legal arguments from prosecutors and Pell's lawyers.

Only one of his alleged victims gave evidence at the trial, with the second having died in 2014.

In a statement released following the verdict, Pell said he held "no ill will toward my accuser."

"I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice," he said. "My trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church; nor a referendum on how Church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of paedophilia in the church."

"The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not," the archbishop said.

Prosecutors alleged that the crimes were committed after Pell found the boys swigging altar wine in the priests' sacristy after mass in Melbourne's St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The High Court said the Victorian Court of Appeal judges "failed to engage with the question of whether there remained a reasonable possibility that the offending had not taken place."

In a statement, Victoria Police, who began investigating Pell in 2015, said it respected the decision and would continue to provide support to the complainants, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"Victoria Police remains committed to investigating sexual assault offences and providing justice for victims no matter how many years have passed," the statement said.

"We would also like to acknowledge the tireless work on this case by Taskforce Sano investigators over many years."
Gov. Charlie Baker said a new site in Lowell will conduct up to 1,000 COVID-19 tests a day, and another will be set up in West Springfield.

Baker did not elaborate on the test sites, saying details would come this week. The Lowell site, launched in partnership with CVS, will be announced tomorrow. The staff will likely reserve tests for first responders and conduct the tests by appointment, Baker said.

The West Springfield testing will take place at the Big E fair site in West Springfield, but the governor said more information will come later in the week.

Baker said 76,500 people in Massachusetts have been tested for the coronavirus, which has killed hundreds in the state over the past few weeks. The state has 13,837 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to the latest figures released by the state Department of Public Health.

Without question, this public health crisis continues to be one of the most challenging events we in the commonwealth have ever faced, the Republican governor said Monday at Eastern Bank in downtown Boston, where he announced a state relief fund being spearheaded by First Lady Lauren Baker.

Testing capacity has long been a concern for communities as the coronavirus spread, in part due to the slow rollout of testing authorization at the federal level.

Testing still isnt widely available to anyone who requests it, under the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions guidelines, but the state ramped up its efforts to make sure the state conducts at least 3,500 tests daily. Since last week, the state has met or exceeded that target.

As the testing capacity increases, so will the number of confirmed cases, state officials have said.

Baker, citing projections from the state advisory council, said the state will likely experience a surge of cases between April 10 and April 20.

But some suggest Western Massachusetts could see a later peak. Baystate Health President and Health CEO Dr. Mark Keroack said that part of the state could see a surge weeks after the surge predicted by state and federal officials.

When asked about that projection, Baker said the state will continue to ramp up hospital capacity preparations ahead of the April surge, but that if the surge comes later, its better to be too early than too late.

If it turns out the slope of the line ends up being flatter and longer, thats the way well play it, but again this is not something people have seen before," Baker said. This is new, and because its new, and because its not something we have lots of historical history that people can rely on, when they make judgment calls about how exactly to expect it to play out, we have to be willing  as Ive said several times  to be nimble about this and to be willing to adapt.

So far, the state announced field hospitals at the DCU Center in Worcester, the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, the MassMutual Center in Springfield and Joint Base Cape Cod. The state also plans to announce field hospitals in the South Coast and the Merrimack Valley, Baker said last week.

The state received its first shipment of ventilators from the national stockpile over the weekend. Baker had requested more than 1,000 ventilators, but in the first batch he received 100.

Some reports say that ventilators from the stockpile were faulty due to lapsed government contracts, but Baker said on Monday that the equipment shipped to Massachusetts works.

The big issue is, were going to need to get more of them, he said.

On Monday, Baker urged people to continue to stay home. He said his more recent orders, namely the one closing coastal beach reservation parking lots, was issued in response to evidence that a small group of people are failing to abide by the social distancing measures.

With a virus like this one thats as contagious as this one and in many cases, as invisible as this one can be, the most important and purposeful thing we can all do is abide by those rules and engage them and abide by them in a serious way," he said.

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Sandia stimulates marketplace recovery with free technology licenses

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Sandia National Laboratories has announced a new, fast-track licensing program to rapidly deploy technology to a marketplace reeling from the effects of COVID-19. The move is designed to support businesses facing widespread, often technical challenges resulting from the pandemic.

"In light of the national emergency, we're making technology transfer as simple as possible," said Mary Monson, Sandia's senior manager of technology partnerships and business development. "The Rapid Technology Deployment Program is an effort to streamline deployment of potential solutions to our partners in industry."

Under the new program, more than 1,000 Sandia-patented technologies are temporarily eligible for any U.S. person to use commercially for free. People can visit Sandia's Rapid Technology Deployment Program page to apply for free licenses valid through Dec. 31, 2020. The fast-track licenses are nonexclusive, meaning more than one person can hold a license to use the same technology. The website contains information on which patents are available to license, as well as information about patents formerly held by Sandia that now are in the public domain and do not require a license to use.

Sandia's new Rapid Technology Deployment Program will:

Enable licensees to invest their full resources into combating the pandemic and its economic effects.

Expedited transfer of intellectual property by eliminating fee negotiations, transferring intellectual property in days instead of months.

Enable licensees to invest their full resources into combating the pandemic and its economic effects.

"This isn't just a public health crisis; it's also an economic crisis," said Susan Seestrom, Sandia's chief research officer. "Companies need new ways of doing business. They need cybersecurity tools so they can operate remotely. They need advanced manufacturing techniques to produce goods that are in high demand. If Sandia intellectual property can help, we want to lower barriers to people getting it."

As a multipurpose engineering laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, Sandia invents technologies for research purposes and maintains patents under nine categories: bioscience; electromagnetics; energy and environment; information and computer systems; manufacturing and assurance; materials, chemistry and nanoscience; microelectronics and microelectromechanical systems; security and defense; sensors and detectors. Sandia routinely grants licenses to businesses, universities and individual entrepreneurs to use these technologies for other commercial purposes.

The free, temporary licenses come with minimum restrictions. Technologies cannot be exported, so applicants must be legal U.S. residents, and businesses must legally be able to contract with the U.S. government.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. Sandia Labs has major research and development responsibilities in nuclear deterrence, global security, defense, energy technologies and economic competitiveness, with main facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Livermore, California.

###

This story has been published on: 2020-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 7, 2020) - Peekaboo Beans Inc. (CSE: BEAN) (OTCQB: PBBSF) ("PK Beans" or the "Company") would like to provide the following corporate update along with wishes for health, safety and comfort to the PK Beans community during these unstable and uncertain global conditions.



PK Beans remains open 24/7 at www.pkbeans.com for customers to shop styles to keep children comfortable, safe and playful at home during this time. The Company has implemented scheduling adjustments and is following the recommended social distancing and precautionary measures at their Head Office and Warehouse in Richmond to ensure the continued health and safety of team members, customers and the community. The Company, with the safety of their staff, customers and community in mind, made the difficult decision to close their Flagship store location indefinitely, effective March 19, 2020. The Company is working with the effected staff to find the best possible support and solutions during this time. The Company is evaluating government support options with the best interests for both employees and the business. PK Beans is actively working with manufacturers and suppliers on suitable terms to ensure continued flow of services and inventory during this time, and the remainder of 2020.

Despite the most recent challenges experienced across the industry, the Company would like to highlight major initiatives launched recently allowing the company to remain relevant and an asset to the market environment. The recent launch of the PK Beans Explorers' Club subscription arrived at a time when parents need help more than ever, searching for fun, educational and engaging activities to keep children occupied. The Company's Rebrand has sparked positive, strong feedback and support, keeping the customers engaged and interested in what's to come later this year. With positive beta testing of a second-hand PK Beans market in the store, the Company is now actively ramping up to launch online sooner to meet customer demand within the current retail environment. PK Bean's Spring 2020 Collection, which included Children's Sleepwear, provide higher margins for the company and is the perfect collection for children to remain comfortable, safe and playful at home, with peace of mind for parents.



PK Beans would like to highlight a monthly sales increase of 47% year over year, and continue to see consistent, strong and positive return on digital ad spend.

"It's challenging for individuals, families and business as we navigate these uncertain times", says CEO Traci Costa. "We want to create assurance, that despite the global economy, we are taking proactive and necessary measures to get through this".

About Peekaboo Beans Inc.

PK Beans is a children's apparel brand with a focus on environmentally responsible clothes that are intentionally designed to inspire play. Through an omni-channel approach, Peekaboo Beans engages sellers through social platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, as well as online retailers, to maximize revenue and build brand loyalty. The Company works to promote a playful lifestyle for children by designing comfortable clothes that are built to last.

To learn more about PK Beans, visit: www.pkbeans.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Peekaboo Beans Inc.

Ms. Traci Costa, President and CEO

(604) 279-2326

For more information, please contact the Company at:

IR@pkbeans.com

1-604-279-2326

Reader Advisory

This news release may include forward-looking information that is subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward-looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking information are based on reasonable assumptions, such information is not a guarantee of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, fluctuations in market prices, successes of the operations of the Company, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such information will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking information except as required under the applicable securities laws.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54183
People are tested for COVID-19 at a mobile testing center in Dearborn, Mich., on March 26, 2020. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images)

Over 2,200 Staff at 2 Detroit Hospital Systems Confirmed to Have COVID-19 or Displaying Symptoms

Around 2,200 staff members at two of Michigans biggest health care providers have either been infected with COVID-19 or are showing symptoms of the disease, according to reports.

More than 700 employees at Detroit-areas Henry Ford Hospital Campus have tested positive for the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, according to the chief clinical officer of the facility.

Dr. Adnan Munkarah of the Henry Ford Hospital Campus was quoted by Bridge Magazine as saying that 734 staff members at the hospital have tested positive.

If we are to test the whole population, you are going to see large numbers of people who are testing positive, Munkarah told reporters in a conference call on April 6. Testing positive is just a measure of how contagious this virus is.

The 700-plus cases amount to about 2 percent of the hospital systems 31,600 employees. The Henry Ford system includes six hospitals in the Detroit area.

As of 9 a.m. on April 6, Henry Ford reported that it had 3,637 outpatients across its entire system with a positive COVID-19 result, with a total of 725 hospitalized positive cases.

No information was disclosed whether any of the health systems employees had died from the disease, WXYZ-TV reported.

According to a separate report by Bridge, as many as 1,500 employees at Beaumont Healthone of Michigans biggest hospital systemshave reported symptoms that suggest theyre infected with the respiratory disease caused by the CCP virus.

Many hospital workers in Michigan have been reusing personal protective equipment amid a shortage of masks, gowns, and other supplies, which is a concern for employees safety, according to the Detroit Free Press.

In a separate statement to Detroit News, Munkarah said, As a health system caring for a large majority of our regions COVID-19 patients, we know we are not immune to potential exposure, and we remain grateful for the courage and dedication of our entire team.

As of the morning of April 7, Michigan had reported more than 17,000 confirmed CCP virus cases and 727 deaths, according to a running tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University. These figures indicate Michigan has the third-highest number of confirmed infections in the United States, with only New York and New Jersey reporting more cases.

Peak Death Week

CCP virus fatalities in the United States numbered 10,993 on the morning of April 7, while the tally of all known U.S. infections topped 368,000.

Its going to be the peak hospitalization, peak ICU week, and unfortunately, peak death week, Adm. Brett Giroir, a physician and member of the White House coronavirus task force, told ABCs Good Morning America on April 6.

More than 90 percent of Americans were under statewide stay-at-home orders issued in recent weeks, with South Carolina joining on April 6.

Political leaders and medical professionals have voiced alarm for weeks over crippling scarcities of personal protective gear for first responders and frontline health care workers, as well as shortages of ventilators, drugs, and other supplies.
Children's Minnesota operations updates

Children's Minnesota sees young adult patients

Children's Minnesota is increasing its inpatient age limit to 25 years old to help adult-focused hospital systems manage a surge of COVID-19 patients.

is increasing its inpatient age limit to 25 years old to help adult-focused hospital systems manage a surge of COVID-19 patients. The organization is also prepared to take on pediatric patients who previously received care at other hospitals throughout the metro and state.

Elective surgeries are postponed until at least the end of April

Children's Minnesota will continue its adjusted services schedule, including the postponement of elective surgeries, until the end of April.

will continue its adjusted services schedule, including the postponement of elective surgeries, until the end of April. Select clinics will continue to operate with reduced hours and locations.

At-home visitor screenings are implemented

In addition to implementing updated visitor guidelines, Children's Minnesota also asks all parents or legal guardians and staff to complete an at-home health screening prior to each visit to our facilities to check for COVID-19 symptoms.

also asks all parents or legal guardians and staff to complete an at-home health screening prior to each visit to our facilities to check for COVID-19 symptoms. All parents and guardians will be screened again at the hospital for COVID-19 symptoms and will not be allowed to enter if they are sick.

Curbside vaccinations offered at select primary care clinics:

Children's Minnesota clinics set up a new drive-up vaccine service at clinics in Brooklyn Park , Hugo , Minneapolis , Rogers , St. Louis Park , St. Paul and West St. Paul .

clinics set up a new drive-up vaccine service at clinics in , , , , , and . This service allows Children's Minnesota to prioritize well-child check-ups for children ages 2 and younger while still fulfilling older children's need for critical immunizations.

Children's Minnesota employees make protective equipment

A group of Children's Minnesota employees showed remarkable initiative and quick, creative problem-solving to address the challenge of securing proper personal protective equipment (PPE) for their colleagues. On the first day of production, the team made 295 reusable face shields that are immediately ready for use. They hope to produce 1,000 face shields each week.

More information: Children's Minnesota employees succeed at making face shields for safety

About Children's Minnesota

Children's Minnesota is the seventh largest pediatric health system in the United States and the only health system in Minnesota to provide care exclusively to children, from before birth through young adulthood. An independent and not-for-profit system since 1924, Children's Minnesota serves kids throughout the Upper Midwest at two free-standing hospitals, 12 primary and specialty care clinics and six rehabilitation sites. Children's Minnesota is regularly ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a top children's hospital.

Find us on Facebook @childrensminnesota or on Twitter and Instagram @childrensmn. Please visit childrensMN.org.

SOURCE Children's Minnesota

Related Links

www.childrensmn.org


Hours after Bollywood producer Karim Morani revealed that his daughter Shaza Morani had tested positive for COVID-19, her actor-sister Zoa Morani has also been infected, according to family sources.

Shaza, who had returned from Sri Lanka in the first week of March, showed no symptoms but was admitted to Nanavati Hospital here, on Monday. According to sources, Zoa, who had returned from Rajasthan around mid-March, tested positive for COVID-19.

She had tested today for COVID-19 and her results came positive by evening. She is in Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, whereas Shaza is under medication at Nanavati. Shaza will be tested again after two days. As of now, the immediate family, house helps are also getting tested. They are all under quarantine, a source told PTI.

Earlier in the day, Morani had said that both the daughters were under observation. Shaza had no symptoms but has tested positive. Zoa, my other daughter, has a few symptoms so we got both of them tested. Zoa, however, tested negative. Both have been admitted to Nanavati hospital. They are in isolation and under observation, Morani had said.

Also read: Ra.One producer Karim Moranis daughter Shaza tests positive for Covid-19, family quarantined

Zoa had told SpotboyE on Monday, It has been going on since 14 days. My sister Shaza got a cold and cough and I got it the next day. It was a light fever and headache. Shaza got perfectly okay after 7 days but my symptoms continued. I had a cough too. We then decided that we should get tested. Strangely she who was asymptomatic has tested positive and I have tested negative..

The producer has backed many Bollywood films, including Shah Rukh Khans Ra.One, Chennai Express, Happy New Year and Dilwale. As of Monday evening, the number of coronavirus cases rose to 4,281 in India with the pandemic claiming 111 lives.

(With HT inputs)

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Number 10 has thanked Donald Trump for his offer of experimental coronavirus treatment for Boris Johnson and said officials are in 'constant contact' with the US government.

The American President said he had told two 'genius' drug companies to contact British authorities this morning after hearing the British prime minister had been transferred to intensive care in a London hospital.

Mr Johnson remains 'stable' and in 'good spirits' this afternoon, a spokesman said, and is breathing without assistance.

Trump held a conference call with US pharmaceutical and biotech firms Genetech, Amgen, Gilead and Regenereon earlier today, although it is unclear which were contacted.

It is believed the President was referring to drug hydroxychloroquine when he offered experimental treatment, an anti-malarial drug that he has repeatedly touted as a 'game changer' in the war on coronavirus.

President Donald Trump offered his support for Boris Johnson after the UK prime minister was taken into intensive care in London on Monday

Responding to Trump's offer, a spokesman for the prime minister said: 'We are grateful for all of the warm wishes the Prime Minister has received overnight.

'We are confident the Prime Minister is receiving the best possible care from the National Health Service.

'Any treatment he receives is a matter for his doctors.'

Trump told his daily news conference this morning: 'I want to send best wishes to a very good friend of mine, and a friend to our nation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson,' Trump said at his daily White House briefing.

'We are very saddened to hear that he was taken into intensive care this afternoon a little while ago. And Americans are all praying for his recovery.

'He has been a really good friend pretty something special. Very strong. Resolute, he does not quit. Does not give up.'

Boris Johnson was transferred to intensive care in St Thomas' hospital, London , yesterday

Speaking about his conference call with the US drug companies earlier today, Trump said: 'We have made tremendous progress on therapeutics. I had a fantastic call today that I will be talking about a little bit later.

'I have asked two of the leading companies - these are brilliant companies, they have come up with solutions and just have done incredible jobs - I have asked them to contact to London immediately.

Johnson was transferred to the ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in London at 7pm local time on Monday - 11 days after testing positive for COVID-19. He posted a video about his symptoms on Friday (pictured)

'They speak a language that most people do not even understand - but I understand something that they have really advanced there, therapeutically, and that they have arrived in London already.

'The London office has whatever they need. And we will see if we can be of help. We have contacted all of Boris' doctors, and we will see what is going to take place. But they are ready to go.

When asked to clarify which US drug companies had been asked to assist the UK he said they had 'meetings with the doctors, and we will see whether or not they want to go down that route'.

Johnson was transferred to the ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in London at around 7pm local time Monday - 11 days after he tested positive for COVID-19.

The 55-year-old Conservative was conscious and did not require ventilation, but he was moved into intensive care in case he needs it later, his office said in a statement.

Downing Street was forced to issue a statement today to quash mounting speculation, that said the prime minister had remained 'stable' overnight and had received 'standard oxygen treatment'.

They also said he had not required any mechanical ventilation.

In Downing Street's daily press briefing today, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the prime minister's condition has remained 'stable' and that the government will update the UK on any changes.

Trump (center) and Johnson (right) are seen together with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (left) at the NATO Summit in London on December 4, 2019. During Monday's press briefing, Trump called the British PM 'a very good friend of mine, and a friend to our nation'

Hydroxychloroquine is thought to halt the virus by interfering with its replication inside red blood cells Hydroxychloroquine The malaria drug chloroquine is the best coronavirus treatment currently available, according to an international poll of thousands of doctors. Pictured: hydroxychloroquine, a version of it, is prescribed in the US under the brand name Plaquenil What are the brand versions of the drug? Plaquenil. What does it treat? Malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. It is a less powerful and, by some experts' accounts, less toxic, version of chloroquine phosphate. Who makes it and where has it already been tested? Drug giant Sanofi carried out a study on 24 patients, which the French government described as 'promising'. French health officials are now planning on a larger trial of the drug, which is used on the NHS. What have studies shown? Results from the French study showed three quarters of patients treated with the drug were cleared of the virus within six days. None of the placebo group were treated. How does it work? It interferes with viral molecules replicating in red blood cells. Is it being tested in the UK? It is thought to be among 1,000 drugs being tested at Queens University Belfast. What are its side effects? Skin rashes, nausea, diarrhoea and headaches. What do the experts think? Chinese scientists investigating the other form of chloroquine penned a letter to a prestigious journal saying its 'less toxic' derivative may also help. In the comment to Cell Discovery  owned by publisher Nature, they said it shares similar chemical structures and mechanisms. The team of experts added: 'It is easy to conjure up the idea that hydroxychloroquine may be a potent candidate to treat infection by SARS-CoV-2.' Advertisement

Britain recorded a record 854 deaths from coronavirus today, taking the country's total to 6,227, while the number of infections rose by 3,634 to 55,242.

It comes after scientists warned Britain could be the worst hit nation in Europe by the virus, and record more than 66,000 deaths in the first wave of the outbreak.

The United States is grappling with the most cases worldwide, with 377,499 infections and 11,781 deaths due to the virus.

The US currently leads the world in coronavirus cases, more than 368,200 infections and 11,000 deaths reported as of Monday. This map has not had new cases added from today

In the UK, more than 51,608 cases have been reported, including 5,373 deaths

Johnson took a laid-back approach to addressing the coronavirus pandemic in his country in its early days - repeatedly downplaying the need for drastic measures such as social distancing.

In early March he appeared to be on a mission to shake hands with people - despite global health guidelines - once revealing that he'd done so with hospitalized coronavirus patients.

His rhetoric changed around March 16, when he publicly advised against mass gatherings.

The UK finally shuttered nonessential businesses on March 20 - a week before Johnson tested positive for COVID-19.

The prime minister subsequently began self-isolating at home while continuing to preside at daily meetings on the outbreak and releasing multiple video messaging urging Britons to heed social distancing guidelines.

He was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital with 'persistent' coronavirus symptoms on Sunday.

Hours before he was moved to the ICU, Johnson tweeted that he was in good spirits and thanked the UK's National Health Service for taking care of him.

British health experts have appeared unanimous in their view that the PM's admission to intensive care means he is 'extremely sick'.

Johnson has asked foreign secretary Dominic Raab to deputize for him 'where necessary', although it is understood Raab will not formally become a temporary prime minister.

Speaking after the PM was moved to intensive care, Raab insisted that 'government business will continue' and said there is a fantastic 'team spirit' among ministers.

He also reassured that the premier was 'receiving excellent care' and thanked the NHS medics who were treating him and other patients across Britain.
[April 07, 2020] NOTICE TO AG MORTGAGE INVESTMENT TRUST, INC. (MITT) INVESTORS - KlaymanToskes Commences Investigation for MITT Investors with Losses in Excess of $100,000 due to a Recommendation from their Full-Service Brokerage Firm/Financial Advisor

KlaymanToskes ("KT (News - Alert)"), http://www.klaymantoskes.com, announces an investigation on behalf of investors who sustained losses in excess of $100,000 from the recommended purchase of AG Mortgage Investment Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MITT) ("MITT") a Real Estate Investment Trust ("REIT"). MITT closed at 16.52 on February 21, 2020, prior to the significant market event that was precipitated by COVID-19. Today, MITT trades at 1.92, or more than 85% lower than its market value on February 21, 2020. This investment may have been marketed and sold to investors who were risk averse, such as retirees or other conservative investors, that were seeking income and capital preservation and were not explained the potential risks by their full-service brokerage firm or their financial advisor. MITT recently announced that it did not expect to be able to fund future margin calls. Investors may seek damages in FINRA arbitration if a financial advisor made a recommendation to purchase the security without fully explaining the risks, including leverage and concentration risks, or if the investment was unsuitable for the investor's risk profile. However, if you made self-directed trades in your investment account with E-Trade, TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, or Interactive Brokers, or another self-trading platform, this investigation does not apply to you.



The sole purpose of this release is to investigate the negligence and financial misconduct of brokerage firms and financial advisors in connection with the sale of MITT to their customers. Investors who purchased this investment are encouraged to contact Lawrence L. Klayman, Esq. of KlaymanToskes at (561) 542-5131, or visit our website at www.klaymantoskes.com. About KlaymanToskes

KT is a leading national securities law firm which practices exclusively in the field of securities arbitration and litigation, on behalf of retail and institutional investors throughout the world in large and complex securities matters. The firm represents high net-worth, ultra-high-net-worth, and institutional investors, such as non-profit organizations, unions, public and multi-employer pension funds. KT has office locations in California, Florida, New York, and Puerto Rico. Destination: https://klaymantoskes.com/notice-to-ag-mortgage-investment-trust-inc-mitt-investors/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005552/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Not happy together. Photo: Danny Feld/Abc-Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock/Copyright (c) 2004 Shutterstock. No use without permission.

To quote from one of Wisteria Lanes finest cul de sac ladies: Good friends support each other after something bad has happened, great friends act as if nothing has happened, and best friends show up at a virtual reunion to raise money for coronavirus pandemic relief. The Desperate Housewives cast will reunite on Sunday, April 12, to talk about whatever they want to talk about for the Actors Fund, but lets face it: The two people you really want to see wont be participating. We know! Sorry. Per Deadline, the terrific group of Marcia Cross, Vanessa Williams, Brenda Strong, Dana Delaney, and Eva Longoria will boot up their laptops, while Felicity Huffman and Teri Hatcher declined.

For Huffman, the reasons are fairly obvious. Last year, she became a source of intense tabloid and news fascination before and after she pleaded guilty to fraud for her involvement in the college admissions scandal, which lead to a short stint in prison and hefty fines. Hatcher, however, has made for juicy Housewives gossip fodder for well over a decade. While few of her co-stars have criticized her directly by name, an unnamed actress on the show has long been described as everything from problematic to a big star with some big behavioral problems, and Longoria once implied that it was Hatcher who bullied and abused her throughout the filming process. (Nicollette Sheridan was actually brave enough to declare Hatcher as the meanest woman in the world.) And then, of course, there was the infamous 2005 Vanity Fair photo shoot incident, where Hatcher allegedly demanded to be placed in the center of the shoot and pick her swimsuit wardrobe first. Maybe Hatcher thought she was behaving real and spectacular, who knows.
UPDATE: The government has now clarified it has decided to ease export restrictions and supply both hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol to other nations that are badly affected. Please read the latest on this story here.

India and the US could be headed for a trade war even as COVID-19 cases surge in both the countries.

India has not included antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine in the list of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and their formulations, on which exports have been eased.

The country put export restrictions on these on March 3.

Also Read: Is hydroxychloroquine really effective against coronavirus?

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

That has choked the supply of antimalarial drugs, of which US President Donald Trump has been a big votary to international markets.

Hydroxychloroquine is used as a prophylactic drug to prevent COVID-19 infection.

COVID-19 pandemic LIVE updates

Trump, on April 7, warned India of retaliation if it does not ease restriction on export of hydroxychloroquine.

"I spoke to him (PM Modi), Sunday morning & I said we appreciate it that you are allowing our supply (of Hydroxychloroquine) to come out, if he doesn't allow it to come out, that would be okay, but of course, there may be retaliation, why wouldn't there be?,"Trump earlier said.

With Hydroxychloroquine excluded from the list, the US may retaliate with restrictions on Indian goods. The trade relationship between the two countries, despite the excellent rapport between its leaders, have been frayed in recent times .

Coronavirus testing centres near you

The list

The drugs, on which exports have been eased, include Tinidazole, Metronidazole, Acyclovir, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Progesterone, Chloramphenicol, Erythromycin salts, Neomycin, Clinamycin and Ornidazole and their formulations.

"The above-mentioned APIs and formulations made from these APIs are made 'Free' for export, with immediate effect," the Director General of Foreign Trade said in a notification.

India, on March 3, banned the export of all the above drugs, fearing the shortage of essential drugs due to a supply chain disruption from China. However, many countries expressed concern about export restrictions.

Indian pharmaceutical companies have been saying that they have inventories for about 1.5 to 2 months, sufficient enough to cover domestic demand and exports. Meanwhile, supplies from China have started resuming, with COVID-19 largely contained in that region.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has left human resources professionals trying to figure out ways to deploy a remote workforce and keep these workers engaged while still making sure theyre paid, have time off available in case theyre personally affected by the virus, and remain in good spirits.

This is an opportunity to bring some creativity in and demonstrate the power of showing you care, says Cindy Swigert, vice president human resources at $1.02 billion asset UVA Community Credit Union in Charlottesville, Va. Its a unique and scary time, but its exciting to have these opportunities.

Swigert and Jan Johnson, executive vice president of organizational agility at $2.84 billion asset Royal Credit Union in Eau Claire, Wis., moderated a CUNA HR & Organizational Development Council Chat Thursday, presented by CUNA Councils.
(CNN)  Japan is committing nearly $1 trillion to try to protect its economy from the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday announced a 108 trillion yen ($989 billion) relief package  a staggering amount equivalent to about 20% of the annual output of the world's third biggest economy.

It includes tens of billions of dollars in cash handouts for families and small business owners who have lost their incomes because of the virus. The package also features tax breaks and zero-interest loans.

Abe is expected to give more information at a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Japan is the latest country to unleash a massive amount of government spending aimed at helping households and businesses cope with the sudden shock to the global economy as countries go into lockdown.

The United States last month passed a $2 trillion stimulus bill, the largest emergency aid package in history. Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and other major economies have also announced huge spending plans.

The flood of stimulus comes as the number of coronavirus cases continues to mount. So far more than 1.27 million people worldwide have been infected, while 69,000 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. Japan has recorded more than 3,600 cases and 85 deaths.

Recent unemployment, industrial production and retail sales data have suggested that Japan's economy was showing signs of resilience as the virus ripped through Asia in February, noted Tom Learmouth, Japan economist at Capital Economics. But "there is no doubt that coronavirus disruption will deal a severe economic blow over coming months," he said in a research note on Friday.

Infections have accelerated in major cities such as Tokyo and Osaka, he said, adding that concerns about a "second wave" of the virus has led residents to stay home and shops to close.

Abe also announced that he would declare a state of emergency on Tuesday, lasting for about one month  a notable development, as the prime minister had declined to do so as recently as last week.

While Tokyo's governor has urged the city's 13.5 million residents to telework where possible until April 12, many workers have continued to commute into their offices. About 80% of companies in the country do not have the ability to let their employees work remotely, according to 2019 government data, and Japan's work culture makes it hard to persuade people to stay home.

 CNN's Will Ripley, Yoko Wakatsuki, Julia Horowitz and Emiko Jozuka contributed to this report.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "The global economy just got a $1 trillion infusion from Japan"
The family of a scared 20-year-old British woman stranded in Honduras because of the coronavirus pandemic is calling on the Government to bring her home.

Freya Madeley, 20, is trying to return from a rural area of the Central American country, where she had been volunteering as an English teacher.

It is understood the British Embassy has secured a seat on a Swiss flight to Zurich on Thursday and will provide her with an official safe passage letter to get to the airport.

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Whatsapp Freya Madeley had been teaching in Honduras (Madeley Family handout/PA)

But her family, from Nailsworth, near Stroud in Gloucestershire, say the five-hour taxi ride to the capital city Tegucigalpa is too dangerous as police and gangs vie for control amid the countrys strict lockdown.

Shes scared, shes nervous, said Ms Madeleys primary school teacher mother, Maria, 50.

Food is getting scarce there. At the moment there is a complete lockdown with gangs and police trying to control it.

She hasnt got much local currency. Shes basically completely stuck.

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Whatsapp Freya Madeley is in a rural part of the country (Madeley Family handout/PA)

The family are calling for the Government to arrange a repatriation flight for her and other British travellers from Ramon Villeda Morales International Airport, around 30km away from the school she had been working at.

Ms Madeley said her daughter had her bags on a flight to Frankfurt last week but did not secure a seat, while another young British woman she was volunteering with flew home.

Shes going to be on her own there, in rural Honduras, she said.

Sister Holly, 24, said she doesnt think the Government is doing enough to help stranded citizens and that Freya has been left in danger.

Shes scared, shes nervousMaria Madeley

The lockdown in the area is primarily being enforced by local gangs, however occasionally heavily armed police will show up in my sisters town, provoking widespread terror, she said.

She has been warned by locals that the police have the authority to shoot anyone who runs away from them, and she has witnessed incidents of police brutality upon members of the public caught breaking the areas 3pm curfew.

At nighttime, no one is allowed outside and doors and windows must be kept closed, as helicopters spray disinfectant across the town in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading.

Holly said there are roadblocks, with armed men demanding payments to pass through, around Honduras and the family do not think it is safe for Freya to travel to Tegucigalpa.

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We do not know whether there will be any further flights provided by other EU countries, and we do not know when the UK government will get around to chartering its own repatriation flight, she said.

My sister is very afraid, and our whole family is worried for her safety.

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) spokeswoman said: We know its a difficult time for many British travellers abroad  especially those with challenging circumstances.

Our consular teams are doing everything they can, especially for those in difficulty, to keep Brits informed on the latest developments and help them return  on commercial flights where they are still available or special charter flights as well. Well continue working around the clock to bring people home.

It comes after the Government announced more flights to repatriate UK nationals stranded around the world on Monday, with hundreds of thousands of people struggling to return to Britain due to coronavirus travel restrictions.

The FCO revealed details of flights to bring tourists back from India, Nepal, the Philippines and South Africa  but travellers will have to pay up to 1,000 for a ticket.
Reuters was unable to determine what CBP plans to do with the information it gathers, but the spokesperson said the agency has the authority to block imports when information indicates they have been made with forced or indentured labor.

Even a partial blockage could inflict steep costs on suppliers, increase the price of chocolate and have a crippling effect on Ivory Coast exports which rely heavily on U.S. buyers.

We believe that any U.S. ban on cocoa imports from (Ivory Coast) will hurt, not help, said Richard Scobey, the head of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), an industry group. It could push millions of poor farmers deeper into poverty, even though the vast majority of them are innocent of such practices.

Olam referred Reuters to the WCF. Barry Callebaut said it aimed to eradicate child labor from its supply chain by 2025. Cargill said it had participated in meetings with CBP and submitted information about its supply chains. Representatives from Sucden and Ecom declined to comment.
More than 1,100 Oregonians have tested positive for coronavirus in the 38 days since the virus arrived in Oregon.

Many patients have already recovered. Many others have carried the virus without ever knowing they had it, either because they had minor symptoms or because they could not be tested.

But the virus has devastated other families. At least 30 people in Oregon have died from COVID-19, according to state public health officials.

Here are more developments to know Tuesday:

CASES: Oregonians staying home may have helped the state escape the worst of the global pandemic. A new forecast by the University of Washington shows the states coronavirus outbreak may peak in two weeks, avoiding a worst-case scenario that would overwhelm hospitals statewide.

JOBS: The virus is spreading among essential workers who have to report to work, including at hospitals. The pharmacy at Kaiser Westside hospital in Hillsboro closed after seven staffers tested positive. An Oregon State Hospital employee also was also diagnosed with coronavirus, as were three workers at Portland-area WinCo stores.

EDUCATION: Teachers in many school districts welcomed students back to (virtual) classrooms. The staff of Elmonica Elementary in Beaverton held a parade to greet students from afar.

RETAIL: March was a banner month for marijuana sales in Oregon, with statewide sales up 36% over the same period last year as consumers laid in stash to tide them through the coronavirus pandemic.

BUSINESS: Daimler Trucks extended the shutdown of its Portland factory again. Company officials now says their Swan Island plant wont reopen before April 20. A second Portland manufacturer, Evraz Oregon Steel plans to permanently shut down one of its factory lines and lay off 230 workers.

LIFE TODAY: Portland musicians released a new music video to support fellow artists in need. The compilation of Aint No Mountain High Enough shows artists singing and playing from separate spaces.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Some Civil Society Organizations, numbering 18, not long ago, bared their teeth to the Electoral Commission when the latter served notice of moves to compile a new register for our elections.



The 18 CSOs include Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), IMANI Africa, SEND Ghana, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF), Youth Bridge Foundation, Financial Accountability and Transparency-Africa (FAT-Africa), West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), Citizens Movement against Corruption (CMaC), Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC), Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Parliamentary Network Africa (PNA), ISODEC, Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability (ACILA).



The group came out with some voodoo analysis which they said supported their stiff opposition to the EC spending $70 million to acquire equipment with the view to registering Ghanaians for elections.



Amongst other issues raised, the 18 CSOs said the reasons adduced by the EC to warrant the compilation of a new register were defective as they contended that the existing BVRs could be injected with technical fortifications to enable them carry out the exercises of registering the few Ghanaians who would be 18 to allow them to vote.



Though the EC's superior counter arguments ousted these weak positions of the 18 CSOs, they have since been loudly battling the Commission over the matter.



As avowed critics of the EC, one would like to believe that these CSOs have the country at heart and would not turn their backs to the nation in difficult times. They are too patriotic to leave the country in the lurch when we need them desperately.



Coronavirus has paid us a visit, an unwelcoming one at that. We have been wrestling with this alien of a virus in order to send it packing and return to wherever planet it journeyed from.



In major battles, victories, very much often, depend on reinforcements. Our reinforcements in this battle against coronavirus are donations to enable us acquire PPEs to deal with the pandemic.



The fervency with which these CSOs and think tanks were suffocating the Electoral Commission over the Commission's planned constitutional mandate should have informed them to hurriedly make their presences felt with huge donations.



Some may have made their donations, the larger chunk are yet to justify why we should give them audience as credible CSOs. We look forward to seeing the donations of these ardent critics and self-styled anti-corruption bodies in the coming days.



Every one of them should make a donation towards our own well-being. Without these donations, they would have no one to preach their sermons to since coronavirus may sweep all of us away in the coming months.

Source: P.K. Sarpong









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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BARCELONA, Spain  When the Trump administration said Sunday it was beginning to see glimmers of progress against the COVID-19 pandemic, one of those glimmers was in Spain, the country that has reported more coronavirus infections (140,000) than any other except the United States, and a fairly reliable leading indicator of what may happen in other countries in the coming weeks.

As you can see from the hopeful signs in Italy and Spain  where we see, finally, new cases and deaths declining  its giving us hope of what our future could be, Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the coronavirus task force, said.

A patient being placed in an ambulance at the Severo Ochoa hospital in Leganes, Spain, on Tuesday. (Bernat Armangue/AP)

But that hope may have been at least somewhat premature, and Americans looking forward to an end to the social distancing orders that have crippled the economy may want to temper their optimism.

In the country where morgues are so packed with corpses that some crematoria have been unable to keep up  in Barcelona, those seeking to cremate remains may have to wait two years  Minister of Health Salvador Illa assured the public five days ago that the rate of new infections had peaked, while other officials believe it may soon peak  or, alternatively, has merely hit a ridge and may still go higher.

Death rates in Spain appeared to drop over the previous four days, but they rose again Tuesday, a statistical aberration, explained one official, resulting from insufficient data released over the weekend. The numbers of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units appear to have dropped, but then again Spains two biggest cities, both with the highest numbers of cases  Madrid and Barcelona  calculate those numbers differently.

And sending a mixed message, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced an extension of his countrys state of alarm, which shut down public spaces and restricted nonessential travel, to April 26, while allowing factory workers and construction laborers to return to their jobs on April 13. The move to end the two-week-old shutdown was denounced by Quim Torra, the president of the regional government of Catalonia, as reckless.

Story continues

While Sanchez added that mass testing of Spaniards is about to launch, particularly of those in essential jobs such as medical personnel, couriers and those working in grocery stores, he didnt offer details. Other reports have said that the army would be in charge of rapid testing centers and that those workers testing positive but not showing symptoms would be isolated in hotels. Meanwhile, the efficacy of tests has been called into question with hundreds of thousands returned because they didnt work, while others that test for antibodies are effective only a week or more after exposure. Health Minister Illa has stated that Spain is conducting 15,000 to 20,000 tests a day, but as reported by the New York Times Tuesday, the testing data appears incomplete.

Carolina Navarros son touches the headstone of his parents niche after his mothers burial at a cemetery in Madrid on Tuesday. (Susana Vera/Reuters)

It seems that the Spanish authorities are themselves no longer clear about how many tests are being conducted in Spain, Guadalupe Moreno of the data company Statista told the Times.

Factor in all these inconsistencies against a backdrop where countries arent using the same tests or following the same protocol in reporting increases and deaths, and the question of exactly what the COVID-19 situation is in Spain is unanswerable. But the restrictive lockdown announced on March 28 seems to have averted some of the worst outcomes. At the start of that countrywide quarantine, known cases appeared to be growing by more than 30 percent a day according to research compiled and analyzed by El Pais. Now the increase in the rate of new infections is less than 5 percent, the paper reports. Whats more, at least 43,000 of those known to have contracted COVID-19 in Spain have recovered.

As for masks, as in the U.S., Spains experts seem divided, with the Health Ministrys lead physician recently saying they were unnecessary, while some government plans to partially lift the lockdown on April 13 call for workers to wear them. Prime Minister Sanchez for the first time appeared in both mask and gloves this weekend when touring a factory making medical supplies. But, as some in the Spanish press pointed out, by touching the inside of the mask, he appeared to be giving a lesson on how not to wear one.

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Click here for the latest coronavirus news and updates. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please refer to the CDCs and WHOs resource guides.

Read more:
* Chinese health authority said Monday (April 6) it received reports of 39 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland Sunday, of which 38 were imported. Also on Sunday (April 5), 78 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were reported on the mainland, including 40 imported ones. The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 81,708 by Sunday, including 1,299 patients who were still being treated, 77,078 patients who had been discharged after recovery, and 3,331 people who died of the disease.

* Cambodia had found no new cases of COVID-19 infections in the last three days, while three more patients had recovered, bringing the number of patients cured in the kingdom to 53, said a Ministry of Health (MoH) statement released on Monday. It added that the remaining 61 patients have been receiving treatment at various designated hospitals.

* The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Germany climbed to 91,714 as of 0:00 local time on Sunday, with a death toll of 1,342, according to data from Robert Koch Institute, the country's disease control authority. The confirmed cases were 5,936 more than the previous day.

* With the total coronavirus fatalities swelling to 8,078 while the number of critically-ill patients increasing less rapidly, French authorities on Sunday warned that the virus "continues to hit hard," urging people to continue to respect the confinement. The number of patients who died in the country's hospitals rose by 357 to 5,889. The one-day increase was less than 441 registered on Saturday and the record of 588 on Friday, according to the Health Ministry.

* British Queen Elizabeth II, in a rare broadcast Sunday night, spoke about the coronavirus pandemic and her hope that people will take pride in how they responded to the crisis. She said better days will return and Britain will succeed in the fight against coronavirus.

* Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo will declare a state of emergency as early as Tuesday in a bid to stop the coronavirus spreading across the country, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, as the cumulative number of infections topped 1,000 in Tokyo alone. More than 3,500 people have tested positive and 85 have died in Japan from the COVID-19 disease associated with new coronavirus, according to public broadcaster NHK.

* The Republic of Korea reported fewer than 50 new coronavirus cases on Monday for the first time since its Feb. 29 peak as daily infections in Asia's largest outbreak outside China continued to trend downward. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 47 new infections, compared with 81 recorded a day earlier, taking the national cumulative tally to 10,284.

* New Zealand reported 39 confirmed and 28 probable cases of COVID-19 on Monday, lifting the total number of confirmed and probable infections to 1,106 in the country. There were no additional deaths and 176 people had recovered, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield from the Ministry of Health said at a press conference.

* Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said on Sunday that Australia was in a "good place" in its response to the virus, with the spread having slowed significantly in recent days. In the 24 hours prior to Murphy's press conference, 139 additional cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Australia, bringing the national total to 5,687.

* Mexico's president unveiled a plan on Sunday to lift the economy out of the coronavirus crisis, vowing to help the poor and create jobs, but his promise of fiscal discipline sparked criticism that the measures fell far short of what was needed.

* Brazil's Health Ministry said on Sunday the country's death toll from COVID-19 has climbed to 486 as 11,130 people tested positive to the coronavirus disease.

* The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa has risen to 1,655, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Sunday. Meanwhile, the country reported two more deaths related to COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 11.

* India's health ministry Sunday evening said the death toll due to COVID-19 in India rose to 83 and the total number of confirmed cases in the country reached 3,577. According to ministry officials, so far 275 people have been discharged from hospitals after showing improvement.

* The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has risen to 3,059 including 45 deaths in Pakistan, according to the data updated by the country's health ministry on Sunday evening.

* The number of COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh abruptly spiked Sunday, rising by 18 and bringing the total to 88. The death toll rose to nine as the country confirmed one more fatality Sunday, Bangladeshi Health Minister Zahid Maleque told journalists in an online press briefing.

* Chile's Health Ministry on Sunday said 4,471 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and 34 have died from the disease. In the past 24 hours, seven patients died, bringing the death toll to 34.

* Iran's COVID-19 cases rose by 2,483 to 58,226 on Sunday as the slowdown continued for five consecutive days in a row. Meanwhile, the tally of novel coronavirus infections in Israel surpassed 8,000. The death toll from the viral respiratory disease in Iran rose by 151 to reach 3,603. So far, a total of 22,011 patients have recovered from the disease, while 4,057 remain in critical condition.

* Serious and violent crimes have dropped considerably in South Africa since the implementation of a national lockdown over coronavirus, Police Minister Bheki Cele said on Sunday.

* The anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine will be used in a trial covering 3,000 patients at a hospital in Detroit, Michigan, and the results will be tracked in a formal study, said US Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday. US President Donald Trump said the federal government has stockpiled 29 million doses of hydroxychloroquine.

* The Saudi Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday the launch of e-service for Saudi citizens abroad wishing to return to the kingdom over COVID-19 concerns, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. Saudi Arabia has so far reported 2,385 coronavirus cases, including 34 deaths and 488 recoveries.

* The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday announced 294 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 1,799. Meanwhile, 19 more patients have recovered from the virus, taking the tally of the UAE's recoveries to 144, according to the Ministry.

* Palestine on Sunday declared 17 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Palestinian territories to 234.

* Jordan will start conducting random COVID-19 tests in the southern parts of the country this week, Minister of Health Saad Jaber said Sunday. On Sunday, Jordan reported 22 new coronavirus cases, raising the overall number to 345, while 36 patients recovered, according to Jaber.

* A total of 107 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Morocco on Sunday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 990, said the Ministry of Health. A total of 69 deaths from COVID-19 were reported while 71 patients have recovered, according to the ministry.
Costcutter has built 20 pop-up stores in NHS hospitals to serve doctors and nurses who are unable to get to the shops.

It comes as Tesco announced it was working on a new store at the NHS Nightingale Hospital being opened at the NEC in Birmingham.

Costcutter Supermarkets Group said it has worked in partnership with food service giant Compass to open the stores.

It said the new shops will fill units left by the temporary closure of some retail spaces across the hospital sites.

The new pop-up stores will provide NHS key workers with access to everyday essentials such as bread and milk, bosses added.

The unbranded stores will be manned by the hospitals restaurant staff and mainly make use of existing equipment within the hospitals.

Bill Randles, head of national retail accounts at Costcutter, said: With a number of retail units forced to close due to the Covid-19 crisis, it is vitally important that the NHS staff at these hospitals can easily get hold of core grocery and household products that they need.

Andrew Jones, Compass UK & Irelands managing director of healthcare retail, said: By putting in place these pop-up stores, we can take away a small amount of the pressure they are feeling at this challenging time.

Meanwhile, fast food chain Leon has launched an online delivery service selling groceries and ready-meals, with profits initially going to the NHS.

John Vincent, founder and chief executive of Leon, said: Weve created Feed Britain to connect people directly to the suppliers who traditionally provided food and ingredients to restaurants.

There are many suppliers who no longer have restaurants to sell their produce to. And at the same time people stuck at home are finding long delays on their supermarket home deliveries.

Full list of hospitals with pop-up Costcutter stores:

Addenbrookes Hospital

Cambridge

Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Birmingham

St Richards Hospital

Chichester

Story continues

Worthing Hospital

Worthing

National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery

London

Barnet hospital

London

Ealing Hospital

Middlesex

Northwick Park Hospital

London

Peterborough City Hospital

Cambridgeshire

St. Helens Hospital

Merseyside

Whiston Hospital

Prescot, Merseyside

Kings Mill Hospital

Nottinghamshire

North Middlesex Hospital

London

Southend Hospital

Essex

Leeds General Infirmary

Leeds

Bradford Royal Infirmary

Bradford

Newcastle Royal Infirmary

Newcastle

Kings College Hospital

London

Huddersfield Royal Infirmary

Huddersfield

Royal Surrey County Hospital

Surrey
Glenn Fine, acting Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Defense, testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 6, 2017. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Trump Replaces Pentagon IG, Removing Him From Pandemic Relief Oversight Role

President Donald Trump replaced the inspector general for the Department of Defense (DOD) after he was named to lead a watchdog committee overseeing how the $2.2 trillion CCP virus relief package is being spent.

Yesterday, the president nominated Mr. Jason Abend for the position of DOD Inspector General, Dwrena Allen, spokeswoman at the DOD Office of the Inspector General, told media outlets in an email on April 7. The same day, the president also designated Mr. Sean W. ODonnell, who is the Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General (EPA IG), to serve as the Acting DOD IG in addition to his current duties at the EPA.

Abend is a senior policy adviser with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Glenn Fine, who had served as the acting Pentagon IG since 2016, wont lead the COVID-19 pandemic oversight panel, Allen said. He will be the principal deputy inspector general in the agency.

Fine remains focused and committed to the important mission of the DOD OIG, Allen told The Hill, adding that Fine will no longer be on the panel investigating the pandemic relief package.

Mr. Fine is no longer on the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, she said in a statement.

Last week, when he was appointed to head the committee, the move drew bipartisan words of praise.

Glenn Fine has a good reputation as a tough federal prosecutor and former [Department of Justice] Inspector General, and must exercise his full oversight authority to ensure that the Trump administration implements the CARES Act as intended, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said at the time.

People are tested for COVID-19 at a mobile testing center in Dearborn, Mich., on March 26, 2020. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images)

Congress last month approved the major relief package to help support small businesses and American taxpayers who have suffered economic losses during the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus outbreak. The pandemic response committee was written into law to provide oversight of the relief package.

Before he joined the Pentagon, Fine worked as inspector general for the Department of Justice under Democratic and Republican administrations.

Trump last month wrote in a signing statement attached to the bailout package that he thinks the inspector general for the relief program should get his permission before reporting information to Congress about the $500 billion relief fund for businesses.

I do not understand, and my administration will not treat, this provision as permitting the [the inspector general] to issue reports to Congress without presidential supervision, he wrote in a statement.
Fourth Circuit blocks Trump admin. rule banning abortion clinics from receiving Title X funding

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The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administrations motion to stay a federal judges order blocking a new rule that bans Planned Parenthood and other clinics that receive Title X family planning funding from referring patients for or providing abortions.

The Fourth Circuit denied the administrations motion to stay an injunction issued in February by Judge Richard D. Bennett blocking the Department of Health and Human Services Protect Life rule finalized last year from being enforced in the state of Maryland.

I am convinced this case presents an extraordinary circumstance, Judge Stephanie Thacker, an Obama appointee, wrote in a concurring opinion.

The final agency rule at issue here has forced Planned Parenthood, Baltimore, and numerous states to withdraw from the Title X program. The short-term nature of pregnancy, the brief window for obtaining a legal abortion, and the imminent harm to the city of Baltimore and its residents counsel in favor of expedited, initial en banc consideration.

The Title X family planning program, which was enacted during the Nixon administration, gives up to $286 million per year to health clinics across the country to provide services such as cancer screenings and STD testing as well as provide contraceptives to low-income patients. Planned Parenthood does not offer many health screenings, such as mammograms, despite claiming for many decades that it did.

The new rule demands: clear financial and physical separation between Title X funded projects and programs or facilities where abortion is a method of family planning.

This separation will ensure adherence to statutory restrictions, and provide needed clarity for the public and for Title X clinics about permissible and impermissible activities for Title X projects, a release from HHS explains.

Planned Parenthood, the countrys largest abortion business, served about 40 percent of Title X patients and was the largest provider of Title X care in the U.S.

But last August, Planned Parenthood exited from the Title X program rather than make changes to comply with the Protect Life Rule. The abortion provider vowed to fight the new rule legally.

Circuit Judge Jay Richardson, a Trump appointee, dissented from the Fourth Circuits majority opinion.

After taking the case from the assigned panel, the en banc court then denies the governments motion for a stay of the district courts order. That order enjoined an agency rule that amended regulations governing federal grants for preconception family-planning programs, he wrote. The agencys amendments essentially returned those regulations to the version that the Supreme Court blessed in Rust v. Sullivan.

Even so, the district court found some of the rules provisions to be arbitrary and capricious. Having found some provisions improper, the court enjoined enforcement of the entire rule, Richardson continued. And it did so for the whole state of Maryland, even though only the city of Baltimore sued. I would grant the motion for a stay, particularly as the district courts injunction applies to provisions never held to be unlawful and is geographically broader than necessary.

The Fourth Circuits ruling comes after a three-judge panel on 9th Circut in February ruled in favor of the new HHS policy and allowed it to take effect across the majority of the country.



The Ninth Circuit vacated multiple district court injunctions against the rule and sent those cases back to the lower courts for proceedings consistent with the opinion.



But the rule is now blocked in Maryland until the merits of the legal challenge are settled.

A circuit-court split increases the chances that the U.S. Supreme Court may review the issue.

Under the new rule finalized last year, organizations that provide abortions must separate abortion operations from clinics that will receive Title X family planning funding.

Although Planned Parenthood has seemingly blamed the Trump administration for pushing it out of the Title X program, the Justice Department has previously pushed back against that narrative.



[T]he Rule merely requires grantees to refrain from providing referrals for abortions, Justice Department attorney Jaynie Lilley sent in a letter to the Ninth Circuit last year. If the seven Planned Parenthood direct grantees insist on providing abortion referrals even within a federally funded program, and feel so strongly that they would withdraw from the program and the public they serve, that is their own choice, not a consequence of the Rule.
A 64-year old woman died of COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday taking the toll due to the disease to seven in the state while 69 more people tested positive as the tally rose to 690, a top health department official said.

As many as 63 of the new cases were returnees of Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi, taking their total among the positive cases in the state to 636, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh said.

Asked if the state government has recommended extension of the 21-day COVID-19 national lockdown to the Centre, she said the matter was being looked into and the "government will take a decision."



The woman, who died at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here, had co-morbid conditions like hypertension and diabetes, she said.

"A resident of Chennai, she was in the hospital for only about one-and-a-half-hour and we are tracing her contacts," the official said adding she hailed from a "high risk" area.

However, she did not name the locality from where the woman hailed.

With this, the number of COVID-19 deaths in the state has risen to seven.

'Death audit' that looked into reasons surrounding fatalities was being done and an expert committe comprising government and private doctors recommended strengthening of treatment and monitoring protocols and death prevention is a key goal, she said.

Of the new positive cases, as many as 63 were returnees of the jamaat meet held in Delhi's Nizamuddin area recently, she said.

As regards the six others, three belong to a single family, one had a history of inter-state travel, another a contact background with an international traveller and the source of one person was being traced, she said.

Out of the 1,630 Jamaat meet attendees, 636 have tested positive and 961 negative and 33 samples was under process, she said.

"More samples from them are being taken and they are coming voluntarily," the Health Secretary said.

About 66,000 people are under home quarantine which includes those with international travel history, she said.

As many as 19 people have been discharged so far following recovery, she said.

A government bulletin showed Chennai continuing to top the list of infected in Tamil Nadu with 149 cases followed by Coimbatore (60) and Dindigul (45).

The least affected districts include Perambalur and Ariyalur which have one case each.

The official said testing facility has been expanded with the addition of two more centres -- one at government-run IRT Perundurai Medical College Hospital in Erode District and another a privatelab.

Tamil Nadu now has 11 labs in government and six in private sectors.

About 14,000 testing kits from the National Institute of Virology, Pune, were now available with the government and more have been ordered, she said.

Micro-level planning, which includes GIS mapping with the help of the state-run Anna University, was being done to go in for 'rapid testing' across Tamil Nadu on arrival of kits (from China), she said.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami had on Monday announced procurement of one lakh testing kits from China.

Containment initiatives have been expanded to 34 districts covering 15 lakh households and about 53 lakh people were being screened by deploying over 30,000 filed personnel, the official added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chads President, Idriss Deby Itno has joined the countrys soldiers in the frontline of the fight against Boko Haram terrorists in the country.

The Central African nation has launched a new anti-terror operation in the Lake Chad region against Boko Haram last week.

We launched the Wrath of Bomo operation. We must defeat terrorism to allow our people and especially those of Lake Chad to live in peace. This is the whole meaning of the fight that our valiant soldiers are waging against Boko Haram, Deby said in a tweet.

The offensive according to reports took place at Kelkoua bank and Magumeri where the army destroyed several Boko Haram bunkers, recovered cache of arms and arrested a top Boko Haram commander.

I went down this morning to Kaiga-Kindjinria. No element of Boko Haram is present in the islands of Lake Chad. Congratulations to our Defense and Security Forces who have cleaned up the entire island area, he declared on Twitter.

The announcement came a few days after Boko Haram killed 98 Chadian soldiers in Boma in the countrys western province of Lac, bordering Niger and Nigeria.

Military forces from Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger have been struggling to root out Boko Haram from the Lake Chad Region for more than five years.

Both Boko Haram and its rival, Islamic State in West Africa Province (Iswap), have established themselves in the transnational Lake Chad area, benefiting from its marshy landscape and operating across borders.

The Chadian military has reportedly already asked the local population to clear the area, which is likely to add to the 169,000 people already internally displaced within Chad.
Around 2,800 gyms and other fitness sites could close by the middle of June unless the government steps in with extra help, the industry's trade body has warned.

Gyms and leisure centres are struggling to pay their rents and overhead fees, and are not collecting any money after having been forced to close by the government in a bid to halt the spread of coronavirus.

It means that about 100,000 jobs could be lost within the next 11 weeks, Ukactive said.

Our nation's gyms and leisure centres form the fabric of our society, as well as contributing 7.7bn to the economy annually and employing one of the most passionate and dedicated workforces in the world, said Ukactive chief executive Huw Edwards.

He added: If nothing is done and we say goodbye to our gyms and leisure centres it will have a devastating impact on our society when we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, at the precise time when these facilities will be needed desperately by people.

The government has promised to pay 80 per cent of the salaries of workers who have been furloughed during the crisis, and pledged to back loans to help keep companies afloat.

However, Ukactive said that the Government must ensure that support reaches companies faster, and provide access to the jobs retention scheme in April.

It also asked for relief from utilities and help to ensure landlords feel less pressure from banks so they can support tenants better.

Otherwise cities and towns across the UK could lose out on a sector which provides 3.3bn in social value every year through increasing health and wellbeing, according to Ukactive's own figures.

If our leisure facilities are lost, it will be incredibly difficult to rebuild them and any recovery will be extremely slow and painful, Mr Edwards said.

PA
General John J. Pershing Statue

by Nicole Meldahl



"This is a statue of a worthy man and a gift of a worthy San Franciscan. May it inspire us, in peace and in war." --Mayor James Rolph, at the dedication of the General John J. Pershing statue in Golden Gate Park, November 11, 1922.

Statue Stats

Location: Golden Gate Park, Music Concourse

Artist: Haig Patigian (Armenia, 1876-1950)

Benefactor: Dr. Morris Herzstein (Germany, d. 1927)

Dedicated: November 11, 1922 - Armistice Day

Inscription: "In tribute to General Pershing and the victorious armies of the United States and her co-belligerents during the World War 1914-1918. Presented by Dr. Morris Herzstein, 1922."

Introduction

The story behind the General John J. Pershing statue tucked just off the Music Concourse behind the Francis Scott Key Monument in Golden Gate Park feels like the beginning of a tall tale, the kind that meanders but is worth the wait at the end. It goes: an artist, a doctor, a politician, and a newspaperman all walk into a bar

Alright, maybe not THAT kind of story. However, this a statue that remembers not only the first great world war, but also a beloved military man with tragic ties to San Francisco. It was commissioned by a philanthropic surgeon, an immigrant from Germany seemingly determined to prove himself patriotic as his country of choice fought his fatherland, but it became a reality thanks to the tireless promotion of a (recently) controversial Congressman. Both of these men, as well as the prolific Bay Area sculptor responsible for the bronze piece, also had significant ties to the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum nearby. So, what we thought we be a simple story about a statue turned out to be a much larger tale about how San Francisco survived and chose to remember World War I; it's a story that holds meaning beyond the figure memorialized in bronze.

General John J. Pershing

John J. Pershing, a native of Missouri, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and went out into a world of war. In one way or another, he was connected to most major conflicts of the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries: the Sioux Wars in the 1891; the Spanish American and Philippine-American Wars from 1898-1902; the Russo-Japanese War in 1905; the Mexican Border War from 1910-1919; World War I from 1917-1919; and World War II, as an outspoken advocate for military aid to the United Kingdom as early as 1940.

At the beginning of 1914, he took command of the 8th Brigade at the Presidio of San Francisco where his wife, Helen, and their four children - ;Mary, Francis, Anne, and little Helen - ;settled. He almost immediately deployed to Fort Bliss, Texas in the Spring of 1914 as tensions escalated between the United States and Mexico. Tragically, his family was finalizing arrangements to join him at the border when a fire broke out at the Pershings' Presidio home in the early morning hours of August 27, 1915; his wife and three daughters died from smoke inhalation, but his son survived. His sister and son joined him in Texas as he embarked on the Mexican Punitive Expedition in which he's best known for spearheading the capture of Pancho Villa. The prestige of this campaign put his name at the forefront as the United States prepared to enter World War I. After the sudden death of Major General Frederick Funston, Pershing's superior in Mexico who was initially tapped to lead our troops abroad, he was selected as Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.).

We won't delve into a military history here but the way in which he conducted himself and the AEF in World War I earned him international acclaim. In comparison with other high-ranking officers, there was a humanness about him and Pershing often personally impacted those he met. The death of his young wife and daughters endeared him to many, and several Bay Area women who served as Telephone Operators with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France during the war, like Mildred Lewis, made reference to his kind, sad eyes. This ability to connect with people is directly responsible for his statue in Golden Gate Park.

Pershing crossed paths with Congressman Julius Kahn and his personal physician, Dr. Morris Hertzstein, in Chaumont while the pair were on an official trip to France visiting "the scenes of war" shortly after the Armistice and the adjournment of Congress that year. Congressman Kahn recalled the impression Pershing left on Dr. Herzstein. "We learned what a tremendous thing he had done in insisting the American soldiers sent to fight must fight as an American army, and in gaining his end despite the determined attempts of the British and French to have the Americans fight as subordinated units of their forces."[i] Details like this weren't yet known to civilians at home due to wartime censorship, and Dr. Herzstein was "deeply impressed with what General Pershing and other forces under his command had done and done without full realization of it by our people at home."[ii] This is when he decided to erect a monument to Pershing and his A.E.F. in San Francisco.

Haig Patigian

Dr. Herzstein commissioned a well-known local sculptor named Haig Patigian to begin work on a statue that would be years in the making. Dr. Herzstein was patient, and the sculptor had to balance this work with unforeseen complications and additional commissions. The son of missionaries, Patigian was born in Armenia in 1876 and came to California with his family at the age of 15, settling in Fresno where he worked as a vineyard laborer and a sign painter. He moved to San Francisco in 1899, enrolling at the Mark Hopkins Institute and earning wages in the art department at the San Francisco Bulletin. The first decade of the 20th-century was marked by hardship for Haig as the Patigian family lost four members to consumption and the city was devastated by the 1906 earthquake and fire. He left San Francisco and moved to Paris, where his work was critically well-received, returning at the end of 1907 to marry Blanche Hollister - ;daughter of the late Dwight Hollister, a wealthy California pioneer and former member of the California Legislature.

The pair lived in a home on Russian Hill known as "The Gables" and Patigian's career gained traction from his Van Ness Avenue studio. He became a popular member of the Bohemian Club and made a living from his art, to the confusion of a registration clerk who took pause when Patigian listed his profession as "sculptor" while registering for the primary election in 1910. (The clerk asked if he meant to put down "stone mason" instead, and Patigian indignantly corrected him.) He sketched and painted but primarily worked in bronze and marble, producing traditional sculptures well as architectural adornments. He was hired to design large spandrals and four heroic statues mounted to the exterior of the Palace of Machinery at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) in 1915. Although this was torn down at the close of the fair, his architectural work can still be seen on the exterior pediment of the former Metropolitan Life Insurance Building (now a Ritz Carlton Hotel) at 600 Stockton.

As Word War I came to a close, a worldwide influenza pandemic took hold of civilians and soldiers alike - ;spreading the war's casualties beyond the battlefields. Entire sections of local cemeteries show the impact of this virus in the Fall and Winter of 1918. In late December of that year, Patigian was admitted to St. Mary's Hospital with symptoms of the influenza in critical condition, and he wouldn't recover until February of 1919.

The Greatest War Exhibit in the West

Meanwhile, Congressman Kahn and Dr. Herzstein were focused on memorializing the Great War beyond the mere erection of a statue. Dr. Herzstein was well-off; since arriving in California from Germany in the 1890s, he supplemented his income as a successful surgeon with money earned from the acquisition and sale of property in San Francisco. He traveled liberally throughout Europe where he also liberally purchased fine art, antiquities, and other decorative artifacts. He was a member of the San Francisco Club's Golden Gate Park Memorial Museum (as the de Young Museum was then known) endowment committee, and, as such, was an active donor. In 1916, he donated a life-size figure of Cleopatra and a sculpture of Jeanne d'Arc by the Italian sculptor Rafaello Romanelli, as well as a bronze reproduced by Chiurazzi of Naples from the original by Giovanni Balogna in the Bargello Museum at Florence. But his donations showcased a range of collecting, everything from pottery shards from Cyprus to an ancient Hebrew manuscript of the Book of Esther.

In February 1919, just as Patigian was recovering from influenza, M.H. de Young announced plans for a new building to replace the original 1894 structure that had been heavily damaged in the 1906 earthquake. The end of de Young's announcement was marked with the presentation of a "beautiful floral piece" from Dr. Herzstein with the inscription, "From one of many grateful citizens."[iii] Louis Christian Mullgardt, known for his work at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), was the primary designer for the new building and he hired PPIE colleague Haig Patigian to design architectural sculpture work for the tympanum. As plans for his new building progressed, M.H. de Young also made plans to expand and refresh exhibitions within the museum. This included a comprehensive collection of war trophies and souvenirs collected by Congressman Kahn and Dr. Herzstein while reviewing A.E.F. battlefields in France that was jointly donated to the Museum by both men.

In June of 1920, Dr. Herzstein and de Young toured the Museum for a better part of a Saturday afternoon, "arranging for the proper display of the gift."[iv] Before these pieces would find a permanent home in the "New de Young," the arms and armor collections were removed from display in the "Old de Young" to make room for the newest acquisitions. Numerous crates from France had already arrived and were waiting to clear customs. Crates filled with arms, armor, trench warfare weapons, cannons, munition wagons, airplanes (many parked in front of the museum for a time, capturing the curiosity of park visitors). Amongst other artifacts, their collection also included "paper costumes worn by the Germans in default of other clothes," war maps showing the Western Front and Parisian defenses during air raids, and a German propaganda leaflet dropped from "Boche aeorplanes" over American lines.[v] M.H. de Young contributed his own pieces to the exhibition, notably reproductions of Ferdinand Gueldry's crayon drawings commissioned by the French Government to document the atrocities of war.

Heralded as "the most complete and detailed war exhibition in Western America," it was a large draw for veterans and their families; and if newspaper reports are to be believed, veterans were so moved that they "forgot time and place and gave dramatic descriptions of battles in which they played a part."[vi]

The Statue's Dedication

After working in secret on Dr. Herzstein's commission for two years, Haig Patigian's statue of General John J. Pershing was announced to the public in August 1922. The San Francisco Chronicle describes it quite well. Sculpted from photographs, General Pershing's "right hand hangs easily at his side and the left is raised a little to the level of his belt, holding in a firm grip a handful of papers. At his feet is a battered German helmet, giving a touch of action to the composition and balancing the figure." His face frozen with "the characteristic expression of alertness and energy" and his stance "full of controlled poise and ease. Differing from many stiff and inexpressive statues of military leaders, the Pershing statue is marked by a sense of life and animation."[vii] In fact, many of General Pershing's personal acquaintances would remark on Patigian's skill in capturing their friend. At the unveiling, West Point classmate General E.B. Smith would say, "That face, that figure, speak to me. That's John Pershing."[viii]

By mid-October, the eight-foot gilded bronze piece was in place atop a five-foot pedestal of California silver granite (although it remained covered until the dedication ceremony). Plans were in progress to unveil the statue on Armistice Day, November 11, 1922 during a city-wide commemoration. Following the war, General Pershing had been promoted to General of the Armies of the United States - ;the highest rank possible in the U.S. Army, a position created specifically for him. He was not only still alive, unlike the subjects memorialized by other monuments in Golden Gate Park, but very much in demand and there was speculation as to whether or not he would make the journey to see himself set in stone. Congressman Kahn, Mayor James Rolph, and Major General Charles G. Morton, commander of the 9th Corps Area, all began a campaign to convince General Pershing to attend the ceremony. Congressman Khan assured local press that "every pressure [would] be brought to bear" to bring General Pershing to San Francisco, but the San Francisco Chronicle was appropriately pessimistic, noting that "Pershingis as modest about appearing with the statue of him as Dr. Herzstein has been about getting the statue set up."[ix]

On the morning of November 11th, everything was in place. The organizing committee had asked San Franciscans to decorate their homes and businesses with gold star and other service flags from the U.S. and her allies. A large military parade with troops from the Presidios of San Francisco and Monterey, sailors from Yerba Buena and Goat Islands, and marines from Mare Island marched to the Pershing statue. They were escorted by a squadron of airplanes from Crissy Field and reviewed by high ranking military and naval men, city and State officials, and other dignitaries in the park stadium. Thousands were on hand to watch the festivities.

General John J. Pershing, however, was not on hand - ;preferring instead to address the National Civic Federation in New York that day. Veterans from three wars encircled the veiled bronze figure with a ring of flags, and VIPs like Patigian, Dr. Herzstein, Mayor Rolph, and Park Commissioner William F. Humphry stood on the platform waiting to begin. "The crowd moved up and around them like a tide, pressing close and filling in the open space."[x] Trumpeters sounded a call to attention and all in attendance observed a moment of silence at 11:00am. Then Reverend Joseph P. McQuaide, chaplain of the 62nd Artillery and the 1st California Volunteers, pronounced the invocation and Federal Judge W.W. Morrow spoke, reading messages from the President of the United States and the Secretary of War before introducing Dr. Morris Herzstein.

In his speech, Dr. Herzstein advocated for preparedness and spoke of his trip to France with Congressman Khan. Specifically, he remembered seeing the American flag pitched in a battlefield, "unfolding its stars and stripes, waving in the morning breeze, keeping watch over our boys on the Rhine. With bowed head I acknowledged the mighty power of this Nation, proud to be an adopted son of this country." He went on to utter a hope for the future. "The best blood ofour allies, intermingled with ours, has been shed in the battle field. May it cement a perpetual friendship and bring the world everlasting peace."[xi] He finished by saying: "To you General Pershing, for the distinguished service you have rendered your countryin memory and as tribute to you, to the veterans of this country and the veterans of our allies this statue is dedicated," and it was unveiled.[xii] The granite pedestal was simply inscribed: "In tribute to General Pershing and the victorious armies of the United States and her co-belligerents during the World War 1914-1918. Presented by Dr. Morris Herzstein, 1922."

Mayor Rolph accepted the statue on behalf of the City of San Francisco, saying "This is a statue of a worthy man and a gift of a worthy San Franciscan. May it inspire us, in peace and in war," and Humphrey accepted it on behalf of the Park Commission.[xiii] There were addresses by de Young, who extolled the greatness of the park with a sort of back-handed compliment. "I am sure that the majority of you do not appreciate our Golden Gate Park enough, and really it is hardly possible to appreciate it until one has traveled the world over and seen what they have in other places."[xiv] Then Congressman Kahn took the stage and applauded Dr. Herzstein as "a citizen of the new mode" for supporting the park in life and not with a post-mortem bequest.[xv] He also urged preparedness in support of a bill he had just introduced in the legislature, and excused General Pershing's absence, which he believed was a reaction to the traumatic memory of losing his wife and daughters here in 1915. He then took credit for the subsequent use of stone building materials in the Presidio following that tragedy. It's as true yesterday as it is today, that politics are always in play.

Festivities continued into the evening at a large celebration hosted in the Civic Auditorium. The crowds dispersed and Pershing was left alone where he still stands today, his kindly eyes affixed on his creator's other contribution to Golden Gate Park - ;the brand new de Young building across the way.

The Final Act

Congressman Julius Kahn died on December 18, 1924 following a long illness. Dr. Morris Herzstein, his friend and physician for decades, cared for him in his final days and then served as an honorary pallbearer alongside notable San Franciscans, among them Sigmund Stern, Herbert Fleishhacker, James Phelan, and Daniel Koshland. Just after the funeral, Dr. Herzstein suffered a stroke and his paralysis was complicated by pneumonia in February 1925. Newspapers tracked his health daily for a week and he did survive, but was much diminished. In February 1926, the San Francisco Chronicle published a poem titled "A Fine Spirit is A Lasting Tonic":

"You may break,

You may shatter

The vase if you will,

But the scent

Of the roses

Will hang round it still,'

Wrote a poet

Long and long ago,

And these words come back

And hover around

As a body sits

In a big easy chair

In the apartment

Of Dr. Morris Herzstein

Up on Sutter street

And lets fall the eyes of him

On the old doctor,

A little bit shattered

By flight of time

And a little bit broken

By a life of hard work,

But sweet with the scent

Of old ambitions

And new enthusiasms

He takes what comes

With a philosophical grin

And looks forward

With an engaging smile

To the soon-coming day

When he'll be up and away

On the rolling air

Of wide balloon tires

To the cutdoors of blossoms

And sun-shining skies

And little soft breezes

In his summer home

In a California valley."[xvi]

House-bound for the rest of his life, he finally succumbed in October 1927. "He died leaving a host of friends, after a long and useful life. In the practice of medicine, he not only ministered to the sick but he gave to them during their illnesses kindness and encouragement, always doing his work with the thought of their comfort, both physical and mental. No poor were ever denied helpMany are the friends who have mourned his passing, and his life is an example which many may follow in order that their life's work may be as well done."[xvii] Attorney Adolph Sutro, of the firm of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, was assigned to handle Herzstein's estate of more than $1,000,000, and his will, allegedly the longest ever read in a San Francisco court up to that time, went into probate. Unmarried, he specifically excluded blood relatives in Germany from his will, which was drawn up around the time of World War I - ;a final act of patriotism. "If, by any act of mine I should allow any of my property to go to my relatives bearing allegiance to the enemy of my country, I should feel that I had abused one of the sacred rights of citizenship in the United States and that I had turned traitor to the principles of liberty and justice."[xviii]

He spent his money in death as he spent it in life. The principal beneficiaries of his estate were the University of California and Stanford University, with bequests providing for endowed chairs in biology, scholarships for students doing medical research, and a lecture series geared towards medical professionals but also open to the public. An avid collector of California art, the de Young Museum received many plein air landscapes and other works by notable artists, such as Whistler. Allotments ranging from $100 to $120,000 went to friends and colleagues who had been in his loyal confidence and employ. To his secretary, William Keller, went personal effects such as clothes and jewelry, and to Margaret Andrews, his nurse and office assistant for 35 years, life tenancy at his Los Altos property. Additional monies went to local hospitals, orphanages, and, of course, he left $5,000 for maintenance of the General John J. Pershing statue in Golden Gate Park.

Conclusion

The more research we do on monuments found throughout Golden Gate Park, we find that the reasons for the statues, the way in which they came to be, often speak louder than the lives of the men memorialized. For immigrants of German birth, living in the United States during World War I was not easy as anti-German sentiment increased apace with increasing hostilities abroad. It's easy to wonder how much of Dr. Herzstein's civic fervor was amplified as an attempt to prove his loyalty in light of mounting suspicions. In times of war, enemies are seen everywhere - ;even in the kindly doctors who served everyone without prejudice.

This is not to question Dr. Herzstein's loyalty to America or the purity of his philanthropic intent, which is clear, but rather to situate him within a much larger dynamic. Late 19th-century immigrants and their communities were responsible for numerous statues in Golden Gate Park. They were grateful to find a home on foreign shores and these gifts to San Francisco reflect that, but It was also a way for these new Americans to claim territory, establish belonging, and be seen. In the process, they helped to create a park for everybody.

Sources not cited in the text:

"Rose Patigian Dead," San Francisco Chronicle, November 22, 1905; Marriage License, San Francisco Chronicle, December 31, 1907; "Miss Blanche Hollister and Haig Patigian Wed at Grace Church," San Francisco Chronicle, January 2, 1908; Patigian resisters for the primary election; "Bohemians Unveil a Bronze of Bromley," San Francisco Chronicle, April 15, 1911; "Patigian Designs Statue for the Hall of Justice," San Francisco Chronicle, October 8, 1912; "Haig Patigian Completes First Exposition Work," San Francisco Chronicle, September 21, 1913; "Heroic Statues for Exposition," San Francisco Chronicle, July 4, 1914; "Haig Patigian III With Influenza," San Francisco Chronicle, December 23, 1918; Patigian recovering from influenza; FAMSF Artist Listing; "Fine Statues Given to Park Museum," San Francisco Chronicle, January 17, 1916; "Park Museum is Mecca for Lovers of Art," San Francisco Chronicle, January 24, 1916; "Gifts to Park Memorial Museum Are Increasing," San Francisco Chronicle, May 15, 1916; "Propaganda Leaflet in S.F. Museum," San Francisco Chronicle, January 2, 1919; "Crayon Reproductions of Atrocities of War," San Francisco Chronicle, June 29, 1919; "Plan to Extend Memorial Museum and to Foster Art in S.F. is Told by M.H. de Young," San Francisco Chronicle, February 1, 1920; "Main Corridor at Museum is Big Attraction," San Francisco Chronicle, October 10, 1921; "To Unveil Statue," San Francisco Chronicle, October 3, 1922; "Mayor Appoints Committee to Plan for Armistice Day," San Francisco Chronicle, October 26, 1922; "General Pershing Expected to Be Here for Ceremonies on Armistice Day," San Francisco Chronicle, October 27, 1922; "General Pershing Statue Will Be Unveiled," San Francisco Chronicle, November 4, 1922; "Every Branch of Service to Show in Line," San Francisco Chronicle, November 11, 1922; "Judge Morrow Speaks at Pershing Statue Unveiling," San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 1922; "Tribute Marks Observance of Armistice Day," San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 1922; "Dr. Morris Herzstein Victim of Pneumonia," San Francisco Chronicle, February 3, 1925; "Simple Rites for Pioneer," San Francisco Chronicle, October 26, 1927; "Stanford and U.C. Named Legatees of S.F. Physician," San Francisco Chronicle, November 2, 1927; University of California Register, 1954;

[i] "Statue of Pershing to Be Unveiled on Armistice Day," San Francisco Chronicle, October 15, 1922; .

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] "Work of Collecting Exhibit Takes Mr. De Young Greater Part of 24 Years," San Francisco Chronicle, February 23, 1919;

[iv] "Big Collection of Trophies of War Here Soon," San Francisco Chronicle, June 16, 1919;

[v] "Canvas of King Louis XV in The Battle of Laces' Gift to Memorial Museum," San Francisco Chronicle, June 22, 1919; .

[vi] "War Trophies Elicit Tales from Heroes," San Francisco Chronicle, August 4, 1919;

[vii] "General Pershing's Statue to be Placed in Park," San Francisco Chronicle, August 6, 1922; .

[viii] "San Francisco Pays Tribute to War Heroes," San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 1922;

[ix] "Statue of Pershing to Be Unveiled on Armistice Day," San Francisco Chronicle, October 15, 1922;

[x] "San Francisco Pays Tribute to War Heroes," San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 1922;

[xi] "Dr. Herzstein Pays Honor to Gen. Pershing," San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 1922;

[xii] "San Francisco Pays Tribute to War Heroes," San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 1922;

[xiii] Ibid.

[xiv] Ibid.

[xv] Ibid.

[xvi] "Yir Frein' Scotty Philosophizes," San Francisco Chronicle, February 9, 1926;

[xvii] "Dr. Morris Herzstein Leaves Name to Be Remembered," San Francisco Chronicle, November 2, 1927;

[xviii] "$1,000,000 Estate of Herzstein Probated," San Francisco Chronicle, November 18, 1927; .

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Honor Blackman, the actress, who has died aged 94, was once described as the permissive societys first sex goddess for her television performance as the leather-clad, judo-kicking Cathy Gale in The Avengers, and as Pussy Galore (also leather-clad) in the 1964 Bond film Goldfinger.

Honor Blackman in a publicity photo for the film Goldfinger, circa 1964. Credit:Getty

She had taken small parts in films before she joined the cast of the cult television spy-fi The Avengers in 1962. The show had begun a year earlier with Patrick Macnee  as the debonair secret agent John Steed  playing a supporting role to Ian Hendry.

But when Hendry left and Macnee was promoted to the lead, producers took the decision  radical for the time  of pairing him with a female partner who was more than a match for him and the villains with whom they did battle every week.

Cathy Gale was the first danger-woman to appear on the nations television screens and it was the actress herself who shaped the character. She wore black leather, according to Macnee, because her trousers kept splitting when she inflicted her judo kicks on the baddies, and she took up judo, she recalled, because the script just got so boring. It always said, Cathy reaches into her handbag for a gun.
By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan National Art Museum has has launched an action in support of the country's medical workers.

Dear friends, our doctors are now day and night standing guard over peace, stability and most importantly, the health of the country's population. We think that today each of us would like to share warmth and support the doctors and their patients. We decided to announce the collection of artworks in support for medical workers. Please, send your works in any genres: posters, comics, computer graphics, videos, drawings, photographs. The choice of creative tools is yours. All works will periodically appear on our official website and social networks. All art works are printed on color printers and sent to the city hospitals ", the message said.

To join the action, send your art works to the following e-mail:

[email protected]

Founded in 1937, the National Art Museum consists of two buildings standing next to each other.

Over 3,000 items in 60 rooms are on permanent display at the museum. Moreover, about 12,000 items are kept in storage.

Art connoisseurs have a chance to enjoy the best examples of decorative-applied arts of Western Europe.

Art works of Italian, French, German and Polish painters are displayed at the museum.

The second edifice built in 1885 houses Eastern art, represented particularly by Persian, Turkish, Chinese and Japanese art.

Russian art is represented by paintings of Karl Briullov, Alexey Venetsianov, Vasily Vereshchagin, Isaac Levitan, Vladimir Makovsky, Valentin Serov, Vladimir Borovikovsky, Vasily Tropinin, Konstantin Korovin and Ivan Shishkin. There are also restored samples of Russian avant-garde.

The works of Azerbaijani artists Mir Mohsun Navvab, Bahruz Kangarli, Tahir Salahov, Azim Azimzade, Salam Salamzade, Vidadi Narimanbeyov, Mikail Abdullayev, Togrul Narimanbeyov and sculptor Omar Eldarov are also kept in the museum halls.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Delhi High Court dismisses the plea of Shivinder Mohan Singh, the former promoter Ranbaxy Laboratories, seeking interim bail in cases related to cheating and money laundering matter.

Delhi High Court On Tuesday rejected the interim bail plea of Shivinder Mohan Singh, the former promoter of Ranbaxy Laboratories, in connection with a cheating and money laundering case.

While dismissing Singh's bail plea, Justice Mukta Gupta observed that the petitioner is allegedly involved in offence punishable and that too under PMLA and he is not a fit case to be from the jail as part of the move to decongest jails in the national capital due to coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

In his plea the former Ranbaxy Laboratories promoted had sought requested the court to direct the Superintendent of Tihar Jail to release him on interim bail for a period of 60 days due to coronavirus outbreak.

Singh is facing two cases under various charges dealing with criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy being probed by Economic Offences Wing. A case has been also registred by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against him under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Singh had mentioned in his bail application that due to the over-crowding in the jails it is not possible to maintain social distancing, which is required to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police had arrested Shivinder Singh on October 10, 2019. It may be recalled that Shivinder Singh and his brother Malvinder Mohan Singh were booked by Economics Offence Wing of Delhi Police in March 2019 on charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy and breach of trust related to Religare Enterprises and its subsidiary Religare Finvest Limited (RFL).
India has partially eased restrictions on export of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol, cited by some as key to the fight against Covid-19, to fulfil existing orders and to meet the needs of neighbouring countries, but only after building its own stockpile of the drug.

The move came late on Monday, hours ahead of a conference by US President Donald Trump, who spoke of retaliation if India didnt do so.

People familiar with developments, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said existing orders from other countries, including the US, for hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol will be cleared only after meeting all domestic requirements.

The external affairs ministry said the two drugs will be supplied in appropriate quantities to all neighbouring countries dependent on Indias capabilities.

India, the largest producer of hydroxychloroquine, initially banned exports of the drug on March 25 to ensure adequate domestic supplies. Rules were tightened on April 4 by barring exports from special economic zones (SEZs) and export-oriented units (EOUs), where such bans dont usually apply.

However, Trump and Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro called on India to permit the supply of the drug to cope with Covid-19 cases in their countries. Early on Tuesday, Trump spoke about retaliation if India didnt lift its hold on US orders.

But even before Trump warned India of retaliation, the Modi government had communicated to all countries, including the US, the change in policy to facilitate supply of critical drugs through institutionalised channels. The empowered committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided on Monday to lift export restrictions on 14 drugs and to licence the export of hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol after reconciling with domestic demand.

One of the people cited above, who declined to be named, said: There has been a partial lifting of the ban, but (export of) hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol exports will continue to be restricted. Depending on availability of stocks of hydroxychloroquine after meeting domestic requirements, existing orders will be cleared.

The department of pharmaceuticals under the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers and the external affairs ministry will decide on allocations on a case-to-case basis in view of the humanitarian situation related to the pandemic, the people said.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine will be kept in a licenced category and their demand position would be continuously monitored. He added, However, the stock position could allow our companies to meet the export commitments that they had contracted.

Srivastava said India had decided to licence paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine in appropriate quantities to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on our capabilities.

Explaining the governments move, a senior South Block official said: It is not only about hydroxychloroquine or the US. The Indian pharmaceutical industry supplies HIV drugs to South Africa, paracetamol to the UK and 80% of all drugs to the neighbourhood and it will supply hydroxychloroquine to the US, Spain, Germany and Brazil.

Behind Modis decision on easing the export ban is also the message that India wont walk out of commitments on critical drugs.

The Indian Council of Medical Research has said: Hydroxychloroquine is found to be effective against coronavirus in laboratory and in-vivo studies.

Indias National Taskforce for Covid-19 has recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine for infections among asymptomatic health care workers involved in the care of suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19 and asymptomatic household contacts of laboratory confirmed cases.
The good news is that thanks to Democratic pressure, the CARES Act, the $2 trillion not-a-stimulus bill that became law less than three weeks after Trump dismissed the notion that COVID-19 might pose an economic problem, is mostly focused on the right things. The core provisions of the legislation are aid to hospitals, the unemployed and small businesses that maintain their payrolls; these are exactly the kinds of things we should be doing.
Some 1.25 billion workers are seeing their livelihoods threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations said on Tuesday, warning it was the "worst global crisis" since World War II.

In a fresh study, the International Labour Organization warned that the global spread of the new coronavirus and the drastic measures taken to rein in the disease would, during the second quarter of 2020 alone, wipe out 6.7 per cent of working hours globally.

That is equivalent to 195 million full-time workers, the UN agency pointed out.

The study comes as the number of cases of the new coronavirus, which first emerged in China late last year, soared past 1.35 million worldwide, including more than 75,500 deaths, according to a tally compiled by AFP from official sources.

The report found that the Asia Pacific region would see the greatest loss in hours worked, with the equivalent of 125 million full-time jobs obliterated there over the next three months.

"The pandemic is having very serious consequences for the world of work," ILO chief Guy Ryder told reporters in a virtual briefing.

"Just over four out of every five workers live in a country where partial or total lockdowns are in operation," he pointed out, with a full 81 percent of the global workforce of 3.3 billion people now affected.

The agency said it expected there would be "huge losses" across all different income groups, especially in upper-middle income countries. "This far exceeds the effects of the 2008-9 financial crisis," it said.

And it cautioned that the number of people added to the world's unemployment rolls this year due to the pandemic was now expected to be "significantly higher" than the 25 million it projected just two weeks ago. That comes on top of the nearly 190 million people registered as jobless in 2019, prior to the pandemic, it said.

"During the past two weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified and expanded in terms of its global reach, with huge impacts on public health and unprecedented shocks to economies and labour markets," the study said.

"It is the worst global crisis since the Second World War."



ILO said that a full 1.25 billion workers were currently employed in sectors identified as being at high risk of "drastic and devastating" increases in layoffs and cuts in wage and working hours.

Many of these people "are in low-paid, low-skilled jobs, where a sudden loss of income is devastating," it said.

At the same time, some two billion people worldwide work in the informal sector, mainly in poorer countries, and "are particularly at risk," ILO said.

"Workers and businesses are facing catastrophe, in both developed and developing economies," Ryder said in a statement.

"We have to move fast, decisively, and together. The right, urgent, measures, could make the difference between survival and collapse."



ILO called for "large-scale, integrated policy measures" to help get employers and workers through the crisis, including broad support to enterprises, employment and incomes, stimulus packages for economies and jobs, and shoring up protections for workers in the workplace.

"The choices we make today will directly affect the way this crisis unfolds and so the lives of billions of people," Ryder said, stressing that "with the right measures we can limit its impact and the scars it leaves".

"We must aim to build back better so that our new systems are safer, fairer and more sustainable than those that allowed this crisis to happen.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Haryana government on Tuesday lodged a protest with the Delhi government, alleging that they failed to inform them about a state police sub-inspector who died on April 4 at a hospital in the national capital after contracting Covid-19.

Charging some of the deceaseds family members and the hospital with concealing information, cases have also been registered against them. Haryana home minister Anil Vij said the sub-inspector from Sonepat was admitted to a private hospital in Delhi last month after he suffered a brain stroke. Neither the Delhi government nor hospital authorities or even the deceaseds family gave any information that he had tested positive for the infection, the minister said.

On Tuesday, we lodged a strong protest with the Delhi government and our state chief secretary talked to her counterpart in this regard. A sub-inspector of the Haryana Police died in Delhi, but we were not informed, Vij said. The minister said they handed over the body to the family, which also concealed the information.

Many people participated in the deceaseds last rites in Sonepat and several of his colleagues from the police station where he worked also took part in the funeral. He was also given a gun salute. Later, we learnt that he had tested Covid positive, Vij said. I enquired from my officials about this, but they said they had no information. This is a big lapse on part of the Delhi government that they failed to inform us, he said.

Vij said 30-40 people, including police officials and some members of the deceaseds family have been quarantined after the revelation.

A case has also been registered against some of the deceaseds family members under Sections 269 and 270 of the IPC for concealing the information. We have also registered a case against the Delhi hospital, he said.
[April 06, 2020] Strategy Analytics: China: One in Three Consumers Delay or Cancel Planned 5G and Smartphone Purchases

Strategy Analytics (News - Alert) wireless smartphones team has released "China Smartphone: Consumer Purchase Intentions Post Covid-19" based on a survey of 1,300 consumers March 21-25. The report concludes that although Chinese are more optimistic about a rapid sling shot return to normal than US or European consumers, smartphone replacement and 5G adoption have certainly been slowed. Other key findings: This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200406005735/en/ China COVID-19 Smartphone Purchasing Plans Impact (Source (News - Alert): Strategy Analytics 2020) Two thirds have postponed a planned trip while 40% have delayed purchases of cars, furniture, major appliances.

Smartphone and 5G were not immune from delayed purchasing in China. 37% have delayed a new smartphone purchase and 32% delayed 5G adoption.

Apple (News - Alert) users not surprisingly are he most optimistic with 41% intending to buy a new smartphone device as planned or sooner than planned.

In contrast, Huawei (News - Alert) owners were more broadly split with 42% delaying or cancelling planned purchases but another one in four expect to buy as scheduled.



David Kerr VP of Wireless at Strategy Analytics noted "Beyond the death toll and infection count, the economic price to pay in China will be a significant decline in GDP growth and almost certainly some pullback on discretionary expenditures by a generation of Chinese who have never known anything but boom times." Linda Sui Director of Smartphone research added "The supply chain and full ecosystem may be back up to speed as we enter Q2, 2020 but it is clear that a significant portion of consumers are NOT yet ready to return to previous patterns and purchase intentions. Operators, vendors and retailers will have to work extra hard to persuade hesitant smartphone owners that new devices and new 5G services are worth making an investment in relative to other priorities".

"China Smartphone: Consumer Purchase Intentions Post Covid-19" is available to clients of Strategy Analytics wireless smartphones service here. #SA_CIP About Strategy Analytics Strategy Analytics, Inc. is a global leader in supporting companies across their planning lifecycle through a range of customized market research solutions. Our multi-discipline capabilities include: industry research advisory services, customer insights, user experience design and innovation expertise, mobile consumer on-device tracking and business-to-business consulting competencies. With domain expertise in: smart devices, connected cars, intelligent home, service providers, IoT, strategic components and media, Strategy Analytics can develop a solution to meet your specific planning need. For more information, visit us at www.strategyanalytics.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200406005735/en/

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Regarding A round of applause for frontline heroes (Datebook, April 6): Its nice to read about supporting medical professionals, grocery clerks, letter carriers and everyone else on the front line against COVID-19 with visual nighttime light displays like clapping hands atop San Franciscos Salesforce Tower.

However, wouldnt an even better way to express our appreciation for these frontline heroes be to ensure that all of them have face masks and rubber gloves? Many of the grocery clerks in my local supermarket were without these forms of protection and could become ill with the coronavirus. I hope concerned citizens will (as I have done) express their concerns to our political leaders at the local, state and federal levels.

Franklin Campbell, Oakland

War with coronavirus

In the past, when America went to war, our soldiers on the front line were amply provided with the best weapons and the best protective gear available. Now, America is going to war against the coronavirus. Yet, the soldiers on the front lines in this war, including doctors, nurses and health care workers, are not being even adequately provided with protective gear or weapons.

Admittedly, camouflage clothes, night vision goggles, helmets and flak jackets are more exciting than face masks and paper gowns. Guns, tanks and bombs are more exciting than ventilators and test kits.

But in a war, great nations provide soldiers with the weapons that they need to win the war that they are fighting and the gear to protect themselves while using those weapons. It is time to make America great again.

Rosemary Benner, Santa Rosa

Reinstate Capt. Crozier

Regarding Ousted captain gets heros send-off (April 4): I hope the investigation into Capt. Brett Croziers unfair dismissal by the Navy for trying to save the lives of his crew will get him reinstated. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly accuses Crozier of putting the spotlight on the Navy in a negative light.

However, the dismissal of Crozier, who many consider to be a hero, is what puts the Navy in a negative light. The sailors want him back, and so do the American people.

Victoria Lewis, San Francisco

Indecent decision

Regarding The high cost of bold leadership (Editorial, April 4): Only an administration whose commander in chief reversed disciplinary action taken against a Navy SEAL convicted of a war crime (for posing with a corpse) could also relieve a highly respected captain from his command of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier for trying to ensure the safety of his crew due to a coronavirus outbreak onboard. Instead of serving the common good with decency, President Trump and his egotistical appointees only serve themselves with indecency.

Carolyn Crawford, San Francisco

Unfair to punish

Regarding A captains choice (Page 1, Apr. 5): It wasnt enough for President Trump to countenance our military members commission of war crimes, as he did last year in the infamous Navy SEAL case.

Now his administration punishes a singularly effective naval commander, one who took steps necessary to preserve his troops fighting ability. When will the madness end?

Gary Dolgin, Santa Monica

Take a holistic approach

Regarding How to secure states water future (April 5): While we dont agree with every policy prescription in former Rep. George Millers column about the future of California water, with so much happening in the world that divides us, this seems like a good time to focus on what we agree on.

Both Miller and Gov. Gavin Newsom start by rejecting the notion that Californians must choose between an adequate water supply and a healthy environment. We completely agree. Science has shown us that by focusing on a holistic approach to protecting our rivers, we can arrive at a place that creates a more secure water future for people, farms and the environment. We also agree that once the worst of the coronavirus pandemic has passed, water policy will be high on the priority list.

Getting it right isnt just important for today, its critical for a future in which a local food supply will be increasingly important.

Mike Wade, Sacramento

Focus on heroic deeds

Concerning The wooden walls of our city (Marshall Kilduff, Last Word, April 4): Im sad to see many downtown San Francisco storefronts being boarded up with plywood during this coronavirus pandemic. This action reminds me of when I was an adolescent in New York City, and saw many pieces of plywood covering businesses to prevent even more rampant looting in the aftermath of a blackout during the summer of 1977. In 2020, many store owners apparently think that the current disastrous situation will again bring out the worst instincts of people.

Yes, there has been price gouging. And, yes, there has been hoarding. But during this COVID-19 health crisis, I am choosing to focus on the many heroic deeds of health care workers and ordinary citizens by reminding myself of this quote from The Diary of Anne Frank: In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart.

Hector Maldonado, Pinole

A fatal price to pay

Although I did not vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I disliked the constant barrage of How are we going to pay for it? questions from candidates in regard to his health-care-for-all plans. Since the pandemic, the unfortunate answer seems to be, With our lives.

John Kallio, Pleasanton

Make your vote count

Bad politicians are elected by good people who dont vote. More than ever, your vote is important this November.
From how "Network Science" could be crucial in the fight against Covid-19 as also in politics, economics and society and why it would be difficult to return to normalcy anytime soon to how the lockdown has been nudging people for a change in their behavioural habits, here's a selection of Business Standard Opinion pieces for the day. The lockdown enforced to slow down the spread of coronavirus should be lifted with care, says the top edit.

Click here to read... Jawaharlal Nehrus ideas may be out of fashion but his focus on science remains valid, especially if ...
Nagpur: People of Nagpur's Girtokhadan area showered flowers, clapped and cheered a 75-team of police, RAF, SRPF led by Vinita S, ACP Rekha Bhabte and Sr.PI Sunil Gangurde, on Monday evening, said Nagpur Police Commissioner B. K. Upadhyay. (Photo: IA Image Source: IANS News

Nagpur: People of Nagpur's Girtokhadan area showered flowers, clapped and cheered a 75-team of police, RAF, SRPF led by Vinita S, ACP Rekha Bhabte and Sr.PI Sunil Gangurde, on Monday evening, said Nagpur Police Commissioner B. K. Upadhyay. (Photo: IA Image Source: IANS News

Nagpur: People of Nagpur's Girtokhadan area showered flowers, clapped and cheered a 75-team of police, RAF, SRPF led by Vinita S, ACP Rekha Bhabte and Sr.PI Sunil Gangurde, on Monday evening, said Nagpur Police Commissioner B. K. Upadhyay. (Photo: IA Image Source: IANS News

Nagpur: People of Nagpur's Girtokhadan area showered flowers, clapped and cheered a 75-team of police, RAF, SRPF led by Vinita S, ACP Rekha Bhabte and Sr.PI Sunil Gangurde, on Monday evening, said Nagpur Police Commissioner B. K. Upadhyay. (Photo: IA Image Source: IANS News

Nagpur: People of Nagpur's Girtokhadan area showered flowers, clapped and cheered a 75-team of police, RAF, SRPF led by Vinita S, ACP Rekha Bhabte and Sr.PI Sunil Gangurde, on Monday evening, said Nagpur Police Commissioner B. K. Upadhyay. (Photo: IA Image Source: IANS News

Nagpur : , April 7 (IANS) It was almost like attending a wedding procession for Nagpur Police personnel, officials said here on Tuesday.

A team of tough officers led by Deputy Commissioner of Police Vinita S., Assistant Commissioner of Police Rekha Bhavre and Senior Police Inspector Sunil Gangurde had a pleasant surprise during an 'awareness march' in a thickly-populated Gittikhadan area of the city.

As a team of nearly 75 officers and policemen including five women, besides RAF and SRPF marched to create awareness of staying at home and maintaining social distancing, many people from the area showered flowers on them, said Nagpur Police Commissioner Dr. B.K. Upadhyay.

"It was our third such 2-hour long Covid-19 awareness march yesterday in our zone through Gittikhadan which has a mixed and largely middle-class population, now under lockdown," Gangurde told IANS.

There were more surprises -- in some areas people cheered loudly and clapped the uniformed Warriors Against Virus, others raised slogans of 'police zindabad', and of course some showered flowers on the police personnel.

Not forgetting her own people, DCP Vinita also took a detour to visit the Police Colony, interacted with the family members of the police personnel and expressed gratitude for their unstinted support which helped the policemen discharge their duties in the field, raising their morale.

"It was a very overwhelming experience. My team members said they have never witnessed something like this in their entire careers. The War Against Corona has certainly brought police and public closer in these tough times," said Upadhyay.

With 17 cases, Nagpur is among the less serious hotspots in Maharashtra which ranks the highest in Covid-19 deaths and positive cases so far.
ST. PAUL  The states attorney general and U.S. attorney have assembled a team aimed at clamping down on illegal activity related to the coronavirus.

It will focus on investigating and prosecuting crimes that exploit the pandemic, such as price-gouging, scams, hoarding of essential medical supplies, cybercrimes and "schemes targeting economic impact payments," along with other related criminal activity, according to information released Monday, April 6.

The team also will field concerns related to hate-crimes connected to coronavirus.

Authorities are asking residents to be on the lookout for such behaviors and to report them to the newly formed Minnesota COVID-19 Action Team via a COVID-19-specific complaint form . Residents can also call the attorney generals office directly at (651) 296-3353 or (800) 657-3787.

The team will be led by the attorney generals office, the U.S. attorneys office and the Minnesota County Attorneys Association, and will serve as a "clearinghouse" for such complaints that will then be fielded out to the appropriate criminal and civil investigative agencies.

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"The vast majority of people and businesses  (are) doing right by each other, their customers, and communities, and we thank them. But for those that arent  for those who are profiteering off the pandemic or using it as a pretext to attack other people  were not standing for it. Were pooling all our resources to come after them and to help all other Minnesotans afford their lives and live with dignity and respect," Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement on the task force.
Tyler Perry gifts $21,000 in tips to Atlanta restaurant employees

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Film and television mogul Tyler Perry used some of his $600 million fortune to bless several employees at one of his favorite restaurants in Atlanta over the weekend.

According to TMZ, Perry visited the West Paces location of Houston's in Atlanta and left a $500 tip for everyone on staff. In total, he gave $21,000 to the 42 "out-of-work" servers employed at the restaurant while grabbing a to-go order for himself.

Many working Americans are currently waiting for relief checks from the federal government and many continue to lose their jobs due to the coronavirus regulations. In March, 701,000 jobs were lost.

Earlier, Perry created a star-studded #HesGotTheWholeWorldChallenge to help raise hope and morale while the nation is on lockdown.

The challenge currently has millions of views on Instagram and hundreds of thousands of people have participated. Perry wanted to start something to make everyone feel better." He sang the traditional African-American song, Hes Got the Whole World in His Hands and challenged others to add to it.

To me this song is a prayer of humility. Its telling the world how small we really are in all of this and how we have to trust that its all in Gods hands!! he wrote on Instagram after announcing round two of the challenge featuring stars such as Mariah Carey, Usher, T.D Jakes and others.

There is now a third round of the challenge, which features a new set of celebrities.
Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to grant interim bail to Christian Michel, an alleged middleman in AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam case, in view of the risk of him contracting coronavirus in prison.

Justice Mukta Gupta, while dismissing the bail, noted that the apprehension of the petitioner being infected by COVID-19 is unfounded as he is lodged in a separate cell with only two other prisoners and thus, is not in a barrack or dormitory where there are a number of prisons.

The court said that it is not the case of the petitioner that any of the two inmates residing with him are suffering from COVID-19.

It also noted that the petitioner, failing to qualify on three criteria laid down by the High Power Committee, which was set up to decongest the prisons in the capital amid coronavirus fears, has not been released on bail.

The committee had decided not to release foreign nationals, those involved in more than one case not being on bail in others and the cases being under Prevention of Corruption Act and Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Advocate DP Singh, appeared for the CBI, opposed the interim bail and stated that the petitioner is not entitled to bail as he did not join investigation anywhere and after a long drawn extradition process, was extradited from Dubai.

Advocate Amit Mahajan, appearing for the ED, contended that the petitioner is presently lodged at the safest place in the country being the Tihar Jail.

Mahajan had said that there is no threat of the petitioner coming on contact with any COVID-19 patient and thereby, his apprehension that due to his age, and being a British national, not accustomed to Indian conditions, his immunity is low, is totally unfounded.

Michel, in his plea, moved through advocate Aljo K Joseph, stated that his age and health condition are at risk of contacting COVID-19 infection and added that it is "far-fetched that he is likely to jump bail" when he can be procured during the trial by imposing other conditions.

The petition said that the health condition of Michel, who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail, is very critical and incompatible with the current prison status, especially with the risk of contracting COVID-19, which could have a lethal effect on the applicant.

Michel was extradited from Dubai in 2018 and is currently lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with alleged irregularities in the chopper deal. While the CBI is probing his alleged role as a 'middleman' in the deal, the ED is investigating money laundering charges against him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The great Arthur Laffer is unyielding in his support for open borders to foreign goods. Years ago, around 2003, Laffer explained the genius of open markets to an audience mixed with skeptics and true believers.

Laffer asked those in attendance to imagine a crucial cancer cure thats come to market overseas. Would anyone in the audience reject such an advance solely because of where its made? The question answered itself, and some skeptics were converted.

Some will say Laffer was shooting fish in a barrel by using cancer as the example, and he would likely nod his head. What shoots fish instructs. And it instructed well with Laffers example precisely because it was and is easily transferrable to every good and service in existence, along with those on the way.

Laffers underlying point was that imports improve us. Its sad that something so basic requires stating, but its true. If youre a worker youre an importer, and youre improved the more that you have talented people around the world competing to enhance your lot.

Thinking about this through an American prism, Los Angeles-based billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiongs source of immense wealth is among other things rooted in his development of the drug Abraxane. The latter hasnt solved the killer that is pancreatic cancer, but its seemingly given those afflicted more of a fighting chance.

And since pancreatic cancer knows no country borders, can anyone imagine people around the world refusing that which might save them solely because it was developed in the U.S.? Would people from China refuse the drug?

Interesting is that Soon-Shiong was born in China. That he was should soften the rhetoric of Americans eager to shut down exchange between the U.S. and China, along with supply lines that make all manner of brilliant plenty possible. The only closed economy is the world economy as Robert Mundell long ago observed, and talented people whose genius will lift all of us come from everywhere. Abraxane is an American innovation, but then Americans arent a race; rather theyre an ideal. A free ideal that includes openness to genius regardless of its origins. Assuming Soon-Shiong had stayed in China all this time, would Americans facing a death sentence refuse what would instead be a Chinese innovation?

All of which brings us to Peter Navarro, assistant to President Trump for trade and manufacturing, plus coordinator of the Defense Production Act policy. To say he personifies never let a crisis go to waste is to give this most limited of thinkers way too much credit.

Navarro cant distinguish crisis or normalcy. For him were always in crisis, and the latter is always a consequence of U.S. producers cooperating with producers around the world, and U.S. consumers importing from around the world. Translated, Navarro aims to weaken U.S. producers and consumers by forcing autarky on the U.S. Yes, people like him still exist. In the White House.

Stepping back for a second, in a recent opinion piece for USA Today, Navarro noted that the Trump administration is moving swiftly to address a significant shortage of ventilators necessary to help those hit hardest by the spread of Covid-19.

On its own, what perhaps reads as an innocuous statement speaks to how far the policy discussion has drifted in the wrong direction. Lest readers forget, they have supercomputers in their pockets that not too long ago would have cost millions, they have 4K UHD flat screen TVs they purchased for a few hundred dollars that retailed for $25,000+ just a few years ago, plus they can summon drivers at the tap of a button. These three isolated examples are but just a microscopic few of the many amazing advances brought to us by the profit-motivated. Not very many years ago all three were not only scarce, but they realistically didnt exist at all.

That they didnt hopefully opens the minds of readers up to how very much Navarro and the Trump administrations efforts to address a significant shortage of ventilators is a non sequitur. Private, profit-motivated individuals erase shortages all the time. Thats how they profit. In that case, why insert someone of such miniature mind and thoughts as Navarro into the manufacture of that which is necessary to save lives? Dont worry, it gets worse.

To Navarro, the answer to every question is always and everywhere erecting barriers to the production of others. To say he amazingly believes something is to pretend a lot of thinking informs what he says. Probably not. Needless to say, Navarro ties what he deems a ventilator shortage to his view that America is too dependent on foreign nations and the global supply chain for essential medicines, and his solution is more government force whereby well be required to buy American, secure our borders and build a strong manufacturing base.

To help readers unpack Navarros solution, hed like those empowered by government to author the U.S.s economic retreat to work last done by Americans 50+ years ago; work that presently pays the equivalent of a Starbucks latte per day in overseas markets. But since Americans would never work in the factories that Navarro fantasizes about for anything close to latte wages, the cost of U.S.-based innovation would skyrocket. Of course, the costs alluded to would only grow with the imposition of Buy American. Stating the obvious, everything produced by Americans is a consequence of global cooperation; cooperation that Navarro would prefer cease so that the U.S. could rush toward always impoverishing border closures to global production.

It cannot be stressed enough that what Navarro calls for is about decline, about impoverishment, and because its about decline and impoverishment, its all about the exit from the U.S. of the investors whose capital commitments enable the experimentation that drives progress, and yes, cures for all manner of diseases and viruses. If sickness and death is the worry, then forced impoverishment of the kind Navarro champions amounts to raising the white flag.

Wealth creation is the greatest enemy of disease and death, and nothing else comes close. Yet Navarro persists in promoting a retreat from a global division of labor that has enabled enormous specialization, and with specialization, staggering advances that continue to improve our wealth, health and overall wellbeing.

Precisely because we potentially face viruses with the capacity to kill us, we want the greatest minds in the world working and producing together in order to arrive at cures as quickly as possible. Navarro seeks a retreat from that which drives progress, simply because he rejects the labor division that is the embodiment of same. No, we need innovation regardless of origin. Period. We need what Navarro rejects.

And we need much less of Navarro. His layoff amid all the sad ones that are a consequence of the political force he endorses would be rather welcome.
When will the fish come back to be hooked?

That was the question that faced Bob Stewart last weekend as he looked down the length of the boardwalk in Seaside Heights the other day. On a typical Palm Sunday there would be a huge parade as well as an Easter egg hunt. But for as far as the eye could see, there wasnt a single human being.

Normally this place would be packed wall-to-wall with people, Stewart said. Ive never seen this before in my life. This is incredible. Theres not one person up here.

Well, there was one. But it was a Seaside Heights policeman who came along behind the wheel of his cruiser, driving down the boards to enforce the command on the big sign that read BEACHES CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE: STRICTLY ENFORCED.

In my youth, I used to work for the same game operator as Stewart. On a good day, our boss would exult as what he called the fish crowded the stands. Fish was an apt description. On a sunny weekend, the customers did indeed look like schools of sea creatures.

Its hard to imagine such a scene in the era of social distancing. Stewart has no alternative. Over the winter, he took on an additional eight stands in the middle of the boardwalk.

He was busy fixing them up when I drove up. As I got out of the car, two older guys were engaging him in a conversation about when those $1,200 checks from the federal government would be arriving.

That may have been a big deal to them, but Stewart and his fellow boardwalk merchants will need a lot more than $1,200 to make up for the business theyre missing as each spring weekend rolls by with the state under a stay-at-home order.

At some point we gotta get back to normal, he told me. I mean, how long is this gonna be?"

One of the businesses he was working on was a fortune-telling stand. It wasnt manned yet so we couldnt get a prediction. But its been a while since the fortunes were good for him and the other boardwalk business owners.

In 2012, the town was socked by Sandy, losing its boardwalk and its pier on the north end.

Then in 2013, a fire hit, destroying the pier on the south end of the boardwalk as well as a number of businesses that had survived Sandy. Among them was the Carousel Arcade then run by Stewart.

Even before the coronavirus hit, the borough was having its problems. There was a brief period of popularity at the time of the MTV reality show Jersey Shore. But those crowds have long since departed. Two of the nightclubs featured in the show went up for auction last week. But there were no bidders willing to take on their massive debt in a town with such an unpredictable future, said one bar owner.

At this time, with coronavirus nobody wants to invest in anything, said Mike Carbone, who owns the Beachcomber, the boardwalk bar where Snooki Pollizzi famously got punched by a drunk. (See video below).

Like those games, bars depend on packing a lot of people in. Carbone, who serves on the Borough Council, said he doesnt know when his and the other bars will be able to reopen.

I come here every day to check on the place, Carbone told me. I hang out for an hour or two and then go home depressed.

For now, Carbone said, hes using the time to catch up on some maintenance. But hes hoping the pandemic passes soon.

I figure Memorial Day weekend, he said. We need it. Otherwise a lot of peoples businesses wont survive.

Stewart agreed with that assessment: Im going on the assumption were gonna be up and running by Memorial Day. Im looking forward to it; if not, the Fourth of July.

Even that may be optimistic. Gov. Phil Murphy has said he expects the crisis to go into the summer months. Meanwhile more and more New Jerseyans are taking the advice to start using face masks.

Its tough to knock down a Corona with your mouth covered against coronavirus.

For now, Stewart is counting his blessings. I saw one such blessing on the sign of a local liquor store that proclaimed, Were an essential business. Murphy wisely exempted liquor stores from his stay-at-home mandate.

Thank God for that, Stewart said. Otherwise he and his son were going to have to board up his sons boardwalk bar to protect against liquor looters.

This is the first pandemic Ive been through, he said.

Lets hope its the last.

BELOW - HARD TO BELIEVE THESE WERE THE GOOD OLD DAYS; BUT THEY WERE:
The Chemours Company CC announced measures that it is taking to address the macroeconomic uncertainties fuelled by the coronavirus pandemic.

The companys management emphasized on workers wellbeing and safety in the wake of the outbreak. Moreover, it continues to concentrate on executing its business continuity strategies that will ensure a reliable supply to its customers as well as provide results to its shareholders.

Per management, the company is taking precautionary steps to navigate the prevailing uncertainties and, out of a great deal of caution, it has decided to borrow $300 million from its revolving credit facility of $800 million. Notably, the step helps to balance the companys access to domestic and non-domestic cash as well as strengthens financial flexibility in the short term.

Chemours said that it may use the $300-million proceeds from the borrowing in the future for working capital needs or other general corporate purposes. Reportedly, repayment of the borrowing is likely to arise when the uncertainties in the global markets subside.

As earlier reported, Chemours had overall liquidity of around $1.6 billion as of Dec 31, 2019. Notably, the companys debt maturities are well-spaced and balanced, with no senior debt slated to mature until 2023.

Chemours shares have lost 81.1% in the past year compared with the 47.4% decline recorded by its industry.

On the fourth-quarter earnings call, the company had projected an adjusted EBITDA of $1.05-$1.25 billion for 2020.

Capital expenditure for the year is anticipated to be approximately $400 million, while free cash flow is projected to be more than $350 million.

Moreover, adjusted earnings per share are forecast at $2.60-$3.55 for 2020.

The Chemours Company Price and Consensus

The Chemours Company Price and Consensus

The Chemours Company price-consensus-chart | The Chemours Company Quote

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Chemours currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Story continues

Some better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited HMY, Franco-Nevada Corporation FNV and Barrick Gold Corporation GOLD.

Harmony Gold has a projected earnings growth rate of 185.7% for 2020. The companys shares have gained 3.9% in a year. It currently flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Franco-Nevada has a projected earnings growth rate of 22% for 2020. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The companys shares have rallied 42.8% in a year.

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President Trump went after the World Health Organization in a tweet Tuesday, calling it too 'China centric' and threatening to trim U.S. funding from the body.

'The W.H.O. really blew it,' Trump wrote. 'For some reason, funded largely by the United States yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look.'

Trump was following the lead of other American conservatives who have placed blame on WHO for 'helping Communist China cover up a global pandemic,' as Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, put it.

President Trump, photographed at the daily coronavirus briefing on Sunday, blasted the World Health Organization in a Tuesday tweet, saying it 'really blew it'

Trump suggested he might cut the U.S.'s funding that goes toward WHO, calling the United Nations agency 'very China centric'

The coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China - where Chinese authorities lifted a travel ban on April 8. Conservative allies of Trump have said WHO helped China cover-up the outbreak

The coroanvirus pandemic originated in Wuhan, China.

At the same time, Democratic governors, lawmakers and pundits have condemned Trump's response in combatting the virus, suggesting he did too little, too late.

On January 31, the Trump administration announced travel restrictions on people coming from China due to the outbreak.

But on February 3, WHO said such bans were not needed.

'Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on,' Trump tweeted Tuesday.

'Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?' the president asked.

WHO is also still not recommending that every person wears a mask, while the U.S.'s Centers of Disease Control made the voluntary recommendation last week.

GOP lawmakers have floated that it's because the WHO is under China's spell.

Last week, Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said WHO's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus should resign because 'he allowed Beijing to use the WHO to mislead the global community.'

As did Sen. Martha McSally, an Arizona Republican.

'They need to come clean and another piece of this is, the WHO has to stop covering for them,' she said of China. 'I think Dr. Tedros needs to step down,' McSally said on Fox Business Network.

'We need to take some actions to address this issue. It's just irresponsible, it's unconscionable what they have done here while we have people dying across the globe,' McSally added.

Scott, the Florida senator, said the Senate Homeland Security Committee needed to launch an investigation into WHO's handling of the virus.

In late January, Tedros complimented China's President Xi Jinping for the country's handling of the virus, as the Chinese leader centralized the response after local officials in Wuhan couldn't keep the outbreak under control.

But Xi also controlled the flow of information, with reports coming out of China that the country had been trying to silence whistleblowers.

Last week Bloomberg News reported on a U.S. intelligence report that said China was underreporting its coronavirus numbers of cases and deaths.

Trump voiced that he, too, has been skeptical of China's reporting.

WHO has been criticized for taking Chinese data at face value.

'Their numbers seem to be a little bit on the light side, and Im being nice when I say that,' Trump said at a daily briefing.

WHO is part of the United Nations and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It has 194 members and two associate members.

WHO is funded in two ways - through assessed contributions and voluntary contributions.

The assessed contributions, which are like dues to the organization, are calculated by looking at a country's wealth and population.

While the U.S. pays the most in assessed contributions, that full pot of money has only accounted for less than 25 per cent of WHO's haul over the past few years.
By summer of the next year, she was named Republican National Committee spokeswoman, and joined the Trump campaign as national press secretary in 2019. Along the way, she has been a vocal defender of Mr. Trump on television  the main role the president has long believed the press secretary should play, according to current and former advisers.

One of her assignments as press secretary, according to a person familiar with the press operation, will be to build out a rapid response team similar to what exists in the campaign, and possibly, to eventually give press briefings.

Her television outings, like others who have defended Mr. Trump, have often been at the extreme end of the administrations talking points.

For instance, in a video of Ms. McEnany on the Fox Business show Trish Regan Primetime from Feb. 25, circulated by Andrew Kaczynski of CNN, the new press secretary said, We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here, we will not see terrorism come here, and isnt that refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama?

Since Ms. McEnany made that statement, about 400,000 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus.

She has at times trafficked in the type of othering of President Barack Obama that Mr. Trump once did by promoting a lie that the first black president, whose father was Kenyan, was not born in the United States. How I Met Your Brother  Never mind, forgot hes still in that hut in Kenya. #ObamaTVShows, Ms. McEnany tweeted in 2012.

A West Wing office will be a change for Ms. McEnany, who recently has spent much of her time traveling to Trump rallies and interacting with supporters on the campaign trail, serving as one of the campaigns most visible surrogates. Lately, she has been participating in online campaign events, including several scheduled throughout April.
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Two sunbathers were this afternoon pictured relaxing outside St Thomas' Hospital in London where Boris Johnson is battling the coronavirus.

The photos emerged after Met Police chief Cressida Dick warned that officers will force people to move if they are caught sunbathing in parks during the current lockdown as more photos emerged showing Britons flouting social distancing rules.

Officers were today seen patrolling Greenwich Park in south London where hundreds flocked to enjoy the sun on the weekend, prompting Number 10 to yesterday confirm that sunbathing was banned as a 'non-essential activity'.

The photo of the two people outside the hospital in London was taken at around 3pm this afternoon by a former nurse, around 100 yards away from the entrance.

Speaking today, the former nurse said: 'It is a shocking scene right by St Thomas' hospital where the Prime Minister fights for his life. These two male sun bathers are making a mockery of the stay at home rules imposed to save people from catching coronavirus'.

Photos also emerged of a group of ten youths drinking lager by the River Stour in Dorset, while in Sheffield residents of a housing estate were criticised for continuing to gather in large groups on the street.

It came as a record high of 854 coronavirus deaths were announced in the UK today, taking the total to 6,159, with 55,242 confirmed cases.

The above picture was taken by a former nurse outside the hospital in London where Prime Minister Boris Johnson is fighting for his life

An officer speaks to a member of the public today in Greenwich Park, south London, where this weekend police were seen urging sunbathers to move on

A man lies on the grass in Cheltenham while listening to music despite warnings that public sunbathing is not allowed during the lockdown

Police officers by the sea in Brighton and Hove telling a sunbather to go inside today. Dame Cressida Dick said: 'The new restrictions are obviously difficult for some members of the public to get used to'

A person sunbathes today on Hampstead Heath in north London, as police upped their efforts to keep people indoors to stem coronavirus

Police officers in Richmond, London, were forced to approach a family this afternoon after they set up on a field to play sports

Police in a patrol car next to people who are sunbathing and sitting in Queen's Park in North West London today

A man and a woman have a cider in the sun today in Pittville Park in Chelteham, where police have been urging people to go home

Dame Cressida said: 'The new restrictions are obviously difficult for some members of the public to get used to. It's extremely important that we all do try to comply with them and we in the police of course have our part to play.

'We will always try to advise people to explain, to encourage people to comply and if necessary to move on, not to stop and sunbathe - that's not exercising or travelling to work or shopping.

'If we have to we will be very firm in that, if somebody completely refuses - but this is an absolute last resort - it will result in enforcement.

'I think the vast majority of the public expect us to do that but the tradition of the Met is always to start by advising people.'

She declined to comment on whether tighter restrictions were needed, but said: 'The Met will stand by and be ready to assist whichever direction they go in whenever that is.

Topping up your tan? This man was seen lying on the grass at Ham Common in West London this afternoon

Groups of people were spotted out and about today enjoying the sunshine on Primrose Hill in London, despite being asked to stay at home

Police officers were seen walking around Primrose Hill, ready to disperse groups who were gathering

This group of people seemed oblivious to the rules as they enjoyed their day at Ham Common in West London this afternoon

This weekend saw officers using megaphones to urge people to move on from parks unless they were exercising, and police are preparing for more enforcement action as temperatures look set to soar to 75F leading up to the Bank Holiday weekend.

In Christchurch, Dorset, local resident Shona Blunden, 48, spotted a group of youngsters drinking beer by the River Stour before one of them jumped into the water fully-clothed.

Mrs Blunden said: 'The lockdown is going to go on for a hell of a lot longer if behaviour like this carries on.

'If people can't start behaving, we won't be able to go anywhere. People are dying and these kids think it's one big joke.'

Mrs Blunden said she called the police, who she said informed her that they would escort each person from the gathering home if they found them.

A man sunbathing on Hampstead Heath in north London today as a woman walks past with a dog. Officers are continuing patrols to urge people doing 'non-essential' activities to go inside

Police patrol in a squad car around Hampstead Heath. Yesterday, Number 10 clarified that sunbathing was banned as a non-essential activity

A woman sunbathes in the Meadows in Edinburgh, where there were sparse crowds today as most people followed the rules of the lockdown

A cyclist lies on the grass next to his bike in Cheltenham today as police urged sunbathers to go back home amid the coronavirus lockdown

A couple exercising today in a park opposite St Thomas' Hospital in London, which is not against the rules if only done once a day

Today, photos emerged of a group of ten youths drinking lager by the River Stour in Dorset. The image was taken yesterday

Residents of the Page Hall housing estate in Fir Vale, Sheffield, were criticised for continuing to gather in large groups in the street. This pictured was taken on the weekend

In Sheffield, a former local councillor criticised residents of the Page Hall housing estate in Fir Vale who were continuing to gather in large groups on the street amid the lockdown.

Ibrar Hussain said the message to stay indoors 'isn't getting across' and urged the police to take a 'firmer' approach to tackle the problem after receiving multiple reports from worried residents.

'Although the soft approach is good at times you have to be firmer because it's unfair for people who live there,' he said. 'They are frustrated and angry because these crowds could spread the virus.

'Their lives have changed and their quality of life has been diminished in this crisis and if the rules are not observed then God help us.'

A masked woman and her dog sit on a park bench in Clapham Common in South West London with a puzzle book and a flask

A trainer records an exercise video on Clapham Common in South West London today as the UK lockdown continues

Police have come under additional pressure in previous weeks from thugs spitting and coughing at them while claiming to have 'corona', leading to some calls for spit hoods to be issued to all officers.

Speaking today, Dame Cressida called such incidents 'completely unacceptable' and said they would continue to be 'dealt with firmly'.

'Some people have been convicted and received very strong sentences for spitting or coughing at a police officer,' she said.

Yesterday, 19-year-old Thomas Wilson was jailed for six months at Warwick Crown Court for threatening to cough and spit in a female officer's face while he was being detained.

Police officers walk across Westminster Bridge towards St Thomas' Hospital in London today as the coronavirus pandemic continues to hit the UK

A woman walks across Westminster Bridge today as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus

Met Police chief Cressida Dick today warned officers will force people to move if they are caught sunbathing in parks during the current lockdown

It comes as a father was fined 480 because after his son was caught flouting coronavirus lockdown rules four times.

West Midlands Police said the fixed penalty notice could be doubled and reach as much as 960 if the teenager continues to go outside without good reason.

The neighbourhood policing team in the Blakenall area of Walsall said the youngster had been out three times, prompting a warning to the boy's father.

But the boy - who had been abusive to police - then went out a fourth time, prompting the fine.

There have been concerns police forces will be stretched by an increase in absences related to coronavirus.

Today, Dame Cressida did not reveal how many officers were off sick or self-isolating, but said the Met was providing a good service for Londoners.

She added: 'Some of our demands have gone down and of course we have some other new demands, but we are a strong and resilient organisation.'
Its no secret that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex was married once prior to tying the knot with Prince Harry in 2018. Though the duchess rarely speaks about her personal life, we do know that she was married to her long time boyfriend Trevor Engelson from 2011 to 2013.

The Duchess of Sussex began dating Engelson in 2004. The pair tied the knot in Jamacia shortly after the duchess snagged her breakout role on her hit USA series, Suits. With Engelson living in LA and Meghan, in Toronto, Canada where Suits was filmed, issues in their relationship became apparent.

By 2013, the pair were divorced. Though the Suits alum has never spoken publically about the actor/producer, a royal biographer now says that the duchess found her ex-husband to be extremely unprofessional.

Meghan Markle and Trevor Engelsons marriage ended quickly

Though they were together for seven years prior to tying the knot, the duchess marriage to Engelson crumbled almost as quickly as it began. The duchess has never widely discussed her divorce. However, when it was announced in 2013, she posted a telling quote on her now-defunct lifestyle blog, The Tig. It read, I no longer spend a single minute on those who lie or want to manipulate. I decided not to coexist anymore with pretense, hypocrisy, dishonesty, and cheap praise. Apparently, the producer never even saw the breakup coming.

Meghan and Engelson put down irreconcilable differences as the reason for their split. The duchess career had finally taken off while Engelsons had fallen flat. When she decided to end her marriage, the duchess mailed back her engagement and wedding rings. In his book, Meghan, A Hollywood Princess, author Andrew Morton, wrote, It was such a bolt from the blue. Even after five years, [Engelson] can barely contain his anger.

In the following years when Engelson was asked about the duchess he reportedly said, I have zero to say about her.

Meghan Markle approaches her marriage to Prince Harry very different

From Megxit to their obvious affection toward one another, its clear that the duchess approaches her marriage to Prince Harry very differently.

It is easy to see that Meghan is not looking for Harry or this marriage to complete her, relationship expert Sami Wunder told Express. She may have given up her Hollywood career due to royal protocol but the woman continues to keep herself busy and involved with several charitable interests and even flew all the way to New York to enjoy her baby shower with her own set of personal friends. She is not going to be the woman that looks up to Prince Harry to fulfill each and every one of her needs, as many first time married women would do.

Meghan Markle thought Trevor Engelson was very unprofessional

One of the major issues in her first marriage was that Meghan thought Engelson was very unprofessional. In 2011, Engelson tried to launch a podcast called Schmoedown. Meghan watched the launch online, but it did not go well. Throughout the broadcast, Engelson took swigs from a flask.

According to Meghan A Hollywood Princess, Meghan texted him to put that flask down, it looks incredibly unprofessional

The precast hinted at their personality differences, Trevor loose-lipped, unconcerned, carefree, a striking counterpart to Meghan, who was archly protective of brand Meghna, always keen to project an air of sophistication and style, Morton wrote. She may have felt at times that Trevor was too brashly laid back for comfort, especially not that her star was rising; Suits had been picked up for a second season.
An 86-year-old Louisiana woman and three of her sons who all tested positive for the coronavirus have died, relatives and the coroner's office say.

The woman, Antoinette Franklin, and her sons were African American, and their deaths come with the announcement that blacks account for 70.5 percent of fatalities from the coronavirus in Louisiana, although they make up only about a third of the population.

Louisiana is a hot spot for the pandemic, with 16,284 coronavirus cases and 582 deaths.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Antoinette Franklin, a lifelong New Orleans resident, died March 23.

Her sons, Herman Franklin Jr., 71, Anthony Franklin Sr., 58, and Timothy Franklin, 61, died from March 20 to March 30, according to their obituaries.

IMAGE: Antoinette Franklin (via WDSU)

The brothers and their mother all tested positive for the coronavirus, Jason Melancon, a spokesman for the New Orleans Coroner's Office, told NBC News on Tuesday. It is unclear whether the tests were conducted before or after they died. Melancon said their causes of death are as yet undetermined.

Family members told NBC affiliate WDSU of New Orleans that all four became ill around the same time.

"My uncle passed, my grandmother passed, my dad passed, then my other uncle passed," Anthony Franklin said. "It's literally like seven to eight days apart. It's horrific."

It is unclear how they contracted the virus. The state Health Department said it could not comment about individual cases.

"I want the world to know if it happened to the Franklin family it could happen to any family," Jacqueline Franklin, who had two children with Anthony Franklin Sr., told WDSU. "Let's take this serious. My children have to bury their father, their precious grandmother and their uncles."

Herman Franklin, a father of eight, died March 20. He had just moved back to New Orleans to be closer to family, according to WDSU. Anthony Franklin Sr. passed away March 26. He is survived by his two children, their mother and a fiancee. Timothy Franklin died early March 30.

Story continues

Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts about the coronavirus outbreak

Anthony and Jacqueline Franklin could not immediately be reached Tuesday at numbers listed for them.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said Monday at a news conference that he is looking for ways for his administration to address racial disparities related to rates of sickness and death.

"We're going to try to figure out what that is attributable to and what we can do about that as quickly as possible," he said.
BRIDGEPORT  A local man claims he suffered serious injury when batteries he had recently purchased to power his electronic cigarette exploded in his pants pocket.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary and punitive damages as well as attorneys fees and costs.

Alex Perry, 33, of Bridgeport filed suit in Superior Court here against Milford electronic cigarette store The Mod House and LG Electronics, the maker of the batteries.

My client has suffered unspeakable pain and suffering from this negligence, says Perrys lawyer Tom Ganim. His quality of life is ruined from extensive scarring, critical medical attention and ongoing treatment with enormous medical expenses and diminished income opportunity.

The Mod House is now closed and its owner, Kurt Buckholz, did not return calls for comment. LG did not return emails for comment on the lawsuit.

People across the country claim in lawsuits that they were injured by exploding electronic cigarette batteries including those made by LG, the worlds largest battery manufacturer. A study at George Mason University stated there were more than 2,000 visits to U.S. emergency rooms from 2015-17 for e-cigarette burns and explosion-related injuries.

The majority of those injured were men who had put e-cigarette batteries in their pants or shorts pockets when they said the batteries exploded, the study states.

According to the lawsuit, on July 14, 2018, Perry purchased two LG HG2 batteries from The Mod House for use with his electronic cigarette.

After the purchase, Perry stuck the batteries into his left front pants pocket and then went to visit a friend in Stratford, the suit states.

In an incident captured on video, Perry is seen talking to his friend in a parking lot when the front of his pants exploded, causing him to fall on the ground. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWFTvfae7v4&feature=youtu.be

The suit states Perry suffered serious burns to his leg and groin area and was transferred from St. Vincents Medical Center to the Burn Unit of Bridgeport Hospital for specialized surgical treatment.

While in the hospital, Ganim said Perry contracted MERS, a serious viral respiratory infection that requires additional treatment.

The defendants sold a defective, faulty and dangerous product that when used for its intended purpose was dangerous and susceptible to exploding, the lawsuit states. It continued that purchasers of the batteries were given no warning of its dangers in violation of Connecticuts product liability statute and Unfair Trade Practice Act.
Under the emergency in Japan, residents are requested to stay at home; it does take the form of an order  and violators will not be penalized.

Tokyo: Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a month-long state of emergency Tuesday for Tokyo and six other prefectures to ramp up defenses against the spread of the coronavirus as the number of infections surges. But the move came in the form of a stay-at-home request  not an order  and violators will not be penalized.

The COVID-19 outbreak is now rampant and rapidly spreading, threatening people's health, their daily lives and the economy, Abe said. The state of emergency is until 6 May.

The state of emergency will only permit Tokyo Goernor Yuriko Koike and heads of the six other prefectures to do more to reinforce calls for social distancing.

"The most important thing is for each one of us to change our activity," Abe told a government task force. He urged everyone to cut contacts with others by 70-80 percent for one month.

Follow LIVE updates on the coronavirus outbreak

The announcement follows surges in new cases in Tokyo, including consecutive rises exceeding 100 over the weekend. By Monday there were 1,116 confirmed cases in the metropolitan region of 14 million people. Nationwide, Japan has reported 91 deaths from COVID-19 and 3,906 confirmed cases, plus another 712 from a cruise ship that was quarantined earlier at Yokohama port near Tokyo.

Abe has been under pressure to declare a state of emergency to get better compliance with calls for social distancing amid rising alarm over the number of cases without any known contact with other patients.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike welcomed the emergency measures, saying she expects they "will prevail widely and deeply among the people."

Japan's limits on official action during a state of emergency stem from its experience with repression and disasters stemming from fascist governments before and during World War II. The public is doubly wary due to the push by Abe's ultra-conservative ruling party and its supporters for a Constitutional amendment to include a state of emergency clause for disaster and wartime contingencies.

Abe's government is thought to have delayed declaring a state of emergency out of fear of how it might hurt the economy. But as fear of the pandemic has grown, the public and medical experts have increasingly supported taking more drastic action.

The state of emergency includes a stay-at-home request; guidance to schools on temporary closures and requests to close non-essential businesses and stores and to cancel or postpone events and exhibits. Violators cannot be penalized unless they fail to comply with orders on providing or storing emergency relief goods, such as surgical masks and medical equipment.

Still, the state of emergency could significantly limit movement of people around and out of the city. Takahide Kiuchi, an economist at Nomura Research Institute, said in a recent report that a state of emergency could cause consumer spending to fall nearly 2.5 trillion yen ($23 billion), leading to a 0.4% drop in Japan's annual GDP.

The government overcame controversy over risks to civil rights to gain approval of a special law last Month enabling Abe to declare a state of emergency.

Earlier, Japan sought to curb infections by closely monitoring clusters of cases and keeping them under control, rather than conducting massive testing as was done in neighboring South Korea. That strategy appears to be failing given the sharp rise in cases not linked to previous known infections.

As is true in many places, there are fears over shortages of beds and ICU units for patients with severe symptoms.

Osamu Nishida, chairman of the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine, noted that Japan has only five ICU beds per 1,00,000 people, compared to 12 in Italy and about 30 in Germany.

Abe has said the central government has secured 25,000 beds and 8,000 ventilators. The health ministry also eased hospitalization requirements for patients with no symptoms or only slight illnesses, allowing their transfer to hotels and other designated lodgings where they can be monitored by medical workers. That should free up beds for the severely ill, helping ease the strain on the medical system.
Four copies of the coalition agreement for a new unity government were printed on the afternoon of April 6. But suddenly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu retracted his agreement on who would sit on the Committee for the Appointment of Judges, signaling that negotiations had broken down. Netanyahu changed his mind while the various news channels were busy reporting on the creation of a coronavirus government, in which Netanyahu would end his term in office in another 18 months, and be replaced by Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz.

On April 3, Netanyahu and Gantz met for hours on the famous patio in the prime ministers house on Balfour Street, while maintaining a safe distance in accordance with the Health Ministry's guidelines. Most of their political and legal advisers were on the phone. Obstacles were removed one after another. The overall mood was that a great event was about to take place. Both sides seemed to want to make a deal before the Passover holiday, so they both made important concessions.

Gantz agreed to concede on the possible annexation of certain territories in the West Bank as part of the US peace plan, after first requesting that such a move require the agreement of the international community. Now he accepted Netanyahus demand that annexation be unilaterally brought before the government for approval. Netanyahu seemed to have given up on the rights hold on the Committee for the Appointment of Judges and the veto he had demanded on the matter. Furthermore, Netanyahu agreed that Knesset member Avi Nissenkorn, a former head of the Histadrut labor union, would be appointed minister of justice. He also agreed to forego the reappointment of Yuli Edelstein as Knesset speaker, to be replaced by the Likud's Yariv Levin.

A solution was also found to Blue and White's concerns that Netanyahu would not comply with his commitment to give up his office at the end of the 18 months allocated to him. The fear was that he would break the government apart right before the rotation was implemented. It was decided to change the current legislation, so that Gantz would be sworn in as prime minister together with Netanyahu. This way, once Netanyahus term was over, Gantz would automatically become prime minister. Gantz made enormous concessions, stepping back from his promise not to sit in a government with an idicted Netanyahu, to harsh criticism from his base.

As soon as the press revealed details of the emerging agreement, the right began to attack Netanyahu for his concessions, including the one about the Committee for the Appointment of Judges. Ministers from Yamina made vicious attacks against him and his confidante Minister Levin. A permanent government isnt necessary to impose sovereignty. This could be done also by a caretaker government, tweeted Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich, implying that control of the Supreme Court is too high a price for a unity government. Meanwhile, top journalists on the right, usually admirers of Netanyahu, attacked the prime minister on the social networks. Nissenkorn in the Justice Ministry doesnt go down well, tweeted radio host Erel Segal. Abandoning the Committee for the Appointment of Judges would leave us mourning for generations to come.

As could be expected, the commotion on the right and on social networks got to Netanyahu and Levin. Though Netanyahu was busy preparing his statement on the novel coronavirus that he was planning to deliver right before the holiday, he found the time to make new demands. Now he insisted that the final agreement regarding his veto over the Committee for the Appointment of Judges must be reopened for further negotiations. Two advisers close to Gantz, Hod Betzer and Maayan Yisraeli, were still on Balfour Street to complete the final preparations before the agreement could be initialized. Until then, everyone had assumed that an agreement would be signed that same evening. Netanyahu had insinuated as much in his daily statement to the press about the coronavirus, saying that he believes a unity government would soon be formed, as necessitated by this time of emergency.

In response, Gantz negotiating team announced that it was putting a stop to the negotiations. The two sides have severed communication as of Tuesday morning, April 7, and the future of the emergency government, which had seemed a done deal, is now uncertain. It is highly unlikely that a government will be formed before the Passover holiday. The question now is whether it will be formed at all.

People in Gantz inner circle say that what happened was ridiculous. One of his most senior advisers told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Its sad, but Netanyahu got cold feet because of the attacks he was subjected to from the right. It was a sealed deal. He was just scared off by [Ayelet] Shaked and Smotrich. According to that adviser, Gantz considered a unity government to be a matter of national responsibility. He agreed to concede on the issue of annexation out of necessity.

Now theyre telling us, Hold on. Theres something else, said the source. This is a red line, as far as we are concerned, so we stopped everything. Now, its up to Netanyahu. He needs to make a bold decision, and its not at all clear he has the courage to do that.

Senior members of the Blue and White Party know it's possible that Netanyahu will withdraw from the outline altogether. If that occurs, Gantz will appear before the public and tell them exactly what happened, another source in the party told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. He was the one who made a bold leadership decision. Once again, Netanyahu has proved himself to be a con man who shows up with his hands dirty.

Meanwhile, Gantz is close to signing an agreement with Labor leader Amir Peretz to unite their two factions after Peretz announced last weekend that he was ending his partnership with Meretz. The merger would strengthen Gantz position in the Knesset after the original Blue and White Party split up.

In the current situation, Netanyahu will be unable to form another government and Gantz will continue to serve as speaker of the Knesset. In this position, Gantz will be able to advance legislation against an indicted politician forming a government, preventing Netanyahu from serving as prime minister after a new election. That kind of legislation could win a majority in the Knesset, which is already antagonistic toward Netanyahu, and involve a fourth round of elections. Netanyahu may even be trying to get there now after breaking apart the Blue and White Party, which had posed the only real alternative to his government. Polls show that he would become even stronger in yet another election.

If that happens, Netanyahu will once again prove himself a Machiavellian figure with no inhibitions, concerned only with himself and eliminating his rivals. In this scenario, it is not at all certain that Netanyahu will be able to preserve the right-wing-ultra-Orthodox bloc that has been so loyal to him. As Shas Party chair and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri had acted as a guarantor to the Blue and White Party regarding Netanyahus intentions, Netanyahus latest move is an enormous gamble.
School closures may have a relatively small impact on the spread of COVID-19 and must be weighed against the "profound" economic and social consequences, according to new research.

The global study led by researchers at University College London is the first to properly examine the available evidence supporting governments' decisions to shut schools as part of their response to the pandemic. The findings reflect the Australian government's wariness towards the hardline measure and concern about the potential impacts.

The study reported the evidence supporting national closures of schools is currently "very weak" and the measure could have "relatively small effects on a virus with COVID-19's high transmissibility and apparent low clinical effect on school children".

The researchers found data from the SARS outbreak in China, Hong Kong and Singapore in 2003 suggested school closures "did not contribute" to the control of the epidemic.
Oregon students havent been inside a physical classroom since March 13, but teachers are finding other ways to stay in touch.

One of the latest social-distancing trends is the teacher parade, in which teachers wave to their students as they drive past in their cars.

The staff at Elmonica Elementary in Beaverton held a parade on Sunday as a kick-off to a more structured virtual learning schedule that started this week.

Teachers taped handmade signs to their cars and waved and honked through the suburban neighborhood around the school, along a route sent home in advance to families. Parents and students lined the sidewalks to see the procession.

This is a really big, scary time for all of us, said kindergarten teacher Ashley Gardiner, and especially scary when youre 5 and dont really know whats going all and all of your routines are different.

Gardiner pulled off the seemingly impossible on Friday. She held a Zoom meeting with nearly all of the 27 students in her kindergarten class.

I could just see them visibly relax a little bit getting to hear each others voices and say Hi, she said. It was a lot of noise because for five minutes all they wanted to do was say hi to each other. It was just a lot of Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!

Second-grade teacher Kristina Chou has been using an online platform called Seesaw to record messages to her students. She also records videos of her reading to her dog, a papillon named Obi Wonton Kenobi, as if she were reading to the class.

This first week of true distance learning will be an adjustment, she said.

Right now I think the biggest and most important thing is making sure our kids feel safe at home, making sure theyre healthy, and bringing back some kind of normalcy to their lives, she said.

With classes likely out through the rest of the school year, the state wants districts to have distance learning plans in place by April 13.

Older students in the Beaverton School District were taking home district-owned Google Chromebooks long before coronavirus caused schools to close. Maureen Wheeler, communications officer for Beaverton School District, said the district is now making Chromebooks available, by request, to elementary-aged children to take home for remote learning.

Last week, the district distributed about 4,900 of the laptops to students, she said, and more are going out this week.

-- Samantha Swindler; sswindler@oregonian.com; @editorswindler

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium's Brussels Airlines, a Lufthansa <LHAG.DE> subsidiary, has extended its suspension of flights until at least May 15, it said on Monday.

The Belgian carrier had previously grounded flights until Apr. 19 but said it was extending that by four weeks because of "low to no demand", owing to travel restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.

The company, which has a workforce of 4,200, said it would prolong the temporary short-time work scheme under which wages are cut but topped up by the government to help companies to manage liquidity problems resulting from the crisis.

Customers with bookings during the suspension have until August to rebook and will be able to push back travel dates as far as the end of April 2021.

Airlines have been among the hardest-hit industries as the spread of the COVID-19 respiratory disease trigerred by the new coronavirus has brought travel to a grinding halt in many parts of the world.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by David Goodman)
France is facing its deepest recession since the end of World War II because of the widespread lockdown to stem the coronavirus crisis, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire warned Monday.

"The worst growth figure in France since 1945 was -2.2 percent in 2009, after the financial crisis of 2008. We will probably be very far beyond -2.2 percent" this year, Le Maire told a Senate panel.

That figure was subsequently revised to a drop of 2.9 percent, and France is likely to do even worse than that, the finance ministry clarified to AFP.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click here

"It's an indication of the amplitude of the economic shock we're facing," Le Maire said.

France imposed a nationwide stay-at-home order from March 17 after shuttering all nonessential businesses. Officials have said the lockdown will last until at least April 15.

Statistics office Insee said last month that the lockdown has slashed overall economic activity by 35 percent, and estimated that every month of shutdown would cut annual GPD by three percentage points.

Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths on April 6

Services, heavy industry and construction are all taking big hits, Insee said, as factories are shut and only a handful of business sectors, such as supermarkets and pharmacies, remain open.

A wave of French blue-chip companies have abandoned their profitability targets for the year, while employers' associations have warned that hundreds of smaller firms and shops risk bankruptcy.

The government has pledged 45 billion euros ($49 billion) in loan guarantees and other relief to help companies get through the crisis.
In this epidemic, we need all hands on deckeven if some of those hands are cast bronze. As Philadelphias Association of Public Arts website states: Public art can express community values...(and) heighten awareness" among other things. Well, no time like the present for our art pieces to chip in and remind us what needs to be done during this time of communal stress. Were all in this together, even our statues.

Editorial cartoons from this week include:
Smokers locked up in hotel quarantine have been told to kick their habit for the duration of their forced stay or use nicotine gum and patches to get by.

Under strict rules introduced into the Northern Territory in late March, travellers have been detained in hotels and prohibited from leaving their rooms.

While those with balconies attached to their rooms are allowed to smoke freely, those without have been banned from lighting up.

Smokers forcefully quarantined in Darwin hotels have been banned from going outside to get their fix

Chief Minister Michael Gunner shot down appeals from smokers in Darwin hotels to be let out of their rooms to get their fix and told them to 'tough it out', according to NT News.

'You are not allowed to leave your room, and that includes for a smoke break,' he said.

'We had 99 per cent compliance for self-quarantine, that's great but not good enough. I want 100 per cent. That's why we went to forced quarantine and allowing people out for a smoke break is not 100 per cent.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

'Put on a patch or chew some gum. Tough it out for a fortnight because there's no way you're going outside.'

Since the strict new measures were introduced the amount of people arriving in the NT has dropped considerably from 288 on March 29 to just 18 people on April 5.

It comes as travellers around the country have been caught blatantly ignoring strict rules to stay in their hotel rooms to stop the spread of the disease that has claimed the lives of 45 Australians, as of Tuesday morning.

On Thursday, a Sydney woman shared a video online of herself and three other quarantined guests sitting outside their rooms rolling bottles of beer towards each other.

The video was captioned 'ISO trades' and showed the travellers quarantined under law breaching rules by interacting with each other outside their rooms.

She later showed herself vaping outside her doorway before filming the Australian Army soldiers walking down the hallway with a hotel employee.

Border force guards are understood to be watching each floor, with those in isolation warned they will be handed $1000 fines if they're caught leaving their hotel room.
Colorado Springs City Council deadlocked Monday over the appointment of Stephannie Fortune to fill Councilman Richard Skorman's seat on the board. Who among the 7 finalists should be appointed?

You voted:
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that there are signs of improvement in the health battle against coronavirus, but that there are growing concerns about its economic impact.

Speaking to the media at his daily press briefing, de Blasio said that the slight improvements have given him cause to be hopeful, but that there will need to be an increased focus on how to help New Yorkers, especially those out of work who dont know where their next meal is coming from.

This is a problem that is more and more going to affect the people of our city as they run out of money, de Blasio said. We have to be there for people who need food. We cannot have any New Yorker go hungry.

The mayor estimated that 500,000 New Yorkers either are or will soon be out of work as more and more businesses need to cut employees due to lost business after officials limited business that could be conducted in an effort to encourage social distancing.

De Blasio said those limits will need to remain in effect until officials are sure its safe to resume normal practices. On Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended his New York on Pause mandates through April 29.

He said he will be continuing collaborative efforts with the Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy as they begin to plan for life restarting.

Repeatedly, the mayor compared the growing economic issues to the Great Depression during his press briefing outside P.S. 1 on Manhattans Lower East Side.

We have to understand that what were going through now and what we will go through -- thats the only parallel we can look at, de Blasio said referencing the economic crisis of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

On the hunger front, the city has set up 435 free meal locations at public schools across the city, including 23 on Staten Island, where individuals and families can acquire three daily meals.

Students and their guardians are being asked to get meals between 7:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., individual adults are being asked to pick up meals between 11:30 a.m., and 1:30 a.m., and seniors who need home delivery meals should contact 311, de Blasio said.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a media statement on the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, March 22, 2020. Michel Kappeler/Pool via REUTERS

The true test of a leader is when they have to navigate a crisis. And German chancellor Angela Merkel could have been forgiven for thinking that after steering Europes largest economy through the credit crunch, the eurozone debt problems, and the refugee crisis, there could be no more big tests to come during her fourth and final term.

Despite the fact that her Christian Democratic Party (CDU) has been mired in an ongoing identity crisis and was recently rocked by the resignation of the woman the chancellor had backed to replace her as party leader, Merkel herself appeared to be in cruise-control.

Then came the coronavirus pandemic.

Now the 65-year-old chancellor has been handed the biggest crisis of her tenure and a mandate to save the lives of German citizens, protect Europes largest economy, and help guide the European Union through the most devastating crisis the world has seen in decades.

From Madchen to Mutti

Merkel has come a long way from when reunification chancellor Helmut Kohl referred to her as mein Madchen (meaning my girl in English), when she made her debut in Kohls government as federal minister for women and youth in 1991.

After 15 years at the helm, she still often tops opinion polls as the countrys most popular politician, widely referred to as Mutti (meaning mum in English) due to her being seen as a kind of mother of the nation.

However, over recent weeks her approval ratings have shot through the roof  even as she ran the country from her apartment in central Berlin whilst confined to a two-week quarantine after having contact with a doctor who tested positive.

READ MORE: Germany's Merkel says COVID-19 is the 'biggest challenge since WWII' in rare national TV address

An Infratest Dimap survey (link in German) for broadcaster ARD on Thursday 2 April showed support for Merkels government has soared in the last two weeks, with 72% of voters saying they are satisfied with the government's handling of the crisis.

Story continues

When it became clear that coronavirus had escalated into a dangerous pandemic, Merkel, herself a trained scientist, consulted the experts, and deemed the situation serious enough to make the first national television address of her tenure outside her annual New Years message.

She underscored what was at stake and urged Germans to start acting for the common good by staying at home to try flatten the rising curve in infections.

This is serious. Take it seriously, she told the nation. Since German unification  no, since World War II  there has been no challenge to our country in which our acting together in solidarity matters so much.

READ MORE: Germany bids goodbye to black zero with 750bn coronavirus package

Then Merkel, together with her vice-chancellor and finance minister Olaf Scholz, made the unprecedented move of lifting the constitutional debt brake that legally forbids Germany from taking on fresh debt to unleash a 750bn (660bn, $810bn) fiscal stimulus package to save jobs and protect the economy.

Germanys test-early, test-a-lot response, coupled with decisive action on social and economic lockdowns has proven wise. The countrys fatality rate from COVID-19 is starkly lower than for example Spain and Italy.

As of Monday 6 March, Germany had 100,168 confirmed cases of coronavirus, and 1,590 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Crisis chancellor

German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses the nation via a video statement about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on March 18, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. Photo: Steffen Kugler/Bundesregierung via Getty Images

Merkel has weathered many crises since she became chancellor in 2005, including most recently the refugee crisis, where she opened Germanys borders to around one million refugees, many fleeing the civil war in Syria.

Her response to the refugee crisis, encapsulated in her phrase well manage it (wir schaffen das), did not go far enough to reassure Germans that the country could indeed handle it, and hurt the CDU badly in the 2017 general election. Voters deserted the centre-right party in droves and delivered a huge boost to the far-right Alternative For Germany (AFD), which entered the national parliament for the first time as the biggest opposition party.

Stefan Schneider, chief German economist and managing director at Deutsche Bank Research in Frankfurt, told Yahoo Finance UK that Merkels approach to the coronavirus crisis is cautious in terms of saying we shouldnt risk anything in prematurely easing up the lockdown because of the risk of a second wave, which then makes the whole thing more costly, is obviously evident and as a politician she is playing it safe.

What else should she do? She doesnt want to be blamed at the end of her last term for being reckless with the health of the German public, Schneider added.

Sharing the European load

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrive for the weekly cabinet meeting on March 11, 2020 in Berlin. Photo by Tobias Schwarz AFP via Getty Images

Germany has come under pressure in recent weeks from leaders of other European states to agree to borrow as one and pool their debt, something Berlin has long been opposed to. Some commentators have noted that how Merkel responds to the call to allow for a mutual borrowing  likely in the form of so-called corona bondscould shape the future unity of the EU as well her own legacy as Europes most powerful leader.

Writing in the Guardian on Sunday, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said: either we respond with unwavering solidarity or our union fails.

He welcomed the ECBs emergency purchase programme and the EU Commissions 100bn short-time work programme, but went on to say that the new measures and the current European Stability Mechanism were not enough.

It is time to act with solidarity in creating a new debt mutualisation mechanism, acting as a single bloc for the purchase of essential medical supplies, establishing coordinated cybersecurity strategies, and preparing a major emergency plan to ensure that the continents recovery is rapid and robust, he wrote.

Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte, and the heads of eight other eurozone countries, including France, also called for the European Union to back assuming joint debt in the form of corona bonds.

Merkel is staunchly against shouldering common debt-responsibility, saying recently that with the ESM we have a crisis instrument that provides many opportunities that do not call into question the basic principles of our joint but responsible action.

Schneider from Deutsche Bank Research says that Germany is already showing solidarity and a willingness to pay its fair share by backing von der Leyens measures. He believes that to a large extent some countries are using this extreme situation as a lever to get the European fiscal mutualisation onto another level.

In this respect, and I think its a little bit unfortunate, the debate about European solidarity is basically an arm-twisting exercise on whether we get fiscal mutualisation in Europe, Schneider notes.

The EU split on taking on this issue has dogged the bloc since the financial crisis. Germany was firmly opposed back then, and in the end the solution was the European Stability Mechanism to lend to countries in need.

In Schneiders view, headlines about Merkels legacy being dependent on her response to the joint-debt question are just another way of putting pressure on Germany  and then you read through and they are suggesting that Merkel open German taxpayers wallets. If thats basically the demonstration of leadership to spend your peoples money, Im not convinced, he says.

Carsten Brzeski, ING Germanys chief economist told Yahoo Finance UK that a corona bond might have had the charm of being extremely symbolic, but as an economist I think it wouldnt make a difference because we are in a situation right now where the fiscal rules have been waived, the ECB is buying everything that is in the market, we have the ESM, so the financing costs of southern European countries are clearly not high so this is not the issue.

Brzeski notes that a corona bond is not a silver bullet and that even with it, Italian debt and Spanish debt would also start to increase. In terms of this issue defining Merkels legacy, he says that shes not a big visionary when it comes to economic policies, whereas she is a fantastic crisis managerand this time around they [the German government] were even faster in reacting with economic policies.

The ING economist says that while Merkel is keen to show solidarity, it is unlikely she will pave the way for debt mutualisation.

A fifth term for Merkel?

A combination picture shows German Chancellor Angela Merkel is sworn as chancellor on (L to R) November 22, 2005, October 28, 2009, December 17, 2013 and March 14, 2018 in Berlin, Germany. REUTERS/Staff

Merkels surge in popularity at home due to her handling of the coronavirus crisis so far has led some, including Germanys biggest newspaper Bild (link in German), to mull on whether the virus pandemic could tee up a fifth term for her.

There is still no clear frontrunner in the CDU race to become its next party chief and chancellor candidate in the 2021 general election, and they wont vote on that until the latter half of this year.

However, the chancellor, who will be 66 in July, has always maintained that this was definitely her last term. She had even hesitated to put herself up for the role again in the last general election in 2017.

Brzeski says the crisis would need to last a lot longer for the idea of Merkel running again to be even a possibility: I think she will not run for a fifth term, because I think shes done with it to be honest, he says.

Assuming this crisis lasts longer, or the virus comes back, or somehow were still pretty much preoccupied by corona for the rest of this year, then the whole thing will become shakier and I could imagine then more than the party will ask her to run again; I dont think she really has an ambition to do it again.
Epidemics have ravaged civilisations and changed the course of history. In 1918, over 15 million Indians perished in the Spanish flu outbreak, the last major pandemic that devastated the subcontinent. The flu is reported to have arrived in India through the Bombay port. Seven police sepoys posted at the Bombay docks were the first ones to be admitted to the police hospital with the Bombay fever. Now, as India stops in its tracks to break the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) chain, the police force, as one of the essential services, is again at the forefront of the Herculean task of enforcing this unprecedented nationwide lockdown.

Policing during pandemic has neither specific guidelines nor well-defined roles in shaping the response. The forces are geared for imposing isolation, but never on such a vast scale. As nervous citizens were caught off guard by the hastily-announced lockdown, policemen risked their lives on the streets to ensure that the countrys 1.3 billion people stayed safe indoors  advising the violators or using force to vacate roads; drawing lakshman rekhas to space people out in front of shops and bazaars; standing at the naka (barricade) points through day and night to check cars; spreading awareness about social distancing; disciplining some for violating the restrictions; and arresting foolhardy offenders. To be sure, this, at times, resulted in excessive action, but this was more the exception than the norm. The police also traced the travel history of those who did not follow screening protocols and took them to quarantine centres.

With a police-population ratio of only 192 in India (192 policemen per 100,000 people), this is no mean task. The dearth of manpower reduces the effectiveness and efficiency of the police force, and even causes psychological ailments for many. To keep a strict surveillance on its people during the lockdown in Britain, where the police-population ratio is much higher, the forces used high-tech drones.

Despite their best efforts, the hapless constables, who form the frontline of the force, are often shown as ill-informed and depicted in poor light. Despite obsolete equipment, lapses in communication network and compromised police mobility due to the shortage of vehicles and drivers, our police system is still committed to deliver its best under trying circumstances.

To help the citizens during the lockdown, policemen have gone beyond the call of duty. Some have distributed food and milk packets, including senior citizens. Food rations were distributed in police trucks in Punjab. The police went from door-to-door offering help to the elderly in West Bengal. They distributed food packets in womens shelters and to labourers. Some have even tried innovative means to spread the message regarding precautions and safety measures to contain the coronavirus, wearing spiked red helmets shaped like the virus. Some policemen in the states sang patriotic songs, making an appeal to citizens to stand by the nation in its fight against coronavirus. These endeavours of the police force in this hour of crisis should not go unrecognised.

Considering the staggering population, the police cannot deliver without community help and participation. For instance, after the first days efforts to distribute food to the deprived, the Delhi Police got overwhelming support from residents who came forward to offer vegetables and other food items. The special branch of Delhi Police distributed around 6,000 food packets to the needy in various parts of the Capital in collaboration with volunteers and staff of its district units, as per media reports. In the South district, the police, in coordination with a private trust and district civil administration, distributed 500 food packets to the needy at Sanjay Colony Bhatti Mines. From serving meals at police stations to providing medical assistance, the Delhi Police along with NGOs reached out to those in distress due to the lockdown in the slums. Some self-help groups have also come forward to carry the baton. Similarly, a few states are implementing innovative ideas for social distancing with the panchayats and police working together.

The police force, as one of the sentinels of democracy, should be applauded and encouraged for being a crucial interface between the government and the public at this time of national emergency. However, there are three lessons for the future. First, police training schools should include medical emergency and police responses in their syllabus, which would call for a paradigm change in protocols and accoutrements.

Second, with the police force stretched to the maximum, there is an acute need for private security guards to be trained and empowered.

When the lockdown was imposed, police officials were seen walking around the parks with megaphones, sensitising the crowds about Covid-19  a job that security guards could have done. In fact, a variety of tasks performed by the police today can be done by private guards under supervision.

Last, communities or clusters which organise themselves well through self-discipline, emerge from such crises unscathed and stronger. Some resident welfare associations in Delhi and Gurgaon have already proved this, though it is crucial they follow the law, dont act arbitrarily, impose draconian restrictions and harass community members.

Yashovardhan Azad is former IPS officer and Central Information Commissioner

The views expressed are personal

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AUSTIN, Texas, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Abrigo announced that community financial institution customers of its SBA Lending solution have handled nearly 15,000 loan applications through the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) since Friday. This number is expected to grow significantly this week; application volume is tracking to exceed $10 billion in loans to small businesses.

The SBA PPP launched Friday, April 3, making millions of small businesses and sole proprietors across the U.S. eligible to apply for PPP loans, and financial institutions were inundated with applicants hoping to participate in the $349 billion "first-come, first-served" program aimed at coronavirus relief. However, the PPP launch was met with numerous technical issues and confusion around eligibility. Many banks and credit unions scrambled to begin processing applications after new borrower and lender forms and SBA program guidance were issued late Thursday, just hours before the program launch.

Abrigo, which has provided SBA lenders with automated origination and integration with E-Tran, the SBA application portal, for 18 months through its Sageworks SBA Lending solution, rapidly updated the solution to capture the new forms and adjust to the new PPP guidelines. Abrigo also has dedicated advisory and implementation resources working around the clock to provide a streamlined integration so lenders can quickly implement the SBA solution and PPP processes.

As a result, customers leveraging the Sageworks SBA Lending solution have been able to simplify and automate the underwriting processes to manage the volume of requests so they can quickly get capital into the hands of small business owners through the PPP. Unlike many SBA software providers that say they are "connected" to E-Tran and have customers processing applications, financial institutions using Abrigo's E-Tran-integrated solution are getting loans completed and approved by the SBA.

Todd Anderson, Senior Vice President and Chief Credit Officer of SaviBank, said he was impressed by Abrigo's agility after the Burlington, Washington, bank added the Sageworks SBA Lending solution last week.

Abrigo "got the parameters [on the PPP] at the same time we did  late Thursday afternoon  less than two business days ago," Anderson said on Sunday. "They have worked through the weekend, burning the midnight oil, because they know how much this means to us and to our customers."

"This is the best provider I have ever worked with in my 30-something years of banking," he said. "They really make it happen. They take our input seriously...they care."

On April 10, when independent contractors and self-employed individuals are eligible to apply for the PPP, banks and credit unions will see another wave of applicants. E-Tran has continued to experience intermittent outages, according to users. But Abrigo's market-tested SBA Lending solution, which provides electronic signature capabilities and remote document uploads, will continue helping financial institutions avoid manually processing stacks of paper applications and provide streamlined service to customers without face-to-face contact.

"Community financial institutions serve markets not always served by the largest banks, so they provide critical capital to local businesses, and they have demonstrated their commitment to these communities once again by being the earliest lenders to activate the Paycheck Protection Program," said Abrigo President Jay Blandford. "Our SBA Lending solution gives CFIs an advantage in getting these critical loans to their local small businesses."

Abrigo will continue to keep financial institutions updated on the latest SBA PPP news through ongoing communication, articles, and webinars. Community financial institutions seeking more information and resources regarding the Paycheck Protection Program can visit Abrigo's SBA Lending Resources page. To learn more about Sageworks SBA Lending solution leveraging technology for PPP loans, talk to an Abrigo expert.

About Abrigo

Abrigo is a leading technology provider of compliance, credit risk, lending, and asset/liability management solutions that community financial institutions use to manage risk and drive growth. Our software automates key processes  from anti-money laundering to asset/liability management to fraud detection to lending solutions  empowering our customers by addressing their Enterprise Risk Management needs. Visit abrigo.com to learn more. Follow Abrigo on social media using @WeAreAbrigo.

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Contrary to reports, Telugu stars Nandamuri Balakrishna and Jr NTR have not been approached for Thalaivi, starring Kangana Ranaut in the titular role. Earlier, it was claimed that they turned down the offer to play legendary actor Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR) in the upcoming biopic of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

It was reported that Balakrishna was approached to play his late father NTR in Thalaivi, but he declined the offer. Jr NTR is also said to have turned down the offer to play his grandfather.

As per a report in Cinema Express, both Balakrishna and Jr NTR were never approached in the first place. It is a rumour. The makers havent approached any actor for the NTR role as yet. So how can Jr NTR or Balayya (Balakrishna) reject it? a source from production house was quoted as saying.

Also see | Family: Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt lead film industry in unique short film on coronavirus

The source further added that since the film will be based on the life of actor and former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa and her relationship with actor-politician MG Ramachandran (MGR), there will be very little scope for NTRs character.

The story of Thalaivi revolves entirely around Jayalalithaa and MGR. So NTR will only make a brief appearance in the film and the makers dont need a big star to portray the role, the source said.

Thalaivi, being directed by Vijay, stars Kangana Ranaut in the role of legendary actor-turned-politician J Jayalalithaa. The film also stars Arvind Swami, Jisshu Sengupta and Priyamani in key roles. It is being made in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu, and has been titled Thalaivi in all the languages.

Kangana, who was last seen in Panga, spent close to six months prepping for this project. She took Bharatanatyam classes, learnt Tamil and even spent hours in the prosthetics sessions.

The project was announced along with its title and first look poster last year on February 25, on the 71st birth anniversary of Jayalalithaa.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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The slow, steady trickle of people leaving west-central Illinois continued last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Set against the backdrop of a hemorrhaging exodus of those migrating from the state during the past several years, however, the declines were fairly small.

Two counties  Brown and Scott  even gained a few folks, according to the projections of change between July 2018 and July 2019.

The U.S. Census Bureau provides annual population estimates for every county in the nation, based on such factors as the number of births, deaths and moves into and out of counties. Although they are estimates, the numbers can provide an indication of where communities will stand when results of the decennial census are tallied.

Morgan County had a net loss of 369 people between 2018 and 2019, according to the projections. The 1.8% drop last year compounded a 5.3% loss in population  about 1,889 people  from 2010 through 2019. The numbers do not specify how much of the decline was within the city of Jacksonville.

Mayor Andy Ezard said the estimates show the importance of getting a complete and accurate count in this years census. The 10-year census numbers are used to determine such things as federal representation and funding.

While the Census Bureaus estimates show a slight drop for the Jacksonville area, I am hopeful this years census will give us an accurate representation of the city of Jacksonvilles current population, Ezard said. Both the city and county were fully vested in the Local Update of Census Addresses operation, so we entered this census with the most accurate residential information ever.

For the first time, this years census can be completed online, by telephone or by mail. Census officials hope that will bring more participation.

Schuyler and Cass counties saw similar declines year over year. Net population decline was 102 people, or 1.5%, in Schuyler County and 165, or 1.3%, in Cass County.

Both counties experienced population drops of more than 10% between 2010 and 2019, according to the estimates  10.3% in Schuyler and 11% in Cass.

Greene County has lost about 6.6% of its population since 2010, but slowed the lost to 0.7% between 2018 and 2019.

Estimates showed year-over-year declines of about 0.1% in Jersey County, 0.9% in Macoupin County and 0.2% in Pike County, although the nine-year drops were higher: 5.3% in Jersey, 6% in Macoupin and 5% in Pike.

Two west-central Illinois counties saw increases between 2018 and 2019  Brown County added an estimated 15 residents, or 0.2%, and Scott County added 24 residents, for an increase of 0.5%. Both counties saw declines from 2010 to 2019, however, with Brown County down 5.2% and Scott County down 7.5%, according to the estimates.

The most significant population losses in Illinois were again noted in Chicago and its suburban areas. The decline in Cook County between 2010 and 2019 was the second-largest in the nation, falling behind only Wayne County, Michigan, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Of the states 102 counties, 93 experienced declines during the past decade, according to an analysis by the Illinois Policy Institute.

The new U.S. Census data reveals the pain Illinoisans have felt during the past decade because of rising taxes, unstable budgets and increasing instances of corruption, said Orphe Divounguy, chief economist for the nonpartisan group.

Most counties in the nation  54%  experienced some degree of population decline from 2010 to 2019, according to the census bureau.

One interesting trend we have seen this decade is widespread population decline among smaller counties, while larger counties tended to have population growth, said Christine Hartley, a demographer in the bureaus population division. Three out of four counties with a population of less than 10,000 in 2010 had even smaller populations in 2019. At the same time, three out of four counties of 50,000 or more were larger in 2019 compared to 2010.

Most of the growth in the nation was in the South and the West. Six of the 10 counties showing the largest population gains this decade were in Texas.
Stream insects and the bankside spiders that eat them carry potentially toxic selenium runoff from water to land

DURHAM, N.C. -- Since the 1980s, a sprawling mountaintop removal mining complex in southern West Virginia has been leaching pollutants -- such as selenium -- into nearby streams at levels deemed unsafe for aquatic life.

Now, even though the mine is closed, researchers have also found high concentrations of selenium in stream insects when they fly out of the water and the spiders that eat them along the banks, an indication that the contaminant moves from water to land as it makes its way up the food chain.

The study shows how "a lot of stream contaminants get out of the water and defy gravity," said co-author Emily Bernhardt, a biologist at Duke University who has been studying the impacts of mountaintop mining on the region for 10 years.

The researchers looked at 23 streams in the Mud River watershed, a network of creeks and streams meandering through the steep forested terrain in Lincoln County, West Virginia. The watershed also happens to drain the 9,900-acre Hobet 21 coal mine, one of the largest mountaintop removal mining operations in Appalachia.

For three decades until its closure in 2015, the mining operation blasted the tops off mountains to get at the coal beneath and pushed the leftover rock into neighboring valleys, burying streams under hundreds of feet of rubble.

The water runoff from this mining waste contains naturally occurring trace elements such as selenium and other dissolved substances.

In a previous study, Bernhardt and colleagues found an uptick in selenium and other trace elements in water samples taken immediately downstream of mining sites in the Mud River watershed.

The new study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, looked at how selenium moves through food webs once it gets in the water.

First author Laura Naslund conducted the research as part of her undergraduate honors thesis in the Bernhardt lab. Over two years, she tested for selenium buildup in the greenish slime growing on rocks in the streambed, or biofilms, which serve as food for mayflies and other stream insects.

She also measured selenium in stream insects as they rose out of the water to mate, and in spiders lying in wait on the banks for the unfortunate insects to blunder into their webs.

Selenium can be 1000 times more concentrated in biofilms than in the surrounding water. It's further concentrated when selenium-rich biofilms become food for aquatic insects grazing on the goo, building up to potentially toxic levels in their tissues.

The team's results show that the more mined land there was upstream, the more selenium there was in stream biofilms. And the more selenium they found in biofilms, the more they found in aquatic insects and the spiders that eat the insects.

Stream insects from mined sites had selenium concentrations that were five times higher than at other sites.

Selenium concentrations in insects and their spider predators from mined streams were as high as 95 and 26 parts per million, respectively -- too high to be considered safe for birds to eat, and some of the highest levels recorded for animal tissues.

The Mud River watershed isn't an isolated example, Bernhardt said. Previous studies have found high selenium levels in water runoff from mountaintop removal mines across Central Appalachia, even decades after the mines have closed.

While selenium concentrations were highest in insects and spiders collected downstream of heavily mined areas, Naslund said that even one stream that was free of contamination had selenium-rich spiders on its banks, suggesting that insects flying out of mined streams can carry pollutants to clean sites too.

The study shows that once mining contaminants wash into streams, "it's hard to get the toothpaste back in the tube," said Naslund, currently a doctoral student at the University of Georgia.

###

This research was supported by a National Science Foundation EAR Hydrologic Sciences grant (1417405), a Dean's Summer Research Fellowship Grant, and the Huang Fellows Professional Development Fund.

CITATION: "Contaminant Subsidies to Riparian Food Webs in Appalachian Streams Impacted by Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining," Laura C. Naslund, Jacqueline R. Gerson, Alexander C. Brooks, David M. Walters, Emily S. Bernhardt. Environmental Science & Technology, March 19, 2020. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b05907
In the vastness of the web, what is the sampling of stuff that we can pull together that demonstrates whats going on now? said John Fenn, the head of research and programs at the American Folklife Center. He is also one of about 80 recommending officers, who make suggestions for the librarys archive  in Mr. Fenns case, for the Web Cultures collection. (It is one of several thematic groupings in the archive, along with the Webcomics collection, American Music Creators and dozens more.)

Its like whack-a-mole, said Gina Jones, a digital projects coordinator on the team.

The criteria for selection typically used by print archivists  value to future scholars, uniqueness of the material  still apply to the web archivists, though the high extinction rate of digital matter factors into decision making. One of the most recent acquisitions is the recently defunct Design Sponge, an interior decorating website that ran for 15 years. (Though it will cease to exist as a website, every single blog post will be fully accessible through the Librarys web archive.)

The earliest material in the archive dates to the 2000 elections, when the web archive was still a pilot program. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, when heart-rending memorials and fierce political debates played out online, the library recognized the need for an official digital record.

For years, collecting was keyed to major news events: the Iraq War, the 2004 elections. Then, around 2009, came a more continuing, expanded approach that sought to reflect the web in all its dizzying newness.
PORTLAND, Ore., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Charter School Capital , the largest national services provider exclusively focused on charter schools and the students they serve, has launched the free COVID-19 Relief Financing program, effective immediately. The program provides eligible charter schools with no financing charges and no-fee financing through 2020.

"The most valuable things we have to offer are immediate access to funds, a financial safety net, and our passionate support," said Stuart Ellis, president and CEO of Charter School Capital. "The best way to support charter schools during the pandemic is to provide them with the use of our money and resources, for free."

Free COVID-19 Relief Financing is available to all qualifying charter schools actively serving 150 or more students. Charter schools facing immediate cash needs will be able to access funds within as few as five days of completing the application process, and funds can be used as charter school leaders deem appropriate. For more information about the program and eligibility requirements, please visit this link .

"Our mission is to help charter school leaders better serve their students by providing them with critical resources that build more sustainable futures for their schools," added Ellis. "The innovation, resilience, and passion we've seen from charter school leaders facing the COVID-19 crisis is setting the bar for what it means to serve students today, and we're inspired to do our part."

In addition to launching free COVID-19 Relief Financing, Charter School Capital has over the past month gathered experts from across the country to provide charter schools with guidance on how to navigate critical coronavirus related challenges. Charter School Capital has produced three free webinars:

COVID-19: Exposing Myths from Facts

Guest: Dr. Gregory Poland , the director of Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group, and immediate past president of the Department of Defense Health Board and the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board

, the director of Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group, and immediate past president of the Department of Defense Health Board and the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board COVID-19: Six Essential Guidelines for Contingency & Communications Planning

Guest: Peri Lynn Turnbull, chief external relations & strategy officer for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

COVID-19: Preparing for Attendance and Staffing Challenges

Guest: Mike Goodyear , implementation success manager for Apex Learning

Along with applying for the free COVID-19 Relief Financing program, charter school leaders seeking additional guidance through the pandemic crisis may contact Charter School Capital in these ways:

Call: 503-701-7447, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST

Email: [email protected]

Web chat: CharterSchoolCapital.org

About Charter School Capital:

Launched in 2006, Charter School Capital helps charter schools access, leverage and sustain the resources they need to thrive, allowing them to focus on what matters most - educating their students. Charter School Capital has provided more than $2 billion in funding to 700 charter schools, providing high-quality education to more than 1.25 million students across the United States. For more information, visit CharterSchoolCapital.org or email [email protected] . Funding made or arranged pursuant to a California Finance Lenders Law license #603F028, and Florida Commercial Collection Agency license #COM9900288.

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Beirut, Lebanon  A fiery prison riot broke out in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Tuesday, a day after security forces thwarted a potential escape attempt that inmates relatives said was tied to fears over the spread of the new coronavirus.

The riot at Tripolis Qoubbeh Prison left at least four inmates wounded when security forces fired rubber bullets, according to activists with contacts inside the facility. Local media reported a number of injuries.

Videos from inside the prison shared by the activists with Al Jazeera appeared to show two men with injuries consistent with rubber bullets  one man on his leg, another man on his face.

A spokesperson for Lebanons Internal Security Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the number of injured.

Two videos reviewed by Al Jazeera showed dozens of men crowded into a large hallway in the prison, a few holding large knives, as fires burned.

They chanted for a general amnesty that has been promised by establishment politicians for many years but has repeatedly faced stumbling blocks.

Among those who have advocated to be included in an amnesty bill are people arrested or wanted on charges of committing petty crimes, drug crimes and extremism.

Prime Minister Hassan Diabs government has committed to endorsing such a bill, though it is unclear who would be included.

Security forces discovered a tunnel several metres in length after raiding Zahle Prison [Screengrab/Al Jazeera]

Escape attempt over coronavirus

The large riot came fewer than 24 hours after security forces discovered a tunnel several metres in length during an operation at Zahle Prison in eastern Bekaa Valley.

A security source said security forces on Monday evening raided a section of the prison housing a large number of inmates after learning that prisoners were attempting to escape.

Relatives of inmates at the Zahle Prison said the prisoners attempt was tied to fears that the coronavirus would spread rapidly inside the overcrowded detention facility.

They are scared about the coronavirus issue, they are scared it will spread, the relative of an inmate at Zahle Prison told Al Jazeera, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

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Lebanon, with a population of about six million, has registered a total of 548 cases to date. Nineteen people have died, and 62 have recovered, according to the information ministry.

Officials say no cases of coronavirus have been found among prisoners.

The relative said they had last been in contact with the inmate on Monday as security forces were about to launch the raid. He said, theyre coming in now, and we dont know when well be able to talk again. I havent heard anything since then, the relative said.

Many inmates at Lebanese prisons use smuggled mobile phones to speak to relatives.

Video taken inside the prison appeared to show a narrow hole was dug underneath the prison floor. A basket full of reddish-brown earth is illuminated by a light hung on one side of the makeshift tunnel.

The security source said an altercation took place between security forces and inmates during the operation.

The inmates relative said that several inmates had been wounded. One officer had stabbed by an inmate but was in stable condition, according to a representative of a committee of families and notables who have long been pushing for the general amnesty, known as the Amnesty Committee.

Up to a third of prisoners could be released

Since mid-March, inmates at Lebanese prisons have organised a number of protests, some of which have turned into riots as the coronavirus outbreak worsened in the country.

Inmates have demanded to be released from detention centres that are operating at more than double their capacity.

Officials say they are seeking to secure the early release of up to a third of the countrys roughly 9,000 detainees, specifically those with fewer than six months left in their sentences.

Judges and security forces have also been advised to make new arrests only when serious crimes are committed.

When possible, judges have held interrogations via popular messaging app WhatsApp or other video-calling services, and a top judge said France would provide Lebanon with electronic ankle bracelets which could be used to track inmates released early via GPS.

Interior Minister Mohammed Fehmi said on Sunday that 559 detainees had so far been released early from prisons and jails.

But as time goes on, the situation in prisons is becoming increasingly unstable.
In 1997, a bestselling book by Jared Diamond purported to explain how the West won world dominance based on the good luck of geography, and because western countries were the first to industrialise.

Fast forward to 2020, and to COVID-19. Geography still matters, but the West is no longer winning.

Despite initial mistakes, it seems China has been successful at containing the virus, and other countries such as South Korea and Singapore have, so far, been able to dramatically slow the rate of infection.

Western countries were slow to respond and are paying a very high price. As of March 30, Italy had 98,000 confirmed cases and 10,800 COVID-19 deaths.

While cross-country comparisons on confirmed cases are problematic because of large differences in testing, the United States currently has more than 137,000 confirmed cases  the highest in the world, more than in China.

This number will get much larger very quickly if cases continue to double every few days.

The number of Americans who will die will soon be in the thousands, and possibly tens of thousands, if the US does not do much more at a national level to ensure physical distancing.

If the current growth rate continues, parts of its health system, especially intensive care units, will be overwhelmed.

Exponential growth

Currently, the rate of infection  without sufficient measures  tracks very closely exponential growth.

This allows us to accurately predict, with a basic disease spread model, the minimum, maximum, and most likely number of confirmed cases, at least for the next week or so (although it should be noted that an increased rate of testing will increase this number).

The data tells us that for countries in the earlier phase of the pandemic such as Australia the number of confirmed cases doubles every few days.

In Australia it began by doubling roughly every four days, and is now doubling every seven days. (The number undoubtedly underestimates the rate of infection.)

Australia had about 2,000 confirmed cases on 24 March. Given rates of infection and changes in growth, our forecasts of infections made on March 27 for Sunday March 29 ranged from 3,950 to 4,460.

Robust short-term predictions

The actual reported number on Sunday March 29 was 3,984, near the low end of that range.

Our forecast for 6pm on Wednesday April 1 now ranges from 5,080 to 5,970 cases, with 5,220 most likely.

For Thursday April 2 the range is 5,510 to 6,835, with 5,715 most likely.

Until physical distancing has had an effect, exponential growth is as good as certain. This will make our forecasts robust.

The current measures might already be cutting infection growth rates, but it is too early to tell. Even stricter measures will be needed to cut the number infected.

With sufficient physical distancing, Australia could end up with an infection rate as low as 1%. By comparison, if it fails to control the infection by not implementing sufficient physical distancing, it could end up with a much worse rate of 20%.

The payoff from going hard and going early

What is the difference in the number of deaths between an infection rate of 1% versus 20%?

Overseas death rates suggest Australia could face an additional 48,000 premature deaths without distancing. This is equivalent to about 30% of annual deaths in Australia.

Although recent evidence suggests young people might be more vulnerable than previously thought, those premature deaths would be clustered in the old and those with other illnesses, and those also in remote Indigenous communities, should the virus get there.

Economists use the value of an economic life for cost-benefit analysis of public projects. It is a measure of societys willingness to pay to reduce the risk of an additional death.

Using the New South Wales Treasurys value of a statistical life of $4.2 million, the economic loss of 48,000 premature deaths amounts to some $200 billion, or about 10% of Australias annual economic output.

This means it makes sense to act early and hard before the infection rate gets too high, cutting it as quickly as possible. The Spanish Influenza pandemic suggests aggressive physical distancing works.

The question Australians should ask of their leaders is this: is strict physical distancing a cost worth paying?

Costs and benefits from distancing

The main economic benefit from insufficient physical distancing would be that, at least initially, more Australians would stay employed, there would be more economic activity, more taxes would be paid, and government would need to spend less.

But not imposing a lockdown or equivalent measures would come at the cost of a higher infection rate, which would also mean more non-pandemic patients might die because of insufficient beds or medical equipment or staff to look after them.

A higher infection rate would also increase the death rate of pandemic patients as there would be fewer ventilators available to treat each one.

And the economy would suffer even without sufficient physical distancing, although the worst would be delayed. Many people would still get sick and be unable to work until they were recovered.

A much higher infection rate would also isolate Australia from the rest of the world. Why would any country want Australians to visit if it had high rates of infection, and why would anyone from another country want to visit Australia?

The wage subsidy provides a way out

A high enough wage subsidy for all workers (including part-timers and casuals) who cannot work because of control measures, coupled with the already announced additional $550 a fortnight COVID-19 supplement to the Jobseeker Payment, could provide most Australians with enough income to survive and pay the bills during a lockdown.

Such an approach combines sharing the burden with flattening the curve, a two-fold economic and public health approach that would save lives while minimising economic disruption, especially for younger and casual workers who are the most disadvantaged by severe physical distancing.

Its the smartest and safest strategy, and Australia appears to be adopting it.

Our model for the spread of the infection is an adapted [SEIR-M] model. It is still under development and needs further validation and also peer-review.

For now, we assume a homogeneously mixed population. We are also working on a spatially explicit model to account for more complex population contact.

Our current results are roughly in line with changes in basic growth rates and their projections by state.

We will continue to provide forward projections that can then be compared with actual numbers.

All data is sourced from state and commonwealth websites.

A valuable discussion of this and more complicated infectious disease models is found on the University of Melbourne Pursuit website.

This piece is co-published with Policy Forum at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy.

Quentin Grafton, Director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University and Tom Kompas, Visiting Professor, Australian National University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Baking is on the rise in homes across America as people continue to stay home amid the novel coronavirus outbreak. One tasty treat is getting a bunch of attention -- banana bread!

PHOTO: Samin Nosrat's banana bread loaf. (Samin Nosrat)

"Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" cookbook author and chef Samin Nosrat joined "GMA" via Skype from her home in Oakland, California, to share a simple, delicious recipe with some pantry staples. She also offers a variety of swaps to use -- basically whatever people have on hand.

MORE: Delicious, easy recipes that use all your pantry staples

Nosrat said "the riper the better" when it comes to the best bananas for the recipe,

Check out the full recipe below for her flaky sea salt topped loaf that will be almost too pretty to eat.

Use-What-You-Got Banana Bread

PHOTO: Chef and cookbook author Samin Nosrat's use what you got banana bread. (Samin Nosrat)

Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes (10 minutes active time)

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon fine salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon, plus 1/2 teaspoon for topping

1 1/3 cups mashed ripe bananas from about 3 large, 4 medium, or 5 small bananas), plus (optional) 1 whole ripe banana for topping the loaf

3/4 cup neutral oil, such as canola

Packed 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for topping

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs at room temperature

1/3 cup (75 grams) buttermilk, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt for topping

Directions

Remove upper rack from oven and set remaining rack to center position. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 5-inch by 9-inch loaf pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together mashed bananas, oil,  cup brown sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, and buttermilk to combine.

Gently fold the banana mixture into the dry mixture and stir until just combined and no dry flour is visible. Scrape into prepared loaf pan.

Slice remaining banana in half lengthwise and gently lay on top of the batter, cut-side down. In a small bowl, combine a half teaspoon cinnamon, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and flaky salt, then sprinkle evenly over batter and banana.

Story continues

Place pan on prepared rack toward rear of oven and bake for 30 minutes, then rotate pan 180 degrees. Continue baking for another 30 to 35 minutes, or until inserted skewer comes out clean and edges of the loaf pull away from the pan.

Notes and substitutions:

It is perfectly fine to use frozen bananas that have been defrostedjust make sure to use any liquid that the frozen bananas give off after defrosting. Thats pure banana flavor!)

Replace up to 1 cup of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour if you likethis is my preferred version.

Use light brown sugar if you dont have dark brown.

Use plain yogurt (Greek, low-fat or full-fat) if you dont have buttermilk.

If you dont have flaky sea salt, use a quarter teaspoon fine salt for the topping.

Use an 8-inch square baking pan if you dont have a loaf pan, but adjust baking time to 35 to 40 minutes.

New York Times bestselling cookbook author shares banana bread recipe originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
While the board has not met since its last meeting, Ogburn said she contacted Superintendent Amy Cashwell after the governors announcement. Ogburn said Cashwell then consulted each board member individually.

The School Board is still expected to convene for its regular meeting at the end of this month, but the board has not decided whether it should meet in person or hold the meeting virtually.

Ogburn said the School Board wanted to announce the decision about putting off the redistricting vote as soon as possible.

We didnt feel like we could wait, she said. Were getting tons of ... phone calls and questions.

The redistricting committee has worked with Ohio-based consultant Cropper GIS since September to craft recommendations to alleviate overcrowding in schools, plan for growth and break up concentrations of poverty at schools.

The school division made those goals the priority for the process, but dozens of parents have raised objections to the draft plans, saying they violate guidelines intended to keep neighborhood schools and school feeder patterns intact where possible.
A group of Rowan University students and a professor are making 32 boxes that will help shield health care workers intubating patients suffering from the coronavirus.

Using a set of open-source plans developed by a doctor in Taiwan, the students - Joshua Meyer, Kunj Parmar, and Colton Jacobucci - worked with mechanical engineering professor Francis Haas to cut the boxes from sheets of polycarbonate, a lightweight and durable plastic.

For patients with serious cases of the coronavirus, symptoms include difficulty breathing and pneumonia - leading to a surge in demand for ventilators, which force oxygen into the lungs and fluid out.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage

Several other patients hospitalized with the virus - including Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom - have needed intubation to receive the proper amount of oxygen, according to the Washington Post.

Many South Jersey patients were in need of oxygen too, and soon Dr. Kelly Schiers, a pulmonologist at Jefferson Washington Township Hospital, made an urgent request for the boxes, according to a Rowan statement.

The box sits over the head and shoulders of a patient laying down, and has arm holes for the medical staff who are inserting the oxygen tube. The plastic barrier can reduce the risk of infection.

The Rowan students are also making the boxes for other area providers including Inspira Health and Cooper University Health Care.

After receiving the polycarbonate sheets from FocalCool, a medical device research company in South Jersey, the students got to work with help of Rowan technologist Karl Dyer.

They had the first box together within 24 hours. After 48, they made the delivery to Schiers home.

We wanted to do something more, said Meyer, who shares an apartment with Parmar and Jacobucci. Dr. Haas knew we were bored and knew we were in the area  we were more than willing.

The team is working on new designs for the box that might help further reduce exposure to the patient and would be even safer.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

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Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
WASHINGTON  How long can we keep this up?

It is still very early in the U.S. effort to snuff a lethal pandemic by shutting down much of the economy. But there is a growing question  from workers, the White House, corporate boardrooms and small businesses on the brink  that hangs over what is essentially a war effort against a virus that has already killed more than 9,000 Americans.

There is no good answer yet, in part because we dont even have the data needed to formulate one.

Essentially, economists say, there wont be a fully functioning economy again until people are confident that they can go about their business without a high risk of catching the coronavirus.

Our ability to reopen the economy ultimately depends on our ability to better understand the spread and risk of the virus, said Betsey Stevenson, a University of Michigan economist who worked on the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama. Its also quite likely that we will need to figure out how to reopen the economy with the virus remaining a threat.

Public health experts are beginning to make predictions about when coronavirus infection rates will peak. Economists are calculating when the cost of continuing to shutter restaurants, shopping malls and other businesses  a move that has already pushed some 10 million Americans into unemployment, with millions more on the way  will outweigh the savings from further efforts to slow the virus once the infection curve has flattened out.

Government officials are setting competing targets. President Donald Trump has pushed his expected date of reopening the economy to the end of April. We have to get back to work, he said in a briefing Saturday. We have to open our country again. We dont want to be doing this for months and months and months. Were going to open our country again. This country wasnt meant for this.

Some governors have set much more conservative targets, like Ralph Northam of Virginia, who canceled the remainder of the school year and imposed a shelter-at-home order through June 10. Other states, like Florida, only recently agreed to shut activity down but have set more aggressive targets  April 30, in the case of the Sunshine State  to restart it.

Those targets are at best mildly informed guesses based on models that contain variables  including how many people have the virus and how effective suppression measures will prove to be. The models cannot yet give us anything close to a precise answer on the big question looming over Americans lives and livelihoods.

To determine when to restart activity, said R. Glenn Hubbard, a former top economist under President George W. Bush, we need more information.

Interviews with more than a dozen economists, many of whom are veterans of past presidential administrations, reveal broad consensus on the building blocks the economy needs  but does not yet have  to begin the slow process of restoring normalcy in the U.S. economy.

That includes widespread agreement that the United States desperately needs more testing for the virus in order to give policymakers the first key piece of evidence they need to determine how fast the virus is spreading and when it might be safe for people to return to work.

Without more testing, theres no way that you could set a time limit on when you could open up the economy, said Simon Mongey, a University of Chicago economist who is among the authors of a new study that found that rapid deployment of randomized testing for the virus could reduce its health and economic damage.

Its going to have to depend on being able to identify people that have the coronavirus, understanding how readily those people can transmit the disease to others and then kind of appropriately isolating people that are contagious, Mongey said.

Policymakers will also need better data on how strained hospitals and entire regional health care systems are likely to be if the infection rate flares up and spreads. Ideally, they would sufficiently control the rate to establish so-called contact tracing in order to track  and avoid  the spread of the virus across the country.

Once such levels of detection are established, it is possible that certain workers could begin returning to the job  for example, in areas where the chance of infection is low. Some experts have talked about quickly bringing back workers who have contracted the virus but recovered with little effect. Testing is the best way to identify such workers, who may have had the virus with few or no symptoms and possibly not realized they were ever infected.

While they wait for the infection rate to fall, policymakers will need to provide more support to workers who have lost jobs or hours and to businesses teetering on the brink of failure. That could mean trillions more in small business loans, unemployment benefits and direct payments to individuals, and it could force the government to get creative in deploying money to avoid bottlenecks.

Lisa Cook, a Michigan State University economist who worked in the Obama White House, said lawmakers should consider funneling $1,500 a month to individuals through mobile apps like Zelle in order to reach more people, particularly low-income and nonwhite Americans who disproportionately lack traditional bank accounts. Mobile payments, Cook said, would also make it easier and faster to make onward payments to family members and friends in need.

The governments efforts could prove crucial to maintaining public support for what amounts to a prolonged economic drought. Adam Ozimek, chief economist at Upwork, said additional money for small business will be crucial throughout the full extent of the crisis  both to prevent a crush of business failures and to keep owners and customers from flouting the national effort to reduce infections.

I dont think you can force hundreds of thousands of small business owners to voluntarily shut down and let failure happen to them, Ozimek said. They wont do it, the public wont support it, and frankly, I dont think local authorities would stop them.

Policymakers will also need to give better support and protection to Americans who are putting their own health at risk to keep the essential parts of the economy running, like doctors, nurses, grocery store clerks and package delivery drivers.

Heather Boushey, president of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a think tank focused on inequality, said those workers needed to have paid sick leave, adequate health coverage, access to coronavirus tests and affordable care for their children while they worked in order to stay healthy and protect consumers from further spread of the virus.

That is the economy at this point  those workers, Boushey said. And their health and safety is imperative to my safety.

Policymakers will need patience: Restarting activity too quickly could risk a second spike in infections that could deal more damage than the first because it would shake peoples faith in their ability to engage in even limited amounts of shopping, dining or other commerce.

Its important not to lift too early, said Emil Verner, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who is a co-author of a new study that found that cities that took more aggressive steps to curb the 1918 flu pandemic in the United States emerged with stronger economies than cities that did less. Because if we lift too early, the pandemic can take hold again. And that itself is very bad for the economy.

Finally, policymakers will need to level with Americans  and themselves  and concede the possibility that the shutdown and its effects could drag well beyond the end of the month.

Aggressive suppression measures could lead to a gradual resumption of activity that begins in some places as soon as May, several experts said. But business as usual might not come back until a vaccine is developed, which could take more than a year.

We should certainly be prepared for a meaningful level of deliberate suppression of economic activity for the rest of the year, said Jason Furman of Harvard University, who was a top economist under Obama.

The Congressional Budget Office wrote Thursday that it expected at least one-quarter of the current suppression measures to last through years end and that the unemployment rate could still be 9% at the end of 2021. Lawmakers need to be ready to keep filling the void with support to businesses and workers, said Karl Smith, vice president for federal policy at the Tax Foundation in Washington.

The possibility of an unofficial quarantine for weeks or months after the official one is lifted is real, Smith said. After that, my guess is that the economy is in major trouble.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
SAN ANTONIO -- April 7, 2020 -- NASA has selected Southwest Research Institute and the University of New Hampshire to continue developing a mission to look for evidence of distant energetic events, such as the birth of black holes. NASA's Small Explorers Program (SMEX) selected the "LargE Area burst Polarimeter" (LEAP) program for a mission concept study.

Mounted on the outside of the International Space Station, LEAP would study energetic jets such as those erupting from the explosive death of a massive star or the merger of compact objects such as neutron stars. LEAP's ability to measure the polarization of gamma-ray bursts (GRB) could resolve competing theories about the nature of the jets. LEAP would complement NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), scheduled to launch in 2021, which will study lower-energy X-ray phenomena.

"Gamma rays are the smoking gun for some of the most energetic events in the universe," said Mark McConnell, director of SwRI's Earth, Oceans and Space (SwRI-EOS) Department at UNH's Durham, New Hampshire, campus. "When a very massive star explodes in a supernova and then collapses into a black hole, it ejects jets with energies that can exceed anything observed in the universe since the Big Bang. LEAP will measure the resulting GRB with previously unachievable precision."

LEAP will improve our understanding of the role that magnetic fields play in these systems, especially with regard to the formation and sustainment of the high-speed jets that are responsible for what we see. It should also reveal how the observed gamma radiation is produced within the jet.

"Measuring the polarization of the GRB radiation could answer several open questions about the jet physics and the underlying processes that produce the jets," McConnell said.

LEAP is a single instrument with nine polarimeter modules based on well-established, flight-proven technologies. It will measure gamma-ray burst polarization while self-sufficiently providing the source localization required to analyze polarization data. These data will allow LEAP to differentiate between classes of GRB models. Detailed time-resolved and/or energy-resolved studies will be conducted for the brightest GRBs.

"While LEAP promises to advance our understanding of gamma-ray bursts and high-energy astrophysics," McConnell said, "it could also help inform studies of gravitational radiation, which was first observed from merging black holes in 2016."

NASA selected four missions to advance their proposed mission concepts. In 2021, NASA intends to fund two of the proposed missions for launch in 2025.

For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/astrophysics.

###
The dead bodies of caged cats, dogs and rabbits have been discovered inside Pakistan's pet markets that were abandoned when the country went into lockdown.

As the coronavirus pandemic grew, Pakistan's major cities were plunged into lockdown which forced many shops to close.

Only market stalls selling essential goods such as food and medicine were allowed to continue operating.

It left pet shop owners blocked from their businesses, some resorting to sneaking in at night to feed the animals.

A vendor moves the cages of animals outside his closed shop in Karachi during the nationwide lockdown

Animal rescuers said around 70% of the animals were dead when authorities finally granted them access to the market two weeks after the lockdown was imposed

When animal activist Ayesha Chundrigar arrived at Karachi's sprawling Empress Market she said she could hear the cries of animals that had survived for two weeks after the lockdown was announced.

Starving and locked in cages with no light or ventilation, the surviving pets sat among the dead, trembling.

A Facebook video shows animals being rescued from the pet market.

In the six-minute clip ACF Animal rescue volunteers can be seen unloading dozens of animals.

Vendor Asmat Khan feeds his cat outside his closed shop. Some pet owners had been sneaking in at night in order to feed the animals

Activists found the animals starving and locked in cages with surviving animals sitting among the dead

The animals were only rescued after activists appeals to authorities for access.

Chundrigar, who runs ACF Animal Rescue, said: 'When we got inside, the majority of them were dead, about 70 percent. Their bodies were lying on the ground.

'It was so horrific, I can't tell you.'

A strict nationwide ban is also in place against public gatherings and religious congregations.

After the desperate rescue, Chundrigar has now convinced the Karachi authorities to allow pet shop owners and her team daily access to the animals.

Residents Ali Khurshid (left) and Noor Ali (right) play with and feed stray dogs on a street near Clifton beach

Pakistani security officials have been deployed to block roads and enforce market closures. Above, they wear PPE during a lockdown of Punjab province in Lahore

Animals met with a similar fate in the eastern city of Lahore.

The bodies of about 20 dogs were found dumped in a sewer near Tollinton Market, a hub for pet businesses which had closed leaving animals to starve.

Kiran Maheen was able to rescue more than two dozen dogs, rabbits and cats after convincing officials at the market to let her in, but a large number had already died.

Vendors try and sell pet food on a vehicle next to shops closed at a market in Rawalpindi

A man stands next to a closed market during lockdown of the Khyber Pakhtunkha province in Peshawar

Maheen said: 'When the police opened up the shutters, a lot of animals were already lying dead inside,' adding that many had suffocated from a lack of air.

Pakistani authorities have confirmed 2,900 cases of coronavirus 19 and 45 deaths, though the tally is thought to be higher because of testing limitations.

Around 25 percent of the population already live under the poverty line, but millions more who earn a daily wage have joined them since the lockdown began, experts say.
Four people were held in separate cases for supplying liquor in outer Delhi areas amid the lockdown imposed to control the spread of coronavirus, police said on Tuesday.

Of the four violators, three had curfew passes issued by the police or municipality.

Hari Om, a resident of outer Delhi's Mangolpuri was held at Tikri border after he was found carrying five bottles of liquor on his motorcycle, they said.

He had a curfew pass issued by the Delhi Police which was immediately cancelled, they said.

In a similar incident, two people -- Avinash and Shiv Pujan, residents of Madipur were held at Tikri border for misusing the curfew pass issued to them by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation for sanitation purpose.

The duo was accompanying a man who was carrying illegal liquor in his vehicle, a senior police officer said.

A letter has been sent to the municipal corporation for cancellation of their passes, he said.

Meanwhile, a resident of Adarsh Nagar was apprehended for consuming liquor at a public place in Rani Bagh area.

Deepak Sharma, who owns a pharmacy at Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar, has been booked under relevant sections of the Delhi Excise Act, Disaster Management Act and IPC, police said.

"We strongly urge people to desist from misusing curfew passes... legal action will be taken against those violating the law," a police officer said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Today

Intervals of clouds and sunshine. High 74F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low near 40F. Winds light and variable.

Tomorrow

Intervals of clouds and sunshine in the morning with more clouds for later in the day. High 74F. Winds light and variable.
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Story by William Bender of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Angela Couloumbis of Spotlight PA

As the coronavirus spread across the region last month and Gov. Tom Wolf ordered a halt to all but life-sustaining business, construction workers on the site of the new Live! Hotel & Casino in South Philadelphia fretted that the general contractor wasnt doing enough to protect them from being infected.

Gilbane Building Company, having obtained a waiver from the state, continued work on the $700 million casino, one of the most expensive projects in the city. Hundreds of workers traveled to the site on Packer Avenue near Citizens Bank Park  some from as far away as New York and Maryland.

Then a worker who had been on the job for two days in mid-March tested positive for COVID-19.

Yesterday afternoon we were notified that a taper that worked on the Live! Hotel & Casino project tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, Gilbane project executive Dan Kelley wrote in a March 26 email, listing people who might have had contact with the infected man.

Some workers responded by walking off the site, convinced that Gilbane was not taking the coronavirus seriously.

On Monday, sheet metal workers left after their union head said they were in danger because the company was ignoring Centers for Disease Control and Prevention precautions.

We were like, Were not working here, said a construction worker who asked not to be identified because he feared retaliation. Most of our guys felt this was bull crap. Some of these guys dont care, but this spreads like wildfire.

Then on Tuesday morning, workers were told in another email from Kelley that a first-shift medic who oriented new hires and did drug screening had tested positive for the virus. The medic had worked on site between March 11 and March 25, according to the email. Kelley advised those whove had contact with him to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Gilbane, an international development company, said it had been allowed to push ahead with construction by obtaining a waiver from the Wolf administration to continue operating. But the administration has given few details about how the waiver process works and has refused repeated requests to provide a list of which businesses applied to reopen, what they said their life-sustaining business is, and why they were approved or denied.

As of Monday, Gilbane said it was planning to keep building. But state officials now say the waiver is being misused.

An exemption was granted to Gilbane Construction, but that exemption does not allow for casino construction, Casey Smith, a spokesperson for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, said Monday, replying to questions from the Inquirer and Spotlight PA.

The waiver was granted to Gilbane only for those projects that pose [a] public safety hazard" and need more work to safely close down, "health care construction, and, in one case, completing a much-needed Philadelphia school, Smith said.

Per guidance, when a company receives an exemption in response to a request in which it specifically identified a particular element of the business as essential to health care or another life-sustaining operation, that exemption only relates to those specified life-sustaining activities, Smith said.

Gilbane declined this week to answer questions about how many workers at the casino site tested positive or negative for COVID-19 or how it obtained the exemption to the state shutdown.

Nor did Cordish Cos., the Baltimore-based casino operator and developer that took control of the project developer, Stadium Casino LLC, in November 2018.

In the case of the casino project, the building is still exposed to the elements and requires critical enclosure and infrastructure work to be completed before construction work can be safely paused, Cordish said in a statement Monday. The safety of all workers on the casino job and all construction jobs in the region is paramount.

Gary Masino, president of Sheet Metal Workers Local 19, sent a letter to his members Monday informing them that they were being pulled from the casino site, as well as two other Philadelphia job sites  The Philadelphia Art Museum and the citys police administration building  because union leadership felt general contractors there were not complying with the CDC regulations and preventative precautions regarding the coronavirus.

We felt that the workers on those projects were in danger, Masino wrote.

But Cordish said the company has adopted protocols consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, including social-distancing requirements, handwashing stations, and staggered shifts to limit the number of workers on site together.

Those rules havent always been followed, workers say.

In an April 1 email to his employees, a subcontractor said he had been informed that day that a casino site worker had previously tested positive for COVID-19, but that workers were to return to the site on Monday after it was deemed safe.

PPE (personal protective equipment) is extremely scarce as most understand at this point and we will continue to refine and change our program based on this, wrote Michael Jackson, vice president of Philadelphia D&M, which specializes in framing, drywall, and carpentry. We look forward to finishing this project with the vigor we started with, all the while keeping YOU, our employees and multiemployer trade partners as safe as we can in our current climate.

Attached to the email were company infection control procedures for projects where social distancing is not feasible, as well as a flier from the general contractor titled Gilbane Cares.

The Gilbane flier said workers should not be on site if they feel sick, have a fever or breathing issues, have traveled outside of government travel restrictions, or have been in contact with someone suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19.

If you answer NO to all of the above, please come to work, it states.

Gilbane in a statement said: The casino, when completed, will bring thousands of new jobs and hundreds of millions of new taxes to Philadelphia and the Commonwealth, at a time when both will be critically needed. While other gaming companies have cut tens of thousands of jobs in the Commonwealth and shelved planned investments, we are continuing to invest $1 billion in the region to create these new jobs and taxes."

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) is pushing a bill that appears to be on the fast-track for a vote in the chamber that would reopen all public and private construction activities in the state, as long as they can adhere to social distancing and other CDC-recommended mitigation practices.

Democrats in the chamber have decried the measure, saying it plays to politics and special interests, and have called it a threat to public health.

Lauren Cox, a spokesperson for Mayor Jim Kenney, said the city was not involved in Gilbane obtaining a waiver from the state.

Pennsylvania State Police and other law enforcement agencies can cite businesses that stay open despite not providing a life-sustaining service or products, but the agency has handed out only warnings, 205 of them as of Tuesday, except for a few citations to businesses selling liquor.

The posture has largely been to educate, to inform, to demonstrate to the business, perhaps through virtue of a copy of the governors order, what the criteria are, Lt. Col. Scott Price, the State Polices deputy commissioner of operations, said during a conference call with reporters Tuesday.

Note: This story has been updated from an earlier version.

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Limited tech forces thousands of state workers to still report for work, despite their offices being closed

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Pa. reaches 240 deaths due to coronavirus; 14,559 cases reported statewide

Troopers wont just warn violators about Gov. Wolfs coronavirus stay-at-home order forever, PSP official says
AS T&T and other governments around the world took unprecedented measures to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 outbreak, a new crisis was emerging for the lupus community in this country. It all started when US President Donald Trump and other leaders touted the use of the drug Hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment against coronavirus.
Few industries are doing it tougher than regional publishers, many of whom have stopped printing.

So far, Australian Community Media boss Antony Catalano has managed to keep the presses rolling. Catalano swooped in with Melbourne billionaire Alex Waislitz to snap up a slew of papers including The Canberra Times and the Newcastle Herald from Nine (the publisher of this newspaper) last year for about $125 million.

Antony Catalano. Illustration: John Shakespeare Credit:

It might be a struggle, but at the very least Catalanos doing it in style. The father-of-nine has transported the family from their Melbourne base to his luxury Raes on Wategos hotel in Byron Bay. Its from here that he will be conducting his business and waiting out the pandemic.

Catalano splashed out $7 million for the beachfront Wategos in 2014. His eldest son Jordan has since acted as managing director.
Rome doctors to test body temperature of passengers at main train stations.

Rome's major train stations including Termini, Tiburtina and Ostiense will soon be checking the body temperature of arriving passengers, the city's mayor Virginia Raggi announced on Facebook.

Describing it as a "fundamental initiative to contain the spread of the Coronavirus", Raggi said the measure was being introduced in collaboration with the Medical Association of Rome.

More than 20 doctors will work "free of charge" at the train stations, Raggi said, joining the volunteers of Rome's civil protection agency and the Italian Red Cross.

The mayor said that the presence of doctors was essential, in case those being tested required a more in-depth medical assessment, at specially designated isolated areas in the railway stations.

"The entire operation is the result of institutional coordination and the generosity of the doctors, women and men who fight this battle on the front lines every day" - Raggi said - "Only by respecting the rules, with prevention and controls, will we be able to overcome the emergency as soon as possible."

Photo Virginia Raggi
Parvez Sultan By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Home-cooked meals, words of encouragement from family members and some precautionary measures such as masks and hand sanitisers  these few things keep policemen going and motivated as they come out to report for a 12-hour long duty during the nationwide lockdown clamped to stanch the coronavirus outbreak.

Delhi Police personnel deployed across the city at checkpoints, traffic junctions or even in hospitals and other facilities, where coronavirus patients are being treated and quarantined, remain resolute while dealing with the lockdown.

Rakesh Singh (name changed), a police official on duty in Nizamuddin area, from where more than 2,300 people including those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in the vicinity, were evacuated between March 27 and 31, said the cops are worried about their own wellbeing for obvious reasons, but determined to tide over the coronavirus crisis.

Our families are concerned, but I am sure they understand its my duty. I take all precautions before and after the duty. I carry home-cooked food, a water bottle, a sanitiser and wear a good quality mask every day. I have support and blessings of my wife and children, Singh said.

Showing no grudges against the people on road, Singh said he understands the apparent apprehension and anxiousness residents.

We need to be careful, but it is our duty to ensure strict enforcement of lockdown. Daily wagers are the worst sufferers. I keep biscuits packets with me and distribute them among the needy, said Mahesh Kumar, an assistant inspector, manning a check post in East Delhi.

Estimated strength of the Delhi Police is about 85-90,000. Since the lockdown announced on March 23, around 25-33 per cent of the force have been working on a rotational basis as ordered by Delhi Police Commissioner SN Srivastava.

What cops say
There has been widespread anger after a video was released, that showed two people being attacked and beaten as they queued for bread reports Brocar Press.

A woman and her husband were attacked while queuing for bread in the Damascus countryside. The incident sparked widespread controversy prompting the regimes Interior Ministry to arrest three individuals from the town of Sahnaya, reportedly being responsible for the assault.

The ministry did not specify if the detainees were initially hired by the regime as workers to distribute bread, however, it said the women and her husband refused to file a lawsuit against the aggressors.

In a statement that Brocar Press received a copy of, the ministry said the woman and her husband identified the attackers, however, they did not sue them, which sparked debate over social media platforms, especially since they were beaten in front of tens of Syrians waiting in the bread queue.

According to the statement, the detainees will be brought in front of the relevant authority, after necessary measures are taken.

People said the regime made this move three days after the incident took place because of the publics rage over the incident.

On Apr. 2, 2020, a pro-regime news platforms shared the video of the woman and her husband as they were beaten, entitled: Women are beaten in Bread Queues in Sahnaya!

Attacks on bread lines from Aleppo to Damascus, described by Syrians as humiliating, have been ongoing ever since the regime announced replacing bakeries to sell bread by mobile vehicles to avoid crowded scenes as a precautionary measure against COVID-19.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
YELLOWKNIFEThe Northwest Territories has released a small number of prisoners over concerns about the possible spread of COVID-19 in territorial jails.

The move came as medical professionals expressed concerns about slowing the spread of the virus in correctional institutions.

N.W.T. Justice Minister Caroline Wawzonek outlined the moves her territory is making in a letter to Edmonton defence lawyer Tom Engel.

The Department of Justice has also been actively exploring all options available to reduce the number of inmates within N.W.T. correctional facilities, she wrote in response to the lawyers query about prisoner safety.

Wawzonek said seven inmates have been granted temporary absences, each with less than three months left on their sentences. Prisoners on intermittent sentences have also been granted temporary absences.

Wawzonek added shes working with prosecutors to ensure only people considered a threat to public safety are taken into remand.

The government and prosecutors are reviewing all prisoners being held in remand to see if any would be eligible for an interim release and bail package.

The issue of COVID-19 in jails has become increasingly pressing across the country, especially after inmates in a Quebec prison were found to have the disease.

A group of 100 doctors and other medical professionals released a letter Tuesday calling for at least some prisoners to be released.

We urge you to ... stop admitting people to jails and prisons unless absolutely necessary and to release as many people as possible  especially those with chronic health conditions and those age 50 and above, says the letter.

It points out at least 20 inmates in four federal institutions have tested positive for COVID-19.

Read more about:
Where possible, Ewing is cutting down on in-person visits and opting for telecare, such as phone and video calls. Patients who I usually visit twice a week now want me to come just once a week, so I'll do a telephone visit for their second session instead, she says. I'm being extra careful when I call them to make sure they have what they need: medication, supplies, etcetera.

Stepping in to help nurses with this kind of patient support are other in-home aides, like Jessica Butler, who also works for Androscoggin, as a physical therapist. Our role as therapists has shifted a bit, she explains. We're playing backup to the nurses because they are just so busy. If there are things that we can do within our practice, we're picking those things up. For Butler that includes monitoring her patients mental health. The biggest concern for a lot of them is being isolated and not being able to access the outside world, she says, so we're stepping up those wellness checks.

Outside of work hours, precautions persist. For registered hospice nurse Staci Long, of Premier Hospice and Home Health in Indiana, that means leaving her shoes at the front door and putting her scrubs right into the washing machine after she gets home from a shift. From there, she's regularly washing her hands and disinfecting surfaces in her house and car  Lots of Clorox wipes.

At home, Long stresses to her 18-year-old son the need to follow the government's coronavirus-prevention guidelines and how important it is for the whole household to stay healthy so she can keep caring for her patients. He's been really, really good, she says. He's always double-checking  Hey, did you wash your hands when you came in?  so I know he's thinking about it and doing the best he can to keep us safe.

Ultimately, in-home aides are on the front lines of the crisis, just like other health care workers. A pandemic is worldwide, but the infections and the crisis that a community is experiencing are local, so the response needs to be local, says Brent Korte, executive director of EvergreenHealth Home Care in Washington. One great thing about home care and hospice is that we are inherently community-based care. We were here before COVID, we'll be here after COVID, and we can respond to those very unique community needs."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 22:13:32|Editor: huaxia

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QINGDAO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Shandong Port Group in east China's Shandong Province saw cargo throughput rise 5.1 percent year on year to 340 million tonnes in the first quarter of 2020, the company announced Tuesday.

Its container throughput reached 7.14 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) in the three months to March, up 4 percent year on year.

The company contributed its business growth amid the COVID-19 epidemic to the integrative development of the seven major ports along the coast of Shandong Province.

It has opened five new container sea routes linking with regions including Japan and Southeast Asia and also beefed up rail-sea transport to better serve inland cities in the province.

The company was established in August last year to administer seven ports along Shandong's coastline, aiming to build a world-class seaport cluster by collaborative management.
A Belfast hospital patient left traumatised after learning her husband had been seriously injured in a loyalist bombing can pursue a landmark claim for damages, a High Court judge ruled.

Eileen O'Halloran is suing the PSNI and Ministry of Defence over alleged state collusion with the gang who carried out the attack in north Belfast in April 1975.

Lawyers for the two defendants applied to have the 63-year-old's action struck out, arguing she did not meet the legal test for psychiatric injuries as a 'secondary victim' because she was neither at the scene nor witnessed the blast.

But Mrs Justice Keegan upheld an earlier decision to allow the case to continue.

"I can well understand why this application was brought, given the amount of legacy litigation in this jurisdiction and a potential flood of new claims from a wide class of victims," she said.

"The fact remains that this particular issue has not arisen in the highest courts before and the point therefore needs to be addressed.

"This case will provide an opportunity to clarify the law which would be of benefit in this jurisdiction."

Martin O'Halloran was injured in the terrorist attack as he waited for a bus on the corner of Oldpark Road and Ballynure Street, close to the Hole in the Wall bar.

He identified one of the bombers who lit the fuse as Trevor King, a notorious UVF commander who was subsequently murdered by the INLA in 1994.

At the time of the explosion Mrs O'Halloran was a patient at the Mater Hospital in north Belfast.

She has stated she overheard that a man identified as her husband had been badly wounded in the attack.

The news left her traumatised and caused a psychiatric injury, according to her case.

However, the defendants deny her contention that they are responsible due to the alleged involvement of state agents in either the planning or implementation of the attack.

They also argued that she was not a primary victim and has no case for any psychiatric injury.

She did not suffer physical injury, was not directly involved in the bombing, and did not directly witness the attack or its immediate aftermath, it was contended.

The defendants mounted an appeal after a High Court Master dismissed an initial bid to have the action ended.

In a newly published decision, Mrs Justice Keegan said: "It is not enough for me to say that the case is weak and may have difficulties in succeeding."

She confirmed: "There is undoubtedly a high hurdle to be reached before a claim would be struck out.

"The appeal will be dismissed."




Three more persons, two of



them close relatives of a deceased COVID-19 patient, have tested positive for coronavirus in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district, taking the number of infections to 14 on Tuesday, an official said.

However, the new patients do not have severe symptoms of the viral disease, he said.

Two of them are from the family of a 58-year-old man who succumbed to the infection on Monday at the Government Medical College and Hospital here, district nodal officer Sundar Kulkarni told PTI.

The number of coronavirus positive cases in other major cities of the Marathwada region are: Latur (8), Osmanabad (3), Hingoli and Jalna (1 each), officials said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With seven people now living in her southwest Houston home, including two family members from Guatemala stranded in the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic, Maria Villagrans grocery bill quickly adds up.

To start cutting her costs, Villagran arrived about 9 a.m. Monday outside Houston ISDs Madison High School, two hours before district and Houston Food Bank officials started distributing free food to families on the citys southwest side.

Weve been doing the H-E-B curbside pickup, but weve been spending so much money in the store, Villagran said. Every week, its $150, $280.

The line at Madison stretched nearly two miles throughout the morning and early afternoon, as hundreds of families awaited the restart of food distribution at HISD campuses. Nearly 2,500 households received boxes of food at five schools Monday, as the district lifted a seven-day suspension of distribution that followed concerns about worker safety, HISD officials said.

Demand for food once again outpaced supply, with the district reaching its 500-box limit at four of its five sites. Staffers at Northside High School provided 440 boxes Monday afternoon before heavy rain washed out pickup, district officials said.

Districts across the region are serving meals to children in the wake of widespread school closures tied to COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. HISD, however, has partnered with the Food Bank to provide about 30 pounds of food to each family.

HISD Interim Superindentent Grenita Lathan temporarily canceled food distribution March 25 after learning a staff member working at a pickup site was in contact with an individual who tested positive for COVID-19. Following the suspension, HISD officials moved food packaging to a central location and provided workers with personal protection equipment, such as masks and gloves.

While some families in Madisons lengthy line were turned away Monday after food ran out  a common occurrence even prior to the suspension  Ana Salazar counted herself fortunate to receive a box about 2 1/2 hours after arriving.

When youre paying so much for groceries, you cant make a car payment, you cant pay a light bill, gas bill, cell phone bill, said Salazar, whose husband worries about keeping his construction job amid the pandemic. We dont know whats going to happen to us, so this means everything to us.

HISD will host five pickup points on Tuesday and four locations on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Each site will have up to 500 boxes available.

jacob.carpenter@chron.com
IntegraGen SA's (EPA:ALINT): IntegraGen SA engages in the genome analysis, and development and commercialization of molecular diagnostic tests for oncology and autism in France. The 8.7m market-cap companys loss lessens since it announced a -1.1m bottom-line in the full financial year, compared to the latest trailing-twelve-month loss of -1.1m, as it approaches breakeven. As path to profitability is the topic on ALINTs investors mind, Ive decided to gauge market sentiment. Ive put together a brief outline of industry analyst expectations for ALINT, its year of breakeven and its implied growth rate.

See our latest analysis for IntegraGen

According to the industry analysts covering ALINT, breakeven is near. They anticipate the company to incur a final loss in 2020, before generating positive profits of 600k in 2021. So, ALINT is predicted to breakeven approximately a couple of months from now! In order to meet this breakeven date, I calculated the rate at which ALINT must grow year-on-year. It turns out an average annual growth rate of 112% is expected, which is rather optimistic! Should the business grow at a slower rate, it will become profitable at a later date than expected.

ENXTPA:ALINT Past and Future Earnings April 7th 2020

Im not going to go through company-specific developments for ALINT given that this is a high-level summary, though, bear in mind that by and large biotechs, depending on the stage of product development, have irregular periods of cash flow. This means that a high growth rate is not unusual, especially if the company is currently in an investment period.

One thing Id like to point out is that ALINT has managed its capital prudently, with debt making up 21% of equity. This means that ALINT has predominantly funded its operations from equity capital,and its low debt obligation reduces the risk around investing in the loss-making company.

Next Steps:

There are too many aspects of ALINT to cover in one brief article, but the key fundamentals for the company can all be found in one place  ALINTs company page on Simply Wall St. Ive also compiled a list of pertinent factors you should further examine:

Historical Track Record: What has ALINT's performance been like over the past? Go into more detail in the past track record analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of our analysis for more clarity. Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business  take a look at who sits on IntegraGens board and the CEOs back ground. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
A new COVID-19 case related to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation was reported in Assam on Tuesday, taking the number to 28, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

The 65-year old man, who has a travel history to Saudi Arabia, tested positive, the minister tweeted on Tuesday night.

The patient, from Hailakandi, is also linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event in Nizamuddin's Nizamuddin area, he tweeted.

This is the second confirmed case on Tuesday with the first being reported from Dhubri this morning, and both the cases are linked to the congregation.

Among the 28 confirmed cases, 27, including five women, are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation.

The state had not reported any other case for the last two days.

The new case has been reported from Dhubri and the person attended the Nizamuddin Markaz event in Delhi, the minister had tweeted on Tuesday morning.

The health minister held discussions with the Tablighi Jamaat members in the state and urged them to submit a list of people who had attended the event.

The Tablighi members have also appealed to people who attended the meet to come forward for the COVID-19 test. The minister warned of action, if despite several appeals, they do not come forward for examination.

The health department has identified 617 people who attended the event and the samples of 128 of them are yet to be collected.

More than 2,000 people have been tested across five laboratories in the state and 1,809 of them tested negative while 28 tested positive and the results of 165 are still awaited.

The health minister had said on Monday that the state government was considering introducing entry permits for those who wanted to return after the lockdown has ended to regulate the inflow of people.

The COVID-19 cases are being treated at GMCH, Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital, Sonapur District Hospital, Goalpara Civil Hospital, Lakhimpur Civil Hospital, Golaghat Civil Hospital and Silchar Medical College Hospital.

Golaghat has reported the highest number of nine cases, four each from Nalbari and Morigaon, three from Goalpara, two at Silchar and one each from Hailakandi, Dhubri, Kamrup (M), Kamrup, Lakhimpur and South Salmara.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)








Such measure is intended to benefit those who have been jobless over the last six months in the face of the national health emergency declared due to coronavirus (COVID-19).





The top official affirmed that he has asked Economy and Finance Minister Maria Antonieta Alva to consider extending this benefit to payroll workers who contribute to their pension funds, because the salary of some of them is low and, at this time of crisis, everyone needs this additional support.





"We are completing the assessment and no doubt we will take a decision in the coming days whether or not to increase the number of beneficiaries under these measures, so that they can make use of their AFP resources," he explained.





(END) MDV/JJN/RMB/MVB

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In 1918, cities that committed earlier and longer to interventions like banning public gatherings and closing schools didnt fare worse for disrupting their economies for longer. Many of those cities actually had relatively larger gains in manufacturing employment, manufacturing output and bank assets in 1919 and into the next few years, according to a new study from researchers at the Federal Reserve and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This is particularly clear among Western cities that had more time to prepare for a pandemic that hit the East Coast first.
Oil resumed gains on signs the worlds biggest producers are moving toward a deal to call off their price war and cut output as the coronavirus eviscerates energy demand around the world.

Futures in New York rose to around $27 a barrel, resuming a rally interrupted by an 8% decline on Monday. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette held a productive discussion over the phone with his Saudi counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the U.S. government said. Crude was also buoyed by improved sentiment in broader financial markets after the reported death tolls in some of the virus hotspots in Europe showed signs of easing.

A virtual meeting of producers from the OPEC+ alliance and beyond -- which has been delayed once already -- is tentatively scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Vienna. A gathering of G20 energy ministers is set to follow on Friday to discuss wider contributions to a production agreement.

While the talks still face significant obstacles, not least whether the U.S. will participate, the bigger question is whether any deal will be enough given the extent to which the virus is destroying demand. In another sign of the growing glut, industry data provider Genscape Inc. reported a 5.8 million-barrel rise in crude inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, last week, which would be the largest in data going back to 2004 if confirmed by official figures due Wednesday.

West Texas Intermediate for May delivery rose 3.4% to $26.97 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 8:34 a.m. in Singapore. The contract has rallied 32% so far in April after plunging 54% in March.

Brent for June delivery added 2% to $33.70 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange after dropping 3.1% Monday. The global benchmark traded at a $2.91 premium to WTI for the same month.
The 11 COVID-19 patients leaving the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi

They were patients 21, 72, 84, 111, 116, 136, 137, 192, 197, 200, and 222 who were treated at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi.

Their health is good after testing negative for COVID-19 at least twice. They will be given follow-up health checks two weeks from now.

Dr Do Thi Phuong Mai in the hospital said that it is quite difficult to cure a COVID-19 patient because this is a new type of virus. "Some patients swing abnormally between negative and positive and at times can contract some side effects of the drugs," she said.

She added that they have learned a lot from overseas experiences to find the proper medicine for Vietnamese people, for example, Aluvia (usually for HIV treatment) or Chloroquine. "We have finally succeeded and my doctor, Patient 116, has been cured by a new medicine."

Patient 116 is a doctor at the Emergency Department of the hospital. He was in the frontlines of the fight against the pandemic since January 31, screening suspected patients and treating infected patients, as well as providing emergency care for seriously ill patients.

According to the Ministry of Health, as many as 27 patients have recovered from COVID-19 today (April 7) and were allowed to leave the hospitals, including 11 in Hanoi, nine in Ho Chi Minh City, four in Sa Dec town, two in Hue city, and one in Ben Tre province.

At the end of April 7, Vietnam reported four more COVID-19 cases, including a person infected from Buddha Bar & Grill in Ho Chi Minh City, and three people returning from Russia, Japan, and Hong Kong (China) who were isolated right after immigration.

As a result, among the 249 COVID-19 cases, 156 patients were from abroad, accounting for 62 per cent. Of these, 122 infection cases have fully recovered, while 127 patients are still undergoing treatment in the country.
Appointment

7 April 2020

The Avani+ Fares resort in Maldives has appointed Marlon Abeyakoon as General Manager.

Marlon has spent almost two decades in hospitality with multiple international hotel brands in UAE, UK, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Fiji.

Marlon started his career with One&Only in Dubai in 1999 before moving to the UK with glh Hotels and Hilton in 2013 as Hotel Manager of the DoubleTree London.

He moved to Sri Lanka in 2018 as General Manager of the Reethi Beach Resort before heading to Fiji as General Manager of the Sheraton Fiji Resort, his most recent position before joining the Avani+ Fares Maldives Resort.

Scheduled to debut in 2021, the 200-key Avani+ Fares Maldives Resort is located in Maldives' Baa Atoll which is an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that is home to unique species of marine, fauna, and flora.
Senior US diplomat Alice Wells has said that about 2,900 US citizens have flown back from South and Central Asian countries, including India on 13 repatriation flights.



In a briefing to journalists, Wells said, "As of today, the United States has organised 13 flights from South and Central Asia, including special flights home for about 2900 US citizens from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan."

Talking specifically about the special flights to India, she said that the State Department is working with local authorities to provide assistance to American citizens stranded in different parts of India.



"In India, we are responding to requests for assistance from thousands of Americans located in cities and villages spread across a vast area. So far, we have supported the repatriations of about 1,300 American citizens there despite the lockdown conditions," Wells stated.



She added, "In addition to the heroic work of US government personnel throughout the region, we are really very grateful to our counterparts in South and Central Asia. Whether it is local, regional, governments, health officials, customs and migration services, law enforcement agencies, civil aviation authorities and airport workers, it really is a team effort.



Meanwhile, addressing the situation on hydroxychloroquine between India and the US, President Donald Trump, in a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requested New Delhi to consider lifting a hold on its order.



Hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malaria drug that can be used in treatment of coronavirus patients.



Wells said, "I think you received a very strong sort of affirmation in the call between the Prime Minister and the President yesterday of the fact that the US and India need to work together to respond to the COVID-19 challenge, to be a solution to the threat posed by the virus. So, India has long been a significant partner of the United States and the pharmaceutical sector. It is one of our top imports from India in 2018."



"India is obviously one of the world's leaders in the supply of generic drugs. It represents a significant portion of the precursor pharmaceuticals that supply the US market," she further said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo on Tuesday said that efforts are being made to strengthen testing capacity for the screening of coronavirus in the Union Territory.

"We have 4 testing labs, 2 in Jammu and 2 in Kashmir. We are trying to strengthen our testing capacity for the screening of COVID-19--we'll soon begin rapid testing. We have around 2500 isolation beds and 1000 quarantine beds, and sufficient Personal Protection Equipment kits in Jammu and Kashmir," Dulloo told ANI.

Apart from the setting up of quarantine facilities, several retired medical staff members are being re-employed. "We have tried to provide re-employment of at least one year to all the doctors, nurses and paramedic staff who have retired so that they are available to us as a human resource," he said.

With regards to the supply of PPEs, he said that as of now there is no shortage. "We have also issued an order for 2.5 lakh PPEs with HLL (a company undertaken by the Government of India) and have been directly in touch with them as to how many PPEs we can avail. As and when we get them, we will distribute the equipment. As of now, there is no shortage," he added.

India's tally of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 4,421, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday.

Out of the 4,421 cases, 3,981 are active cases while 325 have been cured or discharged and one has migrated. The total death toll stands at 114.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that India must help all countries in their fight against coronavirus but lifesaving medicines should be made available to Indians first.

"Friendship isn't about retaliation. India must help all nations in their hour of need but lifesaving medicines should be made available to Indians in ample quantities first," he said on Twitter.

Gandhi's reaction came after the Ministry of External Affairs said that India would to export anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to several countries including those in the neighbourhood on a case-by-case basis in sync with its commitment to the international community to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Hydroxychloroquine is an old and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria.

In a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, President Donald Trump sought the supply of hydroxychloroquine to the US to treat coronavirus infected people.

On Monday, Trump warned India that the US may retaliate if it did not export hydroxychloroquine despite his personal request.

Reacting to the development, the Congress, in a tweet, said, "A friendship with conditions, is no friendship at all. BJP govt should reassess all that it's doing for foreign nations. PM Modi must prioritise the needs of our citizens first & foremost."

"It is embarrassing for the entire country that Donald Trump threatens retaliation if the Indian government did not allow supply of medicines.

PM Narendra Modi who wasted one full month and Rs 100 crore for 'Namaste Trump', has now meekly surrendered and has revoked the ban on exports of medicines," tweeted Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil.

Last month, India banned export of hydroxychloroquine in the midst of views that the drug could be used as potential anti-viral agent to protect healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients from the infection.

India has received requests from several other countries including its immediate neighbours Sri Lanka and Nepal for supply of hydroxychloroquine.
The Delhi government, gauging the current rate of hospitalisations for Covid-19 and those being sent to state-run quarantine centres, has projected a requirement of 3 lakh personal protective equipment (PPE) kits for the national capital.

Of this, the government so far has been able to make arrangements for only 1.47 lakh PPE kits, which will be used from this weekend.

A senior official in the Delhi governments health department said that at present, the city has stocks that would last for around 4 days only.

Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

We have 5,000 PPE kits at our warehouse and a total of around 4,000 kits available at various hospitals, quarantine centres, testing labs and so on. This is enough to last a week, the official said.

On an average, around 2,500 PPE kits are required for use in the city on a daily basis.

To ensure adequate availability of PPE kits  which includes full-body suits, goggles, masks, gloves and shoe covers  for at least a month and to be prepared for any contingency, like the Nizamuddin Markaz case, the Delhi government has placed an order for 1.2 lakh kits and arranged for another 27,000 from the Centre, bringing the total to 1.47 lakh.

An official in chief minister Arvind Kejriwals office said that 27,000 kits are currently with the DRDO for disinfection.

Kejriwal, in a digital address on Monday, thanked the Central government for allotting kits for Delhi and said they would be delivered to the Delhi government in a day or two.

This is a great step towards ensuring the safety of our doctors. The Delhi government, the Central government, and the people are collectively fighting the battle against Covid-19. I hope that we will overcome the virus very soon, he said.

The other 1.2 lakh kits are being bought directly by the central procurement agency (CPA), which is responsible for buying medicines, consumables and equipment for Delhi government-run hospitals.

The kits are now arriving in batches of 3,000-4,000 a day. Earlier, they were coming at a rate of 1,500-2,000, which was ramped up after several meetings with the concessionaire. Given the present scenario, the current rate of arrival of PPE kits is manageable. But, if there is another Markaz like case, then Delhi can slip into a crisis, said a senior official in the Delhi government.

At least 329 of the total 525 coronavirus cases in Delhi have been linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, which took place in the Nizamuddin Markaz in mid-March. The demand for PPE kits has grown substantially among medical staff, after at least 24 healthcare workers  doctors, nurses and sanitation staff  contracted Covid-19 in the city.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said that apart from arrangements made by the government, hospitals also now have the power to procure such kits on their own from private manufacturers.

But, a senior official in Delhis Lok Nayak hospital said that the process was time consuming.

The issue is that the PPE kits have to meet the standards specified by the government and the rate per kit has to be either Rs 1087.47 or less. So, a lot of time goes in the verification process. Our staff is already working round-the-clock, tending to Covid-19 patients. Besides, only a few supply kits that are actually up to the mark, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The shortage of these kits, though not immediate, has forced the Delhi government to even change its appeal from seeking donations for the CMs relief fund to asking MLAs, MPs, NGOs, private firms and other stakeholders to provide PPE kits instead.

Kejriwal also did the same when Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) east Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir offered a total of Rs 1 crore to the Delhi government to buy PPE kits and masks for doctors and nurses.

Thanking Gambhir for his initiative on Twitter, Kejriwal wrote, Gautam, thank you for your offer. The problem is not of money but availability of PPE kits. We would be grateful if you could help us get them from somewhere immediately. Delhi government will buy them. Thank you .

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Linkedin Nina Larson (Agence France-Presse) Geneva  Tue, April 7, 2020 14:02 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd03fff3 2 News Hotel,travel,coronavirus,COVID-19,tourism,switzerland,Le-Bijou Free

The hotel and tourism industries have been all but flattened by the coronavirus pandemic, but one Swiss firm has found a way to stay afloat offering a luxury COVID-19 isolation service.

Le Bijou, a high-end operator of serviced apartments, is offering people isolation in style, with the possibility of add-ons like a personal grocery shopper, visits from a doctor and an in-room test for the virus.

"This just made a lot of sense," Alexander Hubner, Le Boijou's co-founder and chief executive of Le Bijou, told AFP.

With 42 apartments, he began noticing a drop in bookings in late February, as Switzerland registered its first virus cases and the situation in neighboring Italy spiraled out of control.

More and more international flights were being cancelled, and wealthy tourists who make up much of Le Bijou's customer base could not travel.

At the same time, Hubner said bookings being made were for unusually long periods -- two weeks or more -- and many clients were asking about house calls from doctors.

"We realized we had to come up with a new service and adapt as quickly as possible, and we came up with the offering for the quarantine apartments," he said.

People seeking total isolation can check in "contact-free" and order groceries or catered food to be deposited outside their door.

"If you get stranded in Switzerland or you are considered high risk and want to isolate yourself, this is probably the best offering you can find," he said.

Read also: In Singapore, quarantine comes with a sea view and room service

Not cheap

The service is not cheap, although Hubner said Le Bijou had pushed down its usual rates of up to 2,000 Swiss francs ($2,050, 1,900 euros) a night.

"Right now I would say the larger or medium-sized units would be around 500 francs a day," Hubner said.

For an additional 800 francs per day, guests can opt for a doctor's house call or a twice-daily check-up from a nurse and request round-the-clock medical monitoring for 4,800 francs a day.

And if luxury self-isolators want a coronavirus test, one can be administered in room for 500 francs.

"It is not true that you can just pay more and then you get tested. You have to have heavy symptoms," he said.

Doctors stay for free

Hubner also stressed the company was not making a profit with the new service, since it was also offering doctors and nurses fighting the virus stays for free.

"We have in-room spas, which could be very suitable for a doctor to relax in," he said.

Le Bijou is currently at about 70 percent occupancy, Hubner said.

It is not revealing the identity of self-isolating guests, but testimonies on its website show that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and "The Wolf of Wall Street" author Jordan Belfort have booked in the past.

Currently, eight medical personnel are among the guests, while the company has received 120 inquiries about the free service.

It has begun taking donations to help cover this service, and Hubner said he himself had already donated more than a quarter of his annual salary.

His main priority was to keep the business running, he said. "We have 65 people who work for us and who live off our company".

Switzerland has promised small and medium-sized businesses some relief.

But Hubner said he was an entrepreneur looking for solutions, "We don't want to just give up and wait for the rescue from the government."
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Linkedin Norman Harsono and Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, April 8 2020

The government has set a target of electrifying 433 remote villages in Indonesias four most impoverished provinces before the year-end as the country struggles to provide electricity for the entire population.

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has pledged to introduce regulations that boost funding for the village electrification program, which will cost at least Rp 1.26 trillion (US$76.14 million).

State electricity firm PLN pledged to deploy new technology in mapping and electrifying the 433 remote villages in Papua, West Papua, East Nusa Tenggara and Maluku.

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Technology and medical experts are dismissing a theory linking the new coronavirus to 5G wireless equipment.

Officials in Britain have blamed the theory for leading to the destruction of mobile phone transmitters in different parts of the country.

Britains Cabinet Officer Michael Gove was asked about the idea that 5G telecommunications equipment could play a part in the spread of the coronavirus. That is just nonsense, dangerous nonsense as well, he said.

The communications technology called 5G is the next generation of wireless technology. Companies around the world have been working to build 5G networks to replace 4G systems. 5G promises much higher internet speeds. Currently, 5G service remains very limited in many areas of the world, and not many 5G mobile devices are available.

Some reports appearing online have linked the new coronavirus to the launch of 5G in major Chinese cities in late October 2019. The first coronavirus cases first began to be reported in areas around Wuhan, in central China, in December.

In Britain, officials said one of the most serious incidents was a fire attack on a mobile phone tower in the city of Birmingham. The officials said the fire caused major damage although no 5G equipment was attached to the tower.

The medical director for Britains National Health Service, or NHS, Stephen Powis, said the theory linking 5G to the coronavirus was false news with no scientific support.

He told Reuters news agency the destruction of equipment can only hurt the countrys emergency efforts to deal with the coronavirus crisis. The reality is that the mobile phone networks are absolutely critical to all of us, Powis said.

A group representing Britains major mobile phone operators said some of its workers had been threatened. Vodafone, the worlds second-largest mobile operator, said the destruction of equipment was now a matter of national security. The companys head in Britain, Nick Jeffery, condemned the attacks.

He said he does not understand why anyone would want to harm the very networks that are providing essential connectivity to emergency services, the NHS and the rest of the country. Jeffery described his engineers as heroes and urged people not to spread false information online.

Fabien Heliot is a researcher at Britains University of Surrey who studies the safety of wireless radio waves. He told the French news agency AFP that there is no evidence to suggest any 5G technology could cause a virus. Since a virus is a living thing, it cannot be created by radiation, Heliot said.

He added that any possible side effects of 5G radiation would be the same as with other older systems, including 4G, 3G and 2G. He said this is because all the wireless technologies use the same waveforms to radiate energy.

The World Health Organizations website says that a large number of studies have been carried out on whether mobile phones bring health risks. To date, no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by mobile phone use, the WHO said.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and the World Health Organization. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

transmitter  n. piece of equipment used to send out radio signals

nonsense  n. not true; silly

tower  n. a tall, narrow structure

critical  adj. very important for the way things will happen in the future

essential  adj. very important or necessary

side effect  n. a secondary and usually negative effect of something (such as a drug)

adverse  adj. things that cause problems or danger
SAN LEANDRO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 7, 2020 / Energy Recovery, Inc. (ERII) today announced awards of USD $8.3M to supply its PX Pressure Exchanger devices ("PX") and related equipment and services to multiple desalination projects in Egypt.

"Energy Recovery prides itself on being a trusted partner to the desalination industry, and we remain dedicated to serving our customers as we adjust to the impacts of COVID-19. The reputation of our PX and its lifetime value proposition are unmatched, and we are focused on fulfilling orders from existing inventory as well as booking new orders. Desalination plants are a critical part of the fresh water infrastructure of many countries, and we are proud to play our part in delivering affordable, clean water to the people of Egypt," said Robert Mao, Energy Recovery Chairman and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer.

The desalination plants included in this award will have a collective capacity of 290,000 cubic meters per day. Once the plants are in operation, Energy Recovery's PX devices are expected to recycle hydraulic energy equivalent to over 300 gigawatt hours of energy annually, an amount associated with approximately 200,000 metric tons of carbon emissions.

"Egypt's population is growing quickly, and, according to the United Nations, the country's per capita share of fresh water means it is on the verge of absolute water scarcity. Egypt has identified desalination as part of its strategy to improve freshwater security, as desalination offers a cost-effective means to diversify supply beyond variable sources such as the Nile River," commented Rodney Clemente, Energy Recovery Senior Vice President of Water. "The country is amidst an aggressive build-out of desalination facilities that is likely to continue at least through 2024 and exceed over 1 million cubic meters per day of new capacity for the municipal sector alone. Energy Recovery has been awarded seven mega-plants (plants exceeding 50,000m3/d) in Egypt to date, and we plan to continue to do our part to help Egypt meet these exciting challenges head-on."

Story continues

About Energy Recovery

For more than 20 years, Energy Recovery, Inc. (ERII) has created technologies that solve complex challenges in industrial fluid-flow markets. We design and manufacture solutions that reduce waste, improve operational efficiencies, and lower the production costs of clean water and oil and gas. What began as a game-changing invention for water desalination has grown into a global business delivering solutions that enable more affordable access to these critical resources. Both our headquarters in San Leandro, California, and our Commercial Development Center in Katy, Texas house on-site research, development and manufacturing facilities. In addition, our worldwide sales and technical service organization provides on-site support for our line of water solutions. For more information, please visit www.energyrecovery.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain matters discussed in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including the amount of hydraulic energy our devices will recycle. These forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to us and on management's beliefs, assumptions, estimates, or projections and are not guarantees of future events or results. Because such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, our actual results may differ materially from the predictions in these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are made as of today, and we assume no obligation to update such statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Contact

Investor Relations

ir@energyrecovery.com

+1 (281) 962-8105

Press Inquiries

pr@energyrecovery.com

+1 (510) 398-2147



SOURCE: Energy Recovery, Inc. via EQS Newswire





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/584127/Energy-Recovery-Wins-83M-of-Egyptian-Water-Projects




Virus-Hit Carnival Cruise Ship Docks in Australia as Countrys Death Toll Hits 40

MELBOURNE/SYDNEYCarnival Corps troubled Ruby Princess cruise liner, the biggest single source of (Chinese Communist Party) CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, infections in Australia, docked south of Sydney on April 6 to get help for sick crew members requiring urgent medical treatment.

The Ruby Princess, now the target of a criminal investigation led by the homicide squad in the state of New South Wales (NSW), has more than 1,000 crew still on board, after passengers disembarked in mid-March without health checks.

There have been at least 600 COVID-19 cases, including passengers and staff, associated with the vessel, and 11 have died.

As a popular Pacific port destination, Australia is among numerous countries around the world negotiating arrangements with cruise ships unable to find somewhere to dock.

NSW Police said in a statement on Monday that the vessel may remain in place for up to 10 days, but the crew will not disembark unless approved by state authorities.

Sick crew members were being treated onboard or transferred to hospital, police said, and the vessel will be refuelled in preparation for departure.

Australia has a total of 5,844 confirmed COVID-19 cases and its death toll rose to 40 on Monday after five additional deaths were recorded overnight, according to tracking by Johns Hopkins University.

An investigation into Ruby Princess protocols will focus on communications and actions that led to the docking and disembarking of the ships 2,700 passengers on March 19 at Sydney Harbour to see whether biosecurity laws or state laws were broken, authorities said.

State health authorities had classed the ship as low risk, and the Australian Border Force issued a notice allowing the passengers to travel home freely. They were required to self-isolate for 14 days.

A Carnival Australia spokesman said on Monday the company would cooperate with the probe.

The ship has remained in Australian waters and on Monday docked at Port Kembla, with the remaining crew from 50 different countries on board to stay in isolation.

The government banned cruise ships from docking except for emergencies as of mid-March and has sent off most of the cruise ships that remained in Australian waters over the past week.

By Sonali Paul and Jonathan Barrett

Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.
Stormonts agriculture minister Edwin Poots has said the UK Government will need to step up to help Northern Irelands farming industry.

He pledged to pay close attention to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and warned of the threat of numerous bankruptcies.

Marts for trading have been closed as part of social distancing measures.

The UK Government will need to step up and provide the necessary supportEdwin Poots

Mr Poots gave evidence to a Stormont committee of Assembly members.

He said: The UK Government will need to step up and provide the necessary support.

I am monitoring the situation locally to see what can be done and working with ministerial colleagues.

He said supermarkets needed to back local farmers and buy their excellent produce.

If we are not going to have numerous bankruptcies and people unable to conduct their business then we need to respond to it and respond to it quickly.
Patients discharged from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi ,and their attendants take refuge amidst unhygienic conditions in a subway near the hospital as the nationwide lockdown left them no means of transport to go back home. (PTI)

I still dont quite know what purpose Sunday nights nine-minute light-and-dark ritual  which I too observed  served, but I certainly hope it honoured the role of doctors. That was emphatically stressed in an old Calcutta Medical College joke about a dom and a chamar refusing to rescue someone who had collapsed in a public lavatory. One cleared faeces, the other removed corpses; neither would touch both. Eventually, they brought a doctor from the college. He alone had no prejudices.

That has again been demonstrated in these fraught weeks as Indias healthcare system  if a confusion of ill-equipped clinics, poorly staffed hospitals and expensive private nursing homes can be called that  grappled with waves of infection. That is why I was alarmed to read the headline in a national newspaper US opening doors to Indian medical graduates under Covid-19 pressure. Adding to my dismay, external affairs minister S Jaishankar reportedly raised the question of skilled Indian professionals on H-1B visas in the United States when secretary of state Michael R. Pompeo telephoned him to discuss a coordinated response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

India desperately needs its doctors and nurses. Not all doctors may be equally dedicated; and not all nurses equally well-trained. Some, in fact, are little better than ayahs who have undergone a six-month course in minimal housekeeping. But with only 1.7 nurses per thousand people, well short of the World Health Organisation-recommended three-per-thousand, we cant do without them. Prime minister Narendra Modi calls medical workers our frontline soldiers.

If Covid-19 has revealed their courage and commitment, it has also exposed Indias shocking indifference to health and hygiene. Not just the present BJP-dominated National Democratic Alliance but all Indian governments right from 1947 onwards have concentrated on high-visibility prestige projects instead of welfare. Although the WHO congratulates India on eliminating two silent killers, polio and smallpox, Indians have always found that going to the moon or sending a spaceship into orbit is far more dazzling than tackling malaria.

Any comparison between India and Western countries suffering from the pandemic is totally unrealistic because Italy, Spain, the United States and Britain all have a medicare infrastructure and a safety net for their citizens. Indian claims are suspect because the statistical data is arbitrary and unreliable. Even so, the doctor and population ratio of 0.77:1,000 lags far behind Germanys 4.125:1,000, Australias 3.374:1,000 or Russias 3.306:1,000. China, where it all started, has 1.49 doctors per thousand. Indias 2017-18 health budget spent only 1.28 per cent of the GDP on health.

Medics vulnerable

The hospitals we do have, especially many that are run by the Employees State Insurance Corporation, are often only bleak and empty buildings. Some lack basic medicines at the best of times. They are woefully short of essentials like critical care beds. Despite the health ministrys bland assurances, supplies of personal protective equipment (including gloves, masks, sanitizers and hazmat suits) are far from adequate. In consequence, medical staff are constantly exposed to infection, and many have already contracted the coronavirus.

Of course, that occupational hazard isnt unique to India. A general practitioner in a small English town became the UKs first doctor to die from the disease. What seems peculiarly Indian, however, is the hostility with which doctors and nurses are sometimes treated, not just by ignorant villagers but even by policemen and others charged with enforcing the lockdown.

Instances of such atrocious behaviour have been reported from Hyderabad in the south, Surat in the west, Indore in Indias heartland, and Delhi and Ghaziabad in the north. People have spat at medical personnel, pelted them with stones, and chased them away from their homes and localities. Archaic sexism surfaces in the case of women doctors and nurses, who are sometimes treated to lewd and abusive language. When a patient died in a state-run hospital in Kolkata, his brother attacked the medical staff accusing them of negligence.

The Indian Medical Association reports that 75 per cent of doctors face verbal or physical abuse in hospitals. Fear of violence is the most common cause of stress for 43 per cent of doctors. The highest incidence of violence is reported at the point of emergency care, with 70 per cent of the violence being initiated by a patients relatives. Such crimes have become more common since 2017 in Delhi, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

Some Indians are inherently lawless. Others are suspicious of the state and its instruments. Religious fanatics may object to modern medicine just as they oppose family planning. Yet others have learnt from the Sangh Parivars lynching sprees that rough and ready methods go scot free in todays India.

US president Donald Trump, normally so unsympathetic to Afro-Asian immigration, now casts longing eyes at the doctors who are at the suffering end of this persecution. He also wants to buy Indian hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug believed by some to work for coronavirus. Whether or not Modi agrees to sell, he can without any qualms refuse to allow Indian doctors to respond to American blandishments. Indias senior bureaucrats, diplomats and politicians may hanker for the American green card, regarding the supposed land of the brave and home of the free as the nirvana for their children, but doctors whom India has nurtured in every respect cannot abandon their country in its hour of need.

Modi has taken some tough and timely decisions. Now he must heed Dr David Nabarro, the WHOs coronavirus special envoy, who warns that hospitals and health workers are on the front line. Treating them well and protecting them as much as we can and supporting them in society so they get looked after... really making sure they are secure and safe -- is perhaps the only way to safeguard our future.

Despite all their shortcomings, they alone can save India.
Some major financial scams in India have quite literally stirred-up the country in the past. These scams have consisted of fraudulent practices, corruption, and other malpractices.

Here's a list of some of the biggest scams in India that lead to huge losses in the country:

1. Commonwealth Games Scam

 BCCL

The memory of the Commonwealth Games being held in India is still fresh for most of us. However, it also came along with eye-brow raising headlines for the controversies and corruption surrounding the organisation.



With accusations of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery emerging every day back them, even the Chairman of Common Wealth Games 2010, Suresh Kalmadi, was accused of corruption and malpractices.

It was estimated that the scam was for over Rs 70,000 crore. Gory details came out later of how Indian athletes were forced to stay in terrible conditions instead of the accommodation allotted to them by the authorities.

2. Nirav Modi PNB Bank fraud

 BCCL

In recent times, Nirav Modi PNB Bank fraud is easily one of the most controversial scams. Through Punjab National banks Brady house brand, Nirav Modi, his uncle Mehul Choksi and two senior PNB officials were also found to be guilty in the fraud of over Rs 11,400 Crore.



In 2018, PNB filed a case with CBI accusing Nirav Modi and the companies he was associated with for obtaining Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) from PNB without paying up. This meant that all those companies failed to pay the loan.

3. Kingfisher Scam

 BCCL

From being Kingfisher's King of good times to making it to the most-wanted list, liquor giant Kingfisher's Vijay Mallya, who absconded the country in 2016, continues to be in hot soup.)



After being heavily accused of fraud and money laundering in the country. He allegedly took loans for over Rs 9000 crore to keep his now-defunct Kingfisher airlines afloat. His Wikipedia page describes him as a fugitive businessman in the most wanted category.

4. Coalgate Scam

The Coalgate scam refers to the infamous political scandal that came to light back in 2012 when the UPA government was in power.

The scam was essentially brought to light by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) when they alleged that the government had been illegally allocating 194 coal blocks between the years 2004 and 2009.

Of what was initially expected to be Rs 10 lakh crore came down to Rs 1.86 lakh crore in the end.

5. 2G Spectrum Scam

 Twitter

The 2G spectrum came to light back in 2008, and the government came under fire after being accused of undercharging mobile telephone companies for frequency allocation licenses that had to be used to create 2G spectrum subscriptions.



Former Telecom Minister A. Raja was at the helm of this scam. The CAG had stated that the difference between the money collected and that was mandated to be collected was about Rs. 1.76 trillion which comes down to Rs. 1,76,000 crore.

In 2012, the spectrum was thankfully declared unconstitutional and arbitrary by the Supreme Court and led to the cancellation of over 120 licenses.

6. BOFORS Scandal

 Twitter

A relatively old scam as compared to others, during the 1980s and 1990s a major weapons-contract was signed between India and Sweden.



In 1986, India reportedly signed a deal worth approximately Rs 1437 crore with Swedish manufacturer Bofors AB, to supply their 155mm field howitzer to the Indian Army.

Reportedly, politicians like then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were also accused of taking bribes worth over Rs 64 crore for the deal.
The new known cases bring the total number of COVID-19 cases in the county to 714, with 22 deaths, the DuPage County Health Department reported. Fourteen of those deaths have involved patients from long-term care facilities, and seven of those involved residents of Chateau Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Willowbrook.
Dhaka, April 7 : Bangladesh has ordered places of worship, including mosques, to restrict the presence of people gathering for prayers amid the coronavirus pandemic due to fears of community transmission of the disease, a media report said.

Not more than five people can congregate in mosques for prayers, the bdnews24 report said citing a government notice as saying on Monday, responding to broader calls for restrictions on visits to mosques and other places of worship.

The decision came as Bangladesh confirmed 35 new virus cases in a record single-day spike, taking the tally of positive tests to 123. The death toll rose to 12.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs issued an emergency notice on Monday restricting congregations, adding that a maximum of 10 devotees can attend the Friday prayers in mosques.

The government also restricted visits to other places of worship, including Hindu temples.

Legal action will be taken against those who fail to comply with the order, the Ministry said, while urging people of all faiths to continue their prayers at home in order to limit the risk of contagion.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday reviewed the COVID-19 situation in the state and measures being taken to contain the spread of the virus.

The Chief Minister was informed that 150 COVID-19 confirmation tests were held from 6 pm on Monday to 9 am on Tuesday and only one case was detected as coronavirus positive. With this, the total number of coronavirus positive cases in Andhra Pradesh has reached 304.

Tests for those who attended Delhi Markaz meeting and their primary contacts are almost complete. A total of 1,085 persons from Andhra Pradesh had gone to attend the Tablighi Jamaat meeting at Delhi Markaz. 997 persons among them were tested and 196 of them were detected coronavirus positive, the government officials said.

As many as 2,400 persons, who are primary contacts of Markaz returnees, or those who travelled along with them or those who had spent at least three to four hours with them, were also tested. 84 of them were tested coronavirus positive. Thus, 280 of the coronavirus positive patients in Andhra Pradesh are Delhi Markaz returnees and their contacts.

Tests were conducted for 205 persons who were foreign returnees. 11 of them were detected coronavirus positive. Tests were conducted for 120 persons, who are contacts of the foreign returnees. Six among them were detected coronavirus positive.

Tests were conducted for another 134 people with the suspicion of coronavirus symptoms. Seven of them were detected corona positive. In total, tests were conducted for 3,856 persons till 9 am of April 7. 304 of them were tested coronavirus positive, said the officials.

Chief Minister Reddy suggested the officials to focus on holding random surveys in areas identified as hotspots. He also ordered to focus on increasing facilities at quarantines and isolation camps.

The officials informed the CM that 5,300 persons are at quarantine facilities. Further, 19,247 persons, who are foreign returnees, are home quarantined. Their isolation period is completed, but they are continuing with home quarantine as a precautionary measure.

The foreign returnees are being monitored by a special app. Apart from them, almost one lakh persons are under home quarantine. They are being monitored by village volunteers, ANMs or ASHA workers.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney, state DGP Gautam Sawang, Medical and Health Department Special Secretary Jawahar Reddy, and other senior officials attended the meeting.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A few days ago, history repeated itself for Arjun. It was the day that benchmark indices recorded their single-biggest fall, just as the World Health Organization (WHO), declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

Gains made painstakingly over the years were wiped clean within seconds. The 45-year veteran investor from Mumbai said it felt similar to 2008, when the news of an impending global financial crisis, made the rounds.

Like many other worried investors who lost their hard-earned money in the market tumble of 2008, Arjun was ready to hurriedly cut his losses and exit the capital markets, had it not been for his friend and financial advisor, Krishna.

Based on the sound advice given by Krishna, Arjun decided to make opportune use of the global crisis and added quality stocks to his equity portfolio at attractive valuations.

This helped him diversify his holdings further and enhanced his investments manifold, in the long-term. And just as he recalled the 2008 crisis, Arjun also recalled Krishnas valuable advice and sought to do something similar now when markets in India and across the globe, have corrected stocks to extremely attractive valuations.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

At a time when Morgan Stanley has warned of a global recession  with global rating agencies slashing their FY21 GDP forecast for India  heres how you, as an investor, can use this volatility to take stock of your portfolio and reorganise it.

Analyse your financial standing and risk appetite:

Portfolio re-organising is a task that must be done with due diligence. Before getting started, analyse your financial standing and reflect on one of the core tenets of investing  your risk appetite.

With no expert view that can precisely predict the bottom, it is up to you to gauge your risk appetite accurately.

For instance, if you are in your late 30s with a family and liabilities to shoulder, calculate how much money you can redirect from long-term goals such as retirement to maintain current liquidity.

Similarly, if you are in your early 20s and have a high tolerance to risk, be more moderate in your expectations.

Remain invested in good quality stocks:

Crises like these, in my opinion, strongly test the true character of investors. It separates the veterans of volatility from the amateurs seeking to experiment.

If you have consistently invested in fundamentally-sound stocks, make sure to remain invested. Indian markets have overcome such crises in the past and have rewarded those who had the patience to wait out the storm.

At the same time, the current volatility offers a perfect opportunity to scout quality stocks at attractive valuations to add to your portfolio for meaningful gains in the long run.

Several high-value stocks would be trading at lower valuations and you should lap them up as soon as you can. Also, if you have invested in mutual funds through Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs), do not discontinue them, as that would be a mistake.

With dropping NAVs, your SIPs would fetch more units now, averaging out the cost of buying. Staying invested now would yield higher dividends in the long run.

Provision for liquidity:

In such uncertain times, liquidity is a major concern. With a slump in economic activities, most businesses have come to a standstill and companies are staring at losses.

Lay-offs cant be ruled out. This brings me to another essential aspect of wealth management and asset allocation  building an emergency corpus.

Having an emergency corpus ensures that you can bank on it to take care of your daily needs and liabilities, without dipping into your savings or compromising on your earmarked capital for various investment milestones. Check your portfolio and make adequate provisions for this corpus, if not done so already.

Consider liquid funds that invest in securities with short-term maturities like 91 days that offer higher returns as compared to a savings account. Redemption is quick and easy and is processed within one (T+1) working day.

In conclusion:

Amid all the gloom and doom, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made several big-bang announcements to infuse much-needed liquidity worth Rs. 1 lakh [1] crore, through long-term repo operations (LTROs).

These measures should help the Indian economy in combating adverse impacts of COVID 19, spur consumption and instil confidence amongst investors.

However, as individual investors, do remember that every crisis is an opportunity. The present situation is no different, should you choose to wisely seize it and use it to your advantage.

(The author is Head, Edelweiss Wealth Management)

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
Maggie Hilty spent months seeking out a treatment for the chronic ear infections that were leaving her 10-month-old son, Noah Katz, in pain and impeding his ability to hear.

Five rounds of antibiotics and an intramuscular injection did nothing to relieve the underlying problem, which Hilty learned was an excessive buildup of fluid in her sons ears. Doctors finally determined that tubes would need to be surgically inserted into Noahs eardrums to allow the fluid to drain. The surgery was scheduled for March 23.

But five days before the surgery was set to take place, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown ordered that health care providers cease all non-emergency procedures to preserve protective equipment for medical personnel treating coronavirus patients. Randall Childrens Hospital called that same day to inform Hilty that her sons surgery would have to be postponed.

I think its probably the right decision, Hilty said. I know that Oregon has been proactive in the fight against COVID and I think postponing things, like this, is going to help in the long run, though it hurts my heart personally for my son and what hes going through.

Doctors in Oregon have been forced to postpone thousands of surgeries, tests and preventative care procedures since Brown issued her executive order on March 18. The order will remain in effect for 90 days, unless it is extended or terminated by Browns office.

Charles Boyle, a spokesman for Browns office, said a non-emergency procedure referred to any procedure that could be postponed for three months without putting the patient at risk of irreversible harm. According to Boyle, it is up to individual doctors to decide whether a procedure could be safely delayed for three months.

In practice, that has meant that the majority of procedures have been postponed. A spokesman for Providence Health & Services said that the groups surgical caseload had been reduced by 80%. Oregon Health & Science University has delayed approximately 1,500 surgeries. The Portland Clinic, a private, multi-specialty medical group, has gone from seeing 5,000 patients a week to almost exclusively caring for patients remotely through telemedicine.

But while many procedures can be delayed without fear of unintended consequences, other cases arent as simple.

It can be hard to define whats urgent or elective, said Kevin Woolf, a cardiologist at Hillsboro Cardiology. There are a lot of gray areas where its hard to sort of know -- the procedure is sort of elective, but the patient probably could benefit from it.  The Governor is doing the right thing in terms of delaying elective procedures, but there will be some collateral damage here, undoubtedly.

TOUGH CALLS

Woolf said that his office had to make some tough calls when it came to how to manage patients with certain heart conditions. He has asked some patients to wait on valve replacements because those conditions can be managed in the short-term and he doesnt want to expose elderly patients to hospital settings during the COVID-19 outbreak, if possible. He is also using medication to treat a higher percentage of patients with heart blockages.

The longer you go, the more patients are going to get into trouble, Woolf said. The good thing about heart disease is that, in general, stable outpatients tend to progress in sort of a linear manner. So, if people are getting worse, theyre going to have worse symptoms. Theyre going to bring that to our attention. I think for the most part, well be OK by making clever, careful choices for these patients and helping to guide them on an individual basis.

Ken Azarow, the surgeon-in-chief for OHSU and Doernbecher Childrens Hospital, said that the hospital had left it up to individual doctors and surgeons to determine whether a patient needed immediate care. Every surgery that is scheduled is reviewed by a multidisciplinary committee before it can go forward.

Patients who have had their surgeries postponed are continuing to communicate with their doctors via telemedicine, which allows physicians to consult with patients through video conferencing or other remote means. The use of telemedicine has increased exponentially amid the coronavirus pandemic and Azarow believes that it will remain commonplace even after the crisis subsidies. Through those visits, doctors are able to continue to monitor the health of their patients and ensure that their symptoms havent changed.

If a specific procedure can be put off or delayed without harm to the patient for a period of six, eight or 10 weeks, then we will delay that procedure, Azarow said. If we think a patient is going to be significantly harmed by delaying a procedure, then we go ahead with the procedure and deem it as emergent or urgent. We have been delaying as much as we can while making sure were not causing any patients undue harm by asking them to wait.

PATIENTS LEFT WAITING

But some Oregonians are still experiencing pain and uncertainty as they wait to receive care.

Among the procedures that have been canceled in Oregon are knee surgeries and dental care, where patients generally experience some level of pain until the problem is resolved, preventative care, such as colonoscopies, which are used to screen for cancer and other issues, but can be delayed in the short-term for some patients and diagnostic exams for patients that are dealing with unresolved symptoms.

Elizabeth Kenworthy started experiencing intense body aches and fatigue last July that forced her to cut back on her work as a BIM technician doing 3D modeling for structural engineers. She is currently only able to work about 10 hours a month.

Doctors have not yet been able to diagnose Kenworthy, but she believes she may be suffering from fibromyalgia, a disorder that causes musculoskeletal pain and fatigue. She had an appointment with a rheumatologist on March 23 where she hoped she would finally be able to get a diagnosis. But that appointment was canceled.

Without a diagnosis, Kenworthy has been unable to receive long-term disability insurance. As medical bills piled up, she said that she and her husband were forced to sell their house and move in with his mother in Oak Grove.

I made that appointment in December, Kenworthy said. It felt like a long time to wait, three months, and then now, I dont know when I am going to see somebody. We literally dont know where this virus is right now. It could be July, it could be August, it could be later than that. That whole time, I cant claim any assistance. I also cant claim unemployment because I have a job.

Dennis Cote, 35, chipped both his front teeth in a scooter accident while he was headed to his job as a barista at the Stumptown Coffee outpost at the Portland International Airport on March 15.

In the days before Browns order, many major hospital systems were already cutting back on elective surgeries. Cote said he went to both the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center and OHSUs Russell Street Dental Clinic, but neither facility was able to treat him. He was finally able to get temporary crowns put in at an emergency dental facility, but had to borrow money from a friend to cover the $3,000 out of pocket cost. He expects to wait until at least June to get permanent crowns put in.

In the meantime, Cote said he had been taking pain killers to deal with throbbing toothaches and has been forced to avoid hard or sticky foods that could dislodge the temporary crowns. He said he had lost 12 pounds.

I think its something I can manage for the time being, Cote said. I hope to get it actually fixed maybe in like June. I think we all have to make a certain level of sacrifice for patients whose actual lives are in real danger and also for the staff, the nurses, the doctors and other proprietors that also have to protect themselves.

WHEN CARE IS NEEDED

But Robert Sandmeier, an orthopedic surgeon and director of surgery at the Portland Clinics Surgery Center, said he worried that some patients would seek treatment in emergency rooms if they were unable to receive care from their providers for an extended period of time. The Portland Clinics Surgery Center, which conducts approximately 10,000 surgeries a year, has carried out just eight surgeries since Browns order went into effect.

I worry about the patients that we usually could treat away from the hospital, but now they cant get something done, Sandmeier said. Lets say, you have a kidney stone. A kidney stone is something that really hurts. You cant say, Hey, Ill wait. Normally, we could see that, get their pain under control and get them set up to go to the Surgery Center within the next few days. But now they might have to go to the emergency room where theyre surrounded by people, they could be exposed to COVID and theyre really using hospital resources there.

On the flip side, Woolf has already seen patients, including those experiencing heart attacks, waiting longer than usual to go to the emergency room out of fear that they might contract COVID-19.

If you are having a heart attack and you wait longer to come in, the result of that heart attack is going to be more severe, Woolf said. We can definitely take care of urgent and emergent patients and we want them to come in when its appropriate. Obviously, a heart attack would be a situation where it is, but their fear of exposure to COVID is keeping them at home longer.

According to Browns order, all elective and non-urgent procedures in settings that utilize personal protective equipment must be postponed until at least June 15.

At OHSU, Azarow said that doctors are prepared to deal with coronavirus cases until a vaccine is available, which could take well over a year. But he also said that he was hopeful that hospitals and physicians would be given the opportunity to broaden their definitions of what constitutes urgent care after Oregon gets past its peak of coronavirus cases. University of Washington researchers predict that Oregon coronavirus cases could reach their peak in two weeks.

Once we get over the peak and we have a firm idea of what the requirement will be for our COVID patients, well be able to maybe broaden our definition as to what is maybe semi-elective and elective as opposed to urgent or emergent, Azarow said. When we eventually go back to doing elective surgery, well have a group of patients that need to be at the front of the line because were kind of pressing the envelope a little bit."

For now, Hilty is continuing to wait on her sons ear procedure.

There are days when the fluid in Noahs ears dissipates enough that he is able to interact normally with his family. On other days, Hilty will turn on Sesame Street after breakfast and Noah wont even react. Suddenly, shell realize that he hasnt heard a single thing that she has said to him all day.

Noahs pediatrician has warned Hilty and her husband, Jeff Katz, that Noahs speech could be delayed because of his hearing trouble. But Hilty takes solace in knowing that eventually, after the tubes are inserted in his eardrums, Noah will be able to catch up to the other kids his age.

If Noahs surgery being put on hold means the COVID virus stops spreading and that peoples lives are saved, then I absolutely think it was the right decision to postpone, Hilty said.

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com | @jamiebgoldberg

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Family members and police said McKean and Gideon, a student at Watkins Elementary School in the District, had climbed into a canoe to retrieve a ball that had gone into the water and were apparently swept away in strong currents and gusty winds.
With this outrageous ruling the Supreme Courts far-right majority put not just its thumb, but its entire fist, on the scale in favor of making it harder for people to vote, People for the American Way Vice President Marge Baker said in a statement.  . . . If there were any lingering doubt that Republican aims of voter suppression were being aided and abetted by the courts and via far-right appointments to the bench, it was removed tonight.
Gov. Steve Bullock said early last week 32 people had recovered from the illness, caused by the coronavirus, though there's not been an update since. The state and local public health officers had previously said that number is difficult to provide as they are spending resources tracking contacts of known cases and rely on doctors to provide that information.

Gallatin County remains the state's hot spot, with 119 cases by Tuesday.

Toole County, with a population of about 4,800, has been hit especially hard by the virus at least in part because of an outbreak in an assisted living facility there. Three of the state's six deaths have been there, and there were 15 cases by Tuesday.
A virus that gives dogs kennel cough but is harmless in humans could be the key to a vaccine against the deadly coronavirus that has the world in lockdown.

A team from the University of Iowa have tested their new specially engineered virus on mice infected with MERS, a virus related to COVID-19.

They found that the mice that the mice given the genetically engineered virus and then infected with lethal doses of MERS survived the usually deadly infection.

Paul McCray and his team say their approach for treating MERS - which forces the system to trigger immune responses - could also work against COVID-19

Medical workers are wearing personal protective equipment to treat patients with COVID-19 as researchers around the world search for a vaccine. A team from the University of Iowa have created a new specially engineered virus that may work to slow the disease

The Iowa researchers added an extra gene to an RNA virus called parainfluenza virus 5 (PIV5) so that infected cells produce proteins involved in the MERS infection.

The multidisciplinary team have been studying MERS - Middle East Respiratory Syndrome - since an outbreak in 2012 as it has a fatality rate of over 30 per cent.

'We know people have been exposed to PIV5, but it seems to be an innocuous virus in humans,' said McCray, a paediatric pulmonologist and coronavirus expert.

The MERS virus cannot replicate in mice, so to test the vaccine McCray developed a genetically modified mouse model that mimics human infections.

The mice had been engineered to express DPP4, the protein used by the MERS virus as an entry point for human cells.

Four weeks after the mice received the vaccine created from the PIV5 virus they were exposed to a usually lethal strain of MERS.

The same strain of MERS was also given to groups of mice that had recieved a different PIV5 based vaccine but without the modified gene.

All of the mice given the modified virus survived the MERS infection and all of those given the other PIV5 vaccine died from the infection.

The study demonstrates that an intranasal, PIV5-based vaccine is effective against MERS in mice, said virologist Biao He from the University of Georgia.

The co-author said this should be investigated for its potential against other dangerous coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2.

'We're quite interested in using viruses as gene delivery vehicles,' said McCray, who has also investigated similar strategies as a way to treat cystic fibrosis.

Finding an effective vaccine against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is a race against time, according to the Iowa and Georgia researchers

Now, like colleagues around the world, McCray and Dr He have both focused their research efforts on SARS-CoV-2, taking a similar tack to working with mouse models of infection and testing vaccines.

Finding an effective vaccine against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is a race against time, McCray said.

'One hundred percent of the population is not going to be exposed to the virus the first time around, which means there will be more people to infect when it comes again,' he said.

'We don't know yet if people get lasting immunity from the SARS-CoV-2 infection, so it's important to think about ways to protect the population.'

Researchers, pharmaceutical companies, universities and other groups are searching for a vaccine or effective treatment against COVID-19.

The research has been published in mBio, a journal of the American Society of Microbiology,
Far from easing international geo-political tensions, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has plunged capitalism into a deep crisis and exacerbated pre-existing rivalries. Beneath nominal international co-operation, the preparations for war continue apace.

In an article on Sunday entitled US Military Seeks More Funding for Pacific Region After Pandemic, the New York Times featured a report by the US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) to Congress calling for an additional $20 billion over the next five years to bolster its military capacities against China.

The report was mandated by Congress as part of the fiscal 2020 military budget reflecting the bipartisan character of its increasingly hawkish anti-China stance. Congress specifically required that INDOPACOM, in other words the frontline command, rather than the Defence Department, set out what it needed to maintain military superiority over China.

The funds would be spent on new radar warning systems and cruise missiles, and would also pay for more exercises with allies, deployments of additional forces and new intelligence-sharing centers. The efforts would help improve the U.S. militarys ability to deter the Peoples Liberation Army.

INDOPACOM commander Admiral Phil Davidson couched his spending plan, which he termed Regain the Advantage, in defensive terms, saying that it was designed to persuade potential adversaries that any preemptive military action will be extremely costly and likely fail by projecting credible combat power.

His proposals, however, include weaponry of a decidedly aggressive character, including $1 billion to be spent on long-range precision missiles such as the Navys Maritime Strike Tomahawk and the Air Forces JASSM-ER weapon. These would be part of highly survivable, precision-strike networks along the First Island Chain, featuring increased quantities of allied ground-based weapons.

The First Island Chain refers to the string of islands running from Japan through Taiwan and the Philippines down to Indonesia that would hem in Chinese forces in any conflict. All of the countries near the islands are either US military allies, strategic partners, or in the case of Taiwan, heavily dependent on US protection.

The other measures include a major build-up of anti-missile systems on Guam, the key forward US military base in the western Pacific, as well as a boosting of radar systems on Palau and Hawaii, and a space-based radar tracking system. While they are construed as defensive, such systems are also designed to protect US military assets from Chinese retaliation in the event of a US first strike.

The report also calls for greater funding for joint US military exercises with allies and partners throughout the region as well as for stepped-up intelligence sharing. The US already has close intelligence ties with allies such as Australia, Japan and South Korea, but Davidson advocates the establishment of a counter-terrorism center, an Oceania fusion center and other intelligence facilities in the region.

In US ruling circles, there is a fear that the COVID-19 pandemic could further enhance the position of China at the expense of American imperialism. The apparent ability of the Chinese regime to contain the spread of the virus and to offer aid to other countries in the midst of the crisis, stands in marked contrast to the rapidly mounting death toll and numbers of infections in the United States.

Already, the US administration has sought to deflect attention from its own failings by lashing out at China, with Trump and other senior officials branding COVID-19 as the Wuhan virus or the Chinese virus. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo effectively blocked a joint communique at the G7 meeting last month by insisting that it name the germ as the Wuhan virus.

In remarks at the State Department after hosting the G7 meeting, Pompeo provocatively declared: The Chinese Communist Party poses a substantial threat to our health and way of life, as the Wuhan virus clearly has demonstrated. He slammed Beijing for providing aid to other countries and then claiming that they are now the white hat [good guy].

This campaign has been accompanied by a barrage of US criticisms of China for initially attempting to cover up the outbreak and not alerting the world sooner. Several US politicians have even asserted, without any evidence, that the virus had been produced in a Chinese bio-weapons laboratory. A Chinese official retaliated by suggesting the virus had been developed in a US defence laboratory.

Trump last week dialed back his inflammatory rhetoric after a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the anti-China barbs threatened to get in the way of shipments of vital Chinese medical supplies to the US. Pompeo, however, continued the attacks. A State Department release reported that Pompeo had raised with NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg the need to counter attempts by China and Russia to spread disinformation and propaganda related to the virus.

Congressional advocates of an aggressive military build-up against China have seized on the INDOPACOM report to push for greater defence spending in the Pacific.

Senator Josh Hawley, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the New York Times that the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to upend the status quo around the world, particularly in Asia.

China understands that the global pandemic is an inflection point, he said. They are trying to turn this to their advantage. Make no mistake, they are still pursuing their global strategic ambitions. The need for us to laser focus on Chinas economic and military ambitions is going to be more urgent once we beat this pandemic, not less.

US imperialism is determined to maintain the status quo in which it was the dominant global power, by all means including if need be through war. The US military expansion that began under President Obamas pivot to Asia, has been aggressively accelerated under Trump, coinciding with his trade war measures.

While the US health system has proven inadequately funded and equipped to handle the pandemic and the death toll has risen past 10,000, the political establishment in Washington is preparing a new disaster in the form of a war between nuclear-armed powers.
Dame Judi Dench says she has not read any reviews for the much-derided Cats (Ian West/PA)

Dame Judi Dench says she has not read any reviews for the much-derided film Cats.

The star-studded big screen adaption of Lord Lloyd-Webbers classic musical was a critical and commercial flop, with criticism focusing on the CGI effects, plot and acting performances.

Cats was named worst film of the year at the 40th Golden Raspberry Awards, while James Corden and Rebel Wilson were also honoured and Dame Judi, 85, was nominated for worst supporting actress.

Despite the critical mauling, Dame Judi admits she has not read any of the reviews.

Expand Close Dame Judi Dench has revealed she did not read any of the scathing reviews for Cats (Isabel Infantes/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Dame Judi Dench has revealed she did not read any of the scathing reviews for Cats (Isabel Infantes/PA)

Speaking to John Humphrys on Classic FM, Dame Judi said critics had been probably very unkind about Cats but I dont read any notices anyway.

After Humphreys said reviewers were not unkind about her portrayal of Old Deuteronomy, Dame Judi replied: I think they were. I think probably so. You always know when a friend comes to see you and they say, well Derek actually quite liked it You always know, oh hello, Im in trouble now.

Dame Judi, an Oscar winner for 1998 comedy-drama Shakespeare In Love, is one of the nations most revered actors, with a glittering career spanning seven decades on stage and screen.

Despite her lengthy screen career, Dame Judi says she is not at ease with filming, adding: Im more at ease now than Ive ever been but its just everything, theres something always thrown up all the time, something you havent done before that youve got to learn about. Then I rarely see the film. 

She added: I cant bear to watch myself.

Video of the Day

Dame Judi, who played spy supremo M in eight James Bond films, said she prefers to watch her movies years after making them.

She said: Because well you know, you think youve pressed the wrong button there, and you know you get too absorbed in just watching and not taking in the whole thing. Much better to watch it ages and ages afterwards when youve forgotten youve been in it. Thats best.

Dame Judi also said she hopes the coronavirus pandemic will bring people together.

She said: Its a very good time for looking out for each other and it might remind us all about kindness a bit, would be a good thing, I think.

To hear the full interview, tune into A Classical Conversation with John Humphrys on Friday at 9pm on Classic FM  available on 100-102 FM, DAB digital radio, ClassicFM.com and on Global Player.
Supplier News

7 April 2020

Market situation

To me, it all started with the ITB Berlin cancellation. It was t he first bitter blow to the travel industry. A lot of business is done at this exhibition, so it was the exact moment when everybody understood that situation was getting really serious. From then on, the market has changed dramatically.

One week later, all Europe faced border closures and travel restrictions. Airlines and then hotels were among the first to feel the disastrous impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.

The harsh new reality leads to a shock and a kind of depression. The scepsis was about time - with no vaccine against the virus, nobody understands indeed how long the shutdown will last - a month, a year? It all looks like an endless road. I heard and saw many depressing messages from the market.

Hotel tech impact

It seems that not only hoteliers but also hotel tech companies are in very low activity.

A couple of weeks ago, all the young VC-backed hotel-tech highflyer "start-ups" informed us about new superlatives. Killing the market with THE new System. Every single product and each new round of funding was celebrated, the amounts they raised and being invested were beyond every market comprehension.

Now I read no better news or information about cutting off 60-70-80 percent of their people - support, sales, marketing specialists. How can this happen that these highflyers who have just received millions and millions of euros now decrease their working power that hard?

In my understanding, it's impossible to run out of money in that short amount of time. Do these companies no longer believe in the self-called unicorns?

And it brings about a huge question: why spend so much money on recruitment, find talented people that create value for the company, and then get rid of them so abruptly? Is it a sign of solidarity to fire people who actually helped achieve these million rounds?

Human life and health as a top priority

After the ITB was canceled, my first reaction was to start moving everybody to home offices and shifting all processes in a decentral manner. We canceled all external sales visits a.s.a.p. For us it is nothing new, we are an IT company, many of our communication ways between us internally (we have 3 offices) and our clients (worldwide) are already decentral. Even before the major shutdowns in most EU-countries, our whole team was already safe at home, we paid the salaries before time, so everyone had the chance to buy all the necessary things to stay safe at home.

This is how I understand leadership and crisis management to show value to my team and our clients. Solidarity, human health and wellbeing of my team colleagues, is a standard.

The HotelFriend way

Take care of our people

Pay salaries on time (full amount)

Our team is working at full capacity and grateful for working sometimes harder

No one has been and will be sacked

Home office for all employees before the shutdown

Full booking refunds to travelers

No fees to hotels for canceled bookings

Provide our solution free of monthly charge to our clients

Free remote working management workshops for hoteliers

Workshops on the benefits of SaaS solutions

I believe HotelFriend can be a role model for the whole hospitality market in this regard.

Free access to the system

Most hotels now have zero to very little income. Therefore, for our SaaS direction, we decided to cut the payments or give access to our system for free. Especially to those partner hotels that turned into temporary hospitals during these difficult times. More details

This is the way for us to live up to our name - a real Friend of the Hotel - HotelFriend.

Workshops & Webinars, our busy Support Team

Besides, our support team helps hotel owners and directors who placed their key staff on leave and have no experience dealing with crucial parts of the system like Channel Manager, to adjust all the necessary settings.

The very idea of HotelFriend is about giving hoteliers and their guests the choice of the kind of interaction they want to have. I hope social distancing will never become a necessity. However, contactless servicing and cashless payments are not only safer but they are also much faster. Perhaps, after it is all over, the guest will want to communicate with front-desk personnel more than ever, and with our Concierge App , hotel staff will have enough time for this, with all the other processes optimized to perfection.

Solution for the F&Bs

Food and beverage delivery is experiencing an unprecedented rise. And we also offer a ready-to-use app to restaurants and cafes at a predictable fixed cost, so they don't have to pay a commission fee to third-party services.

Opportunities for Hoteliers

Are there any new opportunities in this chaos? I speak a lot with our clients. Everyone believes that all the bad things end sooner or later. With zero or few guests, hotels have now a great chance to modernize their rooms or IT Infrastructure. The EU has many specialized programs, bank loans (like KfW in Germany) for Hoteliers these days, and I highly recommend using these. Our support team will be very happy to add new rooms and improved facilities to the system for our clients.

After a short shock, I believe hotels will adapt to the situation they are in. Most of them are positive and enthusiastic. Some of them close (one of my clients told me that he had his first vacation after 8 years!), some of them modernize, some are now hospitals, many are doing home-food delivery. In Germany, we use the word "Unternehmer"- "entrepreneur", from the verb "unternehmen", which means "to do". So let's do it, together. And grow stronger with a deeper understanding of all the advantages of cloud based software, remote access, cashless payments, digital ordering, door delivery, and a healthy level of social distancing.

Stay healthy & keep going
South Carolina health officials announced 187 new coronavirus cases and three deaths Tuesday afternoon, bringing the state to a total of 2,417 cases, 51 of them fatal.

The state is heading toward what the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control expects to be a late April peak in deaths and hospitalizations from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to numbers added to the agency's website.

The projections, which assume residents will continue social distancing through May, expect the rate of fatalities to peak with 14 deaths on April 29. By early August, 442 South Carolinians could die after contracting the virus.

DHEC expects hospitals to be at the peak of resource usage on April 24, with health professionals needing almost 700 beds and 119 invasive ventilators. As of Tuesday morning, the state had 5,594 hospital beds available.

The overall growth in the number of cases is accelerating, said Dr. Linda Bell, the states top epidemiologist. An average of 187 new cases were reported each day last week, a sharp increase from the average 90 new cases per day the week before.

DHEC estimated Monday that South Carolina could already have as many as 15,300 total cases, which includes people with mild or asymptomatic cases of COVID-19, or who have not otherwise been confirmed through testing. The estimate is based on about nine people on average being infected for each patient already diagnosed.

The department and private labs have tested samples from 23,680 South Carolinians. The three new deaths include two patients from Lexington County and one from Greenville County. Each of the victims was elderly and had underlying health problems, according to DHEC.

Gov. Henry McMaster issued a work or home order on Monday. It went into effect Tuesday evening. The executive order was put in place as mandatory rules, he said, since his offices previous recommendations and suggestions had not been heeded by residents.

For Easter services, he recommended worshippers connect online. He also issued an executive order to limit the number of shoppers in stores.

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said the country has become a hot spot, but he hopes the state and city do not follow suit. Of the 187 new cases, five are from Charleston County.

"That is evidence that if we are mindful, we can flatten the curve," Tecklenburg said at a news conference Tuesday.

Police Chief Luther Reynolds said a second Charleston officer tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the number of city employees that have tested positive to five.

Reynolds said the two police officers that tested positive do not work the same shift and did not come into contact with each other. He said he is unsure if the officers contracted the virus at work.

One city employee has returned to work following the illness, Tecklenburg said, and all employees who have contracted the virus have shown mild symptoms and did not need to be hospitalized. He said he expects those employees to return to work after a 14-day waiting period.

Reynolds said officers did not issue trespassing summons on Monday or Tuesday. Livability Director Daniel Riccio said no non-essential businesses were cited in that time for remaining open.

The Army announced on Tuesday that it will stop shipping new recruits to basic training at Fort Jackson in Columbia, and the training base is restricting access to only essential personnel.

Officials with Roper St. Francis Healthcare said on Tuesday that four more patients have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the hospital system total to 127 patients, 40 of whom have since been "cleared of the virus."

Fourteen patients were hospitalized as of Tuesday, officials said. In addition, 24 patients have been isolated across Roper's hospital system and are awaiting COVID-19 test results.

So far, 15 Roper employees have tested positive for the virus, officials said.

In Charleston County, officials are encouraging people to sign up for the "Smart911" system, a free service that allows individuals to provide critical medical information to first responders, including whether they have self-quarantined.

"This is a great tool for citizens to improve the safety of our first responders as COVID-19 continues to spread," said Charleston County Consolidated 911 Center Director Jim Lake. "By signing up for Smart911, individuals can help first responders get the key information they need about every person who may need assistance, not only during this outbreak, but during any emergency."

Anyone who's interested in signing up can register themselves and their household at www.smart911.com or on the Smart911 app, available for Apple and Android devices.

DHEC has ordered 2,500 transparent sneeze guards for offices, stores and restaurants to place between staff and customers. On Tuesday, the department shared a print file with instructions for individuals to make their own guards.

Mikaela Porter and Thomas Novelly contributed to this report.
They've been lying low amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

But Giovanni Ribisi and his partner Emily Ward were spotted enjoying a family stroll around Los Angeles on Monday, getting some fresh air with their 15-month-old twins Enzo and Maude.

The Sneaky Pete star, 45, and his interior designer girlfriend were accompanied by a friend as they strolled along, relishing their allotted outdoor exercise for the day.

Out and about: Giovanni Ribisi and his partner Emily Ward were enjoying a stroll around Los Angeles on Monday, getting some fresh air with their 15-month-old twins Enzo and Maude

Giovanni was casually clad in a green button down jacket and khaki chinos, teamed with a beige roll neck top.

Emily carried one of the little ones in a papoose during their casual outing.

The blonde dressed down in a pair of loose patterned trousers and a beige coat.

Giovanni and Emily met in 2017 after the Friends star hired her company Pierce & Ward to remodel his 1939 Monterey Revival home.

Taking a walk: The Sneaky Pete star, 45, and his interior designer girlfriend were accompanied by a friend as they strolled along, relishing their allotted outdoor exercise for the day

The TV star previously admitted it was love at first sight and their connection was immediate.

'There's that thing somebody said that you fall in love in the first three seconds and the rest is denial,' Ribisi told Architectural Digest last year.

'I knew that we would be together. It felt like it was this thing that wasn't forced and it wasn't hastened. It was just this natural evolution that happened.'

'Our babies are finally here!' Emily (left) first announced the arrival of their 'angels from heaven' on her company Pierce & Ward's Instagram account

Emily was the first to announce the arrival of their twins on December 14, 2019, calling them 'angels from heaven'.

The Emmy winning actor has been married twice before and is the father to daughter Lucia, 22, with his first wife Mariah O'Brien.

The Avatar star divorced his second wife, model Agyness Deyn, in 2015..
Photo: Penguin Randomhouse

Samantha Irby is a riot. With her third essay collection, Wow, No Thank You., the Evanston-born writer, now based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, continues her streak of hilarious, revelatory essays that demonstrate a keen interest in what it means to exist in a human body. Whether shes frankly talking about Crohns disease in the essay Girls Gone Mild or exploring her love of music in Late 1900s Time Capsule, the author is both irreverent and incisive. Join Irby tonight at 6:30 p.m. on Vultures Instagram Live for the first installment in our Read a Book series. The author will read an excerpt from her latest, followed by a chat with Vultures Angelica Jade Bastien. Tune in for the laughter, discussion, and gross-out humor that only Samantha Irby can bring.

The staff at Vulture is busy putting together events to keep you sane (and yes, indoors) during quarantine. To help our readers stay up-to-date with our full stack of virtual events, we put together a public calendar. So wash your hands, pull up your phone or laptop, and tune in for a series of Instagram Lives, book readings, movie nights, and more.
A more recent publication of this set of statistics is available. Latest publication: Foreign Shipping Traffic 2021, November

Published: 7 April 2020

Sea transport decreased in February

The goods volume of foreign sea transport was in total 7.1 million tonnes in February 2020. Sea transport decreased by 0.5 million tonnes from last year's February. Export volume fell by 11 per cent and amounted to 3.6 million tonnes. Imports decreased by 0.1 per cent to 3.5 million tonnes.

Foreign sea Transport by month in 2018 to 2020

General cargo was transported most, in total 1.3 million tonnes, which is 18 per cent of all transport. The second most transported was oil products, 1.1 million tonnes, and crude oil, 0.9 million tonnes.

Container transport

A total of 0.8 million tonnes of containers were transported through Finnish ports in February 2020, which is 0.2 million tonnes less than in February 2019. The number of containers transported was 57,623 (101,698 TEU containers) 1) . Exports of containers went down by 19.1 per cent measured in tonnes and imports fell by 16.3 per cent measured in tonnes compared to February 2019.

Vehicle transport

A total of 226,540 transport equipment were transported in foreign sea traffic in February 2020. Most transports of transport equipment were passenger cars belonging to passengers. In February, 133,907 passenger cars were transported. The second most transported were trucks, 54,340 and truck trailers, 34,732.

Passenger traffic

A total of 1,176,634 persons were transported in passenger traffic in February 2020. In all, 585,015 persons travelled between Finland and Estonia and 582,227 persons between Finland and Sweden. Altogether, 9,392 passengers were transported between Finland and Germany. The number of passengers grew by four per cent from February 2019. The number of passengers between Finland and Estonia increased by 53,117 and between Finland and Sweden by 30,457 from one year ago. In February 2020, no passengers of foreign cruise ships arrived in Finland.

Vessel traffic and goods volume in the Saimaa Canal

The Saimaa Canal was closed starting from the morning of 1st of February and no transport was registered through the canal in foreign traffic.

1) TEU, the basic measurement unit of container traffic, refers to one container that is twenty feet long, eight feet wide and 8.5 feet high.

Source: Transport and tourism, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Matti Kokkonen 029 551 3770, Sami Lahtinen 029 551 3207, matti.kokkonen@tilastokeskus.fi

Director in charge: Mari Yla-Jarkko

Publication in pdf-format (166.6 kB)

Updated 7.4.2020

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Foreign Shipping Traffic [e-publication].

ISSN=2670-2002. February 2020. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 11.1.2022].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/uvliik/2020/02/uvliik_2020_02_2020-04-07_tie_001_en.html
Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced the entire country will enter complete lockdown starting 4 pm on Tuesday until 7 am Friday.

This will also include a mandated home-confinement for all citizens from Wednesdays Passover Seder until 7am on Thursday, with citizens only allowed to venture outside up to 100 meters from their home during that time. All travel between cities will be banned, which appears to have already begun to be enforced by police.

Netanyahu further indicated some restrictions will remain in effect for the full holiday week, with some likely to be lifted gradually following the Passover holiday. It's being interpreted as a controversial move to prevent families from traveling to gather for Passover.

Quarantined Haredi neighborhood in Israeli, file image.

Local media reports have suggested the move is in part a bid to open up the economy again after the intensive period of 'stay at home' orders.

Passover typically includes large family gatherings and heightened travel across the Jewish state, and the PM framed the drastic nationwide police-enforced lock down as aimed at preventing large-scale transmissions during the festivities.

He also said during his statements, "we see positive signs on the horizon" at a moment over 8,400 Israelis have been confirmed for COVID-19, including 53 deaths as of Monday afternoon.

In the ultra-Orthodox Israeli city of Bnei Brak, via AFP.

Netanyahu in his remarks touted that Israel has successfully initiated testing on a more expansive level than any other country currently hard-hit by the pandemic, and emphasized health officials are determined to reach 10,000 tests a day.

Police have been particularly active in resistant ultra-Orthodox towns, especially Bnei Brak outside of Jerusalem, for broad refusal to shut down synagogues and religious schools amid local mandates.

This is crazy. A group of 20 hilltop youth settlers who were in contact with a known corona patient refused to enter a quarantine facility in #Jerusalem. As they were being driven to another location in the south, they rioted in the police bus and broke the windows of the bus https://t.co/LwndsWWZHC  Anna Ahronheim (@AAhronheim) April 6, 2020

The new national lockdown and strict curfew for Passover still needs to be approved by the cabinet, where there's been fierce internal debate over whether the lockdown should only be applied to ultra-Orthodox communities, given the rapid spread of the virus there and broad refusal to abide by health restrictions and social distancing.

Likely the new lockdown orders will be met with resistance in conservative neighborhoods, given also Passover is among the top few most important observances on the Jewish calendar.
Over 3,000 people from Thane city



in Maharashtra have taken an app-based self-assessment test for coronavirus, the Thane Municipal Corporation said on Tuesday.

The civic body circulated the self-test tool available on its DIGI Thane app through WhatsApp, asking citizens to assess their condition, the TMC's public relations officer Sandeep Malavi said.

TMC commissioner Vijay Singhal circulated the tool to over 30,000 people on different WhatsApp groups, of which 3,000 have already taken the test and the results were available with the civic body, he said.

Meanwhile, infrastructure works in Thane district, which are scheduled to be completed before monsoons, will continue, collector Rajesh Narvekar said.

Workers, who are working on these projects, will have to carry their ID cards and a copy of the government's order while commuting to the sites, he said in an order.

Work on national highways, state highways, rural roads, roads that come under the Pradhan Mantri Sadak Yojana, Mahavitaran and Mahatransco and power-related projects, water supply works, sewerage works need to be completed before monsoon, he said.

He also pointed out that two major highways pass through the district and taking into consideration the present health crisis, they need to be completed on priority.

In towns including Mumbra and Bhiwandi, the police have decided to use drones to identify people who violate the lockdown and take action against them, he added.

In a related development, commissioner of the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation Dr Vijay Suryavanshi on Monday passed an order to seal borders of the towns in wake of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases there.

The police will man the entrances to Kalyan and Dombivili towns, and will only allow essential service providers to enter and exit the limits.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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The global aviation sector is going through its biggest slump ever, and that has a direct impact on Indian IT companies. According to experts, this impact could lead to 1-7 percent drop in revenues in the coming quarters.

This is especially hard on companies that have high dependence on the travel industry such as NIIT Technologies, Hexaware and Mindtree.

Though it is unclear how long the impact will last, CEO of Hexaware R Srikrishna said in a recent investor call that the company expects two quarters' delay in demand recovery owing to the financial impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the travel and transport (10 percent) sectors, and also on education and retail, where the exposure is low.

Airlines are cutting down on discretionary spending

Globally, aviation industry is one of the worst hit by the novel coronavirus. Airlines are working at a fraction of their capacity, laying off employees and cutting down on discretionary spending to a large extent.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

This is where IT firms will take a hit. Most of the discretionary spending goes into IT, and recently into ambitious digital projects. In the coming quarters, these clients are unlikely to spend on IT and if they do, it will mostly be need based.

Sanchit Vir Gogia, founder, Greyhound Research, an analyst firm, explained that clients will rather invest in the smaller and outcome-based projects. These projects will be short term and will cost less than long-term deal wins. (Outcome-based model is a business model where clients pay for results using a product or service rather than the product itself.)

According to Pareekh Jain, founder, Pareekh Consulting, a tech consultancy firm, this might push some of them to go for local outsourcing. They might also build their own in-house IT, which will reduce outsourcing in general, he added.

If this happens, it will be a double whammy for the Indian IT service providers.

Most Indian IT services providers such as TCS, Infosys and mid-tier firms such as Mindtree, NIIT Technologies and Hexaware cater to airline and hospitality majors. Unlike the large players, where travel and transportation are not standalone verticals, for Mindtree, NIIT Technologies and Hexaware they account for anywhere between 10 and 30 percent.

That is why it makes them more vulnerable compared to larger IT companies and probably will take longer to weather the impact.

Silver-lining

However it is not all dull and gloomy.

A Kotak Institutional Securities' report pointed out that decline in revenue will to some extend be offset by rupee depreciation, lower travel costs and lower variable pay compensation in the March quarter.

Digital services will continue to grow, albeit slowly. Digital services, which account for about 30 percent of overall revenue, were growing at 25-30 percent year-on-year for IT firms earlier. An HDFC Securities note suggests that digital might see 5-20 percent increase in deals.

Apart from travel and transport, healthcare and telecom continue to see growth on the back of the coronavirus outbreak. But as brokerages pointed out, March performance will be critical to gauge the impact COVID-19 will have on the IT ecosystem in general.
SAN DIEGO, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Mesa Biotech announced it is shipping 10,000 of its Accula SARS-CoV-2 molecular rapid point of care (POC) tests this week. The company's COVID-19 test uses patented technology to enable 'near patient' testing outside of the central laboratory with diagnostic results in 30 minutes. Mesa Biotech Inc., a San Diego based, molecular diagnostic company, has developed an affordable, easy to use, palm-sized molecular testing platform designed for rapid near patient infectious disease diagnosis.

"We will ship 10,000 tests this week and continue executing on our capacity expansion initiatives," said Hong Cai, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mesa Biotech, Inc. "I am so proud of everyone in our company for their unwavering dedication during unprecedented circumstances to help meet the critical need for rapid near patient COVID-19 testing."

The Accula System provides a true decentralized testing solution for COVID-19 at the point of care. The Accula SARS-CoV-2 is easy to use, fits in the palm of your hand and provides a highly accessible means for healthcare professionals to access laboratory quality results near the patient. With diagnostic results in 30 minutes, physicians can decide to isolate, treat or dismiss potential carriers of the virus.

The Accula SARS-CoV-2 Test is a visually read test using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technology to detect SARS-CoV-2 (the virus responsible for COVID-19) via throat and nasal swab samples. Similar to Mesa Biotech's commercially available tests for influenza and RSV, the Accula SARS-CoV-2 Test is designed for point-of-care use, including temporary screening facilities, physician office labs, urgent care, and long term nursing facilities. The system complements central laboratories where current testing is performed.

Mesa Biotech's technology was developed at Los Alamos National Lab supported by NIH grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Western Regional Centers for Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Disease program. In mid-March, the company received funding from the U.S. Health and Human Services for development of its SARS-CoV-2 test and less than one week later received emergency use authorization. Since its inception, the company has focused on technology well-suited for emergency defense and rapid deployment for SARS, Ebola and other emerging infectious diseases. Mesa Biotech's platform was specifically designed for use outside the lab to enable rapid responses to global pandemics, such as COVID-19.

About Mesa Biotech Inc.

Mesa Biotech designs, develops, manufactures and commercializes next generation molecular diagnostic tests, bringing the superior diagnostic performance of nucleic acid PCR amplification to the point-of-care. Mesa Biotech's Accula Flu A/Flu B and RSV tests have obtained CE Mark in the EU and 510(k) clearance and Clinical Laboratory Improvements Amendments (CLIA) waiver from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Both products are distributed in the United States by Sekisui Diagnostics under the Silaris brand. Mesa Biotech has also secured a number of strategic agreements for distribution in Europe and Asia. For more information visit http://www.mesabiotech.com.

Contacts:





Commercial & Business Development Media Information Steven Sepulveda Joleen Schultz [email protected] [email protected] Cell: 813-258-2641 Cell: 760-271-8150

SOURCE Mesa Biotech Inc.

Related Links

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U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing at the White House in Washington on April 3, 2020. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Surgeon General Says African-Americans Are at Higher Risk for COVID-19

Surgeon General Jerome Adams said African-Americans are at a higher risk of the CCP virus after data revealing a disparity in cases and deaths has begun to emerge.

I and many black Americans are at higher risk for COVID, Adams told CBS This Morning on Tuesday. Thats why we need everyone to do their part to slow the spread.

Adams noted in the interview that black Americans are more likely to have underlying health problems and a lack of access to health care. Adams said he himself has heart disease, asthma, high blood pressure, and is pre-diabetic.

Adams said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) should be, and are tracking this virus by different demographic groups.

When you look at being black in America, number one: people unfortunately are more likely to be of low socioeconomic status, which makes it harder to social distance, Adams said in the interview. Number two: we know that blacks are more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, lung disease.

For example, Louisianas Department of Health released its figures for COVID-19 cases, showing black people account for 70 percent of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus deaths in the state, although making up 32 percent of the population.

That deserves more attention, and were going to have to dig into that and see what we can do to slow that trend down, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said on Monday.

Healthcare workers wheel the bodies of deceased people from the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center during the outbreak of COVID-19 in New York City, New York, on April 4, 2020. (Reuters/Andrew Kelly)

The data already released shows troubling trends for African Americans that must be addressed to ensure public health, said Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust, reported The Hill.

But in another morning interview, the surgeon general said that CCP virus deaths in the United States could fall under the range of between 100,000 and 200,000 that has been suggested by White House officials in recent days.

Thats absolutely my expectation, and I feel a lot more optimistic, again, because Im seeing mitigation work, Adams said on ABCs Good Morning America. Its going to be a hard and a tough week, but the American people have the power to change the trajectory of this epidemic if we come together like we have after past tragedies in this country.

Over the weekend, he predicted the COVID-19 case number next week will be Americas Pearl Harbor moment and our 9/11 moment.
Friendly PDA During Award Shows

During one of the events, SRK was seen planting a kiss on Priyanka Chopra's cheek in public's view, later Priyanka too returned the kiss during the 2013 Filmfare awards, when Shah Rukh Khan was anchoring. Many pictures of them during the awards season had gone viral. Reportedly, their body language also added fuel to the dating rumours.

Priyanka Spotted Alongside SRK At All Events

While their Jodi was full of chemistry on screen, fans couldn't have enough of the two off-screen either. Priyanka Chopra was spotted alongside Khan at all events and public appearances including IPL matches, during which she was seen lending support for SRK's team, Kolkata Knight Riders.

When SRK Said Priyanka Makes Him Feel Comfortable

Shah Rukh Khan, in an interview, was asked about his co-star Priyanka Chopra and their alleged relationship. He had told the leading publication, "To be honest, I can be a little less confluent with the actors. But Priyanka always makes me comfortable. If my hair gets worn then she fixes it."

He then went on to call her a good friend and added, "It's good to work with such friends. Apart from this, only I know what things I want to do inherently. When you work with an actor for so many hours and build a good relationship with each other, it brings great happiness. It only feels sad when outside people give a wrong name to this relationship."

Film Fraternity Boycotting Priyanka

After the dating rumours went around for a while, other stories emerged claiming that Bollywood was boycotting Priyanka. The actress was even tagged as a home breaker and industry wives like Sussanne Khan and Gauri Khan began asking their husbands, not to work with Pee Cee. It became more evident when the actress was ignored by the women during public events.

The final blow came when Karan posted a retaliating tweet at Priyanka. He wrote, "Using their hired PR machinery and hiding behind so-called "friends" to get news into tabloids is nothing but spineless and lame!!!"

By that time, PeeCee had already began trying her luck in Hollywood. She now, is a global star, thanks to her first project in the US, Quantico.

Dirty Laundry

Priyanka Chopra, during a show called Dirty Laundry, shared that she loves a leather jacket that was once owned by her ex. Talking about it she revealed, "I was a little unsure about this one, whether I should (get it or not). But your show is called Dirty Laundry, so I thought might as well. This is a jacket that I literally live in. It's my airport jacket, but it belonged to an ex-boyfriend."

Fans quickly noticed its similarity to Shah Rukh's brown leather jacket and the rumour mill went abuzz once again.

Liked A Fan Tweet

After the show aired, the actress even liked a fan tweet about outing her relationship to the world. The tweet read, "OMG @priyankachopra might have just told the world about her relationship with @iamsrk.'' Seconds later Pee Cee had liked the tweet.

The shocked fan shared another post on Twitter "Okay so Priyanka Chopra just liked and then unliked my tweet which spoke about @iamsrk being her ex-bf! What just happened guys?"

Priyanka Chopra Refused Sharing Screen Space With Shahrukh Khan

While on Dirty Laundry the actress had made it evident that she was over her ex, and while Bollywood has seen other exes work on-screen together, not everyone is comfortable with it. A few years ago, news reports said that Priyanka was offered a Rakesh Sharma biopic titled as Salute, but she refused to sign the film when she found out that SRK would play the lead role in it.
Tunisia's interior ministry warned Tuesday that people infected with coronavirus could be prosecuted for manslaughter if they contaminate others by disobeying the health ministry's instructions.

"If someone who is sick does not self-isolate as required in line with health ministry instructions, and they contaminate someone else, we will pursue them under the penal code," Interior Minister Hichem Mechichi told reporters.

"If that cross-contamination results in death, they can be prosecuted for manslaughter."

Testing has confirmed some 600 cases of coronavirus in Tunisia, among which there have been 22 fatalities.

Since April 5, three hotels across the country have been equipped to take care of up to 1,500 coronavirus patients outside hospitals, according to authorities.

Around 120 people are currently staying in those hotels.

But some infected people have been reluctant to remain in quarantine.

"We will be strict in applying the law... our responsibility is to protect the people," Mechichi said.

Tunisia imposed a 6.00 pm to 6.00 am curfew from March 18, and imposed daytime movement restrictions on citizens on March 22, in a bid to forestall the spread of the virus.

Hundreds have been arrested for breaking daytime rules and around 1,000 for breaching the nighttime curfew, according to authorities.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 22:15:04|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Wuhan, the Chinese city hardest hit by the COVID-19 outbreak, had only 181 patients in serious conditions, with 71 being critically ill, as of Monday, dropping from a peak of over 9,000 cases, a health official said Tuesday.

"Notable results have been achieved. However, there are still great difficulties in the treatment of severe patients," Guo Yanhong, the National Health Commission official, said at a press conference, stressing that China has gone all out to save more lives.

The high proportion of elderly patients and patients with multiple diseases have posed challenges to the treatment, Guo noted, adding that some patients also need a longer time to recover due to their unstable conditions.

Highlighting the practice of pooling good medical resources, the official said severe patients are treated at high-calibre hospitals with centralized treatment.

For patients with multiple diseases, coordinated treatment across disciplines has been strengthened, and it is important to reinforce nursing personnel for elderly patients, according to Guo.

Facing increasing imported cases, Guo said more efforts are needed to attend to mild patients and prevent mild symptoms from developing into severe ones, as well as strengthening treatment featuring the combination of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine.

Meanwhile, personalized treatment plans should also be highlighted to take scientific and targeted measures, Guo said.

The Chinese mainland had reported a total of 983 imported cases as of the end of Monday. Of them, 285 had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 698 were being treated with 21 in severe condition, the commission said in its daily report.

Wu Xinjuan, with the Chinese Nursing Association, said COVID-19 patients are prone to psychological problems such as anxiety, fear and helplessness.

Doctors and nurses have been encouraged to communicate with patients and give them confidence by sharing successful stories in treatment, Wu said, adding that patients are also encouraged to talk with their family members and friends via mobile phones to ease anxiety.

"We emphasize the management of COVID-19 patients at every single stage," said Wang Guiqiang, an infectious disease expert with the Peking University First Hospital, when responding to a question concerning people tested positive again after being released from hospitals.

Requirements on follow-up visits and self-quarantine for recovered patients have been clarified in the updated diagnosis and treatment scheme, in a bid to reduce the risk of further transmission outside hospitals, according to Wang.

Patients who have been discharged from hospitals after recovery will still be under observation, Wang said, calling for more efforts from local medical institutions on monitoring and health checkups.
Islamabad, April 7 : The Pakistan Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an interim order, recalling the bails granted to under-trial prisoners by the high courts of Sindh and Islamabad and ordered authorities to arrest all detainees who had been released due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Supreme Court's ruling, however, excluded prisoners suffering from a physical or mental illness; under-trial prisoners who are 55 or older; male under-trial prisoners who have not been convicted in the past; and female and juvenile prisoners, reports Dawn news.

The Supreme Court passed the order during the hearing of a petition challenging the Islamabad High Court verdict, which was issued last month.

The petition argued that the March 20 IHC order militated against the concept of trichotomy of powers since it was within the exclusive domain of the executive to frame any policy to deal with under-trial prisoners in a manner it deemed appropriate keeping in view the coronavirus emergency.

Last month, the IHC had taken up a petition based on a report of the high court's judicial branch on Islamabad-based under-trial prisoners and had ordered the release of detainees in Rawalpindi's overcrowded Adiala jail who were nominated in minor crimes, said the Dawn news report.

The high court had also told capital police not to make arrests in petty matters.

The order was passed in consideration of the growing number of coronavirus cases in the country.

The Sindh High Court had also issued a similar order last month following which district courts had released more than 800 prisoners nominated in cases of petty crimes.

Pakistan currently accounts for 4,004 coronavirus cases, with 55 deaths.
The Chandigarh-based CSIO has developed an electrostatic disinfectant machine which will help in the fight against coronavirus in the country. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: PK

New Delhi, April 7 : The Chandigarh-based CSIO has developed an electrostatic disinfectant machine which will help in the fight against coronavirus in the country.

The Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) is a national laboratory of CSIR dedicated to research, design and development of scientific and industrial instruments.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research had entered into an agreement with BHEL and drug company Cipla and TCS to fight coronavirus.

The order to manufacture the new equipment has been given to Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited, which is currently making it at its Haridwar unit in Uttar Pradesh. The cost of the machine, around Rs 50,000, can be further reduced with mass production, researchers believe.

The machine can spray molecules as small as 10-20 microns of a disinfectant as compared with 40-50 microns by machines currently available in the market, making it more effective in disinfecting any surface.

CSIO scientist Manoj Patel told India Science Wire that the machine can be used for sanitising both indoors and outdoors.

The machine can be used in the fight against coronavirus even though it was originally meant to be used at public places like bus stands, railway stations and airports.

Dr Patel said it could prove 80 per cent more effective in killing harmful microbes than other machines in use.
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WEST COLUMBIA  Hospitals filled with sick people most at risk of the rampantly spreading coronavirus have closed their doors to visitors to keep patients safe.

But that means those same critically ill patients have gone weeks without seeing friends or family, exacerbating sadness and uncertainty during a time when they're most in need.

One Midlands hospital is asking the public to help combat patient loneliness through art.

Lexington Medical Center started collecting homemade greeting cards for its patients. The idea came from a nurse practitioner in the hospital's Critical Care Unit after her daughter make a card for one of the people in her care.

Cards were requested for all patients, not just ones suffering from the virus, because even those not infected have been without family contact.

"While patients and family members understand the 'no visitors' rule is for safety and to limit the spread of the virus, patients are lonely. The only people they see are staff, and most of TV is virus talk," said Donna Peele, director of pastoral care at Lexington Medical Center who is coordinating the program.

"The cards remind them that they matter, that someone cares, and that hope is present," she said.

Patients giggled and shed happy tears when the cards were given.

"Patients want the card taped where it can be seen," Peele said, and they've asked who they can thank for the act of kindness.

"The virus leaves us all feeling out of control so when there is a tangible way to do something helpful that is within our control, we are drawn to it," Peele said.

Those who donated cards were asked to place them in a sealed zipper storage bag, tightly sealing the cards in a bag for 24 hours to prevent any spread to patients or staff, according to the hospital's Infection Control and Infectious Disease departments. The cards are being left sealed in the bags for five days before going to patients.

The virus which causes COVID-19 can be detected for up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel, according to a joint study by National Institutes of Health, CDC, UCLA and Princeton University scientists, and the disease may be spread after touching contaminated objects.

The chances of the disease being spread via contact with objects, such as through the U.S. Mail, has been deemed minimal.

"There is likely very low risk of spread from products or packaging that are shipped over a period of days or weeks at ambient temperatures," the CDC said on its website.

Prior to Gov. Henry McMaster issuing orders Monday for people to stay home, donors were asked to bring cards to the hospital, call staff at (803) 791-2901 once they arrived; the cards were picked up carside. Cards started pouring into the Pastoral Care office Monday morning, Peele said.

"One car asked a staff member in Pastoral Care to get cards from the back seat where a 5 year old said, 'I made all these cards. I wanted to give them to you,' " she said. "Sweet things like that are so touching."

A prayer group of nurses at the hospital were worried about their children being home while they were at work and wanted something for them to do.

Children need a way to express their concerns in a positive way. By thinking beyond themselves, they learn about empathy and discover their power to help their world, Peele said.
Hindu Mahasabha General Secretary Puja Shakun Pandey and her husband Ashok Pandey were arrested from their home on Tuesday, a day after they were booked for allegedly making an inflammatory statement against a particular community, police said.

Superintendent of Police (city) Abhishek Kumar said a case was filed against them on Monday at the Gandhi Park Police Station for the remark made at a press conference on April 4 in the context of the coronavirus pandemic and the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz.

Puja was booked on Monday for the comments targeting the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz event in Delhi, police said, adding her husband was also booked later in the day.

The FIR against Puja was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by former Samajwadi Party MLA from Aligarh City Haji Zameer Ullah Khan, the police had said on Monday.

She was charged with promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race etc (IPC section 153 A) and with making statements creating or promoting emnity hatred or ill-will among classes (505-2), police said.

In the complaint given to Senior Superintendent of Police Muniraj G, the former lawmaker had demanded stringent action against Pandey for her statement against all Jamaatis in connection with the Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi in March.

Khan had accused Puja of trying to disturb the communal peace in the city.

Police had said on Monday that Puja in her statement made some highly inflammatory comments against a particular community in connection with the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz at Nizamuddin.

Several coronavirus cases have been traced to the Markaz, according to health officials.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A forest fire in the Chernobyl nuclear exclusion zone spread further Tuesday, fanned by strong winds, authorities said, insisting that radiation levels remained normal.

Firefighters have been battling a blaze that broke out at the weekend in the wooded zone around the ruined Chernobyl reactor that exploded in 1986 in the world's worst nuclear accident.

On Tuesday, the fire covered some 35 hectacres (87 acres), having tripled in size due to strong winds, the emergencies service said in a statement, adding that background radiation levels remained "within normal limits".

Kiev has mobilised helicopters and around 100 firefighters, with firefighting planes dropping tons of water on the fire.

Police said the blaze broke out after a man set fire to dry grass near the exclusion zone.

The man was detained by police.

On Sunday, Yegor Firsov, acting head of Ukraine's state ecological inspection service, said in a Facebook post that radiation levels at the centre of the fire were higher than normal.

But government agencies rejected that finding and Firsov himself later withdrew his remarks.

The Chernobyl power station contaminated a large swathe of Europe when its fourth reactor exploded in April 1986, with the area immediately around the plant the worst affected.

People are not allowed to live within 30 kilometres (18 miles) of the power station, which is some 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of Ukraine's capital Kiev. The three other reactors at Chernobyl continued to generate electricity until the power station finally closed in 2000.

A giant protective dome was put in place over the fourth reactor in 2016.

Fires occur regularly in the forests near the Chernobyl power plant.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Navy Hospital Ship USNS Comfort docks at Pier 90 on the Hudson River as the CCP virus pandemic continues to overwhelm medical infrastructure in New York on March 30, 2020. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

USNS Comfort Crew Member Tests Positive As Ship Begins Taking in Virus Patients

President Donald Trump agreed on April 6 to use the USNS Comfort to treat patients infected with the CCP virus shortly before the virus was confirmed in a crew member aboard the 1,000-bed hospital ship.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo confirmed Monday afternoon that the Defense Department has now said the 1,000-bed Comfort will take on patients infected with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. The department previously said it would only admit non-COVID-19 patients to ease pressure on overwhelmed facilities.

The USNS Comfort was initially sent to New York City, the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States, to free up capacity in city hospitals to focus on treating COVID-19 patients.

I spoke to the president, and he has agreed to our request to treat #COVID patients on the USNS Comfort, Cuomo wrote on Twitter. This means 1,000 additional beds staffed by federal personnel.

This will provide much-needed relief to our overstressed hospital systems, he added.

The use of the U.S. Navy shipwhich docked on Manhattans west side March 30for CCP virus patients from New York, was confirmed by Trump at a White House briefing on Monday.

He [Cuomo] called me up a little while ago and asked if it would be possible to use the ship with respect to fighting the virus, Trump told reporters. We hadnt had that in mind at all, but were going to let him do it.

Trump added that New Jersey would also use USNS Comfort because the region is a hot spot.

Its a big ship, and its now COVID; its set for COVID  hopefully, that will be very helpful to both states.

The Comfort is one of two Navy hospital ships drafted to help in the battle with the CCP virus. The temporary hospital facility at the Javits Convention Center, which holds 2,500 beds, will also treat CCP virus patients, Cuomo announced Thursday.

The number of CCP virus cases in New York state increased by 7 percent over the past 24 hours to 130,689. Deaths linked to the disease rose by 599 to 4,758.

Shortly before Trumps announcement, a spokesman for the Defense Department told CNN in a statement that the Navy ship Comfort will continue to accept trauma, emergency, and urgent care patients irrespective of their COVID status.

Our current preference, which could change at any time  is to see Javits Center beds used by COVID patients before moving them to the Comfort, spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said.

Comfort Crew Member Tests Positive

The U.S. Navy said in a statement Monday that a crew member aboard the hospital ship is now in isolation after testing positive for the CCP virus.

The crew member did not have any contact with patients, the Navy statement said, reported ABC News.

There is no impact to Comforts mission, and this will not affect the ability for Comfort to receive patients, the statement read. The ship is following protocols and taking every precaution to ensure the health and safety of all crew members and patients on board.

Crew members who had been in contact with the individual have all tested negative for COVID-19. However, they will remain in isolation for several days out of an abundance of caution, according to a Navy official.
Richmond Public Schools on Monday decided how to calculate students year-end grades at the districts School Board meeting streamed over Facebook Live.

The system closed last month through the end of the school year to thwart the spread of COVID-19, a few weeks shy of the end of the third quarter, leaving grades up in the air.

Superintendent Jason Kamras said the policy was developed with two distinct goals: One is to do no harm to our kids; this closure is not their fault. And the second is to try and make this as simple and as clear as possible.

Third-quarter grades for elementary school students on track to pass will be an S for satisfactory. Those not passing will receive an N for needs improvement as a notation for future teachers to signify areas where students will need additional support. Final grades for elementary students will not be calculated.

GPA considerations mean middle and high school courses will be graded based on work students had done up to the shutdown.
ALDI has promoted its regional manager for Munster and Connacht, Niall O'Connor, to be managing director for the group's 142 supermarkets across Ireland.

Mr O'Connor said he is "honoured to lead the Aldi Ireland team particularly as our teams work to help feed the nation".

Aldi said part of Mr O'Connor's role would be oversight of its expansion, which is proceeding despite widespread disruption to the Irish economy. This includes plans to open seven new outlets this year and efforts to keep building Aldi's 200-member network of Irish suppliers of food and drink products.

Mr O'Connor, a native of Cork, joined Aldi shortly after the German retailer opened its first Irish outlet in 1999. He was previously group retail manager at Avoca.

Over the past two decades he has filled a string of executive posts at Aldi, including national buying director and, most recently, as managing director for all outlets across Munster and Connacht.

"Niall has made a huge contribution during his tenure at Aldi, developing our Irish buying team and leading our Mitchelstown region store teams through dynamic growth," said Aldi's chief executive for the UK and Ireland, Giles Hurley.

Aldi is currently tied with German discount competitor Lidl as the fourth most popular supermarket chain in the State. Both hold a 12.3pc share of the Irish grocery market according to the latest survey published yesterday by market analysts Kantar.
Senator Lindsey Graham wants China to "pay big time," including cancelling some of the US' debt to the country, for its initial lackluster response to the coronavirus pandemic.

"This is the third pandemic to come from China. They come from these wet markets where they have bats and monkeys with the virus, carrying the virus intermingled with the food supply," the South Carolina Republican said in an interview with Fox News Monday. "Yeah, I'd make China pay big time."

Mr Graham agreed with Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, who said last week China should waive some of the US government's nearly $1trn debt after "covering up" the health crisis that originated in its Wuhan province until the outbreak could no longer be contained.

"Makes sense to me," Mr Graham said of Ms Blackburn's proposal. "If it were up to me the whole world should send China a bill for the pandemic."

Mr Graham's and Ms Blackburn's comments echo the widespread belief among congressional Republicans that China ought to pay some sort of reparations for being the origin of yet another global health crisis.

Senator Josh Hawley and three other Senate Republicans introduced a bill last month that would commission an international investigation into the Chinese government's response to the coronavirus outbreak and establish a "mechanism for delivering compensation" from the Chinese government to countries affected by the pandemic.

Mr Graham indicated Monday that the president will be the one mostly responsible for holding China accountable for the global health crisis in the coming months, and that Donald Trump is the candidate best equipped to continue pressuring Beijing.

"Here's the question for 2020: Who do you want to take on China? Trump or Joe Biden? I don't think that would be a hard decision for most people," Mr Graham said.

"If this is about China, how to get China to change, Trump has done more with China in three years than any president in my lifetime," he said.
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on April 1, 2020, in Washington, DC.

Fauci said a number therapies are in the pipeline and several potential vaccines are in the works, giving him faith "that we will never have to get back to where we are right now."

Gradually, we'll be able to "function as a society. But you're absolutely right, if you want to get to pre-coronavirus, that might not ever happen in the sense that the threat is there."

The world may never get back to what it considered "normal" before the coronavirus emerged from Wuhan, China a little over three months ago and spread to more than 1.3 million people across the world, U.S. health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a White House press briefing Monday.

Even when a vaccine is developed, he said things may never return to what was considered normal before the virus, because it will always be a looming threat in society. He previously said that the virus will likely come back every year, especially without a vaccine to prevent future outbreaks. However, he said Monday that he's hoping scientists will develop therapeutic drugs and a workable vaccine in the meantime that will help contain the virus better than it is today.

"When we say 'getting back to normal' we mean something very different from what we're going through right now, because right now we are in a very intense mitigation," Fauci said. "If 'back to normal' means acting like there never was a coronavirus problem, I don't think that's going to happen until we do have a situation where you can completely protect the population" with a vaccine, he said.

COVID-19 has spread to almost every country in the world, killing more than 74,000. The worst outbreak is in the U.S. where there are more than 362,000 cases and at least 10,781 deaths.

The U.S. is no longer trying to contain the virus. State and federal officials are trying to mitigate the damage wrought by COVID-19 as it tears through the nation. The U.S. is also working on antibody testing that would determine whether someone was exposed to the virus and had the antibodies to fight it. That would also tell health officials how far it actually spread.

"Ultimately, the show stopper will obviously be a vaccine," Fauci said.

White House officials have predicted between 100,000 to as many as 240,000 people in the U.S. will die from COVID-19, with a bulk of those deaths peaking over the next several weeks.
Regulatory News:

Total (Paris:FP) (LSE:TTA) (NYSE:TOT) signed a pioneering agreement to charter its first two LNG-powered VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carrier). The two vessels, which are able to carry about 300,000 tons of crude oil each, will be delivered in 2022 and will join the time-chartered fleet of Total. These VLCCs will be chartered to Malaysian shipowner AET.

The vessels have been designed with LNG propulsion to benefit from reduced Greenhouse Gas emissions and with the latest technologies to further lower their consumption.

"LNG is the best and immediately available solution to reduce the environmental footprint of shipping," highlights Luc Gillet, Senior Vice-President Shipping at Total. "The use of LNG to fuel our chartered vessels is the illustration of our determination to reduce the carbon footprint of our activities. With this decision, we reaffirm today our positive contribution to a sustainable shipping industry and our commitment to extend the use of LNG as a clean marine fuel

The supply of LNG for these two LNG-powered VLCCs will be provided by Total Marine Fuels Global Solutions, Total's dedicated business unit in charge of worldwide bunkering activities.

LNG as a marine fuel, the best and immediately available solution to reduce the environmental footprint of maritime transport

A true technological breakthrough in the service of environmental protection, LNG is now the best available and technologically proven solution to significantly reduce the environmental footprint of maritime transport. Compared to ships currently powered by fuel oil, its use results in a reduction of:

99% of sulphur oxide emissions;

99% of fine particles emissions;

Up to 85% of nitrogen oxide emissions;

About 20% of greenhouse gases emissions.

Total, 2nd Largest Private Global LNG Player

Total is the second-largest private global LNG player, with an overall portfolio of around 50 Mt/y by 2025 and a worldwide market share of 10%. With over 34 Mt of LNG managed in 2019, the Group has solid and diversified positions across the LNG value chain. Through its stakes in liquefaction plants located in Qatar, Nigeria, Russia, Norway, Oman, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Australia or Angola, the Group sells LNG in all markets.

About Total

Total is a major energy player, which produces and markets fuels, natural gas and low-carbon electricity. Our 100,000 employees are committed to better energy that is safer, more affordable, cleaner and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, our ambition is to become the responsible energy major.

About Total Marine Fuels Global Solutions:

Total Marine Fuels Global Solutions is Total's dedicated business unit in charge of worldwide bunkering activities. Total Marine Fuels Global Solutions is the single point of contact for a full spectrum of solutions with innovative and efficient bunkering services.

www.marinefuels.total.com.

Cautionary note

This press release, from which no legal consequences may be drawn, is for information purposes only. The entities in which TOTAL S.A. directly or indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. TOTAL S.A. has no liability for their acts or omissions. In this document, the terms "Total", "Total Group" and Group are sometimes used for convenience. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" may also be used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them.

This document may contain forward-looking information and statements that are based on a number of economic data and assumptions made in a given economic, competitive and regulatory environment. They may prove to be inaccurate in the future and are subject to a number of risk factors. Neither TOTAL S.A. nor any of its subsidiaries assumes any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information or statement, objectives or trends contained in this document whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's admission to intensive care with coronavirus prompted an outpouring of well-wishes from world leaders on Monday.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen wished Johnson "a speedy and full recovery".

"My thoughts are with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his family this evening," she tweeted.

Her reaction was echoed by the EU's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, who is recovering in quarantine after also testing positive.

"Wishing Boris Johnson all the best and a speedy recovery. My thoughts are with you and your family," Barnier tweeted.

The best wishes from two of the European Union's top officials underlined the setting aside of political tussling after Johnson took Britain out of the bloc in January.

French President Emmanuel Macron gave his "full support to Boris Johnson, his family and the British people at this difficult time".

"I hope he will rapidly overcome this ordeal," tweeted.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had earlier told BFMTV: "I know his strength, I am convinced he will draw from his resources, which are great, the capacity to overcome this ordeal. It's also symbolic of the seriousness of this crisis, which affects everyone."



Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte tweeted in English that "the Italian people is with the UK in these difficult times. We are one for each other. Get well soon Boris Johnson!"



World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "thinking of my friend Boris Johnson tonight, and sending my and WHO's heartfelt good wishes as he battles the coronavirus.""I know the NHS and its dedicated health workers will be looking after you," he tweeted.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that "on behalf of the Dutch cabinet, I wish Boris Johnson, his family and the British people lots of strength during this difficult time."



"I hope to be able to speak to him soon in good health," Rutte tweeted.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said his thoughts are with his friend. "Lots of strength, Boris, and get well soon!" he tweeted.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic wished his "dear friend" a fast recovery.

"Hang in there and keep fighting! We, your friends, are with you!" he wrote on Instagram.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama tweeted: "I wish you will soon win this fight and be back to lead with all your passion and strength for your marvellous country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The 2016 turnout was even higher than the 52.7% in the 2008 primary, when then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of the citys Kenwood neighborhood defeated Clinton en route to capturing the Democratic presidential nomination, while the late U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona edged now U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to become the Republican presidential standard-bearer.
People in London who refuse to leave public spaces there during the current lockdown, when asked by police, will be forced to do so, the Met Police Commissioner has said.

Following news of people going against restrictions and sunbathing in parks, Dame Cressida Dick said the public there will be encouraged to abide by the rules and, if necessary, asked to move on.

She said breaking the rules on gatherings can result in enforcement.

The new restrictions are obviously difficult for some members of the public to get used to, she said.

Its extremely important that we all do try to comply with them and we in the police of course have our part to play.

We will always try to advise people to explain, to encourage people to comply and if necessary to move on, not to stop and sunbathe  thats not exercising or travelling to work or shopping.

If we have to we will be very firm in that, if somebody completely refuses  but this is an absolute last resort  it will result in enforcement.

I think the vast majority of the public expect us to do that but the tradition of the Met is always to start by advising people.

She declined to comment on whether tighter restrictions were needed, but said: The Met will stand by and be ready to assist whichever direction they go in, whenever that is.

Dame Cressida said there have been instances where people have coughed and spat at others, including police officers, while claiming they have corona.

Its completely unacceptable, we will deal with it very firmly, she said.

Some people have been convicted and received very strong sentences for spitting or coughing at a police officer.

She did not reveal how many officers were off sick or self-isolating, but said the Met was providing a good service for Londoners.

She added: Some of our demands have gone down and of course we have some other new demands, but we are a strong and resilient organisation.
It said the company had tweaked leave accumulation only up to Q2 (FY21) end, and only as an interim measure.

French IT services and consulting firm Capgemini has tweaked its leave policy in India temporarily apart from deferring increments and promotions of senior-level employees by one quarter.

While the company did not specify the reason behind such steps, the Forum for IT Employees (FITE), a self-proclaimed union for IT employees, has alleged that the company has taken such steps in order to compensate for business loss owing to the nationwide lockdown.

Capgemini has reset all earned leaves of the employees to 15 to compensate for business loss, the Maharashtra unit of FITE has alleged on Twitter.

On one end, Nasscom is asking for relief for firms, on the other firms are proactively cutting employees hard-earned leaves, it added.

Responding to a query by Business Standard, Capgemini India, however, said the company had tweaked leave accumulation only up to Q2 (FY21) end, and only as an interim measure.

Our overall leave policy for the rest of the year remains unchanged and employees can continue to accrue leave according to the policy, the company said.

It also said it was going ahead with increments and promotions for all junior professionals effective from April 1, 2020.

This will cover over 70 per cent of the firms employee base.

For the remaining employees, increments and promotions had been deferred by one quarter.

Photograph: Courtesy, Capgemini
Sweden has announced more than 100 coronavirus deaths in a day for the first time, as its neighbour Finland ordered extra checks on their usually busy border.

The 114 new deaths bring the Swedish toll from 477 to 591, an increase of nearly 24 per cent which will add to growing alarm about the light touch that Sweden is taking.

Another 487 people have been confirmed to have the virus, which marks a jump of more than 100 from yesterday's 376.

It brings Sweden's total case load from 7,206 to 7,693, in a country of 10million people where bars, restaurants and schools are still open.

This graph shows how the daily death toll in Sweden has shot up in the last two days, reaching 76 yesterday and another record high of 114 today

Sweden's total infection tally increased by 487 today, a jump of more than 100 on yesterday's figure, bringing the total to 7,693

Pedestrians walk along a pavement in Stockholm at the weekend where the Swedish government has yet to impose any major lockdown measures

Around 3,300 of the cases are in Stockholm, where people have still been gathering in shopping malls and exercising in outdoor gyms.

The Finnish government today announced that a ban on all but essential traffic over the borders with Sweden and Norway would continue until at least May 13.

Finland's land border with Sweden is usually crossed by thousands of workers and families a day, although it has already fallen by 95 per cent since the crisis began.

'In addition to extending the measures, quarantine requirements for arrivals will be tightened,' interior minister Maria Ohisalo said.

Under the new measures, workers must now carry a permission slip from their employer stating that the border crossing is essential.

Once they arrive in Finland, they must remain under quarantine for 14 days.

'The government's aim is to further reduce movement in the inherent commute area across the borders with Sweden and Norway,' Finland's government said.

A senior Finnish infection specialist had already for an end to work-related travel over the Lapland border with Sweden.

'It is a significant risk when so many people are coming through the border every day,' Dr Markku Broas of Lapland Central Hospital told Finnish public broadcaster Yle.

People sit at close quarters at a restaurant in Stockholm at the weekend. The region around the capital accounts for more than 40 per cent of Sweden's confirmed cases

Young people socialise on a rooftop in Stockholm on Saturday. Officials in Sweden have so far refused to order a lockdown amid the coronavirus crisis

This map shows the latest number of cases around the world. The United States has the largest number of infections, although Italy still has the highest death toll

Finland has recorded only 27 deaths after shutting schools, forcing restaurants to close and blockading the region around Helsinki.

Ohisalo told the press conference that the measures so far had succeeded in slowing the spread of the virus in Finland and that the government would begin 'an exit conversation' in the coming days about when to roll back the restrictions.

But Sweden is instead telling people to take 'responsibility' for public health, advising them to keep their distance rather than enforcing rules.

Only the most vulnerable citizens have been encouraged to self-isolate at home, while visits to nursing homes have been banned.

Restaurants, bars and primary schools remain open, and the streets of Stockholm are quieter than usual but far from a ghost town.

The lack of restrictions make Sweden an outlier in Europe, prompting alarm from many doctors and academics.

In a sign of a possible hardening, Sweden's government yesterday demanded emergency powers to combat the outbreak.

A proposed bill could allow officials to limit public gatherings or close businesses without the approval of parliament.

'We see a need to be able to act quickly if the situation calls for it, it is ultimately about protecting human lives,' said health minister Lena Hallengren.

The new bill would only grant the extra powers for a period of three months, but opposition politicians voiced concerns over the proposed law.

The leader of the conservative Moderate Party, Ulf Kristersson, said the government has not faced any delays in rolling out measures so far.
Regulatory News:

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200406005852/en/

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) today issued the PSH annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2019 which are now available on PSH's website, https://www.pershingsquareholdings.com/company-reports/financial-statements/.

PSH also announced an additional share buyback program (the "Program") for $100,000,000 of PSH's outstanding Public Shares on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Amsterdam. The Program will commence following the completion of the previously announced $100,000,000 share buyback program. The Program is accretive to NAV per share and will reduce PSH's capital.

As of 6 April 2020, PSH had completed 93.9% of the previously announced $100,000,000 share buyback program. PSH commenced that program on 16 January 2020 and has repurchased a total of 5,202,951 PSH Public Shares at an average price of $18.04.

Since PSH commenced its first share buyback program on 2 May 2017, PSH has repurchased a total of $671 million of PSH Public Shares, representing 43,642,907 PSH Public Shares at an average price of $15.38.

Jefferies International Limited will continue in its role as sole buyback agent for the Program which will enable the purchase of shares during closed periods. Shares repurchased by the Company will be held in Treasury.

In accordance with EU regulations, PSH advises shareholders that the number of shares to be repurchased under the Program is the maximum of $100,000,000 or 6,000,000 PSH Public Shares.

PSH also announced that its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders ("AGM") will be held on Monday, 27 April 2020 at 12:00 p.m. BST at Woodgrange, Fort Road, St. Peter Port, Guernsey, GY1 1ZW. On 25 March 2020, the States of Guernsey announced mandatory measures to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. The measures require people to stay at home, except for very limited purposes, and prohibit all gatherings of more than two people in public. The Board fully supports these measures to protect public health and safety and requests that shareholders not attend the AGM in person. Arrangements will be made by the Company to ensure that the minimum number of Shareholders required to form a quorum will attend the AGM so that it may proceed. The Board encourages Shareholders to submit proxy votes in electronic form. The results of the voting will be announced as soon as practicable after the conclusion of the AGM.

At the AGM, shareholders will consider the receipt of the annual report and the financial statements, the renewal of PSH's share buy-back authority, the re-appointment of PSH's auditor, the approval to disapply pre-emption rights for any share issuance of 10% or less, and the re-election of PSH's current directors with the exception of William Scott, who has been a director since 2012 and is not offering himself up for re-election due to his commitments to other directorships.

The specific resolutions can be found in the Notice of Annual General Meeting available on PSH's website, https://www.pershingsquareholdings.com/company-reports/notices-shareholders/.

About Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd.

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) is an investment holding company structured as a closed-ended fund that makes concentrated investments principally in North American companies.

This is a disclosure according to Article 17 of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (Regulation 596/2014/EU).

The document will shortly be available for inspection on the National Storage Mechanism website: https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism

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Contacts:

Media

Camarco

Ed Gascoigne-Pees Hazel Stevenson +44 020 3757 4989, media-pershingsquareholdings@camarco.co.uk
By Amanda Ferguson

BELFAST (Reuters) - Northern Irish women seeking an abortion have been told they must take an 8-hour ferry to England despite the lockdown, as the regional government resists pressure to offer abortions locally and the coronavirus pandemic stops flights.

Abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland last year after the British parliament bypassed opposition from socially conservative Christian politicians in Belfast to bring the region into line with the rest of the United Kingdom, where abortion has been legal for decades.

But the regional health ministry missed an April 1 deadline to begin providing abortion just as the coronavirus pandemic complicated the government's recommended back-up option of travelling to England for the procedure.

"We are in a worse position than we have ever been in," said abortion rights activist Emma Campbell, co-chair of the Alliance for Choice group, which has seen a five-fold increase in calls for help since the travel restrictions were introduced. "Access is worse than it has been for over 50 years."

One 39-year-old education worker from County Down who is seven weeks pregnant and seeking an abortion said she had been told by her local doctor that no provision had been set up to provide abortions in Northern Ireland.

"I was told I would have to take a ferry, take the pill in the clinic in the morning, then take the other pill and then get the ferry home," she told Reuters.

"What is happening to women in Northern Ireland is inhumane," she said. "Having to sneak out to get to Liverpool is not what should be happening in 2020."

The only British clinics currently available for women from Northern Ireland seeking publicly funded abortions are in Manchester and Liverpool, but no direct flights are available due to the coronavirus lock-down, activists say.

A spokeswoman for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, which operates the government's booking system for Northern Ireland women requiring abortions, said that due to flight cancellations the ferry was currently the only viable route.

Story continues

"Some in the Northern Ireland Executive are clearly attempting to delay the widespread establishment of services, by refusing to commission services for example ..." spokeswoman Katherine O'Brien said.

Amnesty International described the situations as "unfair, dangerous and needlessly putting women and girls at risk" and said it was worried it would lead to women attempting unsafe abortions.

POLITICAL BATTLE

Northern Ireland's First Minister Arlene Foster, who like Health Minister Robin Swann describes herself as "pro-life", on Monday told a press conference she was against "abortion on demand."

"It's a retrograde step for our society," she said.

Foster's Democratic Unionist Party on Monday voted against a proposal to allow doctors to prescribe the abortion pill via telephone consultations - a measure that has been introduced across the rest of the United Kingdom in the wake of coronavirus lockdown while Swann's Ulster Unionist Party abstained, a source close to the Northern Ireland executive told Reuters.

The leader of the non-sectarian Alliance Party Stephen Farry wrote a letter to Swann saying women in Northern Ireland had been left in an "untenable situation."

The department of health said it was "considering this urgently" but said it would be an issue for the Northern Ireland executive to decide.

EMERGENCY MEASURES

Alliance for Choice says it has been forced to return to its practice from before abortion was decriminalised and work with other groups to try to source abortion pills from the internet and get a doctor in the Netherlands to assess women and prescribe the pills even though it is not legal to prescribe abortion pills for home use in Northern Ireland.

However, even this is dependent on supply of pills which have been severely limited by coronavirus, Campbell said.

Activists say that in addition to a surge in calls seeking help, they have seen a number of examples of women self-harming and at least one attempting suicide.

Another pregnant woman, a 29 year old beauty industry worker from Belfast, said she had asked a local charity to send her pills but she had no idea if or when they would arrive.

"At this time nothing is certain and it's very scary that it's completely out of my hands," she said.

(Writing by Conor Humphries and Amanda Ferguson; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Ammon Bundy is on another, potentially deadly, anti-government crusade. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

On the far right fringe of American politics and society, in locales where people havent internalized Donald Trumps pivot toward responsible conduct on the coronavirus pandemic, there are plenty of posturing charlatans ready to fan paranoia about social-distancing orders representing a conspiracy to crush freedom and impose totalitarian government. But few are as experienced in the incendiary game of insurrection as Ammon Bundy, the militia leader famed for leading a 2016 occupation of federal land in Oregon that culminated in a tense standoff with law enforcement officials and then an acquittal in court on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct.

Bundys legend actually began earlier, when he was on hand for his father Cliven Bundys defiance of the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada in 2014  based similarly on the family creed that the feds had no right to own the land they did indeed own. So now hes sort of a patriot movement Johnny Appleseed in the mountain West, always a threat to show up and politicize disputes with Big Government. Indeed, just before the coronavirus pandemic struck, he had mulled (but then abandoned) some sort of big action on behalf of a family involved in another Idaho land dispute.

But now Bundy and his friends have a new and much grander cause, as he made clear (per Stephanie Mencimer) the moment Idahos Republican governor, Brad Little, issued a self-isolation order on March 26.

On Thursday, Ammon Bundy, one of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundys 14 children, posted a video on Facebook inviting people to a public meeting in Emmett, Idaho, where he lives, to talk about the coercive measures included in the governors self-isolate order. He read from the 11-page document, explaining that it would prevent people from gathering, riding a scooter, or traveling around the state. Whats more, law enforcement would be empowered to issue fines or even put violators in jail.

That was just the beginning of Bundys latest project, which is to encourage defiance of measures taken to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Idaho. The plan includes a big gathering on Easter Sunday, which should appeal to certain conservative evangelicals already prone to regard the whole pandemic as an excuse for persecuting them. The New York Times Mike Baker reports Bundy as being at the center of a liberty rebellion in a state with more coronavirus cases per capita than California:

Inside an old factory building north of Boise, a few dozen people gathered last week to hear from Ammon Bundy, the man who once led an armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge.

The meeting, which appeared to violate orders by Gov. Brad Little of Idaho to avoid group gatherings, was an assertion of what Mr. Bundy said was a constitutional right to peacefully assemble. But Mr. Bundy said he also hoped to create a network of people ready to come to the aid of those facing closure of their businesses or other interference from the government as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

Bundy isnt the only self-styled freedom fighter counseling opposition to public-health orders; as Baker notes, resisters include Republican elected officials and religious leaders, particularly in the rural northern panhandle part of the state. But Bundy surely has the most dangerous and outrageous view of what to do about coronavirus:

Much of the regions tensions revolve around skepticism over the advice from medical leaders, which some people here regard as unwarranted. Mr. Bundy compared the effects of the virus to the flu, even though epidemiologists have warned that it can kill at a much higher rate.

He said that he would prefer in any case to become infected soon, while he is otherwise healthy.

I want the virus now, Mr. Bundy said.

If organizers of an Easter protest find a venue in Boise for the 1,000-person service Bundy has endorsed, he may have some company in a political fellowship of the defiantly infected.
SYDNEY, Australia  Cardinal George Pell walked out of prison on Tuesday after Australias highest court reversed his 2018 conviction for molesting two choirboys decades earlier  liberating the most senior Roman Catholic cleric to ever face trial over child sexual abuse.

The world may never be able to assess whether the courts reasoning was sound.

The panel of seven judges ruled that the jury lacked sufficient doubt about the accusations against Cardinal Pell, the former archbishop of Melbourne and treasurer for the Vatican. Jurors, the court argued, ignored compounding improbabilities caused by conflicting accounts from the cardinals main accuser and other witnesses.

But no one outside the court case can test that comparison. The central evidence  the testimony of the main accuser, on which the case was wholly dependent, the judges wrote  has never been released, not in video, audio nor even redacted transcripts.

It is just one glaring example of the secrecy and lack of accountability that have shaped the Pell prosecution from the beginning. No criminal trial in Australias recent history has been as high-profile nor as hard to follow and scrutinize.
Getty Images

Members of the statewide Illinois Retired Teachers Association are volunteering to assist students tackling the unprecedented challenge of finishing the school year at home.

Parents who want to match a student with a retired teacher can sign up on the associations website at irtaonline.org. Mentors are available on a first-come basis. Mentors will meet with students in virtual environments.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to grip both the UK and the world at large. Heres your morning briefing of everything you may have missed overnight.

Boris Johnson spends night in intensive care as Dominic Raab steps up to take charge of UK response

Downing Street announced the foreign secretary would be taking on prime ministerial duties after Boris Johnson was admitted to intensive care with persistent coronavirus symptoms.

Dominic Raab will now lead the governments day-to-day running of the coronavirus response and other matters.

The prime minister was moved to the intensive care unit at Londons St Thomas Hospital on Monday evening after being admitted the previous day  10 days after testing positive for Covid-19.

He is understood to still be conscious and to have been moved as a precaution, in case he requires ventilation.



Governments testing chief admits none of 3.5m antibody kits work sufficiently

The UK governments new testing chief admitted none of the 3.5 million antibody tests ordered from China are fit for widespread use.

Professor John Newton, who was appointed by health secretary Matt Hancock to oversee testing, reportedly said the tests were only able to identify immunity in people who had been severely sick with coronavirus.

The tests did not pass the evaluation stage, and he was quoted by The Times as saying they were not good enough to be worth rolling out in very large scale.



Mental health incidents rising during UK lockdown, police say

Senior police officers revealed increasing numbers of mental health incidents are being reported to forces during the coronavirus lockdown.

Amid a raging debate about access to public spaces and the impact of restrictions, witnesses told the Home Affairs Committee that issues were being compounded by mental health and social care services losing staff because of the outbreak.

The Police Federations lead for coronavirus, Sergeant Simon Kempton, said it was becoming all too easy for some of these people in crisis to fall through the gaps.



Debenhams to file for administration after stores forced to close during lockdown

Debenhams announced it will file for administration as figures showed the extent to which Britains economy is suffering during the coronavirus pandemic.

The struggling department store chain, which employs 22,000 people, will bring in administrators to try to protect itself from legal action that could bring about the companys collapse.

Debenhams faced being chased by suppliers and other creditors who have not been paid as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The retailer said it was preparing for all of its stores to reopen once the coronavirus lockdown conditions are eased by the government.
LONDON, April 6 (Xinhua) -- People still need to know a lot about the natural history of COVID-19, including what the disease looks like in various people and how transmissible it is from one person to another, said David Heymann, professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

"We know how it (the virus) is transmitted. We don't understand its transmissibility from person to person, how easy it transmits, and when at the stage of infection it transmits," Heymann, head of the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House, told Xinhua in a recent phone interview.

Referring to the current international collective efforts for the research on COVID-19, he believes "what's been going on presently is what's the most important research."

"There are two priorities, drugs to treat the disease and drugs for prophylaxis and vaccines," Heymann explained.

Meanwhile, he also emphasized the importance of studies about antibody preparations, "to see if they have any place or role to play, to prevent in prophylaxis or in treatment".

One pillar of the British government's latest action plan is introducing antibody blood tests and surveillance to find out what proportion of the population already have the virus by using an antibody test.

Heymann agrees it is very important to understand who has been infected in the past and to better understand the genealogy of infection. However, the former World Health Organization (WHO)'s assistant director-general for health security and environment, stressed that those tests must be validated as highly specific and sensitive. His earlier experiences include chief of research activities in the WHO global programme on AIDS.

To respond to COVID-19, many countries are using a combination of containment and mitigation activities with the intention of delaying major surges of patients. Among those activities, social distancing is most widely introduced in countries including Britain.

"Social distancing is one way," said Heymann, "In addition to that, protect others by using a mask and if you're sick, isolate yourself and stay away from all your family members, as you can."

"Another way is making sure that there is infection prevention and control measures in hospitals," he added, noting that hospitals are one of the main places where the virus spreads.

At present, stages of the epidemic and measures being taken to stop the spreading of the virus vary from country to country across the world. Asked about the next steps that countries like China should take, he told Xinhua that it should be done according to the risk assessment.

"I believe what China is doing is evaluating which measures are most effective," he said.

"China has a very excellent history of epidemiology risk assessment. And they know how to do measures that are appropriate for the country," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 19:34:46|Editor: xuxin

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DHAKA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh has so far reported 164 COVID-19 cases and 17 deaths, health officials said on Tuesday.

There were 41 new cases of COVID-19 in the country in the past 24 hours as of 8:00 a.m. local time Tuesday, Meerjady Sabrina Flora, head of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) under the Health Ministry, told an online press conference.

"The number of cases increased to 164, with 41 more cases reported in the last 24 hours," she said.

Flora said the country's COVID-19 death toll also spiked to 17 Tuesday as they confirmed five more fatalities.

This is by far Bangladesh's biggest daily jump in positive cases since the country detected its first three COVID-19 cases on March 8.

Abul Kalam Azad, director general of Directorate General of Health Services, said during the briefing that samples from 792 persons were tested in the past 24 hours across Bangladesh.
What happened

Precious-metals companies were on the rise today, with the stock prices of Fortuna Silver Mines (NYSE:FSM), Harmony Gold (NYSE:HMY), Sibanye Stillwater (NYSE: SBSW), Coeur Mining (NYSE:CDE), and Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) all rising more than 10%. Here's how their stocks all closed.

Company Stock Price Increase Fortuna Silver Mines 11.3% Harmony Gold 14.1% Sibanye Stillwater 22.3% Coeur Mining 11.5% Hecla Mining 11.0%

None of these companies has put out any press releases, and there were no upgrades or downgrades on stocks or debt ratings, so of today's gains can probably be chalked up to the one-two punch of rising broader markets and higher precious-metals prices.

So what

Today's overall stock price rise seems to be coming from some good news related to the fight against the novel coronavirus. Reports from Europe noted that new cases in Italy are slowing, and Spain reported a decline in the rate of new infections deaths over the weekend. What's more, New York has reported that the rate of new cases is starting to level off. This is a smattering of news headlines that suggest we're starting to make some headway against the pandemic.

The other catalyst that has these companies moving is the increasing prices of precious metals, notably silver and gold. The price of gold rose nearly 4% to just under $1,700 per Troy ounce, and silver was up nearly 5% to $15.23 per Troy ounce. While all of the companies mentioned here have some interest in other metals, the bulk of their business is in at least one of these two metals. So whenever the price of gold increases, Harmony Gold and Sibanye Stillwater are likely to see share prices rise, whereas we're just as likely to see shares jump at Fortuna, Coeur, and Hecla if there's a jump in silver prices.

What's causing gold and silver prices to rise is probably the higher economic uncertainty in the coming months. While there is good news about the health crisis, we're still trying to figure out the economic repercussions and the ripple effects it's likely to create. Whenever there are times of uncertainty, there's a rush into precious metals.

Now what

Anyone looking at today's share-price spikes needs to keep something else in mind as well. These stocks can go down just as easily as they went up. Higher precious-metal prices would suggest worsening economic times ahead, whereas the same movement in stocks suggests the opposite. So it's hard to create a single narrative that puts both of these moves at the same time into context.

What's also not considered in these price moves is what might happen with these businesses during the shutdown. Sure, Sibanye Stillwater and Harmony Gold both are precious-metals miners, but the majority of their operations are in South Africa, which started a three-week national lockdown on March 23, with mine operations suspended. Similarly, Fortuna's mine in Mexico and its development project in Argentina have been shuttered, while Hecla's Casa Berardi mine in Quebec is closed. So even though the price for precious metals has gone up, these companies will have less and less of those metals to sell in the coming months.

The argument could be made that the shuttering of several mines globally to combat the spread of COVID-19 could be a catalyst for precious-metals prices for some time. With fewer and fewer mines in operation and no definite date for coming back online, it's possible we could see prices rise further and make this sector that much more lucrative once operations are back up and running.

The downside is that there aren't a lot of mining companies that can withstand prolonged shutdowns. A company's quick ratio is a metric that measures the amount of assets -- cash on hand, short-term investments, and accounts receivable -- over total current liabilities. A measure over 1 means more liquid assets than liabilities. With the exception of Fortuna, these companies don't have a lot of current assets it can use to keep the lights on.

Typically, times of economic strain and uncertainty make precious-metals stocks an attractive alternative, but with few of these companies able to produce, it's hard to say what will happen with these smaller mining companies in the coming months. It's probably best to either look at other options in precious metals or maybe just sit this rally out.
Massive contact tracing of coronavirus positive patients and screening of people under an aggressive containment model helped authorities check the spread of the disease in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district, one of the country's COVID-19 hotspots, according to officials.

Bhilwara city, which is the district's headquarters, saw a sudden spurt in cases after a doctor of a private hospital tested positive for the coronavirus on March 20.

Till now, the district has reported 27 COVID-19 positive cases and two deaths. Of the total number of people who had tested positive, 13 have recovered, the officials said.

First of all, we isolated our district and sealed all the boundaries to ensure there was no entry and exit of people. The work of contact tracing of positive patients and intense screening was immediately taken up in a very aggressive manner and it turned out to be a ruthless containment model', Bhilwara District Collector Rajendra Bhatt told PTI.

He said that after the doctor tested positive of the virus, a lockdown was imposed immediately. Medical teams were formed and they were directed to survey every household and screen those with COVID-19 symptoms, Bhatt said.

We conducted door-to-door surveys in both the (Bhilwara) city and rural areas. Every single household was covered in the survey.Those who were screened with symptoms of fever and cough were identified and quarantined, he said, adding that the lockdown was made stricter later.

Bhatt said that wherever required, samples were taken, and so far screening has been done at least three times in the city. It has been done once in 1,910 villages, he said.

The collector said as the COVID-19 cases were concentrated in the city, multiple rounds of screening were conducted. We have covered a population of 26.5 lakh people in the entire district, he said.

The chief minister was constantly monitoring the situation. Be it PPE (personal protective equipment) or N-95 masks, all our requirements were immediately addressed which helped in handling the situation effectively, Bhatt said.

He said 3,030 samples were collected till Monday and sampling of all those, who were found with coronavirus disease symptoms like fever and cough, will be done in next 10 days.

The collector said during a video conference with district collectors, the Union cabinet secretary appreciated the 'Bhilwara model'.

Superintendent of Police Bhilwara Harendra Mahawar said work was done on war footing in coordination authorities concerned. Police personnel surveyed colonies where visitors of the Bangar Hospital, from where the COVID-19 outbreak began, could be staying.

The lockdown was imposed within 15 minutes on strict orders without harming the supply of food and other essentials goods. CLG members, community leaders, and religious leaders were approached and appealed to motivate the public to stay at home.

"Initiatives were launched, appealing videos were made and a few unwanted social elements faced legal action too. Nearly 600 vehicles have also been seized, he said.

During the lockdown, food packets and ration were distributed to needy people, Mahawar said.

District Chief Medical and Health Officer Mushtaq Khan said that the main task was to identify the relatives of the first patient and isolate them.

It was done on war-footing and everything was brought under control at the right time, he said.

Khan said the eleven patients who were admitted in the district hospital were tested negative and discharged.

Two others were discharged from the SMS Hospital in Jaipur. As of now, we have 10 coronavirus positive patients admitted to our (district) hospital, Arun Gaud, principal medical officer of the district hospital, said.

At present, there are nearly 7000 people in home isolation and 314 in various quarantine facilities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cato Corporation (NYSE: CATO) today announced it will extend the closure of all brick and mortar stores, until further notice. Company management will continue to assess the situation, market by market as additional guidance is issued from U.S. and local governments, as well as the Centers for Disease Control, as it develops its plan to reopen stores at a future date.

"We are taking decisive actions in the face of the uncertainties around the length and severity of the pandemic and its potential impact to the Company," said John Cato, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "It is a difficult decision to extend our store closures, but we are committed to protecting our customers, associates and communities we serve. However, during this closure we will continue to serve our customers through our e-commerce sites catofashions.com and shopversona.com."

As a result of the extended store closure, coupled with the North Carolina's "Stay-at-Home" Executive Order impacting the Home Office, Cato has temporarily furloughed its store associates, a majority of distribution center associates, as well as additional corporate associates, whose work has been significantly reduced by the store closures. At this time, those impacted will continue to receive enrolled benefits.

As part of the business response to COVID-19, the company has taken the following actions to protect our financial position during these challenging times:

Temporarily discontinued monthly sales releases, until further notice,

Temporarily suspended the quarterly dividend,

Suspended hiring and eliminated all merit raises for 2020,

Drew down $30 million from our $35 million line of credit, in an effort to protect cash reserves,

from our line of credit, in an effort to protect cash reserves, Significantly decreased capital expenditures,

Delayed or cancelled some planned new store openings,

Continue to review non-payroll expenses across the business,

Managing inventory by aggressively cancelling and/or delaying merchandise to better align with anticipated sales,

Evaluating extending payment terms for vendor invoices and suspending rent payments,

Temporarily reduced CEO salary by 50%

Temporarily reduced Board fees by 50%.

Temporarily reducing other associates salaries by 25%, however not below $55,000 .

"Given the extraordinary circumstances we are facing today we must operate with great care and discipline," said Cato. "We have taken difficult steps to safeguard the health of our company, looking forward to the day we can reopen our stores, welcoming back our associates and again serving our customers and the communities in which we are located."

Statements in this press release not historical in nature including, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's expected or estimated operational and financial results and potential impact of the coronavirus are considered "forward-looking" within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations that are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, any actual or perceived deterioration in the conditions that drive consumer confidence and spending, including, but not limited to, prevailing social, economic, political and public health conditions and uncertainties, levels of unemployment, fuel, energy and food costs, wage rates, tax rates, interest rates, home values, consumer net worth and the availability of credit; changes in laws or regulations affecting our business including tariffs; uncertainties regarding the impact of any governmental responses to the foregoing conditions; competitive factors and pricing pressures; our ability to predict and respond to rapidly changing fashion trends and consumer demands; our ability to successfully open new stores as planned and our ability of any such new stores to grow and perform as expected; adverse weather, public health threats (including the global coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak) or similar conditions that may affect our sales or operations; inventory risks due to shifts in market demand, including the ability to liquidate excess inventory at anticipated margins; and other factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in Part I, Item 1A of the Company's most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K and in other reports the Company files with or furnishes to the SEC from time to time. The Company does not undertake to publicly update or revise the forward-looking statements even if experience or future changes make it clear that the projected results expressed or implied therein will not be realized. The Company is not responsible for any changes made to this press release by wire or Internet services.

SOURCE The Cato Corporation
Money Heist packed in quite a few surprises in part 4, and mixed in with the expected twists and turns that are characteristic of the series, Tokyo did something unexpected.

She kind of redeemed herself. Thats right, she proved theres hope for her yet in spite of her tantrums and impulsive behavior.

The La Casa de Papel fandom has strong views about Ursula Corberos character, with many considering her to be annoying, frustrating, and as weve said here, the worst. Its not because shes a horrible character; shes strong and pretty badass.

But Tokyo is brash and tends to mess things up in grand fashion. Not so much in season 4. This time, viewers saw the heroic side of Tokyo, the side that leads, thinks, and operates on instinct and not emotion. She came through in the clutch in several ways.

[Spoilers ahead: Do not read if you havent watched season 4 of Money Heist/La Casa de Papel]

La Casa de Papel or Money Heist | Tamara Arranz Ramos/Netflix

She performed Nairobis surgery

One of Tokyos most heroic moments came when she took the lead on Nairobis surgery in episode one. It was a tense situation as Professor had to patch in other members of their network to get the doctor on video. And then thanks to the evil Gandia, they lost the feed.

Fans were on edge knowing that no character is safe on this series and removing the bullet from Nairobis lung was a delicate procedure. Using what the Professor taught her about anatomy, the doctors instructions, and their tools, Tokyo removed it. Whew! Yes, Tokyo!

Nairobi survived being shot by the sniper. Sadly, all our hearts broke when Nairobi was executed by Gandia in episode six. Our hopes were brought up and then thrown down into a fiery pit.

Tokyo opened the Professors eyes to Lisbons death

It was the stroke of genius everyone needed to bring the Professor back from madness. What is that? Tokyo talked through Lisbons execution with Professor and she questioned him, Did you see the body? You only heard it?

She reminded him they pulled the same trick on the Spanish authorities to fool them, and he soon realized that Lisbons killing was possibly a ploy since all he heard was gunshots.

Yes, Tokyo! He just needed one person to kickstart his brain through the grief and she came through like a champ. Professor confirmed his lady love was still alive and commenced the next stages of his plan.

Tokio El Profesor Estocolmo Denver pic.twitter.com/ejwBPFj0W6  La Casa de Papel (@lacasadepapel) April 5, 2020

She stabbed Gandia

Hungry, dehydrated, and tied up, Tokyo looked the worse for wear. Everyone knows shes tough, but Gandia found out the hard way. His injuries from the shrapnel knocked him out, and Tokyo stayed alert and observant to find a weakness.

Once she figured out that she had the power to severely maim Gandia while stitching him up, she went for it and stabbed him in the neck.

That nerve damage disabled him to the point where he was immobile on one side of his body. The rest of the crew arrived just in time to rescue her and little did Tokyo realize that in a way, she paid him back for Nairobi. Tokyos instincts and smarts prevailed over impulse.

She hasnt always been in fans good graces, but other characters took her place on the worst list in season 4. Fans are happy Tokyo got it together. It seems like part 5 of La Casa de Papel is inevitable, and hopefully well get to see her shine like this again.
Age 55 never looked so good for one of Hollywood's most versatile performers.

Award-winning actor Robert Downey Jr. celebrated another year in the industry, and he was met with several sweet gestures as his fellow Avengers and MCU co-stars tell the world how awesome RDJ is both on and off the screen.

"Love You 3000" From Captain America

Chris Evans, who plays the titular role of Captain America, proves that their friendship has always been strong. He posted a photo of him and Downey on Instagram with the caption "Happy birthday to one of my absolute favorites! Love you 3000, @RobertDowneyJr."

A "Brother, Friend and Supporter"

RDJ's on-screen wife Gwyneth Paltrow greeted the actor on his special day by sharing a photo from her wedding with husband Brad Falchuk in 2018 at her Hamptons estate. It seems that the Goop founder was in shock while RDJ was making a speech at her wedding.

"Before we put this April 4th to bed, I just wish my dear, dear @robertdowneyjr a happy birthday. Here he is, making a toast at our wedding, during which his humor elicited my usual look of pure joy/shock whenever he is near," Paltrow wrote on Instagram.

She also described RDJ as her "brother, friend, and supporter" rolled into one. Moreover, the mother-of-two acknowledged the "Sherlock Holmes" star as the "weirdest comedy writer of all time."

The blonde beauty ended her tribute by encouraging all Marvel fans to greet him on his special day.

The 47-year-old actress and RDJ have worked together since the 2008 blockbuster film "Iron Man," where Paltrow played the role of Pepper Potts and the love interest to Downey Jr's Tony Stark/Iron Man.

Hulk Sends Virtual Hug

Despite millions of people under the government-mandated stay-at-home orders, this did not stop Mark Ruffalo from sending his love and appreciation to the actor on his birthday.

"Sending you all the virtual hugs for your birthday, @RobertDowneyJr  I love you to life, 3000. It's an honor knowing such a generous and complex man," he wrote on his Instagram as he shared a photo of him being super clingy with RDJ while hugging him from behind as the duo laugh together.

Thanos Sings "Happy BIrthday" to Iron Man

While he may be evil and heartless in Marvel, RDJ's fellow actor Josh Brolin a.k.a the supervillain Thanos took to IG story to sang him a birthday song.

Josh Brolin via Instagram Story#HappyBirthdayRobertDowneyJr pic.twitter.com/DelNhOFShH  Robert Downey Jr FR (@RDJFrance) April 4, 2020

RDJ Praises Frontliners and Health Workers

The Golden Globe and BAFTA Award-winning actor used his influence and occasion to pay tribute and show his gratitude to all health workers and other first responders for their tireless support to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"If u don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude...' #mayaangelou #happybirthday #Poet#Activist 1928-2014 It's an honor to share a birthday with this great #woman," Downey Jr. posted via his Instagram a quote from American screenwriter and poet Maya Angelou.

There are more than 300,000 cases of coronavirus in the U.S., with over 10,000 death toll. Increased unemployment rates and economic loss have also been brought by the crisis, not just in the U.S but across the globe.
NEW YORK  Tonight (April 7), if you look up at the night sky, you'll see the "Super Pink Moon," the biggest supermoon of the year, shining big and bright.

The full moon will be at perigee-syzygy, meaning it will be closest to the Earth  221,772 miles (356,907 kilometers) away  and the Earth, moon and sun will all align. This means that when a the moon is at perigee-syzygy, it will look larger and brighter than usual. But, because perigee-syzygy isn't that catchy, the term "supermoon" came about and this particular full moon was additionally nicknamed the "Super Pink Moon."

Now, unfortunately, this doesn't mean that the moon will actually be pink. This supermoon got its name because the April full moon often corresponds with the blooming of pink flowers in eastern North America. Still, "It will be bright and brilliant and absolutely gorgeous," Jackie Faherty, an astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History here in New York City, told Space.com.

Related: How to watch the 'Super Pink Moon' online tonight!

More: Activities and resources for homebound kids: A coronavirus guide

These pictures of the moon by Robert Vanderbei were taken with the same equipment: When the moon is close, it appears larger than when it is farther away. A full moon at perigee is called a supermoon (right, taken on Aug. 9, 2014), at apogee, a minimoon (left, taken on Feb. 3, 2015). (Image credit: Robert Vanderbei

Faherty added that, while you will be able to view this "Super Pink Moon" all night long as it rises, moves across the sky and sets, it will be especially breathtaking at moonrise. The spectacle is due to an optical illusion of sorts that occurs, as the moon is rising above the horizon that makes it appear larger. (You can search your local moonrise and moonset times here .)

A great learning opportunity

With so many people self-isolating at home with their families right now, this "Super Pink Moon" is a great opportunity to have some fun and learn, Faherty said.

Families can start studying the moon with their young children and this supermoon is a great place to start, Faherty said. Not only is the supermoon extra bright and beautiful, but even the name "pink moon" makes it even more exciting for kids.

"This is an invitation for everybody to become that moon expert, be the person in that small group that can differentiate when the moon is just a little bit brighter," Faherty said.

Related: How to observe the moon with a telescope

More: Best telescopes for the money  2020 reviews and guide

"I happen to be with my nieces right now, one of which is particularly obsessed with the moon," she said. She's been taking her nieces out next to the house at night to look at the moon and notice that every day it's a little bit different, and that doing something like that with young children is a great first introduction to the night sky.

"The most basic of the astronomical lessons you can do with a little one is the phases of the moon," she said.

More advanced moon-gazers of any age can take this opportunity to identify structures on the moon, she said. Without even needing binoculars, people can start recognizing basins and craters on the moon and even learn their names.

Related: Supermoon secrets: 7 surprising big moon facts

Studying the moon can be creative as well, Faherty said, suggesting that families teach both "the science of what's up there" and the cultural side of the night sky.

As families practice observing how the moon changes every night and findinging its structures, they can also come up with their own stories about the night sky, Faherty suggested. Parents can even prompt their children with questions like "Why would we have names for moons?" "What other names do we have for the moon?" and "What traditions do people have about the moon?"

"I sing little songs to my niece every night before she goes to bed about the moon and the earth and how much they love each other," Faherty said. "I think it's good for us all to remember we're creative people and the nighttime sky is a canvas."

Editor's note: If you have an amazing supermoon photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, you can send images and comments in to spacephotos@space.com.

OFFER: Save 45% on 'All About Space' 'How it Works' and 'All About History'! OFFER: Save 45% on 'All About Space' 'How it Works' and 'All About History'! For a limited time, you can take out a digital subscription to any of our best-selling science magazines for just $2.38 per month, or 45% off the standard price for the first three months.

Follow Chelsea Gohd on Twitter @chelsea_gohd . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook .
Health Minister Robin Swann and Chief Nursing Officer Charlotte McArdle during a visit to Northern Irelands Nightingale Hospital, based in the City Hospital, yesterday

People across Northern Ireland should discuss with their families whether they want to be ventilated if they become critically ill with coronavirus, a senior doctor has said.

Dr Paul Glover, who heads up intensive care medicine in the Belfast Trust, said it is expected that half of Covid-19 patients admitted to ICU will not survive.

As a result, he said it is essential people have the difficult conversation with their next of kin ahead of the anticipated coronavirus surge.

The intensive care consultant was speaking as staff on the second floor of the tower block at Belfast City Hospital - Northern Ireland's Nightingale Hospital - prepared for the arrival of the first critically ill patients.

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"When you work in critical care, part of our job is making decisions, in discussion with the patient and their families, as to whether a patient should be ventilated," he said.

"We have to decide whether being ventilated is in the patient's best interests and whether it will be of benefit to them. The decision-making process for Covid-19 will not be any different from the one we already have in place.

"However, it would be useful for families to discuss their wishes with one another. It's always much easier to make decisions in the cold light of day as opposed to making a decision in an emergency situation. It's almost like the debate that we encourage people to have around organ donation. Having that conversation and knowing what your loved one would want to happen to them if they have to be ventilated will relieve families of a burden of responsibility.

"If they know that their relative had said they didn't want to be put on a life support machine if it wasn't going to be the best option for them, then I think that will make it all much easier."

Expand Close Northern Irelands Nightingale Hospital, based in the City Hospital Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook

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According to latest figures, three more Covid-19 deaths were registered in Northern Ireland on Tuesday, bringing the total number of deaths here to 73.

Meanwhile, there were 55 Covid-19 patients in critical care in hospitals across the province on Tuesday afternoon.

There were 17 coronavirus patients already on ventilation machines at the Nightingale Hospital on Tuesday afternoon, with the ICU on the second floor ready to receive patients from Tuesday night.

Dr Glover, who has been an intensive care consultant for 20 years, continued: "At the moment, we are planning for 230 ventilated patients at any one time and there will be patients ventilated in other trusts. We have based our plans upon the modelling of how Covid-19 has been evolving and I am confident in terms of the preparation we have put in place.

"We are planning that each floor will require around 200 nurses and possibly 50 doctors to ensure that it is adequately staffed and so that staff will be able to get some down time.

"Staff will be working long shifts, it will be very demanding, not just the hours that they work but also in terms of the numbers of critically ill patients. We anticipate that up to 50% of patients admitted to intensive care will not survive, so working in that situation is very demanding on staff. We have about 40 intensive care consultants in the trust and all of the doctors and nurses will be working under their supervision, all the major decisions will be made by intensive care consultants," Dr Glover said.

"I think what our response has shown is that there is an overwhelming willingness by healthcare staff to step up and it is unbelievable how staff have pulled together."

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Inside Northern Ireland's Nightingale Hospital [Photos] Close Nurse Marie McNaney showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Nurse Marie McNaney showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Dr Paul Glover showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph General views showing the new Northern Ireland Nightingale Hospital wards designed to treat coronavirus sufferers at Belfast City Hospital on April 7th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook

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Issuing a plea to the public to stay at home, he continued: "We are as ready as we can be, we are prepared, we have got the equipment that we need, we have got the staff that we need, the drugs that we need, everything is in place.

"But the demand on our services will really depend on how rapidly the pandemic evolves, but the one thing that will control how quickly it spreads is the behaviour of the public.

"People must stay at home, they must socially isolate.

"No-one working in the NHS has dealt with this type of problem before, this is a very contagious virus, with the spectrum of severity of the illness ranging from asymptomatic (no symptoms) to life-threatening.

"There is no major treatment for this illness, there is no medication that will cure everyone and no-one is immune from this virus. Initial reports from China suggested the people who suffered the greatest from this virus were elderly and those with significant medical conditions - however, that isn't the case.

"We are finding that all ages can be severely affected, we have a significant number of people in intensive care who have no underlying conditions.

"We don't know why that is, but it means that everyone must be conscious of their behaviour and do everything possible to protect themselves," he warned,
The Taliban said Tuesday they were pulling negotiators out of "fruitless" discussions with the Afghan government over a prisoner swap that had formed a key part of an accord with the United States. The Taliban's political spokesman Suhail Shaheen accused the administration of President Ashraf Ghani of "intentionally postponing the release and breaching the deal". He wrote on Twitter that the Taliban were recalling the technical team that had been sent to Kabul for negotiations. He earlier said that the team "will not participate in fruitless meetings". The two foes have been holding talks in Kabul since last week to try to finalise the prisoner swap that was originally supposed to have happened by March 10 and pave the way for "intra-Afghan" peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban. The United States signed a deal with the Taliban in late February that required the Afghan government -- which was not a signatory to the accord -- to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners, and for the insurgents to release 1,000 pro-government captives in return. In the accord, Washington promised the withdrawal of US and foreign troops from Afghanistan by July next year, provided the Taliban start talks with Kabul and adhere to other guarantees. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who met last month with leaders in Kabul as well as the Taliban, said he had still seen progress overall and accused Afghan stakeholders of "posturing in the media". "I'm confident in the days ahead we'll have things that look like steps backward. But I'm also hopeful that all the parties are sincere in wanting what's good for the Afghan people," Pompeo told reporters in Washington. - 'Killers of our people' - Matin Bek, a member of the government's negotiating team, said the release had been delayed because the Taliban are demanding the release of 15 "top commanders". "We cannot release the killers of our people," Bek told reporters on Monday. "We don't want them to go back to the battlefield and capture a whole province." Bek added that the government was ready to release up to 400 low-threat Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture in return for a "considerable" reduction in violence, but the Taliban rejected that offer. Javid Faisal, spokesman for Afghanistan's Office of the National Security Council, said on Twitter that the prisoner swap talks had "entered an important phase ahead of release". "Withdrawing from talks at such time indicates a lack of seriousness about peace," Faisal wrote, adding that the government remained "committed to pursuing peace". Many observers see the Taliban as receiving a better deal than Afghanistan's internationally recognized government, from which the United States is withdrawing at least $1 billion in aid due to an unresolved feud between Ghani and his nemesis Abdullah Abdullah. On Sunday, the Taliban released a statement accusing the Afghan government of violating the "peace agreement" between the US and the insurgents, even though the Taliban have killed scores of security forces since the deal was signed. The insurgents issued a new statement Tuesday, accusing the US of killing civilians in continued bombing operations and night raids. "These acts if continued will seriously dent the peace process and it will prompt strong response from the (Taliban)," the group wrote on their website.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-07 15:04:01

VICTOR, N.Y. and CHICAGO, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE: STZ and STZ.B), a leading beverage alcohol company, announced today that it has appointed Mike McGrew to the newly created role of Executive Vice President, Chief Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Officer. In this new role, McGrew will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the companys communications efforts, including internal and external global communications, brand public relations, corporate branding and reputation, investor relations, and corporate social responsibility. McGrew will serve as a member of the companys Executive Management Committee and report directly to Bill Newlands, President and Chief Executive Officer.



The company continues to benefit from Mikes deep experience and expertise in leading impactful communication strategies for our top business priorities, said Newlands. He will play an integral role on our executive management team, ensuring that as we grow and evolve as a company, we will continue to deliver comprehensive communications to all of our important stakeholders with clarity and consistency of messaging.

Based in Chicago, McGrew joined Constellation Brands in 2014 as senior director, communications for the beer division. He has held a number of progressive leadership roles within the company, including serving as a member of the Operational Executive Management Committee, providing valuable stakeholder and business perspective, and leading the development and execution of impactful communication campaigns to support various strategic priorities and investments that have contributed to the companys overall success.

Constellation Brands is a values-based company with impeccable brands built by one of the strongest teams in the industry, said McGrew. Im extremely proud to be part of this team and look forward to working alongside our entire Executive Management Committee to continue executing our strategy, driving industry-leading results, making a positive impact in our communities, and creating a culture that leads to fulfilling careers for our talented team members.

ABOUT CONSTELLATION BRANDS

At Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ and STZ.B), our mission is to build brands that people love because we believe sharing a toast, unwinding after a day, celebrating milestones, and helping people connect, are Worth Reaching For. Its worth our dedication, hard work, and the bold calculated risks we take to deliver more for our consumers, trade partners, shareholders, and communities in which we live and work. Its what has made us one of the fastest-growing large CPG companies in the U.S. at retail, and it drives our pursuit to deliver whats next.

Today, we are a leading international producer and marketer of beer, wine, and spirits with operations in the U.S., Mexico, New Zealand, and Italy. Every day, people reach for our high-end, iconic imported beer brands such as Corona Extra, Corona Light, Corona Premier, Modelo Especial, Modelo Negra, and Pacifico, and our high-quality premium wine and spirits brands, including the Robert Mondavi brand family, Kim Crawford, Meiomi, The Prisoner brand family, SVEDKA Vodka, Casa Noble Tequila, and High West Whiskey.

But we wont stop here. Our visionary leadership team and passionate employees from barrel room to boardroom are reaching for the next level, to explore the boundaries of the beverage alcohol industry and beyond. Join us in discovering whats Worth Reaching For.

To learn more, follow us on Twitter @cbrands and visit www.cbrands.com .

MEDIA CONTACTS INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACTS Amy Martin 585-678-7141 / amy.martin@cbrands.com Patty Yahn-Urlaub 585-678-7483 / patty.yahn-urlaub@cbrands.com

Bob Czudak 585-678-7170 / bob.czudak@cbrands.com



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b478bb78-fb47-4e2d-9a64-f5ac0b61e2d8

A downloadable PDF copy of this news release enhanced with multimedia links can be found here: http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/3c30ede8-884a-4fec-b5ad-603a75d32af2


WASHINGTON - One of America's largest manufacturers of medical face masks rode to Canada's rescue Monday, forging an agreement with the White House that allows it to provide millions of its precious N95 respirators to the U.S. market without sacrificing supply bound for north of the border.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses Canadians on the COVID-19 pandemic from Rideau Cottage in Ottawa on Monday, April 6, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

WASHINGTON - One of America's largest manufacturers of medical face masks rode to Canada's rescue Monday, forging an agreement with the White House that allows it to provide millions of its precious N95 respirators to the U.S. market without sacrificing supply bound for north of the border.

Minnesota-based 3M, which has been at the centre of a clash with President Donald Trump and his administration over the company's reluctance to abide by orders to prioritize American demand for the masks, confirmed plans to continue to fill orders in Canada and Latin America.

3M and the U.S. government "worked together to ensure that this plan does not create further humanitarian implications for countries currently fighting the COVID-19 outbreak," the company said in a statement that emerged on the heels of Trump's latest marathon briefing at the White House.

"The plan will also enable 3M to continue sending U.S.-produced respirators to Canada and Latin America, where 3M is the primary source of supply."

During his briefing, Trump declared that his spat with the company was at an end and sang the praises of Mike Roman, the company's chief executive, as he announced that 3M would be producing 166.5 million masks for overtaxed and under-supplied health care professionals across the U.S.

He didn't mention, however, that those N95 masks would be coming from the company's manufacturing facilities in China, which is how 3M said it will meet at least some of the ever-increasing American demand while still filling orders both north and south of the U.S.

"We share the same goals of providing much-needed respirators to Americans across the country and combating criminals who seek to take advantage of the current crisis," Roman said in a statement.

"These imports will supplement the 35 million N95 respirators we currently produce per month in the United States."

Earlier Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called out the U.S. by name, complaining that Canada had been having problems for weeks with incomplete or non-existent deliveries of critical COVID-19 countermeasures  particularly respirators, which are the subject of skyrocketing demand around the world.

"We have recognized over the past weeks a number of situations in which shipments coming from different countries around the world have been delayed, (or) haven't arrived with as many products as we were hoping to see," Trudeau said.

"This continues to be an ongoing problem  specifically with the United States. We are working with them to ensure the orders Canada has placed get delivered. We expect those shipments to come."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford complained Monday about a shipment of Ontario-bound masks being held up at the Canada-U.S. border over the weekend, a circumstance he attributed directly to Trump's decision to order American producers to prioritize the domestic market.

"We're putting pressure on the U.S. from all sides. It's absolutely critical that we get an exemption from this presidential order," said Ford, who appeared stricken as he warned that the province's stockpile of supplies would run out in a matter of days.

"It's certain items that the whole world is trying to get their hands on right now, and I'm doing the same thing," he said. "I'll be on this like a dog on a bone."

Ford initially said that a shipment of three million masks was turned around at the border, and that after a conversation with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, he'd been able to secure 500,000. But Ontario government officials later said the premier was mistaken  that the delayed shipment had only been 500,000 masks in the first place.

Regardless of the numbers, Ford said he wants to lay eyes on the goods before declaring his efforts successful.

"I go back to trust, but verify," he said, noting that Lighthizer gave him a "glimmer of hope" that the U.S. would be more co-operative in future. "I've heard in the past, 'It's on its way, it's on its way,' (but) it wasn't on its way."

The Trump White House has invoked the Defense Production Act to compel U.S. manufacturers of the equipment, such as 3M and Honeywell, to prioritize orders being co-ordinated by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The White House insisted late last week those orders wouldn't interfere with exports that are in the national interests of the United States  a late-day caveat that came after 3M expressly disclosed that the administration had asked that it stop exporting N95 masks.

But reports from around the world suggest the U.S. is using its unmatched buying power and international clout to muscle out smaller buyers. Germany, France and Brazil have all complained about having orders resold out from under them  sometimes right on the airport tarmac after a last-minute exchange of cash.

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"We feel we are being hurt," said Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. She said Canada continues to drive home the point that given the interconnected nature of supply chains between Canada and the U.S., "a win-win outcome, where both parties continue to help each other, is the very best outcome.

"We look forward to a definitive resolution to this situation."

Freeland also singled out 3M and Roman for their "very, very responsible" position in standing up to the White House. As an international supplier of one of the most important pieces of personal protective equipment, 3M is in a "very special place" right now as it seeks to balance domestic demands with global humanitarian responsibilities, she noted.

"It is really a Wild West when it comes to buying medical supplies right now," Freeland said. "This is a global pandemic, and every country in the world is doing its best in a truly fierce competition to get medical equipment."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 6, 2020.

 Follow James McCarten on Twitter @CdnPressStyle
LONDON, April 6 (Reuters) - The differential for Ekofisk fell to a fresh record low on Monday as weak refining demand continued to bite while OPEC, its allies and other producers weigh production cuts. * Norway has been invited to and is considering attending the OPEC meeting on April 9 as an observer, and would reduce output provided there is broad support to do so, the country's oil ministry said on Monday. * The country said it would also consider a unilateral cut. PLATTS WINDOW * Oseberg: Vitol withdraws offer at dated Brent minus $1.20 cif Rotterdam loading April 21-30. * Ekofisk: Trafigura withdraws offer at dated Brent minus $2.10 loading April 25-27, or around minus $3.05 on a fob basis. (Reporting by Julia Payne; Editing by Susan Fenton)
America's top naval commander in Asia has requested an extra $20billion from congress to take on China after the Chinese navy ramped up military operations in the South China Sea.

The $20billion requested by Admiral Phil Davidson, chief of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, would go toward a missile shield to intercept attacks on the US island territory of Guam; a bolstering of Taiwan's missile systems to deter invasion; and a cash injection for allied operations in the region.

The request, made to congress in a report titled Regain the Advantage, comes shortly after Washington accused Beijing of what it said were hostile actions in the South China Sea amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

Pictured: An undated file photograph of Admiral Phil Davidson, chief of the US Indo-Pacific Command, who has asked congress for $20billion to combat China's military in the South China Sea

A handout image shows a missile launch on the US territory island Guam in 2013. US naval commander Admiral Phil Davidson has requested $20billion from congress, some of which would be designated for a missile shield on Guam

As Washington tries to curb the spread of the coronavirus domestically, which has killed over 10,000 people in the US as of yesterday, China has resumed operations in the disputed territory, sinking a Vietnamese fishing boat and bolstering its military installations.

On the English-language version of the Chinese military's website, a post from earlier this month reads: 'The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy conducted combat-oriented drills featuring surface vessels, submarines and fighter jets in the South China Sea in late March, a month in which the US frequently sent warships and warplanes to intrude the waters.'

The 'intrusion' perceived by China was the passing of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier through disputed waters on its way to Guam.

While the US did not respond directly to Beijing's allegations, State Department Spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus condemned the ramming and sinking of a Vietnamese fishing vessel near the contested Paracel Islands.

Pictured: A March 2020 file photo of the USS Theodore Roosevelt entering a port in Da Nang, Vietnam

Pictured: A 2010 aerial view of the Paracel Islands, a disputed territory in the South China Sea

People wearing face masks walk down stairs and an escalator at a busy metro station during the rush hour in Beijing this morning

Beijing claimed the boat sank when it collided with one of their coast guard vessels after illegally entering Chinese waters.

Ortagus said that China's hostile move was another attempt to contend its 'unlawful maritime claims and disadvantage its Southeast Asian neighbors in the South China Sea.'

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus at the end of last year in Wuhan, China, Ortagus said, Beijing has also bolstered its military capabilities on the Fiery Cross and Subi Reefs, a series of military outposts in the waters.

'We call on the PRC to remain focused on supporting international efforts to combat the global pandemic, and to stop exploiting the distraction or vulnerability of other states to expand its unlawful claims in the South China Sea,' Ortagus said.

The strong words come amid rising anti-China rhetoric from the US for Beijing's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

A handout photo made available by Maxar Technologies shows Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea, 09 March 2017. According to the US State Department, Beijing has added research stations to the reef after resuming military operations in the South China Sea

Workers wearing protective suits take the temperature of people arriving at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing, where officials reported no new deaths today

According to a US intelligence report leaked last week, the Chinese Communist Party is still lying about the true number of cases and deaths, which has led to an increasingly intense war of words between the two nations.

US Vice President Mike Pence last week blamed China, as well as the US Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention, for the United States' slow response to the global crisis.

He told CNN's Wolf Blitzer: 'I will be very candid with you and say that in mid-January the CDC was still assessing that the risk of the coronavirus to the American people was low.

'The very first case which was someone who had been in China, I believe, took place in late January around the 20th day of January.'

Pence told CNN on Wednesday: 'The reality is that we could have been better off if China had been more forthcoming. I mean the reality is that China's been more transparent with regard to the coronavirus than certainly they were for other infectious diseases over the last 15 years.'

He added: 'The reality is that we could have been better off if China had been more forthcoming.

'I mean the reality is that China's been more transparent with regard to the coronavirus than certainly they were for other infectious diseases over the last 15 years.

'But what appears evident now is that long before the world learned in December that China was dealing with this, and maybe as much as a month earlier than that, that the outbreak was real in China.'
A father was today fined 480 because after his son was caught flouting coronavirus lockdown rules four times.

West Midlands Police said the fixed penalty notice could be doubled and reach as much as 960 if the teenager continues to go outside without good reason.

The neighbourhood policing team in the Blakenall area of Walsall said the youngster had been out three times, prompting a warning to the boy's father. But the boy - who had been abusive to police - then went out a fourth time, prompting the fine.

It came as a record high of 854 coronavirus deaths were announced in the UK today, taking the total to 6,227, with 51,608 confirmed cases and Prime Minister Boris Johnson still in intensive care.

Police enforcing coronavirus lockdown rules this weekend in London. There is no suggestion the man pictured was fined

Sergeant Stephen Pursglove of Walsall Police said: 'Some people seem to think that they will not catch the virus but they can unwittingly pass it on to others as well as catching it themselves.

'Thousands of people have now died in our own country and many thousands more will die if we don't all do everything asked of us to prevent the spread of the virus.

'While the vast majority of people are doing as they are asked it is a pity we now have to put ourselves at risk dealing with those who do not.'

Police have been struggling to enforce lockdown rules in recent weeks, with officers seen using megaphones to clear busy parks in London.

Yesterday, Number 10 confirmed sunbathing was not allowed because it counted as a 'non-essential' activity.

Police demand spit guards to protect them from coronavirus thugs Spit guards should be carried by all frontline police to protect officers from thugs spitting and coughing at them during the coronavirus pandemic, a senior figure has demanded. Sergeant Simon Kempton, the operational lead for Covid-19 at the Police Federation, told MPs the virus was being 'weaponised' by criminals after dozens of such assaults in recent weeks. He said: 'Now more than ever, while Covid-19 is being weaponised, we need those spit guards in the pocket of every single police officer, not just in custody, on the street as well.' 'The crime of spitting or biting someone is terrible at the best of times. But during this crisis, when COVID-19 is being weaponised against my colleagues, it heightens that fear.' Spit guards are controversial, with human rights groups such as Liberty calling them 'dangerous, degrading and unjustified'. Police forces are allowed to use them but they are not routinely issued to all officers. Advertisement

It came as a senior policeman demanded spit hoods for all officers to protect them from criminals coughing and spitting at them amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Sergeant Simon Kempton, the operational lead for Covid-19 at the Police Federation, told MPs the virus was being 'weaponised' by criminals after dozens of such assaults in recent weeks.

He said: 'Now more than ever, while Covid-19 is being weaponised, we need those spit guards in the pocket of every single police officer, not just in custody, on the street as well.'

There have been dozens of attacks on police officers by thugs claiming to have coronavirus.

Yesterday, 19-year-old Thomas Wilson was jailed for six months for threatening to cough and spit in a female officer's face while he was being detained.

Wilson had been flouting coronavirus lockdown rules when firearms police swooped to arrest him on his birthday last Tuesday.

Warwick Crown Court heard he was wanted in connection with an earlier road rage attack in Coventry and began to angrily lash out while being detained.

He then threatened to spit and cough at PC Katie Wynne before officers pulled a spit hood over his head and arrested him.

Wilson, of Binley, Coventry, pleaded guilty to common assault on an emergency worker and was jailed for six months yesterday.

Oliver Cook, 35, was caught on camera threatening officers with coronavirus before spitting at them in shocking body-cam footage in Whitstable, Ken

Judge Andrew Lockhart QC said that in light of the 'unprecedented threat from Covid-19' the potential harm of his threat aggravated the offence.

He told Wilson he should be 'thoroughly ashamed' of himself during his strongly-worded sentencing remarks in which he shamed the yob for disregarding lockdown rules.

The judge said he would not hesitate to 'impose swift and condign punishment' to send out the message officers will have 'proper and timely protection' from the courts.

In Bournemouth 50-year-old Martin Turner has been jailed after purposely sneezing on police officers

Last week, four thugs were jailed for separate spitting and coughing assaults on police officers in Kent and Dorset.

Oliver Cook, 35, was caught on camera threatening officers with coronavirus before spitting at them after he was arrested outside a supermarket in Whitstable, Kent, for stealing meat. He was jailed for 120 days.

Martin Turner, 50, coughed at officers and sneezed in their direction as he was being arrested for being drunk and disorderly. He was jailed for 24 weeks after admitting the assault.

Scott Sanders, 36, was arrested over a disturbance at an address in Bournemouth before spitting at a custody sergeant when he was detained at a local police station.

Sanders, who was also in breach of a previous suspended prison sentence, admitted to assaulting an emergency worker and was jailed for six months.

Adam Power, 37, was arrested for stealing a bottle of wine from a Co-op store in Bournemouth.

He also attempted to spit at a police officer and kick them in the ankle while in a holding cell.

Police use a spit hood on a suspect. Human rights group Liberty calls the equipment 'dangerous, degrading and unjustified'

Spit hoods - like this one worn by a model - are made of nylon mesh and go over the wearer's head

Power admitted charges of assaulting an emergency worker, theft and criminal damage and was jailed for five months.

None of the four thugs tested positive for coronavirus.

The health of police officers during the pandemic remains a concern, as they are required to leave their homes on duty during the lockdown, putting them at an increased risk of catching coronavirus.

Also speaking to the Home Affairs Select Committee, Bedfordshire Police chief constable Garry Forsyth said forensics company Eurofins was due to make some antigen tests available for police forces in his region in the next two to three weeks.

He said that NHS slots for tests might be made available in the same time frame.

Derbyshire Constabulary chief constable Peter Goodman said he had been told by Martin Hewitt, chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council, that they may be able to progress with antigen tests by late April.
Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler on Tuesday announced that the state of Georgia will receive an additional $9.2 million in funding to fight the novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19.Last month, Senators Perdue and Loeffler announced that the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had awarded nearly $15 million to Georgia to fight the outbreak. The $9.2 million announced Wednesday, as well as the almost $15 million from last month, were authorized as part of the $8.3 billion Phase One funding package that both Senators Perdue and Loeffler supported.The state of Georgia also will be receiving more federal funding in coming weeks from the subsequent Phase Two and Phase Three funding packages that also were supported by both Georgia senators.Our local communities in Georgia are on the front lines of mitigating COVID-19, and strong support from the CDC is vital to their success, said Senator Perdue.Its critical that we continue to ensure state and local health departments have the resources they need to safeguard public health. These funds will strengthen our public health capabilities and give our communities the ability to rapidly respond to new cases. The CDC is working tirelessly to handle this threat, and together we will continue to take strong action to keep Georgians and Americans healthy and safe.From welcoming passengers from the Grand Princess cruise ship to being the home of the CDC, Georgia has been at the forefront of our nations efforts to combat COVID-19, said Senator Loeffler. Its clear we need additional resources to continue to keep Georgians safe. Thats why I supported the $8.3 billion funding bill that Congress passed last month to give Governor Kemp, local officials and local health departments the resources they need. This funding will help expand testing, ensure our hospitals have the supplies they need and assist local health departments track the spread of the virus. I thank CDC Director Dr. Redfield for his work to quickly get money to the states that need it most.
The UN Security Council will hold its first meeting on the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, after weeks of divisions among its five permanent members, diplomats said Monday.

Last week, exasperated by the back-and-forth that has paralysed the Council, including between China and the United States, nine of the 10 non-permanent members formally requested a meeting featuring a presentation by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With nearly a third of cases linked to its New Delhi gathering, Muslim missionary movement comes under intense scrutiny.

New Delhi, India  On any given day, the headquarters of Muslim missionary movement, the Tablighi Jamaat, in the narrow lanes of capital New Delhis Nizamuddin area, is full of activity, with hundreds of worshippers streaming in and out of the five-storey building.

But, on March 22, authorities shut its doors  with about 2,500 worshippers still inside  after it emerged that a religious gathering organised by the group on March 13-15 caused the biggest coronavirus spike in India.

Of about 4,400 COVID-19 positive cases in India, nearly a third are related to the religious gathering at the Markaz, as the Jamaat headquarters is known. The government claimed more than 8,000 people, including foreigners, visited the headquarters in early March.

While accusing the Jamaat leadership of carelessness during a global pandemic, experts and civil society members also blamed the central government for its delayed response and allowing foreigners, particularly those coming from COVID-19 hotspot nations such as Malaysia and Indonesia, into India.

There was no screening even when there were reports that some people with a history of travel to the Markaz had tested positive. Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, Tablighi Jamaat spokesman

Authorities only started screening people staying at the Markaz from March 26, a day after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown to control the pandemic.

On March 22, the gates of the Markaz, which also acts as a dormitory for hundreds of preachers from around the world, were shut after the city-state government in Delhi announced curbs on movement of people.

Nobody could go out any longer, said Mohammad Jaynul Abdin, a 64-year-old worshipper who was inside the building. He was among 2,361 people the government evacuated between March 30 and April 1.

A retired head teacher of an Islamic school in the northeastern state of Assam, Abdin has been moved to an isolation ward in New Delhis Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital.

They keep putting a pipe in my nose. How many times are they going to test? he said in a telephone call from the hospital, complaining of the diagnostic swab samples being taken.





Virus panic across India

Meanwhile, panic gripped a large part of India as state governments launched a massive search to identify all those who had visited the Markaz and people they came into contact with later.

As of Monday, more than 25,000 Jamaat members and their contacts had been quarantined across nearly 15 Indian states.

Our doubling rate is 4.1 days at present. But if additional cases reported due to the Tablighi Jamaat had not happened, then the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in Indias Ministry of Health, told reporters on Sunday.

It is unfortunate that people are calling it a conspiracy and using terms like Corona Jihad. Faizan Mustafa, Constitutional expert

But experts have warned India is not testing enough people, with an average of 93 tests per million people.

It soon became evident that most of the infected, including more than 1,000 foreigners, had travelled to the Markaz before dispersing to different parts of the country of 1.3 billion people.

In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, of the total 610 COVID-19 cases, at least 570 were linked to the Markaz event.

The state government requested that Tablighi Jamaat members identify themselves, and more than 500 attendees came forward.

In Telangana, one of the worst-affected states, all 11 deaths were linked to the New Delhi congregation. At least 265 Jamaat members and their contacts tested positive.

KT Rama Rao, a minister in the Telangana government, told Al Jazeera that the state had the complete list of attendees and almost all of them and their contacts had been tracked.

In Andhra Pradesh, the states director general of police, Damodar Gautam Sawang, told Al Jazeera that 100 attendees were infected along with 25 others who had come into contact with them. Out of 260 cases in the state, 243 had links with the Jamaat congregation.

We are using social influencers, religious and community elders to convince people who are reluctant to get admitted to quarantine or isolation wards, Sawang said.

In Assam, authorities initially found it difficult to identify virus cases as families would not admit attendees had returned to the state.

By Sunday, at least 25 tested positive, with the states health officials not ruling out chances of community spread. More than 400 people have been quarantined out of the 835 who attended the Markaz event.





Jamaat accused of negligence

Authorities in the Delhi government have accused the Tablighi Jamaat of ignoring their order, which barred the assembly of more than 50 people.

In a 28-minute audio clip of a sermon posted on March 19 on Markazs YouTube channel, Jamaat chief Maulana Saad called coronavirus an azaab (Gods punishment) and asked his followers to run to the mosques. He also called the assertion that people gathering in the mosque will lead to more infections as baatil khayal (falsehood).

In a later clip, however, he urged his followers to follow the governments guidelines on the pandemic.

As pressure built, the Delhi Polices crime branch registered a case on March 31 under the British-era Epidemic Diseases Act, charging Maulana Saad and Markaz management with defying government regulations on social distancing. The law stipulates six months of imprisonment or a 1,000-rupee ($14) fine, or both.

Dismissing rumours of Saad going into hiding, Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, his lawyer and Jamaat spokesman, said he responded to court summons by saying he is in self-quarantine and his whereabouts are known to authorities.

Meanwhile, the Jamaat in a statement claimed that entry of participants was stopped immediately after restrictions were announced by the authorities on March 22.

Rehman pointed out that it is unfair to target the Jamaat alone.

On March 13, the Health Ministry said it is not a health emergency. The attitude of the people in Gurudwaras (Sikh temples), temples and other religious places was also the same that it is not an emergency. It was the same attitude at the Markaz, he said, adding that a lot of people from within the country were in fact encouraged to travel back to their home states.

In the absence of screening, many of them carried the virus back home, a fact the government only woke up to towards the end of March. There was no screening, even when there were reports that some people with a history of travel to the Markaz had tested positive, Rehman said.

Men wait for a bus that will take them to a quarantine facility, amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease in Nizamuddin area of New Delhi [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

There was no response

After the Janta Curfew (public curfew) on March 22, Rehman said Jamaat officials got in touch with local officials, requesting permission to move. On March 25, the Markaz officials met the Sub-Divisional Magistrate and demanded passes. There was no response, Rehman said.

Tablighi Jamaat has been as careless as the authorities of the country, Rehman told Al Jazeera.

The government blacklisted 960 foreign nationals on Thursday for violating visa norms.

As per government data, as many as 2,100 foreigners visited India since March for Tablighi activities. And, as recently as early March, only visitors from a few countries, including China and Italy, were being monitored.

Several Jamaat members entered India between February 27 and March 1, after attending a massive congregation at Sri Petaling Mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which later emerged as the source of several hundred COVID-19 infections in Southeast Asia.

The Kuala Lumpur gathering was attended by some 16,500 people and kickstarted the epidemic in Malaysia as well as in Brunei, with cases traced to Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines.

Rehman did not rule out the possibility of travellers carrying the infection when they arrived at the Markaz in February and earlier.

The first incident that should have alerted the government came on March 16, when a group of Indonesian preachers were taken to an isolation ward in Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana. The next day, the first among them tested positive. By March 21, all 10 had tested positive.

On March 26, a preacher with no travel history died in Indian-administered Kashmir.

A policeman (L) gestures as men in Nizamuddin area wearing protective facemasks walk to board a special service bus [Sajjad Hussain/AFP]

Islamophobia

Faizan Mustafa, a constitutional expert, said the Jamaat did not act appropriately and missed the writing on the wall after the Indonesian preachers tested positive in Telangana.

Jamaat has remained an apolitical organisation since its founding in 1926 and works to encourage Muslims to practise Islam the way it is believed to have been practised at the time of the Prophet Mohammed.

It was established in northern Haryanas Mewat area by Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi. Maulana Saad, its present chief, is Kandhalawis great-grandson.

The group was vilified by the mainstream media for its carelessness, and the countrys 200 million Muslims were blamed for spreading the virus that has killed more than 70,000 people worldwide.

#CoronaJihad trended on Twitter, with many ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders calling the religious gathering corona terrorism  a term many said hinted at the Islamophobia of the governing party.

A central minister called the Markaz gathering a Talibani crime.

According to a report in Time magazine, tweets with #CoronaJihad appeared nearly 300,000 times and were potentially seen by 165 million people since March 28.

It is unfortunate that people are calling it a conspiracy and using terms like Corona Jihad. Communalising it is not the right way. The media too has played a mischievous role, Mustafa told Al Jazeera.

Mustafa, however, put the blame at the governments doorstep. The governments have to demonstrate greater rationality than religious people, he said.

Additional reporting by A Saye Shekhar from Telangana and Sowmiya Ashok from Chennai
New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday laid out a five-point blueprint to contain the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), declaring that testing will be ramped up and the scope of treatment widened  an indication that the Capital was bracing for the possible ballooning of the pathogen that has ravaged several metropolises across the world.

Fifty one new cases were reported in Delhi on Tuesday, taking the total in the Capital to 576, out of which 333 patients are linked to the mid-March congregation of a Muslim missionary group, Tablighi Jamaat, in Nizamuddin that has now become the countrys largest hot spot for Covid-19 infections.

At a news briefing, the chief minister said that Delhi has formed a 5T plan  testing, tracing, treatment, teamwork, and tracking  and that his government was prepared to scale up resources to treat up to 30,000 active Covid-19 patients at the same time, if needed.

The first T is testing. If you dont test, you wont be able to find out which houses have been affected. It will go on spreading. South Korea identified every single individual through large scale testing. We are now going to do mass testing like South Korea, Kejriwal said.

He said the countries that did not conduct wide testing before infections climbed were unable to control the imminent spiraling of the disease. We have ordered kits for the testing of 50,000 people. The kits have started arriving. We have also placed orders for the rapid test of 100,000 people. The deliveries of kits will begin by Friday. Random tests will be done at hot spots. Detailed tests will also be done.

On Monday, Kejriwal said rapid testing will be doubled from next week  from around 500 samples per day to 1,000 samples per day.

Several public health experts have said that aggressive testing is the mainstay in the battle against the highly contagious disease that has killed at least 77,000 people globally because the infection often spreads undetected.

South Korea and Germany have led the charge in mass testing, which has helped control the spread of new infections over time, and more importantly, kept the fatality rate low.

The second T is tracing, Kejriwal said. Tracing is being carried out at a very good level in Delhi and now we have started taking help from the police as well to check if the people who have been traced are staying under self-quarantine.

Kejriwal said that the government has so far given contact numbers of 27,702 people for tracing to the Delhi Police. A persons movement can be tracked through their phone, he added. Today, we are going to give 2,000 phone numbers of people who were brought out of Markaz to find out if they roamed in the area around Markaz. The areas they went out to, will be sealed and monitored.

The recent spike in infections has largely been propelled by the detection of hundreds of patients who attended gatherings of the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhis Nizamuddin Basti last month in a violation of several restrictions. Cases linked to the meet have been reported across two dozen states and Union Territories so far.

Our third T is treatment, Kejriwal said. If someone gets infected with Covid-19, then we will have to provide that person with treatment. Delhi has 525 positive Covid-19 cases so far and we have made arrangements for 3,000 beds.

He said the Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital (1,500 beds), GB Pant Hospital (500) and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (450) have been declared as dedicated facilities to treat the new disease. The government has also earmarked 400 beds at three private hospitals  Max Saket (318 beds), Apollo (50 beds) and Sir Ganga Ram Kolmet Hospital (42 beds).

At present, there are 2,950 beds reserved for Covid-19 cases. If the number of patients crosses 3,000, we will use 1,500 beds at GTB (Guru Tegh Bahadur) hospital, following which we will have arrangements for 4,500 cases, Kejriwal said.

In this manner, we can go up to 30,000 beds if needed. We will have 8,000 beds at hospitals,12,000 hotel rooms will be taken over, and around 10,000 patients will be kept in banquet halls and dharamshalas. Most serious patients with heart, liver, cancer, diabetes and above 50 years of age will be kept in hospitals. Patients below 50 years and with minor symptoms will be kept in hotels and dharamshalas, but with all medical facilities, he added.

A spokesperson at Max Healthcare said: We believe that to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, it is essential for us to have dedicated hospitals. We are working closely with the Govt of Delhi and have established a dedicated COVID 19 facility at Max Hospital Saket, East Block.

A review of Delhis preparedness by a five-member expert panel recently showed that Delhis current facilities would be able to handle 100 cases of Covid-19 every day. While detailing the findings of the review, Kejriwal had said that the Capital needed to be ready for the worst scenario and that his government was in the process of ramping up the health care infrastructure.

Experts maintain that it important for Delhi to massively upgrade its infrastructure to pre-empt a crisis similar to the one that has befallen New York, which has in the past boasted of hi-tech hospitals. With the Covid-19 cases skyrocketing, New Yorks health care system is overwhelmed and teetering on the brink of collapse.

Late in March, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said that the strained health care system had the personnel and supplies to make it through only one more week, but beyond that, things appeared uncertain.

In Delhi, Kejriwal said that 400 ventilators and 1,200 oxygen beds will be needed if there are 30,000 active patients in Delhi and arrangements were being made.

Calculations have been done regarding PPE (personal protective equipment) kits. It has been an area of concern. We have received help from the Centre and we have placed an order for the kits which well start to receive from next week. The Centre will be providing 27,000 PPE kits to us, said Kejriwal.

The CM said that the fourth T was teamwork, and stressed on cooperation between the Centre and state governments, and the public and health care professions.

The fifth T, he said, is tracking and monitoring. I have spoken so much, but these things need to be tracked and monitored as well and its my responsibility to track the moment-to-moment plan we have prepared. I am tracking it 24 hours. We can win this battle as a team if we remain three steps ahead of Covid-19, he added.

A senior official in the chief ministers office said that Kejriwals first briefing every day is scheduled through a conference call with the health department at 10am. It is compulsory for the health minister, the chief secretary and the health secretary to be part of it. Usually, he prepares his briefs and joins the lieutenant governors meeting after that through video-conferencing. Later in the day, the CM heads review meetings with representatives of the state task force that he heads, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Health experts and private hospitals welcomed the action plan presented on Tuesday.

Nevin Kishore, head of the bronchology department at Delhis Max Hospital, said: Random tests are important to understand the burden of the disease and the severity of the patients who are positive. Such understanding helps in designing predictive models for prevention, something very crucial in the next 7-10 days.

Vikas Maurya, head of the pulmonology at Delhis Fortis Hospital, said: Rapid antibody tests result is a faster diagnosis. It is faster, cheaper and accurate  a smart way strategy in dealing with a large number of potential patients in cluster hotspots. There is one issue. This test is more accurate when dealing with a person who is infected for at least 8-9 days. Negative results may require repetition of tests after certain intervals.

Charu Hans, former head of the microbiology department at Delhis Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, said: We have limited resources, so we need a smart strategy. One has to have a clear protocol on what nature of individuals is to be tested under the said strategy. At this juncture, it is recommended to conduct tests only among symptomatic individuals in hot spots.

Jugal Kishore, head of the department, community medicine, at Delhis Safdarjung Hospital, said: Simple random sampling is a scientific method and can provide a signal on possible community spread. But, when there is a resource constraint; the government should explore the possibility of conducting snowball sampling.
In January 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping made a trade deal that will see more American farm products and machinery sold to Chinese customers. On April 6, President Trump gave a qualified endorsement to Beijing's efforts to fulfill the first phase of the said deal.

This is after the president was asked about the measures that the U.S. government has taken to protect the different sectors of the domestic economy from the effects of the coronavirus. Trump said that American farmers could expect some support from agricultural purchases China would make as part of the agreement.

He added that as of April 1, China is buying anywhere from $40 billion to $50 billion of America's agricultural product that would have a massive impact on the farmers of the country.

China trade deal

President Trump stated that he was confident that China would continue with the agreement because he knows that President Xi would honor the deal. Trump has always been vocal about his admiration for the Chinese President since his campaign for the presidency in 2015.

Trump added "In fact, I called up just a little while ago, I said, how are the farmers doing with respect to China, are they buying the product as anticipated? And the answer was 'yeah, I think so', but it wasn't the most positive, but it was starting." However, Trump did not specify whom he had checked with regarding the farmers who are selling products to China.

Also Read: How Taiwan Kept Coronavirus Under Control

Phase one trade deal

President Trump signed an initial trade deal with China last January, bringing the first chapter of a protracted and economically damaging fight with one of the world's largest economies to a close.

The trade deal is intended to open Chinese markets to more American companies to help increase energy and farm exports and to provide greater protection for American technology and trade secrets. China has committed to purchasing an additional $200 billion worth of American goods and services by 2021 and is expected to ease some of the tariffs it has placed on American products.

However, the agreement preserves the bulk of the tariffs that President Trump has placed on $360 billion worth of Chinese goods, and it maintains the threat of additional punishment if Beijing does not live up to the terms of the deal.

In January 2020, President Trump stated at a ceremony at the White House that the step that they took was never taken before with China and that they are looking towards a future of fair and reciprocal trade.

The trade deal is a massive turning point in American trade policy and the types of free-trade agreements that the United States has supported. Rather than lowering tariffs to allow for the flow of goods and services to meet the demands on the market, the deal with China leaves a record level of tariffs in place and forces China to purchase $200 billion worth of specific products until 2022.

Related Article: Spain Passes 10,000 Deaths Due to COVID-19, But Curve is Stabilizing

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Press Release

7 April 2020

Bangkok, Thailand - Centara Hotels & Resorts, Thailand's leading hotel operator, has launched an initiative to support courageous medical staff. As a key player in the communities in which Centara operates, the pioneering hospitality firm is providing complimentary hotel rooms and meals to carers in need of accommodation and food.



Five-star Centara Grand at CentralWorld in Bangkok has started to host doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff from the Police Hospital since 1st April 2020 and will continue to do so until the situation improves.

Thirayuth Chirathivat, CEO of Centara Hotels & Resorts, and Pol.Lt.Gen. Permpoon Chidchob, Assistant Commissioner General, in a room made available to medical staff at Centara Grand at CentralWorld in Bangkok  Centara Hotels & Resorts

In addition, Centara Muscat Hotel Oman has offered 120 rooms to the Omani government as a serviced venue for people in need to quarantine for 14 days with food delivered three times per day.

Medical staff are at the forefront of effort to protect the wellbeing of all people, often working extremely long hours and travelling long distances to and from the hospitals in which they are working. Centara's core idea behind the project is to save the time and energy of medical staff as much as possible by offering convenient access to food and accommodation so that they can return to work as refreshed and recharged as possible.

"Centara Hotels & Hotels is here to support medical staff in any way we can," said Thirayuth Chirathivat, CEO, Centara Hotels & Resorts. "As a hotel operator, the best thing we can do is to offer rooms and meals to those who are working tirelessly for the wellbeing of all people. This is why we are opening our hotels to them. We hope this humble contribution will alleviate some of the stress and strain of their work by ensuring they can get rest near work without having to commute long hours and can return refreshed. We are by their side," he added.

According to local needs and regulations, more initiatives may take place in other territories where Centara operates.

Centara Hotels & Resorts supports social distancing and the Thai government and global initiatives to stay at home. The company also recently introduced a high-quality delivery service to take food to people's homes during the crisis.

The group has implemented the following safety measures in the hotels that remain open: social distancing arrangements, installation of additional hand washing hand sanitising stations in public areas of hotels and resorts and in common areas frequented by guests and employees; expanded employee training in transmission prevention, which incorporates guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO); notices in public areas to inform guests about the situation and protective measures they can take; frequent periodic sanitising of common areas within each property, including food preparation areas, restaurants that remain open and common guest areas; and providing updates to guests on the situation as needed. In addition, thermal scanners check the temperature of guests and visitors; those with high fever or other symptoms may undergo additional screening. When checking in, all hotel guests are also asked to fill out a questionnaire enquiring about their prior trips.
AP

President Donald Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner has been inexplicably given a leading role in the governments response to the coronavirus pandemic that has left 337,000 infected and killed more than 10,000 Americans. And now health officials apparently see him as one more problem on their plates.

Speaking to The Washington Post, health officials on the White House coronavirus task force have complained of being sidetracked by Mr Kushners ill-conceived requests.

According to the reports, Mr Kusner was running his own team of coronavirus responders and would send ideas to the White House task force that distracted the members more than they helped.

One of the ideas included setting up testing sites in Walmart parking lots across the US and using a Google-built website to centralize contact and location information for each of the test sites. Another utilised Oracle software to monitor the use of anti-malarial drugs against coronavirus. Clinical trials to determine the drugs efficacy have not been carried out, but both Mr Trump and Oracle chairman Larry Ellison - a friend and financial supporter of Mr Trump - support the idea.

Right now [Dr. Anthony Fauci] is trying to roll out the most ambitious clinical trial ever implemented [in search of a vaccine] And yet, the nations top health officials are getting calls from the White House or Jareds team asking, Wouldnt it be nice to do this with Oracle? one of the former health officials speaking to the Washington Post said.

Following the tantrum, Mr Trump was pressed by another reporter to answer Ms Jiangs question. He blamed individual state governments for not being prepared for the pandemic - despite the federal government waiting until mid-March to begin its response - and said that the federal stockpile was needed for the federal government and that the states have to have for themselves, further muddling whether or not the Trump administrations policy is to release federal stockpile items to the states or not.

Story continues

The National Strategic Stockpile was created in 1998 and was described in 2001 by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as being designed to supplement and re-supply state and local publish health agencies in the event of a biological or chemical terrorism incident anywhere, at any time within the US or its territories.

Read more

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The dirty truth about washing your hands
The Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn) signed an agreement today (April 7) with Al Madina Logistics Services to manage and operate the customs area services at Al Mazunah Free Zone in Oman.

The agreement, aimed at raising the efficiency of handling operations, and management of loading and unloading containers and trucks at the land port, was signed by Said bin Abdullah Al Balushi, Director General of Al Mazunah Free Zone and Mahmood bin Sakhi Al Balushi, CEO of Al Madina Logistics.

Said bin Abdullah Al Balushi, Director General of Al Mazunah Free Zone, stated that the agreement aims at developing and improving the logistics operations in the free zone and enhancing the smooth flow of goods and containers through import and export operations. These efforts shall serve the suppliers, exporters, economic sectors and the investors in the free zone, Al Balushi said, adding: As a national company, Al Madina Logistics Services enjoys rich experience in managing dry ports. Its management and operation of the customs area at Al Mazunah Free Zone shall create an adding value for the suppliers, exporters and investors.

On his part, Mahmood bin Sakhi Al Balushi, CEO of Al Madina Logistics, emphasised that this agreement comes along the lines of the efforts undertaken by the government for the logistics sector and to emphasise on the importance of collaborating with the private sector to offer logistics services. Al Madina Logistics is one of the leading national companies in managing inland ports as it established the first inland port in Oman that was inaugurated in 2010 under the name of Muscat Container Depot, Mahmood Al Balushi pointed out.

It is worth mentioning that Al Mazunah Free Zone has witnessed notable growth during the first quarter of the current year in spite of the current global conditions. The volume of imported goods to the free zone has touched 87,341 tonnes by the end of March 2020, noting an increase exceeding 44 per cent compared to 60,628 tonnes during the same period of 2019, Madayn revealed in a statement.

In addition, the total number of incoming vehicles has reached 2,066 by the end of March 2020, marking a growth rate that exceeds 500 per cent and an increase of 1736 vehicles compared to the same period of 2019.

Al Mazunah Free Zone currently offers various services required by the investors through its one-stop-station, which saves time and effort as well as facilitates the services offered to the investors and business owners. The one-stop-station at the free zone includes several public and private bodies such as the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Manpower, Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and insurance companies.

Besides, general incentives are offered to the investors in the free zone, including customs exemptions, 100 per cent foreign ownership, no minimum capital requirements, and Omanisation rate stands at 10 per cent. Other incentives include easy access of individuals and investors to the free zone without entry visas being required for Yemenis, facilitation of employing Yemeni workforce without work visa being required, in addition to other incentives, the statement said.TradeArabia News Service
Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Tuesday directed his commanders to provide full support to the federal and provincial governments in combating the novel coronavirus pandemic which has killed 56 people and infected more than 4,000 others.

Gen Bajwa, who chaired 231st Corps Commanders' Conference, reviewed geo strategic, regional and national security issues with particular emphasis on latest situation arising from COVID-19, said a statement issued by the army.

The generals, who attended the meeting through video link from respective Headquarters, reviewed the deployment of troops assisting civil administration across the country.

Appreciating the troops in the field for efforts so far, COAS directed all commanders to extend maximum assistance in moving critical resources and reaching out to mitigate suffering of people in far flung areas, the statement said.

The meeting was apprised on functioning of recently established National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) which was set up to synergize and articulate national effort for containment of COVID-19, it said.

"Being a nation with vibrant youth and resilient people ready to share and sacrifice, we will emerge stronger from this challenge, Gen Bajwa said.

The commanders also paid tribute to those on frontline including doctors, paramedics, health care workers and security personnel for braving this pandemic under challenging environment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Trump urges Modi to allow shipment of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which is being used to treat US patients.

India has lifted a ban on some drug exports, including the experimental COVID-19 treatment, hydroxychloroquine, after United States President Donald Trump threatened possible retaliation if New Delhi failed to ship the anti-malarial medicine to the US.

The reversal of the export ban comes after Trump spoke to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a phone conversation, during which the US president said that he would be surprised if New Delhi did not relent on his request, considering Indias good relations with the US.

I spoke to him Sunday morning, called him, and I said, Wed appreciate your allowing our supply to come out. If he doesnt allow it to come out, that would be okay, but of course, there may be retaliation. Why wouldnt there be? I would be surprised if he would, you know, because India does very well with the United States, Trump said on Monday.

India, dubbed the pharmacy of the world, banned the exports on April 4 as countries globally stockpiled the anti-malarial drug developed nearly a century ago.

Many countries, including the US, are using hydroxychloroquine as an experimental treatment for COVID-19 patients, amid a global death toll from the pandemic of more than 75,000 people.

The medicine is also used to treat other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

Trump has advocated that people infected with the coronavirus should take the medicine in consultation with doctors, and last week called the drug a very special thing and a game changer.

However, experts have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the drugs in the fight against COVID-19.

Last week, Trump urged Modi to lift the ban on the export of hydroxychloroquine and provide the US with a supply of tablets that it had previously ordered.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the US has spiked sharply in the last few days with more than 10,000 deaths. The country also has the highest number of infections in the world, with more than 360,000 cases.

Indias foreign ministry said it would lift the ban on the export of hydroxychloroquine as a gesture of solidarity.

In view of the humanitarian aspects of the pandemic, it has been decided that India would license paracetamol and HCQ [hydroxychloroquine] in appropriate quantities to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on our capabilities, the foreign ministry spokesperson, Anurag Srivastava, said.

We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic. We would therefore discourage any speculation in this regard or any attempts to politicise the matter, he said in a statement.

Srivastava said there were adequate stocks of medicines in the country, which has been under lockdown since March 25 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Like any responsible government, our first obligation is to ensure that there are adequate stocks of medicines for the requirement of our own people. In order to ensure this, some temporary steps were taken to restrict exports of a number of pharmaceutical products, he said, justifying lifting the ban.

Medical experts told Al Jazeera that the government only lifted the ban following the threats by the US president.

Washington and New Delhi are close security and trade allies with annual bilateral trade worth above $80bn.

Dr T Sundraman, of the Peoples Health Movement, pointed out inconsistencies in Indian government policy on drug exports and said it was unclear whether India still had enough supplies to cover its own needs.

We should be able to ensure that pharmaceutical companies are able to manufacture to meet these requirements, which is an important issue. Similarly, the US should not be blocking essential inputs to us which there are reports that it is doing whether it is on ventilators or different testing kits. That, too, should be made clear, Sundraman said.

Meanwhile, Indias opposition parties accuse Modis government of buckling under pressure from Trump.

On Trumps threats, Indian National Congress former leader Rahul Gandhi said: Friendship isnt about retaliation. India must help all nations in their hour of need but lifesaving medicines should be made available to Indians in ample quantities first, Gandhi tweeted.

Sitaram Yechury, a leader of the Communist Party, said Trumps statement was unacceptable.  Modi govt has succumbed to the threat by allowing the export, he tweeted.

Manish Tewari, Congress leader and a former union minister, told Al Jazeera that the India-US relationship should be viewed independently of President Trumps histrionics.

His threat of retaliation is a personal affront to Prime Minister Modi who had walked the extra mile and collected multitudes of people in the Ahmedabad stadium when the spectre of COVID-19 was hanging low over the world, Tewari said.

He, however, said Indias civilisational, cultural and democratic bonds also need to be valued and that if the country could help the US or any other nation without hurting our own interests then it can be done alone for humanitarian reasons.

Deepak Bansal, the secretary of the Pharmaceutical Raw Material Dealers Association, said Indias pharmaceutical sector faced a shortage of raw materials because of the strict 21-day lockdown and that exporting hydroxychloroquine made no sense, as the country could require greater supplies within days if the situation worsened.

We have no clarity on how much we can produce. There should be some sort of clarification on how much we have and how much we might need, and then think about exporting it. Not only have they allowed exports of hydroxychloroquine but also of several other drugs which could be detrimental for our own interests, Bansal told Al Jazeera.

However, Vikas Bablani, owner of RPL Pharmaceuticals in New Delhi, said he was confident that India would be able to not only meet its requirements but would also be able to help those worst affected by the pandemic.

We are the largest manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine. At present, our intensity is not as bad as compared to the US or Europe. If they dont get it, how will they survive? he said.

In case there is a surge in demand, the government can then stop the export of the medicine.
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Linkedin AFP bureaus across the world (Agence France-Presse)  Tue, April 7, 2020 18:04 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd0588c6 2 Health coronavirus,Survivor,COVID-19,health Free

A sense of death stalking the hospital ward, fear of dying alone, tearful despair and disarray at home, solitude, anger and the desire to share, or change their life: 12 people from different parts of the world who have survived COVID-19 share emotional and harrowing stories of the pain and fear after catching the virus:

A painful 'roller coaster'

With no pre-existing health conditions, South Korean engineering professor Park Hyun, 47, said he'd originally thought the coronavirus was "not my problem", until he developed symptoms and ended up in intensive care in the southern city of Busan.

It had started with a dry cough and sore throat, he said, followed a few days later by a shortness of breath so severe he fainted while waiting for a hospital coronavirus test.

It came back positive and he was admitted to hospital where his condition fluctuated wildly every day and several times he thought he would die.

"It was like a roller coaster," he said. "I was feeling like there is a thick plate pressuring my chest and also needles poking my chest."

Some of his symptoms may have been the side effects of his treatment, he believes.

But after eight days and two negative tests, he was discharged.

"I had a very bad situation," Park said. Whenever his condition was slightly better "I was thinking that might be my last time where I can write something in my life," he added.

"So I tried to write something short on Facebook to share with friends."

'Death prowls' the ward

Cardiologist Fabio Biferali spent eight days "isolated from the world" at Rome's Policlinico Umberto I hospital in an orthodontics department that had been converted into an intensive care unit.

Describing the pain he felt as "strange", the 65-year-old said it almost resembled having a little monkey on his back, just like one of his patients had described it to him.

Oxygen therapy is painful and finding a radial artery is difficult, he said. "They would do it up to twice a day. Being a doctor helped me bear the pain. Other patients would desperately shout 'enough' 'enough'."

The hardest part were the nights, alone with his fears.

"I couldn't sleep, anxiety invaded the room... nightmares came, death prowled," he said.

"I was afraid of dying without being able to cling on to the hands of my family and friends, despair overcame me."

While medical staff were covered head to toe in protective gear, Biferali said he found some solace in being able to see their "affectionate" eyes behind the glass masks and hear their voices.

"Many were young, doctors on the front line. It was a moment of hope."

Going to 'gate of hell and back'

Wan Chunhui, 44, said he was "terrified" at first but that going to the "gate of hell" and coming back to survive the virus had transformed his outlook on life.

"I think the biggest change for me is that my way of looking at things is different now," said Wan, who spent 17 days at the makeshift Huoshenshan Hospital in the Chinese city of Wuhan, in central Hubei province, where the outbreak began.

"I feel really calm about everything, really calm... I went to the gate of hell and came back. I saw with my own eyes that others failed to recover and died, which has had a big impact on me."

He had initially isolated himself to protect his family after getting a temperature, but, still feverish a couple of days later, he walked an hour to hospital.

Tests were not available but he was prescribed antibiotics and flu medication and asked to quarantine himself at home due to a hospital bed shortage.

"I was terrified at first," he said. "But I went back home, switched to a positive mood, and braced myself for the situation. Anyway its pointless to panic," Wan told AFP.

The 44-year-old investor and married father of a nine-year-old daughter already suffered from high blood pressure before the virus.

At home, he began recording his illness in an online diary, but a bad cough set in and he was admitted to hospital.

Hormone therapy helped lower his temperature, although he remained short of breath, but medical supplies were scarce, Wan said, and healthcare workers wore poor-quality protective suits and rubbish bags as shoe covers.

Wan was transferred to one of the two field hospitals built for virus sufferers in Wuhan, a well-supplied center, he said, where he was treated mostly with Western medicines.

Keeping the faith

Song Myung-hee, 72, was afraid of dying alone after being infected during a service at the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the southern city of Daegu, a secretive religious group at the center of South Korea's coronavirus outbreak.

She was at the same event as the woman known as Patient 31, a 61-year-old who attended four services before being diagnosed with the virus.

Song was quarantined at home as a precaution but remained asymptomatic for several days before the virus struck suddenly with a severe cough.

"I could not sleep at all," she told AFP. "It lasted for two days. I had to hold a plastic bag at all times because I kept on coughing up phlegm.

"Then my face started swelling. I was scared I might die alone."

Facing an influx, no hospital beds were available at the time in Daegu, so she was taken to Seongnam, 220 kilometers away.

"I was relieved when I entered the hospital room -- because at least there, I knew I wouldn't have died alone," she said.

The Shincheonji Church leader has apologized over its role in the spread of the disease but, despite her family's pleas, Song is resolute about staying a member.

"I'm never leaving my church, it doesn't matter what other people say."

Comes and goes in waves

"The best way to describe it is: when you are at a high altitude, you struggle to breathe," said Christine, 28, from South Africa, who suffers from syringomyelia, a disorder affecting the spinal cord.

Two days after being in contact with a sick work colleague, the analyst said she felt the first symptoms and COVID-19 was confirmed.

Her partner, lawyer Dawie, 30, could not take the test because "the system was already under a lot of pressure" but within a few days had the same symptoms.

Self-isolated, the couple who did not wish for their full names to be published, continue to work from home.

Sometimes they wondered if they were overreacting because some days they felt fine, Dawie said.

"Within days, it fluctuates. You get chilled and later on you feel better...The worst for me was last week... I was really short of breath... I called my doctor. She told me to look at the signs showing that I am not getting enough oxygen.

"You should look at your fingernails if they turn blue," he said.

Read also: 103-year-old Iran woman survives coronavirus: report

Despairing at home

French housewife and mother-of-three Djemila Kerrouche said the worst part was the challenge her three children faced continuing their school work while confined at home.

After developing symptoms, she wore gloves and a mask at home and didn't touch food, she said, but two of the children -- who are aged six, 11 and 19 -- were already coughing.

"My children put themselves under great pressure, they want to succeed at school," said the 47-year-old from Mulhouse in eastern France, which has been badly hit by the pandemic.

"Their teachers give them work as if the situation were normal," she said.

"The big one is preparing for her bac (end of secondary school exam) and I see her cry when she can't manage and I can't hold her in my arms, console her, help her."

"My moral is rock bottom. I can't stop crying..."

Shock and solitude

Marisol San Roman, a sociologist and student from Argentina, said she was shocked to find she had the virus and described the "total solitude" of being infected.

She is thought to have caught COVID-19 at a farewell dinner in Madrid after the closure of the Instituto de Empresa business school where she was studying, before returning home to Argentina.

"I'm 25, I'm young, I'm in good health -- it's mad," she said, expressing her shock.

Her 65-year-old father with whom she lives avoided her, leaving her food at the door of her room.

On her own, she treated a lung infection and gauged the oxygen saturation rate in her blood. "Coronavirus is an illness which is lived in solitude, in total solitude," she said.

Her case went viral after she gave Skype interviews to the media, and she said she received several insults via social media for having returned to the country when she was carrying the virus.

She has tried to stop the stigmatization associated with having it, she said.

On her Instagram account she writes of wanting to be a kind of social conscience, warning people to be aware, that "this isn't a joke, being young doesn't immunize you against anything and that the coronavirus isn't flu".

Sharing our experience with others

Entrepreneurs Julia, 27, and Megan, 35, wanted to share what they went through to help others after being among the 50 first cases recorded in South Africa.

They caught the virus, with three other family members, on a ski trip to Switzerland, probably in a bar.

The two women, who didn't want their full names published, are behind the @livingcoronapositive Instagram account, which documents their recovery, responds to questions and aims to "bring some light and positivity to this dark time".

They all experienced different versions of the symptoms; some mild, others lasted a week, they said.

On testing, they said, "having a large earbud stuck down the back of your nose is not pleasant but it's quick".

And their advice, said Megan, is to remember that "stress, anxiety and panic are normal human reactions to something as massive and unknown as this pandemic! So please be kind to your loved ones who feel out-of-control. They need your love and reassurance."

Anger

Frenchman Charlie Barres, 29, works in hospitals in his job as a physical educator and worries about the added strain the pandemic is putting on the health system.

"Warnings about the state of the system don't date from yesterday. Not so long ago, the caregivers were on strike... And now, it's blowing up. At the same time, we're on a disaster footing in hospitals," he said.

Married and with a two-year-old son, he was confined at his Paris home after the disease began with chills and a sore throat.

A doctor diagnosed him. "The tests are expensive and they keep them for the complex cases," he said.

After two days of feeling bad, he began to improve gradually. His son has been ill and his wife suffered headaches and a bad throat, he said.

Patient zero

Thirty-three year-old Lorena's aunt was Ecuador's "patient zero", who had returned from holiday in Spain to a family welcome home party with about 30 people in late February in the southwestern city of Babahoyo.

"Already on her arrival she wasn't well... She told us she had felt feverish during the trip and that a lot of people were coughing" on the plane, Lorena, a teacher, said.

Her 71-year-old aunt was hospitalized in Guayaquil, the epicenter of Ecuador's outbreak, and the virus was confirmed a week later.

When the family, themselves isolated and tested, then saw now former health minister Catalina Andramuno announce five coronavirus cases during a press conference on TV, they realized "it was us!', Lorena said.

Her aunt later died, and a dozen family members were infected, including Lorena, who has now recovered.
In 2011, amid controversy over the euro zones bailouts for Greece and other casualties, Germanys head of state, President Christian Wulff, did what German politicians  and, even more so, a German president  are not meant to do. He said the unsayable:

Solidarity is the core of the European Idea, but it is a misunderstanding to measure solidarity in terms of willingness to act as guarantor or to incur shared debts. With whom would you be willing to take out a joint loan, or stand as guarantor? For your own children? Hopefully yes. For more distant relations it gets a bit more difficult . . .

The unsayable is even more unsayable when it is true. Brussels may look down on the nation-state as dangerous anachronism, but it is, however imperfectly, a family in a way that the EU is not. The European family did not exist in 2011, and it does not exist in 2020. None of this is to deny that there is a certain degree of fellow-feeling among the EUs citizens, but for most of them, it only goes so far, which was Wulffs point. To Bavarians, Saxons are family in a way that Greeks are not.

This simple, unsayable fact is at the root of the dysfunction that was baked into the euro from the very beginning. The single currency was wildly premature on any number of grounds, but to launch the euro without some elements of a fiscal union to underpin it added recklessness to arrogance. Those, at least in Brussels, in charge of the project would doubtless have preferred just such an addition both politically and economically, but there was not enough national support for that, not least in Germany, the country that was key to the credibility of the new currency. There were plenty of good reasons for that resistance (the mistake was to proceed regardless), but one of the most significant was the unwillingness of some countries to pool, even if only partially (and/or contingently), financial risk with fellow member-states they did not trust to run their own affairs responsibly. Being on the hook for feckless Uncle Georg would be hard enough to swallow, but second cousin (once removed) Giorgio, well, no.

Story continues

When, as it was always going to, the euro-zone crisis finally erupted, the same issues arose, but the pre-existing distrust was reinforced by the cavalier manner in which the early rescue effort was arranged. As the Wall Street Journal reported at the time, the thenFrench finance minister, Christine Lagarde, was quoted as saying this:

We violated all the rules because we wanted to close ranks and really rescue the euro zone . . . The Treaty of Lisbon was very straight-forward. No bailout.

Lagarde went on to run the IMF, weathered a conviction for criminal negligence , and is now the president of the European Central Bank.

The euro zones rescue systems were soon put on a sounder legal footing, but the lack of trust that had characterized the debate over the single currencys establishment resurfaced during the discussions over bailouts intended to preserve it. The more financially disciplined states, generally in the euro zones north, felt that, despite repeated assurances that this could never happen, they were now being compelled to bail out the improvident. They were right. Meanwhile the countries in receipt of assistance believed that it was being delivered on terms that did not reflect the economic reality of what they were facing. And for the most part they were right too.

These divisions have not gone away. Indeed, the bailouts strengthened suspicions in the north concerning any sort of fiscal union (except under terms that the south would find unpalatable), suspicions that extend to the issue of eurobonds (in this sense), bonds that would be guaranteed by the euro zones members as a whole, and thus carry a lower rate of interest than government debt issued, say, by Italy alone. Even with some of the safeguards that have, on various occasions, been proposed should be built into such bonds, Germany and its allies have continued to reject them, fearing that, safeguards or no safeguards, they would end up being required to chip in. Precedent would suggest that their concerns are justified:

We violated all the rules.

And then along comes COVID-19, which (as I write) has hit Italy hardest of all the euro-zone countries. Human tragedy is being amplified still further by economic distress: The country has never recovered from its decision to join a currency union for which it was fundamentally ill-suited. Burdened by unimpressive productivity and high government indebtedness, it could no longer devalue its way out of difficulty with the lira gone. Italy was thus in trouble even before the devastation inflicted during the euro-zone crisis, devastation that has yet to be fully repaired. Expressed in constant terms, its GDP per capita was (before COVID-19) roughly at 2009 levels, and some distance below where it stood in 2002. Anyone trying to understand the rise of Italian populism (and growing euroskepticism) in this century can start there. Its true that by last year, banks were superficially in better shape than a decade ago (low bar), but their holdings of Italian government debt have actually risen again, reviving concerns of a doom loop (or, to put it less politely but less melodramatically, that the Italian state and the countrys banking system are two drunks propping each other up). Italys debt/GDP ratio is now around 135 percent; Germanys is approximately 60 percent.

COVID-19 (and the measures to combat it) have shut down large swaths of the Italian economy, and, like an immuno-suppressed patient, it is in no state to resist. Just under a week ago, the Italian economy minister was expecting the countrys GDP would fall by 6 percent, but a banking or debt crisis would make that forecast look optimistic.

Italy is not Greece. Greece was small enough to be bailed out, but the decision to do so was bolstered by fears that the wider economic and political cost of a Greek departure from the euro zone would be too great to bear. As the euro zone is managed today, however, Italy, the third largest EU economy, is both too big to fail and too big to bail out.

This would be a conundrum at the best of times, and, for the EU, these are not the best of times. Although the political cost/benefit analysis of Brexit to the EU is not straightforward, ever closer union has now been definitively been rejected by a major European state. Whats more, while its relationship with euroskepticism is more complicated than is often portrayed, the rise in populism within the EU is hard to square with how the union is currently run. And it is not going away any time soon. Nor will the boost that populism derives from discontent over mass immigration, which may well be sharpened yet again if COVID-19 wreaks havoc in the Middle East and Africa. As it is, the coronavirus has, at least temporarily, brought border controls back between countries from which they were supposed to have been largely consigned to the past. And then, of course, there are the tensions between the EUs governing elite and the Polish and Hungarian governments . . .

Predicting the demise of the euro is unwise. Designed to be irreversible, the single currency combines the qualities of vampire, cockroach, and remarkably effective blackmailer. Fear of the economic chaos that could follow its unraveling remains an even better guarantee of its survival than any ideologically driven insistence that ever closer union means what it says.

The most feasible way out of this mess  and its no magic bullet  would, as it has been for years, be either Germanys exit from the euro or the division of the euro into northern and southern units. But those options apparently remain off the table. If that continues to be the case, all thats left is a disorderly break-up (which would be very disorderly indeed), an Italian exit (which, whether forced or unilateral, would mean a cascade of debt defaults across Italy and beyond), or an agreement on some sort of joint funding mechanism for Italy arranged through the euro zone.

The European Central Bank has massively increased quantitative easing, announcing the purchase of up to 750bn in private- and public-sector debt, but even with other moves being taken at the national level , this is unlikely to be sufficient to dig Italy and others out of the even deeper hole into which COVID-19 has pushed them.

So far, the leadership of the euro zones frugal four  Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland  still opposes the issue of any joint debt instrument by the euro zone, even a (supposedly) one-off Coronabond designed to help countries most badly battered by COVID-19, partly out of anxiety that they will end up picking up much of the tab. And it would also be foolish to discount their fear that agreeing to such a bond issue would represent a significant slide down the slippery slope to a fiscal union that would, in the end (even if only as a matter of fact rather than law), act as a transfer union, under which the north would be transferring taxpayer funds to the south  in perpetuity.

So, whats the next step? Both Angela Merkel and Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte have suggested that they would be open to channeling funding through the ESM (the European Stability Mechanism), the euro zones permanent bailout mechanism, but the strict conditions that could come with that  conditions that could (again, as precedent has shown) choke off or delay any real recovery in the borrowers economy  do not make it the most appetizing option for Italy, say, or Greece. But there are signs that the frugal four may be preparing to blink and accept that the ESM could be used to disperse the money with only limited conditionality. On Monday, Merkel, a politician not known for her original thinking, took refuge in the comfort of a familiar refrain:

The answer can only be: More Europe, a stronger Europe and a well-functioning Europe.

Translation: She has learnt nothing.

Translation: Concessions on the way.

However, throwing the ESM at the problem will not, I suspect, be enough to see the economies of Italy and other euro-zone members most badly hit by the coronavirus safely out of the ruin that COVID-19 will leave behind. Eventually (and only after a lot of shouting) some form of Eurobond  Coronabond, call it what you will  seems inevitable. The ratchet of integration will turn another notch.

The notion of a beneficial crisis is a well-used and effective part of the Brussels toolkit. Speaking in 2010, Jose Manuel Barroso, then the EUs top bureaucrat, had this to say:

Once again, we can see that a crisis can accelerate decision-making when it crystallizes political will. Solutions that seemed out of reach only a few years or even months ago are now possible.

In this case, the beneficial virus will probably be helping out too.

More from National Review
U.S. officials warned Sunday of a difficult upcoming week as the nation deals with the toll of the coronavirus outbreak.

"This is going to be the hardest and saddest week of most Americans' lives, quite frankly," U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told "Fox News Sunday." "This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only its not going to be localized. It's going to be happening all over the country."

President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters at an evening briefing, expressed some optimism, saying there is a "light at the end of the tunnel," while noting the difficult circumstances that lay ahead.

"The next week and a half, two weeks are going to be, I think they're going to be very difficult," Trump said. "At the same time, we understand what they represent and what that time represents. And hopefully we can get this over with, because this is a very horrible thing for the world."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, highlighted that stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines take time to show their effects.

"What you're hearing about potential light at the end of the tunnel doesn't take away from the fact that tomorrow, the next day, are going to look really bad," Fauci said.
There have been reports of more people on the streets, particularly in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA)

Ireland has recorded its highest daily toll in the coronavirus outbreak, with 36 deaths reported in 24 hours.

A total of 210 people have died in Ireland so far in the pandemic. There were 345 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 reported on Tuesday, taking the total to 5,709.

The latest deaths were announced by chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan as he expressed concern at reports of more people on the streets, particularly in Dublin, ahead of the Easter holiday weekend.

A two-week lockdown on movement in Ireland  with people only allowed to leave their homes in limited circumstances  is due to end on Sunday.

It is widely anticipated the measures will be extended.

Dr Holohan said it was unlikely that the team would recommend to the Government that the restrictions should be relaxed.

His comments echoed remarks by Health Minister Simon Harris, who earlier on Tuesday said a sudden departure from the current coronavirus restrictions was highly unlikely.

Government ministers were briefed on the latest developments on Covid-19 at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

Asked about reports of increasing numbers on the streets at the daily media briefing by members of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), Dr Holohan said: I would share the concern that maybe we need to continue to see high levels of compliance with the measures that are in place.

Weve reported to you a number of deaths thats higher than any numbers weve given to you previously.

The disease is still here, it still represents a risk to the population, there is still transmission of this disease happening in a way that gives us concern, the epidemic is growing day on day  albeit at levels lower than it was in the earlier stages  but were not at a point yet where we think that were ready as a society to step back from the collective effort that weve had in place.

We can understand the effect of the upcoming holidays and bank holiday weekend and good weather and maybe a little bit of fatigue with some of the measures that are in place can have on the population, but I think our message is a clear one  we want people to stay the course with us.

And we think its important that we continue to, as it were, double down on the measures that are in place to really ensure that we can get the most out of the restrictions that are in place, in terms of the extent to which we can interrupt transmission of this virus.

Mr Holohan also dismissed an academic study in the US that suggested that Ireland may have already experienced the infection peak and that the overall number of deaths could be limited to 400.

Expand Close Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan (Nick Bradshaw/The Irish Times) / Facebook

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That simply isnt true, its not reliable, he said.

Thats not something that people should either listen to or rely upon.

The chief medical officer said while Dublin was being hardest hit by the disease that was not reason to introduce tighter controls in the city. He said most large cities in Europe had also reported large numbers of cases.

We think the disease is growing at roughly similar rates in all parts of the country so we dont think that there would be justification in selectively focusing on Dublin, he said.

The NPHET will make a formal recommendation to the Government on extending the measures on Friday.

At this minute in time it doesnt look likely that well be recommending lifting those restrictions, said Dr Holohan.

Earlier, Minister Harris said: Well get the formal advice later in the week but I believe in being truthful and honest with people in this regard.

I think that any kind of sudden departure from the existing restrictions is highly unlikely, particularly when we know theyre working.

We are not going to do anything as a government that will in any way jeopardise the lives and wellbeing of Irish people. We have got to stay the course.

More than 850,000 people are claiming unemployment benefits due to the coronavirus crisis which has left many business struggling across Ireland.

Figures show hundreds of thousands of people are receiving the new Covid-19 pandemic unemployment benefit as well as those who are registered for the wage subsidy scheme.

Tanaiste Simon Coveney said that the country was facing extraordinary challenges.

I think its clear that the aftermath of Covid-19, Ireland post-crisis will be a different place, Mr Coveney said.

The role of community will be different, the role of the State in terms of its relationship with the private sector will be different.

Nobody should fool themselves that actually recovering from this is going to be easy.

There are 730,000 people today without a job.

Theres 130,000 people today with the State paying 70% of their wages and all of that has happened in the space of about three weeks.

We have never faced anything like this as a country before, so its not going to be easy.

Expand Close Tanaiste Simon Coveney briefing the media on the latest measures Government departments have introduced in response to Covid-19 (Leon Farrell Photocall Ireland) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Tanaiste Simon Coveney briefing the media on the latest measures Government departments have introduced in response to Covid-19 (Leon Farrell Photocall Ireland)

Mr Coveney also said the Department of Foreign Affairs has helped some 4,600 Irish citizens return home.

The department has assisted just under 500 Irish citizens home on rescue flights or charter flights that were organised by other EU member States or by the UK.

We will continue to work with Irish people right across the world, he told RTEs Sean ORourke show.

Our call centre has taken over 16,000 calls. The aviation industry has been turned on its head.

The Tanaiste also said not every Irish citizen who wants to come home will be able to do so, but added that his department will work with them to try and arrange a flight.

He said a lot of Irish citizens remain in Australia and New Zealand.

The NPHET is also considered childcare provisions for healthcare workers.

Creches and schools were closed last month, leaving many healthcare workers with no childcare.

On Monday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government is working on childcare for healthcare workers during the emergency, but it needs to be cleared by the NPHET.
Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday hes extending the public-health emergency he declared in New Jersey over the coronavirus outbreak by 30 days.

Murphy declared both a state of emergency and a public-health emergency on March 9 as the pandemic was beginning to spread in New Jersey.

The state of emergency remains in place indefinitely, but the governor said the public-health emergency expires after 30 days. Thus, it was set to expire Wednesday.

The executive order he signed Tuesday will keep it in place until at least early May.

We want to make sure this continues our current footing, Murphy said at the Trenton War Memorial during his daily coronavirus press briefing.

The emergency orders came about two weeks before Murphy signed a separate order for New Jersey residents to stay at home and practice social distancing and for non-essential businesses to close. Those remain in place indefinitely.

Murphy said Tuesday this is going to require many more weeks, at least, of us staying smart and staying at least 6 feet apart. He said the state is not even close to lifting those restrictions.

Everybody watching: Stay at home," Murphy said. "I hate to break peoples bubbles, but were just not close.

The governor added that he spoke with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont about preparing a possible regional approach to testing, tracking, and reopening businesses and schools  but he stressed we are not there yet.

A state of emergency gives state authorities certain executive powers and safeguards to respond to a crisis. It also allows the state to receive federal aid.

A public-health emergency allows the governor to take action under the Emergency Health Powers Act. The order Murphy signed Tuesday extending it also extends all actions taken by any department of New Jerseys executive branch in response to the virus, the governors office said.

New Jersey  a state of 9 million residents  now has at least 44,416 cases and at least 1,232 deaths, Murphy announced Tuesday.

Thats more than any U.S. state but New York and more than all but eight countries. Federal officials have identified New Jersey as a coronavirus hotspot in America.

Murphy said Monday that New Jersey could see its peak number of cases between April 19 and May 11, while the peak number of hospitalizations could come between April 10 and April 28. Officials said under a best-case scenario, the states total number of cases would peak at 86,000.

But that, officials said, is only if New Jerseyans continue practicing social distancing.

We dont need to, nor do we want to, lose any more members of our family, Murphy said Tuesday. The best way we can protect this New Jersey family is by social distancing.

The governor has said the effects of the pandemic will likely spill meaningfully into the summer.

EDITORS NOTE: This post has been updated to clarify that Murphy extended the public health emergency. The state of emergency remains in place indefinitely.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01.

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[April 07, 2020] Financial Analytics Market Trends and Growth Opportunities, 2020-2025 - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "Financial Analytics Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global financial analytics market is currently witnessing strong growth. Looking forward, the market is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 8.5% during 2020-2025. The rising trend of digitization, along with the increasing adoption of cloud computing across the globe, is among the key factors driving the growth of the market. Various medium- and large-scale organizations are adopting FA solutions for efficient financial planning and budgeting. FA solutions also aid in tracking customer behavior and monitoring revenue generation and expenses, along with the optimum utilization of resources. Furthermore, the integration of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) with FA is also providing a boost to the market growth, as they offer enhanced accuracy and resilience of financial decisions, along with risk mitigation and fraud detection capabilities. Additionally, the growing need to process large amounts of unstructured information for making data-driven organizational decisions is also contributing to the growth of the market. Other factors, including advancements in the BI and big-data (BA) tools, the thriving BFSI industry, along with the growing retail and e-commerce sectors, are projected to drive the market further. Based on the type, database management system currently holds the majority of the market share. Based on the component, services currently hold the majority of the market share. Based on the vertical, BFSI currently holds the majority of the market share. Based on geography, North America currently represents the biggest market for financial analytics. The report has also analysed the competitive landscape of the market with some of the key players being Alteryx, Birst (News - Alert), Domo, Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO), Hitachi Vantara, IBM, Information Builders, Microsoft Inc., Oracle Corporation, Qlik, Rosslyn Analytics, SAP, SAS Institute, Teradata (News - Alert) Coporation, Tibco Software, Zoho Corporation, etc.



Key Questions Answered How has the global financial analytics market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What are the key regional markets in the global financial analytics industry?

What is the breakup of the market based on the type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the components?

What is the breakup of the market based on the application?

What is the breakup of the market based on the organization size?

What is the breakup of the market based on the verticals?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global financial analytics industry and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the market? Key Topics Covered

1 Preface 2 Scope and Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Introduction 4.1 Overview 4.2 Key Industry Trends 5 Global Financial Analytics Market 5.1 Market Overview 5.2 Market Performance 5.3 Market Forecast 6 Market Breakup by Type 6.1 Database Management System (DBMS) 6.2 Data Integration Tools 6.3 Query, Reporting & Analysis 6.4 Analytics Solutions 6.5 Others 7 Market Breakup by Component 7.1 Solutions 7.2 Services 8 Market Breakup by Application 8.1 Wealth Management 8.2 Governance, Risk & Compliance Management 8.3 Financial Forecasting & Budgeting 8.4 Customer Management 8.5 Transaction Monitoring 8.6 Stock Management 8.7 Others 9 Market Breakup by Organization Size 9.1 Large Enterprises 9.2 Small & Medium Enterprises 10 Market Breakup by Vertical 10.1 BFSI 10.2 Telecom & IT 10.3 Manufacturing 10.4 Government 10.5 Education 10.6 Others 11 Market Breakup by Region 11.1 North America 11.2 Asia-Pacific 11.3 Europe 11.4 Latin America 11.5 Middle East & Africa 12 SWOT Analysis 12.1 Overview 12.2 Strengths 12.3 Weaknesses 12.4 Opportunities 12.5 Threats 13 Value Chain Analysis 14 Porters Five Forces Analysis 14.1 Overview 14.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers 14.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 14.4 Degree of Competition 14.5 Threat of New Entrants 14.6 Threat of Substitutes 15 Competitive Landscape 15.1 Market Structure 15.2 Key Players 15.3 Profiles of Key Players 15.3.1 Alteryx 15.3.1.1 Company Overview 15.3.1.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.1.3 Financials 15.3.2 Birst 15.3.3 Domo 15.3.4 Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) 15.3.5 Hitachi Vantara 15.3.6 IBM 15.3.7 Information Builders 15.3.8 Microsoft (News - Alert) Corporation 15.3.9 Oracle Corporation 15.3.10 Qlik 15.3.11 Rosslyn Analytics 15.3.12 SAP SE 15.3.13 SAS Institute 15.3.14 Teradata Corporation 15.3.15 Tibco Software (News - Alert) 15.3.16 Zoho Corporation For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7loj62 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005684/en/

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Luminex is now able to provide SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic tests for both high-complexity, high-throughput reference labs and moderate complexity, sample-to-answer testing facilities

US based Luminex Corporation has announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for its ARIES SARS-CoV-2 Assay for rapid detection of the virus that causes COVID-19.

The assay runs on the ARIES System, an FDA-cleared, sample-to-answer, automated, on-demand molecular diagnostic platform. The system is capable of running up to 144 tests per day, requiring no specialty training and minimal human interaction.

"The ARIES SARS-CoV-2 Assay will allow hospital professionals to determine the appropriate course of treatment for patients suspected of having COVID-19 within approximately two hours," said Nachum "Homi" Shamir, President and CEO of Luminex. "We are grateful to the FDA for this Emergency Use Authorization, which allows us to bring another cost-effective SARS-CoV-2 test from Luminex to labs and patients in dire need of quick, accurate results. We are scaling up production of this assay over the next three weeks to support hundreds of labs across the US and the rest of the globe. These labs are already operating the ARIES System and should be able to get up and running very quickly as we make this test broadly available."

Luminex also launched the NxTAG CoV Extended Panel last week after receiving an EUA from the US FDA and Medical Device Authorization for importation or sale for Health Canada. The panel is a high-throughput, scalable, cost-effective option for detecting SARS-CoV-2 in as many as 96 samples in approximately four hours. To provide a more complete picture of a patient's respiratory health, the NxTAG CoV Extended Panel can also be run in parallel with the NxTAG Respiratory Pathogen Panel.

Luminex is actively supporting laboratories in the US, Asia, and Europe with their testing, and the company has expanded its manufacturing capacity to produce up to 200,000 ARIES SARS-CoV-2 tests per month, in addition to 300,000 NxTAG tests per month, with the majority of this capacity focused on SARS-CoV-2.
WFH for Private offices in Delhi, restaurants & bars to be shut as Omicron-led to sudden rise in Covid cases

Coronavirus outbreak: Indian-Americans in New York, New Jersey suffer COVID-19 outbreak

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

New Delhi, Apr 07: While several Indian Americans have tested positive for novel coronavirus, many have lost their lives during their battle to save their lives.

Though there is no confirmed count of those Indian-Americans being infected with the deadly virus, information that are available on several private media groups, claim that many are from New York and New Jersey.

Not to forget, these two States, that has the highest concentration of Indian-Americans in the United States, are the worst hit by the novel virus.

Coronavirus scare in Dharavi: How Mumbai is fighting the virus spread in Asias biggest slum

According to reports, it can be seen that several leaders have been receiving reports of their people testing positive. Also, veteran Indian-American journalist Brahm Kuchibhotla, on Monday night, breathed last at a New York hospital.

Several leaders from both, New York metropolitan and Greater Washington of Maryland and Virginia have tested positive. It can be seen that the majority of them decided to keep themselves self-quarantined while many of them have been admitted to hospitals.

Fake News Buster

Helpline in the two States receive several calls:

In the wake of COVID-19, Sewa International has been running a help-line where they are receiving several calls seeking help.

Meanwhile, in Silicon Valley, an Indian-American IT engineer has been tested positive along with his family members.

It is reportedly said that he was the only family member who ventured out and did grocery while his family members stayed indoor during the lockdown.

Coronavirus: UK PM Boris Johnson shifted to ICU

According to Johns Hopkins tracker, there are over 1.34 million confirmed coronavirus cases across the world and over 74,000 people died due to pandemic outbreak.

It can be seen that the US has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world at 364,723, followed by Spain (136,675), Italy (132,547) and Germany (102,453).
The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) is set to organise its first Arab Brazilian Chamber webinar tomorrow, it said in a statement.

ABCC has revealed completion of preparations for their first webinar, which will be streamed live on Wednesday, April 8, 2020 at 4:00 PM UAE time. The event, which is the first in a series of special meetings, will center on discussions under the topic Brazil and Arab Countries: the food supply chain, current perspectives and challenges, it added.

The event will feature top Arab and Brazilian officials including Tereza Cristina, Brazilian Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply; Khaled Hanafy, Secretary General, Union of Arab Chambers and Rubens Hannun, President, ABCC. The online discussion will be facilitated and moderated by Tamer Mansour, Secretary General and CEO, ABCC.

During the event, participants will tackle timely topics such as the supply of food and the challenges facing Brazil and the Arab countries, existing issues, good practices being embraced by different countries.

Rubens Hannun, President, ABCC, said: "We are looking forward to the success of our first ever Webinar, which reflects the ABCC's commitment towards connecting Arabs and Brazilians-- amidst the global crisis that we are all facing. However, food trade cannot stop by any means, and since Brazil is the biggest supplier to Arab countries, we have invited Minister Tereza Cristina to provide us with an overview of the industry to Arab businessmen. Agribusiness underpins Brazilian-Arab relations-- It is a sensitive issue that involves the entire supply chain. We are optimistic that this webinar will help increase comprehension and convey Brazils vision to businesses and governments in Arab countries."

The bilingual webinar will be made available to executives in Arab Chamber member companies in Brazil and Arab countries; Arab Chambers of Commerce; personnel from embassies in Brazil and Arab countries; officials in directly involved governments and the general public. The second webinar, which will focus on the logistics industry is in the works for the subsequent week.TradeArabia News Service
Director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, who is making a biopic on real-life couple - Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy and author Sudha Murthy, says it is a challenging task to work on a real life story.

The film, tentatively Murthy will be co-written by Shreyas Jain, Piyush Gupta and Ashwiny's husband, filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari.

Ashwiny said she was enamoured by the strong yet simple personality of the couple.

It is not only Sudha Murthy's film. There are two strong personalities Sudha and Narayan in the film. The working title is Murthy', the meaning of which is making a difference, Ashwiny told PTI.

The director feels happy to have been chosen to bring on screen an inspiring tale.

They are very simple people. They have done so much for society and country. I felt their story needs to be told. It so happened that I was chosen to tell the story. They met me and said, I am right to tell the story, my track record is good and that don't show any kissing scenes, she said.

The director, who has made films such as Nil Battey Sannata, Bareily Ki Barfi and Panga, said working on a biopic isn't easy.

We are still writing it. We want to focus on getting it correct on writing level. A biopic cannot be just written like a biopic, there has to be a good graph, there has to be a character sketch. If I do exactly like it is then it will be like a documentary. It is challenging. I will have to meet a lot of people and take their point of view in terms of their lives.

The Panga director said nothing has been finalised yet about the cast and crew for the film.

Besides this film, Ashwiny also has been signed by producer Ekta Kapoor for a film.

"I am co-producing it with her. We are almost done with writing then we will go to actors. It is a slice-of-life rom-com and will have my signature touch," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rival parties hit for 'more relief money' pledges



Both the ruling and opposition parties are inviting criticism for going too far in floating the idea of granting more "emergency disaster relief money" to more people. This suggests they are all too engrossed in wooing voters with populist campaign pledges ahead of the April 15 general election. It also gives the impression that they don't care about the country's fiscal health, but only about winning at the polls.



Hwang Kyo-ahn, chairman of the main opposition United Future Party (UFP), started the competition for the money provision. On Sunday, he proposed giving 500,000 won to every citizen to help them ride out the difficulties arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. His suggestion came after the government announced a plan to provide relief money for the bottom 70 percent income group.



His proposal, if implemented, will require 26 trillion won ($21 billion), much higher than the 7.1 trillion won for the government's plan. A four-member household could receive 2 million won in financial support under Hwang's proposal, compared with the 1 million won maximum set by the Moon Jae-in administration. In a nutshell, Hwang's idea is seen as the culmination of populism.



Hwang even betrayed the firm principle he and his conservative party have so far maintained, that the government should refrain from offering money directly to citizens. This represents a shift from his focus on fiscal soundness to bigger spending on the coronavirus relief program. How could he have made such an abrupt change overnight?



What's more serious is that the governing Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is also jumping on the bandwagon of populism. On Monday, DPK Chairman Lee Hae-chan suggested that the relief money should be granted to all the people regardless of their income level. If his proposal is adopted, the government needs an estimated 13 trillion won, 5.9 trillion won more than its original plan. Lee cannot deflect criticism that he and his party are also resorting to reckless and irresponsible campaign pledges. Simply put, the DPK is no different from the UFP in resorting to populism.



The ruling party has already come under attack for undermining electoral reform designed to make it easier for smaller parties to win proportional representation seats. It lambasted the UFP, which opposed the reform, for creating a satellite party to take up as many of those seats as possible. Then the DPK also set up its own satellite parties for the same purpose. Voters can hardly understand why the DPK pushed so adamantly for electoral reform.



It is also nonsense for the governing party to renege on its agreement with the government that they will provide the aid to 70 percent of the country's households, accounting for 35 million people. Breaking the agreement may boost the chances for an election win. But it will inevitably lose the public's trust.



We urge the rival parties not to cross the line. Instead they should play fair and square. They must make efforts to ensure populism finds no place in elections and politics.






Community, Charity & Cause

By Ls Cohen Published: April 07 2020

When medical workers arrived on Sunday to Stony Brook Hospital, they found the entrances chalked with positive sayings and words of appreciation.

Facing the prospect of infection every time they walk through the door - despite the use of PPEs, the care they take in sanitizing surfaces, washing hands, and keeping safe social distances whenever they can - there are many times when hospital workers must come in direct contact with infected patients and the threat of COVID-19 hangs over them everywhere inside the building.

The risk has become a part of their job and there are thousands of healthcare workers putting themselves in harms way across Long Island so the rest of us can be safe.

So, when Kathleen DiBenedetto, RN, arrived to Stony Brook Hospital on Sunday morning, there was no doubt she was feeling a twinge of what every frontline medical worker feels at the start of their shift.

I was feeling a little scared to go into the hospital, DiBenedetto told LongIsland.com.

But what she saw on arrival that day lifted her spirits.

Kathleen DiBenedetto, RN. Photo: Facebook.

On the brick walkway and concrete planters were chalked messages of hope and inspiration in brilliant colors. Some read Love to all frontliners, #LongIslandStrong, and The world needs you.

When I first saw them this morning it almost brought tears to my eyes, DiBenedetto said. To see the support written like that for us as we start our day, it felt empowering.

The idea came from the Child Life Services Department at Stony Brook Children's Hospital. The primary role of the specialists at Child Life Services is to support children and their families in the hospital going through a difficult time dealing with illness. But, according to Director Joan Alpers, they are sometimes called upon to help with other areas of the hospital.

This time, they used their skills to brighten the day of their fellow workers.

We were looking for ways to raise spirits and cheer on the team, said Alpers. Thats when they found out other hospitals were doing chalk drawings as well and thought it would be a great idea for Stony Brook Hospital.

Art Therapy Interns and Child Life Services specialists join forces to create inspiring art for fellow healthcare workers. Photo: Courtesy of Stony Brook Hospital.

So Alpers tasked Child Life Specialist Liz LaRosa to get the job done. She recruited three fellow specialists and three art therapy interns from Hofstra whose time at the hospital had been cut short this semester when all but essential employees were told to stay home.

We pulled together a team of people to do some really spirit-raising art, said LaRossa. The interns were anxious to come and help any way they could.

When the chalk they ordered didnt arrive from Amazon in time because of delays in deliveries, the team called upon a small charity for help. Williams Warriors is a non-profit dedicated to beating childhood cancer named for a 7-year-old Long Island boy who lost his life to brain cancer. Every year they host a Chalk the Walk event where participants do chalk drawings and raise money for cancer research and art therapy programs. Alpers and LaRossa reached out to the organization and they got the chalk they needed for their own project.

Watch a video below showing many of the chalked messages.

Video: Courtesy of Stony Brook Hospital.

Knowing they could do a really good job the team set to work and created a series of murals and chalk drawings that took four hours to complete. In the end they decorated the front entrance to the hospital and the rear entrance where many employees also come into the facility.

Their efforts did not go unnoticed.

The message that hit home the most for DiBenedetto was one that read, This too shall pass. It was something her father, a retired NYPD Captain, told her when she was going through a particularly hard time in her life.

It was so special, she said.

For healthcare workers on the frontlines of a war against an invisible enemy, the chalk drawings offered so much more than mere platitudes.

It made me feel like what I am doing matters, she said. And it's appreciated.

Alpers and LaRossa said that they were happy that their work helped to brighten the mood of their fellow healthcare workers on the frontlines.

It was our honor and privilege to help, said Alpers.

See all some more of the images below.

Photo: Kathleen DiBenedetto.

Photo: Kathleen DiBenedetto.

Photo: Kathleen DiBenedetto.

Photo: Kathleen DiBenedetto. Photo: Kathleen DiBenedetto.

Photo: Kathleen DiBenedetto.





Photo: Kathleen DiBenedetto. Photo: Kathleen DiBenedetto.

Mural made by interns and Child Life Specialists adorn the entranceway to Stony brook Hospital. Photo: Courtesy Stony Brook Hospital.
The latest novel coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Tuesday (this file will be updated throughout the day). Web links to longer stories if available:

9:50 p.m.: John Prine, one of Americas greatest songwriters, has died at age 73 from coronavirus complications, the New York Times reported.

His family posted a message on his official Twitter page on Sunday saying the singer had been hospitalized since Thursday and his condition worsened on Saturday. They added that hed been placed on a ventilator to treat COVID-19 symptoms.

9:15 p.m.: The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario is authorizing cannabis retail stores in the province to offer delivery and curbside pickup services.

Its a temporary measure that the commission says is being introduced to help fight illegal cannabis sales. The order will last for 14 days, with the possibility of an extension.

Authorized cannabis stores will be able to sell, deliver and offer curbside pickup from Monday to Sunday, between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. A maximum of 30 grams of dried cannabis (or equivalent) per transaction remains in place. And cannabis cannot sold or delivered to anyone under 19 or who appears to be intoxicated, the commission says.

The AGCO added that it will not issue new store authorizations until the governments emergency order has been lifted.

8:16 p.m.: Global Affairs Canada has confirmed to the Star that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Marta Morgan has tested positive for COVID-19.

The deputy is exhibiting mild symptoms and is in good spirits. She is in regular contact with local health officials and is self-isolating for the duration of the illness, a spokesperson for Global Affairs told the Star.

Global Affairs Canada has therefore put in place appropriate measures, including contact tracing, to advise and protect employees, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to conduct the important work that we do to advance Canadian interests.

The revelation, initially reported by Global News, comes on the same day that stranded Canadians from India, Trinidad and Tobago made their way back to Canada thanks to flights facilitated by Global Affairs.

A spokesperson for Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois-Philippe Champagne said Champagne will continue to follow the advice of public health officials and self-monitor for symptoms.

Champagne said on Tuesday that the hard work of Canadas consular officials around the world has helped facilitate the return home of thousands of Canadians.

Unfortunately, it will not be possible to ensure the return of all Canadians who wish to come home, Champagne said. Global Affairs Canada will continue providing advice and support to Canadians outside Canada.

8:06 p.m.: Alberta will most likely see a peak of coronavirus infections in mid-May and somewhere between 400 and 3,100 deaths by the end of summer, as the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold of the province.

Those are the projections put forward by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney on Tuesday night as he became the latest provincial leader to publicly lay out the probable and worst-case scenarios of the pandemic.

During a televised address to the province, Kenney said it was time for complete candour.

6:49 p.m.: In a press conference on Tuesday evening, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested he may look into freezing the countrys contributions to the World Health Organization.

"Im not saying Im going to do it, but we are going to look at it, Trump said.

5:35 p.m. (updated at 9:10 p.m.): New York Citys death toll from the coronavirus rose past 4,000 on Tuesday, eclipsing the number killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

COVID-19s toll in New York City is now more than 1,000 deaths higher than that of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil, which killed 2,753 people in the city and 2,977 overall, when hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

New York state recorded 731 new coronavirus deaths, its biggest one-day jump yet, for a statewide toll of nearly 5,500, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

A lot of pain again today for many New Yorkers, he said.

But in an encouraging sign, the governor said hospital admissions and the number of those receiving breathing tubes are dropping, indicating that measures taken to force people to keep their distance from one another are succeeding.

5:15 p.m.: Ontario has seen more than 500 new cases of COVID-19 and 25 more deaths Tuesday, according to the Stars latest count of the public tallies and press releases issued by the provinces 34 regional health units.

As of 5 p.m., with several still yet to post a daily update, the health units were reporting a total of 5,637 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, including 190 deaths.

The largest increase in deaths came in Toronto, where Medical Officer of Health Eileen de Villa announced another 10 people had died of the disease, bring the citys total to 42 since the beginning of the pandemic. Elsewhere, new COVID-19 deaths were reported in Durham region; Haldimand-Norfolk; the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ride district; Leeds, Grenville and Lanark; Middlesex-London; Waterloo Region; Windsor-Essex and York region.

According to the province, 614 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 233 in intensive care. Both numbers have grown in recent days.

An additional 1,802 people have recovered after being infected.

The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of deaths  153  may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in its reporting system.

The local health units websites are updated throughout the day. The Stars count includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test.

4:45 p.m.: Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg, who is in charge of the citys emergency operations centre, says they are assessing whether anyone who received defective surgical masks has been exposed to COVID-19.

The city is recalling the shipment of 4,000 boxes containing 50 masks per box, worth $200,000. The masks were made in China. About 62,600 masks were distributed to the citys long-term care homes on March 26.

Pegg said its the only bad shipment the city has had to date, to his knowledge. City medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa didnt have a number for how many long-term care homes received the masks.

Pegg also said there were 385 complaints Monday about people using closed parks and lack of physical distancing, with 12 tickets issued, for a total of 26 tickets handed out.

4:30 p.m.: Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says while Alberta has the medical capacity to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic impact will be crippling, with at least 25 per cent unemployment in the province  at least half a million unemployed, The Canadian Press reports.

This will be the most challenging period in our economy in relative terms since the Great Depression, he told an online conference of oil and gas leaders.

Kenney was to speak to Albertans in a televised address on Tuesday night, and to lay out plans to eventually re-energize an economy pummelled by the global recession and an oil price war.

3:15 p.m.: City of Toronto officials will give their daily briefing at 3:45 p.m. A livestream of their news conference will be available at thestar.com when it starts.

2:55 p.m.: The City of Toronto said it is recalling poor quality surgical masks distributed to staff. It was discovered Monday that a recently-purchased order of more than $200,000 worth of surgical masks didnt meet specifications, the city announced in a news release.

After reports of ripping and tearing, further inspection of the masks determined that the masks ordered did not meet the citys standard and specifications. The masks are being returned, and the vendor has committed to a full refund.

There were 40,000 boxes containing 50 masks per box were received. In addition, 1,252 boxes, or 62,600 masks, were distributed to the Citys long-term care homes on March 28.

The City is investigating to determine how many employees in the citys long-term care homes were caring for a patient while wearing these masks, and if there was possible exposure to COVID-19.

2:35 p.m.: The Canadian Grand Prix has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Montreal-based Formula One race was scheduled to take place June 12-14.

The announcement comes after F1 said it was working with promoters on a revised 2020 schedule.

2:10 p.m.: Manitoba is reporting 13 news cases of COVID-19 and one additional death. Twelve people are in hospital, six of whom are in intensive care.

The province has recorded totals so far of 217 cases  203 confirmed and 14 probable  three deaths and 21 people recovered.

1:45 p.m.: Whos still crowding into TTC buses amid the pandemic? Evidence suggests many are Torontos working poor. Read the story from the Stars Ben Spurr.

1:45 p.m. (updated): Quebec Premier Francois Legault says he has added someone new to the provinces list of essential services  the tooth fairy.

Legault played a short video during his daily briefing in Quebec City of a girl named Raphaelle asking whether the tooth fairy is allowed out and about during the pandemic.

He said the tooth fairy will continue working, and he assured parents the fairy has immunity against the novel coronavirus.

Earlier, Premier Doug Ford Premier said the Easter Bunny has been deemed an essential service in Ontario.

1:40 p.m.: There are two new cases of COVID-19 in New Brunswick today, increasing the provincial total to 105.

Chief medical officer Dr. Jennifer Russell says the latest cases are a person between the age of 10 and 19 and someone between the age of 70 and 79, which shows the virus can affect people of any age.

Russell is now recommending the use of non-medical face coverings when people go out in public.

1:22 p.m.: The largest and most popular park in Vancouver will become car-free by noon Wednesday as park officials move to ensure physical distancing.

Vancouver Park Board general manager Malcolm Bromley says cars will be banned from most roads in Stanley Park, allowing cyclists to use the routes.

Cyclists will be moved off the parks picturesque, 10-kilometre seawall, giving more room to walkers and joggers.

The goal is to keep all Vancouver parks open while permitting physical distancing but if the Stanley Park experiment fails, Bromley says the whole park could be closed, although he doubts that will be required.

1:15 p.m.: Quebec Premier Francois Legault says Quebec has recorded 29 additional COVID-19 deaths, bringing the total to 150.

There are now 9,340 confirmed cases of the disease in the province, an increase of 760 from Monday.

For the second straight day, the premier pointed to the low number of new cases requiring hospitalization as an encouraging sign.

The province is reporting 583 COVID-19 patients in hospital, an increase of 50, and 164 requiring intensive care, the same number as the previous day.

1:20 p.m.: Premier Doug Ford is opening a new online portal to get more health-care workers onto the front lines. Seeking retirees and others with medical training.

1 p.m.: Ford to update the media in his daily briefing. Check thestar.com for a livestream of the news conference.

12:39 p.m.: A long-term care home north of Montreal is reporting that 105 people at its facility have tested positive for COVID-19 and eight have died. A spokeswoman for the regional health authority says the facility in Laval decided to test all its residents last Friday to learn the size of the outbreak.

Judith Goudreau says the testing revealed 69 new cases among the 174 tested, in addition to the several dozen cases previously reported among residents and staff. Goudreau says 87 health-care employees are affected across Laval, however its unclear how many of those were associated with the care home.

12:38 p.m.: Newfoundland and Labrador has confirmed two more cases of COVID-19, bringing the provincial total to 228. The provinces chief medical officer of health, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, says the new cases are in the Central and Eastern health authorities.

Seven people are in hospital from the virus and two are in intensive care. The province has tested 3,958 people.

12:30 p.m.: Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand says Canada received eight million surgical masks from China on Monday, and orders made directly by Nova Scotia and Quebec were on board.

She says Canada expects more deliveries from China in the days to come.

She says Canada has sourced more than 230 million surgical masks, and over 60 million have been delivered to date.

Canada has also ordered 113,000 litres of hand sanitizer, most of which is expected to be delivered this month.

Roughly 20,000 litres of hand sanitizer have been received in the last 24 hours and officials are expecting another 20,000 litres this week.

12:25 p.m. (updated): Another resident at Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon, Ont., has died, bringing the total number of COVID-19 related deaths at the seniors residence to 27.

The wife of a resident also died from the disease in what is considered one of the worst outbreaks of the novel coronavirus in Canada.

Nearly half of the residents at the 65-bed nursing home have died, while at least 24 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19.

12:15 p.m.: Canadas chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says there are 17,063 COVID-19 cases across the country, 345 deaths, 346,000 people tested, with five per cent positive testing rate. There is one case in an Inuit community, which Tam says is very serious given heightened risk in those communities.

11:55 a.m.: The Canadian Football League is postponing the start of its 2020 season until the beginning of July due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commissioner Randy Ambrosie announced the postponement in a release, noting that some CFL cities have indicated they wont allow sporting events through the end of June.

Ambrosie said the league will try to play a full season, though significant changes will have to be made.

The CFL season was scheduled to start June 11 and finish with the Grey Cup game in Regina on Nov. 22.

11:50 a.m.: The ruling in the high-profile aggravated assault trial of an off-duty Toronto police officer and his brother has been delayed, amid widespread court closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Joseph Di Luca had originally been scheduled to release his ruling Thursday in the case of off-duty Toronto officer Michael Theriault and his brother, Christian Theriault.

Read more from the Stars Wendy Gillis.

11:40 a.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Huaweis donation of masks is appreciated but wont have any impact on how Ottawa deals with the company. Read the Stars Jeremy Nuttalls story from Monday on relations between Canada and China.

11:30 a.m.: Organizers have announced that the Toronto Fringe Festival has been cancelled due to COVID-19.

Ontarios largest performing arts festival, which brings over 1,100 artists and 140 shows together with 68,000 tickets issued each July, will be cancelled for the first time in its 32-year history. It was originally scheduled for July 1-12.

11:20 a.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces deals to put another 30,000 ventilators into production in Canada, on top of the 10,500 announced earlier. Canada has about 5,000 ventilators now.

Trudeau says the government has acted to have companies build as many ventilators as they can, as quickly as they can to meet domestic needs, as well to supply countries that dont have the capacity to build them.

11:15 a.m.: Nova Scotia has identified 17 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 310 confirmed cases. The province also recorded its first death from the virus earlier today.

Heath officials say the microbiology lab at the QEII Health Sciences Centres microbiology lab completed more than 530 tests Monday and is now operating 24 hours a day.

Health officials say 11 people are currently in hospital, while 66 people have now recovered and their cases of COVID-19 are considered resolved.

11:08 a.m. (updated): Trudeau is set to hold his daily media briefing at 11:15 a.m. A livestream of his news conference will be available at thestar.com when it begins.

11:06 a.m.: Ontarios local public health units are reporting 24 more COVID-19 deaths and 447 new cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Stars latest count.

As of 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, Ontarios 34 public health units are reporting a total of 5,306 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19, including 173 deaths, up 9.2 per cent and 16.1 per cent, respectively, since the same time Monday.

New deaths were reported in Windsor-Essex, York Region, and Haldimand-Norfolk, south of Hamilton, early Tuesday. With two more deaths reported Tuesday morning, York Region has now seen 19 confirmed patients die since the pandemic began.

According to the province, 614 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 233 in an intensive care unit. Both numbers have grown steadily in recent days.

The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of deaths  153  may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in its reporting system.

The Stars total is based on public tallies and press releases posted to the local health units websites, which are updated throughout the day. The count includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test.

11 a.m.: Ontario is reporting that there are now 614 people in the province hospitalized with COVID-19, with 233 of them in intensive care and 187 of those people on ventilators.

There are at least 51 long-term care homes in Ontario with one or more cases of COVID-19, and there have been at least 69 deaths in those institutions.

More than 500 health-care workers in the province have tested positive, representing about 11 per cent of all of the confirmed cases in Ontario.

9:54 a.m.: Stocks climbed in early trading on Wall Street Tuesday as markets around the world piled on even more gains following their huge rally a day earlier.

The S&P 500 jumped more than 2.5 per cent in the first few minutes of trading and added on to Mondays seven per cent surge, following encouraging signs that the coronavirus pandemic may be close to levelling off in some of the hardest hit areas of the world.

The TSX was up 2.5 per cent in early trading.

9:15 a.m.: The Canada Revenue Agency says 788,510 people successfully applied Monday for pandemic-related emergency relief.

About 572,500 of the applications for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit were made online, while almost 215,800 applied by calling in.

The agencys figures capture from the time applications opened at 6 a.m. Monday until midnight. Hundreds of thousands more are expected to apply today and tomorrow for the $2,000-a-month benefit that is available for up to 16 weeks.

Heres the Stars guide on how to apply for CERB.

9:10 a.m.: Nova Scotia has recorded its first death related to COVID-19.

Health officials say a woman in her 70s with underlying medical conditions died Monday in a hospital in eastern Nova Scotia.

Premier Stephen McNeil issued a brief statement saying he had hoped this day would never come, and he expressed his condolences to the womans grieving family and friends.

8:45 a.m.: Two staff members at two separate Longos locations  one at 9200 Weston Road and one at 2810 Major Mackenzie Drive  have tested positive for COVID-19 according to statements by the City of Vaughan and Longos. York Region Public Health has followed up with the cases and has identified anyone they might have come into contact with. Neither person is currently working in the stores.

8:25 a.m.: The number of patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario ICUs continued to grow over the past week, but at a slower daily growth rate than the week before, according to provincial data. That doesnt mean were out of the woods. The Stars Kenyon Wallace and Andrew Bailey has the story.

7:45 a.m. Singapore is considering new laws that would ban both public and private gatherings of any size as the city-state ramps up social distancing measures to fight the coronavirus, said health minister Gan Kim Yong. Laws debated during Parliament on Tuesday would criminalize gatherings among friends or family members who are not living together  and apply to private quarters or public spaces such as parks, according to a copy of his speech received by email.

The proposed clampdown on meetings comes on a day when the city-state closed most workplaces, except for essential services and key economic sectors. Its also moving to fully home-based learning in schools. Local transmissions of the coronavirus and unlinked infections have continued to rise in the country in recent weeks.

7:35 a.m. Hospital doctors staged protests around Greece to press demands for the government to hire additional medical staff and use more resources from the private sector. Doctors and other staff members led the silent demonstrations Tuesday at the front entrance of Greeces largest hospital in central Athens, wearing surgical and protective gear.

Holding up banners reading We fight for you. Shout for us, the doctors said more resources were needed to deal with the pandemic in Greece. The national coronavirus death toll reached 79 on Monday and still remains below the number of fatalities attributed to seasonal flu.

5:08 a.m.: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared an emergency for Tokyo and its surrounding regions, after a recent surge in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the metropolis sparked alarm.

The one-month emergency period from April 7 will cover Osaka, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Hyogo and Fukuoka prefectures as well as the capital.

5:06 a.m.: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has spent the night in the intensive care unit of a London hospital with the new coronavirus, but is not on a ventilator, a senior government minister said Tuesday.

Johnson was admitted to St. Thomas Hospital late Sunday, 10 days after he was diagnosed with COVID-19, the first major world leader to be confirmed to have the virus. He was moved to the ICU Monday after his condition deteriorated.

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said Johnson is being given oxygen but the prime minister is not on a ventilator.

Gove said Johnson is receiving the very, very best care from the team at St Thomas and our hopes and prayers are with him and with his family.

Were desperately hoping that Boris can make the speediest possible recovery, Gove said.

Johnsons fiancee, Carrie Symonds, who is pregnant, is herself recovering from coronavirus symptoms.

Britain has no official post of deputy prime minister, but Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been designated to take over temporarily.

4:26 a.m.: Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan filed a criminal complaint against a Fox TV anchorman for suggesting the government might require citizens to dig into their bank accounts to help battle the coronavirus fallout.

The president sued Fatih Portakal for spreading lies and manipulating the public on social media, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Tuesday. The nations banking regulator also filed a complaint against Portakal for social media posts about the Turkish banking and finance system.

4 a.m. (updated at 6:40 p.m.): There are 17,896 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada as of 6:20 p.m. as compiled by The Canadian Press.

Quebec: 9,340 confirmed (including 150 deaths, 720 resolved)

Ontario: 4,726 confirmed (including 153 deaths, 1,802 resolved)

British Columbia: 1,291 confirmed (including 43 deaths, 805 resolved)

Alberta: 1,373 confirmed (including 26 deaths, 447 resolved)

Nova Scotia: 310 confirmed (including 1 death, 66 resolved)

Saskatchewan: 260 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 88 resolved)

Newfoundland and Labrador: 228 confirmed (including 2 deaths, 49 resolved)

Manitoba: 203 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 21 resolved), 14 presumptive

New Brunswick: 105 confirmed (including 30 resolved)

Prince Edward Island: 22 confirmed (including 8 resolved)

Repatriated Canadians: 13 confirmed

Yukon: 7 confirmed (including 4 resolved)

Northwest Territories: 4 confirmed (including 1 resolved)

Nunavut: No confirmed cases

Total: 17,896 (14 presumptive, 17,882 confirmed including 381 deaths, 4,041 resolved)

3:44 a.m.: Irans Parliament reconvened on Tuesday for the first time since Feb. 25, when it shut down due to the new coronavirus, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. More than two-thirds of the Majliss 290 lawmakers met in the absence of speaker Ali Larijani, who tested positive for the virus last week, the report said.

With 3,739 deaths from 60,500 known cases, Iran remains the epicentre of coronavirus in the Middle East. Two of the dead were members of Parliament.

3:33 a.m.: South Korea says it will soon announce a guideline for hospitals on experimental coronavirus treatments using donated blood from patients who survived. Kwon Jun-wook, an official from South Koreas Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday the guideline will draw from the countrys experience with similar treatments on patients who contracted the MERS virus during an outbreak in 2015.

Kwon said officials were examining recent recoveries of two elderly COVID-19 patients at a hospital in Seoul who had been infused with survivors plasma  the liquid part of blood that contains antibodies  after other treatment attempts failed to improve their conditions.

He cautioned theres still no guarantee that plasma treatment will work, and that health authorities and civilian experts are continuing to debate its effectiveness.

1:50 a.m.: New Zealands health minister has described himself as an idiot and has been stripped of some responsibilities after breaching the countrys planned four-week lockdown measures.

David Cook drove about 20 kilometres to the beach to take a walk with his family. He said that at a time when the government was asking New Zealanders to make historic sacrifices by staying at home, he had let them down.

Ive been an idiot, and I understand why people will be angry with me, he said in a statement.

Clark had earlier admitted to driving to a park near his home to go mountain biking.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said under normal circumstances, she would sack Clark. But she said the country couldnt afford massive disruption in its health sector while it was fighting the virus. Instead, she said, she was stripping Clark of his role as Associate Finance Minister and demoting him to the bottom of the cabinet rankings.

1:29 a.m.: For the first time since January, China said there were no new coronavirus deaths in the country with the toll remaining at 3,331 on April 6, 2020. The National Health Commission said there were 32 new cases, with all of them imported. China now has 81,740 confirmed cases and 77,167 patients have been discharged.

7:45 p.m.: 3M says it will continue to send its coveted N95 respirators to Canada after reaching an agreement with the White House to import millions of the increasingly scarce medical face masks from China for use in the United States.

The Minnesota-based company issued a release late Monday after President Donald Trump announced the company would be producing 166.5 million masks over the next few months for the U.S. market.

3M says it worked with the Trump administration to make sure it could meet soaring American demand for the N95 masks without sacrificing its ability to provide the life-saving equipment to customers in Canada and Latin America.

Trump picked a fight with 3M last week after hearing reports that the company was selling its masks outside the U.S. despite the fact there wasnt enough supply in the country to meet the needs of health-care workers battling COVID-19.

The president invoked the Defense Production Act to compel companies like 3M to prioritize domestic orders.

5:25 p.m.: Another 20 deaths from COVID-19 have been reported in Ontario so far Monday, according to the Stars latest count of the public tallies and press releases issued by the provinces 34 regional health units.

As of 5 p.m., with several yet to post a daily update, the health units were reporting a total of 5,102 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, including a total of 165 deaths  a total thats nearly four times higher than at this time last week.

Monday saw new deaths reported in several regions that have seen deadly outbreaks at long-term care or retirement homes, including Toronto, Durham region, Hamilton, Niagara region and the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit. Haliburton is the site of Ontarios worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic; three more residents of the Pinecrest Nursing Home were reported dead Monday.

In Toronto, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa on Monday said that 15 of the citys 32 COVID-19 deaths have come in long-term care or retirement homes.

As of Sunday morning, the province reports that a total of 1,449 patients have recovered after being infected by COVID-19.

The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of deaths  119  may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in its reporting system.

The local health units post new information to their websites throughout the day. The Stars count includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test.
As per a report of the Indian Institute of Public Health, Odisha has not yet entered the stage 3 of COVID-19 transmission, which is community transmission, Subroto Bagchi, the state government's spokesperson on COVID-19, said

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Monday said the state has not yet entered the community transmission stage of coronavirus outbreak, even as 27 of the 39 positive cases were reported from just two localities of the state capital.

As per a report of the Indian Institute of Public Health, Odisha has not yet entered the stage 3 of COVID-19 transmission, which is community transmission, Subroto Bagchi, the state government's spokesperson on COVID-19, said.

Chief Secretary AK Tripathy echoed Bagchi while confirming that the most of the cases were reported in Bomikhal and Surya Nagar localities in Bhubaneswar.

Of the 32 cases reported in Bhubaneswar, 19 were from Bomikhal of which 18 were from the same family, officials said.

Eight cases were reported from Surya Nagar area, of which three were from the same family. Five other coronavirus infected persons were tenants of a 60-year-old COVID-19 patient, they said.

Officials said that none of the patients had any travel history to abroad.

"When three brothers of a family with no foreign travel history tested positive for novel coronavirus, the administration feared that there might be community transmission of the disease.

"However, later it came to light that the three brothers had visited their father in Bhopal and contracted the disease from their father. Their family members got infected after the brothers returned to Bhubaneswar," the chief secretary said.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

Similarly, in Surya Nagar, the daughter of the family got infected while visiting Kolkata, the chief secretary said.

"There is local transmission in certain clusters of Bhubaneswar but there is no community transmission," Bagchi said.

He said these areas have been declared containment zones and are being sanitised to prevent further spread of the disease, he added.
Tuft University has brought together artificial intelligence and molecular biology together. The product of these fields is a kind of life unique to anything seen today. Xenobots are artificially created biological organisms that can be programmed to do specific tasks.

One dark spec---a Xenobot, was pointed by Biologist Douglas Blackiston. It was only slightly wider than a human hair but could be seen jolting around under a microscope. Dr. Blackiston exclaimed, the one that caught his attention was a lighter color.

What are Xenobots?

These virtual creatures do not have any major organs, such as reproductive or digestive organs, nor do they have brains or a nervous system. The sample under observation was made up of about 2,000 living frog embryo skin cells. The larger sized organisms contained skin cells and heart muscle cells that would later begin pulsing.

The creatures are programmable organisms and whose creation was made public through a scientific paper released in January. Named after the Xenophys laevis, an African clawed frog, which is the source of all their cells, encompasses the notion that something foreign is at work.

The life of a Xenobot lasts only about seven days, munching on small yolk platelets that make up its cells that would usually drive the development of the embryo. Due to the entirety of its structure being made of living cells, it can heal itself to an extraordinary extent, even if it is cut almost cleanly in half. What it uses its short life, however, is not based on its DNA, but by its physical appearance.

Read Also: Apple, No Longer Hack-Free? Hackers Can Now See and Hear Through iOS and macOS

These biological marvels come in different shapes and sizes designed by roboticists through computer simulations that utilize physics engines like those used in video games such as Minecraft and Fortnite.

The specimens that had fork or snow-plow like protrusions on their forward side can sweep up stray particles in the course of the night, collecting them in a single spot. Others had legs of the sort to stumble along the surface of the petri dish. Some could swim, and some could link themselves with each other.

Executing Tasks

In Vermont, Sam Kriegman, a graduate student at the University of Vermont, along with his adviser, Joshua Bongard, synthesized controlled environments where specific behaviors of the Xenobots would be rewarded.

The first was walking, where the best ones of the group were allowed to procreate to the next generation; among these, another generation followed, and so forth, all the while improving on their designs. In a different simulation, the task of carrying an object led to the evolution of donut-like bodies to take the item in.

After the day of experimentation, they were able to produce body shapes that were preprogrammed to accomplish specified tasks. The results of which were conveyed to Dr. Levin and Dr. Blackiston, who immediately started figuring out how to create cellular figurines of those designs. They coordinated the team from Tuft's University to continuously improve their experiments and models.

The team implied in their paper and press coverage at the possibilities the future could have with these fantastic creatures. Provide clean-up duty in the oceans, deliver essential medicines to distinct cells, or even administer extensive health care to our arteries.

After the course of their short lifespan, the artificial organisms would biodegrade after using up all the yolk of their cells. Though designed by engineering means, they have evolved through natural processes encouraged to a target environment.

Mr. Kriegman speculated what a robot should look like if it were to travel through our arteries, wondering if it should have several legs.

Synthetic Biologist from Boston, Christina Agapakis, stated how compelling it is even to start delving into the possibilities the future holds. She added, "Well, what if your machine was alive? And biodegradable? And programmable?."

Read Also: How Artificial Intelligene Is Disrupting the Lending Industry in 2020
Mainland China reported 39 new coronavirus cases as of Sunday, up from 30 a day earlier, and the number of asymptomatic cases also surged as the government vowed tighter controls at land borders.

The National Health Commission said yesterday that 78 new asymptomatic cases had been identified as of the end of Sunday, compared with 47 the day before.

Imported cases and asymptomatic patients, who show no symptoms but can still pass the virus on, have become China's chief concern after draconian containment measures succeeded in slashing the overall infection rate.

Hubei province, the original epicentre, accounted for almost half the new asymptomatic cases. A total of 705 people with asymptomatic cases were under medical observation around mainland China.

The surge in asymptomatic cases, which China only began reporting last week, poses a worry as Hubei's capital Wuhan prepares to allow people to leave the city tomorrow for the first time since it was locked down in late January.

China has now reported a total of 81,708 cases, with 3,331 deaths. One new locally transmitted infection was reported in the latest data, in the southern province of Guangdong, down from five a day earlier in the same province.

China has closed its borders to foreigners as the virus spreads globally, though most imported cases have involved Chinese nationals returning from overseas.
On March 31, the question on the minds of more than 16,000 Manitoba public school teachers  and countless parents and students  was answered. They will not be returning to the classroom any time soon.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On March 31, the question on the minds of more than 16,000 Manitoba public school teachers  and countless parents and students  was answered. They will not be returning to the classroom any time soon.

Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen, on the advice of senior public-health officials, announced that classes in the provinces K-12 system have been suspended indefinitely. While far from the outcome educators were hoping for, it is understandable, prudent and not unexpected.

Prior to the press conference where he announced his decision, Goertzen held a teleconference with representatives of the Manitoba Teachers Society, the Manitoba School Boards Association and the provinces independent schools. He informed us of the impending announcement and gave us the opportunity to share our perspectives and to ask questions that would be top of mind for our members.

This exchange permitted our organizations time to prepare messaging that would help clarify the matter, and ease the minds of many for whom the suspension of classes has been a stressful but necessary change.

Manitoba Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen has cancelled K-12 classes indefinitely. (John Woods / The Canadian Press)

Along with the suspension of classes for the foreseeable future, we discussed the possibility that the school year might extend into the summer. To our relief, the minister indicated that the summer break would be important for students and their families, as well as teachers  perhaps moreso this year than ever.

Another matter for discussion was the much-anticipated graduation celebrations of the class of 2020. Most of us look back on our own high school graduations with considerable fondness, and it touches us deeply when a group of young people works so hard and so long for their moment, only to have it snatched away.

All of us, the minister included, agreed that it will be of great importance to find ways of honouring the achievement of our Grade 12 students.

I came away from this call with three things:

First, relief in the clarity of a decision made, even if that decision means the school year as we traditionally know it has come to an abrupt end. As a teacher myself, I know educators and students form deep and enduring bonds. With the opportunity to say face-to-face farewells now lost, there is a very real sense of mourning out there. We need to acknowledge that.

Second, I valued the empathy with which the minister and his colleagues have approached the mental health of students, families and teachers. Summer has long been a time of essential renewal in a climate such as ours. To take it away under the current circumstances and extend the school year would be devastating after the most isolating and surreal spring in just about any Manitobans memory.

Last, I came away with a deep appreciation for Manitobans at large. On each and every day of this crisis, we have come together even as we are required to stand apart. We are more and more united in a sense of larger purpose. We are working for each other. We are holding each other up.

"Nothing can replace the impact of teachers in their classrooms. Yet, as they forge ahead in a COVID19 world with the aid of technology and no small amount of grit, I am humbled by their spirit."

Education partners and governments will naturally spar over matters of mutual concern, and so they should. After all, debate and democracy go hand in hand. What this unprecedented situation is teaching us though, in the words of American behavioural research professor Brene Brown, is that "clarity is kind." Ambiguity is the enemy of action, and in times like this we need to act, together  with the betterment of all at heart.

Nothing can replace the impact of teachers in their classrooms. Yet, as they forge ahead in a COVID-19 world with the aid of technology and no small amount of grit, I am humbled by their spirit. With almost no notice, and within a crucible of intense pressure, teachers are using the tools at their disposal while creating more than a few new ones.

In the face of adversity they have launched a colossal and inspired effort that benefits all Manitobans. We continue to look to parents and guardians for their ongoing support. Rest assured, Manitobas public school teachers will continue to take the lead.

Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

As Premier Brian Pallister said last week, our children are depending on us to do the right thing. "We owe them that," he said. When you work with young people on a daily basis, you understand the need to deliver on that promise.

It is my hope that the community of education partners continues to engage in discussions and to work together. That we continue to be clear in our shared intention to give children every support needed to succeed. And that we arm those who support our children to deliver a school year which, while most certainly unprecedented, offers unprecedented opportunities for all of us to learn and grow.

James Bedford is president of the Manitoba Teachers Society.
HOD HASHARON, Israel, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Valens, the developer of high-speed connectivity technology for the audio-video and automotive markets, and its Board of Directors announced today that Dr. Peter Mertens has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors. Gideon Ben-Zvi, who has been the company's Interim CEO since February 2020, has now been appointed as the company's official CEO.

"While Valens is leading significant progress in several different markets, its innovative approach to solve the challenges in the automotive industry is what steered me to accept the position of Chairman of the Board," said Dr. Peter Mertens. "Valens' groundbreaking technology will be an important enabler for the fully connected and autonomous car. I am excited to be part of this journey."

Peter brings more than 35 years of experience in the automotive industry, having held senior positions with major OEMs, including CTO at Volvo Cars for six years, General Motors Global Line Executive for eight years, various management positions at Mercedes Benz, and member of the Board of Management of Audi AG, responsible for Technical Development and Design. Peter also served as member of the Board of Directors of several companies, such as Polestar SE, Zenuety SE, Audi Sport GmbH, Audi China, Volkswagen Financial Service, Recogni Inc. and Faurecia. He is the founding Chairman of AID/Argo AI Europe, one of the most advanced supplier of autonomous driving technology.

"In the two months as Interim CEO, the Valens' team impressed me deeply with its talents and capabilities, which I see as the basis for the company's success and remarkable potential for growth," said Gideon Ben-Zvi. "I welcome this appointment as the company's CEO, and I am excited to lead Valens towards extraordinary achievements during these exciting and innovative times. I am grateful for having Peter join us as Chairman of the Board, a true testament of his faith in the company and its technology, and I look forward to his contribution to our success."

Gideon is a serial entrepreneur, having founded four companies, with three successful exits so far. He has previously served as CEO in different companies and is currently engaged as partner in Aviv Venture Capital, one of Valens' investors. Gideon has also been active as an angel investor over the years. He has been an active member of the Valens' Board of Directors since 2011, and as such is deeply familiar with the company and its business.

These appointments are strategically well-timed, as Valens is significantly expanding its position both in the audio-video and automotive markets. In the past year, the company's leading technology has been chosen as the base for the MIPI Alliance's A-PHY standard for in-vehicle connectivity. Valens' first MIPI A-PHY-compliant products will be available by H1 2021. In addition, Valens has engaged in several strategic partnerships with leading OEMs and Tier-1s, and its first automotive chipsets are currently being embedded in Daimler's cars. In the audio-video business, the company has recently released Stello, its third-generation product family. The Stello family is the first chipset ever to enable long-distance, uncompressed distribution of HDMI 2.0 ([email protected] 4:4:4), which further advances its leading position in this market.

About Valens

Established in 2006, Valens provides semiconductor products for the distribution of ultra-high-definition (HD) multimedia content. The company's HDBaseT technology enables long-reach connectivity of devices over a single cable and is a global standard for advanced digital media distribution. Valens Automotive, a division of Valens, was established in 2015 with the goal of delivering the world's most advanced chipset technology for in-vehicle connectivity. Valens is a private company headquartered in Israel. For more information: https://www.valens.com .

Contact

Sandra Welfeld

Communications, Valens

[email protected]

+972-52-4007283

SOURCE Valens

Related Links

https://www.valens.com


Hissene Habre, the former Chadian president, has been granted a 60-day home release from jail in Senegal to make room for new detainees in Covid-19 quarantine. Convicted of crimes against humanity, the 78-year-old was said to be vulnerable to catching the coronavirus. His victims have slammed his release.

"It's a mortal blow," says Assane Dioma Ndiaye, a lawyer representing a group of Hissene Habres victims in Senegal.

"His victims do not understand how Senegal came to this decision and question whether Dakar has the jurisdiction to pardon him," Ndiaye told RFI.

Habre was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including killings, torture and rape at an African Union-backed trial in 2016. He was sentenced to life in prison and jailed in the Senegalese capital.

A Chadian commission of inquiry estimated that 40,000 people were killed during his leadership of the West African country in the 1980s, although the exact number of his victims is not known.

Habre is not freed, he is still in prison, only the place has changed," said Senegal's Justice Minister Malick Sall in a bid to reassure critics.

Coronavirus spread in prisons

His lawyer Mamadou Diawara had requested 60 days' leave for Habre saying his age meant he was "particularly vulnerable" to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the judge's order obtained by AFP.

The decision to temporarily release the ex-leader is in response to an appeal by the United Nations to free older, sick and low-risk detainees to avoid the spread of Covid-19 in prisons.

Judge Boubacar Ndiaye noted that the Cap Manuel prison, where Habre was imprisoned, had been selected by the Senegalese authorities to hold newly arrested detainees in solitary confinement while they are under quarantine to avoid Covid-19 spreading through the jail.

For months, there has been speculation about Habre's frail health after his wife reported that he had fractured his arm during a fall in November 2019.

Story continues

No excuse

However, for victims' groups, "the health crisis should not be used as an excuse for the early release of Hissene Habre."

Clement Abaifouta, the president of an association of Habres victims, argued that the former president was housed in relative isolation in prison, and had access to health care, so was unlikely to be affected by Covid-19.

Habre fled to Senegal in 1990 after he was overthrown by Idriss Deby, who has held power since. The former dictator lived freely for more than 20 years in an upmarket Dakar suburb with his wife and children.

Dubbed "Africa's Pinochet", Habre was finally arrested in 2013 and tried by a special tribunal set up by the African Union under a deal with Senegal.

His conviction, in an African court specially set up for the occasion, was the long-awaited culmination of years of campaigning by his victims.
Story

Staying apart prevents new outbreaks of COVID-19 illness

Public HealthSeattle & King County urges everyone, even people who are young and healthy, to stay home to slow the spread of COVID-19. If you must go out, stay at least six feet apart from others. Staying home and avoiding all non-essential contact with others is the best way to stay healthy, keep others healthy, and prevent the new coronavirus from suddenly spreading rapidly and overwhelming King Countys healthcare system.

The virus that causes COVID-19 is highly contagious, and each face-to-face interaction is an opportunity for it to spread. In addition, its important to wash your hands with soap frequently and avoid touching your face.

Case updates

Public HealthSeattle & King County is reporting the following confirmed cases and deaths due to COVID-19 through 11:59 p.m. on 4/4/20.

3,331 confirmed positive cases (up 164* from yesterday)



22 confirmed deaths (up 14 from yesterday)

* The "new confirmed positive cases" figure we publish each day represents all new confirmed cases reported to us through 11:59 the night prior. Some of these test results were processed on days prior but were delayed in being reported to us.

Detailed information about demographics of those who died from COVID-19 is available on the data dashboard.

Temporary changes in reporting of negative COVID-19 test results

King Countys COVID-19 data dashboard is based on data provided by the Washington State Department of Health (DOH). As of April 4, 2020, DOH has temporarily stopped reporting data on negative test results. As a result, we are no longer displaying information on negative test results on our data dashboard.

Isolation and quarantine facilities update

Isolation and quarantine is a proven public health practice for reducing the spread of disease. Examples of people who may need this assistance include people who cannot safely isolate from a family member who is elderly or medically fragile, or people experiencing homelessness. Individuals can only be placed into the King County sites after a health professional with Public Health has determined that they need isolation or quarantine.

Forty-eight people are currently staying in King County isolation and quarantine facilities.

The number of residents at King County's isolation and quarantine sites will be included in regular updates provided by Public Health. No other identifying or personal information will be provided.
Hudson, NY (12534)

Today

Scattered snow flurries and snow showers possible this morning. Becoming sunny later. Very cold. High 16F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 30%..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 8F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph.
While in the master bedroom, Brodacz hit the man in the back of the head with some kind of blunt object, one he told police he thought was a gun. The two struggled and the male homeowner fired his wifes gun but didnt hit Brodacz, police said.
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.

Latin America

Protests and job actions continue in Mexican hospitals and clinics over supply shortages

Medical, support staff and administrative workers in hospitals and clinics in Mexico have continued their struggles to get supplies and equipment to protect themselves from COVID-19. In some cases, they have been denounced by management and threatened with reprisals.

At Rural Clinic 51 in San Buenaventura, Coahuila, medical and administrative workers struck April 1 to demand N95 facemasks, gloves, protective clothing, antibacterial gel and other supplies. Striking workers blocked the entrance to prevent the spread of contagion until they get the needed equipment.

On the same day, at Clinic 9 in Frontera, also in Coahuila, medical personnel suspended a stoppage and protest that they began March 31 over supply shortages and the authorities failure to take measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus. They had complained that the only test that patients and personnel were given upon entry was their temperature and overt signs of COVID-19 contagion. Under threat of reprisals and firings, they returned to work, but without the provision of necessary supplies.

The most serious outbreak took place at General Regional Hospital 7 in Monclova, a city of 230,000 in Coahuila. On March 15 a truck driver, admitted with symptoms of atypical pneumonia, was hospitalized in the emergency room, where he was in contact with three shifts of medical personnel for a week. Despite a written request to have him tested for COVID-19 and to provide protective gear, authorities dragged their feet. The patient succumbed on March 27; one of the doctors who treated him died on April 1.

Since then, there have been at least 37 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection at the hospital, which is part of the Social Security Institute of Mexico (IMSS) system. Doctors and nurses have denounced the IMSS for its failure to provide supplies, unfulfilled promises, minimizing of the extent of the outbreak and threats against workers.

One doctor told El Pais that she began to have symptoms the week before, but that her application to be tested was denied, forcing her to travel 350 km (220 miles) to the Autonomous University of Coahuila in Torreon and pay 2,500 pesos (US$105). They tell us that were exaggerating, but this is already costing my medical colleagues lives. If we dont protect ourselves, were going to take all this problem to the community and its going to overflow.

On April 3, the IMSS Warehouse announced the dispatch of a truck with supplies, including N95 masks, gowns, antibacterial gel, disinfectant soap, protective gloves and other items to the Monclova hospital.

Police injure three Mexican avocado orchard workers, one reporter at blockade

Avocado cutters in the municipality of Uruapan, Michoacan, Mexico suspended their labor and blocked a highway in the community of Caltzontzin on April 1. The orchard workers actions were motivated by fears of the spread of COVID-19 among the more than 3,000 cutters in the area.

State police were dispatched to the protest and attempted to dislodge the protesters, who had thrown tires in the road. Some confrontations ensued, with police firing shots, injuring three protesters and one reporter. The Michoacan Journalists Association condemned the attack on the journalist, Lucero Diaz Estrada, and demanded an investigation by state prosecutors.

Mexican hotel workers protest firings, nonpayment at resort hotels

Workers at hotels in the tourist resort city of Cancun began strikes April 3 to protest massive firings and refusal of payment of benefits by businesses. The action was called by the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Confederation (CROC).

In the face of the plunge in tourism due to coronavirus fears, hotels in Cancun, Solidaridad, Cozumel, Chetumel, Puerto Morales and Isla Mujeres have declared that they are incapable of paying their workers, and some have closed completely. The government of the state of Quintana Roo announced March 28 that it would sanction businesses that carried out unjustified firings.

The state Conciliation and Arbitration Boards had received dozens of complaints in mid-March as the sackings increased. The numbers since have grown into the hundreds. One hotel specifically targeted by CROC is the Omni Cancun, which tried to cut salaries across the board and refused to pay benefits.

Strikes at Colombian hospitals over dire conditions, lack of supplies, wages

In the Colombian municipality of Luruaco, workers at the ESE Hospital have gone on strike over not only the lack of supplies and equipment, leaving them unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, but over nonpayment of salaries and benefits, in some cases going back months. The mayor of the town of 23,000, in the department of Atlantico, claims that she had attempted to meet with the previous director on five occasions, but the meetings never materialized.

The ESE Hospital is indebted to about 30 workers, who have not received wages or any benefitsincluding vacation pay, pensions and copaysfor four months, bringing on the strike call. In addition, ambulances have empty gas tanks and workers have no uniforms or protective equipment.

The mayor blamed the previous ESE director for the crisis, but hospitals in other areas of Colombia are gravely unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, having been defunded and ignored for years by the government. In various cities in the Caribbean region, over 200 workers have gone on strike, according to a publimetro.com report.

United States

Coronavirus infecting postal workers

Some 4,420 postal workers are under quarantine as a result of possible exposure to coronavirus, according to the United States Postal Service and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC). Already some 294 have tested positive for COVID-19 with 8 deaths. Postal workers nationwide are reporting a lack of protective equipment and cleaning supplies for its 630,000 workforce.

In an April 3 statement, Fredric Rolando, president of the NALC, said to union members, USPS has committed to provide daily supplies necessary for postal employees to clean frequently touched items in the office as well as provide necessary supplies for letter carriers to use to clean steering wheels and other frequently touched surfaces in postal vehicles.  You should have sufficient hand sanitizer to keep your hands clean all day as you touch the many surfaces on your route.

But letter carriers deny this to be the case and in another statement, Rolando admitted, In some places, all of these things are being done. However, in too many places they are not.

Irvine, California nurses protest lack of protective equipment

Over 50 nurses at the UCI Medical Center in Irvine, California staged a protest April 3 over managements refusal to provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and disciplinary measures against nurses who wear masks in areas where they are restricted. Nurses marched from the hospital to UCI Health administration facility to deliver a petition but were denied entry to deliver it.

Were here to fight, Maria Louviaux, a UCI Health nurse, told CBSLA news. Even just to wear our surgical mask throughout our shift, we have to fight for that, and unless nurses meet certain criteria, we arent allowed to wear masks. In fact, we are intimidated and on the verge of bullying at times by managers and directors.

Nurses claim the hospital has N95 respirator masks, but they are kept locked up. According to a management statement, the hospital is keeping PPE secure so they are available for health care workers who need it, essentially barring nurses from their use.

Canada

Saskatchewan oil refinery to force vote on massive concessions contract

With the lockout of 750 oil refinery workers in Regina, Saskatchewan now in its fourth month, Federated Cooperatives Limited (FCL) management have applied to the provincial Labour Board to force a vote by the Unifor Local 594 membership on what the company calls its best and final offer. The proposed deal presented by FCL contains a list of deep and sweeping concessionary demands on pensions, jobs and working conditions. The vote is expected to take place around the third week of April.

In March, mediator Vince Ready had tabled his nonbinding recommendations for a resolution of the bitter dispute that has seen FCL deploy a large scab workforce, with the full support of the right-wing Saskatchewan Party government, the capitalist courts and police.

Readys report had granted virtually all of the companys initial concession demands. The union, which had already proposed a series of increasingly draconian concessionary climb-downs, accepted the mediators recommendations and scheduled a vote advising the workers to accept the rotten deal. On the weekend prior to the vote, the union, signaling abject surrender, withdrew pickets from the refinery gates.

Workers, starved out on the picket line and seeing no way forward, voted 98 percent to endorse the mediators recommendations. After the vote, local union President Kevin Bittman cynically told reporters that Readys report, which contained everything the workers had fought against for almost four months, was a reasonable compromise.

However, FCL then refused to accept the nonbinding recommendations from Ready. The company cited the downturn in the oil industry due to the economic slowdown caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing collapse of stock and oil prices, to demand even deeper cuts, in particular, to pensions.

The union, fearing a backlash from workers, has not recommended acceptance of the deal in the upcoming vote while Unifor President Jerry Dias made pathetic appeals to the ardent pro-business Saskatchewan Party Premier Scott Moe to end the lockout on the basis of the Ready report.

For over a decade, the Saskatchewan Party government has mounted major attacks on workers rights and living standards, including restricting public sector workers right to strike through essential services legislation. At the beginning of last month, the premier personally exhorted the police to smash worker blockades of FCL operations.

Workers across Canada protest unsafe conditions amidst pandemic

As shortages of personal protective equipment persist across the country, nurses in London, Ontario stopped work on 11 occasions citing their right to refuse unsafe working conditions last week. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, established medical procedures require hospital staff to change masks before attending to each new patient. However, because of equipment shortages, London hospital authorities have allotted only four basic masks per shift, a process which threatens to transfer the virus from patient to patient. The superior N95 masks are reserved for front-line staff performing intubations and other specialized procedures.

The nurses action in London echoes similar work refusals in Alberta and Manitoba medical facilities over the past two weeks. Work refusals amongst jail guards in Ottawa, construction workers in Ontario and Quebec, Alberta meat inspectors and Canada Post workers continued last week. In Toronto, bus drivers, seeking to protect themselves and their passengers, are only allowing about 15 people onto their vehicles at any given time.

Fourth Ontario education union agrees to tentative deal

Officials in the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), organizing education support workers, agreed to a tentative contract with the right-wing government of Premier Doug Ford last week. The deal follows similar tentative settlements by officials organizing teachers in the public elementary schools, Catholic schools and French language schools. Workers in the various unions will vote on the contracts over the next several weeks. Details of the agreements have not been released. The government is now negotiating with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation. All schools in Ontario have been closed since mid-March due to the coronavirus and will remain shuttered until at least May 4.

The move to end the months-long series of rotating and province-wide strikes by 200,000 Ontario teachers and support workers began in the wake of a powerful one-day general strike by teachers on February 21. Terrified by the mass mobilization of education workers and the broad support they enjoyed within the population, the unions moved the following week to shut down all further job actions and negotiate with the government on the basis of contract concessions.
Hong Kong: Doctors urged to offer virus tests

(To watch the full media briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

Centre for Health Protection Controller Dr Wong Ka-hing today encouraged more private doctors to offer COVID-19 testing for patients suspected of having the virus.

Dr Wong told a press briefing in the afternoon that it is crucial to help with the early detection, diagnosis and management of infected patients.

He noted that the Government received more than 4,000 tests from private doctors in the last month or so.

I do not want to speculate on the reasons behind why some doctors are participating, but some private doctors are not.

I just would like to stress that the free laboratory testing by the Department of Health is open to all private doctors. We do very much hope that and encourage more private doctors to offer the testing to their patients when there is any suspicion of COVID-19 infection.

Dr Wong explained that some people infected with COVID-19 only have mild symptoms.

So it is important to have a high degree of alertness and suspicion in the early detection of the patients.

This story has been published on: 2020-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
07.04.2020 LISTEN

President of Ghana, H.E. Nana Akufo Addo including 165 past and present leaders say to G20: approve now $8bn emergency global health funding to prevent the second wave of coronavirus

A 165-strong international group including President of Ghana, Nana Akufo Addo and 92 former Presidents and Prime Ministers, along with current economic and health leaders in the developed and developing world have come together to demand the creation of a G20 executive task force and an immediate global pledging conference which would approve and co-ordinate a multi-billion dollar coronavirus fighting fund.

In an open letter addressed to G20 leaders the group - which wants both to speed up the search for a vaccine, cure, and treatments and revive the global economy - urges global collaboration and commitment to funding far beyond the current capacity of our existing international institutions.

The economic emergency will not be resolved until the health emergency is addressed: the health emergency will not end simply by conquering the disease in one country alone but by ensuring recovery from COVID-19 in all countries, the statement says.

Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister of Ghana and Chair of the World Bank Development Committee also offers support for the initiative.

The plea is for agreement within days for:

$8 billion to rapidly hasten the global effort for vaccines, cure, and treatment;

$35 billion to support health systems, from ventilators to test kits and protective equipment for health workers;

And $150 billion for developing countries to fight the medical and economic crisis, prevent a second wave of the disease flowing back into countries as they come out of the first wave. This means waiving debt interest payments for the poorest countries, including $44billion due this year from Africa. A $500-$600billion issue of additional resources by the IMF in the form of special drawing rights is proposed.

The letter also urges the co-ordination of fiscal stimuli to avoid a recession becoming a depression.

While welcoming the G20s first communique on the Covid-19 crisis, the 165-strong group are pressing the G20 to speed up an action plan.

The group states: "All health systems  even the most sophisticated and best-funded  are buckling under the pressures of the virus. Yet if we do nothing as the disease spreads in poorer African, Asian and Latin American cities which have little testing equipment, hardly any ventilators, and few medical supplies; and where social distancing and even washing hands are difficult to achieve, Covid-19 will persist there  and re-emerge to hit the rest of the world with further rounds that will prolong the crisis.

"World leaders must immediately agree to commit $8 billion  as set out by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board  to fill the most urgent gaps in the COVID-19 response. This includes $1billion this year for WHO, $3 billion for vaccines and $2.25 billion for therapeutics.

"Instead of each country, or state or province within it, competing for a share of the existing capacity, with the risk of rapidly-increasing prices, we should also be vastly increasing capacity by supporting the WHO in coordinating the global production and procurement of medical supplies, such as testing kits, personal protection equipment, and ITU technology to meet fully the worldwide demand. We will also need to stockpile and distribute essential equipment.

$35 billion will be required, as highlighted by WHO, to support countries with weaker health systems and especially vulnerable populations, including the provision of vital medical supplies, surge support to the national health workforce (70% of whom in many countries are underpaid women) and strengthening national resilience and preparedness.

According to WHO, almost 30% of countries have no COVID-19 national preparedness response plans and only half have a national infection prevention and control program. Health systems in lower income countries will struggle to cope; even the most optimistic estimates from Imperial College London suggest there will be 900,000 deaths in Asia and 300,000 in Africa.

"We propose convening a global pledging conference  its purpose supported by a G20 Executive Task Force - to commit resources to meeting these emergency global health needs.

On the Global Economic Outlook, the group proposes a range of measures and state:

"Much has been done by national governments to counter the downward slide of their economies. But a global economic problem requires a global economic response. Our aim should be to prevent a liquidity crisis turning into a solvency crisis, and a global recession becoming a global depression. To ensure this, better coordinated fiscal, monetary, the central bank, and anti-protectionist initiatives are needed. The ambitious fiscal stimuli of some countries will be all-the-more effective if more strongly complemented by all countries in a position to do so.

The long term solution is a radical rethink of global public health and a refashioning  together with proper resourcing  of the entwined global health and financial architecture.

The UN, the G20, and interested partners should work together to coordinate further action.
Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/07/2020 -- The report mainly studies the size, recent trends and development status of the X-Ray Real-Time Image System market, as well as investment opportunities, government policy, market dynamics (drivers, restraints, and opportunities), supply chain and competitive landscape. Technological innovation and advancement will further optimize the performance of the product, making it more widely used in downstream applications. Moreover, Porter's Five Forces Analysis (potential entrants, suppliers, substitutes, buyers, industry competitors) provides crucial information for knowing the X-Ray Real-Time Image System market.



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The X-Ray Real-Time Image System market was valued at XX Million US$ in 2018 and is projected to reach XX Million US$ by 2024, at a CAGR of XX% during the forecast period. In this study, 2018 has been considered as the base year and 2019 to 2024 as the forecast period to estimate the market size for X-Ray Real-Time Image System.

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SMT Corp

Glenbrook Technologies

Euroteck Systems

UNICOMP TECHNOLOGY

Aolong Group

Shanghai Advanced NDT Equipment

Pacific Roller Die (PRD) Company



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Automotive

Aerospace

Electronic Components

Others



Market segmentation, by regions:

North America (United States, Canada)

Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Spain)

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Middle East & Africa (Middle East, Africa)

Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, C. America, Chile, Peru, Colombia)



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Sen. Bernie Sanders' lengthy deliberations about the future of his presidential campaign have exposed divisions in his movement between die-hard liberal activists with little appetite to fall in line behind former vice president Joe Biden and more conventional Democrats who see some merit in Sanders withdrawing from the race.

After revelations that some top aides and allies have urged the senator to consider ending his campaign, some Sanders supporters voiced alarm about the people surrounding him and have even called for their ouster.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that the group lobbying him to consider withdrawing included campaign manager Faiz Shakir and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., a top Sanders surrogate and ally, according to the two people with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive private discussions.

"They shouldn't be part of the campaign," said RoseAnn DeMoro in an interview Monday, speaking of anyone encouraging him to consider bowing out. A longtime friend of Sanders, I-Vt., and a former head of a national nurses' union, DeMoro added, "If people want to go work on K Street right now, go. The base is attached to the movement and Bernie, not operatives."

Sanders, who has fallen far behind Biden in the chase for delegates to the summer nominating convention with almost no realistic path to catching him, has not declared his intentions beyond saying he is assessing his path forward.

He has been sounding out many top supporters in recent weeks. Shortly before she participated in a virtual roundtable with Sanders on March 22, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., advised him in a telephone call to remain in the contest, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who has campaigned for Sanders, has talked openly about the need for Democrats to unite behind a possible Biden nomination. After Sanders' losses on Super Tuesday, she said that the election was "more important than all of us."

Still, her team and the Sanders camp remain in contact - Ocasio-Cortez's campaign manager Rebecca Rodriguez spoke to Shakir on Sunday, according to a representative.

The uncertainty has created some tension in the universe of Sanders supporters, which includes legions of everyday people who have donated to his campaign, lawmakers who have endorsed him and activists and advisers he has consulted.

"If I was told who the nominee was going to be, but I didn't get to vote, I would feel disenfranchised," said Randy Bryce, a Sanders state co-chair and former congressional candidate who wants him to keep running at least through the last primaries in June. "People will feel like they're not going to matter in one of those later states if there's not a primary."

Bryce's home state of Wisconsin was set on Tuesday to be the first state in three weeks to hold a primary. But it was cast into doubt Monday when Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, suspended in-person voting; later in the day the state Supreme Court overturned his action after a legal challenge from the state's GOP legislative leaders.

Some close Sanders allies had said the outcome in Wisconsin could offer more clarity about the senator's future. They predicted that a landslide loss, as recent polling has predicted, might persuade him to end his bid. Evers' executive order would have extended the mail-in voting deadline to June 9.

On Monday, Our Revolution, a nonprofit aligned with Sanders, sent an email to supporters with the subject line "Tell Bernie if you'll have his back if he stays in the presidential race."

"If Bernie remains in the race, he will undoubtedly be over the 25% threshold necessary to get enough members on the Rules and Platform Committees who can fight for our vision of a progressive party," said the email, which was signed by Larry Cohen, board chairman of Our Revolution.

The rules changes that Sanders allies fought for after the 2016 race, including one that prevents automatic "superdelegates" from voting on the first ballot of the convention, would expire unless agreed to by the key committees this year.

"Things like that would be at risk if the senator doesn't hit 15% in the remaining primaries," said Paco Fabian, a spokesman for Our Revolution. "We have very little confidence, if not zero, that the rules implemented last time would remain in place. We need to make sure they're made permanent."

Beyond Shakir and Jayapal, longtime strategist Jeff Weaver has privately made a case that exiting the race more quickly and on good terms with Biden would give Sanders added leverage in the long run, according to one of the people who described the discussions; the other said Weaver has used a light touch in presenting his case.

Early Sunday morning, after The Washington Post reported those internal deliberations, "People for Bernie," a group of pro-Sanders activists, tweeted, "Bernie Sanders should not drop out. Pass it on."

Those close to Sanders say that he is focused heavily on the novel coronavirus crisis and that they are not certain what he will decide. Over the past few weeks, he has used his campaign as a vehicle to champion the liberal ideas he believes the government should adopt to stop the crisis, such as universal health-care coverage.

Gone are the raucous rallies that have been deemed unsafe during the spread of the virus. Instead, he has hosted events with experts, musical guests and political allies, streamed live on the Internet.

Sanders has ceased his direct attacks on Biden, even as some allies, including DeMoro and Bryce, have not. The senator said recently that he would like to debate Biden again, while Biden has argued that there have been enough debates. A Democratic National Committee spokeswoman said Monday that she had no new updates on whether there would be another primary debate.

The two men talked recently when Biden called Sanders to inform him, as a courtesy, that he would soon be beginning the process to pick a running mate.

With the Senate out of session and much of the country hunkering down, Sanders has been at home in Vermont. A pair of aides - one who handles logistics and another responsible for video live streams - have been with him, according to a person with knowledge of the situation, but senior staffers are working from their homes.

On Sunday, at least one staffer was making a public push for a prolonged primary fight.

"Four out of five of the largest Black populations in the country haven't voted. And some of you want to call off the primary. Your interest in the franchise is self interest, and it shows," tweeted Briahna Joy Gray, national press secretary for the Sanders campaign.
STAMFORD  The city to date has, by far, the largest number people in the state testing positive for COVID-19, and the intensive-care unit at Stamford Hospital is approaching capacity.

One or two coronavirus patients are dying each day at the hospital, an administrator said. As of Monday, there have been 15 deaths.

According to Gov. Ned Lamonts daily briefing, Stamford Monday had 888 confirmed COVID-19 cases, significantly more than Norwalk, with the next-highest count, 595 cases, and Danbury with 570 cases.

As of early Monday, Stamford Hospital was treating 126 patients for illness related to the virus, though the number changes hourly, said Dr. Rohit Bhalla, senior vice president of clinical affairs and quality for Stamford Health.

The hospital can accommodate another 50 to 100 patients on the regular floors, Bhalla said, but the intensive-care unit is a different story.

The challenge is that a number of patients are coming in needing ventilators and intensive care. Normally we have 16 beds in ICU, but weve expanded it to 62 beds, Bhalla said. Among the 62 beds in ICU, 55 are filled. Among those patients, 42 are on ventilators.

Each day, one or two of those most critical patients succumb to the virus, he said.

Most are elderly, or those with medical conditions predating infection with COVID-19, Bhalla said.

Unfortunately, it does span other ages  adults in their 40s and 50s, he said. We also have seen some who do not have medical conditions.

In news reports Stamford is being called the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in Connecticut.

Thats true in sheer numbers, but not when rated by population, Mayor David Martin said Monday.

Stamford, with 15 deaths, so far has a fatality rate of 11.5 per 100,000 population, Martin said. Norwalk, a smaller city, has had 19 deaths, for a significantly higher fatality rate of 21.3, he said.

In some of the small surrounding towns, the rates are even higher. New Canaan, with a population of a little more than 20,000 people, has had seven deaths for a fatality rate of 34.4, he said.

The average rate for the county is 18.7, Martin said.

If Stamford is at 11.5, I dont know that we are the epicenter, the mayor said. I would say that Fairfield County is the epicenter.

Lamonts numbers bear that out. Of the 6,906 confirmed cases reported Monday among the states eight counties, more than half, 3,719, were in Fairfield County.

A similar thing is true for the number of COVID-19 deaths. There were 206 statewide and nearly half, 101, were in Fairfield County.

The peak for the Stamford area is likely two or three weeks away, Martin said, though its impossible to say for sure.

Bhalla said in-hospital testing for COVID-19 is increasing, which helps.

A week ago we had almost 100 patients waiting for results; (Monday) we had nine, he said. Testing is becoming more widespread which is good because it helps us manage patients in the hospital.

Still, the supply of test kits remains limited. They are used to evaluate patients in the hospital exhibiting moderate or severe symptoms, Bhalla said. The other priority is health-care workers.

They are very important right now, so we want to be sure we can evaluate them, he said. Those are the guidelines of the CDC.

The hospital also is following protective-gear guidelines set by the federal Centers for Disease Control, Bhalla said. Gloves, gowns, goggles and masks that are in short supply nationwide are being used according to protocols.

We are working hard to conserve the limited supply we have, he said. We still get shipments. The only thing is every health system in the country wants the same items so the suppliers put us on allocation, meaning you cant buy as much as you want. Youre allowed a certain amount.

A changing number of hospital staff members are on quarantine as they await results of COVID-19 tests, or as they recover at home from the virus, Bhalla said.

Doctors, nurses, technicians and all the others who staff the hospital are unrelenting in their care for patients, he said.

The staff is doing a terrific job in unprecedented circumstances, Bhalla said. We are committed to combating this pandemic.

acarella@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2296.
YEREVAN.  The State Revenue Committee (SRC) of Armenia informs that from now on there will be feedback measures with the customs attache of the Armenian embassy in Russia.

In case of issues related to customs in Russia, including at the Upper Lars checkpoint on the Russian-Georgian border, people can contact the embassys customs attache Aram Tananyan in the following ways: +79263985991 (tel.), and +37455569001 (Viber, WhatsApp).
Alvin Huang wears one of his "pseudo N95 masks," which he 3-D printed for healthcare workers during the coronavirus crisis. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

KAA Design is known more for creating swanky homes for the likes of Matt Damon, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson than it is for responding to a health crisis. Just last week, the Marina del Rey companys 3-D printers  one the size of a refrigerator, the other resembling a tall photocopy machine  were humming quietly, crafting small-scale models for a Modernist home in Santa Barbara.

Today?

The 3-D printers are running 24/7 making face masks for healthcare workers facing nationwide shortages during the COVID-19 health crisis.

The firms efforts are part of a quickly growing movement organized at USC and involving faculty, students and alumni from the Southern California Institute of Architecture, UCLA Extension and other schools, as well as more than 35 architecture firms and several nonprofits. They are creating face masks and face shields for the Keck Hospital of USC, which plans to distribute them to other hospitals.

The USC architecture schools volunteer network was, as of Monday, about 196 people and 198 3-D printers strong. The group had printed 1,061 pseudo N95 masks and 481 face shields in a week.

KAA hopes to create more than 500 masks by the end of May.

It feels really good to participate not just in survival mode, but in solution mode, said KAA's founder and president, Grant Kirkpatrick, whos on the board of the USC architecture school. It just seemed like a no-brainer to switch gears and keep people healthy.

Architect Alvin Huang at his Alhambra home making masks on Monday. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

The architects sprang into action when Alvin Huang, director of graduate architecture at USC, teamed with Darryl Hwang, an assistant professor of radiology and biomedical engineering at USC. Hwang, who also runs the 4-D quantitative imaging lab at the university, had a digital model for a mask he had adapted from one at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was 3-D printing masks in his lab and recruiting individuals with whom hed connected on Facebook who had 3-D printers.

Story continues

Huang, who had set out to make face shields after being inspired by a colleague doing the same at Cornell University, had an army of architects hed organized on a Google document sign-up sheet.

Architects have 3-D printers and know how to use them, he said.

The fact that Hwangs mask had been tested and approved by Keck inspired Huang to change course. Thats important because a lot of designs for 3-D-printed PPE [personal protective equipment] are floating around out there and hospitals are rejecting a lot of them, Huang said. So we abandoned the shields and started printing masks.

A mask protects the nose and mouth from germs, whereas a plastic shield  not unlike a welder's see-through visor  protects the entire face, including the eyes and cheeks, from droplets.

Other efforts are underway at USC's Viterbi School of Engineering and Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy to create 3-D-printed face masks and headbands for protective face shields (the plastic coverings must be laser-cut or die-cut). The different USC schools, with outside participants, coordinate and share tips on a by-invitation-only Slack channel for participants from multiple organizations. Huangs team of architects, the largest of the groups, is mostly self-funded, with each participant paying for its own printer and materials, he said. The group received a $10,000 donation from the American Institute of Architects, California Council, and the L.A. firm Gruen Associates donated 60 spools of PLA filament material, a type of vegetable-based, biodegradable plastic.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcettis office is serving as a liaison, sourcing 3-D printers and other materials and connecting PPE makers with hospitals, said Christopher Hawthorne, the citys chief design officer (and formerly The Times' architecture critic). The city partnered with the L.A. chapter of AIA, putting a survey out to its members.

Were trying to match the supply and demand on a bigger scale, Hawthorne said.

Theres been much discussion over the last five years about the potential of 3-D printing in architecture, Hawthorne added, but the pandemic has accelerated the conversation and experimentation. Its turned from speculative to something that is very practical and immediately responsive to this need, he said.

For some, it's also personal. Architect Patrick Tighe, whose firm has made about 20 masks so far, is married to a nurse at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica.

We all feel kind of helpless and its a small contribution, but its something, he said. If we can make 100 masks and one helps one person, thats worth it.

Architects use a digital file to 3-D-print plastic shells later fitted with HEPA filters, weather-stripping sealant and elastic or string ties. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

The 3-D-printed masks arent in use because theyre meant to be backup reserves for hospitals. They arent as effective as real N95 masks, as theyre not guaranteed to be airtight. They are more effective than disposable surgical masks, which protect from only about 70% of airborne germs, Huang said, and they're certainly more effective than a bandanna or sock over ones face. The 3-D-printed masks are also reusable  just swap out the HEPA filter. Because theyre hard plastic and waterproof, theyre easier to wipe down and clean than hand-sewn masks or bandannas, which must be laundered.

The hard shell exterior doesnt necessarily fit every face shape comfortably, though.

Its very specific to face structure, Hwang said. So each person whod use it would have to do a fit test beforehand to make sure its sealed properly.

Architects use a digital file to 3-D-print plastic shells later fitted with HEPA filters, weather-stripping sealant and elastic or string ties. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Huang compares the 3-D-printing process to a hot glue gun attached to a robotic arm. Spools, rather than printer ink cartridges, feed tubular strands of plastic into the machine, where its melted. The 3-D printer head shoots the material out in layers, over several hours, as directed by a 3-D graphic in a digital file. Eventually the layers build up to create the object.

The majority of Huangs architects are using personal 3-D printers  many of them working at home  rather than expensive, industrial sized printers, and it takes about 3 1/2 hours to print one mask. When the mask comes out of the printer, participants follow assembly instructions in a PDF file, attaching the HEPA filter, adding weather stripping to the edges as a seal and affixing elastic ear bands.

Except theyre sold out everywhere, Huang said of the elastic, because so many Americans are making DIY masks. So were using string now. You just have to tie them really tight.

Another challenge, Huang said: Architects tend to be both creative and perfectionist.

Everyone in our group wants to modify it and make it better, he said. But I say: This is not a design project, its a production project.

Lawrence Scarpa of Brooks + Scarpa said he has watched his firm 3-D-print 300 masks so far. Architects are particularly suited to this job, he said.

Theres obviously a better way to make them with industrial processing," he said. "But architects generally rise to the occasion. Were good at problem solving and improvising. We see situations and adapt to make things better.
April 07 : Self quarantined in London with fiance George Panayiotou and their son Andreas, English actress and model Amy Jackson, who is also a part of Bollywood, is following social distancing and all rules to stay safe and healthy amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Taking to her Instagram handle, Amy shared a lovely picture of herself along with a message. The Singh is Bliing actress is supporting Save the Children initiative by Bulgari sitting from her living room. Amy explained that Bulgari needs peoples support during this testing times as its partnership in UK supports Save the Childrens Building Blocks programme, which not only makes efforts to improve childrens learning environment, particularly children of the low income families. These families are the most vulnerable due to the economic conditions amid Covid-19 menace. While schools are closed and uncertainty is looming large on jobs scenario, children of these families need help. Amy urged netizens to support Bulgari by shopping the Save the Children collection from its website.

The 2.0 actress looks gorgeous in a green shirt. Although it looks like the shirt of her night suit, the diva has accessorised her look with a matching sling bag and full makeup.
Coronavirus lockdowns have sparked a spike in searches about 5G conspiracy theories from curious Australians in self-isolation.

Advised not to leave home unless necessary, many Australians are using the extra spare time they have holed up indoors to research the internet about anti-5G conspiracy theories, according to analytical search trends by Google.

Interest in bizarre theories that the ultra-fast mobile technology causes coronavirus have also swept across the globe, despite experts' desperate efforts to debunk the claims.

Australian professor of medicine, and public health advocate John Dwyer described conspiracy claims that 5G causes the deadly virus as ' dangerous nonsense.'

Australians are using the extra spare time they have to research the internet about 5G conspiracy theories. Pictured is a woman checking her phone while waiting in a queue

He also refuted claims 5G technology is harmful is our health.

'It's right up there with wind farms causing cancer,' Professor Dwyer told Channel Seven on Monday night.

'At this time in the fight against the epidemic, this is dangerous nonsense. Even to have a few people think differently that social distancing isn't for them is a silly idea and is putting all of us at risk.'

'For some people, the idea of a conspiracy theory turns them on. Most of the time, it doesn't matter that much but in this particular case, it's dangerous.'

'Coronavirus is available to all Australians, which you can't say about the 5G network.'

Many experts have refuted conspiracy that coronavirus is caused by 5G technology

The question 'Is 5G safe?' was the second highest trending search term in Australia last week, according to Google.

Interest in 5G is 180 per cent above average weekly search levels while 'health effects', the top trending related topic for 5G has seen a 4,550 per cent spike in searches, Triple J reported.

Other trending questions regarding the topic include whether the technology is dangerous to humans and whether 5G is on cruise ships, along with the locations of 5G towers in Australia and Sydney.

There was a flood of interest when 5G technology was first rolled out Australia last May before being renewed when the pandemic hit Australia's shores earlier this week.

The Stop5G Australia Facebook group has grown to 32,000 members as conspiracy theories that the technology causes coronavirus continues to spread.

Global searches for '5G dangers' is five times higher this week, according to Google.

'Is 5G safe? was the second highest trending search term in Australia last week, according to Google trended. Pictured are a man and woman using mobile technology in Sydney

Social media platforms such as You Tube and Facebook have also taken measures to minimise the spread of conspiracy theories.

'We will also start to remove content with false claims or conspiracy theories that have been flagged by leading global health organizations and local health authorities that could cause harm to people who believe them,' Facebook's head of health Kang-Xing Jin said in a statement.

British mobile network providers have also debunked 'baseless' theories circulating online that 5G masts are linked to coronavirus after at least five towers were set on fire across the UK in the last week.

MobileUK, the trade organisation representing Three, O2, EE and Vodafone, added it was concerning the pandemic was being used to further such untruths and said some of the industry's key workers are being abused over the unfounded 5G myths.

Pictured, a screengrab from a video posted online from the UK of the Birmingham mobile network mast ablaze. It is unknown if the specific mast was emitting 5G and it was allegedly set on fire by conspiracy theorists saying it was linked to coronavirus

There have been at least five instances of vandals setting fire to towers in the United Kingdom in the last week.

Mobile UK said it is 'concerning that certain groups are using the Covid-19 pandemic to spread false rumours and theories about the safety of 5G technologies'.

'More worryingly some people are also abusing our key workers and making threats to damage infrastructure under the pretence of claims about 5G,' a statement said.
Odisha reported its first COVID-19 fatality with the death of a 72-year-old man in Bhubaneswar, officials said on Tuesday.

The state also reported a fresh coronavirus case during the day, taking the total count of those infected to 42.

The premier hospital said a 60-year-old coronavirus patient from Surya Nagar area of the capital city, who is on ventilator support, is stable and improving but he is not out of danger.

The patient died in AIIMS Bhubaneswar on Monday and a report on Tuesday confirmed that he had tested positive for the virus.

About the deceased, officials said he hailed from Jharpada locality in Bhubaneswar and was admitted to AIIMS here on April 4 with complaint of respiratory distress.

The patient who had a history of chronic hypertension died on April 6, a Health and Family Welfare Department official said, adding that contact tracing and containment is going on.

A statement from AIIMS, Bhubaneswar said the man had reported to the institute at 1 pm on April 4 with fever and severe respiratory difficulty. He was immediately shifted to isolation ward since he was having symptoms of COVID-19 and was treated for respiratory failure with oxygen and supporting therapy.

His condition worsened and he was put on ventilator on April 6 but despite all medical care, he died, it said.

His sample, taken on April 6 was found to be positive for coronavirus infection by the AIIMS which was subsequently sent to RMRC for reconfirmation and it was reaffirmed on April 7.

As the patient was treated as a COVID-19 suspect from the very beginning, all hospital infection control and safety protocols were followed, it said.

State governments Chief Spokesman on COVID-19, Subroto Bagchi said the last rites of the deceased would be performed strictly in accordance with the direction issued by the central government.

His body will be handed over by the AIIMS authorities as per the laid down procedure to the state government. The last rites would be performed under its supervision, Bagchi said.

Meanwhile, a fresh coronavirus case was confirmed in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.

The 45-year-old man belongs to Madhusudan Nagar of Unit IV area in the state capital, a senior official said. It was not immediately known whether he had any recent travel history.

With this, the number of coronavirus cases in the state has gone up to 42 with state capital Bhubaneswar reporting the maximum number of 34 patients. It virtually makes the city a COVID-19 hotspot.

The new case has come to light a day after a 32-year- old man from Kendrapara district having a travel history to Dubai tested positive for coronavirus.

The man had returned from Dubai on March 24, an official said, adding on his return from Dubai, he stayed at the house of a friend in Bhubaneswar before visiting his native place in Kendrapara district.

The state had on Sunday reported 18 new COVID-19 cases.

Meanwhile, two COVID-19 patients in the state have recovered from the disease and they have been discharged from the hospital, the official said, adding that the state at present has 39 active coronavirus cases.

A total of 86 people continue to remain in isolation in different hospitals in the state, he added.

The Odisha government has launched aggressive contact tracing of coronavirus patients in different districts of the state by forming containment zones.

This apart, the state government has already set up seven dedicated hospitals with bed strength of around 1,500 exclusively for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in different places, Bagchi said, adding more such exclusive corona hospitals will be ready soon taking the bed capacity to 5,607.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Staying at home for a month is tough, but it's better to endure the discomfort at home than to get sick, Minister Maksym Stepanov says

Maksym Stepanov Open source

The Ukrainian government is now working hard to slow down the spread of covonarivus in the country. The Ministry of Healthcare takes the necessary steps, approving the working algorithms for medics. Maksym Stepanov, the Healthcare Minister said so in his video address.

He also added that all government authorities are involved in mechanisms of solving the problem, and thanked for the effort of businessmen and volunteers.

"The boosted lockdown mode is active in Ukraine since the beginning of the week. Many of you don't like it. Of course, staying home for four weeks is tough. It's actually hard, but it's better to endure the discomfort at home than to get sick", he said.

He added that it's too soon to be talking about the end of the quarantine, since Ukraine is about to face the peak of the coronavirus disease.

"In the active phases of pandemic, the number of patients grows drastically, overloading the healthcare system. To put it simply, the number of patients becomes so big that there's not enough doctors, medications or space in hospitals. Unfortunately, that already happened in many countries", Stepanov said.
Fill the space between you with love, said someone somewhere in my social media feed. So we did, best we could. We were luckier than some  we had a spare room where boxes could be pushed to the side to make space for a table and a couch, creating two rooms for her to live in, and her own chair in our little courtyard. Id filled a box with plates and cups and cutlery, another with bathroom products, given her fresh towels and sheets and her own bin, tissues and paracetamol. Id bought wipes and bleach and gloves but there were no masks to be had. At night we served her dinner on a tray left outside her room. When she was finished, she dropped the plates and cups into a tub Id filled with hot soapy water and a splash of bleach. The weather was still warm enough to wash her dishes outside, leaving them to dry on an old rack Id once used for pot plants. The gloves Id used to clean up after her I washed with soap for 20 seconds as if they were my bare hands and hung them up to dry over the laundry sink I dedicated to disinfecting her traces. When I waved goodbye to her at the beginning of January, the bushfires were raging and I was glad she was going to a cool, damp place.

We had to wargame the use of the one bathroom and toilet we all shared. I cut yesterdays newspaper into squares so anyone who used the loo could spray and wipe it down, crumpling the paper into a lined and lidded bin. I removed all the toothbrushes and razors and creams from the bathroom and took them to the kitchen sink  now dedicated to uninfected surfaces. All the surfaces in the bathroom and kitchen were wiped down with compulsive regularity with diluted bleach. My daughter took her showers in the middle of the night, trying to erase all the surfaces she touched as she backed out of the room, allowing hours before the next person entered the space, wielding disinfectant sprays in gloved hands like talismans. It wasnt hospital-grade practice and it didnt feel like family, but we tried. She was disoriented and jetlagged and relieved and scared all at once. It was still a profound relief to have her home. When I waved goodbye to her at the beginning of January, the bushfires were raging and I was glad she was going to a cool, damp place. I never imagined Id urge her to evacuate the UK, fearful that international flights might dry up and leave her stranded, listening to coughing through the walls of her dorm, or worse, sickening in a strange land.

She was disoriented and jetlagged and relieved and scared all at once. I would take a chair into the hallway and ask her to open her door so we could talk. What if I infected the old couple next to me on the plane? she asked. What if I infect you or dad? She said she felt like a leper. One time, as she wept, I threw an old coverlet over her head and gave her a hug. She pushed me away; I was ridiculous. What if she were infectious? One of the many cruelties of this new disease is that it seems to make carers sicker than the first patient through prolonged exposure to the viral load. I would somehow have to look after her while wearing a homemade mask and scrubbing myself down every time. The pantry filled up with paracetamol and cough medicine and Vicks. For seven days we jumped at symptoms. She told us her temperature every morning. Both of us woke up at separate times with raging sore throats. I slept on the couch one night, worried, but woke up fine. She shut herself in her bedroom when she thought she was ill and would not come out.

Luckily, as a returned traveller with a sore throat, she was eligible for a COVID-19 test, taken in the back seat of a car at a local clinic. The results came back surprisingly quickly and they came back negative. Through her door I heard the happy note in her voice as she talked to the clinic and dropped my head into my arms on the kitchen table to exhale. She came out, phone clutched in her hand. "I can hug you now?" I asked and she nodded and I clung to her like a drowning woman. A few days later, shes officially past her 14 days in the quar, as she calls it. Shes packing up boxes to move into her boyfriends flat five blocks away.

He voluntarily went into the quar himself for two weeks, staying home alone so that she would know, when she moved in, that he was not infectious. It is a loving gesture that gives her mother, at least, a little comfort that these two will not roam the shops and streets as if coronavirus were no big deal. Loading Ill still speak to her and see her on the street  from two metres away. And we can still drop round food or things shes left behind. "What if she gets sick?" her father asks, late one night in the dark. And we know, in that instant.
Five militants and five soldiers were reportedly killed in one of the most brutal hand-to-hand combats that took place along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district.

Twitter

According to an India Today report, it had been snowing heavily in the Kupawara area for the past few days and the Pakistani terrorists who infiltrated took advantage of the bad weather to launch an attack.

The Indian Army started their pursuit to trace the terrorists when they noticed footprints near the line of control. The areas are completely rigged with razor-sharp ridgelines. All routes are cut off due to high snow levels, an army source told India Today.

It was a five day hot pursuit under heavy snow that finally led to 5 Pak terrorists being killed as they attempted infiltration in North Kashmir. 5 Indian Army brave hearts got them but also made the supreme sacrifice as both sides opened fire from a point blank range pic.twitter.com/JiJ6bQuXHC  Abhishek Bhalla (@AbhishekBhalla7) April 6, 2020

In the following days, there were frequent gun-battles and a 'game of hide-and-seek' before it ended in a face to face combat, killing all of them involved in it.

An NDTV report also quoted army sources saying that the area where the incursion took place had "razor sharp ridge line where all routes are cut off due to high snow levels."



The group of terrorists "attempted to exploit the inclement weather as it was snowing" for two days in the area, sources said.

Search parties were launched and soldiers of the army made contact with the terrorists at 1 pm on April 1 and recovered five bags but lost contact with the terrorists. Additional troops were brought in and the area was cordoned.

Lt Gen BS Raju, Commander,

15 Corps giving a detailed account of the sequence of events of #Kupwara encounter #LoC pic.twitter.com/BSlWJvWtAa  Abhishek Bhalla (@AbhishekBhalla7) April 6, 2020





In the early hours of April 5, special forces were airdropped to flush out the hiding terrorists. Based on visuals from UAV, special troops staged forward to the nearest Battalion HQ by air as the battalion is still cut off due to the winter, said an army source.

"At first light on 5 April, one squad following the footsteps on the snow failed to realise that they were on a cornice", they added. The cornice broke and the soldiers of the Special Forces squad fell into a stream.

This is the treacherous terrain where the fierce gun battle took place over 5 days in #Kupwara #LoC pic.twitter.com/2w5BpMIaVV  Abhishek Bhalla (@AbhishekBhalla7) April 6, 2020

"As luck would have it, where they fell, the terrorists were sitting right there. This led to a firefight, a close quarter battle at virtually point blank range," sources said.

Despite falling down the ridge, the Army Special Forces were able to engage the group of terrorists. "All five terrorists were killed. However, the complete squad, five in all, were killed in action," sources said The bodies of the soldiers and the terrorists were found within two to three metres of each other.

The bravehearts killed in action were Subedar Sanjeev Kumar from Himachal Pradesh, Havaldar Davendra Singh from Uttarakhand, Sepoy Bal Krishan from Himachal Pradesh, Sepoy Amit Kumar from Uttarakhand and Sepoy Chhatrapal Singh from Rajasthan.






BRF poultry plant in Dourados, Brazil approved for export to China



Brazil-based BRF SA said China's customs authority has approved its poultry plant in Dourados to resume exports to China, reported Reuters.

This makes a total of 14 BRF facilities that have been approved for meat export to China.

The poultry plant in the Dourados municipality in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, has the capacity to slaughter 130,000 poultry daily.

- Reuters
Every 7 April since 1994, Rwandans have paused to remember the 800,000 victims killed during the genocide. But on Tuesday, 26 years on, many were forced to pay their respects at home because of the coronavirus. A nationwide lockdown in France also pushed commemorations behind closed doors.

This year, there were no night vigils or the annual Walk to Remember that have traditionally marked Rwanda's genocide commemorations.

Only a small delegation led by President Paul Kagame visited the Gisozi memorial site in the capital Kigali on Tuesday, where the president lit the flame of remembrance and addressed the nation.

Rwandans were able to follow the events live on television or via social media from their homes. No groups however were allowed to visit any of the genocide memorials.

The national commission for the fight against genocide said commemoration activities would be conducted differently due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Rwanda has 105 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and last week the government extended the lockdown by a fortnight.

Discussing trauma

While some Rwandans have expressed disappointment at the low-key celebrations, others are making the most of the confinement.

"I'm going to use the time to talk with my kids about the genocide," says Egide Nkuranga, vice-president of the Ibuka organization for Genocide survivors.

"I will ask them questions and respond to theirs. The only problem though with commemorating something like this at home, is that it can cause mental health problems," he told RFI.

Rwandan authorities have put in place a special helpline for victims and survivors suffering from post-traumatic stress.

The fight must go on

The genocide began on the night of 6 April, 1994, when a plane carrying Rwanda's then-President Juvenal Habyarimana and his counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi - both ethnic Hutus - was shot down.

The minority Tutsi ethnic group and Hutu sympathisers were blamed for the assassination, which they denied, and bands of Hutu extremists began the massacres with support from the army, police and militia groups.

Neighbours killed neighbours and Hutu husbands even murdered their Tutsi wives out of fear for their own lives.

In a statement on Tuesday, Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairman of the African Union Commission, said the commemoration should be used as an opportunity to continue to fight genocide.

Meanwhile in France, where a nationwide lockdown is also in place, political leaders, including Paris' mayor Anne Hidalgo, said the country would never forget this "human barbarity," in which "[up to] one million men, women and children lost their lives."

This year was the first time that France has commemorated the Rwandan genocide - at President Emmanuel Macron's request.

France was an ally of the government of late Hutu President, Juvenal Habyarimana, whose fatal plane crash triggered the mass slaughter.

Kigali has long accused its French ally of training the militias who carried out the attacks.

Last year, Macron appointed a panel of experts to investigate Paris' alleged role in the 1994 genocide. The panel's findings will not be released until 2021, but on Sunday experts handed the president their initial report.
Bret: Somehow youve reminded me of the old joke: Pessimist: It cant get worse! Optimist: Sure it can.

Gail: But theres one thing I know we agree on. This would all be so much easier if we had a leader we could respect. I didnt think there was any way for my opinion of Donald Trump to drop any lower, but when he announced he wasnt going to wear face masks because he didnt want to look funny, that did it. New cratering.

Bret: Leading by non-example. His crowded-stage press conferences were another example.

What I find so frustrating is how little accountability there has been for him, at least among so many conservatives. Didnt they notice that he was the guy saying he had solved the problem by imposing travel restrictions on China?

Gail: If I hear that story about China one more time I will  throw something. Not at the TV, I guess. Really need that TV.

But about Trump. Any more venting? Feel free.

Bret: I realize you probably dont find this remotely surprising, but the refusal of so many conservatives to hold the president accountable for anything continues to stagger me, more than three years into this presidency. At this point, the G.O.P. ought to be renamed the L.P.: the Lemming Party.

Gail: I like that a lot. We need a visual. Mitch McConnell as Lemming majority leader.

Bret: Meanwhile, Democrats need to get their act together, starting with having a formal nominee with a well-funded operation. When is Bernie getting out of the race? And when is Mike Bloomberg going to step in with the kind of money he was prepared to spend on himself?

Gail: I actually have mixed feelings about the Democrats. Part of me yearns to drop partisan politics for a while and just rally together. But that would require a president who knows how to govern without partisanship.
Although mostly preventable, tooth decay is one of the most common chronic diseases in children worldwide, particularly in developing countries. If left untreated, cavities can be painful and may negatively affect a young child's overall health, development and quality of life.

Clemson University College of Science researchers recently conducted a study that may someday lead to better cavity prevention measures and treatments. Specifically, biological sciences assistant professor Vincent Richards' group examined the oral mycobiome, including all the fungi that might live there.

This work provides valuable insight into the oral mycobiome and the role fungi play in the mouth as it relates to caries. If we understand that better then researchers can develop better cavity prevention measures. For example, perhaps they can put beneficial fungal species into a pro-biotic treatment." Vincent Richards, biological sciences assistant professor, Clemson University College of Science

For years, the dental community has known that tooth decay occurs when the good and bad bacteria in our mouth become imbalanced and forms a biofilm (aka plaque). The biofilm absorbs the sugars we eat and the bacteria catabolize those sugars, turning them into acid, which decalcifies the teeth and causes cavities.

Thanks to advances in genome sequencing technology, scientists recently discovered that there is also a high diversity of fungi in the mouth, albeit in far fewer numbers than bacteria. However, little was known about the fungi's role in cavity formation and caries disease progression.

"The microbiome is a community-based thing and it's very complex," said biological sciences graduate student Lauren O'Connell, the lead author of the study. "Because fungi are present in the tooth biofilm, they're capable of utilizing these same sugars [as bacteria] and can produce acid, but we don't fully understand their role."

In the study, O'Connell sequenced the DNA from plaque samples of 33 children with varying stages of tooth health, including healthy teeth with no cavities; teeth with enamel lesions, which are indicative of an early-stage cavity; and teeth with dentin lesions, which indicate an advanced-stage cavity requiring either a filling or extraction.

She also examined the condition of the patients' mouths, including a mouth with no cavities or lesions; a mouth with some teeth that have enamel lesions; and a mouth that has some teeth with enamel and dentin lesions.

"By looking at two variables--tooth and mouth health--we are taking a site-specific approach, which enables us to categorize each plaque sample six ways, or along a continuum," said Richards. "This is important because we have found that the bacterial microbiome from a healthy tooth in a diseased mouth is more similar to the microbiome of a diseased tooth. That microbiome has shifted its profile to more of a diseased state."

"We wanted to see how the microbiome community changed as the disease progressed," explained O'Connell. "There's only been one other study that looked at the fungi in relation to cavities, but they examined only healthy teeth and severely diseased teeth."

The research team identified 139 species of fungus that live in human dental plaque, and of those, nine were strongly associated with dental health--in other words they could be contributing to keeping teeth healthy.

The fungi associated with healthy teeth may be producing a compound called xylitol, which has been shown to inhibit the growth of the Streptococcus mutans bacteria that is known to cause cavities. Xylitol is an ingredient in sugarless gum.

"It's possible that the nine fungi are promoting health by creating xylitol and other advanced microbial compounds," said O'Connell. "But we have to do further functional testing to figure out if that is actually what is happening."

The team also discovered interesting things about fungi associated with disease. For example, they learned that Candida dubliniensis was strongly associated with late-stage cavities and was found in abundance as tooth decay progressed, which could make it a potential indicator species of early childhood caries.

According to O'Connell, a second finding related to possible disease-causing fungi was that Candida albicans, the fungus that causes yeast infections, was found in both healthy and diseased plaque samples, which makes its role in dental caries unclear.
Hyderabad: The doubling time for Coronavirus (Covid-19) in India is 4.1 days, far from the ideal 7.1 days, as more asymptomatic carriers are coming to hospitals with symptoms. The doubling time is calculated based on number of patients who come with symptoms and are confirmed for the disease.

Medical experts say that doubling time has increased as cluster cases have emerged in various parts of the country and are being reported now.

The Markaz organised by the Tablighi Jamaat in Nizamuddin in New Delhi, orthopaedic doctor contacts in Nellore and Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai are examples of how there are groups of cases emerging from various parts of India.

Dr K.K. Aggarwal, president, Confederation of Medical Association of Asia and Oceania, said, The ideal time where there are no clusters or groups doubling time is 7.1 days. Those places where clusters have originated, the doubling time is now 4.1 days.

The rising number of cases across in India in different states is as anticipated by medical experts.

A senior doctor in Hyderabad explained, "The next two weeks will see rise in Covid-19 centers. After that, only governments can allow them to go to private hospitals for containment. This is as an expected scenario as finally more tests are being carried out and contact tracing is happening as per guidelines. This means sporadic cases with no contact history and severe respiratory distress will also come to hospitals. Two deaths in Osmania General Hospital and one case of immune compromised child in Niloufer Hospital are examples.

The anti-body testing for healthcare workers, who are frontline carriers of virus, will give an indication of level of anti-body generated to fight virus and response of immune system towards it. While this is only going to be a sample, it will give an assessment of how those who are exposed to the virus and asymptomatic carriers are responding to the virus.

A senior doctor explained, presently, we are taking throat swabs for suspected cases which is time consuming. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is now set to start blood tests and this will lead to more numbers of tests. But it will also give an idea of the spread. This will enable us to understand cluster spread in communities and mark those places where extensive methods of prevention and treatment can be carried out.

The ICMR is taking data of all main sewage channels in city as they have to test presence of virus in sewage. Scientists have got in touch with doctors and officials of municipalities to take up these works.

Dr Mustufa Afzal, infectious disease specialist, explained, Virus shedding is through droplets from mouth, besides urine and feces. This virus in sewage system is transmitted through mosquitoes and houseflies. We have to check on-load of virus in sewage system, which is a part of epidemiological process. These steps have to be taken to control the spread of the virus.
With one week left for the nationwide lockdown to end (with restrictions in many states), manufacturing companies gear up to restart factories. The companies are in touch with respective state governments for smooth evacuation of products from factories, said an executive with Tata Steel.

Most companies have been operating in staggered shifts since the lockdown was announced. Automakers have shut down the production and told non-factory employees to work remotely during the lockdown. Meanwhile, steel, power and cement plants are producing at minimal levels as the cost of shutting down all units and restarting them later may run in hundreds of crores.

JSW Steel said that it is preparing to recommence operations at all locations. On March 25, the company announced to scale down its operations and suspend production. JSW Steel has four blast furnaces and two corex in Karnataka Ballari; one furnace in Dolvi plant, Maharashtra, and one under construction.

Most of the manufacturing units in Maharashtra and Gujarat are shut since March 20. "The industrial townships, when it reopens, will need to have proper medical teams in place. Besides, they will have to work under the norms, which are prevalent during the lockdown time. It essentially means the movement of workers in and out of the complexes will be restricted," said an official with Maharashtra government.

Automobile companies working out of Pune, including Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors, have completely shut down production. Fiat Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Skoda and Force Motors in Maharashtra have also shut down their factories. Reliance Industries' main office, Reliance Corporate Park in Navi Mumbai and the Jamnagar refinery complex are partially shut. Larsen & Toubro has halted construction except for critical projects. "Restarting the whole work with tens of thousands of workers is going to be a critical task. Some of the key employees will be able to work remotely," said an official with Reliance Industries.

The companies are also facing difficulties in getting temporary workers on board. "At least 60 per cent of the migrant workers have shifted back to their villages since the lockdown was announced," said the Reliance official. The company executives feel that it would take at least a couple of months to normalise the production if the situation continues to be under control. "Economic damage will spread across two quarters," said an executive.

Also Read: Coronavirus: Tata Starbucks asks outlet landlords for 3-month rent waiver

Also Read: Coronavirus fallout: Unemployment rate spikes to 23% after lockdown, says CMIE

Also Read: Coronavirus: India to supply hydroxychloroquine after US threatens retaliation
Three more Tablighi Jamaat members have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Shamli, taking the total number of COVID-19 patients in the district to 11, officials said on Tuesday.

All three whose test results returned positive Monday evening are from Tripura, they said, adding they had gone to Shamli on March 17 after attending the Jamaat's Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz.

District Magistrate Jasjit Kaur said the three have been admitted to the COVID-19 hospital at Jhinjhana, which now houses all 11 Jamaat members who have tested positive in Shamli.

On Monday, five Jamaat members they were also from Tripura were moved to the hospital after testing positive. Before that, three members two from Bangladesh and one from Assam were admitted there.

The administration has begun sanitisation and other preventing exercises in the areas where the 11 stayed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NEW DELHI, April 7 (Reuters) - India has ended an anti-dumping probe against mono ethylene glycol (MEG) imports from Saudi Arabia, while continuing investigations against Kuwait, Oman, the U.A.E. and Singapore, a government order said late on Monday.

Reliance Industries Ltd, which had sought a probe in December, in February asked for the termination of investigations against imports from Saudi Arabia, the order said.

MEG is a major feedstock for the polyester industry and is used to produce polyester fibres, polyester films, and resins. It is also used in the fibre treatment of textiles, the paper industry, and in adhesives, inks, and cellophane.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
[April 06, 2020] TUV Rheinland cements chemical management lead with approval for ZDHC Level 3 MRSL 2.0 conformance testing and certification

COLOGNE, Germany, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- TUV Rheinland has cemented its lead as a global provider of chemical management solutions for the textiles, apparel and footwear industry after winning approval to provide Level 3 testing and conformance certification for the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) Foundation's Manufacturing Restricted Substances List 2.0 (MRSL 2.0). Once certified by TUV Rheinland, the chemical formulation can be registered and listed on the ZDHC GATEWAY: CHEMICAL MODULE. This development means that TUV Rheinland now offers customers a genuine, one-stop solution for all three focus areas of the ZDHC's "Roadmap to Zero" initiative and Greenpeace's DETOX campaign  Inputs, Processes, and Outputs  through its next-level TOXPROOF Testing and Certification program. "It is no longer enough for the industry to produce so-called 'clean' finished products by simply washing them and flushing any undesired chemicals into the local sewerage system before delivery. Brands, retail buyers and a growing number of savvy end-user customers are now demanding clear proof that the production process is clean from start to finish," said Mohammed Dkhissi, Global Vice President, Softlines for TUV Rheinland. "Meeting that need takes much more than mere commitment. It requires the kind of credibility that only an independent testing and certification partner like TUV Rheinland, which is backed by the approval of one of the world's most respected industry standards bodies - ZDHC - can deliver," said Dkhissi. The new Level 3 approval - the highest level in the current program covers TUV Rheinland's extensive global testing and certification network, including APAC locations such as China, Thailand and Vietnam, along with labs in Bangladesh, India, Turkey and Germany. It complements the MRSL 2.0 testing and certification services, which are already in high demand.



In fact, exploring ways to help customers fast-track their chemical compliance with ZDHC MRSL 2.0 is the subject of TUV Rheinland's next "Ask a DETOXpert" webinar, which will take place on 29 April, 2020 ( Click here to learn more or register for the webinar). TUV Rheinland has been actively promoting Sound Chemical Management for more than a decade, starting with the International Labour Organization's SCORE (Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises) program, and its own FIT FIVE training program, which links productivity and quality with CSR.

Conformance as per ZDHC MRSL Level 3, is a reliable and trusted indicator that the chemical formulation (and the process that produced it) has undergone a recognized, in-depth product and facility assessment, independent testing and on-site auditing - and will continue to undergo random product checks after the test mark is issued. Buyers and end-user consumers can be confident that, to the best of current knowledge, the product presents no danger to human health and meets recognized environmental sustainability standards. To analyze a chemical formulation for harmful substances, TUV Rheinland assesses the chemical composition, evaluates associated documents, and reviews the production process. The analytical testing protocol covers known, potentially harmful substances, possible contamination, and the materials used to preserve the product during shipment and storage, all based on the ZDHC MRSL List. To evaluate the potential risk of exposure to a toxin, test conditions are chosen based on how consumers are likely to use the product in their day-to-day lives. "TUV Rheinland's ZDHC MRSL Level 3 Conformance program is designed to help players at each step of the textile, apparel and footwear supply chain, to lower their risk of liability through documented safety standards. With this latest Level 3 MRSL 2.0 approval by ZDHC, our program represents an even more powerful way for businesses to sharpen their competitive edge and offer customers a unique decision-making aid when they are considering a purchase," said Dkhissi. About TUV Rheinland TUV Rheinland is a global leader in independent inspection services, founded nearly 150 years ago. The group maintains a worldwide presence of more than 20,000 people; annual turnover is EUR 2 billion. The independent experts stand for quality and safety for people, technology and the environment in nearly all aspects of life. TUV Rheinland inspects technical equipment, products and services, oversees projects, and helps to shape processes and information security for companies. Its experts train people in a wide range of careers and industries. To this end, TUV Rheinland employs a global network of approved labs, testing and education centers. Since 2006, TUV Rheinland has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact to promote sustainability and combat corruption. Website: www.tuv.com www.tuv.com/detox SOURCE TUV Rheinland

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The state has received only a small fraction of the masks, gowns, goggles and other gear it has requested from the federal government, Pritzker said. That includes 300 of the 4,000 ventilators Illinois has asked for and about 368,000 of the more than 10 million N95 respirator masks requested, according to figures provided by the state and the White House. The city of Chicago has received 150 additional ventilators for its stockpile from the feds.
Manufacturers of personal protective equipment (PPE) will now need to mark their products with a unique code and tamper-proof stickers, the textile ministry has said. This comes after reports emerged that unapproved products were being sold in the market.

Healthcare workers are at most risk of infection as they come in close contact with Covid-19 patients. With a global shortage of PPE that is supposed to protect them, the demand for such equipment has grown exponentially in hospitals and among sanitation workers who are called on to disinfect high risk areas.

The move, ministry officials said, was to tighten the production of PPE among Indian manufacturers and producers in line with the specifications of the World Health Organisation and the union ministry of health and welfare.

The ministry, in a notification issued on April 6, said the Unique Certification Code (UCC-COVID19) will apply to PPE garments and fabric which pass the laboratory tests laid down by the South India Textile Research Association (SITRA) as well as the the Defence Research & Development Establishment (DRDE). The Code will record the type of garment, its test procedure, date of test. The certification will be valid for a certain time period and both SITRA and DRDE will preserve the sample sent by the producer, said the notification, accessed by HT.

Approvals for the manufacturing of PPEs and the fabrics used in making them are given by the Coimbatore-based SITRA, an autonomous body under the textiles ministry and the Gwalior-based DRDE.

Another directive was that in the case of coveralls, the manufacturer will print in indelible ink or in a tamper-proof sticker details such as name of producer, code, test standard, batch number, order details.

A ministry official, on the condition of anonymity, told HT that the move was prompted by news reports of some of those rejected by SITRA and DRDE supplying their units to private hospitals. The directives have now been sent to states, too.

Nihar Ranjan Dash, joint secretary at the textiles ministry said that the certification mainly concerns coveralls and fabric provided by certain manufacturers to producers of PPEs. The directive does not concern masks, as they are certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards. All this while, as we relied on imports, the specifications were of international standards, said Dash.

He added that the tightening of norms will also help Indian manufacturers prepare for the global market. The current capacity of the Indian industry is 12,000 units per day, but Dash said that in about three months, India has the production capacity of 300,000 PPEs per day.

An official of one of the testing agencies told HT, on the condition of anonymity, that the two specific tests that are applied are the synthetic blood penetration test in the case of coveralls and the bacterial efficiency test in the case of masks. A severe shortage of N95 masks has been a concern as there are just a handful of producers, said the officials.

Since India began domestic production of PPE in March, these two testing agencies have approved 28 manufacturers with non-woven textiles such as masks and coveralls, and additionally approved 22 manufacturers of the fabric that is supplied to some of these producers.

The official of the testing agency said that in the beginning, only 50% of manufacturers passed the test. The success rate now is over 80 percent, the official said.

M Rajaa of Coimbatore-based Saastha Textiles, one of the approved manufacturers of waterproof, laminated thermoplastic polyurethane and thermoplastic elastomers fabric in knitted, woven and non-woven fabric used in PPE units, told HT that the fabric needs to have a certain type of lamination to ensure that blood and virus do not contaminate a healthcare worker. We also need to use only polypropylene virgin material to ensure that the material is protective and some manufacturers are also using reprocessed materials, said Rajaa.

Parag of Sai Synergy, a producer of PPEs, said that their products have been ordered by the Indian Navy before and hence their products carry a sticker. The sticker has to be put during the manufacturing process and cannot be put there after, he said.
America drew up plans to invade Britain during the Cold War in case England became part of the Soviet Union, documents have revealed.

US generals feared the 'Reds' would themselves invade the UK and insisted the Admiralty help them prepare a counter-offensive.

In August 1946, British secret service bosses received a request from the US Chief of Naval Operations for a topographical survey of Britain's coastline and beaches.

After WWII, the US feared Soviet expansion into Western Europe after Joseph Stalin aggressively drew the Iron Curtain across the Eastern Bloc. Such was the concern in Washington, it was felt the US should be furnished with a full map for a sea offensive.

America drew up plans to invade Britain in case England became part of Soviet Union

US generals requested topographical surveys of Britain's coastline and beaches

The beginning of the Cold War The Cold War erupted between the Soviet Union and the US and her allies following World War II. The Soviets held Central and Eastern Europe, while the US and allied forces remained in Western Europe. The establishment of the United Nations did little to bring Joseph Stalin to heel. The Security Council lacked power because of the veto powers given to each state. At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, the positions of the sides became more entrenched as they set out their wishes while carving up Germany. President Harry Truman also revealed to Stalin their atomic bomb project - which they had invited Britain into but kept secret from the USSR. The US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki a week after Potsdam. Stalin was furious with Truman who intended to use America's nuclear weapons to pressure the Russians going forward. In 1947, President Harry Truman adopted the policy of containment to stop the spread of Communism. The Truman Doctrine would shape America's foreign policy towards Russia for decades and led to the foundation of the NATO alliance. Advertisement

According to files found in the National Archives, the armed forces approved a comprehensive coastal survey codenamed Operation Sandstone in August 1946.

While not to be confused with the American's 1948 nuclear weapon tests under the same name, Operation Sandstone intention was to gather information about onshore and seabed conditions, beach gradients and sea depth to enable the US Navy to land troops on our shores.

In 1951, the Chief of Combined Operations, Major-General Godfrey Wildman-Lushington, reported that Operation Sandstone was progressing. However, beach reconnaissance methods were 'slow, costly and not applicable to areas to which we had no access'.

Nevertheless, the plan continued through the Cold War era into the mid-1960s. By this time, most of Britain's coast had been surveyed and bucket and spade holidays were booming.

Every section of the coast was carefully mapped and photographed to see how obstacles might hamper US trucks, jeeps, and armour.

For example, surveyors working on the Norfolk Coast between Kings Lynn and Cromer, found a gravel beach laced with wooden piles to form groynes.

They recorded in their notebooks: 'Obstacles to wheeled vehicles and tanks - surmountable by personnel. Gradient 1:12 soft sand and gravel. See photo no. 4'

Every inch of the British coastline was also photographed from the air and each photo has to overlap with the following one to present a continuous sequence.

Although it ended up a colossal waste of money, the long lost files could now help scientists battling coastal erosion.

Surveyors working on the Norfolk Coast between Kings Lynn and Cromer, found a gravel beach laced with wooden piles to form groynes (pictured)

Files found in the National Archives showed that the armed forces approved a comprehensive coastal survey codenamed Operation Sandstone in August 1946

British coast was carefully mapped while notes were made using photographs of the shores

Dr Dan Gilfoyle, of the National Archives, said: 'Operation Sandstone finished in 1966, but not before it had produced a rich photographic and descriptive record of the British coast.

'The survey was fortunately never required for its original purpose and its records remained in storage.'

Following an extensive conservation and cataloguing project at The National Archives, they have now been made available to the public.

Dr Gilfoyle added: 'They might yet have an important role for environmental studies, as they give a comprehensive picture of the coast as it was in the 1950s.

'Assembled and presented digitally, they might provide an important marker for coastal change over the last sixty years.'
Photo credit: Courtesy of Luke Abrahams

From Town & Country

Legend says the Plitvice Lakes were created by a magical goddess known as The Black Queen. The story goes that after a period of severe drought, locals called on the mythical figure and begged her for water. For weeks, they prayed and prayed, cattle died, crops were destroyed and countless villagers starved to death  help us and send rain! they pleaded. But their cries were ignored.



Until one night the Black Queen rose from her magnificent layer and offered her people some words of comfort: I am sad that you are suffering, she proclaimed. Heartbroken by their appearance, the Queen summoned a powerful zephyr that unleashed a storm so vast, people to this day say it created the great 16 Plitvice Lakes. In return for her mercy, the mythical monarch asked that the villagers keep one promise  to protect the lakes until the end of days.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Luke Abrahams

I am alone, hiking through the forests of Lika, the historic region in Croatia that is home to the Plitvice Lakes. There is a light breeze in the air as the suns rays beat yellow, gold and deep reds hues on the deserted forest floor. It was here in 1991 that the so-called Plitvice Lakes incident occurred, the first armed confrontation of the Croatian war of independence. For almost four years, the National Park was held by local Serb rebels, supported by the Yugoslav Peoples Army (JNA) as part of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina. Men were lost on both sides, and the park itself suffered some damage with many local shops, facilities and hotels being used as barracks.

Fast-forward two decades later, and the story is very different. By far Croatias Adriatic hinterland, the glorious expanse of this bewitching Unesco-listed Neverland is gut-wrenchingly scenic. I visit the lakes for the first time in October, during the height of autumn, and according to every local I met, the best time to visit. An easy and picturesque two-hour drive from the Croatia capital of Zagreb (the closest international airport to the park), at first glance, its easy to understand why so many fall under the lakes bewitching spell.

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Hidden within lush forest, towering waterfalls plunge into powerful cascades that snake their way into the mouths of crystal-clear rivers and emerald-green lakes. For what seems like miles, the mineral-rich waters glide over the parks ancient rocks, leaving trails of electric green tufa in ever changing patterns that guide visitors through the 18-kilometres worth of wooden footbridges. Clouds of butterflies drift by, the bees buzz and the birds soar above  in every sense of the word, Plitvice is the fairytale youve yearned to live since your childhood.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Luke Abrahams

Then theres the wildlife. Otter, lynxes, wildcats, deer, wolf packs and the mighty brown bear reign over the parks animal kingdom. Sightings of the latter are extremely rare  throughout my 40-kilometres of hiking, I did not spot a print  so dont visit expecting one on your doorstep.

Though my guide tells me the park is packed during peak seasons  especially summer. Divided into four main trails, all with differing trek times, the best one to take to get a feel for everything is route C, which cuts through both the lower and upper lakes. Taking roughly four to five hours, the five-mile mini hike guides you on the panoramic route, where youll see all the National Parks main sights, including the mighty Veliki Slap (the Great Waterfall and the tallest of its kind in Croatia) and all the moss-ridden fairy pools. For the best views, head for the well-signposted lookouts in the lower lakes. From here youll get excellent panoramic views of all the main sights, especially at sunset or sunrise when golden hour is at its most magical.

The local hotel scene is just as gloriously wild at heart. One of the best is Fenomen Plitvice. Tucked away on a private road that leads into the forest, its perfectly situated for exploring everything the National Park has to offer on foot. Rustic chic best sums up the overall look, with timber cottages dotted around a small village of well-groomed holiday retreats. There are four to choose from, deluxe suites to studios, luxury abodes and private lodges. Pinus and Fagus lodges are the best of the bunch  both are an ideal romantic hideout if you really want to get away from it all.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Fenomen Plitvice Hotel

Situated roughly a 10-minute drive away from the main resort, the silent whisper of Mother Nature is your only neighbour. Surrounded by mountains and miles upon miles of fields, the digs are classic, yet modern, and are kitted out with log-fire living-rooms, kitchen, and snug beds. Though relaxation is at the heart of the place, Fenomen also offers a variety of activities, from quad-biking to guided walks. My advice: ask for a picnic to go and get lost in the woods.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Fenomen Plitvice Hotel

Plitvice eats come courtesy of Licka kuca, a traditional barn-style landmark popular for its quintessentially Croatian hearty fare. Must-trys include the lamb spit roast and house specialty licka juha sausage. The cold meat and cheese selection are also excellent. For cocktails, hit Bistro & caffe Plum, an Italian-meets-Croatian via Mexico gastro pub. Stylish, yet subtle, unwind in comfy sofas or indulge in a fine wine or two on the terrace  the perfect way to cheers out a long weekend of lusting after the lakes.

Explore Plitvice Lakes National Park with stays at Fenomen Plitvice Resort, from 105 a room a night.
Mr. Raab, by contrast, has been a peripheral figure in the governments response, mostly focusing on organizing evacuation flights to bring back Britons stranded overseas. He is best known for his hard-line views on Brexit, which helped him get his post in Mr. Johnsons pro-Brexit cabinet.

Mr. Raab, officials said, was working from his quarters in the Foreign Office. He would chair meetings on national security, though in the case of an emergency, the cabinet would make decisions on a collective basis.

While he is trusted by the prime minister, Mr. Raab is only one of several ambitious ministers who may assert their right to step up. Michael Gove, a senior cabinet minister and longtime rival of Mr. Johnson, was the face of the government on television Tuesday morning, though he announced that he, too, was now in isolation at home after a family member showed mild coronavirus symptoms.

Other ministers  like the chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, and the health secretary, Matt Hancock  have been leading key parts of the response and will have strong voices. Keeping discipline could be difficult, analysts said, with much of the responsibility for that falling to the cabinet secretary, Mark Sedwill.

If Mr. Raab were to become incapacitated, officials said, Mr. Sunak would be next in line as de facto leader. As chancellor, he has gotten good reviews for rolling out gargantuan packages to rescue an economy under lockdown.

In one sense, Mr. Raabs less direct involvement could be an advantage, allowing him to resolve potential disputes between economic and health officials over the easing of social distancing measures. On Tuesday, Mr. Raab signaled the government was not close to a decision on lifting the lockdown.




Haiti - News : Zapping...





Covid-19 : strengthen measures in Petion-ville

Dominique St. Roc the Mayor of Petion ville strengthens measures to combat the spread of Covid-19. From now on, the town's markets will only be open on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Food vendors will be privileged. In addition, sale on the sidewalks is prohibited. From this Tuesday, April 7, tap-taps and minibuses ensuring the Petion-ville route, must transport a maximum of 8 people under penalty of sanctions.



Incentives and Benefits for Health Professionals

The government is willing to offer Incentives and Benefits to healthcare professionals who want to get involved in the fight against Coronavirus for the care of the sick.



Dark vision of the Minister of TPTC

Joaceus Nader the Minister of Public Works, said he was preparing to face a significant amount of deaths from the Covid-19 which could reach 1,000 to 1,500 per day. These possible remains should be buried in mass graves.



All the Government screened

Prime Minister Jouthe Joseph announced on Monday on a radio station that in order to fight the spread of Covid-19, all members of the government, as well as employees of the prime minister officer and parliament will be tested.



New Mutisectorial Commission

Monday, at the National Palace, President Moise set up the Multisectoral Pandemic Management Commission of Covid-19. This new structure, with a 90-day mandate, made up of three members, is co-chaired by Dr Jean William Pape, founder of the Gheskio Centers and Dr Laure Adrien, Director General of the Ministry of Public Health. Paul Oxila is appointed adviser general controller of operations of the Commission, whose mission in support of the Ministry of Public Health is to ensure strategic planning and coordination of resources from NGOs and the private business sector. "No one will come to help us, each country is fighting for its people," said Dr. Pape.



Alternatives for paying EDH

The Electricity of Haiti (EDH) offers the possibility to its customers to pay their electricity bills via the Haitian Interbank Payment System (SPIH) from a branch of the bank of their choice or remotely (without move). Visit https://edh.ht for details and EDH bank details.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Consortium of 11 Community Banks Deliver Lifeline to Thousands of Small Businesses through CARES Act

DUBUQUE, Iowa, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- We are currently processing approximately $1.5B in Paycheck Protection Program loans, said Bruce K Lee, President and CEO of Heartland Financial USA, Inc. After receiving over 7,000 requests for loans under the CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program in 72 hours, the 11 community banks operated by Heartland, stopped accepting new requests for the program on Monday afternoon. Lee stated, Our customers and communities are depending on us now more than ever, and our teams across the company have stepped up and worked around the clock to provide a lifeline to our customers as they navigate the provisions of the CARES Act.



Unlike many banks across the country, Heartlands 11 community banks, located in small towns and big cities from Minnesota to California, began accepting applications for the Paycheck Protection Program early on Friday morning just hours after the SBA published interim rules for participation. We had been closing monitoring developments and preparing to be agile to accommodate the many changes introduced by the SBA, so that we were able to support our customers and communities during this time of need, added Lee. Our small business customers across the country have struggled to navigate the complexity and changing requirements of the of the Paycheck Protection Program and we have hosted educational webinars, built resource centers on our bank websites and individually consulted with customers to provide support and assist them in calculating payroll costs and completing applications correctly, he said.

On Monday, April 6, the Federal Reserve released a statement committing the central bank to providing financing to lenders processing the $350B Paycheck Protection Program. Additionally, early on Tuesday morning, April 7, U.S. Treasury Security Steven Mnuchin, told Fox Business Network, that over 3,000 lenders were participating in the $349 billion small business loan program and the Federal Reserve and Treasury were working to set up facilities to support main street and municipal borrowers. Mnuchin said, If you cant get the loan today or tomorrow, dont worry there will be money. If we run out of money, well go back for more. There is extraordinary demand.

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Lee commented, Its encouraging to see our government agencies rapidly responding to the demand for the program and recognizing that banks, even those like Heartland that have strong liquidity and are well capitalized, do not have unlimited resources to meet the needs of customers during this crisis alone.

Heartland Banks are not only relying on the government and the Cares Act to support customers and employees as they battle the current COVID-19 pandemic. They have delivered relief programs for consumers and business customers that include, waiving account maintenance and ATM fees, deferral on loan payments and waiving penalties on early redemption of CDs. And in addition to moving most employees to work from home arrangements, the companys liberal pandemic time off program provides 100% compensation through May 31, for employees who are unable to work due to illness, school and daycare closures or other reasons caused by the pandemic. Heartland also is paying front line workers in their branches and call centers a premium and has offered 100% coverage for health care expenses related to COVID-19. Lee shared, Our employees take care of our customers every day and are the reason for our success, and during these unprecedented times, our number one priority is the health and safety of the Heartland family. We want our employees to take care of themselves, their families and each other and not worry about a paycheck. Our employees have peace of mind knowing  Weve got them covered.

About Heartland Financial USA, Inc.

Heartland Financial USA, Inc. is a diversified financial services company with assets of $13.2 billion. The company provides banking, mortgage, private client, investment and insurance services to individuals and businesses. Heartland currently has 114 banking locations serving 83 communities in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Texas and California. Additional information about Heartland Financial USA, Inc. is available at www.htlf.com.

CONTACT:

Laura Hughes, EVP

Chief Marketing Officer

Chief Financial Officer

lhughes@htlf.com
Chandigarh: The Punjab government on Tuesday gave a 24-hour deadline to all those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin in New Delhi last month, but went into hiding, to report to the nearest police station or else face criminal prosecution.

A spokesperson of the state health department said all those, who attended the congregation and were currently in Punjab, should report and appear for COVID-19 screening within the next 24 hours.

Out of the 467 people who attended the religious gathering, the Punjab Police have traced 445 persons so far, the spokesperson said.

Of them, 350 have undergone coronavirus tests and 12 have tested positive for the infection. The results of 111 samples have tested negative, spokesperson said.

The results for the remaining 227 were awaited, said the spokesperson.

Due to the sensitivity of the issue, the remaining Tabligi Jamaat participants have been asked to come out for testing and join hands with the state government to eliminate this disease from the country, spokesperson said.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has already issued an advisory on March 28 and, in its continuation, reiterated its directions to all the Chief Secretaries/Advisors to Administrators of all States/UTs and DGPs in this regard on April 4.

The Tabligh-e-Jamaat's Markaz in Nizamuddin West had emerged as a hotspot of coronavirus, following which a major area had been sealed and an FIR lodged against its cleric for violating government orders.

Authorities across the country have swung into action to trace the contacts of those who went to the gathering, attended by hundreds of people, including from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal



Corporation (BMC) has sealed the office of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) here and put all its employees under home quarantine after it was found that one of the staff of the central agency had come in contact with a COVID-19 patient, an official said on Tuesday.

The civic body officials put up a notice on the wall of the IB Office located at RN Singhdeo Marg in the city, he said.

The IB office has been sealed for a period of 14 days from April 6 to April 19, 2020 and nobody is allowed to enter the premises, the BMC official said.

Sources said that one of the employees of the IB office had come in contact with a COVID-19 patient of Surya Nagar area in the state capital.

The Surya Nagar area has been declared as "containment zone" after eight novel coronavirus cases were reported from the locality.

The civic body has made an elaborate arrangement to sanitise the R N Singhdeo Marg area including the IB Colony, the official said.

"All employees have been kept under home quarantine and their swab samples sent for testing," BMC Commissioner Prem Chandra Chuadhary said.

Apart from Surya Nagar, the BMC has notified Bomikhal, Kapila Prasad, Jadupur and Begunia areas as "containment zones" for aggressive surveillance.

Similarly, the district administration of Kendrapara on Tuesday sealed 11 villages in Aul area as a preventive measure after a 32-year-old man with a travel history to Dubai tested positive for COVID-19.

Kendrapara district collector Samarth Verma said the public movement in the villages has been restricted and sanitisation exercise will be taken up in the these areas.

He, however, said there is no need to panic for the sanitisation process as the district administration will continue to provide essential items to each household.

The fresh COVID-19 patient from Kendrapara district has been admitted to a hospital in Cuttack and samples of his family members have been collected for test, he said.

All his family members have been put in home quarantine, Verma added.

This apart, the administration has also sealed several localities in Cuttack, Jajpur and Puri districts and declared these areas as containment zones, the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Notorious dacoit Pappu Gurjar who faces criminal cases in three states -- Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh -- was arrested after an encounter with police in Dholpur district, police said on Tuesday.

He carries three cash rewards worth Rs. 50,000 and was arrested with his accomplice Kallu after the encounter in Badi area of Dholpur, IG Police Laxman Gaur said.

Two rifles and live cartridges were also recovered from Pappu's possession, he said.

Pappu is the brother of notorious dacoit Jagan Gurjar.

The operation to nab him was carried out following a tip that Pappu was hiding in the area.

But when a police team surrounded him, he and his accomplice opened fire on the police party, which led to an exchange of fire, the police said.

They were arrested after the encounter, police said.

Pappu is one of the top 10 wanted criminals in Rajasthan and has several cases lodged against him also in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

He carries three cash rewards announced by the Rajasthan Police and Agra police.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Cardinal George Pell walked out of jail as a free man on Tuesday after Australia's highest court overturned his convictions in the child sex abuse case.

The highest-ranking Roman Catholic leader, 78, was sentenced to six years in prison last March after he was found guilty of molesting two 13-year-old boys following a Sunday Mass in 1996, The New York Times reported.

However, a panel of seven judges has ruled that the jury ought to have considered a doubt about his guilt. The judges cited "compounding improbabilities" to conclude that the verdicts on five counts reached in 2018 was "unreasonable or cannot be supported by the evidence."

Cardinal Pell, in a statement, reiterated his assertion that he had committed no crimes. "I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice," he said.

"This has been remedied today with the High Court's unanimous decision," stated the Cardinal, who also served as the chief financial officer of the Vatican, as well as an adviser to Pope Francis.

The verdict, handed down by Chief Justice Susan Kiefel to a largely empty courtroom in Brisbane because of social distancing measures to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, shocked Catholics in Australia and around the

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
STAMFORD  An apparent wiring short in a crematory chamber appears to be the cause of a fire that broke out at Cognettas Funeral Home in Stamford early Monday evening.

Firefighters quick response contained the fire to the malfunctioning chamber, leaving only a small amount of water and smoke damage at the Myrtle Avenue business.

Capt. Philip Hayes said Stamford Fire Engine 4 from the East Side Fire Station was returning from an emergency call at about 6:40 p.m. when firefighters observed heavy smoke coming from the area of Myrtle Avenue and Frederick Street.

The engine arrived at the funeral home about a minute later and reported thick, black smoke billowing from a chimney in the center of the building, Hayes said. Smoke was also observed coming from a basement entrance at the rear. Firefighters stretched a 2-1/2 inch hose line into the basement, where they discovered a malfunctioning crematory chamber.

Chief Fire Marshal Walter Seely said the door to the chamber malfunctioned during a cremation, sending smoke and heat into the building.

The door suddenly opened during the process and the fire began coming out of the cremation chamber, Seely said. An employee tried to close the door using the manual control panel, but the door did not respond and remained open.

Arriving firefighters were able to force the door closed, which mitigated damage to the building, Seely said.

Funeral home owner Nicholas Cognetta blamed the malfunction on the current health crisis. With its two crematory chambers, his facility has been serving families of the deaceased in the state, but also assisting Westchester County to keep up with the demand there in dealing with the dead.

He said there was a week or two-week wait to cremate bodies there. We are trying to help them out, otherwise there will be another health issue, he said.

We have been taxing these machines with corona needs, he said.

As a result of the heavy use, the crematory chamber became overheated, he said, which melted some wires causing a short circuit, which causing the door to open prematurely.

We have never had the same demand as we have had in these past three weeks, Cognetta said. It was simply a malfunction.

The chamber was fixed and in operation again Tuesday.

The electrician was here till midnight last night , he said.

Twenty-two firefighters arriving on three Engines, one Ladder Truck, one Rescue, and one Incident Commander worked quickly to bring the fire under control, Hayes said

Stamford EMS stood by at the scene but were not needed.

Cognetta's Funeral Home and Crematory has been family owned since 1953.

It is is the only funeral home in Stamford with a crematory on the premises.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
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In 1845, a shy young man named Henry David Thoreau "went to the woods to live deliberately." Using old boards from a nearby shanty, he and a few friends built a small cabin near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Determined to break a spell of writer's block, he stayed there more than two years, trying to "suck out all the marrow of life."

He was not always alone during this time, as some carping high school student will point out. But Thoreau's experiment, immortalized in "Walden; or, Life in the Woods," became the world's most famous act of social distancing.

Since the coronavirus quarantine began in the United States last month, tens of millions of us have begun something like Thoreau's retreat, but with a better Internet connection. As the days accumulate into weeks and then months, the burden of remaining cloistered will surely grow more challenging. Thoreau went there before us. He knew there can be contentment alone just as often as there can be loneliness among company.

Of course, when regarded as a 20-something prig squatting rent-free on Ralph Waldo Emerson's land, Thoreau sounds like the dude you'd least like to be quarantined with.

He writes, "Men frequently say to me, 'I should think you would feel lonesome down there, and want to be nearer to folks.'"

"Why should I feel lonely?" he asks. "Is not our planet in the Milky Way?"

Sure. Whatever.

But considering "Walden" in the context of Thoreau's life makes a richer and far more sympathetic book than its collection of metaphysical aphorisms would suggest.

In 1842, just a few years before he went to the woods, Thoreau's beloved brother, John, cut himself on a razor. There was no vaccine or cure for the tetanus infection that quickly set in and killed him. John was 27 years old. He died in agony in Thoreau's arms.

Just two weeks after that tragedy, Emerson lost his 5-year-old son, Waldo, to scarlet fever. As a sometimes resident of Emerson's house, Thoreau had often played with the little boy and made him wooden toys.

The deaths were unbearable.

Thoreau's journal, a vast compendium of almost daily reflection that includes more than 2 million words, breaks off for six weeks during this unspeakable period of loss. Soon after he returns to his journal, he writes, "I am like a feather floating in the atmosphere; on every side is depth unfathomable. I feel as if years have been crowded into the last month."

It's become customary to read "Walden" as an inspirational guide to nature or, less charitably, as a series of self-righteous pronouncements. Try, instead, reading it as a memoir of grieving. Its affirmations speak so powerfully in this time of mourning - not just for the loss of loved ones but for the loss of life as we knew it. "Walden" is the record of a man struggling to pray his way back to daylight the only way he knew how. The cabin by the pond was not an arrogant rejection of society so much as a cell and sanctuary, a place of torture and relief.

"I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls," Thoreau writes in a chapter called "Solitude." "I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. ... I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a bumble-bee. I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house."

You can hear that as pastoral bragging. I hear somebody trying to resist despair by etching into print sentences beautiful enough to remake his own mind. You wouldn't know it from "Walden," but Thoreau wasn't just observing toadstools and listening to whippoorwills during those two years by the pond. He was writing his first book, "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers," about a boat trip he took with his late brother.

The coronavirus quarantine draws me back almost 30 years to when our first daughter was born with cerebral palsy after a terrifying labor. We spent 10 timeless days in the neonatal ICU before the doctors wished us luck and sent us home. My wife and I were in our 20s, struggling to make sense of what had happened to us, fearing what lay ahead for our child. We lived in a tiny house in a remote village along the Mississippi River. We cycled through fits of optimism and dread.

I had been raised at a time when people still whispered words like "divorce" and "cancer." The only children with disabilities I had seen were on Jerry Lewis' maudlin TV fundraisers. I had no language to describe what had befallen us. Unsure how to behave, my wife and I hunkered down in that little house and chose to see almost no one, convinced isolation was easier than enduring anyone's fake cooing over our baby. The loneliness was so intense I thought it would kill me. When we saw other people, we were all smiles and abstract optimism. We lived in the Milky Way.

Years later, in a moment of extraordinary candor, a friend told us, "I sensed something was wrong, so I didn't call."

We didn't blame him; we knew exactly what he meant. Others' solitude can seem so sacrosanct, so proud and neatly sealed. Who'd want to disturb that? But now whenever my wife and I find ourselves reluctant to risk intruding on the privacy of someone in distress, we remind each other of that cruel hesitancy.

Locked up alone or crowded together in apartments, many of us are enduring unbearable but asymptomatic loneliness, anxiety and grief. Pick up the phone. Make time for FaceTime. Thoreau once asked, "What sort of space is that which separates a man from his fellows and makes him solitary?"

It's only the space we tolerate.

Intrude deliberately.
The death toll from the new coronavirus in Montgomery County is now four as the county saw a jump from 161 cases Monday to 197 Tuesday afternoon.

The Montgomery County Public Health District confirmed the death and 36 new cases Tuesday.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Coronavirus live updates: Recession imminent, comptroller says; 2 Texas prisons on lockdown

While the countys first three deaths were residents of a senior living facility in The Woodlands, the fourth death is not related to The Conservatory at Alden Bridge, said Jason Millsaps, executive director of the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

Conroe, per ZIP code, is leading the number of cases with 48 with The Woodlands following with 41.

Dr. Robert Dickson, medical director of the MCPHD, said he expects the death to continue to rise locally, staying in line with the national and international fatality rate of COVID-19 case of 1.5 to 3 percent.

MORE FROM CATHERINE DOMINGUEZ: Jones State Forest closes along with state parks amid COVID-19 crisis

As for the county seeing a peak in cases, Dickson said that is unclear.

This is dependent on where in the country you are, in Montgomery County we expect the numbers of cases and hospitalizations to increase over the coming weeks, he said. Its unclear when the number of cases will reach its peak and start to decline.

While the cases of positive test continue to increase, Montgomery County is seeing dozens of recoveries. On Tuesday, the MCPHD reported 33 recoveries. As for treatment, Dickson said that varies, noting there is currently no cure.

The treatments vary depending on which hospital is treating the patient, that being said all of the current treatments are not FDA approved for COVID-19 and are all considered experimental, he said.

For Dickson, he said the county will recovery with many medical personnel learning of new ways to treat virus in the future.

The country is facing many new challenges from the pandemic that have forced all of us to change our behaviors, social distancing, working remote, less travel, he said. That being said the American people are quite resilient as is the medical community, I fully expect that the medical community will learn lessons that will change the way we deliver care in the future.

In Montgomery County, there are 160 active cases, four deaths, 28 people still hospitalized and 132 in self isolation.

The case counts per ZIP code for Montgomery County are: The Woodlands, 41; Spring, 35; Montgomery, 25; Conroe, 48; Oak Ridge North, eight; Porter, 16; Shenandoah, four; Magnolia, six; Willis, four; Hockley, one; Pinehurst, one; New Caney, two; Kingwood, two; and Splendora, two.

Details on Montgomery County cases can be found at https://mcphd-tx.org/coronavirus-covid-19/confirmed-cases/.

cdominguez@hcnonline.com
The effort to halt the North Korean ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program has resulted in more scrutiny of the ramshackle North Korean economy, and the causes of the growing hunger, privation and extreme poverty up there. North Korea has a miniscule GDP ($30 billion), which is pathetic compared to South Korea ($1.3 trillion), Japan ($5 trillion) and China ($11 trillion, second only to nearly $20 trillion for the United States.) It wasnt always this way. For about 35 years, from the late 1940s to the 1970s, North Korea was a lot better off economically than now. This was largely because the heavy industry developed in Korea during the Japanese occupation (1910-45) was concentrated in the north, where most of the raw materials (coal, iron ore) were, and still are. The south was largely agricultural.

The Korean War (1950-53) devastated both Koreas but South Korea got the worst of it and, for two decades after the war, the north was seen as economically better off than the south. This was partly because of the head-start in industrialization but also because of generous Russian subsidies that ended when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. South Korea finally got its economic growth going in the 1970s and by the 1980s was seen as moving ahead of North Korea. Since then the economic gap between north and south has grown much wider.

One of the things that made the economic situation worse in the north was the post-1990s decision to spend more on the military than the economy. The well-being of the population was never the highest priority in the north. Keeping the Kim dictatorship in power was seen as far more important and those Russian subsidies included a lot of military equipment and advice on how to run a Stalinist State. That is a police state based on lots of fear with swift and brutal retribution against any dissidents. Josef Stalin died three months before the fighting stopped in Korea and that was no coincidence. When Soviet era archives were briefly accessible in the early 1990s, it became clear that the Korean War was Stalins idea and, without his support, it would never have happened. The post-Stalin Russian government denounced Stalin and Stalinism for terrorizing the population and government officials, as well as wrecking the economy. With Stalin dead Russia put more effort into economic development and less into the military. That only lasted about a decade and in the early 1960s a less benevolent and more militaristic government came to power. This was done with what amounted to a military coup that led to an arms race that played a key role in bankrupting the Soviet Union and causing the dissolution of the Russian empire. South Korea appreciated this, North Korea did not. The famine and economic collapse that took place in the north during the 1990s (due to loss of Russian subsidies) saw ten percent of the population starve to death and the economy beginning a long period of decline, and reform, which is still underway.

In 2006 the second ruler inf the Kim dynasty, Kim Jong Il (son of founder Kim Il Sung) decided that for the Kims to survive North Korea needed nuclear weapons and longer-range ballistic missiles. He secretly established a new government department, Bureau 21, to finance this effort. Bureau 21 got a larger and larger portion of the government, and military, budget. This meant spending on infrastructure (transportation, utilities and health) declined while the military, and especially Bureau 21, got a larger share of the shrinking economic pie. For example, the military and Bureau 21 get about a quarter of GDP and even as the economy suffers under economic sanctions (because of Kim's nuclear and missile program) Bureau 21 maintains spending while even the military faces unprecedented cuts.

The third ruler in the Kim dynasty, Kim Jon Un, took power in 2011 and put even more resources into Bureau 21, which he renamed Bureau 11. The name change indicated increased funding and priority for the nuclear and missile programs. The decisions to give Bureau 21/11 priority over everything else has endangered the Kim dynasty because for the last decade there has been growing corruption in the government, even the army and secret police, as North Koreans fend for themselves to survive. Senior members of the North Korean government have been defecting in growing numbers and Kim Jong Un has been executing senior government and military officials he suspects of disloyalty.

If all this appears self-destructive and will ultimately destroy the Kim dynasty, it is. But Kim Jong Un shows no interest in changing course. China could arrange a change of rulers in North Korea but does not want to get involved because staging a coup or whatever in North Korea is messy, expensive and unpredictable. South Korea and the U.S. have also made contingency plans for direct action against North Korea. This southern solution would have to deal with the Chinese, with or without China carrying out its northern solution. Kim Jong Un is well aware of these two solutions and is hustling as quickly as he can to create a reliable nuclear deterrent against the northern and southern solution. That is probably not possible or practical but Kim seems to think he has no other choice. Its a mess up there, in so many ways and has been for centuries. Thats another story that only the Chinese seem to be paying close attention to.
Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes. As an F-16 Fighting Falcon mechanic, Tom Burden needed a way to keep his tools from slipping. He was also studying mechanical engineering at the time, so he decided to engineer his own solution.

After a Kickstarter campaign and an appearance on "Shark Tank," the airman's burden became Burden's business. The Grypmat was born, and so was a young entrepreneur.

Burden joined the Ohio Air National Guard in 2008, stationed with the 180th Fighter Wing in Swanton, Ohio, near the University of Toledo, where he took his engineering classes.

The 29-year-old airman loves his work -- he's still in the Air Force, maintaining aircraft M61A1 machine guns -- but before the Grypmat, it could be frustrating. Burden wasn't simply stooping down to pick the tools up. Every time one of them fell to the ground from where he was working, he would have to go out to the wing, climb seven feet down a ladder, and look for it. And hope it hadn't broken on impact.

Worse yet, if he were in the middle of a complicated fix, he might have to ask someone to go pick it up for him or run and get a new tool. And he definitely couldn't hold all his tools in his hands.

His fellow airmen told him it was just part of the job, something he'd have to get used to. But the engineer in Burden couldn't live with that frustration.

After a couple of failed ideas, including a magnetic vest and tools on strings, he remembered the mat on the dashboard of his mother's car.

So the airman created an orange mat, which not only gripped the wing but allowed tools to grip to the mat.

As it turned out, Burden wasn't the only one who needed that solution. The Ohio native now has $4 million in projected revenues and a plan to take the mat into retail stores.

It was even one of Time Magazine's Best Inventions of the Year in 2018, and Burden was named to Forbes' 30under30 list of the world's top young entrepreneurs.

The mat didn't happen overnight. Engineers tend to fiddle with things until they find the perfect solution. Burden took three years to engineer the Grypmat. And like many entrepreneurs, he mortgaged his home and went into debt to get the idea off the ground.

In 2016, he went to the EAA AirVenture trade show with a car full of Grypmats to drum up interest and spread the word. He did everything he could to sell his product but only sold 101 from his trade show booth.

Finally, an automotive distributor heard about the product and bought his entire stock. From there, he raised more capital to produce more mats. First he raised $700,000 on Kickstarter (in just 10 hours) and then $360,000 from Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner and Richard Branson on "Shark Tank" -- in exchange for a 30% stake in the venture, of course.

Tom Burden on ABC's "Shark Tank." (American Broadcasting Company)

The Grypmat doesn't just grip tools, it grips the smooth contours of an aircraft and will resist any chemical in contact with the rubber surface. For aircraft maintainers, the Grypmat is completely static-free and holds up against chemical agents used to de-ice airplanes.

But you don't have to work for the Air Force, NASA, Google, Virgin or NASCAR (just a few of the places that use the Grypmat) to get one -- Burden now sells them on Amazon.

There are many versions of the mat, with multiple sizes for uses outside of aircraft hangars. The home version is cheaper because it doesn't have to resist those chemicals, perfect for anyone working in the garage or around the house.

That's a pretty good bullet for his annual performance review.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com.

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Ji Enyou spread out his drawings on the ground in the hotel parking lot, as the viewer on one of the hotel's balconiesa womanwaved and smiled through her tears.



Nine-year-old Ji is a third-grader in Northeast China's Liaoning province. The collection he had drawn was a surprise gift for his mother Zhou Meiduo, a head nurse from the Fushun City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine who had been assigned to Wuhan, the former epicenter of the novel coronavirus.

As the pandemic has been basically contained in Wuhan, tens of thousands of medics sent there to help treat the infected patients are now heading home.

After Zhou left in early February, Ji often stared at the family photo that hung at the entrance of his home, sometimes touching the image of Zhou with his little fingers, according to Ji Lexin, his father.

"He was reluctant to admit that he missed his mother, but I often heard him calling 'mom' in his dreams at night," says the senior Ji, who then encouraged the boy to draw his mother on paper.

With the help of his father, the boy created one drawing each week, taking inspiration from either the photos Zhou had sent or what she had described over the phone.

He has drawn Zhou in uniform rushing to a plane, taking care of patients and guiding the patients in exercise. He also made a sketch of Zhou's work pass at the Leishenshan Hospital, a makeshift medical facility that was built in less than two weeks, where Zhou was on duty.

On Feb 14, his ninth birthday, Ji wrote his birthday wish on one of his drawings"I hope the epidemic is defeated soon so that my mom will return".

On March 21, as many medics returned from Wuhan, Ji felt disappointed when he learned another 29 new patients were put under his mother's care.

He then wrote"29" as the hospital bed number in his drawing. He also asked his father what a normal electrocardiograph (ECG) looked like before drawing an ECG chart on the equipment behind his mother on the paper.

"Only if the patients recovered would my mother accomplish her job and return home," he says.

Ji's father, a doctor, said his wife decided to postpone their wedding 17 years ago when he was assigned to Beijing to join in the treatment of SARS patients.

"Now it's my turn to be supportive," he says, adding that no matter how busy he was, he would spare the time to help his son with the drawings.

In his latest work, the junior Ji drew the family of the three, with "welcome home" written on the T-shirts of him and his father. On the other side of the drawing was an airplane receiving a water-cannon salute, which he was told was a top honor to show the deepest gratitude to the returned medics.

He says his mother deserved the honor.

Ji's mother has to wait another 14 days under quarantine observation before she is able to hug her son.

"I'm sorry I wasn't around on your birthday. I promise I'll buy you a birthday present and take you to fly a kite," she told him over the phone.
India has partially eased restrictions on the export of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol, cited by some as key to the fight against Covid-19, to fulfil existing orders and to meet the needs of neighbouring countries.

People familiar with developments, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said existing orders from other countries for hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol will be cleared only after meeting all domestic requirements.

The external affairs ministry said the two drugs will also be supplied in appropriate quantities to all neighbouring countries dependent on Indias capabilities.

Follow latest updates on coronavirus here

India, the largest producer of hydroxychloroquine, initially banned exports of the drug on March 25 to ensure adequate domestic supplies. Rules were tightened on April 4 by barring exports of hydroxychloroquine and formulations made from it from special economic zones (SEZs) and export-oriented units (EOUs). Such bans dont usually apply to SEZs and EOUs, which are meant to promote exports.

Also Watch | Donald Trump hints at retaliation if India withholds hydroxychloroquine exports

However, US President Donald Trump and Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro have called on India to permit the supply of the drug to cope with Covid-19 cases in their countries. On Monday, Trump also spoke about retaliation if India didnt lift its hold on US orders.

Also read: Coronavirus case count to guide Indias lockdown future

There has been a partial lifting of the ban, and hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol exports will continue to be restricted, said one of the people cited above who declined to be named.

Depending on availability of stocks of hydroxychloroquine after meeting domestic requirements, existing orders will be cleared, the person said.

The department of pharmaceuticals under the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers and the external affairs ministry will decide on allocations on a case-to-case basis, depending on the humanitarian situation related to the Covid-19 pandemic, the people said.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine will be kept in a licenced category and their demand position would be continuously monitored. He added, However, the stock position could allow our companies to meet the export commitments that they had contracted.

Also read: Trump talks of retaliation if India turns down anti-malarial drug request

Srivastava said India has decided to licence paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine in appropriate quantities to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on our capabilities because of the humanitarian aspects of the pandemic.

We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic, he added.

Trump, who has repeatedly advocated the use of hydroxychloroquine to fight Covid-19 despite opposition from some of his top advisers, told a White House briefing on Monday that there could be retaliation if India turns down his request to lift the hold on US orders.

The US president had requested the lifting of the hold on hydroxychloroquine exports during a telephone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday. The US had placed orders for the medicine in March.

I said wed appreciate you allowing our supply to come out. If he doesnt allow it to come out, that would be okay but, of course, there may be retaliation. Why wouldnt that be? Trump said.

Click here complete coronavirus coverage

I dont like that decision, Trump said, referring to Indias move to bar exports of hydroxychloroquine. I didnt hear that was his [Modis] decision. I know that he stopped it for other countries. I spoke to him yesterday [Sunday]. We had a very good talk, and well see whether or not thats his decision. I would be surprised if he would you know because India does very well with the US.

Trump also reiterated his long-standing grievances on trade issues with India, saying: For many years theyve been taking advantage of the US on trade. So I would be surprised if that was the decision. Hed have to tell me that.

Brazilian President Bolsonaro, facing tremendous pressure at home for his handling of the Covid-19 crisis, too, said he had sought supplies of hydroxychloroquine from India. I asked the PM of India for his support in continuing the supply of pharmaceutical inputs for the production of hydroxychloroquine. We will spare no effort to save lives, he tweeted.

The people cited above said more than 20 countries from around the world have sought supplies of hydroxychloroquine from India. The new partial easing of the ban will offer a way out in coping with this situation, but only after ensuring there are adequate supplies to meet domestic needs, the people said.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Srivastava said the Indian governments first obligation was ensuring adequate stocks of medicines for the requirement of our own people. Temporary steps were taken to restrict exports of a number of pharmaceutical products and a comprehensive assessment was made of possible requirements under different scenarios, he said.

After having confirmed the availability of medicines for all possible contingencies currently envisaged, these restrictions have been largely lifted. The DGFT has notified lifting restrictions on 14 drugs [on Monday], Srivastava said.

In view of the enormity of the Covid-19 pandemic, India has maintained the world community must display strong solidarity and cooperation and this approach has guided New Delhis evacuation of nationals of other countries, he said.

The Indian Council of Medical Research has said: Hydroxychloroquine is found to be effective against coronavirus in laboratory studies and in-vivo studies. Its use in prophylaxis is derived from available evidence of benefit as treatment and supported by pre-clinical data.

Indias National Taskforce for Covid-19 has recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine for infections among asymptomatic healthcare workers involved in the care of suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19 and asymptomatic household contacts of laboratory confirmed cases.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NewLeaf Brands Inc. (CSE: NLB) (OTC: NLBIF) (FSE: 0NF) ("NewLeaf Brands" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed a letter of intent (the "LOI") dated April 6, 2020 to acquire Mydecine Group ("Mydecine"), a Colorado headquartered company. Mydecine is a vertically integrated company engaged to utilize the vast medicinal, health and wellness capabilities of the many compounds found in various strains of mushroom and fungi as a whole. The Company, through its three wholly-owned divisions, "Mydecine Farms", "Mydecine Wellness", and "Psydecine Labs" aims to be an industry pioneer in the cultivation, processing, product development, and research and development of the many beneficial and exciting compounds that are found in various strains of mushroom and fungi from all around the world.

Numerous compounds found in various strains of mushroom and fungi are already being used to develop treatments for health conditions such as depression, PTSD and opiate addiction. Meanwhile, in 2019, the National Alliance on Mental Illness had stated that 1 in 6 youths aged 6-17 in the U.S. experience a mental health disorder each year and 1 in 25 U.S. adults experience a serious mental illness each year[1].

Joshua Bartch CEO of NewLeaf Brands commented, "We've been watching and closely monitoring the progress of the mycology space for some time now. Given that we are located in the home state to first decriminalize psilocybin in the U.S., the Company has had a unique opportunity to get a jump on the potential industry as a whole. So far, Denver and Oakland have decriminalized psilocybin, while Oregon has a measure to legalize the substance as soon as this year! We share a common vision of Mydecine in the sense of seeing the vast potential of mycology as a whole, not just the compound psilocybin. Numerous other compounds found in fully legal fungi are very exciting and hold the potential to make truly revolutionary discoveries, IP and products. We see this as an incredibly early opportunity with enormous potential upside."

Pursuant to the LOI, the Company will purchase 100% of the issued and outstanding shares in the capital of Mydecine for USD $850,000, payable in common shares in the capital of the Company. The Company will pay a finder's fee for the transaction. The Company will look to close the transaction following the completion of the due diligence investigations. Closing is subject to definitive documentation and applicable regulatory approvals.

To learn more about Mydecine Group please visit the company's website at mydecine.com

About NewLeaf Brands

NewLeaf Brands, Inc. is an innovative Cannabidiol ("CBD") lifestyle Company. Through the Company's wholly-owned subsidiaries We are Kured, LLC, Drink Fresh Water, LLC, ReLyfe Brand, LLC and TeaLief Brand, LLC the Company's main business activities encompass the development, marketing, and distribution of CBD products (including vaporizer pens/cartridges, hot/cold tea, softgel capsules and beverages) throughout North America, South America, and Europe. In addition, NewLeaf Brands, Inc. has extensive retail and cultivation land investments in Oregon, USA.

For further information about NewLeaf Brands, please consult the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com or visit the Company's website at www.NABrandsInc.com. For further information about We Are Kured, please visit their website at www.wearekured.com.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release and accepts no responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy hereof.

This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Readers are cautioned that these forward looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected including, but not limited to completion of planned improvements at both the Canadian and US sites on schedule and on budget, the availability of financing needed to complete the Company's planned improvements on commercially reasonable terms, planned occupancy by the tenant-growers, commencement of operations, differences in yield on expected harvests, delays in obtaining statutory approval for marijuana production plans, issues that may arise throughout the grow period, outdoor crops affected by weather, the ability to mitigate the risk of loss through appropriate insurance policies, and the risks presented by federal statutes that may contradict local and state legislation respecting legalized marijuana. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances save as required under applicable securities legislation. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell securities and the Company is not soliciting an offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

This news release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States. These securities have not and will not be registered under United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to a U.S. Person unless so registered, or an exemption from registration is relied upon.

[1]https://www.nami.org/nami/media/nami-media/infographics/generalmhfacts.pdf

On Behalf of the Board of Directors



Joshua Bartch

Chief Executive Officer

info@nabrandsinc.com



For Further Information Contact

Corporate Communications

info@nabrandsinc.com

250-488-6728

We Are Kured Contact:

Benjamin Martch

Founder & CEO

www.wearekured.com
WASHINGTON  For years, personal trainer Amanda Tikalsky didnt have to worry much about her job. The U.S. economys record-breaking 11-year expansion offered security to service workers like her.

Then came the coronavirus, which closed the Milwaukee athletic club where she worked for 15 years. She scrambled to organize online exercise sessions to keep money coming in. About 25% of her clients made the jump with her.

Its an adjustment for everybody, she said. We are used to being face to face.

But even when the virus threat is gone, Tikalsky predicts that many customers will continue to exercise from home. The shutdown is also likely to change her own shopping habits. She has a new appreciation for the ease of buying groceries online.

The pandemic is almost sure to leave a mark on the way people work, shop and socialize, perhaps permanently shifting the way many service industries operate. Consumers will think harder about the health implications of squeezing into crowded restaurants and movie theaters. More businesses will accept the effectiveness of employees who work from home, and the move to online shopping will accelerate.

Weve never had a crisis where we couldnt socially gather with people, said John Gordon, founder of Pacific Management Consulting Group in San Diego, which advises restaurants.

Until March, service workers  from dishwashers to real estate agents  had been enjoying a record winning streak in the job market. U.S. service jobs had risen for a decade.

The sector appeared almost immune to blips in the economy. Not even low-wage competition overseas or automation seemed to threaten service jobs that require direct contact with customers.

Then the virus arrived. It upended the service economy, which accounts for 84% of U.S. private-sector employment. It wiped out 659,000 service jobs in March  94% of the jobs that vanished last month as the U.S. economy plunged into recession.

It is sure to claim many more. In an interview Monday on CNBC, former Fed Chair Janet Yellen predicted that unemployment rates could climb to Great Depression levels. But because the economy was in solid shape before the outbreak, she added, the return to normal employment could happen much faster than during the Depression or after the 2007-2009 Great Recession.

When the economy goes into a nosedive, manufacturers, not services providers, are usually hit first and hardest.

Not this time. The virus has been a gut punch to businesses that depend on social gatherings  restaurants, cinemas, theaters, hotels, airlines, gyms, shopping centers. More than 250,000 stores are now temporarily closed, accounting for nearly 60% of retail square footage, according to Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, a research firm.

The situation is similar in many other countries. In Wuhan, China, where the viral outbreak began, consumers are still reluctant to go out shopping as conditions slowly head back to normal.

Josh Rivas is among the millions of job casualties in the U.S. He works at a Subway at a rest stop in Connecticut where he and co-workers were laid off because of the virus amid dwindling traffic at the plaza. We cant afford for us to miss a day of pay because we have families that we need to take care of and bills we need to pay, he said.

In recessions, factories are often the first to slash jobs, and they dont always bring them back. American manufacturers still employ 918,000 fewer workers than they did before the Great Recession. Over the same period, service employment is up by nearly 14 million.

Economists are divided over whether service employees will face the kind of economic disruption factory workers have endured.

Much depends on the rescue efforts being put together by the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve. Congress and the White House are throwing at least $2.2 trillion at American businesses and households in a desperate attempt to keep them from going under before the health crisis is over.

As long as we do the policy right, we should get a pretty strong recovery, said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist at the Labor Department. When the lockdown is over, I think well get a pretty decent bounce back.

Shierholz does not expect a transformative change to service sector jobs.

Still, some effects of the outbreak are likely to linger, analysts say.

Cooped up in their homes, Americans have discovered anew the convenience of shopping online  something that is likely to accelerate the decline of traditional retail stores, said Diane Swonk, chief economist at the accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton.

Restaurants have closed their dining rooms and reduced service to takeout, delivery and curbside pickup. Swonk expects the trend toward grab-and-go dining to continue after the health crisis.

Restaurant consultant Gordon predicts that local governments will reduce restaurant seating capacity to keep diners from being on top of each other. Some of the places we used to go were just armpit to armpit. Can you see us doing that now? he said.

Millions of Americans have spent weeks working from home, and the experience has been eye-opening for many, and for their bosses. Meetings and even virtual after-hours cocktail parties can be organized on Zoom, WhatsApp or other programs.

Were just discovering that we can have amazing seminars and conferences online much easier. We dont have to travel anywhere, said Arindrajit Dube, economist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Thats troubling for airlines and hotels that depend on business travel, sometimes to subsidize discounts for leisure travelers.

The enhanced appeal of home offices could also have implications for real estate markets, giving more workers expanded housing options because they wont need to travel to their jobs.

But there may be limits to Americans enthusiasm for isolating themselves at home.

Becky Ahlgren Bedics, 49, of Fishers, Indiana, has been working out via Zoom since her fitness club closed temporarily in mid-March. But she plans to trek over to the club when it reopens. She misses the camaraderie. Theres such a connection that you have with people, she added.

___

DInnocenzio reported from New York. Associated Press writers Christopher Rugaber in Washington and Josh Hoffner in Phoenix, Arizona, contributed to this story.
Across Canada, care facilities for seniors are being devastated by the deadly spread of COVID-19. More than 600 nursing and retirement homes nationwide have reported a rapidly growing number of infections and fatalities, with Quebec and Ontario in Central Canada, and the west coast province of British Columbia hardest hit.

The abject failure of all levels of government to prepare for this foreseeable and foreseen viral pandemic, their criminal incompetence in combating the virus, and the decades-long ravaging of the public healthcare system have left care-home facilities especially vulnerable to COVID-19, and enabled the virus to spread like wildfire. To this must be added the fact that wide swathes of elderly care have been privatized, resulting in a race to the bottom in working conditions, and the running of facilities on tight budgets so as to boost corporate profits.

In Ontario, at least 40 seniors home residents have died from COVID-19, and nearly 80 seniors homes across the province have reported infections. At Seven Oaks nursing home in Toronto, eight residents have died, and 69 residents and staff have been listed as presumed coronavirus cases. At the Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon, fourteen residents have perished. Its a war zone. Ive never seen anything like it in all my years of nursing, Sarah Gardiner, a nurse at Pinecrest, told the local media. Theyre so frightened ... and I dont have anything to relieve that fear for them.

The Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver, British Columbiathe site of the initial outbreak in the provincehas recorded 51 infected residents, 26 infected staff, and 15 deaths. To date, at least 21 B.C. senior-care homes located mainly in the metro Vancouver area have reported cases. In total, the province has recorded 39 deaths linked to COVID-19, the vast majority of which have occurred at care homes for seniors.

The situation is even worse in Quebec, where, as of last week, almost a quarter of the provinces roughly 2,200 seniors homes and long-term care facilities had reported at least one infection.

The fatality rate among the elderly from COVID-19 is estimated at around 15 percent, much higher than the general population. Vulnerability to sickness and existing health issues, in addition to communal living arrangements and exposure to a transient workforce, has rendered them particularly vulnerable to the spread of the deadly virus.

Care workers are also extremely vulnerable, even if they are considered part of the young and healthy age group. Due to low wages and precarious working arrangements, they are often forced to work at several care homes, increasing the likelihood that the disease will be spread. In addition, the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks and gloves, is even more pronounced in the care sector than in hospitals, where personal protective equipment is already being severely rationed. Care workers are thus more likely to become infected and have just as hard a time getting tested and treated as other sections of working people.

Under horrifying, prison-like conditions where a deadly outbreak has placed many seniors under strict quarantine orders, confused and afraid residents are forced into self-isolation indefinitely without contact with friends and family. Draconian restrictions on testing prevent them from knowing who is or is not infected, including themselves. In many cases, facility managers have failed to inform family members and the residents that an outbreak has occurred.

The terrifying viral outbreaks are made worse by the lack of care providers to assist with the daily basic needs of seniors in nursing homessuch as feeding and bathingthe tragic outcome of decades of wage and service cuts, and the corporatization within the public healthcare system. Worker absences from sickness and fear of infection from unsafe working conditions have only exacerbated the shortages.

The announcement by Ontarios right-wing Premier Doug Ford that his government is creating an iron ring of protection around seniors is a hideous fraud. His governments pathetic commitment of $243 million to protect workers and residents of long-term care facilities doesnt even begin to address the corporate-friendly efficiency policies that have gutted the provinces healthcare system, sharply reduced the weekly hours of personal support workers and therapists in care homes, and in a disgraceful move, even reduced the minimum number of allowable baths for residents.

After announcing that the health and safety of seniors in residences is a matter of life and death, Quebecs hard-right premier Francois Legault promised the lowly sum of $133 million in emergency assistance, while his big-business CAQ (Coalition Avenir Quebec) government deviously demanded still further concessions from the provinces 550,000 nurses and other public-sector workers currently on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis.

Only last week, and after numerous deaths in care homes in British Columbia, did the Green-backed New Democratic Party provincial government bother to include daily testing for care home workers in its COVID-19 action plan. Care workers who test negative for the virus will now be assigned to one care facility only, a measure that should have been taken years ago in the aftermath of the 2002-03 SARS crisis when the link between the transience in care home support workers and the spread of disease first became known.

The response of the federal government has been no less shambolic. While offering a paltry $3 billion in funding to the healthcare system, the majority of which will be directed through for-profit companies, Justin Trudeaus Liberal government, with unanimous support from the opposition Conservatives, NDP, Bloc Quebecois, and Greens, is funnelling over $650 billion at lightning speed into the pockets of the banks and big business.

The carnage from COVID-19 that has exploded in care homes underscores the immediate need for meticulous testing, systematic contact tracing and the urgent procurement of ventilators and personal protective equipment for all medical personnel. Yet, as is the case across North America and Europe, these critical resources are not being made available.

The ruling elites criminal indifference to the fate of elderly care home residents and low-paid workers is underscored further by their despicable efforts to shift responsibility for mass fatalities onto the shoulders of the general population. Some relatives of elderly residents in care homes are receiving letters from care providers claiming that there would be no benefit for their loved one to be hospitalized with COVID-19. At Pinecrest Nursing Home, the medical director sent out email correspondence preparing family members for the devastating choice of whether or not to permit their elderly loved ones to use a ventilator. A frail nursing-home patient who is put on a ventilator, the letter read, is quite likely to suffer a great deal, and may not survive  I am asking all of you to think hard about what would be in the best interest of your loved ones.

This campaign to effectively leave the elderly to die is being supported by the ruling class, and, it must unfortunately be noted, by much of the medical establishment across the country. In the Globe and Mail, Canadas newspaper of record, a comment entitled The coronavirus is the chance to have the end-of-life conversations we need, one Gordon Rubenfeld, a medical professor at the University of Toronto, opined, (T)he coronavirus is an opportunity to speak to your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and loved ones with chronic illnesses about life support. Because if you do not talk with them about this now, you may have to have a much more difficult conversation with me later.

Almost every province has established so-called medical ethics committees to determine who should be denied care and effectively left to die, when totally inadequate supplies of ventilators, ICU beds, and other equipment run out.

The corporate media is promoting these medical ethics committees as a rational way of allotting scant resources and alleviating the psychological distress of frontline health workers. When it comes to the actions of the banks and big business, now lining up to gorge themselves on state largesse while the health and care sectors are starved of resources, the media, on the other hand, has no room for any discussion of ethicsunderscoring that its morality is wholly determined by its mercenary class interests.
Simons Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, pictured March 30 at a temporary hospital in London. The NHS is a client of cybersecurity startup Privitar.

(WPA Pool/Getty Images News)

Privitar, a London-based startup working with the UK's National Health Service to safeguard patient data, has raised an $80 million Series C, reflecting a growing investor interest in cybersecurity driven in part by the coronavirus outbreak.



A sudden, widespread shift to remote work has left many companies vulnerable, and cybercriminals are flooding email inboxes with schemes designed to capitalize on panic surrounding the virus. As of March 26, the number of coronavirus-related phishing attacks had spiked 667% since the prior month, according to IT security company Barracuda Networks.



The victims of such attacks range from Zoom, which has seen its user base soar in recent weeks, to the Czech Republic's University Hospital Brno, home to a key coronavirus testing facility that reportedly endured a computer breach. Already, the pandemic has reshaped the cybersecurity landscape, according to Robert Ackerman, managing director and founder of Bay Area-based AllegisCyber Capital. More coronavirus news: Continuing coverage from PitchBook



We have a big pickup in cyber threat activity," Ackerman said. "But the environment that we are used to defending has now been virtualized and distributed [with remote working], and the tools that we're used to defending with have been compromised."



Privitar factors in by offering data privacy technology for large enterprises, with a client list that includes Citi and HSBC in addition to the NHS. New investor Warburg Pincus led the company's latest round, with support from Accel, Partech Partners, Salesforce Ventures and others.



As the coronavirus continues creating chaos, Ackerman expects the pace of venture capital investment in cybersecurity to accelerate, particularly for companies that can predict risks. The sector has already seen rapid growth in recent years, with the global amount of VC dollars dedicated to cybersecurity rising from less than $1 billion in 2009 to $7.9 billion last year, according to PitchBook data. So far this year, VCs have invested $1.7 billion in the space across 109 deals.



Alex Ferrara, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, believes the cybersecurity industry will be more insulated than others if the economic turmoil that has resulted from COVID-19 leads to a recession. He noted that IT budgets allocated to security are continuously increasing, and as people spend increasingly more time online, the need for cybersecurity will also grow, which could make the sector a relative safe haven for VCs.



But not every startup would come out of such a scenario unscathed. The crowded nature of the sector means there would likely be a winnowing down of cybersecurity companies during a recession, Ferrara said. He expects startups focusing on cloud-based products to weather the storm better than most, as remote working is likely to endure after the coronavirus crisis, as well as those who support Zero Trust, a security concept centered on verifying anything and everything trying to connect to its systems.
A Huffington Post investigation out today lays out even more evidence of facial surveillance tech company Clearview AI's ties to the alt-right.

Clearview AI has alarmed privacy experts, and has hired several far-right employees, a HuffPost investigation found.

My latest investigation is about Clearview AI, a secretive facial recognition company. Lots of privacy concerns. Even scarier: Clearview has ties to the alt-right and even had far-right extremists working for it until I reached out to them two weeks ago. https://t.co/4Z0GUzYaQ3

"Clearview has contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, BuzzFeed reported earlier this year, and FBI agents, members of Customs and Border Protection, and hundreds of police officers at departments nationwide are among its users," reports HuffPo's Luke O'Brien:

Exclusive documents obtained by HuffPost reveal that [Clearview's CEO and co-founder, Cam-Hoan Ton-That] as well as several people who have done work for the company, have deep, longstanding ties to far-right extremists. Some members of this alt-right cabal went on to work for Ton-That. Clearview stated that it had immediately parted ways with some of these people when HuffPost reached out for comment for this story, but the pervasive links between the company and the alt-right can't be simply dismissed as a few bad apples.

()

[By 2015, Ton-That] had joined forces with far-right subversives working to install Trump as president. They included Mike Cernovich, a Trump-affiliated propagandist who spearheaded the near-deadly Pizzagate disinformation campaign; Andrew "weev" Auernheimer, a neo-Nazi hacker and the webmaster for The Daily Stormer; and Pax Dickinson, the racist former chief technology officer of Business Insider who went on to march with neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In this far-right clique, two of Ton-That's associates loomed larger than most thanks to their close connection to billionaire Peter Thiel, a Facebook board member and Trump adviser: Jeff Giesea, a Thiel protege and secret funder of alt-right causes, and Charles "Chuck" Johnson, a former Breitbart writer and far-right extremist who reportedly coordinated lawfare against media organizations with Thiel. And according to new documents obtained by HuffPost, Johnson appears to have received funding from Thiel for a startup that the Southern Poverty Law Center would label a "white nationalist hate group." (Johnson has filed suit against HuffPost in Texas over a January 2019 article about his visits to members of Congress to discuss "DNA sequencing.")

People involved with Clearview appear to have gone to great lengths to conceal their links to the company and each other. Johnson, for instance, does not appear on any of the incorporation documents and has left little public trace of his association with Ton-That beyond a Facebook post. But multiple far-right sources who know Johnson told HuffPost that he and Ton-That were in close contact at least as early as 2016, and that Johnson told them he was working with Ton-That on facial recognition.

Johnson told one source late that year that he viewed the technology as a way to potentially "identify every illegal alien in the country." In early 2017, Johnson introduced Ton-That to another source, saying he was a gifted coder he'd hired to build the facial recognition tool. Around the same time, Johnson stated on Facebook that he was "building algorithms to ID all the illegal immigrants for the deportation squads."

Video and private messages obtained by HuffPost confirm that Johnson and Ton-That were collaborating on far-right schemes in 2016; by early 2017 at the latest, they were in contact about scraping social media platforms for the facial recognition business. At least two people who worked for Johnson took jobs with and worked for Clearview until late March, when the company claims to have severed ties with them after HuffPost reached out with questions.

Thiel himself has an obvious interest in mass surveillance: Palantir, his data-mining behemoth, aggregates enormous amounts of personal information about immigrants and undocumented workers, and it provides the analytical tools for ICE raids. In 2017, Thiel became one of Clearview's earliest investors. He did not respond to questions sent to him and his spokesperson.
The Taliban will no longer participate in "fruitless" discussions with the Afghan government over a prisoner swap that had formed a key part of a deal with the US, the insurgents have said.

The Taliban's political spokesman Suhail Shaheen blamed the administration of President Ashraf Ghani for delaying the release "under one pretext or another".

"Therefore, our technical team will not participate in fruitless meetings with relevant sides starting from tomorrow," Shaheen, who is based in Doha, said in a tweet first sent in Pashto around midnight Tuesday Afghanistan time.

The two foes have been holding talks in Kabul since last week to try to finalise the prisoner swap that was originally supposed to have happened by March 10 and paved the way for "intra-Afghan" peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban.

Matin Bek, a member of the government's negotiating team, said the release had been delayed because the Taliban are demanding the release of 15 "top commanders".

"We cannot release the killers of our people," Bek told reporters on Monday. "We don't want them to go back to the battlefield and capture a whole province."



Bek added that the government was ready to release up to 400 low-threat Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture in return for a "considerable" reduction in violence, but the Taliban rejected that offer.

Javid Faisal, spokesman for Afghanistan's Office of the National Security Council, said on Twitter that the prisoner swap talks had "entered an important phase ahead of release".

"Withdrawing from talks at such time indicates a lack of seriousness about peace," Faisal wrote, adding that the government remained "committed to pursuing peace".

Washington signed a deal with the Taliban in late February that required the Afghan government -- which was not a signatory to the accord -- to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners, and for the insurgents to release 1,000 pro-government captives in return.

The imbalance is one of many aspects of the agreement that observers say give the Taliban a better deal.

In the accord, Washington promised the withdrawal of US and foreign troops from Afghanistan by July next year, provided the Taliban start talks with Kabul and adhere to other guarantees.

On Sunday, the Taliban released a statement accusing the Afghan government of violating the "peace agreement" between the US and the insurgents, even though the Taliban have killed scores of security forces since the deal was signed.

The insurgents issued a new statement Tuesday, accusing the US of killing civilians in continued bombing operations and night raids.

"These acts if continued will seriously dent the peace process and it will prompt strong response from the (Taliban)," the group wrote on their website.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Editors note: Jose Galang is a senior copy editor at CNN Philippines. He is a veteran business/economics/political economy journalist and has previously headed newsroom operations at The Manila Chronicle, Business Day, and Business World, among others. He has also written for the Far Eastern Economic Review, Financial Times, and a London-based online science and development journal.

Manila (CNN Philippines Life)  Instead of letting the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine expire next week as originally scheduled, the government has chosen to bite the bullet and extend it by two weeks until the end of April.

The extension will prevent people from again converging in large numbers in shopping malls, offices, schools, and various public places. There is a good chance now that social distancing, a crucial part of the quarantine strategy aimed at preventing COVID-19 infections from growing further on a massive scale, will not simply evaporate in the summer heat while medical experts continue to focus on ways to tame the spread of the still mysterious coronavirus.

The quarantine, now on its fourth week, is showing us that if people just observe simple social distancing, the number of new infections and deaths from the vicious coronavirus could be held down significantly. An untimely lifting of controls of people movement could reverse that and spark a new wave of people getting sick, experts in killer epidemics argue.

One recently published study estimated that in the Philippines, the number of COVID-19 cases can potentially reach well over 90 million  making practically the countrys entire population sick  if no mitigation measures and related safeguards are put in place. Intensive social distancing occupies a high ranking among those recommended measures.

But the number of infections could be reduced dramatically with strict quarantine and social distancing, particularly among senior citizens. As is now widely recognized, the great majority of people who catch the virus will recover after getting timely treatment. Many will die, however.

These are among the projections made by a group of experts and researchers on infectious diseases at the Imperial College London, a public research university specializing in science, technology, and medicine, as stated in a research report released last March.

The numbers they came up with are staggering, even hard to believe. The estimates are calculated from available data from government and international institutions like the World Health Organization and the World Bank. Actual patterns seen in COVID-19s spread in China and elsewhere, along with known behaviors of past viruses, were also factored into the calculations.

If nations fail to implement mitigation measures, the Imperial College London study says, the coronavirus could spread wildly and infect up to around seven billion people worldwide. The worldwide death toll could reach 40 million this year.

But the projected death toll could be cut in half, saving 20 million lives, with the help of mitigation strategies focusing on shielding the elderly (with a 60 percent reduction in social contacts) and slowing but not interrupting transmission, according to the study.

If the Philippines now terminates quarantine measures and related restrictions, most analysts believe there would likely be a return to sharp increases in new infections. The country cannot afford that. Photo by JL JAVIER

In the Philippines, the study estimates, there could be up to 93.6 million cases of infections without any mitigation measures. If the government implements restrictions like lockdowns and isolation of patients, and if people seriously observe social distancing and good personal hygiene, the number of infections is projected to be around 62.3 million.

That grim scenario may have been averted now, with the implementation of rigid controls on people interactions and with the continuing acquisition of critical goods like face masks and alcohol.

Even with restrictions, the Imperial College London study says, there could still be around 1.4 million cases that will require hospital treatment, with over 220,000 of them needing critical care. The estimated death toll, on the other hand, could reach 250,000 under an unmitigated environment, but that number could be slashed to around 167,000 with relevant restrictions and social distancing.

The report concludes that the only approaches that can avert health system failure in the coming months are likely to be intensive social distancing measures preferably combined with high levels of testing.

It is heartening to note that Philippine authorities are implementing a host of measures that mirror the experts recommendations. But still, a few local politicians have until lately disregarded the imperative of keeping distance from others or refraining from attending or hosting parties and other gatherings that can become centers of virus transmission.

Furthermore, despite the enhanced community quarantine now in force, there are still many going out and loitering in public places. Understandably, many of them go out in search of livelihood and of supplies for their daily sustenance, and officials have not been quick in providing assistance.

The Imperial College London research is one of the early studies that focus on the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic. An earlier modeling conducted by Harvard University professor Marc Lipsitch projected that between 20 percent and 60 percent of the world population will inevitably get sick of COVID-19.

Lipsitch, head of the Harvard Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, said among other recommendations that the sooner social distancing measures are taken, the better to contain the coronaviruss spread.

The epidemiologist, in a press conference streamed from Harvard on March 23, also predicted that eventually COVID-19 will become a seasonal ailment like the flu.

All these statements could be taken to imply that without intensive social distancing, the local epidemic could overwhelm the healthcare system. In Metro Manila, there are now clear signs that the strain on hospitals and healthcare workers is becoming increasingly heavy.

How the virus spreads

Understanding how the coronavirus is contracted and passed on to others will encourage people to heed experts calls for such measures as social distancing and staying at home for the duration of the pandemic.

Many scientific reports say that, on top of the droplets that come from COVID-19-sick people when they cough or sneeze, there is one characteristic of the coronavirus that makes its spread rapid.

Medical experts say that once the virus enters a persons body, it quickly starts to reproduce in that persons cells. The virus attacks one cell in the human body and quickly moves on to other cells and further out of the body into the environment around the infected person. The process is called viral shedding.

A study published on March 8 says that viral shedding can happen even among people who show no symptoms of COVID-19  they dont experience fever, cold or other ailments usually related to the infection.

The study, conducted by a German team, and reported last week in the science journal Nature, confirms previous suspicions that some people infected with the virus can be highly contagious when they have mild or no symptoms.

Further research is being done on viral shedding, but it is already being cited as a possible cause of transmissions that are not always detected by health personnel. Researchers are still studying how fast the viral shedding is from asymptomatic people and how contagious those individuals remain over time.

A report in the journal Lancet says that based on actual cases in Wuhan, the city in China where the pandemic first erupted, viral shedding can last for a median period of 20 days, with some cases even registering 37 days. That means an infected person, without knowing it, could potentially be capable of making others sick for over a month.

Every COVID-19-sick person can be capable of transmitting the virus to around three others. One public health expert in Wuhan has been recently quoted as saying that at least 59 percent of those infected during the start of the outbreak there remained active and continued to interact with others.

More recent observations, including those in the World Health Organization, indicate that the coronavirus could even be airborne. The head of WHOs emerging diseases and zoonosis unit told a virtual media briefing last March 16 that coronavirus particles can stay in the air a little bit longer.

Extending the implementation of lockdowns  including asking people to maintain social distancing and healthful habits  appears to be the only viable option now to avoid a disaster of epic proportions. Photo by JL JAVIER

Months of suppression

Warning that delays in setting up strategies to contain transmission will lead to worse outcomes and fewer lives saved, the Imperial College London study also says suppression strategies will need to be maintained until vaccines or effective treatments become available to avoid the risk of later epidemics.

The study identified the household as a key context for COVID-19 transmission. The average size of households that have a resident over the age of 65 years is substantially higher in countries with lower income compared with middle- and high-income countries, it says.

In the Philippines, based on government statistics, around two-thirds of the nearly 23 million households account for the nearly 8 million elderly population aged 60 years and above. That indicates the large-scale challenge for the country in containing COVID-19 transmission.

The World Health Organization continues to urge people to clean their hands frequently with soap and water or with an alcohol-based hand-rub. Also on the WHO menu of protective measures is social distancing.

If the Philippines now terminates quarantine measures and related restrictions, most analysts believe there would likely be a return to sharp increases in new infections. The country cannot afford that.

A more recent study conducted by another set of researchers at the Imperial College London concludes that in Europe, strategies such as isolation of patients and social distancing among healthy individuals could have prevented around 59,000 deaths amid an estimated number of infections of up to 43 million people in March.

Extending the implementation of lockdowns  including asking people to maintain social distancing and healthful habits  appears to be the only viable option now to avoid a disaster of epic proportions.
A bookish 34-year-old on the autism spectrum, Abbas spent weeks gobbling up information about the coronavirus pandemic.



He knew that early studies from the source of the COVID-19 outbreak, central China, and elsewhere suggested his youthfulness may reduce his vulnerability to the illness.



But Abbas, a systems administrator from Faisalabad, in Pakistan's Punjab region, didn't like what he was seeing, including on the MedCram YouTube channel, a personal favorite.



"I'm not a very healthy person per se, but I do take precautions," Abbas, a self-described "germophobe," told RFE/RL.



"Because I'm on the [autism] spectrum, I like being lonely and I don't go to public gatherings -- whether it's a pandemic or not. I like staying alone mostly. And I like reading."



Abbas is saddled with the kind of potentially underlying health issues that can aggravate many illnesses.



He's a longtime sufferer of pulmonary fibrosis, a scarring of the lungs that causes labored breathing. He was also born with cardiomegaly, an enlargement of the heart that can make him light-headed or nauseous, and he takes antihistamines for allergies.



Going Off The Grid



So when Abbas woke up one morning in mid-March feeling unwell, he tried his usual palliative: anti-allergenics and a walk.



But when the sore throat, headache, temperature, and hacking cough intensified, he called a government COVID-19 hotline on March 23.

At that time, the coronavirus pandemic had already infected at least 200,000 worldwide and killed more than 7,000 people, but there were fewer than 800 confirmed cases in Pakistan.

"They told me to go visit the civil hospital if my symptoms don't improve, but I didn't want to go there because I know how disorganized and unhygienic that place is," Abbas said.



Instead, he tried a hack.



"I was quite afraid and worried that this might turn into pneumonia," Abbas said.



A former colleague put him in touch with a mutual acquaintance, a doctor at a private hospital.



Within hours, the Punjab regional government would announce a lockdown to combat the spread of the coronavirus, effective the next day, prompting Abbas to move to his mother's home outside Faisalabad to self-isolate.



That was still March 23, but Abbas was now effectively off Pakistan's official coronavirus grid.



Hard-Hit In Punjab



Punjab is responsible for nearly half of Pakistan's 4,005 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection, according to Health Ministry figures on April 7. The ministry also reported 55 deaths related to the virus.



Its challenges were highlighted this week by news that regional officials were still scrambling to quarantine tens of thousands of attendees at a gathering by an Islamic missionary group in Lahore in mid-March, when Pakistan only had a few dozen confirmed coronavirus cases but social-distancing measures were being encouraged.

Local media have repeatedly warned of an unrealistic and dangerous reliance on untested COVID treatments, including antimalarials and an experimental plasma therapy to boost patients' systems with antibodies from recovered patients.



But hospitals in Punjab appear to be among Pakistan's most eager to administer antimalarials on the basis of still fragmentary -- and clinically unproven -- signs they might help fight COVID-19 and its pneumonia-like symptoms.

"We are using hydroxychloroquine for moderate to mild pneumonia cases," Punjab's health minister, Dr. Yasmin Rashid, told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal on April 6. "Yes, we recommend that if the symptoms are there."



Getting Better



On March 24 Abbas was tested, by the private doctor, and was self-isolating, although the wait for the result of his coronavirus test would take several days.



Mindful of possible contraindications stemming from Abbas's underlying health problems, "the doctor wanted to avoid medicine to begin with," Abbas said.



"But since my test came back positive, he told me the risks and prescribed [antimalarials and] said he isn't sure if it would work or not and all the disclaimers and such, but it is one of the few drugs currently being used in the country to fight the virus."

Speaking via WhatsApp, Abbas told the doctor he was aware of the risks and, in what he described as his "nerd" way, cited COVID-19's mortality rate and other statistics.



"He gave a weird pause and said, 'OK,'" Abbas said.



He was initially given Basoquin and later an antiviral called Arceva.



Basoquin contains amodiaquine, a variety of the 4-aminoquinoline derivatives used for over a decade as an antimalarial, antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-asthmatic.



Those derivatives also include the much-hyped but insufficiently tested hydroxychloroquine antimalarial touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as part of what he suggested might be a "miracle cure."



Health experts stress that such antimalarials' effects and risks for COVID-19 patients are still uncertain, though accelerated testing with coronavirus patients is under way in a number of countries, including the United States.



The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an order in late March approving the physician-supervised use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients, and Trump vowed that the government had stockpiled 29 million doses of it.



But the top U.S. expert on infectious-diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned last week, "We still need to do the kinds of studies that definitively prove whether any intervention, not just this one, any intervention is truly safe and effective."

Abbas said that when the doctor prescribed his medication, "he said that the [encouragement] he has received from the coalition government is that he has to prescribe the antimalarials as a workaround so that most people don't get any sort of, like, lung infection."



Pakistani doctors, Abbas said, dispense prescriptions "like leaves," meaning in great numbers.



By March 26, Abbas said he would have told people "I was going to die."



Two days later he told RFE/RL, "I'm feeling quite well and I'm optimistic."



By April 6, Abbas said he felt well enough that he had stopped taking all medication but was "still self-isolating until next weekend, just in case, so I don't inadvertently transmit it to others."
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

By Eldar Janashvili - Trend:

Five Azerbaijani big banks ranked the best in various nominations during the contest of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) for 2019 held among the banks in the field of cashless payments, Trend reports referring to the CBA.

A list of laureates in six categories includes:

Leading bank in cashless payments in POS-terminals - Premium Bank OJSC;

Leading bank in contactless payments - ExpressBank OJSC;

Leading bank in internet banking services - PASHA Bank OJSC;

Leading bank in mobile banking services - Kapital Bank OJSC;

Leading bank in the infrastructure of contactless POS-terminals - PASHA Bank OJSC; and

Leading bank in accepting payments for electronic commerce - Unibank OJSC.

In its message, the Central Bank congratulated the winners and called on all banks to actively develop electronic banking, minimize the use of paper for customer transactions and expand the use of contactless technologies, which became especially relevant during the period of COVID-19 pandemic.

Starting from 2013, the Central Bank together with the Association of Banks of Azerbaijan annually holds contests in various nominations in the field of expanding digital payments, applying innovative payment solutions, developing electronic banking and awarding the leading banks.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-04-07 07:00:05

 Press Release Geneva, 7 April 2020 ENR RUSSIA INVEST SA ANNOUNCES 2019 RESULTS ENR Russia Invest SA (ENR) produced a consolidated net profit of CHF 6.23 million for the year ended 31 December 2019 (2018: CHF 4.44 million consolidated net loss). At year-end 2019 the consolidated net asset value increased to CHF 48.13 million (2018: CHF 40.47 million). At Petrovsky Fort vacancies decreased with an improved Saint-Petersburg rental market in 2019. There is an ongoing capex improvement program at the business center. ENR also introduced a number of new initiatives in 2019 (new strategy to improve the mix of retail and service focused tenant businesses; a new flagship bistro food hall & gastro-bar restaurant was opened; and a new-look interactive website is in place - www.petrofort.ru). The value of the business center increased by 12.03% in ruble terms in 2019. With a stronger ruble at year-end there was a further value uplift of 11.23% in CHF terms. A benefit from the refinanced loan from UniCreditbank towards the business center was that interest costs reduced by 50% in 2019. At the Turgenevskaya parking garage in Moscow, rentals of parking bays to corporates and their employees improved in 2019. For the Zaytsevo real estate residential development near Moscow ENR has registered a claim for amounts invested and penalties following the liquidation of the developer. ENR has a mortgage over the land plot where its apartments were to be constructed. During the reporting period ENR generated CHF 4.65 million via the sale of fixed income instruments and CHF 1.45 million for the sale of listed equity positions. These proceeds were used to fund a new private equity investment. ENR, together with a Russian partner, acquired a greenhouse complex for flower production in Russia (close to Moscow). The complex is well engineered and equipped with five stand-alone greenhouses. Investments are required to service or replace parts of engineering systems, to buy flower plants and bulbs and to part fund operations until the business is cash-flow positive. At 31 December 2019 ENR had invested Ruble 342.91 million (CHF 5.35 million). It is anticipated that ENR and its partner could ultimately invest some CHF 10 million each (less if Russian bank funding is obtained under Russian agricultural incentive programs). In 2019 Russias economy grew by 1.2% and the Russian Central Bank continued with rate cuts to the key lending rate (currently 6%). Oil and gas prices remain key to the prospects of the Russian economy. Higher oil earnings impact positively on Russian consumer and investor sentiment, boosting domestic demand and consumption. During March 2020 OPEC+ group talks failed to reach agreement on curbing production volumes to curb the lower demand due to the coronavirus outbreak. Saudi Arabia responded by cutting its crude oil prices and indicated it will ramp up oil output. Oil prices then fell sharply and this triggered a large ruble depreciation against the CHF (some 23% to date). The ENR annual report is available from today on ENRs website at http://www.enr.ch/Download.aspx?mode=pressrelease&id=u6Hp230k%2fsclzu4KKdPvag%3d%3d Contact person: Ben de Bruyn, ENR Russia Invest SA, tel: +41 22 510 2626 ENR Russia Invest SA is an investment company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. It specialises in the management of equities and equity-like investments, real estate as well as fixed income instruments in Russia, other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic States. Additional information on ENR Russia Invest SA is available on the company website www.enr.ch





Attachment
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Tuesday that the number of Corona positive persons in the state was 308, which includes 168 Tablighi Jamaat returnees in the state.

The Chief Minister, who had chaired a meeting at his official residence earlier in the day to review measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic in the state, said: "We have decided that in every district hospital of divisional headquarters, we will establish corona testing labs and we have formed a committee to give this step a vital boost. We have 24 government medical colleges in the state, out of which 10 have testing labs and I have given orders to upgrade the rest of them so that testing can be done."

Adityanath, on Sunday, had sought the cooperation of various religious leaders in the battle against coronavirus, saying the deadly disease does not distinguish between religions and hence it is necessary that everyone fights against it together.

In the video conference with the leaders, he had mentioned the Tablighi Jamaat event, which has emerged as the biggest hotspot of the virus in the country. He urged the leaders to play an important role in spreading the correct information about Covid-19.

Adityanath said timely steps taken by the Central government had "stagnated" the spread of the virus in the second stage but "things suddenly changed" due to the Jamaat incident.
TORONTO - The federal government needs to move quickly to support the Canadian news industry amid the economic downturn brought about by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, an industry spokesman said Monday.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In this April 11, 2018, photo, production workers stack newspapers onto a cart at the Janesville Gazette Printing & Distribution plant in Janesville, Wis. The federal government needs to move quickly to support the Canadian news industry amid the economic downturn brought about by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, an industry spokesman said Monday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Angela Major/The Janesville Gazette via AP

TORONTO - The federal government needs to move quickly to support the Canadian news industry amid the economic downturn brought about by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, an industry spokesman said Monday.

Bob Cox, who is publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press as well as chairman of the News Media Canada industry association, says the situation is dire because advertising revenue has plunged and continues to fall rapidly.

"We need help now. We don't need help at the end of May, in June, July or August," Cox said Monday in a phone interview.

"We have to have cash in the bank to meet our obligations, and that includes paying employees and other bills."

Cox said that, from what he has heard, it could be May or June before the COVID wage subsidy arrives at the companies that need it.

"That's not good enough. Because businesses will die, including news media businesses."

In addition to the general COVID-19 wage subsidy program, Cox wants money from an industry specific program that was announced in the 2019-20 budget.

The politically charged initiative promises $595 million over five years, including refundable tax credits that pay for 25 per cent of the salaries of journalists working for qualified news outlets.

Cox says "not a penny" of that money has flowed to the eligible news organizations.

"If we had that money in the bank, we wouldn't be in the situation we're currently in. We'd be in a better position," Cox said.

"If they had any further help, such as the (COVID) wage subsidy program they've announced, we'd be in better position."

The goal is to have advertising-funded newspapers and online news sites survive until revenues start to return, Cox said.

"But we have to get there first and we can't get there without any help now. That's the real problem."

As publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press, Cox took a temporary 50 per cent pay cut and asked for temporary, emergency wage cuts from the organization's unionized and non-union employees. Unifor members agreed in a Sunday vote.

The chief executive of Postmedia Network Corp., which operates Canada's largest chain of newspapers, has also announced through an internal memo that he'll take a salary reduction of 30 per cent.

Postmedia CEO Andrew MacLeod wasn't immediately available for comment Monday on what other measures are being considered.

Spokesmen for Unifor and CWA Canada  two unions whose affiliates represent most of Postmedia's employees  said they hadn't received any request for wage cuts as of Monday.

At Torstar Corp., which owns the Toronto Star as well as other daily and community papers, employees were told Monday that there would be 85 permanent layoffs across the organization.

Of the layoffs, 11 are in editorial positions at Torstar's community newspapers, which don't include the dailies, but none are reporters, a Torstar spokesman said.

He said Torstar chief executive John Boynton told staff Monday that about 11 members of senior Torstar management will take 20 per cent reductions in salary and board of directors will receive 20 per cent less compensation.

Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The Winnipeg Free Press's inside workers, represented by a Unifor local, voted Sunday to ratify the two-week wage cut sought by Cox. The agreement includes a review the situation at the end of two weeks.

The agreement reduces wage rates for the higher-paid Tier 1 group of Unifor member employees by 20 per cent, while wages for Tier 2 employees fall 12 per cent or minimum wage, whichever is higher.

The same level of cuts also apply to most management and non-union staff at the newspaper.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 6, 2020.

---

Torstar holds an investment in The Canadian Press as part of a joint agreement with subsidiaries of the Globe and Mail and Montreal's La Presse.
America needed hospital gowns, so Donald Trump called up Walmart. For ventilators, he turned to Detroit's automakers. Wolfgang Puck counseled him on restaurant aid, while a pillow magnate jumped in to help with a mask shortage.

For weeks, the president minimized the threat of the coronavirus, telling the nation it was contained or would soon disappear. But now that the outbreak is sweeping the country, Trump has been forced to constantly overhaul and retool his team and its ad hoc plan to fight it.

He's trotted out executives and privately called friends and celebrities for insights. He's lauded some companies, like Ford Motor Co. and Apple Inc., and threatened others, like 3M Co. and General Motors Corp -- before praising both. Vice President Mike Pence, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Health Secretary Alex Azar all hold murkily defined leadership roles on Trump's coronavirus task force, with the president routinely overstepping them all.

Democrats led by former Vice President Joe Biden have criticized the president for a U.S. response to the coronavirus outbreak that was delayed and then improvised. More than 350,000 Americans have been infected and more than 10,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University, and the White House projects the U.S. death toll may reach 100,000 or more. Trump's scattershot approach, leaning heavily on his self-made image as a dealmaker, lends weight to signs the government was ill-prepared for the pandemic.

The president has had some success, including a program to create an "air bridge" between the U.S. and foreign suppliers of medical gear that's brought planeloads of desperately needed hospital masks, gloves and gowns to U.S. cities. The president said Monday that the government has distributed nearly 12 million respirator masks, 26.5 million surgical masks and about 23 million gloves. At Trump's urging, manufacturers are gearing up to produce thousands of new hospital ventilators, though they may not arrive in time for the peak of the U.S. outbreak this month.

That is despite mounting signs the White House was warned about a potential U.S. outbreak. The New York Times reported late Monday that Peter Navarro, Trump's top trade adviser, wrote a memo circulated inside the West Wing in January saying the coronavirus crisis could result in the loss of trillions of dollars and millions of lives in the U.S.

But the president continues to demonstrate his impatience with an outbreak that has collapsed the U.S. economy, robbing him of his chief argument for reelection.

"Stay inside and let's win this and let's get our country open as soon as we can," he said Monday. "I think it's going to be sooner than people think. Things are going really well. Again: light at the end of the tunnel."

---

Trump's interventionist streak with major U.S. companies is long established. He famously feuded with GM over its closure of an auto plant in Lordstown, Ohio. During the virus crisis, he renewed attacks on GM after urging them to use the Lordstown plant to build ventilators; GM no longer owns the factory.

In another case, Trump announced an initiative by Alphabet Inc.'s Google to build a website to help Americans self-diagnose an infection and find testing, framing it as a national service. At the time, a Google affiliate was only testing the capability in a few California counties. The company hastily announced a national rollout, which Trump hailed as vindication, but the site remains limited.

The president praised Oracle Corp. and its cofounder Larry Ellison, a Trump backer, on Saturday after the company announced a service to crowd-source information about how patients respond to potential coronavirus treatments. Trump has encouraged the use of an untested malaria drug against the infection.

"Larry Ellison, amazing guy," Trump said Saturday about Oracle's effort. "Thank you to them."

In mid-March, Mike Lindell heard Trump's calls for more help from U.S. corporations. "I said, you know what, I wonder if we could make any kind of masks," said Lindell, the CEO of My Pillow Inc., which advertises frequently on Fox News. Lindell serves as Trump's Minnesota campaign chair.

---

The Minnesota bedding entrepreneur's path to the forefront of a global pandemic was a short one. Lindell called Pence's office for information, and eventually received an email from Navarro, who shared details and specifications on mask production. On March 30, Lindell came to the White House for a meeting with Pence, along with the chief executives of Procter & Gamble Co., United Technologies Corp., Honeywell International Inc. and Jockey International Global Inc.

Trump popped in, then brought them outside and invited the CEOs to speak at a news conference -- "Boy, do you sell those pillows," he told Lindell. Lindell said that he aimed for his company to be producing 50,000 masks a day by the end of the week. A staunch Trump supporter who has weighed a political career of his own, Lindell sees Trump's hands-on approach as a reassuring sign of decisiveness.

"I left D.C. that night with so much more hope because I've seen how the president is doing things," Lindell said in an interview. "Being a businessman, I'm so happy that there's somebody that's been through major decisions all his life."

While Trump lauds the likes of Ellison and Lindell, he's sparred with others, including GM's Mary Barra. Trump appointed Navarro as "Defense Production Act policy coordinator," referring to wartime powers Trump has exercised to force companies to produce certain goods, including GM.

The administration has not specifically detailed the amount of medical supplies the federal government has on-hand -- and has even struggled internally to sort out precisely how many ventilators and other supplies, are available, a person familiar with the matter said. But there are widespread warning signs that shortages remain acute.

---

A report Monday from a U.S. government watchdog found "severe shortages of testing supplies and extended waits for test results" at hospitals as well as "widespread shortages of personal protective equipment" and "anticipated shortages of ventilators." Hospitals also reported that "changing and sometimes inconsistent guidance from federal, state, and local authorities" stymied their efforts.

"Some hospitals noted that at the time of our interview they had not received supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile, or that the supplies that they had received were not sufficient in quantity or quality," investigators for the office of the Health and Human Services Inspector General found in a survey of hospital executives in late March. One health facility received 2,300 masks with elastic bands that had rotted, while another received material that expired in 2010.

Trump said the report was "wrong" on Monday, without substantiation, and suggested the manager of the HHS inspector general's office, a government employee since the Clinton administration, was biased against him.

Trump has blamed governors for shortages in their states.

"We're a backup. We're not an ordering clerk. We're a backup. And we've done an unbelievable job," Trump said Thursday.

Kushner added: "The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile; it's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use."

Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a task force member, said it's social distancing measures that will ultimately defeat the virus. Trump extended recommendations aimed at slowing the virus's spread until April 30.

"Keep it up, because this is going to get us out of it," Fauci said Monday. "This is our best and only great public health tool."

---

Still, Trump works the phones and tries to break logjams. Navarro last week praised Trump for calling the CEOs of General Dynamics, United Parcel Service Inc., and Pernod Ricard to try to address shortages of Tyvek suits and hand sanitizer. "That's a new record in Trump time," Navarro said. Trump praised his remarks.

An empowered Navarro has caused friction in the administration. Acting on his new authority as a sort of production czar, Navarro has sometimes called companies and trade groups without the knowledge of Pence's office, which ostensibly leads the government's response, two people familiar with the matter said.

Shortages persist. While Lindell's pillow factory pumps out cotton masks, the U.S. continues to lack sufficient respirator masks, including the N95 mask made by another Minnesota manufacturer, 3M. Trump has feuded with the company, tweeting last week that he'd "hit 3M hard" and that they will "have a big price to pay!"

But on Monday he announced he'd reached a deal with the firm to provide about 55.5 million masks a month for the U.S. market. Under the agreement, the company will be able to export masks to Canada and Latin America from the U.S., despite a ban on exports of medical supplies Trump announced just two days earlier.
Questions about Trumps handling of crisis, especially in its early days when he suggested it was being used by Democrats to undercut his reelection prospects, are likely to define his presidency. Navarros memo is evidence that some in the upper ranks of the administration had at least considered the possibility of the outbreak turning into something far more serious than Trump was acknowledging publicly at the time.
Washington: Just before 7.30pm on Monday (Tuesday AEST) Deborah Birx walked to the lectern at the White House briefing room.

The physician, who is co-ordinating the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus, was there to present the latest national data on the pandemic and advise Americans about how to keep themselves safe.

But most Americans - even if they were tuned in to cable news at the time - never saw Birx speak. The daily briefing had already been going for two hours, dominated by a fiery question-and-answer session between US President Donald Trump and reporters.

By the time Birx was called upon to give her update, two of the three main cable news channels, CNN and MSNBC, had already switched back to regular programming. Only Fox News was still airing the press conference.
A total of 314 people have been found positive in the state till now, of which more than 50 per cent are connected to Tablighi Jamaat, Uttar Pradesh Principal Health Secretary Amit Mohan said on Tuesday.

"A total of 314 people have been found positive in the state till now, of which 168 are connected to Tablighi Jamaat. This shows that more than 50 per cent of the cases are linked to Tablighi Jamaat," Mohan told media here.

"The cases were reported across 37 districts of the state. We have sent 6073 samples for testing. A total of 5595 turn out to be negative and 314 turned positive," he added.

He further told that a total of 22 people have recovered from COVID-19.

He informed that psycho-social-counselling is available with the health department helpline on 18001805145.

"A group of 100 people have been formed for psycho-social-counselling and we have started the service from today," he added.

Commenting upon the government efforts to deal with the situation arising due to COVID-19, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Avanish Awasthi said that Chief Minister has given directions to set up testing labs in all district hospitals across the state.

"Nearly half of the entire state population have received the ration. A total of 10,803 cases were registered under Section 188 of the IPC during the lockdown and around 17,000 vehicles have been seized and nearly Rs.5 crore recovered from the violators of the lockdown," Awasthi said.

Awasthi informed that a total of 1551 people who attended the Tablighi Jammat in Delhi have been identified and 1257 out of them have been examined and sent into quarantine.

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking direction for the government to impose a complete ban on all activities of the Tablighi Jamaat with immediate effect.

The petition sent to the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde also sought direction for government to demolish the building of the office of the Tablighi Jammat at Nizzamuddin in New Delhi under the provision of MCD Act.

Over 1,000 of the total 4,421 coronavirus cases in India are linked to Tablighi Jamaat gathering. Hundreds of people who are related to Tablighi Jamaat have been quarantined.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Paris, 7 April 2020 - Given the restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures taken by the authorities to prohibit gatherings for public health reasons, the arrangements applicable to the organisation of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) that is due to be held on 28 April 2020 and the participation of the shareholders in this Meeting have changed.

In accordance with the provisions of article 4 of France's Official Circular no. 2020-321 dated 25 March 2020, the Management Company has decided to hold the AGM without the shareholders (or any other persons with the right to take part in the Meeting) being present, whether physically or via telephone-based or audiovisual conferencing.

The AGM will be held behind close doors at 10am on 28 April. The preliminary announcement of the AGM, comprising the agenda of the Meeting, the text of the draft motions submitted to the General Meeting for approval and the main arrangements for participation and voting in the General Meeting, was published on 23 March in France's bulletin des annonces legales obligatoires - BALO (a journal that carries mandatory legal announcements). The summons to attend will be published in BALO on 13 April as well as in a French journal of legal announcements.

These announcements, as well as all other documents supporting to the General Meeting in conformity with article R. 225-73-1 of the French Code of Commerce, are available on the Company's web site: www.altamir.fr.

The supporting documents to the AGM will also be made available to shareholders as of the AGM notice date. Thus, in conformity with the applicable regulatory provisions all registered shareholders may, up to and including the fifth day before the AGM, request that the Company forward them the documentation referred to in articles R.225-81 and R.225-83 of the French Code of Commerce, preferably by electronic means. Bearer shareholders may exercise this right only after producing a registration certificate stating that their shares are recorded in a bearer securities account on the books of an accredited intermediary.

Given the fact that the shareholders cannot attend the General Meeting in person, they will be able to vote by postal ballot or to grant the Chairman proxy voting powers[1], using a single, unified form earmarked for this purpose, which can be downloaded from the Company's web site (www.altamir.fr).

These voting arrangements, which are described in detail in the appendix to this document, replace those featuring in the abovementioned announcement of the Meeting.

The AGM will be streamed after the event on the www.altamir.fr web site.

Should you have any questions about the AGM of 28 April, please write in by e-mail to the following dedicated address: investors@altamir.fr.

In general, we recommend that you regularly consult the section of the www.altamir.fr web site that is dedicated to the AGM.

Appendix: How to take part in the Annual General Meeting

The AGM consists of all the shareholders, regardless of the number of shares that they possess.

Shareholders wishing to vote by postal ballot or to grant proxy voting powers to the Chairman of the AGM must adduce evidence of the registration of their shares in accounts that are kept in their name, or in the name of their registered intermediary, by the second working day prior to the Meeting, i.e. 24 April 2020 at zero hours, Paris time:

either in the registered shares accounts kept by the Company,

or in the bearer shares accounts kept by the duly authorised intermediary.

Please note: new arrangements for dealing with abstentions

France's law no. 2019-744 of 19 July 2019 modified the rules used to calculate the votes cast at General Meetings of shareholders: whereas beforehand, abstentions were counted as votes against a motion, during the next General Meeting, they will henceforth be excluded from the votes cast and will thus no longer be taken into consideration in the scope used for calculation of the majority required for the adoption of the motions. The paper and electronic ballot forms - available from the Company's web site - have therefore been modified in order to enable shareholders to express either their opposition or their abstention on the various motions submitted to the AGM.

Special arrangements for taking part in the General Meeting in view of the restrictions imposed by the current public health crisis

In accordance with the provisions of article 4 of France's Official Circular no. 2020-321 dated 25 March 2020, promulgated under the powers granted by France's emergency law no. 2020-290 of 23 March 2020 for dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, the Management Company has decided that the AGM of the Company that is due to be held on 28 April 2020 will take place without the shareholders (or any other persons with the right to take part) being present, whether physically or via telephone-based or audiovisual conferencing.

The shareholders may vote by postal ballot or grant proxy voting powers to the Chairman[2] using the form earmarked for this purpose.

The single form for voting by postal ballot or granting proxy voting powers to the Chairman will be uploaded onto the Company's web site (www.altamir.fr) on the twenty first day prior to the General Meeting.

Holders of bearer shares may request this form by sending a letter to the intermediary with whom their shares are registered, as of the date of the summons to attend the General Meeting.

The postal ballots much reach Societe Generale Securities Services before 24 April. The single form for voting by postal ballot or granting proxy voting powers to the Chairman must be sent back, together with the shareholder's share certificate in the case of holders of bearer shares, by any other suitable means, to the financial intermediary who will then be in charge of forwarding them to Societe Generale Securities Services, or directly to the Company, via the following e-mail address: investors@altamir.fr.

The shareholders' right of disclosure

The documents that must be disclosed to the shareholders prior to the holding of the AGM, as listed by article R. 225-73-1 of France's Commercial Code, shall be uploaded to the Company's web site (www.altamir.fr) on the twenty first day prior to the General Meeting.

All of the documents of the AGM mentioned in articles L. 225-115 and R. 225-83 of France's Commercial Code will also be made available on the Company's web site (www.altamir.fr) or will be sent by return upon receipt of a request sent to investors@altamir.fr.

Written questions

In accordance with article R. 225-84 of France's Commercial Code, any shareholder may send written questions to the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Company until the fourth working day prior to the date of the General Meeting, i.e. 22 April 2020. These written questions must be sent preferably by electronic means to the following address: investors@altamir.fr. They must be accompanied by a certificate of registration of the shareholder's shares.

Our forthcoming diary date:

Annual General Meeting 28 April 2020 (in camera)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

About Altamir

Altamir is a listed private equity company (Euronext Paris-B, ticker: LTA) founded in 1995 and with a NAV of more than 1bn. Its objective is to provide shareholders with long-term capital appreciation and regular dividends by investing in a diversified portfolio of private equity investments.

Altamir's investment policy is to invest via and with the funds managed or advised by Apax Partners SAS and Apax Partners LLP, two leading private equity firms that take majority or lead positions in buyouts and growth capital transactions and seek ambitious value creation objectives.

In this way, Altamir provides access to a diversified portfolio of fast-growing companies across Apax's sectors of specialisation (TMT, Consumer, Healthcare, Services) and in complementary market segments (mid-sized companies in continental Europe and larger companies in Europe, North America and key emerging markets).

Altamir derives certain tax benefits from its status as a SCR ("Societe de Capital Risque"). As such, Altamir is exempt from corporate tax and the company's investors may benefit from tax exemptions, subject to specific holding-period and dividend-reinvestment conditions.

For more information: www.altamir.fr

Contact

Claire Peyssard Moses

Tel.: +33 1 53 65 01 74 / +33 6 34 32 38 97

E-mail: investors@altamir.fr

[1] Please get in touch with the Company if you wish to grant a proxy voting mandate to a specific, named person. Please note that just like yourself, your proxy will not be able to attend the General Meeting in person.

[2] Please get in touch with the Company if you wish to grant a proxy voting mandate to a specific, named person. Please note that just like yourself, your proxy will not be able to attend the General Meeting in person.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 20:32:28|Editor: xuxin

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KABUL, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Talks between the Taliban outfit and Afghan government to exchange their prisoners have been disrupted as the armed group announced Tuesday to stop meeting the opposite side over the subject.

"But, unfortunately, the release of prisoners has been delayed under one pretext or another till now. Therefore, our technical team will not participate in fruitless meetings with relevant sides starting from tomorrow," a Taliban Spokesman Suhail Saheen said in his Twitter account.

The release of 5,000 Taliban detainees and 1,000 Afghan government forces is part of a peace deal inked between the Taliban and the United States signed in Qatar capital Doha on Feb. 29.

Under the agreement, the United states ends its longest war in its history, withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan and facilitates the intra-Afghan dialogue to find political salutation to the war-torn country.

In line with the agreement, a three-member Taliban delegation is in Afghanistan since last week to secure the release of group's fighters from Afghan government jails.

"We sent a technical team to Kabul for the verification and identification of our prisoners to secure their release as per the agreement reached with United states but the Kabul administration delaying the release," Shaheen said.

However, a Presidential Palace Spokesman Latif Mahmoud has rejected the Taliban claim as a baseless accusation, saying the Afghan government has taken all essential steps to "ensure the release of the detainees" and now it is Taliban's turn to response positively.

A government official Abdul Matin Big also said Monday the Taliban group has been demanding the release of 15 key commanders who are notorious for their involvement in subversive activities and their release would contribute to increase in violence.

Afghan government has expressed readiness to set free 100 Taliban prisoners everyday if the militant group agrees to observe ceasefire.

Expressing anger over the delay of prisoners swap, the Taliban outfit earlier on Sunday said in a statement that the "peace deal inked on Feb. 29 has been violated by the United States and its allies."

Taliban Spokesman Shaheen said that the armed group had reduced its attacks on Afghan government forces since inking the peace deal, but the Afghan government and the U.S. military continue to attack the Taliban-held areas and the Taliban fighters.
WASHINGTON  Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned Tuesday, according to two officials, just hours after he had publicly apologized for a profanity-laced upbraiding of the officer he fired as captain of the coronavirus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the matter before an official announcement.

Modly's designated replacement will be James McPherson, a Navy veteran who is currently serving as undersecretary of the Army. He was confirmed in that position by the Senate last month. Prior to that he was the Army's general counsel.

Modly had created a combustible controversy by firing the Roosevelt's skipper, Capt. Brett E. Crozier, last week, saying Crozier had shown "extremely poor judgment" in widely distributing by email a letter calling for urgent help with the COVID-19 outbreak aboard his ship.

Modly then flew to the ship, at port in Guam, and delivered a speech to the crew Sunday in which he lambasted Crozier, saying he was either "too naive or too stupid" to be in charge of an aircraft carrier.

On Monday night, at Defense Secretary Mark Esper's insistence, Modly issued a public apology, but by then the calls among Democrats in Congress for his resignation were mounting. On Tuesday morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Modly must go.

"Sadly, Acting Secretary Modly's actions and words demonstrate his failure to prioritize the force protection of our troops," Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a written statement. "He showed a serious lack of the sound judgment and strong leadership needed during this time. Acting Secretary Modly must be removed from his position or resign."

At least 173 sailors aboard the ship had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Monday. About 2,000 of the 4,865 crew members had been taken off the ship to be tested.

The episode, which began when the Roosevelt reported its first COVID-19 case among the crew on March 22, two weeks after making a port visit in Vietnam, is one of the more extraordinary dramas in recent U.S. military history. In addition to the health threat posed to the crew of more than 4,800 sailors, the outbreak has sidelined the warship indefinitely and created conflict at the highest levels of the Pentagon.

Esper had publicly expressed his support for Modly's decision to fire Crozier, but after Modly's speech about the ship, Esper grew unsettled. Just hours after Modly issued a statement Monday defending his words, Esper compelled Modly to reverse course and issue a public apology.

"I want to apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused," he wrote, referring to his speech aboard the Roosevelt. "I also want to apologize directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused."

Esper's staff had told Modly he must apologize, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he might get involved, agreeing that Modly's criticism of Crozier was "a rough statement." He said Crozier made a mistake when he sent a memo to several people laying out his concerns about the crew and the virus. In the memo, which was leaked to the media, Crozier said: "We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die."

Trump said Crozier had a good career prior to this incident, adding, "I don't want to destroy somebody for having a bad day."

Modly, in his apology, reframed his earlier remarks that Crozier was "too naive or too stupid" to command. Instead, he said he believes Crozier is "smart and passionate."

"I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship," Modly wrote.

Aboard the ship, Modly had urged the crew to stop complaining.

"It is the mission of the ship that matters," he said. "You all know this, but in my view your Captain lost sight of this and he compromised critical information about your status intentionally to draw greater attention to your situation."

Modly, a 1983 Naval Academy graduate, became the acting Navy secretary last November after Richard Spencer was ousted from the position. Trump last month nominated retired Rear Adm. Kenneth Braithwaite, the current ambassador to Norway, to be the next Navy secretary.

In his remarks aboard the Roosevelt, Modly raised issues likely to please Trump. He accused the news media, for example, of manipulating a political agenda to divide the country and embarrass the Navy. He said China "was not forthcoming" about the coronavirus when it began spreading there months ago, echoing Trump's oft-repeated statement that China could have done more to prevent a pandemic.

And Modly invoked the name of Trump's chief Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, noting that the former vice president had said Modly's decision to fire Crozier was almost criminal. "I assure you it was not," Modly said.

Modly said Crozier should have known his letter voicing urgent concerns about the virus aboard his ship would leak to the media. He said if Crozier didn't think this would be the result, he was "too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this."

He also accused Crozier of betraying his duty as an officer. "And I can tell you one other thing, because he did that he put it in the public's forum and it's now become a big controversy in Washington, D.C., and across the country," Modly said.

After an unofficial transcript of Modly's remarks and an audio recording circulated widely on the internet Monday, Rep. Elaine Luria, a Virginia Democrat and Navy veteran, called for Modly to be fired.

Luria said Modly's comments show he is "in no way fit" to lead the Navy. Luria's district includes Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval base.
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump is moving aggressively to challenge the authority and independence of agency watchdogs overseeing his administration, including removing the inspector general tasked with overseeing the $2.2 trillion coronavirus rescue package that passed Congress with bipartisan support.

In four days, Trump has fired one inspector general tied to his impeachment, castigated another he felt was overly critical of the coronavirus response and sidelined a third meant to safeguard against wasteful spending of the coronavirus funds.

The actions have sent shock waves across the close-knit network of watchdog officials in government, creating open conflict between a president reflexively resistant to outside criticism and an oversight community tasked with rooting out fraud, misconduct and abuse.

The most recent act threatens to upend scrutiny of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus rescue effort now underway, setting the stage for a major clash between Trump, government watchdogs and Democrats who are demanding oversight of the vast funds being pumped into the American economy.

Were seeing since Friday a wrecking ball across the IG community, said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a government watchdog group.

The latest broadside came Tuesday when the Defense Department revealed that Trump had removed acting inspector general Glenn Fine, an experienced official, from his role as head of a coronavirus spending oversight board. It was unclear who might replace Fine, who also lost his title as acting inspector general.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Fines abrupt removal part of a disturbing pattern of retaliation by the president against independent overseers. Trump, she said, is attempting to disregard critical oversight provisions that hold the administration accountable to the law.

Trump himself shed little light on the decision as he spoke to reporters Tuesday evening, saying he doesnt know Fine, but had heard the name.

A day earlier, Trump had asserted without evidence that an inspector general report warning of shortages of coronavirus testing in hospitals was just wrong and skewed by political bias. The report surveyed more than 300 U.S. hospitals.

Did I hear the word inspector general? Really? Trump said when pressed about the Health and Human Services watchdog report.

Give me the name of the inspector general, Trump demanded, before asking, Could politics be entered into that? The acting Health and Human Services inspector general, Christi A. Grimm, is a career employee who took over the position early this year in an interim capacity.

Most dramatic of all was Fridays late-night firing of Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general who drew Trumps disdain for notifying Congress of an anonymous whistleblower complaint on Ukraine. The complaint led to the presidents impeachment.

Trump defended the firing by complaining that Atkinson had never spoken with him about the complaint, even though Atkinsons job is to provide oversight independent of the White House.

The dismissal prompted a sharply worded statement from Justice Department watchdog Michael Horowitz, who chairs a council of agency inspectors general and who last month had announced Fines appointment to the pandemic oversight board.

Diverging from Trumps condemnation of Atkinson as terrible, Horowitz called Atkinsons handling of the whistleblower complaint an example of integrity, professionalism, and commitment to the rule of law.

And he pointedly noted that the inspector general community will continue to do its job, including oversight of the more than $2 trillion in coronavirus aid.

The role of the modern-day inspector general dates to post-Watergate Washington, when Congress installed offices inside agencies as an independent check against mismanagement and abuse of power. Though inspectors general are presidential appointees, some, like Horowitz, serve presidents of both parties. All are expected to be nonpartisan.

Over the years, inspectors general have exposed grave problems through their investigations and humbled, or even embarrassed, agency leaders and presidential administrations.

Mondays Health and Human Services report that angered the president chronicled long waits for coronavirus test results and supply shortages at hospitals across the country.

Horowitz, meanwhile has identified significant flaws in the FBIs surveillance during the Russia investigation. Trump has praised Horowitzs findings even as hes attacked his credibility for not finding evidence of political bias in the Russia probe, pejoratively describing him last December as an Obama appointee.

Former Justice Department inspector general Michael Bromwich said Trump perceives inspector general offices to have a uniquely threatening function within the executive branch, which is to provide independent oversight of governmental functions.

Its just something that doesnt compute for him, Bromwich added. He understands the value of loyalty. He doesnt understand the value of independence because that can conflict with loyalty.

Even before this week, Democrats and good-government advocates feared that Trump was using the coronavirus rescue package to reward loyalty. He generated consternation by selecting Brian Miller, who works in the White House counsels office, to a new Treasury Department position overseeing $500 billion in coronavirus aid to industry.

Miller has worked at the Justice Department and was inspector general for nearly a decade at the General Services Administration, which oversees thousands of federal contracts. Though he is respected in the oversight community, Millers role in the White House counsels office is troubling, watchdog groups said.

Democratic lawmakers had already questioned whether someone who worked for the president could be independent, concerns that were accelerated by Fines replacement.

The president now has engaged in a series of actions designed to neuter any kind of oversight of his actions and that of the administration during a time of national crisis, when trillions of dollars are being allocated to help the American people, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told The Associated Press.

But Trump has made clear his willingness to flout that system, perhaps foreshadowing the chaos of the last week.

As lawmakers were in the final stages of drafting what became the $2.2 trillion coronavirus rescue package, he declared, Ill be the oversight. And even when he signed it, he attached a statement that says some of the oversight provisions in the law raise constitutional concerns and may not be followed.

___

Associated Press writer Laurie Kellman contributed to this report.
Within minutes of his order, Republican legislative leaders called his move unconstitutional, instructing clerks to move forward with the election and challenging the order in the State Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority.

Already, 15 other states and one territory had either pushed back their presidential primaries or switched to voting by mail with extended deadlines.

Dysfunctional politics kept Wisconsin from doing the same. On Saturday, state lawmakers rejected Mr. Everss proposals for holding an all-mail election and extending voting to May, gaveling out a special legislative session within seconds. That prompted Mr. Evers and his team to reassess what authority he might have to postpone the election with an executive order.

Even with voters very lives at stake, Wisconsins politicians were unable to come to an agreement  a fight that mirrors the dynamics of battles over voting access already underway at the national level.

As Democrats push for billions of dollars in federal funds to bolster voting by mail and other absentee options, Republicans say those kinds of options would increase the risk of electoral fraud. Some, including President Trump, also argue it would harm the electoral prospects of Republican candidates.

The things they had in there were crazy, Mr. Trump said of the Democratic proposal. They had things  levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, youd never have a Republican elected in this country again.

While Wisconsin Republicans have not made that argument explicitly, they do have a competitive State Supreme Court election on the ballot on Tuesday (along with the presidential primary and thousands of local offices).
Stephen Fry has failed in a bid to save a prison where poet Oscar Wilde was famously held.

The Ministry of Justice put Reading Prison up for sale after it closed in 2013.

The comedian along with LGBT campaigners and the local council wanted to make it an arts centre and 'a site of LGBT history.'

It was earmarked because Wilde served his sentence there after his gross indecency conviction in the late 1800s.

Stephen Fry (left) has failed in a bid to save a prison where poet Oscar Wilde (right) was famously held

But officials of the Ministry of Justice turned down Reading Borough Council's offer yesterday.

Locals now fear that the Ministry of Justice is willing to sell to the highest bidder, who may convert the historic jail into flats.

Councillor Jason Brock, leader of Reading Borough Council said: 'The council's bid rightly focused on the historical and cultural value of the Reading Prison site.

'And it was dependent on securing significant external funds to manage the risk of taking ownership of this historic property.

'We are naturally disappointed that the MoJ have rejected the council's bid.

'The purchase of Reading Prison comes with significant planning parameters which are fundamental to any development of the site and are designed to protect the prison's historical, archaeological and cultural value, all of national significance.'

The Grade II-listed jail, near Reading's Abbey Ruins in the Berkshire town famously housed Wilde between 1895 and 1897.

He spent two years at the jail for gross indecency after his affair with poet and journalist Lord Alfred Douglas was exposed.

Wilde composed The Ballad of Reading Gaol inspired by his time as a prisoner and in which he reflected on the brutality of the Victorian penal system after his release.

The Ministry of Justice put the historic Reading Prison up for sale after it closed in 2013

Wilde recalled Reading Prison in his poems and said: 'Each narrow cell in which we dwell is foul and dark latrine/And the fetid breath of living Death chokes up each grated screen.'

Historian Emily O'Neil said that Wilde was often locked up in his dark cell for up to two weeks at a time.

She added: 'The recommendation was that prisoners should be locked up in the dark cells for no more than three days, but Oscar Wilde was actually kept there for two weeks, as punishment for talking to another prisoner in the chapel.

When Oscar Wilde was thrown behind bars at the height of his fame following showcase trial Oscar Wilde was incarcerated from 25 May 1895 to 18 May 1897. At the very height of his fame, the celebrated writer was sentenced to two years hard labour following a showcase trial which saw him charged with acts of gross indecency after his affair with poet and journalist Lord Alfred Douglas was exposed. Following short stints in Pentonville and Wandsworth prisons he was moved to Reading Gaol, a sprawling prison built in 1844, then home to some of the country's most dangerous men. He was spent his time locked up in wing C number 33 on the top floor of HMP Reading. For Wilde, a sensitive and fun-loving man, the prison experience was devastating and he left a broken man. Financially ruined and living in exile in France, he penned his last published work The Ballad Of Reading Gaol. Advertisement

'It was incredibly harsh punishment: the window was blocked so it was totally dark, the double doors meant they saw nothing, and bread and water was just handed in through a slot in the door.'

The historic site was put up for sale by the Ministry of Justice in 2015 and Reading Borough Council put in a bid last year to buy it.

Stephen Fry, who played the playwright Wilde in the 1997 film of the same name, recently threw his weight behind the plan to preserve the property.

Quoting Wilde's Poems, he said: 'This too I know  and wise it were if each could know the same  that every prison that men build is built with bricks of shame wrote Oscar Wilde in his Ballad of Reading Gaol.

'But flowers can grow out of manure, and if living art can rise up from the place where Oscar and so many others suffered then how perfect that will be, for Reading, for Britain and for us all.'

Reading East MP Matt Rodda has also expressed their disappointment at the decision.

Mr Rodda said: 'I am deeply disappointed with the Government's approach and I would urge the Government to work with the council and respect the enormous historical importance of Reading Gaol.

'I am concerned that the Government still want to sell the gaol to the highest bidder and I understand they now have a preferred bidder who they are working with.

'I would ask them even at this late stage to reconsider and think again about selling the gaol to Reading Borough Council or an arts and heritage organisation.'

A spokesperson for campaign group Save Reading Gaol, said: 'We are sad to announce that Reading Council has not been successful in its bid for Reading Gaol, and that the site has been given over to a developer - yet to be officially named.

'The Save Reading Gaol campaigners will now work even harder to encourage the purchaser of the heritage site to apportion part of it for community purposes, in line with the council's planning policy that: 'Any proposed future development of the site has provision of a cultural or historical element and will enhance the Abbey Quarter as a heritage and cultural destination.'

The MOJ has been approached for comment.
Hong Kong: Rail extension design to start

The Chief Executive in Council has approved the invitation to the MTR Corporation to proceed with the detailed planning and design of the Tung Chung Line Extension project, the Government announced today.

The extension project is one of the seven recommended railway schemes under the Railway Development Strategy 2014 to serve the Tung Chung New Town Extension along the Tung Chung West and Tung Chung East areas.

The project comprises the Tung Chung West Extension, which is a 1.3-kilometre-long extension from the rail line's existing Tung Chung Station to a new station at the Tung Chung West area.

It also includes a new intermediate station on the line at the Tung Chung East reclamation area, as well as the Airport Railway Extended Overrun Tunnel to enable train turnaround, enhancing operation efficiency and train frequency.

The Tung Chung New Town Extension is an important medium-to-long term land supply source to meet Hong Kong's housing, economic and social needs, and the project will offer direct rail access to the new town extension to support the sustainable growth in population and employment opportunities in the area.

The Government will negotiate with the MTRC on the funding arrangements for the project.

Construction of the project is expected to start in 2023. Construction of the two stations and associated railways will be completed by 2029, while the Airport Railway Extended Overrun Tunnel is targeted for completion by 2032.

This story has been published on: 2020-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Many people have been growing a pandemic beard; but some are wondering if it's safer to shave it. (Dreamstime/TNS) Read more

As stay-at-home orders have popped up across the country during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a hairy new trend has emerged: the quarantine beard.

Many facial hair-endowed folks are socially distancing from their razors, allowing their beards to grow, and tracking their progress under Twitter hashtags like #coronabeard and #letsgrowtogether. Even some celebrities are getting involved, including funnyman Jim Carrey, who has vowed to grow his whiskers until we all go back to work.

But as COVID-19 infections continue to spread, some have wondered: Should we be shaving instead? Here is what you need to know.

 ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters

Will shaving your beard help prevent getting COVID-19?

Average bearded folks can take a breath, said Carrie L. Kovarik, associate professor of dermatology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. There is currently no evidence that shaving will help prevent you from getting the coronavirus.

Theres just not, she said. Some people have beards for religious reasons, or they have had beards their whole lives. At this point, there is no evidence that they need to shave it.

Primarily, the coronavirus is thought to spread through respiratory droplets, mainly from the cough or sneeze of an infected person, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. A properly cared-for beard may not have much of an effect either way when it comes to the coronavirus  especially if you are following proper social distancing guidelines and practicing good hygiene.

As John Swartzberg, a clinical professor emeritus at UC Berkleys School of Public Health, recently told the Los Angeles Times, bearded people could theoretically transfer the coronavirus from their facial hair if, for example, an infected person coughed on their beard. However, Swartzberg added that there have been no studies on the topic, and that he knows of no science to support that possibility.

If someone sneezes in your face, it could settle anywhere on it  your nose, your beard, any part, Kovarik said. Its not the beard that is the problem, its being in close contact with others or having people sneezing on you or coughing on you.

 FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered

But what about that CDC chart?

In February, an infographic from the CDC began making the rounds online, with some outlets and social media accounts claiming that the organization was recommending that people shave their beards. But theres one problem: It wasnt.

The graphic, in fact, dates to November 2017  long before the current coronavirus outbreak  and deals with more than 30 different styles of facial hair and how they may affect respirators such as N95 masks, which require a seal to work properly.

As the CDC wrote in 2017, tight-fitting facewear like N95 masks can be rendered ineffective by facial hair that disrupts the area where it seals along the wearers face. Styles such as full beards, sideburns, and some mustaches tend to break that seal with the skin, causing 20 to 1,000 times more leakage compared to clean-shaven individuals. But if youre not in the group that should be wearing those masks, remaining bearded is an option.

Health-care workers who need to wear N95 masks, those people need to have no facial hair for a snug fit, Kovarik said. The CDC has been clear about that.

So can you still wear other types of masks?

Currently, the CDC recommends that people wear cloth face coverings when out in public, echoing a similar recommendation made by the Pennsylvania Department of Health last week. When it comes to that style of mask, those of us with beards may be in luck.

Cloth and homemade masks, like the surgical masks that should be reserved for health-care workers, do not require a seal, and could be used despite the presence of facial hair, Kovarik said. Cloth masks, the CDC notes, can help potentially asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus from transmitting COVID-19 to others by limiting the spread of respiratory droplets from acts like speaking, sneezing, or coughing.

 READ MORE: Use our simple template to make a face mask at home: A step-by-step guide

You dont need to shave your beard to wear a surgical mask properly, Kovarik said. You just need it to fit over your mouth and nose and loop behind your ears. It doesnt require a tight seal.

Beard or not, when wearing a cloth mask, users should be careful to not touch their eyes, nose, and mouth when removing the garment, and wash their hands after touching it, the CDC advises. Masks should also be washed routinely.

What should you do with your beard if youre keeping it?

The CDC has touted basic personal hygiene like avoiding touching your face and washing your hands since the coronavirus outbreak started, and the same type of cleanliness can be applied to beards. Additionally, people with beards  like everyone else  should follow social-distancing guidelines.

Proper hygiene on your beard is the best thing, Kovarik said. Wash it like you normally would.

While also helping to protect your health, proper beard care can also keep your whiskers looking their best. As barber Sean Robinson recently told The Inquirer, a sulfate-free shampoo option would be a good choice because it wont pull moisture from your beard while keeping it clean.

You really need to wash it every day, he said.
New Delhi, April 7 : Researchers at Queen's University Belfast are leading a UK-wide clinical trial, offering an innovative cell therapy treatment for Covid-19 patients with acute respiratory failure.

This clinical trial -- led by Professor Danny McAuley and Professor Cecilia O'Kane, both researchers from the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen's -- is investigating the use of allogenic Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) in patients with a complication known as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) caused by coronavirus.

In the most critically unwell patients with Covid-19, many develop a complication known as ARDS.

In ARDS, the lungs become inflamed and leaky so they fill with fluid. This causes respiratory failure and patients may require admission to intensive care and a ventilator to support their breathing.

A recent statement from the four UK Chief Medical Officers outlined the importance of clinical trials amid the Covid-19 crisis.

Professor Cecilia O'Kane said: "It is only through clinical trials will we be able to determine if new treatments are effective and safe in critically ill patients." The trial involves the use of MSCs, a type of cell derived from human tissue such as bone marrow or umbilical cord (which is otherwise discarded after the baby is born), to treat the injury to the lung caused by Covid-19.

MSCs are a novel treatment that has been shown in experimental models to reduce inflammation, fight infection and improve the repair of injured tissue.

Patients in this trial, which is known as Realist Covid-19, will be treated with a purified population of MSCs derived from umbilical cord tissue called ORBCEL-C.

The ORBCEL-C therapy has been developed by scientists at Orbsen Therapeutics in Galway, Ireland.

The ORBCEL-C therapeutic is manufactured under licence by the UK NHS Blood and Transplant Service for the Realist Covid-19 trial.

The trial is being introduced as part of an existing programme of research investigating the use of MSCs in patients with ARDS.

The first patient has now been recruited with plans to recruit at least 60 patients throughout the Covid-19 pandemic at multiple sites across the UK, including Belfast, Birmingham and London.

Professor Ian Young, Clinical Professor at the Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, Director of HSC R&D and Chief Scientific Advisor at the Department of Health, said: "The Health and Social Care Research & Development Division has been working with researchers across HSC to address the global problem of coronavirus.

"The vital research which will provide important evidence regarding a potential new treatment for respiratory failure, a leading cause of mortality in Covid-19.A "We will continue to support health research and encourage people to participate in research trials and other studies so patients can get the best possible treatment to help tackle the spread of Covid-19." The trial has been identified by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) as a national urgent public health study.

It is one of the many Covid-19 studies that have been given urgent public health research status by the Chief Medical Officer and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England.

The study is funded by the Health and Social Care Research & Development Division and the Wellcome Trust, sponsored by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and supported by the NI Clinical Trials Unit, the NIHR Clinical Research Network and the Northern Ireland Clinical Research Network.

Orbsen CSO Steve Elliman noted: "While there are over 100 vaccines and therapies in development targeting the SARS-CoV-2 infection - at present there are no disease modifying therapies approved for ARDS.

"We're delighted the Realist trial was approved and listed by NIHR as an Urgent Public Health Research Study so we can continue assess the safety of the ORBCEL-C therapy in patients with ARDS." Sir Professor Alimuddin Zumla of University College London, a global coronavirus and infectious diseases expert said: "This is an exciting and important trial which targets rectifying the underlying causes of lung damage and has great potential of saving many lives from Covid-19."

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
IN an effort to bring Easter weekend ceremonies to the widest audience possible, church services are being streamed live from a funeral home in Offaly.

Sunday morning Masses celebrated by Fr Martin Carley, PP, Catholic parish of Rahan, and Sunday evening services from Rev Isaac Delamere, Church of Ireland Tullamore Union of Parishes, have been available for viewing through a webcam at the Lawless funeral home in Mucklagh for the last few weeks.

The number of viewers has been increasing each weekend and many more are expected to log on in what is one of the biggest events on the annual church calendar.

Undertaker Tom Lawless first got a webcam installed at his funeral home in Mucklagh in December 2018 through a specialist provider, MCN Media.

Using a password which can be provided by family members of the bereaved, mourners unable to go to a wake have been able to view proceedings on their computer.

When the coronavirus initially came in I had a funeral and the family said to me could I put it on the death notice that there was to be no handshaking and I was the first to have that put on RIP.ie, said Mr Lawless.

Since then, funeral attendance has been restricted to as few as 10 people and the diocese of Meath has suspended all public Masses.

Some churches, including the Church of the Assumption in Tullamore, already had a webcam service in place.

Mr Lawless therefore contacted other local clergymen to see if they would be interested in using his viewing room.

He set the altar up close to the camera so the priest can be seen and heard. No password is required by viewers, ensuring the Mass and services are available to anyone across the world with internet access.

Viewing numbers soared from 35 one Sunday to 115 at a subsequent Mass as more and more people logged on.

Fr Carley has been celebrating Sunday Mass at 11am and Rev Delamere's Sunday service has been at 7pm.

This weekend, the Rahan parish Holy Thursday (7.30pm), Good Friday (3pm) and Holy Saturday (7.30pm) ceremonies will be on webcam.

Rev Delamere's Good Friday service will be at 5pm and Easter Sunday service at 7pm.

Though the broadband connection in Mucklagh is not ideal, it has held up fairly well.

It's very kind and decent of Tom to have this because it gives us an opportunity to be online.

Because of the cocooning of people aged 70 and older, some priests can neither celebrate Mass in their own church or from the funeral home so Mr Lawless has been attempting to publicise Fr Carley's Mass in neighbouring parishes.

The best compliment I heard was from the nursing home next door, said the undertaker. A couple of residents were watching it and they said, 'There's the local priest' and that means a lot to them.

The procedure for accessing the webcam is as follows  1: log onto MCN Media, 2: click Republic of Ireland, 3: click Cameras, 4: click View Funeral Homes, 5: Scroll down to Lawless Funeral Home, 6: Double Click on Lawless Funeral Home.
Wells Fargo is one of the banks that can disburse federal Paycheck Protection Program loans to small businesses to mitigate the coronavirus downturn. (Scott Eells / Bloomberg )

On Friday, banks across the country began accepting applications from struggling small businesses desperate to get a piece of the $2-trillion stimulus package authorized by the CARES Act. Unfortunately, many of those small businesses  and perhaps those that need the money the most  may be left waiting at the back of the line as others exhaust the available funds.

The key provision of the CARES Act for small businesses is the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, which seeks to inject an immediate $350 billion into small businesses struggling from the COVID-19 pandemic. Its the small business version of the $1,200 in stimulus checks heading to individual taxpayers.

The program works by giving a small business a loan equal to 250% of its average monthly payroll, and the loan can be forgiven if 75% of the proceeds are spent on payroll in the first eight weeks of the loan. The idea is to throw a lifeline to these businesses and their employees. If you run a small business that has struggled because of COVID-19  and what small business hasnt  you should be looking to apply for a PPP loan.

But the Paycheck Protection Program is a first-come, first-served deal. And so far, many of the smallest of small businesses  the coffee shop around the corner, or your favorite neighborhood food truck or nail salon  are finding themselves at the back of the line.

The problem is the rules for distributing the money. Congress chose to dispense the PPP $350 billion through a network of approximately 2,000 banks authorized to make Small Business Administration loans. The CARES Act instructs these banks to approve PPP applications quickly regardless of a business credit risk. But the banks are still banks, and Department of Treasury rules going back to the 1970s require that they meet know your customer regulations meant to prevent money-laundering and terrorist financing.

In the rush to implement the CARES Act bailouts, the applications from customers the banks already knoware the ones getting accepted and processed. Small businesses that have never been vetted for a loan, or that don't already have an account at an SBA-approved lender will face long delays as the bank studies their past cash needs, confirms their corporate structures, and verifies the identities of their owners. And cash-intensive businesses, like local cafes and salons, where the risk of money-laundering is greater, could get particular scrutiny.

Story continues

Many banks say they expect to accept PPP applications from new customers in the coming days and weeks, but will the funds still be there?

On Friday, Bank of America reported that in its first day for PPP applications, its customers submitted applications for $22.2 billion of PPP loans. Wells Fargo on Sunday said it would accept no more applications from businesses known or new to the bank. Wells can lend a maximum of $10 billion, owing to sanctions placed on it for past rule-breaking, and after just one day, it had applications in hand that amounted to more than that limit. If private-equity-backed companies are also allowed to apply for this funding, as is rumored, they too should be able to check banks' know-your-customer  or KYC  boxes immediately and they could further drain the PPP allocation ahead of small businesses that have yet to comply with the regulations.

Rules preventing money-laundering and terrorist financing are worthy, but they dont fit the Paycheck Protection Program goals. Instead of KYC standard operating procedure, the Treasury Department should view CARES Act lending in light of what the legislation is all about  macroeconomic stimulus, not making long-term business loans.

Special know-your-customer rules should be put in place to match the limited purpose of PPP loans and the urgency of the pandemic situation. Applicants should be required to prove they are what they claim to be by presenting basic organizational documents, past tax filings, board resolutions authorizing the businesses officers, and proof of those officers identities (a drivers license should do).

The Treasury Department should act now to ensure that small businesses do not lose out in the race for PPP funds simply because they dont already have a bank loan and a preexisting relationship with a Small Business Administration lender. Otherwise, by the time your neighborhood cafe makes its way to the front of the PPP line, the $350 billion may be depleted and the cafe, its owners and its employees may be out of luck. And once were all free again to go out for breakfast, lunch and dinner, we may be too.

Robert Bartlett is a law professor at UC Berkeley and co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business. Adam Sterling is the executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business.
NEW YORK, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DoorDash, the nation's leading on-demand local logistics platform, today announced a partnership with Mount Sinai Health System, New York City's largest academic medical system, to donate free DashPass subscriptions offering unlimited free delivery fees to its 42,000 healthcare employees, including first responders, medical personnel and hospital staff. As part of this program, DoorDash has also teamed up with Norwegian video communications company Neat to thank the heroes on the front lines and donate $15,000 in free meals to medical workers through the distribution of DoorDash gift cards to Mount Sinai medical staff across its eight hospital campuses and large ambulatory network.

"Thanks to the heroic efforts of our physicians, nurses, trainees, students and other health care professionals on the frontline, we will win this fight against this virus. The Mount Sinai community is working around the clock to save as many lives as possible. The support from DoorDash and others is critical," said Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and CEO of Mount Sinai Health System.

This partnership comes at a critical time when the New York healthcare system is strained, with hospital staff working overtime to support patients infected with COVID-19. To give back to those who care for others every day and help ensure healthcare workers can get the food they need to fuel their long hours, all Mount Sinai employees will be offered a complimentary DashPass subscription*, offering unlimited free delivery fees and reduced service fees from thousands of local restaurants. DoorDash is working hand in hand with Mount Sinai to designate safe and secure drop-off locations to promote contactless deliveries between Dashers and medical workers.

"The daily acts of heroism from first responders, doctors and nurses during this unprecedented time show the best of humanity, and it's incumbent upon us to give back and help support them. DoorDash appreciates all that the incredible team at Mount Sinai has contributed to serving the community, and we hope this can help make their day a little easier," said Tony Xu, CEO and Co-Founder of DoorDash.

"Neat is honored to be teaming with DoorDash and Mount Sinai to help support our healthcare heroes. We are deeply grateful to the remarkable staff at Mount Sinai, and all healthcare workers around the world who are on the frontlines each day, bravely and selflessly risking their lives to help others in the global battle against COVID-19. They are our true heroes and deserve as much help and recognition as possible," said Simen Teigre, CEO of Neat.

Following partnerships with agencies such as the NYC Department of Education to power the delivery of food to hundreds of medically fragile students and other vulnerable communities, DoorDash is actively working to serve those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic while supporting the local businesses that are the heart and soul of our communities.

DoorDash is partnering with hospitals across the U.S. and Canada to provide free access to its Corporate DashPass membership. Every doctor, nurse, and hospital employee will receive at least 60 days of free DashPass, unlocking subscription-only benefits. Hospitals looking to participate can find more information here .

*The free DashPass subscription is currently active for at least 60 days, but we may extend the duration of the membership as medical workers continue to fight the good fight. DashPass benefits are eligible on all orders from participating restaurants above $12.

About DoorDash

DoorDash is a technology company that connects customers with their favorite local and national businesses in more than 4,000 cities and all 50 states across the United States, Canada, and Australia. Founded in 2013, DoorDash empowers merchants to grow their businesses by offering on-demand delivery, data-driven insights, and better in-store efficiency, providing delightful experiences from door to door. By building the last-mile delivery infrastructure for local cities, DoorDash is bringing communities closer, one doorstep at a time. Read more on the DoorDash blog or at www.doordash.com .

About Mount Sinai Health System

The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest academic medical system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai is a national and international source of unrivaled education, translational research and discovery, and collaborative clinical leadership ensuring that we deliver the highest quality carefrom prevention to treatment of the most serious and complex human diseases. The Health System includes more than 7,200 physicians and features a robust and continually expanding network of multispecialty services, including more than 400 ambulatory practice locations throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 14 on U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of the Top 20 Best Hospitals in the country and the Icahn School of Medicine as one of the Top 20 Best Medical Schools in country. Mount Sinai Health System hospitals are consistently ranked regionally by specialty and our physicians in the top 1% of all physicians nationally by U.S. News & World Report.

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook , Twitter and YouTube .

About Neat

Neat designs and develops pioneering video meeting devices for Zoom. The company was founded in Oslo, Norway, by a team that for decades have shaped game-changing innovations for some of the most recognized brands in video communications. All Neat systems are available to buy directly online from neat.no and ship globally. Radically simply with unique features, they are easy to set-up and use, making Zoom Rooms the smoothest and best it's ever been. For more information on Zoom Rooms the Neat way, see more at www.neat.no .

SOURCE DoorDash

Related Links

http://www.doordash.com


A smart toilet capable of detecting early warning signs of cancer and other serious diseases has been developed by scientists in the US.

Researchers at Stanford University built the device using an upward-facing camera, test strips and artificial intelligence to analyse faeces and urine as they pass through.

The disease-detecting technology could negate traditional stool tests and prove particularly useful for people who are genetically predisposed to certain conditions.

It involves retro-fitting an ordinary toilet with all the necessary gadgets to perform the tests, together with a companion app that analyses the data and displays the results. The researchers who developed it hope it will one day be part of the average home bathroom.

The toilet falls into a category of technology known as continuous health monitoring, which includes devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers. The smart toilet is unique from other continuous health monitoring devices in a number of ways, including its ability to identify each individual user through their anal print biometric data.

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We know it sounds weird, but as it turns out, your anal print is unique. Our concept dates back well over 15 years. When Id bring it up, people would sort of laugh because it seemed like an interesting idea, but also a bit odd, said Sanjiv Gambhir, the Stanford professor behind the toilet.

The thing about a smart toilet is that, unlike wearables, you cant take it off. Everyone uses the bathroom  theres really no avoiding it  and that enhances its value as a disease-detecting device.

The smart toilet can be retro-fitted onto any regular porcelain toilet (Stanford University)

Professor Gambhir said the toilet should not be seen as a replacement for a doctor, or even a diagnosis, and that ideally data would be send privately to healthcare professionals to determine any necessary action.

We have taken rigorous steps to ensure that all the information is de-identified when its sent to the cloud and that the information  when sent to health care providers  is protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, he said.

The smart toilet has already been tested on 21 people over the course of several months, and it is hoped that it will be able to monitor for up to 10 different health conditions and diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

One of the biggest challenges will be user acceptance, though a survey of 300 prospective users found that 37 per cent of people were somewhat comfortable and 15 per cent were very comfortable with the idea of using it for health reasons.

The technology is detailed in a paper published in the scientific journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. A press release from Stanford University accompanying the paper stated: Users must make their peace with a camera that scans their anus.
New York City Council Member Justin Brannan has joined exclusive groups before, including the Freemasons and a death metal band called Caninus. Joining the ranks of people infected by the coronavirus, however, is one club he never planned on joining.

As COVID-19 has ravaged New York, the hardest hit state, a number of prominent New York political figures have also tested positive for the virus, or apparently had it based on their symptoms and exposure. Here is a list of some of the most notable ones:

Justin Brannan: The New York City Council Member tweeted Feb. 10 that he and his wife had tested positive for the coronavirus and were experiencing mild symptoms. Now, the longtime punk guitarist is vowing to rock quarantine with public health guidelines in mind.

Dr. David Chokshi: The New York City health commissioner announced on Feb. 3 that he was experiencing mild symptoms after testing positive for the coronavirus. His diagnosis doubled as a teaching moment for New Yorkers who have watched Chokshis regular appearances at mayoral briefings over the past year. We all must continue to wear masks, wash our hands, socially distance and stay home if feeling ill, Chokshi said in a statement.

Andrew Yang: After receiving a negative COVID-19 test just days before, Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang announced on Feb. 2, 2021 on Twitter that he had a positive rapid test. Yang reported that he has mild symptoms and is quarantining, but will continue to attend virtual campaign events.

Zellnor Myrie: The state senator announced in Jan. 15 that he had tested positive days after appearing on the floor of the state Senate to speak in favor of voting reforms. It appears that no additional lawmakers or staff present that day later got the virus and the Brooklyn Democrat was discharged from a hospital by the end of the month.

Adriano Espaillat: On Jan. 14, Rep. Adriano Espaillat announced on Twitter that he tested positive for COVID-19. Although Espaillat received the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine shortly before testing positive, he noted that the vaccine takes time to take effect. It also, while being unusually effective for a vaccine, at 95% reduction in risk of developing COVID-19, still leaves some potential for contracting the virus.

Donald Trump: The then-president announced last fall that he and first lady Melania Trump both tested positive for the coronavirus. After a brief hospitalization and experimental treatments, he eventually recovered, to much praise and controversy.

Rick Cotton & Betsy Smith: On March 9, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that Rick Cotton, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, had contracted the coronavirus. Cotton, who is in charge of the regions airports, bus terminals and tunnels, was one of the most high-profile public officials to test positive in the early stages of the outbreak. Cuomo suggested that Cotton might have been exposed while on the job at JFK Airport. On March 26, Cotton announced that he and his wife, Central Park Conservancy President and CEO Betsy Smith, who also tested positive, had recovered.

Charles Barron & Inez Barron: On March 14, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie tweeted that Brooklyn Assemblyman Charles Barron had tested positive for the coronavirus, one of the first state lawmakers to do so. A week later, Barrons wife, New York City Councilwoman Inez Barron announced that she too had contracted the virus. While the 69-year-old assemblyman had to be hospitalized, he and his wife have since recovered.

Helene Weinstein: When he tweeted the news about Charles Barron, Heastie said that Assemblywoman and Ways and Means Committee Chair Helene Weinstein had also tested positive for the virus. Shortly after the announcement, Brooklyn Democratic Party Chairwoman Rodneyse Bichotte said she had been in contact with Weinstein and that the lawmaker was in good shape.

Ritchie Torres: After experiencing symptoms for several days and learning that a senior staff member had tested positive, New York City Councilman Ritchie Torres tweeted that he had tested positive for the coronavirus on March 16. The first member of the City Council to test positive, he is now symptom free, though he said in early April that he was still anxious about leaving his Bronx apartment, where he had been self-isolating.

Kimberly Jean-Pierre: On March 19, Assemblywoman Kimberly Jean-Pierre became the third state lawmaker to test positive for the coronavirus, but she made good on assurances that she would continue to work remotely from home.

Brian Miller: On March 20, two days after being in the state Capitol to vote on a paid sick leave bill, Assemblyman Brian Miller, a Republican representing the Catskills, became the fourth state lawmaker to test positive for the coronavirus. The assemblyman was hospitalized in St. Lukes Hospital in Utica following his diagnosis and has since recovered.

Melinda Katz: Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz tested positive after learning on March 21 that she had been exposed to someone with the coronavirus. After a few days of a low-grade fever, the former Queens borough president said she was no longer experiencing any symptoms.

Mark Levine: On March 23, New York City Councilman and Health Committee Chairman Mark Levine tweeted that he was experiencing coronavirus symptoms, namely a fever and a dry cough. Levine subsequently emerged as a staunch advocate for preserving test kits for those most in need, saying that he would not be seeking a test for himself and would instead shelter at home.

John Miller: On March 27, NY1 reported that John Miller, the NYPDs intelligence and counterterrorism chief, had tested positive for the virus.

Johnny Lee Baynes: New York Supreme Court 2nd Judicial District Judge Johnny Lee Baynes, who worked in Brooklyn, died of COVID-19 complications on March 26 at 64 years old.

Pat Foye: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced on March 28 that its leader, Pat Foye, has tested positive for coronavirus. A spokesperson said he was isolating at home but feeling good and maintaining his full schedule." He has subsequently recovered.

Nydia Velazquez: On March 30, Rep. Nydia Velazquez was diagnosed with a presumed coronavirus infection only a few days after sharing a podium and microphone with other U.S. representatives during the debate on the $2 trillion stimulus bill. She said in a statement that her symptoms were mild and that she is self-isolating. She encouraged others to stay at home and continue practicing social distancing and has since recovered.

James Seward: State Sen. James Seward and his wife tested positive for the coronavirus on March 30. It was originally reported that Seward, who is also battling bladder cancer, had a mild case of the virus and was expected to leave Albany Medical Center shortly. According to Sewards wife, for a while his condition was critical and he was on a ventilator in a medically induced coma, but the state senator later recuperated at home. While some health problems remain, he has continued to do interviews in recent weeks.

Chris Cuomo: Host of CNNs Cuomo Prime Time  and Gov. Andrew Cuomos younger brother  became one of the most high-profile individuals to test positive for COVID-19 when he announced the news on March 31.

Paul Vallone: On April 1, New York City Councilman Paul Vallone posted on Facebook that he had tested positive for the coronavirus after experiencing mild symptoms. He said thaI he feels blessed to have had manageable symptoms and to have already gotten on the road to recovery.

Barry Grodenchik: On April 2, New York City Councilman Barry Grodenchik became the latest politician who tested positive for the coronavirus. He said in a tweet that he had been self-isolating since March 14 and had no contact with anyone besides family members since that date.

Costa Constantinides: On April 10, Queens borough president candidate, Costa Constantinides took to Twitter to announce that his wife Lori, who is diabetic and in need of a kidney transplant, had been hospitalized for the coronavirus after he experienced mild symptoms the week before.

Noach Dear: New York Supreme Court judge and former New York City Council Member Noach Dear died of COVID-19 complications on April 19. He was 66 years old.

James Skoufis: State Sen. James Skoufis tested positive for COVID-19, his office announced on April 24, just three days after first experiencing symptoms of the virus. Skoufis reported that he had nearly every symptom of the illness and said that it was the sickest Ive ever felt in my life. The state senator had made a full recovery by early May and said that experiencing the virus reinforced his position on reopening the state based on the opinions of public health experts and not for the sake of the economy.

Julia Salazar: On July 2, the state senator announced that she had contracted the virus. Salazar said she had been experiencing mild symptoms of the virus, which led her to get tested, and began quarantining after receiving her results. She has since made a full recovery from the virus.
March 30 was a meaningful day for Arlene Van Dyk. The longtime intensive care unit nurse at the Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey, got to see a patient leave the ICU  a woman whod contracted the coronavirus and spent 10 days on a ventilator.

She wasnt just any patient, Van Dyk said. This was the first COVID-19 positive person at Holy Name to be removed from life support and prepared for discharge.

For us in the ICU, we see the sickest of the sick, Van Dyk, a single mother of two, said. We forget that theres people that do well. This was a huge thing for us to see this.

The acute care facility has had an up-close view of the daily tragedies unfolding across the region in recent weeks. Bergen County, where the hospital is located, has experienced 263 deaths and more than 7,500 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the New Jersey Department of Health. In New Jersey, as of Tuesday, there were more than 44,000 confirmed cases and more than 1,200 deaths and across the Hudson River in New York City, there have been nearly 77,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths as of Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Holy Name reported 11 cases of the disease in mid-March, with six of them in its intensive care unit, hospital spokeswoman Jessica Griffin said. By Tuesday, those numbers have swelled: more than half of the 2,300 tests its staff conducted yielded positive results, 183 people were hospitalized and 57 died.

The hospital suffered its own losses. A sterile supply technician, Severiana Gimenez, died from complications of COVID-19 on March 29. Five days later, so did Jesus Villaluz, who spent 27 years working in patient transport.

Twelve doctors have contracted the virus, Griffin said. The hospitals CEO, Michael Maron, was also sickened by it. Maron, who spent a week at home fighting off a bad case of fatigue, returned to work Saturday  more evidence that the virus doesnt always win.

Im walking, living proof of that, he said.

Story continues

ICU nurse Arlene Van Dyk with her colleagues at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, N. J., (Jeff Rhode / Holy Name Medical Center)

The ICU transformed to meet the surge of COVID-19 patients, said Jeff Rhode, a hospital photographer whos been spending more and more time there to document the work of nurses and doctors. Among the most notable changes are the walls of plastic sheeting, he said. They separate patients, open and close by zipper and provide an extra layer of protection between hospital staff and patients.

It started out as a couple of rooms, Rhode recalled. Then it was five rooms, then it was half the floor, and then Id go up the next morning and the whole floor would be just plastic sheeting.

I cant really describe the mood, he added. People are focused. Theyre working. Theyre tired. But, you know, theyre dedicated.

In another building, Maron said the hospital is converting a ground floor meeting room and auditorium into more ICU space to house an estimated 40 beds. A local builder that specializes in modular design said it could be ready in four days, he said.

In the meantime, the hospital consolidated its COVID-19 patients on ventilators, moving them April 2 from the ICU to a new unit with 36 beds called the shell, Van Dyk said. The idea was to centralize the patients in a new structure  it was built in less than a week  to make it easier for her and other staff to tend to them, she said.

Each patient required eight movers and roughly 30 to 40 minutes per move.

It was exhausting, she said. Everybodys just exhausted.

Still, there was a sliver of encouraging news: nobody died that day, Van Dyk said. And they even weaned a few patients from their ventilators, lowering their sedation so that they were more alert.

Theyre doing more breathing on their own, she said. And well watch them like that for, say, 24 hours. If they look good, then maybe tomorrow well be able to remove" the ventilators.

Were starting to see positives, which we need right now, she added.
The Delhi Police has urged the Muslim community in the national capital to stay indoors and follow lockdown restrictions by not gathering near mosques or in streets for Shab-e-Barat on Wednesday in the wake of coronavirus threat, officials said.

It has roped in local clerics and community leaders to persuade the people in this regard and public announcements are being made including from mosques cautioning people against gathering at any place. Posters have also been put up in this regard.

Shab-e-Barat, also known as the night of forgiveness, will be observed on April 8. Members of the Muslim community visit graveyards and offer prayers in memory of their loved ones.

The Delhi police has made elaborate security arrangements to prevent any sort of gathering, the officials said.

On Tuesday, senior police officials of all districts held meetings with religious leaders urging them to refrain others from gathering near mosques or on roads.

"Meetings were held with Imams to persuade people not to come out of their homes and observe the occasion solemnly," Eish Singhal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi), tweeted.

The roads leading to mosques and cemeteries see large crowds on the day with extra police deployment to ensure law and order. However, this year the festival has fallen when the nationwide lockdown is in place to check the spread of COVID-19.

In Northwest Delhi, the police said that religious leaders were cooperating with the police and making announcements regarding the lockdown from the mosques.

In South Delhi, senior police officers said that meetings were held in each police station to cover all areas.

We have also made announcements through loudspeakers and distributed posters urging everyone to follow the directions imposed due to lockdown and not gather at places," said Atul Kumar Thakur, DCP (South).

Public announcements have been made in all areas including Sangam Vihar, Mehrauli and Ambedkar Nagar, he said.

We have held meetings with the organisers and representatives who hold such gatherings. We have also been urging people through public announcements in the localities to follow directions in order to contain the spread of Coronavirus



"Mosques have also been making such announcements urging people to stay indoors," said Vijayanta Arya, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest).

In its appeal, the police said lockdown is in force even on the sacred night of Shab-e-Barat.

"Don't misuse it by coming out on motorcycles and creating chaos on the streets of Delhi," a poster read.

The police also sought cooperation from RWAs in maintaining the lockdown. "Unlawful behaviour will not be tolerated. Violators will face stern action," it said.

On March 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a country-wide lockdown for 21 days to contain the spread of coronavirus.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Millions of Americans, sheltering in their homes from the coronavirus, have turned to communications platforms like Zoom, Google Hangouts and Facebook Messenger in order to work or stay connected to friends and family. Free and easy to use, the services are gobbling up record numbers of new users.

But theres a saying in Silicon Valley: If the product is free, you are the product.

This is not business as usual, though. Americans arent willingly surrendering their online identities during this pandemic  many are being compelled to do so by their schools, family or work. Just as a swath of manufacturers are switching their production lines to ventilator and mask production for the greater good, corporations that normally view every new registered user as a data point to exploit need to take a pause on profiting from online data harvesting.

For those fortunate enough to have laptops and reliable broadband internet at home, it is not sufficient to simply update privacy policies or customer agreements. Americans need a guarantee that conversations held over video chat wont be data collection events.

The videoconferencing company Zoom has been a standout brand of the pandemic, in part because its daily user numbers ballooned to 200 million in March from 10 million last year, making it one of the few buoyant stocks amid the recent sell-off.
Half of New Jerseys 375 long-term care facilities have at least one resident who has tested positive for the coronavirus, and the state is planning to implement a statewide coordinated response to help those facilities, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said Tuesday.

Officials declined to publicly identify the 188 nursing homes with positive cases, citing privacy rules for the people living in them. Persichilli, however, said the state would identify any that dont show they are following state guidelines to notify patients, staff and their families when positive cases arise.

The state is also working to provide help to the nursing homes that say they need equipment and staff to help treat patients, Persichilli said.

We have to develop a statewide plan to assist the nursing homes that are experiencing outbreaks and shortage of staff and equipment, she said during the states daily coronavirus briefing in Trenton.

Some of the nursing home facilities have express concerned they may have challenges facing the outbreak and need to relocate residents, Persichilli said.

Officials said Tuesday the coronavirus death toll in New Jersey has increased to at least 1,232, while total cases in the state have hit at least 44,416.

Long-term care facilities have accounted for 10% of those deaths.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage

Laurie Facciarossa Brewer, who leads the NJ Office of the Long Term Care Ombudsman told NJ Advance Media she and her staff have heard dozens of reports of facilities that are already facing serious staff shortages.

We had a report from one facility where just one nurse showed up for a whole shift, Brewer said. She was providing care, administering meds and serving meals all by herself for one entire unit. We have heard reports of administrators providing direct care and serving meals. Agency nurses are being used to fill staffing gaps but that is not an infinite resource.

The people who are showing up for work are overloaded, and the ground is shifting under them every day. Add to that, we are fielding anonymous complaints from nursing home staff who are complaining about a lack of personal protection equipment. They are terrified, she said.

Staffing shortages were a pressing concern before the outbreak.

My deep concern is the impact of these inevitable staffing shortages on nursing home residents, Brewer added. The physical and emotional needs of vulnerable elderly people  who require assistance with bathing, dressing, transferring, toileting, and eating - will suffer as a result of this crisis.

The state Department of Health recently issued a directive for nursing homes to notify staff, residents and their families about COVID-19 cases after complaints about a lack of transparency regarding outbreaks boiled over.

The notice is to go out within 24 hours of learning of an infected person.

The demand for transparency came after health officials announced new rules about mask use and isolating positive residents.

There will be universal masking of all staff and anyone entering any long-term care facilities and all symptomatic residents should be masked while staff is providing direct care," Persichilli said last week. Also, facilitates must create separate wings, units or floors to separate people with the virus, Persichilli said.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

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NJ Advance Media staff writer Susan K. Livio contributed to this report.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.

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Hours after the Indian government decided to partially lift the ban on the export of hydroxychloroquine, which is being called as a gamechanger drug in the fight against COVID-19 coronavirus by US President Donald Trump, controversy erupted in the country over government's move to export COVID-19 drugs and pharmaceuticals.

Responding to the controversies, Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said,"We have seen some attempts by sections of the media to create unnecessary controversy over the issue of COVID19 related drugs and pharmaceuticals. Like any responsible government, our first obligation is to ensure that there are adequate stocks of medicines for the requirement of our own people. In order to ensure this, some temporary steps were taken to restrict exports of a number of pharmaceutical products. In the meanwhile, a comprehensive assessment was made of possible requirements under different scenarios. After having confirmed the availability of medicines for all possible contingencies currently envisaged, these restrictions have been largely lifted. The DGFT has notified lifting restrictions on 14 drugs yesterday. With regard to paracetamol and Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), they will be kept in a licensed category and their demand position would be continuously monitored. However, the stock position could allow our companies to meet the export commitments that they had contracted.

The MEA spokesperson added that COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone across the globe and it is time for the international community to display strong solidarity and cooperation in fight against the deadly virus. "Given the enormity of the COVID19 pandemic, India has always maintained that the international community must display strong solidarity and cooperation. This approach also guided our evacuation of nationals of other countries. In view of the humanitarian aspects of the pandemic, it has been decided that India would licence paracetamol and HCQ in appropriate quantities to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on our capabilities. We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic. We would therefore discourage any speculation in this regard or any attempts to politicise the matter," said Srivastava.

It may be recalled that in an order issued on April 4, India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade had announced the total prohibition of the export of hydroxychloroquine and formulations made of hydroxychloroquine "without exception". India has got requests from 30 countries for hydroxychloroquine.

US President Donald Trump on Monday (April 6) warned that Washington may retaliate against India if it does not export hydroxychloroquine, a anti-malaria drug used in the treatment of COVID-19 coronavirus, to the US.
Kabul, Apr 7 (UNI) Taliban on Tuesday announced its decision to withdraw from the talks with the Afghan government scheduled from Wednesday, alleging delay in release of Talibani prisoners, one of their main demand for peace process.

"The Taliban would not participate in the 'fruitless talks' as the government has not kept its promise of releasing Taliban prisoners," Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen tweeted as reported by Tolo news.

Shaheen said that the prisoners' release has been delayed under one pretext or another till now.

Head of the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) Matin Bek on Monday cited Taliban's "stubbourness" for the delay in the release of Taliban prisoners.

He said that the government is ready to release 400 Taliban prisoners in the first phase but the militant Islamist group is insisting on the release of their 15 commanders who are involved in big attacks and the release of these fighters would lead to continuation of violence in Afghanistan.

Release of 5,000 Taliban fighters is part of the deal signed between the Taliban and the US in Doha on February 29. Three Taliban representatives are currently in the capital city of Kabul to negotiate the release of prisoners with the Afghan officials.

UNI XC RKM PS 1448
Photo: The Canadian Press Natalie Rahey and Blair Skrupski are shown in a handout photo. The Halifax couple in their 30s whose wedding in Mexico's Riviera Maya later this month is now on hold after Air Canada Vacations cancelled their flight, say they and their nearly three-dozen guests are now out more than $50,000.

Natalie Rahey and Blair Skrupski were supposed to be standing under a wedding canopy in three weeks, hand in hand on a Caribbean beach surrounded by friends and family.

Instead the Halifax couple was left holding nothing but a travel voucher and a lighter bank statement after Air Canada Vacations cancelled their flight  one of thousands cut amid the near-total shutdown of the airline industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their nuptials in Mexico's Riviera Maya are on hold as they and their nearly three dozen guests grapple with the more than $50,000 that now sits in an Air Canada account.

Rahey said their travel voucher  valid for the next 24 months  requires them to rebook at the same resort for the same price or more within the next two years, even if cheaper options become available.

"If the cost to rebook our wedding is more expensive, we have to pay more. But if its less, we dont get the difference back. Air Canada gets to keep that money. And no refund was offered," Rahey said.

"To feel like were not being taken care of is just incredibly disappointing."

Travellers and travel agents alike are increasingly fed up with refund policies and customer service at Canadian airlines amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with no word yet on what strings might come attached to a potential bailout for the struggling sector.

A petition calling on Ottawa to refuse an aid package to any airline that does not refund customers for cancelled flights now touts roughly 3,000 signatures.

Most Canadian carriers are offering customers flights rebookings or vouchers  but not refunds  amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in effective interest-free loans to airlines from passengers, said Toronto resident Bob Scott, who launched the petition last week.

"Its absolutely disgraceful," he said. "Ive never seen anything  anything  like the fury thats being unleashed at the airlines by consumers on this issue."

Customers aren't the only ones getting sick of the turbulence.

Travel agent Barbara Broomel says Air Canada has been "very hard" to reach, leaving her torn about whether a tour group should make their next $6,000 payment for a European trip that may yet be cancelled.

"Theyre asking me, 'What do we do? Do I make the final payment?' This is all up in the air," said Broomel, who is based near Buffalo, N.Y., and works with Canadian clients.

Faced with an unprecedented drop in travel demand, Air Canada has nonetheless worked with the federal government to overcome border closures and repatriate tens of thousands of Canadians stranded in places ranging from Morocco to Peru.

"I know their hands are full," Broomel said, but noted that carriers such as Lufthansa and Delta Air Lines offer agents regular updates or dedicated help lines. "It doesnt have to be like this. And Im in agony over making the wrong decision for other people."

Air Canada, which has cut flying by about 90 per cent for the next two months, did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Its website states that "cancellations that are caused by COVID-19 are beyond our control," but that the company will provide "a flight credit of equal value for a future ticket purchased within 24 months" of the cancellation date.

While U.S. and European Union officials have ordered airlines to reimburse customers for cancelled flights, a statement on the Canadian Transportation Agency website says airlines are not obliged to refund passengers for flights suspended due to the novel coronavirus or other reasons outside a carrier's control.

Advocates say the statement, which is unsigned, lacks the authority of an official ruling, each of which is signed by one or more of the members who comprise the tribunal.

If a flight is cancelled because of events beyond an airline's control, the carrier must provide alternate arrangements, but not a refund, according to passenger rights rules passed last year. However, most airlines have a tariff  the contract between airline and passenger  that stipulates refunds in such cases.

WestJet's tariff that states that "the unused portion of the passenger's ticket(s) will be refunded...should the alternate transportation proposed by the carrier not meet the passenger's satisfaction," in the event of a cancellation beyond the carrier's control.

Despite that pledge, WestJet's website says that it is "not processing refunds to original form of payment at this time," and highlights future travel credit instead.
A featured appearance by Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary Sally McManus on the Australian Broadcasting Corporations flagship Insiders television show last Sunday was extremely revealing.

McManuss interview indicates how much the ruling elite depends on the trade unions to quash unrest in the working class over the mass unemployment, cuts to wages and conditions, and exposure to dangerously unprotected conditions in workplaces produced by the corporate and government response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The head of the union movement said the unions were telling employers: You can get everything you want through co-operation and by doing it through the way that weve already demonstrated that we can.

This pledge was given in the immediate context of assuring big business that the unions would continue to help slash the working hours, wage penalty rates and leave entitlements of millions of workers as part of the Liberal-National Coalition governments fraudulently named Jobkeeper wage subsidy program.

Under the program, with the agreement of the ACTU, employers will be free to cut the wages of workers to the pitiful level of the $1,500-a-fortnight government subsidy, including by reducing their working hours or forcing them to use up their leave entitlements.

But McManuss message was clearly a wider one: beyond the coronavirus crisis, the unions will seek to impose on workers whatever the capitalist class demands to renew its profit and wealth accumulation under conditions of what will be a protracted global economic breakdown.

This collaboration takes to a more naked level the partnership forged for decades between the unions, employers and government to suppress the opposition of workers to the endless attacks of the financial elite, which have produced a soaring gulf between the super-rich and the working class.

McManus boasted that she had worked to make changes to industrial awards and agreements affecting 2.5 million restaurant, hospitality and clerical workers in about a week. This proved that the required outcomes could happen by cooperation, not by legislation.

Typical of these changesmade without any consultation with these millions of workersis the deal struck by the Australian Services Union (ASU). It allows employers to force 1.3 million clerical workers to work any hours from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. from Mondays to Fridays, and 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturdays without overtime rates.

The ASU agreement with the employers also reduces minimum hours of permanent and casual staff, permits work across classifications, and lets employers direct workers to take leave. Casuals can be allocated shifts as short as two hours.

Rubber stamped by the federal governments Fair Work Commission (headed by ex-ACTU assistant secretary Iain Ross), the deal shreds the conditions of payroll staff, receptionists, help desk workers and other administrative employees, who make up more than 10 percent of Australias workforce.

Prime Minister Scott Morrisons government is insisting that such drastic cuts to workers conditions must be extended to all industries and be cemented in the Fair Work Act. Its proposed legislation will override 121 awards, about 11,000 enterprise agreements and 4 million individual employment contracts.

Last night, McManus struck a deal with Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter for the unions to back the legislation, supposedly on the basis that unions, via the Fair Work Commission, could lodge appeals in some individual instances.

As that deal confirms, McManus and the union bureaucrats have no difference whatsoever with satisfying the dictates of the employers. However, they want to preserve their function as the industrial police of the working class, intensifying the role they have played for many decades.

In this, they stand with the Labor Party, which has pledged to help the Coalition government push the Jobkeeper legislation through a one-day sitting of a rump parliament tomorrow.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese wrote in an op-ed column in yesterdays Australian that his party was yet to be convinced that changes to the Fair Work Act are necessary, but I am sure with goodwill these issues can be worked through.

Albanese repeated his insistence that throughout this crisis, the Labor Party has taken a constructive approach of assisting the government. We must carry our nation through this crisis swiftly, minimising the health impact so we can get businesses running and Australians back to work.

In other words, no less than Morrisons government, Labor is intent on pushing workers back to work soon, even though officially-confirmed COVID-19 infections and deaths are still rising, and the lack of testing, even for people with coronavirus symptoms, means that the danger of infection is even higher.

With the unions, the Labor Party has joined what is effectively a national unity government with the Coalition, resembling those formed in both world wars. Albanese and his key shadow ministers are meeting with their government counterparts each week, behind closed doors, and the state and territory Labor leaders hold a majority on the national cabinet that is running the country by decree.

The cuts to pay and conditions embraced by Labor and the ACTU will not be temporary. They will set precedents and benchmarks for indefinite use as capitalism lurches deeper into slump globally and in Australia.

The state Labor government in Queensland last week set the pace by revoking the small annual wage rises of 2.5 to 3 percent it had previously agreed to grant public sector workers.

The wage subsidy plan is a desperate bid to avert a social explosion. After rejecting calls for such a scheme for weeks, the government feared the popular outrage triggered when Great Depression-style jobless queues formed outside its welfare benefit offices two weeks ago.

According to the journalists on last Sundays Insiders panel, government ministers nervously joked that they had become socialists and communists to deal with the economic and political crisis. There was even greater concern about the discontent that would erupt once the government began to snap back its handouts and unveil measures to pay off the resulting government debt of hundreds of billions of dollars.

The major employer groups demanded the wage subsidy, which was then designed and facilitated by McManus and former ACTU secretary and Labor cabinet minister Greg Combet, who sits on the governments COVID-19 taskforce.

For the short term, the scheme may prevent a sudden rise in the official unemployment rate to the levels of near 20 percent predicted by corporate analysts. Westpac bank chief economist Bill Evans now forecasts a doubling of the official rate to almost 10 percent.

In reality, the $130 billion scheme guarantees absolutely nothing in terms of jobs. Instead, it is a giant handout to enable companies to extract superprofits from the labour power of their employees.

Employers will not start receiving the wage subsidies until next month. Whether they decide to exploit the scheme or not will depend entirely on their profit calculations. The plan also excludes about 1.1 million casual workers and more than a million workers on temporary visas.

Most of the funds will go to the largest corporations, such as the construction, mining, logistics and manufacturing firms that are keeping their workforces on the job, often in unsafe workplaces that are exempted from social distancing rules.

The role of McManus and Albanese is not an individual issue. Labor and the unions have always enforced the profit demands of the Australian ruling elite, and that function was taken to a new level by the union-employer-government Accords imposed by the ACTU and the Hawke-Keating Labor governments in the 1980s and 1990s.

This historic record, now reaching new heights, shows the necessity for the working class to take control of the worsening catastrophe. Workers must demand urgent measures, such as full income support for all the working people who have lost their jobs, and safe conditions for all essential workers.

These requirements mean ending the control of economic life by the capitalist class. The shocking mass deaths being witnessed across Europe and the US, and which are threatened globally, including in Australia, show the need for real socialism, that is, workers governments that will place the banks and basic industries under public ownership and democratic working class control to reorganise production for human need, not private profit.

The author also recommends:

Pandemic accelerates union-government-employer collaboration in Australia

[4 April 2020]

Australian government resorts to pandemic capitalism as depression looms

[31 March 2020]
Around 7:40 p.m. Monday, officers responded to the 6200 block of East Hil Mar Circle in District Heights for the report of a shooting, Prince Georges County police said in a statement.
How Much of These Hills Is Gold

By C Pam Zhang

Riverhead. 288 pp. $26

---

"I hate the cowboy with all my guts," writer Lauren Groff said in a 2017 New Yorker interview, laying waste to the "smallpox of all narratives" responsible for "generations of emotionally constipated men" who worship violence, guns, greed and other destructive ills. "We need to constantly push against the narratives we are told to swallow," the "Fates and Furies" author said. "The cowboy can go straight to hell."

It's no surprise, then, to find Groff praising C Pam Zhang's "How Much of These Hills Is Gold" in a blurb on the novel's back cover. In this outstanding debut, Zhang does more than just push against the cowboy narrative: She shoves it clear out of the way.

At once subversive and searching, "How Much of These Hills Is Gold" is set in the American West during a gold rush - if not necessarily the Gold Rush - and focuses on a family whose roots lie in an unnamed country "from beyond the ocean." The ambiguity is intentional, as Zhang places her story between the years "XX42" and "XX67" and frequently has her characters pondering the meaning of home, time and storytelling itself. Death, too, isn't always so certain or final.

Misdirection abounds here, but the novel's grave tone seldom wavers. Eleven and 12 years old, respectively, when the novel opens, sisters Sam and Lucy are 3 1/2 years past the loss of their mother when their father, Ba, dies one night. Now orphaned, they're also soon homeless after Sam, seeking two silver dollars to cover their father's eyes, fires a gun inside a bank, forcing the girls to flee their settlement on a stolen horse. Sam, without telling her sister, stuffs Ba's corpse into their mother's old trunk, and off they go into the hills, where more than just this gruesome surprise awaits Lucy.

Zhang's writing in these passages can be clinical. This is not a writer who flinches from the grotesque. When the girls open the trunk, their father's body is unrecognizable. "He lacks even a man's shape," Zhang writes. The hole the sisters dig for him "takes on a shape like the one inside Lucy, a hollow filled with the smell of loam and morning breath."

The sisters are just as precisely drawn. Lucy, whose nose was made permanently crooked by her father, is eager to escape her old life. She's a foot taller than her sister, and far more concentrated on their future. "If someone asks where we're from - we can say anything," she tells Sam. "I've been thinking. We don't need any history at all." Sam, her father's favorite, "has words only for the long-dead past." While Lucy is troubled by the question of home in a country that doesn't seem to want them even though it's theirs, Sam is "at home wherever Sam goes, shining through hardship."

If anything puts the cowboy narrative out to pasture in this novel, it's Sam. Restless and violent, she is determined to show only so much of herself to the world. She travels the country like a ghost on horseback, but at the same time, she's deeply afraid of being alone. For a time, Lucy sees through her sister's dissembling, particularly in her attempts to be identified as male, a transformation that began at their father's direction after their brother died at birth. Sam cuts her hair down to her scalp, sheds pounds to sharpen her elbows and cheeks, and carries at first a carrot and later a long stone between her legs. Lucy accuses her sister of selfishness, of claiming anger as her birthright. Eventually, though, she "can't see where Sam's stories end, where Sam's lies begin. If there is, to Sam, any difference."

Because the reader's vision of Sam is predominantly Lucy's, the novel shows how the stories we tell ourselves and others are often incomplete - and that goes double for the stories we tell about other people. "Isn't that the greatest joke?" Sam asks Lucy late in the book as she denounces the "gold men" who claim this land as theirs alone.

Another voice arises midway through "How Much of These Hills Is Gold." While the sisters are sleeping outdoors, Ba's spirit appears on the wind to speak into Lucy's ear. He tells her about the early days of the gold rush, his first encounters with their mother and his reasons for treating his oldest daughter so poorly. He reveals secrets about his past and the fate of his wife. He repeatedly tells Lucy that what he is saying is the truth, but he also slips in a warning, both for her and for readers of this shrewd and provocative book: "Didn't I tell you, Lucy girl? That you should always ask why a person is telling you their story?"

---

Cline is a writer and editor in Miami.
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A Labour mayor is facing a furious backlash for saying that Boris Johnson 'completely deserves' his intensive care battle with coronavirus.

She is just one among many Left-wing trolls who have targeted the Prime Minister with abuse on social media.

Mr Johnson was transferred to an ICU at St Thomas Hospital in Westminster last night as his symptoms worsened. He had been admitted to hospital on Sunday.

But as he fights the deadly Covid-19 virus, people took to social media to attack him, with Councillor Sheila Oakes, who is currently mayor of Heanor in Derbyshire, saying: 'Sorry he completely deserves this and he is one of the worst PM's we've ever had.

Mayor Sheila Oakes (pictured) said Boris Johnson 'completely deserves' his battle against coronavirus in intensive care

Boris Johnson (pictured as his health worsened on April 3) has spent the night in intensive care but there has been 'no change' in his coronavirus condition

Others quoted the rapper Stormzy's 'f*** Boris' lyric and some even welcomed the idea of him dying.

Twitter user @bibagirl wrote: 'Poor Boris? No. Poor NHS. F*** that scruffy man.'

Another, using the handle @Corby2209, said: 'Stormzy said f*** Boris and Corona did the rest.' Miguel Suarez tweeted: 'Boris Johnson in the ICU f*** yeah.'

The 55-year-old was transferred to intensive care at 7pm because of breathing difficulties - forcing him to 'deputise' Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to take the reins of government.

Piers Morgan has slammed Twitter users celebrating the fact that Boris Johnson is in intensive care as he battles coronavirus.

On today's Good Morning Britain, host Piers Morgan told them to 'just shut up' in a furious tirade.

He said: 'To those people on social media who can't find it in themselves to be positive for the Prime Minister right now, who want to abuse him  if you're of that mindset, just shut up.

Piers Morgan, pictured on today's Good Morning Britain, slammed those who are celebrating the Prime Minister's condition

'Nobody wants to hear this. Nobody wants to hear trolling against Boris Johnson. Just stop it. Honestly, it's beyond imagination that that should be your thought process. The man's fighting for his life.'

It came after he waded into the row on Twitter last night, saying: 'If you have nothing positive to say about Boris Johnson on here tonight, then shut the f*** up. The man is our Prime Minister & he is fighting for his life.'

In a round of broadcast interviews this morning, Cabinet Office Michael Gove said Mr Johnson was getting the 'best care'.

'As we speak the PM is in intensive care being looked after by his medical team receiving the very, very best care from the team in St Thomas's and our hopes and prayers are with him and with his family,' he told BBC Breakfast.

He said Mr Johnson's plight should demonstrate the need to follow social distancing rules, as the virus 'has a malevolence that is truly frightening'.

Newly appointed Labour Party leader Keir Starmer wished the PM well last night, tweeting: 'Terribly sad news. All the country's thoughts are with the Prime Minister and his family during this incredibly difficult time.'

And Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said last night that he was praying for Mr Johnson's swift recovery.

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage tweeted: 'I hope and pray for @BorisJohnson to come through this ordeal quickly.'

Worried Britons have shown their support for the PM on Twitter using the hashtag #PrayForBoris, with some suggesting that people turn out to clap for the Tory leader at 8pm in a show of support similar the those for NHS workers in recent days.

Twitter user Dillon Hughes-Moretti wrote: 'Hang in there Boris. Your friends, family, colleagues and your country desperately needs you.'

Tom Edwards said: 'Mr Johnson, now - more than ever in your lifetime - your country needs you. Come on, old boy. You've got this.'
Citywide

Photo: Satori Yoga Studio

The Bay Area's shelter-in-place order has brought countless events usually held as in-person gatherings online. We're aiming to support local businesses in San Francisco and Oakland by highlighting five of these events each day.

Got a suggestion for an online event based in SF or Oakland? Email our events reporter, Teresa Hammerl.

Here's your SF events calendar for Wednesday, April 8. Take part in a gentle yoga class, learn to mix whiskey cocktails or celebrate a Zoom Passover  all from the comfort of your couch.

Yin and Gentle Flow Yoga

Photo: Nic Z./Yelp

Financial District-based Satori Yoga Studio is hosting a slow, meditative practice aimed at removing blockages deep in the connective tissues. Students will aim to hold gentle postes for several minutes to stretch, moisten and rehabilitate the connective tissues, while also stimulating the meridian channels in the body.

When: Wednesday, April 8, 5 p.m.

How to join: Via Satori Yoga Studio's website

Price: $14

Tenebrae: Online Live Stream

Photo: Grace Cathedral/Facebook

Based on monastic prayer services that date back to the fifth century, Grace Cathedral's hour-long Tenebrae (Latin for "shadows") emphasizes full-choir singing to meditate and reflect on themes of yearning, peace, and hope. Drawing on the Lamentations of Jeremiah and corresponding Psalms, the service is honored with lit candles which are extinguished, one by one, until darkness.

When: Wednesday, April 8, 6 p.m.

How to join: Via Facebook

Price: Free

7 Mile House Cocktail Demos

Photo: 7 Mile/Facebook

While their bar is closed for the shelter-in-place, the bartenders at Brisbane's 7 Mile House are hosting cocktail demos on Facebook to help at-home mixologists beef up their skills. In this session, Karrine Yee will help home bartenders learn to make simple cocktails with whiskey. Upcoming sessions will spotlight wine-based cocktails and bloody marys.

When: Wednesday, April 8, 6 p.m.

How to join: Via Facebook

Price: Free admission; tip via Venmo

Seder in Place: A Zoom Passover

Story continues

Photo: Jewish Community Center of San Francisco/Facebook

Celebrate Passover with the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco at this virtual event. Expect traditional songs, storytelling and an opportunity to ask questions, along with a few new rituals for the long-distance celebration. Rabbi Batshir Torchio will lead the seder, alongside song leader Jonathan Bayer.

When: Wednesday, April 8, 6 p.m.

How to join: Via Zoom. Space is limited. Advance reservation requested.

Price: Free

'The Pelton Papers' Launch Party

Image: The Bindery/Facebook

The Haight's literary event space, The Bindery, is hosting a virtual launch party for Mari Coates' new novel "The Pelton Papers," based on the life of early modernist artist Agnes Pelton. Born into a family ruined by scandal, Pelton found success in the famous Armory Show of 1913 before retreating to a contemplative life in a Long Island windmill and the California desert.

For Wednesday's event, Coates  a first-time novelist who was also an SF Weekly arts critic  will be in discussion with Peg Alford Pursell ("A Girl Goes into the Forest").

When: Wednesday, April 8, 5 p.m.

How to join: Via Facebook

Price: Free

Midday break

Need a virtual pick-me-up between now and Wednesday evening? Take a virtual tour of the Conservatory of Flowers, or try your hand at drawing a marmot with a National Park Ranger.
TDT | Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa received a telephone call yesterday from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. HM the King reviewed with him historical bilateral relations of friendship and cooperation and ways of bolstering them.

HM the King lauded the distinguished ties binding both countries, describing them as strategic, deep-rooted and based on common interests as well as mutual respect and understanding.

He praised the pivotal role of India at the regional and international level and their constructive contribution to maintaining international peace, security and stability. HM the King and the Indian Premier discussed ways of boosting cooperation in combatting the coronavirus (COVID-19).

HM the King stressed the keenness of the Kingdom of Bahrain to provide every support and care for all citizens and expatriates to protect their safety and health.

The Indian Prime Minister expressed his sincerest thanks and respect to HM the King for his major role and unflinching support to bolstering bilateral cooperation.

He also commended the Kingdoms diligent efforts, spearheaded by HM the King, to combat COVID-19, contain its impact and provide every support and care for the Indian community in Bahrain. He also praised co-existence as well as religious and cultural diversity which have characterised the Bahraini society
Honor Blackman, the star of 1964 James Bond movie Goldfinger, has passed away. She was 94.

The veteran actor's family said that Blachman died to due to natural causes at her residence in Lewes, Sussex in the UK.

It's with great sadness that we have to announce the death of Honor Blackman aged 94. She died peacefully of natural causes at her home in Lewes, Sussex, surrounded by her family, the family said in a statement to The Guardian.

She was much loved and will be greatly missed by her two children Barnaby and Lottie, and grandchildren Daisy, Oscar, Olive and Toby, they added.

Blackman was born on August 22, 1925, in London, the third of four children of Frederick Blackman, a civil-service statistician, and Edith Eliza Stokes.

She started her film journey with a non-speaking role in 1947 movie Fame Is the Spur. She followed it up with appearances in films such as Quartet, Daughter of Darkness, Conspirator and others.

Her big moment came in the 1960s when she starred in popular British TV series The Avengers. Blackman essayed the role of fan-favourite Cathy Gale.

The show led to her being cast in Sean Connery's third 007 spy movie Goldfinger. She played Pussy Galore, a pilot with the skills of Judo.

Blackman also worked extensively in theatre. She starred in productions like The Sound Of Music, My Fair Lady and Cabaret.

Among her other screen roles, Blackman played the goddess Hera in 1963 film "Jason and the Argonauts" and appeared in "Bridget Jones's Diary".

On television, she made guest appearances in shows such as "Doctor Who", "Colombo" and "Coronation Street".

British filmmaker Edgar Wright mourned Blackman's demise on Twitter, posting, RIP, ultimate Bond Girl and original Avenger, Honor Blackman.

James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson also paid tributes to the veteran actor.

Today we mark the passing of a film icon, Honor Blackman who shall forever be remembered as Pussy Galore in 'Goldfinger'.

"She was an extraordinary talent and a beloved member of the Bond family. Our thoughts are with her family at this time, they said in a statement posted on the official Twitter handle of the film franchise.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MILFORD  The cause of a 91-year-old mans death  changed on Tuesday to being associated with the coronavirus  is at the center of a state investigation into a nursing home facility where nearly half of its residents have tested positive for COVID-19.

The Chief States Medical Examiner on Tuesday changed the death certificate of Jean Louis Auclair, a resident of Golden Hill Rehab Pavilion who died March 30. His death was originally attributed to respiratory failure.

According to the medical examiners office, Auclairs death certificate now reads acute respiratory infection, probable novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection with an underlying condition of atherosclerosis chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Auclair is one of at least two coronavirus-related deaths at Golden Hill and the state Department of Public Health is investigating if there are more. The DPH is investigating whether several recent pneumonia deaths at the Bridgeport Avenue facility were also related to the coronavirus.

The DPH is also investigating staffing levels, when families were notified about the illnesses, and health and safety practices at the 120-bed facility.

There are a bunch of things under investigation there, said Av Harris, a spokesman for the DPH.

At least 44 Golden Hill residents have tested positive for COVID-19 as of April 3. Harris said Tuesday he could not provide an update on the number of cases, citing the departments investigation.

In an emailed response to questions sent by Hearst Connecticut Media, Andrew Wildman, executive director at Golden Hill, called complaints about staffing levels and the health of his employees false rumors. He also said the DPH has determined the facility has enough workers.

He did not say how many staff or residents at Golden Hill have tested positive for COVID-19, saying only that numbers are reported to the health department as they change daily.

We have adequate staff to meet all state requirements and meet the needs of our residents, Wildman said. In addition, we have increased all staff wages in appreciation for the hard work they are doing to care for our residents.

Meghan Wright said a family member who works at Golden Hill helped treat 49 patients alone one night at the facility. The family member declined to be interviewed due to concerns of losing their job.

If they have multiple people who are coding at once and they only have one person on staff, its a death sentence, Wright said in a phone interview with Hearst Connecticut Media.

On Sunday, Wright said she received a call from Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, who told her the DPH had looked into staffing at Golden Hill and concluded it was adequate. Since then, she said her family member has been contacted by the public health agency again regarding staffing at the facility.

Wright said her relative has not contracted the disease, and continues to work due to a moral obligation to the patients.

Milford Mayor Ben Blakes office referred questions about Golden Hill to the state public health department, and said the citywide figures would have to come from the local health department.

Milford Health Director Deepa Joseph could not immediately be reached Tuesday. There are 113 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Milford as of Tuesday evening, according to the governors daily report on testing in the state.

The family of Johnny Johnson, a patient at Golden Hill, said they learned he contracted the illness after he died when they were notified by the funeral home.

Keisha Johnson, his niece, said the 65-year-old had been recovering from an infection after a colonoscopy. She said the family was told April 1 there had been a change in Johnsons condition, but the following day were notified of his death.

He was a nice, good, humble, loving man, Keisha Johnson said.

She said she was notified Tuesday by state officials about the investigation into Golden Hill.

The outbreak at Golden Hill comes as Gov. Ned Lamont is seeking to place nursing home residents who test positive for COVID-19 in separate facilities, including opening nursing homes that have been shuttered to help those who are sick.

Across Connecticut, 38 percent of the states 215 nursing homes have reported at least one patient with a confirmed case of COVID-19, the governors office said Tuesday. The governors office said 123 more nursing home residents have tested positive since Monday, for a total of 600 confirmed cases.

Among those, 171 have been hospitalized and 81 have died, the governor said.
UPDATE: Five more residents had tested positive by Wednesday but there werent any more deaths, the company said.

INITIAL POST: Three residents of a Lehigh County senior care facility have died among 49 staff and residents who have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, the parent company announced.

Genesis HealthCare Lehigh Center, at 1718 Spring Creek Road in Lower Macungie Township, a short-stay rehabilitation facility, is experiencing the worst facility outbreak so far in Lehigh and Northampton counties of the disease that has killed thousands of elderly worldwide. This despite the Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, based companys medical and clinical teams (having) implemented enhanced infection precautions at our centers, according to its website.

There were 27 residents and 22 staff who tested positive, Genesis HealthCare confirmed.

One of the three -- an 87-year-old man -- died of COVID-19 at the facility, Lehigh County Coroner Eric Minnich said. The coroners office was advised of the death but didnt investigate to determine a cause and manner. That is often true of non-suspicious deaths from illness. It wasnt immediately clear where the other people died, but the coroners office wasnt notified, Minnich said.

As of Monday, there were 518 cases tied to long-term care facilities in the state, according to a government briefing. Overall, there were 12,980 cases recorded in 65 of the states 67 counties. Of the 162 deaths, 12 were Northampton County residents and eight were Lehigh County residents, state figures showed as of Monday.

Genesis HealthCare Inc.s chief medical officer said the company with facilities in several states is doing what it can to protect those for whom it cares as well as its staff.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of these residents during this difficult time, especially those of the three residents who passed away, Dr. Richard Feifer said in a statement released by the company.

I can assure you that we are working round the clock to keep our patients and residents healthy and as safe as possible. We are doing everything in our power  and everything medical experts know as of at this time  to protect our patients, residents and employees.

The center has diligently followed  protocols and guidelines for the coronavirus put forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the company said on its local website.

The situation is not unique to the company, Feifer said.

As you know, this is a very serious and rapidly evolving situation  and one that is being played out in communities, hospitals and nursing homes across the country and the world," he said. "I have never witnessed anything like this pandemic.

But because people can transmit the disease without experiencing symptoms, even at a facility that is stringent on visitation restrictions and a whole host of other precautions and has even gotten out in front of public health guidelines, adopting even more stringent infection precautions than were recommended at the time, can still experience a devastating outbreak, Feifer said.

In this instance, 57% of residents who initially tested positive were asymptomatic, he said. It is a complex virus that is hard to detect and takes weeks to present itself. By the time you have a positive test result, many have already been exposed.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Samsung first-quarter beats estimates; chips likely to prop up virus-hit second quarter FILE PHOTO: People wears masks in front a Samsung Store at a main shopping area, in downtown Shanghai

By Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS> said on Tuesday its first-quarter operating profit likely managed to rise slightly from a slump a year earlier, as solid chip sales helped cushion the blow from the coronavirus pandemic on smartphones and TVs.

The global leader in semiconductors is benefiting from higher demand for chips from laptop makers and data centres amid the coronavirus-driven shift to working from home, even as its mobile and consumer electronics businesses suffer.

Samsung said operating profit was expected to be 6.4 trillion won ($5.2 billion) in the quarter ended March, compared with 6.2 trillion won a year ago and the 6.2 trillion won estimate from analysts according to Refinitiv SmartEstimate.

Revenue likely rose 5% to 55 trillion won from a year ago, in line with the 55.6 trillion won estimate.

Samsung Electronics shares were 2.3% higher while the broader market <.KS11> was up 1.9%.

The maker of smartphones, TVs, appliances, memory chips and displays is the first global tech company to report its January-to-March quarter earnings estimates.

Samsung Electronics said last month the coronavirus would hurt sales of smartphones - which accounted for about 47% of its revenue last year - and consumer electronics in 2020, while demand from data centres would fuel a recovery in memory chip markets.

"Even though Samsungs mobile business was hit by the coronavirus outbreak this quarter, it will likely face bigger challenges in the second quarter - now that the United States and Europe have become the hardest-hit countries," Kim Sun-woo, an analyst at Meritz Securities, said.

When the coronavirus outbreak started in China last year, Samsungs strategy of spreading its production base to countries including Vietnam and India seemed to pay off as supply disruptions in China hit rivals such as Apple.

But as the virus spread across the globe, Samsung too has had to close factories and retail stores in Europe, India and the United States.

Story continues

NH Investment & Securities said on Tuesday it expected sales of Samsung's premium Galaxy 20 smartphone to reach 20 million units this year, far short of the 32 million it had forecast earlier.

LG Electronics <066570.KS>, Samsung's crosstown rival in TVs, phones and appliances, meanwhile said its first-quarter operating profit likely rose 21% to 1 trillion won. Analysts expect the coronavirus to affect LG this quarter.

CHIP BUFFER

Samsung Electronics did not provide a breakdown of earnings for each division in its guidance released on Tuesday.

Analysts say the company's memory chip business, which generated more than 50% of its operating profit in 2019, would likely report better-than-expected results in the first half of this year.

Memory chip prices are rising as work-from-home requirements boost demand from the data centres that support internet services such as streaming and cloud computing, analysts have said.

Prices for DRAM memory chips are up more than 3.5% since January, according to industry tracker DRAMeXchange.

"If the coronavirus outbreak doesnt die down in the third quarter, demand for memory chips might face a bump," said Song Myeong-sup, an analyst at HI Investment & Securities.

Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser

(Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Stephen Coates)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held extensive discussions with Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said over coronavirus pandemic during which the Indian leader thanked the latter for his "personal attention" to the well-being of the Indian community in Oman.

"Spoke to His Majesty Sultan of Oman about COVID-19 and how to limit its impact. Also expressed thanks for HM's personal attention to the well-being of the Indian community in Oman," PM Modi tweeted.

With an increase of 354 COVID-19 cases, India's tally of total positive cases rose to 4,421 on Tuesday, as stated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Out of the 4,421 cases, 3,981 are active cases, while 325 cases have been cured or discharged. The total death toll at present stands at 114.

Meanwhile, Oman has reported 371 cases and two deaths from coronavirus so far.

Prime Minister Modi in the last few days has spoken to many leaders including US President Donald Trump, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez Perez-Castejon, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Saturday and discussed global cooperation to fight the coronavirus.

On March 24, the extraordinary virtual G20 Leaders' Summit was held to discuss the challenges posed by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and to forge a globally coordinated response.

During which, Prime Minister Modi called upon the leaders to help usher in new globalization for the collective well-being of humankind and have multilateral fora focus on promoting the shared interests of humanity.

On March 15, Prime Minister led the video conference with participants from the SAARC nations. PM Modi had proposed the creation of an emergency fund for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations to combat the coronavirus pandemic and pitched India's initial offer of USD 10 million for this fund.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The number of people in Ireland dependent on social welfare income support amidst the coronavirus outbreak has soared to more than 700,000 based on numbers released on Monday by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

On April 3, 507,000 people were paid the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Support payment, which is a weekly stipend of 350 euros for those who have lost jobs or had hours cut due to coronavirus disruption.

That was in addition to 207,000 people on the Live Register, which measures demand for regular jobless benefit.

"The scale of demand for the COVID-19 payment demonstrates the once-in-a-century nature of the emergency facing the country as we face this unique emergency," said Regina Doherty, Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

"This is a temporary health emergency and the government is determined that it won't be a permanent economic one."

It took three years for Ireland's jobless claims to reach a peak of around 450,000 during the financial crisis a decade ago that pushed the country to the brink of bankruptcy. The coronavirus crisis needed just three weeks to top that.

Ireland has reported 5,364 cases of coronavirus infection and 174 deaths from the respiratory disease, but the rate of increase in infections is slowing. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
The group that's been organizing Tartine workers to join a union launched an online petition on Monday, asking San Franciscos famed bakery to rehire employees who were laid off because of the coronavirus.

In an open letter to Tartine Bakery founders Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson as well as Chief Operating Officer Chris Jordan, laid off workers asked to sit down with Tartine management negotiate how to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on Tartine employees.

As with many other Bay Area restaurants, Tartine has laid off much of its workforce as its been forced to shrink operations and shutter its dining rooms during shelter in place. Workers say theyre uncertain jobs will still be there for them whenever Tartine is able to fully reopen.

In the communications we have received from management, we have received no indication that we will have jobs once Tartine locations reopen. Workers thus far have been informed that we may reapply for jobs through the Tartine website when they are posted. This adds a huge amount of stress onto an already stressful situation, the letter states.

The organizers also want Tartine to further extend their health insurance benefits  currently theyre covered through April, according to the letter. In less than a day, more than 750 people signed the petition. Tartine management did not respond to a request for comment.

Its been a challenging turnaround for Tartine workers, who three days before the Bay Areas shelter-in-place order were celebrating over their vote to join the International Longshore and Warehouse Union  although there were some complications. Due to a series of challenged votes from both sides, the election will need to be determined in court and the process could take several months. The Berkeley location, however, held a separate election from San Franciscos Tartine Bakery, Tartine Manufactory and Tartine Inner Sunset and successfully voted to join the union.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Union supporters launched a GoFundMe, with the hopes of raising $200,000 for laid off workers. So far, the effort has raised about $13,000. Prueitt, meanwhile, launched a similar fundraiser more than a week later. Some workers expressed frustration on social media that Tartine ownership didnt instead publicize the GoFundMe workers already created, and Prueitt quickly changed it to a fund to buy boxes of food from local farmers, which would then go to laid off employees. So far, shes raised about $4,000.

Update: The story has been changed to reflect the fact that the organizers of the petition are not in a union.

Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker
Morocco took a package of special measures to cushion the economic and social impact of the pandemic.

Morocco has decreed a state of health emergency, locked its borders and instituted general confinement since March 20, and had mobilized to support the populations most affected by the slowdown in economic activity.

In this connection, Morocco set up, at the initiative of the King, a special fund for the management of the COVID-19 pandemic that has so far raised over $3.2 billion.

The fund, destined among others to upgrade health equipment and infrastructure, has disbursed $200 million to buy ventilators, intensive care beds and laboratory equipment.

According to the Finance Ministry, the amount was destined to buy 1000 intensive care beds, 550 ventilators, 100,000 testing kits, 100,000 collection kits, imaging and scanning devices, pharmaceutical products and other equipment key to treating coronavirus cases.

The fund will also assist the MSMEs impacted by the lockdown through the suspension of the payment of social charges, the deferral of bank loans etc, and more importantly the employees affiliated to the National Pension Fund, CNSS, notably through the disbursement of specific allowances.

The informal sector employees, who represent a large part of the population and who have lost their income due to confinement, will also be allowed compensations over the three coming months ranging from $80 to $120 according to the family size.

Morocco is also stepping up efforts to increase the number of hospital beds and intensive care unit beds to increase the countrys capacity to accommodate coronavirus patients. The government announced recently that it intends to increase the number of intensive care beds to 3000.

Meanwhile, several industrial units have adapted their production activities to meet needs of local and national markets in medical gears in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the civil society is very active providing assistance to the needy and the elderly.

Several international media have hailed the precautionary measures taken by Morocco, the latest being the Forbes France Magazine which underlined this Monday April 6 that taken together, these measures constitute a veritable Marshall Plan deployed by the King of Morocco, who from the start of the crisis applied the principle of maximum precaution in order to preserve the Kingdom from the pandemic.
Massive number of people flocked China's popular tourist sites and major cities over the country's holiday weekend, even after the dire warnings from health authorities that the risk posed by the coronavirus pandemic is still not over.

China comes out of lockdown

Thousands of people were crammed together in Anhui province on April 4, all eager to experience walking outside after months of being in quarantine. Even though they were wearing face masks, they still breached the social distancing order from the authorities.

As soon as the lockdown was lifted, people rushed to get into the popular tourist spots. The Huangshan mountain park immediately reached its capacity of 20,000 people per day, and according to Global Times, the park will no longer accept visitors.

Meanwhile, in Shanghai, the Bund waterfront was packed with tourists and shoppers, after weeks of being near-deserted. A lot of the restaurants in the city were shuttered only days ago, but now there are several establishments requiring reservations to enter.

In Beijing, locals flocked the city's parks and open spaces. The sudden return to apparent normality comes more than three months after the coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan. The outbreak, which has since spread around the world, has infected more than a million people and it was also responsible for China being on standstill in their effort to contain transmissions.

At the peak of the virus, thousands of new cases were recorded in China every day. But in recent weeks, the rate of infection has slowed significantly. On April 6, China reported 39 new cases, and today the country has recorded 82,641 cases and 3,335 deaths. While the government is slowly relaxing restrictions, Chinese health experts have urged the public to continue to practice caution.

The chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Zeng Guang, told the Health Times that China had not seen the end of the epidemic yet. He said "China is not near the end, but has entered a new stage. With the global epidemic raging, China has not reached the end."

Also Read: China-US Trade War: Trump Has Two Choices for America

Too soon?

With the number of new infections in China slowly decreasing, the government has begun its efforts to restart the country's manufacturing and service industries. The collapse of inactivity has affected almost every sector of China's economy, leading to concerns of long term damage.

But in recent weeks, there have been signs that the government has been wary of opening up too fast and sparking a second wave of infections in the country. There are plans to re-open movie cinemas but they were canceled in late March, according to the state media. Also, numerous tourist attractions in Shanghai were open for just 10 days before they were shut again on March 31.

The official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party, the People's Daily, issued a report about the crowds at Huangshan. This led to the party executing a stern reprimand on social media and warning tourists to not gather just yet. In the newspaper's website, an opinion writer stated that while it was understandable that people would want to get out after being on lockdown for months, now was not the time to stop being vigilant.

The article stated that if there are asymptomatic carriers present during the gatherings, the consequences would be severe. According to the paper, Huangshan has announced it will stop receiving tourists.

Related Article: How Taiwan Kept Coronavirus Under Control

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Momeni Foundation is now accepting applications for the year 2020 Academic Scholarships

03/29/20

Source: Momeni Foundation

This year over $20,000.00 dollars will be awarded to students of Iranian descent.





Momeni Foundation is dedicated to providing scholarships to graduating high school students and full time college students of Iranian descent anywhere in the world.

"Digaraan kaashtand o maa khordeem ---- Maa bekaareem o digaraan bokhorand"

Scholastic Achievement Scholarship - At least three (3 ea.) scholarships for an amount of $1,000.00 dollars each will be awarded to students that are graduating from high school and plan to attend college in Fall of 2020. Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents of United States.



Financial Assistance Scholarship - At least seventeen (17 ea.) scholarships for an amount of $1,000.00 US dollars will be awarded.



The Financial Assistance Scholarship is available to all college students of Iranian descent regardless of citizenship or country of residency . Students must attend college as a full time student in Fall of 2020.



Deadline for receiving the application material is June 30th, 2020.

Dedicated Financial Assistance Scholarship for Florida Students:

One scholarship for an amount of $1,000.00 dollars will be awarded to a student applying from the State of Florida and preferably from Tampa Bay Area.

Application deadline for this SPECIAL FLORIDA scholarship is May 15, 2019.

Please visit our web site at: www.momenifoundation.org for the application.

Please mail your complete application package to:

Momeni Foundation

P.O. Box 322

Clearwater, FL 33757

Contact Information

Web site: www.momenifoundation.org

Email: momenifoundation@aol.com

Phone: 727-433-2133
NEW DELHI: While clarifying that no decision has been taken yet on extending the ongoing lockdown in the country, the Centre on Tuesday (April 7, 2020) said that over 1 lakh tests have been conducted so far for the novel coronavirus and the number of infections due to the deadly virus stands at 4,421.

''With 354 new cases of COVID-19 and eight deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the total count of coronavirus positive cases in the country has gone up to 4,421,'' the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry said.

"A total of 4,421 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in India till now as 354 new cases were reported since yesterday. A total of 117 deaths have been reported so far including 8 deaths reported since Monday," Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said during the daily media briefing in the national capital.

Aggarwal further said that till now 326 persons have been discharged after recovering from the infection, adding that the government is adopting a strategy for cluster containment.

Agarwal said cluster containment strategies and action plans for outbreaks, which are amenable to management, are giving required results in some areas like Agra, Gautam Budh Nagar, Bhilwara, East Delhi and Mumbai.

Currently, 136 government labs are working and 59 private labs have been given permission for conducting the test, R Gangakhedkar, speaking on behalf of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said during the joint press briefing.

Lav Aggarwal further said that the government has partially lifted the ban on the export of Hydroxychloroquine, which is used only in particular cases - critical patients and health workers.

''The Health Ministry is monitoring its effects and we assure you we have sufficient quantity of the drug, Agarwal said.

Calling on people to strictly follow social-distancing, Aggarwal said, ''A recent ICMR study states that if someone does not follow social distancing then in 30 days, a single infected person can infect 406 others. 2.5 persons will be infected if social distancing is maintained by a single individual.

Replying to question on extending the lockdown, which is set to end on April 14, he said, ''The Health Ministry and the Cabinet secretary has already issued a clarification denying extension of lockdown. It is true that states are asking for an extension, as and when the decision is taken after proper discussions, we will let you know.

Agarwal also assured that the status of essential goods and services is by and large satisfactory.

Home Minister Amit Shah did a detailed review of the status of essential commodities and lockdown measures, he gave directions to take appropriate measures and ensure hoarding and black marketing is not done, PS Srivastav, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), informed.

All this came amid reports that the Centre is said to be considering requests from several state governments to extend the 21-day lockdown, which is set to end on April 14 amid fears that not doing so will lead to a rapid escalation in coronavirus cases across the country. Highly placed government sources on Tuesday claimed that in view of the request made by several state governments, the Centre is mulling to either extend the lockdown or only a partial lifting of restrictions.

The state governments are of the view that an extension or lifting of restrictions in a phased manner is the only way to avoid a coronavirus epidemic that will otherwise be difficult to tackle.

India has so far escaped a big surge in cases after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked its 1.3 billion people to stay indoors in the world`s biggest lockdown last month that authorities have enforced tightly. However, shuttering down the USD 2.9 trillion economy has left millions of daily wage workers and labourers without work and forced them to flee to their homes in the countryside for food and shelter.

The chief ministers of the states of Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Assam, UP, Madhya Pradesh etc, which had been hit by a rash of cases linked to Islamic religious outfit Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi, had called for extending the lockdown.

Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao had on Monday said that the country could take the hit to the economy and that it was more important to save lives. "I am for the lockdown of the country furthermore after April 15. Because we can recover from the economic problem. But we cannot get back lives," K. Chandrasekhar Rao told reporters.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also favoured a phased withdrawal of the lockdown, saying it cannot be done immediately after the 21-day period ends. Addressing a press conference through video conferencing, he said saving lives is important and no step should be taken that would endanger lives.

"We cannot withdraw lockdown immediately. It has to be done in a phased manner, that is what I feel," Gehlot said when asked about the right time is to lift the countrywide lockdown over coronavirus. He said a decision on withdrawing the lockdown will, however, be taken after the recommendations of a task force set up in this regard are received.

MP CM Shivraj Singh too endorsed the view on extending lockdown. India has 4,421 coronavirus cases and 115 deaths, comparatively less than some countries such as the United States where fatalities from the respiratory disease have topped 10,000.

PM Modi, who has faced criticism for ordering the lockdown with barely four hours' notice. is due to make a decision this week about whether to extend it. The leaders of the eastern states of Assam and Chhattisgarh said that they would like to keep the state borders closed or allow only restricted entry while they dealt with the infections.

"As and when the lockdown is withdrawn, we have to regulate those wanting to come to Assam," said Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Meanwhile, Union Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday chaired a Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting to decide the plan of action by the Centre on COVID-19.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff accused President Donald Trump's top intelligence official Tuesday of undermining "critical intelligence functions" by keeping Congress in the dark about organizational changes he's been implementing.

"This effort appears to be proceeding despite the Coronavirus pandemic and amid indications ... of political interference in the production and dissemination of intelligence," Schiff wrote in a four-page letter to acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.

Schiff emphasized that under Grenell's management, every Senate-appointed official in the DNI's hierarchy had been removed. And Congress, he said, had not been consulted about the intelligence or national security implications of the changes.

"President Trump did not nominate you for confirmation as permanent DNI," Schiff wrote, "and it would be inappropriate for you to pursue any additional leadership, organizational or staffing changes to ODNI during your temporary tenure."

Grenell, however, sniped at Schiff in a tweet after the California Democrat's letter began circulating, saying, His letter was sent to the press before it was sent to me.

"These press leaks politicizing the intelligence community must stop, he added.

A House Intel Committee aide disputed Grenell's claim, emphasizing that the letter was sent to his office at 1:14 p.m. and shared with the press 14 minutes later.

Grenell, who Trump installed as acting DNI last month to replace the previous temporary head Joseph Maguire, was moved to the position after a stint as U.S. ambassador to Germany. Democrats raised concerns at the time that Grenell, who has limited national security experience, was being installed in the high-level intelligence post because of his loyalty to Trump. Schiff is demanding that Grenell produce by April 16 a detailed written explanation of all of his organizational changes.

In his letter, Schiff also sounds the alarm on Trump's abrupt removal of intelligence community watchdog Michael Atkinson, whose handling of a whistleblower report related to Trump's conduct toward Ukraine led the House to impeach him last fall. He is asking Grenell to indicate whether he ever exercised his authority to prevent Atkinson from completing any of his unfinished work before Trump placed him on administrative leave and initiated his firing.

Atkinson had been the last remaining Senate-confirmed official in office of the intelligence director. The last Senate-confirmed DNI, Dan Coats, departed in August. The agency's general counsel, Jason Klitenic, left for a private-sector role earlier this year. And Trump also removed the acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Russell Travers, in recent weeks.


Social distancing measures would be loosened to expose young and healthy Australians to coronavirus in a bid to lift immunity rates under a new plan being considered by health officials.

COVID-19 infections continue to drop across the country after state and federal governments shut borders, closed businesses and enforced tough social distancing and self-isolation restrictions.

Health officials are now considering a long-term strategy for how to deal with the virus if a vaccine does not become available soon.

This could involve an easing of restrictions to expose healthy Australians to the virus at a rate that would not overwhelm hospitals while also increasing immunity.

Those considered less vulnerable or less likely to die, such as schoolchildren and young people, could have social-distancing restrictions relaxed first, in an effort to increase herd immunity for the whole country.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said while the virus could be eradicated by imposing lockdowns until infection rates fell to zero, the majority of the population would still be susceptible to the virus.

Without increased immunity rates in the community, aggressive border controls would be needed for 'a long time' after lockdowns were lifted, he said.

Social distancing measures could be loosened to expose young and healthy Australians to deadly coronavirus in a bid to to lift immunity rates. Pictured: Beachgoers at Cronulla on Monday

COVID-19 infections continue to drop across the country, after the government shut borders, closed businesses and enforced strict social distancing rules. Pictured: A sign reminds people to stay 1.5 metres away from others

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard and Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant held a discussion with MPs last week where concerns were flagged over community immunity.

One MP said they were advised NSW would be disadvantaged if the state attempted to contain the virus entirely.

'If that was the approach, we'd end up with a large portion of the population who are still susceptible, with no immunity,' the MP told The Australian.

'People have to get sick for this to pass.'

Without a vaccine to tackle the virus, controlled exposure to COVID-19 could allow society to return to normal faster.

A NSW health official said controlling the spread of coronavirus was still a priority to ensure the health system is not stretched to treat patients.

But social-distancing restrictions could be partially eased for groups less susceptible to severe COVID-19 symptoms, including schoolchildren and younger people.

'We do need it to go through the community at a gentle pace,' the official said.

Pictured: Australia's coronavirus infection rate from February 27 to April 7

But NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said social distancing rules to limit the spread of the virus would stay in place even when other restrictions are lifted.

'No matter what restrictions there are in the future, no matter what restrictions are potentially eased in the future, until a vaccine is found, social distancing is a way of life now,' she told reporters on Tuesday.

NSW recorded another 49 cases on Tuesday - down from the 57 announced on Monday - bringing the total confirmed cases to 2686.

'The number of new cases in NSW continues to stabilise and even decline,' Ms Berejiklian said.

'However, we are still increasingly concerned about the community-to-community transmission ... people who are getting the virus from a source that is not known to us.'

NSW Health says there are 406 locally-acquired cases with an unknown source.

So far 48 people have died from coronavirus in Australia, including seven deaths confirmed on Tuesday

The nation's leaders and health experts are warning people it is vital they stick by social distancing rules and stay at home over the Easter weekend.

The daily increase in new cases has dropped to about three per cent on average.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that had bought valuable time but Australians could not afford to be complacent.

'This Easter weekend will be incredibly important. Stay at home,' Mr Morrison said on Tuesday.

'Failure to do so this weekend will completely undo everything we have achieved so far together, and potentially worse.'

All the same messages - stay at home unless absolutely necessary, wash your hands regularly, and keep 1.5m away from others - still applied.

'When you normally may go out together as family and be out in public places and parks or gone away or wherever you might have been - that is not something you can do this Easter long weekend,' Mr Morrison said.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy doubled down on this message, saying Australians had to maintain their vigilance.

'The thing that worries us most of all is the more than 500 people who have acquired this virus from someone in the community that doesn't know they've had it,' he said.

'That is why we cannot relax what we've been doing.

What does the coronavirus modelling show? If no measures are taken The theoretical modelling finds an uncontrolled COVID-19 pandemic scenario would overwhelm our health system for many weeks. 89 per cent of people would catch the virus, with 38 per cent requiring some medical care. ICUs would be stretched well beyond capacity for a prolonged period. Only 15 per cent of people requiring ICU beds would be able to access one, even with the expanded ICU capacity in the model. This graph shows three scenarios based on no restrictions (grey), quarantine (light blue) and social distancing (dark blue) With quarantine and isolation Quarantine and isolation would reduce the proportion of people who would catch the virus to 68 per cent, and those needing medical care to 29 per cent. Only an estimated 30 per cent of people requiring ICU beds would be able to access them. With social distancing restrictions If social distancing measures reduces transmission by 25 per cent, the proportion of people infected would be 38 per cent with 16 per cent requiring some medical care. Eighty per cent of people who need ICU beds could access them. With a 33 per cent reduction in transmission due to social distancing, the proportion of people infected is 12 per cent and only five per cent require some medical care. In that scenario, everyone who needs an ICU bed over the course of the pandemic could access one. The modelling finds our ICUs will cope if we continue to have effective social distancing, increase our health system capacity, and isolate people with the virus and their close contacts. This table shows the proportion of each age group who require hospitalisation if they are infected with the disease Advertisement

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said social distancing rules to limit the spread of the virus would stay in place even when other restrictions are lifted

'We've seen what this virus can do in a cruise ship, at a wedding. It can spread to 30, 50, several hundred people very quickly.'

New polling from Essential Research finds more people have changed their behaviour to follow social distancing rules than a week ago, but those aged between 18 and 34 are lagging behind their older compatriots.

Almost 6,000 Australians have been infected with the coronavirus and 49 have died, while about 2,500 have recovered.

The government continues to work on the basis the tough restrictions and economic support for businesses suffering under them will only need to be in place for six months.

It released the Doherty Institute modelling that has underpinned the national cabinet's decisions.

But Mr Morrison cautioned the models were highly theoretical, not based on Australian case data, and did not predict what might happen here.

The modelling showed that if nothing had been done to stop the disease's spread in its early days, about 23 million people could have been infected and intensive care units overwhelmed by up to 35,000 patients.

Experts are now working on modelling specific to the Australian situation based on how and where the virus has spread so far.
Black Tiger shrimp, which is also known as the giant tiger prawn or Asian tiger shrimp, forms a key part of India's marine product exports.

India may witness a spurt in the export of seafood to Japan after the country lifted inspection order for Indian black tiger shrimps.

The inspection order has been lifted by Japan after export consignments of black tiger shrimps were found free from any residue of synthetic anti-bacterial drug furazolidone, a release by the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) said.

Japans Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has also reduced import inspection sampling for black tiger shrimps to 30 percent from the existing 100 per cent.

Black Tiger shrimp, which is also known as the giant tiger prawn or Asian tiger shrimp, forms a key part of India's marine product exports. It is one of the most popular seafood delicacies across the world.

Around 40 percent of Indias black tiger shrimp is exported to Japan. The seafood also finds buyers in the EU and the US.

MPEDA welcomed the decision by the Japanese government.

It is a validation of the relentless efforts undertaken by the MPEDA in raising the request at various platforms and through its trade promotion office in Tokyo, said KS Srinivas, chairman of MPEDA.

Through its field offices and the National Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, MPEDA has been educating farmers on better management practices.

Srinivas said the decision by Japan will give an impetus to the farming and export of black tiger shrimps, overshadowed by the mass production of exotic Vannamei shrimps variety during the last 10 years.
The outer layer of Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus, are hot just like the Earth's likely due to electric current at the planets' poles, according to a study, which is the most complete mapping yet of both temperature and density of a gas giant's upper atmosphere.

Researchers, including those from the University of Arizona in the US, used data from the Cassini spacecraft which observed Saturn for more than 13 years before exhausting its fuel supply, and found that electric currents in the upper layers of these planets could be making them very hot.

According to the study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, these electric currents, triggered by interactions between solar winds and charged particles from Saturn's moons, spark the auroras and heat the upper atmosphere.

It said the phenomenon is similar to the Earth's northern lights, or auroras, indicating that the process can shed light on what's going on in the atmosphere of other planets.

"Understanding the dynamics really requires a global view. This dataset is the first time we've been able to look at the upper atmosphere from pole to pole while also seeing how temperature changes with depth," said Zarah Brown, lead author of the study from the University of Arizona.

In the study, the scientists built a picture of how heat circulates in the atmosphere of Saturn, helping understand how auroral electric currents heat the upper layers of the planet's atmosphere and drive winds.

They said the planet's global wind system can distribute this energy, which is initially deposited near the poles toward the equatorial regions, heating them to twice the temperatures expected from the Sun's heating alone.

"The results are vital to our general understanding of planetary upper atmospheres, and are an important part of Cassini's legacy," said study co-author Tommi Koskinen from the University of Arizona.

"They help address the question of why the uppermost part of the atmosphere is so hot, while the rest of the atmosphere -- due to the large distance from the Sun - is cold," Koskinen said.

Measuring the density of Saturn's atmosphere using data from the Cassini mission gave the scientists the information they needed to find the temperatures, the study noted.

The scientists said the density decreased with altitude, with the rate of decrease depending on temperature.

They found that temperatures peak near the auroras, indicating that the electric currents near the poles heat the upper atmosphere.

Density and temperature measurements helped figure out wind speeds, the study noted.

Understanding Saturn's upper atmosphere, where planet meets space, according to the study, is key to understanding space weather and its impact on other planets in our solar system and exoplanets around other stars.

"Even though thousands of exoplanets have been found, only the planets in our solar system can be studied in this kind of detail. Thanks to Cassini, we have a more detailed picture of Saturn's upper atmosphere right now than any other giant planet in the universe," Brown said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
All parties to the conflict in Donbas should heed the UN Secretary General's call for a global ceasefire and focus all efforts on preventing the spread of the virus, said UN humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine Osnat Lubrani.

"I urge all concerned to heed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's call for a global ceasefire and put aside differences to focus on stopping the spread of the virus. This is a time for solidarity. Urgent, collective action is needed now to address the pandemic and to assist those most vulnerable," Lubrani's statement reads posted on the website of the UN Mission in Ukraine on Tuesday.

She stressed that against the backdrop of a global crisis, the increase in civilian casualties in eastern Ukraine, which have reached their highest level since September 2019, is deeply concerning.

The statement says that the UN works with all relevant agencies to continue to deliver humanitarian assistance, we fully respect the necessity of measures put in place to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The mission asked all relevant actors to support and facilitate the work of the UN and humanitarian partners to continue to have access to provide essential, life-saving health and humanitarian assistance on both sides of the "contact line" in eastern Ukraine.

"It is essential that enabling procedures are in place so that critical supplies can be fast-tracked and reach those who depend on our assistance to survive, now more than ever," the statement reads.

In addition, the UN Office requested donors to join forces and support the recently introduced UN Global Humanitarian Response Plan to overcome the coronavirus infection COVID-19.

"As national budgets are stretched, we are repurposing some of our resources  but these will not suffice. We will require additional donor commitment to respond to the health and socioeconomic impact of COVID-19," it says.

The statement also stresses that in this challenging time, the United Nations and humanitarian partners stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine who have been affected by conflict as well as the health and socioeconomic impact of COVID-19.

"We are currently scaling up our efforts to help mitigate and respond to the surge in need throughout the country that is arising due to this pandemic," the Mission said.

As reported, the UN Global Humanitarian Response Plan aimed at providing assistance in counteracting COVID-19 in Ukraine, presented earlier by the UN Office in Ukraine, provides that overcoming the consequences of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus infection in Ukraine will cost $165 million.
Phoenix, AZ -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/07/2020 -- VoiceAmerica, the leader in online media broadcasting and the largest producer and distributor of live internet talk radio, today announced the show "BIGGER Thinking BETTER Life" interview with Ambassador of Joy Barry Shore and Sunil Bhaskaran as they discuss how to help you build an audience for your business and get generous partners along the way. The episode played live on VoiceAmerica.com on March 31st and can be found at https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/122730/bigger-thinking-better-life and at http://www.BarryShore.com .



Your Ambassador of JOY Barry Shore brings you Sunil Bhaskaran, the Global Business Mastermind. Sunil has created his own organization that now exceeds 120,000+ business owners and professionals utilizing the Meetup.com platform and others. His company continues to grow in large numbers every day. Sunil has been teaching business owners and being a business owner himself for three decades. Today, Barry and Sunil discuss what it is like to be a radio show host, famous author, and highly requested speaker.



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According to US researchers, Ireland has passed its projected peak in deaths per day.

The model from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington projected that Ireland would reach its peak in daily deaths yesterday.

Yesterday, it was confirmed that 16 more people had died from the virus bring the number of Covid-19 related deaths to 174.

According to the latest data from the IHME, Ireland can expect a total of 401 Covid related deaths by August 4.

It projects that the number of deaths per day will plateau around the beginning of May.

The model and data works on the assumption that full social distancing will remain in effect through May 2020.

It comes as Health Minister Simon Harris said that restrictions on movement are highly unlikely to be lifted on Easter Sunday.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) have yet to make a formal recommendation to extend the measures.

National Public Health Emergency Team will meet this morning on its ongoing work on #Covid19 #coronavirus. As it meets I want to thank them, led by our @CMOIreland for its tireless work. Following their expert advice, every single one of us is helping save lives. Lets keep at it  Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) April 7, 2020

It is meeting today to discuss restrictions but will not make a final call until Friday.

Minister Harris says the measures are working and need to stay in place.

"We'll get the formal advice later in the week but I believe in being truthful and honest with people in this regard.

"I think that any kind of sudden departure from the existing restrictions is highly unlikely, particularly when we know they're working.

We are not going to do anything as a government that will in any way jeopardise the lives and wellbeing of Irish people. We have got to stay the course.

Earlier, Minister Harris said the rate of growth is slowing but is still too high.

"There are some encouraging signs there in terms of the rate of growth but too early to say.

"We are entering a very, very crucial week.

"The virus is very much here, it is still at an unsustainable level. While we are making progress, we are not yet where we need to be.

He said that there are still a number of worrying signs including the 99 clusters reported in nursing homes across the country and the number of ICU beds.

"This is all about saving lives. As tough and challenging as these measures are we are going to stay the course until we get to a point where we can say it is safe for our people to return to a degree of normality."

The State's Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan advised that restrictions on travel and work will only be lifted when the country has a grip on the outbreak.

He said that there are factors to be considered before relaxing any measures including that "we know we have the capacity in our testing, the capacity in terms of the kit that has to be available, to really be strong and focused on finding cases.

"Our work over the course of the next one to two weeks will be to try and get us into that position."

The World Health Organisation has warned countries not to completely lift restrictions in one go.

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Thousands of Palestinian workers are set to return to the West Bank from Israel around the Jewish Passover holiday.

Ramallah, occupied West Bank  Up until he tested positive for COVID-19, Ibrahim al-Arja, was ridiculing the novel coronavirus. The 25-year-old manages his family-owned Angel hotel in Bethlehem, where the first cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Palestine.

The last one to survive 2020 needs to turn the water heater off, is one of many jokes making the rounds on social media platforms. Although its not directly linked to the pandemic, al-Arja said it was his favourite.

Punchlines pertain to a wide range of coronavirus topics, including isolation, sanitation, gender roles and distance learning, as well as projections of the outbreak and the new realities created in attempts to curb the virus.

In theory, humour is a coping mechanism  an escape or a salve in dire times. But jokes related to coronavirus do not entertain anthropologist and folklorist Sharif Kanaana, who taught at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank and has dedicated 15 years of his career to collecting and archiving Palestinian jokes.

Im 85. No doubt the situation scares me. We have to be more serious and cautious about it, Kanaana told Al Jazeera.

Theres nothing to do against an enemy that the world cant see and that it can only know a little about, Kanaana explained.

Palestinians working in Israel head to work through an Israeli checkpoint [Mohamad Torokman/Reuters]

People joke about it, because they are afraid and are pretending not to care, he said.

Until a vaccine or a standard medical treatment is found, policymakers can only try to flatten the curve.

In room number 1309 of the Angel hotel, where al-Arja spent two weeks under quarantine, he tallied up the costs of coronavirus to his business. The immediate losses, he said, surpass $30,000  and that is no laughing matter.

While it seems [that] we are already in the single-digit negative growth area  if the most severe emergency measures are required in the coming weeks, the economy could shrink considerably more, Raja Khalidi, director of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, told Al Jazeera.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has projected that its budget deficit could increase from $0.8bn to between $1.8bn and $2.4bn as a result of losses in government revenues, depending on the severity of the outbreak.

Nonetheless, in the trade-off between economic losses and the cost a larger outbreak would pose to public health, the PA made a swift decision early on.

The first seven cases in the occupied West Bank, believed to have been contracted from a tourist group visiting from Greece, were reported in Bethlehem on March 5. PA President Mahmoud Abbas declared a state of emergency late that day, and Bethlehem was under quarantine the next morning.

The PA imposed a lockdown: schools were shuttered, hotel reservations cancelled, gatherings banned, mosques and churches closed, movement between cities severed  and Palestinians asked to stay home.

The Palestinian health sector is already stretched to the limit. In February, before the first cases were reported, doctors across the West Bank went on a two-week partial strike over an acute shortage of staff, equipment and beds.

There are 210 intensive care units in all Palestinian hospitals, half of them already occupied, Mai Keileh, the Palestinian health minister, told Al Jazeera. In case of a larger outbreak, at least 800 would be needed.

Nearly a month after the first cases were reported in Palestine, less than 13,000 tests have been carried out as of Monday  a fraction of the number conducted in Israel, which, according to an Israeli health ministry spokesman, carries out an average of 10,000 tests a day.

A Palestinian worker is sprayed with disinfectants as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus disease, upon his return from Israel [Mussa Qawasma/Reuters]

As of Sunday, the PA had recorded 252 cases of coronavirus and one death.

For weeks, Palestinian officials have issued warnings that workers travelling back and forth between Israel, its settlements and their homes could fuel a larger outbreak.

Around 190,000 Palestinians work in Israel and in settlements built illegally in the occupied West Bank, including around 60,000 who work in Israel without documentation.

To prevent the virus from spreading at checkpoints, Israeli officials agreed with their Palestinian counterparts to allow Palestinian workers to stay at their workplaces, if their employers provide appropriate housing and proper sanitary conditions approved by the Israeli police.

A couple of days into the agreement, Israeli employers began to drop off workers who exhibited coronavirus-like symptoms at checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank. The Palestinian government urged all workers to return.

Workers continued movement, with Israeli facilitation  is a blow to our early efforts to stop the spread of this pandemic, said PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.

Palestinian labourers enter Israel to work, passing through a checkpoint between the West Bank city of Hebron and Beersheba in Israel [Hazem Bader/AFP]

Israels decision to allow the entry of workers is an attempt to protect the Israeli economy at the expense of the lives of our workers. Israels economy is not as precious as the lives of our children, he said.

Samir Rawajbeh is one of thousands who heeded the government call and left work in Israel. The 30-year-old father of three from Silwad  northeast of Ramallah  told Al Jazeera that he asked his wife to go to her parents house so he could self-quarantine for 14 days. He said he feared for his life, but more so for his familys.

This virus is not a joke. The number of cases was increasing in Israel, and I didnt want to get in contact with any infected person, he said.

With less than $500 left in his pocket, he said it wasnt an easy decision to make. I hope this nightmare is over before the cash is, Rawajbeh said.

Others decided to take the risk. Jihad Hussein from Azzun, east of Qalqilya, is among an estimated 45,000 Palestinian workers who are still inside Israel. The 31-year-old left his wife and two children behind two weeks ago.

If I didnt have financial commitments, I wouldnt be here, he said. Upon return, Hussein said he is planning to get tested and go into quarantine, although he does not plan to return soon.

Palestinians who work in Israel and the settlements are estimated to pump $2.5bn into the Palestinian economy a year.

The lost income of those newly-unemployed former workers in Israel will bear heavily on the overall private consumer demand and expenditure in the coming months, alongside other domestic economic impacts, Khalidi said.

Israels decades-long occupation of the West Bank has left Palestinians here with no control over their borders and resources and has also handicapped Palestinian leaders in the fight to contain the virus. The Palestinian government has been in a fiscal crisis for over two years. It forecasts that its revenues will drop by 40 percent over the next three months if the outbreak remains at a similar level.

Whether the Palestinian recession will be V-shaped, with a quick rebound, or U-shaped, with a long period of stagnation, is contingent upon the PAs ability to delay the spread of the virus, while keeping whatever businesses that can be left open in operation and providing economic relief to the unemployed.

It is not possible to tell how many people will get infected over time, when hundreds, if not thousands, keep crossing from and into Israel and its settlements.

The peak of the curve of the epidemic in Palestine is not clear yet, because our workers inside Israel didnt [all] return  yet, Keileh, the health minister, told Al Jazeera.

Only after Israel shuts down for the Jewish holiday of Passover on April 8, when thousands of workers are expected to return to their homes in the West Bank, will it be possible to forecast the shape of the curve, Keileh added.

Ali Jarbawi, a political science professor at Birzeit University, said that the lockdown imposed by the PA was necessary, but not enough.

As long as there are cases in Israel and workers crossing back and forth, it wont be over, he said. Itll start to end here after it ends in Israel.
Today is the 9th day of the partial lockdown declared by the President. Yesterday, we received with concern news of the hospitalisation and transfer for intensive care of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. COVID-19 is proving to be a highly infectious disease and no respecter of persons.

This is the reason why we must cooperate with the directives announced by the President to restrict our movement as much as possible during this period, and continue to abide by the WHO and Ghana Health Service (GHS) protocols aimed at preventing the spread of the virus.

On Sunday, we also received the sad confirmation of the death of a young man at Ashaiman following a shooting incident involving a security officer. While we are not yet fully apprised of the circumstances surrounding this unfortunate death, I wish to express our deepest displeasure at the shooting of an unarmed civilian and call for a speedy investigation into the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

We woke up this morning to official reports that Ghana's incidence of COVID-19 infection has risen to 287. This is an alarming situation. While the GHS ascribes the sudden increase in numbers to enhanced surveillance and testing, it is a call to arms to redouble our efforts in battling this disease.

Last Saturday, I donated my widows mite of 650 PPE and associated items for distribution to various health facilities across the country. During the rage of this pandemic, protective clothing, disinfectants, sanitisers, laser thermometers etc. are the most critical items needed by our frontline health workers. This will give them the confidence to continue their work without fear of getting infected with the virus themselves.

My motivation for this donation was to fill a stop-gap and buy enough time for the government-acquired medical items to become available. Last Sunday, the President announced the receipt of some items including PPE. It is the hope of all Ghanaians that these items would be despatched speedily to where they are needed.

As the President of the Ghana Medical Association said, they are grateful for the incentives given to health workers, but they need the PPE urgently to go about their business of saving lives.

Concern has also been raised about who are frontline workers. It is known that health staff work as a team. From doctors, physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory staff, cleaners, cooks, security personnel etc.

It may have been useful to consider a package that would cover all healthcare staff rather than a hefty package for only frontline health workers. The government should consider a package that benefits all health care staff who are working.

Consultations with professional groups of health workers on how to administer the incentives can result in a conclusion that is acceptable to all of them.

Last week, I made some suggestions about drawing money from the Stabilisation Fund to cushion some of the unintended consequences of the partial lockdown. These included some temporary relief from utility tariffs including water and electricity.

I suggested a flexible adjustment in timelines for submission of SSNIT returns due to the manpower downturn occasioned by the pandemic. I also requested consideration of some tax relief for small businesses and tax exemption on critical medical items and other goods required for our COVID-19 response effort.

I also suggested the scrapping of the 50% increase in the Communication Service Tax (CST) and negotiations with the telcos for some reduction in data tariffs in exchange for a free six-tmonth extension of their licences. This will be welcome relief for thousands of Ghanaians who are having to work from home.

I urged the government to provide food from the National Buffer Stock Company or elsewhere to alleviate hunger in the most deprived communities within the lockdown areas.

I am grateful to note that some of these suggestions were taken on board during the President's last broadcast to the nation. While the announcement of relief from water tariffs was received with appreciation, the lack of water in many parts of the specified areas make the three-month cancellation of tariffs meaningless for some.

The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) must be supported to increase the supply of water to make this gesture meaningful to all. Our people are also urged not to waste water at this critical time.

Clear instructions must be given to GWCL that the presidential directive of three months relief from water tariffs means that no consumer must be billed for the months of April, May and June. This is notwithstanding arrears on their bills.

Clearly, electricity tariffs are the more burdensome of the two utilities. There is much expectation that some subsidy payment from the Stabilisation Fund to the ECG and generating companies can provide some temporary relief, however small, to consumers in this difficult period.

It will also be necessary to look at the pricing of LPG, especially at a time when the price of crude on the global market is at an all-time low.

The President's announcement of the distribution of hot meals and dry food packages to deprived communities is welcome news. The president stated that this will be in collaboration with faith-based organisations. This collaboration is good news because if care is not taken, in both the distribution and procurement of the food, partisan and parochial interests will defeat the purpose of the whole gesture.

I believe that traditional rulers and our Assemblymen and women in the affected areas must also be involved in this enterprise.

Our (NDC) representatives on the Finance Committee of Parliament have been urged to fully participate in the expected meeting on Thursday with the Ministry of Finance to discuss the modalities for the disbursement of the proposed stimulus package.

We will table proposals to ensure that this money is utilised efficiently and administered in a manner that is fair and just to all Ghanaian businesses that are suffering the adverse effects of the economic slowdown occasioned by this dreadful COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, today is World Health Day, celebrating nurses and health workers. In the midst of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, we are reminded by the WHO that without nurses, and other health workers, there would be no response.

To all who continue to support with medical items, and providing lunch packs and fruits to our COVID-19 health workers and the public, I say thank you and more grease to your elbows.

Let us continue to #SupportNursesAndMidwives in our health facilities and communities.

#StayHome

#StopTheSpread

John Dramani Mahama

Cantonments, Accra

April 07, 2020.
Cardinal George Pell has walked free from jail on Tuesday after the High Court quashed his conviction for sexually abusing two choirboys.

Australia's most senior Catholic was convicted in 2018 of performing sex acts on the boys in Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne in 1996. His conviction rocked the Catholic Church not only in Australia, but across the world.

When Pell was charged of the crimes in 2017, he was effectively in charge of the Vatican's finances, and was the most senior figure in the church to ever be charged with sex crimes against children.

The decision overturns an earlier ruling by the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, Justice Anne Ferguson, president of the Court of Appeal Justice Chris Maxwell, and Justice Mark Weinberg.

It had taken them nine weeks to come to their decision. It took the High Court a little under four to reverse it.

Cardinal Pell was not in the court room in Brisbane for the hearing and was told the news over the phone by his lawyer - before driving from Barwon Prison just hours after the decision.

The court ruled that the trial's jury 'ought to have entertained a doubt' that Cardinal Pell may not have been guilty.

Cardinal George Pell (pictured) is seen on Tuesday after being released from Barwon Prison, following the court's decision to overturn his conviction

George Pell (pictured) is seen shortly after his conviction was overturned on Tuesday, after being released from Barwon Prison

Much of Cardinal Pell's case centred on whether he had an opportunity to commit the offences at all.

Cardinal Pell's barristers had long argued it was not possible for him to be alone in the sacristies only a few minutes after the end of Mass.

Numerous witnesses took to the witness box at his trial to back the notion the crimes could not have been committed.

In a summary of the decision handed down by the High Court on Tuesday, it stated the Supreme Court judges' analysis at his original appeal 'failed to engage with the question of whether there remained a reasonable possibility that the offending had not taken place, such that there ought to have been a reasonable doubt as to the applicant's guilt'.

A car carrying George Pell (pictured) is seen leaving Barwon Prison shortly after his conviction was overturned on Tuesday

Cardinal Pell's successful appeal is likely to bring an end to the ongoing saga, which has dragged on for years across four court jurisdictions.

A vindicated Cardinal Pell issued a statement to the media shortly after the ruling was made.

'I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice,' he said.

'This has been remedied today with the High Courts unanimous decision. I look forward to reading the Judgment and reasons for the decision in detail.'

Cardinal Pell said he held no ill will to his accuser.

'I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough,' he said.

Cardinal George Pell (pictured) is seen leaving the Supreme Court of Victoria back in August

Pell arrives at the court ahead of an appeal judgement in Melbourne last year

'However, my trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church; nor a referendum on how Church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of paedophilia in the Church.

'The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not.'

Victoria Police issued a statement on Tuesday declaring it respected the decision of the High Court and praised the the 'tireless work' on the case by its Taskforce Sano, which brought the case against Cardinal Pell.

The jury in the original trial found Cardinal Pell guilty of sexually abusing two boys in the priests' sacristy at Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral after presiding over one of his first Sunday masses as archbishop in the 1990s.

Cardinal George Pell (arriving at court last year) will walk free from jail today after the High Court quashed his conviction for sexually abusing two choirboys

Cuffed and humiliated: George Pell is led back to jail to await his fate. He will be released from jail after a High Court decision

The jury further accepted he abused one of the boys a second time in a corridor at the rear of the cathedral after another Sunday mass.

Cardinal Pell was jailed in March last year for six years with a non-parole period of three years and eight months.

Since then, he has been caged predominantly at Melbourne Assessment Prison in the heart of the city, but was recently moved to Barwon Prison, which houses some of the nation's vilest criminals.

There he has spent his days locked in isolation away from the jail population which no doubt would have treated him as a prize scalp.

George Pell appeared back in his traditional clerical garb after attending his sentence in civilian attire. Pell took notes and listened intently to every detail of his two-day appeal last year

Cardinal Pell's full statement I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice. This has been remedied today with the High Courts unanimous decision. I look forward to reading the Judgment and reasons for the decision in detail. I hold no ill will to my accuser, I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough. However my trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church; nor a referendum on how Church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of paedophilia in the Church. The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not. The only basis for long term healing is truth and the only basis for justice is truth, because justice means truth for all. A special thanks for all the prayers and thousands of letters of support. I want to thank in particular my family for their love and support and what they had to go through; my small team of advisors; those who spoke up for me and suffered as a result; and all my friends and supporters here and overseas. Also my deepest thanks and gratitude to my entire legal team for their unwavering resolve to see justice prevail, to throw light on manufactured obscurity and to reveal the truth. Finally, I am aware of the current health crisis. I am praying for all those affected and our medical frontline personnel. Advertisement

While Cardinal Pell walked free from his prison nightmare on Tuesday, his career as one of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church is expected to remain in tatters despite the Pope publicly backing him until the bitter end.

Whether the matter continues in the civil courts will be played-out over the coming weeks, months and possibly years.

A huge media pack had congregated at the gates of Barwon Prison to watch his release.

The Cardinal looked directly ahead as his three car convoy pulled past them just before 12.30pm.

Cardinal Pell's defence team had been confident in clearing his name due to the long delay in the accusations being made, lack of witnesses and physical evidence.

They firmly believed the jury got it wrong and the injustice needed to be corrected.

Only one of the Supreme Court judges at his Supreme Court appeal in August last year had agreed with Cardinal Pell's defence.

Justices Ferguson and Maxwell both voted to uphold the conviction, while Justice Weinberg voted to partly grant Cardinal Pell's appeal.

Justice Weinberg concluded the victim's evidence 'contained discrepancies, displayed inadequacies' so as to cause him to have a doubt as to the applicant's guilt.

'He could not exclude as a reasonable possibility that some of what the complainant said was concocted, particularly in relation to the second incident,' Justice Ferguson explained at the time.

'Justice Weinberg found that the complainant's account of the second incident was entirely implausible and quite unconvincing.'

The dissenting justice said if the victim was the only one giving evidence about the first crime, he would have found it difficult to say the jury convicted unreasonably.

However, in his view, evidence from other witnesses meant that the jury should have had reasonable doubt about Cardinal Pell's guilt.

'In Justice Weinberg's view, there was significant and in some places impressive evidence suggesting that the complainant's account was, in a realistic sense, impossible to accept,' Justice Ferguson said.

'To his mind, there is a significant possibility that the Cardinal may not have committed the offences.

'In those circumstances, Justice Weinberg stated that in his view, the convictions could not stand.'

While Cardinal Pell's detractors celebrated the disgraced Cardinal's loss, his legal team worked diligently to continue his fight in the High Court.

On March 11, at a hearing in Canberra, Bret Walker, SC, argued again it would have been impossible for him to have committed the crimes he was found guilty of.

At Cardinal Pell's first trial, which was held in secret, the jury could not agree on a verdict.

Pell has spent time in some of Victoria's most dangerous prisons, including Barwon Prison where some of the country's worst are caged

Tony Mokbel (pictured) was left clinging to life after being bashed and stabbed in Barwon Prison last year. George Pell was driven away from there after being cleared by the High Court

They needed to be discharged and the trial had to run again with a fresh jury.

Legal experts believed the outcome would be the same.

Only one victim was able to testify against Cardinal Pell.

The other died of a heroin overdose in 2014 and never reported the alleged abuse.

Top barrister Robert Richter, QC had grilled the surviving victim in a grueling cross examination during Cardinal Pell's trial.

So masterful was it that Mr Richter's opponent at appeal, Crown prosecutor Chris Boyce QC, paid tribute to it during Cardinal Pell's two-day Supreme Court appeal.

Cardinal Pell's barrister had left no stone unturned, which is why, the prosecution argued, the victim's account was so believable.

'It was absolutely compelling,' Mr Boyce said. 'He was clearly not a liar. He was not a fantasist. He was a witness of truth.'

George Pell in the Vatican in 2005. Pell rolled the dice on a last ditch bid for freedom in the Supreme Court of Appeal

Only 13 at the time, the man said he never told a soul about what happened to him and his mate that day after mass.

The choirboys had sneaked into the sacristy for a swig of wine directly after the service.

Cardinal Pell sprung them and sexually assaulted the pair, one claimed.

It was over in minutes in what could only be described as a 'moment of madness' by the Cardinal.

The boys never even spoke about it again among themselves.

'They just wanted to get on with their lives,' Mr Boyce said. 'This was an anomaly - like something from out of space.'

Prosecutors said the boy had never been in the sacristy before and was able to recount important details of the room.

Cardinal Pell's defence had it's doubts and fought hard to prove the jury ought to have had doubts too.

At the first trial, the jury produced a majority of ten jurors voting to acquit and only two voting guilty.

Cardinal Pell went down 12-to-nil for guilty at his second trial.

With fresh eyes on the case, Mr Walker was determined to prove this jury had got it very wrong.

He claimed more than 20 prosecution witnesses who had an official role in that Sunday's solemn mass - after which the jury accepted the offending occurred - gave evidence the offences did not or could not have occurred.

George Pell's victim claimed the Cardinal pulled aside his robes and sexually assaulted him. Pell's defence say it just could not have happened

George Pell's barrister Bret Walker SC leaves the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne last year. He put on a powerful and confident display when he was called to plead Pell's case

Cardinal Pell's argument for freedom The timing of the alleged assaults was impossible. It was not possible for Pell to be alone in the sacristies only a few minutes after the end of Mass. It was not possible for Pell to be robed and alone in the priests' sacristy after Mass. It was not possible for two choir boys to be sexually assaulted in the priests' sacristy after Mass by Pell undetected. It was not possible for two robed sopranos to leave an external procession without being noticed. The criminal acts attributed to Pell were physically impossible. No one corroborated the second incident though the complainant said it happened in the midst of a 50-person choir County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd erred in not allowing Pell's defence to present a video in his closing arguments, and that there was a 'fundamental irregularity' in how Pell was arraigned at trial. Advertisement

They included Cardinal Pell's Master of Ceremonies, the Sacristan who was in charge of the sacristies, adult altar servers, adults in charge of the choir and a large number of ex-choirboys.

Cardinal Pell had an alibi that could not be ignored by the jury, he claimed.

Further, it had 'no rational basis to reject evidence'.

'No rational basis for rejecting this evidence was ever advanced by the prosecution at trial,' he submitted.

'The complainant's claims were so implausible that a reasonable jury must have had a reasonable doubt.'

Mr Walker said it was beyond the 'law of physics' the Cardinal could have have abused young choirboys.

The experienced barrister went immediately on the attack and did not let up all day.

He told the court his client couldn't have sexually assaulted the boys in the sacristy if he was meeting parishioners at the western door of St Patrick's Cathedral  adding that the distance was 'as good as being across the Tasman' in the eyes of the law.

'If he was at the western door then the law of physics means this is literally and logically impossible for the offending to have occurred,' he said.

Cardinal Pell always denied the abuse and appealed his conviction on three grounds: that the jury verdict was unreasonable, and that two errors were made in the way the trial was run.

The sacristy of St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne where the offences Cardinal George Pell was found guilty of occurred. A victim was able to identify details within the room

Cardinal George Pell presides over the mass at the Barangaroo site for the opening of World Youth Day in Sydney on Tuesday, July 15, 2008. He would have been wearing similar robes when he committed the alleged sex offences

What the judges said during Pell's original failed appeal Supreme Court Chief Justice Anne Ferguson asked why Cardinal Pell could not have exposed himself in his ceremonial robes. Judge Mark Weinberg queried why Cardinal Pells legal team had labelled the offending 'impossible'. 'Its quite misleading in lots of ways, it seems to me,' he said. Justice Chris Maxwell suggested it was 'wildly improbable' that someone of Pells height and stature would not have been seen approaching two choirboys. He further asked prosecutors why Cardinal Pell would abuse those boys in a place with many potential witnesses Justice Weinberg said juries almost always get it right. 'Almost,' he said. Justice Maxwell asked prosecutors why the victim didnt warn the second chorister after he was abused for a second time by Cardinal Pell 'Boys talk, dont they?' he said. Advertisement

The prosecution refuted all of Cardinal Pell's defence, which repeatedly claimed it was all but impossible for the Cardinal to have committed the crimes.

For one, he could never have lifted his heavy robes to perform the acts he was convicted of doing, they said.

Mr Boyce took over the heavy lifting in the appeal from Mark Gibson QC, who secured a conviction against the Cardinal at his County Court trial.

The prosecutor would go onto win his battle for the Crown, but at the time observers believed he had made a mess of it.

In an animated display, Mr Boyce stumbled through a day of submissions in a nervous display.

At one point, the hearing was halted after the prosecutor named Cardinal Pell's victim in open court.

Under the law, naming of sex abuse victims is strictly forbidden to be aired in public.

The hearing had been streamed live to the world on a 15 second delay, which spared the worried victim being outed.

Mr Boyce was warned to keep the victim's name out of his future public submissions.

Continuing, Mr Boyce was repeatedly asked to explain himself more thoroughly and was criticised for speculating on what Cardinal Pell's jury might have been thinking.

At one stage, the prosecutor conceded he was a bit muddled.

'The point I'm making, and I don't think extremely well,' he said. 'Is the point your honour is making.'

At his sentence in March last year, Cardinal Pell looked tired, unwell and broken.

In previous hearings he had stared defiantly at people in the court who dared challenge his gaze.

Now he sat in civilian clothes, defeated.

Cardinal Pell was back to his confident best in the packed Supreme Court courtroom during his appeal.

Brought into court scruffy and handcuffed, the Cardinal entered the court tall and defiant.

He took notes throughout the two day proceedings and even found it in him to have a quiet chuckle.

The former senior Vatican official (pictured) had appeared at his appeal at the Victorian Supreme Court in Melbourne last year but was forced to look on from video link in jail for his High Court appeal

The prosecution argued the one issue for the jury was whether the acts Cardinal Pell was accused of had happened.

'By and large none of these witnesses were in a position to say that the offending 'did not happen',' the prosecution submissions stated.

'Rather, the evidence from a handful of witnesses suggested that certain scenarios, such as the Archbishop being alone and robed, were unlikely.'

Prosecutors countered each of the defence claims, arguing evidence showed it was possible for Cardinal Pell to have committed the assaults.

Pells appearance at court marks the first time he has been spotted since sentencing in mid-March (pictured, a protestor could be seen standing outside the Supreme Court as Pell began his appeal in Melbourne last year )

'The events described by various witnesses ... established that there was more than ample opportunity and circumstances for the offending, described by the complainant, to have occurred,' their submissions claimed.

'The day itself, whilst significant and memorable for the complainant, could not be described as remarkable for anyone else who was simply going about the business of Sunday mass.'

During that appeal, one judge mused that juries 'almost always get it right' but highlighted the word 'almost'.

This one got it wrong, the High Court decided.
Italy today recorded its smallest increase in coronavirus infections for almost four weeks, with just 3,309 new cases, in the latest sign the lockdown has been a success.

It amounts to a 2.3 percent rise in new cases, compared to a 2.8 percent rise on Monday, when 3,559 new cases were recorded.

In addition, there were 604 more COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, lower than 636 the day before, taking the total number of fatalities to 17,127, the highest in the world.

The total number of infections recorded in Italy now stands at 135,586, but the latest numbers have again underscored growing confidence that the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 9 is bearing fruit.

A patient suffering from coronavirus is wheeled through the Cernusco sul Naviglio hospital in Milan on Tuesday

Previous daily infection increases since March 17 had all been in a range of 4,050 to 6,557. And Italy has not recorded a lower daily increase than Tuesday's since March 13.

Of those originally infected, 24,392 were declared recovered on Tuesday against 22,837 a day earlier. There were 3,792 people in intensive care against 3,898 on Monday - a fourth consecutive daily decline.

Italy's health ministry has sent inspectors to the country's biggest nursing home where 70 elderly people reportedly died in March alone while management allegedly downplayed the risk of infection of coronavirus.

Italian daily Repubblica says Milan prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into alleged homicide at the Pio Albergo Trivulzio home.

A coronavirus patient talks with a relative using a tablet computer at a hospital in Milan on Tuesday

Italian soldiers patrol in front of the Selam Palace, a structure occupied by migrants, in La Romanina district, on the outskirts of Rome today

Repubblica quoted a geriatric doctor, Luigi Bergamaschini, as saying he had been removed for having insisted his staff wear masks and protective gear, while union leaders blamed managers for having listed the deaths as pneumonia.

The Health Ministry's deputy minister, Pierpaolo Sileri, told Radio Capitale that inspectors backed by the Carabinieri's health care squad would seize documentation from the facility as well as other nursing homes with a high death toll.

Many nursing home dead were never tested for COVID-19 and weren't hospitalized, given their frail conditions and northern Italy's overflowing intensive care units.

As a result, their deaths don't figure into Italy's official death count, already the highest in the world.

Medics wearing protective gear take a patient thought to be suffering from coronavirus out of an ambulance at Policlinico di Tor Vergata hospital in Rome

A graph showing the total number of coronavirus cases per day that have been reported in Italy, up until April 6

A graph showing the number of coronavirus deaths reported each day in Italy, with data going up until April 6

Meanwhile Italian leaders are trying to plot a way out of lockdown and restart Europe's fourth largest economy as the virus slowly eases.

About 150 Italian academics have published a letter in Italian financial daily Il Sole-24 Ore, owned by the Italian business lobby Confindustria, urging the government to unblock the economy.

'The social and economic consequences would risk producing irreversible damage, probably more serious than those caused by the virus itself,' the letter said.

Medical staff work in the Intensive Care Unit of the Bassini Hospital which is treating coronavirus patients in Italy's hard-hit north, near Milan

Italy has said pressure on its hospital system is easing as the rate of infection slows, but that a nationwide lockdown will remain in place for now

Rome imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 9 when the new virus, which emerged in China, had already killed more than 460 people.

Two weeks later, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced that non-essential businesses, including car, clothing and furniture production, would have to close until April 3.

The death toll has risen relentlessly and now stands at more than 16,500.

The government extended the restrictions last week until April 13 and is widely expected to extend them again, for another three weeks.

However the smallest daily rise in COVID-19 deaths for nearly two weeks on Saturday, and the first fall in the number of patients in intensive care, have fed hopes that the epidemic might have reached a peak in Italy and focused attention on the next phase in the crisis.
Comscore's insights show that the much higher ratings for local stations during the pandemic are being driven by a much broader demographic representation of viewers than is typically observed during news segments. Several key age ranges are showing significant year-over-year viewing increases, with 18-34 up 38 percent, and 35-54 up 35 percent.

Among the other notable findings from Comscore's latest preliminary data through March 22, 2020:

Across all households in the top 25 markets, Comscore observed a 13 percent increase in viewing from the week of March 9, 2020 compared to the week of March 16, 2020 and a 33 percent increase from the week of March 18 in the previous year.

Viewing Trends by Age

Looking first at households with adults ages 50+, these homes saw increases in viewership compared to both weeks  a 12 percent viewing increase from the week of March 9, 2020 to March 16, 2020 and a 29 percent increase over the previous year's week of March 18, 2019.

Surprisingly, households with adults ages 18-34 showed the largest increase in viewership from the same week in 2019.

Viewing Trends by Yearly Household Income Level

Across the top 25 markets, Comscore examined viewership among households in three income groups: $0-$74,999 yearly household income, $75,000-$99,999 yearly household income and $100,000+ yearly household income.

Local news viewership jumped significantly from the same week in 2019, especially among middle-earning households in the $75,000-$99,999 yearly income range, which saw a 50 percent increase in viewership.

Looking at overall increase in average audience rather than the percentage increase, Comscore found that local news viewing in the top 25 markets increased by well over a million households making between $0 and $100,000 each year compared to this time in 2019. The $75k-$100k income group constitutes the smallest population of these three income breaks, only making up about 15 million households nationally, which is why it constitutes the largest percentage increase among the other income breaks, yet the smallest gross increase. However, these households were likely among those most impacted by stay-at-home mandates and the closure of non-essential businesses.

Looking at individual communities, Seattle and New York showed lower than average week-over-week increases than the national average when comparing the week of March 16, 2020 to the week of March 9, 2020. This is understandable as these regions were hit early and hardest by the coronavirus. During the week of March 16, 2020, viewing increases were most dramatic in San Francisco, Dallas, and other Midwest metropolitan areas.

Viewing Trends by Ethnicity

Changes in television viewership during the coronavirus pandemic can also be observed among Hispanic and Asian-American households. The increases were significantly higher when looking at the week of March 16, 2020 compared to the previous year. Viewing among Hispanic households is up 42 percent, while viewing in Asian households increased 62 percent.

Compared to the same week in 2019, there are an average of around two million more households tuned in to local newscasts in the top 25 television markets. Nearly half a million of these new viewing homes are Hispanic households.

"American households are watching more and more local news across key demographic segments. Advertisers and their agencies can fine-tune their media planning and buying by continuing to work with Comscore to understand these ongoing shifts in local television viewing as engagement remains at unprecedented levels," said Bill Livek, CEO, Comscore.

About Comscore

Comscore (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a trusted partner for planning, transacting and evaluating media across platforms. With a data footprint that combines digital, linear TV, over-the-top and theatrical viewership intelligence with advanced audience insights, Comscore allows media buyers and sellers to quantify their multiscreen behavior and make business decisions with confidence. A proven leader in measuring digital and TV audiences and advertising at scale, Comscore is the industry's emerging, third-party source for reliable and comprehensive cross-platform measurement. To learn more about Comscore, visit www.comscore.com.

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China will open-up the epicentre of its coronavirus pandemic Wuhan on Wednesday for outbound travel for the first time since the January 23 lockdown, as the country reported no new deaths from COVID-19, attaining a new milestone in the battle against the disease.

Just as China started opening-up the epicentre, concerns of rebound of COVID-19 was on the rise in the country as imported infections increased to 983 with 32 new confirmed cases, the National Health Commission said.

Also, 30 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were reported on the mainland on Monday. The NHC said 1,033 asymptomatic cases were still under medical observation.

Asymptomatic coronavirus cases are those who test positive for the virus but do not show any symptoms and have the potential to cause sporadic clusters of infections. Last week, China began disclosing the number of asymptomatic cases for the first time, after growing public concerns over the potential of "silent" carriers to spread the disease.

Wuhan, where coronavirus was first reported in December last year and then spread like wildfire to other parts of the world, would start flights and railway services on Wednesday, restoring a semblance of normalcy for its 11 million people who bore the brunt of the virus outbreak.

Hubei province for which Wuhan is the capital has already started outbound travel services.

For local residents, April 8 will see the resumption of normal life after more than two months of isolation, even as epidemiologists warned that it is not the time to completely lower the guard and ease on full-scale restrictions, especially for community-based epidemic control work, considering the looming asymptomatic patients and possible rebound in infections, official media reported.

While lifting harsh restrictions after the 76-day lockdown, officials asked local people to continue carrying out strict community-based monitoring and management, making sure that a rebound in new infections won't occur following the traffic resumption.

While local residents appeared excited about the opening, epidemiologists, local doctors and officials warned that it is not the time to cheer as the understanding on the virus is far from being sufficient and increases in new infection cases as well as in asymptomatic patients are also alarming, state-run Global Times reported.

Wuhan, which already resumed city-based transport services, will resume flight and train services to different parts of China on Wednesday.

Also Monday was a landmark moment as zero cases were reported for the first time in the country. The official death toll in China so far is 3,331 with a total number of 81,740 cases.

While China's figures of cases and fatalities of the COVID-19 remained far lower to the US and some of the EU countries, Chinese officials in recent weeks have been refuting allegations from top US officials that China has been under-reporting the cases and the fatalities.

China for the first time issued an official timeline of coronavirus on Monday in which it stated that coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan in "late December 2019" where the infection was listed as "pneumonia of unknown cause", but skirted the key question about its origin.

In late last December, the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control and Prevention detected cases of "pneumonia of unknown cause", state-run Xinhua agency reported, citing the 38-page timeline document.

China has faced criticism over COVID-19 crisis and Beijing has been accused of using its "propaganda" to hush-up coronavirus cases.

China and the US had a lengthy spat over origin of the virus.

While US President Donald Trump called COVID-19 as "China virus" and "Wuhan virus", Beijing said such allegations amounted to stigmatising China. Beijing said the origin of the COVID-19 can be determined only by scientific and professional views.

The US has accused China of delayed action resulting in the pandemic spreading to other countries, an allegation Beijing vehemently refuted asserting that it was working with the international community in an "open and highly responsible manner" to contain the global crisis.

According to estimates by the Johns Hopkins University, there are over 1.34 million confirmed coronavirus cases across the world and over 75,000 people have died of it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police in the former penal colony of Norfolk Island have warned they will throw residents in prison if they keep breaking coronavirus isolation rules.

Authorities are so fed up with continual breaches of quarantine orders they have put the Australian territory in lockdown and will consider further restrictions.

Norfolk Island was once considered the worst place of penal punishment in the English-speaking world - a hellhole so brutal that prisoners supposedly wept in sorrow when spared the hangman's noose.

Today, this tiny paradise in the Pacific Ocean is home to about 1,750 residents and relies primarily on a tourism industry which has been wiped out by COVID-19.

Norfolk Island covers just 35 square kilometres and sits 1,412km east of Evans Head on the NSW northern rivers.

Police in the former penal colony of Norfolk Island have warned they will throw residents in prison if they keep breaking coronavirus self-isolation rules. Norfolk is about 1,400km east of the Australian mainland and relies heavily on tourism

Norfolk Island has so far recorded no cases of coronavirus but those who have returned on flights from the mainland have been ordered to self-isolate for two weeks. The island went into lockdown on April 3, preventing most residents from going outside their homes

Norfolk's senior police officer Detective Sergeant Glenn Elder has warned he will lock up citizens who keep breaching public health orders. One of the two modern cells in Norfolk Island's police station is pictured

About 30 per cent off the territory's population is descended from the British sailors who mutinied on the Bounty and 1789 and hid on Pitcairn Island with their Tahitian wives before being resettled on Norfolk in 1856.

While Norfolk has no confirmed cases of coronavirus it has had 22 passengers from a inbound Brisbane flight in self-isolation and a state of emergency was declared on March 16.

Last Friday the island's senior police officer, Detective Sergeant Glenn Elder, ordered a lockdown at least as strict as those in place in mainland states and territories.

Sergeant Elder, the incident controller for the emergency, had warned the previous day 'consequences' were coming if islanders did not stop breaking isolation rules.

'It only takes one person to bring down all the hard work that is being done to keep this virus away from Norfolk Island,' Sergeant Elder said on local radio.

In recent weeks police had received reports of people in self-isolation holding parties and visitors delivering supplies to them lingering to have a beer.

'Truly, I'm just flabbergasted as to why people are just blatantly disregarding the measure we've put in place and putting the whole community at risk,' Sergeant Elder said.

The remains of the gaol on Norfolk Island which was once considered the worst penal institution in the British Empire. Some prisoners preferred death over its cruel daily regime

Norfolk Island is an Australian territory which covers just 35 square kilometres and sits 1,412km east of Evans Head on the NSW northern rivers

Breaches already attracted a $1,000 fine but when asked what he would do if islanders continued to break the rules Sergeant Elder said: 'I'll jail them'.

'If they breach more than once they're in my custody.'

The following morning Sergeant Elder was back on radio to say there had been further self-isolation breaches and the island would go into lockdown.

'I did speak about these breaches that have been happening on the island on a regular basis yesterday and I did say if they continued there would be consequences,' he said.

'And I'm afraid the consequences are that now the community will be going into a localised lockdown.'

Norfolk does not have the capacity to analyse coronavirus tests conducted on the island or to treat large numbers of people if they come down with the disease.

'There will be severe penalties for anyone breaching the lockdown,' Sergeant Elder said. 'This is a serious situation and it will be treated seriously by police.

Historic stone buildings from the penal colony era in the capital of Norfolk Island, Kingston

An aerial view of Norfolk Island showing Kingston and the lush surrounding farming land

'People can be placed in custody - in prison - for breaching this and that will be undertaken by my officers.'

Any spate of serious continued breaches could lead to a shortage of places to hold offenders in custody.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

The local police station has two cells which can hold a total of four prisoners and usually serve as an overnight lock-up for minor offenders, a periodic detention centre and short-term jail.

The Norfolk Island Police Force (NIPF) has six sworn Australian Federal Police officers on two-year rotations, one local special constable and one person in administrative support.

Sergeant Elder has asked the federal government for additional resources.

Norfolk has been dealing with repeat criminal offenders on and off for almost two centuries.

The second white settlement on Norfolk (1825-1855) was a penal colony with a disciplinary regime considered the worst in the British Empire.

Norfolk, which had been a penal colony from 1788 to 1814, was reoccupied as a place of secondary punishment to send 'the worst description of convicts.'

New South Wales Governor Thomas Brisbane said 'the felon who is sent there is forever excluded from all hope of return.'

His successor, Ralph Darling, decreed that 'every man should be worked in irons' and Norfolk should be 'a place of the extremest punishment short of death.'

Convicts were starved, tortured and flogged by corrupt overseers.

Australia has recorded 5,896 cases of coronavirus and 46 deaths from the disease

Norfolk Island Inmates spared hanging after an 1834 uprising were said to have wept in sorrow, while 13 convicts dropped to their knees in thanks to God when sentenced to their deaths

Inmates spared hanging after an 1834 uprising reportedly wept at their fate, while 13 convicts dropped to their knees in thanks to God when sentenced to their deaths.

The cells in Norfolk's modern police station are clean, safe and large, unlike those in what is now known as the New Gaol built between 1838 and 1847 near Slaughter Bay.

The New Gaol had five stone wings radiating from a central building to form a pentagon.

Each wing contained rows of stone-floored cells, typically 1.8 metres long by 1.5 metres wide with a 3.3 metre ceiling. Up to three prisoners shared a cell.

Isolation in an underground 'dumb cell' was likened to being buried alive.

On a good day a convict would receive 680 grams of maize meal, 454 grams of salt meat, 907 grams of sweet potato, 284 grams of sugar, 14 grams of salt and a lemon.

As a penal colony Norfolk housed convicts who had reoffended on the mainland; now the island has an arrangement with NSW to jail its convicted criminals.
State authorities announced charges in eight cases where defendants had violated Gov. Phil Murphys order to stay home to curb the spread of the coronavirus, a statement issued Monday says.

The message from the state Attorney Generals Office also said authorities in Newark handed out 26 summonses on Sunday alone. And four non-essential businesses were ordered closed as they continued operating despite the order.

Murphy has shared a few choice words in press updates about the people violating the orders, who are all facing a charge for that violation - though some have several other charges.

To all the jackasses out there and all the knuckleheads out there, get with the program," he said Monday.

To all the jackasses out there who we now have to carry  get with the program. We know who you are and we will not relent until we have 100% compliance. pic.twitter.com/b0ic1maDgT  Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) April 6, 2020

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage

Part of the charges announced Monday include a man present at the Pink Floyd cover band show that was shut down in Rumson. Twenty or 30 people attended before police broke up the porch. An attorney for the host said it was a misunderstanding that the crowd showed up, and the Facebook Live concert was titled Stay at Home.

Ryan Sheftel, 46, of Rumson, was charged with disorderly conduct after the Saturday incident, when he allegedly shouted, Welcome to Nazi Germany at police breaking up the crowd.

And in Hamilton, Mercer County, a New York man is accused of spitting on police officers who arrested him after he crashed his vehicle into a house.

Dennis Steward was taken into custody after crashing into a house, and charged with DWI and terroristic threats.Hamilton Police

Dennis Steward, 52, of Valley Stream, New York, crashed into a house on South Olden Avenue in Hamilton, police said. Officers who responded to the crash arrested Steward for driving while intoxicated and sent him to a hospital for an evaluation after he complained of chest pains.

During the transport to St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton, Steward told EMTs and officers he had the coronavirus and intended to infect them with it. He claimed he had just returned from visiting a Bronx patient who died from the virus.

He later spit at medical staff and police in the hospital and was sedated before a medical evaluation, Hamilton Police said. Steward is in the Mercer County jail on charges of making terroristic threats during an emergency, DWI and throwing bodily fluid at a law enforcement officer.

Also charged across the state were:

Marco Costa, 28, of Harrison, Hudson County was charged by Kearny police with making terroristic threats during an emergency, attempted burglary, possession of a syringe and throwing bodily fluid at a law enforcement officer. Police approached him Saturday after a report of someone pulling on car door handles. While being handcuffed, Costa told the officers he had coronavirus and coughed at them, the statement says.

Derrick E. Hughes, 32, of Woolwich, Gloucester County, allegedly violated a restraining order and was arrested Sunday. While being fingerprinted, he allegedly spat at cops, and breathed heavily on one officer saying he had the coronavirus and hoped the officer would catch it. Hughes is charged with violating a restraining order, terroristic threats during an emergency and throwing bodily fluid at an officer.

Terrance Edwards, 34, of New Brunswick, was accused of trying to break into a home in the city while naked and wielding a knife. After that break-in, he went to a neighboring home and was unsuccessful in entering there. When officers arrived to arrest the nude Edwards, he yelled that he had the coronavirus. Edwards was charged with burglary and weapons charges.

Anekia Dawkins, 35, of Morristown, was charged with violating the executive order for holding a party of more than 10 people at her home Saturday night.

Tyeashia Henderson, 20, of Hillside, was charged with violating the executive order for holding a party with about 20 people on Sunday.

Steven Nunez, 22, of Clifton; Tiffany Colon, 21, of Clifton; and Valerie Saez, 22, of Passaic, were charged with violating the emergency orders after a West Milford police officer found them parked in a vehicle at the Clinton Road Reservoir boat launch after hours.

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A hearse car backs into a refrigerated truck to pick up deceased bodies outside of the Brooklyn Hospital on April 1, 2020 in New York City.

ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

New York City could start building trenches in a city park to bury the bodies of people who have died from COVID-19 as a contingency plan if the death rate doesn't drop soon, a city councilman said Monday.

"The goal is to avoid scenes like those in Italy, where the military was forced to collect bodies from churches and even off the streets," tweeted Mark Levine, the chair of the New York city council health committee.

A spokeswoman for the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, told Business Insider: "There is currently no plan to inter in city parks. As part of the wider surge plan, this is mentioned as a possible scenario."

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

If the death rate from the novel coronavirus doesn't drop soon, New York City could start digging trenches in a city park to temporarily bury the bodies of those who have died from COVID-19, a city councilman said Monday.

"This likely will be done by using a NYC park for burials (yes you read that right)," Mark Levine, the chair of the New York city council health committee, tweeted. "Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line. It will be done in a dignified, orderly  and temporary  manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take."

He added: "The goal is to avoid scenes like those in Italy, where the military was forced to collect bodies from churches and even off the streets."

In a follow-up tweet, Levine clarified that the park burials were a "contingency plan" that would not have to be implemented if the death rate continues to overwhelm city resources.

The Italian military used trucks to transport "dozens of coffins" to cremation sites in the country from the city of Bergamo in northern Italy, the worst-hit city in the country, because local morgues could not handle the number of bodies. At least 15,000 people have died from the disease in Italy, according to Johns Hopkins researchers.

Story continues

New York's medical examiner said there is no plan to use NYC parks and Gov. Cuomo said he hasn't heard anything about it

Aja Worthy-Davis, a spokeswoman for the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), told Business Insider: "There is currently no plan to inter in city parks."

"As part of the wider surge plan, this is mentioned as a possible scenario. So I can't speak for him, but that might be the document he's citing," she said. "But at this point in time, there is no plan to inter at city parks. We currently have adequate space for decedents."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo similarly said he has "heard nothing about that," NBC News' Allan Smith reported.

"I've heard a lot of wild rumors, but I've heard nothing about the city burying people in parks," Cuomo said during his daily press conference on Monday.

In a series of tweets, Levine explained how the number of bodies has overwhelmed the city's hospitals, and warned that "the freezers at OCME facilities in Manhattan and Brooklyn will soon be full."

Worthy-Davis said OCME has provided 45 refrigerated 53-foot semi-trailer trucks to hospitals for added temporary storage, (not 80 as Levine had claimed). The trailers can store around 45 bodies each, and up to 100 if shelving is added.

In total, OCME has expanded its storage capacity from 900 in its morgues across the five boroughs of the city to more than 3,500. She noted that the Office of Emergency Management has also provided refrigerated trucks to hospitals.

"We're providing what is essentially a morgue extension so that decedents can be processed as quickly as possible and families can make arrangements they wish to make," Worthy-Davis said.

A contingency plan from 2008 calls for the use of prison labor to dig mass graves

According to New York City's existing contingency plan for a "biological outbreak," which was created in 2008 over Bird Flu fears, prison labor would be used to dig mass graves to bury victims.

Inmates on Rikers Island would be transported to Hart Island to dig mass graves where the dead could be buried, and cremation efforts would be increased, according to a previous Business Insider report.

Worthy-Davis said the city is using Hart Island. "We continue to inter at Hart Island, which is the location of New York City's potters field. Some of those decedents are possibly COVID-19 decedents."

Levine did not mention Hart Island or prison labor but instead called for volunteers to help.

"As New York City continues to appeal to the nation for help, we need to ask not just for doctors and nurses and respiratory therapists," he tweeted. "We also need mortuary affairs staff. This is tough to talk about and maybe tough to ask for. But we have no choice. The stakes are too high."

"Deathcare" workers in New York City are "overwhelmed" by the number of bodies of people who have died from COVID-19.

"I don't know how many more bodies I can take," Patrick Marmo, a New York licensed embalmer based in Brooklyn, told Business Insider's Dave Mosher. "No one in the New York City area possibly has enough equipment to care for human remains of this magnitude."

Health and government officials have warned that the next two weeks could be particularly bleak as the number of deaths is expected to rise across the country, but particularly in hotspots like New York. The virus has infected more than 122,000 in the state of New York and killed at least 3,048 people in NYC.

"Nothing matters more in this crisis than saving the living. But we need to face the gruesome reality that we need more resources to manage our dead as well. Or the pain of this crisis will be compounded almost beyond comprehension," Levine tweeted.

This story has been updated with further comment from the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Police and a medical staff are seen at a station set up for checking up health condition of all people going into Ho Chi Minh City, April 6, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran.

Vietnam reported four new coronavirus infections Tuesday evening, three of them overseas returnees and one linked to HCMC hotspot Buddha Bar & Grill.

"Patient 247," a 28-year-old man residing in Ward 1, Binh Thanh District, HCMC, works with two people connected to the HCMCs Buddha Bar & Grill, the nations second biggest Covid-19 hotspot. He manages the office of Gia Dinh Shoes Co. Ltd. at 20A Dong Khoi Street, Thanh Phu Commune, Vinh Phu District, Dong Nai Province. The company has another office in An Phu Dong Ward, District 2, HCMC.

As a colleague of two infected Brazilians who also work for the same company, the office manager had come into close contact with them.

One of his colleagues, "Patient 124," is a Brazilian man, 52, who lives in HCMCs District 2. On March 14, he joined a party at the Buddha Bar & Grill in Thao Dien Ward of HCMCs District 2 and was quarantined on March 22 before testing Covid-19 positive.

The other colleague, "Patient 151," is a 45-year-old Brazilian woman residing in Thao Dien.

After "Patient 124" was confirmed, "Patient 247" was sent to a quarantine camp in Dong Nai on March 24. Two days later, he tested negative for the novel coronavirus.

However, at the quarantine camp, he had stayed in the same room as four others whod also been in close contact with Patients 124 and 151. On April 6, his samples were tested again, and this time, the results came back Covid-19 positive. He has been transferred to the Dong Nai Lung Hospital for treatment.

The four people whod been quarantined in the same room as "Patient 247" will continue to stay in quarantine for another 14 days. For now, they have yet to show any Covid-19 symptoms.

"Patient 247" brought the number of cases related to the Buddha Bar & Grill to 19. HCMC's Health Department on Tuesday identified a 43-year-old British man working as a Vietnam Airlines pilot and a 45-year-old Brazilian man, both residing in the city's District 2, as the transmission sources of the bar hotspot. Both are still under treatment.

The nations biggest hotspot to date, the Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi, is linked to 44 cases.

The other three cases confirmed Tuesday evening are Vietnamese returning from abroad who were quarantined on arrival.

"Patient 246" is a 33-year-old man from Yen Thanh District in the central province of Nghe An. He works as a chef in Moscow, Russia, and returned to Vietnam on Aeroflot flight SU290, seat 49F, on March 25. He tested positive on April 6 and is undergoing treatment at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanois Dong Anh District.

"Patient 248," 20, flew from the U.S. to Vietnam, transiting in Japan on Japan Airlines flight JL079. After landing in HCMC March 23, he was sent to a quarantine camp at a university dormitory in Thu Duc District and stayed in the same room with two other people. On April 5, his samples tested positive. His two roommates have been placed under quarantine for a further 14 days while he has been sent to the Cu Chi District field hospital.

"Patient 249" is a 55-year-old man who flew back from the U.S., transited in Hong Kong, and arrived in Vietnam on March 22. After complaining of a headache and fever, his samples were tested and found positive. He is being treated at Hanois National Hospital of Tropical Diseases.

The latest additions have taken Vietnams Covid-19 tally to 249, of whom 122 have been discharged, including 27 on Tuesday.

Of the cases Vietnam has recorded, 156 are overseas returnees. The remaining 93 contracted the virus via close contact with the source of transmission, including 63 from the two hotspots of Buddha Bar and Bach Mai Hospital.

The Covid-19 pandemic has so far claimed almost 76,000 lives as it hit 209 countries and territories.
Shelby Small was on track to finish college debt-free, travel, start a career in fashion and look for a life partner. Then, her father fell gravely ill.

The following year, at age 23, Small put aside her studies and left her full-time job to help her mother care for her father, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, in their Laurel, Maryland, home.

Small's life telescoped inward. While her friends were living the college life and preparing for careers, she was focusing on monitoring her father's BiPAP machine (a device that helps him breathe) and changing his cannula (plastic tubing that delivers oxygen) in the daily struggle to keep him alive.

"At first it was frustrating, because you're always told when you're in your 20s, and especially your early 20s, that this is when you're supposed to take advantage of what's offered," she said. "You're supposed to be getting your life together."

Taking care of an ill or disabled family member at any age is taxing, psychologically, physically and financially. But caregivers in their 20s and 30s face additional challenges. Their careers are less likely to be established than those of middle-aged people. Among millennials who have jobs outside the home, one-third earn less than $30,000 per year. They are less likely than those in older groups to be married or to have reached other milestones of adulthood.

Their lives are challenging, at best. The arrival of a virus that has a high fatality rate for people over 60 with underlying health conditions has made it even more so.

When the coronavirus struck, Small said she and her mother "had to talk to my dad's in-home hospice workers about what precautions are in place to keep everyone healthy, since they see so many patients every day."

She knows that social distancing and extreme hygiene may seem excessive to some, but when dealing with someone with a compromised immune system, it's necessary to keep them healthy. "I have literally practiced these things for the past five-plus years," she said.

While most family caregivers are older - the average age in 2015 was 49 - nearly a quarter, or about 10 million people, are millennials, born between 1980 and 1996, according to AARP.

And, unlike older caregivers, they have few peers who can relate.

Small's life as a caregiver has been extremely isolating. "When you try to talk to your friends about it, it's kind of awkward, because you're dealing with [a] parent transitioning into death. . . . Most people my age aren't necessarily dealing with that, and so people kind of get very quiet, or they basically just stop talking to you because they don't know how to relate to you."

She says she feels empathy for young people who are now getting a crash course in the disconnection she has experienced. Some have had to return home, away from their peers, their careers and the lives they had planned.

Small had other plans, too. She had worked as an administrative assistant, but she often needed time away to care for her father. She believes her age made it harder for her employer to understand when she needed time off.

"It was almost as if I was taking care of a relative with the fluinstead of [being] someone who had a parent who was in the process of dying," she said. "I would be in the middle of an appointment with his nurse or I would be giving him his medication [when] they would literally email me . . . about things that I didn't think were really important, like address changes or 'What do you think of this layout for the website?' It was never 'How are you' or 'I hope things are going well,' which was hurtful, because I'd worked there since I was 19."

She never returned to her job.

The pressure on younger caregivers is evidence that the old paradigms don't work anymore, said Josephine Kalipeni, director of policy at Caring Across Generations, an organization advocating for greater government support.

"The caregiving situation that we're facing today was built on the presumption of a full-time, stay-at-home caregiver," she said. But millennials "are having to cut back on work hours, drain their savings, move and give up promotions, all because you have to caregive."

Jennifer Levin, 39, started a Facebook group called Caregiver Collective after she began caring for her father in her early 30s.

More than 500 members from around the world, most under 40, have joined the three-year-old group in search of community and practical advice.

"A lot of people have really never admitted what they go through out loud," Levin said.

Since the onset of the coronavirus, Levin said, a record number of members are attending the group's online video chat, looking to connect. Quarantine and self-isolation have placed some at home 24 hours a day with the person they care for.

"There is no delineation of a private life at all, which was hard enough to balance before," she said. "Others are trying to care for someone who does not live with them and figuring out how to manage caregiving without getting physically close to that person."

Still, members of the Facebook group, which Small belongs to, seem to have a more positive attitude than other caregivers, Levin said.

"In other support groups, in person or online, when it's a lot of older people, there's a lot of bitching that goes on, and I've noticed in this group there's no negativity," she said. "There's a feeling that this is hard, but there's no 'My life sucks.' . . . I wonder if it's a generational difference in how we process adversity."

Monica Moreno, senior director of care and support for the Alzheimer's Association, said this response is consistent with some of the character traits often used to define this generation. "They're socially conscious - they support causes they're passionate about. Caregiving can be viewed as a cause," she said in an email. "They are interested in making a difference. They value work-life balance - this is a really important concept to embrace if you are going to have a good attitude about caregiving. They are compassionate."

Levin agreed, noting that another defining characteristic of millennials is their tendency to be closer with their parents than previous generations. "We have a different relationship with our parents than older generations do, and I think there's a closeness where we feel more likely to step forward and say, 'I'll take care of my parents.' We're not someone who left the house and said, 'See ya, I'm going to have my own life.' "

Aisha Adkins of Dunwoody, Georgia, never had the chance to move out of her parents' home. At 27, she had graduated from college and was looking into jobs and graduate schools when her 57-year-old mother was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. A paid caregiver was too expensive, and her mother was too young for Medicare. Because of her father's income, the family didn't qualify for Medicaid. His job came with health benefits, so Adkins stepped in.

"I thought I was going to live the life, but yeah, things changed quickly," said Adkins, who is now 35 and has been caring for her mother for eight years. She cooks, cleans, does laundry, manages medication, schedules doctor's appointments and helps her mother bathe, eat, dress and get in and out of bed. "Even when I'm away from the house, I'm calling in to give medication reminders."

On paper, she knows she might look like a slacker. "There's kind of a running joke about millennials living with their parents until they're 45," she said. "It stings a little bit, because there's an assumption of laziness and lack of ambition associated with that."

Adkins doesn't know how long her role as a caregiver will continue or if she'll have to pick it up again with her father. And if it does end, she doesn't know how she will forge an independent life.

Adkins is unfazed by the quarantine mentality now gripping the nation. "I'm used to freaking out every time someone coughs or sneezes, so it's nothing new for me. What's interesting for me is to see the rest of the world morph into a similar mind-set."

She worries the pandemic will strain resources such as Medicaid and Social Security disability in the short term, but hopes it will eventually improve the lives of families like hers.

"When people are exposed to food scarcity and sickness that we've never been exposed to before, it changes voters' minds, and it can change policymakers' minds," she said. "We need paid medical leave and family leave. We need a better long-term support system and better long-term care. I'm hoping that this exposes the flaws that exist and we're able to make rapid changes in order to protect the most vulnerable population."

Despite the challenges, millennial caregivers say the experience is not all bad. Jeffery Kearney, 36, started taking care of his mother as a teenager in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and picked a university close to them so he could race home when needed. Now a Washington D.C. resident, he still helps by coordinating doctor's appointments and speaking to hospital representatives.

He's also representative of the change millennials are bringing to caregiving. Where two-thirds of caregivers in older generations are white, just 44 percent of millennial caregivers are, while 27 percent are Hispanic/Latino, 18 percent are African American and 8 percent are Asian American/Pacific Islander. Nearly half, 47 percent, are men, compared with 40 percent of caregivers overall, according to AARP.

Because of the role that Kearney took on in his mother's care, he said, "my mom and dad and I and brother are abnormally close. I imagine that having to take on those responsibilities added to the connectivity that we all shared. . . . I feel like I know them in a way many people don't know their parents. I feel like I understand them, have a clarity that many people don't have when they're young."

Natasha Small, Shelby's mother, said her daughter's help has been crucial, but she and her husband find it devastating to see her so sequestered at such a young age.

"This is horrendous work, and . . . it breaks my heart that this is the kind of harvest that she's reaping at this particular moment in her life. But I do believe it gives her a more mature perspective on her life," she said.

It has also given Natasha a new perspective on her daughter. "She said, 'It's my dad, these are his last days, I'm going to be here,' " Natasha said. "I was really surprised at how strong she was, because she's still my baby . . . to just see how she's weathered through this and how she has really and truly become more like a friend."
A country-wise assessment of Covid-19 preparedness will reveal four clear winners -- Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea. The Asian countries closely observed the events that were unfolding in China and swiftly swung into action. They had learned key lessons from the SARS outbreak, which had erupted around two decades ago, Wired reported.

These countries rushed to tighten immigration, stationed public health workers to trace contacts of those infected, directed hospitals to gear up and proactively put out accurate information.

They flattened their curves before the rest of the world understood there would be curves to flatten, the Wired report noted. However, figures from recent weeks show that the curves have taken a sharp turn for the worse. The number of new infections in these places is inching upward, the report said.

The number of new infections is still relatively low when compared to countries like the United States, which had close to 1000 new cases on March and nearly 30,000 new cases on April 2, or even Italy where cases climaxed on March 21 with 5,557 cases, the report adds.

Whats causing panic in the would-be success-story places is a sudden upward trend in the number of infections. These wicked new numbers are arriving from somewhere else altogether and this pattern can offer clues into the phase that lies ahead for the US, the report notes.

The main difficulty lies in the fact that viruses traverse aggressively beyond geographical boundaries. So, these countries are now witnessing, what the report terms reimportation of the disease  infections that arise because of inbound travelers from places that arent winning their fight against Covid-19.

Initially, some cases from China penetrated the barriers in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan and spread through communities. This continued through February and caused much panic.

That was worrisome, but the general escalation remained slow. But a lot has changed since the pandemic acquired transnational status and now, infections are making an unwelcome return.

There were just a small number, and then they kind of disappeared, Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong told Wired.

But at the end of February and early March we started to get more imported cases from Europe. Hong Kong got a lot from Europe, the US, and other parts of the world, and Taiwan got a lot from the US, he added.

This resulted in a handful of fresh unlinked local infections, causing the numbers to increase again.

Up until then, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan had managed to keep meticulous containment within their borders, keeping track of almost all infections, aggressively following contact tracing and isolation practices, the report said.

Taiwan had connected its immigration database to its national health system while Singapore imposed heavy fines for anyone violation social distancing and published detailed findings, the report said.

The problem is, you dont pick up every single person, especially when the people with mild symptoms know if they get tested theyre going to be isolated, and their friends and family are going to be isolated, Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong was quoted as saying by Wired.

The viruss ostensible comeback will result in different containment actions in different areas. Existing measures in Hong Kong were stringent already. Meanwhile, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan have all put in place even tighter social distancing measures and immigration checks.

Nationals who are allowed to enter will likely be put in 14-day quarantines and will be closely watched thanks to applications on their smartphones, the report added.

Coronavirus, however, is not going away for good anytime soom.

Were not going to eliminate it. Were going to have to face the prospect that it is always going to be around, but hopefully in small numbers, until we can identify an effective treatment or vaccine, Cowling adds.
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Two memos circulated in the White House in late January and late February show the Trump administration was well aware of the potential dangers of the coming spread of the coronavirus, despite public presidential assurances that all was well. Both memos were authored by President Donald Trumps trade adviser Peter Navarro. Each outlined, with growing alarm, the coming impact of the virus, and each missive was reportedly circulated around the top levels of the White House. The warnings were clear: The risk of a worst-case pandemic scenario should not be overlooked, Navarros memo dated Jan. 29 cautioned.

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The Jan. 29 memo signed by Navarro and addressed to the National Security Council makes plain the stakes of the pandemic. The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil, the memo said. This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans. The New York Times reports that the document was sent to the NSC and reached top White House officials, including thenacting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, but it is not known if it reached Trump himself. The Jan. 29 dateline on the memo was the same day that Trump named the coronavirus task force to respond to the looming pandemic. The task force is chaired by Vice President Mike Pence and includes many of the officials who are now daily fixtures at the White House briefings on the pandemic response, including Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci.

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A week before the memo, on Jan. 22, Trump told CNBC, We have it totally under control and Its going to be just fine. Navarros missive is one of the first reported documents that gives some insight into what the people around the president, and potentially Trump himself, knew in the early stages, and what information the White House was responding to, despite public denials that there was anything to worry about. In the document, Navarro refuted what would become one of Trumps preferred talking points on the coronavirus, comparing its impact to that of the flu. It is unlikely the introduction of the coronavirus into the U.S. population in significant numbers will mimic a seasonal flu event with relatively low contagion and mortality rates, the memo reads. Trump would continue to use the faulty flu analogy for more than six weeks. Were talking about a much smaller range of deaths than from the flu, Trump said as recently as early March.

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Two days after the memos warning, on Jan. 31, Trump placed travel restrictions on non-American citizens who had recently visited China. Days later, Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Trump during an interview, Coronavirus, how concerned are you? Well, we pretty much shut it down coming in from China, Trump responded. A week later, on Feb. 10, Trump adopted a new line that the warm weather would prompt the virus to go away. Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away, Trump told supporters at a campaign rally. I think the numbers are going to get progressively better as we go along, he said in a TV interview a little more than a week later.

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The second memo, dated Feb. 23, which was unsigned but attributed to Navarro, addressed the president directly. In it, the Trump adviser warned of the increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 12 million souls. The same day, Trump told reporters on the White House lawn, We have it very much under control in this country. The memo shows the early seeds of what would later become the governments multibillion-dollar rescue package to try to stabilize the economy. The New York Times reports that the memo called for an increase [in] funding for the government to purchase personal protective equipment for health care workers, estimating they would need at least a billion face masks over a four-to-six-month period. Any member of the Task Force who wants to be cautious about appropriating funds for a crisis that could inflict trillions of dollars in economic damage and take millions of lives has come to the wrong administration, the memo said. Five days later, on Feb. 28, Trump declared in South Carolina that Democratic criticism of the governments response was the Democrats new hoax.

Its an unforeseen problem, Trump said of the pandemic a week later, on March 6. What a problem. Came out of nowhere.
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(Kitco News) - Coeur Mining, Inc. (NYSE: CDE) is ramping down operations at its Palmarejo gold-silver complex in Mexico, but all of its mines in the U.S. are still operating, the company announced Tuesday.

In light of the temporary suspension at Palmarejo and ongoing uncertainty regarding COVID-19, Coeur has decided to withdraw its full-year 2020 guidance, Coeur said in a prepared statement. The company will continue targeting safe execution of its operating plans and re-evaluate instituting full-year 2020 guidance as the year progresses.

The Palmarejo temporary shutdown is the result of a decree from the Mexican government halting all non-essential business until April 30, Coeur said. The company said it got guidance from the government on Monday saying that mining does not qualify as essential. A reduced workforce will remain at the site to maintain infrastructure, environmental compliance and provide security.

Meanwhile, Coeur said, precious-metals mining is considered essential to support infrastructure in every U.S. state where it operates  Nevada, Alaska and South Dakota. As a result, these mines continue to operate, and there have been no confirmed COVID-19 cases. Further, Coeur said it has not had any disruptions to its supply chain at the mines that are still open.

The company said it has undertaken a number of steps to help the global effort to combat the virus, including travel restrictions, temperature checks and health questionnaires, increased cleaning, social distancing, limiting meetings to no more than 10 people, extended work-rotation schedules to reduce travel to and from mine sites, and working remotely when possible, such as corporate headquarters.

Coeur produced 359,418 ounces of gold and 11.7 million ounces of silver in 2019, as well as zinc and lead, according to the companys fourth-quarter earnings report released in February. Palmarejo accounted for 111,932 gold ounces and 6.8 million silver ounces.
Elected officials and workers from three different Bay Area cities announced Tuesday they're pushing for emergency paid sick leave ordinances to protect essential workers during the stay-at-home order due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

According to San Francisco Supervisor Gordon Mar, San Jose City Councilwoman Maya Esparza, and Oakland City Councilwoman Sheng Thao, workers like grocery clerks, janitors, and delivery people urgently need the protections in order to ensure their family's health and their own.

The ordinances would allow for workers at large companies, defined as having 500 employees or more, to use the emergency paid sick leave if they must be quarantined, have COVID-19 symptoms, or are caring for children or someone who is sick.

The ordinances aim to build on the federal Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act, signed by President Donald Trump last month. The act requires that small- and mid-sized businesses, defined as ones with less than 500 employees, provide workers an additional two weeks of paid sick leave during public health emergencies.

In San Francisco, Mar has already introduced an emergency ordinance to enact the paid sick leave and the city's Board of Supervisors are set to vote on the ordinance during Tuesday afternoon's meeting.

In San Jose, Esparza said councilmembers there were also set to vote on a paid sick leave ordinance during their meeting Tuesday.

In Oakland, a paid sick leave ordinance is underway but hasn't yet been introduced.

Esparza said because of the pandemic, residents have become reliant on essential workers, as well as gig workers, like Uber or Lyft drivers and delivery people.

"In the time of global pandemic, we're more reliant on these workers more than ever and so we owe it to them to ensure that they're covered by this policy," she said.

"When Congress took action to expand paid sick leave for workers, they left out more than 50 percent of our workforce by exempting the largest employers. This carveout for corporate America during a time of crisis is inexcusable," Mar said.

"When sick people have to choose between their livelihoods or their health, we're all worse off. When parents have to choose between a paycheck or staying home with their kid when schools are closed, we're all worse off," he said.

"These workers, who are predominantly people of color, are not only on the frontlines of this health crisis, but will be, and also are, among the most hardest hit," said Matthew Napoli, policy director for Thao. "The health of one of us is really dependent on the health of all of us."

"If I had to quarantine myself, how would I pay my rent?" asked Keven Adams, a private security officer in the Bay Area. "We have to choose between staying at home or paying our bills. It's a rough situation."

Mar said San Francisco Mayor London Breed has already voiced support for the ordinance. Additionally, San Jose Mayor Liccardo is also supporting the San Jose ordinance.

The elected officials are hoping the local ordinances can set the stage for state legislation on the matter when the Legislature returns to session.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
UPDATED Thursday, April 9: Vancouver police ID officer who fired at shooting suspect during pursuit

***

A shooting suspect is believed to have fired at a Vancouver police officer chasing him early Tuesday, prompting the officer to return fire, police said.

The man remains at large, police said.

The officer came upon an apparent shooting about 1 a.m., in which a driver appeared to have shot at another driver from inside his car, according to Vancouver police.

The officer followed the first driver, a man, who eventually began driving west in the eastbound lanes of Fourth Plain Boulevard, according to police. The second driver, a woman, followed.

At some point, the officer believed the man fired a shot at him, according to police. The officer returned fire, Vancouver police said, without elaborating.

The man eventually got onto Interstate 5, crossing into Oregon while traveling south in the northbound lanes.

The officer stopped to be treated for minor injuries from flying glass, police said. The woman also pulled over and spoke with police. She and the man are in a relationship, police said.

The mans car was later seen on northbound I-5 and was found unoccupied near the interstate and the Vancouver campus of the Portland VA Medical Center.

Authorities searched the area but havent found the man. They have identified him but have not released his name.

No injuries, other than those suffered by the officer, have been reported. Police dont believe theres a threat to the public.

The officer who fired his weapon has been put on critical incident leave, which is standard practice after police shootings. He has not been publicly identified.

The incident is under investigation.

-- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015

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NEW YORK and LEHI, Utah, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ShopKeep , a top-rated tablet-to-cloud payments and point of sale platform chosen by tens of thousands of independent retailers and restaurants today announced a partnership with Lendio , the nation's largest free marketplace for small business loans, to provide access to relief funds to small businesses throughout the U.S. through the CARES Act and Paycheck Protection Program.

In an effort to rapidly extend relief efforts to small businesses within the U.S. both in and outside its customer base, ShopKeep's partnership with Lendio is open to any business with 500 employees or fewer. Lendio's no-cost, simple application process and fast turnaround time will make it both easy and quick for small businesses to get SBA-backed funding from the CARES Act to cover payroll expenses, rent, mortgage interest payments, insurance costs, and/or debt during COVID-19.

"Over the past month the entire team at ShopKeep has shifted its focus to doing whatever we can to help small businesses navigate through these challenging times," said Michael DeSimone, CEO of ShopKeep. "The team continues to explore opportunities to help these businesses adapt to the new environment and will continuously be launching new enhancements as quickly as possible."

In addition to its partnership with Lendio, ShopKeep has also made its eCommerce and Online Ordering tools freely available to all retailers and restaurants on its platform, and is also offering free software upgrades to all customers for the next 3 months.

About ShopKeep

ShopKeep empowers tens of thousands of businesses to thrive in the modern economy by enabling them to take payments and manage their operations smarter, quicker, and easier. ShopKeep merchants are able to easily manage inventory, optimize staffing, and access real-time sales reports and customer information all from one, seamless, cloud-based platform. ShopKeep's award-winning customer care team is available 24/7 and provides robust support to businesses in the retail, quick serve, and full service restaurant & bar space. ShopKeep is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Portland (OR), Chicago (IL), and Belfast (NIR). Visit www.ShopKeep.com to learn more about our small business software. You can also join the conversation on the ShopKeep blog and follow us @ShopKeep on Twitter.

About Lendio

Lendio is a free online marketplace that leverages machine learning to help business owners find the right small business loans within minutes. With a network of over 75 lenders offering multiple loan products and over 100,000 small business loans funded, Lendio's marketplace is the largest in the country and the center of small business lending. For every new loan facilitated on Lendio's marketplace platform, Lendio Gives, an employee contribution and employer matching program, provides a microloan to a low-income entrepreneur around the world through Kiva.org . More information about Lendio is available at www.lendio.com . Information about Lendio franchising opportunities can be found at www.lendiofranchise.com .

Contact: Emily Polner, [email protected]

SOURCE ShopKeep

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In Kyiv, during the past 24 hours, the number of people infected with coronavirus increased by 12 people. One person died. Totally, there are 279 diseased in the capital as 112 Ukraine TV channel reported citing Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko.

The number of Kyiv citizens infected with coronavirus during the last 24 hours increased by 12. Four of them are children. And a medical worker. One case during the last day is lethal. Totally, there are 279 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection, Klitschko said.

He noted that three women at the age of 34 up to 41 and two three-year-old girls are infected. Besides, five men at the age of 31 up to 67 are infected. And two boys at the age of six and 15.

A 36-year-old person died.

The doctors of Oleksandrivsky fought for the life of a man for almost two weeks. He was on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). But the lungs of a man were afflicted. That is why they could not save him, Kyiv mayor said.

Two patients were hospitalized. Another 10 are treated at home, at self-isolation, under control of the doctors. The majority of Kyiv citizens, whose diagnosis was confirmed during the past 24 hours, did not come abroad recently. They were infected in Ukraine.

As we reported, the number of coronavirus cases in Ukraine has increased to 1,462 cases. Ukraine observed 45 deaths, 28 patients successfully recovered. Over the last 24 hours, 143 new cases have been recorded.

On March 13, the government closed the border for foreigners. Starting from midnight on March 17, Ukraine closed all types of movement through the state border within the measures on the fight against coronavirus pandemic. The ban was introduced for international railway, air and bus traffic. However, the evacuation of the Ukrainians continued. On March 25, the Cabinet of Ministers extended quarantine for 30 days, up to April 24. Besides, the state border was completely closed on March 28.
9X Medias all time hits Bollywood music channel 9X Jalwa is now also available on Indias only free direct-to-home service, DD Free Dish. 9X Jalwa can be viewed on DD Free Dish at LCN #64.

Nitin Sharma, Executive Vice-President, Distribution, 9X Media, said, We are pleased that 9X Jalwa will now be widely available across a large number of households through DD Free Dish. The subscribers of DD Free Dish can now enjoy their daily dose of hit Bollywood songs which are aired on 9X Jalwa. The Channel has received a fantastic response from the viewers since the very beginning making 9X Jalwa one of the most preferred channels for all time hit Bollywood music.

9X Jalwa Programming Head, Abbas Syed said, The music curation and the special programming of Jalwa are targeted towards the young music lovers. We are very excited to have Jalwa on DD Free Dish and have put together some special music blocks and also reintroduced the popular and funny animated characters - Halkat Sawaal that our audiences can enjoy, have a good laugh while being safe at home during this lockdown period. Music has the power to heal and lift the spirits and our endeavour would be to do just that!

Launched on February 25, 2012, 9X Jalwa has a strong social media connect across all the digital platforms. The channel is widely available across cable networks, direct-to-home platforms as well as OTT platforms.

So tune into 9X Jalwa to enjoy the perfectly curated all time hit Bollywood songs. Remember, 9X Jalwa is now also available on DD Free Dish on LCN #64.
China is facing two major risks that could ignite a fresh coronavirus crisis in the country, according to its National Health Commission.

The authority has urged officials to step up monitoring 'scattered infections' and possible 'regional outbreaks', triggered by non-native cases and patients with no symptoms.

China today reported no new deaths from the virus for the first time in its daily report since the crisis began last December.

Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the Chinese National Health Commission, has urged the country's officials to take on 'arduous tasks' and prevent a new coronavirus crisis. The screen grab from a video released by state newspaper People's Daily shows Mr Mi speaking at a press briefing

The number of its local patients who were in critical condition also dropped under 200 for the first time, announced Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the Chinese National Health Commission.

But Mr Mi warned that authorities were still facing 'arduous tasks' to prevent the killer bug from sparking a fresh emergency.

He claimed that officials had observed scattered, individual cases continuing to emerge across the country.

His comments come as officials in Wuhan, the former centre of the outbreak, are preparing to lift a 76-day lockdown on the city tomorrow.

Officials in Wuhan, the former centre of the outbreak, are preparing to lift the travel restrictions imposed on the city after it went into a draconian lockdown on January 23. The picture shows a medic collecting a swab from a worker for nucleic acid test in Wuhan today

In a worrying sign, more than half a million people in central China had to go into a new lockdown last week after three doctors tested positive for the virus despite showing no symptoms.

Imported cases and asymptomatic patients, who show no symptoms but can still pass the virus on, have become China's chief concern after draconian containment measures succeeded in slashing the overall infection rate.

With the number of new cases dropping to zero in China but soaring abroad, Beijing now views the coronavirus as a 'foreign' problem and has increased its efforts to screen new arrivals from abroad.

China has stepped up screening people who enter the country from abroad during the coronavirus pandemic. A Chinese family wear protective masks, sunglasses and raincoats are pictured after arriving on a flight at Beijing Capital International Airport on March 24

Major Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai, where travellers from overseas land, have set up the so-called 'medical fortresses' in their airports to give strict health screening to inbound passengers. All of them must undergo 14-day isolation upon landing.

Chinese National Health Commission reported 32 new cases in its latest daily update, but claimed there were no new fatalities.

Authorities said all the new patients were people returning to China from abroad.

The number of 'imported cases' has overtaken that of native cases in China, according to Mr Mi.

The pandemic has killed more than 74,000 people and infected over 1.3 million worldwide

In total, officials in mainland China have declared 81,740 cases and 3,331 deaths since the outbreak began in Wuhan, a city of around 11 million people in central China.

While 32 people were added to the tally, another 89 were 'released from hospital after being cured', a statement said.

Another 12 suspected cases - also all imported - were being kept under observation, along with an additional 30 asymptomatic cases.

At this moment, China has 1,242 confirmed cases in treatment and 1,033 asymptomatic cases under isolation and monitoring.

The pandemic has killed more than 74,000 people and infected over 1.3 million worldwide.
Halton police and Ontario Provincial Police are offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a cop killer.

The unsolved homicide dates back to April 21, 1984, when the body of OPP Cpl. William McIntyre was located inside his apartment at 1300 Marlborough Crt. in Oakville.

Police said his death was the result of a single gunshot to the head.

At the time of his murder, investigators say McIntyre had 11 years of exemplary service with the OPP, during which he worked in southern Ontario in an undercover role.

The murder was committed while McIntyre was off-duty, just before he was intending to travel to Kingston, Ont., for a work assignment.

Despite an exhaustive investigation into the murder, the case remains unsolved.

In early 2020, a joint force homicide team involving members of the Halton police and OPP was formed to continue the investigation.

Investigators say someone out there knows something and are hopeful the $100,000 reward will encourage witnesses to come forward with information that will generate new leads.

We feel that time has moved on for some people, said Halton police homicide Det. Joe Barr.

People are in a different circumstance and may be in a different position to come forward with some information.

RELATED STORIES GTA Desire still strong to solve 1984 murder of undercover OPP cop

Barr said the reward expires in one year and shall be apportioned as deemed just by the Halton Police Board, Ontarios Solicitor General Sylvia Jones and OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique.

Any person with information in this case is asked to contact the Halton Police McIntyre Homicide Team at 905-825-4777 ext. 8969 or the Homicide Tip Line 905-825-4776.

Tips can also be submitted anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or through email at hatloncrimestoppers@cogeco.net or https://new.tipsubmit.com/en/.
As part of efforts to enforce a



rigid lockdown in Tamil Nadu, the police department tightened its grip on violators by filing over 90,000 cases and seizing 78,000-plus vehicles even as the government said devotees stranded in Nagapattinam district have been provided food and shelter.

Stepping up patrol in marketplaces aiding civic authorities across, the police department said as many as 1,02,812 instances of lockdown violations came to its notice following which as many as 92,862 FIRs were filed and 78,240 vehicles seized.

"A fine of Rs 27,73,794 has been levied," the department said in a release.

Additional Director General of Police M Ravi told reporters that they have been receiving inputs of domestic violence against women during the lockdown and warned of strict action against offenders.

He appealed to women to call up police helpline numbers and use 'Kavalan' mobile app for assistance.

The Chennai City Police warned that people violating prohibitory orders clamped to enforce the ongoing lockdown would be dealt with strictly and advised citizens to walk to the nearest stores to buy essential commodities, including vegetables.

City Police Commissioner A K Viswanathan said complaints have been received that many motorists travel farther under the pretext of buying essentials.

"Essential commodities will be available in the vicinity, within 1-2 km. People can walk to the shops to buy them," Viswanathan told reporters here.

Handlooms Minister OS Manian said 44 pilgrims from various parts of the country were stranded at Vailankanni in Nagapattinam district, and all of them have been provided with food, shelter and amenities.

Vailankanni is popular for its Shrine Basilica of our Lady of health Vailankanni among Christians.

Senior AIADMK leader and Municipal Administration Minister S P Velumani said food would be provided in all the 15 'Amma canteens' in Coimbatore free of cost and the entire expenditure would be borne by the party.

Over 20,000 people are taking food in these canteens thrice a day and the entire expenses for free food would be borne by the AIADMK, Velumani said.

Amma Canteen known as Amma Unavagam in Tamil is a low cost food chain run by local bodies across Tamil Nadu and the scheme was launched by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa years ago.

Here, the cost of food items ranges between Re one and Rs five. Chennai Corporation authorities meanwhile distributed 200 bags of food items to fishermen in North Chennai to help them during lockdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)




According to an announcement from the White House on Monday, 500 ventilators originated from California were shipped to Guam, the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands, Maryland, Nevada, and Delaware, says an article. This is in response to the growing COVID-19 cases in the country.

The Governor's Statement

The governor of California Gavin Newsom had announced that California will be sharing some of its ventilators to different US states. Ventilators are necessary tools that help patients who are having difficulties in breathing.

According to Newsom, New York may be one of the states that will receive their ventilators. However, he said that the federal government will decide where the ventilators will go.

According to Newsom, they are very proud to lend out the state's 500 ventilators to help other US states. However, he knows that there is still a need to get more ventilators.

Praising California for the Deed

US vice president Mike Pence praised California for this decision. He also announced that the ventilators will be sent after a briefing at the White House.

According to Pence, California had given exceptional leadership among its citizens. Also, he commented that the state is making progress with its battle against COVID-19.

Check these out:

How Are These States Handling the COVID-19 Pandemic?

California on Lockdown; US to Use Two Drugs to Combat COVID-19

Why was the World Not Ready for COVID-19 Despite Experience with the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic?

The other States that Shared their Ventilators to Others

Newsom's decision to lend out California's ventilators to other states came after Oregon and Washington made similar moves by sending out ventilators to New York.

Governor Jay Inslee of Washington shared that the state will be giving back 400 of the total 500 ventilators it received from the federal government. Inslee's stay-at-home order and social distancing implementation in the entire state had led to a decrease of COVID-19 cases in Washington. It was the first state in the United States to have the first serious outbreak of the current pandemic.

According to Governor Kate Brown of Oregon, 140 ventilators of Oregon will also be sent out to New York.

A Hunt for Ventilators

California had been on a constant hunt for ventilators to increase its supply in the past few weeks. Officials even requested for 10,000 ventilators from the national supply. However, it had received none.

Los Angeles received 170 ventilators from the supply. However, they were all non-functional. Approximately, California has 4,200 ventilators in addition to the ventilators in hospitals. It is expected that California will reach its peak of COVID-19 cases in the middle of May.

Repairing Broken Ventilators

Bloom Energy, a hydrogen fuel cell manufacturer, had allotted a portion of its production plants situated in Delaware and California to repair broken and old ventilators. As of Monday, it was able to repair a total of 1,000 ventilators. According to the spokesperson of the business, it can repair 2,000 ventilators every week.

Bridge Ventilators

Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit had created a prototype for a 'bridge ventilator. This prototype is designed to assist patients to breathe before they can be put on a traditional ventilator. The company is yet to receive approval from the federal authorities before it can start its mass reproduction. The product was developed in partnership with researchers at the University of California.
We were pretty stressed out as a family that first week when the kids were out of school, so I decided to fire up the DJ gear and head down to the basement for a dance party, said Kopec, who lives just southwest of Baltimore, Maryland. I jumped on my personal Facebook page, figured we would have 50, maybe 100 people max join us  we had over 20,000 in two hours.

The viral event on March 21 led Kopec to plan more online dance parties that have now been collectively viewed more than 5 million times. The success of the parties prompted Kopec to use the events as fundraising tools to support first responders and people in need. One recent dance party, which was held in partnership with Holly Poultry Inc., raised 60,000 pounds of chicken for the United Way of Central Maryland.

Its been really overwhelming seeing peoples reactions, Kopec said. That first night I couldnt go to sleep because my phone and email kept buzzing. I got over 1,000 messages that night.

One of the first messages received was from a nurse in St. Louis, Missouri who was facing the daunting task of managing a unit that, when needed, will become a hospitals dedicated COVID-19 unit.

I stumbled across your Live Facebook feed tonight, and I just want to say thank you for lifting my spirits, she wrote. I shared your Facebook Live broadcast tonight on our units group page. It was great to be normal and happy even for a little bit. Hope you will do it again because it matters to us.

The message is just one of thousands of texts, photos, and videos the family has received from across the country during the past two weeks. And theyve had people from South Africa to Australia join their virtual dance parties.

Weve gotten so many heartfelt notes and videos. Weve seen people on one of those doorbell cams dancing. Weve seen a bird dancing. We even got one video of a lady and her dog dancing, Kopec said.

Kopec is no stranger to giving back to his community, in fact its part of what drew him to Virginia Tech.

You know, Ut Prosim, that was really the way I was brought up. I think thats part of why I loved Virginia Tech so much while I was there, Kopec said. For a while, I wasnt even going to go to college, but once I got there, I feel in love with the school. Virginia Tech changed my life.

While at Tech, Kopec was not only a member of the Hokies track and field and cross country teams, but also a member of the Blacksburg Volunteer Fire Department. When he began to notice the online tip jar filling up during that first dance party, he immediately thought of paying it forward to first responders. To date, proceeds from the virtual dance parties have fed hundreds of firefighters, 9-1-1 center operators, and law enforcement members in Howard County, the area where Kopec lives with his wife, April, and their children, Logan, Maddie, and Declan.

The chicken donation event came about when Zachary Fine, CEO at the Baltimore-based Holly Poultry Inc., issued a special challenge to the DJ and his family. The company pledged to donate a pound of chicken, up to 50,000 pounds, to the United Way of Central Maryland for every viewer during the March 28 dance party.

By 9 p.m. that night, the event had topped the 50,000 mark, and the company decided to up their donation to 60,000 pounds as a gift to April Kopec, whose birthday was the following day. The first delivery of chicken to a food bank took place earlier this week.

That was just incredible to see, Kopec said. Helping people is what we started this for, and its been a great stress reliever for our family. We now feel like its our duty to keep that going the whole time were quarantined.

At the time of the interview, Kopec was preparing for the April 4 party, which was School Spirit Night.

Ill be wearing my Hokie gear, Kopec said. I always felt like I was at home at Tech, the way the community came together and was always taking care of people, then that slogan came out [This is Home] , and I was like, Yeah, its true.

The next virtual dance party is scheduled for April 11 and is Medical Professionals Night.

Check out the official DJ Kopec Facebook page for more information and to learn about upcoming events.

 Written by Travis Williams


The downloads folder on my computer is jammed full right now with endless charts depicting data and analysis of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic shocks rolling across the world, and naturally they can tell a widely varying story depending on the data quality and, most crucial of all, the assumptions that go into any model that generates projections about the futureeven the near future. Experts and models disagree! Whod a thunk it?

More importantly, what is a responsible president or prime minister to do? President Trump is naturally taking fire for not following the experts, even though it is a simple matter to point out that the experts (including even the sainted Dr. Fauci) were downplaying the risks of the Coronavirus as late as the end of January, when liberals, the media, and some health experts howled at the moon when Trump imposed the travel ban on China. All the while, the experts at the CDC were botching the rollout of a reliable COVID-19 test.

More broadly, though, it is worth lingering for a moment on the fetish for expertise, which runs especially strong among progressives ever since Woodrow Wilson at least. No one is against specialized expertise as such. After all, when you want heart surgery or a complex legal transaction processed, you will naturally turn to an expert surgeon or lawyer. (Or auto mechanic if you need your car fixed, etc.) But as you move beyond this kind of common sense specialized expertise to a more general style of expertise as applied to complex social and political phenomena, the scene changes.

The great examination of this issue is Philip Tetlocks 2005 book Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know? The answer to his first subtitleHow Good Is It?is, not very. In fact, rather terrible. He begins the book by pointing out the massive failure of nearly all the experts to foresee the decline and collapse of the Soviet Union. I couldin fact have, in my two Reagan booksgo much further than Tetlock on this question, pointing out for example how bad the CIAs analysis of the Soviet Union was right up to the very end. I dont mean just off by 50 percent, but often completely wrong in the opposite direction. And yet liberals seemed shocked that the CIA didnt have much of a handle on bin Laden or Iraq back in 2001 and 2002.

While it is perfectly sensible to seek improvements in technical expertise and its integration into decision making by our political leaders, this misses the main point. For a century now, progressives have represented expertise as a distinct claim to rightful rule, akin to the classical claims on behalf of democracy and aristocracy. You can see this at work right now in the deep thinkers who are saying that Joe Biden ought to pick Bill Gates as his running mate, or that Dr. Fauci should be made president by acclamation. The progressive conceit of expertise lies at the heart of a lot of the progressive contempt for the non-credentialled deplorables of flyover country who, progressives think, dont deserve self-government.

Whenever a progressive says we should follow the evidence because we must have evidence-based policy-making, you should reach for your wallet (for starters). Because today we all too often have the opposite: policy-based evidence-making. This is especially true in the whole climate change circus, but it is also quite evident now in the virus crisis. Remember that Imperial College London model that predicted 250,000 deaths in the UK, subsequently scaled back to 20,000? The person behind that model, Neil Ferguson, gave an interview to the Financial Times today that includes this shocking admission that his model was a clear instance of policy-based evidence making:

The paper came out that day partly because there was pressure on government to be showing the modelling informing policymaking, so we worked very hard to get that paper out at that time.

To which the Financial Times comments:

The above implies the government was aware of the potential death toll  or the one being projected by the scientists on their advisory committee, anyway  but had not considered a drastic lockdown strategy until it became clear that the likely number of deaths from any other strategy would not be seen as politically acceptable. It seems, therefore, that the paper was published at that time partly to help justify a change in the messaging. A U-turn doesnt seem like quite the right term, therefore, for what happened.

It is possible that when the dust settles months from now, a careful review of everything from the evidence, data handling, bureaucratic miasma, practical decisions, and economic consequences might reveal not merely mistakes and failures but possibly mistakes and failures on a scandalous scale.

The point is: It is not anti-science to be skeptical of claims to expertise in social and political matters. In fact I wouldnt much trust a leader who wasnt skeptical.
Declaration is in response to surging number of infections, although people cannot legally be forced to stay home.

Tokyo, Japan  Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared a one-month state of emergency in response to the rapidly increasing number of coronavirus infections in big cities, though people cannot legally be forced to stay home or businesses be forced to close.

Tuesdays declaration covers Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures, as well as Osaka, Hyogo, and Fukuoka.

It will be accompanied by a 108 trillion yen ($990bn) stimulus package, representing about 20 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), though some are worried whether the financial aid will arrive quickly enough.

We must do everything to protect medical facilities from being overwhelmed, they are now close to capacity, said Abe during an address to the nation.

If we can reduce person-to-person contact by 70 or 80 percent, infections will reach their peak in two weeks, said Abe, who called for a cut of 70 percent in people commuting to work.

The type of lockdown seen in other countries is not possible because the governments powers to control the population are restricted by the constitution, which was effectively imposed on Japan by the United States after World War II.





Freedom of association and assembly are guaranteed, as is the free choice of residence, to the extent that it does not interfere with the public welfare.

Public welfare

The term public welfare does not have a clear definition in the document, pointed out Osamu Nishi, a professor emeritus of constitutional law at Tokyos Komazawa University, though he sees the current situation as meeting the criteria.

This state of emergency is perfectly constitutional in the circumstances, said Nishi, a leading scholar on the constitution. But only requests and instructions can be issued to citizens, not orders; they cant be forced to comply.

The governor of Hokkaido, Japans northernmost main island, took decisive early action after it became the site of the nations first major cluster and declared a state of emergency on February 28.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center, Abe declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and six other prefectures on Tuesday to ramp up defences against the spread of the coronavirus [Franck Robichon/AP]

Despite having no legal basis, citizens took heed and the island was able to lift the measures on March 19.

Hokkaido has reported no new cases in the last two days. The majority of those infected have now recovered, and the island has recorded just nine deaths out of a population of 5.3 million.

Running tests is key

In contrast to most of Japan, the island prefecture conducted a lot of tests.

I never heard about anyone in Hokkaido not being able to get tested, said Yoko Tsukamoto, a professor of infectious disease at the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido. Running tests is key.

Tsukamoto expressed concern the central government waited too long to declare a state of emergency and may pay the price for it.

She said the medical system in the capital is in danger of being overwhelmed if the number of new cases is in three digits every day, figures Tokyo has been registering since the weekend.









The governor of Tokyo has said there are about 1,000 beds for coronavirus patients, but there are about that number of cases already. They need to move the asymptomatic and mild cases out of hospitals to make room, said Tsukamoto, who is also worried about the number of medical personnel who have become infected.

Forty-four staff at Tokyos Eiju General Hospital are infected, while 18 junior doctors at the prestigious Keio University Hospital have been hospitalised with coronavirus symptoms after 40 of them dined together, despite repeated warnings to avoid such gatherings.

Virtual standstill

The state of emergency declaration will bring large sections of the economy to a virtual standstill and some small and medium-sized businesses are concerned the 2 million yen ($1,836) government grants may not come quickly enough to save them.

Tokyo is home to about 160,000 eateries, plus tens of thousands more in the surrounding prefectures. Many of these are small, owner-operated bars and restaurants that survive month-to-month and will be hardest hit by an extended loss of business.

The lockdown order in Japan will be accompanied by a 108 trillion yen ($990bn) stimulus package, representing about 20 percent of the gross domestic product [Jae C. Hong/AP]

One such establishment is the Spanish restaurant Los Bacos in a suburb of Kawasaki, just south of Tokyo.

Im thinking that Ill carry on for a few days and see what happens, whether customers come or not. Ill also talk to the owners of the other bars and restaurants around here, said owner-chef Nobuaki Motodate, who lived in Spain to learn his craft before opening Los Bacos.

The country is in a tough situation and I want to do the right thing, but I need to live. I cant close down for a month. Id have to go to the bank and ask for money. I think most small eateries are in the same situation, said Motodate.

The government is supposed to provide support, but therell be a lot of paperwork and it will take time. Thats how things work in Japan, he added. For now, Ive just got to try and put on a brave face.
DataStax Enterprise 6.8 Advances Cloud-Native Data and Bare-Metal Performance

DataStax today announced the general availability of DataStax Enterprise (DSE) 6.8. DSE 6.8 adds new capabilities for enterprises to advance bare-metal performance, support more workloads, and enhance developer and operator experiences with Kubernetes.

Built on the foundation of Apache Cassandra, DSE is the scale-out data infrastructure for enterprises that need to handle any workload on-premises and in any cloud on a continuously available, active-everywhere data platform.

"DataStax Enterprise 6.8 has made significant advancements in performance, ops management, and Cassandra workloads, but most importantly it adds a Kubernetes operator. This will help enterprises succeed with mission-critical, cloud-native deployments irrespective of the scale, infrastructure, or data model requirements," said Ed Anuff, Chief Product Officer at DataStax. "DataStax Enterprise has been hardened by hundreds of enterprises over the last decade and 6.8 will prove why it continues to be the scale-out NoSQL database of choice."

New features in DSE 6.8 include:

Kubernetes operator - Following last week's open-source Kubernetes operator release, DSE 6.8 enables data sharing between containers for data managed with DSE. Enterprises can now benefit from a robust integration of a Management API and Kubernetes tooling that experienced operators rely on. Users can start, stop, recover, scale, and back up DSE nodes through Kubernetes, simplifying cloud-native application development and deployment.

- Following last week's open-source Kubernetes operator release, DSE 6.8 enables data sharing between containers for data managed with DSE. Enterprises can now benefit from a robust integration of a Management API and Kubernetes tooling that experienced operators rely on. Users can start, stop, recover, scale, and back up DSE nodes through Kubernetes, simplifying cloud-native application development and deployment. Faster scale-out - With DSE 6.8, there's a new optimization feature aimed at significantly reducing the amount of time it takes Cassandra to scale-out during peak periods of demand or perform business continuity tasks. This optimization feature is called Zero Copy Streaming. Node addition, removal, and recovery is now up to 4x faster.

- With DSE 6.8, there's a new optimization feature aimed at significantly reducing the amount of time it takes Cassandra to scale-out during peak periods of demand or perform business continuity tasks. This optimization feature is called Zero Copy Streaming. Node addition, removal, and recovery is now up to 4x faster. Graph engine - With DSE 6.8, graph data models are now implemented as native Cassandra data models, with up to a 10x performance improvement. Users can now write to Cassandra and query it in real-time using the Gremlin traversal language. Deelopers can now build multi-model applications with joins, matching, and traversals over large distributed Cassandra data sets through graph queries.







For more information on DSE 6.8, register here for a DSE 6.8 deep-dive webinar with DataStax product leaders Ed Anuff and Jonathan Lacefield on April 21, 2020, at 11:00 a.m. PT or read the documentation.

DataStax Enterprise 6.8 is available now for download.

Click to Tweet: It's official: DataStax Enterprise 6.8 is here! We're excited to deliver the most powerful version of #DSE yet! Try the new features by downloading/upgrading today: https://downloads.datastax.com/#enterprise. #Cassandra #NoSQL

Resources:

Blog: What's New in DataStax Enterprise 6.8

Upcoming webinar: What's New in DSE 6.8, the Making of a Cloud-Native Database

Press release: DataStax Helps Cassandra Become the Industry Standard for Scale-Out, Cloud-Native Data

Blog: Leading with Code for a Better Apache Cassandra and Kubernetes

Virtual conference: Accelerate 2020: A NoSQL Original Series

Webinar: The New DataStax with RedMonk's Stephen O'Grady

About DataStax

DataStax is the company behind the massively scalable, highly available, cloud-native NoSQL data platform built on Apache Cassandra. DataStax gives users and enterprises the freedom to run data in any cloud at a global scale with zero downtime and zero lock-in. More than 400 of the world's leading enterprises including Capital One (News - Alert), Cisco, Comcast, Delta Airlines, eBay, Macy's, McDonald's, Safeway, Sony, and Walmart use DataStax to build transformational data architectures for real-world outcomes. For more, visit DataStax.com and @DataStax.

 2020 DataStax, All Rights Reserved. DataStax, Titan, and TitanDB are registered trademarks of DataStax, Inc.and its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries.

Apache, Apache Cassandra, and Cassandra are either registered trademarks or trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation or its subsidiaries in Canada, the United States, and/or other countries.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005215/en/
He stated that these fake calls were 80 per cent of the total calls made on the line, lamenting that these fake calls were blocking the state government from attending to those who really needed help, as they were unable to reach government through the lines.
Wallace Roney, a Grammy-winning virtuoso of jazz trumpet who was mentored by Miles Davis and performed with him during one of Davis' final performances, died March 31 at a hospital in Paterson, New Jersey. He was 59.

His death from the coronavirus was confirmed by his publicist, Lydia Liebman.

Roney, who attended high school and college in the District of Columbia, first came to prominence in his early 20s, winning awards from Downbeat magazine in 1979 and 1980 as one of the best young trumpeters of his generation. He rapidly advanced to working with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and in a quintet led by Tony Williams, who had been Davis' drummer in the 1960s.

"He sits alone, silent and slim in a dark gray jacket, his right hand on his horn," James McBride wrote in a 1987 profile for The Washington Post. "His head is bowed slightly, giving him an edgy, pensive, shy look. Yet as he rises to walk toward the stage, moving like a shadow, the other horn players - trumpeters and saxmen lined against the wall waiting to blow - part respectfully to let him pass. They know who he is. They know what he can do."

Roney's greatest acclaim came from a public endorsement from Davis, who rarely fawned over other musicians.

The two trumpeters first met when Roney performed at a Davis tribute concert at Radio City Music Hall in 1983. Davis, impressed with Roney's playing, invited him to his Manhattan apartment the next day.

"A lot of people like to say, 'Yeah, well, I hung with Miles, but we never talked about music,' " Roney said in a 2016 interview with the Snapshots Foundation. "Well, guess what? I did. I loved him because of his music, and he talked to me about music all the time."

After embracing electronic music in the 1970s, Davis had rejected suggestions to perform the acoustic jazz of his earlier years. But in 1991, arranger Quincy Jones persuaded an ailing Davis to reprise his orchestral albums "Sketches of Spain" and "Porgy and Bess" at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Roney was asked to play Davis' solos during rehearsals.

At the concert itself, Davis insisted that his young disciple join him onstage. The two trumpeters stood side by side, trading phrases. Roney impressed critics with his mastery of the most demanding aspects of Davis' style.

Davis died three months later. The posthumously released recording of the concert, "Miles & Quincy: Live at Montreux," was awarded a 1993 Grammy. Roney later toured with Davis alumni Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Their live album, "A Tribute to Miles," won the 1994 Grammy Award for best jazz recording.

For Roney, the comparisons with Davis proved both a blessing and a curse.

"I never get tired of the comparisons to Miles - I get tired of the critics trying to make it into a negative," he told writer Charles Latimer in December for the "I Dig Jazz" blog. "Because to me, it's no comparison. Miles Davis is the greatest ever. What I'm trying to do is continue and push forward from the lessons I learned from him and try to play this music."

As Roney's career advanced with more than 20 albums as a leader, he forged a path that moved away from strict jazz traditionalism, embracing electronics and influences from funk, hip-hop and world music.

The title track of his 2000 album, "No Room for Argument," featured sampled clips of speeches from Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Another track, "Homage and Acknowledgment" which John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" with Davis' "Filles de Kilimanjaro," borrowed the club music concept of a mash-up, where one piece of music is played simultaneously with another. His follow-up album, "Prototype" (2004) featured jazz versions of the title song by Andre 2000 of the hip-hop duo, Outkast, and Al Green's "Let's Stay Together."

"What makes Mr. Roney most interesting at the moment," New York Times critic Stanley Crouch wrote in 2000, "is the way in which he is working with his band, trying to define an ensemble approach in which each player can remake his or her part in reaction to what the featured performer is doing. Mr. Roney's music embodies the essence of jazz, both taking advantage of and building on the past."

Wallace Roney III was born May 25, 1960, in Philadelphia. His father, a U.S. marshal, was a jazz fan who revered Davis and pushed his son to begin trumpet lessons at age 5. He took lessons from Sigmund Hering of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and by age 12 he was a member of a classical brass quintet. He was also tutored by jazz great Clark Terry.

After his parents divorced, Roney moved with his father to Washington, where he attended the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Roney turned down an offer to attend the Juilliard School of Music in favor of Howard University and later studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

In 1979, he toured with South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim and then joined a big band version of Blakey's Jazz Messengers, where he played second trumpet behind Wynton Marsalis on a European tour. Two years later, while attending Berklee, he received news that Marsalis was leaving the Jazz Messengers.

Keenly aware that trumpeters would be flocking to Blakey's door, Roney funded a trip to New York by selling everything he had - including his trumpet. He passed the audition with Blakey using a horn that a friend had been using as a flowerpot.

"I took the horn, took the flowers out the bell and blew it," Roney told The Washington Post in 1987. "It was pretty beat up."

In 1983, while taking part in a Davis tribute in Manhattan, he met his hero for the first time.

"He asked me what kind of trumpet I had," Roney told Time magazine, "and I told him none. So he gave me one of his."

His marriage to jazz pianist Geri Allen, a frequent collaborator, ended in divorce. Survivors include his companion, Dawn Felice Jones; two children, Barbara Roney and trumpeter Wallace Vernell Roney; a sister, Crystal Roney; a brother, jazz saxophonist Antoine Roney; two half sisters; a half brother; and a grandmother.

Roney was brutally honest when asked to offer advice to younger musicians.

"I would say if you ask for any advice, play this music because you must," he told Latimer of the I Dig Jazz website. "Don't play this music to become a star. Don't play this music because you think you're going to make a lot of money. Play it because you must, because you love it."
Saying coronavirus protective measures are not working at the facilities, a federal judge Tuesday ordered 22 more ICE detainees to be released from the York and Pike County prisons.

This is the second immigration detainee release order U.S. Middle District Judge John E. Jones III has issued in a week. On March 31, he ordered the release of a dozen other people ICE was holding at the York, Clinton and Pike county prisons.

The releases were sought by the ACLU of Pennsylvania, which claims age, health problems and prison crowding are placing the detainees at risk of contracting COVID-19. The ACLU said Tuesday that four ICE detainees and four staff at the Pike prison have tested positive for the virus, as has one detainee in the York lockup.

Our clients are at great risk of getting sick or even dying if they remain in immigration detention. The court understood that and recognized that the preventive measures in the jails are not working, said Witold Walczak, the ACLUs legal director. Todays ruling underscores the very real public health crisis that is occurring and will continue to occur in jails and prisons if corrections officials do not respond appropriately.

Jones drew heavily on his March 31 opinion in issued Tuesdays ruling.

We have before us clear evidence that the protective measures in place in the York and Pike County prisons are not working, he wrote. We can only expect the number of positive COVID-19 cases to increase in the coming days and weeks, and we cannot leave the most fragile among us to face that growing danger unprotected.

We are mindful that judicial decisions such as these are both controversial and difficult for the public to absorb, Jones continued. It is all too easy for some to embrace the notion that individuals such as Petitioners should be denied relief simply because they lack citizenship in this country.

However, thecourts do not operate according to polls or the popular will, but rather to do justice and to rule according to the facts and the law, he concluded.
OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK, Wash.  A man who broke into dozens of vehicles at Mount Rainier and Olympic national parks has been sentenced to two years in federal prison after he serves a more than two-year state prison term.

Michael Pickering, 41, broke into at least four dozen cars belonging to hikers and campers at more than a half dozen different trailheads and parking lots in the two parks, according to Olympic National Park officials.

For about a month starting in late March 2019, Pickering smashed windows and stole from parked vehicles, court documents said. He used stolen credit and debit cards to make over $50,000 in purchases at various stores, according to documents. Pickering was arrested after walking out of a store where he used victims' bank cards.

The victims in this case didnt just suffer a financial loss, they were emotionally damaged as well, US Attorney Brian Moran, Western District of Washington, said in a statement. Some returned from what was supposed to be a relaxing time in nature, to find themselves stranded with a damaged vehicle, their electronics, clothes and money stolen, marooned in the national park.

 The Associated Press
The news that a tiger tested positive for COVID-19 at the Bronx Zoo in New York dropped like a bomb at the Toronto Zoo.

Staff traded messages after news broke Sunday night. By Monday morning, new precautions  including wearing masks, gloves and coveralls  had been put in place to protect the facilitys four tigers and its other big cats that include lions, cheetahs, clouded leopards, snow leopards and jaguars.

It was disturbing, said Andrew Lentini, the senior director of wildlife at the zoo, when he learned about the coronavirus infecting a tiger.

It wasnt on my radar at all. We didnt realize any cat species would be susceptible.

No one who works at the Toronto Zoo has tested positive for the disease and no animals are exhibiting any symptoms of COVID-19, Lentini said.

The Bronx Zoos four-year-old Malayan tiger, Nadia  and six other tigers and lions that have also fallen ill  are believed to have been infected by a zoo employee who wasnt yet showing symptoms. The first animal started showing symptoms March 27 and all are doing well and expected to recover, said the zoo, which has been closed to the public since March 16 amid the surging coronavirus outbreak in New York.

Lentini said the Toronto Zoo has for years taken precautions against infecting its great apes  western lowland gorillas and Sumatran orangutans  from illnesses such as the flu and the common cold, which comes from another coronavirus.

Staff have doubled down on those procedures in recent months after the new coronavirus made its way out of China, Lentine said. Anyone entering the zoo is now required to undergo a screening procedure and any contractors who will come near the great apes or big cats will have to gear up with protective equipment.

The same precautions are in place for the zoos collection of ferrets, which are also susceptible to coronaviruses.

Canadas Accredited Zoos and Aquariums, which represents 30 institutions across the country, said there is no known case of COVID-19 in any of its animals or those who work at the facilities.

When we heard Sunday about the tiger at the Bronx Zoo, we immediately reached out to all our members and advised them to take precautions with their big cats, if they hadnt done so already, said executive director Jim Facette.

Scott Weese, a professor at the University of Guelphs Ontario Veterinary College, said the tigers COVID-19 infection was not entirely surprising.

Cats, great apes and ferrets have all proven capable of contracting the coronavirus that causes SARS, which is similar to the virus that causes COVID-19, he said. It can also be transmitted from cat to cat.

Early experiments have shown cats and ferrets could be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, said Weese, and they can transmit that virus to other cats and ferrets.

He said a cat tested positive for COVID-19 in Hong Kong, but didnt get sick, while one infected with the virus in Belgium did.

The tigers in some ways is really surprising, because we dont have a lot of close contact with them. But theyre still a cat, Weese said. So to see a zoo animal become infected, theyre one of the prime suspects.

He said there are no studies yet on whether cats can infect humans with the new coronavirus.

If my cat has COVID, he got it from me or my family, Weese said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has decimated zoos and aquariums across the country, according to Facette, leading to layoffs at CAZA institutions across Canada.

Business dried up, literally, overnight, he said. The industry has been hit really hard.

The Toronto Zoo closed its doors to the public on March 14. The city-owned zoo is losing $500,000 per week, the city said last week. On Friday, it announced it was temporarily laying off 118 non-permanent employees who generally work with visitors.

About 80 per cent of the zoos revenue comes from public visits, with the city subsidizing the remainder, said spokeswoman Jennifer Tracey.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed cabinet to put together a broader stimulus package to reignite the Ghanaian economy by the time the battle against the COVID-19 is over.



Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, who made this known at a press briefing on Tuesday in Accra, said the President gave the directive during an emergency Cabinet meeting.

The Minister said under the coronavirus alleviation programme, there was some GHC600 million that was supposed to be used as soft loans.



Yes that is there but there will be the need to do a broader and more elaborate stimulus programme, which is being worked upon and will be announced subsequently.



Mr Oppong Nkrumah recalled that the President has directed the Minister of Finance to make available the cedi equivalent of $100 million to enhance Ghanas Coronavirus preparedness and response plan.



This amount is to fund the expansion of infrastructure, purchase of materials and equipment, and public education.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah said of the $100 million, $65 million was readily available for the coronavirus programme.

He said the remaining $35 million dollars was a loan, which was to be approved by the World Bank Board for the Coronavirus programme.



The $35 million is to be approved by the World Bank Board hopefully today; so that disbursement can be done as well for the preparedness programme, Mr Oppong Nkrumah said.

The second part of it is the Coronavirus alleviation package or programme, which is budgeted at a $219 million cedi equivalent which is being taken from the oil funds.



He recalled that Parliament recently approved a transfer of that amount of money into the contingency fund.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah said the Constitution says that the Committee responsible for financial measures in Parliament was the Committee that was clothed with the power to decide how that money, once it was in the contingency fund should be used.



He said the Minister responsible for Finance was going to make an application and the Committee would consider it to allow for that fund to be made available for the Coronavirus alleviation programme; declaring that and we are expecting that to be a smooth process.



He said the said amount was being used for the social interventions and related matters that were being outlined; which the President spoke to it in his address during his fifth broadcast to the nation on Sunday on the COVID-19 outbreak.

Source: GNA









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Linkedin Djemi Amnifu and Agustinus Hari (The Jakarta Post) Kupang/Manado  Tue, April 7, 2020 18:37 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd059b7b 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,easter,Good-Friday,Kupang,manado,church Free

Churches across Indonesia have made adjustments to their approaching Good Friday services to adhere to social distancing measures and slow the spread of COVID-19.

According to the 2010 census, about 7 percent of Indonesias population is Protestant  a grouping of a number of denominations  while 3 percent is Catholic. Several provinces have a majority-Christian population, including East Nusa Tenggara, North Sulawesi, Papua and West Papua.

Most denominations of Christianity observe Good Friday, which commemorates the day that Jesus Christ was crucified.

The COVID-19 outbreak in Indonesia has made the logistics of the services more complicated.

The Christian Evangelical Church in Timor (GMIT) in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, for example, has decided to postpone its Lords Supper ritual, which was slated to take place during this weeks Good Friday observance.

GMIT earlier canceled its Palm Sunday service to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The GMIT synodal assembly has decided that the performance of the Lords Supper ritual during Holy Week and Easter this year is postponed. We made the decision after much conversation, debate, prayer and reflection, GMIT head Merry Kolimon told journalists in Kupang on Tuesday.

According to Merry, the Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI) has offered three alternatives for Good Friday observances this year; congregants could observe the day in their respective homes, observance could be postponed until the end of the crisis, or services could be performed together online.

We have also read some theological references and have received suggestions from other pastors of the GMIT. But in the end, we decided to postpone the eucharist ritual of the upcoming Good Friday until the outbreak ends, Merry said, adding that making the decision was not easy as many of the churchs congregants felt uneasy about the interruptions to Holy Week services.

She said, however, that celebrating Easter during a pandemic should make the faithful feel even more gratitude for Christs sacrifice.

If, now, we are postponing the Lords Supper, it is because we believe that Gods blessing will keep flowing into our lives despite the postponement, she said.

Meanwhile, Christians in Manado, North Sulawesi will also experience different Good Friday services. The Christian Evangelical Church in Minahasa (GMIM) has said that Good Friday will be observed from home through online streaming.

The ritual will be guided from the church and will be streamed to houses, GMIM head Carry Mamusung said on Monday.

This decision was made after a coordination meeting with the North Sulawesi provincial administration, the regional leaders' forum and religious leaders in light of the recent situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, GMIM synod council chairman Hein Arina said.

The absence of congregational activities did not reduce the value of worship, he added. It is only the place that is different than usual, but the value of our worship is not determined by whether we do it at home or at church.

Arina acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted the churchs religious activities but that every effort to end the pandemic had to be implemented.

The diocese of Manado has issued a circular regarding pastoral activities during the COVID-19 outbreak, which includes the cancellation of non-mandatory congregational activities and the postponement of mandatory ones.

The [mandatory] liturgical activities can also be performed through live streaming, Manado Bishop Benedictus ER Untu said.

Several celebrations during Holy Week, the bishop said, would still involve churches and chapels with some adjustments to avoid crowds.
US President Donald Trump on Monday sent his best wishes to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, saying Americans were praying for him after he was admitted to intensive care with worsening COVID-19 symptoms.

"I also want to send best wishes to a very good friend of mine and a friend to our nation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson," Trump said at a press conference.

"We're very saddened to hear he was taken into intensive care this afternoon, a little while ago. Americans are all praying for his recovery."



Trump said that Washington had offered to provide medical assistance if needed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A month into the global quarantine, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador recently put into place preventive measures on the border between the U.S. and Mexico to reduce transmission of the highly contagious COVID-19. The U.S. - Mexico border is known to deal with approximately one million legal crossings daily.

Borders Still Open for Travel and Transport

Before this, Mexico was seeing the arrival of tourists from international flights like Europe and North America sans screening or quarantine. Governors from the Mexican foreign and interior ministers coerced last Wednesday the federal administration to implement more restrictions on flights coming from the U.S. bound for Mexico.

As early as March 16, Mexican health authorities reported 82 positive cases of COVID-19, and by the end of the month, it rose to 1,000 cases. Now, even at this point, Lopez Obrador failed to take measures that would control or prevent the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease of the novel coronavirus.

Just two weeks prior, a group of 70 students took a chartered plane to Cabo San Lucas for a spring break trip, Austin Public Health Department said on Tuesday. The trip lasted from March 14 - 19, a period in which Mexico was still yet to be under any federal travel advisory.

As confirmed by the University of Texas at Austin, from the first 28 cases released in city reports, the number of these students tested positive for coronavirus climbed to 49 last Friday.

Last Thursday, Texas had more than 3,200 cases and 41 deaths from COVID-19. Schools closed, and restrictions were enforced on the southern state, which shares 1,200 miles of the border with Mexico.

Response to contain the virus was slow: In fact, the country reported its first case on February 27. In the emergency decree, practices were imposed that included suspending meetings with more than 50 people, maintaining proper hygiene like frequent handwashing, and observing "sneezing" etiquette.

Reddit user or sympathetic orange has developed an interactive map online that tracks live coronavirus cases in Mexico. The data is currently sourced from the Secretaria de Salud.

Check these out!

"Our Last Chance"

The Wednesday prior, 29 medics in IMSS General Hospital in Monclova were tested positive for COVID-19. The department of health claimed it started when one of the doctors treated in his private clinic a patient with the virus.

To encourage social distancing, Mexico launched a social media campaign led by a superhero, Susana Distancia. Her name is a play-on-words for "Your-Healthy Distance." But even that is too feeble to combat the rapid spread of the coronavirus.

Last March 30, Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard declared a state of emergency that demanded a halt to nonessential public, private and social activity. Additionally, health officials also encouraged immunocompromised people such as the elderly, pregnant women, and others with health risks to stay at home.

Similarly, the Undersecretariat of Prevention and Health Promotion Dr. Hugo Lopez-Gatell, who initially said that quarantine was an extreme measure of addressing the pandemic, recently urged Mexicans to follow the new restrictions.

"This is our last chance," he said.

Unprepared and ill-equipped for the pandemic

Initially, Lopez Obrador refused to enact orders that demanded Mexican citizens to practice social distancing and to stay indoors, claiming that it would endanger the livelihood of the poor and damage the economy of the country.

Last week, Lopez Obrador conceded to implementing stricter measures that would prevent the spread of the pandemic in the country, giving due consideration to how much the coronavirus could overwhelm local capacities.

As of Saturday, deaths from the virus were at 50. If the number of cases was to grow exponentially, hospitals in Mexico would not be able to accommodate the influx of patients.
(Alliance News) - Food packaging firm Hilton Food Group PLC on Tuesday posted a double-digit revenue rise in 2019 and held its payout.

In 2019, revenue climbed 10% to GBP1.81 billion from GBP1.65 billion, with pretax profit rising 9.2% to GBP47.3 million from GBP43.3 million.

Executive Chair Robert Watson said: "In 2019, we successfully executed our strategy of continuing to grow and diversify our offering with the opening of our biggest factory yet in Brisbane, Australia, a move into other high growth proteins including vegetarian and sous vide, building on our existing retailer partner relationships and investing in our facilities. We continue to grow volumes and profit and explore opportunities to develop our cross-category business in both our domestic and overseas markets."

During the year, Hilton also struck a deal to package all of grocer Tesco PLC's red meat. It secured a similar deal with retailer Ahold Delhaize NV in Belgium.

Hilton Food's dividends for 2019 were flat at 21.4 pence per share.

Focus now shifts to the Covid-19 outbreak, which has forced many businesses to close.

Hilton Food's facilities have remained open however, as it offers an essential service.

"While there is significant uncertainty over the extent of the impact and longevity of the Covid-19 outbreak, we have so far coped well with the challenges and are confident that through our local operating model and financial strength we are well placed," Hilton Food said.

Shares in the company were 3.5% higher at 1,020.00p each in London on Tuesday morning.

By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
The US economy cannot restart until testing and contact tracing for the killer disease improves, according to a John Hopkins infectious disease expert.

Dr. Robert Bollinger of Johns Hopkins University warned that the 'biggest issue' in the fight against the pandemic is the lack of testing, in an interview with CNBC Tuesday.

The US must first focus on more rapid testing and a better system of contact tracing to identify who has been exposed to coronavirus before focusing on the nation reopening for business, Bollinger said.

Rapid testing, contact tracing and continuing with social distancing efforts will 'truly allow us to move the economy forward, get back to work,' he said.

The US economy cannot restart until testing and contact tracing for the killer disease improves, according to John Hopkins infectious disease expert Dr. Robert Bollinger

'Currently our biggest issue is the lack of testing opportunities,' he said.

'I think if we had more testing available, people would take advantage of it. And I think that really would be helpful to get a better handle on what the statistic actually are at this moment.

'I think that's a major issue for us right now - to really expand access to rapid testing and to get results returned much more quickly than they are now.'

Contact tracing is crucial to identifying the people at risk of getting sick from the virus, Bollinger said.

He pointed to new efforts being launched in Massachusetts and Maryland.

A CVS employee checks in patients in vehicles arriving to a CVS drive-in testing site in Lowell, Massachusetts on Tuesday

A doctor in a protective suit offers a mouth and nose swab through a car window at a drive-through coronavirus testing facility

On Tuesday, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced the launch of the COVID-19 Community Tracing Collaborative (CTC) initiative which focuses on tracing the contacts of confirmed positive COVID-19 patients.

'Enhanced contact tracing capability is another powerful tool for public health officials and health care providers in the battle against COVID-19,' Baker said.

'Massachusetts is the only state in the nation implementing this type of programming, and this collaborative tracing initiative will break new ground as we work together to slow the spread of COVID-19.'

In Maryland, Governor Larry Hogan announced a similar measure with the creation of 'strike teams' that will provide immediate support to nursing homes struck by an outbreak.

Part of this includes increased testing to separate exposed residents and staff and healthy staff to limit the spread.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced the launch of the COVID-19 Community Tracing Collaborative (CTC) initiative which focuses on contact tracing

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced the creation of 'strike teams' that will provide immediate support to nursing homes struck by an outbreak

'Governor Hogan has announced a launch of the public health strike force to help us with contract tracing and testing as well,' Bollinger told CNN. 'But we just need access to tests.'

When asked about the figures coming out of China, which is now reporting zero new deaths or infections, Bollinger said contact tracing was likely a major factor in their bringing the outbreak under control.

'I think they did an incredible job with quarantining, social distancing and contact tracing,' he said.

The US has not been as 'aggressive' with these life-saving measures, he added.

'Of course the state there has more power in implementing some of these steps but they were much more aggressive in contact tracing and testing than we have to date,' he said.

'But I think we're making steps in that direction as we've heard with Massachusetts and elsewhere and that's the next step we have to really move to not only continue our distance measures but also do contact tracing and testing to allow us to move the economy forward.

Until a virus is developed, the killer virus will not just 'go away', he warned.

'The virus is not going to go away until we have a vaccine, so we're always going to have to find strategies to deal with this, to prevent the next wave and that's what the next steps are really focusing on which is rapid testing and contact tracing.

'If we can really get that testing up to capacity that's needed then I think we can go a long way to inching towards that direction that we're talking about,' Bollinger said.

While he believes the US is making 'great strides' he said it was difficult to say when life could return to normal for Americans.

'I think when we start to see the rates going down as we're seeing in China and certainly starting to see in some parts of Europe - when we see some rates of new infections going down and death rates going down,' he said.

Coronavirus testing has been plagued with challenges, including restrictive testing criteria, major shortages in kits and long delays in getting results.

Faster test kits have been developed, drive-through test sites have been launched and some hospitals have developed in-house testing to ramp up diagnosis and treatment of patients.

Almost two million Americans have been tested as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

More than 12,000 Americans have now died from coronavirus as the pandemic continues to spread across the 50 states, the real-time tally from John Hopkins reveals.

The death toll has skyrocketed by roughly 1,799 in the last 24 hours, taking the number of fatalities to 12,876.

Laboratory workers conduct testing for coronavirus at the Laboratory for bacterial zoonosis and molecular diagnostics of the Veterinary Specialist Institute Nis in Serbia

Healthcare workers conduct a COVID-19 test through a car window at a drive-through center at Etobicoke General Hospital in Toronto

Figures show the number of fatalities has increased drastically by more than 8,000 in the first week of April compared to the entire month of March when 4,000 deaths were recorded.

The harrowing figures come as health officials warned this week would be one of the hardest for Americans given the death toll is expected to continue to rise in such stark numbers.

Data has predicted the peak of the pandemic is still yet to hit on April 16 where 3,000 deaths are expected to occur in 24 hours, according to forecasters at the University of Washington's School of Medicine.

President Trump warned Americans Saturday to prepare this week for one of the 'toughest' weeks the country could face during the pandemic.

'This will probably be the toughest week - between this week and next week,' Trump said during his daily White House briefing.

'There will be a lot of death, unfortunately.

The number of infections also continues to rise, with 398,283 confirmed cases across the country as of Tuesday night.
A doctor, who was told by the



authorities to stay in the quarantine centre for coming in contact with a COVID-19 patient, was arrested by the police for escaping from the facility, an official said on Tuesday.

The doctor, a consultant at the Peace Hospital and Research Institute (PHRI) at Imphal's Porompat area had treated a Tablighi Jamaat returnee, who later tested positive for COVID-19.

The state government directed the doctor and the staff of PHRI to go for quarantine at the government quarantine centre here as per protocol, the official said.

On April 5, a team led by the State Nodal Officer (Quarantine) went for physical inspection of the people in the quarantine centre and found that the doctor was missing, a statement issued by Director of Health Services, K Rajo Singh said.

As the doctor was missing at the quarantine centre, a complaint was filed at Porompat police station by the authorities against the doctor.

The police arrested the doctor from his Kshetrigao residence on Monday evening, officials said, adding that the doctor has been sent back to the quarantine centre again.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Have you ever been to a funeral for someone you hated?

Because that's what Married At First Sight's 'clip show' finale felt like on Sunday night.

Here I was, dressed and ready for a bit of bogan drama, only to be treated to a two-hour eulogy for a bunch of Instagram fleas whose careers died when the clock hit 9.31pm.

Rest in peace: Have you ever been to a funeral for someone you hated? Because that's what Married At First Sight's 'clip show' finale felt like on Sunday night

'We're gathered here today to mourn the loss of 20 entitled influencers who tried and failed to burst free from the cocoon of mediocrity,' began the priest.

'May our only hopes be that their social media careers die in the same fashion as their TV careers. Quickly and quietly.'

From the get-go, Channel Nine was desperate to convince us all that this season would be more true love, and less bogans.

Fifteen minutes later: 'We're gathered here today to mourn the loss of 20 entitled influencers who tried and failed to burst free from the cocoon of mediocrity,' began the priest

They even hired two clones of Jules and Cam - the now legitimately married couple from last year - to front the current season's billboard campaign.

'Turns out true love is lucrative after all,' said Nine's head of marketing in a meeting with the relationship experts.

True love, not true crime! From the get-go, Channel Nine was desperate to convince us all that this season would be more true love, and less bogans

But the result was cast a of 'normal' (read: stupid) singles who couldn't even keep their fake marriages alive long enough to experience the payoff.

Sunday's reunion saw 490,000 less viewers tune in than last year and the only remaining couple may as well have a Laxettes deal, because they're full of s**t.

This season was such a colossal failure that only four out of 10 couples got any screen time at all. The rest sat around watching their follower count plummet.

What they said we'd get: They even hired two clones of Jules and Cam - the now legitimately married couple from last year - to front the current season's billboard campaign

What we got: But the result was cast a of 'normal' (read: stupid) singles who couldn't even keep their fake marriages alive long enough to experience the payoff

Connie and Jonnie

Who invited you? Somehow, boring old Connie and Jonnie were one of the lucky couples to get time on the couch on Sunday. They were so boring that Nine opted to play a highlights reel rather then let them speak

Somehow, boring old Connie and Jonnie were one of the lucky couples to get time on the couch on Sunday.

Sitting across from them were the three relationship experts who once again bungled nine out of 10 matches this year. That's nine less mag deals, you idiots!

For some reason, pheromone specialist Dr. Trisha Snoutford was dressed all in black.

John Aiken: 'Welcome back, guys.'

Jonnie: 'Thanks bro, how you been hoppin?'

John: 'Jesus. I'd rather watch Tik Tok dance videos than listen to anymore of this. Roll the tape!'

Whoops! Sitting across from them were the three relationship experts who once again bungled nine out of 10 matches this year. That's nine less mag deals, you idiots!

Sorry John, but unless you've found the tape where Jonnie 'slides into a DM' and slides out with any semblance of a personality, we're not interested.

'Any parting words?' asked Mel Schilling after the low-lights reel faded to black.

'I just want to give a huge shout-out to Trisha for finding time to drop in on her way home from the funeral,' Jonnie replied.

Anything you'd like to say? 'I just want to give a huge shout-out to Trisha for finding time to drop in on her way home from the funeral,' Jonnie said

'For f**k's sake!' barked Trish, looking down at what she was wearing for the first time.

'I knew those girls in wardrobe were pranking me again!'

They're dead! 'For f**k's sake!' barked Trish, looking down at what she was wearing for the first time. 'I knew those girls in wardrobe were pranking me again!'

Ivan and Aleks

REAL nice: Aleks and Ivan returned to the couch for the first time since they fled the reality TV experiment for getting 'too real'. 'Look who came crawling back!' cackled John Aiken

Aleks and Ivan returned to the couch for the first time since they fled the reality TV experiment for getting 'too real'.

The last time was saw them, Aleks was blasting the experts for daring to ask whether she'd slept with Ivan.

To make matters worse, house troll Michael Goonan alleged that he'd seen Aleks out on a date with a man 'more her type' the night before a dinner party.

John: 'Look who came crawling back! So what happened? You're back together?'

Ivan: 'Shut up, John. See this new top knot? It means I don't listen to honest feedback anymore. I'm on my own path and Aleks and I are in love'

Ivan: 'Shut up, John. See this new top knot? It means I don't listen to honest feedback anymore. I'm on my own path and Aleks and I are in love.'

Aleks: 'Yeah, I just had a light bulb moment and came back to him. End of story. No need to investigate.'

Ivan: 'Yeah, I remember the day vividly. I was at the newsagency, staring at a front page magazine spread from Jules and Cam's real wedding...'

Lights are on, nobody's home: Aleks told the experts, 'Yeah, I just had a light bulb moment and came back to him. End of story. No need to investigate'

John: 'Ah, so you finally worked out that couples get better endorsement deals?'

Aleks: 'Oh, I was just going to make up some bulls**t like I always do, but your excuse is better!'

Attention then turned to Ivan, who was accused of using Michael and Josh to talk up the fact he'd had sex with Aleks at one of the dinner parties.

John: 'Ah, so you finally worked out that couples get better endorsement deals?'

John was getting bored just listening to them and so was Australia.

John: 'Alright, you're boring me. Roll the highlights tape.'

Aleks: 'Oh, I was just going to make up some bulls**t like I always do, but your excuse is better!'

Mishel and Steve

Mish-HELL: More than six weeks removed from the experiment and Mishel was still sooking about how Steve didn't find her attractive

More than six weeks removed from the experiment and Mishel was still sooking about how Steve didn't find her attractive.

Instead of listening to her whinge, they just played a montage of all the times Steve looked at Mishel and thought, 'Yeah, nah'.

Or whatever the British equivalent of 'yeah, nah' is.

Just roll the tape! Instead of listening to her whinge, they just played a montage of all the times Steve looked at Mishel and thought, 'Yeah, nah'

But she was still moaning when the clip ended.

Mishel: 'I'm a very sexual, confident woman, but Steve made me feel like that fat kid crying in the corner.'

Mel Schilling: 'Look, we've told Nasser Sultan to go home but he won't move!'

The way you make me feel: Mishel whined, 'I'm a very sexual, confident woman, but Steve made me feel like that fat kid crying in the corner'

Mishel: 'It was a metaphor, you unqualified quacks. I meant me!'

Mel: 'Great idea. Do we have a package of Mishel crying? Can we cut to that?'

Mishel and Steve's riveting three-month storyline ended with them agreeing to be friends without benefits.

Mel Schilling: 'Look, we've told Nasser Sultan to go home but he won't move!'

And The Rest

Who gives a s**t? Elsewhere, Hayley and David were still banging on about the s**tty toothbrush saga and Michael and Stacey confirmed their split

Elsewhere, Hayley and David were still banging on about the s**tty toothbrush saga, and Michael and Stacey confirmed the cheating allegations had ended their blossoming fauxmance.

Saving the worst 'til last, Liz and Seb wisely decided to make a last minute play for a Jules and Cam moment.

'We got our happily ever after!' she beamed.

'Colgate, Sprite, Mazda, Huawei... you name it, we got it!'

Saving the worst 'til last: Liz and Seb wisely decided to make a last minute play for a Jules and Cam moment
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced that California was lending 500 state-owned ventilators to the Strategic National Stockpile to help New York and other COVID-19 hot spots facing shortages of the desperately needed medical devices.

"We want to extend not only thoughts and prayers, but we're also extending a hand of support with ventilators," Newsom said during a press briefing Monday in Sacramento.

Newsom said lending the critically needed ventilators was possible because hospitals throughout California have procured thousands of devices in the last few weeks, increasing their total ventilator inventory from 7,587 to 11,036.

Given that coronavirus cases are not expected to peak until May, under current estimates, California could afford to lend the medical devices to parts of the country where they are in seriously short supply, Newsom said.

Newsom emphasizes that the ventilators are being lent to the Strategic National Stockpile on the condition that they will be returned if California needs them.

"These are lent. They are not given," Newsom said.

Still, Newsom's announcement came on the same day that the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and local leaders put out a plea for used ventilators, offering a $1,000 bounty for each device. Santa Clara County has been one of the hardest hit areas in California during the coronavirus outbreak.

The governor said the state also has continued searching worldwide for additional ventilators, as well as masks and other personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and others, to increase its stockpile.

About 1,000 additional ventilators are currently being refurbished by Bloom Energy, a Silicon Valley fuel-cell company, nearly half of which could be available by Tuesday.

"For all of those reasons, and the responsibility  the moral and ethical responsibility of providing resources in real time to those most in need  that's why we thought it appropriate to send those," Newsom said.

One reason California can afford to spare ventilators, at least for now, is because the vast majority of Californians have heeded orders to stay at home and, when venturing outside to buy essentials or for recreation, have also maintained the recommended social distancing from others.

If Californians maintain that behavior, California should have enough ventilators in the near future to care for those in need in the state.

"That will give us the time, well within the next few weeks, to have enough ventilators, we believe, to meet the needs of 40 million Californians that may be vulnerable to this virus," Newsom said.

Newsom held his press conference at the Sleep Train Arena, former home of the Sacramento Kings, which is being transformed into a 400-bed hospital to treat coronavirus patients. The facility is one of many sites the state is using to add 50,000 hospital beds to the hospital system in California to treat a surge in coronavirus patients.

Editor's Note: Because of the health implications of the COVID-19 virus, this article is being made available free to all online readers. If you'd like to join us in supporting the mission of local journalism, please visit napavalleyregister.com/members/join/.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
ERNAKULAM : Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said 18 non-resident Keralites or NRKs have died so far across the world due the coronavirus pandemic, a matter of concern for the state even as the state itself has had two fatalities so far.

After 46 Malayalee nurses tested positive for the virus in a Mumbai hospital on Monday, he said he has also written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and respective state chief ministers, highlighting the plight of the Malayalee nursing workforce, known to be ubiquitous across the world, working against the lack of proper protective pieces of equipment.

Vijayan has also called for a protocol to deal with overseas returnees to Kerala once the travel restrictions disappear post the lockdown, in another letter to Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, among other issues that need urgent central attention.

The news of 46 Malayalee nurses in Mumbai hospital testing positive, along with five others in a Delhi hospital, has sent shockwaves in Kerala. Nursing is a highly popular higher education and career option in Kerala and a large number of them work outside the state.

It is an emigration history in lines with an average Malayalee's propensity to travel in search of prosperity. Nearly 10% of the total 33 million population does not live in the state: they migrate for work. For instance, every third house in Kerala has a man working in the Gulf, which could mean Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Oman or Bahrain, as per official estimates.

"The situation in Kerala is comforting, we have been able to effectively control the virus spread to a large extent. But the global situation is worrying," said the CM, who read out the names of each NRK who died over the virus in his everyday evening press briefing on Monday, as a way of paying tribute.

"Malayalee society is one that is spread across the globe. We have a responsibility to know how they are mitigating the crisis and help them. They are also keen to know what's happening in their native place. I spoke to Malayalee ex-pats in 22 countries in a video conference today. Each region had to raise a different issue. The travel restrictions and lockdowns have altered their life," said Vijayan.

They pointed out issues that needed to be addressed by the central government and embassies, said Vijayan, such as an extension of visa and health insurance for six months. The state government has informed the External Affairs Minister of these demands, he said.

"Kerala government will do everything that is possible. Schools in gulf countries are shut now, but the parents are asked to pay the fees. We will try to talk to educational institutions with Malayalee managements working in the Gulf, but would like to publicly appeal to them to not do this. Expats are reeling under financial stress, they should be given as many relaxations as possible," said Vijayan.

The government is also planning for necessary quarantine measures needed for an expected return of expats once the lockdown period is over. A task-force formed to prepare necessary measures to be taken post the lockdown period will look into this, Vijayan said.

To ascertain the fiscal stress in the state over the lockdown, the Gulati Institute of Taxation and Financial Studies is sought to submit a study report on the district-wise loss of revenue and expenses, and the state planning commission will also look into this as well, the CM said. Vijayan also announced certain lockdown relaxations on Monday by allowing mobile recharge shops and motor vehicle workshops to remain open once in a week.

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(Bloomberg) --

Ghanas Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta cut the countrys economic growth forecast for 2020 to the lowest in 37 years due to the collapse in oil prices and the impact of the coronavirus.

Growth in gross domestic product could slow to 1.5% with a partial lockdown of the economy and may further worsen in the event of full lockdown, Ofori-Atta told lawmakers Monday in the capital, Accra, according to a copy of his speech. The estimate compares with the governments initial projection of 6.8% and will be slowest since the economy contracted in 1983, when the West African nation was under military rule, data from the International Monetary Fund show.

The virus is bringing an abrupt end to three years of GDP expansion of 6% or more, with a 14-day lockdown that started Monday in the biggest cities to avoid a mass outbreak. The country has registered 152 confirmed cases and five deaths since the first detection of the disease on March 12.

The reason why every single person in this country must exercise the highest level of self discipline is evidently clear in the economic numbers, Ofori-Atta said. The greater the level of self discipline and responsibility that citizens maintain, the greater chances we have in avoiding mass job losses and its concomitant hardships, he said.

The government expects a 5.7-billion cedi ($989 million) shortfall in oil receipts and a further gap of 2.3 billion cedis from lower tax revenues and duties, said Ofori-Atta. This will widen the targeted budget deficit to 6.6% of GDP from an initial forecast of 4.7%, even after adopting extraordinary measures to close the gap, he said.

The measures include a deferral of interest payments on non-marketable bonds and securing an emergency IMF facility of 3.1 billion cedis, he said. The government will also propose a change in legislation to allow borrowing of as much as 10% of the previous years tax revenue from the central bank in the event of tight financing conditions.

Story continues

Ghanas debt increased to 218 billion cedis, equivalent to 63% of GDP as of December 2019, from 173.1 billion cedis, or 57.6% of GDP, a year earlier.

(Updates with debt data in last paragraph.)

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Andrew Cuomo, the Democrat now in his third four-year term as governor of New York state, has made no attempt to hide his reactionary policies behind the left phrases sometimes used by others. His vicious right-wing record includes the refusal to consider even the tiniest increase in state tax rates for the ultra-wealthy, wage freezes for state workers, and full-throated support for charter schools.

Cuomos attacks on the working class and ties to Wall Street have been so brazen that he has attracted prominent liberal primary opponents in his two reelection campaigns, in 2014 and 2018. With voter turnout falling to record-low levels, Cuomos Democratic critics have worried about this right-wing capitalist partys loss of credibility. Fordham law professor Zephyr Teachout in 2014 and actor Cynthia Nixon in 2018 each challenged the governor in the Democratic primary, and each received about one-third of the vote.

In 2020, however, Cuomos liberal critics, and the political establishment as a whole, have suddenly begun to sing his praises. His daily news conferences on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in New York have been favorably compared to Trumps exhibitions of incompetence, ignorance, narcissism and open contempt for both the victims of the pandemic and the medical experts seeking to fight it. There have even been suggestions that the Democrats might find a way to replace Joe Biden, the current front-runner and presumptive presidential nominee, with the governor of New York.

Cuomos new fans include the New York Times and Britains Financial Times (FT). Mara Gay of the Times Editorial Board has tweeted her enthusiasm. Ben Smith, the newspapers media columnist, wrote a piece entitled, Andrew Cuomo Is the Control Freak We All Need Right Now.

Mr. Cuomo has emerged as the executive best suited for the coronavirus crisis, while President Trump flails, Smith wrote. Mr. Cuomo holds news conferences filled with facts and (accurate) numbers almost every day. He explains systems and challenges and decision-making with a command that Mr. Trump lacks. He even models social distancing by having speakers stay six feet apart from one another.

Smith quoted American Federation of Teachers chief executive Randi Weingarten. This supposed defender of the public schools whom Cuomo has spent most of the last decade attacking declared, This was a moment that [Cuomo] was really built for.

The FT was equally enthusiastic: From the US epicentre for the pandemic, Mr. Cuomo delivers a sermon each day in which he is, by turns, sober, informative, rousing and unexpectedly vulnerable as he updates viewers on the progress of the current war. At times he is profane, as when he urged soldiers to go out and kick coronaviruss ass!

In just a few weeks, Mr. Cuomo, a 62-year-old divorced dad known for a domineeringat times bullyingpersona, has transformed himself into an unlikely father of the nation as it faces one of its gravest modern moments. While President Donald Trumps early response to the pandemic was characterised by denial and baseless optimism, Mr. Cuomos performance has been akin to Franklin D. Roosevelts fireside chats during the Depression or the resolve of New York mayor Rudy Giuliani as he steadied the US after the September 11 terror attacks.

The FT adds that Cuomos performance has led many Democrats to nurse the hope that he could somehow be drafted to replace former vice-president Joe Biden as the partys likely presidential nominee. The newspaper suggests that is not likely, but it quotes veteran Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf, predicting, Assuming we get out of this alive, the amount of power that Andrew Cuomo will have will be extraordinary.

The enthusiasm for Cuomo is not limited to the Times and the FT, major voices for American and British imperialism, which have both attacked the candidacy of Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination. Just as significant is the recent praise from Katrina vanden Heuvel, the publisher and former editor of The Nation, the leading voice of what passes for left-liberalism in the US. The Nation announced its endorsement of Sanders just one month ago, but now its publisher is praising Cuomo. Vanden Heuvel, writing in the Washington Post last week, can hardly restrain herself:

Andrew M. Cuomo is having quite a moment. Using the bully pulpit that the first Gov. Roosevelt, Theodore, made famous, the current governor of the Empire State hopes to emerge as our eras equivalent to the second Gov. Roosevelt, Franklin. Its an astounding, complex transformation brought on by the coronavirus crucible, and the nation is transfixed.

After acknowledging that Cuomo has enforced austerity and has favored a blunt view of neoliberalism, vanden Heuvel concludes by expressing the hope that the governor can channel the reform politics of Franklin Roosevelt. If Cuomo can find it within himself to embrace the Keynesian policies of the past, she writes, he will be the leader that the Democratic Party, and the nation, need.

The new-found prominence of Andrew Cuomo can only be understood within the context of the COVID-19 crisis and, equally important, the economic collapse and social disaster that it is bringing with it.

The pandemic, exposing the reality of the profit system, is inevitably deepening the crisis of capitalist rule within the US and internationally. Trump reflects the terminal decline of American capitalism and expresses most crudely its drive toward war and dictatorship. The methods of personalist rule and fascistic appeals, however, have provoked intense factional warfare within the ruling class. The opposing factions have only tactical differences. Their disputes reflect in part differing material interests of rival sections of the ruling elite. Trumps bourgeois opponents also fear the social and political consequences of his methods.

The Democrats have invariably attacked Trump from the right, on foreign policy grounds, also adding complaints about his incompetence. Democratic Party circles, as well as Trumps European critics, have been on the lookout for new adults in the room, trusted representatives of the ruling class who can be used to weaken or remove him, the better to take on the growing movement of the working class.

The coronavirus pandemic has quickly brought matters to a new level. Democratic front-runner Joe Biden is universally regarded as a weak candidate. Questions have been raised as to his mental competence, at age 77, not to mention whether he has the stamina to wage a general campaign against Trump and, if successful, to govern.

The replacement of Biden by Cuomo, or even by another candidate, is certainly possible. Much will change in the next few months, and the outcome depends on many factors, including the future course of the pandemic, that are highly uncertain. As previously indicated, Cuomo can be expected to play a major role, whether or not he is the candidate.

Cuomo has changed nothing of his political persona in response to the pandemic. On the contrary, the latest budget announced in Albany is another indication of what is attracting such favorable attention in ruling circles. Among other reactionary provisions, the budget agreement gives the governor the power to unilaterally cut the budget if he deems it necessary in response to the pandemic and the economic crisis.

Vanden Heuvels intervention on behalf of Cuomo highlights the role of the so-called left flank of the Democrats in keeping this party afloat, and the capitalist two-party system along with it. The fact that this party of imperialism is widely hated is no secret. Sanders, for all of his efforts to convince working people and youth that the Democratic Party could become the vehicle for popular opposition to Trump and Wall Street, saw his vote decline compared to 2016, particularly in key industrial states like Michigan and Illinois.

Millions of workers and young people are turning away in disgust from the two-party charade. In this context, vanden Heuvels column shows that there are few lengths to which the erstwhile liberals, along with their pseudo-left accomplices, will not go in their effort to keep the Democratic Party alive so that it can continue to politically trap and suffocate the working class.

Vanden Heuvels hopes for a new Franklin Roosevelt are a desperate attempt to derail the movement of the working class toward its political independence. They are also vain hopes. American capitalism could offer social reform, through the mechanism of the New Deal, more than 80 years ago. The long-term decline of American capitalism and the loss of its global economic dominance mean that is no longer possible today.

The role of Cuomo is more aptly indicated by the Financial Times s comparison of him to Rudolph Giuliani. The prospect is not a second Gov. Roosevelt, but rather deepening class struggle and political radicalization, and crucial opportunities for the building of a new revolutionary and socialist leadership. The US Socialist Equality Party candidates, Joseph Kishore for president and Norissa Santa Cruz for vice-president, are fighting to build this new leadership in the working class.

The author also recommends:

Bernie Sanders draws his campaign to an end: The political lessons

[19 March 2020]

Andrew Cuomo defeats Cynthia Nixon in New York Democratic gubernatorial primary election

[15 September 2018]
With 33 more people testing positive for coronavirus, the number of cases in Haryana rose to 129 on Tuesday, the state health department said.

The total of 129 includes 17 patients who were discharged after they recovered and two deaths. There are 110 active cases in the state, it said.

Of the 33 fresh cases reported on Tuesday, 23 are from Nuh district, seven from Faridabad, two from Gurugram and one from Jind, the health department said in its evening bulletin.

Ten foreign nationals -- six from Sri Lanka, and one each from Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia and South Africa -- and 50 people from other states of India are among the 129 cases reported in Haryana, it stated.

State Health Minister Anil Vij maintained that the spike in the number of COVID-19 cases is due to many Tablighi Jamaat members testing positive for the disease.

Vij, who also holds the home portfolio, said 1,526 Tablighi Jamaat members, including 107 foreigners, have been tracked down in the state so far.

"Tablighi Jamaat members constitute a sizeable chunk of the total active cases in the state," he said.

So far samples of nearly 900 Jamaat members out of 1,526 have been collected and all will be tested. A majority of those who entered the state before the lockdown have been traced to Nuh district, he added.

Vij again warned all Tablighi Jamaat members who may still be hiding in the state to report to the concerned district administration by 5 pm on Wednesday, failing which strict action will be taken against them as per law.

"I have already asked that samples of all Tablighi Jamaat members be sent for testing. Once we have all the reports in the next two-three days, we should be able to assess the situation. When we know the exact number of positive cases among them, then we will find out who all they came in contact with and where they stayed so that we can act accordingly," he said.

"I am absolutely confident that we will be able to manage things," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Natural News) Early on in the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, we reported about how it was a strange coincidence that Chinas only BSL-4 (biosafety level 4) laboratory where deadly viruses are contained just so happens to be located in Wuhan, the epicenter of the global pandemic. And now, government officials are starting to acknowledge this strange anomaly as well.

British politicians, in fact, are beginning to suggest that maybe, just maybe, the novel coronavirus is an engineered bioweapon that was released from a Chinese facility, perhaps on purpose, which is why the Left is so insistent that nobody refer to the virus as having come from China. Perhaps they know that linking the virus to China might reveal that this truly is a Chinese Virus (COVID-19) that deserves greater scrutiny than simply being an accidental consequence of Chinas filthy animal wet markets.

While the balance of scientific advice contends that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) first transmitted to humans from one of these live animal wet markets in Wuhan, the prospect that this virus may have emerged as part of something much more sinister is no longer being discounted by the British government.

Reports indicate that a member of Prime Minister Boris Johnsons emergency committee has stated that we cannot rule out the possibility that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) may have first spread to humans after being unleashed from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This member of the so-called Cobra committee, which receives detailed classified briefings from various security services, stated:

There is a credible alternative view [to the zoonotic theory] based on the nature of the virus. Perhaps it is no coincidence that there is that laboratory in Wuhan. It is not discounted.

Listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks about how the White House is projecting a minimum of 100,000 deaths from the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) in America:

Two different labs in Wuhan have conducted dangerous experiments on bats that could have spread the virus

It should be noted that, despite its BSL-4 rating, the Wuhan Institute of Virology isnt necessarily as safe and protected as its claimed to be. There have been multiple unverified reports that workers there were sprayed by infected blood before being allowed to carry potential infection back into the general population.

Theres also another institute in the city, known as the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control, which is located a mere three miles from the wet market thats been officially blamed for this pandemic, that also conducts experiments on animals such as bats, and uses coronaviruses in its tests.

According to Professor Richard Ebright from Rutgers Universitys Waksman Institute of Microbiology, the Wuhan Institute of Virology is in all reality a level 2 security lab rather than a level 4 because it provides only minimal protections against infection of lab workers.

Virus collection, culture, isolation, or animal infection would pose a substantial risk of infection of a lab worker, and from the lab worker then to the public, hes quoted as saying.

Based on the evidence hes collected, Ebright has concluded that theres a basis to rule out [that coronavirus is] a lab construct, but no basis to rule out a lab accident.

Meanwhile, a study put forth by the South China University of Technology determined that COVID-19 probably originated at the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control, though shortly after its publication this paper was removed from a social networking site that exists for scientists and researchers to collaborate.

As you might expect, the communist Chinese regime denies that any wrongdoing on its part led to the release of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). Perhaps the world will never know the full truth.

More of the latest news about the Chinese Virus (COVID-19) is available at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

NaturalNews.com

DailyMail.co.uk
Mike McGrew

Constellation Brands, an international producer and marketer of beer, wine and spirits (including Corona beer, which has temporarily suspended production in Mexico because of the coronavirus pandemic), has appointed Mike McGrew to the newly created role of executive vice president, chief communications and corporate social responsibility officer. McGrew joined the company in 2014, most recently serving as senior vice president, corporate communications. He has also served on Constellations operational executive management committee. Before coming to Constellation Brands, McGrew was senior director, communications for the Americas at industrial supply company W.W. Grainger. In his new post, he will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of Constellations communications efforts, including internal and external global communications, brand public relations, corporate branding and reputation, investor relations, and corporate social responsibility.

David Carmel

eGenesis, a biotechnology company that leverages gene editing technologies to develop human-compatible organs to address the global organ shortage, has appointed David Carmel senior vice president, public affairs and communications. Prior to joining eGenesis, Carmel served as vice president of medical affairs and strategic alliances at Atara Biotherapeutics. He was previously co-founder and principal of Carmel Asset Management, where he was responsible for life science investments. In addition to having held positions in public affairs and business development for StemCyte, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson, Carmel served as the White House Fellow for the Secretary of the Treasury from 2002 to 2003 was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo to the New York Life Science Advisory Board. In his new post, he will lead eGenesis external outreach efforts to advocacy organizations, professional societies, policymakers, and investors.

Tracy Morris

Veracyte, a leading genomic diagnostics company, has named Tracy Morris vice president of corporate communications and investor relations, effective immediately. Morris has served as a communications consultant to Veracyte for nearly ten years, providing communications leadership and support for the companys market introduction, IPO, acquisition and collaboration announcements, product and clinical milestones and ongoing investor relations activities. Earlier in her career, she was director of U.S. marketing communications for Digene Corporation. In her new role, Morris will be responsible for developing and executing Veracytes communications strategy to shareholders, customers, patients, employees and other audiences.
Express-News Staff Writer Joshua Fechters recent article on the city/county response to the coronavirus pandemic rightly praises local leaders for their remarkable job of addressing residents needs. While state and federal officials were dithering, our local leaders assembled an economic safety net that can improve the local economy long after the COVID-19 crisis is past.

We must remember the pandemic is not San Antonios only crisis. We also face a serious lack of affordable housing and a scandalous level of inequality, plus climate change. San Antonio urgently needs to put money and effort into making our community more resilient on all these fronts. Instead of Youre on your own measures, we need an equitable economy affirming Were all in this together.

We can start by making some changes to the way our two city-owned utilities, CPS Energy and San Antonio Water System, charge their customers for energy and water. The City Councils moratorium on utility shutoffs and evictions is appropriate, but it is only a start.

San Antonio has the worst poverty rate of the 25 largest U.S. cities  even worse than Detroits. Nearly half the workers aged 18-64 in the San Antonio/New Braunfels metropolitan statistical area earn low wages. They are mainly concentrated in San Antonios older, inner-city neighborhoods.

Before COVID-19, most of these low-wage workers were already struggling to pay for rent, utilities, food and medicine, even if they had steady, full-time jobs. Many have now been furloughed or let go. Even if they find work again in two months, there is no way they will be able to pay the utility bills that CPS and SAWS have merely deferred, not canceled.

Ill focus on SAWS, which is restructuring its rates for the next five years. The current structure unfairly burdens low-income households and benefits water-intensive businesses.

The problem is SAWS heavy fixed charges. Basic water/sewer access costs a residential customer $27.61, compared with Austins $17.55, Dallas $10.11 and no charge in Houston. Those charges increased by 88 percent between 2009 and 2019. Even households that cut water usage saw huge bill increases while their incomes stagnated.

A simple remedy: Households using no more than 50 gallons per person per day, or 35 gallons per person per day during drought, pay a nominal fixed charge of zero to $10, depending on the per capita household income or social vulnerability of their neighborhood.

Consider something similar for small local businesses, especially in low-income neighborhoods. Disaggregate the General Class according to water-use relevant categories, finding ways to help residents in multifamily housing conserve water and save on rent.

Make all classes tiers based on inclining costs per unit of water. Raise unit costs across all classes. Heavy users (for example, 35,000 gallons a month or more) in any class should pay a substantial monthly fixed charge, like Austins heavy user charges.

This will help pay the $220,000 per day that SAWS will owe Vista Ridge pipeline investors. Businesses and residents using the most water ought to pay the bulk of that cost.

SAWS unfair rate-structure is part of the reason many thousands of customers annually have their water cut off. Unless we change something, these cutoffs will resume once the COVID-19 crisis abates. SAWS bills will once again push low-income families into the traps of payday lenders, evictions and homelessness.

Clean water is essential to human health. No public water utility should ever shut off water for families who cannot afford to pay the bills. Hardworking people who are paid less than a living wage should not have to choose between water, electricity, rent and food.

Lets get creative. How about canceling the fixed charges that low-income families cant pay during the crisis? Then let them pay the rest of their deferred bills with time dollars according to their abilities.

Perhaps an hour of volunteer work takes $10 off a bill. Reducing those deferred bills will save SAWS money on collections and greatly enhance the self-esteem of family breadwinners. Thats a good start to restoring equity in San Antonio.

Meredith McGuire is a professor emerita of sociology and anthropology at Trinity University.
A Hackney community midwife has been "overwhelmed" by donations from members of the public after her bike was stolen at work.

Tasha Follett, 27, a fellow NHS worker, has also had her bicycle stolen in the past, and when Rachel Millar experienced the same fate she decided to launch a fundraiser.

Ms Millar was out making calls on Sunday and left a home visit in Hackney to discover her bike was missing and her lock was broken.

Like most NHS staff who are working during the coronavirus crisis, Ms Millar has had to take on more work while some of her colleagues are off sick, making using her bicycle all the more important.

Community midwife Rachel Millar / NHS physio Tasha Follett / Rachel Millar / Tasha Follett

Ms Follett, who works as a physio at Homerton Hospital in Hackney, told the Standard: "When Rachel was at work she posted on Instagram about her bike being stolen.

"Within seconds I messaged her and asked what happened. I had a bike stolen before in Hackney and I know that gut-wrenching feeling.

"My husband came up with the idea of setting up a Gofundme page. We shared it with out friends who shared it with their friends and then people who don't even know Rachel were donating."

UK landmarks light up blue for NHS staff fighting coronavirus 1 /25 UK landmarks light up blue for NHS staff fighting coronavirus The Shard in London is lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to the hardworking NHS staff fighting against coronavirus Tower Bridge in London is lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to hardworking NHS staff PA Tower Bridge in London is lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to hardworking NHS staff The London Eye is pictured lit blue in support of the NHS Reuters London's Piccadilly Circus saluting local heroes during Thursday's nationwide Clap for Carers NHS initiative to applaud NHS workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic PA Selfridges lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to the hardworking NHS staff fighting coronavirus on the frontline PA Fulwell Windmill in Sunderland is lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to the hardworking NHS staff fighting coronavirus PA MediaCityUK in Manchester lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to hardworking NHS staff PA Northern Spire Bridge in Sunderland is lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to hardworking NHS staff PA Belfast City Hall is lit up in support of the NHS Reuters The SSE Arena, Wembley, is seen with a lit up sign for the Clap For Our Carers campaign REUTERS Tawstock Court in Barnstaple lit up in blue PA Ashton Gate, the home of Bristol City FC is lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks PA Wembley stadium is seen lit up blue REUTERS Wembley Arch in London is lit up in blue PA The Lowry lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to the hardworking NHS staff who are trying to battle coronavirus. PA The Tyne Bridge in Newcastle is lit up in blue in a gesture of thanks to the hardworking NHS staff PA People applaud infront of big screen in Piccadilly Circus during the Clap For Our Carers campaign Reuters The Shard in London is lit up blue

Ms Follett said one donation had come all the way from a person on lockdown in Florida.

Of the 400 target, 550 has been donated to the midwife to get her bike replaced.

Swytch Bike also offered Rachel a bike and e-bike kit to get her back on her way again.

"Rachel said she was walking down the street when she just started crying because she was so overwhelmed by the donations," said Ms Follett.

"If there's any silver lining with what's happening, it's how much positivity there is out there and how kind people are being.

"I've definitely experienced that kindness myself at work."

Both NHS workers work at the same hospital in Hackney. Ms Follett emphasised how vital each NHS worker is in tackling the coronavirus, whether they are directly working on Covid-19 patients or not.

She said: "My job role has completely changed. A lot of physios are being up-skilled to do nursing roles in intensive care.

"My role now is to cover the urgent fracture clinic. I don't think anyone in the NHS is doing the same job they were doing before.
City council calls on Bratislavans to avoid crowded places and take only the window seat on public transport.

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Bratislava city council has adopted additional measures to combat the spread of the COVID virus in the capital. These pertain to public transport, the municipal police, reducing the number of people in popular places as well as measures for homeless people.

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The Dopravny Podnik Bratislava (DPB) public transport company is instructing passengers to take only window seats in its vehicles in order to keep a safe distance from other passengers. DPB continues with daily disinfection of its vehicles, too.
The chief medical officer has urged relatives of care home residents to stay away and warned that infections among the elderly are certain to rise.

Professor Chris Whitty said at the daily Downing Street update on Tuesday that one in ten facilities already had cases of coronavirus.

It was also revealed that care homes were being asked to take in hospital patients who have tested positive for the virus. One worker described the policy as 'importing death into care homes.'

Professor Whitty said yesterday: 'Care homes and nursing homes are going to provide us with some of the biggest challenges, and we have seen already that over nine per cent of care homes have reported cases.

'I regret to say I think the number will go up over time. I would encourage people not to go into care homes unless they need to.'

Sarah Willis care assistant (L) and Maria Mantu care assistant with residents of Bridgedale House care home in Sheffield during the lockdown

So far 70 care home residents have died of COVID-19 but the lack of testing makes it impossible to know the extent of the crisis.

Government guidelines obtained by Sky News, however, said that care homes could be asked to take in patients from hospitals or people currently living in their own homes.

Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty holding a digital COVID-19 press conference in Downing street in London

The document says: 'Residents may also be admitted to a care home from a home setting. Some of these patients may have COVID-19 whether symptomatic or asymptomatic.

'All of these patients can be safely cared for in a care home if this guidance is followed.'

Graham Greenaway, owner of Warberries Nursing Home in Torquay, Devon, told Sky that all of the care home owners he knew in his locale had been asked to take in COVID-19 positive patients.

'And I know that absolutely, everybody said no, and there would be a very good reason for that. That would be tantamount to importing death into care homes.' Mr Greenaway said.

At one care homes in Glasgow it has emerged that 16 elderly residents died in the last week after developing coronavirus symptoms but were not tested or taken to hospital. Meanwhile two of the staff members at the home are being treated for COVID-19.

Another eight deaths have been reported at a care home in Dumbarton, with smaller clusters of fatalities at other homes in Scotland.

Scottish Labour has demanded that Holyrood urgently reconvene to discuss a spate of deaths and the recent resignation of Catherine Calderwood, Scotland's chief medical officer.

Dr Jenny Harries, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, insisted over the weekend that testing was 'happening now' at care homes and said it had been going on 'right from the start' of the outbreak.

Care assistants with residents at Bridgedale House care home in Sheffield during the coronavirus lockdown

However, Barchester, one of the largest care home groups, said it does 'not currently have access to testing' in its 200 care homes.

And the boss of Runwood Homes, which looks after 4,700 residents, called on the Government to 'urgently address the need for testing'.

Runwood's Gavin O'Hare-Connolly said: 'We do not have access to testing kits in our England-based homes. This is worrying given the trajectory that we have seen across the social care provision in Spain and Italy.'

Labour MP Peter Kyle last night called for Matt Hancock to be 'relieved from his social care responsibilities' to allow another Cabinet minister to give the issue their full attention.

He said: 'We are turning our care system into a hospice system. It's horrific for everyone involved and people will be scarred for life.'

Dr Nick Phin, from Public Health England, said: 'Testing of patients or staff is carried out when appropriate for the ongoing management of an outbreak or where there is uncertainty about the cause of the illness.'


As soon as Netflix drops new episodes for one of its hottest series like Money Heist, social media starts buzzing. Thats what happened when the show returned with part 4, causing fans all over the globe to panic, yell, and mourn together from our virtual spaces as we watched.

Money Heist/La Casa de Papel drove the story into a forest, onto the road, and into some dark places this season, causing fans to applaud their new favorite characters and despise their chosen villains.

More than one fit the role of the latter, and a discussion was sparked on social media about which antagonist is this seasons most hated.

Take your pick, because between its a toss-up between Inspector Alicia Sierra, Gandia, and Arturo (aka Arturito). Palermo made the cut too for many fans, but these three outranked him, and each one is vile in his or her own way.

[Spoiler alert: Do not read ahead if you havent watched season 4 of Money Heist/La Casa de Papel]

Money Heist | Tamara Arranz Ramos/Netflix

Arturo is reviled for obvious reasons

Fans are still angry that Arturo slithered his way into the bank in part 3. After the Royal Mint heist, he built up a career as a slimy, fraudulent motivational speaker. In a bid to boost his ego and warped hero complex, he inserted himself into the crop of hostages in parts 3 and 4.

This time, he turned into despicable rapist who drugs women hostages and sexually assaults them when theyre unconscious. He still tormented Stockholm and purposely provoked hot-tempered Denver to hit him. Even the creative team behind Money Heist describes Arturo as deplorable.

On Twitter, commenters united in their hatred for him. One user wrote, Arturo, please just die in episode 1 of Money Heist part 4. Im tired of seeing your annoying s*** face.

Another added, I think we can all agree that Arturo in Money Heist is without a doubt the worst character in existence.

And one passionate user wrote, The real villain in Money Heist (La Casa De Papel) is not Alicia Sierra, not Alfonso Prieto but, its the f****** rapist, Arturo Roman. I wanna burn him alive.

There are a multitude of tweets and Reddit comments questioning why Arturito is still alive.

Alicia Sierra, cold-hearted lawbreaker

She is one of the most callous and manipulative inspectors on the force, and her vulnerable moment of tears did nothing to win over fans.

Alicia is cold, smug, and awful, and after watching her trudge after the Professor down streets, under bridges, and into a tunnel as a smoking pregnant woman about to give birth, viewers are calling her crazy.

Shes ok with torturing people, breaking the law, and bullying Antonanzas. Lisbon, along with fans, believes Alicia is a sociopath. Tweets like this one round her up with Arturo, Gandia, and Palermo as the most hated character  in Spanish and English.

Comments such as Shes bad like pizza with pineapple, I hate her, are all over Twitter and Reddit, but some fans think shell defect over to the Professors team. Dont trust her.

Gandia is brutal

Is he in the number one spot as this seasons most hated character?

Perhaps, but Gandia and Arturo are almost tied. Some fans argue that while Gandia is terrible, he is just following the duties of his job. However, a great number are totally against the killer, labeling him a monster and wanting him dead.

On Reddit, theres discussion of Gandia having too much plot armor, similar to Dre and Tariq in Power. How did the security hitman survive multiple shootouts? How long does Professor want him alive? Tokyo, Helsinki, and Bogota all want a piece of him.

Fans want him gone next season to avenge Nairobis death. Gone! But in the case of whos the worst, its almost a draw between him and Arturito.

Binge-watch La Casa de Papel/Money Heist now on Netflix.
Six Thailand nationals, who tested



positive for coronavirus here, have been booked for allegedly indulging in religious preaching in violation of visa norms and hiding facts regarding their health problems, police said.

Cases have been registered against the six, now undergoing treatment in the isolation ward in nearby Perundurai IRT Government Medical College Hospital, under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code, they said.

The action was taken based on a complaint by local Tahsildar lodged with Erode South Police.

According to police, the Thai Nationals who possessed tourist visas engaged themselves in Islamic preaching despite suffering from COVID-19.

In all, a group of seven Thailand nationals came here some three weeks ago, stayed at Kollampalayam Housing Unit complex and engaged themselves in preaching.

A 49-year old man among them died due to kidney ailment at a government hospital in Coimbatore. The remaining six tested positive for coronavirus, prompting authorities to launch a massive contact tracing of those who had attended the preaching sessions and others.

District Collector C Kathiravan on Tuesday said over 1.09 lakh people have been kept under home quarantine in the district as a preventive measure.

Noting that there was information that several of them were coming out of their houses and roaming around, he warned that such people would be arrested.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Dutchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, is said to be heartbroken that she can't visit her mother, Doria, even after moving to Los Angeles last month. She fears for her mother's health due to the coronavirus pandemic especially that she is already 63 years old and is considered at risk for the virus.

To recall, a lot of people were baffled when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left their remote home on Canada's Vancouver Island for Los Angeles, which is one of the world's coronavirus hotspots.

Meghan Markle's mother

It was reported that one of the reasons why Meghan Markle wanted to relocate to Los Angeles was because she wanted to be near her mother. However, Meghan's mother is in one of the at-risk demographics for the virus and Markle is advised to keep her distance for the meantime.

According to The Sun, Harry and Meghan are following quarantine advice, which means that even though they have been able to do video calls and phone chats with Meghan's mother, they have not given her a visit since they have moved to the city.

The Sun quoted, "Meghan is absolutely heartbroken. After all, one of the main reasons she decided to live in L.A. was to be near her mom. Because of her age, Doria obviously has to be careful and Meghan and Harry are sticking rigidly to all formal guidelines when it comes to coronavirus. They've been WhatsApping and FaceTiming almost daily, but obviously, it's not the same."

Also Read: Prince Philip, Queen Living Together for the First Time in Two Years

Meanwhile, Meghan continues to ignore her estranged father, Thomas Markle, who lives in Rosarito, Mexico, which is 150 miles away from her new Los Angeles home. According to The Sun, Thomas Markle is just a noise for Meghan, and he is considered as a liability with all of the drama that he brings to the table.

Meghan Markle has a son now named Archie, and all she wants is to pursue a philanthropic platform, focus on her immediate family, her work in Hollywood and helping others where she can.

Starting a new life

On March 31, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stopped representing the Queen and became financially independent. They left the royal family in the United Kingdom and embarked on a new chapter in North America, as they purchased a new home in Los Angeles, California.

According to the spokesperson of the royal family, the couple will still retain some charitable goals supporting causes ranging from the Commonwealth to mental health. Both Harry and Meghan attended the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey on March 9, which was their last official appearance as working members of the monarchy, with the Queen and other senior royals.

Meghan Markle will now continue working as an actress. Her first project is Disney Plus' new documentary "Elephants." The documentary is about the African elephant Shani and her son Jomo, and the film followed their journey across the Kalahari Desert. It is an adorable tale that is enjoyable for young kids and their families who are interested in this sort of subject.

Related Article: Selena Gomez Reveals How Being Diagnosed as Bipolar Changed Her Life

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WOOD RIVER  With weather forecasts predicting temperatures in the 80s on Tuesday and Wednesday, Illinois officials have a simple message: Stay home.

This comes as 1,006 new cases of coronavirus on Monday brought the state total to 12,262 with 307 deaths, according to Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike.

Experts have said the virus is expected to peak in Illinois over the next few weeks, but that upcoming weeks will be grim.

Locally, the IDPH reported 52 cases in Madison County while the Madison County Health Department shows 56 cases. The local tally includes 29 women and 27 men ranging in age from their 20s to their 80s, with most in their 30s to 50s.

The IDPH on Monday also was listing one case in Calhoun County, three in Jersey County, seven in Macoupin County, three cases and one death in Montgomery Comunty, three cases in Bond County, four in Clinton County, 11 in Monroe County and 92 cases and two deaths in St. Clair.

However, St. Clair County Health Department reported a third death over the weekend.

Health officials have said that there will be some discrepancies in reporting numbers as more cases are reported.

Local health departments websites and Facebook pages include a large number of postings on COVID-19 related subjects.

A chart showing differing symptoms for the flu, seasonal allergies and COVID-19 was among recent posts on the Madison County Health Department Facebook page. Others included ways to celebrate Easter during the pandemic and mental health tips from the American Red Cross.

In her Monday briefing, Ezike also said the agency would start listing the number of cases by ZIP code. Madison County health officials have declined to do that, saying such information could allow the identification of individual patients and violate privacy laws.

Ezike said the IDPH will not release data for ZIP codes with fewer than five cases.

Also on Monday, she said 70 percent of those who had died had some kind of medical condition, specifically citing hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. She also said medical equipment and supply shortages  especially personal protective equipment  is posing a tremendous challenge to the U.S. healthcare system.

When our workers are sick, they cant take care of you, she said.

She said people should continue to stay at home unless absolutely necessary. With Easter weekend coming up, people should plan to worship online and in their homes, she said.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker focused his remarks on the ongoing effort to find supplies. He and President Donald Trump have traded complaints about the current system and what Pritzker has called the failure of the federal government to provide needed equipment.

In total, the shipments weve received from the Strategic National Stockpile is only a fraction of what we asked for, he said Monday.

This is a small fraction of what we need and what we asked for, Pritzker said. If we relied on the White House, this state and every state would come up short.

He said the state is pursuing all other routes to obtain needed supplies, saying the search for PPE was an ongoing, around-the-clock effort of scouring the globe.

Pritzker also praised federal workers, including FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who he said are fighting like hell for the people of Illinois, even with one hand tied behind their backs by the White House.
Following a major health scare that happened after several COVID-19 positive cases emerged from an event held in Nizamuddin Markaz, Punjab Health Department on Tuesday gave a 24-hour deadline to all Tablighi Jamaat attendees, "who were hiding in the state," to report to the nearest police station, or else face criminal prosecution.

As per an official release, the spokesperson of the department said all those who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event at Nizamuddin Markaz and were currently in Punjab should report and appear for COVID-19 screening within the next 24 hours.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has already issued an advisory on March 28 and, in its continuation, reiterated its directions to all the Chief Secretaries/Advisors to Administrators of all States/UTs and DGPs in this regard on April 4. An FIR was earlier registered against Tablighi Jamaat head Maulana Saad and others under the Epidemic Disease Act 1897, in the national capital.

On Monday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Joint Secretary, Lal Aggarwal had said that as many as 1445 cases in India have links with the Tablighi Jamaat gathering. Till Tuesday, 10 am, there were 91 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Punjab with 8 deaths and a total of 9,695 were quarantined in the state.

Earlier, the Haryana government had also set deadlines for Tablighi Jamaat attendees to disclose their information. Home minister Anil Vij said that the attendees are advised to disclose the information till 5 pm on April 8, following which strict action will be taken against them.

READ: Health Ministry says 1,445 out of total 4,067 COVID-19 cases linked to Tablighi Jamaat

Markaz attendees throughout India

The Health Ministry stated that 1032 Tabhlighi Jamaat attendees have tested positive till date - which amounts to over 30% of all positive cases in India. Overall 3400 people had attended the event - Tamil Nadu: 1500 - 110 have tested positive, rest in quarantine; Gujarat: 1500 attendees - tracing ongoing (29 attendees tested negative); Telangana - 1100, 65 are being traced; 6 have died, 76 tested positive; Uttar Pradesh - 569 (most in quarantine); Haryana- 503 (all traced & quarantined); Himachal Pradesh - 157 (All traced & quarantined); Madhya Pradesh - 107 (trace ongoing), Chattisgarh - 101, Bihar -81, West Bengal -71, Assam -100 - (67 still in Delhi, others quarantined, 1 positive); Arunachal Pradesh -1. Currently, India's COVID-19 tally is at 3374 with 77 deaths.

READ: Mumbai Police registers FIR against 150 Tablighi Jamaat attendees; probe underway

What is the Nizamuddin COVID-19 scare?

Sources reported that a religious programme was organised at Tablighi Jamaat's headquarters Markaz Nizamuddin mosque between 13-15 March which had over 3400 attendees from Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan and from several states in India. After attending the meeting, prior to the nationwide lockdown, 1500 of these attendees returned to several parts of the country, possibly spreading the COVID-19 virus.

The mosque has claimed that while they were letting small groups of attendees leave from the venue prior to the Janta Curfew, several were stuck in the area owing to the nationwide lockdown. All 2631 occupants have been evacuated and the building has been sanitised. The Delhi Crime Branch which has booked the Markaz chief Maulana Saad for violating lockdown is currently searching for him by raiding possible hideouts.

READ: Tablighi case: Uttarakhand youth held for spreading rumours & disrupting communal harmony

READ: Himachal CM Jairam Thakur: '50% of total COVID-19 cases linked to Tablighi Jamaat'

(With Inputs from ANI)
New Delhi: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (April 7) criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) accusing it of being too friendly with China and issuing bad advice during the coronavirus outbreak.

The US president took to social media and tweeted, "The W.H.O. really blew it. "For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China-centric."

Trump further added, "We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately, I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?"

The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2020

New York, however, registered 731 COVID-19 related deaths in 24 hours as per Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York, said an AFP report.

Last week, President Trump had said that he sought help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the sale of Hydroxychloroquine tablets ordered by the US to treat the growing number of coronavirus patients in his country, hours after India banned the export of the anti-malarial drug.

In his statement on Monday, Trump said he would be surprised if India did not allow the export of Hydroxychloroquine tablets to the United States despite a request made to New Delhi over the subject.

"I would be surprised if he would, you know, because India does very well with the United States," Trump told reporters during a press briefing at the White House.

Notably, Hydroxychloroquine tablet is used to prevent and treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, among other ailments. The drug is seen as to offer a viable therapeutic solution to coronavirus that has so far taken the lives of more than 10,000 Americans and infected over 3.6 lakhs, just in a matter of weeks.

Last month, India reportedly imposed a ban on export on Hydroxychloroquine, on which President Trump is now banking heavily in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

India has also received similar requests from several other countries including its immediate neighbours like Sri Lanka and Nepal. India has said that it is reviewing its export ban order.
An inmate at the Rikers Island prison complex in New York has died after testing positive for COVID-19.

Michael Tyson, 53, had been held at New York City's main jail complex on a technical parole violation since 28 February, according to prison records.

Tyson, who is said to have had underlying health conditions, died on Sunday at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan after being transferred 10 days earlier when he began to show symptoms of the coronavirus.

The coronavirus has infected 273 inmates and 321 members of staff across New York City jails as of Sunday, according to the city's Board of Correction.

Majority of COVID-19 cases are in New York City prisons. Rikers Island jail pictured above in New York with the Manhattan skyline in the background

Signage is seen outside of Rikers Island, a prison facility, where multiple cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have been confirmed in Queens, New York City, U.S., March 22, 2020

Mayor Bill de Blasio visits the Brooklyn Navy Yard yesterday, where manufacturers are making surgical gowns to keep healthcare workers safe. On 1 April, a spokesperson for the office of Mayor de Blasio confirmed that inmates in Rikers Island prison were being offered $6 an hour and personal protective equipment to dig mass graves on Hart Island

The 53-year-old was released from state custody last year after serving an unknown length of time on a drugs charge, msn.com reported.

City lock-ups have already released around 1,000 inmates, those who are considered high-risk to the disease with low re-offending potential, amid fears the virus could run riot through jails.

The Legal Aid Society, who are representing the deceased inmate, called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to release prisoners across New York.

'It is time for the Governor to employ the full breadth of those powers and to act without delay to avoid further catastrophe,' the statement said.

The organization also filed a lawsuit against the city and state, demanding that prisoners more susceptible to the virus were released, which included Tyson.

On 1 April, a spokesperson for the office of Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed that inmates in Rikers Island prison were being offered $6 an hour and personal protective equipment to dig mass graves on Hart Island.

Prisoners have been digging graves on the island in the Long Island Sound for years but the offer of $6 an hour is far above the general prison wage.

Inmates work on a mass burial site on Hart Island in this 2017 drone footage

Hart Island: Rikers Island inmates are being offered $6 an hour to dig a mass grave here

The mass graves are not COVID-19 specific, spokesperson Avery Cohen told The Intercept, but morgues and cemeteries have already become overwhelmed as the citys death toll rose.

Hart Island had previously been identified as part of a 2008 contingency plan for the city that would see Rikers Island prisoners dig mass graves to bury up to 51,000 bodies in the event of a severe pandemic.

The news comes as Rikers Island's chief physician issued a grim warning last week about the coronavirus pandemic in the prison.

The mass-grave plans come as concerns escalated over surges in inmates testing positive for the virus.

The majority of US coronavirus cases in jails have been reported in New York City.

Health experts say prisons could become epicenters of the spreading killer virus as they are essentially miniature cities hidden behind tall fences where many people share cells, sit elbow-to-elbow at dining areas and are herded through halls to the yard or prison industry jobs.
The Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland administrations have signed a memo formalising their co-operation in the battle against coronavirus.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU), which has been signed by the two departments of health, focuses on facilitating greater co-operation on messaging, research and public health measures.

Other areas will also be considered including procurement.

Ministers for Health agree Memorandum of Understanding between Irish Government and Northern Ireland Executive



More information: https://t.co/D3aZ2XbV95

Memorandum of Understanding: https://t.co/xpL1Ca0NHU#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/RfGChVGEyz  Department of Health (@healthdpt) April 7, 2020

It comes following apparent confusion when Stormont finance minister Conor Murphy said he had agreed a deal with Dublin for an order of personal protective equipment from China which did not materialise.

The Republic of Irelands Department of Health later said it had not been possible to place the joint order, due to what it said was the context of what is an increasingly challenging international environment for such equipment.

The new memorandum was agreed by Irish health minister Simon Harris and Northern Irish health minister Robin Swann, as well as the two chief medical officers  Dr Tony Holohan and Dr Michael McBride  and has the support of both administrations.

Mr Harris said there has already been significant engagement throughout the pandemic.

This MOU will ensure timely and responsive communications and decisions in a fast-moving environment; that both administrations will seek to adopt similar approaches, where it is appropriate to do so on the advice of respective chief medical officers, he said.

I want to thank my colleagues in Northern Ireland for their co-operation to date. This is a global pandemic. It knows no borders and we are all in this together. It is essential we continue to do everything we can across the island to fight this pandemic.

Mr Swann added: I want to acknowledge the ongoing collaborative work between my department, the Public Health Agency and Health and Social Care Board and their counterparts in the Republic of Ireland.

This has been the case from day one and is a reflection of the long-standing cooperation and relationships built up over many years.

We face a common challenge, a challenge that will test us as never before.

We will continue to do everything possible to work together for the best possible outcome.

Northern Irelands chief medical officer Dr McBride said it is essential the two administrations work together over Covid-19.

Irish chief medical officer Dr Holohan added: We have been working closely with our Northern Irish colleagues since the start of the Covid-19 crisis. Todays MOU will formalise the close ongoing co-operation that has been taking place.

Sinn Fein welcome agreement the move.

Stormont health spokesman Colm Gildernew said it will help protect the lives and welfare of everyone on our island.
A high-profile private investigator has claimed there's been a startling rise in infidelity cases during the coronavirus lockdown.

Julia Hartley Moore, from New Zealand, charges up to $5,000 per client for her services with her private investigation company where she has been carrying out surveillance jobs for two decades.

But with the world in shutdown, she said many suspicious partners are starting to notice things about their spouses they would normally overlook as they're being forced to live in close proximity during isolation.

A growing number of her clients are suspecting their spouses are having an affair because it's 'becoming increasingly obvious they are not just taking work calls' while cheaters are using things like exercise or grocery shopping as excuses to leave the house.

'Changes in behaviour are often a key indicator of an affair. Things like never letting you near their mobile phone or being secretive about its use, for instance,' Ms Hartley Moore told Daily Mail Australia.

'The coronavirus lockdown means people who are having affairs will be desperate to concoct reasons to get away from their partners. A classic is to start an argument and then claim they need to go out to "cool down".'

High profile private investigator Julia Hartley Moore (pictured) has noticed a startling rise of infidelity cases despite the coronavirus lockdown

The signs your spouse is cheating on you during isolation Changes in behaviour

Things like never letting you near their mobile phone or being secretive about it's use for instance

People who are having affairs will be desperate to concoct reasons to get away from their partners

A classic example is to start an argument and then claim they need to go out to 'cool down'

They show signs of resentment because they are now having to spend so much time with their wife or husband instead of their extramarital partner Advertisement

She said cheaters tend to be risk takers as 'all sorts of unseen consequences result from a normal affair', so may be undeterred by self-isolation or the chance of contracting COVID-19.

'The risk of STIs and pregnancy, not to mention the emotional damage affairs can cause to whole families,' she said.

'But people take that risk every day. Adding a potentially life-threatening disease to the mix no doubt makes some stop to think, but not all.'

Despite travel restrictions and social distancing guidelines put in place, she said cheaters are still continuing on with their affairs knowing they are risking their own health.

'Of course they are. Are people really capable of putting intense physical relationships on hold for months? Where there is a will, people will always try to find a way,' she said.

'Even with travel restrictions, cheaters who are also owners of investment properties, holiday homes, boats or businesses have ready made locations and potential excuses to use them as cover for affairs.

'An affair at the moment will mean close physical contact with someone outside your bubble, potentially exposing your loved ones and others to COVID-19. I don't even want to think about how selfish that is.'

She said cheaters are now online in 'bigger numbers than ever before', using apps such as Viber, WhatsApp and Zoom to communicate with their lovers.

But with the world in shutdown, the PI said many suspicious husbands and wives are starting to notice things about their spouses they would normally overlook

One of Ms Hartley Moore's clients, Mike* revealed an elderly couple caught his wife and her lover having sex in a wooded area metres from a walking path just last week.

'She's got a very responsible job for goodness sake, the betrayal's bad enough but I can't believe the stupidity of it,' Mike said.

Mike said his wife would insist she did the grocery shopping or go out for a walk by herself claiming she needed 'me time'.

Since the outbreak, Ms Hartley Moore has seen a spike of online enquiries at her firm.

The coronavirus lockdown means people who are having affairs will be desperate to concoct reasons to get away from their partners, a classic is to start an argument and then claim they need to go out to 'cool down'

'I put that down to the fact it's harder to make a phone call to us when your partner is in the same room,' she said.

Ms Hartley Moore said the coronavirus crisis has also impacted on the way private investigators can operate.

'For instance one of our most useful tools is physical surveillance but with the lockdown, that's no longer an option for us,' she explained.

'So we are focusing on GPS tracker cases for instance, and tracing, background checks, anything we can work on remotely - the enquiries for that stuff are through the roof.'

Julia Hartley Moore and her team work in a range of services, including infidelity investigations, missing persons cases, and computer and mobile phone forensics.

*Name has been changed
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly denounced the former commanding officer of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt Monday as either too naive or too stupid to be at the helm, according to a recording of the speech to the ships crew obtained by The Chronicle.

Then, after a daylong torrent of criticism over the recorded remarks that included congressional calls for his resignation, Modly flip-flopped and apologized Monday night.

Now Playing: Rraw audio of a speech given by Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly to the crew of the nuclear aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt Monday. Modly relieved Capt. Brett Crozier of his command of the ship last week after Crozier pleaded for help with a coronavirus outbreak in a letter to the Navy. Crozier has since tested positive for COVID-19. Video: SFGATE

Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid. I think, and always believed him to be the opposite, Modly said in a statement. He apologized to the Navy, Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused.

Modlys about-face capped a dizzying day that included President Trump weighing in on what he called Modlys rough statement  a 15-minute address in Guam, delivered over the ships intercom system. In it, Modly disparaged the heros send-off the crew gave Crozier after the secretary had relieved him of his command last week.

The Navy chief called Crozier a a martyr CO who betrayed his crew, railed about the media having an agenda and complained his family has been under attack since his decision to remove Crozier became a big controversy in Washington, D.C.

It was a betrayal, Modly said. Of trust with me, with his chain of command, with you.

Crozier, a Santa Rosa native, last week sent a letter to naval command raising alarms about dire conditions on the ship, asking for evacuations, and criticizing the Navys response. The Chronicle obtained the letter and published it.

Modly cited Croziers decision to copy more than 20 people on the letter as his reason for relieving Crozier of command of the Roosevelt.

If he didnt think ... that this information wasnt going to get out into the public, in this information age that we live in, then he was too naive or too stupid to be commanding officer of a ship like this, Modly said Monday, to audible gasps heard in the the audio. The alternative is that he did it on purpose.

Croziers March 30 memo to Navy command pleaded for immediate help to evacuate his carrier in Guam to prevent the spread of the virus through the cramped ship. But in his speech, Modly said he offered before then to come visit the ship and provide his full assistance.

Crozier waved me off. He said he felt like things were under control, Modly said.

Inside the newsroom Anonymous sources: The Chronicle strives to attribute all information we report to credible, reliable, identifiable sources. Presenting information from an anonymous source occurs extremely rarely, and only when that information is considered crucially important and all other on-the-record options have been exhausted. In such cases, The Chronicle has complete knowledge of the unnamed person's identity and of how that person is in position to know the information. The Chronicle's detailed policy governing the use of such sources, including the use of pseudonyms, is available on sfchronicle.com. See More Collapse

On Monday, the Navy reported that 61% of the Roosevelt crew members have been tested for COVID-19, with 173 testing positive. The Navy said that 1,999 sailors have been moved ashore. Modly and top Navy officials said last week that by Friday they had planned to remove 2,700 sailors from the ship.

One of those who tested positive was Crozier, 50.

Trump said Monday that he may look into it in detail. The president said Monday at a news conference that it was a mistake for Crozier to send his memo to many people, as the Navy has alleged.

Its unfair to the families of the people on the ship because they get nervous, Trump said. And it shows weakness. Theres nothing weak about us now. Not anymore. We have the strongest military weve ever had.

However, with all of that said, (Croziers) career prior to that was very good, Trump said. I dont want to destroy somebody for having a bad day.

Modly said after the remarks became public Monday that he had no regrets.

I have not listened to a recording of my remarks since speaking to the crew so I cannot verify if the transcript is accurate, Modly said in a statement provided by the Navy. The spoken words were from the heart, and meant for them. I stand by every word I said, even, regrettably any profanity that may have been used for emphasis.

Chronicle attempts to reach Crozier were unsuccessful.

The speech, delivered to a crew that had days earlier chanted Croziers name, did not sit well with some.

One Roosevelt sailor told The Chronicle that the speech sounded Orwellian. The sailor echoed Modlys statement about Crozier, saying the secretary himself was too naive or too stupid to think this speech wouldnt get out.

Some of these comments sound like something you might hear at a rally, the sailor said. And the comments about doing our jobs and duty? As if we need a reminder from this guy? Patronizing to try to play to the patriotism in us.

The sailor who spoke to The Chronicle wished to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The Chronicle agreed not to identify the sailor in accordance with its policy on anonymous sources.

Modlys address also drew swift condemnation Monday in Washington that helped to trigger his late-night apology.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, was among those who called Monday for Modly to resign over his mismanagement of the coronavirus outbreak aboard the ship and for his retaliation against Crozier.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, a Vietnam veteran whose district includes Croziers native Santa Rosa, called for an investigation into Croziers firing.

The comments made by the Secretary of the Navy are downright unacceptable, Thompson said. The entire Department of Defense should be focused on the health of our men and women in uniform, not closing ranks and slandering a good man who has served his nation honorably.

Bradley Martin, a retired Navy captain who served 30 years, said it was highly unusual to see the Navy secretary address the crew about a recently dismissed commanding officer. Typically, its something thats treated with a little bit of discretion, said Martin, who commanded the Naval Expeditionary Task Force for Europe and Africa.

For the secretary to go on a ship and say that the guy who you all admired had it all wrong seems like something unusual, Martin said. I dont understand the point of being uncomplimentary of him.

Martin thought it was a stretch for Modly to say that Croziers letter compromised the security of the ship. It was reasonably well known and had been reported in the media that crew members had tested positive for coronavirus, he said.

Mark Blakewood, whose son serves on the carrier, read the transcript of the address by Modly and said it helped him understand why Crozier felt compelled to email so many people rather than rely on the secretary.

Im now totally convinced Thomas Modly just cooked his own goose and ... needs to be immediately removed from his position, Blakewood said.

Modly also bashed the media at length  including The Chronicle specifically.

There is no, no situation where you go to the media, Modly said. Because the media has an agenda and the agenda that they have depends on which side of the political aisle they sit. ... They use it to divide us and use it to embarrass the Navy. They use it to embarrass you.

As he acknowledged the crew members might be angry with him for firing their beloved CO, Modly said that hatred and pure evil have since been directed at him and his family. Then he added: But ... its not about me.

Modly gave the crew members his personal word theyd get what they need.

Whatever else you may think of me, I dont go back on my word, he told them. And when it comes down to the TR, whether you hate me or not, I will never, ever, ever, ever give up the ship, and neither should you.

Matthias Gafni, Tal Kopan and Joe Garofoli are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: matthias.gafni@sfchronicle.com, tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com, jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mgafni, @talkopan, @joegarofoli
CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 19: Lt. Gov. of South Carolina, Henry McMaster delivers a speech during the start of the second day of the Republican National Convention on July 19, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Cleveland, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Republican National Convention kicked off on July 18. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order Monday mandating that residents must stay at home except for essential reasons. The order goes into effect Tuesday at 5:00 p.m.

"All residents and visitors of the State of South Carolina are required to limit social interaction, practice 'social distancing' in accordance with CDC guidance, and take every possible precaution to avoid potential exposure to, and to slow the spread of, COVID-19," the order stated.

People will still be able to leave their homes to engage in exercise, obtain essential supplies such as food or medicine and care for family members.

McMaster also ordered the closure of nonessential businesses such as night clubs, fitness centers and clothing retailers.
HILLSDALE, MI  Two more Hillsdale County residents have died from COVID-19 and 10 new cases of the disease caused by the novel cornavirus were announced on Tuesday.

A 68-year-old man died from COVID-19 at Henry Ford Allegiance Health in Jackson, according to a hospital news release on Tuesday, April 7. The man had underlying health conditions, hospital officials said.

A second resident with multiple underlying conditions at the Hillsdale County Medical Care Facility also has died of the disease, a news release said. A resident also died there on Saturday, April 4.

Hillsdale County Medical Care Facility resident is countys 3rd coronavirus death

Ten residents at the facility have tested positive for COVID-19 and are in isolation and their families are receiving updates about their conditions, officials said.

Three staff members tested positive on April 2. One has been treated and released from the hospital as of Tuesday, the release said.

There are now 56 cases of COVID-19 and five deaths in Hillsdale County attributed to the disease, per the Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency.

Michigan has 18,970 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 845 deaths caused by the disease as of 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.
Ruben Caballero, a former Apple executive, has joined Microsoft as corporate vice president for hardware design and technology. According to a new entry on his LinkedIn profile, which was first spotted by Bloomberg, Caballero will be part of Microsofts mixed reality and AI division. In particular, hell work on the HoloLens as well as other special projects.

Caballero served as a VP of engineering at Apple from 2005 to 2019 and led the companys wireless technology development. His team of engineers built the antennas inside iPhones, iPads and Macs, and he oversaw Apples wireless testing labs around the world. After he left the tech giant in 2019, he served as an advisor for several companies before joining Microsoft.

Microsoft confirmed the hire to Bloomberg but didnt elaborate on what projects Caballero will be working on. As the publication notes, though, this shows Microsofts commitment to growing its selection of hardware offerings.
Even as Asia, Europe and North America battle to keep the spread of coronavirus under control, public health officials are raising the alarm that infection rates in Africa could soon boom, while also undermining international efforts to end the pandemic.

So far, African countries have been spared the high death tolls seen in Italy, Spain, and the U.S., but officials are bracing for the worst in the coming weeks. Many are concerned that as cases increase, COVID-19 will make its way to vulnerable populations in war zones, slums and sprawling refugee camps across the continent.

Princeton University professor Jessica Metcalf, who specializes in infectious diseases and public policy and who has worked in Africa, warns that the introduction of the coronavirus into the tsunami of other infectious diseases across vulnerable populations in Africa might be catastrophic.

With very little known about possible interactions with other maladies like malaria, which kills more than 300,000 Africans per year, she notes that the prospects are alarming. I think it could be a really serious issue and one where there arent clear levers to pull to diminish the impact, she told Yahoo News. Its likely to be one last straw that might break the camels back.

South African National Defense Forces patrolling near Johannesburg last month. (Jerome Delay/AP)

Experts fear that African nations limited health care infrastructure may be quickly overwhelmed by the fast-spreading coronavirus and that the interaction between COVID-19 and already prevalent infectious diseases may result in a perfect storm of sickness that could, according to worst-case scenarios, kill millions.

It is an existential threat for our continent, Dr. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a recent press call. We have to win the battle against COVID in Africa in order to survive.

Even statistical models that factor in robust public health measures suggest hundreds of thousands may die. Its a nightmare dystopian situation that were talking about, said Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University. In Africa and Asia, and in war zones, places with severe poverty, huge ghettos all over the world, its almost inevitable that COVID-19 will be an issue.

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Already, deaths in some countries have skyrocketed. On March 18, Burkina Faso suffered the first confirmed COVID-19 fatality in all of sub-Saharan Africa. Three weeks later, more than 360 people in the tiny Sahelian state have died of the disease. Case numbers are increasing exponentially in the African region, said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization regional director for Africa. It took 16 days from the first confirmed case in the region to reach 100 cases. It took a further 10 days to reach the first thousand. Three days after this, there were 2,000 cases, and two days later we were at 3,000.

Workers dressed in full body gear disinfect the Rood Woko market in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on March 31, 2020. (Olympia de Maismont/AFP via Getty Images)

There are now more than 10,200 confirmed coronavirus cases on the continent. Any count is, however, likely to be a gross under-estimate of the true burden of COVID-19 because the symptoms are similar to other viral diseases and because of the dearth of available tests for it, said Dr. Meredith McMorrow, a medical officer in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions influenza division based in South Africa, during a conference call with reporters.

For many across the continent, access to any medical care, much less COVID-19 testing, is severely limited. Escalating violence from jihadist militants in Burkina Faso, for example, has not only made 700,000 people homeless over the last year but it has also closed or reduced services at 275 health centers, leaving internally displaced people (IDPs) without adequate health care and packed into camps and slums where there is an elevated risk of contracting COVID-19.

In West and Central Africa, the majority of refugee or IDP sites dont have proper health care facilities. If someone is ill, they may not even have the possibility of seeking out health care, Alexandra Lamarche, senior advocate for West and Central Africa at Refugees International, told Yahoo News.

Many African countries lack sufficient medical and public health infrastructure as well as sophisticated medical equipment to deal with a pandemic. A recent Lancet study of COVID-19 in West Africa noted that not only do countries in the region have poorly resourced health systems, rendering them unable to quickly scale up an epidemic response, but that a rapid acceleration in the number of cases could quickly overwhelm already vulnerable health systems.

Girls in front of an educational mural about coronavirus in Nairobi, Kenya. (Brian Inganga/AP)

These shortfalls are hardly confined to the west of the continent. Last week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said 15,000 additional ventilators were needed for his city of 8 million people to get through the next two months.

The Central African Republic, a desperately poor nation at the center of the continent, has a total of just three ventilators for its entire population.

COVID-19 has the potential to tear through the Central African Republic at lightning speed if the country doesnt get the support it needs to adequately protect itself against the virus. Three ventilators in a country of 5 million people is setting the country up for catastrophe, warned David Manan, country director in the Central African Republic for the Norwegian Refugee Council, a leading humanitarian relief agency.

Nkengasong of the Africa CDC echoes these same warnings. We have so many people in several parts of Africa, depending on which country, infected with malaria, with tuberculosis, and HIV, he said. We have a large number of our population that is malnourished, so we just dont know how these factors will play into the dynamics and the projection of COVID-19.

Some experts believe that certain factors, e.g. extensive experience in responding to previous epidemics like Ebola, will allow some African countries to effectively deal with the pandemic. Age might also play an important role, since old age is a major risk factor for death from COVID-19. At least 70 percent of our population is less than 30 years old.  If we look at it strictly from mortality, you could argue on the basis of what we saw in China, that this may be something that will play in our favor, Nkengasong said, while cautioning that in the United States, more younger people seem to require hospitalizations and oxygen support.

Residents of the densely populated Hillbrow neighborhood of Johannesburg, South Africa, are confined in an attempt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, March 27, 2020. (Jerome Delay/AP)

A Lancet study published last week also noted that despite having young populations, some African countries have other risk factors, like high blood pressure and diabetes, at rates similar to European countries. In fact, across the entire world, Africa has the highest prevalence of high blood pressure, with 46 percent of the population over 25 years of age estimated to be hypertensive.

Nationwide lockdowns are in effect in Kenya, Uganda, the Republic of the Congo and elsewhere on the continent, but experts caution about dire collateral consequences, if they block access to essential food, water, and health care. Lockdowns not only stymie the spread of the virus but they also stop the flow of income, prevent people from reaching markets for vital supplies, and prohibit access to communal water points, Alexandra Lamarche of Refugees International told Yahoo News.

It is essential, according to the World Health Organizations regional office for Africa, that African governments continue to promote strict adherence to proven public health measures such as social distancing, good personal hygiene practices and cough etiquette.

But such measures are hardly applicable to vast populations of refugees and IDPs in nations like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Uganda. The measures most countries have put in place to stop the spread of the virus  physical distancing, frequent hand-washing, reducing contact  are impossible for families living in refugee camps or people who rely on daily bartering and trading to survive, Beth deHamel, interim CEO of the humanitarian NGO Mercy Corps, recently observed.

Residents in Duduza, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, on April 2, 2020. (Themba Hadebe/AP)

An analysis published late last month by a team of researchers at Imperial College London, whose modeling work has already helped influence COVID-19 policy in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, found that if no action was taken to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, around 1 billion people in sub-Saharan Africa could become infected by the end of the year, with almost 2.5 million possible fatalities. With strong suppression via public health measures, including testing and isolation of cases and widespread social distancing measures, the models showed infections brought down to 110 million and deaths held under 300,000.

We cannot eliminate COVID in any country in the world if we still have it lingering in any part of the world, said Dr. Nkengasong of the Africa CDC, as he called for global solidarity in fighting the pandemic.

We still have an opportunity in Africa to do something, but we need support and we need partnership quickly, he said. Otherwise, our situation will be devastating.

_____

Click here for the latest coronavirus news and updates. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please refer to the CDCs and WHOs resource guides.

Read more:
OREM, Utah, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard ( PCI DSS ) is a set of 12 data security requirements for credit card merchants, mandated by the major credit card brands. This standard helps merchants secure their systems and protect sensitive payment card data from compromise.

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New Delhi: In the most intense firefight on the Line of Control (LoC), five personnel of Para troopers were martyred in hand to hand combat with equal number of terrorists. The SF unit were air dropped near the LoC. As per the sources, all killed terrorists were getting active support from the Pakistan Army. Zee News exclusively accessed the pictures of recovered items from the killed terrorist which suggest that terrorists wanted to infiltrate the Indian border and carry out a major terror attack. The food items recovered from terrorists have been found to be 'Made In Pakistan'.

Indian Army launched an operation at the Line of Control and engaged Pak supported infiltrators in a Close Quarter Battle in heavy snow, neutralizing the entire infiltrating batch of five. Four soldiers under the command of a Junior Commissioned Officer from one of the most professional Para SF Units were heli dropped near the LoC after information on the infiltrators was received. An intense hand to hand battle ensued and all five terrorists were eliminated.

All killed terrorists belong from Lashker-e-Toiba group. The food items recovered from the killed terrorists clearly indicates their link with Pakistan. "The food items and other recoveries from killed terrorists have the Pakistani mark. They are all made in Pakistan. We are pretty sure that Pakistan's agencies have helped to infiltrate these terrorists into India," an official from Central security agencies said.

Here are the details of recovered food items from the slain terrorists :

1. Mehran Mixed Pickle (Made in Pakistan)

2. Spicy tikka (Made in Pakistan)

3. Hand gloves (Pak Army)

4. Medicines and painkillers (Made in Pakistan)

5. Fruit juice (Made in Pakistan)

6. Biscuites (Made in Pakistan)

7. Ready to eat food items (Made in Pakistan)

Unfortunately, in this battle, Army lost five of its best soldiers, three on the site and two more succumbed while they were airlifted to a nearby military hospital. The IA Special Forces squad was led by Subedar Sanjeev Kumar and included Havildar Davendra Singh, Paratrooper Bal Krishan, Paratrooper Amit Kumar and Paratrooper Chhatrapal Singh.

"A search party of Army located the terrorists with help of Drone on April 1, followed by Footsteps of terrorist also reported on the same day; however, extremely difficult terrain and inclement weather prevented any worthwhile engagement. SF troops were launched on 4th April while the main engagement took place on 5th morning," an official said

On April 05, one squad, following the footsteps on the snow realized late that they were on a cornice which broke suddenly and they all fell into the nallah, close to where all the five terrorists were hiding.
Martin Shkreli.

AP Images

"Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli, who is serving seven years in prison for defrauding investors, has asked to be temporarily released so he can help find a cure for COVID-19.

Shkreli, a biotech entrepreneur, published an 11-page scientific paper on his pharmaceutical company's website in which he says he's more qualified than most to research the virus.

Shkreli gained notoriety after increasing the price of the life-saving drug Daraprim from $13.50 a tablet to $750 a tablet overnight.

He called his biotech peers' reactions to the coronavirus "inadequate."

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

"Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli has asked to be released from prison so he can work on finding a cure to the novel coronavirus.

Shkreli, a biotech entrepreneur serving seven years in prison for defrauding investors out of $10 million, asked to be temporarily released for three months in an 11-page scientific paper posted on his pharmaceutical company's website.

He said a three-month furlough would allow him to help develop a cure for COVID-19, which has killed thousands of people across the world.

"As a successful two-time biopharma entrepreneur, having purchased multiple companies, invented multiple new drug candidates, filed numerous INDs and clinical trial applications, I am one of the few executives experienced in ALL aspects of drug development from molecule creation and hypothesis generation, to preclinical assessments and clinical trial design/target engagement demonstration, and manufacturing/synthesis and global logistics and deployment of medicines," the statement said.

Shkreli, who gained notoriety after increasing the price of the life-saving antiparasitic drug Daraprim from $13.50 a tablet to $750 a tablet overnight, said in his letter that the "industry response to COVID-19 is inadequate."

"All biopharmaceutical companies should be responding with all resources to combat this health emergency," he added.

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Shkreli is being held at a federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, and his release it scheduled for 2023, according to the New York Post.

He called himself a "citizen scientist" in his newly published scientific paper, saying he would not expect to profit "in any way, shape, or form" from coronavirus treatments.

The paper was coauthored by Maureen Lohry and James Rondina, who also labeled themselves as "citizen scientists," as well as Kevin Mulleady, who prosecutors said was a coconspirator in Shkreli's case, the New York Post reported.

Shkreli's attorney, Benjamin Brafman, told Newsweek that he planned to formally request a furlough soon.

"Mr. Shkreli has prepared a coronavirus research proposal, which, if accurate could help scientists and doctors better understand how to deal with the coronavirus that is killing so many people," he said. "We will be requesting a three-month furlough so that he could do his research in a laboratory under strict supervision."

Read the original article on Insider
Over the entire month of March, while testing at among the lowest rates in the country, Oklahoma officials identified 565 cases of coronavirus.

On April 1, following the arrival of enough chemicals to process 10,000 tests, the state changed its approach dramatically. The state went from six test sites to 14. It dropped the requirement that patients be of a vulnerable population. No longer did it take a doctors permission to get tested. Any adult with symptoms would qualify.

Oklahomas total shot to 988 in just three days. And still the states testing rate remained stubbornly low compared to some parts of the country.

Just how low was unclear Monday as officials announced that estimates of testing levels as of last week were massively undercounted.

Oklahomas experience highlights some fundamental facts to emerge from last weeks surge in coronavirus testing nationally: more testing makes a huge difference; the advent of more test kits has failed to eliminate the wide gap between some states and others; and even counting tests consistently is tough to do.

The uneven testing rate has left public health and medical professionals without a clear picture of how coronavirus is spreading.

"We've quickly devolved into an unknown," said Kacey Ernst, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Arizona. "We don't have a pulse of how much transmission is out there."

Data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project, an independent website run by journalists, show that disparities persist despite a doubling of daily testing last week.

Ranking which states have the worst rates is hard because some are not consistently reporting every time they get a negative result. That means the public has an incomplete picture of how many people have been tested overall.

On Monday, Oklahoma officials said they have succeeded in capturing large numbers of negative results private labs had previously failed to report. The state now estimates having tested more than 13,000 tests, placing it at about one-fourth New York's level of testing per capita as of last week.

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Texas more than doubled the number of tests it reported last week but still only reported 55,764 results. Thats a rate of 192 tests per 100,000 people, compared to a rate of nearly 1,400 per 100,000 in New York state.

Only three states -- New York, Louisiana and Washington -- have matched or exceeded the testing rate of South Korea, whose testing procedures experts hold out as a model for the world.

Tests in those states also are far more likely to come back positive than in much of the country, suggesting that testing is occurring there largely in response to people showing up at healthcare providers with symptoms.

Experts say testing should be applied as a surveillance measure across states, to pinpoint hotspots early enough to keep people with no symptoms from spreading the virus.

READ: Florida coronavirus testing varies widely, often by income

Some states that have yet to see high rates of disease managed to achieve much more aggressive testing. Alaska and New Mexico were able to test over 700 per 100,000 residents. That put them both in the Top 10 for testing rates nationally as of Friday.

But many other states with low rates of COVID-19 detection remain near the bottom for testing.

Some didnt have labs to evaluate results; others did. Many ran into shortages of test kits and test chemicals; some shortages were deeper than others. The time it takes to get a test result has ranged from hours to weeks depending on where its performed.

States also vary in who theyll test. Some states have required a doctors sign-off. Others make testing available to anyone with symptoms.

Oklahoma officials acknowledged last week that their numbers under-represented the extent of the virus spread. Shelley Zumwalt, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Health, said the state was among the last to have a confirmed case. As a result, it was among the last to ask for help from the federal government, joining a glut of states desperate for supplies.

Another impediment: the remoteness of much of Oklahomas population. About a third of the states residents live in rural areas.

It's not so much that people don't have it, it's that we don't have resources in those rural areas to test people, Zumwalt said.

In Georgia, where a February funeral is thought to have sparked an outbreak that engulfed the small town of Albany, testing remains sparse.

Some labs in Georgia are so overwhelmed, it can take 10 days for a patient to get test results. Medical workers conducting the tests are short on gear to protect themselves when collecting swabs for testing.

Director of the Georgia Esoteric & Molecular Laboratory (GEM) Dr. Ravindra Kohle holds a vial containing a possible coronavirus sample before it is tested at the GEM lab at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Ga., Thursday morning March 19, 2020.

On Tuesday, Governor Brian Kemp announced a plan to partner with universities to ramp up testing. Once that plan is fully implemented, labs will be able to process 3,000 tests per day. At that rate, it will take one week to match the total done statewide since the pandemic started.

Not knowing how many people are infected in each state handcuffs policy makers deciding who needs to stay home, where additional medical resources are needed and which parts of the economy are going to be shut down. Failure to test widely and consistently also limits the ability of public health officials to find and quarantine infected residents, disease researchers said.

If you could at least test everyone who wants a test, that would be better than worse, said Jeffrey Townsend, a professor of biostatistics at Yale School of Medicine. I think that is a point we should aim for.

Matt Wynn is a data journalist on the USA TODAY investigations team, focusing primarily on public and consumer safety. Contact him at mwynn@usatoday.com or @mattwynn

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: As coronavirus test rates surge, some states remain far behind others.
House Rules: High Stakes premiered on Channel Seven with a two-part episode on Monday night.

But just 679,000 metro viewers tuned in for part one, representing a drop of more than 100,000 viewers from last year's premiere.

It appears Australians are switching off reality shows in favour of news programs like ABC News, 7:30 and A Current Affair during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Decline: Monday night's season premiere of House Rules: High Stakes lost more than 100,000 viewers from last year. Pictured: House Rules contestants Carly and Andrew

Last year's season premiere brought in 782,000 metro viewers, meaning that in the space of a year, viewership has dropped by more than 13 per cent.

The second part of Monday night's episode saw 19,000 viewers tune out as the audience dropped to 660,000.

House Rules' second part began at the same time as ABC current affairs program 7:30, which brought in 885,000 viewers in the five capital cities.

The renovation show narrowly beat Channel 10's The Project, which was airing at the same time, by 45,000 viewers.

Losing viewers: Last year's season premiere brought in 782,000 metro viewers, meaning that in the space of a year, viewership has dropped by more than 13 per cent. Pictured: judges Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen (left), Saul Myers (second from left) and Kyly Clarke (centre) with new hosts Abbey Gelmi (second from right) and Jamie Durie (right)

Even Channel Seven's own late afternoon quiz show The Chase beat House Rules with 691,000 metro viewers.

Fortunately for the network, Seven News was the most-watched news program of the night with 1,293,000 viewers - beating Nine News by 55,000 viewers.

But overall, it was Nine that dominated the night with a 27.3 per cent audience share. Seven came in second with 26.7 per cent and ABC in third with 22.7 per cent.

Beaten: House Rules' second part began at the same time as ABC current affairs program 7:30, which brought in 885,000 viewers in the five capital cities. Pictured: 7:30 host Leigh Sales

During Monday's episode of House Rules: High Stakes, eight new teams were introduced and tasked with transforming a penthouse in a 32-storey apartment complex on the Gold Coast.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to escalate in Australia.

As of Tuesday, there are 5,895 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country, including 45 deaths.
An American journalist has caused a storm on Twitter by saying that Prime Minister Boris Johnsons hospitalisation for coronavirus and transfer to intensive care is funny.

In a tweet on Monday afternoon, Ken Klippenstein said: Boris Johnson called for a bats**t plan that sought to let people get sick and could've killed millions; he bragged about coronavirus not stopping him from shaking people's hands.

If you can't understand why some people are gonna find this funny, I don't know what to tell you.

The tweet drew instant criticism, with much of the reaction referring to both the unpleasant nature of suffering from Covid-19 to the point of needing to be moved to intensive care, and that Mr Johnsons partner, Carrie Symonds, is pregnant.

I dont know man Im a big advocate of yours I just dont want anyone to die as they gasp for air. Its just inhuman.

He has a partner who is pregnant. This could leave that child fatherless. There is nothing funny about this at all.

Father's battling for their lives in ICU is NOT funny you moron.

Other users said that it is possible to dislike Mr Johnson, but not want to put him in intensive care.

Mr Klippenstein posted other tweets, doubling down on his point: THIS WAS LITERALLY BORIS' JOHNSON'S HERD IMMUNITY PLAN WHICH SOUGHT TO LET EVERYONE INCLUDING THE OLD AND INFIRM GET SICK.

He also retweeted a video of Mr Johnson saying on 3 March that he shook hands with everyone including coronavirus patients on a visit to a hospital.

Some Twitter users agreed with Mr Klippenstein, while others said that Mr Johnsons condition was ironic, not humorous  others said it was not funny, but that it was karma.

Most succinct was the user who said: Sometimes its better to just say nothing.

The prime minister was moved to intensive care after his coronavirus symptoms worsened, just hours after Downing Street insisted he was in good spirits and in control of the government's response to the escalating crisis. He is understood to be conscious and was moved as a precaution, in case he requires ventilation to aid his recovery.
Press Release

Nokia deploys worlds first 450 MHz private wireless LTE network PoC for power grid operators in Poland

The proof of concept (PoC) network is the first big step in the digitalization of critical communications in Polish energy sector  a top priority for the government

The 450 MHz band is being adopted across Europe for smart grid applications

The final private wireless network will potentially support 15,000-20,000 private radio users over LTE/4.9G, as well as wireless connectivity for up to 14 million smart meters and 35,000 existing and future SCADA connections

7 April 2020

Espoo, Finland  Nokia today announced that leading Polish energy sector company PGE Systemy has chosen its 5G-ready, industrial-grade private wireless solution, following the successful trial of a 450 MHz PoC network in operation since April 2019.

This marks a critical first step in evaluating the use of the 450 MHz band to support the wide-area operations of energy distribution system operators (DSOs) across Poland. PGE Systemy will use the PoC infrastructure to further develop its concept of a country-wide critical communications network. The final private wireless network will potentially support 15,000-20,000 private radio users over LTE/4.9G, as well as wireless connectivity for up to 14 million smart meters and 35,000 existing and future SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) connections.

The Polish Energy Ministry has chosen PGE Systemy to operate a 4.9G private wireless network on the 450 MHz band for critical and operational communications in its next-generation power grid. Favored by the energy sector across Europe, this band has excellent propagation properties, generous power levels, and there is strong availability of voice and data radios from a variety of equipment suppliers to support numerous applications. It is the band of choice for the support of machine-to-machine communications in the energy sector, including smart meters and wireless SCADA connections required, for example, with wind turbines. Future applications of the network may include distributed energy resource management and other digital smart grid applications.

Andrzej Piotrowski, Vice-President of PGE Systemy, said: Poland has a strong concern to digitalize our energy grid because further integration of Renewables with grid as well as conversion to distributed energy systems requires ubiquitous, reliable and safe communications. Private wireless operating in the 450 MHz range is the communications technology of choice for the energy sector right across Europe, which ensures support from industry suppliers. The Nokia proof of concept has demonstrated that it will meet our needs in terms of coverage, service quality, resilience and long-term availability.

Chris Johnson, Vice-President of Nokias Enterprise business, said: Nokia has a big commitment to Polands communications infrastructure with over 6,000 employees in country working in our R&D centers, developing our newest technologies, including 4.9G and 5G. Thus, we are very pleased to be providing further support for the digitalization of the Polish electrical grid by PGE Systemy. Nokias proof of concept, 5G-ready private network has ably demonstrated the superiority of cellular systems for mission-critical and machine-to-machine communications in these advanced applications.

About Nokia for Industries

Nokia has deployed over 1,300 mission-critical networks with leading customers in the transport, energy, large enterprise, manufacturing, webscale and public sector segments around the globe. Leading enterprises across industries are leveraging our decades of experience building some of the biggest and most advanced IP, optical, and wireless networks on the planet. The Nokia Bell Labs Future X for industries architecture provides a framework for enterprises to accelerate their digitalization and automation journey to Industry 4.0. Nokia has also pioneered the private wireless space with many verticals, and now has over 150 large enterprise customers deploying it around the world.

About Nokia

We create the technology to connect the world. Only Nokia offers a comprehensive portfolio of network equipment, software, services and licensing opportunities across the globe. With our commitment to innovation, driven by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs, we are a leader in the development and deployment of 5G networks.

Our communications service provider customers support more than 6.4 billion subscriptions with our radio networks, and our enterprise customers have deployed over 1,300 industrial networks worldwide. Adhering to the highest ethical standards, we transform how people live, work and communicate. For our latest updates, please visit us online www.nokia.com and follow us on Twitter @nokia.
Kabul, April 7 : A Taliban commander and his bodyguard were killed after security forces foiled an attack in Afghanistan's Takhar province, an official said on Tuesday.

"A large number of Taliban rebels under commander Qari Ansarullah Gajar were planning to storm the headquarters of Baharak district on Monday night, but security forces ambushed the militants' convoy killing the commander and his bodyguard," the official told Xinhua news agency.

Three militants and two security personnel were wounded, the official said, adding that Gajar's killing could prove a major blow to the Taliban fighters in Takhar and adjoining areas.

The Taliban has not commented on the development.
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 3, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Navy Secretary Modly Resigns After Carrier Remarks; Esper Names Replacement

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said April 7 that hes accepted the resignation of acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly and has nominated Army Undersecretary James McPherson to be Modlys replacement.

This morning I accepted Secretary Modlys resignation. He resigned on his own accord, putting the Navy and the Sailors above self so that the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, and the Navy, as an institution, can move forward, Esper said in a statement, which was carried on Twitter.

I briefed President Trump after my conversation with Secretary Modly. With the approval of the President, I am appointing current Army Undersecretary Jim McPherson as acting Secretary of the Navy.

Modly offered his resignation April 7 after apologizing for any pain caused by a speech that followed his firing of the commander of the virus-hit aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt that some interpreted as him calling the captain naive and stupid.

The apology from Modly came after President Donald Trump hinted he may intervene, saying if he could help two good people, he would.

Several days earlier, Modly had fired Capt. Brett Crozier as the commander of the aircraft carrier over a four-page memo on March 30 by Crozier that outlined the threat from the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak onboard the carrier.

In addition to concerns over breaking the chain of command, chief among Modlys criticisms was the fact that Croziers memo, which implied sailors would die without evacuation, was leaked to the press.

Modly then flew out to the virus-hit carrier in Guam and gave a speech over the ships loudspeaker system to the 5,000 sailors, who had given Crozier a rousing heros send-off. Modlys speech, however, was recorded and then also leaked to the media.

While Modly had previously said he stood by every single word of the speech, in a statement on April 6, he offered an apology for his specific word choice, but stopped short of backtracking on his broader criticisms.

Capt. Brett Crozier addresses the crew for the first time as commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt during a change of command ceremony on the ships flight deck in San Diego, on Nov. 1, 2019. (U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Sean Lynch/Handout via Reuters)

Let me be clear: I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive or stupid, Modly said. I think, and always believed him to be the opposite.

I believe, precisely because he is not naive or stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it to the public domain in an attempt to draw public attention to the situation on his ship.

I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused, he said in a statement carried by many media. I also want to apologize directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt is currently out of action in a port in Guam, while its crew is systematically evacuated and quarantined after an outbreak of the CCP virus onboard.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) is seen while entering the port in Da Nang, Vietnam, on March 5, 2020.(Kham/File Photo/Reuters)

Crozier will be reassigned, Modly said in an earlier statement.

Hes not thrown out of the Navy.

Asked about the issue during his daily briefing on April 6, Trump reiterated his previous position that the captain shouldnt have sent the letter, but this time, hinted that there could be some wiggle-room over his position.

If I Can Help Two Good People

Also describing Modly has a highly respected man, Trump said: I may get involved. If I can help two people, two good people, Im going to help them.

Im not looking to destroy a persons life who has had an otherwise stellar career, he said, in reference to Crozier.

People are asking, why is the president getting involved? I like to solve problems. Its a problem.

The section of Modlys speech that appears to have sparked the most anger, with the naive and stupid references reads: It was my opinion, that if he didnt think that information was going to get out into the public, in this information age that we live in, then he was too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this.

The alternative is that he did this on purpose. And thats a serious violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which you are all familiar with.

The plight of the Theodore Roosevelt hit the headlines when the March 30 memo from Crozier was leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, in which he said that the COVID-19 outbreak was ongoing and accelerating.

We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die, Crozier said in the memo, in which he implied that sailors would die unless the crew was taken off and the ship disinfected.

The Navy later announced that they were already taking measures to evacuate the carrierand that Crozier had been fired.

Modly said in an initial statement that the letter, which was sent via non-secure unclassified email outside of the chain of command, had raised alarm bells unnecessarily, and created the impression that the Navy was not responding to his questions.

Esper on April 5 said that he backed Modlys decision.

I have full faith and confidence in him and the Navy leadership, and I support their decision, Esper told ABC News. This is a chain-of-command issue. Its an issue of trust and confidence in the captain of the ship.

Investigators are currently evaluating whether Crozier should face disciplinary action, Reuters reported.
Hyderabad, April 7 : Hyderabad police on Tuesday booked six Malaysians hiding in a mosque in the city after attending Tablighi Jamaat meeting in Delhi last month.

Police and health authorities shifted them to state-run Gandhi Hospital for quarantine.

A case under the Foreigners Act, and under various sections of Disaster Management Act, Epidemic Diseases Act and Indian Penal Code was booked against them at Banjara Hills police station.

Police said the Malaysians had not come forward to undergo COVID-19 tests despite appeal by the state government to all those who attended Tablighi event at Nizamuddin Markaz in mid-March.

The foreigners were allegedly hiding at a mosque in Toli Chowki area. Police also booked the incharge of the mosque for hiding the information about presence of the Malaysians.

Six Malaysians had reached Hyderabad after attending Tablighi congregation in Delhi and were stuck here due to suspension of international flights.

A police officer said they were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life)188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 109 (abetment).

They were also booked under various sections of Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 and Disaster Management Act 2005. Since the Malaysians had come on a tourist visa but attended religious meetings, they were also booked for violation of the Foreigners Act.

The Malaysians were booked a day after police in Telangana's Karimnagar town booked 10 Indonesian Tablighi preachers who had tested positive last month. A case was also registered against two agents who accompanied from Delhi to Karimnagar and four local hosts in the town.
Guo Zhongbao is used to playing for a full house in concert halls. The melodies usually linger on in his head even after the music ends.



But Guo, the principal French horn player of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, recently had a special night when he volunteered to work at a local face mask factory in Shanghai.

After he ended his shift on the production linefrom 9 pm on March 24 to 3 am on March 25, Guo arrived at home with the sound of the machine still ringing in his head.

"It was the first time that I had worked in a factory, and the machines generated noise, which bounced back and forth in the space for the whole night. The sounds even appeared in my dreams over the next few nights," says Guo, 40, who has been playing with the Shanghai orchestra since he graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with a master's degree in 2003.

"As a musician, I am very sensitive to sounds. When working on the production line, I tried to follow the beat of the machine, which gave my work a rhythm."

Guo had two main jobs as a volunteer at the mask factory: fixing the ear loops to the masks and trimming the edges of the face covering.

"I stayed focused on placing the face masks on the machine one by one and the tempo had to be accurate," he says.

Guo was among 15 volunteers from the orchestra to work at the factory on March 25.

They worked the night shift and made a total of 44,000 face masks on that day.

According to Zhou Ping, president of the orchestra, who also put in a shift on the production line that night, all of the volunteers had their temperature checked and were disinfected before entering the factory.

Since the entire production process was mechanized, volunteers were divided into groups and were given different tasks, from checking the quality to the final packaging.

"Because of the viral outbreak, the country faced a severe shortage of face masks. In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, we want to offer our help. Volunteering at the face mask factory is one of the most direct and efficient ways of helping," Zhou says.

Like Guo, Zhou was also responsible for trimming the edges of the masks.

"It's quite a difference between watching workers making face masks on TV and making face masks by ourselves. The workers trained us before we actually started to work on the production line. After two hours of working, my muscles were stiff and I was sweating because I was so nervous and focused," Zhou says.

"The factory staff work day and night and they deserve respect from everyone."

She says members of the orchestra will continue to volunteer to work at Shanghai's mask factories.

The 140-year-old Shanghai Symphony Orchestra has been trying to connect with audiences through online programs, such as shows and music courses, since all of its planned concerts and public events were canceled due to the outbreak.

The first online show, performed by a string quartet from the orchestra on March 14, attracted over 1 million viewers.

The second online show, marking the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the most renowned composers of all time, was held on March 26, featuring a theme of spring.

"The pandemic will end, and we look forward to the day when audiences return to the concert halls and share music with us again. The experience of fighting against the virus makes us treasure what we have more than ever," Zhou says.
WINNSBORO, S.C. (AP)  Students struggling to get online in a rural South Carolina county received a boost last week with the arrival of six buses equipped with Wi-Fi, some of the hundreds the state has rolled out since schools were closed by the coronavirus outbreak.

With routers mounted inside, the buses broadcast enough bandwidth in an area the size of a small parking lot for parents to drive up and children to access the internet from inside their cars. One of the buses set up outside the apartment complex of Lacheyle Moore, who had been limiting her own usage to leave enough data on her cellphone plan for her daughter's schoolwork.

I have to put extra data on my phone to make sure her work gets done, so she can get graded for it, said Moore, who works as a cashier and shifted her schedule to help instruct her two children.

The pandemic that launched a massive, unplanned experiment with distance learning has created extraordinary hurdles for schoolchildren left behind by the digital divide. School districts and governments are now racing to give the millions of U.S. students without home internet a chance of keeping up.

Nationwide, nearly 3 million students make do without home internet because of the high costs of service and gaps in its availability. The disadvantaged students are more likely to be students of color, from low-income families or in households with lower parental education levels.

The nation's largest school districts, including Los Angeles and New York, are spending millions of dollars to provide devices and internet connections for students. Smaller districts are finding ways to boost wireless internet in school parking lots and distribute hot spots. Still, others are sticking with paper assignments and books because the digital equity issues are too much to overcome.

What were seeing is a widening of the achievement gap, so that children who are in well-funded districts were able to immediately pivot to online learning strategies, because the infrastructure was already in place, said Maura McInerney, legal director of the Education Law Center, which advocates for disadvantaged students. In sharp contrast, underfunded districts, who did not have these resources and their children do not have access to Chromebooks, for example, are scrambling to address the educational needs of students.

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In Fairfield County, South Carolina, 51% of households have no broadband internet access, according to an Associated Press analysis of census data. Nationwide, an estimated 18% of U.S. students do not have home access to broadband internet.

Lots of mothers and fathers are really not equipped to be home school parents, said J.R. Green, the school superintendent.

Across South Carolina, hundreds of buses were requested by school districts in a program targeting low-income and rural areas, state education spokesman Ryan Brown said. The state was ready to equip thousands of buses, but Brown said that service providers offers of low-cost and even free service plans has lessened the demand.

So deep are the equity challenges for the Philadelphia School District that it initially prohibited online instruction during the shutdown. Only about half the districts high school students have a laptop or tablet and home internet service. As schools now appear likely to be closed for longer than anticipated, the district plans to buy 50,000 Chromebooks and begin online instruction by mid-April.

Comcast, which is based in the city, has raised speeds on its $10-a-month Internet Essentials plan for low-income families and offered two months of free service to new customers.

We have the $10 internet (plan). Its not for doing lessons, cause its really slow. If we needed to do the Google classroom, we would need, I think, the regular internet, which I cant afford, parent Cecelia Thompson, 54, said earlier this month. Thompson, who cannot work because of health issues, lives with her 21-year-old son, a district student with severe autism who attends Martin Luther King High School.

She believes they would also need a Chromebook and perhaps a printer, so her son, who has a full-time support person, can do worksheets. For now, they rely on her cellphone and a 10-year-old tablet.

Some districts also are hoping for some help from the federal government.

Mike Looney, the superintendent of Fulton County schools in Georgia, said parents should take advantage of offers for reduced-cost internet from service providers. But he would also like the Federal Communications Commission to redeploy money used to subsidize school internet connections to instead pay to supply students with devices and internet at home  an idea that has been endorsed also by many U.S. senators.

In central Ohio, Hilliard City Schools sent students home with school-issued iPads they can use to download, complete and then upload assignments. The iPads allow them to do much of their work offline, according to district Superintendent John Marschhausen, though theyll need to connect to submit completed work and download new assignments.

The district's two dozen schools are extending their Wi-Fi into their parking lots so families can complete downloads from their vehicles. The superintendent said he thinks it will be a smooth transition for most, but he worries about a radical shift for the younger students who typically spend less than half an hour on their devices in the classroom.

Were going to have to do a lot of adapting and adjusting and a lot of learning along with our families if this is truly something that will continue into the summer, he said.

In Columbus, Mississippi, Wi-Fi equipment installed on nine buses to allow children to do homework on the way to and from school was transferred to school and community buildings after officials discovered routers would only run for two hours after buses were shut off.

But Superintendent Cherie Labat said the district is giving out paper lesson packets at schools where meals are being picked up, as well as books that students can take home for independent reading. With 100% of students in the predominantly African American district eligible for free or reduced price lunches, Labat said she cant assume students have resources at home.

Thats why Im working from the ground up, she said. Thats why Im doing paper.

____

Dale reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta and Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.
China's medical expert team arrives in Philippines to help fight COVID-19

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 09:26, April 06, 2020

MANILA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The medical expert team sent by the Chinese government arrived in Manila on Sunday to assist and advise the Philippines in its ongoing efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The 12-member Chinese anti-epidemic medical expert team comprises medical experts in the fields of infectious disease prevention and control, clinic treatment, and laboratory testing.

Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian said the team, which arrived on a chartered flight, is among the first three teams sent by China to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.

Huang said in a statement that most of the team members have had frontline experience in fighting against the epidemic.

Huang expressed hope that "the arrival of this team will help the Philippines improve its ability of epidemic prevention and control as well as diagnosis and treatment, so as to boost the confidence of the public in overcoming the COVID-19."

Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin and Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque were on hand to welcome the Chinese team.

Locsin and Duque thanked China for its help to the Philippines in combating the fast-spreading viral disease.

"To the Chinese people, thank you so much! We are so grateful because this is a new virus, and the only ones who can really tell us how to handle it are those who fought it on the ground and those are the experts in China," Locsin told Xinhua, adding China's gesture is "deeply appreciated, (and) never be forgotten."

Duque said the Philippines is grateful to the Chinese government and its people for "their benevolence, their generosity," adding the Philippines will benefit from the support.

Besides dispatching the medical expert team, China also donated to the Philippines a new batch of medical supplies, including 300,000 surgical masks, 30,000 medical N95 masks, 5,000 medical protective suits, 5,000 medical face shields, and 30 non-invasive ventilators.

"Virus respects no borders. We always say that a friend in need is a friend indeed. During the time of crisis, the Chinese government and people feel keenly for the health and safety of the Filipino people," Ambassador Huang said.

Huang said that since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Philippines in early March, China has been providing support and assistance to the Philippines to the best of its ability.

As of Sunday, the Philippines said it has tallied 3,246 COVID-19 cases, including 152 deaths and 64 recoveries.

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A young Sydney woman who described herself and her husband as a jihadi Bonnie and Clyde has lost her appeal against her terror-plot conviction.

Alo-Bridget Namoa and Sameh Bayda, both now 22, were found guilty in 2018 of conspiring between December 8, 2015 and January 25, 2016 to do an act in preparation for a terrorist act.

Namoa, who was jailed for three years and nine months with a minimum term of two years and 10 months, is currently on parole.

Alo-Bridget Namoa and Sameh Bayda, both now 22, were found guilty in 2018 of conspiring between December 8, 2015 and January 25, 2016 to do an act in preparation for a terrorist act

The NSW Supreme Court jury was told the then-18-year-olds married in an Islamic ceremony before Bayda's planned 'attack' on non-Muslims on New Year's Eve 2015.

The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal on Monday dismissed Namoa's conviction appeal.

Neither she nor Bayda went into the witness box at their trial, but both gave evidence at their sentence hearing.

He testified that contrary to what he understood Namoa believed, he didn't plan to die carrying out a New Year's Eve attack and sought to manipulate her into thinking it was more significant and dangerous than what he planned.

Namoa, who was jailed for three years and nine months with a minimum term of two years and 10 months, is currently on parole. Bayda is pictured right

Bayda said he only told Namoa he was carrying out a suicide attack to get her to feel sorry for him and accept his marriage proposal.

The Appeal Court rejected a claim this was 'fresh evidence' which demonstrated there had been a miscarriage of justice.

Namoa had clearly agreed with Bayda in the making of preparations for a terrorist act and there was no 'significant possibility' she would have been acquitted based on Bayda's sentence hearing evidence, the judges said.

They also dismissed a claim that the trial judge erred in dismissing her application for a permanent stay of the charge against her based on a claim about immunity from prosecution for a conspiracy involving a husband and wife.
Remembering sacrifices of nurses from Kerala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan described as "martyr" Lini Puthussery, who died after contracting Nipah virus from a patient in 2018.

"Malayalee nurses in various parts of the world are facing difficulties and their concerns are disturbing us. In our battle against Nipah, Lini was a Martyr", he said.

Vijayan also had a word of praise for nurses Reshma Mohandas, infected with coronavirus while taking care of two elderly patients in Kottayam and had recovered, and Papa Henry, who was prepared to go to any district to take of the people affected by the virus.

Reshma has vowed to work again in the corona care ward without any hesitation after her home quarantine was over.

Lini had died after contracting Nipah from a patient she took care of at a Perambra hospital in Kozhikode distric in 2018.

Nipah had claimed 17 lives in the state.

The recovery of the two elderly COVID-19 couple, including the country's oldest -- 93-year old Thomas Abraham, in Kottayam was a big achievement for the state's health sector, he said.

On the occasion of World Health Day, the CM expressed his appreciation for the service and sacrifice of all the Malayalee nurses serving all over the world.

He voiced the government's concern regarding welfare of nurses across the world who are involved in COVID-19 care.

"We have a responsibility to care for them and we have our apprehensions about them," Vijayan told reporters here.

The Chief Minister has already informed Prime Minister, Narendra Modi about the plight of over 50 nurses in hospitals in Mumbai and Delhi who are affected by the virus.

Earlier in a tweet, he said: "Kerala is one of the world's largest contributors to the talent pool of nurses. The world comes to know our State through their work. On #WorldHealthDay the State expresses its profound gratitude to nurses & midwives for their sacrifices & contributions. We are proud of you.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Fiat Chrysler Automobiles sign at the U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan

By Pamela Barbaglia, Giulio Piovaccari and Gwenaelle Barzic

LONDON/MILAN/PARIS (Reuters) - With their sales hammered by the coronavirus outbreak, car makers Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot's owner PSA have postponed their shareholder meetings and are looking at ways to boost cash reserves ahead of their planned merger.

The two car makers have turned to their banks to secure much needed cash, and Fiat Chrysler (FCA) is looking at debt guarantees that the Italian government approved on Monday to support local companies, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

FCA, whose legal headquarters is in the Netherlands, runs several plants in Italy and may qualify for the government scheme which offers more than 400 billion euros worth of liquidity and bank loans to companies hit by the pandemic, the source said, cautioning no decision had been made.

A spokesman for FCA declined to comment.

The crisis triggered by the virus has virtually erased demand for new vehicles, pushing automakers to temporarily halt most production.

In late March FCA secured a 3.5 billion euro credit line, with an initial 12-month term that can be extended six months. This added to existing credit facilities worth 7.7 billion euros.

The Italo-American firm, chaired by John Elkann, scion of the Italian Agnelli family, would need to cut its ordinary dividend if it decides to pursue state aid from Italy.

The emergency decree says companies looking to apply for Italy-backed loans must refrain from approving dividend payments for a year.

FCA's decision to postpone the shareholders' meeting to late June has analysts speculating that its ordinary dividend worth 1.1 billion euros could be axed or postponed.

"While the merger process is proceeding, the postponement of the AGM will raise markets' concerns of a potential cancellation of the ordinary dividend," said Intesa Sanpaolo analyst Monica Bosio.

Equita analyst Martino De Ambroggi echoed that the most likely scenario was "the cancellation or at least the postponement of the ordinary dividend for both FCA and PSA."

Story continues

PSA, which proposed a similar 1.1 billion euro dividend, also decided to postpone its annual shareholders' meeting to June 25. But the company is not expected to tap state funding, another source close to the company said.

The French firm, led by Carlos Tavares, said on Monday it had agreed new credit lines worth about 3 billion euros.

It is sitting on undrawn credit facilities worth about 3 billion euros.

SPECIAL DIVIDEND?

FCA shares are down around 45% since late February when the virus started spreading in northern Italy. PSA's stock is down 32%.

In December, they clinched a binding agreement to create the world's fourth-largest carmaker, with shareholders of each group holding 50 percent in the new entity.

As part of the deal, FCA is set to pay a 5.5 billion euro special dividend to its investors. Bankers and analysts have questioned FCA's ability to pay such a windfall.

"It's no longer wise to get rid of so much cash," said the first source with knowledge of the matter.

A second source close to the deal said that while both parties were still committed to tying the knot, they needed to see how the crisis evolved before deciding whether to renegotiate merger terms.

Analysts at Jefferies have said the merger is key to the two firms' long term competitiveness but some adjustments are "inevitable." They pointed to the special dividend which is expected to be paid in early 2021, just before consummation.

Global carmakers may end up selling between 19 and 24 million fewer cars this year, representing a 22% to 27% fall in global sales, according to a study by Alix Partners.

This means global auto firms would be below break-even, losing more than 100 billion euros in cash flow globally, the study said, adding that for every month of idled production in Europe, car makers would lose 7 billion euros of cash flow.

(Reporting by Pamela Barbaglia in London, Giulio Piovaccari in Milan and Gwenaelle Barzic in Paris; additional reporting by Gianluca Semeraro; Editing by David Gregorio and Sonya Hepinstall)
Participants in FineFix, Marylands auto fine forgiveness program, will be allowed to pause their payment plans during the current state of emergency in Maryland. The Uninsured Division of Maryland Auto Insurance is taking this action in order to provide additional financial relief to Marylanders during the coronavirus pandemic.

Drivers who are enrolled in the program may pause payments from March 24, 2020, until 30 days after the current state of emergency in Maryland is ended. During this time, program participants will not be entered into default status on their payment plan for payments missed during the crisis.

Once the state of emergency ends, the original payment plan terms will be reinstated. Participants will have the same number of days remaining to complete their payments as they did on March 24, 2020.

The legislation that created FineFix provides six months from the date of the first payment for enrolled participants to complete the program. Enrollees who do not complete their payment plan within the six-month period are subject to reinstatement of any fines forgiven through FineFix. This pause in the payment deadline will prevent the reinstatement of forgiven fines during the current crisis.

During this period of time, enrolled FineFix participants may continue making payments if they are able to do so.

FineFix is a partnership between the Uninsured Division of Maryland Auto Insurance and the Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration (MDOT MVA). This program gives eligible Marylanders the opportunity to pay 20% of their outstanding uninsured auto fines and have the remaining 80% forgiven.

More than 23,000 Maryland drivers enrolled in the program during the 2019 enrollment period and have had their uninsured auto fines reduced by 80%, representing more than $37 million in forgiven uninsured auto debts.

Source: Maryland Auto Insurance

Topics Auto Maryland
'It's a complicated situation': Temporary foreign workers allowed into Canada, but there are hurdles

The federal government has allowed the temporary foreign worker program to go ahead with modifications to account for COVID-19, but employers are experiencing hurdles getting workers into the country.

Some farmers and beekeepers are worried that their workers will arrive too late.

Bill Termeer, owner of Moondance Honey near Sexsmith, Alta., brings about seven temporary foreign workers into Canada each year from the Philippines to help run his 5,000 honeybee colonies.

"It's very difficult for the guys to go travel around and get their paperwork," Termeer said. "They just don't have it. So I expect there will be a shortage of workers."

Workers usually arrive around the beginning of April, Termeer said, meaning the crews are already late. The workers need to quarantine for two weeks when they get into the country.

Termeer said it is a struggle to hire locals to do the seasonal work. Albertans don't want to come back to the job year after year, he said.

The Canadian Honey Council is looking at options to charter a plane from Nicaragua, at a cost between $130,000 and $230,000, to bring in about 160 beekeepers, said Rod Scarlett, the council's executive director.

The Canadian beekeepers would have to foot the bill.

"All the airlines started to cut back on their services, so foreign workers couldn't catch flights out of their respective countries," Scarlett said.

"Then, there were health protocols that had to be approved. And the government introduced quarantine protocols that had to be sent to other governments to get approved."

He said the process of getting work visas has stalled in some countries.

"It's a complicated situation."

Connery's Riverdale Farms Ltd.

Scarlett said Albertan beekeepers are trying to bring in about 350 workers right now.

"Certainly, they will be looking at getting Canadians to go work with the bees, but with no skill and experience, it's a steep learning curve."

Story continues

He said it would take two non-experienced workers and a supervisor to replace one experienced temporary foreign worker. Scarlett said it would be a "complicated and expensive endeavour."

Risks to replacing foreign workers

Canadian farmers bring in thousands of foreign workers every year to plant seeds and harvest crops.

Manitoba vegetable and berry farmer Beth Connery, labour chair for the Canadian Horticultural Council, said between 60,000 and 70,000 foreign workers come in every year.

She said there are risks to replacing the temporary foreign workers with Canadians.

Farmers are tough buggers, but I've been hearing tears in their voice. - Alan Marritt, president of Vacation World in Calgary

"What happens if things go back to normal and then those people go back to their old jobs? And if we've got crops out in the field, how will they be harvested?"

Connery brings in between 55 and 60 workers for her 242-hectare farm in Portage la Prairie, Man. About 36 workers would come in for the asparagus harvest at the beginning of May.

She said her farm has already overcome several hurdles in getting the workers into the country, and she's hoping to be able to get over the last few in time to harvest. But she said she's concerned for workers' safety and wants them to stay healthy.

'They're desperate'

Alan Marritt, president of Vacation World in Calgary, has been in the business of arranging travel for temporary foreign workers for the last 37 years.

He said he's been able to get some people into the country, but it's been difficult. He had 106 people scheduled to fly in on April 8, but that was pushed until April 15 and 17.

"They [farmers and beekeepers] are being as patient as they can be, but they're desperate," Marritt said. "They're looking at their whole year going down the drain."

WATCH | COVID-19 modelling suggests we're in it for the long haul:

He said all the governments involved are doing their best to bring in workers and come up with protocols to keep everyone safe.

But in the meantime, farmers have to wait.

"Farmers are tough buggers, but I've been hearing tears in their voice."

A spokesperson for the federal department of Employment and Social Development said in an email that it is working alongside Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to process applications under the temporary foreign worker program.

Employment and Social Development is working to lighten the "administrative burden" for employers, the statement said.

What happens if things go back to normal and then those people go back to their old jobs? - Beth Connery, COO of Connery's Riverdale Farms Ltd.

"No travellers including temporary foreign workers who present with COVID-19 symptoms are allowed to board international flights to Canada," department representative Isabelle Maheu said in a statement.

As well, the travellers need to isolate for 14 days upon arrival.

"Employers are required to pay workers during their 14 days of mandatory self-isolation following arrival."

Justin Laurence, spokesperson for Alberta's Agriculture and Forestry Department, said in an email that the department has asked the federal government to increase flexibility for farmers in the business risk management program.

He added that the government has several financial aids for farmers, including $153 million in a disaster relief fund, and $74.7 million to help cover insurance claims and pay income support for workers.
On the alleged gang-rape and murder case of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Uttar Pradeshs Hathras, union minister Amit Shah backed chief minister Yogi Adityanath's decision to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT). The Home Minister said the case was mishandled at the police station level and not at the level of the government.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday complimented Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Union Cabinet's approval for reduction of allowances and pension of all MPs by 30 per cent, and said the Parliament of the world's largest democracy stands together in these challenging times.

The home minister also thanked President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and State Governors for voluntarily deciding not to take 30 per cent of their allowances for one year.

"I congratulate PM @narendramodi ji, as cabinet approves the Ordinance for reducing allowances and pension of all MPs by 30% for a year," he tweeted.

Shah said the Modi cabinet has also approved the temporary suspension of MPLAD fund for two years and the fund will go to the Consolidated Fund of India.

"The Parliament of the world's largest democracy stands together in these challenging times. I thank all the parties and MPs for their support.

"I also thank the President of India, Vice President and Governors who have decided to contribute voluntary to this noble cause," he said.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The Union cabinet on Monday approved an ordinance to reduce the salaries, allowances and pensions of Members of Parliament (MPs) by 30 per cent for one year and the amount will be utilised in the fight against coronavirus.

The President, Vice President, governors of states have also voluntarily decided to take a pay cut as a social responsibility, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
Nearly 42,000 refugees housed in overcrowded, festering detention camps remain trapped on Greeces islands as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across Greece. With refugees lacking access to soap and wateras part of a lack of basic health careand crammed into clustered living quarters, the camps on the islands Lesbos, Chios, Kos, Samos and Leros are the perfect breeding grounds for the virus.

Yet, the right-wing New Democracy (ND) government has stalled moving refugees off the islands to mainland Greece, allowing for the virus to infect and possibly kill thousands.

The COVID-19 death toll in Greece rose to 73 yesterday, with total confirmed cases standing at 1,735. According the daily Kathimerini, the economic strain caused by the pandemic may lead to cuts in workers wages in the public sector, and possibly massive unemployment in the coming weeks or months, while Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said recently that no such issue is being discussed given that we expect a return to normality soon.

Syrian boat refugees from Turkey arriving on Lesbos, Greece, September 2015 (AP Photo / Petros Giannakouris)

Greeces health care system can barely keep up with the required amount of testing needed to contain the virus, let alone treat those infected. Years of European Union (EU) austerity, enforced by the previous pseudo-left Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left) government, have gutted Greeces public health care.

Attempting to wipe its hands clean of the growing social disaster, Alexis Charitsis, a Syriza representative, accused ND of insisting on focusing its rhetoric entirely on the citizens personal responsibility and it cannot and should not overshadow the governments responsibility to immediately support the health system. He added that the sloppiness, ineffectiveness and interventions are clearly an issue of political will.

Syriza laid the groundwork for NDs anti-refugee policies with a brutal campaign including attacks by riot police, forced evacuations and the establishment of concentration camps. In 2016, the EU, Turkey and the Syriza government brokered a deal establishing Greece as the EUs prison camp for refugees at its southern border. It then forced all refugees entering Greece via irregular routesthose making the dangerous journey via boat from Turkey to Greeceto be deported back to Turkey. In other words, most refugees.

The ND government is continuing and building upon these anti-refugee policies. Refugees have been shot at by Greek police and been the victims of fascistic violence, while the government allows the continued practice of illegal pushbacks where refugee boats are forced back as they approach the Greek shoreline.

The government is using the limited number of COVID-19 tests and the growing threat of the virus on Greeces native-born population as a reason to leave refugees trapped in a hell in which the pandemic can spread like wildfire in the camps. Hundreds or even thousands of refugees, including children and the elderly, may die.

The pandemic has already made its way to Greeces islands. On Lesboswhere some 20,000 people live in and around the notorious Moria detention camp designed to house 3,000a 40-year-old woman returning from holidays in Egypt and Israel was confirmed positive for COVID-19 over two weeks ago and was placed in quarantine.

The limited amount of testing in Greece points to a very real possibility that COVID-19 is spreading undetected on Lesbos and other islands. This poses a looming nightmare for those housed in refugee camps. It could easily be spread by new arrivals who could also receive the virus from asymptomatic detainees. A lack of space means 120 people who recently arrived on Lesbos have not yet found shelter on the island as they have to be placed into separate shacks from those already present.

Last week, it was revealed 20 refugees tested positive for COVID-19 at the mainland camp of Ritsona, home to 2,300 refugees and 43 miles north of Athens. The camp is now on lockdown for two weeks, with police on hand to enforce the action and prepare the way for possible attacks on refugees.

Tests are being administered and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is onsite tending to refugees. On Sunday, the government was forced to place a second migrant camp on the mainland under quarantine. After a 53-year-old man tested positive for coronavirus, the Malakasa camp 25 miles north of Athens was locked down for two weeks and is also being guarded by police with reinforcements to arrive.

Ritsona and Malakasa have the benefit of being on the mainland, putting them closer to much needed resources in Greeces major cities like Athens, as opposed to camps located on the islands. Nonetheless, with so many refugees forced to live in packed quarters, the camps face the possibility of a rapid outbreak.

EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson has requested the ND government move refugees with the highest risk of contracting COVID-19the elderly and childrenfrom the overcrowded island camps to mainland Greece.

We are working together with the Greek government and the Greek authorities to agree on an emergency plan to help reduce the risk as much as possible in the overcrowded hotspots on the islands, Johansen said. It could be relocation of the most vulnerable individuals from the overcrowded camps to other areas on the islands.

But as many NGOs and refugee groups have said, there are virtually no tests available for refugees and therefore it is nearly impossible to determine who in the camps may be positive for the virus.

The ND government is stalling, putting at risk thousands of refugees.

For the past few weeks, human rights groups have urgently called upon ND to act. One group said, Thousands of people, including older people, those with chronic diseases, children ... pregnant women, new mothers, and people with disabilities, are trapped in dangerously overcrowded, deplorable conditions on the islands amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said over three weeks ago. We must act now. ... When the virus hits overcrowded settlements in places like Iran, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Greece, the consequences will be devastating.

The conditions in the camps make it nearly impossible for refugees to protect themselves from an outbreak.

George Makris, a medical doctor and a coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in Greece, said the water and sanitary conditions in the Moria camp on Lesbos and others are tragic. He added: The transmission of the virus cannot be contained there. We have warned this repeatedly in the past in the context of other infectious disease outbreaks like meningitis and measles. Our message is simple.  As health authorities are saying all mass gatherings are prohibited, mass containment should also be avoided.

Gerald Knaus, one of the leading architects of the 2016 deal between the EU, Greece and Turkey, which resulted in thousands of refugees being forcibly returned to Turkey, said refugees could be moved to safety in a matter of weeks.

Speaking to DW.com as the devastating human toll of his policies becomes ever more apparent with the pandemic, Knaus said, You have to evacuate 35,000 refugees as quickly as possible from the islands to the Greek mainland. You could quickly have 15,000 additional beds in temporary tent camps. The International Organization of Migration (IOM) is capable of building these within a few weeks.

Another 10,000 people can be accommodated in now-vacant Greek hotels. Finally, 10,000 people could easily be accommodated in places already paid for by the EUplaces where recognized refugees are hosted right now. If countries like Germany could take in these recognized refugees quickly, they would create space for families from the islands immediately. This would also send a strong signal to the Greeks that theyre not alone.

The reality is that Germany, the EUs leading power, has played a critical role in the formation of the blocs refugee policy and bears central responsibility for the terrible plight facing refugees and immigrants imprisoned on the Greek islands.

The role of the EU, ND, Syriza and capitalist government across the world in facilitating attacks on refugees and allowing COVID-19 to spread uncontrolled makes clear the urgent need for the working class to intervene and place life over profit.

The spread of COVID-19 in Greece has been grossly exacerbated but the socioeconomic policies of ND and Syriza. The defence of refugees in Greece must be taken up by the Greek and the international working class, in opposition to the policies of ND and Syriza who represent the interests of the upper middle class and the financial elite.
Wrestling legend Hulk Hogan is facing criticism after suggesting that the coronavirus pandemic is a punishment from God and we dont need a vaccine.

On Monday, the WWE star shared his beliefs on Instagram, where he compared the pandemic to the plagues of Egypt.

In three short months, just like He did with the plagues of Egypt, God has taken away everything we worship, Hogan wrote. God said: You want to worship athletes, I will shut down the stadiums. You want to worship musicians, I will shut down Civic Centres. You want to worship actors, I will shut down theatres.

According to the 66-year-old Hall of Famer, who has more than 1.5m followers on Instagram, God is also punishing those who worship money by shutting down the economy and collapsing the stock market, as well as those who dont want to go to church.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land, Hogan continued in the lengthy caption.

The retired wrestler, whose real name is Terry Gene Bollea, then suggested that maybe we dont need a vaccine and that this time of isolation should instead be used for personal revival and to focus on Jesus.

Maybe we don't need a vaccine, maybe we need to take this time of isolation from the distractions of the world and have a personal revival where we focus on the ONLY thing in the world that really matters. Jesus, Hogan concluded.

The post has divided Hogans fans on social media, where some praised the wrestling star while others expressed their disappointment and concern over the dangerous message.

You just lost a fan today. I'm in a nursing home and have a high chance of getting this illness. In a county next door to us 26 people have tested positive for this illness and in my state of North Carolina 35 people have died so far. So hurt over this, one person wrote.

Another said: We definitely need a vaccine

This is not the first time Hogan has referenced religion while appearing to discuss the pandemic on social media. Last week, the former reality star shared a photo of a highlighted bible quote with the caption: This is one of the most powerful gifts to our human race, its as powerful as it gets here on Earth, thank you God. Only love HH.

According to the most recent figures, there have been 369,179 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US, where the virus has killed more than 11,000 people.
Photo credit: Claridge's

From Town & Country

Tourism is one of many industries that have been hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Airlines and cruises stand to lose hundreds of billions in revenue. Tourist hotspots from Rome to Paris to Sydney remain deserted, most now overtaken by pigeons. And hotels around the world have had to close their doors, not only endangering profits, but also the livelihoods of all the employees that make them run smoothly.

In spite of all this, several luxury hotels have chosen to use their resources to join the fight against COVID-19 in any way they can, whether it's offering empty rooms to healthcare workers, fundraising for local organizations, providing food for their communities, or making sure their employees are taken care of no matter what. Here are the hospitality brands that have stepped up to the join the effort. The list will be updated as new announcements are made.

CLARIDGE'S, LONDON

Photo credit: Claridge's

Arguably London's toniest hotel, Claridge's has been the choice refuge of Hollywood stars and royalty since the 19th century. As COVID-19 puts strains on the UK's National Health Service, the hotel will invite NHS workers of St. Mary's Hospital in Paddington to stay at the property. In addition to free boarding, doctors and nurses will also be provided with free breakfast and dinner.

LE SIRENUSE, POSITANO

Photo credit: Roberto Salomone

Four Amalfi Coast properties, including Le Sirenuse, Hotel Santa Caterina, Il San Pietro di Positano, and Palazzo Avino are pledging support to a vaccine research fundraiser called "Together for a COVID-19 Vaccine." Each hotel will offer ten e-vouchers worth 5,000 which will cover stays, various perks, and a dinner at Michelin-starred Don Alfonso 1890. The hotels hope to raise 200,000 through this effort.

AIRBNB

Photo credit: Airbnb

Airbnb has launched a program that will offer free or subsidized housing for frontline COVID-19 responders. The company has partnered with UK's National Health Service, Spain's Barcelona Official Doctors Association, France's Ministry of Housing, and California's Sutter Health to facilitate bookings for medical professionals. To date, hosts in 160 countries have opened up more than 100,000 homes for pandemic responders (those interested in joining and opening up their homes can do so here). Airbnb has announced that it will waive fees for the first 100,000 stays booked through this program.

Story continues

BELMOND CHARLESTON PLACE

Photo credit: Courtesy of Charleston Tourism

In 2009, Mickey Bakst, general manager of the award-winning Charleston Grill restaurant in the Belmond property, launched Charleston Chefs Feed the Need to provide meals to the city's neediest. This week, the organization will join the COVID-19 fight by partnering with local farmers and fishermen to put together donated grocery bags for out-of-work hospitality and food & beverage workers.

ROSEWOOD CORDEVALLE, SAN MARTIN, CALIFORNIA

Photo credit: Rosewood CordeValle

The Northern California property is taking care of its employees during the hotel's closure by preparing care packages tailored to each individual's needs. They include basics such as eggs, milk, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer. The hotel is also providing food to local restaurants to assist with their to-go business, along with delivering food to law enforcement and elderly communities.

RANCHO VALENCIA, RANCHO SANTA FE

Photo credit: Courtesy Mr. and Mrs Smith

The Southern California resort is making sure its employees are taken care of while the property is closed. In addition to paying their salaries, the hotel has distributed all perishable foods on site to hourly employees and is providing tele-medical services. With San Diego nonprofit ProduceGood, Rancho Valencia is also organizing a canned food drive for employees and their families.

UXUA CASA HOTEL, BRAZIL

Photo credit: Cristian Lourenco / EyeEm - Getty Images

The chef of the Trancoso hotel is preparing healthy meals (fish with a grain salad, prawns with quinoa) to distribute to all of the town's residents.

FOUR SEASONS NEW YORK

Photo credit: Peter Malinowski

Two weeks ago, Four Seasons New York owner Ty Warner decided to open his 368-room hotel, free of charge, to the doctors and nurses working overtime at the city's hospitals, many of whichMt. Sinai, Weill Cornell, New York Presbyterian, NYU Langone, and Bellevueare located near the hotel's East 57th Street, Billionaires' Row location. Many of those working in New York City have to travel long distances to and from their homes after putting in 18-hour days, he said in a statement. They need a place close to work where they can rest and regenerate."

OCEAN HOUSE, RHODE ISLAND

Photo credit: Ocean House Management

The management company behind the stately Rhode Island hotel has been delivering free lunch to local children who have been unable to attend school for weeks. Food made by the hotel's celebrated culinary team are distributed three times a week from a food truck (called Off the Menu) at Westerly Skating Rink.

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Investor Alert: OPEC and its partners are about to orchestrate the largest oil production cut in history, and a small number of oil & gas companies stand to benefit from it more than any of the others. Our experts are releasing their top pick on Friday.... make sure you get it.

(Click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge)

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Chart of the Week

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- Prices for RBOB gasoline futures have collapsed, and some refineries have even faced negative margins for selling gasoline.

- That is a reflection of the deep decline in demand. Price signals are telling refineries to cut back on production. U.S. gasoline demand fell from 8.837 mb/d on March 20 to 6.659 mb/d on March 27.

- Refinery runs fell from 15.838 mb/d to 14.898 mb/d over the same timeframe.

Market Movers

- Total (NYSE: TOT) announced the sale of $400 million of assets in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Brunei.

- Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR) says it will cut production in April and May by 30 percent and suspend its dividend until further notice.

- Natural gas prices jumped by 8 percent on a cooler weather outlook for much of the U.S.

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

OPEC+ is mulling a three-month production cut agreement, according to TASS. Oil prices have climbed substantially since last week on hopes of an agreement. There is still a great deal of uncertainty, but OPEC+ has signaled a willingness to cut if the U.S. does too.

OPEC+ likely to cut if U.S. goes along. OPEC+ are likely to cut production as long as the U.S. participates, according to Reuters. Oil ministers from the G20 will also meet virtually on Friday, adding more momentum to global negotiations. However, given the massive gap in oil demand, even a substantial cut on the order of 10 mb/d may not rescue oil prices.

ExxonMobil cuts spending by 30 percent. ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) announced a cut in spending by 30 percent, lowering capex to $23 billion for 2020, down from $33 billion. The largest reduction will come from the Permian, where the oil major says the short-cycle nature of shale drilling will allow it to ramp back up when conditions improve.

Analysts warn about lower prices ahead. The recent rebound in prices, with Brent moving into the mid-$30s, could be premature. In our view, however, judged by the bout of optimism reflected in prices of oil futures in recent days, the market is still not realizing the severity of the oversupply problem coming in April-May, Rystad Energy said in a statement. With 28 million bpd oversupply in the oil market in April and 21 million bpd in May, the global coordinated production cuts that are really needed may be too large for the producers to accept, perhaps twice as large as the numbers that are currently being discussed.

Premium: What Will $15 Oil Mean For Producers?

Citi: Short-term supply cuts of 10 mb/d. Citi estimates that supply curtailments because of logistical bottlenecks and low prices could force 10 mb/d offline temporarily in April. Goldman Sachs put the figure at 5 mb/d. Goldman warned that eventually the market will snap back because of the shut ins. This will likely be a game-changer for the industry, the Goldman analysts said. Once you damage the capital stock in oil it is an expensive and time-consuming process to rebuild, assuming it can be rebuilt at all.

Halliburton cuts more jobs. Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) will cut 350 employees in Oklahoma, a month after furloughing 3,500 workers in Houston for 60 days.

8 in 10 U.S. counties on lockdown. According to Moodys, roughly 8 in 10 U.S. counties are on some form of a lockdown. They account for 96 percent of U.S. GDP.

Methane emissions spike. The increase in methane emissions in 2019 was one of the biggest weve seen over the past twenty years, said Rob Jackson, a professor at Stanford. The increase in natural gas production and consumption is a suspected culprit.

Flaring down in the Permian? Flaring in the Permian declined in the first quarter, according to Rystad Energy. However, Earthworks, which tracks venting and flaring in the Permian using optical imaging cameras, says that Rystads data does not include unlit flares, which the group says has been increasing in the Permian since 2017. Rystads silver lining of decreased Permian flaring might be illusory, Sharon Wilson, an organizer at Earthworks, told Bloomberg.

Work starts on Keystone XL. TC Energy (NYSE: TRP) said it started work on the Keystone XL pipeline at the border crossing in northern Montana.

215 bankruptcies since 2015. An estimated 215 oil and gas companies filed for bankruptcy in North America since 2015, according to a new study from Haynes and Boone.

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West Texas falls in love with solar. The FT reports on the solar boom in West Texas. Even oil and gas companies are turning to solar. We put the solar in to lower our carbon footprint but also to provide lower-cost electrical power, says Vicki Hollub, Occidentals (NYSE: OXY) CEO.

Venezuela under intense pressure. The crises of the coronavirus, the collapse of oil prices and heightened pressure from Washington are presenting new threats to the Venezuelan government.

Oil majors raise $32 billion in debt. The oil majors  Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A), ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), BP (NYSE: BP) and Equinor (NYSE: EQNR)  have raised $32 billion in new debt in recent weeks. The majors have opted to take on more debt instead of cutting their dividends.

Trump considers tariffs on imported oil. U.S. shale drillers are aggressively lobbying President Trump to impose tariffs on imported oil, a policy that the majors including ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) oppose. Trump has signaled that he would resort to tariffs if OPEC+ doesnt cut production.

By Tom Kool for Oilprice.com

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Barry Kaplan and his wife, Vivian, are wrestling with a gnawing fear.

Fear of COVID-19  a virus that could be a death sentence, especially for seniors like Barry, 78, and Vivian 73, a North York couple with underlying health conditions.

Barry brushes his teeth cautiously now because hes worried something could go wrong inside his mouth that requires a visit to a dentist  a trip he says he cant risk now.

Im afraid. People our age have all kinds of problems cropping up with their teeth, Barry says. Im kind of a little more careful lifting too. I dont start moving anything heavy.

And Vivian walks more carefully inside their three-bedroom home, afraid a slip or fall might cause a break or fracture requiring a hospital admission that would expose her to the deadly virus.

Its very frustrating and depressing. Theres no end in sight. Thats the problem, Vivian says.

The Kaplans represent the experience of millions of seniors in Canada now, as the life-threatening implications of the coronavirus and self-isolation play out with no timeline as to when it will end.

Evolving information from public officials and stark changes to personal routines, as well as being shut in while dealing with nagging worries about the future, are having a profound impact on seniors emotionally and psychologically, experts point out.

Barry cant help focusing on the increasing number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Canada, the U.S. and around the world.

What were saying is, were very afraid here, Barry says.

Everyone is stuck in their own little cell or environment. So, theres no human contact, just the two of us together within our four walls. Theres nothing else, and that is hard for long periods of time, Vivian says.

Usually you catch a cold and you know youre looking at maybe two weeks before you feel better. This (virus) is not like that. This is a sentence that has come down on us, she adds.

The couple agreed to share their story after Barry reached out to the Star in an email describing the concerns he and his wife have about the virus, including the prospect of having to stay locked up in their home for many, many months.

When a Star reporter called them to follow up, the couple provided honest, personal and wide-ranging details, with Vivian, a retired businesswoman who ran an interior decor company, on one end of the phone line and Barry, a mathematician who worked 35 years for IBM in the engineering and scientific use of computers, on another.

The couple say they wont feel entirely safe from the coronavirus until they can roll up their sleeves and be injected with a vaccine. They prefer that scenario to one where health authorities determine the virus has abated to the point the general public can start going outside and being around others.

Were going to be afraid to go out. We have no immunities built up. Were in high-risk category, Vivian says.

Adds Barry: Even if they lifted this rule (on social distancing and staying indoors)  let me put it crudely  Id be scared s---less that Im going to catch it.

Vivian chimes in: But if they take two years to do it (develop a vaccine), I dont want to be two years older before I leave my house either.

Barry had a pacemaker implanted in his chest in 2001 for his atrial fibrillation condition, and he takes five medications  including a blood thinner, blood pressure pills and medication to control diabetes.

His wife takes eight medications including insulin.

The Kaplans are following recommendations from the province and Ontarios chief medical officer of health that people over age 70 self-isolate except for essential trips.

So aside from bending the guidelines a bit and taking brief 10- to 15-minutes walks around the block once a day while keeping a safe distance from other people, the Kaplans are indoors around the clock.

They both drive, but their cars sit idle in their driveway because the Kaplans dont think its safe for them to get behind the wheel. What if they get in an accident? What if they need to pump gas? In either scenario, theyll likely come in contact with other people, and thats an infection risk theyre not willing to take.

So isolation means there wont be a Passover for either of them this month  at least not one with the traditions the two are used to  grandchildren, family, sometimes friends, all coming together to celebrate.

The ladies do all kinds of great cooking. Were not doing it this year. But Ive done (Passover) every year of my life  78 years. My dad and his dad before, Barry says.

There have been some bright spots. Getting medications has been easier. Barry discovered his local drugstore ships prescriptions for free, so thats been a pleasant surprise.

The couple have three sons in Mississauga aged 44, 47 and 50 who delivered food to them early on when the Kaplans began self-isolating three weeks ago.

But, in the past few days as food ran out, Vivian went online to buy groceries and have them delivered to the house. By Sunday, she managed to find a service that will deliver April 15.

Being cut off from friends in their peer group has been a struggle, but this past weekend the Kaplans and five other couples got together via Zoom video. They ate snacks, had drinks and chatted.

We were on for 40 minutes. The time zipped by, getting caught up and laughing, Barry says. Most importantly there was an underlying, strong feeling of camaraderie that we are all in these trying times together.

Still, whiling away the hours at home, its been hard not to think about the grim statistics connected to COVID-19, Barry says. Being a math guy, he recently made a spreadsheet to track the number of coronavirus cases, deaths and percentages of deaths relative to cases in the U.S., Canada and the world. But he found the project sad and discouraging, so he eventually threw the spreadsheet in the trash.

The paper was face up in the garbage, so I turned it over in the garbage, he says.

The high rate of deaths among seniors alarms both of them.

(Statistics from a recent research study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases examined data from 40 countries and found COVID-19 kills four per cent of patients in their 60s and nine per cent of patients in their 70s. One per cent of people in their 50s have succumbed to the virus and less than one per cent in their 40s have died, according to the study).

Whats also upsetting the Kaplans is the number of people dying in seniors homes, such as the more than two dozen who have lost their lives at one facility in Bobcaygeon, Ont.

The couple are left thinking about how the average person is processing so many deaths of the elderly. The Kaplans wonder, Does the general public care?

What are people saying around their kitchen tables? I think theyre saying that seniors who are dying lived a good life, that 75 or 80 is a long life, Barry says.

But Barry, who has a master's degree in mathematics, counters that statistics indicate the life expectancy for a 75-year-old in Canada is about 10 more years.

Thats a great period of time for friends, weddings, grandchildren. Something to look forward to. A lot of good times, he says.

Experts say distress and anxiety caused by the COVID-19 crisis are heightened for seniors because the pandemic is such an evolving situation  the numbers of cases and deaths are changing, while warnings and instructions from government and public health officials seem to alter rapidly.

The isolation and uncertainty for seniors, in addition to the fact they are at higher risk from the virus, all of that (diminishes) the ability to cope. Less things are in their control, says Suze Berkhout, an assistant professor in the University of Torontos department of psychiatry.

The anxiety is coming from that sense of a threat, she adds.

Thats one reason its important for friends, relatives and neighbours to check in on seniors during the outbreak, Berkhout says.

Its rebuilding the sense of collectivity and solidarity to fill in the gaps, she says.

Kathleen Bingham, a geriatric psychiatrist at the University Health Network, recommends seniors who are able to should use social media sites such as Facebook to connect with others.

There are also exercise videos online that seniors can tap into, Bingham says.

But with so many community resources for seniors shut down due to the coronavirus, the elderly now have limited supports, as do caregivers living with elderly loved ones, Bingham says.

It can be challenging for caregivers to find something to do for them, Bingham adds.

She pointed to informational resources such as the Ontario Caregiver Organization or a regional geriatric program such as Torontos for those seeking assistance.

Amid all the doom and gloom, Barry has been trying to keep himself distracted with lists of chores Vivian gives him, including recently decluttering the basement.

After going through one box of family mementos, he ended up making an album to keep old pictures of their sons, the boys old report cards and their awards.

Its hard to throw things out. I once heard a woman saying her daughter had purged old belongings and how happy the daughter was to do that. Man, I dont know. Somehow that word purge doesnt work for me, Barry says, laughing at the irony.

Being depressed is not our nature, Vivian says. Our nature is trying to find something positive. To make a bad situation better. Were keeping busy.

Says Barry: Were trying our best. But Im, not feeling all that terrific.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Assam Government on a plea seeking the release of people from detention centres in the state who have completed more than two years to avoid spreading of COVID-19, stating that the centres are "overcrowded".

Earlier, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, informed the Rajya Sabha that as many as 802 people were in detention centres in Assam as on March 6 this year.

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry today said that the total number of coronavirus positive cases in the country has gone up to 4,421.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
One close relative of the British Royal Family has been moved to the intensive care unit due to worsening symptoms caused by the coronavirus.

After Prince Charles announced his recovery from the life-threatening disease, a bad news followed as Princess Eugenie's father-in-law is currently in serious condition after catching the disease.

The royal family relative, George Brooksbank, is currently in a "serious but stable" condition in an unnamed hospital. Meanwhile, his 66-year-old wife, Nicola, also contracted the disease but has been staying at home for self-isolation.

The aforementioned coronavirus patients are the parents of Prince Eugenie's husband, Jack.

"It's a traumatic time for Jack and Eugenie," one of the couple's friends said, per Daily Mail. "George has been very sick, but the whole family has been rallying round to help."

Meanwhile, a family spokesman refused to comment, but a family friend stood up and uttered: "They are hugely grateful for the excellent care that he has been receiving. They are thinking of all the other families who are being similarly affected at this time."

The intensive care admission came just a few days after it has been revealed that Mr. Brooksbank has been ill for a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth II's 30-year-old granddaughter has not shared her thoughts yet about the heartbreaking news.

Where Are Princess Eugenie, Jack Right Now?

Princess Eugenie and her husband have been helping Sarah Ferguson to support the frontline NHS staff at hospitals across the country by giving out fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as hand creams.

"We are delighted to be sending fruit and veg boxes out to @nhsenglandldn workers on the frontline who are in great need," the 60-year-old Duchess of York wrote online last Friday.

A family friend divulged that they wanted to help the frontliners in every way, so they gave out care packages which includes essentials such as soap, gel, hand wash, anti-bacterial wipes, pasta, sauces, rice, cereal bars and more. They recently delivered the goods at London's Hammersmith hospital.

The daughter of Prince Andrew has been very eager to campaign for the NHS since she underwent surgery for scoliosis at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in London back in 2002.

In fact, to show her gratitude, Princess Eugenie even wore a dress on her wedding day that showed the "gift" from her surgery.

In addition, Eugenie has also teamed up with Fergie and Princess Beatrice to support Re-Nourish, a soup company responsible for distributing meals to healthcare workers.

Even Eugenie's Sister Is Affected

Aside from bringing burdens to Princess Eugenie's in-laws, the coronavirus crisis also caused headaches to the royal family since it affected the wedding plans of Princess Beatrice and property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.

They were scheduled to exchange vows next month at the Chapel Royal, St James' Palace. But due to the pandemic, the special event has been canceled once again.

Meanwhile, the planned reception at Buckingham Palace has also been postponed, and it remains unclear whether they will still push the wedding ceremony through.
ALBANY  Advocates and elected officials, including New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, are urging Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to house up to 30,000 homeless individuals in unused hotel rooms to help them engage in social distancing and limit the spread of COVID-19.

With support from several New York City council members and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie and state Assembly members Walter Mosley, Yuhline Niou and Harvey Epstein, the group said the move would stem the spread of coronavirus among people living on the streets as well as in homeless shelters.
Prison shelling in Yemen kills five women and a child: UN rights chief condemns possible war crime

6 April 2020 - The UN has condemned the shelling of the women's section of the Central Prison in a district of Yemen's war-torn Taizz Governerate, in the south of the country, which has left at least five women and one child dead, and wounding more than 11, with casualties expected to rise.

Shells hit the prison in Al Mudhaffar District in Taizz on Sunday, at a time when there did not appear to be any direct clashes on-going, in the years-long battle for the country being waged between pro-Government forces and Houthi rebels, who hold large sections of the country, including the capital, Sana'a.

"We share our deepest condolences with families who are grieving for their loved ones and we wish the injured a swift recovery", said Lise Grande, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen.

The injured were rushed to Al Thawra and Al Bureihi hospitals where humanitarian partners are providing surgical and medical support, including trauma kits, said Ms. Grande. Al Thawra Hospital was hit by missiles twice in March.

"We're facing massive humanitarian problems in the country", she added: "There's no reason and no justification for these strikes and attacks to continue."

Yemen remains the world's worst humanitarian disaster. Nearly 80 per cent of the population requires some form of humanitarian assistance and protection. Ten million people are a step away from famine and seven million are malnourished. Nearly 14 million people depend on humanitarian aid every month. Of the UN's 41 major humanitarian programmes, 31 will either reduce or shut during April unless funding is urgently received.

Shelling 'could amount to a war crime': Bachelet

The UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, said that she understood three shells had been fired by Houthi fighters, hitting the women's section of the prison.

"At the time of the attack, there were reportedly no armed clashes between the warring parties in the area. Furthermore, there was no apparent military presence in the vicinity of the prison. Such an attack cannot be justified in any circumstances", added the High Commissioner in a statement.

"This attack appears to be in breach of international humanitarian law, and depending on the circumstances could amount to a war crime."

No justification

Ms. Grande added that "a strike like this, which results in the killing and injury of defenseless women and children, cannot be justifiedIt is an appalling breach of international humanitarian principles."



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Marion County is posting the highest documented infection rate in the state for COVID-19 but authorities say they dont have the kind of detailed information needed to determine why the area is a hotspot.

Health officials said they cant point to any significant event or a single institution that seemed to be a COVID-19 factory.

Experts say with testing across Oregon remaining limited, its difficult to get an accurate picture of how widespread the virus is or whether the number of actual cases in counties is as varied as the data suggests.

Testing criteria in the U.S. are changing rapidly and its not changing in an even way, said Melissa Haendel, director of Translational Data Science at Oregon State University.

As of Friday morning, Marion County had reported 178 residents testing positive for COVID-19, 49 requiring hospitalization. That means 53 of every 100,000 residents have tested positive for the virus. The next highest rate in Oregon is Washington County, which has 39 confirmed cases per 100,000 people.

Testing rates have varied widely by county, and Marion County is among those testing a higher percentage of residents. But that doesnt fully account for the differences.

Multnomah County, which has reported fewer people ill with COVID-19, has more residents and is testing at a higher rate than Marion County. Other large Oregon counties with higher testing rates include Jackson and Linn.

Were still early enough in our curve in the outbreak that the total number of tests and positives are small enough per unit of geographical area, said Dr. Dawn Mautner, senior health advisor to Oregon Health Authority. Its really hard to build a trend from the number of people that we have.

Haendel has studied COVID-19 data from around the world and is part of a team of scientists and medical professionals running Flatten the Curve, a website with scientifically verified information about preventing the spread of the virus. She's also coordinating a national effort to share data about COVID-19 patients.

She said health authorities can more effectively understand and stop the spread of disease in places where contacts of those infected can be traced and with follow-up testing. The virus doesnt spread evenly between people - many cases elsewhere generally have been tied back to superspreader events where many people were together.

That would mean, for instance, if someone who tested positive attending a church service while contagious, health officials would identify and test everyone else at that service, not just close contacts like household members.

Thats a far cry from what most of the U.S., including Oregon, is doing. State guidelines for local health agencies from Oregon Health Authority say resources should be focused on identifying household contacts of COVID-19 cases and high-priority individuals like people living or working in long-term care facilities, essential workers and those at higher risk of serious illness.

Even when someone is a close contact of a confirmed case, they likely wouldnt be tested unless they showed symptoms under current guidelines.

Haendel contrasted that with the successful approach taken in Singapore, where health workers attempted to identify and promptly test anyone who came in close contact of a confirmed patient.

Dr. Christopher Cirino, health officer for Marion County, said he couldnt account for the higher number of cases here or identify a clear reason or event.

The county has identified some clusters of illness, often in households where multiple people got sick, he said. But theres no one factor or location that otherwise stands out.

CORONAVIRUS IN OREGON: THE LATEST NEWS

Tracing respiratory illness spread is difficult, he said, because its often not immediately clear where someone caught a virus. With a foodborne illness outbreak, its relatively easy to trace illnesses to a single restaurant or potluck, but few people can say where they caught a cold.

Its a lot harder to pinpoint the source. Who was that person who brought in the infection to a group? Cirino said.

Local health agencies and the Health Authority have typically not released information about where people who have COVID-19 work or may have come into contact with the public, instead letting individual employers decide whether to share that information.

In several Salem cases where people ill with COVID-19 worked for government agencies, that information has only been publicly shared after concerned employees contacted Salem Reporter or other local media.

Marion County has eight people working to investigate local patients and reach out to their contacts, with three more in training, county spokeswoman Jenna Wyatt said. With the outbreak ongoing, they prioritize identifying and checking in with close contacts, rather than more detailed analysis that could reveal larger patterns.

Wyatt wouldnt say how many clusters county officials have identified or the general type of location, like a workplace or church, because of patient privacy. Asked how many local cases had contact with another confirmed case, she said the county doesnt have enough staff to analyze the data theyve collected right now.

Cirino said many cases now being reported are in people who likely caught the virus before widespread social distancing orders went into effect. Hes optimistic growth in the number of infected people in Marion County will begin to level off and then fall soon if people continue staying at home.

-- Rachel Alexander, Salem Reporter


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A national initiative to address social isolation and loneliness has launched in Norfolk and is looking for churches and Christian agencies to work with it to address the issue, with the possibility of a 2,000 grant available.
As many as 24 suspected COVID-19 patients have escaped from home quarantine in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district, an official said on Tuesday.

Action would be taken against those who violated home quarantine, said Kangra deputy commissioner Rakesh Prajapati.

Police have been informed through the health department for registering cases against them, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rachael Finch has documented the gory process of taking her son Dominic to the dentist to deal with a rotten tooth.

The three-year-old went to an emergency dental appointment in Sydney's Paddington on Tuesday, with his doting mother documenting the drama on her Instagram stories.

The 31-year-old explained: 'Wow, so we got the tooth extracted on the spot. The whole tooth was just rotted away.

Icky! Rachael Finch (pictured) has documented the gory process of taking her son to the dentist to deal with a rotten tooth

'So much so that as he was extracting it, it was just crumbling away. If I had left that any longer, we could have had some serious issues,' she said.

The beauty then explained there was infection in the gum, and was told the tooth had to go right away.

The former Miss Universe Australia also revealed that her toddler son accidentally bit the dentist's thumb, causing him to scream.

Ouch! Three-year-old Dominic (pictured) went to an emergency dental appointment in Sydney's Paddington on Tuesday, with his doting mother documenting the drama on her Instagram stories

The 31-year-old explained: 'Wow, so we got the tooth extracted on the spot. The whole tooth was just rotted away'

'It was funny but it wasn't funny,' she added, before giving a huge thank you to her fans for helping her decide to take her son to the dentist.

It comes after Rachael and her family made the most of Sydney's sunny weather on Sunday.

The model shared a photograph of her family out and about as they enjoyed a coastal walk amid coronavirus lockdowns.

'Getting in our daily movement': Rachael and husband Michael Miziner (back) took their two children - daughter Violet, six, (right) and son Dominic - on a family coastal walk in Sydney amid lockdowns on Sunday

In the photo, her hunky husband, Michael Miziner, is seen posing alongside the couple's adorable two children, daughter Violet, six, as well as son Dominic.

'Getting in our daily movement and reminding ourselves of the simple pleasures,' she wrote underneath the photo.

Rachael also shared the same image on her Instagram story and said it 'feels good to stretch the legs' - after remaining indoors for long periods of time due to coronavirus lockdowns across the country.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned that the court's ruling would cause "massive disenfranchisement." (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

The Los Angeles Times warned in an editorial last month that the COVID-19 pandemic threatened not only the health of individuals but the democratic process. The Supreme Court exacerbated that infection Monday when the justices blocked a lower court's decision to extend the period in which Wisconsin voters could mail in absentee ballots.

Tuesday is election day in that state, and the Democratic presidential primary is only one of many contests on the ballot. As the COVID-19 crisis deepened, it became obvious that some voters would face a choice between exercising the franchise and protecting their health by staying home. But first the Wisconsin Supreme Court and then the U.S. Supreme Court failed to rise to the occasion.

On Monday the state Supreme Court rebuffed an attempt by Wisconsins Democratic governor to suspend in-person voting on Tuesday and expand voting by mail. Then late Monday the U.S. Supreme Court, with Democratic and Republican appointees on opposite sides, stayed an order by a lower federal court requiring Wisconsin to count mail-in ballots if they arrived by April 13 even if they were mailed after election day.

In an unsigned opinion, the courts conservative justices providing a textbook example of exalting form over substance. The majority complained that the extended deadline for absentee ballots fundamentally alters the nature of the election. It cited the precedent of a 2006 decision in which the court overturned an injunction preventing Arizonas use of a photo ID requirement  a ruling from a calmer time. Precedent loses its force in unprecedented circumstances.

This ruling is outrageously oblivious to the emergency posed by the pandemic. In the 2006 case the court emphasized that a state indisputably has a compelling interest in preserving the integrity of its election process. But given the pandemic and the disruptions it creates for the election process, the lower courts order promoted exactly that objective.

As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted in a dissent signed by three other Democratic appointees, the courts order means that absentee voters must postmark their ballots by Tuesday, even if they didnt receive their ballots by that date because of a backlog. The result, she warned, could be massive disenfranchisement."

As disturbing as the result of the courts ruling is the fact that it pitted conservative justices appointed by Republican presidents against liberal justices appointed by Democratic presidents, seeming to validate the perception that the justices are politicians in robes. So much for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.'s campaign to portray the court as being aloof from partisan politics.




Schools around the world have closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but a team of British scientists says keeping students home has little impact.

University College London researchers using modeling studies of COVID-19 concluded that shuttering schools would reduce deaths by only 2% to 4%, just a fraction of those prevented by other social distancing interventions.

It described the evidence to support national closures of schools to combat the pandemic as "very weak."

Children can be infected by the virus but rarely experience serious symptoms. Cases of COVID-19 in children made up less than 2% of the 149,760 laboratory-confirmed cases occurring in the U.S. between Feb. 12 and April 2, CNN reported.

But kids with mild or no symptoms can transmit SARS-CoV-2 to vulnerable adults, which is why governments have sent pupils and teachers home.

The research, published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health on Monday, looked at 16 studies  some based on the spread of the novel coronavirus, and others on seasonal flu and the 2003 SARS outbreak. The findings suggest:

School closures help during influenza outbreaks, but their benefit for the current coronavirus pandemic may be minimal.

Data from the SARS outbreak in mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore indicate that school closures likely did not contribute to the control of the epidemic.

Less disruptive social distancing interventions in schools should be considered, especially if pandemic restrictions are maintained over a long period.

Possible intermediate solutions include staggering school start and finish times, temperature checks and other health monitoring of students, and keeping schools open for workers with essential jobs.

But Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London, who consulted with the British government in developing a plan to fight the pandemic, said the Lancet research fails to take into account the impact that school closures can have alongside other lockdown measures.

"While school closure as a measure on its own is predicted to have a limited effectiveness in controlling COVID-19 transmission, when combined with intense social distancing it plays an important role in severing remaining contacts between households, and thus ensuring transmission declines," he told Science Media Centre.

Nicholas Christakis, a social scientist and physician at Yale University, told ScienceMag last month that proactive school closures are one of the most powerful nonpharmaceutical interventions that we can deploy.

Proactive school closures work like reactive school closures not just because they get the children, the little vectors, removed from circulation, he said. Its not just about keeping the kids safe. Its keeping the whole community safe.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus here.



Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate
With well over a million infected and the number of dead soon to reach 100,000, the worldwide spread of COVID-19 threatens the lives of millions worldwide. In particular, it is threatening war-torn countries like Libya, Syria and Yemen, where imperialist-backed wars have led to devastating humanitarian crises and destroyed critical health infrastructure. Millions of refugees, many living in crowded and unsanitary refugee camps, are desperately vulnerable to the virus.

Libya and Syria, both targeted by wars launched by the NATO imperialist powers after the outbreak of the Egyptian revolution in 2011, are desperately trying to avert a devastating mass outbreak. While Libya has 19 confirmed COVID-19 cases so far, including one death, Syria has 19 cases and two deaths. However, their shattered health systems are in no position to properly monitor the outbreak, let alone treat and halt it.

The health catastrophe facing Libya and Syria again expose the fraudulent humanitarian pretexts that pseudo-left academics and parties like Frances New Anti-capitalist Party used to justify their support for these imperialist wars. They presented NATO military interventions as wars for democracy and to protect the population of these countries from their dictatorial governments. In fact, these wars of plunder shattered the lives of tens of millions and now could cost hundreds of thousands more lives lost to COVID-19.

Treating the COVID-19 pandemic requires an internationally coordinated campaign to deploy critical food and health supplies to Libya, Syria and other war-torn countries around the world. This requires the mobilization of the mass anti-war sentiment in the working class internationally, as such a coordinated response is impossible under the domination of imperialist powers still intervening to fan the flames of war in these countries.

In Syria, the NATO imperialist powers armed various Islamist terrorist militias and later backed ethnic-Kurdish militias as proxies in a bid to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The war has claimed more than 500,000 lives and displaced up to 10 million internally while over 3 million fled abroad. NATO-backed militias looted pharmaceutical factories during the war and attacked hospitals, leaving Syrias essential health infrastructure in ruins.

The confirmed cases in Syria are the tip of the iceberg, said UN aid official Mark Lowcock in a briefing to the UN Security Council last week. Judging from other places, that is the tip of the iceberg. The virus has the potential to have a devastating impact on vulnerable communities across the country, he warned. Syrias health services are extremely fragile. Only around half of its hospitals and primary healthcare centers were fully functional at the end of last year.

Without a massive international inflow of resources to allow for social distancing and proper hygiene, a disaster threatens. More than 11 million people inside Syria require humanitarian aid, including nearly five million children; and nearly eight million lack reliable access to food. We are for example seeing increased rates of stuntinga consequence of child malnutrition, from which it is rarely possible fully to recover, said Lowcock, who added that 30 percent of displaced children in northwest Syria suffer from it. They will live with the consequences for the rest of their lives.

Thousands of refugees live in overcrowded camps in horrific conditions in Idlib province, where Syrian government forces are fighting NATO-backed Islamist militias to retake the area. As many as 10 people reportedly share small tentssleeping, eating and living together at close distance, with no access to clean water and only a small number of toilets.

As for Libya, it is, according to the Global Health Security Index report published last month, one of the 27 countries most vulnerable to emerging outbreaks.

NATOs bombing of Libyan cities in the 2011 war was followed by a devastating civil war since 2014 between the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj in the capital, Tripoli, and warlord Khalifa Haftars Libyan National Army (LNA) to the east. Fighting has intensified since Haftar launched an offensive last April on Tripoli. Essential services are unavailable in Libya, whose oil industry has collapsed, devastating its economy.

Cash shortages in every part of the economy mean that Libya cannot purchase medicines to keep hospitals running or pay the salaries of medical staff, of which there is an acute shortage. Before the war, Libya had foreign doctors and nurses from Egypt and the Philippines, but they left the country starting in 2011, and especially after 2014. Last month, Badereldine al-Najar, the head of the Libyan National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), told Reuters: In light of the lack of preparations, I now consider Libya not in a position to confront this virus.

War has left Libya with limited financial resources and shortages of basic equipment, while the pandemic represents an additional challenge, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) declared.

In recent years, Libya has become a hotspot for immigrants desperately trying to reach Europe.

The United Nations has warned that the pandemic constitutes a truly catastrophic danger for the internally displaced people and about 700,000 refugees and migrants in Libya.

In a bid to stop refugee flows, the European Union (EU) has financed the construction and upkeep of prison camps controlled by the rival militias inside Libya. In those camps, reports by CNN and UN officials have revealed that refugees are subject to horrific torture, rape, murder and sale into slavery. Detention centers and prisons are reportedly overcrowded with unhygienic and inhumane conditions, while suffering shortages of food and drinking water.

These immigrants are at a great risk of being contaminated by the virus. Tarik Argaz, a spokesman for the UNHCR in Libya, told Al Jazeera: Detained asylum seekers are particularly vulnerable and exposed. They are staying in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions [in detention centres] and have access to very limited health assistance. Many centres are located in areas close to fighting.

Al Jazeera cited Amira Rajab Elhemali, national field operations assistant for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), saying The conditions are dire. Hundreds of people are locked in crowded hangars with no access to proper sanitation facilities. Many of them have been detained for months or even years. Worry is all they know.

The COVID-19 pandemic now ravaging the imperialist centers of America and Europe is an urgent warning. The wars in Libya and Syria must be ended, the imperialist powers supply of weapons and financing to their proxies cut off, and social resources mobilized to fight the pandemic, not to fight wars. Fighting the pandemic requires the provision of tens of billions of euros of international emergency assistance, including for the purchase of food and medical supplies.
i fucking love this show it cracks me up. one of my fav scenes:







and for quarantine watching, i'm working my way through younger (it's a lot more enjoyable than i thought it would be!) and i'm, of course, watching the Simpsons.

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Younger is fun, until you recognise how everyone goes in circles to prevent evolving characters.

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OMG, do they really use 'g*psy*' for Kate? Gross. Rromani people have come forward for years and said how that's a harmful slur/stereotype against them

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yeh, big yikes! And they cant feign ignorance of the term when since its an english show and discrimination against romani ppl is a well known thing there.

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it really isn't a well known thing here

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I don't agree with you. The UK is very different regarding Roma than the rest of the continent. I think historically the people, as well as the literature, is more focused on the issue of irish travellers (perhaps the most common representation now on tv would be peaky blinders?). Especially in England, racism concentrated towards its own minorities -and yes I am including Irish, because up until independence, Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. A lot of racism, which can be comparable to the one you see on the continent towards roma, would be directed towards the Irish. Also, the word gypsy, at least in the UK, does not have the emotional background it does in the rest of Europe, mostly because there weren't as many Romani people as much as on the continent.



PS. I am not condoning the use of the word, nor the implied imagery behind it.

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confused by this because there are plenty of people in the UK that refer to themselves as gypsies? I understand the history of the word but plenty of people in the traveler community seem to use the word to refer to themselves.

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Ooh I will check it out.



I'm currently re-watching Ozark now that the latest season has dropped



ps not a Mod but here is the code for cut text



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Edited at 2020-04-07 02:58 pm (UTC)

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thanks sis! I tried and it just wouldn't work. I guess my laptop put its imaginary foot down and wanted to show everything! ahah

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Haha Im watching it! Just started the newest season yesterday. I love the way Camila is portrayed. Hilarious. And Princess Anne!

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i've been watching a crap ton of 90 day fiance because i'm trash 

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oh my god, yeah... also them making the little boy already call him daddy 

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nooo sis, you are not trash! this situation is, and you are totally allowed to watch rubbish on the telly. xx

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During the day i have stuff I've already watched a million times in the background while I'm working, I dunno why but if it's too quiet it's more distracting lol so now it's Arrested Development.

I didn't realize Crave had Broad City, I'm gonna start that today after work. I wanted to do a Star Wars marathon but I think this weekend I'm gonna do the Before Trilogy as a marathon.

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omg I didn't know Crave had Broad City either!?!? WTF? They do such a piss poor job of promoting their shows. The same 5 appear over and over again on the home page but all the good stuff is buried deep.

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Right?? Their interface is terrible! They actually have so many shows but its hard to find about them.

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this weekend I'm gonna do the Before Trilogy as a marathon



yesssssssssssss

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I started Broad City on Sunday and am on season 3. I didn't know it was on Crave. I was bored and digging around the site and found it



Edited at 2020-04-07 03:18 pm (UTC)

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Yes, Windsors is great. The accents, Beatrice and Eugenie, Andrew the sleazeball. I love that it's silly slapstick but they regularly throw in really cutting criticism at all of their expense.



I'd recommend Lady Dynamite.

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the recent shade at andrew is great. i am so glad finally someone on mainstream tv isnt afraid of saying that he was more than just an acquaintance of epstein.



would this even count as mainstream tv? lol

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The accents are amazing lol. And beatrice and eugenie are definitely among the best characters lol



The g*psy references make me cringe though.

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Yesssss. I love this, but Beatrice and Eugenie are my absolute faves. Theyre just perfect.

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I love this show so much. The actors that play Charles and Camilla are fantastic and I have a little crush on Prince William from this.

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I was watching Mamma Mia 2 the other day and couldnt figure out where I knew Young Harry from. Hes William in this!



I need to catch up with this show.

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Hes also in fleabag!

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I love the Windsors and I wish there were 100 more episodes. A gravelly I declare war on the EU or a deep oh GIRLLLLLLLS is often thrown around conversations in my house.

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I can't stand this show, I find it so cringy.

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I'm looking at the clips people posted here and I'm like "Really?"

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same its terrible and racist 

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Maybe I'm just too broadly interested, but I'll never finish my Netflix-list? Like, solely all the series I want to watch/continue to watch..

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Riviera. 2 seasons. SOOOO GOOD ! not on Netflix though

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S1 aired in the US a while ago. I don't even think whatever channel it was on (Sundace?) is airing it. It's on some streaming platform they want you to pay for. Sigh!



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omgggg I just finished season 2 and have so many thoughts/feelings!

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nooo, one of the worst tv shows I've ever seen. I actually couldn't finish it..I'm glad someone enjoyed it though

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Right now I watch Castlevania, Giri/Haji, Second City, Fargo, Pose and On my Block. Trying to watch films on Sunday, but life's too busy right now.

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Jessica Warr and Ella Tomkins were captured with just a few days to go

FOR just over three weeks, Newbury couple Ella Tomkins and Jessica Warr traversed the length and breadth of the country, on the run from a team of specially-trained hunters.

The girls were taking part in Channel 4 reality TV series Hunted, aiming to avoid detection for four weeks to scoop a share of the 100,000 prize money.

They camped in the wild and took shelter in strangers houses, desperate to keep hidden from the hunters, who seemed to have eyes on every corner.

Just three days before extraction, however, the duo  who had returned to Newbury for some comfort and to replenish supplies  found themselves cornered in woodland behind a contacts house and were captured.

Reflecting on the experience, Jessica and Ella  who met when they were at St Bartholomews School and got engaged earlier this year  said the entire experience was bonkers.

Jessica said: It was stressful and crazy from the outset and the filming got crazier from the day of the launch.

We didnt know where we were being dropped off or who was in the area to help us, so the whole thing was absolutely nuts.

We learnt a lot about each other along the way and we met some absolutely incredible people.

Ella continued: I think thats the thing to note  the show is cut down so much that you dont get to see the unsung heroes, the people who got us from A to B, the random strangers that gave us 10 or took us in.

When we came away and were discussing the highlights, that was it  all the people you meet along the way.

You cant really believe the kindness of people  the extent that they helped us was incredible.

Jessica and Ellas adventure started in Bristol, where they split from the other eight contestants.

From there they headed to Hampshire, before making the journey north to the Peak District and then even further north into the Yorkshire Dales, where they spent a few days camping in the wilderness.

After narrowly escaping capture at the Galphay Inn near Ripon, the girls travelled up to Durham and then Scotland, before coming back south via the Lake District and North Wales.

The couple then returned to Newbury  only to discover that the hunters had anticipated their arrival and put up wanted posters all over town.

Jessica  wearing a blonde wig and flat cap to avoid detection  liaised with hairdresser Sarah Riggott and arranged a rendezvous with a getaway driver.

However, the duo were tracked to the drivers house and, after a brief dash for freedom, they were caught.

When the couple were finally captured, they were just hours from learning the location of the extraction point  the place where they would escape from the hunters for good.

Jess admitted that they were devastated to be caught so close to the finishing line.

She said: We were absolutely gutted.

You put blood, sweat and tears into it  and when you get as far as you did, you start believing that potentially you can do it.

You start allowing yourself to think the end is in sight.

Following the filming of the show, the girls got engaged in Wales and were all set to travel around the world until the coronavirus outbreak.

Ella added: I thought if we can survive Hunted, then we can survive anything.
BJP MP Maneka Gandhi on Tuesday posted a video message saying a cat could not get or give coronavirus and there was no need for people to abandon them after it emerged that a tiger in a zoo in the United States was infected with Covid-19.

Gandhi, a prominent animal rights activist said, A cat is not a tiger, there is no relationship, there is as much relationship a dog has with a wolf.

Manekas video appeal follows the revelation that a tiger in the Bronx zoo in the US had tested positive for coronavirus sparking fears around the globe that the disease could spread to the animal kingdom. Indian authorities have sounded alerts for all tiger habitats in India and have advised continuous monitoring of the animals for any abnormal behaviour and isolation for sick animals among other measures to prevent possible human to animal transmissions.

Gandhi seemed to be responding to speculations on social media that domestic animals like cat, if they pick up the Covid-19 infection, could also further spread the contagion among unsuspecting humans.

Your cats are completely safe to be around, so allow people to feed them, allow them in every colony, they are a great asset, Maneka Gandhi appealed in the video.

Gandhis post seemed to have started a debate with some questioning the basis of her claim and cited a study that has not been peer-reviewed to suggest that anti Sars-Cov-2 antibodies were detected in cats.

Gandhi responded to the challenge by saying that a scientific approach was needed at the hour and not hysteria. She put out a series of tweets to support her point, one of them referring to a WHO advisory on the matter.

Its been months since the spread of #COVID19 started. Lakhs of humans have it, thousands have died. Not 1 out of 50 million cats across the world (except some mythical cat in Belgium) have been infected. WHO has put out an advisory saying that cats can neither get nor give it, one of her tweets said.

Several Indian states have alerted officials to take measures to safeguard the animals in zoos, national parks, sanctuaries etc.

A veterinary officer with the Jammu and Kashmir wildlife department Ranjit Katoch said the department is following the protocol issued by the Central Zoo Authority and monitoring animals round-the-clock.

She said mammals like carnivores, especially cat, feral and primates were among the animals that were carefully being monitored.

Authorities in the Sunderbans, home to the rare Bengal Tigers, were also monitoring the behaviour of all 88 tigers round the clock, said officials quoted by PTI.
Rockets Hit Near Site of Foreign Oil Firms, State-Run Companies in Iraq's Basra - Reports

Sputnik News

07:35 GMT 06.04.2020(updated 09:00 GMT 06.04.2020)

In late March, the US military deployed its Patriot missile defence system to the Ayn al-Asad base in Iraq in a move to "protect against another potential Iranian attack".

Reuters on Monday reported, citing its sources, that missiles hit near sites of foreign and state-run oil companies in Basra, Iraq. No casualties have been reported so far.

According to police, the missiles were Katyushas launched at around 3 a.m. local time and hit the Burjesia residential and operations headquarters west of Basra.

At the same time, the Iraqi military stated that the rockets hit near US-based Halliburton company site.

The strike on oil facilities comes as earlier on Monday oil prices continued to fall after Russia and Saudi Arabia delayed negotiations over oil output cuts, thus continuing oversupply concerns.

Initially, the parties were scheduled to meet on 6 April but the talks were postponed until 9 April.

Oil prices suffered their worst decline in decades in March after Russia and Saudi Arabia failed to reach a deal on output cuts amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Russia proposed leaving output cuts at previously agreed-upon levels, while Saudi Arabia and its allies suggested that additional cuts be made.

Russia rejected the proposal, prompting Riyadh to cancel even the originally agreed upon cuts, to announce a 25 percent increase in production, and to offer heavy discounts on crude futures for April.

A Sputnik

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NEW HAVEN  The school district plans for the sixth year in a row to hold an election during which high school students vote for a rising junior to serve as a non-voting student member of the Board of Education.

How that is going to happen, however, is up in the air.

At a virtual meeting of the school boards governance committee Monday, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Paul Whyte said that two candidates are running for the student board position.

We are going to try to proceed with students having the election in May, he said.

District Title IX coordinator Carolyn Ross-Lee in February presented the school board with a calendar for the elections process that would have had the campaign period begin March 27, with a candidates forum to be held April 7. The campaign process had not yet begun as of Monday and no forum was planned for April 7.

Were working on using (websites) SurveyMonkey and Panorama as ways for students to do their voting. Were working on how they can do electronic campaigning, Whyte said.

The school board has seated a senior and junior to a 2-year term since the 2015-16 school year. Student board members do not count toward a quorum at meetings and any votes they take do not count toward board action.

However, student board members have used their positions to elevate the voices of students. For instance,in 2017 student board members Jacob Spell and Makayla Dawkins spoke against the school boards choice for a new superintendent of schools. Carol Birks, who served as superintendent for 18 months after being hired, had not impressed students, they said.

Dawkins and student board member Nico Rivera also came down against a plan pushed by Birks to involuntarily transfer 53 veteran teachers to different buildings as a cost-saving measure. That plan eventually failed.

The decision to hire Birks shook many student leaders faith in the school boards ability to listen to students when conducting business, and school officials have spent two years since hoping to reestablish student trust in the process.

This year, Rivera and student board member Lihame Arouna have proposed a student senate to operate separately from the citywide student council group as a means of bringing more students to board meetings.

We should have the power to begin with. Were the ones who go to the schools, Rivera said.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
Russia today accused US President Donald Trump of planning to seize planets by signing an executive order outlining American policy on commercial mining in space.

The executive order, which the Russian space agency Roscosmos said damaged the scope for international cooperation in space, was signed on Monday.

The order said the US would seek to negotiate 'joint statements and bilateral and multilateral arrangements with foreign states regarding safe and sustainable operations for the public and private recovery and use of space resources'.

It added US citizens should have the right to engage in such activity and that 'outer space is a legally and physically unique domain of human activity, and the United States does not view it as a global commons'.

US President Donald Trump speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, at the White House yesterday in Washington, DC. Russia has accused Trump of damaging the scope for international co-operation in space with an executive order regarding the mining of space resources

Sedimentary rock and sand, formed over millions or billions of years as loose sediment, cemented into place before being eroded by winds into a zebra stripe-like pattern, are seen within Danielson Crater on Mars on September 19, 2019

Roscosmos said the order put the United States at odds with the notion of space belonging to all humanity.

'Attempts to expropriate outer space and aggressive plans to actually seize territories of other planets hardly set the countries (on course for) fruitful cooperation,' the agency's statement said.

Russia, a leading producer of natural resources, first announced its plans to join Luxembourg in mining for minerals in outer space at the beginning of March last year.

Space mining has been the realm of science fiction, but a handful of firms and governments are pursuing the idea of making it a reality. The small Duchy of Luxembourg became the first country to adopt legal regulations relating to mining in space, including from asteroids.

A handout image provided by Roscosmos (Russian Federal Space Agency) on 15 August 2012 shows a picture taken from on board of the International Space Station (ISS) by Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka of a Soyuz spacecraft docked at the ISS on 27 July, 2012

'In January we offered Luxembourg a framework agreement on cooperation in the use of (mining) exploration in space. We expect an answer from Luxembourg,' said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, part of a Russian delegation headed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Commercial mining on other planets or asteroids is still a distant prospect, hampered, among other things, by the technical challenges of how to get large quantities of mined minerals back to Earth.

The focus of entrepreneurs pursuing space mining is instead on using space minerals to create interplanetary 'gas stations' that will build, support and fuel colonies on Mars.

Metals such as iron, cobalt and nickel are abundant in asteroids and critical components of space vehicles. Platinum group metals, also abundant, can be used for internal circuitry and electronics.

Space law is dominated by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, written and ratified at the time of the Cold War and therefore heavy on the prohibition of weapons of mass destruction in space, on the Moon or any other celestial body.

The treaty explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet on the basis that they are 'the common heritage of mankind.'

Luxembourg has said it is 'eager to work with other countries' on a multilateral agreement on asteroid rights, but the prospect of several countries passing their own legislation raises the specter of space mining becoming a new wild west land grab.

Tensions between Russia and the United States are at a post-Cold War high, but cooperation on space has continued despite an array of differences over everything from Ukraine to accusations of election meddling.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that 'any kind of attempt to privatise space in one form or another - and I find it difficult to say now whether this can be seen as an attempt to privatise space - would be unacceptable'.
Binita Jaiswal By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Leather manufacturing units in Tamil Nadus leather hubs of Vellore, Ambur, Vaniyambadi and Ranipet now wears a deserted look. With the previously bustling factories shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a massive cancellation of export orders, leather traders and exporters are staring at an uncertain future.

According to K R Vijayan, Chairman, Indian Finished Leather Manufacturers and Exporters Association, over 55 per cent of export orders have been cancelled in last two months, while about 10-15 per cent of orders have been put on hold.

In 2018-19, Indias leather industry exported goods worth $5.6 billion, a figure it is unlikely to achieve in the financial year ending March 31, 2020.

The figure may be unachievable even in the financial year 2020-21, the Council of Leather Exports (CLE) says. Already, export orders worth over $1 billion for the months of April, May and June have been cancelled, say, leather makers.

We are experiencing an unprecedented situation. Our raw materials are stuck in transit, payments are due, exported products are lying at ports since brands are not collecting their consignments. Moreover, a majority of the units in the sector belong to the MSME category and it is difficult for them to sustain these huge losses, said Sanjay Leekha, vice chairman, CLE.

There are around 3,500 registered leather manufacturers and exporters in the country and the industry employs over 4.2 million people. The impact is likely to be more visible in the south since nearly one-third of Indias leather factories are located in southern India.

The situation is quite challenging as 70 per cent of my orders stand cancelled. From where will I repay my bank loans? worries S Sivaraman, a leather unit owner in Ambur, Tamil Nadu.

P Aqeel Ahmed, chairman, CLE, says a revival without government support is tough. The market is very unstable and its difficult to predict when normalcy will be restored, he said.
Landlord SCA Property Group says it has identified good buying opportunities amid the coronavirus pandemic and is raising $250 million to spend on cheap shopping centres anchored by Coles or Woolworths.

We believe that the COVID-19 pandemic may provide a unique opportunity to secure quality assets at competitive prices over the next six to 12 months, the group, which has 85 supermarket-anchored shopping centres, said.

The coronavirus pandemic has been kinder to SCA than other shopping centre landlords. Credit:Joe Armao

The $2.2 billion ASX-listed landlord was placed in a trading halt on Tuesday as it sought to raise $250 million in a fully underwritten institutional placement and $50 million in a unit purchase plan to eligible security holders.

Unlike its larger listed counterparts Vicinity and Scentre Group, the COVID-19 crisis has been kinder to SCA, which is led by chief executive Anthony Mellowes.
In his article published on iLur.am, first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan talks about the coronavirus and the situation in Armenia.

According to him, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Armenia has found itself in a war that is much graver and much more dangerous than ordinary wars since the virus is everywhere and invisible and nobody is secured.

He adds that, based on his impression, the Armenian authorities are treating their duties with responsibility, in spite of some mistakes and shortcomings, and they are mainly taking all the possible and necessary steps. Judging from the publics reactions, overall, the President positively assesses the work of medical workers, the police and the Ministry of Emergency Situations and emphasizes the major role of the Commandant for the State of Emergency and the health minister.

However, he notes that while the authorities are busy working round-the-clock, there is an enormous army of saboteurs and malicious people who are instilling hatred and enmity towards the authorities with the numerous presses and hundreds of fakes under the control of well-known forces.

Taking all this into consideration, the President believes it is necessary to take certain steps that dont require much effort, and those steps are the following:

1. Oblige the public to follow the instructions of the Commandant for the State of Emergency and the Minister of Health and strictly complete their assignments;

2. Stop the propaganda and actions for instilling lack of confidence and hatred in the authorities;

3. Address the anti-virus measures and advice and proposals regarding the social issues arising from those measures to the Commandants Office, creating within the Office a special group to explore those proposals and implement them when appropriate;

4. Stop the activities of the parliamentary committee leading a probe into the circumstances of the Four-Day Artsakh War temporarily since this irritates the people even more;

5. Put an end to the disturbances in regard to the elections in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and ensure full management of Artsakh through the speedy establishment of new state bodies;

6. Hope that the second and third Presidents of Armenia will order the presses under their control to stop leading a mad struggle against the authorities.

In closing, the President states that it is needless to say that, at this crucial moment in time, anyone who disturbs or fails to support the authorities and creates additional problems for them will put not only the countrys national security, but also their lives at risk.
A uthorities in Paris have banned all outdoor exercise during the day as coronavirus deaths in France reached 10,000.

The new lockdown rules are in force between 10am and 7pm and come after Parisians took to the streets in numbers over the weekend to enjoy the sunny weather.

The capitals mayor Anne Hidalgo and police prefect Didier Lallement said people should limit their movement to urgent or indispensable outings.

Starting on Wednesday, they said Parisians can now only exercise outdoors when "street crowd is at its lowest".

Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast

Those in the city were previously allowed to exercise outdoors for an hour while carrying a form explaining the reason why they were going out.

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Even as A R Rahman's popular composition Masakali from Delhi 6 is still fresh in our memories, a 2.0 version is on the way. Sidharth Malhotra and Tara Sutaria have collaborated to recreate the track, as per a report.

While the original song, featuring Sonam Kapoor with Abhishek Bachchan, was sung by Mohit Chauhan, this one has been taken over by Tulsi Kumar and Sachet Tandon. The 2.0 version has composed by Tanishk Bagchi.

Sidharth feels that the song is relevant even when the country is under lock-down due to the Covid-19 spread, saying, We have unintentionally made a song revolving around two people cooped up indoors and still doing a lot of masti.

Tara says that shooting the music video was smooth since she has worked with Sid in last year's romantic drama Marjaavan. It was a breeze, she said. Its such a catchy song despite being a midtempo tune. Bhushanji and Tanishk have reimagined the 2.0 version beautifully while Tulsi and Sachet have given it a fun, sexy spin, which I love," Tara added.

The music video has been produced by Bhushan Kumar who said the song was was his 'personal favourite'. "AR Rahman created a musical gem in Masakali which has been a personal favourite for years. The song is still a rage among youngsters, so I thought it might be a good idea to present it in a new fashion. We got Sidharth and Tara for the song as they look good together on screen and they infused life into the chartbuster, he said.

Follow @News18Movies for more
Libyan government forces down rebel cargo plane near Tripoli

Iran Press TV

Monday, 06 April 2020 9:48 AM

Libyan government forces have shot down a cargo plane operated by rebel forces near the capital, Tripoli.

Sources from both sides said the military plane had been downed near Tripoli on Sunday.

Fighting has in recent days intensified near the capital, which is the seat of Libya's internationally-recognized government.

Rebel forces under the command of a general named Khalifa Haftar have been fighting in an offensive to take over the capital and unseat the government since April last year. They have remained bogged down on the city's outskirts.

On March 21, Haftar claimed full adherence to a humanitarian truce that focused on efforts to combat the coronavirus outbreak in the African country, but his forces continued violating the ceasefire and bombing various locations in the capital.

The breach compelled the Libyan government to launch an operation on March 25 to push the rebels back.

Reports said on Friday that government forces had downed Sukhoi-22 warplanes operated by the rebels.

Libya plunged into chaos in 2011, when a popular uprising and a NATO intervention led to the ouster of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Since 2014, two rival seats of power have emerged in the North African country  the United Nations (UN)-recognized government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, and another group based in the eastern city of Tobruk, supported militarily by Haftar's rebels.

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WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump has removed the inspector general tapped to chair a special oversight board for the $2.2 trillion economic relief package on the coronavirus, the latest in a series of steps Trump has taken to confront government watchdogs tasked with oversight of the executive branch.

In the past four days, Trump has fired one inspector general tied to his impeachment, castigated another he felt was overly critical of the coronavirus response and sidelined a third meant to safeguard against wasteful spending of funds for businesses in economic distress.

Were seeing since Friday a wrecking ball across the IG community, said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group. On Friday, Trump fired Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community, and on Monday assailed a health and human services official who criticized the administrations response to the coronavirus crisis.

On Tuesday, Trump removed Glenn Fine, the acting Defense Department inspector general and a veteran watchdog who had been selected by peers last month to oversee the economic aid package. Now its unclear who will oversee the rescue law.

Trumps latest move threatens to upend the rigorous oversight that Democrats in Congress demanded for the huge sums of money being pumped into the American economy because of the virus.

Its also part of a broader conflict between Trump, a president averse to outside criticism, and the watchdog community tasked with identifying mismanagement and problems inside government agencies.

Trumps actions only undermine the effectiveness of the pandemic response legislation and the ability of inspectors general to do their job, Brian said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized Trumps removal of Fine, saying he is moving to undermine oversight. And Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer swiftly condemned Trumps action.

President Trump is abusing the coronavirus pandemic to eliminate honest and independent public servants because they are willing to speak truth to power and because he is so clearly afraid of strong oversight, Schumer said in a statement.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who led Trumps impeachment and subsequent Senate prosecution, told The Associated Press that Trumps actions were designed to neuter any kind of oversight of his actions and that of the administration during a time of national crisis, when trillions of dollars are being allocated to help the American people.

Trumps removal of Fine follows his late-night firing on Friday of Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general who forwarded to Congress a whistleblower complaint that ultimately led to the presidents impeachment in the House.

On Monday, the president also publicly condemned the acting Health and Human Services watchdog over a survey of hospitals about the coronavirus response.

Trump has bristled at the oversight of the coronavirus law, suggesting in a statement last month that some of the mandates from Congress were unconstitutional.

Ill be the oversight, Trump declared as lawmakers were finalizing the rescue plan.

He has also drawn criticism for naming a White House lawyer to a new Treasury Department position overseeing $500 billion in coronavirus aid to industry.

Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general and chair of a council of watchdogs, had moved quickly last month to appoint Fine the head of the new coronavirus oversight board.

But Fine will no longer be able to serve in the role because Trump has nominated a replacement inspector general at the Pentagon and appointed an acting one to serve in Fines place, according to an email from an assistant Defense Department inspector general that was obtained by The Associated Press.

The demotion disqualifies Fine from serving on the oversight board, which was created by Congress to be the nexus of oversight for coronavirus funding. He will instead revert to the position of principal deputy inspector general.

House Oversight and Reform Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said Trumps actions are a direct insult to American taxpayers.

President Trump has been engaged in an assault against independent Inspectors General since last Friday in order to undermine oversight of his chaotic and deficient response to the coronavirus crisis, Maloney said.

Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, a longtime whistleblower advocate, tweeted at Trump not to view inspectors general as critics, though he didnt mention Fine by name. He said the officials hold the federal bureaucracy accountable.
The Chinese Communist Party said on Tuesday that it was investigating an outspoken property tycoon who accused Chinas top leader, Xi Jinping, of having mishandled the coronavirus outbreak.

Party officials said the man, Ren Zhiqiang, was suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, a euphemism the authorities often use for corruption and other abuses of power.

Mr. Ren, a longtime party member, disappeared last month after having written an explosive essay describing Mr. Xi as a power-hungry clown. The essay, which circulated on Chinese social media sites, said that the partys strict limits on freedom of speech and its silencing of the news media had exacerbated the epidemic.

[Analysis: Peaks, testing and lockdowns: How coronavirus vocabulary causes confusion.]

A brief statement about the investigation of Mr. Ren, issued by party disciplinary officials in Beijing, did not provide Mr. Rens whereabouts, give details about the status of his case or make mention of the essay.
Today Honor launched its MagicBook 14 in the United Kingdom and took a moment to reveal some of its accomplishments in 2019. According to IDC, the brand scored an astounding 497.4% yearly growth of global shipments of wearables - that includes the Honor Bands and the MagicWatches.

The Huawei subsidiary reached top 5 in smartphone shipments in ten markets around the world - Russia, Finland, Germany, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, and the United Arab Emirates.

Speaking about separate accomplishments, Honor became the top smartphone provider in Q1 2019 in Russia and during the whole calendar year managed to get to second place, right behind Samsung and ahead of Apple, its parent company Huawei, and Xiaomi.

Products like the Honor Band 5 received special recognition in Italy, while the MagicWatch 2 was the best-selling product during Honor Super Brand Day at JD.com in China.

Honor wearables scored increases such as 613% in Russia, 531% in the Czech Republic, 745% in Malaysia and 655% in India. Of course, the numbers are so high because Honor wasnt such a big player in 2018, so the numbers can easily grow with proper marketing campaigns and quality products. We reviewed the MagicWatch 2 and found it to be a great alternative to the Huawei Watch GT 2 at a lower price tag.

Speaking about the arrival of the MagicBook 14 in the UK, it will be sold through Honors own website and at Argos. The price is 550 and until April 20 it comes with a free MagicWatch 2 (that costs 150 if purchased separately).

Source
Galaxy S9 and Note 9 users will be disappointed, as Samsung says there will be no One UI 2.1 update for the two phone series  not once, but twice.

A Samsung representative in South Korea has confirmed for the second time that Galaxy S9 and Note 9 users need not expect the incremental One UI 2.1 update for their devices. Unfortunately, when confirmed with the relevant department, it is confirmed that there is no support plan for the one UI 2.1 update schedule for the s9 & Note9 models at this time, the representative said. The Samsung representative notes that there may be internal changes in reference to the update schedule, but there is no current intention for a UI update for these two series at this time.

As hinted to in the representatives response, Samsung South Korea has said the same thing earlier. This is a second repeat of the same update denial for the two series.

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Why no One UI update for the S9 and Note 9 is yet in the works

Samsung isnt planning a UI update for its 9 series because they are veteran devices. The Galaxy S9 and Note 9 are too far along in the update process. These two series are two years old. The Galaxy S9 and S9+ are already two years old. The Galaxy Note 9 is soon to be two years old as of this August. When devices near the two-year mark, theyre only eligible for security patches. Android devices receive system updates for about two years. With the 9s now at two years old, theres little incentive to update their systems and UIs.

The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 are not Android 11-eligible. They will not receive the upcoming system update (Android 11). Samsung updates its One UI with the new system update and rolls both out simultaneously. Since the Galaxy S9 and Note 9 wont receive Android 11, there is no point in providing a small, incremental One UI update.

Security patches and the 4G/5G battle

While the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 arent One UI 2.1 update-eligible, they are in store for another year of security updates. Security updates keep devices safe from hacking. They also prevent the exploitation of software loopholes and vulnerabilities. Samsung could very well provide an additional year of security updates after this year, if the Galaxy S7 series recent retirement means anything.

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While Samsung could change its device update schedule, as the South Korean representative says, its unlikely the company will at this point. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ proved to be popular devices that the S9 series couldnt touch. The Galaxy Note 9 proved to be the two-year update disappointed Galaxy Note 7 fans waited anxiously for. With 5G on the horizon as a new tech trend, the Note 9s merely 4G-capable setup is little match for it. At this point, Samsung seems more interested in the future (5G) than the past.

The future is where tech is headed, after all.
If SARS showed the weakness of the centralised and authoritarian Chinese political system, it also exposed the fact that in giving primacy to business profits, Toronto could let down its guard too soon. It is not only the lack of democracy, but also the enshrining of profits that is a culprit.

One of the novel theses to emerge from Amartya Sens work (alone and together with Jean Dreze) is that democracy has a role to play in preventing large-scale famines. The connection is via the manner in which multi-party democracy would spread the penalty of famines to ruling parties and political leaders, and the information that a free or adversarial press and civil society institutions can play in publicising information about starvation deaths. One might make a modification to this thesis and say that the above would not necessarily hold true where the population affected or threatened by famine is politically marginal or affected by forms of social exclusion. Thus, witness the reports of famine and starvation deaths in the indigenous peoples areas of Maharashtra and Orissa without, however, any widespread negative political consequences for the parties or persons in power. The moral realm of ordinary citizens does not extend usually to such socially excluded or politically marginal peoples. The connection between democracy and capability can be extended to other forms, health in this case, as the recent and continuing SARS episode shows.

The illness originated in China, but the Chinese government refused to acknowledge its existence until very late in the day. Were the Chinese authorities unaware of the problem? Reports about the mysterious new illness began to come out of Guangdong in early February 2003. But these were suppressed. They were not made public and it is also possible that they were not transmitted upwards to the highest levels. In China almost anything can become a matter of state security and be made a state secret. Even a study of something like trafficking of women, both into and out of China, can become a matter of state security and the researchers prohibited from publishing their findings. There is a law, promulgated in 1996 by the ministry of public health and the state bureau for the protection of state secrets by which highest level infectious diseases are classified as highly secret (Jonathan Mirsky in The New York Review, May 29, 2003). Thus, SARS remained a state secret until the WHO blew the whistle. By then the necessary precautionary measures had not been put in place, making it that much more difficult to contain the spread of SARS.
The UKs security will be at risk unless the government quickly clears up confusion about who is in charge in Boris Johnsons absence, a former Tory defence minister says.

Tobias Ellwood raised the alarm after Michael Gove refused to discuss who had the authority to press the Trident button if the country came under nuclear attack.

Asked if Dominic Raab, Mr Johnsons de-facto deputy, had the power, Mr Gove replied: I simply cant talk about national security matters  as he argued key decisions would be made collectively.

But Mr Ellwood, the defence minister until 2019, tweeted: It is important to have 100 per cent clarity as to where responsibility for UK national security now lies.

We must anticipate adversaries attempting to exploit any perceived weakness.

Mr Ellwood  a former captain in the Royal Green Jackets  was reacting to Mr Goves morning interviews, in which he gave an update on the prime ministers condition, in intensive care with coronavirus.

The prime minister always remains the prime minister, the cabinet office minister told BBC Radio 4s Today programme, adding that the cabinet would take crucial decisions by consensus.

Asked where power lay if the UK suffered a nuclear attack, Mr Gove said: I simply cant talk about national security matters. There are well developed protocols which are in place and which have been tested robustly over time.

However, later, the prime minister's spokesman said Mr Raab did have the power  with the agreement of the cabinet  to take the UK to war if it was deemed necessary, even a nuclear conflict.

Coronavirus: London on lockdown Show all 29 1 /29 Coronavirus: London on lockdown Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man walks down a deserted Camden High Street Photos Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Goodge Street Station is one of the many stations closed to help reduce the spread Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown An empty street in the heart of Chinatown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown People in masks in Chinatown a day after the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A near-empty Piccadilly Circus during the first week of lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Sonja, my neighbour, who I photographed while taking a short walk. It was nice to briefly chat even from a distance Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple sit on the empty steps of the statue Eros in Piccadilly Circus Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Making sure I stay two-meters apart  DArblay Street, Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A mannequin behind a shop window. UK stores have closed until further notice Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A notice displayed on a shop window in Camden Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown As part of the lockdown, all non-essential shops have been ordered to close.Image from Camden High Street Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A skateboarder wearing a mask utilises his exercise allowance in the Camden area Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Communities have been coming together in a time of need Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman stands alone in a deserted Oxford Street. Up until a few weeks ago, on average, half a million people visited the street per day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple walk hand in hand down a street in Soho, a day before the stricter lockdown was announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown During the first week of March, shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities ahead of a countrywide lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Many supermarkers are operating a queuing system to make sure only a limited amount of customers are allowed in at anyone time Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Stay Safe  Curzon cinemas are temporarily closed under the new measures Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Pubs, restaurants and bars were ordered to shut as part of the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street There are fears that coronavirus could lead to permanent closure of struggling shops Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden Town is eerily silent on a normal working day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Shops and supermarkets ran out of hand sanitisers in the first week of the lockdown. As we approach the end of the second week most shops now have started to stock up Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty streets around Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A noticeboard on Camden High Street urges the public to stay at home Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street, one of Londons busiest tourist streets turns quiet Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Thriller Live confirmed its West End run ended in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty and eerie Soho streets after stricter rules on social distancing announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman pauses for a cigarette on Hanway Street, behind Tottenham Court Road Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man steps outside onto Hanway Street, that sits behind what is usually a bustling retail hub Angela Christofilou

The first secretary of state [Mr Raab] and the cabinet have the authority and ability to respond in the prime ministers absence, he said.

General Sir Nick Carter, the chief of the defence staff, expressed confidence there is a clear chain of command for the armed forces, while the prime minister remains in intensive care.

We work straight through to the prime minister, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

But, of course, theres the National Security Council (NSC) thats wrapped around him and formed of many of the cabinet ministers and supported by the national security adviser.

I think on that basis were pretty confident its business as usual as far as the operations are concerned.

The early indications are that Mr Johnsons condition has not deteriorated since the dramatic announcement, at 8.10pm, that he had been moved into intensive care.

Two-thirds of patients in such care have required ventilation in the first 24 hours  a process requiring heavy sedation, which would put the prime minister out of action for many days.

Although Mr Raab is the effective deputy prime minister, the post  in the absence of a written constitution  is widely seen as first among equals, rather than granting full power.

Bob Kerslake, a former head of the civil service, suggested the cabinet would have to decide who would formally take over, if Mr Johnson failed to recover quickly.

If the prime minister was unable to continue, the Conservative Party may have to choose a new leader, he suggested.
Geneva: Amid the global coronavirus pandemic, Switzerland's penchant for preparing for emergencies has won it praise.

During the Cold War, the Swiss government required family homes to have a bunker and instructed citizens to stockpile food. Even today, residents are counselled on what supplies they should have on hand to ride out a crisis at home.

Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Credit:Bloomberg

Yet as demand for alcohol used to make hand sanitiser has soared amid the crisis, Switzerland is facing a possible shortage after abandoning its ethanol reserves in 2018.

Daily Tages-Anzeiger reported that the stockpile of 8000 tons to 10,000 tons of ethanol to make disinfectant in case of a pandemic was got rid of two years ago amid efforts to privatise the nation's alcohol market.
The Irish Blood Transfusion Service has introduced an appointments system for blood donation clinics in Limerick during the Covid-19 crisis.

Despite the public health emergency, the IBTS says it still needs to collect around three-quarters of its normal supply to meet demand.

Cancer patients, transplant cases, trauma patients and others with conditions that require on-going support with blood components are among those who make use of this service.

According to Aileen Browne, area organiser with IBTS, a single venue will be used for blood donation clinics for the foreseeable future to ensure the government restrictions can be complied with as much as possible.

This means some donors may be asked to attend at a clinic which they do not normally attend.

Ms Browne says existing donors will be contacted by text and asked to call 061 306980 to book an appointment.

Donors will be triaged before committing to an appointment and will be met at the clinic and pre-assessed again before proceeding to donate.

Social distancing will be maintained throughout the process and clinic staff have been trained to minimise the risk to donors.

Blood donation clinics will take place at the Greenhills Hotel between 4.30pm and 8pm each day this week.

The clinics are on an appointment-only basis.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued an executive order Tuesday to ensure that illegal immigrants and refugees in the city are able to access the citys coronavirus relief benefits.

This order is more than just an official decree, it is a statement of our values as a city and as Americans, Lightfoot said in a statement. Since COVID-19 first reached our citys doorstep, we have been working around the clock to ensure all our residents are secure and supported, including our immigrant and refugee communities, who are among the most vulnerable to the impact of this pandemic.

Here in Chicago, saying we are all in this together means that during this crisis, no one gets left out and no one gets left behind, she said.

Undocumented immigrants do not meet the criteria for state unemployment insurance or the stimulus checks the federal government is sending out to every American as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill Congress passed.

However, non-citizen residents will be able to receive benefits through Chicagos Housing Assistance Grant program, learning resources through Chicago public schools, and will have access to the $100 million Chicago Small Business Resiliency Fund.

Up to 280,000 undocumented immigrants worked in Illinois in 2018, most of them in the Chicago area, according to a WBEZ analysis of census data.

Illinois reported 73 coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, the states highest number of deaths from the virus in a single day, as the total number of cases in the state passed 13,500.

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Ralph Lauren (NYSE:RL) issued a business update on April 6 that outlined steps to protect the health and wellbeing of employees. But the company also highlighted some encouraging signs about the health of its business.

While most of its stores remain closed, especially in North America and Europe, the company said, "We are encouraged by the improving situation in China and South Korea, where most of our retail stores have reopened." The company said it is applying lessons from that region to the rest of the business in other areas of the world.

Plenty of cash

The economic shutdown over COVID-19 is putting tremendous strain on struggling department stores and other luxury stores. While Neiman Marcus and Macy's (NYSE:M) are dealing with a large debt burden, Ralph Lauren could be one of the stronger luxury brands that survives this crisis.

As of Dec. 28, 2019, Ralph Lauren held $1.9 billion in cash and short-term investments and just $694 million in both short- and long-term debt. The company generated $532 million in cash from operations for the nine-month period ending in December and paid out $153 million in dividends and repurchased $542 million of stock.

This strong financial position has allowed Ralph Lauren to support its employees, even those who have been furloughed, with access to the company's Employee Relief Fund.

Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren's digital business remains open and fulfillment centers have resumed operation after a brief pause to put in place safety and health protocols. The company stated, "We remain focused on the need to support our employees and safeguard our business in order to emerge from this crisis in a position of strength."
The State Security Service (SSS, also called DSS) has seized 1,207 bags of foreign rice and other contraband materials during raids on warehouses in Adamawa State.

At a press conference in Yola on Tuesday, the state branch controller of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Jatau Sadu, said the raids were part of the joint anti-smuggling operations of the two agencies.

The DSS raided some places and found stockpiled in these houses four different items, including 1,207 bags of foreign rice, 10 jerry cans of groundnut oil, 58 bottles of energy drinks and 83 bags of sugar.

He said the joint CBN and SSS operation was aimed at enhancing growth in Nigerias agricultural sector to boost its foreign exchange earnings and also to ensure food security in the country.

For a long time the CBN has actually been complimenting the effort of the federal government in that respect, especially given our intervention programmes in various sectors of the economy, particularly the agricultural sector, he said.

Recently, the CBN introduced the Anchor Borrowers programme and we know the success story in Kebbi State and many other states. In particular, we recorded great success in Adamawa State but we have been encountering some challenges.

Recently, Nigeria has stepped up from primary level of production to the secondary level of production which is processing, so that we can improve the shelf life of most of our produce. That is why we have the anchor borrowers scheme, because the anchor borrowers will ensure the complete value chain in the agricultural business.

Unfortunately, these efforts that we are proud of are being frustrated by some unscrupulous elements in our society. People smuggling foreign rice, in particular, thereby frustrating our farmers and the effort of government.

What we essentially have been able to do is to partner with the security organisation, he said.

He said because of Nigerias porous borders and the inadequate number of customs operatives to man them, the partnership with the SSS became imperative. He said the cooperation has led to seizure of a contraband goods smuggled into the country.

Mr Jatau said that the SSS is planning to distribute the impounded food items to the IDPs camps, motherless baby homes and orphanages, organised almajiri houses, and religious organisation that have organised IDP camps.

Nigeria has banned the importation of rice and also closed its borders to prevent the smuggling of the product and others.

Various agencies of the government including the Customs and the SSS have been involved in ensuring the border closure is effective.

The CBNs Anchor Borrowers Programme was to assist local rice farmer with funds and other support mechanisms to boost production.
Amid apprehensions that the lockdown period may be extended due to the rising number of coronavirus cases across the country, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday said that the government would announce its move at the "right time".

As only eight days are left until the end of the lockdown on April 14, the Minister said the government would take any decisions considering the interest of the people amid the Covid-19 crisis that has left 111 people dead and over 3,851 active cases across the country.





"We are monitoring the world situation every minute and therefore decisions are ultimately taken in the nation's and people's interests. That decision will be declared whenever the right time is there," he said in response to a question during a Cabinet press briefing about the government's thinking on the lockdown issue.



About the cabinet meeting, the first-ever held through video conferencing, Javadekar said Covid-related issues and experiences were shared among the ministers.
Master's student Jamie Killian's survey will focus on counties southeast of San Antonio.

APRIL 7, 2020  The Texas horned lizard, one of the states well-loved creatures and the official state reptile, has seen a decline in numbers over the past few years, leading the state to classify it a threatened species.

To help with conservation efforts UTSA environmental science masters student Jamie Killian is kicking off the South Texas Horned Lizard Project this spring within the Smith Lab of Avian Ecology in the Department of Environmental Science and Ecology.

The Texas horned lizard is an animal that I remember playing with every summer as a kid. Its just kind of a unique, cute, iconic Texas species, said Killian, who also works full-time as a wildlife biologist for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. I work with landowners in Karnes and Wilson counties and almost everyone asks me about horned lizards.

Jamies work is going to be impactful because it will not only help us understand why Texas horned lizards are declining but will also help inform conservation strategies.

The Texas horned lizard, which can be found from the south-central U.S. to northern Mexico, is described as a fierce-looking lizard by Texas Parks and Wildlife. The reptile, also known as the horny toad has several horns on its body as well as fringed scales along its sides. Theyre found in arid and semiarid habitats and are commonly found in loose sand loamy soils.

The Texas horned lizards decline in numbers is what piqued Killians interest.

The Texas horned lizard is [listed as threatened in Texas]. Its not federally listed, but the populations are declining, she said. Ive been interested in nongame species and threatened species, so I thought if there is an opportunity where I can potentially help or stabilize a species population, this one has a lot of support.

Starting in April, Killian plans to begin surveying five study sitessoutheast of San Antonio in Karnes and Wilson countieslooking for the presence of Texas horned lizards in different habitat types.

Texas Parks and Wildlife has developed some habitat classifications for lizards, so I will survey in each of those habitats, she said. There are five classifications and theyre represented across those study sites. I will use visual encounter surveys that consist of 60-meter transects that I will walk and count all the horned lizards I see. Ill also count predators if I see them along the transects as well as fresh lizard scat.

Killian will also seek input from the community through the projects community science component.

Because I know that detectability or the chances of spotting Texas horned lizards can be difficultthey blend in really wellI wanted to increase my odds of figuring out where theyre at in the county, she said. Im soliciting people to report sightings to iNaturalist. They simply upload a geo-reference photo that has the time on it and I can confirm that identification with the photo.

South Texas Horned Lizard Project



With the data collected Killian wants to figure out if the reptiles are found in each habitat classification and if there is a correlation between the abundance of lizards and the habitat classification.

Are they found equally distributed across all five? Are they found more in habitat 2 and 1? Is there a relationship there? she described. Ill also do a habitat assessment for each of those classifications to see if theres a relationship there.

Killian hopes to make it a long-term project with the idea of taking the community component statewide and potentially guiding future conservation efforts.

A lot of people are interested in iNaturalist because everyone has a smartphone. Its a very simple way to get good data and see where the animals occur on a broader scale, she said. You can then look at those locations and get a feel for which habitat classifications they occur in more frequently and then from that you could maybe determine something about that habitat that makes it better or not as good for the lizard.

Learn how to get involved in the South Texas Horned Lizard Project.

Explore other research in the Smith Lab of Avian Ecology at UTSA.

Jennifer Smith, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Ecology and founder of the Smith Lab of Avian Ecology, believes Killians work could potentially be critical for the Texas reptile.

Jamies work is going to be impactful because it will not only help us understand why Texas horned lizards are declining but will also help inform conservation strategies. This information will go to all kinds of stakeholders from landowners to Texas Parks and Wildlife, Smith said.

This spring will be Killians first surveying season for the two-year project.

I plan on going every weekend until I complete it, but if something happensif theres a weather delay or I cant get out and survey for some reasonthen it may prolong it, she said. Theyre reptiles so they are active March through September. I have a good window to do it, but I think it should take me until May or first of June. Afterward, I can start running my models after the first season and then really figure things out for next spring.
(Jun Cen / For The Times)

To my theater students, past, present and future:

Believe it or not, the work continues.

Yes, I know youre sitting at home, away from rehearsal, isolated from your collaborators and far removed from a live audience. You may worry that your skills are getting rusty, that your technique is losing the suppleness it may have only recently acquired.

Trust me, the work continues.

Let me tell you a story that some of you already know because we lived it together.

After six seasons of working at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J., I accepted a full-time academic post at Brooklyn College as the director of the M.F.A. program in dramaturgy and theater criticism. I began teaching in September 2001. Less than two weeks into the semester, the city was smoldering from the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

My students were just settling into their new lives as graduate students in hectic New York. Some were from foreign lands; others were from small American towns. But all of us, including jaded New Yorkers like myself, were in a state of shock.

I had some teaching under my belt, but I was a relative novice in my new role as adviser. I felt responsible for my new charges, but I also felt swept up in the fear of what might happen next. New York was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Back then, even the reasonable were paranoid.

Uncertain how to settle nerves and boost morale when I was reeling myself, I did what I always do when a public crisis demands clearer thinking: I turned to the Greeks.

The theater of 5th century BC Athens was a forum for the collision of ideas, a place for the deepest issues of the day to be thrashed out in public. Against a backdrop of forces greater and more mysterious than any human being can comprehend, protagonists in ancient Greek drama are forced to make irrevocable choices, which reveal not only character but moral and existential truths.

The German philosopher Hegel thought Sophocles Antigone was the high-water mark of classical tragedy for the way it elegantly dramatized the conflict between equally justified claims. Melodrama pits right against wrong, but tragedy is a matter of right against right  in this case, Antigones duty to burying her dead brother, slain while waging war against the city, and Creons obligation as leader to uphold the rule of law.

Story continues

Whether or not you buy the Hegelian theory of tragedy, its indisputable that the ancient tragedians were drawn to dramatic situations that didnt have obvious solutions. If theres a common thread in the divergent art of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, it is in their shared commitment to complexity  to wrestling with contradiction, ambiguity and indeterminacy in matters of the gravest import.

Whatever powers of analysis I may have developed as a drama critic, they came from my immersion in the Greek canon. The plays taught me to see drama as a structure of gripping argument. But they did something else that I only appreciated after I became a teacher: They initiated me into a body of wisdom that is the special preserve of a theater education.

I have a confession to make. I was not a theater kid. After hamming it up as the star of a fifth-grade play, I never acted again on stage. The idea of majoring in theater in college never even crossed my mind, not that my parents would have permitted it. I recall a few Broadway outings as a kid, but my love of theater developed in secret, through reading.

My father was not what anyone would call a sensitive type. He has mellowed in his 80s, but he was turbulent, quick-tempered and not tolerant of a son he must have suspected early on was gay. My relationship with him was colored by fear. He wasnt a reader, by any means. But in the basement, he had a stash of college books that he felt were worthy of keeping. Among these were paperback volumes of plays by Ibsen and Chekhov.

I read these plays in high school, drawn first to the Ibsen anthology by the repeated commercial on the New York local channel WPIX for the 1973 film of A Dolls House starring Jane Fonda. (Noras climactic scene with Torvald, when she explains the reason she must end their marriage, was on an endless loop during my adolescence, which was spent doing homework in my bedroom before a squat, black-and-white television with sketchy reception.) The Chekhov collection had its own allure, quite possibly because my father expressed a reverence for the great Russian writers, a sentiment he gave voice to perhaps two or three times at most in my childhood but which left an indelible impression for being so out of character.

Jane Fondas emancipated voice as Nora, my fathers musty books in the cellar  these were the seeds of my theatrical profession. I wont bore you with the story of how I wound up at NYUs business school  consummate miscasting, my adviser at the Yale School of Drama waggishly commented. But it was after my uncle died from AIDS-related complications that I decided to take my life into my own hands and switch tracks to what was temperamentally a much more congenial fit, playwriting and dramatic literature.

The theater literally saved my life. Overwhelmed by an epidemic that was mowing down my newly discovered community, I took refuge in reading, writing and playgoing, all of which assured me I wasnt alone in the world.

Fast-forward to my time as an assistant professor of drama at Brooklyn College in that week when classes finally reconvened after 9/11. The Oresteia was on the syllabus, and glimpsing the hand of fate, I proposed that we proceed as planned. I could think of nothing better than devoting the next few weeks to studying Aeschylus trilogy, which thrillingly dramatizes the nearly impossible demands that justice places on us as citizens.

In the wake of appalling terrorism, we gathered to contemplate a series of plays about vengeance and the cycle of violence it inexorably sets in motion. The conflicts Aeschylus dramatizes havent become easier to sort out in the 2,500 years since the plays were written. My students and I embarked on the questioning journey of Greek tragedy at a time when vindictive certainties were understandably on the rise.

It was a privilege to ponder dramatic masterworks that inspired not just future theater artists but also philosophers, psychologists and poets. The theater is sometimes dismissed as lightweight, a playground for hams, but writers as great as Nietzsche, Freud and Keats knew better.

Keats, to take one example, developed his idea of negative capability  the capacity to tolerate uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without the need to overextend half-knowledge  partly through the example of Shakespeare. Drama, which builds from the clash of perspectives, conditions a pattern of thinking that is suspicious of ideology. Irony and flux are fundamental laws of the theatrical universe.

Given the state of our politics, we could all use a crash course in this kind of analysis. Ever skeptical of conventional wisdom, the theater at its best breeds a healthy respect for dissent. It teaches the difference between sentiment and sentimentality. And inclusive in its scope, this ancient art form asks us to accept that a secular space, a place for democratic reckoning, can also be a spiritual refuge, a sanctuary in which to contemplate the mysteries of being.

Yes, our performing arts venues are closed. But as Samuel Johnson observed, A play read affects the mind like a play acted. The separation that has been forced upon us by the COVID-19 pandemic neednt bar anyone from communing with the minds of those theater artists from whom our most enduring values have derived.

This semester Im teaching a playwriting workshop at the California Institute of the Arts. Students are writing short plays, but Ive been assigning various writing exercises to limber them up. I asked them to read three Chekhov short stories (The Darling, The Lady With the Pet Dog and The Bishop) and adapt a scene from one or more of the works in either a faithful or freehand manner.

The selection of stories was somewhat arbitrary. My goal wasnt so much to introduce the students to specific works as to provide them an opportunity to absorb an essential sensibility. I wanted to expose them to an artist who recognizes the muddle of human nature. A writer who can zero in wryly on psychological quirks while never losing sight of the shifting expanse of indifferent sky.

Great literature, as Chekhov illustrates in his plays and short stories, is where simplistic binaries die. Characters live personal lives while contending with political miseries. They meditate on metaphysical conundrums while fixing the evening meal. These lessons seem to me more valuable than anything I could teach.

When the workshop resumed via Zoom, the students began reading their adaptations. Our lives are upended, but we had the chance to bolster our humanity through the communal intelligence of theater and through the gracious act of creation.

Writing and teaching are my only skill sets. My gratitude to heroes on the front lines of this pandemic is boundless. As ambulances resound in my neighborhood, part of me wishes I could do more to help than social distancing. But in connecting with my students via Zoom and through my writing here, I have begun to feel a resurgence of pride in being able to share how the theater has sustained me. Your paths are your own, but I have faith that the theater still has the power to sustain you who have similarly heeded the call.

The work continues  especially now.




Here is a list of the top seven stocks to focus on today based on current developments. (Image: Moneycontrol)

Shilpa Medicare | The subsidiary of Shilpa Medicare on April 6 has received approval from the UK health regulator for anti-cancer drug Imatinib. (Image: vbshilpa.com)

Godrej Properties | Godrej Properties' bookings during January-March quarter of FY20 stood at Rs 2,380 crore, registering a 100 percent growth sequentially and 10 percent year-on-year. (Image: Godrej Properties)

Narayana Hrudayalaya | The company has temporarily suspended the operations of hospital by Health City Cayman Islands Limited, a step-down subsidiary of Narayana Hrudayalaya. (Image: GettyImages)

Manali Petrochemical | Production of Propylene Glycol has restarted at both plants. (Image: Moneycontrol)

Omaxe | CARE revised on long term bank facilities to BB+/Stable from BBB-/Negative. (Image: omaxe.com)

Indiabulls Housing Finance | ICRA reaffirmed the company's long-term ratings as 'ICRA AA' with a negative outlook and the short-term rating has been reaffirmed as 'ICRA A1+'. (Image: Moneycontrol)

Dhampur Sugar Mills | Company started production of hand sanitisers at Asmoli unit, Sambhal. (Image: dhampur.com)

TVS Electronics | The company has appointed A Kulandai Vadivelu as Chief Financial Officer of the company w.e.f. April 06, 2020. (Image: tvs-e.in)

Raymond | Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPI) shareholding increased to 10.83 percent in March quarter, from 10.67 percent in December quarter. (Image: Wikipedia)

HCL Infosystems | India Ratings revised its long-term issuer rating from A- to BBB-/Negative. (Image: HCL Infosystems)

Teamlease Services | The company has acquired about 16.28 percent equity stake in Avantis Regtech Private Limited. (Image: Moneycontrol)

HCC | Company appointed UV Phani Kumar as Chief Executive Officer-HCC (E&C). (Image: hccindia.com)

IDBI Bank | Board members to meet on April 8 to consider proposal of Rupee bond borrowings limit of Rs 7,500 crore for FY21. (Image: Flickr)

A2Z Infra Engineering | The company defaulted on payments of Rs 109.38 crore out of the total outstanding amount of Rs 148.38 crore as on March 31, 2020. (Image: a2zgroup.co.in)

Bharat Gears | CRISIL has assigned 'CRISIL BB+/Stable' rating to the company's long-term bank loan facilities of Rs 325 crore and 'CRISIL A4+' to the short-term facilities. (Image: bharatgears.com)

Cadila Healthcare: Zydus gets USFDA approval for Lamotrigine

Tata Motors: March auto sales - Total JLR UK sales went down 30.9 percent at 17,175 units against 24,862 units (YoY).

IndusInd Bank: Moody's Investors Service has placed the lender's domestic and foreign currency issuer rating under review for a downgrade.

CESC: HDFC Mutual Fund increased stake to 9.09 percent from 6.66 percent on March 31.

PNB Housing Finance: ICRA downgraded NCDs and bond worth Rs 1,675 crore to ICRA AA from ICRA AA+, outlook remains negative.

Mahindra & Mahindra: The company said that it will not be able to inject any fresh equity in-unit SsangYong Motor.

Larsen & Toubro: Board to meet on April 9 to seek approval for raising funds including through issue of debt securities.

Kotak Mahindra Bank: Bank in its Q4 updated reported a 6.7 percent growth in advances. Current deposits rose 10.5 percent, savings deposits were up 31.3 percent compared to the year-ago period. CASA ratio rose to 56.2 percent from 52.5 percent.

HDFC Bank: Bank continues to see strong business momentum in Q4 with advances and deposits growing 21 and 24 percent YoY respectively. CASA ratio rose to 42 percent from 39.5 percent in the previous quarter.

Lupin: Launches Mycophenolic Acid Delayed-Release Tablets USP in the US. Its alliance partner Concord Biotech received approval from the US FDA.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission suddenly opened the 2020 trout fishing season statewide at 8 a.m. today.

In the announcement posted to the commissions website, the commission said the unexpected early opening was done in consultation with the Office of the Governor, Pennsylvania Department of Health, and Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

This measure allows properly licensed anglers and youth to begin fishing for and harvesting trout. All regulations, sizes, and creel limits apply.

Anglers and boaters must abide by social distancing guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Governor Tom Wolfs Stay-at-Home Order regarding COVID-19.

We realize that this announcement is another disruption to tradition, but it is in the best interest of public health and safety, said Tim Schaeffer, commission executive director. We have already seen that anglers and boaters across the Commonwealth are willing to adapt their behavior to include social distancing, and we ask everyone to follow their lead while enjoying outdoor activities during this challenging time. The trout we have been stocking have had time to spread out, and so should you.

Anglers and boaters should limit travel by fishing close to home, cover their faces with a mask or other cloth covering, keep a distance of at least six feet from others (the length of arm with an outstretched fishing rod is a good guide), only go fishing with members of their families living in the same household, and never share fishing gear with others.

The commission advised, if another angler is in an area you intended to fish, move on to another spot.

Non-resident Pennsylvania fishing license holders should comply with the CDC Travel urging residents in several states, including New York and New Jersey, to refrain from non-essential domestic travel.

The decision to open trout season immediately is intended to discourage concentrated gatherings of people that may have occurred on the traditional opening day, to minimize intrastate and interstate travel, and to reduce the threat of illegal poaching in waters that have already been stocked.

Commission staff will continue to stock trout throughout the spring, but not all waters have been stocked at this time.

To further discourage group gatherings, a stocking schedule and list of waters that have been stocked will not be provided to the public this season.

Anglers should also be aware that public access to some waters may be restricted by the landowner or local municipal government.

Fishing and boating are permitted in Pennsylvania state parks and state forests, when social distancing guidelines are followed. DCNR is encouraging people to fish and conduct other outdoor recreation within 15 minutes of their homes. Anglers should note that state park facilities, including restrooms may be closed.

Outdoor recreational activities, including fishing, lift our spirits and help relieve stress, but they need to be done with attention to social distancing guidelines to help protect ourselves and others, and slow the spread of COVID-19, DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn said. That means practicing physical distancing of six feet, avoiding crowds and staying close to home, and being prepared with a mask and hand sanitizer.

Regardless of fishing location, anglers should bring a bag with them and carry out their trash.

As a result of this action, a Mentored Youth Trout Day will not take place this season. The commission will honor all Voluntary Youth Fishing Licenses purchased in 2020 for all mentored youth fishing opportunities during the 2021 season.

To participate in trout fishing, anglers must have a Pennsylvania fishing license and trout/salmon permit, both of which may be purchased online using the FishBoatPA mobile app for smartphones, or at www.fishandboat.com.

Those who do not have the ability to purchase online and are unable to visit a retail location may call (814) 359-5222 for purchasing assistance. Anglers may produce a digital copy of their license on their mobile device as proof of purchase.

A signed, printed copy is not currently required to prove you own a valid license. If approached by a Waterways Conservation Officer in the field, an angler or boater may provide a digital image or receipt of their fishing license, and a digital receipt from their launch permit or boat registration. Anglers may still display their fishing license.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.

Contact Marcus Schneck at mschneck@pennlive.com.
When the novel coronavirus made its way late last year from a bat to a human in Wuhan, China, as many scientists think it did, it was just the latest virus to make such a jump.

Diseases that come from animals, which include SARS, Ebola and HIV/AIDS  some of the most serious health problems the world has faced  are on the rise. Three of four emerging infectious diseases are now animal-borne, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A United Nations report estimates that one such disease pops up every four months.

A growing body of research is tying the increase to societys unrelenting intrusion into the planets wild places. Its a disruption that is reducing biodiversity and the health of natural ecosystems, and in doing so, stirring up and mutating deadly viruses. The latest study to draw the connection, published Tuesday by researchers at UC Davis, finds that the animals passing along the viruses are indeed those that humans are exploiting or encroaching upon, through hunting, trade or simply moving into their habitat.

Viruses dont cross over the species boundary very easily, said Chris K. Johnson, professor of epidemiology at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and lead author of the new study. The spillover from animals to humans is the direct result of our actions. Its happening all over the world, and has for decades, as we modify the landscape in major ways.

Johnson and her colleagues at UC Davis and the Melbourne Veterinary School in Australia examined existing scientific literature on infectious disease to evaluate which of thousands of species of mammals have been most responsible for passing along 142 viruses spread from animals to humans.

While domestic animals have shared the most viruses, with pigs, cattle, horses, sheep and dogs topping the list, the researchers found that when they accounted for population and proximity to people, primates, bats and rodents also were among the biggest sources.

John Blanchard

A common thread they discovered among the animals with high risk of transmitting viruses is that most tolerate and even flourish around human activity. On the flip side, the researchers found that rarer animals shared very few viruses with humans.

The notable exception, though, is animals that are rare yet frequently come into contact with humans, perhaps being nudged out of a forest or hunted down and traded. When this was the case, the animal was found to pass along more viruses.

Humans in close contact with wildlife is affording this opportunity for transmission, Johnson said. The spillover is causing some pretty major epidemics, and now that were connected globally, the risk is much bigger for all of us.

Johnson's work was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

While rare, viruses cross from animals to humans in pretty much the same way people pass along viruses  through the air, through feces, through bodily fluids.

Rabies, the plague and dengue fever are believed to have made the leap centuries ago. HIV/AIDS is thought to have been spread from a chimpanzee to a person in the mid-1900s. Ebola surfaced in the 1970s, likely from a bat, and SARS originated in the early 2000s, also likely from a bat.

The science community is still trying to figure out where the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, came from and how humans were infected. The foremost theory is that it spread from a horseshoe bat, perhaps by way of another animal such as a pangolin, which is commonly sold in China for its meat and scales.

The first known death from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, was a man who had shopped at a market in Wuhan. Hundreds in the region have since died.

Whatever shakes out as the source of the coronavirus, theres little doubt that its related to mans footprint on the environment, scientists say.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The environmental arm of the United Nations called on its members this month to recognize the relationship between humans and their natural surroundings. The agency said a combination of population growth and a reduction in wild places and biodiversity was creating unprecedented opportunity for pathogens to pass between animals and people.

We are intimately connected with nature, whether we like it or not, said Inger Anderson, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, in a statement. If we dont take care of nature, we cant take care of ourselves.

Rick Ostfeld, senior scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., who also studies viral spread between animals and humans, says critters with higher transmission risk tend to be not only those that are better adjusted to human activity but smaller.

The species that are super resilient  the ones that dont disappear when were destroying their habitat and often thrive  are little things like rats, mice and bats, he said. Were destroying the bigger and protected animals, and were favoring these little nasties that carry disease and transmit it to us.

Many of the small creatures carry viruses because their lives are short and their immune systems arent programmed to fight them off, Ostfeld said.

Ostfeld agrees that a better understanding of viral transmissions between animals and people can go a long way to reducing human infection and pandemics like the world is now experiencing.

Lucky for us, human behavior is possible to manage, he said. If we can identify the behavior (behind the spread), we have mechanisms, called laws, that could prevent these things from happening.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@

sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander
Dallas

At the start of her art class at Sunset High School near the heart of this city, Gianna Loscherbo-Starkus hands out a mood meter to each of her students. Its a sheet of paper with a grid of 16 faces printed on ithappy, sad, angry, calm, lonely, content and so onand students circle the face that best captures how they are feeling that morning.

On this particular day, several mood meters come back with the worried faces circled.

Lots of kids are worried right now about getting sick, Loscherbo-Starkus explained.

Its mid-March and two days before President Donald Trump will declare a national state of emergency over the coronavirus and a week before all of the states K-12 public schools will close on Governor Greg Abbotts orders.

Taking that moment to check in with students and encourage them to evaluate their emotional state so they can clear their heads for academics is the core of what social-emotional learning is about.

The high school years are a particularly important time for students to develop not only their algebra skills but also their abilities to manage their emotions. Thats because teenagers are dealing with a combustible mix of issues.

In addition to becoming more aware of current events and the world around them, high school students are facing rising rates of depression and anxiety. They are navigating drug and alcohol use among their peers. They may be confronting bullying not just in the hallways at school but also on social-media platforms 24-7. Many are entering into their first, real romantic relationships. And to top it all off, teenagers are also trying to figure out what they are going to do with their lives post-high-school.

The high school life is replete with experiences that have to be managed well, said Marc Brackett, a professor at Yale University who studies the science of emotion.

If were not teaching students how to regulate their sleep patterns, how to eat healthy, how to get that physical activity that they need, and if were not teaching them how to persevere even in classes where theyre bored, or how to manage their stress, were not doing them any good.

However, a new EdWeek Research Center survey of teachers, principals, and school district leaders nationally found that schools often dont put the same emphasis on teaching social-emotional skills in the high school years as they do in earlier grades.

Eighty-one percent of educators surveyed by EdWeek said their school placed some or a lot of focus on social-emotional learning for grades 1-3. But only 66 percent said the same was true for grades 9-12.

In terms of how much focus educators think should be placed on SEL at various grade levels, 95 percent said schools should be focusing some or a lot on SEL in grades 1-3, while 86 percent said the same for the high school grades.

Dig into those numbers a little further, and a chasm opens up over how much educators think SEL should be emphasized in the upper grades. Sixty-seven percent of survey respondents said a lot of focus should be placed on SEL in grades 1-3, while only 47 percent said the same of the high school grades.

I Now Feel Included

Sunset is one high school in the Dallas district making a big investment in social-emotional learning. Its a school of around 2,000 students, most of them Latino and low-income.

The school is in its first year of rolling out an SEL curriculum to students. It opted not to buy a specific SEL curriculum. Instead, teachers on the schools SEL committee are devising lessons on topics pitched by their colleagues and students.

That means theyve done segments built around a range of issues pertinent to Sunset High students, from financial literacy to the detention centers on the Texas-Mexico border, said Christina Rodriguez, a former teacher at Sunset who is now administrative intern there as part of a school leadership program. Rodriguez is leading the adoption and development of SEL at the school.

Other weekly themes have included LGBTQ issues, in which students learned about the AIDS crisis and teachers led discussions about using homophobic language. That was a personal issue for junior Noah Macias, who is gay. He said he has noticed a decline in students use of homophobic slurs.

Before, people were reckless in the things they would say; obviously [that] may not be how they actually feel, they just say it to get a buzz, he said. I know, personally, for me, hearing those words hurt a lot, I dont like to be ostracized. I now feel included. Its helped me gain confidence in classrooms.

Physics teacher Jacob Soto Ortiz spearheaded a series of social-emotional lessons on masculinity for all students during November, which is mens health month.

I think in Hispanic culture, theres this thing where men are supposed to be strong, and not show emotions, and that those are mutually exclusive. he said. Theres a social stigma to it. Youre a guy! Man up, rub some dirt in it,  and thats just a lifetime of not being able to release whatever you have inside of you.

The lessons15 minutes each day included materials such as a video to watch or data on suicide rates among men and various ethnic groups, as well as discussion prompts.

One day, the exercise called for students to create motivational messages for men that teachers could post on the bulletin boards outside their classrooms. A selection says: It takes strength to admit weakness, Pink is a boy color, and Its OK that you gay.

Students Put Their Stamp on SEL

Sunsets SEL initiatives extend beyond the daily exercises. The school is also trying to give students a greater say on how it is run.

Its voting day at Sunset, and students are casting ballots for their favorite improvement-project proposalsall of them ideas submitted by fellow students. The school has secured a $30,000 grant to pay for the projects that garner the most student votes.

Laptops and rolls of I voted stickers sit on two long tables at one end of the cafeteria. Along the wall, posters promote different projects up for a vote such as taking the 9th graders on a field trip to a university and beautifying an outdoor courtyard at the school.

Student volunteers, including Ginny Mendez, the student-body president, keep an eye on the voting stations as their peers cast ballots on the laptops.

Its really refreshing as a student body to get to vote for something that directly affects us, said Mendez, a senior.

Shes 17 and looking forward to getting to vote in the Dallas Independent school districts next school board election.

Because the people who are in charge right nowthe trusteesthey havent been in school for a couple of yearsmany years, actually, Mendez said. They only see test scores, they dont see our actual experience.

Ultimately, the students will vote to spend the money on water bottle filling stations, repairs for broken band equipment, modernizing the schools marquee, and a washer and dryer for students to use at school.

In a high school setting in particular, schools should use social-emotional learning to help drive students toward their academic and personal goals, said Brackett, the Yale professor.

Schools should be deliberate in getting students to think about what their goals are for high schoolwhether it be around getting certain grades or joining a specific club or teamand what skills they need to acquire to achieve those goals, he said.

The other piece I think is important for high school is its a state of development where students are highly introspective, Brackett said. So, a lot of what we do is we teach them to become more aware of their mindsets. What is my mindset around these things?  To be more aware of the strategies they are using to manage emotions and have them be the scientists around those strategies and to evaluate them in terms of their effectiveness.

High school is a crucial time to develop strong social-emotional skills because students will need them soon after they graduatewhether its from high school or collegeand enter the workforce, said Juany Valdespino-Gaytan, the Dallas districts executive director of engagement services, which oversees socialemotional learning.

Social-awareness, self-management, how we share our own thoughts and opinions and respect those of othersthose are critical and those are not the skills that an employer wants to spend time teaching their adult employees, she said.

The High School Mindset

Sunset Highs focus on social-emotional learning is part of a bigger districtwide effort to infuse the teaching and building of those skills into its schools.

The district uses a phased approach for schools. In the introductory year, the district encourages schools to focus on the adults in the building and help them master the five core elements of social-emotional learning outlined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL: self-awareness, selfmanagement, responsible decisionmaking, relationship skills, and social awareness.

Its not until the second year that the district encourages schools to set aside time to explicitly teach SEL to students.

But to really do SEL right, it cant just be relegated to a specific time of day or week, said Valdespino-Gaytan. SEL should be infused throughout the academic day.

If were teaching safety during lab experiments, and were teaching students that its important to remember to put our goggles on,  then we make that connection with responsible decisionmaking, she said. Another might be social studies, if were talking about a historical figure ... and what did we learn about this historical figure and how he managed his emotions during a controversy.

The SEL lessons appear to be seeding themselves throughout the school, popping up in unexpected places. As she walks through the hallways, Rodriguez, the resident administrator, stops to marvel at a large bulletin board thats been decorated by the cheer team.

In previous years, the board was more of a showcase of the cheer team, with photos of members doing stunts, said Rodriguez. But this year, the background field is covered in black paper. Posted on it are white pieces of paper on which the cheer team has written messages like: I dont understand, Its good enough, and I give up. Beneath each statement is a response on a brightly colored piece of paperyellow, purple, hot pinksaying things like, What am I missing? Is this really my best work? and This may take some time and effort.

Across the top of the board, in multicolored-paper cutout letters, it says: Sunset Cheer says change your mindset.

Click here for more exclusive SEL survey results .
Amid the lockdown imposed due to the Coronavirus pandemic, commercial airline IndiGo has been operating relief flights at own expense to provide support to the country. IndiGo has been authorised to operate over 30 relief flights in the country. These flights have successfully been carrying and supplying medical equipments and other requisite resources across the country, while adhering to all the precautionary measures.

IndiGo operates flights at own cost

IndiGo Chief Executive Officer Ronojoy Dutta stated that the airline is 'humbled' and 'gratified' to have been authorized, despite the lockdown, to operate at our own cost over thirty emergency relief flights carrying medical equipment and supplies from one part of the country to another. "We know how critical it is for health workers in every corner of the country to get immediate access to medical supplies, and we are grateful to be allowed to play a role, however modest, in this supply chain."

READ | Amid Lockdown, Indigo Operates Flight From Delhi To Jodhpur For Iran-returned Indians

Furthermore, CEO Dutta added, "Our 27,000 employees are standing just a little bit taller, knowing that we are able to mobilize our resources to make a small contribution to the health and well-being of our nation. The employees of IndiGo would also like to salute our colleagues over at Air India, for the heroic work they have been doing in evacuating Indians and other nationals stranded in foreign countries."

READ | COVID-19 Crisis: Air India Brings 21 Tonnes Of Critical Medical Supplies From China

Coronavirus crisis in India

As of date, 4,421 positive cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) - 326 have been discharged and Maharashtra reported the highest at 748 cases. 114 deaths have been reported till date. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries. The Prime Minister has issued a 21-day countrywide lockdown starting from 23 March to April 15 and the Finance Minister has announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore package under the 'PM Gareeb Kalyan Scheme'.

READ | COVID-19: IndiGo Offers Govt Its Aircraft And Crew To Transport Medicine, Equipment Across Country

READ | Air India Flight Carrying Relief To Germany Receives Praise From Pakistan ATC
Boris Johnson has become the first world leader to be hospitalised with the coronavirus.

Britains Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is the first world leader to be hospitalised with COVID-19, was transferred to an intensive care unit on Monday, shortly after he was first admitted to St Thomas hospital in London.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has spread in a global pandemic. It was announced on Tuesday afternoon that, as of 16:00 GMT on Monday, 6,159 people in the UK had died from the virus, according to the health ministry. More than 55,000 people have so far tested positive for the infection.

In Tuesdays daily afternoon briefing, the de facto deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, told reporters that the prime minister was breathing without assistance and had not required respiratory support.

He remains in good spirits, said Raab. And in keeping with usual clinical practice, his progress continues to be monitored closely.

Im confident he will pull through. If there is one thing I know about this prime minister, hes a fighter.

What happened?

On March 27, Johnson said he had tested positive for the virus and went into immediate self-isolation in a flat at Downing Street.

On Friday, he said he still had a fever in a video message posted on Twitter.

More than a week after announcing his positive test, he was admitted to hospital on Sunday and was undergoing tests after his symptoms failed to ease.

On Monday evening, the government announced he had been transferred to the intensive care unit.

Why was he moved to the ICU?

Downing Street said on Monday that Johnsons condition had worsened and that he had been moved on the advice of his medical team as a precaution in case he needs a ventilator.

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove told UK media early on Tuesday that while Johnson has received oxygen support, he was not on a ventilator.

St Thomas Hospital, where Johnson is being cared for after experiencing persistent COVID-19 symptoms. [Anadolu Agency]

Coronavirus impacts infected people differently.

While some display few symptoms, others experience severe respiratory issues, which has led to a global shortage of ventilators.

The decision to move someone to intensive care is not taken lightly.

Patients in the unit are seriously ill and are monitored more closely. They often need artificial support to fight infection.

Find out more about what happens when people contract the disease here.

Who is in charge while Johnson is in hospital?

Britain has no formal succession plan should the prime minister become incapacitated, but Johnson had asked Raab, the foreign secretary, to deputise in his absence.

Raab is also first secretary of state, which implies seniority over all other ministers except the prime minister, making him his de-facto deputy.

The 46-year-old is better known for being the Brexit minister under former Prime Minister Theresa May, but quit his position three months later after arguing Mays deal with Brussels had offered too many concessions.

Raab has assumed some of Johnsons responsibilities as the prime minister receives treatment [Peter Summers/Getty]

The governments business will continue, Raab told reporters on Monday, saying Johnson was in the safe hands of a brilliant medical team.

The focus of the government will continue to be on making sure that the prime ministers direction, all the plans for making sure that we can defeat coronavirus and can pull the country through this challenge, will be taken forward.

Asked by the BBC if Raab had the nuclear codes while Johnson remains incapacitated, Gove said: There are well-developed protocols which are in place  I just really cannot talk about national security issues.

Raab unsuccessfully ran against Johnson last year to try and become the Conservative Party leader.
The police have arrested 13 people for violating the lockdown orders in Uttar Pradesh's Amethi district, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Superintendent of Police Khyati Garg said the 13 people had gathered at a vegetable market under the Gauriganj police station area, violating the lockdown orders.

Cases has been registered against them under various sections of the IPC, she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Late last week Fairfield artist Diane Hausmann stopped by the Sun Times office to take care of some paperwork for The Fairfield Historical Society. Diane serves as Secretary of the organization and sits on the Board of Directors.

As we chatted, the conversation naturally meandered to the subject of how we were passing our time during the Coronavirus pandemic. Diane said that the Front Range Art Association, of which she is a member, was engaged in an undertaking known as a painting a day.

According to Diane, a painting a day is as simple as it sounds. Artists undertake creating a different painting every day.

But this was different. The artists were asking for donations of at least $50.00 per painting to be donated to the food pantry of the donors choice. For those donors who live away from the artist, there is also a small shipping fee.

As Diane explained the process, she pulled out her cell phone to show me photos of the paintings she had already created.

SOLD!

The first image was of a painting, 5 inches by 7 inches, of a mule. I knew that mule. It was Sam, Bill or Abe, the three names my grand-dad would use for his mules. He always had a pair of mules, and those were their names. There were multiple mules by those names over the years.

I bought the painting and Diane passed the donation on to Megan Caffyn, with the Fairfield Food Pantry.

The support for local food pantries could not come at a better time. With businesses shut down with the COVID-19 virus threat, families are turning to the pantries as a means to put food on the table as everyone waits for the all clear and businesses reopen.

The painting a day project morphed into the Painting for the Pantry thanks to Choteau artist Leslie Kesler.

Leslie told the Sun Times, This has been a whirlwind in a very positive way. Several of us from around the area had been doing a small painting a day just to keep our spirits up during this troubling time.

I had been thinking about the food pantries and was concerned about how they were going to keep up if things went from bad to worse. Both my children had been active in 4-H growing up and had done projects for the Food Pantry.

My son is now on the board for the Montana Food Bank Network (MFBN). Probably because of those reasons I was thinking that maybe I could sell a few of my quick paintings and raise a little money for either a food pantry or the MFBN. I put four of the paintings on Facebook for $50 each explaining that they would go to the buyers choice of pantries. Within an hour all four were sold.

I painted two more, posted them and they too sold within an hour. Several other artists noticed what I was doing and asked about doing the same. After speaking to a few I decided it would be best to set up a Facebook page (LINK: https://bit.ly/2RcB2yO) dedicated to this. I brainstormed with an artist friend of mine from Ennis, Cathy Toot, and came up with the name Painting for the Pantry. I contacted a few more artists and the Facebook page became a reality. Diane Hausman and Shelly Walker who are both involved in Front Range Art Association with me had already been doing quick paintings, so they jumped on board.

By Saturday, eight artists were participating via the Facebook page, with many more saying that they planned to take part as well.

On Saturday afternoon, the Sun Times visited Fairfield artist Andy Watson, who had already started working on his paintings, with a couple of them completed, and more in various stages of progress.

Leslie said other area artists taking part included Shirley Sand Haynes, Shelly Walker, Mariah Higgins, Dawn Sievers and Theresa Oksness. She added, I expect that will grow quickly as this area is rich in talented artists. The Facebook page is being shared everywhere, so the past couple days I have had requests from artists across the state and beyond asking if they can join in.

When asked how many paintings had been sold, Leslie told the Sun Times, Several artists have been selling on their own Facebook pages so I dont yet have an exact number of paintings sold but it is close to 20. Not too bad when we didnt even start until the end of the week. The paintings are all smaller 5 by 7, 6 by 6, 4 by 8, 4 by 4 etc. and come unframed. All are priced at $50.00 regardless of size. The buyer gets the choice of where their donation goes, so they will write a check for $50.00 to their food pantry of choice and send it along with a $7.00 check made out to the artist to cover the artists shipping, handling and incidental fees. When the artist gets the checks they will then mail the painting to the buyer and forward the donation checks to the buyers pantry of choice.

When asked if it is hard to find the inspiration for a painting every day, Leslie explained, I think living in Montana - especially by the Rocky Mountain Front - that we have such an abundance of choices to paint that most artists from here could paint every day of their lives and still have something else to paint. I have a view from Sawtooth to Heart Butte just from my studio window on our ranch north of Choteau. With the sky ever changing I can paint the Rocky Mountain Front again and again and it will look different every time. Several artist, including Diane Hausmann, are great at painting animals. This project gives people a chance to get a professional piece of art and make a contribution to a very good cause.

I agree. I have always wanted a Hausmann, a Watson, a Higgins, or some of the many other local artists works to hang on my walls.

Another question we posed to Leslie was how long does it take to do one of the smaller paintings? Most of the paintings are quick painting which means they are done in an hour or so, she said. Some artists are quicker than others. I find if a painting is coming together nicely it doesnt take me more than an hour to do small painting. This comes from practice though, as I have taken days to do a small 5 by 7 painting.

Asked if local artists had done similar projects to support food pantries in the past, Leslie told the Sun Times, This is the first I know of doing a fund raiser for the food pantries by artists at least in this area. Hopefully what we do will bring some money to both the Teton County Food Pantry and the Fairfield Food Pantry as well as the many around the State. These local pantries have been important to our communities, but in the weeks ahead they may become more necessary than ever. We can only pray that this pandemic starts to subside, and we can get back to some normalcy. Until then if we as artists can keep painting, and people that can and are willing to support the pantries by purchasing those painting keep doing so, then we will have all made a difference.
Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Ecstacy cruise ship is docked at the Port of Jacksonville amid the Coronavirus outbreak on March 27, 2020 in Jacksonville, Florida.

The public investment fund's purchase of 43.5 million shares of Carnival comes as the company scrambles for liquidity while the coronavirus pandemic cripples the global travel industry , particularly the major cruise lines. Passengers have fallen ill and died as cruise ships become sites of COVID-19 epidemics, prompting the suspension of operations for Carnival and peers Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line .

Carnival's stock also rose by more than 20% Monday on the news and popped by another 20% in early trading Tuesday before closing up just over 10%. Carnival stock is still down more than 70% since Jan. 1.

Shares of Carnival Corp . ended the day up more than 10% Tuesday, extending Monday's gains after the Saudi sovereign wealth fund disclosed an 8.2% stake in the cruise operator.

In its quarterly earnings report published last week, Carnival did not provide 2020 guidance but assured investors that it will be able to remain in compliance with its debt obligations for at least 12 months. It added that the pandemic presents an unprecedented challenge to the industry.

"We cannot assure you that our assumptions used to estimate our liquidity requirements will be correct because we have never previously experienced a complete cessation of our cruising operations, and as a consequence, our ability to be predictive is uncertain. In addition, the magnitude, duration and speed of the global pandemic is uncertain," the company said.

On March 13, the company fully drew down its $3 billion revolving credit facility. Last week, the company announced it was raising about $6 billion by issuing a mix of debt and equity.

As the cruise industry hemorrhages cash, it appears to have been excluded from the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.

Of the big three cruise companies, Carnival is best suited to weather a sustained downturn without any revenue, according to UBS Securities analyst Robin Farley. The company could survive for as long as 15 months without making any money, she wrote in a note Monday.
Berkshire Regional Planning Commission Responds to COVID-19 Crisis

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- No one could have foreseen the exact nature or timing of a global pandemic, but some of the infrastructure put in place by the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission has helped area communities deal with the COVID-19 crisis.

On Thursday, BRPC Executive Director Tom Matuszko told the agency's executive committee that one of its initiatives was able to quickly pivot to addressing the fallout from the novel coronavirus.

"Through the Berkshire Public Health Alliance, in tandem with Tri-Town Health, local public health in the Berkshires were in a strong position to immediately respond," Matuszko wrote in his report to the board.

In the committee meeting that followed, Matuszko elaborated on some of the efforts that the commission's staff have undertaken since the crisis began.

"I want to call out our program manager for Public Health [Laura Kittross]," Matuszko said. "She's really cranking out the hours as well as [senior planner] Alison Egan and our public health nurses, Leslie Drager in particular, she was one of the only ones  who was in the forefront when we got our first cases out here."

Matuszko told the committee that he has been able to move money in the budget to reallocate staff from other projects to the COVID-19 response.

"There is money coming to Public Health people to reimburse them for their response to the emergency, but there is, as yet, no money for other staff participating in items not directly related to the Public Health response," he said. "We have some of our staff helping Berkshire United Way with things like weekend lunches for students, working with social service agencies, figuring out needs assessments and a range of activities.

"In the short term, I'm redirecting some of our [District Local Technical Assistance] toward that funding. It felt like it was important for us to be engaged and respond."

Matuszko said the agency is tracking its expenditures on the crisis separately in case there is an opportunity down the road to put in for grants to reimburse some of that expense.

He also reported that the agency had received $200,000 in grants from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health since the COVID-19 emergency began, and he asked the executive committee for retroactive approval to receive the funds, which it gave.

BRPC accepted $50,000 from the commonwealth to pay for additional Public Health nurses and reimburse the agency's staff time managing the direct Public Health response. Another $150,000 was to help reimburse municipalities for their COVID-related expenses.

Matuszko also asked the executive committee -- which currently includes representatives from eight member towns -- how it wanted to handle other grants that may become available during the crisis that would be helpful to accept immediately but normally would require committee approval.

"How do we become fluid in our response to COVID-19 in terms of applying for grants?" Matuszko asked. "Typically, when we hear about a grant, we get the executive committee's approval before we apply. I think the circumstances will be very different as they were with the Public Health money, where we were told the money was coming our way in a couple of days, we got the money and disbursed it. The quickness of disbursement was important.

"If you're all OK with approving after the fact, we can continue with monthly meetings. Or we can do more frequent meetings. Or here may be some blanket approval."

Sheffield's Rene Wood, the chair of the BRPC's Development Committee and a member of the Executive Committee, moved that the body give Matuszko and his staff blanket approval "to go after any grant or program to support what they're working on and report back to us" for a six-month period or 90 days after the governor's state of emergency order is rescinded.

The committee voted unanimously to support Wood's motion.

The meeting was held on the Zoom video conferencing platform, one of many adjustments to the BRPC's operations necessitated by the pandemic.

Matuszko told the committee that staff is adjusting well to the new reality of working from home.

"We had some laptops already that have been loaned out," he said. "We started a program where we're lending equipment out of the office. If someone needs a printer, there's no sense in having it sit in the office [unused]. The goal is, by the beginning of next week, to have everyone at full functionality.

"I don't think it will be a major cost to do that in the short term. Long term, it would warrant us rethinking how we do our operation."

Matuszko said it is likely any new investment in computer hardware will be used for laptops and indicated it may make sense to continue some of the telecommuting practices in place now after the pandemic has passed.

"There may be a way to save money on a smaller office," he said.

Matuszko said that while being "locked in the house" is getting old, the worst of the pandemic is still to come and he is concerned about reports he is seeing that some in the general public are not taking COVID-19 seriously.

Executive Committee Chairman Kyle Hanlon of North Adams drove that point home.

"I lost a close friend to it last week," Hanlon said. "Yes, it's real and it's out there, everywhere."
ICU Critical Care and Hospice Registered Nurse Sheila Milanov is headed north from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to Oneida County eventually. But first, this nurse must make a three-month stop at what's been dubbed the epicenter of the epicenter of the Coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

Starting on April 13, Milanov will spend 13 weeks at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens working 48-hour work weeks.

What prompted her to answer this call?

"Died alone in isolation," Milanov said. "We know this Covid-19 is highly infectious. Families aren't permitted to be there. If I am there I refuse to let anyone be alone becuase no one deserves that, so at the very least they'll have a gloved hand in theirs."

Her gloved hand will be a comfort to patients at Elmhurst in Queens. Queens has 1.5 hospital beds per 1,000 patients, compared to 5.3 in Manhattan. Public hospitals, like this one often lack resources of parallel non-public hospitals.

At the height of the virus outbreak, media reported at one point 13 patients died at Elmhurst in a 24-hour period.

Milanov admits she's scared. Her family is scared too.

"The risk is there whether you are on the front lines or not," she said. "It's just jumping in both feet to the belly of the beast and knowing I am taking every precaution i can take."

She tells us, "I am prepared to be trying to save a life one minute and hold a hand the next."

Governor Andrew Cuomo has urgently appealed for medical workers to work in New York City and downstate as the crisis unfold.

Milanov's background in ICU Critical Care and Hospice are a combination that put empathy together with the ability to work calmly in a crisis situation.

The 13 weeks at Elmhurst are a stop in a journey home to Central New York to be closer to her family. While it wasn't originally planned this way, Sheila's drive and gravitation to helping others made it a necessary stop.

"Before I made the decision to go, I mentioned it to by husband, and I mentioned it to the kids," she said. " They are all fearful, rightfully so, but very supportive. Family means the most, especially at a time like this."

Her husband has been in Upstate New York since Thanksgiving. Much of her family lives in Lee Center.

"We are making those transitional steps to get be back where I belong."

Milanov has a message to her family.

"I love you guys. Thank you for being my support, and thank you for being the light in the dark place for me."

We will also check in with Milanov to ensure she's safe and to get a glimpse at her expectations in this deployment as well as the reality of what she sees when she's there.
Samsung is recruiting staff with college degree in a massive organized drive in the first half of this year despite the coronavirus epidemic.

The conglomerate biannual hiring process is starting about a month later than usual but so far seems on course.

Samsung said on its website Monday that applications will be accepted until 5 p.m. on April 13.

The electronics giant will administer its own written test in May in five regions in Korea -- Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Daejeon, and Gwangju -- and two overseas -- New Jersey and Los Angeles in the U.S. It hopes to complete the process by early July.

The conglomerate decided to "push the process forward because it can no longer delay recruitment that affects the domestic economy significantly amid greater uncertainty in the global economy," a spokesman said.

The logistics of marshalling such huge numbers are challenging. "We're considering a variety of methods, but haven't made any decision yet," the spokesman added.

The conglomerate hopes to administer the test in test centers as usual but could move it online if the epidemic drags on.
Brown said one other employee of the animal hospital also tested positive for COVID-19, but was doing very well last week and had only mild symptoms. A second employee was tested, but had not immediately received the results of the test, and several additional employees who were unable to be tested reported feeling sick and remained at home, Brown said last week.
NEW CANAAN  A 30-bed ward dedicated to nursing home patients with coronavirus is set to open at Silver Hill  a modest but important step in the states ambitious plan to create a release valve for hospitals during an expected surge of COVID-19 infections.

Plans to activate idle beds at Silver Hill Hospital with the help of a local nursing home also represent one of the only examples in the state where providers have publicly embraced Connecticuts plan to segregate the hundreds of elderly residents with coronavirus from the thousands of elderly who have not been infected.

We realize the strain that the hospital and health care system is under, so we wanted to do everything we can to help and assist, with our partner Silver Hill, to come up with a strategy, said Russell Barksdale, president and CEO of Waveny LifeCare Network in New Canaan.

The head of the nonprofit psychiatric hospital agreed.

Weve agreed to everything, and we have a draft contract that our lawyer has finished reviewing, said Dr. Andrew Gerber, president and medical director of Silver Hill. As soon as the state finishes signing off on its regulatory stuff, we are ready to go.

That is welcome news to Hartford, after Gov. Ned Lamonts April 1 announcement of 10 nursing homes and idle facilities proposed to become coronavirus-only sites was met with objection and rejection, in part because of public protest.

Lamont responded two days later by offering to double the Medicare rate for nursing homes and other facilities that take on the burden of specializing in COVID-19 treatment.

It was not clear this week whether that was enough to convince some nursing homes that have been in negotiations with the state  including Greenwich Woods  to become a COVID-only home.

The plan remains in development and negotiations are ongoing with facilities, said Max Reiss, Lamonts spokesman. The administration couldnt undertake this process without the partnership with skilled nursing homes and long-term care facilities, and were grateful for their time and dedication to helping us work through this public health emergency.

The stakes are high and climbing, Reiss said.

As of Tuesday, 38 percent of Connecticuts 215 nursing homes had at least one confirmed case of coronavirus  a highly contagious respiratory disease that afflicts the elderly and those with frail health the hardest.

The governors office said 123 more nursing home residents have tested positive since Monday, for a total of 600 confirmed cases. Among those, 171 have been hospitalized and 81 have died, the governor said.

Recent headlines have shown how quickly the virus can spread among the most vulnerable, and how close to home a cautionary tale can come, like the Seattle-area nursing home where 35 COVID deaths were linked to a single nursing home.

Last week, 44 elderly at a single nursing home in Milford had confirmed cases of the coronavirus, for example.

And in Ridgefield, 11 elderly residents have died from coronavirus from the same nursing home.

The solution, the states nursing home providers and Hartford leaders agreed, was to segregate those infected with COVID in coronavirus-only facilities, where their treatment could be concentrated.

In some nursing homes that have multiple infections, that is already happening by establishing coronavirus-only zones.

We currently have presumptive positive cases in four of our nursing centers and are using all of the procedures recommended by the (federal Centers for Disease Control) to protect against the spread of infection and treat in place, said David Skoczulek, vice president of business development for iCare Health Network, which runs 11 nursing homes in Connecticut. As a result, we have active COVID units.

Two of iCares nursing homes in Farmington and Bloomfield had been suggested by Lamont as potential coronavirus-only sites, but iCare backed out, saying it never agreed to the plan.

On Tuesday, Skoczulek said there were 40 elderly people in iCare nursing homes in Connecticut who either have coronavirus or are being treated as though they have it.

Skoczulek said the governors incentive to make $600 per-day payments for each person served in nursing homes that specialize in coronavirus treatment was of little consequence to his network.

We will not be considering emptying an open and active nursing home of patients to admit and treat COVID-positive patients, he said.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A woman who filed suit against Cuyahoga County Jail officers who punched and pepper-sprayed her in what prosecutors later amounted to torture has asked a judges permission to add claims against Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish and other officials.

Lawyers for Chantelle Glass filed a proposed amended complaint last week that accuses Budish, former Chief of Staff Earl Leiken, former Sheriff Clifford Pinkney, former jail director Ken Mills, former interim jail director George Taylor and former warden Eric Ivey fostered abusive and unconstitutional conditions in the jail while the county tried to profit by regionalizing the facility.

The proposed complaint also seeks to add claims that accuse the county of destroying surveillance videos other corrections officers and jail nursing staff of failing to intervene and stop the attack.

Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy McCormick will have to sign off on the request before Glass can add the defendants to the pending suit.

Those at every level of County government share responsibility for the torture that Ms. Glass endured, the filing says. From the county executive (who refused to heed warnings about mismanagement of the jail) to the line corrections staff (who stood by and did nothing as they watched the torture unfold), there is plenty of blame to go around.

A county spokeswoman declined to comment on the claims.

Once we receive the proposed amendment, we will send it to our attorneys, Madigan said.

Cleveland police arrested Glass July 16, 2018, after they responded to a call about an argument and learned that she had a bench warrant for failing to appear at a court hearing about a traffic ticket. She got upset when officers at the jail would not let her make a phone call to arrange for child care. The complaint accuses two guards of threatening Glass before calling for officers, including Robert Marsh and Cpl. Idris-Farid Clark, to place her into a restraint chair.

Marsh punched Glass in the face as he strapped her into the chair, and Clark sprayed pepper foam into her eyes at close-range. The two then took her to a decontamination room to rinse the pepper foam out of her eyes, along with other guards.

Clark and Marsh were both indicted on felony charges in the attack. Marsh was sentenced to 30 days in a local jail and is allowed to serve his time on weekends. Prosecutors brought charges against Clark that accused him of trying to extort witnesses. He received an 18-month prison sentence.

The proposed amended complaint says that the guards failed to adequately get the burning substance out of Glass eyes and off her clothing. They would not give her a change of clothes or let her take a shower for 48 hours. The filing contains four instances where white inmates received a more thorough cleansing than Glass and another black inmate.

The complaint also accuses a nurse of laughing along with the guards at Glass during the medical examination and falsifying information in medical logs about checking her blood pressure. It also accuses the county of failing to preserve security video and other public records related to the incident.

The proposed complaint lays out efforts dating back to Budishs 2015 hiring of Mills to regionalize the county jail and hold inmates from across the county after they were arrested and awaited trial. The county charged local police departments $99 per day per inmate. The push led the daily population of the jail to balloon to more than 2,300 inmates in 2018, nearly 600 inmates above its capacity, the complaint says. At the same time, the number of corrections officers dropped to its lowest in several years.

Nine inmates died in the jail in 2018 and early 2019, leading to a U.S. Marshals Service investigation that found widespread constitutional violations and inhumane conditions in the jail.

A criminal investigation into county government and the jail that Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael OMalley began and later turned over to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost resulted in indictments against a host of county and jail employees.

Mills faces several charges, including dereliction of duty, telecommunications fraud, that accuse him of failing to properly oversee the jail and lying to Cuyahoga County Council about his role in blocking the hiring of nursing staff. He resigned in November 2018 ahead of the release of the Marshals report.

Taylor, who took over for Mills as interim jail director, abruptly resigned the following March.

Pinkney retired in August 2019. Leiken resigned in December 2018 after 10 months on the job.

Ivey was demoted from warden to associate warden over nepotism. A grand jury indicted him on charges that he ordered corrections officers to turn off their body cameras during an investigation into the death of an inmate to avoid collecting evidence that could be used in a civil lawsuit against the county and then lying to investigators. He was sentenced in October to probation and agreed to resign from his years-long post at the jail.

Investigators seized documents and electronic devices from Budishs office in a February 2019 raid.

Read more stories

Whats the story behind how the Cuyahoga County jail became one of the worst in the nation? A drive for money, a cleveland.com investigation finds

Woman pepper-sprayed, attacked by Cuyahoga County Jail officers: I thought I was going to die

Cuyahoga County Jail supervisor headed to prison for pepper-foam attack on inmate, extortion attempt

No jail time for Cuyahoga County Jail associate warden Eric Ivey

Ex-Cuyahoga County Jail director indicted on new charges that accuse him of making jail unsafe during string of inmate deaths

Former Cuyahoga County jail director accused of making homophobic, anti-Semitic and racial comments, countys inspector general says

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Cliff Pinkney testifies he had no role in major decisions about the troubled jails

Interim Cuyahoga County Jail director retires four months after county promises reforms

Budish personally requested ouster of Cuyahoga County Jails medical supervisor who criticized jail administration, sources say

Abused inmates, convicted jail officers round out potential witnesses in trial of ex-Cuyahoga County Jail director charged during rash of inmate deaths

Fired budget director warned Budish of 'critical nursing, crowding issues in the Cuyahoga County Jail month before first inmate died, email shows
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 20:47:09|Editor: xuxin

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LONDON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Two thirds of people in Britain support a Brexit extension beyond the end of this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey released Tuesday.

The survey by political consultancy WPI Strategy showed 67 percent of people polled back a delay beyond December.

Britain, which ended its membership of the European Union (EU) on January 31, is currently in a transitional period to enable its government and Brussels to strike a permanent new trade deal.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, currently in intensive care for COVID-19 infection, has continually insisted there will be no extension to the transition period.

In the survey, four in 10 people said they believe Johnson's government should extend the transition for however long it takes until the COVID-19 outbreak is over.

Less than a fifth of respondents, or just 19 percent, support the government's end-of-year deadline and fully back leaving the EU at the end of this year.

In the study, 6 percent said the transition period should be extended by three months to March 2021, while 11 percent suggested a six-month delay to June 2021. Another 12 percent called for a year-long extension to the end of 2021.

"While one in five people do support the government's current stance to leave the EU with or without a future trade deal in place before the end of the year, it is clear the majority of people in Britain do not share that view," said WPI Director Nick Faith.

The insistence that the transition period will not be extended beyond Dec. 31 is written into British law and will need parliamentary consent to be changed.

British media in London quoted a government spokesperson as saying that the transition period would end at the end of this year.

The spokesperson added that Britain remains absolutely committed to carrying on negotiations with Brussels despite the pandemic, with talks between both sides taking place remotely.
SHELTON  The number of coronavirus-related deaths in Shelton have jumped to 17, according to health district officials, and COVID-19 positive tests sit at 129, by far the most in the Valley.

With Seymour reporting its first COVID-19-related death, the Naugatuck Valley Health District states that there have been 18 total deaths at this point. Sixteen of the deaths were residents of nursing homes or assisted living facilities. These deaths have been confirmed through laboratory testing.

It is evident that we are in the acceleration phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning we are consistently receiving an increasing number of cases, said NVHD Director Jessica Stelmaszek. With an increasing number of cases, we can expect that we will continue to have an increased number of COVID-19 related deaths.

We expect the Valley cases to continue to rise over the next few days, added Stelmaszek. We will continue to remain in this phase until we are consistently seeing declining cases, at which point we move into the deceleration phase of the pandemic.

For public health surveillance, laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 associated deaths are defined as patients who tested positive for COVID-19 around the time of death; this is not a determination of the cause of death, she said.

In all, there were 279 residents in the Naugatuck Valley that, as of 7:30 p.m. Monday, had tested positive for the coronavirus. There were 44 in Naugatuck, 38 in Ansonia, 32 in Seymour, 23 in Derby and 13 in Beacon Falls.

Data show that 95, or 34 percent, of the 279 confirmed cases among Valley residents are individuals who currently reside in a nursing home, assisted living facility, group home or similar setting. Eighty of Sheltons 129 confirmed COVID-19 cases are residents of nursing or assisting living facilities.

Of the Valley deaths, 14 were people 80 and older, three were between 70 and 79, and one was between 60 and 69 years of age.

Three Shelton assisted living facilities  Apple Rehab Shelton Lakes, Bishop Wicke Health and Rehabilitation and Gardner Heights Health Care Center  all were listed as having a worker or individual test positive for the coronavirus, according to state health officials.

More than 50 such facilities across the state have at least one worker or resident who has tested positive for the virus.

Public Safety Director Mike Maglione said earlier this week that several positive cases are in the citys nursing home community, but the virus is also among the general population. There are five nursing home facilities in Shelton, according to Maglione, housing some 450 residents altogether.

Positive cases are scattered throughout the city, said Maglione. That is why we constantly reinforce social distancing. Stay away from crowds  and wash your hands.

Statewide, as of April 6, there were more than 6,900 confirmed cases and 206 reported deaths, including the 17 from Shelton. There are 1,221 coronavirus patients hospitalized, up 79 from Sunday, Gov. Ned Lamont said.

Lamonts executive orders have shuttered all schools until at least April 20 and closed all nonessential businesses until further notice. Gatherings of more than five people are prohibited. The governor said last week that schools may remain closed until the fall.

Residents should continue to heed the advice of their chief elected officials, said Stelmaszek, and stay home as much as possible and continue to practice social distancing to avoid exposure and further spread of the virus.

The NVHD defines a person under investigation as anyone who has been identified as someone who may have the virus that causes COVID-19 or who was under investigation but tested negative.

The health district has received many requests to report recovery statistics, said Stelmaszek. Currently, there is no reliable recovery data available. Health district staff will continue to work with patients to determine when an individual meets the CDCs criteria to come out of self-isolation.

The state Department of Public Health now publishes a report at www.ct.gov/coronavirus that breaks down positive COVID-19 cases by town.

The NVHD release states that the physician who ordered the coronavirus test for the patient and health district staff will contact individuals who test positive for COVID-19.

Those individuals will remain in quarantine at their homes, stated the NVHD release. Individuals who reside in the same household as a laboratory confirmed positive case will also be required to self-quarantine at their home. Health department staff will work with the patients to investigate and determine if additional individuals need to be notified or require 14-day self-monitoring periods at home. If an individual is inpatient or in a healthcare facility, that facility will lead the investigation.

Stelmaszek said health district officials are hopeful that some of our residents will start meeting criteria to come out of self-isolation. Most individuals in Connecticut will not have a test to determine if they are still contagious.

brian.gioiele@hearstmediact.com
3 1 of 3 Hollis Johnson/Business Insider Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Shake Shack Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Shake Shack fans are in for a treat  if they can wait a few days for it to be delivered.

The national chain restaurant is offering do-it-yourself kits to make its popular burgers, albeit missing the produce-based ingredients.
New Delhi, April 7 : Tablighi Jamaat Markaz's chief Muhammad Saad Kandhalvi, said to be absconding, is in quarantine and will come out in 8-9 days, according to an advocate representing the organisation.

Muhammad Saad has been accused of violating the lockdown rules and organising a religious congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin area, which has been linked to more than 1,000 coronavirus cases.

Muhammad Saad had reportedly gone into hiding after an FIR was lodged against him.

"He is in quarantine. It will take him another 8-9 days to come out. If the investigating officer wants us to join the investigation, we are ready. We will not deter or run away like cowards," advocate Tauseef Khan told IANS.

Khan said the sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act, the Disaster Management Act and the Indian Penal Code under which Muhammad Saad had been charged were bailable in nature.

"In the FIR, all the sections are bailable in nature and therefore there is no need to seek anticipatory bail from the court. He will get bail from the police station since the maximum punishment for the offences are under two years," he said.
Help India!

By Najiya O, TwoCircles.Net

Out of the more than 4000 Covid positive cases in the country, 327 are in the small state of Kerala. Nearly 60 people, including an elderly couple, have been cured of the deadly virus, while two people have succumbed to the illness too. Presently, 266 people are undergoing treatment in various hospitals in the state as of 7th April 2020.

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From about 150 patients in the Pariyaram Medical College Hospital in Kannur, only a few are in an acute stage and in the ICU, informed a doctor requesting anonymity adding that the rest are stable with slight symptoms like cough and fever.

Most number of cases reported is in the northernmost district of Kasargode with more than 100 people infected and thousands under home isolation. More than 50 people have been infected in Kannur, while nearly 20 positive cases have been reported in Ernakulam district.

The first case of the Covid 19 in the country was reported in Kerala on January 30. In the initial stage, only three cases were reported and the state had successfully overcome the outbreak by mid-February. The second stage of infection which began on March 8 with a family that had returned from Italy is continuing for a month with more cases being reported. In order to avoid a situation where the medical staff is overworked in case of an emergency, the government has directed that some doctors be kept as reserve. Working hours of doctors are variable according to different institutions. Some institutions follow a system in which doctors work for two weeks and then take the next week off, while others follow different methods.

There comes the large number of expatriate community from the state, said the doctor, explaining that nearly 20-25% of the tests in India are conducted in Kerala. The Kerala Migration Survey 2014 conducted by the Centre for Development Studies estimates that more than 24 lakh Keralites live in various countries around the world, a large number of who when the pandemic began to spread, preferred to come back to Kerala. On being asked about how the state is dealing with this sudden influx of Keralas expatriate fraternity, he discussed that tests are immediately conducted on those who have come from abroad. While some are kept under home quarantine, some others like those coming from the UAE are quarantined in hospitals.

The suspected cases are then admitted to hospitals and if tested positive, they are admitted to the isolation wards with necessary precautions.

There is shortage of equipment generally and we use them with utmost caution to make sure that those who have an absolute requirement for the PPE are not kept exposed, said Dr Shimna Azeez of Government Medical College, Manjeri, in Malappuram district. Dr Azeez, who fears the worst case scenario of a community spread, shared that the staff has essential personal protection equipment (PPE) but they utilize it judiciously, making sure that those in direct contact with patients do not suffer from scarcity in times of dire need.

Although majority of those infected in the state are people who have returned from abroad and their primary contacts, the government has decided to do random tests too. This is after 2 cases that were reported in which the infected persons were not confirmed to have been in touch with any who had come from abroad. Subsequently, a few Covid 19 positive cases have also been reported of people who had come from other states in the country. At such a time, while a large majority of the population abides by the government directions of social distancing and breaking the chain, a few refrain from following them too, creating tension at least in some places.

When asked about medical communitys response to this unprecedented situation, Dr Azeez said, Even my teachers havent witnessed such an outbreak as this. She then explained that the doctors have to review protocols often and when confusions arise, they discuss and tackle them by new methods which are then implemented. Decisions and corrective measures are alike taken together. She admits that it is a peculiar team work and even if there are any flaws, nobody can advise others beyond a level.

This is a learning experience for everyone in the health stream at a global level, she said. She explained that while being in the frontline of this grave battle, the medical staff has to battle staying away from their families too. It is important to understand that all of them are going through a situation in which they have instant chance to get infected despite necessary precautions, detailed Dr Azeez who has kept her two children and her mother away as she lives alone due to her professional duties.

Some other doctors like Dr Shifa Muhammed, have decided to postpone important life events like her wedding itself. A house surgeon at Pariyaram Medical College, Dr Shifa decided to postpone her wedding which was planned for March 29, due to the virus outbreak. Soon after she took the decision, she was assigned duty at the Covid 19 ward in the hospital, informed her father.

May be because of fear, but peoples cooperation is beyond words, said Dr Azeez when asked about the worsening situation globally. She credits the handling of this difficult situation by the state government along with the cooperation of the people. She discussed that in the screening OP (outpatients section) where at least 10-15 minutes are needed for each patient, even though all patients have to wait outside for a long time, they dont show any sign of irritation or being fed up. Instead they sit peacefully and provide the medical staff necessary details regarding their route map  the aeroplane which they have travelled, the flight and seat numbers etc. Amid staying away from families, medical staff feels relieved to have cooperative patients around, who make their work easier.

They have answers for each question that we ask, and in case they dont know, they phone and inform later. Said Dr Azeez.

The number of outpatients in the hospital has come down by 50% percent, said VK Ruby, general manager of KMH Memorial Hospital in Manjeri. Pointing towards the situation of non-Covid cases in hospitals which might get ignored amid the high attention paid to Covid cases, a doctor informed that to avoid such lag, several hospitals and medical bodies such as Association of Pulmonologists in Kerala, the IMA, the IAP and others have begun tele-consultation for common illnesses.
The United States on Monday branded a Russian far-right organization a terrorist group, the first time it has targeted purported white supremacists with action frequently used against jihadist groups. The move comes after ambivalent messages about white supremacists by President Donald Trump, who notoriously defended participants in a neo-Nazi rally. The State Department said the Russian Imperial Movement runs two paramilitary training camps in Saint Petersburg and has pulled in neo-Nazis from across the Western world, including Swedish militants who carried out violent attacks. "This is the first time the United States has ever designated white supremacist terrorists, illustrating how seriously this administration takes the threat," said Nathan Sales, the State Department counterterrorism coordinator. "We are prepared to target any foreign terrorist group, regardless of ideology, that threatens our citizens, our interests abroad or our allies," he said. The Russian Imperial Movement and three of its leaders were blacklisted as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, meaning that they will not be admitted to the United States and that any US assets they hold will be blocked. The designation also aims to have a chilling effect on banks and other institutions overseas unlikely to want to deal with a US-described terrorist group. Sales said that two extremists from Sweden, known for its generosity toward refugees, traveled in August 2016 to Saint Petersburg to undergo 11 days of paramilitary training with the group. They returned to Sweden and carried out a series of attacks including a bombing outside a migrant center in Gothenburg that gravely injured one person, the State Department said. "This group has innocent blood on its hands," Sales said. - 'Nonsense,' leader says - The monarchist movement has deployed volunteers to fight in nationalist causes, including on behalf of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. "It's incredible. It's nonsense, of course," Denis Gariyev, one of three leaders put on the blacklist, told AFP of the designation. "In the same way you could recognize tens of thousands of volunteers as terrorists. Yes, we took part as volunteers," he said of the group's participation in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. He denied that the group promoted racial supremacism, saying: "We couldn't do so because we are an Orthodox organization." "This is politics. Probably they want to use us as a bogeyman. They need an 'image of the enemy,' after all," he added. The group's website says its militants train in martial arts and knife-fighting in the belief that "not being a warrior for a modern man in Russia is criminal weakness." A Russian court in 2012 banned a group website as extremist, according to the justice ministry, but Moscow has not designated the group as a whole as terrorist. - Globalized nationalists - Sales said that white supremacists around the world have increasingly been interconnected. Last year a gunman targeting Hispanics killed 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and said he was inspired by the white supremacist who massacred Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand. Sales said the State Department had seen reports that the Russian Imperial Movement "reached out to Americans or even travelled to the United States," although he did not draw a link to any incidents. Trump himself has faced widespread criticism for his uncritical treatment of white supremacists as well as his rhetoric that demonizes non-white immigrants as criminals. In 2017, Trump said that neo-Nazis whose march in Charlottesville, Virginia devolved into violence included "very fine people." Violent hate crimes in the United States soared to a 16-year high in 2018, including a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, according to the FBI. Sales said that Monday's designation was made possible after an order by Trump that allows designation of terrorists based on their training activities, not necessarily participation in violence. Despite the calls on Russia to act, the United States itself does not designate domestic groups as terrorists, owing largely to the US Constitution's broad guarantees of freedom of speech.
ATLANTA, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aveanna Healthcare ("Aveanna"), a leading home healthcare company, today announced the launch of its new remote healthcare platform, Aveanna Teletherapy. This program will allow Aveanna to care for its patients while providing a safe environment for staff and patients. Aveanna's solution offers patients the same quality physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech language pathology, and applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy services, from the comfort of their home. Teletherapy is available for both traditional therapy appointments and evaluations for existing and new patients.

"With the spread of COVID-19, Aveanna is pleased to announce that telehealth options are now available to those families needing PT, OT, ST, and ABA services, dependent upon location and insurance verification," said Merritt McKenzie, President of Aveanna's Therapy/ABA (TABA) division. "We as a country, a healthcare community, and a company are in unprecedented times. But even in the face of uncertainty, I rest easier at night knowing that we have great people on our Aveanna team to help steer this ship and bring this program to our families."

The teletherapy solution was born out of our desire to see our families and patients continue to get the service they deserve and expect during this crisis. Aveanna's proud that we currently provide service in schools, homes, early intervention settings, and outpatient clinics. Our teletherapy program is a complimentary adjunct to our current service delivery model.

Aveanna Teletherapy will be available in our current footprint in Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Texas and will provide extended hours of care. Families can use the teletherapy service, which has been designed to be quick, easy and user-friendly, through their cellphones, tablets and/or laptops.

"During this crisis, telemedicine has been very helpful in allowing me to keep my family safe while also being able to continue treating my wonderful patients," said Cori Joyce, an Aveanna PT that has used this product during its testing phase. "The parents I work with are happy that their children are still being treated even during this time. The families I work with have been amazing using this new platform. It has even encouraged some of them to improve their participation."

Dr. Amy Heath, Ph.D., BCBA- D , Clinical Director of ABA in Colorado, said, "I have been excited to hear the positive impact that telehealth has had on our families and staff. Our families have reported that it is such a comfort to have access to skills and training to support their children while they are at home. It is a relief to know they are not on their own and still have their team to support them even from the safety of our homes. Our staff are excited to find new ways to support our families during this time and are thankful for the new perspective they are gaining through this new platform."

In Aveanna's commitment to caring for its employees, and providing therapy to its clients, Aveanna's TABA Division leaders have been working diligently to implement an alternative method of care for its families. The entire organization has mobilized to make sure Aveanna has a platform that can be accessed easily and delivered quickly. Aveanna Healthcare is excited to share this platform with those families who need care.

For patients interested in this service, please email [email protected].

About Aveanna Healthcare

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Aveanna Healthcare is a leading provider of home healthcare. A privately-owned company, Aveanna is dedicated to providing outstanding care with compassion, quality and clinical excellence. For more information, visit www.aveanna.com.

Contact

Ross Lovern

Kekst CNC

(917) 842-7205

[email protected]

SOURCE Aveanna Healthcare

Related Links

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Rahway, New Jersey--(Newsfile Corp. - April 7, 2020) - Spectacular Solar, Inc. (OTC PINK: SPSO), CEO Doug Heck has authored the following letter to keep shareholders and investors abreast of the impacts that the COVID-19 outbreak has had on Spectacular Solar.

Dear Shareholders and Potential Investors,

As COVID-19 began spreading on a global basis and gripped the media in January, I really hoped and prayed that we would not be where we are today. I was extremely concerned about the ripple effects it would have on small businesses across our great country. My concern was obviously well-founded, but it has been more of a shockwave than a ripple effect to the small business community and to the global economy.

I hope this letter finds you and your family safe and that social distancing is an absolute practice for you. As CEO, I have two families to be concerned about. I have my family at home and I have all the people that work for me as my Spectacular Solar family.

Since my last letter, Gov. Murphy (D-NJ) shut down all non-essential businesses in New Jersey and I support him for doing so. The office at 1401 Witherspoon Road is closed and my essential personnel are working from home. My goal since my last correspondence has gone from keeping my people safe from the coronavirus to keeping them safe and employed.

As of this writing, we have not laid anyone off nor do we intend to. We have applied for a S.B.A. disaster loan to assist us with payroll. Loans such as these, when acquired for the purposes of covering payroll, are eligible for forgiveness, so it is our hope to acquire this funding to soften the blow while keeping paychecks coming for my employees.

While we are not operating at 100% capacity, we still have roofers working outdoors on a number of projects. Interior building work is prohibited at this time. So as long it is safe and legal to do so, we will continue to move towards completing these projects.

Earlier this year, the SEC and OTCMarkets offered 45-day extensions for publicly traded companies to file their annual financial reports. We were hoping to avoid using the extra time but once non-essential businesses were shutdown in Houston, where the two firms handling our audit are located, and here in New Jersey, we were left with little choice but to file for the extra time. We have made tremendous progress in auditing 2018 and 2019 but as the resources of the human variety diminished, so did our ability to have the audit completed by March 31.

Regarding the share buyback, we are still actively to trying to buy back older stock certificates but have shelved buying shares on the open market to later in the year as means of stockpiling cash. I had previously disclosed that one of our directors was planning to buy shares on the open market and that is still in play. But like everyone else, he has had to measure the immediate impact of COVID-19 on his business and cash flow, not to mention the impact of the immense broader market drop on his personal portfolio. That being said, he is committed to purchasing SPSO shares on the open market and a subsequent form 4 will be filed with the SEC.

I know my sales team is chomping at the bit to get back in action with the face-to-face meetings with potential clients but that will have to wait until it is safe to do so. In the meantime, they are utilizing a variety of online means to connect with people and have recently closed some residential deals, which is outstanding considering the current situation. The bigger deals, which require meetings with a significant amount of people on both sides of the table, have been put on the back burner until this situation is behind us.

Stay safe and stay healthy!

Doug Heck, CEO

For more information: please visit http://www.spectacularsolar.com and please follow us on Twitter: @SPECTACULARSOL1

Investor Relations/Media Contact: Gregg Boehmer: laynemichaelpr@gmail.com

Wyndham Hotel Project Video:https://youtu.be/BPLKjgdFaOw

About Spectacular Solar, Inc.: Spectacular Solar is a diversified company involved in solar system installations, investment fund management, and roofing contracting through its subsidiaries. SPSO designs and installs state-of-the-art solar conversions for home and business owners. Star Power Services is a bonded and licensed roofing contracting company with expertise in new roof installation, repairs, and maintenance. The Solar Energy Investors Fund contributes to the ongoing insurance expenses directly associated with installation of solar systems. In return, the fund receives a share of tax benefits and ongoing revenue generated from electricity sales.

Safe Harbor Statement

This release contains forward-looking statements that relate to future events or performance. These statements reflect the company's current expectations and are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The company doesn't undertake to update or revise these forward-looking statements, even if experience or future changes make it clear that any projected results, expressed or implied, in this or other company statements will not be realized. Readers are cautioned that these statements involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to, the acceptance of our products, lack of revenue growth, failure to realize profitability, inability to raise capital and market conditions that negatively affect the market price of our common stock. The Company disclaims any responsibility to update any forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54209
Roxy Jacenko is Sydney's undisputed PR queen.

And on Tuesday, the 39-year-old powerhouse blonde gave fans a sneak peek into the personal pantry of her $6.5 million Vaucluse mansion.

Taking to Instagram, Roxy showed off a number of every day items expertly stacked in a perfect arrangement.

She's just like us! PR Queen Roxy Jacenko, 39, (pictured) gave her fans a sneak peek at the everyday items in her pantry on Tuesday, in a photograph she shared to Instagram

Possibly stocking-up due to the pandemic, Roxy had tins of baked beans, tomato, baby corn and tuna.

The upscale pantry also had a vast array of spreads, with Roxy and her brood clearly fans of Vegemite, Nutella, and peanut butter.

While Roxy is openly about not being much of a cook, she did also have a range of dry pastas along with bolognese sauces.

Food: Taking to Instagram, Roxy showed off a number of every day items neatly stacked in a perfect arrangement, including baked beans, bolognese sauces and canola oil spray

Lastly, Roxy proved she's also a fan of canola oil cooking spray, with a generically branded can taking pride of place among her foodstuffs.

It comes after the PR queen was slammed for hoarding 22 bottles of laundry detergent earlier this month.

In footage shared to Instagram, Roxy revealed she had bought almost two dozen bottles of Biozet Attack liquid detergent in five different varieties.

One person commented: 'Disappointing. Encouraging people to buy products in bulk [when] the government is urging us to be sensible.

How many? In the footage shared to Instagram, Roxy revealed this month she had bought almost two dozen bottles of Biozet Attack liquid detergent in five different varieties

Criticism: Fans were angry that she had stocked up while other Australians are doing it tough

'Think of the people who can't afford to buy hundreds of dollars' worth of anything. It's because of people like you, the less fortunate cannot buy a roll of toilet paper. Shame.'

Another said that Roxy 'should really consult with a PR professional before bragging about [her] bulk buy of laundry liquid' while other Australians are doing it tough.

A third follower wrote: 'You are stockpiling. Exactly what the Australian government told us not to do.'
Nearly everyone seems to be working from home these days, including actress turned mogul Gwyneth Paltrow.

The 47-year-old tends to keep her children of her social media feed but posted a rare shot of her son and daughter while working from her Los Angeles mansion on Instagram Tuesday.

Gwyneth's popular and often controversial company Goop, is allowing employees to keep working while adhering to California's shelter-in-place mandate to mitigate the spread of coronavirus.

Family time! Gwyneth Paltrow shared a rare snap with her children - daughter Apple, 15, and son Moses, 13 - on Instagram while working from home on Tuesday

The snap features a makeup-free Paltrow front and center in what appears to be the kitchen, flanked by her children.

While the image only shows half of their faces, her look-a-like 15-year-old daughter Apple is to Gwyneth's right wearing sweatpants and a cropped printed tank top.

Behind her a bit to her left is The Politician star's 13-year-old son Moses, who has piercing blue eyes and dirty blonde hair like his mom and sister.

The family photo was captioned: 'WFH with some moral support [green heart emoji]

The family photo was captioned: 'WFH with some moral support [green heart emoji]

The Goop founder shares the teenagers with her ex-husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.

Apple likely gave her mom the okay to share this snap to her 6.9 million followers as the duo have a standing rule where the teen gets to approve any images.

Last May, Apple scolded her mom for posting a picturesque selfie, which was taken as the pair were riding a ski lift up a mountain.

In the comments, Martin chastised her mom for apparently breaking a mother-daughter pact, reminding her that 'may not post anything without my consent.' For the most part, her proud mom seems to be nothing but respectful of the rule.

Low profile: The Goop founder shares the teenagers with her ex-husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and neither parent posts photos of their kids very often on social media (Pictured together in 2017)

It seems that the family is getting on quite well while isolating themselves due to COVID-19 spreading throughout the world.

Recently, Gwyneth put her considerable culinary skills to good use in an Instagram video where she cooked a delicious meal to raise awareness and funds for a worth charity, God's Love We Deliver.

'Vegetarian Paella for the Faltrows in order to support @godslovenyc, a NYC non-profit that cooks and home-delivers medically tailored meals to individuals living with serious illness,' she captioned her cooking video.

And, while on quarantine over the weekend, Paltrow made a point to wish someone else who she considers family a happy birthday - her Iron Man co-star.

Doing good: Recently, Gwyneth put her considerable culinary skills to good use in an Instagram video where she cooked a delicious meal to raise awareness and funds for a worth charity, God's Love We Deliver

'Vegetarian Paella for the Faltrows in order to support @godslovenyc, a NYC non-profit that cooks and home-delivers medically tailored meals to individuals living with serious illness,' she captioned her cooking video

She paid tribute to him Saturday in a sweet Instagram post as she wished Downey Jr a happy 55th birthday.

The star shared a never-before-seen image of RDJ giving the toast at her 2018 wedding to husband Brad Falchuk.

She wrote: 'Before we put this April 4th to bed, I must wish my dear, dear @robertdowneyjr a happy birthday. Here he is, making a toast at our wedding, during which his humor elicited my usual look of pure joy/shock whenever he is near.

'He is my brother, friend and supporter. A mega genius, and the weirdest comedy writer of all time. I know all of our @marvel family join me in wishing him a very happy day.'
A woman has her temperature checked before entering the locked down Bach Mai hospital in Hanoi, March 28, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy.

Everyone visiting medical facilities in Vietnam for treatment will be treated as suspected Covid-19 patients and tested.

The Ministry of Health said on Monday the decision is part of its attempt to ramp up pandemic prevention measures after there were coronavirus transmissions between the community and medical facilities.

The first cases related to a hospital were two nurses at Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital on March 20. As of Tuesday the number of patients linked to the hospital had increased to 46, including 27 employees of the Truong Sinh Company, which provides food and logistic services to the hospital.

The National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control instructed high-level hospitals on Monday to prioritize critically ill patients and emergency cases and those transferred from other hospitals for treatment, admitting as few non-serious patients as possible, leaving them to lower-level hospitals for treatment.

High-level hospitals should resort to online or phone consultations to reduce the number of visitors, reduce or delay surgeries where possible and schedule staffing to take in Covid-19 patients in case there is a surge, the committee said.

The ministry said there is sufficient equipment and medication for tens of thousands of patients in case the epidemic escalates. Masks and disease prevention equipment could be made in the country, it assured.

It and the Ministry of Science and Technology are also working together to produce invasive and non-invasive ventilators to replace imports.

Local authorities have been advised to establish mobile teams to track down people with cough, fever or breathing difficulties, especially those who have returned from coronavirus-hit areas or visited medical facilities, staying in hotels and homeless people, and refer them immediately to medical facilities for prompt treatment.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, head of the National Steering Committee on Covid-19 Fight and Prevention, warned at a meeting on Monday: "We must not be negligent and lose focus. If everyone fights the disease together, we will definitely win."

As of Tuesday 95 out of the 245 Covid-19 patients in Vietnam have recovered.
Quarantining new inmates for two weeks wont be enough to halt the possible spread of COVID-19 in Manitoba jails, a judge said Monday before ordering the bail release of a man who has spent eight months in custody awaiting trial for a violent home invasion.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Quarantining new inmates for two weeks wont be enough to halt the possible spread of COVID-19 in Manitoba jails, a judge said Monday before ordering the bail release of a man who has spent eight months in custody awaiting trial for a violent home invasion.

At a time when nursing homes are being "devastated" by the novel coronavirus, "the same outcome is likely should the virus take hold in any of our correctional institutions in this province," Queens Bench Justice Ken Champagne said during a bail review for 25-year-old Tyler Ballantyne of The Pas.

Ballantyne has been in custody since last August when he was arrested in connection to an armed home invasion that sent a 71-year-old The Pas woman and her two sons to hospital with serious injuries.

Champagne said the COVID-19 pandemic amounted to a "material change in circumstances" that should be given "significant weight" in determining whether Ballantyne should be released.

"I suspect next week or the week after that, bail reviews should perhaps give (the pandemic) even more weight, depending what happens in our (correctional) institutions," he said.

Last week, the province announced that all new admissions to Manitobas adult and youth correctional facilities would be funnelled through the Winnipeg Remand Centre, where accused offenders will be isolated for up to 14 days before being formally admitted or transferred to another facility.

Crown attorney Anostin Grieves opposed Ballantynes release Monday, arguing, in part, that the new quarantine measures would reduce the risk of Ballantyne or other prisoners contracting COVID-19.

The assumption that quarantined inmates who appear healthy are safe to transfer to other institutions "appears to be only a guess," Champagne said.

"My understanding is that inmates arent being tested and found to be negative when they are being sent from the Remand Centre to the other facilities they are simply being sent if there are no symptoms disclosed after 14 days," Champagne said.

"That may or may not be good enough. But all of the information would suggest that people could be carrying the virus and be asymptomatic, which is a danger."

Manitoba Justice was asked if there are plans to test new inmates for the virus but did not receive a reply before deadline.

Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The virus has begun spreading to inmate populations across the country, with four inmates testing positive last week at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont.,and another confirmed case at the Okanagan Correctional Centre in B.C.

Closer to home, six inmates at Stony Mountain Institution have been tested for the virus, with all results coming back negative, according to the most recent figures from Correctional Service Canada.

Correctional officers are just as likely as inmates to carry the virus into prisons and jails, Champagne said.

"Every one of the institutions in Manitoba have many, many correctional officers who come and go, day in and day out and Im sure they are under a strict protocol about not attending if they are ill, but the same reasoning applies," he said.

"Any correctional officer could be carrying that virus with them and not even know it, putting that whole institution at risk."

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Bollywood actor Aamir Khan may not have announced his contributions for relief against coronavirus, but the actor has already transferred funds to various organisations. A source close to the actor told us that the actor has made his contributions to Prime Minister Narendra Modis PM-Cares fund, Maharashtra chief ministers relief fund as well as film workers association and a few NGOs. Aamir has also extended support to the daily wage workers of his next film, Lal Singh Chaddha, during the lockdown.

However, Aamir has chosen not to make his contribution public.

Also read: Sajid Nadiadwala gives bonus to 400 employees of company amid Covid-19 crisis

PM Modi had announced a 21-day lockdown in the face of coronavirus pandemic; the lockdown will go on till April 14. Over 4400 people have tested positive for Covid-19 till date in India, with the global number standing at excess of 1,346,964.

The film industry has donated generously for relief work including Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Priyanka Chopra, Ajay Devgn and Rohit Shetty, among many others, pledging support.

While Salman has pledged to support 25000 daily wage workers in the film industry and has even transferred money in accounts of crew members of his upcoming film Radhe Your Most Wanted Bhai, filmmaker Rohit Shetty and Ajay Devgn donated Rs 51 lakh to Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FIWCE).

Shah Rukh and his wife Gauri Khan several initiatives to help the central and state government in their fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Just a few days ago, the couple announced that they have opened their office premises for Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), to use it for treating Covid-19 patients.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Jen Morrow is eagerly awaiting an update from her community bank, Sandy Spring, on a $30,000 loan request for her book store, Bards Alley, in Vienna, Virginia. Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, Morrow has gone from 12 employees to a staff of just three, including herself, as her bookstore  typically filled with book clubs, customers in the cafe and a community of readers  is now empty. She's gotten creative, delivering books to homebound customers via bicycle with a neighboring bike business. Meanwhile, she is hoping and waiting to hear about her loan. "I am trying to run this business every day with a skeleton crew, worried about my staff who are at home, and now I am holding my breath because I have no idea if I will even get a loan," Morrow said. "There's not blame anywhere  I just don't know how long it will take to review my application and get the money." The government's $350 billion loan program is aimed at assisting small businesses hurt by the measures that have been taken to stem the spread of COVID-19. Since the program started, Morrow and other small business owers are anxiously awaiting notice from their lenders about loan approvals and are eager to see the much-needed lifelines show up in their bank accounts. While entrepreneurs rushed to get applications in to lenders on Friday, when the Payroll Protection Program rolled out, banks are slowly working to disburse loans. Some banks say more guidance is still needed from the Small Business Administration before moving forward, while others say they are not yet ready to process loans but are accepting applications. Government officials had touted loans being made available as soon as same-day, before the program, which is typically $20 billion a year, got up and running. Jason Duff, founder of Small Nation, a company that works to revitalize small cities and towns, has been working with Bellefontaine, Ohio, to open up consumer-facing businesses in the city over the last few years. He is working with Richwood Bank, which told him and his business associate Adam Rammel, owner of local tap room Brewfontaine, that they had been approved and their loans have an SBA number.

"They told us, 'you have been approved by the SBA and we will be funding a separate account that you can draw from just as soon as the SBA gives us guidance on if they need us to have you sign anything before distributing funds,' " Duff said. "That seems to be the last step and what's holding things up to get the money." As of Monday afternoon, the SBA said more than 2,400 lenders were able to participate in the program, up from 1,800 at program launch. A senior administration official also said that beginning Monday the administration would be offering a lender hotline and its 68 district offices across the country would be available to assist lenders. But some lenders are holding back. Fountainhead Commercial Loans, one of 14 nonbank SBA direct lenders, has not started processing these PPP loans as of Monday. A spokesperson for the lender said they are accepting applications. Fountainhead founder and CEO Chris Hurn said last week that SBA had not provided adequate guidance needed to service the lender's "tremendous" queue of small businesses seeking loans and warned that most of their company's businesses "will be dissatisfied with the speed of the process." A senior administration official told CNBC he could not speak on behalf of banks with regard to any guidance they may be waiting on. Banks submit applications to the SBA and secure e-Tran loan numbers before being able to take further action with regard to disbursing the loans. As of Monday afternoon, the SBA had assigned 130,000 loan numbers with a value of more than $38 billion. But it's unclear how much of that capital has made its way into the hands of small business owners. Tweet SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza tweeted about a local business in North Carolina that had received funding from its lender, but broader details about the total amount of funds lent to businesses were not made available, despite multiple requests. Anne Harper, CEO of OMG Accessories in New York City, said she is in a holding pattern, waiting for more detail from her lender, Chase. Harper received an automated email confirming her inquiry was received, and on Monday she was contacted to set up a call for Tuesday. "We know how important this funding may be to you and your business," the email said. Harper has gone from 20 employees to five with her company, which sells bags and accessories, including her signature unicorn backpacks, online and in major retailers.
Fort Bend County Judge KP George has denied additional funding for the Fort Bend County Sheriffs Offices free disinfectant distribution efforts, and deputies from the sheriffs office are not holding back displeasure over the decision. George stated in a Facebook post on March 25 that he would be diverting the requested funds to other programs.

In this rapidly evolving crisis, our priorities must change to meet the needs of the community, he said.

George originally allocated $100,000 to the program. Using those funds, the sheriffs office was able to distribute 13,811 bottles of liquid disinfectant to residents of Fort Bend County. Another 877 one-gallon jugs, 1,354 32-ounce spray bottles and 590 gallons of non-diluted concentrate were given to entities like nonprofits or essential services.

The disinfectant is sodium hypochlorite, similar in composition to bleach. It is one of the most effective commercially available surface disinfectants.

The initial funding of $100,000 was quickly exhausted. Individuals and organizations contributed another $30,000 to continue funding the program, but that, too, was depleted quickly. When the sheriffs office requested additional funding, George denied it.

Maj. Chad Norvell of the sheriffs office called the response from the community overwhelming and expressed frustration that the distribution has been denied funding. Every single person we dealt with was so appreciative, he said. We kept hearing again and again that this cleaner wasnt available anywhere.

George contested that bleach is now plentiful in stores, and the sheriffs program is no longer a valid use of county funds. I've called through the grocery stores in Fort Bend County, and rest assured, cheap bleach is plentiful and available, he said.

As of April 4, the Target located at Westheimer Parkway and the Grand Parkway had no surface disinfecting products available. An employee, who wished to remain anonymous, citing Targets policy of not allowing employees to speak to the press said, Weve hardly gotten any (cleaning products) in, and when we do, they sell out immediately. I open a box, and people just swarm. We have a limit of two per person, but people take them right out of my hands. They never even make it to the shelves.

George also stated that ceasing the program would enable the deputies who were doing the distribution to resume other duties. The deputies who participated in the disinfectant distribution will return to their normal duties, which will also keep our community healthy and safe, he said.

Norvell disputed both Georges claims. Theres no cleaning products. Theres no bleach on the shelves anywhere, he said. If there were, people would not be lined up 1.7 miles and waiting hours to get some. This is their best hope to try and mitigate the spread of this virus.

He also challenged Georges assertion that the deputies involved in distribution were needed back on patrol. The deputies out there doing (the distribution) are not patrol deputies. Theyre bailiffs, and the courts over here are all closed. So we have 26 bailiffs doing nothing, he explained.

George furthered his argument against the disinfectant, noting that the solution costs over $16 per bottle to manufacture. At the Kroger on the Grand Parkway and Highland Knolls, a gallon-sized bottle of bleach cost $2.99. However, none were available.

Norvell countered, Even at $16, (the cleaning solution) is cheap prevention, considering the consequences of not having it. How do you put a price on a life? Because thats where we are right now. This disinfectant can save lives.
A group of 20 Ukrainian doctors has started a humanitarian mission in two cities in the Italian region of Marche, Ukraine's Ambassador to Italy Yevhen Perelygin has said in an interview with Ukrinform.

"They were accommodated in two cities in the Marche region - Urbino and Pesaro," the ambassador said.

He added that all medics are intensive care specialists, as requested by the Italian side. Most of the doctors are anesthetists.

Ukrainian specialists will work with their Italian colleagues. This will, to some extent, allow Italian doctors to "rest."

The Marche region found itself in the most serious situation: 5,500 out of 1.5 million people contracted coronavirus and nearly 600 died. But the main problem is that the region has the highest percentage of infected doctors. That is why, when Kyiv offered assistance, the Italian government sent Ukrainians to Marche.

A group of 13 doctors and seven nurses who arrived in Rome last Saturday were met at the airport by representatives of the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, and other officials. The regional vice-governor met them on the spot.

The doctors are expected to provide assistance for two weeks, but everything will depend on the situation in Ukraine, the ambassador said.

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A forest fire burning near the village of Volodymyrivka in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine (Yaroslav Yemelianenko/AP)

Emergency teams in Ukraine are tackling a forest fire in the contaminated area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that has raised radiation fears.

Police said they have tracked down a person suspected of starting the blaze by setting dry grass on fire in the area.

The 27-year-old man said he burned grass for fun and then failed to extinguish the fire when the wind caused it to expand quickly, officers said.

Two blazes erupted on Saturday in the zone around Chernobyl that was sealed after the 1986 explosion at the plant.

Firefighters said they have managed to localise one of the fires in an area of about five hectares, but the second one continued burning, covering about 20 hectares.

They said they were using aircraft to extinguish the blaze.

Expand Close A Geiger counter shows an increased radiation level (Yaroslav Yemelianenko/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp A Geiger counter shows an increased radiation level (Yaroslav Yemelianenko/AP)

Authorities said radiation levels in the area engulfed by fires substantially exceeded normal levels, but the emergencies service said radiation levels in the capital Kyiv, about 60 miles south, were within norms.

The 1,000-square-mile Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was established after the April 1986 disaster at the plant that sent a cloud of radioactive fallout over much of Europe.

The zone is largely unpopulated, although about 200 people have remained despite orders to leave.

Expand Close A forest fire near the village of Volodymyrivka in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (Emergency Situation Ministry via AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp A forest fire near the village of Volodymyrivka in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (Emergency Situation Ministry via AP)

Blazes in the area have been a regular occurrence.

Some of them start when residents set dry grass on fire in the early spring  a widespread practice in Ukraine, Russia and some other ex-Soviet nations that often leads to devastating forest fires.
University of St. Thomas cleared students from their residence halls in mid-March in the hope of protecting its community from COVID-19. Now, the university is offering those same dorm rooms to medical and healthcare professionals who are working on the front line to fight the virus.

With its close proximity to the Texas Medical Center, the private Catholic university offered its main student dormitory Guinan Residence Hall, which houses 150 rooms, to four different hospital systems to use for employees who want to protect their families from possible exposure to the virus.

St. Thomas President Richard Ludwick said the decision was a natural move for the university support these healthcare heroes on the front lines.

So many nurses, physicians, and other care providers call UST home because they graduated from here. This is a chance for us to share our sense of community with all who are sacrificing so much for the good of all, Ludwick said in a written statement.

So far, Baylor College of Medicine has accepted St. Thomas offer, starting with 30 rooms for employees for two months, but has yet to sign a contract, said Spencer Conroy, vice president of finance and business affairs at St. Thomas, who has led the efforts. Conroy expects Baylor to sign the contract this week and to begin housing staff as early as next week, he said.

It is a great resource to have space available so close to the Texas Medical Center for our employees who may need these rooms in the event of a surge of the pandemic, Robert Corrigan, General Counsel for Baylor College of Medicine said in a statement. We appreciate the University of St. Thomas stepping forward with this offer.

Rice University has made a similar offer for housing for healthcare workers.

Rice President David Leebron announced Sunday that the university would also open two residence halls with about 100 available rooms as temporary housing for front-line medical center workers.

Two of Rices undergraduate halls, Wiess and Hanszen, will be available after April 12 for medical workers who want alternative housing. About 50 students and resident associates currently living in those dorms will be moved, Leebron said.

On the St. Thomas campus, hospital employees will reside in one main residence hall. Conroy said while there are about 15 students still residing on campus, they will be located in a different dormitory. He added that the university will clean weekly with protective equipment and that law enforcement and security will also be given the appropriate protective gear when inside the residence hall.

Other hospitals are still gauging employee interests in staying on campus, Conroy said. But he added its all moving very fast. We wanted to make these available as soon as possible, especially as experts predict a surge in coronavirus cases in the next couple of weeks.

Conroy said he was inspired by stories about at least one other institution that similarly offered on-campus housing to healthcare professionals and about employees who were afraid to return home or sought out hotel rooms in fear of endangering their families after coming into contact with COVID-19 patients.

Hearing all those different needs out there, we thought this is an opportunity to step up and make partnerships with different hospitals so we can help people on the front lines right now, Conroy said.

The University of St. Thomas has also been in contact with area restaurants interested in delivering meals made-to-order for professionals and has encouraged healthcare officials inquiring about room availability to send an email to RoomsforHeroes@stthom.edu.

St. Thomas has aimed to help in other ways as well.

Conroy has led efforts to produce N95 medical grade face masks. St. Thomas biology professor Shivas Amin used campus 3D printers to produce pieces of the mask, and worked with biology professor Rosie Rosell and engineering professor Matthew Zelisko to craft face shields.

The masks will first be used for the St. Thomas community, which will be accompanied by how-to videos that will show people how to create custom masks for their families.

Conroy said he has sent a sample to both Harris Health System and Baylor College of Medicine to see if it will work for hospitals.

The university also issued a hopeful message to Houston via a billboard along US-59 North at the Fannin Street exit that says Stay Safe and Be Healthy.

Staff writer Jenny Deam contributed to this report.

brittany.britto@chron.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 12:07:47|Editor: huaxia

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TRIPOLI, April 7 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations (UN) official condemned the recent attack on a hospital for COVID-19 patients in the Libyan capital Tripoli, saying it is a clear violation of international humanitarian law.

"I am appalled to have learned that heavy shelling hit Tripoli's Al Khadra General Hospital today, injuring at least one health worker and damaging the fully-functioning medical facility," Yacoub El Hillo, UN resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator in Libya, said in a statement.

"The repeated calls by the United Nations and the international community for a cessation of hostilities have only been met with complete disregard and intensified fighting. This is unacceptable at a time when healthcare and health workers are vital in our fight against a global pandemic," the statement said.

As of March, 27 health facilities have been damaged to varying degrees due to proximity of clashes, including 14 facilities that have been closed, and another 23 have been at risk of closure due to shifting lines of conflict, according to the statement.

The UN official called for an end to the military escalation to allow health authorities and aid agencies to respond to COVID-19 and continue to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to those in need.

"Libyan health authorities, together with the UN and our humanitarian partners, have been racing against time to contain the spread of the virus. If Libya is to have any chance against COVID-19, the ongoing conflict must come to an immediate halt," the statement said.

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has documented at least 356 civilian deaths and 329 injuries since the outbreak of a conflict between the east-based army and the UN-backed government in April 2019.

Since the beginning of the conflict, nearly 150,000 people in and around Tripoli have been forced to flee their homes, with 345,000 civilians remaining in frontline areas and some 749,000 living in conflict-affected areas, according to UNSMIL.
Limerick Fine Gael TD Kieran ODonnell has called for legislation on retirement villages to be prioritised and included in any new Programme for Government to ensure the effective operation and security of tenure for elderly residents living in such settings. Deputy O Donnell believes there would be cross-party support for such important and much needed legislation.

I am now calling for legislation on the effective operation of retirement homes to be prioritised and included in any new Programme for Government and I have already raised this within my own party of Fine Gael. This should be based on best practice in other countries. Furthermore, I believe there would cross-party support for such important and much needed legislation.

Whilst regulations are in place around the operation of nursing homes, it does not exist for retirement villages. Therefore, legislative and regulations certainty is required to provide clarity around this area. Elderly people who move to a retirement village do so for reasons of security and supports, with the firm expectation that this will be their home for as long as they require and that the support services advertised will continue to be provided. We must ensure the elderly who decide to move to a retirement village feel protected and secure.

This is a matter I feel strongly about and I will continue to pursue the advancement of this legislation on the operation of retirement villages.
By PTI

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said a decision on the coronavirus- enforced lockdown will be taken at an appropriate time after a review amid hints it may continue in the state beyond April 14.

A 21-day nationwide lockdown is in force since March 25 to facilitate social distancing and halt the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus.

Thackeray chaired a meeting of the cabinet, the first through video conferencing due to the outbreak, in which the situation prevailing in the state, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country, and available medical infrastructure were discussed, officials said.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 LIVE

Thackeray said a decision on the lockdown will be taken after April 14 (when the current shutdown ends).

"An appropriate decision (on extending or ending lockdown) would be taken after reviewing the prevailing situation," he said.

Availability of testing kits, medical facilities, essential commodities and community kitchens figured in the discussion during the cabinet meeting, a statement from the Chief Minister's Office said.

It said Thackeray has authorised district collectors to take decisions on posting of home guards, while local officials would decide on timings for distribution of essential items.
A makeshift coronavirus testing centre in Ivory Coast has been partially pulled down and ransacked by protesters amid fears it was too close to peoples homes.

More than 100 residents in Yopougon, an area in Abidjan, the countrys commercial capital, gathered on Sunday to protest against its construction.

Footage on social media shows a crowd of people taking down parts of the existing structure and setting light to tyres nearby.

On Monday, Ivory Coast police clashed with protesters at the site and used tear gas to disperse them.

Residents reportedly do not want the centre near their homes because they fear the facility will cause the virus to spread through the community.

Joel Blehi, one of those who objects to the building, said: "They want to kill us. We don't want this centre here.

However, police said patients with Covid-19 would not be treated at the site.

Charlemagne Bleu, a police spokesman, said: "There's been a lack of communication. It's more like a testing centre for residents.

He added that no one was injured in the clashes and that four arrests had been made.

The countrys health ministry said that it is one of several facilities under construction in Abidjan for voluntary testing purposes.

Ivory Coast authorities have imposed a night-time curfew and have closed schools, places of worship and most shops to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

The country has so far recorded 323 Covid-19 cases and three deaths from the virus.

Additional reporting from Reuters
The Cabinet of Ministers has instructed the Foreign Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the State Emergency Service to coordinate actions with relevant Italian authorities and to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to Italy.

The resolution to that effect, No. 81-r as of 6 April, has been published on the Government portal.

The document was approved "in accordance with Decree of the President of Ukraine, No. 129 as of April 3, 2020, On providing humanitarian aid to the Italian Republic to assist in overcoming the consequences of the emergency situation in the Italian Republic due to the spread of acute respiratory illness Covid-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2".

According to the document, the Interior Ministry and the State Emergency Service must ensure the delivery and transfer of humanitarian aid goods.

The Interior Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the State Emergency Service must coordinate with relevant agencies of the Italian Republic the issues of delivery and supply of humanitarian aid cargo.

In addition, the State Customs Service should ensure prompt customs clearance, and Administration of the State Border Guard Service should carry out the first priority control during the crossing of the humanitarian aid through the state border.

As reported, 20 Ukrainian doctors of the Interior Ministry and the Health Ministry departed to Italy on April 4 to help the Italian side within two weeks.

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Korea is inundated with orders for commodities linked to the coronavirus panic, from hand sanitizer and toilet paper to rice, which frantic shoppers have been hoarding overseas.

Retailers here appear to have a more efficient supply network, so none of the products have run out due to panic buying, and perhaps Korean shoppers are more disciplined than elsewhere.

A staffer at Homeplus received an e-mail on March 23 from a product developer at Singapore-based e-commerce platform Qoo10 seeking "as much private brand toilet paper as possible." It took only three days to sign the contract and load 2,000 rolls of toilet paper and boxed tissue on a container ship in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province on Monday.

The city state has been suffering from an acute shortage of some daily necessities and hoarding after neighboring Malaysia sealed its borders on March 18.

Singapore imports 90 percent of its major food products from Malaysia. The Homeplus staffer said, "We've been trying hard to find overseas clients for our condiments and confectionery but never thought we'd end up exporting such a large volume of toilet paper. We're also in talks with Qoo10 to export mineral water and other daily necessities."
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Linkedin Mardika Parama (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 16:37 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd05273e 1 Business bank-mandiri,COVID-19,donation,salary,informal-worker Free

State-owned Bank Mandiris employees are donating part of their salary to ease the economic burden on informal workers who have been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The donation will provide Rp 750,000 (US$46) per month for three months to each of a total of 1,000 informal workers, including parking attendees, online taxi drivers, street vendors and scavengers to ensure their monthly income amid the pandemic, according to Bank Mandiri human resources director Agus Dwi Handaya.

Read also: Bank Mandiri gives one-year life insurance plans to 35,000 medical workers

We will transfer Rp 750,000 to each person through the LinkAja [e-wallet] platform, he said as quoted in a statement on Tuesday.

Informal workers, who rely on daily earnings, are particularly affected by the social distancing policy to contain the virus, which limits peoples movement and disrupts businesses.

More than 70 million informal workers in Indonesia are extremely vulnerable in the economic downturn driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, as they are unregistered, unregulated and unprotected by a proper social safety net, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Informal workers account for more than 55 percent of the countrys total workforce, Statistics Indonesia data show.

Agus said the initiative was taken to ensure that the workers stayed at home and eventually minimized the spread of COVID-19.

Read also: COVID-19 to slash Indonesias growth to 2.1% as millions may slip into poverty: World Bank

The fight against COVID-19 needs support and cooperation from all the people. We hope the pandemic will recede so we can return to our normal lives and the national economy can improve, he said.

Official data show that the pneumonia-like disease had infected more 2,738 people in Indonesia as of Tuesday afternoon, with fatalities reaching 221.
Disclosure made according to the requirements of Article 14 of the law of 2 May 2007

Regulatory News:

Ontex Group NV (BSE:ONTEX) ("Ontex") discloses the notification of significant shareholdings that it has received according to the Belgian Law of 2 May 2007 on the disclosure of significant shareholdings in listed companies.

On March 31, 2020, Morgan Stanley notified Ontex that it holds, as a result of the acquisition of equivalent financial instruments, 4,380,377 voting rights attached to equivalent financial instruments in Ontex that may be acquired if all of the instruments are exercised, and so has crossed the 5.00% threshold of the total number of voting rights in Ontex to 5.32%. Morgan Stanley's total holding in Ontex at the time of this disclosure remains above the 5.00% threshold previously disclosed, at 5.51%.

According to its obligation Ontex publishes the content of the notifications that it has received.

Date of Notification: March 31, 2020

Date Threshold Crossed: March 26, 2020

Threshold Crossed: 5.00%

Notification by:

Morgan Stanley c/o The Corporation Trust Company (DE), Corporation Trust Center, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, Delaware, 19801, USA

Denominator on the dates of notification: 82,347,218 shares

Voting rights and assimilated financial instruments:

Notification of March 31, 2020:

(A) Voting rights Previous

notification After the transaction voting

rights voting rights of voting rights Holders of voting rights Linked to

securities Not linked

to securities Linked to

securities Not linked

to securities Morgan Stanley 0 0 0 0.00% 0.00% Morgan Stanley Co. International plc 599,606 151,289 0 0.18% 0.00% Morgan Stanley Europe SE 191,680 3,029 0 0.00% 0.00% Total 791,286 154,318 0 0.19% 0.00%

(B) Equivalent financial instruments After the transaction Holders of equivalent financial instruments Type of financial instrument Expiration

date Exercise

period or

date of voting

rights that

may be

acquired if the

instrument is

exercised of

voting

rights Settlement Morgan Stanley Co. LLC Right of recall over securities lending agreements at any time at any time 59,519 0.07% physical Morgan Stanley Co. International plc Right of recall over securities lending agreements at any time at any time 3,128,836 3.80% physical Morgan Stanley Europe SE Right of recall over securities lending agreements at any time at any time 1,192,022 1.45% physical TOTAL 4,380,377 5.32%

voting rights of voting rights TOTAL (A B) 4,534,695 5.51%

Additional information

Morgan Stanley's total holding in Ontex remains above the 5% threshold previously disclosed however the disclosure obligation arose due to equivalent financial instruments crossing above 5%. At the same time, Morgan Stanley Co. International plc's holding in equivalent financial instruments crossed above the 3% threshold in its own right.

Full chain of controlled undertakings through which the holding is effectively held

Chain of controlled undertakings for Morgan Stanley Co. International plc

Morgan Stanley Co. International plc, Legal Compliance Department, 25 Cabot Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 4QA, UNITED KINGDOM. is a direct holder and is a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Investments (UK)

Morgan Stanley Investments (UK), 20 Bank Street, Canary Wharf, London, E14 4AD, UNITED KINGDOM. is an indirect holder and is a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley International Limited

Morgan Stanley International Limited, 25 Cabot Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 4QA, UNITED KINGDOM. is an indirect holder and is a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley International Holdings Inc.

Morgan Stanley International Holdings Inc., c/o The Corporation Trust Company (DE), Corporation Trust Center, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, Delaware, 19801, USA. is an indirect holder and is a subsidiary of the beneficial owner, Morgan Stanley

Chain of controlled undertakings for Morgan Stanley Europe SE

Morgan Stanley Europe SE, Grosse Gallusstrasse 18, Frankfurt am Main, 60312, Germany. is a direct holder and is a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Europe Holding SE

Morgan Stanley Europe Holding SE, Grosse Gallusstrasse 18, Frankfurt am Main, 60312, Germany. is an indirect holder and is a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley International Limited

Morgan Stanley International Limited, 25 Cabot Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 4QA, UNITED KINGDOM. is an indirect holder and is a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley International Holdings Inc.

Morgan Stanley International Holdings Inc., c/o The Corporation Trust Company (DE), Corporation Trust Center, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, Delaware, 19801, USA. is an indirect holder and is a subsidiary of the beneficial owner, Morgan Stanley

Chain of controlled undertakings for Morgan Stanley Co. LLC

Morgan Stanley Co. LLC, c/o The Corporation Trust Company (DE), Corporation Trust Center, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, Delaware, 19801, USA. is a direct holder and is a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Domestic Holdings, Inc.

Morgan Stanley Domestic Holdings, Inc., c/o The Corporation Trust Company (DE), Corporation Trust Center, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, Delaware, 19801, USA. is an indirect holder and is a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Capital Management, LLC

Morgan Stanley Capital Management, LLC, c/o The Corporation Trust Company (DE), Corporation Trust Center, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, Delaware, 19801, USA. is an indirect holder and is a subsidiary of the beneficial owner, Morgan Stanley

Notifications of significant shareholdings to be made according to the Law of 2 May 2007 should be sent to: investorrelations@ontexglobal.com

This notification will be posted on: http://www.ontexglobal.com/press-room

About Ontex

Ontex is a leading international provider of personal hygiene solutions, with expertise in baby care, feminine care and adult care. Ontex's innovative products are distributed in more than 110 countries through Ontex brands such as BBTips, BioBaby, Pompom, Bigfral, Canbebe, Canped, ID and Serenity, as well as leading retailer brands.

Employing some 10,000 passionate people all over the world, Ontex has a presence in 21 countries, with its headquarters in Aalst, Belgium. Ontex is listed on Euronext Brussels and is part of the Bel Mid. To keep up with the latest news, visit www.ontex.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200406005836/en/

Contacts:

INVESTOR ENQUIRIES

Philip Ludwig

+32 53 333 730

investorrelations@ontexglobal.com

PRESS ENQUIRIES

Gaelle Vilatte

+32 53 333 708

gaelle.vilatte@ontexglobal.com
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to an intensive care unit on Monday after his coronavirus symptoms worsened, though his Downing Street office said he was still conscious.

Johnson, 55, was admitted to hospital on Sunday night and had been undergoing tests after suffering persistent coronavirus symptoms, including a high temperature, for more than 10 days.

British politicians and world leaders wished Johnson well. US President Donald Trump said all Americans were praying for his recovery.

Hes been really something very special - strong, resolute, doesnt quit, doesnt give up, Trump told a news briefing.

Im praying for my friend @BorisJohnsons full recovery from the coronavirus. He is a fighter, and I am hoping he will be back to his colorful self in no time. Get well soon, Boris! tweeted Kwvid McCarthy, Republican leader and representative of Californias 23rd District in the US House of Representatives.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent his best wishes, saying he hopes to see Johnson back at Number 10 soon. Sending my best wishes to Prime Minister @BorisJohnson for a full and speedy recovery. My thoughts are with you and your family right now. Hope to see you back at Number 10 soon, Trudeau tweeted.

Sending my best wishes to Prime Minister @BorisJohnson for a full and speedy recovery. My thoughts are with you and your family right now. Hope to see you back at Number 10 soon.  Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) April 6, 2020

Former Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron, posted a get well soon message for Johnson on Twitter. Thinking of @BorisJohnson and his family tonight. Get well soon. You are in great hands and we all want you safe, well and back in @10DowningStreet, he said in his Twitter post.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also tweeted to say he prays for Johnsons speedy recovery. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the People of Israel pray for the speedy and full recovery of our friend British Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the People of Israel pray for the speedy and full recovery of our friend British Prime Minister @BorisJohnson.  pic.twitter.com/hXojyXmD67  PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) April 6, 2020

Johnson tested positive for the virus on March 26 but after 10 days of isolation in an apartment at Downing Street, he was still fighting the virus on Sunday evening with a high temperature and persistent cough.

His spokesman had earlier refused to answer directly after being asked whether he had pneumonia. But his move to intensive care confirmed the gravity of the situation.
Bank of Nova Scotias $15 billion ($10.7 billion U.S.) of technology spending over the past five years is paying off during the coronavirus pandemic.

The investment has allowed 60 per cent of Scotiabanks roughly 100,000 employees to work from home, chief executive officer Brian Porter said Tuesday at the banks annual investors meeting. That mobilization, along with what Porter has called great stability in the lenders operating systems, has let Scotiabank continue serving customers around the world through the disruptions.

To date, tens of thousands of employees have been mobilized to work from home and provide seamless operations almost overnight, Porter said at the meeting.

Such capabilities have allowed the Toronto-based bank to reach people via their phones or at home quickly and easily, Porter said. We are using our digital capabilities to rapidly develop solutions for our customers, particularly credit relief.

Banks have been adjusting their operations for weeks amid coronavirus shutdowns around the world, expanding work-from-home policies, enforcing social distancing within offices, reducing branch hours and ramping up digital banking efforts.

For Scotiabank, whose operations span about 30 countries in regions including Latin America and the Caribbean, this is not business as usual.

We have reconfigured work spaces including installing plexiglass screens at our branches, Porter, 62, said. We are regularly updating our employees with relevant communications on all aspects of Covid-19. We are also hosting employee calls with nurses and our chief medical officer, so they can have their questions addressed.

The bank has offered additional paid leave, emergency paid leave and special payments to employees still working at branches or offices.

Porter also highlighted the impressive collaboration within Canada between government, policymakers and the banking regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, to help protect the economy from the worst impacts of the pandemic.

Canada is unique in that our leading banks, regulators, and government officials can work quickly and collaboratively to develop solutions, he said. The cooperation and coordination we have seen with the federal Ministry of Finance and other ministries, as well as provincial governments, the Bank of Canada, and OSFI has been impressive.

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Posters with tips to prevent the spread of the coronavirus hang on the side of a building at an IDP camp outside Myitkyina, capital of northern Myanmar's Kachin state, April 2020.

Internally displaced civilians who fled war in northern Myanmar are not heeding government orders and lockdowns to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, with hundreds continuing to work outside their camps so they can earn income to buy food amid shortages of humanitarian aid, camp and government officials said Tuesday.

About 200 people are going out of the IDP camps every day for work, said Bran Ming, leader of Jan Mai Kawng IDP camp on the outskirts of Myitkyina in Kachin state. Some of them have to go out twice a day.

They go to Myitkyina, the state capital, and to the nearby town of Waingmaw to work, while others head to friends houses for jobs or work in villages near the camp, he said.

Because they must work daily to survive, we cant lock down the camp, although we want to, Bran Ming said.

Some people have donated face masks and hand soap, but the supplies are far from enough for the roughly 2,000 IDPs living at the Jan Mai Kawng camp, he added.

Armed conflict between ethnic armies and the Myanmar military in Kachin state have displaced nearly 100,000 civilians who are now living in 138 camps in government-controlled, ethnic army-controlled, and contested areas, according to a report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issued Jan. 31.

The IDPS in Kachin state have been displaced since 2011, when a 17-year bilateral cease-fire broke down between Myanmar forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of Myanmar's main ethnic armed groups. Though the warring sides have not engaged in any recent clashes there, the IDPs still believe that it is not yet safe enough for them to return to their permanent homes.

Ample warnings about the spread of the coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, are not holding people back from doing what they have to do to ensure they have enough food to eat, some IDPs said. They also appear unfazed about potentially transmitting the pathogen to other displaced people.

People have to go outside and work for their survival, said camp resident Ywe Ja. But we cant say if they are bringing in the virus from the outside, given their contact with others.

If we dont leave the camp and just stay here, then that will be problematic for our survival, she said. Thats why we want authorities to provide food for the IDPs, so we wont need to go out.

RFAs Myanmar Service heard similar complaints from officials in other camps in the region.

We are in trouble when it comes to food because we cant leave the camp to go out and work, said Daung Zay, leader of Tat Kone IDP camp on the outskirts of Myitkyina.

Nay Win, Kachin states minister of municipal affairs, said officials will provide basic food for the IDPs for a fixed period.

We will provide rice for all IDP camps for two weeks, he said. We also will work on helping them by providing whatever else they need.

People are struggling

As of Tuesday, Myanmar registered 22 confirmed cases of the coronavirus with one fatality.

The Myanmar government has ordered the closure of all land border checkpoints to foreign tourists, put in place a mandatory 14-day quarantine for foreigners and Myanmar nationals returning to the country, and prohibited public gatherings.

Some state and regional governments have mandated lockdowns to contain the spread of the virus, ordering residents to remain at home and only go out to buy food or receive medical care. Some have also temporarily suspended public transportation.

Myanmars national level COVID-19 response team said Monday that the government would provide rice, cooking oil, and lentils to those without an income during the 10-day Thingyan New Year holiday beginning April 10.

The announcement was welcomed by people who have temporarily lost their jobs or are struggling to make a living amid a drop off in business.

Struggling people such as trishaw drivers, vendors, and construction workers will receive some rice, cooking oil, salt, beans, and onions starting on April 10, said Win Naing, administrator of ward No. 20 in Yangons South Dagon township.

It will support us a lot, a local motorcyclist who gave his name as Chan told RFA. Some have said that they would die starving. The governments support plan is good for families with two or three people, but large families will continue to struggle.

Lar Htaung Htan, minister of Chin ethnic affairs in northwestern Myanmars Sagaing region, said that supplemental help from outside organizations would help ordinary people get though the lockdown during the holiday period.

Its hard to know if the governments plan will be sufficient, but with the help of NGOs, public donations, and other organizations, the situation will go smoothly.

The Sagaing regional government has ordered a two-week lockdown starting April 7 and is providing food and funds to the regions 34 townships to pay for their daily operations.

Reported by Elizabeth Jangma and Waiyan Moe Myint for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar and Maung Maung Nyo. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Dancehall musician, Shatta Wale, says Sarkodie doesnt respect humanity otherwise he wouldnt be engaging in a rap feud with rappers amid the coronavirus pandemic.



Sarkodie released a new song dubbed Sub Zero and has since garnered over 150k views on YouTube where he shredded defunct rapper Asem.



But Shatta Wale, reacting to the beef, said Sarkodie should know people are dying, hence shouldnt take opportunity of the lockdown moment to amuse his fans.



According to Shatta Wale, Ghanaians wouldnt let him know peace if he were to be the one throwing shots in an interview on TV3.



Meanwhile, Sarkodie has fired back at Shatta Wale saying he doesnt have his time, hence the Ayoo hitmaker should stop fooling.









This is not time to drop diss songs when people are dying - Shatta Wale blasts Sarkodie over Sub Zero release and poos on @ReggieRockstones legacy pic.twitter.com/e343ERF2GE

 King Sel (@SelTheBomb) April 7, 2020









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Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 10:57:47|Editor: huaxia

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TAIYUAN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Steven Forster, a German teacher, felt that he had walked into the set of a disaster movie when returning to north China's Shanxi Province from his motherland in early February.

Shanxi's capital city Taiyuan is like a second home to Forster as he has taught there for more than 10 years. He also lived there through the SARS epidemic in 2003, but said he was in awe of how disciplined everyone was as there were hardly any people on the streets when he returned from his recent trip.

After the novel coronavirus struck, Shanxi launched its top-level public health emergency response to the epidemic on Jan. 25.

Forster was required to undergo home quarantine for 14 days from his arrival date. His colleague in the English training institution helped him order groceries online and he got clear guidelines from the Shanxi Provincial Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs. After the quarantine, he could go out shopping with his gate pass.

As the epidemic is gradually brought under control in China, life is getting back to normal. Shanxi downgraded its emergency response from level two to level three on March 10.

"Sometimes we have to make sacrifices to guarantee our safety," he said.

He added that self-discipline played a vital role not only in quarantine but also in ubiquitous inspections before entering apartments, supermarkets, shopping centers and other places, which were useful to track people if COVID-19 cases were found.

"My Chinese friends' capability of stepping up, making sacrifices and following rules strictly in crises has been confirmed during this difficult period," he said.

Matthew Thomas, a 25-year-old teacher from Britain, agreed on this point.

"China has set an example on how to stay at home. I'm very happy that everyone did well at the most difficult moment in the fight against the outbreak, that's why it's getting better here," he said.

During his stay at home, Thomas began to learn cooking, gave his students online lessons, studied Chinese and played online games. The days passed with relish.

"China is quite different from other countries. Chinese people are disciplined," said Natalia Kuranova from Russia, who has been in China for just five months.

In her eyes, staying at home is very useful for epidemic prevention, but also easily ignored by people in other countries. Thus, she talked to her relatives and friends in Russia every day and urged them to stay at home, wear masks and wash hands.

She said her parents would follow the advice, but some of her friends still wanted to get together, which made her feel helpless.

"At the very beginning, they worried about me, but now I'm worrying about them," she said.
Hatred against Jewish people has spiked in Germany amid the coronavirus crisis, officials have revealed.

Officials have reported a 'boom in conspiracy theories' since the crisis began, including one that states the pandemic is the result of a failed Israeli bioweapon test.

Coronavirus has killed 1,607 in Germany alone with 99,225 people infected.

The government's anti-Semitism commissioner Felix Klein described hatred against Jewish people as a virus of its own that is 'contagious on a social level'

The government's anti-Semitism commissioner Felix Klein said: 'There are direct links between the current spread of the coronavirus and that of anti-Semitism.'

Speaking at the launch of a new government research project into the issue, he described anti-Semitism as a virus of its own that is 'contagious on a social level'.

This graph shows the daily number of new coronavirus cases in Germany, which has stayed below 4,000 for two days running

This graph shows the daily number of deaths. After falling to 92 yesterday, the number was back up to 173 today

He added: 'There is a boom in conspiracy theories in times of crisis.'

He cited claims circulating online that the pandemic is the result of a failed bioweapon test by the Israeli secret service as an example.

'In recent weeks, right-wing radicals have increasingly tried to leverage the coronavirus crisis for their own ends,' Mr Klein added.

Anti-Semitic crimes have increased steadily in Germany in recent years.

Medical staff in protective suits and masks treat a coronavirus patient in an intensive care unit at a community hospital in Berlin yesterday

A medical worker presses a screen while wearing gloves at the Havelhoehe community hospital in Berlin yesterday

The country recorded 1,799 anti-Semitic offences in 2018, up nearly 20 percent on the year before. Of those, 69 were classed as violent attacks.

Last October, a suspected neo-Nazi gunman tried to storm a synagogue filled with worshippers in the city of Halle.

After failing to break down the door, he shot dead a female passer-by and a man at a kebab shop instead.

With 12 million euros of funding between 2021 and 2025, the new research project involving several German universities will aim 'to better understand the causes and manifestations of anti-Semitism,' according to Education and Research Minister Anja Karliczek.

Germany added fewer than 4,000 cases to its coronavirus tally for the second day running today, in the latest promising sign that the peak may have passed.

The increase of 3,834 cases follows a similar jump of 3,677 yesterday, bringing the total number of infections from 95,391 to 99,225.

The 4.0 per cent rise is almost identical to yesterday's increase, which was the lowest since the crisis began.

However, the jump of 173 deaths is higher than yesterday's 92, bringing the total from 1,434 to 1,607.
Department store Debenhams, which has five stores and around 700 staff in Northern Ireland, is on the brink of administration for the second time in a year, the company has confirmed.

The retailer has units in several shopping centres - Belfast's CastleCourt, Craigavon's Rushmere, Ballymena's Fairhill, Londonderry's Foyleside and Newry's Quays.

With 142 stores closed and the majority of the 22,000 staff on furlough, the current owners want to push the business into administration then buy it back debt-free.

Debenhams explained: "This move will protect Debenhams from the threat of legal action that could have the effect of pushing the business into liquidation while its 142 UK stores remain closed in line with the Government's current advice regarding the Covid-19 pandemic."

The company filed a notice of intent to appoint administrators from FRP Advisory to oversee the process.

It added that it is making preparations to open again once Government restrictions are lifted. "The group is preparing to enter a 'light touch' administration that will see the existing management team remain in place under the direct control and supervision of the administrators," it said.

The majority of its employees in the UK are currently being paid under the Government's furlough scheme, after its stores closed following the shutdown of non-essential shops.

It added that it continues to trade online across the UK, Ireland and Denmark and customer orders, gift cards and returns are being accepted and processed normally.

Debenhams said it has the support of its lenders to enter administration and is engaging with employees and suppliers over the move.

The historic retailer has closed 22 shops in recent months as part of plans to shut 50 sites and bring its total estate to 110.

The announcement comes amid reports that lifestyle retailer Cath Kidston is also set to appoint administrators, while rival Laura Ashley has said it will permanently close 70 stores after sliding into administration. There is one standalone Cath Kidston store in Belfast, in Arthur Street.

Julie Palmer, partner at Begbies Traynor, said staff at Debenhams had been left in a "a precarious position" and were likely to struggle to get new employment during the ongoing uncertainty.

The Consumer Council of Northern Ireland urged anyone with a Debenhams gift card to spend it online as soon as possible.

However, with Cath Kidston up for sale, it would be at a new owner's discretion whether or not to honour gift cards, consumer council chief executive John French said.

However, if vouchers had been purchased using credit or debit card, it may be possible to secure a refund from the card issuer, Mr French added.
A judge in Senegal has granted Chads former President Hissene Habre two months leave from prison, where he is serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity, as the jail is being used to hold new detainees in coronavirus quarantine.

Habre, who ruled Chad from 1982 to 1990, was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at an African Union-backed trial in the Senegalese capital Dakar in 2016.

A Chadian commission of inquiry estimated 40,000 people were killed by his regime.





After he was overthrown, Habre fled to Senegal and for more than 20 years lived freely in an upmarket Dakar suburb with his wife and children.

Dubbed Africas Pinochet, Habre was finally arrested in 2013 and tried by a special tribunal set up by the African Union under a deal with Senegal.

His trial set a global precedent as the first time a country had prosecuted the former leader of another nation for rights abuses, and was seen as a landmark example of African rights abuses being tried on the continent.



Since his conviction, the ex-leader in his late 70s has been serving his sentence in a penal establishment in Cap Manuel, at the tip of the peninsula where Dakar is located.

His lawyer Mamadou Diawara had requested 60 days leave for Habre as, due to his age, he was particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the judges order obtained by the AFP news agency on Monday.

Judge Boubacar Ndiaye noted that the Cap Manuel prison has been selected by the Senegalese authorities to hold newly arrested detainees in solitary confinement while they are in quarantine to avoid possible spread of COVID-19 in the jail.

He granted a 60-day leave to Habre, to be served at his home in Ouakam, a district of Dakar, and ordered him to return to prison on its expiry.

An association of victims of his regime last week said, The health crisis should not be used as an excuse for the early release of Hissene Habre.

Senegal has registered 226 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and two deaths.
About 160 members of Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackerys security team have been quarantined in Bandra East and their swab samples have been taken for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) test, civic health officials said on Tuesday.

The decision was taken after a tea seller close to Matoshree, Thackerays residence in Kalanagar, tested positive on Monday. He has been admitted at the Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Trauma Care Municipal Hospital in Jogeshwari.

Around 160 staffers in the CMs security squad who possibly came in contact with the tea seller have been quarantined for necessary tests, said Daksha Shah, deputy director of the health department, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

However, there is no need to panic; this is our protocol to identify possible high-risk and low-risk contacts to avoid further spread of the disease, said Shah.

Following this, the state government has replaced all staffers deployed at Matoshree. The body temperature of all security staffers will be taken on a daily basis.

The civic body has also identified four high-risk contacts of the tea seller, including a six-month-old baby, who has been isolated.

As a precautionary measure, the security staff of Ramdas Athawale, the Union minister of state for social justice, has been replaced on Tuesday morning. Athawale is a resident of Bandra East.
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151,680 Europeans and UK Residents Projected to Die in 'First Wave' of Pandemic

Significant Shortage Projected for Hospital Beds, ICU Beds, and Ventilators

'Unequivocally evident that social distancing can help control the trajectory of the pandemic'

SEATTLE, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- New COVID-19 estimates find that, among European nations, the peak daily death rate from the pandemic will occur during the third week of April, with the pandemic spreading from Southern Europe.

The new forecasts, released today by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington's School of Medicine, find that approximately 151,680 people will die during what researchers are calling the "first wave" of the pandemic. By comparison, the US is expected to face 81,766 deaths, according to forecasts released on Sunday by IHME.

"We are expecting a foreboding few weeks for people in many parts of Europe," said IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray. "It seems likely the number of deaths will exceed our projections for the United States."

This is despite the declines in deaths that are now occurring in Italy and Spain.

The death toll in many countries is compounded by demand for hospital resources well in excess of what is available. For example, peak demand in the UK is expected to total 102,794 hospital beds needed compared to 17,765 available, 24,544 ICU beds compared to 799 ICU beds available, and 20,862 ventilators needed (with data currently unavailable on ventilators available).

Today's announcement on Europe finds that most regions of Italy and Spain have passed their peaks in the number of deaths, while other nations are approaching their peaks and still others facing peak mortality later in April.

Countries that are about to peak or are quickly approaching peak in this wave of the epidemic include The Netherlands, Ireland, Austria, and Luxembourg. The Czech Republic and Romania are midway through their expected trajectories. Other nations including the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, and Greece are still early in their trajectories and face fast-rising death tolls through their peaks in the second and third weeks of April.

"It is unequivocally evident that social distancing can, when well implemented and maintained, control the epidemic, leading to declining death rates," Murray said. "Those nations hit hard early on implemented social distancing orders and may have the worst behind them as they are seeing important progress in reducing their death rates. Each nation's trajectory will change  and dramatically for the worse  if people ease up on social distancing or relax other precautions."

Murray cautioned that easing these precautions too soon during the first wave of the pandemic could lead to new rounds of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. He defines the end of this "wave" as a ratio of 0.3 deaths per 1 million people. IHME's projections assume that social distancing measures, if not currently implemented, will be implemented within one week.

"To decrease the risk of a second wave in places where the first wave is controlled by robust social distancing, governments would need to consider mass testing, contact tracing, and quarantines for those infected until a vaccination is available, mass produced, and distributed widely," Murray said.

IHME started making projections of the pandemic's impact in the United States state-by-state on March 26. Today's announcement is the first set of predictions for European nations and is based on modeling the peak in death rates and hospital usage in Wuhan City in China, where the virus was first discovered, as well as data from seven European locations that have peaked, including Madrid, Spain; Castile-La Mancha, Spain; Tuscany, Italy; Emilia-Romagna, Italy; Liguria, Italy; Piedmont, Italy; and Lombardy, Italy.

Of these eight locations that have reached the peak regarding daily deaths, only one, Wuhan, has currently brought new cases to nearly zero.

The analysis is based on an extensive range of information and data sources, including:

Local governments, national governments, and the World Health Organization

Government declarations on implementation of social distancing policies

Age-specific death rate data from China , Italy , South Korea , and the US

Here are some country-specific findings from IHME's latest forecasting:

ITALY : The first wave of the pandemic has peaked in Italy , and peak resource use for ICU beds and ventilators was on March 28 . Deaths are forecast to peak in Calabria on April 7 , and in Puglia on April 16 . On April 6 , 699 daily deaths were projected, with only three provinces ( Lombardy , Piedmont, and Emilia-Romagna ) seeing more than 50 deaths daily.





: The first wave of the pandemic has peaked in , and peak resource use for ICU beds and ventilators was on . Deaths are forecast to peak in on , and in Puglia on . On , 699 daily deaths were projected, with only three provinces ( , Piedmont, and ) seeing more than 50 deaths daily. SPAIN : Almost all regions of Spain are at or past the peak. Excess demand for ICU beds is particularly high in Spain compared to many other countries in Europe . The forecasts predict 19,209 total deaths from COVID-19 in Spain by August 4 .





: Almost all regions of are at or past the peak. Excess demand for ICU beds is particularly high in compared to many other countries in . The forecasts predict 19,209 total deaths from COVID-19 in by . PORTUGAL : Deaths in Portugal peaked on April 3 with an estimated 37 deaths. The model shows that while Portugal did not have a total bed shortage, it did not have enough ICU beds to meet demand, with the shortage peaking at 118 ICU beds on April 3 . The model predicts 471 total deaths in the country by August 4 .





: Deaths in peaked on with an estimated 37 deaths. The model shows that while did not have a total bed shortage, it did not have enough ICU beds to meet demand, with the shortage peaking at 118 ICU beds on . The model predicts 471 total deaths in the country by . FRANCE : The model shows that France is just passing the peak and will have a total of 15,058 deaths by August 4 . The country is expected to have enough total beds to meet demand, but a shortage of 4,330 ICU beds. The forecasts predict 6,091 ICU beds will be needed for COVID-19 patients in France .





: The model shows that is just passing the peak and will have a total of 15,058 deaths by . The country is expected to have enough total beds to meet demand, but a shortage of 4,330 ICU beds. The forecasts predict 6,091 ICU beds will be needed for COVID-19 patients in . GERMANY : Deaths in Germany are forecast to peak in the third week of April, with an estimated 377 deaths on April 19 . The model shows that Germany will have enough beds and ICU beds to meet demand, with the required number of total beds peaking at 12,222 on April 14 , and predicts 8,802 total deaths in the country by August 4 .





: Deaths in are forecast to peak in the third week of April, with an estimated 377 deaths on . The model shows that will have enough beds and ICU beds to meet demand, with the required number of total beds peaking at 12,222 on , and predicts 8,802 total deaths in the country by . SWEDEN : Deaths in Sweden are forecast to peak the last week of April, with an estimated 134 deaths on April 24 . The model shows that Sweden will not have enough beds and ICU beds to meet demand, with the shortage peaking at 1,090 ICU beds on April 25 , and predicts 4,182 total deaths in the country by August 4 .

UK: Deaths in the UK are forecast to peak the third week of April, with an estimated 2,932 deaths on April 17 . The model shows that the UK will not have enough beds and ICU beds to meet demand, with the shortage peaking at 23,745 ICU beds on April 17 , and predicts 66,314 total deaths in the country by August 4 .

For the complete update, please visit http://www.healthdata.org/covid/updates.

For a video of Dr. Murray summarizing key points of IHME's COVID-19 data analysis for Europe, please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vM0pwEulCs&feature=youtu.be

Contact: media@healthdata.org

For Italy: Gianluca Giansante, Gianluca.giansante@cominandpartners.com,

+39 3409017753

Orsola Randi, orsola.randi@cominandpartners.com, +39 3393273672



For Spain: Andrea Joseph, andreamarianajoseph1@gmail.com, +5491159790368



For UK and other European nations:

Oliver Courtney, oliver.courtney@digacommunications.com, +447815 731889

Jon Date, jon.date@digacommunications.com, +44 7533011983

NOTE: Dr. Murray will conduct a briefing for journalists on the new Europe COVID-19 forecasts on Tuesday, April 7

WHO: Dr. Christopher Murray, Founder and Director, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington's School of Medicine



WHAT: Briefing for journalists on new Europe forecasts on COVID-19



WHEN: 6 AM (Pacific Time); 3 PM (Central European Time); 2 PM (UK Time),

Tuesday, April 7, 2020



WHERE: Via Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/382600333

Meeting ID: 382 600 333

Find your local number: https://washington.zoom.us/u/ac7iy5zTFE

NOTE: Hospital administrators, government officials, and others not associated with the news media may contact COVID19@healthdata.org.

IHME is grateful to the Microsoft AI for Health program for supporting our hosting of COVID-19 data visualizations in the Azure cloud.

About the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent global health research organization at the University of Washington School of Medicine that provides rigorous and comparable measurement of the world's most important health problems and evaluates the strategies used to address them. IHME is committed to transparency and makes this information widely available so that policymakers have the evidence they need to make informed decisions on allocating resources to improve population health.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1141750/IHME_Logo.jpg

Related Links

http://www.healthdata.org



SOURCE Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
WASHINGTON  Pressure mounted Tuesday to remove the acting Navy secretary, presenting a stark choice for Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper: Convince President Donald Trump that his appointment to the Navys top civilian job, Thomas B. Modly, is no longer fit to serve or allow a controversy ignited by Modly to engulf the entire military.

Esper has carefully followed the administration line since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, including urging military commanders overseas not to make any decisions related to the virus that might surprise the White House or run afoul of Trumps confident messaging on the growing health challenge.

But Modly may have taken Espers warning too far when he rebuked the crew and captain of a nuclear aircraft carrier.

Modly fired a respected Navy captain after he implored officials for help as the coronavirus spread across the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. Modly then flew to Guam and berated the carriers crew. With those actions, Modly turned what could have been a straightforward health matter into a political crisis.

Even Trump, who initially backed Modlys handling of the issue, seemed to be having second thoughts Monday.

I may look into it, the president told reporters, from the standpoint that something should be resolved.

Esper, as the civilian head of the Defense Department, can fire Modly, as he did in November when the prior Navy secretary ran afoul of Trump over the presidents action to protect a Navy SEAL accused of a war crime. But Esper will not do so without getting approval from Trump, Defense Department officials said.

The issue has reached a boiling point as a number of lawmakers say they have lost confidence in Modly. They were mad last week when he fired Capt. Brett E. Crozier after the captain wrote his letter to Navy officials asking for more help to fight coronavirus aboard the Roosevelt. But Modlys decision to then fly the 8,000 miles to Guam, where the ship is docked, and deliver a 15-minute tirade at the crew has infuriated members of Congress, military families and even senior Defense Department civilians and military officers.

Acting Secretary Modlys decision to address the sailors on the Roosevelt and personally attack Captain Crozier shows a tone-deaf approach more focused on personal ego than one of the calm, steady leadership we so desperately need in this crisis, said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. I no longer have confidence in Acting Secretary Modlys leadership of the Navy and believe he should be removed from his position.

Smith is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, which has oversight responsibility over the military services.

Our sailors deserve better. The only way to restore confidence in Naval leadership is for the immediate termination of the Acting @SECNAV by @EsperDoD, tweeted Rep. Elaine Luria, a Virginia Democrat who is also on the committee.

Active-duty military personnel would not be expected to openly criticize their civilian leadership. But retired officers were weighing in.

ACTING SEC NAVY MUST RESIGN, tweeted retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey. This is the worst judgment by a defense official possible. Terrible signal to sailors.

Inside the Pentagon, many officials said that they do not see how Modly can continue as acting secretary. Officials expressed anger over what they characterized as his lack of respect for the enlisted rank and file, particularly now, in the middle of a health pandemic.

During his 30-minute visit to the Roosevelt on Monday, Modly called Crozier either too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this. He complained that Croziers letter for help caused a political headache for Guam. And he berated the crew for cheering their captain as he left the ship.

As audio of Modlys remarks spread across the military ranks and throughout social media more broadly, the acting Navy secretary first doubled down Monday.

I stand by every word I said, he said in a statement the Navy emailed to reporters.

By Monday night, though, after the chorus calling for his removal grew and Trump indicated he was going to look into the matter, Modly had changed his tune.

I want to apologize to the Navy for my recent comments to the crew of the TR, he said in a statement. I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid.

Smith, the House committee chairman, said Tuesday that he was not swayed by Modlys late-night apology.

After that speech on the carrier, I just dont see how he can lead the Navy, Smith said in a conference call with reporters. He will have a heck of a time getting the confidence of the Navy back.

Military officials also appeared worried about the damage that Modlys visit had done to the morale of the Roosevelts crew.

On Tuesday, Vice Adm. William R. Merz, a top Navy official for the Pacific region, paid his own visit to the Roosevelt in Guam. He addressed the crew over the ships loudspeaker before entering one of the hangar bays where he took questions from the crew  something Modly did not do Monday  for more than an hour and a half.

It was a welcome change from Modlys arrival, a crew member said, adding that Merz plans to stay aboard for several days.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Royal Dutch Shell is seen at a petrol station in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw

By Jessica Jaganathan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell said on Tuesday its Australian unit and joint venture partners had decided to delay a final investment decision (FID) on the Crux gas project in offshore Australia that was initially planned for 2020.

The Crux project is one of several globally that have been delayed in recent months following the collapse in energy prices.

LNG demand had been hitting record highs until recently thanks to appetite from China and India as they diversify away from dirtier coal power generation, but the crash in oil and gas prices has caused major LNG exporters to put off gigantic new facilities or expansions of existing projects.

Shell and its joint venture partners decided to delay the FID "due to the global economic downturn, including the sharp drop in oil price, declining markets and uncertainties with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic," a spokeswoman said in a statement emailed to Reuters, adding that Shell remained committed to developing Crux.

"This is consistent with Shell's global approach of actively managing all operational and financial levers, including reducing capital spend," she added. In late March, Shell said that it had pulled out of a major U.S. LNG export plant in Louisiana, citing the crash in energy prices.

Crux, owned by Shell, Osaka Gas and a unit of Seven Group Holdings, is one of several gas fields that have been awaiting development off northwestern Australia.

The project will be developed to supply backfill gas to the Prelude floating LNG facility off northwest Australia.

Cargo liftings from Shell's Prelude facility, which is the world's largest floating LNG facility, has been suspended since February following an electrical trip.

Making a final investment decision on capital intensive projects such as LNG will be challenging this year, Gavin Thompson, vice chairman of energy at Wood Mackenzie's energy division, told Reuters late last month.

"If you look at the upstream industry, preserving cash on balance sheet is absolute priority. So FIDing any new projects that are very capital intensive right now, shareholders don't want to do that," he said.

(Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; Editing by Edmund Blair and Susan Fenton)
There is sufficient supply of personal protective equipment for frontline workers in Northern Ireland ahead of the coronavirus surge, Robin Swann has said.

The regions health minister was speaking as the first delivery of a 5.5 million item order of PPE arrived in Belfast.

Mr Swann saw the boxes of masks and aprons stacked high at one of the main distribution centres on Monday.

Health Minister Robin Swann visits PPE distribution centre as NHS deliveries begin.



https://t.co/QX1d6fSO7M pic.twitter.com/Q1A5tEmJUG  Department of Health (@healthdpt) April 6, 2020

The first consignment included 1.3 aprons million and 307,800 FFP3 respirator masks.

Type IIR masks and goggles will be among the next deliveries.

It comes after concern was expressed by nurses about the supply of FFP3 masks, and the issue sparked rows within the Stormont executive.

On Friday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that Northern Ireland would receive five million items of PPE.

The first batch arrived in the region early on Monday with the remainder of the order expected over the coming days.

Expand Close Northern Ireland health minister Robin Swann during a visit to a Personal Protection Equipment distribution centre in Belfast (Michael Cooper/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Northern Ireland health minister Robin Swann during a visit to a Personal Protection Equipment distribution centre in Belfast (Michael Cooper/PA)

Mr Swann visited the south Belfast warehouse which is part of the HSCs Business Services Organisation.

He said there is sufficient PPE supply for the current demand and efforts will continue to actively model projected demand.

There is expected to be a second surge of Covid-19 later this year.

The minister also paid tribute to the teams that have been putting in a lot of time to make sure the supply is distributed across the region.

The challenge to us is to make sure we have the PPE in the right place at the right time, the stock is here to support our staff in what they are doing at this crucial time, he said.

I want to make clear that we have sufficient PPE supply for current demand and will continue to actively model projected demand.

As I have stated, theres not a country in the world that can definitively say it has enough PPE in stock, given the global uncertainty about the path this virus will take.

We are continuing to proactively pursue all feasible PPE supply routes, both international and local.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said the UK government stands ready to provide more PPE.

The outbreak of coronavirus is the biggest challenge we have faced in a generation which is why the UK government has put in place an unprecedented package of measures to support the whole of the UK through this challenging time, he said.

I am pleased we have been able to move quickly to provide five million additional items of PPE to the Northern Ireland Executive, and we stand ready to provide more in the weeks ahead.

We will continue to work closely with the NI Executive to do everything it takes to get through this together.

Mr Swann also acknowledged staff concerns on PPE.

Thats why Im here because I want to show those health staff we have the PPE here, he said.

I recognise that its not enough for me to simply say our stocks are significant or sufficient for current pressures.

We need to make sure our distribution and deployment to all frontline settings is the best it can be  and that all staff know where to turn within their organisations when they have concerns or questions.

Frontline settings include hospitals, ambulance crews, primary care Covid centres, care homes, domiciliary care workers and other parts of the system where staff are working flat out to care for people.

Newly updated UK-wide NHS PPE guidance has been issued in recent days, providing detailed guidelines on the types of PPE required for different clinical settings.

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Royal College of Nursing and Royal College of Midwives were involved in developing the guidance.
(Natural News) The nationwide shutdown of restaurants, bars, schools and other establishments that serve food due to the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) is hitting many food providers, as well as farmers, where it hurts.

Dairy producers, as one prominent example, are having to dump thousands of gallons of milk because demand for this product has reached epic lows.

Since high-volume customers are no longer operating at capacity, or at all, theres a glut of milk with no one to buy it all, just like theres currently a glut of oil and gasoline as demand has plummeted.

At the Golden E. Dairy near West Bend in Wisconsin, farmer Ryan Elbe reportedly told WISN-TV that his farm is having to dump about 30,000 gallons, or 113,562 liters, per day of milk because theres nowhere for it to go.

Many other dairies throughout Wisconsin face similar over-supply situations, seeing as how about one-third of the states dairy products, mostly cheese, is sold in the food service trade as opposed to in retail stores.

Its a strange phenomenon as toilet paper, paper towels, and other paper products remain in short supply, even as staples like milk sit on store shelves and rot because not enough customers are buying them.

The coronavirus outbreak has caused milk prices to drop down to unprofitable levels this spring, right when we need money to buy supplies for the spring planting season, stated dairy farmer John Rettler of Neosho, Wisconsin, and president of the FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative in Madison.

Others in the industry are issuing warnings to dairy cooperatives that they need to brace for the further dumping of milk and scaling down of production due to the extreme nature of the coronavirus situation and the impact on the economy.

Listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, provides tips about how to end this pandemic sooner rather than later:

Dairy farmers had just returned milk prices to profitable levels following more than five years of operating in the red, then coronavirus struck

This is an especially difficult time for the dairy industry as milk prices have been lagging below profitable levels for at least the past five years. There was just about to be some light at the end of the tunnel as of February, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

In 2019 alone, some 820 Wisconsin dairy producers quit the business, which amounts to about two closures per day. And now with the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), there are likely to be many more following their lead.

Now, farmers are simply looking for ways to ensure their milk continues to get picked up in the coming weeks as the situation continues to play out, Rettler added, noting that optimism is quickly fading within the Wisconsin dairy industry.

While the $2 trillion economic stimulus package signed by President Donald Trump includes about $14 billion for supporting farm income and crop prices, as well as $9.5 billion for dairy and livestock farmers, it remains unknown how this allotted money will actually be distributed to individual farmers who are suffering as a result of the crisis.

It is hard to have perspective when the rules of how things work are continuously shifting under your feet, laments Kevin Bernhardt, a dairy economist at the University of Wisconsin  Platteville.

Markets are evaporating as restaurants and schools shutter and exports stall, added Darin Von Rude, a Wisconsin dairy farmer and president of the trade group Wisconsin Farmers Union, who believes that the stimulus package could provide some hope for farmers like himself trying to stay afloat.

Farm labor is in short supply with borders closing and falling commodity prices are decimating farm income. Without this important support, many farms wont be able to last the summer.

To keep up with the latest about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) news, be sure to check out Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

Breitbart.com

APNews.com

NaturalNews.com
Kolkata: Assam Police has issued the last and final call to those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Delhis Nizamuddin Markaz in the last month, according to a statement.

This is the final appeal to those people, who have come to Assam after being present at the Nizamuddin Markaz or have been to a state or country affected by COVID-19, recently. All such individuals are requested to present themselves at the nearest hospital or primary health center by 6 am tomorrow, i.e. April 7, 2020," the statement said on Monday (April 7).

It further stated that "They may also call on Helpline no. 104 for informing the authorities of their presence and condition.

The notice said if those who attended the religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz and failed to report by Tuesday morning, they will invite strict legal action against them.

It further added, If such persons deliberately fail to present themselves by the given deadline, 6 am on April 7, 2020, or inform the authorities, strict legal action will be taken against the concerned individuals, their shelters or those having knowledge of such travel history have hidden it, under relevant provisions of IPC and Disaster Management Act 2005.

This apart, the Assam Police also thanked the socially responsible citizens who have come forward and presented themselves or shared information or appealed to their fellow citizens to come forward and declare themselves.
Almost 100,000 customers of banks have already indicated that they will continue to repay their loans, writes hvg.hu.

Inquiries continue to arrive at financial institutions regarding the payment moratorium announced on March 18, OTP Bank, K&H Bank and CIB Bank said.



Last week, Takarekbank, Erste and Raiffeisen announced that tens of thousands of their customers were still choosing to repay their loans



Banks are asking their clients to apply primarily through internet banking apps or bank websites if they wish to continue to repay their credit, hvg.hu adds.



MTI Photo
We learned Monday afternoon that Midland cases climbed by 4 to a total of 22. In all, Michigan has 17,221 cases with 727 deaths. Read more: Midland confirms 4 new coronavirus cases Monday.

Uncertain times and prolonged isolation are affecting many in the community, especially the elderly population. Senior Services has been regularly checking up on seniors, making sure they are stocked up on meals and checking on their wellbeing: Official: Seniors concerned but resilient during coronavirus shutdown.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Governments cluster containment strategy to tackle COVID-19 has yielded good results, and curbing the spread of the infection will become difficult if lockdown measures for social distancing are not followed, the Union government reiterated on Tuesday.

'The government is adopting a strategy for cluster containment, which is producing positive results, especially in Agra, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Pathanamthitta, Bhilwara and East Delhi,' said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

He added that while 326 persons have been discharged after recovering from the infection, the country now has a total 4,421 confirmed novel coronavirus cases.

CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES

In the last 24 hours, 508 new cases have been reported and the death toll due to the infected has reached 124.

Citing a study by the Indian Council of Medical Research, Agarwal said one COVID 19 patient could potentially infect 406 people in 30 days if they dont practice social distancing.

If we follow the proper measures and social distancing, the infection rate can be cut down to just 2.5 people per patient in 30 days," he said, adding that R0  the unit to measure the rate at which a person can infect others  is somewhere between 1.5 and 4.5.

The ICMR study has suggested an R0 for novel coronavirus at 2.5.

When asked about the extension of the nationwide lockdown, Agarwal said the government's decision would be conveyed very soon.

Agarwal also said the government was looking at strengthening dedicated hospitals for the treatment of COVID-19 cases and the strategy had been shared with the states.

Authorities also maintained that smart cities are ensuring collaborated efforts of district administration, district police and city administration to monitor the suspected cases of COVID-19.

Leveraging the smart infrastructure, Cities are developing predictive analytics using heat maps and taking action in monitoring the movements (using geofencing) as well as the periodic health status of suspected cases, said officials.

Pharmacists, under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendra , have also been made to deliver essential services and medicines at doorstep of patients and elderly, government added.
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada needs to do more to persuade Washington not to block medical supplies from flowing across the border, even though U.S. officials have allowed the export of 500,000 masks, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday.

Trudeau told a briefing that the N95 surgical masks from Saint Paul, Minnesota-based 3M Co - part of a batch of four million ordered by the province of Ontario to help fight the coronavirus - should arrive on Wednesday.

Canadian officials pressed their U.S. counterparts after Ontario complained the shipment had been blocked. U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order last week to stop personal protective equipment from being exported.

We have had constructive and productive conversations that have assured that this particular shipment comes through but we recognize there is still more work to do, Trudeau said.

We are going to continue to highlight to the American administration the point to which healthcare supplies and services go back and forth across that border, he continued.

3M said late on Monday that it had reached a deal with the Trump administration allowing exports to Canada to continue.

The Canadian death toll from the outbreak rose to 345 from 293 on Monday, chief medical officer Theresa Tam told a daily briefing. The total number of cases is 17,063, compared to 15,822 a day earlier.

Tam said she was worried that the disease was spreading quickly among vulnerable sectors such as seniors homes, prisons and remote aboriginal communities, where healthcare resources are already stretched.

Ontario, the most populous of Canadas 10 provinces, says it is running out of personal protection equipment.

Canadian officials complain the market for medical equipment is like the Wild West, and say they cannot guarantee the masks, gowns and gloves they have ordered will arrive.

Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Canada had commitments to companies around the world to buy more than 230 million face masks, of which more than 16 million had been delivered. It has also ordered 75 million N95 surgical masks and expects to have 2.3 million by end of the week.

We will not rest until these supplies are in Canada, she told the briefing, adding that officials were being aggressive as they tracked down potential suppliers.

The provinces are also worried about a lack of ventilators. Trudeau said Ottawa was working with domestic firms to produce up to 30,000 ventilators.
Myanmar & COVID-19 Myanmar Firms to Make Face Masks to Meet COVID-19 Demand

Masks are an increasingly common sight at Sule Pagoda in Yangon. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy

Yangon  Businesses in Yangon are preparing to produce face masks as prices rise due to the coronavirus.

Two or three businesses in Shwelinpan Industrial Zone are preparing to produce masks and have ordered equipment and supplies from China, according to U Nay Lin Zin, the general secretary of Shwelinpan Industrial Zone management committee in Hlaing Tharyar Township.

Mask-making machines cost around 110 million kyats [US$77,000] and can produce 100 masks per minute, so 6,000 per hour. A machine can produce around 120,000 if it operates for 20 hours per day, he told The Irrawaddy.

The masks could be manufactured at clothing factories, he said.

Previously, a mask cost around 25 kyats [2 cents], but now the prices have risen to 1,000 kyats [70 cents]. The prices will fall if we can produce masks domestically. We intend to supply the domestic market when imports are unavailable, said U Nay Lin Zin.

Some industrialists in Shwepyithar Township are also reportedly preparing to produce masks at their factories.

Certain vitamin supplements such as immune boosters and hand sanitizers and disinfectant are out of stock or their prices have increased drastically.

The price of 10 surgical masks has increased from 450 kyats in early January to between 4,000 kyats and 6,000 kyats in April.

I can no longer buy masks. And I cant buy hospital-grade alcohol-based hand gel for my baby. [Pharmacies] said they are out of stock. Everything has to be imported, said a resident of Tamwe Township, who did not want to be named.

It is good that masks will be produced domestically. I want medicines and medical equipment produced domestically in the future. This pandemic is an example, he added.

Myanmar imports up to 90 percent of its pharmaceuticals, mainly from China, India and Thailand.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

Trend:

Norway doesnt recognize so-called elections held in Nagorno-Karabakh, reads a note sent by Norwegian Foreign Ministry to Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry, Trend reports.

Norway does not recognize so-called Nagorno-Karabakh Republic; accordingly, Norway does not recognize the so-called elections held on 31 March in Nagorno-Karabakh, reads the document.

Norway supports the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group to facilitate a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, says the note.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
The Haryana Government on Tuesday lodged a protest with the Delhi government, alleging that they failed to inform them about a state police SI who died at a hospital in the national capital after contracting COVID-19.

Charging some of the deceased's family members and the hospital with concealing information, cases have also been registered against them.

Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said the sub-inspector from Sonipat was admitted to a private hospital in Delhi last month after he suffered a brain stroke.

Later, he contracted coronavirus infection and passed away on Saturday.

Neither the Delhi government nor hospital authorities or even the deceased's family gave any information that he had tested positive for the infection, the minister said.

"On Tuesday, we lodged a strong protest with the Delhi government and our state chief secretary talked to her counterpart in this regard. A sub-inspector of the Haryana police died in Delhi, but we were not informed," Vij said.

The minister said they handed over the body to the family, which also concealed the information.

"Many people participated in the deceased's last rites in Sonipat and several of his colleagues from the police station where he worked also took part in the funeral. He was also given a gun salute. Later, we learnt that he had tested COVID positive," Vij said.

I enquired from my officials about this, but they said they had no information. This is a big lapse on part of the Delhi government that they failed to inform us, he said.

Vij said 30-40 people, including police officials and some members of the deceased's family have been quarantined after the revelation.

A case has also been registered against some of the deceased's family members under Sections 269 and 270 of the IPC for concealing the information. We have also registered a case against the Delhi hospital, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
This measure, which China and Russia voted for, didnt make Ebola any less deadly. But it shook up world leaders and offered a vital show of solidarity with the governments and peoples of West Africa in a context in which having a sense that the crisis could be solved played a decisive role in giving Africans the hope they needed to change behaviors that were aiding the spread.

Despite Mr. Trumps disdain for international organizations like the World Health Organization (the U.S. contribution to which he attempted to halve just two months ago) and despite Washingtons own bungled domestic response, we nonetheless must immediately begin to build a broad and determined global anti-Covid coalition. Such a coalition must create hubs for sharing scientific data on the virus, testing and vaccine efforts, taking advantage of the staggered movement of the disease and every countrys ability to learn from infection cycles that have peaked earlier.

It must regularize frequent high-level political contacts to enable speedy decision-making, and the procuring and distribution of resources beyond the home front. It must apply pressure on those countries failing to come clean on case numbers. And it must assemble a mechanism that gathers volunteers, funds and in-kind contributions from U.N. member states, businesses and philanthropists to provide tailored support for particular vulnerable communities. Neither the U.N. secretary general nor the director general of the W.H.O. has the convening power or the leverage to perform this role unless the United States gets behind the effort.

Third, while the day may come when China can build and lead an effective global coalition, that day is not here. Much has been made of the fact that China is sending protective equipment to Ireland, Italy, Serbia and other nations, while the Trump administration has been forced to plead with South Korea and Russia for donations. China clearly sees both an opportunity to clean up the reputational damage done by its early mishandling of the crisis and a chance to showcase its generosity and superpower status.

There is no question that by the time this crisis is over, China will end up the largest international donor of precious medical provisions, which will hopefully help save countless lives. But sending supplies is not the same as leading the world.

Whatever its rhetoric about building a Health Silk Road, China has never built a global crisis coalition, in any sphere. Although China has more foreign diplomatic posts than the United States, Chinese officials have little experience hustling governments or private actors for contributions, while U.S. diplomats have been doing this for decades. Also, Chinese diplomats will not urge, for example, Bangladesh to turn on the internet in its refugee camps to allow public education, or Egypt to stop suppressing information. The United States and China urgently have to do what neither does easily, which is to put the blame game and larger competition aside, identify their comparative strengths and join forces.

It may well be that Mr. Trumps inability to recognize the extent to which U.S. security is tied to that of others makes him incapable of reversing course and building a global coalition. But given the pressure he feels to restart the economy and normal life, this should be the wake-up call he needs that walls wont protect us. Unless the United States exerts leadership to prevent Covid-19 from raging out of control abroad, the crisis will not end at home.

Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) is a former United States permanent representative to the United Nations and the author, most recently, of The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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Humanitarian organization World Help is launching a drive to deliver emergency aid to families in the U.S. while simultaneously meeting the needs of people who live in impoverished communities across the world and are also experiencing the harsh economic side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Working through local churches in New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Georgia, World Help is providing emergency food and hygiene kits to thousands of American families who are struggling to make ends meet. And thanks to a $235,000 matching gift, each dollar given multiplies into another dollar for humanitarian relief for people in countries such as Guatemala, Uganda, India and Nepal.

To date, World Help has provided more than 16,000 hygiene kits to American families. The kits contain hand sanitizers, soaps, bacterial wipes and other virus-preventative items that have been depleted from most stores.

We are honored to be able to catch up with World Help's Noel Yeatts for this exclusive interview.

Q: Thanks for doing this interview with us. Why don't we start by you telling us a little about what World Help is about?

World Help is a Christian humanitarian organization serving the physical and spiritual needs of impoverished communities around the globe. Since 1991, our donors have impacted more than 84 million people in 71 countries around the globe. We operate by working with in-country partners rather than sending in staff from the U.S.

We believe this is the most effective way to help communities because these local ministries know what their communities need best and already have the trust of their neighbors. Working with these national partners, we support a variety of global programs including child sponsorship in over 20 countries, clean water initiatives, refugee relief, Bible distribution, church planting, assistance for women trapped in the sex industry, and more. We also ship containers full of aid such as food, clothing, hygiene kits, and medical equipment to some of the world's neediest communities. Last year alone, we shipped 44 containers to 14 different countries. Those containers carried more than 600,000 meals and lifesaving aid for 360,000 people.

World Help's philosophy is Help for today ... Hope for tomorrow. We've always believed that true change can only happened when people's physical needs are met alongside with their spiritual needs. We seek to meet people's most urgent needs - feeding starving children, providing clean water for families in poverty, etc. That's the help for today. But at the same time, we also are always looking for opportunities to tell people about the eternal hope found in Jesus Christ. That's the hope for tomorrow.

During this coronavirus pandemic, people have been especially receptive to the Gospel. Our partners tell us that their local communities are shocked by the kindness of Christians who do something as simple as give them a face mask, and that has opened the door for groundbreaking spiritual conversations. It's happening here in the U.S. to as local churches distribute the hygiene kits we're providing to the homeless and seniors in nursing homes.

Q: Give us a quick history recap, how did World Help begin?

My dad, Vernon Brewer, founded World Help in 1991. But the story of World Help really starts before that. It starts with his battle with cancer. In 1985, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. He underwent 18 different surgeries and 18 months of chemotherapy. Many times, the doctors didn't think that he was going to live, but God spared his life. In that moment, my dad said he knew that God had something he wanted him to do. He developed a vision and a passion to help the people around the world and to point them toward Jesus Christ. A few years later, World Help began. Our office was tiny. There was only a handful of staff members. But that didn't keep us from having God-sized ambition. In fact, our first goal was to distribute Russian New Testaments throughout post-Soviet Moscow.

While visiting Russia, my dad learned of a cancer hospital that was operating without even the most basic equipment. It was so bad that the hospital staff was having to wash the same few pairs of latex gloves every night because they didn't have any new ones. Then, on his next trip, my dad met someone who knew of a person willing to donate an entire warehouse full of medical equipment to the hospital. Only a few hours later, another miracle happened! My dad bumped into two U.S. senators who were visiting Russia and who told him they could get him the funding to ship the medical equipment to the hospital. That was the very first container of aid we ever shipped, but it certainly wasn't the last. God has worked so many miracles since then, and so many generous people have come alongside this mission. As a result, hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved.

Q: Let's talk about your ministry overseas first, how is World Help assisting those affected by the coronavirus now? And what countries is World Help reaching out to now?

When the coronavirus outbreak first began in China earlier this year, our focus was there, distributing masks and food in the nucleus of the crisis. Now that this is a worldwide pandemic, though, we are focusing on equipping each of our national partners with the increasing needs that the coronavirus has brought about.

The biggest need of all has been food. Food is running low, and what little food is available is often too expensive for many families living in poverty. These families don't have savings like you and I. They live hand-to-mouth every day, often searching for daily labor in their communities. Since many countries are now on lockdown, that isn't an option anymore. Parents have no way to feed their kids. Our partner in Honduras said people are even scavenging through the local garbage dumps to find something to eat. They're literally wading through trash and even medical waste looking for food. Security guards have been posted to try to stop them, but people are so desperate they're still sneaking in. All of our partners right now are operating food programs, and we're doing what we can to help them.

We're also continuing to make sure our child sponsorship programs have what they need. Some of the programs are children's homes, but others are schools and community centers that are no longer able to meet because of "social distancing." Our partners are still making sure the children have what they need, though, checking in individually with families and providing them with food and other necessities.

Q: You have also extended your ministry now domestically. Tell us about your ministry now in the US.

World Help has always primarily been an international humanitarian organization. There have been times - like during devastating hurricanes - that we have responded in the U.S. But for the most part our work is all overseas. Now that we're seeing our own nation hurting so much, though, we had to do something to get involved domestically.

We've partnered with local churches around New York City, Baltimore, Atlanta as well as in California and here in Virginia to give food to families who are now jobless because of the virus. We've also shipped hygiene kits filled with hard-to-find items like hand sanitizer, antibacterial wipes, soap, and more to these churches. They've been distributing these to the most at-risk people in their communities such as senior citizens, those with weakened immune systems, and the homeless. There's been such a tremendous response to these hygiene kits. We shipped 20,000 in less than five business days, and people are already asking for more. We could really use the help of anyone who is willing to give to help keep up with this demand.

It's been great working with these churches. Many of them are ones that we've worked with throughout the years on projects around the world. They've raised money to transform villages in places like Guatemala and have sponsored kids around the globe though World Help, and it's been a blessing to be able to give back and help them serve their own local communities now.

Q: You have also partnered with local churches. How can local churches be involved?

The biggest thing we're asking from churches is prayer. We understand that a lot of churches are feeling the effects of the coronavirus themselves. Tithing is down nationwide, so we know some churches aren't able to get involved financially. But we could desperately use your prayers.

Because of the coronavirus, all of World Help's spring fundraising events, including our biggest event of the year, have been canceled. The Children of the World International Children's Choir is no longer touring and recruiting new child sponsors, and that's left us $2.3 million behind where we expected to be financially. What that means practically is that we may not be able to keep supporting all of our vital global programs that need help now more than ever. Refugees may not be able to receive medical care. Starving children may not have access to enough food. Impoverished communities may not be able to get clean water, which is so important during a health crisis like this.

But we've seen God work miracles in World Help's past and know He is capable of doing it again. So we would definitely appreciate your prayers because prayer is powerful!

Q: How can individuals be involved? And what kind of help are you looking for?

The easiest way for individuals to get involved is by going to woldhelp.net/coronavirus. There you can give a gift that will help in three powerful ways:

1. You will provide emergency food for out-of-work families here in the U.S.

2. You will provide hygiene kits for seniors and our most at-risk neighbors

3. You will help World Help erase our budget shortfall and make sure our global programs can keep serving families in need during this pandemic.

It takes as little as $8 to provide critical aid for one person in need. And our World Help board members have come together to provide a matching gift up to $235,000, so your gifts double.

Q: In this age of anxiety and stress caused by the coronavirus pandemic, what words of encouragement do you have for our readers?

It's obviously a scary time for all of us. There's no doubt about that. But the verse that I keep coming back to and that I think is so powerful right now is Joshua 1:9: "Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." The coronavirus didn't come as a surprise to God. He is still in control, and He is still with us. And I just can't help but think perhaps this is an opportunity for us to help others and to share Jesus with them.

I love the quote from Mr. Rogers where he says that when he would see scary things on the news as a boy his mother would always tell him to "look for the helpers." What would it look like if each of one us as a global church committed to be those helpers? Then, when the world is looking for a break from all the bad news of the coronavirus, they would see Jesus reflected and would hear the best news of all.

To give to World Help's coronavirus emergency fund, visit https://worldhelp.net/gift/coronavirus-emergency-fund/.

Tags : world help world help interview covid19 pandemic coronavirus coronavirus pandemic
Researchers from Deakin University are calling for volunteers to partiicpate in a nation-wide, longditudinal study measuring the emotional and mental health impacts of social distancing and isolation measures on families.

They are calling for more than 2000 volunteer families.

Australian families from Cairns to Perth are experiencing unprecedented changes and this online, longitudinal survey will see us investigate the week-by-week impacts of social distancing and other measures, Dr Westrupp said.

Crises from the Christchurch Earthquakes and the US September 11 terrorist attacks, lead to increases in mental health problems and family violence, but COVID-19 is unique and likely to cause chronic family stress."

Interested families can visit https://pandemicstudy.com/.
Citizens in Hanoi are advised not to go out unnecessarily during the nationwide social distancing campaign, April 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Du.

Covid-19 has caused the number of visits to and length of stay by people at retail and recreational places to drop by 52 percent.

The Covid-19 Community Mobility Report by Google, which charts movement trends over time by geography through aggregated and anonymized data from mobile devices, aims to provide insights into what has changed in response to policies aimed at combating Covid-19.

The data is garnered from 131 countries and territories.

As of March 29 the mobility trends in Vietnam for places like restaurants, shopping centers, grocery markets, and public beaches have significantly dropped over the span of over a month, according to the report.

Retail and recreational places like theme parks and museums saw a 52 percent drop, while it was 49 percent for bus and train stations, 29 percent for grocers and pharmacies, and 20 percent for workplaces.

People have also stayed at home more often, the percentage rising by 16 percent.

Percentage changes were made in comparison with a baseline value determined by Google based on its data to identify mobility trends during the five-week period from January 3 to February 6.

Hopefully, such information would support decisions about how to manage the Covid-19 pandemic, including helping officials understand changes in essential trips that can shape recommendations on business hours or inform delivery service offerings, Google said.

Mobility is expected to drop further given the recent closure and social distancing orders.

Vietnams largest city, Saigon, ordered all restaurants and barber shops to close from March 24 over rising numbers of Covid-19 cases after closing nightclubs, bars, karaoke and massage parlors, cinemas, and gaming facilities on March 15.

Hanoi issued a similar order on March 25 while a nationwide order followed on March 28.

A nationwide social distancing campaign came into effect on April 1. The campaign, which requires people to stay home and doesn't allow public gatherings of more than two, is expected to last until April 15.

People can only leave home for emergencies, buying food and medicine and working in factories, production facilities and businesses that make or distribute "essential" goods and services.

The country has recorded 245 Covid-19 cases so far, of whom 95 have recovered.

Globally, there have been over 74,000 deaths.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Juggernaut Exploration Ltd.(TSX-V: JUGR) (OTCQB: JUGRF) (FSE: 4JE) (the Company or Juggernaut) is pleased to report the planned 2020 exploration program for the Midas property is now fully funded.



The Midas property is a strong VHMS target confirmed by all work done to date. Based on the data compiled from the 2019 and 2018 drill programs we now believe some of the best targets remain untested. Results to date through drilling have substantiated this with the holes closest to East Creek fault. MD-19-21 displayed textures consistent with VHMS including a 0.5m interval of semi massive to massive pyrite from 47 to 47.5m containing 0.213 g/t Au with 6.03 g/t Ag and 0.368% Cu hosted within strongly sericite to silica altered rock. Several key targets remain untested on the Midas project. Furthermore the most easterly collared drill hole in 2018 hole MD-18-16 intersected 35 m Au, Ag, Cu and Zn mineralization pointing to the close-by East Creek fault (Gazelle showing area) as having good VHMS potential.

Further compilation is ongoing and study of all the available data to date is already providing compelling results by vectoring in on new high grade gold targets within the 2.1 x 1.6 km King Solomon Trend that remain to be drill tested.

King Solomon Zone Highlights

All 25 drill holes to date on Midas intersected gold and polymetallic mineralization.



The British Columbia Geological Survey (BCGS; McKeown et al., 2007 ) mapped a conformable sequence of layered Paleozoic felsic to mafic sub-aqueous volcaniclastic rocks and documented an extensive alteration zone, with the King Solomon Trend at its core for at least 2.1 kilometers.



) mapped a conformable sequence of layered Paleozoic felsic to mafic sub-aqueous volcaniclastic rocks and documented an extensive alteration zone, with the King Solomon Trend at its core for at least 2.1 kilometers. Intense alteration system with zones of widespread gossan development, silicification, Fe-rich chloritic alteration, Na-Ca depletion, and quartz-sericite-pyrite development.

Additionally, the BCGS documented massive sulphide lenses, barite lenses and veins, and stated the area southeast of Terrace is highly prospective for VHMS deposits.



Soil and rock sample geochemistry is consistent with a VHMS signature.



Magnetotelluric (MT) and IP data shows large, strong chargeability and resistivity anomalies at depth that can be traced across multiple IP lines.



The King Solomon Zone is located within a regional world class VHMS setting that confirms the strong potential for the Midas property to host a significant discovery.

Mr. Dan Stuart, Director, President and CEO of Juggernaut states:

The exploration results to date indicate there remains good potential for VMHS mineralization to be discovered within the underexplored King Solomon trend on the Midas property. The proposed 2020 exploration program in compilation with 2019 and 2018 results are aiding in planning for future drilling as we continue to gain a better understanding of the property. Eskay Creek went through many companies and took over 100 holes to hit. Management believes the Midas project justifies additional exploration as we could be just one drill hole away from a significant VHMS discovery. The Midas property exploration results have given us a lot of good indications we are still headed in the right direction. Juggernaut has a 100% option providing the shareholders with the potential of significant up-side for very little additional financial expenditure. Midas is located in a world class geologic setting in close proximity to both roads and extensive infrastructure.

Other

All samples were crushed and pulverized at ALS Global ISO 17025:2005 accredited geochemistry lab in North Vancouver, BC. Drill core samples were crushed, split and pulverized to 250 g pulp. The sample pulps were analyzed for gold by fire assay method (Au-AA24) and were also assayed using multi-element aqua regia digestion. Samples were analyzed using ALS assay procedure ME-ICP41m and MS-ICP61m. ME-ICP is an aqua regia (partial) digestion with inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) mass atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) finish for 36 elements. MS-ICP61m is a four acid digestion with ICP mass spectrometry finish for 49 elements. Over-limit samples for copper, lead and zinc were reanalyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish (OG46 and OG62). Rigorous procedures are in place regarding sample collection, chain of custody and data entry. QA/QC samples including blanks, standards, and duplicate samples were inserted regularly into the sample sequence.

Qualified Person

Rein Turna is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, for Juggernaut Exploration projects, and supervised the preparation of, and has reviewed and approved, the technical information in this release.

For more information please contact:

Juggernaut Exploration Ltd.

Mr. Dan Stuart

President and Chief Executive Officer

Website: www.juggernautexploration.com

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FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT

Certain disclosure in this release may constitute forward-looking statements that are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties relating to Juggernauts operations that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements, including its ability to complete the contemplated private placement. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements. NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR TO U.S. PERSONS OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES. THIS PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR AN INVITATION TO PURCHASE ANY SECURITIES DESCRIBED IN IT.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive to attend the Mountbatten Music Festival at Royal Albert Hall on March 7, 2020 in London, England. (Photo by Simon Dawson - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend the Commonwealth Day Service 2020 at Westminster Abbey on March 09, 2020 in London, England

Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle celebrated the work of the British military (Photo by Paul Edwards - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are planning on launching a charitable organisation named Archewell, the couple have said.

Harry and Meghan said they "look forward" to launching the foundation, which will replace their Sussex Royal brand, with plans reported to include their own charity as well as a website.

They also revealed the Greek word in the project Arche - meaning source of action - was the inspiration behind the name of their son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

Further details about the organisation, first reported in the Daily Telegraph, have been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and an announcement will be made "when the time is right", the couple said.

Expand Close Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend the Commonwealth Day Service 2020 at Westminster Abbey on March 09, 2020 in London, England / Facebook

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Whatsapp Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend the Commonwealth Day Service 2020 at Westminster Abbey on March 09, 2020 in London, England

The newspaper reported that paperwork regarding their new brand was filed in the United States last month and the couple are considering how to create their own charity and volunteering services.

Plans also include a wide-ranging website and sharing "education and training materials" via films, podcasts and books, according to the newspaper.

In response to the Telegraph, the duke and duchess said they were focusing their efforts on the coronavirus pandemic but felt "compelled" to reveal details of the venture.

"Like you, our focus is on supporting efforts to tackle the global Covid-19 pandemic but faced with this information coming to light, we felt compelled to share the story of how this came to be," the couple said.

"Before SussexRoyal, came the idea of Arche - the Greek word meaning source of action.

"We connected to this concept for the charitable organisation we hoped to build one day, and it became the inspiration for our son's name. To do something of meaning, to do something that matters.

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"Archewell is a name that combines an ancient word for strength and action, and another that evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon.

"We look forward to launching Archewell when the time is right."

The couple moved to Los Angeles with baby Archie to start their new life after they were forced to choose between financial independence or remaining as working members of the royal family.

They were made to change their Sussex Royal brand after the Queen and senior officials were said to have ordered them to drop the use of the word "royal".

Last week, they bowed out of the royal family with a final post on their official Sussex Royal Instagram account, which will now remain inactive along with their website.

The couple have delayed announcing a new Instagram handle and brand, with a spokeswoman saying they wanted the focus to remain on the global response to the coronavirus pandemic.
China has demanded an explanation from Brazil after its education minister insinuated a link between the coronavirus pandemic to its plan for world domination in a tweet imitating a Chinese accent.

In the latest incident to strain ties between Brasilia and Beijing, Education Minister Abraham Weintraub implied China could be behind the contagion.

Geopolitically, who will come out stronger from this global crisis? he wrote on Twitter on Friday. Who in Brazil is allied with this infallible plan for world domination?

In the original Portuguese, his tweet substituted the letter r with a capital L  BLazil  in a style commonly used to mock a Chinese accent.

The Chinese embassy in Brasilia condemned Weintraubs absurd and despicable comment, calling it highly racist, on Monday.

The Chinese government expects an official explanation from Brazil, said Ambassador Yang Wanming.

O lado chines aguarda uma declaracao oficial do lado brasileiro sobre as palavras feitas pelo min. da educacao, membro do governo brasileiro. Nos somos cientes de que nossos povos estao do mesmo lado ao resistir as palavras racistas e salvaguardar nossa amizade. @ItamaratyGovBr https://t.co/etYsXA48yw  Yang Wanming (@WanmingYang) April 6, 2020

Translation: The Chinese [government] awaits an official statement from the Brazilian [administration] on the declarations made by the Minister of Education  We are aware that our people are on the same side in resisting racism and safeguarding our friendship.

The dispute comes as Brazil, like many countries, is hoping to source more medical equipment from China to deal with COVID-19.

Weintraub said in an interview he stood by his tweet and called on China to do more to help fight the pandemic.

If they [China] sell us 1,000 ventilators, Ill get down on my knees in front of the embassy, apologise, and say I was an idiot, he told Radio Bandeirantes.

Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said last week that Brazil is struggling to source ventilators and other vital health supplies from China, saying some of its orders were cancelled without explanation.

Social media war





The issue erupted into a social media war on Monday. The top trend on Twitter in Brazil was the #TradeBlockadeOnChinaNow.

Brazil, whose biggest trading partner is China, is the most affected Latin American country by the coronavirus, with nearly 500 deaths and more than 11,000 confirmed cases so far.

Since the pandemic emerged, Brazil-China ties have been strained, notably by a series of tweets by President Jair Bolsonaros son, Eduardo, a federal legislator.

Eduardo Bolsonaro criticised the Chinese dictatorship for its handling of the outbreak in March.

Last week, he tweeted about the Chinese virus, a phrase that infuriates Beijing. It has also been used by US President Donald Trump, whom his father admires.

That prompted Chinas consul general in Rio de Janeiro, Li Yang, to ask Eduardo in an opinion column in Brazilian newspaper Globo: Are you really that naive and ignorant?
Donations from 50 individuals and corporate bodies in Nigeria to the Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) Relief Fund domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have risen to 21.5 billion.

This was contained in a statement on behalf of the coalition by the Director, corporate communications, Central Bank of Nigeria, Isaac Okorafor, on Monday.

The initial list of 37 donors grew to 47 and stands at 50 with the likes of Chief Mike Adenuga, Raj Gupta of African Steel Mills Nigeria Ltd., Modupe and Folorunsho Alakija of Famfa Oil Limited and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) donating N1billion each to the Relief Fund.



The statement reiterated the coalitions appreciation to the list of individuals and corporate bodies for their contributions to the Relief Fund advocated by the CBN and the private sector,

Okorafor urged more Nigerians and corporate bodies to contribute to the fund.

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Quit the lockdown munching; the dreaded extra pounds are steadily creeping up on us

Along with financial uncertainty of the lockdown, another issue really bothering people is weight gain. When every day is a Sunday, and the current craze is to show off your baking skills on Instagram, munching is becoming a serious consequence. So how do you keep those calories at bay?

Movie stars, our poster children for eating clean and otherwise unappealing food to stay in shape, have turned out to be turncoats. They are whipping up cakes, Thai cuisine, cookies and every other sinful treat, finally enjoying something tasty as there are no shoots around the corner.

If the stars are posting their delicacies, how can we not follow the trend? Everyone has become an Insta baker and nothing tastes more delicious than your own baking, so its time to polish off that cake and marvel at your hidden MasterChef talent while preparing for the next round of dessert.

We may claim to be more active around the house, upload pictures of doing a few household chores or tag people for the thirty-second squat challenge, but none of that is anything like a high-intensity gym workout. Also, binge-watching Netflix and hanging out virtually on Zoom and Houseparty are not helping.

Drawstring everything (pajamas, shorts, trousers, joggers, etc.) is in fashion, which is great comfort-wise but leaves the waistline with lots of room to grow.

Drinking all that good wine while doing date nights at home (or after home-schooling kids maybe?) is lovely, but even that encourages all those pesky calories to settle back in us.

Distancing of a different kind

So now we have some surprising issues to deal with, such as the buttons on our jeans social distancing themselves from the button hole, the weighing scale asking one person at a time to get on when you want to check your weight and that tight dress of yours coming out once a week just to make sure you havent gained too much .

Now, with talk of a lockdown extension doing the rounds and gyms not looking like theyll open anytime soon, what do we do to not turn into unwilling sumo wrestlers?

Well-known nutritionists talk about how to balance your health during these unprecedented times.

Charmaine D'Souza, a Mumbai-based consultant nutritionist and author, says the good news is that this baking revolution is dying down. Initially, there was a great euphoria and everyone was copying the stars and baking bread, cakes, cookies and cooking other delicacies to show off on Instagram. With ingredients beginning to run out, and seeing the gravity of the situation, people are not doing so much of this lately, says Charmaine.

Suddenly, its all about healthy treats. Even the cakes and cookies are made with sugar-free or healthy ingredients. The latest recipe trending is an orange! Yes, peel it and its done!

Many are posting small bowls of healthy soup with maybe a few pasta shells in them, points out Charmaine.

Back to being fitter

There has also been a huge surge in clients signing up for online nutrition consultations. Another issue right now is lethargy, this is the brains way of coping with the lockdown, reveals Charmaine. We have many people signing up to be healthy. Mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and stress triggered owing to uncertainty are some of the issues they want help with, she adds.

On a serious note, mental health issues are the underlying cause of all this binging. Delhi-based nutritionist Lovneet Batra says, There is a lot of anxiety around COVID19. Food is an easy coping mechanism, which provides instant comfort.

Lovneet admits seeing two categories of people these days: One is a set of people whore otherwise disciplined but currently stressed, worried about work, salary, financial obligations, etc. They think, Now I am home. Let me enjoy what I can; I will eat, she points out. The problem here is a lack of fixed schedule. Sleeping at odd times, eating your meals at crazy hours and munching constantly. This needs to be fixed. Once you correct your meal and sleep time, you can control the weight gain. Break the endless munching cycle. Also, eat healthier snacks such as vegetables with hung curd dip, mango yoghurt pudding, advises Lovneet.

The other category of people Lovneet is getting is the social butterflies who are using this time to detox, eat clean and avoid junk food.

The nice thing is the enquiries I am currently getting are centered around health and how to be strong, she says.

All said and done, it is nice to know that people are waking up to the fact that social distancing from their fit self is no fun because all of us still want a summer body.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-06 23:08:15|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) -- A detailed timeline published Monday has shown the fact that China has released information on COVID-19 and advanced international cooperation on epidemic response in an open, transparent and responsible manner.

This global public health emergency came all of a sudden. As the novel coronavirus was unseen in the past, its detection, research, testing and confirmation needed time. China has performed its duty and taken strong and effective measures at the earliest time possible.

As the timeline shows, the National Health Commission (NHC) sent an expert group to Wuhan, the capital city of central China's Hubei Province, for on-the-spot investigation on December 31, shortly after cases of pneumonia of unknown cause were detected by the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Starting from January 3, China has been regularly informing the World Health Organization (WHO), relevant countries and regions about the pneumonia outbreak. On January 12, the NHC shared with the WHO about information on the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus, which laid a solid foundation for global efforts of scientific research and vaccine development.

Facts speak louder than words. China has been open, transparent and responsible in all its efforts. News about the leadership's meetings on epidemic control and prevention were released in a timely manner. Chinese leaders frequently spoke over phone with heads of other countries, promoting cooperation on the epidemic prevention and control.

The Chinese government has paid high attention to releasing accurate and timely information on the epidemic. Press conferences are held every day to answer questions of concern to the public and the international community.

Chinese scientists have been cooperating with experts from other countries and sharing research results on international platforms including the journals of Nature, Science and the Lancet.

China has also been sharing its prevention, control and treatment experience with the rest of the world without reservation.

China's efforts have ensured the life, safety and health of the Chinese people and earned valuable time for other countries to combat COVID-19. As the WHO puts it, China's measures have altered the dangerous course of the virus' quick spread and prevented hundreds of thousands of infections.

Now COVID-19 is haunting more than 200 countries and regions. At this critical juncture, only by uniting as one can the world prevail over the pandemic.

Facing censure over their response to the outbreak, however, some U.S. politicians are playing blame games. It is immoral to politicize public health emergency at the moment when hundreds of thousands of people are suffering and even facing death threats. Lies and smears only waste time and endanger more lives.

China has made all-out efforts. Knowing how difficult it is to combat COVID-19, China goes through thick and thin together with the people around the world suffering from the ravage of the virus. In front of the epidemic, a common enemy of mankind, no one can stand alone.

Facing "the most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War," as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres put it, we have no other choice but to join hands to get through this together.
A Germination Seed for Broadband in Maine

The North Carolina Broadband Playbook

In January and February, reports from overseas began to suggest that the United States should prepare for the onset of the novel coronavirus. Almost simultaneously, Pew Charitable Trusts released a report noting that state government work to boost broadband accessibility and availability had, in recent years, gained momentum.It was, of course, difficult at the time to draw a link between the two, but that has since changed.See, the report was the result of 18 months of research on all 50 states, specifically honing in on 10 state case studies. Obviously, no one involved with the report knew that coming just weeks after its release would be the most tangible lesson the world has ever had on the importance of broadband. Yet, the pandemic confined millions to their homes soon after, inspiring scores of stakeholders to take a new interest in whats being done to bridge digital divides, to make sure all students have access at home to Internet and computers; to make sure seniors know how to benefit from telehealth; and to ensure all residential areas have optimal broadband connections.All of this is a means of pointing out that as digital equity work becomes a new priority for decision-makers in both the public and private sectors, several state governments have already put quite a bit of work into bridging the digital divide, primarily by working to foster better broadband access.Kathryn de Wit, manager of Pew Charitable Trusts Broadband Research Initiative, was heavily involved with the report, and during a recent conversation with, she pointed to an overarching lesson it made clear.What researchers have found is that theres no magic bullet  no incentive, regulation, law or partnership  that by itself can fix the digital divide. There are, of course, actions that can be taken at all levels of government to support the work. That said, a vital lesson made clear by the 10 case studies is that the most effective approach is more like magic buckshot than a magic bullet, meaning that it takes several different actions working in service of the same goal.With that in mind, there are two states that rank as perhaps the best example of what government can accomplish, and they are Maine and North Carolina.First and perhaps foremost, Maine and North Carolina are both part of an increasing number of states that have created dedicated offices and full-time staff positions to work on broadband availability and accessibility, as well as other issues of digital inclusion.And while their work tends to deviate in its execution from there, the general approach that each takes is familiar  the goal is to find solutions to the broadband challenge that are specific for each individual community in the state.Indeed, in separate conversations with state broadband officials in both states, each used the old saying, If youve seen one county, youve seen one county, meaning that what works in one part of the state will almost certainly not work in the exact same way in another.Maine, as the first example, has had a program called ConnectME that was founded in 2006, powered primarily by a small fee related to landlines and some broadband connections. The initiative has a budget of roughly $1 million, an oversight board, and a small staff, lead by ConnectME Executive Director Peggy Schafer.One of the most impactful approaches that ConnectME takes involves fostering community engagement among local stakeholders. Essentially, that means getting trusted and influential members of local communities to understand how broadband availability and accessibility can improve their lives. Planting this germination seed, as Schafer described it, is often an easy first step.When you have no Internet or you have really bad Internet, Schafer said, its not really that hard to get the community engaged with how to improve it.One lesson that Schafer and others have learned in Maine is that this buy-in is not entirely about business or economics, and that it also requires getting communities to understand how Internet can help seniors see their doctors, encourage young adults to stay in their communities, and help children do their homework  all of which are lessons made more acute by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.Thats all well and good, but where Schafer often sees the biggest challenge is when theres a financial need. A community will reach a consensus that broadband is vital, and often theyll create specific plans for how to build out infrastructure, perhaps centered around a public-private partnership specific to their region. They still need the money to make it reality, either via government grants or the investment of a would-be private partner.Schafer was heartened to see money allocated to broadband support efforts in some of the recent federal government stimulus efforts, although she said shes hopeful it will be a start to more investments, which make all the difference.When you pull pots of money together, you can get significant projects done, she said.And shes certainly heard from more people at all levels of governments wanting to get digital inclusion projects done, adding that this emergency stripped the cover off of this issue.North Carolina has taken a similar granular approach to the issue of state broadband as Maine, doing so through its Broadband Infrastructure Office. Jeff Sural is the director of that initiative, a role he has occupied since early 2015.In the government broadband and digital inclusion space, many experts and advocates point to North Carolina as a state government success story, noting that it takes a largely singular approach to the work by having a team of people on the ground throughout the state. Sural describes this group  officially named the Technical Assistance Team  as the states geek squad. Really, the group sounds like a broadband mission impossible squad, with each member having a different expertise, ranging from Wi-Fi technicalities to economic development concerns.Over the years, the team has repeatedly found that every county is unique. Even so, theyve identified a pattern of shared challenges and concerns, which has led to the creation of Broadband Community Playbook, the first suggestion of which is for the area to form its own Broadband Community Planning Taskforce, made up of local folks from all different areas of communities  school districts, private industry, economic development and more.The driving idea is that the communities will do the work of creating a means of broadband availability that works for them, with the state team serving as something like technical advisers. To this end, their playbook also offers up checklists, RFPs and example ordinances related to placing wireless equipment on public assets like water towers.There are other instructional playbooks out there, Sural said, but this one we tried to load up with tools and checklists and things like that to make it more tangible so these folks can do the work themselves.Surals office is also engaged with building tests and surveys aimed at giving the state a comprehensive and uniform dataset related to broadband, something that has long proven elusive throughout the United States, with frequent criticisms over the FCCs broadband mapping.The end result of all the work is that there are rural areas of North Carolina where 90 percent of households are connected to high-speed fiber Internet, which is a rate higher than that of many major cities. Sural attributed this to the years of work the state has invested, the skillsets of the members on his team, the patience of small Internet service providers to wait for return on investment, and the willingness of local entities like electric co-ops to help with infrastructure.While his counterparts are fielding waves of calls from parties surprised at the extent of the digital divide, Sural said that in his state the importance of the work has long been recognized. Theres just a renewed push to nationwide to get the work done.Ive been hearing from my colleagues around the country, Sural said, and right now everyone is just working overtime to try and come up with ways to solve this.
It's been an intense few weeks of new cohabitation for actress Kaley Cuoco and her husband Karl Cook.

The 34-year-old was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel's at-home version of his late-night talk show on Monday night where she dished on finally being 'forced' to live with Karl in their new mega mansion.

After nearly two years of marriage, Kaley and Karl moved in together in mid-March, just as social distancing and self-isolation due to coronavirus was getting underway.

Living together: Kaley Cuoco was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel's at-home version of his late night talk show on Monday night where she dished on finally being forced to live with Karl in their new mega mansion

'So, we've been married for a year and a half, been together for almost four years,' she told Jimmy during a video chat.

A makeup free Kaley continued with a smile: 'This quarantine has forced us to actually move in together. It's been great for our relationship. And we like each other we realized, which is even better.'

Just last month, Kaley revealed that she and her 29-year-old husband had finally moved into their new $12M home after living separately for the first two years of their marriage.

While chatting with Jimmy, Kaley showcased her impressive and quirky collection of mugs for the late-night hosts amusement.

'So, we've been married for a year and a half, been together for almost four years,' she told Jimmy during a video chat. 'This quarantine has forced us to actually move in together. It's been great for our relationship. And we like each other we realized, which is even better.'

Making it work: Jimmy Kimmel, along with several other shows, is shooting new episodes from home and bringing guests on via video stream

Big change: After nearly two years of marriage, Kaley and Karl moved in together in mid-March, just as social distancing and self-isolation due to coronavirus was getting underway

'He's okay with all the mugs,' she quipped about Karl. 'You know, he's got his weird stuff too.'

Kaley and Karl officially moved in together at an odd time, as they are now not only cohabiting, but under quarantine.

'I was shooting in New York and got sent back here, obviously, 'cause of everything that was going on and we got to move into the house together,' she told Kimmel.

She added that the 'house is great but joked that her husband would 'love it if I found my makeup at some point.'

Too funny! Kaley showcased her impressive collection of quirky coffee mugs during the interview where she rocked a pink pajama shirt

'I was shooting in New York and got sent back here, obviously, 'cause of everything that was going on and we got to move into the house together,' she told Kimmel.

Cuoco had been in NYC working on The Flight Attendant last month when she hopped on a flight back to Los Angeles with her sister Bri because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Since then, she's been holed up in her new home doing what most people are doing during self-isolation.

She told Kimmel: 'This is all we've been doing. You know, a lot of drinking and trying to keep the dogs occupied.

'You know, we don't have kids. We just have 17,000 animalsalways trying to keep them occupied and happy.'

Hurry home: Cuoco had been in NYC working on The Flight Attendant last month when she hopped on a flight back to Los Angeles with her sister Bri because of the COVID-19 outbreak

She told Kimmel: 'This is all we've been doing. You know, a lot of drinking and trying to keep the dogs occupied. 'You know, we don't have kids. We just have 17,000 animalsalways trying to keep them occupied and happy.'

Kaley and Karl began dating in late 2016 and got engaged on her 32nd birthday, November 30, 2017.

Since marrying in June 2018 the couple has been dedicated to building their dream home in Los Angeles with plenty of land for their dogs, rabbits, goats and horses.

When she revealed they continued to live separately, back in August, fans were quick to jump in calling out the unconventional nature of their relationship.

'Everyone was so crazed that we didn't live together, they couldn't believe [it]. I didn't understand it,' she told Access Hollywood.

Finally! Since marrying in June 2018 the couple has been dedicated to building their dream home in Los Angeles with plenty of land for their dogs, rabbits, goats and horses

In March, the Big Bang Theory actress took to social media to share the good news that the couple had finally moved into their dream home.

'Home,' she captioned a portrait she shared on Instagram Sunday of herself and Cook relishing in the long awaited move-in day.

The celebration continued on Cuoco's Instagram story, where she documented every moment from the flight to Los Angeles to a full on house tour of the couple's Hidden Hills mansion.

Special treat: 'First #KarlFashioned in our new home,' wrote Cuoco who later captured footage of her hubby concocting his own rendition of the old fashioned cocktail

In one clip, Cook, could be seen carrying the Big Bang Theory alum in his arms as they gallivanted from room-to-room.

'Carrying me over the threshold for the first time lol,' captioned Cuoco in the clip shared with her nearly 6million Instagram followers.

'We're home! We're home!,' exclaimed the star before planting a kiss on her adoring husband.

'First #KarlFashioned in our new home,' wrote Cuoco who later captured footage of her hubby concocting his own rendition of the old fashioned cocktail.

Her prince: In one clip, Cook, who wed Cuoco in 2018, can be seen carrying the Big Bang Theory alum in his arms as they gallivanted from room-to-room

Following their big move, Kaley was finally able to unload her previous six-bedroom, 8K-square-foot Tarzana mansion for $3.95M in the beginning of April.

The star lost a good chunk of change on the sale which came nearly a year after putting in on the market for $6.9M.

That mansion had been owned by Khloe Kardashian and was purchased by the sitcom star for $5.5M back in 2014.
Given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nation as a whole and on the militarys ability to recruit and train new service members, the Department is looking at a wide range of options that will ensure enduring national security mission capability, Defense Department spokeswoman Lisa Lawrence said in a statement. Covid-19 is the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. She said there had been no formal recommendation to take that step and no decisions had been made.
Burma Myanmar to Punish Facebook Users for Posting Fake Govt Order

State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi holds talks with people through her Facebook page. / Myanmar State Counsellor Office

NAYPYITAWThe Myanmar government will take harsh legal action against the Facebook users who first posted a fake government order to detain those who disrupted the Facebook page of State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

According to the fake order, the State Counselors page had received disrespectful memes and messages. But government spokesman U Zaw Htay informed a group of reporters over Facebook Messenger that the document signed by director-general Kyaw Tun Thet on behalf of the deputy minister of the State Counselors Office is fake.

The fake order is addressed to deputy home affairs minister Major General Aung Thu, asking him to work with the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the cyber police force to detain those who disrupted the Facebook page of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

The order also said that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has instructed that the list of names and IP addresses attached to this order must not be leaked.

Some of the Facebook pages and groups where the fake order was first posted are those that feature activities of a major political party and an institution, according U Zaw Htay. The government has reportedly recorded IP addresses and names of the individuals involved.

The Irrawaddy found that the Facebook page The Conservative was the first to publish the fake document. The page mainly features activities of the Tatmadaw, or Myanmar military, and its proxy the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). The page later removed the fake order.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi began posting on her Facebook account last Wednesday, saying that she wanted to be able to communicate effectively with the people as the country is facing the coronavirus pandemic. Through her page, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has held online discussions with people working in the field to address COVID-19, responded to public feedback and shared her views, attracting the attention of much of the Myanmar public.

The fake order followed an announcement on Monday afternoon by the national-level COVID-19 response team, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, that the government will provide basic food for those across the country struggling during the 10-day Thingyan New Year holiday. The holiday starts later this week amid heavy restrictions on movement to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The government also promised that each household on the central electric grid will be allowed to use 150 electricity units free of charge until the end of April.

Myanmar has seen many cases of fake government announcements and instructions shared on social media, but the perpetrators of these fake documents have never been held accountable.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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US healthcare officials are working tirelessly to deliver coronavirus test results in a timely manner, but the process includes getting tested, having the sample processed and then delivering the results.

Now, a scientist has developed new technology that can produce a diagnosis in just a matter of seconds and with 98 percent accuracy.

Barath Narayanan, a scientist at the University of Dayton Research Institute, has designed a specific software code that can detect the disease just by scanning chest X-rays.

The process uses a deep learning algorithm that was trained using scans of those with and without the disease in order to search searches for markings associated with coronavirus.

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A scientist has developed new technology that can produce a diagnosis in just a matter of seconds and with 98 percent accuracy. Left is a standard chest X-ray from a patient with COVID-19 (black and white image). The images were evaluated with the software and the red area is 'region of interest'

Narayanan told DailyMail.com in an email: 'What that means is that the software the software has decided something is there, in that particular region, and that particular something meets its criteria for classifying the image as having COVID markings (as opposed to not having COVID, or as opposed to having another lung disease).'

'Using deep learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, the algorithm taught itself to identify these markings. As it has continued to train itself with additional X-rays in my ongoing research, it's accuracy rate has gone from 98 percent to in excess of 99 percent.'

The system was adapted from existing medical diagnostic software in just a few hours and then licensed in less than three days.

Narayanan, who received his master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Dayton Research Institute (UD) said: 'I wanted to do something for the common good, and medical imaging seemed a good way to do that.'

The process uses a deep learning algorithm that was trained using scans of those with and without the disease in order to search searches for markings associated with coronavirus

'Software-based diagnostic tools can serve as a valuable, virtual second opinion for medical professionals, especially in parts of the world where medical teams are short-staffed.'

'With additional research, these technologies can be fine-tuned to detect even the slightest anomalies on imagesthose that are difficult to see with the human eyehelping doctors diagnose and treat patients more quickly.'

Narayanan has been working with artificial intelligence for years with the hopes of developing technology that helps healthcare professionals diagnose and treat patients at a faster rate.

He has successfully developed software codes that detect lung and breast cancers, malaria, brain tumors, tuberculosis, diabetic retinopathy and pneumonia- all with 92 to 99 percent accuracy.

Once chest X-rays of a patient with and without coronavirus became available, Narayanan quickly got to work in designing a code that could detect the virus in scans.

Blue Eye Soft owner Srikanth Kodeboyina  an alumnus of UD  and his team further developed the technology, and he plans to submit a full proposal to the FDA for approval within a matter of days.

The company has already filed a provisional patent on the software.

Barath Narayanan, a scientist at the University of Dayton Research Institute, has designed a specific software code that can detect the disease in chest X-rays

'We hope to be able to bring this new tool to market very quickly,' Kodeboyina said noting that professionals around the world are lending their expertise to expedite the development of the product.

The coronavirus is currently ramping up in the US, but testing has increased since it made landfall  the country is testing more people a day than another other nation in the world.

But it's been a slow ramp-up, and frustration still abounds over the length of time it takes to get tested, have the sample processed and get results back.

And testing capacity still remains uneven across the US and even on an individual basis.

Many celebrities, politicians and high-profile Americans have tested positive, even while reports emerge of people dying in US hospitals while awaiting results.

People have reported waiting six days before getting their test results and some have even died from the virus before they were delivered.

The 'gold standard' of testing for viral infections is still a diagnostic method called real-time RT-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) detection.

Such tests amplify the genetic material that defines a particular virus - In this case, SARS-CoV-2, which causes coronavirus - to make it detectable.

Coronavirus testing is now more widespread and faster tests are now FDA-approved - but some Americans still wait up to a week for their results

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) test works this way. Officials from the agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the White House have said that millions of these tests have been shipped to labs across the US.

So far, Abbott's five-minute test is the only approved COVID-19 diagnostic that uses a somewhat different technology.

Although Abbott's test promises results in five minutes, and Cepheid's promises them in 45, these timelines can be a bit misleading.

They refer to the amount of time it takes to run the tests within the confines of lab approved to analyze them.

That doesn't include the time it takes to collect and transport the samples which, in most cases remains the same, no matter how long it takes the machine itself to process the sample.

A lot of people think, 'oh, I'm going to go to my doctor's office and they're going to test me for COVI right there,'' Dr Susan Whittier, a microbiologist who runs these very tests at New York Presbyterian Hospital, told DailyMail.com.

'No, it still has to go to a CLIA [certified] lab.'

Most tests work effectively the same way the CDC's does (pictured), but flaws in the kits caused initial delays and fury across the US

She walked DailyMail.com through the hour-by-hour process of coronavirus testing.

'A lot of people believe the clock starts ticking the second the sample is taken, but [a lot depends on] where it's going, there's not constant transport,' she said.

'Even if [workers are] physically hand-walking samples over to the lab, that catches up with delays.'

It can take longer if these samples have to be driven from a testing site, say, a drive-thru one - to a lab.

And then there's the matter of how many samples the lab receives at once, and how that can bottle-neck the process of preparing them to be run by analysis machines.

'If we get three huge buckets of 60 to 100 specimens, it's going to take an hour to an hour-and-a-half to unpack them, and they might be double- or triple-packed - every step of that process adds on to the turnaround,' Dr Whittier explains.

The coronavirus is currently ramping up in the US, but testing has increased since it made landfall  the country is testing more people a day than another other nation in the world. However, more than 12, 000 people have died from the virus

Another 80 to 90 minutes might be tacked on to prepare and bleach the sample collection tubes, and then they're taken to the biosafety cabinet - the sealed chambers where testing is done to limit exposure and contamination - where they might wait for 45 minutes to an hour before being put on the analysis machine.

'Already, it's been three to four hours since collection, and that's before it even gets on the machine,' says Dr Whittier.

'But once it's on the machine you can get results in maybe three hours.'
Witness: Mara Vizinteanu saw the victim walk out to the ambulance

A Garda car at the Old Mill apartments. Pic Steve Humphreys

A stabbing victim died in hospital yesterday, just over 24 hours after neighbours saw him walk to an ambulance following the attack.

The death of Alvydas Nekrosius (45) has been met with shock by the neighbours who saw him walk from his apartment wrapped in a blanket and with bandaging to his injury.

Mr Nekrosius, originally from Lithuania, was attacked at his home at the Old Mill apartments on the north quay in Carrick-on-Suir in Co Tipperary at 11.30pm on Saturday.

There were two other men and a woman visiting the top-floor apartment at the time.

Other residents have told how they first realised something was wrong when they saw gardai and an ambulance arriving and then saw Mr Nekrosius walk out.

Mr Nekrosius, who had a single stab wound to the body, was taken to Waterford University Hospital, where he was later described as being in a critical condition.

He died in the early hours of yesterday morning.

A post-mortem was due to take place yesterday afternoon.

Neighbours yesterday spoke of their horror at hearing that he had died.

"It's sad and frightening," said Mara Vizinteanu.

She said she did not hear anything suspicious but then heard a girl talking outside and when she looked out the window she saw gardai and the ambulance.

"He lived here for about a year. I knew him to see," she said.

"He was able to walk to the ambulance and then this morning I heard the news he had died. I'm shocked.

"I saw him shopping on Thursday.

"This should not have happened with the rules now about not seeing friends and not being too close together.

"I didn't hear any music or any party."

A man in the town said he had seen Mr Nekrosius walking towards his apartment overlooking the river Suir on Saturday afternoon, just hours before he was attacked.

Gardai remained at the scene yesterday carrying out enquiries.

An incident room has been established at Clonmel Garda Station and investigations are ongoing.

The top-floor apartment remains preserved for a further technical examination.

A man in his 40s with an address in the town was arrested on Sunday in relation to the stabbing.

He was being detained at Clonmel Garda Station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.

Gardai are appealing for anyone with information in relation to this incident to contact them at Clonmel Garda Station on 052 617 7640, or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111.
Early in the history of our solar system, Uranus was struck by a small icy planet -- roughly 1-3 times the mass of the Earth -- which tipped the young planet over, and left behind unusual properties in its moons and ring system, says a study. The ice giant Uranus' unusual attributes have long puzzled scientists. All of the planets in our solar system revolve around the Sun in the same direction and in the same plane, which astronomers believe is a vestige of how our solar system formed from a spinning disc of gas and dust.

Most of the planets in our solar system also rotate in the same direction, with their poles orientated perpendicular to the plane the planets revolve in. However, uniquely among all the planets, Uranus' is tilted over about 98 degrees. Uranus also has a ring system, like Saturn's, and a slew of 27 moons which orbit the planet around its equator, so they too are tipped over.

A research team led by Professor Shigeru Ida from the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan has now explained how Uranus' unusual set of properties came to be. Their findings, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, suggest that Uranus' strange axis of rotation and the unusual properties of its moons and ring system are likely due to an ancient giant icy impact.

The team came to this conclusion while they were constructing a novel computer simulation of moon formation around icy planets. "This model is the first to explain the configuration of Uranus' moon system, and it may help explain the configurations of other icy planets in our Solar System such as Neptune," Professor Ida explained.

"Beyond this, astronomers have now discovered thousands of planets around other stars, so-called exoplanets, and observations suggest that many of the newly discovered planets known as super-Earths in exoplanetary systems may consist largely of water ice and this model can also be applied to these planets," Ida said.
California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye gives her State of the Judiciary Address before a joint session of the Legislature at the Capitol in Sacramento in 2014. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

California judicial leaders approved 11 new emergency rules Monday to keep essential court services running and still try to protect people from the coronavirus.

During a meeting held by telephone, the Judicial Council, the policy-making arm of the state court system, directed judges to set bail at zero in misdemeanor and low-level felony cases and to postpone proceedings that could result in evictions or foreclosures.

The most contentious item at the meeting involved the rights of criminal defendants to appear in person for pretrial proceedings, where defendants learn of their charges and enter pleas and prosecutors must show there is enough evidence to hold them over for trial.

Public defenders say their clients have the right to visibly confront witnesses against them and need to confer with their lawyers during preliminary hearings. Prosecutors want the hearings held remotely to avoid having sheriff departments bus inmates from jail and potentially expose others.

Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), a member of the council, suggested the council should revoke the defendant's right to be present in person. She said she was "hearing more and more" about inmates and jail personnel being diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who heads the council, defended the proposal. She said that courtrooms were now so empty that hearings could be held with appropriate distancing.

"I don't see the need to universally override the defendants' consent for these hearings at this time," she said, adding "it could change."

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Eric C. Taylor, another council member, said he strongly supported remote hearings but also approved of the rule.

"I hesitate to suspend the constitutional rights of any person to appear in court except when there is a specific, compelling reason, with data and no alternative," he said. If a judge finds the hearing can't be held safely with the defendant present, the hearing can be rescheduled to a later date, he said.

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The rule adopted also allows judges for "good cause" to require the personal appearance of witnesses, which might be necessary in cases in which someone's credibility is at issue.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer, who monitored the meeting by phone, said the rule will allow judges to delay hearings for "good cause," which he said could include the presence of the disease in the jails.

"The good news is that it gives judges the ability to make judgment calls about where they can find good cause to continue the case if the defendant does not agree to participate remotely," he said.

Oscar Bobrow, head of the state's public defenders association, said his group was pleased that the council adopted a statewide bail schedule for minor crimes to reduce the jail population.

But he said they were disappointed that defendants mostly would have access only to video of witnesses at preliminary hearings.

"We believe that the good cause requirement will impose an additional and improper hurdle on the defendant to establish something other than what the Constitution already requires, to be able to see and hear the witnesses live," Bobrow said.

"The Supreme Court has already weighed in on the insufficiency of ``'video confrontation' in many cases and has held that this is a denial of due process and confrontation under the 5th and 6th Amendments," he said.

He added that public defenders ```"continued to be dismayed" that the Judicial Council is not requiring courts to hold arraignments within 48 hours of arrest.

Other temporary rule changes approved Monday included one that extended domestic violence restraining and other protective orders until after the health crisis ends, another that allows depositions to be taken remotely in civil matters, and an extension of legal deadlines for those cases.

The Judicial Council has 21 voting members, most of them judges appointed by the chief justice but also two members of the Legislature and four members of the bar.

Several council members noted Monday that fast pace of new emergency court orders was highly unusual. Normally, court rule changes require months or even years to consider and finalize, they said.

They also stressed that rules could change again as the epidemic unfolds. Otherwise, most will remain in effect until 90 days after Gov. Gavin Newsom declares the emergency is over or until the Judicial Council revokes them.

Newsom gave the chief justice and the council unprecedented powers to change rules  even temporarily revoke state laws  because of the health crisis.

"We are at this point truly with no guidance in history, law or precedent," Cantil-Sakauye told the council. "To say that there is no playbook is a gross understatement of the situation."
(Newser)  Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned Tuesday after facing a backlash over his attack on Capt. Brett Crozier, who was fired for asking his superiors for permission to evacuate crew members ill with COVID-19 from the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Modly, who initially stood by his remarks but apologized late Monday, submitted his resignation to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, reports the Washington Post. Esper said Tuesday that he had "the greatest respect for anyone who serves our country, and who places the greater good above all else, adding: "Secretary Modly did that today, and I wish him all the best." Trump, asked about the resignation, said he did not push for it and he thought it was a "very unselfish thing" for Modly to do.

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Modly told crew members Monday that Crozier was "too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this." In a tirade broadcast over the ship's loudspeaker system, Modly accused the captain of "betraying" the Navy with his urgent memo to leadership, Politico reports. Even after he apologized Monday, Modly continued to insist that Crozier had written the letter knowing it would be leaked and cause an uproar. The captain "sent his alarming email with the intention of it getting into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship," Modly said. CNN reports that at least 173 of the ship's crew have now tested positive for the coronavirus, as well as Crozier himself. At least 2,000 crew members have now been moved ashore in Guam. (Sailors gave Crozier a rousing farewell on Friday.)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  Eleven more people have recovered from the coronavirus disease in the country as the number of cases continues to rise.

The total number of recoveries rose to 84 as of 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, the Department of Health reported.

Meanwhile, 14 more patients succumbed to COVID-19. The death toll is now at 177.

No other details were provided on the new fatalities but previous data releases by the DOH showed some of the deaths occurred days before the information was disclosed. The same goes for the recoveries.

The DOH also reported 104 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country total to 3,764.

This is relatively lower than previous daily reports as the DOH has been confirming a surge in new infections amid efforts to expand coronavirus testing. The highest number confirmed in a day was 538 last week.

Luzon has been placed under enhanced community quarantine, restricting people's movement, to contain the spread of the virus. Other areas outside Luzon have imposed their own lockdown policies.

COVID-19 cases worldwide

Worldwide, COVID-19 has killed more than 70,000 people, mostly in Italy, although the outbreak began in Wuhan, China in December 2019. More than 1.3 million people have been infected, according to the Johns Hopkins University's COVID-19 global tracker.

Eight in ten, or around 80 percent, of infected patients experience "mild illness" and eventually recover from COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization. Some 15 percent experience severe illness while 5 percent were critically ill, the WHO said.

To prevent the spread of the virus, authorities are urging people to practice regular hand washing, cover their mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, and avoid close contact with those who exhibit virus symptoms.
SEATTLE, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- New COVID-19 estimates find that, among European nations, the peak daily death rate from the pandemic will occur during the third week of April, with the pandemic spreading from Southern Europe.

The new forecasts, released today by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington's School of Medicine, find that approximately 151,680 people will die during what researchers are calling the "first wave" of the pandemic. By comparison, the US is expected to face 81,766 deaths, according to forecasts released on Sunday by IHME.

"We are expecting a foreboding few weeks for people in many parts of Europe," said IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray. "It seems likely the number of deaths will exceed our projections for the United States."

This is despite the declines in deaths that are now occurring in Italy and Spain.

The death toll in many countries is compounded by demand for hospital resources well in excess of what is available. For example, peak demand in the UK is expected to total 102,794 hospital beds needed compared to 17,765 available, 24,544 ICU beds compared to 799 ICU beds available, and 20,862 ventilators needed (with data currently unavailable on ventilators available).

Today's announcement on Europe finds that most regions of Italy and Spain have passed their peaks in the number of deaths, while other nations are approaching their peaks and still others facing peak mortality later in April.

Countries that are about to peak or are quickly approaching peak in this wave of the epidemic include The Netherlands, Ireland, Austria, and Luxembourg. The Czech Republic and Romania are midway through their expected trajectories. Other nations including the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, and Greece are still early in their trajectories and face fast-rising death tolls through their peaks in the second and third weeks of April.

"It is unequivocally evident that social distancing can, when well implemented and maintained, control the epidemic, leading to declining death rates," Murray said. "Those nations hit hard early on implemented social distancing orders and may have the worst behind them as they are seeing important progress in reducing their death rates. Each nation's trajectory will change  and dramatically for the worse  if people ease up on social distancing or relax other precautions."

Murray cautioned that easing these precautions too soon during the first wave of the pandemic could lead to new rounds of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. He defines the end of this "wave" as a ratio of 0.3 deaths per 1 million people. IHME's projections assume that social distancing measures, if not currently implemented, will be implemented within one week.

"To decrease the risk of a second wave in places where the first wave is controlled by robust social distancing, governments would need to consider mass testing, contact tracing, and quarantines for those infected until a vaccination is available, mass produced, and distributed widely," Murray said.

IHME started making projections of the pandemic's impact in the United States state-by-state on March 26. Today's announcement is the first set of predictions for European nations and is based on modeling the peak in death rates and hospital usage in Wuhan City in China, where the virus was first discovered, as well as data from seven European locations that have peaked, including Madrid, Spain; Castile-La Mancha, Spain; Tuscany, Italy; Emilia-Romagna, Italy; Liguria, Italy; Piedmont, Italy; and Lombardy, Italy.

Of these eight locations that have reached the peak regarding daily deaths, only one, Wuhan, has currently brought new cases to nearly zero.

The analysis is based on an extensive range of information and data sources, including:

Local governments, national governments, and the World Health Organization

Government declarations on implementation of social distancing policies

Age-specific death rate data from China , Italy , South Korea , and the US

Here are some country-specific findings from IHME's latest forecasting:

ITALY : The first wave of the pandemic has peaked in Italy , and peak resource use for ICU beds and ventilators was on March 28 . Deaths are forecast to peak in Calabria on April 7 , and in Puglia on April 16 . On April 6 , 699 daily deaths were projected, with only three provinces ( Lombardy , Piedmont, and Emilia-Romagna ) seeing more than 50 deaths daily.





: The first wave of the pandemic has peaked in , and peak resource use for ICU beds and ventilators was on . Deaths are forecast to peak in on , and in Puglia on . On , 699 daily deaths were projected, with only three provinces ( , Piedmont, and ) seeing more than 50 deaths daily. SPAIN : Almost all regions of Spain are at or past the peak. Excess demand for ICU beds is particularly high in Spain compared to many other countries in Europe . The forecasts predict 19,209 total deaths from COVID-19 in Spain by August 4 .





: Almost all regions of are at or past the peak. Excess demand for ICU beds is particularly high in compared to many other countries in . The forecasts predict 19,209 total deaths from COVID-19 in by . PORTUGAL : Deaths in Portugal peaked on April 3 with an estimated 37 deaths. The model shows that while Portugal did not have a total bed shortage, it did not have enough ICU beds to meet demand, with the shortage peaking at 118 ICU beds on April 3 . The model predicts 471 total deaths in the country by August 4 .





: Deaths in peaked on with an estimated 37 deaths. The model shows that while did not have a total bed shortage, it did not have enough ICU beds to meet demand, with the shortage peaking at 118 ICU beds on . The model predicts 471 total deaths in the country by . FRANCE : The model shows that France is just passing the peak and will have a total of 15,058 deaths by August 4 . The country is expected to have enough total beds to meet demand, but a shortage of 4,330 ICU beds. The forecasts predict 6,091 ICU beds will be needed for COVID-19 patients in France .





: The model shows that is just passing the peak and will have a total of 15,058 deaths by . The country is expected to have enough total beds to meet demand, but a shortage of 4,330 ICU beds. The forecasts predict 6,091 ICU beds will be needed for COVID-19 patients in . GERMANY : Deaths in Germany are forecast to peak in the third week of April, with an estimated 377 deaths on April 19 . The model shows that Germany will have enough beds and ICU beds to meet demand, with the required number of total beds peaking at 12,222 on April 14 , and predicts 8,802 total deaths in the country by August 4 .





: Deaths in are forecast to peak in the third week of April, with an estimated 377 deaths on . The model shows that will have enough beds and ICU beds to meet demand, with the required number of total beds peaking at 12,222 on , and predicts 8,802 total deaths in the country by . SWEDEN : Deaths in Sweden are forecast to peak the last week of April, with an estimated 134 deaths on April 24 . The model shows that Sweden will not have enough beds and ICU beds to meet demand, with the shortage peaking at 1,090 ICU beds on April 25 , and predicts 4,182 total deaths in the country by August 4 .

UK: Deaths in the UK are forecast to peak the third week of April, with an estimated 2,932 deaths on April 17 . The model shows that the UK will not have enough beds and ICU beds to meet demand, with the shortage peaking at 23,745 ICU beds on April 17 , and predicts 66,314 total deaths in the country by August 4 .

For the complete update, please visit http://www.healthdata.org/covid/updates.

For a video of Dr. Murray summarizing key points of IHME's COVID-19 data analysis for Europe, please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vM0pwEulCs&feature=youtu.be

Contact: [email protected]

NOTE: Dr. Murray will conduct a briefing for journalists on the new Europe COVID-19 forecasts on Tuesday, April 7

WHO: Dr. Christopher Murray, Founder and Director, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington's School of Medicine



WHAT: Briefing for journalists on new Europe forecasts on COVID-19



WHEN: 6 AM (Pacific Time); 3 PM (Central European Time); 2 PM (UK Time),

Tuesday, April 7, 2020



WHERE: Via Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/382600333

Meeting ID: 382 600 333

Find your local number: https://washington.zoom.us/u/ac7iy5zTFE

NOTE: Hospital administrators, government officials, and others not associated with the news media may contact [email protected].

IHME is grateful to the Microsoft AI for Health program for supporting our hosting of COVID-19 data visualizations in the Azure cloud.

About the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent global health research organization at the University of Washington School of Medicine that provides rigorous and comparable measurement of the world's most important health problems and evaluates the strategies used to address them. IHME is committed to transparency and makes this information widely available so that policymakers have the evidence they need to make informed decisions on allocating resources to improve population health.

SOURCE Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

Related Links

http://www.healthdata.org


According to a Monday afternoon tweet by BBC political correspondent Chris Mason, British prime minister Boris Johnsons condition has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the Intensive Care Unit [ICU] at the hospital.

The Prime Minister was taken to intensive care at around seven oclock this evening and is conscious, Mason tweeted in a follow-up.

Johnson decided to remain in self-imposed quarantine late last month after developing mild symptoms and testing positive for the coronavirus.

Earlier today, Johsnon decided to self-admit to a London hospital.

Last night, on the advice of my doctor, I went into hospital for some routine tests as Im still experiencing coronavirus symptoms, he tweeted at the time. Im in good spirits and keeping in touch with my team, as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe.

Downing Street confirmed that foreign secretary and first secretary of state Dominic Raab would take up Johnsons post as Prime Minister if Johnson was unable to fulfill his duties, according to the BBC.
07.04.2020 LISTEN

The Paramount Chief of the Bole Traditional Area of the Savannah region, Bolewura Sarfo Kutuge Feso (I), has described as illegal the desire by the Banda traditional council to claim ownership of some lands especially Dokochina which belongs to the Bole traditional area.

He explains records available both legal and traditional indicates that Dokochina falls under Bole traditionally but falls under the Bono region administratively.

He describes the statement issued by Nana Gbanko II the Osiakwahene of the Banda traditional area on the ownership of Dokochina as misleading and a calculated attempt to incite the government against the people of Bole.

"It is true that some parts of the Bole traditional area belong politically to Bono Region, traditionally they belong to Bole as in the case Kadelso, Kportor, Kawampe who find themselves in the Kintampo North District" he emphasized.

He noted, the situation is also the same in the Ahafo Region communities like Goaso and Nkoranza who pay allegiance to Asantehene.

Bolewura Kutuge Feso is emphatic the land at Dokochina was and continues to be under the Bole traditional area.

He wants the general public and government to disregard claims by the chiefs of Banda as the rightful owners of Dokochina lands.

Find attached the statement issued by Bolewura Kutuge Feso (I)

PRESS STATEMENT BY THE CHIEFS AND PEOPLE OF BOLE TRADITIONAL AREA IN RESPONSE TO THREATS AND ILLEGAL CLAIM OF CERTAIN LANDS OF GONJA KINGDOM (DOKACHINA) BY BANDA TRADITIONAL COUNCIL.

This press statement is in response to the chiefs and people of Banda persistent threats and illegal claim of ownership of certain lands of the Gonja Kingdom (Dokochina) at a press briefing during a meeting held at Banda Ahekrom of the Bono Region on Thursday 23rd March, 2020.

The statement issued by Nana Gbankodi II, the Osiakwanhene of Banda Traditional Area is not only misleading but a calculated attempt to incite the government against the good people of Gonja especially people of Bole.

I wish to state emphatically that the people of Dokochina are farmers not illegal miners as the Bandas put it. If there exist any illegal miner in the area then certainly it is the Bandas not people of Bole.

The Gonja Kingdom was founded in the early 17th century by the great Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa. The Kingdom is made up seven (7) traditional divisions namely; Kpembe Traditional Area, Wasipe Traditional Area, Bole Traditional Area, Tulwe Traditional Area, Kusungu Traditional Area, Kong Traditional Area, and Kandia Traditional Area. The kingdom is partly conterminous to the present day Savannah Region.

The Bole Traditional Area is the third division of the Gonja Kingdom and it shares traditional boundaries with the following; to the North with Wa Traditional Area, to the East with Cote D Iviore (Bounkani Traditional Area), to the West with Sonyor and Tuluwe Traditional Area and finally to the South-Eastern part with Bono Region.

It will be realized that some parts of the Bole Traditional Area has been demarcated and placed in the then Brong Ahafo Region following Dr. Kwame Nkrumah post-independence re-demarcation drive.

Even though the Dokochina community belong politically to the Bono Region, traditionally the community is part of the Bole Traditional Area like the case of Kadelso, Kportor, Kawampe, Babato and others finding themselves in the Kintampo North North District of the Bono Region but still pay allegiance to the King and Overlord of Gonja (Yagbonwura).

This situation is similar to some Ahafo Region Communities like Goaso or Bono East Communicaties like Nkoranza paying allegiance to the Asantehene.

It is the same way Dokochina, Sindi (Dollar, Accra, Dablakro), Gbabiape, Sigipe and others historically and traditionally are under Bole Paramountcy since time immemorial. These communities in recent times have been under needless threats by the Banda Traditional Council in making illegal claims for Dokochina and others.

I Bolewura Sarfo Kutuge Feso (I) wish to state emphatically that both legal and traditional evidence available to my palace indicates that Banda Traditional Council do not and canner claim ownership of Dokochina and its catchment area. I therefore respectively urge the government to completely ignore the contents of their two separate press release dated 1st May, 2019 and 23rd March, 2020 of the Banda Traditional Council and treat the same as totally irrelevant.

Many of Ghanas Guans once peopled the entire catchment area until the invasion of Begho and the subsequent founding of the Gonja Kingdom by Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa in the 15th Century. In fact the Gonja movement started from this area. No wonder we have place names like Di-Nkanachena (feed and stay put) corrupted to Dokochina,

Boope, Bagiape and Wasipe which relocated to Daboya.

Apart from Dokochina, all these communities are no longer in existence. Boope was the last to move out in the mid-1970s as a result the creation of Bui National Park in 1970 or thereabouts. The people of Dokochina should have vacated the park long ago but owing to luck of funds to compensate the people to resettle hence they had all this while fed and stayed put as the name of the village enjoined them to." It is unfortunate on the part of the Banda Chiefs to describe them as illegal miners.

The Balck Volta River is not a boundary between Gonjaland and the Bono or Bono East Regions. In fact there is Gonjaland in the Bono and Bono East Regions.

For instance Kulaw is a traditional area under the Gonja Traditional Area, headed by the Kulawwura, a Paramount chief and Kingmaker of Gonja. The area has about 84 villages.

The Kulaw area is on the South of the Black Volta and shares boundary with Yeji and Atebubu in the Brong-Ahafo region but remain Gonjaland.

Even though Kulaw is on the south of the Volta it is not Brong- Ahafo. The Chiefs and people of Kulaw resisted an attempt to be incorporated into the Brong-Ahafo Region after Kwame Nkrumah created it in 1959 and has since been part of the East Gonja District.

Everybody recognised and accepts regional boundaries as convenient instruments for administration, but traditional allegiance transcends regional boundaries and examples of these exist in all parts of this country.

For instance the land on the Kintampo-Buipe trunk road starting from Babatukuma is an integral part of the Gonja Traditional Area but in Bono East Region.

What is being bandied around by the Banda Traditional Council as trouble brewing by Gonjas is only a smokescreen employed by a few irate and ambitious Banda Youth intent on inviting the government against the good people of Gonja in Bole to guarantee their selfish interest.

It would be recalled that shortly before the demise of late Bolewura Awuledese Potonprong (II), a delegation of elders from Banda Paramountcy called on the then Bolewura with an appeal for the mutual use of our lands for collective interest of Gonjas and Bandas.

They came with the traditional drinks and cola to appeal for mutual participation and benefit of the area consequent upon the fertility of the land for farming purposes.

Indeed and in truth there is no 'wolf', the current happings is an arrangement between some youth of Banda and Banda \traditional Council to serve their selfish interest. The Bandas have been our allies for long and under no circumstance would we used violent as a tool for solving issues.

I Bolewura Safo kutuge Feso (I) wish to state emphatically that the Bandas should find themselves dialoguing, under no circumstance has a chief outdoored in a community by the Banda paramountcy that he presides over.

The Gonjas and Bandas have cultural and traditional links dating back to the hundreds of years. We wish to say that the warrior status of Gonjas is well documented but we urge the Banda Traditional Council to be concerned with what unites Gonjas and them rather than engaging in needless threats and scare policies that has the tendency to polarized the two tribes (Gonjas and Bandas).

I wish to further add that the issue at stake is purely a traditional and customary matter which can be amicably settled without the hands of the politicians or government.

No peace is being disturbed or threatened and that Chief Muniru Adams remains the legitimate Chief of Dokokyina and has assumed responsibility as the traditional ruler of the community.

I, therefore, conclude by assuring all Gonjas and Banda people that the Bole traditional council is committed to peace.

Thank you.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: A prolonged shutdown and skyrocketing job losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic have taken their toll on Indias health, economy and corporate profits.

According to a snap CEOs survey conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), a majority of the 200 plus executives surveyed expect India Incs revenues to fall more than 10 per cent and net profits to decline more than five per cent in the current quarter (April-Jun 2020) as well as the preceding quarter (January-March 2020) leading to massive job losses.

The manufacturing sector faces a dual challenge. While the nationwide lockdown has allowed manufacturing for essential goods, the absence of raw materials can create end-product shortages. On the demand side, more than 40 per cent of the firms expect their stocks to last beyond a month once the lockdown ends  indicating expectations of a demand slowdown in the post lockdown period, the survey noted.

Most firms (80 per cent) have also claimed that their inventory is lying idle and, depending on how long the virus proliferates, expect the economic impact to become more severe. Industries such as consumer durable goods and automobiles are expected to be severely impacted, with the impact cascading to other intermediate and basic goods segments.

The surveyed chief executives also say that access to manpower and movement of products have emerged as major constraints in essentials trade across the board. This could result in direct layoffs or major salary cuts given that industries like airlines, hotels, malls, restaurants, theatres etc. cannot pay staff when there is zero income.

About 52 per cent of the companies surveyed foresee job losses in their respective sectors, with 47 per cent of these expecting a job cut of less than 15 per cent and 32 per cent expecting to shed 15-30 per cent once the lockdown ends.

Economists have already warned that the revenue losses will mean a sharp decline in GDP. At a very broad level, a single day of a complete shutdown... involves around Rs 50,000 crore of real GDP. A 10-day shut down, for instance, would be Rs 5 lakh crore or 3.4 per cent of GDP, explained Madan Sabnavis, chief economist, CARE Ratings.

According to Chandrajit Banerjee, Director-General, CII: The government could announce a fiscal stimulus package for the industry and implement it on fast track mode, given that the sudden imposition of the lockdown has significantly impacted industry operations and the uncertainty of a recovery threatens substantial loss of livelihoods going forward.
The Centre has begun using integrated command and control centres designed for Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led smart cities mission for surveillance and monitoring of Covid-19 affected districts across states.

States have converted the smart cities command centres into war rooms for real time data monitoring using the central data dashboard to provide up-to-date information about the status of coronavirus cases in different administrative zones of their cities, officials aware of the development said. The war rooms are also being used for tracking people under quarantine and suspected cases.

States with highest reported Covid-19 positive cases, say, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh among others are using the command centres for CCTV Surveillance of public places, geographic information system (GIS) mapping of coronavirus positive cases, GPS tracking of healthcare workers.

Centre is coordinating with the states through our central command centre at Nirman Bhawan in New Delhi. States are also using it for predictive analytics (Heat Maps) for virus containment across different zones of the city. We are also doing real-time tracking of ambulances and disinfection services, a senior government official said.

The Centre is using Smart Cities for collaborating with the district administration, district police and city administration to monitor the suspected cases of COVID-19. Centre aims to use smart infrastructure for developing predictive analytics using heat maps and taking action in monitoring the movements (using geo-fencing) as well as periodic health status of suspected cases.

States are also using it for providing virtual training to doctors and healthcare professionals, providing medical services through video conferencing, tele-counselling and tele-medicines. Leveraging this technology, Smart Cities are collaborating with medical practitioners in the city to provide online medical consultation facilities to citizens. The guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) in collaboration with NITI Aayog and the Indian Medical Council, allow doctors to write prescriptions based on telephonic, textual or video conversations  chat, images, messaging or emails. People certified medical practitioners without the need to go out of the house, reducing the risk of COVID-19 spread, the official said.

All the operators are given daily tasks to monitor quarantine citizens, passengers who came from abroad recently and resolve general queries regarding Covid-19, the official added.

This comes at a time when the Centre is mulling to resume movement and commercial activity in districts with no coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases. In an interaction with chief ministers on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the states to formulate a common exit strategy to ensure staggered re-emergence of the population once the lockdown ended.

The empowered group on COVID 19, led by Niti Aayog, is also seeking support from international organisations like the WHO and the UN for providing technical support in monitoring and surveillance systems. According to officials aware of the development, a meeting of the empowered group with the UN is also scheduled Tuesday.

Monitoring at state level

In Maharashtra, the highest affected state with 868 reported cases thus far, local administrations like the Pune Smart City Development Corporation Limited (PSCDCL) has collaborated with Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to develop an integrated data dashboard. Each case of the city has been mapped using geo-spatial information systems and city administration is monitoring the areas and creating buffer zones where patients were diagnosed positive with COVID-19 infection, an official said.

Using heat-mapping technologies and predictive analytics, the city administration is developing a containment plan and the containment zones get reflected on the dashboard. The healthcare operations at the citys Naidu Infectious Disease Hospital are tracked at this facility. The Smart Citys integrated dashboard also monitors the quarantine facilities and tracks the health of suspected patients and their contacts placed under home quarantine.

Tamil Nadu, with 621 reported COVID 19 positive cases, has deployed a team of doctors at the integrated command centres to monitor 250 people under quarantine each.

In Chennai, 25 doctors are engaged in ICCC, they had given 250 quarantine people each to guide their counterparts and give them moral and psychological support. They will also refer necessary medicines, if required. In Vellore, 118 suspects are mapped with individual health experts for advice. The contact details and medical history are shared and necessary advice given to the suspects, the official said.

In the smart cities of Uttar Pradesh the command centres are being used for tracking health services across the state. The state has 308 positive cases thus far.

In centres like Kanpur Smart City, Aligarh, Varanasi etc itracking of health services from the ICCC is being done. Telemedicine is offered through video conferencing facilities launched by the city administrations. In Aligarh, Doctors are deployed at Aligarh Smart City Integrated Command and Control Center (ICCC) during 11- 8 pm to enable telemedicine and video conferencing facility through a dedicated Whatsapp number, the official said.

Madhya Pradesh has also deployed a team of doctors at the command centres for counselling and monitoring. The state has 256 positive reported cases thus far.

In Bhopal, the integrated command and control centre (ICCC) is being used as a helpline and tele-counselling centre for citizens. Medical officers are stationed at ICCC in different shifts to assist during any situation. In Ujjain smart city centre, two doctors are stationed at the centre for 24 hours duration to take video conferencing/ telephone calls from the citizens and give appropriate advice based on the symptoms. Forty Medical Mobile Units (MMU) are operationalized to distribute medicines to people based on prescriptions by doctors. In Jabalpur, dedicated Rapid Response Team (RRT) and Mobile Action Unit (MAU) are present on ground ward-wise who coordinate with officials present at ICCC regarding screening, ambulance, quarantine etc. the official said.

Medical teams are stationed at the command centres to provide any immediate medical attention to through the helpline. Trained professionals resolve the queries raised by citizens at an initial level and these calls are then connected with a designated doctor. This counselling process is reducing the panic among citizens/callers. The doubtful citizens are being encouraged to consult a doctor, the official said.

In Gujarats Gandhinagar smart city contact details of grocery stores for all sectors are also provided. The Surat Municipal Corporation has published an online dashboard for providing the overall statistics on tested, confirmed, active, recovered and death cases, the dashboard provides the trends and patterns on the spread of COVID-19 within city, in terms of cumulative cases (each day), number of new confirmed cases reported, age-wise distribution of cases, zone-wise distribution and gender-wise distribution. Spatial mapping of affected areas is also being provided.

The first lot of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) governments ambitious Smart Cities Mission, aimed at developing 100 citizen-friendly and self-sustainable urban settlements, will be measurable only by 2021, when the first 20 of them are completed. Under the mission, setting up of integrated command and control centres (ICCC) for each city is a vital step. The ICCCs are designed to enable authorities to monitor the status of various amenities in real time. It was initially aimed to control and monitor online water and power supply, sanitation, traffic movement, integrated building management, city connectivity and Internet infrastructure.
07.04.2020 LISTEN

It is posited by contributors [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] to BMJ, 'Preventing a covid-19 pandemic', others, [6] [7] [8] and myself,[9] that vitamin D, and particularly vitamin D deficiency, likely factors in the progression, and/ or severity, and/ or mortality of COVID-19; and may present clinical treatment opportunities.

My preprint, 'Vitamin D deficiency: a factor in COVID-19, progression, severity and mortality?  An urgent call for research',9 posits, that greater vitamin D deficiency <25nmol/L in southern (E.g. Spain and Italy), than northern European Countries (E.g. Germany, Norway, Finland, Iceland), may help account for their differentials, in mortality rates per million. Consistent with this, Northern Europeans have higher vitamin D food intakes, food fortification, and supplement more. This is an easily testable posit.

Northerly resident; Europeans with darker skins; BAME, and African Americans; as well as more southerly elderly Spanish and Italians; are often vitamin D deficient. IF, vitamin D deficiency, increases the risk of COVID-19 related; infection, hospitalisation and mortality; one would expect, and indeed sees, higher COVID-19 hospitalisation and mortality, in; dark-skinned (Fitzpatrick scale) northerly residents; those with dress codes that inhibit sunlight; and generally in groups likely to include the 'D' deficient.

Whilst data is still sparse, it supports the above contention; albeit lack of distancing, and vitamin D deficiency, may both be contributing factors:  40 % of the reported COVID-19 related deaths occurring in Stockholm involve the Somali diaspora communities;  18 % (estimated) of the COVID-19 deaths country-wide are from the Somali community, [10] [11] (Numbers of Somalis in 2016 in Stockholm municipality approx. 7,827 of 935,619 persons = 0.84% )(Metropolitan Stockholm 2.4M (2016)) (Total Swedish population 9.5M  of which approx. 63,853 were Somalis = 0.67% (2016))[12] [13]

Data clearly shows Somalis, and wider immigrant groups, are D deficient, for example, Vitamin D deficiency (  (Sweden)[14]; according to several studies, certain categories of immigrants living in the northern part of Europe are vitamin D deficient ; A significantly higher proportion of immigrant women (77.9%) had levels < 25 nmol/l compared with 3.9% in controls; 29.4% had 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, < 12 nmol/l, but none of the controls.(Sweden)[15] A high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency (S-25OHD < 50 nmol/l) was observed (896 %) in the Somali group. (Finland) [16]

In respect of African Americans, a headline, April 3rd, 2020, 'Early Data Shows African Americans Have Contracted and Died of Coronavirus at an Alarming Rate[17]', observes, African Americans made up almost half of Milwaukee County's 945 cases and 81% of its 27 deaths in a county whose population is 26% black.; and In Michigan, where the state's population is 14% black, African Americans made up 35% of cases and 40% of deaths as of Friday morning. Detroit, where a majority of residents are black, has emerged as a hot spot with a high death toll. As has New Orleans. Louisiana has not published case breakdowns by race, but 40% of the state's deaths have happened in Orleans Parish, where the majority of residents are black.; Illinois and North Carolina are two of the few areas publishing statistics on COVID-19 cases by race, and their data shows a disproportionate number of African Americans were infected.17

WBEZ News reports, April 5th, In Chicago, 70% of COVID-19 Deaths Are Black, in Cook County, While black residents make up only 23% of the population in the county, they account for 58% of the COVID-19 deaths. And half of the deceased lived in Chicago, according to data from the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.[18]

The review, APHA 'Call for Education and Research Into Vitamin D Deficiency/Insufficiency', in 2008, noted, Healthy men and women older than the age of 65 in Boston were surveyed for vitamin D status, which revealed that a surprising 34% of White, 42% of Hispanic, and 84% of African American men and women were vitamin D deficient.[19] (Definitions of 'D' deficiency vary).

An estimated 40% of American adults may be vitamin D deficient. For African-Americans, that number may be nearly double at 76% according to a new study by The Cooper Institute. (defined as <30nmol/L); it is also noted they have higher rates of and obesity. [20] Risk is also higher in adolescents, NHANES III noted, non-Hispanic black adolescents had 20 times the risk of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D <20 ng/mL compared with non-Hispanic white adolescents. Risk was more than double for females compared with males. There was an inverse relationship with weight.[21]

In contrast, in continental Africa, whilst Vitamin D deficiency exists, it does not appear to be as widespread as in the United States one in five people living in Africa had a low 25(OH)D concentration with use of a less than 30 nmol/L.[22] COVID-19 data for Somalia is limited. Test are done externally, as no there is no testing facility in the country: current data; 7 cases, 1 recovered, no deaths.[23] The first recorded case was confirmed on the 16th of March. Twenty volunteer doctors from Somali National University went to Italy to help fight the outbreak there.[24] [25] Case numbers in wider Africa are currently relatively low, compared to the most infected countries, but arguably there is not sufficient data, or certainty, as to initial infection dates, to, at this point, even postulate as to future COVID-19 infection, or mortality rates, in Africa.[26]

Differences appear to exist in the metabolism of Vitamin D; 'The D paradox';[27] between Caucasians and African Americans, particularly in terms of bone density. However, the metabolism of vitamin D is complex, and pathways impacting COVID-19, likely differ from those regulating bone densities.

It is well recognised COVID-19 mortality rate, has very sadly, been high in Italy (15,887 as at 5TH April 2020).[28] A letter to the BMJ titled 'Preventing a covid-19 pandemic Can high prevalence of severe hypovitaminosis D play a role in the high impact of Covid infection in Italy?'[29] notes, A study from Isaia et al on 700 women aged 60-80 yrs in Italy found values of 25OH vitamin D lower than 5 ng/ml in 27% of the women and lower than 12 ng/ml in as many as 76%. Finally, another Italian study found a winter prevalence of hypovitaminosis D up to 32% of healthy postmenopausal women and to 82% in patients engaged in long-term rehabilitation programmes because of various neurological disorders.29

BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic) persons in the United Kingdom, may be more susceptible. A study of 2,249 patients by the UK 'Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre', noted Despite making up just 13 per cent of the UK population, a third of patients who fall critically ill with COVID-19 are from black, Asian or minority ethnic (BME) groups.[30] Further, sadly, 6 out of 8, UK COVID-19 medical staff deaths, were British Muslims.[31] Hasidic Jews in Israel may also be at higher COVID-19 risk, due to failure to isolate[32] and/ or greater risk of vitamin D deficiency.[33] [34]

I agree with Professor Cobbold's earlier comment in this BMJ thread, To me the dots are joined up and the picture points to an unexploited potential emergency therapy for covid-19, especially in the elderly who are typically severely D3 deficient by physiological criteria, and at highest risk.,2 and to which low 'D' risk group more could be added; those with darker skin tones in more northerly and southerly latitudes; those with high clothing coverage; women using UVB blockers; those with limited access to sun including; people in institutions; those working shifts; those in naval ships and submarines; those in institutions; the obese; and indeed all at risk of vitamin D deficiency.

Arguably it is urgent , that research is done, to determine if vitamin D deficiency factors in COVID-19, infection, progression, severity and mortality. Vitamin D blood spot tests are cheap. Patient records have to be maintained in any event. The additional work, and risk burden, in taking vitamin D measurements are limited. However, the reward could be very significant, even a 'game changer'.

Further, any determination that vitamin D factors in COVID-19, incidence progression and outcome, would point to the likelihood of COVID-19 following a seasonal pattern in populations, which would require factoring into determination of Governmental COVID-19 forward planning policies; mortality risk modelling; social distancing polices; and population vitamin D optimisation, including access to outside spaces, to facilitate sensible, ethnicity appropriate, exposure to UVB in sunlight; and/ or free 'D' supplementation, at least for the most vulnerable and financially insecure.

COVID-19 studies might comprise:

 Test all COVID-19 patients in hospital/s at a given point in time for Vit D, follow, and report results.

 Take finger prick samples at the same time as COVID-19 test  follow through with laboratory vitamin D tests on the samples of all positives, and an equal number of controls; report results.

 A study using Vit D clinically  test for low vit D  where low supplement with vitamin D3, and/ or as an alternative to above, try a 1,25-active form; [35] report results.

Vitamin D, as suggested in recent papers, could also usefully be immediately incorporated into wider clinical nutritional COVID-19 protocols,[36] [37] but the above studies would still be required as a matter of urgency , to better understand the role of vitamin D in COVID-19, for the formulation of; treatment, prevention, and wider, policies.

[1] Rhein, H. (6th March 2020). BMJ 2020;368:m810 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m810

[2] Cobbold, P. (2nd March 2020). BMJ 2020;368:m810 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m810

[3] Maestri, E., Formoso, G., Da Cas R., Mammarella, F,. Trotta, F. (12th March 2020)

Vitamin D against COVID 19: Clinicians need more than observations and hope. BMJ 2020;368:m810 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m810

[4] Grant, W. (1st April 2020). Can vitamin D supplementation reduce the spread of COVID-19? Try first with health care workers and first responders.: BMJ 2020;368:m810 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m810

[5] Cobbold, P. (8th March 2020). BMJ 2020;368:m810 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m810

[6] McCartney, D., Byrne, D. (2020). Optimisation of Vitamin D Status for Enhanced Immuno-protection Against Covid-19. Issue: Ir Med J; Vol 113; No. 4; P58. http://imj.ie/optimisation-of-vitamin-d-status-for-enhanced-immuno-protection-against-covid-19/

[7] Grant, W., Lahore, H., McDonnell, S., Baggerly, C., French, C., Aliano, J., & Bhattoa, (30th March 2020 2nd version) H. Evidence that Vitamin D Supplementation Could Reduce Risk of Influenza and COVID-19 Infections and Deaths. Nutrients 2020, 12, 988. https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202003.0235/v2

[8] Isaia, G. (25th March 2020). Possibile ruolo preventivo e terapeutico della vitamina D nella gestione della pandemia da COVID-19 Enzo Medico, Universita degli Studi di Torino, Torino,

[9] Brown, R. Sarkar, A. (29th Feb. 2020  submitted 24th). Vitamin D deficiency: a factor in COVID-19, progression, severity and mortality?  An urgent call for research. Preprint. https://www.mitofit.org/index.php/Brown_2020_MitoFit_Preprint_Arch

[10] Speckhard, A., Mahamud O., Ellenberg M. (April 3, 2020). When Religion and Culture Kill: COVID-19 in the Somali Diaspora Communities in Sweden (Retrieved 5th April 2020). https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/counterterrorism/when-religion-and-culture-kill-covid-19-in-the-somali-diaspora-communities-in-sweden/

[11] McElroy, D. (April 5th, 2020). Sweden is making a dangerous bet on a 'cultural cure' to Covid-19 N opinion. (Retrieved 5th April 2020). https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/sweden-is-making-a-dangerous-bet-on-a-cultural-cure-to-covid-19-1.1001557

[12] Stockholm Wikipedia. (Retrieved 6th April 2020). https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stockholm&oldid=949204856 "Statistisk arsbok for Stockholm 2018" (PDF). Statistik Stockholm. (Retrieved 5 October 2018). https://start.stockholm/om-stockholms-stad/utredningar-statistik-och-fakta/statistik/

[13] Somalis in Sweden Wikipedia. (Retrieved 6th April 2020). https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Somalis_in_Sweden&oldid=948124691

[14] Demeke, T., Osmancevic, A., Gillstedt, M., Krogstad, A., Angesjo, E., . . . & Landin-Wilhelmsen, K, (2019). Comorbidity and health-related quality of life in Somali women living in Sweden, Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care, 37:2, 174-181, DOI:10.1080/02813432.2019.1608043

[15] Bergstro,  I., Palme, M., Persson, J., & Blanck, A. Observational study of vitamin D levels and pain in pregnant immigrant women living in Sweden. Gynecol Endocrinol, 2014; 30(1): 7477. 2014 Informa UK Ltd. DOI: 10.3109/09513590.2013.856408

[16] Islam, M., Viljakainen, T., Karkkainen, M., Saarnio, E., Laitinen, K., & Lamberg-Allardt, C. (2011). Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and secondary hyperparathyroidism during winter in pre-menopausal Bangladeshi and Somali immigrant and ethnic Finnish women: associations with forearm bone mineral density Br J Nutr. 2012 Jan;107(2):277-83. doi: 10.1017/S0007114511002893. Epub 2011 Aug 9.

[17] Johnson, A., Buford, T. (April 3rd 2020). Early Data Shows African Americans Have Contracted and Died of Coronavirus at an Alarming Rate. No, the coronavirus is not an equalizer. Black people are being infected and dying at higher rates. Here's what Milwaukee is doing about it  and why governments need to start releasing data on the race of COVID-19 patients. ProPublica. (Retrieved 5th April 2020) https://www.propublica.org/article/early-data-shows-african-americans-have-contracted-and-died-of-coronavirus-at-an-alarming-rate https://www.propublica.org/article/early-data-shows-african-americans-have-contracted-and-died-of-coronavirus-at-an-alarming-rate

[18] Zamudio, M., Ramos, E. (5th April 2020). In Chicago, 70% of COVID-19 Deaths Are Black. (Retrieved 6th April). https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/in-chicago-70-of-covid19-deaths-are-black/dd3f295f-445e-4e38-b37f-a1503782b507

[19] APHA. (2008). Call for Education and Research Into Vitamin D Deficiency/Insufficiency Policy Number: 20081 (Retrieved 5th April 2020). https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2014/07/07/18/10/call-for-education-and-research-into-vitamin-d-deficiency-insufficiency

[20] Freeland, A. (2019). African-Americans At Greatest Risk of Vitamin D Deficiency. Pediatrics. 2009 Mar;123(3):797-803. doi: 10.1542/peds.2008-1195. http://www.cooperinstitute.org/2019/09/24/african-americans-at-greatest-risk-of-vitamin-d-deficiency

[21] Saintonge, S., Bang, H., & Gerber, et Al. (2009). Implications of a new definition of vitamin D deficiency in a multiracial us adolescent population: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III. Pediatrics. Mar;123(3):797-803. doi: 10.1542/peds.2008-1195.

[22] Mogire, R., Mutua, A., Kimita, W., Kamau, A., Bejon, P.,  & Atkinson, S. (2019) Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis The Lancet Volume 8, ISSUE 1, Pe134-e142. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(19)30457-7

[23] Worldometer. Somalia Coronavirus. (Retrieved 6th April 2020). https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/somalia/

[24] 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Somalia Wikipedia. (Retrieved 6th April 2020). https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Somalia&oldid=949174385

[25] Dhaysane, M. (27th March 2020). Somalia sending 20 doctors to help Italy fight virus. Doctors from Horn of Africa nation will help fight against coronavirus in Italy. Anadolu Agency. (Retrieved 6th April 2020). https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/somalia-sending-20-doctors-to-help-italy-fight-virus/1782154#

[26] 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Africa. Wikipedia. (Retrieved 6th April 2020). https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Africa&oldid=949391028

[27] Brown, L., Cohen, B., Tabor, D., Zappala, G., Maruvada, P., Coates, P. (2018). The vitamin D paradox in Black Americans: a systems-based approach to investigating clinical practice, research, and public health - expert panel meeting report. BMC Proc 12, 6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12919-018-0102-4

[28] 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Italy. Wikipedia. (Retrieved 6th April 2020) https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Italy&oldid=949409062

[29] Giustina, A. (28 February 2020). doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m810 Cite this as: BMJ 2020;368:m810

[30] Boyd, C. (6th April 2020) Coronavirus warning for people from black and minority backgrounds as NHS data suggests they are at more risk of life-threatening complications. MailOnline. (Retrieved 7th April 2020) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8191443/NHS-data-suggests-people-black-minority-backgrounds-vulnerable-coronavirus.html

[31] El-Bar, K. (3rd April 2020). British Muslim nurse dies after contracting coronavirus. 6 out of 8 of deaths from coronavirus so far in UK's National Health Service have been British Muslims. (Retrieved 5th April 2020). https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/british-muslim-nurse-dies-after-contracting-coronavirus/1791772

[32] Halbfinger, D. (30th March 2020). Virus Soars Among Ultra-Orthodox Jews as Many Flout Israel's Rules Failure to comply with government restrictions is causing the coronavirus to spread in ultra-Orthodox communities up to eight times faster than elsewhere in Israel. New York Times. (Retrieved 5th April 2020). https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/world/middleeast/coronavirus-israel-cases-orthodox.html

[33] Tsur, A., Metzger, M., Dresner-Pollak, R. (2011). Effect of different dress style on vitamin D level in healthy young Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox students in Israel. Osteoporos Int. Nov;22(11):2895-8. doi: 10.1007/s00198-010-1492-y.

[34] Mukamel, M., Weisman, Y., Somech, R., Eisenberg, Z., Landman, J., Shapira, I, Spirer, Z., Jurgenson U. (2001). Vitamin D Deficiency and Insufficiency in Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Jewish Mothers in Israel. Isr Med Assoc J. Jun;3(6):419-21.

[35] Yang, J,. Zhang, H., Xu, Z. (2016). Effect of Vitamin D on ACE2 and Vitamin D receptor expression in rats with LPS-induced acute lung injury. DOI: 10.3760/cma.j.issn.1671-0282.2016.12.016

[36] Caccialanza, R., Laviano, A., Lobascio, F., Montagna E., ... & Cereda E. (2020). Early nutritional supplementation in non-critically ill patients hospitalized for the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Rationale and feasibility of a shared pragmatic protocol. In Press, Journal Pre-proof, Available online 3 April 2020

[37] Barazzoni R et al., (2020). ESPEN expert statements and practical guidance for nutritional management of individuals withSARS-CoV-2 infection, Clinical Nutrition, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2020.03.022
Should a little green man  green, that is, in outlook as well as hue  visit Earth now, he might conclude that we have finally got our act together.

He would see that the air is cleaner, waters clearer, streets and flight paths quieter and wildlife happier than at any time in living memory, just as Greta Thunberg and millions of young people want.

The environment has improved in one fell swoop.

The coronavirus lockdowns, now affecting almost half the worlds population in some form, have produced one beneficiary from the deadly, devastatingly disruptive disease: the planet itself.

London, like the majority of the world, remains on coronavirus lockdown. Yet the planet appears to be benefitted from a vast decrease in human activity

And that just might provide a tiny grain of hope, amid the nightmare of so much suffering, for a better, prosperous and more resilient world.

Dormant

As the Mail reported a week ago, Nature is breaking cover across Britain, with moles, weasels, oystercatchers, tawny owls, golden plover and other species glorying in having the countryside to themselves.

Fish have filled Venices 150 canals; their murky water has turned blue and transparent as pollution has been cut and far fewer boat engines stir up the sediment.

Ducks splash in Romes usually tourist-besieged fountains. A puma was seen prowling Santiago, Chiles capital, while wild turkeys have been strutting through Oakland, California.

Meanwhile, satellites have reported spectacular falls in air pollution over much of China, where the pandemic  and harsh measures to counter it  began.

The killer smogs that have long shrouded so many of its cities have been replaced by blue skies as factories closed and roads emptied.

Ironically, Stanford University calculated that so far this has probably saved the lives of 4,000 children under five, and 73,000 adults over 70.

A puma was seen prowling Santiago, Chiles capital; a signal that nature is beginning to venture forth as the human race takes a back seat to tackle the rising pandemic

Air pollution levels have also plunged in Europe and the U.S. And they are down by a third to a half in London, Bristol, Birmingham and Cardiff.

Slashed pollution, mainly from fossil fuel use, benefits the climate, too, as less carbon dioxide is released.

Over February, Chinas emissions of the global-warming gas fell by 25 per cent. And air traffic worldwide is expected to fall by 38 per cent.

Motorways are nearly empty, airports largely dormant. And the Beatles pedestrian crossing in St Johns Wood is being repainted because, just for once, nobody is using it.

In the Lake District, where police are discouraging tourists, a latter-day Wordsworth could again wander lonely as a cloud.

And hed have his golden daffodils, too. For, on top of all this, it is spring and, to date, a wonderfully sunny one. Whats not to like?

Well, alas, we all know what. Such environmental benefits pale against the horror of a more perilous, anxious time than any of us could have imagined.

So far, nearly 74,000 people have died from the coronavirus worldwide, nearly 5,400 of them in Britain. Hundreds of thousands more untimely deaths are expected.

Many millions are in economic peril. Countless numbers of people leading modestly comfortable lives have been tipped into terrifying insecurity, through no fault of their own.

A deeper depression than that of the 1930s may loom. In Britain, it is feared, the economy will contract by 15 per cent next quarter  more than seven times as much as at the height of the 2008-09 financial crisis.

Professor Philip Thomas, of Bristol University, warns that if the lockdown leads to Britains GDP falling by 6.4 per cent, more years of life will be lost than if the virus had been left to spread unchecked.

The world has been turned completely upside down by a microscopic organism.

Turning it around again will not be easy. And was what we had  though incomparably better than at present  really the right way up? There are compelling grounds for believing that it was poised for just what has happened  the first truly global environmental/economic disaster  and that, if we did get back to normal, more such catastrophes would follow.

Covid-19 is thought to have originated in a bat and spread to people via an illegally traded pangolin in a Chinese wet market. Experts have long predicted a pandemic starting in some such way.

Covid-19 is thought to have originated in a bat and spread to people via an illegally traded pangolin in a Chinese wet market, similar to the one pictured above

Indeed, this coronavirus is only the latest in a series of diseases to have infected humans from wildlife, usually because of environmental destruction.

As forests are felled, animals  and their viruses  are forced closer to people. Ebola, Zika and West Nile disease have all been linked to deforestation. HIV, Nipah virus and the previous coronaviruses Sars and Mers also originated in wildlife. The surprise is that a major pandemic has not come sooner.

Incredibly, it could have been even worse. The percentage death rate from the coronavirus is in low single figures, whereas the bird flu that caused much concern some 15 years ago, but has not spread, kills half the people it infects.

Emissions

Climate change adds to the danger, causing species to move and releasing long-frozen viruses from melting ice. And it threatens catastrophes of its own, as the recent Australian bushfires testify.

Indeed, there is likely to come a point where increasing heat makes it impossible for the world to grow enough food.

Largely due to Greta Thunbergs campaign, a growing number of governments  with ours in the lead  have committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. But accelerating feedbacks in the climate system, such as melting Arctic sea ice  which replaces a white shield that reflects the Suns heat with dark water that absorbs it  threaten to send global warming out of control before then.

Largely due to Greta Thunbergs campaign, a growing number of governments  with ours in the lead  have committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050

So the choice is no longer between changing how we do things and business as usual, but between rapid change and a series of environmental disasters that devastate the world economy.

Terrible and destructive though it is, the coronavirus crisis provides a pause for thought. It has revealed gaping cracks in our present system, and has already dramatically shifted what is thought to be possible.

The environment and the economy, once thought irreconcilable, are increasingly seen to be inseparable.

Opportunity

The economy, as Covid-19 has made painfully clear, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, dependent on healthy natural systems. And green investment is increasingly recognised as the best route to prosperity.

Three years ago, an international commission of top business leaders identified 9.8 trillion of opportunities in green, sustainable development. Many businesses are already pioneering such a transformation.

Imminent decisions could determine whether the world embraces the huge opportunity for low-carbon, environmentally attuned prosperity or tries to claw its way back to the old, unsustainable status quo.

The vast stimulus packages now being prepared must ensure that assisted industries create public value in return. A bailed-out car company could be required to accelerate production of electric vehicles, an airline to use low-carbon fuel.

Two global summits, on climate change and wildlife  now expected next year  provide an extraordinary opportunity for the world to set a new course. Britain hosts the climate one: a chance to establish post-Brexit global leadership.

It could build bridges between China, with whose president, Xi Jinping, Boris Johnson discussed the summits by phone, the U.S. and the rest of the world, to enable agreement on the change the world so desperately requires.
Storage and data management company Pixit Media, has hired VFX expert Dave Goodbourn as Head of Workflow Development.

Goodbourn has over 20 years industry experience including complex VFX pipeline design and delivery in the Cloud  most recently as Head of Systems at Milk VFX. As part of Pixit Medias technical team, he will share his frontline expertise with customers, providing consultancy to design and build on-prem, remote and Cloud workflows for VFX and Post-Production.

As a Pixit Media customer, I could always rely on our PixStor storage platform to deliver high-performance no matter what I threw at it and I can wholeheartedly say the same of Pixits technical team. I have always been impressed by their deep understanding of workflows and genuine care to help overcome any challenge we faced, said Goodbourn. Im delighted to now be on the other side of the table as part of this team, helping media organisations find better ways to tackle demanding projects and deadlines.

At Pixit, weve brought together a unique team of experts firmly rooted in the media industry, fanatical about driving our customers success, said Barry Evans, Pixit Medias CIO. Daves strong technical background, commercial understanding and invaluable real-world experience make him a real asset to our pre-sales team  strengthening our in-house skills to help our customers deliver and grow their business.

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The coverage on this live blog has ended  but for up-to-the-minute coverage on the coronavirus, visit the live blog from CNBC's Asia-Pacific team. Global cases: More than 1,428,400

Global deaths: At least 82,000

US cases: More than 398,100

US deaths: At least 12,800 The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

9 pm: LA mayor says face coverings required to enter essential businesses

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Tuesday announced a worker protection order that requires all employees and customers at essential businesses in the city to wear cloth face coverings over their nose and mouths. The rule goes into effect on Friday morning. Employers have to give workers these masks or reimburse workers for buying them, Garcetti said. Employers also have to make sure employees can get to a sanitary bathroom stocked with cleaning products so that workers can wash their hands every 30 minutes.The city is also encouraging all essential retailers to install Plexiglas barriers between customers and cashiers. It's not a requirement because there isn't a sufficient amount of Plexiglas for retailer, Garcetti said. "Every Angeleno will share this responsibility with employers: To keep workers and everybody else safe, which is why we are requiring customers to wear face coverings to enter those businesses I mentioned," Garcetti said. "If you're shopping for groceries, picking up a prescription, or visiting any other essential business, and if you're not covering your face, by Friday morning, an essential business can refuse you service." He added: "So cover up, save a life, it's that simple." Garcetti said Robert Garcia, mayor of Long Beach, another city in Los Angeles County, is looking at language of the order so that it can be implemented across all of the county. Jordan Novet

8:40 pm: NBA players could refund millions to owners, sources say

National Basketball Association owners could get some financial relief in the form of of returned pay in any compensation deal with players, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation. In an hour-long call on Tuesday afternoon, executives at the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), the players' union, cleared up misinformation and told agents that any compensation deal constructed by the NBPA and league owners will include refunds on all NBA contracts. The NBA become the first league to suspend its season last month due to the coronavirus pandemic. The move triggered other pro sports leagues to follow. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said decisions about any return is still weeks away, but with this possible repayment clause included as part to any revised compensation deal, the regular-season portion of the NBA could be over. Jabari Young

8:20 pm: White House officials worry the coronavirus is hitting African Americans worse than others

White House officials worry that the COVID-19 outbreak is disproportionately hitting African Americans harder than other groups and are working with state and local officials to begin tracking how the coronavirus impacts different ethnicities. Dr. Anthnony Fauci, who sits on President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force, said the COVID-19 outbreak is "shining a bright light" on how "unacceptable" the health disparities between blacks and whites are. "Yet again, when you have a situation like the coronavirus, they are suffering disproportionately," Fauci said of minorities. "It's not that they are getting infected more often. It's that when they do get infected, their underlying medical conditions ... wind them up in the ICU," he said at a White House press conference Tuesday. Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

8 pm: Trump blames WHO for getting coronavirus pandemic wrong, threatens to withhold funding

President Donald Trump blamed the World Health Organization for getting "every aspect" of the coronavirus pandemic wrong and threatened to withhold funding from the international organization. "They did give us some pretty bad play calling ... with regard to us, they're taking a lot of heat because they didn't want the borders closed, they called it wrong. They really called, I would say, every aspect of it wrong," Trump said at a White House press conference Tuesday. WHO officials declared the outbreak a pandemic on March 11, when there were just 121,000 global cases. In the U.S., there are more than 380,000 cases, according to Hopkins. Dawn Kopecki, Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

7:25 pm: Trump blames internet companies, including Amazon, for Postal Service struggles

President Trump said on Tuesday that internet companies, including Amazon, are to blame for the decline of the U.S. Postal Service. The comments, which came during Tuesday's coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, recall a series of attacks in 2018, when Trump repeatedly blamed Amazon for hurting the post office, once saying that Amazon uses the USPS as "their delivery boy." The comments came after a reporter asked the president about comments from Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., suggesting that Trump had requested that $25 billion meant for the USPS be cut from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, act, which Trump signed into law on March 27. Jordan Novet

7:04 pm: Jim Cramer predicts 'U' shape recovery, says economy 'will bounce back gradually'

CNBC's Jim Cramer suggested investors take advantage of the recent market upside to sell some stock and build up some cash for the next dip. "Without a V-shaped recovery, you have to be skeptical of these big moves higher," the "Mad Money" host said. "Because in a U-shaped recovery I'm expecting, the stock market will pull back again and that is when you can put some money to work." A V-shaped recovery happens when a quick decline in economic activity is met by an abrupt rebound in activity, while a U-shaped recovery is one where the economy gradually climbs out of a recession environment, which can take up to two years. Based on Monday's 7% market rally, investors are hoping that the economy has a V-shaped recovery, Cramer said, which is where business activity snaps back if the ongoing outbreak is quelled soon. "'V' is what justifies yesterday's rally" but "I do not believe in the 'V' when it comes to this recovery," he said. Tyler Clifford

6:55 pm: Trump ally Tom Barrack hires lobbyists for coronavirus-related issues as he warns of hurdles for the commercial mortgage market

One of President Donald Trump's closest allies hired a top lobbying firm to advise on challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic. Colony Capital, a real estate investment firm run by Tom Barrack, recently hired lobbyists from Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck to focus on "issues related to COVID-19 relief packages," according to a lobbying disclosure report first reviewed by CNBC. The form lists Colony Capital as the client and that the effective date of the firm registering to lobby for Barrack's business was on March 20, just days before Trump signed the $2 trillion stimulus package. The lobbying form was officially signed on Tuesday and records indicate that Barrack's company has never hired lobbyists. Barrack, who has been a longtime friend of the president, published a Medium post on March 22 warning the administration and Congress that commercial mortgage market is in free fall in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that has damaged the U.S. economy. Brian Schwartz

6:46 pm: Updated map of cases in the US, which now total 387,547

6:34 pm: Levi Strauss CEO Chip Bergh: Coronavirus pandemic will separate retail's winners and losers

Levi Strauss CEO Chip Bergh said the coronavirus pandemic "will further separate the winners and losers" in the retail industry today. "The brands that are going to win are going to be the ones that have deep connections," with consumers, Bergh told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday afternoon. "We are going to double down on the things that are working." Levi Strauss, which has been around for 167 years, is going to use COVID-19 "as an opportunity to come out stronger on the other side," Bergh added. "We've been through it all ... the Spanish flu. No other apparel company can say that." The company on Tuesday reported its first-quarter 2020 results, for the period ended Feb. 23. Levi Strauss said it saw a boost from Black Friday week. However, the coronavirus outbreak that started in China roughly during the middle of the quarter hit the period's net revenue in Asia by about $20 million. Lauren Thomas

6:25 pm: Mayo Clinic CEO says convalescent plasma could be an effective treatment for coronavirus

A coalition of health and industry partners is looking at convalescent plasma as a potential treatment for the coronavirus, Mayo Clinic CEO Dr. Gianrico Farrugia told CNBC. "Scientists and physicians around the world are racing to find new treatments for COVID-19," Farrugia said on "Squawk on the Street." "The convalescent plasma initiative is one of these options." The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that Mayo Clinic would be leading the initiative in testing the effectiveness of convalescent plasma in COVID-19 patients. The treatment has been around for more than 100 years and was used during the 1918 flu pandemic, Farrugia said. The FDA approved the treatment for coronavirus patients in March. Hannah Miller

6:12 pm: Stock futures flat after volatile session for markets

6:06 pm: Restaurant software provider Toast cuts 50% of staff as coronavirus forces eateries to close

Toast, a provider of point-of-sale software to the restaurant industry, announced that it's cutting about 50% of its staff as the coronavirus forces businesses across the country to close. That amounts to about 1,300 employees. "During the month of March, as a result of necessary social distancing and government-mandated closures, restaurant sales declined by 80 percent in most cities," CEO Chris Comparato wrote in a blog post. "This is a massive disruption that hit the industry virtually overnight. Many restaurants that have temporarily closed may never reopen." Coming into 2020, Toast was riding high, raising $400 million in February at a valuation of almost $5 billion after revenue more than doubled last year. But as cities from San Francisco to New York imposed shelter-in-place orders last month, restaurants were only able to serve food via delivery and takeout. Ari Levy

5:45 pm: Airbnb promised cash refunds for coronavirus cancellations, but some guests say it's not that simple

Last month, Airbnb promised to issue full cash refunds to qualifying travelers whose trips had been impacted by the coronavirus, but some customers are complaining that Airbnb is making them jump through hoops to get their cash back. The coronavirus has disrupted many industries, but none more so than the travel industry. As the pandemic spread, leading to lockdowns, travelers canceled business and personal trips in massive numbers. The U.S. Travel Association expects the industry to lose 4.6 million jobs this year. Salvador Rodriguez

5:30 US needs more testing to 'move the economy forward,' says Johns Hopkins infectious disease expert

The U.S. must increase its testing capabilities for the new coronavirus before the economy can restart, Dr. Robert Bollinger of Johns Hopkins University told CNBC on Tuesday. Specifically, the U.S. needs more rapid testing and a better system of contact tracing to determine who has been infected by COVID-19 and who has not, Bollinger said on "Power Lunch." Improvement in those areas, along with existing social distancing efforts, will "truly allow us to move the economy forward, get back to work," said Bollinger, an infectious diseases professor at Johns Hopkins' medical school. Kevin Stankiewicz

5:15 pm: Amazon piloting disinfectant fog at New York warehouse after protests

An Amazon worker holds a sign at the Amazon building during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the Staten Island borough of New York City, March 30, 2020. Jeenah Moon | Reuters

Amazon is piloting the use of disinfectant fog starting on Tuesday at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York, within days of protests at the worksite over health concerns during the coronavirus pandemic. The world's largest online retailer said it is testing the practice commonly used by airlines and hospitals to clean facilities further, on top of introducing temperature checks and masks for staff. Last week, 15 workers at the New York warehouse known internally as JFK8 protested to demand the building's closure following a case of the coronavirus that was reported among staff. An additional demonstration took place Monday. Reuters amazon

4:47 pm: Gov. Gavin Newsom says California's curve is 'bending and stretching'

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday that the state's curve of coronavirus cases is showing signs of "bending and stretching" as the increase in people admitted to the hospital on a daily basis has started to gradually decline. Newsom said that 2,611 of the state's 15,865 cases are in the hospital, a 4.1% increase from Monday, and 1,108 of those are in the ICU, a 2.1% daily increase. He said the new figures are "not the double digit increases that we saw in hospitalization rates or ICU rates even a week or so ago." He said this and continued physical distancing has started to slow the increase of the state's curve, or number of infections, but will also extend a potential peak into mid-May. "Our modeling shows that we're not at peak in a week or two. We're seeing a slow and steady increase, but it's moderate," Newsom said at a press conference. "It's moderate because of the actions all of you have taken in terms of the physical distancing." Noah Higgins-Dunn

4:33 pm: American Airlines suspends pilot training

American Airlines is suspending all pilot training amid health concerns surrounding COVID-19. Federally-mandated periodic training involves classroom and time in a flight simulator. "The health and safety of our team remains our top priority, so we've kept a close eye on this with special attention focused on how it may impact the areas where we conduct our flight training," American Airlines officials told pilots in a memo, which was seen by CNBC. Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, which represents some 15,000 American Airlines pilots, called it the "prudent call" that's "in the best interest of our crew members." American plans to resume training on May 11. Leslie Josephs

4:15 pm: Twitter CEO sets aside $1 billion in Square equity for charity, coronavirus relief

Square and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has said he is donating $1 billion in Square equity to support relief efforts for the COVID-19 efforts. "I'm moving $1B of my Square equity (~28% of my wealth) to #startsmall LLC to fund global COVID-19 relief," Dorsey said on Twitter. Dorsey said that, after "we disarm" COVID-19, he will dedicate the money to universal basic income (UBI) and girls health and education. "Why pull just from Square and not Twitter? Simply: I own a lot more Square," he said. "And I'll need to pace the sales over some time. The impact this money will have should benefit both companies over the long-term because it's helping the people we want to serve. Todd Hasleton tweet

4 pm: Stocks close lower after roller-coaster session, Dow gives up 900-point surge

Stocks closed lower on Tuesday, giving up a massive rally from earlier in the day, as Wall Street assessed the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 26 points lower, or 0.1%. The 30-stock average rose as much as 937.25 points, or 4.1%, at its session high. The S&P 500 ended the day 0.2% lower after jumping more than 3%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.3% following a 3% rally. Some investors believed stock prices were getting ahead of the reality where coronavirus shutdowns are likely to weigh on the economy significantly beyond the second quarter. The major averages have rallied about 20% from their March 23 lows. Fred Imbert

3:37 pm: France is fourth country to pass 10,000 coronavirus deaths

A couple wearing face masks in front of the Eiffel Tower. Getty Images

France has officially registered more than 10,000 deaths from coronavirus infections, making it the fourth country to cross that threshold after Italy, Spain and the United States. The rate of increase in the number of fatalities also rose for the second consecutive day, official figures showed. Jerome Salomon, head of the public health authority, told a news conference the pandemic was still expanding in France, which is now in the fourth week of a national lockdown to try to curb its spread. But he said the number of serious coronavirus cases being treated in intensive care units had risen by only 0.8% in the previous 24 hours  the eighth consecutive day that this rate has decelerated. Salomon said the number of people who have died in French hospitals after contracting the coronavirus had risen to a cumulative total of 7,091. But if partial data on deaths in nursing homes is included, the death toll from the disease is now 10,328, he said. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in hospitals is now 78,167, and the number of confirmed or possible cases in nursing homes is 30,902. Reuters

3:07 pm: After New York-area cuts, United slashes flights in California as COVID-19 drives down demand

United Airlines is cutting back service in California, one of its biggest markets, as travel demand continues to plunge. The Chicago-based airline will reduce its flights at Los Angeles International Airport from 33 a day to 13 and at San Francisco International Airport to 50 flights per day from 65. "This action also will require fewer employees to be on-site in those locations, making social distancing procedures easier to execute," Greg Hart, United's chief operations officer, told employees. The changes come just days after the airline announced even deeper cuts in New York, which has about 140,000 reported cases of COVID-19, more than any other state. Leslie Josephs

2:55 pm: Patients with autoimmune diseases are running out of hydroxychloroquine

As President Trump has repeatedly and aggressively touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential cure for the novel coronavirus, the drug has been flying off the shelves at pharmacies. Earlier in the month, autoimmune patients could find it at a pharmacy in the area, even if it meant calling up a handful. But as of this week, several doctors told CNBC there are widespread shortages across many states, and it's gotten challenging to find it anywhere. The John Hopkins' Lupus Center describes hydroxychloroquine as helping reduce flareups in some patients "as much as 50%," noting that some may be on the drug for the rest of their lives to help keep their symptoms at bay. Hydroxychloroquine is the most commonly prescribed for autoimmune conditions versus other antimalarials because it's generally believed to cause fewer side effects. In light of the shortages, doctors treating autoimmune patients are pressing policymakers and drug manufacturers to increase the production as quickly as possible. Christina Farr

2:45 pm: Jobless Americans to see extra payments as soon as this week

Americans who have lost their jobs due to the new coronavirus will start getting enhanced jobless benefits as soon as this week as states deploy hundreds of billions of dollars in federal aid, state officials said. Congress approved an additional $600 weekly payment for jobless workers as part of an unprecedented $2.3 trillion rescue package signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27. It could take several weeks for that money to filter through federal and state bureaucracies into the bank accounts of many of the millions of Americans who have been thrown out of work. Qualifying New York residents will see the additional benefit payments this week, said Deanna Cohen, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Labor. In Missouri, payments will start going out as early as the week of April 12, according to the state Labor Department. Officials in Maine and California said they have not yet figured out when they will be able to distribute the money. Other states did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters

2:34 pm: New York relaxes testing requirement for students to graduate amid virus shutdown

The New York State Education Department announced it's canceling the June 2020 administration of the state high school Regents Examinations, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department is making modifications to assessment requirements that all students must meet in order to graduate high school. These changes apply to all students enrolled in grades 7 through 12 during the 2019-2020 school year. The Department said in a statement that students who were going to take one or more Regents exams in June will be "exempted from the requirements pertaining to passing such 2 examinations in order to be issued a diploma." The eligibility requirements for students to qualify for the exemption are listed on the statement. All students in New York State must pass five Regents exams with a score of at least 65 to graduate. Jasmine Kim

1:55 pm: New Jersey closes most public parks, extends stay-at-home order as deaths surge

New Jersey is extending its public health emergency and closing all state and county parks as coronavirus deaths hit the highest single-day increase in COVID-19 deaths yet, Gov. Phil Murphy announced. Murphy said 232 people died of the coronavirus over the past day, bringing the state total to 1,232. He added that 3,361 people tested positive in the past day, which brings the total in New Jersey to 44,416. "We have also lost, and this is sadly our highest toll to date, we have lost another 232 of our precious fellow New Jerseyians to COVID-19-related complications," he said. "The best way we can protect this New Jersey family is by social distancing." Will Feuer

1:27 pm: Wisconsin voters go to the polls despite high coronavirus risks

Hali Fisher, 24, waits in line to vote at Riverside High School, 1615 E. Locust St. in Milwaukee on Tuesday, April 7, 2020. The Wisconsin primary is moving forward in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic after Gov. Tony Evers sought to shut down Tuesday's election in a historic move Monday that was swiftly rejected by the conservative majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court by the end of the day. Mike De Sisti | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA Today | Reuters

A day before Wisconsin's scheduled primary election, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers issued an executive order to suspend in-person voting and extend the deadline for absentee ballots in an effort to reduce voters' exposure to coronavirus. Later that day the Republican-led legislature challenged that decision and the Wisconsin Supreme Court court struck down Evers' executive order. The U.S. Supreme Court then voted 5-4 along ideological lines in favor of the lower court's decision to overturn the governor's orders. On Tuesday, voters lined up to cast their votes for Democratic challengers former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders amidst a national health pandemic that has infected at least 368,449 Americans and killed at least 10,993 of them. Adam Jeffery

1:14 pm: South Korea's broad coronavirus testing strategy could flatten curve in US areas, expert says

Travelers wearing protective masks and suits walk through Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, on Monday, March 9, 2020. SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images

"Broad testing" of people for the coronavirus as was done in South Korea could significantly slow the spread of the disease in parts of the United States that now have relatively few cases of COVID-19, an infectious diseases expert said. It remains to be seen, however, whether enough reliable coronavirus tests and sufficient supplies of related equipment can be deployed in those regions quickly enough to flatten the disease's upward curve there. The areas include large swaths of the West. South Korea has been lauded for knocking down its outbreak after employing an aggressive strategy of testing more than 440,000 people for the coronavirus, along with other mitigation measures. The United States currently is engaged in an emergency effort to "flatten the curve," or the rate of increase in new COVID-19 cases, in order to avoid overwhelming the capacity of hospital systems and to lower the death rate from the virus. Dan Mangan

1:01 pm: New coronavirus cases in Italy fall to 25-day low, deaths rise by 604

Deaths from the coronavirus epidemic in Italy rose by 604, a lower daily tally than the 636 seen the day before, while the number of new cases posted the smallest increase since March 13. The total death toll in the world's hardest-hit country since its outbreak came to light on Feb. 21 rose to 17,127, the Civil Protection Agency said. The total of confirmed cases increased by 3,039 on Tuesday to 135,586, the second successive daily decline, underscoring growing confidence that the illness is on the retreat thanks to a nationwide lockdown introduced on March 9. New cases rose by 3,599 on Monday. Previous daily increases since March 17 had all been in a range of 4,050-6,557. Reuters

12:52 pm: Your lender might let you miss a few mortgage payments

Homeowners whose finances have been battered by the coronavirus might want to think again before postponing their mortgage payments. Congress has offered some relief to mortgage borrowers who are experiencing financial strain from the pandemic, which has left a flood of layoffs in its wake. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security act has a provision that would allow affected homeowners to apply for up to a 12-month reprieve on some mortgages. Borrowers aren't being forgiven. Instead, the state and federal COVID-19 measures call for forbearance  the postponement or reduction of the loan payment due. Darla Mercado

12:32 pm: Stocks jump for a second day, Dow gains more than 700 points

12:24 pm: Cramer: Wall Street's 'happy days are here again' story is not what I'm hearing on Main Street

CNBC's Jim Cramer said Wall Street's recent optimism over an apparent slowdown in coronavirus cases is not shared by many Americans on Main Street. "There is a 'happy days are here again' Wall Street impression versus what I hear ... people saying, 'Can I get a mask? How do I get a mask? Do I want an N95?'" Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." Citing recent COVID-19 case data, JPMorgan's Marko Kolanovic recently told clients that a "limited reopening" of the U.S. economy could happen soon. "Look, I like it. I love optimism ... but I don't like getting sick," Cramer said, adding he feels there's more trepidation toward restarting something resembling a normal life than the stock market's recent moves are showing. Kevin Stankiewicz

12:08 pm: Senate will vote to pass more small business aid Thursday, McConnell says

Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell said he hopes to approve further funding for the small business loan program on Thursday. "I will work with Secretary Mnuchin and Leader Schumer and hope to approve further funding for the Paycheck Protection Program by unanimous consent or voice vote during the next scheduled Senate session on Thursday," he said in a statement. Sen. Marco Rubio flagged the news in a tweet moments before McConnell's statement. Lauren Hirsch, Jacob Pramuk

11:58 am: House Democrats urge Boeing to take federal aid as plants shut down over coronavirus pandemic

House Democrats representing Washington state have urged Boeing to accept government aid to help weather the coronavirus pandemic after the plane-maker's chief executive balked at the possibility of government equity stakes in exchange for the relief. "Given the severe harm the nation's aerospace industry and hardworking women and men at the Boeing company are experiencing during this pandemic, we hope you will consider utilizing the economic assistance provided by the CARES Act to safeguard thousands of jobs at Boeing in Washington state and across the country," said a letter sent Monday to Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun from Rep. Rick Larsen. Larsen, a Democrat from the state, is chairman of the House's aviation subcommittee. It was signed by six other lawmakers from the state, where Boeing employs about 70,000 people. Boeing has not yet decided whether it will apply for federal aid and is awaiting the guidance from the Treasury Department about conditions and requirements for the relief, according to a person familiar with the matter. Leslie Josephs

11:49 am: Markets 'totally unprepared' for how long economies will take to normalize after coronavirus, economist says

Stock markets are "totally unprepared" for how long economies will take to normalize after the coronavirus crisis, one strategist told CNBC. Global markets have been plunged in turmoil as investors reacted to the escalating coronavirus crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were down by around 20% over the first quarter, while European stocks posted their worst quarter since 2002. However, many indexes have rallied in recent days as data suggested the spread of COVID-19 in Europe and the U.S. could be starting to slow. Steen Jakobsen, chief economist at Saxo Bank, said the optimism could be premature, claiming investors were failing to price in the long-term fallout of the crisis. "I still think the market is totally unprepared for what is coming in terms of when we open up," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" Tuesday. "The market is celebrating, and very rightly so, that we have a flattening out of the curve right now in terms of people being infected, but the real economic drama will be when we get to the other side of this, because opening up will take month upon month." Chloe Taylor

11:25 am: New York deaths jumped by 731 Monday, the single-biggest daily increase, Gov. Cuomo says

Coronavirus deaths in New York surged by 731 on Monday, the single-biggest daily jump in COVID-19 fatalities since the outbreak began a few months ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday. The jump in fatalities comes even as intensive care admissions start to decline, giving the state some needed breathing room to ramp up supplies and staff to handle an expected wave of cases over the next few weeks, he said. So far, 5,489 people in the state have died from the coronavirus, accounting for roughly half of all deaths in the U.S. New York is the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States, with more than half of cases in the state in New York City, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Berkeley Lovelace Jr., William Feuer, Noah Higgins-Dunn

11:14 am: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is 3D printing parts for face shields

Jeff Bezos' space venture Blue Origin has joined other rocket companies in volunteering its manufacturing expertise to help make products needed to fight the coronavirus crisis. Blue Origin workers from its BE-4 rocket engine team are volunteering to make plastic pieces needed for face shields, the company said in a video released Tuesday. The rocket company has about 38 types of plastics that it can 3D print in house, with printers working day and night to make the parts. Blue Origin joins fellow rocket builders Virgin Orbit and SpaceX in producing supplies and devices needed by hospitals to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Michael Sheetz

10:43 am: NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio says the number of patients needing ventilators has 'improved'

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the number of coronavirus patients being placed on ventilators in recent days has been better than expected, giving the city precious time to secure needed supplies for a wave of patients expected to hit hospitals in the next few weeks. "We'll have to see in the days ahead if it's something that's sustained and something that deepens," he said at a press conference in front of the Alfred E. Smith public elementary school in downtown Manhattan on Tuesday. "But I want to at least note a little improvement in the last few days, and thank God for that." There are at least 72,181 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3,485 deaths in New York City, the worst outbreak in the U.S., Johns Hopkins University data said Tuesday morning. Roughly 22% of the cases in New York City have ended up hospitalized, according to the NYC Health Department. That's more than double the global hospitalization rate, according to the World Health Organization. William Feuer, Noah Higgins-Dunn

10:39 am: University presidents, athletic administrators take pay cuts due to financial problems

Stanford University is enacting a 20% pay cut for Provost Persis Drell and President Marc Tessier-Lavigne amid a financially challenging time as the university faces increased costs to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, Drell said. University of Oregon President Michael Schill also announced he will take a voluntary 12% pay cut. The institution's 10 vice presidents and athletic director are taking 10% cuts. These reductions are expected to last six months but could be extended to the end of the 2020-2021 school year. The University of Southern California joined in reducing the salaries of its senior leadership officers. Carol Folt, the university president, will take a 20% reduction while the provost, senior vice presidents and deans will take 10% cuts. "Despite our resilience and liquidity, the magnitude of the shock will be significant. We are experiencing sizable additional costs associated with stopping the spread of COVID-19 in our 80,000 strong community and we are suffering a significant decline in many important sources of revenue," USC Provost Charles F. Zukoski and senior vice president of finance James M. Staten said in a statement. Jasmine Kim

10:10 am: House Democrats to hold a conference call with Pence, Fauci, Birx on coronavirus response

Vice President Mike Pence and other key members of the White House coronavirus task force will hold a conference call with House Democrats on Wednesday to provide an update and field questions about the U.S. response to the pandemic. The White House team, which is led by Pence, will update the House Democratic caucus on multiple facets of the response effort, including the status of supplies and supply chains, a source familiar with the task force told CNBC. The team will also provide a breakdown of current data and modeling on the virus, the source said. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci and coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx are also set to attend the phone conference, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET. Kevin Breuninger, Lauren Hirsch

9:47 am: India allows limited exports of anti-malaria drug after Trump warns of retaliation

India, the world's main supplier of generic drugs, said Tuesday it will allow limited exports of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine that President Donald Trump has touted as a potential weapon in the fight against the coronavirus. The Indian government had put a hold on exports of hydroxychloroquine as well as on the pain reliever paracetamol, saying stocks were depleting because of the hit to global supply chains after the coronavirus emerged in China late last year. But Trump spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the weekend seeking supplies and on Monday said India may face retaliation if it didn't withdraw the ban on exports. India's neighbors, including Nepal, have also sought the anti-malaria drug. Reuters

9:33 am: Stocks surge for a second day amid signs of a slowdown in new virus cases, Dow jumps 800 points

Stocks rallied on Tuesday, building on the strong gains from the previous session, as investors grew more optimistic about a decline in new coronavirus cases. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 846 points higher at the open, or more than 3%. The S&P 500 gained 3.2% while the Nasdaq Composite surged 2.8%. Stocks surged on Monday as a slew of coronavirus headlines pointed to a potential stabilization in the U.S. The Dow soared 1,600 points, posting its third-biggest point gain ever. The S&P 500 jumped 7% to its highest level since March 13. With Monday's rally, the S&P 500 bounced about 20% from its 52-week low on March 23. Fred Imbert, Yun Li

9:28 am: NJ Democratic says the Garden State is flattening the coronavirus curve

The coronavirus pandemic is beginning to show signs that it is nearing a peak in New Jersey, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., told CNBC on Tuesday. "What we're doing is working," Gottheimer said on "Squawk Box." "Our death toll is still way too high, and it's just awful the number of people who are sick. ... But the good news is it seems there is some light on the horizon." There are more than 41,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey, according to Johns Hopkins University data. More than 1,000 people have died. Gottheimer said about 20% of the state's cases have been in his northern New Jersey district, which includes Bergen and Sussex counties. Kevin Stankiewicz

9:24 am: US coronavirus test results

9:12 am: Major League Baseball discussing plan to play all games in Arizona after coronavirus stoppage

Major League Baseball has discussed the possibility of playing all games in Arizona, with teams stationed in confined environments, according to multiple reports. Clubs would play games at spring training ballparks around the Phoenix area as part of MLB's plan to resume operations after the coronavirus pandemic forced the worldwide suspension of sports. Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, is also an option. The Associated Press said league officials discussed the plan with the MLB Players Association on Monday, days after President Donald Trump spoke U.S. with sports commissioners to examine the economic effect the virus is having on leagues. Trump met with reporters after the call, saying he wants to see fans back in arenas as soon as possible. Jabari Young

8:42 am: The latest US case counts

8:19 am: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson 'stable' but remains in intensive care

A spokesperson for U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was "stable" and in "good spirits," but remained in intensive care after his coronavirus symptoms worsened Monday afternoon. Speaking to reporters, the spokesperson said Johnson had received oxygen treatment but was breathing without any other assistance. Holly Ellyatt

8:09 am: Walgreens to open 15 drive-thru testing sites for the coronavirus across 7 states

Walgreens plans to open 15 drive-thru testing locations for the coronavirus across seven states, starting later this week. The sites will be in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas, the drugstore chain said in a news release. They will use Abbott Laboratories' rapid COVID-19 test. Walgreens said in a news release that it chose the new sites with the Department of Health and Human Services based on anticipated hot spots for cases of COVID-19. It said it expects to test up to 3,000 people per day across the sites. Testing is free for people who meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's criteria. The rapid COVID-19 test, which the sites will use, delivers positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results within 13 minutes. Melissa Repko

7:10 am: USNS Comfort crewmember tests positive

A military officer next to the USNS Comfort Navy hospital ship located at Pier 90 to care for patients not related to Covic-19 on March 31, 2020 in New York City. Pablo Monsalve | Getty Images

A crewmember on the Navy hospital ship sent to New York City to originally treat noncoronavirus patients tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, the Navy said. "The crewmember is isolated from patients and other crewmembers," the Navy said in a statement to NBC. "There is no impact to Comfort's mission, and this will not affect the ability for Comfort to receive patients. The ship is following protocols and taking every precaution to ensure the health and safety of all crewmembers and patients on board." The Comfort, which is docked on Manhattan's West Side, was deployed to relieve the city's hospitals of noncoronavirus patients. However, President Donald Trump agreed on Monday to allow the 1,000-bed hospital ship to be used to treat COVID-19 patients. The ship until now has been used to treat just a handful of patients without COVID-19, leading to criticism that it has been of little or no help with the hospital crisis in New York. Will Feuer

6:55 am: VW plans to partially reopen a plant in Spain on April 20

Volkswagen hopes to partially reopen its plant in Spain's Navarra region on April 20 after its closure in mid-March, a spokesman said. The plant in northern Spain should reopen with one of its three daily shifts working four days in the first week, the plant spokesman said. The goal is to add a second shift the following week, depending on how well the supply chain works, he said. All workers would wear masks and gloves, and the plant's disinfection would be intensified, he added. The plant has around 4,800 workers and produces the Polo and T-Cross models. Reuters

6:30 am: Another UK minister self-isolates, media reports

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Environment Secretary Michael Gove leave 10 Downing Street on June 15, 2017 in London, England. Chris J Ratcliffe | Getty Images News | Getty Images

U.K. Cabinet minister Michael Gove has gone into self-isolation for seven days after a member of his family came down with symptoms of COVID-19, Sky News and other news agencies reported. Gove is the latest in a string of U.K. politicians and officials who have self-isolated after they, or family members, displayed symptoms of the virus. Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains in intensive care after his coronavirus symptoms worsened Monday. Holly Ellyatt

5:30 am: Spain sees uptick in daily deaths

Mortuary employees wearing face masks transport a coffin of a COVID-19 coronavirus victim at La Almudena cemetery on April 04, 2020 in Madrid, Spain. Carlos Alvarez | Getty Images

Spain reported 5,478 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number to 140,510, the health ministry said. The number of deaths has risen by 743 cases to 13,798, that's above the 637 deaths recorded the previous day. Holly Ellyatt

4:47 am: Japan declares state of emergency, prepares near $1 trillion stimulus

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared a state of emergency to fight coronavirus infections in major population centers and has unveiled a stimulus package worth 108 trillion yen ($990 billion). Abe announced the state of emergency targeting the capital Tokyo and six other prefectures  accounting for about 44% of Japan's population  for a period of about one month, Reuters reported. "We have decided to declare a state of emergency because we've judged that a fast spread of the coronavirus nationwide would have an enormous impact on lives and the economy," he told parliament earlier. His Cabinet will also finalize the stimulus package  which is equal to 20% of Japan's economic output  to cushion the impact of the epidemic on the world's third-largest economy.  Holly Ellyatt
In the thick of Coronavirus, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri asserted the Mission 'Lifeline Udan' to be in full swing, adding that 152 flights of 'hope and solidarity' are supplying essential commodities. Under 'Lifeline Udan initiative' launched by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), 107 flights have been operated till April 3 for transporting over 138.81 tonnes of medical cargo across the country amid lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the COVID-19.

Taking to Twitter, The Aviation Minster stated that 152 flights are transporting 200 tonnes of critical supplies all over the country, adding that no Indian will be left behind.

152 flights of hope & solidarity transport 200 tonnes of critical supplies across 1,32,000 kms.

Mission Lifeline Udan is in full swing.

No Indian will be left behind.

Together, we shall overcome.#IndiaFightsCOVID19 #LifelineUDAN@MoCA_GoI @MoHFW_INDIA @PMOIndia @AAI_Official pic.twitter.com/7kpGfvSyPt  Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) April 7, 2020

READ: Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Centre mulls extending lockdown post-April 14; cases at 4421

The Lifeline Udan cargo includes COVID-19 related reagents, enzymes, medical equipment, testing kits, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), masks, gloves and other accessories required by the coronavirus warriors across the country. The carriers involved in Lifeline Udan operations include Air India, Alliance Air, Indian Air Force (IAF) and Pawan Hans. Private carriers like IndiGo, Spicejet and Blue Dart are operating medical cargo flights on a commercial basis.

READ: Centre mulls extending 21-day COVID-19 lockdown post-April 14 after states demand: Sources

Coronavirus crisis in India

As of date, over 4000 positive cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) - 325 have been discharged and Maharashtra reported the highest at 868. 114 deaths have been reported to date. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries. The Prime Minister has issued a 21-day countrywide lockdown starting from 23 March to April 15 and the Finance Minister has announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore package under the 'PM Gareeb Kalyan Scheme'.

READ: Air India asks passengers of 4 flights to self-quarantine as 3 test positive for COVID-19

READ: Air India cabin crew member tests positive for coronavirus; admitted to Mumbai hospital
As the clock ticked closer to the 3 p.m. shift change, the Rekai Centres chief executive officer was still working the phones, trying to find enough staff for residents in the Wellesley Central Place long-term care home.

At the same time, Sue Graham-Nutter was taking calls from families considering removing their loved ones from Rekai Centres two downtown Toronto homes as the number of residents with COVID-19 rise and the number of workers declines.

Sherbourne Place now has 10 residents who have tested positive for COVID-19, including a 66-year-old man who died more than a week ago. As of Sunday, Toronto Public Health reported five residents had tested positive at Wellesley Central Place. Both homes are awaiting further test results, with 11 pending for residents at Sherbourne Place.

I know a number of families are wrestling with the difficult decision of whether to discharge their loved one... Graham-Nutter said, in a letter emailed on Monday. There are numerous factors for each family to consider.

The Ministry of Long-Term Care recently amended regulations to expedite the return of residents who leave for an extended period during the pandemic, a change pushed by seniors advocates like Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Sinai Health and the University Health Network.

Its enabling choice, Sinha said. These are difficult times, and families have a lot of anxiety. Why deny families the ability to withdraw their loved one if they feel it is a safer choice?

Lisa Levin, CEO of Advantage Ontario, said the change is helpful but cautioned that residents who are out of the home more than 21 days wont be able to immediately return if the beds have been taken by a new resident. Instead, their names will go to the top of the long-term care wait list.

You might have to wait, Levin said. There could be a lot of other people at the top of that list.

In her email, Graham-Nutter said residents can leave for up to 21 days if they continue to pay for their bed but asked families to consider whether they can realistically meet the needs of your loved one at home.

Having your loved one at home means providing 24-7 care, toileting, transferring, providing the medications, etc. This is a very difficult decision to make, we know that, she wrote.

Colan Inglis said his 94-year-old mother, Helen, has lived in Wellesley Central Place for five years. Inglis said he cannot care for her at home because she has dementia and needs two workers to transfer her from bed to wheelchair.

I would hesitate to bring her up here, the retired refrigeration mechanic said of his home in Collingwood. I always thought we would make the best of it where she is.

His mom had a privately paid personal support worker to help with meals and other needs, but after the recent COVID-19 test results came back, Inglis said the PSW refused to return. Now he worries about his moms care.

On Sunday, Graham-Nutter sent a letter to families detailing the latest COVID-19 test results at Wellesley Central Place and the infection control procedures in the home. Staff working among residents with COVID-19 are wearing full personal protection equipment, she said.

She described the struggle of staffing during a pandemic.

We had hoped to offer tray service (in bedrooms) but, to be honest, we reached out to our staff and the agencies with whom we work, but no one will pick up the shifts. Instead, the home will continue to keep residents at a safe distance from each other during meals in the dining room, her letter said.

All homes who experience COVID-19 suffer from a staff shortage. We are working to manage this as best as we can.

Levin, of Advantage Ontario, said long-term care homes are struggling to find staff willing to work during COVID-19 outbreaks. In an industry that has long dealt with staffing shortages, even fewer workers are available now.

Some workers, Levin said, have been sent home to spend 14 days in isolation after exposure to the coronavirus, while others are struggling with child care or had been working in multiple homes and had to choose just one location to avoid spreading the virus.

On top of that, when there is an outbreak some staff dont show up for work, she said.

Doris Grinspun, president and CEO of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, said she is hearing stories from nurses and personal support workers across the province who are afraid to work because of a shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE). In addition to gloves and other PPE, all workers should be given two surgical masks a day, Grinspun said.

I would be afraid too, she said. Most of these workers have a family, or a husband with cancer or a mother who needs their help.
Rahmell Peeples walks in his neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York on March 26. Peebles didnt see the need for alarm over the new coronavirus, and is one of roughly 40 million black Americans deciding minute by minute whether to put their faith in the government and medicine during the coronavirus pandemic. Ive just been conditioned not to trust, Peebles said. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) Read more

As a black queer HIV-positive person, Ive seen my fair share of devastation caused by epidemics. So has Philadelphia. The deadliest was the 1793 outbreak of Yellow Fever, a mosquito-spread disease that slashed the citys population by 10%. Not all Philadelphians were treated equally during this dramatic episode. As historian Rana Hogarth observes, Benjamin Rush, an eminent chair of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, theorized that black people were naturally immune to yellow fever. Rush also believed that black skin resulted from leprosy, and encouraged attempts to cure this disease of the skin in negroes, according to student researchers at Penn. Yet since Rush was also a prominent abolitionist, many historians later forgot or forgave his racist medical beliefs.

Rush was not alone in seeing black people as less vulnerable to disease, according to Tim Holliday, a PhD candidate at Penn. Holliday told me historians have found that white Philadelphians tended to downplay not only black vulnerability to yellow fever, but also the significance of black caregivers during the 1793 epidemic. Some accused black caregivers of laziness and price-gouging when black nurses started charging higher rates  equal to pay for white caregivers  during this time.

Black Philadelphians eventually died at rates similar to the rest of the population. Washington Square, once called Congo Square by some black residents in a nod to their West African heritage, houses a mass grave of Philadelphians who lost their lives to the disease. Scholars estimate that over 4,000  potentially closer to 5,000  people died in the city.

When the AIDS epidemic hit Philadelphia, nearly two centuries later, it too devastated communities. Black Philadelphians made up nearly half of reported AIDS cases in 1985, causing the emergence of organizations like the black-led Bebashi to provide critical care for HIV-impacted Philadelphians. The delayed federal response to AIDS stemmed in part from a lack of investment in the health of the gay men the virus primarily impacted.

In other words, these pandemics exposed how treatment of the body is political  which has long been true in the U.S. Slavery reduced black people, and so black bodies, to a commodity and profitable end. The health and well-being of enslaved people  who were piled into ships like cargo, regularly lashed on plantations  was secondary to the capitalist aims of production. The dismissal of certain bodies as less valuable than others, especially for economic motivations, remains entrenched in the U.S. today. It comes at no surprise that during the COVID-19 pandemic, politicians have proposed that certain individuals get back to work at the risk of their safety, or suggested that older people should be willing to die to save the economy. Trading bodies for economic gain is tied to the nations founding on the system of slavery.

We see disparate valuing of bodies in everyday healthcare as well, not just during crises. Black women, for example, have the highest infant mortality rate in the country. James Sims, considered the father of modern gynecology, performed surgeries on enslaved black women without anesthesia nor their consent.

Today, were seeing racial disparities in coronavirus outbreaks. In places including Michigan, the Chicago area, and Milwaukee, black people are accounting for a much higher percentage of confirmed coronavirus cases than their share of the general population. New cases in Philly have been predominantly among African Americans.

Our coronavirus response can right some of these healthcare wrongs, by ensuring fair care access for all. A place to start: reopening Hahnemann Hospital. The city of Philadelphia was interested in reopening the building to help house coronavirus patients, but owner Joel Freedman demanded nearly $1 million in monthly payments. Although the City refused to use eminent domain to take over the hospital, claiming it would be too time-consuming and demanding, I agree with activists still calling for that step. Hahnemann served, and can still serve, the patients of color we know to be especially vulnerable to inadequate health care during pandemics. During the 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic, for example, urban crowding, reliance on public transportation, absence of paid sick leaves, and language barriers all made communities of color more susceptible to the virus, reports the Center for American Progress.

For many black and low-income Philadelphians who still have to leave home to work, fully quarantining is nearly impossible. If Mayor Jim Kenney and the rest of our local leadership fails to intervene for vulnerable communities in concrete ways, like expanding where patients can be cared for, their legacy will be agreeing that human costs of an epidemic are as Philly as the cheesesteak.

Abdul Aliy-Muhammad is an organizer and writer born and raised in West Philadelphia. @MxAbdulAliy
Islamabad, Pakistan  Police in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta have arrested at least 50 doctors who were protesting against the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits for health workers on the front lines of the countrys battle against the coronavirus, officials and doctors union representatives said.

Representatives of the Young Doctors Association (YDA), who organised the protest, said at least 67 members had been arrested on Monday.

Release orders had been issued for those detained, said Dr Rahim Khan Babar, a YDA spokesman, but they were refusing to leave the police stations where they were being held until their demands for additional PPE kits were met.

I was arrested yesterday, I am still in the police station, Babar told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.

They have given orders for our release, but we have refused to leave, because no steps have been taken. Doctors came out for equipment, and you beat them and then locked them up. What kind of law is that?

Video footage from Mondays protest showed dozens of doctors raising slogans and criticising the provincial government. Shortly afterwards, police stepped in to end the protest, clashing with several of the protesters and detaining dozens.

On Tuesday, doctors across the province went on strike in non-critical care wards to protest against the arrests and lack of equipment, Babar said.

The number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan rose sharply on Monday, with 584 additional cases bringing the countrys number of active cases to 3,378, with 54 deaths and at least 429 patients having recovered since the outbreak began in late February, according to government data.

Pakistan has been struggling to provide sufficient PPE kits to doctors during the outbreak, with orders for additional equipment often mired in a backlog created by increased global demand, government officials told Al Jazeera.

Doctors vulnerable to virus

Quetta is the capital of Balochistan, Pakistans largest but least-populated and poorest province, which has been plagued by some of the lowest socioeconomic indicators in the country for years.

Doctors say a lack of government preparedness has led to dangerous conditions for health workers at major hospitals.

In the trauma centre, before the coronavirus, we had enough kits that if we were operating in the operation theatre, we had a surgical mask and cap, said Babar, who works at a public sector hospital. Now we dont even have that.

Babar said a shortage of kits meant only healthcare professionals deployed in dedicated coronavirus wards had access to basic protective equipment, leaving doctors working in other wards vulnerable to the spread of the highly contagious virus.

Balochistan has recorded at least 202 cases, with one death and 63 patients having recovered [Courtesy of Young Doctors Association]

So far, at least 18 doctors have been infected with the coronavirus in Balochistan, according to government data. In all, the province has recorded 202 cases, with one death and 63 patients having recovered from the virus.

Government officials, however, claimed there were sufficient PPE kits in those hospitals designated to deal with coronavirus patients, and that Mondays protest was more focused on an ongoing contract dispute.

Liaquat Shahwani, the provincial government spokesman, said the dispute was being resolved, and that the provincial government was recruiting 1,400 doctors to address increased needs during the coronavirus crisis.

The Balochistan government has already been providing [doctors] with sufficient masks, equipment and medicine, said Shahwani. There is just one hospital in all of Balochistan that is dealing with coronavirus patients  the Sheikh Zayed hospital [in Quetta]  and we have provided all equipment there.

The government says it has provided 2,000 PPE kits, 50,000 N95 face masks, 32,000 surgical masks and 1,000 head coverings to provincial hospitals. On Tuesday, Pakistans military said it was dispatching more PPE kits to help doctors in Balochistan.

Emergency supplies of medical equipment including PPEs being despatched to Quetta on orders of COAS to help medical staff fight Covid-19 effectively in Balochistan. Doctors & paramedics are the frontline soldiers in this war (1/2)  DG ISPR (@OfficialDGISPR) April 7, 2020

Balochistan was at the centre of the countrys initial outbreak of the virus, with at least 1,123 (29 percent) of all cases countrywide traceable to a quarantine camp at Taftan on the Pakistan-Iran border.

In recent days, however, Pakistan has seen a marked rise in local transmission of the virus between people who have no travel history or history of contact with someone who has travelled, government data shows.

At least 21.4 percent of cases countrywide  and more than 30 percent of cases in Balochistan  can now be traced to local transmission.

Meanwhile, patients said the doctors strike in Balochistan meant people in critical need were not receiving the care they needed.

There are no senior doctors, nor any young doctors, nor any other staff is coming, said Noor Muhammad Kurd, whose brother is a cardiac patient at Quettas main government hospital.

Even patients in a very serious condition are not being treated.

Asad Hashim is Al Jazeeras digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim. Additional reporting by Saadullah Akhtar in Quetta.
A man wears a protective mask while biking on the mostly empty boardwalk in Huntington Beach on Thursday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Health officials on Tuesday reported Orange County's 15th coronavirus-related death, as the overall number of infections in the region swelled to 931.

The Orange County Health Care Agency didn't disclose additional information about the latest victim, but data indicate the person was between the ages of 45 and 64.

Overall, four people in that age range have died as a result of COVID-19. Eight others were at least 65 years old, two were between the ages of 25 and 34 and the other was 35 to 44 years old.

Countywide, 129 people are currently hospitalized with the illness, 75 of them in intensive care.

Fifty new COVID-19 cases were confirmed on Tuesday alone  continuing a weeklong trend in which the county's caseload has grown by at least 49 each day.

Roughly 59% of confirmed infections are in people who are at least 45.

COVID-19 also continues to make its way through the county jail system. As of Tuesday, 10 inmates had tested positive, according to Sheriff Don Barnes.

"We are isolating anybody that has flu-like symptoms in our jail," he told the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Two Orange County sheriff's deputies have also tested positive and are in isolation at home, he added.

In total, 159 inmates are being quarantined after being exposed to someone who tested positive, according to Barnes.

As its number of cases continues to grow, Orange County may ask some employees to wear face coverings when they go to work. Whether that guidance will be advisory or mandatory remains to be seen.

County Supervisor Andrew Do pushed to require workers who interact with the public  including those at pharmacies, grocery stores and restaurants and other businesses that serve food  to cover their faces while on the job.

He said such a requirement, which is now in place in San Diego County, would be a natural extension of recent health guidance that residents should do the same when they leave their homes.

"We are in a phase in the crisis where community transmission is the main mode of transmission now," he said. "We are way beyond containment at this point  and this would definitely be a mitigating measure because of how important food service is in our life."

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Some of his board colleagues, however, said those in the medical field  such as County Health Officer Dr. Nichole Quick  should make the call. Officials on Tuesday said some kind of order was in the works, but it wasn't clear whether it would be a recommendation to don face coverings while at work or a requirement.

"Members of the board of supervisors do not have medical degrees, and we should defer to our healthcare professionals to best protect the public, Supervisor Don Wagner said in a statement after the meeting. Our role should be to empower Dr. Quick, in her professional capacity, to give the leading-edge medical recommendations to flatten the curve.

Ahead of Friday's property tax deadline, county Treasurer-Tax Collector Shari Freidenrich announced that her office will be able to potentially cancel penalties for "homeowners, small businesses and other property owners that have had significant economic hardship due to COVID-19."

Requests for penalty relief will be considered on a case-by-case basis, she told supervisors Tuesday.

"This flexibility will allow us to give those taxpayers that met those conditions some extra time to be able to make those tax payments," she said. "Its not changing the deadline."
WASHINGTON - As Congress races to craft the next coronavirus rescue package, President Donald Trumps sudden request Tuesday to pump $250 billion more into a just-launched small businesses payroll program sets up a new showdown over aid.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said more money is needed for the popular new $350 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which took off last Friday but was quickly overrun as companies jumped at the chance to tap up to $10 million in forgivable loans to keep paychecks flowing amid the stay-home shutdown.

Mnuchin requested the funds in private calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Democrats largely support it as a component of a broader new aid package, but McConnell wants to swiftly jam it through Congress this week, even though the House and Senate are all but shuttered.

The way its going, were going to need that, because the people are loving it, Trump said in a conference call with banking executives open to the press.

The push for the hefty sum, now heading for a vote with just 48 hours notice, threatens to upset the fragile agreement between the political leaders that more needs to be done amid the pandemic and its stark economic shutdown.

The House was already preparing to boost the small business program as part of a broader $1 trillion package Pelosi wants as a follow-up to the sweeping $2.2 trillion rescue that became law in late March.

With jobless rates soaring to record highs, Pelosi called the small business program very important Tuesday.

But Pelosi also said she wants assurances the money flying out the door is going to those who need it. We do have to have oversight to make sure everybody who qualifies has access, she said on CNN.

By jumping ahead, McConnell, the Republican leader, could upend the bipartisan dynamic usually needed to secure support for a broader package. Democrats said they were not consulted. The action is set for Thursday.

Jobs are literally being saved as we speak, McConnell said in a statement announcing his move.

Congress will need to provide more funding or this crucial program may run dry. That cannot happen, he said.

Underscoring the tension, the push comes after Trump sidelined the acting inspector general tasked with leading oversight of the $2.2 trillion rescue package, the biggest of its kind in history.

The paycheque program is one of the main pillars in Washingtons effort to salvage the economy and shore up suddenly out-of-work Americans as the coronavirus crisis rips through communities nationwide. The boost would push it to $600 billion.

Through it, a small business can use 75% of the loan to keep paying its employees and the other 25% to meet overhead such as rent and utilities. The payroll protection is for eight weeks and if the business keeps its employees on the payroll or rehires workers who have been laid off, the loan will be forgiven.

The program just began operating last Friday but the rollout has been plagued by a host of problems. Small business owners have complained that they are unable to get through to the Small Business Administration or the banks to apply for loans or they are being rejected by banks who say they are only accepting applications from businesses that are already customers of the bank.

We were so successful that we were concerned we were going to run out of money, Mnuchin said during an event at the White House.

The Federal Reserve intervened Monday, saying it would buy the loans that banks make, a way to nudge hesitant lenders.

By creating a backstop on the loans, the Fed is giving the banks an incentive and freeing up more of their cash for lending.

The decision by McConnell to march ahead faces an uncertain outcome. Its unclear if his gambit for a stand-alone vote on the paycheque program will send it through the the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-run House.

With Congress adjourned except for perfunctory pro forma sessions, such a vote would require either the unanimous consent of all lawmakers or a simple voice vote without a formal roll call. There could be objections.

The House minority leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., backed McConnells effort for a smaller, discrete infusion for the small business program. The House should move swiftly to do the same, he said in a statement.

But the overture sets up a showdown with Democrats led by Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who on Tuesday called for up to $25,000 heroes pay for frontline health care and service industry workers.

Schumer declared the pay hike for nurses, truck drivers, grocery store clerks and others the highest priority.

Bigger corporations would be expected to foot the bill for the pay hike, he said, while the federal government would provide funding for smaller firms.

The House bill is expected to include the small business boost alongside another round of $1,200 direct payments, unemployment benefits and food stamp assistance. Some Democrats are also seeking as much as $250 billion for smaller municipalities that face mounting costs to care for sick Americans and shore up their own economies.

The shifting dynamics among the political leaders are stark amid what officials warn could be one of the toughest weeks for the country, as the number of confirmed cases and deaths climbs.

The House gaveled in for a perfunctory session with Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., presiding  wearing a face mask sewn by his young daughter.

This would be the fourth package from Congress since the start of the virus outbreak. Two initial efforts were followed by the third last month, which was by far the largest, most ambitious of its kind in U.S. history.

___

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Zeke Miller, Martin Crutsinger and Laurie Kellman contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  While President Donald Trump remains fixated on the widening coronavirus pandemic, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Kabul two weeks ago with a harsh message from his boss to try to save one of the only major foreign policy achievements he has after more than three years in the White House: a peace deal in Afghanistan.

Pompeo delivered a message from Trump to the feuding leadership of the Afghan government, telling them they should resolve their differences and broker a deal with the Taliban or the president could not only cut $1 billion in financial aid to Afghanistan but also could pull all U.S. troops out of the country, according to two current senior officials, one former senior official and a foreign diplomat.

The previously unreported troop withdrawal threat underscores Trumps growing concern that the inability of Afghan leaders to form a unified government threatens to unravel his already-tenuous peace deal with the Taliban, which is the first step toward ending Americas longest war. Negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban were supposed to follow on March 10, but divisions in Kabul have delayed the effort.

Washington and its allies fear the absence of those talks will scuttle the peace deal, and that the Taliban will take advantage of the internal divisions in Kabul to bolster their position at the negotiating table and on the battlefield, officials said.

The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Officials said the impasse in Kabul has frustrated Trump, who has hoped to highlight an Afghanistan peace deal as an example of a 2016 campaign promise he kept when he faces voters this November. Before the coronavirus pandemic became a myopic focus for the president, Trump had privately pushed aides to come up with a high-profile way for him to showcase the deal that could end the war and even mused that it should win him a Nobel Peace Prize, according to two current and two former senior U.S. officials familiar with the president's comments.

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But even then, a senior administration official said, some of the presidents advisers were telling him that this is a slow, winding and ugly road and he does not want to be the face of the fragile deal.

Trump personally signed off on the new hardline message during a meeting with Pompeo before the latter arrived in Kabul on March 23, officials said.

The secretary of state delivered the message in small meetings with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the countrys former Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, who are trying to stand up parallel governments. In February, Ghani was declared the winner of the September election, but Abdullah disputed the results, claiming widespread fraud. Both men now claim the right to lead Afghanistan and even held separate, simultaneous inaugurations in Kabul on March 9.

Image: Mike Pompeo, Abdullah Abdullah (Sepidar Palace via AP)

Pompeo told Abdullah that he must support Ghani, according to officials. He said the president expects one team, one fight out of Kabul, according to the former senior U.S. official. Pompeo also said Ghani and Abdullah would be held responsible if the presidents peace deal fails, and noted that Trump has followed through on other threats to withdraw troops and pull financial aid.

A senior administration official said the White House is hopeful the presidents message that Pompeo delivered is effective.

But the two Afghan political rivals remain locked in a feud and have refused Washingtons suggestions for a possible compromise, according to a U.S. official and a foreign diplomat from the region. Afghan officials and the Taliban also have struggled to agree on the release of prisoners from both sides.

Last Tuesday, Pompeo said there has been some progress in Kabul since his visit, particularly on the formation of a team to negotiate with the Taliban and on the planned release of prisoners.

So its good news, he said.

On March 27, Ghani announced a 21-member delegation to negotiate with the Taliban. But the Taliban rejected the team. And after denouncing it as not inclusive, Abdullah on Tuesday embraced the team as an important step toward facilitating intra-Afghan negotiations."

Although we have reached no satisfactory agreement to resolve the political crisis in the wake of the rigged presidential election, we are committed to making sure that it does not overshadow peace efforts, Abdullah wrote on Twitter.

Yet, a U.S. official briefed on the Afghan political discussions said, It looks like they are still far apart.

The National Security Council declined to comment. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Officials said the presidents expectations have been tempered in the weeks since the deal was signed.

At one point, Trump suggested to aides a possible rally with U.S. troops to mark the beginning of the drawdown, officials said, but the idea never gained traction.

He likes the pomp and circumstance, a senior administration official said. But some officials disagreed, with another senior administration official saying a troop rally would have been tone deaf because Afghanistan is still a very volatile place.

The officials said Trump began talking about a Nobel Prize before a deal was even reached. His mentions of it picked up after a deal was reached in January. In one Oval Office meeting at the time, Trump complained that he hasnt been awarded a Nobel Prize yet, and said if hes not given one for ending the war in Afghanistan then the Norwegian Nobel Committees process is rigged, according to officials.

The Afghanistan peace deal joins a list of efforts for which the president has publicly said he should receive a Nobel Peace Prize. Hes pointed to his North Korea diplomacy, an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, his Syria policy and even a peace agreement in Africa that the U.S. had a minimal role in brokering.

The deal with the Taliban was different, officials said, because it was seen as having more potential for success than other initiatives, such as the denuclearization of North Korea.

Trump spoke with the Talibans chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar on the phone last month, which one senior administration official said was a good will step to encourage the Taliban to adhere to the deal.

His dispatching of Pompeo to Kabul to deliver blunt threats is seen as a sign of how much the president wants the deal to succeed.

Pompeo said in a statement two weeks ago that the U.S. was disappointed in Ghani and Abdullah and that their failure has harmed U.S.-Afghan relations.

His threat to cut $1 billion in aid if the Afghan leaders couldnt reach a governing agreement would essentially mean cutting the lifeline for the Afghan governments security forces. Pompeo also said he told the Afghan leaders that plans under the administrations deal with the Taliban to reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan to 8,600 in coming months would continue.

That drawdown began in early March. Several weeks later, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced a 60-day freeze on all Department of Defense personnel movements from overseas, but troops coming back from Afghanistan are exempt from the order.
The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared a state of emergency to fight new coronavirus infections sweeping across major areas of the country.

The month-long state of emergency will target Tokyo and six other prefectures - accounting for 44% of Japan's population - to ramp up defences against Covid-19.

He made the announcement on Tuesday and said the state of emergency would remain in place until May 6.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a committee at the lower house of parliament on April 7. Abe has declared a state of emergency to fight new coronavirus infections in major population centres and unveiled a stimulus package he described as among the world's biggest to soften the economic blow

Japan ends Olympic flame display due to virus The exhibition of the Olympic Flame, due to remain on display in Fukushima until the end of the month, will be cancelled over coronavirus concerns, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee announced on Tuesday. In what was intended as a symbol of resilience, the flame went on display a week ago at the J-Village, Japan's national soccer training centre, used as a rescue headquarters during the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011. The Olympic Flame is pictured at Japan's J-Village National Training Centre But following the Japanese government's decision to declare a state of a emergency on Tuesday, Olympic organisers have cancelled the exhibition. The opening stages of the Tokyo 2020 torch relay were supposed to be underway by now, but the International Olympic Committee and Japanese government, under pressure from athletes and sporting bodies, pushed the Games to next year. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced the state of emergency on Tuesday, giving authorities more power to press people to stay at home and businesses to close. Advertisement

The announcement follows a surge of cases in Tokyo over the weekend.

Coronavirus infections in the capital more than doubled to about 1,200 in the past week, with more than 80 new cases reported on Tuesday. That accounts for the highest number in the country.

Nationwide, cases have climbed past 4,000 with 93 deaths as of Monday.

Mr Abe said: 'We have decided to declare a state of emergency because we've judged that a fast spread of the coronavirus nationwide would have an enormous impact on lives and the economy.'

The emergency gives governors the authority to call on people to stay at home and businesses to close.

Further measures include guidance to schools on temporary closures and requests to close non-essential businesses and stores in addition to cancelling or postponing events and exhibits.

Mr Abe said he would not enforce a European-style lockdown and there are no plans to enforces penalties for ignoring the requests in most cases. Enforcement will rely more on peer pressure and respect for authority.

He has repeatedly said a hard lockdown, like in Italy, France and the UK, is not envisaged for Japan.

Last week he said: 'We can only make a request, but it's different from lockdowns enforced in France and other countries.'

There are fears, however, that over bed shortages of and ICU units for patients with severe symptoms.

Osamu Nishida, chairman of the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine, noted that Japan has only five ICU beds per 100,000 people, compared to 12 in Italy and about 30 in Germany.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (right) speaks as he declares a state of emergency during a meeting of a task force against the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on April

A young man wearing a face mask sits in a train in Tokyo, Japan on April 7. Abe announced the state of emergency on Tuesday, targeting the capital Tokyo and six other prefectures - accounting for about 44% of Japan's population - for a period of about one month

Abe has said the central government has secured 25,000 beds and 8,000 ventilators.

The health ministry also eased hospitalization requirements for patients with no symptoms or only slight illnesses, allowing their transfer to hotels and other designated lodgings where they can be monitored by medical workers.

Mr Abe also unveiled a stimulus package he described as among the world's biggest in a bid to soften the economic blow caused by Covid-19.

His cabinet will also finalise the package, worth 108 trillion yen ($990 billion), which is equal to 20% of Japan's economic output.

It is intended to cushion the impact of the epidemic on the world's third-largest economy.

People cross a street in Tokyo's Shinjuku district on April 7

People cross a street in Tokyo's Shinjuku district on April. 'We have decided to declare a state of emergency because we've judged that a fast spread of the coronavirus nationwide would have an enormous impact on lives and the economy,' Abe told parliament earlier

18 Tokyo trainee doctors catch coronavirus at after-work party Keio University Hospital admitted the trainees had tested positive for Covid-19 Eighteen trainee doctors at the prestigious Keio University Hospital contracted coronavirus after attending a party with colleagues - despite being repeatedly asked not to join large gatherings. The Tokyo hospital admitted that one trainee doctor tested positive for the virus last week and 17 more tested positive this week after 40 had attended a drinking party after work. Hospital director Yuko Kitagawa said: 'What happened was an unforgivable blunder on part of our trainee doctors.' Advertisement

That exceeds the 11% of U.S. output for the stimulus package laid out by President Donald Trump and 5% of output for Germany's package.

Abe said direct spending would amount to 39 trillion yen, or 7% of the economy.

That is more than double the amount Japan spent following the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Japan has so far been spared the big outbreaks of the coronavirus seen in other global hot spots, but a recent steady rises led to growing calls for Abe to announce a state of emergency.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said the city was in talks with the central government to decide what types of facilities it would ask to close or curtail business hours.

He reiterated that there would be no restrictions on buying groceries and medicine.

Abe added that the government would not ask rail companies to reduce the number of trains in operation.

Other essential infrastructure like mail and utilities would operate, as will ATMs and banks, public broadcaster NHK said.

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Taku Eto called on shoppers to stay calm.

He told reporters: 'We are asking citizens to buy only what they need when they need it as there is sufficient food supply and no suspension is planned at food factories.'

A young man wearing a face mask walks past advertising at Akihabara district in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday. The emergency gives governors the authority to call on people to stay at home and businesses to close. With no penalties for ignoring the requests in most cases, enforcement will rely more on peer pressure and respect for authority

A man wearing a face mask sits in a train in Tokyo, Japan on Tuesday

A pedestrian stops to watch a TV news as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declares a state of emergency on Tuesday

Aside from the physical effects of Coronavirus, movement restrictions may damagee Japan's economy.

The country is already seen as being in recession with supply chain disruptions and travel bans slowing factory output and consumption.

Metropolitan Tokyo alone accounts for about 20% of Japan's overall gross domestic product.

Japan will sell a record amount of additional bonds worth more than 18 trillion yen (around $164 billion) to fund the stimulus package.

This will add to its huge debt, which is twice the size of its economy.

While the stimulus could ease the immediate damage from the pandemic, lawmakers are calling for even bigger spending to prevent bankruptcies and job losses.

Takahide Kiuchi, a former Bank of Japan board member who is now an economist at Nomura Research Institute, said: 'The government will probably compile another supplementary budget soon to stimulate the economy with even more spending.'
Workers at Stop & Shop, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's in Boston united to protest against working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday.

The grocery store employees joined forces with customers to demand 'adequate protections', NBC Boston reports. The group met in a Whole Foods parking lot where they stood apart to protest.

One worker at Shaw's grocery story, Lisa Wilson, told the network: 'I think grocery stores like to look like they're doing things...but as far as actually enforcing it...that's not really happening.'

Their protest comes after the deaths of at least four grocery workers across the United States.

Two Walmart employees at the same Chicago-area store, a Trader Joe's worker in New York, and a greeter at a Maryland Giant grocery store passed away in the last two weeks.

The US is now barreling towards the infection's projected peak day on April 16 when experts predict there will be over 3,000 deaths in 24 hours. The death toll reached 12,035 across the country Monday.

Workers at Stop & Shop , Whole Foods , and Trader Joe's in Boston united to protest against working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday

The grocery store employees joined forces with customers to demand 'adequate protections', NBC Boston reports. The group met in a Whole Foods parking lot

Around 30 protester met on Tuesday morning after several of their colleagues from across the state tested positive for the virus.

Other frontline workers have also gone on strike as a result of working conditions, including those as Amazon facilities, with owner Jeff Bezos being accused of 'valuing profit over safety'.

The online retail giant is tracking its warehouse staff and will fire them for failing to socially distance themselves from their co-workers.

Workers at facilities across the United States are said to have received letters from their employer explaining they could be sacked after just one warning.

A number of Amazon employees have walked out in recent days over conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic. One worker told CNBC it is understood cameras would be used to watch and review staff for any potential violations.

One Amazon worker in Easton, Pennsylvania told The Guardian owner Jeff Bezos 'clearly values profits above employee safety or health'.

Amazon says they have deployed an additional 450,000 canisters of disinfectant wipes, 50,000 hand sanitizers and 20,000 wall mounted sanitizer refill containers to sites in addition to other cleaning materials that were on-hand.

Employee Tonya Ramsay, right, holds a sign outside the Amazon DTW1 fulfillment center in Romulus, Michigan on Wednesday, April 1

The anonymous employee added: 'They send us a very standard text every time they learn of a new case, reminding us that our 'health and safety are most important', before reminding us we can take as much time off without pay as we like.

Amazon owner Jeff Bezos has been accused of 'valuing profit over safety'

'Of course, anyone with bills to pay will have to go back in eventually.

'The fact that we're still expected to report to work in a compromised warehouse to ship non-essential products if we still want to earn our living tells me that Amazon and Jeff Bezos clearly value profits above employee safety or health.'

'We have no more wipes and hand sanitizer. We aren't provided masks, don't have the proper gloves, and not everything is being sanitized and cleaned before it comes to use,' one warehouse worker in Phoenix, Arizona added.

Those delivering the food are also worried for their safety. The Truckers Independent Drivers Association wrote to Donald Trump asking for their health to be protected.

Todd Spencer, president and CEO of Kansas based organization, said: 'Right now professional drivers are busting their butts to care for the nation.

'Their hard work and personal sacrifice should not include their health or even their lives if at all possible or preventable.'

In the U.S., grocery shopping had only been slowly migrating online before the outbreak, making up 3 per cent of the food retail market, according to a report last year by Deutsche Bank.

As the crisis hit, delivery orders surged as millions of Americans stayed home.

During the week of March 2, even before some cities and states imposed 'stay at home' orders, Instacart, Amazon, and Walmart grocery delivery sales all jumped by at least two-thirds from the year before, according to Earnest Research.

Instacart, a platform that partners with more than 25,000 stores in North America, says orders in more recent weeks have surged 150 per cent.

As a result, customers in hard-hit New York City are waiting days to schedule deliveries that usually take just hours.

Major grocery stores across the US report first employee deaths

Top supermarket chains across the United States are reporting their first COVID-19 employee deaths after at least four staffers at retailers like Walmart and Trader Joe's died.

Two Walmart employees at the same Chicago-area store, a Trader Joe's worker in New York, and a greeter at a Maryland Giant grocery store passed away in the last two weeks, The Washington Post reports.

Last week, Giants Campus Way South greeter Leilani Jordan, 27, died of COVID-19 in Largo, Maryland, on Wednesday.

Zenobia Shepherd, Jordan's mother, told The Post: 'She said, "Mommy, Im going to work because no one else is going to help the senior citizens get their groceries."'

Leilani Jordan (pictured), a greeter at Giants Campus Way South store, died of the coronavirus last week in Largo, Maryland

'She only stopped going to work when she could no longer breathe.'

Jordan 's last day at work was March 16, said spokesman Daniel Wolk. She tested positive for the coronavirus in late March,

The company has since sanitized the Giant store and is providing counseling for staff members.

Walmart Inc. revealed in a statement that two staffers at the Evergreen Park store passed away from complications related to coronavirus.

Wando Evans, a 51-year-old overnight maintenance worker, died on March 25 after working for Walmart for 15 years.

Phillip Thomas, 48, died four days later on March 29 following nine years at the store. He was turning 49-year-olds on April 12.

(Left to Right) Wando Evans and Phillip Thomas, two employees at an Evergreen Park Walmart, died of coronavirus just four days apart

Both men suffered underlying health conditions, Patch reported.

'We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of two associates at our Evergreen Park store, and we are mourning along with their families,' a statement from Walmart reads.

The company said neither employee had been in the Evergreen Park store 'for more than a week.'

On Monday, a Trader Joe's employee in Scarsdale, New York, died of the disease. The victim's identity has not been made public.

Spokeswoman Kenya Friend-Daniel said the store where the victim worked is closed until Thursday to allow colleagues 'time to process and grieve.'

Employees will be paid during the temporary closure and get two additional days of paid leave.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Tyson Foods Inc. is implementing several measures to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its operations and help stabilize the U.S. food supply.



The Springdale, Arkansas-based meat processor said it is checking the temperature of workers at all of its locations before they enter the facilities. While the company is mostly using temporal thermometers, it has started to use walk-through infrared body temperature scanners at a few locations.



In addition, Tyson Foods has boosted deep cleaning and sanitizing of its facilities, especially in employee breakrooms, locker rooms and other areas, to protect its workers. However, the company noted that the additional cleaning sometimes requires suspending production for at least one day.



Due to the planned implementation of additional worker safety precautions and worker absenteeism, the company's meat and poultry plants are experiencing varying levels of impact to production.



This week, the company suspended operations at its pork plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa, after more than two dozen workers at the facility tested positive for the coronavirus.



To minimize its impact on overall production, Tyson Foods has diverted the livestock supply originally scheduled for delivery to Columbus Junction to its other pork plants in the region.



The company said it is working with federal agencies to secure an adequate supply of protective face coverings and other personal protective equipment for its production workers. The company has implemented interim protocols for temporary protective coverings, while observing food safety.



Tyson Foods is also looking to implement additional ways to promote more social distancing in its plants. This includes erecting dividers between workstations and increasing the space between workers on the production floor, which can involve slowing production lines.



Further, the company is creating more room in non-production areas and has set up tents at some locations to create outdoor break rooms.



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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Sao Paulo, Brazil  Tue, April 7, 2020 09:40 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd02c165 2 World Brazil,Sao-Paulo,COVID-19,COVID-19-death-toll,COVID-19-lockdown,COVID-19-travel-restriction,pandemic,health Free

The epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Latin America, Brazil's Sao Paulo state, said Monday it expects 111,000 deaths in the next six months, and extended its stay-at-home measures another two weeks.

The forecast -- an official projection, the state government said -- would appear to put Brazil on track to become one of the worst-hit countries in the world.

The global death toll from the virus currently stands at 70,000, according to a tally compiled by AFP.

Sao Paulo, the teeming industrial hub where the new coronavirus first appeared in Latin America, has confirmed 4,620 cases and 275 deaths so far.

Governor Joao Doria, who closed non-essential businesses on March 24 and advised people to stay home, said containment measures would be needed for at least two more weeks or the situation would get far worse.

"If we continue seeing people in the streets and gathering unnecessarily, we will go to more restrictive measures," he told a news conference.

Police are already authorized to break up crowds by force if necessary, he said.

Without containment measures, Sao Paulo -- whose capital is the mega-city of the same name -- would register 270,000 deaths in the next six months, said the head of the state's public health research institute, Dimas Covas.

Brazil has been the Latin American country hit hardest by the new coronavirus, with 553 deaths and more than 12,000 confirmed cases so far.

Health experts warn under-testing means the real number is likely much higher.

Sao Paulo, a state whose population of 46 million makes it about the size as Spain, has seen more infections and deaths than any other.

The state is probably facing another 1,300 deaths this week, Covas said.

The governor has openly clashed over containment measures with far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who claims they are needlessly wrecking the economy over a disease he has compared to a "little flu."
Quore Aid Program

Quore, the leading provider of workflow management and productivity tools for hotels, today announced its Quore Aid Program for any hotel converting its property into a COVID-19 isolation ward or temporary medical facility. Quore has adapted its suite of solutions to allow for adherence to local and national healthcare guidelines to support housing facilities as they determine the right precautions each hotel isolation ward should follow in order to ensure the health and safety of staff, medical professionals and guests.

Individual states, counties and municipalities are actively seeking properties that are largely vacant due to growing Stay-At-Home mandates to serve as COVID-19 isolation wards. The goal is to relieve the pressure on hospitals, allowing them to focus treatment on the sickest of patients, and non-severe cases can be moved to an isolation ward. Hotels are prime real estate for these facilities, as most business and vacation travel has been cancelled.

Hotel isolation wards may be used for various scenarios, including for recovering patients, individuals exposed to the virus that may or may not show symptoms, moderately ill people awaiting test results, and individuals that may not be able to self-isolate in a home due to high-risk family members or personal homelessness.

We want to support communities across the country in their efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19, and enable our hotel customers to contribute in a safe and secure way, said Scott Schaedle, Founder and CEO of Quore. Not only does our platform help properties optimize operations, but it enables staff and guests to communicate with little-to-no physical interaction. Were providing a baseline of health and safety precautions each property or location needs to update to be in compliance with local and national guidelines, so each property can quickly adapt to new mandates and remain focused on its new role in ending this pandemic.

The Quore platform enables hotel management and staff to limit face-to-face interactions, implement mobile communications with guests, and access modifiable templates that guide staff through recommended and/or mandated procedures that are updated in real time. These include isolation room set up and turnover, hand and hygiene protocol, trash collection, sanitation requirements, signage placement and other actions to ensure the highest level of health and safety compliance throughout the property.

For more information on how Quore is addressing specific operational needs in the current crisis, please click here or contact Richard Bradbury Richard.Bradbury@quore.com.

About Quore

Quore is an award-winning, cloud-based hotel quality optimization solution, providing the right tools to empower hotels of any size to make operations more efficient and improve guest experiences. Founded in 2012, it is the first solution ever to combine state-of-the-art technology and intuitive design to better manage all aspects of the guest experience, including preventative maintenance, guest requests and complaints, work orders, housekeeping and workforce/shift communication. Quores software is used by more than 4,400 hotels in the U.S., and it supports hotels from the industrys largest brands, including IHG, Marriott, Hilton and Choice. The Franklin, Tennessee-based company is privately owned and was named one of Americas Best Startup Employers by Forbes.
Samsung was issued a patent for quad-curved screen design  one where the left and right sides as well as the top and bottom sides are curved, leaving bezels only on the corners of the phone.

This patent was filed in China back in July of last year and was added to the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) this March.

The bezel on the corners will likely remain even in future designs  the corners are the most vulnerable in case of a drop, so they need the extra protection metal provides. But quad-curved displays also complicate the placement of various components, even the USB port gets squished.

LetsGoDigital teamed up with Concept Creator to create these 3D renders based on the patent. They leave out the selfie camera, but theres really only one option  punch hole(s). Theres definitely no room up on top for pop-up cameras. Eventually, there will be in-display selfie cameras, but not yet.



3D renders based on Samsung's patent for a quad-curved screen

The Huawei P40 Pro screen is technically quad-curved, but the top and bottom sides bend only barely. For the left and right sides, the company backed off from the nearly 90 curve of Mate 30s waterfall display to make more room for the buttons on the side.

But if quad-curved screens do become popular, we may see smartphone makers start talking about button-less, port-less phones again. And if they keep going down that path, all will be consumed by the screen  perhaps even the back (Xiaomi already tried that).

Source (in Dutch)
While more than 40 banks have reportedly expressed interest in Germanys new crypto custody license, those firms may still have to put up with an anti-crypto sentiment among German banks.

If you try to open a bank account for a company that is in the space, you are working with the institutional banking arm of that bank, said Stijn Vander Straeten, CEO of Crypto Storage AG.

German bankers are risk averse, and crypto companies arent making them money by asking for checking accounts.

Related: Coinhouse Wins First Crypto License From French Regulator

In November, Switzerland-based Crypto Storage AG, a subsidiary of Crypto Finance AG, opened a German branch in downtown Frankfurt called Crypto Storage Deutschland GMBH so it could be eligible to apply for the license. Around 15 banks turned down Crypto Storage Deutschland before it found its current bank, Straeten said. The bank that eventually accepted Crypto Storage as a customer had to first be convinced to take on the account by Sven Hildebrandt, head of the consulting firm DLC.

We get calls from different [crypto] companies that want to go to the German market and get regulated. Many of them have this problem, said Matthias Winter, fintech lead at Eversheds Sutherland Germany, a firm working directly with German regulators on how the law should be enforced. There is no legal reason why banks wouldnt offer bank accounts but they are hesitant because they dont understand the business.

While many banks with custody services in Germany have talked about the law in the German press, the only banks that have announced an intention to apply for the law have been tech-focused service providers like solarisBank, which opened a digital assets unit in December 2019 in anticipation of the law passing.

In a report that came out at the beginning of the year, BNP Paribas Securities Services Head of Germany and Austria Thorsten Gommel said he wanted the bank to continue to lead on custody, including custody of digital assets.

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Related: R3 Teams With Custodian Hex Trust to Help Asian Banks Sell Security Tokens

When CoinDesk reached out to BNP Paribas, the bank changed its tune.

As a leading global custodian, the custody and safekeeping of digital assets is a topic we are following closely, said BNP Paribas spokesperson Caroline Lumley. We are currently exploring what services can be developed for digital assets linked to the tokenized economy, focusing solely on regulated assets.

At the beginning of March, Crypto Storage Deutschland notified Germanys Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) it planned to apply for the crypto custody license. Its also currently hiring four to six full-time employees for the branch, including a compliance specialist from the banking industry and a CEO who is fit and proper in BaFins eyes.

Crypto Storage AG is also working on a white-labeled custody solution where the company could custody for banks and other startups that want to custody crypto in Germany but either dont want to set up a branch in Germany (in the case of startups) or take away resources from traditional lines of business (in the case of banks). The application will cost upwards of 2 million euros.

Crypto banking isnt worth it yet

Meanwhile, crypto firms and institutions still have many uncertainties related to applying for the crypto custody license that BaFin will clarify over time.

The industry doesnt know exactly what type of activities would qualify as crypto custody, said Daniel Resas, associated partner with Schnittker Mollmann Partners in Hamburg, a firm that advises banks on blockchain projects.

Crypto exchanges could easily count as crypto custodians, but if a companys business model includes staking or putting a digital asset into a smart contract for a limited period of time, its not clear whether that would be considered crypto custody under the current German law, Resas said.

Crypto did get some clarification at the beginning of March, with BaFin guidance saying crypto firms will be considered custodians if they have access to customers private keys. This might rule out tech providers who only see encrypted versions of private keys, but how it affects multi-party computation companies is less certain, Winter said.

At the beginning of April, BaFin also released additional details around what IT and security should look like for firms interested in applying and the level of expertise managing directors should have.

Its not typical that BaFin would put out guidance like this, Winter said. Since theyre talking to tech companies, theyre changing the way they are communicating. If there were changes to laws for classic banking, they wouldnt put out guidance because banks have large legal departments.

While BaFin has published a nonbinding application for companies to follow when applying for a crypto custody license in the country, the application doesnt include the amount of detail BaFin will likely require, Resas added. While the regulator is focused on know-your-customer and anti-money laundering currently, BaFin will likely create more rules around operational risk down the road.

Despite the unknowns, having crypto firms enter a regulated German market is an advancement for the crypto industry at large, said Florian Reul, managing associate for law firm Linklaters.

You cannot shine a brighter light on that area than with a BaFin license, Reul said.

Crypto firms vs. depository banks?

In BaFins March guidance, the regulator said security tokens coming from security token offerings (STOs) can be custodied by a crypto custodian, without the help of a depository bank.

Two of Germanys finance ministries are working on a draft law that addresses the issuance of digital securities. The release date will be decided after the Ministry of Justice has consulted with the federal government.

While its not known yet whether these digital securities can be custodied by a crypto custodian, the technology to custody security tokens will be in demand if the law is passed, Winter said.

Banks would have to acquire the tech by buying crypto custodians, Winter said. If [digital security custody] is allowed for crypto custodians, they would be in a much bigger market.

Related Stories
Singapore, April 7 : Singapore President has appointed Indian-origin Judicial Commissioner Dedar Singh Gill as a judge of the High Court from August 1, the Prime Minister's Office said.

The Singapore Supreme Court comprises the High Court and the Court of Appeal, reports the Straits Times.

Judge Gill, 61, was appointed Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court in August 2018.

Before that, he was the managing director of the intellectual property department at Drew and Napier.

After assuming his Supreme Court role, he was appointed by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon to manage the intellectual property list of the High Court, and worked on reviewing the intellectual property dispute resolution system in Singapore.

In addition to intellectual property cases, he has experience with cases related to contract, tort and negligence matters.

Gill has about 30 years of experience as a lawyer, with the last 10 years spent as a senior counsel in various modes of dispute resolution.
A church in Northern Michigan is offering a free place to stay for healthcare workers during the coronavirus outbreak.

Sojourn Church in Grand Traverse County says they are offering health care workers a place to stay at no cost, Up North Live reports.

The church says Lake Ann Camp has already provided them with more than 15 bunk beds and 30 mattresses.

All of this is in preparation after learning there could soon be a need for alternative housing, Up North Live reports.

Right now, this room is empty, this building is empty, we have the space and we want to serve, Sojourn Church Pastor Dave Lamb said.

The option is available to medical staff who are not exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.

If they were to get the virus, they would have to make different arrangements, the church reports.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus.

Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

Read more on MLive:

Tuesday, April 7: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Patriarch Kirill organizes a "cleansing procession" aboard a limousine, sprinkling the streets of the capital with holy water. Only a few churches remain open. The veneration of icons does not stop in Vologda. There is a lot of trust in prayer to drive the evil one out of the body and soul. Catholics and Protestants are more cautious. Archbishop Paolo Pezzi: The coronavirus is not a curse from God, but a way in which God reminds us how fragile we are.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - After great hesitation, a week ago the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill (Gundjaev) decided to invite the Orthodox faithful not to go to church, leaving the individual bishops the faculty to organize the quarantine against the coronavirus.

Similarly, President Putin has delegated the organization of prevention to the governors of the regions. In recent days Kirill carried out a "purifying procession" aboard a limousine accompanied by four escorting cars, sprinkling the streets of the capital with blessed water.

Similar rites are being held throughout Russia with processional sprinkling using all means: cars, helicopters, ships and planes, and ringing bells. The churches are not really closed, but are in fact depopulated.

The clearest position was taken by the metropolitan of Pskov Tikhon (Sevkunov), also known as the "spiritual father of Putin", who praised the severe decisions made by Pope Francis and by the Catholic Church in Italy and in other countries, closing the churches.

Anxious to point out his differences from Patriarch Kirill - of whom he has been an antagonist in intra-ecclesial disputes of Russian Orthodoxy for years - Tikhon addressed the faithful of Pskov "with the insistent request to transfer all prayer services to within the home, including Eucharistic communion which will be distributed outside the celebrations ... let us look at the experience of Ukraine, of the Church of the Old Believers, of Italy and of Europe "(see photo 1, Trinity Church in Pskov).

Only a few churches remain open. In them the faithful are welcomed only for serious spiritual needs, but the elderly and those with some symptoms of illness are asked to stay at home. Priests distribute pre-sanctified communion, which is not so usual in the Orthodox tradition, except in the time of Lent. Preserving the pre-sanctified gifts requires a procedure for drying the bread soaked in wine, and the tabernacles have been adapted for greater use; the faithful take communion with sterilized or disposable spoons.

In one of the churches of the Pskov eparchy, the Protection of the Mother of God in Dedovichi, the parish priest is the protoierej Dmitrij Vasilev (photo 2), who explained to the journalists of Radio Svoboda the principle that "men become more infected, when they pride themselves; we must suffocate the crown of pride in us, we must hope in the Lord without demanding miracles from him. We must not think that we are worthy of miracles, or try to lead the Father into temptation.

In Vologda, a northern Finno-Ugric city in European Russia, priests are of different opinion. Here, until the end of March, they continued to venerate an icon in which the relics of the holy matron of Moscow (the so-called "seer of Stalin") were placed with the blessing of the young metropolitan Ignatij (Deputatov), just over 40 years old and determined to show the strength of faith with respect to every epidemic of evil.

In the church of Saints Constantine and Helena, where the icon-reliquary is exposed until April 7, the Marian prayer of the Akhaist is celebrated continuously with the ritual of sprinkling to expel the evil one from the body and soul. For weekly Saturday evening rites, the only precautionary measure is the anointing with cotton wool sticks instead of the brush.

Russian Catholics and Protestants are far more cautious than Orthodox brothers. The archbishop of the Mother of God in Moscow, the Italian Paolo Pezzi, issued a letter in March to remind faithful that "the coronavirus is not a curse from God, but a way in which God reminds us how fragile we are".

Masses have not been completely suspended, but the prayer of the Rosary at home is recommended, and strict prevention measures must be followed during the celebrations; communion, if not on the hand (in Russia it is not usual) is distributed being careful not to touch the lips of the communicant. If this happens, communion must stop to allow the priest to disinfect his hand.

The Lutheran bishop of Karelia (the Russian part of Finland), Aleksandr Kuznetsov, asked the faithful to stay at home, closing the churches where the pastors celebrate for everyone, but without the presence of the faithful. He recalled that not attending churches does not make us lose the salvation of God, He heals by listening to the prayers of His children.
An airport worker guides a Delta Air Lines Airus A319 plane on the tarmac at LAX in Los Angeles

By David Shepardson and Tracy Rucinski

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Talks between U.S. airlines and the Treasury Department over how to award $25 billion in cash grants earmarked for payroll assistance due to the coronavirus outbreak were set to continue into the evening Tuesday, people briefed on the matter said.

Airlines and the Treasury have been in talks since last week over what compensation the government will demand as a condition of the grants. Treasury has sought additional information from airlines as the talks have progressed on a formula for determining government compensation, the people said.

The Treasury Department declined to comment on Tuesday.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has repeatedly said taxpayers will be "compensated" for the grants and that the assistance is not a "bailout," while some Democrats in Congress and aviation unions have urged him not to demand equity or warrants.

Under the law, Mnuchin can demand equity, warrants or other financial instruments to "provide appropriate compensation to the federal government."

Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. Transportation Department finalized minimum service rules for airlines receiving assistance. The department said where multiple airports serve the same point, carriers do not need to maintain service to all of them, which would "impose undue costs."

The department said its service obligations "are significantly below carriers full pre-pandemic schedules" and strike an "appropriate balance between the needs of communities to retain at least minimal connections to the national air transportation system."

Larger carriers will need to fly at least five times a week on routes where they previously flew at least 25 weekly flights. Smaller carriers will need to fly three weekly flights on routes they previously served at least five times a week.

U.S. airlines have canceled hundreds of thousands of flights and cut millions of seats as travel demand has nearly collapsed.

Southwest Airlines Co <LUV.N> said on Tuesday it was extending May schedule cuts into June, with overall flight activity dropping by about 50% until June 27.

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Treasury is also considering how to award $4 billion in payroll assistance to cargo carriers and $3 billion to airport contractors. It has another $25 billion in loans it can award to passenger carriers and $4 billion in loans for cargo carriers.

American Airlines <AAL.O>, Southwest, Delta Air Lines <DAL.N>, United Airlines <UAL.O>, Spirit Airlines <SAVE.N>, JetBlue Airways <JBLU.O> and Alaska Airlines <ALK.N> are among carriers that have applied for assistance.

On Sunday, RavnAir Group, the largest regional carrier in Alaska, filed for bankruptcy and grounded all of its 72 planes as it waits on a decision on government assistance.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Tom Brown)
Millions of worried people who have turned to Google with their anxiety over COVID-19 have ended up connecting with Christian evangelists in their search resultsleading to a spike in online conversions in March.

In the Philippines, a woman named Grace found herself on a website about coronavirus fear hosted by the internet evangelism organization Global Media Outreach (GMO). Please help me not to worry about everything, she wrote in a chat with a volunteer counselor. Whats happening now is very confusing. The counselor explained that only Jesus can bring lasting peace, and Grace received Jesus as her Savior.

Back in the US, a volunteer at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) chatted online with a young mother named Brittany who worried that COVID-19 would take her life and her childrens lives. The volunteer offered hope and peace, and Brittany too accepted Christ.

Three of the largest online evangelism ministriesGMO, BGEA, and Cruaccount cumulatively for at least 200 million gospel presentations on the internet each year. All three say the number of people seeking online information about knowing Jesus has increased since the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic in early March.

Between mid-March and late March, GMO saw a 170 percent increase in clicks on search engine ads about finding hope. Clicks on ads about fear increased 57 percent, and about worry 39 percent. The ministrys 12.4 million gospel presentations in March represented a 16 percent increase over the average month in 2019.

This recent surge corresponds with a broader finding by a University of Copenhagen professor: Internet searches related to prayer in 75 countries skyrocketed to their highest levels in five years in March.

We are seeing millions of people open to talking about faith in the face of fear, said Michelle Diedrich, GMOs seeker journey director, and were ramping up to be available for them.

Im not really a religious person, but I dont know who else to turn to but God.

Pastors, evangelists, and online ministries tend to tell a similar story: COVID-19 escalated an already significant trend toward internet evangelism. As the viruss spread eventually wanes, they will seek to determine whether the uptick in online witness can be sustainedand how they might improve discipleship for these new believers. Only a fraction of those who come to faith online engage in follow-up discussions or report joining a local church.

Evangelism via electrons and avatars

In March, BGEA launched landing pages with coronavirus resources in six languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and Arabic). The association also launched social media campaigns themed around fear.

In the first four weeks, 173,000 people visited the websites and more than 10,000 clicked a button indicating they made decisions for Christ, said Mark Appleton, BGEAs director of internet evangelism. That was in addition to traffic on BGEAs standard family of evangelistic websites, which includes SearchForJesus.net and PeaceWithGod.net and sees nearly 30,000 visitors per day. (CT reported in 2015 that online gospel presentations through BGEA were equivalent to a daily Billy Graham crusade.)

One visitor to the coronavirus page, a 17-year-old named Donmere, told a chat volunteer, Im not really a religious person, but I dont know who else to turn to but God. Forty-five minutes later, Donmere was a follower of Christ and had been pointed to discipleship resources.

Donmeres conversion fits the profile of typical internet salvation experiences.

Pastor Mark Penick, in his 2013 doctoral dissertation at Dallas Baptist University, studied converts who came to Christ through the evangelistic website IAmSecond.com. Through in-depth interviews with 37 individuals in 17 states, Penick determined all his subjects experienced an impassible quandary like a divorce, job loss, or financial crisis that left them searching and questioning. Eighty-six percent said finding a Christian website was unplanned but of their own initiative (through actions like clicking on an ad or a search engine result). About 75 percent had personal dysfunction and addiction issues prior to their online conversions.

Few scholarly analyses of internet evangelism have been attemptedmostly dissertations and doctoral projects on specific evangelistic initiativesbut in 2014, the Pew Research Center found that informal online witnessing was relatively common. One in five Americans said they shared their faith online at least weekly, and 60 percent said they saw religion shared online at least weekly.

In 2018, Barna Research reported that most Christians agree technology is making it easier to evangelize and that 58 percent of non-Christians said someone had shared their faith with them on Facebook, with another 14 percent hearing a testimony through other social media channels.

Ed Stetzer, director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton College, said missiologists generally have a favorable view of internet evangelism.

Historically, weve always thought of evangelism being done with our feet and our faces, he said. We go and we tell. But people feel okay that it might involve electrons and avatars in the 21st century.

At Cru, witnessing also involves emojis. Among Crus digital evangelism tools for college campuses is a survey to be answered with emojis to start a spiritual conversation. Crus online presence also includes evangelistic mobile apps, gospel presentations in various languages, and online articles using felt needs as bridges to the gospel. One of the ministrys most effective evangelistic websites, EveryStudent.com, received 56 million hits last year and registered 657,000 decisions for Christ.

In response to COVID-19, Cru has added 52 new resources to its websites. A corresponding bump in traffic has the ministry on pace to eclipse last years total number of visitors to EveryStudent.com by 20 million in 2020 and the sites total decisions for Christ by more than 300,000.

The college-focused ministry InterVarsity USA reported a similar increase in spiritual interest amid COVID-19. In an online fundraising ad running the first week in April, the ministry stated, Weve seen more first-time decisions to follow Jesus in the last week than at any other time in the past year.

A study by the American Enterprise Institute suggested the young adults targeted by ministries like Cru and InterVarsity may be more worried about the coronavirusat least in some respectsthan their counterparts in older generations.

The survey found that 53 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds are concerned about being able to afford basic housing costs amid the pandemic. Fifty-nine percent of 30- to 49-year-olds expressed the same concern, compared with just 29 percent of Americans age 65 and older. Across all generations, people said the coronavirus outbreak has caused them to feel closer to God, including 14 percent of the religiously unaffiliated.

Despite the documented rise in religious interest as COVID-19 sweeps the world, it remains unclear how much of the increase in religious internet traffic is due to the heightened interest and how much is simply a temporary replacement for in-person religious activity. Cru, for instance, has taken all of its evangelism and discipleship groups online via the video conferencing software Zoom. On a single day in late March, Cru held 746 Zoom calls, compared with 474 for the entire month of February before social distancing began in earnest for the US.

By March 29, only 7 percent of American churches were still holding physical gatherings and most had moved online, according to a survey by LifeWay Research. Just 8 percent of Protestant pastors said they had not provided any online sermons or worship services for their congregations during the month of March.

Great Commission goes digital

Regardless of whether the bump in internet traffic is permanent or temporary, its clear that online evangelisms reach is global. During one week in March, Crus digital resources were accessed from every country in the world, Cru vice president Mark Gauthier said.

Thanks to online tools, the body of Christ has the ability to plant churches in every unreached people group with less expenditure of resources than ever, he said. This is one of the greatest moments in the history of the church for the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

COVID-19 hot spots have received particular online evangelistic focus. BGEA launched a Spanish social media campaign aimed at Spain, where about 120,000 have tested positive for the coronavirus and nearly 11,000 have died. During the campaigns first week, 93,000 people viewed targeted Facebook posts for at least 10 seconds. More than 1,000 people had social messaging conversations in a single week with BGEA volunteers in English and Spanish.

Southern Baptist evangelist Sammy Tippit has plans for gospel witnessing during the coming months in Iran, where 45,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported. At age 72, Tippit has experienced the power of internet evangelism only in the past four years. His journey online began by preaching evangelistic sermons to villages in India via Skype. That led to a Skype event where 10,000 Indians gathered to watch Tippit preach via video, and 5,000 indicated a desire to commit their lives to Christ.

To follow up with those new believers, Tippit began making three-minute discipleship videos and distributing them on social media. The videos took off, and now a global network of his ministry partners is preparing to distribute videos of two Tippit sermons to their non-Christian friends on May 30 and 31. The sermons will be translated into 10 languages and distributed via the messaging application WhatsApp in nearly 70 countries, with an anticipated audience of 10 million

A television station in Iran got wind of the emphasis and is partnering with Tippit to distribute the evangelistic sermons to an additional 6 million people.

Only a handful of evangelists are doing online ministry on that scale, said Tippit, president of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists. But a lot of people I know are doing something on Facebook and reaching hundreds. Tippit plans to train other evangelists in expanding their reach through the internet.

Mass evangelisms weak point

The greatest difficulty with online evangelism is follow-up. While 60,000 people per day last year indicated on GMOs websites that they had made decisions for Christ (either first-time commitments or rededications), the ministry was only able to track 5,244 people all year who connected with a local church after beginning their journey with Christ. This has been our biggest challenge, Diedrich said.

Now, with the coronavirus keeping church doors closed for the time being, new believers will need to rely even more on web resources for discipleship.

Of the 10,000 people indicating salvation decisions during BGEAs COVID-19 campaign, about 2,030 requested follow-up. For BGEA, funneling new converts into online discipleship courses is a major part of the follow-up process, along with encouraging new believers to plug into a local church. In March, the ministry saw 3,043 people enroll in discipleship courses, up 37 percent from the average monthly enrollment. Cru sees about 40 percent of the individuals who register salvation decisions through EveryStudent.com proceed to online follow-up. This includes working through a series of discipleship lessons and being offered an opportunity to interact with someone over chat to discuss what theyre learning.

Yet the difficulty of following up with those who profess faith isnt unique to internet evangelism. The same trouble has dogged crusades and other forms of mass evangelism, Stetzer said.

This has been everybodys weak point for the last hundred years, he said. However, we shouldnt pull away because this is the challenge. We should try to address it with stronger bonds to local churches.

Despite the follow-up challenge, the benefits of online evangelism seem to outweigh its drawbacks. Missiologists note seekers willingness to discuss spiritual matters in greater depth because of the anonymity afforded online. People also generally will trust the biblical counsel on websites that look reputable and professional. Internet witnessing additionally creates a lower-stress opportunity for initial evangelism attempts by Christians who may feel hesitant to share their faith in person.

A BGEA online volunteer reported, I have lived across the street from my neighbor for 10 years, and I just went and shared the gospel with him for the first time ever because I started to do this internet evangelism, and I learned how to actually have conversations with people, Appleton said.

Among the next frontiers in online gospel sharing is Global Outreach Day 2020. Set for May 30, the day has largely been driven online by COVID-19 and the increasingly digital nature of the world. An international coalition of organizers has set a goal of mobilizing 100 million believers to share the gospel with 1 billion people worldwide in May.

Among the main evangelistic methods will be posting personal testimonies online and then sharing them with friends via text or social media. (The Southern Baptist Convention has launched a similar campaign as the pandemic forced adjustments to its Whos Your One? evangelistic push.)

If every Christian would send a gospel presentation to one person online and ask that persons opinion of it, Gauthier said, you would see a lot of people having a chance to know Christ and a lot of fruit.

David Roach is a writer in Nashville.

Editors note: Want to read or share in espanol or portugues? Now you can!

[ This article is also available in espanol and Portugues. ]
China today reported no new deaths from coronavirus for the first time since the crisis began.

The country's National Health Commission reported 32 new cases in its latest daily update, but claimed there were no new fatalities.

Authorities said all the new patients were people returning to China from abroad, as the country braces for a second wave of imported cases.

In total, officials in mainland China have declared 81,740 cases and 3,331 deaths since the outbreak began in Hubei province late last year.

People wearing face masks walk down stairs and an escalator at a busy metro station during the rush hour in Beijing this morning

These graphs show what the Chinese government claims are the accurate figures for daily infections (top row) and deaths (bottom row)

While 32 people were added to the tally, another 89 were 'released from hospital after being cured', a statement said.

Another 12 suspected cases - also all imported - were being kept under observation, along with an additional 30 asymptomatic cases.

At this moment, has 1,242 confirmed cases in treatment and 1,033 asymptomatic cases under isolation and monitoring.

Numbers of daily new deaths have been hovering in the single digits for weeks, hitting just one on several occasions.

However, this is the first claim of zero new deaths since China began publishing daily updates in January.

Last week, China began disclosing the number of asymptomatic cases for the first time, after public concerns over the potential of 'silent' carriers to spread the virus.

Fears have also been growing over a potential resurgence in the epicentre of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected late last year.

Workers wearing protective suits take the temperature of people arriving at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing, where officials reported no new deaths today

Police officers wear protective face masks after a departure ceremony for Chinese medical workers leaving Wuhan to return to Shandong province yesterday

After a number of asymptomatic cases were confirmed in the city, local authorities revoked the 'epidemic-free' status of 45 residential compounds on Monday.

Meanwhile, the global death toll from the pandemic has surpassed 70,000 as the virus ravages numerous countries in Europe and the US.

More than 160 current and former global leaders are urging G20 nations to approve $8billion (6.5 billion) in emergency global health funding.

The open letter also called for $35billion (28.5billion) to support countries with weaker health systems and at least $150billion (120billion) for developing countries to fight the medical and economic crisis.

They also urged the international community to waive this year's debt repayments from poorer countries, including $44billion (36billion) due from Africa.

The healthcare crisis in wealthy nations has prompted fears over what would happen if the disease spread uncontrollably in developing countries.

The 165 signatories included former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and 92 former presidents and prime ministers among others.
An emergency room nurse dons her face protectors after taking a break in a driveway for ambulances and emergency medical services vehicles outside Brooklyn Hospital Center's emergency room, Sunday, April 5, 2020, in New York, during the coronavirus crisis. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Kathy Willens/AP Photo

Hospitals around the US faced significant challenges as they ramped up their response to the coronavirus pandemic.

A lack of testing, insufficient protective gear, and shortages of supplies from thermometers to hand sanitizer plagued their responses, according to a report released Monday by the inspector general of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The inspector general surveyed more than 300 hospitals across the US and Puerto Rico between March 23-27 to get a sense of where the shortcomings were as the coronavirus spread in the US, hitting places like NYC particularly hard.

On Monday night, President Donald Trump dismissed the report, telling reporters "It's wrong."

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

At one hospital, a supply of N95 masks for staff arrived from a state strategic reserve with dry-rotted elastic bands that rendered the equipment useless.

Another received supplies that expired in 2010.

One hospital couldn't screen everyone who came through its doors because it didn't have enough contactless thermometers, so it decided to screen at random.

One hospital is working with a local distillery to combine 100 liters of ultrasound gel with alcohol to make hand sanitizer. Others still are accepting handmade mask and gown donations, construction masks, and protective gear made out of office supplies.

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the US, hospitals have found themselves plagued with shortages of gear, combined with a lack of testing capacity, according to a survey of 323 hospitals conducted by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services. The hospitals were based in 46 states and Puerto Rico, and roughly a third had treated COVID-19-positive patients, while another third had patients suspected of being positive.

On Monday night, President Donald Trump dismissed the report, feuding with reporters and saying about the report without evidence, "It's wrong."

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The accounts from the hospitals' administrators show pressures to have enough of virtually everything needed in the wake of the pandemic, from testing, to protective gear, to staff, to capacity. Some hospitals even ran short on basic supplies like food and toilet paper as case counts in the US skyrocketed.

Read more: A leaked document from Senate Democrats provides clues on how the federal government will allocate $100 billion from the coronavirus stimulus to hospitals

The hospitals in turn asked the government for guaranteed access to supplies, flexibility to use healthcare workers credentialed in other states, authorization to increase bed capacity in their facilities, as well as financial assistance, particularly for rural hospitals. As hospitals confront the pandemic, they're faced with higher costs of taking care of their patients while having diminished revenue streams from everyday procedures that have been canceled.

Ventilators, the hospitals noted, are likely to run short, with some hospitals converting anesthesia machines and others hooking up two patients to one machine.

Testing shortcomings are hitting hospitals hard

As hospitals look to treat patients who have the symptoms of COVID-19  shortness of breath, fever, cough, among others  the issues surrounding testing for the virus has hindered how they're able to respond.

The report found that hospitals were having a hard time knowing if patients were positive, which could determine their treatment course, how staff protect themselves around the patient, and timing for when they might be discharged. Some hospitals said it could take up to a week to get coronavirus test results.

Read more: The upstart biotech Moderna is hoping to have its coronavirus vaccine ready for emergency use in the fall. Here's how it plans to execute in record time.

Strains on protective gear

Because hospitals don't know which patients have the coronavirus, they're using up a lot of personal protective equipment, or PPE, worsening shortages.

"The testing turnaround presents a challenge, especially for our 'rule-out' patientswe have to use a lot of PPE on those rule-outs," one hospital administrator told the administration. "And especially when it's a negative, we basically used all that PPE for nothing."

One hospital said that in the course of a normal day, it might use 200 masks. As of the end of March, that's up to 2,000 masks a day.

Hospitals told the administration that to make up for the lack of gear, they began reusing single-use PPE, using UV light to sterilize mask or putting surgical masks over N95 masks. It's a major departure to how the usually disposable gear is treated.

"We are throwing all of our PPE best practices out the window," one hospital administrator said. "That one will come back and bite us. It will take a long time for people to get back to doing best practices."

Read more: A leaked presentation reveals the document US hospitals are using to prepare for a major coronavirus outbreak. It estimates 96 million US coronavirus cases and 480,000 deaths.

A toll on healthcare workers

The changes in guidelines, especially with regard to protective gear, is taking a toll on the staff working in the hospitals as well.

"Health care workers feel like they're at war right now[they] are seeing people in their 30s, 40s, 50s dyingThis takes a large emotional toll," one administrator said in the survey.

The hospitals noted that they got mixed signals from different public health agencies on local and national levels about how to best protect staff.

"[The inconsistency] makes everyone nervous," one hospital said. "It would have been better if there was coordination and consistency in guidance among the different levels of government."

The report noted that at one hospital, a staff member who tested positive had exposed other staff. But the hospital didn't have enough testing kits to test the staff who had been exposed.

Discharging patients has presented its own challenges. Hospitals looking to free up beds and move patients who are recovering to other healthcare institutions are facing pushback and requests for a weeks' worth of protective equipment for staff charged with taking care of the coronavirus-positive patients.

Read more: A 'broad and accelerating outbreak': Morgan Stanley just tripled its coronavirus projection to 570,000 cases in the US

This article was published on April 6 and has been updated with President Trump's comments on the report.

Read the original article on Business Insider
M inisters have stressed government business will continue after Boris Johnson was admitted to intensive care following a worsening of his coronavirus symptoms.

The Prime Minister was transferred to the intensive care unit at St Thomas Hospital on Monday evening, as a precaution in case he needed to be put on a ventilator.

Michael Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said Mr Johnson had received oxygen support but was not on a ventilator.

Speaking on LBC radio he said: He is kept, of course, under close supervision.

Police officer on patrol outside St Thomas' Hospital in Central London, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in intensive care as his coronavirus symptoms persist / PA

By being in intensive care if there is further support he needs it is there at hand.

But the Prime Minister has not been on a ventilator.

In Mr Johnsons absence, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State, is standing in for him where necessary .

The worsening of the Prime Minister's condition comes at a critical moment in the coronavirus crisis, with the epidemic expected to reach its peak within a few days.

There was a palpable sense shock at Westminster and beyond at the speed of his apparent decline, following his admission to hospital on Sunday .

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab taking charge of the Government's response to the coronavirus crisis after Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to intensive care Monday / PA

At the time Downing Street claimed the move was a precautionary step, as Mr Johnson's symptoms of a cough and high temperature had not gone away after his 10 days in self-isolation.

At first he continued working from his hospital bed, and received his ministerial red boxes.

However, by 7pm on Monday the decision was made to transfer him to intensive care so that a ventilator was close at hand if required.

The Cabinet was informed shortly afterwards, and the move was announced to the public by No 10 after 8pm.

Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast

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Mr Gove said that the Prime Minister was receiving the very, very best care and insisted that the government machine was continuing to function.

He told BBC Breakfast: Were all working together to implement the plan the Prime Minister set out in order to try to ensure that we can marshal all the resources of government, indeed all the resources of our country, in the fight against this invisible enemy.

The work of government goes on.
HAMDEN  A Hamden animal control officer worked with a resident to free a trapped swan on Mather Street Friday, according to town police.

Capt. Ronald Smith said in a release that ACO Christopher Smith responded to 365 Mather St. for a report of an injured swan. He found a Good Samaritan, Carissa Galrano, attempting to free a large swan, that was tangled in thick brush.

With the assistance of ACO Smith, they were successful in removing the swan from the brush, For the next few minutes, the swan attempted to take flight, but failed. Another Good Samaritan arrived, removed a jack from inside of his vehicle, and raised a gate, thus allowing the swan to enter Regional Water Authority property, Capt. Smith said in the release. The swan continued towards Lake Whitney. Once entering the water, it again became entangled in thick brush. ACO Smith and Galrano trudged through the thick brush, and again freed the swan. We are happy to report that the swan was last observed swimming southbound on Lake Whitney.

Smith thanked Ms. Galrano and the other Good Samaritan for their efforts on behalf of the department.

He described the incident as An Uplifting Story During These Difficult Times.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
Due to the widespread shutdown across the globe, industries including the fashion fraternity - big or small - are confronting the challenges posed by coronavirus.

Hence, as a part of a close-knit coterie, the Fashion Design Council of India has taken the lead to set up a Covid-19 Support Fund (CSF by FDCI) to provide financial assistance to small businesses in need. The up-and-coming designers who are running businesses all alone, they are not in a position to endure these circumstances and support their workers simultaneously. So the fund would support them.

Many designers came forward to help. Sabyasachi Mukherjee has written to FDCI and offered help to the young talent. Couturier Manish Malhotra also wrote to help out in these difficult times. Besides, designer Rohit Bal also offered to pitch in. Besides,Rajesh Pratap Singh has also come up to help make protective gear for the masses.

Adding on to this list, besides the chairman himself are the FDCI board members - Payal Jain, Anjana Bhargav, Reynu Taandon, Paras Bairoliya among others.

Most designers have asked for anonymity, they dont want any kind of applause or credit for this. The idea is to help the designers who will run into a problem due to this crisis, says Sunil Sethi, Chairman FDCI.

The idea was to put together a fund and help seems to be pouring. A title sponsor of the fashion week, Nitin Passi offered a helping hand. A liquor brand that supports the fashion week has also offered support. Debashis Dutta from Kolkata, who is another supporter, has offered to distribute free antiseptic lotions to designers, he adds.

Designer Anjana Bhargav says, Once we have a list of names, who are seeking help we would give them whatever is needed.

The thought behind this was to support brands who are one to two years old, they have 15-30 people working for them and the situation will make it hard for them to sustain even after the lockdown ends, explains designer Payal Jain.

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HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland's largest tech event Slush, which was scheduled for November 2020, said on Monday it has decided to cancel the conference due to the spread of the new coronavirus.

Founded in 2008, Slush, which gets its name from the typical Finnish weather late in the year, has grown into the largest startup event in Northern Europe, gathering around 20,000 people to Helsinki in November or December.

"It would have been irresponsible to overlook the possible financial ramifications not only to Slush, but also to our partners, vendors, and visitors, (in the case that we were) forced to cancel the event closer to November," Slush Chief Executive Miika Huttunen said in a statement.

Slush, which is a meeting place for startup companies and venture capitalists, said it was working on alternative ways to connect startups with investors and to facilitate their collaboration with corporations.

"Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, startups are now facing unprecedented challenges, and help is needed perhaps more than ever," Huttunen said.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki in Tallinn; Editing by Anne Kauranen and Jan Harvey)
Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister



Nitin Patel on Tuesday said members of the Islamic sect Tablighi Jamaat played a major role in spreading coronavirus in the state and the country, by not cooperating with the authorities and hiding their travel history.

Speaking to reporters here, Patel said unlike members of the Muslim congregation, Hindu travellers who arrived at airports in Gujarat had not thrown any tantrums and had followed authorities' instructions.

"Even in Islamic countries, including Pakistan, we have not heard of violations of the government's instructions. Unfortunately, in India, some radicals and religious fanatics spread a rumour that it would harm their religion," the BJP leader said.

Members of the Tablighi Jamaat played a major role in spreading coronavirus, the Deputy Chief Minister said.

"After returning to their homes in respective states from Delhi, they should have informed the authorities. This could have contained the spread," Patel said.

Majority of international travellers, who arrived in Gujarat were Hindus, he said, adding that none of them had thrown tantrums and had followed all instructions and opted for quarantine.

"If members of the Jamaat had done the same and had informed the authorities or came forward for medical check- ups, the quantum of spread would have been less. They should understand that their action mostly affected people from the minority community only," he said.

Of the 126 persons from Gujarat, who had attended the event in Nizamuddin last month, 12 from Ahmedabad tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Jaipur, April 7 : Bhilwara has become a global role model by breaking the corona chain with efforts made by the state government which include screening of 5 crore people and testing lakhs of households still date, said Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

He added that the first case in Rajasthan was reported on March 2, 2020 and strict measures were taken in the state on the very first day. "We sealed the borders the day we found a doctor being corona positive in Bhilwara and it is becoming a learning ground now. 22 lakhs families from villages, nearly 10 lakh households in the city were tested and hence Bhilwara set an example against corona in India," said Gehlot.

The city has now recorded 17 recoveries with 11 discharged out of the 27 patients who reported positive. "We are working on a war-footing in a 6-part process beginning with the imposition of curfew, coordination work of police surveying colonies where the visitors at Bangar Hospital, where it all began, might be staying," said Harendra Mahawar, SP, Bhilwara.

In India, a few hotspots of COVID-19 were listed as the epicentres of coronavirus out of which Bhilwara emerged in the list of 10 major spots. With 27 cases, the district was considered the worst hit in Rajasthan and for a few days, at the national level too.

Mahawar added that more than 5,000 people were listed who consulted the COVID-19 positive doctor of Bangar Hospital. Patients of IPD and OPD were also screened.

To break the chain of contamination, nearly 6,000 people were identified and put under isolation in only 2 days. Patients from almost 19 districts and 4 states were in the hospital when a sudden rise of positive patients was reported. Every single individual was put in strict isolation and a curfew was imposed within 15 minutes without affecting the supply of food & other essentials. CLG members, community leaders, and religious gurus were asked to motivate the public to stay home.

The Rajasthan CM said that things were controlled with the imposition of curfew and today, 34 places are under curfew in Rajasthan.

"Two km area of a person found COVID-19 positive is sealed and checks are done. Today, out of total number of positives in Rajasthan, nearly 30-32 are the evacuees from Iran at Jaisalmer & Jodhpur. People with travel history or any contact with positive patients are being isolated and checked. The only worry is of people who are coming out positive and have no history of either travel or contact," Gehlot added.

"Officials of the Central government are in touch with Chief Secretary DB Gupta and they mention Bhilwara in their video conferencing," he said Chief Medical & Health Officer Dr Mushtaq Khan said, "We worked parallel on precaution and treatment. The main task was to identify the relatives of the first patient and isolate them. It was done on a war-footing and everything got under control at the right time." Rajendra Bhatt, District Magistrate, Bhilwara said, "We have deployed corona fighters in villages who are led by the corona captain, the SDM. They submit daily reports on the screenings in rural areas and if there is any sign of community spread." "We have extended a total shutdown for a few more days and people will get everything they need at their doorstep. No shop, dairy, medical store will be open. People can directly call us for medicine, food or anything. For this, at least 4-5 control rooms of several departments are being operated," he added.

The administration has acquired 42 hospitals with dedicated beds for positive patients, 1551 bed quarantine facilities prepared at hotels and other such establishments. Also, places have been identified where an infrastructure of 10,000-15,000 beds can be developed. The officials have also deployed 3-tier security for the healthcare officials.

25-30 lakh screenings have been done in the past few days and daily reports are being sent to the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police.

For 3 days now, the city has reported only 1 positive case who had a history of visiting the corona affected hospital. The district now has only 7 COVID-19 patients as reports of 17 were negative and two died due to other illnesses.

"The population of the city has been screened at least 3 times now and people having normal cough & cold due to weather change were also checked and surveyed. Those having symptoms were put under isolation or quarantine. People also cooperated. There was a time when Rajasthan had 18 patients and 12 were from Bhilwara," said Bhatt.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

Trend:

The Government of Mexico reiterates its call for all Mexican citizens to avoid non essential international travel to and from Mexico. This includes travel for recreational reasons or tourism, especially over Easter week. This is part of the measures taken to curb the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Mexico and around the world. In addition, the reduced number of flights and routes has greatly complicated the logistics of international air travel.

The Foreign Ministry urges our citizens who live abroad to stay home and avoid international travel. Specifically, it again urgently calls on the Mexican community in the United States that traditionally travels to Mexico at Easter to postpone all visits to our country. The measures recently put in place by both countries to contain the virus have reduced flights and limited nonessential border crossings.

On behalf of the Government of Mexico, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterates its commitment to providing all possible consular assistance and protection to our Mexican citizens abroad. However, given the current situation, it is extremely complicated to repatriate individuals at this time. Therefore, it is of paramount important to avoid nonessential travel abroad.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 7

By Ilkin Seyfaddini  Trend:

The World Bank is ready to allocate $14 billion to Uzbekistan to support country's anti-crisis program, Trend reports citing the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan.

This issue was touched upon during a videoconference between Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Sardor Umurzakov and Vice-President of the World Bank Group for Europe and Central Asia Cyril Muller, the report says.

According to Muller, the World Bank intends to mobilize $14 billion of "Strategic Program on Preparedness and Response", formed by the World Bank Group to support the anti-crisis program of Uzbekistan.

The issue of prompt allocation of $1.2 billion for financing the health care system, social protection institutions and agencies and budget support is also being actively considered.

The issue of providing financial support to Uzbekistan will be considered as a priority, said the WB administration.

These funds will be an addition to the credit lines already approved in March this year, designed to finance modernization of public utilities infrastructure and agricultural producers projects for $700 million.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
Hilary Duff is looking better than ever as she self-isolates in her nearly $4M Beverly Hills home with her husband and two kids.

The 32-year-old actress showed off a fresh tan on Monday as she posed in a white tank top when taking to her Instagram Stories.

The Lizzie McGuire vet was talking up the power of moms during self-isolation as they have to 'cook, clean, take care of their kids and oversee home schooling.'

Golden girl: Hilary Duff is looking better than ever as she self-isolates in her nearly $4M Beverly Hills home with her husband and two kids

Team moms: The 32-year-old actress showed off a fresh tan on Monday as she posed in a white tank top when taking to her Instagram Stories

The post was for a paid partnership with Kohl's which is launching an online contest for mothers.

On Instagram she posed away in the same white top. The caption said: 'Mothers Day is always an important time of year, but this year brings a new light to thanking the moms in our lives for all they do.

'Right now, many moms are working double duty or taking on additional responsibilities to keep their families safe. This Mothers Day may feel different and thats why Kohl's wants to reward moms with something special this year and is launching the Amazing Moms contest to help recognize the remarkable moms for all they do in our day-to-day lives.'

Mom power: The Lizzie McGuire vet was talking up the power of moms during self-isolation as they have to 'cook, clean, take care of their kids and oversee home schooling'

Partnered: On Instagram she posed away in the same white top. The caption said: 'Mothers Day is always an important time of year, but this year brings a new light to thanking the moms in our lives for all they do. 'Right now, many moms are working double duty or taking on additional responsibilities to keep their families safe. This Mothers Day may feel different and thats why Kohl's wants to reward moms with something special this year and is launching the Amazing Moms contest

The day before she said that her two kids - Luca and Banks - were doing fine at home.

She added that her son Luca has a 'sweet bond' with his younger sister Banks helped ease her mum 'guilt.'

The star felt guilty when she gave birth to Banks in October 2018, as she knew the tot would need 'so much' attention from her, meaning she would have less time to dote on her eight-year-old son Luca - whom she has with her ex-husband Mike Comrie.

Go moms: She said the company wants to help recognize the remarkable moms for all they do in our day-to-day lives'

'A newborn needs their mom so much, and so much of that time is sitting and nursing,' she said.

'You're kind of incapable of physically doing anything else with another child. [My son] Luca was almost seven when I had her. I had a lot of guilt and felt like, "Am I giving him enough?"'

But after seeing how the youngster doted on his sister - whom Hilary has with husband Matthew Koma - the 'Younger' star was able to 'overcome' her worries.

Kids at play: The day before she said that her two kids - Luca and Banks - were doing fine at home. She added that her son Luca has a 'sweet bond' with his younger sister Banks helped ease her mum 'guilt'

Hilary added: 'Their bond was so sweet right away. It helped me overcome that [guilt] because I saw that he was old enough to [understand]. If I could give him a finite, "Hey, I have to do this for the next 35 minutes, and then it's going to be your time with me," he could wrap his head around that. The age gap is actually really great. They're buddies.'

Over the last few weeks, the actress has been social distancing at home with her brood, and while it hasn't been easy, Hilary is cherishing the extra time spent around her loved ones.

She said: 'I've never been spread so thin because I'm now keeping a house clean, keeping everybody fed for almost every single meal and doing four-plus hours of homeschooling a day.

Her true love: She has been playing Scrabble with her husband Matthew Koma; he told her UL was not a word (see bottom left)

'It's not like I can just give Luca an assignment and be like, 'Here, you have 30 minutes or you have an hour.' I have to be there with him helping every step of the way.'

And the family are being extra careful, because Luca is travelling between households as he is also visiting his dad Mike Comrie.

Speaking to People magazine, Hilary explained: 'We're taking this really seriously. Luca goes between two households and we don't know who's carrying. My mom is a diabetic [so we're being extra careful]. She did something really sweet for Luca's birthday [last month]. She made a big sign, and her and her boyfriend drove by the house and played an interactive game with him.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 22:43:15|Editor: huaxia

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LAGOS, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank has released 82 million U.S. dollars for immediate support in strengthening Nigeria's public health response through the Regional Disease Surveillance System Enhancement Project (REDISSE).

The bank made this known in a statement released in Abuja, Nigeria's capital on Tuesday.

The bank said in addition, the World Bank had been asked to provide a multi-pronged package of support over the next six months to strengthen the country's preparedness for the immediate health crisis.

The World Bank would also provide the federal government with budget support for a pro-poor stimulus package and the long term recovery, the statement said.

"Efforts to protect livelihoods and support local economic activities over the next 18 to 24 months will be critical in mitigating the economic and human impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," it added.

"Together with partners, the bank is discussing with the states and relevant federal agencies how best to protect livelihoods of poor and vulnerable families and support micro, small and medium enterprises to enable recovery," the bank said.

"Through the REDISSE project, about 10.6 million U.S. dollars has already been committed to supporting the Nigeria Center for Disease Control in strengthening states' emergency operation center, building, renovating and providing equipment for treatment centers across eight states, as well as bringing in essential medical supplies and drugs, testing kits, personal protective equipment for frontline health workers" it added.
Residents of Agric Nzema in the Ashanti region would have 50% of their electricity bills absorbed by their Chief, Nana Nkansah Boadu Ayeboafo.



The initiative is to lessen the burden the coronavirus pandemic has visited on homes- especially those whose businesses have been hardly hit.



The Government of Ghana has declared a partial lockdown and put in place measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. For this reason, priority has be given to people offering essential services making it difficult for some majority to go about their daily businesses.



It is for this reason that the Chief of Agric Nzema has stepped in to offload the pressure paying of electricity bills would bring to his people.



Aside the pledge to pay for their electricity bills, Nana Nkansah Boadu Ayeboafo, has also supported his people with assorted items.



The respected chief personally purchased two thousand (2000) bags of rice, two thousand (2000) boxes of vegetable cooking oil and thousand (2000) boxes of sardines.



In an interaction with the media after donating the items to his people, Nana Nkansah Boadu Ayeboafo explained that he was concerned about the welfare of his people and would always be around to support them as every leader is expected to do.



He also revealed that aside the food items he has given out, he has made provision to give every person especially those whose businesses have been affected an amount of GHC50 to support thier livelihood.









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Owner Steve Johnson attaches a notice on the door of Keegan's Grill Tuesday, March 17, 2020, in Phoenix notifying guests his restaurant will be closing in compliance with the state of emergency issued by the city of Phoenix earlier in the day that restaurants only serve take-out. Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff have ordered bars, gyms and other indoor facilities to close immediately and restaurants to offer to-go service only in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The law requires federal executions to follow the method of execution provided by the law of the state in which the sentence is imposed, but it does not require federal executions to follow the additional procedural details invoked by the district court, Katsas wrote in a 31-page opinion. Katsas also said the claims presented by the death row inmates are designed to delay lawful executions indefinitely.
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SINGAPORE  A general practitioner accused of molesting a female patient during an examination claimed he had the impression that the patients boyfriend later asked him for money for the alleged act.

Dr Lui Weng Sun, 47, testified on Tuesday (7 April) that during a phone call between him and the 44-year-old boyfriend after the alleged incident, the man had mentioned the term jiao dai, which the doctor took to be a form of monetary compensation.

Upon further questioning by the prosecution, the doctor told the court that the man had never mentioned money during the 15-minute long conversation.

Lui, who formerly practised at Northeast Medical Group Clinic at Block 39 Jalan Tiga, is accused of one count of molesting the victim, a Vietnamese student, on 6 November 2017, by turning her left bra cup outwards, placing a stethoscope on her left breast, and touching her nipple with his finger.

The womans boyfriend earlier testified that his girlfriend had told him of the alleged incident and asked him if it was normal for doctors to open up her clothes. The woman, who is staying in Singapore on a student pass, also told him that there were no nurses around when she was consulting Lui.

The boyfriend, a contractor, then called up the clinic wanting to speak to Lui, but was told that he was not around. The victim, then 24, and her boyfriend later visited the clinic but were told that the doctor had left work. According to the man, Lui called him on his mobile phone while he was still at the clinic.

"I asked the doctor why, for a normal cold, cough and fever, there is a need to open the clothes, pull down the bra and touch the breast, said the man, who added that the conversation was in Mandarin.

He said, 'Oh sorry sorry, because I need to check the things inside'."

Unsatisfied, the boyfriend asked Lui to call him back in a few hours but the exchange was also unsatisfactory. According to the boyfriend, the doctor had asked to meet the boyfriend three days later, but the couple filed a police report without meeting him.

Story continues

On Tuesday, the prosecution represented by Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Yiwen, followed up with the conversation, arguing that Luis testimony was fabricated. The doctor had lied that the boyfriend had hinted to him for compensation, using the lie as an afterthought for the trial, said DPP Ng.

When DPP Ng asked if the boyfriend had mentioned money, or asked for any specific terms of compensation, Lui answered no.

Asked DPP Ng, Where did you get the impression from (the boyfriend) that he was hinting for you to compensate him monetarily?

In reply, Lui said that different people might have interpreted the term jiao dai in different manners. For my personal interpretation, it seems to hint at (money). It could be accounting, he said.

The prosecution then asked if Lui felt outraged and angry given that the man was trying to blackmail him and falsely accusing him of molest. Lui replied that he was.

Lui told the court that he asked for advice from friends who were legal professionals and his medical insurance company.

Asked why he did not make a police report, Lui said, I did not make police report as I did not have evidence. It is my word against her.

Said DPP Ng, This is your reputation at stake, you have been accused of something inappropriate and you understand him to be blackmailing you. Why did you have to consult so many people before you make police report against him?

Lui replied, But If I were to go to police with no evidence it doesnt sound like anything substantial.

The DPP then asked, But the stakes are so tremendously high against you, it would have been incumbent upon you to go to police station (to make a police report).

Said Lui, It is logical for me to get legal advice from friends and indemnity from there (so) I would know what to do. Some advised me to attend the meeting and record the conversation and see whether theres anything new the boyfriend would say.

The prosecution then suggested to Lui that if the boyfriend was indeed blackmailing the doctor for money, Lui would have gone to the police station to make a police report. The doctor disagreed with the statement.

DPP Ng added, The reason why you consulted widely is because you knew you were in trouble because of what you had done to the patient and you wanted their advice. Lui disagreed with the prosecutor.

The trial continues later in the day.

If convicted on molest, Lui can be jailed up to two years, or fined or caned.

Related stories

Doctor accused of touching female patient's chest during consultation



Doctor who allegedly molested female patient testifies there was no skin-to-skin contact with her
All amounts expressed in US$

Barrick Gold Corporation (GOLD) (ABX.TO)

LUSAKA, Zambia, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Barrick Gold Corporations country manager for Zambia, Nathan Chishimba, today handed a cheque for US$530,000 to Minister of Health Hon Dr Chitalu Chilufya, Minister of Mines & Mineral Development Hon Richard Musukwa and Provincial Minister Hon Nathaniel Mubukwanu. The donation is designed to support the country in combating and containing the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the ceremony, Chishimba said Barrick had already introduced extensive measures to protect workers and their families living in and around its Lumwana mine against the virus.

As a committed partner to Zambia we would also like to make a contribution to the governments fight against the pandemic. We are consequently funding the provision of medical equipment to the value of US$340,000 at the national level, US$100,000 for the North-Western province and US$90,000 for the Kalumbila district, he said.

Barricks chief operating officer for Africa and the Middle East, Willem Jacobs, said the company was engaging with Zambias national Covid-19 taskforce to convert its support into immediate action. Its senior management in Zambia was already working closely with the local health authorities.

Barrick enquiries

President and chief executive

Mark Bristow

+1 647 205 7694

+44 788 071 1386 Investor and media relations

Kathy du Plessis

+44 20 7557 7738

Email: barrick@dpapr.com

Website: www.barrick.com

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information

Certain information contained in this press release, including any information as to Barricks strategy or future financial or operating performance, constitutes forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. The words support, design, would, engage, convert contain, will, and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. In particular, this press release contains forward-looking statements including, without limitation, with respect to financial support and preventative measures implemented by Barrick to combat and contain the Covid-19 pandemic in Zambia, including by funding the provision of medical equipment at the national, provincial and district levels and engaging with Zambias national Covid-19 taskforce and local health authorities while maintaining the Zambian mine operational.

Story continues

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions; including material estimates and assumptions related to the factors set forth below that, while considered reasonable by Barrick as at the date of this press release in light of managements experience and perception of current conditions and expected developments, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Known and unknown factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements and information. Such factors include, but are not limited to: the risks associated with Covid-19 and other infectious diseases presenting as major health issues; failure to comply with environmental and health and safety laws and regulations; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities, including geotechnical challenges, and disruptions in the maintenance or provision of required infrastructure and information technology systems; changes in national and local government legislation, taxation, controls, or regulations and/or changes in the administration of laws, policies, and practices, expropriation or nationalization of property and political or economic developments in Zambia; lack of certainty with respect to foreign legal systems, corruption and other factors that are inconsistent with the rule of law; risks associated with illegal and artisanal mining; risk of loss due to acts of war, terrorism, sabotage and civil disturbances; timing of receipt of, or failure to comply with, necessary permits and approvals; litigation and legal and administrative proceedings; damage to the Barricks reputation due to the actual or perceived occurrence of any number of events, including negative publicity with respect to the Barricks handling of environmental matters or dealings with community groups, whether true or not; contests over title to properties, particularly title to undeveloped properties, or over access to water, power, and other required infrastructure; employee relations including loss of key employees; increased costs and physical risks, including extreme weather events and resource shortages, related to climate change; and availability and increased costs associated with mining inputs and labor. In addition, there are risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development, and mining, including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations, pressures, cave-ins, flooding, and gold bullion, copper cathode, or gold or copper concentrate losses (and the risk of inadequate insurance, or inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks).



Many of these uncertainties and contingencies can affect our actual results and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, us. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. Specific reference is made to the most recent Form 40-F/Annual Information Form on file with the SEC and Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities for a more detailed discussion of some of the factors underlying forward-looking statements, and the risks that may affect Barricks ability to achieve the expectations set forth in the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

Barrick disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7) Several wildfires have erupted in Antipolo and Tanay areas as Rizal province remains under total lockdown, a conservation park in the area reported Monday night.

Our team recorded forest fires around the Antipolo and Tanay areas. The call for vigilance for our forests extends not only to threats of quarrying and illegal logging, but also of forest fires as we enter the dry season, Masungi Georeserve in Rizal said in its advisory on Facebook.

Citing the Food and Agriculture Organization, Masungi said forest fires are usually caused by humans for kaingin, charcoal production, or unintentionally out of negligence or carelessness.

Many times, burned forests and degraded lands pave the way for land grabbing, conversion and unsustainable development when people say that burned lands are no longer forest lands, the management added.

At the frontlines of forest protection, we continue to defend Masungi and surrounding areas against fires and attempts of quarrying amid the lockdown, Masungi said.

Now is the time to heighten forest protection all over the country, it added.

Masungi did not indicate whether the fires are likely to reach the conservation area anytime soon.

Luzon has been placed under an enhanced community quarantine since March 17 as the government addresses the rising cases of COVID-19 in the country.

This has led to temporary suspension of jobs and other means of income, especially among daily wage and low income earners in the region.
Tiffany Pinckney remembers the fear she felt when the coronavirus she suffered from made it very difficult to breathe. So, when she recovered, the New York City woman became one of the countrys first survivors to donate her blood. That blood may now help other seriously ill patients.

Pinckney told the Associated Press it was overwhelming to know that in my blood, there may be answers.

Doctors around the world are reusing a treatment for infections that is about 100 years old: giving blood plasma from recovered patients to sick ones. Plasma is the yellowish liquid part of blood.

The blood from former patients is filled with immune molecules that can help survivors defeat COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Such donations have already been made by recovered patients in Houston and New York. Now, hospitals and blood centers in other areas are preparing for possibly hundreds of survivors to donate.

Doctors do not know if the treatments will be successful.

This is a call to action, said Dr. David Reich. He is president of New Yorks Mount Sinai Hospital, which collected Tiffany Pinckneys blood.

People feel very helpless in the face of this disease. And this is one thing that people can do to help their fellow human beings, he added.

The treatment was used during the 1918 flu pandemic. It was also used to fight several other infections before modern medicine found new anti-viral drugs.

During an infection, the body starts making antibodies designed to attack the germ that has invaded the body. These antibodies stay for months or years in the blood plasma of survivors.

This treatment can be used while scientists search for a vaccine or a new drug.

It is a temporary measure that can be put into place quickly, said Dr. Jeffrey Henderson. He is from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He is putting together a study about the treatment.

This is not a curebut rather it is a way to reduce the severity of illness, Henderson said. Doctors dont know how long survivors antibodies will stay in their plasma.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration told hospitals how to request emergency permission to use the treatment. Houston Methodist Hospital and Mount Sinai both asked immediately.

The public also answered requests from hospitals for donations.

Michigan State University had more than 1,000 people sign up for the National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project. The group was formed by hospitals hoping to increase plasma donation for research.

Survivors who want to donate blood cannot just walk into a blood center. They must prove the virus is gone, and that they have been free of symptoms for several weeks. They also must have a high level of antibodies in their blood.

Chinese doctors reported last week that five people treated with plasma from former patients all began to improve a week later. But they also received other treatments, so there is no way to know if the plasma caused the improvements.

In a North Carolina factory, Spanish chemical company Grifols is trying to recreate a version of donor plasma that is filled with a large amount of antibodies.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health are measuring survivors antibody levels to learn how strong a vaccine must be. Other scientists, including some at Beijings Tsinghua University, are trying to find out which antibodies are the strongest. They hope to copy those antibodies in a lab and create a drug treatment.

But donations from people like Pinckney could be used as fast as medical centers can process the blood. When Mount Sinai asked her to donate, she agreed immediately.

Its hope for someone else, she said.

Im JIll Robbins.

The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. Bryan Lynn was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

overwhelm v. to effect someone very strongly

immune  adj. not capable of being affected by a disease

plasma  n. the watery part of blood

pandemic n. a worldwide spread of disease

antibody n. a substance produced in blood to fight disease

germ  n. a small living thing that causes disease

convalescent - adj. the process of becoming well after an illness

symptom n. a physical feeling or problem that shows that someone has a particular illness
Having served nearly half of a 30-year federal term for a non-violent drug conviction, Patrick Jones poured his heart out in a letter to a judge, pleading that his sentence be reduced and to free him to be father to who he described as his straying 16-year-old son. Locked up in a federal prison in Louisiana, he wrote of his wish for a second chance to prove to the boy and society that he was more than just inmate No. 83582-180.

"It is just a number to be forgotten in time," the 49-year-old Jones wrote Oct. 15 in a letter from the Federal Correctional Institution in Oakdale, Louisiana. "But Mr. Patrick Estell Jones is a very good person. Caring, hardworking, free and clean of drugs and a lot smarter now, with a balanced outlook on life."

Now, Jones will never get the chance to prove his mettle.

On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a class-action lawsuit against Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director Michael Carvajal and Oakdale prison Warden Rodney Myers accusing them and Attorney General William Barr of not moving fast enough to save the lives of Jones and four other inmates from what may be the worst coronavirus outbreak in the federal penitentiary system, according to BOP's data.

The lawsuit, filed in the Western District of Louisiana, requests the expedited release of at-risk prisoners at Oakdale, warning that "given the exponential spread of COVID-19, there is no time to spare."

PHOTO: The entrance to the Federal Correctional Institution in Oakdale, La., is pictured in an undated photo from the Federal Bureau of Prisons website. (Federal Bureau of Prisons)

"Imagine if someone sick with COVID-19 came into your home and sealed the doors and windows behind them," the federal lawsuit reads. "That is what the Oakdale federal detention centers have just done to the over 1,800 human beings currently detained there, where a COVID-19 outbreak is rampant, social distancing is impossible and no one detained can leave.

Up to 30 inmates and staff at Oakdale have tested positive for coronavirus, officials said.

While BOP officials declined to comment on the ACLU lawsuit, they released a statement saying they increased the number of prisoners released to home confinement in March by 40% and that prison case managers are urgently reviewing all inmates to determine which ones meet the criteria established by the attorney general."

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'We have to move with dispatch'

Barr issued a directive to Carvajal on March 26, just two days before Jones died, to reduce the number of inmates in the prison by transferring non-violent, at-risk inmates to home confinement based on a thorough case-by-case analysis.

The ACLU lawsuit, filed on behalf of prisoners with underlying conditions at Oakdale, notes that all the deaths came in the days after Barr's directive was issued.

PHOTO: Attorney General William Barr listens during a Coronavirus Task Force news conference at the White House in Washington, April 1, 2020. (Pool/Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE)

By Friday, as the pandemic penetrated prison walls across the country, Barr issued another memo to Carvajal, expressing urgency in getting prisoners out of harm's way.

"We are experiencing significant levels of infection at several of our facilities," Barr wrote. "We have to move with dispatch in using home confinement, where appropriate, to move vulnerable inmates out of these institutions."

On Monday, Barr advised in a memorandum to the country's 94 U.S. attorneys that they should consider "the medical risks associated with individuals being remanded into federal custody during the COVID-19 pandemic."

PHOTO: This undated photo provided by the U.S. Department of Justice shows Michael Carvajal. (U.S. Department of Justice via AP)

"Even with the extensive precautions we are currently taking, each time a new person is added to a jail, it presents at least some risk to the personnel who operate that facility and to the people incarcerated therein," Barr's memorandum reads.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 241 federal inmates and 72 BOP staff members had tested positive for COVID-19 nationwide, according to the BOB. There have been eight federal inmate deaths, including the five at Oakdale. No BOP staff members have died from the COVID-19 disease, according to the BOB.

Somil Trivedi, senior staff attorney at the ACLUs Criminal Law Reform Project, said that while the Department of Justice appears to have recognized the urgent humanitarian and public health crisis in prisons, she is "deeply concerned that relief is coming too slowly."

"We must act now to avoid the worst-case scenario here," Trivedi said in a statement.

Jones fit the criterion of an at-risk inmate at Oakdale eligible to be released to home confinement. A Bureau of Prisons' statement said Jones had "long-term, preexisting medical conditions which the CDC lists as risk factors for developing more severe COVID-19 disease."

On March 28, Jones became the nation's first federal inmate to die from coronavirus, his demise coming about a month after his latest request for early release was rejected.

Request denied

Jones was arrested on Jan. 31, 2007, when police raided his apartment in Temple, Texas, and seized 19 grams of crack cocaine and 21 grams of powder cocaine. A jury found him guilty of possession with intent to distribute at least 5 grams of crack, but because Jones' apartment was within 1,000 feet of a junior college, Jones was hit with an enhanced sentence of 30 years.

In November, Jones sought a reduced sentence under the First Step Act, bipartisan legislation signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2018 to reduce the federal prison population by cutting the sentences of inmates convicted of non-violent crimes and giving them a second chance to be productive members of society.

Despite a judge agreeing that Jones was technically eligible for a reduced sentenced under the First Step Act, federal prosecutors recommended his request be rejected, according to court documents.

"The Court specifically took into account the nature and circumstances of the offense, the defendants criminal history and characteristics, and the need to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant," U.S. District Court Judge Alan Albright wrote in his Feb. 26 ruling. "Jones is a career offender with multiple prior offenses and a history of recidivating each time he is placed on parole."

'He tried for 12 years to get anyone to pay attention'

In his letter, Jones asked for the opportunity to be a "productive member of society" and to finally be a good father to his now 16-year-old son, adding that he feared his boy was straying into the same trouble path that landed him in prison.

"I have not seen him since he was 3 years old," Jones wrote. "When I have had a chance to talk to him over the phone, it's effective and he's okay for a while, but mistreatment and bad influences take him off his intended course of life ...

"I feel that my conviction and sentence was also a punishment that my child had to endure also and there are no words for how remorseful I am," he added. "Years of 'I am sorry' don't seem to justify the absence of a father or the chance of having purpose in life by raising my child."

He went on to tell the judge that he had nearly completed the requirements to receive his high school equivalency diploma, or GED, and that he had learned to be a baker, a cook and other skills "that I can be contributing to society and my community."

In his petition to the court, Jones' lawyers also pointed out that Jones conduct in prison "has been almost wholly favorable," that he exhibited a "solid work history" and had paid off the $1,000 fine imposed as part of his sentencing.

MORE: 'We need help': Inmates describe prison system unprepared for coronavirus

"It's sad," Alison Looman, an attorney who represented Jones pro bono in a 2016 failed petition for clemency, told ABC News of Jones' death. "I know that when we filed our clemency petition we thought that if he were charged today his sentence would have been at least 10 years less."

Looman said she received a letter from Jones on Feb. 27.

"I wrote him back on March 13. I actually asked him to take care of himself," Looman said. "I tried to make sure he was doing OK. I knew that coronavirus was going to be a thing at the prison. He wrote me back and said he was fine."

MORE: Inmate released under 'First Step Act' says 'I never believed I would die in prison'

She wrote Jones again on March 20, a day after he had been taken to a hospital complaining of a persistent cough, according to a federal Bureau of Prisons' statement.

Jones' health rapidly deteriorated and he was placed on a ventilator before he died, according to the BOP statement.

MORE: Federal prisons facing shortages of resources amid coronavirus outbreak

Looman said she can't help but speculate that the denial of Jones' petition for a reduced sentence broke his spirit.

"I have wondered if that factored in," Looman said. "He tried for 12 years to get anyone to pay attention to what seemed like a relatively unjust sentence and a week before he got very ill he had just learned that once again he wasnt successful. I just wonder if it was frustrating to hear yet again that he had been turned down."

Jones ended his letter to the judge by sharing his desire to find his son -- whom he said had recently fathered a child of his own -- and "put him on the track where a child his age needs to be."

"I ask that I be judged wisely of sound heart and soul by the honorable heart, mind and soul of the wise one whom God has blessed and given his will to judge," he wrote. "Thank you very much for your time and concern."

What to know about coronavirus:

How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained

What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptoms

Tracking the spread in the U.S. and worldwide: Coronavirus map

1st federal inmate dies in prison hit hard by coronavirus after heartbreaking plea to judge originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
TEHRAN, Iran, April 7

Trend:

Iran and Turkey are to resume trade by opening land border in upcoming days, said the head of Iran-Turkey Joint Chamber of Commerce.

Mehradad Saadat Dehghan has discussed the latest developments in trade between the two countries in an interview with Trend.

"Iran-Turkey Joint Chamber of Commerce has taken efforts to import goods from Turkey via railway and resume export from Iran, and the volume of cargo transportation is increasing every day," Dehghan said.

"There are certain limitations, but the process has been very satisfactory. The trade has been resumed only recently, so there are no specific statistics available," he said. "Furthermore, Turkey has recently issued the permit to unload food items with short expiration date especially agriculture products."

"The total volume of trade between two countries during last Iranian year(from March 21, 2019 to March 20, 2020) was around $6 billion including trade of oil, gas and petrochemical products," the head of the chamber said adding that due to pipeline explosion, the gas export to Turkey was cut, but in the coming days gas export via the pipeline will resume.

"We seek to increase trade via land. It's not possible to close borders with Turkey. Turkey is our strategic partner for cargo transit. Given that the major part of Iran's imports from Europe are not permitted to transit via Turkey due to coronavirus, we are trying to solve the problem. Thus, the issue of transportation of cargo on trucks will be addressed soon, since Iran is also a strategic location for Turkey in this regard," he said.

"Turkey's export to East and Central Asia has always been transited via Iran; therefore, the two countries are keen to solve the issue and Iran-Turkey joint chamber of commerce is working to open land borders," Dehghan said.

"At the moment, there is no truck transportation. When coronavirus was first detected, only Turkish trucks were allowed to transport goods by Turkish authorities, but now their trips are also suspended," he added. "Since recently, Iran has not let Turkish trucks to enter the country either, while both sides are inclined to resume the trade."

"The Iran-Turkey Joint Chamber of Commerce is taking steps to resume the trade via land borders in coming days," he said.
Four months out is when those upfront investments and other financial commitments really begin to ramp up, Russick said. So the question recently became, even if the stay-at-home order is lifted by August, will the parks be open? And even if the parks are open, will the public be sufficiently comfortable again in large crowds to jostle together at whats billed at the citys largest picnic, an event that last year drew an estimated 35,000 visitors over three days?
NEW DELHI: In a crackdown against fake news and rumours being circulated on social media platform amid the ongoing lockdown over coronavirus pandemic, the Delhi Police has now launched a fake news verification module on their website for reporting such unverified news items.

Citizens can report any suspected fake news and upload content for its verification and clarification on the website, Delhi Police said in a statement.

To counter the spread of rumours, a Fake News Verification Module has been launched on our website https://t.co/o3yP3uVGmw Citizens can report any suspected fake news and upload content for its verification and clarification.#SayNoToFakeNews@PMOIndia @HMOIndia @LtGovDelhi pic.twitter.com/9aAarUmf6h  Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) April 6, 2020

Taking to Twitter, the Delhi Police said, To counter the spread of rumours, a fake news verification module was launched on their website www.delhipolice.nic.in.

The tweet from Delhi Polices official Twitter handle was tagged to @PMOIndia, @HMOIndia and @LtGovDelhi.

The new fake news verification module was launched amid rumours on social media about the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing lockdown, which has been creating unnecessary panic among people, leading to confusion.

The tab on the Delhi Police website redirects the user to a form where they have to upload their name, ID and the copy of the fake news, which will be scrutinised and actions will be taken.

The uploaded content will be analysed by the cyber cell of Delhi Police which will examine the pattern of fake news and trace its origin.

It may be recalled that the Delhi Police had recently launched a campaign to target fake news on twitter.

Data from intelligence agencies suggest that more than 500 fake accounts have been created in the past few months on various social media platforms to spread fake news across the country.

The total number of coronavirus cases has risen to 4,421 which includes 3,981 active cases, 325 recovered cases, 1 migrant patient and 114 deaths as per the Ministry of Health data at 8.50 am IST. Nearly 140 new cases were reported in the last 12 hours.
A 28-year-old man gunned down his ex-girlfriends new partner Monday outside her north Houston apartment, police allege.

The suspected shooter, later identified as Shawn Baldwin, confronted 27-year-old Demi Foster around 10:30 a.m. at Baldwin's ex-girlfriends home off West Little York near the North Freeway. Foster man heard yelling outside the door and stepped outside to talk, according to Houston Police Department Homicide Detective Brian Evans.

MORE FROM JAY R. JORDAN: Man killed after argument with woman inside southwest Harris County home

The two met atop the third-floor stairwell landing and exchanged words before the 28-year-old pulled a gun and opened fire, Evans said.

Mortally wounded, Foster managed to climb down four flights of stairs and make his way to a grassy area along the street, where he collapsed. Paramedics rushed him to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Meanwhile, Baldwin ran through the apartments, ditching a jacket in a shopping center dumpster before running into officers behind a forklift dealership along the nearby freeway, police said. He was placed in handcuffs and brought back to the apartments, where Evans and his partner charged him with murder.

Evans commended the officers who helped capture the suspect.

It was an outstanding job by patrol, Evans said.

Baldwin's loved ones gathered at a shopping center across the street as police combed through evidence at the apartment. He shrugged in their direction as an officer guided his head into the back of a patrol car.

Editor's note: Detectives initially said the suspect's age was 25, but police later confirmed his age is 28.

Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com
The N95 respirator masks should be preserved for health-care workers involved in inserting breathing tubes for patients with COVID-19. More common medical masks are fine for all other COVID-19 treatment, says preliminary research from McMaster University.

A systematic review of four randomized controlled trials on masks done between 1990 and last month shows the use of medical masks did not increase viral respiratory infection or clinical respiratory illness.

However, there is a consensus that the N95 respirators, designed to fit tight and prevent inhalation of small airborne particles, are best for procedures such as intubation or bronchoscopy when health-care professionals must insert a tube through a patient's throat.

There is not convincing evidence that the loose-fitting medical masks are inferior to N95 respirators in protecting healthcare workers against viral respiratory infections during routine care during the pandemic. But the N95 respirators are unanimously recommended by national and international guidelines for aerosol generating procedures. This is an important distinction at a time when there is a serous concern about a shortage of N95 respirators because of COVID-19." Mark Loeb, professor of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster and infectious disease physician in Hamilton

He pointed out that there have been conflicting recommendations on the use of the N95 masks. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the European Centre for Disease and Prevention preferentially recommend the N95 respirator for routine care of patients with COVID-19, while the World Health Organization and Canadian Public Health Agency recommend medical masks.

"Although COVID-19 transmission is not fully understood, it's believed to be mainly through respiratory droplets, and the medical masks provide barrier protection for that, and prevent hand to face contact."

The study has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication by the publication Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses of the International Society for Infection and Other Respiratory Virus Diseases and is available online at https:/ / onlinelibrary. wiley. com/ doi/ abs/ 10. 1111/ irv. 12745?af= R

Jessica Bartoszko, first author of the paper, said: "This evidence to support the relative effectiveness of medical masks compared to N95 respirators in routine care, might help preserve stockpiles of N95 respirators for high-risk, aerosol generating procedures."

She is a PhD student with the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact.

However, the question needs further research and this month Loeb and his research team are beginning a new study on whether the N95 respirators or medical masks are the best option for health-care providers caring for COVID-19 patients.

In a multi-site randomized controlled trial, nurses will use either a medical mask or N95 respirator when providing care for patients with fever and respiratory illness.

"This study is critical to ensure we're using personal protective equipment correctly during this, and any future infectious disease outbreak," said Loeb.

The new research is funded through a gift of $300,000 from Hamilton philanthropists Charles and Margaret Juravinski as part of their $3.3 million donation announced April 3 to fast track COVID-19 and brain health research in Hamilton.
The Queen has given a special televised address for only the fifth time in her reign, as the world tackles the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

Her Majesty gave a televised broadcast on Sunday evening, addressing the UK and the Commonwealth as she sought to give comfort to those grieving and praise those working for the NHS and other essential services.

It is rare for the Queen to deliver a televised broadcast outside of her annual Christmas messages. She has done so on only four other occasions  and only one of those was a time of celebration.

Read more: Queen says 'better days will return' as she addresses nation and Commonwealth

1991  The Gulf War

In February 1991, the Queen recorded a message as the allied land offensive began against Iraqi forces occupying Kuwait.

She urged people to unite and to pray the offensive would be swift as it is certain, and that it would be achieved with as small a cost in human life and suffering as possible.

She expressed her hopes for a just and lasting peace.

She also said British people should be rightly proud of their armed forces, including their conduct in the war up to that point.

The war ended a few days after her broadcast was made.

1997  Princess Dianas death

The Queen faced a surprising backlash in the days after Princess Dianas death, as Britons felt she lacked sympathy.

Diana and Charles had been separated for some time by the time of the princesss death, which perhaps led to a difficult balance in Buckingham Palaces reaction.

The flag at the palace was not raised, because Her Majesty was not there  she stayed at Balmoral to comfort her grandsons William and Harry.

Read more: Harry and Meghan follow in Diana's footsteps on LA house hunt

But the newspaper headlines read Show us you care, Where is our Queen? and Where is her flag?.

Flowers were left at Kensington Palace, Dianas London home, and in another rare move, a statement was released indicating the hurt felt by the Royal Family at the suggestion they were untouched by the tragedy.

Story continues

The Queen was due to pre-record the speech, but she ended up giving it live.

She said Diana was an exceptional and gifted human being, adding: In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness.

Her backdrop was the crowds outside Buckingham Palace, and she said she spoke as your Queen and as a grandmother.

2002  The Queen Mothers death

One of her addresses came the night before her mothers funeral in 2002.

The Queen dressed in black for the broadcast, as she thanked the nation for their support during their grief.

She said: I count myself fortunate that my mother was blessed with a long and happy life.

She had an infectious zest for living, and this remained with her until the very end.

Read more: Coronavirus: Queen's speech to the nation watched by 24 million

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyons life wasturned upside down when her brother-in-law abdicated, leaving her husband as King.

Despite ending up with a different role to the one she expected at marriage, the Queen Mother carried out royal duties throughout her life and was loved by the British public.

2012  Diamond Jubilee celebrations

Eight years ago, the Queen gave an address in happier circumstances. During the celebrations for her Diamond Jubilee, marking 60 years on the throne, she thanked those who organised the events.

Read more: Queen's historic coronavirus speech prompts outpouring of praise for monarch

She said they had been a humbling experience and hoped they would brighten our lives for many years to come.

She said: It has touched me deeply to see so many thousands of families, neighbours and friends celebrating together in such a happy atmosphere.

Events to mark her diamond jubilee included the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, with 1,000 boats from across the UK, the Commonwealth and around the world. She travelled with her husband on the Royal Barge, which was the centrepiece of the occasion.

And the time she didnt...

A speech was written for the Queen in 1983 during the Cold War. She would have recorded it if Britain faced annihilation at the hands of a nuclear-armed Soviet Union.

Records released under the 30-year-old rule showed that the monarch, in the event of World War Three, would have urged her brave country to stand firm as it faced up to the madness of war, but the speech was never recorded.

Coronavirus: what happened today
Shares of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) jumped 12 per cent at Rs 316 on the BSE on Tuesday after the companys board turned down a proposal to pump in fresh equity of $406 million in its ailing South Korean subsidiary SsangYong Motor Co (SYMC) amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. Given the current and projected cash flows, the M&M Board took a decision that the company will not be able to inject any fresh equity into SYMC and has urged SYMC to find alternate sources of funding, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday after market hours.

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We saw an opportunity to serve people and help both first responders and the public health authorities during this crisis by reducing the pressure on the healthcare and testing systems.

Luminare, a Houston-based health technology and software company, has rallied to join the fight against COVID-19. Utilizing its patented platform developed for detecting sepsis, the company rapidly developed and deployed Quickscreen, a web-based software platform, utilized to pre-screen for COVID-19 in at-risk populations. By partnering with community organizations to offer assistance and expertise, Luminare is focused on preventing further spread of the virus.

Offered free of charge for any individual or organization in need, CheckForCorona.com has been translated into eight different languages and screened more than 100,000 patients across every continent on the planet.

We already had a very robust platform, Sagitta, that is used by nurses and doctors for critically evaluating patients in hospitals for sepsis. By utilizing the platform to pre-screen for COVID-19, we saw an opportunity to serve people and help both first responders and the public health authorities during this crisis by reducing the pressure on the healthcare and testing systems, said Sarma Velamuri, M.D., CEO of Luminare.

The goal of CheckForCorona.com is to help people self-assess, better understand their symptoms, and avoid unnecessary phone calls to already overwhelmed call centers. The website has already saved more than 50,000 superfluous phone calls to date. Additionally, Quickscreen provides communities and organizations a method of collecting valuable epidemiological data that can help shed light on the transmission and severity of coronavirus in specific locations.

Locally, the platform has been adopted by Harris County Public Health, the City of Houston, Fort Bend County, with pending agreements with additional counties, cities, and organizations in Texas.

We have had a fantastic response to the solution in the face of limited availability of swab and blood tests, said Dr. Velamuri. Thousands of people who otherwise would have spent hours sitting in their car waiting for a test only to be turned away, or those experiencing long wait times on hold waiting for a call center nurse, are now instead able to know their appropriate action based on zip code in just 30 seconds. The epidemiological data we have collected is incredibly valuable, and we want to help state and national authorities get ahead of the curve by predicting disease hotspots weeks before testing will show where our efforts should be directed.

Another advantage is the unique identifier per assessment result that is completely anonymous and can be used for tying incidence data to an individual test without the burden of scrubbing identifiable patient information for public reporting, Dr. Velamuri concluded.

Luminare is also working with Houstons Healthcare for the Homeless and is providing a web-based tool to allow frontline workers to triage homeless residents for quarantine, testing or other care.

Interested hospitals and community organizations needing a platform to assist with self-assessment and coronavirus screening should contact Luminare here.

About Luminare

Luminare's, founded in 2014 in Houston, Texas, is on a mission to stop sepsis deaths and morbidity in hospitals through efficient, software-driven detection. Sagitta, the software platform focused on preventing sepsis, is named after arrow in Latin. Deployed in Texas and Arkansas hospitals, Sagitta has decreased sepsis mortality rates. Hospitals have reported that no patients have developed septic shock since deployment, in-patient code-blue events decreased by 27 percent, and emergent intubations and rapid response calls decreased by 11 percent. In Long Term Acute Care facilities, the rate of sepsis re-admissions went to zero.

Luminare has partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the interoperability showcase on sepsis to demonstrate the platforms advantages to effectively move patient care. The company was awarded the Most Promising Web & IT company in the U.S. in 2017 by Jones School of Business at Rice University and is also an alum from cohort X6 of the Texas Medical Centers accelerator, TMCX+ To learn more visit https://www.luminaremed.com.
Police stand guard outside St Thomas' hospital in London where Boris Johnson is being treated.

Getty

Boris Johnson's spokesman denies reports by the Russian state media that the prime minister is being treated in hospital with a ventilator.

Johnson was admitted to hospital on Sunday after continuing to experience a high temperature and cough, ten days after testing positive for the coronavirus.

His spokesman said he would remain in hospital under observation, but insisted he was "comfortable."

He refused to deny separate reports that Johnson has received oxygen treatment.

However, he labelled Russian reports that he is on a ventilator as "disinformation."

Downing Street also refused to confirm or deny whether the prime minister is suffering from pneumonia.

What will happen if Boris Johnson becomes too ill to remain as prime minister.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The UK government has accused Russia of spreading "disinformation" after the country's state media reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson was being treated on a ventilator for the coronavirus.

Johnson was admitted to hospital on Sunday after experiencing "persistent symptoms" of the coronavirus.

His spokesman confirmed on Monday that the prime minister was admitted to St Thomas Hospital in London after continuing to experience a high temperature and a cough ten days after first testing positive for the virus.

However, he described Russian state media reports that he is on a ventilator for the condition as "disinformation."

"That is disinformation," his spokesman said.

"Our specialist government units have seen a rise in false reports since the coronavirus outbreak started. It's vital that any information is knocked down quickly."

He added that it was "vital to ensure that we press social media companies for further action to stop the spread of disinformation."

Boris Johnson insists he is 'in good spirits'

coronavirus ventilators

Getty

Downing Street also repeatedly refused to confirm or deny whether Johnson has pneumonia, but insisted that he had "a comfortable night" and was "in good spirits."

Story continues

"The prime minister was admitted to hospital for tests last night as a precaution," his spokesman said.

"The issue is that his symptoms have remained persistent. The prime minister had a comfortable night in St Thomas's hospital and is in good spirits. He remains in hospital under observation."

Johnson's official Twitter account also carried a message purportedly from the prime minister.

Last night, on the advice of my doctor, I went into hospital for some routine tests as I'm still experiencing coronavirus symptoms. I'm in good spirits and keeping in touch with my team, as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe.

Johnson's spokesperson could not confirm when they expected Johnson to be discharged.

"As soon as there are any details about the PM leaving hospital we will let you know straight away," he said.

They also insisted that Johnson would continue to lead the government from his hospital bed.

"Any information the PM needs to be updated on or any decisions that require action from the PM, that is what will happen," he said.

"He is receiving updates in hospital and continuing to receive a [ministerial] box."

Read the original article on Business Insider
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 7, 2020 / ZoomAway Travel Inc. (TSX.V:ZMA);(OTCQB:ZMWYF) (the "Company" or "ZMA") www.zoomaway.com, a leader in the hospitality technology sector, is pleased to announce that it has agreed to non-binding LOI to purchase a successful Southern U.S. based Tour Operator. This well-established, profitable business has been in operations for almost 20 years and has a worldwide customer base. Both parties are anxious to begin the process of gaining exchange approval and closing this transaction as quickly as possible. Due diligence, including the negotiation of a definitive agreement, are now proceeding.

A very complimentary business to the legacy operation of ZoomAway, the subject company has reported Multi-Million-dollar top line sales for 2019 and a very impressive EBITDA. "Our goal," said CEO Sean Schaeffer, "is to be prepared when this COVID 19 crisis is behind us. My belief is that people are going to need to get out of the house and we want to position ourselves to satisfy their need." Schaeffer continued, "I am especially excited about this potential acquisition. I believe it will greatly enhance our bottom line and continue to provide shareholder value."

This is the Company's first potential use of the previously announced $5 million line of acquisition credit. "We are of the opinion that now is the time to aggressively look to acquire other businesses that match our vision," Sean said. "We are in preliminary discussions with several companies that match our growing portfolio. I want to see ZoomAway emerge from this crisis stronger and prepared for growth."

For additional information contact: Sean Schaeffer, President, ZoomAway Inc., at 775-691-8860 | sean@zoomaway.com or stay up-to-date and sign up for our newsletter.

About Us

ZoomAway, Inc. (Nevada Co.) ZoomAway Travel Inc. is a technology company that is revolutionizing the Hospitality and Travel Industries. We have developed a variety of software solutions that enhance the planning and engagement of everyday tourists. Our flagship project, ZoomedOUT, is a complete modernization and re-imagination of mobile travel apps. In a full 3D environment, we are able to integrate planning, booking, social media, and camaraderie into a tangibly rewarding experience. We are combining Travel, Hospitality, Mobile Gaming and Augmented Reality to change the way users travel into 2020 and beyond. Additional information about ZoomAway Inc. can be found at www.zoomaway.com.

ZMA Travel Game Inc. (Canadian Co.) (formerly TravelGameBlockChain Technology Inc.) is a ZoomAway Travel Inc. subsidiary company dedicated to housing new projects in the digital games. The company's first project is ZoomedOUT, being developed with the assistance of Zero8 Studios, Inc., which can be seen at zoomedout.io. To receive more detailed, or investor level information, please contact us at sean@zoomaway.com and we will respond with the appropriate documentation depending on your request.

About Zero8 Studios, Inc.

Zero8 Studios, based in Reno, Nevada, specializes in new and innovative games and technology platforms. With a focus on social gaming and almost two decades of experience building countless game titles, gaming platforms, and various technologies. The Zero8 Studios' team has assisted dozens of AAA publishers, large clientele, manufacturers, and casinos in the design, production, and delivery of their products to players around the world. Additional information can be found at www.zero8studios.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates, and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor it's Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed Offering and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

SOURCE: ZoomAway Travel Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/584128/ZoomAway-Signs-Letter-of-Intent-to-Acquire-US-Based-Tour-Company
Trump Says He Would Impose Tariffs On Oil Imports If Russia, Saudi Arabia Fail To Cut

By RFE/RL April 06, 2020

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump said he would "absolutely" impose tariffs on oil imports if Russia and Saudi Arabia cannot reach an agreement to cut crude oil production.

"If they don't get along, I would do that. Very substantial tariffs. I would absolutely do that," Trump said on April 5 during a press conference, adding that he wanted to protect the U.S. oil industry, the world's largest by production.

Tariffs would hurt Saudi Arabia and Russia, who are among the largest exporters of oil to the United States.

Global oil demand has fallen by about 20 million barrels a day, or one-fifth, due to the coronavirus pandemic, sending oil prices to their lowest in nearly 20 years.

The sharp price decline threatens to bankrupt higher-cost U.S. oil producers and wipe away thousands of American jobs tied to the industry, officials and analysts have said.

Trump has been seeking to broker a production cut agreement between Saudi Arabia and Russia, the second- and third-largest oil producers, following their fallout last month.

Riyadh announced on March 7 that it would ramp up oil production by about a fifth to slightly more than 12 million barrels a day after Moscow rejected its offer to have OPEC+ cut output by 1.5 million barrels a day.

OPEC+, an alliance of 23 oil production nations, is led by Saudi Arabia and Moscow.

The price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia added to pressure on the oil market caused by the unprecedented destruction in global demand resulting from nations around the world imposing quarantines.

Trump tweeted on April 2 following calls with the leaders of Russia and Saudi Arabia that the two nations would cut production by at least 10 million barrels a day. Trump was likely referring to cuts by OPEC+, not just the two nations, analysts have said.

Shortly after Trump's tweet, Saudi Arabia called for an extraordinary meeting of OPEC+ members for April 6. However, after Riyadh and Moscow exchanged barbs over who caused the price war, the meeting was pushed back to April 9.

Russia has said it is willing to cut 1 million barrels a day as part of a global production-cut agreement that includes the United States.

Unlike Russia and Saudi Arabia, whose oil industries are largely state-owned, the U.S. industry is comprised of private companies and Washington has little power over output.

However, the glut is threatening infrastructure as storage capacity in the United States quickly fills up. Texas, which accounts for 40 percent of U.S. production, will hold a hearing about possible output cuts on April 14 to deal with the crisis in the state.

With reporting by Bloomberg News

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-oil -saudi-russia/30533358.html

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for most of the Chicago area, northern Illinois and parts of northwest Indiana until 11 p.m.
Met Eireann is set to include weather warnings for Northern Ireland in its forecasts, it has been reported.

The move comes after some criticism that the forecaster's online graphics stop at the Irish border.

According to TodayFM, the head of forecasting at Met Eireann, Evelyn Cusack, says they will be providing information supplied by UK authorities.

"What's new and what's planned is that we would just simply be displaying the Northern Ireland warnings, as issued by the UK Met Office, on our website.

"We won't be issuing the warnings because each national Met service issues the warnings for its own territory or own area.

"But we will be displaying the warnings on our own website."

It is hoped that the changes will take effect from September, which is the start of the new storm season.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 00:39:03|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday released a detailed timeline of the country's response to COVID-19, chronicling the main facts and measures it has taken in the global joint efforts against the epidemic.

Commenting on the timeline, experts from various countries fully recognized China's decisive and effective measures in control and prevention of the novel coronavirus. They also spoke positively of China's readiness in sharing anti-virus experience with other countries and its efforts in boosting international cooperation, saying such moves help mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

The Chinese government and people have taken swift and comprehensive measures after the outbreak of the disease and have made great sacrifice, which demonstrated the strength and strong unity of the Chinese people, said Nina Ivanova, chairwoman of the Belarusian Society of Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries.

Pierre Picquart, a French expert on China at the University of Paris VIII, said that China has offered a flawless example and method for other nations, which reminds the world that humankind lives in a community with a shared future.

Public health security is a common challenge facing humanity, he said, and China has repeatedly declared its readiness to work with the international community, including France, to strengthen international cooperation in the prevention and control of pandemics and to build a common health community for humanity.

With decisiveness, speed, uncommon political will, scientific approach, and huge sacrifices, China has given the world time to prepare for this pandemic, meanwhile providing inspirational hope, crucial lessons, and an exemplary example, said Wilson Lee Flores, a columnist with the Philippine Star newspaper.

Shimail Daud Arain, head of Pakistan's Maryam Memorial Hospital in Rawalpindi city, said that China achieved success mainly because of their powerful system of governance.

Everyone is on the same boat, Arain said, and the information and experience shared by China now offer the rest of the world a better understanding of the disease and help mitigate the impact of the pandemic.
Questions raised over EUs new anti-arms mission since it deals primarily with naval violations, not land transfers.

When Joseph Borrell, the European Unions diplomat-in-chief, announced the launch of Operation Irini last week, he noted: Diplomacy cannot succeed unless it is backed by action.

Irini  Greek for peace  is the blocs latest attempt at stemming the flow of weapons to war-torn Libya, a country in chaos since longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

It has since been split between two rival administrations vying for power: the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) based in the capital, Tripoli, and a parallel eastern-based administration allied to renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar.

Both are backed by international actors, who have on numerous occasions pledged to end their support for the warring factions. However, they have continued to flout the UNs arms embargo, using sea, air and land routes to replenish the war stocks of their allies and, thus, contributing to the prolongation of the conflict.

Analysts say the fact that the EU mission  itself the brainchild of a January peace summit in Berlin  deals primarily with naval violations of the embargo raises questions about its effectiveness.





There are two entry points to Libya, the western maritime border which Turkey is using to ship in weapons to the Government of National Accord in Tripoli, and the eastern border which Egypt and the United Arab Emirates [UAE] use to support Haftar, said Anas El Gomati, founder and director of the Sadeq Institute.

There is no doubt that Egypt and the UAE will emerge as the biggest winners. The Turks have no option but to ship their weapons by sea, and this is the terrain that is now being policed by the EU.

Battle over resources, ideology

Already reeling from years of instability following Gaddafis removal, the North African country was plunged into further chaos after Haftar and his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) launched a military campaign to capture Tripoli in April 2019.

At 48.3 billion barrels, Libya sits atop Africas largest proven oil reserves. This did not go unnoticed for the half a dozen countries that support Haftar and who see in the 76-year old a strongman capable of restoring order while rewarding them for their investment through generous reconstruction contracts.

His profile was made all the more appealing to Abu Dhabi and Cairo in light of his apprehension of groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which they view as a threat to their rule at home.

Haftars battle for Tripoli, codenamed Operation Flood of Dignity, sent the GNAs main benefactor Turkey scurrying to reinforce the UN-brokered governments front lines at the capitals southern outskirts.

Within a month of Haftars offensive, footage of new Turkish-made Kirpi armoured vehicles began making the rounds on social media.

Turkey has since gone public with its decision to support the GNA, saying it was acting within the framework of international law and at the request of Libyas legitimate authority.

But the relationship between Tripoli and Ankara is shakier than it appears.

Analysts say Turkey suspended arms shipments to the GNA in August over Tripolis reluctance to sign a contentious maritime border demarcation deal that would have given Ankara the upper hand in the resource-abundant eastern Mediterranean.

That same month, Haftar made a renewed push for the capital. With hundreds of Russian mercenaries reportedly assisting his troops on the front line, eastern forces were able to gain ground, forcing GNA-aligned troops to withdraw from several southern Tripoli suburbs.

Developments at the time were said to have forced Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj to concede to Turkeys demands.

In late November, al-Sarraj and Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed two memorandums of understanding to enhance security cooperation and delineate maritime boundaries.





According to El Gomati, that led to countries such as Greece and Cyprus reevaluating their relationship with the GNA.

Greece, Cyprus, Israel and Egypt have all laid claims to these waters, believed to be rich in natural gas. They are all willing to work together and cooperate to exclude Turkey, he said.

The most crucial element of the EU mission is that they are able to intercept the Turkish navy or any commercial vessels that want to enter Libya. It was designed by the Greeks to specifically target Turkey.

Mission alternatives

Tarek Megerisi, a fellow at the European Council for Foreign Relations, said the operation would not deter Turkey from providing military support to the GNA.

Im sceptical that they will actually try and push for accountability with any evidence gathered by the monitoring, Megerisi told Al Jazeera.

If my cynicism is vindicated, then Europe will have played a paltry hand from which it gained nothing and lost everything by losing its credibility and pushing away the Turks.

The GNA has already called into question Europes ability to mediate the conflict, particularly France, which it has accused of supporting Haftar.

Megerisi and El Gomati agreed a better option would have been to enforce the arms embargo on all parties, though both conceded such an operation would be expensive and difficult to accomplish.

Absent a comprehensive monitoring mission capable of imposing a no-fly zone, a simpler but far more effective solution would be to name those who violate the embargo.

A monitoring mission doesnt have to be a damp squib. The evidence gathered can be useful in expediting accountability mechanisms on violators, creating a soft power pressure towards a diplomatic resolution, Megerisi said.

But it requires a degree of political will, unity and steadfastness to do this in an objective and strategic way.

Echoing Megerisis comments, El Gomati said, from a diplomatic standpoint, there was little being done to deter Haftar by the UN and the EU.

These are the only two bodies in the world that are working on Libya and that are able to sanction Haftar, and theyre not doing it.
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Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 15:22 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd04a47a 1 Politics house-of-representatives,NasDem,large-scale-social-restrictions,anies-baswedan,COVID-19,coronavirus,Jakarta-administration,PSBB,Jakarta-COVID-19 Free

Members of the House of Representatives are calling on Jakarta Governor Anies Baswendan to tighten law enforcement following the Health Ministry's approval for large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) in the capital.

Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto issued on Tuesday a ministerial decree to officially approve Anies request to take stricter measures, a copy of which was obtained by The Jakarta Post.

Willy Aditya of the NasDem Party said on Tuesday that Anies must implement the program immediately, assuming the Jakarta administration had understood what to do before submitting the proposal.

"Now that the proposal has been approved, Jakarta should immediately implement it, starting today [Tuesday] if possible," he said.

Willy added that the administration should step up social restrictions, such as extending schools and office closure and prohibiting mass gatherings, including religious activities.

Read also: Should I exercise during the coronavirus pandemic? Experts explain the just right exercise

Working from home must be mandatory for all offices in Jakarta. Companies that cannot make their employees work from home should obtain permission from the city administration. If there is a violation, the punishment should be clear."

Saleh Daulay of the National Mandate Party (PAN) said by imposing the PSBB, the administration should suspend travel to and from the city to limit peoples movements.

"Security forces must be able to enforce the law; it should have deterrent effects, said Saleh, who is also a member of the House Commission IX overseeing health.

He added that the administration should also ensure the needs of its residents, including food, energy, communication and other basic necessities

"Many people will be affected by this; daily workers, casual laborers, online transportation drivers and laid-off workers. We must be aware of them and they should get financial assistance.

Read also: In hot water: The new rules of laundry in the time of COVID-19

According to the Health Ministrys decree, large-scale social restrictions need to be implemented in Jakarta, the epicenter of the outbreak in the country, to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The decision was based on the results of epidemiological studies, among other factors.

According to the ministry, Anies could start implementing the restrictions after a permit was sent to the Jakarta administration on Tuesday.

Jakarta has so far recorded 1,232 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 99 fatalities out of 209 in the nationwide death toll.
Giacinto Gorga passed away on Friday at the age of 76 after a long illness.

And Teresa Giudice said a sad but uplifting farewell to her father on Tuesday, as she and her family released captive doves in his honor following a small private funeral service.

Sharing video footage of the dove release, set to the Italian classic Nessun Dorma, the 47-year-old captioned: 'today we set you free, fly high to mommy.'

Honored: Teresa Giudice tells her late father Giacinto Gorga 'fly high to mommy' as she and her girls set doves free in his memory on Tuesday, along with other young family members

Family first: The images showed Teresa's four daughters and other young family members all dressed in black, as they stood in the New Jersey sunshine beside two ornate boxes

The images showed Teresa's four daughters and her brother Joe Gorga's three children all dressed in black, as they stood in the New Jersey sunshine beside two ornate boxes. Working together, the girls opened the boxes, letting the doves fly free.

Joe's wife Melissa Gorga posted a photo of the family mausoleum covered in flowers to her Instagram Stories.

Real Housewives Of New Jersey star Teresa announced her father's passing on Friday with an Instagram post.

'My father, my protector, my hero, God took you early this morning to be with mommy, I saw you peacefully pass & I know you kept fighting for my daughters and I,' Teresa wrote at the time.

In his name: Teresa has shared her heartache at the loss of her beloved father

Social distancing: The family were not able to throw a large funeral due to cornavirus restraints

Freedom: The caged doves flew off into the sky

'I have so many amazing thoughts of you, every day seeing you in the kitchen at my home, teaching my girls to cook, my partner in crime on shopping trips, your love of the shore & my travel buddy,' said the New Jersey native.

'You always wanted everyone to have a good time, eat great food, have a stiff drink and enjoy life.'

The mother-of-four added, 'You are the absolute strongest man I know & I know you missed mommy so much but you stayed for us. Thank you for being the best husband, father & Nonno.'

Final resting place: Joe's wife Melissa Gorga posted a photo of the family mausoleum covered in flowers to her Instagram Stories

Rest in peace: Teresa Guidice took to Instagram on Sunday to share old photos with her father Giacinto Gorga after his Friday passing

Giudice then said: 'Your devotion to mommy was one for the record books, you were the true example and a gentleman and devoted husband. You visited mommy every single day & would go twice for the days you missed while traveling or if you were to sick to go, my silver lining is knowing you'll be together now.

'Thank you for showing us all what true love is. Love you Papa Rest In Peace.'

Giacinto's wife Antonia Gorga died in March 2017 aged 66 following a battle with pneumonia.

Teresa's estranged ex Joe - who lives in Italy - also took to Instagram to pay his respects to the family patriach.

Throwback: The Real Housewives of New Jersey star shared photos from her 17th birthday and that which she called 'one of my favorite memories'

Surprise: She explained: 'I was upset because I thought I wasnt getting a car so I refused to get dressed that day and then my parents surprised me with a new car'

The Real Housewives of New Jersey star has also shared a gallery of photos from her 17th birthday and that which she called 'one of my favorite memories.'

A teenage Teresa stood with her father as she cut her birthday cake, wearing a pink and blue tye die shirt.

'Always my rock,' she wrote in the caption. 'One of my favorite memories is my #17birthday.

She explained: 'I was upset because I thought I wasnt getting a car so I refused to get dressed that day and then my parents surprised me with a new car!'

Light and love: Along another photo smiling ear to ear in a formal dress she wrote 'To know him was to LOVE him'

Adding: 'They told me to go answer the door and there my new car was. Both my parents were so thoughtful and always wanted the best for Joey and I.'

Along another photo smiling ear to ear in a formal dress she wrote 'To know him was to LOVE him.'

Teresa went on to share photos of her parents together writing 'True love,' with it.

She also shared photos and well wishes other accounts and friends had shared after Giacinto's passing.

Wanted the best: Adding: 'They told me to go answer the door and there my new car was. Both my parents were so thoughtful and always wanted the best for Joey and I,' her mother passed in 2017

Support: She shared several posts and photos sending support to Teresa and her family

Love and prayer: With a black and white photo alongside her father she simply captioned it with a heart and praying hands emoji

RIP: Teresa shared a post that called her father an 'amazing man that will forever be in our hearts'

Sad loss: The Real Housewives Of New Jersey star made the announcement on Friday on Instagram as she shared flashback photos of her dad

The way they were: She said now her father can join her mother, who passed away in 2017

On Thursday she asked for prayers.

'At this trying time I'm graciously asking for any extra prayers, good vibes, love....please send my father's way,' Teresa wrote in the post.

She showed an image of her dad with her four daughters (Gia, 19, Gabriella, 15, Milania, 14, and Audriana, 10).

'My father is struggling and my girls and I need him, we need his love, his presence [and] his strength.'

Last year he was in the hospital.

He had been ill for a while: On Thursday she asked for prayers. 'At this trying time I'm graciously asking for any extra prayers, good vibes, love....please send my father's way,' Teresa wrote in the post

Teresa opened up to The Daily Dish in 2018 about the precautions she and her family have taken around Nonno after he came to live with her following the passing of his wife and Teresa's mother, Antonia Gorga, in 2017.

'That's the thing, none of us can be sick around him because he catches it right away. We're constantly always washing our hands,' Teresa shared. 'Like when you have a baby and you make sure everything's clean, that's how you have to be with him because he gets sick easily.'
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Do the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Doctors across Staten Island, New York City, and the United States suddenly find themselves asking themselves how to do this, as COVID-19-positive patients flood emergency departments and hospitals and necessary supplies become scarce.

While ethics wont give doctors a yes or no answer, it helps guide them to do the greatest good.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have repeatedly said New York is always near running out of ventilators, ICU beds, and PPE. According to de Blasio, 200 to 300 patients citywide are being intubated daily, with the number of total COVID-19 patients intubated is approaching 4,000.

He said he believes the city can get to Tuesday or Wednesday with the supplies it has; as of Sunday there were 135 full-service ventilators remaining in the citys stock.

Behind the scenes, doctors at hospitals have been preparing for the day when they need to ration supplies -- and theyre worried about it.

According to a New York Times report, the New York Chapter of the American College of Physicians has called on Gov. Cuomo to grant doctors immunity from liability for the decisions they are making during these difficult times.

Cuomo said, I dont even want to think about that consequence. I want to do everything I can to have as many ventilators as well need, when asked about rationing care.

When asked at a recent press conference, de Blasio said, There are medical ethics around what to do and really, really tough situations where tough choices have to be made. And I respect the profession to work that through. But the goal is not to talk about what to do when its too late. The goal is to fight every minute to avoid ever having to get to that point. And that means having enough medical personnel, enough ventilators, enough beds. Thats what were focused on.

SOMEBODY ISNT GOING TO GET SOMETHING

On Friday, Northwell Health, the parent company of Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH), began instructing medical professionals how to do just that.

A memo distributed by Northwell, and obtained by Politico, was titled Public Health Emergency: Life Sustaining Treatment Decisions for all Patients, according to the news website.

The plan called for moving the ventilators to patients who could most benefit, Politico reported. However, on Saturday, Northwell said in a statement that those guidelines are still in development.

Arthur Caplan, founder and director of the division of medical ethics at New York University Langone Medical Center, told the Advance he believes New York City will be in a position where it needs to ration supplies and equipment -- its not a matter of if but when.

Caplan has advised hospitals in ethics practices across the United States.

If you really think about this as a gigantic emergency, you do the best you can. If not everybody can live, theres going to be some really miserable, upset people  doctors, nurses and families -- and youre going to have to manage it no matter what you do.

If you have to ration, you have to ration. Somebody isnt going to get something. You want to do the best for the largest number of people. Thats what youre trying to draw back to -- help the most, Caplan said.

FIRST TRIAGE DECISION IS BEFORE THE HOSPITAL

Much of the focus on rationing and being able to handle patient volume is focused on hospitals, Caplan said when a patient arrives at the hospital, its already the result of an ethical question and answer that a frontline worker has made.

The first triage is ambulances  EMTs, FDNY, NYPD and paramedics. Where they go and who they try to help is going to be the first triage decision, Caplan said.

Caplans examples include an obese individual and a EMS crew operating with less personnel than usual and an emotionally disturbed person with a knife who also has COVID-19 symptoms.

Now imagine those calls come in at the same time a call comes in for somebody exhibiting symptoms with no other issues, he said.

Again, it all comes back to doing the most good for the most number of people  who will have the best chance at survival if brought to the hospital?

NO TIME FOR ETHICS COMMITTEES; DECISIONS WILL BE MADE BY DOCTORS

In an emergency, there isnt time for a hospitals ethics committee to convene to make a decision, Caplan said, which would place all of the decision making in the emergency departments.

Committees are giving [healthcare professionals] policy advice and rules to think about but theres no time to call up the committee. Its a doctor decision and theres gotta be judgement, Caplan told the Advance.

In times like this, the committee would be used for a tie breaker or for workers to review what they did at the end of the day, he said.

In hospitals, professionals are going to try and consider everybody who gets there; its not that theyre going to say youre too old or disabled, but they have to make decisions, Caplan said. Those decisions begin at triage and then theyre going to decide who is likely to do the best on a vent.

In Rome, Italy, doctors made the decision to turn people away if they had a low likelihood to benefit from the hospital, one doctor told the New York Times.

AGE, UNDERLYING CONDITIONS, WORKFORCE WILL MATTER

In 2015, the states ethics task force created a nearly 300-page guide on ventilator allocation. In a crisis situation, there isnt time to read the 300-page report -- its a combination of the cliff notes version and a checklist.

Dr. Mitchell Katz, president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, said about the guidelines: As of now, they stand as some very thoughtful guidance by a very learned group of people. But theyre not applicable as law. They cannot be  you cannot make decisions based on those guidelines and say, well this is how we are governed."

We have a lot of data that shows the older you get, past say 80, the worse you do on a ventilator under any circumstances. Its not age discrimination -- its the fact that age predicts. So age will count against you and I would predict that at least extreme old age will, Caplan said.

Age consideration also counts in the other direction, he said. Children will likely be prioritized, assuming they dont have any underlying conditions as well.

Then you get to things like are you a healthcare worker? Could we save you and get you back to the workforce?, he said.

All of these questions and situations trace back to the ethical and utilitarian question: How do we do the most good for the most number of people?

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Agritech platform DeHaat on Tuesday said it has raised USD 12 million (Rs 83 crore) from investors, including Sequoia India, for business expansion.

Based in Gurgaon and Patna, and founded in 2012 by IIT, IIM and NIT alumni, DeHaat is a technology-based platform offering full-stack agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of high quality agri inputs, customised farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling their produce.

DeHaat has raised USD 12 million (Rs 83 crore) in Series A round led by Sequoia India, with participation from FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. Existing investors Omnivore and AgFunder also participated in this round, a company statement said.

The company earlier raised a USD 4 million (Rs 29 crore) in pre-Series A round in March 2019, led by Omnivore and AgFunder, which was topped up in May 2019 with an additional USD 3 million (Rs 20 crore) of venture debt from Trifecta Capital.

DeHaat will use some of the new funding to automate its supply chain and build the next layer of data analytics to drive further supply chain efficiency, the statement said.

The company plans to scale up to 2,000 rural retail centres for last mile delivery as well as farm produce aggregation and 1 million farmers on the network by 2021.

Shashank Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO of DeHaat said, We are excited to partner with Sequoia India and FMO as we drive towards one million farmers on the DeHaat platform.

Sequoia's deep expertise in B2B platforms and technology products combined with FMO's expertise in agricultural value chain financing will help DeHaat accelerate its growth while delivering massive impact for the farmers we work with.

DeHaat is currently providing services to over 2,10,000 farmers across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha.

The startup provides farmers with access to over 3,000 agricultural inputs, combined with artificial intelligence-based customised crop advisory content of pest and disease management for major crops delivered via mobile app and call centres.

The platform also aggregates corn, wheat, rice, fruits, and vegetables from farmers on their network and directly supplies to over 200 commodity bulk buyers, including retail chains, e-commerce players, FMCG giants, and SME food processors.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A new scientific assessment reveals that the oceans are remarkably resilient, despite the abuse we inflicted on them for decades by using them as our dumping ground for wastes.The authors also say that if we build on these efforts to help the ocean, this resilience may mean that marine habitats may fully recover within the next thirty years. (Photo : Pixabay)

A new scientific assessment reveals that the oceans are remarkably resilient despite the abuse humans have inflicted on them for decades, using them as dumping ground for wastes. This assessment stems from a review of results seen in conservation efforts in the past, and the authors say that if we build on these efforts to help the ocean, this resilience may mean that marine habitat may fully recover within the next thirty years.

The scientists further add that the current challenges to be faced include climate change and the need to scale up existing efforts for conservation. They warn that we only have a very narrow window to act. Their study has recently been published in Nature.

Humans, as a species, have exploited the oceans for many centuries, and we have only seen the adverse effects of our actions within the last half-century. We have driven so many marine wildlife and fish species to near-extinction, all the while polluting the oceans with our trash, oil spills, and other wastes.

The past few decades have seen corals bleached and dying, and the acidity of the oceans increases. A 2019 report from the IPCC or the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change documented these effects.

In this latest review, the scientists recognize the enormity of the problem, while at the same time shows the marine environment's outstanding resilience. Ever since commercial whaling was banned, the numbers of humpback whales have significantly recovered. Besides, the number of threatened species as assessed by IUCN or the International Union for Conservation of Nature has seen a drop of 6.6% last year from the 18% level recorded in 2000.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia marine science professor and lead author Carlos Duarte, states that their study documented the recovery of ecosystems, habitats, and marine populations after various conservation efforts. The study also provides specific and evidence-based recommendations for scaling such proven interventions to a global level.

Duarte added that based on past successes, we know what to do to rebuild marine life successfully. He also pointed out that there is evidence to prove that this objective can be attained within thirty years. But he says that we must ramp up our efforts and also implement them in areas where fewer efforts are being made.

There are nine key components that the researchers identified for rebuilding our oceans: the deep ocean, mangroves, salt marshes, seagrasses, kelp, coral reefs, oyster reefs, megafauna, and fisheries. They also recommend a set of actions, such as protecting species, restoring habitats, and harvesting wisely.

The University of York, UK professor, and co-author Callum Roberts says that we have the expertise and skills we need for restoring vital habitats. He added that science gives us a reason to be optimistic about our oceans' future. Currently, however, he says that we are not doing enough.

Duarte says that if we are not ambitious and urgent about our efforts, such efforts could be wasted. He also adds that we need to reduce pressure on fishing and tackle pollution.

Funding is an additional factor. The study estimates that rebuilding the oceans by 2050 will cost $10 to 20 billion per year. However, it computes a $10 return for each dollar spent. The authors know that the governments of the world have other issues in their priority, but they think that the effort is very achievable. According to Duarte, not embracing this challenge is not an option, for it will condemn our grandchildren to a damaged ocean that cannot support a high quality of life.
As more Australians are stuck at home in isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic and the unemployment rate continues to skyrocket, experts recommend learning new skills with your extra time to be as 'employable' as possible on the other side of the crisis.

Careers expert and LinkedIn specialist Sue Ellson suggests taking part in free online courses and developing your resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile, especially since the NSW Government made 21 in-demand TAFE courses fee-free this week.

'If you are considering going back into your old role after COVID-19 or into a new role somewhere else, you need to think in terms of the best value you can provide your employer,' Sue told FEMAIL.

She said employees must add value to the employer by having the necessary skills, a 'can do' attitude and a willingness to learn.

As more Australians are stuck at home in isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic, experts recommend learning new skills and improving current skillsets to become more employable once the crisis ceases

Partake in free online courses to develop skills

Participating in online courses is an essential way to develop or improve skills  and now free online TAFE courses are being offered to Australians.

The NSW Government said it would make 21 TAFE courses fee-free in a bid to help Australians stay productive at home during the COVID-19 crisis.

The courses, which can cost as much as $1,570 for 12 weeks of study, offer practical skills and experiences across a range of industries including administration, business and computing.

It comes as more than a million Australians face being unemployed, one in ten of the country's working population of 12.5 million.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the free courses during her press conference in Sydney on Monday morning.

'We know the next six months are going to be difficult and what we have done today is announce that through TAFE there are 21 free courses you can do from home to upgrade your skills or to acquire new skills and this is good news,' she said.

'It means people can start preparing for when these difficult times are over.'

The full list of courses is available on TAFE NSW's website.

21 FREE TAFE COURSES ADMIN Administration skills for team leaders - $1,380.00 Covers skills needed to organise meetings, travel and conference arrangement for the workplace as well as designing business documents. Business administration skills - $1,170.00 Introductory skills in word processing, electronic scheduling and presentations for a workplace. Executive assistant organisational skills - $1,490.00 Suited to people who use administrative skills and broad knowledge base in variety of administrative contexts. Introduction to accounting - $1,030.00 For people who wish to learn new bookkeeping and accounting skills or enhance their current skills. DIGITAL Complex word processing and spreadsheets - $1,300.00 Training in office applications at complex levels. Learners will create letters, reports, flyers, budgets, formulas, macros, charts and templates. Computing skills - $1,570.00 Training in office applications such as word processing and spreadsheets. The course will show you how to cereate letters, reports, flyers, budgets, formulas, macros, charts and templates. eMarketing for small business - $800.00 Skills to use social media to build a basic website to interact with customers and promote products and services. Engaging customers using social media - $350.00 Develop skills to use social media platforms to interact with customers and promote products and services. Excel spreadsheets - $1,220.00 This short course enables learners to become proficient in the creation and use of spreadsheet functions. This statement is suitable for those interested in gaining the skills and knowledge to perform calculations by using formulas, functions, templates and charts. Websites for small business - $530.00 Develop skills to build a basic website to interact with customers and promote products and services. These skills can be applied across a variety of industries. HEALTH Medical administration skills - $1,250.00 Medical terminology, confidentiality and privacy, and develop skills to produce digital documents. Suitable for those working in medical administration or thinking of making a move into this area. S2/S3 pharmacy training - $180.00 This course provides the skills and knowledge required to meet the Pharmacy Guild of Australia's Quality Care Pharmacy Program (QCPP) requirements for all staff who directly supply Pharmacy Medicines (S2) or assist the pharmacist with the supply of Pharmacist-Only Medicines (S3). LEADERSHIP Executive skills - $840.00 This course is suitable for those working in various administration and clerical roles, and is a career pathway into a team leader role. Learn how to facilitate meetings, manage an electronic calendar and negotiate meeting arrangements. Team leader skill set - $1,460.00 Develop skills as a team leader and communicate effectively, ensure team performance, develop effective relationships in the workplace and implement operational plans. BUSINESS Computer applications - $1,030.00 For experienced ICT users wanting to take their knowledge to the next level. Learn how to manipulate data and access support resources to solve issues across a range of different software applications. Digital literacy skills set - $500.00 This skill set is for persons wanting to gain digital literacy skills in the use of a personal computer, software applications and digital devices. This skill set has been designed for individuals who wish to meet competency requirements for a broad range of digital literacy skills including the use of basic computing, web searching and basic applications software. Introduction to word processing and spreadsheets - $1,250.00 This course provides training in the use of office applications in word processing and spreadsheet software at a beginner level. Learners will learn correct keyboarding techniques to create a range of workplace documents which may include letters, reports, flyers, budgets, basic formulas and charts. Introductory business skills - $1,140.00 This course provides the underpinning skills and knowledge of customer services techniques, work health and safety awareness and intermediate word processing skills for the workplace. Writing and presentation skills - $1,570.00 How to create and deliver dynamic workplace presentations and write complex business documents. Advertisement

Australians with extra time on their hands can also look to other platforms to up-skill in-demand skills during isolation.

Online learning platform Udemy has created more than 250 free courses for people wanting to study tech and coding skills, web developing, photography, time management, productivity and public speaking.

Organisations offering free or discounted online courses TAFE NSW Udemy Coursera LinkedIn Learning Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) Stack Social Advertisement

Coursera is also providing learning resources free of charge until the end of May, including lectures and quizzes.

Prior to taking part in a course, Sue said it's important to review the trainer, organisation and the course content to ensure the class will be worthwhile.

'Once completed, add all of these completed courses to your LinkedIn Profile with as much information about your subjects and topics as possible,' she said.

'However, don't forget that there are a range of other great courses you can do on the topics of entrepreneurship, problem solving, assertiveness and even customer service - these personal skills never go out of date but can always be upgraded'.

LinkedIn Learning, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) and Stack Social also have a range of free and heavily discounted classes to participate in online.

TAFE New South Wales (pictured) is offering 21 courses for free for Australians wanting to learn new skills while isolating at home

Make your resume stand out to differentiate yourself from others

Career expert and LinkedIn specialist Sue Ellson (pictured) recommends developing your resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile and taking part in free online courses

While in isolation, take time to improve your resume in order to differentiate yourself from other candidates when applying for jobs.

Be sure to include your previous jobs, experiences, skills, achievements, volunteer work (if any), interests and how the employer can contact you.

'The achievements need to describe your value in terms that the employer understands, so if you are switching careers, you need to focus on your transferable skills as well as document your other skills,' Sue said.

Australian HR manager and author, Karen Gately, also said a resume needs to be concise and succinct, but not too short.

'An ideal resume gets attention for the right reasons, it leaves the reader with a clear view of what you bring, both in terms of your attitudes, your likely behaviours and your capabilities,' she said.

'It needs to be honest. When people exaggerate their experiences it can be quite evident as the lack of experience is reflected in the words that they're using.'

Ensure to also address the recruiter at the start then talk about your core attributes.

Karen explained that when she sees that someone is addressing her directly, she can see that they are investing time into the opportunity.

'Think about what the first impression that's created would be when the recruiter reads your resume'.

She also recommends utilising blank space by using titles and fewer words for a greater impact.

The best things to include in your resume List all forms of education  high school, tertiary study, online courses, diplomas, certificates, apprenticeships Display relevant training, the institution and completion year for each course completed Include all past job titles, duties involved and expertise Alter your resume for every job and relate your responsibilities and experiences to the position advertised Share your significant achievements well Write a succinct summary explaining career objectives and value to the organisation Clearly highlight core skills by using bullet points List the most recent and relevant position first to showcase skills and knowledge List your interests and hobbies Provide a good summary to showcase experience Source: Seek Career Advice Advertisement

Australian HR manager and author, Karen Gately, also said a resume needs to be concise and succinct, but not too short

'An ideal resume gets attention for the right reasons, it leaves the reader with a clear view of what you bring, both in terms of your attitudes, your likely behaviours and your capabilities,' she said

Karen also said your resume needs to share good insight into the significant experience you've had.

She recommends you include a short paragraph explaining what each previous job was and then use bullet points to illustrate the achievements.

'Say things like "in this role I was responsible for driving improved sales in six regions'" and then the bullet points might be, "achieved highest salesperson for that quarter",' she said.

She also said it's important to share an insight into who you are as an individual by listing your hobbies and interests.

In addition to this, Karen also suggested sharing your core attributes and skills and including an appropriate photo on LinkedIn.

Take time writing each cover letter and update your LinkedIn profile

Every cover letter must be tailored to the job application, as this is the best way to introduce yourself professionally.

Career platform Seek explained a well-written cover letter will encourage a potential employer to read through your resume.

A good cover letter should predominantly outline and summarise your resume and why you are best suited for the job position available.

Career platform Seek explained a well-written cover letter will encourage a potential employer to read through your resume

Speaking to Seek, Pete Noblet from Hays said one of the best things you can do is highlight both your job title and your achievements.

'[So you might say] as a social media consultant for Company A, I manage many digital media channels to help drive engagement and brand awareness with consumers,' he told the job site.

If you are trying to stand out in front of other candidates on LinkedIn, you will need to provide full descriptions of what you have done and the skills that can be used immediately in a new role

You should then highlight something you have individually done - whether that's tripling the audience on Facebook or doubling the amount of followers on Facebook.

Pete said this is a good approach because it outlines your background and gets straight to the point.

A similar tactic should also be used on LinkedIn in order to separate yourself from others applying for the same job.

'A lot of people assume that once they have filled out the basics on their LinkedIn profile, that is all that they need to do,' Sue said.

'If you are trying to stand out in front of other candidates, you will need to provide full descriptions of what you have done and the skills that can be used immediately in a new role'.

People are seen waiting in line at the Prahran Centrelink office in Melbourne after mass job cuts were made due to the coronavirus

Develop your online network and connections

Though social distancing regulations restrict groups of people from gathering in one place at any given time, online platforms including LinkedIn are a great way to develop connections and network with other people.

'Now is a good time to track down past colleagues and managers and request an online recommendation via LinkedIn,' Sue said.

'And don't be afraid to contact members of a professional association related to where you would like to work and see if you can volunteer in some way'.

She also said to 'be realistic' about how much time is spent each day on career development tasks, as adjusting to the new home isolation 'rhythm' will take time.

'I usually suggest two hours a day, five days a week is more than enough to keep you in the running for great opportunities,' she said.
Double Gunfire Postscript

Two injured after shooting near 28th, Topping KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- Two people are injured after a shooting in Kansas City. It happened just after 4: 15 a.m. Tuesday near 28th Street and Topping Avenue. Police say one person was hot in the leg and the other was shot in the foot. Investigators are still looking for the shooter.

Murder Charges After KCMO Robbery Gone Wrong

24-year-old charged in robbery turned deadly at Kansas City apartment KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A 24-year-old has been charged in a deadly KC apartment complex shooting that happened early Sunday. Shimari Frierson has been charged with second-degree murder, first-degree burglary and armed criminal murder in the death of Monrico Roseberry, prosecutors said Monday. Kansas City police were called to an apartment complex near 80th and [...]

Police Conduct Social Media Search For This Lady

Leavenworth police seek help to ID woman involved in thefts KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Leavenworth Police Department is asking for assistance to identify a woman officials said has been "involved in several local thefts." In a post on the department's Facebook page Monday, police said they are looking for information about the woman and her vehicle.

More Deets On Latest KCMO Hit & Run Murder Investigation

Man killed in hit-and-run at Blue Valley Park; homicide investigation underway KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A man has died after being hit by a vehicle in Kansas City's Blue Valley Park, police say. Investigators said they were first called to the scene near Blue Valley Park Road West at about 3:30 p.m. Monday for what was initially considered a deadly hit and run.

Show-Me Suspected Terrorist Cougher During Pandemic

Police: Missouri man coughed on customers, scrawled COVID on cooler door Police have arrested a man who authorities say coughed on customers and wrote "COVID" on a cooler door in the town of Cuba, Missouri. John Swaller, 33, was charged Tuesday with second-degree making a terrorist threat in Crawford County. The sheriff's office said he left the store Tuesday before officers arrived but was taken into custody later.

Meth Town Youngster Confronts Serious Allegations

Independence teen accused of shooting man during gun sale KANSAS CITY, Mo. - An Independence teenager is accused of shooting a man during an attempted gun sale that turned deadly. Around 1 p.m. on Friday, Independence police responded to a shooting at an apartment complex in the 300 block of Sundown Drive.

Warning: Scammers Target Locals Stuck At Home

Kansas City bank says fraud is on the rise amid coronavirus pandemic More and more scammers are trying to take advantage of the fear and vulnerability that comes along with the COVID-19 pandemic.Directors of a Kansas City-area bank have noticed several trends involving fraudsters trying to get your money and information.

A quick round-up of community news as rising crime hits home for many local who are now required to "shelter in place" and now pay a bit more attention to their neighborhoods . . .Developing . . .
(Photo: Wikimedia)

Jeronimo Arango Arias, a Mexican businessman and one of the richest men in Mexico, has died at the age of 95 years. His death was confirmed on Monday by the Mexican Center for Philanthropy (Cemefi).

According to Forbe's list in 2019, Jeronimo Arango Arias was the 8th richest man in the country. The businessman had amassed a fortune of more than $4.3 billion.

According to Claudia de la Vega, the Corporate Affairs for Walmart in Mexico and Central America's director, Arango Arias, died from natural causes last Saturday.

He was the brother of Placido, who had also died in February. Their brother, Manuel, survived arango Arias and Placido. The three brothers founded the Grupo Cifra. Also, they were the ones who established the Vips, the Suburbia clothing chain, the Superama self-service stores, and the El Porton restaurant chain.

Partnering with Walmart

The success of Bodega Aurrera in Mexico had led to a partnership with Walmart in 1991, a big-scale self-service business based in the United States of America. It was Walmart's partnership outside the US. The Bodega Aurrera was established by the three brothers in Mexico in December 1958.

In 1997, the two other brothers sold their interest in the company to Arango Arias.

According to experts, the business grew fast due to the effective low-price strategy. This approach had led to Arango Arias getting a vast fortune from the store.

Business Expansion

Arango Arias had expanded the business multiple times. He had also diversified his product offerings. Arango Arias took advantage of the business' boom by expanding to supermarkets in the country in the 1960s. This decision had led to the establishment of the Superama chain stores.

Check these out:

Venturing into the Food Industry

After the success of his expansions, Arango Arias later expanded to the food industry. This move led to the launching of the Vips restaurant chains. Currently, there are more than 280 branches of the restaurant chain in Mexico. In 2013, this chain was acquired by Alsea Group.

Keeping a Low Profile and His Love for Art

Arango Arias, together with his two brothers, kept a low profile. They dedicated their lives to philanthropy. Manuel is the president and founder of Cemefi.

On the passing of Jeronimo Arango Arias, Carlos Salazar Lemelin, the Business Coordinating Council's president, stated that Arango Arias had a significant favorable influence on the economy and the society. People close to Arango Arias says that he was a cultured man who appreciated ancient art. He was often seen making donations to the Museum of Fine Arts of Asturias and the Prado Museum.

Among his donated pieces were Spanish artworks and paintings created in the 16th to the 19th century. He collected the works of El Greco and Goya, Zubaran. He made a significant donation of the first edition of El Greco's 'Caprichos' in 1991.
Residents of a southern New Mexico village are raising concerns about an influx of workers into their community to build President Donald Trumps US-Mexico border wall during the coronavirus outbreak.

Theyve asked the states top elected officials in a letter to step in after the federal contractor working on the project began erecting portable housing.

Opponents argue that this goes against the intention of public health orders issued by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham aimed at limiting groups of people and contact to keep the coronavirus pandemic from worsening.

We respectfully ask that you do everything within your power to halt the influx of out-state-workers into our border communities to protect the safety and health of rural New Mexicans and border communities, the letter reads. The lives of New Mexicans are depending on it.

Residents of the village of Columbus, about 80 miles west of El Paso, Texas, fear the influx of between 40 and 60 workers could add further stress to health services should they fall ill, and will increase unnecessary interactions when they buy food.

Lieutenant Governor Howie Morales has been in contact with Columbus mayor Esequiel Salas. The national emergency right now is not building the border wall. The national emergency is the health crisis that were dealing with, said Morales, stressing that the focus should be on building the capacity of the health care system.

Ray Trejo, coordinator with the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, was in Columbus on Monday and saw the rows of portable housing. His group is among those that signed the letter with the ACLU of New Mexico, the New Mexico Centre on Law and Poverty and others.

While we all do our best to stay at home and adhere to the governors guidance, these individuals pose an uncontrollable threat to our community as they work side-by-side in close quarters and travel in and out of our city and patronise local businesses. They should be gone tomorrow, Mr Trejo said.

The US Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees contractors working on the border, told The Associated Press last week that the agency follows federal guidelines but declined to share specifics on how its protecting public health during construction.

The federal contractor employing the workers, Texas-based SLS, was awarded nearly $790 million last year to install steel bollards in southern New Mexico.

A similar situation is also happening across the country in northern Montana, where work began over the weekend on the Keystone XL pipeline. Democratic governor Steve Bullock said concerns about planned worker camps, that could house as many as 1,000 people each, need to be resolved before sponsor TC Energy finalises its construction plans.

Despite a clampdown on peoples movements across much of the US, the border wall and pipeline work are exempt from stay-at-home restrictions. Even in New Mexico, the public health orders carve out exemptions for infrastructure operations such as public works construction and the repair and construction of roads.

As of Tuesday, New Mexico has 686 cases of coronavirus and 12 recorded deaths.

With reporting by The Associated Press
06.04.2020 LISTEN

There are several reasons why Ghanaians go abroad. There are those who go abroad as diplomats. Some Ghanaians go abroad with the sole aim of studying. Others go abroad either to join their parents or their spouses. Others travel mainly to seek asylum either on humanitarian or political grounds and there are also other reasons why Ghanaians go abroad. Due to the different reasons why Ghanaians go abroad, there is always selfishness and unhealthy competition among Ghanaians in the diaspora.

Let me consider a Ghanaian who has travelled abroad to study. In certain countries, university education is not free while it is free in others. Even where tuition is free, one has to pay for one's own rent, food, textbooks and other study materials. If one is fortunate to find a job after classes or during long vacations, then the problem of financial difficulty is solved. Those who are not lucky to find jobs face massive problems.

Only one alternative comes into their minds. They leave the school to seek political asylum. If they use the same names and birthdates they would easily be found out and deported. So those students change their names and birthdates. This action renders all their certificates useless.

Richardson has been living in Heidelberg, Germany, for the past 15 years. He has permanent residence and work permit. He has struggled to find a permanent job without success. Due to this, he has not been able to get married, build a house in Ghana or even send money to relatives back home. Jonas, another Ghanaian, arrived in Heidelberg as an illegal immigrant. Within six months he was able to find a Gambian guy who gave his passport to him to find a job. Luckily he was able to find a job at a factory producing printing machines. He was also lucky to get a second job in the evenings as a cleaner and bed dresser in a hotel. Within two years he was able to build a house for himself in Ghana. He also bought a Mercedes Benz car to use anytime he went to Ghana.

Richard became jealous and wicked ideas began to flow in his mind. He called the police and told them there was an African guy working at the printing machines manufacturing factory without residence and work permit. He added that he was the only black person working there. Fortunately, Jonas still had his friend's passport and ID card with him when the police confronted him at the factory. The police observed the documents and strangely enough, they could not see the difference between him and the photo in the passport. The police left. When the news reached Richardson, he bowed his head in shame. Should we be so atrocious towards our fellow Ghanaians?

There are more than a million Ghanaians abroad. We are politically divided with lots of mistrust for one another. The love for our country, Ghana, is next to zero. We should be able to do like the Israelis abroad. Acting according to the Mutual Financial Security Act of 1995, majority of them do contribute to a common fund with the aim of encouraging research and general development of Israel. Ghanaians too can cooperate and clearly understand how positive their contributions will affect Ghana's development. I will suggest that if every diaspora Ghanaian contributes at least one dollar/euro each month we can bless Ghana with one million dollars every month. Modalities of payments from different countries can be worked out.

There is too much unhealthy competition, mistrust, jealousies, tribalism and lack of understanding among many Ghanaians abroad. Many of them will never buy from a shop owned by a Ghanaian. A Ghanaian may be selling foodstuff imported directly from Ghana and other West African countries. Ghanaians will rather prefer to buy similar products from the Asians. It is not a question of price differences but pure jealousy and consideration of the fact that you are becoming richer than him. He will feel more comfortable to enrich an Asian rather than his fellow countryman.

Between 1984 and 1994 I operated an African market in Stockholm, Sweden. Many people of African descent patronized the shop. But some Ghanaians avoided the shop completely while others came a bit closer and sent someone coming to the shop to buy for them. Today in Stockholm, there are many Ghanaian shops and many Ghanaians go there to shop. It is encouraging and positive that things are gradually changing in the major cities of Europe and North America. It is important and almost imperative for Ghanaians to support and cooperate with each other to achieve common and successful results in a foreign land.

Lastly, I would like to compare the Asian experience abroad to that of Ghanaians. In the early 70s, the Indians and Pakistanis who lived and worked in Uganda and Kenya were expelled by Idi Amin and the Kenyan government. A majority of them settled in the United Kingdom. They did something very unique which all Ghanaians must learn. The Indians met and put all their monies together and shared them to two families to start a business. One family started a shop and the other family started a restaurant. After one year, the two families put their profits together and shared it to two families. The process continued and all their hard work, truthfulness and cooperation paid off and gradually all the Indians had their own businesses. You may note that the Indian, unlike Ghanaians, trusted each other. What can Ghanaians learn from the Indians?

Columnist: Stephen Atta Owusu

Author: Dark Faces at Crossroads

Email: [email protected]
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 19:46:56|Editor: xuxin

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TOKYO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed higher Tuesday as improved sentiment following a drop in the number of reported deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S. and Europe was offset by a circumspect mood ahead of a state of emergency in Japan declared later in the day.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended up 373.88 points, or 2.01 percent, from Monday to close the day at 18,950.18.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, added 26.91 points, or 1.96 percent, to finish at 1,403.21.

Trading got off to a bright start here, local brokers said, tracking global stocks and U.S. futures higher, following data showing that measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, Spain and New York were making some headway.

Views were mixed, however, regarding the Japanese government's planned record 108-trillion-yen (989-billion-U.S. dollar) stimulus package, the equivalent of 20 percent of Japan's economic output, compiled to help cushion the economic blow from the impact of the coronavirus on businesses and households, analysts said.

Despite the hefty package, they voiced caution saying the market would remain volatile for the time being.

"The proposed large stimulus package is a very positive step. But markets have already begun to price in the passage of a 60-trillion-yen stimulus, including a fiscal outlay of 20 trillion yen," Naoya Oshikubo, senior economist at SuMi TRUST, said.

"So unless the measures announced are even larger than forecast, market sentiment will not improve in the short-term, the yen will not weaken and the stock market will not rally," Oshikubo said.

In addition, uncertainty over the efficacy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's declaration of a state of emergency issued Tuesday to combat the effects of the coronavirus pandemic in Japan, capped gains, with analysts speculating whether the measures would be enough to curb the spread of the virus.

"Concerns remain over whether the declaration can really curb the virus outbreak, without citywide lockdowns," Kazuo Kamitani, senior associate of the investment research and investor services department at Nomura Securities, was quoted as saying.

In terms of the market outlook as regards the government's prospective latest efforts to deal with the spread of the virus, Toshikazu Horiuchi, equity strategist at IwaiCosmo Securities, maintained, "We still expect to see high volatility in the stock market for a while."

Technology shares found favor, however, tracking U.S. shares higher, helped by the U.S. Philadelphia semiconductor index climbing overnight.

Tokyo Electron Ltd. added 5.7 percent, Advantest Corp. jumped 12.7 percent, while Screen Holdings and Sumco Corp. closed the day 6.1 percent and 6.5 percent higher, respectively.

Issues that had outperformed recently were ripe for profit-taking, traders here said, with Fujifilm Holdings Corp., producer of the Avigan anti-flu drug seen as a potential treatment for symptoms of COVID-19, retreated 5.5 percent, despite reports Japan plans to provide the drug for free to 20 countries.

Web/TV conferencing services provider V-cube Inc. ended the day 5.2 percent lower, as investors opted for profits, after the firm's stock found traction amid students and those working from home looking to online solutions amid stay at home requests.

By the close of play, glass and ceramics product, service and rubber product-linked issues comprised those that gained the most, and issues that rose outpaced those that fell by 1,877 to 255 on the First Section, while 36 ended the day unchanged.

On the main section on Tuesday, 1.703 billion shares changed hands, rising from Monday's volume of 1.679 billion shares.

The turnover on the second trading day of the week came to 2,823.1 billion yen (25.87 billion U.S. dollars).
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr.7

By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:

The area of irrigated land will be expanded by two times over the course of next 10 years in Kazakhstan, Kazakhstans Minister of Agriculture Saparkhan Omarov said, Trend reports with reference to the ministry.

He said that currently 1.5 million ha of agriculture land in Kazakhstan is irrigated. At the same time modern irrigation technologies are used only on 14 percent of the irrigated land, whereas outdated uneconomical methods are used on the rest of the irrigated land.

Omarov noted that in order to motivate farmers to switch to more modern methods of irrigation the government is currently offering investment subsidies with refund of a half of expenditures spent of irrigation systems. At the same time, conditions are being created to educate farmers and disseminate knowledge, including through a network of demonstration farms. Provision of preferential financing for the purchase of irrigation systems under the Economy of Simple Things program is overseen.

The benefits of the irrigated agriculture are obvious. Irrigated agriculture leads to crops productivity increasing by 2-3 times. The increase in gross yield is what makes irrigated agriculture investment attractive, despite costs of acquiring irrigation systems, Omarov said.

Talking diversification of the irrigated land, Omariv said that currently the majority of the irrigated land is used for sowing wheat and barley.

He said that in the nearest future the ministry is looking to change the situation by sowing more vegetable, melon and fodder crops on the irrigated land.

Within the framework of the import substitution goals set by Kazakhstans president, a new crop area plan has been developed by the ministry in order to switch to highly profitable crops growing and step-by-step expansion o the irrigated land area. The document oversees two times increase of the irrigated land over the period up to 2030. The regional akimats (administrative centers) were notified on the plans, the minister said.

---

Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh
Stocks in Japan market climbed up in volatile trading on Tuesday, 07 April 2020, as investor risk sentiment supported by tracking sharp gains in Wall Street stocks overnight after tentative signs of the coronavirus outbreak being contained in New York and other global hot spots. Japan's biggest-ever stimulus package worth 108 trillion yen to ease the impact from the new coronavirus also helped stocks extend gains. Market gains were, however, capped on caution about the impact of a state of emergency in Japan to be declared later in the day. At closing bell, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average advanced 378.88 points, or 2.01%, to 18,950.18. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange jumped 26.91 points, or 1.96%, at 1,403.21.

All 33 industry category of Topix index surged, with Glass & Ceramics Products, Services, Rubber Products, Metal Products, Construction, Warehousing & Harbor Transportation Services, and Air Transportation issues being notable gainers.

Investor sentiment received a boost on hopes that measures taken in some hard-hit countries against the virus outbreak will prove effective in slowing the spread. Data over the weekend showed a slowing in the number of daily U. S. coronavirus cases, although it is still too early to determine a lasting trend. Death tolls in some of the world's coronavirus hot spots, including Spain and Italy, also showed signs of easing.

Globally, more than 1.3 million people have been infected by the coronavirus while at least 74,169 lives have been taken, according to data compiled by John Hopkins University.

Japan's biggest-ever stimulus package worth 108 trillion yen to ease the impact from the new coronavirus also helped stocks extend gains. The Japanese government is planning to finalise a massive stimulus package worth 108 trillion yen - equal to 20% of Japan's economic output - to cushion the heavy impact of the pandemic on the world's third-largest economy. The proposed large stimulus package is a very positive step.

Market gains were, however, capped amid concerns over a further slowdown in economic activities after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday that he would declare a state of emergency for Tokyo, Osaka and five other prefectures.

Technology issues were higher following gains by their U. S. peers overnight. Tokyo Electron Ltd climbed 5.7% and Advantest Corp soared 12.7%. Screen Holdings climbed 6.1 percent and Sumco was up 6.5 percent.

CURRENCY: The U. S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 100.205 following an earlier high of 100.79. The Japanese yen traded at 108.79 per dollar after seeing levels below 108 in the previous trading week.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Michigans state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic was extended through April 30 by the state House and Senate Tuesday in an unconventional legislative session.

The state of emergency declaration - Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued March 10 after the first confirmed cases of the coronavirus were reported in the state - gives Whitmer and her administration additional executive authority to respond to the coronavirus.

Extending the state of emergency does not impact the deadlines or rules outlined in orders issued since the state of emergency went into effect on March 10, including the stay-at-home order that bars non-essential in-person business and activities.

The 23-day extension isnt what Whitmer initially asked for - she requested lawmakers approve a 70-day extension that would extend the state of emergency into mid-June.

Many Republicans felt that was too long without additional legislative review, although some Democrats have argued continuing to bring lawmakers in for session as the disease continues to spread could increase exposure risks.

An effort from Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, to amend the resolution and extend the state of emergency the requested 70 days was rejected on the Senate floor.

In a Tuesday afternoon press call with reporters, Whitmer said lawmakers can come back as much as they want, even though it goes against recommendations from health officials. She reiterated the importance of social distancing, and said its important for the legislature to extend the state of emergency to ensure proper protections remain in place for people impacted by the disease.

We are still in the early up slope of what is going to hit Michigan very hard," she said.

On Tuesday, lawmakers and members of the public entering the Capitol for session went through a temperature check and screening for COVID-19 symptoms at the door. Both chambers approved the resolution in a voice vote, although the House took the extra precaution of having lawmakers come in one at a time to take attendance over the course of a few hours.

Only lawmakers, the presiding officer and essential staff were present on the floor at any given time, and many wore face masks and gloves. Not everyone was in attendance, although both the House and Senate achieved a quorum.

Two Detroit Democrats, Reps. Karen Whitsett and Tyrone Carter, have tested positive for COVID-19. State Rep. Isaac Robinson, D-Detroit, died last week from symptoms family members said were likely caused by the coronavirus.

As of April 7, there have been 18,970 confirmed coronavirus cases and 845 deaths statewide.

MLive reporter Matt Durr contributed to this report.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

Complete coverage of coronavirus in Michigan.

Read more on MLive:

In unusual session, Michigan lawmakers OK 23-day extension of coronavirus state of emergency

Michigans May 5 elections are still on, but some want them postponed due to coronavirus concerns

Next Michigan legislative session will look a lot different amid coronavirus outbreak

Some Michigan lawmakers will sit out Tuesday session over coronavirus concerns

Michigan coronavirus timeline: Its been four weeks since states first confirmed case

Michigan has deadliest day from coronavirus with 110 new deaths

Whitmer says patchwork response to coronavirus with no national strategy could prolong fight

Michigan snowbirds face tough choices during coronavirus pandemic, communities fear further spread
COSBY, Tenn. (AP) - When Alexandra Eagle first mentioned plans to hike the entire Appalachian Trail alongside her new husband, her sister told her theyd either be divorced in five months or married forever.

Eagle, 33, and Jonathan Hall, 36, had just moved out of their Brooklyn apartment when they married on March 2, the third anniversary of the blind date that brought them together. They had talked about the Appalachian Trail in their first conversation and, when it came time to plan a honeymoon, they decided to make the hike.

This was going to be an epic adventure, Eagle said.

The couple spent a year researching, training and saving before setting off on the 2,190-mile journey seven days after their wedding. They knew about the new coronavirus spreading across the globe but considered themselves lucky to be trading Brooklyn for a tent on the trail, especially as New York fell under restrictions to prevent to the viruss spread.

We always figured that being out on the trail and seeing a dozen people a day was a fine position to be in, Hall said.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATES: Stay informed with accurate reporting you can trust

As the pandemic grows, hikers face the difficult decision to postpone their dreams or ignore warnings and forge ahead. Like virtually every other entity in the U.S., the Appalachian Trail Conservancy began issuing COVID-19 safety guidance in March. But social distancing and hand-washing suggestions soon shifted to urging all hikers to leave the trail immediately. Shelters and privies were shut down, and volunteer programs were halted. Last week, the conservancy and 29 other trail-maintaining clubs asked federal officials to close the trail until the end of the month.

Though more than 3,000 thru-hikers set out to traverse the length of the trail each year, only about 25% successfully make the hike from Georgia to Maine, which typically takes about six months.

Eagle and Hall never considered any scenario but finishing.

They picked up speed as they moved into the Great Smoky Mountains along the Tennessee-North Carolina border. They woke to sunrise on Clingmans Dome - the trails highest point - a view that seemed to sum up exactly what theyd hoped for from their newlywed adventure.

At the same time, families across the U.S. braced for lockdowns as COVID-19 spread through cities and towns claiming more lives. Days would pass before Eagle and Hall had enough cellphone service to see just how dire the crisis had become.

Fellow thru-hiker Kimberly Selvage was 30 minutes from Hot Springs, N.C., when she called a local hostel to confirm her reservation.

He was like, Maam, I think youve been in the woods too long; the whole world is shutting down, she said.

That wasnt exactly the type of solitude Selvage had in mind when she quit her job, rented out her house in Las Vegas and started her hike on Feb. 26.

Selvage, 51, said she thrives by herself and set out to hike the trail alone, so when whispers of closures and restrictions started to spread, she wasnt too concerned and pressed on.

With her two kids in college and , the Appalachian Trail was home for the time being, and its where she believed she was safest. Leaving it would mean a cross-country drive exposing her to far more people than she encounters while hiking, she said.

But as more trails closed and communities issued shelter-in-place orders, Selvage decided to throw in the towel for the time being after hiking 470 miles.

CORONAVIRUS IN HOUSTON: All of the latest news, numbers and analysis to keep you up-to-date, only on HoustonChronicle.com

The closures and general virus fear was changing the vibe of my hike, said Selvage, who started the hike, in part, to experience the culture of trail towns. I chose to pause to get the full experience when it was less controversial.

Selvage rented an SUV and drove back home. She slept in the back of the car. Now, shes renting out a room in a friends house until the all-clear is given to hike again. I still think I was safer on the trail, Selvage said.

For Eagle and Hall, deciding to stay or go was brutal. The couple debated day after day as they hiked over rocks and waterfalls. They hadnt yet come to terms with their choice when they loaded their backpacks into the trunk of a rental car in Tennessee.

Even right now, I dont know if were doing the right thing, Eagle said through tears.

Their decision came down to the small chance they might catch and spread the virus, something Eagle said she couldnt live with.

For now, theyll stay with her parents in Louisiana, which has more than 12,000 confirmed cases.

Is that better? Thats hard to say, she said.

Theyll try to stay in shape while they wait for the all-clear. Hall joked about looking into a treadmill sale he saw online. But as the timeline becomes grimmer, he thinks they might be saying goodbye to the AT for good.

His wife disagrees and sees them starting again in a few months. Until then, shes trying to keep her disappointment in perspective.

Im just trying to focus in on the fact that we are in such a better position than most of the world, she said.
More than half of the misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic that has been debunked by fact-checkers remains on Twitter without any warning label, a record that puts it far behind rival social media platforms, according to a study released Tuesday night by Oxford University researchers.

The study examined 225 pieces of content that independent fact-checkers had rated as false or misleading between January and March. The Oxford researchers found that 59 percent of it remained on Twitter, 27 percent remained on YouTube and 24 percent remained on Facebook.

"It's surprising that so many of the things that have been proven to be false are still living on social media," said co-author Philip N. Howard, director of the Oxford Internet Institute, which conducted the study in concert with the university's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and the Oxford Martin School.

Researchers also found that the most common subject of coronavirus misinformation concerned false claims about the actions of government or other international authorities, such as the United Nations or World Health Organization.

The most powerful spreaders of misinformation were politicians, celebrities or other public figures, who were the source of about 20 percent of false claims but generated 69 percent of the total "engagement," a term that measures the reach of misinformation on social media. The report cited President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as politicians who have made documented false statements about the pandemic, and all three platforms studied in the Oxford report in March removed some misinformation from Bolsonaro that violated their policies against harmful content.

Independent fact-checkers have increased their focus on false claims about the coronavirus as the pandemic has grown in recent months, with checks on the subject rising more than 900 percent between January and March. The largest category among those items studied - drawn from a list of fact checks maintained by First Draft, a nonprofit group that combats misinformation and disinformation - were partially true information that had been twisted or manipulated to make it misleading. Only 38 percent of the items studied were completely fabricated, the Oxford researchers found.

Twitter said it created a policy against misinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic on March 18, which could explain the uneven results from a study whose data set began in January.

"We're prioritizing the removal of content when it has a call to action that could potentially cause harm," said Twitter spokeswoman Katie Rosborough. "We will not take enforcement action on every tweet that contains incomplete or disputed information about covid-19. Since introducing these new policies on March 18, we've removed more than 1,100 tweets and challenged 1.5 million potentially spammy accounts targeting COVID-19 discussions."

YouTube spokesman Farshad Shadloo said in a statement, "We have clear policies against COVID misinformation and we quickly remove videos violating these policies when flagged to us."

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said, "Since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global public health emergency, we've been taking aggressive steps to stop misinformation and harmful content from spreading, including by making additional investments to our program of over 60 fact-checking partners around the world who are debunking false claims in over 50 languages."
The impact of the lockdown on poor people's health will be balanced against the risks from allowing people out when it comes to finalising an exit strategy, the chief medical officer has revealed.

Professor Chris Whitty said on Monday the government was weighing the impacts of its social distancing rules on mental illness and finances, with the more direct health implications.

Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary who is serving in Boris Johnson's stead, has tried to avoid talk of the next phase, saying it risks distracting so 'we won't get through the peak as fast as we need to.' He and other ministers have said the priority for now is to limit the spread.

But Prof. Whitty said that while it was not yet possible to 'call the point' at which the UK could move forward from the lockdown, there had to be planning after we reach the peak, which has been tentatively forecast for the end of this week.

Two men make their way past boarded up pub on Queen Street in Glasgow during the Coronavirus lockdown

Prof. Whitty said that while it was not yet possible to 'call the point' at which the UK could move forward from the lockdown, there had to be planning after we reach the peak, which has been tentatively forecast for the end of this week.

Prof. Whitty said: 'We've got to remember, just from the health point of view and clearly there are wider social and economic issues as well, that there are at least four different kinds of mortality and ill health we need to take into account over the period of this epidemic.

'There's the direct effects of people dying from coronavirus, there's the indirect effects of the NHS, if it were to become overwhelmed and therefore unable to provide emergency care for either coronavirus or other areas, and all the activities we're doing at the moment are to make sure that both of those are minimised.

'But it is really important also to remember that there will be effects from the fact that some healthcare has had to be postponed to make room for this within the NHS and of course anything that has an impact on the socio-economic status, particularly of people who are more deprived, will have a long-term health impact as well and we have to, in our exit strategy, balance all of these different elements which to some extent can be in tension.'

Earlier Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, said Downing Street was looking to 'consider when the time is right ... how one might start to ease those [lockdown] measures in a way which works in terms of public health and which works for the economy.'

Addressing the public this afternoon after completing his own coronavirus self-isolation, Prof Whitty, an epidemiologist, said: 'At this point in time we would expect quite a small proportion of the population has probably got antibodies

Indeed, it was reported over the weekend that Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were at war over the devastating economic effects of the lockdown.

Mr Sunak has made 'robust' arguments to his colleague that a path to normality had to be mapped to avoid irreparable damage to the nation.

Critics of Mr Hancock told the Mail on Sunday that his 'careerist' fear of being held responsible for the NHS was blinding him to the imperative.

However, with another 439 deaths recorded on Monday, the end of the lockdown does not yet appear to be on the horizon.

The total deaths rose to 5,373, and 3,802 new positive tests have pushed the number of patients up to 51,608.
India coronavirus live updates: The Health Ministry said in its routine briefing on Tuesday that a study has shown that a COVID-19 infected person can infect only 2.5 persons during the lockdown. Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry said that with R-naught (how many people an infected person can infect) of 2.5, if a person does not follow the lockdown or social distancing guidelines, an infected person can further infect 406 people in 30 days. However, if the lockdown or social exposure is lessened by 75%, then the person is capable of infection 2.5 people.

Presently, India has a total of 4,789 active cases, 353 have been cured or discharged or migrated. Meanwhile, the country's death toll has risen to 124, according to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's website. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the citizens to be ready for a long fight as he told the ministers to plan a slow exit from the nationwide lockdown. Globally, while China has been reporting less COVID-19 cases since March, they have surged in the US. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been shifted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of London hospital after his novel coronavirus symptoms worsened on Monday. He was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital on Sunday after manifesting persistent COVID-19 symptoms. The prime minister was tested positive for the respiratory infection 10 days ago. Boris Johnson's office released a statement after he was shifted to the ICU.

Also Read: Coronavirus in India: State-wise COVID-19 cases, deaths, list of testing facilities

Follow BusinessToday.In for all the COVID-19 live updates:

10.48 pm: India Coronavirus Tracker: Total cases at 4,789; death toll rises to 124

10:30 pm: 1,14,015 samples tested for COVID-19 untill 9 pm, says ICMR

A total of 1,14,015 samples have been tested for COVID-19, as of 9 pm today, says Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

10:25 pm: Air India runs special charter flight for US passengers

A Special Passenger Charter flight of Air India carrying 98 adults and 1 infant US-bound passengers takes off to Mumbai from Hyderabad International Airport. Passengers to be further connected with Delta Airlines from Mumbai to their final destination in US, say officials at Hyderabad Airport.

10:20 pm: 25 More positive cases reported in Delhi

As many as 25 new COVID-19 positive cases reported in Delhi on Tuesday. Total number of positive cases in Delhi stands at 550, of which 331 cases are related to Nizamuddin Markaz event, says Delhi Chief Minister's Office.

10:15 pm: No new COVID-19 cases reported in Uttarakhand on Tuesday

No new COVID-19 cases reported in Uttarakhand as of 6 pm today, says Uttarakhand Health Department. The total number of coronavirus positive cases in the state stands at 31.

10:10pm: Coronavirus lockdown: BMC helpline receives 3,000 calls, mostly for grocery

Amid ongoing lockdown, the 24x7 helpline number of the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been receiving many requests from Mumbaikars, most asking for grocery related help. The BMC helpline number is 1800-22-1292 and is active between 9 am and 9 pm every day to help homeless, stranded labourers whoo can seek food packets, grocery packets and temporary shelter.

10:00 pm: US President Trump accuses WHO of being 'China centric'

US, President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused the World Health Organisation (WHO) of being "very China centric", though being "largely funded by the United States".

"The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?," Trump tweeted.

9:50 pm: Case registered against 7 doctors, 3 nurses in MP's Narsinghpur

A case was registered against seven doctors and three nurses in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur. "It has been found that these doctors and nurses have been absent during duty hours without any permission or sanctioned leave," says Gurkaran Singh, SP Narsinghpur.

9:40 pm: DRDO made sanitisation chamber deployed at AIIMS, Delhi

A Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) made disinfectant chamber was deployed at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi on Tuesday. The chamber uses a solution that is known to kill COVID-19 and will help in controlling the spread of coronavirus, says DRDO.

A Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) made disinfectant chamber was today deployed at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi. The chamber uses a solution that is known to kill #COVID19 & will help in controlling the spread of coronavirus: DRDO pic.twitter.com/iSltei5u91 ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2020 9:20 pm: Telagana reports 40 new COVID-19 positive cases on Tuesday Telagana on Tuesday reported 40 new COVID-19 positive cases, Takingtotal positive cases in the state to 348, according to Director of Public Health and Family Welfare, Govt of Telangana. 9:00 pm: IRCTC suspends Kashi Mahakal, Tejas Express train services till April 30 In view of rapid spread of COVID-19 in Indian, IRCTC has suspended train services of its three private trains till April 30, 2020. The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the catering and tourism of Indian Railways, operates three private trains, Varanasi-Indore Kashi Mahakal Express, Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas Express and Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas Express. 8.09 pm: Nizamuddin Markaz row: Case registered in Uttarakhand against 2 Tablighi Jamaat attendees who are yet to surrender On April 5, DGP had appealed to the people who attended Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi to come forward. After the appeal 180 people have come forward. But two persons are yet to surrender so we have registered case against them: Ashok Kumar, ADG, Law&Order, Uttarakhand pic.twitter.com/HuXfmsfifn ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2020 8.05 pm: PM Modi talks to Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tarik on coronavirus They agreed that both countries would extend all possible support to each other in dealing with the crisis.The Sultan assured PM about the safety & wellbeing of the Indian community in Oman. He also thanked PM for the recent support provided by GoI to Omani citizens in India: PMO https://t.co/HqrpyhSYNl ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2020 7.47 pm: Maharashtra first state to cross 1,000 coronavirus cases Maharashtra reported 150 more coronavirus positive cases. This takes the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state to 1,018, stated Maharashtra Health Department. 7.20 pm: Coronavirus outbreak: Mumbai sees 5 COVID-19 deaths today Mumbai registered 100 new coronavirus positive cases and 5 deaths today. Public Health Department of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) informed that COVID-19 death toll in the city has risen to 40, whereas the total number of positive cases stand at 590. 7.10 pm: Coronavirus in India: Death toll rises to 124 India has seen 4,789 cases of coronavirus so far, whereas the 124 patients have lost their lives to the respiratory infection so far, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed. The ministry stated that by 6 PM on April 7, 4,312 coronavirus patients are under treatment, whereas 352 patients have been cured and discharged. 583 more cases and 13 more deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours. 7.09 pm: International Court of Justice suspends operations till May 31 The International Court of Justice has decided to extend the period during which no hearings or judicial meetings will be held to May 31. Visits are also cancelled until the end of May. 6.35 pm: Coranavirus updates: 7 antibody rapid tests approved National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune has approved 7 antibody rapid tests for diagnosis of coronavirus. National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune has validated 7 antibody-based rapid tests and found them to be satisfactory. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/kX97cL5dWx ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2020 6.32 pm: Coronavirus in India: ICMR-led research network on the anvil National Task Force has recommended establishing 'India #COVID19 Clinical Research Collaborative Network' to enhance clinical understanding of coronavirus for developing specific clinical management protocols and further R&D into therapeutics. This network will be coordinated by Indian Council of Medical Research. A central database of clinical and laboratory parameters of hospitalised COVID-19 cases is being created. All hospitals currently managing coronavirus patients are invited to become partners in the network. 6.17 pm: Coronavirus: India prepares to test 1 lakh samples daily India has begun worst-case scenario preparations to test 1 lakh samples per day in the coming months, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said in a statement. India currently tests nearly 18,000 samples each day at the government and private facilities across the country. The move to increase tests comes as the government faces criticism over low numbers of tests in the country. 5.37 pm: Coronavirus news: Punjab Health Dept asks Tablighi Jamaat participants to come out of hiding in 24 hours Punjab Health Department has given a 24-hour deadline to all participants of Tabligh Jamaat event at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi, who were hiding out in the state, to report to the nearest police station or face criminal prosecution. Of the 467 Tablighi Jamaat attendees who had reportedly came to Punjab, 445 have been traced so far, whereas 22 are yet to be tracked, said Information and Public Relations Department, Punjab. 5.32 pm: PM Modi, Swedish PM discuss collaboration against coronavirus Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a telephone conversation with his Swedish counterpart HE Stefan Lofven over the coronavirus pandemic, and the steps being taken in their respective countries for controlling its health and economic impacts. Both leaders agreed on the potential for collaboration and data sharing between Indian and Swedish researchers and scientists in fight against COVID-19. They also promised to provide necessary facilitation and assistance for each other's citizens, who may be stranded due to travel restrictions in place. 5.15 pm: Coronavirus India: Key factors behind lockdown extension Top government sources have said that several state governments as well as experts are urging the Centre to extend the lockdown duration. The central government is thinking in this direction though and is taking the feedback of the high-powered committees formed by PM Modi. The feedback given by the states includes stopping the religious activities of all type completely, shutting down the schools and colleges till June with no exceptions, all transfers and postings in the government sector to be deferred for six months as it would include mass mobilisation, hotels/restaurants and bars to be under complete lockdown till the situation improves and public functions such as weddings, funerals, corporate town hall meetings should also be under lockdown till the situation improves. Read More here: Coronavirus crisis: Centre mulls states' request to extend lockdown 5.05 pm: Noida coronavirus news: 2 COVID-19 positive patients from Gautam Budhha Nagar discharged Two novel coronavirus patients from Gautam Buddha Nagar were discharged from a hospital. These patients were undergoing treatment in the Government Institute of Medical Sciences, The district has reported 58 COVID-19 cases so far. 5.04 pm: Uttar Pradesh coronavirus news Noida District Magistrate on Tuesday directed to handover four private hospitals, in order to use them as isolation centres, to the administration. 4.58 pm: Delhi coronavirus news: Police asks Tablighi Jamaat members to inform about their whereabouts The Delhi Police has asked all Tablighi Jamaat members, who attended the religious congregation at Delhi's Nizamuddin in March, to inform it about their whereabouts as well as Health Ministry officials. The police added that "failing to do so would be treated as concealment of fact and tough action will taken against them." 4.48 pm: Uttar Pradesh coronavirus cases The Uttar Pradesh government said on Tuesday that there are a total of 314 novel coronavirus cases in the state as of now. Out of these cases, 166 are related to Tablighi Jamaat event. 4.42 pm: Gujarat coronavirus cases One COVID-19 positive person died in Gujarat on Tuesday, taking the death tally in the state to 13. 4.30 pm: Coronavirus in India: India has capacity to produce 20 crore Hydroxycholoquine tablets a month, says IDMA President The President of Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA) President told India Today on Tuesday that the country has the capacity to produce 20 crore Hydroxychloroquine tablets a month and the manufacturers are ready to hike the production to 25 crore a month if the need arises. 4.16 pm: Coronavirus updates: States have urged Centre to extend lockdown, says Health Ministry 4.15 pm: Coronavirus India news: No decision on extending lockdown, says Health Ministry 4.14 pm: Coronavirus: 11,795 testes conducted last week, says ICMR 4.13 pm: Coronavirus in India: Over 1 lakh people have been tested, says Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) 4.12 pm: Coronavirus updates: States asked to stop black marketing and hoarding, says Home Ministry 4.11 pm: Coronavirus: COmmunity leaders urging festivals at home, says Punya Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Home Secretary 4.11 pm: Coronavirus latest news: Social distancing is social vaccine, says Health Ministry 4.10 pm: Coronavirus in India: Truck aggregators to link farmers and mandis, says Health Ministry 4.10 pm: Coronavirus news: looking at Ayurveda to boost immunity: Health Ministry 4.10 pm: India coronavirus updates: Lockdown can drastically reduce infection rates, says Health ministry 4.09 PM Coronavirus live updates: Modi wants special focus on poor: Health Ministry 4.08 pm: Coronavirus in India live updates: 40,000 new isolation beds ready: Health Ministry 4.07 pm: Coronavirus news: Dedicated COVID-19 hospitals to deal with severe cases: Health Ministry 4.06 pm: Coronavirus Live updates: Dedicated COVID-19 health centres ready, says Health Ministry 4.05 pm: Coronavirus India updates: COVID-19 facilities divided into three categories: Health Ministry 4.05 pm: Coronavirus in India: Using technology to monitor COVID-19 patients, says Health Ministry 4.04 pm: Coronavirus latest news: Cluster containment strategy ready, says Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry 4.03 pm: Coronavirus updates: Health Ministry begins COVID-19 briefing 3.55 pm: Coronavirus India: Railways builds low-cost ventilator prototype Railways has manufactured low-cost ventilator prototype called 'Jeevan' for novel coronavirus patients in a week's time. Jeevan can be used as an emergency ventilator. 3.45 pm: Coronavirus updates worldwide: Japan announces COVID-19 emergency Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday announced a state of emergency to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic. The emergency has been declared across major population centres. The prime minister also unveiled a stimulus package he called among the world's biggest to soften the economic blow. 3.30 pm: Coronavirus in India: State govts urge governments to extend lockdown Several state governments and experts are requesting the central government to extend the lockdown. Meanwhile, the government is thinking in this direction but will take the final decision after evaluating the situation in the states. 3.18 PM: SpiceJet operates India's first cargo-on-seat flight SpiceJet operated India's first cargo-on-seat flight, carrying 11 tons of vital supplies in passenger cabin & belly space from Delhi to Chennai. B737 passenger aircraft to do five rotations today carrying crucial supplies: SpiceJet SpiceJet operated Indias first cargo-on-seat flight, carrying 11 tons of vital supplies in passenger cabin & belly space from Delhi to Chennai. B737 passenger aircraft to do five rotations today carrying crucial supplies: SpiceJet #CoronaLockdown #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/ZVy867s3af ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2020 3.13 PM: When and how lockdown will be lifted? The 21-day coronavirus lockdown has badly hurt India's economy, and now everyone is looking at how the Modi government plans to normalise it after April 14. Also read: Coronavirus pandemic: When and how lockdown will be lifted? A primer 3.12 PM: Coronavirus cases in Rajasthan Three more COVID-19 positive cases reported in Rajasthan (Kushalgarh, Banswara). All three are members are of the same family, in which a positive case was found earlier also. Total coronavirus positive cases in the state now at 328. Three more #COVID19 positive cases reported in Rajasthan (Kushalgarh, Banswara). All three are members are of the same family, in which a positive case was found earlier also. Total coronavirus positive cases in the state now at 328: Rajasthan Health Department https://t.co/CS2rq72KyY ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2020 3.11 PM: Man held for objectionable comments on Tablighi Jamaat Man arrested in Uttarakhand for posting objectionable comments on social media about Tablighi Jamaat & spreading rumour. 3.10 PM: Man flees from community centre 65-year-old coronavirus patient flees from community health centre in UP's Baghpat after breaking window pane; found with help of locals at brick kiln: Official. - PTI 2.55 PM: UGD discusses exam-related issues UGC has constituted a seven-member committee to discuss the issue related to examination and academic year in view of the emerging situations due to COVID-19. The committee will submit its report by 13th April. 2.52 PM: Ensure smooth of medical supply: Centre to states The Ministry of Home Affairs has written to states to ensure smooth and hassle-free supply of medical oxygen across the country. All manufacturing units of medical oxygen and related items, their transport or cross land border movements, and workers engaged in factories exempted from lockdown. MHA clarifies ground level issues faced by States in ensuring smooth supply of Essential Items during #Lockdown21



States advised to brief Distt authorities & field agencies to avoid ambiguity at ground level#COVID19@PMOIndia@HMOIndia



Details https://t.co/vvQQgNZtNB Spokesperson, Ministry of Home Affairs (@PIBHomeAffairs) April 3, 2020

2.49 PM: FIRs against fake news

Total 13 FIRs registered in last 24 hours against those spreading fake news and hate speech in Maharashtra. Since the 21-day lockdown, a total of 113 cases have been registered for fake news, rumours and hate speech. Total 18 people have been arrested so far.

2.30 PM: Infiltration attempts on the rise

The lockdown due to the COVID 19 outbreak has not deterred terrorists from Pakistan from making infiltration attempts as ceasefire violations on the LOC continue amid the global pandemic that has also hit India and Pakistan severely. In January the number was at 367; in February it was 366; and as the pandemic hit India and Pakistan, the numbers swelled to 411 in March. In April till now, the tally stands at 53, reports India Today.

2.17 pm: Coronavirus India: BSF extends troops' leaves up to April 21

The BSF has extended the leaves of its personnel up to April 21. The decision has been taken for those troops who are already on leave and are due to join in the month of April, 2020. They have been telephonically informed about the decision.

2.10 pm: Coronavirus Maharashtra news: Indian Railways develops disinfection tunnel in Bhusaval

The Railways has developed a disinfection tunnel at its Loco Shed in Bhusaval, in Maharashtra to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus in the country. The tunnel is developed at a total cost of approximately Rs 15,000 and can screen on person at a time. It can disinfect a person fully from head to toe in a time span of just 3 seconds and the solution used in it is completely harmless.

1.57 pm: Punjab coronavirus news

Punjab on Tuesday reported 11 new COVID-19 cases from one of its villages. Jawaharpur village from where the cases were reported, was sealed by authorities after 11 people belonging to two different families were tested positive for novel coronavirus. Meanwhile, the total number of active COVID-19 cases in Punjab stood at 76, and the death toll at six, according to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's website.

1.50 pm: Rajasthan coronavirus news

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Tuesday the central government should allow states to take a call regarding the extension of lockdown as per the local situation. "Centre and state governments are in touch and monitoring the situation ..different states have different situations..we are following Centre's guidelinesstates should be allowed to take decision over extension of lockdown post 14th April," he said. Talking about the central government's relief package, he added, "it was insufficient..states' economy not in good shape, GST collections are low..after lockdown states are in tough situation." Gehlot stated that he had requested PM Modi to announce Rs 1 lakh crore grant for the states as well as centralise purchase of PPEs, ventilators. He further said that the supply of essential commodities needs to be centralised as well.

1.46 pm: Rajasthan coronavirus news

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Tuesday that out of a total population of 7.5 crore, the state government has screened 5 crore people so far.

1.42 pm: Maharashtra coronavirus news

Mumbai's Mumba Devi temple donates Rs 21 lakh to CM relief fund.

1.30 pm: Coronavirus in India: Sonia Gandhi writes letter to PM Modi

Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday conveying her party's suggestions to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic. She outlined five concrete suggestions in the letter. The first one is to impose a complete ban on media advertisements - television, print and online - by the Government and Public Sectors Undertakings ('PSU's') for a period of two years. The only exceptions should be advisories for Covid-19 or for issues relating to public health. Second suggestion is to suspend the ?20,000 crore 'Central Vista' beautification and construction project forthwith. Third, to order a proportionate reduction of 30 per cent in the expenditure budget (other than Salaries, Pensions and Central Sector Schemes) for the Government of India as well. This 30 percent (i.e. ?2.5 lakh crores per year approximately) can then be allocated towards establishing an economic safety net for migrant workers, labourers, farmers, MSME's and those in the unorganised sector. Fourth, all foreign visits including that of the President, the Prime Minister, Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, State Ministers and Bureaucrats must be put on hold in a similar fashion. Fifth, transfer all money under 'PM Cares' fund to the 'Prime Ministers National Relief Fund' ('PM-NRF').

1.22 pm: Maharashtra coronavirus news: No testing for Thackeray family

The family members of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray are not high-risk contacts hence, they have not been tested for novel coronavirus. Meanwhile, the authorities in Maharashtra have collected the samples of 270 persons who had been to the tea stall where its owner has been tested COVID-19 positive. The stall owner was operating till four days ago. Meanwhile, the security personnel, police officials, security guards of all the nearby societies located close to Matoshri have been tested.

1.13 pm: Coronavirus latest news: The fourth 'T' teamwork by government officials is and the fifth 'T' is tracking and monitoring, says Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

1.10 pm: Coronavirus India news: Delhi prepared to treat 30,000 active patients: Delhi CM Kejriwal

1.08 pm: Coronavirus: Have prepared 3,000 beds for treating COVID-19 patients, reserved 500 beds in private hospitals too, says Delhi CM Kejriwal

1.06 pm: Coronavirus in India: First 'T' of our plan is testing, second 'T' is Tracing, third 'T' is treatment: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

1.05 pm: Coronavirus latest updates: Have ordered 50,000 rest kits already, says CM Kejriwal

1.04 pm: Coronairus news: CM Kejriwal announces five point agenda to fight COVID-19

1.03 pm: Delhi coronavirus news: CM Arvind Kejriwal begins press briefing

12.55 pm: Coronavirus India: Rahul Gandhi reacts to US threat: India must help other nations after considering its needs for lifesaving medicines first

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter on Tuesday to request the government that it should make the lifesaving medicines to its citizens first. "Friendship isn't about retaliation. India must help all nations in their hour of need but lifesaving medicines should be made available to Indians in ample quantities first," he tweeted.

Friendship isn't about retaliation. India must help all nations in their hour of need but lifesaving medicines should be made available to Indians in ample quantities first. - Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 7, 2020

12.48 pm: Coronavirus updates: First Hydroxychloroquine consignment to be shipped to US

India is going to be shipped to the United States after it got the clearance even before PM Modi and US President Donald Trump spoke. Meanwhile, India on Tuesday said it will consider the demands for the malaria drug after taking into consideration the country's domestic consumption, demands of the neighbouring countries and then the rest of the world.

12.39 pm: Madhya Pradesh coronavirus news: Bhopal reports 12 new COVID-19 positive cases

12 new novel coronavirus cases have been reported in Bhopal on Tuesday. These cases include five health department officials and seven police personnel and their contacts.

12.28 pm: Maharashtra coronavirus news: Dharavi reports 2 new COVID-19 cases

Two new cases of novel coronavirus were reported from Dr. Baliga Nagar area of Dharavi on Tuesday.

Mumbai: 2 more positive cases found in Dharavi - father & brother of the 2nd positive case here. Dr Baliga Nagar area of Dharavi has been sealed. Contact tracing of the new cases is being done. Total #Coronavirus positive cases in Dharavi now stand at 7 (including 1 death). pic.twitter.com/LP2lVkF0ZH - ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2020

12.17 pm: India coronavirus updates: Congress Party press briefing at 1 pm on Tuesday

The Congress Party press briefing will hold a press briefing via videoconferencing at 1 pm on Tuesday. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will hold the presser.

12.10 pm: Coronavirus live updates: No deaths in shelter homes: Centre informs SC

The central government informed the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday that the helpline for migrant workers/others during Corona lockdown is functioning and the Home Minister is regularly monitoring the calls made to helpline. The government further told the apex court that there are no cases of death in the shelter homes and also denied the need to payment of money to workers saying that food is being provided to the migrant labourers.

12.00 pm: Kerala coronavirus news

Kerala has come up with an innovative mobile walk-in sample kiosk with a glass front and an extended glove in front. Harsh Goenka, Chairman, RPG Enterprises tweeted the video on Tuesday where a person from inside the kiosk is seen taking swab samples through his glove without exposing himself.

Kerala has innovated with a mobile walk-in sample kiosk with glass front and an extended glove in front. A person from inside can collect swab samples through this glove without exposing himself. Amazing idea!pic.twitter.com/jVR1ekO5Oq - Harsh Goenka (@hvgoenka) April 7, 2020

11.53 am: Maharashtra coronavirus cases

Maharashtra reported a jump in its COVID-19 cases on Tuesday as the totally tally climbed to 891 in the state. New cases were recorded in Pune-4, Mumbai-10, Ahmednagar- 3, Sangli - 1, Buldhana- 2, Thane- 1, and Nagpur-2. A total of 23 cases have been reported in the last 12 hours.

11.45 am: INDIA CORONAVIRUS TRACKER: BusinessToday.In brings you a daily tracker as coronavirus cases continue to spread. Here is the state-wise data on total cases, fatalities and recoveries in one comprehensive graphic.

11.30 am: Coronavirus in India: Sweet shops back in business in Bengal

Sweet shops are back in business in Kolkata after the state government released an order to keep the sweet shops open for takeaways. The sweet manufacturers in Bengal have been experiencing a tough time during the COVID-19 crisis. See visuals here.

11.15 am: West Bengal coronavirus news: Sweet shops to open from 12 pm to 4 pm everday

The sweet shops will open in West Bengal from 12 pm to 4 pm everyday after the state government ordered to open these shops for online deliveries takeaways. The decision was taken after milk men across the state have been found to be wasting their produce in water bodies due to dip in the consumption. Their entire business has taken a massive hit as most of the suppliers have no buyers left. On an average day West Bengal produces more than 3 lakh litres of milk out of which around 2 lakh litres is consumed by sweet shops spread across the districts and towns. In the wake of the lock down, the sweet shops were also shut hence these producers too were compelled to throw their produce.

10.59 am: Rajasthan coronavirus cases

Rajasthan on Tuesday reported 24 new novel coronavirus cases. State Health Department said that four cases were reported from Banswara, one from Churu, three cases from Jaipur, seven cases from Jaisalmer and nine cases from Jodhpur taking the total number of positive cases to 325 in the state.

24 new #Coronavirus positive cases in Rajasthan today - Banswara 4, Churu 1, Jaipur 3, Jaisalmer 7 & Jodhpur 9. Total number of positive cases in the state rises to 325: Rajasthan Health Dept The 7 positive cases in Jaisalmer are contacts of the person found positive in Bikaner pic.twitter.com/5DgnPJ3Fro - ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2020

10.47 am: Coronavirus India: 354 cases in 24 hours, Country's active cases at 3,981

The Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday that 354 COVID-19 positive cases have been recorded in India in the last 24 hours (ending Tuesday morning). The numbers jacked up after five more deaths were reported in the country. Presently, India has a total of 3,981 active cases, 325 have been cured or discharged or migrated. Meanwhile, the country's death toll has risen to 114, according to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's website.

10.38 am: Coronavirus in India: JSW Steel mulls lifting of lockdown across its units

JSW Steel said on Tuesday that it making all preparations to re-commence operations at all locations on lifting of lockdown in the next few days. "Earlier on March 25, we have announced to stock exchanges that Company has taken the decision to scale down/ suspend production. Currently, JSW Steel has 4 Blast Furnaces and 2 Corex in Karnataka Ballari, 1 BF in Mah Dolvi & one under construction whereas 2 BF in TN Salem and one in Monnet," the company said in its statement.

10.33 am: Haryana coronavirus news: 29 new cases reported in the state

Haryana reported 29 new novel coronavirus cases on Monday with eight cases recorded in Palwal, seven in Faridabad, six in Muh, four in Karnal and one each in Jind Sonipat, Charkhi Dadri and Fatehabad.

10.26 am: Coronavirus in India: India reponds to Trump's threat over medical supply

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Tuesday partially lifted the ban on hydroxychloroquine, a common anti-malaria drug and paracetamol. The ministry said that the availability of these drugs will depend on the availability of stock after meeting domestic requirements. The MEA added that it will decide on such allocations depending on humanitarian (COVID-19) situation, etc.

10.17 am: Coronavirus updates: Racist t-shirts targeting Chinese go viral online

Following a tweet in Chinese which reads, "clothing for Asians to protect themselves," with pictures of shirts with slogans like "me is not Chinese," has triggered netizens' concerns that the t-shirts could encourage more racism amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. The shirts available in black and white colour include slogans such as, "me am Korean, not Chinese," and "me am not Chinese me am Taiwanese." The tweet posted by a Twitter user garnered over 600 retweets and over 100 comments.

10.09 am: Gujarat coronavirus news: China donates 50,000 masks to Gujarat

Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong took to Twitter on Monday night to announce that 50,000 masks donated by the Guangdong Province of China to Gujarat have arrived in India. "50K masks donated by Guangdong Province of China to its Sister State Gujarat have arrived in India today. Hand in Hand we stand to overcome this difficulty," he tweeted.

50K masks donated by Guangdong Province of China to its Sister State Gujarat have arrived in India today. Hand in Hand we stand to overcome this difficulty #Covid19 - Sun Weidong (@China_Amb_India) April 6, 2020

9.57 am: Uttar Pradesh coronavirus news: 167 travellers missing in Noida

Gautam Buddh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh has emerged as a major hotbed in terms of number of novel coronavirus cases in the past few days. This has prompted action by the authorities but the only way out to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 is to identify and diagnose the infected patients. The district administration despite all its efforts has not been able to track the 167 people who have returned from abroad as they all are untraceable. Meanwhile, the authorities' efforts to track these people is in progress. According a report issued by the district administration, a total of 1,851 people have returned to Noida from abroad. Out of these, 1,684 people have been tracked so far but 167 are still missing.

9.47 am: Coronavirus in India: PM Modi wishes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson a speedy recovery

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter on Monday night to wish British PM Boris Johnson a speedy recovery. "Hang in there, Prime Minister @BorisJohnson! Hope to see you out of hospital and in perfect health very soon," tweeted PM Modi.

Hang in there, Prime Minister @BorisJohnson! Hope to see you out of hospital and in perfect health very soon. - Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 6, 2020

9.38 am: Noida coronavirus news: Noida manufacturing units to resume operations from April 15

Gautam Buddh Nagar district officer has ordered to start the manufacturing units in Noida and Greater Noida from April 15. The employees, workers working in these units will be issued the passes and the management has been asked to follow social distancing and hygiene norms in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak as a part of a set protocols. The employees will have to apply for the passes online. The District Magistrate has entrusted this task to three SDMs and a senior district official. chief secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari had sent an order in this regard to all district officers of Uttar Pradesh on April 2 in which he had directed to open all manufacturing units.

9.29 am: Delhi coronavirus cases

Three doctors, one nursing orderly and 12 nurses tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. All are admitted in Rajiv Gandhi hospital in East Delhi.

9.16 am: Dehi coronavirus news

Delhi government will start random testing at the novel coronavirus hotspots in the national capital. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the random testing will done as the government wants to test maximum people for the respiratory infection. More than 1 lakh random tests are to be done as the Kejriwal government ramps up its efforts to fight COVID-19. With this decision, the Delhi government will be the first in the country to start random testing as it looks to build its capacity after more cases are reported.

9.08 am: Coronavirus latest news: UNSC to meet on Thursday to discuss COVID-19 situation

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will meet on Thursday to take stock of the situation in the wake of novel coronavirus pandemic. This will be the first time the UNSC will hold a meeting on COVID-19 that has claimed over 74,000 lives and infected around 1.3 million people worldwide.

8.59 am: Coronavirus news worldwide: China reports no new COVID-19 deaths for first time

China on Tuesday reported no new novel coronavirus deaths for the first time after it began publishing figures in January. Meanwhile, the country faces a second wave of COVID-19 infections from overseas. The health officials have reported around 1,000 imported cases so far.

8.48 am: Coronavirus updates: India removes restrictions on 24 drugs

India has lifted restrictions on the export of 24 pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines. The government had imposed the limitations last month after the COVID-19 outbreak disrupted global supply chains. As reported by Reuters, the bans had led to strong pressure from the United State. India took the decision after a telephone call on Saturday between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump.

The government of India lifts restrictions on 24 active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and formulations made from them. These APIs are now allowed to be exported. pic.twitter.com/FBYxT4jw0y - ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2020

8.36 am: Maharashtra coronavirus news

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday night put posters outside a locality declaring it a containment zone after a COVID-29 positive person was found near a government guest house. The guest house is located near Matoshree, which is the private residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Mumbai: Posters declaring a locality, a containment zone was put up last night by BMC after a #COVID19 positive person was found near a Govt guest house. The Govt guest house is located near Matoshree (private residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray). pic.twitter.com/ux1P5BFf2K - ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2020

8.23 am: Goa coronavirus news

Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane has said that all 15 COVID-19 tests that were conducted by Goa Medical College Hospital on Monday night have been tested negative. Meanwhile, the total number of coronavirus positive cases in the state stand at 7.

15 tests conducted by Goa Medical College Hospital last night, all of them tested negative: Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane to ANI (file pic) The total number of #Coronavirus positive cases in the state is 7. pic.twitter.com/QZBGO7tE5d - ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2020

8.14 am: Coronavirus in India liveupdates: Government mulls graded exit plan

The Modi government is mulling a graded exit plan on April 14 when the nationwide lockdown ends in the country. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to hold a meeting in this regard on Tuesday.

8.04 am: Rajasthan coronavirus news: Kota man dies after testing positive for COVID-19

A 60-year-old novel coronavirus positive man passed away at a state-run hospital in Kota, Rajasthan. The state recorded 35 new cases of the respiratory infection, an official said on Monday. (PTI inputs)

7.57 am: Coronavirus live updates: Violence against health workers not acceptable, says WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday that the incidents of violence against health workers are not acceptable. Speaking to India Today, WHO Executive Director, Dr. Mikey Ryan said that the "idea of violence against health workers is driven by fear and misunderstanding. It's unacceptable and we ask everyone in every community to see them as heroes and support them in every way we can." Multiple incidents of violence against health workers were reported from across India recently as they went to localities to check possible COVID-19 cases.

7.45 am: Coronavirus latest news

Uttarakhand DGP said on Monday that Jamaat attendees who are not coming forward to report themselves will be prosecuted for the murder and attempt to murder.

7.30 am: Coronavirus outbreak: Govt removes restricts on export of 12 APIs

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issued a notification on Monday that it has lifted with immediate effect, restrictions on the export of 12 active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and 12 formulations made from these APIs.

7.15 am: Coronavirus live updates: Donald Trump wishes Boris Johnson well

United States President Donald Trump on Monday wished British Prime Minister Boris Johnson well, saying that his country is praying for him. Boris Johnson was shifted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of London hospital after his novel coronavirus symptoms worsened on Monday. "I also want to send best wishes to a very good friend of mine and a friend to our nation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson. We're very saddened to hear he was taken into intensive care this afternoon, a little while ago. Americans are all praying for his recovery," Donald Trump said.
Russia is lacking important technology available in Ukraine's defense sector.

On March 18, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Sevastopol, home of the country's Black Sea Fleet, and delivered a rousing patriotic speech commemorating the sixth anniversary of Russia's "reunification" with Crimea. The following day, likely not coincidentally, Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) agents arrested on espionage charges a Ukrainian from Mykolaiv who had been seeking intelligence on advanced Ukrainian naval technology to sell to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

It is not surprising that the SBU would uncover a spy for Russia in Mykolaiv, which for decades housed the most advanced shipyards in the Soviet Union, The Jamestown Foundation reported.

The SBU's announcement tersely stated only that the suspect was attempting to sell "classified shipbuilding information" to Russia. Yet, it is possible to deduce what the specific target likely was: notably, Ukraine's shipyards maintain an advantage over those of Russia in the construction of maritime gas turbine propulsion systems. Russia has been unable to master this high-technology area since Ukraine's post-2014 ban on advanced military exports to Russia. As such, the technology certainly remains high intel priority for Moscow.

While all countries seek some level of economic autarky or self-sufficiency in the production of armaments, the post-Soviet states are particularly vulnerable in this regard. First of all, the former Soviet Union's centralized economic planning and resource deployment ignored market considerations; and second of all, Soviet industrial production chains were deliberately dispersed among the various constituent republics, which become independent states following 1991. The Soviet Union's most advanced shipyards were concentrated in Ukraine: thus, all three classes of Soviet aircraft-carrying cruisers were built at the Mykolaiv Communal Shipyard (renamed the Black Sea Shipyard following the fall of the Soviet Union), including the Russian navy's current flagship, the Admiral Kuznetsov.

Read alsoSpy channel uncovered between Ukraine's naval officer, Russia's FSB  media

On May 20, 2015, a little over a year after Russia forcibly wrested Crimea away from Ukraine, the Ukrainian prime minister at the time, Arseniy Yatseniuk, said that the Cabinet would terminate the May 26, 1993, bilateral agreement on military-technical cooperation with Russia, stating, "The Russian Federation is an aggressor state; the Russian Federation has illegally annexed Crimea; the Russian Federation has conducted military intervention on the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions [Donbas]; the Russian Federation is a danger to the Ukrainian state and its territorial integrity. And that is why the agreement on military-technical cooperation with Russia is being broken by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine."

While maritime gas turbines may well have been the prime target for the Mykolaiv spy, a number of other Ukrainian weaponry innovations could also have been of interest to the FSB- particularly those weapons systems with the potential to erode Russia's near-monopoly on arms exports to the Middle East. These include an analogue of the Russian Iskander tactical missile system that Kyiv is developing with Saudi money, the Hrim-2; a powerful Ukrainian electromagnetic radiation generator to neutralize air-defense radars; high-precision weapons-guidance systems; automatic troop control-and-communications systems Ukraine is researching in conjunction with the United Arab Emirates; as well as licensed production in Jordan of Korsar anti-tank missile systems produced by the Ukrainian company Luch.

The Ukrainian government is taking the espionage charges seriously: the captured Mykolaiv resident is being accused of treason. While the naval disparity between Russia and Ukraine is vast, Soviet-era military-industrial legacies as well as the fact that these two neighbors share the northern Black Sea coastline mean that the Mykolayiv incident is unlikely to be the last.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 22:42:44|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Turkish counterpart on Tuesday discussed the means of cooperation to control COVID-19 spread in both countries, official IRNA news agency reported.

In his telephone conversation with Mevlut Cavusoglu, Zarif extended Iran's sympathy over the fatalities in Turkey during the pandemic.

He also offered Iran's help for the neighboring country and announced Tehran's readiness for cooperation to tackle the issue which is of crucial importance in the relations of the two countries.

They also discussed cooperation on transportation and transit of commodities between the two countries during the coronavirus pandemic.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This week, the Islamic State imposed a 10-day ultimatum for all Sikhs to leave Afghanistan. This comes in the wake of a recent attack on a Sikh house of worship in Kabul, which left 25 dead, along with one gunman. The Sikh population living in Afghanistan remains the most targeted, forcing many to flee to other countries to seek refuge.

Afghanistan has historically been home to hundreds of thousands of Sikhs for centuries. Today, the Sikh population has dwindled to barely one thousand, made up of less than 300 families, with only few operating Gurdwaras across the country, including Gurdwara Guru Hai Rai in Kabul, the site of the most recent attack.

UNITED SIKHS POSITION AND EFFORTS

UNITED SIKHS, a global humanitarian non-profit organization dedicated to saving lives, alleviating suffering and maintaining human dignity around the globe; urges Canada, Germany, United States, India, Australia and other countries to answer the plea of Sikhs living in terror, with entry into these countries via protected asylum. For decades Sikhs have been at the forefront and vibrant members of these countries and have contributed richly as citizens. Now we request these very nations that humanitarian intervention is urgently needed to help the Sikh minority undergoing constant and consistent suffering in Afghanistan.

Short sighted and failed policies from the United States and Afghanistan have shaped the current state in Afghanistan for Sikhs today. Now, the United States has a moral obligation along with the United Nations to protect Afghan Sikhs and ensure their civil liberties and freedom from religious persecution.

In addition to working on this issue globally, UNITED SIKHS immediately delivered funding to the families of those killed and injured along with releasing funds ready to be disbursed for passport fees and will help in expediting the rescue of Sikhs seeking asylum.

Countries across the globe have an extraordinary leadership opportunity by lifting immigration restrictions and opening their doors to Sikhs escaping Afghanistan. By granting Afghan Sikhs with Special Protected Status, and special entry into other countries via protected asylum; and saving lives in the hundreds. Time is a very real enemy of Sikhs desperate to leave their homeland and historic places of worship. With the 10-day ultimatum imposed by the Islamic State; there is little to zero protection from the horrors Sikhs will endure if they do not find immediate refuge.

Below is the detailed timeline of UNITED SIKHS efforts to save the lives of Afghan Sikhs.

UNITED SIKHS ACTIVITIES TO SAVE AFGHAN SIKHS

March 25 - Attack on Sikhs who were praying in a Gurdwara in Kabul. 25 men, women and children killed.

March 25 - UNITED SIKHS alerts Pope Francis and top Sunni and Shia religious leaders along with intelligence communities including: President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud

March 26 - UNITED SIKHS shares information on Sikh persecution globally

March 26  Second attack on Afghan Sikhs. This time on the way to the crematorium.

March 26 - UNITED SIKHS creates fundraiser for Sikhs in Afghanistan

March 27  Third attack on Afghan Sikhs. This time via roadside bombs.

March 27- United States Ambassador to Afghanistan Ross Wilson is alerted of the urgent issue facing Afghan Sikhs

March 27- United States Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom is alerted of the urgent issue of Afghan Sikhs

March 27- UNITED SIKHS along with American Sikh Congressional Caucus contacts Congressman (D-CA) John Garamendi to condemn attacks on Afghan Sikhs

March 27 - UNITED SIKHS reaches out to Canadian MPs, drawing their attention to this crisis.

March 28  UNITED SIKHS meet with US State Department to plea on behalf of Afghan Sikhs

March 28  Islamic State imposes 10-day ultimatum for Sikhs to leave Afghanistan

March 28  UNITED SIKHS issues official statement condemning violence against Sikhs living in Afghanistan, and pledges aid to help Sikhs leave Afghanistan

March 29 - UNITED SIKHS Pakistan Chapter provides funds for families of those killed and injured during the attack along with releasing funds for passport application fees to aid Sikhs in leaving Afghanistan

March 29 - UNITED SIKHS initiates the process to launch a Canadian Parliamentary Petition to ask the Government

March 30 - Canadian Ambassador Soroosh condemned the violence against Sikhs stating that the attack was "A barbaric and cowardly attack against humanity. Soroosh went on to state that the, "Sikh community is a patriotic and peaceful community making a huge contribution to the Afghan society and the government is committed to protecting the lives of all citizens in the country"

March 30  UNITED SIKHS reaches out to the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan to raise concern and ask for protection and safety of Afghan Sikhs

March 31  UNITED SIKHS contacts United Nations Honorable High Commissioner for Refugees Fillipo Grandi and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

April 1 - UNITED SIKHS urges the United States, Germany, UK, Canada, Australia, India, Pakistan and other countries to answer the plea of the Sikhs and provide them Special Protective Status.

April 1 - UNITED SIKHS contacts Pakistani Administration to request safe passage receivership into Pakistan for Afghan Sikhs

April 1 - Chad Wolf, acting United States Secretary of Homeland Security is contacted by UNITED SIKHS to provide Temporary Protective Status for Afghan Sikhs requesting asylum

April 1  UNITED SIKHS Australian Chapter reaches out to the Minister of Immigration to ask the Australian Government to allow Afghan Sikhs to resettle via refugee status

April 2 - UNITED SIKHS Canadian Chapter launches this House of Commons petition to ask the Canadian government to bring persecuted Afghans to Canada.

April 2 - UNITED SIKHS reaches out to Afghan Consulate and Embassy in the USA for immediate action in Sikh crisis.

April 3 - UNITED SIKHS send letter to Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo to lighten immigration regulations for Afghan Sikhs applying for asylum before 10-day Islamic State ultimatum expires

April 3 - UNITED SIKHS notifies Australia of attacks on Sikhs living in Afghanistan

April 3 - Australia Prime Minister, Scott Morrison condemns attacks on Afghan Sikhs

April 3 - Australian Chapter of UNITED SIKHS raises awareness and attention of Afghan Sikh prosecution to Australian authorities to stimulate and urge intervention

April 3  Australian Chapter of UNITED SIKHS sends letter to Minister of Immigration to provide resettlement to Afghan Sikh via refugee status

April 6 -UNITED SIKHS sends correspondence to Indias Administration and heads of religious infrastructure to get involved and support Afghan Sikhs

ONGOING: UNITED SIKHS CONTINUES TO WORK

AND LOBBY TO SAVE PERSECUTED AFGHAN SIKHS GLOBALLY.

About UNITED SIKHS:

UNITED SIKHS is a U.N. affiliated, international non-profit, non-governmental, humanitarian relief, human development and advocacy organization, aimed at empowering those in need, especially disadvantaged and minority communities across the world. UNITED SIKHS is registered: as a non-profit tax exempt organization pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code in the USA; as a Registered Charity in England and Wales under the Charities Act 1993, Charity Number 111 2055; registered in Australia as a not for profit NGO (ABN 24 317 847 103); and is a registered NGO in Belgium; as a non-profit organization in Canada; under the Societies Registration Act 1860 in Panjab and as a tax exempt organisation under section 80G of the Income Tax Act 1961; under the French Association Law 1901; under the Societies Registration Act 1860 in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Pakistan; as a registered society under the Registrar of Societies in Malaysia (registered as UNITED SIKHS Malaysia Humanitarian Aid Organisation- Regn No: PPM-015-14-06042015); and an NGO pending registration in the Rep of Ireland.:

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Getting online car insurance quotes will help drivers understand their risk profile and get better rates, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company.

Car insurance is a must for any driver who wants to drive legally across the United States. The auto insurance market is complex and numerous companies compete for business. In order to get a better view of the current market status, clients are recommended to get quotes and compare them.



Online car insurance quotes will help drivers understand the insurance market, both nationwide and locally/regional. Usually, drivers are not aware of the local insurance providers. Most of them have heard of big 5-10 companies, but there are hundreds of local companies. By obtaining quotes from these smaller companies, drivers can notice that many of them offer really good prices for really good insurance services. Smaller companies may offer the best prices and services around, so do not hesitate to get quotes from them

Quotes will present the user with the expected insurance costs. Although just estimates, insurance quotes use really good rate calculators. Good websites keep their info updated and provide results that match the insurers approximate premiums. Rate calculators will input the users info and calculate the premiums using the companys database and algorithms.

Quotes will help drivers understand their own risk profile. Online submit forms will help drivers understand if the car they have is still valuable or not. Car insurance companies take a cars depreciation into consideration when issuing premiums. Other factors like credit score or past traffic violation will also influence the premiums and drivers classification. Usually, this info is required by quote submit forms. Drivers can be labeled as Preferred, Standard or High Risk.

Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc.

For more information, please visit http://compare-autoinsurance.org.
The fight for equality and anti-discrimination for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning dubbed LGBTQ has existed for more than two decades now. SOGIE bill is one maneuver that seeks to put an end to discrimination and inequality suffered by the minorities in this group.

Image: facebook.com, @Riko Toshito

Source: UGC

Since the draft saw the light about twenty years ago, it has elicited a set of mixed reactions from different factions across the globe. As the bill continues to receive endorsements and criticisms in equal measures, a more in-depth look at SOGIE bill meaning will help us understand what it seeks to achieve.

SOGIE bill definition

What is SOGIE bill? This is probably the first question that came in your mind when you heard about the law draft. The word SOGIE is an acronym for Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression. The bill defines these terms as follows.

Sexual Orientation refers to who a person who is sexually attracted. There are about five subcategories in this section. They include;

Asexual - This is a person who is not attracted to anyone

Straight - This is an individual who has a sexual attraction to a person of the opposite gender.

Bisexual - It is a person who exhibits sexual attractions to persons of the same gender, and those of the opposite gender.

Gay - A man attracted to a fellow man.

Lesbian - A woman attracted to a fellow woman.

Gender Identity, on the other hand, is how a person presents or feels about his gender. Under this category, human beings are subdivided into two, cisgender and transgender.

A cisgender - This is a case where an individual feels that the gender assigned to him during birth is true to what he is.

A transgender - People in this group have a feeling that they do not belong to the gender assigned to them at birth. They have a conviction that they belong to the opposite gender. The group is identified as transmen and transwomen.

Lastly, Gender Expression is typically how an individual presents him/herself. It could be in the way they dress, speak, or their general life, among others.

What is the purpose of SOGIE bill?

The aim of this legislation is to protect the Filipinos who are members of the LGBTQ against discrimination. On August 13th, 2018, Gretchen Custodio Diez, a transwoman, was denied access to her preferred bathroom by a janitress at Cubao mall. The incident sparked debates on how gender equality has failed.

Image: instagram.com, @jpdhotmess

Source: UGC

Whereas the rights of LGBTQ members are protected on paper, Filipinos are no strangers to incidences of abuse and hate against these minorities. Therefore, the SOGIE bill Philippines seeks to penalize any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and expressions.

SOGIE bill summary

What does SOGIE bill means? The law draft identifies a particular set of actions which it deems as discriminatory. Anyone, corporation, or organization that violates them is liable to charges in the court.

Among the activities that are discriminatory according to this bill include;

Harassment by police or military

Being denied access to health facilities and other establishments

Denial or revocation of formal recognition, accreditation, or registration of institution, political party, or organization.

Revocation or denial of a driving licence.

Being subjected to physical or medical examinations without own consent.

Being denied admission or expelled by learning institutions.

Promoting stigma among the LGBTQ

Where does the SOGIE bill stand on marriage

Does the bill support same-sex marriage? The answer is 'NO' because marriage right is not mentioned in the draft. The equality legislation recognizes that a transwoman is legally a man and cannot be allowed to get married to a man. However, such people should not be deprived off privileges or discriminated against.

Who proposed SOGIE bill?

The Congress of the Philippines proposed the Anti-discriminatory bill (ADB), commonly known as the SOGIE. It was first tabled in the Congress in 2000 by Etta Rosales and the late senator, Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

Is SOGIE bill approved?

When the bill was filed in the 11th Congress, it passed the third reading in the House of Representatives but stalled in the senate. When it was refiled in the 14th Congress, it reached the committee level. It was again lobbied in the 15th and 16th Congress to no fruition. The current version, Senate Bill No. 689, is yet to be passed by Congress.

SOGIE bill pros and cons

The draft has the following advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

It advocates for equality and fairness not only to the LGBTQ members but also to every person in the country.

It seeks to control the behavior and perception of the general public towards others based on sexual orientation.

The LGBTQ members will have access to hospital services and other facilities without fear of discrimination.

Disadvantages of SOGIE bill

The law could be used by the LGBTQ members to threaten other people that may not agree to their terms.

The draft seeks to undermine religious and academic freedoms and principles.

Transgender will go beyond the bounds of standard behavior and moral principle.

The bill has received support from various people in the Philippines, including rights activists, celebrities, and politicians. Below are some of their tweets.

Is SOGIE bill counterproductive?

The bill has elicited a set of mixed reactions from different people and writers around the world. In an article published in Manila Bulletin, Dr. Benardo M. Villegas finds the bill counterproductive.

In his article, he argues that even though the movers of this bill have the best intentions, they have their facts wrong. He points out that the bill errs when it classifies human beings according to sexual orientation or gender identity. The writer feels that classification should be based on a distinction that is substantial and not superficial.

He goes further to explain that classification based on sexual orientation is superficial because there is no permanence in the distinction. It is so because the attraction of people to the same sex may vary in degree, and additionally, there are cases of diminished same-sex attractions.

Dr. Benardo M. Villegas is not the only one opposed to the bill if the reaction on Twitter is anything to go by. Below are some of the responses from a faction opposed to it.

Sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression has hitherto been a bone of contention in the Philippines and across the globe. With conflicting opinions about the LGBTQ, it is difficult for any government to pass into law a bill such as the SOGIE.

SOGIE bill is not new to most of us. However, not everyone has had a chance to understand what the draft is all about. As you wait to see whether it will finally be passed into law, much of what is covered here is an actual representation of its content.

Source: KAMI.com.gh
Let me be clear here; this article is not about crisis strategy, which involves contingency planning and business continuity planning for dealing with identified crises as they arise. It is about the formulation and reformulation of the regular ongoing strategy of the credit union during times of organizational stress. Setting aside your preparation for the future to concentrate solely on putting out the fires of today can be detrimental to the long-term viability of the organization.

Ive had several calls from credit union CEOs over the last few weeks requesting guidance on a couple of topics relating to strategy. Their first concern is whether all existing strategic initiatives should simply be put on the back burner until we see the much-hoped-for, light at the end of the tunnel. My answer to that is a categorical no. Your competitors are not going to rein in their efforts to win the allegiance of your members. As far as is possible, under the challenging circumstances, there is an even greater need for quality strategic discussion now than in stable times.

The second question Im being asked relates to how best to evaluate the relevance of existing strategic initiatives in light of the extreme volatility thats resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Authorities have issued a regulation to protect the historic stone carvings in northwest China's Gansu Province.

The regulation is the first of its kind in Gansu, aiming to provide more effective protection for the Mount Heishan stone carvings. It specifies the principles and responsibilities regarding the protection. It also emphasizes the importance of digitalizing the carvings with advanced technology.

The Mount Heishan stone carvings are typical stone carvings in north China. They are records of the production and lives of different people during different periods in history in the city of Jiayuguan. They are of significant historical and research value. China put them under national-level protection in 2013.

"Public awareness is still weak, so it is necessary to issue such a regulation," said local official Jia Peicheng.
SULLIVAN  A man in his 30s has been identified as the second confirmed case of coronavirus in Moultrie County.

The countys health department reports the man is quarantined at home. Health officials are in the process of contacting and verifying all of his close contacts, officials said in a news release.

The announcement comes almost a week after the first case, woman in her 30s, was reported.

To date, 24 Moultrie County residents have been tested for COVID-19. Of those tests, 21 tests were negative for coronavirus, and one is still pending, the release stated.

The health department is encouraging everyone to consider themselves at risk for exposure and stay home as much as possible. People should cover coughs and sneezes, wash hands with warm water and soap and isolate themselves from others when they are ill.

Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday the state would loan 500 ventilators to the national stockpile for use by New York and other states experiencing a crush of coronavirus-related hospitalizations.

California chose to loan some of its equipment because it is not yet in as dire a situation as New York, now the nation's epicenter for the crisis, said Jesse Melgar, a spokesman for the governor. Newsom said state modeling shows California will hit its peak of cases sometime in May.Newsom's decision follows Oregon and Washington committing to transfer ventilators to New York.

California has been hunting for ventilators to boost its own supply for weeks. Officials requested 10,000 ventilators from the national stockpile, though it has received none. Los Angeles got 170 ventilators from the stockpile, though many were broken.

As of Friday, California had access to 4,252 ventilators, Newsom said. Melgar said Monday the state is boosting that number by rehabilitating thousands of broken ventilators and procuring thousands more from other places. But he declined to provide a rough estimate of how many ventilators the state now possesses.

Hydrogen fuel cell manufacturer Bloom Energy has dedicated a portion of its production plants in California and Delaware to repairing old ventilators. As of last week, the San Jose-based company had repaired 515 ventilators, with more on the way. The company says it has the capacity to repair up to 1,000 per week.

Virgin Orbit, billionaire Richard Bransons company that makes rockets, has developed a prototype for a bridge ventilator designed to help patients breathe until they can be put on a traditional ventilator. The company is awaiting federal approval before it can begin mass producing the model, which was developed in partnership with researchers at the University of California, Irvine.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Sunday the state will return more than 400 ventilators of the 500 it got from the federal government so they can go to New York and other states. Inslee, a Democrat, said his statewide stay-at-home order and weeks of social distancing led to slower rates of infections and deaths in Washington, which saw the first serious coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Saturday said 140 ventilators would be sent from her state to New York, saying at this point Oregon doesnt need them.

While the federal government hasn't given California any ventilators from the national stockpile, it has sent other supplies. As of last week, California had received roughly 837,000 N-95 masks, 1.31 million gloves, nearly 2 million surgical masks, as well as face shields, surgical gowns, coveralls and 2,000 medical station beds, according to the White House.

California has recorded more than 15,000 cases of COVID-19 virus infections and at least 320 deaths, according to the latest data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. New York, meanwhile, has more than 123,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

(Image Credit: AP)
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The South Beach Psychiatric Center will open its doors to coronavirus patients on Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomos office said Monday.

With the help of the center, the Island will get an additional 262 hospital beds to respond to the coronavirus outbreak.

But it is still unclear when the 1,030-bed College of Staten Island field hospital will open its doors.

The 262-bed hospital is being opened in partnership between the state and Staten Island University Hospital, and though all Staten Islanders will be able to use the site, it will serve mostly as a relief valve to SIUHs coronavirus patients, the governors office said.

The governors office said the 262 beds at the South Beach Psychiatric Center will not be ICU beds but instead will treat pre- and post-intensive care unit patients, meaning if someone is COVID-19 positive and needs to be on oxygen they will be moved to the 262-bed facility.

But if someone is in need of more intensive care and needs a ventilator, they will remain hospitalized at SIUH.

With the expectation that we are reaching the apex this week, the site will take in COVID positive Staten Islanders who need hospitalization but do not require ventilators," said Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, who represents the district the South Beach Psychiatric Center sits in. "This will reduce the overcrowding and stress on RUMC and SIUH. I thank the Governor and his team for being responsive to our needs and concerns throughout this process.

Minority Leader Charles Schumers office told the Advance Friday that the CSI field hospital would take at least three weeks to be fully built out.

But the governors office could not confirm on Monday whether the CSI site would open in three weeks.

Instead, the governors office directed inquiries about the sites opening date to the Army Corps of Engineers, which will build the CSI site.

However, the Corps has declined to provide an opening date to the Advance, saying it is only in charge of design, engineering and construction support and any decision on an opening date is up to the state.

Rep. Max Rose, who helped spearhead the opening of the CSI hospital, has also been unable to provide any details about South Beach Psychiatric Center or CSI sites. He deployed to the National Guard on April 1 and will work at one of the Islands new hospitals.

The CSI field hospital was initially supposed to have 1,000 hospital beds, but the Army Corps of Engineers told the Advance Friday the facility would now contain 1,030 beds.

The Corps said last week it completed a preliminary design for a 150 bed alternate care facility at CSI, which it hoped to award a contract to soon.

Asked last week when the states new downstate field hospitals would open, Cuomo could not provide a clear timeline either.

Instead, the governor said the additional field hospitals would open when we need them, describing them as the last of the last resort sites which you would still need equipment and staff.

Once both facilities are fully built out, Staten Island could have an extra 1,292 more hospital beds to respond to the coronavirus outbreak.

This virus is an enemy that the entire country underestimated from day one and we have paid the price dearly, Cuomo said Monday. While the numbers look like they may be turning, now is not the time to be lax with social distancing - that would be a mistake and we all have a responsibility and a societal role in this. As I said from day one, I am not going to choose between public health and economic activity, and to that end I am extending all NYS on Pause functions for an additional two weeks. People are dying and our health care workers are exposing themselves to tremendous risk every day. If we cant convince you to show discipline for yourself in terms of social distancing, show discipline for other people.

New details about the Islands field hospital comes as the Islands two private hospitals could be at about half of their capacity.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday he predicts 5,000 coronavirus patients in New York City will need to be in intensive care unit beds by early this week, as the city waits for supplies and military personnel from the federal government.

Under the citys current approach, the mayor said that hospitals would be converted to ICU beds and then additional facilities like field hospitals, hotels and other venues would be built out for additional capacity

The mayor has vowed in recent days to look for every additional opportunity to build more hospital capacity on Staten Island during the coronavirus outbreak.

De Blasio said last week he selected a hotel on Staten Island to use to house healthcare workers who have been exposed to the coronavirus so they can safely stay away from their families. He said those hotels could also be used to be quickly turned into de facto hospitals.

However, the city has avoided saying which hotel on Staten Island it selected.

Opening Staten Islands field hospitals as soon as possible is critically important to alleviate the coronavirus influx on our hospitals so all Staten Islanders can get the care they deserve. I will continue to do whatever it takes to make sure the build-outs of these field hospitals are moving in the right direction," said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

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Lorraine Maradiaga.

Carrollton Police Department

Police in Carrollton, Texas, say 18-year-old Lorraine Maradiaga posted a series of videos on Snapchat in which she threatened to infect others with COVID-19.

Police say Maradiaga surrendered to authorities on Tuesday and told them she tested negative for the virus.

Officers said she's facing a charge of making a terroristic threat, a third-degree felony.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Police in Texas arrested an 18-year-old woman they feared was "willfully spreading" COVID-19 after she posted a series of Snapchat videos in which she said she tested positive for the virus.

Officers in Carrollton, Texas, near Dallas, arrested Lorraine Maradiaga on Tuesday, days after her videos surfaced online, police said in a statement provided to Insider.

While Maradiaga has since said she tested negative for COVID-19, police say she's facing a charge of making a terroristic threat  a third-degree felony  because of Snapchat videos in which she said she was positive.

Carrollton Police spokeswoman Jolene DeVito told NBC News that officials became aware of the Snapchat videos on Saturday after social medial users started tagging the police department in posts featuring the clips.

DeVito told the outlet one of the videos was believed to have been taken at a COVID-19 drive-thru testing site, where a healthcare worker can be heard telling Maradiaga to wait for her test results at home.

A second video appears to show Maradiaga in a store.

DeVito said Maradiaga can be heard saying: "I'm here at Walmart about to infest every motherf---er because if I'm going down, all you motherf---ers are going down."

She said a third video showed Maradiaga coughing in a car, and a fourth showed the teen telling viewers: "If you want to get the coronavirus and f---ing die, call me. I'll meet you up and I will shorten your life."

Police said in a statement seen by Insider that Maradiaga surrendered on Tuesday morning. Officials say Maradiaga told them she actually tested negative for the virus.

Story continues

She is being held at Denton County Jail in Denton, Texas, and was ordered to quarantine for 21 days after she's released from custody if she posts her $20,000 bond.

This article has been updated.

Read the original article on Insider
A heartbroken Australian husband had to grieve alone after being refused permission to be by his wife's side as she died of the coronavirus.

Maureen Preedy, 70, died on Monday in Perth while her husband Barry, who is also infected with the virus, spent the time alone in quarantine.

Mr Preedy was forced to remain in the same hotel room he shared with his wife of 50 years before she died.

'This shouldn't have happened. She had a heart of gold; she meant the world to everyone,' daughter Simone told 7News.

Maureen Preedy, 70, died on Monday in Perth while her husband Barry (pictured together), who is also infected with the virus, spent the time alone in quarantine

The family have been left devastated and are demanding to know why Mr Preedy could not be by his wife's side as her life support was switched off at Royal Perth Hospital.

'He was already positive to COVID-19. Allowing him on the ward would be no risk to him  he already has it,' Simone said.

'He would've done anything to be there with my mum ... anything they asked.'

Ms Preedy's death was confirmed by Health Minister Roger Cook on Monday.

He said the decision for Mr Preedy to stay in isolation was made by 'clinical staff on the front in the interest of making sure we don't see further spread the disease'.

'These are difficult decisions, but I'm not here to second guess the decisions of our frontline workers,' he said.

Mr Cook said welfare checks are being conducted on people quarantining in hotels and extra efforts were being made to console Mr Preedy.

There are now 5,997 cases of the virus nationally and 49 people have died of COVID-19

The couple flew home to Perth just last week on a Qatar flight after cruising on the Costa Victoria liner near Italy.

They left for the cruise in early March, after coronavirus had already spread across the country.

While Ms Preedy succumbed to the deadly virus, her husband's symptoms are improving and he may be able to return home to his family soon.
Three weeks before Election Day, Sean Spicer, who now hosts "Spicer & Co." on Newsmax TV, will release his second book, "Leading America: President Trumps Commitment to People, Patriotism, and Capitalism."

What he's saying: "Conservatives have always faced enormous headwinds from the media, Hollywood, academia, and Big Tech," Spicer said in a statement.

"[B]ut the resistance to this administration has taken it to new heights even during this crisis. 'Leading America' will expose the reality and hypocrisy of each and how the presidents policies and agenda are fighting back."

"Leading America" will be published Oct. 13 by Center Street.

Spicer's first book, "The Briefing," was a New York Times bestseller.

Go deeper...What we're reading: Excerpts from Sean Spicer's new memoir
Rome shares an intense bond with the Romantic Poets.

The Royal Mail has issued a special set of stamps to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

Wordsworth is joined on the stamps by nine other British Romantic poets: William Blake, Lord Byron, John Clare, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Mary Robinson, Walter Scott and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The stamps feature an extract from each of the poets' best-known works, along with a monochrome design reflecting the theme of the poem.

The new stamps were the result of collaboration between biographer Jonathan Bate and The Chase, "an ideas-based creative consultancy" in the UK, with the striking lino-cut illustrations created by printmaker Linda Farquharson.

Ben Casey of The Chase said the text on the stamps was set in an old-style Caslon font and blind-embossed on an antique press. The texts were then lit from the side and photographed by Peter Thompson, to capture the "debossing of the letterforms and the woven quality of the paper."

The stamps are on sale from today, 7 April, for details see Royal Mail website.

Romantic poets and Rome

The Romantic poets, of course, share a close bond with Rome, particularly Keats and Shelley whose final resting places are in the city's Non-Catholic Cemetery.

The Keats-Shelley House, the building at the foot of the Spanish Steps in which Keats died in 1821, is currently closed as a result of Italy's nationwide lockdown due to the Coronavirus emergency.

It recently restored the historic ceilings in its museum and library, which contains the apartment where Keats spent the final 14 weeks and two days of his short life.

Later this year the Keats-Shelley House plans to mark the 200th anniversary of Keats and Severn landing in Naples with a programme of commemorative events.
On this side of the Pond, her sober and steady voice was drowned out by a cataract of fear and recrimination that has sullied Americas national life during the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking on Sunday evening from Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth II delivered a message of hope and solidarity to the United Kingdom, even as the nations prime minister, Boris Johnson, lay stricken with the virus. Today we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it. A bare 522 words, the queens speech was imbued with quiet dignity, with insight that comes from a life dedicated to a nations highest ideals through its darkest hours.

The queen recalled those hours: the beginning of the Nazi blitz in 1940, when the 14-year-old future monarch made her first broadcast to an anxious nation. In a moment of existential crisis, she offered words of comfort for the thousands of British children sent overseas  to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States  to escape the deadly bombing raids on London and other cities in England. Before I finish, I can truthfully say to you all that we children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage. We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war.

This threat is different, she explained, and in doing so revealed how a national leader can use an intimate knowledge of the past to offer perspective and wisdom for the present.

The virulent pandemic of Nazism divided the world into warring camps. And it was made more lethal and more sinister, in the words of Winston Churchill, by the lights of perverted science. Not so today: Hardly any region of the world has escaped the contagion, and most of the world is united in defeating it. This time we join all nations across the globe in common endeavor. Using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal, we will succeed, and that success will belong to every one of us.

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Most Americans, understandably, dont appreciate the decisive role of the monarch in Englands history of constitutional government: Without a monarchy, there would have been no Magna Carta, no Glorious Revolution, no English Bill of Rights, no Act of Toleration, no triumph over the international scourge of Napoleonic France. When the queen spoke of the qualities of the British people  the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humored resolve and of fellow feeling  she did so as a participant in an institution that has helped to shape the national character over centuries.

Many of Americas leaders, by contrast, have forgotten the purpose of the institutions they inhabit: to serve the common good, especially in times of crisis. Yuval Levin, editor of National Affairs, wisely explains the massive breakdown of trust in Americas political, economic, and media institutions. Rather than allowing themselves to be shaped by the moral aims of our institutions, he explains, todays leaders use them as a stage to elevate themselves, raise their profiles and perform for the cameras in the reality show of our unceasing culture war.

For sixty-eight years, from the day she was crowned in 1953, Queen Elizabeth II has resisted that temptation. She has conformed her own desires to the highest purposes of the institution she serves. As a result, she can be trusted. She can remind Britons, as she did on Sunday, that their finest moments as a nation, their unique identity as a people, is not a part of our past. It defines our present and our future. We call this an act of statesmanship, made possible by trust.

The collapse of trust in the United States coincides with our near contempt for meaningful, let alone inspiring, political speech. When the queen speaks, the nation listens, because behind her words is a life of substance, duty, faith, and moral purpose: a life that has seen up close how a nation can struggle and fight against a great evil  and not lose heart. When our politicians speak, their vaporous words dissolve like ants in a blazing furnace. Instead of statesmen, we have groomed a generation of vipers. The democratic spirit, unconstrained by virtue, creates a tyranny of egos, a monarchy of megalomania.

The queen ended her speech with a message of hope, rooted in history and memory and tradition. Pity the heart that could not be moved and lifted by it. We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return, she said. We will be with our friends again. We will be with our families again. We will meet again.

More from National Review
By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, April 7 (Reuters) - Alaska's North Slope Borough government has moved to seize the assets of RavnAir Group after it declared bankruptcy due to the coronavirus, aiming to protect its region's air service but also setting up a potential legal battle with the airline's lender.

Ravn, Alaska's largest regional carrier, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and halted operations on Sunday after running out of cash due to the plunge in travel caused by the pandemic, threatening service to remote regions like the North Slope Borough that do not have outside road access.

In a seizure order on Sunday, North Slope Borough Mayor Harry Brower said his government, which serves a mostly Inupiat population, "must, in this time of disaster, ensure that its residents have food, medical supplies, and medical transport."

The area is roughly the size of Minnesota and has close to 10,000 residents.

Assistant Alaska attorney general Rob Schmidt told Reuters that while the order was motivated by legitimate concerns, it was illegal and counterproductive because it has put in doubt the $12 million in bankruptcy financing that Ravn's lender, BNP Paribas, had been prepared to give the company, with those assets as collateral.

Schmidt testified by teleconference at a U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing in Delaware on Tuesday.

Ravn declined to comment on the borough's order.

Alaska's congressional delegation warned the U.S. government last week that many of the state's airlines, including Ravn, could collapse and leave many communities isolated, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Ravn, which has a partnership with Seattle-based Alaska Airlines, is among U.S. airlines seeking federal aid to help them through an unprecedented decline in air travel.

Brower said in an e-mailed statement late on Monday that he would lift the asset seizure order as soon as other airlines get access to Ravn's facilities.

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"We don't want profit or bankrupt Ravn's planes and calculators, we wanted the facilities under Borough control so they would not be boarded up and locked during the largest pandemic in modern history and could be used by other airlines," he said.

Alaska Airlines has said it will try to cover some of Ravn's routes, particularly to commercial fishing centers where the seafood industry is preparing for summer harvests. It also plans to increase cargo shipments around the state and attempt to hire some of Ravn's laid-off employees, the airline said on Monday.

Some smaller Alaska-based carriers have also agreed to fill in for Ravn by flying to and from remote villages. (Reporting by Yereth Rosen in Anchorage Editing by Tracy Rucinski and Sonya Hepinstall)
Houston is the energy capital of the world. Its oil industry executives and climate activists, usually viewed as adversaries, suddenly have a unique opportunity to work together and demonstrate courageous leadership.

Climate advocates in the U.S. have long favored reducing oil production because the world cannot possibly address a warming planet without reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

We have supported a wide range of policy initiatives, including bans on leasing federal lands, bans on fracking and limits to offshore drilling. But mandatory production cuts seemed entirely out of reach.

No longer.

The recent collapse in global oil prices, caused by the breakdown of production agreements between Saudi Arabia and Russia, predates the full flowering of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has exacerbated the price collapse, further slowed the global economy and reduced energy demand.

Mandatory cuts are now on the table. And the loudest voices calling for these cuts do not belong to climate advocates.

Serious discussion is taking place in Texas among industry stakeholders and regulators about possible state-mandated production cuts. The Texas Railroad Commission has scheduled an April 14 hearing to consider the issue.

For several years, climate advocates have been calling for a managed decline of the oil industry. This is in contrast to a chaotic decline, a very different approach to handing the sectors woes.

Under a managed decline scenario, many of those whose livelihoods depend on the industry will land on their feet, including employees of oil and oil services companies. This scenario also takes into account local, state and national governments that depend on oil for a substantial portion of their revenue.

By contrast, a chaotic decline scenario is likely to result in terrible disruption to the lives of people in Houston and beyond who rely on the industry for their survival. It is to their great credit that so many climate advocates have generally supported a managed, rather than a chaotic, decline.

This managed approach is necessary if we are to have any hope of preventing catastrophic climate change. To have any effect, this decline must be steep and lead to an industry that operates, at most, on a very reduced scale.

Climate defenders should embrace the opportunity to cooperate with industry leaders who favor mandatory production cuts. This is a historic moment in which our interests partially overlap. But if we fail to move quickly, that moment will pass and we will miss our chance.

I suspect that a Texas-only mandated reduction in oil production will only have limited effect on addressing either oil price stability or climate change. Still, it would represent an important start that could spur U.S. government leaders to work with their Russian and Saudi counterparts to reduce production.

This is not as far-fetched as it may seem.

One thing the coronavirus crisis has taught us is that much of the early response was too timid, slow and limited in scale. There is now a growing understanding that to address a crisis of this proportion, governments must work at the local, regional, national and international levels to mobilize an effective response.

Politicians who have in the past opposed substantial government involvement in the economy strongly supported the stimulus bill. If climate advocates and the oil industry unite, many of those same politicians might support mandated cuts in oil production. For climate advocates, mandated cuts should be embraced as an important component of a solution to the climate crisis. Thats why I call on my fellow advocates to work with those in the oil industry who are willing to support such a mandate.

Limits on oil production have long been part of Russias and Saudi Arabias arsenals. Their oil industries, economic and political systems differ greatly from ours, but that doesnt mean we cant figure out a way to cooperate. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were able to join forces temporarily with Joseph Stalin during World War II. This should be much easier by comparison.

The interests of climate advocates and many of those in the oil industry have, at least for the time being, converged. We cant miss this opportunity to work together.

Shapiro is associate director of the Rockefeller Family Fund and co-founder of the Funder Collaborative on Oil and Gas.
Though detectives are still seeking answers in the decades-old unsolved case of a dead body found on the side of Interstate 93 in New Hampshire, authorities announced they reached a major breakthrough in the investigation this week when they uncovered the mans name.

Through fingerprint evidence, the victim has finally been identified as Winston Richard Morris of Barre, Vermont. He went by the nickname Skip," New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald said in a statement Monday.

He served in the U.S. Air Force and was a life long resident of Vermont and enjoyed hunting and fishing," the prosecutor said. "Mr. Morris was a loving father, brother and son, the prosecutor said.

Morriss remains were found by a work crew in a water-filled pit off the side of I-93 in Salem, New Hampshire on August 7, 1969. The body was identified as that of a man who was 28 to 40 years old, roughly 225 pounds and nearly 6 feet tall, according to the attorney general.

An autopsy later determined Morris had died from several gunshot wounds to his head and torso, and the mans death was ruled a homicide, the attorney general said.

Known fingerprints were taken from the remains at the time of the autopsy. However, no state or national databases were operational at that time to compare fingerprints, the statement said. "In 1969, manual searches of fingerprints on file in New Hampshire and in Boston were unsuccessful in identifying the remains.

As a result, he was buried at Pine Grove Cemetery in Salem, New Hampshire, authorities said.

At the time that his body was discovered on the northbound side of the highway south of Exit 2, Morris was wearing a tan shirt with blue stripes and a Bradlees department store tag as well as bluish-green slacks, black shoes and socks, according to the attorney general.

No personal items were found with the remains, though, the attorney general noted. So, he remained nameless for 50 years.

The mans body was exhumed 42 years later following a court order requested by the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit. The remains were examined again and new details emerged, according to MacDonald.

The second autopsy found that Morris had suffered at least six gunshot wounds to his head. One of the bullets may have tracked from the mans jaw to his left ribcage, MacDonald said.

Medical examiners discovered the victim had unique physical characteristics as well, according to the prosecutor. Morris had wide shoulders with a slight hunch. His upper and lower jaws were disproportionate, causing him to have a substantial under-bite and an oversized lower jaw with buck teeth.

Authorities also found a severe break in Morriss right upper thigh bone that had been repaired with a surgical plate and six screws, the prosecutor said. Examiners concluded the break would have taken months to heal, requiring a cast and crutches.

A DNA profile for Morris was soon developed and uploaded to the Federal Bureau of Investigations database. It was then searched and matched against other DNA profiles without success, according to the New Hampshire attorney general.

Over the years, the Cold Case Unit, the Salem Police Department, the Medical Examiners Office and the New Hampshire State Police Forensic Laboratory, continued their efforts to identify the remains, the attorney general said. Those efforts included a facial reconstruction of the skull.

In June 2019 in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Morriss remains, detectives renewed their efforts to identify the homicide victim, according to MacDonald.

This effort proved successful with an identification of a fingerprint from the remains, MacDonald said. Previous efforts to identify the remains from a fingerprint had been unsuccessful.

The print was submitted to regional and federal databases in July, but no identification was made, according to the prosecutor.

Timothy Jackson, a criminalist at the New Hampshire State Police Forensic Laboratory, then got to work, plotting the individual characteristics of the finger and resubmitting the print to the FBIs database. Investigators were finally able to give the victim a name, the prosecutor said.

The case remains open, and detectives have since spoken with Morriss family to create a timeline of the Vermont residents movements before his death:

Morris was released from Vermont State Prison on May 9, 1969.

He spent time in Boston, Massachusetts in June, 1969.

The Vermont resident traveled to Glastonbury, Connecticut in July 1969.

Morris was last seen in Burlington, Vermont on July 25, 1969, and his remains were found in Salem, New Hampshire on August 7, 1969.

Anyone with information relating to Morriss death has been urged to call the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit at 603-223-8890 or email the unit at coldcaseunit@dos.nh.gov.

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Ukraine is very grateful to the international community for the assistance in protecting people living near the contact line in Donbas.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote this on Twitter.

People on the contact line faced with a double threat. Help is very important to them. Ukraine appreciates the support of the international community and its contribution to the protection of people in Donbas, he wrote.

The prime minister also shared a post of NGO Proliska that says Mission Proliska under UNHCR funding purchased equipment and materials for sewing individual masks in 14 settlements on the contact line. Representatives of communities will provide them free of charge to doctors and employees of strategic enterprises of Donbas.

As Ukrinform reported, on March 12, 2020, the quarantine was introduced in Ukraine to fight the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19.

On March 25, the Ukrainian government ordered the extension of quarantine measures in the country until April 24.

As of 9 a.m. on April 7, Ukraine had 1,462 laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases, including 45 deaths.

iy
THE government through the Ministry of Finance and Planning has formed a special task force for evaluating the economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis so that mitigation and rescue measures could be taken as soon as possible.

Lockdowns around the world have placed the global economies at a standstill, and Tanzania, which has reported 24 Covid-19 cases so far, is not immune to the looming economic slump.

Finance and Planning Minister, Dr Philip Mpango told Parliament yesterday that his office was aware of economic impacts that are caused by the deadly virus and that appropriate measures are being taken to help blunt its effects.

The minister said forming the task force was inevitable as the government contemplates on measures that will be needed to blunt the economic impact brought by the coronavirus crisis.

We have decided to form a special task force that will make an evaluation on the situation, he told the House, noting that the team would advise on the proper way to address the situation by giving recommendations on the best programme to be used in tackling the impact of COVID-19.

The team comprises members from both parts of the United Republic of Tanzania, thus Zanzibar and Tanzania mainland.

He said a number of sectors have been badly affected and that the team is working day and night to come up with suggestions on the best strategy to address the crisis.

He mentioned some of the sectors that have been affected already such as tourism, air transport, industries, horticulture sector, revenues from different businesses in and outside the country and many others.

The government has already instructed the Central Bank to collect opinions, views, recommendations and pieces of advice from different institutions such as Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO), Tanzania Bankers Association (TBA), Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), Tanzania Horticulture Association (TAHA) and many other institutions.

Just recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that the global economy is heading towards recession while the United Nations projects the collapse of the economy of the developing countries by 2.3 per cent.

He added that the government is currently engaged in talks with the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the rapid credit for low income countries so that the country could benefit from the relief grant for fighting the scourge.

Another measure that is being taken by the government to reduce the impact of the economic recession that may face the country includes taking action on tax collection so that the private sector could continue to operate without problems.

The minister added that the government has identified three main areas that will help to address the situation, revealing that currently the focus is on financing special and basic needs for personal protective gears.

Dr Mpango said the move will involve the construction of emergency service centres and purchase of required protective gears, adding that the government is also boosting the budget for hiring more doctors and other health service providers.

He mentioned sources of the income as government budget, voluntary contributions, soft loans from various financial institutions, contributions from councils, companies and many other sources.

According to the minister, Twiga Minerals Corporation has already donated over 1m US dollar (about 2.3bn/-) for supporting the fight against the disease.

Moreover, the minister added that the government is focusing on renovating infrastructure so that it could be easier for traders to transport goods from one place to another at an affordable price.

He added that the government is also insisting on preserving food and control budgets so that there could be no problem in future.

The third main measure that is taken by the government is to protect the financial institution and the value of Tanzanian shilling.

He said the government through the BoT is applying all possible strategies that will enable all commercial banks to continue operating without problems.

Generally, the government is always awake, we are working tirelessly to address this problem and the task force will come with a special programme that will guide us in addressing the problem, he said.

Earlier, the debate on the Premiers Office budget estimates was dominated by COVID-19 on which almost all MPs wanted to hear what the government was planning to do to rescue the countrys economy.

Both MPs from the opposition and the ruling party used much time to advise and give useful information on how the government could address the problem.

Dr Mpango told MPs yesterday that the government is aware of their concern and that soon the special team will come up with a programme on the matter.

This team will tell us where we should concentrate, we need to study the situation and understand where and how to start, he said.

Dr Mpango was speaking during the winding up of the Premiers Office budget estimates, which was passed by Parliament yesterday.
Major supermarket chains are beginning to report their first coronavirus-related employee deaths, leading to store closures and increasing anxiety among grocery workers as the pandemic intensifies across the country.

A Trader Joe's worker in Scarsdale, New York, a greeter at a Giant store in Largo, Maryland, and two Walmart employees from the same Chicago-area store have died of covid-19 in recent days, the companies confirmed Monday.

STILL LIFE: Drone photos show an empty Houston from the sky during stay-at-home order

Though more than 40 states have ordered nonessential businesses to close and told residents to stay home to stem the spread of the virus, supermarkets are among the retailers that remain open. Thousands of grocery employees have continued to report to work as U.S. infections and death rates continue to climb, with many reporting long shifts and extra workloads to keep up with spiking demand. Many workers say they don't have enough protective gear to deal with hundreds of customers a day. Dozens of grocery workers have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent weeks.

Industry experts say the rise of worker infections and deaths will likely have a ripple effect on grocers' ability to retain and add new workers at a time when they're looking to rapidly hire thousands of temporary employees. Walmart, the nation's largest grocer, is hiring 150,000 workers, while Kroger is adding more than 10,000. Many are offering an extra $2 an hour and promising masks, gloves and hand sanitizer. But finding workers willing to work on the front lines for little more than the minimum wage could be an increasingly tough sell, according to supermarket analyst Phil Lempert.

"One of the biggest mistakes supermarkets made early on was not allowing employees to wear masks and gloves the way they wanted to," he said. "They're starting to become proactive now, but it's still going to be much tougher to hire hundreds of thousands of new workers. We're going to start seeing people say, 'I'll just stay on unemployed instead of risking my life for a temporary job.'"

Some companies have begun installing plexiglass sneeze guards at cash registers and requiring customers to stand 6 feet apart in line. The country's two largest grocers, Walmart and Kroger, are beginning to check employees' temperatures at the beginning of each shift, and will provide workers with gloves and masks.

THE SHOW MUST NOT GO ON: Six more shows will end early due to coronavirus

The added precautions come amid a wave of worker strikes and petitions aimed at getting employers like Amazon, Trader Joe's and the grocery delivery service Instacart, to take additional steps to protect workers. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Those efforts are likely to take on new urgency, analysts said, as supermarket workers across the country begin to see colleagues fall ill from covid-19. More than 356,000 Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus as of Monday afternoon, and nearly 10,500 have died.

A Trader Joe's employee with underlying health conditions died of covid-19 early Monday morning, spokeswoman Kenya Friend-Daniel said. The Scarsdale, New York, store where the employee worked has been closed until Thursday to give workers "time to process and grieve," Friend-Daniel said in an email. Employees will continue to be paid during the closure, and will receive an additional two days of paid leave, she said.

Trader Joe's stores in Brooklyn and Philadelphia also were temporarily closed Monday, for additional cleaning and sanitizing.

In Illinois, Walmart employees Phillip Thomas, 48, and Wando Evans, 51, both of whom worked at a store in Evergreen Park near Chicago, died in late March, according to labor advocacy group United for Respect.

A Walmart spokesman said the company is "heartbroken." The grocery giant has hired an outside company to sanitize "high-touch" areas, such as front entrance, carts, registers and bathrooms. It has also started installing sneeze guards at cash register and begun limiting the number of customers who can shop at one time.

SAFE SHOPPING: How you can avoid coronavirus exposure while shopping

In Maryland, Leilani Jordan, 27, a greeter at the Giant's Campus Way South store in Largo, died last week.

"She said, 'Mommy, I'm going to work because no one else is going to help the senior citizens get their groceries," her mother, Zenobia Shepherd, told The Washington Post. "She only stopped going to work when she could no longer breathe."

Her last day at work was March 16, according to Giant spokesman Daniel Wolk. Jordan tested positive for the coronavirus in late March and died Wednesday.

Wolk said the company cleaned and disinfected the store when it found out about Jordan's diagnosis, and is providing counseling for employees.
OTTAWABritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a fighter who has what it takes to recover from his COVID-19 affliction, Britains envoy to Canada said Tuesday.

Johnson was in intensive care in a British hospital and has become the first major world leader to be hit that hard by the novel coronavirus.

High Commissioner Susan le Jeune dAllegeershecque said the fact Johnson was breathing without a ventilator was a good sign.

Hes stable. The good thing is hes not getting any worse. Hes having oxygen but hes not on a respirator, le Jeune dAllegeershecque said in an interview. (Generally, a mechanical breathing device is called a ventilator and a respirator is a type of filtration mask, but ventilators used to be called respirators in some places.)

Hes a fighter; the guy has got huge energy and great determination. Were all hoping and confident that hes going to recover.

She reiterated what Johnsons temporary replacement, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, has said: that the 55-year-old prime minister is in good spirits.

She described Johnsons affliction as unsettling and disturbing but said the plan Johnson put in place for Britain to fight COVID-19 before he needed to be hospitalized will carry the country through.

Dominic Raab has been very clear that his role is to implement the decisions on a countrywide basis. The direction was very clearly set before the prime minister had to go into hospital.

Le Jeune dAllegeershecque said Canada is co-operating closely with Britain on the crisis and the two countries are speaking with one voice against any country that espouses protectionism.

That has includes taking the U.S. to task over reports of critical medical supplies not being shared, she said.

We both agree that this crisis must not be used as an excuse to impose unnecessarily protectionist measures to shut down free trade, she said.

When we have both had issues, we have engaged right at the highest levels of the U.S. to explain we do not think that important vital supplies or whatever equipment or goods it is, should be held up.

Keeping global supply chains operating has been key to combating the crisis and le Jeune dAllegeershecque said Canada and Britain have been doing their part by keeping air cargo links open for transatlantic trade.

Britain is receiving a lot of Canadian grain, which she said is vital for its ability to make bread.

And she said pharmaceuticals from Britain continue to flow unimpeded to Canada.

Britains planned exit from the European Union that is to take place at the end of the year has not been derailed by COVID-19 but it has been slowed down, said le Jeune dAllegeershecque.

We havent stopped because this remains important, but I think other things are taking slightly higher precedence, she said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has posted on social media that his thoughts are with Johnson and his family.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and former prime minister Stephen Harper also sent their wishes for a speedy recovery.
The protection of medical staff is a major priority in the current corona crisis. However, face masks and protective clothing are difficult to obtain in suitable quality on the world market these days. Thanks to an initiative of Christian Ramsauer, head of the Institute of Innovation and Industrial Management at Graz University of Technology and his deputy Hans Peter Schnoll together with Dr. Philipp Metnitz, head of the Clinical Department for General Anaesthesiology, Emergency and Intensive Care Medicine at Med Uni Graz, KAGes is now rapidly receiving a large quantity of urgently needed protective face shields.

Christian Ramsauer explains: "I am delighted that we have already been able to hand over the first 1,000 face shields to KAGes today. These were designed by my team at the Schumpeter Laboratory for Innovation at TU Graz and have been manufactured by us in shift operation since the weekend." A total of 10,000 such shields will be produced for KAGes at TU Graz in the coming weeks.

Philipp Metnitz is extremely pleased on the occasion of today's handover of the protective equipment: "On behalf of many colleagues, I would like to thank Professor Ramsauer and his team for this great initiative. The motivation and commitment shown in support of medical staff in Austria is incredible! The broad solidarity I've seen in recent weeks is unprecedented in my experience and shows me that together we can really make a difference."

The face shields were tested by doctors during operation and checked from a hygienic point of view by the responsible departments of KAGes. The shields are reusable and can be easily cleaned and disinfected.

Pilot series at TU Graz

Because things have to happen quickly, the first 10,000 units in a pilot series are currently being produced directly at the Schumpeter Laboratory for Innovation at TU Graz. More than 30 powerful 3D printers are currently printing around the clock. The 3D printing capacities of the Institute of Innovation and Industrial Management could be expanded thanks to the provision of additional printers by other institutes of TU Graz, as well as by the TU Graz' Student Union and private individuals. In this way, around 300 protective face shields can be produced per day. The Institute of Innovation and Industrial Management is also working with two Austrian companies to complete series production of the product using suitable manufacturing technologies in order to increase the number of units. This means that these shields can soon be supplied to other medical care facilities in Austria.

Three components against the risk of infection

The protective shield made at TU Graz essentially consists of three components. The supporting part of the shield is made of PLA plastic using an FDM 3D printing process. This material is characterized by good printability, is biocompatible and biodegradable. In the pilot series, the shield itself consists of a commercially available overhead transparency, which is perforated using a DIN A4 quadruple punch and fixed to the supporting part. This allows the shield to be easily replaced or cleaned if necessary. The protective shield is fastened with a washable elastic band that is adjustable in length.

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Ten years into the Supercity and not a hell of a lot to show for it. The Wellsford subdivision is the largest rural subdivision in the Rodney district. It extends laterally from Pakiri to Tauhoa and encompasses the Okahukura peninsula. The Wellsford subdivision is considered to have a small population base in comparison to other subdivisions in Rodney, including Warkworth, Kumeu and Coatesville. This is in stark contrast to our individual rates bills, which are proportionally higher than urban rates bills.

Auckland has successfully divided our communities into rating classifications as follows:

Urban (high priority)

Urban/Rural (medium priority)

Rural (non-existent priority

We will always struggle under the Auckland Council framework to put a business case together to develop the infrastructure that is so urgently needed in our community. Thats because the main question Council asks when it comes to Wellsford is this: What cost/benefit does the Auckland ratepayer gain from expenditure of money in Wellsford?

Our community doesnt have the population to attract expenditure in the current Council framework. It will never be able to attract funding (for basic infrastructure and maintenance) in this community if the question is about benefit to Auckland as a whole. We are too small to pay for infrastructure requirements in this community, and yet we are being asked to support all the other projects in urban Auckland. This support is guaranteed through being charged general rates, targeted rates and extra fuel taxes. The rural community of Wellsford watches as millions of dollars are poured into many projects such as the city rail links, sewerage connections, new bus lanes, park and rides, aquatic parks, urban forests, new daily rail services to Hamilton and a new satellite city to be built at Drury. The above-mentioned projects are paid out of general rates while the Wellsford bus service is paid for by a targeted rate.

The drought has put pressure on the Wellsford water supply which supports the outer rural area. There has been a systematic lack of investment over at least 50 years, and it has been left to collapse. This has left our district in a very dangerous predicament with regard to basic health and safety requirements. The waterpipes are old and failing, and we are relying on a water source that has been inadequate for years. Sewerage pipes are breaking down on a regular basis. Quarries, which are used to support roading projects and maintenance in the area, are closing down because of the consenting process. The proposed motorway to connect Auckland to Northland is at least 10 to 15 years away from completion. Wellsford and Te Hana are the only towns in the Supercity that have a large percentage of New Zealands traffic travelling through them.

We are now faced with the construction of the largest rubbish dump in New Zealand as the main attraction. As a result, a Sword of Damocles is resting over our natural aquifers and potential main water supply for Wellsford and Warkworth in the future. The dump is also an eternal threat to the largest harbour (Kaipara) and fish breeding ground for New Zealand.

It has to be recognised, however, that Auckland Council has given us a skate park, a pending new public toilet and a library over 10 years. Is this the gateway to Auckland or is this the last toilet stop before Auckland?
MEDFORD, Ore.  Jackson County and the union for its public employees have reached a new contract agreement after months of dissent, according to SEIU Local 503.

Local 503 members voted over the weekend on a tentative contract with the County. Communications director Ben Morris said that union members voted with overwhelming support to ratify the contract. Local 503 has about 500 members.

According to Morris, coronavirus concerns spurred union members and the County to move from contract concerns to safety concerns for both public employees and for the County at large.

Contract negotiations between Jackson County and Local 503 reached an impasse at the end of January after the two sides could not agree on a fair contract. For workers, the sticking point came down to healthcare coverage  union members supported joining the statewide Public Employees Benefits Board (PEBB), which the County opposed.

At the beginning of March, Local 503 members voted to strike  but the arrival of COVID-19 in Jackson County and the resulting public health response put a pause on those plans. The union instead lobbied Jackson County, which relies on public employees for the coronavirus response, to enter binding arbitration in order to reach a speedy end to the dispute.

Our union has been in negotiations for over a year, said Angela Cruthirds, a member of the employees bargaining team, in a March 24 statement. We have been working for more than seven months without a contract and with no security about the future of our healthcare plans. Many county employees are still unable to afford basic healthcare and there is a real concern around how a significant outbreak among employees would impact services.

Morris says that County worker health care and pay raises were key to ratification of the contract this week. He says the new agreement asks for 7.5 to 11 percent wage increases, which adjust depending on the Countys cost-of-living scale during the contract term through 2021. The pending contract includes a 3.5 percent wage increase immediately.

The new plan has lower cost and richer benefits as negotiated with the County, according to Morris.

Bargaining teams from both sides reached the tentative agreement on Friday ahead of a weekend vote by the union, Morris said. With union support, the agreement now awaits final approval by the Jackson County Board of Commissioners.

The union says the contract is not retroactive to the seven months Jackson County union staff members worked without a contract.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says social distancing measures will remain a fact of life amid the coronavirus pandemic until a vaccine is found as the number of new cases continues to stabilise.

"That is the new normal," Ms Berejiklian said on Tuesday. "Not having physical contact, socially distancing is, at the very minimum, a way of life for us. Because we have to be honest with ourselves - until a vaccine is found, there is no simple way to deal with this issue."

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant confirmed there had been 49 new COVID-19 cases since the last update on Monday. The state's total now stands at 2686 cases. Of the 229 cases currently being treated, 37 people are in intensive care with 24 people requiring ventilators.

The NSW death toll has risen to 21.
Supporters of a proposed $5.5 billion bond measure that would keep Californias stem cell research institute in business are asking thousands of people to mail in their signatures in hopes of qualifying the initiative for the November ballot.

Backers are resorting to the plea because the states stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the coronavirus has all but halted signature gatherers who ordinarily collect petitions outside grocery stores and other public places.

Californians for Stem Cell Research, Treatments and Cures, the campaign behind the measure, has launched what it calls an unprecedented mail-in effort to try to collect at least 35,000 more signatures by April 18.

The campaign is asking backers to print out a 16-page copy of the petition on its website and return a signed version via mail.

Bob Klein, chairman of Californians for Stem Cell Research, said the effort is backed by 55 patient-advocacy groups, including some whose members have lost loved ones to diseases such as Alzheimers, Parkinsons and diabetes that could one day be treatable because of stem cell research.

Nothing is going to ever stop them, Klein said. They are motivated in an extraordinary way.

The measure asks voters to re-fund the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the states stem cell agency, by allowing it to issue up to $5.5 billion in bonds for research, training and facilities construction.

Voters created the agency with a $3 billion initiative in 2004. But 15 years later, the institute is running out of money and has begun to scale back grants for new research.

More for you Coronavirus halts California ballot measure signature-gathering in its tracks

The state requires 623,212 valid signatures to qualify an initiative for the November ballot. Supporters of the stem cell initiative say they have about 915,000 signatures, but campaigns must typically collect hundreds of thousands more than the minimum to make up for invalid or duplicate signatures.

Adrienne Shapiro, founder of Axis Advocacy for Sickle Cell Education & Support, is one of hundreds of volunteers asking people to sign the petition from the safety of their living rooms.

Shapiro, who lives in Los Angeles and whose daughter was born with sickle cell disease, said her group had planned to gather signatures in person before the pandemic hit. At first, she said they were distraught. Now, theyre determined to get it on the ballot.

When things started shutting down, we were really freaked out, Shapiro said. We cant put it off. We cant say, Well wait until next time. Weve got to do it now.

The initiative would help fund clinical trials for treatments that the institute says may soon be ready for testing. Two federally approved therapies have come from the research the institute has funded to date, according to the agency.

Out of the $5.5 billion initiative, $1.5 billion would be earmarked to fund research and therapy for brain and central nervous system diseases, such as Alzheimers, Parkinsons, strokes and epilepsy.

The agency said last week that it would set aside $5 million to fund research for stem cell and regenerative therapies for COVID-19. Klein said that work would grow if the bond is approved.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the number of federally approved therapies that have come from research funded by the stem cell institute. The agency says two such therapies have been approved.

Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
On March 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day national lockdown to try and control the spread of the deadly coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in the country. The lockdown entailed shutting down of all but essential services, with people not venturing outside their homes.

This also meant the shutting down of all economic activity in the country, including manufacturing or building activity. What the country saw after this announcement was nothing short of a crisis, however. Instead of leading to a complete shutting down of movement across the country, it led to hundreds of ...

Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal. They do not reflect the view/s of Business Standard.
Wei-Dong Li became the CEO of Beijing North Star Company Limited (HKG:588) in 2016. First, this article will compare CEO compensation with compensation at similar sized companies. Next, we'll consider growth that the business demonstrates. And finally - as a second measure of performance - we will look at the returns shareholders have received over the last few years. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO.

View our latest analysis for Beijing North Star

How Does Wei-Dong Li's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

According to our data, Beijing North Star Company Limited has a market capitalization of HK$9.0b, and paid its CEO total annual compensation worth CN775k over the year to December 2018. We think total compensation is more important but we note that the CEO salary is lower, at CN665k. When we examined a selection of companies with market caps ranging from CN2.8b to CN11b, we found the median CEO total compensation was CN3.5m.

Next, let's break down remuneration compositions to understand how the industry and company compare with each other. Speaking on an industry level, we can see that nearly 72% of total compensation represents salary, while the remainder of 28% is other remuneration. Beijing North Star is largely mirroring the industry average when it comes to the share a salary enjoys in overall compensation

This would give shareholders a good impression of the company, since most similar size companies have to pay more, leaving less for shareholders. While this is a good thing, you'll need to understand the business better before you can form an opinion. You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at Beijing North Star, below.

SEHK:588 CEO Compensation April 7th 2020

Is Beijing North Star Company Limited Growing?

Beijing North Star Company Limited has seen earnings per share (EPS) move positively by an average of 34% a year, over the last three years (using a line of best fit). Its revenue is up 7.4% over last year.

Story continues

Overall this is a positive result for shareholders, showing that the company has improved in recent years. It's good to see a bit of revenue growth, as this suggests the business is able to grow sustainably. Although we don't have analyst forecasts you could get a better understanding of its growth by checking out this more detailed historical graph of earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Has Beijing North Star Company Limited Been A Good Investment?

Since shareholders would have lost about 37% over three years, some Beijing North Star Company Limited shareholders would surely be feeling negative emotions. So shareholders would probably think the company shouldn't be too generous with CEO compensation.

In Summary...

It appears that Beijing North Star Company Limited remunerates its CEO below most similar sized companies.

Since the business is growing, many would argue this suggests the pay is modest. Unfortunately, some shareholders may be disappointed with their returns, given the company's performance over the last three years. We're not critical of the remuneration Wei-Dong Li receives, but it would be good to see improved returns to shareholders before the remuneration grows too much. This sort of circumstance certainly justifies further research, because the investment returns might still come in the future. CEO compensation is an important area to keep your eyes on, but we've also identified 3 warning signs for Beijing North Star (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Queenslands relatively low number of hospital beds has left the state vulnerable in situations such as the present pandemic, the Greens claim.

The minor party has crunched the numbers on the states health system and found it has one of the lowest ratios of hospital and ICU beds to population in the developed world.

Greens MP Michael Berkman said Labor and the LNP were to blame for their handling of the health system when they held office, and a major expansion was needed.

Greens MP Michael Berkman says Queensland does not have the resources to deal with a peak in coronavirus cases. Credit:Tony Moore

Queensland, with only 3.71 hospital beds per 1000 people, is well behind places like Germany and South Korea, who have double and triple our ratio of beds to population, Mr Berkman said.
Her Excellency Toyin Saraki, founder of The Wellbeing Foundation Africa has just launched a powerful new e-health check tool in partnership with PocketPatientMD which will make free COVID-19 Health Check available to all 200 million Nigerians.

The digital e-health tool - soon to be complemented by a mobile application and an offline version - will educate the public on how to stay healthy; provide users with information about whether or not they need to be tested for the Coronavirus; give public officials critical insights into vulnerable populations while providing early identification of potential COVID-19 hotspots around the country.

This is a first-of-its-kind tool in the global fight against this pandemic. This health platform has the potential to be an effective early warning system, accelerating the response time of public health officials with limited resources, and giving every Nigerian accurate and immediate health advice, commented Saraki who is also the Special Adviser to the World Health Organisation Africa Office Independent Advisory Group.

Our efforts will complement the heroic efforts of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and all those working to solve this unprecedented challenge.

Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), commending the efforts of The Wellbeing Foundation Africa, noted how important it is that Nigerians have the tools that enable them to take proactive steps to protect their health as we work hard to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19.

In the same vein, Dr. Sani Aliyu, the National Coordinator of the Federal Government of Nigeria's Response to COVID-19 has lauded the tool as "a welcome digital innovation to help Nigerians better understand their potential risks and symptoms and direct them to government resources for any required follow-up."

The e-health check tool works by asking users a few questions in order to ascertain whether or not they need to get tested for the Coronavirus. In keeping with the Federal Government of Nigerias directive on staying home to curb the spread of the pandemic, the tool refers users directly to both the NCDC and state government hotlines for medical advice on how to get tested. Mark Wien, co-founder, and CEO of PocketPatientMD explained that the focus of the partnership is to reach as many Nigerians as possible, and we are honoured to partner with Her Excellency Toyin Saraki who has a global reputation as an advocate for the vulnerable and a champion of better healthcare for all.

We can only beat Coronavirus if we work together, added Saraki. Misinformation has become widespread as we respond to this pandemic and this ground-breaking approach will only be as effective as the number of people who sign up and join us. She implored Nigerians to take the test every 7 days, or when their symptoms change, and to ensure that they are paying close attention to, and reporting any changes in their health status not only to stay safe but also to help keep our frontline health workers safe and our public officials aware.

The e-health check tool is available for free at https://covid19.wbfafrica.org/ and users can access real-time updates on how to stay connected, safe, and healthy during the pandemic on Instagram and Twitter @Wellbeing_PPMD , and @WellbeingPPMD on Facebook.

ABOUT THE WELLBEING FOUNDATION AFRICA

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) was founded in 2004 by Her Excellency Mrs. Toyin Ojora Saraki, with the aim of improving health outcomes for women, infants, and children. The Foundation combines programmes with advocacy work in Nigeria and around the world.

Through a multi-layered strategy of research, advocacy, policy development, community engagement, philanthropy and education, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa devises and implements programs which boldly deliver upon the stated objectives of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Three, Five, and Six: Good Health and Wellbeing, Gender Equality, and Clean Water and Sanitation, respectively. All Wellbeing programs address multiple intersections between these three goals, including, but not limited to further education for midwives and frontline community health workers, improved education around water, sanitation and health (WASH) for life-saving healthy habits, advancement of early childhood mental and physical health development, and, the fundamental necessity of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls for a fair and just society.

The WBFA supports the 8 pillars of WHOs COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan.

ABOUT POCKETPATIENTMD

PocketPatientMD is a free, interoperable, fully integrated medical platform currently in common African languages, available online and offline. PocketPatientMD allows physicians and patients access to medical information anywhere, anytime, safely, securely and at no cost. Stakeholders throughout the health system can easily connect to one another, leading to, cost-effective, higher quality care.

PocketPatientMD works on any device (computer, phone, tablet) and with any operating system and can link to any lab, pharmacy, diagnostic centre, or application and be customised as needed.
New Delhi, April 7 : Delhi Cabinet Minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday said hat he will be donating a month's salary to the Chief Minister Relief Fund to help in the fight against coronavirus.

Rai, the Cabinet Minister having Employment, Development, Labour, General Administration Department, Environment, Forest and Wild Life, made the announcement on Twitter.

"I am paying my one-month salary in the CM Relief Fund to support the '5T Action Plan' created by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to fight against Corona (COVID-19)," Rai said in Hindi.

Delhi so far has reported more than 500 positive cases of coronavirus with the government gearing up to cope with more numbers.
There have been critics and rebels. The police have been ordering surfers out of the waves. The health minister was caught mountain biking and taking his family to the beach. He was publicly chastised by Ardern, who said she would have fired him if it werent disruptive to the crisis response.
New Yorks springs wild turkey hunting season  with strict recommendations for hunters to maintain proper social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic -- will open May 1 in all of Upstate New York north of the Bronx-Westchester County boundary, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said.

In addition, the DECs annual youth turkey hunting weekend, open for junior hunters ages 12 to 15, is still set for April 25-26. See the DEC website for more about this.

Many New Yorkers are eager to spend time outdoors and turkey hunting is one great way to reconnect to nature, DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said. Whether participating in the upcoming youth hunt with your children, or heading out on your own in pursuit of a wary gobbler, be sure to hunt safe and hunt smart by following the important guidelines in place both to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to support hunting safety.

The DEC issued the following recommendations for turkey hunters to prevent the spread of the virus:

*Purchase licenses and/or turkey permits online to avoid visiting busy stores or because stores may be closed or have limited hours. Licenses and tags purchased online take 10-14 days to arrive, so online purchases for the youth turkey hunt should be made by April 10, and for the regular season by April 16;

*Hunt close to home. Opt for day trips instead of staying at a hunting camp to avoid close contact with other hunters;

*Avoid crowds at parking areas and other locations where people congregate. Keep a distance of six feet or more from others;

*Avoid high-traffic destinations. If a hunting location is crowded, choose a different spot or time to visit.

*Hunt alone. If hunting with someone not from your household, whether an adult or youth, practicesocial distancing, take separate vehicles to the hunting location, and make sure to maintain at least six feet of distance. Only share a hunting blind with someone from your household;

*Carry hand sanitizer and avoid touching your face and wash mouth calls after handling; and

*If hunters do not feel well, they should stay home. Anyone 70 and older or with a compromised immune system should postpone their trip.

Know the rules before heading out:

*Hunters must have a turkey hunting permit in addition to their hunting license;

*Shooting hours are from one-half hour before sunrise to noon each day;

*Hunters may take two bearded turkeys during the spring season, but only one bird per day;

*Hunters may not use rifles or handguns firing a bullet. Hunters may hunt with a shotgun or handgun loaded with shot sizes no larger than No. 2 or smaller than No. 8, or with a bow or crossbow (except crossbows may not be used in Westchester County);

*Successful hunters must fill out the tag that comes with their turkey permit and immediately attach it to any turkey harvested;

*Successful hunters must report their harvest within seven days of taking a bird. Call 1-866-426-3778 (1-866 GAMERPT) or report harvest online at DECs Game Harvest Reporting website; and

*For more information about turkey hunting in New York, see the 2019-20 Hunting and Trapping Regulations Guide or visit the Turkey Hunting pages of DECs website.

Hunt accidents are preventable

While statistics show that hunting in New York State is safer than ever, mistakes are made each year. Every hunting-related shooting incident is preventable, and DEC encourages hunters to use common sense this season and remember what they were taught in their DEC Hunter Education Course:

*Point your gun in a safe direction;

*Treat every gun as if it were loaded;

*Be sure of your target and beyond;

*Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot; and

*Stalking stinks! Set-up with your back against a tree or other object wider than your shoulders and call birds to you.

DEC also encourages all hunters to wear blaze orange or blaze pink when moving between hunting spots to make themselves more visible to other hunters. A blaze orange or blaze pink vest or other material can be hung in a nearby tree when you are set-up and calling birds so other hunters are alerted to your presence.

MORE:

Hudson River striped bass fishing: Guides in lockdown, anglers still getting out

Upstate NY trout fishing: Anglers share photos of their catches

Oneida Lake wont be stocked with walleye this year, but fishing should still be good

Have a question or suggested story concerning the Upstate NY outdoors scene? Outdoors writer David Figura can be reached by email at dfigura@NYup.com, on Facebook or by calling 315-470-6066.
It wasnt enough. School officials gave out meals to 3,749 students, Bellavia said, before they were forced to halt operations early. Among those left empty-handed: a single mom whose child attends an Arlington school. The virus, together with an underlying medical condition, has left the woman, whos in her 60s, without work and forced to stay inside. After weeks of searching, she had finally secured a kind stranger willing to wait in line for meals at the closest Arlington campus. On Friday, the volunteer stood in line for 40 minutes, only to be told the supply of meals had run out.
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The Report Organic Skin Care Market Analysis By Product (Face Creams, Body Lotions) And Segment Forecasts To 2022

Global organic skin care market is expected to reach USD 12.58 billion by 2022, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Growing demand for organic face creams, sunscreens, and body lotions among consumers is expected to have a positive impact on the sector over the next seven years. Changing consumer perceptions towards organic products coupled with growing utilization of environmentally sustainable products is expected to fuel product growth over the next seven years.

Growing awareness toward organic products,and changing lifestyle of consumers coupled with and rising consumer disposable income is expected to fuel product demand over the forecast period. In addition, increasing penetration of major players such as Reckitt Benckiser and P&G through new product developments and launches in India, Brazil and China is expected to promote growth over the next seven years.

Rising consumer awareness regarding potential impact of organic skin care products on health and environment has resulted in augmenting sales over the past few years. Furthermore, reduced consumption of harmful chemicals including aluminum salts, parabens and phthalates coupled with shifting to sustainable products by numerous multinational corporations has contributed to the rise in product consumption and trend is expected to continue over the forecast period.

Access Research Report of Organic Skin Care Market @ www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/organic-skin-care-market

Further key findings from the report suggest:

Face creams was the fastest growing product segment at a CAGR over 20.0% from 2015 to 2022. The segment is expected to show high penetration due to rising increasing incidences of skin disorders which has led consumers to switch from synthetic products to natural products. Industry growth in Germany, France, and UK coupled with product innovation by companies such as LOreal will increase product demand over the next seven years.

Body lotion segment was estimated over USD 1.0 billion in 2014. Increasing need for naturally quick-fix skin problems that arise from pollution and environmental factors will have a positive impact on the sector over the forecast period.

Europe was estimated over USD 750.0 million in 2014. Robust product manufacturing base in the UK, France and Germany is expected to be a favorable factor for demand. European Commission framed Horizon 2020 Strategy, with to promote consumption and production of natural ingredients in chemical, personal care, automotive and energy sectors. This is expected to have a positive impact on the industry over the next seven years.

The global organic skin care industry is highly competitive with large multinational companies dominating the sector on account of increased expenditure on advertising and continuous R&D. However, in 2014, numerous smaller companies have gained share on account of increasing interest in natural beauty particularly in Europe and North America. Furthermore, companies employ strategies such as joint ventures and mergers & acquisitions to expand their global presence. In October 2013, multinational LOreal acquired The Body Shop and Kiehls to increase its share in this sector.

Grand View Research has segmented the global organic skin care market on the basis of product and region:

Organic Skin Care Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)

Face creams

Body lotions

Organic Skin Care Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

MEA

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.
No one is playing the slots at Wind Creek Bethlehem since the coronavirus shut down the casino, but workers are still collecting paychecks.

Casino owner Wind Creek Hospitality has committed to paying the Bethlehem propertys roughly 2,500 employees with benefits through May 31, spokeswoman Julia Corwin said.

As one of Northampton Countys largest employers, a prolonged casino shutdown has the potential to financially hurt a large swath of local residents without Wind Creeks commitment.

The Bethlehem gaming hall voluntarily closed on March 15 for two weeks amid a growing coronavirus outbreak in the region. Three casino employees tested positive for the virus after the casino shut down.

That closures now been extended indefinitely after the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board shut down the states 12 casinos March 17.

All but two of the nations 989 commercial and tribal casinos are closed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the American Gaming Association.

The association issued a statement Friday criticizing interim regulatory guidelines issued by the Small Business Administrations paycheck protection program, which preclude small gaming entities and their employees from tapping the newly-established program.

The Small Business Administration relied on antiquated, discriminatory regulations that ignore todays economic reality and the congressional intent behind the CARES Act, which states that any business concern shall be eligible to receive an SBA loan if they meet specific qualifications regarding their number of employees, said Bill Miller, gaming association president and CEO.

Unless amended, these initial guidelines will irreparably harm one-third of the U.S. casino industry and the hundreds of thousands of Americans that rely on gaming businesses for their livelihood," Miller said. This decision will affect hard-working Americans from Pennsylvania to Nevada, Ohio to Colorado, and everywhere in between who need and deserve the same level of support as anyone across the country during these unprecedented times.

Pennsylvanias casino closure is going to be a major hit to both state and local government coffers.

In 2019, all legalized gambling in the state generated $3.4 billion and Wind Creek generated about $522.2 million. Bethlehem is projected to receive a $9.7 million in casino host fees this year and Easton budgeted $1.3 million in casino revenues.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email her. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Deirdre Hargey insists Housing Executive rent will not rise until later in the year

Plans to increase Housing Executive rents have been put on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 2.75% hike - announced in January - was due to take effect this month.

It would have resulted in an average weekly increase of 1.79.

However, it has been postponed until October. Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey said a rents increase was the "last thing" people needed at present.

"I am well aware that the Housing Executive needs a long-term revitalisation programme in order to deliver much-needed investment in its homes and neighbourhoods," she said.

"One of my earliest decisions as Minister was to approve the first Housing Executive rent increase in five years, in recognition of this. But we are now in a very different landscape.

"People are worried about their jobs, their income and whether they can pay their rent. The last thing they need is to face a rent increase this week.

"I want to assure the Housing Executive's tenants that the rent increase will not take effect until the beginning of October 2020."

Earlier, appearing before a Stormont committee, Ms Hargey said there is a responsibility to protect people after pledging that housing tenants will not be evicted during the coronavirus crisis.

Courts are not hearing the cases during the emergency.

She added: "We know through our engagements with the Court Service that there won't be evictions, they won't be listing evictions hearings at this time.

"That is something we want to push further on and that is why we are bringing this legislation forward.

"We are in a public health emergency. They have a responsibility to protect people as well."

Stormont's Communities Committee agreed to the speedy passage of the Private Tenancies Bill.

Alliance Party Assembly member Kellie Armstrong said: "This is a very welcome piece of legislation."

She said some tenants on fixed term contracts were being told they must pay outstanding debt or their credit rating will be affected.

North Belfast Assembly member Caral Ni Chuilin called for a hardship fund, saying: "Students are falling between the nets.

"We hear about the landlords and through their letting agents that are applying undue pressure."

SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan said Ulster University's Magee Campus is within his Foyle constituency and he has been "inundated" with queries from students in housing and financial stress due to coronavirus.

"Many students have been forced to move out of student accommodation, have lost their job and income source, and have had to move home," he said.

"It is not acceptable that students should have to continue paying rent for accommodation that is not being used, through no fault of their own.

"The Communities Minister should urgently consider implementing rent suspension through the duration of this crisis and penalty-free termination of housing contracts. A rent freeze would also be appropriate to ensure when this pandemic ends, landlords cannot unfairly increase the rent for next year."

NUS-USI (National Union of Students Northern Ireland) president Robert Murtagh said the meeting offered no comfort to student renters.

"Students are often in short-term tenancies where landlords have less vested interest in maintaining good relationships," he said.

"Asking landlords to be lenient is quite simply not enough.

"We need the Government to step in and enforce a rent suspension for the duration of the crisis, penalty-free termination of contracts, a rent freeze and for these measures to be backdated to the start of March."
NAPLES - The association Beyond Plastic Med (BeMed) has launched a call for projects to reduce plastic in the areas around the islands of the Mediterranean, with a financing platform for the initiatives.

The goal of the call for projects is to finance operations to reduce plastic pollution with concrete actions in the field, to put sustainable solutions in place, to improve understanding in local areas about plastic pollution, to build partnerships and strengthen the abilities of local partners in various countries, reinforcing actions already underway in the Mediterranean.

A maximum funding of 100,000 euros is planned for each project chosen by BeMed, which will review the proposals at the end of the call for projects, scheduled on June 21.

The projects will have a maximum duration of 24 months and will be able to start from October of this year, ending no later than the end of September 2022.

The BeMed association was created with the objective of a plastic-free Mediterranean by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, the Tara Ocean Foundation, the Surfrider Foundation Europe, the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN) and the Mava Foundation.
[April 07, 2020] MONAT Global Begins Producing Hand Sanitizer to Fight COVID-19

MONAT Global Corp (MONAT) is working to address the shortages in hand sanitizer amidst the COVID-19 pandemic by shifting production at its Miami-Dade County, Fla., haircare and skincare manufacturing facility to begin making hand sanitizer. The company will give away 240,000 2-ounce bottles of hand sanitizer to government entities, non-profit organizations and customers across North America. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005217/en/ MONAT is giving away 240,000 2-ounce bottles of hand sanitizer to government entities, non-profit organizations and customers across North America(Photo: Business Wire)



"In a time when so many things seem out of our control, many companies and individuals are looking for ways to help," said Ray Urdaneta, Co-Founder and CEO, MONAT Global. "By pivoting our production during this unprecedented circumstance, we are able to help tackle the broad shortages in hand sanitizer, empower our customers to protect themselves, and limit the spread of the virus."

MONAT's hand sanitizer production will benefit the following customers and organizations: 200,000 bottles will go to MONAT customers. Beginning immediately, every customer order will include a complimentary hand sanitizer.

20,000 bottles, plus an additional 500 gallons, will be donated to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, supporting its critically low supply of essential items and helping to fill the needs of Florida's hospitals and emergency care services.

20,000 bottles will be donated to non-profit organizations across North America including The Salvation Army Florida, Big Brothers Big Sisters Miami, Chapman Partnership for the Homeless, Broward Partnership for the Homeless, the Dream Center of Tampa, Big Brothers Big Sisters Toronto and Salvation Army Toronto , among others. About MONAT Global MONAT Global Corp is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alcora Corporation, whose holdings include Project Beauty, an online retail beauty company, and B&R Products, Inc., their research, development and manufacturing Laboratory subsidiary. All three companies are headquartered in and around Miami, Florida. MONAT was founded in 2014 to enter the multi-billion-dollar haircare market and provides groundbreaking opportunities through a novel Social Marketing approach to Direct Sales. In 2019, the company expanded into the skincare market. The company offers a unique and exciting business model and one of the most generous compensation plans in the U.S., Canadian, U.K., Irish and Polish markets. Availability: www.monatglobal.com #MONATGlobal Facebook: /MONATOfficial | Instagram: @monatofficial | YouTube: /MONATOfficial Twitter (News - Alert): @MONATOfficial | Pinterest: /MONATOfficial View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005217/en/

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Authorities have recovered the body of Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, Robert F. Kennedys granddaughter, who went missing along with her son off the Chesapeake Bay, according to NBC.

Officials began searching for the pair on April 2, after their canoe had reportedly been overtaken by strong winds and didnt return to shore. Authorities searched for McKean, 40, and her 8-year-old son, Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean over the weekend.

On Monday, McKeans body was found in 25 feet of water roughly 2.5 miles south of her mothers residence, where the canoe was launched, according to the Maryland Natural Resources Police, NBC reports. Authorities used aviation and underwater imaging sonar technology to locate her.

Officials will resume the search for Gideon on Tuesday, NBC reports.
SIOUX CITY -- Sioux City Councilwoman Julie Schoenherr said during Monday's City Council meeting that she has heard many Siouxlanders express disapproval with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds for failing to implement a shelter-in-place order amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Schoenherr, who said she heard the comments through her business, SoHo Kitchen & Bar, and social media postings, reminded residents that they can still shelter in place, even though the governor hasn't told them to do so.

"If you feel unsure, or if you feel it's unhealthy, I think you should stay home," she said. "If your employer will let you work from home, I think you should take advantage of that."

Reynolds has limited mass gatherings to no more than 10 people at a time. On Monday, she continued to encourage Iowans to stay at home and only go out unless absolutely necessary. Reynolds announced as part of her proclamation that all social, community, spiritual, religious, recreational, leisure and sporting gatherings, as well as events of more than 10 people, are prohibited at all locations and venues, including but not limited to parades, festivals, conventions and fundraisers, through April 30. Social activities that are not in compliance with these recommendations, such as drive-in activities and parades for schools, long-term care facilities and birthdays are also discouraged.

Mayor Bob Scott led off the meeting, which was held electronically because of the pandemic, by telling residents that they should remain focused on staying home as much as possible, because that is the single most effective way to slow community spread of the novel coronavirus.

Scott urged residents to follow guidelines laid out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Iowa Department of Public Health and Siouxland District Health Department, which include not gathering in groups of more than 10 people, staying at least six feet away from others and staying home when experiencing symptoms such as fever, cough or shortness of breath. Scott said the city is working "collaboratively" with the state and local partners during this health crisis. He said the city is meeting daily with several local agencies to "evaluate our current reality" and determine best practices moving forward.

"For the most part, from what Ive seen, people have been very patient with the workers in the stores, but some people are not. And they need to understand those people are doing their job as the governors has outlined, so I would ask for your patience. When you think that they're being unreasonable, they're doing exactly what the governor's proposed; and they're not the villains," Scott said.

Scott said he is grateful for health care provides, first responders and public employees, as well as "frontline workers" in grocery stores, pharmacies and food banks. He also thanked owners of businesses who have voluntarily implemented stay-at-home practices by allowing employees to work from home.

Councilman Alex Watters said city facilities are doing everything they can to move things online and provide for the public.

"I would ask everyone to support one another at this time. We need to band together now just as we have done in the past," he said.

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This job expired on 6 May 2020.
Even as the Indian economy has been hit by coronavirus pandemic, the damage is expected to be limited if the situation eases by mid-May, according to Tanvee Gupta Jain, chief India economist, UBS. The GDP growth may see an upside of 4 per cent for the fiscal year 2020-21 if the situation normalises by next month, Tanvee Gupta Jain added. However, the disruption is likely to last till September if the situation doesn't improve and lockdown extends. The consumption would be negatively impacted on account of possible job losses and reduced incomes, Business Standard quoted Jain. India may witness a negative GDP growth for the first time since the financial year 1980 in a downside scenario, the UBS India economist said.

Also read: Coronavirus pandemic: Why it takes so long to make a vaccine

Tanvee Gupta Jain said that nearly 30 per cent of the household consumption was connected to services. The demand for service may see a fall amid the lockdown and mobility restrictions, she added. Meanwhile, former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan on Saturday said that the Indian economy is facing the 'greatest emergency' since independence, more acute than the global financial crisis in 2008-09.

The workers could still go out to work during the financial crisis as against the current situation, Raghuram Rajan, professor of finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said in a blog titled 'Perhaps India's Greatest Challenge in Recent Times'. "The global financial crisis in 2008-09 was a massive demand shock, but our workers could still go to work, our firms were coming off years of strong growth, our financial system was largely sound, and our government finances were healthy," Raghuram Rajan added.

Also read: Coronavirus Live Updates: 354 COVID-19 positive cases in last 24 hours; India's active count at 3,981
Bakery ingredients manufacturer Macphie is targeting its mixes at consumers following the temporary collapse of the foodservice market.

The business has changed the format of its mixes to 6kg bags, less than half the size of its original 12.5kg packs. It is hoping to sell them to the public via wholesalers, as many are currently offering a delivery service to consumers.

With the foodservice sector forced into hibernation to prevent the spread of coronavirus, manufacturers have had to adapt to survive, said Macphie.

The Scottish firm described its Complete Bread Mix as a great store cupboard essential to have to hand during the lockdown.

Its a one-stop-shop powder blend which can be made into baguettes, rolls, loaves, pizza bases and more, all with the addition of water, added the firm.

It said its Scone Mix and Complete Pancake and Waffle Mix were well placed to tap the home baking boom.

As well as exploring new opportunities, were continuing to work hard to get our products out of the door, many of which are used in NHS staff and patient meals, by nursing homes and by other key care providers, said Warren Wells, commercial director at Macphie.

While we continue to operate under challenging circumstances, it has been inspiring to see everyone adapt and pull together to ride this out. We continue to engage with all our partners regularly and look forward to supporting each other once normality sets back in. 
As the U.S. grapples with the coronavirus pandemic and a shortage of masks for health care workers and individuals, business owners are pivoting their companies or adding production lines to replenish much-needed protective gear.

Nick Nikkhah and Fabian Conde, co-founders of 3DHQ, temporarily shut down their 3-D printing company in early March because of the pandemic. Then they saw hospitals around the world were running out of parts for ventilators, and suspected something similar could occur in the U.S.

Nikkhah and Conde, based in Kansas City, Missouri, reached out to local hospitals offering their 3-D printed parts for medical devices, but they were asked to make masks instead. They quickly started producing what they call "reasonably high filtration masks," which are reusable, cost-effective, and made from durable PLA and PETG types of plastics.

While their masks haven't been tested by the CDC yet, they are looking into the process, which they say can cost about $10,000. For now, they are in line with CDC guidance for health care workers to use bandanas, scarves, or other "homemade masks" as a last resort.

So far, 3DHQ has received more than 300 orders at $25 per mask. They plan to reinvest the money into their business to increase production, the co-founders said. They want to partner with a larger company that can cover the costs of materials so the masks can be offered for free.

To speed up manufacturing, the startup purchased seven additional 3-D printers, costing about $7,000 in total. "We are trying to find a way to help, and keep ourselves from going under as well," says Nikkhah, noting that 3DHQ earned about $200,000 in revenue last year and doesn't intend to profit from the masks.

From fashion to workwear, clothing companies shift to making masks

In an obvious pivot, many apparel manufacturers have also jumped in to meet the demand for masks.

Durable outerwear outfitter Carhartt, which was founded in 1889 and made uniforms during World War I and II, plans to start producing pleated surgical masks in two weeks, says William Hardy, senior vice president of Carhartt's supply chain.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based company is utilizing its factories in the U.S. and Mexico to make an estimated 2.5 million masks by May, Hardy says. Carhartt has not yet determined who will get the masks and what they will cost, but says it does not intend to profit from the production. Hardy declined to disclose production costs or the company's annual revenues.

Additionally, trendy women's fashion brand Reformation pivoted to mask production after its L.A. factory was temporarily shut when the city initiated a stay-at-home order. The masks could vary in appearance, as the donated fabrics are sourced from various suppliers. To step up production, the company partnered with the city of Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti, and L.A. Protects--a new initiative that organizes local manufacturers, who were not already in the protective gear supply chain, to churn out non-medical masks. L.A. Protect's goal is to make more than 100,000 masks a week.

"Using our relationships to mobilize other garment and apparel manufacturers to do the same felt like a small but important way Reformation could contribute," co-founder and CEO Yael Aflalo told Inc.com via email. "It's important that we take care of each other right now."

Reformation has been making masks only for a few days, but it can produce up to 25,000 a week, the company told Inc.com in an email. It plans to sell the masks at cost--about $25 for a pack of five. Customers can also purchase masks to donate to workers in essential sectors, medical patients, and non-medical staff in hospitals in L.A. Reformation also declined to disclose production costs or the company's annual revenues.

"Producing masks is just one way the Los Angeles community is rallying around these important individuals, who need and deserve all the help we can give them as they try to remain safe and healthy," Aflalo says.
(Newser)  A Canadian company said Monday that it's started construction on the long-stalled Keystone XL oil sands pipeline across the US-Canada border, despite calls from tribal leaders and environmentalists to delay the $8 billion project during the coronavirus pandemic. TC Energy said work began over the weekend at the border crossing in northern Montana, a remote area with sprawling cattle ranches and wheat fields, the AP reports. About 100 workers will be involved in the pipeline's early stages, but that number will swell into the thousands in coming months, according to the company. The 1,200-mile pipeline, proposed in 2008, would carry up to 830,000 barrels of crude daily for transfer to refineries and export terminals on the Gulf of Mexico. It's been tied up for years in legal battles, and several court challenges are still pending.

story continues below

TC Energy's surprise March 31 announcement that it was starting construction came after the Alberta government invested $1.1 billion to jump-start work. Montana's Department of Environmental Quality on Friday issued the final state permits needed, an agency spokeswoman said. Leaders of American Indian tribes and some residents of rural communities along the pipeline route worry that workers could spread the coronavirus. As many as 11 construction camps, some housing up to 1,000 people, were initially planned for the project, though TC Energy says those are under review because of the outbreak. Work on the pipeline is allowed under an exemption to Gov. Steve Bullock's March 26 stay-at-home directive, officials said, though it did not address worker camps.

(Read more TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline stories.)
MONTREAL, April 6, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - The management of the Ogilvie Group deplores the comments made by the Journal de Montreal in its April 1st edition to the effect that the company is not recognized as an essential service in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ogilvie Group (ARO Inc., Synergie-Contact and Ogilvie Acquisition) is a multi-divisional company that provides outsourcing services to telecommunications companies through its call centres and collection departments.

The Ogilvie Group wishes to point out that the services offered by the company's call centres have been recognized and confirmed as essential services in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia by several telecommunications companies based in Quebec and Canada.

Contrary to what was asserted by the Journal de Montreal, in its April 1st edition, all of our employees who work for our Montreal collection division are working safely from home. And, because of the current situation, in collaboration with our partners, we are striving to be very flexible in our dealings with citizens.

A few people are required to be present in our call centres because of our essential service status in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. Although the majority of our team now telecommutes, we have implemented strict social distancing and workplace hygiene measures and have appealed to our employees' professionalism and sense of civic-mindedness. Also, we have informed all of our employees that we shall reimburse any and all expenses they incur to purchase cleaning products and disinfectants (wipes, Purell-type hand soap).

Furthermore, we have asked the firms in charge of cleaning and housekeeping to increase the frequency of their cleaning and disinfection operations and to pay special attention to our workspaces and common areas such as elevators and bathrooms.

Our Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia call centres comply with the most recent social distancing standards as laid down by the public health directorates.

Our contribution to the fight against COVID-19

We have also given access to the 14th floor of the building that houses our Montreal-based call centre to the Quebec government and its Ministry of Health for their operations related to the COVID-19 pandemic. All are working to ensure the well-being of citizens and operate in exemplary conditions that respect the strict social distancing standards in place.

The Ogilvie Group and its agents shall make no further comments.

SOURCE Ogilvie Group

For further information: Jean-Maxime St-Hilaire, [email protected], 438 492-3811, Flanagan relations publiques inc.

Related Links

http://www.ogilviegroup.ca/


Your favorite TV personalities from KENS 5 will miss a week of air time over the next few months. TEGNA, the parent company of KENS-TV, announced Monday companywide, weeklong furloughs employees must take by the end of June.



In a statement to the Express-News, KENS spokesperson Anne Bentley said the San Antonio TV station is proactively implementing one-week furloughs as a temporary, cost-saving measure.



She said most employees have been asked to participate in the one-week furlough, during which time they will keep their employee benefits.

In lieu of the one-week furlough, Bentley says a handful of key station department heads will receive a temporary 8 percent pay reduction.



MORE SAN ANTONIO TV NEWS: San Antonio TV anchors transform their homes into studios amid coronavirus pandemic



TEGNA general managers and corporate senior vice presidents and above will receive a 20 percent temporary pay reduction. President and CEO Dave Lougee and the TEGNA Board of Directors will take a 25 percent pay reduction through June.



COVID-19 has affected many news outlets, including several newspapers. While TEGNA may be the first major TV company to announce such furloughs, a recent study by RTDNA and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University mentioned in a recent Poynter article, found that 76 percent of station management and corporate owners worry about a loss of business because of the coronavirus.
New cases in Philadelphia overwhelmingly affect black residents, raising fears the virus will compound existing inequities in employment, housing, and health. Read more

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HARRISBURG  As cities begin to report alarming racial disparities in coronavirus cases, Pennsylvanias top health official said the state is facing challenges collecting that information but will release it at some point.

Health Secretary Rachel Levine said Tuesday that health-care systems dont tend to put in racial data about COVID-19 cases, a limitation that has hampered collection efforts.

But we are looking at different ways that we might get that information, and when we have that information, we will release it, she said at a news briefing.

Nate Wardle, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health, said the labs responsible for reporting cases receive limited information from physicians, which often might not include race or ethnicity.

Last week, health officials in Philadelphia released racial data for less than a third of the citys cases. While most early cases were among white patients, new cases overwhelmingly affected black residents, raising fears the virus will compound existing inequities in employment, housing, and health.

While state officials have not released municipality-level data, Philadelphia health officials broke down cases by zip code. Nearly every zip code where at least 30% of patient tests were positive is a majority-minority community, the data showed.

Other cities and states  such as Chicago, Louisiana, and Maryland  have seen more people of color impacted by COVID-19, even after those numbers are adjusted to the states particular demographics. In Michigan, black patients have accounted for 40% of deaths despite African Americans making up only 14% of the state population, according to ProPublica.

The president of the American Medical Association, Patrice A. Harris, on Tuesday called on health practitioners to collect race and ethnicity details from patients to make sure we have a thorough understanding of the pandemics impact on every community.

Experts say demographic data is vital in the early stages of a public health crisis because it informs government entities on where to allocate resources.

If we dont have data thats linked to race, thats linked to economics, thats linked to geography, we wont know where to really direct resources, and what the structural drivers are, said Sharrelle Barber, an assistant research professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Drexel University.

Barber said the disproportionate impact in black and brown neighborhoods can be attributed to structural inequities, including lower access to quality health care. She also said communities that have experienced disinvestment are more likely to be made up of service industry workers who have customer-facing jobs.

State Rep. Jake Wheatley (D., Allegheny) is working on a bill that would require health and human services agencies to work with doctors and labs to collect better data.

These underserved neighborhoods were impacted greatly before the pandemic, and if they are being impacted more than other communities, our response should be similar, Wheatley said Tuesday. We should be crafting policies to help those who are most impacted, and use data to think about how we will provide relief and recovery.

Health-care professionals and advocates are also concerned that information isnt reaching vulnerable communities.

Kathy Reeves, senior associate dean of health equity, diversity, and inclusion at Temple Universitys Katz School of Medicine, said in late March she and her colleagues had seen a preponderance of COVID folks that were Hispanic.

We have probably one of the highest concentrations of Latinx individuals, Reeves said of the community in North Philadelphia she serves.

Her team started a media campaign to reach people who are not proficient in English after noticing that most information released by health officials was not translated into Spanish.

Rosamaria Cristello, president of the Pittsburgh-based Latino Community Center, said people who do not speak English have faced issues getting accurate information and preparing for the pandemic.

While everyone else who understands English was able to go to stores and get supplies ready, our families were not, she said in early April. I started getting texts and calls from families saying that there was no toilet paper. We had about 30 families that were in urgent need of food. ... Its that lag time in receiving that information that everyone else gets in English that has serious consequences.

Wheatley said many people in communities of color rely on word of mouth to get information, which has been severely limited since the statewide stay-at-home order was implemented.

A lot of folk in these communities are not connected on social media and are not paying attention to the news, so I am concerned about the transmission of information, and how thats being handled now that we are limiting person-to-person contact, Wheatley said.

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A pensioner has admitted turning down a Van Gogh masterpiece worth 13m for a brass handbell worth a measly 1.

Gaye Horrell, 76, was offered the painting - entitled Peasant Woman in Front of a Farmhouse - for free in 1967.

Speaking after the painting was sold at the The European Fine Art Fair in Holland to a mystery buyer last week, Gaye said she had been 'very naive' not to snap up the painting for nowt.

Gaye Horrell opted not to take the painting in 1967 even though she was offered it for free - it is now worth around 13m

The 13 million painting: Peasant Woman in Front of a Farmhouse (1885) by Vincent Van Gogh

Although the price was kept under wraps when it sold, the painting, showing a peasant woman in a blue dress outside a ramshackle farmhouse and completed by Van Gogh in 1885, was estimated to sell for between 12m-13m.

Now living in the Cotswolds, Gaye, who was married to Tim Holme at the time in Staffordshire, revealed how her in-laws Charles and Molly Holme asked if she wanted anything from their farmhouse before they held a sale.

She was offered the Van Gogh masterpiece, given to the Holme family in 1929 for payment for farm supplies, but despite liking the painting she was persuaded by her in-laws that it was 'not worth having.'

So instead she chose a brass handbell, worth little more than 1 at the time.

But after being told by her in-laws that the painting was 'not worth having, Mrs Horrell bought a simple brass handbell worth 1 at the time

The painting was sold in 1967 for just 4 to a local auction house and was next seen in a junk shop in north London, where it was bought for 45 by Luigi Grasso, who spotted the faint signature 'Vincent' on the painting.

He then researched the origins of the painting and it was eventually verified as an original by the Dutch master by Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

It sold for almost 100,000 in 1970, then to an American collector for 1.5m in 2001 and now has sold for an estimated 13m to a mystery bidder.

It could be one of the first paintings ever sold by Van Gogh (pictured) at the age of 33 - he died just four years later

Speaking after the painting was sold last week, Mrs Horrell told The Shropshire Star newspaper she could have had the painting for free 53 years ago.

She said: 'In 1967 I was living in Stafford, married to Tim Holme, elder son of Charles Holme.

'My in-laws Charles and Molly Holme had the sale of household bits and pieces alongside the farm sale and I was told to choose something for myself beforehand.

'I saw the [Van Gogh] picture and immediately liked it. The painting looked old, very dirty and uncared for, and it had a hole in it, but I still liked it.

The painting was sold at the The European Fine Art Fair in Holland last week and Mrs Horrell has since said it was 'very naive' not to claim the painting

'They persuaded me it was not worth having and not to bother with it.'

She added: 'As I was advised not to bother I have seen various articles about its life after the sale, but there was not a lot I could do.

'Oh dear, how very naive of me. Of course, in those days I couldn't argue with them and ended up with a brass handbell. I learnt my lesson the hard way.'
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7) - The Philippine National Police (PNP) confirmed three more of its policemen tested positive for coronavirus disease, bringing the total to 22.

The new cases are all male from Metro Manila. Two of them are 44 years old and the other one is 34.

In a statement, PNP said that two of the infected policemen have recovered from the virus. Meanwhile, two other PNP personnel have died.

PNP said that 57 policemen are categorized as persons under investigation (PUI), which include seven commissioned and 50 non-commissioned officers.

On the other hand, there are 242 PNP personnel who are considered PUIs. Among them are 61 commissioned officers, 167 non-commissioned officers, and 14 non-uniform personnel.

PNP said it has 40 personnel listed as PUIs in its COVID-19 Patient Care Center.

Moreover, 1,384 PNP personnel are listed as persons under monitoring (PUMs). They are composed of 322 commissioned officers, 1,007 non-commissioned officers, and 55 non-uniform personnel.
Major supermarket chains are beginning to report their first coronavirus-related employee deaths, leading to store closures and increasing anxiety among grocery workers as the pandemic intensifies across the country.

A Trader Joe's worker in Scarsdale, a greeter at a Giant store in Largo, Md., and two Walmart employees from the same Chicago-area store have died of COVID-19 in recent days, the companies confirmed Monday.

Though more than 40 states have ordered nonessential businesses to close and told residents to stay home to stem the spread of the virus, supermarkets are among the retailers that remain open. Thousands of grocery employees have continued to report to work as U.S. infections and death rates continue to climb, with many reporting long shifts and extra workloads to keep up with spiking demand. Many workers say they don't have enough protective gear to deal with hundreds of customers a day. Dozens of grocery workers have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent weeks.

Industry experts say the rise of worker infections and deaths will likely have a ripple effect on grocers' ability to retain and add new workers at a time when they're looking to rapidly hire thousands of temporary employees. Walmart, the nation's largest grocer, is hiring 150,000 workers, while Kroger is adding more than 10,000. Many are offering an extra $2 an hour and promising masks, gloves and hand sanitizer. But finding workers willing to work on the front lines for little more than the minimum wage could be an increasingly tough sell, according to supermarket analyst Phil Lempert.

"One of the biggest mistakes supermarkets made early on was not allowing employees to wear masks and gloves the way they wanted to," he said. "They're starting to become proactive now, but it's still going to be much tougher to hire hundreds of thousands of new workers. We're going to start seeing people say, 'I'll just stay on unemployed instead of risking my life for a temporary job.'"

Some companies have begun installing plexiglass sneeze guards and requiring customers to stand 6 feet apart in line. The country's two largest grocers, Walmart and Kroger, are beginning to check employees' temperatures at the beginning of each shift.

The added precautions come amid a wave of worker strikes and petitions aimed at getting employers like Amazon, Trader Joe's and the grocery delivery service Instacart, to take additional steps to protect workers. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Those efforts are likely to take on new urgency, analysts said, as supermarket workers across the country begin to see colleagues fall ill. More than 356,000 Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus as of Monday afternoon, and nearly 10,500 have died.

A Trader Joe's employee with underlying health conditions died Monday morning, spokeswoman Kenya Friend-Daniel said. The Scarsdale store where the employee worked is closed until Thursday to give workers "time to process and grieve," Friend-Daniel said. Employees will continue to be paid during the closure, and will receive an additional two days of paid leave, she said.

Trader Joe's stores in Brooklyn and Philadelphia also were temporarily closed Monday, for additional cleaning and sanitizing.

In Illinois, Walmart employees Phillip Thomas, 48, and Wando Evans, 51, both of whom worked at a store in Evergreen Park near Chicago, died in late March, according to labor advocacy group United for Respect.

A Walmart spokesman said the company is heartbroken. The grocery giant has hired an outside company to sanitize "high-touch" areas, such as front entrance, carts, registers and bathrooms. It has also started installing sneeze guards at cash register and begun limiting the number of customers who can shop at one time.

In Maryland, Leilani Jordan, 27, a greeter at the Giant's Campus Way South store in Largo, died last week.

"She said, 'Mommy, I'm going to work because no one else is going to help the senior citizens get their groceries," her mother, Zenobia Shepherd, told The Washington Post. "She only stopped going to work when she could no longer breathe."

Her last day at work was March 16, according to Giant spokesman Daniel Wolk. Jordan tested positive for the coronavirus in late March and died Wednesday.
Vinod Kumar*, a freelance transcriber based in Mumbai, usually earns about Rs 50,000 per month. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 95 percent of his work was cancelled.

I earned less than Rs 1,000 in February and March has been a washout, he said. He fears a similar trend to continue in the next couple of months.

In the case of Arjun S*, another freelance transcriber, he had his work contract terminated given the uncertainty. With no clarity on how long the situation lasts, it is quite worrying, he admits.

This is the situation a significant portion of the freelancer community, across different sectors, is facing in India as the coronavirus outbreak is impacting jobs and livelihoods of people.

Take for instance Kumar. His work involves transcribing meetings and conference details for his clients, most of them Korean and Japanese. However, as the COVID-19 outbreak began to spread, most of the meetings and conferences cancelled starting from Japan and Korea.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

So that means, no work for me, Kumar pointed out. Thankfully, he is working part-time in a small firm and his wife is employed as well. So I will be able to tide this over, Kumar added.

However, the same cannot be said for others. For Arjun, who is staying alone and is highly dependent on freelancer work, things are tricky. Most of his clients are US hospitals, where he transcribes medical operations. In the US, almost no operations have happened because all hospitals are focusing on coronavirus outbreak, he explained.

So his contract was terminated, leaving him without a job. Though he will be able to manage the next 2-3 months, any longer he will have to look for an alternate career and taking a huge pay cut at that.

Apart from transcribers, others who are impacted include ad film directors and freelance coders, who have hardly seen any demand for their services because of lockdown and reduced operations.

Worst-case scenario

The worst-case scenario, which seems more likely, looms. As freelancers, their income is seasonal and can tide them over for a couple of months. In some cases, it could be six months. However, with no clarity on how long the situation could prolong, their challenges are diverse.

For one, paying bills like rent and loan would be a major challenge after three months. EMIs have been deferred for three months and landlords have been understanding. Others have moved to their hometowns to save up. They will have to look for new jobs, probably in a different field and skill yourself, which again will cost you more money.

This is not something a freelancer, who might not have a lot money saved up, could do, pointed out Nasir D*, a freelancer coder.

Relief measures

Countries such as Germany have announced relief packages for freelancers. Germany has announced a 40 billion relief package for freelancers and small businesses up to 10 employees. The UK government has also announced that it will support freelancers who will be impacted because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Most countries have not announced a relief package but have put the onus on the companies to take care of temporary workers.

What most of them are afraid of is the demand scenario and if it will remain the same in the post-COVID-19 world. Kamal Karanth, founder, Xpheno, a specialised hiring firm, said, while tech freelancers work is interrupted now, normalcy is likely to resume post the crisis since remote working is gaining more acceptance.

However, it cannot be said for other sectors. Srinivasan S*, an ad filmmaker, pointed out that things might not come back to normal in the coming months. Marketing budgets are being slashed and focus in right now on digital. It could potentially become mainstream considering cost involved, he explained.

*Names have been changed to protect identities.
Large Seders are also a longtime tradition for Rabbi Max Weiss, of Oak Park Temple Bnai Abraham Zion. He usually hosts a celebration of between 30 to 40 family members and friends. He conducts a second Seder the following night, also a tradition for many, at the synagogue. This year will be different. He will be at home with his wife, two sons and daughter.
Guinea's President Alpha Conde has enacted a new constitution following a referendum last month on changes that critics fear are aimed at extending his time in office.

Changing the constitution was hugely controversial in the west African nation, spurring mass demonstrations that left dozens dead.

After months of tensions, Conde enacted the new charter by decree read on national television on Monday, the same day he approved a 292 million euro ($315 million) "economic response plan" to the coronavirus pandemic.

A former opposition figure jailed under previous hardline regimes, Conde made history in 2010 as the first democratically elected president in a country with a chronic history of military coups and turmoil.

Voters returned him to office in 2015 for his second and final five-year term under the current constitution, but critics say he has become increasingly authoritarian.

Conde argued that the constitution needed to be updated to usher in badly needed social changes, especially for women, with reforms including a ban on female genital mutilation and underage marriage.

His proposal was put to a referendum on March 22, with voters overwhelmingly backing a new constitution, according to the country's electoral body.

The new constitution still limits the president to two terms, but the opposition accused Conde of wanting to use the pretext of the new document to reset the counter to zero and seek another term in elections at the end of 2020.

The opposition boycotted the referendum as well as the legislative vote organised simultaneously.

The United States, European Union and France questioned the credibility of the vote.

It was held despite international protests and the appearance of coronavirus in the country.

Guinea has 128 confirmed cases.

Conde said on social networks that he had approved a plan to minimise the effects of the pandemic on the national economy and the most disadvantaged households.

A poor country despite its natural resources, Guinea has been severely tested in the past by the Ebola virus.

Among the measures announced to tackle the coronavirus, the state will pay the electricity bills of the poorest for three months, freeze the price of medicines and basic necessities during the pandemic and introduce free public transport for three months.
NSC Calls for Protection of Essential Workers

With Americas essential workers carrying the country at the moment, their safety is incredibly important. The National Safety Council calls for their protection and safety.

Just last week, the National Safety Council (NSC) issued a call to business leaders across the U.S. to take aggressive action to ensure essential employee safety from COVID-19. Not only is this important because they are putting their health and lives at risk by reporting to work, but also because many get paid minimum wage and do not have access to good or any health care.

The Department of Homeland Security defines essential workers as those who protect their communities, while ensuring continuity of functions critical to public health and safety, as well as economic and national security. Essential workers include those in health care facilities, grocery stores, water utilities and other necessary work sitebut many are already at an economic disadvantage, explains one article. Many of them earn lower wages and carry less health-related insurance. So, its not just the total number of jobs that matter, but a better understanding of who these workers are and the risks they face.

Some believe the recently passed economic aid package, as part of the CARES Act, does not do enough to protect essential workers. The aid package aside, though, the NSCs call for essential worker protection is founded on some pretty notable statistics.

In a survey conducted, over 70 percent of NSC member companies indicated they have employees still reporting to work, unable to work remotely. Many of these employees are in critical roles and crucial to supporting the functioning of our society.

In partnership with our employees, we as leaders must be vigilant as we grapple with a workplace safety issue weve never seen and face the challenge of protecting those on the front lines. In occupational safety, the onus to protect workers from all hazards, all the time, falls to employers, full stop. In this time of global crisis, we need to understand the critical responsibility we have to our workforce, said the NSC.
Greg Gootee The Website is the Heart, Soul, Foundation, and Lifeline of Every Small Business. A Strong Website Must Build Trust, Educate, and Elicit Action to Succeed.

Greg Gootee Introduces BaddaBingWebsite.com in Response to Small Business Owners Urgent Need for an Online Presence in the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic

A new division of UCA Marketing Authority, Badda Bing Website, has been launched to help small business owners shuttered by the Coronavirus pandemic, so they can get up and running - and back in business quickly - online. For a limited time, new customers will receive 50 percent off the regular package price.

As a result of being forced to close their doors, many small business owners are being profoundly impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. Sales and marketing expert Greg Gootee has just launched a new web design firm that can help these individuals get back up and running online before all-out disaster strikes. In response to COVID-19, Badda Bing Website (BaddaBingWebsite.com) is poised to design and build a functioning website ultra-fast. The first 100 small business owners who sign up will enjoy a custom-built website for less than half Badda Bings regular price.

According to an April 3, 2020 U.S. News and World Report headline (https://www.usnews.com/news/economy/articles/2020-04-03/small-businesses-face-collapse-as-government-launches-coronavirus-relief-program), Virus Threatens Collapse of Small Businesses. Citing statistics from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the article goes on to point out, A quarter of Americas small businesses are two months or less from going out of business. Breaking down those statistics further, An estimated 24% are only two months from going under if economic conditions dont improve, with more than 1 in 10 small businesses, or 11%, saying they have less than a month. Although the government launched a small business loan program  delays are expected and owners dont have much time.

Greg Gootee of UCA Marketing Authority set up the new division of his company, Badda Bing Website, with time being of the essence for small business owners at its core. The new venture is solely focused on serving small business owners who need a website yesterday at an affordable price point. Combining Gootees more than four decades of sales and marketing expertise with his teams knowledge, skills and abilities, Badda Bing Website assists small businesses in getting started in the online realm with the strongest possible foundation on which to build.

Business owners who are suddenly faced with shuttering in the face of Coronavirus are no different from brand new business owners when it comes to an online presence, explains Gootee. They typically run into one main obstacle that slows them down tremendously and may even mean the difference between surviving this pandemic or succumbing to it. That obstacle is technology and building a website for their business. Badda Bing Website can hurl that obstacle out of their way.

As part of a give-back program Gootee has implemented, the first 100 small businesses to sign up for a custom designed and built Badda Bing Website will receive the deeply discounted price of $497. That price includes website design, creation, content and implementation on the customers hosting companys server. Optional add-on services include domain acquisition and registration, logo design and hosting.

For more information on how to take a non-operating bricks-and-mortar small business to a fully operational online business as quickly and easily as badda bing badda boom, visit Badda Bing Website online at BaddaBingWebsite.com.

###

About Greg Gootee

Greg Gootee is owner of UCA Marketing Authority. He has devoted his entire 40+-year career to sales and marketing. He has consulted, created, sold and managed marketing programs and strategies with over 450 national international corporations, including General Electric, LOreal and Staples. Gootee has also appeared on all the major television networks as a sales and marketing expert. BaddaBingWebsite.com is his latest venture. __title__ Badda Bin Website]
The Congress on Tuesday demanded a thorough probe by a sitting or retired Supreme Court judge into the Tablighi Jamat congregation in Delhi and said strict action against those who have violated the rules.

The Jamat held a congregation earlier this month in Nizamuddin in Delhi which was attended by a number of people from across the country, including from abroad.

A number of members of the Tablighi Jamat have been found infected with coronavirus and are being accused of spreading the virus across the country. Many of them have been identified and quarantined.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said the issue has become a talking point across the country and is a serious matter that should be probed.

"I feel that a Supreme Court judge, sitting or retired, should hold a thorough probe into the entire matter so that the truth comes out before the country and find who is responsible," he said.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the Congress has maintained from day one that whosoever is responsible and has violated the rules should be punished.

"If the Jamat or its members have violated the rules and visa norms, they should be punished as per law and strict action should be taken against them," he said.

Surjewala, however, said it should also be ascertained who allowed them to organise the event as the Maharashtra government did not give them permission to hold a similar congregation in the state.

He said it should also be ascertained whether a Delhi police official or someone in the Home Ministry was responsible for giving them permission to organise the event in Nizamuddin.

"Why was the national security adviser sent to Nizamuddin at 2 am at night by home minister? Why did NSA Ajit Doval meet the Maulana at 2 am and how did the Maulana absconded thereafter," he alleged.

"There should be thorough probe into all this. What was the discussion between the home minister and the NSA and with the members of the Jamat. A thorough probe into this is very important and the government should come forward to tell the truth in this matter," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin Ivany Atina Arbi and Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 10:22 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd02f876 1 National COVID-19-in-Indonesia,BNPB,covid-19-task-force,lockdown,quarantine Free

Imposing a nationwide lockdown to flatten the curve of COVID-19 transmission would do nothing but overwhelm the government, the national COVID-19 rapid response task force has said, as the strict measure would require the government to provide affected residents with basic provisions like food and medicine.

"Imagine if the President had decided to impose a lockdown on the country. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency [BNPB] would have been overwhelmed by now, as this would have meant it had to distribute goods to hundreds of millions of residents nationwide," COVID-19 task force head Doni Monardo, who also heads the BNPB, said on Monday during a meeting with the House of Representatives.

Doni added that it was the government's obligation to meet its citizens' basic needs during the quarantine period as stated in Article 55 of the 2018 law on health quarantine.

Read also: Indonesias COVID-19 stimulus playbook explained

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has remained adamant that he would not impose a lockdown, resisting calls to implement the measure from health experts and regional leaders who criticized the vague physical distancing policy as "ineffective" in curbing the virus' spread.

"We want economic activities to continue, with [businesses] practicing the social distancing for safety," Jokowi said earlier.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country has continued to rise, with 2,491 confirmed cases and 209 deaths reported on Monday.

Read also: COVID-19: Govt forgoes mudik ban to prevent economic collapse, Luhut says

Doni said that the agency, in coordination with the Agriculture Ministry, had provided seeds to people who had been forced to leave their urban jobs as a result of the economic impacts of the outbreak and subsequently returned to their hometowns. The seeds were intended to provide an alternative livelihood back in their hometowns.

"At the time being, our duty is to ensure that people can lead decent lives. We are applying restrictions, not prohibitions," he added.
KAMPALA  All 150 samples have tested negative for coronavirus today Tuesday April 07, the ministry of Health has announced.

Ugandas confirmed COVID-19 cases remain at 52.

A total of 150 samples have tested NEGATIVE for COVID-19, today, the ministry said adding that the total number of COVID-19 confirmed cases stands at 52 in Uganda

Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said all patients are in stable condition at Entebbe Grade B, Mulago, Adjumani and Hoima hospitals.

Uganda, we can do this, Dr. Aceng said via twitter.

The Ministry of Health through the national taskforce is tracing 2400+ missing people who arrived in country between March 7 and 22 for coronavirus testing.

Majority of the total cases are Ugandans who got infected from abroad especially Dubai and Europe.

She said the ministry has so far listed 660 contacts for follow-up. But it wont stop at those.

The contacts of the 660 will also be tried to be identified for follow-up as well.

You should understand that of the returnees, a big group got back into the general population and it is only the 13 of these that were traced and tested positive, clarified the health minister.

Statistics from Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) indicate that there were 5,134 direct flights from Dubai to Entebbe from March 1 to March 22.

Between the 7th and 22nd of March, over 2400+ travellers entered country and went straight to the population.

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Doctors and nurses are the frontline warriors in the fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak. However, unfortunately, by the virtue of their roles, they are also bearing the brunt of the highly contagious disease.

Doctors and nurses are the frontline warriors in the fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak. However, unfortunately, by the virtue of their roles, they are also bearing the brunt of the highly contagious disease.

A study on the Chinese response to the virus found that 29 percent of the randomly sampled patients were actually healthcare professionals who contracted the virus in the line of duty. In one particular instance, a patient with atypical symptoms managed to infect 11 healthcare professionals in China just because he was referred to the wrong ward.

In medium income group countries like India, where the healthcare system is abysmally underfunded and ill-prepared for a pandemic, the cost of each medical professional catching the virus is compounded manifold.

At such a time there have been instances where entire hospitals had to be shut off due to infection among doctors and nurses.

Healthcare workers at greater risk

Two private hospitals in Mumbai have been sealed after some of their medical staff, including doctors and nurses, tested positive for the novel coronavirus since Monday. Three doctors and 26 nurses tested positive for novel coronavirus in Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai Central and the facility has been sealed off to prevent the spread of

infection, BMC health officials said. A similar story emerged from Jaslok Hospital where nurses had alleged that staff members had contracted the virus.

Likewise, the Delhi state cancer institute was shut down on 1 April after a doctor working there tested positive, leaving highly vulnerable and critical cancer patients exposed, who had to be shifted elsewhere for treatment.

When contacted, Jaslok Hospital admitted that a nurse who came in contact with a COVID-19 patient did test positive.

"The staff members handling COVID-19 patients are given protective gears like face masks, gloves, eye protection, Personal Protection Equipment for contact droplet and airborne transmission of pathogens, long-sleeved water resistant gown to ensure precaution. "

All the medical staff who came in direct or indirect contact of the affected nurse and the connected patient have been identified and quarantined as per the protocol, the hospital said.

As a precautionary measure, the hospital has suspended its OPD services and no new admissions are being taken for a few days, it said.

However, the move will impact hundreds of patients who throng these hospitals for treatment of various ailments, not to mention that it will also set the country behind in its fight against coronavirus.

Similar reports of doctors and other health professionals testing positive or having exposure to COVID-19 patients have come from Rajasthan, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Kerala among other states.

These reports highlight a threat both to the individual healthcare workers battling the pandemic, and the overstressed healthcare system of India.

According to a government reply in Lok Sabha last year, there is one doctor for every 1,445 Indians as per the country's current population estimate of 135 crore, which is lower than the WHO's prescribed norm of one doctor for 1,000 people.

Another estimate suggests than an on-duty doctor takes care of 100 hospital beds in a week, and the same number of OPD patients in a day. With the virus forcing healthcare professionals to retire into quarantine, hundreds will be left without medical attention. This will also increase the pressure on already overworked doctors battling the pandemic.

Why are medical professionals more susceptible to virus

Firstly, the medical professionals are more exposed to viral particles and high viral load patients than the general public. Even with all the protective gear in place, the virus is one mistake away from making them sick.

Secondly, most healthcare professionals in India do not have access to full protective gear.

The rising number of cases among medical professionals only serve to underscore the severe shortage of personal protective equipment.

Using raincoats, home-made masks instead of PPE, Indian doctors woefully under-protected

A Safdarjung resident doctor told India Today that the shortage is so bad that even doctors in emergency wards are being given N95 masks instead of PPEs (personal protective equipment). An N95 mask survives in the contaminated environment for two to three days and then "cannot really protect us," the doctor said. "It is useless."

One report cited the case of a Bihar hospital where doctors attended to COVID-19 patients in regular surgical masks and homemade protective gear, because recommended suits were not available. Later, when some of the doctors started showing symptoms, they were quarantined but asymptomatic doctors were forced to remain on duty despite them highlighting that they all remain in close contact and share a common mess at the hospital.

Another report said that doctors at AIIMS Delhi, one of India's premium state-run healthcare facilities, were using self-made masks, while those in Uttar Pradesh were forced to use protective gear used to treat HIV patients. This was despite the fact that the contagion method of both diseases remains vastly different.

A Times of India report also stated that at Medical College Hospital (Kolkata), and the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Beliaghata, medical professionals are being given raincoats instead of PPEs for protection.

At Howrah General Hospital, medics complained that they do not have things as basic as sanitisers and handwashing soap/liquid. Unfortunately, reports of such instances are galore.

An Al Jazeera report blames government mismanagement for such shortage. The report states that the government paid no heed to World Health Organization (WHO) warnings about impending global shortages of PPE on 27 February, and called on industries to ramp up production by just 40 percent only once cases started skyrocketing. The government also allowed export of surgical masks and gloves till February end and it was only on 19 March that the government banned the export of raw materials used to manufacture PPE.

The publication also alleges that the Minutes of the Meetings it has accessed suggests government is grossly underestimates the need for PPEs, with the current trend suggesting the need could rise to almost 5,0000 per day; the government is preparing to add 7,00000 PPEs till end of May.
(L) Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street in London on March 4, 2020. (Toby Melville/Reuters) (R) President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington on April 6, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump Says US Companies Discussed Treatment for Boris Johnson With UK Doctors

President Donald Trump said that U.S. pharmaceutical companies have discussed recently developed treatment for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was admitted to intensive care on Monday afternoon with the CCP virus.

Johnson was diagnosed with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, on March 27. His condition worsened over Monday afternoon and he was moved to intensive care on the advice of his medical team.

Although the UK prime minister had received oxygen, his office said on Monday he was still conscious and was moved to intensive care just in case he needed to be put on a ventilator.

Hes not on a ventilator no, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove told LBC radio on Tuesday. The prime minister has received some oxygen support and he is kept under, of course, close supervision.

Trump said Monday night that he asked two leading U.S. companies to contact London immediately.

These are brilliant companiesEbola, AIDS, otherstheyve come with the solutions and just have done incredible jobs  They have offices in London, major companies. More than major, more than size, theyre genius, the president said of the companies.

Related Coverage UK Prime Minister Taken to Hospital ICU Over COVID-19

Trump added that he had spoken to four companies and that he understands that they have really advanced therapeutics.

They have arrived in London already, Trump said. Their London office has whatever they need and we will see if we can be of helpwe have contacted all of Boriss doctors and we will see what is going to take place. But they are ready to go  The two companies are there and with what they are talking aboutand it is rather complex and has had really incredible resultswe are working with the FDA and everybody else but we are working with London with respect to Boris Johnson.

Earlier in the day, Trump spoke by telephone with CEOs of four pharmaceutical companiesAmgen, Genetech, Gilead, and Regeneron.

The president acknowledged the industrys progress in developing therapeutics to fight this pandemic and promised the federal government will continue to be a helpful partner with science and data leading the way, White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere said in a statement. The executives thanked President Trump for directing his administration to break down barriers, cut red tape, and encourage cooperation across all industries and government to best meet the needs of the American people during this unprecedented time.

A reporter asked Trump about what treatment was discussed for Johnson, and whether the treatment is available to the American public.

Its a very complex treatment of things that theyve just recently developed, and that they have a lot of experience with having to do with something elsebut recent for this. Theyve already concurred, theyve already had meetings with the doctors and well see whether or not they want to go that route, Trump responded.

I think we have three of them. I spoke with four. You know who the four would be, Trump said, without naming the companies at the press conference.

Trump also expressed well-wishes and praised the UK prime minister.

I want to send best wishes to a very good friend of mine and a friend to our nation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Trump said. He has been a really good friend, something very specialstrong, resolute, doesnt quit, doesnt give up.

I found Boris to be a fantastic person, the president later said. Just like a fantastic, warm, strong, smart guy. He loves his country. You see that. He fought like hell for his country. Intensive care is big stuff. Really big.

When asked by a reporter from The Guardian about whether Johnsons initially relaxed approach to the pandemic may have been a mistake, Trump said: I think he was looking at it differently. He was looking at it earlier. He was looking at it like, ride it out. There were many people thinking about riding it out. Meaning, you know, whatever it is, it is.

But then you see what starts to happen and the numbers become monumental, Trump continued. And they decide not to do that.

Trump noted that the UK has now moved to a very strict lockdown, but theyre suffering greatly as a nation right now. Theyre a nation thats having a difficult time.

[Boris Johnson]s just such an incredible guy. It was so shocking to see that. You know what that means, intensive care is a big deal with regard to what were talking about, Trump said.

Trump noted that the United States moved quickly in imposing a travel ban from China, while the UK prime minister waited a little while and he felt that.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Read More Editorial: Giving the Right Name to the Virus Causing a Worldwide Pandemic
An Indian-origin cardiac surgeon who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus has died at a hospital in Cardiff in the UK, where a number of medics have lost their lives on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jitendra Kumar Rathod, Associate Specialist in cardio-thoracic surgery at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW), was described as an "incredibly dedicated surgeon" by his National Health Service (NHS) workplace.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board posted a tribute to the medic, who had studied for his medical degree in India, and said "Jitu" will be missed greatly after he passed away on Monday.

"Jitu had worked in the Department of Cardio-thoracic Surgery since the mid-1990s and came back to UHW in 2006 after a brief stint abroad," the board said.

"He was an incredibly dedicated surgeon who cared deeply for his patients. He was well-liked and greatly respected by one and all. He was a very compassionate and a wonderful human being," the tribute read.

The Board added that his commitment to the hospital's special facility had been "exemplary".

Rathod, whose age remains unconfirmed, is survived by his wife and two sons.

He is among a growing number of medics who have lost their lives on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic across UK hospitals, where the COVID-19 death toll mounted to 5,373.

Over 208,800 people have been tested in the UK, of which more than 51,600 have tested positive, including the country's Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

According to Johns Hopkins University, there are over 1.34 million confirmed coronavirus cases across the world and over 74,000 people have died from the disease.

The US has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world at 364,723, followed by Spain (136,675), Italy (132,547) and Germany (102,453).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
What happened

Shares of energy services company Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) fell a dramatic 61.5% in March, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Peer Helmerich & Payne (NYSE:HP) dropped 58%, with National Oilwell Varco (NYSE:NOV) declining roughly 48%. These are terrifying declines on an absolute basis when you consider they transpired over just a single month.

That said, they appear even worse when you compare the declines to the broader market. Yes, the S&P 500 fell into a bear market in March, but by the end of the span, it was down "only" around 13%. That's not good, but it is much better than the losses experienced by these energy services names. Wall Street is a volatile place today (the S&P actually bounced 20% higher from its lows in March, which some would argue means a bull market started), but there's much more to the story in the oil patch. And that has big implications for Core Labs, Helmerich & Payne, and National Oilwell Varco.

So what

The broader market sell-off was related to concerns about COVID-19. That obviously had some impact on the stock prices of Core Labs, Helmerich & Payne, and National Oilwell Varco. But the bigger impact on these companies is more complicated.

Over the last decade or so, U.S. onshore drilling has materially increased the amount of oil and natural gas the country produces. That has increased global supply and upended the normal dynamics of the world's energy markets. OPEC has tried to offset the increase in U.S. production by trimming its own output. But U.S. oil has basically just filled the void. Supply in the energy sector has been high, and that has kept a lid on oil prices.

The efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19, meanwhile, have basically involved a drastic reduction in economic activity. It is highly likely that the steps, including social distancing, limiting travel, and closing nonessential businesses, will push the world into a recession. Demand for oil and natural gas has already fallen dramatically because of COVID-19; a recession would only make things worse.

Layered on top of this, OPEC and Russia have gotten into a price war. The fear is that these major global oil producers will open the spigots and flood the market with oil when supply is already high and demand low. Material price declines are the immediate impact, but the pain could linger as the excess oil being produced today gets put into storage for use later. The stored oil will have to be worked off before oil prices are likely to start a material recovery.

This is an uncertain time, and oil prices remain highly volatile and driven by news, both good and bad. For example, oil prices rallied on news that OPEC and Russia were going to start talking again. And just a day or so later, prices fell when it appeared that the two were still at odds over key issues and had delayed a proposed meeting. As oil prices bounce up and down, the prices of energy stocks like National Oilwell Varco, Core Labs, and Helmerich & Payne bounce, too. That's not going to change anytime soon, with often-dramatic price moves likely to be the norm.

That said, these companies provide services to the producers of oil and gas. So their financial results aren't directly driven by oil prices. The demand for drilling services is what is most important. Oil producers were already pulling back before COVID-19 and the OPEC-Russia spat. And now, as energy prices fall to painfully low levels, they are pulling back even more. The outlook for an increase in demand for energy services, meanwhile, isn't likely to materially brighten until the supply/demand imbalance in the market has been resolved in a positive manner. And that could take a long time, considering the oil piling up in storage today. Investors may push the shares higher based on market news, but the underlying fundamentals of the business probably won't change much in the near term.

Helmerich & Payne, National Oilwell Varco, and Core Labs are all likely to survive this difficult time. But it probably won't be an enjoyable period for investors.

Now what

Those looking at the energy sector for bargains today should likely avoid Helmerich & Payne, National Oilwell Varco, and Core Labs because of the uncertainty in the market. The big problem is that their results are tied to what their customers do on the drilling front, and right now, less drilling looks likely for at least the near future. Intrepid souls trying to find value in the energy patch should probably stick to financially strong integrated energy giants like Chevron.
Amid the growing need for personal protective equipment of health workers battling the coronavirus pandemic, several volunteers that have started to produce their hand-sewn masks to be distributed to medical personnel have been showing up on the internet one after another.

Facebook's System Issues

But due to Facebook's automated filtering systems, these posts were removed, and the samaritans threatened to be banned from posting or commenting on the social media platform. Sewing organizers who planned donation campaigns for their handicrafts were reportedly placed in what is known as "Facebook Jail."

Facebook allegedly threatened to delete the associated groups in the campaigns. And it has affected DIY mask crafters along with several states in the US.

The social media giant has had difficulties in differentiating between ill-natured and innocent content from its feed. Reliance on its automatic filtering systems to discern and remove harmful posts that go against its terms of service could backfire as they could have trouble detecting nuances and have tendencies to make mistakes.

Recently, Facebook has intensified its surveillance procedures to counter the surge in detrimental coronavirus content that are looking for profit. Teams were created to help handle the situation by banning specific kinds of posts regarding the virus. Due to the stricter filtering of the organizations, volunteers and donors have been affected.

The social media's authorities stated the objective of the automated systems was to prevent the selling of medical masks but has inadvertently hampered the efforts of several contributors in donating supplies needed by frontliners. Facebook has responded to complaints by apologizing to those negatively affected by the process and replied the error is being troubleshot to avoid the same mistakes.





Read Also: [Coronavirus Vaccine] Novel Injection Technology Works on Mice: Could it Work on Humans?

Affected Organizations

Among those affected include Nicole Jochym, a medical student in Camden, N.J. She urged people to utilize what they can find at home to hand-make their masks to donate to the frontliners.

The volunteer organization she created, Sew Face Masks Philadelphia, expanded to several thousands of patrons from its origin in March. The group's Facebook page alone has garnered more than 3,500 supporters. Ms. Jochym said, "Our platform has become even more of a useful tool for our community members to engage with each other".

Over the last few days, Nicole exclaimed Facebook's automated systems have flagged several of their community's posts and branding them as breaking the rules against regulated goods and services. The ones who posted, however, were warned and ultimately threatened of being banned from posting or commenting on any post on Facebook if they made any other malicious content.

Moderator for Sew Face Masks for Quincy, Melissa Knapp, said she had been bombarded with several threatening messages to limit her posts. Other moderators of similar Facebook groups have also shared their grievances regarding the warning they have received.

The problem may have also been aggravated by government agencies arguing if people ought to wear face masks in public, as it takes away from the potential supply that could be given to the medical workers in the front lines. But as of last week, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reiterated that masks are advised to be worn in public.

Facebook moderators believe the confusion was caused by unclear messages regarding the guidelines.

Nicole Jochym said they are one with the social media provider in reducing the number of unethical sales and malicious intent of profiting from the disaster. She also stated they are hoping for quick updates with the systems for the betterment of the community and organizations that work to help the nation in this time of crisis.

Read Also: Never Open Your Browser For Facebook Messenger Again: Windows And Mac Desktop App With Video Chat Is Finally Here
Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, has announced a total lockdown of the state, with effect from 12 midnight, Thursday 9 to 15 April, 2020.

The Governor said the aforementioned action was based on governments plan to fumigate the entire state, which will commence on the April 9.

Also Read: BREAKING: Nigeria Records Six New COVID-19 Cases, 238 In Total

Lalong disclosed this while briefing journalists in Jos, the state capital on the progress report on the fight against coronavirus pandemic.

This is coming following the increase in the number of Coronavirus cases around the country.

According to the Governor, there will be no movement of any kind except for staff on essential duty during the lockdown.
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)  Following weeks of pay for employees during the coronavirus pandemic, Subaru of Indiana Automotive announced Tuesday it will end for hourly production associates.

According to the company, beginning April 13, all associates deemed non-essential during the shutdown will no longer receive pay. As of now, the Lafayette plant is closed until at least April 17. Production has been halted since March 23.

"While SIA has been pleased to provide full pay for three weeks for all associates, including most temporary production associates, it's no longer sustainable while production is suspended amid health concerns, declining market demand and supply chain issues," the company said in a memo.

Associates will qualify for unemployment benefits under the federal government's $2 trillion stimulus package. SIA associates will retain their health insurance and other benefits.

The company encouraged associates to file for unemployment as soon as possible. For instructions on how to do so, SIA said employees should visit mySIA and click Resources and then Coronavirus.

Salaried associates, who can work remotely, should discuss with their manager, the company said.

"Thanks for your cooperation and understanding during this unprecedented situation," the memo said. "SIA remains committed to keeping associates safe and health while balancing the need to protect SIA's financial stability and ensure our collective livelihoods. By supporting each other during this difficult time, we remain positioned to achieve long-term success together."

Subaru of Indiana Automotive is Tippecanoe County's second-largest employer behind Purdue University. More than 6,000 employees work at the Lafayette manufacturing plant, the only one outside of Asia. The Ascent, Impreza, Legacy and Outback are all produced at the facility off State Road 38.
Sunitha Natti By

Express News Service

Fiscal stimulus is set to make another trip to the Indian economy to avoid growth marching towards a full stop.

There's no sector that's unaffected by the lockdown as the coronavirus takes an uninvited tour.

The ongoing loss of business, in some cases exacerbated by an existing demand slump, has primed expectations that the government will bring in the big guns to rescue businesses.

The US, the UK and Japan, which are in debt up to the ears, have all literally emptied coffers to protect the private sector to avoid one potent fallout: unemployment.

If businesses are without revenue, it leads to households without income resulting in the vicious cycle drill, which economies must avoid at all costs.

India's joblessness is a gray area, though the word on the street is it's already high. So what should the proposed relief package look like?

Anubhuti Sahay, Head, South Asia Economic Research (India), Standard Chartered Bank, suggests everything from loan guarantees to MSMEs to temporary 1 per cent corporate tax reduction for one year, cash transfers to self-employed and casual labourers and infrastructure investment to jumpstart the construction sector.

India has nearly maxed out its debit card (falling revenue) and to an extent even its credit card (soaring fiscal deficit), so it won't be an easy call.

Forecasts peg the FY21 fiscal deficit to breach 9 per cent and hence economists suggest suspension of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBMA) to borrow without the fear of rating downgrades.

It was done during the 2008 financial crisis, and the government should probably give it another whirl, she said. "But (India) should aim for a combined fiscal deficit target of 6 per cent by FY24," Sahay reasoned.

Almost every sector from airlines to retail to hoteliers has sought government handouts, big or small, and the message is one of urgency: Do it once, do it now. For, an ill-timed rescue will not only make revival expensive, but also futile.

While the speed and size of the stimulus plan is critical, India can perhaps draw its blueprint from other nations.

The first to announce it was Denmark, whose boldness will cost 13 per cent of its GDP. The UK too was quick on its feet announcing three packages in 10 days flat, with the last lot being a blank cheque, offering unlimited financial support to its people and the private sector.

The US' $2.2 trillion package -- its biggest fiscal stimulus in history -- was roughly 10 per cent of the GDP, comparable only to World War II when federal spending crossed 10 per cent of GDP. Japan too pledged an unprecedented $1 trillion stimulus aggregating 20 per cent of its GDP.

Let's see some highlights.



Federal governments paying salaries to private sector employees tops among the relief measures, hands down.

Denmark is footing 90 per cent of employees' salaries to ensure companies won't fire them, while Britain is paying up to 80 per cent. While the German government and employers will split the salary bill, retrenched French workers will get unemployment benefits equal to 84 per cent of their wages. Plus they get to keep their jobs.

Companies too have some welcome elements in the relief packages.

Japan is allowing cash-strapped small and mid-sized firms to borrow at zero interest and without collateral, while sector-specific sops include financial support to airlines worth 2 trillion yen along with a grace period for payment of landing fees.

The US designed a $360-billion fund for SMEs and a $500-billion bailout fund for big businesses to cover running costs including wages and rent for two months. As a bonus, Uncle Sam will also repay loans in full, if employers don't hand over pink slips to staff and rehire workers laid off last month.

Denmark went one step further giving 70 per cent state guarantees to new bank loans of companies and to encourage bank lending, while the UK's 30-billion-pound tax holiday suspended value-added taxes for one quarter.

Besides loan guarantees to all firms, the hospitality sector got a one-year holiday from paying business rates, while small firms are allowed generous cash grants.
Landowners are warned against rushing to sign new terms on the siting of masts as operators look to agree rights to install equipment once virus-related restrictions are lifted.

The new Electronic Communications Code was introduced in the Digital Economy Act 2017 to modernise the UKs telecoms infrastructure by making it easier for operators to erect and extend mobile towers.

Many owners with leases that commenced prior to the new Code are being approached about renewals, and often these approaches give the impression there is no option but to agree to proposals by the telecom operators.

However, in many cases, the heads of terms proposed constitute a significant departure from the current lease, granting more rights than operators are legally entitled to under the Code, and limiting their potential liability.

Because of this, farmers and landowners should act cautious, according to Mike Reid, of property consultancy Galbraith.

After negotiation, far better terms are able to be agreed, including increasing the operators financial proposals for the site, he said.

Within many proposed lease renewal terms there isnt any ability for the owner to review the site payment within the proposed agreement.

"As security of tenure is granted under the Code, landowners could be signing up to agreements in perpetuity, with no rights to review the site payment, or to claim additional compensation for any losses caused by Code rights without recourse to a potentially expensive and uncertain tribunal process.

He urged landowners consider their position and if necessary, seek external advice before committing to operators proposals.

We know from negotiating many such agreements that landowners can feel pressured into agreeing terms, said Mr Reid.

However, it is better to make sure any agreement which could last indefinitely is agreed on the most favourable terms from the start as changing provisions further down the line could be costly and problematic.

Prior to agreeing any terms for a new lease landowners should ensure the terms of the existing lease are up to date.

We have been able to agree backdated rent reviews under many existing leases when an operator has approached about a new Code lease renewal resulting in substantial payments being received  more than 8,000 in some cases, said Mr Reid.

If a lease renewal had been agreed the opportunity to agree any outstanding rent reviews under the previous lease would be lost.

The Covid-19 restrictions have put many aspects of modern life on hold but this hasnt impacted the operators approaches for new Code agreements.

Mr Reid added: Landowners should be able to recover their reasonable professional fees for agreeing terms for a new code agreement."
The second freedom bid of convicted killer and Hobart grandmother Susan Neill-Fraser has been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Neill-Fraser, 66, was found guilty a decade ago of murdering partner Bob Chappell on the couple's yacht on Australia Day 2009.

Her appeal against the conviction was set to be heard by the Supreme Court of Tasmania in late May.

Susan Neill-Fraser (left), 66, was found guilty a decade ago of murdering partner Bob Chappell (right) on the couple's yacht on Australia Day 2009

But it has been pushed back until at least August due to COVID-19 social distancing and travel restrictions.

Neill-Fraser's interstate lawyers and the Director of Public Prosecutions agreed the hearing could not go ahead via video link because of its complexity.

The hearing has been pencilled in for two weeks from August 17, with a fortnight in early November the second option if lawyers are unavailable or virus restrictions remain in place.

'We need to have a 'Plan B' ... because we just don't know what the situation will be with coronavirus,' Justice Helen Wood told the Supreme Court in Hobart on Tuesday.

Neill-Fraser is serving 23 years' behind bars for murdering Mr Chappell, whose body has never been found, on the Four Winds boat (pictured) moored at Sandy Bay

A further directions hearing will be held on June 22.

Neill-Fraser is serving 23 years' behind bars for murdering Mr Chappell, whose body has never been found, on the Four Winds boat moored at Sandy Bay.

She claims there is fresh and compelling evidence that then-homeless teenager Meaghan Vass was aboard the yacht and Mr Chappell was attacked while Ms Vass was there.

Neill-Fraser's first appeal against her conviction was dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeal in 2012.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Swedish counterpart Stefan Lofven on Tuesday agreed on the possibility of collaboration and data sharing between researchers and scientists of the two countries, a move which would contribute to the global efforts against COVID-19.

The two leaders also discussed over telephone the novel coronavirus pandemic and the steps being taken in their respective countries for controlling its health and economic impacts.

"Both leaders agreed on the potential for collaboration and data sharing between Indian and Swedish researchers and scientists, which would also contribute to the global efforts against COVID-19," an official statement said here.

The two leaders promised to provide necessary facilitation and assistance for each other's citizens, who may be stranded due to ongoing travel restrictions.

They also agreed that their officials would remain in touch to optimise availability of medical supplies for fighting COVID-19, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
April 7 (Reuters) - Freeport-McMoRan Inc said three employees at its Chino copper mine in New Mexico have tested positive for COVID-19, confirming earlier reports from state officials.

Operations at the mine have not been affected, though any employees that came into contact with the affected workers have been told to self-quarantine, Freeport spokeswoman Linda Hayes said. Freeport first alerted state officials last Thursday of the illnesses.

New Mexico Lieutenant Governor Howie Morales told Reuters about the diagnoses on Monday. "This week, in addition to verbally screening all visitors, we will begin conducting temperature checks," Freeport said. Hayes said the company was also staggering work shifts for employees and boosting cleaning, Hayes said. "We also continue to emphasize the importance of staying home if ill and adjusted our pay and leave practices weeks ago to support this," Hayes said.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Pennsylvania marks another new grim milestone as more than 200 people have died due to the coronavirus.

At least 240 have died in Pennsylvania, including 78 new deaths reported today, according to the state Department of Health. The number of new fatalities is a one-day high by a substantial margin. All of those who have died in Pennsylvania are adults, the health department said.

Statewide, 14,559 patients have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, with 1,579 new cases reported today, according to the health department.

Cases have been now been reported in all of Pennsylvanias 67 counties. The health department released new numbers at noon.

In the Harrisburg region, at least 20 have died due to the coronavirus. The state figures reflect four new deaths in the midstate: three in Lancaster County and one in York County.

The number of new cases reported today is an uptick over the past two days but it is just short of a one-day high. The biggest one-day jump in cases occurred Saturday, with 1,597 new cases.

The Philadelphia region remains the epicenter of the virus.

The city of Philadelphia alone now has more than 4,000 cases and 58 deaths, including 30 new fatalities reported today. Neighboring Montgomery County now has 1,359 cases and 30 deaths, including 12 new fatalities reported today. Delaware County has nearly 900 cases.

In the Harrisburg region, Lancaster County leads area counties with 490 cases and 14 deaths. York County is second, having topped 200 cases today. York has reported 218 cases and 2 deaths.

Heres a look at case numbers in the counties in the Harrisburg region: Dauphin (155 cases and 1 death); Lebanon (145 cases); Cumberland (77 cases and 2 deaths); Franklin (39 cases); Adams (28 cases); and Perry (9 cases and 1 death).

The Lehigh Valley has been hit hard by the virus. Lehigh County alone has 1,146 cases and 10 deaths. And northeastern Pennsylvania continues to see a troubling rise in cases; Luzerne County alone now has nearly 1,000 cases.

In western Pennsylvania, Allegheny County has 689 cases and 6 have died, according to the state Health Department.

Gov. Tom Wolf has taken aggressive steps to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The entire state is under a stay-at-home order until April 30. Wolf has said the goal is to buy time so hospitals arent overwhelmed by a surge of new patients.

A surge is coming, Wolf said Monday. But the size of the surge depends on the success of social distancing and people being willing to stay at home, Wolf said.

The rapid spread of the virus has disturbed state officials. The first cases in Pennsylvania were reported just a little over a month ago.

Were still growing at an alarming rate every single day, Wolf said Monday.

Wolf has closed public schools indefinitely. Schools have shifted to providing remote instruction via online lessons. Wolf has said its possible students may be allowed to move to the next grade level based on the work they did before schools were closed.

The governor has also ordered the closure of businesses that arent life-sustaining. Thousands of businesses have applied for waivers to stay opens. Businesses and trade groups have argued the order is too broad and has shuttered some companies providing essential services.

With Passover and Easter this week, Wolf has urged faith leaders to refrain from gathering together for services.

There are 76,719 patients who have tested negative. The department does not say how many test results are pending since most testing is done in commercial laboratories.

Most people recover from the coronavirus but the department does not offer statistics on how many recover. Most who contract the virus dont require hospital care but older residents are more susceptible for more serious complications. The state has said hospitals inform the health department when patients are diagnosed but dont say when they are discharged.

More from PennLive

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Businesses are faced with an immediate need to implement new, safer queuing strategies. The lead time from decision to installation needs to be quick, allowing businesses the opportunity to get back to serving their customers and keeping them safe - Perry Kuklin, Director of Marketing

The month of March saw a dramatic shift in the way businesses serve their customers. Concerns over Coronavirus (COVID-19), has led to an increased focus on customer safety and health, creating new queuing challenges for restaurants, grocery stores, retailers, laboratories, pharmacies, medical centers and others. How businesses and customers physically interact with each other has rarely been more important than it is in this time of abrupt change.

Lavi Industries is familiar with adapting to new and sudden changes in queuing, with over 40 years of assisting the TSA and countless other agencies and organizations with queuing strategies, products and services. Businesses are faced with an immediate need to implement new, safer queuing strategies. The lead time from decision to installation needs to be quick, allowing businesses the opportunity to get back to serving their customers and keeping them safe says Perry Kuklin, Director of Marketing for Lavi Industries. We want to help, and one way we can do that is to look at the products and services we offer and find a way to make them even more accessible and useful.

One such service is Lavis new smartphone queuing technology. We have been offering virtual queuing through our Qtrac VR product for several years now, and we know the benefits it provides our customers, states Kuklin. It enables contactless engagement, allows the customer to wait outside the business premisis or in the safety of their car, and provides the business a way to control customer access into the building or space.The lead time for implementaton of our standard Qtrac VR would average 2-3 weeks due to all of the customization options. However, we knew our customers needed something sooner than that, Kuklin explains, so we asked our team to create a simpler solution that could be implemented immediately. The result was Qtrac VR Smartphone Queuing. With no app or hardware to install, businesses are able to begin using the program within days. Weve recently implemented this program into 300 branches at a financial institution in just 5 days. Smaller implementations take just a day, states Kuklin. Customers simply scan a QR code using their smartphone camera or text their name. They are then automatically directed to a webpage where they can track their place in line, ask for more time, or communicate with staff if necessary. The webpage, or a text message, then alerts the customer when it is their turn for service.

Its the safest solution for providing social distancing to your customers, with the added benefit of being quick and easy to use and implement, says Kuklin. However, we know there are some businesses that may still require a physical queue, and we wanted to make sure we helped them as well. Seeing the lines of customers outside grocery stores was enough inspiration to realize what needed to happen. People are not used to social distancing yet, and dont always recognize six feet of safe distance without visual cues, says Kuklin. Our portable retractable belt stanchions not only help organize queues and help keep waiting customers safe, but they also happen to have 7 long retractable belts  perfect for identifying safe social distance. Lavi Industries has designed and begun selling stanchions with a new custom belt, printed with visual cues to help customers maintain a minimum six feet of safe space between them. In addition, stanchion signs have been designed to help reinforce safe social distance practices. The signage and custom belts are easily installed on any of the retractable belt stanchions offered by Lavi Industries, and take only a few minutes to install and set-up.

About Lavi Industries

Based in Valencia, California, Lavi Industries is the premier provider of public guidance and crowd control solutions in the Americas. Leveraging its portfolio of world-class brands  Beltrac stanchions, Directrac signage systems, Qtrac electronic queuing systems, and NeXtrac in-queue merchandising systems  Lavi has helped the worlds leading companies effectively guide people in, through, and out of their facilities. More information is available at https://www.lavi.com/.
A bride and groom have been arrested after their wedding was broken up for allegedly breaching South African coronavirus lockdown rules against public gatherings.

Police took 50 wedding guests into custody, including the pastor officiating the ceremony, local authorities said.

The wedding was taking place near uMhlathuze, a coastal part of South Africa in the KwaZulu-Natal region.

Local authorities said the people arrested would be released on "stringent" bail and charged after the end of South Africa's lockdown period, which is in the second week of at least three.

uMhlathuze mayor Mduduzi Mhlongo said: We are appealing to everyone to take this virus seriously and work with government to clamp it down before it ravages the whole nation.

"The number of people being infected is rising sharply and now we are beginning to see people dying in our country like in the other countries of the world."

He added: "The lockdown by government is aimed at stopping the spread and to assist people not to be exposed to the virus by sitting at home for the duration of the lockdown.

"We must commend all those citizens who are abiding with the rules and encourage them to do so until the end. We believe this is for our own health and survival.

South Africa has taken a strict approach to containing coronavirus, only allowing people to go outside for essential reasons and banning alcohol and cigarettes.

The country is also carrying out widespread testing to track the virus' spread.
The top human rights court in the Americas has found Peru responsible for the arbitrary detention and rape of a transgender woman in a landmark case marking the first time it has ruled on a complaint of torture against a member of the LGBT+ community.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights in a ruling made public on Monday said Azul Rojas Marin had been the victim of an act of torture in 2008, and it ordered the government to pay her unspecified damages.

According to her lawyers, Ms Marin was detained by police in 2008 in northern Peru and while in custody was stripped, hit and raped with a truncheon by police.

Ms Marin had filed a criminal complaint against police but the case was dismissed by state prosecutors, and human rights groups took it to the Inter-American Court on her behalf.

As the judicial arm of the 35-member Organisation of American States, the court hears cases of human rights abuses in Latin America and can order governments to investigate crimes and compensate victims.

LGBT+ rights around the globe Show all 9 1 /9 LGBT+ rights around the globe LGBT+ rights around the globe Russia Russias antipathy towards homosexuality has been well established following the efforts of human rights campaigners. However, while it is legal to be homosexual, LGBT couples are offered no protections from discrimination. They are also actively discriminated against by a 2013 law criminalising LGBT propaganda allowing the arrest of numerous Russian LGBT activists. AFP/Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Brunei Brunei recently introduced a law to make sodomy punishable by stoning to death. It was already illegal and punishable by up to 10 years in prison AFP/Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Mauritania Men who are found having sex with other men face stoning, while lesbians can be imprisoned, under Sharia law. However, the state has reportedly not executed anyone for this crime since 1987 Alamy LGBT+ rights around the globe Sudan Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal under Sudanese law. Men can be executed on their third offence, women on their fourth Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Saudi Arabia Homosexuality and gender realignment is illegal and punishable by death, imprisonment, whipping and chemical castration Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Yemen The official position within the country is that there are no gays. LGBT inviduals, if discovered by the government, are likely to face intense pressure. Punishments range from flogging to the death penalty Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Nigeria Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal and in some northern states punishable with death by stoning. This is not a policy enacted across the entire country, although there is a prevalent anti-LGBT agenda pushed by the government. In 2007 a Pew survey established that 97% of the population felt that homosexuality should not be accepted. It is punishable by 14 years in prison Reuters LGBT+ rights around the globe Somalia Homosexuality was established as a crime in 1888 and under new Somali Penal Code established in 1973 homosexual sex can be punishable by three years in prison. A person can be put to death for being a homosexual Reuters LGBT+ rights around the globe Iraq Although same-sex relationships have been decriminalised, much of the population still suffer from intense discrimination. Additionally, in some of the country over-run by the extremist organisation Isis, LGBT individuals can face death by stoning Getty

The ruling, issued on 12 March but made public on Monday, ordered Peru to provide psychological treatment to the victim, adopt new protocols for investigating attacks against LGBT+ people and track statistics of violence against the community.

The ruling marked the first time the court has ruled on a complaint of torture against a member of the LGBT+ community, rights campaigners said.

It is a very emblematic case. It's historic because it classifies the violence received by this woman as torture, said Andre Mere Rivera, a local LGBT+ rights activist.

It makes the state responsible for the violence and discrimination that [the LGBT+ community] has historically suffered and continues to suffer, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

A spokesperson for the Peruvian ministry of justice and human rights did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In its ruling, the court said Ms Marin's detention was discriminatory, illegal and arbitrary.

Ms Rojas Marin was forcibly stripped naked, beaten on several occasions ... and was the victim of rape; constituting an act of torture against the victim, the court said in a statement.

Consequently, it said, Peru was responsible for the violation of her rights.

Despite growing acceptance of LGBT+ people in Peruvian society, gay and trans Peruvians face legal hurdles and societal prejudice.

Recommended Peru announces coronavirus social restrictions by gender

Gay marriage is not recognised in Peru, although trans people are allowed to change their gender legally.

A 2015 study by the Peruvian government found 90 per cent of LGBT+ residents in and around the capital Lima had been victims of some type of violence, of which nearly 19 per cent was at the hands of state security agents.

The decision came as trans Peruvians contend with measures enacted by the government to curb the coronavirus outbreak by ordering that men and women can only leave home on separate days .

Rights advocates said the rule has left trans people vulnerable to invasive questioning and harassment by police, despite government assurances that enforcement would be free from discrimination.

[The ruling] should serve to remind authorities that violence and discrimination against LGBT people contravenes international human rights law, said Cristian Gonzalez Cabrera, an LGBT+ rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, a global non-profit.

Reuters
Nicholas Kulish, domestic correspondent, Investigations:

The century-old KaDeWe department store stands eight stories tall but looms even larger in the German consciousness. A short walk from the old New York Times bureau where I worked in West Berlin, the luxurious shopping destination is a symbol both of Berlins Roaring Twenties and the countrys postwar economic miracle. So when I learned that there had been a jewelry heist  with the thieves caught on the surveillance camera lowering themselves into the store on a rope ladder, evading the motion detectors and making off with millions of dollars worth of jewels  I knew it was a big crime story on the biggest stage.

My contacts in the Berlin police department told me that the thieves had made just one mistake, leaving behind a glove at the scene with DNA inside. A good story needs a twist but a great story boasts two: The DNA evidence led not to a single suspect but a pair, identical twins, identified as 27-year-old Hassan and Abbas O. The German justice system couldnt lock them both up and each could claim the other did it. So, they walked. It may not have been the perfect crime, but it was a pretty sweet alibi.

Alan Feuer, reporter, Metro:

A Bronx man spent 25 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. Why? Because a witness accidentally took the police to the wrong apartment  16B, not 16C  and the police arrested and prosecuted the man they found there.

Manny Fernandez, Houston bureau chief:

One night in 2006, a police officer in the Bronx responds to a fight at a White Castle. He rolls up and sees a man with a gun kneeling over another man in the parking lot. He tells the gunman to drop the weapon, but the gunman doesnt respond. The officer opens fire, and the gunman is critically wounded and later dies. The gunman, it turns out, was a fellow officer: An off-duty Bronx policeman who was intoxicated and had just been beaten up by a group of guys at the White Castle.

Its the mistaken identity that gets me. You can freeze-frame the shooting as the bullets in the air and study it: There are worlds upon worlds of fate, mystery and human connection at play. These two officers worked at station houses nearly two miles apart, and yet here they were drawn together in a few tense, confusing seconds in a fast-food parking lot. As I wrote, In this city, people live their whole lives separated by such short distances and never once cross paths. I dont think the officer was ever prosecuted for the shooting. I think it was ruled a justified shooting. But how does a cop live with a thing like that, and move on?

Armando Arrieta, deputy editorial director, syndication:

This unsolved case  in which seven people, including children, were shot point-blank during a robbery inside a bowling alley  has been a cloud over a small New Mexico city near the Mexican border for decades. Four of the victims were killed (a 12-year-old victim shot in the head managed to call 911), and no arrests have ever been made. I grew up in the area, and it has been a source of sorrow and local mythology ever since it happened in 1990. In fact, the brutality of this crime over a few thousand dollars, the massive, multiagency law enforcement response and the fact that no credible witnesses have ever come forward to identify suspects all continues to perplex everyone who remembers that day.
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Amid uproar over the COVID-19 pandemic and the relieving of an aircraft carrier captain last week, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has submitted a letter of resignation to Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

Thats according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the matter before an official announcement.

The official says Modly has also told staff he is quitting.

Modly had created a combustible controversy by firing the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt last week, saying Capt. Brett E. Crozier had shown extremely poor judgment in widely distributing by email a letter calling for urgent help with the COVID-19 outbreak aboard his ship.

Modly then flew to the ship, at port in Guam, and delivered a speech to the crew in which he lambasted Crozier, saying he was either too naive or too stupid to be in charge of an aircraft carrier. On Monday night, at Espers insistence, Modly issued a public apology, but by then the calls among Democrats in Congress for his resignation were mounting.

Modly had been forced to issue a written apology after President Donald Trump, at a White House news conference, described his comments about Crozier as rough.

On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Modly should lose his job.

Sadly, Acting Secretary Modlys actions and words demonstrate his failure to prioritize the force protection of our troops, Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a written statement. He showed a serious lack of the sound judgment and strong leadership needed during this time. Acting Secretary Modly must be removed from his position or resign.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he might get involved, agreeing that Modlys criticism of Crozier was a rough statement. He said Crozier made a mistake when he sent a memo to several people laying out his concerns about the crew and the virus. In the memo, which was leaked to the media, Crozier said, We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die.

Trump said Crozier had a good career prior to this incident, adding, I dont want to destroy somebody for having a bad day.

At least 173 sailors aboard the ship had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Monday. About 2,000 of the 4,865 crew members had been taken off the ship to be tested.

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A s Covid-19 continues to spread around the world and the combat against the virus is at a critical stage, some politicians in the United States and here in this country, however, are spreading lies and stigmatizing China. A lie remains a lie even though it is repeated a thousand times. But we must also get the truth out.

Here is the first truth: China has taken up the responsibility and made tremendous efforts to safeguard health and save lives. Since the outbreak, the Chinese Government and people, united and undaunted, waged a peoples war against the virus. With hard efforts and great sacrifice, China has seen the situation within the country improving and life returning to normal.

China has also participated actively in the global response to Covid-19, living up to its responsibility for the world because the epidemic poses a common challenge to all. President Xi Jinping has had telephone conversations with more than 20 heads of states, governments or international organisations in the past two months. China has donated $20 million to WHO and provided assistance to more than 120 countries, including the UK, and 4 international organisations, to the best of its capability. China has also sent out teams of medical experts and engaged in cooperation on R&D in vaccine and medicines with other countries.

In a word, China has spared no efforts in sharing its experience with the relevant countries and regions. This has won high recognition from the international community: Italy and a few others have expressed gratitude to China for lending a helping hand at their most difficult moment; the UKs Deputy Medical Officer has spoken highly of the exchanges between the Chinese and British medical experts; Dr. Tedros, Director General of WHO, has emphasized that Chinas measures are not only protecting its own people, but also protecting the people in the whole world, and that China has bought time for the rest of the world.

The second truth is, China has been open and transparent in combating Covid-19, and its measures have been effective. Stigmatizing China is unpopular.

Since as early as January 3rd, China has been briefing WHO and the other countries on the epidemic on a regular basis. China identified the pathogen of the virus in a record-short time and shared the full genetic sequence with WHO on January 12th. This was followed by sharing of diagnostic and treatment experience as well as updates on prevention and control measures, so that other countries could draw lessons from Chinas efforts, and the establishment of the Knowledge Center for Chinas Experiences in Response to COVID-19, which is open to all countries. WHO has spoken highly of these efforts, saying China has shared information in a timely manner and with a high degree of transparency.

However, a few Western politicians ignored Chinas tremendous contribution to global public health and the professional advice of WHO that the virus should not be linked with any specific country or region. Their attempt to stigmatize China is a political virus that is harmful to all mankind as it undermines international cooperation in the fight against the epidemic. It reveals their hypocrisy of applying double standards. It will do nobody any good and is naturally met with condemnation and opposition from the international community. The world is fighting the scourge of Covid-19 together. There is no place for the scourge of arrogance, prejudice and discrimination embedded in the remarks of the above-mentioned politicians.

The third truth is, cooperation in the spirit of a community with a shared future for mankind is the only right choice in the fight against Covid-19. The ongoing battle is living proof of how much we all belong to a community with a shared future. Virus respects no borders nor distinguishes between races. People of the world must work together if we want to win this battle.

At the Extraordinary G20 Leaders Summit a few days ago, President Xi Jinping emphasized, At such a moment, it is imperative for the international community to strengthen confidence, act with unity and work together in a collective response. We must comprehensively step up international cooperation and foster greater synergy so that humanity as one could win the battle against such a major infectious disease.

China and the UK are important partners in this battle. President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Boris Johnson had two telephone conversations in a matter of one month, which demonstrates the firm determination of the two countries to join hands and beat the virus. At this moment, the two countries are sharing information and experience, cooperating on R&D, supporting G20 and WHO in playing an important role and improving global governance in public health.

In face of the challenge, it is all the more important that China and the UK take up our responsibility, help each other and ignore the noises and disruptions, so as to generate positive energy for the cooperation between our two sides and make new contribution to global public health.

As Prime Minister Johnson fights a personal battle with the disease, I wish him speedy recovery and come back to lead the British people to overcome the current challenge.

The Chinese people often say, The fire burns high when everybody adds wood to it. Lets join hands in this battle against Covid-19 in the spirit of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Trust can disperse lies; cooperation can put epidemic away. Lets work together to safeguard the health and wellbeing of mankind and create an even brighter and better future for our world.
A line from that classic 1995 television advert came to mind this week: Its good to talk. But instead of actor Bob Hoskins extolling the virtues of phone lines, the phrase found vivid application in a growing technology perfectly suited to these self isolating times we find ourselves in, writes John Daly

Stock markets across the globe may be plummeting but one video conferencing company is seeing the rapid rise of remote working impact hugely on its stock.

Zoom Video Technologies has become one of the few bright stars on Wall Street as the Covid-19 pandemic has forced ever more companies to increase the number of employees working from home.

As New York and California became the latest US states to go into some sort of lockdown at the end of last week, Zooms shares soared 44% on Friday.

Leading the shift to a more virtual work paradigm, as one bullish analyst put it, the Zoom platform provides video meetings, webinars and chat across desktops, phones, mobile devices, and conference room systems.

Founded in 2011 by Eric Yuan, the company headquartered in California, with offices around the world, has seen revenue increase by 88% in the recent financial year.

While the downward slide of global stocks wiped trillions of market value last week, Mr Yuan has added billions to his net worth in 2020, the fourth-biggest increase in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, where he now ranks at 274.

As offices across every city and region continue to shutter their doors against increasing pandemic deaths, the demand for software to facilitate virtual conferences and web meetings continues to rise exponentially.

No longer confined to just the business sector, it is now becoming a regular feature of schools, colleges, universities and even childrens playgroups as the world of work and communication moves increasingly online.

With lectures and classes suspended indefinitely, institutions across the US such as Stanford, MIT, Berkley, and Penn State are subscribing to Zoom to facilitate their virtual classes.

The company has also removed its 40-minute meeting limit on free basic accounts for schools and universities in Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, France, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Japan, Italy, as well as here.

We strive to empower our customers to accomplish more with our video-first unified communications platform, said Mr Yuan.

To have the best experience, youve got to take a different approach. Invest engineering and time into the product, and make sure it is very easy to use. Too hard and nobody is going to want to use it, he said a while back.

Prior to Zoom, Mr Yuan was one of the founding engineers and vice president at Webex.

Between 1997 and 2011, he grew his team from 10 engineers to more than 800 people worldwide, and contributed to revenue growth of more than $800m.

We are the users and we have to be happy with the solution  if employees are not happy with the product then they cannot bring happiness to our customers, he said.

In 2019, Cork-based internal communication software company Workvivo secured a significant private investment from Mr Yuan.

The Zoom chief executive said the Irish firms culture, values and technology were a perfect fit for his vision of employee communication, engagement and satisfaction.

The purpose of life is to pursue happiness, and that should always apply to your work life as well as your personal life, he said at the time, adding that engaging a workforce and making them feel valued should be a top ambition of any company.

Workvivo is making that ambition a reality, and I believe is fast becoming an essential component in the makeup of successful companies as we head into the next decade, he said.

Workvivo is already one of the worlds fastest growing providers of internal communications for companies of all sizes across 40 countries.

The investment by Mr Yuan will assist Workvivo in its plans to grow users of its unique model of internal communications.

Erics investment is a hugely significant moment in the Workvivo story, said co-founder John Goulding.

Were not just a communication tool. We bring community, engagement, enthusiasm, relevance, recognition, and fun into employee communication, he said.

While the Covid-19 virus will ultimately result in many businesses never re-opening again, it has also acted as a spur to the popular adoption of a technology perfectly poised to respond to such a global need.

If video conferencing was already well established within the corporate sector, the enforced rush to remote working has acted as a lit fuse to multiple applications of the technology in everyday life.

As more people realise that social distancing is a vital necessity rather than just a hip slogan, Zoom last week soared to the top of the Apple iOS app chart as the number 1 most downloaded app.

It was also No 6 on Googles Android chart.

With other firms, they provide a flexible way to keep the commercial world afloat in these desperate times and expands its reach into everyday life such as teaching, book clubs and social activities.

As is often the case with IT innovations, the college students have become a powerful shoulder to its wheel of progress.

Now used for everything from virtual blind dates to weekend parties, social clubs and beer pong nights, many students already refer to the current status as being in Zoom University.

It seems a suitable branding for a new age of communication.
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(Kitco News) Russian banks are asking the nations central bank to restart its official gold purchases that were halted on April 1, citing concerns over gold exports amid disruptions in the transportation industry due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The main problem centers around the selling of Russian gold abroad due to fewer cargo flights available, which is raising transportation costs.

Russian banks are facing problems when trying to export gold, Vasily Zablotsky, the head of the National Finance Association, a non-government lobby group of Russian banks, told Reuter this week.

If Russian banks are not able to sell gold bought from miners, then they will either have to stop buying or raise the limit held in their own vaults, Zablotsky said.

Russian central bank announced in March that it halted all of its official gold purchases starting April 1. "Further decisions on gold purchases will depend on how the situation develops," the bank said.

Analysts cited COVID-19 challenges, including high volatility, the oil-price war involving Russia, and the nations economic outlook.

Russian central bank has been a dominant force in the gold market, consistently buying more and more of the yellow metal for the past three years. In 2019 alone, the central bank bought 158.1 tons, according to the World Gold Councils data.

The Russian lobby group said it is simply bringing up its concerns. Zablotsky added that the group also wants to ask the central bank to start accepting gold as collateral when it comes to refinancing of banks debts as well as creating gold swap deals for ruble liquidity.

Russian gold miners are not seeing a major impact on sales from the COVID-19 outbreak just yet, stating that they is a lot of demand from London amid a temporary shutdown of a number of mints and refineries across the globe. I do not see any drama in this, a top-manager at one Russian gold miner told Reuters.

One banker disagreed with the miners: There is a bottleneck, the source said. Even with high fares, it is hard to find the aircrafts.

Russia is the third-largest gold producer in the world. And its top gold buyers are the nations own central bank, the U.K. and Switzerland. In 2019, Russia produced 10.1 million ounces of refined gold. Out of that total, Russian central bank bought 5.1 million ounces and Britain and Switzerland bought 3.7 million ounces.

In the first two months of 2020, before the coronavirus outbreak halted majority of flights around the world, Russia saw increased demand from the U.K., according to local media reports.

During the January-February period, 17 tons of gold worth $854 million were exported abroad, mainly to Britain, Finanz.ru, reported citing Federal Customs statistics. This number is at least seven times higher than last years activity. The sellers of Russian gold have been local banks of all sizes, the report added.
Westchester County was the site of the states earliest coronavirus outbreak. And now, some of the latest data shows the number of people testing positive may be slowing down  though its still too early to say whether that trend will continue.

Although our total number of people tested per day has, in the last three days, averaged about the same, the total number of people testing positive have been down in the last three days, said Sherlita Amler, Westchesters health commissioner. But she cautioned against speculating on whether that means the countys number of cases has plateaued. It is just a very tiny picture in this event, a very brief amount of time, she said.

New Rochelle, a city in the southern half of the county, saw some of the greatest number of coronavirus cases early on in the crisis. It was there that the state first began stricter containment efforts, closing down most large gatherings within a one-mile zone in the city. Since then, there have been some preliminary indications that efforts there have successfully slowed down the viruss infection rate. New Rochelle and other denser, urban parts of Westchester, such as Yonkers and Mount Vernon, have proportionally seen the most cases in the county.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer told City & State he is interested in seeing whether the trend will continue for the next week or so before making any judgements about whether the situation has improved in the county.

One advantage Westchester has had is that it has been testing at a higher rate per capita than any other part of the state, Latimer said. Westchester tested nearly 6,000 people on March 25, for example, more than double the number of tests administered that day in Queens, the latest coronavirus epicenter in New York.

Latimer attributed that to the fact that it was one of the first regions to see COVID-19 cases and, therefore, was targeted for more testing initiatives. The state established its first drive-through testing site in Westchester to allow people to get tested in their cars.

More widespread testing has been a key strategy in more successful containment efforts around the globe. It provides more accurate data about where the virus has spread, which allows governments and hospitals to deploy their resources more effectively. And because COVID-19 can be spread by people who dont show symptoms, aggressive testing can allow health officials to identify people who should be strictly quarantined.

But even though Westchester has enjoyed more widespread access to testing than other areas of the state, there are still many more residents waiting to find out whether theyve been infected.

The demand for additional testing is still great, Latimer said. And we still do have a backlog of people that want to test.
Deal seen as latest move by Sudans government to remove the country from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Sudans Ministry of Justice says it has finalised a settlement deal with the families of 17 United States sailors killed in an attack on a US Navy warship at a port in Yemen in the year 2000.

The agreement is seen as the latest move by Sudans transitional government aimed at removing the country from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The announcement on Monday came two months after the government said it had agreed to compensate the families of those killed in the al-Qaeda-claimed attack, without disclosing the sum. Relatives of the US sailors had accused Sudan of providing support to the armed group.

The settlement deal  with the families of the victims of the destroyer USS Cole, who initiated judicial procedures against the Sudanese government before the US courts, has been fully completed, the ministry said in a statement.

It added that the government and the families on April 3 submitted a joint petition to write off the lawsuits, leading to the termination of all cases heard by US courts.

The statement maintained Sudans position that it was not responsible for the attack on the ship or any other terrorist act.

This agreement was made because of the strategic interests of Sudan and as part of its efforts to deal with terrorist claims against Sudan so it can remove its name from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, the statement added.

The US listed Sudan as a state sponsor of terror in 1993, four years after former President Omar al-Bashir took power in a military coup, over allegations that the government was supporting terrorism, in particular attacks in Kenya and Tanzania.

The designation makes Sudan ineligible for much-needed debt relief and funding from international institutions, strangling its economy by limiting potential foreign investment.

Removing Sudans name from this list is necessary to remove the stigma of terrorism off the people of Sudan and to reintegrate Sudan back in the international community, the statement said.

Two-pronged approach

A senior official in Khartoum, speaking to Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media, said that the government adopted a two-pronged approach to settle the issue, using separate negotiating tracks with the families of the sailors and the US government.

The first approach involved negotiating a settlement with the families of the victims, which was done last February, resulting in Sudan agreeing to pay them about $70m, the official said. The figure could not be independently verified.

The second was to negotiate a separate agreement with the US government  to compensate other American families who were hurt in the bombings attributed to al-Qaeda in Africa, he added, referring to the attacks in the East African countries. This line of talks with the US government has all outstanding US-Sudan issues almost finished.

The families of the US sailors had sued Sudan under the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which normally shields foreign governments from lawsuits in US courts except governments designated by the US as sponsors of terrorism, as in the case of Sudan.

Sudan entered a new phase in April last year, when the military overthrew al-Bashir in the face of months-long protests against his rule.

In August, following protracted talks with the generals who removed al-Bashir, protesters secured a deal to set up a transitional government and pave the way for civilian rule. The agreement provided for a joint civilian-military ruling body during a transition period of a little over three years before elections can be held, while veteran economist Abdalla Hamdok was appointed transitional prime minister.

Sudanese officials have since said the removal from the terror list is one of their top priorities, urging the US to stop punishing the people of Sudan for crimes committed by the former regime.

Gamal Gasim, professor of political science and Middle East politics at Grand Valley State University in Michigan in the US, said the current Sudanese leaders were mistaken if they thought that by simply reinstating ties with the US or other Western nations, Sudans political and economic problems would be resolved.

He said al-Bashirs 30-year corrupt rule devastated Sudan and transformed it into a pariah state.

The new leaders of the country must address al-Bashirs legacy through democratic and economic reform, he said.

On October 12, 2000, two Yemeni suicide bombers rammed the USS Cole while it was refuelling off the coast of Aden.

In January 2019, a US air raid in Yemen killed Jamal Badawi, who was charged as being part of the attack on the guided missile destroyer.

The US government alleges that Abd Rahman al-Nashiri, a Saudi citizen, was the mastermind of the 2000 attack. Al-Nashiri is currently in US custody in Guantanamo Bay prison following his capture in 2002.

Follow Ali Younes on Twitter: @ali_reports
Indian market opened with a strong gap on the upside on April 7 which fuelled a 2500-point rally in Sensex, while the Nifty50 reclaimed 8,800 levels in intraday trade.

Eventually, Sensex closed 2476 points, or 8.97 percent, higher at 30,067.21 while Nifty settled 708 points, or 8.76 percent, up at 8,792.20.

All sectoral indices closed with healthy gains, with BSE Bankex and Energy indices logging gains of 10.70 percent and 10.02 percent, respectively.

The current price action could be categorized into a trading rally and investors should not mistake it with a market bottom which could well be some time away.

Market sold off aggressively and value is beginning to emerge in a lot of pockets especially the one which got rapidly sold off, but we have to keep in mind that the economic recovery is still some time away and in the meantime we could see some of these trading rallies, Nilesh Shah - MD & CEO - Envision Capital said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

I describe todays move as a trading rally or some kind of a pullback and this is something which will keep on happening in a bear market, he said.

We have collated a list of 4 factors which probably fuelled optimism on D-Street:

Rally in Asian markets:

Asian markets rallied on strong price action seen on Wall Street after initial reports suggest that the coronavirus crisis may be levelling off in New York and receding in Europe.

Japans Nikkei rose 2% and has erased most of last weeks losses after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised a massive $991 billion economic stimulus package - equal to 20% of GDP, said a Reuters report.

MSCIs broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan pared early gains, but rose almost 1%, it said.

India may get $1.3-bn passive flow: Morgan Stanley

With India swiftly responding to the delay in notifying sector-wise limits for investment in stocks by overseas investors, analysts at Morgan Stanley now expect MSCI to rebalance MSCI India weight in the emerging market (EM) index, Business Standard reported quoting a report from Morgan Stanley.

To reflect this change along with removing the DR (depository receipts) in the foreign ownership limit (FOL) calculation. As a result, they estimate $1.3 billion in passive inflows into the Indian equities spread across a bunch of stocks, the report added.

India lifts restrictions on 24 drug exports amid coronavirus

The government has lifted restrictions on the export of 24 pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines made from them, the government said in a statement, Reuters reported.

It had imposed the restrictions last month as the coronavirus outbreak disrupted global supply chains. Paracetamol, a common pain reliever, and its formulations were not included in the list of drugs freed up for export.

The 26 active pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines accounted for 10% of all Indian pharmaceutical exports and include several antibiotics, such as tinidazole and erythromycin, the hormone progesterone and Vitamin B12, added the report.

Pharma stocks have been gaining of late as industry experts and brokerages believe that the sector is better placed to navigate the crisis during COVI-19 outbreak even though the challenges faced by it are all same.

Value buying at lower levels:

The Indian market has fallen by about 30 percent from its recent high has put benchmark indices in an oversold zone.

"In a bearish scenario, sector leaders with relatively stronger balance sheets, higher earnings visibility, strong cash flows, and management with a good track record should be preferred. Investors should avoid companies with high leverage," Mahesh Patil, CIO  Equity, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC told Moneycontrol.

"Good quality companies in small-ticket consumer discretionary sector which have corrected can bounce back. The demand destruction they have seen is temporary and they can see long term growth due to low penetration and rising per-capita income. Private banks have seen a sharp correction but those with a strong liability franchise and high-quality assets may gain market share. Also, insurance companies should continue to see secular growth," he said.
The coronavirus has ripped through a long-term facility in Cape May County, officials said Monday evening.

At Victoria Manor in North Cape May, in Lower Township, 15 residents and 11 staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a statement from the Cape May County health department.

No deaths are associated with the outbreak at the 120-bed facility, owned by Genesis HealthCare.

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The county says the staff and residents who do not have serious symptoms are being monitored and medically isolated, but not hospitalized.

The situation is very serious, and we are deeply concerned about residents of our senior care facilities in Cape May County, Cape May County Health Officer Kevin Thomas said in the statement. That is why we need everyone to follow the stay-at-home order, social distancing guidance, and other measures in recent health orders  to protect the people in our community who are vulnerable to severe illness from COVID-19.

The county health department said it immediately began investigating the outbreak at the North Cape May facility once it was notified that the residents and staff members had contracted the virus. The department said it delivered 400 surgical masks and 200 gowns to assist the facility.

"Public Health has been preparing for the possibility of outbreaks happening in skilled nursing facilities and other congregate care settings, and we have provided clear guidance for facilities in responding and controlling the spread of illness," Cape May County Assistant Director of Public Health Nursing Mary Tighe said. "We, in conjunction with the New Jersey Department of Health, are working closely with the facilities now to protect residents and staff."

Earlier Monday, New Jersey reported 41,090 positive tests of the coronavirus with 1,003 deaths. Of those, Cape May County had 85 positive cases with 3 deaths, according to state figures.

Cape May County lists their numbers as one death and 99 positive cases.

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Republican members of the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday requested information from the Kennedy Center regarding layoffs of much of its staff following a $25 million grant included in the coronavirus economic relief package (CARES Act).

Included in the legislation, at the request of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, was a $25 million allotment to the Kennedy Center, wrote Republican representatives led by Virginia Foxx of North Carolina. However, the Kennedy Center now intends to furlough most of its administrative staff and more than 700 hourly and part-time employees.

If the Kennedy Center is required to furlough its employees, it should return a portion of money Democrats fought so hard to secure, the letter continues.

The intent of the Kennedy Center to furlough over 700 administrative, part-time, and hourly workers is entirely antithetical not only to the spirit of the CARES Act, but also to the expressed purpose of protecting workers with a $25 million injection, Foxx said in a statement.

The grant has come under criticism from other Republicans as well. In late March, Representative Bryan Steil (R., Wisc.) introduced a bill to rescind the $25 million grant entirely.

After this passes and you find out that the Kennedy Center is laying people off  thats almost the icing on the cake, Steil told the Daily Caller.

The Wuhan coronavirus pandemic has forced numerous arts institutions and theaters to close their doors in order to enforce social-distancing measures. In addition to most of its administrative staff, the Kennedy Center announced hours after President Trump signed the CARES Act that it would lay off all the musicians in the National Symphony Orchestra.

Its very disappointing [that] theyre going to get that money and then drop us afterward, one musician told the Washington Free Beacon. The Kennedy Center blindsided us.

More from National Review
But do actors think about the plight of the producers? Most of the producers are investing crores by believing in the market value of the particular star. Unlike Telugu and Hindi cinema, Tamil film producers are borrowing a large chunk of their investment from private financiers but this lockdown period will cause them huge trouble. We hear that a few financiers have agreed to not take any interest in the lockdown period but still, a producer has to pay the interest until the release of the film and the ongoing economic downfall would affect him in so many ways.

It's well known that actors have been donating from their pockets to the struggling daily wagers in the industry. While there have been a lot of criticisms on the size of the amount donated, the gesture is laudable.

Producer J Satish Kumar recently proposed an idea that actors should sacrifice 30% of the remuneration of their new films/ongoing films until the situation gets back to normal. Besides actors, he also requested the same to directors, cinematographers, music composers, and other technicians.

Satish Kumar also requested financiers to not demand interest from producers for three months.

Talking about the remuneration cut, producer Dhananjayan says "From my point of view, we can't demand an actor to reduce his/her remuneration. All we can do is to request them on moral grounds. Also, they have to come forward and tell us that to get back the industry on its own feet, we would like to get our remuneration after the release or once the film made money. At the end of the day, they are earning money out of movies and we invest money in films. It will be a win-win situation".

A lot of producers anonymously sharing a lot of things as their ongoing films have these top stars. Producers who are yet to kick start their projects are quite safe as they wouldn't have borrowed money from the financiers but the production houses which have already commenced the shoot and waiting for the film to get over are the most affected ones.

Sources say that there is no clarity on when the Government would allow the production houses to resume shooting so their interest-paying months have been extended due to this unfortunate corona pandemic across the globe.

For big films, nearly 60-70% of the budget goes to the remuneration of actors so it's time for them to understand the plight of the producers and either opt for salary reduction or agree to get the remuneration after the production house locks the business.

We hear that all the biggies including Master, Soorarai Pottru, Jagame Thanthiram, Karnan, Bhoomi, Annaatthe, Valimai, Sulthan, Chakra, Thalaivi, Maanaadu, Cobra, Ayalaan, Doctor and Indian 2 will be pushed from the earlier announced release dates so will the big actors featuring in these projects reduce their remuneration?
ALBANY  The state Education Department modified New York's high school graduation requirements for the 2019-2020 school year in light of its cancellation of the June Regents exams due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

To qualify for an exemption for each exam, students must pass a course in that subject area during the school year, according to a memorandum released by state education officials Tuesday.

While the Education Department has not made a decision on the August exams, the new guidance clarifies that students who makeup a failed course over the summer and receive credit for the class will also be exempt from the August test in that subject area.

The guidelines ensure that students, who typically must pass five Regents exams to earn a high school diploma, will not be adversely impacted by the cancellation of the tests, State Education Interim Commissioner Shannon Tahoe wrote in the memo.

"This situation has evolved rapidly such that schools have now closed statewide, and there is much uncertainty as to when regular in-school attendance and instruction will be able to resume throughout the State and/or whether students will be adequately prepared to take these assessments," Tahoe wrote.

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The objective of canceling the tests was to ensure that educators "focus their efforts toward local school and community needs and not have to be concerned about preparing students for state assessments," Tahoe said.

The Board of Regents at its April meeting also adopted emergency regulations to provide more flexibility for educators, students and professionals impacted by the COVID-19 interruptions. One measure allows school districts more time to create a plan to deliver instruction to students with disabilities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a tremendous burden on many New Yorkers and our schools and children are no exception, Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa said. The regulations passed by the board today will allow schools, students and professionals much-needed flexibility while they adapt to this rapidly evolving situation.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Schools in much of the state closed early last month in response to the coronavirus pandemic with students taking classes remotely. New York schools will remain closed through April 29, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Monday.

The state shuttered educational institutions throughout New York in mid-March as, part of statewide social distancing measures intended to stem the spread of COVID-19. The order has been extended twice as the number of confirmed coronaviruses cases swelled in New Y0rk.

Last month, the state canceled standardized tests for grades three through eight.

The Regents exemptions apply to all students enrolled in grades 7-12 during the 2019-20 school year who were intending to participate in one or more of the June 2020 Regents exams.

State education officials are developing guidance on how districts should record the exemptions from test requirements in their student management systems so that student transcripts do not reflect test scores for the 2019-2020 school year.

More information can be found on the SED website.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky at The New York Times Dealbook event on November 6, 2019. Credit: Mike Cohen/ The New York Times

Last month, Airbnb promised to issue full cash refunds to qualifying travelers whose trips had been impacted by the coronavirus, but some customers are complaining that Airbnb is making them jump through hoops to get their cash back. The coronavirus has disrupted many industries, but none more so than the travel industry. As the pandemic spread, leading to lockdowns, travelers canceled business and personal trips in massive numbers. The U.S. Travel Association expects the industry to lose 4.6 million jobs this year. Customers of Airbnb and other vacation rental companies have been particularly vulnerable because, unlike with a hotel stay, guests must pay for the bulk of their lodging before their trip. Airbnb's refund policy offered guests some reassurance that they wouldn't lose hundreds or thousands of dollars for lodging on trips they could no longer take take. But several guests told CNBC they're being offered travel credits they don't want instead of cash, and they cannot get full cash refunds unless they show documentation proving that they're subject to travel restrictions or fit into other categories. Some guests are continuing to fight for their refunds while others have had to resort to emailing execs or complaining on social media to push the company into following through. Meanwhile, hundreds of customers have taken to Reddit and Twitter to complain about how difficult Airbnb has made it for them to receive a cash refund for their reservations.

It's a dramatic turn of events for Airbnb, which was poised to be the hottest tech IPO (or direct listing) of the year until the COVID-19 crisis struck the U.S. last month. The company had lined up bankers to lead the offering, which would test whether Airbnb could live up to its $31 billion private market valuation from 2017, but recently accepted $1 billion in new private funding at a lower valuation. The Wall Street Journal reported in February that Airbnb lost $322 million over the first nine months of last year, after reporting a $200 million profit in 2018, as it ramped up spending. If Airbnb doesn't do more to help guests who feel they have a legitimate claim to a refund, the company runs the risk of losing those customers and its hosts to competitors, said Henry Harteveldt, travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group. "Airbnb needs to rest this problem before it becomes a larger and more expensive problem for them to solve," Harteveldt said. "Our community support team has been working around the clock against this global crisis to help both hosts and guests throughout a situation that has been challenging for the entire industry," a spokesman for Airbnb told CNBC in a statement. "We activated our Extenuating Circumstances policy to provide guests with full refunds or credit because we believe this is the responsible thing to do given the guidance of governments and health experts."

Requests for documentation

On March 14, Airbnb announced that it would give 100% refunds to guests who had already booked reservations between then and April 14, writing that "Airbnb's Extenuating Circumstances policy allows hosts and guests to cancel eligible reservations with no charge or penalty." This put Airbnb ahead of its competitors in terms of offering a clear, full refund policy. For instance, Expedia-owned VRBO said on March 18 that it would ask hosts to refund a minimum of 50% of what customers paid, and only then if the guests are not willing to re-book at another date. Booking.com is asking hosts to work directly with customers to accommodate new travel dates, or issue vouchers or refunds, but a spokesperson told CNBC the company will push refunds through for reservations made before April 6 if the guests and hosts can't come to an agreement. On March 30, as the extent of the coronavirus lockdowns grew, Airbnb extended its policy to May 31 and specifically said that guests could receive cash. "When guests cancel due to COVID-19-related circumstances, we're giving them the option to take either a cash refund or a travel credit that can be used for a stay at a later date," the company said in a post announcing the extension of the cancellation window. In a help document, Airbnb wrote: "Reservations for stays and Airbnb Experiences made on or before March 14, 2020, with a check-in date between March 14, 2020 and May 31, 2020, may be canceled before check-in. This means that guests who cancel will receive, at their option, travel credit or a full cash refund...." But according to screenshots guests shared with CNBC, Airbnb is telling some guests it will only offer cash refunds if they can prove, with documentation, that they fit into one of four buckets: There are government restrictions that prohibit them from leaving their location or going to their destination.

They are sick and their health provider has instructed them not to travel.

Their means of transportation is no longer available.

They are a healthcare professional and cannot travel.

Multiple Airbnb guests who spoke with CNBC said they've had difficulty navigating Airbnb's website and customer support services to collect the full cash refunds the company has said they are eligible for. Courtesy of KJ Galvan

When KJ Galvan received the news on March 25 that her internship as a software engineer at Google would now be done remotely, she knew she needed to cancel the three-month Airbnb she had booked to stay in Los Angeles for the summer. Galvan tried to collect her refund beginning on April 1. She went through the app, and she was offered a 100% travel credit refund or a partial cash refund in accordance to her host's cancellation policy. Below, in very fine print, was a link to the process for collecting a full cash refund. Galvan, who is based in Richland, Washington, tried to cancel using her state's stay-at-home order as her government restriction reason to claim her cash refund, but Airbnb denied her because Washington's order only runs through May 4 and her reservation is not until May 21. She then submitted a screenshot of a government web page detailing the state of California's stay-at-home order to Airbnb. "There's just tiny fine print there that makes things more stressful for me in an already stressful time," Galvan said.

Galvan heard from Airbnb that her refund would be approved, after CNBC contacted Airbnb about her case. Wei Shi from Brooklyn, New York, also had trouble getting refunds for two Airbnb reservations she was trying to cancel. Shi was planning to travel to parts of Greece in late April with a group of her friends. When Shi tried to cancel her Airbnb in Athens for May 1, she was given a full refund, but she received the $115 service fee portion of the refund as a travel credit. For her Airbnb in Naxos, Greece, for April 28, Shi was asked to prove that she met one of Airbnb's four criteria in order to receive a full cash refund. On Monday, she submitted a screenshot of an email from her airline that said her flight was canceled as well as a screenshot of the CDC's travel restriction advisory. After CNBC contacted Airbnb, Shi received her full cash refund for the Naxos reservation, and her $115 travel credit for the Athens reservation was also refunded as cash. "I just feel like it's pretty shady," Shi said. "My heart goes out to Airbnb hosts. This is really hurting their revenue stream, but at the same time, the traveler should not be penalized for a pandemic." Mike Brosch of Chanhassen, Minnesota, was planning on staying at an Airbnb in Galveston, Texas, on April 15 to spend spring break with his wife, daughter and mom. After Airbnb extended its cancellation window, Brosch decided to cancel his Airbnb reservation. Brosch said he read just how much documentation he needed to include in his cancellation request that it left him unsure whether he would qualify for the full cash refund. Brosch submitted copies of Minnesota's shelter-in-place order, Galveston's shelter-in-place order and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines for travel as his documentation. Airbnb then approved his refund request. "Straightforward, eh?" Brosch told CNBC.

Multiple Airbnb guests who spoke with CNBC said they've had difficulty navigating Airbnb's website and customer support services to collect the full cash refunds the company has said they are eligible for. Courtesy of KJ Galvan

Moving windows

Other guests have not been able to get refunds because they fell outside of Airbnb's original window for refunds. Susan Youngquist of Sacramento, California, had a booking for an Airbnb in Cologne, Germany, reserved since February, and had already paid 50% of the booking. She tried to cancel and get her money back, but the reservation was on April 21, just outside Airbnb's original March 14 through April 14 cancellation window. Youngquist tried multiple times to get help from Airbnb's customer support, but the company told her she fell outside the window. Rather than wait and be charged for the second half of the booking, Youngquist decided to cancel the reservation. She received $4 in cash and a $30 Airbnb credit. After the company extended its cancellation window, she tried to get the rest of her money back, but Airbnb's customer support told her she was out of luck and should've waited for them to extend the window. "Why did they even pick April 14? Was COVID magically just going to disappear on April 14?" Youngquist said. Taylor Anderson of Charleston, South Carolina, had a similar problem. He and 15 of his buddies had a reunion trip planned in San Diego, California, for April 16 -- outside of Airbnb's initial cancellation window. When it became clear the trip would not be happening, Anderson tried to cancel and get his money back. Once Airbnb extended its full-refund window, Anderson attempted to collect the $3,000 deposit he had put down, but he came across Airbnb's page asking for documentation proving he fit into one of the four buckets necessary to get a refund. Meanwhile, he was due to pay another $3,000 in a few days. Concerned that Airbnb would reject his documentation and charge his credit card the additional money, Anderson gave up on the whole refund process and just accepted the $3,000 travel credit, rather than risking a loss of $6,000. "I'd rather have that money in my account right now," Anderson said. "I think that that's how most of the guests feel. We're all trying to save money in this current environment. We don't want these large charges turning into travel credits that we're not planning to use anytime soon."

Multiple Airbnb guests who spoke with CNBC said they've had difficulty navigating Airbnb's website and customer support services to collect the full cash refunds the company has said they are eligible for. Courtesy of KJ Galvan

Dean Dudley of Barrington, New Hampshire, faces a similar situation. After paying $1,100 for a May 1 booking for an Airbnb in Austin, Texas, Dudley canceled the reservation, even though he did not fall within Airbnb's original March 14 through April 14 window. Dudley was hoping to avoid paying a second charge of $1,200. His cancellation resulted in a $70 refund and a credit for approximately $250. Now that Airbnb has extended its coronavirus cancellation window, Dudley has tried to get his additional money refunded with no luck. "I think it's a grab for money on a technicality because they aren't sure how much this pandemic is going to affect them," Dudley said. "They'd rather have a policy that sounds good on paper, but they can actually recoup money for the stays that have been cancelled."

Emails to the CEO and complaints on social media
To say that Easter will be a different kind of celebration this year is an understatement. With a stay-at-home order, much of the usual joy of Easter Sunday  getting dressed up in new clothes, placing flowers on a cross at church and searching for candy-filled eggs  just wont happen this year.

But you can still dye eggs at home, the Easter Bunny will still visit and you can hunt for eggs, too, if youre creative about it.

In Huntsville, Rocket City Mom, a hyperlocal online parenting resource for north Alabama, has organized The Great Huntsville Easter Egg Hunt, going on now. Heres how it works: Cut an egg out of paper or poster board, have your children decorate it, then mount it in your window or on your front door. As your neighbors walk by with their kids, they can keep track of how many eggs they find along the way.

The hunt was originally planned as a walking, biking and/or driving activity, but the recent stay-at-home order changed things slightly. Now event organizers are encouraging people to limit their searching to their own neighborhoods.

Stephenie Walker, the managing editor of Rocket City Mom, came up with the idea when she noticed that others were bringing back their Halloween and Christmas decorations. I was thinking how sad and disappointing, especially for little kids, and how hard it would be not to celebrate Easter the way we normally do, she said.

She has created an egg hunt map that includes homes with decorated eggs to be found. As of Friday, the first official day of the hunt, more than 300 locations were on the map.

Parents can print out a template for cutting out eggs to decorate as well as an egg tracker map to bring along on the hunt so that kids can color it in as they spy eggs. The tracker doubles as a counting activity but also can be used as a reward  children can receive a piece of candy for every egg they find, or they can leave the tracker for the Easter Bunny to find.

Its something to take our minds off things for a little while, to bring a little normalcy, says Walker.

Thats what we all need right now, even more than candy.
In view of psychological stress



faced by people due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Assam Police in association with the Department of Psychiatry of the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) has launched tele-counselling helplines for those in need of mental support, the force said in a release on Tuesday.

The helplines will be operational in two shifts from 9 am to 9 pm, it said.

People can call 6026901053, 6026901054, 6026901055 phone numbers between 9 am and 3 pm and at 6026901056, 6026901057, 6026901058 numbers between 3 pm to 9 pm, the release said.

"Feeling anxious, sad or disturbed due to COVID-19 pandemic? Speak to a mental health professional. Together, we shall overcome," the Assam Police tweeted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
KADIMA, Israel, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nemesysco, a leading provider of voice analytics technologies and solutions for genuine emotion detection, today announced that the company has been experiencing significantly increased traction for applying its voice analytics technology for remote employee wellness monitoring since the outbreak of the Coronavirus.

In recent weeks, millions of employees around the world have been forced to work from home for the foreseeable future in conditions that are severely impacting their individual and team productivity. Even though technologies for remote employee collaboration, such as video conferencing and virtual shared working spaces, are enabling businesses to continue working, managers are unable to fully understand and measure how these new conditions are impacting the performance and overall state-of-mind of their employees.

Nemesysco's voice analytics solution for monitoring employee wellness is built around the company's core Layered Voice Analysis (LVA) technology. The LVA technology is designed to reveal the genuine emotional state of a person by detecting and measuring uncontrolled psychophysiological changes to a person's voice during open conversations.

For remote employee wellness monitoring, the LVA technology runs in the background during real-time or recorded conversations with employees. The technology initially establishes a baseline for each monitored employee and monitors for changes in emotions relevant to the workplace, such as stress, frustration, fatigue motivation and enthusiasm.

"We have been a channel partner of Nemesysco here in Hungary for many years and the human resources space is currently the strongest market we are serving," said Gyorgy Kis, CEO at ANIMA Polygraph Ltd. "Many of our customers, especially in the banking and insurance sector, who traditionally use the Nemesysco technology to improve their recruiting processes, are now applying the technology to better understand the mind set of their employees who are now forced to work from home in a critical effort to maintain the continuity of their businesses and the services they provide."

"This strong interest we are currently experiencing for remote employee wellness monitoring is coming from both government organizations and enterprises across the Far East, India, Europe and Mexico. Many of our call center customers have also recently expanded their use of our voice analytics technology to monitor the emotional wellness of their agents who are now working remotely from home," explained Amir Liberman, CEO of Nemesysco. "These new customers initially approached us with the immediate need to ensure business continuity as they rapidly transitioned their employees to work from home and many are also telling us that they want to be prepared for the new realities of remote working that will likely continue afterwards."

In an effort to help businesses and government organizations to ensure business continuity while their employees are working from home and other remote locations, Nemesysco is currently offering a free, no obligation trial of its recently released InTone solution. The company notes that InTone is intended for call center environments and has been recently adapted for remote employee wellness monitoring to support the needs of customers during the Coronavirus outbreak.

About Nemesysco

Nemesysco is a leading provider voice analytics technologies and solutions for genuine emotion detection. The company's patented Layered Voice Analysis (LVA) reveals and measures the genuine emotions of a speaker during voice-based communications. Nemesysco's technology has applications for call centers, insurance and financial services, human resources, mental health and more. For more information, please visit www.nemesysco.com.

Press Contact

Tony Miller

+1-617-418-3024

[email protected]

SOURCE Nemesysco
Tripoli, April 7 : The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the European Union Trust Fund (EUTF) has provided 13 million euros (US $14 million) to support UN activities in Libya.

"UNHCR Libya is grateful to EUFT for its contribution to support activities to help save lives and find durable solutions for refugees and asylum-seekers in Libya," UNHCR tweeted on Monday, reported Xinhua news agency.

Despite international calls for cease-fire, the armed conflict continues in and around the capital Tripoli between the east-based army and the UN-backed government.

According to the UNHCR, there are currently 48,621 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with the agency in Libya.

On April 4, 2019, the east-based army launched a military campaign in and around Tripoli in an attempt to take over the city and topple the rival UN-backed government.

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has documented at least 356 civilian deaths and 329 injuries since the outbreak of the armed conflict.

Nearly 150,000 people in and around Tripoli have been forced to flee their homes since the beginning of the conflict, and 345,000 civilians remain in frontline areas, while an estimated 749,000 others live in areas affected by the clashes, according to UNSMIL.
TOKYO -- As Japan faces a fresh wave of coronavirus infections and the government prepares for a state of emergency, medical staff say a shortage of beds and a rise in cases linked to hospitals are pushing Tokyos medical system to the brink of collapse.

The crisis has already arrived at Eiju General Hospital, a pink, 10-storey building in central Tokyo, which has reported 140 cases of COVID-19 in the past two weeks. Of those, at least 44 are doctors, nurses and other medical staff.

On a recent weekday, the glass doors of Eiju General were plastered with posters saying the hospital was closed until further notice.

More than 60 patients with the virus are still being treated inside. One person who was transferred to another hospital infected others, according to health officials in Tokyos Taito ward.

Japan has only a small fraction of the number of cases reported by its neighbours China and South Korea. Yet scenarios similar to that at Eiju General are playing out across Tokyo, as a dozen doctors and nurses in the city told Reuters there is a shortage of gear and staff even as infections surge.

We could empty out an entire ward and use it just for corona patients, but that means those patients (with other illnesses) will have to go elsewhere, said a doctor specialising in infectious diseases at a major hospital in the greater Tokyo area. If we cant do that, it will lead to the virus spreading all through the hospital and lead to a collapse of our medical system.

Official data tell a similar story. Tokyos government said that as of Sunday, 951 people with COVID-19 were hospitalised; in a live YouTube address Sunday night, Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike said there were about 1,000 beds allocated for coronavirus patients in the city.

Even as other countries have locked down borders and ramped up testing, Japan appeared to have side-stepped the kind of mass infections seen elsewhere - an effect some experts say was mostly due to a lack of testing. In the early stages of the epidemic, Japan was also weighing whether to postpone the Summer Olympics, a decision that eventually came in late March.

Since mid-January, Japan has tested 39,446 people, while the United Kingdom has tested 173,784 and South Korea has conducted 443,273 tests, according to data from Oxford University.

Authorities have tried to test and track in a way that avoided overwhelming Japans hospitals, said Hitoshi Oshitani, an infectious disease specialist on the government panel shaping the countrys coronavirus policy.

Despite that, the total number of positive cases nationwide nearly doubled in the last seven days to 3,654. Tokyo is now the largest hub for COVID-19 in Japan, with more than 1,000 confirmed cases.

With cases surging, officials said, some who tested positive have had to briefly wait at home or in outpatient sections of hospitals until beds became available. Koike said on Sunday that to ease the burden on medical staff, Tokyo would transfer people with mild symptoms into hotels and other accommodations starting Tuesday.

Hiroshi Nishiura, a Hokkaido University professor and member of a panel advising the government on its coronavirus response, said Eiju General, like many Tokyo hospitals, has no infectious disease department. That meant coronavirus patients were initially treated alongside everyone else, allowing the virus to spread.

We have not been able to clearly contain the contagion from the first wave, Nishiura said, referring to Eiju General. A spokesman from the hospital declined to comment on Monday.

On Friday, another hospital in Tokyo said three nurses and one doctor had been infected while treating patients. The next day, Tokyo saw its daily coronavirus cases top 100 for the first time, and on Sunday 143 people tested positive.

A representative for the Tokyo government said Monday that the medical system remains secure, adding that Tokyo was continuing to urge residents to avoid all unnecessary outings.

Scramble for beds

Contagion is an enormous risk in dense Tokyo, a city of nearly 14 million people. Japan also has one of worlds oldest populations, with nearly a third of the country - 36 million people - older than 65.

According to Japans health ministry, there are some 1.5 million hospital beds nationwide, but beds in negative-pressure rooms reserved for infectious diseases excluding tuberculosis have dwindled to just 1,882, with only 145 in Tokyo.

Though people with COVID-19 do not all need such rooms, they still must be kept apart from other patients.

In recent days, Tokyo officials have been scrambling to secure 4,000 beds for coronavirus patients, asking hospitals to free up space in ordinary wards and even offering financial incentives, said one city official with direct knowledge of the planning. He declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to media.

There isnt that much capacity (of hospital beds) left in Tokyo, so a (medical collapse) is no longer unforeseeable, said Satoshi Kamayachi, an executive board member of the Japan Medical Association, which has pushed Japan to call for a state of emergency. The number of patients is clearly rising, so the situation is becoming more urgent.

Japan's response

Even after Japan drew fire for how it handled patients on the cruise ship Diamond Princess, it did little to step up testing and preparations, some critics say.

Tokyo assemblyman Akihiro Suzuki wrote to Koike on Jan. 31, asking her to set up a medical and consultation system for coronavirus cases.

The response was slow and even now its (too) slow, he said. Suzuki has submitted 10 requests since then asking for a range of measures, from procuring more ventilators to clarifying Tokyos policy on treating critical patients.

A representative for the Tokyo metropolitan government said the city had been preparing specific medical measures since March 23 for a possible increase in cases, including securing more beds.

A half-dozen nurses working at clinics and mid-sized Tokyo hospitals said that they had been told to reuse masks and were concerned about having enough staff to deal with a surge. Several doctors said they had been told not to discuss the capacity of their hospitals with the media.

Nurses told Reuters they were not sure whether their hospitals had enough advanced personal protective equipment like N95 masks and plastic gowns.

The other day I saw a news report that a nurse wearing a trash bag as protective gear died in New York and I wondered if thatll be me in the future, one nurse in her 30s told Reuters. Like many other medical workers, she declined to be named because she is not allowed to speak to the media.

Kasumi Matsuda, who works for the Japan Federation of Medical Workers Unions and was a nurse for 13 years, said many of its 170,000 members had also reported a lack of protective gear.

I think the system is already beginning to fall apart, she said.

As the number of cases rises in Tokyo, the Japan Medical Association and Tokyo governor Koike have asked the central government to quickly declare a state of emergency to reduce the rate of infections.

Such a declaration empowers governors to close public facilities and name and shame companies that refuse official requests. But it cannot force companies to comply.

Media reports on Monday indicated that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was preparing to declare a state of emergency this week after days of saying such a decision would be premature.

On Friday, a non-profit organisation that offers developmental aid abroad, said it would build a makeshift hospital with 1,200 beds by the end of April in a bayside shopping district of Tokyo.

The beds will be set up under tents in a parking lot of a museum of maritime science, a building shaped like a docked ship.
EMS Consulting (EMS) has entered into an agreement to acquire Digital Banking Services (DBS DX), one of the fastest-growing Digital Transformation Services Partners for Banking, and Credit Unions specializing in Salesforce. The move will further strengthen EMSs position as the leading enterprise cloud services provider and enhance its ability to provide clients with unparalleled cloud strategy, technology consulting, cloud application implementation, integration, and their Cloud Advisory managed services.

EMS Consulting, an enterprise technology solutions company, has delivered services to over 7500 customers across the USA for over 22 years. This acquisition further elevates EMS Consultings position as an end-to-end Salesforce enterprise cloud solutions and services provider for the Financial Services Market. This addition will address the surging demand from its trans-formative customers from implementation to offering out of the box Virtual Branch Banking Solutions.

DBS brings Financial Services expertise, industry knowledge, solution assets, and deep ecosystem relationships across a variety of financial services segments including mortgage, commercial, consumer, and insurance for both banks and credit unions. DBS has created multiple banking applications that will quickly advance our financial services, customers, in conjunction with EMSs industry strength, size, and scale.

Weve reached a tipping point where our FINS customers are asking for comprehensive, out of the box solutions built on the Salesforce platform that can be easily deployed for rapid adoption to enhance the customer experience and achieve significant business results more quickly, said Elaine Myrback EMSs chief executive officer. I look forward to welcoming the talented professionals of DBS to the EMS team.

Lisa Nicholas, DBS DX chief executive officer, said, We are thrilled to be joining forces with EMS. The combination of our capabilities and experience with EMSs scale, broad industry expertise, and global cloud application capabilities represents a unique and compelling opportunity for our customers, for our people and the future of cloud technology.

About EMS Consulting

EMS is a Salesforce Gold Partner, founded in 1998 headquartered in Tampa, Florida with experienced, cloud advisory and technology services consultants, providing cloud strategy, implementation, and integration services to thousands of customers around the country. EMS Consulting has over 100 dedicated consultants providing expertise in Financial Services, Health Care, Retail, and Higher Education Industries and a certified Salesforce and MuleSoft Partner since 2012. Visit http://www.consultems.com or call 813-287-2486 to learn more.
March 31, 2020

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) held the 2nd round of the Study Group on Environmental Innovation Finance (chaired by Dr. Ito Kunio, Professor, Ph.D., Graduate School of Business Administration, Hitotsubashi University) on Monday, March 30. The Study Group has made a proposal of Japan entitled the "Concept Paper on Climate Transition Finance Principles." METI continues to promote financing for transition actions toward achieving the Paris Agreement goals.

1. Outline

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, in addition to promoting financing for an already de/low-carbonized activity, for instance in the area of renewable energies, it is important to promote financing for transition actions towards the de/low-carbonization of GHG emitting industries and sectors as well, as a part of climate finance contributing to the mitigation of climate change.

As there have been active discussions on transition finance internationally, including at the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), the Study Group on Environmental Innovation Finance has made a proposal of Japan as follows.

2. Related links

Division in Charge

Environmental Economy Office, Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment Bureau
Of the six states in North-east Nigeria, Bauchi is the only one that has recorded cases of the novel coronavirus. But all of them have announced measures to combat the disease.

Bauchi

On March 24, Bauchis first case was confirmed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control when the state governor, Bala Muhammed, tested positive for COVID-19. Since then, the state has continued to record cases among those that were traced to have made contact with the governor.

Of the 305 cases that were screened by the NCDC, six have tested positive.

The state government has since been putting in place measures to curb the spread of the disease.

Deputy Governor Baba Tela, who heads the states task force on COVID-19, said three isolation centres at Bayara General Hospital, Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, and Azare General Hospital have been set up to receive patients should the need arise.

Earlier, the state government had shut all public schools to prevent the spread of the disease. Places of worship were also asked to comply with the social distancing measure by reducing the number of their congregants  a directive that has never been complied with.

The state government has also set up an appeal fund which has realised about N100 million in donations from the organised private sector.

Civil servants in the state have also forfeited certain percentages of their salaries for the months of April, May, and June to support the fight against covid-19.

The state government had last week Tuesday declared a total lockdown of the state from March 28. The total lockdown was later reviewed to only shutting down the entrance gates to the state while allowing free movement within the townships. The government said they had no resources to provide for the resident should they go into full quarantine.

Borno

In Borno, though no single case of COVID-19 has been recorded, the state government had since last week shut down all entry points to the state.

The government had also set off a State Task Force on COVID-19 headed by the state deputy governor, Umar Kadafur. All public and private schools have been shut down until further notice.

The state government had also restricted entrance into most of the IDP camps while partnering with the United Nations agencies to provide medicine and food to the camps should there be unexpected cases of coronavirus outbreak.

The Borno State Commissioner of Health, Aliyi Kwayabura, said a Lassa fever treatment centre at the Brigadier Abba Kyari Memorial Hospital has been upgraded and equipped for treatment of COVID-19.

The centre has been upgraded and equipped with 100 beds as an isolation centre for the disease..

Mr Kwayabura said they have also stationed staff, safety Kitts and consumable in case it happens.

The health commissioner said more health personnel have been trained on handling the new coronavirus pandemic.

The state government has also set up a task force on internally-generated revenue with a view to boosting the revenue of the state as allocations from the federal purse shrinks due to the impact of the COVID-19 on the global economy.

Taraba

In Taraba, the state government said it has established two isolation centres before the spread of the disease to the state.

According to the states commissioner for health, Innocent Vakkai, the two centres are located at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) and the State Specialist Hospital in Jalingo.

Mr Vakkai had last week said Governor Darius Ishaku, had directed health institutions to put in place measures to ensure prompt detection of suspected cases of COVID-19 should the virus spread to the state.

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As another strategy of preventing the COVID-19 from filtering into the state, the government had deployed health officials to various entry points of the state.

Mr Vakkai said, the ministry will procure and pre-position drugs and medical supplies in health facilities, particularly at the FMC and Specialist Hospital.

Residents have recently expressed concerns that the isolation centres have not been equipped.

Mr Ishaku had last week directed workers on grade level 1 to 12 to stay at home for two weeks.

Following the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the country, Taraba state government Saturday ordered the closure of its boundaries.

Governor Darius had last week ordered the restriction of movement with effect from March 29.

Gombe

There has not been any reported case of COVID-19 in Gombe, but the state government had taken far-reaching measures to safeguard the state.

The state government said it has ordered the supply of Polymerase Chain Reaction Machine for the testing of COVID-19, which it said,  will be the first of its kind in the North-East zone.

According to the Chairman of the Taskforce Committee on Coronavirus, Idris Mohammed, we have ordered the supply of the machines for testing suspected cases of the virus for the state-owned centre, and the machines are expected to be available in the next two weeks.

The task force chairman said a campaign on how to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 has been sustained.

The state government said it has established emergency centres in each of the 11 local government headquarters in the state.

The state government said it already has a stock of medical consumables in its medical stores that would come handy should there be an outbreak.

The state shares boundaries with Bauchi. All the boundaries have since been closed but movements are still allowed within the state.

Adamawa

Adamawa State has not recorded any case of COVID-19 at the time of filing this report, but the state government has so far taken stringent measures to prevent the spread to the state.

Last week, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri signed an Executive Order for the restriction of movements to check the spread of Coronavirus into the state.

The restriction law was followed by a 14-day lockdown of the state with took effect from midnight of March 31.

READ ALSO:

The Health Protection (Coronavirus) Restriction Adamawa State Regulations 2020 Order, forbids any person, except authorised officials or essential service providers from going out without genuine reason such as basic necessities that included food, water, and drugs.

The spokesperson of the government said, Under the regulation, the police or law enforcement officers may use reasonable force if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a person is or may be infected or contaminated with the Coronavirus and there is a risk that the person may infect others.

The state government has also deployed 300 personnel of the NSCDC across the state to help enforce the restriction order.

The state government had earlier suspended the payment of consequential adjustment of the national minimum wage until the Covid-19 impact subsides. The government said this was due to a coronavirus-induced cash. crunch in the states.

Yobe

In Yobe State, the state government has put in place several measures to curb the spread of the new coronavirus to the state.

Part of the measures was setting up three isolation centres, each with three ventilators.

The Commissioner for Health, Mohammed Lawan, last week said that there were 10 ventilators across the state which have been distributed to the three centres.

The three isolation centres were set up at the Yobe State University Teaching Hospital with five beds; and the Federal Medical Centre, Nguru with a 20-bed capacity.

Governor Mai-Mala Buni had told the media that though there has not been any case of COVID-19, taking preemptive measures would prevent the state which is battling with Boko Haram from being burdened further by the disease.

As you are aware, Yobe and other states in the Northeast are faced with the problem of Boko Haram insurgency and now the threat of Coronavirus, Mr Buni said.

The state government has also directed the decongestion of commercial vehicles in the state.

This also affects tricycle operators popularly known as KAKE NAPEP who are also restricted to carrying only two passengers as against five persons.

The state government had set up State COVID 19 Prevention and Control Committee, that is chaired by the Deputy Governor, Idi Barde.

As part of the preventive measures, the government has ordered all its personnel starting from the governor and his cabinets as well as all arms of the government, including local government administrative staff, to donate 50 per cent of their subsequent salaries.

The state government has also closed all entry points for all kinds of commuters except those on essential duties.
T he coronavirus lockdown is set to send home sales plummeting this year, with London house prices also expected to drop  putting a swift end to the market optimism that followed the decisive Tory election victory last December.

In the first official forecast released by a major estate agent, Knight Frank severely downgrades the outlook for the property market this year, saying there will be more than half a million fewer homes sold in the UK than previously predicted.

House prices are expected to fall by two per cent in London after the bounce seen at the start of the year, as would-be buyers are prevented from viewing properties in person, in line with stringent restrictions on all but essential activity outside the home.

Transactions that were already in process have been put on hold as valuations, surveys and home moves are ruled out for the foreseeable future.

What will happen to house prices next year?

However, Knight Frank expects activity and prices to stage a recovery next year as pent-up demand is released.

Liam Bailey, global head of research at the property consultancy, said: The housing market was in a strong position in January and February.

"A sharp uptick in sales and price growth was seen across the UK, with even the prime central London market seeing a reversal of a five-year price decline.

While we expect a revival in activity to continue, with volumes next year expected to be 18 per cent above the level seen in 2019, this expansion in sales in 2021 will not fully offset the losses seen this year. Meaning that of the nearly 526,000 sales we expect to be lost due to lockdown this year, less than half will be carried into 2021.

The figures in the report are based on the assumption that the UK will experience total lockdown until May, easing gradually from June, with the relatively finite nature of the crisis meaning house price falls should be only short term. The report predicts an upswing of six per cent across the capital next year, and up to eight per cent in prime central London.

Edward Heaton, of buying agents Heaton and Partners, said activity in their central London office, which is driven entirely by international buyers, is on pause at the moment due to global travel restrictions  meaning a drop in house prices over the next six months or so is all but inevitable.

However, he believes Chancellor Rishi Sunaks three per cent stamp duty surcharge for foreign buyers from April next year will likely encourage international clients to invest in the safe haven of London property before the new tax is enforced.

Coronavirus is also likely to bring buyers a greater choice of homes for sale once restrictions are lifted, said Heaton: We are likely to seen an increase in stock over the next few months  as a result of coronavirus, sadly. We can expect probate sales; data from China suggests were likely to see an increase in the divorce rate from people whove been stuck together for all this time. And because of the pain that some people will be going through, theyll be selling because of debt.
WASHINGTON  Hours before polls even opened in Wisconsin, voters lined up to cast their ballots at one of five polling stations in Milwaukee, the state's largest city.

Many wore face masks and tried to keep at least 6 feet apart as they waited in line. Typically, the city has 180 polling locations. But the reduced number meant wait times to cast ballots at some locations were several hours. Thousands of voters never even received the absentee ballots they requested. One Milwaukee voter said she requested hers almost three weeks ago, but it never came.

"I have a father dying from lung disease and I have to risk my life and his just to exercise my right to vote," Jennifer Taff said while standing outside Washington High School in Milwaukee, holding a homemade sign that said: "THIS IS RIDICULOUS."

This is what its like to vote during a pandemic.

Wisconsin is the first state to hold a primary when much of the country is under stay-at-home orders  including the Badger State  amid the coronavirus pandemic. Although Democratic Gov. Tony Evers tried Monday to postpone the primary at the last minute, both the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in, and voters headed to the polls Tuesday. Results weren't going to be released until next week.

Milwaukee resident Jennifer Taff holds a sign as she waits in line to vote at Washington High School in Milwaukee on Tuesday. Im disgusted. I requested an absentee ballot almost three weeks ago and never got it. I have a father dying from lung disease and I have to risk my life and his just to exercise my right to vote." She said she had been in line for almost two hours.

The states decisions, as well as the Supreme Courts ruling, have again called into question how other primaries and the general election move forward amid the pandemic. Many voting rights groups have warned that a solution to avoid putting voters at risk needs to be reached soon or turnout could be dramatically affected in November.

What happened in Wisconsin  could be a driver for a true crisis of democracy come November, and every state needs to be thinking right now about what they're going to do to ensure free and fair elections in the fall, said David Daley, a senior fellow at Fair Vote and author of Unrigged: How Americans Battled Back To Save Democracy.

Story continues

States have to come up with a solution before the Nov. 3 general election, Daley stressed. It's particularly important because some health officials, including the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, have said another coronavirus outbreak could happen in the fall.

More: Democratic convention pushed back to August in response to coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus has upended the primary in several states

So far, more than a dozen states have delayed primary elections because of the outbreak. Although many states are still planning in-person voting, a number have also expanded absentee voting and vote-by-mail to avoid direct contact among people at polling locations.

Delawareans have a basic, fundamental right to vote," Delaware Gov. John Carney said in a statement last month, adding that his order to move the election and expand absentee voting "will preserve that right."

Daley said one solution to the state-by-state approach is a national standard on voting by mail or absentee ballot. Without it, he warned, we're going to have this state-by-state patchwork of often outdated and sometimes highly partisan laws. Only 28 states have "no excuse" absentee voting, meaning voters do not need one of several official reasons to request an absentee ballot. The others allow voters to request an absentee ballot without an excuse.

But even expanded voting by mail can bring problems.

In Wisconsin, thousands of voters never received their absentee ballots before Tuesday's election despite requesting them, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Absentee ballots also had to be postmarked Tuesday or delivered to a polling place by 8 p.m. after a previous court ruling was going to allow an extended deadline. According to official numbers from Wisconsin as of Tuesday, 1,282,762 absentee ballots were requested, but nearly 10,000 fewer  1,273,374  had been sent.

Kristen Clarke, president of the advocacy group Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said elderly voters who feared exposure to the virus were unable to submit absentee ballots. More than 400,000 absentee ballots hadnt been returned by Tuesday morning, suggesting many might go unused, she said.

More: Wisconsin election will move forward after state Supreme Court overturns governor's order

The U.S. Supreme Court weighs in Monday night

In addition to the state court ruling that overturned Evers' attempt to delay in-person voting in Wisconsin, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling Monday blocked a federal court order that had extended the deadline for absentee voting six days beyond Wisconsins planned Tuesday primary.

"Extending the date by which ballots may be cast by voters  not just received by the municipal clerks but cast by voters  for an additional six days after the scheduled election day fundamentally alters the nature of the election," the court said in an unsigned opinion.

"The courts decision ... should not be viewed as expressing an opinion on the broader question of whether to hold the election, or whether other reforms or modifications in election procedures in light of COVID19 are appropriate. That point cannot be stressed enough, the court said.

Daley warned that the Supreme Courts ruling could mean another court battle ahead of the general election.

I think its a warning sign that if states dont get their act together on absentee balloting right now, then this is a dry run for the kinds of arguments we could be having in November, and that the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to rule the same way in the fall if the question of absentee ballot comes before them. It could have the potential to tip the election, he said.

Many voting rights groups have raised similar concerns, including that Wisconsins primary process could further disenfranchise some voters.

Jay Heck, the Wisconsin director of Common Cause, a voting-rights advocacy group, said voters face a difficult choice between wanting to vote and protecting their health.

Wisconsins absentee ballot rules are no doubt disenfranchising voters, Heck said.

Heck said the governor and Legislature have seven months to correct the problem to avoid this kind of chaos for the November general election.

This has been a chaotic primary election for people across the state of Wisconsin, said Clarke with the lawyers' group. For many voters, they had to make the tough choice between subjecting them to a health risk today and being able to exercise their right to vote.

Rachel Hughes, an emergency physician in Madison, Wis., told reporters on a conference call with the legal advocates that she requested an absentee ballot in early March because she knew the pandemic was coming and thought shed be working. But she never received it.

I didnt think it was responsible for me to go to a poll and potentially expose lots of other people, as Im high risk of being a carrier, Hughes said. Eventually, she was allowed to vote curbside by having a poll worker fill out her ballot as if she were blind.

It took a lot of cooperation from the wonderful poll workers at my local polling place, Hughes said.

Page Gardner, founder and board chair of the Voter Participation Center, said in a statement that "this pandemic should not be an excuse to further disenfranchise voters in Wisconsin, or anywhere."

"The confusion around (Wisconsin's) primary (Tuesday) and all of the last-minute changes likely will leave historically disadvantaged voters on the sidelines," she said. "We are witnessing the weakening of Americas system of democracy."

Contributing: Bart Jansen of USA TODAY; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Wisconsin primary: Coronavirus could mean voting problems again later
She also cannot ease her fears by sharing them at the senior center. Instead, she said, she watches television all day, which only amplifies them.

Adding to these fears is the nature of the novel virus, said Karl Pillemer, a gerontologist at Cornell University. Most causes of death for older people are fairly slow and predictable, with time to gather relatives and say goodbye. Covid-19, by contrast, is fast and unknown. Its a different narrative than the one were used to, he said.

Dr. Pillemer said the fear of dying alone was a fear of losing control of the dying process. People want a feeling of agency, he said. The frightening reality is that coronavirus patients are not going to be at home. Its going to be an abrasive hospital experience where they dont have the people they want around them. To be conscious and aware and be entirely deprived of visitors, its upsetting even to think about.

As disturbing as the prospect is for elders, it is often scarier for their children. Pam Loshak has had almost no contact with her father since the state banned visitors from nursing homes on March 13. Her father, Eliot, 87, is in the Mary Manning Walsh nursing home in Manhattan, part of a small chain that has had more than 200 coronavirus cases. Because of a traumatic brain injury, he cannot manipulate a telephone, so Ms. Loshak has had to rely on aides in the home any time she wants to talk with him. But this requires the aide to touch both him and the telephone, and the staff at the home, as at many, do not always have the protective equipment to make that safe.

Image Pam Loshak with her father, Eliot Loshak.

If he were to get sick I would not be able to go see him, Ms. Loshak said. Its just a nightmare. You work so hard. Five years ago, when he was hit by a car, she was with him every day during his rehabilitation from the brain injury. It was just an incredible amount of time and energy spent out of love to care for him, she said.

Now she can do none of that. You feel helpless not just because the virus is out there, she said, but because the people taking care of him dont have the equipment that they need to take care of him.
The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has rejected attempts to use the Heritage Fund but supports the Government on the use of parts of the Stabilisation Fund to solve economic challenges emerging from COVID-19.



The Committee is of the view that accessing the Heritage Fund will not only dim the spirit of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act in 2011, Act 815 but derail the countrys intended purpose of applying international best governance practices to its hydrocarbon resources, adding that the country risks slipping back into the very terrain that necessitated the promulgation of the law.



A statement signed by Mr. Noble Wadzah, the Chairman of PIAC, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said Governments search for resources to address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is in the right direction.

It said PIAC has observed with interest, governments intention to lower the cap on the Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF) to US 100 million dollars in order to use the excess for contingency purposes.



The statement said the PRMA is not oblivious of national emergencies and has made provision for transfers from the Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF) into the Contingency Fund.



However, governments over the years have made limited petroleum revenue transfers to the Contingency Fund thereby depriving it of the needed resources for addressing emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF) is meant for shoring up the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) in times of budget shortfalls, providing for contingency, and debt servicing, the statement said, however, withdrawals from the GSF over the years has been heavily tilted in favour of debt servicing, as against a balance between the budget, debt servicing, and contingency purposes.



It said proposals put forward by Government would involve an amendment of the PRMA, adding that any amendment of the PRMA would come across as reactionary and a risky option, which when unchecked, could provide a recipe for abuse of the intent of the law at the least opportunity.



The Committee acknowledged the threat posed by COVID-19 pandemic to the Ghanaian society and the world at large and commended various efforts of government and citizens focused on containing the pandemic.

It said even though the Health Sector is a priority area for ABFA expenditure, the pandemic has reinforced its critical nature, with its interconnections to economic development, national security, food security, and the survival of the citizenry.



The Committee urged Government to review allocations to the sector vis-a-vis allocations to other priority areas including roads and rail, education and agriculture.



PIAC is a body whose membership represents a broad spectrum of the Ghanaian society mandated under Act 815, to provide independent assessment on the management and use of Ghanas petroleum revenues by faithfully adhering to the principles and philosophy that informed the passage of the PRMA.

Source: GNA









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KYODO NEWS - Apr 7, 2020 - 21:57 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Japan's Cabinet approved a largest-ever 108 trillion yen ($990 billion) stimulus package on Tuesday to help struggling households and businesses survive the impact of the new coronavirus outbreak.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said the package includes fiscal measures worth about 39 trillion yen to implement steps such as 6 trillion yen worth of cash handouts to households and small companies, and tax and social security payment deferments for businesses worth 26 trillion yen.

The stimulus measures came with the declaration of a state of emergency by Abe earlier in the day, as Japan braces for challenging weeks in Tokyo, Osaka and other hard-hit areas.

"A significant impact on economic activities is inevitable," Abe told a press conference, calling the current situation "the biggest crisis" of the postwar era.

"I'm resolved to overcome this crisis, together with Japanese citizens, by mobilizing all possible policy means," Abe said.

The package far exceeds the 56.8 trillion yen emergency package at the time of the 2008 financial crisis and follows stimulus measures worth 26 trillion yen in December to soften the impact of a consumption tax hike.

The policy package will be partially funded by a supplementary budget worth 16.81 trillion yen for fiscal 2020, which was approved by the Cabinet along with the package, and is expected to clear parliament by the end of April.

(Prime Minister Shinzo Abe)

The extra budget will be financed by 14.48 trillion yen of deficit-covering bonds. Asked about a further deterioration of Japan's fiscal health resulting from the new debt issuance, Finance Minister Taro Aso told a separate press conference that the government is placing its priority on economic revitalization, which will be needed to achieve fiscal consolidation.

The pandemic, which has led to the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, is adding to recessionary pressure at a time when the world's third-largest economy is experiencing aftershocks from the 2-percentage-point tax increase to 10 percent in October.

The package includes emergency measures worth 2 trillion yen already announced after the virus outbreak, mainly financial support for small companies, and steps accounting for 20 trillion yen of the 26 trillion yen stimulus.

Under the latest package, the government plans to distribute 300,000 yen to lower income households that have lost more than half of their income amid the virus outbreak or those whose income has fallen to a level that would exempt them from paying resident tax. Households with children will receive one-off payments of 10,000 yen per child.

Subsidies of up to 2 million yen will be provided to small business owners, including freelance workers, and medium-sized companies if their revenues drop significantly to help them continue business and maintain employment.

The government will establish a scheme to encourage private banks to extend loans without interest or collateral. Such loans are given by governmental financial institutions at present.

Small and medium-sized companies suffering from sharp sales declines will be fully exempted from paying taxes such as consumption and property taxes.

Some ruling and opposition party lawmakers had demanded a cut in the consumption tax rate.

The government will also spend 13.9 billion yen to triple the national stockpile of the anti-influenza drug Avigan, enough to treat two million people, after reports the drug developed by a group firm of Fujifilm Holdings Corp. has proved effective in treating COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus.

Related coverage:

Japan PM Abe declares state of emergency amid widespread virus infections

Anxiety prevails over state of emergency declaration amid coronavirus

What will life in Japan under a state of emergency look like?

The following is the gist of the emergency economic package approved by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet on Tuesday.

Under the 108 trillion yen ($990 billion) package, the government:

-- provides 300,000 yen in cash for households whose incomes have more than halved or plunged to a resident tax-exempted level.

-- gives families receiving child allowances an additional 10,000 yen per child.

-- provides subsidies of up to 2 million yen to small business owners and medium-sized companies whose earnings have dropped by half or more.

-- fully exempts firms whose sales have fallen over 50 percent from paying taxes such as consumption and property taxes.

-- triples the national stockpile of the antivirus drug Avigan, seen as effective in treating COVID-19, to treat two million people.
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Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung  Wed, April 8 2020

The West Java administration is set to implement a curfew across 27 cities and regencies to limit peoples movements and help curb the spread of COVID-19.



The [West Java] Police chief has agreed to this plan as long as the [local administrations] coordinate local law enforcement, West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said in a statement on Monday.



He has ordered local authorities to make immediate plans for the curfew, which he said was part of efforts to instill discipline among residents, as West Java would soon submit a request to the central government for large-scale social restrictions (PSBB).



The administration is still waiting for waiting for comprehensive data and mapping on the spread of the disease in 27 cities and regencies, including the results of massive COVID-19 rapid testing administered in the province.



We need that information to support our PSBB request, he said.



I urge regional heads to check with their respective health agencies and report their [rapid test] results to the provincial administration as soon as possible. The faster we receive the data, the easier it will be to map the spread of COVID-19.



Once approved, PSBB in West Java will particularly focus on areas that border Jakarta  the national epicenter of the outbreak  to better synchronize policies aimed at curbing transmission, he added.

______

I urge regional heads to check with their respective health agencies and report their [rapid test] results to the provincial administration as soon as possible. The faster we receive the data, the easier it will be to map the spread of COVID-19.

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The Gujarat government on



Tuesday said state government employees, who are engaged in work related to coronavirus, will be eligible for Rs 25 lakh compensation in case they get infected and die in the line of duty.

The government had earlier announced Rs 25 lakh compensation to the next of kin of front-line staff, including police personnel, health and sanitation workers, staff of revenue and food supply department and fair price shopkeepers.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani announced that the cover will be extended to all government employees who are involved in jobs related to the pandemic.

Family members of such employees would be paid Rs 25 lakh compensation if the personnel contract the infection and succumb to it, the Chief Minister's secretary Ashwani Kumar said.

All contractual, fixed pay or any other employees of the Gujarat government will be eligible for this compensation package, he said.

Meanwhile, Kumar said during the 21-day lockdown, the Centre had deposited Rs 800 crore in the bank accounts of around 40 lakh farmers in the state under the Prime Minister's Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, with each farmer getting Rs 2,000.

The Central government will pay Rs 6,000 to each farmer in three instalments in a year under the scheme, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two forest fires near the now defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine have boosted the radiation level in the area.

Ukrainian firefighters worked into Sunday night to put the fires under control. Emergency services said one of the fires that spread to an area of about five hectares was contained. The other fire was covering a much larger area, of about 20 hectares.

Fire officials said radiation levels in the area near Chernobyl were considerably higher than normal. The emergencies service, however, said radiation levels in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, about 100 kilometers south, were within normal range.
Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO & Director, C-CAMP shares his views on the current COVID-19 situation

"Novel coronavirus Covid-19 is running amok globally. As the tipping point of the pandemic comes up, how we as Indians step up to the task of containment will be crucial. One of the major factors is Indias high population density, especially in urban areas. This could imply an extremely accelerated community transmission if the outbreak cannot be contained.

At C-CAMP we are working to contribute to both Central Govt and State Govt's efforts by sharing and helping deploy the pathbreaking work of some of our innovators and startups in infectious diseases, medical technology, and virology, for prevention, diagnostics, therapeutic and prophylactic approaches.

Examples of such startups would be CoSara, Coeo Labs, Luxmatra, EyeStem, Biomoneta, Coeo Labs, many others and also our translational science program, Discovery to Innovation Accelerator where we are developing microfluidics based multiplex single cell assays for rapid diagnostics.

In light of the current rising trend in infection numbers, as well as scientific evidence based predictions on future course of this global pandemic, we will have a controlled scenario only by July or August.

New cases as shown by Wuhan, China can be halted in about two months time following lockdown measures.

This is a conservative estimate based on Government measures kicking in to prevent further escalation of the pandemic.

WHO has clearly mentioned that narrow case definition and withholding testing for Covid will only be conducive to community spread. Given the ICMR accreditation for private labs across India will significantly bolster efforts to test more. Neuberg Anand Diagnostic Labs, the private lab cleared in Bangalore is a C-CAMP partner and we are looking forward to joining in the combat through our high-end technology platforms. Regulations now need to be eased for making use of such technological resources at C-CAMP and across more research institutes. There is an immediate need for open source science the world over. Global collaborative efforts and sharing of best practices to beat the Corona virus are the need of the hour. The authorities should facilitate greater exchange of ideas and technical expertise. Concerns about IP or commercialisation are secondary at the moment. Relaxation of regulatory approvals for medical technology devices in the sector of ICU, ventilator support, rapid diagnostics will allow many startups in the sector begin manufacturing. Such as CCAMP supported startup CoSara diagnostics who will manufacture their RT PCR kits for testing at a fraction of the current cost in India & the West. Immediate deployment of medtech solutions like CCAMP startup Coeos VAP-Care a ventilator associated pneumonia preventive device that can prevent secondary infections in the critically ill and reduce mortalities by as much as 30% as per a recent Lancet report that has analysed the Wuhan statistics. The Empowered Committee for Covid 19 response chaired by Prof K Vijayraghavan, PSA and Dr Vinod Paul, NITI Aayog has permitted BSL 3 and BLS 3+ facilities to culture the virus for additional testing and validation of possible therapeutic options Many of the C-CAMP - Bangalore Life Sciences Cluster technology platforms fall under this category and a heightened effort to designate such individual labs across the country for directing research efforts on the virus containment, therapy and vaccines will be very important in the coming days. An organisation such as C-CAMP will be able to bring researchers from academia, startups, industry, and investors all under one roof to take a bench discovery to a marketable solution. The Covid outbreak is more than just a pandemic. The economic and social fallout of the outbreak will be massive and authorities the world over must strengthen a PPP mode of tackling the outbreak. If and when community transmission begins in India, government facilities alone will not be enough. Private players will need to be brought in operation with appropriate price caps to reduce the financial burden on common masses. Private participation in investing in new breakthrough innovations that are emerging will also be key."

Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO & Director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), Bengaluru
The gap between regional and national decision-making also encouraged many wealthy Madrid residents to hurry to their seaside homes, once all Madrid schools had been shut, at the risk of further spreading a virus that was already firmly embedded in Spains capital.

A new and fragmented government starts with a huge disadvantage in this kind of crisis situation, because it requires quick and forceful decisions to be taken without constantly worrying about whether somebody else is gaining a political advantage, said Toni Roldan, a Spanish economist and former lawmaker from the Ciudadanos party.

As a measure of the difficulties, Quim Torra, the separatist leader in northeastern Catalonia, refused even to sign a joint declaration with Madrid on coordinating the lockdown with the national government.

Fernando Rodriguez Artalejo, an epidemiologist and university professor, said Spain should not be judged harshly over its response to a pandemic that every government had passively watched unfold in a neighboring country as if watching a movie.

Spain watched Italy, he acknowledged, but with the mitigating factor that many scientists believed until recently that asymptomatic people were probably not contagious.

The idea was that the authorities just needed to track the cases and identify the people whom they had been in contact with, he said. This doctrine is now gone, but too late for Spain.

Even so, Spains main neighbor has fared much better so far. Despite sharing a 750-mile border with Spain, Portugal passed 200 coronavirus deaths last week just as Spain reached 10,000.
Reports suggest that Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea have added a mere 500,000 new customers in March In any other month this number would have been 2.5- 3 million. The Coronavirus pandemic has led to more people working from home and not venturing

It looks like Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea are looking at a contactless digital customer acquisition process to boost their SIM card sales numbers. Due to the spread of the coronavirus, the number of SIM card sales has reduced as people are staying at home, stores are closed and there is no way for a customer to get a SIM card without visiting a shop. According to the Economic Times, the three telcos added a mere 500,000 new customers in March 2020. In any other month, the number of SIM cards sold to customers by the three telcos ranges between 2.5- 3 million.

To combat this, it looks like the three telecom giants are looking at approvals from the department of telecom (DoT) and the home ministry to implement a process where e-KYC (electronic Know Your Customer) is implemented and a safe way can be implemented for courier delivery of the SIM card.

"Operators are aware people need mobile connections but are facing hardship in getting them amid the nationwide lockdown, which is why, they are collectively working on a secure technology solution that can make SIMs available when people need it the most, and also boost customer adds," said Rajan Mathews, director-general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) that represents the three telcos to ET.

Another thing to note is that before the country went into lockdown, only a third of the overall recharges were digital. But it looks like all the recharges taking place now are digital through the network providers app or website or third-party apps like PayTM and others.

A Vodafone Idea spokesperson told ET that the company is developing a fully-automated, digital customer acquisition process, allowing customers to join its network from the comfort of their homes.

If someone has a prepaid number, it is obvious that he/she may not be able to recharge their number once the validity or data pack ends. In such cases, some telcos have enabled the ability to recharge their numbers via ATMs. You can learn how to recharge via an ATM here. In other telecom news, BSNL has launched a Rs 693 and Rs 1,212 prepaid plans with up to 500GB data and 365 days validity. You can read more about it here.
The State's Chief Medical Officer says the public should not be surprised if restrictions on work and travel are extended beyond this Sunday.

The death toll from Covid-19 in the Republic has risen to 174, after 16 more people were confirmed to have died from the virus.

There are now over 5,300 confirmed cases.

The National Public Health Emergency Team meets this morning to discuss further extending movement restrictions but a formal recommendation will not be made until Friday.

However Dr Tony Holohan says people will know before then if the measures will remain in place.

"What we will do over the course of the week, I will be as honest and open with you as I can be so it won't be that I will reveal everything in one go on Friday.

"As the week progresses and our impression of where we are is increasing either in one direction or another I will share that with you.

Wherever we arrive at formally on Friday won't be a surprise to you.

Dr Holohan advised that restrictions on travel and work will only be lifted when the country has a grip on the outbreak.

He said that there are factors to be considered before relaxing any measures including that "we know we have the capacity in our testing, the capacity in terms of the kit that has to be available, to really be strong and focused on finding cases.

"Our work over the course of the next one to two weeks will be to try and get us into that position."

The World Health Organisation has warned countries not to completely lift restrictions in one go.

Executive director Mike Ryan has this advice to governments who are thinking about taking away lockdown measures.

"It would be very ill advised if the number of cases coming through the hospital are already at a level where your occupancy of beds is nearly at 100%.

"You need to be in a position where you have free beds in your system so that you're managing and coping with the case load.

"You need to look at things like the doubling rate - how many days does it take for the number of cases to double."

Yesterday, there were 370 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed.

Of the 5,300 cases in the country, 175 patients have been admitted to the ICU.

Beaumont Hospital in Dublin is one of the busiest hospitals in the country for Covid-19 cases.

Infectious diseases consultant at Beaumont Hospital, Eoghan de Barra, says the critical cases are concerning.

Dr de Barra said that while the number of people coming in has stabilised in recent days a high proportion of those are quite severe and find themselves in the Intensive Care Unit.

"The last few days we are seeing a steady number of patients coming in that need very advanced care and ventilators and all of these things that people are now widely aware of.

"But we haven't ended up in a situation that we have seen other countries in.

"Now whether that's a few days to come that remains to be seen and we have processes in place to deal with that surge."

Health Minister Simon Harris says the rate of growth is slowing but is still too high.

"There are some encouraging signs there in terms of the rate of growth but too early to say.

"We are entering a very, very crucial week.

The virus is very much here, it is still at an unsustainable level. While we are making progress, we are not yet where we need to be.

Minister Harris said that there are still a number of worrying signs including the

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"This is all about saving lives. As tough and challenging as these measures are we are going to stay the course until we get to a point where we can say it is safe for our people to return to a degree of normality."

The HSE has urged anyone who is awaiting a test for Covid-19 to seek medical help if their condition deteriorates.

Chief clinical officer Colm Henry says people should contact their GP or medical services if feeling increasingly unwell.

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The twin Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have been witnessing a steep rise in the number of positive cases only after March 26, when the details about large scale congregation of people at Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in New Delhi came to light.

Both the states have accounted for nearly 15 deaths; 11 in Telangana and the rest in Andhra, and 700 positive cases for Covid-19 till now. Telangana reported 13 cases, its first double figure tally, on March 18, when as many as eight Indonesians, who came to Karimnagar town after attending the Tablighi Jamaat meeting, tested positive.

Andhra Pradesh reported 11 cases, its first double digit tally, on March 26, when the state government began tracking Jamaat returnees and admitting them to hospitals.

According to the bulletins issued by the Telangana health department, there were only five cases of locals who had come from countries like Dubai, London, Switzerland and the US and tested positive. The number went up to 13 on March 18, when the Indonesians tested positive.

The number of positive cases in Telangana was gradually increasing by a maximum of five to six cases every day between March 18 and March 26, when it suddenly shot up by 14 cases. Since then, it has been on the rise as the government began tracing the Tablighi Jamaat returnees. By April 1, it crossed 100 and reached 364 on Monday evening.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao told reporters on Monday night that out of the total number of positive cases recorded so far, only 50 cases pertained to locals, including 30 foreign-returnees and the remaining 20 of their family members. Of these 50, 35 people had been discharged and the remaining, too, will be discharged shortly, he said.

However, KCR said, the state witnessed huge number of cases after the Nizamuddin incident. As many as 314 people tested positive in this second phase, after March 26, apart from the deaths of 11 people. Of these 314 people, 308 are still undergoing treatment and the remaining six have been discharged, he said.

The chief minister said as many as 1089 people who had attended the Nizamuddin meeting had been identified so far and another 30-35 were in quarantine in Delhi. Besides, another 265 people, including 93 family members of these Markaz returnees, were also traced and tested. It was found that over 1,000 of them are not infected. The results of the remaining, too, will be out in a couple of days, he said.

Besides, the authorities were also on the lookout for another 3,017 persons who might be indirectly connected with these cases are being traced, he said.

Andhra Pradesh, too, witnessed a similar trend. After reporting he first double digit number of 11 Covid-19 positive cases on March 26, the state crossed the three-figure mark within six days on April 1, when it reported 113 cases. By Monday night, the number of cases were at 309, including five discharged patients.

At a high-level review meeting held by Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday afternoon, the health department officials disclosed that out of 304 active Covid-19 patients taking treatment in hospitals, 280 patients had been associated with the Tablighi Jamaat meeting and their primary contacts.

Out of 1085 persons who were identified to have attended Jamaat meeting, tests were conducted on 997 patients till now and 194 of them turned out to be positive. Another 2,400 people were identified to have come in contact with them, including their family members, relatives, friends and others who travelled with them from Delhi to Andhra Pradesh. Of them, 84 persons tested positive, the officials told the chief minister.

Among others, tests were conducted on 205 people who came from foreign countries. Of them, 11 tested positive. Among another 120 persons who came in contact with these foreign returnees, six tested positive. As many as 134 locals got themselves admitted with symptoms of cold, cough and fever; of them, seven tested positive, the officials said.

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Cork dairy farmers Peter and Paula Hynes have been self-isolating on their farm in Aherla for weeks.

As the 180-cow dairy farm moves into peak milking season, Mr Hynes told the Irish Independent that if milk is not collected from his farm for a month and he had to dump it, it would cost him about 40,000.

"Four weeks ago when we saw coronavirus heading this way, we decided to isolate ourselves as best as possible to protect the farm. I go to the agri merchants once and week and Paula does a grocery shop once a week. The farm has to operate seven days a week, but we cannot expose ourselves in any way to coronavirus."

The Hynes run a spring-calving herd, so peak milk production is just around the corner for them.

"As a spring calving herd we hit peak milk production in May and the milk price in May, June and July has the biggest impact on our profitability for the year."

The farm produces just over one million litres of milk a year, with 120,000-130,000 litres of that produced in each of the three peak months.

The farm will be in crisis if milk collections cannot continue as normal.

"Milk is collected every two days from the farm and every load is tested to ensure traceability and quality and for antibiotics, chlorine levels, bacteria, mastitis.

"We could store four days' milk production at this time of the year, but after that it would have to be poured into a slurry tank or spread on the land."

If that happened for a month in peak season, it would cost them in the region of 40,000.

The couple, who grew their dairy herd from 50 cows to 180 in recent years, did so at a cost. They expanded in 2015 from 50 cows to 180, as Mr Hynes says they thought it was the most profitable way for their farm to go.

And everything was pointing towards a good year for milk prices before coronavirus. Now, their self-isolation means there's very little movement in or out of the farm.

Their three children, Chloe, Becky and Georgie, are out of school almost three weeks and they don't have friends over, but are kept busy on the farm.

"As a family farm, it became easier to self-isolate as we all have our different jobs and the kids out working on the farm, they have ponies so can go off on them during the day."

The farm currently has just over 100 calves, which they can't sell because marts were closed as part of measures announced to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

This means the farm will have to hold onto the calves until they can find alternative ways to sell them.

"We have more calves that need to be moved - as a farmer you have to limit the potential for a disease outbreak and having so many young animals in the spring can leave the farm exposed. So there's a bigger workload in keeping them healthy."

The Hynes have had communication from their processor that help will be available to them to source relief staff for the farm if one of them contracts coronavirus. But for now they are limiting their exposure to coronavirus as best they can.

"There are washing facilities and de-sanitisation area for the milk lorry driver. We have absolutely no contact with the milk lorry driver when he comes into the yard and also with feed or fertiliser deliveries, we have no contact with the driver."

As they're extremely busy in spring, they always try to take a break of two days at the end of April, but that won't happen. "We can't expose the farm by bringing in relief staff unless we absolutely need do. So for now it continues to be a seven-day-a-week operation for us with no end in sight."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 19:41:47|Editor: xuxin

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LILONGWE, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Malawi has registered its first COVID-19 death, as the number of confirmed cases have now risen to eight, the country's Minister of Health and Population Services, Jappie Mhango, confirmed Tuesday.

The Minister told journalist in Lilongwe that the country has lost a 51-year-old Malawian lady who had just recently returned from the UK and she was the 5th patient to test positive for COVID-19.

"She had an underlying medical condition. Our Blantyre District Health Office's Environmental Health Team is assisting with the burial arrangements," said the minister, adding that the woman died during the early hours of Tuesday.

"As a nation we grieve with the family of the deceased and I urge you all to respect their privacy," added the health minister.

Mhango also disclosed that the country has registered 3 new cases bringing the total number to 8 in a space of five days since the country announced its first three cases on April 2.

"As a matter of an update on the COVID-19 situation, the country has today confirmed 3 new cases: two in Blantyre and one in Chikwawa," explained Mhango.

The minister has asked people to continue observing the prevention guidelines like, regular hand washing, social distancing, avoiding handshakes, and observe self-quarantine rules as provided .
Photo: The Canadian Press The Bank of Canada building in Ottawa is shown on Thursday, May 16, 2019. The Bank of Canada says workers were feeling upbeat about job prospects, while employers felt otherwise in the weeks before COVID-19 delivered a shock to the Canadian economy.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

The federal government will soon change rules to let hundreds of thousands hard-hit workers access pandemic-related emergency relief, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised Monday as federal systems began processing about 1,000 applications a minute for the new benefit.

Applications opened at 6 a.m. eastern time and more than 532,000 out-of-work Canadians successfully applied for the $500-a-week Canada Emergency Response Benefit by late afternoon, with more expected into the evening.

People with birthdays in the first three months of the year were asked to apply Monday, with the process opening more widely each day this week. Early indications were that the request was being followed for the most part, the Canada Revenue Agency said.

The agency issued a request for patience given the large demand for the 16-week benefit for workers who have lost all their income due to COVID-19 crisis.

The Liberals were warned last week by experts that the design of the $24-billion benefit program leaves out people whose hours have been slashed, but not eliminated entirely.

Also left out were students who haven't earned enough to qualify and people who were already seeking jobs before the pandemic's economic shock dried up their options.

Speaking outside his Ottawa residence, Trudeau promised more details soon on how the government intends to help those groups, and others who earn less now than if they were receiving the benefit, citing care workers for the elderly as an example.

"We're looking carefully at how we can increase their pay a little bit so that they do better off remaining at work rather than going off work and receiving the emergency-response benefit," he said.

"These are fine-tunings that we knew we would have to do because in any program you're trying to help as many people as possible, there will be exceptions that we have to fill and we're going to keep working to make sure we get this right and get everyone the help they need."

The tweaking began on Monday. Treasury Board President Jean-Yves Duclos told a midday news conference that volunteer firefighters won't be disqualified from the emergency benefit for receiving honorary payments if they lost their day jobs due to COVID-19.

Over the last two-plus weeks, more than 2.5 million people have applied for employment insurance benefits  the same number the system usually sees in a year, Duclos noted.

All of them are to be transferred over to the emergency benefit, which will mean a bump in weekly pay for some low-income workers who have been laid off or furloughed  a situation that many didn't see happening earlier this year, according to a new report from the Bank of Canada.

The survey of consumer expectations released Monday said few thought they would lose their employment and many were ready to test the job market, expecting to quickly find something new. Households in mid-February expected their spending to rise faster than expectations for wage growth, which the bank said suggested consumers weren't becoming more cautious in their spending.

Results from the business-outlook survey suggested business sentiment had softened in most regions before the pandemic intensified. Much of that sentiment emanated from the country's oil-producing regions, where companies were generally less optimistic, pulling back on capital spending and hiring plans as they watched the price of oil fall.

Companies told the central bank they expected the economic shock from low oil prices to be worse than what hit the sector in 2015 and the 2008 economic crisis.

One reason, the bank said, was concern that financing was becoming harder to come by for companies that were also anticipating "a bottoming-out in the sector rather than a negative shock."

By mid-March, restaurants, hotels and other service industries had seen a collapse in sales. Businesses were either closed or expected to soon, and were "drastically laying off staff or reducing staff hours." Others, the bank noted, moved to food delivery and online sales to find new ways to earn money.

Manufacturers were anticipating temporary shutdowns and declining sales from challenged customers.

Grocery retailers and related transportation companies saw their sales reach "unprecedented levels" as workers were being told to stay at home.

Statistics Canada is scheduled to release March job numbers on Thursday, but it separately moved forward Monday on a new survey with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce to collect more recent data on how businesses are coping with COVID-19.
P&0 Ferries is on the brink of collapse after 180 years because of the coronavirus crisis with its Dubai owners demanding 150million from the British Government to save the firm and its 4,000 staff, it was revealed today.

The ferry business makes most of its money from its cross-channel services, which have seen a collapse in passenger numbers since the unprecedented lockdown in Britain and Europe.

Many ships on its busiest route between Dover and Calais have been deserted over the past month.

The business' Dubai-based owners, DP World, are trying to agree a 250million bailout package including cuts to pay and pensions for thousands of staff totalling 100million.

But they also want a 150million bailout from the British Government, according to the Telegraph, but ministers are not convinced, meaning the business could go under.

P&0 Ferries is on the brink of collapse after 180 years because of the coronavirus crisis with 4,000 staff at risk of losing their jobs

P&O is still running services but all drivers and foot passengers must fill out a form to prove to the French government that their travel is essential.

I've been furloughed: What does it mean, why are companies doing this and what happens next? What does it mean to be 'furloughed'? Essentially, if you're being furloughed by your employer, it means you're being sent home, but will still receive 80 per cent of your salary by the Government, up to a maximum of 2,500 a month. This Government job retention scheme is only for employed people, it does not apply if you are self-employed. However, you first need to agree to be put on furlough by your employer, who can then apply for the money to the Government. You cannot apply for it yourself. Your employer can choose to pay the remaining 20 per cent of your wages, although it is not obliged to do so. If you earn more than 2,500 a month, your employer can choose to 'top up' your salary, but again it is not forced to do so. You will still continue to pay income tax and national insurance contributions while on furlough. Can I be furloughed if I'm on a zero-hour contract? Yes. Also if you're on a flexible contract or are employed by an agency. If you are on a zero-hour contract, which means you don't necessarily earn the same amount each month, your employer should give you the 80 per cent of your average monthly salary since you started working. That also applies to workers who have been employed for less than a year. If you've worked for your employer for a year or more, you should receive 80 per cent of your average monthly salary, or 80 per cent of what you earned in the same month during the previous year - whichever is highest. If you started work only in February, your employer will pro-rata your earnings from that month. But if you've started working on 28 February or after, you are not eligible. If you have been made redundant after February 28, or even if you left a job after that date, you could be reemployed under furlough if your employer is willing to do so. Otherwise you will have to claim unemployment. Can I be forloughed if I'm sick? If you're fallen ill and in the meantime your employer has had to shut down, you should first get statutory sick pay first, but can be furloughed after this. Those who are self-isolating because of coronavirus can also be placed on furlough. People who are 'shielding' and are vulnerable to potential severe illness caused by the coronavirus, can also be placed on furlough. At the moment, employees can be furloughed from a minimum of three weeks up to three months, although the Government may look to extend that if needed. Which businesses can apply? Any company with employees can apply, including charities, recruitment agencies and public authorities. However, the Government does not expect many public sector organisations to apply, as 'the majority of public sector employees are continuing to provide essential public services or contribute to the response to the coronavirus outbreak'. Organisations who are receiving public funding specifically to provide services necessary to respond to the coronavirus outbreak are not expected to furlough staff. Employers can furlough staff for a minimum of three weeks and are not allowed to rotate employees on furlough. In order to access the scheme, businesses need to change the status of their employees to furlough workers and submit the information to HMRC. HMRC are currently working to set up a system for reimbursing companies. Advertisement

A similar restriction is being placed on drivers entering the Channel Tunnel.

Eurostar is continuing to run a very small number of trains for passengers who are required to travel. Trains are no longer calling at Ashford in Kent, Calais, Amsterdam and Disneyland Paris.

A string of Britains biggest firms have revealed plans to suspend tens of thousands of staff in a move that could cost the taxpayer 60billion.

In a vivid demonstration of the brutal impact of the coronavirus crisis on the economy, British Airways, Top Shop owner Arcadia, car giant Nissan and energy firm Ovo all announced plans to furlough workers as they scramble to cut costs.

They join a rapidly growing list of household names, from Greggs, to Costa Coffee and Primark, which have already furloughed around 400,000 staff between them.

All these companies now plan to reclaim wages from the Governments job retention scheme, which covers 80 per cent of employees salaries up to 2,500 a month.

Experts at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) think-tank last night predicted that as many as 6.1million private sector employees could be furloughed.

That would cost the Government 30billion if they were off work for three months or 60billion if they were off work for six months, based on estimates by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

Once the self-employed are accounted for, the cost could hit 80billion. The IFS conceded that the estimates were uncertain.

But the figures underline the huge cost to the country of the deadly Covid-19 outbreak.

And they may raise eyebrows given many of the companies now seeking taxpayer support are highly profitable in normal times - and even have reserves of cash.

The Government scheme to pay 80 per cent of wages of furloughed workers is not expected to be up and running until the end of April, meaning many people will have to get by on a reduced income for weeks.

And the number of those furloughed is set to spiral in the coming weeks as the virus lockdown continues and firms are forced to suspend staff on reduced or no pay.

The British Chambers of Commerce estimated that almost half of firms (44 per cent) expect to furlough at least 50 per cent of their staff.

And almost a third predicted they would have to suspend between three-quarters and their entire workforce over the next week.

The analysis, based on feedback from more than 600 businesses, also indicated that almost one in five firms will run out of cash in a month unless they receive a Government-backed loan from their bank or a grant from their local council.

And one by one, some of the biggest employers in the UK announced they would be laying off staff and relying on wage subsidies from British taxpayers.

Last week British Airways confirmed plans to suspend more than 30,000 staff - roughly three-quarters of its workforce - until the end of May.

The airline, which has been forced to ground most of its fleet due to the Covid-19 pandemic, said it had struck a deal with the unions.

Those furloughed include the vast majority of cabin crew, ground, staff, engineers and those working at head office. They will receive 80 per cent of their salary and 80 per cent of their allowances.

Revealing the toll of the lock-down on the High Street, Arcadia Group - the retail empire of disgraced billionaire Sir Phillip Green - announced it would be suspending 14,500 of its 16,000 staff.

The group - which owns Top Shop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge - said all shop workers have been furloughed effective from March 21, when non-essential retailers were ordered to shut down their stores. It said the majority of head office staff would be suspended from Saturday.

Car giant Nissan also revealed that the majority of the 6,000 workers at its Sunderland plant will be furloughed for the remainder of this month. It closed the factory on March 17.

Energy firm Ovo also announced its has furloughed 3,400 staff - more than a third of its workforce - as the virus takes its toll on the energy sector.

Almost 20 well-known firms, including McDonalds, JD Wetherspoon, Greggs, Costa Coffee and Primark, have already furloughed more than 400,000 staff between them.

But the true figure will be much higher as thousands of smaller firms around the country take similar action.

Capital Economics has warned the economy could shrink by 15 per cent in the second quarter, and throw 700,000 people out of work.
The estranged wife of a decorated NASA astronaut who claimed her spouse hacked her accounts while aboard the International Space Station has been charged with lying about the allegations.

Summer Worden is accused of falsely filing complaints against astronaut Anne McClain on two occasions, according to federal authorities.

The first incident occurred when the former Air Force intelligence officer interviewed with the Federal Trade Comission in March 2019, with the second taking place in July of that year with NASA's Inspector General.

She faces five years in prison if convicted, ABC 6 reports.

Summer Worden (left) is accused of falsely filing complaints against astronaut Anne McClain on two occasions

Last August, Worden accused the former US Army Lieutenant of illegally accessing her financial records while aboard the International Space Station, as part of a highly calculated and manipulated campaign to obtain custody of Wodens six-year-old son, Briggs.

She brought a complaint against McClain with the Federal Trade Commission, claiming that McClain had committed identity theft, even though none of Worden's funds had been tampered with.

Her parents then filed a complaint with NASA.

The indictment against Worden claims that she maintained multiple accounts at her bank, sharing access to those to McCalin until at least January 31, 2019.

Worden had said that she opened a new account on September 2018, resetting her login information so that she could prevent McClain from getting access to it.

Last August, Worden accused the former US Army Lieutenant of illegally accessing her financial records while aboard the International Space Station

Worden (left) claimed that the scheme was part of a highly calculated and manipulated campaign to obtain custody of Wodens six-year-old son, Briggs

The indictment claims Worder actually opened the account in April 2018 and didn't change her login information until January 2019.

Worden is expected to appear in court on April 13. She faces a fine of $250,000 if convicted.

Last year, McClain sat down for an under-oath interview with the inspector general, where she was said to have admitted that she did access Worden's banking information.

However, McClain apparently claimed that she was just doing something she had always done while she and Worden were still a couple - checking in on Worden's finances to make sure that there was enough money to support Worden's child, who they had been raising together.

She brought a complaint against McClain with the Federal Trade Commission, claiming that McClain had committed identity theft, even though none of Worden's funds had been tampered with. Her parents then filed a complaint with NASA

Worden claimed the real catalyst for their divorce came in the shape of McClain and her repeated requests to legally adopt Briggs, which she turned down even when the pair were married

McClain claimed that she was using the same password that she had always used during their relationship and that she had not been told to stop accessing Worden's bank account.

McClain and Worden married in 2014, with Worden filing for divorce in 2018 after McClain accused her of assault, a claim which Worden denies and said was part of McClain's efforts at gaining custody of her son. The assault case was eventually dismissed.

Worden claimed the real catalyst for their divorce came in the shape of McClain and her repeated requests to legally adopt Briggs, which she turned down even when the pair were married.

She claimed McClain didnt respect the decision and shortly after she noticed a shift in her demeanor and in their relationship

She said McClain didnt respect the decision and shortly after she noticed a shift in her demeanor and in their relationship.

The person I know now wasn't the person I married. Over time true colors were revealed, and the real Anne came about, Worden said. And [shes a] very much controlling individual.

It was almost like, you will do as I say and Ill show you through the courts, she added.

In Worden's parents' complaint, they agreed that McClain's actions were part of a 'highly calculated and manipulative campaign' to obtain custody of Worden's son, who she had given birth to about a year before the couple got married.
Vernon W. Hill Jr., executive chairman of Philadelphia-based Republic Bank, at the opening of its first office in New York last year. Read more

Two-thirds of U.S. small businesses plan to apply for forgivable Small Business Administration loans under the governments new Paycheck Protection Program, according to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business. No wonder: More than half of the total indicated that they cant last more than two months under the current anti-coronavirus lock-down without going out of business.

How do you sign up? Banks such as TD, Citizens, and WSFS, which have plenty of experience making ordinary SBA loans, have been giving their own customers the inside track on applications for forgivable Payroll Protection Program SBA loans since applications opened up Friday.

But they arent yet accepting applications from noncustomers, they and other bankers confirmed.

Republic Bank, based in Philadelphia, is being more inclusive. We are taking applications from everybody, existing customers and new, says Vernon Hill, the banks executive chairman, from its Center City headquarters Tuesday.

It is the only bank doing business in the region, among those contacted by The Inquirer, that says it is taking PPP applications from both customers and noncustomers. Banks make one fee for taking application and another one for servicing the loans.

Where are the new borrowers coming from? We are getting overwhelmed with Wells Fargo customers, Hill said.

North Carolina-based Wells Fargo, which has the biggest U.S. bank branch network, announced Sunday that it had stopped taking PPP applications.

We are limited in our ongoing ability to use our strong capital and liquidity position to extend additional credit, said CEO Charles Scharf in a statement. The bank has been under a regulatory order to slow its growth in recent years after it was assessed penalties for aggressive consumer lending practices.

Customers complain that some other big banks, including PNC, the largest based in Pennsylvania, have also been slow to accept all the applications received, even from customers. Wells Fargo and PNC have cut back their SBA lending since the last recession in the late 2000s.

Republic, with about $2 billion in loans, is less than one-quarter of 1% of Wells Fargos size, and has so far sent more than 750 PPP loan applications, for $300 million, to SBA headquarters for disbursement, Hill said.

Wells Fargo stopped collecting applications when they reached $10 billion in value. The company will donate its fees to nonprofits that help small businesses, said spokeswoman Crystal Dundas.

There are nearly six million U.S. businesses with between one and 500 employees, which the government invited to apply for PPP loans starting this week.

A much larger number of small businesses are independent contractors or have no employees besides the owners. SBA has encouraged those businesses to apply for PPP starting next Monday.

Congress voted $350 billion in taxpayer funds for the forgivable PPP loans, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has said the government will raise more if there is demand.

As a preferred lender, Republic is one of hundreds of banks that can certify borrowers eligibility and loan size, and forward the two-page application and payroll records to SBA for payment.

We are in a sweet spot, said Hill. We have had an SBA lending business for a long time, so we are experienced. And we are funded by our own deposits, so we have the funding. (Republic has a larger-than-average current surplus of deposits to loans. The Federal Reserve plans a PPP loan financing fund for banks that need help fronting the loans, though they will ultimately be funded by taxpayers.)

And I have a team that likes to do this, added Hill, noting he has 15 lenders in Pennsylvania and New Jersey taking applications.

But wheres the money? Hill said no dollars have been disbursed or will be until SBA finishes final operating rules for the program.

Bank officials have been pressuring SBA to finish the job and get the money flowing as soon as possible.

When will that be? We are waiting on final guidance from SBA today or tomorrow, said Rebecca Acevedo, spokeswoman for WSFS.
Head of the Bright Armenia faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Edmon Marukyan today went live on Facebook and addressed the Prime Minister of Armenia and the administration of the National Assembly, asking them to withdraw the highly criticized 30% bonus funds and only the bonuses of top officials, including ministers, deputies and heads of various government agencies and gear all the funds towards the created and to-be-created social support programs so that unemployed citizens and citizens working per diem can benefit from them.

Marukyan also offered the government to make large expenditures to fix the socio-economic situation a little.

He also talked about the extraordinary parliamentary session during which it was proposed to locate people with phones and said this wont have any impact on the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The chairperson of the parliaments health committee also talked about this and stated that there cant be any impact. The opposition voted against the bill, and it didnt pass. Afterwards, the ruling party convened another session and passed the bill. This is regression in terms of democracy and has nothing to do with saving lives. A rejected bill isnt introduced in any parliament of the world.
Jeanne Skendziel, wearing a mask, walked out of her polling place at Kenoshas Northside Library with praise for the poll workers.

It was very fast, very efficient, she said.

But the praise ended there.

Im furious about what happened yesterday, Skendziel said about Gov. Tony Evers order to postpone Tuesdays election and the legal intervention by Republican legislators leading to the Wisconsin Supreme Court blocking the order and forcing the election to go forward.

The United States Supreme Court also enjoined an order from the U.S. District Court requiring ballots be returned to the polling place or the clerks office by 8 p.m. Tuesday, or postmarked by April 7 and received by the clerk by 4 p.m. Monday, April 13.

Im still mad today, Skendziel said, saying she was afraid to go to the polling place because of the spread of the virus.

But she said she felt she had to vote.

It was all because they wanted Kelly in, she said. So I wasnt going to let them stop me.

Voters in makeshift PPE also made their way to the polls Tuesday in Salem Lakes, where they used cotton swabs instead of pens to cast their votes as part of the process put in place to protect the public amid the COVID-19 health emergency.

The scene varied in municipalities across Kenosha County  though masks of some sort were worn by most voters and poll workers on either side of protective barriers. Where paper ballots were used, pens were provided and will become voter keepsakes.

Frustrations across county

Many voters expressed frustration with the legal battle over the vote, some saying they came out despite being afraid of contracting the virus, others saying they thought the whole COVID-19 issue was overblown.

A 78-year-old woman who did not want to give her name was standing outside the Northside Library, leaning on a walker as she waited in line. They should not have had this today, she said.

But the woman said that, while she had requested an absentee ballot, it had not yet arrived, and she wanted to make sure she voted.

Victor Misurelli stood in front of the woman in line.

You notice Im not wearing a mask, he said. Ive lived through 11 end of the worlds, and Ill live through this. I think (the virus) is real, but its been blown out of proportion  more people died from the flu every year.

At the polling place at the Kenosha Unified School District Educational Support Center, there was no line and few voters at the polls at about 10 a.m. Poll workers said turnout had been somewhat steady.

Francis and JoAnn Styles were among the voters. Both wearing masks, the couple said they had hoped the election would be postponed, and considered staying home for safety concerns, but decided to vote.

They said they felt strongly that they wanted to cast a vote for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary.

Were concerned about health care, and we wanted to vote for Bernie, Francis said.

Last-minute voting decisions anger some

As Joe Lang left the same polling place, he said he had hoped that the absentee voting deadline would have been extended, saying he was upset about the legal actions taken by Republicans.

Im just glad Im not in Milwaukee, its just a joke, he said.

In Milwaukee  which has had the highest concentration of COVID-19 cases and deaths  a lack of poll workers caused the city to consolidate into just five polling places for a population of nearly 600,000.

Another voter leaving the ESC just after Lang said he was pleased Evers order to delay the vote was blocked.

Im just glad we didnt lose our right to vote, said the elderly man, who along with his wife, did not want to give his name.

Patricia Welter, who cast her vote at Salem Lakes Village Hall Tuesday morning, said she went to bed Monday night thinking Election Day had been postponed.

It is not a decision that should have been made at the eleventh hour, she said.

I was actually angry that they couldnt figure this out to give us time to get through this, Welter said.

Never received requested ballot

Welter had attempted to vote absentee. However, because of an error on her part, she did not yet get the ballot.

Like Welter, Linda Valentino, who is immuno-compromised, cast her vote Tuesday after the absentee ballot she requested never arrived.

I requested a ballot the middle of March, Valentino said. I have not received it yet.

She wore a mask, a garbage bag over her shirt, gloves and a thick plastic bag over her head to protect herself from contracting the virus.

This is ridiculous they are forcing people to come out to vote, she said. I am going to disinfect everything when I get home.

Gary Wilburn, of Trevor, said it is possible the off-and-on-again Election Day will leave some voters feeling disenfranchised and ultimately impact results.

It might change how the vote goes, Wilburn said.

Lower turnout a combination of factors

While lines were not as long early Tuesday as Salem Lakes election chief Mike Ullstrup anticipated, he said he was impressed by the effort people have made to vote amid the crisis.

In spite of all the goings on in Madison and Washington, its been impressive how in tune people are with the decisions being made at any moment of the day and how they are going to make sure they are going to vote, Ullstrup said.

He attributed the lower turnout on Election Day to a combination of factors, including a not-so-controversial Presidential Preference Primary and an increase in the number of people who chose to vote early or by absentee.

Somers Clerk/Treasurer Timothy Kitzman estimated late Tuesday afternoon that total voter turnout, including absentees, reached the 45-50 percent mark. All totaled between the village and the town, there are about 5,600 registered voters.

Most people are understanding. Theyre being patient; theyre following the spacing rules; theyre washing, he said. We have hand wash stations going in, coming out. We have hand sanitizer; we have wipes. Were cleaning up. The voters are washing and everything. I think its going OK.

Kitzman, who said he had about 20 workers staffing the election, stayed prepared for everything after Mondays on-again, off-again situation surrounding the primary.

Included in the workforce Tuesday were two Wisconsin State Troopers and four members from the Wisconsin National Guard.

The advice we got from the state was to plan on an election, so thats what we did, he said.

Issues with mail ballots, state system

According to the Wisconsin Election Commission, 1,282,762 absentee ballots had been requested as of Tuesday morning, and 864,750 had been returned. In Kenosha County, 30,083 had been requested by Tuesday, and 20,319 had been returned.

Ullstrup acknowledged there has been a problem getting ballots out to people in the mail.

Weve been frustrated with the state system, Ullstrup said, adding the village clerk received more than 1,500 emails through the system, some accompanied by photos of animals or by selfies as identification. Also, the United States mail system appeared to cause some delay, clerks reported.

Kenosha County Clerk Regi Bachochin said the U.S. Supreme Court decision did not alter the order which prohibits the reporting of results until April 13.

In order to ensure consistent compliance with that order, the number of ballots will be counted on election night, but the votes will not be counted until April 13, Bachochin wrote in a statement on the process to be followed.

Despite chaos, few problems

Despite the chaos leading up to Tuesday, Bachochin said there had been few problems reported at the polls.

Considering everything, the polls are operating smoothly, Bachochin said.

There were some lines at a few locations and some confusion because polling places had been consolidated.

Bachochin praised the work of the clerks in the county and the poll workers who adapted to the constant changing information leading up to the vote in the midst of a pandemic.

Our clerks around the county are amazing. Our municipal clerks, I have nothing but good to say about them, Bachochin said. They are working so hard. Up and down with all of these decisions, they are holding it together very well and doing their jobs.

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The U.K. has joined the U.S. in resisting a plan by the Nigerian government to hand nearly $110 million of funds the American authorities say was stolen by late dictator Sani Abacha to the Kebbi state governor, Abubakar Bagudu.

The U.K, USA and the Nigerian government are involved in a dispute over investment portfolios worth 141 million euros ($155 million) traced to Abacha and held in trust for Abubakar Bagudu.

Nigeria is seeking the approval of a U.K. court for the West African state to take ownership of the assets before returning 70% of the proceeds to Bagudu under the terms of a 2018 deal.

The U.K. governments National Crime Agency is opposing the Federal Republic of Nigerias application, according to a motion filed by Bagudus brother, Ibrahim, to the District Court for the District of Columbia in the U.S. capital on March 30.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in February that its Nigerian counterpart is hindering its efforts to recover the allegedly laundered money from the U.K.

Bagudu, 58, was part of a network controlled by Abacha that embezzled, misappropriated and extorted billions from the government of Nigeria, according to the DOJ.

While successive Nigerian governments have repatriated billions of dollars looted by Abacha, who died in office in 1998, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari says its prevented from assisting the U.S.s ongoing forfeiture efforts by an agreement between Bagudu and a previous government in 2003. Abacha is estimated to have stolen as much as $5 billion during his five-year rule.

That 2003 settlement, which was approved by a U.K. court, allowed Bagudu to return $163 million to Nigeria without admitting to wrongdoing, according to U.S. court filings.

In return, the government dropped all outstanding civil and criminal claims against him. Bagudu was elected a senator in 2009 and the governor of Kebbi state six years later.

Five years after the U.S. launched fresh forfeiture proceedings against him, Bagudu and Buharis administration struck a new accord in October 2018 to transfer ownership of the investment portfolios to the Nigerian state, which would immediately pay 98.5 million euros to the Kebbi governor and his affiliates.

The terms of the updated settlement cant be implemented while Nigerias application in a U.K. court is pending and a freezing order is still in place, according to a motion by Ibrahim Bagudu, who is entitled to a $100,000 annuity from the funds and is contesting the U.S. confiscation efforts.

Neither the Bagudus nor representatives of the DoJ, NCA, Nigerias Attorney General or Ibrahim Bagudu responded to requests for comment.

Although the DoJ and NCA oppose the 2018 settlement, Ibrahim Bagudu and the U.S. government recently commenced preliminary discussions regarding a potential negotiated resolution to this matter, according to a motion filed by the U.S. government to the district court on March 13.
Housing tenants will not be evicted during the coronavirus crisis in Northern Ireland, the communities minister Deirdre Hargey said (Liam McBurney/PA).

Housing tenants will not be evicted during the Covid-19 crisis in Northern Ireland, Stormonts communities minister said.

Courts are not hearing the cases during the emergency.

Minister Deirdre Hargey was urged to help set up a hardship fund for students.

We are in a public health emergency. They have a responsibility to protect people as wellDeirdre Hargey

She said: We know through our engagements with the Court Service that there wont be evictions, they wont be listing evictions hearings at this time.

That is something we want to push further on and that is why we are bringing this legislation forward.

We are in a public health emergency.

They have a responsibility to protect people as well.

Stormonts Communities Committee agreed to the speedy passage of the Private Tenancies Bill after hearing from the minister via a remote connection.

Alliance Party Assembly member Kellie Armstrong said: This is a very welcome piece of legislation.

She said some tenants on fixed term contracts were being told they must pay outstanding debt or their credit rating will be affected.

Students are falling between the netsCaral Ni Chuilin

North Belfast Assembly member Caral Ni Chuilin called for a hardship fund.

She said: Students are falling between the nets.

We hear about the landlords and through their letting agents that are applying undue pressure.

Mark H Durkan, Foyle Assembly member, said some landlords had paid off their mortgages and were reliant on rental income as their only form of support.

He said it was important to recognise that many landlords are showing goodwill and engaging positively with tenants to find a resolution.

Expand Close Mark H Durkan said many students were in housing and financial stress due to coronavirus (Brian Lawless/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Mark H Durkan said many students were in housing and financial stress due to coronavirus (Brian Lawless/PA)

Magee campus of Ulster University is within his constituency and he has been inundated with queries from students in housing and financial stress due to coronavirus.

Many students have been forced to move out of student accommodation, have lost their job and income source, and have had to move home, he said.

It is not acceptable that students should have to continue paying rent for accommodation that is not being used, through no fault of their own.

The Communities Minister should urgently consider implementing rent suspension through the duration of this crisis and penalty-free termination of housing contracts.

A rent freeze would also be appropriate to ensure that when this pandemic ends, landlords cannot unfairly increase the rent for next year.

NUS-USI (National Union of Students Northern Ireland) president Robert Murtagh said the meeting offered no comfort to student renters.

Students are often in short-term tenancies where landlords have less vested interest in maintaining good relationships, he said.

Asking landlords to be lenient is quite simply not enough.

We need the Government to step in and enforce a rent suspension for the duration of the crisis, penalty-free termination of contracts, a rent freeze and for these measures to be backdated to the start of March.

Meanwhile, the minister has put the Housing Executives planned 2.7% rent increase for its tenants on hold.

It was due to come into effect on Monday but has been delayed until 1 October.
Like workers at the retail giant Amazon and across the logistics industry, drivers and warehouse workers for United Parcel Services (UPS) report dangerous workplace conditions that place them at risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus.

Three workers at the Chelmsford UPS warehouse near Lowell, Massachusetts tested positive for COVID-19, according to a leak to the Teamsters local. As a result, more than two dozen coworkers were placed under mandatory quarantine due to contact with the sick workers.

Workers on Facebook have reported that at least two UPS workers have died in the Chicago area from COVID-19, including Jerome Sutton, who left behind a wife and a young son.

Neither management nor the Teamsters has confirmed these reports.

The company has refused to confirm the extent of the pandemics spread at UPS warehouses, cynically citing concerns for confidentiality. Management failed to inform workers at the Chelmsford warehouse where the latest cases were confirmed. Instead, they are expected to continue working with no significant changes.

UPS officials have publicly confirmed only one case in the entire country, at a San Diego warehouse, earlier this week. But there is reason to believe that dozens of confirmed cases are known but not being reported by management, not including those workers who exhibit symptoms but cannot obtain a test in their area and those who are currently presymptomatic carriers of the disease.

Jess, a part-time loader at a UPS hub near Los Angeles, told the World Socialist Web Site that he was given a warning letter by management for calling out sick last week. We have an employee in an induced coma from covid-19. Supposedly it happened 3 weeks ago, and he got it from home. Its what the company told us. The company is also saying they just found out. And heres the weird part. They said that his work area was cleaned before, but they were going to clean it again tonight just to make sure. If they didnt know until today, then why did they say it was cleaned before? Someone had to know if they had cleaned his work area before.

We need protection, Jess said. It took UPS almost a month into the epidemic for us to finally get gloves and sanitizers. Who knows if we are working with infected employees? The company doesnt want to say anything to us because they claim it will cause panic. Thats what management said.

Jess supports a strike at UPS to join the Amazon workers because we can make a point that we are not going to take it anymore.

Im just tired of corporations choosing profits over people. They have been doing it for a long time and only people from the inside have been made aware of this. With COVID-19, its finally coming out to the public showing the true colors of these kinds of corporations. Employees are getting ill in the workplace and they dont care. We are not essential workers; we are expendable workers.

This lack of transparency has proven to be a common practice within the essential industries, such as logistics and even health care. UPS workers have reported many of the same issues that are driving workers of Amazon, Instacart, Whole Foods and other companies to go on strike, including the lack of protective equipment and cleaning supplies, inadequate social distancing measures, pressure from management not to call out sick, and the failure to close facilities that have confirmed cases.

These strikes and protests have taken place outside of or in opposition to the trade unions. Amazon, Whole Foods and Instacart are nonunion workplaces. The walkouts at automotive plants in Michigan and Ohio took place after direct confrontation with representatives of the United Auto Workers (UAW), which has enforced the dictates of management even as autoworkers die from COVID-19.

UPS workers have their own obstacle to overcome in order to carry out such a struggle: the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). Teamsters President James Hoffa, who is the son of former Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa, and whose net worth is roughly $2 million, praised his own administration on a recent episode of the Teamsters official podcast for doing a great job and working really hard.

He boasted that the Teamsters leadership had been talking with their Democratic Party friends on Capitol Hill, who passed a $2 trillion bailout of Wall Street, which included only miniscule stopgaps for those laid-off and workers. This massive handout to corporate America was praised by union officials throughout the country, including UAW president Rory Gamble.

Hoffa highlighted the extra sick pay for workers who provide official documentation of a confirmed COVID-19 case. But this benefit, which does not cover the workers who show symptoms and are not able to get testing, was already promised to workers of most major corporations, including nonunion Amazon, before the union-backed management at UPS got on the bandwagon.

The opposition faction of the Teamsters bureaucracy, organized under the Teamsters United and Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), has completely closed ranks with the Hoffa administration, abandoning its former criticism of the Teamsters president, and has pivoted towards unionization drives at nonunion companies such as Amazon, where walkouts are spreading. Even before the pandemic, this was presaged by its decision to endorse a Teamsters United slate in next years union elections headed by Sean OBrien, the thuggish former Hoffa loyalist.

In one petition calling on Amazon to rehire Christian Smalls, the leader of the walkouts at Amazon warehouse in New York, TDU claims that he was fired because Amazon workers dont have a union to protect them. But while claiming to support strike action at Amazon, TDU has not even raised the issue of walkouts at UPS. This is in spite of the fact that the current UPS contract, which contains major concessions, was ratified by the Teamsters bureaucracy against a majority no votea fact that TDU neglects to inform Amazon workers about.

Instead, TDU is circulating a toothless petition calling on UPS to provide 14 days of sick leave and to sanitize its facilities. It does not even demand the most elemental measures that Amazon workers themselves have demanded, including the closure of facilities where outbreaks have occurred and the handling of only essential goods such as food and medicine.

The TDUs advertising efforts for the Teamsters at Amazon reflect the fear of the bureaucracy of a total loss of control, under conditions of an explosive strike wave in which the working class, motivated by deeper questions about the entire social structure, has begun to emerge as a political force. By bringing the strikes at Amazon under the influence of the unions, TDU is seeking to smother this growing social movement, above all before it finds reflection at UPS and other companies where the Teamsters does business.

There is growing sentiment among UPS workers to organize a fight to join this growing strike wave. But such a struggle must be organized independent of the corrupt, pro-company Teamsters union through the formation of rank-and-file workplace committees. Run democratically by the workers themselves, these committees will form the organizational basis to link up the struggle at UPS with workers throughout the world to demand a rational, worldwide mobilization of societys resources to fight the pandemic, in opposition to the profit motive where it conflicts with the health and safety of society.
Mr Ernest Henry Norgbey, Member of Parliament for Ashiaman, has called for a thorough independent investigation into circumstances leading to the shooting of a resident on Sunday by a soldier enforcing the lockdown directive.



Mr Norgbey indicated that, I have received with shock and outrage news of the cold-blooded killing of Mr. Eric Ofotsu (A.K.A. No Yawa), a constituent of mine in his mid-thirties who was allegedly shot by a military officer working to ensure compliance of the President's COVID-19 lockdown directives.



He condemned the incident saying information gathered at the scene suggested that the deceased did not warrant the use of force from a professional military officer whose training he said demanded a far worthy example.



He noted that in as much as the life of the deceased could not be brought back, he was demanding an immediate investigation as well as the withdrawal of the trigger-happy soldier and all his colleagues on duty at the time of the incident with immediate effect adding that it would be useful in managing tensions and preventing any further escalation.



The MP commended the people of Ashaiman for exercising restraint and pleaded with a section of the youth he said were agitating to exercise patience and wait for the outcome of investigations.



He gave the assurance that they would not rest or be silent until justice was secured for the family of Mr. Ofotsu and for the people of Ashaiman.



Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Public Relations Directorate of the Ghana Armed Forces signed by Colonel E. Aggrey-Quashie indicated that the incident was being investigated.



It stated that the incident involved an attempt by a civilian to disarm a soldier who was conducting an arrest as part of OP COVID SAFETY.



According to the GAF, The civilian was being arrested on suspicion of indulging in illegal conduct contrary to the Narcotics Act. Initial reports are that the suspect in resisting arrest attempted to disarm the soldier leading to a struggle during which the soldiers rifle accidentally went off.



The suspect sustained life-threatening injuries and while being conveyed to the hospital for medical attention, unfortunately, passed on.

Source: GNA









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Toronto Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 7, 2020) - Metals Creek Resources Corp. (TSXV: MEK) (OTC: MCREF) ("Metals Creek" or "the company") is pleased to provide an exploration update on the Dona Lake Gold Project (Dona Lake).

With the onset of COVID-19, the health and safety of Metals Creek's employees, their families and the communities in which the company operates remains Metals Creek's number one concern. In the interests of the health and well-being of our employees, contractors, visitors to our office and operations, and their families, Metals Creek has implemented a work from home policy for its employees until further notice.

The Dona Lake Gold Project was optioned from Newmont Corporation (previously Newmont Goldcorp - see news release dated 13 June 2019) and is located in the Pickle Lake Greenstone Belt which is host to several historic mines including the Dona Lake mine, the Central Patricia mine and the Pickle Crow mine. Dona Lake is accessible by an all-weather road southeast from the Town of Pickle Lake. The Property consists of 32 patented and leased mining claims and 35 map staked claims totaling approximately 1,063 hectares and covers the past producing Dona Lake Mine.

To date the company has flown an Airborne time-domain Electro-Magnetic (EM) and Magnetics (Mag) Survey. From this survey two additional discreet magnetic trends have been delineated and may be indicative of oxide iron formations trending roughly parallel to iron formations that host the gold mineralization at the Dona Lake deposit. These discreet anomalies are located in an underexplored area of the Property and represent prospective targets requiring further exploration.

Currently there are four known gold bearing oxide iron formations that host gold mineralization on the Dona Lake Gold Project. It is interpreted that the more pyrrhotite rich sections of the iron formation within the Dona Lake deposit tend to exhibit a strong spatial relationship to increased gold mineralization. This could be a result of pyrrhotite replacing magnetite, decreasing the magnetite content and magnetic signature. With pyrrhotite being highly conductive, modeling of the recently completed airborne will prioritize targets exhibiting strong conductivity and weaker magnetic signatures.

In addition company personnel have been compiling data from the past producing Dona Lake Mine to try and determine what mineralization remains outside the area of selective historic mining. During compilation, it was determined that the deepest hole found to date was drilled approximately 100m below the mine workings of the Main Zone (455m). This hole (455-2) returned a down hole intercept of 4.36 g/t Gold over 21.08 meters indicating the continuation of mineralization at depth below the bottom level (455 Level) of the Dona Lake Mine Main Zone.

A second zone (B Zone), footwall to the Main Zone, was partially drilled off but only saw limited development and test mining and is open at depth with limited drilling along strike. B Zone is defined as a steeply plunging zone with selective historic intersections including 14.17 g/t Au over 15.31 m, 9.9 g/t Au over 10.6 m, 7.85 g/t Au over 5.85m and 12.44 g/t Au over 4.6m.

Drill intercepts in this news release are historical in nature and have not been verified by the company. Reported intercepts are not true widths. At this time there is insufficient data to calculate a true orientation.

The company continues to compile historical data which includes drill hole lithologies, down hole surveys and assays. Underground workings and geological information from both underground and surface have been digitized for the purpose of generating a 3D model of the historic mine as well as prospective targets along strike to aide in drill target generation.

Exploration permits have been received for an initial (approximately 1200 meter) drill program. Two shallow holes will test the Main Zone and B Zone and a deep hole to confirm the continuation of mineralization at depth on the Main Zone. In addition planning is currently underway for an upcoming summer prospecting program to follow up on targets generated by the recently flown Airborne including the newly discovered oxide iron formations (See MEK news release December 2, 2019) with similar style mineralization to that of the gold bearing iron formations that host the Dona Lake gold mineralization. A comprehensive soil survey is also in the planning stage for peripheral targets. The company is fully funded for the afore mentioned drill program.

Management will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation and adjust plans as the situation evolves. Metals Creek thanks our partners and all stakeholders for their understanding and support, and looks forward to commencing field operations as soon as practical.

A Presentation for the Dona Lake Gold Project can be viewed at:

http://www.metalscreek.com/upload/documents/dona-lake-presentation-april-2020.pdf

Michael MacIsaac, P.Geo and VP Exploration for the Corporation and a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for this release, and supervised the preparation of the information forming the basis for this release.

About Metals Creek Resources Corp.

Metals Creek Resources Corp. is a junior exploration company incorporated under the laws of the Province of Ontario, is a reporting issuer in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, and has its common shares listed for trading on the Exchange under the symbol "MEK". Metals Creek has earned a 50% interest in the Ogden Gold Property from Newmont Corporation, including the former Naybob Gold mine, located 6 km south of Timmins, Ontario and has an 8 km strike length of the prolific Porcupine-Destor Fault (P-DF). In addition, Metals Creek has signed an agreement with Newmont Corporation, where Metals Creek can earn a 100% interest in the past producing Dona Lake Gold Project in the Pickle Lake Ming District of Ontario.

Metals Creek also has multiple quality projects available for option which can be viewed on the Company's website. Parties interested in seeking more information about properties available for option can contact the Company at the number below.

Additional information concerning the Company is contained in documents filed by the Company with securities regulators, available under its profile at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Alexander (Sandy) Stares, President and CEO

Metals Creek Resources Corp

telephone: (709)-256-6060

fax: (709)-256-6061

email: astares@metalscreek.com

MetalsCreek.com

Twitter.com/MetalsCreekRes

Facebook.com/MetalsCreek

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54212
S chool closures taken on their own do not appear to have a significant effect on the spread of infections during outbreaks such as Covid-19, a study suggests.

Researchers found that school closures were predicted to reduce deaths by around 2 per cent to 4 per cent amid the Covid-19 outbreak in the UK, which is less than other social distancing measures.

Closures have only small effects on infections with a high reproductive number where children are not the main drivers of infection, such as Covid-19, according to the research led by University College London (UCL).

Schools across the UK closed their doors to the majority of students more than a fortnight ago.

Schools across the UK closed to stop the spread of the virus / PA

The move came after countries around the world implemented mass school closures amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Researchers analysed 16 studies  which included articles on severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), as well as a report on Covid-19 in the UK.

The study in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal suggests that school closures did not contribute to the control of the Sars epidemic in China, Hong Kong and Singapore in 2003.

It also found that school closure, as an isolated measure, has a limited impact during a Covid-19 outbreak, whereas other control measures, such as case isolation, are more effective.

The paper said: Modelling studies from the Covid-19 pandemic support the use of national school closure as part of a package of social distancing measures.

The children of key workers can still attend school / Getty Images

Yet the only study to examine school closures as a separate intervention warned that the impact was relatively marginal, given the reasonable assumptions that household and community contacts would rise as a consequence.

Researchers added that the economic costs and potential harms of mass school closures are very high  especially for the most disadvantaged children.

They conclude that policymakers should consider introducing other social distancing interventions in schools  such as closing playgrounds and increasing spacing between students in class  which are less disruptive than full closures in a bid to control the virus.

Russell Viner, professor of adolescent health at the UCL Institute of Child Health, said: We know from previous studies that school closures are likely to have the greatest effect if the virus has low transmissibility and attack rates are higher in children. This is the opposite of Covid-19.

Data on the benefit of school closures in the Covid-19 outbreak is limited but what we know shows that their impact is likely to be only small compared to other infection control measures such as case isolation and is only effective when other social isolating measures are adhered to.

Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures 1 /10 Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS Lockdown Londoners bask in Greenwich Park sunshine - In Pictures REUTERS

He added: With nearly 90% of the worlds students (more than a billion-and-a-half of young people) out of school, more data and robust modelling studies are urgently needed to help us identify how countries can, in time, safely return students to education.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: These findings demonstrate that the Government must keep the decision to close schools under review.

It is certainly the case that a prolonged shutdown will damage the education of children and it is likely that those from disadvantaged backgrounds will suffer the most.

He added: However, it will be difficult to fully reopen schools while significant numbers of staff have to self-isolate in line with public health advice.

Robert Dingwall, professor of sociology at Nottingham Trent University, said: This work suggests that UK schools could, and should, begin to reopen as soon as practicable after the initial wave of cases has passed through.

The biggest risk may come from gatherings of parents, grandparents and other carers at the school gate rather than anything that happens inside.

Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London and author of a report which warned of mass deaths if the UK did not introduce strict controls, said: While school closure as a measure on its own is predicted to have a limited effectiveness in controlling Covid-19 transmission, when combined with intense social distancing it plays an important role in severing remaining contacts between households and thus ensuring transmission declines.

Professor Neil Ferguson said school closures were more effective when combined with other measures / PA

While this new paper reviews some of the modelling our group undertook of school closure for less intensive mitigation, it did not include our results for school closure in combination with other lockdown measures.

A Government spokesperson said: The decision to close schools was taken in line with scientific advice on how to limit the spread of the coronavirus. We asked most children to stay at home in order to protect the NHS and save lives.
By Geoffrey Smith

Investing.com -- Europes stock markets bounded higher on Tuesday on increasing confidence that the Covid-19 outbreak is peaking across the region.

Not even the high-profile case of U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is in intensive care but not subject to artificial ventilation, could dampen spirits: the FTSE 100 joined in the rally with a 3.1% rise while the FTSE 250 rose 5.4%. The broader Stoxx 600 was up 2.4%.

The most dramatic gains were at a company where the boardroom drama has reached fever pitch in recent days. U.K. discount airline EasyJet stock rose over 30% after announcing a series of measures that appear to secure its near-term future, despite having grounded all its fleet due to public health measures and the collapse in regional travel demand. By 6:30 AM ET (1030 GMT), it was up 29.4%.

The airline said it had raised 600 million pounds in commercial paper  short-term debt securities - and fully drawn down its 500 million revolving credit facility, secured against its aircraft. A couple of weeks ago, the company had said they were worth over 4 billion pounds, so it would appear to have the potential to raise more money against them later, if needed.

In addition, it said it has reached agreement with its most expensive staff  its pilots  over furlough terms, having struck a similar agreement with cabin crew last week.

In all, EasyJet now says it has access to 2.3 billion in cash reserves, including a 600 million-pound loan from the government, guaranteed by the Bank of England.

Our current priority is to safeguard short term liquidity, so we have borrowedin order to increase our liquidity in the event of a prolonged grounding of the fleet, said CEO Johan Lundgren.

More interesting, however, was what the company didnt say. The company made no reference to another blistering criticism from its largest shareholder Stelios Haji-Ioannou on Monday, who said the airline would run out of cash regardless by August. The founder who still controls over 34% of EasyJet through a family investment vehicle, is desperate to cancel EasyJets order for another 100 Airbus planes which he says are useless, given that pre-crisis forecasts for market growth no longer hold.

Story continues

The CEO and founder are a microcosm of the broader debate about what shape the European economy will be in when it emerges from the crisis: will there be a quick return to business as usual, helped by effective state safety nets, or will it become a debt-laden zombie, vulnerable to recurrent outbreaks of the virus that weigh for years on business and consumer confidence?

I think that easyJet (LON:EZJ) at the end of national lockdowns will feel more like a start-up trying to find a few profitable routes for a few aircraft at a time, Haji-Ioannou said on Monday. How many Brits will want to fly to northern Italy or Spain on holiday this June? ...Not many, I think.

The Guardian reported on Monday that management is indeed talking to Airbus about restructuring the contract, to reduce its overall size and stretch out the payment and delivery schedule. By taking the loans, management may have reduced its immediate bankruptcy risk, but it has also reduced its scope to plead poverty with its exclusive supplier.

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Joining the long list of Bollywood celebrities who have chipped in with donations to aid the country's battle against COVID-19, superstar Aamir Khan contributed to the PM-CARES Fund and the CM relief fund of Maharashtra.

In addition to donating to the funds, the 'Lagaan' actor will also be extending support to the daily wage workers who were employed in his upcoming film 'Laal Singh Chaddha.'

Film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh shared the details about Khan's donations on his social media.

"AamirKhan donates to... #PMCares #Maharashtra Chief Minister Relief Fund, Extended support to the daily wage workers of his forthcoming film #LaalSinghChaddha," tweeted Adarsh.

Many other Bollywood actors including superstar Shah Rukh Khan have donated to the PM-CARES Fund to help the government in fighting the battle against the highly contagious virus.

With 354 new cases of COVID-19 and eight deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the total count of coronavirus positive cases in the country has gone up to 4,421, said the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Tuesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MBABANE - The extremely vulnerable and hard-hit citizens will get food parcels from government.

This was revealed by the Social Protection Task Team Chairman, Khanya Mabuza, when engaged on what governments contingency plan was to assist the most vulnerable at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.



He said if the situation turned to be dire in terms of food, they would be distributing food parcels that would comprise basic foods such as starch and proteins.

We have to look at the severity of the situation, if it is making people poor, then we have to look into what extent it is doing so. For instance, poverty has been there but we expect additional numbers because of the situation on the ground. We also then have to look at the mitigation plans that we can do on the affected people. It is not only food but social support and counselling that we aim to provide, he said.



Depression



Mabuza said because of loss of trade, the economy would be adversely affected and there would be a lot of depression, hence the current number of people who are vulnerable will increase because some have already lost employment while they have children to support.



What we need to do as a task team is to give the extremely vulnerable priority because government does not have enough funds for the initiative, he said.

Mabuza said they would first make an assessment on the situation before commencing with distribution of the food parcels.



He said currently they were ensuring that children had food and the team was monitoring national care points (NCPs) to establish if they had any and if not, they would be scaling up the distribution of food through the World Food Programme (WFP) to those communities. Mabuza said the task team was also looking at the elderly as they were more vulnerable in the winter season and even post winter and they wanted to ensure that the elderly were kept warm by seeking donations and buying blankets for them.



We will look at communities where the weather will be chilly and the elderly in those areas will be prioritised.

There is a plan that we have to support the elderly. We are not shy that post the COVID-19 crisis, there are high chances that there will be shortage of food and we are raising funds to ensure that those who will be affected are well taken care of in terms of getting the basics and we are looking for an extended assistance of two years from now, he said.



Protection



Mabuza said apart from the help of food and other basic needs, the team was looking into the social protection aspect, the economy which would be heavily depressed and would have bad repercussions on the wellbeing of the citizens.

Mabuza said they were relying on internal assistance through the Resource Mobilisation team and beyond through organisations like the World Food Programme.



Meanwhile, World Vision Eswatini and partners have already channelled over E15 million in helping the most vulnerable. This was confirmed by the organisations Country Director, Francis Dube. Some of the things that the organisation has already done is provide over E650 000 worth of PPE and Information, Education and Communication material to the Ministry of Health, expended E1 million on a joint initiative with Esicojeni Foundation, based on a 50-50 funding agreement.



Dube said that at this stage, it was difficult to say how much would be available but rather focus was on reprogramming some already availed funds and to redirect these to COVID-19.

We are engaging different donors who have demonstrated a strong willingness to approve budget reallocations and do expect an additional E14 million in existing resources to be channelled to COVID-19 response.



Funding



Dube said given that this funding was already allocated for specific geographical locations (Tinkhundla), the use of reprogramming funding would be limited to communities currently targeted by World Vision operations.

Our teams are currently working with regional teams to determine the priorities of these regions in question, he said.



Dube said the organisations noted the uneven distribution of information on COVID-19 with highly vulnerable populations in the peripheral ends of the country seriously challenged in getting information through radio, TV, newspapers and other social media platforms. He said information around social distancing, washing of hands and staying at home was key to making a difference between staying healthy (protection from infection) and being infected by COVID-19.



Equally we are cognisant of the fact that hand-washing messages are only as good as communities have access to clean water and will not make sense to communities without water. Our programme interventions are therefore prioritising awareness, hand-washing, clean water supply and soap and sanitisers distribution for needy populations, he submitted.
Residents and businesses are being warned to look out for smishing and SMS spoofing scams as criminals seek to exploit the coronavirus pandemic.

Smishing is where a fraudster will send out a bogus text message purporting to be from a genuine organisation or business.

SMS Spoofing also involves the sending of fake text messages using specialist software.

However, in this case the messages appear in the chain of texts, next to genuine messages the mobile phone user has already received, making them harder to spot and appear more plausible. Smishing and SMS spoofing text messages may also be followed up by phone calls from the fraudsters.

The bogus text messages usually ask recipients to phone a number connected to the fraudsters or follow a link to a bogus copycat website. In doing so the fraudsters attempt to steal personal or financial information or trick people in to making payments to them.

A spike in such scams recently has prompted Warwickshire Trading Standards to issue a warning to residents and businesses.

Latest scam text messages to look out for include those that:

Claim to link you to a GOV.UK website to claim COVID-19 relief payments, council tax or business rate holidays or free school dinner funds or similar.

Suggest you have been seen leaving your home on multiple occasions in breach of lock-down laws and levying 'fines'.

Offering "health supplements" that falsely claim to prevent you becoming infected with COVID-19.

Appear to come from your bank and relate to mortgage holidays or other financial support (business or consumer).

Advice for residents and businesses
British prime minister Boris Johnson is in hospital for tests after suffering persistent symptoms of the coronavirus, but he continues to lead the government and work on official business

London: British prime minister Boris Johnson is in hospital for tests after suffering persistent symptoms of the coronavirus, but he continues to lead the government and work on official business.

Which other British leaders have suffered illness whilst in office?

Tony Blair, early 2000s

Tony Blair twice underwent treatment for a heart condition while prime minister in the early 2000s, each time briefly cutting back on his workload for a couple of days.

Officials said that if Blair were to have been incapacitated, his then-deputy John Prescott would have taken over until a new leader was elected.

Anthony Eden, 1957

Eden resigned as prime minister citing ill-health in 1957. He suffered complications from a series of gall bladder operations that caused fevers and other symptoms.

Winston Churchill, 1953

In June 1953, Churchill suffered a stroke while in office. His illness was kept so secret that even some senior ministers were unaware and an official statement simply said he had had little respite and needed complete rest.

Churchill surprised doctors by recovering to carry on his duties, returning to Downing Street and running the cabinet two months later.

Andrew Bonar Law, 1923

Law is Britain's shortest-serving prime minister, resigning from office after just 211 days after being diagnosed with terminal throat cancer and left unable to speak in Parliament.

David Lloyd George, 1918

Lloyd George contracted influenza in 1918 on a visit to Manchester in northern England during the First World War. According to historians, he spent 10 days seriously ill in bed, during which time the public was not made fully aware of the extent of his sickness.

Henry Campbell-Bannerman, 1908

Campbell-Bannerman died at 10, Downing Street shortly after resigning as prime minister due to ill health.
With growing incidence of



coronavirus infection in certain localities in Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Vadodara and Surat, the Gujarat government on Tuesday decided to implement a cluster containment plan across 15 localities in these four cities, a week ahead of the national lockdown ends on April 14.

Adoption of the action plan means enforcing a complete lockdown of these areas, a senior Health department official said.

With 31 of the 39 new cases being reported from these 15 localities in the last two days till Monday, the state government has come up with an action plan.

Of the 15 localities, eight areas are located in Ahmedabad, three in Surat and two each in Vadodara and Bhavnagar.

"The cluster containment strategy being adopted by the state government includes putting these areas under a complete lockdown, intensive surveying for possible suspicious cases and adopting measures to treat them," said Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi.

Ravi said the main focus of the action plan is to prevent the spread of the coronavirus to other areas.

"A total of fifteen locations in the state have been identified for the cluster containment plan, including eight in Ahmedabad, three in Surat, two each in Vadodara and Bhavnagar," Ravi told reporters.

She said the measures to be implemented included enforcing a complete lockdown in these localities, besides sealing of geographical areas so that nobody could move in and out.

"The plan also includes enhanced active surveillance and testing, and sanitisation," the senior bureaucrat said.

Surveillance will be stepped up and testing will be augmented, including for the contacts of the coronavirus positive cases, as well as other residents within the hotspots, she said.

"In a meeting chaired by Chief Minister it was noted that in the last two days 39 cases were reported positive. It was noted that 31 out of the 39 cases are concentrated in particular localities.

"A detailed action plan has been prepared to contain the spread of coronavirus from these hotspot localities which includes a strict lockdown in the areas," Ravi said.

"In order to contain the coronavirus from spreading to other areas, a concerted action will be taken. Contacts of positive cases have been placed under isolation. Entire localities will be sanitised," she said.

Ravi lso said that intense surveillance will be done with the help of the police, health staff and officers of civic bodies.

On Monday, Secretary to the Chief Minister, Ashwani Kumar said that some attendees of the Nizamuddin congregation held in Delhi last month have tested positive in ten of these fifteen hotspot areas.

Six localities in Ahmedabad, two in Vadodara, one each in Surat an Bhavnagar have been placed under cluster quarantine by authorities as a measure to contain the spread of coronavirus after the positive cases were detected among the attendees, Kumar had told reporters.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Masakali 2.0 Teaser: Sidharth Malhotra And Tara Sutarias Sizzling Chemistry Will Leave You Wanting More; Watch
Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Historical Commission to temporarily close all state parks and historical sites to strengthen social distancing efforts during the coronavirus pandemic.

The closures begin at 5 p.m. Tuesday and will reopen at the discretion of the governor, according to a news release. The decision was made to prevent the gatherings of people, the release said.
Order to extend restriction of movement comes amid rising death toll and delays to a planned mass testing programme.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has extended until April 30 a partial lockdown of the country, affecting an estimated 57 million people in the northern island of Luzon, his cabinet secretary announced on Tuesday.

The enhanced community quarantine, which Duterte declared in mid-March to help contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus, was to end on Sunday, April 12.

In a televised address late on Monday night, Duterte hinted at the decision when he said he was inclined to extend the lockdown until the end of April.

However, Duterte said, the country does not have enough funds to sustain an extended lockdown and pleaded for financial support from private businesses.

But on Tuesday, Cabinet Secretary Carlo Nograles said the decision to extend the lockdown had been made, on the recommendation of an inter-agency committee formed to address the health emergency.

The lockdown of Luzon, the countrys largest island, has been in place since March 17. It was seen as an expansion of an earlier order covering only Metro Manila, the sprawling capital with a population of more than 12 million people.

Since then, provincial and town executives in the rest of the country have also implemented their own versions of the lockdown, putting virtually the entire country of more than 104 million under quarantine, with commercial aviation and shipping banned and land transportation under restrictions.





Aside from the lockdown, the Philippine Congress has also approved legislation giving Duterte special powers to handle the crisis, as well as more than $4bn in government funds to support the healthcare system and provide financial aid to those who have lost their jobs.

As of the end of Monday, there were an estimated 3,660 coronavirus infections and 163 deaths in the country. The Philippines recorded the first coronavirus death in the world outside of China in early February.

The government has announced that it will carry out mass testing for coronavirus from April 14.

However, the delay in the implementation of the programme has drawn criticism, with health experts saying that the disease could be spreading among the population without being detected.

The Duterte administration has also come under fire for the inadequate supply of protective gear for healthcare workers, after reports that at least 18 doctors and two nurses have died from the infection.

Duterte also drew condemnation from critics and rights groups, after he said those who violated the governments lockdown order and threatened the lives of the security forces should be shot dead.

Meanwhile, Nograles said despite the extension of the lockdown, Duterte would still have the authority to decide whether to relax some of the restrictions depending on public health considerations and food security factors.

More than 1.3 million people across the world have been confirmed to have the coronavirus and nearly 75,000 have died. At least 277,000 have recovered from the disease.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The coronavirus pandemic has revived the acrimonious debate between euro zone countries about jointly issuing debt to meet healthcare needs and address the deep economic downturn that is set to follow.

Nine of the 19 countries that use the single currency called on March 25 for a common debt instrument issued by a European institution to fight the outbreak and its effects.

The idea of such debt, called "coronabonds", was rejected by Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Austria, fiscally "frugal" northern states wary of pooling liabilities with what they see as more spendthrift countries in southern Europe.

The idea of joint debt issuance was previously raised by Italy, during the 2009 global financial crisis, and by France and Italy in 2012, at the peak of the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis, and dismissed by Berlin and its allies. But ideas are likely to evolve and deepen as the current crisis prompts more discussion.

Outlined below are various options for mutualisation, from what exists now to the most ambitious proposals.

EXISTING POSSIBILITY OF EURO ZONE JOINTLY ISSUED DEBT

The euro zone jointly issues debt through its bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, which borrows on the market against the security of its paid-in and callable capital provided by euro zone governments.

The fund, together with its predecessor EFSF, issued such debt to bail out Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus and Spain during the sovereign debt crisis. It can and probably will now offer standby credit lines, called ECCL, of up to 2% of a country's gross domestic product or 240 billion euros in total, to all euro zone countries.

EXISTING POSSIBILITY OF EUROPEAN UNION JOINTLY ISSUED DEBT

The European Commission issued debt through the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) to help fund the bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal and give balance of payments help to Latvia, Hungary and Romania.

EFSM debt is backed by all 27 European Union countries through the bloc's joint long-term budget.

Story continues

It can, and probably will, issue 100 billion euros of debt backed by 25 billion euros of guarantees from member states, to finance wage subsidies in all EU countries as part of a short-time work scheme modelled on the German "Kurzarbeit" plan.

EXISTING EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK (EIB) BORROWING

The EIB, the investment arm of the EU, is owned by EU governments and issues around 60 billion euros of debt every year to lend for various projects in the bloc.

It has offered to provide an extra 40 billion euros in lending this year and can provide 200 billion euros more in loans if governments give it an additional 25 billion euros in guarantees.

FRENCH PROPOSAL FOR A ONE-OFF RECOVERY FUND

France proposed last week to create a fund for five to 10 years only, of as-yet undetermined size, to finance the recovery of Europe's economy from the recession the pandemic will cause.

The fund would conduct a one-off borrowing programme in the name of all European countries, using funds raised to provide cheap credit to help all the bloc's economies rebuild after the shock of the new coronavirus and measures to stop its spread.

The limited life-span of the fund is to persuade Germany and the Netherlands that it would not be a step towards permanent debt mutualisation. But officials say divisions are deep even over mutualising debt for a single purpose.

EURO ZONE SAFE ASSET

The European Commission proposed in 2017 what it called a European Safe Asset -- a class of bonds denominated in euros that could become a benchmark for European financial markets.

Among the several options mooted was one that would not mutualise debt. Instead, a synthetic instrument would be created whereby a private bank would buy bonds of euro zone governments and issue its own bond, the safe asset, backed by that portfolio. The idea was shot down by Germany, which feared it would be the first step towards debt mutualisation.

PARTIAL DEBT MUTUALISATION

Several top think-tanks, including the German Council of Economic Experts, proposed during the sovereign debt crisis to partially mutualise euro zone government debt.

One idea was for the euro zone to be jointly responsible for a country's debt up to 60% of GDP -- the EU limit on government borrowing -- with individual governments taking responsibility for whatever excess they have above that value.

Another idea was for governments to pool debt above 60% of GDP into a European Redemption Fund for which all euro zone members would be liable. But each country would have to commit to a binding consolidation path, under which it would be obliged to repay the transferred debt over a period of 20 to 25 years. German Chancellor Angel Merkel said the idea would face constitutional problems and require changes of EU treaties.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Catherine Evans)
[April 07, 2020] MEDIA ADVISORY: Cash, Credit and COVID-19: Experian Expert Available

Experian:







WHAT: Experian, the world's leading information services company, has a credit expert that is available to the media and consumers to address credit topics during COVID-19. Rod Griffin, a Senior Director of Consumer Education and Advocacy, has more than 25 years of experience in educating the public on credit. His role includes working with non-profit and community organizations to provide credit workshops and content to thousands of consumers each year. He also contributes to Ask Experian, the industry's first online consumer credit advice column. Griffin is frequently quoted by national television, print, radio and online media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, CNBC and MSNBC and serves as a member of Business Insider's Money Council. TOPICS: What consumers can do to protect their credit score during the COVID-19 crisis How the CARES Act helps consumers manage their finances What consumers should do if they've been laid off or furloughed How unemployment can (and can't) affect your credit score Strategies to deal with debt during a pandemic How Experian is working with lenders to provide relief options for consumers What is and isn't included in credit reports (such as stimulus payments) Credit myths vs. facts Experian's latest national consumer survey on consumers' top financial concerns and plans Free resources that can help consumers manage their credit and financial health CONTACT: To schedule an interview with Griffin, media can contact Sandra Bernardo at 949-529-7550 or [email protected]. RESOURCES: Each week Griffin is available to consumers via social media every Wednesday 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET during the Experian Twitter (News - Alert) #CreditChat. On the Ask Experian blog, there are dedicated pages including "COVID-19 and Your Credit Report," with ongoing and updated information pertaining to how COVID-19 may impact consumers' creditworthiness and COVID-19 Updates page to explore immediate and evolving resources.

About Experian Experian is the world's leading global information services company. During life's big moments - from buying a home or a car to sending a child to college to growing a business by connecting with new customers - we empower consumers and our clients to manage their data with confidence. We help individuals to take financial control and access financial services, businesses to make smarter decisions and thrive, lenders to lend more responsibly, and organizations to prevent identity fraud and crime. We have 17,200 people operating across 44 countries, and every day we're investing in new technologies, talented people and innovation to help all our clients maximize every opportunity. We are listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and are a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Learn more at www.experianplc.com or visit our global content hub at our global news blog for the latest news and insights from the Group. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005173/en/

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After fatally beating and strangling his wife during an argument, a man in Hazel Park left his wife's body in bed so he can sleep with her. The wife's demise was discovered by cops a week after she was murdered by her husband. The man is now jailed with a $3.5 million bond.

On Monday, before Hazel Park 43rd District Magistrate Nadine Hatten, the 45-year-old Jeff Charles Sherwood was arraigned on a count of first-degree murder for killing his 64-year-old wife Susan Louise Klepsch.

After checking on them shortly after noon on Saturday a couple who knew the suspect and his wife called the police and reported what they have observed during the visit.

Hazel Park Police Chief Brian Buchholz said that the couple hadn't heard from them in a while so they went in the house. The suspect and his wife were lying in bed and appeared to be sleeping. But as the suspect woke up, he appeared to be incoherent and the couple did not get a response from the victim. Because of that, they were concerned for her and they immediately called the police after walking out of the house.

When the Police and firefighter-paramedics arrived at the home on West Troy Street near Lennox Street a short time later, they found the body of Klepsch on the bed. Without any other suspect, they arrested Sherwood inside the house.

Buccholz also shared that the suspect was acting lethargic and he later admitted to a detective that he had struck, strangled and kicked the victim.

Read also: Jealous Husband Shot Wife to Death, Kids Lead the Police to Her Lifeless Body

Victim accused perpretartor with of being unfaithful

Police stated that the couple had reportedly been arguing because Klepsch accused the suspect of infidelity and Sherwood fatally attacked her.

Buchholz stated that based on Sherwood's admission, it could have been close to a week since the victim died for it appears that he would get in bed with her when he slept.

After running an autopsy to victims' body, an examiner from Oakland County Medical ruled the death as a homicide and the victim died from a blunt force trauma to the head and neck.

Married since 2018, Klepsch and Sherwood first got in the police's radar in November 2019 when Klepsch reports a domestic violence stating that Sherwood push her down and grabbed her face.

Police also found out that aside from the murder that he committed, Sherwood had a criminal history including convictions for burglary and shoplifting in Florida.

Attempting to kill himself, Sherwood appeared that he took a bit of aspirin and he had cuts on his arms and neck as Buchholz disclose.

The suspect, Sherwood is scheduled to be back in court at 1 p.m. on April 7 for a probable cause hearing to determine whether he will waive his rights to a preliminary examination hearing on the evidence against him or he will seek for it.

But based on the initial investigation by the Hazel Park police, autopsy report and the statement coming from the unnamed couple who checked on them, Sherwood has a high chance of facing a first-degree murder which is punishable by life imprisonment.

Related article: New Mexico Man Attempted to Burn Disabled Wife, But Failed Due to a Crazy Reason

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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New York, April 7, 2020  In response to the Turkish Parliaments proposed bill that would release 90,000 prisoners to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus, but which would not free journalists held as political prisoners, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement:

It is unacceptable that Turkey aims to release about a third of its overcrowded prison population but leave journalists behind bars during a global pandemic, said Gulnoza Said, CPJs Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. Turkish authorities must swiftly redraft their amnesty bill and ensure that journalists, who are held as political prisoners on false terrorism charges, will be released.

At least 47 journalists were behind bars for their work in Turkey as of CPJs December 1, 2019, prison census, all of whom were held for alleged terrorism. According to news reports, those charges are not included in the amnesty bill.

Last week, CPJ wrote an open letter to world leaders urging them to immediately release all journalists behind bars, as freedom has become a matter of life and death amid the coronavirus pandemic. Imprisoned journalists have no control over their surroundings, cannot choose to isolate, and are often denied necessary medical care.

[Editors Note: This article has been updated to include a reference to CPJs recent letter to world leaders.]
Provinces schools gear up for online learning, April 6

If this terrible pandemic has taught us anything about education for our young people, it is that teaching them to handle e-learning is not only beneficial, it is a necessity.

Instead of fighting the advent of e-learning, the Ontario teachers unions should take the lead within Canada in advocating for the urgent integration of it into our education system. They have this incredible chance to take leadership and ownership.

Be leaders, not followers!

It is clear the current Ontario government is ahead of the rest of Canada in its plan for e-learning in the schooling of students.

We should be proud of this fact, not fight it.

Kevin Barry, Oakville

Read more about:
The U.S. must increase its testing capabilities for the new coronavirus before the economy can restart, Dr. Robert Bollinger of Johns Hopkins University told CNBC on Tuesday.

Specifically, the U.S. needs more rapid testing and a better system of contact tracing to determine who has been infected by COVID-19 and who has not, Bollinger said on "Power Lunch."

Improvement in those areas, along with existing social distancing efforts, will "truly allow us to move the economy forward, get back to work," said Bollinger, an infectious diseases professor at Johns Hopkins' medical school.

Bollinger said the U.S. has begun to make progress on contact tracing, pointing to an initiative announced Tuesday by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan that focuses on using the strategy to limit spread in the state's nursing homes.

Bollinger also noted new efforts in Massachusetts launched by Gov. Charlie Baker. The state is partnering with a Boston-based nonprofit, Partners in Health, to hire around 1,000 people to conduct the contact tracing program, according to public radio station WBUR.

The strategy involves contacting everyone who tested positive and then contacting those with whom they've had close interaction in recent days, according to WBUR.

Robust contact tracing was one strategy used in China to help contain the spread of the coronavirus, Bollinger said.

"The virus is not going to go away until we have a vaccine, so we're always going to have to find strategies to deal with this, to prevent the next wave," Bollinger said.

Testing for COVID-19 in the U.S. was beset by early challenges that included restrictive testing criteria, but capacity has grown in recent weeks. Nearly 2 million people in the U.S. have been tested as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

There are 383,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and more than 12,000 people have died as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University.

An even more complete understanding of the U.S. outbreak would be determined by more testing, Bollinger said.

"Currently our biggest issue is the lack of testing opportunities. I think if we had more testing available people would take advantage of it, and I think that really would be helpful to get a better handle on what the statistics actually are at this moment," he said.
President Trump on Sunday again pushed an unproven therapy for Covid-19, defying the advice of Dr. Anthony Fauci. It came two days after he said he will not wear a mask, defying the advice of the CDC. Science doesnt much impress the man.

His response to the crisis has left America lagging behind the rest of the world. Look at a graph showing the spread of the virus, starting when it had a toehold in each country, and you can see that its exploded at a faster pace in the United States than anywhere else, including Italy. American exceptionalism, Trump-style.

When hes criticized on this, he attacks. Gov Jay Inslee of Washington is a snake. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer became that woman from Michigan. And when a reporter asked, What do you say to Americans who are scared? he answered, Id say you are a terrible reporter.

Do you notice a pattern? Its exactly his response to the climate crisis. Ignore the science. Ignore any wisdom from outside our borders. Attack the critics.

Its not that hes doing nothing on climate. Its worse. He is repealing restraints on coal plants, and standards for fuel efficiency of cars and trucks. And by charging in the wrong direction like this, the great deal-maker has killed any leverage the United States might have had over China and India, which are both building huge fleets of new coal plants, or on Brazil, which is busy burning down the rainforests.

On this most vital of challenges, we are now the global bad guys. More exceptionalism.

As tragic as this Covid-19 crisis is today, it is a whisper compared to the danger of climate change. The virus will pass, eventually, as they all do. Not so with climate change. Scientists tell us, in one voice, that it will bring us more fires and floods, more hurricanes and food shortages, and more political chaos and violence as poor countries bear the brunt of it.

It will also bring enormous pressure on the developed world to admit climate refugees. Large portions of densely-populated Bangladesh will be under water, like many low-lying cities. Drought in Africa is expected to result in famines. How many walls will be built, and how many will die behind them?

Its disheartening to have such a dreadful human being as president during this crisis, a man who has shown zero sympathy for those who are facing hardship, who uses this moment to brag about the attention hes getting on TV and Facebook, who is purging the civil servants and watchdogs who told the truth about him during the impeachment hearings while our attention is turned toward the virus.

America has been blessed with great leaders during our greatest trials. George Washington at the founding. Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War. And Franklin Roosevelt for the Depression and World War II.

We are cursed during this crisis to have Trump. If he manages to win again in November, ensuring that the climate crisis will deepen beyond repair, it will confirm that our lucky streak is officially over.

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
Qantas and Virgin Australia are setting new limits on how frequent flyers can use their loyalty points. While this is (benign) good news for points hoarders, who like to watch their balances swell, waiting to one day splurge on the trip of a lifetime (preferably once the global travel industry is back on its feet), it isnt such good news for those who like to splurge on gift cards or wine.

Industry watchers say this has probably been done to prevent further draining of the carriers cash reserves during this unprecedented downtime, which sees 28,000 workers (between both Qantas and Virgin Australia) out of work and over 200 aircraft (also between the two airlines) basking on the tarmac (or at least sitting out of action in a hangar) as the two companies ground their respective international fleets (and much of their domestic ones).

But back to the points redemption changes: Virgin last week, as The Sydney Morning Herald reported this morning, Suspended the transfer of points from its Velocity loyalty scheme to partner Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer scheme, and has also limited the purchase of retail gift cards using points to one per day.

A note on Virgins website says the points transfer suspension is temporary and that it looks forward to providing you with this program feature once flight schedules return to normal, while the gift card limit was due to high demand.'

The Sydney Morning Herald also reported that Qantas has limited purchases through its loyalty store to two items of each product every day in response to high retail demand. The airline  which says there has not been a run on points  has told members the limit was to ensure the continued availability of products to as many members as possible.'

Market analysts have highlighted how loyalty members rushing to use their points could be a drain on the airlines cash flow, which have virtually no new revenue coming in, The Sydney Morning Herald wrote. Whats more: The issue is particularly important for Virgin, which analysts have estimated will use up its remaining liquidity in three to six months.

Qantas is expected to be able to last more like a year, but still, tightening how points can be used, for the time being, seems smart.

The two airlines have both commented via spokespeople, with a Virgin spokeswoman telling the Sydney Morning Herald, lately, members had shifted their points spending towards goods, gift cards, wine, electronics and merchandise.

This demonstrates the benefits of a diversified rewards program which enables members to continue to earn and redeem points across a range of categories.

A Qantas spokeswoman told the Sydney Morning Herald, there had not been a big increase in points redemption, with most members continuing to save over long periods of time to take a big dream trip.

However, like most retailers, Qantas was seeing people buy more gadgets online, she added.

As for unredeemed frequent flyer revenue (i.e. points), Qantas annual report showed it had $2.4 billion worth in its accounts at the end of last financial year, while Virgin had $497 million liability for unredeemed loyalty revenue.

Qantas loyalty business is the groups second most profitable division, behind only its domestic airline operations, earning $374 million last financial year, (The Sydney Morning Herald).

As for Virgin, its Velocity program made $122 million last year while the airline group itself ran at a $315 million loss (a topic this article covers in more detail).

In more positive news, this all comes amid 12-month status extensions for frequent flyers, doled out by both airlines, which ensures loyal customers wont suffer (status wise) from not being able to amass their usual miles this year.

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Sunny Leone has been spending her quarantine time by being productive through her social media presence. The actor has been holding live dance face-offs on her social media with different guests. She has also titled the series as locked up with Sunny.There are several guests who were invited by Sunny including Daisy Shah and Dabboo Ratnani. Recently, Sunny Leone decided to take her fans on a quick tour to Thailand in 2 minutes.

Sunny Leone took to Instagram to share a picture in a silver monokini from a photoshoot. The actor is seen striking a pose while she rests on the poolside. Sunnys monokini is complemented with a deep V-neck. For makeup, she kept it glammed up with mascara-lashed eyes and nude lips. Sunny Leones look was completed with silver earrings and a chunky bracelet. The picture had a beautiful backdrop of dolphin sculptures and shining blue water. The interesting thing about her picture was the caption as Sunny Leone gave her fans a magic trick to be in Thailand in just a blink. She wrote, Close your eyes and dream!!! We can all be in Thailand again soon .

Also Read| Sunny Leone and Daniel Webber's hilarious dance video is winning over the internet; Watch

Also Read| Sunny Leone's staggering net worth proves that she is a successful businesswoman in B'wood

In the recent past, Sunny Leone shared an adorable video of her kids playing in the parking of her building. All her three kids were seen running from one corner to the other while their mother and father chased them. The little ones looked extremely happy to be out after a long. The actor captioned the picture as, "Thank the Lord my kids are easily entertained. Running up and down until they were tired! Tired toddlers = good nights rest! ".

Also Read| Sunny Leone shares sizzling bikini shots from recent photoshoot, says 'It's okay to stare'

Also Read| Sunny Leone thanks Lord as her 3 kids are self-entertained amid COVID-19 lockdown

Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment.
Five persons were arrested on Tuesday after a mob attacked two policemen on lockdown enforcement duty in the Old City area here, city police said.

Stating that attacks on police personnel would not be tolerated, Madhya Pradsh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the accused would be tried under the stringent National Security Act (NSA).

The police, meanwhile, booked Shahid Kabootar (35), a history-sheeter who is the main accused, under the NSA while pressing relevant IPC sections for assault against others.

The incident took place in Islam Nagar area around 10 on Monday night, said inspector D P Singh of Talaiya police station.

Constable Laxman Yadav was stabbed in the neck with a knife while constable Satish Kumar sustained a stab wound in his left hand. Both were undergoing treatment at a private hospital in the city, he said.

Those involved in the attack included Kabootar who has a past criminal record and Mohsin Kachori (26), he said.

Kachori fled from the spot after the incident, inspector Singh added.

"We have arrested five men including Kabootar. The NSA has been invoked against Kabootar," the police official said.

"A case has been registered against total of 19 persons, some of whom have been identified. They attacked the policemen with knives, sticks and stones around 10 pm in Islam Nagar locality," he said.

Chief Minister Chouhan said attacks on police personnel who are working day and night to protect people during lockdown would not be tolerated.

"Kabootar or Kachori, no one will be spared. The goons and malefactors desperately need to be taught a lesson," he tweeted.

"These goons will be tried under the National Security Act," the chief minister added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Heres what to know today

As more people around the world are sickened by the coronavirus, there havent been many silver linings. For most people who have been infected, treatment is limited.

Recently, though, a sliver of hope has emerged in the form of plasma from the blood of coronavirus survivors, which, as my colleague Denise Grady reported, can be a rich source of antibodies.

So-called convalescent plasma has long been used to treat other infectious diseases, including Ebola, and while its still very much unproven for treating coronavirus, doctors say its worth trying now.

[Read more about how blood plasma treatment works and why experts are hopeful.]

There are multiple benefits to think about, and since this is not a drug that needs to be manufactured, it could be obtained easily, said Dr. Timothy Byun, a hematologist and oncologist who directs cancer research at St. Joseph Hospital Orange. This could really be an exciting treatment if it works.

The Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that the agency would lead an effort to speed up the development of blood-related treatments. The agency has partnered with the American Red Cross to set up a kind of clearinghouse to match eligible plasma donors who have recovered from the virus with patients who need care.
* This column has been updated to include a response from JoAnn Fabrics corporate office.

Though I obviously meant to be critical of Hobby Lobbys decision to open its Ohio stores despite a state order requiring all non-essential businesses to suspend operations, I did not mean to be unfair to the retailer. Multiple readers have suggested that I was. Specifically, they accused me of ignoring JoAnn Fabrics open doors and focusing exclusively on Hobby Lobby, which also sells fabric (among many other items). I can understand why those readers felt I was being unfair, but the truth is I was not aware that JoAnn Fabric was open when I wrote the column, and my immediate response to all the readers who accused me of hypocrisy was that I didnt think JoAnn should be open either.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost made sure the public knew that he was displeased with Hobby Lobby. On April 2, after he wrote the companys attorney a cease-and-desist letter, he used Twitter to tell the public what he had just done. He did not tweet  at least not then  about any letters he had sent to stores similar to Hobby Lobby. On April 3, another person on Twitter asked Yost, Hmmm what about Michaels and JoAnns? Both are very similar to Hobby Lobby.

Ive gotten a lot of calls about both stores, and they got a letter, too. Hobby Lobby had previously closed, and then reopened  thats why they were first.



Were reviewing JoAnns response, but fabric is their primary business and they tell us they have health care contracts. https://t.co/02h5jGbMU0  Dave Yost (@Yost4Ohio) April 3, 2020

Yost responded, Ive gotten a lot of calls about both stores and they got a letter, too. Hobby Lobby had previously closed, and then reopened  thats why they were first. Were reviewing JoAnns response, but fabric is their primary business and they tell us they have health care contracts.

That explanation is a bit lacking. The question isnt really about which company first got a cease-and-desist order. The question is: Why did Yost choose to publicize the letter he sent Hobby Lobby but not publicize the letters he sent to other arts and crafts stores? His office only acknowledged those letters were sent after people asked about the apparent hypocrisy.

On April 6, JoAnns explanation for why it should remain open was still under review. Beth McCorkle, communications director for the attorney generals office, explained in an email, Hobby Lobby, JoAnn Fabrics and Michaels all received the same letter from the AGs office to comply with Dr. Amy Actons order. Hobby Lobby closed their doors the same day. JoAnn Fabrics and Michaels responded with their justification of why they were considered essential. The next steps are currently under review.

Some readers have argued that both Hobby Lobby and JoAnn should be allowed to operate because people are being encouraged to make their own masks and those stores have the materials for them to do so. But DIY masks have limited medical value. They dont protect the people wearing them from contracting a virus even though they may help limit the amount of virus a person wearing them spreads. Does the value of homemade masks equal the risk people take going in a store to buy the materials?

Im not convinced that it is. Neither are state officials in neighboring Michigan. That states attorney general dismissed JoAnns argument that its stores are essential to keep people alive and ordered them to cease all in-person shopping. Customers can order from JoAnns online or at curbside.

Why shouldnt Ohio demand the same? Its not clear why JoAnn having health-care contracts means that they should be open for everybody to roam the aisles and bump into other people doing the same.

There are inevitably going to be complaints about which businesses are forced to close and which ones are allowed to stay open. Given that, its important that state officials are as open and as transparent as possible and treat all similar businesses the same. JoAnn and Michaels might have received the same letter that Hobby Lobby did, but the fact that we didnt know that they received those letters suggests that Hobby Lobby was treated unfairly.

That doesnt mean Hobby Lobby wasnt deserving of criticism; just that its not the only one thats deserving.

You can read the attorney generals cease-and-desist order to JoAnn Fabric below.

UPDATE: After this column was published, Amanda Hayes, a manager in corporate communications for JoAnn Fabric sent an email explaining her companys position. Hayes email, in part:

"JOANN differs from other craft and hobby stores because we are the number-one source of cloth fabric and materials for handmade masks, both in Ohio and nationwide. As you noted, the new CDC guidelines Friday which are endorsed by Governor DeWine and Dr. Amy Acton, state all Ohioans should wear homemade cloth face masks or coverings in public.

"You wondered what healthcare systems and facilities we might be working with - I am proud to share were helping entities across the state to create protective equipment, including Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and Akron Childrens Hospital, in addition to more than 40 additional healthcare and senior facilities statewide.

In addition, we have been offering free facemask kits in our stores nationwide, which are available for Curbside Pickup as well. In Ohio alone we have donated materials for customers to make nearly 700,000 masks through this program. I have not heard of any other retailer offering this protection to the community free of charge.

Jarvis DeBerry is a columnist at Cleveland.com and a member of the editorial board. Reach him at jdeberry@cleveland.com or on Twitter at @jarvisdeberry.
Four residents and seven workers at Oakwood Villages nursing home on Madisons West Side have tested positive for COVID-19, marking the first known cluster of cases at a nursing home in Dane County.

Oakwood spokesman Keith VanLanduyt confirmed the cases Monday and said the nursing home has a wing designated to isolate and serve people with COVID-19. He didnt respond to questions about when the residents and staffers were diagnosed, if the cases are considered to be related, how many people have been tested overall and if the infected workers are at home in isolation.

Oakwood, the largest senior living organization in Madison, has two campuses, with nearly 1,000 people combined in independent apartments, assisted living and nursing homes at University Woods on the West Side and Prairie Ridge on the East Side. The COVID-19 cases are at the nursing home at University Woods, VanLanduyt said.

Health officials have paid special attention to COVID-19 infections in nursing homes, where older residents with underlying health conditions are particularly vulnerable to potentially fatal complications such as pneumonia.

Many of the initial U.S. deaths from the new coronavirus were among residents of a nursing home near Seattle, where workers were later shown to have spread the virus to other facilities. Wisconsin National Guard medics were sent last month to a senior living facility in Grafton and last weekend to one in Sheboygan to assist with outbreaks.

Sarah Mattes, spokeswoman for Public Health Madison and Dane County, declined to identify any other nursing homes or senior facilities in the county that may have COVID-19 cases.

We are in contact with facilities to make sure they are aware of the guidance from both the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Wisconsin State Department of Health Services) to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and we of course follow-up with long term care facilities if a case has been identified, Mattes said.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oakwood, like other nursing homes, has taken several steps to try to prevent infections, VanLanduyt said.

It has limited entrance to one location on each campus, started screening employees by taking their temperature, increased sanitation and banned most visitors, he said. Group programming has been canceled and dining options are delivery only.

We are allowing our end-of-life/hospice residents to have family visitation on a controlled basis only, VanLanduyt said in an email. Hospice caregivers can access their patients as needed on both campuses.

Packages and groceries must be dropped off at entrances, and staff are delivering items, he said.

Staff are wearing proper equipment for their roles and in resident contact, he said.

In direct health care areas, infected residents and residents who travel are provided masks, he said. Quarantine is the primary tool however, he said.

Other residents may wear masks, but Oakwood isnt providing them due to limited supply, he said.

We are asking any residents that have come to the campus from travel destinations where there is significant (COVID-19) case numbers to self-isolate/quarantine in their apartment homes for 14 days, he said.

State Journal reporter Dean Mosiman contributed to this report.

Photos: A look at how COVID-19 is affecting Wisconsin

Oakwood, like other nursing homes, has taken several steps to try to prevent infections.

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Democrats want to pass another massive economic stimulus bill after fears emerged that the $2.2 trillion package passed last month will not do enough to help small businesses and those out of work from the coronavirus crisis.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told lawmakers Monday that the phase four package would 'easily' cost more than $1 trillion, two officials on the conference call told The Washington Post.

The next bill House Democrats propose will seek to issue another round of direct checks to Americans, extend unemployment aid to those who have lost their job or are furloughed and increase assistance for small businesses.

Donald Trump along with congressional leaders have expressed the phase three bill did not do enough to give immediate relief.

House Democrats are looking to get another massive economic stimulus bill passed, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says would 'easily' cost another $1 trillion

Conservative freshman Senator Josh Hawley is going against other Republicans by claiming he wants the government to fund companies more so they can keep employees on the payroll

The president has signaled support for some Democrat-backed ideas, like expanding help for small-business owners, issuing new bailout checks for households and including infrastructure projects, but Republican leaders have called for more corporate aid.

While Democrats are rushing toward another bill, with Pelosi hoping for a vote on the House floor in the coming weeks, most Republicans are more cautious, claiming they want to see how the phase three package works before steaming ahead with a fourth.

'The ink's barely dry on the $2 trillion that just got signed into law, the direct payments haven't hit yet,' said Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) in an interview on Monday. 'When we're spending this kind of money, we've got a responsibility to see what works and what doesn't.'

Freshman Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, however, is the exception to Senate Republicans.

The GOP lawmaker is pitching a proposal for the phase four bill where the federal government would directly finance companies so they can pay their workers so millions could stay on the payroll as 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits the last week of March.

He calls this the 'survival then surge' strategy as most states have issued some sort of stay-at-home or lockdown order, causing further economic turmoil.

While the GOP usually doesn't push for more government intervention in the economy, Hawley told Politico Monday that the economic severity in the country is 'much bigger and much more severe than many other people anticipated.'

'We seem to be on a roller coaster that is currently plunging down,' Hawley continued. 'I personally do not want to ride that roller coaster and find where the bottom is. And I don't think American workers should be forced to.'

Donald Trump has signaled he agreed with several Democrat-backed proposals for the fourth bill, like expanding assistance for small businesses, funding infrastructure projects and sending more direct checks to Americans

The number of U.S. deaths from coronavirus have continued to skyrocket  reaching 11,000 on Tuesday

The U.S. also has reported more confirmed cases of the virus than any other country

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was among those pushing for a slower approach, but has since acknowledged that a fourth bill may be needed with a specific focus on health care and bolstering the hospitals and other centers.

Republicans have also signaled a much less ambitious plan than Hawley's in the fourth package  instead wanting to focus on extending benefits that were included in the last package, like relief for small businesses and unemployed individuals.

Independent Senator Angus King said the next package needs to be more of an expansion on phase three, or a 'COVID 3.1 to correct and amplify the work done in the bill.'

'I don't think the steps taken thus far are fully adequate. But it's hard to define what the next steps should be until we assess how the current program is working,' he said in an interview Monday.
A historic sum of money - almost 9 billion - is to be injected into the economy to save it from the coronavirus crisis.

Luxembourg can boast of having proposed one of the most detailed financial aid packages in response to the expected economic crisis. Minister of Finance Pierre Gramegna confirmed to RTL on Saturday that the amount spent on direct aid will be extremely high, reaching a total of 8.8 billion.

Direct aid for both businesses and citizens will amount up to 1.7 billion euros for the next two months, representing three percent of GDP.

The government is also offering a very generous partial unemployment scheme, an expensive but helpful measure which will benefit citizens strongly, especially those who need it most. The minister also sought to remind people that taking leave for family reasons should only be requested if no other solution is possible.

THE ECONOMY'S UNCERTAIN FUTURE



Gramegna could not say whether all companies will survive the crisis, as it depends both on the sector, and on the rate of recovery once the situation returns to normal.

What is certain is that the state will lose money, be it through the various types of financial aid, or by not levying contributions or taxes in the coming months. However, the minister is unable to quantify these losses, nor does he know how they might impact the state budget in the longer term.

The government is allowing itself to borrow up to three billion euros this year, a decision that will be realised in the coming days without too much hassle, says Gramegna. The Grand Duchy benefits from a triple A rating, even with 20% debt.

"If a country can afford it, it's Luxembourg. But it will cost us dearly," said the minister.

Gramegna also praised the efforts of Luxembourg's banks, as they work in tandem with the government to keep credit access as straightforward as possible.

Solidarity will be one of the keys to a post-crisis recovery. The minister also implied that collective leave might have to be cancelled this year.

Finally, he admitted that he had not been very focused on tax reform in the past two weeks, as any planned improvements and deductions would now also depend on the duration of this unprecedented crisis. The longer it lasts, the more it impacts economic development, but for the time being, the authorities are still counting on a loss of between 2.5 and 3%.
Kudelski Security Hires Seasoned Leader for US Security Services

Ernie Anderson joins to lead consolidated approach to cybersecurity services,

including strategy, technology and staff augmentation services

Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerlandand Phoenix (AZ), USA, April 7, 2020 -Kudelski Security, the cybersecurity division within the Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S), today announced that Ernie Anderson will join the company as its head of professional services for the Americas. Anderson brings nearly two decades of cybersecurity consulting experience to Kudelski Security, having worked most recently as an associate partner and leader of IBM's Data and Application Security Practice for North America.

In his new role, Anderson will lead Kudelski Security's portfolio of professional and consulting services, including advisory consulting, technology and staff augmentation. These teams today support clients through project engagements and long-term support agreements that help define security strategies, deploy and optimize technologies, and provide skilled subject matter expertise. Under Mr. Anderson's leadership, these services will be centrally managed, providing clients a more comprehensive, solution-focused portfolio.

"We're excited to have Ernie join our U.S. management team and take the reins of a growing portfolio of cybersecurity services," said Kudelski Security CEO Andrew Howard. "Now more than ever, organizations are struggling with cybersecurity, business continuity and staffing challenges stemming from the rapid increase in remote work. Ernie's long tenure in management consulting and his rare combination of both broad and deep cybersecurity expertise brings immediate value to clients to address those challenges and help businesses who are increasingly relying on us as their partner across a range of service-based solutions."

"Over the past four years Kudelski Security has helped hundreds of CISO clients define and execute a more strategic approach to their cybersecurity business," said Mr. Anderson. "The proprietary tools, and a deep bench of experienced consultants, technicians and analysts, represent an incredible opportunity to expand our impact with clients and help them navigate the modern threat landscape with greater confidence."

Prior to IBM, Ernie Anderson was at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he led a commercial cybersecurity team, among other roles, and at Ernst & Young as an information technology risk transformation manager. He has a proven track record of working with Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) to deliver a diverse set of services and ensure efficient and effective outcomes, results and reporting. Anderson is a Certifications Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and he received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business Administration.

About Kudelski Security

Kudelski Security is the premier advisor and cybersecurity innovator for today's most security-conscious organizations. Our long-term approach to client partnerships enables us to continuously evaluate their security posture to recommend solutions that reduce business risk, maintain compliance and increase overall security effectiveness. With clients that include Fortune 500 enterprises and government organizations in Europe and across the United States, we address the most complex environments through an unparalleled set of solution capabilities including consulting, technology, managed security services and custom innovation. For more information, visit www.kudelskisecurity.com.

Media Contact

John Van Blaricum

Vice President, Global Marketing

+1 650 966 4320

john.vanblaricum@kudelskisecurity.com
US President Donald Trump, during the daily press conference at the White House, expressed support to United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson over his health condition. During the conference, he said that the Americans are praying for his recovery. The UK PM, who had tested positive for Coronavirus, has been moved into intensive care at the London hospital where he has been receiving treatment.

Speaking at the conference, Trump said, "We are very saddened to hear that he (Johnson) was taken into intensive care. He has been a really good friend. He has been very strong and does not quit." Trump further added that his administration has asked two of the leading US companies who have come up with some solutions to contact London immediately.

Boris Johnson moved to ICU

The UK PM was moved to the intensive care on Tuesday at the London hospital where he has been receiving treatment for the Coronavirus. A statement issued by 10 Downing Street, the residence of the UK Prime Minister read, "Since Sunday evening, the Prime Minister has been under the care of doctors at St Thomas' Hospital, in London, after being admitted with persistent symptoms of coronavirus. Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the Prime Minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved into the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital."

Meanwhile, the PM has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is the First Secretary of State, to deputise for him where necessary.

Read: Boris Johnson continues to lead govt despite being hospitalised, says UK Minister

On March 27, the UK PM had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. He had announced this via a post on Twitter where he had mentioned that he developed mild symptoms of COVID-19 such as persistent cough and fever over the last 24 hours. Thereafter, he took a test on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer, which came out positive.

Read: PM Modi expresses solidarity with Boris Johnson, hopes for his early recovery from COVID

COVID-19 in the UK

As per the latest reports, there are over 50,000 cases of Coronavirus in the United Kingdom and around 5,373 deaths have been reported till now. Meanwhile, presently, there are around 1,345,751 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the globe which has led to the death of around 74,647 people. Along with it, around 278,428 people have reportedly recovered.

Read: Donald Trump says 'COVID-19 is tough but US citizens are tougher'

Read: More than 26,000 quarantined in MP after 12 funeral feast attendees test COVID positive
Chicago police originally stated that the first shooter was also shot in the abdomen and was dropped off at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and was transferred to Stroger Hospital in serious condition. It was later discovered that the man shot in abdomen was involved in a different incident, police said.
NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane has resigned as assistant president of the Legislative Council, after coming under fire for repeatedly praising China's response to the coronavirus crisis.

Mr Moselmane tendered his resignation on Monday afternoon, less than a year after he was elected in a secret ballot of NSW upper house MPs in May 2019.

NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane has been heavily criticised for praising China's President Xi Jinping's handling of the coronavirus crisis. Credit:James Alcock

His resignation relates only to the role of assistant president, which will see him forgo $57,525 in additional salary and allowances per year. The position will remain vacant until a replacement is appointed when Parliament sits in September. Mr Moselmane remains a member of the NSW upper house and a member of the Labor Party.

Mr Moselmane resigned from the role following a week of intense criticism over public comments he made over China's handling of the pandemic, which included extolling President Xi Jinping's "unswerving leadership".
Getty

As the fate of Wisconsins primary volleyed between the states Democratic governor, its Republican-led legislature, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the man who appears set to win the election scheduled to take place on Tuesday has avoided taking a hard stance on the wisdom of holding the lone contest in April not to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Theres a lot of things that can be done; thats for the Wisconsin courts and folks to decide, former Vice President Joe Biden said last Thursday in a virtual press briefing, in which he insisted that in-person and mail-in voting could both be done safelyeven though he considers the possibility of a national convention in the state to be a potential risk to public health.

A convention having tens of thousands of people in one arena is very different than having people walk into a polling booth with accurate spacing with 6 to 10 feet apart, one at a time going in, and having the machines scrubbed down, Biden said. I think you could hold the election as well dealing with mail-in ballots and same-day registration. I think it could be done but thats for them to decide.

Bidens approach to the Wisconsin contest has put both himself and Wisconsin Democrats in an awkward position as county leaders painted a dire picture of what voting could look like in the middle of a pandemic. The partys nominee-in-waiting has simultaneously floated the possibility of this summers newly rescheduled Democratic National Conventionalso to be held in Wisconsingoing virtual to prevent the virus spread, while publicly insisting that Tuesdays vote can go on even in the midst of a national public health crisis.

I can only wonder if hes completely aware of the situation on the ground in Wisconsin, Kim Butler, the head of the Polk County Democratic Party, said of Biden not calling for a delay. Because I dont think if he was really seeing and hearing what was going on here that he would necessarily feel that way.

Story continues

But Butler, who lives in a red county and said the dynamics playing out on the ground in her area have shown her how difficult it can be to vote, worries that in-person voting Tuesday means that voters will get sickand that fears of the pandemic will suppress the vote.

My major fear is that people are going to get sick and possibly even die from voting tomorrow, Butler said.

In Sauk County, the Democratic party chair said Monday morning she was focusing on getting absentee ballots returned. But in another sign of the times, she wasnt actively encouraging in-person voting on Tuesday.

For safetys sake, we are not even asking people to go to the polls, Sauk County Democratic Party leader Tammy Wood said.

Wood described the looming election as a moral dilemma.

We can ask those voters to make sure those (absentee) ballots returned, Wood said. But in good conscience, we cannot ask voters to risk their lives and their families to go to a biohazard of a polling place and cast a ballot.

Local elected leaders have echoed those concerns, with the mayors of 10 Wisconsin citiesrepresenting a combined fifth of the states populationurging for the election to be postponed in the interest of public safety.

We implore you to implement all emergency measures necessary to control the spread of COVID-19, a communicable disease, said the letter, addressed to state Department of Human Services Secretary Andrea Palm and signed by the mayors of Milwaukee, Green Bay, Madison and Racine, among others. Specifically, we need you to step up and stop the State of Wisconsin from putting hundreds of thousands of citizens at risk by requiring them to vote at the polls while this ugly pandemic spreads.

The Biden campaign did not respond to questions about those concerns, which have informed a chaotic leadup to Tuesdays election. One week before the primary, Gov. Tony Evers declared that if I could have changed the election on my own I would have but I cant without violating state law, before issuing a Hail Mary executive order on the eve of the election to suspend in-person voting after the state legislature refused to reschedule the vote.

In a statement accompanying the last-ditch order, Evers admitted that theres no good answer to this problem, before pinning the confusion on the Republican-led state legislatures failure to do its part to ensure public health during the primary.

But as municipalities are consolidating polling locations, and absent legislative or court action, I cannot in good conscience stand by and do nothing, Evers wrote. The bottom line is that I have an obligation to keep people safe, and thats why I signed this executive order today.

Even as Republican leadership in the state house immediately announced their intent to challenge the order in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, city and county leaders issued their own orders blocking in-person voting.

Later on Monday, the court issued a 4-2 ruling that Evers cannot postpone in-person voting, throwing out the executive order.

The confusion has put the chaos of Iowas caucus night to blushing shameand has Democrats frustrated that the only person calling for in-person voting to be postponed is the man who appears destined to lose big in Wisconsin.

People should not be forced to put their lives on the line to vote, Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a statement on Wednesday, calling on the state to join 15 others in rescheduling the contest. By the end of that same day, the Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman had also tweeted out the state partys support for the contest to be pushed back.

But Democratic efforts to keep in person voting from happening Tuesday fell flat despite concerns about widespread poll worker shortages across the state. A lack of workers in some places, and fewer polling places, could lead to the kind of long lines that voters most fear finding themselves in during the health crisis.

Officials have been clear about the challenges awaiting the state on Tuesday, including in Milwaukee. In a statement posted on its Facebook page on Friday, the City of Milwaukee Election Commission warned that severe shortages in election workers, meant 180 voting places have been whittled down into five voting centers.

This change is in no way an endorsement of this states dangerous decision to move forward with the April 7 election, but is instead a necessary step to provide in-person voting, read the post.

Absentee ballots have taken on a great deal of significance in the contest, though legal wrangling over specifics has added to the confusion that troubles onlookers, as has the announcement on Monday afternoon by the state elections administrator that the state will not be able to release election results for nearly a full week.

Its almost overwhelming as chair to try to keep the airplane flying when pieces are falling off every day and flight plans are changing every day, Walworth County Democratic Party Steven Doelder said.

Complicating the Tuesday contest further is the fact that a major state Supreme Court seat is on the line, a race that President Donald Trump has weighed in on. Democrats in the state fear that low turnout could hamper their chances at that crucial seat. Local races are also on the ballot. Asked by a reporter during a coronavirus task force Friday about Wisconsin, the president launched into a lie-laden response about mail-in voting.

I think a lot of people cheat with mail-in-voting, Trump told reporters Friday. I think people should vote with ID, voter ID. I think voter ID is very important. And the reason they dont want voter ID is because they intend to cheat.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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When it comes to living life king-size, rarely does anyone come across as wild, and as inhibition-free as Dan Bilzerian.

Saying that he has a lavish lifestyle is such an understatement, it almost qualifies as a cardinal sin.

 Instagram/danbilzerian

Wild and raunchy parties in some of the most exotic islands and places in the world, operating a legal marijuana business that rakes in millions of dollars a year, and waking up in a new city or a country every day - this is a typical Tuesday in the man's life.

To get a real sense of how crazy Dan Bilzerian's life actually is, we've listed out 5 things that he has done and experienced in his life which show, that no one indeed leads a more epic lifestyle than the man:

1. Bought His Way Into The Armenian Army For A Citizenship

Bilzerian is of Armenian descent and wanted to have Armenian citizenship for as long as he remembers. Now, Armenia has a law that states that all able-bodied people have to serve in the army. They also have a law that states that only residents and citizens of Armenia can join the army.

So what did the man do? He, along with his brother somehow took the ceremonious oaths to become a citizen and proceeded to join the army. Upon joining the army, Bilzerian celebrated the feat in a way that only Bilzerian can - by launching a Bazooka.

2. Had A Heart Attack For OD'ing On Viagra, Apparently

Bilzerian has admitted that he had his first two heart attacks at the age of 25 and had a total of three heart attacks before the age of 32, which prompted him to clean up his act a little.

The story goes that over four days of binge drinking, consuming cocaine and weed, Bilzerian ingested about 6 times the recommended dose of Viagra, to get things going downstairs. Given his lifestyle, it actually does not come as a surprise to people who follow him.

3. He Was Arrested On A Bomb Making Charge

We know from his Instagram posts that the man loves to pack heat whether he is going off to the Cannes Film Festival, or to a party destination in some corner of the world.

He was once arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department for carrying an explosive or incendiary device with the intent to manufacture it. The charges were dropped later, but it still goes on to show just at what level the man operates.

Oh, and BTW, he has been put on the International Wanted List by a court in Azerbaijan. So. that's a party destination that he's not visiting anytime soon.

4. He Ran For President Before Endorsing Trump

In early 2015, Dan Bilzerian announced that he would be running for president. Politically speaking, he is a conservative and was looking for the Republican nomination for the 2016 American Presidential election.

He also vowed to give up sex, drugs, and alcohol, if he was elected. Eventually, he bowed out of the race and went on to endorse Donald Trump, who eventually went on to win the presidency.

We guess it's a good thing that Bilzerian dropped out - imagine having to clean up your act drastically, almost overnight to take your place in the highest office in the western hemisphere.

5. He Hunted Down A Mass Shooter With The Police

Back in 2017, an armed assailant opened fire on a group of people from his hotel room and killed 58 people, and injured over 400 other people, all of whom were attending a music festival.

While the police were trying to evacuate the area, Dan Bilzerian ran to his car, got a gun, showed the authorities that he was a 'sworn commissioned reserve police officer' and joined the police in firing back at the perpetrator.

There are reports as well that he actually borrowed a gun from one of the officers, and went trigger happy in the hunt, but there is no way of corroborating that.
Pakistan on Tuesday rejected the media reports on Islamabad's link with a deadly terrorist attack on a Gurdawara in Afghanistan last month, saying it was designed to malign the country.

"This attempt is highly mischievous and condemnable, the Foreign Office said, adding that Pakistan has strongly condemned the dastardly terrorist attack on the Gurdawara, in which so many precious lives were lost.

"Places of worship are sacrosanct and their sanctity must be respected at all times. The perpetrators of this heinous crime must be brought to justice, it said.

Pakistan firmly believed that such despicable terrorist acts had no political, religious or moral justification, it said, adding that the media reports were designed to malign Pakistan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
AHORA | Trabajo permanente y articulado. Los integrantes de la Comision Multisectorial de Alto Nivel contra el Coronavirus prosiguen con su trabajo, liderados por el titular de la PCM, @VicAZeballos, para evaluar las medidas para combatir al #COVID?19.#PeruEstaEnNuestrasManos pic.twitter.com/gVwPGUAywK
[April 07, 2020] USA TODAY NETWORK Launches "Just the FAQs LIVE: Conversations about Coronavirus" on Facebook

USA TODAY NETWORK, part of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI (News - Alert)), today announced it is launching a new livestream show "Just the FAQs LIVE: Conversations about Coronavirus" on Facebook to answer people's most pressing questions about COVID-19. The live conversation will also feature Gannett journalists, reporting from across the country and providing their local communities with trusted news and information amid the coronavirus outbreak. "Just the FAQs LIVE: Conversations about Coronavirus" is hosted by Megan Finnerty, founder and director of the Storytellers Project and Storytellers Brand Studio at Gannett. The live episodes will run roughly 30 minutes and will include a round-robin report bringing together local Gannett journalists to share what is happening in their communities and an established thought leader or expert to share insights on COVID-19. Additionally, each week, a conversation topic will be selected based on the most-asked questions of the week sourced from USA TODAY reader questions and Local Facebook (News - Alert) Groups. The show will be livestreamed on the USA TODAY Facebook page, as well as many of Gannett's local media pages. USA TODAY NEWORK is launching two additional shows in partnership with Facebook that will focus on COVID-19 news and information. "Just the FAQs: Coronavirus Explained," part of USA TODAY NETWORK's flagship explainer series, will tackle the biggest coronavirus news of the week and distill it with explanatory graphics, videos and photos. Each explainer episode will also include an on-camera briefing from a USA TODAY NETWORK journalist who will dig deep into the issue that is the subject of the episode. "Just the FAQs: Coronavirus Recap," will feature clips of the most salient points made by guests of the livestream show. The two shows can be viewed at www.usatoday.com/justthefaqs and on Facebook.



"Creating innovative video projects has been a hallmark of USA TODAY and Gannett's portfolio of 260 local media properties around the country. 'Just the FAQs LIVE: Conversations about Coronavirus' is an extension of that commitment and our continued promise to the communities our journalists serve," said Russ Torres, vice president of video content and strategy at USA TODAY NETWORK. "We are in a period where providing news you can trust is more important than ever. Our partnership with Facebook provides a special and unique platform to help us share accurate information catered to our audiences' specific interest in their health, their communities, and their local businesses." About USA TODAY NETWORK

USA TODAY NETWORK, part of Gannett Co, Inc. (NYSE: GCI), is the largest local-to-national media organization in the country, with deep roots in local communities across the U.S., powered by our award-winning newsrooms and marketing solutions business. With more than 260 local media brands, plus USA TODAY, we engage more than 140 million people every month through a diverse portfolio of multi-platform content offerings and experiences. For more information, visit www.gannett.com.

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It is with great pleasure that I take on the principal role at Ranch View Elementary School, said Mitchell in the release. With a student-centered focus and strong community involvement, I look forward to getting to know the students, staff and community at Ranch View.
Lesotho, Comoros, and Sao Tome and Principe are the three remaining African countries yet to record a single case of coronavirus.



South Sudan which until April 4 was also free of the virus recorded its first case on Sunday, according to government officials.





Riek Machar, the countrys first vice president, told journalists on Sunday in the capital Juba South Sudan confirms one case of coronavirus.



Machar said the patient is a 29-year-old woman who arrived in South Sudan from the Netherlands via Ethiopia on February 28.



So far, 51 African countries have confirmed cases of coronavirus with tally now hitting 9,198 as at April 6, 2020.



Some 39 countries have also recorded local community infections of the virus with 12 countries reporting of only imported cases.



The continent has recorded 414 deaths so far with recoveries now 813. South Africa still remains the leading country with 1,655 cases of coronavirus.



But, North Africa has the highest number of cases, tallying at 4,043 with Algeria over taking Egypt as the North African country with more cases.



North, West and Southern Africa regions have all recorded over 1,000 cases of the virus.





Eastern Africa has the least of cases now at 778 followed by central Africa with 917 cases.



There are, however, more number of recoveries in North (420) and West (282) African regions.



North African again has recorded more deaths across the continent with deathsthere now at 298.



But on a global scale over 1.2 million people have been infected by the coronavirus with deaths hitting over 70,000.















Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Tuesday rejected the bail pleas of Sudhanshu Dwivedi and Vikas Chawla, accused in multi-crore Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd(UPPCL) provident fund (PF) scam.

Dwivedi had served the corporation as its director (finance) from June 2016 to June 2019 while Chawla had allegedly received Rs 5.69 crore as brokerage from a private firm Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL).

The employees PF of Rs 4,122.5 crore was invested in the Mumbai-based firm between March 2018 and October 2019 in violation of norms

Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh pronounced the reserved order on Tuesday from his residence on both the bail applications moved separately, additional advocate general (AAG) Vinod Kumar Shahi said.

On November 2, 2019, an FIR was lodged in connection with the scam under charges of embezzlement and cheating against one Praveen Kumar Gupta, former secretary of the UP Power Sector Employees Trust, and Sudhanshu Dwivedi in Hazratganj police station here. Name of Vikad Chawla came to light in connection with the case during the investigation.

The allegations were that the accused in violation of the relevant provisions of law had invested huge amount of two funds- Uttar Pradesh Power Sector Employees General Provident Fund and UPPCL Contributory Provident Fund in DHFLa company incorporated under the Companies Act.

The investigation revealed that the investment had been made by the accused for personal gain and that they received the huge amount from DHFL as commission, said in the courts order.

Opposing the bail pleas on behalf of the state government, AAG Shahi contended that the management and investment of the GPF/PPF amount of all the employees of the corporation was required to be carried out in conformity with the concerned rules and notification which was not done by the accused.

Manoj Kumar Singh
Its been almost three weeks since most San Antonio schools transitioned to distance learning, with all student-teacher interactions  instruction, assignments, grading  moving online. And in that time, teachers say theyve learned a lot about making the process work, and what they want parents to know, too.

Most say they understand that the current situation is stressful for everyone, including parents, and that theyll do whatever is necessary to make sure that education continues in this world where virtual is the new normal.

Kindergarten teacher Venee Guevara, for example, has become something of an amateur videographer, making short videos to teach her young students basic math concepts like addition and subtraction. In one video using three buttons, for example, she shows one hand holding one button and asks students to guess how many are hidden in her other, closed hand.

So much of what we do in class is hands-on, said Guevara, who teaches at Carson Elementary School. The best way to get these concepts across to them is to do it visually.

For older kids, accommodations often involve simply trying to reduce the anxiety many have been feeling since the world theyve known was pulled out from under their feet.

Juniors and seniors especially have a lot of uncertainty, whether its grades, prom, graduation or college, said Matthew Ramirez, who teaches 12th grade English at Samuel Clemens High School. Everyone needs to take that into account and give these kids a little leeway.

On ExpressNews.com: S.A. school leaders expect student slide from closures

Meanwhile, teachers are also aware that parents are in uncharted territory. Many have been laid off or furloughed. Theyre worried about how theyre going to pay the bills. Those who still have jobs are often working from home, so they dont have a lot of free time to monitor what their children are doing.

With that in mind, there are still some things teachers say that parents can do to make this new era of distance learning more rewarding for everyone.

Remember the basics: Parents need to keep doing what they were doing before the pandemic, said Claudia Monsalvez Clark, who teaches Spanish and Latin at TMI Episcopal. That means sticking to a routine.

She cautions, for example, that learning from home shouldnt be an excuse for kids to go to bed late and sleep in. Her classes meet online every Wednesday at 8:30 a.m., so she suggests that her parents keep their kids to that schedule, even if they dont have to be up that early every other day of the week.

Other strategies include making sure kids are eating well (i.e., limit snacking from the fridge), getting daily exercise (take a walk in the neighborhood or a nearby park) and limiting screen time.

Especially now since kids are on their computer so much more than usual, its important that they take time away from their phones, iPads and other screens, she said.

Know whats expected of your kids: This doesnt mean you have to relearn trigonometry. But you should check in occasionally to see how your kids are progressing on their assignments. Also helpful is having a working knowledge of the computer platform your kids are using to get their assignments, do their projects and communicate with their teacher.

That way you can help them if they have a problem with the technology, so they can focus on their work, said Frank Westry, who teaches tenth grade English at IDEA Monterrey Park charter school.

And dont be afraid to call on the teacher if any of this is beyond your ability. Theyre there to help. It could help others, too.

When a student reached out to Diane Taylor about difficulties he was having accessing an online activity, she realized that other students might be having a similar problem.

So I sent a message to everyone giving them a heads up about it, said Taylor, a fourth grade teacher at Northwood Elementary.

On ExpressNews.com: Trinity University suspends SAT/ACT requirement for admissions

Dont obsess about how much school work they have: Many districts have instructed teachers to pull back on the number of assignments and amount of homework they give students. This is in part because many students live in homes where they have to share one computer with several siblings.

Weve probably cut the workload by a bit more than 50 percent, said Christopher Pappas, who teaches ninth- and 10th-grade geometry at Cole Middle and High School. If I normally gave students 10 math problems before all this, Im probably giving them four or five today.

Many students are also discovering they can work more efficiently when theyre working from home.

I was talking to a sophomore who was amazed at how much work he can get done without all the distractions in a classroom, said Tracy Carter, dean of Community and Wellness at TMI Episcopal. He told me thats why we dont want students misbehaving in class.

Dont obsess about their time on the computer: Most schools are practicing whats called asynchronous classes, meaning online classes arent held on the same day and time as they were in real life.

Again, this is because a lot of students have to share a computer, and so one may not be available during regular class time. Students who work also may not be able to follow the former class schedule.

To accommodate these and other situations, teachers are posting assignments online and then give students several days to complete them in their own time.

I post mine on Monday and then we have a weekly Zoom meeting on Friday to review the assignment, Ramirez said. This is when students can ask questions if they dont understand something.

Ramirez also records the sessions so if a student cant make it or wants to hear something again, they can stream it at their convenience.

View online learning as legitimate: Its at least as legitimate as classroom instruction. Just because a student spends the day at home, doesnt mean theyre not responsible for learning whats expected of them. In fact, the experience may have benefits beyond high school.

Especially for older kid, independent learning may actually prepare them better for college, said Kayle Nellums, an English language arts and reading teacher at Cole Middle and High School.

Be flexible: Remember, everyone  students, teachers and parents  is making the best of an unfortunate situation. By not being too rigid in your expectations, you can avoid pressuring your children and give them to confidence to succeed in these trying times. How you handle the situation today will help determine how well your kids do when things return to normal  and eventually they will.

Richard A. Marini is a features writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Richard A., become a subscriber. rmarini@express-news.net | Twitter: @RichardMarini
The Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC) has urged 10 states to allow sale of alcoholic beverages saying that a blanket ban during the lockdown to contain coronavirus has resulted in sale of illicit and spurious liquor while causing burden on exchequer

New Delhi: The Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC) has urged 10 states to allow sale of alcoholic beverages saying that a blanket ban during the lockdown to contain coronavirus has resulted in sale of illicit and spurious liquor while causing burden on exchequer.

The body noted that the nationwide lockdown has resulted in the shutdown of all wholesale and retail shops selling alcoholic beverages.

It said the need to close on-shops (bars) is well understood in light of social distancing.

The CIABC, which is the apex body of the Indian alcoholic beverage industry, has sent letters on Monday to chief ministers of 10 states -- Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

CIABC Director General Vinod Giri stated in the letter that there are growing reports of sale of illicit and spurious liquor in the state which can potentially lead to serious health hazards for people as well as create adverse law and order situation.

It has also requested all state governments to extend all liquor licences and approvals till April 30 or one additional month post lockdown, whichever is later.

Giri said alcohol is one of the most important sources of revenue for state governments and by shutting down retail shops, states are depriving themselves of the tax revenues that are so vitally required in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

He also said some people need alcohol on medical grounds that should also be considered.

The CIABC, which includes most major Indian companies that manufacture and market their product range in India and abroad, pleaded for permitting sale of alcoholic beverages from off-shops (retail outlets) in the state during the lockdown period.

It suggested that the state governments may do so by placing reasonable control measures such as curtailed shop timings, and directing outlets to strictly follow social distancing norms.

The body also asked for issue of online permits and permissions enabling wholesalers in a state to receive and supply stocks to off-shops during prescribed hours.

It also pleaded for issue of relevant permits, permissions and approvals to facilitate stock movement and receipt to and within the state.

The CIABC said recognising the threats to public health and law and order, some state governments have taken proactive measures and directed relaxation in shutdown orders for alcoholic beverages shops.

Some have also mooted the idea of allowing home delivery of alcoholic beverages to deserving cases, it added.
A wildlife ranger who was fatally mauled by a shark off the Great Barrier Reef has been named as 23-year-old Zachary Robba.

He had been enjoying working at his 'dream job' on the southern Barrier Reef with a group of rangers when he was attacked on Monday afternoon.

His former school, Iona College in Brisbane, paid tribute to Mr Robba, saying he had been loving his 'dream job and embracing all that it entailed'.

The experienced swimmer died in hospital on Monday night a few hours after he was bitten off North West Island, 75km northeast of Gladstone in Queensland.

He suffered severe injuries to leg, hand and elbow during the attack.

Zachary Robba (pictured) was described as a 'down-to-earth legend' by friends, after he died aged 23

A family friend told Daily Mail Australia that Zachary was 'dedicated' to his work and described his mate as a 'down-to-earth legend'.

'Zac was someone who was loved by all, a dedicated parks and wildlife officer who embraced everything that came at him,' he said.

'Zac was a easy going, down-to-earth legend of a bloke.

'Every time we saw him he brought laughter and a sense of mateship to a crowd. He has left a legacy in everybodys hearts who knew him. May he rest in peace.'

His school paid tribute to its former student, saying they had a 'Zach shaped hole in their heart'.

Zachary Robba (pictured) died on Monday after being mauled by a shark while swimming off North West Island

'At this difficult time, we keep all Ionians in our prayers who are affected by this very sad loss,' a statement read.

'Every one of us has a Zach shaped hole in our heart. And each shape is unique.

'At the appropriate time we will be available to welcome all Old Boys to gather safely and give thanks for Zach's life.

'Our faith asks us to believe that death is a comma, not a full stop. Zach joins our Old Boy Ionians in eternal life.'

Police say the victim and other rangers decided to go for a swim off the back of their boat, after spending the day doing maintenance work on the island.

The victim's colleagues were ahead of him and had already reached the vessel when the sharked struck.

Mr Robba (pictured with a colleague at sea) was passionate about his job as a wildlife ranger

'They would have witnessed the attack,' Detective Senior Sergeant Tony Anderson told reporters on Tuesday.

'There were four people swimming off the back of a boat, cooling down after a day's work.'

It's not clear what kind of shark was involved.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has paid tribute to the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service officer, sending condolences to his grieving family.

'A lot of his work colleagues, I understand, were very upset today,' she told reporters.

Mr Robba suffered extensive injuries to his leg and arm, and despite surviving an emergency flight he later died in Gladstone Hospital.

The attack took place near North West Island (pictured) which is in the Capricornia Cays National Park in the Great Barrier Reef

Monday's attack was the third at North West Island in just over three months.

In January, a nine-year-old girl was attacked by a shark, suffering a bite wound to the back of her leg, and puncture wounds to her foot.

A lemon shark was suspected of that attack.

In late December a shovelnose shark bit a man in shallow waters at North West Island.

He suffered minor injuries to his right hand and leg.

There have also been a series of other shark attacks on the Great Barrier Reef over the past 18 months.

Last October two British backpackers were attacked while snorkelling at Hook Island in the Whitsundays. One of the men lost his foot.

In March last year, a 25-year-old man suffered serious thigh injuries when a shark attacked him at Hardy Reef, near Hamilton island, which is also in the Whitsunday Islands chain.

Those attacks followed another fatality in November 2018, when Victorian doctor Daniel Christidis, 33, was killed at Cid Harbour at Whitsunday Island.
Beijing: No person was killed in the coronavirus epidemic in China on Tuesday. China's National Health Commission said that it had started publishing data in this regard from January. This is the first time since this that no one has died from Corona. Although talking about people living in China, there has been a decline in the cases of the infection since March, but the number of infected Chinese people coming from overseas to China is increasing.

Here's how turkmenistan is still safe from coronavirus, not a single is reported yet

Health officials have said that about 1,000 infected people from overseas have arrived in China. While on one hand, corona infection in China has been almost controlled. In the rest of the world, there are a large number of deaths due to corona. Please tell that 74,441 people have died due to coronavirus infection worldwide. More than 13 lakh patients have been affected by Corona so far. The most terrible situation remains in America. In the last 24 hours, 1150 people have lost their lives here.

PM took action against Health Minister who violate lockdown

Even after the lockdown in India, the situation is continuously deteriorating. The number of patients infected with the coronavirus in the country has increased to 4,281. In the last 24 hours, there have been 704 new cases of corona infection in India. While 111 people have lost their lives due to Corona. Maximum 32 people have died in the last 24 hours. According to the Health Ministry, 319 patients have been cured so far.

Raj Thackeray may have to face trial due to this statement
Volunteers wearing protective masks and gloves assist a voter at an early voting ballot drop off location in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., on Thursday, April 2, 2020.

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 on Monday to reverse an order extending the absentee ballot deadline for voting in the Wisconsin elections scheduled for Tuesday, stepping into a back-and-forth between Democrats and Republicans in the state over when voting would take place.

Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, signed an executive order suspending in-person voting in the state earlier on Monday after trying and failing to convince the GOP-dominated state legislature to postpone elections until May. His order was blocked by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the evening.

The Supreme Court, which was considering a case brought before Evers issued his executive order, was not considering whether voting would take place on Tuesday, but only whether to keep in place an order that extended the deadline for absentee ballots to be postmarked.

In an unsigned order from which the court's four liberal justices dissented, the court did away with the extension.

The top court's five Republican-appointees, none of whom attached their name to the court's order, reasoned that extending the date by which voters could mail absentee ballots "fundamentally alters the nature of the election."

"Wisconsin has decided to proceed with the elections scheduled for Tuesday, April 7. The wisdom of that decision is not the question before the Court," the order reads. "The question before the Court is a narrow, technical question about the absentee ballot process."

The case is the first dispute over COVID-19 to reach the justices.

Democrats and voting rights groups had gone to court to push for an extended deadline, warning that coronavirus fears could keep voters from the polls. On Friday, a federal appeals court upheld a one-week extension for absentee ballots.

Republicans asked the Supreme Court to halt that order, issued by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"A last-minute change to a voter deadline carries an increased risk that voters will not appreciate when votes actually must be cast," Patrick Strawbridge, the attorney for the Republicans, warned in a filing with the top court. Strawbridge wrote the Supreme Court should "maintain the status quo of state election laws."

In response, Democrats said that Republicans were ignoring the health risks posed by coronavirus, which has sickened more than 2,000 in the state, according to data from local health authorities.

"The 'electoral status quo' already has been upended  not by any judicial order, but by the COVID-19 pandemic and the 'voter confusion and electoral chaos' it is causing," wrote Marc Elias, an attorney for the Democrats, in a brief submitted to the court.

"Until very recently, Wisconsin voters reasonably expected they would be able either to vote safely in person on election day or through a reliable, well-functioning absentee ballot system," Elias wrote. "Now they cannot  and not because of any court order, but because of the pandemic."

The order from the Supreme Court puts a heavy emphasis on the fact that the date for the ballots to be postmarked  not just received by elections officials  had been extended. That remedy went beyond what Democrats had even sought, the court wrote.

"By changing the election rules so close to the election date and by affording relief that the plaintiffs themselves did not ask for in their preliminary injunction motions, the District Court contravened this Court's precedents and erred by ordering such relief," the Supreme Court wrote.

"This Court has repeatedly emphasized that lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election," the order reads.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the majority's decision "ill advised" in a dissent joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

"While I do not doubt the good faith of my colleagues, the Court's order, I fear, will result in massive disenfranchisement," Ginsburg wrote. "A voter cannot deliver for postmarking a ballot she has not received. Yet tens of thousands of voters who timely requested ballots are unlikely to receive them by April 7, the Court's postmark deadline."

Wisconsin remains under a shelter-in-place order, signed by Evers, and federal officials have urged Americans not to gather in groups of 10 or more until the end of April.

A dozen states and Puerto Rico, a territory, have postponed elections since the coronavirus pandemic erupted in the United States. The Supreme Court itself has postponed arguments scheduled for its March and April sessions because of health concerns related to the virus.
The historic city of Arles, France just gained a landmark unlike any other. Theres certainly no ignoring architect Frank Gehrys twisting Luma Arles Tower, which stands in stark contrast to the older, more traditional architecture that surrounds it. Clad in aluminum panels that call to mind the scales of a dragon, the structure tops out at 180 feet, the centerpiece of the Luma Arles Arts Center established by Swiss collector Maja Hoffmann.

Frank Gehry's Luma Arles Tower serves as the centerpiece of the Luma Arles Arts Center in Southern France.

Set to open this spring, the tower will include artist studios, research facilities, workshops, and seminar rooms. The architect took inspiration from limestone cliffs visible at the edges of the city, devising a jagged, irregular silhouette for the buildings exterior. The towers 11,000 aluminum panels are set around a concrete and steel structure, with a glass and stone cylindrical base inspired by the citys Heritage Roman sites. It will also host exhibitions of some of the art worlds biggest names.

The city of Arles is best known in the art world for being home to Vincent Van Gogh during one of the most creatively productive periods of his life, when he created dozens of paintings and hundreds of drawings. But its income is mostly reliant on tourism, and the new arts center could draw in more visitors than ever before, with Gehrys tower standing as a shimmering central beacon.

Close-up of the new tower's twisted metal facade.

Frank Gehry's Luma Arles Tower serves as the centerpiece of the Luma Arles Arts Center in Southern France.

The project is located on the site of an abandoned rail yard thats been vacant since 1986.The Luma Arles Arts Center, already completed, is currently hosting a range of contemporary art exhibits, and its expansion will also include a public park called Parc des Ateliers, designed by Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets.

Maja Hoffman, daughter of art collector and patron Luc Hoffman, heiress to the Hoffmann-La Roche pharmaceutical fortune, and President of the Van Gogh Foundations board of directors, envisions the new Luma Arles as a chance for the city she grew up in to transform. More specifically, Hoffmann hopes the center will make Arles an international art world destination.

Story continues

Close-up of the new tower's twisted metal facade.

Only part of Gehry's new tower is wildly futuristic.

Bold as they are, Gehrys works can be controversial, so its no surprise that not all the locals are thrilled by the towers design. Some argue that the center is, in its own right, enough of a tourist draw, and that the tower is a gaudy, unnecessary addition.

In fact, the original plan included two towers and was rejected by Frances Commission for Historical Sites and Monuments, ArtNet reports. Indeed, visiting the campus in late August, it is clear that the restoration of the existing, defunct workshops is warmly welcomed by locals: the generous exhibition spaces are well-visited, and the restaurant area, embellished with the bright, large-scale pictorial puns of Maurizio Cattelans TOILETPAPER, is bustling. And so the nagging question that lingers throughout the visit is why is this tower here?

Frank Gehry's Luma Arles Tower serves as the centerpiece of the Luma Arles Arts Center in Southern France.

Whether you think Frank Gehrys constructivist style is dazzling or too flashy by far, it certainly never fails to get attention. The Canadian-born American architect, who resides in Los Angeles, is also known for such landmarks as LAs Walt Disney Concert Hall, Barcelonas Olympic Fish Pavilion, the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, and Dancing House in Prague.
AMID the enhanced community quarantine, the immunization program in the barangays in Central Visayas should continue to roll out but health workers must observe safety precautions to avoid being infected with coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

This was according to Dr. Jaime Bernadas, director of the Department of Health (DOH) 7.

Bernadas said he already told all municipal health workers to push through with the agencys immunization program.

Under Republic Act 10152 (Mandatory Infants and Children Health Immunization Act of 2011), the mandatory basic immunization shall be given for free at any government hospital or health center to infants and children up to five years of age.

The law covers vaccine-preventable diseases such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, rubella or German measles, Hepatitis-B and H. Influenza type B (HIB), and other types as may be determined by the health secretary in a department circular.

Bernadas said the immunization must continue, saying the DOH could not afford to see children getting sick with vaccine-preventable diseases.

Unicefs concerns

The United Nations Childrens Fund (Unicef) in an article, Life-saving vaccinations must not fall victim to Covid-19 pandemic-Unicef chief, published on March 26, 2020, stated that as the pandemic progresses, critical life-saving services, including immunization, would likely be disrupted, especially in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, where they are sorely needed.

It expressed its concerns on several countries, including the Philippines, that are fighting Covid-19 and other diseases at the same time.

Unicef is particularly concerned about countries battling measles, cholera or polio outbreaks while simultaneously responding to Covid-19 cases. Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, the Philippines, Syria and South Sudan fall into that category, read a portion of the Unicef article. (WBS)
In an attempt to resist arrest and closure of his illicit business, a brewer from Kwenikab Ilet village, Bomet County shot arrows at authorities on Sunday, April 5.

Area chief Zephania Koech, who led the raid, said the brewer had evaded arrest for a long time. We got wind that he had pitched tent at the village and was selling illicit brews to youth. I mobilised colleagues from neighbouring locations and we carried out a raid, but he was very hostile, said Koech.

The authorities who included 12 chiefs and members of Nyumba Kumi had to scamper for safety after the suspect started shooting arrows.

Chief Koech said the brewer assaulted one of the Nyumba Kumi members during the attack, Standard reports. The suspect reportedly attacked village elder Joseph Langat with a machete.

The authorities took refuge at a tea plantation as they waited for police reinforcements. After the officers arrived, the brewer escaped by swimming across Kipsonoi River and hiding in a tea plantation.

It took seven armed police officers about three hours to finally catch the suspect and put him behind bars.

Koech said they had decided not to involve the police initially because some brewers colluded with corrupt officers who took bribes.

Every time we take them to the police, they are released the following day, he lamented.
Sales tax changes wait for no one. Thus, Georgias new marketplace facilitator law went into effect in the midst of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. As of April 1, 2020, many food delivery platforms, lodging facilitators, and rideshare marketplaces must collect and remit sales tax on behalf of their third-party sellers.

The new sales tax obligation applies to marketplace facilitators with a physical presence in Georgia, and those with at least $100,000 in direct and indirect sales into the state. Georgia defines a marketplace facilitator as a person that contracts with a seller, in exchange for any type of consideration, to facilitate or make available a taxable retail sale. This is accomplished by directly or indirectly:

Collecting, charging, processing, or otherwise facilitating payment of the retail sale on behalf of a marketplace seller; and

Providing a service that makes available or facilitates the retail sale in any manner.

There are many ways to facilitate a sale through a marketplace, including but not limited to:

Promoting, marketing, advertising, or taking orders or reservations

Providing the physical or electronic infrastructure that brings purchasers and marketplace sellers together; or

Transmitting or otherwise communicating the offer and acceptance.

Merely processing the payment for a retail sale does not constitute facilitating a sale. For more details, see Marketplaces to collect sales tax on third-party sales in Georgia.

In many states, theres confusion around exactly what types of businesses qualify as a marketplace. For example, would food delivery service providers (e.g., DoorDash or Grubhub) qualify? Lodging facilitators (e.g., Expedia or Hotels.com)? Rideshare facilitators (e.g., Lyft or Uber)?

Georgias new law applies to all three, and thats a big change. Prior to April 1, no one collected sales tax on those sales.
(Newser)  As of Monday, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly was standing by his attack on the fired captain of a Navy aircraft carrier who'd warned about COVID-19 spreading on his ship in a letter leaked to the media. "I stand by every word I said, even, regrettably any profanity that may have been used for emphasis," Modly said a day after telling crew members of the USS Theodore Roosevelt in Guam that Capt. Brett Crozier had committed an act of "betrayal" in seeking help outside the chain of command and was "too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this" if he didn't assume his letter would leak. But within hours came a change of heart. "Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid," Modly said shortly after President Trump promised to intervene, per NBC News.

story continues below

"I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship," Modly continued, apologizing to Crozier, whom he described as "smart and passionate." He also apologized to "the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused." His initial statement Monday had been followed by calls that he, too, be removed from his post. Modly's "decision to address the sailors on the Roosevelt and personally attack Captain Crozier shows a tone-deaf approach more focused on personal ego than one of the calm, steady leadership we so desperately need in this crisis," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith said, per the Hill. (Crozier now has the coronavirus.)
Air Force Reserve mobilizes medics to New York for COVID-19 response

By Air Force Reserve Command Public Affairs / Published April 06, 2020

ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFNS) -- Within 48 hours of notification, the Air Force Reserve mobilized more than 120 medical personnel across the nation to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, to help with the fight against COVID-19 in New York City.

Air Force Reserve Command units mobilized more than 40 doctors, more than 70 nurses and approximately 13 respiratory technicians who departed their home stations for JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst for further inprocessing with the U.S. Northern Command's Joint Forces Land Component Command, based out of New Jersey. The medical personnel are slated for follow-on movement to New York City's Javits Center.

The mechanism to get these Reservists out the door so quickly is AFRC's Force Generation Center. Stood up in 2010, the FGC serves as an amalgamation of a massive deployment cell, a 24/7 air operations center and the crisis action team manager for the Air Force Reserve, in conjunction with the other AFRC A-staff directorates.

"The stand-up of the FGC and the capabilities it brought the command has made this COVID-19 mobilization a success this weekend," said Lt. Gen. Richard Scobee, AFRC commander and Chief of the Air Force Reserve. "The FGC team and our wing commanders got this mobilization moving in the right direction within 48 hours to take care of Americans in the fight against COVID-19."

It isn't easy to mobilize civilians into military status normally, much less within two days. However, the leadership across the Air Force Reserve leaned forward to pre-identify volunteers from the Selected Reserve  which are Reserve Citizen Airmen currently actively serving in the Reserve.

"Using SELRES member volunteers enabled the FGC to do a quick-turn to meet this first of many expected taskings coming to the Reserve component from the DoD," said Brig. Gen. Stacey Scarisbrick, FGC commander. "It's important to get our Reservists out the door quickly to help combat the spread of COVID-19 and take care of Americans."

Reservists normally plan for deployment through a Reserve Component Period. An RCP is a period of months that a Reservist Airman could be mobilized to support a Total Force Air Force tasking around the world. It enables Reservists to provide planning to their civilian employers and families, as well as arrange school and training schedules appropriately. Actively serving traditional Reservists at an Air Force Reserve wing are assigned to an RCP to help provide stability to know when they may be tapped to deploy.

Some of the medics mobilized in support of COVID-19 operations are from a pool of individual Reservists, called Individual Mobilization Augmentees. IMAs are normally not assigned to an RCP to deploy; however, close to 15 IMAs are among the medical personnel who volunteered for mobilization in this initial wave of deployments for the Air Force Reserve. In addition, approximately 50 Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officers, who are also IMAs, are currently mobilized to help with interagency Defense Support to Civil Authorities at the state and federal levels.

"From our IMAs to our Reserve medics, I couldn't be prouder of this incredible Reserve team who stepped up quickly to answer our nation's call," Scobee added.

Through the volunteer process, members were screened for impact to their civilian communities and professions.

"We did not want to pull a doc or nurse out of their community clinical practice or hospital if already ensconced in coronavirus operations," said Col. Teresa Bisnett, AFRC's surgeon general. As the top doctor at the command, Bisnett, her team of medical specialists and the unit and wing commanders, took care to ensure the balance between civilian responsibilities and military requirements were considered in Reservist Airmen deployment selection.

"It was truly a team effort with our units to ensure the right Reservists were selected to provide this surge capability to our nation," Bisnett said.

All Reservists deploying were also medically screened according to DoD and the Centers for Disease Control guidance.

As COVID-19 response requirements for more medical personnel, aeromedical evacuation capabilities, logistics experts and other specialties grew, the Air Force Reserve was granted the authority to activate the inactive Reserve, as needed, by the president's March 27 executive order. Calling up Individual Ready Reservists (IRR) includes bringing back into service prior service members and retirees with a Reserve commitment left on their record at the time of separation or retirement.

"Our approach to fill future COVID-19 taskings will be to utilize currently serving Reservists first who are assigned to RCPs," Scarisbrick explained. "Then we will look at volunteers who want to come back and serve before we explore involuntary mobilization."

All members of the Air Reserve Component, currently serving or in the IRR, must be prepared for mobilization at any time.

Airmen willing to volunteer for mobilization should contact their squadron commander, unit deployment manager, Readiness Integration Office Detachment, Functional Area Manager and if medical, email: HQAFRC.SG.AFRCPHEOs@us.af.mil, to self-identify their availability. In the body of the e-mail please provide your name, rank, AFSC, assigned/attached unit, civilian email, address, phone number and if you are currently involved in COVID-19 response in your civilian job.

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Member of Parliament for Ashaiman, Ernest Norgbey wants the government to constitute an independent investigative body to look into the shooting to death of a civilian by a soldier at Ashaiman on Sunday April 5.

The said incident, according to the Ghana Armed Forces, occurred when the victim Mr. Eric Ofotsu tried to disarm a soldier who was conducting an arrest as part of the COVID-19 lockdown enforcement.

The Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah subsequently announced that the soldier involved had been withdrawn from the operation and being investigated by the Military Police.

The officer involved has been withdrawn from the operations, taken in, disarmed and investigations have commenced from the Military Police, the Minister said.

But Ernest Norgbey said an independent investigative body will do a better job at ensuring that justice is duly served.

Mr. Norgbey said he is not convinced with the explanation by the Military hence his request to the government.

I am going to write to him and also state my worries in the constituency concerning this lockdown and also urge them to constitute an independent investigative body to look into the matter to that the people of Ashaiman can be served better so that justice can be served, he said.

---citinewsroom




Sheringham Salvation Army helping the community

Sheringham Salvation Army has been providing help for local people during the current coronavirus epidemic, and is preparing for a surge in demand for food parcels as the crisis deepens. Tony Rothe reports.



The Salvation Army corps has urged members of the public to think of those struggling to feed their families during the coronavirus outbreak, and has published a list of items they are running short of.



Former social worker Carol McKean, who is community manager at Sheringhams Salvation Army headquarters, posted an appeal on Facebook a couple of weeks ago praising shoppers at the towns Tesco store for their generosity. This was after a number of people had told her they had seen customers attempting to remove toilet rolls and pasta from the basket near the Cromer Road stores entrance at the start of the outbreak.



Corps Officer Major Alex Bishop told Network Norfolk We are as prepared as we can be for this crisis. We have a nucleus of about 10 volunteers that are helping along with the employed staff team 7. So far, we have been helping people with food parcels, shopping, utility top-ups and collection of prescriptions.



Demand for food parcels has not yet reached high levels, but has picked up since the increased social isolation measures have been put in place. Each food parcel contains enough food for between 3 to 7 days depending on circumstances. Last week we provided parcels for 20 people including some children. I anticipate this will increase as things become more difficult and people find out that we are providing a service.



Mr Bishop said his team was not yet concerned about meeting demand, as their food stocks were holding up well with the customers at Sheringham Tesco being particularly generous.



But they are short of the following items:



Pudding items (including Angel Delight, Trifle kits, evaporated milk, long life sponge puddings etc);

Long life milk;

Tinned meat for hot meals including pies, puddings, minced beef and stewed steak;

Granulated sugar;

Savoury biscuits;

Hand sanitiser.



Sheringham Salvation Army Foodbank is open on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings, and by appointment. For more information, phone 01263 826059.



Factfile



Project title: Sheringham Corps Coronavirus response



Who runs the project? Alex and Janet Bishop



Where do you operate? We cover the eastern half of NR25 Sheringham towards Holt, all of NR26, all of NR27, NR11 as far south as Roughton



Address of project base: Salvation Army church, Cremer Street, Sheringham, NR26 8DZ



Public contact details: sheringham@salvationarmy.org.uk or 01263 826059



What you can offer other projects: We can accept referrals from other voluntary agencies/churches/statutory bodies/schools etc (with the clients permission) for 3 day emergency isolation food boxes, food parcels for those in financial need, isolation activity packs (developed for older people by our Older Peoples specialist team at HQ), telephone appointments with our registered social worker and accredited Parish Nurse.



Current needs: See the list of items above.



website: https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/sheringham



Prayer requests:

That the team members keep well;

That people facing need will come forward before they reach crisis point for food, and advice;

That the scattered church will truly make a difference on their new 'frontline';

That people feeling overwhelmed and anxious by the situation will find comfort in the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.





Do you have a news story or forthcoming event relating to Christians or a church in North Norfolk?
Gregory L. Fenves, the 29th president of the University of Texas at Austin, will step down from his position in June after five years.

Fenves is leaving UT to be president of Emory University in Atlanta, but will continue to lead UT in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic until June 30, the university said in a release.

In a written statement, Fenves said he decided to leave earlier this year, reasoning that the job of a university president is multifaceted and often comes to a natural end.

The timing of this news in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic is not what I had expected or wanted, Fenves said in a letter to the UT community. Our dedicated faculty and staff have striven to make the spring 2020 semester meaningful for our students. I want you to understand that I remain singularly focused on continuing that work, completing the semester and getting our community back to normal before my presidency ends on June 30.

UT POLICIES: UT implements new sex discrimination policies after weeks of discussions, student activism

Fenves first worked as an engineering professor at UT in the 1980s, and then later returned in 2008 to serve as the dean of the universitys Cockrell School of Engineering and then as provost. He was named president in 2015. Under his tenure, UT launched the Dell Medical School, increased the four-year graduation rate to nearly 70 percent, and defended educational benefits before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Leonard Moore, UTs vice president for diversity and community engagement, said Fenves commitment to first generation, low-income, and rural students, who are often low income and have less access to the university, has been unparalleled.

In January, UT announced a $100 million gift from the Dell Foundation  the largest gift to ever focus on low-income students at a Texas university. Over a 10-year period, the donation will fund students eligible for Pell Grants, the subsidy the federal government awards to students with a high level of financial need.

UT students selected as Dell Scholars will be awarded $20,000 during their undergraduate college career, money that can be used toward the cost of attendance, including room and board, transportation and supplies. Chosen scholars who are Texas residents can also use their Dell award in conjunction with UTs Texas Advance Commitment program, which guarantees aid to cover the full cost of tuition and fees for Texas families earning $65,000 or less each year.

Its things like that that best exemplify the spirit of Texas, Moore said.

Moore said Fenves has also successfully handled hot button political issues and crises he didnt create, including removal of Confederate statues, homicides on campus, and campus gun carry laws.

COVID-19 AT UT: UT president tests negative for COVID-19 after wife tests positive

He made decisions that were not in the best interest of him or political expediency, Moore said. I think every decision he made was in the best long interests of the institution.

Despite many officials getting a heads up about Fenves departure, some are still shocked, Moore said, adding that he liked working with Fenves.

You always know where you stood. He was a straight shooter, Moore said. What I liked him about was he allowed you to make your case for an issue if theres was a disagreement.

Other officials, like UT System Chancellor James B. Milliken, made it known that Fenves will be missed and wrote in a written statement about the presidents passion as a leader and UT advocate.

The UT System board of regents chairman Kevin Eltife thanked Fenves for being a great Longhorn and true partner.

Fenves emphasized how proud and honored he is to have served the UT community for the past 12 years.

I will forever be indebted that I had the opportunity to serve as your president and have a role in the long and storied history of The University of Texas.

brittany.britto@chron.com
We want to know ways the general public is receiving and understanding the impact of this, said John Russick, vice president for interpretation and education. "At the end of the day this is so much a human experience. We hope we can share how people got through this crisis, and what were the challenges and some of the heart-wrenching moments. What are the ways that people are coping?
Srinagar, April 7 : A CRPF trooper was killed on Tuesday in a firing incident by militants in J&K's Bijbehara town.

Police sources said militants fired at a CRPF party in Bijbehara town today injuring a trooper who was shifted to the local hospital for treatment.

Doctors at the local hospital referred the injured trooper for specialty treatment to the nearby Anantnag town where doctors declared the injured trooper as dead on arrival.

The area has been cordon off for searches.
It was a phone call made out of



desperation, to a wrong number, but help still arrived for stranded labourers from Jharkhand in certain southern towns, when they were feeling the pinch of the ongoing national lockdown enforced as part of India's fight against COVID19.

When a labourer from Jharkhand, stranded in Hosur in Tamil Nadu, made the phone call with hope, little did he realise that it will fetch help from a good samaritan from distant Chennai, although it was not the government helpline he hoped would help him tide over the crisis.

But, when city-based Aarti Madhusudan, who runs a not for profit initiative, attended the phone call, she had no second thoughts to reach out to her unknown compatriot miles away from home.

Instead of directing him to someone else, she chose to respond.

Incidentally, Madhusudhan received more calls from such stranded persons in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka too, and has no idea how they got her number.

"He sounded very desperate and said he had been going without food for two days," Madhusudhan told PTI.

She immediately turned to her Facebook friends and sought assistance, and within hours a social media post was shared by many users who came forward to help.

Later, she received a call from Sri City in Andhra Pradesh, with pleas from similar persons for help.

"I would have received 15 to 20 calls from the beginning of the month. And since the last two days I have not been receiving any calls," she said, adding, she had no idea how they happened to get her number.

The Hosur call was followed by another SOS from a person on behalf of a group of 198 construction labourers from Sri City in Andhra Pradesh.

After spending the little money they had with them, the workers decided to ask for help. And it so happened, the 'helpline' number turned out to be Madhusudhan's this time as well.

Another social media post, this time on workers from Sri City was picked up by a cyber specialist from Hyderabad and the labourers were reached out to by his friends, she said.

On April 3, the labourer from Hosur called to thank Madhusudhan for the gesture but what was more heartwarming was he refused further help for himself, saying it may be directed to others who were suffering elsewhere.

He said he and his associates had stocks that would sustain them for two to three days.

When she urged him to accept dry rations, as no one knows when the situation would improve, he replied in Hindi, "kai log abhi bhookhe Hain. Unko khana pahunchana zaroori hai. Hum unse baat karatein Hein." (Many are hungry now and food must reach them. I will link the callers to them).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh says dealing with COVID-19 is like fighting a war wherein an unknown enemy is making the battle more complicated and challenging every day.

Underlining the state's resolve to tide over the crisis, he says his government is leaving no stone unturned in procuring adequate life-saving equipment, including ventilators, PPE kits, N-95 masks and expanding bed capacity of isolation wards.

The northern state has reported 79 coronavirus cases and seven deaths till Tuesday morning.

In an e-mail interview to PTI, Singh says the large number of non-resident Indian (NRI) population in the state makes it more vulnerable to the deadly disease.

another problem we are facing here in Punjab is the large number of NRIs and foreign returnees who have come to the state in the past one month or so. Tracking, tracing and following up on them is a massive task, he says.

He says the Punjab government has already announced that the passports of NRIs would be impounded if they failed to reveal their travel history.

Most of the 95,000 passengers who arrived through Mohali and Amritsar airports before suspension of flights and the Attari-Wagah and Dera Baba Nanak land ports have been traced, he says.

Subsequently, the Centre sent us a list of 55,000 people who arrived in Delhi and were quarantined. Contact tracing has also been completed in most cases, but there may be cases where people are hiding information, including their travel and contact history, Singh says.

The senior Congress leader says his government is procuring protective equipment for frontline workers, including doctors and other health staff, on a war footing.

We are procuring equipment from wherever we can, but there is a shortage everywhere. We are getting indigenously made stuff speed-tested and produced. But it is not an easy job, he says.

On the state's preparedness on the healthcare front, Singh says the state will scale up the capacity of isolation beds to 20,000 in the next few days from the already operational 2,500 beds.

We have already ordered 1.65 lakh PPE kits, of which nearly half have been received. Orders have also been placed for one lakh N-95 masks and 42 lakh triple layer masks, and more than half of them have been received, he says, adding private industry is also contributing by way of making PPE kits and N-95 masks.

The government hospitals in the state currently have nearly 500 ventilators, he adds.

Singh, however, laments that the state does not have enough COVID-19 testing kits.

And of course, there is the question of testing of people for the disease. We are told to test, test and test. But we do not have enough kits, though we are now using mobile vans for community testing in hot-spot areas. The central government has allowed rapid testing, but we need kits for that too, he says.

Adding to the woes is the economic impact of the disease, with Punjab anticipating a hit of Rs 5,000 crore in revenue by April-end.

As of now, things have not gone out of control in India, but the numbers are increasing every day. We have seen a spike (of cases) here in Punjab in the past few days, he says.

The chief minister says the COVID-19 crisis has hit the economy of the state with no revenue generation from VAT and other sources. Punjab was the first state in the country to clamp curfew last month.

We have no revenue sources at all right now. Our GST arrear (Rs 6,752 crore) is also pending with the Centre. My finance minister tells me that by the end of April, we would be reeling under Rs 5,000 crore in losses. This is huge, and we have no means of making up for it, he says.

On the Centre's response towards the state's demand for a financial package and refund of Goods and Services Tax (GST) arrears, the Punjab chief minister says, It is unfortunate that we are yet to get a positive response from the Centre. I am sure they are doing their best, given the gravity of the situation. But frankly, it is not enough to meet the challenge. They need to pump in more funds, and release our GST arrears immediately.

Asked about his assessment of the current situation in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, Singh, an ex-armyman, says, It is in many ways like fighting a war with one key difference. The enemy here is unknown, we cannot see it, nor do we really know what it is like. Naturally, this makes the battle all the more difficult and challenging.

As of now, there is no vaccine or medicine for this. And we are hearing new things about COVID-19 every day. So it is really difficult to come out with a comprehensive strategy to fight this crisis, given that it is a continuously evolving one, he adds.

About preparations for wheat procurement, the CM says he has assured farmers that every grain would be procured, while ensuring adherence to the safety protocols.

Harvesting and marketing will be staggered in such a manner that there will be no overcrowding at any place. We are working with Arhtiyas' (commission agents) and sheller owners to add 3,000 sheller yards this year. Coupons will be issued to farmers so that they do not come to the Mandis at the same time, he says.

We have also requested the Centre to provide incentives to farmers to delay bringing the produce to the market so that the entire process gets staggered for over two months, he adds.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After shuttering its stores several weeks ago because of the coronavirus outbreak, Half Price Books has furloughed or laid off 78 percent of its employees.

The decision affects 2,146 workers, a spokesperson for the Dallas-based bookstore chain confirmed. The company declined to disclose how many employees in San Antonio, home to five stores, are affected.

Remaining employees will have their hours cut or pay reduced based on their salary.

Our stores have been closed to the public since March 17, said Kathy Doyle Thomas, chief strategy officer for Half Price Books. While we are lucky to still be able to sell books, music and movies online, those sales do not compare to what we do in our brick-and-mortar stores on a monthly basis, typically only amounting to roughly 10 percent of our total sales.

It was a very difficult decision, but one we had to make for the purpose of saving the company and to come out on the other side of this crisis, Thomas added.

Other local bookstores, including Cheever Books and The Twig Book Shop, are temporarily closed. Barnes & Noble has shut down hundreds of its stores and canceled events. A spokesperson for the national chain didnt respond to an inquiry about layoffs.

Barnes & Noble Education, a public company spun off in 2015 that is the parent of Barnes & Noble College, temporarily shuttered most of its bookstores at college campuses as schools closed or moved to online learning.

The company said it would begin a furlough program Monday impacting the majority of the BNC workforce and employees from other segments, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This was not a decision we made lightly, but one that is necessary to preserve our long-term ability to serve our customers and offer jobs and benefits to our employees, the company said in a statement. Our hope is that over the next few months we can return to normal operations and staffing across the organization.

Jenny Lawson, the author of Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things and several other books, has put the opening of her bookstore in Alamo Heights on hold for now.

In the meantime, Lawson and her employees are focusing on their book club, The Fantastic Strangelings.

Were trying to support people who are struggling right now, Lawson said recently. Books and binge-watching TV are safe ways of removing your brain for a little bit and traveling somewhere else that isnt here.

madison.iszler@express-news.net
Researchers at the University of Iowa and the University of Georgia have developed a vaccine that fully protects mice against a lethal dose of MERS, a close cousin of the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The vaccine uses a harmless virus to deliver a MERS coronavirus protein into cells to generate an immune response, and may hold promise for developing vaccines against other coronaviruses diseases, including COVID-19.

The team led by Paul McCray, MD, at the UI Carver College of Medicine, and Biao He, PhD, at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, tested a MERS vaccine candidate in mice engineered to be susceptible to the MERS coronavirus. The vaccine is an innocuous parainfluenza virus (PIV5) carrying the "spike" protein that MERS uses to infect cells. All the vaccinated mice survived a lethal dose of the MERS coronavirus. The results of the study were published April 7 in the journal mBio.

"Our new study indicates that PIV5 may be a useful vaccine platform for emerging coronavirus diseases, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic," says McCray, UI professor of pediatrics. "Using the same strategy, vaccine candidates based on PIV5 expressing the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 have been generated. We are planning more studies in animals to test the ability of PIV5-based vaccines in preventing disease caused by SARS-CoV-2."

MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and COVID-19 are both caused by coronaviruses. MERS is deadlier and is fatal in about one third of known cases, but there have been only 2,494 cases since 2012, when the virus first emerged. In contrast, there have been over 1.25 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide since it first emerged in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, and almost 70,000 people have died from the disease.

The study found that just one, relatively low dose of the vaccine given to the mice intranasally (inhaled through the nose) was sufficient to fully protect all the treated mice from a lethal dose of MERS coronavirus.

When the researchers analyzed the immune responses generated by the vaccine, they found that both antibodies and protective T cells were produced. However, the antibody response was quite weak and it seems most likely that the vaccine's protective effect is due to the T cell response in the mouse lungs.

The researchers note several factors that make PIV5 expressing a coronavirus spike protein an appealing platform for vaccine development against emerging coronaviruses. First, PIV5 can infect many different mammals, including humans, without causing disease. PIV5 is also being investigated as a vaccine for other respiratory diseases including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza. Second, the fact that a low dose of the vaccine was sufficient to protect the mice might be beneficial for creating enough vaccine for mass immunization. And finally, the vaccine in the current study was the most effective MERS vaccine to date in animal models of the disease.

###

In addition to McCray, who also holds an appointment the UI Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and He, who is a professor of infectious disease at the University of Georgia, the research team included Kun Li, Christine Wohlford-Lenane, David Meyerholz, Rudragouda Channappanavar, and Stanley Perlman at the UI; and Zhuo Li and Dong An at the University of Georgia.

The research was funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. McCray is supported by the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust. Biao He is supported by endowment of Fred C. Davison Distinguished University Chair in Veterinary Medicine.
Some anti-social elements desecrated an idol at a temple in Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich district, following which one person was apprehended, police said on Tuesday.

The incident took place on Monday night in Lakhaiyya Kala village under Nanpara police station limits and an FIR has been registered, said Superintendent of Police Vipin Mishra.

The idol was reinstalled in the temple with proper religious procedure, he said.

Mishra said another temple located nearby was also desecrated by vandals.

The situation is normal and senior police officials, along with force, are camping in the area, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Express News Service

KASARAGOD: After 15 days and 10 deaths, the Karnataka government has agreed to allow patients from Kasaragod district of Kerala to access hospitals in Mangaluru.



The access was cut off as part of the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The people of Kasaragod depend on hospitals in Mangaluru as the border district of Kerala does not have a tertiary health care facility. Since the beginning of the blockade on March 24, 10 patients lost their lives after their ambulances were blocked. All the 10 persons had their houses within 10km from the border.

On Tuesday, the Karnataka government told the Supreme Court that it has struck an agreement with the Kerala government to allow the "free movement" of patients between the two states at Talapady, the inter-state border.



FOLLOW COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES HERE

But even on Tuesday, two patients from Kannur -- a 13-year-old burn patient and a 60-year-old who underwent surgery, were sent back by Karnataka police.



The permission to allow patients came late in the evening on Tuesday, and it had a long list of conditions which were as follows:

1. Only non-COVID-19 patients will be allowed.

2. Patients can seek treatment only for heart ailments, neuro disease, road accidents, post-delivery complications and ailments for which there are no treatments in Kasaragod

3. Local government medical doctor should certify that:

a) the patient is not a COVID-19 patient.

b) does not have COVID-19 symptoms or they should provide COVID negative certificate.

c) should not have international/ interstate travel history.

d) the case is a medical emergency.

e) the treatment is not available in Kasaragod and the patient cannot be taken to Kannur.

4. Patients can come only in government ambulance and it should be sanitised as per the guidelines of the Ministry of Health.

5. Only one attendant can accompany patients.

6. Only the ambulance driver and one paramedic allowed.

7. The patient will be checked by a medical team at Talapady to ensure the above conditions are met.

8. Patient must carry residential proof or passport or Aadhaar or voter ID

9. The COVID criteria checklist must be duly filled and attached by the Government Medical Officer only

10. All cost of personal protection equipment and isolation ICUs will be borne by the patient only.

Kasaragod steps up to the challenge

In a bid to facilitate patients seeking treatment in Mangaluru, the Kasaragod district administration said 108 Ambulances will be stationed at Talapady to take patients across the border.

One of the conditions of the Karnataka government to allow patients in was they should come in government ambulances, and the ambulances should be sanitised as per MoHFW guidelines.

Collector D Sajith Babu said four government doctors would be stationed at the border round the clock to provide certificates to patients seeking treatment in Mangaluru.



Dr Harikrishnan (9496820103) and Dr Sanuj (9496333577), assistant surgeons of Mangalpady Taluk Hospital will be at Talapady on alternate days from 8 pm to 8 am.



Dr Nisha (8592812615) will take over at 8 am and will be at the border till 2 pm; Dr Maithili (8304812407) will be on duty from 2 pm to 8 pm, said Sajith Babu in an order.



The collector issued the special order after the Karnataka government issued a long list of requirements to allow patients from Kasaragod to access hospitals in Mangaluru.
By mid-February, some of the nations top health care officials were privately expressing alarm over evidence that the coronavirus was spreading from patients without symptoms in a chain of emails obtained by USA TODAY.

The agencies they help lead failed to translate the information into rapid action, leaving cities and counties to forge their own containment strategies.

Since then, more than 12,000 Americans have died from the virus.

The email thread was called Red Dawn Breaking  a riff on a 1980s movie. In their candid notes, some of the nations leading infectious disease experts and most powerful health care officials traded critical information as the threat mounted.

On Feb. 23, Dr. Robert Kadlec, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, highlighted flaws in the governments approach in an exchange with dozens of high-level federal officers and outside experts, according to the previously unreported emails.

A leading researcher in projecting the toll of a pandemic outbreak had just shared studies showing the disease was spreading widely among people without symptoms in the Wuhan, China region, where the global outbreak started. Some carriers even tested negative for COVID-19.

Is this true?! Kadlec responded. If so, we have a huge whole (sic) on our screening and quarantine effort.

The United States had been trying to hold off the disease with measures ranging from health screenings at airports to restrictions on travelers from China and ramp up limited testing for the virus. Kadlec did not respond to a request for comment.

Brett Murphy and Letitia Stein are reporters on the USA TODAY national investigations team. Contact Brett at brett.murphy@usatoday.com or Letitia at lstein@usatoday.com.

Duane Caneva, chief medical officer at the Department of Homeland Security, kicked off the Red Dawn email threads earlier in the month as an informal forum for the countrys experts to help one another respond to the emergency.

Story continues

Kadlecs email was circulated to a running chain of the top pandemic planners outside government as well as a long list of insiders: senior officers at his agency, Health and Human Services, at the Department of Homeland Security and scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Several are longtime friends who worked together in the George W. Bush administration, where they designed many of the response procedures the government has rolled out in recent weeks.

Their behind-the-scenes distress stood in contrast to the official positions of federal agencies at the time and, most notably, that of their top boss.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar speaks about the coronavirus, flanked by, from left, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci and Commissioner of Food and Drugs Stephen Hahn on Feb. 25.

On the day Kadlec sent his email, President Donald Trump repeated at a news conference a refrain he had recited for weeks: We have it very much under control in this country.

That was the day Trump received a second warning from a top adviser that a coronavirus pandemic could cost the country trillions of dollars and endanger millions of Americans, according to The New York Times.

By then, the Red Dawn experts were deep into email discussions about a threat far worse than Americans had been told. The government officers on the chain traded notes about a drastic, last-resort option to contain the spread: mass closures of schools, businesses and communal spaces.

Eva Lee, a leading infectious disease modeler in the USA, shared several studies and her own projections with Kadlec and others on the Red Dawn chain.

A Georgia Tech professor who worked on pandemic responses in both the Bush and Obama administrations, Lee shared with the group mounting evidence that people who tested negative and patients without symptoms appeared to be spreading the disease.

Kadlec seemed uncharacteristically unnerved by her information, she said in an interview, which she assumed would translate into actions at the highest levels above him.

I was hoping that someone would act, Lee said. I guessed, naively, that maybe we will start moving.

A quick response to the knowledge was critical. Just a few weeks head start could drastically reduce the final death toll, a senior medical adviser in the Department of Veterans Affairs had noted even earlier, in an email Feb. 17.

The adviser, Dr. Carter Mecher, laid out the pushback and concerns that would be raised about the closures, even sharing data with the group about the impact on the millions of American children relying on schools for daily meals.

Yet it would be a full month before the White House released an initial 15-day plan to slow the spread  a plan that fell far short of a national stay-at-home directive.

Trumps tepidly worded action paper asked Americans to work and take classes from home when possible and to avoid discretionary travel.

The delays at the federal level left states and communities on their own to make decisions about when, and if, to order residents to shelter in place.

Governors and mayors found themselves subject to blistering second-guessing from health experts urging immediate and sustained action and business leaders who feared a ruinous impact on the local economy and stressed-out households.

They were forced to make critical decisions without testing data to accurately track the rising number of infections after failures at the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration to develop and scale up an essential screening measure.

The coronavirus test that wasnt: How federal health officials misled state scientists and derailed the best chance at containment

On the Red Dawn threads, experts traded their own research, international headlines and analysis from other publicly available data coming out of China and the cruise ships that carried some of the first American patients.

National officials activating response plans across federal agencies in February and into March were warned through the emails of early signs the virus appeared to be spreading in California and Washington state.

The names copied on the correspondence  a portion of which USA TODAY obtained from direct recipients and public records requests  include division-level leaders at the CDCs public health offices; Dr. Gregory Martin, a division director at the State Department; Mecher at Veterans Affairs; as well as Kadlecs lieutenants at the preparedness agency inside HHS.

Caneva and Martin did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Mecher declined to comment.

The White House did not address the early warnings in the Red Dawn emails to officials who advise Trump or the subsequent delays to respond.

"President Trump took bold action to protect Americans and unleash the full power of the federal government to curb the spread of the virus, White House spokesman Judd Deere said.

HHS, which oversees the CDC and FDA, did not address the emails or what precise steps were taken to inform local authorities about the new information in them.

Gretchen Michael, an agency spokeswoman in Kadlecs division, said the HHS departments have been and continue to be committed to providing the latest information about this new virus to state and local health officials.

Federal health official wrote, 'You cant outrun it'

Experts in the Red Dawn group treated a cruise ship forced to quarantine after docking in Japan in early February as a research opportunity  a floating laboratory with reliable data.

Mecher, a senior medical adviser for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, sent an email Feb. 27 calculating how the spread documented onboard applied to an early case in California: We already have a significant outbreak and are well behind the curve.

In the email, Mecher raised the possibility of closing schools and instituting social contact restrictions.

Mecher had helped design how such measures should be applied for a national pandemic mitigation plan in 2007. He had studied how social distancing improved outcomes between cities in the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918.

For at least 10 days, he had been pushing the group about the need to plan for social distancing measures.

We are now well past the equivalent 5:45 moment at Mann Gulch, Mecher wrote in his email Feb. 27, referring to the moment in a historic wildfire when responders realized too late that they needed to turn around. You cant outrun it.

That topic was not emphasized at a White House roundtable that same week between federal planners and state and local public health officers, in Washington for an annual series of meetings on Capitol Hill.

Earlier in the day, Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the CDC had detailed to reporters the range of social changes that would probably be needed to contain the virus, from teleworking to canceling large events and closing schools. She described telling her children at breakfast that we as a family need to be preparing for significant disruption of our lives.

The comments by Messonnier, who directs the agencys National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, helped propel the stock market into a downward spiral.

In a White House annex, more than 40 people  not yet concerned about social distancing  packed around conference tables arranged in a square for the public health planning discussion. Many of the officials had never been invited to a White House meeting, which had been added to their agenda.

Members of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials met at the White House on Feb. 25, before social distancing became common.

Among those attending were health officers from New York and Washington, states soon to become early hot spots for the disease. Federal health leaders included Kadlec, who two days earlier had sent the email warning about inadequate screening.

To the state and local health officers, the rock star in the room was Anne Schuchat, the CDCs principal deputy director.

Discussion centered on containing the threat by screening, testing and tracking the contacts of anyone exposed, recalled Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

It was still a containment conversation, like we have got to get out there and test and find people and try to get this under control, he recalled of a meeting that went on long enough for his back to hurt.

State health officers left impressed that the federal leaders had listened more than they presented.

That evening, Caneva, the Homeland Security medical officer, fired off an email to the Red Dawn chain noting a good discussion.

We are all in this together, and preparedness and response slowly transitions to community mitigation efforts and the frontline boots on the ground, he wrote. Still only 14 cases detected.

The word detected was singled out in italics.

'The cat is out of the bag , ' a county health official said of the spreading virus

Washington State Secretary of Health John Wiesman was among the health officers who ended up cutting short his visit to the capital that week.

Back in his home state, planners in Seattle were reviewing a state guide to restrictions that might be needed to contain a virus for which there was no medication or vaccine.

Public records show health officials decided that the new coronavirus did not appear deadly enough to outweigh the economic toll of widely imposing the most restrictive types of distancing measures.

By weeks end, a man in his 50s succumbed to COVID-19 symptoms in Kirkland, a Seattle suburb. He was the first to die in the USA.

Soon worrisome reports about a cluster of cases linked to a cruise in mid-February surfaced in California  evidence of the type of worries raised in the Red Dawn email chain.

In Placer County, public health officer Aimee Sisson thought the virus was probably out in Northern California by the time she announced March 4 the death of a man, the states first COVID-19 victim.

She recalled counting back through the cruise passengers contacts during the days it took for him to progress from infection to hospitalization 20 minutes from the state capital, as well as other cases from the same voyage beginning to surface.

Placer County public health officer Aimee Sisson discusses the death of an elderly patient who was infected with the new coronavirus in Auburn, Calif., on March 4.

Sisson told USA TODAY that she sensed the cat (was) out of the bag and was ready to strongly alert her community about what was coming.

The federal posture at the time remained cautious.

An official from the CDC questioned her choice of wording in a news release advising the community to prepare for the transmission of the virus, emails obtained from Placer County through a public records request show.

In the quote, you mentioned community spread and that could lead people to think you currently have community spread cases, CDC press officer Scott Pauley wrote, but I do get that its possible you will have the possibility of that in the coming days.

Sisson included the language anyway, telling residents that although the case did not appear to be a locally acquired infection, we expect to see additional cases in coming days, including cases of community spread, not linked to travel.

She told USA TODAY that she did not feel pressured by the CDC to tone down her approach.

Sisson used her megaphone at a news conference about the death to warn residents that the risk to their community no longer was low.

While we are not at the point where I would consider canceling events, closing schools or requiring widespread social distancing measures, we do want the public to prepare for that possibility, she said.

The CDC official dispatched to talk to reporters downplayed the threat during the same news conference. Asked whether people should avoid cruise travel, Dr. Chris Braden noted that some communities were seeing cases but many more were not, so it is very hard to make generalizable statements.

An assistant director at the California State Health Department was similarly vague, yet Dr. Charity Dean may have known better: She was on the Red Dawn email chain, where she had been warned about other flares arising in the state.

Dean could not be reached for comment.

In a statement to USA TODAY, CDC spokesman Benjamin Haynes said the agency provides guidance to states and local communities to help them decide what measures to use.

All CDC recommendations are based on the best available data and science we have at that time, Haynes said.

It was two weeks before the states governor became the first in the nation to issue a stay-at-home order. By then, 15 more had died in California, and the U.S. death toll had begun its steep climb.

Brett Murphy and Letitia Stein are reporters on the USA TODAY investigations desk. Contact Brett at brett.murphy@usatoday.com or @brettMmurphy and Letitia at lstein@usatoday.com, @LetitiaStein, by phone or Signal at 813-524-0673.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus response: Officials got warnings but didnt act quickly
A Long Beach, Miss. couple who died holding hands contracted coronavirus on a cruise ship and succumbed to the virus shortly after their return, their pastor said Monday during a streaming funeral service.

A private service was held to remember the lives of Jerry Austin Williamson and his wife, Frances Jewel Bond Williamson, both 72.

The couple died on April 1, six minutes apart, with their hands still intertwined in love until each had passed.

A pastor remembered them during a broadcast of the service Monday and stood at a podium in between the couples two caskets.

A United States flag was draped over Jerry Williamsons casket to honor his longtime service in the U.S. Navy, where he worked until his retirement as a public works supervisors at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport.

An assortment of flowers adorned the casket of his wife, a native of Wiggins, Miss. who had spent her life in the medical field working as a phlebotomist, or healthcare professional trained to draw blood from patients.

Both were members of North Long Beach Baptist Church, where he was deacon and she was member of the flower committee.

10 Alabamians killed by COVID-19

As a native of Tuscaloosa, Jerry Williamson was devoted fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide. A pastor donned a Crimson Tide hat in his honor.

The pastor said the couple had spent their lives as devoted Christians and were now with the Lord to live their eternal lives.

Calls for prayers came for the family, including those who may be experiencing some anger as they grieve because of the cruise lines decision to continue operating after the initial warnings went out about the deadly COVID-19 that, by then, had spread into the United States.

The pastor pointed out they knew of the virus in the early stages but didnt realized just how dangerous it was at that time.

The couple loved to go on cruises, the pastor said, but they usually returned to shore with some type of illness they had caught on the trip. The only difference was this time the condition was terminal.

Here are more stories of Alabamians who have died of coronavirus

Over the years, the couple had faced good and bad times together, but each time had relied on their faith to get through.

They had made it through the loss of a child and through Jerry Williamsons battle with lung cancer that was so severe he had lost one lung to the cancer.

The couples greatest love was their children and grandchildren, their friends and their faith in God, the pastor said.

At the service, the pastor reminded parishioners that the couples steadfast faith led them to a life of eternal love.

They are survived by their two children, Delora Demaris Williamson Ingerson and Jerry Austin Williamson II, along with their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Interment will follow at a later date at Biloxi National Cemetery along with a public memorial.

2020 The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.)

Visit The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.) at www.sunherald.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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COVID-19: Total cases reach 4,858 in India, death toll touches 136



The number of coronavirus cases in India has reached 4,858, with Maharashtra tally rising to 891. Of the total cases, at least 1,445 are related to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi on March 13 and 14. As many as 136 people have died of the disease so far and the country, according to Union health ministry, is somewhere between Stage 2 and 3 of the coronavirus pandemic. Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu continued to be the COVID-19 hotspots with maximum share in the total number of coronavirus cases in India amidst 21-day complete nationwide lockdown.



The total number of coronavirus cases in the Andhra Pradesh has now touched 304 while the active cases remained at 294, according to the bulletin issued by the Medical and Health Department on Tuesday. The number of coronavirus cases in Gujarat jumped to 165 on Tuesday, with 19 more people testing positive for the viral infection in the state, an official said.



12 new cases registered in Karnataka: state tally at 175. 12 new coronavirus cases reported in Bhopal; MP tally rises to 268. Rajasthan recorded 24 more cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, taking the total number of virus cases in the state to 325, an official said. "24 new cases have come up today, including in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Banswara and Churu districts. All have contact and travel history," Additional Chief Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said.



A 72-year-old man belonging to Jharpada had been admitted to AIIMS Bhubaneswar on April 4 complaining of respiratory distress. He had a history of chronic hypertension. He died on 6 April. He was tested positive for the coronavirus. Contact tracing and containment ongoing. One more COVID19 positive case in Bhubaneswar - male, 45 years, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Odisha. Read More...


Once Matthew McConaughey draws the curtain on the acting game, his new career as a pro bingo caller is now assured.

The Interstellar star on Monday took to the internet to call the numbers for senior citizens isolating at The Enclave, an assisted living community located in Round Rock, Texas.

According to CBS, residents at the facility asked McConaughey, via a post on social media, to come and join them for an evenings bingo.

Read more: Indiana Jones 5 delayed until 2022

And on Monday, he did, joining in with his family - including his mother Kay, wife Camilla Alves and their children - and answering questions from players.

This was a wish come true! said Molly Davis Nedley, of The Enclave at Round Rock Senior Living.

The residents absolutely loved seeing Matthew and his family and enjoyed hearing him talk about what he's doing to get through this crisis.

McConaughey and family join the bingo. (The Enclave at Round Rock Senior Living)

It gave them hope and was the boost that they needed to get through this lonely, challenging time.

Thank you to Matthew, his wife Camila, and his mom Kay for hosting our residents for a few rounds of virtual bingo! employees added in a post to Facebook.

Our residents had a great time playing, and they loved talking with Matthew about his family heritage and his favorite drink.

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During a time when we are all working to make lemonade out of lemons, we are so humbled that Matthew took the time to play our favorite game with us. As Matthew would say, let's turn this red light into a green light!

The green light part was a reference to a viral video McConaughey posted to Twitter in March, which posited because every red light eventually turns green.

Residents joining the online bingo session. (The Enclave at Round Rock Senior Living)

Residents at the facility ended the bingo sesh by hold up messages on green paper, including McConaughey's infamous 'alright, alright, alright' catchphrase, at which point things got a bit dusty.

Top man.
Over the past two-and-a-bit years, banks have been forced to repeatedly say sorry for their shoddy treatment of customers and swear not to do it again.

Most of my working life in 2018 and 2019 was consumed by the Hayne royal commission into banking misconduct and the inquiry's aftermath, and I've lost count of the number of times executives have made grovelling apologies, or promised to put customers interest over profits.

Banks have a key role in the government's plan to cushion the economy from the blow inflicted by coronavirus. Credit:Ryan Stuart

Well, heres the industry's chance to prove these commitments are more than just slogans.

After years of scandal, banks are now key members of "Team Australia"  the government's plan to cushion the economy from the devastating blow of coronavirus.
Writer David Samuel Levinson is a big fan of big reads, during which communities come together to read and discuss a single book.

So when he was brainstorming about possible collaborations during the COVID-19 crisis between Gemini Ink and Writing Workshops Dallas, literary organizations the San Antonio native works closely with, he suggested a statewide big read with virtual discussions. They immediately started figuring out how to make it happen.

We realize, at this time, people need literary communities, said Alexandra van de Kamp, executive director of Gemini Ink. We came up with the idea of the Big Texas Read.

They wanted to select a book by a Texas writer. It wasnt Levinsons intent to kick off the series with one of his own novels:  I pitched them some other books, but they said, Lets use yours. Its kind of perfect, he said from Little Rock, Arkansas, where he is writer-in-residence at the state university there. Its not about a virus, but it is about a dystopia.

The book is his 2017 satiric novel Tell Me How This Ends Well. The Big Texas Read officially kicks off April 15. Readers can sign up to participate for free at geminiink.org or writingworkshops.com.

Tell Me How This Ends Well is set in the United States in 2022.

There is kind of a despot as president, and things are quite terrible in the United States because Israel has been disbanded and theres an influx of Israelis who move into the country, and it creates a problem, just as migrants from any country moving into a predominantly homogeneous culture such as America would have issues with, the Churchill High School grad said. America undergoes a rise in anti-Semitism the likes of which weve never seen.

Its a serious take on the current moment, said Blake Kimzey, founder and executive director of Writing Workshops Dallas. It also has levity and humor and satire.

On ExpressNews.com: Novel Duchess of Angus set in SA during WWII

The climate in the country is the backdrop for a story about a Jewish family gathering for one last Passover with the matriarch, who is dying of a terminal lung disease. The children, believing that their father is doing things to speed up her death, come up with a dramatic plan to protect her by taking him out of the picture.

Its kind of a crazy plot, Levinson said.

Though the setting for the story has a ripped-from-the-headlines feel, he started working on the book  the follow-up to his debut novel, Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence, and the short story collection Most of Us Are Here Against Our Will  in 2015.

I have always been curious about hatred and why certain people hate other people, and why, especially, the world kind of focuses that hatred on the Jews, he said. Ive run into it, being a Jew. I dont get it. So I wanted to explore it in this book and take it to its logical conclusion, in a time when hatred is sort of unbound.

The book runs about 400 pages, depending on the format. Rather than having a single virtual get-together in a month or so to discuss the entire book, the Big Texas Read will include Zoom chats every two weeks covering about a quarter of the book at a time. The first one will be April 29.

Levinson will take part in those sessions, which will be moderated by either van de Kamp or Kimzey.

Were going to keep you literary company while youre reading this book, van de Kamp said.

In addition to the discussions, there will be raffles for free writing workshops from both groups, as well as a consultation with Levinson on the first 50 pages of a manuscript. There also will be some contests and other activities along the way.

I think people will have fun with it, Kimzey said. Thats what we want is just something where we can allow people to have fun with literature.

Thats Levinsons hope, too.

Its nice to draw people away from their devices, he said. Im so oversaturated with the doom and gloom. My novel is basically a black comedy, so I hope people find the humor and the humanity and the love that these siblings have for their mom.

On ExpressNews.com: SAs indie bookshops connect online during crisis

The organizations are partnering with independent booksellers in each city  The Twig in San Antonio and Interabang Books in Dallas  for the series, to encourage readers to support them during this difficult time.

They play a crucial role of supporting local authors, so, of course, we want to support them, van de Kamp said.

The plan is to keep the series going throughout the crisis, with the possibility that organizations in other cities will join, too. And if it has legs, it will continue beyond that. Van de Kamp and Kimzey have a long list of Texas authors to draw from for future reads.

A lot of times, people think literary culture is based in New York, but I love the literary tradition in Texas, Kimzey said. We love our authors here, and so we wanted to do something that would feature Texas authors or authors that have a connection to Texas.

dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN

Deborah Martin is an arts writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Deborah, become a subscriber. dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN
The door is still open for takeout at Smoki O's. Just don't be surprised if an employee cleans that door after you use it.

Owner Earline Walker said she instructed her staff to wash their hands after each cash transaction and clean all surfaces after each customer leaves.

Right now this is trying to do everything that we can to keep our customers as well as our staff safe, she said.

Sales at the barbecue restaurant north of downtown have been down by about one-third during the coronavirus pandemic, Walker said. She has encountered difficulties with her supply chain. But she tells her staff to give customers the very best quality possible.

They're going through so much right now, Walker said. But when they're able to sit down and eat a good meal, that relieves a lot of stress.

Three weeks after the pandemic closed restaurant dining rooms, Smoki O's is one of a dwindling number of operations offering something like the typical takeout experience. Many restaurants have adopted curbside pickup and delivery options that minimize or eliminate in-person interaction. Others have closed until further notice  whenever that might be.

At Sidney Street Cafe in Benton Park, chef Kevin Nashan has embraced curbside pick-up. Instead of the kampachi crudo, rabbit porchetta and other elegant, modern fare that won him a James Beard Award, he is offering pot roast and baked rigatoni.

Nashan believes that over the next few weeks, many closed restaurants will return with curbside pick-up out of necessity.

I mean, you have to do something, he said.

Interviews with the owners of small neighborhood restaurants, recently thriving local chains and paragons of contemporary dining reveal a range of experiences during this coronavirus limbo. No one knows what a return to normal will look like.

But if there is a common theme to these restaurant owners' thoughts and experiences, Nashan might have voiced it most succinctly: It's a scary scenario.

Staying afloat

Tom Schmidt laid off 218 employees from the four locations of his barbecue restaurant Salt + Smoke. He was able to bring back 30 of those employees and now maintains a staff of about 70 at the restaurants, which offer curbside pickup and delivery.

In terms of the immediate situation, it is just full crisis mode of constantly figuring out first and foremost how to keep everybody safe and healthy, Schmidt said.

The goal is to stay afloat, not improve profit margin.

This is like, hey, how can we lose less money today than yesterday to extend this as long as possible and keep people employed and keep offering services that I really believe people in St. Louis need? Schmidt said.

Mission Taco Joint is also operating a curbside pickup and delivery model but laid off all 309 of its hourly employees across its four St. Louis and two Kansas City locations.

All I'm thinking of is, whatever we do right now, we constantly need to be thinking on how (we will) come out of this on the other side, taking care of people as best we can and making sure that our employees come back when this is over, owner Adam Tilford said.

Tilford said Mission Taco Joint paid its furloughed employees for an extra week of their average weekly hours. The restaurant is also giving those employees $15 per day in food at the restaurant and putting tips earned at the restaurants toward their health insurance.

The goal of Mission Taco Joint's operations now is to cover its current payroll and costs, minus such fixed expenses as rent and utilities that would be due regardless of whether the restaurants were open or closed.

This model is really for our employees and our team, Tilford said. And we're going to do it as long as they want to.

Small independent restaurants don't face layoffs on the scale of a Mission Taco Joint or Salt + Smoke, but the financial choices their owners face are no less painful.

El Toluco Taqueria & Grocery in Manchester is open for takeout, delivery and one-customer-at-a-time retail shopping. Owner Maggie Pizarro said she and husband, Fausto, aren't paying themselves right now.

I'm more worried for my employees because I'm not able to offer them all of their hours, she said. And then I worry about them being able to provide for their families and pay for their rent.

Business has been slow, Maggie said, but the Pizarros have appreciated loyal customers returning.

We've had a lot of support from the community, which has been very nice, she said.

Business has also been down at the Overland Korean restaurant Sides of Seoul, which Terry Lee has operated with his mother, sister and brother-in-law since late 2018.

Our family meetings are a little bit more tense now, Lee said.

Lee said the family is paying the restaurant's employees but not themselves during the pandemic. Family members have also dipped into their savings to support the restaurant.

Still, according to Lee, some customers have tipped 100% or more on their orders.

The thing is, a restaurant is a thankless job, he said. But we feel so grateful because, oh my God, these customers are helping us out in these times.

Lee has also been heartened by how his younger generation of Korean-restaurant owners has been able to help the older generation navigate the new regulations against dine-in service.

I just think that even though right now we're in a dark place, there is some light that we can see out of this, which is awesome, he said.

No clear choice

The popular Benton Park restaurant Blues City Deli is closed, but owner Vince Valenza and his sons have opened Melo's, the pizzeria directly behind the deli, for limited hours of curbside pickup.

They got me sitting at a desk taking orders, Valenza said.

Support a local restaurant Find more than 400 St. Louis-area restaurants that are providing delivery, carryout or curbside pickup service during the coronavirus pandemic. stltoday.com/takeout

Valenza tried curbside pickup at Blues City Deli, but the logistics overwhelmed the restaurant's staff and ledger.

It felt like one of our busier days of all time during that whole week every day, but then we looked at it and we were like, 'Oh,' Valenza said. We couldn't turn around as many customers as we normally do.

The pandemic hasn't presented restaurants with a binary choice of stay open or close until further notice. The situation changes by the day and even hour.

Indo, one of 2019's most acclaimed new restaurants, began curbside pickup on March 19. Owner Nick Bognar ended it a week later, closing his restaurant until further notice.

People were super stoked to support us, Bognar said. And we did really well. Like, we beat our goals by a lot.

But Bognar was concerned for his employees' safety, especially given Indo's small size.

So we (were) all standing really close to each other, he said.

Owner Mary Bogacki said business has been good at her Crestwood restaurant Yolklore, which featured drive-thru service even before the pandemic.

Recently, Bogacki added a small selection of grocery items to Yolklore's menu. This week, she is only selling groceries. Then, anticipating a rise in local COVID-19 cases, she is closing the restaurant for two weeks.

Also, she said, honestly, at this point, we all need such a mental break.

Gerard Craft cited safety as a primary concern when he announced the closure of Pastaria, Brasserie by Niche and his other celebrated restaurants a few days before mandates from St. Louis city and county effectively ended dine-in service.

Craft initially didn't lay off any employees, but after the most recent pay period, his restaurant group furloughed the majority of its staff. A few of his employees are volunteering at North Sarah Food Hub, a community shared kitchen. A few other employees are preparing meals for St. Louis Public Schools students.

Craft himself has been lobbying elected officials to provide relief to restaurants and other small businesses. He remembers the pain of guiding a restaurant through the Great Recession but said nothing compares to the damage the pandemic is causing.

The difference is that you can't necessarily just hustle your way out of this one, which chefs are so good at, he said.

Late last month, Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed into law the CARES Act. For restaurant owners, the act's primary relief is the Payroll Protection Program: Small Business Administration loans that cover payroll and limited other expenses over eight weeks.

The loans are forgivable, provided owners maintain their levels of employment and compensation or rehire any laid-off employees by the end of June.

This is a gross simplification of the program, and even before loan applications opened April 3, restaurant owners were struggling to parse the protection program's details.

Tom Schmidt of Salt + Smoke said last week: Even what I knew about it yesterday that I thought I had a really good handle on, I had a half-hour conversation with an expert in the SBA stuff this morning that flipped all that stuff on its head.

Reaction to the protection program among the restaurant owners interviewed for this article was mixed.

The government is providing this support, and we should take advantage of it and help sustain this industry and try to keep it going, Bogacki said.

I am pursuing that ... because, as I said, the sales are down, but the cost of food is not down, Earline Walker of Smoki O's said. So I do need some help.

Maggie Pizarro of El Toluco is skeptical: I personally find it hard to believe that they're just going to give us money for free, you know?

Meanwhile, Tara Gallina, who with husband Michael owns Vicia and Winslow's Table (both closed until further notice), wishes the state of Missouri had waived or deferred collection of sales tax.

That's just a cash-in-hand thing that you could easily say, 'OK, we're waiving (the first quarter)' or something like that and let people keep that money and use it for what they need, she said. Which I think we're all just going to do anyway. But it would be nice to know that we're not going to get the hammer thrown down on us later because of it.

Craft said the relief so far is better than nothing, but most restaurants and other small businesses will need more aid for a longer period of time to survive. Among other issues, the Payroll Protection Program's timeline assumes restaurants will be ready to open with a full staff in only two months.

There's no way in two months everything's going to be normal, he said.

That concern factored into the scary scenario Kevin Nashan of Sidney Street Cafe mentioned.

So say, hypothetically, we opened in July, he said. It's not like we're going to open the doors (with customers saying), 'Oh my God, I've been waiting to go to Sidney Street.' It's going to be a slow trickle back.

Dining post-pandemic

As pressing a question as when restaurants will be able to reopen their dining rooms is whether that reopening matters.

Tom Schmidt turned the question around: Say restaurants can open their dining rooms on July 1. Are you going to be going out to dining rooms?

Somebody sneezes in that dining room?

You're going to have a nervous breakdown just sitting next to them, Craft said.

Schmidt sees restaurants removing tables from their dining room to create more space between diners and generally relying much more on takeout business.

But I think what doesn't change long-term is the need for people to connect with other people, and breaking bread is not going to go away, he said. It's an intrinsic need in humanity.

We're going to modify how we do it, but that doesn't mean restaurants go away or don't provide services that people need to really facilitate that. We're just going to have to be nimble and adapt.

Mission Taco Joint's Adam Tilford agrees that it won't be business as usual when restaurant dining rooms reopen after the pandemic.

We were extremely busy, and we've been extremely busy since we've opened, and it's going to take some time to get (back) to that level, I think, he said.

Still, he is optimistic that his restaurant's younger-leaning demographic will return to restaurants sooner rather than later.

Already some restaurant owners are planning for at least a partial return. At Blues City Deli, Vince Valenza is working on a slimmed-down version of the sandwich menu.

Mary Bogacki of Yolklore intends to shift her model again when the restaurant reopens after its two-week break, offering premade meals for customers to take and reheat (as well as some groceries).

I think the tough part about this is ... everybody talks about this as, 'Let's hunker down for the storm,' Gerard Craft said. And my business partner was saying that the fact of the matter is that this isn't hunkering down for a storm.

This is the start of a really long winter.

Editor's Note: This post has been updated to correct the name of the North Sarah Food Hub.

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By Ofeliya Afandiyeva

SOCAR Petroleum SA Romania will lease six filling stations operating under Aral M.T.B SRL, local media reported citing Romanian Competition Council on April 7.

The Competition Council authorized the transaction through which Socar Petroleum S.A. takes over the use right of six fuel distribution stations currently operated by Aral M.T.B. SRL. The six fuel distribution stations, located in Arad, Timis and Sibiu counties, are to be operated by Socar based on a rental contract, the official statement posted on the Councils official website said.

Romanian Competition Council also informed that Socar Petroleum S.A. is a company belonging to Socar Group that operates on the fuel market, both on the retail and wholesale segment and owns a national gas station network.

Following the analysis, the Competition Council found that this operation does not raise significant obstacles to effective competition on the Romanian market or a substantial part of it and that there are no serious doubts about its compatibility with a normal competitive environment, the Council emphasized.

According to the Council, 6 petrol stations must be leased to SOCAR on the basis of a 10-year lease agreement.

The cost of the deal is not disclosed.

Earlier, the deputy head of the Public Relations and Event Management Department of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) Ibrahim Ahmadov told that the company intends to expand its business in Romania by renting six filling stations owned by Aral M.T.B. SRL.

He mentioned that all the filling stations of this company are located in places with heavy traffic.

In order to enter the regions, where there are no filling stations under SOCAR brand name, our company should either buy land plots and build filling stations there or to rent existing filling stations by rebranding them in accordance with SOCAR standards, Ahmadov stated.

Note that SOCAR has become one of the five key players in the energy market of Romania. The company operates in Romania through its subsidiary - SOCAR Petroleum SA established in 2011 to manage the purchase and sale of petroleum products in Romania and provide supply services that meet international standards and diversified transportation infrastructure.

Successful implementing investment projects in Romania, SOCAR continues to expand its network of petrol stations in the country's largest cities.

Currently, SOCAR has filling stations in 21 Romanian regions - Botosani, Suceava, Nyamts, Iasi, Bihor, Buzau, Bacau, Vrancea, Timis, Ilfov, Cluj, Valcea, Arad, Arges, Bistrica-Nasaud, Hunedoara, Sibiu, Bucharest, Brasov, Satu and Craiova.

Total investments made by SOCAR to Romania amounted to $77.7 million in 2011-2017. SOCAR paid $86.4 million tax to the Romanian budget in the same period.

As a result of the activities of SOCAR Petroleum SA in Romania, energy cooperation between the two countries is expanding. Romanian companies are actively participating in the implementation of energy projects in Azerbaijan, as well.

ROMGAZ and TRANSGAZ, two of the most important Romanian companies in the natural gas sector, also have a long-standing cooperation with SOCAR.

Moreover, the Romanian Competition Council is an autonomous administrative body aimed at protecting and stimulating competition in order to ensure a normal competitive environment, with a view towards the consumers interests.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Questions about Mr. Trumps handling of the crisis, especially in its early days when he suggested it was being used by Democrats to undercut his re-election prospects, are likely to define his presidency. Mr. Navarros memo is evidence that some in the upper ranks of the administration had at least considered the possibility of the outbreak turning into something far more serious than Mr. Trump was acknowledging publicly at the time.

Neither Mr. Navarro nor spokespeople for the White House responded to requests for comment.

The memo, which was reviewed by The New York Times, was sent from Mr. Navarro to the National Security Council and then distributed to several officials across the administration, people familiar with the events said. It reached a number of top officials as well as aides to Mick Mulvaney, then the acting chief of staff, they said, but it was unclear whether Mr. Trump saw it.

Mr. Navarro is a well-established China hawk who has long been mistrustful of the countrys government and trade practices. Both Mr. Navarro and Matthew Pottinger, the chief deputy at the National Security Council, were among the few officials urging colleagues in January to take a harder line in relation to the growing threat of the coronavirus.

But their warnings were seen by other officials as primarily reflecting their concerns about Chinas behavior  and their concerns look more prescient in hindsight than they actually were, other officials argue.

With the subject line Impose Travel Ban on China? Mr. Navarro opened the memo by writing, If the probability of a pandemic is greater than roughly 1%, a game-theoretic analysis of the coronavirus indicates the clear dominant strategy is an immediate travel ban on China.

Mr. Navarro concluded at one point: Regardless of whether the coronavirus proves to be a pandemic-level outbreak, there are certain costs associated with engaging in policies to contain and mitigate the spread of the disease. The most readily available option to contain the spread of the outbreak is to issue a travel ban to and from the source of the outbreak, namely, mainland China.

He suggested that under an aggressive containment scenario, a travel ban may need to last as long as 12 months for proper containment, a duration of time that at that point some White House aides saw as unsustainable.
Policemen walk along an empty shore at Aqua Dulce beach in Peru (Rodrigo Abd/AP)

Pandemics are by nature worldwide events and the Covid-19 outbreak has seen every country forced to change the lives of its citizens in the battle to beat it.

Graveyards have been busy as the death toll mounts while many businesses have been mothballed with workers told to stay at home except for essential shopping.

Confined to home, many are having to while away the hours in confinement amid efforts to keep the virus at bay.

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The New York Philharmonic has been forced by an arbitrator to reinstate two players it fired over allegations of unspecified sexual misconduct, the orchestra said on Monday night.

The Philharmonic dismissed the players  its principal oboist, Liang Wang, and associate principal trumpet, Matthew Muckey  in September 2018. Both men denied wrongdoing, and the players union filed a grievance challenging their dismissals. The case was heard by an independent arbitrator, who found that the players had been terminated without just cause and should be reinstated.

We are profoundly disappointed by the arbitrators decision, the Philharmonic said in a statement, adding: While we obviously disagree with the arbitrator and stand by our original actions and decisions in this matter, we will, as we must, abide by the arbitrators ruling and reinstate both players.

The case was an example of how organized labor can struggle with sometimes conflicting interests as it grapples with a sharp uptick in misconduct cases in recent years. After New York City Ballet fired the star dancer Amar Ramasar in 2018 for sharing vulgar texts and sexually explicit photos of a dancer with a colleague, he won his job back through arbitration with the help of his union, to the dismay of some women in the company.
A masked man stands for a thermal screening in a compound of a housing society. (Image credit: Shome Basu)

Gangadhar Krishna

The week before last, I told Ramesh, our domestic help, to take time off until further notice. His instinctive reaction was surprise. I explained to him about the impending dangers of coronavirus and the need to take care. He was still pensive and seemed a bit worried. I then told him that his salary would be paid in full for the month. Immediately I saw a sense of relief on his face. He was more receptive to my explanation and seemed to grasp the intensity of the situation with better understanding.

After a week, my wife called him to ask if he was fine or needed anything. I believe he was overwhelmed with her call.

Increase social distance, reduce emotional distance

I think we did our bit as good Samaritans during this crisis. If you look around, there are many individuals who are going out of their way to help.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

But it is the companies that can do many times better to help their employees, their customers and the community. It is that time when brownie points are there for takes. Look around, get smart, invest, innovate and reap. It is the time for empathy, compassion and concern.

For organisations to tide over these challenging times, they need the

whole-hearted support from their employees. So, its not the time for layoffs and pay-cuts. That is short-sighted thinking; its only a quick fix. With this approach you dont need coronavirus to trouble you. Your company itself will come back to plague you with more challenges. Instead, invest in your employees.

* Are there skills they need to hone, but never had the time to learn due to work pressures? Now is the time to invest in training courses you wanted them to learn. If you look, there are online courses galore. Some companies have come forth and made them free during the lockdown period. Make use of them.

* Ask employees to take a break with their families. (sounds strange?) Create a page on the companys site where they can share their stories on how they spent the day with their spouse and children. Sharing their stories brings joy, pride and togetherness. Go beyond the employee and recognise the pillars at home who support your employee at work. Maybe wives could connect, children could become friends.

* Exchange daily posts on the experience of working from home. Every thought shared can lead to idea generation and devise new ways of doing things. Build camaraderie between employees and departments. There may be many things you did not know about a colleague while at work that you now know connecting online. Once again, increase social distance, reduce emotional distance.

* Leaders and managers, connect with your employees, check on their health, about their family, how they are coping working from home, if there is anything you could do to help them to perform better. What did not happen face to face can be done online, what was not done when things were hunky-dory should be done at times like these. And the perfect example is our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. If he can connect with the common public or the corona warriors, you certainly can devote time for your staff. In the bargain, you are only helping yourselves.

* As ambassadors of the company, encourage them to go all the way to help their community. Stretch it by giving prizes, awards or certificates of recognition.

* And if you so need to take pay-cuts, lead by example. Cut the pay and perks of management staff and business heads.

Heads of organisations have the responsibility to take care of their employees, building their morale and keeping them motivated.

Shifting focus from employees to customers. With a motivated team supporting you, review plans, redesign policies to empathise with your customers, show extra concern, connect and communicate with them and keep them at ease.

Between March 14 and March 24, I received four emails from Indigo.

On March 14, I received a mail from the CEOs office explaining everything they do as an airline to make sure that the risk for everyone in their care is minimized and how this also helps to contain the spread of COVID-19. This mail was pretty much in detail from the ground up and back.

On March 17, I received a mail from them requesting for patience when trying to reach them, as their incoming emails and calls have spiked 5 times in volume. They further explained the challenges and to meet them, they were working 6 days a week instead of 5 days.

On March 22, the team sends another mail about the limited resources in their call centre and alternately to connect on their website, over Facebook and Twitter.

On March 24, there is another mail from their CEOs office showing solidarity with the lockdown by the government. They assure customers about zero cancellation fees and date change fee subject to certain conditions.

I am sure many of you have received these mails.

Now what made them stand apart in my eyes? While I am a member of a couple of other airlines, I received these mails only from one airline. The others have been busy sending me their standard statements with points accumulated and how I could redeem them. How very sad!

At a time when the entire world is on edge over the coronavirus outbreak, they empathised with the customer and worked on reducing the stress to a certain degree with transparency and assurances.

In these trying times each and every company can empathise with their customers and keep them abreast of what they are doing, how they are working to enhance the customers experience. If every organisation focused on the customer and worked in making his life a little easier, the customer could focus more on his personal challenges with more gusto and isolate himself in a comfortable state.

Going the extra mile to help your community

Finally, how are you helping your community? Are you going the extra mile with your CSR activities and working to overwhelm your community with acts of benevolence?

Here are some news reports doing the rounds on WhatsApp:

Taj Group hotels are serving free food to the doctors and staff of Mumbais government hospitals and working on taking the initiative Pan India.

Tata Trusts committed Rs 500 crore to fight coronavirus. Tata Sons commits additional Rs 1000 crore towards tackling COVID-19

Sonu Nigam presented an intimate and emotional one-hour online concert in support of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for a 'Janata Curfew' on Sunday.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced grants totalling $3.7 million to support efforts in the Seattle-King County region to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

The government is trying to keep the people locked in with reruns of Indias most famous and viewed TV series, Ramayan and Mahabarath.

Reliance Industries has announced a donation of Rs 500 crore to PM CARES Fund and is setting up a 100-bed hospital.

Bollywood stars are making a beeline to the kitchens to tell their fans how to cook and how well they cook.

Look around, get smart, invest, innovate and reap!

There are many leading individuals and organisations that have done their bit, but there are many more corporates that need to wake up and listen to the world calling for help.

Governments alone cannot do it. They need help from corporates, leaders, managers, employees and individuals. We need to work together and ensure that the positive virus of care and compassion spreads and eradicates the

coronavirus.

Gangadhar Krishna is the founder of delightingcustomers.com and author of an illustrative business book titled Delighting Customers Is . He firmly believes in organic business development based on the philosophy Sales Heaps but Service Reaps. He can be reached at gangadhar@delightingcustomers.com
Gambling with his reputation: GVC boss Kenny Alexander has refused to take a pay cut

GVC'S boss has refused to take a pay cut despite propping up the company with tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers' cash.

The parent company of bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral said it was saving 20million a month thanks to the Government's wage subsidies and the business rates holiday.

More than 15,000 staff from the bookmakers shuttered shops are having 80 per cent of their wages paid by the taxpayer.

But chief executive Kenny Alexander will still get his full 860,000 salary, it said.

Bonuses worth 3.8million will be 'postponed', while his 2020 pay has been put on review.

Labour MP Peter Kyle, a member of the House of Commons business committee, said: 'For some people, we're not all in it together.'

A GVC spokesman said: 'In light of the unprecedented challenge that the pandemic is posing to our business and our industry, our executive directors have decided to indefinitely postpone the bonuses that were due to them for last year.'
Opinion Article

7 April 2020

From a no-no to the new normal

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In his 2017 TED Talk, the British economist Nicholas Bloom jokes of how his mission to encourage working from home (WFH) was initially met with disparaging remarks like "shirking from home", "workingremotely" or simply, "getting paid for not getting dressed". He argued that WFH would save companies money, create more time for productivity and certainly reduce global pollution with less unnecessary travel.

What was once a HR issue, essentially reserved for working mothers, has suddenly become an enforced modus operandi worldwide. In the last few weeks, companies big and small have installed mandatory work-from-home policies amid the spread of Covid-19. It's realistic to assume that shifting to the 'home office' will become the new normal for the forthcoming weeks, possibly months - or even indefinitely should it prove to be the success story that Bloom has been trying to convince us of all along.

For many employees this means working from home for the first time and figuring out how to stay on task in a new environment that doesn't seem particularly geared to productivity. The current climate lends itself to fear and uncertainty, not to mention new responsibilities like looking after young children and the elderly. But despair not, there are ways to deliver results and avoid going stir-crazy by setting up some carefully-studied practical and psychological systems. From YouTube to local governments, the internet is teeming with lists and tips on how to make working from home work for you. Here is a summary.

1. Treat it like a real job, make it as 'in the office' possible

Do what is necessary to get into the working frame of mind.

Designate a specific room, area or surface in your home that is solely used for the purpose of work.

Communicate to flatmates, partners and family members that when you are in that space, you are working. Create boundaries that mean 'business' in every sense of the word.

Avoid working from places in the home normally associated with leisure time, i.e. bed, armchair or sofa.

Get ready in the morning as you would normally: set the alarm, wash, get dressed, 'show up' for the day.

Quietly commit yourself to doing more, simply because this keeps you on your toes and focuses you on getting things done. The bizarre rule of productivity is that the busier you are, the more you'll actually accomplish.

2. Aim for effective time management

Segment your day in a way that is both practical and productive for you.

Start early! A unanimous tip advocated by 99.9% of the WFH professionals.

Try to stick to a clear beginning and end; factor in frequent breaks and a proper lunch. Getting away from your workspace can help to recharge you to then produce better work. Move about regularly if possible.

Separate the daily/weekly tasks into easy and hard categories. Attempt the more challenging tasks during your 'peak' brain times, i.e. early morning if you function well first thing in the day, saving the less brainy duties for off-peak hours.

Solidify your schedule the day before in order to feel more motivated and clear-headed when you wake up the next day.

Some seasoned workers from home suggest cooking the lunchtime meal in the evening, so that more time is freed up in the day.

3. Eliminate/manage the distractions

Chatty colleagues and water cooler moments are often replaced by a continuous desire to eat, sneak in domestic duties or promenade around on social media.

Curb foodie temptations by keeping snacks for breaktimes and as rewards for jobs done.

Use domestic duties, like putting on the washing machine/roasting a chicken, as a specific time-frame during which you can accomplish a host of quick-fire tasks.

To reduce social media breaks, consider removing links from your browser shortcuts and logging out of tempting every account.

Some WFH professionals swear by the Serene app that has three main functions: plan the day, block distractions and enhance concentration.

4. Harness the right tools and technology

This point is essential for optimum communication and productivity.

Line managers must take the lead here and ensure that WFH employees know about the best apps available and how to install them.

Slack, Zoom, Trello, Webex, Hubspot  the varieties are many and they all serve a collaborative purpose to minimize the physical distance, facilitate conferencing and productivity.

Use the technology to stay connected and remind yourself of how your work is contributing to the bigger picture.

5. Communicate as if it were an Olympic sport and go for gold

This is the key to successful remote working and keeping employees motivated, clued-up and on board.

Line managers and team leaders must make checking up on employees part of their weekly routine, especially while the WFH system is in its infancy.

Have a daily point of contact with a fellow colleague, manager or team. Setting up a peer-based buddy system if often advised.

Be proactive in signaling for help if a sense of isolation or depression sets in. WFH requires a different set of skills, voicing personal needs from a distance is one of them.

Think about setting up post work online activities with your coworkers, (apero, game, exercise, film).

Tips for those working from home with young children.

"We're all just figuring it out. It might get a little messy", Elana Benatar, child therapist, Washington DC.

Establish shifts with partner, who may also be working from home. Clearly the easiest of the no-brainers.

Attempt two sets of 'deep' work per day, roughly 1h15m each time, balanced out with quicker tasks that can be done with a few distractions flying around.

Screen time: accept that it's both a blessing and a curse. Use it sparingly on low peak days to balance out the essential need during rush productivity time. Research apps and games that are both entertaining and educational.

Be clear with coworkers and line managers that your working input has to be balanced with other pressing responsibilities, so flexible timings are a must.

Focus on weekly goals, not daily ones. Be ready to change priorities on a regular basis. Have realistic expectations.

Some WFH parents in lockdown suggest pushing back the children's bedtime, e.g. from 8pm to 10pm, in order for them to sleep longer in the morning, allowing you some quiet work time first thing in the day.

Conclusion

In brief, get organized, manage your time carefully, practice a bit of self-discipline and stay in constant communication with your team via the right tools. This way, the future can be homely, yet effective. In these difficult times where economies are teetering on a dangerous edge, WFH should be seen as the gateway to a new decentralized, distributed way of working. To manage it successfully is an important addition to every employees' repertoire of professional skills.

References and inspiration
British media says Johnsons chance of survival 54 percent

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson went into intensive care yesterday after his situation deteriorated with persistent coronavirus symptoms.

After passing a stable overnight in intensive care, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is now in good spirits, a Downing Street statement said Tuesday afternoon.

"HE IS RECEIVING THE BEST POSSIBLE CARE"

The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits, a spokesman for Johnson told a press briefing. He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support. We are confident that the prime minister is receiving the best possible care from the health service. Any treatment he receives is a matter for his doctors. he added.

Johnson tests positive for coronavirus WATCH

On the contrary, an article published by The Telegraph claimed that British PMs chance of survival only stands at 54 percent.

"Prof Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, previously pointed to early data gathered by the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre which suggests critical care for COVID-19 patients is less effective than for other types of viral pneumonia.





Sadly about half of the cases that go into critical care still die. This is much higher than for other viral pneumonia. Why this is the case and how much higher this figure would be without critical care beds is not clear. The chances rise to 54 percent survival for someone his age." it said.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil



Deshmukh on Tuesday said 50 of the 1,400 people who returned to the state attending the religious congregation of Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi have been incommunicado, and warned of stern action against them if they do not approach the government.

He urged those people to voluntarily come forward and get in touch with the state government authorities.

The state government will quarantine them and take care of them if they approach the authorities, he said.

Deshmukh said the congregation organised by Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in New Delhi last month was attended by nearly 4,000 people.

Several of these attendees later tested positive for coronavirus, while some of them have died of the disease.

The congregation was attended by 1,400 people from Maharashtra.

The state government has till now traced and quarantined 1,350 of them, Deshmukh said.

"And the remaining 50 who have returned have kept their mobiles (phones) switched off. Hence, we urge them to voluntarily approach the government," he told a channel.

The government will quarantine and take care of these people to ensure the coronavirus does not spread in other parts of the state, the NCP leader said.

"For this, they should surrender before our police and cooperate with the state government. We will trace them and take strict action against them if they do not surrender before us, he warned.

Deshmukh also praised the Maharashtra Police for denying permission to a Nizamuddin-like congregation in the Vasai area of Palghar district last month, saying it contained possible spread of the disease.

He further warned that attacks on policemen, doctors and nurses -- who are at the forefront of containing the spread of the coronavirus -- will not be tolerated.

Deshmukh said police will deal with such individuals in their style if such assaults continued.

"At least 52 cases of policemen and doctors being attacked took place in Maharashtra. We have arrested 172 people in connection with these incidents, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Smart cities Varanasi, Pune, Surat, Bengaluru and Tumakuru are using the Integrated Command and Control Centres to keep tabs on people who have been quarantined during the lockdown and to provide up-to-date information about the status of coronavirus in different administrative zones of their cities, ministry of housing and urban affairs officials said.

As COVID-19 War Rooms, the ICCCs are undertaking CCTV surveillance of public places, GIS Mapping of COVID positive cases, GPS tracking of healthcare workers, predictive analytics (heat maps) for virus containment across different zones of the city, imparting virtual training to doctors and healthcare professionals, real-time tracking of ambulances and disinfection services, medical services through video conferencing, tele-counselling and even tele-medicine, they said.

In Prime Minister Narendra Modis constituency of Varanasi, geographic information system (GIS) technology is being used to map quarantined cases and keep tab on people quarantined at home.

"Through hi-tech CCTV cameras and GPS monitoring, a strict vigil is being maintained across Varanasi during the ongoing 21-day lockdown period and on people who have been either quarantined at government facilities or home quarantined," Varanasi Municipal Commissioner Gaurang Rathi told Moneycontrol.

There are 400 CCTV cameras installed at 162 locations, he said.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The GPS locator on the vehicles allows the ICCC to track and plot the movement and of its quick response teams that includes sanitisation workers spread across 1,190 km of road length.

We have GIS maps of all residential units in Varanasi. Through base maps that we recently developed, we have information on everyone who has been advised home quarantine from the departments. Staff deputed at our call centres make calls to residents based on a daily roster who have returned from abroad and have been advised home quarantine which is cross verified by administration through the police department.

To be doubly sure of the location, we even ask them to make a video call to us and enquire about whether they are following the protocols laid out for them, he said.

People who have been quarantined in government facilities are being tracked through CCTV cameras installed on site. The sensor routers allow us to get the direct feed at the command and control centre, he said.

We are also providing counselling services to people who have been quarantined at government facilities. We have a team of psychologists visiting them and counselling them as they are away from home and have a tendency to get depressed, he said, adding this is also available remotely through tele-counselling sessions.

The city has also developed a COVID-19 Safe Kashi App where residents can receive live updates on anything to do with coronavirus, information on the number of residents who has been quarantined, home quarantined or have been kept in isolation and even those who have recovered. The App also provides information on orders passed by the local government, the general dos and donts to be followed by the public during the pandemic. Residents can also get in touch with doctors through the App and get an e-pass issued in case of an emergency. They can also report suspected cases and any instances of hoarding through the App.

COVID-19 pandemic LIVE updates

Pune Smart City Development Corporation Limited (PSCDCL) has collaborated with Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to develop an integrated data dashboard in the citys efforts to fight the global pandemic. Each case of the city has been mapped using geo-spatial information systems and city administration is monitoring the areas and creating buffer zones where patients have been diagnosed with the infection, officials said.

Using heat-mapping technologies and predictive analytics, the city administration will be developing a containment plan and the containment zones will get reflected on the dashboard. The healthcare operations at the citys Naidu Infectious Disease Hospital are being tracked at this facility. The Smart Citys integrated dashboard has also been monitoring the quarantine facilities and tracking the health of suspected patients and their contacts placed under home quarantine, they said.

We are using the Geospatial Information System for tracking and monitoring the areas and creating buffer zones where patients are diagnosed positive with the COVID-19 infection. This helps to implement the containment plan as per government guidelines.

"All the COVID positive patients have been tracked and we have created a buffer and containment zone spread across a kilometre from their place of residence. Our teams are also conducting door-to-door visits. Our GPS app can track people if they get out of the house and break protocol. Cameras on the streets are being used for crowd management and ensuring full compliance of lockdown. We are also providing video conferencing facilities to doctors and giving them mass training, Rubal Agarwal, CEO- Pune Smart City told Moneycontrol.

Coronavirus testing centres near you

The Surat Municipal Corporation has published an online dashboard on its municipal website to provide regular updates to the citizens. The dashboard also provides the trends and patterns on the spread of COVID-19 within city

In Bengaluru and Tumakuru, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has set up a war room and is using the dashboard to conduct surveillance on people within 8-km radius of any confirmed patient, so as to contain the spread of the virus. The Municipal Corporation of Bengaluru has also been publishing a daily bulletin on the cases.

In Bengaluru, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike or the BBMPs integrated command and control centre has been functioning as a war room for COVID 19 since March 22.

We have created heat maps where we identified critical and less critical zones in the city. The Karnataka state government has introduced an app called the Quarantine Watch and we have access to reports on residents movement being generated through the App. Our field officers are also keeping tabs on around 20,000 people who have been stamped after returning from abroad and are in home quarantine. This information has been updated on our database, Hephsiba Rani Korlapati, MD - Bengaluru Smart City Corporation Limited, Karnataka, told Moneycontrol.

The Bengaluru Smart City Corporation Limited is also in the process of developing an App that would provide real time data on COVID facilities available in hospitals, at isolation locations and availability of equipment such as personal Protective Equipment (PPE), ventilators etc. We are also monitoring the availability of ambulances in the city. We will be going live with real time data soon, she told Moneycontrol.

The Smart Cities Mission was launched on June 25, 2015. The first list of 20 cities announced on January 28, 2016. A fast-track list of 13 cities was announced four months later. The second list of 27 cities was announced on September 20 2016. The third list of 30 cities was announced on June 23, 2017 and the final list was announced in January 2018.

Under the mission, the Centre allocates Rs 500 crore to each of the cities for implementing projects proposed by it. This amount is matched with a grant of the same amount by the respective state.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) on Monday said it is releasing advance payments to its dealer partners in order to help them with cash flow to remain afloat in the difficult business environment due to COVID-19 forced nationwide lockdown

New Delhi: Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) on Monday said it is releasing advance payments to its dealer partners in order to help them with cash flow to remain afloat in the difficult business environment due to COVID-19 forced nationwide lockdown.

In normal business flow, payments to dealers are made as claims after the closure of the sales month.

The Japanese auto maker said it has also cleared all pending payments of dealers till March.

Besides, the company has given support on the interest cost of fresh stock available at the dealer before lockdown, HCIL added.

Furthermore, the company is ensuring that payments to its suppliers is being done on time, it said.

"Our dealers are the company's interface with the customers and it is important that they stay healthy and viable financially," HCIL Senior Vice President and Director (Sales and Marketing) Rajesh Goel said.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

The company understands that due to the lockdown and no business activity, they will face cash flow concerns and measures are being taken to address these issues, he added.

The company is also taking various initiatives to help customers like an extension of warranty and service timelines.

"Service and warranty are two of the most important factors that concern customers and we are addressing all of them during the lockdown period," Goel said.

Already, Honda India Foundation, the CSR arm of all Honda group companies in India, have pledged an aid of Rs 11 crore to central and state governments for relief and prevention efforts for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of this aid, Honda is immediately supplying 2,000 units of Honda engine-powered high-pressure backpack sprayers to the various government agencies.

The sprayers will be used for disinfectant fumigation at hospitals, public transport, railway stations, public canteens and other common areas.
Prince Harry and Megan Markles initial move to Canada came as a shock for many people. However, a look back at his childhood gives hints about why he made the choice to relocate there temporarily after stepping down as a senior royal. Many royal watchers believe that Princess Dianas experience is a key factor in Prince Harrys battle with the tabloid media, and his desire to leave England is because he wants to protect Markle and their son.

Princess Dianas actions may have been one important reason that Prince Harry and Markle chose Canada as a temporary new home, before reportedly moving along to Los Angeles. Her choices led the way for her son and his wife to imagine a new way of life.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images

Princess Diana traveled to Canada with her sons

Princess Diana was only 21 years old the first time she went on a royal tour of Canada with Prince Charles, leaving one-year-old Prince William at home. Nine years later, however, she and Prince Charles returned with both sons. Although a big part of the reason she brought them along was to start preparing Prince William for his future duties as king, she also famously enjoyed spending time with her boys.

While their father was busy with royal duties, the young princes joined their mother for less formal events. She took them to Niagara Falls, showing them some of Canadas natural beauty. The next day the three of them attended a church service at Torontos Cathedral Church of St. James. Pictures and videos from the time show the young mother relishing spending time with her children.

Through the years, Prince Harry has remembered these days fondly. Spending this time with his mother in beautiful surroundings almost certainly planted the seed in his mind.

Princess Diana with her sons Prince William (left) and Prince Harry, 1993 | Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images

She once longed to move to another country

After her divorce, Princess Diana started dating Hasnat Khan, a British Pakistani surgeon. She wanted to marry him, but the intense scrutiny of the press made it difficult to be in a relationship. She believed that the only way to escape the tabloids would be to move to Pakistan.

She started researching what she would need to do to move abroad, not only the legal requirements but also how to adapt to the culture and fit in with Khans family. In her search for a home that would be safe and give her more privacy, Princess Diana also considered South Africa and Australia.

Ultimately, the relationship with Khan didnt last. And Princess Diana tragically never found the peaceful life she wanted away from the press. But when Prince Harry started to feel some of the same pressures  wishing to escape the paparazzi and protect his love  he took her example and started to consider options outside of Britain.

Prince Harry sought out the move

Many royal watchers accuse Markle of forcing Prince Harry to leave his family and his royal duties behind. However, he insists that leaving was his choice. The intrusive nature of the press coverage reminded him of deeply painful events of his young life, and the tabloids relentless criticism of his wife made him desperate to protect her. When the couples son Archie was born it became too much for the young royal to take, and he started to plan his familys escape.

Whether you agree with Markle and Prince Harrys move, it seems clear that his motivation is to protect his family. It makes sense that, as he strives to find the peace his mother never had, he would turn to Canada for a potential home, a place she introduced him to. Princess Dianas life was complicated, but she set a beautiful example for her sons. Prince Harry decided to follow the path shed once started, and find a safe place to escape to  before it was too late.
The UN chief on Tuesday lauded the "tremendous work" of the World Health Organisation, even as US President Donald Trump accused the global health body of being "China centric" and criticised its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

"For the Secretary General, it is clear that WHO under the leadership of Dr Tedros (Adhanom Ghebreyesus) has done tremendous work on COVID-19 in supporting countries with millions of pieces of equipment being shipped out, on helping countries with training, on providing global guidelines.

"WHO is showing the strength of the international health system," Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said.

Dujarric was responding to whether the Secretary General has a comment on Trump's tweet in which he lashed out at the WHO and indirectly warned of action.

"W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?" Trump tweeted earlier in the day.

Dujarric said looking back, WHO has done tremendous work in fighting Ebola in Congo, putting its staff in the frontlines.

"We have seen great success in the way the WHO-led efforts to fight Ebola in the DRC and surrounding countries has had under the leadership of Dr Tedros," he said.

Last month, Trump had said the WHO has "very much" sided with China on coronavirus crisis, asserting that many people are unhappy with the global health agency and feel that "it's been very unfair.

Congressman Michael McCaul, ranking member on the House Foreign Relations Committee, had questioned the integrity of WHO head Ghebreyesus, saying, "there were several red flags in his past with respect to his relationship with China".

In a tweet, Congressman Greg Steube had alleged that the WHO has been a mouthpiece for China during the coronavirus pandemic.

Both the WHO and China must face consequences once this pandemic is under control, he had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A paramedic working at



an isolation ward of a hospital here on Tuesday alleged that she was beaten up by her neighbours who said they would be infected with coronavirus if she enters her house using a gate adjacent to theirs, police said.

The complainant, Neelu Kumari, is married to Amulya Singh a resident of Meerganj locality under Town police station area of the district and she works at the Begusarai Sadar Hospital as an auxiliary nurse midwife.

Town police station SHO Amarendra Kumar Jha said she has lodged an FIR against her neighbours including a former ward councillor and two women.

He said the complainant, who has been attached to the hospital's isolation ward, has alleged that she was stopped from entering her home through the back gate which she was doing as a precautionary measure by her neighbours.

"I was told by my neighbours that I had brought the infection from the hospital and if I had to enter my house I must do so from the front gate and not the one that is adjacent to theirs.

"They also said that water spilled out on the streets when I took bath which increased their risk of getting infected with coronavirus," the woman told reporters indignantly.

The SHO said the accused have denied the allegations and claimed that it was a "trivial dispute".

An investigation has been initiated and further action will be taken as per the findings, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mr. Correa was among 20 people, including his vice president, Jorge Glas, accused of accepting $8 million in bribes in exchange for public contracts from 2012 and 2016. The former president left Ecuador three years ago, and his conviction, which he can appeal, leaves him subject to arrest if he returns.

In addition to the prison term, the court banned Mr. Correa, 57, from politics for 25 years.

The trial was closely watched in Ecuador and the verdict is likely to affect not only a presidential election slated for next year, but also the political landscape for years to come. Mr. Correa denied the charges, describing them as a form of political persecution intended to prevent him and his allies from running in future national elections.

After leaving office in 2017, he moved to Belgium and vowed to retire from politics, but he has since reversed course. Saying that he felt compelled to take the fatherland back, Mr. Correa has expressed interest in running for office in 2021, which his conviction, if it stands, would prevent.

Correa is, paradoxically, the most popular and the most rejected political figure in Ecuador, the political analyst Rafael Balda said. His presence on the ballot would lift his political party, now known as Movimiento Revolucion Ciudadana, but even his campaigning on its behalf would make a big difference, Mr. Balda said.

The case emerged from an investigation initially known as Arroz Verde, or Green Rice, after the name of the file found in an email sent to a former aide to Mr. Correa. The file, revealed by the online publication Mil Hojas, contained names, amounts and dates of payments made by several companies and individuals to the campaigns of his party, prosecutors said.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan on Thursday September 26, reacted to the VP Academics title given to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo by Salihu Tanko Yakasai a.k.a Dawisu, an aide to Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.

Gandujes media aide mocked the Vice President while responding to a tweet on if everyone in Nigeria is in New York for UN Assembly.

Joining other Nigerians to react to the tweet, Ologbondiyan said Yemi Osinbajo deserves the VP Academics title for aiding and abating tyranny.

It is most unfortunate that the highly exalted seat of the VP has been reduced to VP Academics, but then, thats what you get when you aide and abate tyranny, he tweeted.
MEDFORD, Ore. -- Local public health officials announced new confirmed cases of the coronavirus in southern Oregon and northern California as of Tuesday, April 7.

JACKSON:

On Monday, Jackson County Public Health announced no new cases of COVID-19, leaving the countywide total at 39 cases. The agency continued to drive home the need for people to practice social distancing to stop the spread, however.

Jackson County Public Health continues to receive daily complaints from community members about people not practicing social distancing, says Tanya Phillips, Health Promotion Manager for Jackson County Public Health. We have received complaints about parents throwing birthday parties, large home gatherings, people who seem ill out in public settings, and people not practicing social distancing when they are in public accessing essential services.

Since Sunday, Jackson County reports that six people have been hospitalized with the illness. Cases have been almost evenly split between men and women and have been somewhat more prevalent in people age 60 or older  though a number of confirmed cases have occurred in people as young as their 20s.

KLAMATH:

Klamath County Public Health has announced one new confirmed case in the county on Tuesday. The countywide total number of confirmed cases is now 22. Of those cases, 21 are active, and one has fully recovered.

"More testing kits are now in the county. Individuals who are not showing symptoms should not be tested," public health officials said. "The kits should be used to determine a diagnosis for a person with symptoms. As more testing happens, more positive cases will be found."

On Monday, Sky Lakes Medical Center said that it would expand its drive-up testing to anyone who appears, not just those with a doctor's order.

"It is important to look at the number of people who have been hospitalized, only three, in relation to the overall total of 22," Klamath County Public Health continued. "Evidence is showing that people may contract the virus and have no symptoms. They may infect others without realizing it. This is why it is important to continue the practices of staying home, social or physical distancing of six feet, disinfecting surfaces, and frequent handwashing."

Klamath County Public Health says that at this time 399 tests have been completed for COVID-19 in the county.

KCPH says that 14 of the confirmed cases are women, and eight are men. 3 of the 15 cases have been hospitalized for the virus.

At present, cases in Klamath County skew toward younger people  fairly unusual compared to other populations. Four cases have been between the ages of 20-29, seven in the 30-39 age group, three in 40-49, three 50-59, four 60-69, and one 70-79.

JOSEPHINE:

Josephine County Public Health officials announced no new cases of Coronavirus in the county on Monday. This leaves the countywide total number of cases at 16.

According to the City of Grants Pass as of April 3, three of the area's cases have completely recovered. One person has been hospitalized.

As of 7 a.m. on April 6, a total of 498 COVID-19 tests from Josephine County have been reported to OHA, and a total of 16 tests have been positive. More samples have been sent to approved labs, but results have not yet been returned.

CURRY:

On Sunday night, Curry County announced its first three confirmed cases of COVID-19:

"As of late this evening, Curry County Public Health has received information through Coos County Public Health of two Curry County residents who were tested for the COVID-19 virus. The tests were performed in Coos County and those tests were confirmed positive today for the Corona Virus (COVID-19). The two individuals have been self-isolating. Also this afternoon, Curry General Hospital notified Curry County Public Health of another confirmed COVID-19 case of a Curry County resident who has also been self-isolating. This is unrelated to the first two cases."

Curry County Public Health said it has been in contact with all three individuals, and all three are symptom-free. Those patients will be monitored daily.

SISKIYOU:

As of Monday morning, Siskiyou County officials say that there are four confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county. Three of those people have since recovered from the illness.

There have been a total of 104 tests performed  91 were negative, and nine are still awaiting results.

Total number of confirmed cases by county for the southern Oregon and Siskiyou County region:

Jackson: 39

Klamath: 22

Josephine: 16

Lake: 0

Curry: 3

Siskiyou: 4

Tune into NewsWatch 12 at 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. tonight for the most up to date Coronavirus numbers and information.
As high school and college classes move online, so does wine school.

Wine school is still in session, Rebel Rebels website says. We just moved it to your couch.

The Somerville natural wine bars typical wine tasting classes have been canceled as restaurants and bars are closed due to stay-at-home orders by Gov. Charlie Baker during growing coronavirus concerns.

But that doesnt mean they have to stop.

Were figuring it out as we go along, but so far weve set up a nice little situation using Zoom, the website states.

The next class is on Friday at 8 p.m. Titled, Natural Wine Through the Feminist Lens, the class doesnt require any specific wine but is an ask me anything class.

Other classes are paired with specific wines. But classes are flexible if youre not able to get those specific ones.

Well taste 2 wines together during this class, and you can purchase them from us for pickup or delivery the week prior to class, the website says. You dont need to purchase wines to enjoy the class, though! If youre remote, we can suggest alternatives.

A recent class had more than 100 people attend, The Boston Globe reported. Now the classes can handle up to 500 people.

Ive been teaching wine classes at Rebel Rebel for a year now, Margot Mazur told The Globe. Its truly my favorite thing to do."

Related Content:
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 20:49:36|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese medical expert Guan Wan'gao demonstrates how to dress personal protective equipments in Vientiane, Laos, April 6, 2020. The Chinese anti-epidemic medical expert team hosted a training course, covering 10 sectors when treating COVID-19 cases, to relevant Lao health ministry officials and doctors, nurses from major hospitals in Lao capital Vientiane. (Chinese anti-epidemic medical expert team to Laos/Handout via Xinhua)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in intensive care at a London hospital 11 days after announcing he had COVID-19.

Johnson was admitted to St. Thomas Hospital Sunday night, reporting he needed routine tests connected to his COVID-19 condition.

On Monday evening, the prime ministers office released a statement. It read, Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the Prime Minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital.

The statement said Johnson was awake and does not require a ventilator, or breathing machine, at this point. It said Johnson has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputize for him.

Hours earlier, Johnson posted on the social media site Twitter. He wrote that he was in good spirits after spending a night in the hospital. He also thanked the National Health Service for taking care of him and others in this difficult time.

The 55-year-old leader had been quarantined in his Downing Street home since he was found to have COVID-19 on March 26. He is the first known head of government to be sickened with the virus.

He continued to preside at daily meetings on the outbreak until Sunday. He also released several video messages during his quarantine. Raab led the meeting Monday.

Speaking at the governments daily coronavirus press briefing, Raab said Johnson was being regularly updated, but said he had not spoken to the prime minister since Saturday.

Hes in charge, but hell continue to take doctors advice on what to do next, Raab said.

The government said Monday that 51,608 people had been confirmed to have the coronavirus in Britain, and that 5,373 of them have died.

Im Jill Robbins.

The Associated Press reported this story. Caty Weaver adapted it for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

__________________________________________________

Words in This Story

routine -adj. done or happening as a normal part of a job, situation, or process

deputize -v. to give (someone) the power to do something in place of another person : to make (someone) a deputy  often followed by to + verb

quarantine -v. to keep (a person or animal) away from others to prevent a disease from spreading : to put or keep (a person or animal) in quarantine

regularly -adv. at the same time every day, week, month, etc.
Labour leader Alan Kelly says he does not expect his party to enter a new government coalition.

The newly-elected leader said the party is not in a position to enter government with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.

He said that while Labour will talk to anybody who wants to talk to us, the focus is on the parties that secured a large number of seats.

Speaking to RTEs Morning Ireland programme, Mr Kelly said: Simply put, there are four large parties, any three of which could form a government. It is up to them to do so.

The Green Party got a large mandate of 12 seats, and obviously climate change is the big agenda item once we get over Covid (-19).

Its quite disappointing that it seems that they are not willing to put their shoulders to the wheel and stay on the pitch and get involved in this.

Government formation talks between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are still ongoing, two months after the general election.

I think the way in which Ireland is going to have to come out of this is going to have to embrace a lot of things that the Labour Party stood for over the last number of years,Labour leader Alan Kelly

The parties are producing a joint framework document to present to smaller parties and independents, to ask them to join them in government.

Mr Kelly said, however, that he believes the Labour party will play a huge part in shaping Irelands recovery.

I think the world has changed. I think politics has changed, he added.

Its amazing that Keynesian economics is back in fashion.

I think the way in which Ireland is going to have to come out of this is going to have to embrace a lot of things that the Labour Party stood for over the last number of years, in relation to housing and childcare, in relation to a one-tier health system, in relation to a rent freeze, which Ive advocated for many years.

Mr Kelly also said that even if Labour added its six seats, there still would not be enough to form a majority government.

He added: Its my job to ensure we will not be swamped, we will be different and I aspire to doing so, to making us very, very relevant, punching way above our weight into the future, but I also want to say we need a strong opposition into the future.

He said there is a need for a strong opposition as the Government is going to have to make difficult decisions.
Oregon Army National Guard soldiers, along with staff from the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST), loaded 140 Oregon ventilators for shipment to New York on April 6.

The footage filmed by Sgt. 1st Class Zachary Holden for the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, shows DPSST staff loading box shipments into shipping containers.

Speaking of the move, Oregon Governor Kate Brown wrote on Twitter on April 4: New York needs more ventilators and we are answering their call for help. Meanwhile, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has thanked Oregon for their shipment saying that New York will repay the favor when Oregon needs it."

On April 3, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that New York, which entered the crisis with around 3,500 ventilators, would run out of the machines during the week. Credit: US Defense Department via Storyful
Minister claims Ukraine is facing the peak of COVID-19 spread.

Health Minister of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov believes it would premature to talk about the completion of quarantine restrictions across the country.

In his public appeal released on April 7, he said Ukraine was yet to pass the peak of infection spread.

"Talking about the date for quarantine to end would be too early. On the contrary: now we are on the verge of coronavirus peak in Ukraine," Stepanov said.

The minister explained that in the active phases of a pandemic, the number of patients increases sharply, critically loading the healthcare system.

Read alsoUkraine's health minister calls for strict observance of quarantine (Video)

"Simply put, the number of patients is increasing so much that there are not enough doctors, medications, or hospital beds to help them," the minister warned.

Stepanov has once again urged citizens to comply with quarantine rules.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal allows the extension of certain restrictive measures to curb coronavirus spread until September, while in the second half of May people should start returning to work.
Australia's highest court has acquitted former Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell of sexually assaulting two teenaged choirboys in the 1990s. The former number three of the Catholic Church was immediately released from jail in Melbourne.

Cardinal George Pell was released from prison on Tuesday, hours after Australia's High Court quashed his conviction for child sex abuse, bringing to an abrupt end the most high-profile paedophilia case faced by the Catholic Church.

The 78-year-old left Barwon Prison near Melbourne after the court overturned five counts of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in the 1990s. Pell had maintained his innocence throughout the lengthy court process.

He issued a statement saying that a "serious injustice" had been remedied by the decision.

A jury convicted Pell in December 2018, and that decision was upheld by a three-judge panel in Victoria state's Court of Appeal last August in a split verdict. He spent 13 months in prison.

But Australia's High Court found there was "a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted".

The seven justices unanimously found a lower court had "failed to engage with the question of whether there remained a reasonable possibility that the offending had not taken place".

The prosecution's case had relied heavily on the testimony of Pell's accuser, who told a closed-door hearing that Pell had sexually assaulted the two boys in a Melbourne cathedral while he was archbishop of the city.

The second choirboy -- who is not known to have ever spoken of the abuse -- died of a drug overdose in 2014. Neither man can be identified for legal reasons.

'Utter disbelief'

Lisa Flynn, the lawyer for the deceased man's father, said her client was "disgusted" and "in utter disbelief" at the outcome.

"He is furious the man he believes is responsible for sexually abusing his son was convicted by a unanimous jury only to have that decision overturned today."

The Blue Knot Foundation, a victim support group, said the decision would be "crushing" for survivors of abuse.

The Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests said in a statement they were dismayed and heartbroken by the decision.

In his statement, Pell thanked his lawyers, supporters and family and said he held no ill will toward his accuser.

My trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church, nor a referendum on how Church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of paedophilia in the Church, Pell said.

"The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not."

Local media footage showed him being driven from prison to a Carmelite monastery in suburban Melbourne.

Empty courtroom

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the "discussion of these topics brings back great hurt" for victims, and his thoughts were "always with them".

"But the High Court, the highest court in the land, has made its decision and that must be respected," he continued.

The verdict was delivered to a near-empty Brisbane courtroom because of Coronavirus restrictions, in stark contrast to earlier hearings that drew large crowds.

The former Vatican treasurer remains in the priesthood, but his future role in the church remains unclear.

Pope Francis appeared to refer to Pell's acquittal in his morning homily, saying he was praying for all those unjustly persecuted.

George Pell, who has maintained his innocence throughout the lengthy court process, cannot be retried on the charges but his legal problems might not be at an end, as he faces possible civil action.
A man has died after being attacked by a Great White Shark in waters near Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

The 23-year-old was swimming near North West Island, some 75 kilometres (46 miles) off the Queensland coast, on Monday when he suffered bites to his leg, hand and elbow.

A doctor and paramedics tried to stabilise the man so he could be flown to the state's Gladstone Hospital for surgery, but he died later on Monday night.

Queensland state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the man worked for the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.

"Once again a family out there is grieving for a young man who tragically has lost his life in this horrific shark attack," she told reporters.

Police said it was "not a social swim", indicating the victim had died while performing his job. A report will be prepared for the coroner.

The incident marks the latest in a series of shark attacks in the vicinity of the Great Barrier Reef over the past 18 months.

A nine-year-old girl was bitten in the leg during a separate attack nearby North West Island in early-January. A lemon shark was suspected of the attack, which the girl survived.

And in late December, a shovelnose shark bit a man in shallow waters off the island. He suffered minor injuries to his right hand and leg.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system and the biggest living structure on the planet, but is under significant threat from climate change / Pixabay

Elsewhere in the region, last October, two British backpackers were attacked while snorkelling at Hook Island in the Whitsunday Islands. One of the men lost his foot.

In March last year, meanwhile, a 25-year-old man suffered serious thigh injuries when a shark attacked him at Hardy Reef, near Hamilton Island, also in the Whitsundays chain.
JUBA, April 6 (Xinhua) -- China has donated about 1,040 tons of rice to South Sudan as part of emergency food assistance program to the east African nation.

The food aid arrived in Juba on April 4 and will be distributed to vulnerable people affected by last year's devastating floods and an infestation of desert locusts, the Chinese Embassy in South Sudan said in a statement Monday.

Hua Ning, Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan, said China has been collaborating with South Sudan in different areas such as food security, health, relief assistance.

"While China is working with South Sudan closely in combating the virus (COVID-19), we are also doing our utmost to support the people struggling with hunger," Hua said.

South Sudan, which has been ravaged by about six years of civil conflict, confirmed its first case of the COVID-19 over the weekend, adding to an already dire situation of severe food insecurity and malnutrition.

Hua said the coronavirus pandemic has made the food supply more pressing, which requires a global response with solidarity and unity.

The Chinese envoy pledged Beijing's firm support to help South Sudan attain lasting peace and stability.

"We trust that with the continuous progress of the peace process and the joint efforts of South Sudan and the international community, the country will be able to overcome the challenges ahead. China will stay together with South Sudan through thick and thin," Hua said.
The Cabinet has on April 1 approved for the same in an emergency meeting and the Health Department issued the order on Tuesday.

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Tuesday has issued an order to provide compensation of Rs 1 crore for doctors, nurses, paramedical staff or sanitation workers, if they die of COVID-19 while on duty.

The order from the Delhi Health Department said any person attending COVID-19 patients, "including doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, sweeper, or any other staff whether temporary or permanent, in government or private sector, if expire by contacting the disease during the discharge of his/her duty, his/her family shall be compensated with ex-gratia amount of Rs one crore, posthumously."

The order says the amount will be ultimately approved by the Chief Minister.

"Upon receiving the recommendation from the Medical superintendent/HOD/In-charge of the Hospital/Medical institute, the recommendation will be processed by Health and Family Welfare, Delhi governmentAand shall put up through Minister (Health)for the approval of the Chief Minister," it says.

Making the announcement for the same on April 1, Kejriwal had said that the staff fighting against coronavirus are no less than the soldiers fighting at the borders.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sincerely Ghana Limited, producers and marketers of Sincerely Sanitary Pads, Mrs. Menaye Donkor Muntari has donated 2000 pieces of Sincerely by Menaye sanitary pads to vulnerable women in the country, particularly female head-porters, popularly known as kayayei.



The gesture, according to Mrs Muntari, was in response to the national call to individuals and organizations to support the vulnerable in society to withstand the social crisis engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The donation was made through the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection at a short ceremony at the warehouse of Sincerely Ghana Limited, East Legon, Accra, on Saturday.



Miss Universe Ghana 2017, Ruth Quarshie, on behalf of Mrs. Muntari, presented the items to the sector Minister, Mrs. Cynthia Morrison.



In a brief remark from Mrs. Muntari delivered by Ms Quarshie, she said she believed in women empowerment, adding that their sanitation was also very important to her.



Mrs. Muntari, who is Miss Universe Ghana 2004 and also the current National Director of Miss Universe Ghana said, The 2000 sanitary pads are to empower the vulnerable women and make them feel confident about themselves in these times of crisis.

She pointed out that her Sincerely by Menaye feminine hygiene brand was established to create quality sanitary pads complemented by sincere menstrual health and hygiene education throughout Ghana.



I felt the need to support kayayei by providing them with my top quality sanitary pads because Ive always been a firm believer in giving back to society. Especially now that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about so much hardship, it is important to not only be kind to ourselves but also to others, she said.



The Minister of Gender Minister, Mrs. Morrison said it was amazing to see young ladies like Menaye Donkor Muntari doing things that indicated that they were thinking about the vulnerable in society.



Menaye called me with passion and I could see that she sincerely wanted to help. The 2000 sanitary pads will go a long way to help the beneficiaries, she emphasized.



The Minister thanked the management and staff of Sincerely Ghana Limited for the kind gesture and pointed out that this is the time for individuals and organisations to give to the needy because if the donations come at a later time the expected positive effects may not be felt so much.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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DALLAS, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mike Lynn, Eric Pinker, and Michael K. Hurst, name partners at the highly respected Dallas trial boutique founded almost 30 years ago, are pleased to announce that the partnership has voted to add longtime partner Chris Schwegmann to the firm's name. The firm will now be named Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann.

"Chris is held in tremendous regard by everyone at the firm. With this decision, we're thrilled to recognize the valuable leadership he offers to our attorneys and the outstanding counsel he provides to our clients," said Mr. Pinker, the firm's Managing Partner. Mr. Hurst added that, "Chris is skilled in the courtroom and at the negotiating table, and we are pleased that he will continue to serve as General Counsel to the firm."

"I can't imagine a better place to practice law than with this firm," said Mr. Schwegmann. "Every day I get to work with some of the most creative, talented, and intelligent lawyers out there. We're not just litigators, we're trial lawyers who try big and important cases. It's a dream job, and I'm honored to have my name on the door."

According to Mr. Lynn, "Chris is a great person and an incredible lawyer. He's been a key player in creating a culture of excellence at our firm that helped us become one of the best commercial litigation boutiques in Texas."

Mr. Schwegmann tries trademark and copyright infringement, false advertising, antitrust, and other business cases. His clients include software, technology, manufacturing, and health care companies, among others. He has been repeatedly honored by Texas Super Lawyers in the fields of business litigation and intellectual property and as one of D Magazine's Best Lawyers in Dallas.

Mr. Schwegmann joined the firm in 2005 from Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City. He earned his law degree from New York University School of Law and his undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University. Following law school, he served as a law clerk to The Honorable Sam A. Lindsay of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann is a nationally recognized commercial litigation firm whose philosophy is based on trial-tested experience, creativity, and an uncompromising will to win. For the past three years, the firm has been ranked among the top five commercial litigation firms in Texas by the highly respected Chambers USA Guide to the Legal Profession. The firm has also received numerous accolades by The Best Lawyers in America, Texas Super Lawyers, D Magazine, and Texas Lawyer, and was twice awarded "Defense Win of the Year" in the U.S. by the National Law Journal, the only firm to receive that recognition twice.

The lawyers at Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann try business disputes of all types, including breach of contract, intellectual property and trade secret, class action, financial services, securities, breach of fiduciary duty, employment, and professional malpractice cases. To learn more, visit www.lynnllp.com .

Media Contact:

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CHICAGO, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- US companies in 2019 sourced substantially fewer manufactured goods from 14 traditional Asian trading partners, apparently as a direct result of aggressive US government trade policies, according to the seventh annual Kearney US Reshoring Index.

The ongoing trade war sent the Reshoring Index to a record high in 2019.

The Reshoring Index compares US domestic manufacturing gross output to the level of manufacturing imports from 14 traditional Asian low-cost countries (LCCs): China, Taiwan, Malaysia, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia.

Kearney, the global management consulting firm that calculates the index, attributes much of the big 2019 shift to a 17 percent decline in US imports of manufactured goods from China, which has long been the leading choice for offshore production. Intriguingly, manufactured imports from Vietnam and Mexico both increased last year, evidence that US companies were starting to significantly adapt their sourcing strategies even before the COVID-19 crisis began disrupting global supply chains early in 2020.

Big Jump in Reshoring Index

In 2019, US manufacturing was steady while imports from the 14 Asian trading partners notably declined. Imports of manufactured goods from the 14 Asian LCCs shrunk to $757 billion from $816 billion in 2018a 7.2 percent decreasewhile US domestic manufacturing output was $6,271 billion in 2019, virtually unchanged from 2018.

Consequently, the US market imported just 12.1 cents worth of offshore production from the Asian LCCs for every $1 of domestic manufacturing gross output in 2019, nearly a full percentage point decrease in corresponding imports from the previous year.

The US Reshoring Index is expressed in basis points (1 percent change = 100 basis points). A positive index number indicates net reshoring. The precise 2019 Reshoring Index calculation is: 2018 import/domestic manufacturing ratio of 13.058 percent minus corresponding 2019 ratio of 12.077 percent = 0.98 change, or 98 bps. The resulting Reshoring Index of 98 is by far the highest yet registered. The previous index high was 11 bps in 2011. The index came in as low as -112 bps as recently as 2015.

2019 Insurgents

US trade policies also appear to be changing trade dynamics among and between the various countries exporting manufactured goods to the US. While US manufacturing imports from China declined, imports from the other Asian LCC countries increased by $31 billion in 2019. Similarly, manufacturing imports from Mexico rose $13 billion.

"Much of China's loss was Vietnam's gain," said Patrick Van den Bossche, Kearney partner and co-author of the study. "Of the $31 billion in US imports that shifted from China to other Asian LCCs, almost half (46 percent) was absorbed by Vietnam, which exported $14 billion more manufactured goods to the US in 2019 than it did in 2018."

"The door for these insurgents was clearly opened by ongoing USChina trade disputes, as their gains were mainly in product categories impacted by tariffs," observed Yuri Castano, Kearney manager and co-author of the study. "Apparently, the trade war jolted US companies to start rethinking and reshaping their supply networks."

Costs, risk and resilience

"2020 dawned with a disruption of a new order of magnitudeCOVID-19," noted Brooks Levering, Kearney partner and co-author of the study. "We anticipate that the harsh lessons of this crisis will compel companies to go much further in rethinking their sourcing strategies indeed, their entire supply chains."

"Three decades ago," Van den Bossche observes, "US producers began manufacturing and sourcing in China for one reason: costs. The USChina trade war brought a second dimension more fully into the equationriskas tariffs and the threat of disrupted China imports prompted companies to weigh surety of supply more fully alongside costs. COVID-19 brings a third dimension more fully into the mix, and arguably to the fore: resiliencethe ability to foresee and adapt to unforeseen systemic shocks."

"The current crisis is exposing vulnerabilities that cannot be addressed with short-term fixes and minor tinkering," Levering adds. "Companies can build more resilience into their supply chains by ensuring they can nimbly sense and pivot in response to unexpected demands and disruptions. This is the key to providing customers the products they need, particularly during times of crisis."

Read the full report here.

About Kearney

As a global consulting partnership in more than 40 countries, our people make us who we are. We're individuals who take as much joy from those we work with as the work itself. Driven to be the difference between a big idea and making it happen, we help our clients break through. For more information, visit www.kearney.com.

Contact: Ryan Dicovitsky / Ellie Johnson

Dukas Linden Public Relations

[email protected] / [email protected]

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LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 7, 2020 / As Courts prepare to reopen their doors in the coming weeks and months, CourtCall, the company that has served the justice market since 1996, is already in place to assist.While some courts are looking to the National Center for State Courts, (NCSC), the State Justice Institute (SJI) and national and local bar associations, including the ABA, many of which CourtCall has supported for decades, courts and attorneys who have been using CourtCall are already prepared."While courts can and should do their homework, our thousands of satisfied judges and tens of thousands of satisfied attorneys, speak volumes and remind all concerned that CourtCall should be included in any evaluation," said Bob Alvarado, CourtCall's CEO. "Courts that are new to remote access must use care as providers new to the market offer temporary free services and shift more work to already busy judges and court staff on platforms that were not built for the legal market," Alvarado continued. "To our knowledge, none have the virtual courtroom gallery, offer seamless caucus rooms and integrated DocuSign functionality and our browser-based platform does not require downloads. CourtCall does not sell user data." CourtCall stands alone as its services are already in place in many of our nation's courts. Its Traffic Solution has been in operation for years and was discussed in an article in 2017. "The ability to remotely argue traffic infractions that has been available in Fresno, California and DeKalb, Georgia should be made available in all courts as they reopen," Alvarado said. "The public, courts and law enforcement officers all benefit when traffic infraction trials are handled with no participant being required to travel to a courthouse. Our Traffic Solution is but one of the offerings that distinguish CourtCall from its peers." About the CompanyCourtCall was established in 1995, with the desire to make remote Court Appearances simple, accessible and affordable for all parties and has completed more than 6.000,000 remote appearances. With this objective in mind, CourtCall developed the Remote Appearance Platform, creating an organized and voluntary way for attorneys to appear for routine matters in Civil, Family, Criminal, Probate, Bankruptcy, Workers' Compensation and other cases from their offices, homes or other convenient locations. Designed with reliable and user-friendly technologies, Courts and remote participants experience seamless communication during cases, while benefiting from significant time and cost savings. Today, CourtCall is the industry leader for conducting remote Court Appearances throughout the United States, Canada and Worldwide. Technologies continue to expand, such that remote Court Appearances can be conducted with audio, video, and when necessary, remote interpretation services. For more information, please call (888) 88-COURT, or visit https://www.courtcall.com The office is located at 6383 Arizona Circle, Los Angeles, CA 90045For media inquiries, please call THE NALA at 805.650.6121, ext. 361.SOURCE: CourtCall
The supply of branded as well as unbranded essential goods to kirana stores has suffered due to the lockdown.

From the benefit of hindsight, it is just as well that roughly 90 percent of Indias retail sector is unorganised. And there are functioning government hospitals and allied health centres, however chaotic they may be.

Fourteen days into an unprecedented nationwide lockdown, it is pre-liberalised India that has come to the rescue of the country. Mom-and-pop stores and the 12 million neighbourhood kirana shops have become the main and unending suppliers of daily goods to urban Indian families through the length and breadth of the land.

As have government hospitals and small clinics providing yeoman service in this hour of crisis. The big, modern symbols of economic boom, the utility supermarkets and the mega hospitals are nowhere in the picture as the country comes up against a titanic anti-COVID battle. It is pre-1990, the age of the licence raj and the public sector, which invariably swim into focus.

In 2012, the Congress-led UPA had allowed 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail stores, but the Narendra Modi government following up on its promise in the 2014 poll manifesto, put the decision in cold storage after coming to power, though it never formally rescinded it through a government notification.

In its 2014 election manifesto, the BJP said it would allow FDI across sectors wherever needed for job and asset creation, infrastructure, acquisition of niche technology and specialised expertise, but not in supermarkets. The move may well turn out to be providential. The mom-and-pop stores are back with a bang.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

In the last couple of years, they have been the focus of two transformational forces  one seeking to modernise them, using technology to improve their efficiencies and tactics of modern retail, and another that sought to turn them into nerve centres of a coming e-commerce and digital payments revolution focussed on smaller cities and beyond, by hooking them up to virtual hubs of demand, supply and transactions.

Supermarket chains struggle to resume operations

Such attempts have, however, been dealt a cruel blow by COVID-19. The CEO of the Retailers Association of India (RAI), Kumar Rajagopalan, has been quoted as saying that availability of essentials is least impacted in the country  unlike the West where consumers have been lining up before supermarkets in serpentine queues  because of kirana stores in colonies, which have pretty much become the lifeline of the country in the last few days.

Large supermarket chains and online grocers are struggling to resume operations fully since the beginning of the 21-day lockdown on March 24 mainly due to severe manpower crunch. In contrast, owners of most kiranas in cities are approaching the distributors or stockists themselves and picking up the goods they need. Since the distributors are unable to bring supplies to the store because of manpower shortage as well as travel curbs, these small shop owners land up at their warehouses to pick up the goodies  no problem of last-mile delivery. People find it convenient to walk a small distance and pick up their daily use items from the friendly face across the counter.

Some kiranas are working in tandem with Resident Welfare Associations of housing societies to ensure the supply of groceries and other essential commodities. There are yet others who take orders on WhatsApp and deliver what is needed, particularly for senior citizens living alone.

The reference to the pre-liberalisation era is difficult  nigh impossible  to avoid. Not surprisingly, it is the much-maligned government hospitals  AIIMS, Safdarjung, primary health centres (PHCs), small colony clinics and all major government hospitals throughout the land - which have taken the challenge of meeting the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic with limited tools. Faced with the herculean task of tackling the never-ending queue of patients, often poor people without any means, their work is thankless.

What has been much-less chronicled is the lukewarm response of the countrys super-specialty hospital chains, which have shown far less enthusiasm in tackling the virus than they should have, given the limitless resources at their command and the Hippocratic Oath on their desks.

It was only after a surge of COVID-19 cases in India and a possible threat of community transmission, that the government has roped in private hospitals and directed them to begin admissions. To begin with, private healthcare institutions were only required to collect throat swab samples for suspected COVID-19 patients and advise them to home quarantine while awaiting test results.

Until last week, even as the government had asked private hospitals to gear up for treating COVID-19 by identifying separate isolation wards, hospitals said they lacked requisite permissions from the Indian Council of Medical Research for testing.

But with increasing government pressure, virtually all top hospital chains in the country have offered to help, admitting that the challenge they face is of epic proportions. The Apollo Hospital chain has targeted 5,000 rooms for virus care in Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bangalore and Delhi. In the Max chain, treatment will be made available in specially designated isolation wards of their hospitals  East block of Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket and Max Super Speciality Hospital, Patparganj. Apart from this, the diagnostic facility of the hospital-- Max Labs-- will also begin testing for COVID-19 for samples collected from four units across Delhi-NCR. Other hospital chains have offered similar assistance.

But given the magnitude of the challenge, it will have to be the government facilities, which have to face the brunt of the coronavirus head on, not the least because they are also more numerous and their social responsibility quotient is considerably higher.

Ranjit Bhushan is an independent journalist and former Nehru Fellow at Jamia Millia University. In a career spanning more than three decades, he has worked with Outlook, The Times of India, The Indian Express, the Press Trust of India, Associated Press, Financial Chronicle, and DNA.
Dehradun, April 7 : As the spread of COVID-19 by the Jamaatis have reached alarming proportions in some pockets of the Himalayan state, Uttarakhand's Trivendra Singh Rawat government is contemplating to take tough decisions in the last week of the lockdown.

The state government, according to highly placed sources, would be curtailing daily relaxation upto three to four hours from sixhours for the public.

Besides, efforts were on to evacuate foreign nationals who have been stranded since the lockdown was enforced on March 25.

To contain the crowd on streets and markets, seen during the relaxation hours from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., the state government would be restricting the timings and announce a new schedule for the people who come out to buy essential commodities like milk, bread and vegetables.

"In a meeting with the Chief Minister it was suggested by the top officials, that people do not adhere to social distancing, especially in fruit and vegetable markets. Moreover, in smaller towns people in large numbers are hanging around on streets and other public places. It has been decided to enforce the laws strictly to maintain the norms of social distancing. We will be sending fresh instructions to District Magistrates in this connection," said a senior official of the Uttarakhand government.

The hill state, which hitherto had negligible number of COVID-19 positive cases, was witness to a sudden spurt in infections once members of the Tablighi Jamaat returned from Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz, the new hotspot of spreading coronavirus in the country.

Out of 31 COVID-19 positive patients in Uttarakhand, 24 belong to the Jamaat.

The government is in the process of identifying contacts of such Jamaatis and have put them through testing.

Cases relating to Jamaatis have been reported from Nainital, Almora, Haridwar and other districts too.

Several hundred foreign tourists who have been stranded in different tourist places in the state are also returning.

Nearly 100 American citizens who were stranded in different districts, were flown out of Dehradun's Jolly Grant airport to Delhi in a special Air India flight Monday evening, airport officials said.

After mandatory health check ups of the foreigners, they were allowed to board the flight, sources said.

As per police, around 300 to 400 foreigners are still stranded in the state with maximum in Haridwar, Rishikesh, Nainital and Almora due to the lockdown.

Nearly 700 to 800 foreign nationals have so far left Uttarakhand with the travel arrangements made by their respective embassies in New Delhi.
Members of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and its 'satellite' party, Civil Together, pose during a ceremony to announce joint policy pledges in a ruling party meeting room at the National Assembly in Seoul, Tuesday, eight days ahead of the April 15 general election. Yonhap



By Jung Da-min



A week ahead of the April 15 general election, it seems that the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is failing to divert its high approval rating to its "satellite party," Civil Together, created by pro-Moon Jae-in civic groups and several minor liberal parties.



If Civil Together fails to get as many proportional representation seats as the DPK expects, the latter may consider approaching the Open Minjoo Party with a view to a merger, or at least a cooperative agreement, according to some analysts. The Open Minjoo Party was set up by activists and DPK politicians who failed to be selected as candidates by the DPK.



Earlier this year, the nation's two major parties  the DPK and the main opposition United Future Party (UFP)  created "paper parties" in a bid to win more proportional representation seats under the new electoral system designed to give more of these to minor parties. These satellite parties are participating only in the proportional representation vote, not in constituency voting.



The proportional representation seats are decided by on votes for a party, but recent surveys have shown that Civil Together is not receiving as much support as it and the DPK expected. This is mainly because support for the liberal bloc has been divided, with some supporting Civil Together and others, the Open Minjoo Party.



Moreover, support for the Open Minjoo Party is increasing. According to a survey of 2,521 eligible voters conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Friday last week, support for Civil Together was 21.7 percent, down 8.1 percentage points from a week earlier. Support for the Open Minjoo Party was 14.4 percent, up 2.7 percentage points.





Members of the minor liberal Open Minjoo Party appeal to voters on a street in Busan, Saturday. Yonhap
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 12:26:24|Editor: xuxin

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People receive temperature checking at the fever outpatient service in Lautoka, Fiji, April 2, 2020. Fiji confirmed on Tuesday one more new COVID-19 case, bringing the total number of such cases to 15. To curb the spread of COVID-19, Fiji has taken strict measures including the lockdown of capital city of Suva, a nationwide curfew and the suspension of international and domestic flights. (FIJI SUN/Handout via Xinhua)

SUVA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Fiji confirmed on Tuesday one more new COVID-19 case, bringing the total number of such cases to 15.

In a televised speech on Tuesday, Fiji's Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said the 33-year-old man is the husband of a woman who earlier tested positive to the virus.

All of the 15 patients remain in stable condition.

Fiji reported its first COVID-19 case in Lautoka, the nation's second largest city, on March 19 and the Fijian government then decided to lock down the city until Tuesday.

The lockdown in Lautoka was lifted on Tuesday, but the prime minister stressed that the lifting of the lockdown in the city does not mean life is going back to normal.

The 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. nationwide curfew applies everywhere including Lautoka, Bainimarama said, adding that police officers are stepping up surveillance in Lautoka from Tuesday to make sure no one takes this as an opportunity to skirt any of the restriction directives.

To curb the spread of COVID-19, Fiji has taken strict measures including the lockdown of capital city of Suva, a nationwide curfew and the suspension of international and domestic flights.
Students in Victoria will have to complete term two online and final exams for graduating pupils will be postponed until at least December.

Premier Daniel Andrews on Tuesday unveiled the state government's new plan for students that will reshape the education system for the next few months.

Beginning next Wednesday, all students will be educated through online learning as the country battles to contain coronavirus.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he hoped students could receive an ATAR in the state by the beginning of 2021 at the latest

Beginning next Wednesday, all students in Victoria will be educated through an online learning system as the country battles to contain coronavirus

'If you can learn from home, you must learn from home, and you will be supported to get the best educational experience possible,' Mr Andrews said in a press conference.

'We cannot have a million students moving around the Victorian community every day. All that will do is spread the virus, and undermine the really significant progress that we've made, notwithstanding the fact that we're in this for the long haul and these things can change,' he added.

Mr Andrews said exceptions will be made for children of parents who cannot leave their kids unsupervised at home while they continue to go to work.

'If you can't learn from home, then schools will be open and we will run the same courses, we don't want kids disadvantaged because of circumstances beyond their own control,' he said.

Schools have been closed in Victoria because of the coronavirus outbreak since March 24.

State officials meanwhile have worked alongside the federal government to create a robust distance learning plan for students amid the health crisis.

The premier ruled out the idea of a 'Year 13', or extra year of school for Year 12 students, and said the government is committed to seeing students complete their VCEs this year.

Year 12 exams are expected to be postponed until at least December and universities will likely be asked to delay the start of the 2021 academic year.

'An awful lot of work is being done to get our Year 12s through. We're not about years 13 or people repeating,' he said.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

'We think that we can get this done. As soon as we can provide more detail to our Year 12 cohort, and indeed, all students and their families, of course, we will.

'But Year 12, just like school for every student on day one of term two, is going to be different. It's going to look different, it's going to unfold in a different way.'

Earlier on Tuesday, Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan echoed Mr Daniels comments regarding the idea of Year 13, saying: 'Every state and territory education minister - and it's my strong view as well - do not want to see that.'

'We want to make sure that we can get as many students through this year as we possibly can,' he told ABC radio.

Mr Tehan's personal preference is adjusting ATAR scores across the country to account for COVID-19 or changing the university assessment system.

'We want to make sure that this year 12 cohort does not suffer as a result of the coronavirus,' he said.

'We want them to be able to pursue their dreams for university, for vocational education, or whether they want to go into work next year.'
An appeal has been made to the public for more information after thieves followed a milk van delivering to self-isolators and stole from it.

Lancashire-based Bannister Farm Dairy said the suspects followed their van from the railway crossing in Parbold down to the Stocks Tavern on Saturday morning (4 April).

The thieves snatched deliveries of milk, cream, eggs, butter, yoghurts, cheese, fruit juices and water off people's doorsteps.

Several customers had contacted the farm, located in Bispham, to let them know they had not received their delivery.

"Many of them were in distress, some in tears as they are self isolating and dependent on our service at the moment," Bannister Farm Dairy said on Facebook.

"If anyone in this area has CCTV please would you check it and if you see anything relevant between the hours of 2am and 5am please contact us."

The post has since been shared over 7,000 times, with more than 500 comments expressing sympathy and support.

Elsewhere, a farm shop in Solihull, Warwickshire was forced to close for a couple of days after a break-in on Sunday 5 April.

Oakes Farm Shop had been left with 'significant damage' to the building and a 'loss of a lot of stock'.

Unfortunately we will be closed today due to being broke into after 10.30pm last night," the business said.

If anyone saw anything last night could you let us know."

Numerous farm shop businesses across the UK have reported thefts of food and drink products amid the Covid-19 crisis.
After the Honor 30S went official last week, the Huawei sub-brand is expected to introduce its flagship offerings for the 30 series on April 15 - the Honor 30 and 30 Pro. The top of the line Pro model was spotted in a Geekbench listing, which confirmed the phone will be powered by the flagship Kirin 990 5G chipset.

The phone was spotted with the EBG-AN00 model number which corresponds to previous listings and managed 3,876 points on the single-core score and 12,571 on the multi-core department. We also see it will come with the Kirin 990 5G SoC which has a base frequency of 1.95Ghz. The phone is also coupled with 8GB RAM and the phone is running on Android 10, presumably with Magic UI 3.1 on top.



Honor 30 Pro Geekbench listing

Meanwhile a different report suggests that the vanilla Honor 30 will launch with the upcoming Kirin 985 SoC. That chipset is yet to be officially announced, but it's expected to arrive with an integrated 5G modem and be built on the EUV process. It will likely be a step behind the 990 in terms of CPU and GPU speeds, but going by the naming we don't expect huge differences.



Honor 30 Kirin 985 rumor

We recently learned that both the Honor 30 and the Pro variant will come with a 50MP Sony IMX700 main camera alongside three other shooters including a periscope module. Well surely see more teasers for the Honor 30 series before the launch event so stay tuned.

Source | Via 1 | Via 2
A University of Wyoming student is suing the Albany County Sheriffs Office alleging two of its investigators pressured her to recant a sexual assault allegation against a fellow student.

Filed in February, the federal lawsuit alleges that the two deputies  Christian Handley and Aaron Gallegos  cross-examined a female UW student in February 2017 after she accused an acquaintance of sexually assaulting her. The lawsuit includes a transcript, in which the two deputies tell the student her story is inconsistent and that the suspect is a good guy who shouldnt have his life ruined.

This could potentially ruin him for 20 years down the line, be a sex offender for the rest of his life, Gallegos told the accuser. Because of the nature of the alleged crime, the Star-Tribune will not name the plaintiff. Would you want that to happen, spend 20 years in prison for an alleged rape when it was consensual, it was weird, it happened, but he didnt rape you?

The lawsuit alleges that the deputies coerced a recantation of the allegation from the accuser, who regularly interacted with the suspect via a school activity. It alleges the department violated federal equal protection laws because the two men were allegedly motivated by animus against (the accusers) sex, sexual orientation and sexual identity. The deputies describe the woman as a lesbian in their interview with her, according to the transcript.

The suit further alleges the deputies extracted a coerced confession and that the department had failed to train its deputies.

In separation motions, attorneys for both the state and the sheriffs department asked a federal judge to throw out the lawsuit. They contend it did not meet the standard for such a claim and denied that the woman was discriminated against because of her sexuality or sex. The state also alleges that the woman didnt have a confession coerced from her because she wasnt charged, arrested or convicted of anything.

While Gallegos and Handley used a leading and narrative method of questioning, neither the style of questioning nor the type of questions they asked show their intent to discriminate against (the woman) because of her sex, sexual orientation or sexual identity, a senior assistant attorney general wrote, adding that while (the woman) may be dissatisfied with the outcome of the investigation, she failed to show that either defendant intentionally discriminated against her.

The judge has yet to rule on the motions. Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill declined to comment. Messages sent to both the accusers and the sheriffs attorneys were not returned Monday.

The transcript shows that the investigators said they believed the womans story to be blown out of proportion and pressed her not to ruin this guys life. In this final conversation with investigators, the woman acknowledged that she kissed the suspect and had consensual sex with him. But the next morning, when they had intercourse again, it was not consensual, she told deputies, and the suspect held her arms down.

I would not call it consensual that morning, she said. I want to be very clear about that.

The two deputies pressed her, in an interview dominated by what the accusers lawyers call soliloquies and monologues by the two men. The two tell the woman that her friend, after hearing about what happened, was the one who turned it into a sexual assault allegation, that the accuser was a good person, and that she wouldnt be charged with making a false report. The two asked if she was attracted to the man and wondered why she went home with him. They suggest she turned it into a rape allegation after it became awkward afterward.

Did he physically hold you down and tie you down and rape you; is that what youre saying? Handley asked her.

I mean, he held my arms down, she said.

At one point in the interview, according to the transcript, Handley told the woman, If an opinion were anything, I think, is it fair to say in his defense that after you guys had consensual sex the night before, you stayed the night at his house, youre laying in his bed with him, hes probably thinking this is okay?

The accuser agrees thats totally fair. She then agreed that she didnt say no because (she) just wanted to get it over with and be done with it.

Eventually, the accuser largely agreed to drop the allegations criminally, and the deputies said they wouldnt charge her for making a false report.

So you should feel good about yourself right now because, for lack of a better term, sit happens, okay, Handley said, according to the transcript. He told her to take this is as a learning experience. Fair enough? And you came forward with it. What the hell. Live and learn.

Star-Tribune staff writer Shane Sanderson contributed to this report.

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I agree that these will not be reinfections but I do not think these will be reactivations. Personally, I think the most likely explanation is that the clearance samples were false negative. It does appear that swabs for the virus are not 100 per cent reliable, he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called on Iran to respect its nuclear obligations as the world focuses its attention on the coronavirus pandemic.



In a phone call on April 6, Macron told Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that the international community must come together to fight the spread of the virus.



Macron hopes Iran will "turn to the respect of its nuclear obligations, refrain from taking new measures contrary to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and contribute to the easing of regional tensions," a government statement said.



Rouhani's office said during the call the Iranian president called for an internationally coordinated fight against the new coronavirus and asked for support.



"Without joint global cooperation and exchange of our experiences, we cannot master this critical phase," Rouhani said.



Earlier on April 6, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the United States to ease economic sanctions on Iran and expand the licensing of sanctions-exempt items to ensure the country has access to essential humanitarian resources during the pandemic.



Iran and several countries along with the United Nations and some U.S. lawmakers have voiced similar pleas to ease sanctions.



U.S. President Donald Trump has offered Iran humanitarian assistance, but Iranian officials have rejected the offer.



Iran is one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus. The outbreak has officially infected more than 60,000 people and killed over 3,700 in Iran, though many experts and critics of Tehran have said the actual figures may be much higher due to underreporting by officials.



France and its EU partners remain available to continue humanitarian cooperation to help Iran fight the coronavirus, Macron said, according to the French government statement.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa
Recovery is likely to be seen more from the September quarter, provided we see that the brunt of this COVID-19 is behind us within next 2-3 months. Some of the delayed demand could actually come through from the December quarter, Karthikraj Lakshmanan, Senior Fund Manager at BNP Paribas Mutual Fund said in an interview to Moneycontrol's Sunil Shankar Matkar.

Edited excerpt:

Q: Crude oil has fallen more than 60 percent from its January 2020 high which should ideally be good for India. But do you feel it is favourable in current scenario?

If we look at Crude prices alone, the fall is a very big positive for Indian economy since we import most of our requirements. Hence it is likely to help in a reduction in our import bill significantly leading to a reduction in current account deficit which anyways has been trending down.

The savings can be used by the government to bridge the revenue gap, stimulus for the economy, etc. however, we need to bear in mind that lower crude oil prices are also a reflection of lower global demand and hence lower global growth. This could be negative for export-related industries and will lead to lower repatriation from oil-dependent economies.

Q: Is it the right time for fundamentally strong and cash-rich companies to acquire small/midcap (even big) quality companies?

Yes. Fundamentally strong companies are always on the look-out for good M&A opportunities. The current challenging environment may lead to some attractive deals for these companies which earlier may not have gone through because of higher valuations.

However, we always have preferred companies that have gone for proper capital allocation and focused on deals that are synergistic to existing business and value accretive in the medium to long term. We would avoid companies that go for M&A just for valuation arbitrage or to increase balance sheet size without many benefits.

Q: Value seems to be everywhere due to steep fall across sectors/stocks but what are your favourite sectors?

We at BNP have been following an Investment Philosophy of BMV framework (Business-Management-Valuation) in which focus has been to identify companies with sustainable long term earnings growth. We look out for companies growing faster than industry and industries growing faster than the economy.

So inherently, the inclination has been towards leaders or market share gainers within sectors /sub-sectors which are growing faster and generating healthy cashflows. In the current market correction, some of the structural Long term growth companies, too, have moved from expensive multiples to reasonable or attractive valuations. Our preference is for such companies.

They are mostly in the B2C space that is Business to Consumer space within which we prefer Private Retail Financials, Consumer Staples, Durables, Retail, Cement, Paint, Telecom and Media. At the margin, we have a small allocation to companies with low growth but healthy Balance sheet, Cashflows and available at attractive dividend yields. We have avoided high debt companies, deep cyclicals, and global commodities.

Q: What could be the impact of COVID-19 on companies' earnings in Q4FY20 and Q1FY21?

Earnings impact is likely to be relatively minimal for the March quarter (Q4FY20) given that the disruption started only in the last 15 days of the quarter. However, as the brunt of the impact, looking at the nationwide lockdown period (14 of the 21-day period) and the experiences from other markets, the earnings are likely to be down in double digits for the broader market index in the June quarter (Q1FY21).

The recovery is likely to be seen more from the September quarter, provided we see that the brunt of this COVID-19 is behind us within the next 2-3 months. Some of the delayed demand could actually come through from the December quarter.

Hence, assessing the current situation, the expectation is the second half of FY21 could see a recovery while overall FY21 may be muted due to the first half negative impact. Having said that, the situation is very fluid and would be very difficult to make predictions. However, FY22 could be a normal year with normalized earnings growth.

Q: Report suggested that lockdown is expected to create a big problem for banking & financials sector in terms of NPAs. What are your thoughts?

If the situation is tackled within the next 1-2 months and economic activity returns close to normal levels by then, the impact could be manageable with the Moratorium provided by RBI last week. However, if thehas situation prevails longer, then some pockets of lending could have higher NPAs and credit costs.

Q: Gold and Oil and equities etc have been falling  what does it indicate or how should investors decode this?

The correction in equities across the globe has been so fast and so sharp that not many investors have had enough time to react. In a normal market correction or Risk-off trade, one could generalize and say money would move away from riskier assets like equities into fixed income and gold.

The read-through as of now is that the markets are worried about the COVID-19 situation, the spike up in new cases and the lack of solution to control the same in order to free the world from Lockdowns.

Q: What is your advice to your clients?

Ensure that the asset allocation mix of the investors is in sync with their risk profile. Within that, rebalance the equity proportion with the movement in the markets and better to consider continuing with SIPs after having borne the brunt of this unforeseen development of COVID-19 Pandemic. Fresh Equity allocation could either be staggered over next few months or consider waiting for clarity on the Pandemic.

Q: FIIs have sold more than $9 billion worth of shares since February 24. Are you really worried about the outflows?

Fundamentals play a bigger role in the Long term while in the near term flows could decide directions. FIIs, when one looks at the long term, have been large investors into Indian equities over last 2 decades. Coming to the flow aspect, the sharp outflow in last few days has had an impact on the markets and has been primarily driven by the passive money funds.

Thankfully, the Domestic Institutional Investors have become much bigger now compared to even say 5-years back. Especially Mutual Fund SIPs have been granular and have been steadily inching up even in the last 2 years when the majority of the market has been in the red.

When we have a solution for the Pandemic and economic activity comes back to normal, a Long term investor would appreciate that the valuations which were expensive and a concern even a month back has now turned very attractive.

Trailing Nifty 50 EPS is around 540 making trailing valuations attractive at below 16x PE which is close to the bottom quartile of the historical P/E distribution over the last 17 years data that we have. (Data source: Bloomberg for Nifty 50 trailing EPS) Also, India could still be amongst the fastest growing Large economies over next decade providing an attractive avenue for global Long term investors at a time when global growth has been very low.

Q: Do you feel the rate cut will solve COVID-19-led issues? What should the government and RBI do to tackle these problems now?

RBI MPC in an advanced meeting on Friday (March 27, 2020) took measures to further ease liquidity, cut Repo rate by 75 bps which was more than expected and provided moratorium of 3 months for financial institutions to ease the situation for the borrowers during the lockdown. This was a much required step in order to boost sentiments of the markets and could be instrumental along with Government measures in providing relief during the lockdown.

The real impact of the Pandemic on the economy would be ascertained only later but both RBI and Government have hinted at further measures to revive growth. There could be more room for rate cuts and Fiscal stimulus in terms of tax cut or directed Government spending could help.

Disclosure: The material contained herein has been obtained from publicly available information, internally developed data and other sources believed to be reliable, but BNP Paribas Asset Management India Private Limited (BNPPAMIPL) makes no representation that it is accurate or complete. This information is meant for general reading purpose only and is not meant to serve as a professional guide for the readers. The information should not be construed as an investment advice and investors are requested to consult their investment advisor and arrive at an informed investment decision before making any investments. The sector(s) mentioned herein do not constitute any recommendation of the same and BNP Paribas Mutual Fund may or may not have any future position in these sector(s).

: Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
Hong Kong: LegCo election prep underway

The Government is doing its utmost in preparing for the Legislative Council Election, Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip said today.

Mr Nip made the statement after attending a special meeting of the LegCo Finance Committee.

He said the Electoral Affairs Commission and the Registration & Electoral Office are carrying out the preparatory work, such as voter registration, consultation on guidelines for election-related activities, making arrangements for recruiting polling staff and finding polling stations.

"All this preparatory work is ongoing. We are doing our utmost to do it."

Mr Nip added that the Government is monitoring the epidemics impact on society, public health risks and the possible effect on the election.

"So it is too early to say. We will monitor it closely and make an assessment so that we are in a position to do the steps about the gazettal of the polling date.

"But its clear that the Legislative Council Ordinance has set out the timeline including the time range that the election should be held, the period of nomination and time allowed for campaigns, etc."

This story has been published on: 2020-04-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 7, 2020) - (TSXV: NNO) (OTC PINK: NNOMF) (FSE: LBMB).

Nano One received $250,000 contribution increase from SDTC

Nano One continues to fulfill its commitments to projects, partners and funders.

Nano One has implemented effective workplace and work-at-home policies.

Mr. Dan Blondal, CEO of Nano One Materials is pleased to announce that Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) has increased its contribution to Nano One from $5,000,000 to $5,250,000 with an additional payment of $250,000.

This is a one-time non-dilutive contribution in response to the COVID-19 situation and represents a 5% supplement to SDTC's current $5 million commitment to Nano One's Scaling of Advanced Battery Materials project, bringing the total contribution agreement to $5.25 million.

"SDTC has moved very swiftly in response to these unprecedented times by providing additional funding to their client companies, including Nano One, to enable continued innovation, to build new strategies, and to ensure the health and safety of our employees," said Dan Blondal, Nano One's CEO.

Despite the global public health and economic crises, Nano One is on solid ground with over $11 million cash-on-hand, $5.25M in SDTC support and a multi-year runway extending over three years. This positions Nano One to emerge stronger and more resilient as these crises recede, and to benefit again from the clean technology sentiment that gave it so much momentum in January and February.

Nano One has a growing portfolio of valuable patents, a world class team and a number of critical strategic relationships which include Volkswagen, Pulead Technology, Saint-Gobain, and many of their peers. Opportunities with world class companies are expanding rapidly and Nano One is moving them all forward, with some at an advanced stage.

The COVID-19 issues are unprecedented, and Nano One is mindful of its employee's health, wellness and careers. Consequently, workplace safety measures are being complemented with work-at-home policies as everyone adjusts to evolving public health guidelines. With these measures, Nano One's research and business development activities are proceeding largely unaffected by the current crises.

Mr. Blondal added "Nano One appreciates the extraordinary support it is receiving from the federal government through SDTC, from its shareholders and from its world class partners. We are confident in our team, our partners and our technologies as we accelerate activities and execute on our business plan."

Nano One Materials Corp.

Dan Blondal, CEO

For information with respect to Nano One or the contents of this news release, please contact John Lando (President) at (604) 420-2041 or visit the website at www.nanoone.ca.

About Nano One

Nano One Materials Corp has developed patented technology for the low-cost production of high performance lithium ion battery cathode materials used in electric vehicles, energy storage and consumer electronics. The processing technology enables lower cost feedstocks, simplifies production and advances performance for a wide range of cathode materials. Nano One has built a demonstration pilot plant and is partnering with global leaders in the lithium ion battery supply chain, including Pulead, Volkswagen and Saint-Gobain to advance its lithium iron phosphate (LFP), lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) and lithium nickel manganese oxide (LNM) cathode technologies for large growth opportunities in e-mobility and renewable energy storage applications.

Nano One's pilot and partnership activities are being funded with the assistance and support of the Government of Canada through Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) and the Automotive Supplier Innovation Program (ASIP) a program of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). Nano One also receives financial support from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP). Nano One's mission is to establish its patented technology as a leading platform for the global production of a new generation of battery materials. www.nanoone.ca

Certain information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, the execution of the plans of Nano One Materials Corp ("the Company") which are contingent on the receipt of grant monies and the commercialization of the Company's technology and patents. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as 'believe', 'expect', 'anticipate', 'plan', 'intend', 'continue', 'estimate', 'may', 'will', 'should', 'ongoing', or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including: the ability of the Company to obtain additional financing; including the receipt of grant monies from SDTC, ASIP, NRC-IRAP and the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that is incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASENEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54207
07.04.2020 LISTEN

The recent influx of our brothers and sisters (Kayaaye) from Accra and Kumasi appears to have exposed our Ill or no preparedness toward the combat of the novel coronavirus in the North East Region. A dozen of buses came into the Region with our town and village folks ahead of the date announced for the lockdown of Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi with no critical medical examination conducted, and interestingly, no record has been taken for contact tracing purposes. These have raised eyebrows and are serious matters of concern for all.

Citizens had expected quarantine centers to be put up in the various Municipal and District capitals to quarantine them (Kayaaye) for the Fourteen days period, before they were allowed to socialized with their families for purposes of safety and fear of community transfers.

Whereas, our Traditional leadership could have helped in that score, the uncoordinated nature of the activities geared towards the fight of the Coronavirus in the Region spearheaded by the Regional Minister is worrisome and problematic.

The Traditional Leadership Marshaled by the Nayiri (The King of Mamprugu) could have provided strong base of leadership to prevent our folks from Accra and Kumasi from socializing with their people until the 14 days period is over and done with as it happened in other parts in the North.

It is therefore, not surprising, seeing citizens in the region still go about with the normal social engagements, some oblivious of the social distancing protocols and most unaware of this beastly covid19. This should bring the North East Region Minister from his hideout since very less is seen and heard from the RCC down to MDA's.

The NDC in the Region is therefore calling on the MP for Nalerigu/Gambaga and Minister for Local Government Hajia Alima Mahama and the North East Region Minister Hon Solomon Boar to stop the power play and exhibit calmness and modesty in her dealings in as much the convid19 war is concern. It will be fatal and injurious to our collective efforts, if we dabble in politics in this trying times, when Covid19 is sweeping across the globe.

To fumigate markets in the Region with state machinery and pass that as your personal contribution and achievement, just so, you can outdo your political opponents is most unfortunate.

What we/you should be doing therefore is:

1. The poor awareness creation about covid19 and sensitization must be relooked at. With all stakeholders hands on deck (Political players, Chiefs, Religious leaders etc).

2. Our Vulnerable/poor health institutions such as The Baptist Medical Center (BMC), Walewale Municipal Hospital and other Hospitals across the Region should be equipped with PPE's and other equipments.

3. Our Entry points at Chereponi especially Natuuli through to Chenchango to Togo and other unapproved points.

The Bunkpurugu Maambibaga route. Especially the (Maambabiga market.

This critical routes must be monitored keenly as citizens from Neighboring Togo still access the region.

4. Jingles be recorded with voices of key political and Traditional leaders in the dominant languages in the region and played in the radio and television stations.

So in light of this, and in the course of the coming weeks we entreat the MDA's to embark on a campaign to disabuse the minds of the population in the region about the notion that, the recent fumigation exercise in an immunization against Coronavirus.

In conclusion, we believe if comprehensive and all encompassing measures are taken, the North East Region will be safe. Thank you!

IMORO ABDUL-RAZAK

REGIONAL COMMUNICATION OFFICER - NDC

NORTH EAST

0245371909
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has distributed Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), test kits and medication to its member countries including Ghana to help combat the outbreak.

As of April 5, 2020, the member states are affected by the pandemic with 1,739 confirmed cases of contamination, 55 deaths and 328 persons who have fully recovered with approximately 95% of deaths being patients with underlying conditions.

In this regard, the West African Health Organisation (WAHO), its specialized health Institution responsible for

coordinating the response at the regional, level has drawn up a Regional Strategic Plan with all Member States.

Thus, to address the emergency at hand, ECOWAS has immediately made available financial support from its own resources, in addition to assistance from international partners, for the purchase of medical supplies and equipment essential for the fight against the pandemic.

WAHO has already purchased and dispatched to the 15 Member States, 30,500 diagnostic test kits, 10,000 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) (Coveralls, Aprons, gowns, gloves, goggles, boots) and 740,000 prescription tablets (Chloroquine and Azithromycin), ECOWAS said in a statement.

Additionally, orders have been placed to acquire for the Member States, 240,000 diagnostic kits, 240,000 extraction kits, 250,000 viral sample transport equipment, 285,100 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), 268,1000 masks for medical personnel (face masks, surgical masks, full face masks), 120 ventilators, 7,000 litres of alcohol gel and disinfectants.

Other measures

WAHO is also working, in close collaboration with the specialized services in the Member States, to deploy personnel and epidemiological surveillance and data collection tools, strengthen the capacity of reference laboratories and train technical personnel.

ECOWAS and its Institution, WAHO, continue both internal and external resource mobilization, with a view to increasing the availability of medical materials and equipment necessary to prevent, monitor and combat this pandemic.

This will expand its scope of support to supplement Member States' own efforts.

In addition, ECOWAS is working to complement its intervention as part of a Short and Medium Term State Assistance Plan (humanitarian assistance and support for economic recovery).

ECOWAS says it remains committed to supporting the Member States in the fight against this pandemic.

Meanwhile, the ECOWAS Commission is taking this opportunity to urge people to continue to implement the measures recommended by the Health Authorities, and to comply with the prescribed hygiene guidelines.

---citinewsroom
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A cobra and eagle faced a tense battle between dinner and survival - with the bird going hungry.

Student Rohan S Shandilya, 23, was visiting grassland on the outskirts of Bangalore, Karnataka, India when he snapped the fight.

Pictures show the short-toed snake eagle getting ready to swoop down on the highly venomous Indian cobra snake. The bird makes itself known to the cobra in the process, which rears up to defend itself and scares its hunter off.

Rohan said: 'This is a very unique and rare event and it is not something I get to witness everyday. The cobra is a very strong contender and is not easy to take down.

'This eagle made an effort to try and take down this cobra but the might and aggressive stance of the cobra proved too strong for the eagle and the eagle gave up.'

The snake-eagle is able to catch large and poisonous snakes by making long strikes and consuming it on the ground

The cobra rears itself up to defend itself from being caught by the bird's talons
Among the 116 fresh COVID-19 cases reported from Mumbai on Tuesday were two cases from Dharavi, the densely-populated urban slum sprawl, which has added to the worries of the Brihanumbai Municipal Corporation.

IMAGE: Doctors wearing protective suits examine patients to ensure the possibilities of COVID-19 disease at Borivali in Mumbai. Photograph: PTI Photo

The total number of coronavirus positive cases in Mumbai now stands at 642 with 40 deaths so far, including six new victims, a BMC release said.

According to the BMC, at least four of the six new deceased had comorbidities.

With two more persons testing positive for coronavirus, the number of cases in Dharavi now stands at seven.

Similarly, two new coronavirus positive cases were found in Dadar, including a 69-year-old man from Chitale Peth.

While the man is admitted to Kasturba Hospital, his five close contacts were quarantined, the civic body said.

Another cause of concern for the BMC is that the rise in the cases is attributed to at least 55 people, who all were close contacts in the high risk containment areas in the mega city, being found positive during tests.

"The rise in the cases is seen because 55 patients are diagnosed amongst the contacts in the high risk containment areas as a result of screening clinics and vigorous contact tracingefforts by the health teams. All the high risk contacts are given timely attention and tested," it said.

The BMC on Tuesday checked over 550 people at its special OPDs and admitted 221 people at hospitals, as per the release.
Scott Kreuzer has been appointed senior managing director, Americas, at Aspen Re, effective May 4, 2020.

Kreuzer joins Aspen Re from Axis Reinsurance where he has served as senior vice president, head of Casualty North America, since August 2018. He was also senior vice president, head of Casualty London, from March 2018 to the present.

He will lead the Aspen Re America team and work closely with Aspen Res leadership to develop the North America reinsurance property, casualty and specialty platform.

From October 2011 to March 2018, he was a senior vice president at Axis, with responsibility for the workers compensation and alternative risk treaty business unit.

He has also held senior positions at Ace Tempest Re, Allied World Assurance Co. and General Reinsurance.

Kreuzer will report to Christian Dunleavy, chief underwriting officer, Aspen Re and CEO of Aspen Bermuda Limited, and will be based in Aspens New York and Rocky Hill, Conn., offices.

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WASHINGTONRemember the U.S. presidential primaries? It seems like a different era, those weeks ago when states were voting to determine the Democratic nominees in Novembers election  a memory fading as those contests are on hold while the nation wrestles with the coronavirus pandemic.

It was Throwback Tuesday in Wisconsin  or an attempt at it, as the state held its Democratic primary, some local elections, and a vote for a seat on the top court  after a last-minute postponement attempt by the governor was overturned by the states supreme court. But if the idea was that some semblance of democracy-as-usual was possible, it was quickly dispelled by reality.

Thanks to provisions that allow mail-in votes postmarked by Tuesday to be counted until April 13, the results of the voting wont be known until next week, but it was obvious right away that asking voters to choose between endangering their lives or giving up their democratic rights was madness.

Good morning and welcome to the Sh** Show, Wisconsins Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes tweeted out Tuesday morning  spelling out the expletive  as the problems were already becoming clear.

Thousands of poll workers refused to show up in fear of COVID-19, vastly reducing the number of voting locations available. Milwaukee, the biggest city in the state, usually has 180 polling stations but had only five on Tuesday. Green Bay normally has 31 stations but only opened two.

That meant lines of social-distancing voters  many wearing masks and gloves  stretched around corners and down blocks shortly after polls opened. Wait times at some locations in Milwaukee were more than two hours. Hundreds of mail-in ballots arrived without witness signatures (as a result of an overturned decision that sought to allow witness-free votes) and would not be counted. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported social media messages were spreading the false information that ballots could be obtained by email  a rumour circulated mistakenly even by a senior state Democratic party member. A photo on that newspapers website showed a voter in line holding a sign putting it plainly: This is ridiculous.

Many in this country seem to need constant demonstrations to understand that things cannot reasonably get back to normal amid the still-worsening pandemic. Wisconsin was just another example.

For many the abnormal circumstances  and the tens of thousands of voters who would stay away  were no surprise. They say using fear of COVID-19 to lower voter turnout was exactly the point.

Im kind of disappointed that our representatives are trying to suppress our vote by having the vote during a pandemic. It doesnt make sense, Michael Claus, a 66-year-old African-American voter told a Journal-Sentinel videographer in a polling place lineup. People died for my right to vote, so if I have to take a risk to vote thats what I have to do.

The primary itself is almost an afterthought. Donald Trump is essentially running unopposed, and Joe Biden has the Democratic nomination virtually sewn up. But Wisconsin also holds elections for other positions at the same time. The thinking is that Republicans  aiming to hold onto a conservative advantage on the state supreme court, among other offices  benefit from a reduced turnout. So they sued, successfully, to force the election to proceed over the objections of the Democratic party and Gov. Tony Evers.

The recent track record of Wisconsin Republicans doesnt give them the benefit of the doubt against suspicions of putting partisanship over democracy. In recent years they used their legislative majority to severely gerrymander the states electoral districts to entrench a Republican advantage and then, when Evers was elected to replace a Republican governor, stripped the office of many of its powers before he was sworn in.

Evers favoured universal voting by mail with extended deadlines; Republicans strongly opposed it. Trump made the partisan divide over such expanded voting access explicit when he recently said such measures proposed federally by Congress lead to levels of voting that if youd ever agreed to it, youd never have a Republican elected in this country again. Thats why many think whats playing out in Wisconsin could be a preview of presidential election battles if the COVID crisis persists into November.

Whether that calculation about the effect of depressed turnout is correct or not, the push to go forward with in-person voting as scheduled prevailed, with the results that Wisconsin voters who did not already have a mail-in ballot in hand Tuesday had to choose between risking their lives  and the lives of their fellow citizens  or being disenfranchised. At a stroke, public health was jeopardized while the election was delegitimized.

Its a decision that seems to show a cavalier disregard either for public health or for democracy. Or, quite possibly, for both.
From the Berkshires to the outer reaches of the Cape & Islands, there are now tens of thousands of cases of coronavirus, and many hundreds who are seriously or critically sickened with the virus.

But if the virus is spreading at a higher rate in your community, you may not be getting the information you need to protect yourself. Gov. Charlie Baker and his administration say they are not releasing town- and city-specific data on coronavirus cases and deaths in an effort to protect patient privacy, citing, among other concerns, that people sickened with the virus may be targeted and bullied.

MassLive recently asked the Baker administration why cases have not been reported on a town-by-town level. Health Secretary Marylou Sudders said at a recent press conference the state is reluctant to share more specific information with the public for fear it would out people whove tested positive.

Theres stigma attached to all sorts of communicable diseases, and there were several individuals very early on who tested positive through social media were identified locally, and they were really cyberbullied, Sudders said.

The same rule applies to people who have died, Sudders said.

If a family wants to disclose, thats obviously in their right, she added.

But during a pandemic, where millions of people are upending their life to comply with new emergency restrictions, and making sacrifices for society as a whole, health experts say as much information should be shared with the public as possible, so long as it doesnt lead people being unduly stigmatized, and patients arent re-identified.

Government always owes us transparency in general, but especially in a pandemic crisis when it is asking Americans to completely upend their daily lives and make sacrifices, said Glenn Cohen, a bioethicist at Harvard Law School. Sharing accurate information is necessary to maintain trust and make sure people continue to be willing to make those sacrifices."

The state Department of Public Health started releasing data on confirmed cases by age group at the onset of the crisis earlier this month. In confirming deaths, officials would list the county of those who died of COVID-19-related illness.

This has made it harder for smaller cities and towns to be transparent amid calls from residents who want to track the virus as it spreads in their community. Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy said her constituents have pushed for more data after the city reported a spike in cases last week.

People are nervous now and afraid, and they want to know that number, McCarthy said in a phone interview.

 URGENT MESSAGE FROM THE WALTHAM HEALTH DEPARTMENT & MAYOR MCCARTHY: pic.twitter.com/pPXSJG9Ds8  City Of Waltham (@CityofWaltham) March 31, 2020

On March 28, state health officials asked city and town health boards to stop publishing the numbers to protect the privacy of patients in less populated areas, according to messages put out by towns over media.

Cities and towns were directed by DPH not to publish the number of cases due to cyberbullying. The states COVID-19 command center conveyed this to local boards of health during a conference call several weeks ago, town and city officials confirmed.

They did not feel that we should be releasing individual numbers for the individual communities," Sue Rosa, the public health director for Chelmsford told MassLive.

Because what was happening was the identities of the individuals were being revealed, McCarthy said.

Rosa said Chelmsford received questions from residents asking why the town had stopped reporting. When she reached back to DPH, they then made a blanket statement that they were going to leave it up to the individual cities and towns, whether they would release data, but they would encourage towns to pay very close attention to privacy and HIPAA requirements.

Chelsmford made the decision not to continue reporting local numbers anyhow. Rosa said releasing the data was important at the beginning of the pandemic.

The whole idea in the beginning was to really alert the community that this is here and we need to pay attention, Rosa said. At this point, people are well aware.

Were not giving anybodys name

But bigger cities, like Boston, continue to report out their own cases, going as far as to break them down by neighborhood, ZIP code, age and gender.

Worcester has also regularly reported cases to residents, which officials say has been out of an obligation to remain transparent during the pandemic, and to help the public better understand the citys response.

Were not giving anybodys name, were not giving anybodys address, City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. said. But were trying to show the seriousness of this, and the pace of new cases, so people understand why were taking all of the actions that were taking. If we did that in the absence of any data or any information, Im not sure people who have a sense of the seriousness of this.

In the case of municipalities striving for that level of transparency, the question becomes: to protect the identities of patients in smaller rural areas, what population sizes put people at risk for having their medical conditions disclosed?

In other words, how small is too small?

I think Walthams big enough, McCarthy said. I believe we should be able to give it out.

The Attorneys General office did not return multiple emails requesting comment on the matter.

Part of a pattern

The Baker administration approached reporting on cases of vaping-related lung illness and deaths throughout the state in the same way, opting not to identify cases and deaths by town or city. MassLive attempted to request records in October to get a sense of the scope of vaping-related lung illnesses across the state. Health officials initially declined, even after being twice-ordered by the Secretary of States office to do so, citing patient privacy concerns, among other things.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker tours the medical field hospital erected by the Massachusetts National Guard at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts for the expected influx of COVID-19 patients. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)BH

The Records Division noted in their response to DPH that officials could simply redact any identifying information to protect the patients privacy. MassLive had only requested the number of cases per hospital  as there had been a mandate that hospitals report their cases  to get a sense of the statewide distribution.

Health officials initially denied MassLives request, responding that reports of injuries that have come in from hospitals showed no observed, statistically significant geographic patterns."

Cohen said that, in the case of towns with smaller populations, government officials should still consider whether releasing more specific data would result in patients being identified within the community. This would create a fear that might prevent people from getting tested.

This is to be avoided, he said. Patients deserve their privacy not only for their own sakes but because fear of violations of privacy might stop people from getting tested.

Government accountability advocates are also calling for more detailed reporting. Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition, said the state ought to be sharing more specific information with municipalities so that residents can better understand how the virus is affecting communities at large.

Transparency during this pandemic is crucial, he said. We need to have timely information about the coronavirus so we can make the best decisions about keeping ourselves and our families safe. Without knowing how many cases of the virus are in our towns, its difficult if not impossible to assess the threat.

How its done elsewhere

Other countries have responded to the crisis with varying degrees of transparency. In Singapore, authorities would sometimes list patients neighborhoods, workplaces or places of worship, according to the New York Times. Chinas data showed the patients age, sex, travel history and history of chronic disease, as well as where the case was reported, and the dates of the onset of symptoms, hospitalization and confirmation of infection.

Some states, such as Connecticut, report out cases by town. Connecticut also breaks down the number of patients currently hospitalized by hospital, instead of address, to give the public some insight into the hospitals caseloads.

As a result, residents can see more clearly what parts of the state are most impacted. Unsurprisingly, the towns closest to New York City  Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk, Westport  are seeing the some of the highest number of cases.

Connecticut breaks down the number of coronavirus cases by municipality.

New Yorks health department continues to report cases on a county-by-county level. In New York City, however, where there are now more than 72,000 cases, health officials have begun releasing neighborhood-specific data.

The statistics have begun to show how the virus might be disproportionately impacting neighborhoods and communities of color. New York City Councilor Mark Levine on tweeted Friday that those communities are among the hardest hit, based on the data.

While we're waiting for a breakdown by race in NYC, this map tells a stark story. Coronavirus is hitting low-income communities of color extraordinarily hard: pic.twitter.com/ZSCT64MZoq  Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) April 3, 2020

Cohen said one way of avoiding impinging on the privacy rights of residents in really small towns is to combine their reporting data. Cohen suggested this could be done with different neighborhoods, which would help counter the perception that the illness is associated with any one particular race, ethnic group or community, thus perpetuating stigma.

But ensuring that people have access to information about how many people around them in their community are sick is crucial.

This is a balancing test: how valuable is the extra information to the public versus how likely is it to promote stigma? Cohen said. But I dont think we should treat stigma as a magic word. Instead we want to be specific and proportional.

MassLive reporter Steph Solis contributed to this report.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 18:14:18|Editor: xuxin

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VIENTIANE, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese anti-epidemic medical expert team has hosted a training course, covering 10 sectors when treating COVID-19 cases, to relevant Lao health ministry officials and doctors, nurses from major hospitals in Lao capital Vientiane.

Shi Tongchuan, deputy head of the Chinese medical expert team, told Xinhua on Tuesday that the training on Monday mainly aimed at reducing infection risks in hospitals.

The Chinese experts answered questions from their Lao counterparts, conducted operational demonstrations to provide effective suggestions for reducing the risk of cross-infection in the hospitals.

On the same day, the expert team also participated in a regular meeting of the epidemic prevention and control committee chaired by Lao Minister of Health Bounkong Sihavong.

At the regular meeting, the Chinese experts emphasized the importance on further strengthening the accurate classification and precise management of overseas Lao workers, on comprehensively expanding the coverage of nucleic acid testing, so as to find the infected cases in time.

The Chinese team, also visited the government-designated Mittaphap Hospital (Hospital 150), which so far is the only hospital in Vientiane treating COVID-19 cases, and shared their experiences with their Lao counterparts and checked the hospital's newly-opened zone for receiving COVID-19 cases to assure its smooth and proper operation.

Laos detected its first two confirmed COVID-19 cases on March 24, and only in five days, the Chinese anti-epidemic medical expert team arrived in Vientiane on March 29.

The Chinese medical team includes experts in various fields such as infection prevention and control, intensive care, epidemics, and laboratory testing. They also brought along with them medical treatment, protective supplies and a batch of Chinese and Western medicines.

The Lao Health Ministry announced at its daily press conference that the country has detected 14 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday afternoon.
T he Financial Conduct Authority has the toughest of jobs.

With a limited budget, it is expected to stop hundreds of scams a month, patrol the financial markets and make sure lenders are treating their millions of customers fairly.

All while being told to encourage innovation, and with muddy boundaries dictating what is and isnt within its remit.

These tensions partly explain why it failed to stop such scandals as London Capital & Finance, Connaught and countless others that ended in penury for elderly savers.

It took too long to appreciate the extent of dodgy minibonds and arrived late to the realisation that Google and Facebook provide the most fertile marketing ground for the unscrupulous.

Stopping scams and charlatans is the most recurring theme.

The fear is, while it talks the talk, can it walk the walk? White collar crime is on the back burners of justice, more than ever now courts are closed by Covid-19.

We need politicians to recognise the proliferation of scammers springing up since pensions freedoms. To see that policing them requires a watchdog with a huge budget and a far clearer mandate.

Why not make all financial sales an FCA-regulated activity?

Why not give it extra powers to prevent banned directors springing up elsewhere?

Why not threaten to take down Google and co if they fail to pull dodgy ads?

Mention such ideas to financial folk and they complain about red tape.

But heres a counterview; time after time, speaking to victims of the growing number of disastrous savings schemes, you hear the words: I will never trust a financial company again.

Unless the FCA toughens up, that wariness will spread, undermining all City firms and putting people off saving.
They left home and journeyed downwards under different circumstances, most of them with one motive in mind, economic gains but are currently faced with this new and unexpected challenge of coronavirus. These people are usually confronted with inadequacy of housing, food, employment and in some cases language barrier and fear accessing healthcare. Unable to find the desired job, couple with little or no skills become head porters also known in local palance as kaayayei as a survival strategy. Kaayayeis are mostly found in the commercial cites Ghana, not limited to Accra, Tema and Kumasi. Today many people including kaayayei across the nations of the globe are learning to cope with fear, disruption and discomfort caused by this deadly virus.

Although public education on coronavirus is on-going making everyone talk about it and posters explaining how one should protect themselves, the information out there is not adequate enough to be internalised by majority of Ghanaians. For instance we have not demonstrated proper hand-washing on available media channels, we are not told the nature and frequency of coughing and sneezing making any person who cough or sneeze attracting attention as if they are the virus. We have also not made people aware that not wearing nose mask is more dangerous than not washing hands.

While the number of COVID-19 cases in Ghana is increasing, though relatively slow cogent measures are being taken to contain the spread nationwide. As market centres and lorry parks have been fumigated. We continue to practice social distancing in public transport and places as well as restrictions on movement in and out of areas under lockdown.

To a large extent Ghana deserves commendation for working hard to ensure the vulnerable including kaayayei found within the lockdown areas of Accra, Tema and Kumasi are protected. According to the Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister, Cynthia Morrison, government is providing food and shelter for about 15,000 head porters popularly known as kaayayei. The immediate inclusion of kaayayei in our national response to COVID-19 not only demonstrates humanitarian gesture, but also relevant to public health policy strategic measure and respect for fundamental human rights. We are all at risk, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, residing in urban or rural area, married or unmarried, hence the need for all persons including kaayayei to be allowed equal access to healthcare services, including prevention, testing and treatment.

Governments effort at providing food, shelter and cash of five hundred cedis to all 15,000 head porters in itself is a good gesture to preventing the spread of COVID-19. The associated threat posed by this virus makes it even more urgent to transform these shelters into production hub. Kaayayeis at these centres can be empowered to go into mass production of face masks, personal protective equipment, liquid and tablet soap and other disinfectant for use. This not only reduces public expenditure on such commodities, also gradually push them (Kaayayei) into livelihood empowerment programme of a sort. We would have encouraged majority of them into income generating activity and retire them from their current predicament when this pandemic is over. However, a lot will depend on how government and relevant stakeholders take advantage of the situation to transform the lives of many kaayayei into productive sectors of the economy.

Again, government through the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection should can institute a voluntary return mechanism for these kaayayei wishing to join their families and loved ones. However, the implementation of such a programme should be consistent with virus-related directives by the state such as waver of restrictive movement among others.

For those in shelters or camps may I be quick to say overpopulation makes it extremely difficult to take necessary precautionary measure against the deadly virus such as social distancing and exclusive hygiene. It is therefore proper we provide appropriate guidelines to such people on how to protect themselves against possible infection.

BY FRANK OFOSU-ASANTE
The growing death toll in the U.S.

The countrys first 5,000 deaths from the coronavirus occurred in just over a month. The second 5,000 came in less than five days. Our map shows how quickly the numbers have risen.

The New York metro area accounts for more than 40 percent of U.S. deaths, although Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Monday that death and hospitalization rates in the state had started to stabilize. He again cautioned New Yorkers to maintain distancing measures. Heres the latest from our Metro desk.

The details: When will New York City reach the peak of the outbreak? Public health officials say it may be soon, or it may be a month away. Heres what we know.

Watch: It doesnt take long for mild symptoms to become serious. Our video explains how the virus invades the lungs.

Four benchmarks for a return to normalcy

How do officials know when its time to reopen public spaces and start to bring life back to normal? Researchers recently outlined some markers:

1. Hospitals must be able to safely treat all patients requiring hospitalization, without resorting to crisis standards of care. That means having adequate beds, ventilators and staff.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  Authorities have temporarily suspended congregational prayers in mosques in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao in a bid to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the area.

BARMM Spokesperson Naguib Sinarimbo made the announcement on Tuesday's Laging Handa briefing.

"Naglabas na ng fatwa or religious injunction yung mufti ng Bangsamoro na hindi na muna magkaroon ng congregational prayers sa mga mosque, dahil pag madaming tao sa mosque yung chances na may transmission doon ay masyadong mataas," he said.

[Translation: The mufti released a fatwa or religious injunction against congregational prayers in moques for now because when there are a lot of people in a mosque, the chances of virus transmission are very high.]

Naguib said there have been three COVID-19 deaths in the region.

Apart from the fatwa on congregational prayers. another order was made to relax rituals performed on bodies of Muslims who have died in a bid to protect individuals who would handle the cadavers.

"Naglabas na rin po ng fatwa ang mufti natin na doon sa pag-manage ng cadaver ng mga nag-positive or suspected na nag-PUI, ay i-lessen yung rituals para maiwasan natin yung exposure ng mga kababayan na maghahandle ng cadaver ng isang Muslim para hindi malipat yung virus," he said.

A community quarantine has also been enforced in the region limiting the movement of residents, similar to quarantine efforts in place all over the country.

Sinarimbo also said a fund is being set up that authorities can tap to buy palay from farmers so they could be encouraged to produce more than what is now available in the markets.

They are also working to build a medical facility in the Cotabato Sanitarium which could host patients should COVID-19 cases rise in the city and other hospitals are unable to take them in.

"Para naman ma-enhance yung pagpapabilis ng testing, kausap rin po yung Cotabato Regional Medical Center para ho bilhan sila ng equipment para po magkaroon tayo ng sub-national testing center," added Sinarimbo.

[Translation: We have also spoken to the Cotabato Regional Medical Center so we could purchase equipment so we can have a local testing center to enhance the speed of testing.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday approved a task forces recommendation to extend a COVID-19 lockdown covering all of the main island of Luzon until the end of April, as the country recorded a daily spike of 14 deaths from the coronavirus.

The Inter-Agency Task Force made its recommendation as the nationwide number of cases rose by 164 to 3,764, the health department said. With the 14 new deaths reported on Tuesday, the death toll stands at 177.

The lockdown, which had been scheduled to end on April 12, was extended until April 30, to allow Manila more time to improve its health crisis response, task force spokesman and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said.

We need to extend the lockdown until April 30 so that we can further study COVID-19, Nograles told an online news conference.

With the extension, people are required to stay at home further to avoid transmission of the disease. All the prevailing rules and exemptions during the initial lockdown of Luzon will continue, he said.

For the time being the directive just covers the main island of Luzon, the biggest of the archipelagos three main islands and home to an estimated 60 million people, Nograles said.

Right now, theres no need for an enhanced community quarantine in Visayas and Mindanao but our monitoring continue, he added, referring to the other two regions.

Increased testing capacity

He said the extension would also allow the government enough time to boost its testing capacity to about 20,000 daily, with a turnaround time of 24 hours.

Duterte had earlier announced an economic stimulus package of 200 billion pesos (U.S. $4 billion) that would primarily go to the poor to help them through the crisis.

In a public address on Monday, Duterte admitted that the government needed more funds to fulfill his promise of distributing cash aid to poor families affected by the crisis.

The 100 billion pesos [$2 billion] for one month or the 270 billion pesos [$5.4 billion] for two months earlier estimated for this is not enough, he said, as he ordered his finance secretary to generate funding any way he can.

Steal, borrow, I dont care. Produce the money, Duterte said.

Jonvic Remulla, governor of Cavite province south of Manila, called on Duterte for help and said they were running out of funds for food aid for people severely affected by the lockdown.

We have depleted maybe two-thirds of our capacity and we have probably two weeks [worth of funds] left to give away, he told reporters.

There has to be a realization that the suffering of the poor is the same as the suffering of the middle class and we have to find a way to help them too, he said.

Duterte was the first Southeast Asian leader to extend a lockdown, amid fears by critics and rights advocates that the increasingly authoritarian leader was using the crisis as an excuse to solidify his political base. He has denied the allegation.

Other countries in the region, such as Thailand, have also imposed strict measures. Bangkok, which declared a state of emergency that took effect on March 26, has closed the nations borders to almost all foreigners, except for diplomats.

Globally, more than 80,700 people have died and at least 1.4 million have been infected, according to the latest data compiled by disease experts at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.

Thank you, China

On Sunday, a team of 10 medical experts from Beijing arrived in Manila to share technical advice on the prevention and control of the virus spread.

The Chinese experts arrived with invaluable firsthand experiences to share on fighting and containing COVID-19. Thank you, China, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr said in a statement.

The Chinese Embassy said their medical experts deployed abroad had frontline experience in Hubei province, the epicenter of the virus.

I hope the arrival of this team will help the Philippines to improve its ability of epidemic prevention and control as well as diagnosis and treatment, so as to boost the confidence of the public in overcoming the COVID-19, Ambassador Huang Xilian said in statement.

Release prisoners at high risk of COVID-19 infections

Meanwhile, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Philippine authorities to release inmates detained or convicted for non-violent offenses in heavily congested prisons in the country.

The Philippine government should urgently reduce overcrowding in detention facilities, by releasing minor offenders and prioritizing the release of older prisoners and those with underlying health conditions at particular risk from COVID-19, said Phil Robertson, a deputy Asia director at HRW.

The Philippines has the highest jail occupancy rate in the world, the HRW said. This has been worsened by Dutertes 3-year-old war on drugs that has led to thousands of deaths and jailing of thousands of suspected addicts and dealers.

But since March, the arrests and temporary detention of thousands of people for violating curfews and quarantine regulations have further crowded police lockups and jails.

Failure to act now could result in a serious outbreak in the countrys jails and prisons, threatening the lives of prisoners whose health the authorities have a duty to protect, Robertson said.

Citing data from the International Committee of the Red Cross, Robertson noted that around 467 jails nationwide were at 534 percent of capacity in March, with congestion rate in its 125 prisons was 310 percent in January the year.

Health officials: 11 deaths from cockfighting event

In the southern Philippine city of Davao, Dutertes hometown, health authorities confirmed on Tuesday that 11 deaths had been linked to a cockfighting derby attended by hundreds of people.

Dr. Cleofe Tabada, a regional epidemiology officer, told reporters one of the cockfight aficionados could have spread the coronavirus. More than 400 people who attended the event are being monitored, Tabada said.

At least 65 city residents have been confirmed positive with COVID-19, she said.
How long could WA's partial lock down last? It's a question WA's politicians are reluctant to answer precisely, mostly because predictions about this coronavirus pandemic, even by the world's leading epidemiologists, have often been wrong. ...we really need to just understand that this is going to be a long winter. Health Minister Roger Cook Few foresaw how fast COVID-19 would rip through populations, or how successful WA would be in locking it down. This is the heart of the dilemma. "We're in it for the long haul," Health Minister Roger Cook said yesterday.

"Some people have had the misapprehension that this is just a matter of weeks, it's not. It's going to be a matter of months and we really need to just understand that this is going to be a long winter." Curtin University epidemiologist and pro-vice chancellor of health science Archie Clements said WA's strategy had been containment and suppression of the epidemic rather than building up immunity. "And so of course if we continue to be as successful as we have been in squashing the epidemic, or flattening the curve, it will mean that very few people in Australia, and WA in particular, will have been exposed, which means there will be very low levels of immunity," he said. "That means we're really relying on the emergence and availability of a vaccine." A vaccine is the best way to create enough immunity in the state to prevent outbreaks once restrictions are lifted.

If a pathogen is introduced or reintroduced into the community, there aren't enough susceptible people to propagate an epidemic. In WA, Professor Clements said it was possible social distancing restrictions could be lifted before the travel bans if there is no evidence of widespread community transmission. "[This means] things like students going back to school, universities having students back in the classroom, some of the business shut downs," he said. "The international and interstate travel restrictions and the testing and contact tracing, those are going to be the key strategies in maintaining the very fortunate position we're in."

What does the 'secret' coronavirus modelling say? A model describing how the virus will move through WA is driving a lot of the decisions about restrictions, but so far it has stayed under wraps. Mr Cook said he would consider releasing it once he had seen the national modelling. But the state's modelling would be rejigged given the low rates of new infections. "Under a range of modelling, you see different levels of outbreak in the community," he said.

AMA(WA) president Andrew Miller says he wants the 'secret' WA coronavirus modelling released so the community knows what it is up against. Credit:Lauren Pilat "What we now see is a very low incidence of infection in the community and indeed you'll note that from today none of those people were actually close contacts of people who have come from overseas, they are all from overseas. "That means we've got some very low infection rates indeed and that will influence our modelling and our understanding on how the disease is making its way through the community." AMA(WA) president Andrew Miller urged the government to release the modelling, which was always going to differ from the rest of the country. He expected each region would also require different modelling, given the vast size of WA.

Dr Miller said doctors were worried they were relying on optimistic estimates of what the system could cope with. "We don't think that they're doing such a great job that they can do it in secret," he said. "Tell us what the plan is. What are the milestones? This is about the future of our entire society." What are the economic costs of pandemic restrictions with no end in sight? WA's Chamber of Commerce and Industry has predicted a six month partial lock down would deliver a $15 billion hit to the state's economy.

That's about 5 per cent of the state's economy and would cost 100,000 jobs. But this forecast also included a six week full lock down. The CCI (WA)'s chief economist Aaron Morey said big spikes in infections  a failure to flatten the curve  could be worse for the economy. "What we're observing is that those economies which fail to control the spread of the virus, they end up being forced to implement really, really tight, draconian restrictions and then the economic dislocation becomes enormous," he said. "And what we've learned from previous economic crises is that it takes a long time to stitch back the economy.

"It's not just the economics, it's the social aspect as well. What we often find in these sorts of crises is that if someone loses their job they may never get it back again, or it may take them a very long time." UWA professor of economics David Gilchrist says businesses are adjusting to a new normal. Mr Morey said the CCI(WA) backed a staged, prudent approach to both ramping up measures and eventually de-escalating them on the other side of the pandemic. This might mean first opening up of those sectors of the economy servicing local consumers, such as restaurants and cafes. UWA economics professor David Gilchrist, a former assistant WA Auditor General, said there was hard evidence of the economic costs of the pandemic including a collapse in consumer and business confidence and growing unemployment, but there would be some good news amid the bad if a partial lock down continued into 2021. "We are fast coming to a position where a lot of organisations are settled into a new way of working," he said.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday favoured a phased withdrawal of the lockdown, saying it cannot be done immediately after the 21-day period ends.

Addressing a press conference through video conferencing, he said saving lives is important and no step should be taken that would endanger lives.

"We cannot withdraw lockdown immediately. It has to be done in a phased manner, that is what I feel," Gehlot said when asked about the right time is to lift the countrywide lockdown over coronavirus.

He said a decision on withdrawing the lockdown will, however, be taken after the recommendations of a task force set up in this regard are received.

The chief minister said Rajasthan has showed the way on how to contain the spread of the virus by its steps in Bhilwara, which had become a hotspot of the virus, and the same model will be replicated across the state, including in Ramganj, Jaipur.

He claimed that the state authorities reached out to six lakh households in Bhilwara and conducted widespread testing there.

Gehlot also said that Rajasthan will start rapid testing of coronavirus in the state within a week as his government has ordered 10 lakh testing kits from China which will be received soon.

He said Rajasthan is among those states which had taken the virus threat seriously and after holding extensive consultations with various stakeholders, the state prepared itself well and has been successful in containing it so far.

Gehlot also demanded a probe by a sitting or retired judge of the Supreme Court into the Tablighi Jamaat incident, which saw the spread of virus across the country.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also said the party was not against action against Tablighi Jamaat in Nizamuddin if they violated any rules or norms.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Though Missouri and Kansas are weeks away from hitting their expected peaks with COVID-19 cases, hospitals are deciding how life-saving resources will be distributed during that time. Dr. Tarris Rosell, Rosemary Flanigan Chair at the Center for Practical Bioethics, told 41 Action News on Sunday that hospitals in the metro are developing a point system to determine who receives a life-saving ventilator and who doesn't.


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The United States on Monday lauded the "wonderful show of solidarity" from Indians to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to "challenge the darkness" spread by the coronavirus crisis and said it echoed the appeal.

"We echo PM @narendramodi's call to "challenge the darkness" in the midst of the #COVID19 crisis. A wonderful show of solidarity from the people of #India as they lit up balconies and doorsteps on Sunday," Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Alice G. Wells said in a Twitter posting.

Modi had requested everyone to switch off all lights of their houses at '9 pm for 9 minutes' on Sunday and just light candles or 'diyas' to mark the fight against coronavirus, which has claimed more than 100 lives in the country so far.

Indians rose to the occasion in unison and lit candles, diyas to signal India's resolve to defeat the coronavirus.

Indian missions abroad also participated in the initiative. The Indian High Commission in Pakistan lit lamps on Sunday night as did the Israel Embassy in Delhi which was lit up on Sunday in response to Modi's '9 pm for 9 minutes' event.

"The team at @IsraelinIndia joins our brothers and sisters in India as we light up the darkness at #9pm9minutes Let's spread light, positivity, and hope as we stop the spread of #COVID19," tweeted Israel in India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MADRID (Reuters) - German carmaker Volkswagen <VOWG_p.DE> hopes to partially reopen its plant in Spain's Navarra region on April 20 after its closure in mid-March due to the coronavirus outbreak, a spokesman for the plant said on Tuesday.

The plant in northern Spain should reopen with one of its three daily shifts operating during four days in the first week, and the goal is to extend it to two shifts the following week, depending on how well the supply chain works, the spokesman added.

All workers would wear masks and gloves, and the plant's disinfection would be intensified, he added. The plant has around 4,800 workers and produces the Polo and T-Cross models.

(Reporting by Joan Faus, editing by Andrei Khalip)
"I cut off China very early. And if I didn't, we would have a chart that you wouldn't believe. So how would I know to do that? How would I know to cut off Europe? I cut off Europe very early. I mean, you have to make a decision. People knew that some bad things were going on, and they got off to a late start. And some others got off to a late start also. But we cut off China. If we didn't cut off China, we would have been in some big trouble. And we cut it off." - President Donald Trump, remarks at a news conference, April 2, 2020

- - -

President Trump regularly pats himself on the back for announcing travel restrictions on China as the novel coronavirus emerged in January. Before the caseload in the United States exploded, Trump attributed what he considered a small number of cases to that decision. Even as deaths from covid-19 in the United States started to soar, he said he saved lives by imposing what he calls a "ban" on China.

"We're the ones that gave the great response, and we're the ones that kept China out of here," Trump said on March 25. "And if I didn't do it, you'd have thousands and thousands of people died - who would've died - that are now living and happy."

The World Health Organization has cautioned against such travel restrictions, saying they are ineffective against a virus and in the long run counterproductive. Trump, according to news reports, was initially skeptical and worried about provoking China after signing a major trade deal. But his national security and public health experts convinced him that the move would buy time to put in place effective prevention and testing measures. (The government then bungled the testing rollout, but that's another story.)

In Trump's telling, he took bold action, ahead of others. "When I did China, it had never been done before," he said. "I was the first one to do it."

Not quite. Here's what the record shows.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Jan. 21 announced the first travel-related case of novel coronavirus in the United States. Trump unveiled his plan 10 days later, making the restrictions effective Feb. 2. (On Jan. 17, the CDC had begun health screenings of passengers on direct or connecting flights from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak.)

Trump barred non-U.S. citizens from traveling from China, but there were 11 exceptions, and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan were not included. U.S. citizens and permanent residents could still travel from China but were subject to screening and possible 14-day quarantine. Some flights were immediately suspended, but others continued for weeks, at the discretion of the airlines.

Some analysts at the time predicted that Trump's action would be ineffective at preventing the virus from taking hold in the United States.

"All of the evidence we have indicates that travel restrictions and quarantines directed at individual countries are unlikely to keep the virus out of our borders," said Jennifer Nuzzo, associate professor and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University's Center for Health Security, at a congressional hearing Feb. 5.

"We don't have a travel ban; we have a travel Band-Aid right now," said Ron Klain, the Ebola "czar" during the Obama administration, at the same hearing. He added that monitoring everyone carefully "is the only practical thing we can do."

The New York Times calculated that at least 430,000 people arrived in the United States on direct flights from China since Jan. 1, including nearly 40,000 in the two months after Trump imposed restrictions. Moreover, screening proceedings of travelers from China have been uneven and inconsistent, the Times said.

In any case, the United States certainly was not the first country - by a long shot. We reviewed a list of country actions maintained by the Council on Foreign Relations and cross-checked with official announcements. Six countries imposed travel restrictions even before the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency on Jan. 30. Another six announced travel restrictions that same day, followed by 11 countries (besides the United States) announcing restrictions Jan. 31.

But most countries imposed the restrictions immediately. By the time Trump's restrictions took effect Feb. 2, an additional 15 countries had taken similar actions - and in some cases enacted even tougher bans. But in any case, that adds up to 38 countries taking action before or at the same time the U.S. restrictions were put in place.

In making this analysis, we included countries that banned travel, barred noncitizens or canceled all flights from China. We did not include 12 countries, such as Japan, that took some sort of action before the United States but with measures that were not as sweeping. Japan, for instance, barred travelers from certain regions of China, not the entire country. Some other countries, such Bangladesh and Myanmar, simply suspended visas on demand for travelers from China.

The earliest action was taken by Singapore on Jan. 23, canceling all flights from Wuhan, but the first country to impose a travel ban was the Marshall Islands on Jan. 24. It was tougher than the eventual U.S. action: No one could enter the country less than 14 days after visiting China, not even citizens.

The United States, however, does stand out among its peer nations in the Group of 20, the world's financial powers. (The G-20 is composed of 19 countries, including China, and the European Union.)

Only Italy and Australia preceded the United States in imposing travel restrictions - though they were announced the same day - while India and Indonesia also imposed restrictions effective Feb. 2. Saudi Arabia and Turkey followed within days, as well as South Korea with a ban on travel from Hubei province. Russia imposed a rolling series of bans by Feb. 20 and, as noted, Japan took smaller steps early on but did not have a full ban on foreign nationals until April 3. South Africa on March 18 imposed a ban on foreigners who had visited high-risk countries such as China. Seven G-20 members, including the United Kingdom, Canada and France, took no steps to block travel from China.

The White House said this is the context in which the president's statements should be viewed.

"President Trump asserted global leadership by making the U.S. the first major economic power to announce restrictions on foreign nationals traveling from China," a senior administration official said. "The President's swift decision came only one day after the World Health Organization declared novel coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. The President's decisiveness paved the way for other nations to follow suit, saving countless lives around the world."

Italy, which is also a member of the more powerful Group of Seven and the world's eighth-largest economy, banned all flights to and from China on Jan. 31 but did not single out noncitizens. Australia, the 14th-largest economy, imposed an entry ban on all foreign nationals who have left or transited through mainland China, effective Feb. 1.

Trump's action certainly caught the attention of China's Foreign Ministry. "The U.S. government hasn't provided any substantive assistance to us, but it was the first to evacuate personnel from its consulate in Wuhan, the first to suggest partial withdrawal of its embassy staff, and the first to impose a travel ban on Chinese travelers," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Feb. 3. "What it has done could only create and spread fear, which is a very bad example."

Here's the complete list of when countries imposed significant restrictions, along with the covid-19 deaths per million people recorded as of April 6. Some countries may not be reporting their numbers accurately.

Jan. 24

Marshall Islands (no cases reported)

Jan. 25

North Korea (no cases reported)

Jan. 27

Hong Kong (0.5 deaths per million)

Philippines (1 death per million)

Jan. 29

Singapore (1 death per million)

Papua New Guinea (0.2 deaths per million)

Jan. 30

Bahamas (13 deaths per million)

Maldives (no deaths reported)

Trinidad and Tobago (6 deaths per million)

Afghanistan (0.2 deaths per million)

Tajikistan (no cases reported)

Rwanda (no deaths reported)

Jan. 31 - date of U.S. announcement (which was effective Feb. 2)

El Salvador (0.6 deaths per million)

Guyana (5 deaths per million)

Iran (45 deaths per million)

Italy (G-20 country) (273 deaths per million)

Jamaica (1 death per million)

Antigua and Barbuda (no deaths reported)

Turkmenistan (no cases reported)

Morocco (2 deaths per million)

Solomon Islands (no cases reported)

Micronesia (no cases reported)

Kiribati (no cases reported)

Feb. 1

Australia (G-20 country) (2 deaths per million)

Egypt (0.8 deaths per million)

Kyrgyzstan (0.6 deaths per million)

Palau (no cases reported)

Uzbekistan (0.06 deaths per million)

St. Kitts and Nevis (no deaths reported)

Vietnam (no deaths reported)

Feb. 2

Fiji (no deaths reported)

New Zealand (0.2 deaths per million)

Grenada (no deaths reported)

India (G-20 country) (0.1 deaths per million)

Indonesia (G-20 country) (0.8 deaths per million)

Iraq (2 deaths per million)

Israel (7 deaths per million)

Mauritius (6 deaths per million)

United States (32 deaths per million)

"Several countries that denied entry of travelers or who have suspended the flights to and from China or other affected countries, are now reporting cases of covid-19," the WHO notes on its website.

For reference, here are the deaths per million for the G-20 countries that did not impose travel restrictions. There is no clear pattern evident. Italy imposed a ban Jan. 31 but has the highest death rate in the G-20. The United States has the fourth-highest death rate among the countries in the G-20.

Argentina (1 death per million)

Brazil (3 deaths per million)

Canada (9 deaths per million)

France (137 deaths per million)

Germany (21 deaths per million)

United Kingdom (79 deaths per million)

With more than 10,000 covid-19 deaths recorded in the United States, the third highest in the world, it's unclear whether Trump's travel restrictions were especially effective in the long run. The WHO says such bans, at the start of an outbreak, can briefly help buy some time - but that was lost when the United States failed to quickly set up an effective testing program. Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens, permanent residents and exempted foreigners - some carrying the virus - continued to travel from China.

In any case, it's wrong for Trump to consistently claim that the United States was first. Many other countries imposed similar bans ahead of the United States, some even tougher. The president would have a stronger case to make if he specified that he was talking about world economic powers. Nearly half of the G-20 heeded the WHO advice and did not impose such travel bans. But Italy and Australia are hardly minor economic powers and announced their restrictions at roughly the same time as the United States.

Trump earns Three Pinocchios.
The "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli is trying to get out of prison by claiming he could be useful in the fight against the coronavirus.

Shkreli, 37, has been in prison since 2018 for stealing $11m worth of stock from his own company to pay off investors in his failed hedge fund and earned public ire when he raised the cost of Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750 per pill. He is currently on track for release from prison in 2023.

The disgraced drug seller made his pitch for release in an 11-page document published by Prospero Pharma, a company Shkreli co-founded in 2015. The company was the subject of a 2019 lawsuit when it was accused of forming solely to undercut the company Retrophin, where Shkreli had been fired.

In the document, he claims he doesn't want to be released for personal gain, but because he's a "two-time biopharma entrepreneur" and could offer valuable insight into the development of a coronavirus treatment.

His plea requests a three-month furlough "to assist in research work on Covid-19" and said that being "released to the post-Covid world is no solace to even the incarcerated."

Shkreli said he didn't expect to profit from the work and said that companies developing drugs should only recoup the costs of the drug's development, and shouldn't treat development as a profit-making venture.

"I believe any company developing a coronavirus drug should seek to recoup its cost at most and be willing to perform the work as a civil service at the least," he said.

In addition to pleading for his release, Shkreli also criticised the nation's response to the pandemic and argued that biopharma companies should be throwing their full weight behind seeking a cure.

"The industry response to Covid-19 is inadequate. All biopharmaceutical companies should be responding with all resources to combat this health emergency," he wrote. "Donations from these very valuable companies do not go far enough."

Shkreli's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, told the New York Post that "left to his own devices, I believe Martin could cure cancer."

Recommended India lifts export ban on coronavirus drug after Trump threat

However, industry blogger and medicinal chemist Derek Lowe spoke with Stat and said Shkreli's work was "not crazy, but neither is it particularly groundbreaking, either, at least to my eyes."

Mr Lowe seemed sceptical of Shkreli's suggestions that his contributions to the field would warrant a furlough from his sentence.

"We're not setting up another Manhattan Project, and we're not looking for another Robert Oppenheimer, either," Mr Lower said. "But from the tone of his comments, I'm not sure if he realises either of those points.
WARRENTON, Va., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Rainforest Trust, a global leader in the protection of tropical ecosystems and endangered wildlife, announced today that James C. Deutsch has been appointed Chief Executive Officer. In this role, he will build on Rainforest Trust's 32 years of conservation success and lead the next phase of the organization's growth and conservation impact. Dr. Deutsch, a strategic leader in global conservation with a passion for saving wildlife and wild lands, joins Rainforest Trust from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, where he served as Director of Wildlife and Biodiversity. The appointment is effective April 6, 2020.

James Deutsch, Rainforest Trust Chief Executive Officer

"James is a conservation leader with outstanding experience, vision, energy, and a commitment to Rainforest Trust's mission to protect the most threatened tropical forests through partnerships and community engagement," said Dr. Eric Veach, Chairman of the Board of Directors. "Throughout his distinguished career, James has demonstrated a talent for translating cutting-edge science into groundbreaking strategies and effective field conservation projects. His leadership, enthusiasm and dedication have inspired colleagues, partners, teams and donors alike. We have full confidence that James is the right leader for Rainforest Trust at this urgent time as we continue our efforts to save species, care for communities and protect our planet."

Dr. Deutsch succeeds Mark Gruin, who has served as Acting CEO since May 2019. Gruin has been named Vice President, Strategic Initiatives.

"As Acting CEO, Mark provided strong and steady leadership. With his dedication, skill and insight, he earned the trust of employees and the confidence of partners and donors," Dr. Veach continued. "We are delighted he will continue to have an impact in his new role at Rainforest Trust."

"Rainforest Trust's mission is critical to scaling up global efforts to save nature, and I am inspired and excited to have the opportunity to advance that mission as CEO," said Dr. Deutsch. "It is remarkable that Rainforest Trust is the only U.S. nonprofit focused exclusively on supporting land purchase, protected area creation, and the establishment of indigenous nature reserves in the biodiverse tropics. Building on that strategy, while staying true to the mission, can have an extraordinary impact on the future of life on Earth. I am looking forward to working with the board, my new colleagues, our partner organizations and all of the donors who make this important work possible."

Dr. Deutsch has more than 20 years of conservation experience. At the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, he oversaw the Great Elephant Census; worked with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to close ivory markets and save sharks; and launched programs to support the Convention on Biological Diversity, to dismantle wildlife trafficking networks, and to save coral reefs.

Previously, he was Africa Director and then Vice President for Conservation Strategy at the Wildlife Conservation Society, where he helped design and implement the Congo Basin Forest Partnership and launched new programs in Nigeria, Mozambique and South Sudan. He also helped launch the Tropical Biology Association, taught secondary school in Kenya, and was founding chair of the boards of Aidspan and Community Markets for Conservation. For six years, Dr. Deutsch was CEO of the U.K.'s national fundraiser for HIV/AIDS, Crusaid, helping make life-saving treatments available in the U.K. and Africa.

A New Yorker, Dr. Deutsch was educated at Harvard (AB Philosophy) and Cambridge (MPhil Anthropology and Ph.D. Zoology) and taught ecology and conservation biology at Imperial College and the University of East Anglia. His research career included fieldwork on the Uganda Kob antelope and Malawi cichlid fishes with papers in Nature, Evolution, and other journals and books.

About Rainforest Trust

Since 1988, Rainforest Trust has been safeguarding imperiled tropical habitats and saving endangered species by establishing protected areas in partnership with local organizations and communities. In that time, the organization has helped protect over 23 million acres of critically important rainforest and other key habitats at more than 125 project sites around the world. Learn more about and support this important work by visiting www.RainforestTrust.org, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

Contact:

Leslie VanSant, Chief Philanthropy Officer

[email protected]

(540) 270-0562

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James Deutsch

James Deutsch, Rainforest Trust Chief Executive Officer

SOURCE Rainforest Trust

Related Links

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Today has been Britain's darkest day yet in its coronavirus crisis with 786 more fatalities confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 6,159 victims.

A 23-year-old who had no other known health problems was among those who have died, as well as hundreds of others aged up to 102. In total, 29 people did not have any long-term illnesses before they caught COVID-19.

However, in a confusing situation, there have actually been 854 deaths reported today. Because of different time frames used in counting methods across the UK, NHS England confirmed 758 people have died in its hospitals, with authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland announcing a further 96 between them.

The Department of Health, which calculates the official UK figure, uses a cut-off point of 5pm the previous day, resulting in a lower tally. Either death toll is considerably larger than the 437 announced yesterday.

There is still hope from today's statistics, however - only 3,634 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past 24 hours despite the number of tests increasing, marking the smallest rise in a week.

Chief scientific adviser to the Government, Sir Patrick Vallance, today said it is possible that the UK is starting to see 'the beginning of change' and that the number of new cases was starting to level off and Britain appeared to be 'flattening the curve' of its epidemic.

Another element of confusion comes from the fact that deaths are backdated by up to 10 days or more, meaning that fatalities that happened days or even weeks ago are recorded on a later date, superficially increasing that day's count. As the number of delayed past deaths increases, the current day's count snowballs and looks bigger than it really is.

Because of this, the true death toll for the UK could be 80 per cent higher than current figures suggest, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. The number announced on any given day will rise in the coming weeks as more fatalities filter through the system and are backdated.

Today's statistics come as Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains in intensive care in St Thomas' Hospital in London after being transferred there last night. His spokesman says, however, that he is in good spirits, breathing on his own and does not have pneumonia. Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, who is standing in for Mr Johnson as deputy, tonight labelled the PM a 'fighter' and said he was confident he would 'pull through'.

Cabinet minister Michael Gove has been the latest figure at Whitehall to come face-to-face with the virus, today revealing that he was self-isolating for two weeks because a member of his family is ill.

Scientists at the University of Washington have estimated that a shortage of intensive care beds in the UK could see it become the worst affected country in Europe, projecting that there would be 66,000 COVID-19 fatalities. Their study predicted the worst of Britain's outbreak would happen in the coming weeks, in mid-April.

Public Health England says it has now tested 213,181 people with a total of 266,694 tests carried out - 14,006 were done yesterday on 9,740 people.

In other news in the UK's ongoing coronavirus crisis:

The Queen has sent a message to Boris Johnson's fiancee, Carrie Symonds, and the Johnson family, saying they were in her thoughts and that she wished the Prime Minister a 'full and speedy recovery';

10 Downing Street's chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, is still working from home after entering self-isolation shortly after Mr Johnson did;

World leaders and politicians around the globe rallied around Mr Johnson, who received well wishers from David Cameron, Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump;

Health experts have warned that the PM's admission to intensive care means he is 'extremely sick' and he is 'likely' to end up needing a ventilator;

A statistical projection by the University of Washington suggests the UK could become the worst-hit country in Europe, with 66,000 people dying, because it doesn't have enough intensive care beds;

Research by University College London said closing schools would have a limited impact on the spread of the virus, but government adviser Professor Neil Ferguson rubbished the claim.

Figures collated by multiple sources, and published at the Downing Street press conference tonight, show how the UK's death toll is accelerating in line with outbreaks in other countries, such as Italy and Spain

The latest government statistics for the coronavirus outbreak show the number of new UK cases has dropped for the second day in a row

The latest government statistics also show that an increase in motor vehicle usage has now decreased after ministers urged motorists to stay at home

Hospital admissions for coronavirus continued to increase in many parts of the country today but the rate did fall in the North East and Yorkshire

Downing Street's press conference tonight was led by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (centre), who is standing in for the ill PM, England's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty (left) and the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance (right)

UK DEATH TOLL COULD BE 80% HIGHER BECAUSE OF RECORDING DELAY The true number of coronavirus victims in England could be 80 per cent higher than official figures show because of a lag in the way deaths are recorded. By March 27, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) had declared 926 COVID-19 fatalities in hospitals around the country. This was 78 per cent lower than the 1,649 deaths recorded by NHS England during the same time frame. If the ratio has followed the same trajectory since then, England's true death toll may be around 8,800, instead of the official 4,897. The true number of coronavirus victims in England could be 80 per cent higher than official figures show This is because it can takes days - or in some cases weeks - for a coronavirus death to be reported, recorded and fed back into the Government's overall tally. The data does not include Scotland or Northern Ireland - up to March 27, 80 people had died in those countries (34 in Wales, 33 in Scotland and 13 in Northern Ireland). Meanwhile, statistics show COVID-19 is now responsible for almost one in 20 of all deaths every week in England and Wales. Advertisement

A medical worker is pictured in an ambulance outside St Thomas' Hospital in London, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson is being treated

London again recorded the most COVID-19 deaths of any region in Britain today, with 224 more people succumbing to the coronavirus.

But other areas of England are being badly affected, too, with Scotland, Wales and and Northern Ireland combined recording fewer deaths (96) than the Midlands (142) or the East of England (101).

In the North West 90 new fatalities were put on record today, along with 88 in the North East & Yorkshire, 77 in the South East and 36 in the South West.

The combined individual figures of devolved countries add up to more than the Department of Health's total because the Government stops counting at 5pm the day before it announces the numbers. Whereas the other authorities keep going until the next day.

For example, the Department of Health's official death toll across the UK stands at 6,159 - but the true figure is 6,236 when the numbers are added up for each nation (5,655 in England, 296 in Scotland, 212 in Wales and 73 in Northern Ireland).

Experts say that, as well as different daily record cut-offs, reports are slower to process over the weekend, meaning numbers appear to start declining on Sunday and Monday but then surge again towards the middle of the next week - for this reason it is better not to pin too much significance to a single day's number.

Experts say that, although it is important that the NHS focus on helping sick patients rather than counting them, the approach to statistics is confusing.

Professor Naismith, a biology and statistics expert at the University of Oxford, said: 'The current methods of reporting mean this daily death toll has value in transparency but it has become unhelpful and distracting in evaluating the progress of the pandemic.

'The swings in numbers that we are seeing are emotionally draining; hope one day and despair the next.

'The swings arise for good reasons, the NHS trusts are not focussed on reporting data but on saving lives.

'Whilst never forgetting the tragedy that these numbers represent, I have put my focus on the trends in the data and hospital admissions as a more helpful guide to our progress than daily totals of announced deaths.'

Dr Joshua Moon, a researcher at the University of Sussex, said: 'No single day is going to be indicative of a trend. We need a much more long-term view of all of this.

'Backlogs in reporting and testing, the number of mild or asymptomatic cases that arent being tested, and the uncertain quality of the data will highly affect the ability to make decisions on all of this.'

In Spain, officials have admitted that deaths tend to build up over the weekend, get missed from statistics released on Monday, and then surge later in the week.

Boris Johnson (pictured as his health worsened on April 3) has spent the night in intensive care but there has been 'no change' in his coronavirus condition

Figures in the UK show that death numbers tend to dip on Mondays before a spike on Tuesday. Last week, however, the number continued to rise all week from Tuesday onwards.

Spain's deputy emergency health director, Maria Jose Sierra, insisted Spain was still on the right track despite a rise in the number of deaths and new infections today.

She blamed the increase on an accumulation of cases which had not been reported from the weekend. It is not clear whether the same thing is happening in the UK.

Ms Sierra said: 'This is due to the weekend adjustment. It is still a downwards tendency.'

In brighter news for Britain this afternoon, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesperson has confirmed he is still in a stable condition and breathing on his own.

The premier was taken into intensive care in Westminster last night at around 7pm because his fever had lasted for more than 10 days.

His spokesperson says he is still 'in good spirits' and his having 'standard oxygen therapy', which is believed to be mild therapy via a mask or nasal tube.

He has not been diagnosed with pneumonia, Downing Street confirmed.

55% OF CHILD CORONAVIRUS CASES ARE BOYS, REVEALS CDC REPORT Up to one in five children who catch coronavirus need hospital care and the deadly infection is more common in boys, official US figures show. Fifty-five per cent of the 2,500 coronavirus cases among under-18s were boys, a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found. 42 per cent were girls, while the gender was unknown for another three per cent. Compared with adults, children are less likely to suffer the tell-tale symptoms and may not show any signs of the virus at all. They are far less likely to be admitted to intensive care (two per cent) or die (0.1 per cent), according to the analysis. A separate CDC report of almost 75,000 patients also showed exactly how different conditions raise the risk of developing coronavirus complications in adults. For example, half of former smokers or diabetics needed to be hospitalised and/or placed in intensive care because of complications. But the figures also showed only 1.3 per cent of the 7,000 patients for which there was full data available for were current smokers. In comparison, around 14 per cent of US adults smoke. Other studies in China have also had surprisingly low rates of smokers, and one team of scientists from Wuhan - where the pandemic began - even suggested smokers may actually be at lower risk. Leading experts who have scoured all of the available evidence collated on smoking and COVID-19 warn smokers are at higher risk of complications. But they say the current warnings about smokers being at higher risk of catching the infection are based on assumptions and further trials are needed. Advertisement

The 55-year-old's spokesman said today: 'The Prime Minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits.

'He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.'

In a round of broadcast interviews this morning, Cabinet minister Michael Gove played down concerns that the Government will be paralysed with the leader out of action, insisting that Mr Johnson had already been on a 'stripped back diary' for days and 'Cabinet is the supreme decision making body',

However, within hours it had emerged that Mr Gove himself had also been impacted by coronavirus, as he has gone into self-isolation following a family member displaying symptoms.

The PM's sharp downturn came 11 days after he first suffered coronavirus symptoms and went into isolation. He looked increasingly unwell when glimpsed in public and in 'selfie' videos posted on on social media, and ministers were then shocked by his grim appearance at a Zoom conference on Sunday.

Downing Street sources confirmed Mr Johnson is not yet on a ventilator - but was moved to intensive care to be near one if needed. Some medical experts have claimed this course of action is now 'very likely'.

Two thirds of UK patients in intensive care with coronavirus have, so far, been put on a ventilator within 24 hours of arriving as the illness attacks their lungs.

Only two hours before his move to intensive care, Number 10 was insisting Mr Johnson was still spearheading the government's coronavirus response, despite de facto deputy Mr Raab chairing the morning crisis meeting.

Yet shortly after the Foreign Secretary left the Number 10 podium following the daily 5pm press briefing, Mr Johnson, 55, suffered breathing problems.

Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, held an emergency video conference with the cabinet to tell them the bad news, in a moment one minister described as 'truly shocking'.

DOMINIC RAAB SAYS HE IS 'CONFIDENT' PM WILL PULL THROUGH AND CALLS HIM A 'FIGHTER' Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab this evening insisted he is 'confident' Boris Johnson will 'pull through' his intensive care battle with coronavirus as the de facto prime minister labelled his boss a 'fighter'. The Foreign Secretary has been put in charge of running the country after Mr Johnson was admitted to hospital last night after his condition worsened. But Mr Raab said he believed Mr Johnson will be back at the helm 'in short order' to lead the fight against the deadly disease. Mr Raab's elevation to the top job has sparked a wave of questions over how much of the PM's powers he has taken over amid concerns about the extent to which the government could respond to new developments without first getting Mr Johnson's approval. But Mr Raab, the First Secretary of State, tonight stressed the deputising model now being used will be fit for purpose and resilient enough to deal with unforeseen events. 'I have got total confidence in the arrangements that the Prime Minister has put in place so that I can discharge the responsibility for him, deputising for him while he is out of action and obviously we hope that will be for a very limited period of time,' he said. Dominic Raab today said he is 'confident' Boris Johnson will 'pull through' his battle with coronavirus and that the PM will be back in 'short order' Advertisement

Downing Street has been urged to be more 'transparent' about the premier's condition, amid claims a hospital bed was being prepared for him as early as last Thursday.

Mr Gove said today: 'If there is any change in his condition we will ensure the country is updated.'

Downing Street said Mr Raab is working from the Foreign Office but is being assisted by officials from 'across Government' as he co-ordinates the coronavirus response.

The spokesman said Mr Raab and the Cabinet would be able to order military action without the consent of the Prime Minister. As First Secretary of State, he would chair any meeting of the National Security Council.

Should Mr Raab be forced to self-isolate or take ill, Chancellor Rishi Sunak would be next in line to take over.

Former cabinet member and Tory peer Baroness Nicky Morgan described Mr Johnson's condition as 'worrying', adding she understood it was 'very much a skeleton staff now' at Downing Street.

Speaking to ITV News, former prime minister David Cameron said: 'Well obviously it's very worrying news and all of us are praying for Boris and thinking of him and praying and thinking of his family.

'And hoping he gets well soon and gets back to Number 10, where I know he wants to be and where we all want him to be.

'Boris is very tough, very resilient, very fit person, I know that from facing him on the tennis court and I'm sure he'll come through this.

'I know he'll want to get well and get back in charge again, and that's what we all want for him. And we're hoping and praying that that's the case and that's the case very soon.'

Mr Johnson was conscious last night and had not been intubated - the process of putting a tube in the windpipe to aid breathing.

He required around four litres of oxygen rather than the 15 litres used by an average Covid-19 ICU patient, according to the Times.

Mr Raab this evening insisted he is 'confident' Boris Johnson will 'pull through' his intensive care battle with coronavirus as the de facto prime minister labelled his boss a 'fighter'.

The Foreign Secretary has been put in charge of running the country after Mr Johnson was admitted to hospital last night after his condition worsened.

But Mr Raab said he believed Mr Johnson will be back at the helm 'in short order' to lead the fight against the deadly disease.

Mr Raab's elevation to the top job has sparked a wave of questions over how much of the PM's powers he has taken over amid concerns about the extent to which the government could respond to new developments without first getting Mr Johnson's approval.

But Mr Raab, the First Secretary of State, tonight stressed the deputising model now being used will be fit for purpose and resilient enough to deal with unforeseen events.

'I have got total confidence in the arrangements that the Prime Minister has put in place so that I can discharge the responsibility for him, deputising for him while he is out of action and obviously we hope that will be for a very limited period of time,' he said.

Britain could be worst coronavirus-hit nation in Europe with 66,000 deaths in the first wave of the outbreak  three times Italys expected toll - because of the NHS's shortage of hospital beds and intensive care capacity, warn scientists

Britain could suffer more than 60,000 coronavirus deaths and be hit harder by the the outbreak than any nation in Europe, leading scientists say.

Modelling by researchers at the University of Washington predicted 151,680 people would succumb to the virus across the continent.

It found the UK could record 66,300 COVID-19 deaths by July - almost half (44 per cent) of the entire fatalities in Europe and three times more than Italy (20,000).

Spain (19,000) and France (15,000) will also record huge losses, according to the prediction, largely based on intensive care and hospital bed capacity.

The researchers forecast Britain will need 100,000 beds by mid-April to cope with the crisis, compared to the 17,765 currently available.

But the alarming projection does not take into account the thousands of beds that will become available at the new NHS Nightingale hospitals.

The number is also in stark contrast to predictions by the UK's leading scientific advisers, who warned around 20,000 people will die during the crisis.

Modelling conducted by the University of Washington's School of Medicine predicts Britain's epidemic will peak in the middle of this month. The researchers forecast Britain will need 100,000 beds by then, compared to the 17,765 currently available

The modelling suggests that outbreaks in Italy (left) and Spain (right), where hundreds of deaths have been reported daily for weeks, may be past their peak. Daily deaths in both countries have declined for several days

Countries across Europe, including the UK, Italy and Spain, have seen the numbers of people dying from coronavirus fall in recent days, offering hope that their outbreaks may be slowing down

HOW DO THE DIFFERENT COUNTRIES COMPARE ACROSS EUROPE? COUNTRY PREDICTED DEATHS (TOTAL) PREDICTED HIGH (DAILY) BEDS AVAILABLE BEDS NEEDED BED SHORTAGE ICU SHORTAGE VENTILATORS NEEDED PEAK UK 66,314 2,932 17,765 102,794 85,029 23,745 20,862 April 17 ITALY 20,300 969 42,521 28,964 - 4,962 5,967 March 27 SPAIN 19,209 950 31,790 29,112 - 5,858 6,139 April 1 GERMANY 8,802 377 147,938 12,222 - - 2,497 April 19 FRANCE 15,058 865 74,812 25,371 - 4,127 5,005 April 5 BELGIUM 3,546 212 26,748 6,798 - 814 1,371 April 6 NETHERLANDS 5,808 241 30,946 7,899 - 1,001 1,632 April 6 DENMARK 529 22 2,514 760 - 95 159 April 6 SWEDEN 4,182 134 1,808 4,632 2,824 1,090 994 April 27 IRELAND 401 22 3,303 712 - 88 135 April 6 NORWAY 669 24 3,804 851 - 103 173 April 19 PORTUGAL 471 37 6,742 954 - 114 192 April 3

HOW DID THE RESEARCHERS PREDICT COVID-19 DEATHS? The Washington University team scoured local and international data on coronavirus case numbers. They also used age mortality breakdowns from Italy, China and the US - the three worst-hit countries so far. The team used this data to create a mathematical model which predicts the trajectory of outbreaks in each country. To come up with death tolls, the scientists looked at the number of hospital beds and ICU capacity in each nation. They predicted 102,794 coronavirus patients will need hospital beds at the outbreak's peak in the UK, compared to 17,765 beds currently available. The researchers also forecast 24,544 of those patients will need to be moved to intensive care, where there are just 744 ICU beds currently free. Advertisement

Using local and international data on case numbers, as well as age mortality breakdowns from Italy, China and the US, the Washington University researchers modelled expected death tolls on a country-by-country basis.

They said a key consideration was the number of hospital beds and ICU capacity in each nation.

The model predicts 102,794 coronavirus patients will need hospital beds by April 17, the outbreak's peak in the UK, compared to 17,765 beds currently available.

It forecasts 24,544 of those patients will need to be moved to intensive care, where there are just 744 ICU beds currently free.

But the bleak predictions do not include the near-10,000 beds now available at temporary NHS Nightingale hospitals in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Harrogate and Bristol.

The model also does not factor in the makeshift hospitals built in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - which free-up hundreds more ICU beds.

Most European nations introduced strict social distancing measures to try to stem the virus spread at the beginning of March.

But the British government took more than a fortnight to follow suit, initially standing firm against a tide of European action which saw schools, pubs and restaurants close.

Figures show how the UK's rising death toll compares to other nations with similar outbreaks, including Spain, the US, Italy, Germany and France

Figures also show how the number of new cases recorded every day has risen since the crisis began to take hold in mid-March

Hospital admissions have started to slow down across England but are still rising, according to graphs presented at a Number 10 press conference tonight

Thousands of extra beds planned in stadiums, leisure centres and hotels to cope with coronavirus Makeshift hospitals have been assembled across Britain to free up more hospital beds and prevent the NHS from becoming overwhelmed. Additional temporary capacity being developed now includes: Birmingham: An NHS Nightingale hospital at the National Exhibition Centre will add an initial 500 beds, with the potential to grow to 2,000 if necessary.

Manchester: An NHS Nightingale hospital at the Central Convention Complex will add 500 beds, with the capacity to expand to 1,000.

Glasgow: The NHS Louisa Jordan Hospital is being built at the Scottish Events Campus (SEC). The hospital will provide an initial 300 beds with scope to increase the number of patients to 1,000 if necessary. It is believed the facility will be ready to open in the next two weeks and is named after a First World War nurse from Glasgow who lost her life in Serbia.

Elsewhere in Scotland: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the Scottish Government wants to quadruple ICU beds to more than 700 but it looks as if much of this will happen within existing hospital facilities.

Harrogate: The town's Convention Centre is being converted to take up to 500 patients from Yorkshire and the north-east of England.

Bristol: A site is being prepared at the University of the West of England which will take up to 1,000 patients.

Cardiff: Two thousand beds are being made available at the Principality Stadium.

Elsewhere across Wales: More than 4,000 other beds will be created by field hospitals erected in leisure centres, schools and stadiums. These include more than 350 at the Parc y Scarlets in Llanelli and a similar number at Venue Cymru in Llandudno. A former factory and a film studios are being converted in Swansea which will add 850 more beds in the next four weeks.

Other field hospitals announced in Wales include at the Bluestone National Park Resort; Brailsford Sport and Leisure Centre, Bangor; Cardigan Leisure Centre; Carmarthen Leisure Centre; Council Office, Abercynon; Deeside Leisure Centre; Grange University Hospital, Cwmbran ; Llandarcy Academy of Sport, Neath; Port Talbot; Penweddig School, Aberystwyth; Plascrug Leisure Centre, Ceredigion; Selwyn Samuel Centre, Llanelli; Ty Trevithick, Abercynon; and the Vale Resort, Vale of Glamorgan.

Belfast: The City Hospital is being set up as Northern Ireland's Nightingale hospital and will include 230 intensive care beds.

Cumbria: Local plans are under way to provide an extra 500 beds at leisure centres throughout the county. Equipment is being installed at Whitehaven Sports Centre, The Sands Centre in Carlisle, Penrith Leisure Centre and Kendal Leisure Centre, as well as at Furness Academy in Barrow.

Wigan: An emergency ward is being built on a hospital car park to provide 52 more beds in the north-west. Drive-through coronavirus assessment lanes in Whitstable are among new facilities being set up across Kent. Drive-through testing is being established at other locations outside London, including at Edgbaston cricket ground in Birmingham, and at the Boots headquarters in Nottingham. These will add to the facility already running at Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey. Advertisement

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is himself being treated in intensive care with COVID-19, came under immense criticism for his government's slow response to the pandemic.

As it stands, around 6,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Britain - far fewer than the 16,523 in Italy and 13,341 in Spain.

But Britain's epidemic lags behind these countries because it can take up to three weeks for a coronavirus patient to develop symptoms, fall seriously ill and die.

It means scores of patients who caught the virus before the social restrictions were imposed are still to become critically ill and succumb to the virus.

The Washington University researchers predict Britain's outbreak will peak on April 17.

The modelling suggests that outbreaks in Italy and Spain, where hundreds of deaths have been reported daily for weeks, may be past their peak.

Daily deaths in both countries have declined for several days.

But Britain is likely more than a week away from getting a handle on its death toll as intensive care capacity is overwhelmed, according to lead author Christopher Murray, researcher in global health and public health at the university.

He said the mathematical models take into consideration the effect of social distancing.

Mr Murray added: 'It is unequivocally evident that social distancing can, when well implemented and maintained, control the epidemic, leading to declining death rates.

'Those nations hit hard early on implemented social distancing orders and may have the worst behind them as they are seeing important progress in reducing their death rates.

'Each nation's trajectory will change - and dramatically for the worse - if people ease up on social distancing or relax other precautions.'

On Sunday the team predicted just over 80,000 US COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic's first wave.

Mr Murray added: 'We are expecting a foreboding few weeks for people in many parts of Europe. It seems likely the number of deaths will exceed our projections for the United States.'

Last week, the national medical director of the NHS said the UK will have done well if it comes through the coronavirus crisis with fewer than 20,000 deaths.

When asked if he hoped that the United Kingdom was not on the same trajectory as countries such as Italy, Stephen Powis said: 'If we can keep deaths below 20,000 we will have done very well in this epidemic.'

'If it is less than 20,000... that would be a good result though every death is a tragedy, but we should not be complacent about that,' said Powis, speaking at a news conference in Downing Street alongside Business Secretary Alok Sharma.

He said the NHS had been working incredibly hard to increase the intensive care capacity beyond the 4,000 beds it typically had.

Mr Powis insisted getting personal protective equipment (PPE) to healthcare staff was an 'absolute priority' as he detailed the numbers of products sent out.

More than 170million of the 'very highest level masks' have been dispatched 'in the last couple of weeks,' he said.

He added 40million gloves had been sent in recent days, as well as 25million face masks and 30million aprons. So vast numbers going out,' he said.

'We're strengthening the supply chain every day to ensure that every organisation gets the equipment that they need, that's an absolute priority for us.'
San Francisco, April 7 : Electric Vehicle (EV) maker Tesla has posted a video on its YouTube channel, showing its engineers are working on designing ventilators from Tesla Model 3 parts.

In the video, Tesla's engineers show off two versions of the ventilator, a prototype model with its components laid out across a desk, as well as a packaged model that shows how it might look when used by a hospital.

"We want to use parts that we know really well, we know the reliability of... and they're available in volume," one of Tesla's engineers explains.

The ventilator uses multiple components from its cars, including the Model 3's infotainment screen, computer, as well as a part used in the Model S's suspension system.

Apart from Tesla, Ford is working with GE to expand ventilator production while also using its own resources to build vents, respirators and face shields. GM intends to build ventilators at an Indiana-based car factory.

As well as developing its own ventilator design, Musk is also purchasing FDA-approved "ventilators" and shipping them to hospitals that need them.

New York City Hospitals recently shared an image on Twitter thanking Musk and Tesla for delivering 40 ventilators to Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.

However, according to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the ventilators that Musk promised to make won't be ready in time for the coronavirus pandemic,
The COVID-19 pneumonia has caused greater-than-expected impacts to the world, and to defeat it becomes the most pressing task of the whole world.

The United Nations on March 31 issued a report titled Shared responsibility, global solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19, calling for global solidarity to respond to the impacts of COVID-19.

"COVID-19 is the greatest test that we have faced together since the formation of the United Nations," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, adding that the international society needs to take more forceful and effective measures and uphold solidarity to cope with the crisis.

The attack from the virus on human society is growing stronger by the day. According to statistics, it took 67 days from the first reported case to reach 100,000 cases, 11 days for the second 100,000 cases, four days for the third, and just two days for the fourth. To date, the total number of reported cases in over 200 countries and regions has exceeded 800,000, and the virus has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people.

The grim situation calls for immediate actions to save lives and relieve the shocks from the pandemic. Countries should neither hesitate and be onlookers, nor push their luck.

"Fight hard. Fight like hell. Fight like your lives depend on it -- because they do. The best and only way to protect life, livelihoods and economies is to stop the virus," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the G20 Extraordinary Leaders' Summit on COVID-19 held recently. As he said, to contain the pandemic is the top priority and the most effective strategy at present.

At this moment, the international society needs to step up actions to resolutely curb the spread of the virus.

At the G20 Extraordinary Leaders' Summit on COVID-19, Chinese President Xi Jinping introduced Chinese experience in containing the epidemic and called on the international society to be resolute in fighting an all-out global war against the COVID-19 outbreak.

Xi proposed that a G20 health ministers' meeting be convened as quick as possible to improve information sharing, and strengthen cooperation on drugs, vaccines and epidemic control. He also put forward the G20 COVID-19 assistance initiative, which was positively responded by the international society.

It is widely believed that the initiatives of China conform to the direction of the global fight against the COVID-19 crisis and the China-proposed concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind has become an important spirit that drives international cooperation on COVID-19 control.

Whats more impressive is that China, while itself is under the impact of the COVID-19 disease, upholds the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, and calls on the international society to help developing countries with vulnerable public health systems enhance preparedness and response.

Global public health security is not the affair of a single country or region and no country shall be left behind in this regard. If one country is defeated by the virus, the rest of the globe will be impacted and suffer unbearable losses. This is why the UN and the WHO have repeatedly stressed to increase support for developing countries.

China has taken active action to offer the world what it has promised. The country has sent anti-epidemic experts to countries in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The Chinese government has provided material aid for 120 countries and 4 international organizations. Chinas local governments have donated medical supplies to more than 50 countries through sister city mechanisms and other channels.

Meanwhile, Chinese enterprises have donated epidemic prevention supplies to more than 100 countries and international organizations, and Chinese experts have shared experience of fighting COVID-19 with countries around the world.

While fighting the epidemic at home, China also helps other countries within its capabilities, said Zheng Yongnian, a professor with the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, adding that the world has witnessed Chinas sense of justice and responsibility.

International cooperation and responsibility are whats urgent in the global war against the COVID-19 pandemic. China's important achievements and valuable experience in prevention and control of COVID-19 have boosted global confidence in overcoming the pandemic.

At the G20 Extraordinary Leaders' Summit on COVID-19, relevant countries pledged to take all necessary public health measures and provide adequate funds to curb the spread of the virus, so as to protect the lives of the people, especially those from the most vulnerable groups.

Victory is ensured when people pool their strength; success is secured when people put their heads together. The world needs solidarity, cooperation and action to resolutely fight the war against the COVID-19 pandemic. By jointly working out response strategies, holding a common belief, and taking joint actions, mankind will eventually secure a victory over the pandemic.
BUCKS COUNTY >> Police in Northampton, Lower Southampton and Upper Makefield townships report the following incidents and arrests: Lower Southampton THEFT >> In the early morning hours on Monday, Jan. 10 two individuals made off with the entire change machine from the Feasterville Laundromat along Bustleton Pike. The male appears to be "cracking himself up" while he hatches his scheme...
As Japan faces a fresh wave of coronavirus infections and the government prepares for a state of emergency, medical staff say a shortage of beds and a rise in cases linked to hospitals are pushing Tokyo's medical system to the brink of collapse.

The crisis has already arrived at Eiju General Hospital, a pink, 10-story building in Taito Ward, Tokyo, which has reported 140 cases of COVID-19 in the past two weeks. Of those, at least 44 are doctors, nurses and other medical staff.

On a recent weekday, the glass doors of Eiju General were plastered with posters saying the hospital was closed until further notice.

More than 60 patients with the virus are still being treated inside. One person who was transferred to another hospital infected others, according to health officials in Tokyo's Taito ward.

Japan has only a small fraction of the number of cases reported by its neighbors China and South Korea. Yet scenarios similar to that at Eiju General are playing out across Tokyo, as a dozen doctors and nurses in the city told Reuters there is a shortage of gear and staff even as infections surge.

"We could empty out an entire ward and use it just for corona patients, but that means those patients (with other illnesses) will have to go elsewhere," said a doctor specializing in infectious diseases at a major hospital in the greater Tokyo area. "If we can't do that, it will lead to the virus spreading all through the hospital and lead to a collapse of our medical system."

Official data tell a similar story. Tokyo's government said that as of Sunday, 951 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized; in a live YouTube address Sunday night, Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike said there were about 1,000 beds allocated for coronavirus patients in the city.

Even as other countries have locked down borders and ramped up testing, Japan appeared to have side-stepped the kind of mass infections seen elsewhere - an effect some experts say was mostly due to a lack of testing. In the early stages of the epidemic, Japan was also weighing whether to postpone the Summer Olympics, a decision that eventually came in late March.

Since mid-January, Japan has tested 39,446 people, while the United Kingdom has tested 173,784 and South Korea has conducted 443,273 tests, according to data from Oxford University.

Authorities have tried to test and track in a way that avoided overwhelming Japan's hospitals, said Hitoshi Oshitani, an infectious disease specialist on the government panel shaping the country's coronavirus policy.

Despite that, the total number of positive cases nationwide nearly doubled in the last seven days to 3,654. Tokyo is now the largest hub for COVID-19 in Japan, with more than 1,000 confirmed cases.

With cases surging, officials said, some who tested positive have had to briefly wait at home or in outpatient sections of hospitals until beds became available. Koike said on Sunday that to ease the burden on medical staff, Tokyo would transfer people with mild symptoms into hotels and other accommodations starting Tuesday.

Hiroshi Nishiura, a Hokkaido University professor and member of a panel advising the government on its coronavirus response, said Eiju General, like many Tokyo hospitals, has no infectious disease department. That meant coronavirus patients were initially treated alongside everyone else, allowing the virus to spread.

"We have not been able to clearly contain the contagion from the first wave," Nishiura said, referring to Eiju General. A spokesman from the hospital declined to comment on Monday.

On Friday, another hospital in Tokyo said three nurses and one doctor had been infected while treating patients. The next day, Tokyo saw its daily coronavirus cases top 100 for the first time, and on Sunday 143 people tested positive.

A representative for the Tokyo government said Monday that "the medical system remains secure," adding that Tokyo was continuing to urge residents to avoid all unnecessary outings.

SCRAMBLE FOR BEDS

Contagion is an enormous risk in dense Tokyo, a city of nearly 14 million people. Japan also has one of world's oldest populations, with nearly a third of the country - 36 million people - older than 65.

According to Japan's health ministry, there are some 1.5 million hospital beds nationwide, but beds in negative-pressure rooms reserved for infectious diseases excluding tuberculosis have dwindled to just 1,882, with only 145 in Tokyo.

Though people with COVID-19 do not all need such rooms, they still must be kept apart from other patients.

In recent days, Tokyo officials have been scrambling to secure 4,000 beds for coronavirus patients, asking hospitals to free up space in ordinary wards and even offering financial incentives, said one city official with direct knowledge of the planning. He declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak to media.
According to an article by the DailyMail, artificial intelligence programs could be even more efficient when it comes to detecting the coronavirus (COVID-19) by being able to study X-rays of their chests! Developers at the well-known Oxford-based data-visualization company called Zegami, were able to create a machine learning model that is capable of diagnosing the virus through looking at images.

The team says however that in order to be able to get better and also more detailed results, the artificial intelligence still needs to be tested on a wider range of X-ray images from previously or currently infected patients.

The team in charge of this research

The team has high beliefs that they could have an artificial intelligence system up and running within only a matter of weeks if they are able to get enough X-ray images. Roger Noble who is the current Zegami CEO has written in an open letter to no other than the Oxford Health NHS Foundation TRUST asking them if they could send more images in order for the team to train the AI.

According to the company, this new type of program could not just help spot COVID-19 cases more easily compared to other lung conditions, it could even possibly predict potential outcomes for said patients! This would be done by comparing a coronavirus lung X-ray with that of another person with similar conditions.

Zagami has just launched out of Oxford University last 2016 in order to enable researchers as well as companies to explore large image datasets by making use of the machine learning models. According to Noble, "COVID-19 is a huge challenge, and technology should play a key role in defeating it."

Read Also: [VIDEO] Elon Musk Shows How Tesla Make Ventilators After Reports It Sent 'Ineffective' Equipment to Hospitals

The new platform

While developing the new platform, Zegami was using only publicly available images of different COVID-19 X-rays available at the GitHub data initiative which was launched by Postdoctoral Fellow from Mila Joseph Paul Cohen from the University of Montreal, Canada.

Cohen explained that the goal of this particular project was to make use of X-ray images in order for an AI to be able to understand the infection. According to Cohen, one day these tools developed from the very dataset could then be used to help GP's to triage and treat patients even when radiologists get sick.

Read Also: Tesla Donated 'Ineffective' 5-Year-Old Ventilators, According to Health Officials

According to Noble, "We believe the model we have developed cannot only be used to help identify cases of Coronavirus more quickly," which he followed up by saying that with the use of both right visuals and information that would be loaded into the platform, the AI can possibly identify potential outcomes for patients.

Noble also noted that the process could be done by comparing cases with former patients who have experienced similar conditions in order for the AIs to learn what happened to them. Noble also noted that the model they have developed could help more than just the NHS staff but also be shared around the world in an attempt to beat the COVID-19.
As promised, the Extraction trailer is here. Netflix has unveiled a three-minute trailer for the Chris Hemsworth-led action thriller movie about weapons dealers and drug traffickers, from the makers of Avengers: Endgame.

Directed by Endgame's stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave, off a script by Endgame's co-director Joe Russo which gives us our first proper look at the characters played by Extraction's other cast members

The trailer has some household names like Pankaj Tripathi (Mirzapur), Priyanshu Painyuli (Bhavesh Joshi Superhero) who play the biggest drug lords of India and Bangladesh, Golshifteh Farahani (About Elly) is on the operations team, and David Harbour (Stranger Things) makes an appearance as an advisor of sorts. Randeep Hooda (Highway) appears for a split second in the Extraction trailer, so you might very well miss him.
Hyderabad, April 7 : In a matter of pride for South Central Railway (SCR), as many as 19 railway stations in its Vijayawada Division, received the prestigious accreditation of Environment Management System ISO 14001:2015 certification for a period of 3 years.

The certification in effect from March 31 has been awarded to the railway stations for implementing the best and unique standards. Gajanan Mallya, General Manager, South Central Railway, said the certification is a result of the Vijayawada division's commitment to meeting the standards in environment management and cleanliness activities at 19 busy railway stations.

The 19 stations that have been awarded the certifcation are Gudur, Nellore, Gudivada, Ongole, Chirala, Bhimavaram Town, Bhimavaram Junction, Narsapur, Tenali, Rajahmundry, Nidadavolu, Tuni, Annavaram, Anakapalle, Samalkot, Kakinada Town, Kakinada Port, Eluru & Tadepalligudem.

According to Ch Rakesh, Chief Public Relations Officer, SCR, the parameters related to environment management include cleanliness at stations, disposal of solid waste, providing pet bottle crusher machines, taking up anti-littering activities, water management, preventing defecation along railway tracks, removal of encroachments, Energy management, afforestation and plantation.
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP)  A small coastal city in Georgia that thrives on tourism closed its beach, fearing carefree crowds of teenagers and college students posed too great a risk for spreading the new coronavirus. Two weeks later, the states governor has reversed that decision, saying people weathering the outbreak need fresh air and exercise.

The clash has thrust tiny Tybee Island, east of Savannah, into a thorny debate that keeps cropping up during the coronavirus pandemic: How much can officials curtail freedoms during the crisis? And should those calls be made at the federal, state or local level?

Tybee Island Mayor Shirley Sessions, sworn in barely three months ago, has taken on Gov. Brian Kemp after state officials on Friday reopened the beach in this community of 3,100 people. The beach typically operates with city-funded lifeguards, police patrols and trash cleanup.

The change resulted from the Republican governor's order that people statewide should shelter in place  that is, they should stay home unless working jobs deemed essential, seeking medical care, shopping for groceries, or other exceptions including exercising outdoors. It also invalidated any restrictions already imposed by local governments if they went beyond the governor's limits.

That meant a unanimous decision by Tybee Islands city council to close its beach was suddenly overridden, and Sessions said the governor's office declined to reconsider when asked. Her blunt, public rebuttal to what she called the governors reckless mandate drew attention far beyond her small coastal home.

As the Pentagon ordered 100,000 body bags to store the corpses of Americans killed by the coronavirus, Governor Brian Kemp dictated that Georgia beaches must reopen, Sessions said in a statement posted Saturday on the citys website that was quickly spread on social media and quoted in news stories. Tybee Island mayors are elected in nonpartisan races, and Sessions doesn't identify as Democrat or Republican.

Kemp noted Sunday on Twitter that state law enforcement officers were monitoring beaches at Tybee Island and elsewhere to ensure crowds werent gathering, and that beach traffic appeared sparse. Kemp said beach gear and parties are prohibited.

Patrols are vigilant so people can get fresh air and exercise while following social distancing rules, the governor tweeted.

The back-and-forth reflects the broader debate in the U.S. about whether severe limitations on people's movement are necessary, causing unacceptable disruption or even constitutional. Some faith leaders, for instance, have argued that bans on gatherings that applied to services violated religious freedom protections. The American Civil Liberties Union is asking a court to block part of Puerto Ricos strict curfew, expressing concern about overreach. The Los Angeles County sheriff reversed his decision to shut down firearms dealers after he was sued by gun-rights groups.

On Sunday, there were no lifeguards on duty on Tybees beaches, and local officials left in place plywood signs blocking boardwalks and wooden barricades to keep cars out of beachfront parking lots.

I would say were going to leave them up until somebody takes them down, Sessions said in a phone interview.

The mayor said she doesnt understand why the state would assert control during the pandemic.

Kemps office did not immediately respond to an email Sunday seeking further comment on the governors rationale. Kemps spokeswoman, Candice Broce, said in a statement Saturday that governors staff was in contact with Sessions and would provide resources as needed to enforce social distancing.

Sessions said shes thinks few people ventured to the beach over the weekend because they werent sure whether it was open or closed. Shes concerned that could change. The city moved to shut down the beach after thousands of young people swarmed to the sand and surf as schools and colleges canceled classes.

Local officials worried that carefree crowds posed too great a risk for spreading the virus. Still, it was a painful decision for a city thats typically hungry for spring tourists after the economically lean winter.

We are a very high-risk community. We have an older population and two nursing homes. We dont have a medical facility, Sessions said. The sooner we take these actions, the sooner well be able to get back to some type of normalcy.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness and lead to death.

On Sunday, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported more than 6,600 confirmed infections statewide and 211 deaths. Chatham County, which includes Tybee Island and neighboring Savannah, had more than 80 cases and three deaths.

At least one Tybee Island resident is among those infected, Sessions said, as is an officer on the communitys small police force.

Kemps order that reopened the beach also lifted a temporary ban Tybee Island had imposed on people checking into vacation rental homes. Sessions said she spotted license plates from New York, New Jersey and other states reeling from the pandemic as she walked the island over the weekend.

And she fears many more visitors will show up for the upcoming Easter weekend.

I tell people its such a small sacrifice," said Sessions, whos still urging people to stay off the beach. "The beach is going to be there in two months. But will we be there to enjoy it?

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Coronavirus in NY: Cuomo extends school, business closures until April 29

Behind the Onondaga County execs latest move: Hes frustrated with coronavirus and some slackers

Instead of coronavirus patients, Syracuse hospitals swamped with empty beds

Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com
[April 07, 2020] HashedIn Technologies Attains Microsoft Gold-Certified Partnership

BENGALURU, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- HashedIn Technologies Pvt. Ltd, a Cloud expert, announced today that it has acquired Microsoft Gold-certified member status in the Microsoft partner program. As a Microsoft Gold-Certified partner, HashedIn has always collaborated and established a close working relationship with Microsoft. This recognition helps HashedIn strengthen its partnership with Microsoft, optimize and build its cloud-native solutions for enterprises, serve their clients seamlessly with the existing partnership, and facilitate them to adopt multi-cloud. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners are entitled to receive a wide range of benefits, including access, training, and support, giving them a favorable advantage in the Microsoft channel. By getting certified, HashedIn showcases the capability to strengthen its existing clou services by having Azure as a competitive advantage.



According to Harshit Singhal, CBO, HashedIn Technologies, "We are pleased to have attained Gold Certified Partner status in the Microsoft Partner Program. Azure capability is very strong in the Enterprise segment. We have catered to more than 20 of the Fortune 1000 companies, where quite a few of the key customers have been investing strongly in Azure. Our Microsoft Gold partnership is a testament of our ability to support cloud transition and innovation focus in the enterprises and help our customers experience the best technological solutions." About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services. Its best-known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. About HashedIn Technologies HashedIn is an IT services and consulting company that builds intelligent SaaS solutions. With nearly a decade of SaaS expertise, HashedIn has built a technological empire of 225+ robust solutions for 165+ clients worldwide, including companies like Honeywell, NetApp, Nutanix, Aruba, Curefit, and many more. To learn about our Intelligent SaaS solutions, visit: www.hashedin.com Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1142261/MPN_Logo.jpg



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A 65-year-old corona positive patient, who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting in Delhi last month, escaped from the hospital on Tuesday after breaking the glass pane and cutting the wire mesh on the window.

He used his clothes to form a rope and scale down the building.

Safid Miyan, a resident of Sursuri in Nepal, had been quarantined after he was found to be a member of the Jamaat. He had tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday and was undergoing treatment at the primary health centre in Khekhra.

Safid Miyan was a part of a group of 17 people from Nepal, who had attended the Delhi Tablighi Jamaat gathering.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Baghpat has now issued an appeal with a photograph of Safid Miyan, asking people to inform the police if he is seen anywhere.

The patient can infect a number of other people if he moves around untreated, the appeal said.

The police have launched a hunt for the runaway patient.
Paris, April 7, 2020 - WALLIX (Euronext - ALLIX), European cybersecurity software publisher and expert in privileged account governance (PAM), continues to strengthen its R&D to fully support its expansion into the international market. Following two acquisitions made in 2019, WALLIX reorganized its R&D and pooled the skills of the teams around a single brand and product lines dedicated to the security of identities, access, and data. With this new organization, WALLIX maintains a close relationship with its customers and partner integrators for better management of the priorities of its strategic plan, focused on innovation and improving its competitiveness in the cybersecurity market. To ensure operational activities, WALLIX has appointed Jean-Marc Guyot, Vice President Engineering, to take over management of the R&D centers in France and Serge Adda, Chief Technical Officer, to take over management of the "WALLIX Lab" and the Spanish R&D center.



R&D: A PILLAR OF A COMPETITIVE ORGANIZATION IN THE CYBERSECURITY MARKET

The three R&D centers based in Europe, in France (Paris, Rennes) and in Spain (Madrid), are responsible for the development of the WALLIX Bastion (Privileged Access Management (PAM)), WALLIX BestSafe (Endpoint Privileged Management (EPM)), and of the group's new Cloud services. A set of cross-functional objectives (technical documentation, product quality, etc.) and a unification of R&D tools and methods have been implemented for better team efficiency, while retaining specific business or technological expertise by center.

The aim to organize around these three centers is part of the ambitions announced by WALLIX, which is structuring itself to meet the growth challenges of an international software publisher. Today, more than 60 people are responsible for producing robust and reliable software, while respecting the WALLIX DNA: the simplicity of both the deployment and use of solutions.



THE ROLES OF JEAN-MARC GUYOT AND SERGE ADDA IN THE R&D TRANSFORMATION

In order to ensure the coordination of R&D activities, WALLIX entrusted Jean-Marc Guyot with the management of the R&D center in Rennes, specializing in development of Cloud service and SaaS solutions, as well as management of the WALLIX Bastion R&D. Jean-Marc is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Telecom ParisTech, as well as ESSEC - Philips Business School Executive MBA, and has spent a large part of his career in the world of semiconductors, digital television, and telecoms. He also created two start-ups, one in the development of virtual chips which was sold to Silicon Laboratories, and the other in the world of financial applications. Jean-Marc Guyot joined WALLIX in early 2019.

"The multitude of PAM integrations in the Cloud for our customers makes joining our R&D teams key to the success of our product strategy. Bringing together development methods and processes will allow better use of everyone's abilities, both in terms of skills and in Cloud techniques," confirms Jean-Marc Guyot.

Serge Adda takes the lead in the WALLIX BestSafe product R&D and of the WALLIX Lab, whose mission, in addition to cybersecurity research activity, is to work on security audits and analysis of all WALLIX products, identify emerging technologies on the cybersecurity market, and develop prototypes to integrate into this ecosystem. Serge Adda has more than twenty years of experience in the world of IT and software publishing and held the position of Vice President of Research and Development for the publisher Infovista for 15 years before joining WALLIX in 2012. Serge is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale des Mines de Saint-Etienne.

"Infrastructure security depends more than ever on seamless integration within the cybersecurity ecosystem. WALLIX continues to invest in this area, in particular by developing integrations with the WALLIX BestSafe product for fixed and mobile endpoints, an increasingly critical subject with the proliferation of attacks against our customers," says Serge Adda.

All of WALLIX's R&D work, whether developing the requirements of the product roadmap or anticipating the next technologies, is always focused on delivering positive customer experiences and responding to companies' needs to secure their digital future.



A PROPOS DE WALLIX

A software company providing cybersecurity solutions, WALLIX Group is the European specialist in privileged account governance. In response to recent regulatory changes and the cyber security threats affecting all companies today, WALLIX's solutions help users defend against cyber attacks, theft and data leaks linked to stolen credentials, and abused privileges. It is the first market solution to have been awarded first-level security certification (CSPN) by France's National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) and thus meet all of the criteria for regulatory compliance. Listed on the Euronext under ALLIX and distributed by a network of more than 170 resellers and trained and accredited integrators, WALLIX accompanies more than 1000 companies in securing their digital future.

More information: www.wallix.com | info@wallix.com

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  The Philippine government plans to spend up to 600 billion for its COVID-19 response, but more than half of the amount will be funded by loans, the Department of Finance said Tuesday.

Finance Assistant Secretary Tony Lambino said the economic team has diverted some 205 billion from the 2019 and 2020 national budgets to support the state's COVID-19 response. The amount is largely from planned construction and purchases this year which have been discontinued due to the public health crisis.

Half of the war chest will be sourced from a credit line from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which unveiled a 300-billion bond repurchase deal  a form of short-term loan  with the Treasury.

Lambino added that about 50-100 billion will be borrowed from international lenders, which he said will likely be signed later this month. So far, the World Bank has approved a 5 billion loan, while the Asian Development Bank extended a 150-million grant to the Philippines to help in coping with the impact of the disease.

"Sa ngayon, meron tayong access to around 600 billion by the end of April... These resources are available, but we also have to be very prudent and careful about what we borrow, dapat talagang makatulong ito doon sa mga nangangailangan [This should really help the needy]," Lambino told CNN Philippines' Balitaan. "Either we will be paying for this in the (near) future, or future generations will be carrying the need to repay."

The amount is a huge jump from the initial 27.1 billion spending plan unveiled by authorities on March 16.

The Philippines spends more money than what it can generate from taxes and income streams to sustain growth and development, especially for critical infrastructure.

Lambino added that the state is looking for the "most responsible and optimal mix" of funding sources, but assured that the government can still afford to incur more debts.

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night told Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III to do what he can to raise more cash, even telling in jest to steal money if he had to.

"We will reallocate funds for assistance to local governments, assistance to MSMEs (micro, small, medium-scale enterprises) by subsidizing the salaries of their employees who are mostly what some would call lower middle class, support the DA/DTI in enhancing food production & availability," Dominguez said in a statement sent Tuesday morning, cautioning prudence as authorities "do not know how long this contagion will last."

Lambino said the Philippines can still afford to borrow more money given a relatively low debt burden and a favorable credit rating globally. Outstanding loans totaled nearly 8.17 trillion as of February, around 41 percent of the size of the entire economy.

What's available

The Bureau of the Treasury, which keeps track of all public money, said 101.64 billion can be released for now for the cash subsidies.

Of the amount, 100 billion has already been transferred to the Department of Social Welfare and Development for the first tranche of the state's two-month cash aid for 18 million poor families.

The government expects the entire program  which will give a 5,000 monthly subsidy to struggling households identified by local executives  to cost about 205 billion. The aid is 8,000 for families living in Metro Manila, factoring in the higher cost of living.

The Land Bank of the Philippines started handing out the cash aid last Friday, initially to families listed under the long-running Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program for the poorest of the poor.

LIST: Qualified beneficiaries of COVID-19 subsidy

The government previously estimated that 275 billion could be made available for relief efforts. Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a virtual press briefing that Dominguez, along with Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade and Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, have been told to identify which projects can be dropped to free up public funds.

On top of the cash aid, the government has also earmarked additional funds for local government units (30.824 billion), subsidy to farmers (about 2.8 billion), subsidies to displaced workers (at least 1.2 billion), and additional testing kits and other equipment for the Department of Health (at least 3.1 billion).

READ: DOLE may give additional cash aid to displaced workers if COVID-19 quarantine is extended

The amounts may be funded through realignments as well as early cash dividends remitted by government-owned corporations, which have so far hit 78.64 billion, according to the President's April 6 report to Congress.

There are 3,660 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country as of Monday afternoon, with 163 deaths and 73 recoveries. The Department of Health said it is still too early to say if local infections have peaked.

Duterte has extended the Luzon-wide quarantine to April 30 to contain the spread of the deadly disease.
By Ofeliya Afandiyeva

President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree to pardon 176 prisoners aged over 65, the official website of the president reported on April 6.

The decision to pardon the prisoners was passed considering the appeals from inmates over the age of 65 and from their families in connection with the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) infection and taking into account the health condition of convicts as well as their behavior during their imprisonment, the report said.

As local media reported, the majority of those pardoned are prisoners at greater risk of coronavirus. Most of them suffer from chronic diseases and are under regular medical supervision.

Among the pardoned inmates is former head of the Main Department of Energy and Transport Security under the now-defunct National Security Ministry major general Akif Chovdarov and former head of the Ministry, general Subahir Gurbanov. Both were imprisoned in 2015, on corruption charges.

It should be noted that under the legislative acts signed by the president, 4,871 people have been pardoned so far. The amnesty acts adopted on the initiative of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva covered 40,412 people and 8,580 of them were released from imprisonment.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde yesterday revealed that he fought coronavirus with carrots, vitamin C and black seed oil with honey while in isolation.

The governor revealed this in Ibadan yesterday in a telephone interview with an FM radio station.

He had last week announced that he was tested positive for the disease and went into isolation. But two days ago, he announced that he had become negative after series of tests.

The governor said he only made efforts to boost his immunity and used his time in isolation to regularly exercise on the treadmill.



Makinde said in boosting his immunity to fight coronavirus, he consumed vitamin C, carrots and black seed oil mixed with honey.

He said: My very good friend and brother, Dr Muyideen Olatunji is the one in charge of the primary healthcare for Oyo State. He came to me and said, look, I am going to send to you this black seed oil, it boosts immunity. So, I mixed it with honey and took one teaspoon in the morning and one in the evening.

So, there are local solutions to boost immunity. Our people should not fret. Just as Ive been able to get the virus out off my system, so will it be for majority of our people.

Ive lost a little bit of weight which I think is good. When youre in isolation, the tendency is just to watch television and eat, I was eating amala. But I was also using the treadmill. It has also been a period to reflect and look at the programmes, policies and the things we want to do for the people of Oyo state and also reflect on how the COVID-19 is going to affect us socially and economically.

He faulted the Federal Governments palliative measures in the state, saying;

Two days ago in the task force meeting, the Head of Service told me that the conditional cash transfer from the Federal Government would be N20, 000 to people in 10 local government areas of Oyo State and I said, its good, but this programme predates this administration and Ive never been impressed for one day about the way they identified the poorest and the impact.

Theyve been making noise in the newspapers that they have some items for us. So, I sent the people at the liaison office. First day at the Nigerian Governors Forums meeting, I was told those items were taken to liaison offices. So, I called the liaison office in Abuja and asked, did you receive anything, but they said no.

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[April 07, 2020] Cloudscene appoints executives from Amazon, Netflix, and Digital Realty to join inaugural advisory board

BRISBANE, Australia, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloudscene , a world-leading marketplace for cloud and connectivity, has today announced the appointment of an advisory board of industry leaders to provide expertise as the company continues its expansion plans. The company welcomes the following members to the Cloudscene Advisory Board: Kevin Epperson  Director of Infrastructure Strategy, Netflix



Director of Infrastructure Strategy, Netflix Chris Sharp  Chief Technology Officer, Executive Vice President Design & Service Innovation, Digital Realty



Chief Technology Officer, Executive Vice President Design & Service Innovation, Digital Realty Phil Lin  Head of Network Strategy, Amazon Web Services



 Head of Network Strategy, Amazon Web Services Bevan Slattery  Founder of Cloudscene, Superloop, Megaport, NEXTDC, SUB.CO, Biopixel, and Co-Founder PIPE Networks "We are incredibly honored to have these industry luminaries join the Cloudscene Advisory Board. Each member brings to the table tremendous knowledge to help fulfil our vision of a completely digital procurement experience in the connectivity, cloud, and colocation marketplace," said Belle Lajoie, CEO, Cloudscene. On the state of digital procurement, Kevin Epperson said, "Purchasing infrastructre services has always been a time-consuming and complex process. The opportunity for the Cloudscene platform to simplify and streamline the procurement workflow of these services across the industry portfolio of colocation, cloud, and network will enable organizations everywhere to competitively acquire resources to enable their businesses."



Speaking on Cloudscene's vision, Chris Sharp said, "Interconnection plays a huge part in bringing together the disparate components of today's enterprise network architectures. It's also critical to facilitating cloud migrations from on-premises infrastructure as demand for digital transformation grows. However, organizations are still faced with navigating a complex and fragmented landscape of connectivity options." "Cloudscene uniquely provides a global marketplace and centralized platform for interconnection services and I'm looking forward to working with the team to accelerate the industry shift to digital business," said Sharp.

On joining the Cloudscene Advisory Board, Phil Lin said, "With a great focus on digital transformation, businesses are modernizing and simplifying the way they work to ease the burden of a traditionally fragmented and manual process. Network procurement is no exception. I'm thrilled to be part of the team that is leading this space." Cloudscene Founder and Chairman, Bevan Slattery, added, "I'm excited to be joined by these industry friends who are as passionate as I am about finding a better way for everyone to source and sell connectivity more efficiently." ABOUT CLOUDSCENE Cloudscene is the world's most comprehensive market intelligence platform for colocation data centers, cloud service providers, network fabrics, and cloud on-ramps. Built on a foundation of invaluable market data sourced by the industry, for the industry, Cloudscene has become the go-to resource for global, independent knowledge across 7,000+ service providers, 7,000+ data centers, and 110 countries. Cloudscene's Marketplace brings together the sourcing and selling of network services empowering teams to make data-driven decisions in an entirely digital and automated way. www.cloudscene.com For comments, interviews or images, please contact: Renee Harper

+61 7 3193 3260

[email protected] SOURCE Cloudscene

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What happened

Shares of casino stocks jumped in early trading today as Wall Street seemed bullish that the COVID-19 economic shutdown might end sooner rather than later. You can see in the chart below that casino stocks jumped as much as 30% as the entire industry moved sharply higher. But as the day wore on, the euphoria wore off, and the gainers were up no more than single digits at the close, which is still welcome for a beaten-down sector.

Company Change at Daily High At the Close Caesars Entertainment NASDAQ:CZR) 14.8% 4.8% Eldorado Resorts NASDAQ:ERI) 30.4% 7.7% MGM Resorts International NYSE:MGM) 21.9% 5.6% Penn National Gaming NASDAQ:PENN) 19.4% Unchanged Wynn Resorts NASDAQ:WYNN) 18.5% 7.3% International Game Technology NYSE:IGT) 20.3% 2.3%

So what

The market is trying to figure out when the COVID-19 shutdown of casinos will end and resorts can get back to normal. So, as the news changes every day, the market reacts as well. Monday and early today, the news seemed relatively positive with new confirmed cases of COVID-19 down for the first time, and traders immediately started to think that the worst might soon be over. On Tuesday, the numbers have been a little worse as the day wore on, so some of that optimism evaporated.

While it's understandable to be optimistic when data is good, it's important to take the long view on both the current crisis and the casino industry. COVID-19 is going to keep economic activity, particularly travel, low for the foreseeable future and may impact the economy into next year.

That said, resorts eventually will get back to business and begin generating revenue, even if revenue is weaker than before the pandemic. So investors with a long, Foolish view of casino stocks should be looking for companies built to survive and then thrive after the crisis.

Now what

While the COVID-19 pandemic is hitting the U.S. hard, it's less pronounced in other parts of the world right now. China, Hong Kong, and Singapore, in particular, are starting to return to some level of normal activity, and casinos are open for business as well. Macao had an 80% drop in gambling revenue in March, but in the next few months, resorts may be generating positive cash flow if visitation to the region improves.

I think investors should be looking at stocks of companies with operations in diverse regions of the world, including Asia, to reduce geographic exposure. Wynn Resorts and MGM Resorts, of this list, would be the first to benefit and may already be seeing promising signs for their Asian operations.
Stuart said the plastic headgear frames are 3D printed using the large 3D printers at each of the campuses. She said at the Grand Island campus, she can print up to four headgear frames at one time and can print roughly 12 to 16 headgear frames a day.

When she is finished printing the headgear frames, Stuart said she puts them in a bag. Once that is full, she drops them off at the Central District Health Department to have someone assemble them and distribute them to agencies in need.

Stuart said the headgear frames go around the head, with tabs at the front and the side to hold a transparency paper that covers the face. She added each plastic frame can be re-sanitized to be used by health care workers more than once.

Once she gets caught up on printing the headgear frames, Stuart said the two campuses will start printing s-hooks.

They (health care workers) will put it right on the back of their head, so when they have to put a mask on, it will clip onto these loops so their ears do not get all raw from the elastic, she said.

Stuart said she hope this project will help her students realize the opportunities drafting and design bring and that they can use their skills to help their communities.

Requests for face shields and/or headgear frames can be made at w0wwv.org/faceshields/. Anyone with a laser cutter and/or 3D printer that is willing to help is encouraged to contact Allen Harpham by phone at (402) 462-4624 or by email at allen@flatwatertech.com.

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- A young couple got married in a simple wedding ceremony in spite of the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic

- Zoen Harrold from California and Gorret Namaseruka, a Ugandan, tied the knot at a simple wedding ceremony on Saturday, April 4, 2020

- The officiating pastor arrived on a bicycle and the couple also walked home after being joined together as husband and wife

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A young couple got married in a simple wedding ceremony at Calvary Chapel in Entebbe, Uganda on Saturday, April 4, 2020, and it epitomizes simplicity.

Zoen Harrold from California and Gorret Namaseruka, a Ugandan, were both dressed in casual wears made with African prints without any hustle of a wedding gown and other related fanfare.

Reports say the ceremony that was graced by a one Pastor Isaac, only had 10 people present, including a police O.C that was available for tight security.

In spite of the novel coronavirus plaguing countries across the world amid lockdown, love may just be one of the few things that the awful virus is not preventing from manifesting.

Many have said that the COVID-19 pandemic has some positive sides with couples organising simple weddings.

READ ALSO: Chilah Harper: Lady who survived COVID-19 shares near-death experience (photo)

However, it is the resilience of people in love that has ensured that what they shared could not be conquered or locked up amid the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Prior to the outbreak of the virus, most people held lavish and flamboyant weddings.

Now, with the social distancing measure that has become a necessity to help stem the spread of the COVID-19, social gatherings such as weddings, church services, schools have been banned temporarily but people who are bent on marrying during this critical period have been doing so without inviting many guests as it used to be the case.

The young couple got married at a simple wedding ceremony at Calvary Chapel in Entebbe, Uganda on Saturday, April 4, 2020, in simplicity.

According to reports, all public and private transport remain banned with the exception of only bicycles, so the officiating pastor arrived at the venue riding on a bicycle.

The bride and groom too came to the ceremony on foot and did same back home.

In other news, Alan Youngblood of Granbury in Texas, who was diagnosed with West Nile Virus has detailed how he recovered from the disease with no known antidote.

The Granbury resident recounts that while in ICU on June 24, 2010, he was dying and remained unconscious with a fever of 104 and a heart rate of 38 that was falling.

READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Akufo-Addo praises 3 young Ghanaians who invented handwashing devices

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Asia Odd Statistic in India Coronavirus Testing Data Sparks Questions

A patient, Shelly Dhingra, is tested for coronavirus at Police Training School Dwarka in New Dehli, India, on March 16, 2020. / Mrinal Sabharwal via REUTERS

MUMBAIA statistical oddity in Indias new coronavirus testing numbers has sparked questions about the countrys data management.

Every day for over a week in late March, government data on the difference between the number of overall samples tested and number of individuals tested remained exactly the same890.

That is despite both sets of numbers increasing every day.

While the number of overall tests will be greater than or equal to the number of individuals tested, given some people get re-tested, the repetition of the number baffled experts.

When it is exactly 890 [repeatedly], that needs further explanation, said India-based epidemiologist Tanmay Mahapatra.

The recurrence of the 890-gap in the Indian Council of Medical Researchs data was reported by data journalism outlet IndiaSpend.

The issue has reignited researchers calls for the Indian government to share more granular data. Giridhar Babu, a professor of epidemiology with the Public Health Foundation of India, said that would allow researchers to spot potential issues with numbers more quickly.

A researcher advising the Indian government on modeling the viruss spread said his team had been tearing [their] hair out trying to get authorities to ramp up testing.

Now, it seems we cant even trust the little data we have, said the researcher, asking to remain anonymous to avoid repercussions from authorities.

The gap stems from counting Indians evacuated from abroad who were tested twice, Dr Rajni Kant, with the Indian Council of Medical Research, told Reuters on Monday. The government said in March that 890 people had been evacuated from overseas.

That suggests authorities appeared to have been subtracting 890 from the overall number of samples tested to provide an approximation of the number of tested individuals.

Overall, India has conducted a little more than 96,000 tests, a tiny proportion of its 1.3-billion population.

Reporting forms did not initially have any way to signal if an individual had already been tested, according to employees at two testing centers interviewed by Reuters.

New government forms issued in recent days, however, include the question, Is this a repeated sample?

You may also like these stories:

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ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill., April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG) will release its first quarter 2020 earnings after the market closes on Thursday, April 30, 2020. A printer-friendly format will be available on the company's website shortly thereafter.

In conjunction with this release, J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO, will host a conference call on April 30 at 5:15 pm ET/4:15 pm CT.

The conference call will be broadcast live through Gallagher's website at www.ajg.com and a conference call replay will be available on the company's website approximately one hour after the broadcast. The replay can be accessed by going to Investor Relations and clicking on Archived Presentations.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG), a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. The company has operations in 49 countries and offers client service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants.

Contact:

Ray Iardella

VP - Investor Relations

(630) 285-3661  [email protected]

SOURCE Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Related Links

http://www.ajg.com


London, April 7 : An "incredibly dedicated" Indian-origin surgeon has died in the UK after testing positive for COVID-19, a media report said on Tuesday.

Jitendra Rathod was an associate specialist in cardio-thoracic surgery at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, said the Metro newspaper report.

He died in the hospital's general intensive care unit early on Monday morning, health officials confirmed.

A statement posted on the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board website paid tribute to Rathod.

"He was an incredibly dedicated surgeon who cared deeply for his patients," the statement said, adding that he was well-liked and greatly respected by one and all.

"He was a very compassionate and a wonderful human being. His commitment to the speciality was exemplary." It added that the father-of-two had worked in the Department of Cardio-Thoracic surgery since the mid-1990s.

After a brief stint abroad, Rathod, known as 'Jitu' to colleagues and friends, returned to the University Hospital of Wales.

The news comes as the UK has reported 52,279 coronavirus cases, with 5,385 deaths.
A global pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed at least 12,893 people in the United States.

The U.S. has more cases than any other country, with over 398,000 people diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Worldwide, more than 1.42 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and at least 82,074 of them have died since the virus emerged in China in December. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding the scope of their nations' outbreaks.

Italy has the world's highest death toll -- over 17,100.

Today's biggest developments:

New York death toll sees largest single-day jump UK prime minister is 'stable' in ICU China reports no new deaths for 1st time since January

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern. Please refresh this page for updates.

10:01 p.m.: John Prine dies of coronavirus

Longtime singer-songwriter John Prine has died of coronavirus, his representative told ABC News.

"Widely lauded as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, Johns impact will continue to inspire musicians for years to come," the Recording Academy said in a statement. "We send our deepest condolences to his loved ones."

The 73-year-old had recently been checked into Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, suffering from COVID-19, his family said in late March.

PHOTO: Musician John Prine performs after accepting his PEN New England Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence Award during a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, on Sept. 19, 2016. (Brian Snyder/Reuters, File)

Prine was nominated for 11 Grammy Awards in his career and took home two trophies and he was just announced as a 2020 Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. He won awards for best contemporary folk album for "The Missing Years" in 1992 and another for "Fair & Square" in 2006.

He earned praise from a litany of legendary singers, including Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, both of whom cited him as one of their favorite artists.

Story continues

9:52 p.m.: San Diego moves to curb spread of virus among homeless

San Diego officials announced an ambitious plan to curb the spread of COVID-19 among its substantial homeless population.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer said the city is directing millions of dollars to a shelter-at-home operation that will turn the San Diego Convention Center into a temporary home for hundreds of people currently living in the streets.

San Diego has the fourth-highest homeless population in the country, behind New York City, Los Angeles and Seattle, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

9:03 p.m.: LA to mandate face coverings for essential employees

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the city is implementing a policy effective Friday requiring workers in grocery stores, drug stores, restaurants, hotels, taxi and ride-share companies and construction sites to wear nonmedical face coverings while at work. In addition, customers entering their businesses must also wear face coverings or they could be refused service.

There were 550 new confirmed cases in Los Angeles County in the past 24 hours -- a 9% increase from the day before - bringing the total to 6,936 confirmed cases.

The death toll rose to 169 overall with 22 reported in the last day, an increase of 15% from the prior day.

Garcetti also appointed a chief logistical officer who will be in charge of procuring PPE for medical staff and first responders.

PHOTO: A little girl wears a scarf around her head as she lines up with her mother, looking to buy KN95 face masks outside Masataco, a taco shop in Whittier, Calif., Tuesday, April 7, 2020. (Damian Dovarganes/AP)

8:41 p.m.: Utah converting brushfire trucks into ambulances

Concerns over the rising number of coronavirus cases have led first responders in Utah to seek an usual solution.

Members of Utah's Unified Fire Authority have begun converting specialized trucks used for fighting brushfires into ambulances for responding to COVID-19 calls.

"What we have done is prepare them for medical response calls, which is something we have never used them for before," said UFAs Matthew McFarland.

The retrofitted vehicles are being stocked with ambulance equipment and supplies -- but they won't be used for transporting patients.

"It is not going to compromise your transport," McFarland said. "If they show up and immediately determine that someone needs transport ... we are going to have a transport rig there by the time their assessment is done."

Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis.

7:27 p.m.: Florida sees spike in cases, deaths

Florida saw a jump in confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths over the last 24 hours, according to the state's health department.

About 1,118 people were diagnosed in the past day, with the total number of COVID-19 patients rising to 14,747, the health department said. There were 42 coronavirus-related fatalities in the last 24 hours, which represented a 16.5% jump in deaths, according to the health department data.

A total of 296 Florida residents have died from the disease, the health department said.

6:20 p.m.: Trump, Fauci acknowledge larger share of cases in minority communities

President Donald Trump and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, acknowledged that data shows minorities have higher rates of coronavirus infections.

Fauci said higher rates of pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity and asthma within black and minority communities were a factor, as well as their higher use of public transportation.

PHOTO: President Donald Trump listens as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, addresses the daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House in Washington, April 7, 2020. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

"We are very concerned about that. It is very sad. There is nothing we can do about it right now except to give them the best possible care to avoid complications," Fauci said.

Trump said the White House would release data on coronavirus cases by race shortly.

6:15 p.m.: NYPD announces 14th death

Nearly a fifth of New York Police Department members called out sick as the force lost another member to the coronavirus, police officials said.

The NYPD had 7,060 uniformed members, about 19% of the force, call in sick on Tuesday. The department said 2,006 uniformed members and 338 civilian members have tested positive for COVID-19.

Ava Walker, a communications technician and 20-year veteran of the force, died March 31. Walker is the 14th NYPD member lost to the virus.

6:00 p.m.: 110,000 ventilators to be shipped out by end of June: President

President Donald Trump said the federal government will be sending 110,000 ventilators to states over the next few months.

"We have 8,675 ventilators right now in stock ready to move," he said during this daily press briefing. "In addition to the 8,675 ventilators, we have 2,200 arriving on April 13. We have 5,500 arriving on May 4."

PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on April 7, 2020, in Washington. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

The remaining ventilators will be shipped out throughout May and June, according to the president.

Trump added that 1.87 million coronavirus tests have been conducted so far in the country.

4:45 p.m.: Detroit 'may be bending the curve' but 'storm's not over,' mayor warns

In Detroit -- where there are 5,501 cases of COVID-19 -- Mayor Mike Duggan said, "I think we may be bending the curve, but we're at a very dangerous time if we dont stick with what were doing.

"The rate of doubling is slowing to every five or six days," Duggan explained. "This is the first glimmer of light we have seen in the data since this pandemic started. The storm's not over, but for the first time we can see we can beat this."

"However, if the weather warms up tomorrow and people go back outside and cluster in groups," the mayor warned, "this will very quickly rise back to doubling every three or four days. Except now we wont be doubling from 10 to 20 Detroiters -- well be doubling from 200 to 400 to 800."

PHOTO: Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit is desolate and quiet in the middle of the day, April 6, 2020. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

The death toll has reached 221 in Detroit. Twelve of those deaths were in nursing homes.

The mayor stressed the importance of addressing the "exacerbation" of the "racial health gap" during this pandemic.

"The fatality rate for African Americans is two or three times what it is for Caucasians with this virus. The racial health gap in this country is being exacerbated," he said. "We have to care for and protect our neighbors -- and that means wear your mask, dont go out if you dont have to and watch out for the other people in this community.

Faces of the coronavirus pandemic: Remembering those who died

Detroit has launched a 15-minute testing site for the city's Department of Transportation employees. Duggan said 127 employees were tested Tuesday and 400 will be tested this week.

"Our drivers and mechanics will know if they have COVID-19," he said. "Those that are negative, we can get them back to work. Those who have family members at home who have compromised health, we have hotel rooms available so you dont have to worry about taking infection home."

4:20 p.m.: Early signs curve starting to flatten in Louisiana, governor says

In Louisiana, hard-hit by the pandemic, the death toll reached 582 Tuesday -- but there are early signs that the curves is starting to flatten, Gov. John Bel Edwards said.

The number of people on ventilators decreased from 552 on Monday to 519 on Tuesday, which the governor said he thinks "reflects improvements on the way we are dispensing medical care."

PHOTO: Lloyd Robinson, a local musician plays a marching mellophone under a highway during a gathering with musicians friends as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in New Orleans, April 6, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Over 16,000 people in the state have now been diagnosed with coronavirus. Louisiana is now first in the nation per capita for testing, the governor said.

Edwards said all parishes have received personal protective equipment and that Apple has sent Louisiana 400,000 masks.

The New Orleans area is not expected to run out of ventilators or hospital beds in the next two weeks, he said.

2:55 p.m.: France's COVID-19 death toll tops 10,000

With 1,417 new fatalities, France's COVID-19 death toll has now reached 10,328, Health Ministry Director Jerome Salomon said.

PHOTO: An undertaker wearing a protective mask amid the outbreak of the COVID-19, takes part in the burial ceremony of a man at the Aix-en-Provence cemetery, southern France, on April 7, 2020. (Clement Mahoudeau/AFP via Getty Images)

The daily death toll is appearing to spike because authorities are now recording fatalities that had occurred outside hospitals and previously were unknown. Out of the newly reported 1,417 deaths, 607 occurred in hospitals in the last day, while the other fatalities were previously unreported deaths outside hospitals.

Meanwhile, Paris is now banning residents from jogging and other outdoor exercise between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. in an effort to improve social distancing.

Jogging will still be permitted at night.

PHOTO: A man jogs on the Bir-Hakeim bridge in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on April 2, 2020, during the lockdown in France to stop the spread of COVID-19 (novel coronavirus). (Philippe Lopez/AFP via Getty Images)

France's total number of diagnosed cases is now over 78,000.

1:20 p.m.: NJ state, county parks close as cases top 44,000

In New Jersey, 1,232 people have died from the coronavirus, a number Gov. Phil Murphy called "almost unfathomable."

The state has a total of 44,416 confirmed cases, Murphy said Tuesday.

PHOTO: Cars form lines at a federally-supported drive-thru testing site for coronavirus disease at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey, April 4, 2020. (K.C. Wilsey/FEMA via Reuters)

While there are signs the curve may be flattening, Murphy stressed, "We cannot be happy with only reaching a plateau. We need to keep strong ... to see that curve begin to fall and ultimately get to zero."

Coronavirus death toll in US likely worse than numbers say

Murphy said he's closing all state and county parks in an effort to enforce social distancing.

"Don't think that I take this action lightly," he said. "We must not just flatten this curve, we must crush this curve."

12:32 p.m.: UK death toll climbs over 6,000; prime minister in 'good spirits'

United Kingdom's coronavirus death toll climbed to 6,159 as of Monday night, marking a massive daily leap.

SLIDESHOW: Coronavirus outbreak sparks global health emergency

As of Sunday night, the death toll was at 5,373, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

Over 55,000 people in the U.K. have tested positive for coronavirus, including Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, as well as U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

PHOTO: A woman carries a sign in support of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who is in intensive care fighting the coronavirus in London, April 7, 2020. (Alberto Pezzali/AP)

Johnson, 55, has been in an intensive care unit at a London hospital since Monday.

He was "stable" and in "good spirits" Tuesday evening local time, according to a statement from his official residence and office, 10 Downing Street.

Johnson was receiving "standard" oxygen treatment while in the ICU and was breathing without any other assistance, his office said Tuesday morning.

PHOTO: A staff member places screens to shield ambulances at the emergency department of St Thomas' Hospital in central London on April 7, 2020, where U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in intensive care with symptoms of novel coronavirus infection. (Isabel Infantes/AFP via Getty Images)

"He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support," Downing Street said.

The prime minister has been hospitalized since Sunday evening due to "persistent symptoms" of the coronavirus. He was transferred to the ICU Monday after his conditioned "worsened," according to Downing Street.

11:25 a.m.: New York death toll sees largest single-day jump

New York -- the state hit hardest by the pandemic -- saw its largest single-day death toll jump from Monday to Tuesday.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo says 731 people lost their lives in the state in the last 24 hours, bringing New York's total number of coronavirus fatalities to 5,489.

PHOTO: Medical workers wearing personal protective equipment wheel bodies to a refrigerated trailer serving as a makeshift morgue at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, April 6, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (John Minchillo/AP)

Over 138,000 people in the state have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

A timeline of Cuomo's and Trump's responses to coronavirus outbreak

However, the three-day hospitalization rate in New York is moving down, a sign the state is reaching a plateau.

"It still depends on what we do," Cuomo warned Tuesday. "This is not an act of God ... it's an act of what society actually does."

PHOTO: People try to keep a social distance while they enjoy a sunny day at Central Park, as the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in New York City, April 6, 2020. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

PHOTO: Flags are flying at half-mast as the sun rises behind in Manhattan, April 6, 2020, from Weehawken, New Jersey. (Kena Betancur/Getty Images)

Cuomo compared the coronavirus pandemic to the 1918 flu pandemic which he said peaked in New York for six months, killing about 30,000 people in the state.

"They didn't react the way we did and they didn't know what we know today," he said.

10:15 a.m.: Nations largest Gothic cathedral to be converted to hospital

The nations largest Gothic cathedral, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, is being converted this Holy Week into a temporary field hospital.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is in New York City -- the U.S. city hit hardest by the pandemic.

PHOTO: Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the largest Gothic church in the world will become an emergency field hospital later this week. An ambulance passes the church, April 7, 2020 in New York. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images)

Beds and medical supplies are in the process of being moved into the Cathedral in an effort to lessen the pressure on New York Citys overburdened health care system.

The Right Reverend Clifton Daniel III, dean of the Cathedral, said, "The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is stepping up now, as we always have, to help support our diverse and beloved community and the community of doctors, nurses, and volunteers risking their health and well-being in the service of the people of New York City in our hour of need."

9:47 a.m.: TSA screenings reach 'lowest since the days after Sept. 11'

U.S. plane travel has plunged to "the lowest since the days after Sept. 11," a TSA spokesperson told ABC News.

PHOTO: An empty queue at pre-security at the nearly empty San Francisco International Airport, due to the outbreak of coronavirus and COVID-19, in San Francisco, Calif., April 6, 2020. (John G. Mabanglo/EPA via Shutterstock)

TSA screenings reached another record low Monday with only 108,310 travelers passing through checkpoints nationwide.

On the same weekday last year, TSA screened 2,384,091 passengers.

What to know about coronavirus:

How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained

What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptoms

Tracking the spread in the U.S. and worldwide: Coronavirus map

7:30 a.m.: 'There is a light at the end of this tunnel,' US surgeon general says

While still maintaining that this will be a difficult week for Americans amid the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Tuesday that he feels "a lot more optimistic" as he reassured citizens "there is a light at the end of this tunnel."

"I absolutely believe this is going to be an incredibly sad and an incredibly hard week for our country, but we've had tough times in this country before and we always come out stronger," Adams told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview on "Good Morning America."

"The good news is that when you look at Italy, when you look at Spain, when you look at Washington and California, and even New York and New Jersey, they have truly started to flatten their curves," he added. "They've seen cases level off and start to come down, and that's what I want people to understand -- that it's going to be a hard and tough week, but the American people have the power to change the trajectory of this epidemic if we come together like we have after past tragedies in this country."

PHOTO: U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams appears on 'Good Morning America,' April 7, 2020. (ABC News)

Adams said the latest data shows U.S. states like Washington and California have successfully flattened the curves of their outbreaks "because they were aggressively mitigating from the start."

"The most important thing for the American people now is to really focus on these 30-days-to-slow-the-spread guidelines because we have proof that they work," he said. "But we need you all to cooperate, we need you to continue doing your part -- and most people actually are. Over 90% of the country is actually doing the right thing right now."

As of Tuesday morning, eight U.S. states have still not issued or announced stay-at-home orders. Adams said the federal government doesn't really have "a good mechanism" to enforce stay-at-home orders as much as state authorities do.

"We're working with governors, talking with them every single day, working with states to give them the information they need to make the right choices," he said. "And that's really what this comes down to, it's got to happen at the community level."

PHOTO: A mural seen in Los Angeles, California, on April 6, 2020 delivers a simple message, 'Stay home, life is beautiful.' (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Whenever the country does start to reopen, Adams said it'll still be a "different normal" than what Americans are used to. There will be a greater sense of normalcy once testing becomes more widely available, a vaccine and therapeutics are approved, and there's a strong public health infrastructure in place, he said.

"But I want the American people to know that there is a light at the end of this tunnel," Adams added, "and we feel confident that if we keep doing the right thing for the rest of this month, that we can start to slowly reopen in some places."

7:09 a.m.: France has not yet peaked, health minister warns

The number of patients hospitalized in intensive care for the novel coronavirus in France has been steadily decreasing for the past five days. But French Health Minister Olivier Veran warned Tuesday that the country has not yet reached the peak of its outbreak.

"We are still in a worsening phase of the pandemic," Veran told French broadcaster BFM TV, adding that the nationwide lockdown would last as long as necessary.

PHOTO: In this file photo taken on March 21, 2020, a jogger runs at the Champs de Mars in Paris as a strict nationwide lockdown comes into in effect in France to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images)

Almost 99,000 people across France have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and nearly 9,000 of them have died, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Close to 30,000 patients infected with the novel coronavirus are currently hospitalized, according to the French Health Ministry.

6:25 a.m.: Positive cases top 10,000 in Africa

At least 10,075 people across Africa have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to figures released Tuesday by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So far, 487 people diagnosed with COVID-19 have died.

PHOTO: Medical workers check a file at a testing center at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, on April 6, 2020, as the country continued its 21-day nationwide lockdown in an effort to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Nardus Engelbrecht/AP)

The Northern Africa region has, by far, the largest cluster of cases on the continent, with 4,485 confirmed infections. However, with 1686 positive cases, South Africa now has the highest national total, surpassing that of both Algeria and Egypt, according to the Africa CDC.

5:05 a.m.: Japan declares state of emergency for 7 prefectures

Japan on Tuesday declared a monthlong state of emergency for Tokyo and six other prefectures to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced the order in a brief televised statement, saying the country's outbreak was threatening to gravely impact people's lives and the economy.

The declaration, effective through May 6, empowers governors of the prefectures of Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka to take more preventative measures, such as requesting citizens to stay home, calling for businesses to close as well as shuttering schools and other public facilities. Supermarkets and other essential businesses are allowed to remain open.

PHOTO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, right, declares a state of emergency for seven prefectures during a meeting of the task force against the novel coronavirus outbreak at the his official residence in Tokyo, April 7, 2020. (Franck Robichon/Pool Photo via AP)

However, the declaration is not expected to lead to drastic urban lockdowns like the ones seen in Europe as Japan's post-World War II constitution limits the central government's powers.

At least 3,906 people in Japan have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 92 of them have died, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The Japanese government has admitted that infection routes cannot be traced in an increasing number of cases.

3:30 a.m.: China reports no new deaths for 1st time since January

China on Tuesday reported zero new deaths from the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours.

China's National Health Commission recorded 32 new cases of confirmed infections across the mainland, all of which were imported from abroad, as well as 30 new asymptomatic cases. However, it's the first time the country has reported no new deaths since the commission began publishing daily figures in late January.

PHOTO: People wear face masks as they walk across an intersection in Beijing, China, on April 7, 2020. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

Meanwhile, Hong Kong has seen its number of confirmed infections more than double in recent weeks. The Chinese special administrative region on Tuesday reported 1,331 new cases in the past 24 hours, according to the National Health Commission.

The very first cases of COVID-19 were detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December before the disease spread around the globe.

Since then, a total of 81,740 people on the Chinese mainland have been diagnosed with the disease and 3,331 of them have died, according to the National Health Commission.

ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud, Mina Kaji, Aaron Katersky, Rachel Katz, Kirit Radia, Christine Theodorou and Anthony Trotter contributed to this report.

This report was featured in the Wednesday, April 8, 2020 episode of Start Here, ABC News daily news podcast.

"Start Here" offers a straightforward look at the day's top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, the ABC News app or wherever you get your podcasts.

New York coronavirus death toll has largest single-day jump; musician John Prine dies originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
AN oral hearing into proposals by Irish Cement to switch away from fossil fuel has been postponed due to coronavirus.

Next month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was scheduled to hold an inquiry into the firms 10m plans to replace petroleum coke with solid recovered waste and tyres at its factory in Mungret.

The proposals have proven to be controversial with local residents with many concerned about the impact on the environment.

However, Irish Cement has always maintained that due to the fact production will take place at such a high temperature, any environmental fears are unfounded.

An Bord Pleanala has already cleared the way for the firm to build the physical components of the development which means a licence from the environmental regulator is all Irish Cement now need to proceed.

However, the oral hearing has now been postponed with the EPA writing to objectors this morning.

I wish to advise you that due to the current Government Covid-19 restrictions, this oral hearing is now postponed. Once the hearing has been rescheduled, the agency will notify you of the details of the hearing. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and we appreciate your understanding of this matter, they added.

Fine Gael councillor Daniel Butler said the postponement will give the anti-incineration lobby Limerick Against Pollution more time to prepare its case.

We need to be prepared. We are under no illusion, Irish Cement are well resourced and well able to prepare in a short period of time for something like this, he said.

A spokesperson for Irish Cement said the firm has requested the rescheduling of the hearing is prioritised as soon as the public health guidance allows.

"Irish Cement looks forward to the opportunity the oral hearing will provide to reassure the local community of the merits of this project and the fact that it will not negatively impact either health or the environment," the spokesperson added.
John Bolton, a former advisor to US President Donald Trump, has accused WHO of acting as "an accomplice" of China in concealing information regarding the deadly virus and asked for the resignation of the agency's Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Taking to Twitter on Monday, the Former Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, who has repeatedly blamed China for 'lying' about the novel coronavirus outbreak, said Ghebreyesus has misled the by blindly trusting a communist regime intent on deception.

"The @WHO is an accomplice to China's massive coverup of Covid19. That's why I support efforts by @marcorubio & @tedcruz pushing for the resignation of WHO director-general. He misled the by blindly trusting a communist regime intent on deception," Bolton Tweeted.

Both US Senator Ted Cruz and his fellow Republican Senator Marco Rubio, whom Bolton mentioned in his tweet, have expressed skepticism on the current WHO leadership.

Cruz previously claimed that "a reevaluation of WHO leadership is urgently called for", after the GOP lawmaker alleged that the health agency "lost its credibility by consistently bending to the Chinese Communist Party". Cruz's claims were echoed by Rubio.

The WHO is being accused around the world for hiding facts and working as a China's companion in letting the virus spread globally.

It is evident by the fact that despite the early sign that the virus spread through human and human transmission, the WHO refuted the fact till late January. It also delayed in announcing the health emergency.

Coronavirus which has brought the entire world to a halt was first originated in China in December, killing 3,300 people. Experts believe that China allowed coronavirus to spread around the world by delaying and deceiving the information regarding the outbreak about the virus.

Now the virus has infected around 1.3 million around the world and killed 75000 people. And this count is mounting.

New York-based writer Wilfred Chan wrote for The Nation accused WHO of ignoring the early warnings. Despite early warnings from Taiwanese officials, the organization kept the island cut off from its global information networks at China's behest and now the whole world is paying the price of it.

Recently, Japan becomes the first country to highlight the unscrupulous collision of the Chinese Communist Party and the WHO.

Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso had said that the World Health Organisation should change its name. It shouldn't be called the WHO, it should be renamed the Chinese Health Organization (CHO).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Housing sales fell 29 percent during January-March period across seven major cities to 27,451 units while the value of unsold inventories swelled to Rs 3.65 lakh crore as buyers postponed their buying decisions amid COVID-19 outbreak, according to JLL

New Delhi: Housing sales fell 29 percent during January-March period across seven major cities to 27,451 units while the value of unsold inventories swelled to Rs 3.65 lakh crore as buyers postponed their buying decisions amid COVID-19 outbreak, according to JLL.

The sale of residential units decreased by 29 percent to 27,451 units in the Q1 of 2020 calendar year as against 38,628 units in the year-ago period.

"The economic slowdown aggravated by the ongoing health crisis is manifesting itself in the form of a hit to sales with buyers postponing their purchase decisions," JLL

India said in its quarterly report.

This was the second-largest dip in residential sales in the last five years, after Q1 2017, when the market witnessed a 37 percent fall in sales due to demonetisation, it added.

The sales declined in all the seven major cities.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

Bengaluru saw the maximum fall of 52 percent at 4,186 units.

Housing sales in Mumbai declined 19 percent to 6,857 units, while Chennai recorded an 8 percent fall at 2,453 units.

Delhi-NCR and Pune recorded 18 percent dip at 5,941 units and 3,728 units, respectively.

Residential sales in Kolkata dropped 35 percent to 1,259 units while 41 percent fall was seen in Hyderabad at 3,027 units.

The first quarter of 2020 witnessed an increase in unsold inventory as launches outpaced sales by a significant margin.

New launches were up by 3 percent at 40,574 units.

Unsold inventory increased from 4,42,228 units in Q4 2019 to 4,55,351 units in Q1 2020. Moreover, Mumbai surpassed Delhi-NCR to become the market with the maximum quantum as well as value of unsold inventory.

Across the top seven cities, developers are sitting on an unsold inventory worth Rs 3,65,100 crore at the end of March 2020. Mumbai has unsold stock of Rs 1,37,900 crore, while NCR has 81,300 crore and Bengaluru 64,000 crore.

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to weaken the GDP growth, which is seen falling below 5 percent in FY 19-20 and potentially reaching 2008-09 levels in FY 20-21, said Ramesh Nair, CEO & Country Head, JLL India.

However, the residential real estate market appears to be at an advantageous position today as compared to the global financial crisis, led by a series of structural reforms by the government in the past five-to-six years, Nair said.

When the COVID-19 scenario stabilises, factors such as better-priced deals, enhanced the financial health of banks and greater demand from end-users will aid in improving buyer sentiment. Sales are expected to regain some traction towards the end of 2020 supported by the festive season during that period, he added.
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A 33-year-old woman may be facing assault charges after mistaking her husband as an intruder and shooting him, San Antonio police said.

The 22-year-old man told police he was trying to to enter through the bedroom window of their residence, near the 2500 block Jackson-Keller Road, at around 3:30 p.m. Monday, when he was shot by his spouse, according to the SAPD.
New Delhi, April 7 : Amid the nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus scare, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has said that the Central Waqf Council has asked state Waqf Boards to appeal to Muslims to observe the lockdown during Shab-e-Barat festival on April 8 and 9.

He said the Boards will also appeal to the people to cooperate with authorities in observing social distancing norms.

Naqvi pointed out that various religious leaders and organisations representing the Muslims have already appealed to the community members to observe lockdown during the festival on April 8 and 9.

Shab-e-Barat is celebrated by the Muslim by lighting mosques and preparing special dishes and praying to seek forgiveness for their sins.

"The whole country is observing a lockdown and any carelessness on our part can increase the problems for our family, our society and the nation," the Minister said.

Jama Masjid Shahi Imam Ahmed Bukhari said: "The Muslims have to pray on Shab-e-Barat. Nowhere is it said that they have to visit mosques or throng the streets. Stay in your homes and pray. Take all precautions.

"In normal times, the faithful in thousands gather at the Jama Masjid, while hundreds throng the streets outside and indulge in even sloganeering. However, this time, the country is facing the coronavirus crisis and we have to be careful." Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind leader Mahmood Madni has also appealed to the Muslims in India to remain indoors and pray and read the Quran. He emphasised the need to maintain social distancing and said nothing that endangers personal safety and violates the law of the land and 'shariyat' should be done.

The Delhi Police had also on Sunday advised people not to come out of their homes to celebrate Shab-e-Barat in view of the coronavirus crisis and warned of stern action against lockdown violators.
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The conference call will take place on TODAY, April 7 at 4:30pm EST.VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 7, 2020 / IMC International Mining Corp (CSE: IMCX)(OTCPINK:IMIMF)(FRA:3MX) (the "Company" or "IMC"), announces that the Company will hold a conference call today, Tuesday, April 7 at 4:30pm EST. The call, hosted by GoldStocks.com , will be open to all current & prospective shareholders and interested parties. The purpose of this call will be to discuss the recently announced acquisition of Thane Minerals Inc. ("Thane") and to provide an overview of the company's developments and direction. The call will also discuss the recent engagement of CME Consultants Inc. to conduct exploration and prospecting on the Companys Thane Property, including the Cathedral Prospect. The call will be hosted with Chairman of IMC International Mining Corp, Mr. Greg Hawkins and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Thurston.Mr. Hawkins holds a BSc in Geology from the University of Alberta and an MSc in Mineral Economics from McGill University. Mr. Hawkins is currently a Director of New Pacific Metals Corp. (NUAG) and was the founding project consultant and/or founding Director of seven public and private exploration/development ventures (Brohm Mining, Dayton Mining, Nevsun Resources, Banro Resource Corp., Tagish Lake Gold Corp., African Gold Group, Yellowhead Mining Inc.) and has participated in or been responsible for the definition of at least one mineral resource/reserve in every case, with six of those cases resulting in production in the USA, Chile, Ghana, Mali and DRC. These ventures collectively have accounted for over $2.1 billion in market cap at the companies' respective peaks.Shareholders and all interested parties are invited to participate in the conference call hosted by GoldStocks.com . The call will start promptly at 4:30 pm EST on Tuesday, April 7, 2020. The toll-free dial-in number for the call is +1 844-854-2222. Conference call access code is 872827. Investors whom are unable to tune in live, will have access to the recording on GoldStocks.com and on IMC's Website shortly after.ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORSBrian ThurstonChief Executive Officer and PresidentABOUT INTERNATIONAL MINING CORP.IMC International Mining Corporation is a junior exploration and development company. It is focused on creating shareholder value through the advancements of its assets which include the Cathedral Property in Northern British Columbia and the Bullard Pass Property in Arizona. The Company continues to look for further assets in North & South America as it increases its asset portfolio. International Mining will utilize its heavily experienced management team to evaluate assets that provide shareholder value.IMC continues to evaluate additional properties to add to its portfolio of mining assets.About GoldStocks.com Gold Stocks ( GoldStocks.com) is the top online destination for all things Gold & Mining Stocks. GoldStocks.com covers all the mining sectors top news, updates, articles and provides real-time research tools via QuoteMedia, Inc.INVESTOR RELATIONS:ir@ internationalmining.ca 1 (604) 588-2110Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to statements regarding the Acquisition, and the Company's business and plans, including with respect to undertaking further acquisitions, completing the Acquisition of Thane and carrying out exploration activities in respect of its mineral projects. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance and developments to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, the risks that the Acquisition does not complete as contemplated, or at all; that the Company does not complete any further acquisitions; that the Company does not carry out exploration activities in respect of its mineral projects as planned (or at all); and that the Company may not be able to carry out its business plans as expected. Except as required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation and does not intend to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information in this news release. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and makes no reference to profitability based on sales reported. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release.The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this press release.SOURCE: IMC International Mining Corp.
Absa Bank Ghana has announced a financial relief package to cushion its customers in the wake of the economic challenges currently being faced as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.



Absa Bank is offering an up to six months repayment moratorium to all personal and business customers who have been hit by COVID-19. The bank has also reduced its lending rate by 2% on qualifying Personal, SME as well as loans to other impacted industries.



The bank in a statement indicated these measures take effect from 1st April 2020 and will be implemented across loans due in April 2020, subject to the necessary arrangements.



Absa Bank has already waived charges on interbank instant transfers on its digital channels and also made mobile money transfers of up to Ghs100 daily free.



Explaining the financial relief package, the bank indicated that it was only right that it offers some relief to help customers remain in business during these challenging times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.



This pandemic is nothing we have seen before and is very alarming, to say the least. As a caring bank, it is important for us to support our customers who keep us in business. We will keep monitoring the developments on COVID-19 and make the decisions that will be in the best interest of customers, said Mrs. Abena Osei-Poku, the Managing Director of Absa Bank Ghana.



Our primary focus is on serving our customers in a safe environment while maintaining the health and well-being of our employees, their families, and the general public. We have ensured that our customers will have access to secure and convenient services during this period through our digital channels, Cash accepting ATMs and our Relationship Managers, noted Mrs. Osei-Poku.



As part of the precautionary measures taken by the bank against COVID-19, it has temporarily reduced its branch operations and encouraged customers to stay at home and use its digital channels for their banking transactions.



The bank has also activated its artificial intelligence-powered Absa ChatBot which is available all hours of the day, every day, to answer customers questions.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 16:27:35|Editor: xuxin

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ADDIS ABABA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 10,075 in Africa and the death toll reached 487, the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) revealed on Tuesday.

The Africa CDC, a specialized agency of the 55-member African Union (AU), in its latest situation update issued on Tuesday also disclosed that the confirmed COVID-19 cases were spread across 52 African countries.

The Africa CDC also disclosed that some 913 people who have been infected with the COVID-19 have recovered across the continent as of the stated period.

Amid the rapid spread of the virus across the African continent, figures from the Africa CDC also show that more than 897 new confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported across the continent since the center's recent report on Sunday, in which the confirmed cases have increased from 9,178 on Monday to 10,075 on Tuesday.

The death toll has also increased from 414 on Monday to 487 as of the stated period, according to the Africa CDC.

The African Union, through Africa CDC, has already activated its Emergency Operations Center and its Incident Management System (IMS) for the COVID-19 outbreak on January 27.

The Africa CDC had also developed its third Incident Action Plan that covers the period from March 16 to April 15.
As unprecedented measures emerge to combat the spread of the coronavirus, releasing inmates from jails early is among the most controversial.

Heaven forbid the pandemic would sweep through the Metropolitan Detention Center  life-threatening illness should never be meted out with justice. And it is understandable that defense lawyers and advocates are asking state and local leaders to do more to protect inmates from COVID-19; by design, inmates (and jail personnel) are in close quarters, and one MDC inmate has tested positive for the virus. But public safety has to be the paramount determiner when it comes to early releases.

MDC announced Thursday it had compiled a list of 86 inmates deemed medically at risk of the coronavirus. While 46 are in custody on violent charges and not eligible for release, the remaining 40 have either been freed through various avenues or are awaiting a release hearing. In addition, MDC has also compiled a list of nonviolent offenders who are not medically vulnerable to the coronavirus, but could be released early. Bernalillo County spokesman Larry Gallegos says they would be released either outright or to the community custody program, after a court hearing.

Thats not unprecedented; Sandoval County reduced its jail population significantly so inmates can live one per cell.

So, kudos to 2nd Judicial District judges Cindy Leos and Brett Loveless for prioritizing public safety last week and rejecting the release of two MDC inmates suspected in homicides.

An attorney representing 43-year-old Stephen Goldman Sr., who awaits trial on allegations he burned a car and got rid of the guns used in a double homicide, said Goldman is vulnerable to the coronavirus because he smokes, and suffers from asthma and early-stage emphysema. That didnt fly with Leos.

The argument  that youre making seems to be that I should ignore public safety in lieu of the safety of your client in that he may be potentially exposed to COVID-19 while hes at MDC, she told attorney Mark Ramsey via video conference. Im not going to ignore public safety. I recognize that your client could potentially be exposed to COVID-19 while hes at MDC. Were all probably getting exposed to it on a daily basis.

And an attorney representing Donald Duquette, a 51-year-old man accused of killing a stranger while driving near the Big I, sought his release, but Loveless denied the request, saying the pandemic did not justify reconsidering keeping Duquette in jail.

Amen, judges, for placing public safety first.

But the Law Offices of the Public Defender are correct in asking the governor to ensure our inmates  and corrections personnel  are safe. They have requested protective measures, widespread testing of inmates and staff, expansion of parole eligibility, and reduction of vulnerable and overall populations in lockups.

And with the correct safety protocols, those requests make sense. For their own safety and the safety of jail personnel, all MDC inmates should be tested for the coronavirus. If inmates test positive, they should remain in jail in isolation. MDC has set aside two pods that can be used to quarantine people.

Those who are released should have to explain where they plan to live  the streets, shelters and couch surfing are likely no safer than the lockup they left. The governor as much as acknowledged this Monday when she approved early parole for prison inmates close to release  many already have a parole plan in place.

And it should be a given that inmates get but one get out of jail free from corona card and reoffending takes that off the table.

Medically fragile inmates, those close to finishing their sentences and those accused of nonviolent crimes should be considered for release on a case-by-case basis. A carte blanche reprieve for dozens of offenders risks both public health and public safety.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  There are two separate, but related, newsrooms in Cleveland, and two outstanding news products  The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com. Together, they serve the market well  with The Plain Dealer stories appearing online at cleveland.com and cleveland.com stories appearing in print in The Plain Dealer, an approach that has been in place since separate newsrooms were established in 2013.

By design, this approach helps provide thoughtful, impactful coverage in the most efficient way possible and ensures that Greater Cleveland has more access to local journalism via digital platforms as demand for those platforms continues to grow.

Today, there are 77 journalists and content creators in these newsrooms covering Greater Cleveland, doing outstanding reporting, writing stories and creating content that our readers want and deserve. This number is comparable to the staffs in similarly-sized metro areas in Ohio and across the country. But its not just about the numbers of journalists we have on hand. Its how they are deployed to create a broad base of coverage for all of the communities we serve in Greater Cleveland.

On Monday, The Plain Dealer shared a new reporting focus with the members of its newsroom, one that offers to bring high quality local journalism to five counties in Greater Cleveland, and the nearly 1 million people who live in them. Lake, Geauga, Portage, Medina and Lorain counties have been underserved by media in this market for years despite making up a large percentage of The Plain Dealers subscription base.

The Plain Dealer, along with our sister company Cleveland.com, has an opportunity to change that with The Plain Dealers new focus on these five nearby counties. This broadening of our coverage area is especially important in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when all of our readers, regardless of where they live, deserve to know how the virus is affecting their local communities and how their local communities are responding.

The reporting on this crisis by both The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com reporters and the positive response were both getting from readers underscores the value in expanding local journalism across a larger geographic footprint in Northeast Ohio. During this pandemic, we have seen new subscriptions come in faster than in recent memory and more people are accessing the e-edition of The Plain Dealer than ever before. Similarly, cleveland.com has doubled the number of readers coming to its site, driven by COVID-19 coverage, and was praised during a press conference by Governor Mike DeWine.

Now, The Plain Dealer is working to increase this type of targeted and impactful local journalism more directly and more efficiently to more people by shifting our focus to cover these five counties. Its a vision that, despite the challenges and staffing reductions weve faced due to the financial pressures in our industry, will effectively expand local journalism in Greater Cleveland and serve more communities.

And, it doesnt take away from the important coverage of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, including Cleveland City Hall, the court system and criminal justice, and public safety that cleveland.com has been leading since 2013. Cleveland.coms reporting on these topics will continue to appear both online and in print as it has for the past seven years. Cleveland.com will also increase its coverage of arts and culture.

One thing that will change with The Plain Dealers new reporting focus on the five surrounding counties is that more readers in more of Northeast Ohio will see more stories that are meaningful to them in The Plain Dealer and on cleveland.com. This next evolution of The Plain Dealer will continue to help us improve upon how we cover the issues that matter to more people for more of our community.

So, even with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing challenges of the news industry, The Plain Dealer will be putting in to practice something I learned very early on as a reporter at The Plain Dealer: The work we do matters, regardless of geography. I hope that my colleagues in Local One of The Newspaper Guild, which represents Plain Dealer reporters and photographers, embrace this evolution of our paper, in keeping with their mission to advance local journalism.

The people we cover and share stories with matter  regardless of where they live and whether or not they are in the urban core. That is the true definition of local journalism.
The U.S. Department of Labor on Monday announced the publication of Unemployment Insurance Program Letter (UIPL) 16-20, providing guidance to states implementing the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.

Under PUA, individuals who do not qualify for regular unemployment compensation and are unable to continue working as a result of COVID-19, such as self-employed workers, independent contractors, and gig workers, are eligible for PUA benefits. This provision is contained in Section 2102 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act enacted on March 27.

PUA provides up to 39 weeks of benefits to qualifying individuals who are otherwise able to work and available for work within the meaning of applicable state law, except that they are unemployed, partially unemployed, or unable or unavailable to work due to COVID-19-related reasons, as defined in the CARES Act. Benefit payments under PUA are retroactive, for weeks of unemployment, partial employment, or inability to work due to COVID-19 reasons starting on or after Jan. 27. The CARES Act specifies that PUA benefits cannot be paid for weeks of unemployment ending after Dec. 31, 2020.

Eligibility for PUA includes those individuals not eligible for regular unemployment compensation or extended benefits under state or federal law or pandemic emergency unemployment compensation (PEUC), including those who have exhausted all rights to such benefits. Covered individuals also include self-employed individuals, those seeking part-time employment, and individuals lacking sufficient work history. Depending on state law, covered individuals may also include clergy and those working for religious organizations who are not covered by regular unemployment compensation.

The UIPL also includes guidance to states about protecting unemployment insurance program integrity. The department is actively working with states to provide benefits only to those who qualify for such benefits.

Additional Payment Possible

On April 4, the U.S. Department of Labor today announced the publication of Unemployment Insurance Guidance Letter 15-20 (UIPL) providing guidance to states for Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC). Under FPUC, states will administer an additional $600 weekly payment to certain eligible individuals who are receiving other benefits. This provision is contained in Section 2104 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) enacted on March 27.

The $600 weekly unemployment compensation boost included in the CARES Act will provide valuable support to American workers and their families during this challenging time, said Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia. The Department will continue to provide guidance and support to the States so they can administer the important new benefits under the CARES Act while guarding against fraud and abuse in their Unemployment Insurance systems.

This program allows states to provide an additional $600 per week benefit to individuals who are collecting regular Unemployment Compensation (including Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) and Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Servicemembers (UCX)), as well as the following unemployment compensation programs: Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC); Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA); Extended Benefits (EB); ShortTime Compensation (STC); Trade Readjustment Allowances (TRA); Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA); and payments under the Self-Employment Assistance (SEA) program. FPUC benefit payments are fully federally-funded.

To provide assistance and assurance to those eligible, the benefit payments under FPUC may begin as soon as the week after the execution of a signed agreement between the department and states. The timeline for these payments will vary by state. As states begin providing this payment, eligible individuals will receive retroactive payments back to their date of eligibility or the signing of the state agreement, whichever came later. All states have executed agreements with the department as of March 28. The CARES Act specifies that FPUC benefit payments will end after payments for the last week of unemployment before July 31, 2020.

The UIPL also includes guidance to states about protecting unemployment insurance program integrity, as the provisions in the CARES Act operate in tandem with the fundamental eligibility requirements of the Federal-State UI program. The department is actively working with states receiving funding under the Act to provide unemployment insurance benefits only to those who are entitled to such benefits.

For more information on UIPLs or previous guidance, please visit: https://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/.

For department resources on COVID-19, please visit: https://www.dol.gov/coronavirus.

For more information about COVID-19, please visit: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html.

The Employment and Training Administration administers federal job training and dislocated worker programs, federal grants to states for public employment service programs, and unemployment insurance benefits. These services are primarily provided through state and local workforce development systems.

The mission of the department is to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.
[April 07, 2020] NAGA Turns Profitable - Record Sales of EUR 7 Million With a Net Profit of EUR + 2.1 Million for the First Quarter

The NAGA Group closed the first quarter of 2020 with a provisional record result of EUR 7 million in sales (Q1/2019: EUR 0.6 million) and a provisional net profit of EUR + 2.1 million (Q1/2019: EUR - 3.9 million loss). The unaudited EBITDA stands at EUR + 3.3 million (Q1/2019: EUR - 2.8 million), whilst unaudited EBIT is at EUR + 2.2 million (Q1/2019: EUR - 3.9 million). With an all-time high of 1.2 million trades for the quarter, also a record trading volume of EUR 23 billion was recorded. In addition, customers deposited more than EUR 12.5 million into the platform, which was the highest in a quarter. The number of active accounts has doubled since the beginning of the year, while the number of new registrations has tripled. "Thus the turnaround is apparent for NAGA. Looking back to our very beginnings it is extremely positive that we turned this FinTech profitable in less than 5 years since inception. Especially after the challenges we faced last year, when we had to take extreme measures, showed us that a startup story can have both ups and downs. But strict discipline, forward-thinking and consistently pursuing our vision have brought us to where we are today. Personally, I am pleased with the cash flow-relevant EBITDA which gives us further strength in order to implement our high growth ambitions. We are already running a self-sustaining business, that was our primary goal for 2020. Our cost structure and operating structure today is very lean and dynamic. The entire NAGA organization can therefore adapt to growth just as quickly as last year to the restructuring", explained Benjamin Bilski, founder and CEO of NAGA. Especially during the Corona virus crisis NAGA has adapted very quickly. The company has set up a full remote-working environment whilst ensuring that the platform works without any interruptions. On the technological side NAGA increase the system capacity and was able to scale with rising client's requests and transaction volumes. "We have seen from the trading industry that numerous firms - especially in Germany - halted trading temporarily and had severe issues. NAGA had full uptime of our execution engine. It proves that our focus on proprietary technology and infrastructure pays off". NAGA will continue to grow its business on a global scale. The company expects further growth results from the recently started initiatives in Uruguay as well as in China. "After the strong Q4 2019 we have confirmed that the growth was indeed sustainable. We will be now more attentive than ever when it comes to our business development and strategic decision of investing money. We still have significant room for improvements and growth. The overall market interest for online-trading and especially in user-friendly concepts like NAGA's is growing fast. We will continue to identify new markets and roll out both our marketing and sales initiatives. I am confident that our shareholders and the market appreciate our growth path. The trust in our concept is building and in my opinion it should also be reflected in our share price", concludes Benjamin Bilski. ### About NAGA NAGA is an innovative ?ntech company that has developed a socially enhanced ?nancial system that creates a uni?ed and seamless experience across personal ?nance and investing. Its proprietary platform offers a range of products ranging from trading, investing, and cryptocurrencies to a physical Mastercard and social investing features such as a Feed, a Messenger and Auto-Copy. NAGA is a synergistic all-in-one solution that's accessible and inclusive, and that provides a better way to trade, invest, connect, earn, acquire and pay, across both ?at and crypto.







Language: English Company: The NAGA Group AG Hohe Bleichen 12 20354 Hamburg Germany E-mail: [email protected] Internet: www.naga.com ISIN: DE000A161NR7 WKN: A161NR Indices: Scale 30 Listed: Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt (Scale), Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange

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A BJP legislator in Karnataka on Tuesday alleged that some of the attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi have been 'purposely evading' testing for coronavirus despite appeals, and said such it was "not wrong" to shoot such people.

Accusing them of indirectly indulging in an act of terrorism, MLA M P Renukacharya, who is also a political secretary to Chief Minister Yediyurappa, however said, it was wrong to blame the whole community for the misdeeds of few.

Tablighi Jamaat congregation held at Nizamuddin in Delhi last month has turned out to be the hotbed of COVID-19 spread in the country.

"... one thing is true, some of those who had been to congregation at Nizamuddin, despite appeal made by PM and CM, purposely are trying evade citing religious reasons," he said. Speaking to reporters in Davangere, the BJP MLA said it looks like while dying they want to kill others also.

If those who had returned after attending the Jamaat had gone to the doctor there wouldn't have been any problem, Renukacharya said.

Charging some of the attendees with indulging in "anti-national" deeds, he said it was not wrong to say that those spreading virus are indirectly indulging in terrorism.

Further calling those purposely spreading virus on religious grounds as "traitors," he said, "those who attended Tablighi Jamaat congregation and have not come out for treatment and escaped, government should not protect them.. it is not wrong to shoot them with a bullet."

"Because of some people, everyone, whole country will have to suffer... at leastnow they have to cooperate," he said.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa during an interview to a news channel on Monday had warned of action against those blaming the entire Muslim community for isolated incidents.

BJP state General Secretary Arvind Limbavali questioning the intentions of attendees of Tablighi Jamaat congregation, who have not come out for medical consultations, urged the government take strict action against them.

"Enough time has been given, those who have not come out arrest them in 24 hours... they are the ones who are cause of spreading...there is no question of any religion in this, this is a matter of health of the society and state," he said.

On Tablighi Jamaat congregation attendees, the government said from around 920 people samples that have been collected so far, 623 are negative, 27 positive, remaining results are still awaited.

The government is yet to share total number of people from the state who had attended the congregation.
Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared a month-long state of emergency for Tokyo and six other prefectures to ramp up defences against the spread of coronavirus.

Mr Abe said there would be no European-style lockdowns.

The state of emergency will only permit Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike and heads of six other designated prefectures to do more to reinforce calls for social distancing.

Virtually all of those measures will be requests that cannot be enforced with penalties for violations.

Expand Close A pedestrian stops to watch a TV news report as Shinzo Abe declares a state of emergency (Eugene Hoshiko/AP) / Facebook

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The Covid-19 outbreak is now rampant and rapidly spreading, threatening peoples health, their daily lives and the economy.

Mr Abe said he planned to keep the state of emergency in place for a month, until May 6.

The announcement follows surges in new cases in Tokyo, including consecutive rises exceeding 100 over the weekend.

By Monday, there were 1,116 confirmed cases in the metropolitan region of 14 million people.

Nationwide, Japan has 3,906 confirmed cases, as well as 712 from a cruise ship quarantined at Yokohama port near Tokyo, with 91 deaths.

Mr Abe has been under pressure to declare a state of emergency to get better compliance with calls for social distancing, as rising cases where there was no known contact with another patient led experts to say an alarming explosion in infections could overwhelm healthcare systems.

Ms Koike welcomed the emergency measures, saying that because they are legally valid and involve co-ordinated action with the central government, she expects they will prevail widely and deeply among the people.

Japans limits on official action during a state of emergency stem from its experience with repression and disasters stemming from fascist governments before and during the Second World War.

The public is doubly wary due to the push by Mr Abes ultra-conservative ruling party and its supporters for a constitutional amendment to include a state of emergency clause for disaster and wartime contingencies.

Mr Abes government is thought to have delayed declaring a state of emergency due to fear of how it might hurt the economy.

But as fear of the pandemic has grown, the public and medical experts have increasingly supported taking more drastic action.

Mr Abe has repeatedly said a hard lockdown, like in Italy and France where nobody is supposed to be outside for non-essential reasons, is not envisaged for Japan.

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We can only make a request, but its different from lockdowns enforced in France and other countries, he said last week.

Measures include a stay-at-home request, guidance to schools on temporary closures and requests to close non-essential businesses and stores and to cancel or postpone events and exhibits.

Violators cannot be penalised unless they fail to comply with orders on providing or storing emergency relief goods, such as surgical masks and medical equipment.

But the state of emergency could significantly limit movement of people around and out of the city.

Takahide Kiuchi, an economist at Nomura Research Institute, said in a recent report that a state of emergency could cause consumer spending to fall nearly 2.5 trillion yen (18.6 billion), leading to a 0.4% drop in Japans annual GDP.

The government enacted a special law last month enabling Mr Abe to declare a state of emergency.

The law, however, is divisive given concerns over risks to civil rights.

The state of emergency comes less than two weeks after Ms Koike raised the alarm over an acceleration of infections in the Japanese capital.

Earlier, it was thought that Japan had curbed infections by closely monitoring clusters of cases and keeping them under control, rather than conducting massive testing as was done in neighbouring South Korea.

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That strategy appears to be failing given the sharp rise in cases not linked to previous known infections.

As is true in many places, there are concerns over shortages of beds and ICU units for patients with severe symptoms.

Osamu Nishida, chairman of the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine, noted that Japan has only five ICU beds per 100,000 people, compared with 12 in Italy and about 30 in Germany.

Mr Abe said last Friday that the central government has secured 25,000 beds and 8,000 ventilators.

The health ministry also eased hospitalisation requirements for patients with no symptoms or only slight illnesses, allowing their transfer to hotels and other designated lodgings where they can be monitored by medical workers.

That should free up beds for the severely ill, helping ease the strain on the medical system.
SEATTLE Experts and health officials who are trying to plan a response to the coronavirus outbreak are missing a critical piece of information  the number of health care workers who have tested positive for the disease.

Washington state faced the first major outbreak of COVID-19 in the nation, but health officials have not kept track of how many doctors and nurses have the disease. New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, also lacks infection figures for medical staff, according to Jill Montag, spokeswoman with the New York State Department of Health.

That information can help save lives, said Dr. Grete Porteous, an anesthesiologist in Seattle who has worked on health care emergency preparedness and crisis management. It previously helped reduce risks to medical personnel during the much smaller SARS outbreak of 2003-04, she said.

With the medical profession facing shortages of basic protective gear, the question should be asked: are there ways that we can improve what we do to make care safer for everyone? Porteous said. Without regional and national public health data on COVID-19 infections in health care personnel, it is difficult to envision how to start answering this question.

During the SARS outbreak, Porteous said, data about an alarmingly high rate of infection and death in medical staff led to improved rules around infection protocol and use of personal protective equipment.

Ruth Schubert, spokeswoman for the Washington Nurses Association, said that same data are needed for COVID-19.

We are urging the (Department of Health) and the emergency operations team at the state level to begin collecting and reporting this information, she said.

Experts who create models for how the coronavirus will impact the countrys health care system say they also want the data to better determine how severely hospitals will be impacted.

While health officials count ICU beds and calculate hospital capacity to plan for a surge in cases, Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, has created a model for predicting COVID-19 deaths. It also predicts the number of hospital beds, ICU beds and ventilators each state will need.

Murray is also trying to include things like how many workers are needed to care for patients. But without access to the number of infected health care workers, hes unable to make that determination.

Murray hopes that will change.

Thats a really important piece of information to know, he said. Ill add that to the data that well ask for from governments.

As of Saturday, Washington state had more than 7,500 cases and New York had counted more than 110,000. Neither state knows how many of those cases are health care workers.

Ohio, on the other hand, reported at least 16% of its cases involved health care workers, while in Minnesota, it was 28% on Wednesday.

Other countries are reporting COVID-19s impact on their health care community. Spain has said at least 12,298 health care workers have tested positive for the disease  14.4% of the total reported cases. More than 60 doctors have died in Italy.

Johns Hopkins Universitys online map tracking the spread of the virus doesnt include a subset of data on how many health care workers have become sick. The platform wasnt built to collect data on workers, said university spokesman Douglas Donovan. CDC charts also dont break it out.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security has recommended hospitals keep a log of staff with COVID-19. Those who have recovered could work on units devoted to COVID-19. But data on infected staff may not be available because hospitals want to protect that information, fearing it may appear they have unsafe conditions, said Dr. Angela Gardner, an emergency physician and professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Having data on how many health care workers are sick would help with planning, she said.

Hospitals also need better parameters for how long a worker should stay away from patients if exposed to COVID-19, she said. CDC recommendations say a doctor or nurse can return three days after they are asymptomatic. But if a worker was exposed and didnt have symptoms or even tested negative, theyre required to be quarantined 14 days.

Although the Washington state health department isnt collecting the data, some counties are. At least 88 health care workers in Snohomish County have tested positive for the coronavirus, out of 1,300 total cases. In Yakima County, its more like 30%.

However, officials in King County, home to the highest concentration of cases, dont know how many health care workers have the disease.

University of Washington Medicine began testing employees with symptoms on March 5, said spokeswoman Susan Gregg.

Since that time, we have tested approximately 1,304 UW Medicine health care workers in our drive-through clinics, she said. About 95.6% tested negative and 4.4 percent tested positive, she said. Many have already recovered.

Colorado health officials also want to find out whos infected by implementing a testing program for all health care workers, said Micki Trost, a spokesperson for the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

This testing strategy helps strengthen our medical capacity, she said.

About the photo: In this March 13, 2020 file photo, a nurse at a drive-up coronavirus testing station set up by the University of Washington Medical Center wears a face shield and other protective gear as she waits by a tent in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Mount Pleasant Councilwoman Kathy Landing, a Republican candidate in South Carolina's most competitive U.S. House race, is spending just shy of $125,000 on a new TV ad that will air on Fox News from now until the GOP congressional primary in June.

Landing's campaign confirmed the investment to The Post and Courier on Tuesday, shortly after the TV spot began airing across the coastal 1st Congressional District.

"It's not like we're going up and coming down. We are up," Landing's spokesman Michael Mule said. "This is a significant buy. There's no denying that, and I think folks in the Lowcountry will be seeing it quite a bit."

Year-end federal filings showed Landing had $353,151 cash on hand heading into 2020, putting this buy at roughly one-third of her total war chest.

This is Landing's second districtwide television ad in this campaign cycle, making her the only Republican up on TV now in the contest so far.

Landing is one of four Republicans running for the chance to challenge U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-Charleston, for the 1st District seat he won in 2018.

The other GOP contenders are Bikers for Trump co-founder Chris Cox, state Rep. Nancy Mace and Bluffton community development leader Brad Mole.

The 30-second spot titled "Two Choices" focuses on Landing's decision to press onward after she became an orphan at 13.

"I could have let this tragedy stop me, but through faith and hard work I chose to live a life that my parents would be proud of," Landing says in the ad.

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It's a story that Landing said she wanted to share with voters at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has plunged life into a state of uncertainty. The virus has upended campaigning staples like traditional meet-and-greets, candidate forums and black-tie fundraisers.

"America, our state, and our community are in very difficult times right now," Landing said in a statement. "I am hopeful that sharing my story will give encouragement to some, while also providing our Lowcountry neighbors a better understanding of the experiences, passion, and commitment I offer them."

Landing attended Duke University at 16, where she obtained a degree in biology. After getting married, she moved to the Charleston area.

Landing, who has more than 30 years of experience in financial planning, is currently senior vice president of investments for Raymond James and Associates.

A narrator in the ad summarized those experiences in four descriptors: "College at 16. Job-creator. Community leader. Conservative woman of faith."

South Carolinas 1st Congressional District turned blue for the first time in nearly 40 years when voters elected Cunningham to Washington in 2018. Both Republicans and Democrats see the race as a top priority in 2020.

The Republican primary is set for June 9.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has labeled the November race a toss-up.
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray seeking steps to protect the health workers after Malayali nurses working in the hospitals in New Delhi and Mumbai tested positive for COVID-19.

In the letter addressed to Prime Minister, he said as many as 46 Malayali nurses in Mumbai have contracted COVID 19 as per the reports and more than 150 nurses are under observation there.

Coronavirus LIVE news updates

Five nurses in Delhi's prestigious Cancer Institute have also been confirmed with Corona. Complaints have been coming up of lack of PPEs across the country. Besides in some places their family members are quarantined.

In this backdrop, state governments concerned may be advised to urgently look into the facts and circumstances and provide due care, attention and necessary precautions so that the standard health protocol are followed and utmost the protection given to the health personnel, he said.



Kerala has also intimated Maharashtra and Delhi state governments about the gravity of the situation. In the letter addressed to Uddhav Thackeray, Kerala requested him to ensure the safety of Malayali nurses working in his state.

It was sent in light of the news that more than 40 nurses from Kerala have been tested positive for COVID-19 in Maharashtra. In the letter to Arvind Kejriwal, state also requested the safety of Malayali nurses working in his state.

Earlier in the videoconference with the chief ministers, the PM has decided to give most importance to the protection of doctor, nurses, and other health volunteers who are working round the clock in treating patients.
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A pilot has taken incredible photos of Area 51 and other top secret installations on the Nevada Test and Training Range after receiving permission to fly through the highly restricted airspace.

Gabriel Zeifman took the images while flying in his Cessna 150, after receiving permission from air traffic controllers to pass through the airspace last weekend because it was 'cold', meaning no military flights were taking place.

Among Zeifman's incredible images are photos showing a massive hangar under construction at Groom Lake, the highly classified Air Force facility more commonly known as Area 51.

'Probably the most exciting part was the first time I saw Groom Lake (Area 51), it's just such a rare place to see,' Zeifman told DailyMail.com. 'It's something everyone has heard of but few get to look at. So I'm glad to share a glimpse of it.'

Area 51 is seen with the dry bed of Lake Groom in the foreground. Gabriel Zeifman shared the images after receiving permission from air traffic controllers to pass through the airspace over the weekend

A massive new hangar (center) is seen under construction at Area 51. The purpose of the new building is unclear

Another massive hangar sits isolated on the far southern edge of Area 51. It has been there for several years

'It's definitely interesting flying in the area, all the history out there and the current activities that take place (testing, and exercises such at Red Flag with all the US military branches and NATO allies),' Zeifman said.

'So it's very neat to get permission to fly in there. That being said, you also gotta be on your top game when you're flying close to pieces of airspace you are not allowed to enter. You never want to stray into someplace you're not allowed, so it's definitely something to be very careful with when you're closely tracking a line,' he continued.

Area 51 is just one of the sensitive military facilities located within the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), a vast military training area in Nevada's Mojave Desert.

Details of everything that takes place at Area 51 are classified as top secret, and the intense secrecy around the facility has led to widespread conspiracy theories that it is used to store captured or crashed UFOs.

What is officially acknowledged is that Area 51 was founded by the CIA in 1955 as a testing facility for the secretive U-2 spy plane, and that it has likely been used ever since to test highly classified and experimental aircraft.

The locations of Area 51 as well as the Tonopah Test Range Airport are seen within the Nevada Test and Training Range

Area 51 is seen in the distance next to partially flooded Groom Lake in a view from Zeifman's Cessna 150

Details of everything that takes place at Area 51 are classified as top secret, and the intense secrecy around the facility has led to widespread conspiracy theories that it is used to store captured or crashed UFOs

Zeifman's photos show that activity at Area 51 continues to be bustling, with a massive new hangar under construction next to existing hangars that once housed F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighters.

It's unclear what the hangar will used for, but it dwarfs the Nighthawk hangars that it is being built near.

Another huge nearby hangar, built about five years ago according to The Drive, sits alone to the south of the hangar under construction. Its purpose likewise has never been disclosed.

Zeifman was also able to capture stunning images of the Tonopah Test Range Airport, a major military airfield within the NTTR.

Tonopah was most famously the test site used to evaluate the capabilities of secretly obtained Soviet MiG fighters during the Cold War.

At the height of the Cold War, a secret squadron of Air Force pilots even flew the Soviet fighter jets in mock dogfights against U.S. aircraft to train American airmen. That program was declassified in 2006.

Zeifman also captured images of the Tonopah Test Range Airport (above), a major military airfield within the NTTR

To the left of the runways at Toponah sit hangars that have housed F-117A Nighthawks and stealth drones

Toponah (above) was also once the home of a classified squadron of test pilots who flew captured Soviet MiG fighters

Today, the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron flies RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drones out of the Tonopah (above)

Tonopah was also the main operating base for the Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk for many years, after tests on the stealth fighter were completed at Area 51. Today the surviving fleet of production F-117As remains stored at Tonopah.

Today, the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron flies RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drones out of the Tonopah.

Zeifman explained that he had been careful to receive permission for his flights through the highly restricted airspace. The consequences otherwise could have been disastrous.

'Most of the restricted airspace out there is designated continuously. So what that means is, as a pilot, you have to presume it's always restricted,' he told DailyMail.com.

'In these blocks of airspace, you need to talk to Nellis Approach and be on radar service and get specific permission to enter. If you're flying a route that will go through and the airspace isn't actively being used by the military, it is possible to receive this permission for some of the blocks of airspace,' he explained.

'I found some times that I thought it may be clear and chose a destination that would take me through the airspace, and luckily a few of the times I was granted permission to transit the airspace,' he said.

As for any national security implications of sharing the images, it is worth noting that Russia can and does fly directly over Area 51 with sophisticated reconnaissance planes under the Open Skies Treaty.
Dan Jones has made a career out of talking about history. But this was one trip into the past that left him speechless. Partway through the first episode of History channels new five-part series Lost Relics Of The Knights Templar, Dan is taken to a secret location in the British countryside.

There hes shown precious items, including a beautiful sword with ornate crosses on either side of the blade, that have apparently been hidden from public view for nearly 800 years.

Their owners say they once belonged to the Knights Templar, a military order set up to protect Christian pilgrims on their journeys to the Holy Land in the 12th and 13th centuries before being disbanded in the early 1300s.

Many thought the artefacts had gone forever.

Dan Jones examines a selection of ancient artefacts that may have once belonged to the Knights Templar in a new series. Pictured: An illustration of the Knights Templar

These finds could rewrite Templar history, says Dan when he recovers the power of speech. If this is a real Templar find, its mind-blowingly exciting.

The items, Dan is told, form part of a collection of up to 60 Knights Templar artefacts bought and stored over the past ten years by English millionaires Carl Cookson and Hamilton White, friends since they met as tax exiles in Monaco.

Templar artefacts are pretty rare, says Dan. If these men really are sitting on 60 of them, people are going to lose their minds about it.

You can understand his excitement. Aside from being a presenter of TV history series such as Henry VIII And His Six Wives, Dan is the author of The Templars: The Rise And Fall Of Gods Holy Warriors.

Seeing items like these  if theyre the real deal  is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for him.

Pictured: The beautiful sword belonging to Carl and Hamilton

But are they real? Were they owned by an organisation that became the biggest standing army in Europe since the Roman Empire, enjoying immense power and wealth before vanishing, along with their possessions (though not their properties)?

Yes, insists Hamilton White. Id be happy to go to court and fight the first clown who says these items are not real, he says.

And we want to know more about them before revealing the hoard to the world.

Dan suggests two options.

The scholar in me says take them to the British Museum and ask the curators there to verify them, he says.

The rebellious streak in me says go and find all about them yourselves. Carl and Hamilton choose the latter.

Initially at least, viewers will see only a small part of the cache  a carved libation vessel (a cup used to offer a drink to a deity), a reliquary box to house sacred relics, a black chalice and that sword with crosses on the blade.

Theyre the starting point for the duos journey across Europe in the series, as they try to find the origins and provenance of the items in their collection.

Experts, including Dan, provide a historical account of the Knights Templar.

In episode one the two millionaires travel to Portugal via a house in the south of France once owned by Carl. Hed discovered it had been a Knights Templar property, close to a pilgrim trail to Spain, only after hed agreed to buy it.

Carl and Hamilton are cagey about where they got their collection of treasures. Pictured: A libation vessel from the cache

Then its on to the city of Tomar and the Convento de Cristo convent and castle complex, the headquarters of the Knights Templar in Portugal, where many precious items were stored.

The Nazis searched it for Templar treasure but couldnt find any  which was frustrating for Heinrich Himmler, the head of Hitlers elite corps, the SS.

That armed body had been modelled on the Teutonic Knights, the German equivalent of the Knights Templar, and Himmler was desperate to start a collection of antiquities linked to the original organisation.

The Cookson/White cache was stumbled upon by two treasure hunters in the 1960s, a time when precious antiquities could still be offered on the open market.

Carl and Hamilton are cagey about where they procured them, but are in no doubt about their authenticity.

You can feel the energy coming out of the items, says Carl. Its the most significant find since the opening of Tutankhamuns tomb.

Lost Relics Of The Knights Templar, Monday 13 April, 9pm, History.
The electronic system the Small Business Administration is using to set up new coronavirus loans was down much of Monday, according to senior banking executives, making it impossible for many new loans to be guaranteed.

Billions of dollars in loans sought by small businesses trying to pay employees and keep their doors open were on pause as the SBA, supported by the Treasury, grapples with the demand on its system.

There are an estimated 30 million small businesses in America. Many are expected to apply for the program, which offers up to $10 million in loans that can turn into free grants if the businesses follow certain rules, which include using the money primarily for payroll.

Image: Customers wearing masks walk through the Dupont Circle Market in Washington (Daniel Slim / AFP - Getty Images)

E-tran, the SBAs proprietary loan guarantee system, has suffered from technical errors, access issues and extreme slowness since the launch of the $349 billion small business rescue effort authorized by Congress, frustrating small business owners looking for a lifeline.

When the system does work, banks say they experience major technical issues and access hurdles. Existing accounts had to be re-authorized and new ones created.

"Unfortunately, our District Office personnel have absolutely no means to set-up user accounts, unlock user accounts or reset passwords," an SBA regional office said in an email to lenders reviewed by NBC News.

This means that if a bank had only two logins, then only two people could enter data into E-tran.

We have asked SBA for more information on who they are using & what their plan is for improving access to E-Tran, tweeted Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), chair of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. This MUST be corrected ASAP.

In some instances, E-tran asks for information that is not required in the payment protection plan applications or excludes certain applicants who should be allowed.

In a statement, the SBA expressed confidence in the programs operation and efficacy.

"The system is up and running. We continue to process, approve and guarantee billions of dollars of loans per hour," Jennifer Kelly, an SBA spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Story continues

The SBA says it has approved $38 billion in payment protection loans. And some banks, especially smaller community banks, have successfully executed some loans. But that doesnt mean that theres been $38 billion deposited in customers accounts.

Major banks, adhering to tighter regulations enacted after the 2008 financial crisis, are awaiting final technical guidance from the SBA to begin distributions.

This is an emergency situation, and when you do things in an emergency situation, it's going to be far less than perfect, Rubio said on CNBC. What we want to see is that the number of lenders in the system grows every day, and the number of problems and issues with the program diminishes every single day. So it will get better, he added. It has to get better.

A backup system designed by Amazon Web Services to help relieve some of the pressure has yet to become operational.

Amazon didnt immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment.
The aim of the posters are to keep everybody connected and focused on what is hopeful  even during a time that can feel kind of dark and chaotic, Joria said. Residents do not need to be members of the church to participate in the initiative, she said.
To mitigate the spread of the deadly COVID-19 in areas with high concentrations of vulnerable people and few medical resources, indigenous communities across Mexico have taken the initiative to close off access to their towns from outsiders.

In a recent article, these communities are blocking highways, closing tourist services, and publicly requesting that people not visit.

Residents in San Javier, municipality of Loreto, agreed to close off the town on Thursday because of the high percentage of older adults and a lack of medical supplies.

READ: 26 Health Workers in Mexico Infected, 1 Doctor Dead Due to COVID-19

According to local authorities, there were currently no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Loreto, and the citizens of San Javier hope their isolationist tactics will keep it that way.

Meanwhile, in San Juan Bautista Valle Nacional, northern Oaxaca, 80 percent of the residents voted not to accept anyone who does not live in the area to avoid contagion, according to Mayor Rey Magana Garcia.

Like the other towns, the mayor also cited the risk to the municipality's vulnerable population as a reason for taking action, mainly because Valle Nacional receives a lot of traffic moving between the state's Cuenca del Papaloapan and Valles Centrales regions.

Restaurants in the municipality remain open, but only for take-out orders while resorts and other public attractions like the Monte Flor and El Zuzul swimming holes are closed.

ALSO READ: Mexican President Ignores Coronavirus Warnings, Shakes Hands with El Chapo's Mother

Police are patrolling the river to ensure no one gathers to swim.

Several communities in Chiapas and Chihuahua took similar measures to avoid COVID-19. However, the state government told authorities in two Chihuahua municipalities that closing their towns were illegal.

Meanwhile, the municipal government of Urique, located in the famous Copper Canyon region, has prohibited outsiders from both entering and leaving the town.

According to local leaders, the restriction applies only on weekends and will remain for the duration of the month-long emergency period.

Alejandro Solis, a spokesperson for the state Ministry of the Interior, said that the Chihuahua municipalities were alerted that their restriction measures were illegal by state Interior Minister Luis Fernando Mesta Soule on March 30.

"In the end, it's a crime to impede the transit of other people," said Solis.

"We understand perfectly that the authorities are worried about their citizens, but ... in this case they're violating a [constitutional] right," he said.

At present, there is no effort at the state level to open up the communities, he said, as they are hoping the communication will be enough for the municipalities to decide to do so themselves.

READ MORE: Sorry, Miss Chiquita Is at Home; Popular Brands Take On Social Distancing

As of Friday, Chihuahua had 11 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and the number of suspicious cases had dropped to 20. Oaxaca had 22 confirmed and 73 suspicious cases while Chiapas had 18 confirmed cases, and Baja California Sur had 21.

As of Sunday morning, there were 2,143 confirmed cases and 94 deaths from coronavirus infection in Mexico, while 5,209 suspicious cases were being investigated, according to a report by Latin Post.
Los Angeles, April 7 : Actress Ana De Armas has gushed over the "handsome" leading men with whom she has worked with, saying she was "shaking" when she met actor Ryan Gosling.

In an interview to American Airlines magazine Nexos, De Armas, who is dating her "Deep Water" co-star Ben Affleck, heaped praise on colleagues like Gosling, Daniel Craig and Affleck, reports dailymail.co.uk.

The 31-year-old said that she was "shaking so badly" when she met Gosling during her third audition for "Blade Runner 2049".

"They put you in a room together and make you read things, to see how your chemistry is. I wish I had the tape of that meeting,"said the actress, who hails from Cuba.

"I've been very lucky - because these men are all very handsome - but the best part of it is who they are as people. I've had the best partners," she added.

De Armas's fame grew with last year's thriller "Knives Out", where she impressed Craig that he got her a part in his upcoming James Bond film "No Time To Die".

She was "shocked" when director Cary Fukunaga offered her the part as she felt she "didn't match" the "beauty standards" expected of Bond girls.

The actress felt that Bond girls generally "need to be rescued. Or they die. Or are evil. I needed to read that script".

She shared that "it took a little, but they sent me the scenes. It's important, because I want to bring something else to the story", and "the character convinced me" "No Time To Die" was originally scheduled to come out in April. It was pushed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The actress also spoke about having to learn English and try to break into Hollywood when she first moved to America.

"My background and my experiences growing up in Cuba and moving and being like a citizen of the world and adapting and being flexible. It gives me a lot of tools and a different vision and approach towards a character," she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 22:51:58|Editor: huaxia

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JERUSALEM, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli security service announced on Tuesday the arrest of an Israeli citizen for alleged espionage for Iran.

The 50-year-old man, whose identity was not disclosed, was arrested on March 16, the Shin Bet security service said in a statement.

The Shin Bet and the police released photos of an encryption device, a mobile phone and a USB flash drive, which were said to be found within the possessions of the suspect who attempted to destroy them during his arrest.

According to the Shin Bet, the suspect held several meetings with Iranian intelligence agents, during which he was asked about security sites in Israel and possible ways of deepening rifts within the Israeli society.

They also discussed possible ways to recruit Arab citizens of Israel and to carry out attacks against Israeli targets, the Shin Bet said.

On Tuesday, the suspect was charged by the State Attorney's Office with contacting a foreign agent, treason, giving the enemy information in order to harm the country's security, and other security counts.
Donald Trump has sought to heap praise on US medics confronting the coronavirus crisis, likening their response to scenes from a war movie and saying it was an incredible thing to watch.

In comments delivered in a briefing about the administrations ongoing efforts against the disease, Mr Trump for for the first time, drew attention online for being seemingly out of tone with the events he was describing.

Its incredible. Its no different than you watch the war movies  you watch the old clips of war, running up hills, he said.

And theyre and theyre putting the outfits on and theyre putting their masks and  its incredible.

Later he added: These people are incredible ... I just admire the attitude.

div class=relatedlinkslist inline-block-related-list inline-block-left> Read more

During the briefing, which came as the death toll in the US passed 10,000 and Mr Trump sent his best wishes to British prime minister Boris Johnson, after he was moved to intensive care in hospital, the president said he had spoken with Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden.

He said his conversation about Covid-19 with the former vice president had been very nice.

He gave me his point of view, and I fully understood that. And we just had a very friendly conversation, lasted probably 15 minutes. And it was really good, he said.

He also said he and other officials would be regularly tested for the virus

I think well probably have maybe quite a few tests, its not the worst idea, you know the system of testing now is so quick and so easy, he said.

Additional reporting by Reuters
Rhodes University

The Grahamstown High Court in Makhanda has dismissed, with costs, an application by Ms Yolanda Dyantyi for the review and setting aside of her permanent exclusion from Rhodes University.

Ms Dyantyi was permanently excluded from Rhodes University after being found guilty, in an independent Disciplinary Hearing in 2017, of a range of unlawful acts including kidnapping of fellow students, insubordination, assault and defamation.

In her application for review, Ms Dyantyi had also sought the courts intervention in setting aside her conviction on all the charges and for the University to be ordered to pay the costs of her application proceedings.

She contended that the University had denied her the right to a fair hearing, that she was denied legal representation, that the evidence against her during the hearing was flawed, that the sanction was inappropriate and that she was denied her right to internal review following the hearing.

Ms Dyantyi also claimed that the decision of the independent hearing was irrational and reasonably suspected of being tainted with bias. She argued that the decision of the chairperson was beyond his legal power.

Background to unlawful acts

The hearing had heard evidence about a vigilante campaign online, that saw the naming and shaming of 11 male students on the allegation that they had committed a series of sexual assaults on the campus with impunity. Despite the far-reaching and serious nature of such allegations, not even one of the 11 male students has ever faced criminal prosecution.

The publication of the names was so widespread that it became a constant talking point on the campus and eventually led to the kidnapping of several male students in April 2016 by a group of students led by Ms Dyantyi.

In his judgment, Deputy Judge President of the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court, Judge Z M Nhlangulela, details the circumstances of the kidnappings where spitting, assault and threats of killing by strangulation with a stocking and necklacing were made against one of the student captives.

It was the police intervention that secured the release of [the captive] from the protesters Judge Nhlangulela wrote in his judgment.

The Judge detailed how repeated warnings to the kidnappers, including by the Vice-Chancellor all fell on deaf ears. Not only was the Vice-Chancellor rejected, but he was pushed out of the way of the protesters and ridiculed, Judge Nhlangulela wrote.

The judgment

The hearing had accepted the evidence of several witnesses that Ms Dyantyi played a leading role in the kidnapping and continued deprivation of the captives liberty, which included the assault and intimidation of at least one of the captives who was held against his will for some 11 hours.

The chairperson of the hearing regarded the seriousness of the offences , the propensity of the applicant to commit offences involving physical violence whilst on campus and her disregard for the safety of the members of the University community as being proportionate to the sanction that was imposed, Judge Nhlangulela said.

That the applicant had previous disciplinary infractions on her record, those being violent and disorderly conduct (2015) and insubordination (2016) were taken into account, he said.

Judge Nhlangulela dismissed the claim by Ms Dyantyi that she was denied her right either to be heard and/or to be legally represented before and during the disciplinary inquiry as well as after she was convicted.

The Judge noted that throughout the independent disciplinary hearing, Ms Dyantyi was represented by a highly esteemed team of four legal practitioners who, in fact, participated in the disciplinary hearing over nine sittings. Towards the conclusion of the independent hearing, during October 2017, the applicant and her legal team decided to no longer engage in the disciplinary hearing. This, the court found, was unreasonable and did not ground the averment made by Ms Dyantyi that she was denied a right to legal representation. In this regard, the Court pointed out, [t]he legal team for the applicant was not prepared to consider the alternative ways of truncating the proceedings These alternatives included allowing that the hearing runs for longer periods on the days that it ran and for sessions to be scheduled on the weekends. Ms Dyantyi deliberately and without permission or just cause withdrew her participation from the disciplinary hearing.

Consequently, the enquiry proceeded in their absence until it was concluded with a verdict and sanction that are now being impugned by the applicant on the broad basis that her right to fair administrative action was breached, stated the Court.

Interests of justice

Judge Nhlangulela said that he was persuaded having read the papers from both sides that the chairperson of the Disciplinary hearing was impartial and exercised independence.

He also found that the University, as an institution had a prerogative of disciplining unacceptable student behaviour, lest chaos was permitted to reign.

The offences of kidnapping, insubordination and assault were serious violent offences committed upon defenceless victims who had done no wrong. More so, [Ms Dyantyi] did not show remorse for her actions that threatened peace and security on the campus. She treated reasonable interventions by the [Vice-Chancellor] with disdain, The Judge expressed.

In doing so and in their rejection of available channels to lodge complaints both to the University and police was a conduct so heinous that it deserved proportionate punishment.

Added to that, was the fact that [Ms Dyantyi] had two previous records of violent and disorderly disciplinary infractions which means only that the applicant was not prepared to change her unacceptable behaviour, he added.

With these aggravating factors taken into account the decisions by the chairperson of the disciplinary hearing on sanction served the interests of justice and were rationally connected to the evidence presented. There was no bias against the applicant and the chairperson displayed awareness that he had to discharge his functions in an independent and impartial manner, Judge Nhlangulela wrote.

Judge Nhlangulela also found that Ms Dyantyis litigation against the University was frivolous and vexatious. This was so throughout the litigation process that she unleashed in the Disciplinary Tribunal, in this Court, as well as the Supreme Court of Appeal and Constitutional Court. The Court therefore ordered that she pay the Universitys legal costs in the review application.

***The facts in the case also warranted the Grahamstown High Court granting an interdict against Ms Dyantyi in 2017. Ms Dyantyi appealed, and lost, against the interdict at the Grahamstown High Court, Supreme Court of Appeal and in a unanimous ruling by the Constitutional Court.

Rhodes University reiterates the seriousness and urgency with which any offences involving sexual and/or gender-based violence are treated by the University. Several students have, in the last three years, been permanently excluded for offences involving sexual violence. These are in the public record. The University recognises and supports the right to peaceful protest, but will not condone serious violent offences in furtherance of such protest.

Source: Communications

Please help us to raise funds so that we can give all our students a chance to access online teaching and learning. Covid-19 has disrupted our students' education. Don't let the digital divide put their future at risk. Visit www.ru.ac.za/rucoronavirusgateway to donate
Pakistans performance in meeting international commitments in the fight against terror financing will be reviewed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) at its meeting in Beijing during June 21-26, according to a media report on Tuesday.

In February, the multilateral watchdog warned Pakistan it faced the possibility of being added to the black list and face greater scrutiny of all transactions in its financial system if it fails to fully implement an action plan to counter terror financing and money laundering by June.

At the time, the FATF also said Pakistan had largely addressed only 14 of the 27 items in the action plan, and made varying levels of progress on the rest of the items.

An unnamed senior government official was quoted by Dawn newspaper as saying Pakistans performance will be reviewed at joint working group meetings of the FATF and Eurasian Group (EAG) in Beijing in June, and this assessment would will to an announcement in October on whether Pakistan should be moved out of the grey list.

Pakistan was placed in the grey list in June 2018 following a push by India that was supported by the US, the UK and key European countries such as France and Germany.

The Dawn cited other officials as saying that Pakistan had put in place a broad-based strategy for necessary actions to complete outstanding commitments with the FATF in February and is actively making progress on these matters.

Pakistan has to comply with the 13 remaining items in the action plan that cover eight key categories. It has to demonstrate that relevant authorities are cooperating to identify and take enforcement action against illegal money or value transfer services and also prove the implementation of cross-border currency controls, the report said.

It also has to demonstrate that law enforcement agencies are identifying and investigating the widest range of terror financing activity and that such investigations and prosecutions target designated individuals and entities, the report added.

Outstanding action areas also include effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions (supported by a comprehensive legal obligation) against all terrorists designated under UN Security Council resolutions 1267 and 1373, including preventing the raising and moving of funds, identifying and freezing assets, and prohibiting access to funds and financial services.

Pakistan will also have to show it is acting against violations of the UN sanctions by depriving sanctioned terrorists of their resources.
A bitter separation and parenting battle involving the astronaut Anne McClain led to an unusual accusation last year: Ms. McClains ex-wife accused her of improperly accessing her bank account from the International Space Station.

But after a lengthy investigation, federal prosecutors said on Monday that the former spouse, Summer Worden, had lied to investigators about some relevant details, and that a federal grand jury had indicted Ms. Worden on charges that could result in up to five years in prison.

The indictment, returned in February but unsealed this week, alleges that Ms. Worden opened the bank account earlier than she had told investigators, and that she had not changed her login credentials until months later than she had claimed.

The case represented an unprecedented allegation of a crime in space, which experts say could become less unusual as living and working in space becomes more routine. The current case raises questions, for example, about whether records of Ms. McClains internet usage from space could be subpoenaed in court to help aid in Ms. Wordens defense.
WASHINGTON  As U.S. health care workers scrounged for life-saving medical equipment last week to protect frontline staff against coronavirus, President Donald Trump made a jarring claim: the U.S. would soon have an over-supply of ventilators  enough to distribute across the globe to other needy countries.

"We're going to be distributing them  the extras  around the world," the president said on April 1 during a White House press briefing. He listed Italy, France and Spain as likely destinations for Americas sudden bounty as the pandemic ravages the planet.

What Trump didn't mention: Earlier that same morning, the Trump administration was preparing to receive a Russian military cargo plane  loaded with 60 tons of masks, ventilators and other items  to distribute to besieged American doctors and nurses.

"The plane is en route," the Russian foreign ministry tweeted on the morning of April 1, posted along with a video of the packed aircraft. With the hashtag #RussiaHelps, the Kremlin said the supplies would "save the lives of American citizens."

The Russian government tweet was a crafty propaganda coup  one that highlighted the stark disconnect between Trump's promises of American super-preparedness and generosity, and his administration's obvious scramble to secure supplies from abroad.

What do you want to know? We're answering coronavirus questions daily. Ask here.

A woman wearing a protective mask walks on the Bir-Hakeim bridge in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on April 2, 2020.

Experts say that it is an uncomfortable and humbling spot for the U.S. to find itself in  the worlds richest and most powerful country, one that plays a huge outsize role in global security issues and international affairs, suddenly turned supplicant.

"The optics of it are that we are failing as a national government to have a plan and have a mechanism for managing markets," said J. Stephen Morrison, a global health expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

Story continues

But Morrison said the situation also shines a fresh spotlight on a decline in U.S. global leadership that has been years in the making. Championing his "America First" policies, Trump has derided multilateral institutions, withdrawn from international accords and treaties, and attempted to slash funding for U.S. foreign aid.

"The United States has been moving off the stage of being a traditional leader in foreign assistance and in global health," Morrison said.

Still, that hasn't stopped Trump administration officials from appearing to play politics at a time of national crisis and portraying the U.S. as a coronavirus white knight.

'We know how to help people around the world'

The day before Russia's delivery of medical equipment, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo trumpeted America's contributions to multilateral organizations, such as the World Health Organization, and pointedly noted the U.S. had given far more to those institutions than China, where the novel coronavirus first emerged.

"We know how to help people around the world," Pompeo said. "Since 2009, American taxpayers have generously funded more than $100 billion in health assistance and nearly $70 billion in humanitarian assistance. Thats billion with a B."

Yet Pompeo failed to note that the Obama administration was in charge for eight years of that time frame and that the Trump administration has tried to slash global health funding. In 2018, Trump's White House also dismantled the National Security Councils global health security office, a pandemic team, in an effort to streamline the agency.

And in January and February of this year, as U.S. states scrambled to secure surgical masks, respirators and ventilators because they expected a crush of coronavirus patients, the Trump administration effectively looked the other way as U.S. companies exported millions of dollars worth of personal protective equipment to China.

COVID-19: U.S. exported millions in masks and ventilators ahead of coronavirus crisis

More: Ireland's prime minister to work as doctor amid coronavirus pandemic

Still, even as Pompeo has touted American benevolence, the State Department has quietly asked allies and foes alike for assistance in combating the public health crisis.

Diplomats instructed to ask foreign governments if they have gear to sell

In March, State Department leaders directed U.S. diplomats overseas to ask foreign governments if they have any extra medical equipment or personal protective gear to sell to the U.S., according to senior State Department official.

Weve actually reached out to missions ... to determine whether certain countries may have excess capacity of the ability to manufacture supplies," and whether companies in those countries would consider exporting supplies to the U.S., this official said.

The State Department official said he could not name specific countries that have offered to help the U.S., but said the responses are being tracked and forwarded to FEMA and other U.S. federal agencies in charge of managing Americas supply chain.

"Were doing our best effort to reach out to any country and any private business overseas that might be able to contribute," the official said. A second State Department official emphasized that the U.S. is seeking to buy these items, not seeking donations.

Indeed, after Russia's splashy delivery last week of medical supplies to the U.S., the State Department issued a statement emphasizing it was a purchase.

"We are a generous and reliable contributor to crisis response and humanitarian action across the world, but we cannot do it alone," Morgan Ortagus, the spokeswoman said.

"Both countries have provided humanitarian assistance to each other in times of crisis in the past and will no doubt do so again in the future," she said.

More: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has COVID-19. What about other world leaders?

Meanwhile, as countries such as Italy and Spain have reeled from coronavirus outbreaks, China has stepped in with testing kits, protective gear and other medical aid critical for fighting the respiratory disease. Beijing has also dispatched doctors and teams of specialized medical experts, although some of the equipment has turned out to be faulty and critics say its motives, like Russia's, may not be a wholly selfless act.

"During the coronavirus pandemic, the two most energetic Samaritans  Russia and China  are using their ostensible assistance for geopolitical gains," wrote Elisabeth Braw, a security and defense expert at the London-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, in a recent article for Foreign Policy magazine.

"Beijing is using the deliveries as a public relations opportunity," she wrote.

But Martin Thorley, a China expert at the University of Nottingham, in England, pointed out that it was important not to attach such motives to individuals in China who have offered to send life-saving equipment. "Much of this is altruistic and kind-hearted behavior," he said, noting a donation of 1,000 ventilators to New York state by Ja Ma and Joe Tsai, the billionaire founders of the Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba.

Competition for supplies leads to accusations of 'piracy'

In recent days, the Trump administration has stepped up its hunt for medical supplies.

A German broadcast outlet reported Friday that 200,000 respiratory masks, slated for delivery from China to federal police in Berlin, had been redirected to the U.S.

"We regard this as an act of modern piracy," Germany's Interior Senator Andreas Geisel told the outlet, accusing the U.S. of using underhand tactics to procure the supplies.

"This is not how you deal with transatlantic partners. Even in times of global crisis, no Wild West methods should be used," Geisel said, before German authorities walked back his comments and said the country has launched an investigation. Germany has now deployed its military to help secure the transport of such key medical equipment.

In France, it was being called "La Guerre des Masques"  "the war of the masks"  by one news site. A French politician, Renaud Muselier, said masks ordered by France had been bought in cash by Americans "on the tarmac" in China. Muselier alleged that consignments of supplies from China had been "diverted" and "hijacked" by unspecified American purchasers who paid three or four times the price agreed by France.

The U.S. Embassy in France sharply denied Muselier's accusation.

"The United States government has not purchased any masks intended for delivery from China to France. Reports to the contrary are completely false," it said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence, who is leading the Trump administration's coronavirus response, did not respond to questions about whether his task force has a coherent strategy for acquiring much-needed medical supplies from abroad, while still helping foreign countries seeking U.S. aid for the same reason.

A few media outlets have reported the White House has ordered a freeze on U.S foreign aid or at least a review, so the Trump administration can determine what the U.S. needs before sending materials abroad. A spokesperson for the United States Agency for International Development sidestepped a request for confirmation or clarification.

Pooja Jhunjhunwala, the agency's acting spokesperson, said the U.S. would "lead the global response" to coronavirus "even as we battle it on the home front."

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams predicted Sunday this week "will be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives." He compared the pandemic to some of the darkest moments in U.S. history, including the two worst foreign attacks on American soil: the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11 terrorist hijackings.

"This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only its not going to be localized. Its going to be happening all over the country," Adams told Fox News Sunday.

So far, the White House has failed to clearly articulate how it's going to balance the competing domestic and international demands for coronavirus equipment.

Asked in the April 1 media briefing about reports that the U.S. will no longer ship personal protective equipment to allies overseas as the U.S. grapples with critical shortages of supplies and coronavirus cases continue to soar, Trump said there was "no truth whatsoever" to them.

"Whatever we have, whatever we've committed to, we commit," Trump said, adding that "we also need a lot for ourselves. Obviously, we're not going to be shipping too much."

Hjelmgaard reported from London

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: In crisis that rivals Pearl Harbor, US pleads for aid
Los Angeles, April 7 : Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey, along with his wife Camila Alves and his mother Kay, hosted a game of bingo for senior residents at a senior citizens' living community in Texas.

In a video clip shared on Facebook Alves can be seen taking photographs of the bingo participants who are playing through a meeting app, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

The video has been posted to the facility's Facebook page.

The caption of the clip reads: "Ever play virtual bingo with #MatthewMcConaughey? You'd be a whole lot cooler if you did! The residents at The Enclave at Round Rock Senior Living got to play virtual bingo with #MatthewMcConaughey and his family! "Thank you to Matthew, his wife Camila, and his mom Kay for hosting our residents for a few rounds of virtual bingo! Our residents had a great time playing, and they loved talking with Matthew about his family heritage and his favorite drink." In a second video from the virtual bingo game, one of the facility's employees thanks the actor for his support. All residents held up green signs featuring some of the actor's most memorable quotes, including one from the 2019 movie "Serenity". The quote read: "If I didn't catch a fish all day I'd find a way to kill you."
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On Monday, by a 54 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court approved one of the most brazen acts of voter suppression in modern history. The court will nullify the votes of citizens who mailed in their ballots latenot because they forgot, but because they did not receive ballots until after Election Day due to the coronavirus pandemic. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in dissent, the courts order will result in massive disenfranchisement. The conservative majority claimed that its decision would help protect the integrity of the election process. In reality, it calls into question the legitimacy of the election itself.

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Wisconsin has long been scheduled to hold an election on April 7. There are more than 3,800 seats on the ballot, and a crucial state Supreme Court race. But the states ability to conduct in-person voting is imperiled by COVID-19. Thousands of poll workers have dropped out for fear of contracting the virus, forcing cities to shutter dozens of polling places. Milwaukee, for example, consolidated its polling locations from 182 to five, while Green Bay consolidated its polling locations from 31 to two. Gov. Tony Evers asked the Republican-controlled Legislature to postpone the election, but it refused. So he tried to delay it himself with an executive order on Monday. But the Republican-dominated state Supreme Court reinstated the election, thereby forcing voters to choose between protecting their health and exercising their right to vote.

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Because voters are rightfully afraid of COVID-19, Wisconsin has been caught off guard by a surge in requests for absentee ballots. Election officials simply do not have time, resources, or staff to process all those requests. As a result, a large number of votersat least tens of thousandswont get their ballots until after Election Day. And Wisconsin law disqualifies ballots received after that date. In response, last Thursday, a federal district court ordered the state to extend the absentee ballot deadline. It directed officials to count votes mailed after Election Day so long as they were returned by April 13. A conservative appeals court upheld his decision.

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the only protection in place to ensure that voters could still safely cast ballots.

Now the Supreme Court has reversed that order. It allowed Wisconsin to throw out ballots postmarked and received after Election Day, even if voters were entirely blameless for the delay. (Thankfully, ballots postmarked by Election Day but received by April 13 still count because the Legislature didnt challenge that extension.) In an unsigned opinion, the majority cited the Purcell principle, which cautions courts against altering voting laws shortly before an election. It criticized the district court for fundamentally alter[ing] the nature of the election by permitting voting for six additional days after the election. And it insisted that the plaintiffs did not actually request that reliefwhich, as Ginsburg notes in her dissent, is simply false.

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Ginsburgs dissent, joined by her three liberal colleagues, shredded every other aspect of the majority opinion as well. If proximity to the election counseled hesitation when the District Court acted several days ago, she wrote, this Courts intervention todayeven closer to the electionis all the more inappropriate. Ginsburg also pointed out that there is nothing unusual about extending voting beyond the deadline to protect citizens constitutional rights. If a voter already in line by the polls closing time can still vote, she asked, why should Wisconsins absentee voters, already in line to receive ballots, be denied the franchise?

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Shockingly, the majority alleged that voters who receive late ballots are not in a substantially different position from late-requesting voters in other Wisconsin elections. This contention, Ginsburg wrote, boggles the mind. She elaborated:

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Rising concern about the COVID19 pandemic has caused a late surge in absentee-ballot requests.  Some 150,000 requests for absentee ballots have been processed since Thursday, state records indicate. The surge in absentee ballot requests has overwhelmed election officials, who face a huge backlog in sending ballots. As of Sunday morning, 12,000 ballots reportedly had not yet been mailed out. It takes days for a mailed ballot to reach its recipientthe postal service recommends budgeting a weekeven without accounting for pandemic-induced mail delays. It is therefore likely that ballots mailed in recent days will not reach voters by tomorrow; for ballots not yet mailed, late arrival is all but certain.

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Ginsburg closed with a dire warning about the threat to democracy manufactured by the majority:

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The question here is whether tens of thousands of Wisconsin citizens can vote safely in the midst of a pandemic. Under the District Courts order, they would be able to do so. Even if they receive their absentee ballot in the days immediately following election day, they could return it. With the majoritys stay in place, that will not be possible. Either they will have to brave the polls, endangering their own and others safety. Or they will lose their right to vote, through no fault of their own. That is a matter of utmost importanceto the constitutional rights of Wisconsins citizens, the integrity of the States election process, and in this most extraordinary time, the health of the Nation.

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Unfortunately for the nation, Wisconsin Republicans decided that they would prefer to exploit the pandemic to suppress Democratic votes. Their state Supreme Court, dominated by partisan Republicans, allowed them to do so. And now the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the only protection in place to ensure that voters could still safely cast ballots even if the state fails to provide them expediently. This election looks increasingly like a sham tainted by partisan manipulation. And now the most powerful court in the nation has approved these tactics. An election that forces voters to choose between protecting their health and casting a ballot is not a free and fair election. Nor should its results be treated as indisputably legitimate. The courts may have permitted Republicans to rig this election, but Wisconsinites are under no obligation to pretend that its outcome reflects the will of the people.

For more on the situation in Wisconsin, listen to Tuesdays episode of What Next.
Willamette University College of Law is excited to announce that it will immediately begin accepting the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) for applicants who have not taken or are unable to take the LSAT for entry to the 2020 JD entering class. We are committed to continuing to expand access to education while attracting a diverse student body with a wide range of experiences and backgrounds, said College of Law Dean Curtis Bridgeman. We also hope to create flexible options for our prospective students during this period of uncertainty.

This change to the Willamette Law application process comes at a time when some prospective law students are unable to take the LSAT for the first time amid LSAT administration cancellations and uncertainties due to COVID-19. The GRE offers frequent testing dates at over 1,000 testing centers worldwide and recently, because of COVID-19, announced a move to a home-based exam monitored by an online proctor.

Before 2016, when the first law school began to accept a GRE score in lieu of an LSAT score, law school hopefuls had to take the LSAT to apply to law school. Willamette Law joins the significant handful of other law schools to accept the GRE as a reliable admission test to assess an applicants ability for success in law school. When the dust settles from COVID-19, lawyers will be a critical piece of restoring basic function to society, said Assistant Dean of Recruitment Leah Straley. Our graduates will be on the front end of that and we hope to provide our applicants with flexible admission options to support their entry into the legal profession. According to Straley, GRE scores only will be assessed in cases where an applicant has not and will not take the LSAT.

About Willamette University College of Law

The College of Law is a private law school located in Salem, Oregon at Willamette University, the oldest university in the western United States. Willamette Law boasts an innovative program designed to prepare leaders in government, private practice, and business with the lawyering skills needed in the 21st Century. In recent years, outside industry watchers such as Moodys and The National Jurist Magazine have recognized Willamette Law for its positive job placement results. Willamette lawyers are the best dealmakers, problem solvers, community leaders, and change-makers in the most innovative and exciting region in the country. Our location  nestled in the heart of the Willamette Valley and across the street from the Oregon State Capitol, Supreme Court and many state agencies  is an advantage that cannot be matched anywhere in the region.
The Financial Ombudsman said banks' approach to fraud claims 'effectively reversed' the idea victims should be refunded

Britain's banks are relying on generic warnings, making decisions not based on evidence and not properly explaining why scam victims should not be refunded, a damning review of an anti-fraud code said.

A code designed to better protect consumers from bank transfer scams came into force last May and said was supposed to make it easier for them to get their money back if the scam was not their fault.

It was signed by the UK's biggest banks, but recent figures revealed 41 per cent of losses assessed under it were handed back to victims, despite saying they 'should' be reimbursed.

At some banks, just one per cent of victims are fully reimbursed

A review of fraud cases by the Financial Ombudsman Service raises numerous concerns about the way banks and payment providers treat fraud victims.

It said firms were 'inappropriately declining reimbursement', 'applying generic reasoning to individual complaints', 'making decisions based on assertion, rather than on the evidence', 'not taking into account the full circumstances of the scam', and 'not giving reasons for their conclusions'.

It added even victims who managed to claw some money back were being offered 50 per cent of their losses 'on the basis that the consumer did not have a reasonable basis for believing the transaction or recipient was genuine', 'when 100 per cent would be appropriate'.

It said partial refunds may deter consumers from pursuing valid complaints and concluded: 'Some firms are not providing a clear rational for their decision to not reimburse under the CRM code.

Losses to authorised push payment scams - where victims transfer money to fraudsters - rose more than 100m in 2019 compared to the year before

'The impact of this approach to warnings and "reasonable basis for believing" is that the presumption in favour of reimbursement is in practice, in many of the cases we have seen, effectively reversed.'

Some 101.1million in authorised push payment scam losses were assessed under the code in the second half of last year, with 41 per cent of that money handed back, according to the latest fraud figures from UK Finance.

Anew fraud code has at least helped more victims win money back, but the 41% success rate is a lot lower than one of the code's architects was expecting

Victims who lost 'life-changing sums' of 10,000 or more were likelier to get their money back under the new code, but the reimbursement rate of this 54.2million lost was still only 42 per cent.

If this data is a reasonable indication of what customers are experiencing, this is well below the levels of reimbursement that I was expecting. After all, the Code presumes that customers should be reimbursed unless there are clear grounds for holding them liable Chris Hemsley, Payment Systems Regulator

The FOS review of banks' handling of the code was published in the minutes of a conference call between 24 banks, regulators and trade bodies which took place on 30 March.

Chris Hemsley, the managing director of the UK Payment Systems Regulator, said the amount handed back to victims was 'well below the levels that I was expecting.

'After all, the code presumes that customers should be reimbursed unless there are clear grounds for holding them liable.'

Three-quarters of scams assessed under the code involved sums of less than 1,000, with less than a third of the 11.3million lost handed back to victims.

The code signatories are Barclays, the Co-op Bank, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Nationwide Building Society, Metro Bank, Santander and Starling.

One bank fully refunded just 1% of victims...

The call minutes also revealed UK banks appeared to be interpreting the code very differently.

While the banks were anonymised, figures revealed one UK bank fully refunded 59 per cent of authorised push payment scam victims, while two others refunded just 1 and 3 per cent.

Banker says no: The Financial Ombudsman Service said in cases it had seen banks were not providing a clear rational for their decision to not reimburse under the CRM code

One bank partially refunded victims in 93 per cent of cases, but only gave them all their money back in 6 per cent.

Hemsley added: 'We can see that the levels of reimbursement are extremely varied across code banks.

'It also shows that in a significant number of cases, code banks are either not reimbursing, or where they are, the award is partial, meaning that a large number of victims are left out of pocket.

'These issues need to be addressed as soon as possible to make sure the code is delivering the right outcomes for consumers. Looking across all the evidence, there is some cause for concern that outcomes are not where we all want them to be.'

Banks are taking incredibly different approaches towards refunding victims of authorised push payment scams

The Lending Standard Board, which operates the code, is currently carrying out its own review. It previously told This is Money in March: 'The introduction of the Contingent Reimbursement Model Code in May 2019 marked a major milestone in delivering increased protection for consumers.

The evidence suggests that the application of the Code in its current form is resulting in inconsistent and poor outcomes for consumers Payment Systems Regulator

'The Lending Standards Board took over governance of the code in July 2019 and has since continued to engage with signatory firms to ensure that the requirements are adhered to.

'The LSB is also actively working with firms to increase the number of signatories to the code.

'We have recently conducted a themed review of how signatory firms are applying one element of the code  a customer's reasonable basis for belief that the relevant transaction was legitimate.

'Individual reports have been issued and where relevant, highlight improvements necessary to meet the obligations of the code.

'In addition, we convened a workshop in January with a number of firms to highlight our initial findings.

'Our summary report is due to be published shortly, followed by a full review of the code later this year.'

Trade body UK Finance - which represents banks said in a statement: 'The banking and payments industry is wholly committed to defending its customers from authorised push payment fraud and stopping stolen money going to criminals.

'The APP Code, developed on a voluntary basis by the larger firms together with consumer groups, has established stronger customer protection standards and meant more victims are receiving compensation.

'However, as we have previously said a voluntary agreement alone is not enough and issues of liability and reimbursement would best be addressed by new legislation.

'Both the government and regulators must also consider how customer data breaches and vulnerabilities in other sectors such as telecoms and social media are facilitating fraud, as part of a holistic strategy to protect consumers from harm.'
Nigeria has drawn $8 million from a World Bank support fund of $90 million aimed at strengthening its response to disease outbreaks, an official has said.

The fund is domiciled under the banks Regional Disease Surveillance System Enhancement Project (REDISSE).

The bank, in a statement released in Abuja on Tuesday, said it had set aside the fund to assist the nation to respond to its health crisis.

The REDISSE is a world bank project initiated to cover all countries in the ECOWAS sub-region as a consequence of the 20142015 West Africa Ebola crisis.

It aims at strengthening national and regional cross-sectoral capacity for collaborative disease surveillance and epidemic preparedness in West Africa.

The bank also explained that it has been asked to provide a multi-pronged package of support over the next six months to strengthen the countrys preparedness for the immediate health crisis.

Nigerias finance minister, Zainab Ahmed, on Monday, had said the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has access to the REDISSE facility which is worth $90 million, of which the agency had drawn $8 million from and there is already a request to draw the remaining $82 million.

More support

The statement also indicated that the bank would also provide the federal government with budget support for a pro-poor stimulus package and the long term recovery.

Nigeria has had to adjust downward its 2020 budget in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on the global economy including plummeting oil prices.

Efforts to protect livelihoods and support local economic activities over the next 18 to 24 months will be critical in mitigating the economic and human impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Together with partners, the bank is discussing with the states and relevant federal agencies how best to protect livelihoods of poor and vulnerable families and support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to enable recovery.

Through the REDISSE project, about 10.6 million dollars has already been committed to support the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control in strengthening states emergency operation centre, building, renovating and providing equipment for treatment centres across eight states.

As well as bringing in essential medical supplies and drugs, testing kits, Personal Protective Equipment for frontline health workers, the bank said.

The Nigerian governors on Monday had said they were in touch with the World Bank for funds for states to mitigate the economic and social costs of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As at 9:30 p.m. on Monday, there were 238 confirmed cases of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria, 35 have been discharged with five deaths recorded.
Dividend paying stocks like Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (TSE:AQN) tend to be popular with investors, and for good reason - some research suggests a significant amount of all stock market returns come from reinvested dividends. On the other hand, investors have been known to buy a stock because of its yield, and then lose money if the company's dividend doesn't live up to expectations.

A high yield and a long history of paying dividends is an appealing combination for Algonquin Power & Utilities. It would not be a surprise to discover that many investors buy it for the dividends. Some simple analysis can reduce the risk of holding Algonquin Power & Utilities for its dividend, and we'll focus on the most important aspects below.

Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on Algonquin Power & Utilities!

TSX:AQN Historical Dividend Yield April 7th 2020

Payout ratios

Companies (usually) pay dividends out of their earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, the dividend might have to be cut. As a result, we should always investigate whether a company can afford its dividend, measured as a percentage of a company's net income after tax. Algonquin Power & Utilities paid out 53% of its profit as dividends, over the trailing twelve month period. This is a fairly normal payout ratio among most businesses. It allows a higher dividend to be paid to shareholders, but does limit the capital retained in the business - which could be good or bad.

Another important check we do is to see if the free cash flow generated is sufficient to pay the dividend. Algonquin Power & Utilities paid out 685% of its free cash flow last year, suggesting the dividend is poorly covered by cash flow. Paying out such a high percentage of cash flow suggests that the dividend was funded from either cash at bank or by borrowing, neither of which is desirable over the long term. While Algonquin Power & Utilities's dividends were covered by the company's reported profits, free cash flow is somewhat more important, so it's not great to see that the company didn't generate enough cash to pay its dividend. Cash is king, as they say, and were Algonquin Power & Utilities to repeatedly pay dividends that aren't well covered by cashflow, we would consider this a warning sign.

Story continues

Is Algonquin Power & Utilities's Balance Sheet Risky?

As Algonquin Power & Utilities has a meaningful amount of debt, we need to check its balance sheet to see if the company might have debt risks. A rough way to check this is with these two simple ratios: a) net debt divided by EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), and b) net interest cover. Net debt to EBITDA is a measure of a company's total debt. Net interest cover measures the ability to meet interest payments. Essentially we check that a) the company does not have too much debt, and b) that it can afford to pay the interest. With net debt of 6.22 times its EBITDA, Algonquin Power & Utilities could be described as a highly leveraged company. While some companies can handle this level of leverage, we'd be concerned about the dividend sustainability if there was any risk of an earnings downturn.

We calculated its interest cover by measuring its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), and dividing this by the company's net interest expense. Interest cover of 1.94 times its interest expense is starting to become a concern for Algonquin Power & Utilities, and be aware that lenders may place additional restrictions on the company as well. High debt and weak interest cover are not a great combo, and we would be cautious of relying on this company's dividend while these metrics persist.

Consider getting our latest analysis on Algonquin Power & Utilities's financial position here.

Dividend Volatility

One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. For the purpose of this article, we only scrutinise the last decade of Algonquin Power & Utilities's dividend payments. This dividend has been unstable, which we define as having been cut one or more times over this time. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was US$0.19 in 2010, compared to US$0.56 last year. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 11% a year over that time. The dividends haven't grown at precisely 11% every year, but this is a useful way to average out the historical rate of growth.

So, its dividends have grown at a rapid rate over this time, but payments have been cut in the past. The stock may still be worth considering as part of a diversified dividend portfolio.

Dividend Growth Potential

Given that the dividend has been cut in the past, we need to check if earnings are growing and if that might lead to stronger dividends in the future. It's good to see Algonquin Power & Utilities has been growing its earnings per share at 41% a year over the past five years. With recent, rapid earnings per share growth and a payout ratio of 53%, this business looks like an interesting prospect if earnings are reinvested effectively.

We'd also point out that Algonquin Power & Utilities issued a meaningful number of new shares in the past year. Trying to grow the dividend when issuing new shares reminds us of the ancient Greek tale of Sisyphus - perpetually pushing a boulder uphill. Companies that consistently issue new shares are often suboptimal from a dividend perspective.

Conclusion

Dividend investors should always want to know if a) a company's dividends are affordable, b) if there is a track record of consistent payments, and c) if the dividend is capable of growing. First, the company has a payout ratio that was within an average range for most dividend stocks, but it paid out virtually all of its generated cash flow. Next, earnings growth has been good, but unfortunately the dividend has been cut at least once in the past. While we're not hugely bearish on it, overall we think there are potentially better dividend stocks than Algonquin Power & Utilities out there.

It's important to note that companies having a consistent dividend policy will generate greater investor confidence than those having an erratic one. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. To that end, Algonquin Power & Utilities has 7 warning signs (and 2 which can't be ignored) we think you should know about.

We have also put together a list of global stocks with a market capitalisation above $1bn and yielding more 3%.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Rabbis across Northeast Ohio have released a video urging the Jewish community not hold Passover gatherings due to the threat of the coronavirus.

Passover, a major Jewish holiday which commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt, begins Wednesday. It is normally celebrated with a Seder, a ritual dinner performed by a community or by multiple generations of a family as they retell the story of the liberation.

The rabbis had a message for the Jewish community: while Passover is a sacred holiday, life is more sacred. And in order to preserve life, families must mark Passover separately.

Passover is so sacred to us but the most sacred thing to us is our value of life, Rabbi Nissim Abrin of Bais Avrohom said in an interview. It will be difficult for people, but the value of life supersedes any other consideration.

Rabbi Naphati Burnstein, of the Young Israel of Greater Cleveland, said in the video that Passover must be marked differently this year.

Its not an option. Its not something we can choose. We must do it differently this year, because our lives, Jewish law says life is so sacred our lives come before everything else, Burnstein said.

The video also mixes the perspective of medical professionals who urge social distancing.

The doctors spoke to us very clearly, Rabbi Alexander Charlop of Congregation Zichron Chaim said in the video. They are clearly saying that it is important for us to stay home, not to have anybody (over). There are no exceptions. And the reason is because we have to do whatever we can to save lives.

Watch the full video here, or below:
President Donald Trump on Monday rejected the idea of consulting with two of his predecessors for guidance on the coronavirus even as the number of Americans who have fallen to the disease surpassed 10,000.

Trump was asked at the White House whether he would seek the counsel of Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush  each of whom has extensive experience dealing with deadly diseases during their separate eight-year terms.

'No, not really,' Trump responded.

'We're doing a great job,' Trump continued. 'Hey, I inherited  we, this administration, we inherited a broken system,' Trump said.

'No, not really': Donald Trump said he will not call Barack Obama and George W. Bush to discuss the coronavirus outbreak. He said his administration was doing a 'great job'

Trump repeated his claim that when he took over there was 'no ammunition' for the U.S. military, and that 'they also gave us empty cupboards. The cupboard was bare.'

Hospitals have been slammed by the outbreak and are rushing to procure medical gear. The national stockpile is down to 10,000 ventilators, and Trump announced Monday that California would be transferring several hundred of the costly devices to states that need them.

'The testing system was broken and old,' Trump complained. The administration has been faulted for failing to ramp up testing in line with other countries who have tested a much greater percentage of their populations. It isn't possible to create a test until the virus exists, and the Chinese government only informed the U.S. about the existence of the new coronavirus Dec. 31 of last year.

ABC News reported this weekend that Bush became obsessed with preparing for a pandemic. ''If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare,' he said.

'The testing system was broken and old,' said Trump. The new coronavirus was not discovered until Dec. 31, 2019

Trump said Monday there was a 'light at the end of the tunnel'

More than 10,000 Americans have died of the coronavirus

Trump did not mention the 10,000 death milestone, although Vice President Mike Pence did

Barack Obama contended with other outbreaks, including Ebola and H1N1, during his tenure. He created a special security office for global health issues

President George W. Bush guided the nation on Sept. 11th and during its aftermath. He issued dire warnings about the need to prepare for a pandemic

Medical workers take in patients at a special coronavirus intake area at Maimonides Medical Center on April 06, 2020 in the Borough Park neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Hospitals in New York City, which has been especially hard hit by the coronavirus, are facing shortages of beds, ventilators and protective equipment for medical staff

Obama contended with the outbreak of the H1N1 virus as well as Ebola. He set up a special National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense that Trump eliminated early in his term.

Trump was asked about his predecessors after revealing that he spoke by phone with expected 2020 rival former Vice President Joe Biden.

'I also spoke a few minutes ago with vice president, former vice president Biden, who called and we had a really wonderful, warm conversation,' Trump said.

He confirmed the two talked about the coronavirus.

'This is what we talked about. This is what everyone's talking about. This is where they want to talk about. He gave me his point of view and I fully understood that and we just had a very friendly conversation. Lasted probably 15 minutes. It was really good. It was really good, really nice. I appreciate his calling,' Trump said.

Presidents in the past have consulted with predecessors during difficult times  even when predecessors came from another party.
Rapid testing for the coronavirus will finally be arriving in Indian Country, days after the Trump administration first said the Indian Health Service was going to be given priority as COVID-19 cases continue to rise at astronomical rates in tribal communities.

In response to repeated inquiries from Indianz.Com, the IHS on Tuesday morning said it expects to receive the promised systems on Wednesday. The equipment will then be distributed to health care facilities starting on Thursday, with the first rapid tests ready to go by Friday, according to the agency.

"This test allows for medical diagnostic testing at the time and place of patient care, provides COVID-19 results in under 13 minutes and expands the capacity for coronavirus testing for individuals exhibiting symptoms as well as for healthcare professionals and the first responder community," the IHS said in the statement

"The Indian Health Service headquarters is working closely with IHS area offices to distribute testing equipment and supplies where they will have the most impact," the agency added.

Arizona Army National Guard delivers supplies to help fight COVID-19 pic.twitter.com/uSPXDJcWta  Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez (@NNPrezNez) April 5, 2020

Certain areas of Indian Country have indeed been hit hard by the coronavirus. The Navajo Nation continues to see the largest number of COVID-19 cases, with 384 confirmed positive results and 15 deaths attributed to the disease as of Monday evening.

COVID-19 cases and deaths are growing at a very alarming rate on the Navajo Nation," President Jonathan Nez said in announcing the latest results and announcing a reservation-wide "mandatory" curfew this coming weekend.

Were in this fight together, but we have to be united if we want to beat the virus sooner than later," said Vice President Myron Lizer . "The longer the public chooses not to comply with staying home, the longer were going to be in this situation and the more risk that is posed to everyone."

The Albuquerque Area of the IHS , which serves more than 20 tribes in four states, is also emerging as a hotspot. The number of positive cases in the region increased by 152 percent in just one day over the last weekend, according to data provided by the agency. One small tribe in New Mexico warned that nearly 3 percent of its citizenry has already been infected by COVID-19.

If this statement does not make you realize how real and close to home this truly is, then we dont know what will, Acting Governor Floyd Toribio of the Pueblo of Zia said over the weekend, imploring people in a community of 700 people to comply with a stay at home order

Acting Governor Floyd Toribio of the Pueblo of Zia has confirmed 11  and as many as 20  #COVID19 cases within the small tribe. Only about 700 people live on the reservation. #Coronavirus #NewMexico https://t.co/Y5gblIV9l8  indianz.com (@indianz) April 7, 2020

Despite the high rates, testing for the coronavirus in the Albuquerque Area has not kept up. Over one day this past weekend, for example, the number of tests administered in the region grew by just 4 percent, according to the IHS data . Only on Monday did the testing rates finally show significant gains.

The coronavirus testing data also shows great disparities in Indian Country. The Great Plains Area , for instance, serves more than 130,000 Native Americans in four states. Most of the facilities in the region are run directly by the IHS.

Yet only 166 tests have been administered in the region as of April 5, according to the federal agency. On the day prior, only 159 people had been tested, reflecting a scarcity of supplies among people whose treaties promised them health care. President Julian Bear Runner of the Oglala Sioux Tribe has said the local IHS hospital only has 32 kits on one of the largest reservations in the U.S.

Stay safe everyone. Wash your hands. Keep our elders and our most vulnerable safe. Dont gather. Call an elder. #Coronavirus #COVID19 https://t.co/yoNpXvWbla  indianz.com (@indianz) April 7, 2020

With ordinary tribal citizens going to great lengths to find out whether they are COVID-19 positive, the rapid test systems are supposed to alleviate the situation. But the Trump administration has not been clear on where in Indian Country and, more importantly, when Indian Country will benefit.

On April 2, Dr. Deborah Birx , the coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force , was the first to announce that the IHS was going to receive rapid test kits. However, she did not offer any details about the effort.

But Birx did note that areas where significant testing has occurred has allowed these communities to take measures to contain the coronavirus. She indicated that wasn't necessarily the case in Indian Country.

The Trump administration, according to Brix, will be "prioritizing this new rapid test kit to those areas that may not have the same amount of access -- to the Indian Health Service, and to the public health institutions, and the public health and state labs so that they can use that and start forward leaning into surveillance."

COVID-19 cases and deaths are growing at a very alarming rate on the Navajo Nation. This weekend, we are initiating a 57-hour mandatory curfew because many people arent abiding by the stay at home order," said President Jonathan Nez. @NNPrezNez https://t.co/pUQIlnQD4I  indianz.com (@indianz) April 6, 2020

Three days later, President Donald Trump himself touted the rapid testing effort. During a briefing at the White House on April 5, he said a private company is producing them for "public health labs ... as well as the Indian Health Service."

But even then there was conflicting information. During his turn at the podium, Vice President Mike Pence pointed out that some communities are already using the rapid coronavirus test.

"They all got the 15-minute test," Pence said of a non-tribal community back in his home state of Indiana.

Later in the briefing, when a reporter asked directly about the rapid tests, Trump demurred to Pence. "The 15 minute test has really been a breakthrough," the vice president said.

Yet Pence also said the tests promised to the IHS had not yet been distributed.

"Were distributing them to all 50 states and the Indian health care system," Pence said during the briefing . "And then well be distributing the tests. Dr. Birx, is there anything to add further on that?"

"Thats perfect, sir," said Birx.

Pressed even further, a different official stepped to the podium. Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, the vice director of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff , said the tests had not in fact been distributed because they were still sitting on a "shelf" somewhere.

"I believe theyre on the shelf at Abbott, a good majority of them," Polowczyk said, naming the company that Trump earlier said was producing the tests.

Finally, Trump jumped back in, appearing to want to prevent anyone from thinking that the tests weren't going out.

"Tuesday, they go out," Trump responded, indicating that he already knew an answer to the question about rapid testing. "They go out on Tuesday."

Interview with Stacy Bohlen and Aaron Payment Thank you for joining us for a very special live interview with Stacy Bohlen, executive director of the National Indian Health Board, and Dr. Aaron Payment, first vice president of the National Congress of American Indians. Kevin Abourezk is our host tonight.Another special guest will be joining us tonight, a young tribal leader who was recently diagnosed with COVID-19 but is feeling well enough tonight to join us and share her story. Posted by Indianz.Com on Wednesday, April 1, 2020

During an Indianz.Com broadcast last week, one tribal leader said she was repeatedly denied testing, both by the IHS and other providers, even though she was exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19, such as high fever, persistent cough and shortness of breath. it took two weeks for Myra Pickering to get a test, during which time she was diagnosed with double pneumonia. Her positive result was finally confirmed by the IHS on March 24

"It was horrible," Pickering said of her suffering with COVID-19. "I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat."

Pickering, who serves on the council for the Otoe-Missouria Tribe , is now in recovery. She's been sharing her story widely in order to show Indian Country how the coronavirus can impact anyone, from children to elders and other loved ones.

"I don't want anybody to get this," Pickering said on the Indianz.Com broadcast on April 2. "This virus doesn't discriminate."

"I thought I was fine and then, boom, it just changed," Pickering added.

Indian Times with Kevin and Leo Thank you for joining us for Indian Times with Kevin and Leo! Tonight's show features a very special guest, a Navajo man who recently survived COVID-19. Posted by Indianz.Com on Sunday, April 5, 2020

Indian Times Podcast with Kevin and Leo: Live with Alastair Bitsoi

But even though Pickering is on the mend, she has been told that she might not get tested again to ensure she has been cleared of the coronavirus. Her husband -- who has been in quarantine in the family's home throughout the ordeal -- hasn't been tested either.

"They're very strict," she said in reference to what health providers have told her about coronavirus testing.

"As for trying to get tested, just really keep asking, just pressure them," Pickering said. "Try your hardest to get tested."

Urban Indians have encountered the same hurdles. During a live broadcast of the Indian Times podcast on Sunday evening, Alastair Bitsoi , a citizen of the Navajo Nation, said he was repeatedly denied a coronavirus test even though he was exhibiting symptoms and had recently returned from New York City -- a hotspot for COVID-19.

"I even pleaded in the emergency room ... to test me," Bitsoi said of his coronavirus testing efforts, not just in New Mexico but also in Utah.

"I kept trying to argue with them, and kept advocating for myself because I need care," said Bitsoi, who works for Utah Dine Bikeyah , a group that advocates for increased protections on ancestral and sacred tribal lands in Utah.

Yes, Im COVID-19 Survivor!  Thank you all for the love and please take this pandemic seriously. #StayHomeStaySafeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/kex4LrWI86  Alastair Bitsoi (@AlastairBitsoi) April 4, 2020

Like Pickering, it took Bitsoi about two weeks to finally get a test in Salt Lake City in Utah, where he currently resides. But by the time he got his positive result, he was starting to improve with the help of Navajo traditional medicine and conventional treatments. On Saturday, April 4, he declared himself a "COVID-19 Survivor" on social media.

"Maybe I'm not White, maybe I'm not Mormon, maybe that's why I didn't get tested in the first place," Bitsoi said of the homogenous state of Utah. He said New Mexico health authorities have been more helpful, particularly with following up on his current condition.

Bitsoi wants to return home to the Navajo Nation to help out with coronavirus efforts on the largest reservation in the U.S. But due to lack of testing, he currently has no way of knowing whether he could be responsible for spreading the disease he once carried.

"I just want to go home and help my people and be there and support them," Bitsoi said on the broadcast.

On April 5, the Navajo Department of Health issued Public Health Emergency Order 2020-005, implementing a 57-hour weekend curfew beginning at 8:00 p.m. (MDT) on Friday, April 10, to 5:00 a.m. (MDT) on Monday, April 13 to slow the spread of the COVID-19 on the Navajo Nation. pic.twitter.com/laM0TVDVgL  Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez (@NNPrezNez) April 6, 2020

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Speaking at the UK's daily update on Tuesday (April 7) Raab confirmed the earlier information coming out of Downing Street that Johnson remained stable overnight and he was breathing without any assistance. He added that the Prime Minister has not required any mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.

Johnson's personal battle with the virus has shaken the government just as the United Kingdom, now in its third week of virtual lockdown, enters what scientists say will be the deadliest phase of its coronavirus epidemic, which has already killed at least 6,159 people.

Johnson, 55, was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital, across the River Thames from parliament, late on Sunday after suffering symptoms, including a fever and a cough, for more than 10 days.

But his condition rapidly deteriorated, and he was moved on Monday to an intensive care unit, where the most serious cases are treated, in case he needed to be put on a ventilator.

"He remains in good spirits and ... his progress continues to be monitored in critical care," Raab who is down deputising for Johnson said.

The UK's chief scientific adivsor Patrick Vallance was also present at the briefing where he reported that the UK is currently not seeing acceleration in hospital admissions, but that the social distancing measures must still be adherred to in order to see longer term progress.
Today, the Arabian Peninsula is one of the most arid regions in the world. But its climate has not always been the same, and the past has seen both greater aridity and more humidity at different points in time. As a region at risk of water stress in a heating world, Arabia is of significant interest to scientists studying climate change.

In the current study, archaeologists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, conduct the first detailed comparison of human-environment interactions across Arabia, examining southeastern Arabia and the emerging record from northern Arabia. They find that ancient peoples responded to climate changes in a variety of ways, based on the region in which they lived and the environmental, social and technological resources available to them.

High mobility, water management, and economic transformation in northern Arabia

Approximately 10,000 years ago, Arabia saw a significant increase in rainfall and an expansion of lakes and vegetation which supported human settlements across the peninsula. In the millennia that followed, however, a series of extreme droughts led to drastic ecosystem changes.

In northern Arabia, the presence of large, shallow aquifers and seasonal playas facilitated survival through highly variable climatic conditions, including several centuries-long droughts. In particular, desert oases -- including one in what is now the city of Jubbah -- sustained human occupation, and the archaeological record indicates human presence in the surrounding Nefud Desert at multiple times during a 9000-year period. The discovery of the Jebel Oraf rockshelter on the fringes of the Jubbah oasis and a lakeside site with more than 170 hearths and remains of cattle show long-term habitation of the region. As Dr. Maria Guagnin explains, "pastoralist populations occupied the region repeatedly across millennia, relying on mobility and an extensive knowledge of the landscape and its resources to survive climatic changes and droughts."

During the 'Dark Millennium,' an arid period lasting from approximately 5,900 to 5,300 years ago during which much of Arabia is thought to have been uninhabitable, the researchers again find evidence of occupation at the Jubbah oasis. In other areas of northern Arabia, people constructed walls around oases, built landscape features to capture water runoff and began excavating wells. "Taken together," Dr. Huw Groucutt notes, "these finds indicate that the presence of extensive shallow aquifers, in combination with high population mobility, water management strategies and economic transformation, provided opportunities for the long-term survival of north Arabian populations."

Southeastern populations sought out the resource-rich coast in the face of droughts

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Southeastern Arabia, in contrast with the north, seemingly enjoyed fewer sources of groundwater and saw a more direct correlation between the succession of ancient droughts and dramatic social change. After the Holocene Humid Phase, a subsequent climatic downturn lasting from 8,200 to 8,000 years ago brought effects so extreme that it is thought to have been linked to a shift from hunting and gathering to domesticated animal herding, according to previous research. Subsequent droughts (7,500 to 7,200 years ago and 6,500 to 6,300 years ago) correspond with declines in interior desert occupation, the development of herder and fisher communities on the coast, and the establishment of a maritime trade network between Arabian pastoralists and agricultural communities in Mesopotamia.

The extreme aridity of the 'Dark Millennium' brought about the abandonment of the southeast Arabian desert interior and the migration of populations to the Gulf coast. Previous research findings suggest, however, that even coastal populations felt the effects of strained resources. Earlier excavations at the seaside site of Ras al-Hamra reveal that Omani coastal populations from this period were in poor overall health. Specially arranged dugong (marine mammal) bone mounds excavated on the island of Akab in the United Arab Emirates suggest ritualized acts of consumption, perhaps a response to food scarcity.

Past responses highlight the need for sustainable solutions to confront climate change

Understanding the relationship between regional manifestations of climate change and adaptations that allow for societal resilience can provide valuable lessons for modern societies the world over. "For millennia, moving away from hard-hit regions was the main human response to severe climate downturns," says lead author Professor Michael Petraglia, "but with growing population sizes and an increasing investment in place, options for human mobility have decreased over time. In the same way, the rapid depletion of aquifers in recent years highlights the need for sustainable solutions to meet environmental challenges."

The researchers stress that taking action now to address the climate emergency is in the world's best interest. "Sometimes people dismiss climate change as something we don't need to worry too much about, because we've faced it before," notes Professor Nicole Boivin, director of the Institute's Department of Archaeology and a coauthor of the study. "But the scenarios we face now are unprecedented. Not only is human-caused climate change more unpredictable, but the options available to societies today are much more limited than those that allowed our ancestors to weather past changes."

We acknowledge the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage for supporting our research in Arabia.
BRECKSVILLE, Ohio -- City Council will consider at least three coronavirus-related measures during its Tuesday night (April 7) meeting, to which residents can listen through a link on the citys website.

One resolution would allow the city to apply for a Community Resilience Grant from ServeOhio, which provides funding under the 1993 federal National & Community Service Trust Act. The city would use the grant for delivering food, containers, utensils and supplies to seniors in need.

Like several communities, Brecksville has continued to help seniors in need through the COVID-19 crisis by delivering meals and providing rides to medical appointments.

Under another resolution and two ordinances, the city, due to COVID-19, would revise its employee handbook to provide paid sick leave and leaves of absence for permanent, part-time employees.

In an April 1 email to residents, Mayor Jerry Hruby said police and firefighter staffing hasnt changed because of COVID-19.

A major revision to any safety force procedure is simply to expect to be questioned as to the nature of your call or emergency situation, Hruby said in the email. We are trying to protect our employees as they protect you.

Hruby referenced a new Fire Department handout, which states that dispatchers will ask emergency callers if they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, whether they are under quarantine or if they have been exposed to anyone with COVID-19 within the previous 14 days. If the answer to any question is yes, dispatchers will ask callers to meet first responders outside if possible and to wear a face covering.

As for Tuesdays (April 7) council meeting, it wasnt clear whether all or some council members would meet at City Hall, or if all would attend by remote communications, or if residents were allowed into council chambers.

Hruby said residents can access the meetings audio on Facebook, but they dont need Facebook accounts. Instead, they can link to the meeting at https://wwwfacebook.com/233577357056186/live/.

We will then create a link on the city webpage the day after the meeting for those who are interested in listening to the meeting (after the fact), Hruby said in the email to residents.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, in a March 13 opinion, said public bodies can adhere to both the states Open Meetings Law and the state governments COVID-19 stay-at-home order by participating in public meetings through teleconferencing and by live-streaming meetings to the public via internet or television. The Ohio General Assembly has since passed legislation to that effect.

Heres a brief rundown of whats happening in other Ohio 82 corridor communities:

Strongsville

 Due to COVID-19, Republic Waste, the citys trash hauler, will pick up trash only if its sealed in plastic bags 50 pounds or lighter. It will not pick up bulk items or loose cardboard. Also, Republic will not collect yard waste, even if its bagged. Residents needing to dispose of large items can take them to the citys waste transfer station.

 Our police, fire and dispatch services continue to operate at the highest standards, Mayor Thomas Perciak said in a video on the citys website. 911 calls will always be answered, and we will continue to respond to all emergencies.

 Southwest General Health Center in Middleburg Heights is seeking donations of N95 masks, isolation gowns, hand sanitizer, nitrile gloves, sanitizing wipes and eye protection. Contact Laura Bomgardner at lbomgardner@swgeneral.com or 216-318-3332.

North Royalton

In an April 6 message on the citys website, Mayor Larry Antoskiewicz advised residents to follow the citys website for the latest information on COVID-19. They can also follow the citys Facebook page.

Fire Chief Robert Chegan Jr. addressed residents concern about the latest Cuyahoga County Board of Health report on COVID-19 cases by zip code. The report reveals a relatively large number of cases in North Royaltons 44133 zip code.

Chegan said at least some of those cases have been traced to ManorCare Health Services, a long-term care and rehabilitation center on Sprague Road in Parma that is within the 44133 zip code area. The county Board of Health has been investigating a cluster of confirmed COVID-19 cases at ManorCare.

We knew that residents in our community would be infected with COVID-19 at some point, Chegan said in a message on the citys website. We have been and are presently taking every measure to protect our members first and foremost.

On Tuesday night (April 7), council members had a choice of attending their regular meeting in person or through teleconferencing. Residents were invited to attend in person at City Hall, although officials would ensure that they adhere to Gov. Mike DeWines social distancing recommendations. To view the meeting online, residents can link to https://zoom.us/j/681482027.

Broadview Heights

 Community Paper-Shredding Day, originally scheduled for April 4, was canceled. Another one is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 29, according to the citys website.

 The Broadview Heights Food Bank needs unexpired, nonperishable food items, including pasta, pasta sauce, boxed potatoes, rice or rice mixes, canned meat, oatmeal, cereal or breakfast bars, nuts, shelf-stable milk and milk substitutes, canned stews, peanut butter, jelly and canned fruit. Residents can leave donations in a labeled bin at the front entrance of the Leo H. Bender Community Building, 9543 Broadview Road.

 An American Red Cross blood drive is still scheduled for 1:30 to 6 p.m. April 13 at the Broadview Heights Community and Recreation Center, 9543 Broadview Road.

 Registration for Safety Town, where young children learn about traffic safety, is still scheduled for 4 to 5:30 p.m. May 1 at the Brian Kloka Police Training Facility across from the Police Department.

 Work on the Ohio 82 widening between Interstate 77 and Broadview Road is continuing. The city provides weekly updates on its website.

Read more from the Sun Star Courier.
The Algarve circuit in Portugal has received approval to host Formula 1 races.

The Lusa news agency said the circuit in Portimao, in the country's south, applied for the highest FIA certification level last year.

"We have been trying for this since last year when we received an inspection carried out by the late Charlie Whiting and Eduardo Freitas," said circuit boss Paulo Pinheiro.

"The changes requested by the FIA were made and we have now received the highest level of certification from the federation," he added.

Curiously, Pinheiro said the Algarve venue has also signed a "confidential" agreement with a Formula 1 team to do some testing this November.

It is believed the track might also bid to host F1 winter testing, or try to attract MotoGP.

"It is one of the possibilities," Pinheiro said. "Let's see how the pandemic evolves.

"Unless there are significant changes, race organisers won't be able to follow the current calendars."

(GMM)
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research's (CIHR) Institute of Indigenous Peoples' Health has awarded a CAD$3.5 million operating grant to Dr. Treena Wasonti:io Delormier of McGill University's School of Human Nutrition. The grant will help to establish a Network Environment for Indigenous Health Research (NEIHR) over the next five years in the province of Quebec.

The purpose of the NEIHR program is to establish a network of centres focused on capacity development, research and knowledge translation centred on Indigenous Peoples, and is an integral component of CIHR's $100 M action plan for building healthier futures for Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and Metis) peoples living in Canada. Multiple indicators show that Indigenous Peoples across Canada suffer a significant health gap compared to non-Indigenous populations. This includes reduced life expectancy, higher children mortality rates and increased rates of Tuberculosis infection, all of which underline the pressing need for medical research that focuses on Indigenous health issues.

"The NEIHR is an incredible opportunity for Indigenous communities, Indigenous serving organizations and academic institutions to bring together the many positive examples of respectful and rigorous health research," said Dr. Delormier, the Nominated Principal Applicant of the grant. "It will build on current efforts in academic institutions to create supportive spaces for Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous students and knowledge holders."

The network is entitled: Tahatikonhsontontie' - 'the faces that are coming '-- Community Mobilization for Indigenous Health Research Capacity and will be hosted at the Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention Project (KSDPP) in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake. The Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention Project is a nationally and internationally recognised best practice in community-based research with 25 years of experience.

The mission of the Tahatikonhsontontie' Network Environment for Indigenous Health Research is to be the center for research and training in community mobilization and knowledge translation for Indigenous health promotion. Network partners include Indigenous communities, Indigenous-serving organizations, academic researchers and institutions, and decision-makers and knowledge users. The Network aims to develop research opportunities, share research expertise and wise practices, and enhance access to training, research tools and methodologies that support the self-determination of Indigenous communities in attaining their visions of health and well-being. Within these community centered research spaces, Indigenous knowledge will be honored and privileged, and bridge the strengths of western ways of knowing when appropriate.

###
A Florida man fatally shot his wife, whom he suspected of infidelity, and their two teenage sons before turning the gun on himself over the weekend.

Haines City police officers and Polk County deputies found four people dead after responding to a 911 call at the family's home at 7.30am on Sunday, according to a police news release. There was no evidence of a struggle.

Mark Joseph, 43, had called 911 and told dispatchers that he had shot his wife and children inside the Southern Dunes subdivision, police said.

Police in Haines City, Florida, responded to a home in the Southern Dunes subdivision on Sunday to find Mark Joseph, 43, Marie Joseph, 43, and their sons, Darren, 18, and Markus, 14, dead in a triple murder-suicide carried out by the father

He then told the dispatcher that he intended to shoot himself and that the door would be unlocked.

Responding officers and deputies said they found Marie Joseph, 43, lying on a couch with her husband sitting dead in a nearby chair.

Darren Joseph, 18, and Markus Joseph, 14, were found in their respective beds. All four had gunshot wounds to the head, investigators said. Marie Joseph had also been shot in the shoulder.

'We cannot understand the unwarranted and senseless nature of this tragedy and the poignant reminder of the suffering that family and friends will now endure,' Haines City Police Chief Jim Elensky said.

According to the police, the investigation into the triple murder-suicide has revealed a possible motive: Mark suspected his wife was having an affair, reported WTSP.

The husband worked two jobs at a warehouse and at a security company, and was in possession of a gun.
7 Apr  TVB producer Cheung Chi Ming is not worried at all by the current pandemic disrupting the filming of the station's many travel programmes, as they already have enough material to broadcast for half a year.

As reported on Mingpao, Cheung, who is in charge of the company's non-drama programmes, revealed that the Benedict Yuan's show, "Inspiring Journeys" has begun airing since 5 April, followed by "Fun Abroad" and "Hipster Tour".

"Earlier in mid-February, Kelly Fu and Yeung Chiu Hoi" went to Cambodia to film "Fun Abroad". They even wore masks on the plane when they arrived. It turned out to be the last shoot for a travel show for TVB before the coronavirus outbreak was announced as a pandemic," he said.

Asked whether there is a plan for these shows to be filmed outside of Hong Kong again in the future, Cheung stated that they will only make the decision according to the situation with the pandemic.

"At present, there is no plan. But during this global pandemic, I think it's more enjoyable to watch travel shows than watching the daily news about the outbreak," he said.

(Photo Source: Kelly Fu Instagram)
Miss England 2019, Bhasha Mukherjee, has dropped her crown and return to work as a doctor during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

The 24-year-old took a career break as a junior doctor after competing in the Miss World pageant in December 2019.

Mukherjee told CNN on Monday that she has returned to the United Kingdom to assist her fellow health care workers.

READ ALSO  Coronavirus: UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson Moved To Intensive Care Unit

According to Mukherjee, it didnt feel right for her to continue wearing her Miss England crown, even if she was performing humanitarian work while her colleagues were risking their lives treating coronavirus patients back home.
US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter on Friday to shed light on how coronavirus impacts the communities of people of colour differently than white communities, and wound up in a heated exchange with Fox News host Laura Ingraham as a result.

"COVID deaths are disproportionately spiking in Black + Brown communities. Why? Because the chronic toll of redlining, environmental racism, wealth gap, etc ARE underlying health conditions," Ms Ocasio-Cortez wrote. "Inequality is a comorbidity. COVID relief should be drafted with a lens of reparations."

Ms Ingraham, host of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle, disagreed with the suggestion that black and brown communities receive special consideration from the government and responded by bringing up the Congresswoman's previous job in bartending.

"The Doctor of Mixology will save us!" Ms Ingraham wrote.

Ms Ingraham did not offer further rebuttal to Ms Ocasio-Cortez's data or claims. However, Ms Ocasio-Cortez suggested that Ms Ingraham was peddling misinformation and suggested she shouldn't have a television show.

"Didn't you just put a doctor on your show who faked their employment at Lenox Hill hospital and touted a COVID "treatment" that you tweeted & Twitter had to remove because a man may have died trying to self-administer it?" Ms Ocasio-Cortez asked, sharing a news story about Ingraham's deleted information. "I'm sorry, why are you on TV again?"

The television show host once again condescended to the Congresswoman, suggesting she didn't know the difference between "admitting privileges" and being "employed by" as a result of her being "a liberal."

Ms Ingraham  who has been described in the past as an "ardent nationalist"  was not alone in criticising Ms Ocasio-Cortez for discussing how races are differently impacted by the coronavirus.

"I deal w/ a lot of violent threats, vitriol, etc. But I never get more hate aimed at me than when I address racial inequalities," Ms Ocasio-Cortez wrote. "If some people think racial disparities are as much a myth as other issues I discuss, then why do they get so much more violent & angry on this topic?"

Recommended AOC calls for coronavirus rent freeze to help lower income groups

Later, Ms Ocasio-Cortez shared data coming from Michigan that substantiated her argument that communities of colour are disproportionately affected by the virus.

The data suggested that both the rates of infection and death were highest in black and brown communities, representing 35 per cent of overall infections and 40 per cent of overall deaths.

"This pandemic is happening in CONTEXT," she wrote. "A lot of folks who deny racism have no idea what it really is."
Army dog trainers in south Chinas Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region paid tribute to 31 deceased military dogs on April 3, ahead of the Tomb-Sweeping Day, a traditional Chinese holiday when people commemorate deceased family and friends.

For the armed police, military dogs are both silent comrades and loyal partners. They play a special role in searching, rescuing victims and clearing explosives. Like ordinary soldiers, military dogs observe discipline and are hard working.

Dogs trainers clean the tombs of army dogs on April 3.
Modern Family star Sarah Hyland has revealed she was disappointed with her character's storylines in the shows final seasons.

The long-running family sitcom comes to a finish this week after more than 10 years on the air, with the shows grand finale airing on 8 April in the US.

However, Hyland  who has played Haley Dunphy since the show first aired in 2009  has admitted that shed felt let down by the decision to have her character become a mother to twins in the shows 10th season.

I dont think Im processing, I havent really felt the sadness yet, she told Cosmopolitan when asked about the sitcoms end.

The actor, 29, suggested that shed rather have seen Dunphy own her badassery in the fashion worldbecoming a badass stylist or brand mogul or anything like that.

She added that she found the lack of depth to the storyline disappointing.

There are so many amazing mothers who are also hard workers and excel at their jobs and kill it every day in both aspects, she said.

That would have been a really cool thing to see, especially from someone like Haley.

Modern Family airs on ABC in the United States and stars Sofia Vergara, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ariel Winter, and is available to stream in the UK on NOW TV.
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The move is intended to encourage more banks to participate because many are reluctant to lend to small companies.



By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON  The Federal Reserve said Monday it will support the governments $349 billion small business lending program, which had a rocky start Friday.

The Fed said that it will buy loans that banks make to small businesses as part of the program, which is being carried out by banks and the Small Business Administration and was set up under the $2.2 trillion economic relief package.





. . .
Presidente @MartinVizcarraC: Contamos con 330 mil pruebas rapidas que han sido distribuidas a todas las regiones del pais considerando las necesidades que cada una requiere, con el fin de tener un mayor control y conocimiento de los casos presentados. pic.twitter.com/yewIDXdz0Z
Australia's 2020 Summit 12 years ago was worried about climate change sparking an increase in mosquito-borne illnesses.

Health experts also warned about the threat of a bird flu pandemic and the danger of germ-based terrorism, but said little about coronavirus despite a recent outbreak of SARS in China.

As a new Labor prime minister in April 2008, Kevin Rudd brought more than 1,000 delegates to Parliament House in Canberra to discuss 'critical' strategies for the future.

Griffith University principal research leader Michael Good, an infectious diseases and vaccines expert who co-chaired the summit's health policy roundtable 12 years ago, has admitted there was little discussion about coronavirus respiratory illnesses derived from bats.

'I do not have my notes with me from the 2020 Summit. However, as I recall from that time in general, a pandemic of influenza was more of a concern than a new coronavirus per se,' Professor Good told Daily Mail Australia.

Australia's 2020 Summit 12 years ago was worried about the threat of a flu pandemic and the danger of germ-based terrorism. As a new Labor prime minister in April 2008 (pictured), Kevin Rudd brought more than 1,000 delegates to Parliament House in Canberra to discuss 'critical' strategies for the future

Mr Rudd's 2020 Summit also discussed the prospect of mosquito-borne illnesses surging as global temperatures increased, five months after winning an election fought over climate change.

Following that two-day summit, global warming was identified as a pressing health danger for 2020.

'By 2020, we may see rapidly rising levels of Ross River fever and dengue fever by 2020 as a result of climate change,' a communique said.

Health experts were particularly focused on avian influenza turning into a pandemic and the prospect of terrorists releasing germs.

They recommended the establishment of a new group within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to tackle avian influenza and the possible threat of germ-based terrorism.

'Set up a health ASEAN  a collaborative regional group to focus on emerging infectious diseases like bird flu, plan for and be ready to respond to bioterrorism and share learning and best practice on chronic and preventable diseases,' an interim report said.

While tropical diseases and bird flu were also high on the agenda, the threat of a coronavirus wasn't - despite a SARS outbreak in China just five years earlier.

Griffith University principal research leader Michael Good (pictured), an infectious diseases and vaccines expert who co-chaired the summit's health policy roundtable, has admitted there was more discussion about bird flu that coronavirus

SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, had broken out in China only five years earlier in late 2002, killing 774 people during the next year in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada and Singapore.

Like COVID-19, SARS was a virus that had jumped from bats to humans in China.

Former federal Labor MP Kelvin Thomson, who served as a backbencher under Kevin Rudd, said his former boss was more focused on making Australia an even more open economy at that 2020 Summit a dozen years ago.

'I don't think there was much consideration given to risks like pandemics,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Mr Thomson, who now belongs to the Sustainable Australia Party, said COVID-19 highlighted the limits of relying on China for medical equipment imports.

'It showed the limits of globalisation and the need for us to be more self sufficient,' he said.

'The fact we're dependent on global supply chains for so much in the way of medical supplies really has been a failure of vision.'

Professor Good, however, defended the summit in 2008 focusing on bird flu more than coronvirus, arguing few infectious diseases turned into pandemics.

While tropical diseases and bird flu were also high on the agenda in 2008, the threat of a coronavirus wasn't - despite a SARS outbreak in China just five years earlier. Pictured is a woman at Sydney airport wearing a face mask and waiting for passengers to arrive

'Since I have been working in infectious disease research, there has been a new emerging infectious disease about every six to 12 months,' he said.

'Few turn into pandemics but some do. Swine Flu, HIV and now COVID-19 are big ones.

'As the environment is encroached upon, the chances of organisms jumping from one species to another increases.'

Australian National University Medical School Professor Peter Collignon it could be two years until a coronavirus vaccine was developed, if one was developed at all

Australian National University Medical School Professor Peter Collignon said it could be two years until a coronavirus vaccine was developed - if this happened.

'A vaccine is going to be at least 18 months, two years away if we get a vaccine at all,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.

'That's not a given. They couldn't make one for SARS.

'There is still a possibility we may never have one because we don't have a vaccine for HIV, we don't have a vaccine for Hep C.'

Nonetheless, Professor Collignon said a COVID-19 vaccine was likely.

'Do I think we're going to get a vaccine that's safe and effective? Yes I do,' he said.

Professor Good agreed a coronavirus vaccine would take a lot longer to develop compared with one for influenza.

'If it had been a new flu pandemic then a vaccine might be developed more quickly, but I do think that a vaccine will be required for COVID and I am optimistic that one of the many being tried will be successful,' he said. 'Fingers crossed!'

In later years, the federal government has had pandemic plans based on World Health Organisation warnings about mainly avian influenza

In later years, the federal government has had pandemic plans based on World Health Organisation warnings about mainly avian influenza.

'The way in which the Commonwealth government and state and territory governments respond to threats of imported infectious disease is influenced by a global policy framework, led by the World Health Organisation (WHO),' a parliamentary report said.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

The WHO has been criticised for not declaring coronavirus a pandemic until March 12, even though China had belatedly declared an illness outbreak in Wuhan on January 7.

The director-general of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a former Ethiopian health minister, had instead used the term 'public health emergency of international concern' from January 30 until March 11.

Adjunct professor Bill Bowtell, from the University of New South Wales Kirby Institute, has previously criticised the Australian government for being slow to provide adequate coronavirus testing.

Last month, he also urged the government to quickly introduce temperature testing at airports, as Taiwan and Singapore had done after enduring the SARS epidemic.

Professor Bowtell was also criticised Australia's failure to delay closing the borders to non-citizens until March 20.

This delay meant travellers from the United States brought COVID-19 into Australia.

Daily Mail Australia contacted Kevin Rudd for comment.
She was 'heartbroken' after losing out on the role of Catwoman in the upcoming Batman film.

Eiza Gonzalez played a different kind of masked woman as she went to a Whole Foods in Los Angeles on Monday.

The 30-year-old Hobbes & Shaw actress followed new Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines in the U.S. by covering her face with a bandanna.

Proper protection: Eiza Gonzalez, 30, followed CDC guidelines by using a cloth mask as she picked up groceries at a Whole Foods in Los Angeles on Monday

Eiza rocked a grungy look in a relaxed pair of frayed olive-colored pants and black combat boots.

She had a navy True Religion bandanna tied around her face and wore her brunette tresses back in a messy bun.

The Baby Driver actress completed her look with some rubber gloves and a red tie-dyed Def Leppard sweat shirt.

She's shown herself to be a classic rock fan after previously being spotted in Led Zeppelin and Grateful Dead T-shirts.

Flower power: Eiza rocked a tie-dyed Def Leppard sweatshirt, olive-colored pants and black combat boots, along with rubber gloves. She carried two bunches of pink and yellow tulips

Eiza had her cart filled with essentials, but she also carried bunches of pink and yellow tulips in one arm.

She did her best to follow guidelines urging Americans to begin wearing cloth masks when going out in public.

The agency requests that Americans not buy surgical masks or N95 respirators so as to avoid a run on those items, which are in dangerously short supply at hospitals across the country.

The new guidelines were devised following new evidence that some people infected with the novel coronavirus may go up to two weeks without showing any symptoms, all while being contagious.

Some contagious individuals may never even develop symptoms, despite passing the virus on to other who could suffer potentially life-threatening complications.

Disappointing: Last month, Eiza revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that she was devastated after learning she lost out on the role of Catwoman in The Batman

Tough competition: The role ultimately went to Zoe Kravitz, who'll star opposite Robert Pattinson as the new caped crusader; pictured March 10

Last month, Eiza revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that she was devastated after learning that the coveted Catwoman role opposite Robert Pattinson in The Batman had been awarded to Zoe Kravitz.

When asked if she had imagined herself in the role, she said, 'It's impossible not to do that, especially when you get so far down the line. It's part of why you're so far down the line because you're living and dreaming the character.

'For my prep for every role, I'm kind of a weirdo, especially when I'm already at the camera test stage or really deep into it,' she continued.

'I will live and breathe the character; I'm more traditional in that sense. It is heartbreaking; it is always hard. You have to envision yourself in the role in order to see the role. You can't have one foot in and one foot out.'

Back at it: Despite the setback, she rebounded with another high profile superhero role opposite The Fast & Furious franchise's Vin Diesel in Bloodshot; pictured March 13 with James Corden

Despite the setback, she rebounded with another high profile superhero role opposite The Fast & Furious franchise's Vin Diesel in Bloodshot.

The film, which also stars Guy Pearce, Sam Heughan and Toby Kebbell, tells the story of a murdered Marine who is resurrected via futuristic nanotechnology to become an unstoppable assassin.

But as his memories of his previous life returns, he begins to question the circumstances surrounding his death.

Eiza plays her own super soldier who teams up with Diesel's character.
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - April 6, 2020) - April 6, 2020 - Raise Production Inc. (TSXV: RPC) ("Raise" or the "Company") is providing the following corporate update to its shareholders in regards to the Covid-19 pandemic and decline in oil prices.

As the Company's customer base has begun reducing capital and operating expenditures and to keep its employees as safe as possible during the global Covid-19 pandemic, the Company has taken decisive action over the last two weeks to preserve its cash position while maintaining its ability to effectively service and supply its customers.

As Raise has a small workforce, it is imperative that it keeps essential personnel healthy. The Company has been compliant with all government recommendations such as "working from home" when practical, practicing the required social distancing at the workplace and limiting access to its facilities by non-essential and third-party personnel.

In order to preserve its cash reserve, the Company has taken the following steps:

Temporarily laid off four full time employees and continues to monitor ongoing staffing levels on a weekly basis for additional temporary layoffs or wage subsidy programs that may apply and are being offered by government agencies;

Senior executive staff have taken significant salary reductions;

Some remaining staff have taken work week reductions and salary reductions;

The manufacturing facility will be shutting down temporarily effective April 9, 2020. During this time, Raise will have enough inventory on hand to service its current client base for approximately three months;

Made contingency plans with its third-party supply partners to ensure that any product required during the manufacturing facility closure can be supplied within an acceptable time period;

Negotiated a 25% reduction in the Calgary facility rent for April and May and potentially beyond that date if needed;

Placed all applicable patent legal and filing fees on hold that can be without compromising patent value and integrity; and

Suspended certain software programs along with any other services that can be reduced or put on hold due to less staff in the facility.

The Company will continue to monitor the market for changes and demand for its products and services and can react quickly to any customer need during this time.

Sales and marketing efforts continue through social and electronic media and the Company encourages stakeholders to view its LinkedIn and website for weekly updates on products.

Operations are viewed as an essential service as this is the segment that designs the completion, assembles components and delivers the products and services to the customer site, we are maintaining staff in this segment.

Strategic Alternatives Process: as previously announced, the Company has engaged Stifel FirstEnergy as financial advisor in regards to a review of strategic alternatives. This process remains ongoing, and the Company will provide further updates as deemed necessary by its board of directors.

2019 Year-end Audit: although the Company has the option to delay its year-end financial results filing for 2019 by 45 days, it expects to file its December 31, 2019 financial statements by April 30, 2020.

Eric Laing, President & CEO said, "The Company has taken these steps with thought and care for all stakeholders. We have maintained our ability to be responsive with service and support for our customer base while keeping our workplace safe and preserving all of our employee positions for the long term".

Raise would like to thank all of its stakeholders for their support during these extraordinary events. We wish that everyone remains healthy and safe and that we can resume our business and personal lives with some level of normalcy in the near future.

About Raise Production Inc.

The Company is an innovative oilfield service company that focuses its efforts on the production service sector, utilizing its proprietary products to enhance and increase ultimate production in both conventional and unconventional oil and gas wells.

For further information please contact:

Tom Kehoe, Investor Relations

E-mail: tkehoe@raiseproduction.com

Eric Laing, President and Chief Executive Officer

E-mail: elaing@raiseproduction.com

Raise Production Inc.

2620-58th Avenue S.E.

Calgary, Alberta T2C 1G5

Tel: (403) 699-7675

Web site at: www.raiseproduction.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Certain information included in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements under applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements or information typically contain or can be identified by statements that include words such as "anticipate", "assume", "based", "believe", "can", "continue", "depend", "estimate", "expect", "forecast", "if", "intend", "may", "plan", "project", "propose", "result", "upon", "will", "within" or similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. Such forward-looking statements or information are based on a number of assumptions that may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things: the ability to obtain financing to provide working capital to fund operations, the availability of credit, the ability to commercialize products and operations, the potential to increase recoverable reserves for customers by utilization of the HARPTM, REALTM and HARTTM systems, estimates regarding current and projected cash resources and cash flow anticipated sales, the ability to adequately protect proprietary information and technology from its competitors; the ability to obtain partnering opportunities; the ability to attract and retain key personnel and key collaborators; the availability of skilled labour, services and equipment, general economic and financial market conditions, the legislative and regulatory environment of the jurisdictions where the Company carries on business and the ability to successfully compete in targeted markets.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any of the included forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable Canadian securities law. Forward-looking statements are based upon the current opinions, estimates, projections, assumptions and expectations of management of the Company as at the effective date of such statements and, in some cases, information supplied by third parties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions and that information received from third parties is reliable, it can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. By its nature, forward-looking ipl.i8hnnformation involves numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statement will not occur. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: deployment and commercialization of the Company's products and regulatory changes. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance upon the forward-looking statements contained in this news release and such forward-looking statements should not be interpreted or regarded as guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company's continuous disclosure filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54185
The man, whose name has not been revealed, was treated at a medical center in South Koreas Western Incheon District, the South Korean Consulate Generals office in HCMC said Monday. He will be discharged in the coming days, the office said.

The man had entered Vietnam on January 29 and left for home in South Korea on April 1. A day later, he visited a medical center near his house for a health check and was confirmed infected with the novel coronavirus.

He was working for Sung Gwang Vina Co., Ltd., a Vietnamese manufacturing affiliate of the Sung Jin Group, at the Uyen Hung Industrial Park in Tan Uyen Town. Earlier, he had come into contact with 40 people, including four South Koreans staying in HCMC.

Huynh Thanh Ha, deputy director of Binh Duongs health department said 39 people in close contact with the man while working at the factory tested Covid-19 negative and were allowed to return home.

A lockdown of the company has since been lifted and it has resumed operations. As many as 800 workers of the factory had been temporarily laid off to prevent the spread of the virus.

The Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control also said that four South Koreans in contact with the infected man have tested negative Sunday and are exempt from being quarantined.

Vietnam has confirmed 245 Covid-19 cases so far, 95 of whom have recovered. Many of the 150 active cases are Vietnamese nationals returning from Europe and the U.S., foreigners coming from the same regions and those whod come in contact with both groups of people.

As of Tuesday morning, South Korea had reported more than 10,000 infections and 192 deaths.

The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed more than 74,000 lives as it spread to 209 countries and territories.
The Beckhams have been sharing regular updates from their isolation as a family of five - just missing eldest son Brooklyn, who is stranded in America with his girlfriend Nicola Peltz.

From turning movie nights into an at-home affair to posting Davids latest cooking adventures, they have also been vocal in their appreciation for the NHS workers fighting against the coronavirus pandemic in the UK.

Over the weekend, Victoria spoke with two NHS teams through FaceTime, thanking them for working so tirelessly and encouraging them to share their stories and advice with her more than 28 million followers.

David and Victoria Beckham / WireImage for White Company

To get their message across, Victoria posted snippets of her conversations to her Instagram page.

Yesterday I had the humbling opportunity to speak to 2 NHS teams in different parts of the UK, the 45-year-old fashion designer wrote. I have posted parts of the conversation on IGTV. Please have a look and listen to what they are saying. They are so inspiring and we all need to do our part in staying home and helping these incredible workers and their colleagues on the frontline.

In the first clip that Victoria shared, she asked a group of NHS workers what message they would most want to stress to the community.

Please stay at home, one worker said, Stay at home so we can go to work to do the job that we do, that we love.

The Beckham family attend Victoria's London Fashion Week Show, 2020 / Getty Images

In a lengthier video with an NHS team located in Scotland, Victoria took a moment to express her thanks before asking the group how they were doing.

I hope youre feeling the love that the whole country is giving you. The clapping - every time I watch the videos of everybody clapping, I get quite emotional. I hope you can feel that from all of us, she said.

Its a really small community up here, and everyone has been incredibly supportive, one member shared. Lots of us have had to move up from home, hundreds of miles from our family so that we can be isolated from them. And people have offered up accommodation for free, theyre giving us meals while were in the hospital working, so its been amazing.

Despite the NHS teams positive outlook, when Victoria asked about their shifts, it was clear that they had been working overtime.

Dave Benett

Were all doing 12 and a half hour shifts every day, one noted, adding that it differs by hospital.

A lot of us havent seen our family for ages, some people havent seen their partners and children just so we can try and keep them safe, they added.

Thank you again so much for all your hard work - everything that youre doing, Victoria said at the end of their call. I dont even know what to say, I just feel really humbled to be talking to you, and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Since opening up about their own self-isolation routine on March 19, Victoria and David have used their massive social media followings to encourage their followers to do the same and support the NHS in any way that they can.

Early on, David shared UNICEF and the WHOs resources about protecting yourself from COVID-19, and the entire Beckham family have joined in the Clap for our Carers campaign to thank the NHS.
By Julie Zhu and Jennifer Hughes HONG KONG/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Luckin Coffee Chairman Charles Zhengyao Lu and Chief Executive Jenny Zhiya Qian have handed over shares in the embattled Chinese coffee chain to lenders after a company controlled by Lu's family defaulted on a $518 million margin loan, one of the banks said on Monday. The default comes after Luckin, a major rival to Starbucks in China, said last week that much of its 2019 sales were fabricated, sending its shares plunging as much as 82% in U.S

By Julie Zhu and Jennifer Hughes

HONG KONG/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Luckin Coffee Chairman Charles Zhengyao Lu and Chief Executive Jenny Zhiya Qian have handed over shares in the embattled Chinese coffee chain to lenders after a company controlled by Lu's family defaulted on a $518 million margin loan, one of the banks said on Monday.

The default comes after Luckin, a major rival to Starbucks in China, said last week that much of its 2019 sales were fabricated, sending its shares plunging as much as 82% in U.S. trading and sparking an investigation by China's securities regulator.

Some 515,355,752 class B shares and 95,445,000 class A shares of Luckin had been pledged to secure the loan, including shares additionally pledged by the family trust of Qian, one of the banks on the loan, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, said in a note to clients on Monday proposing a sale of the shares.

The other banks on the loan are Morgan Stanley , Credit Suisse, Haitong, CICC and Barclays, according to people familiar with the matter.

Luckin declined to comment. Lu Zhengyao did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not possible to contact Qian directly. Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Barclays declined to comment. CICC and Haitong did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours.

If all the shares pledged under the $518 million loan are sold, Lu Zhengyao's voting interest in Luckin Coffee would not decrease, while Qian's beneficial and voting interests would decrease significantly, Goldman Sachs said, without quantifying the size of the reduction.

The class B shares will be converted into American Depositary Shares (ADSs).

Luckin shares were down a further 15.4% in early afternoon trading in New York on Monday.

(Reporting by Julie Zhu and Jennifer Hughes in Hong Kong and Joshua Franklin in New York. Editing by Carmel Crimmins and Steve Orlofsky)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Madison, Wis.

Voters in Wisconsin will face a choice Tuesday of participating in a presidential primary election or heeding warnings from public health officials to stay away from large crowds during the coronavirus pandemic.

Hours after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers issued an order postponing the election for two months, the conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday sided with Republicans who said he didn't have the authority to reschedule the race on his own. Conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court quickly followed with a ruling blocking Democratic efforts to extend absentee voting.

The decisions leave Wisconsin as the only state with an election scheduled in April that is proceeding as planned. As other states prepare to vote in May or June, Wisconsin will be closely watched for signs that fears of the coronavirus may depress turnout or cause other problems at the polls.

Evers said he had no other options after the state court ruled against him.

"There's not a Plan B. There's not a Plan C," Evers said earlier Monday.

Joe Biden already has a commanding delegate lead over Bernie Sanders and the Wisconsin results aren't likely to slow his march to the Democratic presidential nomination. But the tumult in one of the most critical general election battlegrounds was a reminder of how the coronavirus has upended politics during an election year. Beyond the shifts in the primary calendar, Biden and President Donald Trump have not been able to hold in-person campaign events and have moved most of their operations online.

The tension in Wisconsin over whether and how to proceed with the election has been building for weeks. Evers and Republicans initially agreed it was imperative for the election to proceed because thousands of local offices are on the ballot Tuesday for terms that begin in two weeks. There is also a state Supreme Court election.

Evers himself had questioned whether he had the power to reschedule the election, but said the worsening situation, including an increase in COVID-19 deaths from 56 on Friday to 77 on Monday, made clear there was no way to safely move forward. Evers said he sought the delay because he was motivated by protecting public health, not politics.

"The people of Wisconsin, the majority of them, don't spend all their waking hours thinking about are Republicans or Democrats getting the upper hand here," Evers said earlier Monday. "They're saying they're scared. They're scared of going to the polls."

He was thwarted by conservatives on two courts. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-2, with four conservatives in support and two liberals against, that Evers lacked the authority to move the election on his own.

The U.S. Supreme Court split 5-4, with the five Republican-appointed justices siding with the national and state party to overturn a lower court ruling that expanded absentee voting. In an unsigned opinion, the court said absentee ballots must be hand-delivered by Tuesday evening or postmarked by Tuesday, although they can arrive at clerks' offices as late as April 13.

In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for her liberal colleagues that the lower court acted amid the virus outbreak "to safeguard the availability of absentee voting in Wisconsin's spring election. This Court now intervenes at the eleventh hour to prevent voters who have timely requested absentee ballots from casting their votes."

Ginsburg said the coronavirus outbreak had caused a surge in absentee ballot requests and thousands of voters who requested them will not have received their ballots by Tuesday. "The Court's order, I fear, will result in massive disenfranchisement," she wrote.

As of Monday, nearly 1.3 million absentee ballots had been requested but only about 57% of those had been returned. It's unclear how many of the outstanding 539,000 ballots will be in voters' hands by Tuesday to meet the April 7 postmark deadline.

The conservatives said "the dissent's rhetoric is entirely misplaced and completely overlooks the fact that the deadline for receiving ballots was already extended to accommodate Wisconsin voters, from April 7 to April 13."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Wisconsin Democratic state Sen. Jon Erpenbach said Republicans fought efforts to delay the election because they want to suppress turnout, particularly in Democrat-heavy Milwaukee, because that will benefit Republicans.

"Democrats have always been good about getting out the vote on the day of," Erpenbach said. "If you're looking at the newspapers, watching TV, you know right now it's dangerous."

Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan said the U.S. Supreme Court's was "brazenly suppressing thousands of voters in Wisconsin."

"This is NOT how democracy works," Pocan tweeted.

Ohio saw a similar eleventh-hour flurry the day before its primary last month. After the Republican governor and secretary of state failed to persuade a judge to shift the election date, the state health director stepped in and ordered voting shut down. Legislators set a new, almost all-mail primary for April 28, sparking new legal challenges from voting rights groups, but a federal judge on Friday said the election could go forward.

Ahead of the Wisconsin primary, thousands of poll workers said they wouldn't work, leading Milwaukee to reduce its planned number of polling sites from 180 to just five. More than 2,500 National Guard troops were dispatched to staff the polls. They were also distributing supplies, including hand sanitizer, to polling sites across the state. In Madison, city workers were erecting Plexiglas barriers to protect poll workers, and voters were encouraged to bring their own pens to mark the ballots.

George Dunst, 76, of Madison, who has volunteered at his local polling site for nearly every election since he retired, said he's not going Tuesday amid fears of contracting COVID-19.

"No matter what safety precautions you take, there's going to be exposure," he said. "Who knows who comes into the polling place?"



Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writers Todd Richmond from Madison, Wis., Julie Carr Smyth from Columbus, Ohio, and Mark Sherman from Washington contributed to this report.
Lack of Protective Masks Shows Lesson the World Needs to Learn

Commentary

In early February, friends and I were looking for protective masks in stores in New York, while thinking of our friends and family in China. We couldnt find masks in any store in the city, including small stores, clinics, and chain stores such as CVS and Walgreens.

When I called a few friends in other areas, it was clear that all over the United States, protective masks had flown off the shelves. We then heard of the same situation in Europe. Some people traveled from Spain to France and other countries, and couldnt find masks. It was worrisome. What if the virus hit here in the United States?

After Wuhan was locked down, a large number of medical supplies went to China, including a large quantity of masks, according to Chinese customs reports. Within a week of the lockdown, from Jan. 24 to Jan. 30, 56 million masks went into China, and by Feb. 11, that number rose to 730 million masks. By Feb. 29, the number of imported masks reached 2 billion.

The Chinese state mobilized companies big and small to shop for masks worldwide, including the Shanghai-government-owned Greenland Holdings Corp., Alibaba, Tencent, China Railway Construction, and others.

Two Chinese real estate companies, Greenland and Risland, had their employees secure more than 100 tons of masks, thermometers, antibacterial wipes, gloves, and other related products in January and February and ship them to China.

Many Chinese associations overseas also started buying masks to send to China. Before long, individuals and organizations in the United States could no longer get masks because big companies had sourced them all.

In addition, 62 countries donated medical supplies and masks to China.

Japan, for example, even used their emergency reserve to ship to Wuhan, while the United States shipped 18 tons of medical supplies to China in early February. By Feb. 29, the production of masks in China jumped to be able to turn out 116 million units daily, as about 15,500 companies retooled equipment to make the items.

By the time the situation in China began to improve and the virus began its spread to the rest of the world, other countries didnt have enough masks, even to supply hospitals.

Taking Advantage

That created a major profit-making opportunity, as some of the masks donated to China have been sold back to Western countries.

Meanwhile, the Philippines, Turkey, Spain, and the Czech Republic ordered large quantities of testing kits from China. Because the accuracy rate of these kits turned out to be anywhere between 20 percent to 40 percent, they gave up using them. The Netherlands ordered 1.3 million masks, but their quality was poor, and the masks were returned.

With China controlling most of the worlds mask production and inventory, this is a rare opportunity to bring Western countries to their knees. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is ready to make a small donation to play the role of savior, make a big profit, and demand whatever it needs.

Quietly controlling the mask market, the CCP is ready to leave the United States in a chaotic ocean of virus, in the words of the state-run Global Times. The outlet reported that China could ban the export of face masks and other medical gear to America as a response to the United States restricting the sales of technology by Huawei.

A contact of mine, an American living in a northern city in China, shared with me his own experience:

Ive been trying to buy masks for people I know back in America. A Chinese friend approached me to sell me masks. He explained to me that the government is buying most of the masks from the larger mask factories and controlling the sale of masks. He explained that he cant sell to me directly, but he can arrange to trade raw material from his factory to another factory and that factory can then send me masks.

At first, it sounded like some weird black market scheme, but he explained that, that is the only way to sell Americans masks right now. He claims that the larger factories are all being limited or denied the ability to sell masks or ANY other equipment that might help with the virus to America right now. 

Oversupply

The CCP is shocked that Western countries arent requiring everyone to wear masks. In China, everyone is required to wear them outside of the home or else the police can take you away.

In fact, most Chinese in crowded cities such as New York live in high-rise buildings, while most Americans have single-family homes. Americans truly do not have the same environment and same needs as Chinese. The World Health Organization helps China at each and every step, now suggesting that Western countries should use masks. It will help China in a big way if countries such as the United States take that advice.

Now, the CCP has realized that it has an oversupply of masks. They dont have enough countries buying them, especially as there are so many reports about the poor quality and questionable sanitation.

While much of the world is in lockdown and hospitals are struggling to locate medical supplies, there is one place where people are still living a normal life: Taiwan. Unlike in many other countries, Taiwans schools are still open. My friend, who works in a restaurant, told me there is a limitation of four people per table; people wear masks in crowded subways. Other than that, life goes on without interruption.

Taiwan learned a lesson from SARS and from many years of dealing with the CCPs lies. In early January, when the CCP said there is no human-to-human transmission, Taiwan started to guard its border and blocked the export of masks. Then, Taiwans government bought equipment for 60 production lines to make masks, with a goal to produce 10 million a day within a few months. The total population in Taiwan is 23 million.

When Taiwan wanted to fly its citizens back from Wuhan, Chinawhere the outbreak beganthe CCP initially refused. On the first flight after officials relented, China added three people at the last minute to the passenger list. They included two with symptoms and one confirmed positive with the CCP virus.

If the CCP does this to Chinese people in Taiwan, what is it capable of doing to the rest of the worlds people?

Taiwan now is a shining example, because they understand the CCP.

The CCPs handling of the global mask supply is a big lesson about what the Party is likeone of many such lessons weve had in the past. Are we learning?

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
HARRISONBURG  Meagan Thurston wasnt sure what to expect when she walked into Strength in Peers in December of 2019 for her first tele-psychiatry session, but she was willing to do whatever it took to get her children back.

The previous summer, Virginias Child Protective Services had taken her five children, between the ages of 4 and 11, because she was struggling with an addiction to methamphetamine. The next day, Thurston, 30, began the journey to get them back, signing up for recovery programs.

That path led Thurston to Strength in Peers, a nonprofit organization in the Shenandoah Valley comprised of individuals in recovery from substance abuse, mental health or trauma related challenges, who share the lessons learned from their own experiences with other people experiencing similar issues. She was assigned a peer, who suggested Thurston try tele-psychiatry.

Thats how Thurston wound up in a room with a monitor and webcam, and speaking with Adam Colbert, a fourth-year resident in psychiatry at the University of Virginia, on the other side of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Charlottesville.
From her home window, Belinda Constant, mayor of Gretna, Louisiana, watches the mighty Mississippi flow by. Beyond it are the sparkling lights of New Orleans. She views both warily these days.

New Orleans is a hot spot for Covid-19, and thousands of cases locally means shes working with a skeletal staff under lockdown conditions. Meanwhile, the Mississippi has risen more than a foot in the past week, triggering emergency flood measures. And the rains keep coming.

Gretna itself is below sea level, and currently some 11 feet below the surging river. All thats keeping the city dry is a levee built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Constant says she prays every day that it doesnt rain any more, or that one of the enormous cargo ships making its way down the river doesnt get caught in the currents and swept into the barrier.

It is scary. Everybody is so invested in one pandemic now, she says. When you think about resources put toward this crisis I dont know where the resources are going to come or how long will it take to address another crisis.

Louisiana, along with the rest of the Mississippi Valley region, is in the middle of its annual wet season, which usually peaks in April. This years floods are predicted to be more moderate than 2019s, which covered a record expanse of 19 states, starting in January and lasted for an unprecedented nine months and affected 14 million people.

Even a milder season could be devastating to many, however. The U.S. National Weather Service says they might still affect more than 128 million people, and several areas are approaching flood stage already.

Colin Wellenkamp is the executive director of the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative, which coordinates and organizes towns along the entire river corridor. He says Mayor Constants anxieties are shared by many local officials. We are averaging a 100- to 200-year flood event annually somewhere on the river, he says. As a result, many towns emergency capabilities were already tapped out before Covid-19, he says.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are promising the same amount of help to states as in previous years. Yet FEMA , by its own accounting, is well below its own 2015 targets for field staffing for emergencies. And even if the big agencies could provide the level support local communities have come to depend on, that still may not be enough. The challenges are just so much bigger this year, says Wellenkemp.

For starters, just like everywhere else, towns facing flooding are also facing extreme shortages of protective equipment such as face masks and gloves. Not only are doctors and nurses worried about shortages, so are first responders who may have to rescue people and property during an emergency. Most towns also rely heavily on volunteers for everything from filling sandbags to moving equipment to stocking shelters for displaced families. If officials cant guarantee adequate safeguards for health, they arent sure people will show up.

Town officials have similar concerns related to institutions like the Red Cross, which they rely on to set up shelters when needed. Many wonder how theyll cope in an era where group shelters such as gyms or tents are no longer an option.

Bob Gallagher, the mayor of Bettendorf, Iowa, isnt one of them. Hes working with both state and federal officials and is optimistic that his city could handle flooding if it occurred. For now hes sheltering homeless people in local hotels instead of group shelters, and says thats working fine. But he acknowledges that the outlook might not be so rosy for smaller towns that have to rely almost entirely on volunteers in big emergencies.

The good news, says Wellenkamp, is that FEMA has made spending on Covid-19 preparations reimbursable by the federal government, a standard practice for damage from natural disasters that reach the level of federal emergency. The bad news is that FEMA still hasnt reimbursed municipalities for the 2019 flooding, and many are already carrying heavy debt. The economic impact from this will be greater than even last years record flood, he says.

Brock Long, a former administrator of FEMA, said in an interview last month that Covid-19 might hasten a process of decentralizing responsibility for disasters from the federal government to local communities, which was long overdue. Everyone is quick to say that FEMA needs more capacity. I disagree, he said. State and local governments needs to make sure they can handle emergencies on their own.

He said a total reorganization may be in order, with FEMA acting more as a block grant organization, giving money to the states. Moreover, he added, in an era when climate change makes record level disasters routine everyone from local government to private citizens need to take more responsibility. We need to instill a national culture of preparedness.

Louisiana is ready, insists Mike Steele, a spokesman for the state emergency preparedness office. Dealing with multiple crises is pretty routine for us, he says, and our governor really believes in preparedness.

But Mayor Constant isnt convinced that either the state or the federal government has her back. Whats that saying? You dont know what you dont know, she says in response to Steeles confidence. In Louisiana, weve never lived through a global disaster like this. How do they know if they are gong to deal with something on top of this? They dont have a clue.

About the photo: Floodwaters surround corn sitting under a collapsed grain bin in Thurman, Iowa on March 23, 2019. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
I hate anti-vaxxers. I wonder if these idiots will get a vaccine for covid19 when its already available. Hmmm.

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I had to end a 25-year friendship bc my friend turned into a raging anti-vaxer with 4 children (the youngest is 3 weeks old). She believes that this is all a government conspiracy to make us into sheep (more ppl die from obesity, heart attacks, etc. every day!!!!), refuses to practice social distancing, and called me a big pharma + government sheep bc I said that after trials I would be down to vaccinate myself against COVID. "How can you inject poison into your body?!!!!"



No, she is not white, but she is a free-birther vegan mom, and her husband voted for trump. Mind you, they're an active military family.







Edited at 2020-04-07 06:44 pm (UTC)

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Is she religious? I've noticed a lot of crunchy vegan moms who are antivaxx are lowkey religious Trump supporters, it seems like such a conflict of interest lol

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they'll just say to use essential oils

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Edited at 2020-04-07 04:54 pm (UTC) Me, when she gets the 'rona...

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HA EYEBROWS

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Eyebrows of the early 2000s

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She was such an awful friend lmao

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Omg memories

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this kills me every time!!

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daunting

heartbreaking

a family torn

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Who will play her in the film version of this challenging ordeal??

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well its time for amy adams to put on a bikini and earn that fucking oscar

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i'm petrified by the thought of having it, being asymptotic and infecting someone i love

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wait, there were still people on holiday?!? how is that even possible?! 21/26 schengen countries have closed borders, MOST OF THE WORLD POPULATION LIVES IN COUNTRIES THAT HAVE CLOSED THEIR BORDERS and they were on holiday?!? is this a fucking joke?!?

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My ex coworker has been traveling Asia since last August and shes still on some small island of Malaysia sending positive vibes with her visa expiring next month 

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are they hoping for a forced visa extension or smth? like govs are organising flight to bring back citizens but they cant and wont do them for ONE person. ffs some people... i cant.

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lol do you know which small island?

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That seems like a much different situation than rich people who decided to up and go to the Bahamas or something a few weeks ago.

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I've been reading some of these stories of people stuck abroad and some of it is because planes aren't leaving (like there are people sleeping in the Moscow airport because the day the Russia border closed, they were scheduled to fly out and then the fly was cancelled).



Part of me is like... thats what happened when you wait until the last moment to fly out, but a lot of it is people who are working/studying in other countries who are trying to get home. The vacationers I have no sympathy for, particularly because my city jumped from 0 cases to 14 in less than a week and they were all people returning from vacations in the US.

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There are still people taking holidays right now. I have a friend who is a flight attendant and she said shes worried because there are people taking non-essential travel right now because they think it an opportune time with flight prices down. Imagine jeopardizing the lives of the people around you because you want to be a goddamn cheapskate.

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And they're the ones that are going to flip out the most when we end up in a state of martial law, even though they'll be the ones stuck home the least amount of time. I just have this dread inside of me that that's where this will end up, because people will refuse to stay the fuck at home.

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There are still tourists coming into Puerto Rico even though everything is closed and the governor asked the federal govt to please shut down the airport to tourists. They are still out frolicking on the beach, etc while we are all in quarantine because our hospitals cant handle a large capacity of COVID patients. 2 were admitted last weekend who FUCKING LIED about having symptoms and took meds to mask their fevers. 



Like, gringos, go home! Youve done enough damage.

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There are people who went on cruises DURING MARCH! and guess what? They weren't allowed to dock for weeks! I have very little sympathy for everyone involved minus the crew.

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Dude, I don't get it either. I don't get how they're traveling. I had two co-workers that returned from vacation last week and refused to isolate themselves, bitches went to work!! And then one called in sick a few days after. Everyone is so fucking pissed at those two, especially the one that's sick because she refused to get swabbed for covid 19, but claims its just travel fatigue. Fuck off! I hate people. Fuck people.

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What fucking assholes.

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Wow, what an absolute idiot. In the thread it also reveals that her kids were there! She had her unvaccinated children traveling through multiple airports during a pandemic by choice like...

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A friend of my mum went to Mallorca (Spain) a little before the craziness all started and she finally got a flight out for the 8th of MAY  thank god shes already retired cuz there will also be a 2 weeks quarantine waiting for her after all of this

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Everyone I know who returned from vacation last month was totally clueless and infuriating. They were like "lalala my trip was awesome, hilarious how I have to stay home for two weeks now llolol" (these are essential workers who would otherwise be working). It makes sense because they were enjoying the beaches rather than following every bit of news so there is a disconnection there, but still irritating as fuck.

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I've seen way too many people just now come back from a vacation.

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I'd go for a year, fuck that. They're strolling into a burning house.

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more like Kristin Cavalier-ly



terrible jokes aside, this is so damn irresponsible, and I know thousands of other people are doing the same dumb shit. it blows my mind that people are being so careless.

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There's no excuse for anyone to be traveling for fun right now, but especially the rich. They'll have money, vacation time, and so on to travel again.

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People are so GODDAMN selfish. I cant with any of these assholes who are still traveling. Hell I cant with any of these assholes who arent listening and wont do social distancing. As Cuomo said today its about we not me. People need abide, plain and simple.

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I quit my job at a grocery store because we were told we were not allowed to wear gloves or masks. I noped the fuck out of there, didn't even give a notice. Why should I care about a company that doesn't care about me? but anyway, before I quit, I saw sooooooo many customers not staying 6 ft apart from each other. I wound up taking duct tape and spacing them out 6 feet apart on my check out aisle and even then I'd have to tell people to space out. UGH people are so goddamned selfish and clueless.

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Members of the Association of Student Councils Network, a union of 26 university student councils, rally in front of the Government Complex building in Seoul, Monday. /Yonhap



By Bahk Eun-ji



University students are calling on the government to come up with measures to protect their right to education and help them survive financially, as many are struggling due to disruptions caused by the prolonged coronavirus pandemic, according to the union of student councils, Tuesday.



The Association of Student Councils Network, a union of 26 university student councils, said during a news conference in front of the government complex in Seoul that students are on the brink of disaster as schools are unprepared to handle this situation.



Jun Da-hyun, co-chairman of the association, spoke during the news conference about the calls the association had already made for the government and the National Assembly to ensure that tuition fees were refunded, online lectures were improved and students were helped with housing issues. "They have not answered anything," Jun said.



"In addition, the Ministry of Education shifted their responsibility onto the shoulders of each university, while students have flooded social media with tens of thousands of messages stating they want tuition fee refunds and more than 130,000 people signed a petition that was filed with the presidential office calling for a cut in university fees."



According to a survey conducted by the association on 6,261 students across the country over 14 days from March 18, 30.7 percent of respondents said they were struggling with finances, including housing problems. They said they had to pay rent for a dormitory or studio apartment even though they weren't using the facilities due to the postponement of the new school year.



Because of the frozen job market with the COVID-19 epidemic, students who had prepared for employment were also at a loss, the group said.



"Some students had to quit their part-time jobs because of supplementary lecture schedules. COVID-19 has become a threat to the livelihood of students beyond the tuition issue," Jun said.



In regard to the tuition refund, school officials have mostly given negative responses.



"I understand students' complaints and difficulties. However, university tuition has been frozen for almost 10 years, so if refunds are made, universities will face a harder situation," said an official from a university in Seoul.



The group also said only 6.8 percent of students felt satisfied with online lectures, while more than 6,000 responded that they had encountered inconveniences with online classes. As for the most common problems, when multiple answers were allowed 53.1 percent or 2,725 respondents said they had difficulties communicating with professors during the online lectures, and 46.2 percent or 2,371 said they had access problems with school servers.


Scared  too shocked to cry. That's how mother-of-three Catherine Wilcockson felt as she put the phone down after learning that her next chemotherapy session due next week had been cancelled  yet another victim of the Covid-19 outbreak as it takes its toll on the NHS and its resources.

School kitchen assistant Catherine, 37, was told she had a cancerous brain tumour, the size of two apples, last May after a scan following a seizure.

Surgery could remove only 80 per cent of it and Catherine, a single mum of three daughters: Tia, 19, Christie, 16 and Shani, nine, from Sheffield, south Yorkshire needed 30 sessions of radiotherapy before starting a nine-month course of chemotherapy in October.

The treatment involved three different drugs: procarbazine, tablet lomustine and vincristine by an intravenous drip. 'It was grueling  I had to have the dose reduced in my last session as it had caused liver problems  but scans showed it was shrinking my tumour,' says Catherine.

It is estimated that the three private clinic networks  Rutherford Health, Genesis Care and HCA UK  could treat an estimated 5,000 patients per month. Thousands more will be treated in other private hospitals

Four weeks ago, Catherine got the news she longed to hear: the remaining tumour had shrunk dramatically. 'I'd thought I was on my way to beating the tumour and getting on with my normal life again, returning to work and looking after my girls.'

Then last week her consultant called to say her next session on the 15th April was cancelled.

'The doctor said she would phone in eight weeks 'for a chat' to see what will happen next,' says Catherine. 'She couldn't give me any assurances or a date for when it would happen, which was devastating.'

Any delay in her final sessions could be vital. 'The type of tumour I've got can grow back and I want to make sure as much of the tumour as possible is destroyed,' says Catherine. 'I've been through so much in the last ten months any delay now seems unfair.'

Numerous cancer patients have found themselves in a similar position to Catherine as some NHS trusts have cancelled chemotherapy and routine cancer operations to free up beds and manpower to cope with the coronavirus crisis.

But now comes some good news  with the announcement that NHS cancer patients will receive treatment in private hospitals with immediate effect to reduce delays to their care.

It is estimated that the three private clinic networks  Rutherford Health, Genesis Care and HCA UK  could treat an estimated 5,000 patients per month. Thousands more will be treated in other private hospitals.

Professor Karol Sikora, chief medical officer at Rutherford Health, said: 'NHS England is instructing the local trusts to deal with the private clinics. This will cover every priority chemotherapy and radiotherapy NHS patient.

But now comes some good news  with the announcement that NHS cancer patients will receive treatment in private hospitals with immediate effect to reduce delays to their care

'Most curable cancer patients will benefit from this arrangement, those who are dependent on immediate treatment and with a good chance of surviving. This comes at a crucial time, a year will have been lost in this horrid pandemic (in terms of the backlog of cases it will cause.'

An NHS England guide published last month has suggested that doctors 'categorise patients into priority groups 1-6', with top priority for chemotherapy, which is seen as 'curative therapy with a high [greater than 50 per cent] chance of success'.

If a patient is receiving palliative cancer therapy with little chance of surviving more than a year, they will be given the lowest priority. It is understood those in high priority categories, ranked one to three on that scale, will receive treatment at the private clinics. The new move has been welcomed by cancer experts.

'The Covid-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented pressure on our health service, and although the NHS is doing everything in its power to give cancer care as usual, the reality is difficult decisions are having to be made such as delaying treatment for some patients,' says Emlyn Samuel, Cancer Research UK's head of policy.

One cancer specialist, who didn't want to be named, adds: 'We know from numerous studies that delays to breast cancer surgery or chemotherapy, for example, reduce cure rates and lower survival.

'These risks far outweigh any the potential risk from Covid-19.'

NHS hospitals already have the ability to use the independent sector to treat NHS patients. However, under guidance issued by NHS England last week, they are being encouraged to look to the private sector for help where cancer treatments are being delayed.

When the NHS uses a private hospital to carry out the procedure, the national tariff  how much hospitals are paid for carrying out certain treatments  is simply paid to the private hospital rather than the NHS.

Professor Sikora adds: 'Across the country trusts are enabled to use their local private cancer providers. So, for example, at Rutherford's Newport centre we are dealing with the big cancer centre for South Wales in Cardiff.'

An NHS source said it will be down to individual hospitals to decide whether to use the private sector for their cancer patients. Local NHS cancer services have been told they are able to use their local private providers if that makes most sense in their area to make sure people who need it can get cancer care,' the source told Good Health.

'However, services are going to be structured differently in different parts of the country. This doesn't mean that all cancer patients will receive a letter to say their treatment is now going to be in a private hospital  it will be down to trusts to decide how they want to organise their services.'

GenesisCare has said it is ready to treat NHS cancer patients at its 14 centres and that discussions are 'ongoing' (file image)

The idea is the NHS creates 'hot' and 'cold' Covid-19 hospitals  those hospitals which are treating Covid-19 patients, and those where other patients can be treated. 'Independent healthcare providers are committed to working hand in hand with the NHS to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic including through the unprecedented arrangement to put nearly all private hospital capacity at the disposal of the NHS for as long as needed,' says David Hare, chief executive of the IHPN.

An NHS spokesman said: 'Under a major deal struck with the independent hospital sector, the NHS will now have access to an extra 8,000 hospital beds across England, nearly 1,200 more ventilators, more than 10,000 nurses, over 700 doctors and over 8,000 other clinical staff.'

Macmillan Cancer Support has welcomed the co-operation. GenesisCare has said it is ready to support NHS England, should they require it. Catherine hopes she will be among those to benefit. I totally get that Covid patients need their treatment  but cancer patients need treatment too  in many cases just to stay alive.'

braintumourresearch.org

Additional reporting: JO WATERS

WE CAN'T ABANDON NON-COVID PATIENTS AND PUT THEM AT RISK

Dr Renee Hoenderkamp is a GP in London. She says:

One of my patients, who has lung cancer, had an operation scheduled for last week. She is an otherwise very fit and healthy 70-year-old, and reasonably could have been expected to go into full remission.

And then, without warning, her operation was cancelled. Someone, somewhere following a diktat, had taken a red pen to the list and crossed through her name. They had probably not looked at her case, nor considered the benefit of the surgery to a woman who was a mother, a sister, and a wife, with potentially 30 years of life ahead of her, before taking away her hope  possibly her life.

Every month, thousands of cancer patients are having operations cancelled as beds are taken up by Covid-19 victims. The NHS is throwing 'non-urgent' and elective surgical procedures, as well as all screening programmes, out of the window in its fight against the new enemy.

Yes, it has just agreed a deal with three private cancer clinic networks to treat 5,000 high-priority cases per month. But we will still see countless preventable deaths, and not only from cancer.

Covid-19 is taking precedence over everything else. It is an appalling knee-jerk injustice. Surely it is not right for a healthcare strategy to discard all ethical considerations and bulldoze through decisions which will cost lives in the name of saving them? Human beings are being treated as collateral damage.

Something as treatable as a urinary tract infection can be fatal without antibiotics and a short stay in hospital. The same applies to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; to stroke patients who won't get the medication they need in the vital four-hour window; to heart attack patients who risk being sent home too soon.

The list of those in danger in this crisis is endless, and it will get worse. Most early-warning tests, such as cancer smears, have been suspended, even though such illnesses can be treated successfully if caught early.

I am worried that in six months' time we will see a tsunami of serious illnesses that should have been diagnosed much earlier. The grandmother of a close friend arrived at hospital last Tuesday all set to have an operation for her newly diagnosed breast cancer. As she sat there, filled with nerves but excited that she was getting the surgery she needs, staff phoned my friend to tell her the operation was cancelled.

No-one came to tell her grandmother in person. She was sent home, lonely and angry, to face alone what may be her last few months. Doctors are playing God in a way never before seen.

A colleague told me: 'I worry about a backlash from the public when they realise the implications of what our Covid-19 response has done to the health of the nation.'
In the last Democratic debate, Joe Biden declared that he would nominate a woman as his vice-presidential running mate. That felt right at the time. But times have changed. Biden needs to go much, much further: At the Democratic convention he needs to name not just his vice president, but his entire cabinet. And it needs to be a totally different kind of cabinet  a national unity cabinet  from Democrats on the Bernie Sanders left to Republicans on the Mitt Romney right. Why?

Because while most people are playing nice right now managing this virus, the wreckage, pain and anger it will leave behind will require megadoses of solidarity and healing from the top.

And even if we get to the other side of this crisis by January, there are going to be a set of wrenching debates around who got bailed out and who didnt and around how much civil liberty we should sacrifice to track and quarantine Covid-19 carriers until there is a vaccine. If handled on a partisan basis, those issues will rip our country apart.

In short, if this isnt the time to leave behind the hyperpartisanship that has made it nearly impossible for us to do anything big and hard for two decades, then when?
A leading heart surgeon an d father-of-two has become the latest NHS worker to die after contracting coronavirus.

Jitendra Rathod, 58, was admitted to the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, where he first started working in the 1990s, before being taken to intensive care.

His colleagues battled to save Mr Rathod - known at Jitu - but he died on Monday morning, officials confirmed.

It is unknown if he had any underlying health conditions.

Jitendra Rathod, 58, was admitted to the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, where he first started working in the 1990s, but died from coronavirus yesterday

A statement by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said: 'It is with profound sadness that we must inform you that Mr Jitendra Rathod, associate specialist in cardiothoracic surgery, has passed away.

'He died early this morning on our general intensive care unit after testing positive for Covid-19.'

The father-of-two was described as an 'incredibly dedicated surgeon' who cared deeply for his patients and was highly regarded in the medical profession in Wales.

A cardiothoracic surgeon is a specialist who operates on the heart, lungs and other thoracic (chest) organs.

'He was well-liked and and greatly respected by one and all,' the health board statement added.

'He was very compassionate and a wonderful human being. His commitment to the speciality was exemplary. He is survived by his wife and two sons.'

Mr Rathod worked in the department of cardio-throacic surgery since the mid 1990s. He later had a brief stint abroad before returning to UHW in 2006.

Mr Rathod worked in the department of cardio-throacic surgery since the mid 1990s. He later had a brief stint abroad before returning to UHW in 2006

It comes as the UK declared 439 more deaths caused by the coronavirus yesterday, taking the total to 5,373, and 3,802 new positive tests have pushed the number of patients up to 51,608.

In a glimmer of hope after a dark week for Britain, the number of people dying of COVID-19 has now fallen for two days in a row and today dropped 30 per cent from 621 yesterday.

Today's death count is the lowest since March 31, last Tuesday, when it was 381, and marks a 39 per cent fall from the UK's worst day so far, Saturday, when the deaths of 708 people were recorded.

The number of new cases is also lower than it was for almost all of last week.

However, the good news was swiftly followed by another alarming turn, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to intensive care in his battle with the virus.

The Prime Minister (pictured on Thursday evening), who was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in London last night, was taken to intensive care at 7pm this evening

The Prime Minister was transferred to the ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in London at 7pm yesterday - 11 days after testing positive for the deadly disease.

Only two hours earlier, Downing Street were insisting he was still spearheading the government's coronavirus response, despite de facto deputy Dominic Raab chairing the morning crisis meeting.

Yet shortly after the Foreign Secretary left the Number 10 podium following the daily 5pm press briefing, Mr Johnson suffered breathing problems and was given oxygen.

Medics moved him into the critical care unit, and although he was last night not in need of a ventilator, the PM asked Mr Raab, the first secretary of state, to start deputising for him.
We don't know yet which companies are going to get how much in federal bailout money and what the bailout terms will be.

But it's a sure bet that a ton of money will be earmarked for our nation's four biggest airlines - American, Delta, Southwest and United.

And it's also a sure bet that the Big Four Flyers would need a lot less bailout money if they hadn't sent almost $45 billion to Wall Street over the past five years to keep shareholders happy. That's not much less than the $50 billion airline bailout package that's being proposed.

I'm not saying that we should just let these airlines collapse. Even though bankruptcies are not unknown in the airline business, having them collapse now would add even more instability to our economy and endanger even more jobs.

But what I am saying is that the terms of the bailout money that the airlines get from us should reflect the fact that a substantial part of their current financial problem is of their own making.

So I think it's only fair for taxpayers to get a substantial piece of the upside in return for bailing out these companies. And in the process, bailing out their shareholders, who would be left with nothing if the companies failed.

Yes, this is the same point I have made about a taxpayer bailout of Boeing.

But it's a point that we should keep in mind every time we see companies line up at the bailout trough. If many of these companies hadn't spent lots of money to buy back their own stock to prop up its price, they wouldn't need anywhere near as much money as they need now.

That's especially true of these four airlines. Almost seven out of every eight dollars the four airlines sent Wall Street from 2015 through 2019 - $39.1 billion out of $44.7 billion - went for share buybacks. The rest went for dividends, according to my calculations based on the companies' Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

The main reason companies buy back stock in the market, of course, is to support their share price. High stock prices not only make shareholders happy but also increase top executives' wealth by making their shareholdings and stock-purchase options more valuable.

In addition, in many cases higher share prices help trigger higher executive compensation because share price is one of the metrics that corporate boards often use to determine executives' compensation packages.

Finally, the higher a company's stock price, the lower the chances are of an "activist" shareholder taking control of the company and kicking out directors and top executives.

Of the four companies we're looking at, United is the most striking example of putting every available penny into buybacks.

From 2014 through 2019, United spent $8.57 billion for stock buybacks and paid no cash dividends. Southwest spent $8.53 billion for buybacks and $1.38 billion for dividends, for a total of $9.91 billion. American spent $11.895 billion for buybacks and $1.064 billion for dividends, for a total of $12.959 billion. Delta spent $10.08 billion for buybacks and $3.168 billion for dividends.

These numbers, which come from the companies' SEC filings, total $39.076 billion for buybacks and $5.612 billion for dividends. This means the airlines sent a combined $44.688 billion to Wall Street, which is about 90% of the proposed $50 billion bailout fund for the whole airline industry.

That's half again as much as the $5.67 billion that United was worth at Friday's closing price. And it's about 40% of United's value before the coronavirus-caused collapse of airplane travel trashed its stock price.

The reason that I'm harping on share buybacks is that in theory, money for them is supposed to consist of cash that's surplus to the companies' needs. But in the real world, companies frequently borrow money to help fund buybacks. That works great to prop up their stock prices - until one day, there's a problem.

And today is that day. So yes, let's keep these companies - and other bailout candidates - out of bankruptcy. But let's make them pay taxpayers a handsome return on our loan and give us a big chunk of stock before they're allowed to send another penny to Wall Street.
Photo: YouTube Medical professionals from all over Canada sent in their photos for the Health Care Heroes music video.

A Kelowna couple has released a music video featuring more than 250 selfies of frontline healthcare workers for their new original song.

The song Health Care Heroes, created by Kim and Jim Rhindress, is dedicated to health care workers, first responders or hospital support staff.

Photos were sent in from across the Okanagan, throughout British Columbia, Saskatoon, North Carolina, Nunavut, Boston, New York City, Connecticut and as far as Berlin, Germany.

It was created to show support for those at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic, says Kim.

"We wanted to contribute in the only way that we could really think, which is to honour these people. We really kind of take them for granted most of the time, unless we ourselves personally or someone we love is in hospital."

Vernon filmmaker CJ Clayton produced the video free of charge and the song was recorded in Kelowna at One Room Studios.

The final product features images of health care workers in a wide range of professions, including ER nurses and doctors, paramedics, lab techs, cleaning staff and respiratory therapists.

It also featured administration staff, which Kim says was perfectly aligned with their vision for the video.

"We wanted to celebrate ALL of the people who make the health care system run as they all play a fundamental role in its success.

"We were overwhelmed by the positive response we received and the world-wide sharing. We have also received some truly touching emails from health care workers after they heard the song who said how much it affected them; several said it made them cry (happy tears). Every time my mailbox dinged, it was like a little present of positivity.

"We were also delighted that two top notch professionals (Silk Road Productions and One House Studio) volunteered their time and talents for this project. Especially now, when none of us artists are being paid to do what we do, for them to donate their time to this community project was a big deal to us. There are so many good people who are happy to give and contribute what they can - this has really proven that to us!"

The duo have created the Facebook group COVID Health Care Heroes to "continue to provide a forum where people can give thanks to the heroes in their lives."
When David Vega fell ill with the novel coronavirus in mid-March, fever, chills and nausea left the 27-year-old Indiana medical student curled up in bed for days.

After a test confirmed he had COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, his doctor advised Vega to isolate himself at home for an additional week. The week passed, and Vega improved. His doctor cleared him to get back to his regular routines without additional testing after he had gone three days without symptoms.

But getting an all-clear from his medical provider has not completely assuaged Vega's fears. How can he be sure he no longer carries the virus? Is it safe for him to be with others? One of his roommates decided to move out, he said, and still acts cautiously around him.

Even after the quarantine was over and I felt recovered," he said in a message, "I felt paranoid and very [conscious] of the fact that I had COVID-19."

As with so many other aspects of this novel coronavirus, determining when a patient has recovered is still fraught with uncertainties. Although federal officials have issued general guidelines, information about the disease is limited. Physicians said they can't offer seemingly recovered patients who aren't retested any guarantees about whether they will be able to transmit the virus.

I feel that the public is kind of like my 91-year-old mom," said Dr. Gary LeRoy, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. The public is "asking these questions, and we as clinicians dont have the answers like were used to.

This predicament highlights how scientists still lack a complete picture of how COVID-19 is transmitted, doctors said. Generating more data on such mysteries as how much of the virus a person emits at different stages of infection could give doctors a clearer sense of a patient's risk of sickening others.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says doctors can verify whether a patient is healthy enough to leave home isolation in two ways. One method requires patients to test negative from samples taken at least 24 hours apart.

But the nationwide shortage of tests has made it difficult for doctors to vet patients in recovery with an exam, a fact the guidelines acknowledged. Several states including Minnesota have restricted testing to certain populations, such as hospitalized patients and health care workers.

Its still kind of an Easter egg hunt for the availability of testing materials and test kits to do COVID-19 tests," said LeRoy.

The second method allows patients to come out of isolation at least seven days after symptoms begin or after being diagnosed and three days after they are symptom-free.

This option "will prevent most, but may not prevent all instances of secondary spread," according to the CDC's website. "The risk of transmission after recovery is likely very substantially less than that during illness."

The agency declined a request for an interview.

Its recommendation gives state authorities and doctors the flexibility to amend their approach based on their circumstances.

The guidelines are guidelines," said Dr. Kathryn Edwards, a professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University who specializes in infectious diseases. "But theyre not the Ten Commandments.

One vital piece of the recovery puzzle several doctors mentioned is figuring out when and how long people with COVID-19 are able to transmit the virus  particularly those who don't develop symptoms at all.

The number of asymptomatic patients could be sizable. CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield said in an interview with NPR that as many as 25% of those who test positive for the virus do not develop symptoms. And patients who eventually develop symptoms may be spreading the virus up to 48 hours before they start feeling ill, he added.

Early research has suggested that patients who have recovered from COVID-19 may also continue to spread the virus.

Even Vega, now symptom-free, said he hesitates to get close to others when he goes on a run or picks up groceries.

I think its still something in the back of my mind," he said. "I think that itll get better with time.

The need to prevent transmission must be balanced against the benefit of the person returning to their daily life, said Edwards, especially if they are working in an essential industry like health care.

Were always between a rock and a hard place," she said.

Other factors help determine when a patient is ready to leave isolation. A provider may choose to leave a person in home isolation longer if they work with a high-risk population, like the elderly, or if they have a spouse with preexisting conditions, said LeRoy.

Ultimately, medical providers will likely tailor their advice to the patient's lifestyle, said Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

"These are difficult questions that would likely be dealt with on a case-by-case basis," he said.

People worried about getting the virus from someone who has recovered or doesn't have symptoms can reduce their risk by practicing social distancing and good hygiene, such as frequent hand-washing, said Plescia.

Despite the uncertainty, Plescia said, it is important not to ostracize those who have recovered. He is concerned they could become stigmatized.

In the back of everyones mind, whether they want to acknowledge it or not, people are going to be fearful about something they dont know," said LeRoy.
FILE PHOTO: Contact tracing app TraceTogether, released by the Singapore government to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is seen on a mobile phone, in Singapore

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) called on Monday for a pan-European mobile app to track the spread of the new coronavirus instead of the current hodge-podge of apps used in various EU countries which could breach people's privacy rights.

Faced with thousands of coronavirus-related deaths, governments across Europe have rolled out or plan to launch phone-tracking apps to trace people who came into contact with those infected and to monitor people under quarantine.

The measures have triggered criticism from some data privacy activists who worry that they may become permanent once the coronavirus crisis is over, while others doubt they will be effective unless most people agree to use them.

The EDPS said the use of temporary broadcast identifiers and bluetooth technology for contact tracing protected both privacy and personal data, but voiced concerns about the variety of apps sprouting up.

"Given these divergences, the European Data Protection Supervisor calls for a pan-European model COVID-19 mobile application, coordinated at EU level," Wojciech Wiewiorowski, the head of the EU privacy watchdog, said in a statement.

"Ideally, coordination with the World Health Organization should also take place, to ensure data protection by design globally from the start," he said.

With restrictions on social contacts and free movement showing first successes in "flattening the curve" of the coronavirus pandemic, some governments are looking to ease lockdowns and shift to a policy of containing any renewed COVID-19 outbreaks.

They hope that smartphone technology will help them speed up the task of tracing people who are at risk of infection after coming into contact with someone who tests positive - until now a task mainly done with a pen, paper and a telephone.

CROSS-BORDER APPROACH

Germany threw its weight behind a proposed technology platform, unveiled last week, that would make it possible to roll out apps that can help trace the path of infection across borders while preserving privacy.

Story continues

The initiative, called Pan-European Privacy Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT), brings together more than 130 researchers from eight countries and broadly follows the approach taken by Singapore's TraceTogether app.

"The worst thing would be if we had... a collection of different tracking apps in Europe," Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told a news conference in Berlin.

PEPP-PT is expected to launch its platform this week with a German coronavirus contact tracing app - backed by the Robert Koch Institute that is coordinating the national coronavirus response - to follow.

Austria's Red Cross has already launched a Stop Corona app that makes use of Bluetooth connections between smartphones and has been downloaded by hundreds of thousands of people.

Ireland and Poland have announced similar national initiatives, adding to the impression that EU-wide coordination is lacking.

(Additional reporting by Douglas Busvine in Berlin; Editing by Mark Potter and Gareth Jones)
When Grinnell College announced their transition to distance learning, international students were faced with different questions and challenges than those who live in the United States: stay on an empty, isolated campus, or go home to their families, unsure when and if they would be able to come back to the U.S.

For Aarzoo Bhimani 21, the Special Campus Memo announcing the move to distance learning was slightly disorienting, and she felt unsure what her next steps should be. With her family living in Switzerland and a high number of coronavirus cases in Europe, Bhimani decided that it would be smart to keep her options open before deciding where to live for the rest of the semester.

At first, I was just really confused, so my safest option was to petition [to stay on-campus] and then decide whether or not I would come back [home] or not. I basically stayed there [in Grinnell] until I got word that Switzerland was gonna cancel flights. The flight I took to get home was from Chicago to Zurich, and the flight the day after the one I took got cancelled, said Bhimani.

The College requested that all students who were not approved to live on campus leave by March 23, though that date was later moved up to March 16. For Bhimani as well as others, the approval of their petition provided extra time to decide how to proceed and to make travel arrangements if necessary.

Both Shuhan Yi 22 and Riku Smriga 23 were approved to finish the semester living on campus. However, even after they secured a place to stay, both students continued to discuss plans with their parents as circumstances around the globe changed daily.

Yi eventually made the decision to return to his home in Chengdu, China.

Some of my best friends left [campus], and I feel safer in China. I dont have good medical care in the U.S., so if I got infected, theres no way for me to get medication. My parents wanted me to come home too, so I just flew back. I think I am glad to be back, said Yi.

Bhimani and Smriga agreed that they wanted to return home for better healthcare and greater comfort. Smriga initially wanted to live on campus but reconsidered his decision to stay as fear arose of the virus spreading in Grinnell.

I just thought if I were to get [the virus] anywhere in the world, whether I were in Grinnell or in Tokyo, then I would probably want to go back home and get the medical treatment in Japan rather than the U.S., said Smriga. Its where Im from, so I feel most comfortable being here, and if something actually happens to me or my family, I can just be here and thats better [for me] mentally.

Now that the three students have made it back to their home cities, they are each adapting to their new surroundings. Bhimani is self-quarantining in her familys home, keeping a two-meter distance (about six feet) from her family members while living under the same roof. Yi and Smriga, however, are both undergoing a fourteen-day quarantine in hotel rooms in their respective cities.

My parents cannot see me because I am in the quarantine hotel, so they just go to work and send me some messages when possible, said Yi. His quarantine will end on April 9.

I hate being in a room for almost 20 days. I got quarantined in Shanghai for five days and then in my home city [Chengdu], so its really painful. I started to use some fitness apps so I can have fun in the room. Otherwise, it would just be so boring!

Bhimani said that it always takes her a few weeks to fully adjust to the time change. Luckily, none of the three students have live lectures to attend in their time zones, which range from seven to fourteen-hours ahead of Grinnell.

Smriga said, I dont have much problem with the time difference, but I just dont know if I can keep up with the workload, which is less than what it used to be. But [its hard] just waking up every morning and do[ing] whatever I have to do without the environment that I used to be in.

Yi thinks that communication will be the most difficult part of distance learning. I just cannot directly contact professors if I have a question for them. I have to email, which is kind of inefficient, and I really hoped that I could talk to them and my classmates directly. So that is a really sad thing, but I think that is a challenge for all students.

Smriga, Bhimani and Yi all wonder what difficulties may lie ahead in the coming months, and they question when they will return to the United States. Bhimani had lined up research internships in the U.S. for the summer, the fate of which is now unknown.

For now, Im supposed to come back. For now, fingers crossed, she said.

Yi, who is attending Grinnell College on a student visa, said that the Office of International Student Affairs was very supportive throughout this transition period and told him that his visa would be protected as long as he was taking classes. He is optimistic that it will be possible to return to Grinnell come the fall semester.

Smriga is optimistic as well. If there is a problem for us to have to go back to Grinnell in August, it would mean that it is a problem even for a domestic student, said Smriga.

Though the future remains uncertain, Bhimani, Smriga and Yi are glad to have made it to their respective homes safely and to be in a comfortable environment.

Everybodys adjusting, and everybody is doing the best we can, said Bhimani. A lot of things are changing that feel weird at first, but theyre necessary. And to me, the more extreme the precautions you take, the safer youre gonna be. Nobody can predict where the virus is going. Its just going everywhere.
By Jeremy Kohler St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The mayor told his police department to crack down on anyone violating the Illinois stay-at-home order. The police did just that  and cited the mayors wife at a downtown tavern.

Alton Mayor Brant Walker revealed in a Monday Facebook post that one of several people cited at a downtown bar early Sunday was his wife, Shannon Walker. Walker said the Alton police chief contacted him about 1 a.m. Sunday to say they were investigating and stopping a gathering at a bar downtown that was in violation of Illinois stay-at-home order.

I was also made aware that my wife was in attendance at this prohibited social gathering, Walker wrote. I instructed the Police Chief to treat her as he would any citizen violating the Stay At Home order and to ensure that she received no special treatment.

Alton Police said they had received several complaints that Hirams Tavern, 219 West 3rd Street, was continuing to operate. The police said a complaint for reckless conduct, a class A misdemeanor, was signed against every person at the bar, and each will be summoned to court. The department did not release the number of citations it issued or the names of those cited.

A reporters request for comment from Shannon Walker was answered with a statement that the mayor had no further comment on the matter.

The bars owner, Hiram Y. Lewis, was found to have a warrant for his arrest out of Madison County for domestic battery and was taken into custody, the police said. He could not be reached for comment.

Walker wrote: My wife is an adult capable of making her own decisions, and in this instance she exhibited a stunning lack of judgement. She now faces the same consequences for her ill-advised decision as the other individuals who chose to violate the Stay At Home order during this incident.

Walker said he was embarrassed by the incident and apologized for Alton residents.

My first and most important priority is the safety and well-being of the citizens of Alton, he wrote. We are in the midst of a national public health crisis, and I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure that your health is protected, including enforcing the Governors statewide Stay At Home order, he said.

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President Donald Trump hinted at cutting funding for the World Health Organization on Tuesday, over the groups handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The W.H.O. really blew it, the president said in a statement on social media, using the acronym for the United Nations organization.

For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look, he added.

WHO is closely aligned with the Chinese communist regime and has repeatedly praised Chinas leaders despite experts and unearthed evidence showing how officials manipulated the true situation in the country, where the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, emerged last year.

The United States provides 14.67 percent of WHOs funding. Its the largest source of funding for the group. U.S. contributions to WHO last year exceeded $400 million, according to the State Department.

American lawmakers have called on Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, to resign amid accusations of helping the Chinese Communist Party cover up the outbreak and probing whether WHO is complicit in the manipulation.

We know Communist China is lying about how many cases and deaths they have, what they knew and when they knew itand the WHO never bothered to investigate further. Their inaction cost lives, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said in a statement.

We could cut funding or we could tie future funding to certain changes, Scott added to the Daily Signal. It is supposed to be the World Health Organization, world health, but it panders to China.

A spokeswoman for the WHO told The Epoch Times in an email that the organization expects all its Member States to report data in a timely and accurate manner under the international protocols that have been agreed by the Member States of WHO.

Membership in WHO and signing up to the International Health Regulations both carry with it the responsibility to prioritize public health, nationally and internationally, not only because global health norms say so, but because the two are inextricably linked, as this global pandemic has made clear to the world, she said in the email sent last week, pointing to WHO official Dr. Mike Ryan telling reporters that people should be very careful not to be profiling certain parts of the world as being uncooperative or nontransparent.

WHO didnt immediately respond to a request for a response to Trump.

Reporters have regularly pressed WHO officials on Chinas role in the CCP virus spreading around the world but each time the officials have deflected answering directly. They often end up saying things similar to the statements from top Chinese officials. WHO has also faced questions on its dealings with Taiwan.

Trump on Tuesday noted that WHO officials earlier this year denounced travel restrictions that countries began implementing to try to curb the spread of the virus, saying, Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on.

Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation? he added.

From The Epoch Times
As the coronavirus pandemic drags on, insurers are committing substantial capital toward helping their agents, clients and employees weather the ongoing crisis.

Companies including Travelers, Chubb, Allstate, American Family and Next Insurance are among those who have launched programs or initiatives. Their efforts come as federal and state governments are increasingly pushing insurers to retroactively cover coronavirus-related business interruption losses. Instead, industry groups have pushed for voluntary industry action toward helping businesses and others facing COVID-19 disruptions.

As well, the P/C insurance industry has joined a broad business coalition in supporting and crafting a new federal relief fund for businesses and workers harmed by the quarantine and corresponding stay-at-home measures.

Below, we highlight some of the carrier initiatives now underway.

Travelers. The Travelers Companies said it will quicken commission payments of more than $100 million to eligible agents and brokers to help address COVID-19-related liquidity worries. Accelerated commissions involve business conducted during the 2019 first quarter; Travelers added it does not expect the payments to have a big impact on its results.

In addition, Travelers has pledged $5 million to COVID-19 relief efforts for families and their communities in North America, the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is also suspending cancellation and nonrenewal of coverage due to nonpayment through May 15 for all of its U.S. customers. More digital and virtual tools are also now coming into play for claims and audits and workers compensation (telemedicine and tele-rehabilitation). As well, Travelers repurposed its Hartford, Conn., kitchen facilities to help nonprofits prepare and deliver meals.

Chubb. The global insurer has committed to not laying off any of its 33,000 employees during the coronavirus pandemic. It is also pledging $10 million for global pandemic relief efforts.

Plans call for using the $10 million to support people and programs providing emergency front-line services. The money will also support the most financially vulnerable members of the community who have been hit hardest by the pandemic. Donations will come through the Chubb Charitable Foundation.

Chubb Chairman and CEO Evan Greenberg said the no-layoff pledge is meant to assure the companys employees that their jobs are secure at this difficult time.

Allstate. The property/casualty insurer said that its Allstate, Esurance and Encompass personal auto insurance customers will get a Shelter-in-Place Payback  a premium credit designed to address the fact that people are driving less during the pandemic.

How it will work: Most customers will receive 15 percent of their monthly premium in April and May, paybacks expected to surpass $600 million. Customers will receive the money through a credit to their bank account, credit card or Allstate account. Allstate said its Allstate Mobile app will be the fastest way to enable the payback, and that it is working with state insurance regulators to make it happen.

In all, Allstates telematics data has shown people are driving 35 percent to 50 percent fewer miles in most states.

In addition, Allstate said it is making its Allstate Identity Protection product free for the rest of the year with no opt-out requirement. The product helps protect customers from identity theft and financial fraud, and Allstate said it is extending the cover because cybercrime exposures are likely higher with more people working, taking classes and visiting friends virtually.

American Family Insurance. The Wisconsin-based insurer said it will be returning $200 million to its auto insurance customers because of less driving and risk during the pandemic.

American Family said it will do this through a one-time full payment of $50 per vehicle covered by one of the insurers auto policies. American Family households typically have auto coverage for two vehicles, so the average relief check will be $100, the insurer said.

Checks go out to Wisconsin customers starting this week. Payments to customers in the companys additional 18 operating states will go out once their insurance regulators approve the transaction as they did in Wisconsin. Payments will be based on personal auto policies in force as of March 11, 2020, the day the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

Next Insurance. The InsurTech said it is cutting April premiums by 25 percent for its customers with general liability, professional liability and commercial auto policies in an effort to help them survive the COVID-19 crisis. The companys founder and CEO, Guy Goldstein, said he is challenging other insurers to do the same.

This 25 percent reduction in April premium will only apply to customers written on State National Insurance Co. and Next Insurance paper, which the company said is the majority of eligible policies. It applies to those who pay monthly or paid their full annual premium up front and who purchased coverage before March 1.

The discount is subject to state regulatory approval. As of April 4, the company said 38 states have approved it.

Sources: Travelers, Chubb, Allstate, American Family, Next Insurance

*Material from Insurance Journal was used for this story.
Authorities are searching for a suspect in the weekend armed holdup of a Lowndes County convenience store.

The robbery happened Sunday at the BP on Highway 97 and Highway 80. According to Central Alabama Crime Stoppers, the suspect entered the store, brandished a handgun and robbed the clerk of the cash in the register. A second suspect stood outside.

Both suspects left the scene in a white late 2000s Chevrolet Impala with red fenders. They fled on Highway 80 westbound.

The first suspect is described as about 6-feet, 3-inches tall. He was wearing a pink hoodie, woodland camouflage pants, a red mask with eye holes cutout, and a gold shirt underneath. The second suspect was wearing a black hoodie.

Anyone with information about the crime or the suspects is asked to contact the sheriffs office or Central Alabama Crime Stoppers at 334-215-STOP (7867) or 1-833- AL1-STOP, or via the P3-tips app.
Britain should have acted more quickly and followed the example of Germany to introduce mass coronavirus testing, England's Chief Medical Officer admitted today.

Professor Chris Whitty spoke as figures released today show that Berlin has managed to keep its death toll below that of the UK despite having around double the confirmed cases.

Today was Britain's darkest day yet in its coronavirus crisis with 786 more fatalities confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 6,159 victims from a total of 55,242 positive tests.

In contrast, Germany has reported more than 100,000 cases of coronavirus but just 1,600 deaths, and the Government is already privately discussing lifting its movement restrictions.

It has been testing more than 50,000 people per day, while the UK is at little more than 10,000, with plans to hit 100,000 by the end of April.

At tonight's televised news conference, Prof Whitty added: 'We all know that Germany got ahead in terms of its ability to do testing for the virus and there's a lot to learn from that and we've been trying to learn the lessons from that.'

Professor Chris Whitty spoke as figures released today show that Berlin has managed to keep its death toll below that of the UK despite having around double the confirmed cases

International coronavirus death league table

A leaked document from Germany's interior ministry has already laid out plans for lifting the lockdown, although Angela Merkel says it is too early to set a date.

The country added fewer than 4,000 cases to its coronavirus tally for the second day running today, in the latest promising sign that the peak may have passed.

The increase of 3,834 cases follows a similar jump of 3,677 yesterday, bringing the total number of infections from 95,391 to 99,225.

The 4.0 per cent rise is almost identical to yesterday's increase, which was the lowest since the crisis began.

However, the jump of 173 deaths is higher than yesterday's 92, bringing the total from 1,434 to 1,607.

The document says restrictions could be eased if the rate of contagion is below 1.0, meaning that each patient is infecting less than one other person on average.

If that is achieved, children could return to school on a regional basis, and restaurants could re-open with a limited number of customers.

Mrs Merkel said restrictions would be lifted step by step, warning that public health would always be the first consideration.

Germany is seemingly able to acquire tests from domestic manufacturers while Britain is having to import them.

Germany is home to a strong network of biotech and pharmaceutical companies, including Landt, which has made and helped distribute four million COVID-19 tests.

Asked what could be learned from Germany, where the rate of growth in the number of deaths was much slower, chief scientific adviser Sir Sir Patrick Vallance said: 'You're right, the German curve looks as though it's lower at the moment, and that is important, and I don't have a clear answer for you to exactly what it is, the reason for that, and there are obviously two things that one will look at in terms of any response to any outbreak.

'One is the virus itself and the other is the society into which that virus comes, and there are things to do with demographics, there are things to do with the way systems are organised and of course there may be differences in the way certain responses have been taken.'

At the news conference, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is standing in for Prime minister Boris Johnson while he remains in intensive care in hospital, insisted the Government's commitment to reach 100,000 coronavirus tests per day by the end of the month 'still stands'.

With concerns that antibody tests will not be ready, meaning antigen tests would need to be significantly ramped up, he said: 'Lots of these things are in very high demand but we are doing everything we can on every front to get all of the testing capabilities we need.

At the news conference, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is standing in for Prime minister Boris Johnson while he remains in intensive care in hospital, insisted the Government's commitment to reach 100,000 coronavirus tests per day by the end of the month 'still stands'

'But yes, the Health Secretary's 100,000 per day target still stands.'

Sir Patrick said following Italy's death rate trajectory did not mean the UK would end up with the same end result.

He made the comments in response to a question about whether there were any lessons to be learnt given the UK remained three to fours weeks behind Italy's Covid-19 pattern.

'This is a pandemic, which means it is everywhere,' he told the press conference.

'That is why we are seeing it across many different countries and across all populations.

'And we are probably three or four weeks behind Italy in terms of the outbreak. It doesn't mean we end up with the same numbers.

'And of course it is important, as the ICU capacity has been built up, the idea of keeping the numbers below the ICU capacity is absolutely critical.'

Germany sees fewer than 4,000 new coronavirus infections for a second day in growing sign the country has flattened the Covid-19 curve

By Tim Stickings

Germany added fewer than 4,000 cases to its coronavirus tally for the second day running today, in the latest promising sign that the peak may have passed.

The increase of 3,834 cases follows a similar jump of 3,677 yesterday, bringing the total number of infections from 95,391 to 99,225.

The 4.0 per cent rise is almost identical to yesterday's increase, which was the lowest since the crisis began.

However, the jump of 173 deaths is higher than yesterday's 92, bringing the total from 1,434 to 1,607.

The head of the Robert Koch Institute, which collects the figures, warned it was too early to say that the crisis is easing despite 'encouraging' recent numbers.

This graph shows the daily number of new coronavirus cases in Germany, which has stayed below 4,000 for two days running

This graph shows the daily number of deaths. After falling to 92 yesterday, the number was back up to 173 today

The 3,834 new cases include 1,189 in Bavaria and 746 in Baden-Wuerttemberg, which are the two southern states closest to Italy.

Bavaria has the largest share of cases with 26,163 in total, including more than 3,600 in the capital Munich.

Elsewhere, the populous western state of North Rhine-Westphalia has more than 20,000 virus cases, while Berlin has nearly 4,000 with 28 deaths.

Germany's daily infection count was above 6,000 for three days running last week, but fell for three days in a row before remaining below 4,000 today.

The percentage growth in new infections has also been declining, from 21.0 per cent on March 24 to only 4.0 per cent in the last two days.

Infectious diseases chief Lothar Wieler sounded a cautious note today, saying Germany would have to 'wait a few days to see if there is a trend'.

He also revealed that 33,000 people have recovered from the disease in Germany, calling it an 'encouraging number'.

A leaked document from Germany's interior ministry has already laid out plans for lifting the lockdown, although Angela Merkel says it is too early to set a date.

The document says restrictions could be eased if the rate of contagion is below 1.0, meaning that each patient is infecting less than one other person on average.

If that is achieved, children could return to school on a regional basis, and restaurants could re-open with a limited number of customers.

Merkel said restrictions would be lifted step by step, warning that public health would always be the first consideration.

Medical staff in protective suits and masks treat a coronavirus patient in an intensive care unit at a community hospital in Berlin yesterday

A medical worker presses a screen while wearing gloves at the Havelhoehe community hospital in Berlin yesterday

A medical worker takes a sample from a man at the Berlin hospital. Germany has carried out mass testing to contain the disease

The head of state-owned railway Deutsche Bahn (DB) yesterday praised customers for 'being responsible' by cutting their travel.

DB president Richard Lutz said the current number of passengers was 'about 10 to 15 per cent of its usual level'.

In Frankfurt, the country's biggest airport marked a 91 per cent drop in the number of passengers in the last week of March against the same period in 2019.

Germany's neighbour Austria yesterday became the first European country to lay out a detailed timeline for the end of the lockdown, with some shops opening next week.

Merkel also signalled yesterday that Europe should aim for self-sufficiency in the production of masks and other critical supplies.

Governments have struggled to supply enough equipment to their overwhelmed health systems as virus cases pile up.

'Regardless of the fact that this market is presently installed in Asia... we need a certain self-sufficiency, or at least a pillar of our own manufacturing' in Germany or elsewhere in the European Union, she said.

Merkel said the EU 'stands before the biggest test since its founding', amid fraught discussions over financial aid from Brussels.

Italy, France and Spain have been imploring Germany, Austria and the Netherlands for common debt facilities to cushion the economic impact of the virus.

But frugal Germany has long been against the idea, not wanting to take on the debts of what it regards as fiscally indisciplined countries.

Medical student Florian Schwenzer, wearing a mask, protective suit and gloves, works at a care facility underneath the north stand at Borussia Dortmund's football ground

A display board on the top of a building overlooking the River Spree in Berlin broadcasts the message to stay at home during the lockdown last night

Merkel yesterday made no mention of the controversial common debt instruments dubbed 'coronabonds'.

However, Merkel reiterated her government's stance of activating the European Stability Mechanism bailout fund.

'Everyone is just as affected as the other, and therefore, it is in everyone's interest, and it is in Germany's interest for Europe to emerge strong from this test,' she said.

German finance minister Olaf Scholz has said the fund could be triggered 'with no senseless conditions' to help struggling states.

Merkel, 65, spent two weeks working from home after coming into contact with a doctor who later proved to be infected. The chancellor herself tested negative.

Her chief of staff yesterday played down speculation that she could postpone her retirement and run for a fifth term in 2021 because of the crisis.

'I don't think this is any time to discuss something like that,' Helge Braun said. 'She has said that this is her last term in office and I believe nothing has changed about that.'
Washington  President Donald Trump has removed the inspector general who was tapped to chair a special oversight board of the $2.2 trillion economic package intended to help businesses and individuals affected by the coronavirus, officials said Tuesday.

Glenn Fine, the acting Defense Department inspector general and a veteran watchdog, had been selected by peers last month for the position. Now its unclear who will oversee the rescue law.

The move threatens to upend the rigorous oversight that Democrats in Congress had demanded of the huge sums of money being pumped into the American economy because of the virus.

The president now has engaged in a series of actions designed to neuter any kind of oversight of his actions and that of the administration during a time of national crisis, when trillions of dollars are being allocated to help the American people, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California told The Associated Press.

The action follows Trumps late-night firing on Friday of Central New York native Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general who forwarded to Congress a whistleblower complaint that ultimately led to the presidents impeachment, as well as Trumps public condemnation of the acting Health and Human Services watchdog over a survey of hospitals about the coronavirus response.

Trump has also bristled at the oversight of the coronavirus law, suggesting in a statement last month that some of the mandates from Congress are unconstitutional.

Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general and chair of a council of watchdogs, had moved quickly last month to appoint Fine the head of the new coronavirus oversight board.

But Fine will not longer be able to serve in the role because Trump has nominated a replacement inspector general at the Pentagon and appointed an acting one to serve in Fine's place, according to an email from an assistant Defense Department inspector general that was obtained by The Associated Press.

The demotion disqualifies Fine from serving on the oversight board, which was created by Congress to be the nexus of oversight for coronavirus funding. He will instead revert to the position of principle deputy inspector general.

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Over 300 members of staff at Altnagelvin Hospital are on sickness leave having to self-isolate because of coronavirus, the Derry News has learned.

Across the Western Trust area, which includes the South West Acute Hospital in Fermanagh and other services, there are 808 workers off sick because of COVID-19 - the illness that can affect your lungs and airways which is caused by coronavirus.

A Western Trust spokesperson provided the figures which were reported at last weeks meeting of the Trust Board.

They reveal that at the Derry hospital 167 workers are self-isolating due to their own symptoms meaning they have to stay at home for seven days based on strict government advice.

While a further 137 workers at Altnagelvin have a family member displaying symptoms, requiring them to stay at home for 14 days from the day the first person in the home started having symptoms.

However, if workers then develop symptoms during this 14-day period, they need to stay at home for an extra 7 days from the day their symptoms started - staff can therefore be off sick for 21 days or longer if their condition does not improve.

The surge of the virus is expected to arrive in Northern Ireland between April 6-20.

Therefore all Trusts want as many workers available as possible.

Thus far testing has been limited to patients who are being admitted to hospital and some health care workers.

There have been calls for increased testing, particularly of health workers on the frontline.

To combat the issue of sickness and ensure that people can promptly return to work, the Western Trust this week introduced COVID-19 testing for staff and any of their family members who are displaying symptoms.

A Trust spokesperson said: "Staff testing is vital to maintain staff attendance at work as well as supporting staff health and well-being.

"COVID Staff Testing service is now operational across the Western Trust with one centre in Altnagelvin Area Hospital and one centre in Enniskillen.

"Testing is for health care workers or a person in their household that they have direct contact with who is displaying COVID symptoms.

"Testing is through an appointment process and the individual will be contacted within 48-72 hours with the result and given advice with regards to returning to work."

1,000 WORKERS

Meanwhile, almost 1,000 workers have responded to the Western Trust's workforce appeal, many of whom were able to start this week.

As a result of the HSC Workforce Campaign launched on March 27 - there are currently 588 applications being processed for the Western Trust across a range of staff groups.

Trust staff who have retired in the last three years have been contacted  96 have agreed to return across a range of staff groups.

Some Trust staff who were due to retire in the next four months have also expressed an interest in extending their retirement date to support the Trusts COVID response.

Students from a range of professions have expressed an interest in coming to work for the Trust.

These include 46 medical students who were due to start work in the Trust as Medical Student Technicians on Monday of this week.

In addition, 154 student nurses from a range of specialties from Ulster University and Queen's University, Belfast were due to start work with the Trust on Monday.

Students will be paid as healthcare workers at Band 4 until qualified, when they will be made permanent Band 5 nurses.

Also, 44 student social workers were due to start work in the Trust yesterday.

Almost 1,000 people have registered in response to the Workforce Appeal.

This covers the entire range of disciplines, e.g. porters, plumbers, nurses, doctors, administrators and social workers.

It is envisaged that these registrants will be able to be processed this week.
Actor Arjun Kapoor on Tuesday announced that he will be going on a virtual date with five people as part of an initiative to raise money for daily wage workers who have been affected by the nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus.

The actor has partnered with his sister Anshula's online fundraising platform, Fankind and non-profit organisation Give India for the initiative.

There is a section of people in our country who have lost livelihood during this crisis and are in dire need to sustain themselves and their families. I am talking about the scores of daily wage earners your favourite chaat wale bhaiya, construction workers, coolies, dhobis, rickshaw drivers and so many others.

The lockdown is meant that they can't go out and earn a living. Fankind, GiveIndia and I, we have come together to provide cash in hand for these daily wage workers in serious need," Arjun said.

Arjun further said GiveIndia has identified more than 60 thousand families across India that need help.He urged people to wholeheartedly extend support to the cause.

"All you have to do is log on tofankind.org/arjunand donate. Even Rs 100 will make a huge difference. Your entire donation amount will go in the hands of these people in need," the 34-year-old actor said.

The "Panipat" actor said five lucky winners stand a chance to go on a virtual date with him.

A special thank you in advance to everyone who is going to come forward and donate for this special cause. I will be meeting and chatting and chilling with five winners on April 11 and that night we will all be doing a video chat.

I will be getting to know you, share a laugh with you, have a meal with you and just have a good evening together. Let's come together to help those in serious need," he said.

The actor had recently announced that he was contributing to PM and Maharashtra CM's funds as well as partnerning with other charity organisations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Alzheimer's Association selects three abstracts for oral and poster presentation; invites Dr. Johanne Kaplan to chair session

TORONTO and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. (TSX: PMN) (OTCQB: ARFXF), a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of antibody therapeutics targeting toxic oligomers implicated in the development of neurodegenerative diseases, announced today that the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) has accepted several abstracts for the company's Alzheimer's disease (AD) program. The AAIC also invited ProMIS Chief Development Officer Dr. Johanne Kaplan to chair a session on novel immunotherapeutic approaches for the treatment of AD. AAIC 2020 is currently scheduled for July 26-30 in Amsterdam.



On the first day of the conference, Dr. Kaplan will lead the session, "Non-human: Preclinical Immunotherapeutic studies," where she will present her abstract, "Rationally designed antibodies selective for pathogenic tau aggregates." Dr. Kaplan's data validate the use of ProMIS' novel drug discovery and development platform to generate antibodies selective for both the site and shape (conformation) of novel targets predicted to become exposed on toxic tau aggregates but not on healthy forms of tau. Misfolded tau protein, along with amyloid-beta, is a recognized driver of disease and a central target for AD drug development.

AAIC accepted two additional abstracts from ProMIS' scientific team. Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Neil Cashman will present, "Targeting of misfolded, pathogenic TDP43 antibodies with rationally designed antibodies," and Chief Physics Officer Dr. Steven Plotkin will present, "Epitope for oligomer-selective antibodies in tau and Abeta." Both posters highlight data for antibodies that are highly selective for toxic vs. physiologically important forms of proteins implicated in AD and a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS, frontotemporal lobar dementia (FTLD) and limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE)

"With the momentum and ever-increasing sense of urgency surrounding therapy development for Alzheimer's disease, we're honored that one of the most influential Alzheimer's conferences will share our data across its global platform," said Dr. Johanne Kaplan. "Interest in antibodies that demonstrate precision selectivity for toxic species of proteins, without affecting their normal forms, has never been more intense given the prospect of using gene therapy vectors to deliver antibodies directly into affected cells of the central nervous system to more effectively stop the toxicity and spread of pathogenic proteins. Data for our tau and TDP43 antibodies demonstrate this desired level of selectivity, and we look forward to both sharing our findings and learning from the global Alzheimer's community during a time when our uniquely vulnerable patient community is in dire need of safe and effective therapies."

AAIC is the world's largest annual meeting focused on advancing dementia science. The 2020 conference will be held from July 26-30, 2020 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center. For more information, visit www.alz.org/aaic .

Antibody candidates that are ideal for vectorization

ProMIS develops antibody candidates that are ideal for vectorization by virtue of their ability to selectively target the toxic form of otherwise normal proteins in the brain. Using its novel drug discovery and development platform, ProMIS has generated an arsenal of antibody candidates for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and ALS. Its Alzheimer's portfolio includes candidates that selectively target toxic forms of tau and amyloid beta, offering a critical one-two punch for AD therapy. The company's Parkinson's disease candidates likewise show precision selectivity for toxic forms of alpha-synuclein. Its antibody candidates for ALS target the toxic form of TDP43.

ProMIS' lead candidate, PMN310, is a monoclonal antibody for Alzheimer's disease that is well-positioned to be a next-generation drug candidate to aducanumab by virtue of its ability to more selectively target amyloid-beta oligomers (AO), a root cause of Alzheimer's disease. Preclinical studies show PMN310 demonstrates a high degree of binding to AOs without binding to non-toxic forms of A protein. Experimental data also indicate that PMN310 has greater selectivity for toxic species versus other A-directed antibodies, including aducanumab.

About ProMIS Neurosciences

ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. is a development stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing antibody therapeutics selectively targeting toxic oligomers implicated in the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimer's disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson's disease (PD). The Company's proprietary target discovery platform is based on the use of two complementary thermodynamic, computational discovery engines - ProMIS and Collective Coordinates - to predict novel targets known as Disease Specific Epitopes on the molecular surface of misfolded proteins. Using this unique precision approach, the Company is developing novel antibody therapeutics for AD, ALS and PD. ProMIS is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ProMIS is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol PMN, and on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol ARFXF.

To learn more, visit us at www.promisneurosciences.com , follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn and listen to the podcast, Saving Minds, at iTunes or Spotify .

For media inquiries, please contact:

Shanti Skiffington

shanti.skiffington@gmail.com

Tel. 617 921-0808

For Investor Relations please contact:

Alpine Equity Advisors

Nicholas Rigopulos, President

nick@alpineequityadv.com

Tel. 617 901-0785

The TSX has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This information release contains certain forward-looking information. Such information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by statements herein, and therefore these statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. All forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to it as well as other factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified by the Company in its public securities filings, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Singaporean firm F&N Dairy Investment Pte Ltd has filed an offer to purchase more than 17.4 million shares in domestic dairy producer Vinamilk (HoSE: VNM).

A Vinamilk farm in Don Duong district, Lam Dong province

F&N Dairy Investment plans to purchase the shares via put-through or order-matching transactions from April 8 to May 7.

If completed, the deal will increase the Singaporean firms ownership in Vinamilk to 18.69 percent, equal to 325.54 million shares, from 17.69 percent.

F&N Dairy Investment had previously offered to buy the same amount of Vinamilk shares between March 6 and April 3.

The original deal was unsuccessful and the company was only able to purchase 633,000 shares due to unfavourable market conditions, Vinamilk said in a filing to HoSE.

The Singaporean firm also failed to increase its stake in Vinamilk in 2019 and January 2020. In February and March, it bought six million Vinamilk shares.

Vinamilk shares edged up 0.5 percent to trade at 95,500 VND (4.06 USD) apiece on April 6.

The company's shares have lost 31 percent since January 30 as the spread of the coronavirus overshadows expectations for global economic growth and hits stocks markets hard worldwide.

As the companys shares have continued to decline, leaders at Vinamilk have reportedly registered to raise their ownership.

CEO Mai Kieu Lien is buying Vinamilk shares to up her stake by 0.03 percentage point to 0.31 percent. Transactions started on March 24 and will end on April 23.

Director of material development Trinh Quoc Dung and CFO Le Thanh Liem want to buy 200,000 shares each.

The largest dairy firm by market capitalisation, Vinamilk reported 56.3 trillion VND (over 2.38 billion USD) in total revenue last year, up 7 percent year on year.

Its post-tax profit gained 3.4 percent on-year to 10.5 trillion VND (445 million USD) in 2019.

Cash and cash-equivalent assets increased by 1.14 trillion VND (48.3 million USD) from the previous year to 2.66 trillion VND (112.7 million USD) at the end of 2019.

Short-term savings stood at 12.4 trillion VND (525.5 million USD), up by 3.76 trillion VND (159.4 million USD) from 2018.

Short-term savings, cash and cash-equivalent assets accounted for 33.78 percent of the firms total assets last year, up from 27.29 percent in 2018./.

Vinamilk completes acquisition of Moc Chau Milk Vinamilk completed the purchase of 79.5 million shares in GTNFoods to increase its holdings to 75 per cent in Moc Chau Milk.
Australias prudential regulator on Tuesday asked banks and insurers to consider deferring dividend payouts or use buffers like dividend reinvestment plans until the impact of the coronavirus pandemic is better known.

But the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) stopped short of giving an official directive, even as central banks across the world have restricted plans to return capital to investors as the outbreak threatens earnings and disrupts operations.

APRA asked banks and insurers to limit discretionary capital distributions so that they have sufficient capacity to continue essential functions like lending and underwriting insurance.

Banks and insurers have a critical role to play in supporting Australian households, businesses and the broader economy during this period of significant disruption caused by COVID-19, the regulator advised in a letter to the sector.

Spokesmen for Commonwealth Bank and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, the No. 1 and fourth largest lenders respectively, declined to comment.

Media representatives for Australias other two major banks, Westpac Banking Corp. and National Australia Bank, did not return requests for comment.

The regulator said dividends will need to be at a materially reduced level even when a board is confident that it can approve a dividend before conducting stress tests that will need to be discussed with APRA.

APRA added it expects boards to appropriately limit cash bonuses for executives and initiate other capital management plans on a pre-emptive basis, to maintain customer confidence and continue lending.

Analysts had already forecast that Australias Big Four banks may cut dividends in coming weeks due to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings downgraded the debt ratings of the four major banks and their debt instruments by one notch to A+, from AA- on Tuesday, the first of the three major credit agencies to do so. S&P Global and Moodys Investor Service rate the Big Four Australian lenders AA- and Aa3 respectively.

The move by Fitch may slightly increase the marginal cost of senior unsecured bond issues for the major banks, said Azib Khan, banking analyst at stockbroker Morgans Financial.

However, this isnt much of an issue for the major banks at the moment because they have access to cheap funding through the RBAs Term Funding Facility, Khan added, referring to the central banks three-year lending facility that charges them only 0.25%.

(Reporting by Paulina Duran in Sydney and Rashmi Ashok in Bengaluru; editing by Edmund Blair/Giles Elgood/Susan Fenton)

Photograph: Medical staff works in the negative-pressure isolation ward in Jinyintan Hospital, designated for critical COVID-19 patients, in Wuhan in central Chinas Hubei province on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020. Photo credit: Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images.

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European Watchdog Urges Re/insurers to Suspend Dividends During Pandemic

Topics Carriers COVID-19 Australia
The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought response from the Centre on a plea for immediate evacuation of all Indian students who are stranded in the United Kingdom (UK) amid the lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic.

The plea has said that governments of the UK and Germany have approached the Centre to facilitate return of their nationals stranded in India due to lockdown here and, as per media reports, flights would be operated in the near future from Mumbai and New Delhi for this purpose.

The petition, filed by Delhi-based advocate Madhurima Mridul, said that the government should be directed to ensure that flights ferrying British nationals from India to the UK be used to evacuate Indian students who are stranded there and are willing to come back.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to take instructions on the issue and posted the matter for hearing on April 13.

Advocate Sunil Fernandes appeared for the petitioner during the hearing which was conducted through video-conferencing.

The plea has also sought a direction to the government to ensure that till requisite arrangements are made for evacuation, the students stranded in the UK are provided accommodation, adequate health and medical support, if needed, by the Indian High Commission in London.

It said that many of these students are exposed to greater risk of contracting COVID-19 as they are living in packed hostels with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities during the lockdown imposed in the UK, which has so far recorded over 2,300 deaths due to coronavirus.

The plea, filed by advocate Astha Sharma, said that the government should ensure that these students are quarantined and provided with all medical and health facilities as prescribed by the World Health Organisation.

It said that due to travel ban amid coronavirus pandemic, many Indian students, who had earlier booked tickets and reached various airports in the UK, were stranded and unable to take their journey to India.

"Surprisingly, India is probably the only country that has imposed an embargo on the return of its own citizens, and where other countries are making all possible efforts to repatriate their citizens stranded in various countries, India with its travel bans has made it impossible for its own citizens to come back home," it said.

The plea claimed that countries having more COVID-19 cases like China, Spain, Italy, Iran and the US have not imposed any embargo on the return of their nationals from foreign countries.

It said that Indian government could quarantine those who return from abroad and impose reasonable restrictions on their movement but to "pass a blanket order of preventing an Indian citizen from returning back to his homeland is violative of the Constitutional rights" guaranteed under Articles 14 (equality before law) and 21 (protection of life and personal liberty).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Public trust might be running low in Michigan following criminal charges against Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith, who resigned March 30 amid a criminal investigation. New Mexico residents know the feeling of betrayal, but they have good news.

The Land of Enchantment endured a similar scandal in 2014 and came out stronger after the backlash triggered meaningful reform. Now Michigan has its own chance to step up.

Problems in both states started with civil forfeiture, a government moneymaking scheme that invites and even encourages abuse. Unlike criminal forfeiture, which punishes people for wrongdoing after conviction, civil forfeiture flips the script and prosecutes inanimate objects.

Cars, jewelry and especially cash make popular targets. Owners can simply walk away if they want because theyre not on trial. Many people do, even when theyre innocent of any crime, because they cannot afford civil litigation-especially when attorney costs outweigh the value of their seized assets.

Police and prosecutors count on this. The result for agencies across Michigan is millions of dollars in revenue every year with little oversight.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel alleges that Smith used his cut like a personal slush fund, paying for country club parties, campaign expenses, gifts for women colleagues, a private security system at his home and other perks dating to 2012.

New Mexico prosecutors enjoyed their own perks before getting caught on camera bragging about the system. A video uncovered by the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that fights civil forfeiture nationwide, shows the level of cynicism at a vehicle forfeiture conference recorded in 2014.

Whats theirs is yours, former Las Cruces City Attorney Pete Connelly told his colleagues. If in doubt  take it.

He warned prosecutors about feeling squeamish when confiscating property from low-income families under the guise of public safety-when the real motive is profit. If you make money on motor vehicle seizures, its OK, Connelly told his audience. Dont feel bad.

The callous tone sparked public outrage, and New Mexico lawmakers responded. Their sweeping reforms abolished civil forfeiture altogether. To forfeit property now, New Mexico prosecutors must first convict the owner of a crimein criminal court-and then show by clear and convincing evidence, in the same courtroom, the propertys connection to the crime.

Even further, New Mexico scrapped the profit incentive for local agencies. Forfeiture revenue goes to a neutral fund, not back to police chiefs and prosecutors to use at their discretion.

This gold standard for forfeiture reform overshadows all of Michigans timid approaches. Most recently in 2019, Michigan passed civil forfeiture reforms that sound good on the surface but create loopholes in the fine print.

The law requires a criminal conviction before moving forward with civil forfeiture, but exemptions mean the requirements do not apply when owners cannot afford a lawyer or find one before a 20-day claim window shuts in civil court. These exemptions highlight the problem of Michigan keeping the prosecution and litigation in two different judicial systems. They neuter the laws protections of innocent owners.

Michigans forfeiture expenditure reporting laws are also weak. Law enforcement must only show, in percentages, how forfeiture revenue is spent annually in broad categories that dont give the public a sense of the scale or potential abuses.

If Michigan directed forfeiture revenue to neutral non-law enforcement funds and adopted the rest of New Mexicos model, the public would not need to worry about things like flowers and makeup kits going to a prosecutors favorite secretaries.

At the same time, property owners would not need to worry about their cars getting ransomed into the forfeiture system-like the Wayne County program that IJ is challenging in court.

Owners finally could enjoy their due process protections like the framers of the Constitution intended. Whats theirs would be theirs until a jury says otherwise.

Kathy Sanchez is a researcher and Daryl James is a writer at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Va.
Armenia has banned virtually all foreign nationals from entering the country due to the continuing coronavirus pandemic.

The Armenian government imposed last month such a ban only on the citizens of a few dozen states, -- notably China, Iran, Italy and Spain -- that were hit hardest by coronavirus.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the government decided to extend the travel ban to the entire world because virtually all countries have recorded coronavirus cases in recent weeks.

In a statement, the ministry said that the ban will not cover those foreigners who are married to Armenians or have Armenian residency permits as well as foreign diplomats and representatives of international organizations. But it cautioned that they all will have to self-isolate or be put in quarantine immediately after entering the country.

Armenias land borders with neighboring Georgia and Iran were closed for travel in March, and virtually all airlines stopped flying to Yerevan and Gyumri by the beginning of this month. The latest government measure may therefore change little in practice.

According to the Foreign Ministry statement, the government expanded the travel ban on April 3 just before the spread of coronavirus in Armenia began slowing down.

The Armenian Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday that 20 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases to 853. Twenty-five other Armenians recovered from the virus in the same period, according to the ministry.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian seized upon these figures to express cautious optimism about the governments efforts to contain the epidemic. He again said that the government will consider easing a nationwide lockdown if the downward trend continues in the coming days.

Armenia has reported eight coronavirus-related deaths so far.
Samsung Electronics expects higher first-quarter profits, it said Tuesday, as millions of people working from home in coronavirus lockdowns turn to cloud data services, pushing up demand for its chips. The pandemic is wreaking havoc across the global economy -- Samsung itself had operations suspended at 11 overseas assembly lines as of Tuesday -- and is widely expected to cause a recession. Looking forward, analysts expect the firm's smartphone and consumer electronics businesses will be buffeted by the resulting falls in consumer demand. But initially, changing behaviour patterns among the vast numbers of people forced to stay at home around the world have generated a silver lining for the world's biggest smartphone and memory chip maker. In the first three months, operating profits inched up 2.7 percent from 2019 to around 6.4 trillion won ($5.2 billion), Samsung Electronics forecast in an earnings estimate. The figure was ahead of expectations, and was based on sales of 55 trillion won, up five percent year-on-year. "There has been high demand for memory chips for data servers as an increasing number of people are now working from home due to the outbreak," said Tom Kang, an analyst at Hong Kong-based market researcher Counterpoint. "We are also seeing a hike in demand for laptops because we have many companies that are not fully ready for working digitally." Samsung Electronics is crucial to South Korea's economic health. It is the flagship subsidiary of the giant Samsung group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates known as chaebols that dominate business in the world's 12th-largest economy. Shares in the firm closed up 1.8 percent Tuesday, having fallen nearly 20 percent from a record high in January amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic and its economic repercussions. - Global recession - But the wider picture for the firm is more mixed as Fitch Ratings forecast the global economy to contract 1.9 percent this year, with a 3.3 percent tightening in the United States, triggering layoffs and dampening consumer demand. Samsung had pinned its hopes for 2020 on a rollout of its new 5G and premium smartphones including its new folding Galaxy Z flip phone, hoping they would boost purchases. But an industry source who asked not to be named said increasing uncertainty going into the second quarter would "exacerbate troubles". Global smartphone sales dropped 14 percent in February year-on-year with China seeing nearly a 40-percent decrease, according to Counterpoint. "Semiconductor earnings look set to increase on the back of memory chip price hikes," Greg Roh, senior vice-president at HMC Securities, told Bloomberg News. But the consumer electronics and IT and mobile divisions "will likely see their earnings decline", he added. Samsung's key sales regions of North America, Asia and Europe are among the hardest-hit by the virus, said James Kang of Euromonitor. "With suspended retail businesses, reduced shipments and weak consumer sentiment, sales in those regions could plunge dramatically in the second quarter," he said. "A new lineup of premium products will play a key role in how successful Samsung will be in cushioning the blow." Adding to Samsung Electronics' challenges, its vice chairman and de facto leader Lee Jae-yong is currently being re-tried over a sprawling corruption scandal that could see him return to prison. He is not being held in custody during the proceedings, but a guilty verdict could deprive the firm of its top decision-maker. Samsung withholds net profit and sector-by-sector business performance data until it releases its final earnings report, expected later this month. LG Electronics, South Korea's second largest appliance firm after Samsung, also forecast higher first-quarter operating profits Tuesday, projecting they would reach 1.09 trillion, up 21.1 percent year-on-year.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 19:17:09|Editor: xuxin

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by Peerzada Arshad Hamid

NEW DELHI, April 7 (Xinhua) -- India's unemployment rate spiked to the highest level recorded in 43 months in March this year, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said Tuesday.

"The unemployment rate in March was 8.7 percent. This is the highest unemployment rate in 43 months. Or, since September 2016. The rate has climbed rather steeply from the 7.16 percent level of January 2020. The unemployment rate has been rising steadily since its low point of 3.4 percent in July 2017," the CMIE in its report said.

The CMIE, which is India's leading business information company based in Mumbai, has described the situation worrisome.

"The unemployment rate during this last week was 23.8 percent. Labour participation rate (LPR) fell to 39 percent and the employment rate was a mere 30 percent," the report said. "Telephonic interviews caught pace in the week ended April 5. We had 9,429 observations. These yielded an unemployment rate of 23.4 percent during this week; an LPR of 36 percent and an employment rate of 27.7 percent. This is really worrisome."

At present, the entire world is collectively reeling from the effects of coronavirus. Millions of jobs have been lost and economies are in deep crisis. However, in India, the situation was grim even before the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the CMIE, the employment rate fell to an all-time low of 38.2 percent in March 2020.

"The fall since January 2020 is particularly steep -- almost spectacular. It seems to have nosedived in March after having struggled to remain stable over the past two years. Then, there is a precipitous fall," the report said.

"The labour participation rate in March 2020 was 41.9 percent. It was 42.6 percent in February and 42.7 percent in March 2019. We had feared a fall in labour participation rate because of the national shutdown to contain the spread of coronavirus. But, this fall seems to have happened even before the lockdown. Of course, it gets much worse as we move into the lockdown."

The CMIE report comes as India Tuesday entered the fourteenth day of a 21-day nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus and its transmission into the community.

Authorities have imposed strict curfew-like restrictions to prevent the movement of people across the country. All road, rail and air services have been suspended in wake of the lockdown, except essential services which are exempted.

The federal government has asked states to strictly enforce the ongoing lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus and break the chain of its transmission in the country.

Details released by the federal health ministry Tuesday morning showed that the death toll due to COVID-19 in India rose to 114 and the total cases reached 4,421.

India's economy suffered from a prolonged period of slowing growth much ahead of the lockdown.

The Indian government had earlier projected GDP growth at 5 percent in 2019-20 as compared to 6.1 percent in 2018-19. The Q3 had witnessed a 4.7 percent growth.

Many ratings groups have estimated a much worse situation for the economy due to the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.

Moody's Investors Service (MIS), an American credit rating agency, in March cut India's economic growth forecast for 2020 to 2.5 percent from previously estimated 5.3 percent amid the coronavirus pandemic that it said was likely to impact the economy.

Earlier this month, Fitch Ratings said India's GDP may expand 2 percent in financial year 2021 -- the slowest pace since the economy was liberalised 30 years ago.
An explosion at a weapons depot in the Aleppo countryside has killed a number of regime fighters, but the cause of the blast has not been reported writes Zaman Al Wasl.

Two Republican Guard troops and one Hezbollah militant were killed on Sunday when an explosion struck a weapons depot in northern Aleppo province, a rebel source told Zaman al-Wasl.

The depot is located in the town of Miznaz in the western countryside of Aleppo.

A senior commander in the Republican Guard has also died of wounds succumbed during a Turkish drone strike in northern Idleb province last March, pro-regime activists said Sunday.

Colonel Ahmed Said was the commander in the artillery battalion in the 105th brigade, a key unit in the Syrian armys elite force.

The Republican Guard has been the armys backbone in fighting across out the country.

In northern Syria, at least 400 army troops and officers have been killed since February, mostly in Turkish artillery and combat drones attacks, local activists said.

The conflict in Syria has killed more than 390,000 people and displaced 7.5 million.

In a related story, Turkish forces have set up three new observation points in northern Idleb province, bringing the total number of points to 54, amid heavy reinforcements that keep pouring into the last opposition stronghold in Syria, despite a ceasefire deal reached last March, local activists said Sunday.

The new outposts have been established in the villages of Frika and Bakseryah, west of Jisr al-Shughour city.

In March, Turkish forces set up six observation points in al-Ghassaneyah, Bidama, al-Najiyeh, and al-Zainiya, al-Misherfah and Tel Khattab, an array of villages located in the Jisr al-Shughour region.

At least 350 trucks carrying troops and tanks entered Idleb this week amid warnings by Ankara to Damascus urging respect of the ceasefire deal reached month ago and to stop violations.

Idleb province is home to 3.5 million civilians, according to the United Nations.

Turkey said on Sunday it would minimise its troop movements in operation zones in neighbouring Syria in response to the coronavirus outbreak as the Turkish death toll and infections in the country rose, Reuters reported.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
President Donald Trump flanked by Vice President Mike Pence speaks during the daily briefing on the CCP virus in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on April 6, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump Reaches Deal With 3M to Bring 55.5 Million Masks to Health Care Workers Monthly

President Donald Trump on April 6 announced the White House has reached an agreement with manufacturing giant 3M to bring more than 55.5 million N95 respirators to the United States monthly to support health care workers.

We have reached an agreement, a very amicable agreement, with 3M for the delivery of an additional 55.5 million high-quality face masks each month, so that were going to be getting over the next couple of months 166.5 million masks for our frontline health care workers, Trump said at a CCP virus briefing on April 6.

The president said that the 3M saga ends very happily, and that his administration is very proud to be dealing with 3M, adding that he had spoken with CEO Mike Roman and thanked him for getting it done.

Under the terms of the new deal, 3M will import 166.5 million respirator masks to the United States over the next three months, mostly from its factory in China, starting in April. The additional masks will supplement the 35 million masks 3M currently produces each month in the United States, the company said in a statement released on April 6.

The plan will also enable 3M to continue sending U.S.-produced respirators to Canada and Latin America, where it is the primary source of supply.

I want to thank President Trump and the administration for their leadership and collaboration, Roman said in the statement. We share the same goals of providing much-needed respirators to Americans across our country and combating criminals who seek to take advantage of the current crisis. These imports will supplement the 35 million N95 respirators we currently produce per month in the United States.

Trumps announcement comes after he invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) last week in relation to 3M, saying he wasnt happy with the number of N95 masks the company was delivering to U.S. health care workers fighting the CCP virus. The DPA order authorized acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf to use any and all authority to acquire as many respirators from the company or its affiliates as was deemed appropriate.

Later that day, Trump wrote on Twitter, We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks, in an apparent reference to reports that the manufacturing giant had been exporting many of its masks to other countries instead of reserving them for domestic use.

3M said in a statement at the time that it had gone above and beyond to manufacture as many N95 respirators as possible for the U.S. market, and that it has been working closely with the administration to do exactly that, but said that ceasing the export of respirators to Canadian and Latin American markets could have significant humanitarian implications.
Just a few weeks ago, on the evening of March 22, the entire country was on their balconies cheering for the frontline workers, including doctors and nurses for their service during the COVID-19 outbreak. But the reality the doctors and nurses have to put up with every day is totally different.

Ever since the COVID-19 cases began spiking many doctors and nurses were quite literally thrown out of their apartments and rented accommodations by landlords and neighbours on the fear that they might be infected.

AFP

That is just one of the struggles that the medical professionals are going through right now. The biggest concern for them, be it doctors or nurses are the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE).



This is the same for both medical professionals working in government and private hospitals. Recently when some medical professionals took to social media to complain about the lack of PPEs they were bullied and forced to delete their posts.

BCCL

And the lack of PPEs has started showing its effect.

On Friday, the Union Health Ministry said that more than 50 medical staff had tested positive for COVID-19. This was before the staff at Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai tested positive for the infection. Till now 29 nurses and 3 doctors of the hospital have tested positive for the viral infection and the fear is that the numbers will go up in the coming days.



Just over a month ago when there were a few hundred cases of COVID-19 in the country, Indiatimes had reported how poorly prepared we are for the outbreak. This was based on interactions with nurses working at several hospitals in Delhi. Indiatimes once again caught up with some of them in the wake of the Mumbai hospital incident and all of them said they were not surprised at what happened.

BCCL

"This is just the tip of the iceberg. Many of my friends have also developed symptoms and have been asked to quarantine themselves. A few of my colleagues have already tested positive for COVID-19," a nurse working at one of the biggest hospitals in NCR said.

Those working in COVID-19 wards have to work six hours a day for six days and then have to remain in home isolation for the next 14 days before joining back for duty. But according to her, the six hours are like living hell.

"Have you seen that images of Chinese nurses with bruised faces after work? Let me tell you, one cannot describe what it feels like to be inside that suit. It is like you are in a heat chamber. You have to be inside the suit for six hours and you cannot even remove it to have some food or tea. In fact, we have been asked not to go to the washroom while at work," she said.

BCCL

"The moment I step out of the hospital, I call my husband to tell him the time that I will reach home so that he can keep the gate open. Once at home, the first thing that I do is to take a proper bath. Only after that, I would even go near my two children. It is a weird feeling," she added.

She said that as more nurses are sent to quarantine, it adds to the pressure of others on duty, both mentally and physically.

"Every day I come across many worried faces of my colleagues. Most of then are very young, just a few years into their career. They are also under pressure from their families who are concerned about their safety," she said.

Another nurse working with another private hospital said those who are not deployed at COVID-19 wards have to work 12 hours a day.

BCCL

"Since the COVID-19 patients are the priority now most of the staff have been assigned duty there. But there are other patients too who are admitted and have to be taken care of. So we are working four hours extra, due to the staff shortage. I have not been assigned COVID-19 ward duty yet. But it could happen in the coming days. If not COVID-19, the exhaustion from working 12 hours a day will kill me," she said.



She also added that there is pressure from her family to come back, even if that means leaving the job.

"My family back in Kerala are really worried about my safety after watching everything that is happening around in the news. My parents even asked me to come back to Kerala. But I can't leave as my family depends on my salary. I also have to pay back the loan that I took for my studies. All these I have to find from the Rs 15,000 salary I get. Sometimes I do think is it worth risking my life for this? Maybe it is, I don't know," she said.

(The names of the two nurses have been withheld on request to avoid identification)
Missed the most recent top news in Durham? Read on for everything you need to know. 2 teens accused in spree of armed carjackings Read the full story on ABC11 WTVD. Police continue investigation into shooting death of NCCU student Read the full story on WRAL. Up to 17 shots fired in drive-by shooting that injured baby, neighbors say

Read the full story on Amy Cutler - CBS 17. During a time of crisis, a look inside NC's beer economy Read the full story on WRAL TV. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.

Two teens are suspected in a spree of seven armed carjackings between March 22 and 29.

WRAL's Sarah Krueger has the latest on the investigation into the shooting death of an NC Central student last Tuesday night.

A neighbor who didnt want to give his name said it was a drive-by shooting that injured a 12-month-old on Sunday afternoon in the 1200 block of Truman Street across from McDougald Terrace.
Thiruvananthapuram, April 7 : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said there were 9 new coronavirus positive cases in the state, taking the total number under treatment to 266.

In all, the count of the affected and cured cases stands at 336.

Two deaths had been reported previously, but those patients had other serious underlying ailments.

"Today's positive cases include two who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi, taking the total who attended the meet to 14, who turned positive. There are 1,45,934 people under observation at homes and 752 at various hospitals in the state," said Vijayan.

In a related development, the police registered 2,408 cases and recorded arrest of 2,399 people. As many as 1,683 vehicles were seized for violating the curfew norms.
James Lovelock attends The Oldie of the Year Awards at Simpson's in the Strand in London, UK, on Feb. 7, 2017. (Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

Maybe Nature Shouldnt Be Worshipped After All

Commentary

A statement widely attributed to the great British thinker G.K. Chesterton describes the modern period as perfectly as any single idea can: When people stop believing in God, they dont believe in nothing; they believe in anything.

One of these substitute gods has been nature.

Indeed, of all the false gods, nature is probably the most natural for people to worship. Every religion prior to the Bible had nature-godsthe sun, the moon, the sea, gods of fertility, gods of rain and so on.

That is why the farther Western society gets from biblical, i.e., Judeo-Christian, religions, the more nature is worshipped.

Everyone on the left and right cares about the environment. But caring about the environment is not the same as environmentalism. Environmentalism, for most of its adherents, is a secular religion. These people, many of whom refer to, and truly regard, the Earth as a goddess (Gaia, the name of the ancient Greek Earth goddess) worship the environment.

The man who, more than any other, started the modern environmentalist religion was James Lovelock, who developed the Gaia hypothesis in the 1970s. Almost 50 years later, in 2014, Lovelock told The Guardian, Environmentalism has become a religion.

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat described the 2009 James Cameron blockbuster film, Avatar, as Camerons long apologia for pantheism, a faith that equates God with Nature, and calls humanity into religious communion with the natural world. That equation of God with nature was a major reason for the films popularity.

Douthat, one of the only religious (as in believing in and practicing a religion) columnists at The New York Times, added, The threat of global warming, meanwhile, has lent the cult of Nature qualities that every successful religion needs: a crusading spirit, a rigorous set of thou shalt nots, and a piping-hot apocalypse.

When you ask atheists, as I have for decades, what they believe in, the most common answer is science. There was a young man, an atheist, at the gym where I work out, who responded, Science! (in place of God bless you) whenever someone sneezed. There is nothing higher than science for an atheist because the natural world is all there is. So, worship of the Earth, the environment or nature is almost inevitable in a secular world.

The Bible takes an entirely different view. As explained at length in my Bible commentary, The Rational Bible, the first verse of the BibleIn the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earthcontains the most radical idea in history. It stated, for the first time in history, that God created nature and is not part of nature. It is one of the reasons I believe the first five books, the Torah, are God-given. No human beings 3,000 years ago in the late Bronze Age would have come up with an idea so opposed to the way the human mind naturally worksto regard gods as part of nature.

From the point of view of the secular, Gaia-worshipping world, Genesis gets even worse when, 27 verses later, God tells human beings to, Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.

Both instructions infuriate Earth-worshippers. Regarding being fruitful, they oppose people having more than one child, and many advocate having no children so as to have minimal human impact on Mother Earth. But the second partruling over natureis what really angers them.

Maybe the coronavirus will awaken young people, who have been taught by nature-worshipping teachers and raised by nature-worshipping parents, to the idiocy of worshipping nature rather than subduing it. Nature, it turns out, is not our friend, let alone a god. If it were up to nature, wed all be dead: Animals would eat us; weather would freeze us to death; disease would wipe out the rest of us. If we dont subdue nature, nature will subdue us. Its that simple.

Nature is beautiful and awe-inspiring. Its also brutal and merciless. Nature, red in tooth and claw, as Alfred Tennyson aptly describes it. Nature follows no moral rules and shows no compassion. The basic law of all biological life is survival of the fittest, while the basic law of Judaism and Christianity is the opposite: the survival of the weakest with the help of the fittest. Nature wants the weakest eaten by the strongest. Hospitals are as anti-natural an entity as exists.

Only human beings make hospitals. We do so not by worshipping nature but by subduing it.

If the COVID-19 virus destroys the foolish veneration of nature and leads more people, especially the young, to a new respect for the Judeo-Christian worldview, it might be the one silver lining in this catastrophe.

Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
A new way to celebrate Passover. (Ross May / Los Angeles Times)

Passover commemorates the Exodus, when Moses led the Jewish people out of slavery in ancient Egypt. Families and friends recount the story at the Seder table, when food symbolizes the steps of their escape.

Passover is a holiday when we eat the story in order to learn the story, said Rabbi Susan Goldberg, founder of the spiritual community Nefesh and the rabbi consultant on the TV series Transparent.

But how do we celebrate Passover, which begins Wednesday, in the time of the novel coronavirus? Here are safe ways to come together when social distancing keeps us apart.





Join a community Zoom Seder

Google Zoom Seder to find an electronic Seder to your liking. University Synagogue will host a Reform version; you can download the Haggada (the Seder text) in advance. The Nefesh Seder will deliver Seder kits and suggest kids activities. Before the Seder starts, well do a fun Kids Jam, with songs, some jumping around, blessings on the matzo, Goldberg said.

(Full disclosure: Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is an investor in Zoom.)

Create your own Zoom/FaceTime Seder

First, decide on the Haggadah everyone will use. Sarah Bunin Benor, professor of contemporary Jewish studies at Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles, created a downloadable Haggada PowerPoint complete with videos, images and songs. I encourage people to edit the slides to their liking, she said. For those with a creative urge and the time, Haggadot.com makes it easy to create a personalized Haggadah with family photos and more.

For the past 35 years, we held a Seder for 50 to 60 people in our home, said George Rimalower, whose parents were Holocaust survivors. This year, well have 40 to 50 people on 15 to 20 screens, some joining it from as far away as Buenos Aires. Rimalower will send a PDF of his Haggada and assign readings in advance.

He plans to open Zoom on his wide-screen TV. That way, my wife, Cathi, and I will feel like our family and friends are in our house, he said.





Story continues

Missing ingredients for the Seder plate?

The Seder plate holds the essential symbolic Passover foods. But what if horseradish root, which represents the bitterness of slavery, is hard to find? Use a lettuce leaf instead, said Amelia Saltsman, author of "The Seasonal Jewish Kitchen." In ancient times, lettuce was bitter. Even though its mild now, many Israelis still use it on the Seder plate.

What if you cant find a lamb-shank bone, symbol of the Passover sacrifice? Ive kept my shank bone in my freezer in between Seders for at least 40 years, but a chicken leg bone will do, said Judy Bart Kancigor, author of "Cooking Jewish." Cant spare an egg, symbol of spring and the continuing cycle of life? Use an avocado pit, she said.

If you dont have Seder plate ingredients in the house, a picture will suffice, Bunin Benor said. The Seder might not taste or smell the same, but youll have the experience of thinking and talking about the symbolism and the Exodus story.

Missing ingredients for the traditional Passover dinner?

Saltsman usually slow-roasts beef brisket, but she hasnt been able to find one this year. She is making her cookbooks simple chicken in the pot recipe instead.

If you decide not to cook, consider picking up or ordering delivery of a Seder. L.A. restaurants such as Huckleberry, Akasha, Arts Deli and Jar are offering them. Wolfgang Pucks Spago, which has put on a community Seder for 36 years, is adding a ritual Seder plate with its takeout meal. We lowered the price to encourage guests to donate to Mazon, which battles hunger, said co-owner Barbara Lazaroff.

Keeping kids entertained

The Seder can be long, and young ones can get antsy or sleepy. Before the Seder, parents can help their children create wacky costumes representing the 10 plagues (frogs are a favorite), or devise a fun Moses-versus-Pharaoh Let my people go! skit.

Kids love hunting for the afikomen, a piece of matzo the Seder leader hides during the service. Zoom participants can arrange to hide theirs in the same place  under the childrens beds, for example. When all the children find theirs, make sure they all get the same sweet reward.





Make the Seder relevant to today

The ancient Israelites lived through the 10 plagues; today, were living through one. The Seder service may be a time to discuss it. Rimalower added coronavirus questions to the four-sons portions of the Haggada.

This is where you explain the Exodus story so that everyone  even the youngest person there  can understand it, he said. "I realized that kids are as upset about COVID-19 as grown-ups, so I added four more questions so we could talk about it: The inquisitive child asks, 'Why are people getting sick?' The worried child asks, 'What if the virus keeps spreading and never stops?' The compassionate child asks, 'What can I do to keep me and the others healthy and safe?' The resilient child asks, 'When its over, how can we keep it from happening again?' "

David Wolpe, senior rabbi at L.A.s Sinai Temple, added his wisdom for this terrible time. The first night of Passover was before the Israelites left Egypt," he said. "They were frightened and did not know what would happen.

"This year, we share their apprehension of the future and the uncertainty gnaws at us. But there will be a time of deliverance  . To the extent possible, enjoy the evening. Do not lose the moment in anticipation of tomorrow.




Since mid-March, morgues in Iraq have been filling up with the bodies of people who died from the COVID-19 coronavirus because there is nowhere to bury them. While the authorities have designated special burial grounds for victims of the virus, the people who live near those sites have been blocking burials-- fearful that the bodies will bring the virus to their locality.



On March 24, residents of the town of Nahrawan, located 35 kilometres east of Baghdad, gathered near the town cemetery to protest against Baghdad health officials plan to bury COVID-19 victims there. After two full days of protests, Nahrawans residents succeeded in blocking the burials and the authorities took their bodies back to Baghdad.





This video posted on March 24 shows locals refusing to let sanitation workers and families bury eight people who died of coronavirus in a nearby cemetery. The locals followed them in a car right up to the gates of the cemetery.



A landfill was established near the town in 2015 and it is thought to have polluted the nearby soil. Nahrawan residents said it was bad enough that the government had turned their town into a landfill site, but that they were drawing the line when authorities tried to bury victims of coronavirus there, according to news website Raseef22, whose journalists interviewed protesters.



Our Observers in the region said that locals were also afraid that the virus could spread from the bodies if they were buried too close to inhabited areas.



However, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has said that the virus cannot be transmitted from a victims body unless you come into direct contact with bodily fluids or contaminated personal effects. The Iraqi health ministry has also detailed strict hygiene measures for the bodies of coronavirus victims-- they are first disinfected before being placed into a sealed body bag. The bag is then put into a coffin and buried four metres below the ground (the usual depth of Muslim graves is about 1.8 metres).





Story continues

This video, which has been circulating online since about March 14, shows a burial taking place somewhere in Iraq. It stirred controversy online, with many people saying that the burial didnt conform to religious traditions or proper hygiene measures.

In desperation, the families of COVID-19 victims have turned to social media in the hope of raising awareness and securing burial plots for their loved ones. Dr. Jassab Ali Al Hajjami, who is the Director of Health in Karakh, located west of central Baghdad, has also gotten involved in the struggle. The families of several victims of COVID-19 reached out to him, including the relatives of a patient whose body was still sitting in the morgue of the Al Furat Hospital eight days after his death. Dr. Al Hajjami took to social media to try and help these families.









We had to bring eight bodies back to the hospital without burying themHaji Firas Abou Moamel is a 42-year-old businessman from Baghdad who volunteered to help families of COVID-19 victims to bury their loved ones. He works with a team of young volunteers.



Weve responded to calls from families in distress all around Baghdad. The Minister of Health found some land south of the capital, about 14 kilometres from the closest town, and was going to start procedures last week. But the people living nearby are afraid of those who have this virus, even when they are dead! People living in Nahrawan protested against the burials.



The land in question is outside of town. We are going to bury the bodies at a depth of four metres, in accordance with proper hygiene rules to follow during a pandemic, so the bodies dont pose a danger to anyone.

On March 24, faced with the ongoing protests, we had to bring eight bodies back to the hospital without burying them. They were all kept at the morgue for five to ten days while the authorities figured out a solution.







Some families have even been threatened



French news agency AFP interviewed the families of the deceased. Some of them said that they encountered angry and suspicious locals, who, in some cases, were armed, when they tried to bury their family members. Abou Moamel has started offering escorts to the families to provide them with additional security.



Ever since we heard about the threats that the families are facing, weve been accompanying the teams that are in charge of burials. We use our own means to offer them additional protection as well as some financial support. Today, we helped the team bury 17 bodies around the capital.













A lot of these people dont know how COVID-19 is transmittedDoctor Abdelghani Saadi, the director general of Health in Rassafa, which is located to the east of Baghdad, says that communication on the part of the government is key to make sure that this type of problem doesnt occur in other Iraqi cities in coming weeks.





In this video, member of parliament Hakem Zamli calls on the authorities to figure out an emergency solution for the bodies that are piling up in the town of Sadr" (an eastern suburb of Baghdad).



The problems with the bodies started two weeks ago [Editors note: in mid-March 2020]. Local people were refusing to let us bury people who had died of the virus near their homes. We dont want to force people. But the Ministry did make a public statement that a body that has been buried cant transmit the virus. However, there are 40 million people in Iraq, so it is difficult to reach absolutely everyone.



Lots of people still dont know how COVID-19 is transmitted. Things circulating on social media - like footage of people collapsing, dead, in the streets and in the hospitals - feed into a general fear around anything to do with the virus. People believe the virus will contaminate the ground where an infected body is buried, and that it will seep into their water and fields.



After the protests in Nahrawan, eight bodies were brought back to Baghdad. They remained in the city's Ibn Al Khatib Hospital until Monday, March 30, after an agreement was reached with the city of Najaf (160 km south of the capital) to bury the bodies in the Wadi Al-Salam cemetery, on the outskirts of the holy city.





Dr. Abdelghani said this temporary solution was a direct result of mobilization on social media:



Talking about this crisis on social media really broke the taboo around burials of people who died of coronavirus. Through Facebook posts and videos, we were able to explain the process of sanitary burials, which involves putting the dead in coffins [Editors note: This process is different from traditional Muslim burials where the body is wrapped in two layers of cotton without a coffin]. We were also able to reassure people that there were no risks to people living nearby cemeteries.

We were able to bury three people near Najaf in the past few days, with the agreement of their families. Being able to bury your dead is a human right.



This post by the city of Najaf explains that 13 victims of the virus were buried outside the holy city, in accordance with strict hygiene measures.





The Iraqi Ministry of Health released a statement that the number of deaths from the virus reached 64 on April 6.



Article written by Fatma Ben Hamad.




The Iranian parliament (Majles) rejected an emergency bill for a one-month nationwide lockdown to control the spread of the coronavirus epidemic. In its first meeting in the new Iranian year on Tuesday April 7, lawmakers rejected the proposal because it "undermines the Constitution".

The motion was supported by 80 members of the Iranian Parliament.

Health Minister Saeed Namaki, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli and Vice-President Mohammad Baqer Nobakht who were supposed to be consulted on the bill arrived an hour late and were harshly criticized by the Deputy-Speaker of the Majles Massoud Pezeshkian for "not taking the outbreak seriously."

Pezeshkian, a medical doctor, also accused the entire Rouhani administration several times during the session of not taking COVID-19 and its implications seriously. Majles Speaker Ali Larijani is quarantined at home for being infected with the virus.

According to the parliament's news agency, ICANA, during the meeting Abdlokarim Hosseinzadeh, the MP that had tabled the motion for the one-month lockdown said the Majles had been side-lined for a month and was in effect barred from having a say in the affairs of the state. However, the reason parliament did not meet was at least partly due to multiple coronavirus cases among lawmakers.

Hosseinzadeh said that that the Majles has only 40 days left to do something about the outbreak and the lockdown motion could have saved lives if it was approved and implemented immediately as a triple urgency bill.

He said that if passed the bill would show that the Majles preferred the value of the people's lives over saving the country's economy.

A day earlier, Parvaneh Salahshouri, a reformist lawmaker charged that the Rouhani administration preferred economic interests to the people's lives.

Meanwhile, deputy-speaker Pezeshkian called on the administration to present a national program for the fight against COVID-19 as a roadmap for the whole nation rather than every organization making a separate decision about disease control.

Pezeshkian was likely referring to frequent contradictions between the views of the President and medical experts, including the Health Minister about how to control the spread of COVID-19.

He also criticized the Rouhani administration for ignoring the Crisis Management Law that the Majles passed in September and handed over to the administration for implementation.

The two ministers and Vice-President Nobakht finally arrived and made general comments about the outbreak as it was too late to weigh-in on the bill. The Interior Minister in his speech claimed that there was a decline in the spread of the virus.

He praised the administration's measures so far and defended Rouhani's decision to end social distancing regulations and asking for two-thirds of government employees to report to work in less than a week. However, he said that this does not mean that the situation in the country is back to normal.

Medical experts have harshly criticized the move during the past days and stressed that the infection trend was still on an ascending curve and the resumption of businesses and government activities will increase the chance of yet another wave of contagion.

The Health Minister said his information about the outbreak and particularly different trends in various provinces, particularly in Qom and Gilan, cannot be discussed at an open session, and that he might discuss them in a closed-door meeting later.

Nobakht in his speech explained the administration's economic problems without any reference to the one billion euros Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has authorized the administration to withdraw from the National Development Fund, ICANA reported.

Although most MPs were wearing masks in today's session of the Majles, some lawmakers, including the deputy-speaker as well as the three visiting officials and the reporters present at the session were not wearing masks or observing social distancing rules as far as the state TV footage and ICAN's pictures of the session showed.

On the other and, many social media users criticized and even mocked the limited working hours of the Majles saying the authorities may wrongly believe that COVID-19 is not active within certain hours. The same criticism was made about Rouhani's comment regarding limited working hours for government offices starting from next week.
When a massive star in a distant galaxy collapses, forming a black hole, two giant jets of light-emitting plasma shoot from its core. These extremely bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions in the universe, and when a jet points towards Earth, the afterglow can be detected from ground and space-borne telescopes. Material does not simply catapult from an exploding star, it accelerates to ultra-high speeds along the narrow beam of the gamma-ray jet, leaving astrophysics puzzled over the power source driving these extraordinary explosions. Now a new international study led by the University of Bath promises to shed light on this mysterious phenomenon.

Many astronomers favour an explanation for GRBs based on the baryonic jet model. This states that repeated violent collisions between material blasted out during the explosion and material surrounding the dying star produce the gamma-ray flash and the subsequent fading afterglow -- the dying embers of the expanding fireball.

A second hypothesis, called the magnetic model, posits that a huge, primordial magnetic field in the star collapses within seconds of the initial explosion, releasing energy to power the prodigious blast.

Now, for the first time, an international team of researchers has found evidence backing this magnetic model. Working in collaboration with researchers from the UK, Italy, Slovenia, Russia, South Africa and Spain, Bath astrophysicists examined data from the collapse of a massive star in a galaxy 4.5 billion light-years away. They were alerted to the star's collapse after its gamma-ray flash (named GRB 190114C) was detected by NASA's space-borne Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.

The researchers noted a startlingly low level of polarisation in the gamma-ray burst in the moments straight after the star's collapse, indicating the star's magnetic field had been destroyed during the explosion.

Nuria Jordana-Mitjans, lead author of the Astrophysical Journal paper, and holder of the Hiroko and Jim Sherwin Postgraduate Scholarship in Astrophysics, said: "From previous studies, we expected to detect polarisation as high as 30% during the first hundred seconds after the explosion. So we were surprised to measure just 7.7% less than a minute after the burst, followed by a sudden drop to 2% soon after."

She added: "This tells us that the magnetic fields collapsed catastrophically straight after the explosion, releasing their energy and powering the bright light detected across the electromagnetic spectrum."

GRBs are detected by dedicated satellites orbiting Earth, however no one can predict where or when a GRB will appear, so scientists rely on autonomous rapid-response robotic telescopes to catch the fast-fading light of the afterglow. Seconds after the NASA observatory identified GRB 190114C, robotic telescopes located in the Canary Islands and South Africa received NASA's discovery notification and repointed. Within one minute of the GRB discovery, the telescopes were gathering data about the emissions.

Professor Carole Mundell, head of Astrophysics at the University of Bath and co-author on the research, said: "Our innovative telescope systems are entirely autonomous, with no humans in the loop, so they slued very quickly and began taking observations of the GRB almost immediately after its discovery by the Swift satellite."

Prof Mundell continued: "It is remarkable that from the comfort of our own homes, we were able to discover the importance of primordial magnetic fields in powering a cosmic explosion in a distant galaxy."
Pakistan's military promised on Tuesday that dozens of doctors who were briefly jailed for protesting a lack of protective equipment needed to treat the growing number of coronavirus cases will get the equipment they need.

The 47 doctors protested in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, on Monday, when they were detained. They were released later the same day, according to provincial spokesman Liaquat Shahwani.

An army statement on Tuesday said the emergency supplies of medical equipment, including PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) are being dispatched to Quetta."



However, some of the doctors said they were mistreated by police and that some of their colleagues were beaten. The physicians declined to give their names, fearing reprisals.

Two doctors have died after contracting the new virus in Pakistan, which has recorded 4,004 cases and 54 deaths. Many of the cases have been traced to pilgrims returning from neighboring Iran. Pakistani authorities have imposed a countrywide lockdown until April 14.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on India's automobile industry will be clear once the ongoing lockdown is lifted and there is clarity on the time taken by the supply chain to resume optimal production, according to a top Nissan Motor India official

New Delhi: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on India's automobile industry will be clear once the ongoing lockdown is lifted and there is clarity on the time taken by the supply chain to resume optimal production, according to a top Nissan Motor India official.

Before the outbreak, the Indian auto sector was already suffering from a prolonged slump. During the April-February 2019-20 period, passenger vehicle sales had declined by 14.68 percent to 26,32,665 units as against 30,85,528 in 2018-19.

Total vehicle sales across categories had also declined by 15.85 percent at 2,04,98,128 units April-February of 2019-20 as compared to 2,43,58,082 units in the comparable period previous fiscal, according to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

With the novel coronavirus outbreak, the industry was given a further blow with Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) President Rajan Wadhera stating that as per quick estimates by the auto industry body, the plant closures of auto original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and components makers would lead to loss of more than Rs 2,300 crore in turnover for each day of closure.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

"The industry is closely monitoring the constantly evolving COVID-19 situation in India and its impact on the sector will only get clear once the lockdown is lifted and the time taken by the supply chain to resume optimal production," Nissan Motor India Managing Director Rakesh Srivastava told PTI.

He further said, "Auto demand has a direct correlation with the GDP growth of the country and the industry is hopeful that government will take measures to revive demand and restore normalcy in the marketplace."

The pandemic had initially disrupted the supply chain, specially for components imported from China. With India also going for a 21-day lockdown from March 25, manufacturing in the auto sector has come to a standstill.

Last month, the auto industry had also sought from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman measures to support the sector after the government announced financial action plan of Rs 1.7 lakh crore to support medical warriors, daily wage earners, farmers, construction workers, self-help groups and women, among others.
WIth primary treatment centres,



ambulances and testing facilities besides a pool of doctors and nurses, every panchayat in Ernakulam, the industrial district of Kerala, is ready to fight COVID-19



The district administration is geared up to protect its population of 3.2 million from the attack of the deadly novel coronavirus.

Unveiling the plan, an official from the district administration on Tuesday said the healthcare institutions which respond to the COVID-19 emergency have been classified into Plan A, B, and C.

The classification is based on whether the institution falls under the public or private sector and also considering the capacity and facilities available at the institution.

The district administration has converted two hospitals - the Government Medical College Hospital and PVS Hospital- into COVID care centres in the district.

While the Medical College Hospital with a strengthened ICU is a 500-bed facility for managing COVID-19, PVS hospital is equipped with 14 ventilators, 70 ICU beds and 70 single rooms.

The district administration has planned a firstline treatment centre at the ward-level in case if the virus cases explode.

"A primary treatment centre is a temporary facility created to augment the healthcare system of the district and provide care for 70-80 per cent of patients. This facility is created by converting existing facilities like community halls in local panchayats into treatment centres where patients in the locality can reach out for care," the administration said in its plan.

It says: "We have to decentralise the system and make a primary treatment centre/first line treatment centre at a ward level. In every ward, there is a community hall/auditoriums. A total of 25-bed primary treatment centre could be set up in every ward".

There are 80 items that are needed to set up a centre.

"What can be taken from the field will be set up by the community and other things which are mostly medical items like are provided by the centre. People who got coronavirus and have immunity are included as volunteers," it says.

According to the plan, every panchayat needs to have an ambulance and testing facility. Testing to classify persons as COVID-19 positive or not need to be done. Patients who can't be managed at panchayat-level would be moved to the taluk-level.

The plan says a field response home care team would be set up - two per panchayat.

The team includes nurses/doctors and their major motive is to visit people with mild symptoms, test and clinically assess.

Since a parallel system would be created to manage coronavirus, Primary Health Centres are exempted from the clinical management of the virus and they could handle routine primary care, it says.

In the case of massive outbreak in the community-level, mobile sample collection units would be set up at the taluk- level.

"Samples will be collected from every panchayat under that taluk at previously designated points. Mobile sample collection cabinets have been already designated," the district administration says in its plan.

The district administration, expecting shortage of PPE kits, has taken initiatives to locally manufacture customised PPEs. While hand sanitisers are manufactured with the support of CSR, cloth masks are being manufactured with the support of the community, it says.

Noting that a total of 654 ambulances are available in Ernakulam district, the administration said in advanced emergency response plan there would be two ambulances per panchayat.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Guwahati: Acting upon rumours spread through social media, the Assam police on Tuesday arrested an MLA for allegedly making provocative statements and posting false posts on social media on the coronavirus disease and the treatment facilities at isolation centres.

Assam director-general of police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta said Aminul Islam, MLA belonging to the party All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), has been booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy and spreading disaffection among communities.

In audio clips that have gone viral on social media, Aminul Islam purportedly said there was a conspiracy to target Muslims on the pretext of Covid-19. Specifically, 21 persons being isolated at one particular quarantine centre could be killed.

Aminul Islam is known for his inflammatory speeches.

The AIUDF legislator went on to describe the isolation wards set up by the government in Assam as worse than detention camps where neither food nor drinking water was being provided.

The Assam police picked up Islam from his residence in Dhing in Nagaon district Monday night and arrested him Tuesday morning after interrogation.

He will be produced in court later on TuesdayWe have seized his personal digital accessories (PDAs) and are processing them as per the law. We have found several clippings in his mobile phone, which we will have to test digitally, the Assam DGP told reporters.

Meanwhile, contradicting Islams statement that no one had tested positive among those who went to the Tablighi Jamaat convention in Nizamuddin in Old Delhi, Assam MP and AIUDF chief Maulana Badruddin Ajmal has urged everyone who returned to Assam from the Nizamuddin Markaz to immediately visit government hospitals for coronavirus screening.

You have not committed theft or robbery. You have nothing to fear. Please visit the nearest government hospital immediately for necessary screening and quarantine. Those who contracted the virus during their stay in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin are not only putting their lives in danger but also their family members, neighbours and all who came in their contact so far, said the AIUDF chief.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 7, 2020) - EMX Royalty Corporation (NYSE American: EMX) (TSXV: EMX) (the "Company" or "EMX") is pleased to announce the execution of three separate option agreements (the "Agreements") for the Erickson Ridge, South Orogrande, and Robber Gulch gold projects in Idaho (the "Projects") with Gold Lion Resources (NV) Inc., a subsidiary of Gold Lion Resources Inc. (CSE: GL) (FSE: 2BC) ("Gold Lion"). The Agreements provide for share and cash payments to EMX, as well as work commitments during Gold Lion's earn-in period for each given Project, and upon earn-in, a 3.5% net smelter return ("NSR") royalty, annual advanced royalty payments, and milestone payments.

The Erickson Ridge and South Orogrande Projects are located in the greater Elk City mining district of north-central Idaho which has produced more than one million ounces of gold, dominantly from placer operations1, and hosts several known historic resources including at Endomines Inc's Friday mine, currently in production. The Robber Gulch Project is located in south-eastern Idaho, approximately 36 kilometers southeast of Twin Falls and contains Carlin-style gold mineralization similar to the past-producing Black Pine mine (434,800 ounces of oxide gold produced in the 1990s) 90 kilometers to the east2.

The Agreements for the three Idaho gold Projects represent another example of the successful execution of the royalty generation aspect of the Company's business model. The Projects were identified as part of EMX's ongoing western U.S. regional generative gold program, acquired in 2019 through the staking of open ground, and are now partnered with Gold Lion. As EMX continues its regional work to identify additional opportunities, it looks forward to working closely with Gold Lion to advance the Projects.

Overview of Commercial Terms.Each Project is covered by a separate Agreement. Pursuant to each Agreement, Gold Lion can exercise its option to earn 100% interest in a given Project by (all dollar amounts in USD): (a) making option payments totaling $600,000 to EMX, (b) delivering a total of 950,000 shares of Gold Lion to EMX, and (c) completing $1,500,000 in exploration expenditures before the fifth anniversary of the Agreement.

Upon Gold Lion's exercise of the option for a Project, EMX will retain a 3.5% NSR royalty on the Project, of which Gold Lion may purchase up to 1.0% of the NSR royalty (the first 0.5% for 350 ounces of gold prior to the third anniversary after exercise of the option, then the remaining 0.5% can be purchased at any time thereafter for 1,150 ounces of gold). After exercise of the option, annual advance royalty ("AAR") payments are due to EMX starting at $30,000, and increasing $10,000 per year to a maximum of $80,000 per year. All AAR payments for a Project cease upon commencement of production from that Project.

In addition, Gold Lion will make milestone payments for a given Project to EMX consisting of: (a) 300 ounces of gold upon completion of a Preliminary Economic Assessment, (b) 550 ounces of gold upon completion of a Prefeasibility Study, and (c) 650 ounces of gold upon completion of a Feasibility Study.

Note, all gold bullion payments to EMX referenced in the Agreements can be made as the cash equivalent in USD.

Overview of the Projects.The three Projects comprise 4,400 hectares within prospective and underexplored regions of Idaho. All three Projects are accessible via existing road networks from nearby towns with available services.

Erickson Ridge: The Erickson Ridge Project covers the northern extension of the regionally important Orogrande Shear Zone in the Elk City mining district, which hosts multiple historic resources. Within the Project area, the shear zone is mantled by soil and vegetation with widespread placer gold occurrences. The Project contains a 1980s-era historic resource, which also corresponds with an EMX gold-in-soil anomaly that extends mineralization more than one kilometer along strike beyond the historic resource footprint. Drill intercepts from the 1980s work include 33.5 meters @ 4.1 g/t gold (hole ER-84-13 from 16.8m to 50.3m) and 21.3 meters @ 3.15 g/t gold (hole ER-84-23 from 77.7 to 99.0m) (disseminated-style mineralization, true thicknesses unknown)3.

The historic exploration was focused on shallow oxide gold mineralization, with drill holes typically less than 100 meters in depth (see reference3). Modern exploration has not been conducted over much of the Project area, and EMX has targeted extensions of the historic resource area in addition to structural intersections along strike of the Orogrande Shear zone.

South Orogrande: The South Orogrande Project lies 16 kilometers south of Erickson Ridge and covers approximately 11.5 kilometers of strike length along the Orogrande Shear Zone. The Project is adjacent to, and along strike, of Endomines Inc's Friday deposit which has historic oxide, open pit constrained measured and indicated resources at a 0.45 g/t cutoff of 20.1 Mtonnes averaging 1.00 g/t gold (647 Koz Au contained), and inferred resources of 20.8 Mtonnes averaging 0.88 g/t gold (590 Koz Au contained)4. Endomines is currently developing a higher grade, underground historic resource, and recently commissioned the Friday mine's processing facilities5.

EMX's primary target at South Orogrande is shear-hosted orogenic-style, as well as intrusion-related gold mineralization analogous to the Friday mine. At South Orogrande, historic surface exploration identified multiple kilometer-scale, cohesive gold in soil anomalies (2 x 5 km and 1.5 x 3 km) with coincident geophysical anomalies in areas of minimal outcrop and widespread placer gold occurrences. Reconnaissance mapping and rock chip sampling by EMX within these areas identified a number of high-grade historic prospects with 27 samples averaging 1.6 g/t gold, and assaying from 0.001 - 14.8 g/t gold. EMX has located five closely-spaced, less than 100 meter deep holes from the mid-1980s that were drilled within a small portion of one of the soil anomalies, with no record of any additional drilling across the Project area.

Robber Gulch: The Robber Gulch Project comprises an area of strongly altered and mineralized Paleozoic silty carbonate and clastic units exposed within a window of post-mineral volcanic rocks. The Project lies 90 kilometers to the west, and within the same host sedimentary sequence as Liberty Gold Corp.'s Black Pine Carlin-style project in southern Idaho (see reference2). The primary targets at Robber Gulch are near surface, oxide Carlin-style gold mineralized zones associated with intense jasperoid, decalcified limestone, and local quartz veining and brecciation within sandstone and carbonate units.

EMX's work has identified potential structural feeders and widespread zones of disseminated mineralization with anomalous gold and pathfinder elements. The Project has seen little modern exploration, with four shallow drill holes drilled in the mid-1980s, which were not followed up with further drilling or surface geochemistry. Results included hole AC-4 returning 18.3 meters @ 0.23 g/t gold (from 24.4m to 42.7m) and 24.4 meters @ 0.56 g/t gold (from 54.8m to 79.2m), including, 6.1 meters @ 1.25 g/t gold (from 64.0m to 70.1m) in oxide mineralization (true thicknesses unknown)6.

Comments on Sampling, Assaying, QA/QC, Historic Resources and Exploration Results, and Nearby Deposits. EMX's exploration samples were collected in accordance with industry standard best practices. The samples were submitted to ALS laboratories in Reno, Nevada and Vancouver, Canada (ISO 9001:2017 and ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited) for sample preparation and analysis. Gold assays were performed by fire assay with an ICP/AES finish. EMX conducts routine QA/QC analysis on its exploration samples, including the utilization of certified reference materials, blanks, and duplicate samples.

The Friday deposit's lower grade, open pit constrained historic resource from 2013 (see reference4) was based upon US$1500/oz gold and 85% recovery applied to an inverse distance interpolated block model. A more recent historic resource focused on a higher grade, underground scenario at a 3.4 g/t gold cutoff that yielded measured and indicated resources of 462 Ktonnes @ 6.54 g/t Au (containing 97,200 oz Au) and inferred resources of 296 Ktonnes @ 4.91 g/t Au (containing 47,600 oz Au) which was based upon US$1300/oz gold and 94% recovery applied to an inverse distance interpolated block model7. EMX cannot verify the 2013 or 2017 historic resources, and a qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historic resources as current mineral resources. EMX is not treating the historic estimates as current mineral resources. It is EMX's opinion that both the open pit and underground historic resources could be brought current with updated metal prices, cost estimates, and process recoveries, as well as confirmation drilling. An important step forward for Endomines to update the open pit resource was its acquisition of the open pit mining rights in late 20198.

The adjacent and nearby historic resources, deposits and mines referenced provide geologic context for the Projects, but this is not necessarily indicative that the Projects host similar tonnages or grades of mineralization. Based upon EMX's independent field work, including geologic mapping and surface sampling, the historic resources and exploration results referenced are considered to be reliable and relevant.

Qualified Person. Michael P. Sheehan, CPG, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 and employee of the Company, has reviewed, verified and approved the above technical disclosure contained in this news release.

About EMX. EMX is a precious and base metals royalty company. EMX's investors are provided with discovery, development, and commodity price optionality, while limiting exposure to risks inherent to operating companies. The Company's common shares are listed on the NYSE American Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol EMX. Please see www.EMXroyalty.com for more information.

About Gold Lion. Gold Lion Resources (CSE: GL) (FSE: 2BC) is a mineral exploration company actively involved in the exploration of its property portfolio including the Cuteye Group of Properties and the Fairview Property. The Cuteye Group of Properties are in B.C.'s Golden Triangle and the Fairview Property is located in the Kamloops Mining District of British Columbia.

For further information contact:

David M. Cole

President and Chief Executive Officer

Phone: (303) 979-6666

Dave@EMXroyalty.com

Scott Close

Director of Investor Relations

Phone: (303) 973-8585

SClose@EMXroyalty.com

Isabel Belger

Investor Relations (Europe)

Phone: +49 178 4909039

IBelger@EMXroyalty.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain "forward looking statements" that reflect the Company's current expectations and projections about its future results. These forward-looking statements may include statements regarding perceived merit of properties, exploration results and budgets, mineral reserves and resource estimates, work programs, capital expenditures, timelines, strategic plans, market prices for precious and base metal, or other statements that are not statements of fact. When used in this news release, words such as "estimate," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "will", "believe", "potential" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which, by their very nature, are not guarantees of the Company's future operational or financial performance, and are subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and factors may include, but are not limited to: unavailability of financing, failure to identify commercially viable mineral reserves, fluctuations in the market valuation for commodities, difficulties in obtaining required approvals for the development of a mineral project, increased regulatory compliance costs, expectations of project funding by joint venture partners and other factors.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release or as of the date otherwise specifically indicated herein. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified in this news release, and other risk factors and forward-looking statements listed in the Company's MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2019 (the "MD&A"), and the most recently filed Annual Information Form ("AIF") for the year ended December 31, 2019, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. More information about the Company, including the MD&A, the AIF and financial statements of the Company, is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the SEC's EDGAR website at www.sec.gov.

[1] Greater Elk City District Production: USGS: Koschmann and Bergendahl, 1968. Principal Gold Producing Districts of the United States. Professional Paper 610.

[2] Black Pine Mine 43-101 Technical Report on the Black Pine Gold Project, Cassia County, Idaho. Prepared by MDA for Liberty Gold Corp. 9/7/2018. Historic production: pg. 27.

[3] Internal drill sections from Erickson Reef Project, Idaho County, Idaho. 1985. United Gold Corp.

[4] NI 43-101 Technical Report, Idaho Gold Project. Prepared by Geosim for Premium Exploration Inc. 4/8/13.

[5] See Endomines news release dated February 4, 2020.

[6] Internal Report on Artesian City Project, Cassia County, Idaho. 1986. Exvenco Resources Inc.

[7] See Endomines news release dated March 3, 2020 and Independent Expert's Report from AMC Consultants to Endomines AB dated January 8, 2018.

[8] See Endomines news release dated December 3, 2019.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/54181
When we read the story of the crucifixion, we read a story with many details, each holding a special meaning. Among those details, we meet Simon of Cyrene: a person whose legacy has left a significant impact. Who was Simon of Cyrene, why did he carry the cross of Jesus, and what does it mean for us?

The account of the crucifixion begins at the Antonia Fortress in the heart of Jerusalem, where Jesus would have been tried, flogged, and condemned to crucifixion. The winding route Jesus would have walked from here led him through the city to the hill outside the city where he was crucified. The journey would have encompassed about a half-mile of winding road, and it on this road that Simon encounters Jesus, and becomes a part of the story.

The Story of the Man Who Helped Jesus Carry the Cross

Simon of Cyrene has just a passing mention in the Scriptures; his name appears in only three verses, all pertaining to carrying the cross for Jesus. This event is recorded in Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21, and in Luke 23:26. While this is the only time he is mentioned in the Bible, it is important enough that he is mentioned by three of the four Gospel writers.

It is also interesting that each of these three writers, in giving the same account of the same event, all give us the information a little bit differently than the others. Such is the beauty of Scripture  each verse alone feeds our spiritual needs, yet Scripture as a whole tells us a full, rich, undeniable story of Gods unfolding story of love for us.

Taking a look at these three verses, along with Johns version which doesnt mention Simon, we can see the different aspects of the story:

Matthew 27:32 - As they were going out , they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross.

, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. Mark 15:21 - A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus , was passing by on his way in from the country , and they forced him to carry the cross.

, was passing by , and they forced him to carry the cross. Luke 23:26 - As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.

John 19:17 - Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha)

Matthews Gospel tells us that they were going out, but going out from where? The answer is that Jesus and the others to be crucified that day were going out from Jerusalem, as the crucifixion would happen outside of the city walls.

Mark tells us that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus. Why would that matter, and how would Mark know this? The best explanation is that the early readers of this Gospel knew who Simon was, and knew his children as well. We also know that there is a man named Rufus at the church in Rome, so it is not a stretch to think that this co-laborer for the gospel may well be the son of Simon of Cyrene mentioned by Mark. Mark also tells us Simon was on his way in, meaning he was actually headed the opposite direction, and going into Jerusalem while Jesus and the others were going out.

Luke tells us that Simon was forced to carry the cross behind Jesus. In a deeper way, this symbolizes the understood position of any disciple: walking behind their Lord. But it means something more here. Simon could only go as fast and as far as Jesus went, and we know that Jesus was too weak to carry the cross on his own. It appears that Simon, who was literally following Jesus, would eventually become a true follower and disciple of Jesus.

John tells us only that Jesus carried the cross out of the city but doesnt include the events that happened after Jesus had left the city.

What Do We Know about Simon of Cyrene?

We can learn a bit about Simon just by his name. The name Simon was a common name at the time and is a name shared with several others in the New Testament, most notably the Apostle Simon Peter. Simon means hearer or he has heard, and must have had an especially strong meaning for these men in particular, who had literally heard the good news of Jesus, and been so intimately a part of that good news. We also know that Simon was from a place called Cyrene, so why was he in Jerusalem?

Cyrene was a city in what is now modern Libya in Northern Africa and had a significant Jewish population. The fact that he is of Cyrene tells us that he did not live in Jerusalem where this event takes place but had traveled there from his home. We do not know with certainty whether he was a Jew or Gentile, but it is not a stretch to speculate that he was in Jerusalem for the Passover, as many Jews from around the world made their way to Jerusalem for this feast, as it was the most important feast that the Jewish people celebrated.

Roman soldiers had the right to place someone into their service to carry things for one mile. This could be bags, equipment, or in this case, a cross. On occasion, a person would be asked to walk an extra mile in service to the Romans. This is likely the scenario that led Simon to carry the cross for Jesus. We dont know why Simon specifically was selected for this task, other than the fact that he was there, he looked capable, and it was clear Jesus had become too weak to carry the cross on his own.

Is There Anything Unusual about Jesus' Path to the Crucifixion?

Roman crucifixion in itself was not unusual but was a common practice of the Romans as a form of capital punishment and intimidation. Crucifixion was considered too horrible a punishment for Roman citizens, as it was a miserable, humiliating, painful form of death. In fact, our word ex cruc iating is derived from the Roman word for crucifixion  crucis. The Romans reinforced their grip on power through such horrible techniques. Likewise, the actual path Jesus walked, known as the Via Dolorosa, and the hill where the crucifixion took place, known as Calvary (Latin) or Golgotha (Greek), were most likely familiar places for this kind of scene.

What Should Christians Take Away from the Story of Jesus and Simon?

As we read the account of Simon of Cyrene today, we see a man who was quite literally thrust into the very heart of the gospel story. It must have been a frightening moment: to be pulled from the crowd by hated Roman soldiers and told to bear the cross of a condemned man. Simon felt the weight of it upon his back and walked away with the blood of Christ still upon him, the blood that would shortly fulfill all prophecy and take away the sin of the world. That cross, and that blood, carried a weight and a significance that Simon could never carry. When Jesus took back the cross and gave his life upon it, Jesus carried the weight of all our sins.

It is unlikely that Simon ever imagined that this forced act of service would be discussed and admired over 2,000 years later. Simons actions seemed to mirror the words Jesus had spoken to his disciples in Matthew 16:24: Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

In the same way, we are called to change directions, take up our cross and follow Jesus. We may never know what impact our daily sacrifice will have on others, perhaps an impact beyond our own time. Yet we can be assured that our actions in following Christ will most certainly have an impact and will give life and meaning to those around us.

Photo credit: GettyImages/Rudall30

Jason Soroski is a homeschool dad and member of the worship team at matthias lot church in St. Charles, MO. He spends his free time hanging out with his family, exploring new places, and writing about the experiences. Connect on Facebook or at JasonSoroski.net.

This article is part of our larger Holy Week and Easter resource library centered around the events leading up to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We hope these articles help you understand the meaning and story behind important Christian holidays and dates and encourage you as you take time to reflect on all that God has done for us through his son Jesus Christ!

What is the Holy Week?

What Is Palm Sunday?

What is Maundy Thursday?

What Is Good Friday?

What Is Easter?

Easter Prayers

At Easter, the Son of God took on the worlds sin and defeated the devil, death, and grave. How is it, then, that historys most glorious moment is surrounded by fearful fishermen, despised tax collectors, marginalized women, feeble politicians, and traitorous friends?

In The Characters of Easter, youll become acquainted with the unlikely collection of ordinary people who witnessed the miracle of Christs death and resurrection. This FREE podcast provides a fresh approach to the Lenten season and can be used as a devotional or study for both individuals and groups.




The Queen has praised the 'dedication to service' of nurses, midwives and other health workers during the coronavirus pandemic in a message for World Health Day.

The monarch, who is currently residing at Windsor Castle with her husband Prince Philip, also thanked healthcare professionals for their 'selfless commitment'.

She also praised their 'diligence' in 'vitally important roles to protect and improve the health and well-being of people across the Commonwealth and across the world'.

The head of state also said that 'testing times' can bring out 'the best of the human spirit', adding that healthcare workers' dedication was 'an example to us all'.

Her words were released in a video montage on the Royal Family's Twitter account showing members of the monarchy meeting medical staff and health workers.

The Queen issued the message as she is kept informed by Downing Street about the condition of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is in intensive care with coronavirus.

She also sent a message to Mr Johnson's pregnant fiancee, Carrie Symonds, and his family, saying they are in her thoughts and wishing him a 'full and speedy recovery'.

The Queen issued the above message to healthcare workers to mark World Health Day today

it comes two days after the 93-year-old's historic address on Sunday which urged the country to pull together to fight coronavirus.

The televised address was only the fifth time that the Queen has done so during times of national crisis and grief. It was watched by more than 23million people.

The Queen's full message thanking healthcare workers on World Health Day 'On the occasion of World Health Day, I want to thank all those in the healthcare profession for your selfless commitment and diligence as you undertake vitally important roles to protect and improve the health and well-being of people across the Commonwealth, and across the world. 'In testing times, we often observe that the best of the human spirit comes to the fore; the dedication to service of countless nurses, midwives and other health workers, in these most challenging of circumstances, is an example to us all. 'My family and I send our enduring appreciation and good wishes.' Advertisement

The four other times the Queen has made a special address during her reign were for the Gulf War, the death of Princess Diana, the death of the Queen Mother and her diamond jubilee.

In the most recent address, she echoed Second World War heroine Dame Vera Lynn, promising families separated by the crisis that 'we will meet again.'

During the broadcast, which was filmed last Thursday at Windsor Castle where she is isolating with Prince Philip, the Queen also told of how the coronavirus pandemic had brought back memories of wartime.

'It reminds me of the very first broadcast I made, in 1940, helped by my sister,' she said. 'We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety.

'Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones. But now, as then, we know, deep down, that it is the right thing to do.'

The Queen's address sits just behind the London 2012 Olympic Games closing and opening ceremonies in the list of most watched broadcasts this decade.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are pictured being greeted by healthcare workers on a royal visit, in a photograph posted by the @RoyalFamily account as part of a video today

The Queen meets healthcare workers in a photograph re-issued by @RoyalFamily this morning

Zara Tindall, 38, said she was 'very proud' of her grandmother's efforts.

Appearing on ITV's Good Morning Britain yesterday from her home in Gloucestershire, she said: 'Obviously, we're very proud and what she said is completely, 100 per cent what the country needed.

'I hope everyone listens and we can try and get back to normal and, as we're trying to do today, support our NHS as much as we can.'

Sarah Ferguson, 60, also praised the Queen and admitted that the speech had 'touched her to the core'.

Queen Elizabeth II gives an address from Windsor Castle on Sunday about the coronavirus

The Duchess of York, the former wife of Prince Andrew, wrote on Twitter: 'Her Majesty's words touched my core and inspired us to never give up.

'We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.'

The Queen has been personally affected by the coronavirus with her eldest son Prince Charles testing positive.

Charles was diagnosed with coronavirus on March 25. At the beginning of last week, he came out of isolation after seven days in line with current UK government policy.

The Duchess of Cornwall has come out of isolation after 14 days.

She tested negative for coronavirus but she had to remain in isolation because she was in the same household as her husband.

Meanwhile Downing Street said today that Mr Johnson is 'stable' after spending the night in intensive care following a worsening of his coronavirus symptoms.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said he had been receiving 'standard oxygen treatment' but had not required any other assistance in breathing.

Mr Johnson was transferred to the intensive care unit at St Thomas' Hospital in London yesterday evening, after his condition deteriorated.

Downing Street's chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, is still working from home after entering self-isolation shortly after Mr Johnson did.

It came as a record high 854 coronavirus deaths were announced in the UK today, taking the total to 6,227.

Patients in England were aged between 23 and 102 years old, and 29 of them - aged between 23 and 99 - had no known underlying health conditions.
Coronavirus has claimed thousands of lives around the world. Many adults have been left bereft of their children and vice versa. In a tragic incident recently, a mother-to-be who was a coronavirus patient, died while she was in labor.

The victim reportedly died at the Whittington Hospital, in Archway, North London, but the doctors managed to save the baby.

Representative Image/Unsplash

It is not known yet whether the woman had any underlying health issues. The hospital staff was understandably in tears.

Amid all the trauma being seen across maxed-out hospital wards by our NHS heroes, this tragedy has totally poleaxed staff. There is a huge sense of disbelief at the unfairness of this devastating death, The Sun quoted a source as saying.

Senior hospital workers were in tears. The only consolation is that the baby survived the mum's death. There is a huge sense of disbelief at the unfairness of this devastating death. Senior hospital workers were in tears. The only consolation is that the baby survived the mum's death, the source further said.

Representative Image/Mommybe

The baby is believed to have tested negative for COVID-19.

Whittington Health NHS Trust reportedly said, This case has been referred to the coroner to determine the cause of death.

In Mid March, London saw its youngest case of coronavirus infection - a new born baby.

The child's mother was brought to a hospital days before she gave birth as she was suspected to have pneumonia, which is known to be one of the symptoms of the virus. She tested positive for the virus, but the results came in after she had given birth. It was not established whether the child was infected in the womb or after it was born.

Representative Image/Shutterstock

The duo were treated at separate hospitals.

In a statement, the hospital said, Two patients at North Middlesex university hospital have tested positive for coronavirus. One has been transferred to a specialist centre and one is being treated in an isolation room. The safety of our patients and staff is our top priority, so in following guidance from Public Health England, we are regularly deep cleaning the areas where the patients are cared for and staff who were in close contact with these patients were advised to self-isolate..

The virus spares no one, so it is important to follow social distancing to flatten the curve and make sure we are not the victims and carriers of the virus.
Runners, walkers and exercisers maintain social distancing as they circle the track at Thomas A. Edison High School in North Philadelphia April 6, 2020. Read more

The curve of coronavirus infections is starting to flatten in New Jersey and may be poised to do so in Pennsylvania, making this a critical time for social distancing efforts, officials said, as projections Monday showed the two states and New York getting closer to a peak surge.

Gov. Phil Murphy said it was no time to take our foot off the gas, and Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine warned residents not to get complacent, cautioning it was too early to know whether the rate was truly plateauing. Social distancing, one estimate showed, could make the difference between tens of thousands and a half-million cases in New Jersey.

Now is the time, Levine said at a Monday briefing, to stay home.

More than 10,000 people in the United States have died of the coronavirus, a grim milestone as experts say the country is heading into what will likely be its most difficult weeks during the pandemic. Nearly half of those deaths have been in New York state.

In Philadelphia, a police lieutenant and two SEPTA employees have died of the virus, it was announced Monday. Fifty-two Philadelphia police officers and 46 city firefighters and paramedics had tested positive for the illness, sources said. Dozens of police officers were self-quarantined, and 140 firefighters and paramedics were awaiting test results.

Officials in Pennsylvania reminded residents to celebrate Passover and Easter virtually and to not gather with anyone outside their households. Delaware set up roadblocks at its borders to question people driving in from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland after Gov. John Carney barred all out-of-state residents from entering except for essential business or health-care reasons.

As New Jerseys death toll passed 1,000, with 41,090 confirmed cases, and Pennsylvania reported 162 deaths and 12,980 cases, the states and their counties continued efforts to secure much-needed supplies and equipment. Chester County announced it would be the first in the state to begin antibody testing, and a mobile hospital was on its way to Montgomery County.

Amid continued difficulties in purchasing medical equipment due to nationwide shortages, Gov. Tom Wolf said Monday that Pennsylvania had created a portal to allow state manufacturers and distributors to report their supply chain capabilities and determine how they can collaborate to make coronavirus-related supplies.

Calling on manufacturers to submit their information to the website, Wolf suggested many companies could produce parts for equipment such as ventilators and work together to manufacture needed supplies.

Were  working to acquire as much equipment as possible, Wolf said. We also need to look inwards We know there are manufacturers across the commonwealth who are willing and able to help.

The state recently discovered about 1,000 more ventilators than it had known were available, Levine said, bringing its total to more than 5,000 in hospitals statewide. A purchased shipment of more will be arriving this month, she said.

Philadelphia and Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware Counties leaders called on Wolf to implement a policy to allow Southeastern Pennsylvania hospitals to transfer patients to other areas of the state if they become overwhelmed.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and the board of commissioners or county council leaders of the four suburban counties said a patient and ventilator load-balancing policy would help ensure no facility is unable to treat patients due to a shortage of necessary supplies, specifically ventilators, in a letter to Wolf obtained by The Inquirer.

The officials estimated that the five counties were likely to exceed ICU bed capacity by about 11% between Friday and April 20, possibly by 2-1 "in the worst-case scenario, or more if New York and New Jersey patients come into the region.

But asked about a top health officials warning over the weekend that Pennsylvania could become a possible hot spot, Levine said there was no new data showing a greater danger in Pennsylvania but that it was simply because the state is close to New York and New Jersey.

 HELP US REPORT: Are you a health care worker, medical provider, government worker, patient, frontline worker or other expert? We want to hear from you.

Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said Monday that Americans should only go to the grocery store every two weeks, expanding on her Saturday advice that this was the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy.

Levine reiterated that people should not go out in public except to get necessary medications or do other life-sustaining activities.

Pennsylvania reported 1,470 new cases on Monday, which along with other recent case numbers could indicate a slowing rate of infection. Wolf and Levine, however, cautioned against reading too much into the numbers at this point.

Its way too early to tell whether were seeing a true plateau in the numbers of new cases, said Levine.

State health officials need to assess at least seven days worth of data to identify possible trends.

We are starting to see that the early exponential increase in cases has given way to a much flatter [curve], and so the surge may not be as great as we once anticipated. Thats our fervent hope, Wolf said.

Montgomery County officials expect the county to hit its peak of cases within the next 10 days. Hospitals there still have open beds, including in the intensive care units, said Montgomery County Commissioners Chair Val Arkoosh, who is a physician with a public health background.

We actually feel like we are doing OK right now, she said. But this is crunch time.

Chester County was set to become the first in the commonwealth to do testing that shows whether someone has coronavirus antibodies, announcing Monday that it would begin testing for essential workers, including emergency responders, health-care workers, and long-term care facility staff, along with prison staff and inmates.

Knowledge of who has developed antibodies to the virus can help us tremendously in our strategy to respond to emergencies, treat patients, and care for the elderly, said Jeanne Casner, director of the Chester County Health Department. The county expects to have 20,000 test kits from a local company by next week.

Murphy said the daily growth rate of new cases in New Jersey had dropped from 24% in late March to 12% Monday. But the models he showed at a briefing were inconclusive, suggesting that the infection rate could peak between April 19 and May 11, with the most hospitalizations likely to occur between Friday and April 28. They also indicated the state could end up with anywhere between 86,000 and 509,000 cases and 9,000 to 36,000 hospitalizations.

Continued dedication to social distancing will prevent the state from reaching the nightmare scenario end of those projections, Murphy said.

The crisis remains centered in North Jersey, with 3% of the states deaths so far in Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester Counties. Among those three counties, 1,570 new cases were reported Monday, and Camden County reported eight deaths.

 ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters.

The states efforts to secure hospital beds will yield 26,000 beds within the coming weeks, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said. Officials in Atlantic and Cape May Counties said they planned to open county testing sites for patients with appointments.

Murphy also signed an executive order Monday allowing retired public sector workers like police officers, nurses and state employees to return to service  to do such things as staff overburdened unemployment offices or provide assistance at police stations and health facilities  without affecting their pension payments.

The drive-through coronavirus testing sites at Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia and at Temple Universitys Ambler Campus in Montgomery County are set to close on Friday, city and county officials said, as the federal government shut down some sites nationwide that it had assisted in opening.

The city considered keeping the stadium site open with its own resources, but decided to redirect staff and supplies to other venues, Public Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said. He said the site accounted for 10% or less of tests performed in the city.

In New Jersey, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has committed to operating its two mobile testing sites until May 31, Murphy said.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, appearing with Murphy, said he planned to press President Donald Trump and congressional leaders to pass another coronavirus stimulus bill that would include cash payments, financial aid for state and local governments, and provisions for health coverage for the uninsured.

This is going to be a very challenging time," Booker said. "These coming weeks will be a true test of who we are.

Staff writers Erin McCarthy, Rob Tornoe, Allison Steele, Susan Snyder, Amy S. Rosenberg, and Tom Avril contributed to this article.
Bhubaneswar, April 7 : The Odisha government has identified 42 more persons who had returned to the state after taking part in the religious congregation at Nizamuddin in Delhi, said an official on Tuesday.

As many as 42 more attendees of Tablighi Jamaat have identified themselves following Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's appeal, said Subroto Bagchi, Odisha government's chief spokesperson.

He said 28 persons had come forward earlier.

"Necessary followup action is being taken in all these cases," he added.

Bagchi said if any Tablighi Jamaat attendee is still in the closet because of fear, apprehension or stigma, he/she needs to come forward and register with 104 helpline.

Meanwhile, the state government has decided to launch a dedicated COVID-19 telemedicine helpline 14410 to provide medical assistance to potential COVID-19 cases across the state.

This is a completely free service and anyone who is suffering from COVID-19 symptoms can call the helpline, said Bagchi.

The Chief Minister has made an appeal to all doctors from Odisha, and India to support the government in this initiative.
His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has set up the National COVID-19 Trust Fund to mobilize resources towards the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.



Many Corporate Institutions and individuals have since then donated to the Fund to support the fight. Among such companies is the Kalmoni Group who has donated a brand-new Peugeot 4x4 Pickup, valued at One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHS150,000.00) from Silver Star Auto Limited, exclusive distributors of Peugeot and Citroen vehicles in Ghana.



The donation according to the Kalmoni Group is to also aid the effort of the frontline service providers who are doing a heroic job at a great risk to stem the disease from spreading further in Ghana.



Handing over the vehicle on behalf of the Kalmoni Group, Mr. Nouhad Kalmoni said the Kalmoni Group had really been moved and motivated by the exemplary leadership, effort, decisions and determination of His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his team. He urged all citizens to follow and observe the measures and protocols outlined by the President and the Health Authorities to stay safe.



Receiving the keys to the vehicle at the Jubilee House, the Chief of Staff, Madam Akosua Frema Osei-Opare thanked Silver Star Auto and the Kalmoni Group for the donation. She admitted that the measures needed to fight the COVID-19 were challenging for both businesses and individuals but the Government had to take the necessary steps now so that we can all go about our lives as quickly as possible with the least loss of life.



Mr. Asad Nazir, C.E.O of Silver Star Auto praised the Ghana Government for taking the difficult but bold steps to tackle the spread of this terrible disease in Ghana. He said, this virus knows no boundaries and affects human lives indiscriminately. It is, therefore, necessary for all hands to be on deck to fight this menace. On behalf of the Shareholders, Board of Directors, Management and Staff of Silver Star Auto, we wish the entire leadership of the country Gods guidance and resolve in their efforts to overcome this challenge.



Mr. Nazir, prayed that the Peugeot Pickup being donated will aid the national effort to fight the outbreak of the pandemic in Ghana and that Silver Star Auto was glad to do what it could to mobilize front line service providers efforts to fight COVID-19.



Also present at the short donation ceremony were: Mr. Francis Johnny Amegayibor, General Manager for Passenger Vehicles-SSAL and Mr. Henry Wood, Chief Director-Office of the President.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Madam Cecilia Dapaah, Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, has warned Ghanaians to desist from using water irresponsibly in the country.



She issued a stern caution to the citizenry not to abuse the kindness of President Nana Akufo-Addo to ensure an uninterrupted water supply across the nation.



The President, in his fifth nation address on COVID-19 on Sunday, April 5, 2020, indicated that for the next three months, the government has absorbed water bills for all Ghanaians.



This is to provide relief to Ghanaians, most particularly section of the population under partial lockdown.



Following the Presidents announcement, some Ghanaians have been recorded on video and circulating on social media pouring out water in excesses in their various homes.



There was a video of a man under a tap with water overflowing on him while he rests in a bucket which is already full of tap water.



Madam Cecilia Dapaah, speaking at a press briefing in Accra on Tuesday, April 7, 2020, admonished such persons to stop those jokes because it doesnt benefit the country.



... we should avoid all such expensive jokes and make sure we do the right thing by following the full protocol of WHO. This water is being made free because the President knows the importance of water in this critical times. We need water to wash our hands, to cook our food and also to wash our bodies, and to make sure we practice full personal hygiene, she said adding that mechanisms are being put in place as we enjoy from the benevolence of our leader to monitor the irresponsible use of water.



She also advised Ghanaians not to tamper with the pipelines and infrastructure of both Ghana Water Company and Community Water and Sanitation Agency so that we will have constant supply of water. All leakages should be reported to the nearest Ghana Water Company Limited offices promptly for attention. If you also notice any burst of pipeline, please report promptly as well. Were all encouraged to use water judiciously.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Nadia, a 4-year-old Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo, has tested positive for COVID-19. Three other tigers and three lions at the zoo are presumed to have the virus as well; all are expected to recover. Read more

Nine lives ago (in February), when the world gawked at photos of Chinese cats wearing masks to ward off the coronavirus, veterinarians elsewhere were quick with reassurance that pets were unlikely to get sick.

The vets are still saying that. But with the news Sunday that a Bronx Zoo tiger had tested positive for the virus, the infected-pet scenario no longer seems quite so far-fetched.

In addition to Nadia, the 4-year-old Malayan tiger with a confirmed infection, six other big cats at the zoo in New York had dry coughs and were presumed infected  prompting the Philadelphia Zoo and others to reexamine their safety measures and scientists to reevaluate the available research. There isnt much, though a recent Chinese study suggests that domestic cats can become infected if deliberately exposed to high doses of the coronavirus in a laboratory. (Dogs and birds, no).

In between fielding queries from researchers and other zoos, the Bronx Zoo also attempted to quell a social-media backlash from people who wondered why a tiger could get tested when some humans are left in the dark. Answer: Tests of Nadias nasal swabs were performed at two veterinary laboratories, which would not be allowed to process human samples.

And before you imagine a lurid sequel to the Netflix series Tiger King, rest assured that the big gal was sedated before someone inserted what must have been a very large Q-tip.

Bronx Zoo officials say the big cats got the virus from a human employee who was infected but had no symptoms. The animals  including Nadias sister Azul, two Amur tigers, and three African lions  all are expected to recover.

The tiger tale is a reminder that viruses can jump from humans to animals as well as the reverse  a biological phenomenon that has been going on for untold thousands of years. Which, after all, is how this whole thing got started back in December. Scientific consensus remains that the coronavirus jumped to humans at a live-animal market in Wuhan, China, likely with bats involved in some way, though the exact route of transmission remains unclear.

 READ MORE: How viruses 'jump' from animals to humans

A disease transmitted from animals to humans is called a zoonosis, which does not mean it happened in a zoo, though the two words have the same origin.

A disease that goes in the other direction is sometimes called reverse zoonosis, but to a biologist, that is a meaningless distinction. Were all animals, and a virus does not care which way it goes, so long as it gets to invade the hosts cells and make millions of copies of itself.

Less clear is what conditions enable these transfers in each case, said Shelley C. Rankin, professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

To cause an infection, a virus must have the right kind of proteins on its surface to latch on to a receptor  a binding site on the cells of the host animal. The coronavirus does this with a protein shaped like a spike, which, unfortunately for us, is very closely matched to a receptor in the human respiratory system.

But that kind of close match is not enough to cause illness, Rankin said. Once it gets inside, the virus also must be genetically equipped to take over the machinery of the host cell to make copies. For the process to continue after that, the new viruses have to be good at escaping and getting themselves transmitted to the next host.

Ordinarily, the odds are against all these steps lining up so that a virus can jump from one kind of animal to another. The receptors and other necessary structures in human cells are different enough from those in other animals.

Yet it happened with the tigers.

Karen A. Terio got the call from Bronx Zoo officials April 1. As the chief of the zoological pathology program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she had written a textbook chapter on illnesses in big cats, so zoo officials wanted to know if she and her colleagues could test one of their tigers for the coronavirus.

They could. Nadias samples arrived in Illinois two days later, and the test came back positive. Duplicate samples sent to Cornell University yielded the same result.

For additional confirmation, one of Terios colleagues left at 3 a.m. the next day to drive the tigers samples to a USDA veterinary lab in Ames, Iowa. Same outcome.

That means the receptor in the tigers airways was close enough to its human counterpart that the virus was able to latch on, Terio said.

Bronx Zoo officials say there is no evidence that the tigers could spread the virus further, though employees are wearing protective equipment to safeguard other animals. The zoo closed March 16, and Terio said that when it reopens, there is no reason that visitors should be worried about getting sick from a big cat.

Those fences along the animal enclosures? Talk about social distancing!

Youre never going to be that close to these animals, she said.

At the Philadelphia Zoo, staff started taking precautions a month ago with bats and primates, the species that were thought to be most likely to become infected with the coronavirus, chief operating officer Andy Baker said. That meant wearing protective equipment and eliminating close interactions between zookeepers and animals unless absolutely necessary.

Two weeks ago, similar measures were implemented for those working with the zoos big cats and its red river hogs. The news from the Bronx prompted yet another review, with protective measures added for those taking care of bears, red pandas, and otters, despite no evidence those species are at risk, he said.

What about pets? Millions of Americans have cats, and there are no confirmed reports in this country that anyone with COVID-19 has transmitted it to a pet, much less the reverse. A handful of cats may have been infected by their owners in China, but the evidence has not yet been published, said Rankin, the Penn veterinarian.

It could mean tigers are somehow more susceptible to infection than their housebound counterparts, but the evidence is not there yet.

The problem with a lot of this is things are moving so quickly, were learning on the fly," Terio said. We just dont know.

For now, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that sick people limit contact with animals. Get a family member to take on pet-care duties, if possible. Wash your hands. And, while this goes against the instincts of many pet owners, the agency adds this advice for those who are infected:

Avoid contact with your pet, including petting, snuggling, being kissed or licked, and sharing food.

Dont expect to get your pet tested, unless you have the virus and the animal is clearly sick. Even then, a test may be discouraged, as the chemicals used are the same as those needed to test humans, Rankin said.

All of the resources really should be directed toward human medicine, she said.

To date, the bulk of the evidence suggests that cats, dogs, and other pets are at little risk from the coronavirus.

And for one pair of zoo animals, the virus may have had a positive effect, the New York Times reported. At a zoo in Hong Kong, two giant pandas mated successfully this month, apparently for the first time in 13 years of living together. The zoo had been closed since late January, so there were no crowds of human onlookers for the momentous event.

Perhaps, the theory goes, the animals just needed a bit of privacy.
Beijing, April 7 : Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has patented a new smartphone with waterfall display.

The patent was filed back in September 2019 with the Chinese Patent Office, CNIPA and was published on April 3.

Now, the patent has been included in the Global Design Database of the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office). This new UI reveals a smartphone with a waterfall display on either side, in other words, a curved edge display that completely covers the sides.

It is possible that the company aims to create a cheaper alternative to the Mi Mix Alpha.

Earlier, the company also patented a new a dual-display smartphone with quad rear cameras setup.

According to the patent, the primary display is like any other phone with ultra-slim bezels and earpiece up top. The secondary display on the new Xiaomi-patented phone is as small in size as the quad-camera housing on the back.
This story was produced in partnership with Feet in 2 Worlds, a project that brings the work of immigrant journalists to digital news sites and public radio.

Elliot Vernet did not believe in marriage. A biomedical engineer in Hermosillo, Mexico, he was a workaholic with no time for serious relationships. He was always busypacking and unpacking, living in laboratories and airports.

In 2017, Vernet went to Pal Norte, a popular music festival in Monterrey, Mexico. In a crowd of people, music, and chaos, he looked up and saw her. She looked just like she did in high school  maybe even better. He stopped breathing for a second. Hi, do you remember me?

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That year, Yadelle Garcia was trying to reinvent herself. Shed divorced her husband of 10 years and moved from California back to Nogales, Arizona, the sister city to Nogales, Sonora, the Mexican border town where she grew up. Garcia is a graphic designer with a boisterous, hearty laugh.

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Besides a number of freelance jobs, she consulted at a well-known bridal boutique in town because she loved to experience romance through other couples eyes. She often wondered if she would ever find love again, but she didnt lose hope. Garcia was also a fan of Mexican music. Thats why she had traveled to Monterrey to attend Pal Norte. A thrill ran through her as she spotted him: her high school crush. Of course I remember you!

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The encounter at the music festival would result, two years later, in a wedding. Actually, two weddings. Vernet is a Mexican citizen, and Garcia holds dual citizenship in Mexico and the United States. In May 2019, they hosted a big Mexican celebration in Hermosillo, Vernets hometown, followed by a civil ceremony last November at a courthouse in Nogales, Arizona.

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Since getting married, the couple, both 38, had spent holidays together, but because Vernet is not authorized to live and work in the U.S., they still lived mostly separately in two different countries. They werent in a hurry to get Vernet a green card before the coronavirus became a pandemic. But since the rise of COVID-19, governments across the globe are shutting down borders. On March 20, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a partial closure of the borders with Canada and Mexico.

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Garcia had been getting nervous as more confirmed cases were reported in Arizona and as schools and businesses shut down across the state. Since he is still living in Hermosillo, I asked him to come to Nogales so we could stay on this side of the border during the COVID-19 quarantine, Garcia said.

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Vernet thought it was a good idea to join Garcia. He works in the biomedical field and knew that he had a lot of work ahead of him with the coronavirus spreading across the world, especially in Arizona and Mexico. So on March 21, Garcia drove to Sonora to pick her husband up. Nonessential travel restrictions began that same day.

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Essential means U.S. citizens and permanent residents returning home. It includes individuals who travel for work, for educational reasons, or for verifiable medical emergencies. Only members of the military and international trade agents can enter the United States, but U.S. citizens can leave at any time.

Vernet has a B-1/B-2 tourist visa and a pending petition for permanent residency with U.S. Customs and Immigration Services, or USCIS.

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I thought that was enough to cross the border, he said.

The Mariposa Port of Entry, connecting Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora, was quiet; not many people were trying to cross. On a typical day, the wait can be more than two hours.

They managed to get past the first of three checkpoints: documents, interviews, and a vehicle check.

But at the second checkpoint, Garcia says she told the Customs and Border Protection agent that she is a U.S. citizen and that her husband was coming to stay with her for at least a week. They showed the agent Elliots visa, his USCIS receipt, and their marriage certificate.

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He even brought documents from his company in Hermosillo to prove that he would return to Mexico, Garcia said.

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But none of those documents mattered because Vernet wasnt on the essential travel list.

The agent told them that Garcia could cross the border, but Vernet would have to remain in Mexico.

He told us they have strict orders to only let citizens, permanent residents, and a few special cases get into the United States, Garcia said. He was extremely nice, but he said no.

The pandemic has thrown many other families, who were already navigating harsher border controls, into the same predicament. There are a lot of couples in the same situation, living in different countries, and right now there is no option for them to get into the United States to be with their loved ones, said immigration attorney Yasser Sanchez, who works in Phoenix and specializes in family petitions. Sanchez doesnt represent Vernet and Garcia, but he does represent others in similar situations.

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According to the latest USCIS statistics, from 2019, the agency currently has more than 1.4 million pending family petition requests. More than 400,000 of those cases are for the spouses or children of a U.S. citizen to join them in the United States. Between June and September 2019, the agency received more than 68,000 I-130 formsa petition for relatives to come to the U.S.

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We do not know how long the border will be partially closed, added Sanchez, but we are still working with USCIS, filing petitions, following up with our cases, and hoping this wont affect as much the processing times so they can be together as soon as possible.

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Garcia and Vernet dont have kids yet. They are lucky, in a sense. There are hundreds of families stuck in the system, separated by the border, with their cases pending for years. They have children, and they dont know when they are going to be able to see them, to hug them, to kiss them, Sanchez said.

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Being a U.S. citizen is a privilege that Garcia doesnt take for granted. She is able to leave the country to be with Vernet. More than 10.5 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. have been separated from their families for years, before the coronavirus pandemic became our new reality.

Vernet wants his wife to feel professionally fulfilled, and he knows that living in the U.S. could create better work opportunities for him as well. Garcia has given up her life and the stability of a 9-to-5 job just to be with him. Though she can handle freelance jobs remotely in Mexico, her ambition to look for a steady job is on hold indefinitely. Their plan is to eventually start a family on the U.S. side of the border.

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The earliest Vernet would be able to enter the United States is April 21, according to the current travel restrictions. If the restrictions are extended, it could take longer. In the meantime, his case will remain pending with USCIS. The processing time for an I-130 form is usually around 10 months, but in some states it can take up to two years.

When I looked out the window, the streets were empty, the ports of entry were quiet  and I thought, What am I doing here?  Yadelle Garcia

Sanchez thinks it will take longer than a year, since USCIS offices are closed to the public until at least May 3. This means two weeks or more in backlogs for interviews and fingerprints, he explained.

After they were turned away at the border, Garcia made a U-turn and drove her husband to a hotel in Nogales, Sonora. They stopped for tacos on the way. They were still hopeful. Everything happens for a reason, they told each other, before kissing goodbye.

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Later that day, Garcia went back to the border and crossed through the same port of entry where Vernets admission had earlier been denied.

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But when I stayed alone in my apartment in Nogales, Arizona, I felt lonely and afraid. It was a long night, she said. When I looked out the window, the streets were empty, the ports of entry were quiet  and I thought, What am I doing here?

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First thing on the morning of Sunday, March 22, she started packing.

As of now, Mexico doesnt have the same travel and admissions restrictions as the U.S. That means Garcia, as a dual citizen, can cross the border both ways.

The closure of the border, rather than separating us, brought us together, said Vernet. We are living a honeymoon, not in the place that we wanted to, but in the city that needs us the most.

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Vernet has been working nonstop. His job is to maintain medical equipment, and ventilators are in huge demand. His work is being classified as essential in Mexico. His wife is helping him with administrative work.

In Hermosillo, Sonora, 175 miles from the border, Garcia and Vernet do not regret their decision. In fact, they feel safer. The United States now has more known cases of coronavirus than any country in the world. As of Monday, Arizona has nearly 2,500 confirmed cases, and 65 people have died. While testing is less widespread in Mexico, in Sonora 18 people have tested positive, and one person has died.

We are together  and we really like being together, Vernet said. There will be time to go back when they open the border, because that is not going to separate us this time.

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China has reported no new deaths from coronavirus for the first time since it began issuing daily briefings on the outbreak more than two months ago.

In its latest update, the countrys health ministry said there were 32 confirmed cases and 12 suspected cases recorded over the last 24 hours.

All were listed as imported in people who had returned to China from overseas. None were reported in Hubei province, the original epicentre of the pandemic which has so far caused nearly 75,000 deaths worldwide.

Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, is set to ease restrictions further on Wednesday by allowing people to leave the city for the first time since the lockdown began in January.

Officials said they would permit anyone with a green code on an official smartphone app to depart the area.

China now has 1,242 confirmed cases being treated including 211 in serious condition. A total of 77,167 patients have been cured and discharged from hospital.

In total it has reported 81,740 confirmed cases and 3,331 deaths from Covid-19, although US intelligence agencies have accused the Chinese government of minimising the severity of the outbreak. Donald Trump, who has himself played down the seriousness of coronavirus, claimed last week that Chinas figures are a little on the light side.

The new figures were announced as more than 160 current and former global leaders  including three former UK prime ministers  called for coordinated international action to find a cure for coronavirus and prevent a second wave of infection later this year.

In an open letter to the governments of the G20 group of the worlds most wealthy nations, they called for $8bn (6.5bn) in emergency health funding to find a cure for coronavirus and prevent a second wave of infection later this year.

The leaders also urged the international community to waive this years debt repayments from poorer countries, including 44 billion dollars (36 billion) due from Africa.

We are writing to call for immediate internationally coordinated action  within the next few days  to address our deepening global health and economic crises from Covid-19, they said.

All health systems  even the most sophisticated and best funded  are buckling under the pressures of the virus. Yet if we do nothing as the disease spreads in poorer African, Asian, and Latin American cities and in fragile communities which have little testing equipment, ventilators, and medical supplies, and where social distancing and even washing hands are difficult to achieve, COVID-19 will persist there and re-emerge to hit the rest of the world with further rounds that will prolong the crisis.

They add: The longer-term solution is a radical rethink of global public health and a refashioning  together with proper resourcing  of the global health and financial architecture. The United Nations, the governments of the G20 nations, and interested partners should work together to coordinate further action.

The letter has been signed by John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the former UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, financier George Soros, Bertie Ahern and former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd.

Additional reporting by agencies
The DUP has announced the replacement of former Belfast councillor Guy Spence.

Former Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast Guy Spence, who represented Castle DEA, issued a statement last month saying he was resigning from the DUP and retiring from his position on Belfast City Council.

He said he had "lost all confidence" in the integrity of the party, adding: "My resignation and retirement has been accelerated by recent events involving a blatant attempt to cause me harm. Something I'm not prepared to tolerate."

The DUP announced on Tuesday that Dean McCullough would be taking over as councillor for the area.

Welcome to my friend & colleague Dean McCullough - the DUPs new Cllr for the Castle DEA.



Dean was born & raised in the area, Ive no doubt he will be a great addition to our North BELFAST Team.



I wish Dean well & look forward to working with him in his new role.@ShoreRoad94 pic.twitter.com/xAJRFfbR8t  William Humphrey MLA (@WmHumphreyDUP) April 7, 2020

Mr McCullough said: I am delighted to take up this role and to serve the people of the Castle DEA. It is an area that I know well, having been born and raised there. I also look forward to joining the DUP team on Belfast City Council, being a positive voice for north Belfast and for our city as a whole.

DUP leader Arlene Foster added: This is obviously a very challenging time for everyone in Northern Ireland and I know that councillors have been playing a key role. I want to thank DUP councillors across Northern Ireland who are helping organise local responses within communities across the province.

"Dean will be an excellent representative for the Castle DEA. He has a track record of community involvement across north Belfast and alongside Cllr Fred Cobain will continue to provide first-class representation in that area."

North Belfast DUP MLA William Humphrey tweeted: "Welcome to my friend & colleague Dean McCullough - the DUPs new Cllr for the Castle DEA.

"Dean was born & raised in the area, Ive no doubt he will be a great addition to our North Belfast Team.

"I wish Dean well and look forward to working with him in his new role."
Federal officials must expedite and simplify the COVID-19 relief packages small business loan program, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey argued in a letter Monday to the Treasury Department and Small Business Administration.

The $349 Paycheck Protection Program, established in the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act, went live on Friday. The program offers loans of up to $10 million to small businesses looking to cover payroll expenses and retain staff or bring back workers laid off amid the pandemic.

The Massachusetts lawmakers said a delay in guidance from the federal government meant banks were unable to prepare their systems to start accepting applications when the program opened.

We urge you to move quickly to issue additional guidelines and clarifications to ensure that loans are disbursed quickly, that all businesses can participate and that lenders give mom and pop businesses the same access to loans that they give their more sophisticated small business clients. All small businesses need to have equal access to this help, the senators wrote.

The Independent Community Bankers of America wrote the Treasury and SBA on Saturday, saying nearly 48 hours after the program went live, hundreds of lenders are still trying to get approval to access the SBA system so they can process loans.

The senators note that existing SBA lenders and non-SBA lenders are experiencing massive delays and inability to process loans or even access the SBA to become an SBA lender.

The lawmakers asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza to fix operational and technological problems with the system and to provide greater guidance to banks. They also asked if Congress should take any further action to get the aid quicker to small businesses.

Related Content:
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  Davao City's chief executive said they are keeping a close eye on those who attended a three-day cockfight derby suspected as the ground zero of COVID-19 infection that placed the city under enhanced community quarantine.

Speaking at a Laging Handa network briefing on Tuesday, Mayor Sara Duterte said contact tracing is underway to identify people who came in contact with those who attended the three-day derby at the New Davao Matina Gallera in March. About 400 people are reportedly being tracked down by local health officials.

"Ang Department of Health tinutulungan sila ng Philippine National Police at National Intelligence Coordinating Agency para mapabilis yung kailangang contact tracing doon sa mga umattend nung Matina Gallera derby," she said.

[Translation: The Philippine National Police is helping the Department of Health and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency to hasten contact tracing of those who attended the Matina Gallera derby.

READ: 5 doctors, 3 nurses get coronavirus in Davao City

However, Duterte said while doctors claim there may still be people at the derby who went unchecked, they were not inclined to believe that additional PUIs would come from that group.

"Yesterday tinanong ko yung doctor...dahil simula nung last derby which was March 12, ang kanila pong 14th day was March 26," said Duterte. "So tinanong ko yung doctor, almost one month na or two incubation periods na galing doon sa derby and can we expect more patients from the derby. Sinasabi ng doctor possibly meron pang naiwan na hindi pa nacheck ng mga doctors, but hindi na sila masyado inclined to say malaki yung spike ng posibleng papasok na PUI ay dahil doon sa derby dahil ilang araw na lang po mako-complete na yung dalawang incubation period galing sa last fight nung derby."

[Translation: I asked the doctor yesterday...because the last derby happened on March 12 and the 14th day would be March 26. I asked the doctor if we could expect more patients from the derby considering almost one month or two incubation periods have passed. The doctor said there could be persons still not checked, but they were not too inclined to say that there could be a big spike of PUIs from that group because two incubation periods will be completed in a few days from the last derby fight.]

The Davao region has 11 deaths due to COVID-19. Of this number, six people had exposure at the New Matina Gallera derby.

Atty. Marissa Marasigan-Torentera, OIC of the Business Permit and Licensing Division of Davao City, resigned on April 5 due to the incident.

The derby happened while Mayor Duterte ordered the cancellation of all events during the Araw ng Davao celebration in March. At the time, DOH had already ordered the public to avoid gatherings.

The city's quarantine period will be until April 19. Duterte, however, said they would consult experts on what actions to take after the quarantine period expires.

"Lahat po ng actions ng regional task force dito sa Davao City, we do it in coordination with the epidemiologists of the Department of Health and we have sa private sector naman ay infectious disease specialists," the mayor said. "So sila po yung kino-consult namin sa lahat ng ginagawa namin dahil sila po yung nakakaintindi, nakakaalam kung ano yung gagawin para macontrol yung COVID-419 infection," the mayor said.

[Translation: All the actions of the regional task force in Davao City, we do it in coordination with the epidemiologists of the Department of Health, and in the private sector we have infectious disease specialists. We consult with them in all that we do because they are the most knowledgeable when it comes to controlling COVID-19.]
Secret expert modelling on the spread of coronavirus in Australia is set to be made public on Tuesday.

The modelling is expected to show the effects of border closure and lockdown measures which have seen confirmed cases fall to their lowest level since February.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said on Sunday the curve appeared to be flattening, putting Australia in a better position than other countries.

The number of confirmed daily cases of coronavirus peaked at 460 on March 28, which has fallen to 107 on April 6, and 95 so far on April 7, with 5,896 total cases.

But the past 72 hours have also seen the number of COVID-19 deaths increase by 15, bringing the total number of deaths to 46.

The number of confirmed daily cases of coronavirus peaked at 460 on March 28 but as of April 7, only 95 new cases have been recorded nationally (Medical professionals in Sydney are seen performing COVID-19 tests on members of the public at the Bondi Beach drive-through COVID-19 testing centre)

Australia has 5,896 confirmed cases and 46 deaths as of April 7, most of which have been recorded in NSW

Professor Kelly told The Australian Financial Review that Australia appeared to be successfully flattened the curve 'at the moment'.

'Our low mortality rate and our low percentage positive in our testing shows me that we are actually finding people early in this disease, isolating them and breaking those chains of transmission that spread through the whole population,' he said.

The modelling, which was expected to be released last week, is predicted to show Australia's response to the crisis has prevented the worst-case scenario of 4million cases from last month's modelling.

Professor Kelly said Australia was now better placed than many other countries, such as the United States, which has more than 337,600 confirmed cases.

'The things that we have done in the past weeks to prevent ourselves going into that situation have been successful up till now, and we have to redouble our efforts to make sure that doesn't happen into the future,' he said.

On Tuesday, the government will make public its expert modelling on the spread of coronavirus and the danger of prematurely easing social distancing rules (Members of the public are seen walking past a sign reading '1.5 Metres Apart' in Perth)

Most of the cases of coronavirus come from people who contracted it overseas, or from those who have come in contact with someone infected.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

But Professor Kelly warned the most concerning category of infections to health authorities was the 8 per cent of Australia's cases reported as being locally transmitted.

'This is something that can affect the whole of our population and that is why we need the whole of the population to continue to take this seriously,' he said.

Strict social distancing measures were introduced last month as a way to curb the spread of the disease as the infection rate began to rise, overwhelming hospitals and leaving healthcare workers scrambling for protective equipment.

Each of the states has since shown a slow decrease in daily confirmed coronavirus cases.

NSW has seen a decrease to just 49 new cases on April 7, which is a major drop from the peak of 212 new cases reported on March 28.

Victoria had a peak of 111 new cases March 28 but that number has slowly dropped with only 23 new cases on April 7.

Queensland peaked at 78 new cases on March 24 but that number has decreased to 13 on April 7.

Western Australia peaked at 44 new cases on March 44 but has continued to stay low with April 6 reporting only 7 cases.

South Australia highest recorded daily cases were 38 on March 26 but on April 6, the amount dropped to only 2 cases.
IMAGE: Posters declaring a locality, a containment zone was put up last night by BMC after a COVID19 positive person was found near a government guest house, at Matoshree in Mumbai. Photograph: ANI Photo

Mumbai's civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation sealed off the Kalanagar area in Mumbai's Bandra East after a tea seller was suspected to have contracted COVID-19 near a government guest house, located near Matoshree, the private residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

The civic body has also put up posters informing the same near the government guest house.

According to Mumbai police sources, the Maharashtra chief minister's security personnel deployed at Matoshree, who were the frequent visitors to the tea stall, have been kept in isolation as a precautionary measure.

Sources also said along with the tea seller, four more people residing in his building have been put into a quarantine facility by the authorities.

Earlier on Monday, the BMC declared the city's Wockhardt Hospital a containment zone after three doctors and 26 nurses tested positive for coronavirus within a span of one week.
[April 07, 2020] MetroCapital Fund, a New Real Estate Investment Fund in Miami, Florida, Offers Opportunities to Diversify Investment Portfolios

MetroCapital Fund is a Regulation D real estate investment online platform allowing investors to gain access to strong urban U.S. markets, and participate in high-demand opportunities. Accredited investors can invest a minimum of $50,000, with targeted 16 percent annualized returns for a minimum of 12 months. Visit www.metrocapitalfund.com for details. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005668/en/ MetroCapital Fund is an exclusive capital raising platform for Metronomic, a sustainable real estate development company based in Miami Florida. "Our model is reliable, transparent, and profitable; and we're committed to our mission of transforming communities by enhancing the quality of life in the neighborhoods we serve - true 'impact investing'," says Ricky Trinidad, President of Metronomic. The fund proides attractive returns with low risk due to Metronomic's proven model that creates new middle-income rental infill projects within strong urban areas. "We are not selling condos, which can be sensitive to market changes; we construct new rental buildings that are easy to lease and manage, and that average-income people can afford. Our rental units are in very high demand as soon as we finish each new building. We quickly refinance these buildings to pay off our investors upon completion," clarifies Mr. Trinidad.



MetroCapital Fund is a Delaware corporation established July 6, 2017 and based in Miami, FL, USA. The company is solely owned and managed by Metronomic, and all capital raises are exclusively for Metronomic's development projects located within strong urban markets of the United States. The fund's current capital raise is limited to 11 specific Metronomic development projects, and the offerings will close as soon as the target capital raise amount per project is achieved. The capital raises open and close as necessary, so prospective investors are promptly informed of every new opportunity when they register free at MetroCapital Fund www.metrocapitalfund.com, where they can also view the current open investment opportunities.

ABOUT METRONOMIC Metronomic is a sustainable real estate development company based in Miami, FL focused on enhancing the communities it serves while generating a significant return on investments. Its core values are centered on social and economic improvement, community development, local collaboration, and exemplifying industry standards. Visit www.metronomic.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005668/en/

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CLEVELAND, Ohio  Staying six feet away from others is nearly impossible for Chris Johnson.

The 29-year-old East Cleveland resident has high blood pressure and worries about catching the coronavirus. His medical condition is one of several that health doctors say could lead to more severe illness if he gets it.

But he knows he doesnt have much choice in where he is. Hes been in federal custody since August.

Ive been feeling a little sick, but I try to fight it off, he said. I try not to (think about it). I dont even want to put that on my mental."

Johnson is one of several hundred men with pending federal cases housed at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center. The compound, located within the Youngstown city limits, is owned by CoreCivic, one of the largest private prison companies in the country.

He is one of nine men in U.S. Marshals Service custody at the private prison who spoke with cleveland.com of their concerns as the coronavirus spreads throughout Ohio, the U.S. and the rest of the world. Their anxieties mirror concerns from advocates, who warned for weeks that close quarters and shared common areas, along with a lack of adequate health care, means its only a matter of time before jails and prisons see a serious outbreak.

While CoreCivic and other private prison contractors have faced criticism for cutting costs and limiting rehabilitation opportunities for inmates, the reality inside the Youngstown prison is now the same as every lockup in the country: when will the coronavirus reach it and how many people will get sick?

Some detainees worried that prison officials arent doing enough to protect them, especially as reports trickle in about outbreaks in other facilities. The coronavirus is already starting to spread more rapidly in jails and prisons in Ohio, including a federal prison in Elkton, where three inmates have died and 10 have tested positive for the virus as of Tuesday.

Others expressed concern for their loved ones on the outside  especially their older mothers who might be more prone to contracting an illness  and fret because they arent there to help.

Ive got a lot of older family out there, said Thomas Sledge, a Youngstown man who has been in CoreCivics prison since June. Im very nervous.

Often, they feel trapped. Some asked a judge to release them but have not yet had luck.

The marshals in northern Ohio oversee 700 people in jail awaiting trial in federal cases, with many of them housed in the Youngstown prison. Many defendants and lawyers who practice in federal court refer to it as CCA, an acronym for CoreCivics former name, Corrections Corporation of America.

Other federal pretrial detainees are scattered in different jails across the state, from Williams County to the west to Mahoning County in the east.

The Northeast Ohio Correctional Center also houses people awaiting trial in federal courts in Pennsylvania and New York. A separate wing houses inmates in the state of Ohios custody, and until February, it housed people awaiting decisions from an immigration judge.

The men in the marshals custody are mostly awaiting trial or sentencing. Many of the ones who spoke to cleveland.com face drug and weapons charges.

They watch the news during the day  one said TVs were tuned to CNN and MSNBC  and see the number of cases steadily increase nationwide.

Rumors about who might be sick run rampant among the sixty-plus-men units and beyond. Johnson said the barbershop closed because a detainee fell ill and heard it was from the coronavirus. Others feared a corrections officer contracted the virus because they went home sick.

They are acutely aware of when their fellow detainees and staff cough.

Even some of the (corrections officers), they come in coughing, hacking, said DeWitt Chisholm, a 39-year-old Cleveland man who has been in there for about eight months. Chisholm said he is a diabetic, which could make him vulnerable to contracting a serious illness associated with the coronavirus.

Nobody wants to be around that," Chisholm continued. "Its crazy.

CoreCivic said in a statement that it learned Monday that an employee that provides the prison transportation services through its subsidiary Transcor has tested positive for the coronavirus. The employee last worked April 2 and is isolated at home, the statement said.

The company said no inmates have tested positive for the virus at either of its facilities in Ohio, which also includes the Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut, which the state uses as a prison.

It said each of its facilities has emergency response plans in place and recommended employees take steps to prevent spreading the disease. These include having medical staff participate in the intake process, isolating those at risk of serious illness associated with the virus and testing for the virus when appropriate.

All of our facilities are actively promoting the following three health habits for inmates, detainees and residents, as well as staff: regular hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette (coughing or sneezing into a sleeve or tissue), and avoiding touching ones face, CoreCivics statement said. We also encourage the practice of social distancing for all individuals within our facilities.

(You can read a full statement on the companys precautions at the bottom of this story.)

In the past month, as the outside world braced for the coronavirus outbreak, the detainees started seeing changes. Staff informed them that loved ones could no longer visit. Meals, traditionally eaten in a dining hall, were handed out in the hallway for them to take back to their units to eat.

Stephon Cunningham, 41, said staff passed out soap in his unit.

Christopher Lenhart, 42, said its his job to wipe down bars and door handles.

If the stuff hits in here, its going to be all bad, Lenhart said. "Everybodys going to get this. Theres no social distancing here. Theres so many people, we all touch the same s--t over and over again.

Still, they also say the prison isnt doing enough to prevent the spread. While several said there is more cleaning, and that staff moved older detainees and ones with health ailments to separate units, its life as usual. Fellow detainees act as they did before the pandemic raged.

Nothing changed in here, Johnson said.

In some ways, its worse. Zaamar Stevenson, 43, said it can take up to two weeks to see medical staff about an ailment.

Unless you pass out, you wont see them, Stevenson said.

The men said they want more. Some said they should get face masks and hand sanitizer. At this point, sanitizer is placed out, but its for the guards, the men said.

They also want more information on what staff are doing to protect their health.

Above all, many want out. Thats not uncommon for most people awaiting trial, but in the age of coronavirus, its more of a cry for help than just a wish.

Multiple detainees cleveland.com interviewed had their lawyers file motions asking a judge to release them because of the coronavirus. Theyre either waiting for a response or had their request denied.

The court has received many such requests in the past few weeks, said Chief U.S. District Judge Patricia Gaughan. While some include concerns specific to the person making the request, such as pre-existing conditions, others generally talk about the virus and how contagious it is.

While the court has granted requests for release as the virus spread, the number of people in the marshals custody in northern Ohio has not significantly dwindled. Gaughan said she has not heard of crowding complaints at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center.

Still, organizations and advocates in Ohio and across the county have said jails and prisons should release some inmates to reduce crowding and, hopefully, prevent the spread of the virus inside.

The stance by the federal courts contrasts with the efforts made by the courts in Cuyahoga County, which have worked to reduce the number of people in the crowded county jail in downtown Cleveland.

Jail staff, court officials and prosecutors worked in recent weeks to release about 900 people awaiting trial by lowering bonds and pushing through plea agreements for those accused of low-level, non-violent offenses. The jail on April 2 had a population of 1,008.

U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said in an interview last week the charges for which his office asks a judge to detain a defendant are generally more serious than the ones people are jailed for in the county and are rarely low-level.

A federal judge who previously ordered a defendant jailed while their case is pending can revisit that if certain circumstances changed, but Herdman said he does not believe the coronavirus outbreak qualifies as a changed circumstance.

It doesnt relate to the offender or the offense that is meaningful with respect to detention, the U.S. attorney explained.

His office has filed several responses to oppose motions for release in the past couple of weeks, often detailing the steps CoreCivic and the marshals have taken to prevent the spread of the virus.

Still, theres a chance some of that may change. Attorney General William Barr on Monday wrote in a memo to U.S. attorney and Justice Department prosecutors that said they should now consider defendants health risks as they relate to the coronavirus when they decide whether to ask a judge to detain someone.

We must adapt to the current difficult circumstances, while also ensuring that we never deviate from our duty to keep the public safe from dangerous criminals," Barr wrote. Please exercise your discretion appropriately.

But many defense attorneys, especially the ones who filed motions, still worry.

I am concerned about the spread of the virus, said Federal Public Defender Stephen Newman. We have some clients who are particularly vulnerable to the virus, with pre-existing health conditions.

Other attorneys put it more bluntly in court filings.

Mr. Golds release is warranted because the conditions of confinement at (the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center) are very likely to constitute a humanitarian crisis when the virus is introduced to the facility, Cleveland attorney Michael Goldberg in a motion. That motion, filed for his client John Gold, was denied Friday by a federal judge.

At this point, the detainees said theyre waiting for the crisis, feeling powerless to stop it.

I know I got something to face, said Cunningham, who faces two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. I just dont want to be in here now.

Read more:

Third inmate dies at Ohio federal prison as fallout from coronavirus outbreak continues

Coronavirus got 900 inmates out of Cuyahoga Countys troubled jail when inmate deaths didnt. Some say the changes should stick

ICE to stop housing immigrant detainees at private Youngstown prison
Mysuru, April 7 : The drug-making plant of pharma major Jubilant Life Sciences at Nanjangud near here has been shut down after it was suspected to have been infected by coronavirus from a container that came from China with raw materials, an official said on Tuesday.

"We have ordered closure of the plant and sealing of the entire premises after some of its employees tested Covid-19 positive after a virus infected container came from China in March," Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar told reporters here.

Nanjangud is about 30 km from Mysuru.

"We have also quarantined the plant's staff and their families at their homes while the affected patients are under treatment at a designated hospital in Mysuru," Sankar said.

Of the 35 Covid cases in Mysuru till Monday, one-third of them are estimated to be the company's employees working at the plant.

In an e-mail to IANS, the Noida-based pharma company said the integrated plant operations were suspended last week and all its personnel were under self-quarantine.

"The tainted container has been sent for forensic test to find if its surface material carried the virus as it was shipped from Covid-hit China from where the company imports applied pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)," Sankar added.

The decade-old plant has about 1,400 permanent and temporary employees.

The company got the plant disinfected by a certified agency to make the place safe and healthy.

"Mysuru has accounted for the second highest number (35) of Covid positive cases after Bengaluru with 59 out of 175 cases registered in the state till Tuesday noon," a health official said.

Incidentally, the company donated Rs 25 lakh to the state's CM Relief Fund, set up to mobilise resources to fight the virus fallout.

"We value the health and safety of our employees and the community. We are working to ensure their needs are met and following the government protocols to mitigate the crisis," said the company in a statement here.

The company also distributed 7,000 masks and 325 litres of sanitisers to health and administrative staff in the state.
(Newser)  Fresh off the train and only 18 years old, Al Kaline ran into an immediate roadblock trying to join the Detroit Tigers. Called up to the majors, he couldn't get past the security guards at Briggs Stadium. "I finally convinced them I was the guy who just signed a bonus contract for the enormous sum of $15,000. That was a lot back then," Kaline recalled in a 1999 documentary. His anonymity was short-lived. Kaline, the Hall of Fame outfielder who played his entire 22-season career for Detroit, died Monday at his home in Michigan. "Mr. Tiger"as he was knownwas 85. No cause of death was given, the AP reports. "Theres a reason why he was Mr. Tiger, said Dave Dombrowski, a former team president. "First-class person, he was humble, he always played hard. Hes the type of guy that everybody could latch onto."

story continues below

Kaline, who wore No. 6, was the youngest player to win the American League batting title, in 1955 at age 20 with a .340 average. He had 3,007 hits, 399 home runs, 1,622 runs and 1,582 RBIs. Kaline was an All-Star in 15 seasons and won 10 Gold Gloves. He later was a Tigers broadcaster and a special assistant to the general manager. He came straight out of Baltimores Southern High School to the majors, making his debut on June 25, 1953. He took over as Detroits everyday right fielder in 1954, and quickly became a fan favorite at Briggs Stadium, later renamed Tiger Stadium. Kaline never hit 30 home runs in a season and topped 100 RBIs only three times, but his consistency at the plate and exceptional defense put him among the top outfielders. "The fella who could do everything is Al Kaline," Baltimore Orioles Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson once said. "He was just the epitome of what a great outfielder is all aboutgreat speed, catches the ball and throws the ball well." He hit .379 in his only World Series, winning the title in 1968.

(Read more obituary stories.)
Siam Cement to buy Vietnamese packaging company

07 April 2020

Siam Cement is to acquire a Vietnamese packaging materials maker, Bien Hoa Packaging. The group will purchase Bien Hoa Packaging through a joint venture with top Japanese cardboard maker Rengo.



Siam Cement said the size of the deal has yet to be determined, but estimated it would be less than 15 per cent of the Thai group's total assets as of the end of December, which came to THB634.7bn (US$19.2m). Bien Hoa produces 90,000t of cardboard boxes and 10,000t of food packaging materials a year. The company, listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, earned a US$6m net profit for 2019 on about US$73m in revenue.



Siam Cement "has been closely monitoring the situation and thoroughly considered this strategic opportunity," the Thai company said in a statement. Siam Cement has been active in acquisitions, largely in southeast Asia. It operates production sites in Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia, in addition to Thailand.

Published under
GLENVVILLE  Robert McCormick earned $3 million in compensation in 2019 as CEO of the holding company of Trustco Bank, nearly 100 times what a typical bank employee makes.

Trustco released the financial figures about what it pays its top executive  and how that compares to the rest of the bank's staff  as it prepares to hold its annual shareholder meeting May 21 at its loan center located off Wolf Road in Colonie.
A stretch of dry weather across much of Europe may help farmers across the continent in the short-term, but fears of a possible drought later in the growing season loom.

While there could be a few weak storms traversing the region, a lot of Europe will be dry through the next week.

"A drier-than-normal pattern is expected to hold across much of Europe through Easter weekend and into mid-April," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Tyler Roys.

For farmers, this temporary lack of rain will be welcome, making it easier for the planting of soybeans, corn and other vegetables in the coming weeks.

Those across western and central Europe who will be out planting will just need to contend with above-normal temperatures. Temperatures could average as much as 4-8 C (7-14 F) degrees above normal by the end of next week.

But not everywhere across Europe will be so lucky.

Although dry weather is in the forecast across eastern Europe, which will assist with planting, winter wheat crops will struggle in the dry pattern.

In this Friday, June 15, 2018 photo, winter wheat stands ready to by harvested in a field farmed by Dalton and Carson North near McCracken, Kan. Kansas farmers are harvesting a smaller winter wheat crop amid an ongoing drought. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

"Much of the winter wheat crop across Europe has been hit hard so far this spring, with surges of cold air pushing through northern and eastern Europe through early April," said Roys.

"Unfortunately, the continued dryness, and the potential for more spells of chilly air into next week in eastern Europe, could further impact the winter wheat crop in a place like Ukraine," Roys added.

The exception is early next week, where a few bouts of rain could hit the Baltics and northern Ukraine.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

According to the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA), the projected wheat crop yield is 25.8 million tons, as of April 3. This number has remained steady since the crop update on March 2, while projected crop yield for barley decreased and the projection for corn increased.

Story continues

Any drop in crop yield could impact to country's economy significantly. With an estimated two-thirds of Ukraine's crops being exported out of the country, possible restrictions on food exports amid the global COVID-19 pandemic could play an important role as well.

The dry stretch thus far in 2020 has already made an impact in parts of Ukraine, as wildfires broke out this past weekend near Chernobyl, an area north of Kyiv near the border with Belarus.

Officials evacuated some residents near the fire on Thursday.

A view of a forest fire burning near the village of Volodymyrivka in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine, Sunday, April 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Yaroslav Yemelianenko)

The region is also one that produces a decent percentage of the wheat crop for Ukraine.

"Depending on how much the fire grows and spreads, it's possible that the wildfire could damage some of the wheat crop in the region," said Roys.

By Wednesday afternoon, smoke from the wildfire turned the skyline in Kyiv hazy.

Following some extreme droughts in Europe the past few years, fears are growing about the potential for more drought conditions as spring and summer unfolds. A lack of rain during the growing season can significantly impact crop yields.

Frequent bouts of rain pushed across the Mediterranean Sea in March, helping to alleviate building drought conditions in southern Europe.

"While there are no major droughts across Europe at this time, should the drier-than normal pattern continue into April or even May, wheat and other crops could become affected," said Roys.

AccuWeather meteorologists are forecasting a below-normal wheat yield from Europe given the winter wheat issues and the potential for further weather-related problems this spring and summer.

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
Tanaiste & Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Coveney TD during a press briefing in the Courtyard of Government Buildings, Dublin Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Simon Coveney said the framework document being worked on by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will attempt to persuade other parties to join a coalition government.

The Tanaiste said that both parties recognise that a difference type of governance is needed to steer Ireland out of the health crisis.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are working to put together a document they hope to use as road to government formation.

The document will be circulated to other political parties within the next week.

Mr Coveney said: "Certainly I think it's possible for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael working with Independents and independent groups to form a majority but that is not the kind of government that we are looking to create.

"We want to try to include other political parties outside Fine Gael and Fianna Fail as well.

"That's why we have focused on trying to put a framework document together which I think will certainly attempt to persuade parties like the Green Party, the Social Democrats and the Labour party, that actually politics is going to be different, that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael recognise that the combination of what is being asked of us in a general election, and a national public health emergency, demands a different kind of government and different kind of governance in Ireland.

"One thing that this crisis is reinforcing in many people's minds is that there does need to be increased roles in the State in protecting people and their well being, not just in terms of healthcare but also in terms of their economic interest."

He also said he does not believe a government of national unity will work, adding that Ireland needs a "strong and stable government" for the next five years.

He made the comments after Labour leader Alan Kelly says he does not expect his party to enter a new government coalition.

The newly-elected leader said the party is not in a position to enter government with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.

He said that while Labour will "talk to anybody who wants to talk to us", the focus is on the parties that secured a large number of seats.

Speaking to RTE's Morning Ireland programme, Mr Kelly said: "Simply put, there are four large parties, any three of which could form a government. It is up to them to do so.

"The Green Party got a large mandate of 12 seats, and obviously climate change is the big agenda item once we get over Covid (-19).

"It's quite disappointing that it seems that they are not willing to put their shoulders to the wheel and stay on the pitch and get involved in this."

Government formation talks between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are still ongoing, two months after the general election.

Mr Kelly said, however, that he believes the Labour party will play a "huge part" in shaping Ireland's recovery.

"I think the world has changed. I think politics has changed," he added.

"It's amazing that Keynesian economics is back in fashion.

"I think the way in which Ireland is going to have to come out of this is going to have to embrace a lot of things that the Labour Party stood for over the last number of years, in relation to housing and childcare, in relation to a one-tier health system, in relation to a rent freeze, which I've advocated for many years."

Mr Kelly also said that even if Labour added its six seats, there still would not be enough to form a majority government.

He added: "It's my job to ensure we will not be swamped, we will be different and I aspire to doing so, to making us very, very relevant, punching way above our weight into the future, but I also want to say we need a strong opposition into the future."

He said there is a need for a strong opposition as the Government is going to have to make difficult decisions.




In 1918, World War I was ending when the Spanish Influenza started another global challenge. In a year, the disease killed 675,000 US citizens and 50 million globally. The total death from the illness was 10 million more from those who lost their lives from the war, says an article.

There are many differences in the response to the Spanish Influenza and the COVID-19 in the United States of America. Both pandemics caused the declaration of a state of emergency.

READ: 101-Year-Old-Man Survives Two Pandemics: COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu

Schools and movie theaters were also closed for months, just as we are witnessing now. Additionally, it was also recommended to responsibly wear face masks.

Changes Brought by the Spanish Influenza Pandemic

The Spanish Influenza Pandemic had brought dreadful changes in the film industry. Many of them were orchestrated by Adolph Zukor. This resulted in the creation of the studio system. Currently, it remains dominant in Hollywood.

William Mann, a Hollywood historian, and Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood author, stated the impact of the Spanish influenza pandemic to the film business. He also said that the possible big shakeups the COVID-19 pandemic can bring, including theater ownership and the duration of Hollywood's recovery.

Additionally, Mann points out the mistakes of handling the Spanish influenza pandemic that the current authorities need to know. Also, he reveals that the refusal of film actors to wear face masks during that time had led to their demise from the 1918 illness. Even the biggest Hollywood star during that time did not survive the illness.

Check these out:

1918's Film Industry in the US

According to Mann, this was how Hollywood was created. The 1918 pandemic was a period in history that served as the foundation of all the structures that make American film as great as it is today. It had affected how movies are created, sold, and shown to the public.

The 1918 pandemic was the beginning of how the American industry decided to pursue a particular path. This period initiated the birth of the studio system.

Closing of Movie Theatres During the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918

During the 1918 pandemic, 80% to 90% of movie theatres in the United States of America were ordered to close for 2 to six months. This had not only caused a big effect on moviegoers but also for movie-creation and selling.

It was a difficult time for the film industry. New York and San Francisco continued its operations during the 1918 pandemic for a long time. However, they were not an exception to those who had to temporarily close their theatres due to the pandemic.

READ NEXT: Why was the World Not Ready for COVID-19 Despite Experience with the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic?

Unlike New York and San Francisco, Los Angeles has immediately closed its theatres due to the 1918 pandemic. Studios had postponed all productions for more than a month from mid-October to November at that time.

In September, the first cases of the Spanish flu were announced. In about a year, approximately 3,000 residents of Los Angeles lost the battle with the illness. Studios reported losses as well. Paramount reported losses of approximately $2 million due to the 1918 pandemic. In the present, this is equivalent to $30 million.
On Wednesday night, Jews around the world will celebrate the start of the festival of Passover. The eight-day long holiday, marking the biblical Exodus out of Egypt, is kicked off by a ceremonial feast, called a Seder.

Under normal circumstances, the Seder would typically be a large family celebration: a ceremony, replete with symbols, singing and long discussion, and a festive meal that often lasts long into the night. Governed by some combination of religious law and family tradition, no two Seders are exactly alike.

But this year, nuances in holiday celebration is guided less by creativity than by necessity. With social distancing in effect and non-essential travel barred in an attempt to slow the spread of novel coronavirus, Jews across Michigan, and across the world, are having to radically adapt their holiday practices, too.

And while the holiday marks the arrival of spring, an opportunity for renewal, these changes are being met with both hope and sorrow.

Ordinarily, at this time of year, Steven Low would be preparing to welcome several dozen people into his Flint home.

The president of the local Jewish Federation, Low has been hosting family Seders for 40 years. One night a year, for decades, he and his wife would set up two long tables, end-to-end, with their best china and silver to sing songs, discuss the holidays story and meaning and central text, called a haggadah, eat and drink.

This year, he said, it will be very different  the Lows will host a virtual Seder, instead, joining with loved ones over the internet, not around a dinner table.

Its going to be extremely strange, said Low. Instead of a boisterous group occasion, were going to have our dining room table and me and my wife, each with a computer screen, sitting at one end.

It will be Lows first time not celebrating the Seder with his children present, although they and a dozen others will appear on their screens. And while singing is a favorite family tradition, theyre cutting many of their usual 40 or 50 songs, for fear that the lag on the video will make singing in unison impossible.

Its kind of shocking and bittersweet and lonely, said Low. You miss the raucous give-and-take of the Seder, people chiming in with comments and new melodies of songs and raising points that they know and sharing their knowledge. Its going to be harder to do that when you have to mute and unmute people.

Steven Low, executive director of the Flint Jewish Federation, has been hosting a family Seder for 40 years that this year will be conducted using Zoom. (Jake May | MLive.com)The Flint Journal, MLive.com

Many people who are accustomed to going elsewhere for the Seder are now forced by circumstance to learn how to shape one on their own, said Rabbi Jared Anstandig, a rabbi at the University of Michigan, and for an Orthodox congregation in Ann Arbor, who would normally be helping the universitys Jewish student group prepare for a half-dozen Seders, serving hundreds of students.

With Michigans colleges closed, Anstandig has instead been spending the lead-up to the Seder helping prepare students to make their own.

People who are used to having large family Seders, or are used to going back to their homes, who are now going to be running a Seder for the first timeare totally lost, he said.

So hes offered online classes on both the laws of the day  the Seder follows a particular order, with a kind of choreography, said Anstandig  as well as broader meaning for students to reflect on throughout the ceremony.

The Passover story tells of the Israelites escape from Egypt, where they lived as slaves, to the Promised Land. The enactment of the Seder corresponds with that journey, as participants tell the story of moving from oppression toward joyous liberation, drinking wine and holding up symbolic objects throughout the night.

That journey takes on new resonance when people are confined within their homes, fearful of an invisible threat outside their doors, said Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner, of the Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation.

Theres a sense of profound disruption but the story of Passover offers the opportunity for meaning-making and grounding, said Nitkin-Kaner. Ive been inviting my congregation to think about, even in an extensive time of physical narrowness, where can they findsweetness, joy and connection, even in this tight place.

She has been sending out resources to her congregants to help them shape their own virtual Seder experiences, and her own experience demonstrates one unexpected benefit of this years changes: the opportunity to spend the holiday with loved ones who could not have been present in past years. Rabbi Nitkin-Kaner will make a Seder with her family, who live in New York and Toronto, for the first time in ten years, she said.

Its actually becoming an opportunity for more connection, she said.

The holiday offers a chance to look upon our blessings even though we are bound at home, agreed Rabbi Michael Schadick, whose congregation, Temple Emanuel of Grand Rapids, will hold a virtual community Seder for more than 100 people on the holidays first night. We can use the time were blessed with to reconnect with people via the phone or computer.

Even a virtual Seder can offer that opportunity, he said: his congregants can invite family from across the country to participate in a part of their local Jewish experience.

Those virtual options are not available to all Jews, however. More religiously observant Jews do not use electronics on holidays. In the best of times, this marks a divide between time that is sacred and time that is ordinary. But in a time of forced distancing, when communal prayer is impossible, observant people cannot even approximate it with video calling.

Anstandig, the Orthodox rabbi, will spend Passover with his wife and infant daughter, and says hes sent out an early copy of his sermon for people to read and engage with on their own time, with the hope that he can convene with some of his students and congregants later in the holiday.

Were coming up with ways to be socially interactive, even though we cant be physically together, he said.

For Rachel Haus, the director at Fisher Library at Congregation of Moses in Kalamazoo, this years holiday has forced her to consider some of her preferred practices. She, her husband, and her younger two daughters will host a smaller virtual Seder, just for close family, and the idea of keeping a computer open at the Seder table is uncomfortable for her, she said.

But I feel like us being together, us celebrating together, outweighs my discomfort with electronics on holy days, she said.

Haus is balancing this by trying to make the run-up to the day feel normal. Shes deep-cleaned her house, and is cooking traditional foods, including matzo ball soup.

Thats, in part, in service of her kids. Maintaining the holiday, as close to normally as possible, maintains their sense of continuity, Haus said.

In a way, the holiday goes on, our lives go on, Haus said. Were lucky that they go on.

A still life of Shabbat candles and matzo, in honor of Passover, taken on Saturday, April 4, 2020. Passover is the 8-day Jewish holiday that commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt and starts out with a Seder dinner involving family and friends.Alison Zywicki | azywicki

And Passover preparation is, in its own right, part of the observance. Tradition dictates that one deep-clean ones home, removing all forbidden food products  broadly defined as those containing leavening, such as bread and pasta  from ones home, down to the last crumb. But in a moment when many people are stocking up on shelf-stable foods  such as bread and pasta  how should a person balance disaster preparedness with festive planning?

Some families have decided to store their food in a basement or cabinet, instead of polishing it off in the days leading up to the holiday or donating it.

Schadick, the Grand Rapids rabbi, said he bought food over the weekend that he wouldnt dream of buying so close to Passover, because if push comes to shove I want to feel we have all the food we might need for several weeks.

Its a balance between discarding foods, but also making sure that we keep our families safe and fed for the foreseeable future, said Nitkin-Kaner.

Although preparation often begins weeks in advance, Nitkin-Kaner said shes observed that many find themselves scrambling  mentally, spiritually, and, somewhat, physically  this year.

Thats reflected in the orders placed at Zingermans Deli, an Ann Arbor institution, where the catering staff is busy, masks on and six feet apart from one another, preparing take-out Seder meals from a restaurant space that, as of Sunday, is no longer allowing visitors inside.

Less than a week out from the holiday, catering director Nancy Eubanks told MLive that she was glad to be pulling just half of normal sales volume. But over the weekend, orders spiked, surpassing last years sales and revenue numbers. More than 200 people have ordered food to be delivered or placed carefully in their car at curbside.

I thought it was going to be really small, Eubanks said. Now she thinks that, amid so much upheaval, the holiday snuck up on some people.

The scale of the orders has changed, however: instead of large meals, shes preparing a lot of meals for just two or four people. And shes sold many more ceremonial Seder plates than usual  a collection of symbolic food items, such as an egg, parsley, and horseradish, that are alluded to at different moments of the ceremony  because each smaller party will need their own.

The business has also received orders from people trying to get food to a loved one they wont be able to see this year. One mother called from London to get a Passover meal to her son, a stranded University of Michigan student. Another family ordered food for a 93-year-old grandmother, alone and under travel restrictions.

Lots of stuff like that, which has made it more meaningful this year, said Eubanks, whos worked at Zingermans for 17 years. We dont usually get those stories. Its usually just, [we need] Seder for six.

About 130 people will pick up their meals on Wednesday, before the holiday begins that evening at sunset. Eubanks said one of the strangest parts of this whole ordeal has been trading customer service norms for social distancing guidelines.

Still, she said, it feels good to provide nourishment and a bit of normalcy during such an extraordinary time.

We really know these people because so many of them order us from us every single year, I recognize the names, Eubanks said. So that part of it is really important to us. Its nice to see some of the same names and say, OK, youre still going to do this.

Manager Nancy Eubanks poses with sous chef Andrew Wilhelme at Zingerman's Delicatessen, 422 Detroit St. in Ann Arbor on Monday, April 6, 2020. Manager Nancy Eubanks says the deli has received about 160 orders for curbside pickup and 60 for free delivery on the first day of Passover, Wednesday, April 8.Jacob Hamilton/MLive.com

The comfort of personal custom is echoed in the ongoing and ancient ritual of the Seder itself, said Anstandig.

Ive been thinking about how powerful it is to be sitting [with] my family, thinking about reading the words in the text that Jews all over the world, for thousands of years have done, basically in the same structure, following the same liturgy, he said

With all the craziness going on, with all the fear, with all the challenges and struggling and pain and suffering thats happening, to be able to lean on something that feels very firm and time-tested, is comforting to me, he said.

One part of that liturgy is the recitation of the Four Questions, chief among them, Why is this night different from all other nights? Because we eat this certain food, the ceremonial text replies; because we sit this certain way. Because we do this, when ordinarily we do that.

In spite of the ways that tradition anchors the occasion and technology can help bridge geographical divides, theres a kind of grief accompanying the question of why this year is different from all other years  even though people know the answer why, even when the answer is to protect the people we love.

Itll definitely be different, kind of sad, said Allison Bloomberg, a junior at the University of Michigan who ended her semester abroad early. She will be celebrating the Seder with her family in Farmington Hills, instead of in Jerusalem, as she had planned, and instead of joining 40 people, as usual, at her family table, it will just be her immediate family of four.

But weve got to just stay safe and healthy, said Bloomberg. As much as this holidays about being together, in order to be together in the future, weve got to stay separated.

From her retirement home in Traverse City, Arlene Brodsky said shed been looking forward to flying out to Long Island, N.Y., to join about 20 family members from across the country at her sons home.

The biggest thing is, I dont see my children that often, and I was really looking forward to it, and Seders are really important things, Brodsky said. But with the whole thing, Im trying to stay calm.

The important thing for now is to ensure that everyone does what it takes to stay safe, Brodsky said, even though that means she cant celebrate the holiday as usual. For Brodsky, that means attending a virtual Seder, hosted by her synagogue, and to privately acknowledge the occasion in her apartment by cooking some traditional foods.

Im 87, Ive been to a lot of Seders, she said. You do what you have to do. You make do.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus.

Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

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A father-of-two who heard a dying coronavirus patient crying out for his family for two hours is urging people to stay indoors.

Craig Farley-Jones spent six days in Tameside General Hospital last week as he battled Covid-19. THe 43-year-old is home now, but is haunted by the memory of a patient in his 60s who spent his final hours alone crying for his family.

'I wouldn't have let a dog die like that,' said the dad from Hyde.

Craig Farley-Jones (pictured) spent six days in Tameside General Hospital last week as he battled Covid-19

Mr Farley-Jones (pictured) has told of his horrific experience being hospitalised with Covid-19

The Gee Cross, Hyde, company director shared a heartfelt social media post reminding people to take the UK's lockdown seriously.

In it he wrote: 'Everyone in the ward looked like death, but the man in the bed opposite me who was about 65 or 70 was relaxed and talkative to start with, despite being on maximum oxygen.

'Later that day I could see he was struggling to breathe and starting to panic, I could see he was getting distressed so I buzzed the nurses but they couldn't calm him down.

The company director (pictured) shared a heartfelt social media post reminding people to take the UK's lockdown seriously

'Something had changed - his stats went off the scale and it was past the point of return for him

'They gave him something to calm him down and called for his kids, as this was obviously his final night.

'His children were at least able to come in in masks and gowns and say their goodbyes, but he still hung on for another few hours after that.

'I will never forget those next two hours for as long as I live. He was shouting out, calling for his family by name, over and over while struggling to breathe.

'It had me in tears, it was so hard to listen to. I buzzed the nurses, but they told me there was nothing more they could do for him.

'So I lay there listening to his breathing turning into a death rattle, he continued calling out into it stopped and was quiet - he had gone.

'I know he wasn't in physical pain at that point, but he was definitely in emotional distress.

'I wouldn't have let a dog die like that.

'It's not the fault of the doctors and nurses at all, they were doing everything they could, but in some cases it isn't enough.'

Yesterday (Monday) Boris Johnson was admitted to an intensive care ward at St Thomas' Hospital as his condition worsened. He has not been placed on a ventilator but has received some oxygen treatment.

Speaking this morning Matt Dockray, who overcame the illness last month, described his time on ICU as 'the most horrible experience you will go through'.

There have been 51,608 coronavirus cases in the UK since it arrived in February. At least 5,373 people have died with the disease.

Mr Farley-Jones added: 'People need to know when you go into hospital with coronavirus, all the NHS can do is remove any infection that accompanies the virus to give you the best chance to fight it yourself.

'They can't treat the virus itself - so if you end up in hospital you have to fight for yourself, or sink.

'So please, stay at home and hold onto your loved ones - I'm one of the lucky ones.'

The software and marketing company director, who had been commuting daily to Sale before he was infected, and fiance Laura, who works in Salford, both noticed symptoms on the same day two weeks ago but are not sure where they caught the virus.

As soon as the UK's lockdown came into force last month their family adhered to the Government advice but both began to a suffer a high temperature, nausea and exhaustion about three days afterwards.

The couple both developed a loss of smell and bad cough but when Craig began struggling to breathe last Tuesday, he called NHS 111 and was rushed to hospital, where it was discovered the illness had spread to his lungs, causing pneumonia.

At 2am on his third night in hospital, Craig was taken from one of the main wards to a different quarantined coronavirus unit by wheelchair after testing positive for Covid-19.

The businessman, who was treated with antibiotics for secondary infections during his hospital stay, was unable to eat for a week during his ordeal, losing a stone in weight.

The dad-of-two, who has a one-year-old daughter with Laura, Pippa, and an eight-year-old daughter, Ruby, from a previous relationship, is thankful his youngsters avoided the worst of the symptoms - only suffering high temperatures.

Mum-of-one and step mum-of-one Laura, who runs her own law firm, also struggled with the severity of her own coronavirus symptoms but did not need to be hospitalised as the disease didn't spread to her lungs.

Craig said: 'When I got to hospital, I thought I was safe.

'But I still felt like I couldn't breathe, and when I realised that was still the case when the oxygen was on maximum full pelt, that was a scary moment.

'I texted Laura asking her why I hadn't sorted my will, she had done hers and been asking me to do mine, but I hadn't got round to it.

'I just couldn't breathe, and thought I could be that close.

'The feeling of claustrophobia and panic that sets in is frightening - even a few days later when I was feeling better and due to be discharged, I still had a nagging doubt I might not make it.

'When you wake up in the night out of breath, panicking and trying your best to draw in more air, you don't understand why the nurses can't do any more to help you.

'I realised quite quickly you either are nursed to get better and go out the front door, or they nurse you out of the back door in as little pain as possible.'
Remote Student Services

Dallas District Turns to PresenceLearning for Speech Language Therapy

A Texas school district has signed a contract for online speech language therapy. Dallas Independent School District is using services provided by PresenceLearning to support 515 elementary and secondary students from 30 campuses in the district through "teletherapy."

The company has a network of certified clinicians who work with students via video conferencing. The PresenceLearning platform also integrates assessments, class assignments, games and other activities into the student sessions.

"Due to the nationwide shortage of licensed speech-language pathologists, we needed to find new and innovative ways to ensure our students would receive necessary services and that we, as a district, would meet evaluation timelines," said Kristin Davis, director of districtwide services at Dallas ISD, in a statement. "This is why we are turning to teletherapy as a supplement support to the onsite services we provide. We are very excited to push this initiative forward in partnership with PresenceLearning."

"As our district was looking at teletherapy options, PresenceLearning's proprietary platform really stood out," said Davis. "Being able to securely share data is a priority, so having this functionality was a huge asset and selling point for us in choosing PresenceLearning as our sole teletherapy provider."

According to district spokeswoman Nina Lakhiani, while the district has shut its schools and shifted to remote learning during the pandemic, it's also continuing to use PresenceLearning for assessment and therapy services. District speech therapists are continuing to provide their therapy services using Zoom with their current caseload. PresenceLearning has also offered licenses to the internal therapists to allow them to use their interactive platform for service delivery.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, offering five suggestions to tackle coronavirus disease Covid-19.

She also asked the Prime Minister to suspend Rs 20,000 crore central vista beautification and construction project forthwith. Austerity measures which can be used to divert much needed funds to fight against Covid-19 are need of the hour, the Congress president has said in her letter.

She further said that the suggestions are in response to her discussion with the Prime Minister over phone. In your call yesterday, you very kindly asked me to convey to you any suggestions our party has to meet the grave challenge of Covid-19. It is in this spirit that I write to you.

Among the suggestions, Gandhi has sought complete ban on government advertisements given to the media - TV, print and online - for two years.

I am certain that you will find value in these suggestions, Gandhi further wrote in her letter.

This comes a day after the Union Cabinet decided to cut the salaries of the Prime Minister, other ministers, and parliamentarians by 30 per cent for a year, and to suspend for two years, a scheme under which parliamentarians get Rs 5 crore a year to spend on developmental work (MPLAD scheme), with all the money saved going into the consolidated fund of India to be used to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

Thats expected to work out to approximately Rs 7930 crore. Of this, a total of close to Rs 29 crore will come from the salaries of MPs.

In addition, the President, the Vice President and the governors of states have also decided to take salary cuts.

A Member of Parliament is paid a salary of Rs 1,00,000 plus allowances. A member of Parliament would contribute Rs 30,000 per month and Rs 3,60,000 in the year.

The salary of the prime minister of India is the same as other MPs. The President of India is paid a salary of Rs five lakh per month while the Vice President is paid Rs four lakh per month. The president, vice president and governors have also volunteered to take a 30% cut. The governors are paid Rs three lakh and fifty thousand each.

The Consolidated Fund of India is the fund into which all tax revenues flow, and the one used to make most payments.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had chaired the cabinet meeting and then a meeting of his council of ministers. Both were conducted over video conference.

PM Modi had on Sunday reached out to two former presidents and two former prime ministers of India to discuss countrys response to the unprecedented crisis over coronavirus outbreak. The prime minister is also said to have called up Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Odisha chief minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik, Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, DMK chief MK Stalin and Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 22:58:27|Editor: huaxia

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JUBA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan has committed to join measures by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to prevent volatility and restore stability in the oil market.

South Sudan Petroleum Minister Puot Kang on Monday held telephone discussions with Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, Secretary-General of OPEC and expressed the country's willingness to work with OPEC and non-oil producing countries to end the oil price war that has crippled the industry, the African Energy Chamber said in a statement issued on Monday evening.

"South Sudan believes that market volatility is negative for every player in the market and hurts our ability to attract new foreign investment, diversify our economy and promote peace," Kang said.

Kang said he would join OPEC negotiations slated for April 9, with the hope of reaching a favorable agreement that will stabilize the market and bring benefit to South Sudan and its producing companies.

"South Sudan is focused on boosting exploration and opening up new oil and gas fields, and the current scenario hampers our growth targets significantly," Kang added.

South Sudan's economy depends on oil revenue to finance 98 percent of its fiscal expenditure and the country is one of the hardest-hit by the current crisis and price war.

The oil-rich east African country which currently produces nearly 200,000 barrels per day has been part of the OPEC Declaration of Cooperation and OPEC+ since 2011.
New Delhi: The gorgeous Nora Fatehi recently appeared on trade expert Komal Nahata's show 'Starry Nights' where she made some interesting revelations about herself and her family. Nora stated how she kickstarted working at a tender age of 16 and how there was a time her family was battling the financial crisis.

My first-ever job was as a retail sales associate in a mall which was right next to my high school so I would finish my classes and go there. I was 16. I had to work for many reasons. There were a lot of financial issues in my family and I was supposed to be the one that would step up and be the breadwinner, she said.

From working at a clothing store to being a waitress to even selling lottery tickets, Nora has done it all. I was working in a mens clothing store so I was selling suits, putting outfits together and all that. After that, I did numerous things. I worked as a waitress in restaurants, bars and shawarma places. I worked in a telemarketing office, cold calling people and selling lottery tickets. Hi, maam, do you want to buy this ticket? and 90 per cent of the time, they were like (imitates sound of phone hanging up). I worked on commission, I worked in McDonalds once. I did everything, she said.

Nora came into the spotlight when she marked her entry as a wild card on a popular reality show in 2015. She became a household name after she showed off her killer dance moves in blockbuster chartbuster Dilbar from Satyameva Jayate. Our jaws just dropped while watching her in Saki Saki, Garmi.

Nora has done supporting roles in films like Bharat and Batla House. She was last seen on the big screen in Remo DSouzas Street Dancer 3D, alongside Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor. She is going to woo her fans with an interesting role in the mega film Bhuj: The Pride of India.
The government has unveiled details of its sweeping but temporary overhaul of Australia's workplace rules to let workers access its $130 billion JobKeeper package.

Under a suite of changes designed to keep 6 million Australians in their jobs through the coronavirus pandemic, workers could find themselves working new roles, rosters and locations.

Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations Christian Porter has struck a deal with the unions to change workers conditions while they receive JobKeeper. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Attorney-General Christian Porter said the changes, which apply only to businesses eligible for JobKeeper, would formalise the "common-sense arrangements" that Australian workers and business owners were already making and save "tens of thousands of jobs".

Businesses will be allowed to reduce their employees' hours until their earnings equal the $1500-a-fortnight payment, but only if there is not enough work for them to stay on their usual roster under a new law set to pass Parliament on Wednesday.
OTTAWA - The federal government is stepping up efforts to produce ventilators, face masks and surgical gowns in Canada, while it continues to try to get millions of pieces of equipment ordered from international suppliers actually shipped to the country.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA - The federal government is stepping up efforts to produce ventilators, face masks and surgical gowns in Canada, while it continues to try to get millions of pieces of equipment ordered from international suppliers actually shipped to the country.

That includes an order of 500,000 N95 respirator masks from Minnesota-based 3M, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said should arrive in Canada on Wednesday, while acknowledging the duel with U.S. President Donald Trump over medical supplies is not entirely over. 3M reached a deal with the White House to continue delivering its products to Canada and Latin America late Monday.

"We continue to work with Americans," Trudeau said in his daily briefing to Canadians outside his Ottawa home Tuesday.

"As I've said, we've had constructive and productive conversations that have assured that this particular shipment comes through, but we recognize there is still more work to do," he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland later added that there are more shipments expected from 3M and all of them should arrive as expected, but that there are orders with other U.S. suppliers that have not been given clearance to be exported yet.

Canada's main argument to the United States is that they are reliant on raw materials, manufactured goods and health-care professionals from Canada, and that both countries will do better if neither blocks those supplies or people from crossing the border.

As of Tuesday, Canada has recorded more than 380 deaths due to COVID-19, and hundreds of Canadians remain hospitalized in critical condition fighting the respiratory illness. Nationally, the number of confirmed cases grew to just under 17,900.

Quebec on Tuesday projected that in the best-case scenario, COVID-19 will peak in that province in about 11 days, and kill 1,263 people by the end of April. In the worst-case scenario, more than 8,860 Quebecers will die in that timeframe, though provincial officials anticipate the final outcome based on current data will fall closer to the best-case numbers.

Later, Alberta unveiled a probable scenario, which projects between 400 and 3,100 deaths by the end of the summer. An elevated scenario would have between 500 and 6,600 deaths.

Last week, Ontario estimated between 3,000 and 15,000 Ontarians will die of COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic.

The federal government has not yet released national projections.

The main message from Ottawa on Tuesday was about efforts to get the needed medical equipment. Procurement Minister Anita Anand said more than 230 million surgical masks and 75 million N95 respirator masks have been ordered but cautioned the global supply chain is so fragile they cannot guarantee how many of those will actually arrive.

A 3M mask which health care workers are in dire need of is shown in Mississauga, Ont., on Friday, April 3, 2020. Health officials and the government has asks that people stay inside to help curb the spread of the coronavirus also known as COVID-19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Front-line medical workers remain in desperate need of personal protective equipment, including gowns and N95 masks.

Trudeau said to ensure a stable supply, Canada has to make a lot more of these things at home  and that the country is not alone in not having what it needed on hand.

"The entire world was unprepared," he said.

Almost 5,000 Canadian companies stepped up with offers to help make needed equipment, including apparel companies making surgical gowns, using materials provided by construction and auto manufacturers. Canada did not produce the material typically used in the gowns, but some companies discovered material used in air bags or house wrap could work instead.

Trudeau also said Canada is working with several companies to get 30,000 new ventilators made in Canada. His office later clarified that only 1,020 new ventilators have actually been ordered, from Toronto-based Thornhill Medical. However, there are letters of intent with other companies for up to 29,000 more.

Access to ventilators is a main issue for treating critically ill patients with COVID-19-induced pneumonia, and a lack of ventilators in hard-hit countries like Italy forced doctors to choose which patients would get one and which would not.

As the virus started to rampage across Canada a few weeks ago, inventories found about 5,000 ventilators across the country and provinces have been trying to order more. Few provinces have indicated how many they think they need, and it's also hard to gauge exactly how many patients are on a ventilator right now because provinces report statistics differently.

On Tuesday, Quebec reported 164 patients in intensive care, but not specifically the number on ventilators. Ontario reported 233 patients in intensive care, of which 187 were on a ventilator, while Manitoba reported 12 hospitalized cases of COVID-19, and six in intensive care.

Ontario already placed an order for 10,000 new ventilators, and as of Monday had nearly 2,000 critical care beds with ventilator capacity, up from almost 1,300 a month ago. Ontario's COVID-19 projections released last week expect the illness to peak in late April, with at least 1,200 patients in intensive care.

Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Meanwhile, federal aid packages to help unemployed workers and struggling companies are beginning to roll out this week.

Top-ups to GST rebates for lower-income Canadians are set to go out April 9, the same day the first Canadians might see their $2,000 from the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

Treasury Board President Jean-Yves Duclos said Tuesday more than 966,000 Canadians applied for the benefit Monday, the first day applications were accepted. That is, he said, about the same number of people who apply for employment insurance over six months. It also included only those with birthdays in the first three months of the year, as the government is staggering the application process to avoid overloading the system.

Nearly 3.7 million Canadians have now applied for employment insurance or the emergency benefit since mid-March, said Duclos, and more than three million applications have already been processed. Anyone who applied for EI because of COVID-19 after March 15, will automatically be processed by the CERB program instead.

The government's increased wage-subsidy plan is also moving forward. Trudeau said Tuesday the government shared its proposed legislation with opposition parties. They are now negotiating on when to hold an emergency session of the House of Commons to pass the bill.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2020
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 19:45:43|Editor: huaxia

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BAGHDAD, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The international coalition forces, tasked with fighting the Islamic State (IS) militant group, on Tuesday handed over a headquarters of French advisers in the Iraqi capital Baghdad to the Iraqi security forces.

Yehia Rasool, spokesperson of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, said in a statement that the handover of the coalition's site came after "fruitful dialogue" between the coalition forces and the Iraqi government.

Rasool did not name the site, but local media reports said that the coalition withdrew a detachment of French advisers from a military base in Baghdad's western suburb of Abu Ghraib.

Tuesday's handover is the fifth that Iraq has received from the international coalition forces recently after the coalition forces withdrew from the military bases of al-Qaim and al-Habbaniyah in western Iraq, and al-Qayyara and K1 in the north.

On Jan. 5, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, just two days after a U.S. drone strike on a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolution Guards Corps.

Over 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support Iraqi forces in battles against the IS, mainly for training and advisory purposes.

The troops were part of the U.S.-led international coalition that has also been conducting air raids against IS targets in both Iraq and Syria.
At Bandit Patisserie, making croissants is a three-day process.

People dont realize how much effort, science, and technique goes into them, says Kristen Farmer Hall, who opened the French-style bakery in October. Theyre very challenging technically.

The process begins with a sourdough starter, a flour-water mixture that picks up natural yeasts and ferments as it sits overnight. The spongy mixture, called poolish, makes the dough stretchable and adds a touch of acid that balances the fat and sweet flavors in the finished product.

On the second day, the baker makes dough from the starter, adding more flour and water, plus butter, salt, and sugar. The dough is then divided and refrigerated overnight.

Lamination follows on the third day, a process in which dough is rolled into two sheets and butter is sandwiched between them. Its then rolled out, melding the dough and butter, and then folded, rolled out again, and refrigerated briefly.

The folding-rolling-chilling process repeats two more times that day before the dough is cut, shaped, and set aside to proof. After rising for several hours, the finished products bake in an extra-hot oven, where water in the butter explosively evaporates, creating the croissants signature lacy interior.

Pulling a tray of baked croissants out of the oven never gets old, says Hall, a self-taught baker. Theyre a magical web of flour and butter.

Hall and her staff cut no corners at Bandit Patisserie, which specializes in sweet and savory pastries, and offers a bakery-driven weekday menu and weekend brunch.

Hall and business partner Victor King also own The Essential restaurant on Morris Avenue downtown. Like its sister, Bandit Patisserie is seasonally driven. Fillings and toppings for quiches, Roman-style focaccia pizzas, and fruit-based treats change regularly based on whats currently growing locally.

Suppliers include BDA Farm, Belle Meadow Farm, Ireland Farms, and Jones Valley Teaching Farm. Bandits coffee is roasted by Homewood-based Seeds Coffee Co. Local forager Tim Pfitzer provisions both the restaurant and the bakery.

Pastries in French-style bakeries tend not to be as sweet as in traditional Southern shops, Hall says. Theyre less reliant on icing and sprinkles, and often steer toward savory. For example, youll find rosemary shortbread alongside a savory, nutty caramel tart in Bandits display case.

But Hall also enjoys making her own mark on traditional sweets. Case in point: her lemon meringue croissant. Think of it as the classic pie in a croissant crust.

One of Halls signature items is her upgraded take on Pop-Tarts. A lot of people grew up with them, she says. Victor and I both enjoy taking something nostalgic and making a modern version. Theyre so popular, people complain when supplies run out. Its like writing a song you didnt know would become a hit, Hall says.

Bandits menu encourages nibbling. Pastries, cookies, and related sweets are $2$5. Breakfast items like housemade granola with fruit or a brioche breakfast sandwich are $6$8.

On weekdays, the bakery features a savory quiche with a side salad; a selection of tartines on housemade sourdough bread; and a seasonally driven focaccia pizza slice or savory pie. Prices range from $4$12.

The weekend brunch menu (items from $8$14) combines the best of a patisserie with classical French brunch items, like a croque madame made with Bandits buttermilk croissant, or a savory mushroom croissant Benedict with poached egg and hollandaise.

Halls path to patisserie started during baking sessions with her daughters Emma (now 12) and Eleanor (9). Theyd sneak sweets to neighbors porches, ring the doorbell, and run away. The trio became affectionately known as the Baking Bandits. Hobby morphed into vocation when Hall left her job as an associate development director at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to pursue pastry full-time.

Hall and King met soon after she won REVs 2014 Big Pitch contest for local startups. They collaborated in 2015 to open Feast & Forest, which quickly became a popular brunch and lunch spot.

Hall also sold baked goods at local farmers markets for several years. In May, Baking Bandits returns to The Market at Pepper Place after a three-season hiatus. Look for the Bandits vintage camper.

The Essential replaced Feast & Forest, which had quickly outgrown its downtown space. The partners original plan called for the restaurant and bakery to occupy adjoining spaces on Morris Avenue. But when one unit proved impossible to renovate as intended, The Essential opened in the other with Hall baking in-house. Bandit Patisserie finally found its own home when a suitable location opened up off Central Avenue in Homewood.

In addition to supplying desserts, breads, and crackers for The Essential, Bandit also bakes bread for a growing roster of restaurants, including Automatic Seafood and Carrigans.

Customer favorites include almond croissants on weekdays and chocolate croissants for weekend treats. Orders come in all day for the breakfast sandwich with cheddar, scrambled farm egg, and meat or avocado on brioche or a sourdough croissant.

Halls go-to is a scone, while King is partial to the snickerdoodles made with browned butter for extra nuttiness.

If youre making something with limited ingredients they all have to be the best, Hall says. Thats one thing I love about simple food. Theres no hiding. That keeps us focused.

Details

Bandit Patisserie | 2821 Central Ave. (Homewood) | Hours: Tues. - Fri., 7 a.m.-4.p.m; Sat.-Sun., 8 a.m.-4 p.m.; closed Mon. | banditbham.com

This story appears in Birmingham magazines April 2020 issue. Subscribe today!
Political agenda affected by the epidemic

By Malkhaz Matsaberidze

The coronavirus epidemic is entering a new, more difficult phase, with the next three weeks expected to be the most challenging. The government tightened the state of emergency on March 31st - introduced a universal quarantine and a curfew. The Coronavirus epidemic has completely changed the life of the country, including the political flow.Prior to the Coronavirus epidemic, parliamentary elections were scheduled for late October 2020. The united opposition insisted on a transition to a proportional electoral system and planned to hold a large rally in front of the parliament on April 4th.The Coronavirus created a completely different reality, with nobody talking about the planned rally. The state of emergency, activated on March 21st, halted the process of amending the constitution, the month-long process of public debate which began on March 17th. Initially, many believed that after the end of the state of emergency, changes would still be made, and that the parliamentary elections scheduled for the fall would be held under a new system (120 proportional, 30 majoritarian). As of today, the situation is unpredictable, but on April 21st, it will be announced whether the state of emergency requires prolonging or not. If prolonged, then not only the adoption of the new electoral system, but also the issue of holding the elections within the set timeframe will be questioned, but no one is discussing it now.The government and the opposition say there is no time for the election campaign and that they must be united for the time being. However, this does not exclude sharp controversies. One of the issues that has caused a dispute between the government and the United National Movement was the problem of bringing Georgians back from abroad due to the pandemic. Mikheil Saakashvili, who is in Ukraine, has publicly proposed to finance the flights and buses together with his friends in order to bring those wishing to return to Georgia from several European countries and place them in quarantine free of charge. Saakashvili only needed the Georgian government to confirm that they would receive the planes. Prime Minister Gakharia rejected the proposal, taking the obviously unprofitable decision for the government as they cannot make the same offer to those willing to return to Georgia; tickets for official charter flights are unaffordable for many abroad and the problem of the return of migrants left without jobs remains acute.The next three weeks, when the Coronavirus is predicted to reach its peak, Christian Orthodoxs celebrate religious holidays. The state of emergency prohibits the mass visits of believers in churches and the curfew forbids gatherings in churches at the night of easter. The Georgian Orthodox Church has not made any changes to the rituals, and some believers plan to go to church notwithstanding the rules. The government is trying to get the Church to agree with the safety rules, and it seems to be expecting the religious figures to make an appropriate call on the terms of the epidemic. If participation in ecclesiastical rituals increases the scale of the epidemic, the responsibility will fall on both the church and the government.The issue of developing a crisis budget remains relevant. The opposition has long demanded concrete changes from the government to introduce specific changes in the budget and present a new version of the budget. On April 1st, the government presented some of its calculations regarding the budget update. The government will pay utility bills to about 1.2 million people with low incomes. It will also spend 351 million GEL in the fight against the epidemic, in addition to 2 billion GEL will be spent on both people without income and the affected business. However, it is not yet clear where this money will come from - what funding will be cut in the 2020 budget and what projects will continue.The ruling team faced two scandals last week. One of them was about the fact that a person with the symptoms of the virus was released from the hospital without testing them. Doctors said they were following the protocol - if the patient did not have a history of traveling abroad and had no contact with an infected person, they would not be tested.The second scandal occurred on March 26st in Akhalkalaki, when local majoritarian, Georgian Dream member Enzel Mkoyan and Patriot Alliance member Samvel Petrosian confronted each other, using guns. These two individuals, in addition to being involved in politics, are also local business clans. Petrosyan was arrested, and the opposition was accused of accusing the government of protecting Mkoyan.With the epidemic and the tense socio-political situation, March 31st, 29 years since the referendum on Georgia's independence, was relatively unnoticed. We can wish that next year, on the 30th anniversary of the independence referendum, the problems created by the epidemic and the concerns over the elections will be left behind.
A police officer (L) completes a record on a man who spreads fake news on Covid-19 fight in Cam Pha District of Quang Ninh Province in northern Vietnam, April 2, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Bao Long.

Hanoi police will launch criminal investigations that could lead to jail terms of up to seven years for those posting false Covid-19 information.

The police department in the capital city said many people have made use of the complicated development of the Covid-19 pandemic to spread false information on social media to generate likes, views and shares.

This has sowed confusion among people and made it more difficult to take preventive action against the novel coronavirus, the department said.

To tighten control over the propagation of fake news, Hanoi police will launch criminal investigations into suspects.

Anyone posting fraudulent information on the Covid-19 disease causing negative impacts on the publics response will be investigated for "illegally posting or using information on computer networks and telecommunication networks," an offense that carries a maximum prison term of seven years.

In case anyone spreads personal and private information or insults the dignity and honor of health workers on the frontline of the epidemic fight, as well as of patients and suspects, they will be investigated for "insulting others" and face a jail term of up to five years.

Police and other Hanoi authorities have called on residents to be more discerning about the information they receive, and follow official sources on the epidemic in Vietnam.

Ever since the Covid-19 broke out in Vietnam, police in Hanoi have handled more than 70 cases of spreading fake news. Other localities have reported hundreds of such cases, too.

Not a single person has faced criminal charges so far, though many have been fined VND10-15 million ($427- 641) under a decree on administrative violations of post and telecommunications, information technology and radio frequency regulations.

Last month, Vietnams Supreme Peoples Court asked all civil and military courts across the country to apply Article 240 in the 2015 Penal Code against those escaping quarantine and making false health declarations in the context of the country entering a critical stage in its Covid-19 fight.

Those making fraudulent medical declarations when returning to Vietnam from Covid-19 stricken areas can be jailed for up to five years.

Vietnam has recorded 245 cases of Covid-19 and 117 have been discharged from hospitals.
Laughing together is as close as you can get without touching, I wrote in my first book, They Used To Call Me Snow White ... But I Drifted: Womens Strategic Use of Humor, published in 1991.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 7/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

"Laughing together is as close as you can get without touching," I wrote in my first book, They Used To Call Me Snow White ... But I Drifted: Womens Strategic Use of Humor, published in 1991.

Laughter has always been the best medicine; I wasnt making any boldly original statements almost three decades ago. I wasnt expecting a MacArthur grant. But what I expected even less than a MacArthur grant was that the not-touching part of my line would eventually be part of a stentorian, global prescription to combat COVID-19.

Yelling "Dont touch!" is how we now greet each other. Were learning the niceties of social distancing, which for some of us echo lessons learned in junior high when we were instructed to leave sufficient room between our dance partners and ourselves for the presence of the Holy Ghost.

I wasnt good at social distancing in junior high  my Holy Ghost was remarkably thin, almost waif-like  but I am trying to learn now.

For example, Im glad that were not elbow-bumping anymore. Not only does it look intensely stupid, but since wed also been told for a month to sneeze and cough directly into our elbows, Id cross right over that elbow bridge if I were a germ. You wouldnt even need a disease E-ZPass if you were a determined little particulate  you could just hop the elbow turnstile and head on to a new host.

As an aging Italian-American woman, being instructed not to hug is like a dog being told not to wag its tail. To restrain myself these days, I picture people with swarms of mosquitoes buzzing around their heads. Without that delightfully sophisticated image, Im more than likely to forget myself, stroll up and ask what youre making for dinner. And then youd have to set us both on fire.

Why am I making fun of such a miserable time, you ask? (I can see the one asking: youre the one with the pursed lips whos tsk-tsking and shaking your head.) Im making fun because jokes, mockery and humour are confessions of anxiety and worry, and laughter provides a collective atonement.

Since the first political cartoons appeared on the cave walls in Lascaux, comedy and humour have kept communities healthy. Humour rewards originality, offers diversion, enhances intellectual functioning, encourages emotional endurance, promotes a sense of alliance and releases tension without dismissing the seriousness of the situation.

Out of emotional chaos, humour devises a form and crafts a meaningful sense of control.

Humour insists on the most significant forms of freedom of assembly: the assembly of souls and minds, the community of the anxious and the brave (all of us at different moments), the gathering of storytellers, truth-tellers and eager listeners.

Some of the smartest and most inventive material Ive seen online is the funny stuff. Memes exaggerating our fears (a Mad Max villain in a full facemask and body armor poses against a postapocalyptic landscape, saying, "Im heading to the store. Need anything?"). A video of a cat so manifestly displeased that its owners are in home quarantine, thereby disrupting the cats typical routine, made me laugh despite myself.

And theres Andy Crouchs line: "Honestly hadnt planned on giving up quite this much for Lent." Crouch is the former executive editor of Christianity Today. If he can make jokes, so can the rest of us.

Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The rest of us, to be honest, must keep our humour intact and make sure our supply of it is as reliable, accessible and replenishable as what well simply refer to as "paper products for the home."

Why does comedy matter, especially during times of crisis? Doesnt laughter lighten our grasp on the tragedy of whats befalling us?

Comedy doesnt lighten the gravity of the situation, but it lightens our hearts. And that is a gift.

Comedy illuminates, offering clarity to those who are willing to focus. Humour cant force you to move out of the gloom, but if you can sit at the virtual table, make conversation over the phone, offer and accept laughter, these will remind you of the delights of being alive today  which is all anyone has ever had.

Gina Barreca is a board of trustees distinguished professor of English literature at the University of Connecticut and the author of 10 books. She can be reached at www.ginabarreca.com.

 The Hartford Courant
The United Kingdom has aligned with the United States in blocking an alleged plan by the federal government to hand over nearly $110 million out of money the American authorities claimed was stolen by the late Nigerian dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, to Kebbi State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Bagudu.

Abacha is estimated to have stolen as much as $5 billion during his five-year rule while Bagudu was elected a senator in 2009 and the governor of Kebbi State six years later.

The three governments are involved in a dispute over investment portfolios worth 141 million euros ($155 million) traced to Abacha and held in trust for Bagudu and his family.

Bloomberg had reported that the federal government is seeking the approval of a UK court for the country to take ownership of the assets before returning 70 per cent of the proceeds to Bagudu under the terms of a 2018 deal.

However, the UK governments National Crime Agency (NCA) is opposing the Federal Republic of Nigerias application, according to a motion filed by Bagudus brother, Ibrahim, to the District Court for the District of Columbia in the US capital on March 30.

The US Department of Justice said in February that its Nigerian counterpart was hindering its efforts to recover the allegedly laundered money from the UK.

Bagudu was alleged to be part of a network controlled by Abacha that embezzled, misappropriated and extorted billions from the government of Nigeria, according to the DoJ.

While successive Nigerian governments have repatriated billions of dollars looted by Abacha, who died in office in 1998, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari said its prevented from assisting the United States ongoing forfeiture efforts by an agreement between Bagudu and a previous government in 2003.

That 2003 settlement, which was approved by a UK court, allowed Bagudu to return $163 million to Nigeria without admitting to wrongdoing, according to US court filings while the government, in return, dropped all outstanding civil and criminal claims against him.

Five years after the United States launched fresh forfeiture proceedings against him, Bagudu and Buharis administration struck a new accord in October 2018 to transfer ownership of the investment portfolios to the Nigerian state, which would immediately pay 98.5 million euros to Bagudu and his affiliates.

The terms of the updated settlement could not be implemented, while Nigerias application in a UK court is pending and a freezing order is still in place, according to a motion by Ibrahim Bagudu, who is entitled to a $100,000 annuity from the funds and is contesting the US confiscation efforts.

Although the DoJ and NCA opposed the 2018 settlement, Ibrahim Bagudu and the US government recently commenced preliminary discussions regarding a potential negotiated resolution to this matter, according to a motion filed by the US government to the district court on March 13.

The federal government had said it was mischievous to claim that it asked the United States to give $100 million from loots recovered from former military dictator Sani Abacha to Kebbi State governor.

The Bagudu family assets in contention, which constitute a distinct and separate cause of action, do not have anything to do with the assets already recovered and being recovered under the Abacha 2014 non-prosecution agreement, a spokesman to the Attorney General and Justice Minister, Mr. Abubakar Malami, had said in a statement.

It is therefore mischievous and pedestrian for anyone to seek to turn the law and the facts on its head on the matter of repatriation whose terms are clearly spelt out and agreed among the parties, the statement added.
Gap Inc. (NYSE:GPS) is telling its vendors to stop sending the merchandise it previously ordered for the summer season unless it is for its e-commerce platform. The company is asking that its in-store summer items, as well as those for the fall season, not be shipped at all.

While it doesn't want to disrupt its supply chain, the retailer told its suppliers the coronavirus pandemic has upended its business and online sales "simply cannot make up for having our stores closed."

Return to sender

Numerous retailers have taken steps similar to Gap, which risks a possible ripple effect that would cause clothing manufacturers in Bangladesh, China, and Vietnam to collapse.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association told The Wall Street Journal more than 4 million factory workers in the country could lose their jobs if retailers didn't honor their commitments. "This is a social chaos we cannot afford," it said.

Fast fashion leader H&M (OTC:HNNMY) was originally identified as one of the companies that was canceling orders, but it recently announced it would accept and pay the original terms all of the merchandise it had ordered.

Gap, though, is a much more financially troubled company than H&M and it scrapped its planned spinoff of its Old Navy chain earlier this year. The retailer also suspended its dividend and maxed out its $500 million credit line to ensure it had enough liquidity to survive.

"We are making decisions based on the best interest of our employees, customers and partners, as well as the long-term health of our business," Gap said in a statement reported on industry site Business of Fashion. However, it is looking to work with suppliers to get through the crisis.
New Delhi, April 7 : The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court it was "on top of the situation" in connection with issues of migrant workers amid the nationwide lockdown, and that the Home Minister is daily monitoring the helpline set up for the workers.

A bench comprising Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and Justices S.K. Kaul and Deepak Gupta, through video conferencing, said it was not an "expert" body on dealing with health and management issues of migrant workers emerging due to the lockdown, and would rather ask the government to set up helpline for needy people in such a scenario.

The top court also refused to interfere with the government's policy decision for the next few days.

The bench was hearing a plea filed by two civil rights activists, Harsh Mander and Anjali Bhardwaj, seeking enforcement of fundamental right to life for migrant workers and payment of wages in the absence of work due to the lockdown.

Earlier, the apex court had earlier issued notice to the Centre on this plea.

The court also considered Centre's response that it was monitoring the situation and set up a helpline number for helping the migrant workers.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, submitted before the bench that Centre was looking into various complaints. "A call centre has been set up. The Home Ministry is daily monitoring the helpline", said Mehta.

Prashant Bhushan, representing the activists, submitted before the bench that more than 4 lakh migrant workers living in shelter homes, termed it mockery of social distancing.

"If they're kept in shelter homes, even if one person has coronavirus, then everybody around is prone to contract the viral infection. Migrant workers' families need money for survival because they are dependent on wages", contended Bhushan.

The top court said, "We do not plan to supplant the wisdom of the government with our wisdom. We will ask the government to set up a helpline for complaints".

Bhushan told the apex court that according to their survey report, more than 40% of these workers did not try to migrate, instead living in their own homes in the cities, and they do not have money to afford daily meals.

The Chief Justice questioned that if the migrant workers are being provided meals then "why do they need money for meals?" Bhushan submitted that many are not in shelter homes. "They don't just need food in shelter homes. They also need money so that that can send it to their families in their villages", contended Bhushan.

The Chief Justice observed that it is difficult to say at this stage that they are not getting food, and if they are not getting food, then this is something which the court cannot monitor.

The bench also asked Bhushan how he could say the government has not done anything, as he has not seen the status report. Mehta contended except vague assertions, there is no fact in his plea.

The court has posted the matter for further on Monday next week.
India's 21-day lockdown is set to end next week but several state leaders have called for an extension or only a partial lifting of restrictions, saying is the only way to avoid a coronavirus epidemic that will be difficult to tackle.

India has so far escaped a big surge in cases after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked its 1.3 billion people to stay indoors in the world's biggest lockdown last month that authorities have enforced tightly.

But shuttering down the USD 2.9 trillion economy has left millions of people without work and forced those who live on daily wages to flee to their homes in the countryside for food and shelter.

The chief minister of Telangana which has been hit by a rash of cases tied to a Muslim religious gathering in Delhi said the country could take the hit to the economy and that it was more important to save lives.

"I am for the lockdown of the country further more after April 15. Because, we can recover from the economic problem. But, we cannot get back lives," K. Chandrasekhar Rao told reporters.

India has 4,421 coronavirus cases and 115 deaths, comparatively less than some countries such as the United States where fatalities from the respiratory disease has topped 10,000.

Modi, who has faced criticism for ordering the lockdown with barely four hours' notice is due to make a decision this week about whether to extend it.

The leaders of Assam and Chhattisgarh said they would like to keep the state borders closed or allow only restricted entry while they dealt with the infections.

"As and when the lockdown is withdrawn, we have to regulate those wanting to come to Assam," said Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

BANGLADESH, NEPAL EXPECTING SURGE

Across South Asia, home to one fifth of the world's population, there are growing concerns that it won't escape the surge seen in other parts of the world. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina warned of a big outbreak this month.

"We have got some reports, which said there will be a massive hike in cases in Bangladesh. So, we have to be very careful to overcome the crisis," Hasina told government officials.

She said the garment industry will also have to remain shut as part of the lockdown till April 14 even though businesses had asked for an exemption for the country's top export earner.

So far, the densely packed country of 160 million has had 123 cases including 12 deaths.

Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli said risks to the landlocked country sandwiched between India and China were rising because people were not following quarantine properly.

"The coming two weeks will be of additional challenge for us. This is the high risk period for the spread of the coronavirus," he said in an address to the country.

Following are government figures on the spread of the coronavirus in South Asia:

India has 4,421 cases, including 115 deaths

Pakistan has 3,840 cases, including 54 deaths

Afghanistan has 423 cases, including 10 deaths

Sri Lanka has 180 cases, including 6 deaths

Bangladesh has 123 cases, including 12 deaths

Maldives has 19 cases and no deaths

Nepal has nine cases and no deaths

Bhutan has five cases and no deaths

Also Read: Ex-Fortis promoter Shivinder Singh seeks bail on coronavirus ground; HC rejects plea

Also Read: Coronavirus pandemic: When and how lockdown will be lifted? A primer
A career criminal, thought to be among Britain's most prolific, has been locked up for two years.

William Frederick Armstrong, dubbed 'Billy the Pigeon', of Britannia Place, Elswick, Newcastle, was caged having stacked up more than 450 offences.

The 45-year-old was jailed this time however after admitting to eight counts of burglary at Newcastle Crown Court.

His conviction was his 100th for burglary. His criminal career dates back to 1996.

William Frederick Armstrong, dubbed 'Billy the Pigeon', of Britannia Place, Elswick, Newcastle, was caged after stacking up more than 450 offences

Armstrong is said to have carried out a 'campaign' of burglaries throughout Newcastle city centre.

The serial criminal has a particular penchant for stealing alcohol, cash, and designer watches.

In his latest spree Armstrong began by swiping a bottle of Sipsmith Gin, worth 25, from Byron Burger, in June, 2019.

In July of that year he stole from Revolucion de Cuba in Newcastle, three bottles of spirits, worth a total of 79.

In the same month Armstrong stole a pair of watches worth 2,635 from Goldsmiths jeweler in the city, and days later attempted to steal from a cash box at the Theatre Royal.

Then, in September 2019, Armstrong swiped a bottle of gin from the Maldron Hotel in Newcastle, before going on to steal six bottles of spirits from city bar Pleased to Meet You.

Then, in February of this year, Armstrong took 21 bottles of spirits worth nearly 400 during two visits to a Slug and Lettuce pub.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that despite being confronted by staff throughout his spree, being seen on CCTV, and then arrested twice, Armstrong had been bailed pending an investigation - meaning he was allowed to keep his freedom.

His defence lawyer Barry Robson questioned why his client had been released on bail or under investigation after he was identified, which he said led to a 'much more serious' accumulative effect for Armstrong.

'He knows he is well known, he knows he will be identified from CCTV' argued Robson.

'It was easily detectable. Releasing him on bail and under investigation is not the way forward for someone who has been identified on CCTV, with a record like his.'

Billy the Pigeon, who got his nickname because his father kept pigeons, admitted eight charges of burglary at Newcastle Crown Court.

Judge Amanda Rippon sentenced him to two years.

At sentencing, Judge Rippon said: 'Well Billy the Pigeon, you are a burglar by profession, of that I have no doubt.

'You are completely undeterred by the court's involvement or orders imposed on you.

'It is perfectly obvious you are targeting these licensed premises because they can provide you with ready goods, high-end alcohol, which is portable, which is easy to steal and has good resale value for you.

'It is how you have been making your living.'

His defence lawyer Robson added Armstrong had 'never been on benefits' as he cannot complete the necessary forms, and found gin 'readily resellable'.

Nicholas Lane for the prosecution told the court: 'The Crown submit he is a prolific offender, he is well known to police officers and members of the local community as Billy the Pigeon.

'By virtue of these offences he has acquired his 100th conviction for an offence of burglary.'

Armstrong joins a cohort of Britains most convicted, including Patrick Ryan, from Accrington in Lancashire, who by 2018 had committed 668 offences over 48 years.

Ryan's criminal record runs to more than 100 pages, with offences such as theft, dishonesty offences and sexual assault.
Around 198 doctors are in the dock for absenteeism when Bihar has cancelled leaves of health personnel till April 30 in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

The health department issued show-cause notices to 76 doctors, absent from duty on March 31, while it was in the process of issuing notices to another 122 who were absent on April 1 and 2, said officials on Monday.

The doctors have been given three days time to respond to the show-cause notice.

Among the doctors facing the heat are 40 regular and remaining contractual. They also include doctors appointed on contract under the National Health Mission (NHM) and those practising indigenous medicine (Ayush) under the Rashtriya Bal Suraksha Karyakram.

The state health department had on March 13 issued an order, cancelling leaves, except study and maternity leaves, of health care personnel till March 31 in the view of the coronavirus pandemic.

The department on Sunday issued an order extending the embargo on leaves till April 30.

We have issued show-cause notices to 76 doctors who were absent from duty on March 31, when the government has cancelled leaves of all health care personnel till April 30. They have been given three days time to respond to the show-cause notice as to why they should not proceed against relevant sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and the Disaster Management Act, 2005, said Sanjay Kumar, Bihars health principal secretary.

The government could initiate departmental proceedings if the response of the doctors was not satisfactory.

The State Health Society, Bihar, (SHSB) had on March 31 carried out the monitoring by calling up the doctors on landline numbers at their designated place of posting. Many of the doctors in the dock are those posted at district hospitals, sub-divisional hospitals, primary health centres and additional primary health centres, said a health department official.

On March 17, Bihar enforced the Epidemic Diseases, Covid-19 Regulation 2020, which was invoked under the Epidemic Disease Act, 1897 (Central Act 3 of 1897).

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A doctor who specialised in treating the elderly has died after testing positive for Covid-19.

Anton Sebastianpillai, who had a long association with Kingston Hospital in south-west London, died on Saturday, four days after being admitted to the intensive care unit, a spokeswoman said.

The consultant geriatrician, who qualified as a doctor in Sri Lanka in 1967, finished his last shift on March 20.

A spokeswoman for Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: It is with great sadness that I confirm the death of a consultant geriatrician who was part of the team at Kingston Hospital.

Dr Anton Sebastianpillai died on Saturday having been cared for in the hospitals intensive care unit since March 31.

We would like to extend our sincere condolences to his family.

Acting Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey tweeted it was very sad news and said he had been privileged to meet Dr Sebastianpillai, calling him a hugely respected consultant and author.

Extremely sad news: my thoughts are with Dr Sebastianpillais wife & son I was privileged to meet him & discuss the NHS & Tamil history Anton is hugely respected as a consultant & author: his Illustrated History of Sri Lanka is world class Anton retired & returned to serve https://t.co/LQEDWNtYRF  Ed Davey MP  #StayHomeSaveLives #ProtectNHS (@EdwardJDavey) April 7, 2020

Dr Sebastianpillai trained at the Peradeniya Medical School in Sri Lanka and qualified in 1967, according to the institution.

In an obituary notice, he was referred to as a distinguished alumnus who had authored an illustrated history of Sri Lanka.

Elsewhere, a British Pakistani GP based in east London died in hospital on Monday after it is believed he developed coronavirus symptoms.

Story continues

(PA Graphics)

According to the News International, a newspaper in Pakistan, Dr Syed Haider had been receiving treatment at Queens Hospital in Romford where he died.

A staff member at the Valence Medical Centre in Dagenham, east London  where Dr Haider worked  confirmed he had died.

The News International said it had spoken to his son, named only as Dr Kumail, who described his father as a selfless man driven by his passion for his profession.

He added: Even whilst in hospital breathing his last, he was urging doctors and nurses to pay attention to other patients rather than him.

Many at his age would have retired yet his dedication to his profession was immeasurable.
The reality is that our nation is already overpopulated in terms of the long-range carrying capacity of its resources and environment.

Negative Population Growth, Inc. is pleased to release a new NPG Forum paper titled The Push for Open Borders: The Quest to Destroy Americas Future, by NPG writer Christopher J. Daly.

With 2020 presidential candidates debating open borders on primetime television, Dalys paper discusses the various arguments surrounding the issue and offers guidance on what continues to be a polarizing topic. Introducing the reader to his work, Daly describes that the goal, is to provide an overall general insight into the who, what, and why of this multi-dimensional issue, identify the passion that drives open border advocates, and make clear that as the open border lobby gains ground the end result could be a total upheaval of Americas future.

Daly sets the stage for the debate by discussing a recent poll of American voters, citing a speech by former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm, and saying: As we fast-forward to present day, when pro-immigration forces have gained more and more power, it is quite clear that the open border lobby is working aggressively to advance its arguments into the nations discussions about our countrys future and paint our present immigration system as evil.

Following the argument, Daly provides examples from high profile researchers and journalists advocating for open borders. During his analysis, Daly notes: Open border advocates consistently point to boosting the worlds economy and relieving world poverty as a central element in their thinking. Daly summarizes the pro-open border agenda, writing: They preach that if the U.S. would only revert to that successful policy of the past, it will work just as well today. What they fail to take into account, or even mention, is that todays U.S. population of 329 million is already stretching our nations resources to the limits.

Opposing those who would open U.S. borders, Daly dives into why open borders would not be in the best interest of the U.S. and what we should do instead, stating: The reality is that our nation is already overpopulated in terms of the long-range carrying capacity of its resources and environmentIndeed, rather than go down the path to open borders, NPG holds that America needs a National Population Policy with the goal to slow, halt, and eventually reverse population growth.

Looking into the core impact of open borders in correlation to population growth Daly discusses the connection between current policies and population growth: As it presently stands, the U.S. Census Bureau projects Americas population to hit 400 million around 2060. That number takes into account the present ebb and flow of immigration to the U.S. continuing over the next 40 years and reflects the fact that the bulk of the 70 million new people who would be added to 2020s estimate of 329 million will be immigrants. In short, our future population is already expected to be mainly immigration-driven without any major changes in the current system.

Daly presents a concise case against open borders, saying: With our countrys population increasing each year, the growing numbers are putting huge pressures on a fast-deteriorating infrastructure that includes highways, bridges, and water and sewer pipes. At our present rate of population growth, we are paving over farmland, destroying forests, and encroaching on wetlands and wildlife habitats at an alarming rate. And, the ever-present threat of future droughts looms large over huge swaths of both rural and urban communities, threatening the long-term ability of countless millions of Americans to tap into the key sustenance of life  water.

Daly succinctly closes his work, showcasing NPGs position on population, saying: NPGs decades of research, along with that of dozens of other organizations, shows that human population and consumption in the United States and the world are already too large and are destroying the natural systems that support us. We must eventually stabilize both U.S. and world population size, so that they are sustainable indefinitely.

Founded in 1972, NPG is a national nonprofit membership organization dedicated to educating the American public and political leaders regarding the damaging effects of population growth. We believe that our nation is already vastly overpopulated in terms of the long-range carrying capacity of its resources and environment. NPG advocates the adoption of its Proposed National Population Policy, with the goal of eventually stabilizing U.S. population at a sustainable level  far lower than todays. We do not simply identify the problems  we propose solutions. For more information, visit our website at http://www.NPG.org, follow us on Facebook @NegativePopulationGrowth or follow us on Twitter @npg_org.
The R1-billion Sukuma Relief Programme has closed access to its application portal, following huge demand from South African businesses.

Business Partners, which administers the R1-billion fund from the Rupert family and Remgro, launched a website for SMEs and sole proprietors to apply for funding on 3 April 2020.

In the three days which followed, the combined value of the applications for the programme reached over R2.8 billion. This includes both completed applications and applications in progress.

Ben Bierman, Managing Director at Business Partners, said the high number of applications is indicative of the crippling impact that the COVID-19 crisis is having on South African SMEs.

Just three days after the online portal was opened for applications, the programme has already received in excess of 10,000 applications from formal sole proprietors, close corporations, companies and trusts.

Bierman previously said they worked hard to put guidelines and systems in place to ensure the funding reaches businesses that need it most.

The funding will be made available to smaller businesses in the form of a grant, which means there will be no repayment obligations.

For larger businesses, there will be a loan component which will have to be repaid at some point in the future.

Closing applications

As a result of the oversubscription, the company decided to suspend access to the application portal with immediate effect.

We will now be using the next seven days to assess the applications received and provide feedback to the applicants. Should we thereafter find that there is still capital available, we will then open the programme for applications again, said Bierman.

Bierman also called on big businesses and corporations to contribute funding to the Sukuma Relief Programme.

We realised when engaging with our clients that the situation is dire, but we have been surprised by the sheer number of SMEs that are in desperate need of assistance.

As such, we are making a public plea to other big businesses that are looking to support local SMEs during this critical time. SMEs are the lifeblood of our economy and they are in need of financial assistance, now more than ever before, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now read: South African companies cutting salaries during the lockdown
Crossing borders seeking refuge from danger is not a crime, but people who do so are often treated like suspects and thrown into detention centres, and then because those centres are overflowing, into prison.

Three weeks after Canada embarked on a nationwide lockdown to halt the spread of COVID-19, people fleeing brutality, persecution or other challenging conditions in their home countries and heading to Canada find themselves being punished with another kind of violence wrought by indifference.

Indifference, but not inaction.

On the contrary, Canadian policies are taking people at the most unstable moments in their lives and putting them in harms way  by turning some back to the U.S. where they are trapped between the cruelty of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the virulence of COVID. And by exposing others to a catastrophic risk cooped up in Canadian cells, excluded from its public health measures including social distancing.

Given the exacerbating situation around the pandemic, 10 detainees at Quebecs Laval Immigration Monitoring Centre, went on a hunger strike recently.

We have a TV. We could follow the news every day and knew what was going on, said Abdoul, who had been detained at Laval since January when his asylum was denied. Abdoul is not his real name. He sought anonymity for fear of repercussions.

They were very much being kept in the dark. The ability to self-isolate was a privilege not afforded to migrant detainees or any incarcerated people, said Robyn Maynard, author, activist and educator.

Abdoul says they began to worry once they started hearing about the viruss spread in Canada.

That pushed us to ask them to do something. We knew how its affecting so many people. We talked to one another.

Meanwhile, at least one guard at the Toronto Immigration Holding Centre tested positive for COVID-19.

At first, they (the authorities) told us newcomers from (the) airport would go to medical screening. We found out that wasnt true. People from (the) airport said they never went to (a) medical check up.

We told them, We know youre telling us lies. We know (the) general population can be carriers of (the) virus. 

The detainees wrote a petition in French and Abdoul went around collecting signatures. We noted the guards came in and out every day. We see every day in the news new cases, a lot of people getting contaminated.

We said Let us go out  so we could be safe. 

With help from Solidarity Without Borders, the detainees released a handwritten petition to the media on March 19, but it made no difference to their plight. Despite a clear statement by human rights and refugee rights groups including at the United Nations and the World Health Organization that: Considering the lethal consequences a COVID-19 outbreak would have, they (detained migrants) should be released without delay, Canada was yet to feel any urgency.

Thats when the Laval detainees went on a hunger strike, refusing all three daily meals that were offered. By this time Abdoul became a de facto spokesperson for the fasting strikers.

The guards told him its pretty much a waste of time. Its happened before.

Abdoul responded, telling the guards we werent breaking any rules and we wanted to do this.

They said Yes, but its not going to do nothing.

Towards the end of March, the strikers began to get some high-profile support including from British Columbia Liberties Association, Indigiqueer and trans writers, and prisoners in Nova Scotias Burnside prison. Writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and academic Glen Coulthard wrote open letters to Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair in support of the strikers.

The Canada Border Services Agency began releasing detainees within days. By April 1, the three immigration centres around Canada held 64 people, down from 98 on March 25, the agency told media. But thousands of immigration detainees remain in Canadian prisons, some indefinitely, where they dont have access to quality health care.

In Laval, there are approximately 29 people still being held, including women and those in isolation, down from 35 on April 1, Maynard said.

The border agency is not giving the policy or logic behind those choices, she said. Theyre still leaving people in the dark because there is no clear policy on the risks around COVID-19 and what theyre going to be doing with detainees.

Theyre treating a certain section of the population as more disposable.

Abdoul was released April 1. His sister is a student and she has a child. She managed to cobble together $750 for a bond for his release.

He is now undergoing a 14-day mandatory isolation period in her house. He does not have the right to work (or study), which means his sister now has another mouth to feed.

I feel worried about my case. Im still fighting for it. Im worried about my friends that are left. I want people to do something for them. We heard jails have cases of contamination. We know theyre not safe there, Abdoul said.

For Gods sake, Canada, unless they are known criminals, release them all. Offer safe housing to those who may not have families. Make them eligible to receive the emergency response benefit, and since they are here, allow them to become productive members of society.

Surely we have enough space, resources  and humanity  to do it all.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 15:20:21|Editor: xuxin

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PORT MORESBY, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Papua New Guinea (PNG) registered a second positive case of COVID-19 on Monday, which triggered a lockdown of the entire East New Britain (ENB) province where the patient was registered.

The person of interest was a local female resident of Kokopo in ENB, PNG Prime Minister James Marape told reporters from the nation's capital Port Moresby on Monday afternoon.

Marape said the patient had been identified as a suspected case since March 23 and was admitted to Nonga hospital on March 29 and kept in an isolation ward until her test results were confirmed positive by a Port Moresby lab on Monday.

"At a time when the tests were picked up from three persons of interest, two returned negative while one returned positive this afternoon," Marape said.

As a response to the second confirmed case, Marape said the decision had been made to lockdown the entire East New Britain Province for 21 days.

Restriction rules including "no travel in and out (of ENB) by sea, by air and by land" would be imposed during the lockdown period, he said.

Luo Dapeng, the World Health Organization representative in PNG told Xinhua on Tuesday that local authorities were still conducting contact tracing to find out how this woman contracted the virus amid the concern of possible local transmission.
We continuously said it was not a matter of if, it is a matter of when, said Cathryn Crawford, the litigation director for the Lawndale Christian Legal Center, who said she would be seeking hearings on behalf of clients. I suspect there are more children who could be released if they would look at things through a slightly different lens.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued a slew of directions to courts across the country to facilitate hearing of cases through video conferencing, a step which it said was essential to ensure that court premises do not contribute to the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI), SA Bobde, said that hearings in congregation must become an exception during the lockdown period and taking steps towards that end is a matter of duty and not an exception.

Until appropriate rules are framed by the high courts, video conferencing shall be mainly employed for hearing arguments whether at the trial stage or at the appellate stage, the top court ordered in a suo motu (on its own) case registered by it based on a letter written by senior advocate Vikas Singh.

Singh, in his letter, had suggested modalities to reduce person to person contact and the gathering of advocates inside the Supreme Court.

The bench, which also comprised justices DY Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao, said that in view of the unprecedented and extraordinary outbreak of a pandemic, it is necessary for courts to respond to the call for social distancing and ensure that court premises do not contribute to the spread of Covid-19.

The Supreme Court of India and all high courts are authorized to adopt measures required to ensure the robust functioning of the judicial system through the use of video conferencing technologies, the court stated in its order passed under Article 142 of the Constitution.

Article 142 of the Constitution empowers the top court to pass orders to do complete justice in cases before it.

The Supreme Court, under complete shutdown due to the outbreak of the pandemic, has been hearing only extremely urgent cases since March 25 via video conferencing without the personal presence of lawyers. Any examples of cases heard?

The apex court said on Monday that the high court in each state would be at liberty to work out the modalities for the use of video conferencing after taking into account the peculiarities of the judicial system in the state concerned and the public health situation in that state.

The district courts which fall under the administrative supervision of high courts will have to adopt the mode of video conferencing prescribed by the high court in question, the top court ordered.

Video conferencing, the court said, should be mainly employed for hearing arguments. When it comes to examination of witnesses and recording of evidence, consent of both parties should be obtained before using video conferencing to do the same.

If it is necessary to record evidence in a court room, the presiding officer shall ensure that appropriate distance is maintained between any two individuals in the court, the court ordered.

The court concerned should also maintain a helpline to ensure that any complaint with regard to the quality or audibility of the feed is communicated during the proceeding or immediately after its conclusion.

No such grievance, the court said, will be entertained at a later stage.

The court also took into account the concerns of those litigants who do not have the means or access to video conferencing facilities. In such cases, the court will have to notify and make available the facilities for video conferencing for such litigants.

If necessary, in appropriate cases, courts may appoint an amicus-curiae and make video conferencing facilities available to such an advocate, the apex court added.

Further, the presiding officer of a court will have the power to restrict entry of persons into the court room or the points from which the arguments are addressed by the advocates. However, no presiding officer shall prevent the entry of a party to the case unless such party is suffering from any infectious illness.

..where the number of litigants are many the presiding officer shall have the power to restrict the numbers. The presiding officer shall in his discretion adjourn the proceedings where it is not possible to restrict the number, the court clarified.

The top court also asked the Department of Justice and National Informatics Centre (NIC) to take note of the problems which the apex court had faced on April 3, when there was a problem with internet connectivity during the hearing of a case through video conferencing.

The Director General of NIC, who was present for the hearing, told the bench that three things are required for video conferencing: good broadband connection; good devices; and observance of social etiquette and conduct of people, where if one person is speaking, others must put their devices on mute.

Attorney General KK Venugopal said the NIC must look into the aspect as to which is the most efficient and cheap application that could be used for video conferencing by all lawyers across the country.

The apex court adjourned the matter for four weeks stating that the directions issued by it will remain in force until further orders are passed.

This cannot be seen as a temporary issue. Technology is here to stay, CJI Bobde remarked.

[With PTI Inputs]
The Tiger Brands Foundation has distributed 6000 food hampers in communities where its beneficiary schools are located. The organisation provides in-school breakfast at over 100 non-fee paying schools across South Africa.

This is a very critical time for the country, and our learners specifically. Some of our learners come from food insecure families and we do not want to reverse any of the gains that have been made in the nutritional and academic aspect of our beneficiarys lives, says Eugene Absolom, director at the foundation.The hampers include flour, pilchards, rice, beans, morvite, oats, samp, mealie meal, soap and milk powder among others.Some of these items are outside of our mandate, we recognise that, but considering the times we are in, we took care into building a hamper that would address the needs of families during the lockdown.Absolom says the soap in particular was very important for the foundation. Hygiene is one of the major lessons we teach on the programme, right from the personnel responsible for food storage, to the food handlers down to the recipients of our meals. The current pandemic has only reiterated the message of how vitally important hygiene is. In the fight against the coronavirus, we must do our part, and soap and water are a combination far greater than hand sanitisers during this fight. Weve given our beneficiaries the best of what we could.
Authorities closed it because of many tourists.

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More information about travelling in Slovakia

Please see our Please see our Spectacular Slovakia travel guide

Almost a year ago, many Slovaks gathered at the top of Bradlo Hill where Slovak general Milan Rastislav Stefanik is buried in his stone tomb to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his tragic death.

Today, it is forbidden to come to the hill. As it is a popular spot for many locals and tourists, the town of Brezova pod Bradlom decided to close the entrance during the time of coronavirus.
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / April 7, 2020 / GlobeX Data Ltd. (OTCQB:SWISF) (CSE:SWIS) ("GlobeX" or the "Company"), the leader in Swiss hosted cyber security and Internet privacy solutions for secure data management and secure communications, is pleased to announce that it is in the final stages of implementation and discussions with a S&P Company for the offering of all its secure business cloud solutions to that company's 100,000+ associates.

The secure business cloud solutions package will include DigitalSafe, the Company's Swiss hosted secure document management and collaboration cloud tool, which comes with a data backup, secure file share, collaboration tool, a password manager and a secure email all in one; and PrivaTalk, the Company's Swiss hosted secure communications suite, which includes encrypted messaging, secure email and encrypted voice and video communications.

Both services include Custodia, the Company's end-to-end encrypted email service with its proprietary SecureSend technology.

Alain Ghiai, CEO of GlobeX Data said: "We are very excited to have been selected such a globally renowned company. There is a sharp increase in demand for secure business solutions for work from home "WFH" workforces. The unprecedented situation COVID-19 has put global businesses under pressure to provide secure remote business management tools for their employees, and has created an increased awareness for secure cloud business services such as DigitalSafe, PrivaTalk and our encrypted email service Custodia. We look forward to deploy our solutions as soon as we can in order to benefit our partners and their associates in the US and Canada."

The Company will issue a press release revealing the partner once everything once a launch date for the business solutions has been selected by the partner.

About GlobeX Data Ltd.

GlobeX Data Ltd. is a Cybersecurity and Internet privacy provider of Swiss hosted solutions for secure data management and secure communications. The Company distributes a suite of secure cloud-based storage, disaster recovery, document management, encrypted e-mails, and secure communication tools. GlobeX Data Ltd. sells its products through its approved wholesalers and distributors, and telecommunications companies worldwide. GlobeX Data Ltd. serves consumers, businesses and governments worldwide.

On behalf of Management

GLOBEX DATA LTD.

Alain Ghiai

President and Chief Executive Officer

+1.416.644.8690

corporate@globexdatagroup.com

For more information please contact GlobeX Data at corporate@globexdatagroup.com or visit us at https://globexdatagroup.com.

For more information on DigitalSafe visit us at: https://digitalsafe.com. For more information on PrivaTalk visit us at: https://privatalk.com.

Forward Looking Information

This news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "achieve", "could", "believe", "plan", "intend", "objective", "continuous", "ongoing", "estimate", "outlook", "expect", "project" and similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes or that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guarantees of future performance. GlobeX cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond GlobeX's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the future of the Company's business; the success of marketing and sales efforts of the Company; the projections prepared in house and projections delivered by channel partners; the Company's ability to complete the necessary software updates; increases in sales as a result of investments software development technology; consumer interest in the Products; future sales plans and strategies; reliance on large channel partners and expectations of renewals to ongoing agreements with these partners; anticipated events and trends; the economy and other future conditions; and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in GlobeX's prospectus dated May 8, 2019 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available on www.sedar.com. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, GlobeX undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

SOURCE: GlobeX Data Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/584243/GlobeX-Data-To-Sign-Partnership-With-SP-Company-Offering-All-Its-Cloud-Security-Data-Management-and-Secure-Communications-Business-Cloud-Solutions
President Donald Trump on Monday spoke of retaliation if India turned down his request to lift the hold on US orders of an antimalarial drug, which he has touted as a game-changer in the fight against the coronavirus despite its untested efficacy, resulting from a blanket ban on export of certain medicines.

The American leader went on to add to the threat his long-running grievances with India on trade issues, which have history of eluding resolution, including an ultimately failed rush by the two countries to stitch together a deal in time for Trumps first state visit to India in February. This was the first time he had publicly brought up trade after the visit.

President Trump made the request for releasing the hold on hydroxychloroquine in a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday morning (evening in India).

Watch | Donald Trump hints at retaliation if India withholds hydroxychloroquine exports

I said wed appreciate you allowing our supply to come out, If he doesnt allow it to come out. That would be okay but, of course, there may be retaliation, the president said at the daily White House briefing on the coronavirus outbreak, adding, rhetorically for stress, Why wouldnt that be?

India has not yet decided either way yet. Prime Minister Modi had told the American leader during the call that India will do all what we can.

The US orders were placed in March. The size of the order could not be ascertained and it was also not clear if they were placed by the US government through the agency spearheading the federal effort boost domestic availability of medical supplies and equipment needed to deal with the outbreak, or private companies.

India is one of the largest manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine in the world and banned its export, along with a bunch of other deeming them essential for its own domestic to fight the pandemic. The restriction on hydroxychloroquine was upgraded to a blanket ban, without exemptions on humanitarian and other grounds, on Saturday, the day before Trump called Modi.

At the Monday news briefing, President Trump either misheard the reporters question, or misunderstood it. He had been asked if was worried about retaliation from other countries against his decision to ban the export of certain medical equipment, which he has in recent days to address shortages at home in the United States, like the one imposed by Prime Minister Modi on hydroxychloroquine.

I dont like that decision, the president said. I didnt hear that that was his decision. I know that he stopped it for other countries I spoke to him yesterday. We had a very good talk, and well see whether or not thats his decision. I would be surprised if he would you know because India does very well with the United States.

While correctly acknowledging India had not turned down his request, not yet at least, the president went ahead with his threat of retaliation, which he dressed up with his long-running grievance on trade. For many years theyve been taking advantage of the United States on trade. So I would be surprised if that was the decision. Hed have to tell me that.

After the failed attempt to seal a trade deal during the February visit the two sides decided to continue talking and aim for a deal some time r later in the year, perhaps after the November 3 general elections in the United States. A joint statement issued by the two sides during the visit said, the two leaders agreed to promptly conclude the ongoing negotiations, which they hope can become phase one of a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement that reflects the true ambition and full potential of the bilateral commercial relations, advancing prosperity, investment, and job creation in both countries.

The joint statement and a news briefing to wrap up the visit were the last times the American president spoke publicly about trade issues with India, until the Monday briefing.

Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

There is no proven evidence yet that hydroxychloroquine works against the coronavirus. There have been some studies and trials, but scientists and experts have said they were either too small or without the necessary protocols to establish its effectiveness. Physicians have been using it nevertheless, even in the United States.

President Trump has spoken of hydroxychloroquine as a potential game-changer many times, with experts of his coronavirus task force adding the usual cautionary note every time that the drug has no proven benefits for Covid-19 patients.

The US drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, granted compassionate use authorization for the use of hydroxychloroquine (or chloroquine), to be prescribed to severely ill patients in mid-March. Last week, the regulator gave it emergency-use authorization. And it is being tried on COVID-10 patients in New York City, the epicentre of the American outbreak.
Leakster Digital Chat Station is teasing an upcoming phone with a 192MP image sensor and a Snapdragon 765G (SM7250) and promises more info next month. One more teaser: it wont be the phone you expect.

Samsung is already reportedly working on a large 150MP 1 sensor and Xiaomi is said to be first in line to use it (later this year). Xiaomi was also the first to release a phone with a 108MP sensor. Anyway, the 150MP sensor is also heading to Oppo and vivo phones (in 2021).

The Snapdragon 765G chip makes it clear that this will be a premium mid-range phone and the 192MP camera could easily be equipped on a Mi Note, Reno or vivo Z phone. There is a Motorola Edge with the 765G incoming, so we could get a curve ball (but the Edge+ is slated to have a 108MP sensor, so we doubt the non-plus will top it).

The chipsets ISP is powerful enough that it can support 192MP cameras by itself, no external chips are needed.

Not much is known about the 192MP sensor itself, but if uses nonapixel binning (9-in-1) like the rumored 150MP sensor it will produce 21MP photos. Alternatively, 16-in-1 binning will bring the resolution back to the classic 12MP. Not that we're sure that Samsung is the one making the 192MP sensor, though Sony and OmniVision are yet to go over 100MP.

Source (in Chinese) | Via
Cardinal George Pell's legal woes are far from over even after he walked from prison a free man with his child sexual abuse convictions overturned.

Australia's most senior Catholic faces at least 10 potential civil lawsuits claiming he either molested other boys or covered up abuse by fellow priests.

One claim was filed in the Victorian Supreme Court last year by a victim of notorious paedophile priest Edward 'Ted' Dowlan, alleging Pell did nothing to protect him.

Melbourne lawyer Vivian Waller is handling eight other civil cases against the 78-year-old clergyman and more are expected from other complainants.

Child sexual abuse convictions against Cardinal George Pell (pictured leaving jail) were overturned by the High Court on Tuesday, ending a three-year legal battle and setting him free

Pell was jailed for six years in 2018 for sexually abusing two choirboys in Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne in 1996.

Two of three Court of Appeals justices upheld the jury's verdict last year but a full bench of the High Court unanimously quashed the convictions.

Many of the alleged victims were waiting until after the High Court appeal before launching their own cases, so a flurry of suits could hit courts within days.

They include the father of one of the two choirboys Pell was convicted of molesting in St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne in 1996, before it was overturned by the High Court on Tuesday.

The father, who can't be named, of the choirboy codenamed R blames Pell for his son spiralling into a drug addiction that led to his heroin overdose death in 2014.

The sole already-filed case concerns a man who was abused during Dowlan's time at East Melbourne's Cathedral College between 1982 and 1988.

He claims Pell knew of Dowlan's criminal ways and was complicit in moving him between schools across the state, allowing the abuse to continue.

Convicted pedophile Christian Brother Edward 'Ted' Dowlan is in prison after abusing 20 boys in the 1970s and 1980s as a teacher at schools across Melbourne and western Victoria. The civil case launched by one of his victims claims Cardinal George Pell knew of Dowlan's criminal ways but did nothing to remove him from his teaching position or end the abuse

Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli (pictured left) is named in the civil suit alongside Cardinal Pell and Bishop of Ballarat Paul Bird (pictured right)

Dowlan admitted abusing boys since 1971 when he was among a ring of pedophiles at St Alipius Primary School in Ballarat that included predators Robert Best and Gerald Ridsdale.

Pell was the episcopal vicar for education in the Ballarat diocese from 1973 to 1984.

Bishop of Ballarat Paul Bird, Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli and the Catholic Education Commission, are also named in the suit.

Lawyer Michael Magazanik, representing the applicant victim, told the court last year there was no question the abuse occurred and his client had been compensated for it previously.

The diocese of Ballarat or the Catholic Church's insurers would most likely bear the brunt of the lawsuits as under new laws the church entity that is able to fund the legal proceedings is named as the primary defendant.

Pell and any other parties could still be named on the lawsuit in addition.

The newly-released cardinal has little money to mount a defence or pay damages. His criminal defence was paid for by wealthy benefactors.
As cybercriminals prey on global fear, business and economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus outbreak is amplifying scams and attacks, companies and individuals must be extra vigilant to the increasing threats online, a leading cybersecurity expert has warned.

With countries worldwide implementing lockdowns, work from home initiatives, social distancing and other precautionary and preventative measures, governments and businesses are disseminating more information than ever before via digital platforms, a situation cybercriminals are exploiting, says Simon Fisher, Executive Vice President  Gulf, ACE Insurance Brokers.

While very few of these cyber-attacks are technically sophisticated, cybercriminals are successful as they are capitalising on the state of concern across the globe. The criminals use social engineering techniques, including baiting, whereby the attackers send out a false promise to pique a victims curiosity, and scareware, which sees users bombarded with false alarms, directing them to an action that leads to a malicious site and infects their computer.

Other techniques include pretexting, phishing and spear phishing, said Fisher. As we are all spending more time online, that extra level of vigilance and care to where and what you are researching, sites you are visiting, links you are clicking, will go a long way to keep your data and your devices safe. Weve seen recent examples of these crimes as airlines began to scale back flights to try and stop the spread of COVID-19. Scammers have been sending out phishing emails offering false refunds or rebooking of airfares.

Impersonation attacks are also on the rise, added the ACE Insurance Brokers cybersecurity expert. With people searching for up-to-date information on the virus, hackers map authentic websites claiming to show trackers of the virus spread when they are, in fact, infecting users devices with malware.

These fake websites execute what we term drive by attacks by hiding malicious code and downloads inside the pages that are executed as soon as its opened, he said.

Malicious app developers have begun to take advantage of the situation and are using coronavirus-related keywords in their app names or descriptions to drop malware or commit theft of financial or personal data for a users smartphone.

Working from home is challenging on many fronts and organisations arent properly prepared, particularly when it comes to security, with their security tools not providing coverage outside their corporate facilities. While many are successfully retrofitting operations to support remote working, the human element must be addressed.

Fisher explained: Employees must be properly trained on the dos and donts of what to do while working remotely. One golden rule to follow though, is think before you click. We place great importance on our customer-centric approach and will be launching work from home awareness training for our clients.

Now more than ever, having the right cybercrime insurance protection in place is the prudent action for all businesses as the financial consequences an attack could severely impact the bottom line. -- Tradearabia News Service
Southern Tide Partners with South Carolina Hospital Association for Launch of Hats Off to Our Healthcare Heroes Campaign
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These are the picturesque towns and villages which would usually be teeming with tourists at this time of year.

But these pictures show how the streets of some of Britain's most popular postcard villages are now practically empty, with tourists at home in lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic.

With the sun shinning and the four-day East Bank Holiday approaching, residents of these lovely locations would usually be preparing for an army of tourists to flock in from far and wide.

But this weekend is likely to be different with the government still advising against all non-essential travel.

Streets, usually clogged with tourists, walkers and sightseers are now empty and eerily silent.

 Slide me  The picturesque village of Haworth, West Yorkshire, is famed for its connection to the nineteenth-century literary family, The Brontes. But Haworth is usually packed with tourists walking its quaint streets, often going to or coming from Haworth Parsonage, where the Bronte sisters wrote many of their novels

 Slide me  The picturesque Gloucestershire village of Bourton-on-the-Water, often referred to as 'The Venice of the Cotswolds', also remains practically empty. On a normal day, without the country in coronavirus lockdown, Bourton-on-the-Water, is bustling with tourists and locals enjoying the River Windrush

Lacock in Wiltshire is owned almost in its entirety by the National Trust and attracts many visitors by virtue of its unspoiled appearance

Mevagissey, the fishing village in Cornwall, is famed for its narrow streets and wide array of places to eat and drink, which are now almost empty due to the lockdown

The village, which faces east to Mevagissey Bay, is Cornwall's second largest fishing port. It also featured in the 1979 film, Dracula, which starred Laurence Olivier

That is certainly the case in the picturesque village of Haworth, West Yorkshire, famed for its connection to the nineteenth-century literary family, The Brontes.

The sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, in nearby Thornton, but wrote most of their novels while living at Haworth Parsonage - which remains a popular tourist attraction.

Streets in the equally picturesque Gloucestershire village of Bourton-on-the-Water, often referred to as 'The Venice of the Cotswolds', also remain practically empty, while few moved down The River Cam in Cambridge, with punts and boats left nudging against the banks.

Pubs stood silent in Wiltshire, even in the lovely Lacock, a village owned almost in its entirety by the National Trust

The River Cam in Cambridge is usually filled with punts, a long, narrow flat-bottomed boat, carrying tourists through the heart of the famous university city

A usually busy shopping street in Cambridge remains empty. The city is home to more than 120,000 people but attracts many tourists who flock to the historic settlement to see the world-famous Cambridge University

 Slide me  The village of Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, mostly consists of stone-built cottages and is nestled in the Pennine hills. It was once a centre for pioneering film-making. Holmfirth is not always as quiet. In 2017, massive crowds gathered to watch cyclists taking part in the Tour de Yorkshire come through the village

Shere, Surrey, is a small still partly agricultural village chiefly, near Guildford, which set in the wooded 'Vale of Holmesdale' between the North Downs and Greensand Ridge

Shere has a central cluster of old village houses, shops including a blacksmith and trekking shop, tea house, art gallery, two pubs and a Norman church

Even the marvellous Mevagissey, the fishing village in Cornwall, famed for its narrow streets and wide array of good eateries, looked almost deserted.

The village, which faces east to Mevagissey Bay, is Cornwall's second largest fishing port.

It also featured in the 1979 film, Dracula, which starred Laurence Olivier.

Pubs, restaurants and unessential services remain closed as the UK enters its third week of lockdown.

Britons have been told only to leave their homes for essential food shopping, for medical reasons, to exercise once a day for a maximum of one hour or to travel to and from work where it cannot be done from home.
Mr. Kingsley Agyemang, the Registrar of the Scholarship Secretariat of Ghana, as part of his humanitarian work, last Saturday, donated an amount of five hundred Ghana Cedis (GHS500.00) each to 40 individuals across the country who were affected by the countrys lockdown.



Mr Agyemang is a Doctoral Researcher at the Brunel University in the United Kingdom, researching into the multi-level determinants of obesity in Ghana.



On Sunday, March 29, 2020, the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced a lockdown of some parts of the country which took effect at 1 am Monday, March 30, due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.



People in the affected areas; Accra, Kumasi, Kasoa and Tema, have been asked to stay home for two weeks.



Advertised on his Facebook page, Mr Agyemang asked others to tag people they know who might be heavily affected by the 2-week lockdown and also provided a phone number for people to call.



With over 200 calls within few hours of the advert, 863 individuals made contacts out of which 40 lucky individuals were supported with GHS500.00 each through a mobile money transfer made to the numbers provided.



As the bible says in Matthew 5: 16, In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven, he wrote on his Facebook page after the gesture.



I believe this is the time for my colleagues to also reach out and extend a helping hand to the less unfortunate in the society. And to those who did the popular Ghanaian cliche tell a friend to tell friend, I say thanks for spreading the message. Though I wish I could have done more, I know the purpose of this project has been achieved, he added.



He again encouraged Ghanaians to observe the precautionary measures announced by the President.



In a phone interview after we came across the post on Facebook, Mr Agyemang advised the general public to adopt homemade daily exercise to keep fit, boost their immune system in order not to be overweight this period of lockdown.









Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 7

By Ilkin Seyfaddini  Trend:

The total number of coronavirus infected people in Uzbekistan rose to 472, Trend reports citing the Ministry of Health.

As was reported earlier, 30 infected people have fully recovered in Uzbekistan. They have been discharged from the hospital and sent to a rehabilitation center.

Since April 1, Uzbekistan announced a self-isolation regime in Tashkent, Nukus and other regional centers. Citizens over 65 are categorically prohibited from leaving their homes. They can go out only to visit pharmacies and shops near the place of residence.

The first case of coronavirus infection in Uzbekistan was detected on March 15 in the laboratory of the Research Institute of Virology; it was an Uzbek woman who returned from France. The Ministry of Health later announced that her son, daughter, husband and grandson also tested coronavirus-positive.

The outbreak of the coronavirus began in the Chinese city of Wuhan (an international transport hub), at a fish market in late December 2019. The number of people killed by the disease has surpassed 74,000. Over 1.3 million people have been confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, over 284,000 people have reportedly recovered.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
The niece of controversial Netflix's star Joe Exotic is exposing all his dark family secrets that go well beyond the revelations in the blockbuster Netflix series in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV.

Chealsi Putman says behind her uncle's over the top persona portrayed on TV lies an evil conniving person who tries to take advantage of anyone who crosses his path.

'In the Tiger King Netflix series, you can see glimpses of his evil persona but in real-life Joe is 100 times worse. I want people to know who the real Joe Exotic is, not the one you've seen on TV,' Putman said.

The docuseries follows the unbelievable twists and turns of the life of Joe Exotic, who used to run Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma. The 57-year-old is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for 17 counts of animal cruelty and for conspiring to murder his arch nemesis, Florida-based big cat lover Carole Baskin.

Putman, a 31-year old mother of three children, is also revealing for the first time how she helped the FBI catch her uncle when he was on the run in Florida, and lifts the lid on claims that he froze dead tiger cubs in order to sell them to taxidermists and had videos of people performing sex acts on animals at the zoo.

Putman, whose mother is Joe's youngest sister, believes Joe initially started out as a 'good guy and genuinely cared for the animals,' but toward the end he only saw them as a money-making venture, claiming he even became abusive toward them.

The niece of controversial Netflix's star Joe Exotic exposes his dark family secrets in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV

Putman credits Joe's parents, her grandparents, Shirley and Frances, in raising her, and claims she repeatedly saw Joe conning them, adding: 'My grandparents were Joes personal slush fund. Putman explained Joes parents had a lot money from Shirleys side of the family, from owning land in Kansas and leasing out farm equipment.' Pictured: Joe Exotic (right) with his family in December 1987

Netflix also glossed over Joe having an adult son, Putman said. In the early 1980s, Joe worked as a chief of police of a small town in Eastvale, Texas, (pictured) which is about 20 miles north of Dallas. At the time Joe lived with his then girlfriend Kim, who had his son Brandon Chappell, now 38 and with three kids of his own, at some point while living there

Putman (pictured with Joe around 1994), whose mother is Joe's youngest sister, believes Joe initially started out as a 'good guy and genuinely cared for the animals,' but toward the end he only saw them as a money-making venture, claiming he even became abusive toward them

Putman, a 31-year old mother of three children, is also revealing for the first time how she helped the FBI catch her uncle when he was on the run in Florida, and lifts the lid on claims that he froze dead tiger cubs in order to sell them to taxidermists and had videos of people performing sex acts on animals at the zoo

Putman did odd jobs for Joe - cleaning the animal cages, running the cash register and bookkeeping - working on and off for Joe from 1999 until 2017 when he owned the zoo.

'Our relationship was up and down, mainly because I wouldn't put up with his bulls**t'.

Putman said: 'I've personally witnessed Joe spray a tiger with a fire extinguisher, not out of a safety or for a life saving reason, but because the tiger didn't react the way Joe had wanted it to.'

Joe also sold countless baby tigers illegally, too many to count according to Putman.

'He would either take cash under the table for the sale of the tiger or if someone sent a check, it would be made out to another person, or if the money was wired to a store, it would be in another person's name.

'Joe always attempted to distance himself from any illegal activity, but he had no problem involving his employees in it.'

She claims when a tiger cub died, Joe would freeze it, saying he was involved in research with Texas A&M University but Putman said she never saw any evidence of that and believes he sold them to private individuals to get stuffed.

Putman did odd jobs for Joe - cleaning the animal cages, running the cash register and bookkeeping - working on and off for Joe from 1999 until 2017 when he owned the zoo. Pictured: Joe with goats Billy and Bobby in July 1978

Netflix's docuseries follows the unbelievable twists and turns of Joe's life, who used to run Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. Pictured: Joe in May 1978

Putman said: 'I've personally witnessed Joe spray a tiger with a fire extinguisher, not out of a safety or for a life saving reason, but because the tiger didn't react the way Joe had wanted it to.' Pictured: Joe at a rodeo in 1977

The 57-year-old is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for 17 counts of animal cruelty and for conspiring to murder his arch nemesis, Florida-based big cat lover Carole Baskin. Pictured: Joe at five years old sleeping with a dog in 1968

Pictured: Joe feeding goats in 1979

Pictured: Joe with what appears to be a bear in 1979

Pictured: Joe with elk he hunted in 1979

'Over the years there must have been at least 10 tiger cubs that he froze. I have no idea what happened to them, they would just disappear.'

Putman claims one time he asked her to take a dead tiger cub up to Oklahoma City to a taxidermist to get it stuffed, but she said she refused.

Joe allegedly not only illegally sold tiger cubs, he also sold baby monkeys, according to Putman.

'A few years ago, at the zoo we had a monkey who just had a baby, Joe wanted to take the baby monkey away from it's mother so he could sell it.

'The mother monkey naturally wouldn't let Joe take the baby away from her so, he decided to ''dart'' the mother monkey.

;He was going to shoot a tranquilizer dart into the mother monkey so he could take the newborn baby away from her.

'Joe shot one dart into the monkey, but after a few minutes the tranquilizer hadn't worked, so he shot another dart into the mother, and another.

'He shot a total of five darts into the mother until she dozed off so he could pry the baby monkey away from its arms. I was disgusted by his actions, he's lucky the mother monkey didn't die,' Putman said.

Joe also sold countless baby tigers illegally, too many to count according to Putman

Joe allegedly not only illegally sold tiger cubs, he also sold baby monkeys, according to Putman. 'A few years ago, at the zoo we had a monkey who just had a baby, Joe wanted to take the baby monkey away from it's mother so he could sell it. He shot a total of five darts into the mother until she dosed off so he could pry the baby monkey away from its arms'

As an example of how Joe was always ready to make a quick buck, Putman said he convinced a local Dollar General store to donate dog and cat food to feed his circus bears for life. Putman said Joe only fed some of it to the bears. The rest that was in good condition, he resold to various people for profit

As an example of how Joe was always ready to make a quick buck, Putman said he convinced a local Dollar General store to donate dog and cat food to feed his circus bears for life.

In the Netflix documentary, Joe was shown using expired meat that had been donated by local stores and meant to feed his animals in the meat for his pizza restaurant.

Putman said in the case of the pet food, Joe only fed some of it to the bears. The rest that was in good condition, he resold to various people for profit.

She said: 'There wasn't much Joe wouldn't do for a dollar.'

In seedier allegations, Putman claims there were videos of certain people performing sex acts on some of the animals at the zoo.

Putman clarified she never personally saw any of the videos, saying: 'I didn't want to see them, I just heard about them.'

She also claims Joe liked to film his partners having sex with other men, at times participating himself.

Joe used to have 'piercing parties' at the zoo, where employees would come and drink and get piercings. Joe often bragged about having his own 'Prince Albert' piercing the size of a padlock.

Joe used to have 'piercing parties' at the zoo, where employees would come and drink and get piercings. Joe often bragged about having his own 'Prince Albert' piercing the size of a padlock. Pictured: Joe with his first husband Brian Rhyne in Mexico in 1998

Rhyne was Joes first husband and he died in 2001 from complications associated with AIDS. Pictured: Joe with Brian and his nephew Cody in an undated photo

She also claims Joe liked to film his partners having sex with other men, at times participating himself. Pictured: Joe with his husbands Travis (left) and John Finlay (right)

Netflix also glossed over Joe having an adult son, Putman said.

In the early 1980s, Joe worked as a chief of police of a small town in Eastvale, Texas, which is about 20 miles north of Dallas.

At the time Joe lived with his then girlfriend Kim, who had his son Brandon Chappell, now 38 and with three kids of his own, at some point while living there.

Joe was in and out of Brandons life when he was growing up, at one point just a few years ago Brandon and his then wife, both worked at the zoo with Joe,' Putman said.

'Joe would go around telling everyone this was his son, he made no secret about it. Brandon was even in a few scenes in the Netflix show.'

She claims things soured between the father and son when Joe allegedly wanted Brandons wife to do some fraudulent activities with the zoo's books and checking account, causing an argument between Joe and Brandon.

Eventually, Brandon packed up with his family and returned to Texas.

Putman says Joe's parents, her grandparents, Shirley and Frances, raised her, and claims she repeatedly saw Joe conning them, adding: 'My grandparents were Joes personal slush fund.

Netflix also glossed over Joe having an adult son, Putman said. In the early 1980s, Joe worked as a chief of police of a small town in Eastvale, Texas, which is about 20 miles north of Dallas. At the time Joe lived with his then girlfriend Kim, who had his son Brandon Chappell, now 38 and with three kids of his own, at some point while living there. Pictured: A young Joe on vacation

In seedier allegations, Putman claims she's heard there were videos of certain people performing sex acts on some of the animals at the zoo. Putman clarified she never personally saw any of the videos, saying: 'I didn't want to see them, I just heard about them'

Putman explained Joes parents had a lot money from Shirleys side of the family, from owning land in Kansas and leasing out farm equipment.

She said her grandmother 'would receive monthly rental checks and that was the only time Joe would stop by their house was to pick up the checks. He would deposit some of the then in their bank accounts and others he would tell his parents that he cashed them and would pay them back later which he never did.'

Shirley died in September 2019, approximately one year after Joe was arrested. While incarcerated Joe never called nor wrote to her, Putman said.

His father Frances suffers from dementia and long-term PTSD and is currently house in a local VA hospital.

She added: 'I don't think he ever really cared for them he saw them as pawns in his game, most of the bills, policies and loans for the zoo where in his parent's name.

All of these factors led to Putman's decision to help the FBI track Joe down in September 2018.

Joe's mother Shirley died in September 2019, approximately one year after Joe was arrested. While incarcerated Joe never called nor wrote to her, Putman said. His father Frances suffers from dementia and long-term PTSD and is currently house in a local VA hospital

Putman added: 'I don't think he ever really cared for them he saw them as pawns in his game, most of the bills, policies and loans for the zoo where in his parent's name'.' Pictured: Joe's parents. Pictured: Joe's parents Shirley and Frances

Pictured: Putman as a little girl and G.W. Zoo worker Ernesto at the G.W. Zoo

As it's told in the Netflix docuseries , Joe left the zoo in early 2018 after his one-time business partner, Jeffrey Lowe confronted him over some missing money.

But Putman says that's not the entire story.

'Joe had been planning on leaving the zoo for some time, unbeknownst to almost everyone. He started to sell everything he could get his hands on in early May 2018. He knew the Feds were onto him and he wanted to get out.

'He told my grandmother on more than one occasion that he was being set up and some people were out to get him and frame him.

'So, in the middle of the night Joe and [his husband] Dillon packed up the rest of their belongings and moved to a house in Yukon, Oklahoma for a month, at the time the only people who knew Joe's whereabouts were his parents Shirley and Frances.'

Then in July 2018, the couple left Yukon, Oklahoma. Shirley thought he had fled to Texas or Alabama, but no one knew exactly where Joe was hiding out.

In September of that year, the FBI contacted Putman to ask for her help in locating Joe because they had a warrant for his arrest.

Putman says she knew her grandmother was still in contact with Joe because he would call her on her house phone from a number that belonged to his husband, Dillon.

All of these factors led to Putman's decision to help the FBI track Joe down in September 2018

Putman says she knew her grandmother was still in contact with Joe because he would call her on her house phone from a number that belonged to his husband, Dillon (pictured together)

Days later Putman says she nicked Joe's phone number from her grandmother's burner phone and gave it to the FBI. Then on September 5th, Joe called his mother from his cell phone and Putman happened to be with her. She contacted the FBI to tell them that Joe was talking to his mother at that moment. The FBI was able to ping Joe's cell number and two days later he was arrested in Florida

Then one day, her grandmother's cell phone rang. Putman said she didn't know she had a cell phone and learned Joe had bought his mother a burner phone that no one knew about to communicate with her.

Days later Putman says she nicked Joe's phone number from her grandmother's burner phone and gave it to the FBI.

Then on September 5th, Joe called his mother from his cell phone and Putman happened to be with her.

She contacted the FBI to tell them that Joe was talking to his mother at that moment.

Putman has no regrets on helping the FBI locate Joe, saying: 'I'd do it again, he needed to be caught'

The FBI was able to ping Joe's cell number and two days later he was arrested in Florida.

Putman has no regrets on helping the FBI locate Joe, saying: 'I'd do it again, he needed to be caught.'

Putman said she is disappointed about people who are making her uncle into a cult figure and jumping on the 'Free Joe Exotic' bandwagon.

She said he is evil, preying on the weak and taking advantage of people who are down and out in their life.

Putman said Joe deserves every year of his 22-year prison sentence, claiming he has done many more illegal things. She added: 'If it would up to me, I would have sentenced him to life behind bars, he wouldn't have ever seen the light of day.'

'Joe's a liar so I was worried that the jury may fall for the show that he puts on, but fortunately they saw through his BS and convicted him of all of the charges.'

Joe could be looking at more time behind bars because Putman says she been told Joe is being investigated by the IRS and for campaign fraud when he unsuccessful ran for Governor of Oklahoma in 2016.

She hopes that the celebs like Cardi B and others who have jumped on the Free Joe bandwagon really investigate the person they are supporting because Joe is an evil, maniacal person.

And for any call to pardon him 'makes them look like idiots.'

Putman has not spoken to Joe in almost two years, but she has one thing to say to him, 'I hope you rot in hell.' He's caused a lot of pain to a lot of people.
Warming seas are affecting fish sizes in a way that could upset complex ocean food webs, scientists have found.

Co-author of the report, zoologist Nicholas Payne from Trinity College Dublin, said they were surprised by the results.

Prof Payne said that up to now, much of their understanding of the temperature/size relationship came from the laboratory.

Taking our predictions to the wild, shows us there is still a lot we still need to learn about this hugely important phenomena, he said.

A team of scientists analysed 10m visual survey records of 335 fish species in coastal locations in Australia and spanning multiple decades.

The study, published in Nature Ecology And Evolution, puts a line through the hypothesis that fish sizes would reduce as temperatures increased.

In general, but not universally, larger species tended to get even bigger in warmer waters, while smaller species tended to get smaller.

Around 55% of fish species were smaller in warmer waters, while 45% were bigger.

The research also underlined that fish size changed between 4% and 40% for every one-degree change in temperature.

Ocean temperatures are set to rise between 1.2C and 3.2C by 2100 and the effects are expected to be very significant.

Lead study author, Asta Audzijonyte from the University of Tasmania, said the research would help in forecasting how different species will respond to future warming of the oceans.

There is now concern that the consequences of rapid and variable responses of fish size to climate warming might be potentially greater than if all species were shrinking.

Meanwhile, Australias Great Barrier Reef has experienced its most widespread bleaching event on record, with scientists blaming global warming.

The latest bleaching was observed in an aerial analysis conducted by scientists from James Cook University and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Part Authority.

They found that coastal reefs along a stretch of about 2,300km from the Torres Strait in the north to the reefs southern boundary have been severely bleached.

Director of the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, Terry Hughes, said that they were shocked at how quickly the bleaching occurred.

Three severe bleaching events in five years is not something we anticipated happening until the middle of the century, he said.

Corals become stressed when the water is too warm and expel the algae living in their tissues which is their main energy source, causing them to turn white and die if temperatures remain high.

Earlier this year many reefs experienced temperatures that were 3C above the normal summer maximum.
The South African governments request to the countrys communications regulator to issue additional spectrum to operators, reported here recently, has now been taken up by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA).

According to reports from South Africa, ICASA has invited operators to apply for additional spectrum to help them to meet increased demand caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

The spectrum is to be released on a temporary basis. In fact ICASA apparently intends to make high-demand spectrum available only for the duration of the emergency. The aim, as in many other countries where a lockdown is in place and increased demand expected, is not only to ease network congestion but also to maintain good quality of broadband services. ICASA has also referred to enabling licensees to lower the cost of access for consumers.

The spectrum will come from the 700MHz, 800MHz, 2300MHz, 2600MHz and 3500MHz bands. Companies will need to submit applications by 9 April.

However, South African plans to hold an auction for additional frequencies are expected to be finalised by the end of 2020 and ICASA has been keen to emphasise that this temporary release of spectrum will not affect processes underway for the permanent assignment of spectrum.
The government's top scientific adviser has said the UK could be seeing the "beginning of change" in the number of new cases of coronavirus.

Sir Patrick Vallance struck a cautiously optimistic note as he outlined new figures, saying there had not been the "acceleration" in the number of cases that ministers had feared.

New UK cases of coronavirus fell slightly to 3,634 on Tuesday, from 3,802 the previous day and 5,903 on Sunday.

With the peak of the outbreak is expected to come within days, the government postponed a review into whether the lockdown would be lifted, which was originally set to take place after three weeks.

Speaking at the daily Downing Street press conference, Sir Patrick said contact between people has "reduced dramatically" in recent days due to social distancing, which should lead to a "substantial reduction" of transmission of the virus.

He said there has not been "that big upswing of growth" in cases, adding: "There is a fairly steady increase in numbers. It's possible that we are beginning to see the beginning of change in terms of the curve flattening a little bit.

"We won't know that for sure for a week or so. But what we are not seeing is an acceleration."

Pointing to hospital admissions, Sir Patrick said there had been a "steady increase" since 16 March but "there hasn't been the accelerated take-off".

He added: "Again it's possible that we're beginning to see the start of a change where we might see numbers flattening off.

"We won't be sure of that for a week or so and we need to keep looking at it, but it does begin to suggest that things might be moving in the right direction in terms of numbers and it's important that we carry on with the measures that we have got in place in order to make sure that this does go in the right direction."

Clinical trials have started to look at treatments that could make a difference, with some 1,900 patients enrolled in trials across 100 hospitals, Sir Patrick said.

The number of intensive beds in NHS hospitals should come in "about right" to cope with the numbers of cases, he added.

His comments came as Boris Johnson was due to spend a second night in intensive care after being transferred to the ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in London on Monday night.

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab, who is deputising for the prime minister, said Mr Johnson was "a fighter" and he was "confident he will pull through".

Coronavirus: London on lockdown Show all 29 1 /29 Coronavirus: London on lockdown Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man walks down a deserted Camden High Street Photos Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Goodge Street Station is one of the many stations closed to help reduce the spread Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown An empty street in the heart of Chinatown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown People in masks in Chinatown a day after the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A near-empty Piccadilly Circus during the first week of lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Sonja, my neighbour, who I photographed while taking a short walk. It was nice to briefly chat even from a distance Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple sit on the empty steps of the statue Eros in Piccadilly Circus Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Making sure I stay two-meters apart  DArblay Street, Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A mannequin behind a shop window. UK stores have closed until further notice Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A notice displayed on a shop window in Camden Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown As part of the lockdown, all non-essential shops have been ordered to close.Image from Camden High Street Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A skateboarder wearing a mask utilises his exercise allowance in the Camden area Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Communities have been coming together in a time of need Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman stands alone in a deserted Oxford Street. Up until a few weeks ago, on average, half a million people visited the street per day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A couple walk hand in hand down a street in Soho, a day before the stricter lockdown was announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown During the first week of March, shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities ahead of a countrywide lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Many supermarkers are operating a queuing system to make sure only a limited amount of customers are allowed in at anyone time Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Stay Safe  Curzon cinemas are temporarily closed under the new measures Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Pubs, restaurants and bars were ordered to shut as part of the lockdown Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street There are fears that coronavirus could lead to permanent closure of struggling shops Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden Town is eerily silent on a normal working day Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Shops and supermarkets ran out of hand sanitisers in the first week of the lockdown. As we approach the end of the second week most shops now have started to stock up Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty streets around Soho Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A noticeboard on Camden High Street urges the public to stay at home Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Camden High Street, one of Londons busiest tourist streets turns quiet Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Thriller Live confirmed its West End run ended in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown Empty and eerie Soho streets after stricter rules on social distancing announced Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A woman pauses for a cigarette on Hanway Street, behind Tottenham Court Road Angela Christofilou Coronavirus: London on lockdown A man steps outside onto Hanway Street, that sits behind what is usually a bustling retail hub Angela Christofilou

In a tribute to his colleague, Mr Raab told the press conference: "He is not just the prime minister. For all of us in cabinet, he is not just our boss.

"He is also a colleague and he is also our friend. So all our thoughts and prayers are with the prime minister at this time, with Carrie (Symonds, the PM's fiancee) and his whole family.

"And I'm confident he will pull through because if there is one thing that I know about this prime minister is he is a fighter and he will be back leading us through this crisis in short order."

Mr Johnson is stable and in good spirits, Mr Raab said, adding that he has not needed a ventilator but he is being monitored closely by doctors.

Asked whether the government had decided to extend the lockdown, Mr Raab said the worst thing the country could do was "take its foot off the peddle" on social distancing.

He said: "In terms of the review, we are not at that stage yet. We will take any decision when the time is right, based on the facts and the scientific and medical advice."

Mr Raab urged people to stay at home over the bank holiday weekend and to continue adhering to the social distancing guidance.

"The worst thing now would be to take our foot off the peddle, to ease up on that and risk losing the gains that have been made," he said.
Joint Statement from Co-Chairs of the ASEAN- U.S. High Level Interagency Video Conference to Counter COVID-19

Media Note

Office of the Spokesperson

April 6, 2020



The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States and Vietnam as Co-Chairs of the ASEAN  U.S. High-level Interagency Video Conference to Counter COVID-19 held on April 1, 2020.

Begin Text:

The ASEAN Coordinating Council Working Group on Public Health Emergencies and United States interagency officials held a video conference on 01 April 2020 to discuss ASEAN-United States cooperation in public health emergencies and countering the COVID-19 pandemic. ASEAN Member States and the United States (collectively "We") expressed deep condolences on the tragic loss of lives due to COVID-19, extending sympathies to those suffering from or threatened by this crisis, and expressed gratitude and support to all frontline health workers as we continue to fight the pandemic. We reaffirmed the value of the ASEAN-United States Strategic Partnership in strengthening coordination to face non-traditional security challenges, especially the unprecedented challenge of COVID-19, and to ensure the safety and well-being of our combined one billion-strong population. We highlighted the importance of ASEAN-United States collaboration in supporting international cooperation and national governments' and authorities' capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats, including COVID-19. All parties acknowledged that public health is a cornerstone of the stability and prosperity of our nations and the wider region. We noted with satisfaction ongoing efforts by individual ASEAN Member States and the United States and commend the proactive role and timely actions taken by the ASEAN and United States Health Sectors, and we also acknowledge ongoing efforts by individual ASEAN Member States in controlling the spread of this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, including through various measures taken by their governments. All affirmed that emergency measures designed to tackle COVID-19, if deemed necessary at the national level, must be targeted, proportionate, transparent, and temporary, and not create unnecessary barriers to trade or disruption to global supply chains. All parties emphasized their shared commitment to ensuring the swift and continued flow of vital medical supplies and equipment, critical agricultural products, and other essential goods and services across borders, in support of the health of our citizens. All agreed on the importance of transparency and openness in sharing timely and accurate information on COVID-19 developments, both to domestic publics and international partners. The United States thanked ASEAN Member States for their support in facilitating the transit of American citizens seeking to return to the United States during the COVID-19 crisis. ASEAN Member States appreciated United States efforts to frequently update ASEAN diplomats with information on COVID-19 measures in the United States relevant to their citizens and providing them with appropriate support for matters related to the pandemic. ASEAN Member States exchanged experiences and best practices on measures for cooperation with the United States on prevention and control of COVID-19. ASEAN Member States proposed areas for expanded cooperation on health with the United States, to include human resource development, joint research, studies, and exercises in the areas of COVID-19 infection control, pandemic preparedness and response, training for doctors and nurses, enhancing biomedical research and laboratory facilities and systems, producing medical supplies, sharing information on updates on clinical management as well as sourcing of test kits, ventilators and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), research, development and production of vaccine for COVID-19, efforts to promote the normal flow of trade, services and investment, facilitation of trade in essential goods and medical supplies, and alleviating the potential downturns of the global economy. ASEAN Member States also informed the United States of their plan to explore the possibility of establishing a special fund for public health emergencies to address COVID-19 and future outbreaks, with the possibility of seeking partnership with its External Partners, and to strengthen regional cooperation mechanisms on health including the relevant EAS forum on strengthening the preparedness for infectious diseases with pandemic potential. ASEAN Member States welcomed United States critical support to multilateral organizations fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. United States funding for the WHO (over US$400 million USD in 2019) and UNICEF (at over US$700 USD million in 2019, the leading contribution among nations), have helped fund shipments of PPE to countries worldwide since the outbreak of COVID-19. Since the COVID-19 outbreak began, the United States government has committed US$274 million USD in emergency coronavirus assistance to partners worldwide to support laboratory capabilities, disease surveillance, and rapid response. ASEAN Members States encouraged the United States to further promote similar contributions and cooperation. ASEAN Member States thanked the United States for its assistance to ASEAN Member States to combat the spread of COVID-19, including the provision of over US$ 18 million in assistance to date to ASEAN Member States. The United States reemphasized its commitment in providing international public health assistance, including through over US$ 3.5 billion in United States' support to ASEAN Member States over the last twenty years. The United States pledged continued support for exchange programs that have included training of 2,400 ASEAN medical and health professionals to date, thus building people-to-people ties between researchers and healthcare workers across ASEAN and the United States. The United States offered continued support for those ASEAN Member States in need of additional assistance. We discussed further steps to strengthen ASEAN- United States collaboration on COVID-19 response, including through high-level engagement, and on public health cooperation more broadly. This included proposals by the United States for upcoming video conferences between the United States Secretary of State and ASEAN Foreign Ministers, as well as between the United States Secretary for Health and Human Services and ASEAN Health Ministers. In addition, the United States expressed strong support for helping ASEAN Member States and the ASEAN Secretariat to develop region-wide disease control structures that could strengthen the resilience and capacity of public health systems across ASEAN. We will explore the possibility of holding an experts-level video conference to follow up and explore further cooperation on this topic. The United States also planned to expand official engagement with ASEAN's health sector, including through participation in SOM and Ministerial-level meetings of ASEAN health officials, as appropriate. We look forward to continued ASEAN-United States engagement through existing networks and platforms under the ASEAN Health sector, as well as the ASEAN Coordinating Council Working Group on Public Health Emergencies and International Health Regulations Mechanisms, to counter the impact of COVID-19 and safeguard the health and well-being of all our peoples. The Meeting was co-chaired by Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dzung, ASEAN Senior Official (SOM) Leader of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell, Senior Official (SOM) for ASEAN of the United States. ASEAN Member State participants are Members of the ASEAN Coordinating Council Working Group on Public Health Emergencies including ASEAN Senior Officials (SOM), ASEAN Senior Economic Officials (SEOM), ASEAN Senior Officials' Committee for the Socio-Cultural Community (SOCA), Chairman of the Committee of Permanent Representatives to ASEAN (CPR), ASEAN Senior Officials for Health Development (SOMHD), ASEAN Defence Senior Officials (ADSOM), ASEAN Senior Transport Officials (STOM), ASEAN Directors- General of Immigration Departments and Heads of Consular Affairs Divisions of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (DGICM). The Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN was also in attendance. United States participants included officials from the Departments of State, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

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Security beefed up outside Mukesh Ambani's Antilia after alert from taxi driver about suspicious passengers

COVID-19 impact: Mukesh Ambanis net worth drops 28 per cent

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Mumbai, Apr 07: The net worth of India's richest man Mukesh Ambani dropped 28 per cent or $300 million a day for two months to $48 billion as on March 31 due to the massive correction in stock markets, a report said on Monday.

The chairman and managing director of the diversified Reliance Industries saw his wealth decline to $19 billion, taking his global ranking down eight places to 17th, the Hurun Global Rich List said.

Other Indian businessmen who have seen a major drop in wealth include Gautam Adani whose wealth eroded by $6 billion or 37 per cent, HCL Technologies' Shiv Nadar ($5 billion or 26 per cent) and banker Uday Kotak ($4 billion or 28 per cent), it said.

Mukesh Ambani loses Asias richest tag as he becomes poorer by Rs 44,000 crore

All the three have dropped off the top 100 list, leaving Ambani as the only Indian in the league.

The Indian market has corrected by 25 per cent in the last two months as the economic costs and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on companies led to a sell off across the world.

"India's top entrepreneurs have been hit by a 26 per cent drop in the stock markets and a 5.2 per cent drop in the value of the rupee compared with the US Dollar. For Mukesh Ambani, it has been a perfect storm, with his wealth down 28 per cent," Hurun Report India managing director Anas Rahman said.

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Ambani is the second biggest wealth loser globally, after French fashion giant LVMH's chief executive Bernard Arnault, whose wealth dropped by 28 per cent or $30 billion to $77 billion.

Berkshire Hathway's Warren Buffet also lost $19 billion of wealth in the last two months, to $83 billion, making it a smaller fall in percentage terms at 19 per cent, the report said.

With hospitality coming under intense pressure due to the pandemic, shared economy platform Oyo Rooms' Ritesh Agarwal is "no more a billionaire", the rich list said.

Death claim settlement due to coronavirus cannot be declined by insurers

Others in the top-10 list of wealth losers also include Carlos Slim and family, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Michael Bloomberg, it said.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos continues to be the richest man in the world with a networth of $131 billion, which has slid only by 9 per cent during the last two months and is followed by Bill Gates with a fortune of $91 billion (down 14 per cent), Buffet and Arnault.

Chinese billionaires were among the few gainers in the last two months, and included promoters of video conferencing and pork meat producing companies, it said.

While India lost three rankings in the top-100 rankings, China added six billionaires in the league, it said.
The plan was developed after discussion with experts and doctors. The hope is that the plan could help Delhi stay three steps ahead of COVID-19.

The novel coronavirus has spread to 186 countries as of April 7. There are over 1.35 million confirmed cases and over 74,800 deaths globally. Today, Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, shared a five-point plan for controlling the spread of the coronavirus in New Delhi. The plan was developed after discussion with experts and doctors. The hope is that the plan could help Delhi stay three steps ahead of COVID-19.

1. Testing

He acknowledged the importance of testing to control the spread of the virus. Taking the example of South Korea, he shared that if we dont test, we wouldn't know where all the virus has spread and controlling it will be even tougher. He shared that there was a dearth of testing kits initially but this is being resolved - 50,000 tests have been ordered and theyve started arriving in the Capital. About 1 lakh rapid tests have also been ordered and will be used to test in areas that are being deemed as hotspots. Random testing will be done in these areas to determine how much the virus has spread in these areas.

2. Tracing

For contact tracing, every COVID-19 positive patient would have to share a list of people they came in contact with over the last 14 days. Those people will then be traced and asked to self-quarantine. The police are being asked to ensure that people placed under self-quarantine are staying at home through the monitoring of their cellphone networks. Theyve also shared about 2,000 phone numbers of people who were at Markaz so that the police can check if they visited any other locations during that time. If they did, those areas will be sealed.

3. Treatment

There are about 525 cases in Delhi as of now. Kejriwal shared that the city has arranged for about 3,000 beds for coronavirus patients. Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital (LNJP) has been declared a coronavirus hospital, which means no other patients will be treated there - it has a capacity of 1,500 beds. GB Pant and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality hospitals are also declared coronavirus hospital with 500 and 450 beds, respectively. There are 2,450 beds in the government sector for this purpose and about 400 in private hospitals, including 318 bed in Max Saket E Block, 50 in Apollo and 42 in Sir Ganga Ram Kolmet Hospital.

The Delhi government also has a plan to increase this number exponentially, if the number of cases rises in Delhi. If it comes to the point of 30,000 active cases, severe cases (those with severe symptoms, underlying conditions or over 50 years of age) will be kept in hospitals (expanded to 8,000 bed at that point) and milder cases will be treated in hotels, banquets and dharamshalas with all required equipment. Theyve also taken into account how much oxygen and ventilators would be required at each step. There was a supply issue with PPE, which has improved somewhat with help from the Central government.

4. Teamwork

He said that no one person alone can beat coronavirus. Everyone has to work on the problem together. He shared that he was proud of people working together despite their political affiliations. He also pointed out that we need to be learning from the positive steps other states are taking. He added that doctors and nurses are essential in this fight - they, as well as their families, need to be taken care of. Prejudice against them is wrong. Other citizens are coming together to help by following the lockdown guidelines and also in whichever other manner they can - like by donating money, arranging for PPE kits, and more.

5. Tracking and monitoring

He said that this last step was for him to do - he would be tracking the progress and monitoring the situation closely. He would be taking stock of how the plan theyre implementing is working at all times and will take necessary decisions based on it.

For more information, read our article on Who can get tested for COVID-19.

Health articles in Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, Indias first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health.
KPMGs thought leadership, Potential impact of COVID-19 on the Indian Economy, reveals the key sectoral impacts of COVID-19 on the Indian economy. The report also foresees several ways in which the business landscape is likely to evolve in the days to come.

Indias real GDP decelerated to its lowest in over six years in 3Q 2019-2020, and the outbreak of the COVID-19 posed fresh challenges. The three major contributors to GDP  private consumption, investment and external trade  will get affected. Additionally, the report predicts current and potential impact of COVID-19 on various sectors.

It goes without saying that the lockdown is likely to have a sizeable impact on the economy, most significantly on consumption, which is the biggest component of the GDP. The report envisages significant reduction in urban transactions, which could lead to a steep fall in consumption of non-essential goods. The impact would be even more severe if domestic supply chain disruption caused by the 21-day lockdown were to affect the availability of essential commodities.

While a disruption in output in China could impact some Indian industries, the economy at large may be relatively insulated given its low reliance on intermediate goods from China as well as the common practice in Indian firms of stockpiling inventory. Headwinds are more likely on account of demand rather than supply -shocks from countries affected by COVID-19.

Another challenge is the disruption of domestic supply chains caused by the lockdown, which may create a shortage of inputs for Indian firms when they restart their operations.

Key highlights of the impact on the retail and FMCG industry:

Consumer, Retail and internet business

The existing uncertainty around how the pandemic shapes up may result in an uptick in spend by consumers in categories like rice, flour and lentils

The e-commerce sector will face challenges due to COVID-19 due to the increased pressure on supply chain for deliveries of product. There will be increased pressure on supply chain for deliveries of products and another challenge for e-commerce companies is that they will need to equip their employees with the appropriate resources to manage operations remotely with little or no disruption

Going forward we can expect companies to explore newer distribution channels focused on a direct to consumer route

Key policy recommendations:

Easing manufacturing rules for essential commodities  faster clearance

Adequate insurance coverage against extreme business disruptions

Apparel and textiles

The textile and apparel sector production is expected to decline by 10-12% in the April-June quarter

Cotton prices have been reduced by 3% and are expected to be further impacted in the next few months

Key policy recommendations:

Tax compliances deadline needs to be extended considering the nationwide lockdown and taxes need to be reviewed to minimize the impact of decline in demand

Credit ratings based loan facilitation for MSME players need to be reviewed in order to make the sector competitive/lucrative

Provide an adhoc reimbursement/ concession of 5-10 per cent against the recently approved Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Product (RoDTEP) scheme to compensate for the hitherto unreimbursed levies and taxes to the exporters

Beyond COVID-19: Embracing the New Normal

The increasing spread of COVID-19 has radically disrupted traditional patterns and networks of economic interaction and behaviour, and post this crisis, a new normal has to emerge. The collective experience of going through this common crisis will lead to a fundamental re-evaluation of assumptions and priorities, which will be both a challenge and an opportunity.

7 ways in which the business landscape could shift:

The shift towards localisation: The supply chain disruption has brought to light the immediate and tangible impact of black swan events. That, along with the ongoing geopolitical environment and a globally recessionary climate is likely to lead to greater protectionism and risk aversion. This is expected to lead to greater localisation of supply chains, especially of essential commodities as well as for sectors that are perceived to be strategically important.

Digital gets a real push: Most companies have opted to work remotely and their employees are now online and working from home. While these trends were already in-motion, they have now hit the fast-forward button. Even the most traditional brick and mortar organisations have been forced to experiment with digital channels. This presents a real and immediate opportunity to drive efficiencies through digital media. At the same time, this crisis has highlighted the importance of investment in enabling technologies like cloud, data and cyber security. This will change the way we work with far reaching implications on B2B, B2C, B2G services, commercial real estate, e-commerce, e-governance, cyber security, process automation, data analytics, self-service capabilities, etc.

Cash is king for businesses: This situation has proven, once again, that cash is king  companies that are over-leveraged and living on the edge are the most vulnerable. The crisis has reiterated that it is important to be financially prudent and conserve cash.

Move towards variable cost models: One of the biggest lessons, amongst others, is the importance of reducing overall business costs. One significant way to accomplish this is to convert fixed costs to variable costs wherever feasible. For instance, businesses will now determine what they must keep in-house, and explore outsourcing the rest so that fixed costs can be lowered. As with other trends, this will further impact the labour force and how they work, contract manufacturing, supply chain considerations, etc.

Building sensing and control tower capabilities: Alternate data can offer quick insights that traditional approaches and tools may not offer. This is especially pertinent for areas where information is scarce or erratic. The downside to this are also challenges such as short histories, collection systems that are prone to change etc. Nevertheless, governments and companies have realised the importance of sensing capabilities, building transparency through digital control towers, digital twins and the ability to process both structured and unstructured data. For instance, analytics companies are now mining alternative data such as traffic jams, food orders etc. to track COVID-19 shock. This trend is only expected to pick-up.

Supply chain resilience is key: While localisation is a trend we covered earlier, individual companies will want to ensure their supply chains are resilient to remain competitive. Risks to supply chains are numerous and continuously evolving. Hence, it is imperative that resilience capabilities are developed in order to respond to repercussions of unexpected events and either quickly return to original state of business or move to a new and better state after being affected by the risk and continue business operations as efficiently as possible. Achieving this will require initiatives from both internal business as well as from the wider network.

Building agility: The ongoing pandemic is forcing countries and companies to take quick actions in the absence of perfect data, while remaining customer-centric, addressing employee needs and reinforcing stable team dynamics. It has also made them ponder upon the enabling mechanisms that need to be put in place to respond to any unexpected events in the future. Going forward, policies will need to evolve faster than the market and policymakers will need to be more responsive, inclusive and agile.

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As Colombia continues with a nationwide lockdown, some Venezuelan migrants are deciding they are better off back in their homeland.

According to Colombian authorities, nearly 600 Venezuelans returned to their country over the weekend through a humanitarian corridor.

Many like Jesus Ocana say they have not been able to find work as businesses remain shuttered and people are ordered to stay inside because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 21-year-old was heading back to Venezuela by foot Monday from Bogota, a journey he expected to take him about 15 days.

The returning migrants represent a small number of the total who live in Colombia with an estimated 1.8 million Venezuelans residing in the neighboring Andean nation.

According to the United Nations, over 4.5 million Venezuelans have fled in recent year, deciding to abandon their nation amid a deep economic contraction and humanitarian crisis.

Migration officials say tens of thousands of Venezuelans arrived in January and February, but at lower levels than typically seen.

Meanwhile, a higher number fled to other countries, mostly through flights from the Bogota airport.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said he will welcome back any compatriots returning by land.

The border with Colombia is officially closed and diplomatic relations severed but a humanitarian corridor was created.

He said Sunday at least 1,500 have returned thus far and that he expects about 15,000 total to come back.

The head of state said the Venezuelans will be "rigorously" tested for coronavirus symptoms and required to quarantine for 14 days as a precaution.

Nonetheless, some Venezuela have posted videos on social media saying soldiers detained them at a bus terminal in the border town of San Antonio.

The migrants include pregnant women, children and the elderly and complained of little to not access to food and water.
The Edinburgh TV Festival has announced that it will become a digital event this year as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

The 2020 Festival offering is designed to support and connect the television community and will deliver the key moments of the festival including The MacTaggart Lecture, Controller Sessions and Awards; as well as the TV Foundations talent schemes; The Network, Ones to Watch and TV PhD. An ongoing programme of digital sessions and content will launch in the coming weeks with the programme to be announced shortly. This year the whole festival will be free for freelancers.

Managing Director of the TV Festival and TV Foundation Campbell Glennie said: We have decided that, in the best interests of everyone we would seek to bring together, educate and support, that we will not be staging the TV Festival physically in Edinburgh this August. However, our industry is based on creative innovation and so too is the Festival.

For the past week we have been in consultation with our board, partners and supporters to re-examine not just what we could achieve this year, but more importantly what we should be doing to connect, discuss and find solutions to issues both perennial and particular to the evolving challenges we all face.

I would like to thank our executive chair Graham Stuart, board, sponsors and advisory committee for their support, advice and guidance during the past few weeks, and look forward to working with them all to create new projects in 2020 that will respond to the challenges were all facing and bring us closer together.

Televisions vital role in our lives has never been so present, valued and cherished, and so the team will be doing everything we can in 2020 to keep discussion flowing, talent supported and diversity encouraged. It will not be the Festival we know, but it will still be the Festival we love.

This years Advisory Chair BBC TWO Controller, Patrick Holland said: I believe that Edinburghs role as a lightning rod for our industry is more important than ever this year. The key themes well be discussing; the future of the PSBs in the UK ecology, the role of TV in the climate emergency, reflecting the diversity of the audience in who makes and is featured in our shows  are brought into even sharper relief by the coronavirus crisis. I look forward to working with the team to bring that spirit to everyone between now and August.

The Festivals Executive Chair, Graham Stuart said: An August without Edinburgh has always been unthinkable for the UK television industry. And it is with the greatest admiration for the resilience and imagination of the entire Edinburgh Television Festival team I can assure the industry that 2020 will be no different. Maybe just a little

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San Antonio police are searching for two men who they say ran from officers after crashing a stolen vehicle into a house on the North Side on Tuesday.

Police received an anonymous call about a black Challenger possibly involved in car burglaries near the Visa Valet Apartments. At around 2 a.m., officers patrolling in the area spotted a black challenger driving out of the apartment complex onto Blanco Road, SAPD said.

The driver of the challenger sped off after noticing the patrol car and turned onto the 1300 block of Vista Del Monte, SAPD said. The officers didn't initiate a pursuit and lost sight of the vehicle, but continued down the road as it is a dead end street.

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Police eventually came across the vehicle crashed into a house. The vehicle, which police later discovered was stolen, was going at least 50 mph at the time of the crash, SAPD said.

One of the occupants of the vehicle was standing next to the challenger with his hands up while two others fled. The occupant who surrendered said he only knew the two who ran in passing and was turned over to his guardian. Police said he is not expected to face charges.

A K-9 Unit searched for the two males who fled, but they weren't located.

No one inside the house was hurt from the crash.
A man was found dead in a shallow grave in the Asbury community of Marshall County this afternoon.

The mans name and cause of death werent being released this evening. His body is being sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for an autopsy, said Steve Guthrie, a spokesman for the sheriffs office.

The Marshall County sheriffs office was called to investigate around 3:30 p.m. at the scene along Asbury Road. Deputies found a body partially buried in the shallow grave.

Guthrie said a murder investigation is underway. He declined to publicly comment further, citing the ongoing probe.
[April 07, 2020] seL4 Microkernel Optimized for Security Gets Support of Linux Foundation

SAN FRANCISCO, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Linux Foundation , the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced it will host the seL4 Foundation , the nonprofit organization established by Data61, the digital specialist arm for Australia's national science agency CSIRO. The seL4 microkernel is the world's first operating system (OS) kernel that is proved secure ; it is designed to ensure the security, safety and reliability of real-world critical computer systems. The new Foundation aims to accelerate the development of seL4 and related technologies, and under the Linux Foundation will provide a global, independent and neutral organization for funding and steering the future evolution of seL4. Founding members include Cog Systems, DornerWorks, Ghost Locomotion, HENSOLD Cyber and UNSW Sydney. The trustworthiness of embedded computing systems is vital to improving the security of critical systems around the world to safeguard them from cyber threats. This is particularly paramount in industries including avionics, autonomous vehicles, medical devices, critical infrastructure and defense. The seL4 microkernel is the world's first operating system with a proof of implementation correctness and presents an unparalleled combination of assurance, generality and performance, making it an ideal base for building security- and safety-critical systems. The seL4 Foundation provides a forum for developers to collaborate on growing and integrating the seL4 ecosystem. "The Linux Foundation will support the seL4 Foundation and community by providing expertise and services to increase community engagement, contributors and adopters, helping to take the OS ecosystem to the next level," said Michael Dolan, VP of strategic programs, the Linux Foundation. "The open governance and standards-based model will provide a neutral, mature andtrustworthy framework to help advance an operating system that is readily deployable and optimized for security."



Dr. June Andronick, Leader of Trustworthy Systems at CSIRO's Data61 said, "We are very excited about this step to provide a sustainable, long-term trajectory for seL4, and very keen to see the seL4 Foundation grow and thrive under the Linux Foundation umbrella." "With the help of the Linux Foundation we can broaden the community of contributors as well as adopters of seL4," said UNSW Scientia Professor Gernot Heiser, Chair of the new Foundation. "This will provide the support that allows us to continue the research that ensures seL4 will remain the most advanced and secure OS technology."

For more information on the seL4 Foundation visit https://sel4.systems/Foundation/. Supporting Quotes

Cog Systems

"seL4 has set the new standard for high assurance for embedded solutions on connected devices," said Carl L. Nerup, CEO of Cog Systems, Inc. "This enables us to deliver commercial solutions that meet the rigorous demands associated with formal verification to deliver a certified approach that meet the highest standard for safety & security in the market today." DornerWorks

"The seL4 proof provides a secure foundation to answer the growing need for cyber-security. By joining the seL4 Foundation, DornerWorks can do more to help accelerate customer adoption of seL4 as the trusted software base for their embedded products. We're looking forward to the future of seL4 kernel and tool development," said Gregg Wildes, Innovation Leader and Partnership Manager, DornerWorks Ltd. Ghost Locomotion

"Ghost is a self-driving system that integrates seamlessly into your current car. Designed to be safer than a human driver, Ghost will give you the power to fully disengage on the highway and focus on what matters to you. Nowhere is the pursuit of perfection more important than our highways and we are proud to join the seL4 community to make provably correct, safety-critical systems a reality for millions of daily commuters," said Dr. Daniel Potts, Ghost Locomotion Inc. HENSOLDT Cyber

"We strongly believe in the benefits of open source software for critical IT systems in order to foster the development of one of the most important security assets," said Sascha Kegrei, CTO of HENSOLDT Cyber. "We provide our expertise to a community, which uses combined forces of different professionals from all over the world to strengthen the development of seL4. We were excited to become part of the seL4 Foundation." John Launchbury

"In system security, seL4 is one-of-a-kind. COVID-19 has taught us all the value of 'distancing' in keeping any kind of system healthy and secure. That's what microkernels like seL4 do for software. What makes seL4 unique is that we know with mathematical certainty that the seL4 code implements its 'distancing' specification with ZERO functionality bugs. That it does so without a performance hit is doubly astonishing. I am eagerly anticipating seeing more and more system builders incorporate it to increase their digital security, and I'm confident that the seL4 foundation has been well structured to be effective in curating the ongoing open source development of seL4," said John Launchbury, Galois, Formerly DARPA I2O Director. About the Linux Foundation Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 1,000 members and is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation's projects are critical to the world's infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation's methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org . The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage . Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Media Contacts

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ICAI has allowed students who have appeared for Class 12 board exams this year to apply for Chartered Accountant (CA) Foundation Course

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has allowed students who have appeared for Class 12 board exams this year to apply for Chartered Accountant (CA) Foundation Course.

The criteria have been relaxed so that candidates who have not registered due to the postponement of exams can also apply. The ICAI has taken this decision in view of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As per an ICAI notification, Candidates may provisionally register in the Foundation Course on or before 30 June 2020, if he has been either allotted the admit card and/or appeared in one or more papers in the months of February/March 2020.

The ICAI has also allowed students to take November 2020 Foundation examination after passing Class 12. One can register for the course by visiting its official website (ICAI.org) or using this direct link.

How to register for CA Foundation courses

Step 1: Go to the official website ICAI.org

Step 2: Look for New Foundation and Intermediate (Direct Entry) Form option

Step 4: You will be directed to a new page where there will be the option for registration of new and existing students/members

Step 5: If you are an existing member, log in using you ID and password.

Step 6: New members have to create an account by providing name, email address, date of birth and phone number

Step 7: After that, you will receive an OTP on your mobile number.

Step 8: You will be asked to enter the captcha and OTP sent on the stated mobile number.

Step 9: Following which, you can apply for the course by entering the required details.
One person was killed



and four others were injured in a clash between two families over a piece of land in West Bengal's Nadia district, police said.

The incident occurred in Gopinathpur area in Palashipara police station area, an officer said.

The land dispute between the family of deceased Samser Sheikh (50) and his nephews turned into a clash during which both groups attacked the other with sharp weapons, he said.

Five persons were injured and admitted to Tehatta sub-divisional hospital where Sheikh succumbed to his injuries, the officer added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Indian Railways suspended passenger trains across India until April 14 immediately after Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25. It was the first time in 167 years that Asia's oldest rail network had been suspended. The railway network has now decided to convert as many as 20,000 old train carriages into isolation wards for patients of the coronavirus.

Trains in India made into hospitals

The network is the world's fourth-largest rail operator and India's biggest employer, it already operates 125 hospitals across the nation, so it can expand into mobile beds. According to Johns Hopkins University, on April 1, India has recorded 4,288 cases of COVID-19 and had 117 deaths, which is a small number for a country with a population of 1.3 billion. While India's hospital system is not overwhelmed by coronavirus patients yet, re-purposed trains could help ease the pressure on hospitals if ever the number of patients increases.

The lockdown has put 67,368 kilometers of track out of use, and it has left thousands of passenger trains sitting idle. Freight trains remain operational to deliver goods. The bosses of the Railway have instructed each of India's 16 railway zones to identify non-air conditioned carriages that are not used on passenger routes to turn into hospitals and have them ready for use in case the number of patients goes up.

The first 5,000 isolation wards will be ready within a fortnight, and if needed, more carriages can be converted within 48 hours, according to the executive director of information and publicity at the Railway Board, Rajesh Dutt Baipai.

Each carriage was sanitized and will be able to accommodate up to 16 patients, including a doctor's cabin, nurses' station and space for medical supplies and equipment. The trains, as soon as it is ready, will be sent to any location that might be facing a hospital bed shortage. The local health authorities will also assign government doctors, nurses, paramedics and volunteers on the trains.

The government of India has also instructed railway factories to assess the feasibility of manufacturing stretchers, hospital beds, masks, medical trolleys, aprons, sanitizers and medical apparatus like ventilators for use in railway hospitals and other government hospitals.

Also Read: 5G Towers in UK Burned Down After False Claims That It Transmits Coronavirus

Hospital-on-wheels

Indian Railways has experience in running hospitals on trains. In its 29 years of service, the hospitals-on-wheels has traveled across 19 Indian states and treated more than 1 million people. Launched in 1991, the Lifeline Express provides on-the-spot diagnostic, medical and advanced surgical treatment for adults and children.

The train is funded by the Institute of International Finance, international charities, Indian corporations, and individuals, and it started as a collaboration between the Indian Railways, the Impact India Foundation, and the Indian Health Ministry.

The hospital train is equipped to treat a variety of ailments such as cleft lips, cataracts, hearing problems, mobility issues, epilepsy, plastic surgeries, dental surgeries, cancer screening and more. The Lifeline Express has operation theater, treatment rooms, recovery wards, a pantry car, and accommodation for medical staff.

The coronavirus trains are not made to function as full-service hospitals, but local health officials will have the option of using them for COVID-19 patients who are not critically ill and just needs to be isolated for treatment.

Related Article: Spain Passes 10,000 Deaths Due to COVID-19, But Curve is Stabilizing

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As Covid-19 has kept much of the country under lockdown, farming activity has cranked up a gear or two over the last week as the spring weather improved.

Being on self contained farms is a near perfect form of self-isolation: work continues and the need to travel off farm is minimal.

As Mike Brady notes, instead of complaints about being tied to farming 24/7, farmers are these days appreciating the physical and mental health benefits of being their own bosses and being out in the fresh air.

And John Joyce paint an idyllic picture of the booming pet lamb trade from neighbours seeking for a diversion for children off from school.

As a sector, farming has been through some tough years. We've seen farm-gate prices cut repeatedly across the board, while supports from Europe have been reduced.

Recent storms and droughts have hit many farmers in their pockets and while we thought Brexit would be our biggest challenge and economic issue, it pales in comparison to this pandemic and the potential cost it will have across every economy in the world.

Farming as a sector will be affected too.

Beef and dairy farmers are already looking at the impact on their bottom line, but asking farmers to take more price cuts may lead to a significant change in our supply chains.

The question that we will have to ask nationally and at European level is what value do we place on having a secure food supply.

And the key to that is the farmer at the very start of the food chain.

Ireland is lucky in that to a large extent we are able to produce ample amounts of most essential foods.

However, questions must be asked as to why farming has been pushed down an expansionary path of 'get big or get out'.

Some commentators have suggested that this crisis will be a watershed for every sector. Only time will tell if that is actually the case.

Such lofty pronouncements are rarely accurate, and invariably underestimate the powerful forces of reaction.

However, this crisis will certainly push the issue of food security onto the UK's political agenda - and that can only be a good thing for farmers in both Britain and Ireland.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday said the government is ramping up the number of COVID-19 testing centres in the state, including at the district level, as the coronavirus cases have increased rapidly over the past few days.

He said 308 COVID-19 cases have been found in the state as of now, of which 168 are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi last month.

The cases are spread over several districts such as Lucknow, Agra, Mathura, Kanpur and Allahabad, according to a bulletin released by the government.

In Uttar Pradesh, for the past 4-5 days, there has been a rise in the number of cases... Every step is being taken by the state government in association with the Centre to stop the spread of the infectious disease, Adityanath assured.

When the first coronavirus case was first reported in the state, he said, there was not a single testing laboratory in UP. "Today with the help of the Centre, 10 testing laboratories are successfully working."



There has been a demand for expanding the number of testing centres from various quarters, including opposition leaders.

The chief minister said the government has decided to establish testing labs at the district hospital of every divisional headquarter and a team under the principal secretary has been constituted for this.

There are 24 government medical colleges in the state. In 10 of these, we have testing labs. Instructions have been issued to upgrade them, and in 14 medical colleges where there is no testing facility for COVID-19, testing facility will be established," he said.

"In UP, there are six divisional headquarters, where there are no government medical colleges. The state government will establish testing laboratories in these districts. The laboratories will be setup in Gonda, Mirzapur, Bareilly, Moradabad and Aligarh. In Varanasi division, there is a laboratory in BHU hospital, but we have started the work to establish a lab in a hospital there."



He said the UP government has established a COVID Care Fund, and it is getting support from public representatives and the general public.

"The fund will be used to expand testing and treatment facilities. The government is already working to boost the manufacturing units of PPE, N95 masks, triple-layer masks, thermal analysers, ventilators and other equipment," he said.

"I am confident that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is completely protected from this global pandemic, Adityanath said.

He said Lucknow is very important for the better health and secured future of the 130 crore countrymen and urged people to accept the lockdown in a disciplined manner.

He reiterated that the government will not leave any stone unturned to ensure no one faces hardship.

The Union government imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25 for 21days to curb the spread of the deadly virus. The chief minister has hinted that Uttar Pradesh will gradually exit the lockdown and has sought cooperation of people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Maynooth University in partnership with the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) and several other education representative bodies has undertaken extensive research of over 2,800 primary school leaders to assess their response to the closure of primary schools due to COVID-19.

The objective of the research, which was issued w/c 23rd March, was twofold. Firstly, it aimed to identify good practices that can be shared and replicated around the country, in order to help schools that found it particularly challenging to adapt to the change prompted by school closures. Secondly, it aimed to establish what scaffolding is required for schools to continue to work effectively during the temporary school closure.

A selection of noteworthy findings included:

- The majority of schools interact with their students at least once a week  over 70%.

- For 80% of schools, the reason for putting distance learning provisions in place was to support pupils, but in 40% of Special schools many leaders did it mainly to support parents.

- 64% of leaders reported that the areas of the curriculum that are easier to adapt for distance learning are English, Social, Environmental and Scientific Education (SESE), Physical Education and Mathematics.

- 80% of school leaders reported that Irish is the most difficult subject to adapt for distance learning.



Overall, the research yielded the following observations:

It was impressive how much schools have adapted in such as short space of time, with 80% of school making arrangements to interact with students on a regular basis.

There is a digital divide that prevents some schools from fully engaging with their pupils with educators and parents using their personal resources to try and make contact through text, phonecalls and by posting out materials to pupils without internet access.

Many of the primary school leader respondents were seeking official guidance and clarity on several issues, however it was noted that many of their concerns have been since addressed by the Department of Education e.g. concerns regarding school meals.

The Covid-19 crisis has the potential to compound the inequalities that already exist in the Education system. The research highlighted the vital role played by supports available within the education system, such as IPPN, PDST, NCSE and many more showing the collaborative spirit of people in the face of crisis.

Many teachers and pupils have embraced distance learning and all are on a steep learning curve that may, going forward, change the way we educate primary school pupils in the future.

The research has highlighted the many resources that are already available to pupils out there, as well some areas where more work needs to be done, such as the provision of official guidance on what online resources are available to teachers for example.

Special Education Needs (SEN), English as an Additional Language (EAL) and students who attend ASD units appear to have least resources available for them.

Dr Jolanta Burke, CPsychol Assistant Professor at the Maynooth University, Department of Education stated; We are living in unprecedented times that call for unprecedented actions. The research was commissioned a week after the temporary school closures, with none of the stakeholders knowing how long this situation may last. Yet, while people in Ireland were still in the process of coming to terms with all changes, IPPN, PDST, INTO and primary management bodies acted promptly and commissioned Maynooth University, to assess the situation, so that they can make evidence-informed decisions about what structures they can put in place to best support school communities in this crisis. Now they are working hard in the background acting on the findings from what primary school leaders shared with them in the research and supporting school communities the best they can.

This research gives a voice to the many dedicated primary school leaders. Through the stories they have shared with us and the questions they have answered, we were astounded with how swiftly many of them have adapted to the changing learning environment and how committed our educators are to providing our children with the best education under extremely challenging circumstances.

Dr Majella Dempsey, Assistant Professor and EdD Strand Leader for Curriculum Studies at Maynooth University commented; We hope this report will help individuals, schools and policymakers to develop plans for dealing with school closure and it would be great to follow up and hear from teachers, parents/guardians and pupils on their experiences at this time.

Pairic Clerkin, IPPN CEO stated; This report by Maynooth University, jointly commissioned by IPPN, INTO, primary education management bodies and PDST, collates and analyses the responses from over 2,800 primary school leaders to a survey researching how schools have managed since they were abruptly closed on Thursday 12th March. The report describes the incredible work primary schools have done to put systems, processes and communications in place in a matter of days in schools of all types and sizes across the country. There is strong evidence in the research of distributed leadership, collaboration, collegiality, innovation and creativity.

There is also significant concern about pupils with special educational needs and those in disadvantaged areas and ensuring they have the support they need. This report will help the stakeholders to refine the supports available to schools, and to clarify what is expected of schools at this very challenging time. We sincerely thank Dr Jolanta Burke and Dr Majella Dempsey for their work on this research and for pulling it together so quickly.
School closures are not likely to have a significant effect on the spread of infections during outbreaks such as coronavirus, a study suggests.

Researchers found that school closures alone were predicted to reduce deaths by around 2% to 4% amid the coronavirus outbreak in the UK, which is less than other social distancing measures.

The study, led by University College London (UCL), found that closures have only minimal effects on highly contagious infections where children are not the main drivers, such as COVID-19.

UK schools closed their doors to most students more than two weeks ago as the country was put under lockdown, following in the footsteps of other European countries including Spain and Italy.

Other countries around the world have also implemented mass school closures amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 1.3 million people.

Researchers analysed 16 studies, which included articles on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as well as a report on COVID-19 in the UK.

School closures did not appear to have contributed to the control of the SARS epidemic in China, Hong Kong and Singapore in 2003, according to a study in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal.

It found that other control measures such as isolation are more effective during a coronavirus outbreak.

The paper said: "Modelling studies from the COVID-19 pandemic support the use of national school closure as part of a package of social distancing measures.

"Yet the only study to examine school closures as a separate intervention warned that the impact was relatively marginal, given the reasonable assumptions that household and community contacts would rise as a consequence."

The study also highlighted "economic costs and potential harms" of mass school closures, especially for the most disadvantaged children.

Researchers suggested some less disruptive social distancing interventions in schools such as closing playgrounds and increasing spacing between students in class rather than full closures.

Story continues

Russell Viner, professor of adolescent health at the UCL Institute of Child Health, said: "We know from previous studies that school closures are likely to have the greatest effect if the virus has low transmissibility and attack rates are higher in children. This is the opposite of COVID-19."

He added: "With nearly 90% of the world's students (more than 1.5 billion young people) out of school, more data and robust modelling studies are urgently needed to help us identify how countries can, in time, safely return students to education."

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Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "These findings demonstrate that the Government must keep the decision to close schools under review.

"It is certainly the case that a prolonged shutdown will damage the education of children and it is likely that those from disadvantaged backgrounds will suffer the most."
Click here to read the full article.

Thakoon is bringing back footwear. The designer, who shuttered his luxury label in 2017 and returned with a new direct-to-consumer business model and more competitive price points two years later, launched shoes on his e-commerce site today. And the looks align with his brands everyday, accessible aesthetic.

In the mix with the clothes that Im designing, they just feel right, said designer Thakoon Panichgul on the launch, which features a white high-top sneaker and kitten-heel mule in black leather. Especially now, Im really into practical pieces that are more designed with great quality and less about fancy, trendy footwear.

Thakoon sneaker

To Buy: Thakoon High-Top Sneaker, $150.

This isnt Panichguls first foray into footwear. The designer came onto the fashion scene in 2004 and collaborated with Laurence Dacade on the latters runway footwear. He also previously worked with Giuseppe Zanotti and partnered with Nine West on a capsule shoe collection in 2006. But it wasnt until 2014 that he took his biggest plunge into the category  launching footwear for Thakoon Addition, the high-contemporary complement to his ready-to-wear collection.

His latest footwear project, however, debuts in the midst of the unprecedented coronavirus crisis. For Panichgul, though its a challenging environment for consumers, hes found it all the more critical to give them something to look forward to. He told FN, Its something that has been in the plan and its something that we are passionate about. In this difficult time, while we do understand the stresses that people have incurred, we also believe that its more important than ever to champion the things we love and continue to excite people even in some small way.

While the designer did not address whether manufacturing or shipping for his label has been impacted by the pandemic  shoe production takes place in Portugal  he noted that the company is small and agile, allowing it to adjust quickly amid rapid shifts. Plus, Panichgul added that customers are still purchasing items that are relevant to their lives now.

Story continues

Thakoon mule

To Buy: Thakoon Kitten Mule, $195.

Like many designers navigating the current climate, Panichgul is also taking the opportunity to have open dialogue with his consumers. Ive been trying to take a really personal, human approach to how we communicate. Ive started to interact more with our customers on social media, doing Q&As and ask me anythings,' he said. I think its important to be open and present at this time because were all in this together.

All products featured have been independently selected and curated by our editorial team. If you buy something through our retail links, we may earn a commission and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Best of Footwear News

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NEW YORK, April 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Revenue Cycle Management Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Software, Service), By Type (Integrated, Standalone), By Delivery Mode, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027







Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05879600/?utm_source=PRN







The global revenue cycle management market size is anticipated to reach USD 160.3 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 12.1% over the forecast period. Increasing government reforms favoring the adoption of revenue cycle management (RCM) solutions in healthcare settings, growing inclination toward cloud-based solutions, and increasing outsourcing of RCM services are the key factors driving the global market.



Based on product type, the market is segmented into software and services. The software segment dominated the market in 2019 with a market size of around USD 39.0 billion. Increasing adoption of RCM solutions in healthcare settings for effectively managing the patient data and growing patient pool are the major factors driving the market growth. On the other hand, services is anticipated to be the fastest-growing segment over the forecast period. Growing outsourcing of revenue cycle management services owing to the shortage of resources and inexpensive labor costs are the major factors driving the growth of this segment.



Integrated RCM solutions dominated the market in 2019, with a revenue share of 69.0%. Integrated solutions offer a streamlined and coordinated format on a wide variety of financial activities via single platform. Moreover, integrated solutions are quite cost-effective as compared to standalone solutions. Unlike standalone solutions, they are composed of various modules that cost-effectively manage parallel activities taking place in a healthcare setting.



North America dominated the RCM market in 2019 with the highest revenue share.Availability of favorable reimbursements and government initiatives for the implementation of RCM systems are the major factors driving the market growth.



On the other hand, Asia Pacific is anticipated to be the fastest growing region over the forecast period, owing to the availability of low cost labor and entry of major players in the region.



Further key findings from the report suggest:

 The market is anticipated to be expand significantly owing to increased adoption of RCM systems in healthcare settings

 The software segment accounted for a major share in 2019 with a market size of around USD 39.0 billion due to increasing demand for HIT systems

 Integrated RCM solutions held the largest market share of 69.0% in 2019, as they are cost-effective as compared to standalone solutions

 North America dominated the revenue cycle management market in 2019 owing to the availability of favorable reimbursement policies, presence of well-developed healthcare infrastructure, and growing adoption of RCM solutions and their long-term benefits

 Some of the key market participants are Allscripts Inc.; Cerner Corporation; Change Healthcare; Epic Systems Corporation; CareCloud Corporation; and McKesson Corporation.

 These companies are focusing on strategic collaborations and introduction of new products to survive the market competition



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05879600/?utm_source=PRN



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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American politicians and doctors are debating whether to use the drug hydroxychloroquine against the new coronavirus. The drug has been used to treat some COVID-19 patients in the United States. But doctors ordering its use have no idea whether it is working.

The medicine is among several drugs they experiment with on those infected. The patients differ in severity of sickness, age, sex, pre-existing health condition and other ways. As a result, it is unclear what treatment has helped those who improve or if they would have improved without any treatment at all.

The drug has been around for many years and is a popular treatment for the diseases malaria and lupus.

What do you have to lose?

American President Trump is expressing great support for hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19. He has said publicly that he might give the drug a try, although tests have shown that he is not infected with the new coronavirus.

On Sunday, during his daily coronavirus press conference, he suggested all infected people should try it. What do you have to lose? he asked.

The answer could be your life, in rare cases. Hydroxychloroquine can have severe side effects, including deadly heart problems. It can also cause vision loss, skin wounds, thinking problems, and mental-emotional changes, including hallucinations and paranoia.

Not all members of the Trump administrations COVID-19 crisis team agree with the presidents judgement on the medicine. The countrys leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, supports a more restrained approach to use of the drug while scientists carry out studies on the drug in connection with COVID-19.

How is it being used?

Hydroxychloroquine can help control the bodys natural defense, called the immune system. It has been used since the 1940s to prevent and treat malaria, and to treat rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. It is sold in generic form and under the brand name Plaquenil in the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approve its use for malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis only. But doctors can order it for patients with other diseases, now including COVID-19.

Whats the evidence?

There are a few small and very early studies on treating COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine. The studies have shown conflicting results. One lab study suggested it damaged the virus ability to enter cells. Another report on 11 people found it did not improve the speed at which patients cleared the virus or recovered from the disease. A report from China claimed the drug helped more than 100 patients at 10 hospitals, but the study was not carried out with usual scientific controls.

Other researchers in China reported that cough, pneumonia and fever seemed to improve sooner among 31 patients given hydroxychloroquine compared to 31 others who did not get the drug. However, the two groups did not share severity of symptoms. Four people developed severe sickness and all were in the group that did not get the drug. These results were posted online. They did not appear in a traditional scientific publication nor were they officially examined by other researchers.

Finally, a small study from France that Trump noted as evidence of the drugs effectiveness is now in question. The head of the publication in which it appeared has put out an expressed concern about the studys methods.

Larger studies using accepted scientific methods are underway now.

The sharp rise of hydroxychloroquine in the U.S.

The United States has quickly become the center of the new coronavirus spread. More than 380,000 people in the United States have been infected, and more than 12,000 have died from COVID-19. The federal government estimates that as many as 240,000 people in the country may die from the disease before the outbreak is over.

Facing those numbers, and lacking any known effective treatments, doctors said they began using hydroxychloroquine on patients who are worsening. Some said they were pressured by patients to use the drug.

Patients admitted to American hospitals are generally much sicker than cases of patients cited in the few studies done. This situation has made it difficult for doctors to judge whether the drugs are making a difference.

Doctors who spoke to Reuters said they treat coronavirus patients with the medicine for a very limited time. They said the risks are relatively low from only a few days of use and the medicine costs little and is generally available.

I have seen hundreds of patients with severe COVID and most of these people are on hydroxychloroquine, Dr. Mangala Narasimhan, a director of critical care at Northwell Health, a 23-hospital system in New York, said in an email. In my opinion, although it is very early, I do not see a dramatic improvement.

Dr. Daniel McQuillen is an infectious disease specialist at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts. He said he has ordered hydroxychloroquine treatment for about 30 COVID-19 patients so far because the drug has shown a little bit of antiviral activity. But he has not seen marked improvement for patients.

I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm John Russell.

Caty Weaver adapted this story from the Associated Press and Reuters news agency reports. Hai Do was the editor.

_________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

vision -n. the ability to see: sight or eyesight

hallucination -n. something (such as an image, a sound, or a smell) that seems real but does not really exist and that is usually caused by mental illness or the effect of a drug

paranoia -n. a serious mental illness that causes you to falsely believe that other people are trying to harm you

approach -n. a way of dealing with something: a way of doing or thinking about something

generic -adj. not sold or made under a particular brand name

cough -n. an expulsion of air through your throat with a short, loud noise often because you are sick

pneumonia -n. a serious disease that affects the lungs and makes it difficult to breathe

fever -n. a body temperature that is higher than normal

dramatic -adj. striking in appearance or effect
It had imposed the restrictions last month as the coronavirus outbreak disrupted global supply chains

New Delhi: India, the worlds main supplier of generic drugs, has lifted restrictions on the export of 24 pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines made from them, the government said in a statement.

It had imposed the restrictions last month as the coronavirus outbreak disrupted global supply chains.

Paracetamol, a common pain reliever, and its formulations were not included in the list of drugs freed up for export.

It was not clear what prompted India to lift the restrictions, but Indian government sources had said the bans had prompted intense pressure from the United States.

The decision also followed a telephone call on Saturday between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump.

The two leaders agreed to remain in touch on the issue of global supply chains for critical pharmaceuticals and medical supplies and to ensure they continue to function as smoothly as possible during the global health crisis, White House spokesman Judd Deere, said in a tweet on Saturday following the leaders call.

India had restricted the exports of 26 ingredients and medicines on March 3. Paracetamol and its formulations accounted for two items on the original list.

The 26 active pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines accounted for 10% of all Indian pharmaceutical exports and includes several antibiotics, such as tinidazole and erythromycin, the hormone progesterone and Vitamin B12.

India has also placed restrictions on the export of most diagnostic testing kits. And in recent weeks it had also banned the export of ventilators, masks and other protective gear needed by both patients and medical staff.

During the telephone call on Saturday, Trump urged Modi to release supplies of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which is being tested as a possible treatment for patients with COVID-19 - the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Trump said late on Monday in Washington that India could face retaliation for its decision to ban exports of hydroxychloroquine
Wellington, April 7 (IANS) New Zealand Health Minister David Clark on Tuesday apologized for breaching the country's COVID-19 lockdown rules after he drove to a beach for a family outing and went to a public domain for a mountain bike ride.

The lockdown rules require New Zealanders to stay at home and to stay local when exercising, as the country entered a four-week lockdown or epidemic response Alert Level 4 on March 26, reports Xinhua news agency.

After Clark offered his resignation, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Tuesday that his Cabinet ranking was demoted and his associate finance portfolio was stripped.

"Under normal conditions I would sack the Minister of Health. What he did was wrong, and there are no excuses," Ardern said.

"But right now, my priority is our collective fight against COVID-19. We cannot afford massive disruption in the health sector or to our response.

"For that reason, and that reason alone, Dr. Clark will maintain his role."

Clark responded by saying that it was his responsibly to not only follow the rules but set an example to other New Zealanders as the Health Minister.

"At a time when we are asking New Zealanders to make historic sacrifices, I've let the team down. I've been an idiot, and I understand why people will be angry with me," he said.

New Zealand has reported 1,160 coronavirus cases, with 1 death.

--IANS

ksk/
While Kennelly did not rule on Tuesday, he did indicate that the plaintiffs had yet to clear an important hurdle for a temporary restraining order: proving that there was no remedy for detainees to argue at the state court level that they should be released due to the COVID-19 crisis.
A widely shared, four-person-bylined, wow-provoking New York Times story today informs us that Donald Trump is personally benefiting from his aggressive advocacy of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine because he owns stock in one of the companies that manufacture the drug.

The story might be one of the most ridiculous articles published by mainstream media in the Trump era  though, admittedly, the field is highly competitive. But while knee-jerk anti-Trumpism is expected, the angry obsession over the presidents championing of hydroxychloroquine is uniquely ugly.

For one thing, and I realize this might be difficult for some people to comprehend, its plausible, even likely, that Trump advocates for chloroquine because he is legitimately optimistic that a therapeutic answer might help Americans. Even if you feel hes being reckless when speaking about the drug, you can accept that his intentions are good.

Its also possible that Trump is hopeful about hydroxychloroquine because he thinks it will help his reelection. Desiring an outcome that benefits the vast majority of Americans, but also benefits you, is a perfectly sound moral position. Hoping for negative outcomes to strengthen your partisan position, on the other hand, is pretty nefarious.

In any event, the crack team at the New York Times thinks its unfurled the mystery. As of last year, reports the paper, Mr. Trump reported that his three family trusts each had investments in a Dodge & Cox mutual fund, whose largest holding was in Sanofi.

As far as we know, Trump probably owns less than $100 of Sanofi stock in one of his mutual funds. If things go well, say he triples his position, Trump will be taking in upwards of $300. Art of the Deal, indeed.

Though its unlikely. Sanofi is a French drugmaker that produces the hydroxychloroquine-label Plaquenil. The drug, however, isnt patented, it isnt particularly difficult to manufacture, and there are a bunch of giant pharma companies around the world already ramping up production of generic versions. Sanofi is less likely to benefit than Novartis or Bayer (check everyones mutual funds, pronto!).

Story continues

So cunning is Trumps scheme to spike his $1,000 mutual-fund position that he called Indias prime minister, Narendra Modi, this week and convinced him to lift a ban and start exporting even more generic hydroxychloroquine to the United States.

The Left simply cant accept that a Republican acts in good faith. If theyre not hiding some devious self-serving motivation, theyre under the thumb of a foreign power or a shadowy industry. If its not Big Oil leading George Bush into Iraq, its Mitt Romney trying to hand the country to his buddies at Bain Capital.

Working from this predetermined position, reporters are sure that Trump, who they think became president to fill the rooms in his D.C. hotel, isnt merely peddling hope for hopes sake alone.

All of this is just fodder for the screeching partisan minions, nothing else. If there were a healthy, functioning fourth column, a piece like this would never run. Can you imagine any major publication running a piece linking Barack Obamas praise of GMs heavily subsidized electric-car manufacturing to a thousand bucks in a mutual fund?

Nor should it escape your attention that the New York Times will assign four reporters to write an amateurish hit job, but not a single one to mention serious rape allegations against the leading Democratic Party presidential candidate by a former staffer.

When Trump first mentioned hydroxychloroquine, reporters scoured the world to find overdose cases so they could claim the president had blood on his hands. When that effort came up short, they clutched pearls after some nitwit couple thought it wise to ingest fish-tank cleaning liquid. Now this.

Hydroxychloroquine is a prescription drug, not a pill that Americans can buy in bulk at the local Walmart and hoard in their closest and pop prophylactically each day. Media keeps asserting that Trump is ignoring the experts. Well, the president didnt induce South Korean doctors to use hydroxychloroquine. He didnt induce Indian doctors to use it. I assume American doctors who are now off-labeling the drug to patients have some medical reasons behind their thinking.

If doctors think its promising to look at it as a way to mitigate symptoms, why shouldnt they go for it? It might help. It might not. Maybe another drug or treatment no one is talking about will emerge. There is nothing wrong with offering hope. Americans arent children, even if our media treats them as such.

(You dont need to send me angry emails detailing all the downsides of championing potential drugs already in use for other diseases. One of my children takes hydroxychloroquine to help mitigate a dangerous autoimmune condition. Ive already had to work hard to track down hydroxychloroquine because we live in a world with unethical hospitals and doctors who hoard it. Believe it or not, theyd still be doing it if the president hadnt ever mentioned it, because they believe it holds promise.)

More from National Review
YEREVAN, APRIL 7, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan congratulated women on Motherhood and Beauty Day, expressing confidence that in the light of the current challenges, this holiday symbolizes our future victories.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister, the congratulatory message runs as follows,

''Dear women, mothers, sisters and daughters,

Proud citizens of the Republic of Armenia,

Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on Motherhood and Beauty Day. We are celebrating this beautiful holiday in a challenging time of hardships and uncertainties.

Nowadays many of our mothers, daughters, wives and sisters bear the burden of economic, psychological and domestic difficulties arising from the crisis and face unexpected challenges. The crisis has exacerbated the long-standing problems, putting our mothers, daughters, wives and sisters in a particularly vulnerable position, but the Government is working hard to address the bottlenecks arising from the crisis.

However, especially in these conditions, I feel it worth mentioning that motherhood and beauty are by far beyond simple praise and admiration. We believe that the power of motherhood and the energy of beauty will help us overcome the crisis. Motherhood and beauty also stand for leadership, and today we praise the creative power of motherhood and beauty, the energy to mobilize the nation and the ability to move forward.

Today, many health workers - mothers, daughters, wives and sisters - are fighting against the novel coronavirus. Many mothers, daughters, wives and sisters continue their teaching mission in the context of distance learning. Many mothers, daughters, wives and sisters carry on with lifeline public, economic and social activities.

Motherhood and beauty are symbols of victory, and I am sure that in the light of the current challenges, this holiday symbolizes our future victories.

Dear mothers, daughters, wives and sisters,

Proud citizens of the Republic of Armenia,

We love you all, we are proud of you and bow to you!''
Following a major health scare that happened after several COVID-19 positive cases emerged from an event held in Nizamuddin Markaz, Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan termed the event as a setback.The Tablighi Jamaat's congregation in Delhi has emerged as one of the major COVID-19 hotspots in the country.

Speaking about the same, Dr. Harsh Vardhan stated that the attendees gathered without informing the authorities at the time of a major health crisis.

"The impact of the Tablighi Jamaat has been a setback. These people gathered without informing the authorities at a time when a law was in place whereby the assembly of more than 5 people was prohibited. The foreigners added to the risk more," said Dr. Harsh Vardhan.

As many as 1,445 cases out of a total of 4,067 COVID-19 cases in India are linked to Tablighi Jamaat congregation that was held earlier in March, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Joint Secretary Lav Aggarwal said on Monday. Further addressing the issue of the escalation in cases of Coronavirus in different states, the Health Minister said,

"The states have been told to evaluate the performance of their states. Their strategy will be sent to the Centre. The centre will then decide on what action should be taken. The Prime Minister is holding continuous meetings and will consult before taking any decision."

READ: Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Centre mulls extending lockdown post-April 14; cases at 4421

25,000 Tablighi Jamaat workers quarantined

Punya Salila Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed that the government has so far quarantined over 25,000 Tablighi Jamaat workers and their contacts. Five Haryana villages where they visited have also been sealed. Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz emerged as a coronavirus hotspot following a massive religious congregation attended by Indian and foreign nationals, many of whom contracted the virus.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers was held earlier on Monday, in which further discussions took place on the plan of action regarding COVID-19 challenges. The Health Ministry has released a detailed guideline focused on signs, symptoms and segregating cases.

"Rs 1,100 crore has already been released from the National Health Mission Funds for the states. Also, an additional amount of Rs 3,000 crore has been released today," he said.

READ: Centre mulls extending 21-day COVID-19 lockdown post-April 14 after states demand: Sources

Coronavirus crisis in India

As of date, over 4000 positive cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) - 325 have been discharged and Maharashtra reported the highest at 868. 114 deaths have been reported to date. India has suspended all visas and barred travel from Afghanistan, Philippines, EU, UK, China, Malaysia and mandatory 14-day quarantine from several other countries. The Prime Minister has issued a 21-day countrywide lockdown starting from 23 March to April 15 and the Finance Minister has announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore package under the 'PM Gareeb Kalyan Scheme'.

READ: COVID-19: Sena MP urges Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray to lock down entire Dharavi area

READ: Ministry of Health issues document on management of suspect & confirmed COVID-19 cases
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said an effectively flat death toll for two days and a drop in the number of hospitalisations and ICU admissions could be "good signs" of a "possible flattening" of the coronavirus curve in the state but warned that becoming complacent will be a mistake.

The state, the epicentre of the US, has a total of 130,689 coronavirus cases and 4,758 people have died from the virus. But in a slight glimmer of hope, Cuomo said the death toll in the state has been "effectively flat for two days".

In the 24 hours since April 4, the death toll grew to "all-time increase" of 630.

But on both Sunday and Monday, fewer than 600 deaths from the virus were reported in New York - 594 on Sunday, 599 on Monday. In New York city, the number of cases reached 68,766 and the death toll was 2,738.

He said while the death toll is not good news, "the possible flattening of the curve is better than the increases that we have seen".

Cuomo also said that there had been a drop in the total number of hospitalisations, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admissions and daily intubations.

"Those are all good signs and again would suggest a possible flattening of the curve," he said while addressing his daily coronavirus briefing on Monday.

Cuomo's aide Jim Malatras said based on the earliest projections, it was estimated that the pandemic peak in the state would come at the end of April and would require around 110,000 beds just for COVID-19 patients.

"Now that we have a pretty robust set to go by for the last several weeks... could suggest that we are indeed potentially at the apex or beginning to be at the apex at this moment... It looks like we're at toward the earlier side of that time frame based on the current projections and modelling that we've been looking at," he said.

Cuomo however warned that the numbers "still could go any way and we could still see an increase. So it is hopeful but it's also inconclusive and it still depends on what we do".

He asserted that a drop in numbers or arriving at the apex does not mean the state becomes complacent with the strict measures put in place like social distancing.

"These models all have a co-efficient of what we do and how successful we are socially distancing," he said, adding that from a decision-making point of view it will not matter if New York hits the plateau or not "because you have to do the same thing".

"If we are plateau, we are plateauing at a very high level and there's tremendous stress on the healthcare system. And if we are plateauing, it's because social distancing is working," Cuomo said, adding it must be ensured that the social distancing actually continues.

The governor said that schools and non-essential businesses will continue to remain closed till April 29, irrespective of whether the COVID-19 curve plateaus or not.

"If that curve is turning, it's turning because the rate of infection is going down. One of the reasons the rate of infection is going down is because social distancing is working. We have to continue the social distancing," he said.

Cuomo noted that he knows what prolonged closure of schools and essential businesses does to the economy.

"But as I said from day one, I'm not going to choose between public health and economic activity because in either event, public health still demands that we stay on pause, with businesses closed and schools closed, whether we've hit the apex or whether we haven't. You'd have to do the same thing," he said.

The governor warned that there is a "real danger" in getting "overconfident too quickly".

"This is an enemy that we have underestimated from day one and we have paid the price dearly," he said, citing the examples of "mistakes" made by Hong Kong and South Korea in easing restrictions too soon.

"We're not going to make that mistake, the weather is turning. People have been locked up. We've been talking about cabin fever. Now it's a nice day I'm going to get out. I'm going to go take a walk. Now is not the time to do that. And frankly, there has been a laxness on social distancing... that is just wholly unacceptable," he said.

It is understandable that people have been locked up for a long time but "now is not the time to be lax. We all have a responsibility. We all have a role in this. We said that from day one. We have to respect the role that we play. Because the role we play is a societal obligation, that is how I see it," Cuomo said.

He also announced the state is increasing the maximum fine for violations of the state's social distancing protocol from USD 500 to USD 1,000 to help address the lack of adherence to social distancing protocols.

The governor asked the federal government to allow the USNS Comfort hospital ship to be used for COVID-19 patients.

President Donald Trump has granted his request for the Javits temporary hospital facility to be used for only COVID-19 positive patients, and the addition of the USNS Comfort would help relieve pressure on the state's hospital system with an addition of 1,000 beds.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ethos is a nationally recognized, award-winning independent student publication. Our mission is to elevate the voices of marginalized people who are underrepresented in the media landscape, and to write in-depth, human-focused stories about the issues affecting them. We also strive to support our diverse student staff and to help them find future success.



Ethos produces a quarterly free print magazine full of well-reported and powerful feature stories, innovative photography, creative illustrations and eye-catching design. On our website, we also produce compelling written and multimedia stories.



Ethos is part of Emerald Media Group, a non-profit organization thats fully independent of the University of Oregon. Students maintain complete editorial control over Ethos, and work tirelessly to produce the magazine.



Since our inception as Korean Ducks Magazine in 2005, weve worked hard to share a multicultural spirit with our readership. We embrace diversity in our stories, in our student staff and in our readers. We want every part of the magazine to reflect the diversity of our world.
El Paso County has seen fewer confirmed coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in recent days, but it continues to have one of the highest dea
Sweden is facing increasing pressure to impose a coronavirus lockdown after the number of deaths rose by nearly 20 per cent in a day to 477.

The government has so far resisted calls to shut down pubs, restaurants, offices and schools, and gatherings of up to 50 people are still permitted.

This is the same approach taken by the UK before Boris Johnson announced a lockdown on 23 March as the UK death toll rose to 335.

Sweden has, however, avoided using the term herd immunity.

On Monday, the Swedish public health agency, or Folkhalsomyndigheten, announced 76 new deaths, the largest daily rise so far. On Tuesday, it announced another 114 deaths, but cautioned that some of these had been in the previous days.

The total death toll is now 591.

Authorities claim the number of cases is decreasing, with 376 on Monday, down from over 600 on Friday. The total number of confirmed cases now stands at 7,693, with more than 3,000 of those in Stockholm.

Sweden tested only 12,300 people in the week leading up to 31 March, far lower than the 300,000 a week in Germany and 70,000 in the UK. The Scandinavian country has a lower population of 10 million, however.

It has prompted concern in neighbouring Finland, which announced tightened border controls on Tuesday to restrict entry to only the most essential workers until 13 May. Hundreds of healthcare employees living in Finland cross the northern border with Sweden every day.

Finland considers it indispensable that Sweden instructs its healthcare personnel to better protection and increases testing of these groups, the government said.

The Swedish government is now expected to put forward a bill to ask parliament to grant it wider executive powers for three months, including the right to shut airports and railway stations. It is not yet clear when any vote will take place.

We have seen how quickly the situation in Sweden and Europe can change and we see a need for more possibilities to be able to react quickly if the situation demands it, health and social affairs minister Lena Hallengren said in a statement.

However, the government also indicated it would keep domestic air travel open by taking over eight routes to northern Sweden and the island of Gotland.

Prime minister Stefan Lofven said he trusted Swedes to behave like adults and follow social distancing guidelines while state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said he was very sceptical of lockdowns.

But last week a petition signed by more than 2,000 doctors, scientists, and professors called on the Swedish government to tighten restrictions and enforce strict containment measures.

Were not testing enough, were not tracking, were not isolating enough  weve let the virus loose, said Cecilia Soderberg-Naucler, a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. They are leading us to catastrophe.

Additional reporting by agencies
Honor Blackman, the potent British actress who took James Bond's breath away as Pussy Galore in Goldfinger and who starred as the leather-clad, judo-flipping Cathy Gale in The Avengers, has died. She was 94.

Blackman's family said in a statement Monday that she died peacefully of natural causes at her home in Lewes, in southeastern England.

The honey-voiced Blackman first became a household name in the 1960s spy TV series The Avengers. She joined the show in the second season as Cathy Gale, the leather-wearing anthropologist with martial arts skills. Blackman departed the show for Bond before The Avengers was exported to America, but her performance solving cases opposite Patrick Macnee caught the eye of Bond producer, Albert R. Broccoli. She and Macnee also recorded the hit song, Kinky Boots, together.

Sean Connery as James Bond and Honor Blackman as Pussy galore in Goldfinger. Credit:United Artists

But just as The Avengers was growing in popularity, Blackman departed it for the third James Bond film, playing Pussy Galore in 1964's Goldfinger. In it, she makes an impression from the start, memorably introducing herself to Sean Connery's just awoken James Bond.
An election official directs a voter at a drive-up polling station in Racine, Wisconsin.(Getty Images)

A group of European scientists worry models that predict how a patient may respond to the coronavirus are flawed and based on weak evidence.

With the new strain emerging at the end of last year, only the relatively few people who have encountered the virus have any immunity against it.

Amid concerns the pandemic could threaten health services all over the world, models have been created to predict everything from who is most likely to develop complications to the length of a patients hospital stay.

The scientists set out to uncover the validity of 31 of these models, rating all as at high risk of bias.

They concluded the models are poorly reported and probably optimistic, adding none should be used in practice at this point.

One expert stressed, however, models are often accepted as being useful but not perfect, with doctors still having to use their judgement.

Early research suggests the coronavirus is mild in four out of five cases, however, it can trigger a respiratory disease called COVID-19.

A man walks in Paris. (Getty Images)

The coronavirus is thought to have emerged at a seafood and live animal market in the Chinese city Wuhan, capital of Hubei province.

It has since spread into more than 180 countries across every inhabited continent.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Live: Follow all the latest updates from the UK and around the world

Fact-checker: The number of COVID-19 cases in your local area

6 charts and maps that explain how COVID-19 is spreading

Since the outbreak was identified, more than 1.3 million cases have been confirmed, of whom more than 292,000 have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Incidences have been plateauing in China since the end of February, and the US and Europe are now the worst-hit areas.

The UK has had more than 52,000 confirmed cases and over 6,000 deaths.

Globally, the death toll has exceeded 76,000.

Coronavirus: Models at high risk of bias

In the review, three of the models predicted the risk a patient would be hospitalised with pneumonia or another coronavirus complication.

Story continues

Eighteen looked at diagnostic models for detecting infection, 13 of which were via machine learning.

The remaining 10 models predicted a patients risk of death or severe disease, or how long they may be in hospital.

Note the models did not include the Imperial College London simulation that guided the governments response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Of the 31 models, only one included patient data from outside China.

There is the potential for different ethnic groups or healthcare systems to be different so any scorecard derived outside a UK population would need testing on a UK population for validity before being implemented, said Dr Ray Sheridan from the University of Exeter.

The European scientists concluded all the models were at a high risk of bias, mostly because of non-representative selection of control patients.

A high risk of bias implies that these models will probably perform worse in practice than the performance reported by the researchers, they added.

With a few exceptions, the team felt most of the models had too small a sample size.

This is a well known problem when building prediction models and increases the risk of overfitting the model, they wrote in The BMJ.

The models that used machine learning for diagnosis showed a high to almost perfect ability to identify COVID-19.

As well as being at a high risk of bias, the scientists noted poor reporting, and an artificial mix of patients with and without COVID-19.

A medic wears a protective suit at a coronavirus drive-through in Bandung, Indonesia. (Getty Images)

Coronavirus: Models may do more harm than good

The scientists worry the desire to understand how best to treat COVID-19 patients may encourage clinicians to implement prediction models without sufficient documentation and validation.

Although they stressed we cannot let perfect be the enemy of good, they are concerned following these models may do more harm than good.

Therefore, we cannot recommend any model for use in practice at this point, wrote the team.

The emergence of individual patient data should validate and update currently available prediction models.

Professor Derek Hill from University College London said: Predictive computer models can be really helpful in both managing patients and also developing new treatments.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to some very rapid development of disease models.

These could potentially help focus scarce healthcare resources on patients most likely to benefit from particular treatments and personalise treatment based on the symptoms with which people present at hospital.

But any disease model used to make critical decisions does need to be carefully tested.

To state the obvious, if the disease model is flawed, it could end up directing seriously ill patients at the wrong treatment, rather than the right treatment.

Speaking of the new European research, Professor Hill added: The overall conclusions are these models on the whole are not trustworthy and could be dangerous to use.

Care must be taken to ensure doctors don't use disease models to make decisions without knowing these models have been properly tested.

If a disease model is used to select treatment for a patient, then from a regulatory point of view, it is a medical device.

You wouldnt want to use an untested medical device on a critically-ill patient any more than use an untested drug.

Dr Sheridan noted the CURB-65 Score is used to assess the severity of a patient arriving at hospital with bacterial pneumonia, while also directing doctors towards the most appropriate antibiotics.

CURB-65 is accepted as useful but it is not perfect, he said.

It is still important to use the clinicians common sense and experience, so if a scorecard gives a low score but you think a patient look sicker then the clinician should go with their judgement.

This will also be the case for COVID-19.

The coronavirus shares some, but not all, symptoms with colds and flu. (Yahoo UK)

What is the coronavirus?

The coronavirus is one of seven strains of a virus class that are known to infect humans.

Others trigger everything from the common cold to severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), which killed 774 people during its 2002/3 outbreak.

The coronavirus tends to cause flu-like symptoms, including fever, cough and slight breathlessness.

It mainly spreads face-to-face via infected droplets expelled in a cough or sneeze.

There is also evidence it may be transmitted in faeces and can survive on surfaces.

In severe cases, pneumonia can come about if the infection spreads to the air sacs in the lungs.

This causes them to become inflamed and filled with fluid or pus.

The lungs then struggle to draw in air, resulting in reduced oxygen in the bloodstream and a build-up of carbon dioxide.

The coronavirus has no set treatment, with most patients naturally fighting off the infection.

Those requiring hospitalisation are offered supportive care, like ventilation, while their immune system gets to work.

Officials urge people ward off the coronavirus by washing their hands regularly and maintaining social distancing.
If you have already binge-watched Tiger King and are looking for a way to make the most of your TV-time during lockdown, fashion documentaries make for a welcome distraction from the constant stream of bad news.

Lockdown can be a difficult experience but during periods of uncertainty the fashion world is renowned for providing much-needed escapism.

And even if youre wearing the same tracksuit you were four days ago, there is nothing quite like watching parades of showstopping gowns to help lift your spirits.

Recommended Rihanna makes British Vogue history wearing durag on cover

This week sees the much-anticipated Martin Margiela documentary In His Own Words finally arrive on UK televisions screens, in which the designer  who has never shown his face publicly  opens up for the first time about his love of fashion and the reason he decided to leave his eponymous label.

Whether its behind-the-scenes at the Met Gala in The First Monday in May, a celebration of the life and work of the enfant terrible of British fashion, Alexander McQueen, or an exclusive view into the world of Vogue magazine in The September Issue, there is much to be learned from each of them.

The documentaries arent just focused on high fashion, either, with Paris is Burning taking a look at the ball culture of New York City in the 1980s.

Whatever you are looking for, now is the time to take to the sofa, escape from reality and swot up on your fashion know-how. Here is The Independents roundup of the best fashion documentaries to watch right now.

Martin Margiela: In His Own Words

Martin Margiela: In His Own Words hits screens on Friday 10 April (Dogwoof)

The UK release of the fashion worlds latest documentary Martin Margiela: In His Own Words, is set to happen on Friday 10 April.

Directed by Reiner Holzemer, who also brought us Dries Van Noten documentary Dries in 2017, the film sees Martin Margiela himself open up for the first time ever about his childhood, the importance of anonymity, his inspirations, and the real reason he stepped down from his eponymous label in 2009.

The designer, who has never shown his face, remains hidden, with only his hands visible throughout the film as they write notes, touch childhood objects and turn the pages of old sketchbooks.

The documentary looks back at landmark moments from Margielas career and features interviews from fashion editor Carine Roitfeld, fashion journalist Cathy Horyn, and the designers former mentor, Jean Paul Gaultier.

Available from 10 April. Watch on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Curzon Home Cinema and Sky Store.

McQueen

The documentary follows the rise of British fashion designer Alexander McQueen (Rex)

McQueen was released in 2018 and gives a personal look at the life and career of late British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, whose life was tragically cut short in 2010.

Known as the enfant terrible of the fashion world, the designer is shown in his rawest states as the film includes real-life footage and interviews with those who were closest to him as he rose up from east London to the catwalks of Paris.

Out now. Watch on Netflix.

7 Days Out

7 Days Out explores how a couture fashion show comes together (Getty)

Netflix documentary 7 Days Out gives a behind-the-scenes look at the seven days leading up to a series of major live events.

Episode five of the programme, which first aired in 2018, explores how the late Karl Lagerfelds spring/summer 2018 couture show, which was held at the Grand Palais, came to fruition.

For the hour-long episode, director Andrew Rossi  who was also responsible for Met Gala documentary The First Monday  was given unprecedented access to the brand and its creative director prior to the show, documenting everything from the studio to the seamstresses in a bid to reveal just how much work it takes to deliver the sartorial spectacle Chanel fans have become so accustomed to.

Out now. Watch on Netflix.

Dior And I

Dior and I follows Raf Simons as he creates a collection in just eight weeks (Dior)

Frederic Tchengs Dior and I takes viewers inside the world of Christian Dior during the creation of Raf Simons first haute couture collection in 2012.

Released in 2014, the film charts Simons as he is challenged with creating his debut collection for the luxury fashion house in just eight weeks, from the first sketch to the final bow.

In addition to Simons creative journey, it provides a comprehensive look into the brands history, the story of Christian Dior himself and the team of dedicated designers and seamstresses that help bring the artistic directors vision to life.

Out now. Watch on Amazon Prime.

LAmour Fou

LAmour Fou explores the complicated life of Yves Saint Laurent (Les Films de Pierre)

This documentary delves into the personal life of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent as it follows the posthumous sale of the art collection he amassed with his long-term lover Pierre Berge.

Saint Laurent met Pierre Berge at the age of 20 and the two men remained together for the following 50 years, all the way up to Saint Laurents death in 2008, aged 71.

LAmour Fou traces the couples lifetime spent together through archive footage and exclusive interviews, while Berge candidly opens up about their relationship and Saint Laurents battle with depression, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts.

Out now. Watch on Amazon Prime.

The September Issue

The September Issue gives a behind-the-scenes look at Vogue magazine (Rex)

First released in 2007, The September Issue gives a behind-the-scenes look at how Vogue magazine comes to life, focusing on the US September 2007 issue, which weighed nearly five pounds and remains the publications largest to date.

The documentary gets up close and personal to legendary fashion editor Anna Wintour, as viewers are given an insight into the thoughts of one of the most mysterious women in fashion.

With unprecedented access, the film follows Wintour and her creative team as they create the magazines most important issue, heralding the autumn fashions and lifting the lid on the ins and outs of publishing.

Out now. Watch on Amazon Prime.

Vivienne Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist

Vivienne Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist reflects on the extraordinary career of Dame Vivienne Westwood (BBC)

Originally aired on BBC Two in 2018, Vivienne Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist reflects on the extraordinary career of Dame Vivienne Westwood.

This film charts Westwoods journey from her early struggle for success and activism to her ability to make punk mainstream.

Blending both archive and newly shot footage, the documentary is told in Westwoods own words, and through interviews with her inner circle of family, friends and collaborators.

Out now. Watch on Amazon Prime.

The First Monday In May

This documentary goes behind the scenes at the Met Gala (Getty) (Getty Images)

If you were left aghast at the news that this years Met Gala has been postponed, fear not because you can still relive the 2015 event from the comfort of your home.

An exclusive look behind the China: Through the Looking Glass-themed Met Gala, this documentary provides an unmissable insight into the biggest fashion night of the year, with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and Met Gala chair Andrew Bolton giving a behind-the-scenes glimpse at what goes into creating the extravagant event at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art.

Out now. Watch on Amazon Prime.

Paris Is Burning

Paris is Burning has become a cult classic (Rex)

Before the advent of RuPauls Drag Race and Pose, there was Paris Is Burning  a now-cult documentary chronicling the ball culture of New York City drag queens in the mid-to-late 1980s.

Shot over a period of seven years, the film documents New Yorks vibrant ballroom subculture and the communities involved in it as performers compete by vogueing and taking cues from the world of fashion.

Also touching on issues of racism and poverty, the documentary features interviews with a number of renowned drag queens, including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija and Dorian Corey.

Out now. Watch on Netflix.

Jeremy Scott: The Peoples Designer

Jeremy Scott is the creative director of Italian fashion house Moschino (Getty) (Getty Images)

Released in 2015, this documentary charts fashion designer Jeremy Scotts journey from humble beginnings in rural Missouri to his current position as creative director of Italian fashion house Moschino.

The film features a host of A-list cameos from Scotts celebrity friends, including Miley Cyrus, Rita Ora and Katy Perry, and provides an insight into the playful creations and personal life of one of Americas most influential designers.

Out now. Watch on Netflix.
Actor Anushka Sharma has condemned incidents of racism against people of northeastern states, during the coronavirus pandemic. She took to social media on Tuesday to condemn such acts and called for strict punishment against the perpetrators.

She wrote, Racism and Hatred needs to be met with strictest punishment! A few miscreants cannot create divide among Indians. Anushka was reacting to a news report about a Manipuri woman being spat on in Mumbai.

Racism and Hatred needs to be met with strictest punishment! A few miscreants cannot create divide among Indians.https://t.co/SD73QjtWcX  Anushka Sharma (@AnushkaSharma) April 7, 2020

Earlier actor Meiyang Chang, who is of Chinese descent, had also spoken about a similar incident, in which he was at the receiving end of a racially motivated verbal attack. Recalling the incident, Chang had told The Times of India in an interview, I go for a jog every day near my house in Mumbai. The other day, two guys sped past me on a bike, screaming corona and laughing. I wanted to scream back and hurl the choicest of gaalis, but I didnt see any point in it. How do you punish people for their stupidity or ignorance? Over the years, I have become used to these comments and yes, they are hurtful. I try to move on and be optimistic, but it does affect you. Chang later recorded a video message condemning racism.

Also read: Meiyang Chang features in powerful video on racism: My name is Chang and I am not coronavirus

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has also warned of strict action against those spreading communally divisive messages amid reports that several such videos have been doing the rounds on WhatsApp, TikTok and Twitter. Like Covid-19 virus, there is a communal virus too. I am warning those who are spreading wrong messages to citizens and uploading such videos even for the sake of fun. This Covid-19 virus sees no religion, he said in a Facebook live interaction.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
MERIDEN  Members of the public werent able to access this weeks remote City Council meeting, the councils first attempt at holding a virtual meeting since canceling in-person meetings to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Last week, the city posted a link along with detailed instructions on how to access the meeting, which was almost entirely focused on the pandemic. Many residents, however, werent able to view the meeting using the link due to what the city described as technical difficulties. The city used Microsoft Teams, a virtual video conferencing platform.

We apologize but we're experiencing technical difficulties with the online streaming of the meeting, the city posted on its website Monday night. A video of the meeting will be available in the very near future.

During the meeting, City Manager Tim Coon said the citys Information Technology Department informed him that we are very likely undergoing a denial of service cyber attack, which is restricting the access for people to get it online. On Tuesday morning, Coon said the IT Department informed him that many Microsoft Teams users also reported issues with the platform Monday.

According to the website Down Detector, which allows users of software platforms to report problems, dozens had issues with Microsoft Teams beginning 8 a.m. Monday. The reported problems peaked at 58 around 10:25 a.m., with 12 reported around the time of the council meeting.

A recording of Mondays meeting has been uploaded to the citys website.

Councilors, who tried to work through any potential issues during a test last week, also experienced problems accessing the meeting. Mayor Kevin Scarpati had to start the meeting late after experiencing technical issues, and several councilors couldnt log into Microsoft Teams, so they had to call in. Eleven of the councils 12 members participated in the 35 minute session.

The citys IT Department believes the issues experienced Monday night have been fixed. The council is scheduled to meet again Thursday to discuss tax relief for residents who cant pay their bill during the pandemic.

All municipalities have been authorized to hold meetings remotely for the foreseeable future. In an executive order signed last month, Gov. Ned Lamont set a list of requirements to hold remote meetings, which would normally be prohibited under open meeting laws. Under the order, the public must be able to hear and watch the remote meetings in real-time.

mzabierek@record-journal.com203-317-2279Twitter: @MatthewZabierek
Six students, who were staying at a private hostel in Ghaziabad, were allegedly thrashed by locals following reports that one of them had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi, police said on Tuesday.

The students, who are from different states, were staying in Radhey Shyam Vihar colony of Muradnagar, police said. After assaulting the students, the locals handed them over to the police.

"The youngsters have been put under quarantine after a medical checkup," Superintendent of Police Neeraj Kumar Jadaun told PTI.

At least 1,551 people linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation have been identified in Uttar Pradesh so far and 1,257 of them were put under quarantine.

With six persons testing positive for coronavirus, the number of cases in Uttar Pradesh climbed to 314 on Tuesday.

Uttar Pradesh has so far reported three coronavirus deaths, one each from Basti, Meerut and Varanasi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
00:00 | Lima, Apr. 7.

Below is a list of the main announcements made on day 22 of the emergency response:

So far, Peru has 2,561 positive cases out of a total of 20,414 samples taken . In addition, 997 citizens have already been discharged.
The duration of the election season itself is likely to shrink significantly. The presidential campaign, which typically dominates news coverage for much of the year, could look more like one of Britains six-week general election sprints. Should the two major American candidates return to the stump before the fall, they will most likely be crowded out by the grim accounting of the countrys worst pandemic in over a century.
The draft during the coronavirus pandemic threatens the life and health of people.

The Permanent Mission of the President of Ukraine to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea considers the ongoing spring campaign to draft residents of the Russia-occupied peninsula into the Russian army illegal and asks them to report such cases.

Read alsoQuarantine measures extended in occupied Crimea until late April

"We emphasize such actions by the Russian Federation are a persistent war crime, and the fact that the draft occurs during the [coronavirus] pandemic threatens the life and health of people," the Mission said.

"We appeal to Crimeans who do not want to join the Russian army and get a criminal sentence for dodging to report facts of illegal conscription and military service. After all, the evidence to be gathered will help in the work to stop illegal conscription in Crimea, using international leverage," it said.

The Ukrainian-based Prosecutor's Office for Crimea, together with human rights organizations, has already notified the International Criminal Court "of Russian war crimes in Crimea, including the forced conscription into the armed forces of the occupying state."
File photo taken on April 2, 2020 shows British Prime Minister Boris Johnson clapping for National Health Service staff outside 11 Downing Street in London, Britain. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was taken to intensive care on Monday night after his coronavirus symptoms worsened, Downing Street said. Johnson has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputize for him, a Downing Street spokesman said. (Pippa Fowles/No 10 Downing Street/Handout via Xinhua)

LONDON, April 6 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was taken to intensive care on Monday night after his coronavirus symptoms worsened, Downing Street said.

Johnson has asked British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputize for him, a Downing Street spokesman said.

The prime minister, 55, was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in London with "persistent symptoms" on Sunday night, 10 days after testing positive for coronavirus.

The spokesman said the prime minister was moved on the advice of his medical team and is receiving "excellent care."

"Since Sunday evening, the prime minister has been under the care of doctors at St Thomas' Hospital, in London, after being admitted with persistent symptoms of coronavirus," said a statement.

"Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the prime minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the intensive care unit at the hospital," the statement said.

"The PM is receiving excellent care, and thanks all NHS (National Health Service) staff for their hard work and dedication," it added.

Two uniformed police officers were stationed at the entrance to St Thomas' Hospital on Monday evening.

Throughout the day officers and police vehicles could be seen entering and exiting the central London hospital.

The death toll of those hospitalized in Britain who tested positive for the coronavirus reached 5,373 as of Sunday afternoon, a daily increase of 439, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

As of Monday morning, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Britain hit 51,608, up 3,802 in the past 24 hours, said the department.
Administrators of thousands of



WhatsApp groups here in Madhya Pradesh have changed their group settings, prohibiting other members from posting any message following the district administration's order to curb fake and posts during the coronavirus crisis.

Indore Collector Manish Singh issued an order on Monday, directing the administrators of all WhatsApp groups in the district to restrict the posts of other members.

Hence, the group administrators have changed the settings so as to authorise only them to post messages on the platform.

"Government officials engaged in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak were facing several problems due to flooding of fake news, inflammatory messages and rumours on social media. Hopefully, this order will help in preventing the spread of misinformation on social media," a district administration official told PTI.

Cases have been registered in two police station areas of the city under the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for spreading fake messages regarding coronavirus on social media, Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime Branch) Rajesh Dandotia said.

So far, three persons, including two WhatsApp group administrators, have been arrested here in connection with these cases, he said.

Earlier, the police got clues that the April 1 incident of stone-pelting in Tatpatti Bakhal area here took place following rumours spread on the social media.

Two women doctors were injured after stones were pelted at them when they went in the area for contact tracing of COVID-19 patients.

So far, 151 coronavirus cases have been reported Indore, which is an industrial hub. Of these, 13 people have died during treatment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Thousands of residential renters plan to stop paying their landlords this month in a nationwide strike as government negotiations stall and real estate agents claim they are being abused.

Tensions have reached a tipping point two weeks after the government introduced a raft of new coronavirus restrictions that have led to hundreds of thousands of workers being sacked or stood down and a moratorium implemented on evictions.

Thousands of renters plan to stop paying their landlords this month in a nationwide strike. Credit:Jim Rice

Despite expectations of an Australia-wide consensus, the national cabinet on Tuesday urged tenants and landlords to negotiate with each other and gave the states responsibility for residential regulation.

The impasse comes as a rent strike campaign is targeting up to 100 real estate agents across Victoria and NSW with letters from tenants, threatening a total freeze on rent payments. More than 16,000 Australians have signed up for the campaign.
Twelve new positive coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Karnataka, taking the total number of affected in the state to 175, the Health department said on Tuesday.

The state government said it will take a decision on the continuation of the 21 days lockdown that ends on April 14, after examining the report by a panel of health experts who have been tasked with devising an exit strategy, which is likely to be submitted in couple of days.

As of 5:00 PM on April7, cumulatively 175 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, it includes 4 deaths and 25 discharges, the department said in a bulletin.

Noting that 25 people getting recovered and discharged was a good and sign of confidence, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar briefing media about the bulletin said, "12 out of 30 districts in the state have remained and have continued to be crona free districts."



"Only in 18 districts there is impact and cases have been reported," he said, adding that Nanjanagudu, Gauribidanur and Bhatkal that had become "hot spots" for COVID-19 cases in the state have not reported any fresh cases.

Among the 12 new cases, four (one from Bagalkote, two from Bengaluru city and one from Bengaluru Rural) had attended Tablighi-Jamaat congregation at Delhi from March 13-18; while three from Mandya are contacts of patients with history of attending the Jamaat congregation.

Others include a 41-year old woman from Bagalkote, who is neighbour of a 75-year old man who died on April 3; 80-year old woman from Gadag with history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI); 68-year old male from Bengaluru with travel history to Dubai; and a woman (contact of a patient) and a man (with history of SARI) from Kalaburagi.

On the Tablighi-Jamaat congregation attendees, the Minister said from around 920 people samples collected so far, 623 are negative, 27 positive while the remaining results are still awaited.

Asked whether the government completed tracing all those who had attended the congregation, he said, we are waiting for some more information from the districts, once we have it, the details will be shared.

The department said that out of 146 active cases in the state, 143 patients (including 1 pregnant woman) are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 3 in ICU (one on oxygen and two on Ventilators).

It said, 9 out of total 175 cases detected and confirmed in the state so far are transit passengers of Kerala who have landed in our airports and being treated in Karnataka.

Those discharged include 16 patients from Bengaluru, four from Dakshina Kannada, two each from Kalaburagi and Davangere, and one from Bengaluru Rural; while among those dead are one each are reported from Kalaburgari, Bengaluru, Bagalkote and Tumakuru.

Regarding the lockdown extension in Karnataka, Kumar said the state government has not taken any decision, but there are talks on with committee of health experts about the way in which we should move forward.

"The committee consisting of Narayana Health founder- chairman Dr Devi Prasad Shetty and Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences director Dr C N Manjunath- is likely to submit its report in two days, after which government will take a decision and announce," he said.

In-charge District Secretaries who had had been to their respective districts in the last week of March on the directions of the CM and had reviewed the situation and measures taken there, have been asked again to go to districts this week.

Kumar said, in-charge District Secretaries, along with reviewing things, will also work on preparations for the future.

In a new move, the government has revised lab testing protocol adding influenza like illness (ILI) patients also for testing in the containment area.

Additional Chief Secretary Health and Family Welfare department Jawaid Akhtar said by adding ILI we have broadened the categories for collection of samples aimed at ramping up the testing, and this will further increase the requirement of testing kits.

"We have taken necessary action for that, at 8 places we are buying automated RNA extraction kits that will speed up frequency of testing in the labs," he added.

In another step, the Department of Health & Family Welfare has notified 8 hospitals as dedicated COVID-19 hospitals.

The designated hospitals are Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital (Raichur), Bidar Institute of Medical Sciences, Kodagu Institute of Medical Sciences, Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences,Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences, Belgaum Institute of Medical Sciences.

Also,Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (Dharwad) and District Hospital (Koppal).

Meanwhile,three activists of Muslim outfits have filed separate complaints with the police in Dakshina Kannada district against provocative posts being circulated on the social media 'attacking' the Muslim community.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hi! I am an Assistant City Editor for the education beat, which means I help with breaking news and all things K-12 or higher education. Any tips or story ideas can be sent to me at hlht46@mail.missouri.edu or in the newsroom at 882-5720.

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SAO PAULO, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. (NYSE: GOL and B3: GOLL4), Brazil's premier domestic airline, provides its Investor Update. The information below for the quarter ended in March 2020 is preliminary and unaudited .

Overall Commentary GOL expects Earnings Per Share (EPS) and Earnings Per American Depositary Share (EPADS) for 1Q20 of approximately R$0.25 1 and US$0.10 1 , respectively.





EBITDA 2,3 margin for the first quarter is expected to be 44% to 46%, an increase in relation to the quarter ended in March 2019 (29.7% 2 ).





Passenger unit revenue (PRASK) for the first quarter is expected to be down approximately 1% year-over-year. GOL expects unit revenue (RASK) to be in line with 1Q19.





Non-fuel unit costs (CASK ex-fuel) are expected to decrease by approximately 23% 2 ,3 compared to 1Q19, primarily due to increased productivity (aircraft utilization and operating efficiency), partially offset by increased depreciation from nine (net) additional aircraft in the fleet. Fuel unit costs (CASK fuel) are expected to increase by approximately 3% year-over-year, negatively impacted by a 3% increase in the average fuel price, partially offset by a 10% reduction in fuel consumption per flight hour primarily due to an increase in utilization of 737-700s during March 2020.





GOL's financial leverage, as measured by the Net Debt4/LTM EBITDA ratio, was approximately 2.8x at the end of the March 2020 quarter. The Company amortized approximately R$490 million of debt in the quarter, and total liquidity was at R$4.3 billion, comprised of R$3.0 billion in cash and investments and R$1.3 billion in receivables. And including R$1.7 billion of prepaid expenses, maintenance reserves and security deposits, liquidity totaled around R$6 billion.

Preliminary and Unaudited Projections

EBITDA Margin2,3 EBIT Margin2,3 Other Revenue (cargo, loyalty, other) Average fuel price per liter Average exchange rate

Passenger unit revenue (PRASK) CASK Ex-fuel2,3 Total Demand  RPK Total Capacity  ASK Total Capacity  Seats 1Q20 44% - 46% 27% - 29% 6% of total net revenues R$2.78 - R$2.84 R$4.45 1Q20 vs. 1Q19 Down ~1% Down ~23% Down ~7% Down ~4% Down ~3%

1. Excluding gains and losses on currency and Exchangeable Senior Notes.

2. Excluding non-recurring expenses of approximately R$41 million in 1Q19 and R$159 million in 1Q20.

3. Including net results of approximately R$595 million related to aircraft sales in 1Q20.

4. Excluding perpetual notes and Exchangeable Senior Notes.

Recent Developments and Considerations for the Next 90 Days Recent Developments The Covid-19 pandemic began affecting GOL's operations in mid-March 2020, and, therefore had a limited effect on first quarter performance. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic related shutdown in Brazil and to prepare for a reduction in demand and revenues, GOL took measures to preserve cash for the next 90 days through cost reductions, new payment terms, and rollovers. Below is a summary of the Company's main initiatives: Fixed cost reductions: (i) 50% reduction in payroll through several compensation and deferral initiatives (number of hours, extra hours, unpaid leave, unpaid vacation, suspension of profit sharing payments, tax deferrals and wage cuts of 35% for all employees and 40% for the top 30 executives); and (ii) grace period of six months and deferral of lease payments for the same period with aircraft lessors;

Variable cost reductions from the 93% reduction in supply measured in ASK and: (i) deferral of all fuel payments to installments to be paid after September 30, 2020; (ii) suspension of navigation fees and public airports fees; (iii) suspension of all projects and investments for 180 days; (iv) extension of payment terms for engine maintenance by up to 90-180 days; (v) extension of Capex payment terms by up to 90-180 days; and (vi) elimination of PDPs for the next 12 months;

Government support: taxes and fees suspended for 2Q20; and

Financial costs and payments: (i) rollover of existing local bank short-term maturities with local banks and increased credit limits to maintain all existing working capital lines (increased to incorporate the depreciated Brazilian real); and (ii) extension of the quarter's R$156 million local debentures amortization to 2022 (all covenant waivers have been approved by debenture holders). Considerations for the Next 90 Days In support of the Brazilian Government's actions to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus, which since mid-March have included widespread flight bans and travel restrictions that closed most of Brazil's skies to air traffic, GOL reduced its flight offer to an essential network of 50 daily flights between the Sao Paulo International Airport in Guarulhos (GRU) and the 26 State capitals of Brazil and the city of Brasilia. GOL continues to work with the Brazilian Government to maintain minimum flight links for emergency reasons, and to operate rescue and medical flights when requested to do so. Due to this reduction in capacity, during the second half of March we removed 120 aircraft from operations. GOL expects to maintain the majority of its fleet on the ground during April and May. We therefore expect to record ineffectiveness on our fuel hedges as an exceptional item in our 1Q20 and 2Q20 financial results. We currently estimate that this will amount to an extraordinary financial expense of approximately R$80 million in 1Q20 and R$200 million in 2Q20. GOL has a solid balance sheet and total liquidity was R$4.3 billion on March 31, 2020. Liquidity totaled around R$6 billion including R$1.7 billion of prepaid expenses, maintenance reserves and security deposits. Additionally, the Company owns approximately R$1.5 billion of assets unencumbered and debt free. We are grateful to the Government of Brazil for its foresight and speed of response in recognizing Brazilian airlines' exposure to the Covid-19 pandemic, as our operations fall under the necessary Government restrictions to stop the pandemic. We further support the governmental actions to offset, at least partially, the impact of Covid-19 on the passenger transportation industry. Given the continued uncertainty about the impact and duration of the Covid-19 pandemic, GOL is suspending its 2020 and 2021 guidance until the operating environment returns to normal. In the meantime, GOL will continue to focus on delivering cost savings, protecting jobs, working with the Brazilian Government, and preparing for the return to normal service in due course.

About GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A.

GOL serves more than 37 million passengers annually. With Brazil's largest network, GOL offers customers more than 750 daily flights to over 100 destinations in Brazil and in South America, the Caribbean and the United States. GOLLOG's cargo transportation and logistics business serves more than 3,400 Brazilian municipalities and more than 200 international destinations in 95 countries. SMILES allows over 16 million registered clients to accumulate miles and redeem tickets to more than 700 destinations worldwide on the GOL partner network. Headquartered in Sao Paulo, GOL has a team of approximately 16,000 highly skilled aviation professionals and operates a fleet of 137 Boeing 737 aircraft, delivering Brazil's top on-time performance and an industry leading 19-year safety record. GOL has invested billions of Reais in facilities, products and services and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. GOL's shares are traded on the NYSE (GOL) and the B3 (GOLL4). For further information, visit www.voegol.com.br/ir.

Disclaimer

The information contained in this press release has not been subject to any independent audit or review and contains "forward-looking" statements, estimates and projections that relate to future events, which are, by their nature, subject to significant risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release including, without limitation, those regarding GOL's future financial position and results of operations, strategy, plans, objectives, goals and targets, future developments in the markets in which GOL operates or is seeking to operate, and any statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words "believe", "expect", "aim", "intend", "will", "may", "project", "estimate", "anticipate", "predict", "seek", "should" or similar words or expressions, are forward-looking statements. The future events referred to in these forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors, many of which are beyond GOL's control, that may cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. These forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding GOL's present and future business strategies and the environment in which GOL will operate in the future and are not a guarantee of future performance. Such forward-looking statements speak only as at the date on which they are made. None of GOL or any of its affiliates, officers, directors, employees and agents undertakes any duty or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law. None of GOL or any of its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, professional advisors and agents make any representation, warranty or prediction that the results anticipated by such forward-looking statements will be achieved, and such forward-looking statements represent, in each case, only one of many possible scenarios and should not be viewed as the most likely or standard scenario. Although GOL believes that the estimates and projections in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they may prove materially incorrect and actual results may materially differ. As a result, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements.

Non-GAAP Measures

To be consistent with industry practice, we disclose so-called non-GAAP financial measures which are not recognized under IFRS or U.S. GAAP, including "Net Debt", "Adjusted Net Debt", "total liquidity" and "EBITDA". Our management believes that disclosure of non-GAAP measures provides useful information to investors, financial analysts and the public in their review of our operating performance and their comparison of our operating performance to the operating performance of other companies in the same industry and other industries. However, these non-GAAP items do not have standardized meanings and may not be directly comparable to similarly-titled items adopted by other companies. Potential investors should not rely on information not recognized under IFRS as a substitute for the GAAP measures of earnings or liquidity in making an investment decision.

Investor Relations

[email protected]

www.voegol.com.br/ir

+55(11) 2128-4700

Media Relations

Becky Nye, Montieth & Company

[email protected]

+1 646 864 3517

SOURCE GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A.
A 10-year-old girl has done her best to raise the spirits of NHS workers by singing Well Meet Again in tribute to them.

Sophie Tinger from Hertfordshire dedicated her performance of Vera Lynns 1939 classic to NHS workers to thank them for their work dealing with coronavirus.

The video was posted on Twitter by her cousin Andrew Tenzer on April 5.

At the start of the video Sophie says: Hi everybody, I hate this isolation and quarantine thing so Im going to cheer you up by doing a nice song called Well Meet Again by Vera Lynn.

Anyone whos watching from NHS I just want to say I really appreciate your work. Thank you so much for looking after us.

Dame Vera Lynns song soared the iTunes rankings this week after the Queen referenced it in her address to the nation on Sunday.

It is currently number 22 on the UK charts having climbed 830 places after the Queens address.

Sophie had originally learned the song to perform elderly people at care homes but when the government announced social distancing measures, she decided not to waste the song.

Sophie Tinger, 10, from Hertfordshire, sang a beautiful cover of Vera Lynn's 1939 classic We'll Meet Again to thank NHS staff for their work dealing with coronavirus

She told Mirror Online: This song means a lot to me because I would like to meet my friends and family again, but I dont know where and when and gives people joy and hope like it did in the war.

I think they are so brave and bold to go to work where they could catch coronavirus.

'50% chance' We'll Meet Again will be the most popular UK single of 2020 Leading bookmaker Coral makes it 2-1 for Vera Lynn's 'We'll Meet Again' to top the UK single charts in 2020 following the Queen's address to the nation last night. 'After the Queen quoted lyrics from Vera Lynn's iconic World War 2 song in her address to the nation, we think there is a strong chance We'll Meet Again will top the UK singles charts in 2020,' said the bookmaker's John Hill. Advertisement

I think they are amazing how they not only take care of the sick people but save their lives.

While we are just staying at home, they are working day and night and I am so grateful to them.

This time is sad but I try to remember that being inside is saving lives and it gives me time to think and be grateful to the NHS and all the people working to help us.

The performance came after the Queen warned Britons, who have been in lockdown for almost two weeks with thousands dead after contracting Covid-19, 'may have more still to endure'.

But she echoed the words of Forces' Sweetheart, who turned 103 last month, as she said: 'We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.'
EnterpriseDB, the enterprise Postgres company, today announced that it is extending its technical support offerings to include PostgreSQL on Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. The adoption of Postgres as the preferred data store for a wide array of use cases continues to grow, and there is an increasing need for enterprise-level technical support and administration on cloud computing platforms.

With a large team of remote, globally distributed Postgres experts, EnterpriseDB delivers best-in-class services to help users realise their goals especially when it comes to ensuring continuity for mission-critical workloads.

The services are:

Cloud DBA Provides remote database administration services that include monitoring, management and maintenance of Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL and Microsoft Azure Database for PostgreSQL. EDB team members work with clients to help optimize and operate instances running on these cloud platforms. Cloud DBA service provides an economical solution for customers who need round-the-clock expert support for and management of cloud-hosted Postgres.

Provides remote database administration services that include monitoring, management and maintenance of Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL and Microsoft Azure Database for PostgreSQL. EDB team members work with clients to help optimize and operate instances running on these cloud platforms. Cloud DBA service provides an economical solution for customers who need round-the-clock expert support for and management of cloud-hosted Postgres. PostgreSQL Technical Support Gives users of Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL timely, dependable 24x7 professional support from some of the world's most knowledgeable Postgres engineers.

"With the sudden rapid shift in the economy, organisations are scrambling to figure out how they can continue to operate reliably and at peak efficiency while bringing down costs," said John Murphy, senior vice president, products, EnterpriseDB. "We believe that, especially in times like these, we must stay obsessively focused on helping organisations succeed with Postgres, regardless of which version they're using or where. These services are just one way we're delivering on that goal."

"Many enterprises, in their early stages of adoption of PostgreSQL, lack the expertise in their own staff to manage and administer databases. These new support services from EnterpriseDB should offer attractive, economical options that break down technical barriers and enable them to get their jobs done more quickly and efficiently," said Carl Olofson, research vice president for data management software, IDC.

Learn More

Technical PostgreSQL Support and DBA Services for AWS RDS and Azure (blog post)

About EnterpriseDB Corporation

EnterpriseDB (EDB), the enterprise Postgres company, delivers an open source-based data management platform, optimized for greater scalability, security, and reliability. EDB Postgres makes organizations smarter while reducing risk and complexity with enterprise-proven management tools, security enhancements, and Oracle compatibility. Over 4,000 customers worldwide deploy diverse workloads including transaction processing, data warehousing, customer analytics and web-based applications, both on-premise and in the cloud. EnterpriseDB is based in Bedford, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.EnterpriseDB.com.

EnterpriseDB is a registered trademark of EnterpriseDB Corporation. EDB and EDB Postgres are trademarks of EnterpriseDB Corporation. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle, Inc. Other trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005592/en/

Contacts:

Ellie Duncombe

Account Executive

Octopus Group

+44 7983011229
On Tuesday, President Trump acknowledged the growing signs of disparity, and said that federal authorities were working to provide statistics over the next two or three days that might help examine the issue. Why is it that the African-American community is so much, numerous times more than everybody else? he said at a daily briefing on the coronavirus.

For many public health experts, the reasons behind the disparities are not difficult to explain, the result of longstanding structural inequalities. At a time when the authorities have advocated staying home as the best way to avoid the virus, black Americans disproportionately belong to part of the work force that does not have the luxury of working from home, experts said. That places them at high risk for contracting the highly infectious disease in transit or at work.

Ms. Levi, the medical assistant from Chicago who fell ill, thinks that her daily bus ride to work could have been the source of her exposure. Or, she said, she could have picked it up in the hospital where she works, at the grocery store, or from food served to her.

Im just not sure, said Ms. Levi, 45, who has asthma and high blood pressure.

Longstanding inequalities also make African-Americans less likely to be insured, and more likely to have existing health conditions and face racial bias that prevents them from getting proper treatment.

Initial indications are that doctors are less likely to refer African-Americans for testing when they visit a clinic with symptoms of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Since the disease can progress quickly, researchers say, a disparity in testing can lead to considerably worse outcomes. A lack of early communication about the threat of Covid-19 and confusing messages that followed left an information vacuum in some black communities that allowed false rumors to fester that black people were immune to the disease. Some places ended up behind in taking measures to slow the spread.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed concern over the safety of nursing and medical staff from the state who have tested positive for coronavirus in the national capital.

In a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Vijayan urged the administration to provide utmost protection to nurses and medical staff from Kerala.

Were hearing the news that some nurses have tested positive for #COVID19 in Delhi. I would like to draw your attention to the situation which has been reported to us regarding the plight of nurses in Delhi, Vijayan wrote.

The letter further states, "I request that immediate action may be taken to alleviate concerns of nurses from Kerala working in Delhi. Concerned officials may be directed to urgently ensure that utmost protection is given to them". https://t.co/zlf23e5hJN  ANI (@ANI) April 6, 2020

I request that immediate action may be taken to alleviate concerns of nurses from Kerala working in Delhi. Concerned officials may be directed to urgently ensure that utmost protection is given to them, the letter read.

With as many as 523 people testing positive for coronavirus in the national capital, Delhi accounts for the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in the country. 7 people have died from the infection here while 19 people have made a recovery, as per the health ministrys data.

Kerala, on the other hand, stands fifth on the Covid-19 statewise tally with roughly around 400 cases. The number of active Covid-19 cases in the state is 327 coronavirus cases. As per the latest data by the Ministry of Health, Kerala has witnessed two deaths due to Covid-19 while 58 people have successfully recovered.

The number of coronavirus cases in the country on Tuesday rose to 4,421 which accounts for 3,981 active Covid-19 cases in the country. 114 people have lost their lives to the deadly contagion while 325 patients have been cured or discharged.
The Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA) has urged government to include every health worker in the stimulus package that has been set aside for frontline health personnel in the fight against Coronavirus.



President of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo speaking in an interview on Peace FM's 'Platform 'programme, Monday, said it is not wrong for only 'frontline' health workers to be covered by the insurance package.



"It should cover everybody because we are all at risk . . . the initiative is good and we are grateful. But every nurse or midwife everywhere is exposed," she said.



Listen to her in the interview below





President Akufo-Addo in a nationwide television address announced that effective April 2020, all frontline health workers in the pandemic fight will among other things receive and an additional allowance of 50% of the basic salary per month for the next three months as well as a three month tax holiday.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Figure Rwandan President Paul Kagame, second from left in the front group, first lady Jeannette Kagame, third from left, African Union President Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, left, and European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker light the flame of hope on April 7, 2019, the first day of the commemoration week of the 25th anniversary of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, in Rwanda's capital, Kigali. / Embassy of Rwanda



By Yi Whan-woo



Rwandan Ambassador to Korea Dalila Yasmin Amri Sued has had reasons to endure challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in her first upcoming observance in Seoul, April 7, of the anniversary of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.





Rwandan Ambassador to Korea Dalila Yasmin Amri Sued will observe her first "Kwibuka" here after taking office in October 2019. / Embassy of Rwanda

Serving in Korea since October 2019, she has been tasked with sharing the new theme, "Remember-Unite-Renew," of "Kwibuka," weeklong events and activities held worldwide to remember the massacre of the Tutsi by the Hutu-led extremist government.



The three pillars were introduced as, 26 years after the mass murder, there have been attempts for cover-ups and denial of the genocide that took more than 1 million lives from April 7 to mid-July 1994.



"It reaffirms our fight against all attempts by negative forces to hide and distort the truth of this tragic event," Ambassador Amri Sued told The Korea Times in a recent written interview.



She said the commemoration therefore will go on this year in Korea, although it will be kept low-key in line with the Seoul government's social distancing campaign to prevent spread of the coronavirus.



The envoy noted this year is the 70th anniversary of the Korean War and something South Koreans and Rwandans could both relate to; the common history of knowing total devastation and mass loss of lives and the rebuilding of a country afterward.



"Rwandans are very much impressed by the quick economic recovery and growth of the Republic of Korea having endured total devastation caused by the tragic and disastrous Korean War," Amri Sued said.



With 70 percent of Rwanda's population being young, the country has been underscoring their role to inherit the spirit of "Kwibuka" and their role in fighting and combating the ideology that enabled the genocide.



Such efforts could give a lesson to South Korea, with many young South Koreans being indifferent toward North Korea or skeptical of possible re-unification of the Peninsula.



Before the coronavirus outbreak, Rwanda's economy had grown at an annual average rate of 8 percent. This made the country one of Africa's fastest-growing economies.



On Jan. 26, 2018, the U.N. General Assembly officially proclaimed April 7 of each year as "International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda."





Thousands of Rwandans hold candles inside the AMAHORO (Peace) Stadium, April 7, 2019 to commemorate victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. / Embassy of Rwanda
John Lennox: COVID-19 a 'huge loudspeaker,' rousing humanity to seek God amid pain

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Acclaimed mathematician and philosopher of science John Lennox believes the coronavirus has forced an opportunity for humanity to wrestle with life's deepest questions, to find God amid heartbreak.

In a video interview with Kharis Productions CEO Iain Morris, Lennox elaborated on themes he explores in his new short book, Where is God in a Coronavirus World?

When the disease first began to spread, Lennox knew the number of cases would grow exponentially, he said, noting his knowledge of statistics.

"I thought this is going to be utterly unique and devastating. And I thought, 'Look, I'm locked down. I need to think about how to speak into this situation," he explained.

It took Lennox approximately one week to write the book, spending eight to 12 hours per day on it.

In one of the chapters, he addresses a common objection to the Christian faith, namely, "How can there be a loving God who presides over human suffering?" relating it specifically to the coronavirus.

The atheist solution to this quandary is this is essentially "we've got what we've got so we have to put up with it," he surmised, but that falls short.

"Atheism actually removes the very concept of good and evil. So there's no point in calling this kind of thing natural evil, this disaster, if there is no such thing as evil," the Christian apologist said.

Furthermore, he asserted, atheism removes any possible hope.

Yet the Gospel provides hope because it speaks about a God well-acquainted with suffering; at the heart of the Christian faith is God on a cross.

"That tells me that God has not remained distant from our human suffering but He himself has become part of it," he said.

Asked how Christians can give counsel in a way that does not sound cliche but speaks to the hearts of people in a real way during the ongoing pandemic, Lennox recalled Christ's interactions with Martha and Mary when Lazarus died.

"What I find helpful is to see the ways in which Jesus treated people in a tragedy," he said.

Amid Mary and Martha's devastation at the loss of their brother, Scripture recounts that Jesus wept, he noted.

"Sometimes we need to weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn. And a touch on the shoulder  if you were allowed to do it these days  a hug, and weeping can get through a veil of tears much better than trivial answers and just saying something for the sake of it," Lennox said.

"We don't know what to say and so we need to be honest about it and keep quiet. This thing is so big, as far as I can see. We've never been there before. And honesty tells me we're at a loss facing it."

While some have suggested that God is speaking through the coronavirus, Lennox cautioned against saying it was a divine judgment, noting that in the Bible, when such plagues were indeed a judgment on a nation it resulted from a direct word from God.

"As far as I know we do not have God's direct word on COVID-19. And, therefore, we have to be very careful ... because Jesus himself made it abundantly clear that not all tragedy or catastrophe or disease results from one group of people being worse than others," he said.

He elaborated that when Jesus was on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, as is described in Luke 13, some of the people present told him of Galileans whose blood Pilate and his armies had massacred. Yet Jesus then described another event that happened there, the collapse of the tower of Siloam, which killed 18 people. Jesus then pointed out that those whom the towers collapsed on and killed were no worse sinners than everyone else living in Jerusalem at the time.

"So we cannot just take any event and judge it and say 'Ah, that is the judgment of God,'" Lennox said of the coronavirus.

When Christians say specific disasters are caused by God, people do not usually start thinking about God but the person who made that determination, thinking characterized with outrage, he observed, when what is needed is a more nuanced view.

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains," Lennox said, quoting author C.S. Lewis, "it is His megaphone to rouse a dead world."

"From that perspective, it seems to me that COVID-19 might well function as a huge loudspeaker. I can see that happening because it reminds us of our vulnerability and our mortality.



"If these events induce any of us to look to the God, who, to be honest, we might have ignored for years, and help us to think about the matter of the fact that we are mortal and someday we'll have to face Him, then something good could come out of it, as well as all the pain and evil."
Donald Trump said he spoke to Joe Biden, his likely general election foe, about the federal coronavirus response as he touted a new deal with a private-sector firm to make 55.5m protective face masks a month on a day when US stock markets rebounded from a virus-triggered drop as he contradicted his health advisers by saying he sees a "short period of time" remaining in the national lockdown.

In another briefing that veered from virus-related topic to topic, the president suggested he might help a US Navy aircraft carrier commander who was fired for raising concerns about Covid-19 spreading through his crew and retaliate against countries that refuse to ship treatment medications to the United States. Mr Trump was more open to a second round of direct payments to Americans than his top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, by saying more direct deposits are "under serious discussion" with lawmakers as part of a fourth coronavirus aide measure many expect as soon as this month; Mr Kudlow would not commit the White House to wanting a fourth bill earlier Monday.

As his administration have warned the next few weeks, all of April, would be the "peak" in many hard-hit cities, the president predicted the worst of the virus and its death toll will come during what he predicted would be a "rough more than a little week." The president again said he sees a "light at the end of the tunnel" even as his public health team warns of hundreds of thousands of cases and deaths.

But, in another  yet slight  contrast, the president's top infectious disease adviser, Anthony Fauci, told reporters "we might not ever go completely back" to the social and health norms of the pre-Covid era. Mr Trump, however, has said he wants the country to be "open for business" like it was before the outbreak as soon as possible because it isn't "built" to be shutdown.

The president called their 15-minute conversation "warm" and "wonderful," saying the likely future foes "talked about pretty much this," meaning the Covid-19 outbreak.

"He gave me his point of view, and I understood that," Mr Trump said during his nightly virus press conference. "And it was really good. Really nice. I appreciate his calling." But he did not give any indication that he and his possible replacement agree on just what the federal government should be doing about the pandemic outbreak.

Mr Biden leads Mr Trump in most national polls about a one-on-one general election race, but the two are very close in the six or seven swing states that should decide the race.

On a day US stock markets rebounded with big gains, Mr Trump announced the end of his administration's fight with 3M.

He said that company has agreed to make 55.5m protective face masks each month for "frontline" medical workers. "So the 3M saga ends very happily," he said after criticising the company and its executives for weeks.

Mr Trump also sounded a somber tone about UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who on Monday was transferred to an intensive care unit in a London hospital after being admitted there after being diagnosed with coronavirus.

Mr Trump said "Americans are praying for Boris Johnson" and urged genius' drug companies to 'contact London."

While he described his "friend" Mr Johnson as "strong" and resolute" and someone who "doesn't give up, Mr Trump also gave this ominous assessment: "When you get brought into intensive care, that gets very, very serious."
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Published April 6, 2020

Donations near $23,000 to assist students

One week novel coronavirus was halfway around the world. The next week, it was at our doorstep and given a laboratory name: COVID-19.

To reduce the spread of the virus, almost immediately, colleges and universities across the nation were closing classrooms and moving to online learning. The University of Louisiana Monroe was one of the first to transition to remote classes.

But the virus seems to know no bounds. Students were encouraged to leave residence halls and return to their homes. It was a disruption for all, but some students faced challenges beyond tossing clothes in boxes. Working students or family members lost jobs; many depended on campus technology for online access; others had bills to pay or needed food. What began as a health crisis; for many students, it became a financial crisis as well.

The ULM Foundation, under the leadership of its Executive Director Susan Chappell, with Dr. Michael Camille, Vice President for Information Services and Student Success, led a committee that quickly established the Financial Emergency Fund for students. A webpage was added to ulm.edu, where students could confidentially apply for assistance. Donations can be made on the same page.

The call went out, and Warhawk alumni and the community responded. As of April 6, donations to the fund totaled almost $23,000 and 350 students had applied to the fund.

While we are all impacted by these unprecedented times, the response from donors in one week providing critical funds for students in dire need, is an example of how the American people pull together, nurture hope, and make a difference in the lives of others. The Financial Emergency Fund will continue to accept donations and disburse to students over the coming months as the need will continue. May God bless you all, stated Chappell.

Sami Owens, Executive Director of Recruitment and Admissions, serves on the emergency fund committee. She and other members assessed the student applications and provided assistance checks as soon as possible. Currently, the committee has awarded more than $15,000. The deadline to apply for the fund was April 6, but if donations continue and students continue to apply, that could date be extended.

Owens said theres not one greatest need  most students have multiple needs.

Weve seen a lot of independent students who dont rely on parents for any financial help and have now lost their jobs. Weve seen some whose parents and families have been laid off and cant support them anymore, and weve also seen a lot of independent students with dependents of their own who are now out of a job and cant feed their family. Its all so heartbreaking, said Owens.

In a letter thanking donors, Chappell provided general information about the student requests:

 Loss of jobs with no other opportunities for work.

 Many are ineligible for unemployment and/or SNAP benefits. If approved, the amount is too low cover needs.

 Campus residents moved in with friends or returned home, but are without computers and/or internet access.

 Parents that support students are laid off or furloughed.

 Most requests are to pay rent, car insurance, car notes, internet services, phone bills, groceries, necessities, etc.

 International students with no way to go home and their families who send money are also unable to work. Some have also lost their off-campus jobs.

 A few students are dealing with COVID-19 in their own families.

The COVID-19 crisis persists, and as a result, the needs of ULM students persist. Donations will continue to be accepted and funds distributed to students in need.
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Wisconsin voters braved a chaotic  and potentially life-threatening  march to the polls Tuesday after a bitter partisan clash resulted in in-person voting as scheduled with no extension of absentee voting despite the pandemic.

'Welcome to the S*** Show!' wrote the state's lieutenant governor, Mandela Barnes, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a lower court ruling to allow more time for voters to send in absentee ballots.

State voters faced long lines up at polling places, spaced with several feet between them seeking to avoid transmission of the coronavirus, amid warnings from Democrats and some election officials that voting should be delayed.

Voting in 2020: Neither voter nor election official was taking any risks at the Riverside University High School in Milwaukee

No uncertain message: Donald Trump put aside urging people to stay at home with this tweet

People vote at Riverside High School for Wisconsin's primary election Tuesday April 7, 2020, in Milwaukee. Republicans blocked the Democratic governor's effort to delay the election and extend absentee voting

Stay safe: Poll workers were given protective gear to deal with voters

Start the day: City of Oconomowoc poll worker Abbie Carpenter sanitized a voting booth inside the former Kmart building before voters arrived

Social distance: In Hudson, Wisconsin, voters were careful to stay six feet apart - with poll workers putting traffic cones as indicators

High price for democracy: People stood in line to vote in Milwaukee after an election the governor had tried to stop

Curbside voting: In Sun Prairie, officials organized curbside voting to let people stay in their cars to minimize contact

Inside the polls: At a polling place in Sun Prairie, voters and workers were separated by Plexiglas

Thanks to heroes: Poll workers got a thank-you in Milwaukee

Should be safe: The shortage of masks prompted this response in Milwaukee

Many wore face masks as they waited to cast their ballots in a state that has featured bitter partisan divisions. Thousands of poll workers, many of them elderly, dropped out citing concern for their own safety. National Guard members helped fill the breech.

Democrats tried to extend mail-in voting, but were blocked by Republicans.

'Good morning and welcome to the S*** Show!' Barnes Tweeted at the start of in-person voting. 'Todays episode has been produced by the Supreme Court and directed by the incomparable Speaker and Senate Majority leader duo,' she added.

The election took place even though Wisconsin, like most U.S. states, has imposed a stay-at-home order on its residents. In Milwaukee, there were just five polling stations  down from 180.

More than a dozen other states have postponed their elections in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has transformed Americans' daily lives and plunged the economy into an apparent recession.

Election volunteer Nancy Gavney verifies voter and witness signatures on absentee ballots as they are counted at the City Hall during the presidential primary election held amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Beloit, Wisconsin, U.S. April 7, 2020. The political fight foreshadows a clash over absentee voting in November

A man checks in to cast his ballot in at a Democratic presidential primary election at the Kenosha Bible Church gym in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on April 7, 2020

Robert Forrestal, left, wears a full face chemical shield to protect against the spread of coronavirus, as he votes Tuesday, April 7, 2020, at the Janesville Mall in Janesville, Wis.

'Good morning and welcome to the S*** Show!' wrote state Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes

Former Vice President Joe Biden is calling for expanded absentee voting amid the pandemic

In deciding separate lawsuits brought by Republicans, the state Supreme Court blocked Democratic Governor Tony Evers' order to delay the election until June and the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal judge's decision extending absentee voting, instead ruling ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday to be counted.

'Now voters will be forced to choose between their health and their right to vote, an untenable choice that responsible public officials tried to avoid,' said Satya Rhodes-Conway, the Democratic mayor of Madison, Wisconsin.

More than 2,400 people in Wisconsin were infected as of Monday, according to a local CBS affiliate.

The angry clash over voting procedures foreshadowed certain drama in November. President Donald Trump has already attacked mail-in voting as insecure, even many states already allow it. 'I think a lot of people cheat with mail-in voting,' Trump said at the White House days ago.

His expected rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, has said there may need to be increases in mail-in voting.

'I think it's time we start thinking about how we're going to hold elections . . . Is it going to mostly be by mail, which is not the preferred route for everyone? How are we going to do that? How are we going to make it available to everybody?' he told ABC's 'This Week' Sunday.

More than half of Wisconsin's municipalities reported shortages of poll workers, prompting the Midwestern state to call up 2,400 National Guard troops to assist.

The legal maneuvering overshadowed the Democratic presidential primary in Wisconsin, the first nominating contest held since March 17 in the race to pick a challenger to Trump for the Nov. 3 election. The outbreak has pushed front-runner Joe Biden and rival Bernie Sanders off the campaign trail.

Former Vice President Biden has built a nearly insurmountable lead over Senator Sanders in the delegates who will pick the nominee at the national convention this summer. The convention, scheduled to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has been postponed to August from July by the pandemic.

After a late-night meeting on Monday, the Wisconsin Elections Commission said no results of Tuesday's voting would be released until April 13, the deadline for absentee ballots postmarked by Tuesday to be received.

In Milwaukee, the health commissioner in Wisconsin's biggest city, Jeanette Kowalik, asked voters to wear masks, avoid reusing pens and stand at least six feet apart.

"I'm sorry, I wish I had the authority to protect us from this," she wrote on Twitter.
Homes in Ramsgate, England.(Richard Baker/In Pictures via Getty)

UK house price growth stagnated in March when the coronavirus first began to ripple through the property market, new figures show.

Some experts say it is too early to confidently forecast the long-term impact of the coronavirus on prices  but others are predicting only a short-lived and limited drop.

The average cost of a UK property sold last month was just over 240,000 ($295,170), no change on the previous month, according to lender Halifax and IHS Markit.

It marked the first month prices had not risen since October, amid heightened economic uncertainty as the outbreak began to spread in Britain.

Read more: Steepest downturn in UK construction as COVID-19 hits industry

But the data largely reflects sales agreed before the pandemic began to cripple the UK economy and an unprecedented lockdown paralysed most property market activity. The government has now urged against all but essential house moves.

Some experts suggest house price data is increasingly unreliable and irrelevant in the current climate. With sale numbers falling sharply, Halifax itself admitted calculating average prices would become more challenging.

With no sales data and no history of this sort of event happening, all it is is guesswork. Right now, we should all be thankful for our homes as a place to shelter and protect our family, said Ben Johnson, director of off-market property app Houso.

Many estate agents are still taking punts however. Some expect price growth to continue to stagnate or go into reverse. Knight Frank forecasts released on Tuesday predicted a 3% decline in 2020.

Read more: New mortgages hit six-year high just before coronavirus struck

A sudden freeze in market activity of this proportion will start to impact price growth notably as the months go on, said Colby Short, CEO of estate agent comparison site GetAgent.

Paresh Raja, CEO of lender Market Financial Solutions, also said current forecasts suggested a significant drop-off from recent growth. But he said he was optimistic that any decline would be momentary.

Story continues

There is a confidence among many estate agents that the downturn may only last as long as the lockdown however. Strong pent-up demand after years of Brexit uncertainty and cheap credit are expected to continue to push up prices once government restrictions lift.

Read more: Purplebricks to furlough staff as market paralysed

Marc von Grundherr, director of London estate agent Benham and Reeves, said a freeze in activity by buyers and sellers alike should limit the impact on prices.

We can rest assured that once the market does spring back into action, the green shoots of strong growth seen earlier in the year will start to bloom and the outlook will be much brighter, he said.

The upbeat predictions come in spite of widespread warnings the UK faces one of the worst recessions in modern history as the lockdown hammers the economy.

Lay-offs and benefit claims have spiked, household spending has shrunk and some banks have tightened lending rules, which could all hit buyer demand.

A survey by online mortgage broker Trussle also appears to show buyers appetite for moves being hit harder than sellers. It found almost half of Brits surveyed who were looking for a home last month decided to delay because of the pandemic, compared to just one in five of those looking to sell.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK
New Delhi: The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) teams that visited the Nizamuddin headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat in south Delhi on Sunday (April 6) and collected exhibits from the building, were on Tuesday sent to home quarantine. The direction was passed by FSL director Deepa Verma.

Although the five-member team, that visited the Markaz yesterday, were wearing Hazmat suits, they have been advised to be in self-quarantine for next 14 days as preventive measure. They have been suggested to take all precautionary measures and wash their hands frequently, sanitise themselves and practice social distancing by maintaining at least one metre distance from their family members.

The Tablighi Jamaat headquareters at Nizamuddin had five floors and two basements, sources told PTI, adding that it also had several shoe racks inside it whereas no electronic device was found. A Crime Branch team of the Delhi Police also visited the spot in connection with its investigation in the case.

A case has been registered against Maulana Saad of the Nizamuddin headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat under the relevant sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act and Indian Penal Code for allegedly violating government orders as regards the management of the centre with respect to social, political or religious gatherings.

So far, more than 400 COVID-19 cases and about 15 deaths in the country have been found to be linked to a religious congregation held at the Nizamuddin headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat last month.

Action against foreign Tablighi Jamaat members was taken after over 2,300 activists, including 250 foreigners, were found to be living at its headquarters in Nizamuddin West last week, despite the 21-day nationwide lockdown imposed to check the spread of the coronavirus.

At least 9,000 people participated in the religious congregation in Nizamuddin last month, after which many of the attendees travelled to various parts of the country.


US Navy Secretary Thomas Modly came under fire for insulting the captain of a coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier.

Acting US Navy Secretary Thomas Modly offered his resignation after coming under fire for his handling of a crisis involving the captain of a coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier, US officials confirmed on Tuesday.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he had accepted Modlys resignation offer on Tuesday morning.

[Modly] resigned on his own accord, putting the Navy and the Sailors above self so that the USS. Theodore Roosevelt, and the Navy, as an institution, can move forward, Esper said in a statement.

Esper said that with President Donald Trumps approval, Army Undersecretary Jim McPherson would take over as acting Navy Secretary.

Modly removed Captain Brett Crozier of his command of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt after a scathing letter written by the commander urging the Navy to do more to halt the spread of the potentially lethal virus on board the ship the was leaked to the media.

The move sparked intense backlash as videos posted on social media showed sailors on board the vessel cheering Crozier as he departed and an online petition called for his reinstatement. It has also become a political lightning rod as the Trump administration faces intense criticism for its handling of the nations coronavirus outbreak.

Crozier had started showing symptoms of the coronavirus before he was relieved of his command on Thursday and has tested positive, the New York Times reported, citing two Naval Academy classmates who are close to Crozier.

In a surprise speech to crew members of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt that was meant to be a private address, Modly defended his decision to relieve Crozier of his command due to the leak.

If he didnt think that information was going to get out into the public in this information age that we live in, then he was A, too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this, Modly said on the carrier while it was docked in Guam on Monday.

The alternative is that he did it on purpose, he added.

Crozier, who took command of the Theodore Roosevelt in November, had written a four-page letter describing a bleak situation on board the carrier as more of his crew began falling ill.

Modly said the letter, and the leak, amounted to a betrayal by the captain, who was responsible one way or another.

US officials verified the recording of Modlys speech heard by Reuters. After an initial statement saying he stood by every word of his speech, Modly later apologised, saying: I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid.

President Donald Trump, in a White House briefing, suggested he might be able to resolve the situation.

You have two good people and theyre arguing  Im good at settling these arguments. So, I may look into it in great detail, in detail, and Ill be able to figure it out very fast, he said.

Crozier should not have sent his letter, but he did not want to destroy somebody for having a bad day, Trump said.

Captain Brett Crozier addressing the crew for the first time as commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt during a change of command ceremony on the ships flight deck in San Diego, California, US [ Sean Lynch/US Navy handout via Reuters]

A sailor on board the ship told Reuters that Modlys speech only angered the crew.

Nobody likes what he had to say  He made everyone more irritated, said the sailor, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Croziers crew members showed their disapproval of Modlys decision by posting videos online last week of their captains emotional sendoff. Sailors hailed Crozier as a hero, out to defend his crew at great cost to his career.

Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Adam Smith, a Democrat, called on Monday for Modlys removal.

Acting Secretary Modlys decision to address the sailors on the Roosevelt and personally attack Captain Crozier shows a tone-deaf approach more focused on personal ego than one of the calm, steady leadership we so desperately need in this crisis, Smith said in a statement.

Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden said Modly shot the messenger.

In his letter, Crozier called for decisive action: removing more than 4,000 sailors from the ship and isolating them, and wrote that unless the Navy acted immediately, it would be failing to properly safeguard our most trusted asset  our sailors.

The letter put the Pentagon on the defensive and alarmed families of those on the vessel.

One US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters news agency that military officials had recommended against firing Crozier, arguing that it was better for an investigation to be complete.

The official said Modly was made aware that the White House wanted Crozier out, though it does not appear that Trump directed him to do so.

Earlier on Tuesday, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi added her voice to calls for Modlys removal.

Sadly, Acting Secretary Modlys actions and words demonstrate his failure to prioritise the force protection of our troops, Pelosi said in a statement.

He showed a serious lack of the sound judgement and strong leadership needed during this time. Acting Secretary Modly must be removed from his position or resign, Pelosi said.
On Sunday, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II made a rare nation's address in the hopes of uplifting the spirits of the people in the United Kingdom amid the health crisis the country and the whole world is facing right now.

While wearing an emerald green dress paired with one of her iconic brooches, the 93-year-old monarch filmed her speech in Windsor Castle's White Drawing Room. According to reports, the said room is specifically chosen as it is the only area with a bigger space enough for the queen and the camera operator to practice social distancing.

The cameraperson reportedly wore personal protective equipment like the ones used in hospitals to prevent spreading a possible virus to the head of the royal family.

Queen Elizabeth's coronavirus address emphasizes five significant points that we should keep in mind while in the middle of this global pandemic.

Addressing Challenging Times

Her Majesty first acknowledged the sufferings every family had to endure due to the massive spread of COVID-19. The Queen explained that she understands that this health crisis has brought disruption to everyone's daily life and also caused grief and financial crisis to some people.

Gratitude To People Staying At Home

The head of the royal family initially thanked those people making a huge sacrifice to stay at home, strictly following social distancing and other preventive measures to avoid spreading the virus.

"I also want to thank those of you who are staying at home, thereby protecting to help the vulnerable and sparing many families the pain already felt by those who have lost loved ones," the Queen said.

Tribute to Medical Frontliners

Queen Elizabeth also took the opportunity to honor the National Health Service workers, as well as other volunteers and essential service workers who keep working even they are at risk of getting infected.

"I want to thank everyone on the NHS frontline, as well as care workers and those carrying out essential roles who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all," the Queen said.

The Queen lifted their spirit by saying that she and the rest of the nation appreciate the health workers' hard work and efforts to help bring back the public's normal life.

Reflect in Prayer

Queen Elizabeth also encouraged everyone to take a moment to reflect in prayer during these challenging times.

"Many people of all faiths and of none are discovering that it presents an opportunity to slow down, pause and reflect in prayer or meditation," she said.

Call For Unity

The Queen concluded her message with a call for unity and giving hope that we will all succeed against this global pandemic.

"Together, we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it," Queen Elizabeth II said.

"We will be with our families again. We will meet again."

The Queen also expressed her hope that in the years to come, the people of the United Kingdom will look back on this difficult period and be proud of how they responded on such a challenge in life.

As of writing, the UK now has over 47,000 positive cases, and a total of 4,934 already died from COVID-19.
A nurse has admitted that she along with other frontline workers have been forced to buy their own protective equipment from Bunnings in the outbreak of coronavirus.

The Sydney intensive care nurse said that due to the high pressure on demand, there weren't enough face shields on offer and she either had to make her own or find somewhere to buy one.

But even after making a trip to the hardware store, the nurse was still unable to buy a mask and was told by her hospital they didn't know when they would be in stock.

A Sydney nurse has revealed she was forced to go and buy her own face shields after her hospital ran out (pictured: medical personnel wearing protective face shields at a testing centre in Bondi)

2GB Radio's Ben Fordham spoke to the nurse after her unsuccessful trip to Bunnings.

'This nurse told me the last time she was on a shift, they had the shields, but now they've run out,' Mr Fordham said on Tuesday.

'Some of the nurses have been forced to go to Bunnings, or attempt to make their own.'

The nurse told the radio host she had been emailed by her hospital which said they were currently unable to provide anymore.

The nurse said her and other frontline workers were trying to make their own masks due to the limited supply available (pictured: medical staff wear face shields at coronavirus testing clinic)

'We've seen images of health care workers around the world kitted up head to toe in protective gear. It's only reasonable that our health care workers access the same equipment,' Mr Fordham said.

'I think we're in a bad place when ICU nurses in Sydney are going to Bunnings to buy protective face shields.

'And it's shocking that those same nurses are then leaving empty handed, because they didn't have any shields either!'

Victorian emergency doctor Steve Parnis said he too had seen healthcare staff buying their own equipment.

'I've seen department directors going to Bunnings and seen people look and hope they might have contacts overseas,' Dr Parnis said on ABC's Q&A on Monday night.

Nurses have also been asked to ration face masks to two per shift, according to a leaked email from a private hospital operator obtained by the Australian.

Health care personnel are seen wearing protective gowns, gloves and a face shield while testing people for coronavirus at a drive through testing clinic in Bondi

Dr Panris said the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) is the 'number one concern for health workers' across the country at the moment.

The doctor's claim was backed up by Victorian GP Vyom Sharma, who said his practice is limiting face to face consultations because they're running so low on supplies.

'We are rationing probably down to 10 or something like that, and we're trying to save them for when we really need them,' Dr Sharma said.

A nurse conducts screening at an Adelaide COVID-19 clinic in the Barossa Valley

PICTURED: Victorian Emergency Doctor Steve Parnis revealed supplies are so limited among medical professionals they're having to buy their own equipment

'And the concern is it's actually affecting the nature of care we can provide.'

Australia's Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Paul Kelly, recently urged Australians to leave the face masks to the professionals.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

'(Members of the public) shouldn't be using face masks in public because that would be a waste of face masks,' Kelly said last week.

'I think it is very important that we really put (the supply of face masks) towards our health care workforce, aged care workforce, they are the front line that we all need be protected to be able to continue to work.'

The shortage has also resulted in directives from Australia's second-biggest private hospital operator, Healthscope for frontline workers to ration supplies.

Employees working in emergency departments, intensive care units, and respiratory wards are required to wear surgical masks to protect themselves from COVID-19.

But a leaked email from the group's administration has revealed they are struggling to manage supplies.

'People in these environments are asked to limit your use to two masks per shift,' Healthscope Chief Executive Steven Rubic wrote.

New South Wales government guidelines require healthcare professionals to change surgical masks if they become moist, soiled or removed to eat or drink (PICTURED: Health care workers at the Sydney Local Health District)

The company's head of human resources Katherine MacHutchison said while the company had 'ample stock' there was a need to 'use resources prudently' in the same email.

New South Wales government guidelines require healthcare professionals to change surgical masks if they become moist, soiled or removed to eat or drink.

The directive to ration face masks by medical professionals has raised concerns about the impact on worker's safety.

Australian businesses have started looking for innovative ways to resolve the crisis, while the federal government has secured a further 30million masks for the nation's healthcare sector.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Healthscope for comment.
Apart from the few recoveries of covid-19 patients and curtailment of further spread of the killer coronavirus, no news is now more refreshing, heartwarming and assuring than Operation Boma Wrath," a reprisal offensive by the gallant Chadian troops on Boko Haram terrorists, following an attack on a Chadian military base on March 23 that killed 98 soldiers. The Chadians called it the worst attack ever on its military. The commander in Chief of the Chadian armed forces, President Idris Debby, did not mince words when he assured his country that he would crush Boko Haram around the Lake Chad region. His troops destroyed five bases of the Boko Haram terror group. Chadian soldiers demolished Boko Haram hideouts, detained and killed several insurgents and recovered thousands of weapons. This operation has sent Boko haram fighters to sleep. However, we should not take this victory for granted. They may regroup and launch a more deadly attack when we least expect it.

It is not the victory of the Chadian troops at the battle of Kelkoua (bank of the Lake Chad) that witnessed the obliteration of many terrorists and the destruction of bunkers hiding key commanders which is the gist of the story. Idris Debbys uncommon courage in leading the attack is the key point here. Nothing boosts the spirit of soldiers in the battle field than backing from compatriots and encouragement from military top brass and from the president and commander in Chief. Debby did not only stop in one position, read a prepared speech in front of cameras, got the normal applauses and then flew back to his comfort zone-the presidential palace in NDjamena. He led the operation.

He participated in discussions on strategy and even gave a helping hand to the soldiers performing lowly tasks such as cooking. He moved around the different military formations in the area, in military helicopter and pickup truck. This singular act of the president served as the tonic and morale booster that heightened the fighting spirit of the Chadian troops. This tactful move had encouraged the soldiers zeal to fight which led to the victory of operation Boma wrath.

In a long asymmetric war with non-state actors like the Boko Haram, soldiers in the war front need encouragement from the nation. And there is no better encouragement than for the commander in Chief to be in the midst of his troops during the most trying moment of their lives. It was that gap Debby filled during his frequent visits to the battle ground. His presence gave the soldiers hope. This is the reason American presidents visit soldiers in the battle fields. We have seen that in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is a tradition which pays dividends and is worthy of emulation by nations.

The heavy blow of the Chadian army to the terror group has humbled its leader, the deranged and comical Shekau. The defeat had chinned him to the marrow. He was quite sober in his last audio message. Shekau could not come out in video this time around. He was speaking not in his usual abusive, boastful and comical manner. The message of the infamous Amir of Boko Haram terrorists depicted a visibly shaken and broken-down man.

We should not forget that Nigeria, not Chad, Cameroon or republic of Niger is the birth place of Boko Haram. It is the hardest hit country by the group. Our country has been fighting the ragtag but merciless army of misguided Muslims for over 10 years. Boko Haram terrorists have held our nation hostage for so long. The senseless war has led to the death of thousands of innocent bystanders, wanton destruction of property and loss of billions of naira to the nation.

It is worrisome to fathom that there is no end in sight to this senseless and devastating onslaught by terrorists on our nation. To fight and finish Boko Haram is our responsibility. It is our war. This is why Nigerians are elated anytime Boko Haram suffers a major defeat. Therefore, it is our common interest as Nigerians to decisively defeat the enemy Boko Haram, so that our people will have a sigh of relief. We should seize the momentum of the Chadian assault and finish the war at once.

As usual, the recent victory of the Chadians in the multinational war against terror in the Lake Chad region gave opportunity to some unpatriotic Nigerians to disparage government and our soldiers. The opinion of some of our countrymen on the social media about the topic is uncharitable and embarrassing to be spoken about. They are so biased and hypercritical of the Nigerian soldiers as if the soldiers have never recorded any victory in the war against Boko Haram. It is spurious and a gross injustice to condemn the Nigerian soldiers for nonperformance in the battles.

In less than 24 hours of writing this piece, the multinational joint task force (MNJTF), under operation Yancin Tafki, combined air and ground forces of Nigeria and Niger republic launched a successful offensive on Boko Haram enclaves in Timbus. The coordinated operation neutralized 19 Boko Haram terrorists, destroyed 2 gun trucks and captured many fleeing insurgents. This is not trending because it is not what traitors and veiled enemies of Nigeria want to hear. If it were the other way round, the social media space would have been awash with condemnations. I agree that this is the right time to have a critical look at the strategy and approach of our soldier to the war in order to give it a final blow.
The entirety of the UK Labour movement now understands the importance of Scotland, according to Ian Murray.

Mr Murray, newly appointed as Labours shadow Scotland secretary, suggested that discussion about Scotland within the party will increase following the election of Sir Keir Starmer as leader.

The Edinburgh South MP, the only Labour member to hold a seat in Scotland, also said that the party must be clear over its position on Scottish independence.

Delighted to be back in the new Shadow Cabinet. @Keir_Starmer will be wonderful to work with. Lots of work to be done. Thank you to everyone for their support.  Ian Murray MP (@IanMurrayMP) April 6, 2020

In an interview with the PA news agency, he said: Keir has been pretty clear on all of this stuff, and to be fair so has (Scottish Labour leader) Richard (Leonard), that were against independence, were against a second independence referendum.

Ive been touring the whole of the country during the deputy leadership campaign making that case that a Labour government runs through Scotland, that we have to be clear on our principles of why were against independence, that we shouldnt facilitate the means if we disagree with the ends.

In terms of a second independence referendum, that there is no mandate, trying to challenge some of that story that other people are telling and trying to manipulate the mandate issue.

And been pretty clear that the Labour Party in Scotland can only really start to achieve something when people in Scotland believe that we believe what were saying in terms of independence and I think weve just got to be clear on that.

I know that Keir and Gordon Brown have spent a lot of time with each other trying to go through some of that constitutional stuff, there is no doubt that federalism and the constitutional convention which Gordon, myself and people like George Foulkes have been working on for many years now is now right at the top of Keirs agenda.

Story continues

Sir Keir Starmer was elected as leader of the Labour party on Saturday (Jane Barlow/PA)

Mr Murray previously held the position as shadow Scottish secretary between May 2015 and June 2016, when he quit the post in protest over the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

Considering the differences in the challenges he will face in the role this time round, he said: I think the first time I became shadow secretary of state for Scotland, everyone was still spinning and reeling off the 2015 result (when Labour lost 40 of its 41 seats in Scotland).

Were now six years on from the (Scottish independence) referendum almost and were still talking about it and its still poisonous and its still paralysing the entirety of Scottish politics.

So the challenge is great. The big positives now, as opposed to then, is the entirety of the UK Labour movement now understands the importance of Scotland, not just to the UK Labour Party, but to the Scottish Labour party as well, and understands why Scotland needs to get back on the park.

And if we all have that thought at the forefront of our minds then weve got an opportunity to do something about it.

He added: Its still difficult because, you know, I wouldnt even start to pretend to know the ins and outs of everything thats happening in Wales or Northern Ireland, or Cornwall or Yorkshire for that matter.

So it is still difficult to get the entire Labour movement focused on Scotland, but I think were a lot way down the road and I think the word Scotland will become a word thats used much more by many more people across the Labour movement in the next five years.

So I think thats the step change is people have now absolutely grasped how important Scotlands become for the UK Labour Party.

The SNPs deputy Westminster leader, Kirsty Blackman, said Mr Murray must respect the democratic right of people in Scotland to have a choice over their future.

She said: The Labour Party wont regain trust in Scotland by imposing Brexit against our will and telling us to get back in our box.

Westminster might think it can ignore Scotland but when the time is right we will have a choice to protect our place at the heart of Europe as an independent country.
Charities said they have been 'honoured' to be chosen for the campaign

Quickly raised 11,750 for three charities in Canada, America and South Africa

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle supporters have raised 11,750 for charity in just days in honour of their son Archie Mountbatten Windsor's first birthday.

Fans of Meghan, 38, and Prince Harry, 35, are marking the celebration on 6 May with the hashtag #ArchieDay on social media.

Officially launching the campaign yesterday, they urged others to share donations with charities to help vulnerable children impacted by coronavirus in countries which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex hold dear to their hearts, including Canada, America and South Africa.

As the chosen charities across the world were flooded with donations, several took to social media to say they felt 'honoured' to have been chosen to be part of the online campaign.

Followers of Prince Harry, 35, and Meghan Markle, 38, have raised over 11,750 for charity in just days to mark Archie's first birthday

Launching the campaign officially yesterday, fan account @Archie_day urged others to help 'celebrate Archie's birthday with a global party', before listing a series of charities selected for the 'desire to help children.'

Among the three charities chosen by the group was the Nourish Eco Village in South Africa, where Prince Harry and Meghan performed their final royal tour in November.

The charity provides food to children from impoverished families in rural communities that rely on schools to get a meal daily.

Posting on Instagram, the group said they had chosen the South African organisation because 'it is the country in which Archie had his first official royal engagement' and mark 'giving back to a country that welcomed him so warmly and brought us so many happy memories.'

Supporters of the Sussexes have been urging others to share donations with three selected charities in Canada, America and South Africa (pictured, Archie with Prince Harry in December)

The charity quickly responded to donations, with 4,845 rasied for the organisation in mere days.

Posting on Twitter, they wrote: 'A big thank you for #SussexSquad! We are so honoured to be chosen as a charity to be supported!

'We currently teach over 420 vulnerable Community members weekly and ever $ allows us to continue all our Nourish projects and keep growing resilient Communities.'

Meanwhile other charities involved also revealed they had been flooded by donations.

The three charities involved in the campaign took to Twitter to thank Prince Harry and Meghan's supporters for the donations

Canadian charity Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, which was chosen because 'Canada has always been central to The Duke and Duchess of Sussexs love story and relationship', also tweeted about the success of the campaign.

They wrote: 'Thank you to the #SussexSquad and everyone supporting Boys & Girls Clubs for #ArchieDay! Your support will allow Clubs to provide critical care packages for families, arrange childcare for essential workers, provide mental health services, and respond to other emergency needs.'

Fans were also directed to the organisation Children's Aid, which helps children living in poverty in America to honour the Duchess' home country.

The charity took to Twitter, writing: 'Thank you #SussexSquad for supporting our "Coronavirus Relief for NYC's Children and Families" #ArchieDay fundraiser. Your support can provide COVID-19 testing and treatment options, PPE for health care workers, food boxes for hungry families, and more.'

It follows a campaign last year by the group ahead of baby Archie's birth to raise money for some of the Duchess' patronages and favourite charities

Launching the campaign yesterday, fan account @Archie_Day shared an image which read: 'Motivated by the pure joy of Archie's arrival and the very serious circumstances of our time, we introduce a campaign to honour his first birthday and to promote the principles we hold dear. Community, kindness and compassion.'

The image, which was shared by multiple fan accounts on social media as they launched the coordinated campaign read: 'Before COVID-19 became an ominous presence in our lives, a group of us got together ot organise a fundraising campaign to honour the principles emphasized by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in their humanitarian efforts: community, kindness, and compassion for vulnerable people and ecologies.'

It went on to explain that the group hoped to build on the success of previous fundraising efforts, including last year's #GlobalSussexBabyShower, which was launched by a Meghan fan account, called for users to celebrate Mother's Day by donating to some of the Duchess' favourite charities and patronages.

The campaign was launched yesterday to mark Archie's first birthday on May 6, encouraging followers to donate to a series of charities to celebrate the day

The message went on: 'It is in that spirit, we kick off the #ArchieDay fundraiser in benefit of vulnerable children affected by the coronavirus epidemic.

'We are all in this together. We will get through this together. We would love your support.'

Unlike previous campaigns, the group are not raising funds for any British charities or any of the couple's royal patronages.

Fans selected charities across South Africa, America and Canada to mark the significance of each country in the couple's life (pictured, Prince Harry and Meghan visiting Canada House in January)

The campaign's launch comes a week after Prince Harry and Meghan stepped back officially from royal duty.

The Duke and Duchess are currently isolating themselves at a secluded mansion in a private gated community with baby Archie after moving from Vancouver Island, Canada, earlier this month.

It is thought that the couple are continuing to look for their forever home in the affluent area of Malibu.
KANAZAWA, Japan, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Researchers at Kanazawa University and Tsukuba University report in Nanoscale that the physical properties of extracellular bacterial membrane vesicles are significantly diverse. The properties for a single type of bacterium as well as for different types are found to be highly heterogeneous.

One aspect of bacterial activity is the production of so-called extracellular membrane vesicles (MVs): biological 'packages' wrapped in a lipid-bilayer membrane, carrying for example genetic material. Apart from having specific biological functions, MVs are increasingly used in nanobiotechnological applications, including drug delivery and enzyme transport. In order to better understand the processes involving MVs, a full apprehension of their physical properties is essential. In particular, the degree of heterogeneity of vesicles released by one single type of bacterium is an important point. Now, Azuma Taoka from Kanazawa University, Nobuhiko Nomura from Tsukuba University and colleagues have addressed this question, and demonstrate a previously unrecognized physical heterogeneity in the membrane vesicles of four types of bacterium.

The researchers applied phase imaging atomic force microscopy (AFM) to study the physical properties of MVs produced by E. coli, P. aeruginosa, P. denitrificans and B. subtilis. In phase imaging AFM, a sample is 'tapped' with a nano-sized oscillating cantilever tip; the observed delay in the oscillation of the tip compared to free oscillation provides a measure of the energy dissipation due to the interaction with the sample surface. This dissipation, in turn, is related to the physical properties of the surface, including adhesion, elasticity and friction, variations of which are due to compositional differences.

Taoka, Nomura and colleagues recorded phase images of many MVs, and color-coded the MVs on a scale ranging from "non-adherent/hard" (low adhesion, elasticity and/or friction) to "adherent/soft" (high adhesion, elasticity and/or friction). By analyzing these maps, the scientists discovered a high diversity of physical properties of MVs. They checked whether the maps changed during imaging; the physical properties were stable in time, so the diversity could be concluded to be an intrinsic feature of MVs.

The researchers found that the physical heterogeneity is caused by biological factors, as MV size and phase shifts are not correlated. Furthermore, they observed that different types of bacterium form MVs with different physical-property distributions. Finally, the scientists argued that the observed high heterogeneity reflects the chemical composition of the MVs being heterogenous.

The work of Taoka, Nomura and colleagues not only presents important insights into the properties of MVs produced by different bacteria, but also shows the power of phase shift AFM as a tool for biological vesicles. Quoting the researchers: "It is expected that using these cutting-edge techniques for nanoscale physical mapping will contribute to provide further detailed information to undiscovered nature of bacterial MVs and elucidate molecular mechanisms supporting their functions."

Background

Phase shift atomic force microscopy

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is an imaging technique where information is gathered by 'touching' the surface with a mechanical probe. The probe sits at the end of a cantilever. When the probe tip is brought near the surface, forces between tip and sample lead to a deflection of the cantilever. By measuring these deflections, a surface characterization can be obtained.

In 'tapping mode', the cantilever is made to oscillate up and down at (or near) its resonance frequency. The forces acting on the cantilever when the tip is near the sample surface cause the amplitude of the cantilever's oscillation to change, generating a phase shift. These phase shifts provide a 'map' of the physical properties of the sample surface.

Azuma Taoka from Kanazawa University, Nobuhiko Nomura from Tsukuba University and colleagues applied the method to study membrane vesicles. Specifically, they used high-speed AFM, which does less damage to biological samples because the tapping is 'gentler.'

Membrane vesicles

Membrane vesicles (MVs) are lipid-bilayer vesicles released by bacteria. They are usually spherical in shape and have a diameter between 20 and 400 nm. The biological function of MVs is to communicate among themselves, with other microorganisms in their environment and with the host bacterium. Specifically, MVs are involved in moving bacterial cell-signaling biochemicals around. Such communication takes places in microbial cultures in oceans, inside plants, animals and the human body. The mechanism by which MVs are created is not completely understood.

Taoka, Nomura and colleagues studied the physical properties of MVs by means of phase shift AFM, and revealed a high heterogeneity among MVs generated by a single type of bacterium, and further differences between different types of bacteria.

Reference

Yousuke Kikuchi, Nozomu Obana, Masanori Toyofuku, Noriyuki Kodera, Takamitsu Soma, Toshio Ando, Yoshihiro Fukumori, Nobuhiko Nomura, and Azuma Taoka. Diversity of physical properties of bacterial extracellular membrane vesicles revealed through atomic force microscopy phase imaging, Nanoscale Published online April 2020 (2020).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C9NR10850E

Figure. (A) Scanning electron microscopic image of a bacterial cell and extracellular membrane vesicles (MVs). (B) Schematic drawing of MVs observation using atomic force microscopy phase imaging. (C) Mapping of MVs' physical properties using atomic force microscopy phase imaging. MVs are color-coded on a scale ranging from "non-adherent/hard" (reddish-coloured spheres) to "adherent/soft" (greenish-coloured spheres).

About Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI)



Nano Life Science Institute (NanoLSI), Kanazawa University is a research center established in 2017 as part of the World Premier International Research Center Initiative of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The objective of this initiative is to form world-tier research centers. NanoLSI combines the foremost knowledge of bio-scanning probe microscopy to establish 'nano-endoscopic techniques' to directly image, analyze, and manipulate biomolecules for insights into mechanisms governing life phenomena such as diseases.

https://nanolsi.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/en/

About Kanazawa University

As the leading comprehensive university on the Sea of Japan coast, Kanazawa University has contributed greatly to higher education and academic research in Japan since it was founded in 1949. The University has three colleges and 17 schools offering courses in subjects that include medicine, computer engineering, and humanities.

The University is located on the coast of the Sea of Japan in Kanazawa - a city rich in history and culture. The city of Kanazawa has a highly respected intellectual profile since the time of the fiefdom (1598-1867). Kanazawa University is divided into two main campuses: Kakuma and Takaramachi for its approximately 10,200 students including 600 from overseas.

http://www.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/e/

Further information

Hiroe Yoneda

Vice Director of Public Affairs

WPI Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI)

Kanazawa University

Kakuma-machi,

Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan

Email: nanolsi-office@adm.kanazawa-u.ac.jp

Tel: +81(76)-234-4550

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1142303/Kanazawa_University_AFM.jpg
U.S. President Donald Trump listens as Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a coronavirus briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., April 5. The next two weeks will be crucial in the United States' fight against the coronavirus, warn health officials, who are urging Americans to continue practicing social distancing. /UPI-Yonhap



By Hakim Djaballah



Former British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, once said "a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." And before him, the French statesman, Napoleon Bonaparte, said "China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will move the world."



The world finds itself today facing a real crisis with human lives lost every hour to a disease called COVID-19 caused by a virus named SARS-CoV2, which originated in the Hubei region in China and has spread across the planet.



Diplomatic etiquette means that we name both virus and disease something unrelated to China  SARS-CoV2 for the virus and COVID-19 for the disease  in order to avoid upsetting China and to prevent the closing of borders. U.S. President Trump feels otherwise, he prefers to refer to the SARS-CoV2 virus as the "Chinese virus" or the "Wuhan virus."



What President Trump feels about the virus or its origin is irrelevant. As many have rightly pointed out, it's simply racist rhetoric on his part to drum up support from his far right base, which in turn, is endangering the lives of our Asian brothers and sisters in the U.S. and around the world. We do not need added hatred and racism during this global crisis. Is it a coincidence that the Western countries most affected by this coronavirus are members of the group of seven (G7), with the exception of Spain?





Migrants wearing protective face masks queue outside a migration control center to prolong their stay in Russia amid the ongoing coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 3. /EPA-Yonhap



The combined number of cases and deaths from their respective countries has surpassed the total numbers reported by China and in a much shorter period of time. As they say, numbers don't lie but the math does not add up here. As we are entering the belly of the SARS-CoV2 beast as it were, China has not yet come clean with the truth about the outbreak and the real numbers. How much more diplomacy would it take to get answers?



The G7 leaders must be furious and let down by the World Health Organization (WHO) about the crisis and of course, believing the reassurances given by their Chinese counterpart. They should turn their full attention to the incompetence of the WHO, and call for the immediate resignation of its director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. What's more, three countries are also permanent members of the United Nations' Security Council and their respective countries are at war against a silent enemy unleashed by China.



The city that never sleeps, and hosts the United Nations, has been sleeping for a while now; with only the sounds of ambulances and refrigerated trucks to take away the casualties, moving along the usually bustling streets of Manhattan. I hope this city will recover and shine again.





A volunteer sprays disinfectant in Shwedagon Pagoda compound as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Yangon on March 31. Myanmar reported its first coronavirus death  a 69-year-old man who returned to the country in mid-March after receiving cancer treatment in Australia. / AFP-Yonhap



Dr. Tedros is the main culprit in the unfolding of this crisis and an accomplice in the causes of the pandemic. By failing to let the rest of the world know about the gravity of the situation, by providing inaccurate information about the virus, and by not sounding the alarm when it mattered most, Dr. Tedros single-handedly comprised a somehow trusted organization, and we are all paying the price because of him. Seventy percent of this crisis is at the heart of the incompetence at the WHO, including those who were part of this advanced team in China, and who appear almost on a regular basis for daily briefings. Briefings which have not helped us get out of this storm.



Dr. Tedros has forever changed our way of life; he has caused the slowdown and disruption of many of the world's economies, leading us towards a most likely scenario of a long recession. He is solely responsible for a new humanitarian crisis wave ongoing around the world.



As the rest of the world is busy with this crisis, thanks to Dr. Tedros, China continues to persecute the Uighur Muslims with no country coming to their aid. Where is the humanitarian distress call from the United Nation's general secretary, Antonio Guterres? Guterres was kind enough to share his hand-washing experience with the world, but failed to share videos of the Uighur people washing their hands in concentration camps, or even videos of his visits to check on their health.



I am no defender of President Trump, but I would happily give him the benefit of the doubt under these circumstances. Perhaps, in his own way, he is reminding us of the ever increasing number of deaths  from only 17 recorded on Jan. 22, 2020 to over 50,000 recorded as of April 2, 2020  and the total number of worldwide cases passing the 1,000,000 mark with no end in sight. And these numbers do not really reflect the real ones  the reality on the ground in many countries is far worse than has been reported.



A dire reminder to these infected countries that prevention is always better than any cure. In this case, borders should have been closed back in earlier January 2020 and global air traffic to or from China grounded. Fear of diplomatic retaliation by China led many countries to keep borders open and the flow of infected travelers from China, with only one single and late exception.



President Trump is the only G7 leader who through diplomatic channels offered help to China as this crisis became a worldwide concern. China refused the U.S.' offer, and President Trump was left with no other choice but to close U.S. borders to China and stop the influx of infected Chinese travelers back in earlier February 2020.



President Trump has been criticized for the mishandling of the crisis and rightly so as he has no excuses. However, we Americans should never forget that his actions saved the nation from what could have been an even worse humanitarian disaster on U.S. soil, if its borders were left open to incoming infected Chinese travelers.



More infections and casualties will be recorded worldwide in the coming weeks and months. China, with a population of 1.4 billion people only reported 3,315 deaths, when compared to other developed countries with lower population density, reporting numbers of deaths over the 5,000 mark. Are we to believe that China has done an impossible job to curb the virus and avoided larger numbers of casualties?



Or is it merely a diplomatic choreography involving Dr. Tedros and the WHO? Knowing the source of a problem, often times provides clues to finding solutions. This virus crossed from the wild animal kingdom to the human kingdom in China; based on many published public reports on the timing question, my own estimate is that the crossing must have happened either in October or November 2019. The first infection of a human could not have been in December 2019 as reported by China, and certainly not at the seafood market. Patient zero remains AWOL. We need information on patient zero now.



The most critical questions of this global crisis are the following:



1) How many G7 leaders knew of this outbreak because of information offered by their respective intelligence services in late 2019?

2) Was the obtained information on this potential outbreak shared with other members of the G20 forum, whose members could have obtained similar intelligence?

3) How much preparedness was undertaken by many of these elected leaders to protect their countries, knowing full well the coronavirus tsunami was on its way?

4) How many of the G20 forum countries believed and adhered, in their fight against the virus, to the WHO rhetoric and directives?





A Sri Lankan fire brigade officer has his body sprayed with disinfectant after assisting transporting the coffin of a person who died, from the coronavirus, at an apartment building during an island-wide curfew, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 5. The Sri Lankan government has implemented an island-wide curfew until further notice in order to slow down the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease. / EPA-Yonhap
The suggested distribution timeline allows two to three days for preparation to remove devices from classrooms to a staging area, and another two to three days for distribution, in which five to 10 devices at a time are moved from the staging area to the pickup area, where parents can check them out. An example provided to principals shows distribution setups for both drive-thru and walk-up plans, with suggestions for spacing out lines to promote social distancing. The Chicago Department of Public Health is not recommending gloves or masks for people who are well, but families will be encouraged to use hand sanitizer before signing in, according to CPS.
Seiko Epson Corporation (Epson) announced that a meeting of its board of directors had approved a change of representative director and the appointment of a new president.

1. Details of change

Name New position Previous position Mr. Minoru Usui Director, Chairman President and Representative Director Mr. Yasunori Ogawa President and Representative Director Director, Managing Executive Officer

2. Brief career history of new president

Name Mr. Yasunori Ogawa Date of birth April 11, 1962 Place of birth Aichi Prefecture, Japan Education Masters Degree from the School of Engineering, Tohoku University Graduate School Brief career history April 1988 Joined Seiko Epson Corporation April 2017 Appointed Chief Operating Officer, Visual Products Operations Division June 2017 Appointed Executive Officer June 2018 Appointed Director, Executive Officer October 2018 Appointed General Administrative Manager, Technology Development Division (current position) June 2019 Appointed Director, Managing Executive Officer (current position)

Appointed Chief Operating Officer, Wearable Products & Industrial Solutions Operations Segment (current position) Number of Epson shares held 13,000 (as of December 31, 2019)

3. Reasons for change

In March 2019, Epson established its Phase 2 Mid-Range Business Plan aimed at achieving its Epson 25 Corporate Vision. By focusing on priority areas, we aim to respond to changes in the business environment and societal needs, and transition to a business capable of generating high profits.

In the fiscal year ending March 2019, we implemented reforms aimed at strengthening our business structure. In a tough business situation, we have promoted collaboration with partners and open innovation, and have developed and launched original products and services aimed at ensuring future growth.

Going forward we expect significant and ongoing changes to our business environment. Under the leadership and new perspective of Mr. Ogawa we will respond flexibly and rapidly to changes as we seek to improve our corporate value over the medium- and long terms.

4. Date of appointment  April 1, 2020
Open source

In Hungary, not far from Budapest, a bus with Ukrainians has got into a car accident; two persons are in severe condition, as Deputy Head of Zakarpattia Regional State Administration Ihor Shynkaryuk reported on Facebook.

According to him, the car accident took place at 75th km of M3 motorway from Budapest. The bus transported the citizens of Ukraine to the evacuation spot at the checkpoint Tysa.

According to operative data, eight people were in the vehicle, two citizens are in severe condition, six are in satisfactory condition. All of them are in the hospital. The protocol is implemented by our representatives of the diplomatic corps, he wrote.

Shynkaryuk reported that the special transport heads to the Hatvan hospital, where the Ukrainians stay. It will take them home. They passed the medical examination and the doctors allowed them to continue the movement.

Besides, Tysa checkpoint is the only facility with Hungary, which works in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases in Ukraine has increased to 1,462 cases. Ukraine observed 45 deaths, 28 patients successfully recovered. Over the last 24 hours, 143 new cases have been recorded.
Pandemics dont come with detailed instruction manuals for government.

But Canada does have a playbook for trade disputes with the United States, and Justin Trudeaus government hauled it out to deal with Donald Trumps America-first hoarding of pandemic-fighting supplies.

The attack was familiar; so was the response. Canada used all the same techniques to fight Trumps pandemic protectionism  except for targeted retaliation  as it did during previous trade disputes.

Initially, Canada appeared to be caught off guard late last week when medical mask manufacturer 3M, which also has operations in Canada, revealed that it had been ordered not to fill a Canadian order.

Perhaps no one should have been surprised that the U.S. presidents penchant for turning global matters into trade wars includes, it seems, an international pandemic.

The initial weeks of the COVID-19 crisis had seen the U.S. and Canada acting in remarkable harmony, mutually closing their borders to all but essential traffic and getting the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement swiftly through Parliament.

Then came the news that the U.S. was considering sending troops to the Canadian border. Within hours, that too became a trade dispute  not so much for Canada, but for Trump. When he was asked about the troops issue at a White House news conference on March 26, the president somewhat puzzlingly reached into his bag of old trade complaints.

You know, we have a lot of things coming in from Canada, Trump said. We have trade  some illegal trade that we dont like. We have very strong sanctions on some. We have very strong tariffs on dumping steel. And we dont like steel coming through our border thats been dumped in Canada so they can avoid the tariff.

What that had to do with the COVID-19 pandemic is anyones guess. Sure enough, the deployment-of-troops issue seemed to disappear over the next few days, after a flurry of phone calls between Canada and the United States, and that was that.

Then Canada got back on the phones, falling into a routine that has become common in the Trump-Trudeau relationship. Whenever the going gets tough  and a pandemic is about as tough as it goes  Trump goes America first.

Canadas now well-worn response has three basic, predictable pieces:

Phone diplomacy  a massive flurry of phone calls between Canadians and their American contacts and counterparts.

Co-ordinated, federal-provincial communications, with the provinces often playing bad cop, while Ottawa plays good cop.

Extremely limited contact between Trump and Trudeau themselves, with the prime minister saying as little as possible to avoid inflaming the president.

All of those strategies were put into use after the 3M announcement last week. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland talked to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer; Global Affairs Minister Francois Philippe Champagne talked to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; and the newly named ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, spent days talking to selected high-level officials in the Trump administration.

Did it work? Maybe, although just what was agreed to wasnt entirely clear on Monday night, when 3M said it had a deal with the White House to send a shipment of N95 masks to Canada. In the Prime Ministers Office, they are familiar enough with how Trump has operated in the past to know theyre not out of the woods yet.

Meanwhile, while the federal government had done its diplomacy, the provinces made some noise. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he couldnt stress more how disappointed he was. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said Trumps order was insulting.

One of the most angry denunciations, though, came from Newfoundland, where Premier Dwight Ball reminded the U.S. of how his province had taken in stranded American plane passengers after 9/11. Yes, he went there (and with the full blessing in advance from Ottawa, reportedly).

To say that I'm infuriated with the recent actions of President Trump  is an understatement, Ball said on Sunday. Newfoundland and Labrador will never give up on humanity. We will not hesitate for one second. If we had to repeat what we did in 9/11, we would do it again.

While all that went on, Trudeau stayed true to the playbook. He refused to say anything beyond bland declarations in favour of Canada-U.S. relations, and a vague hint here and there of what the U.S. stood to lose if it escalated things  pulp from B.C. that goes into making the masks, for instance, or the extensive cross-border traffic of medical personnel between Windsor and Detroit.

Canada is still looking for a more definitive exemption from Trumps pandemic protectionism, and the PMO is still optimistic it can be obtained. The government has never dealt with a pandemic before, but Trumps America-first reply to it, is familiar to the point of predictable.

Susan Delacourt is a columnist covering national politics based in Ottawa. Reach her via email: sdelacourt@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt

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British Army soldiers today tried on Hazmat suits as they were taught how to apply protective gear as they prepare to join the Welsh ambulance service on the coronavirus frontline.

Service personnel were learning how to use Personal Protective Equipment during training with the North Wales Ambulance Service.

They were pictured donning the gear at Sennybridge Training Camp today as the pandemic continues.

British Army soldiers are undergoing two days of training to learn how they can defend against Covid-19.

The training package is part of the Government's 20,000-strong coronavirus response force, which has been seen assisting in the building of NHS Nightingale hospital in East London.

Pictured: Soldiers apply the training gear in Mid Wales as the pandemic continues to cause chaos

Pictured: The Army test out PPE as part of their training in Mid Wales as part of the Government's response force

North Wales Ambulance personnel are training up the soldiers at Sennybridge Training Camp

Soldiers are pictured testing out the PPE at Sennybridge Training Camp in Mid Wales as part of a two-day programme

Service personnel are pictured today learning how to defend themselves against the virus while working to combat the crisis

It comes as the British Medical Association warned that doctors' lives are still being put at risk by a lack of personal protective equipment.

More than two thirds of doctors (69 per cent) questioned by the union said they do not feel protected while fighting Britain's COVID-19 outbreak.

The snapshot poll of 2,000 medics also found some feel forced to come into face-to-face contact with infected patients without the right equipment.

And doctors warned that some of the aprons and goggles they are currently relying on to fight the coronavirus crisis is 'useless'.

A demonstrator today wore a face mask outside of St Thomas' Hospital in London, where Boris Johnson is being treated, and called for more personal protective equipment for NHS staff

The BMA and other doctors' unions have repeatedly warned NHS staff will die unless frontline staff are properly equipped with protective gear.

Today has been Britain's darkest day yet in its coronavirus crisis with 854 more fatalities confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 6,227 victims.

A 23-year-old who had no other known health problems was among those who have died, as well as hundreds of others aged up to 102. 29 people, in total, did not have any long-term illnesses before they caught COVID-19.

NHS England confirmed 758 people have died in its hospitals, with authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland announcing a further 96 between them.

A soldier is pictured donning protective gear as the service personnel prepare to be deployed as a response force

Pictured: Service personnel are taught how to wear PPE as part of the battle against the coronavirus

The death toll is almost double the 437 announced yesterday and marks a new low for Britain in its battle against the epidemic.

However, experts say reports get delayed over the weekend, meaning numbers appear to start declining on Sunday and Monday but then surge again towards the middle of the next week - for this reason it is better not to pin too much significance to a single day's number, they say.

As the numbers of people dying has increased, so too have the numbers of past deaths which are being rolled into each day's daily count.

Some of the fatalities announced each day actually happened up to 10 days earlier but had not been recorded because of paperwork delays.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains in intensive care in St Thomas' Hospital in London after being transferred there last night.
NORWALK  Norwalk reported 30 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday as city officials continue to ensure residents and businesses are following social distancing guidelines.

Both Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling and Governor Ned Lamont issued orders to enforce social distancing in stores, including mandating the stores operate at half capacity. Norwalk officials announced on Tuesday theyll be doing random, unannounced checks to ensure stores are following these guidelines. If problems are discovered, stores will be told to rectify the situation immediately and may face fines until appropriate action is taken.

We want to ensure stores are following these orders and doing everything possible to protect their customers. I have spoken with the corporate executives for all of these major businesses and told them half-measures in Norwalk are unacceptable - these orders must be followed completely, Mayor Rilling said. The health and safety of Norwalk residents is my top priority, and I take that responsibility seriously. We will hold stores accountable that do not share that same philosophy. We have observed some measures that have been implemented, but we want to make sure businesses continue in compliance and implement more strategies to protect the public.I want to remind residents that it is also up to us to do our part. Please, do not make shopping a family trip or a daily occurrence, if possible. That is an unnecessary risk all of us should avoid taking.

There are now 625 reported cases of coronavirus in Norwalk as of Tuesday, according to state data. In Fairfield County, there are 4,136 positive cases.

On Tuesday, Connecticut officials reported their deadliest day since the coronavirus crisis began with 71 fatalities since Monday. There have been 277 coronavirus deaths in Connecticut in total.

In Norwalk, another resident died of coronavirus as of Tuesday, bringing the citys death toll to 21.

erin.kayata@hearstmediact.com
Asian elephant Ming Jung (right) arrived at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire from Antwerp in Belgium last year (ZSL Whipsnade Zoo/PA)

The UKs biggest zoo is monitoring its female elephants for signs of pregnancy after their first meeting with a recently-arrived male went better than expected.

Asian elephant Ming Jung arrived at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire from Antwerp in Belgium last year.

The 12-year-old has since been introduced to the herds females, and keepers said Ming Jung was obviously smitten.

The zoo is monitoring the behaviour of the female elephants for signs of pregnancy and they will undergo scans in the coming weeks.

Elephant pregnancies last about 22 months, according to National Geographic.

Expand Close Asian elephant Ming Jung arrived at the zoo last year (ZSL Whipsnade Zoo/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Asian elephant Ming Jung arrived at the zoo last year (ZSL Whipsnade Zoo/PA)

Matthew Webb, ZSLs animal operations manager, said: Were absolutely delighted that the introductions between Ming Jung and our girls have been so positive  we just didnt realise how well they would go!

Animal introductions are something we carefully manage to ensure they are all content and ready  the elephants meet over fences first and we observe their behaviour.

The girls seemed really receptive to Ming Jung, and he is quite obviously smitten with them!

Say hello to our new arrival, Ming Jung!  He's joined our herd from @zooantwerpen as part of the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) and is settling in really well. We hope you'll be able to visit him soon! https://t.co/uKMqj9xlZD #ZooLife #TuesdayMotivation pic.twitter.com/gLuJ7gKWtH  ZSL Whipsnade Zoo (@ZSLWhipsnadeZoo) November 5, 2019

Ming Jungs move to the UK was part of the European Endangered Species Programme, where the breeding programme for an entire species is co-ordinated to ensure a healthy and genetically diverse population is protected in zoos.

Ming Jung is a genetically important animal for the future of the species  he represents a new lineage, said Mr Webb.

We work really closely with the elephants and know their personality traits and quirks  so well watch those for any signs, and in six weeks a scan should tell us if we can expect a new arrival in 22 months!

The zoo is currently closed to the public amid the coronavirus crisis, but keepers and vets continue to care for the animals inside.
The Japanese government will support cooperation between private businesses beyond the framework of industries to increase the production of ventilators and secure supply. With this effort, the government plans to improve measures to prevent a shortage of ventilators in the face of the spread of the new coronavirus.

It is considered difficult to mass-produce medical equipment since they require a high level of expertise, as well as advanced manufacturing technology. The government plans to ask for cooperation between companies with medical expertise, parts makers with advanced manufacturing technology and firms with sterilized rooms needed to manufacture the equipment.
Although President Trump has directed states and hospitals to secure what supplies they can, the federal government is quietly seizing orders, leaving medical providers across the country in the dark about where the material is going and how they can get what they need to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Hospital and clinic officials in seven states described the seizures in interviews over the past week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is not publicly reporting the acquisitions, despite the outlay of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, nor has the administration detailed how it decides which supplies to seize and where to reroute them.

Officials whove had materials seized also say theyve received no guidance from the government about how or if they will get access to the supplies they ordered. That has stoked concerns about how public funds are being spent and whether the Trump administration is fairly distributing scarce medical supplies.

In order to have confidence in the distribution system, to know that it is being done in an equitable manner, you have to have transparency, said Dr. John Hick, an emergency physician at Hennepin Healthcare in Minnesota who has helped develop national emergency preparedness standards through the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

The medical leaders on the front lines of the fight to control the coronavirus and keep patients alive say they are grasping for explanations. "We can't get any answers," said a California hospital official who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation from the White House.

In Florida, a large medical system saw an order for thermometers taken away. And officials at a system in Massachusetts were unable to determine where its order of masks went.

Are they stockpiling this stuff? Are they distributing it? We dont know, one official said. And are we going to ever get any of it back if we need supplies? It would be nice to know these things.

Story continues

PeaceHealth, a 10-hospital system in Washington, Oregon and Alaska, had a shipment of testing supplies seized recently. Its incredibly frustrating," said Richard DeCarlo, the system's chief operating officer.

We had put wheels in motion with testing and protective equipment to allow us to secure and protect our staff and our patients, he said. When testing went off the table, we had to come up with a whole new plan.

Although PeaceHealth doesnt have hospitals in the Seattle area, where the first domestic coronavirus outbreak occurred, the system has had a steady stream of potentially infected patients who require testing and care by doctors and nurse in full protective equipment.

Trump and other White House officials, including his close advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, have insisted that the federal government is using a data-driven approach to procure supplies and direct them where they are most needed.

In response to questions from The Times, a FEMA representative said the agency, working with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense, has developed a system for identifying needed supplies from vendors and distributing them equitably.

The representative said the agency factors in the populations of states and major metropolitan areas and the severity of the coronavirus outbreak in various locales. High-transmission areas were prioritized, and allocations were based on population, not on quantities requested, the representative said.

But the agency has refused to provide any details about how these determinations are made or why it is choosing to seize some supply orders and not others. Administration officials also will not say what supplies are going to what states.

Using the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law that allows the president to compel the production of vital equipment in a national emergency, Trump last month ordered General Motors to produce ventilators to address shortfalls at hospitals.

The law also empowers federal agencies to place orders for critical materials and to see that those get priority over orders from private companies or state and local governments.

Experts say judicious use of this authority could help bring order to the medical supply market by routing critical material  ventilators, masks and other protective gear  from suppliers to the federal government and then to areas of greatest need, such as New York.

Yet there is little indication that federal officials are controlling the market, as hospitals, doctors and others report paying exorbitant prices or resorting to unorthodox maneuvers to get what they need.

Hospital and health officials describe an opaque process in which federal officials sweep in without warning to expropriate supplies.

Jose Camacho, who heads the Texas Assn. of Community Health Centers, said his group was trying to purchase a small order of just 20,000 masks when his supplier reported that the order had been taken.

Camacho was flabbergasted. Several of his member clinics  which as primary care centers are supposed to alleviate pressure on overburdened hospitals  are struggling to stay open amid woeful shortages of protective equipment.

Everyone says you are supposed to be on your own, Camacho said, noting Trump's repeated admonition that states and local health systems cannot rely on Washington for supplies. Then to have this happen, you just sit there wondering what else you can do. You cant fight the federal government.
It was my opinion that if he didnt think information was going to get out into the public in this information age that we live in, then he was either A, too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this, Modly said. The alternate is that he did it on purpose, and thats a serious violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which you are all familiar with.
Burma Myanmars Military Donates Wages to COVID-19 Fight

The Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (center). / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy

Naypyitaw  Myanmars commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and his armed forces say they have collectively donated over 2.245 billion kyats (US$1.6 million) to be used in the prevention, control and treatment of COVID-19.

The amount included a months salary of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and other senior officers and a days wages for other ranks and civilian staff.

The donation is intended to purchase medical equipment for public hospitals as well as for prevention, control and treatment of COVID-19 and quarantine centers.

Myanmars military has prepared a transit center in Yangons Hlaing Township to quarantine 1,000 people and another site in Naypyitaw to take care of some 15,000 people.

By Sunday, the transit center in Hlaing received 124 people for quarantine and the center in Naypyitaw took in 163 returning migrants.

The military commands in Naypyitaw and Yangon are providing health care and meals and everyone was doing well, according to Myanmars military.

The military said it is ready to assist the governments COVID-19 efforts and it has also been spraying disinfectant at religious buildings, markets and hospitals.

By Tuesday noon, Myanmar reported 22 COVID-19 cases, one death with more than 700 people being monitored.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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(2nd L-R) U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, President Donald Trump, Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir and Dr. Deborah Birx, coronavirus response coordinator, in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 6, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Reporter Questioned by Trump Works for Chinese Propaganda Outlet, Experts Say

A reporter questioned by President Donald Trump on whether she works for the Chinese government indeed works for a television station directed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), several experts confirmed.

Phoenix TV is officially based in Hong Kong, where media can operate independently, but its programming has been controlled by the CCP regime, said Gordon Chang, a political commentator and China analyst.

It is not formally part of the Chinese state, like China Central Television [CCTV], but nonetheless its content is determined in Beijing, he told The Epoch Times in a phone call.

The stations Beijing ties have long been known among China observers.

Phoenix TV is an example of a Chinese propaganda outlet not directly owned by the Beijing government, said Sarah Cook, a China expert at human-rights group Freedom House, in her May 2017 testimony to Congress.

The CCTV used to own a 10 percent stake in Phoenix, but the strongest CCP link is the stations head and founder, Liu Changle, a former officer in the Peoples Liberation Army propaganda department who used to work at the CCPs Central Peoples Radio Station. Since its founding in 1996, several other Phoenix executives were former officials in the CCP regime or state-run media.

The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, a nonprofit probing the CCPs repression of the Falun Gong spiritual group, noted as far back as 2005 that Phoenix TV has been one of the main channels used by Beijing to export its propaganda to Hong Kong (pdf).

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) pointed out Phoenixs background in 2018 in a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai.

Cruz urged the FCC to block a company linked to Phoenix from acquiring a radio station broadcasting into California. If allowed, the radio station would be used to air [Chinese] government-approved propaganda to the large Mandarin-speaking population in Southern California, he warned (pdf).

Phoenix TV has been waging information warfare in the U.S. for [years], Cruz said in an April 7 tweet, noting that American media organizations shouldnt have allowed Phoenix to attend a White House press briefing where its reporter got into an exchange with Trump the day before.

Chang agreed.

Until the U.S. can send a Voice of America reporter to [CCP headquarters of] Zhongnanhai to question [CCP head] Xi Jinping live, we should not be allowing any of Chinas media into the White House Briefing Room, he said.

The White House Correspondent Association should revoke the reporters credentials and if it wont, the White House should refuse to accept her, he said.

Propaganda Push

The CCP is in the midst of a global propaganda push, trying to shirk responsibility for the CCP virus pandemic that has swept the world, infecting over 1.4 million and killing over 80,000.

The CCP virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, broke out in Wuhan, China, around November and was allowed to spread around the world due to the coverup and mismanagement by the CCP.

The CCP is now trying to portray itself as a world savior that sends medical supplies around the world, commented Trevor Loudon, an expert on communist infiltration in the West, in a phone call with The Epoch Times.

In fact, the CCP has urged overseas Chinese to buy up in-demand medical supplies and send them to China.

When supplies are sent from China, the propaganda messaging calls it support or assistance, intentionally blurring whether the recipient countries are paying for it, according to Jakub Jakobowski, a research fellow at the Poland-based Center for Eastern Studies.

In many cases, countries actually purchased the material at market prices.

The Phoenix reporters comments during the White House briefing were clearly conveying Chinas propaganda line, Chang said.

The use of Phoenix appeared to be the CCPs attempt to get its message across through a party with an independent look to it.

It seems to me that what theyre doing is creating themselves some deniability, he said.
On March 13, Ladue News published its Platinum List 2020, revealing the winners as voted on by readers in a range of categories highlighting the St. Louis area, from food to fashion. In the services section, West County Plastic Surgeons of Washington University was honored in the Cosmetic Surgery category as a runner up, positioning the practice among the best of the best cosmetic surgery options in St. Louis.

The call for readers nominations went out on Jan. 1, with the nomination period open until Jan. 11. Any business that received a nomination was put onto a ballot, and readers were next asked to vote on the platinum standouts among the nominees between Jan. 12 and 22. After the votes were tallied, the winners were announced in the mid-March Ladue News issue devoted to the Platinum List, which also highlighted days spas and dry cleaners, restaurants and retail businesses, and dozens more shops and services.

Unfortunately, the celebratory Ladue News Platinum List Party scheduled for the Coronado Ballroom for March 12 was cancelled to protect the health of vendors, guests, and staff in the midst of the current COVD-19 pandemic. Still, the West County Plastic Surgeons team members are celebrating the honor and humbled by the recognition, especially because locals have so consistently voted for them over the past decade. The practice has received this accolade every year since 2017, as well as in other prior yearsand took the top spot in 2015s Platinum List.

West County Plastic Surgeons of Washington University is led by Dr. Terry Myckatyn and Dr. Marissa Tenenbaum, both of whom are plastic surgeons certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and regularly included in Best Doctors, Inc.s annual Best Doctors in America lists. Dr. Myckatyn and Dr. Tenenbaum both perform cosmetic surgery on the face, body, and breasts, as well as offer breast reconstruction.

The practice offers a range of services, including cosmetic breast surgery, breast reconstruction, surgical and nonsurgical body contouring, and face procedures, as well as injectables, laser and light treatments, and spa services for skin care.

As part of Washington University Physicians, a controlled affiliate of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, West County Plastic Surgeons strives for excellence in compassionate and high-quality patient care.

Learn more about St. Louis West County Plastic Surgeons of Washington University by calling or sending a message online.

CONTACT:

314.996.8800
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Fulvic Acid Market: Overview

Humic substances like humus, humate, fulvic acid, organic matter, and humin play a key role in soil fertility. Plants grown in soil having an adequate amount of humic substances are healthier, produce higher yields; and have superior nutritional quality. Aromatic organic acids and weak aliphatic together that are soluble in water at all pH conditions are called fulvic acids. Fulvic acid is small in size, thus readily dissolve in water and are highly biologically active. This enables fulvic acid to dissolve minerals and elements into its structure, where they are referred to as mobilized fulvic complexes.

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Fulvic Acid Market: Dynamics

The growing demand for organic produce is the key driving factor for the Fulvic Acid Market. In developed economies like North America and Western Europe, the rising awareness about harmful effects of synthetic agrochemicals & chemical fertilizers is driving the market for fulvic acid based products for soil. The government imposed regulations like Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union promotes the usage of bio-based resources in farming. In these regions, stringent regulations inhibiting usage of certain chemical fertilizers will drive the demand for fulvic acid as fertilizers. In other regions, the rising demand for food and pressure to achieve maximum output from the cultivable land will create opportunities for the fulvic acid based product in these markets. Fulvic acid also finds various applications in human medicines and supplements. Consumers affinity towards a healthier lifestyle is also expected to drive the market.

Less popularity of organic farming in regions like APEJ and MEA might cause hindrance to the Fulvic Acid Market. Additionally, the use of cheap chemical fertilizers like urea pose a grave threat to Fulvic Acid Market in these regions. Inconsistency in the available product quality might also restrain the market to some extent.

Fulvic Acid Market: Regional Outlook

Geographically, the Global Fulvic Acid Market is designed for seven regions namely, North-America, Western Europe, Asia Pacific except Japan (APEJ), Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East & Africa and Japan. Currently Europe holds the largest market share in the global Fulvic Acid Market owing to the government support in the European Union. Europe is also the largest producer of humic substances. North America holds second most significant market share in the global Fulvic Acid Market owing to the exponentially rising demand for organic produce. Growing economies of APEJ are expected to experience noticeable growth over the forecast period. The Fulvic Acid Market is coming into light owing rising awareness about harmful effects about synthetic fertilizers, globally. The overall outlook for the global Fulvic Acid Market is expected to positive with a compound annual growth rate of over about 8 percent.

Fulvic Acid Market: Segmentation

The Global Fulvic Acid Market is segmented by form and application.

Based on the Grade, Fulvic Acid Market is classified into followings:

Industrial

Pharmaceutical

Based on the application, Fulvic Acid Market is classified into followings:

Agriculture

Horticulture

Medicine & Supplements (human use)

Other Applications

Fulvic Acid Market: Segment Outlook

Amongst the application segment in global Fulvic Acid Market  agriculture holds the most significant market share and is expected to have noticeable growth rate throughout the forecast period, followed by Medicine & Supplements segment with maximum growth rate.

In the Grade segment, the larger market share is held by Industrial grade, but the higher growth rate is expected for the Pharmaceutical grade segment.

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Fulvic Acid Market: Key Players

Humic Growth Solutions

Valagro SpA

Biolchim SpA

Koppert B.V

Bio-Agricultural Services, Inc

Nutri-Tech Solutions Pty Ltd.

Pure Fulvic Minerals

AgTonik, LLC

Sapec Group

Biostadt India Limited

Platform Specialty Products Company

Novozymes A/S

Yara International ASA

Mother Earth Labs, Inc.

Key manufacturers of humin are focusing on product development including enabling wider industrial applications with the help of their R&D department.

Nutraceutical maker AgTonik is expanding into new markets with its biobased fulvic acid and plans to at least double its business in the coming year with biostimulant launches for hydroponic and cannabis industries.

The Fulvic Acid Market is likely to witness usage in wide range of applications in future owing to continuous R&D, especially in the medicine industry which will trigger the market growth during the forecast period.

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WFH for Private offices in Delhi, restaurants & bars to be shut as Omicron-led to sudden rise in Covid cases

Coronavirus outbeak: Kerala breathes sigh of relief after Karnataka opens border roads

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

New Delhi, Apr 07: The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that a settlement has been reached between Kerala and Karnataka in the ongoing quarrel on lifting the blockade of border roads.

A bench, headed by of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Deepak Gupta was informed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, that the clash between the two states on the blockade of roads following the coronavirus pandemic has been resolved.

During the hearing, the Solicitor General said that a meeting of Union Home Secretary with the Chief secretaries of Kerala and Karnataka was held in compliance with the order given on April 3.

Coronavirus outbreak: Conflict between Kerala-Karnataka begins as borders to commute shut down

Earlier, the Kerala government in its affidavit told the Supreme Court that Karnataka's decision on blocking National Highways and border roads considering the coronavirus outbreak, has been preventing people access to medical treatment and tampered movement of essential goods.

The Kerala government also said that the state lost eight lives due to blockade of border roads by Karnataka.

On April 3, the top court asked the Kerala government to not to precipitate the issue of opening of borders till further hearing. The top court also urged the Chief Secretaries of both the states to hold discussions with Union Health Secretary for a settlement of the issue and take a decide.

Fake News Buster

Karnataka had specifically closed the Makutta check post on the Mysore-Virajepat-Kannur highway. However, the High Court urged the central government to intervene and remove the closure.

The roads that connect Mangaluru in Karnataka, to Kasaragod in Kerala were part of the National Highway network. Also, the High Court said that it is the duty of the central government to ensure that roads are kept free of blockades.
The Delhi Police on Tuesday appealed to the hospitals and the nursing homes in the capital, to inform the police or the authorized COVID-19 hospitals, in case they get any coronavirus positive patient.

"I would like to make an appeal to all the private hospitals and nursing homes in Delhi, if any COVID-19 patients comes to you then report it to dedicated COVID hospitals, Delhi Police and the Health Department," said MS Randhawa, the Delhi Police PRO.

As Covid-19 patients increase in the country, several private hospitals have come forward and said they are ready to treat patients of novel coronavirus.

"There have been cases wherein the private hospitals did not inform the police, it will be seen as concealment of facts and whoever violates it, legal action will be taken against them," he added.

There are 525 Covid-19 positive cases in Delhi. The sudden spike has largely been caused by the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in the capital's Nizamuddin area last month.

The Jamaat building, called Markaz, became a hostspot of the deadly pathogen, with several of its attendees spreading out to different parts of the country and its capital.

"I also would like to the people of Delhi, if anyone has COVID-19 symptoms or has information about it, you should share it with the police. People who have come to Markaz Nizamuddin after March 1, those people must inform the concerned police stations and the health department. Moreover, if they do not inform the police, strict legal action will be taken against them," he further added.

India's tally of total positive cases rose to 4,421, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday.

Out of the 4,421 cases, 3,981 are active cases while 325 cases have been cured or discharged and one has migrated. The total death toll stands at 114.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
[April 07, 2020] W. R. Berkley Corporation to Announce First Quarter 2020 Earnings on April 21, 2020

W. R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE: WRB) will release its first quarter 2020 earnings after the market closes on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. A copy of the earnings release will be available on the Company's website at www.berkley.com. The Company has scheduled its quarterly conference call with analysts and investors to discuss its earnings and other information on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 t 5:00 p.m. eastern time. A live audio webcast of the conference call may be accessed via the Company's website at www.berkley.com. Please log on at least ten minutes early to register and download and install any necessary software. A replay of the webcast will be available on the Company's website approximately two hours after the end of the call.



Founded in 1967, W. R. Berkley Corporation is an insurance holding company that is among the largest commercial lines writers in the United States and operates worldwide in two segments of the property casualty insurance business: Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. ###

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005545/en/

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The World Health Organization chief has angrily slammed as racist and a remnant of the colonial mentality recent comments made by two French scientists suggesting a vaccine for the new coronavirus should be tested in Africa.

Africa cannot and will not be a testing ground for any vaccine, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference Monday, insisting we will follow all the rules to test any vaccine or therapeutics all over the world  whether it is in Europe, Africa or wherever.

Ghebreyesus, who was born in Asmara, capital of present-day Eritrea has served as the health and foreign minister of Ethiopia, called it a disgrace and appalling.

It was a disgrace, appalling, to hear during the 21st century, to hear from scientists, that kind of remark. We condemn this in the strongest terms possible, and we assure you that this will not happen, the 55-year-old said, adding global race is on to find the cure for the pandemic the world has not seen in several years, he said.

During a TV program, which aired on the French TV channel LCI last week, two French medical experts, Camille Locht, head of research at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and Jean-Paul Mira, head of intensive care at Cochin Hospital in Paris, discussed whether Africa could be a good test location for the coronavirus vaccine.

Jean-Paul Mira, head of intensive care at Cochin hospital in Paris, said: It may be provocative. Should we not do this study in Africa where there are no masks, no treatment or intensive care, a little bit like its been done for certain AIDS studies, where among prostitutes, we try things because we know that they are highly exposed and dont protect themselves.

Camille Locht, head of research at the Inserm health research group seconded the thought and said a study in Africa was already under consideration. He said: We are in the process of thinking about a study in parallel in Africa.

The discussion caused an uproar in Africa and worldwide, with many, taking to social media to express disgust at the racist views, and point out that Africans are not lab rats.

In Morocco, the Moroccan Lawyers Club had slammed the two French doctors and announced its decision to file a complaint for defamation and racism with the public prosecutor in Paris.

The complaint will be filed by Mr. Mourad Elajouti and Mr. Said Maach, lawyers at the Casablanca Bar, the Club had said in a statement.

The lawyers club also launched an online campaign, We are not laboratory rats, to denounce the comments.

The French scientists remarks met a backlash even in France. Olivier Faure of the French Socialist Party said the comments were not provocative but racist. He said Africa is not a laboratory of Europe and the people there are not rats.

French MP of Moroccan origin Mjid El Guerrab asked French justice courts to pursue the two doctors for racism.

The message behind the two doctors statements is shocking and clear: lets test the vaccine first on Africans and see if it will work, El Guerrab had told MAP news agency.

This is an evident call for discrimination based on race. These statements are not only unacceptable but punishable by the law.

El Guerrab, the son of Moroccan immigrants, clarified that the doctors statements constitute a dual crime according to the July 29, 1881, law about press freedom.

The first crime is the public insult against Africans, explains El Guerrab, who serves as a member of the National Assembly for the 9th district of French people living abroad.

The second crime is the call for serious medical testing on Africans based on their origins.

Despite apologies from Mira on April 3, El Guerrab said he was determined to take the case to court.
"The kids loved learning from him and Ben was great with anything, but he could cook,'' Mitchell said. "You could always get a bowl of something good with him in charge.''

Rogers was said to be legendary when it came to making chili, was great with a joke and was a huge John Wayne fan.

"Everyone loved being around Ben, including me,'' Mitchell said. "There was not a better man.''

James Schmidt became an Eagle Scout in 2003 and shared the National Jamboree with Rogers in 2005. At the beginning of the excursion, Rogers put Schmidt in charge of the 36 young scouts before them.

"Outside of my own troop, Ben Rogers was probably the Scouter who had the biggest impact on me,'' Schmidt said. "He just turned to me and said it was time for me to lead. Mind you, he was there to guide me, but he gave me the freedom to make my own way and it was something that was life-changing for me.

"He taught me more about being a leader in those two weeks than I thought possible. I'm so numb just thinking about the loss of Ben, his family, the Illowa Council, and the whole Quad Cities,'' added Schmidt.

Schmidt noted Rogers was one of the funniest people he knew.

"Great John Wayne impression among others,'' Schmidt said. "He had a bunch of funny mannerisms about him and could take a joke as well as give one. Like a lot of people, I'm numb. I was hoping someday to have him be part of the scouting lives of my sons.''

Columnist John Marx can be reached at 309 757 8388 or jmarx@qconline.com

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The contents of the memos were revealed by the New York Times and Axios on Monday as the US death toll reached 11,000

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he had not seen jarring memos drafted by his trade advisor Peter Navarro that warned of catastrophic potential outcomes from the coronavirus.

Trump was asked about the memos  which claimed as many as 2 million Americans might die and a full-blown pandemic could cost the economy trillions, while warning of the desperate need for medical equipment.

He spoke hours after the Navarro memos surfaced, as the nation grappled with 12,000 coronavirus deaths and counting and rushed to produce ventilators and face masks.

'I didn't see them, but I heard he wrote some memos talking about pandemic. I didn't see them. I didn't look for them either,' Trump said.

'I didn't see them, but I heard he wrote some memos talking about pandemic,' Donald Trump said Tuesday after reports of doomsday scenarios his trade advisor circulated in the White House

Trump did express familiarity with recent press reports on the memos  and said he talked to Navarro about them recently. He described himself as responding to the urgent tone by closing down travel from China, an action he took Feb. 2 that included non-U.S. citizens from China.

'But that was about the same time as I felt that we should do it. That was about the same time that I closed it down. I asked him [Navarro] about it just a little while ago because I read something about a memo. I said, did you do a memo? I didn't look  I didn't see it,' Trump said.

Trump also indicated he had not yet seen the memos  which were reported in the New York Times and printed in their entirety by Axios.

Trump denied having seen the explosive memos, but also said he would see them soon, and indicated he had followed their warnings due to closing travel by non-U.S. citizens from China

'I didn't ask him to show it to me. He said, yes, I talked about the possibility of a pandemic. Nobody said it's going to happen, but, you know, there is a possibility, there always has been a possibility, but people wouldn't talk about it. but it was right about the time that I closed it down,' Trump said.

Trump was again asked about his optimistic statements at the time that said the number of U.S. cases would soon be down to zero.

'But you have to understand, I'm a cheerleader for this country,' Trump said.

Trump said his action on China, which came about two weeks after the first U.S. infection through travel: 'And it was right about that time. But i'm not going to go out and start screaming this could happen, this could happen. So, again, as president, I think a president has to be a cheerleader for their country. But at the same time I'm cheerleading, I'm also closing down a very highly infected place,' Trump said.

Navarro, a China hawk within the administration, warned the Trump administration in late January and again in February that failing to contain coronavirus could cost the US trillions of dollars and millions of American lives.

Asked when he learned about the memos, Trump said: 'I read about it a day ago, maybe two days ago.' The February memo seeking a congressional appropriation was titled: 'MEMORANDUM TO PRESIDENT THROUGH NSC, COS, COVID-19 TASK FORCE,' in reference to the chief of staff and the coronavirus task force.

A dire January 29 memo was titled: 'MEMORANDUM TO NSC'  the National Security Council  and bore Navarro's name. Axios described it as a memo to White House staff.

Navarro, Trump's trade advisor, issued his first grim warning in a memo dated January 29 - just days after the first COVID-19 cases were reported in the US.

At the time, Trump was publicly downplaying the risk that the novel coronavirus posed to Americans - though weeks later he would assert that no one could have predicted the devastation seen today.

Navarro penned a second memo about a month later on February 23, in which he warned that as many as two million Americans could die from the virus as it tightened its grip on the nation.

The memos were obtained by the New York Times and Axios on Monday, as the number of COVID-19 cases nationwide surpassed 368,200 with at least 11,000 deaths.

Trade adviser Peter Navarro warned top Trump officials in late January and again in February that failing to contain coronavirus could cost the US trillions of dollars and millions of American lives. Trump is seen with Navarro (center) at a March 9 press briefing on coronavirus

Navarro's memos were obtained by the New York Times and Axios on Monday, as the number of COVID-19 cases nationwide surpassed 368,200 with at least 11,000 deaths

The January memo marks the earliest known high-alert to circulate within the West Wing as officials planned their first substantive steps to confront the disease that had already spiraled out of control in China.

It serves as evidence that top officials in the administration had considered the possibility of the outbreak turning into something far more serious than Trump was acknowledging publicly at the time.

'The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil,' Navarro wrote.

'This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.'

Navarro stated that the administration faced a choice about how aggressive it would be in containing the outbreak, offering two different scenarios.

The first scenario suggested that the disease could be on par with a 'seasonal flu', resulting in relatively low human and economic costs.

But Navarro further asserted that 'risk of a worst-case pandemic scenario should not be overlooked', given information emerging from China.

He specifically cited one worst-case scenario in which more than 500,000 Americans could die.

Navarro's initial memo is dated January 29 - days after the first COVID-19 cases were reported in the US. At the time, Trump was publicly downplaying the risk the virus posed to Americans

Navarro sent the first memo to the National Security Council before it was distributed among Trump administration officials, according to the Times.

It was penned on the same day that Trump unveiled his White House task force to address the threat.

The following day, the president announced limits on travel from China - which Navarro had pushed for in his memo.

But it wasn't until weeks later that Trump implemented more aggressive measures to stem the spread of the virus, under ongoing criticism from many who've said he acted too slowly.

People familiar with the memo's distribution told the Times that it reached a number of top officials - including aides to then-Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.

However, the sources said it was unclear if Trump ever saw it.

Navarro and Matthew Pottinger, the chief deputy at the National Security Council, were among the few officials pushing for the administration to take stronger action against the growing coronavirus threat in late January.

Some officials have argued that their concerns are more prescient in hindsight than they were at the time.

One official told Axios that the January memo 'struck me as an alarmist attempt to bring attention to Peter's anti-China agenda while presenting an artificially limited range of policy options'.

Trump announced limits on travel from China one day after Navarro issued the memo. Pictured: A medical worker treats a COVID-19 patient at a hospital in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak originated in late December

Navarro opened the memo by writing: 'If the probability of a pandemic is greater than roughly 1%, a game-theoretic analysis of the coronavirus indicates the clear dominant strategy is an immediate travel ban on China.'

At another point he concluded: 'Regardless of whether the coronavirus proves to be a pandemic-level outbreak, there are certain costs associated with engaging in policies to contain and mitigate the spread of the disease.

'The most readily available option to contain the spread of the outbreak is to issue a travel ban to and from the source of the outbreak, namely, mainland China.'

He cited an estimate by the Council of Economic Advisers' which indicated that banning travel from China would cost $2.9billion per month - or $34.6billion over a year.

But he also noted that without containment a pandemic could cost the US up to $5.7trillion, depending on how deadly it was.

Navarro pointed to the history of pandemic flus as he suggested that the chances of a new one were elevated by the novel coronavirus strain.

'Historical precedent alone should be sufficient to prove the need to take aggressive action to contain the outbreak,' he wrote.

He went on to say that early figures on how easy the virus was spreading indicated that it posed even greater risks than aforementioned pandemic flus.

Navarro's second memo was addressed specifically to President Trump, but was not explicitly signed by the trade adviser.

In it he warned that a third of the country could be infected by COVID-19, resulting in anywhere between a million and two million deaths.

He requested $3billion for immediate aid to 'support efforts at prevention, treatment, inoculation, and diagnostics', writing: 'This is NOT a time for penny-pinching or horse trading on the Hill.'

The White House official who spoke to Axios about the memos said that the second one 'lacked any basis for its projections, which led some staff to worry that it could needlessly rattle markets and may not direct funding where it was truly needed'.

Neither Navarro nor the White House returned requests for comment from the Times or Axios.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon defended Navarro's motives to Axios, calling the memos 'prophetic'.

Bannon charged that Navarro had been forced to put his concerns in writing because 'there was total blockage to get these facts in front of the President of the United States'.

He said that 'naivete, arrogance and ignorance' from White House advisers 'put the country and the world in jeopardy' - adding that Navarro had been sidelined from the task force after voicing his concerns.

'In this Kafkaesque nightmare, nobody would pay attention to him or the facts,' Bannon said.
Manila, April 7 : Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday approved the extension of a lockdown and strict quarantine measures for Luzon island until April 30 to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

On March 17, Duterte ordered strict quarantine measures for the entire island of Luzon - the biggest and most populous in the country with 57 million inhabitants, including the capital Manila - until April 12, reports efe news.

The inter-governmental working group for COVID-19 on Tuesday formally recommended the President to extend the lockdown in order to reinforce measures to contain the infection curve, which was then approved by Duterte.

"We are inclined to extend the lockdown up to April 30," Duterte said in a televised address on Monday night.

Millions of poor families who subsist day-to-day are suffering the most due to the lockdown in Luzon with all commercial activities paralyzed.

Several civil society groups have urged the government to ease the lockdown and isolate only those areas which are the COVID-10 hotspots.

To mitigate the impact among the most vulnerable sections of society, the government on Monday initiated monetary aid worth 8,000 pesos ($160) to 18 million families in a country where 16 per cent of its population is below the poverty line.

The Philippines has reported 3,660 COVID-19 cases and 163 deaths.

Health authorities have confirmed that from April 14 onwards, the Philippines would be able to carry out massive testing to isolate the positive cases, including asymptomatic ones, after the establishment of laboratories across the country and the arrival of thousands of testing kits donated by China, South Korea and Singapore.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rejected offers from Washington of humanitarian assistance for Iran

Dubai: Iran will never ask the United States for help in the fight against the new coronavirus, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Monday.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rejected offers from Washington of humanitarian assistance for Iran, the Middle Eastern country so far worst-affected by the coronavirus, with 3,739 deaths and 60,500 people infected according to the latest figures on Monday.

Iran has never asked and will not ask America to help Tehran in its fight against the outbreak ... But America should lift all its illegal unilateral sanctions on Iran, Mousavi said in a televised news conference.

Tensions between the two countries have been high since 2018, when US President Donald Trump quit a 2015 agreement that lifted sanctions on Iran in return for curbs to its nuclear programme. Washington reimposed sanctions which have crippled the Iranian economy.

Iranian authorities say US sanctions have hampered their efforts to curb the outbreak, urging other countries and the United Nations to call on the United States to lift them.

They (the US) are trying to force Tehran to accept negotiations with America, Mousavi said.

Trump says the nuclear deal was not strong enough and wants to apply maximum pressure on Iran to accept tougher curbs to its nuclear programme, halt its ballistic missile work and end its support for proxy forces in the Middle East. Iran says it will not negotiate unless Washington lifts sanctions.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak

France, Germany and Britain exported medical goods to Iran in the first transaction conducted under Instex, a trade mechanism set up to barter humanitarian goods and food after the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Germany said last week.

These initial steps to implement the Instex system are positive but not sufficient, Irans President Hassan Rouhani told French President Emmanuel Macron, according to Press TV.

Separately, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved the withdrawal of one billion euros from Irans sovereign wealth fund to fight the coronavirus epidemic, Rouhanis official website said.
Auckland: Outbreak of Coronavirus epidemic is visible in every corner of the world. More than half of the country is in a lockdown situation at the moment and everyone is acting strictly. In the midst of this strictness, the New Zealand Health Minister has found it costly to take a carelessness. He went to hang out with the family in violation of the lockdown, after which the New Zealand PM has reduced his stature in the government.

WHO's big statement on Tablighi Jamaat corona case

New Zealand Health Minister David Clarke said in a statement that he could not stand with the team in the time of crisis, even after the lockdown was implemented, he took his family to hang out in the beach. Clarke said in his statement that he was 20 km from his house. Driving the car away, reached the beach and walked with the family.

World Health Day: PM Modi boosts Corona Warriors, tweeted

In this regard, he informed Prime Minister Jacinda and offered his resignation. On this, the PM said that if there was any other situation, I would have removed him from the post, but now is the time against the Coronavirus, so he is not removing him from the post of minister. However, he changed the post of Associate Finance Minister to David Clarke and made a second-tier minister.

Here's how turkmenistan is still safe from coronavirus, not a single is reported yet
The armed services committee chairman has called on US Navy secretary to stand down after he apologised for calling a fired aircraft carrier captain naive and stupid.

Adam Smith said on Monday that Thomas Modly, the acting US Navy secretary, had been tone death in his handling of the situation on-board a US aircraft carrier amid an outbreak of coronavirus cases.

The committee chair, having criticised Mr Modly for focusing on his personal ego said: I no longer have confidence in Acting Secretary Modlys leadership of the Navy and believe he should be removed from his position,

Mr Smith also called the secretary's firing of the USS Theodore Roosevelt captain at best an overreaction to the extraordinary steps the Captain took to protect his crew.

Mr Modly apologised publicly on Monday for his criticism of Captain Brett Crozier by saying that he was smart and passionate  and the opposite of naive and stupid.

A leaked audio recording revealed that the navy secretary had told sailors on board USS Theodore Roosevelt that their previous captain was naive and stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this,

Captain Crozier was dismissed from his position at the head of the USS Roosevelt last week after writing to senior Navy leaders pleading for assistance with an outbreak of the coronavirus on-board the aircraft carrier.

The captain had warned in the letter that If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset  our sailors.

The navy secretary instead told the crew of the USS Roosevelt that their previous captain had betrayed the White House with his warning about coronavirus.

Mr Modly later appeared to backtrack by saying: I believe, precisely because he [Captain Cozier] is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation of his ship.

Mr Smith was joined by other Democrat lawmakers in Congress on Monday who have now called for Mr Modly to be sacked following his speech.
She's a veteran nurse at a Winnipeg hospital who has seen her fair share of medical emergencies. But nothing in her past could have prepared her for what's unfolding on health care's front lines amid the coronavirus crisis.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

She's a veteran nurse at a Winnipeg hospital who has seen her fair share of medical emergencies. But nothing in her past could have prepared her for what's unfolding on health care's front lines amid the coronavirus crisis.

There are stringent new safety protocols. There's an omnipresent fear of the unknown. It's all become part of the new, frightening reality for Manitoba health-care employees  the foot soldiers in this pandemic fight.

The nurse worked back-to-back shifts last weekend at a Winnipeg ER. The woman, who has requested anonymity, shared her first-person account with columnist Dan Lett.

Heightened anxiety:

I was very anxious going into this weekend. I felt like I was going into my first job. I was physically terrified about going into the hospital because of what I was reading and what was going on, and what I perceived was going on. I felt sick, like I was going to pass out. Im sure my heart rate must have been 140. I dont think Ive ever been physically scared in my job and I have seen some violent patients in the emergency over the years.

We have a couple of private Facebook pages where we connect and do shift swaps, things like that. There were a lot of posts there that really had me worried, where people were really concerned about what was going on. When I got there, it wasnt as horrible as I thought it was going to be. But the buildup to get me there, I was really scared.

A calm before the storm:

At emergency, there wasnt a larger number of sick people. It feels really good in emergency right now because its mostly just the emergencies that were seeing, the people who really need to be here. People are staying home and staying safe, and our volume is way, way down from what we normally see. But we're all worried about what's coming.

It feels like were in the Twilight Zone and everybody knows its coming, but when? Thats what this feels like  the calm before the storm. Its the fear of whats coming, and when is it coming, and are we going to be ready when it comes, and do we have enough supplies, and are we going to put ourselves at risk? Or, am I going to bring it home to my kid and is she going to get sick? Am I going to give it to my grocery store clerk who, in turn, is going to give it to every person in the community where I live? The guilt of it all.

Precautions become paramount:

A lot of people are talking about personal protective equipment. They don't know what it's like to wear this stuff all day. My ears hurt from the glasses and the masks. Weve come up with a couple of things for our masks, just from what weve learned from posts by nurses in places like Italy. They have scars on their faces from wearing masks all day long. We learned from them to put buttons on our headgear, up above the ear, so we can hook the masks to the button instead of our ears. That was a trick that a nurse from Italy posted on a page sent to us. A helpful little hint.

Most of us are showering at work before we come home, and changing clothes. Traditionally, Ive never changed my clothes before coming home from work but Ive been doing that for about a week and a half now. There's much more we're doing now that's new, like all the steps we have to go through when doffing our PPE.

It feels like were in the Twilight Zone and everybody knows its coming, but when?

We have a spotter watching us  someone who's clean  to make sure things are taken off appropriately, and making sure we wash our hands between each step. When you come out of a room, you take off your gloves, because they're likely the dirtiest, and then you wash your hands. Then you take off your gown and wash your hands. Then take off your mask and goggles and wash your hands. Its tough  especially in the winter. When you wash your hands that much they tend to crack, so we have to moisturize often.

We're wearing a surgical skull cap and mask, goggles, a gown and gloves. The gowns have a plastic lining that makes them very protective, but also very hot. And then, underneath all that, youve got your uniform on, with all that covering. It gets very hot, very quickly. But we're glad to have the equipment, and a bit concerned about whether we'll have enough.

Worried about protective equipment shortages:

Ive never before had a fear that I wouldnt have a mask to put on. Or that maybe I should wear this mask my whole shift because maybe there wont be one for my next shift if I use too many today. I think we're all thinking that. Before, I would never wear a mask my entire shift. Now, we only take off our protective gear when we go on break. In a 12-hour shift, we get four breaks.

If we turned into a situation like Italy, there might not be enough PPE. I have no idea what kind of stock the health region has. We dont go to the main storeroom in the hospital to see how many boxes of gloves and boxes of mask they have. They give us a certain amount every day. If we use it up quicker, then they bump up what we get. Our supplies are kept in locked cupboards because they're still going missing.

Entire boxes of gear are going missing from supply rooms... I have no idea what people are thinking because youre just stealing from yourself in the end.

Before this started, we had isolation carts. When a patient is put in an isolation room, an isolation cart is put near that room. In that cart, there are masks, gloves, gowns, shields, N95 masks. Right now, we cant stock those carts because people are taking stuff off the carts. So, all the masks are sitting at the main desk and other supplies are locked up in a cupboard. If you need a mask, you have to walk to the desk.

Im not sure who is doing it. I don't think its the single mask that someone might slip in their pocket that were concerned about; entire boxes of gear are going missing from supply rooms. I dont know if people are selling them, I have no idea what people are thinking because youre just stealing from yourself in the end. Its cumbersome for everybody. And locking up the supplies makes everyone a little scared. The stories coming out New York City, about how they ran out of this and they ran out of that, and how if we dont stay home and flatten the curve and wind up in a situation like New York or Italy, were going to be in trouble. I think that's mostly where the fear is coming from.

Bracing for what's to come:

The normal stress of our work isnt there right now because were not as busy as we normally are, and moving people and getting stuff  it doesnt feel like that now. There isnt as much pressure. Theres still quite a bit of overtime. Ive picked up a lot of additional shifts over the next two weeks. Theres still an abundance of OT shifts even though there are fewer patients. There just arent as many people getting in traffic accidents, or falling and breaking their hips. People are behaving, I guess.

If it gets really bad in hospitals, Im not sure that were going to have enough nurses. It will depend on the acuity of the COVID patients. If there is a large number of critically ill patients coming in quickly, its not going to be easy. Initially we were told after March 12, it would take three weeks before wed see something in the hospital. Speaking to the doctors, theyre expecting it any day now.

We all know that we dont have an infinite amount of ICU beds and ICU equipment and ICU nurses. I know that within the last year, theyve cut what we did have. The changes government made to hospitals definitely increased the workloads in the facility where I work. For all of us. For ICU, for dialysis, for medicine. Every unit in my hospital felt those closures and those changes.

Dan Lett | Not for Attribution A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world that is sent every Tuesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

I dont think were functioning now like were going to once all the changes are made and everything is in place. I think it might all be OK once it all gets done. It just wasnt done right and now, to have this pandemic in the middle of the changes, is bad.

There was a nurse in Italy who didnt know she was positive and gave it to a lot of patients. She ended up taking her own life. Everything has changed for all of us with COVID, and its scary. In Italy, they have to make decisions not to give someone a tube and a ventilator because they don't have enough to go around. I don't want to do that.

Were caregivers, were not lifetakers. Its hard to imagine telling someone sorry, we dont have the equipment for your mom, we cant help her, shes going to die today. We shouldn't have to make that kind of decision. I take care of people. I cant imagine saying that to someone.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
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CONVENING OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF EURONEXT N.V.

Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, London, Oslo and Paris  2 April 2020  Euronext today announced that the Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place on Thursday 14 May 2020 at 10.30 CET, at Beursplein 5, 1012 JW Amsterdam, The Netherlands, subject to any legislative developments in the context of the current COVID 19 crisis.

Shareholders are strongly encouraged to provide voting instructions and not to attend the AGM in person. To ensure as much interaction as possible, shareholders are invited to submit questions regarding the agenda items in advance by sending an email to ptheunissen@euronext.com . Our aim is to answer during the meeting all questions submitted in advance. A webcast of the AGM will be available on https://channel.royalcast.com/webcast/euronextwebcast/20200514_1/ . Other options are being explored. Announcements will be made on Euronexts website ( https://www.euronext.com/en/investor-relations/shareholder-meetings ) closer to date.

The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

1. Opening

2. Presentation of the Chief Executive Officer (discussion item)

3. Annual report 2019

a. Explanation of the policy on additions to reserves and dividends (discussion item)

b. Proposal to adopt the 2019 remuneration report (voting item 1)

c. Proposal to adopt the 2019 financial statements (voting item 2)

d. Proposal to adopt a dividend of EUR 1.59 per ordinary share (voting item 3)

e. Proposal to discharge the members of the Managing Board in respect of their duties performed during the year 2019 (voting item 4)

f. Proposal to discharge the members of the Supervisory Board in respect of their duties performed during the year 2019 (voting item 5)

4. Composition of the Supervisory Board

Story continues

a. Re-appointment of Dick Sluimers as a member of the Supervisory Board (voting item 6)

5. Composition of the Managing Board

a. Appointment of ivind Amundsen as a member of the Managing Board (voting item 7)

b. Appointment of Georges Lauchard as a member of the Managing Board (voting item 8)

6. Proposal to adopt a new remuneration policy with regard to the Managing Board aligned with the Shareholder Rights Directive II as implemented in Dutch law (voting item 9)

7. Proposal to adopt a new remuneration policy with regard to the Supervisory Board aligned with the Shareholder Rights Directive II as implemented in Dutch law (voting item 10)

8. Proposal to appoint the external auditor (voting item 11)

9. Proposal to designate the Managing Board as the competent body:

a. to issue ordinary shares (voting item 12); and

b. to restrict or exclude the pre-emptive rights of shareholders (voting item 13)

10. Proposal to authorise the Managing Board to acquire ordinary shares in the share capital of the company on behalf of the company (voting item 14)

11. Proposal to authorise the Supervisory Board or Managing Board (subject to approval of the Supervisory Board) to grant rights to French beneficiaries to receive shares in accordance with Articles L225-197-1 and seq. of the French Code of commerce (voting item 15)

12. Any other business

13. Close





The AGM will be conducted in English.

Registration date AGM

Pursuant to Dutch law and Euronext N.V.s Articles of Association, the persons who will be considered as entitled to attend and vote at the AGM are those persons who are registered as such in the administrations held by their financial intermediaries (the Shareholders) on Thursday 16 April 2020, after processing of all settlements on that date (the Registration Date).

Registration

Shareholders holding their shares through Euroclear France S.A. (i.e. the public) who wish to attend the AGM, provide instructions or grant a power of attorney to vote on their behalf, must complete the form (voting form / attendance card request) provided for this purpose by their financial intermediary or by Euronext Securities Department  BNP PARIBAS Securities Services. The Shareholders should be aware that these documents must be received, no later than on Thursday 7 May 2020 by their financial intermediary for receipt no later than on Friday 8 May 2020 by BNP Paribas Securities Service CTS Assemblees Generales, 9 rue du Debarcadere 93761 Pantin Cedex, France. The financial intermediary should deliver to the Shareholder a certificate of holding containing: name and city of residence of the Shareholder; number of shares; name and city of residence of the attendee (if different from the Shareholder) and declaration that the shares were in custody with the Euroclear France admitted institution on the Registration Date. This certificate will serve as the admission certificate for the AGM for the Shareholder.

Shareholders holding their shares through Interbolsa in Portugal who wish to attend the AGM, provide instructions or grant a power of attorney to vote on their behalf, must complete the form (voting form / attendance card request) provided for this purpose by Euronext Securities Department  BNP PARIBAS Securities Services. The Shareholders should be aware that these documents must be received, no later than on Thursday 7 May 2020 by their financial intermediary for receipt no later than on Friday 8 May 2020 by BNP Paribas Securities Services, PT Local Team, Edificio ARTS  Av. D. Joao II  Lote 1.18.01, Bloco B, 1998-028 Lisboa, Portugal. The financial intermediary should deliver to the Shareholder a certificate of holding containing: name and city of residence of the Shareholder; number of shares on the Registration Date; name and city of residence of the attendee (if different from the Shareholder). This certificate will serve as admission certificate for the AGM for the Shareholder.

We advise Shareholders to make contact with their financial intermediary for any questions.

Persons without a valid admission certificate will not be given access to the meeting. Attendants may be asked for identification prior to being admitted.

At the time of the publication of this convening notice, Euronexts total issued share capital in number of issued shares and in voting rights is published on Euronexts website:

https://www.euronext.com/en/investor-relations/capital-and-shareholding

The articles of association of Euronext N.V. do not allow for electronic voting. If emergency legislation or emergency measures in that context are introduced in the Netherlands, this convening notice must be considered to include the possibility of electronic participation (and the exercise of rights).

Given the circumstances, shareholders are strongly encouraged to provide voting instructions and not to attend the AGM in person.





Agm Documentation

The AGM Documentation (i.e. this convening notice, the agenda and the explanatory notes thereto including the information on the persons to be appointed to the Supervisory Board and the Managing Board, as well as the 2019 Annual Report) is available:

at the registered office of Euronext N.V.: Beursplein 5, 1012 JW Amsterdam, The Netherlands

at the following addresses:

 in Belgium: Euronext, Rue du Marquis, 1 / Markiesstraat 1, 1000 Bruxelles / 1000 Brussel, Belgium

 in France: Euronext, 14, place des Reflets, 92054 Paris La Defense, France

 in Ireland: Euronext, Exchange Buildings, Foster Place, Dublin 2, Ireland

 in Norway: Oslo Brs VPS, Tollbugata 2, 0152 Oslo, Norway

 in Portugal: Euronext, Av. da Liberdade, n. 196 - 7, 1250-147 Lisboa, Portugal

 in the United Kingdom: Euronext, 10th floor, 110 Cannon Street, London EC4N 6EU, United Kingdom

on Euronexts website https://www.euronext.com/en/investor-relations/shareholder-meetings

at BNP PARIBAS Securities Services CTS Assemblees Generales  9 rue du Debarcadere

93761 Pantin Cedex, France - + 33 1 57 43 02 30

Managing Board and Supervisory Board of Euronext N.V.

Beursplein 5, 1012 JW Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Registered at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, under number 60234520

CONTACTS -

Media

Pauline Bucaille: +33 1 70 48 24 41 ; media@euronext.com

Analysts & investors

Aurelie Cohen/ Clement Kubiak: +33 1 70 48 24 27 ; ir@euronext.com

About Euronext

Euronext is the leading pan-European exchange, covering Belgium, France, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the UK. With close to 1,500 listed issuers worth 4.5 trillion in market capitalisation as of end December 2019, Euronext has an unmatched blue chip franchise that includes 26 issuers in the Morningstar Eurozone 50 Index and a strong diverse domestic and international client base. Euronext operates regulated and transparent equity and derivatives markets and is the largest centre for debt and funds listings in the world. Its total product offering includes Equities, FX, Exchange Traded Funds, Warrants & Certificates, Bonds, Derivatives, Commodities and Indices. Euronext also leverages its expertise in running markets by providing technology and managed services to third parties. In addition to its main regulated market, Euronext also operates Euronext GrowthTM and Euronext AccessTM, simplifying access to listing for SMEs. The Norwegian stock exchange and its clearing & settlement subsidiary, together operating as Oslo Brs VPS, joined Euronext on 17 June 2019.

For the latest news, find us on Twitter (twitter.com/euronext) and LinkedIn (linkedin.com/euronext).

Disclaimer

This press release is for information purposes only: it is not a recommendation to engage in investment activities and is provided as is, without representation or warranty of any kind. While all reasonable care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the content, Euronext does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness. Euronext will not be held liable for any loss or damages of any nature ensuing from using, trusting or acting on information provided. No information set out or referred to in this publication may be regarded as creating any right or obligation. The creation of rights and obligations in respect of financial products that are traded on the exchanges operated by Euronexts subsidiaries shall depend solely on the applicable rules of the market operator. All proprietary rights and interest in or connected with this publication shall vest in Euronext. This press release speaks only as of this date. Euronext refers to Euronext N.V. and its affiliates. Information regarding trademarks and intellectual property rights of Euronext is available at www.euronext.com/terms-use .

 2020, Euronext N.V. - All rights reserved.

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In accordance with the applicable legislation you have rights with regard to the processing of your personal data:

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Attachment
Abandoned when Pakistans largest cities went into lockdown, hundreds of caged cats, dogs and rabbits have been found dead inside pet markets hurriedly shuttered as the coronavirus spread.

Survivors from the specialist corner of Karachis sprawling Empress Market were only rescued after activists appealed to the authorities for access.

When we got inside, the majority of them were dead, about 70 percent. Their bodies were lying on the ground, Ayesha Chundrigar, who runs ACF Animal Rescue, told neas agency AFP.

It was so horrific, I cant tell you.

As the virus pandemic grew, Pakistans major cities were plunged into lockdown, forcing many shops to close. Only stalls selling essential goods such as food and medicine were allowed to continue operating.

The bodies of about 20 dogs were found dumped in a sewer near Lahores Tollinton Market, a hub for pet businesses which had closed leaving animals to starve.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan has sharply increased to 3,864 with more than 500 fresh infections while the death toll reached 54, the health officials said on Monday.

The Ministry of National Health Services, in an early morning update on its website, reported that four patients died of coronavirus in the last 24 hours.

According to the officials, Punjab has 1,918 cases, Sindh 932, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 500, Gilgit-Baltistan 211, Balochistan 202, Islamabad 83 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 18.

The increase in the number of new cases was reported despite hectic efforts to curtail the spread of the virus.

The government has extended the partial lockdown until April 14 and asked people to stay at homes and follow social distancing.
New milestone offers the entire textiles, apparel and footwear supply chain a one-stop solution to lower their risk of liability and improve competitiveness

COLOGNE, Germany, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- TUV Rheinland has cemented its lead as a global provider of chemical management solutions for the textiles, apparel and footwear industry after winning approval to provide Level 3 testing and conformance certification for the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) Foundation's Manufacturing Restricted Substances List 2.0 (MRSL 2.0). Once certified by TUV Rheinland, the chemical formulation can be registered and listed on the ZDHC GATEWAY: CHEMICAL MODULE.

This development means that TUV Rheinland now offers customers a genuine, one-stop solution for all three focus areas of the ZDHC's "Roadmap to Zero" initiative and Greenpeace's DETOX campaign - Inputs, Processes, and Outputs - through its next-level TOXPROOF Testing and Certification program.

"It is no longer enough for the industry to produce so-called 'clean' finished products by simply washing them and flushing any undesired chemicals into the local sewerage system before delivery. Brands, retail buyers and a growing number of savvy end-user customers are now demanding clear proof that the production process is clean from start to finish," said Mohammed Dkhissi, Global Vice President, Softlines for TUV Rheinland.

"Meeting that need takes much more than mere commitment. It requires the kind of credibility that only an independent testing and certification partner like TUV Rheinland, which is backed by the approval of one of the world's most respected industry standards bodies - ZDHC - can deliver," said Dkhissi.

The new Level 3 approval - the highest level in the current program - covers TUV Rheinland's extensive global testing and certification network, including APAC locations such as China, Thailand and Vietnam, along with labs in Bangladesh, India, Turkey and Germany. It complements the MRSL 2.0 testing and certification services, which are already in high demand.

In fact, exploring ways to help customers fast-track their chemical compliance with ZDHC MRSL 2.0 is the subject of TUV Rheinland's next "Ask a DETOXpert" webinar, which will take place on 29 April, 2020 ( Click here to learn more or register for the webinar).

TUV Rheinland has been actively promoting Sound Chemical Management for more than a decade, starting with the International Labour Organization's SCORE (Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises) program, and its own FIT FIVE training program, which links productivity and quality with CSR.

Conformance as per ZDHC MRSL Level 3, is a reliable and trusted indicator that the chemical formulation (and the process that produced it) has undergone a recognized, in-depth product and facility assessment, independent testing and on-site auditing - and will continue to undergo random product checks after the test mark is issued. Buyers and end-user consumers can be confident that, to the best of current knowledge, the product presents no danger to human health and meets recognized environmental sustainability standards.

To analyze a chemical formulation for harmful substances, TUV Rheinland assesses the chemical composition, evaluates associated documents, and reviews the production process. The analytical testing protocol covers known, potentially harmful substances, possible contamination, and the materials used to preserve the product during shipment and storage, all based on the ZDHC MRSL List. To evaluate the potential risk of exposure to a toxin, test conditions are chosen based on how consumers are likely to use the product in their day-to-day lives.

"TUV Rheinland's ZDHC MRSL Level 3 Conformance program is designed to help players at each step of the textile, apparel and footwear supply chain, to lower their risk of liability through documented safety standards. With this latest Level 3 MRSL 2.0 approval by ZDHC, our program represents an even more powerful way for businesses to sharpen their competitive edge and offer customers a unique decision-making aid when they are considering a purchase," said Dkhissi.

About TUV Rheinland

TUV Rheinland is a global leader in independent inspection services, founded nearly 150 years ago. The group maintains a worldwide presence of more than 20,000 people; annual turnover is EUR 2 billion. The independent experts stand for quality and safety for people, technology and the environment in nearly all aspects of life. TUV Rheinland inspects technical equipment, products and services, oversees projects, and helps to shape processes and information security for companies. Its experts train people in a wide range of careers and industries. To this end, TUV Rheinland employs a global network of approved labs, testing and education centers. Since 2006, TUV Rheinland has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact to promote sustainability and combat corruption. Website: www.tuv.com

www.tuv.com/detox
By Express News Service

WARANGAL: The district administration, on Monday, deployed medical teams in no movement zones in Warangal to provide healthcare facilities to the residents of these areas.

Officials said that several people residing here suffer from health conditions like diabetes and that they needed access to medical support.

On Monday, Warangal (Urban) District Collector Rajeev Gandhi Hanumanthu, GWMC chief Pamela Satpathy, Commissioner of Police V Ravinder and DM&HO Lalitha Devi visited Mominpura Colony in Rangasaipeta  one of the no movement zones.

The police barricaded all the roads around it and deployed forces to ensure the residents are isolated. They also set up check-posts at the entry and exit points here to prevent public movement.

No person is allowed to move in or out of these areas. The residents can call the toll free number 1800 425 1115 if they face any hardships, said an official.

Door-to-door delivery

Speaking to the media, Collector Hanumanthu said that the administration was also considering home delivery of essential commodities for people residing in the no movement zones with the help of supermarkets and wholesale general stores in the city.

On Monday, as many as 25 mobile rythu bazars supplied vegetables to over 41,700 households.

The Collector further said that there was no question of locals being permitted to step outside. He assured if there was any health emergency, they would shift the patients to a hospital in an ambulance.

Warangal Police Commissioner V Ravinder said the no movement zones are under CCTV surveillance.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday assured farmers that every grain of their produce will be procured and purchase centres have been increased this time to allow staggered procurement in view of the lockdown.

The Centre had announced the 21-day nationwide lockdown from March 25 to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Khattar said farmers who store their harvested wheat crop for longer durations may be given incentives.

For the procurement, which normally begins on April 1, the state government this time has said for wheat it will begin from April 20 and for mustard from April 15.

We have written to Centre that tfarmers should be paid 'holding incentive' for delaying bringing their produce to 'mandis' (wholesale markets), Khattar told reporters through video conference.

He said as against 433 purchase centres and mandis last time, this season these have been increased to 2,000 to allow staggered procurement of wheat, which is likely to last over a month.

The chief minister said 'Arhitiyas' will be involved in procurement process. The government will digitally transfer payments to them who in turn will pay it to the farmers for the crop procured, he said.

However, for mustard, farmers will be directly paid by the government, Khattar said.

For mustard we will make purchases from April 15 and for this, from 66 mandis earlier it will be 140 mandis this time We are committed to procuring every single grain of farmers, he said.

The chief minister said that in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, cloth masks will be made available to farmers when they come to mandis and purchase centres.

Khattar appealed to farmers to voluntary donate at least the sum they would earn on 1-5 kg per quintal of their crop produce.

He said that all sections of society, including state government employees, have made contributions towards the Haryana COVID Relief Fund.

Khattar said that while all legislators had decided to donate their month's salary for the COVID Relief Fund, the governor, the deputy CM, assembly speaker, deputy speaker, ministers and him from their discretionary quota have contributed amount ranging between Rs 2 crore to Rs 3 crore towards the Consolidated Fund of India, making it total of Rs 51 crore.

On the farmers issue, he assured that despite the lockdown they will not be allowed to face any problem when it comes to movement of agricultural equipment, including tractors and combine harvesting machines.

With many migrant workers from the state having left for their hometown in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar over a week ago in the wake of lockdown, he said directions have been given in districts to make labourers under the MGNREGA.

He admitted that farmers will have to cooperate this time as availability of labour was going to be a problem.

On March 28 and 29, many migrant labourers who were present in Haryana or came from neighbouring states like Punjab crossed through the state to go to their hometowns in view of their apprehensions about the lockdown.

Some left (for their native states) and some were stopped. Today, there are nearly 15,000 migrant labourers who have been accommodated in our relief camps.

These 15,000, if they want to go their factory or state where they work, if they want to go in a safe manner, we can make efforts to send them back by following all norms pertaining to COVID-19 so that sufficient distance is maintained in buses, like in each bus 20-30 people can be accommodated and sent to their homes. During the past two days 1,000 such people have gone back, he said.

Khattar also said that state government had taken steps to provide food and ration to poor sections including daily wagers and so far, 55 lakh food packets and 3.5 lakh ration packets have been distributed.

On the Haryana COVID Relief Fund, he said there was no coercion on employees, but so far 1.82 lakh employees have come forward on their own making healthy contributions.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
RECHARGE CARDS GIVEAWAY. For the speedy recovery of the peoples governor of Oyo State, the Legislative Aides/In-House-Men of Hon. Oluyemi Adewale Taiwo are hereby rejoicing with the electorates of Oyo State with N500 recharge cards give-away of your choice, the flier read.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks to the media on Japan's response to the CCP virus outbreak, at his official residence in Tokyo, Japan, on April 6, 2020. (Issei Kato/Reuters)

Japan to Declare CCP virus Emergency, Launch Stimulus of Almost $1 Trillion: PM

TOKYOJapan is to impose a state of emergency in Tokyo and six other prefectures as early as Tuesday to contain the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, while the government prepares a $990 billion (108 trillion yen) stimulus package to soften the economic blow.

Domestic infections topped 4,000, Jiji news reported, and 93 have diednot a huge outbreak compared with some global hot spots. But the numbers keep rising, with particular alarm over the spread in Tokyo, which has more than 1,000 cases including 83 new ones on Monday.

Japan wont, and doesnt need, to take lockdown steps like those overseas, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters, citing the opinion of infectious disease experts. Trains will be running and supermarkets will be open. The state of emergency will allow us to strengthen current steps to prevent an increase in infections while ensuring that economic activity is sustained as much as possible, he said.

Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a meeting about the measures against the CCP virus, at the prime ministers official residence in Tokyo, Japan on April 6, 2020. (Franck Robichon/Pool via Reuters)

An emergency, which Abe said would last about a month, will give governors the authority to call on people to stay at home and businesses to close. With no penalties for ignoring the requests in most cases, enforcement will rely more on peer pressure and respect for authority and was unlikely to be as rigorous as lockdowns in many other countries.

In a sign that corporate Japan already was heeding the call, Canon Inc. announced it would close its Tokyo headquarters for 10 days starting from Tuesday.

Pressure had been mounting on the government to take the step although Abe had voiced concern about being too hasty, given the restrictions on movement and businesses it would entail.

Abe also said the government will launch a stimulus package of about $990 billion (108 trillion yen), including more than $55 billion (6 trillion yen) for cash payouts to households and small businesses and $239 billion (26 trillion yen) to allow deferred social security and tax payments.

It was not immediately clear how much of that package would be new government spending.

An emergency appears to have public support. In a poll published on Monday by JNN, run by broadcaster TBS, 80 percent of those surveyed said Abe should declare it while 12 percent said it was not necessary. His approval rating fell by 5.7 points from last month to 43.2 percent, the survey showed.

But Kenji Shibuya, director of the Institute for Public Health at Kings College, London, said the emergency was too late given the explosive increase in cases in Tokyo.

It should have been declared by April 1 at the latest, he said.

Click https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-MAP/0100B59S39E/index.html for a GRAPHIC tracking the global spread of the coronavirus

Grave Danger

Under a law revised in March to cover the CCP virus, the prime minister can declare a state of emergency if the disease poses a grave danger to lives and if its rapid spread could have a big impact on the economy.

Abe must seek formal advice from a panel of experts before deciding to go ahead and declare the emergency.

While Japans CCP virus epidemic is dwarfed by the 335,000 infections and more than 9,500 deaths in the United States alone, experts worry a sudden surge could overwhelm Japans medical system.

Sounding an alarm over the high rate of cases that could not be traced, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike indicated last week that she would favor a state of emergency as a way to help her urge residents to abide by stronger social-distancing measures.

The emergency measures are meant to reduce social activity by 80 percent, a critical degree to curtail infections, said Koji Wada, a member of the expert panel advising policymakers. The government must show guts in leveling with the public, with Abe being specific in his declaration about how people should conduct daily life.

It really depends on the speech by Prime Minister Abe, said Wada, a professor at the International University of Health and Welfare in Tokyo. I really expect him to tell us what kind of activities we should do.

By Linda Sieg and Chang-Ran Kim

Epoch Times staff contributed to this report
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7)  The enhanced community quarantine over Luzon will be extended until April 30, a Cabinet official said on Tuesday.

Karlo Nograles, the spokesperson of the COVID-19 task force, said President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force to extend the quarantine to 11:59 pm of April 30 to further contain the spread of coronavirus. Under the earlier order, the present quarantine is scheduled to end at 12:00 a.m. of April 13.

"Pagkatapos ng kanyang announcement ay vinerify po namin ulit at ang sagot po ay, ang enhanced community quarantine is hereby extended until 11:59 pm of April 30," he said in a virtual media briefing.

Luzon is home to over 57 million people and where Metro Manila, the countrys political and economic center, is located.

The movement of people will continue to be severely restricted under the extended quarantine, with most only allowed to leave their homes for essential trips such as to buy food or medicine.

Nograles said there is no need yet to expand the enhanced community quarantine to Visayas and Mindanao. But he said medical experts are continuously monitoring the cases in the other regions.

There are 3,660 cases of COVID-19 in the Philippines, with majority of the cases recorded in Luzon.

Need for extended lockdown

Nograles said the quarantine cannot be lifted this early because, based on three different models, cases spiked the moment quarantine orders were lifted.

He said government needs more time to ensure the Philippines can flatten the curve and hopefully not yet reach the peak number of confirmed cases.

The Health Department said it is still too early to say when COVID-19 cases in the country would peak as it needs to give more time for new testing laboratories' operations to stabilize.

Nograles explained the two-week extension will give the government more time to ramp up the country's COVID-19 testing capacity and test result turnaround in laboratories nationwide.

With only 10 certified laboratories nationwide as of Tuesday, only around 2,000 tests can be done daily. Nograles is confident that by gradually certifying more subnational laboratories, 13,000 to 20,000 COVID-19 tests can be done daily by April 27.

He said the government is also targeting to hasten the release of test results to 24 hours so patients can be immediately isolated to prevent the spread of the disease. The isolation of patients under investigation will also be increased with the construction of more quarantine facilities.

By putting these changes in place, he said, the government hopes the Philippines can buy time and reach the peak number of cases only after scientists finally create a vaccine for the new coronavirus.

"Iyun po ang game plan. We need to push the peak kasi hindi pa natin nakikita ang peak. Kung lahat po ito ay magagawa natin, sinasabi ng mga eksperto maaari nating ma-push pa lalo ang peak ng COVID-19 dito sa Pilipinas as far as 2021. Sana by that time makapaghanap na ng vaccine ang mundo," he said.

[Translation: This is our game plan while we haven't seen the peak yet. If we can make these changes, experts said we can push the peak of COVID-19 in the country to 2021. Hopefully, by then, there is already a vaccine.]

The national government has allocated about P600 billion for COVID-19 response fund. Portions of are being distributed to assist sectors most affected by the health crisis, such as indigent families; micro, small, and medium enterprises; workers; conditional cash transfer beneficiaries of the DSWD; and public utility vehicle drivers.
Churches will be empty this Easter and Passover festivities will also take place behind closed doors owing to the COVID-19 lockdown. Christians will be obliged to turn to services broadcast on television or over social media this year owing to the coronavirus and Jews will mark the Passover holiday in their own homes rather than as communities. - Passover - The major Jewish holiday starts Wednesday evening and runs to April 16 but families are being strictly urged to mark the festival at home for their own protection against COVID-19. "Passover in confinement means Passover in security," says France's Grand Rabbi Haim Korsia, so as "not to contaminate those you love most" while remaining united in faith even at a distance. Yet awkward questions arise for those who choose to adopt the strictest interpretation of traditions such as, for example, not using electricity or being accompanied by others for a reading. For those in confinement on their own, do traditional observances allow recourse to modern get-arounds such as video-conference at least for the duration of the Passover Seder, the ritual feast which marks the start of the holiday period? Fourteen rabbis in Jerusalem have decreed in favour of on-screen participation in order to maintain contact particularly with the sick and the elderly. However, Israel's Chief Rabbinate Council is opposed, arguing it amounts to "profaning" a religious holiday. In France, home to Europe's largest Jewish community, rabbis of a liberal bent are proposing to offer a 'digital' seder forum where believers can connect and discuss such matters. - Urbi et Orbi -- and the confined - Christians celebrating Easter will see the COVID-19 confinement crimp celebrations with Holy Week services generally taking place behind closed doors. The Vatican will be no exception, where Pope Francis last Sunday celebrated Palm Sunday at a deserted Saint Peter's Basilica. His audience will likewise be watching on screens rather than physically attending his Urbi et Orbi blessing in Saint Peter's Square, a case of addressing the city and the confined world. Predominantly Catholic countries would normally see huge gatherings on Sunday (Orthodox Easter falls on April 19) -- but not this year, not even in the Mexican municipality of Iztapalapa, which usually hosts a Passion procession that sees participants lug crosses through the streets. Television and internet are stepping into the breach, however, to allow believers to participate remotely in one of Christianity's most important festivals. In mainly Catholic Spain the Archbishopric of Seville hopes its mass broadcast will draw an audience in the hundreds of thousands, while Catholic broadcasters in France will transmit mass from the pilgrimage site of Lourdes in the country's southwest. In Lebanon, Maronite and Catholic masses will be broadcast live with just a priest present while the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem is urging believers to pray at home and gather virtually over social media. Elsewhere, South Africa's Anglican Church has issued guidelines including earmarking a place in the home for prayer and to continue the local tradition of eating pickled fish on Good Friday. But the virus has forced one South African Easter traditions off the menu -- the evangelical Zion Christian Church has had to forego its annual pilgrimage to Limpopo province, southern Africa's largest Christian gathering. - Orthodox variant - Orthodox Christians concentrated largely in Russia, Ethiopia, Greece, Serbia and Ukraine, follow the Julian, rather than the Gregorian calendar, hence their Easter falls on April 19. But the extra week will make little difference when it comes to COVID-19 confinement. "The celebration of the resurrection is a celebration of victory over death. We shall certainly celebrate Easter even if it won't be possible to go to church," said Metropolitan Ilarion, a senior Russian Orthodox Church cleric. The powerful Russian Orthodox Church initially said that regional authorities had no right to close churches but Patriarch Kirill in late March called on the faithful to pray at home amid the pandemic. In the hope that COVID-19 may have abated by then, Greek, Syrian and Lebanese authorities are hoping to bring the faithful back into church on May 27 in time to see in Ascension Day. burs-kp/tib/jg/cdw/pvh
By Akbar Mammadov

The Operational Headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers has issued a warning over violation of the special quarantine regime restricting residents movement in the country that entered force on April 6.

"Some legal entities and individuals who have been authorized to operate, are entering the names of foreign nationals on the portal "icaze.gov.az", and issuing fake IDs to individuals who are not employed by mass media outlets, thereby creating conditions for their unimpeded movement and grossly violating the requirements of the special quarantine regime".

The Operational Headquarters reminded that relevant government agencies have access to employment information about residents via the electronic system "Labor Contract Notification" of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.

"If a citizen does not have an employment contract in the electronic system, measures will be taken in line with the legislation on the institution that entered false information on the portal "icaze.gov.az" or issued a false document and violated the special quarantine regime by using it," the Operational Headquarters stated.

On April 6, Azerbaijan tightened the quarantine regime imposed in the country on March 30. Under the new rules, residents must obtain permission via SMS before leaving their place of residence. The duration of the permit is two hours.

Employees of state structures are exempt from the permit. Those structures and private legal entities are required to enter data on employees, and volunteers in a government gortal (icaze.e-gov.az).

Azerbaijan has recorded 717 cases of coronavirus as well as eight coronavirus-related deaths so far.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
LOUISVILLE, Ky.  A nurse at a hospital in Kentucky said she was suspended for insubordination for refusing to treat COVID-19 patients when the hospital would not supply her with a protective respirator.

Kenyatta Ervin, 49, said she previously had health conditions like pneumonia and asthma and needs the protection of an N95 mask, which have been in short supply.

She said in an interview Monday that supervisors would give her only a surgical mask, a loose-fitting disposable device that isnt sealed around the nose and mouth.

In a phone interview with her lawyer, Thomas Clay, Ervin said she was sent home from Norton Womens and Childrens Hospital in Louisville on March 31 for refusing to provide patient care.

That is absolutely not true, she said. I want to care for my patients. I know they need me.

New data on New York coronavirus deaths: Most had these underlying illnesses; 61% were men

CDC, nursing unions clash over mask policy

Maggie Roetker, Norton Healthcares director of public relations, said its hospitals have followed guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the right mask for the right task.

Citing a national shortage of N95 masks, the CDC last month said they should be reserved for the riskiest situations, such as intubations and respiratory treatments, where fine aerosol is likely to be generated, and that looser-fitting surgical masks be used for routine care.

Experts and medical professionals caution that the general public should not be snapping up all the higher quality N95 masks, as that will create a shortage for the health care workers who need them the most.

Nursing unions strongly opposed the relaxed guidelines. Until the change, CDC recommended that health care workers interacting with coronavirus patients or suspected cases wear N95 respirators, along with gowns, gloves and eye protectors.

The CDCs website says N95 ventilators are sealed and filter out at least 95% of airborne particles including large and small particles" while a surgical mask does NOT provide the wearer with a reliable level of protection from inhaling smaller airborne particles and is not considered respiratory protection.

Story continues

Roetker said following the CDCs new guidance is really important as we safely work to ensure everyone has access to the necessary personal protective equipment, given the well-documented national shortage.

She also said that if employees need to be reassigned because of health concerns, we reassign them, and many have been.

Ervin, who began work at Norton 15 months ago and has been a nurse for 20 months, said she has suffered two bouts of pneumonia and severe asthma for which she twice had to be intubated. She said she had no objection, however, to being reassigned from a surgical unit twice last month to work on a hot floor with suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.

She said the first day, March 26, she was given an N95 mask, but on her second day she received only a surgical mask.

When she declined to treat patients without the respirator, she was sent home, Clay said.

She said she has been required since to take vacation days and doesnt know what will happen when they run out.

According to Clay, Ervin was given a Daisy Award for outstanding nursing on Jan. 31.

Louisville Councilman David James said he talked to Norton Healthcare on Ervin's behalf and that officials promised to resolve the dispute, likely moving her to a less-risky assignment.

Reusable respirators protect doctors and nurses against coronavirus: They aren't in the national stockpile

Ervin not the only one

The CDC guidelines on N95 masks have divided medical experts.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, said N95 respirators should not be used for routine care, according to a newsletter published by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

But Michael Osterholm, director of the center, at the University of Minnesota, said until there is evidence that N95s are unnecessary, health care workers should use them.

In New Jersey, nurse Dawn Kulach returned to work following a bout of pneumonia, wearing an N95 mask and plastic gloves to deal with the coronavirus and the patients with COVID-19 she expected to handle.

Her supervisors at Virtua Voorhees Hospital told her to take off the mask and gloves, or go home, Kulach said Monday.

In Chicago, a nurse quit her job at an area hospital late last month when she was assigned to a COVID-19 unit and was told she couldn't wear her own mask, according to MedPageToday, a trade publication.

Imaris Vera said the hospital also cited CDC guidelines.

Fact check: Did the Obama administration deplete the federal stockpile of N95 masks?

Reports: Trump aide Peter Navarro warned 'as many as 1.2 million souls' could be lost to coronavirus

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Nurse says she was punished for refusing to work without N95 mask
E-commerce companies such as Amazon, Flipkart, Bigbasket, Grofers and the sellers are in talks with the government to help them provide curfew passes and approval of the list of the essential items, including IT products, during the lockdown period, sources said.

The time period of 4-6 months would give enough visibility and time for the sellers to keep stock ready, as these firms and sellers were of the view that the curfew passes provided to them would expire once the lockdown is lifted (after April 14). The companies have asked for digital curfew passes as e-retailers feel if more ...
The show Better Call Saul has been plagued by a tragic inevitability all along. Because its a prequel to the critically acclaimed drama Breaking Bad, we already know where Jimmy McGill will end up. Saul Goodman has loomed large throughout the past five seasons.

But in Season 5, Episode 8 fans witness the metaphorical death of the Jimmy McGill we know and love, except this time its not because of a con gone wrong. Instead, Jimmy learns the hard way that being a friend of the cartel means violence, death, and mayhem at every turn.

Youre either a lawyer or a bagman. Jimmy finally figured out which side he falls on.

[Spoiler Alert: Spoilers ahead for Better Call Saul, Season 5, Episode 8, Bagman]

Saul Goodman | Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

Jimmy underestimates the danger of being involved with the cartel

When Jimmy explains to Kim that hes heading to the desert to pick up $7 million cash for Lalos bail, an admission hell come to regret later, he truly thinks that the mission will be just as straightforward as withdrawing some cash from the ATM. He downplays Kims valid concerns, promising hell be back in the early afternoon, no problem. But we know it cant be that easy.

Though the meetup with the cousins is uneventful, Jimmy is ambushed by machine gun-toting men who quickly relieve Jimmy of his duffel bags stuffed with cash. But then an unseen sniper starts taking them out one by one while Jimmy hides, terrified, finally forced to confront the immense danger hes been in all along.

Key pieces of Jimmys identity are killed during the shootout

Mike and Jimmy survey the car | Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

Jimmy escapes the shootout physically unharmed despite being seconds from execution just before Mike rescued him. However, some of the very symbolic pieces of his former life are irreparably damaged.

First and foremost, Jimmy is forced to confront the reality of what hes set in motion. Being a friend of the cartel means being put into life-threatening situations on a regular basis. The desert shootout represents a loss of innocence for Jimmy in that way.

Jimmys bullet-ridden Suzuki Esteem also doesnt survive. The car has been a huge part of Jimmys identity for the last five seasons, and fans felt a true sense of sadness when Mike pushes it into a ditch to cover their trail from the one would-be thief who escaped.

Equally upsetting is when Jimmy realized that the Worlds 2nd Greatest Lawyer coffee mug Kim gave him as a gift is also ruined. His signature salmon-colored shirt will need to be thrown away after this, too.

Nothing will be the same when Jimmy gets back to civilization

Jimmy and Mike | Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

Its a credit to episode director Vince Gilligan that hes able to create a sense of tension even though fans know Mike and Jimmy will definitely survive their desert trek  Mike wont die until Walter White murders him in the last season of Breaking Bad, and Saul lives on post-Heisenberg under the assumed identity Gene Takovic.

However, a major part of Jimmy died in that desert even if his physical body survives. Now that hes fully complicity with the cartel, Jimmy is well on his way to becoming Saul. Just like he ditched the Chuck-reminiscent foil blanket and kept walking, Jimmy is shedding the notion that he can hold onto both sides of his personality, only doing bad things some of the time. Jimmy has now hardened into a piss-drinking monster. Old Jimmy is gone, one Redditor wisely observed.

Jimmy made his bed and he has to man up and handle the consequences of his actions.

Catch new episodes of Better Call Saul on Mondays at 9 p.m. on AMC.
My original plan for this column was to write about A&M-San Antonios Alternative Spring Break program, hosted by our Mays Center for Experiential Learning and Community Engagement, where students participate in a service project designed to immerse students in a new community, in this case the Commonwealth of Dominica.

Students were excited about the opportunity to help the communities of this small island nation in their struggle to address childrens rights and fulfill obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, this program and all on-site volunteer opportunities were canceled. This is one example of the many ways our lives are affected and changing across the nation due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ensuring our students maintain their academic progress is my highest priority. Along with other universities throughout the nation, A&M-San Antonio transitioned to online or virtual learning for the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester. The unexpected consequences for students and faculty has united our community with creative problem solving and new opportunities. Technology is often a barrier, so we have ramped up the ability to provide loaner equipment and internet access, so that everyone can participate in this unexpected reality.

The spread of the coronavirus and the proportions of this global pandemic have certainly been scary, but I take comfort in the resiliency of our community. There are many examples of those who are leading con ganas, such as the emergency responders, doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who are on the front lines of these unprecedented circumstances.

The PreK-12 teachers who have had to adapt their teaching practically overnight, the truckers who are moving goods across the country, and the grocery and retail champions who are supporting our essential needs. They show up and make things happen every day amid the crisis. And you, our community, are providing compassion and care to your neighbors as well as loved ones.

Naturally, we are anxious about these changes in our everyday lives, along with the uncertainty and rapid-fire of new information. The practice of social distancing reminds us that now more than ever, we value close connections and more importantly, helping others.

In times of crisis, we are strong and resilient. Now is the time to welcome unanticipated opportunities such as reinventing your home office and reconnecting using old school norms, remembering the family dinner hour, reading, games or outdoor exercise. Fortunately, we also have new tools like a favorite social media app, crowd sharing, dance videos, and the ultimate perfect selfie that will inspire laughter and creativity in connection during this dire situation.

At A&M-San Antonio, we will come out of this unique experience strengthened and better prepared for future challenges. Service is among our core values at A&M-San Antonio and we know that in service, there is strength.

Our university is here for you and soon we will be together at the many postponed celebrations, such as Ring Ceremony, Commencement, Fiesta, campus visits and so much more. Stay tuned to our website for the most current information about university events and COVID-19.

I look forward to sharing abrazos and high-fives with all of you. Until then, please abide by the advice of the CDC and our elected officials to ensure the health of our community.

Cynthia Teniente-Matson, Ed.D, is president of Texas A&M University San Antonio.
Ukraine's healthcare system is facing a great challenge amid the coronavirus pandemic. Business representatives are actively helping doctors and ordinary Ukrainians cope with the situation.

The UkrLandFarming agricultural holding owned by Oleg Bakhmatyuk has allocated UAH 20 million (US$734,214) for the purchase of medical equipment and materials the hospitals need to fight coronavirus, according to the Ukrainian News Agency.

Read alsoBakhmatyuk's firm allocates funds for anti-coronavirus efforts in Kherson region

Since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic in Ukraine, a whole bunch of problems in the healthcare system have been exposed: the infectious diseases departments in hospitals are not ready to receive a large number of patients, the country has a critically low number of ventilators, and doctors and other medical workers themselves lack basic personal protective gear  suits, gloves and masks. Ukrainian businesses are actively joining in solving the problem. The Delovaya Stolitsa online newspaper has analyzed open sources and found out how much large business representatives have spent on fighting the coronavirus.

The UkrLandFarming agricultural holding owned by businessman Oleg Bakhmatyuk is among the biggest philanthropists. The owner of the Ukrainian agricultural holding has allocated funds, which were spent to purchase ventilators, laboratory equipment, inhalers, disinfectants, and personal protective means for doctors in the regions.

UkrLandFarming is one of Ukraine's largest agricultural holdings engaged in growing cereals and oilseeds, other seeds, as well as in livestock farming, and production of eggs and egg products (Avangardco IPL). The enterprises that are part of the group of companies operate in 600 settlements across 22 regions of Ukraine. UkrLandFarming is owned by Ukrainian businessman Oleg Bakhmatyuk.
Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House on March 28, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

State Schools in Victoria to Restart, In Remote Mode

The Australian state of Victoria has announced it will restart schools on April 14, switching to remote learning mode, which includes providing internet access and laptops to every student until further notice.

Prior to the end of term one, schools had closed down due to the outbreak of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

Premier Daniel Andrews, who issued a statement jointly with state Minister James Merlino on April 7, said all state primary, secondary, and special schools will move to remote and flexible learning and teaching starting next week.

I know this year will be different to any that students, teachers, and families have experienced beforebut we are making sure that our kids still get the education they deserve, said Andrews.

Internet access should not determine a childs access to education the joint press release said. To aid in this, the Victorian government has partnered with Telstra to provide free sim cards or portable WIFI devices to 4,000 primary and secondary students in public schools.

Telstra Group executive Michael Ebied AM said they want to help those who lack access, cant afford access, or dont have digital ability. The program is in partnership with the Department of Education, and Catholic Education provide 20,000 disadvantaged students and teachers across the country with internet access to educational content to support their online learning.

On-site learning will be available to students whose parents cant work from home or to vulnerable students who have no safe learning environment at home.

The Minister for the Coordination of Education and Training  COVID-19 James Merlino said the state will loan out 6,000 laptops and tablets to students.

Every student will get the support they need, whether they are learning at home or attending school on-site. We will provide a device to every child that needs one and provide thousands more with free internet, said Merlino in a press release.

Changes for Year 12 Students

Year 12 students sitting for their end-of-year exams will also see some changes to their courses. The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority revealed that the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) students sitting for tertiary placements will still receive their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR).

However, there will be changes to the academic year with exams being postponed until term four, the General Achievement Test test scheduled for October or November, and final exams in December. School-based assessment will also be reduced.

Importantly for Year 12 students, Premier Andrews office has asked Victorian universities to delay the start of semester one in 2021 to account for the disruptions caused by the pandemic.
The US has expressed concern over the food security issue in some of the South and Central Asian countries, saying the national lockdowns by the respective nations to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus is having a major impact on the cross-border trade.

Several nations across South and Central Asian countries have implemented complete lockdown for a temporary period to contain the spread of deadly coronavirus that so far globally has claimed the lives of 74,565 people and left 1,345,048 infected, according to Johns Hopkins University.

"As countries around the world implement new measures to limit COVID, we're tracking whether interruptions to cross-border trade and logistics could threaten food security for some of the region's more vulnerable areas and groups," Alice G Wells, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, told reporters here during a press conference.

She cautioned the countries to ensure that the current public health emergency doesn't become a food security emergency due to the halt of the cross-border trade.

"We're certainly advocating that countries in the region keep their cross-border trade in basic foodstuffs and other humanitarian goods going in a safe manner so that this public health emergency doesn't become a food security emergency, Wells said.

"Food security is an issue that the US is watching throughout the region because it's natural as countries go into lockdown in response to COVID-19 and that unintended consequences can happen as countries prioritise domestic consumption, the repercussion or potential repercussion of those decisions," she said.

So whether it's the Government of Kazakhstan temporarily or potentially rationing exports of wheat and wheat flour, whether it's the closure of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, whether it's blockages that have taken place on other borders in the region, our encouragement to all is to manage the trade, to keep trade open to vital necessities, and to do this in a cooperative spirit, Wells said.

She said the US is working in close coordination with the International Monetary Fund and other international financial institutions on the process of providing emergency response funding to countries in need of such support.

"The US is very pleased that the World Bank announced on April 2 a total of 1.9 billion in COVID-19-related emergency response loans, of which USD 1.46 billion will be extended to countries in South and Central Asia. The US annually contributes nearly 16 per cent of the overall World Bank funding," she added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By IANS

NEW DELHI: Tablighi Jamaat Markaz's chief Muhammad Saad Kandhalvi, said to be absconding, is in quarantine and will come out in 8-9 days, according to an advocate representing the organisation.

Muhammad Saad has been accused of violating the lockdown rules and organising a religious congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin area, which has been linked to more than 1,000 coronavirus cases.

ALSO READ: Ashok Gehlot demands inquiry into Delhi Markaz issue

Muhammad Saad had reportedly gone into hiding after an FIR was lodged against him.

"He is in quarantine. It will take him another 8-9 days to come out. If the investigating officer wants us to join the investigation, we are ready. We will not deter or run away like cowards," advocate Tauseef Khan told IANS.

CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES

Khan said the sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act, the Disaster Management Act and the Indian Penal Code under which Muhammad Saad had been charged were bailable in nature.

"In the FIR, all the sections are bailable in nature and therefore there is no need to seek anticipatory bail from the court. He will get bail from the police station since the maximum punishment for the offences are under two years," he said.
Connecticut had its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic with 71 fatalities Monday into Tuesday, bringing the total to 277.

More than 1,300 have been hospitalized, including another net 87 increase since Monday, Gov. Ned Lamont announced in his daily afternoon update in the State Capitol. An additional 875 people have been diagnosed with the infection, for a total of 7,781, according to the state Department of Health.

The governor said that social distancing could be credited with slowing the initial surge somewhat, while cases continue to rise in Fairfield and New Haven counties.

Weve averaged about 90 or so over the last five days, Lamont said. Five days is five days, and the week before that there were about 102 hospitalizations. At least we can say weve been flattening out. That gives our hospitals more capacity. It gives them more time to make sure that we have people and ventilators and ICU rooms for you. It means the peak may have been somewhat mitigated.

The governor stressed the importance to continue social distancing. Shortly before 7 p.m., he issued another executive order to enforce tougher guidelines for keeping workplaces safe and disinfected. He said that those who are still on the job should take their lunch in their cars and workers should stay home if their temperatures are over 100.4 degrees.

The state Department of Economic and Community Development immediately issued new work rules for businesses and non-profits to continue operations, including enhanced cleanliness and the cessation of carpooling.

You should know that as an employee and you should know that as a boss, Lamont said. He praised New Britain-based Stanley Black & Decker, with 30,000 employees around the world, limiting COVID-19 infections to under s half dozen.

Were going to be strict about it, Lamont said. He said that while tens of thousands continue to work in defense and defense-related industries, more likely has to be done to keep employees from getting too close to each other.

With another 400 ventilators coming into the state since last week, on top of the 1,000 already here, Lamont said that while the state is scouring the globe for equipment to treat the infection surge, he believes that hospital capacity may be adequate. He said that every other governor in the nation has the same problems obtaining equipment, from ventilators to the coveted N95 face masks.

Planning for school closures

The grim fatality report came as the Lamont administration, led by Education Commissioner Miguel A. Cardona, continued negotiating with state school superintendents to decide on a strategy to keep students at home and away from the buildings where the coronavirus can spread.

Were still in discussions with local superintendents and reopening isnt likely, said Max Reiss, the governors communications director. Talks could include details over high school graduations, the continuance of the school year through the summer and the learning-at-home experience, particularly for children without access to the Internet.

Peter Yazbak, public information officer for the state Department of Education, said Tuesday that the scope of the pandemic is continuously assessed by his agency, the governor and the state Department of Public Health. Cardona is in at least weekly contact with school superintendents on issues including class cancellations, graduation requirements and other implications of the pandemic, Yazbak said.

For instance, were in the process of reaching alignment with our Connecticut colleges and higher ed partners to ensure our high school students arent being negatively impacted, Yazbak said, including requirements of the NCAA on student athletes and the state university system on waivers of college placement assessments.

Since this is a public health crisis which the governor has said may potentially last longer than thought, any decision made by the governor would be made in consultation with DPH, consistent with federal guidance, and done so while keeping the health and safety of students, staff and families top of mind, Yazbak said.

Union contract requirements are also part of the long-term plan.

Donald E. Williams Jr., executive director of the Connecticut Education Association, said the unions relationship with administrators has been collaborative and constructive.

Initially things were chaotic because school districts were trying to go from in-class to distance learning without any lead time, Williams said. Administrators and teachers have made great strides. Everyone knows that online learning and learning from written materials in packets is not a substitute for in-class and in-person learning. We have to deal with it and accept it, and provide enrichment and alternative opportunities to students in partnership with parents.

Weekly conference calls to clarify certain issues also help the dialogue, Williams said. One of the biggest obstacles is the many children, especially in the cities, who have Internet and technology issues.

Williams looks at the potential April 20 reopening date with an eye toward what state and federal health officials determine. If we close for the rest of the year, teachers have been preparing for that circumstance, he said.

In other developments on Tuesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in his morning news briefing in Albany, said that he has been discussing the future return-to-work protocol with Lamont and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.

When we go back, we go back together, Cuomo said to reporters. I think if we go back with people who have tested that they are negative, or people who have tested that they have the anti-bodies, which means they had the virus and theyre immune from the virus, or we go back with younger people going first, still protecting, isolating the vulnerable, but if its waves, I think those are the waves.

Lamont agreed, stressing that he and the other governors have had good conversations. We have a tri-state workforce, Lamont said. Our people do go back and forth to some degree. Not right now with the stay-at-home order.

Plasma and blood tests would possibly allow state officials to see who builds up an immunity to the coronavirus. These are folks that we can maybe get back to work sooner, he said.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th April, 2020) The United Nations strongly condemns the shelling of a prison in Taizz, Yemen, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement on Monday.

At least six female inmates have died and 15 have been injured in the Taizz Central Prison after Houthi rebels shelled the facility, local media said on Sunday.

"I strongly condemn the shelling on Sunday of the Central Prison in Taiz, resulting in the deaths of five women and a child, and leaving at least 11 other people injured," Bachelet said.

The High Commissioner noted there were no clashes in the area between the parties to the conflict in Yemen at the time of shelling.

"Such an attack cannot be justified in any circumstances," Bachelet said, adding that the organizers of the attack breached international humanitarian law and committed a war crime.

The city of Taizz is one of the current flashpoints in the long-running conflict between the Houthi rebels and government forces. A Saudi-led coalition has conducted operations in Yemen against the Houthis since 2015 and at least 100,000 people have lost their lives during the conflict.
Ghanaian highlife legend, Rex Omar has asserted that Ghanaian musicians are not mainstream enough to be accorded international awards and recognition.



According to him, for one to receive a Grammy or BET awards, that artiste has to be a mainstream act who breaks geographical boundaries.



He explained that being popular among Ghanaians does not qualify one to be mainstream artiste.



He made these comments on Happy98.9FMs Showbiz Xtra, when asked by the host, Docta Cann, why Ghanaian acts are not recognized for the Grammy and BET; Most Ghanaian musicians are operating outside the mainstream. They may be big names in the country but outside our borders, theyre not known. Even when we travel outside the country we still operate in the Ghanaian communities.



He also noted that,Weve become crabs in the bucket pulling each other down, attributing the failure of Ghanaian musicians to reach the international stage to the lack of support by industry players.



On his authority, Angelique Kidjo winning a Grammy is because of her efforts to be in the mainstream music industry. She was signed to Mango Records, an international label and later moved to America. She moved her operations to the mainstream affording her the chance to win a Grammy, he said.



He added the Ghana music industry needs music entrepreneurs who understand how the global musical system works if we want international accolades.



If we have the right music entrepreneurs, Sarkodie, Stonebwoy and Shatta Wale couldve been signed to some multinational labels and this couldve helped them reach that pinnacle, Rex stated.

Source: Etvghana.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Iran's parliament reconvened on April 7 for the first time since the new coronavirus outbreak forced it to close, as the country reported a drop in new infections for the seventh straight day.

More than two-thirds of the legislature's 290 members gathered in the absence of speaker and veteran politician Ali Larijani, who tested positive for the virus last week.

At least 31 members of parliament, which had been shut since February 25, have contracted the COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus.

State television footage of the session showed some lawmakers huddling together despite official guidelines on physical distancing.

The session debated and eventually blocked an urgent bill to totally lock down the country for a month.

"This plan is against jobs and growing productivity. Who's going to pay for implementing it?" lawmaker Shadmehr Kazemzadeh said, according to the semi-official news agency ISNA.

But Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, who drafted the bill, said Iran had been "confused" about how to contain the virus.

Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur reported 133 new coronavirus deaths, bringing the official toll to 3,872.

Another 2,089 infections were recorded nationwide, bringing the total to 62,589.

Iran announced its first COVID-19 cases on February 19, when it said two people had died from the illness.

Iran is one of the world's worst-hit countries, and there are concerns that the actual figures are much higher.

Iranian authorities have been criticized for an initial slow response to the pandemic and failure to quarantine the city of Qom, where the coronavirus outbreak erupted in February.

With reporting by AFP and ISNA
Moa Group Limited (NZX: MOA ) today announces:

 a capital raising of up to $5.5 million at an issue price of 14 cents per share, comprising:

o strategic placement of $2.5m to a new cornerstone investor, and

o 1 for 5 rights issue to raise up to approximately $3m.

 as previously announced the Group continues to have the support of their banking partner. This support gives the Group confidence in trading through the next financial year.

 an agreement has been reached with vendors of Savor Group to defer the $3.2 million additional cash payment until 1 April 2021.

The new funds are being pre-emptively raised to provide the Group with additional Balance Sheet strength given the ongoing uncertainty facing the Hospitality business due to COVID-19, in connection with an agreement reached with the Savor Group vendors regarding the additional cash payment which is due to them and to provide additional flexibility for future acquisitions.

Strategic Investment: New Cornerstone Investor

After close of trading yesterday Moa agreed the terms of a strategic investment in the Group by a prominent New Zealand businessperson. The total amount of the investment is up to $4m, and has been agreed on the following terms:

 $2.5m placement of 17,857,143 new shares at an issue price of 14 cents per share.

 Approximately $480,000 via subscription for full entitlement under subsequent rights issue.

 Moa has undertaken to place shortfall shares not taken up by existing shareholders under the rights issue to increase the total investment to $4 million (to the extent there are shortfall shares available to do so).

The placement shares are expected to be issued within the next two business days.

Rights Issue: 1 for 5 to raise up to approximately $3 million

Moa also intends to undertake a 1 for 5 pro rata rights issue to raise up to $3 million. The offer price of 14 cents per share is the same as the strategic placement issue price.

As noted above, Moa has agreed with its new investor that, to the extent possible, it will place shortfall shares to them to increase the total value of their investment in Moa to $4m, they have also undertaken to subscribe for his full entitlement.

The rights issue offer document is expected to be made available in approximately one week.

Bank Support Confirmed

The Group recently announced that its banking partner was supportive of the Groups new plans given the changes it has had to make in the current COVID-19 impacted trading environment. They have offered the Company a significant principal holiday and access of up to $2m in additional funds.

Savor Group Additional Payment: Cash Component Deferred

Under the terms of the sale and purchase agreements for the Savor Group Hospitality business, Moa is required to make an additional payment of $5.4 million if certain commercial milestones are reached. Moas Board has determined that the criteria to trigger the additional payment has been met, and accordingly Moa is required to:

 Subject to the appropriate NZX approvals, issue $2.2 million of shares to the Savor Group vendors at an issue price of 14 cents; and

 pay the vendors $3.2 million of cash, which has now been deferred until 1 April 2021, interest free.

Executive Chair Geoff Ross, warmly welcomes our new cornerstone investor and says their complementary upstream food businesses will add significant opportunities to the Group, sharing our combined vision of an integrated gate to plate Hospitality and Beverages Group. This will also add considerable value to the Groups Balance Sheet, giving us strength and certainty in these uncertain times.

Lucien Law, Managing Director of Moa Hospitality says: were moving quickly to reshape our business in order to address the issues this crisis has created. The vertical integration of protein and fresh produce is something that we have been looking to achieve for a while now. As a food and beverage business, having a closer connection to our producers is going to achieve a superior product for customers, and the ability to be more vertical is always going to be better for the bottom line. There have been very few positives, if any, to take out of this crisis for our business. But if nothing else, it has reaffirmed to me

that, as a restauranteur, we exist for a lot more than just to deliver food and pour drinks. When were at our best, were a place where people connect, do business and celebrate life, and I think we are all missing that even after a relatively short period of time.

For more information contact:

Geoff Ross 021 424219

About Moa Group Limited

Moa Group Limited (NZX: MOA ) is a brewing and hospitality company owned by and based in New Zealand. The Group is made of two segments: Moa Beverages, which brews and distributes Moa branded craft beers and ciders, and Moa Hospitality, trading as Savor Group Limited, which owns and operates restaurants and bars across New Zealand following the acquisition of the Savor Group and Non Solo Pizza businesses in April and September 2019 respectively.

Source: Moa Group Ltd

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Authorities in Odisha have ramped up Covid-19 screenings and declared several areas as containment zones after nearly 70 people came back to the state from the Tablighi Jamaats events in Delhis Nizamuddin, which has emerged as a hotspot for the coronavirus disease.

The Union health ministry announced on Monday that 30% of the Covid-19 cases in India could be traced to a gathering held by the Tablighi Jamaat, a religious group of a fast-growing proselytising Islamic movement that was started in 1926 by Islamic scholar Maulana Muhammad Ilyas.

Of the 4067 Covid-19 cases in the country, 1445 were linked to the congregation in March in Delhis Nizamuddin Markaz.

Officials in Odisha have said 68 people, including African nationals, had gone to the Tablighi Jamaats Delhi headquarters from the state and 28 came back. Out of the 28 three, including a postman who had attended the religious congregation and returned home, have tested positive for the virus.

This prompted chief minister Naveen Patnaik to urge all those who had attended the meet in New Delhi, to come forward and self-register with the government helpline on Covid-19.

Corona is currently the biggest threat to the human race and to beat it we all need to come together to beat it, Patnaik said.

Only through awareness, we can break the chain of coronavirus. While there is no need to panic but we do need to be careful. Your cooperation will for the betterment of your own family and the human race, he said.

Three Muslim brothers living in an apartment in the Bomikhal area of Bhubaneswar tested positive last Friday, as the states total cases surged from five to 20 on a single day.

Soon after, Bhubaneswar municipal authorities sealed off the entry and exit points of the area and started active surveillance of people who had come in close contact with the brothers.

On Sunday, 15 other Muslims who lived in the same area tested positive for Covid-19, even as Odisha saw the highest single-day surge in positive cases, taking the total to 39.

It is not yet clear whether the three brothers or any of their family members attended the congregation, but officials admitted that the current focus of the government was to scrutinise Muslim majority areas and make them undergo Covid-19 screening tests.

In the last four days, the Odisha government has announced 10 Covid-19 cluster containment zones around the state including four in Bhubaneswar. Most of these containment zones have sizeable Muslim populations.

Though we are still not sure how many attended the congregation, the aim is to take the swab samples of as many people in these zones and test them, said a senior official of the state governments health surveillance team.

The areas include Bhadrak town, Bhubaneswars Jadupur locality and also Brahmabarada, a village in Jajpur district where the Tablighi chief Maulana Saad had addressed a meeting between February 29 and March 3 this year.

In all these containment areas, screening procedures are being followed vigorously but the state health department has refused to share the number of swab samples they have taken in these zones so far.

Health department officials also said they are facing problems in collecting samples from such areas as personnel were scared of getting infected by the coronavirus.

Everyone is in panic mode. One cant force health workers to visit the area if they are unwilling, an official said.

Mohammed Moquim, Congress MLA from Barabati-Cuttack, said he has been urging community leaders to get tested.

The virus is the enemy of humanity and anyone who has attended the Jamaat in Delhi should come forward to get tested, he said.

Even though the chief minister and Subroto Bagchi, Odisha governments chief spokesperson on Covid-19, have urged people not to ostracise those who have tested positive or give the pandemic a religious colour, some Muslim leaders admitted that of late they are being viewed with suspicion.

We are urging all our community members to come out and report whether they attended the Jamaat. But unfortunately, the entire community is being vilified thanks to one-sided debates in a few news channels, Mohd Shahnawaz, president of Jama Masjid Bhubaneswar, said.

In Odisha too, we can sense some sort of unease when people see our community members, he added.
Weather Alert

...The Flood Warning continues for the following rivers in Kentucky...Illinois...Missouri... Ohio River at Paducah. Ohio River at Cairo. Ohio River at Olmsted Lock and Dam. .Recent heavy rainfall and snow melt will continue to keep water levels on the lower Ohio River in or near minor flood this week. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Motorists should not attempt to drive around barricades or drive cars through flooded areas. Caution is urged when walking near riverbanks. Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Additional information is available at www.weather.gov. && ...FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING... * WHAT...Minor flooding is forecast. * WHERE...Ohio River at Paducah. * WHEN...Until early tomorrow afternoon. * IMPACTS...At 39.0 feet, Minor flooding occurs affecting mainly bottomland and surrounding low lying areas. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 7:00 PM CST Monday the stage was 38.6 feet. - Forecast...The river is expected to rise to a crest of 39.0 feet tomorrow morning. - Flood stage is 39.0 feet. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood &&
On Wednesday, for the first time in more than two months, 11 million people in Chinas Wuhan will have the option to step out of their homes and leave the city.

The lifting of the lockdown in the place where the global coronavirus pandemic started is a symbolic victory for the Chinese government, coming as new infections and daily death tolls still soar in Europe and the US.

Residents in Wuhan, who have been subjected to one of the worlds strictest lockdowns, will not see life return to normal immediately. The Chinese government says travel should be for necessary reasons only, and screening will still take place upon arrival in other provinces whether by road, rail or air.

But the dismantling of roadblocks from midnight, and the opening up of non-essential businesses, buses and metro services on Wednesday, will be watched closely by virus-hit countries around the world trying to get a sense of what their own exit strategies from coronavirus lockdowns might look like.

Wuhan has accounted for 61 per cent of Chinas 81,700 reported coronavirus cases, and the trauma of what residents now refer to as the great calamity will leave a legacy lasting long after the return to freedom of movement.

For Graham*, who along with his parents became infected not long after the citys outbreak began, the experience has left him determined not just to get out of Hubei province, but to leave China altogether.

A photographer who was used to roaming around the city with his camera, Graham felt his loss of liberty during the lockdown more keenly than most.

His parents became ill first, and after the disease spread to the rest of the family they spent seven days at the Peoples Hospital in Wuhan, before finally being transferred to one of the citys many Square Cabin hospitals.

These makeshift hospitals were specifically built, at breakneck speed, to house coronavirus patients with mild symptoms. Graham describes how the facilities, staffed mostly by doctors trained in traditional Chinese medicine, encouraged treatments that didnt make any sense, he tells The Independent.

 Travel resumes as Wuhan lockdown lifted

Patients were told to massage the area around their belly button clockwise throughout the day, as the doctor claimed this would help them release the virus out of their bodies.

When I asked one of the doctors what would happen if I massage my belly button counter-clockwise, he immediately said thats the typical reasoning in western medicine, says Graham.

Graham says doctors also taught patients how to detox by hitting their elbows and other body parts as hard as they could, for prolonged periods, to cleanse the virus from their lungs. So throughout the day I could hear the sound of patients hitting their elbows, and many of them had bruised elbows.

During his stay in the facility he also witnessed firsthand the ruthlessly utilitarian approach the Chinese authorities took to disease prevention, trampling over individuals rights in the process.

Some families were forcefully separated in front of me because they had been assigned to different hospitals based on the severity of their infection, he recalls.

A guy was begging the authorities at our hospital to let him go see his mother before she passed away. Instead, they handcuffed him to his bed so he couldnt escape. The mans mother later died in a nearby hospital.

You have no choice. If you dont follow orders the police will come and snatch you and put you away Steve Tsang, SOAS university

This pandemic made me realise how extreme the Chinese government can be when they try to take control over the society, Graham says. Censorship, always a part of everyday life under the Communist Party, has become even more extreme. Over the last two months, what we can basically do is to praise the governments efforts in containing the virus and receive relevant information that has already been heavily censored, he says.

The lockdown, Graham says, helped me understand that as long as I stay in China, I can never enjoy real freedom, and I dont want my children to have the same life. I think the sensible decision is to leave China, and thats what I plan to do once the lockdown is over.

Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University in London, says Chinas authoritarian one-party system means it can enforce a lockdown in a way that would not be possible in most democratic nations. You have no choice, he says. If you dont follow orders the police will come and snatch you and put you away."

He says that one thing that China appears to have done particularly effectively to curtail its outbreak has been the use of a large number of requisitioned locations to quarantine people who have tested positive or travelled abroad away from other members of their community or family.

That probably significantly reduced the level of transmissions within households, and that is something that I dont think has been widely copied outside of China, he said. It would be very hard to imagine that being mandatory in the United Kingdom, that if you test positive with Covid-19 but do not require hospital treatment, you will be required to go into a quarantined quarters separate from your family for two weeks. Its very difficult to see that being widely embraced or enforceable in the UK.

With the steady reduction in locally transmitted cases culminating in not a single new coronavirus death being reported on Tuesday for the first time since January, attention has turned in China to preventing new cases being brought in from abroad.

In Beijing, that has meant ever stricter conditions for anyone arriving in the county or the capitals province, even as restrictions in places like Wuhan have eased.

James Ashcroft, a Chinese language student at Beijing Normal University, returned to the city from London shortly before all entry for foreigners was halted late last month.

At the airport, authorities said he would simply have to stay at home, but a week into his quarantine community volunteers installed a motion sensor on his door.

The motion sensor, connected to a program on the messaging application WeChat, would send an alert to the neighbourhood association whenever the door was ajar. If he or his housemate opened the door to pick up a food delivery or put the bins out, they would within minutes get a phone call from the police.

Ashcroft says he has seen no written policy that explains why the device was put on his door. It was only communicated verbally to us that this is a thing that they are trying to apply.

He says he felt much more uncomfortable being monitored in this way than if he had just been asked to observe a quarantine normally. It doesnt really contribute to a sense of peace and well-being and surety, to just not quite know whats happening or why.

Carl Rappa, 30, came back to the city from the US before the travel regulations came into effect and says he feels comparatively better off in Beijing as the virus has taken hold elsewhere.

When he left the US last month, people there couldnt understand why. Everyone was like, why are you going back to China? Its bad there, Rappa says. [We told them] we have lives and jobs there and its getting better there. He quarantined at home with his girlfriend, Michelle  spending two weeks straight without leaving their Beijing apartment.

He didnt have a motion sensor put on his door, but since being back said he has noticed other low-tech  and not always logical  ways that virus prevention is being enforced. New measures are in place like being made to write down personal information when entering buildings, for example, that seem ill-conceived for virus prevention but are widely carried out without question. Everyone [is] having to sign in, which means [everyone] touching the same pen, Rappa says.

Now that international travel has been stopped, Beijings efforts to prevent a second wave of imported cases must focus on returning Chinese nationals.

But quarantine measures enforced by community groups and local officials appear to be changing rapidly, leaving people to smooth out any kinks as they go. Even as the Chinese government attempts to restore calm, the inconsistencies have added to the sense of unease.

I just feel like they have many loopholes they need to fix, He Mao, 24, said after completing his hotel quarantine period last week following his return to Beijing from Cambodia.

He says he flew through Guangzhou on his way to the capital, and airport officials seemed not to know whether, given the internal layover, he needed to undergo quarantine at a centralised facility. He was eventually allowed to return home to his apartment, only for community volunteers to turn up hours later and move him to a quarantine hotel.

For two weeks mandatory stay at the hotel, He was required to pay 6,000 Chinese yuan (690). While not thrilled about the cost, hes made peace with his circumstances but said he wishes he would have been informed about what to expect before he arrived.

Part of a first wave of arrivals to the city after the regulation about hotel quarantine went into effect, He said hes also become a test case for friends in a similar position who are stuck outside the country and considering returning. Everyone is like, you have to share your story because we are all counting on you. Because we are not sure if we should come back, he said.

Back in Wuhan, not everyone is as excited about the end of the lockdown as might be expected, in part because of a widespread perception that it could be premature.

Graham says he hears reports of new cases still emerging from hospitals and some neighbourhoods, that dont make the official daily tallies. The government wants to get people back to work, so they lied about the current situation in Wuhan, he claims. The official numbers are definitely fake, and its just the matter of how fabricated it is.

Tsang, the China Institute director, says Xi Jinping has created a culture in the Communist Party where whatever he says is the truth, the whole truth, and nobody would ever dare contradict him. Xi said he wanted to reduce the numbers to zero. So if you are a senior official in Wuhan, you think that if you report new cases then you are failing the general secretary.

Aware of this dilemma, the Chinese premier Li Keqiang pleaded with local officials on 23 March that there must be no concealing or underreporting of cases. If the premier of China cannot believe in the official figures, I dont see why I should believe in the official figures, Tsang says.

Ultimately, Tsang says the propaganda coup of opening up Wuhan at a time when the lockdown is at its tightest in places like New York would have been too valuable for the Chinese government to let even a small number of cases derail it.

It doesnt really matter what the reality on the ground is, he says. Unless the situation on the ground is really pretty horrific, I think they will proceed [regardless].

A guy was begging the authorities at our hospital to let him go see his mother before she passed away. Instead, they handcuffed him to his bed so he couldnt escape Graham

Even for those who have stayed healthy in Wuhan, the lockdown has had a transformative impact on lives  and not only in ways that have been negative. For some modern Chinese families, life under lockdown offered a rare opportunity to rebuild fraying bonds.

Robin* says he was living with friends in an apartment in the city before the outbreak, as the relationship with his parents had soured since he came out as gay several years ago.

With my father being in his seventies, I decided to go home and spend time with them after the government announced the plan to lock down the city, he says.

As life came to a standstill, Robin had to come to terms with life confined to a 75 square metre apartment with his parents. They played cards, watched television or just tried to catch up on things they had missed in the years since they drifted apart.

It was definitely not easy, Robin tells The Independent. I had to rediscover the best way to live with them, as we barely had chances like this before the pandemic happened. Instead of arguing with them as I normally would do, I tried to communicate with them. That suddenly helped clear up all the misunderstanding between me and my father.

This rare chance gave Robin new thoughts about life after the lockdown. I probably wont have more opportunities like this in the future, so I dont think Im in a rush to move back to my apartment after the lockdown is over, Robin says. I want to have more time with my parents.

* Names changed to protect identity. Betsy Joles reported from Beijing, China, William Yang from Taipei, Taiwan
Coronavirus is a like Thanos' justice -- indiscriminate and randomised. It will affect any pair of lungs it can latch onto, irrespective of who they belong to, be it British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Hollywood actors Tom Hanks and Idris Elba, or the Prince of Whales. But, as the virus travels through countries claiming several lives, causing lockdowns, disrupting economies and overwhelming healthcare systems, an alarming trend has emerged in the United States, the current hotspot of the global pandemic.

In the United States, unfortunately, several social, political and economic factors affecting generations of African Americans have augmented their risk of chronic illness and made their lungs, and immune systems vulnerable, thereby, leaving them more susceptible to coronavirus. But, apart from biological reasons, there are many existing socio-economic factors that have resulted in a disproportionate number of coronavirus positive cases among African Americans, and have caused a high number of casualties.

Another especially vulnerable community in the US at this point are the low-income groups. In the past few years, low-income groups (which also comprise of African Americans) had only just begun to show signs of progress with the rise in the minimum wage, and record low unemployment rates. However, that progress came to a crashing halt with the arrival of COVID-19, thanks to a discriminatory healthcare system.

US President Donald Trump, initially had made testing (but not treatment) for coronavirus free for Americans, which left 30 million Americans, who did not have any health insurance to fend for themselves in case they tested positive for the virus. Of course, beyond that 30 million, there is also a large group of underinsured people. As the public health organisations struggle with a lack of basic infrastructure, and doctors and nurses are forced to make the heart breaking choice of who gets a ventilator, just footing the bill for hospitalisation was a matter of big concern for a large portion of Americans, who may not have been able to afford it even if they show symptoms of the deadly virus.

Story continues

However, on Friday, according to a New York Times report, Trump declared that the government will pay for the uninsured coronavirus patients from the Stimulus bill although critics were quick to point out that the money may not go to hospitals in the hardest-hit states, and just covering coronavirus still doesn't provide medical cover to 30 million people from other diseases.

As if that was not bad enough, the inherent biases of healthcare workers in the United States are beginning to show on the surface, as resources to cope with coronavirus fall deplorably short. NPR recently quoted the study of a Boston based biotech company, Rubix Life Sciences, which had reviewed several states in the US and found that doctors are less likely to advise testing to an African American, even when he or she shows signs of the disease. Already the tests are scare, but because of this inherent discrimination, many African Americans are not being detected with COVID-19 in the early stages making it hard for them to survive it.

There is no collective data from the US that show the 'disproportionate' effect of COVID-19 on African Americans, but several states have revealed their data which point toward that fact. A report shows that in Milwaukee -- which is one of the few states analysing racial breakdown in coronavirus cases -- out of the total 945 cases (till Friday morning), 81 per cent affected are blacks. And, among the 27 deaths till Friday, 26 per cent were also from the African American community. Majority of those affected are African American men.

In Cook County, out of 183 COVID-19 caused deaths, 107 were black (as of Saturday), while in Chicago, as much as 70 per cent, which is 61 out of 86 recorded deaths, were African Americans. The Washington Post also revealed data of Maryland and Virginia that showed that African Americans were affected in an inordinate way. Data released on Sunday show that in Michigan 34 per cent of the 40 per cent of deaths are American Americans. A ProPublica report also notes Detroit and Louisiana, which have relatively large African American residents, as the hotbeds for coronavirus.

The lists of data are growing with each passing day, pointing at the horrendous mistakes America has made by not reaching out to all communities, by allowing human biases to dictate who gets tested and by not providing the low-income groups with the financial support initially, which would have encouraged early testing and detection, and perhaps could have even helped in flattening the curve. There are several lessons to learn from such mistakes, especially for a country like India, with its 1.3 billion population, and it's huge religious, social, economic and cultural diversity.

One of the best things that the Indian government has done so far is that unlike the United States it has wasted no time in announcing free test and treatment for COVID-19 under Ayushman Bharat -- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna. Ayushman Bharat is one of the world's largest government-sponsored healthcare program covering as many as 500 million individuals and providing a cover of Rs 5 lakh per family. While that cover may be lacking if many members of a family test positive, and it still may not provide cover to a proportion of Indian poor who do not fulfil the eligibility criteria, it automatically takes into account some of the most vulnerable groups of our country like the homeless, beggars, manual scavengers, primitive tribal groups etcetera.

However, while Ayushman Bharat provides a cover to millions, it doesn't take away the fact that our hospitals are still woefully lacking in basic infrastructure, and if the situation continues to get worse, it might push the healthcare workers towards the same Sophie's choice, as their counterparts are facing in the United States.

From the onset of the pandemic, health insurance has also been a major cause of concern among middle-class Indians, as many have rushed to buy insurance, or raise the cap of existing policies. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India has recently announced the Arogya Sanjeevani Policy starting from April 1, which will provide a cover of up to Rs 5 lakhs, and will include COVID-19 treatment in it. All this seems like good news, but according to a Mint report, there are several caveats hidden in the fine print of this policy, which doesn't particularly make it a useful option.

In an article in The Mint, an insurance expert states that Aroya Sanjeevani Policy has a really low room-rent cap (2 per cent), which will raise the cost of the treatment for the patient if he/she is admitted to a private hospital as they would have to pay the excess money themselves. Apart from that, the policy also comes with a co-pay clause, which makes it is mandatory to shell out 5 per cent of the bill. Furthermore, in metro cities, five lakh may not suffice, as hospitals are expensive.

There are a few other insurance issues, which needs to be sorted immediately, if we want to avoid a US like situation. However, it isn't enough to ensure healthcare, it is also equally important to make sure from the government's side that there is no discrimination in accessing the healthcare, and no one is being targeted for their racial, ethnic or religious background.

Unfortunately, reports of such discrimination are growing with time. In March, a Muslim congregation, Tablighi Jamaat was held in Delhi's Nizamuddin area which had spiked up not only coronavirus cases, but also Islamophobia with many fake reports doing rounds on social media platforms, and Muslims being targeted for spreading the virus. However, any case of religious discrimination in the healthcare framework wasn't reported until a couple of days ago. A doctor in Rajasthan had reportedly refused to treat a pregnant woman, because of her Muslim identity, which resulted in the death of her baby. Such blatant discriminatory attitude must have consequences and should be discouraged at all cost.
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Three suspects broke into a Bayview District home, pinned down the elderly woman living inside and ransacked the home on Monday afternoon, San Francisco police said.

The robbery was reported at 1:33 p.m. in the 1500 block of Van Dyke Avenue.

The suspects allegedly kicked in the front door of the home, pinned down the 79-year-old woman and then stole various items inside, according to police.

The woman did not report being injured in the robbery, and the three suspects, described as men in their 20s, remain at large. Police did not immediately release detailed descriptions of them.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Police Department's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or to send a tip via text message to TIP411 with "SFPD" at the start of the message.

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Mumbai Police have registered an



FIR against 150 people who attended the religious congregation of Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in New Delhi last month for alleged negligent act during the coronavirus outbreak, an official said on Tuesday.

The offence was registered on a complant lodged by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) at the Azad Maidan Police Station, he said.

The Tablighi Jamaat's congregation in Delhi has emerged as one of the major COVID-19 hotspots in the country.

The Mumbai Police on Monday requested the Tablighi Jamaat members to approach the BMC and inform it about their travel details or face action.

"Its our request and your responsibility to report your travel details on 1916, the @mybmc helpline, if you attended Tablighi Markaz at Nizamuddin, New Delhi. Those failing to cooperate will face strict action under IPC, DM (Disaster Management) Act & Epidemic Act," the Mumbai Police tweeted.

Later, the BMC lodged a police complaint following which a case was registered against 150 people under Indian Penal Code Sections 269 (whoever willfully or negligently does any act which is likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life) and 271 (disobedience to quarantine rule) and other relevant provisions, the official said.

So far, more than 400 COVID-19 cases and about 15 deaths in the country have been found to be linked to the religious congregation held at the Nizamuddin headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat last month.

At least 9,000 people participated in the religious congregation in Nizamuddin last month, after which many of the attendees travelled to various parts of the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WHAT'S NEW: In a zoom meeting Monday, trustees discussed the issue of how to keep drivers from hitting people out walking in the streets. Walkers are sometimes wearing headsets with their backs to oncoming traffic, they said. "We're not talking kids here, we're talking adults who should know better," said Trustee Mel Drucker. It was suggested the village might invest in safety lights that could be clipped to a dog collar and it was said such an effort would reinforce the idea that the walkers' safety is important to the village.

WHAT'S NEXT: Trustee Steve Newman presented the proposed 2020-21 budget to the board, explaining that quite a few years back when the village refinanced loans, investors came in and were pleased to find a fund balance of nearly $500,000. He said since then the village has been able to grow that fund by $473,000 to $945,000. He said this year's budget takes $$100,000 out of the general fund excess and invests it 50-50 in Love Park improvements and additional money put into streets. He said the 5th Street project was cut in favor of doing 7th Street first as it is in worse condition. Work now on 7th would also create a good alternate route when the village finally does 5th Street. Part-time police coverage was also cut from $15,000 to $10,000, as it's difficult to get the part-time coverage. "There's no use putting in extra money when history has shown we just can't get there," said Newman. The budget will be on the board's April 20 agenda for discussion and adoption.
It was a week where the oil market swung between record losses and gains while natural gas fell to the lowest level in 25 years.



On the news front, American upstream major Apache Corporation APA shares rocketed after it, together with partner TOTAL S.A. TOT, announced a second discovery offshore Suriname Block 58. Meanwhile, British integrated behemoth BP plc BP, squeezed by low oil prices, announced a sharp reduction in its 2020 budget.



Overall, it was a mixed week for the sector. While West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures surged 31.8% to close at $28.34 per barrel, natural gas prices lost 2% for the week to finish at 1.621 per million Btu (MMBtu). In particular, the week marked a reversal for the oil market, which has fallen drastically of late, prompting capex cuts at major companies.



Coming back to the week ended Apr 3, the crude benchmark notched its biggest weekly gain ever on hopes that OPEC and its allies will curb production to stabilize markets and support prices. Further, President Trump's tweet on pushing Saudi Arabia and Russia to resolve their price war, also had a positive effect on the commodity.



Despite the bounce off, there is no denying that oil fundamentals remain firmly bearish. On Mar 30, the price of U.S. crude fell to $19.27 a barrel at one point, its lowest since 2002. Oil fundamentals appear to be struggling under the twin strains of untamed supply from major producers in the face of continuously falling global consumption on account of the coronavirus pandemic.



Meanwhile, natural gas ended slightly lower following a smaller-than-expected decrease in supplies. The narrative remains bearish as the fuel faces the prospect of a coronavirus-related steep drop-off in usage. The commodity is already weighed down by mild winter weather (leading to pessimistic heating demand) amid strong production. In fact, the commodity traded to the lowest price since 1995 when it hit $1.552 per MMBtu on Apr 2 before recovering slightly and closing the week at $1.671



Recap of the Week's Most Important Stories



1. Apache and its joint venture partner TOTAL have made a second oil discovery at the Sapakara West-1 well in Block 58, offshore Suriname. Apache, the operator of the well, discovered 259 feet (79 meters) net pay of high-quality light oil and gas condensate in multiple stacked and good quality reservoirs.



In January 2020, the joint venture discovered oil reservoirs at a depth of 240 feet (73 metres) and a 164-feet (50 metres) deep hydrocarbon-bearing light oil and gas condensate pay. The next exploration well will be drilled on the Kwaskwasi prospect with a fourth exploration well to be planned back to back on the Keskesi prospect. TOTAL will become the operator of Block 58 after the drilling of the fourth exploration well.



Apache's shares gained 14.71% in intraday trading on Apr 3. The drilling results pleased investors of both companies as the well confirmed ample traces of hydrocarbon within its bounds, mirroring high potential for productive oil wells. This, in turn, boosts Apache and TOTAL's confidence in discovering significant amount of resources across the sprawling area of 1.4 million acres in the region that they control. (Apache, JV Partner Find Oil in Suriname, Add to Cost Savings)



2. BP has announced the downward revision of its 2020 capital budget. The integrated energy giant has set its 2020 organic capital budget at roughly $12 billion, suggesting a decline of roughly 25% from the prior guidance. On the brighter side, although the business scenario is unfavorable, BP is not planning job cuts in the coming three months.



The company's total capital budget revision includes a reduction of roughly $1 billion in investments for onshore operations which comprise its onshore oil and gas activities in the United States. With lower spending, BP - carrying a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) - expects its production in 2020 from U.S. shale plays to decline by 70 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (MBoE/D).

You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



For downstream business, which includes refining and marketing activities, the company has decided to lower capital spending by $1 billion. In its operational update, BP added that as compared to 2019, there is likely be a realization of $2.5 billion of cash cost savings by 2021-end, thanks to digitization and increased integration across businesses. (BP Revises 2020 Capex Downward as Coronavirus Drags Oil Down)



3. Whiting Petroleum WLL recently filed for bankruptcy. The company's board of directors reckoned filing for Chapter 11 plan of reorganization (the Plan) to negotiate with its creditors for providing the best part forward in a highly capital constrained market environment. Denver-based Whiting Petroleum faced the maturity of $262 million convertible notes. It listed debt of $3.6 billion and assets worth $7.6 billion in its bankruptcy petition, filed in the Southern District of Texas.



Per the Plan, Whiting Petroleum will exchange 97% of the new equity of the reorganized company for erasure of more than $2.2 billion debt, payment or refinancing of its revolving credit facility, payment of all other secured lenders and employees, and 3% of the new equity of the reorganized company and warrants for its existing stockholders.



The company has also proposed financial restructuring and reached an arrangement with creditors of its 1.25% convertible senior notes due 2020, 5.750% senior notes due 2021, 6.250% senior notes due 2023, and 6.625% senior notes due 2026. This would ease its debt burden and create a more sustainable capital structure. (Whiting Petroleum Files for Bankruptcy Amid Oil Price Crash)



4. Royal Dutch Shell RDS.A recently provided an update on its first-quarter 2020 guidance and envisioned its post-tax impairment charges between $400 million and $800 million for the period. On a bullish note though, management at this European energy behemoth stated that the company entered into a new credit facility, driving its shares more than 4% on the NYSE. The company further assured that it will face a relatively minor impact from the coronavirus-induced soft demand for oil products.



Investors were particularly reassured by Shell agreeing to a new $12-billion revolving credit facility. The amount supplements the company's $10-billion financing obtained in December 2019 to prop up its available liquidity in excess of $40 billion (after including $20 billion cash in hand).



The upstream production is projected between 2,650 and 2,720 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d). Shell estimated its first-quarter oil product sales in the band of 6,000-7,000 thousand barrels per day. The company expects first-quarter LNG liquefaction volumes to expand to 8.8-9.2 million tons. (Shell Up on Coronavirus Resilience, New Financing)



5.Imperial Oil IMO recently trimmed capital spending for the current year owing to the outbreak of novel coronavirus and sudden oil price slump. The company has trimmed its capital expenditure guidance for the current year by C$500 million to C$1.1-C$1.2 billion from the prior projection of C$1.6-C$1.7 billion. It has further identified opportunities to cut operating costs by C$500 million from 2019 levels. The company has also suspended the share buyback program to weather the current oil price woes.



In view of the weak oil demand scenario, it aims at reducing the planned second-quarter turnaround work at its Sarnia site. It has deferred a planned coker turnaround at the Syncrude facility in Western Canada until the third quarter, while continuing to assess other planned shutdowns across the business.



Imperial Oil expects the current business environment to negatively impact upstream production, downstream refinery utilization and product sales. The company is re-modelling strategies to maintain the balance sheet, so that it can sustain payout and offer attractive returns to shareholders. (Imperial Oil Slashes 2020 Capex Amid Depressed Prices)



Price Performance



The following table shows the price movement of some the major oil and gas players over the past week and during the last six months.



Company Last Week Last 6 Months

XOM +6.1% -43.2%

CVX +9.2% -33.1%

COP +12.5% -36.7%

OXY +12% -70.4%

SLB +3.9% -56.5%

RIG -7.7% -74.1%

VLO -10.4% -50.9%

MPC -13.3% -65.1%



The Energy Select Sector SPDR - a popular way to track energy companies - rose 5.3% last week. The best performer was upstream biggie ConocoPhillips COP whose stock jumped 12.5%.



But longer-term, over six months, the sector tracker is down 47.5%. Offshore driller Transocean Ltd. was the major loser during this period, experiencing a 74.1% price plunge.



What's Next in the Energy World?



As global oil consumption plunges amid a supply glut, market participants will be closely tracking the regular releases to watch for signs that could indicate a rebound. In this context, the U.S. government statistics on oil and natural gas - one of the few solid indicators that comes out regularly - and the Baker Hughes data on rig count, will be on the energy traders' radar. The roadmap, if any, from leading producers to tackle the unfavorable crude market fundamentals, will also be of major interest.



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Click to get this free report TOTAL S.A. (TOT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Apache Corporation (APA) : Free Stock Analysis Report ConocoPhillips (COP) : Free Stock Analysis Report Imperial Oil Limited (IMO) : Free Stock Analysis Report BP p.l.c. (BP) : Free Stock Analysis Report Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A) : Free Stock Analysis Report Whiting Petroleum Corporation (WLL) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
A section of India Inc on Tuesday appealed all corporate social responsibility initiatives to unite and focus efforts towards protecting the vulnerable sections of the society from the COVID-19 pandemic.

IT services major Wipro's chairman Rishad Premji, Edelweiss Foundation's -- the CSR arm of financial services major -- Vidya Shah and Rohini Nilekani of Arghyam have come together and joined hands with global non-profit Oxfam in making the appeal.

Th appealed to CSR foundations, funding and philanthropic organisations to focus efforts in protecting the elderly, the sick, the physically challenged, the poor and informal sector, migrant workers, a statement said.

A slew of corporates have made announcements of giving and committing money to the newly-created PM-CARES Fund as the number of positive cases in India increased and the government appealed for voluntary contributions.

The four entities called on large donors to "pledge for providing more effective support to and strengthening of their civil society partners by introducing flexibilities and undertaking measures in their grant-making and monitoring mechanisms" in the immediate term.

The "flexibility" measures include making new grants as unrestricted as possible, so non-profit partners have maximum flexibility to respond to this crisis.

Oxfam's chief executive Amitabh Behar said this is precisely the kind of action needed from big names of Indian industry, philanthropies and foundations for the long-term battle against COVID-19 and its economic and social consequences.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Married At First Sight's KC Osborne has hit back at her co-star Elizabeth Sobinoff, after she insisted that Michael Goonan was only dating her out of 'revenge'.

The 31-year-old dance instructor said on Monday she was 'rattled' and 'disappointed' by Elizabeth's hurtful claims about her new relationship.

KC shared an emotional video to Instagram in which she defended her romance with Michael and said that people shouldn't be 'throwing shade'.

Having her say! Married At First Sight's KC Osborne (left) has hit back at her co-star Elizabeth Sobinoff (right), after she insisted that Michael Goonan was only dating her out of 'revenge'

'One thing that has rattled me today actually is seeing what Lizzie had to say about my relationship with Michael,' KC said.

'Lizzie and I were friends the whole way through the experiment and I really, really liked Lizzie.

'So it's very disappointing to hear her say Michael is just with me out of revenge and that I'm a bad friend because I was close with Stacey [Hampton, Michael's ex-wife] in the experiment.'

KC went on to clarify that she and Michael were just friends during filming last year and had 'no intention of getting together' before they fell in love in March.

Setting the record straight: The 31-year-old dance instructor (pictured with Michael) said on Monday she was 'rattled' and 'disappointed' by Elizabeth's claims about her new relationship

'The first time I met up for him with a drink was a month out of the show and he was with a girl,' KC explained.

'I just wish more people were more supportive instead of throwing shade at my new relationship. It's disappointing to hear people say that this relationship is revenge when I'm genuinely happy and to have found someone I want to be with.'

As KC recorded the video in her car, Michael jumped in and kissed her.

Speaking out: It comes after Elizabeth said on Talking Married on Sunday that she believed Michael was only dating KC out of 'revenge' following his split with Stacey. Pictured with fellow MAFS bride Connie Crayden (left) and Talking Married host Shelly Horton (centre)

It comes after Elizabeth said on Talking Married on Sunday that she believed Michael was only dating KC out of 'revenge' following his split with Stacey.

'If KC and Michael are together, I will be very disappointed in each of them, because KC was very friendly with Stacey when filming, and Stacey confided in KC a lot,' she said.

'I would also say that I would think that would be more of a revenge thing from Michael to get back at Stacey.'

Michael and Stacey broke up after the reunion dinner party on January 15, following allegations she had slept with Mikey Pembroke earlier in the season.

It's over! Michael and Stacey Hampton (pictured) broke up after the reunion dinner party on January 15, following allegations she had slept with Mikey Pembroke earlier in the season

After keeping their relationship a secret for weeks, KC and Michael finally made things official on Monday.

The lovebirds were pictured kissing in public for the first time in Elwood, Melbourne.

They have been dating since early March and are self-isolating together during the coronavirus pandemic.
Light traffic and a mostly empty parking lot is seen along Pacific Coast Highway, in Santa Monica, Calif., on March 23, 2020. (Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo)

2 Auto Insurance Companies Return $800 Million in Premiums Amid Pandemic

Auto insurance firms are returning some $800 million in premiums back to drivers because no one is driving amid the CCP virus pandemic.

Allstate and American Family Insurance said they would dole out the refunds over the coming months.

Given an unprecedented decline in driving, customers will receive a shelter-in-place payback of more than $600 million over the next two months, Allstate chief executive officer Tom Wilson stated. This is fair because less driving means fewer accidents, according to the Dallas News.

American Family said its payments would go back to its customers, worth about $200 million, according to the paper.

We started with one week of data and we sat down and said, OK, what do we do about this? Its one week of data. We dont normally price on one week of data, Wilson also said Monday. In about a week and half, we pulled this off. There was not one debate in our company about whether we should do this or not.

The reason why people are driving less is that numerous states have enacted stay-at-home orders and shut down businesses deemed nonessential amid the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus spread.

Other car insurance firms, including State Farm, have not returned premium money back to customers. But it is closely monitoring our automobile insurance losses and are considering how best to take this into account and return value to our auto insurance policyholders, the firm said, reported CNN.

Another insurance giant, Progressive, added that it is exploring how to best return some premium to customers to reflect the decreased exposure that comes with less frequent driving during the pandemic and expect to have those plans in place soon.

And Geico, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, has not issued a public comment.
Iran hails INSTEX service, saying not enough compared to EU commitments to Iran

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 6, IRNA -- Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Monday that INSTEX launched by the EU states carried transactions for medical and emergency supplies, adding that Iran expects the EU partners to implement other commitments to Iran as well.

Addressing Monday video press conference, Mousavi said interactions can be done through INSTEX, but it is not the all commitments to Iran the EU states have undertaken.

He said that Iran is under the strictest sanctions and despite the US claims that drugs and medical equipment are exempted from sanctions, but they have been blocked to enter Iran.

Earlier, the Federal Foreign Office of Germany in a tweet confirmed the first transaction with Iran through INSTEX.

The Federal Foreign Office of Germany wrote on its Twitter account, "France, Germany and the United Kingdom confirm that INSTEX has successfully concluded its first transaction, facilitating the export of medical goods from Europe to Iran."

The message added, "INSTEX and its Iranian counterpart STFI will work on more transactions and enhancing the mechanism."

Referring to the fact that Iran's economy is based on Resistance Economy, Mousavi said that Iran did not wait for lifting sanctions, Iran overcame the sanctions by taking advantage of domestic resources and forces.

If we could use our resources outside the country and other countries could help Iran with no obstacle it will increase our domestic power to pass the current critical situation created by coronavirus better.

Elaborating on the way foreign nationals are behaved in Iran, Mousavi said that there are two groups of foreigners Iran one of them are tourists and the other one are those who are living in Iran like Afghans.

He added that foreign nationals suffering from coronavirus will be cured for free on humanitarian grounds.

Commenting on the developments in Iran-UAE-Saudi Arabia relations after the outbreak of coronavirus, Mousavi said that contacts help observance of wisdom in behavior, adding that good donations have been made by these countries to Iran.

Regarding both countries nationals, Iranian diplomat said officials are in touch with this regard.

We hope COVID19 convince regional governments and nations to cooperate on fighting other viruses like violence and extremism, Mousavi added.

Commenting on the request of the Iranian students in Italy to return home, Mousavi said we are waiting for the observation of some health issues in flights and for the permission of anti-coronavirus committee and the Iranian Health Ministry.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Mousavi said that Iran made no request of help from the US, adding that the US has attempted to drive Iran to difficult situation for what they say to bring Iran to negotiating table.

Iran's measures shows that the country does not recognize US sanctions and calls for lifting these sanctions, Iranian diplomat said.

Elaborating on Iran-Afghanistan relations and some new trouble over expulsion of two Iranian diplomats from Afghanistan and the Afghan diplomats from Iran, Mousavi said we have always maintained good relations with Afghan government and people.

Powerful Afghanistan is Iran's hope, he said, expressing regret over political differences in Afghanistan.

Increasing or decreasing the number of diplomats is a diplomatic norm and is done through coordination, he said rejecting strained relations.

Commenting on Iran regional initiatives, Mousavi said that Iran and regional countries especially northern and western states enjoy mechanism for aligning views and policies.

Iran has had such mechanism with Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia as well.

He added that Azeri president was scheduled to visit Iran but it was postponed but diplomacy is still underway and the foreign ministers will have their meetings.

Regarding Iran's request for $5b loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mousavi advised those who want to stop granting the loan to Iran by politicizing, saying the entire world is involved with fighting coronavirus and efforts to fight it should not be disturbed.

For much of the press conference, Mousavi described the US attempt to attack Resistance groups in Iraq as violation of the Iraqi national sovereignty, saying such acts are against the demand of Iraqi people, government and parliament which voted for withdrawal of US forces.

In response to IRNA reporter's question about the US allegation against Iran over attack on the US bases in Iraq, he said that it is an internal affair of Iraq and the Resistance forces and Popular Mobilization Forces are part of Iraqi official forces.

He said that Iranian nation favors negotiations, interaction and peace but if they face with threat and bullying, they will punish aggressors.

Mousavi expressed concerns over the outbreak of coronavirus in Palestine, saying the Israeli regime is covering up the issue but the virus may spread in Gaza Strip which is one of the most populated areas.

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The lone COVID-19 positive



patient in Arunachal Pradesh, who is in isolation at the zonal general hospital at Tezu in Lohit district, is doing well, district health officials said on Tuesday.

District Medical Officer (DMO) Dr Sajinglu Chai Pul said the doctors and the nursing staff are constantly monitoring the health status of the COVID-19 positive patient.

"He is still asymptomatic and without any physical discomfort," the DMO said.

A man from Medo in Lohit district, who had attended the congregation of Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in New Delhi, had tested positive for COVID-19 on April 1.

The state police has so far traced 23 persons who had participated in the religious congregation of Tablighi Jamaat last month out of which only one tested positive.

State Director General of Police (DGP) R P Upadhyaya in a tweet said that, "Arunachal Police has traced 23 persons who went to Nizamuddin Markaz, out of which 1 has tested positive for COVID-19. We appeal to other persons with similar travel history to voluntarily report to the nearest police station, DC office and hospitals for COVID screening."



Meanwhile, the state government had constituted a Board to examine the feasibility of adopting the rapid test kit (RTK) approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research for use in management of Covid-19 in the state.

The feasibility of adopting CBNAAT (Cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test) for diagnosing the disease would also be examined simultaneously by the Board, official sources said here on Tuesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
YEREVAN.  Office of the Third President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan on Tuesday sent an official letter to Andranik Kocharyan, Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Defense and Securityand of the special Inquiry Committee for Examining the Circumstances of the Military Activities of April 2016, in response to a letter he had sent to Sargsyan. His office informs about this.

The letter from Sargsyans office states, in particular, that although the third president is not legally obliged to attend the hearings of this special committee, he has no problem presenting details about the military aggression which Azerbaijan had unleashed in April 2016.

The third presidents office also informed that Sargsyan considers it expedient to visit the aforementioned special committee after the end of the current state of emergency in Armenia, but provided that a copy of the recording of this hearing be provided to the third president after the hearing, if such a recording is planned; otherwise, to give an opportunity for recording this hearing.

The response of the Office of the Third President of the Republic of Armenia also states that Serzh Sargsyan is ready to visit this special committee on April 16.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the widespread use of masks by the public will not stop the coronavirus pandemic.

The WHO recommends they be used in the community by people who are sick or their carers.

It also says they should be considered in countries that live in cramped conditions or have a lack of water to clean their hands.

But WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus says they are not a 'silver bullet' to ending the virus.

"We know that medical masks can help to protect health workers but they are in short supply globally," WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus said.

"We are concerned that the mass use of medical masks by the general population could exacerbate the shortage of these specialised masks for the people who need them most.

"This shortage is putting health workers in real danger."

Mr Ghebreyesus responded to scientists who had called on Africa to be a testing ground for a coronavirus vaccine descibing them as racist.

Two French doctors called for Africa to be a testing ground for a vaccine because the people there are highly exposed.

"When we need solidarity, these kind of racist remarks do not help.

"Africa is not and will not be a testing ground for any vaccine.

"It was a disgrace and appalling to hear in the 21st century that kind of remark from scientists."

[snippet1]987600[/snippet1]
It's awfully tempting to buy into the battered cruise line industry these days. Shares of Carnival (NYSE:CCL) (NYSE:CUK), Royal Caribbean (NYSE:RCL), and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NYSE:NCLH) have been crushed, and even after big bounces on Monday, the shares find themselves 78% to 83% off their 52-week highs.

The stocks could quadruple and still not be back to where they were at their peaks, but what if you can buy low and double your money in a couple of years? That wouldn't seem too shabby, but let's make sure you consider all the factors weighing down the industry. Let's go over five questions any bullish thesis on buying Carnival, Royal Caribbean, or Norwegian Cruise Line needs to answer.

1. When will ships sail start sailing again?

Cruise lines can't generate revenue if they're not entertaining passengers, and that's not happening anytime soon. Royal Caribbean and Carnival have canceled all sailings starting before May 12. NCL is hoping to start welcoming passengers the day before that. Some itineraries have been pushed out even further into 2020.

Mid-May doesn't seem so far away, but this is a date that's already been extended. The industry obviously doesn't want to cancel sailings unless the cruise lines are sure they won't happen, but unless there's a miraculous turn for the better in the containment of COVID-19, no one should be surprised if we see more cancellations in the coming weeks.

2. When will passengers start sailing again?

One of the biggest problems with cruising right now is the deluge of negative stories. Sick and in some cases dying passengers have been stuck on quarantined vessels. If you're a fan of cruises as a form of travel -- and I am, with a Baltic cruise booked for this summer that I'm not likely to be able to take -- you're going to be somewhat hesitant the next time you sail. If you've never gone on a cruise before, you're probably erasing that from your bucket list.

Cruise lines have been through this before. Norovirus outbreaks, rare terrorist events, weather-related mishaps, and even folks who accidentally fall overboard make for brand-bruising headlines. But this is different. Cruise ship outbreaks dominated the news last month. It's going to take some time before consumer demand is where it used to be for the industry.

3. Who will work on these ships?

It's not just passengers who are getting sick and dying. Crews have been even more susceptible, especially since they're typically boarding in cramped quarters with several other crew members. Cruise ships often fly under the flags of non-U.S. countries, and the crews lean heavily on international personnel.

Having the world as your hiring pool may make it an easy sell despite the historically lousy pay, but it wouldn't be a surprise if wages have to go higher when ships start sailing again. Apart from any current legal liabilities, future crews will no longer be wooed by visiting exotic ports of call and serving the affluent.

4. How much money will cruise lines lose before returning to profitability?

The cruise lines have been lining up billions in financing lately in hopes of getting through this interruption. The foreign-registered lines won't be direct beneficiaries of the U.S. bailout, even if some of the consumer stimulus check proceeds go toward cruise vacations. The problem is that the cruise industry doesn't know how much dry powder it will need. The losses will be massive for Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and NCL through their canceled sailings, and then we get to the refund requests.

The three publicly traded cruises combined to generate a profit of $4.7 billion on $38.2 billion in revenue last year. This year will be a wash, but even if these boats are back on the water next month -- spoiler alert: they won't -- things won't return back to normal come 2021.

The pipeline of future bookings will need to be greased again, and passengers will expect lower prices. Folks on canceled cruises opting for future cruise credit instead of immediate refunds in exchange for hundreds of onboard credit will demand to pay less for their loyalty.

Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and NCL will also have to spend heavily on marketing to restore consumer faith in their now tarnished brands. There's no way revenue approaches $38.2 billion in 2021, especially if capacity is clipped in response to sluggish demand. Analysts see the cruise lines earning a lot less next year than they did in 2019, and at least one Wall Street pro sees Carnival in the red for 2021. If the industry resumption dates continue to get pushed out and we're in a global recession in 2021 instead of an economic expansion like in 2019, you can be sure that more analysts will be pushing out profitability until 2022 or later.

5. Is your money better off somewhere else?

You're realistic. You know it will take ages before the three cruise stocks take out their earlier highs. You'll settle for a double by 2022 -- or maybe even 2023 if you're not greedy -- and maybe one or more of today's cruise stocks will get there.

However, you also have plenty of industries that won't face the same kind of headwinds. You have brands that are still healthy in the minds of consumers, with businesses that will bounce back quicker even in a challenging economic environment. Quality stocks in industries with brighter prospects got hammered, too. You don't need to choose from among Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and NCL when there's a world of top stocks to buy out there ready to take you on a voyage.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Tuesday paid tribute to the Indian Army's Havildar Davendra Singh, who was killed in action in Kashmir on April 5.

Havildar Davendra Singh belonged to the Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand and had lost his life in an anti-terrorist operation in Jammu and Kashmir's Keran sector.

Army spokesperson Col Aman Anand on Monday said the troops had launched a daring operation at the LoC and engaged Pakistan supported infiltrators in close combat in heavy snow and neutralised the entire infiltrating batch of five terrorists.

In this battle, however, Army lost five of its soldiers, three on the site and two more succumbed while they were airlifted to a nearby military hospital.

The operation was launched on Saturday to trace the five infiltrating terrorists.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz announced Monday a $1.2 million citywide program aimed at providing relief to residents and businesses amidst the coronavirus public health crisis.

The announcement comes as municipal and state economies are taking a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. Many companies have had to furlough and layoff staff. Two weeks ago, unemployment claims in the U.S. soared to 6.6 million, and in Massachusetts, they rose to 181,062.

In Northampton, concerns have continued to mount for small businesses. Narkewicz, who himself was diagnosed with and has since recovered from the viral respiratory infection, declared a citywide state of emergency in mid March.

We are working to address the COVID-19 crisis and the eventual recovery, with the goal of serving the neediest among us and our long standing housing, accessibility and public service needs, Narkewicz said in a statement. The economic impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic poses a threat to our businesses and our residents, especially our low- and moderate-income residents.

The $1.2 million will be made up of roughly $120,000 in existing federal Community Development Block Grants, $682,340 in CDBG money that should arrive in July and $401,400 in the communitys CDBG-CARES funds, according to the mayors statement.

The program is expected to provide more than $200,000 to small businesses, $120,000 to emergency shelters for the homeless and $25,000 to Northampton Survival Center and Grow Food Northampton in their efforts to combat food insecurity, the statement said.

Businesses with 10 employees or fewer will be awarded grants averaging $5,000 each with a cap of $10,000, according to the mayor.

I am aware how daunting the economic crisis is and how much these funds can only supplement the larger funding commitments from the federal and state governments, banks, and on-going community support of our businesses," Narkewicz said in his statement.

The emergency shelter will be set up at Northampton High School. State and federal contributions to sheltering needs and emergency city operations remain uncertain, the Mayor noted.

Another $200,000 will go toward the creation of a resiliency hub to provide services to the most chronically stressed population" in the community, the homeless, and to other city programs available during times of emergency, according to Narkewicz.

Through the fund, the mayors office hopes to maintain social service programs, affordable housing and economic development, Narkewicz said.

While we address the short-term emergency, we need to start planning for recovery. COVID-19 has highlighted how much more expensive it is to address a broken system than to fix the system in the first place," Northampton Planning and Sustainability Director Wayne Feiden said.

The small business grants will be managed by the Valley Community Development Corporation. The details of the program are available at the groups website. Grant applications open Wednesday, April 15.

Hampshire County, where Northampton is located, continues to be one of the counties with the least number of coronavirus cases. Nearly 150 positive diagnoses have been identified in the county as of Monday.

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(L-R) John Chirico, his son 4 yr old Julian Chirico, Jaime Chirico holds daughter NAME TO COME, Johns mother Maria Mangiamele and brother Brandon Chirico in Washington Twp. NJ on April 1, 2020. John Chirico founded this non-profit organization called Food4Staff. With donations they received via social media, they are sending food to hospital staffs in South Jersey and the Philadelphia area. Read more

It has been a scene that has played out at numerous hospitals in the Delaware Valley over the past few weeks. An employee comes out of the hospital to accept scores of free meals for their colleagues. Pizza, pasta, hoagies, you name it, a collective effort to feed the people who are battling the coronavirus pandemic.

Throughout the area, a number of charitable organizations have sprung up to help to feed doctors, nurses, EMTs, and other frontline hospital workers.

John Chirico is among the organizers who felt compelled to help.

With free time on his hands, Chirico  who owns Champion Restoration and is a resident of Washington Township  formed Food4Staff, which is raising donations to buy food from local restaurants.

With the help of his wife, Jaime, and his mother, Maria Mangiamele, they launched the Food4Staff Facebook page, which has already amassed more than 10,000 followers.

They have also helped to provide a lot of meal deliveries.

We hit every major hospital in Philadelphia and South Jersey, over 30 hospitals, Chirico said. More than $25,000 has been spent at local restaurants and more than 2,800 meals were served.

When we first started, we would order five pizzas and a couple of sandwiches and salad, and now our deliveries are going from about 30 people to upwards of 150 people, Chirico said.

Chirico says he calls in the orders and the eating establishments are in charge of delivering the food to the hospitals.

The venture serves two purposes. It helps hospital workers who are working long shifts caring for patients, and it helps restaurants that are now limited to takeout and delivery.

Chirico says he has ordered from nearly 60 restaurants, including the Kitchen Consigliere of Collingswood, Fitzwater Cafe in Philadelphia, and Cicontes Italia Pizzeria of Glassboro and West Deptford.

Its been a big help to us, said Ken Sowisdral, owner of Falls Deli in East Falls, who has delivered hoagies to staff at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia.

Its really fun for us to do because they are so excited about it, Sowisdral said, of the reactions his group has received.

Pictures of appreciative hospital workers have popped up on Food4Staff Facebook page.

Amy Lewis, the nurse manager of Jefferson Hospital in Washington Township, said the program has lifted the spirits of the entire staff.

It has been overwhelming to say the least, Lewis said. Our team is working around the clock to really take care of patients. This gives them a chance to sit down, eat something warm, and get a nice break  It has really built up our morale."

Lewis said one of the nurses saw Food4Staff info on Facebook and reached out.

Chirico says that as word spread, hospitals called to express interest in participating in the program.

Chirico says besides himself, there are 10 other volunteers who help to take orders and schedule deliveries.

Its been a joint effort, he said. Everybody has been doing a great job, taking the orders. 

The hospitals have put protocols in place to ensure that workers can receive donations safely.

A spokesperson for Jefferson University Hospitals said that people delivering the food are not allowed in the hospital. In this instance, the health-care workers will meet them at the door to receive the food.

Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia accepts food donations for at least 50 people, but all food must be individually wrapped and deliveries must be scheduled.

There are other groups in the Philadelphia area that have organized similar efforts to donate meals to hospital workers.

The Fuel for Fight drive has raised at least $66,000 to deliver food to hospital staff. Bill and Lauren Connors of Philadelphia are spearheading the effort that has fed at least 1,000 frontline workers at 15 hospitals and COVID-19 testing sites.

One hundred percent of the money raised goes directly to local restaurants to support them while helping the hospital workers risking their lives to fight this virus, Connors said.

Meanwhile, Rob Wright of the digital marketing firm Small Talk Media has partnered with the Trauma Survivors Foundation to start the Hospital Heroes Food Drive. The organization has raised more than $10,000 and fed more than 3,000 medial workers throughout the Philadelphia area.

Even in the first two weeks of doing this, he has seen such a big change. When I first started doing it, they said the hospital staff was still having trouble getting food, Wright said. Now it is kind of making their day."

Laura Kopach, a clinical nurse from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Center City, is among the appreciative recipients.

Times like these can make work very stressful, she said. Receiving a meal form the Trauma Survivors Foundation is greatly appreciated, but what is truly special is knowing that we are supported by our community.
Frazier & Deeters appointment to the Council was made due to their years of HITRUST experience, motivation to provide thought leadership and a high degree of quality and integrity.

Frazier & Deeter, one of the nations fastest-growing accounting and advisory firms, today announced that it has been named as a new member of the 2020 HITRUST External Assessor Council (the Council).

The Council, comprised of ten HITRUST Authorized External Assessors and one HITRUST executive, represents a wide variety of organizations supporting the healthcare and public health sector. The new members will serve a two-year term on the Council. The varying opinions and diverse expertise provide valuable insights into the success of the industry and respective companies, with the goal of creating more value for customers.

The External Assessor Council is strategically charged with bridging the gap between the HITRUST Assurance Program and the marketplace, said Matthew Datel, Director, Education and Strategic Initiatives at HITRUST. Frazier & Deeters appointment to the Council was made due to their years of HITRUST experience, motivation to provide thought leadership and a high degree of quality and integrity.

The Council was created to ensure that HITRUST Authorized External Assessors working with any industry are able to provide input and influence the HITRUST CSF Assurance Program to ensure its integrity, effectiveness and practicality. HITRUST Authorized External Assessors such as Frazier & Deeter serve as a key component of the Council and will interact regularly with HITRUST to share challenges and opportunities relating to HITRUST service offerings.

Frazier & Deeter is honored to serve as part of the HITRUST Assessor Council, said Andrew Hicks, National HITRUST Practice Leader and Vice President of Risk Assurance at Frazier & Deeter. As a firm thats entrenched in the HITRUST marketplace and committed to simplifying the assessment journey, its an honor to represent our customers and other assessor firms to help improve the effectiveness of the HITRUST Assurance Program.

About Frazier & Deeter

Frazier & Deeter is an award-winning accounting and advisory firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The firm provides a wide range of tax, audit, accounting and advisory services to serve the emerging needs of clients as they evolve. Frazier & Deeter and its FD family of brands have nine offices across the United States and one in the United Kingdom. The firm has been recognized repeatedly as a Best of the Best Accounting firm, a Best Firm to Work For in the U.S. and a Best Firm for Women in Leadership. Frazier & Deeters brand promise is investing in relationships to make a difference.
Medical officials at the 37 Military Hospital say they are in urgent need for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), saying the available ones are inadequate.



The hospital has set up a quarantine center where more than 200 suspected coronavirus patients have been held with nine turning positive.



According to head of public health at the facility, Naval Captain Edward Nyarko, the facility will run out of PPE stocks they had for the fight against Ebola in the next three weeks.



The Commanding Officer of the 37 Military Hospital has expressed concern about long delays in returning Covid-19 test results, saying it leaves them anxious most of the times.



Brig General Nii Adjah Obodai says it now takes up to four days to get results from Nogouchi despite previous assurances the results will be ready in six hours.





Source: adomnews









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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China Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian held his first press conference in several weeks on Tuesday, attempting to walk back his earlier claim that the U.S. military had brought the novel coronavirus to the city of Wuhan.

The virus [is] a scientific question that requires scientific opinions, Zhao told reporters. He was then asked if he stood behind a March 12 tweet in which he wrote that, It might be the U.S. Army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan.

The questions raised on my personal Twitter account are a response to U.S. politicians stigmatization of China, which also reflects the righteous anger of many Chinese people over these stigmatizing acts, Zhao responded.

China blocks Twitter within its borders, although certain citizens and companies may use the app with government approval. Twitter has said that using the platform to claim that the U.S. brought coronavirus to Wuhan does not violate its rules and terms of service.

The Chinese government and state-owned media outlets have repeatedly tried to portray President Trumps use of the term Chinese virus as stigmatizing. On March 17, Trump was asked during a White House press conference whether he thought calling the coronavirus the Chinese virus created a stigma.

No, I dont think so. I think saying that our military gave it to them creates a stigma, Trump replied.

The coronavirus pandemic that began in Wuhan has now claimed over 81,000 lives and seen 1,400,000 people infected.

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The FDA declined to comment on the meeting. A senior administration official said the session appeared to be an effort to press Trump to ratchet up his public support for the drug. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said Hahn has been flexible in handling the drug but wasnt comfortable endorsing it before trials are completed. Efforts to reach Oskoui by email and phone were not successful.
Oregon railcar and barge manufacturer Greenbrier reported a sharp downturn in sales last quarter and said Tuesday it will eliminate 3,500 jobs, reducing its global workforce by about 20% as the coronavirus outbreak takes hold.

Most of the cuts took place in Mexico but Greenbrier said it will eliminate 195 jobs making railcars at its Gunderson subsidiary in Portland by July. That represents a quarter of Gundersons 700 Portland employees.

Were planning this as a temporary shutdown of our rail manufacturing capacity," Greenbrier Vice President Jack Isselmann said Tuesday.

Railcar volumes have fallen by historic levels during the coronavirus outbreak as economies all over the globe crater. Gundersons marine business remains strong, he said, and some Portland workers will shift there while awaiting a rebound in railcar demand.

The intent is to keep those lines ready and available, Isselmann said.

Greenbriers share price had lost nearly half its value this year, plunging from around $32 a share at the beginning of the year to $14.36 at Mondays close. However, investors appeared heartened by the companys quarterly report Tuesday, bidding up shares 15% to $16.45.

Due to economic forces in our own industry beyond our control, and the fallout from the COVID-19 crisis, we have been forced to make difficult decisions impacting our operations, Greenbrier CEO Bill Furman wrote in a note to Portland employees Monday. He said demand for the companys double-stack railcars, Gundersons premiere product, has completely evaporated.

We must reduce our workforce at Gunderson to ensure the overall sustainability of the company, Furman wrote.

The Lake Oswego companys sales fell to $623.8 million in its fiscal second quarter, which ended February 29 -- before the coronavirus outbreak was widespread in the United States. Thats down from $769.4 million in the prior three months.

Second-quarter profits totaled $15.3 million, compared to $9.9 million in the fiscal first quarter.

Greenbrier suspended its financial guidance for the year and didnt issue a new outlook.

The company said it has eliminated non-essential travel, is cutting sales and administrative costs, implemented a hiring freeze and reduced annual compensation for its board of directors by 10%. Furman will take a $250,000 cut in pay.

Most large Oregon manufacturers have continued operating through the outbreak, even retailers, bars and restaurants shut down. The states most recent report on new unemployment claims showed a spike in manufacturing job losses, though, suggesting the economic implications of the pandemic are being more widely felt.

Update: This article has been substantially updated with information about the pending cuts in Portland.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
A decision this week by the California Supreme Court gave policyholders with long-tail environmental claims a potentially big win, finding that polices within each policy period can be vertically stacked.

The decision was handed down on April. 6 in Montrose Chemical Corporation of California v. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County.

Montrose Chemical Corp. was sued for causing continuous environmental damage in the Los Angeles area between 1947 and 1982. The company subsequently entered into partial consent decrees to resolve various claims.

Montrose, which went to tap its liability insurance to cover what it owes in connection with the claims, had continuous primary insurance as well as layers of excess insurance from 1961 to 1985.

Montrose argued it is entitled to coverage under any relevant policy once it has exhausted directly underlying excess policies for the same policy period, while the insurers involved argued that Montrose may call on an excess policy only after it has exhausted every lower level excess policy covering the relevant years.

A trial court denied Montroses motion and granted the insurers motion, holding that the excess policies required horizontal exhaustion in the context of this multiyear injury. Montrose filed a petition for a writ of mandate, which the court summarily denied. The California Supreme Court granted Montroses petition for review and transferred the case to the Court of Appeal with instructions to issue an order to show cause why the relief Montrose sought should not be granted.

The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial courts denial of Montroses motion for summary adjudication and affirmed in part the trial courts grant of the insurers parallel motion.

The matter eventually got back to the California Supreme Court.

Reading the insurance policy language in light of background principles of insurance law, and considering the reasonable expectations of the parties, we agree with Montrose: It is entitled to access otherwise available coverage under any excess policy once it has exhausted directly underlying excess policies for the same policy period, the ruling states.

The decision relies heavily on the courts decision in the insurance coverage dispute over the massive environmental cleanup of the Stringfellow Acid Pits in State of California v. Continental.

Robert M. Horkovich, an insurance recovery attorney and managing partner of Anderson Kill, was part of the legal team that represented the state of California in the Continental case.

Horkovich, who is not involved in the Montrose case, said great benefit for policyholders in the recent ruling.

This is a good thing for policyholders and this will mean a lot toward the payment for environmental cleanup costs, Horkovich said.

The court ruled that a policyholder doesnt have to prove every primary insurance policy in every year was already tapped, and instead that a policyholder must only show a primary policy was exhausted in one year before tapping into the excess policy in that particular year  a process called spiking.

Legal representatives for the insurers involved have been reached out to for comment.

An abbreviated example of a longer court explanation is as follows: In three different policy years  1, 2 and 3  it needs only be proven that the primary policy was exhausted in year 3 before a policyholder can into the excess policy in year 3, they do not have to prove theyve exhausted the primary policy in years 1 or 2 to get to the excess policy in year 3.

The reasoning offered by the court that each policy in a given year may have different terms and exclusions, so a rule of horizontal exhaustion would create significant practical obstacles to securing indemnification.

The court further reasoned that an excess insurer can sue the other the primary insurers involved if theres a dispute: An insurer called on to provide indemnification may, however, seek reimbursement from other insurers that would have been liable to provide coverage under excess policies issued for any period in which the injury occurred.

Horkovich said the ruling will permit a policyholder not to get bogged down in proving terms and conditions of policies that may have been sold 10 or 20 years ago,

There are dozens of insurers named in the ruling as real parties of interest, including Allstate Insurance Co., Continental Casualty Co., Firemans Fund Insurance Co., and Munich Reinsurance America Inc.

Topics Carriers California Legislation Excess Surplus Pollution
New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday (April 7) wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggesting five measures to curb government's expenditure and to divert the money for the fight against Covid-19. Her suggestions included imposing a complete ban on media advertisements by the government and Public Sector Units for 2 years and suspending the Central Vista beautification project.

The suggestions came after Modi reached out to several opposition leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, on April 5.

Congress President and CPP Chairperson Smt. Sonia Gandhi writes to PM Modi suggesting various measures to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. pic.twitter.com/77MzCYiokl  Congress (@INCIndia) April 7, 2020

The first suggestion Sonia Gandhi made was to impose a complete ban on media advertisements - television, print and online - by the Government and Public Sectors Undertakings (PSUs) for a period of two years.

"The only exceptions should be advisories for Covid-19 or for issues relating to public health. Given that the Central Government currently spends an average of Rs 1250 crore per year on media advertisements (not including an equal or greater amount spent by PSUs and Government companies), this will free up a substantial amount to alleviate the economic and social impacts of Covid-19." wrote Sonia Gandhi.

In her letter to the Prime Minister, Sonia also suggested to scrap Central Vista project of approximately Rs 20,000 crore and put on hold all foreign visits of all ministers, bureaucrats and other dignitaries.

"At a time like this, such an outlay seems self-indulgent to say the least. I am certain that Parliament can function comfortably within the existing historical building and this sum could instead be allocated towards constructing new hospital infrastructure and diagnostics along with equipping our frontline workers with Personal Protection Equipment (PPEs) and better facilities."

She also conveyed her support to the decision taken by the Union Cabinet to reduce salaries for Members of Parliament by 30 per cent and called for ordering proportionate reduction of 30 per cent in expenditure budget (other than salaries, pensions and central sector schemes) for the government of India.

"This 30 percent (i.e. Rs 2.5 lakh crores per year approximately) can then be allocated towards establishing an economic safety net for migrant workers, labourers, farmers, MSMEs and those in the unorganised sector," Gandhi wrote in the letter.

The Congress chief called for transferring all money under the 'PM Cares' fund to the 'Prime Ministers National Relief Fund' to ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability.

"Impose a complete ban on media advertisements - television, print and online - by the Government and PSU's for a period of two years," Gandhi said in the letter, asserting that the need of the hour is austerity measures to divert funds to the fight against COVID-19.

Here are the 5 suggestions from Sonia Gandhi:

1. Impose a complete ban on media advertisements - television, print and online - by the Government and Public Sectors Undertakings (PSUs) for a period of two years.

2. Suspention of Rs 20,000 crore 'Central Vista' beautification and construction project forthwith.

3. Proportionate reduction of 30 per cent in the expenditure budget (other than Salaries, Pensions and Central Sector Schemes) should be done for the Government of India as well.

4. Putting on hold all foreign visits including that of the President, the Prime Minister, Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, State Ministers and Bureaucrats.

5. Transfer of all money under the 'PM-Cares' fund to the 'Prime Ministers National Relief Fund' to ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability.
Critics argue US tariffs on Chinese goods could be impeding the medical response to the pandemic.

Citing concerns over severe supply disruptions, senior US legislators have called for an expedited investigation into specific imported products needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Some critics have argued US tariffs on Chinese goods could be impeding the response to the contagion. A huge surge in demand worldwide has interrupted flows of medical supplies and protective gear and led to shortages of many products.

US House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, a Democrat, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican, asked the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to provide details about the source countries for such products, as well as tariff classifications and duty rates, by April 30.

They said the information would be used to help the committees and the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) propose or take appropriate and responsive actions but gave no details.

As we grapple with the challenges presented by the novel coronavirus, we are keenly aware that our challenges are being severely exacerbated by disruptions and deficiencies in our supply of equipment, inputs, and substances needed for treating and otherwise responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, Grassley and Neal wrote in their letter to ITC Chairman David Johanson on Monday.





USTR on March 20 opened a docket for businesses and individuals to propose the possible exclusion of goods needed for the pandemic response from US tariffs on Chinese goods.

The Trump administration has already granted exclusions for a number of Chinese goods, but officials have rejected a blanket 90-day deferral of all duties on Chinese goods proposed by some US companies to ease the economic impact of the pandemic.

To help shape the USTR and congressional response, the committees asked the ITC to provide detailed information for each product deemed necessary.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum issued an order Monday calling for tighter quarantine measures, after announcing the states fourth death due to the coronavirus.

The victim was a man in his 70s from Emmons County who had underlying health conditions. He contracted the virus through community spread, Burgum. The death was not included in Mondays update showing the case count at 225, up 18 from the previous day.

Burgums directive calls for anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 to self-isolate for no less than 14 days. It also requires anyone who lives with someone who tests positive to self-quarantine for two weeks. People who violate the order could be charged with a Class B misdemeanour and face a $1,500 fine.

Burgum has not issued a statewide stay-at-home order. He said the current state-managed, locally executed, federally supported plan is the best approach right now, rather than a mandate. He has shut down bars, restaurants, health clubs, movie theatres and beauty salons.

A second-order signed Monday suspend visitation and non-essential services to long-term care facilities.

We do this because were trying to save lives, Burgum said. There are many other states that have had deadly outbreaks in nursing homes. So far weve been very fortunate here.

Although Burgum said the state is currently well-positioned with hospital beds, he noted that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has identified 10 potential sites for temporary hospitals if needed.

Its our job to prepare for the worst so we will keep doing that as well, the governor said.

The testing count went over 7,000 on Sunday. Burgum said that nearly 800 people were screened during a pilot project for drive-through testing on Saturday at two small western North Dakota towns.

While officials have encouraged residents to enjoy the outdoors as long as theyre taking social distancing measures, the virus has impacted one of the states favourite activities The North Dakota Game and Fish Department on Monday postponed all fishing tournaments for April and May and could extend the order through October depending on COVID-19 conditions.

The department announced earlier it was cancelling the paddlefish snagging harvest season. Paddlefish snaggers typically concentrate in large numbers in a small area, officials said.

(Image - AP)
Patients who need to be hospitalized but dont have the coronavirus are being sent to other hospitals that are also part of NorthShore University HealthSystem, including Evanston and Highland Park hospitals, Peterson Hall said. In turn, most Evanston and Highland Park patients with COVID-19 or suspected cases of COVID-19 are being sent to Glenbrook for hospitalization. Some cases remain at Evanston Hospital.
The devastated family of a Ruby Princess passenger who caught coronavirus were sent a $454 bill for her onboard flu consultation.

Kiri-Lee Ryder, 44, had a medical appointment on board the cruise just hours before she disembarked in Sydney on March 19.

Her mother, Carlene Brown, told The Financial Review her daughter was only treated for 'influenza' but was later forced to be put in an induced coma at Perth's Fiona Stanley Hospital.

Kiri-Lee Ryder, 44, (pictured right with husband Michael Ryder) attended a medical appointment on board the Ruby Princess cruise ship for 'flu-like' symptoms

Mrs Ryder (pictured middle with friends and family) was diagnosed with 'influenza virus not identified' but was later found critically ill with COVID-19 after disembarking the ship

Mrs Ryder's husband Michael Ryder and her 23-year-old son Shannon had taken her to the ship's medical clinic around 1am.

She was displaying 'flu-like symptoms' and was tested for influenza A&B and had a nose swab was taken.

Mrs Brown said: 'She was given numerous medications, asked to wear a mask and told to stay in her cabin with her husband and son. '

'They were told someone would come and get them when it was their turn to disembark and, until then, they were not to leave their cabin.'

Mrs Brown has since been sent an invoice for her daughter's medical appointment, which cost a total of $454.55.

The Ruby Princess consultation receipt was stamped and dated 2.22am, March 19, 2020 and noted that Mrs Ryder received a 'night time doctor consult' and had drugs administered.

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

She was given a cough suppressant syrup with anti-congestion, influenza medication, Panadol and ibuprofen.

The invoice noted that Mrs Ryder's final diagnosis was 'influenza virus not identified'.

The cruise ship later docked in Sydney and began to disembark passengers around 8am.

It is believed that Mrs Ryder and her family were among the last to leave at around 10.30am

Mrs Brown said: 'No health-related questions were asked upon disembarkation, nor were any of their temperatures taken. The fact Kiri-Lee had been to the medical clinic only hours beforehand wasn't even mentioned.'

An officer and crew member escorted the family to meet immigration and customs officials at the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay. They were given an information sheet and told to self-isolate when they got home.

The trio then stayed in a Sydney hotel for two nights until their flight home on March 21.

Mrs Ryder was extremely unwell by the morning of March 22 and was rushed to hospital around 4am where she was placed in an induced coma.

Mrs Ryder (pictured) was charged a $454 bill for her medical consultation onboard the cruise

The Ruby Princess cruise ship (pictured) allowed 2,700 passengers to disembark in Sydney Harbour on March 19 despite having multiple travellers with coronavirus symptoms

The number of positive coronavirus cases across Australia as of Tuesday April 7

The cruise ship allowed 2,700 passengers to disembark in Sydney Harbour despite having multiple travellers who were ill with coronavirus symptoms.

So far 13 passengers have died from COVID-19 and a further 612 people were infected as a direct result of the cruise.

'I want to share more of my daughter's story as I feel very strongly that someone needs to take responsibility for what's happened with Ruby Princess,' Mrs Brown said.

She noted that Mrs Ryder's condition had made small improvements in the last few weeks but a full recovery was still far away.

Mrs Brown said that she had frantically contacted Princess Cruises but never received a return call or the results from her daughter's nasal swab.
A pair of city-funded opportunities seek to add to other relief programs being offered to Rochester businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city is dedicating half of the $100,000 it set aside for its Economic Stability Team to reward innovation and collaborative efforts in dealing with emerging challenges.

The $50,000 is being matched by the Destination Medical Center Economic Development Agency to provide grants of up to $2,000 to local small businesses that are working together to find ways to respond to the challenges posed by COVID-19.

"This is yet another way we can support small businesses during this challenging time," said DMC EDA Executive Director Lisa Clarke of the new Keep it Local, COVID-19 Innovators Grant Program. "This new grant program that DMC is helping to fund will provide new opportunities for businesses today as they prepare for tomorrows new normal."

The dedicated DMC EDA funds are only available to businesses in the DMC district, but city funds can be used throughout the city.

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According to the citys announcement of the grant program, an eligible project could involve a Rochester restaurant partnering with another Rochester company to design a website for take-out orders.

Both the grant applicant and its service provider must be located in the city, and neither can employ more than the equivalent of 50 full-time employees.

Grants cannot exceed $2,000.

Applying for a grant will not disqualify a business from receiving funds from the Small Business Administration Emergency Loan Program, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development assistance programs, or potential local assistance programs.

The Rochester Downtown Alliance will administer the grant.

"Our small-business community contributes so much energy, creativity, and uniqueness to both downtown and the wider Rochester community," RDA Executive Director Holly Masek said. "We are honored to be able to assist in this way, and we look forward to seeing how businesses step forward to help each other innovate and grow in response to the challenges posed by COVID-19."

More information about the grant is available on the RDA website at https://www.downtownrochestermn.com/get-involved/grant-opportunities. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis beginning April 17.

In addition to helping fund the grants, the city has dedicated $20,000 to increase the capacity of the local Small Business Development Center in an effort to assist businesses applying for government aid, adapting existing business plans, and managing decreases in demand for products or services.

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"Economic Stability Team members are hearing from the business community that assistance in navigating through the various federal and state and programs is needed," Rochester Assistant City Administrator Terry Spaeth said.

The Economic Stability Team includes representatives from the city, Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce, Rochester Area Economic Development, Olmsted County, DMC EDA and RDA.
Highest court overturns conviction of former Vatican treasurer for sexual assault of two teenage boys in 1990s.

Canberra, Australia  Australias highest court on Tuesday quashed Cardinal George Pells convictions for child sexual assault paving the way for the 78-year-old to be released from prison, a decision experts warned could further undermine survivors trust in the court system.

The judgement was read by Chief Justice Susan Kiefel to a near-empty High Court in Brisbane with only a handful of journalists and observers allowed inside due to coronavirus social distancing regulations.

In a modern touch, the court tweeted and published its decision, which was unanimous, online. The High Courts website crashed shortly after the judgement papers were uploaded.

Pell is expected to walk free later today from his jail cell in Victorias Barwon Prison, where his lawyers told him the news. The decision means there are no further avenues for this legal process, although new charges could be brought by other accusers.

Reasonable doubt

The High Court found that, based on the evidence put forward, the jury should have found that there was reasonable doubt as to Pells guilt.

There was a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof, the bench found.

A statement issued by Pell shortly after the judgement said that he had consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice.

My trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church, Pell added.

Advocates for survivors of abuse said they were shocked by the decision to let Pell free.

We naively didnt see it coming, we were confident that what was right would stand up in this case, said Rachael Burgin, a lecturer at Swinburne Law School and co-director of Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy Initiative (RASARA).





Today is a difficult day for survivors from across the board of sexual violence and gendered crime, Burgin told Al Jazeera.

Unfortunately, this decision justifies all the lack of trust survivors have in institutions. That impact will be far-reaching. People will be scared to report abuse.

Australias most senior member of the Catholic clergy, Pell was found guilty of two charges of sexual assault in December 2018. He was sentenced in March the following year to six years in prison with the decision later upheld by a three-judge panel in Victoria states Court of Appeal in a split 2-1 verdict.

Both of Pells alleged victims were 13-year-old choirboys when they were abused in the mid-1990s. Pell was the Archbishop of Melbourne at the time and has maintained his innocence.

Pell had previously described the allegations as a product of fantasy and absolute rubbish.

Victims left anxious

Pells legal team argued that the original judges hearing the case placed too much weight on the credibility of Pells accuser. They argued that testimony from multiple witnesses raised sufficient doubt about how the crimes could have taken place and that such evidence was downplayed by the Victorian court.

Senior Catholic figures who served alongside Pell at Melbournes St Patricks Cathedral where the crimes were alleged to have taken place, said in their testimony to the court that Pell would not have had sufficient time alone with the choirboys to abuse them.

Pell leaves the County Court in Melbourne last February after he was found guilty of child sex abuse. The convictions were overturned on Tuesday [Andy Brownbill/ AP Photo]

Pells accuser said he and the other choirboy were molested in the cathedrals sacristy, the room where priests prepare for services.

Additional allegations have long been circling the cardinal. Just this week, Australias national broadcaster ABC revealed that two more victims had come forward, saying Pell sexually abused them as boys in the 1970s.

Prosecution lawyer Christopher Boyce QC told the original hearing that the accuser was a very compelling witness.

He was clearly not a liar, he was not a fantasist, he was a witness of truth, Mr Boyce said.

Blue Knot Foundation Director Cathy Kezelman said that Pells case would leave survivors feeling anxious.

Pells conviction depended on the testimony of a single surviving victim, she said. For survivors, whats absolutely critical is being believed and having your experience validated  a finding [like this] that negates their own experience is fundamentally annihilating.

RASARAs Burgin added that although many Australian states and territories have revised or are in the process of revising their laws on sexual and gendered abuse, there remains much to be done.

What it tells us is that what weve been saying is correct  the system needs drastic reform and it needs it now, she said.

Judges dont seem to think critically enough about survivors evidence, and our courts dont give survivors evidence the same weight that they give anyone else. The courts just dont support us.
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci answers a question during a press conference about the CCP virus as Vice President Mike Pence (L), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma (2nd L), and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar (R) look on, at the White House in Washington on March 2, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Dr. Fauci: New York Data Suggests CCP Virus Turnaround

Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the Trump administration CCP virus task force members, said that new data from New York state shows positive signs in turning around the rise in COVID-19 cases.

Everybody who knows me knows that I am very conservative about making projections, but those are the kind of good signs that you look for, Fauci said during a televised Monday briefing at the White House, adding, Thats the first thing you see when you start to see the turnaround.

The number of hospitalizations and intensive care admissions appeared to be leveling off in New York, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier on Monday at a press conference. Fauci described those numbers as promising.

But Fauci, who serves as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Americans should be cautious and engage in social distancing measures recommended by the federal government and implemented by various state and local governments.

I dont think anyone has ever mitigated the way Im seeing people mitigate right now, he said in praising Americans.

Americans should still continue practicing social distancing, and other metropolitan areas could avoid the same fate as New York City in recent weeks, he said.

That tells meinstead of saying, Hmm, thats pretty goodits we got there through mitigation. We cut off the stream of people who, ultimately, required hospitalization, required intubation, required all of the kinds of extreme methods, he said.

There were nearly 11,000 deaths and more than 360,000 confirmed cases of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus in the United States as of late Monday night, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Tamil Nadu: Fishers oppose advancing of uniform fishing ban period

by D Vincent Arockiaraj

April 07,2020 | Source: The Times of India

The National Fish Workers Federation has demanded the state fisheries to withdraw its plan to enforce the uniform fishing ban between March 23 and May 23, instead of April 15 to June 15. Fishers fear that the change would affect the livelihood of traditional fishers on a large scale. Following the Covid-19 outbreak, the livelihood of marine fishers and their allied workers has been affected. The federation had already raised concerns on the Centres Covid-19 relief package which should be revised. At this juncture, it came to light that chief secretaries of fisheries in different states had proposed the union government to advance the uniform fishing ban period between March 23 and May 23, vice-president of the association RV Kumaravelu said.



We are grateful to the state fisheries secretaries for their concerns towards the welfare of fishers. However, their humanitarian concerns will dissolve our rights to well-being. If the ban is advanced, the rejuvenation of marine eco-system may not happen. Without announcing any relief package, they are trying to link this with the ban period relief. The disaster relief should be separate and should not be linked with any other existing relief packages, he added. Our concerns towards mechanised boat owners is that Covid-19 lockdown scenario had inflated price hike even for basic essential commodities. Hence, mechanized boat owners will face difficulty in repairing their boats. This will also impact the fish workers and allied sectors, he added.
Acting Pentagon Inspector General Glenn Fine (pictured) was ousted from his post Monday  demoting him back to his Senate-confirmed post as principal deputy inspector general at the Department of Defense

Donald Trump has fired the watchdog overseeing the implementation of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus economic relief package.

The president's decision to remove Glenn Fine from his role as acting Pentagon inspector general began circulating on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning.

He then named Environmental Protections Agency Inspector General Sean O'Donnell to monitor the coronavirus relief efforts as the temporary Pentagon watchdog in addition to his current role.

'Mr. Fine is no longer on the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee,' spokeswoman for the Pentagon inspector general's office, Dwrena Allen confirmed to Politico.

Instead, she added, Fine will return to his Senate-confirmed post as principal deputy inspector general at the Department of Defense.

By removing Fine from his post at the Pentagon, the president also ended his role overseeing implementing the stimulus package into law since only current inspector generals can fill that position.

Several Democrats have criticized Trump for his decision to remove Fine in the middle of him putting the $2.2 trillion CARES Act into effect to help stimulate the economy and relieve Americans affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

Trump's decision came as Fine was put in charge of implementing the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package into law

Instead, Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General Sean O'Donnell (pictured) will take over that role as acting Pentagon inspector general  on top of his currently duties

'President Trump is abusing the coronavirus pandemic to eliminate honest and independent public servants because they are willing to speak truth to power and because he is so clearly afraid of strong oversight,' Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer accused in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

'President Trump's corrupt action to sideline Acting Inspector General Glenn Fine, who was newly-appointed as chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, only strengthens Democrats' resolve to hold the administration accountable and enforce the multiple strict oversight provisions of the CARES Act,' he continued.

The president's decision also follows his late Friday night ousting of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, whose handling of the anonymous whistle-blower report last summer ultimately led to Trump's impeachment.

Trump has also issued a series of attacks against Health and Human Services Inspector General Christi Grimm, signaling she could be the next to go.

The criticism comes after a report from her office revealed widespread testing delays for coronavirus and supply issues at hospitals.

Donald Trump also fired Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson late Friday night. Atkinson's handling of the whistle-blower complaint last summer ultimately led to Trump's impeachment

Trump also launched criticism against Health and Human Services Inspector General Christi Grimm on Tuesday

'Why didn't the I.G., who spent 8 years with the Obama Administration (Did she Report on the failed H1N1 Swine Flu debacle where 17,000 people died?), want to talk to the Admirals, Generals, V.P. & others in charge, before doing her report,' Trump tweeted Tuesday.

'Another Fake Dossier!' he accused.

Grimm has been serving as a federal watchdog since 1999.

'Trump just fired the Inspector General overseeing the relief package. And threatened another who reported PPE shortages,' Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff tweeted, mentioning Fine's removal and the criticism of Grimm.

'Inspectors General are charged with doing independent oversight and exposing corruption,' the once lead Democrat of Trump's impeachment investigation continued. 'Their job is to uncover the truth. Exactly why Trump fears them.'
As the coronavirus pandemic threatens to strain nursing staffs at hospitals across the U.S., Melanie N. Beckham knows where to find reinforcements. But first, the Trump administration needs to give its approval.

Beckham, president of Vintage Health Resources Inc. in Germantown, Tennessee, specializes in helping hospitals throughout the southeastern U.S. hire nurses from the Philippines, a country with a large population of English speakers and a long history of sending health care workers abroad.

Of the several hundred Philippine recruits now in Vintage's application process, more than 100 nurses have passed the licensing and language exams. They've completed background checks and are ready to head to the U.S. Yet they are stuck because they can't get their visas processed.

"They could come tomorrow," Beckham said. "The demand is overwhelming right now."

Since President Donald Trump took office on a promise to crack down on immigration, nurses from the Philippines have faced more red tape. Officials return about 50% of Vintage's applications and demand additional paperwork, up from just 5% of applications during the Obama administration, Beckham said.

The issue is becoming more urgent by the day because of the spread of -19 cases throughout the U.S. At more than 104,000 infections, the country now has a higher tally than China and Italy.

"If nurses are infected and become sick, all of us are at greater risk," National Nurses United, a union with 150,000 members, said in a March 24 statement. "If we are sick, who will take care of patients in the face of this terrifying pandemic?"

Some of the hardest hit states are rushing to find reinforcements as their hospital staffs rapidly become overwhelmed. California Governor Gavin Newsom is considering a rule change to speed up licensing of nursing students and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is appealing for retired nurses to return to the workforce.

One staffing company has received a request for 5,000 nurses in New York, according to Shari Dingle Costantini, president of the American Association of International Healthcare Recruitment. Members of her association have as many as 12,000 nurses from the Philippines and other countries who could fill those jobs, if only they could enter the U.S., she said.

"We have the nurses with all the credentials and ready to come into the country but they can't because there are no visas," she said.

Even before the coronavirus outbreak, many hospitals across the U.S. didn't have enough nurses to care for patients.

America's not-for-profit hospitals were "experiencing an extreme nursing shortage," Moody's Investors Service said in a 2018 report, "and the added expense pressure and personnel issues will negatively affect hospital margins for at least the next three to four years."

Southern and western states, including Florida, Georgia, Texas and California, had the most severe problems. Several of those states -- including California -- have worsening shortages amid the virus.

The U.S. had about 3 million registered nurses in 2018 and the total will grow by more than 12% by 2028, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which cited an older population and the increasing rates of chronic conditions like diabetes and obesity as factors contributing to rising demand.

The Philippines could significantly ease the shortage, said Leo-Felix M. Jurado, chair of the Nursing Department at William Paterson University in New Jersey and a board member of the Philippine Nurses Association of America. There are about 150,000 nurses from the Philippines working in the U.S., he said, up from approximately 120,000 in 2013.

In 2019, about 5,100 people from the Philippines received the EB-3 visas commonly used for nurses, down by a third from 2015.

"It's absolutely been harder in the Trump administration to get people in," said Costantini, who is also CEO of Avant Healthcare Professionals, a recruiting company in Florida. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services "has been delaying and denying visa applications that were once easily approved."

A USCIS spokesman said visa wait times vary and that employers have the option to request an expedited application yet that overall processing times are lower compared to 2016.

The State Department appears to be opening the door a little. In a statement dated March 26, it encouraged medical professionals with approved visa petitions or certificates of eligibility in exchange visitor programs, "particularly those working to treat or mitigate the effects of -19," to seek a visa appointment at their nearest U.S. embassy.

One surgical nurse in Manila has waited for two years. The 32-year-old, who asked not to be identified because of concern about her visa status, earns about 30,000 pesos ($590) a month in the Philippines, not enough to support her family. She has had an offer to work at a U.S. hospital since 2018. Since submitting her paperwork, she has received multiple requests for more documentation.

As a nurse in a major public hospital, she spends her days caring for -19 patients, sometimes with limited protective equipment. She fears the pandemic will tighten health screening requirements and make the visa process even more complicated.

The U.S. isn't the only country where government policies are making it tough to fill nursing gaps. In the U.K., the Brexit vote in 2016 contributed to the loss of thousands of nurses from European Union countries.

"The number of EU nurses coming into the U.K. suddenly went off a cliff," said Michael Hodges, a managing director and health care specialist at London-based Christie & Co.

Now the pandemic is hurting British recruiters' ability to tap countries such as the Philippines. Monica Felix, 32, who arrived in the U.K. on March 24, received her visa a day before the Philippine government announced a lockdown of Manila. Her trip to Britain included a layover in Dubai, two days before the United Arab Emirates halted flights through the city. Her colleagues at home are worried their moves abroad will be delayed, she said.

"We're all anxious about what's happening around us," Felix said. "All of us know the possible consequences if we get this kind of dreaded disease."

The -19 crisis is also highlighting a nurses shortage in Australia, estimated to reach 85,000 by 2025 and 123,000 nurses by 2030.

Amid the pandemic, the Australian health regulator is easing licensing rules to get more health workers into the system quickly, including internationally qualified practitioners awaiting bridging visas. Prime Minister Scott Morrison also said the government will relax work restrictions for 20,000 international nursing students.

Back in the Philippines, the government wants to keep nurses in the country to help stem the virus outbreak there. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello has issued an order to strictly regulate the overseas deployment of Filipino health care workers until the pandemic is declared to be under control.

The Philippines lacks about 23,000 nurses, according to Rustico Jimenez, president of the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc., which has about 900 members. While local hospitals can't compete with salaries abroad, they will seek to compensate with such perks as free lodging and training programs, he said.

Still, nurses in the countryside make as little as 6,000 pesos a month, according to Leah Paquiz, founder of nursing advocacy group Ang Nars Inc., and many nurses at top hospitals make only 26,000 pesos.

"Despite our problems here, I don't ever tell nurses not to leave," she said. "How can we force them stay when we cannot afford to give them better living conditions?"
The latest:

White House, Congress look toward next relief package

Members of Congress and the White House are looking ahead toward another coronavirus rescue package, the Associated Press reports.

Last month President Trump signed a $2.2 trillion dollar stimulus package.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said an additional $1 trillion is needed.

According to the Associated Press, at his daily White House briefing, the president said, "We're going to take good care of our people. It was not their fault."

Wisconsin Supreme Court blocks governor's order to postpone primary election



Wisconsins Supreme Court blocked Democratic Gov. Tony Evers order to postpone Tuesdays election, despite his arguments that in-person voting could endanger poll workers and voters because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The court sided with Republicans who control the state legislature and opposed Evers executive order Monday that sought to delay the election until June 9. The decision was 4-2, with the courts conservative majority backing the GOPs position.

It was the latest twist in a legal battle that has thrown the primary into chaos as state and local elections officials have consolidated polling places and scrambled to find workers and supplies for those that will open.



US death toll eclipses 10,000



In just six weeks, the U.S. death toll from coronavirus went from zero to more than 10,000.

That grim milestone was reached Monday, shortly after officials warned this will be the toughest week yet in the pandemic.

Michigan hospitals are three to six days away from running out of critical supplies, the governor said.

Mortuaries in New Orleans are already out of space, and the mayor said she needs help getting more refrigeration.

And New York, New Jersey and Detroit will see peaks in hospitalizations and deaths this week, a US Health and Human Services assistant secretary said.

Other U.S. cities will experience their own peaks in the coming weeks, Dr. Brett Giroir told NBC's "Today" show. He said the peaks reflect infections that occurred two or three weeks ago.

"We may be seeing the worst upon us right now in terms of outcomes," Giroir said.

There could be many more deaths from coronavirus than we realize, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Some "may be misclassified as pneumonia deaths in the absence of positive test results," the CDC said.

"We really are just seeing the tip of the iceberg, and a lot of it has to do with the tests we have available," said Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, a critical care physician at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.

Yet there are also signs of progress. More Americans are finding creative ways to help. And in the U.S. epicenter of coronavirus, New York City, the worst of the pandemic might be over soon.

Officials have cautioned that the week ahead will be a grim one, bringing more cases and deaths. The U.S. surgeon general said it will be the "hardest and the saddest" week many Americans have ever faced.

"I want Americans to understand that as hard as this week is going to be, there is a light at the end of the tunnel," U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Jerome Adams said on "Fox News Sunday."



He described the week ahead as a "Pearl Harbor moment" and a "9/11 moment."

British prime minister moved to intensive care

One day after being hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been taken to an intensive care unit after his condition worsened.

Johnson is in intensive care at St Thomas Hospital, in London, 10 Downing Street said.

Downing Street said Foreign Secretary Dominic Rabb will fill in for Johnson while he is in the ICU.

"The PM is receiving excellent care and thanks all NHS staff for their hard work and dedication," according to a statement from Johnson's office.

Johnson was admitted to the hospital on Sunday because he was still exhibiting symptoms 10 days after testing positive for the virus.

New York reports drop in deaths

Still, the weekend brought some promising news in New York, the state reporting the most cases and deaths.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported a drop in the daily number of reported deaths in the state on Sunday for the first time in days. He also said ICU admissions and daily intubations were down and the hospital discharge rate was "way up."

But Cuomo cautioned that it is still too soon to determine if the trend will hold, calling the developments "a few signs that are a little hopeful" that the state is approaching its peak in cases and will begin to plateau.

Across the country, state leaders are still scrambling to pull together enough resources to battle the outbreak.

The coroner's office and mortuaries in New Orleans have reached their limit, said Mayor LaToya Cantrell. She's asked the federal government for additional refrigeration. The city is also responding to the influx of patients by converting its convention center into an emergency hospital set to open Monday.

There were more than 13,000 reported cases of coronavirus and 477 deaths in Louisiana early Monday.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Sunday his state could run out of ventilators by the end of the week if cases continue to surge.

Hard hit Pennsylvania saw an increase of 1,494 cases Sunday, the governor's office said, bringing the statewide total to more than 11,500. New Jersey reported another 3,482 cases on Sunday for a total of 37,505. At least 917 people have died in the state, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's office said.

Religious holidays threaten social distancing

This week is Holy Week in the Christian faith, leading up to Easter. And with the Jewish holiday of Passover beginning Wednesday evening and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan later this month, those urging social distancing are warning against gatherings that go against coronavirus guidance.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh at a press conference Sunday urged worshipers to stay home this holiday.

"I know it's a very difficult thing, as a Catholic, Easter Sunday for me next week, Palm Sunday today," Walsh said. "But that is not what we need right now. We need prayers right now, that's what we need."

Many states have made exemptions from stay at home orders for religious gatherings. And even in states that haven't, some church leaders are still holding service.

Rev. Tony Spell of Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was charged last week with violating the state's ban and Sunday he gathered again with 1,200 people.

"We don't get our rights to worship freely from the government. We get those from God," Spell said Sunday. "We'd rather obey God than man."

Other institutions are holding services virtually to maintain safety and spiritual connection.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez on Sunday thanked religious leaders who held services online, calling it the "safest way to keep us all connected."

Distributing help to hotspots

Under the weight of the pandemic, individuals and officials are seeking innovative ways to help those most affected.

The Department of Veterans Affairs will open more than 1,500 beds for civilians at hospitals in multiple states to alleviate the burden on hospitals under siege from coronavirus, according to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie.

Aid from the VA will be distributed in New York, New Jersey, Louisiana, Michigan and Massachusetts.

Related video: First look at coronavirus field hospital at Boston Convention and Exhibition Center

Californians are wearing homemade masks to avoid buying the medical masks needed at hospitals that are low on supplies. President Donald Trump on Friday announced guidance that Americans wear face coverings.

Elsewhere, additional personnel, hospital beds and medical equipment are being brought in with the hope of relieving the growing strain on medical workers like Dr. Sneha Topgi, who works in an emergency department in Brooklyn.

She describes an emergency room where it seems almost every patient, no matter what they originally came in for, is found to have coronavirus and where medical professionals are maneuvering through hallways where patients are put in beds and stretchers.

Staff writes their name on the body-covering personal protective equipment they wear so patients have some sense of connection with the people treating them.

"I think we're still at the beginning and I am scared. I'm scared for myself and I'm scared for everyone in general."
Note: This livestream ended on April 22, 2020.

Bored at home? Binged everything on Netflix? What better pandemic pastime could there possibly be than watching the 10 ring-tailed lemurs of the Toronto Zoo live their lives happily oblivious to the disruption that has reshaped ours.

You might see: lemurs eating fruit and plants; lemurs sunbathing; lemurs communicating with other lemurs through silly lemur facial expressions. You might jealously watch as these primates, as social as we are, hang out with their friends. The males, when not being bossed around by the females, will also sometimes engage in stink fights, in which they release a stink from their stink glands and then wave their tails to spread the odour. Watch long enough and you might even hit the jackpot: Leroy the lemur or one of his crew waging a stink fight against an offended tortoise or poor Huckleberry, the crane.

Ring tailed lemurs on display at the Toronto Zoo in Toronto. April 3, 2020.
This week, Fred Meyer began limiting the number of customers its allowing in stores at any given time, joining a long list of Portland-area grocery stores that are making efforts to prevent overcrowding and encourage social distancing during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

As grocery stores have seen long lines of shoppers stocking up on essentials, many have reduced hours to give employees more time to restock shelves and deep-clean heavily trafficked parts of stores. Some stores have installed plexiglass barriers at checkout lines to protect cashiers, and many stores are requiring employees to wear face masks and gloves.

CORONAVIRUS IN OREGON: THE LATEST NEWS

Grocers have been urging customers to buy only what they need, and some are limiting purchase numbers for some of the most sought-after items, such as toilet paper, facial tissue, cold and flu products, and cleaning supplies. And some stores are letting customers know that they wont accept returns on over-purchased items, in an effort to stop hoarding of some items.

Heres the latest on what some grocery stores are doing in response to coronavirus:

Costco: Costco is currently closing its warehouses at 6:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, and at 6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Gas stations will now close at 7 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 6:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Costco will open from 8 to 9 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday for members ages 60 and older, and for those with physical impairments. Previously, Costco began limiting purchase amounts for in-demand products, and began posting notices at store entryways about sold-out products. In an effort to prevent hoarding, Costco has announced that it will not accept returns on toilet paper, bottled water, sanitizing wipes, paper towels, rice, and disinfecting spray. Food court menus have been scaled back to limited items. The store has also posted signs cautioning shoppers about maintaining social distancing. Previously, Costco announced that it would eliminate food samples in warehouses.

Food 4 Less: Parent company Kroger is limiting Food 4 Less store hours to 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. to give employees more time to clean and restock stores. Additionally, it is open exclusively for senior shopper at 6-7 a.m. daily.

Fred Meyer: On April 7, Fred Meyer began limiting the number of customers it would allow in stores at any given time. Previously, parent company Kroger has reduced hours at Fred Meyer stores from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., giving employees more time to restock and clean. The store is reserving the first hour of business Mondays-Thursdays for seniors and other vulnerable shoppers, with stores opening for all customers at 8 a.m. on those days. Fred Meyer also is declining returns (including refunds, store credits and product exchanges) out of safety concerns, with the exception of fresh produce, meat, seafood or deli product that doesnt meet the stores fresh standards.

Green Zebra Grocery: The stores four locations have updated hours to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with high-risk population shopping hours from 7 to 8 a.m. daily. The grocer also has suspended self-serve salad bars and hot- and cold-food bars.

Grocery Outlet: Because stores are locally owned, Grocery Outlet hasnt announced overall changes beyond making hand sanitizers and cleansing wipes more available. It is recommending that customers check with their local stores for updated hours of operation.

Market of Choice: Store hours have been changed to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. until further notice, with special hours for vulnerable shoppers from 7 to 8 a.m. Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The store is limiting purchases of high-demand items, with signs indicating which products have limits. Customers who bring reusable grocery bags are being asked to bag their items. To prevent hoarding, the store is not accepting returns or offering refunds. Use of personal, reusable containers has been suspended in all departments. Food demos and sampling have also been suspended.

Natural Grocers: Natural Grocers is now closing stores at 8:05 p.m. to allow employees to do more cleaning. The store is also setting aside 9-10 a.m. Sundays and 8-9 a.m. Wednesdays for seniors, pregnant women, and other vulnerable customers. The store has stopped nutrition classes, food demonstrations, sampling, and has closed its on-tap Kombucha stations.

New Seasons Markets: New Seasons changed its hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. until further notice. The store suspended food samples, and is no longer allowing customers to use reusable bags. New Seasons also extended senior discount days to Monday through Friday to allow older customers to spread out their grocery shopping, and now is reserving 8-9 a.m. for senior shoppers, encouraging other customers to shop later. New Seasons has instituted store capacity limits, and asks shoppers to a social distance of 6 feet between themselves and other shoppers, and to limit store visits to no more than 30 minutes. Other changes include managing the flow of traffic, added in-store signage to help demonstrate a healthy distance at checkout and service counters.

Providore Fine Foods: The Northeast specialty market is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily except Tuesdays, when they are closed. Providore is limiting entrance to the store to 5 customers at a time. The store is also offering parking lot pickup and limited delivery.

Safeway/Albertsons: Albertsons Companies, which owns Safeway, announced that it would limit quantities of high-demand items like hand sanitizer and household cleaners. It also is increasing the cleaning of high-touch points, such as checkout lines. And Safeway/Albertsons said it would set aside 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays for those most at risk in our communities. Later this week, the stores plan to implement one-way aisles to better facilitate traffic flow inside stores, and next week it will begin limiting access to the store to avoid crowding.

Target: Target is closing all stores at 9 p.m. to allow more time for restocking and cleaning, and is monitoring the number of customers in stores, limiting access at times to prevent over-crowding. Also, Target began reserving the first hour of shopping each Wednesday at stores nationwide for vulnerable guests  including elderly and those with underlying health concerns. It already increased efforts to clean surfaces such as checkout lanes and touch screens at least every 30 minutes. It also is placing sales limits on products like hand sanitizer, toilet paper and bottled water. On March 25, Target announced that it would stop accepting in-store product returns and exchanges for at least three weeks. And it is asking customers who use reusable bags to bag their own items.

Trader Joes: Trader Joes has cut hours from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. until further notice. Previously, the company announced that it would be eliminating food and drink samples, and was encouraging employees to practice proper personal hygiene. Trader Joes is offering a special shopping hour between 8 and 9 a.m. for senior customers over 60 and disabled customers.

Walmart: Walmart has cut store hours at its regular and Neighborhood Market stores to 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. until further notice to improve cleaning and restocking efforts. On Tuesdays, it is offering a special shopping hour for seniors from 6 to 7 a.m. on Tuesdays. The store is also limiting purchases on high-demand items, including paper products, cleaners, and eggs.

Whole Foods: Whole Foods has reduced store hours to 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. for most locations. The grocery also suspended food samples and demonstrations, and is increasing its number of hand sanitizer stations. At its coffee stands, Whole Foods is no longer allowing reusable cups. Whole Foods also is allowing shoppers over age 60 to shop an hour before stores regularly open.

WinCo Foods: WinCo has reduced store hours to 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. (opening at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays) to give employees more time to clean and restock. It also is allowing early shopping from 6 to 7:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays for seniors, vulnerable shoppers and employees. WinCo also has closed its bulk foods sections, as well as its olive and soup bars. In an effort to stop the hoarding of some products, WinCo announced that it would not accept returns on products over-purchased in relation to the coronavirus pandemic. This includes, but is not limited to, bottled water, toilet paper, cold medicine, canned goods, and antibacterial products.

Zupans Markets: Hours have been modified to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to accommodate cleaning and restocking. There is increased cleaning of checkout stands and shopping carts. Salad and poke bars have been closed, and food samples have been eliminated. Deli counters are increasing the availability of grab-and-go meals. Coffee stands have eliminated personal cups. Zupans has added a senior and immune-comprised early shopping hour on Mondays and Thursdays from 7 to 8 a.m.

-- Grant Butler

gbutler@oregonian.com

503-221-8566; @grantbutler

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Religious centres and public places having potential to attract large gatherings will remain under close watch irrespective of whether the government extends the 21-day lockdown or not, official sources said on Tuesday.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) tasked with monitoring the overall situation in the country arising out of the coronavirus pandemic.

The GoM also briefly discussed possible scenarios after April 14, when the current spell of the lockdown will come to an end.

It recommended measures to enhance testing facilities for coronavirus infection in medical laboratories, the sources said.

Opposition leaders as well as leading healthcare experts have been pressing the government to ramp up infrastructure to increase coronavirus tests across the country to have a realistic assessment of the situation arising out of the pandemic in India.

The meeting was chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and attended by several key members of the Union Cabinet including Home Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Railways Minister Piyush Goyaland Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

The GoM also recommend monitoring of the public places like religious centres and malls through surveillance drones, the sources said, adding they will not be allowed to resume normal functioning anytime soon.

Thousands of Tablighi Jamaat members gathered at its headquarters in Nizamuddin last month, ignoring warnings by the government against large gatherings.

A number of people who attended the congregation were found to be having coronavirus infection.

A sizeable number of people among them travelled to different states, spreading the infection of the virus.

Hundreds of people were evicted from the headquarters of Tablighi in Nizamuddin.

According to official figures, India has recorded a total of 4,421 positive cases of coronavirus and 117 deaths.

The GoM also expressed gratitude to thousands of health professionals, security personnel and countless others involved in ensuring smooth operation of essential services and supply chain of food and medicines since the 21-day lockdown came into force on the midnight of March 24, the sources said.

The GoM also appreciated the decision of Union Cabinet to suspend the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) for two years to facilitate additional resources to fight the pandemic.

The ministers were briefed that supply of essential goods was continuing smoothly and no concerns were reported in this regard, the sources said.

Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani and Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat were also among those who attended the meeting.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A sense of death stalking the hospital ward, fear of dying alone, tearful despair and disarray at home, solitude, anger and the desire to share, or change their life: 12 people from different parts of the world who have survived COVID-19 share emotional and harrowing stories of the pain and fear after catching the virus: - A painful 'roller coaster' - With no pre-existing health conditions, South Korean engineering professor Park Hyun, 47, said he'd originally thought the coronavirus was "not my problem", until he developed symptoms and ended up in intensive care in the southern city of Busan. It had started with a dry cough and sore throat, he said, followed a few days later by a shortness of breath so severe he fainted while waiting for a hospital coronavirus test. It came back positive and he was admitted to hospital where his condition fluctuated wildly every day and several times he thought he would die. "It was like a roller coaster," he said. "I was feeling like there is a thick plate pressuring my chest and also needles poking my chest." Some of his symptoms may have been the side effects of his treatment, he believes. But after eight days and two negative tests, he was discharged. "I had a very bad situation," Park said. Whenever his condition was slightly better "I was thinking that might be my last time where I can write something in my life," he added. "So I tried to write something short on Facebook to share with friends." - 'Death prowls' the ward - Cardiologist Fabio Biferali spent eight days "isolated from the world" at Rome's Policlinico Umberto I hospital in an orthodontics department that had been converted into an intensive care unit. Describing the pain he felt as "strange", the 65-year-old said it almost resembled having a little monkey on his back, just like one of his patients had described it to him. Oxygen therapy is painful and finding a radial artery is difficult, he said. "They would do it up to twice a day. Being a doctor helped me bear the pain. Other patients would desperately shout 'enough' 'enough'." The hardest part were the nights, alone with his fears. "I couldn't sleep, anxiety invaded the room... nightmares came, death prowled," he said. "I was afraid of dying without being able to cling on to the hands of my family and friends, despair overcame me." While medical staff were covered head to toe in protective gear, Biferali said he found some solace in being able to see their "affectionate" eyes behind the glass masks and hear their voices. "Many were young, doctors on the front line. It was a moment of hope." - Going to 'gate of hell and back' - Wan Chunhui, 44, said he was "terrified" at first but that going to the "gate of hell" and coming back to survive the virus had transformed his outlook on life. "I think the biggest change for me is that my way of looking at things is different now," said Wan, who spent 17 days at the makeshift Huoshenshan Hospital in the Chinese city of Wuhan, in central Hubei province, where the outbreak began. "I feel really calm about everything, really calm... I went to the gate of hell and came back. I saw with my own eyes that others failed to recover and died, which has had a big impact on me." He had initially isolated himself to protect his family after getting a temperature, but, still feverish a couple of days later, he walked an hour to hospital. Tests were not available but he was prescribed antibiotics and flu medication and asked to quarantine himself at home due to a hospital bed shortage. "I was terrified at first," he said. "But I went back home, switched to a positive mood, and braced myself for the situation. Anyway its pointless to panic," Wan told AFP. The 44-year-old investor and married father of a nine-year-old daughter already suffered from high blood pressure before the virus. At home, he began recording his illness in an online diary, but a bad cough set in and he was admitted to hospital. Hormone therapy helped lower his temperature, although he remained short of breath, but medical supplies were scarce, Wan said, and healthcare workers wore poor-quality protective suits and rubbish bags as shoe covers. Wan was transferred to one of the two field hospitals built for virus sufferers in Wuhan, a well-supplied centre, he said, where he was treated mostly with Western medicines. - Keeping the faith - Song Myung-hee, 72, was afraid of dying alone after being infected during a service at the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the southern city of Daegu, a secretive religious group at the centre of South Korea's coronavirus outbreak. She was at the same event as the woman known as Patient 31, a 61-year-old who attended four services before being diagnosed with the virus. Song was quarantined at home as a precaution but remained asymptomatic for several days before the virus struck suddenly with a severe cough. "I could not sleep at all," she told AFP. "It lasted for two days. I had to hold a plastic bag at all times because I kept on coughing up phlegm. "Then my face started swelling. I was scared I might die alone." Facing an influx, no hospital beds were available at the time in Daegu, so she was taken to Seongnam, 220 kilometres (137 miles) away. "I was relieved when I entered the hospital room -- because at least there, I knew I wouldn't have died alone," she said. The Shincheonji Church leader has apologised over its role in the spread of the disease but, despite her family's pleas, Song is resolute about staying a member. "I'm never leaving my church, it doesn't matter what other people say." - Comes and goes in waves - "The best way to describe it is: when you are at a high altitude, you struggle to breathe," said Christine, 28, from South Africa, who suffers from syringomyelia, a disorder affecting the spinal cord. Two days after being in contact with a sick work colleague, the analyst said she felt the first symptoms and COVID-19 was confirmed. Her partner, lawyer Dawie, 30, could not take the test because "the system was already under a lot of pressure" but within a few days had the same symptoms. Self-isolated, the couple who did not wish for their full names to be published, continue to work from home. Sometimes they wondered if they were overreacting because some days they felt fine, Dawie said. "Within days, it fluctuates. You get chilled and later on you feel better...The worst for me was last week... I was really short of breath... I called my doctor. She told me to look at the signs showing that I am not getting enough oxygen. "You should look at your fingernails if they turn blue," he said. - Despairing at home - French housewife and mother-of-three Djemila Kerrouche said the worst part was the challenge her three children faced continuing their school work while confined at home. After developing symptoms, she wore gloves and a mask at home and didn't touch food, she said, but two of the children -- who are aged six, 11 and 19 -- were already coughing. "My children put themselves under great pressure, they want to succeed at school," said the 47-year-old from Mulhouse in eastern France, which has been badly hit by the pandemic. "Their teachers give them work as if the situation were normal," she said. "The big one is preparing for her bac (end of secondary school exam) and I see her cry when she can't manage and I can't hold her in my arms, console her, help her." "My moral is rock bottom. I can't stop crying..." - Shock and solitude - Marisol San Roman, a sociologist and student from Argentina, said she was shocked to find she had the virus and described the "total solitude" of being infected. She is thought to have caught COVID-19 at a farewell dinner in Madrid after the closure of the Instituto de Empresa business school where she was studying, before returning home to Argentina. "I'm 25, I'm young, I'm in good health -- it's mad," she said, expressing her shock. Her 65-year-old father with whom she lives avoided her, leaving her food at the door of her room. On her own, she treated a lung infection and gauged the oxygen saturation rate in her blood. "Coronavirus is an illness which is lived in solitude, in total solitude," she said. Her case went viral after she gave Skype interviews to the media, and she said she received several insults via social media for having returned to the country when she was carrying the virus. She has tried to stop the stigmatisation associated with having it, she said. On her instagram account she writes of wanting to be a kind of social conscience, warning people to be aware, that "this isn't a joke, being young doesn't immunise you against anything and that the coronavirus isn't flu". - Sharing our experience with others - Entrepreneurs Julia, 27, and Megan, 35, wanted to share what they went through to help others after being among the 50 first cases recorded in South Africa. They caught the virus, with three other family members, on a ski trip to Switzerland, probably in a bar. The two women, who didn't want their full names published, are behind the @livingcoronapositive instagram account, which documents their recovery, responds to questions and aims to "bring some light and positivity to this dark time". They all experienced different versions of the symptoms; some mild, others lasted a week, they said. On testing, they said, "having a large earbud stuck down the back of your nose is not pleasant but it's quick". And their advice, said Megan, is to remember that "stress, anxiety and panic are normal human reactions to something as massive and unknown as this pandemic! So please be kind to your loved ones who feel out-of-control. They need your love and reassurance." - Anger - Frenchman Charlie Barres, 29, works in hospitals in his job as a physical educator and worries about the added strain the pandemic is putting on the health system. "Warnings about the state of the system don't date from yesterday. Not so long ago, the caregivers were on strike... And now, it's blowing up. At the same time, we're on a disaster footing in hospitals," he said. Married and with a two-year-old son, he was confined at his Paris home after the disease began with chills and a sore throat. A doctor diagnosed him. "The tests are expensive and they keep them for the complex cases," he said. After two days of feeling bad, he began to improve gradually. His son has been ill and his wife suffered headaches and a bad throat, he said. - Patient zero - Thirty-three year-old Lorena's aunt was Ecuador's "patient zero", who had returned from holiday in Spain to a family welcome home party with about 30 people in late February in the southwestern city of Babahoyo. "Already on her arrival she wasn't well... She told us she had felt feverish during the trip and that a lot of people were coughing" on the plane, Lorena, a teacher, said. Her 71-year-old aunt was hospitalised in Guayaquil, the epicentre of Ecuador's outbreak, and the virus was confirmed a week later. When the family, themselves isolated and tested, then saw now former health minister Catalina Andramuno announce five coronavirus cases during a press conference on TV, they realised "it was us!', Lorena said. Her aunt later died, and a dozen family members were infected, including Lorena, who has now recovered. burs-dp/kjm/txw
Compiled from articles published April 7-9 in The Sydney Morning Herald and Sun

At The Horse Fair To Buy Or look

There were a lot of horses at the opening of the yearling sales at the Newmarket stables, Randwick, today, also a lot of people, although more came to have a look than to buy a horse.

Most colorful character was restaurateur, Azzelln Romano, sartorially bright in a herring

bone sportscoat, navy check trousers and a bow tie.

Hardly room to swing a cat... buyers at the yearling sale on 8 April 1947. Credit:Baden Mullaney

He carried a light grey felt fedora and smoked a large-bowled pipe In place of his usual

cigar.
As part of the measures to ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians during coronavirus pandemic, the federal government has approved the release of 70,000 metric tons of grains from the strategic grains reserve to the masses.

Boss Mustapha, the chairperson of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19, said this on Tuesday during a press briefing in Lagos.

Seventy thousand metric tons of grain is about 70 million kilogrammes or 1.4 million units of 50kg bags of different grains.

Mr Mustapha said about 6,800 of the 70,000 metric tons of grains will be distributed in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja, while the rest will be distributed to the 13 frontline states that have recorded cases of the COVID-19 disease.

The chairperson, alongside members of the taskforce inspected the isolation facilities at Onikan Stadium, Mainland Infectious Disease Hospital, Lagos University Teaching Hospital and Gbagada General Hospital.

On behalf of Mr. President, I wish to commend the government of Lagos State for magnificently controlling the pandemic and for putting in place isolation centres, ICU facilities as well as establishing a wide network of contact tracing, Mr Mustapha said.

In recognition of the impact of the lockdown order on the poor, physically-challenged, the elderly and the vulnerable, Mr. President approved the release of 70,000 metric tons of grains from the strategic grains reserve.

READ ALSO:

Out of this, about 6,800 will be distributed in Lagos, Ogun and FCT while the rest will be distributed to the 13 frontline states that have recorded cases of the COVID-19 disease. I assure you that the distribution of the Lagos State share will commence shortly.

Mr Mustapha said COVID-19 being a global pandemic has disrupted healthcare system in low and middle-income countries, and Nigerias economy has also been adversely affected.

He stressed that the relief material will be distributed to the most vulnerable in the society such as the poor, elderly and physically-challenged persons.

In appreciation of all the efforts of the Lagos State Government and the burden the state is carrying, Mr. President approved the sum of N10 billion as support for fighting the virus.

The Federal Government in addition to the donation above, allocated to Lagos the lion-share of the PPEs (facemask, face shield and overall gowns) donated to Nigeria by a Chinese philanthropist, Mr. Jac Ma. A few days ago, my office authorised the deployment on loan, of 25 Hilux vehicles from INEC, to Lagos State to support contact tracing, he said.

Mr Mustapha said the nation is at war with an unseen but very potent enemy, which requires participation from all citizens to defeat the enemy.

To win the war, we must abide by instructions to stay-at-home, maintain social distancing, personal hygiene and report all suspected cases to the designated health authorities, he said.
The upper layers in the atmospheres of gas giants -- Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune -- are hot, just like Earth's. But unlike Earth, the Sun is too far from these outer planets to account for the high temperatures. Their heat source has been one of the great mysteries of planetary

A new analysis of data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft finds a viable explanation for what's keeping the upper layers of Saturn, and possibly the other gas giants, so hot: auroras at the planet's north and south poles. Electric currents, triggered by interactions between solar winds and charged particles from Saturn's moons, spark the auroras and heat the upper atmosphere.

The recent study which was published in Nature Astronomy is the most complete mapping yet of both temperature and density of a gas giant's upper atmosphere -- a region that has, in general, been poorly understood.

By building a complete picture of how heat circulates in the atmosphere, scientists are better able to understand how auroral electric currents heat the upper layers of Saturn's atmosphere and drive winds. The global wind system can distribute this energy, which is initially deposited near the poles, toward the equatorial regions, heating them to twice the temperatures expected from the Sun's heating alone.

"The results are vital to our general understanding of planetary upper atmospheres and are an important part of Cassini's legacy," said author Tommi Koskinen, a member of Cassini's Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) team.

"They help address the question of why the uppermost part of the atmosphere is so hot while the rest of the atmosphere -- due to the large distance from the Sun -- is cold," Koskinen added.

Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Cassini was an orbiter that observed Saturn for more than 13 years before exhausting its fuel supply. The mission plunged it into the planet's atmosphere in September 2017, in part to protect its moon Enceladus, which Cassini discovered might hold conditions suitable for life. But before its plunge, Cassini performed 22 ultra-close orbits of Saturn, a final tour called the Grand Finale.

It was during the Grand Finale that the key data was collected for the new temperature map of Saturn's atmosphere. For six weeks, Cassini targeted several bright stars in the constellations of Orion and Canis Major as they passed behind Saturn. As the spacecraft observed the stars rise and set behind the giant planet, scientists analyzed how the starlight changed as it passed through the atmosphere.

Measuring the density of the atmosphere gave scientists the information they needed to find the temperatures. (Density decreases with altitude, and the rate of decrease depends on temperature.) They found that temperatures peak near the auroras, indicating that auroral electric currents heat the upper atmosphere.

And both density and temperature measurements together helped scientists figure out wind speeds. Understanding Saturn's upper atmosphere, where planet meets space, is key to understanding space weather, and its impact on other planets in our solar system and exoplanets around other stars.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The WhatsApp logo seen displayed on a smartphone with a computer model of the COVID-19 coronavirus in the background.

WhatsApp is tightening its limits on message forwarding even further, in a bid to stem the spread of misinformation amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Facebook-owned messaging app is expanding on global measures it put in place last year which restricted the number of times people could pass on frequently forwarded messages to five chats at once.

The company has now reduced the amount of chats to which users can share frequently forwarded content to just one at a time. It announced the new changes in a blog post Tuesday.

"We know many users forward helpful information, as well as funny videos, memes, and reflections or prayers they find meaningful," said WhatsApp. "In recent weeks, people have also used WhatsApp to organize public moments of support for frontline health workers."

"However, we've seen a significant increase in the amount of forwarding which users have told us can feel overwhelming and can contribute to the spread of misinformation. We believe it's important to slow the spread of these messages down to keep WhatsApp a place for personal conversation."

It comes after bogus conspiracy theories linking 5G mobile networks with COVID-19 appeared to inspire people to set fire to cell phone masts in the U.K. Facebook told CNBC on Monday that it's started deleting content encouraging attacks on cellular towers and 5G masts.

The attacks resulted in the U.K. government urging social media platforms to take action to combat the spread of such false claims. British Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden is due to meet with tech companies this week to grill them on 5G and coronavirus-related misinformation. CNBC understands that Facebook is set to attend the meeting.
Two policemen in Chhattisgarh's



Raigarh district have been moving around streets wearing coronavirus-themed outfits to make people aware about the lethality of the disease and urging them to strictly follow the prescribed guidelines to stay protected.

To make people aware about the severity of the viral infection, they laugh like devils and call themselves "corona demon".

They have been going around the town wearing red body suits with coronavirus-like spikes on it, and warning those violating the lockdown protocol.

The policemen have been repeatedly telling people that if they unnecessarily step out of their houses, they may carry the virus back home along with them.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus, police personnel in parts of the country have been coming up with novel ideas to spread information about the deadly viral infection and urging people to follow the lockdown and social distancing properly.

"We introduced the idea because innovations bring a significant change in law enforcement. Everyday, we try to incorporate new ideas to create awareness about coronavirus and encourage people to follow the lockdown for the safety of all," Raigarh Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh told PTI.

He said the two policemen, who have come up with the innovative coronavirus-themed outfit, have been urging people to maintain social distancing and avoid gatherings.

"The police personnel have also been advised to take care of their personal hygiene and social distancing when they return home from field duty," he said.

So far, there is no coronavirus case in Raigarh, but 4,986 people are kept under home quarantine as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the infection.

Most of these people have either travelled to foreign countries or other coronavirus affected states in India in the last one month.

Of the 10 COVID-19 patients reported so far in Chhattisgarh, nine have been discharged from hospitals after recovery.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7

By Jeyhun Alakbarov - Trend:

Up until now, Azerbaijan has been importing medical masks, however, with the launch of new local enterprise for manufacturing the masks domestically, we will be able to provide for ourselves without imports, Deputy Minister of Economy Niyazi Safarov said at a press tour at the enterprise for the production of medical masks, Trend reports on April 7.

Necessary equipment and raw materials were purchased for the enterprise within two weeks. The enterprise produces medical alcohol and disinfectants, said the deputy minister.

Safarov added that the investment cost of creating the enterprise is 3.9 million manat ($2.2 million).

Special boxes for packaging medical masks are also locally produced. They are manufactured at the enterprise, which is a resident of the Balakhani Industrial Park. The company created more than 30 new jobs, he noted.

The company will initially produce 120,000 of medical masks daily.
*UPDATED: A previous version of this post included information that has been updated and changed.

As families, educators, and community leaders wrestle with COVID-19, well be trying to bring conversations to readers that will be helpful in confronting the challenge.

Julia Rafal-Baer is the chief operating officer of Chiefs for Change , a nonprofit advocacy group whose members lead education systems serving 14,000 schools. Previously, she was assistant commissioner of the New York state education department. I recently asked Julia about what shes hearing about how districts and states are handling the challenges of coronavirus.

Rick: Whats the biggest practical challenges that supes and state chiefs are dealing with right now that people might not be aware of?

Julia: Connectivity for all students. People recognize that with many school systems closing through the end of the year, online learning is vital. As our members grapple with improving upon their first versions of continuous learning plans, they are also determining which students they are reaching now and who they have yet to reach. The biggest challenge is getting students the technology they need to keep learning and so that families can stay connected to their schools and get the critical information they need. This post covers a number of the tech issues across our membership, but the short version is: In some of our chiefs districts, as little as 30 percent of students have a tablet, a laptop, or an internet connection for a meaningful learning experience. Many districts need both devices and internet access. Yet even in places where there are enough devices, its difficult to get students online. Telecommunications companies are taking steps to expand access to broadband and Wi-Fi networks by doing things like opening hotspots for public use and waiving installation fees for some service plans. Still, much more help is needed. One problem that were hearing about, for example, is that some companies require families to pay off any outstanding balance before they can get reconnected. That is solvable if the CEOs of Americas largest telecom companies suspend policies that keep families with school-age children from obtaining service.

Rick: How are they responding to this problem?

Julia: They see the urgency here and are making that investment a priority. Our members are responding in a number of different ways. As a first step, many districts had to find out what the needs actually are. In the Florida district of Palm Beach County, for example, Superintendent Donald Fennoy, started by asking families to fill out a technology survey asking if they have a device and internet access. In San Antonio, where our board chair, Pedro Martinez, is the superintendent, the district ordered 30,000 computers and more than 3,000 internet hotspots this week for students who dont have them and is hoping to pay for the devices with money from a bond thats expected to go before voters in November. In Guilford County, N.C., we also just issued a grant to Sharon Contreras from our COVID-19 Relief Fund that will allow Guilford County to turn 75 school buses into hotspots. The buses will park in different neighborhoods, so kids nearby have a way to get connected. In Miami, where future chief Mari Izquierdo is leading the academic strategy, her team acted with extraordinary speed to distribute laptops, tablets, and hotspots, while also building a help desk for families struggling to master the technology. By the second week of distance learning, they were seeing hundreds of thousands of logins. Districts like Palm Beach and Miami are showing the way, thanks to strong leadership and aided in part by their experiences with hurricane-driven emergency action. They are also acting fast to negotiate partnerships, ranging from content providers to conferencing technology, to deliver quality materials affordably.

Rick: What are a couple of the most useful measures youre seeing folks talk about or implement?

Julia: Well, the most important measure right now is attendancemeaning the proportion of kids who are able to get online and tell their teachers they are ready to learn that day. We are seeing our members working to ensure all students are seen by teachers and maintain 1:1 relationships so no student goes without a check-in. Phoenixs high school district under our member Chad Geston has launched an ambitious Every student, every day effort that is exactly what it sounds like: every kid in the district having a check-in with an adult, every day. Thats crucial for so many reasonsrelationships, academics, and physical and mental health. Obviously, its not the same as seeing each other in person, but its so important right now when thats not an option.

In Tennessee, our member and future chief alum, Penny Schwinn, understands that making up for lost time will be a multiyear effort that starts immediately. She is revisiting every element of her strategic plan to align with the needs for quality learning at a distance, for a more robust digital infrastructure, and for frequent checks to ensure students and adults are handling these enormous shifts emotionally as well as academically. She is working on plans now to develop her own statewide online tool that will provide a system for teachers to deliver content and remediation for small groups, participate in virtual professional development, and provide resources for families, including information on meal locations. *

Rick: What kinds of state or federal policies are making things trickier for schools and districts?

Julia: There are challenges in this moment with regulations that tie credits, completion, graduation, and higher education entry to seat time"the amount of time a child is physically in class. Another challenge is requirements for certifications that teachers and other educators cant complete, especially with residency requirements and realities of not being able to take exams. States need to quickly waive certification and testing requirements that impact hiring. The federal government has moved quickly on some important issues, including flexibility on school meal regulations, allowing schools and districts to distribute meals quickly. In addition, waiving regulations around testing and accountability and providing fast guidance on distance learning have been really helpful.

Funding is going to be a challenge and will require maximum flexibility for states and districts so districts can carry over major unspent portions of their budget. From the federal side, getting support around stretching carryover deadlines will be important and helpful. From a state side, supporting districts to ensure that unspent fundsthings like professional development, substitutes, transportation, etc., are flexible. There will be increased needs for students and major budget holes state by state that are going to have huge impacts on districts and their budgets, especially as we see more kids move into poverty status. Continued support and additional flexible funding to support students in the summer with remediation similar to Tennessees plan for a summer surge and a longer-term, multiyear academic effort will be critical.

Rick: What else should federal and state leaders be doing to help right now?

Julia: Getting the initial wave of stimulus funds to states and districts quickly is crucial. We urge governors to listen to their state and district education leaders. They are on the ground and have a true understanding of what their students, families, and schools need right now. Beyond that, Id say having flexibly emergency resourcesespecially for connectivity and devicesis key. And clearly, the sooner aid from a larger relief bill reaches families, the better. Those funds will help prevent traumatic events like evictionwhich can have a major impact on a childs education.

Rick: OK, last question. How are your folks thinking about reopening schools downstream?

Julia: Our members are working hard to create learning opportunities in this new digital world and are thinking about how to approach academic and remediation policy and implementation at scale. This is going to require new policy solutions as well as the implementation of evidence-based practices around summer learning loss. The decision to reopen school facilities is a public-health decision that is out of our hands. And students have to continue learning in spite of the uncertainty of that decision. Rethinking time and school calendars is front and center for our members, and continuing to improve upon who is reached and how to best support their learning needs is a consistent theme. Ultimately, school systems will have to reinvent a lot of their practice this fall, not just due to the slide in learning but also the enormous range of experiences and readiness students will bring when they finally return to school. Leaders will have to grapple with what is ambitious versus feasible. For example, the idea of an individual learning plan for each student is not newthese are required already for students with special needsbut are something all educators will essentially need to do in order to assess where each student stands and to make learning fit his or her actual needs. Many students will be entering schools in the fall 5-6 months after they were last in buildings. Creating an individual learning plan with student specific learning goals, social and emotional supports, and coordination with providers is one way to support all students who are each re-entering with such an extreme spectrum of needs. Our website has a curated landing page where we continue to share the latest materials and plans from our members.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
[April 07, 2020] Mastercard Commits $250 Million To Support Small Business' Financial Security

Our local main streets have been amongst the hardest hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. To help address this challenge, Mastercard today announced a commitment of $250 million over five years to support small businesses in the United States and other markets where we operate. The announcement came during the virtual America CARES Small Business Relief event hosted at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. As part of the commitment, the company will provide U.S. small business owners with access to necessary resources to help protect their business and their employees through free cyber vulnerability assessments and identity theft protection for the 28 million small businesses eligible to participate in the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program. Leveraging its data and insights, Mastercard will provide U.S. small business owners access to its Local Market Intelligence solution in order to help them understand consumer spending trends in their communities. "When our small businesses suffer our nation suffers, so it is incumbent upon all to ensure that we're supporting the businesses who are the lifeblood of our economy and pillars of our communities," said Michael Miebach, President of Mastercard. "We are leveraging our network, insights, technology and partnerships to deliver the resources small business owners need now to help them sustain their business as they quickly adapt to a new way of operating and evolved customer needs." In response to the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act, Mastercard committed to put $500 million toward inclusive growth and created the Mastercard Impact Fund. The company's $250 million commitment today includes financial, technology, product and insight asets to support the financial security and vitality of small businesses and their workers. This builds on the company's longstanding commitment to financial inclusion, having brought half a billion individuals into the financial system over the last few years.



Many small businesses are quickly moving their activities online and with this comes increased exposure to cyber threats. To address this, Mastercard will help small business owners understand the cyber vulnerabilities of their system. Based on an initial assessment, Mastercard will partner with them to prioritize the issues that need to be fixed first, with specific guidance on how to repair critical vulnerabilities. The company is also offering identity theft protection for both small business owners and their employees to help them navigate any potential attacks. To help small business owners pivot operations and drive more effective marketing and promotions, Mastercard is making its Local Market Intelligence insights solution available through banks and fintechs. The solution is accessible to any small business who accepts card payments; it provides insight into local retail sales patterns, leveraging Mastercard's anonymized data.

Both services will be offered at no cost for three months. "This crisis has been devastating to millions of small businesses, and I applaud the quick action by the Administration and private sector to provide assistance during this unprecedented time," said Hector Barreto, The Latino Coalition Chairman and former U.S. Small Business Administrator. "It's great to see companies like Mastercard leveraging their assets, technologies and reach to provide small businesses with tools that they need to secure their business and focus on their future. I hope this serves as inspiration for others to do the same." "The challenges facing small business owners right now are many, including keeping their business afloat while, in many instances, supporting their employees through this crisis," said Carolyn Rodz, Founder and CEO of Hello Alice. "If we're going to navigate this epidemic, we need fast-acting, decisive support from both the private and public sectors who act collaboratively in helping to solve these challenges. We're honored to be a part of Mastercard's ongoing work to support the small business community and even more so to see them stepping up when times are hardest to ensure that we all come through this stronger on the other side." These commitments compliment the ongoing work Mastercard has undertaken to deliver on the unique needs of small business owners. This includes access to day-to-day business management tools and solutions available to the millions of Mastercard small business cardholders through partnerships with Intuit, Salesforce and Microsoft (News - Alert). Expanded offerings with these partners are available to aid small business owners navigating through this crisis. Click here to learn more about Mastercard small business cardholder benefits. About Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005772/en/

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The Gujarat Police have arrested a Surat-based couple who assaulted a female doctor by raising suspicion that she may be coronavirus infected.

The couple, identified as Chetan and Bhavna Mehta, would ask the doctor, who works in a civil hospital, if she was infected with the virus and hurl abuses at her, said an official quoting the application given by the victim. The couple and the doctor live on the same floor, the police said.

Screenshot/Twitter

"Since the victim was not ready to file an FIR, Adajan police took her application and arrested Chetan and Bhavna Mehta under section 151 of CrPC. They will be produced in front of an executive magistrate who will grant them bail after obtaining an assurance of good behaviour," said Surat Assistant Commissioner of Police PL Chaudhari.

Dr Sanjibani Panigrahi, who is a psychiatrist by profession, and has been counselling hundreds of patients dealing with anxiety and other mental health related issues, made two videos on the harassment and shared it on social media on Sunday, and in one, Chetan Mehta, can be seen hurling abuses at the doctor and banging her door in anger.

In another video, the doctor said she was tormented with coronavirus taunts.

Doctor working in Surat Civil Hospital was harassed by her neighbour who abused her and also physically assaulted.



CM @vijayrupanibjp must take strict action.



Doctors already suffer due to lack of PPEs. Now they also are facing social isolation!pic.twitter.com/P31N3H6BMw  Srivatsa (@srivatsayb) April 6, 2020

"Two days ago, Chetan Mehta asked me if I am infected with the virus, as I work at the civil hospital. Then on Sunday, her wife falsely claimed my dog attacked her. Chetan abused me in front of others," she said.

"I was targeted just because I am a doctor at the civil hospital where coronavirus patients are treated," she said in her video.

Lady doctor working in Surat Civil Hospital was harrassed by her neighbours because they feared she could be infected with Covid19. Light as much candles or clap as much as you wish to, but don't do this to the doctors.@RiaRevealed @BhavikaKapoor5@avidandiya@Asifrahmanmolla pic.twitter.com/NJZTDtLEGM  Ranjan Tendulkar (@TendulkarRanjan) April 6, 2020

Surat police commissioner RB Brahmbhatt said strict action will be taken if healthcare workers are harassed for serving coronavirus patients.

Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women (NCW) took cognisance of the matter and has written to Shivanand Jha, IPS, Director General of Police, Gujarat to probe the matter. "NCW directs for a thorough investigation on the matter of the incident to be taken up immediately and also provide protection to the woman. A detailed action taken report be sent to NCW, the womens rights body said in a statement.
This is our way of survival. We have no option but to return to the streets. How come some people are going out to buy groceries. If we do not do this we will starve with our families, said the illegal currency dealer.
The country's leadership is seized of the way forward after April 14 when the three-week lockdown enforced to contain coronavirus comes to an end, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said on Tuesday, noting that considerations of health of people shall take precedence over those for the stabilisation of the economy.

Giving his assessment of the completion of two weeks of lockdown and the way forward, Naidu said that next week will be critical for deciding the exit from the restrictions in force from March 25. He said that the data regarding the extent and rate of spread of virus infection will have a bearing on the exit strategy.

"I am glad that the leadership including the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers have started consultations on the exit from the present lockdown. I am certain that they will come out with the best possible solution. Between the considerations of the health of the people and stabilisation of our economy being debated, the former shall take precedence over the later. In my view, while the concerns of the economy can wait for another day, that of health can't," he said.

Naidu expressed concern over Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month and said many new cases had links with the meeting, which upset expectations about arresting the spread of coronavirus.

"Amidst our collective efforts showing signals of success in arresting the spread of coronavirus came the Tablighi Jamaat congregation which had altered the nature of the curve with most of the newly infected cases emanating from this meet. The extent of participation in this congregation and it's multiplier effect has upset our expectations," he said.

Naidu said the "avoidable episode" highlighted the consequences of any slip concerning the rules of social and physical distancing. "In that sense, this avoidable aberration should only be seen as an eye-opener to all others," he said.

The Vice President said that the next week of the lockdown is very critical for evolving an exit strategy since data regarding the spread of the virus will have a bearing on the decision.

"I appeal to the people to abide by whatever decision is ultimately taken by the leadership and cooperate in the ongoing effort with the same spirit that has been evident even if it means to continue with some degree of hardship beyond April 14," he said.

The Vice President expressed confidence that the governments will ensure necessary relief and support to the poor and vulnerable sections. He said the people have so far demonstrated "a very high degree of resoluteness" in the true spirit of spirituality to collectively fight the challenge.

"Spirituality is all about annihilating one's own interests and striving for the good of all, guided by the principle of universality of humankind which is at the core of Indian ethos," Naidu said and referred to response of people to Janta Curfew and Prime Minister's appeal to light lamps, candles and use torches and mobile flashlights on April 5.

The Vice President said the global community needs to draw right lessons from the present crisis and deficiencies manifested in respect of the effectiveness of institutions, infrastructure, information sharing, internal cooperation and individual actions need to be rectified to effectively face the next imminent challenge.

"The duration of the fight against the virus may be uncertain at the moment but we shall triumph in the end," he said, adding that wisdom lies in minimising the cost to health and wealth of the people across the globe.

"India has shown the spirit to do so and this needs to be sustained till the end. Let's live with the hardship a little longer for a better tomorrow," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Even with $13.5 billion in coronavirus relief aid provided to schools by Congress last month, an across-the-board 8 percent cut to states school funding would lead to a decline in per-pupil spending in all 50 states, a new analysis shows.

In addition, the analysis by Michael Griffith, a veteran school finance consultant, finds that the K-12 relief package signed by President Donald Trump on March 27 as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act amounts to less than 2 percent of all spending on public schools.

As a souring economy eats into states resources this year, the emergency airlift of federal money could help mitigate the damage to the nation as a whole and states in particular.

Yet already, states are seeing their economies start to slide and are slashing their spending. For example, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, has already ordered the state education department and other agencies to shave 1 percent off their budgets. And last month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said the state could have a $15 billion shortfall in tax revenue. And the education community has put Congress and the White House on notice that the current round of federal aid wont be enough to keep school budgets from a sharp decline.

Some observers already anxiously foresee a round of cuts similar to the impact on school budgets triggered by the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, which some evidence indicates hurt students performance and their odds of going to college, particularly for students of color. The extent to which per-pupil spending has rebounded since the Great Recession varies significantly between states.

The CARES Act, signed by President Donald Trump on March 27, includes billions earmarked for public schools. Theres a $13.5 billion pot for school districts, which will go out to districts under an existing federal formula focused on disadvantaged students, and a $3 billion fund for governors to distribute to both K-12 and higher education.

Using figures from the Congressional Research Service, Griffiths analysis looks at not just how much each state would get from the CARES Act, but how much would reach K-12 districts according to the federal formula. He also looks at how the aid would or would not offset anticipated state funding cuts.

Some important caveats about this analysis:

Griffiths results assume that 90 percent of the $13.5 billion pot specifically for school districts ends up going to districts. The CARES Act says that at least 90 percent of that money must end up with districts, so the amount that actually reaches districts could be higher.

In addition, his analysis assumes that half the money in the governors fund will end up with K-12 schools, meaning the other half would go to colleges and universities. Statistically thats an equal distribution, but of course, the share that goes to K-12 versus higher education in each state will vary depending on needs, politics, and other factors.

Each state, of course, will take its own approach in deciding whether to cut its education budget in response to the pandemics impact, and if so, by how much.

For the 2019-20 state and local funding statistics, Griffith relied on an estimate from the National Association of State Budget Officers. He also assumed a 3.6 percent increase in state and local K-12 spending above 2018-19 per-student spending figures compiled by the National Education Association.

Under his analysis, a universal 7 percent cut in state aid would leave three states (Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Dakota) spending more per pupil when CARES Act aid is accounted for. But if all 50 states cut their education funding by 8 percent, all of them would end up spending less per pupil, even after factoring in the CARES Act money.

How much states spend per pupilseparate from federal and local spendingcan vary significantly, so the impact of percentage cuts to that spending differs accordingly.

In general, though, the number thats in your state budget now is not going to be the number that will be there for schools when states start planning their next budgets this fall, said Griffith, who used to study K-12 finance at the Education Commission of the States.

There has been tension about how schools should be approaching the next several months as the majority of students have shifted to online learning at home (if their schools havent shut down altogether).

Some have focused on the urgent need to expand internet access and provide more online devices to students as the academic year enters the home stretch. But others say schools should save what money they have in reserve to help them weather the economic hard times ahead.

Partisan control of states will also play a factor in states decisions about things like school funding. In 2010, for example, Democrats controlled 27 state legislatures compared to 14 for Republicans; this year, Republicans control 29 state legislatures compared to 19 run by Democrats.

Well have a better understanding in three months, Griffith said. But that seems like an eternity from now.
The Delhi State Cancer Insitute (DSCI) has been temporarily shut after 18 healthcare staff members were confirmed positive for coronavirus. These include two doctors and sixteen nursing staff members. The hospital authorities are trying to shift 19 of its patients to other private hospitals in the city.

"As a precautionary measure, we have shut down various facilities of the hospital for conducting sanitisation. We are making arrangement to shift our 19 cancer patients to another private hospital. Talks are on with Dharmshila Superspecility hospital," Dr BL Sherwal, DSCI's medical superintendent said.

Sherwal added, "However, before sending these cancer patients to another facility, we are testing them for COVID-19. Cancer patients are immune-compromised patients and are a high-risk group. They tend to catch infection very easily. If their reports come negative, we will shift these patients to another hospital".

The hospital authorities also expressed concern over the wellbeing of its healthcare workers and said that they are taking care of those infected by the coronavirus. According to Sherwal, some of the staff members have been admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Speciality Hospital. He also said that contact tracing of all infected has been initiated by the authorities.

Last week a doctor from the institute was tested positive after which the number of healthcare workers of the hospital being diagnosed with coronavirus just kept on increasing. After the doctor was tested positive, the hospital had closed its OPD, offices, labs and had carried out a sanitation process for the entire structure but now the entire hospital has been shut down.

Delhi has reported 523 cases of COVID-19 as of 9:00 am on Tuesday, out of which 19 people have been discharged and seven people have died of the disease, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Also Read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: Country's active COVID-19 cases at 3,851; death toll rise to 111

Also Read: Coronavirus in India: Telangana CM KCR urges PM Modi to extend lockdown by two weeks
(TNS)  The San Diego Superior Court on Monday took the first step toward conducting proceedings during the COVID-19 crisis, holding a six-minute hearing via a video hookup that allowed lawyers seated at their office desks blocks away to speak to a courtroom sprinkled with socially-distanced and masked court workers.The scene involving the case of People v. Ryan Patrick Constantine was unique, but will become more common in the coming days as the court begins to process a backlog of criminal cases built up since the court severely pared operations because of the pandemic on March 17.While Constantine's case was the only one heard under the new format, some 16 cases are set to be heard on Tuesday, said Presiding Judge Lorna Alksne.She also said that the court plans to expand the video hearings, which are allowed under emergency state court rules approved by the Judicial Council for the coronavirus emergency, in each of the court branch courthouses around the county starting later this week.Doing so allows the court to begin to hack away at a backlog of criminal cases built up while the court's operations have been narrowed. Since mid-March the courts have been closed to the public, open only for a handful of emergency proceedings, and all criminal matters such as arraignments and preliminary examinations were suspended.Even with the closure extended through April, court officials want to move cases that have legal deadlines so as not to create a large bottleneck when the courts reopen. Moreover, holding hearings allows cases to resolve by a plea agreement or some other method, and that in turn could lower the jail population  an urgent focus for many concerned about lethal epidemics breaking out in jails and prisons endangering inmates and staff.Constantine's hearing was short and uneventful. He has been in jail since Feb. 22 on a vandalism charge and for another case from East County, details of which were not immediately available.He was seated in a room at the downtown jail where he could see the courtroom and communicate with his lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Matthew Wechter. In the courtroom, Wechter appeared in one portion of a large television screen, with Deputy District Attorney David Grapilon appearing in another portion of the screen.Both lawyers called in from their respective offices, Wechter wearing a latex glove on one hand.In California, a defendant has the right to be physically present during hearings, so Alksne first asked Constantine to waive that right, which he did. Wechter then requested a mental competency exam for his client, which was granted, suspending all criminal proceedings in the case until April 24.The hearing took all of six minutes. After it ended, Alksne said a similar video setup would be used for arraignments and preliminary hearings, with witnesses testifying via a remote connection. She said the courts are trying to process cases and be mindful of public health orders to keep gatherings to fewer than 10 people, and maintain social distance.At one point she pulled out a six-foot long wood pole, which she said was given to her last week as a present by court workers. It will be used to gauge distance  six feet is the minimum social distance required  among people in the courtroom, she said.Reducing the number of people in jails, where the virus can breed and rapidly spread among a confined population that can't practice social distancing, has become a large concern for court and law enforcement officials. Later Monday, the state Judicial Council approved an emergency bail schedule for all courts in the state that reduces bail to $0 for nearly all misdemeanors and many low-level felonies.Some charges such as domestic violence, driving under the influence, sex crimes that require registration as a sex offender if found guilty, and all serious and violent felonies are not covered by the new schedule. Court will have to adopt the new schedule by Monday.San Diego revised its bail schedule for 57 misdemeanors and low level felonies last Thursday. Combined with another court order allowing for the accelerated release of people with fewer than two months left on their sentences, the San Diego jail population fell by 307, from 4,783 Friday to 4,476 Monday.The Judicial Council also approved a rule that courts use technology to do remote appearances in criminal cases. The council kept the requirement that defendants have to consent to do so, despite written objections from many prosecutors around the state.San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan was one of those who objected, writing that a defendant who did not consent would force law enforcement to transport the person to court, exposing deputies and court workers to someone who may be infected.The council approved the new rule retaining the consent provision and referencing a different emergency rule allowing attorneys to waive the physical presence of their client for a proceeding.
Gardai are appealing for witnesses and dashcam footage after thieves broke into 15 cars and stole a van in Co Cork, this morning.

It happened in Kinsale at Eltin's Wood and Compass Quay in the early hours, gardai say.
Kolkata, April 7 : West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee government's decision to empower a new death audit committee to pronounce whether a patient has perished due to Covid-19 has resulted in opposition parties smelling a ploy to suppress the number of casualties due to the dreaded infection.

While the state government has done some flip-flops to now settle for a death count of five, opposition parties and unofficial sources have claimed the figure of the deceased was at least 11.

However, a key member of the expert committee of doctors assigned to advise the state government on tackling the outbreak termed the government move as "very scientific" and as per "international norms".

"The five-member death audit committee has been rightly formed to settle such disputes. Since I am not a member of the audit panel, I can't say whether they have had a sitting, or what the outcome is. But death auditing is very scientific. It is done all over the world," Mukherjee, a leading medical practitioner of the state, told IANS.

When questioned about the allegation that the government was suppressing the death count, minister of state for health Chandrima Bhattacharya refused to comment. "I won't say anything on this. If you have anything to ask, put your queries when pressers are held, but don't ask me," she said.

Sources said the government has also asked hospitals to find out various details and place it before the audit committee for it to take the final decision on whether the deceased passed away due to Covid-19. Once the panel finds all the answers satisfactory, it would declare a person has died of the viral disease.

The information would include the person's travel history, other ailments or long term complications, the level of immunity, presence of diabetes, hypertension or lungs diseases and the details of fever.

The dispute began last Wednesday - April 1 - when hospitals and health officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, had by early afternoon confirmed six deaths due to Covid-19.

However, at 5 p.m., Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a presser, halving the death figure to three, claiming three of the deceased had comorbidity -- a medical term to denote the presence of one or more additional conditions co-occurring with a primary condition.

Lashing out at the media for claiming that the death toll was soaring in the state, and castigating some nursing homes for "trying to gain publicity" by highlighting their patients had died of the viral disease, Banerjee said one of the deceased had pneumonia, another hand cardiac issues, and the other one was suffering from chronic kidney failure.

There were more twists a day later.

Expert committee member and eminent pulmonologist Dhiman Ganguly in an afternoon media conference gave the total death count as seven, that included four people who passed away in the previous 24 hours.

About three hours later, Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha held another round of video conference with journalists. He claimed the number of deaths was three, and echoed the chief minister's logic to state four of the deceased had comorbidity.

Sinha also came up with some statistical jugglery to project a lower figure for the viral infection in the state, by highlighting the number of active cases at present, rather than the total number of persons testing positive.

In another interesting development, the state health department for the first time since February four, did not publish any bulletin on Thursday. Friday also turned out to be a no-bulletin day.

Finally, when Sinha came for the Covid 19 briefing on Saturday, he had to face a barrage of queries from the media for the absentee bulletin. The top bureaucrat promised it would be back, and denied there was any "design behind not putting figures on the website".

The bulletin made its reappearance that evening itself, but with some modifications in format. There was no death tally. It also mentioned only the number of active cases, without giving any figure of the total number of infected in the state from the outset of the outbreak.

BJP MP and noted gynaecologist Subhas Sarkar described the state government approach as "childish" and expressed apprehension it would do "tremendous harm" to the society.

"In a death certificate there is always a primary cause and secondary cause. There may be a patient who is originally ill due to cardiac disease, or respiratory disease. But if there is any observation of Covid 19, it should be reported that the case is a-associated with Covid 19. They are suppressing the facts including the death figure," Sarkar told IANS.

"They are doing a tremendous harm to the society. This would prompt the people to drop their guard and violate the lockdown. Whenever wrong statistics are presented, naturally judgments and later decisions won't be proper. I suggest the state government give daily report to the centre Aon number of Covid 19 tests, names and addresses if these people, and the test results." Backing the chief minister and Sinha, Mukherjee said details like immediate cause of death, contributory cause of death or illnesses unrelated to death, are all scientific data. "If somebody dies of pneumonia, then it has to be looked into whether the pneumonia was caused by corona, or there was some other cause".

CPI-M state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra demanded the government withdraw its directive on gleaning 34 pieces of information about the deceased.

"Expert panel is made of experts. They need a free hand. If the government lists out the process for ascertaining the casue of death, then the panel cannot function. The number of deaths due to the disease is being fudged," he said.
Guy Fieri just wanted to give furloughed restaurant employees a chance to get back on their feet.

Last week, the television personality and chef announced a partnership with the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation to launch a relief fund for industry staff who lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Applications were set to open last Thursday at midnight, and over $10 million had been raised for the relief fund.

But that chance never came for thousands of workers hoping to cash in on the $500 grants. The volume of applicants was so high that the server crashed, rendering the website inaccessible for at least a day until the NRAEF shut it down entirely.

We are sincerely apologetic for the site still being down, a representative tweeted on Friday before eventually announcing, Over the weekend, we will take down the application so that we can upgrade our system and expand capacity. Please check back with us on Monday, April 6 for an update.

Still, patience was waning. Some applicants said they had been waiting 15+ hours for their submissions to go through. One San Francisco woman tweeted that she stayed up until at least 3 in the morning and had been trying the whole day to access the overwhelmed application platform.

On Monday morning, the foundation informed the public that they would be reviewing all submitted applications in addition to following up with nearly 13,000 individuals who had been kicked off the server before they were able to complete their applications.

They also plan to open up their updated platform to a new batch of applicants starting Friday, April 10.

We encourage all new applicants to carefully read our updated FAQ section on this site so that you are prepared for the application process, read an update on the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund website.

More information is expected to come tomorrow at 9 a.m. PST.

Meanwhile, Fieri's own life in isolation doesn't appear to be too lonely. In addition to his wife and sons, he's accompanied by 400 goats that will apparently be used as "a form of organic weed control" on his property. He's planning to shoot a "quarantine version" of "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" that will soon be aired on the Food Network, relying on five GoPros in addition to FaceTime calls to restaurant owners who will send their recipes to Fieri.

And he hopes to boost his restaurant fund to $100 million, he told the Washington Post  mostly through corporate sponsors. UberEats and Tyson Foods are already among them.

"This is a terrible time," Fieri said of his efforts. "Please recognize that you could have people losing everything  your favorite pizzeria, your favorite Indian restaurant, your favorite sushi joint, your favorite watering hole could all go away and be gone, and these people are onto a whole 'nother nothing."

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

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Amanda Bartlett is an SFGATE associate digital reporter. Email: amanda.bartlett@sfgate.com | Twitter: @byabartlett
Major General Nguyen Van Tin, deputy head of the Ministry of Defences Department of Political Information and Training, talked about the militarys efforts in the fight against COVID-19.

The chemical unit under the defence ministry mixes chemicals for disinfecting the Truc Bach area in Hanoi where a confirmed COVID-19 patient resides on March 7.  VNA/VNS Photo Duong Giang

During this hard time as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, the Vietnam Peoples Army has shown its resilient spirit in the face of hardship and together with all levels of the government, reaffirmed its commitment to suppressing the pandemic. What can you say about the fighting spirit of the army in recent days?

For the military now, resisting the pandemic is considered a critical combat mission in peacetime, in line with what Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has said time and time again: fighting the pandemic like fighting the enemy.

A for-the-people military that is willing to sacrifice everything to serve the people is now on full display. The Vietnamese militarys biggest duty currently is managing all the concentrated quarantine camps in the country, even including hotels and schools that have been repurposed for this role.

Our soldiers have given up their bunkers and shelters to accommodate people who have to be quarantined. All the health ministrys regulations on prevention and combating the disease are being rigorously observed, from the distance between beds, to keeping hygiene and frequent disinfection. The standard meals for quarantined citizens are of better quality and more fulfilling than the meals served to our infantry forces. All there is to say is that the Vietnamese people have nothing to be concerned about in this battle against COVID-19, and the country is determined not leave anyone behind.

Serving thousands of people in quarantine is by no means easy. The quarantine period lasts only 14 days, so once it ends, people can go home, but our military members still need to prepare and take care of the next batches. Human strength and endurance is not unlimited. Their work starts from the break of dawn  preparing and cooking three full meals for the quarantined, and then they will need to tend to everyones little needs like going out to buy a mobile top-up cards or finding hot milk for an infant in the middle of the night. Our men serving in the quarantine sites are truly dedicated soldiers, silently making sacrifices and trying their hardest to carry out their duties.

The role of the military also lies in patrolling the countrys borders, checkpoints and pathways. I can confidently say that the military has been effectively maintaining control over who gets to cross the border into Vietnam.

Military medical teams are also always ready to carry out tests, screenings and treatment. So far, the country has about 45 mobile medical teams dedicated to COVID-19 testing and treatment, of which, 20 are military-run, and they are all well-trained and highly responsible.

The image of medical doctors and military members working within the countrys COVID-19 hot spots are a great source of assurance to the public. For example, a military medical mobile team from the 2nd Military Region Command was deployed to deal with the situation in Son Loi Commune of Vinh Phuc Province, the first area in the country to be placed under total lockdown after multiple COVID-19 patients were found related to a group of trainees returning from Wuhan, China.

Regarding science and technology research, the Vietnam Military Medical University had successfully produced test kits that can detect with high accuracy and consistency the presence of the SARS-CoV-2, on par with imported test kits.

The militarys chemical unit is highly developed and professional and has been involved in several disinfectant efforts in virus-hit areas of the country, bringing peace of mind to the general public.

The military has also been proactive in its communication and efforts to fight against toxic content and fake news on the internet regarding COVID-19.

The pandemic in Vietnam is said to be entering its second phase and widespread outbreaks could be possible if it is not contained properly, not to mention the risks of infections among the military when the number of confirmed positive cases in quarantine sites is rising. What is the militarys plan to deal with this situation?

The second phase is seen as more dangerous and complicated now the pandemic has gone global, rather than when the epicentre remained mostly in Wuhan, China.

Previously, from the first confirmed case to the 100,000th patient might take 73 days. Now, in the second phase, the number could double to 200,000 within just 11 days, and could jump from 200,000 to 300,000 in just four days.

The defence ministry is fully aware of the new situation and has asked the army to plan for worst-case scenarios. Its in our nature and traditions, we always need to be training all the time, projecting worst-case scenarios and forming all sorts of plan for different forecasts, and this way of thinking and working is even more fitting given the current developments of COVID-19.

The defence ministry asserted that the military will lead the fight no matter what the scenario, and remain committed to ensuring  to the fullest of our capacity  sufficient human resources, infrastructure and facilities  to combat the disease.

Units assigned with quarantine and heath supervision missions must thoroughly grasp and comply with the regulations of the State and the defence ministry. Continuing to promote the virtues of Uncle Hos army, the tradition of solidarity and altruism, while at the same time strictly observing and effectively implementing anti-epidemic measures and taking good care of the accommodation for quarantined people.

The military medical force will continue to review, consolidate and supplement their human resources, supplies and medical equipment to be ready to cope with different levels of the epidemic, coordinating with competent authorities in preventing, zoning, and suppressing outbreaks, preventing the epidemic from spreading among the militarys agencies and units, and ensuring the health of the soldiers and the public.

How do you envision the day we can finally declare victory against the pandemic?

It would certainly be a joyful one. It would not be just a victory against the disease, but also one against ourselves. I dont think that our military personnel at first could imagine the level of hardship and difficulty in serving the people, but after so much education, training and enriching experiences and adaptation, they have overcome their own limitations to carry out their duties.

The world is seeing drastically rising numbers of cases and deaths  even among highly developed nations, while Vietnam continues to limit the spread.

With the peoples support for the Governments efforts, with capable leadership, with proficient co-ordination and responsible actions, we will certainly be able to defeat COVID-19.

For the military, I want to reiterate that no matter what hardship or difficulty, the military will be there to serve the nation and the people. VNS/VGP

Army maps out scenario to fight COVID-19 outbreak at five levels The army will develop a COVID-19 prevention and control plan based on a scenario for the outbreak at five levels in a bid to effectively deal with the epidemic, said Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lieut. Gen. Tran Don.
An NHS nurse has revealed she had a panic attack and burst into tears after working on a ward with coronavirus patients because she's 'so scared' - and her mask fits so tightly to her face it hurt an hour into her 12-hour shift.

Frankie Creedy, from Taunton in Somerset, moved away from her family to keep them safe while she continued working as a Paediatric nurse at Musgrove Park Hospital amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an emotional Facebook post, she explained why she has not time for people complaining they feel frustrated or lonely during lockdown, saying: 'Come hang out with me for five minutes... I promise you'll be so scared, you'll forget you were ever bored.'

There have been more than 260 confirmed cases in Somerset, with 12 deaths so far, while the UK death toll has surpassed 6,000, after a record 854 fatalities in a day.

Frankie Creedy (pictured), from Taunton in Somerset, moved away from her family to keep them safe while she continued working as a Paediatric nurse at Musgrove Park Hospital

'Did you wake up and cry because you have to stay home another day? I woke up and cried because it was my turn to float to the positive floor,' Frankie asked in her Facebook post.

She added that anyone would be 'so scared' if they were in her position.

She has no time for those who complained about missing their friends and family because the patients Frankie works with are 'isolated and alone in a hospital bed'.

And she revealed she can't even have a drink of water because she is not allowed to removed her mask without potentially infecting herself with the virus.

Frankie, pictured, has shared a lengthy status on Facebook asking others to stay inside their homes to help stop the spread while she risks her life to keep working

In an impassioned Facebook post, Frankie begged people to stay at home as she described the fear she experiences in her job as a nurse every day

Asking others to see the illness from her perspective she added: 'Imagine wearing masks so tight to your face that it hurts after hour one, but you still have twelve more to work.'

Frankie said her patients were even more frightened than she was as they lay in intensive care.

She added: 'Imagine crying your eyes out and having a panic attack at work because everything and everyone is so uncertain.

'Imagine moving out from your home, to protect your loved ones so you can keep going to work only to take care of complete strangers.'

She finished: 'Stay the F home.'

It comes as a record high of 854 coronavirus deaths have been announced in the UK today, taking the total to 6,227.

NHS England has confirmed 758 people have died, with authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland announcing a further 96 between them.

Patients in England were aged between 23 and 102 years old, and 29 of them - aged between 23 and 99 - had no known underlying health conditions.

Scotland revealed 74 more deaths had been recorded in the past 24 hours, along with 19 in Wales and three in Northern Ireland.

Medics fighting the coronavirus crisis on the frontline have begged the Government to provide proper face masks, gloves and aprons amid claims of a nationwide shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

The British Medical Association has already warned that doctors will die unless they are given adequate protection.

Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer, admitted there had been 'distribution issues' earlier this month but insisted the UK had enough PPE to cope with the pandemic.

Millions of masks, gloves, aprons and other items were delivered to hospitals last week, the Government said, with the Army helping to get them out nationwide.

Import taxes on such clothing, ventilators and virus testing kits have also been waived to ease supply, the Chancellor said.

But, despite this, unions representing healthcare workers say their members are complaining in droves about shortages of safety equipment.

The GMB said some social care staff were being expected to make visits with just a plastic apron and a pair of gloves  'the same protection that they use to make a sandwich.'

And the Doctors' Association UK Ltd has claimed doctors and nurses are being 'bullied and shamed' into treating coronavirus patients and are told to hold their breath due to a lack of masks.

'Lack of personal protective equipment continues to be a critical issue. It is heartbreaking to hear that some staff have been told to simply "hold their breath," due to a lack of masks,' Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, president of the Doctors' Association UK, told The Guardian.
Coronavirus India: A total of 354 confirmed COVID-19 cases has come to light in India in last 24 hours. To counter the outspread of COVID-19 in India, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has written a 5-point letter to PM Modi while Arvind Kejriwal has come up with a 5T action strategy for Delhi.

India has recorded a rise of 354 novel coronavirus- COVID-19 positive cases and 5 deaths in last 24 hours. With significant increase in number of cases, the total number of coronavirus positive cases has reached 4421, including 3981 active cases, 325 cured and 114 deaths. State-wise, Maharastra continues to be the worst affected with 748 confirmed cases, 56 cured , 45 deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu with 621 confirmed cases, 8 cured, 7 deaths and Delhi with 523 confirmed cases, 19 cured, 7 deaths.

Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi on April 7, 2020, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which she supported Union Cabinets decision of 30% deduction in the salaries of Members of Parliament and gave her suggestions to tackle the situation at hand due to COVID-19 outbreak, including transferring all money under PM CARES fund to Prime Ministers National Relief Fund (PMNRF).

Sonia Gandhis first suggestion is a complete ban of media advertisements by government and Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) for two years, barring COVID-19 advisories. Her second suggestion is to suspend Rs 20,000 central vista beautification and construction project. She stated that this sum can be allocated to constructing new hospitals and equipping frontline healthcare workers with PPE and better facilities.

Also Read: Coronavirus: Health Ministry reports 4,281 positive COVID-19 cases, toll crosses 110

Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi writes to PM Modi conveying support for Union Cabinet decision to reduce salaries for MPs by 30%. Letter states, "Austerity measures which can be used to divert much needed funds to the fight against Covid-19 are the need of the hour". pic.twitter.com/6yyBbPdtfG  ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2020

The third suggestion is a 30% reduction in expenditure budget. She wrote that the sum, which amounts to Rs 2.5 lakh crore, can be rather used to establish an economic safety net for migrant workers, labourers, farmers, MSME and those in unorganised sector. She also advised to put all foreign visits on hold.

Also Read: Surveillance drones and vehicle disinfection work by Hyderabad commisionerate for sensitive areas

Commenting on the PM CARES fund, Sonia Gandhis fifth suggestion is that all the money under PM CARES fund should be transferred to Prime Ministers National Relief Fund (PMNRF) to ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability. She said that two separate entities for distribution of funds seems like a waste of effort and resources. Moreover, she suggested that Rs 3800 crore, which are already in PMNRF , can be utilized to ensure immediate food security. Before ending her note, Sonia Gandhi wrote that it is time that the legislature and executive reciprocate the trust and good faith of people.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal also devised a 5-step plan today to curb the spread of coronavirus in the state. Highlighting the key steps of Testing, Tracing, Treating, Teamwork as well as Tracking and monitoring, Arvind Kejriwal said that the government will leave no stone unturned to protect the people of Delhi.

Also Read: Telangana deploys Indias first real-time technology to intensify centralised COVID-19 surveillance

Delhi's 5 Ts to fight COVID-19: Testing

Tracing

Treatment

Teamwork

Tracking & Monitoring No stone will be left unturned to protect the people of Delhi#DelhiFightsCorona  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 7, 2020

1st T  Testing We will aggressively test to identify, treat, trace, quarantine and seal, along the lines of South Korea#DelhiFightsCorona  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 7, 2020

2nd T  Tracing As our testing is ramped up we will trace every single contact of positive cases through cellphone triangulation We will keep 24 hour tabs on those in home quarantine to ensure they're following it. We aim to be a few steps ahead of the virus#DelhiFightsCorona  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 7, 2020

3rd T  Treatment As of today, against 525 patients, we have made 2,950 beds available only for COVID-19 However, we have made a very detailed plan for ramping up our capacities upto 30,000 patients, for which we will takeover hotels and banquet halls#DelhiFightsCorona  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 7, 2020

4th T  Teamwork The nature of COVID-19 is such that no government or agency can defeat it in isolation We cannot rest until all states in India are COVID-free for which all govts are working as one team. There is no alternative to teamwork.#DelhiFightsCorona  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 7, 2020

5th T  Tracking & Monitoring I will personally track and monitor every single aspect involved in making this plan successful As Chief Minister, I will be responsible for ensuring all variables fall into place and I will be accountable if they don't.#DelhiFightsCorona  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 7, 2020

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The Meghalaya Cabinet on Monday decided that all government offices will start functioning with full staff strength from April 15. However, academic institutions will remain closed until the end of this month.

Meghalaya is the first state to announce the beginning of work at government offices from April 15 amid the Centre's nationwide COVID-19 lockdown that is to continue till April 14.

"While all government offices will start functioning with full staff strength from April 15, schools and educational institutions will remain closed till April 30," said the State government in a statement.

Moreover, the Cabinet has decided to allow the reopening of weekly markets in rural areas from April 15, directing to strictly maintain COVID-19 protocols as prescribed by the health department. Also, construction work and other allied developmental programmes sanctioned by the government in the last financial year, and private transportation will be allowed to resume from April 15.

The farmers in rural areas will be allowed to resume sowing activities with immediate effect. The Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee (MNREGA) activities will be allowed to resume in respective villages in the State. The Cabinet said that wages and the material components to the tune of Rs 534.6573 crore have been sanctioned and released to the respective BDOs for payment of wages and clearing the materials bills.

Under the Chief Minister's Relief Against Wage Loss scheme, all the wage earners, daily labourers and petty traders, who are out of work during the COVID-19 lockdown, will receive Rs 700 per week. The financial assistance will be transferred directly to the eligible beneficiary's account.

The workers registered under PM-KISAN yojna will not be entitled to receive benefits of the CM's Relief Against Wage Loss scheme.

"Beneficiaries already registered under Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW), job card holders under MGNREGA, muster roll workers of government departments, casual and contractual wage workers in government and semi-government departments and registered farmers under 'PM-KISAN' are not entitled to receive benefits under the scheme," the government said.During the meeting, the Cabinet also raised concerns regarding 2192 students and working citizens from Meghalaya, who are residing at different parts of the country as most of them had expressed their desire to come back to the State.

Taking into account the safety of people in the State and the safety of the stranded citizens themselves, the Cabinet had decided to request the stranded citizens to refrain from travelling back home until the end of April 2020.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Somerville warned that using the last major financial downturn as a reference point might lead to mistaken predictions about where the market is headed.

In the [2008] financial crisis there were different sorts of uncertainties around. They were economic, so you could understand a bit about what the phenomenon was. But with this its not the economy grinding down slowly, its not a financial panic, its not an economic shock. Its a public health shock, the veteran industry observer explained.

Governments are rightly loading up on debt to get us through. But on the other side you have to pay off that debt. But what if we have a 5% to repay the debt? Well, that slows the economy. We have so much uncertainty that its very hard to think about where things might be once we have more certainty. How we relate to each other is going to be different.
An opposition MLA in Assam was arrested and sent to 14 days' judicial remand on Tuesday for making "objectionable" remarks about quarantine facilities and hospitals treating COVID-19 patients, calling them worse than detention centres.

Aminul Islam, the All India United Democratic Front legislator from Dhing constituency, was apprehended early Tuesday after preliminary interrogation, Director General of Assam Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta told PTI.

An audio clip of a telephonic conversation purportedly between Islam and another person was doing the rounds on social media, in which the lawmaker can be heard talking "disparagingly" about the quarantine facilities and hospitals.

He also purportedly said these facilities were worse than detention centres.

Hundreds of suspected illegal migrants and doubtful citizens are lodged in detention centres across Assam.

"We have registered a case against him under various sections of the IPC for criminal conspiracy, spreading disaffection between communities, among others," the DGP said.

He said the Assam Legislative Assembly Speaker has been informed about the development.

Islam was produced before the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Gautam Daimary, who sent him to 14 days judicial remand after rejecting police's request to have the MLA's custody for five days.

Accordingly, the legislator was sent to Nagaon Central Jail, officials said.

The AIUDF headed by Badruddin Ajmal sought to distance itself from the legislator's controversial remarks, saying the views are his and the party does not endorse them. The BJP, however, made a scathing attack at the AIUDF on the matter.

Addressing a press conference, Nagaon Superintendent of Police Gaurav Abhijit Dilip said, "We received a complaint last evening about an audio clip allegedly circulated by Aminul Islam. The clip has content which are communal in nature."



The case was registered at Nagaon police station and the MLA was called for interrogation, he added.

"During interrogation, Islam confessed that the voice in the clip was his. Secondly, he confessed the clip was made by him. The clip was therein his mobile phone also and we seized the phone. He said he had forwarded it to some people," Dilip said.

All those who had forwarded the clip will also come under the purview of the inquiry and action will be initiated against them, he said, adding,"Investigation is going on to ascertain the role of other people and the motive behind the clip.

Reacting to the development, BJP MLA Rupak Sarmah said, "This MLA has made communal statements on many occasions earlier also and we are ashamed of those. At this moment, there is nothing called Hindu or Muslim. Our only fight is against COVID-19. We need to save people."



Such communal statements will vitiate the atmosphere when everyone is unitedly fighting against the deadly disease, he added.

"The country is in crisis now. When the entire world is fighting against deadly coronavirus, such statements should not have been made. We have full faith on judiciary and the matter will proceed as per legal system," AIUDF Organising General Secretary Aminul Islam said in a statement. He, however, pointed out that many ministers, MPs and MLAs had made such serious statements, but no action has been taken against them.

"We hope they will also be broughtunder the law, which is equal for everyone," the AIUDF general secretary added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Nigerian Army on Sunday denied a PREMIUM TIMES story about a policy suspending the rights of soldiers and officers to retire voluntarily from service.

But an internal army circular obtained from senior military sources corroborated our story and punctured attempts by army spokespersons to mislead Nigerians about the controversial policy.

Futile pushback

The army tagged the PREMIUM TIMES report as fake news shortly after it was published on Sunday night, even as it failed to explain its own side of the matter.

In a Twitter post that appeared at 11:58 p.m., the Nigerian Army handle displayed a defaced screengrab of our story in composite with another unrelated article published by a separate news website and screamed: Be Aware!!!

But the army failed to tender any evidence to buttress its claim. The tweet also did not disclose that the army failed to respond to multiple requests by PREMIUM TIMES to comment for the story before publication.

Perhaps the armys motive was not to genuinely contradict your story  which would have been difficult against available evidence  but to muddy the waters and dilute publics understanding of the controversial directive, a serving top military officer, who asked not to be named, said.

Other senior military sources who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES between Saturday and Monday evening said the decision to deny officers and men retirement rights was taken by the top brass.

Also, PREMIUM TIMES obtained a copy of an internal memo of the Nigerian Army 29 Battalion which conveyed the directive to all companies under the unit. The March 30 memo was drafted by Korie Kelechukwu, a sergeant, and approved for distribution by A.C. Ugwu, a major.

The memo described as disheartening the rate at which personnel were turning in retirement applications.

Consequently, submission of NA (Nigerian Army) Form 9B for voluntary discharge soldiers is hereby suspended forthwith, the signal said.

Our initial story mentioned 29 Battalion as one of the formations that had started implementing the directive.

Appropriate Superior Authority

Sagir Musa, the spokesperson for the army, did not answer or return telephone calls seeking his comments for our earlier report as well as for this follow-up article. He also did not respond to text messages seeking his comments about the memo in our possession.

It was not the first time the army would deny a factual story published by PREMIUM TIMES.

In early 2017, the army attacked PREMIUM TIMES after the medium published a story about its decision to intervene and remove Yahya Jammeh from office.

Mr Jammeh had led the Gambia since 1994, but he was plotting to perpetuate himself in power despite losing a presidential election in 2016. His action irritated the ECOWAS region, prompting Nigeria to raise troops to militarily remove him and install his elected opponent in office.

PREMIUM TIMES published documents relating to the planned operation after the armys denials. Years later, the army is yet to admit any wrongdoing in its handling of the report.

READ ALSO:

Several serving and retired military officers, as well as active military consultants, told PREMIUM TIMES the latest directive issued to service members at the 29 Battalion must have emanated from superior authorities.

Unless the commanding officer of a battalion is drunk or ready to leave the army unceremoniously, no one at that level could have taken a decision of that magnitude, an army colonel told PREMIUM TIMES. The order came from appropriate superior authority, which translates to the chief of army staffs office or someone he so designated.

A retired brigadier general and two military consultants told PREMIUM TIMES in separate interviews that the directive could not have originated from a major.

It is okay if they want to reverse the directive because of the controversy it is now generating in the public domain, but I can guarantee you it was not taken by a major, that would be a ridiculous thing to say or assume, the retired brigadier-general said. But if they insist they did not know about it and the major acted without superior directive, then let us see what disciplinary action would be taken against him.

Exodus

Several members of the army rank-and-file who reached out to PREMIUM TIMES after the story was published said voluntary retirements and desertions have become regular in several army formations.

All the officers blamed endemic corruption and poor handling of the Boko Haram war amongst their top commanders for the worsening trend.

Because of the deep-rooted corruption, a systemic one that is very dangerous to talk about, many soldiers are leaving the military in high numbers now, a non-commissioned officer told PREMIUM TIMES under anonymity to avoid being punished for speaking to the press. Many soldiers have deserted even when their application for retirement has not been approved after many months or years.

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In 2017, Transparency International found that a large chunk of the military budget was disappearing into the pockets of corrupt military chiefs and politicians, thereby worsening the counter-insurgency efforts.

Although most of the troops, who are eager to drop out of service, were said to have served one or two tours on the frontlines, rear soldiers have received ominous reports about their colleagues in the Boko Haram war and have taken the decision not to suffer a similar fate.

I have a colleague who ran away in November and another one who has been considering leaving on his own because his application for retirement has not been treated since 2018, another soldier said. They all said they were leaving because of the corruption and the poor treatment of soldiers fighting Boko Haram in Maiduguri.

On Sunday, a public-interest lawyer, Abdul Mahmud, told PREMIUM TIMES the army has powers to suspend voluntary retirement to forestall a rapid depletion in personnel capacity.

He cited Section 25 of the Armed Forces Act as a strong basis for military leadership to exercise discretion of requests for voluntary retirement.

But the soldiers insisted the countrys military leadership should address their complaints rather than blocking them from exercising their rights to voluntarily discharge from service.

They cannot be treating soldiers facing enemy fire every day so badly and expect them not to exercise their rights to voluntarily discharge, a soldier said. They should not force more officers to drop arms and uniforms and walk away to be with their loved ones where they can be sure that even if they can barely sustain their family, they would not die in vain.
William Talen, 69 was arrested Sunday afternoon at a COVID-19 field hospital in New York Citys Central Park that is being run by Samanthas Purse an evangelical christian group whose leader Franklin Graham has long history and notorious history of anti-LGBT beliefs. and comments.

They have no business being in New York City, Talen, shouted as six New York police officers, one of whom was carrying Talens rainbow flag, as they removed him from the park. They are the virus.

The 68-bed field hospital requires volunteers to adhere to a Statement of Faith, which says marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female

Talen allegedly jumped over the outer perimeter barrier of the Samaritans Purse Field Hospital, and was instructed to leave. He refused and proceeded to plant a rainbow flag on a pole into the ground.

Samaritans Purse is working with the Mount Sinai Health System, a New York hospital network, to address the overflow of patients due to the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement emailed Monday, a Mount Sinai spokesperson said all staff members within its hospital system, including the Samaritans Purse field hospital, will adhere to Mount Sinais principles and guidelines when it comes to not discriminating against patients or staff.

Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio called the views of Samaritans Purse troubling and said his administration will monitor the situation to ensure that there is no discrimination, according to NBC New York.

Talen was charged with resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, according to a police spokesperson, who said he is so far the only person to have been arrested at the field hospital.

.
WFH for Private offices in Delhi, restaurants & bars to be shut as Omicron-led to sudden rise in Covid cases

COVID-19 diplomacy: Why sharing hydroxychloroquine is essential for India

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Apr 07: With hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) being touted as a game changer in the battle against COVID-19, and India being one of the top producers of that generic drug, there was no choice for New Delhi, to keep the age-old anti-malarial drug for domestic use alone.

So, India decided to export anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to several countries including those in the neighbourhood on a case-by-case basis in sync with its commitment to the international community to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Hydroxychloroquine is an old and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria. Last month, India banned export of hydroxychloroquine in the midst of views that the drug could be used as potential anti-viral agent to protect healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients from the infection.

Hydroxychloroquine will be supplied to countries badly hit by COVID-19: MEA

"India has always maintained that the international community must display strong solidarity and cooperation. This approach also guided our evacuation of nationals of other countries," Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivastava said.

"In view of the humanitarian aspects of the pandemic, it has been decided that India would licence paracetamol and HCQ (hydroxychloroquine) in appropriate quantities to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on our capabilities," he said while responding to media queries on the issue.

India has received requests from several other countries including its immediate neighbours Sri Lanka and Nepal for supply of hydroxychloroquine.

Fake News Buster

Now, it is clear that the US will be one of the beneficiaries of the decision, as it is also one of the most badly affected country by COVID-19 in the world.

Also, Donald Trump is known for taking arbitrary steps in retaliation. Bowing down to Trump's pressure, India had last year quietly cut its imports of crude oil from Iran to zero. Just within a month of his successful visit to India, the Centre in no mood to hurt bilateral friendship with US.

India is still hoping that the US will allow it to import the Russian S-400 anti-missile defence system. India and the US still have to iron out a lot of contentious trade issues, and any retaliation by Trump over a major Indian export, when things fall to normalcy, is not something India looks forward to.

It is also to be noted that PM Modi, who spearheaded a virtual COVID-19 summit with the SAARC nations on March 15, could not have denied resources to needy partners.

Coronavirus: Japan declares state of emergency

Since the outbreak, PM Modi has been vocal on the issue that the international community needs to come together to fight the pandemic. Also, if the situation continues the same for some time, there will be a lot of give and take among nations, not just during the pandemic, but also after, as economies stabilise.

Not to forget, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has offered a $2.9 million support to India for COVID-19.

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Story first published: Tuesday, April 7, 2020, 15:28 [IST]


The new coronavirus crisis has launched a very large, unplanned experiment with online learning in the United States. And it has created problems for schoolchildren with limited internet or no internet service.

School officials and governments in many areas are trying to give millions of U.S. students without home internet a chance at keeping up with their studies.

Buses with internet service

Many students in rural South Carolina have been having trouble getting online since schools in the U.S. state closed. But recently, six buses equipped with WiFi internet came to help. The state has sent hundreds of buses to rural areas since schools closed because of the coronavirus crisis.

The buses broadcast high-speed internet in an area the size of a small parking lot. Parents can drive up in their cars and their children can use the internet inside the vehicles. One of the buses is outside of the apartment building of Lacheyle Moore. She had been limiting her mobile phone usage so that her daughter could use the data on her mobile plan to do schoolwork. Mobile serviced providers charge extra money if people use more data than their plan permits.

I have to put extra data on my phone to make sure her work gets done, said Moore. Moore works as a cashier. She said she changed her work hours to help teach her two children.



No high-speed internet

It is estimated that three million students do not have internet service at home because of the high cost and gaps in availability. Some studies suggest that these students are more likely to be students of color, from low-income families or have parents with lower education levels.

The nations largest school districts are spending millions of dollars to provide devices and internet connections for students. These include the cities of Los Angeles and New York.

Smaller districts are finding ways to improve wireless internet in school parking lots and provide hot spots for internet service. Others are using paper schoolwork and books.

Maura McInerney is the legal director of the Education Law Center, which supports policies to help low-income students.

She said the school closings are causing these children to fall behind further. Lower-income school districts are forced to find other ways to meet the educational needs of their students.

In Fairfield County, South Carolina, 51 percent of families have no high-speed internet. Those numbers come from an Associated Press study of census information. It is estimated that 18 percent of all U.S. students do not have high-speed internet.

Lots of mothers and fathers are really not equipped to be home school parents, said J.R. Green, the top school official in his district.

In South Carolina, school districts requested hundreds of buses in a program targeting low-income and rural areas, state education spokesperson Ryan Brown said. The state was ready to provide more buses, but Brown said that internet service providers offers of low-cost and even free service plans lessened the demand.

The Philadelphia School District banned online schooling during the early days of the school closings because only about half the districts high school students have a laptop or tablet and home internet service.

Now, it appears that schools are likely to be closed for a longer period of time. Philadelphia plans to buy 50,000 Chromebook tablets and begin online schooling by the middle of April.

Based in Philadelphia, the company Comcast has promised to increase speeds of its $10-a-month plan for low-income school families. It also is offering two months of free service.

We have the $10 internet (plan). Its not for doing lessons, because its really slow, said parent Cecilia Thompson who is 54 years old. She said she would need a higher internet speed to use the Google classroom, which is too costly for her. Thompson cannot work because of her health. She lives with her 21-year-old son, a student with autism, who goes to Martin Luther King High School.



Making changes to meet conditions

Mike Looney is the superintendent of Fulton County schools in Georgia. He said parents should take offers for reduced-cost internet from service providers. But he also wants the Federal Communications Commission to put money that was once used for lowering costs of school internet toward supplying students with devices and internet at home. It is an idea that has support from some U.S. senators.

In central Ohio, Hilliard City Schools provided students with Apple iPads they can use to download, complete and then submit homework. The iPads permit them to do much of their work without internet, says district Superintendent John Marschhausen. But they will need to connect in order to submit completed work and receive their new lessons.

The districts nearly 25 schools are extending WiFi into their parking lots so families can complete downloads from their vehicles. Marschhausen said he thinks most students will not find the changes difficult. But he worries about the major change for younger students who usually spend less than half an hour on their devices in the classroom.

Were going to have to do a lot of adaptingand a lot of learning along with our families if this is truly something that will continue into the summer, he said.

Im Alice Bryant.

The Associated Press reported this story. Alice Bryant adapted it for Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.

Quiz - School Closings Make Home Learning Hard for Some Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz



________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

parking lot n. a large paved area where cars or other vehicles are kept

cashier n. a person who takes money and gives change at a store

gap n. a space between two things

income n. money earned from work, investments or business

district n. an area of a country, city or town for a purpose related to government

hot spot n. a place small area where computers can get on the internet

census n. an official count of the number of people in a country or smaller area

tablet  n. a small computer the size of a paper notebook

autism n. a disorder that causes problems in communication and dealing with people

adapting v. to change behavior in order to make it easier to live in a place or situation
Cosmopolitan India magazine has launched a one-of-its-kind initiative - the first-ever Work from Home Issue. The free-for-consumption digital issue will be available for viewing on Cosmopolitan India's Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook pages, as well as the publication's website, Cosmopolitan.in.

As we battle a tumultuous situation, millions of Indian millennials are living in isolation - working, connecting, and consuming large volumes of digital content. Cosmopolitan India, the world's largest-read magazine for young women, believes this is an important time to reach out to its readers and discuss topics that matter, including mental health, positivity, productivity, and the very important subject of charity and doing our best to help those who are most vulnerable.

For this first #WorkFromHome Issue, several celebrities and influencers have come together to create exclusive content - including video content-for Cosmopolitan India, from their own homes.

Covergirl and 'Made In Heaven' actor Sobhita Dhulipala styled her own hair, make-up, and outfits, and conceptualised and art directed her covershoot for Cosmo India. The result is a striking image of the actor, sitting on her terrace, a book lying by her side.

"When I first heard about the idea of a #WorkfromHome cover, I thought it was so cool," said Sobhita.

"Magazine cover-shoots tend to involve large teams, so this was completely different. I used this as an opportunity to create a cover image that is close to how I would like to present myself to the world. I've had so much fun doing this with limited resources. I did my hair and make-up in the way I understand it, ironed my own clothes, and explored new corners in my home to take photographs. The experience was empowering, really!" she added.

The #WorkfromHome Issue also features exclusive videos and content created by several other celebrities and influencers, including actors Aditi Rao Hydari, Huma Qureshi, Richa Chadda, and Sonali Bendre; writers and directors Tahira Kashyap and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari; fitness experts Yasmin Karachiwala and Mandira Bedi; chefs Pooja Dhingra and Amrita Raichand, amongst dozens of other content creators.

"We understand that these are complex times, which come with a variety of emotions and needs. There are questions around anxiety and mental health, critical conversations around sustainability and consumerism, and worries about what the future might hold. There is the very important issue of charity, and doing everything we can to help the most vulnerable, a cause each one of us at Cosmo stands for. And then there are thoughts around productivity, self-care, at-home beauty and fitness rituals, and what to cook for dinner tonight. Our #WorkfromHome issue aims to echo all thoughts and cover all topics, with a splash of fashion and beauty content to add little sparks of joy and hope", said Nandini Bhalla, Editor, Cosmopolitan India.

"This issue celebrates the spirit of collaboration and synergy, and all our contributors have created exclusive content for Cosmopolitan, from their own homes, including videos, interviews, short stories, and more. In the end, our message is about hope. We hope for a better future and we hope for safety and security and kindness and happiness", added Nandini.

"The safety of our teams, partners, and readers is paramount, and we appreciate how everyone is doing their bit to protect themselves and each one of us, by staying home. Cosmopolitan India has always believed in nurturing a strong relationship and bond with its readers and partners, and this Work from Home initiative is our way of reaching out, connecting, and engaging with our audience through a special line-up that's both informative and entertaining", said Karen Wilson, Publisher LSG Magazines.

Tune in to Cosmopolitan's Instagram handle (@cosmoindia) and website (cosmopolitan.in) now (and throughout the week) to view the exclusive content created for this first-ever #WorkFromHome Issue.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The resolute and uncompromising efforts by the Party and States leaders and the no-forbidden zone policy in fighting corruption have created great confidence among people.

Many officials disciplin

Since the beginning of the 12th Party Congress, more than 90 cadres under the central management have been disciplined, including 21 members of the Party Central Committee, former members of the Party Central Committee (two members of the Politburo), and 22 generals in the armed forces.





Inspection and auditing campaigns have discovered violations and proposed to take back VND135.816 trillion and 897 hectares of land for financial treatment; proposed to put administrative sanctions on 1,967 collectives and many individuals; and transferred 98 cases and 121 subjects to investigation agencies.

The figures released at the 17th session of the Steering Committee for Corruption Prevention and Fighting showed the strong determination of the whole system to fight against the dangerous disease  embezzlement.

Corruption is gradually controlled and tends to be relieved," said Le Thi Nga, chair of the National Assemblys Justice Committee, which agreed with the governments assessment about the embezzlement situation at the latest National Assembly session.

The fight against corruption led by Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong has been strongly supported and trusted by the people over the years.

At the 2019 year-end online conference between the Government and leaders of provinces and cities in Hanoi, Trong affirmed that the task of building the Party and the political system, especially prevention and fighting against embezzlement and waste of public resources, has been strengthened.

The fight has been implemented drastically, synchronously, comprehensively, methodically, in depth, without restricted areas, and without exceptions, which has created great commandments.

Many economic and corruption cases, especially big and serious ones, have been discovered, investigated, and prosecuted, and brought to trial which have been applauded by officials, party members and people.

The resolute and uncompromising efforts by the Party and States leaders and the no-forbidden zone policy in fighting corruption have created great confidence among people.

The inspection and examination of Thai Nguyen Steel and Thu Thiem New Urban Area Projects; the decision to put many cases under the control of the Central Steering Committee on Corruption Preventing and Fighting, including Nhat Cuong Company; and the trial of the case, in which MobiFone bought 95 percent of AVG's shares are the examples.

Fighting against corruption has been identified as an important task throughout many congresses, but the most positive results have been seen recently thanks to the strong determination of the high-ranking leadership.

Corruption threatens the existence of the regime

Nearly a quarter of a century ago, the Party leadership issued Resolution No 14 on fighting against corruption, emphasizing that the results of the fight against corruption were very low.

Corruption became rampant, and in some localities and fields, it became even more serious. Corruption caused very serious consequences, undermining the nature of the Party and the State, corrupting cadres and party members, lending a hand to hostile forces sabotage, thus threatening the survival of the regime.

As such, a quarter of a century ago, the Party admitted that embezzlement truly existed, and was not just a risk.

After the resolution, many more resolutions and documents of senior leaders on this issue were also released. Nearly all of these documents assessed the corruption situation and its serious consequences for the survival of the party and the regime.

Along with the economic development in the transition economy, where public assets are being equitized, or transferred to the private sector, corruption has flourished.

Corruption has been spreading to every corner of societys life, while it has become much more common and the scale of each corruption case has become larger, and corrupt methods have become much more sophisticated.

Strictly handling embezzlement cases is a must. But it will be not enough to just focus on fighting. The people who have power will have opportunities to be corrupt.

The most important measure to prevent embezzlement is controlling power by the laws as Trong said, it is necessary to lock power in the cage of laws and regulations.

Locking power in the cage of laws and regulations

This was what the Politburo member and permanent member of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee's Secretariat Tran Quoc Vuong emphasized at the national conference reviewing the results of Party building and organization in 2019, and preparing for the implementation of tasks in 2020.

He said the individuals with unstable political spirit; reduced virtue, capacity and prestige; and signs of decline in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle must not be admitted to the executive committee.

According to Vuong, cadres virtue and capability are the decisive factor which determines success and failure.

What happened in the last few years showed that if the heads are enthusiastic and enterprising, with good ideas and strong determination, organizations can develop well. And the situation will be opposite in the organizations with a lack of unity, where the heads are not go-getters, who dare not take action, or just act for themselves.

It is necessary to pay utmost attention to the personnel, he said.

Trong also many times emphasized the importance of the personnel work at the 2019 year-end online conference.

He said the whole political system needs to continue to strictly implement Central Resolution No 4 on strengthening the building and reorganization of the Party, and push back the decline in political ideology, morality, lifestyles and the expressions of "self-evolution" and "self-transformation".

It is also necessary to implement Resolution No 6 on renewing and streamlining the apparatus to make it operate more effectively, renovating the organization and management system, and improving the quality and performance of public non-business units.

Vu Minh

Vietnam declares war on petty corruption Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung talks to Vietnam News agency about the National Public Portal Service that aims to tackle petty corruption.
Pop culture creates goddesses only to offer them up for sacrifice, and over the course of her career, Kristen Stewart has no doubt gotten close enough to that pyre to smell the brimstone. So shes a natural to play Jean Seberg in Seberg, about the Iowa girl who became an international movie star, only to be targeted and ultimately destroyed by the FBI because of her affiliation with the Black Panthers.

And while Seberg is rarely as great as its lead actress, the film does shed light on a tragic corner of American history thats not discussed nearly enough  the U.S. citizens who had their lives shattered by J. Edgar Hoovers secret COINTELPRO (counter-intelligence program) surveillance that targeted anyone the FBI considered subversive, be they Vietnam War protesters, black or indigenous activists, even environmentalists.

Jean Sebergs life comes with its own built-in metaphor: She began her screen career being literally set on fire by director Otto Preminger on the set of Saint Joan and ended her life after being torched by Hoover. (Its a similar trajectory explored by Mark Rappaport in his brilliant essay film From the Journals of Jean Seberg, a movie long overdue for a Blu-ray release.)

Also Read: 'Charlie's Angels' Film Review: Kristen Stewart and Company Make Reboot All About Sisterhood

We see Stewart recreate iconic moments from Saint Joan and from Jean-Luc Godards Breathless  the movie that made Seberg an icon  but Seberg director Benedict Andrews (Una) and screenwriters Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse (The Aftermath) focus on 1968-1971, when Sebergs affair with activist Hakim Jamal (Anthony Mackie) put her in Hoovers crosshairs. (And in case we missed that, the script uses the word crosshairs multiple times.)

The writers also focus on FBI agent Jack Solomon (Jack OConnell), newly transferred to Los Angeles and assigned to spy on Jamal alongside Carl (Vince Vaughn), mainly so Seberg can give us a literal good-cop/bad-cop scenario: Solomons conscience is increasingly plagued over the Bureaus ratfking of Seberg (which includes planting a fake gossip item about her being pregnant with Jamals baby, which was published by columnist Joyce Haber  may her legacy always be tainted). Carl, seemingly channeling Michael Shannons character in The Shape of Water, is reactionary, racist, and abusive to his wife and daughter. Its a phony and contrived scenario; if any FBI agent acted like Solomon, the film doesnt present it in a believable way, and its ultimately a distraction from what should be the central story.

Story continues

Also Read: 5 Reasons 'Charlie's Angels' Tanked at the Box Office - And Why Elizabeth Banks Isn't Fazed

Seberg most finds its footing when it focuses on Jean herself. We empathize as she wends her way through a Hollywood that sticks her in misguided productions like Paint Your Wagon, bonds with Hakims wife Dorothy (the brilliant Zazie Beetz)  who later tells off Jean once the FBI has made the affair public  and becomes increasingly paranoid about surveillance, and rightly so, even though her concerns are mostly shrugged off by her oblivious husband, Romain Gary (played by Yvan Attal, Munich). (Alas, the movie doesnt really know what to do with Margaret Qualley, as Jacks med-student wife.)

Stewart never attempts to completely impersonate Jean Seberg  she eschews the late actress flat Midwestern vowels  but at certain points in the film, and at certain angles, shes a dead ringer. What Stewart does capture, more importantly, is the spark in Sebergs eyes; she also knows how to turn off that spark, which adds additional heartbreak to the later scenes of a despairing, suicidal Seberg.

Watch Video: Kristen Stewart Takes a Deep Dive in Trailer for Fox Horror Movie 'Underwater'

Costume designer Michael Wilkinson (Aladdin) and set decorator Christy McIrwin (mid90s) capture a sense of late-60s chic without getting too campy about it, and the talented Rachel Morrison (Black Panther) knows exactly how to turn the Los Angeles sun into a warm glow or a harsh glare when necessary. And while director Andrews, most known for his stage work, doesnt always know how to lift this story beyond banal biopic choices, hes certainly tapped into something special with Stewart, who continues to reveal new layers with each film.

Seberg leaves a lot on the floor, even with its focus on only a handful of years  the actress affair with Clint Eastwood during the chaotic shoot of Paint Your Wagon, for instance, is never mentioned  but its a fitting tribute to a woman whose life was undone over her desire to make a difference.

Seberg premieres on Amazon Prime May 15, 2020.

Read original story Seberg Film Review: Kristen Stewart Captures the Spirit of a Martyred Icon At TheWrap
A team of international scientists has developed a suite of more than 200 new genetic techniques for using marine microbes to investigate a host of questions in biology. Published in Nature Methods, the new tools are an essential step forward in understanding the cellular instructions that underpin microbial life in the sea.

The vast resource created by the team comprises a major compilation of new techniques for performing genetic experiments on marine microbes. A persistent bottleneck in microbial oceanography is the lack of experimental model systems - well-studied organisms that can be genetically manipulated to reveal gene functions, as well as clarify how microbes contribute to ecosystem processes.

"There is an incredible diversity of microbes that we've never had the tools to truly explore, and it represents an untapped resource of knowledge and biotechnology potential," said Jose Antonio Fernandez Robledo, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and one of the lead authors of the paper. "This project catalyzed development of the genetic tools that we need to interrogate these organisms, and it has opened the door for engineering them to provide new products for the biomedical and food supplement industry."

Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the initiative supported development of genetic tools for a group of microbes called protists. These microscopic, single-celled organisms are among the most diverse yet least understood marine microbes. The tools created by Fernandez Robledo and his coauthors set the stage for other researchers to develop protists as experimental model systems that can revealing the inner workings of the ocean and microbial life.

Fernandez Robledo used advanced molecular techniques to develop a new approach to studying Crypthecodinium, a microalgae that produces a beneficial fatty acid used as food supplement. He developed a technique to insert DNA into the organism. This is the first essential step toward identifying the roles of individual Crypthecodinium genes, and ultimately being able to ask specific questions of its genome.

Fernandez Robledo obtained Crypthecodinium samples from the National Center for Marine Algae and Microbiota at Bigelow Laboratory, and he was assisted by an undergraduate from Colby College as well as a master's student with this research. The protocols the team established, as well as all others described in the paper, are freely available online to help other scientists benefit from this effort.

"The process of tool development inherently includes failures as well as successes, and the challenge to secure funding for this type of work has previously restricted scientists from making progress in this area," Fernandez Robledo said. "The Moore Foundation deserves a lot of credit for recognizing that the most interesting science happens at new frontiers, and that all results are valuable and sharing them helps to move the field forward."

In addition to Fernandez Robledo, several other research teams succeeded in introducing DNA into marine protists. They are now working to employ genetic techniques such as CRISPR/Cas9 to interrogate these microbial genomes, a critical step that will allow scientists to identify the functions of specific genes and potentially harness them to develop beneficial applications.

The Nature Methods paper brings together 113 coauthors from 53 institutions across 14 countries, and it offers a wealth of methods for conducting genetic research in marine protists. The project efforts were accelerated by active communication and collaboration among the researchers, who have shared their protocols in a dedicated community group called Protist Research to Optimize Tools in Genetics (PROT-G) on the protocol-hosting website protocols.io.

"This paper is a landmark achievement after several years of hard work to solve numerous technical challenges in the laboratory," said Adam Jones, program officer at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. "We look forward to seeing how the protocols and guidance offered by the scientists in this newly available resource accelerate genetic tool development in marine protists."

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Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences is an independent, nonprofit research institute located in East Boothbay, Maine. From the Arctic to the Antarctic, Bigelow Laboratory scientists use cutting-edge techniques to understand the ocean's mysteries, address its challenges, and unlock its hidden opportunities. Learn more at bigelow.org, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
By Ofeliya Afandiyeva

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) plans to send a new batch of oil to Belarus in April, local media reported.

We plan to ship in April one batch of oil from the Georgian port of Supsa to Belarus, deputy head of the Public Relations and Event Management Department of SOCAR Ibrahim Ahmadov told local media on April 7.

He said that the volume of this batch will be 85,000-90,000 tons. The tanker will probably be sent on April 8 as soon as the weather improves, Ahmadov said.

As it was earlier reported, Socar Trading (a subsidiary of SOCAR) in March delivered three consignments of oil to the Belarussian concern Belneftekhim with a total volume of about 250,000 tons via the port of Odessa and the Odessa-Brody pipeline: March 12 - 90,000 tons of Azeri Light oil arrived from Ceyhan, March 15  80,000 tons of Urals oil from Novorossiysk, March 24 - 80,000 tons of Azeri light oil from Supsa.

Further, oil was transported through the Odessa-Brody pipeline and then through Brody-Mozyr to the Mozyr Oil Refinery.

According to the provided information by Belneftekhim, SOCAR can transport about 1 million tons of oil to Belarus in 2020.

Oil was transported from Azerbaijan to Belarus via the Odessa-Brody pipeline in 2011. Although the contract provides for the transportation of 4 million tons of oil, the actual volume was about 900,000 tons.

Belarus purchased oil from SOCAR in 2011 and 2016. Azerbaijan also purchases Belarusian oil products.

Belneftekhim (Belarusian State Concern for Oil and Chemistry), which was established in 1997 performs a full cycle of works related to crude oil exploration and production, its transportation, refining and oil product sales.
Within minutes of the signed executive order, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, issued a joint statement calling the order unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled to block Evers order at 5 p.m. Monday.

Zeman held training the day before an election as usual, citing the contested order as reason to ensure they were prepared. Hearing the order, she said it was almost expected.

I kind of knew it was going to come down to the last minute, Zeman said. Its been so back and forth, I knew things were going to be last minute.

The city had already sent out 3,000 absentee ballots and received about 2,200, more than they ever have, Zeman said.

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In Portage, Moe said there were calls from voters asking to have absentee ballots sent to them, but the deadline was Friday. As of Thursday afternoon, the city had received 1,700 absentee ballots, which is way off the charts, Moe said. The last presidential primary in 2016 garnered about 800.
Waitrose has been forced to apologise after making staff pay back time taken off work to self-isolate - while furloughed John Lewis workers are given their full salaries.

Supermarket bosses sparked outrage yesterday when one employee claimed workers had to pay back up to two weeks' sick leave if they or someone in their household had coronavirus symptoms.

Waitrose staff were furious and feared infectious colleagues would come back to work at risk of spreading the virus because they 'couldn't afford to be off'.

They also hit out at bosses for 'treating the two halves of the company differently', as John Lewis staff who have been furloughed after 50 stores closed, are being paid 100 per cent of their salaries.

But the upmarket food retailer has now apologised, admitting bosses 'got it wrong' and have promised to change their policy.

Waitrose (Milton Keynes store pictured) sparked outrage yesterday after it emerged bosses were making staff pay back any time spent off self-isolating due to coronavirus

A Waitrose spokesman said in a statement: 'We are really sorry that we got it wrong. Weve listened to our Partners and changed our policy.'

Previously the chain claimed it was asking staff to 'time bank' their sick days, which meant they would still be paid but have to work off their leave at a later date.

But making a full U-turn, the spokesman added: 'Partners who are self isolating without symptoms and unable to work from home will no longer be required to time bank any of their time. Instead they will be on authorised paid absence from day one.'

A whistleblower revealed the news to The National on Sunday, saying: 'Lots of people who have worked with Waitrose for ages and who are self isolating or shielding family members are now getting phone calls saying they will have to pay time back.

'It's just a massive kick in the teeth. Most of the staff are really honest but now they will have to lie and come in to work even if they are not supposed to or pay back between 74 and 78 hours if they are full time and self-isolate for a fortnight.'

Waitrose is owned by the John Lewis Partnership, which was forced to put nearly 1,400 staff on furlough after John Lewis closed 50 stores nationwide.

Both Waitrose staff and shoppers hit out at the supermarket over the claims yesterday

Some have been drafted in to help at Waitrose, but the whistleblower claimed John Lewis staff were not faced with the same 'punitive' payback measures as their Waitrose colleagues.

John Lewis staff who are 'shielding' at home will get 100 per cent of their salaries for the 12 weeks they are off work.

One Waitrose employee wrote on Twitter yesterday: 'Waitrose, John Lewis were in helping us at Waitrose stores and now they've been told they can stay safe at home with 80 per cent of their pay.

'Whilst us Waitrose staff have to go into work and risk ours and our families lives... how is this far? I thought we were 'one' partnership?'

A shopper wrote simply: 'Waitrose treat your staff better,' while someone else posted: 'Shame on you clawing back salaries for staff self-isolating.'

Over the weekend it was announced that all Waitrose employees will receive a 200 bonus for continuing to work throughout the deadly virus outbreak.

Shoppers are pictured queueing outside a Waitrose store in south London

Both in-store and through their home delivery, Waitrose has taken a number of measures to protect staff and customers from COVID-19.

Last weekend it banned couples from shopping together to increase capacity in stores while still maintaining social distancing.

Like at many other supermarkets, tape has been laid down on the floor to help shoppers stay 6ft apart from one another and queues are being spaced out evenly.

Waitrose is not part of any workers' union, but some employees are represented by UDSAW, the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers.

They said in a statement yesterday: 'Usdaw is working with employers to ensure that our members have the support they need to limit the spread of the virus as much as possible.

'Some of the measures we have secured include paid time off for sickness and self-isolation, ensuring that staff are not penalised under any absence policies for time off, access to hand washing facilities, hand sanitiser, clean workplaces and appropriate safety equipment.

'We are also expecting employers to take appropriate security measures to keep workers safe. Any Usdaw member with concerns should contact the union for advice.'
Dr. Anthony Fauci answers a question during a press conference as members of the administration look on, at the White House in Washington, on March 2, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Nebraska and Iowa Have Taken Actions Functionally Equivalent to Stay at Home Orders: Fauci

Two of the eight states without stay at home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic have taken a number of actions that are similar to orders issued in other states, a top federal health official said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said his comments last week about a national stay at home order stoked a public response against states without a shelter in place mandate.

When I mentioned that, I think there was a public response that they werent really doing anything at all. And they really are doing a very good job, Fauci told reporters on Monday night at the White House in Washington.

Fauci spoke with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts earlier in the day.

Those are the only two that I spoke to [out of the eight]. But it was a really good conversation. I want to make sure people understand that just because they dont have a very strict stay-at-home order, they have in place a lot of things that are totally compatible with what everyone else is doing, Fauci emphasized.

Even though they have not given a strict stay-at-homewhat they are doing is really functionally equivalent to that.

Reynolds said Monday night that she had a good conversation with Fauci. After his comments last week, Reynolds said the doctor might not know everything about the situations in each state.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds waves after speaking during a ceremonial swearing-in at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa, on May 24, 2017. (Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo)

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts speaks to President Donald Trump during a meeting on trade with governors and members of Congress at the White House in Washington on April 12, 2018. (Chris Kleponis  Pool/Getty Images)

You cant just look at a map and assume no action has been taken. That is completely false, she said at a press conference, listing steps she had ordered since the first case of COVID-19 was identified in the state on March 8. Officials have closed schools, mandated the closure of some so-called non-essential businesses, and told people not to gather in groups of 11 or more.

If you did a side by side comparison with what we are doing in Iowa and what states are doing, they are much the same.

Ricketts said in a statement on Monday that he and Fauci are on the same page when it comes to responding to COVID-19.

COVID-19 is a disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

President Donald Trump has supported governors taking actions they think are best. While some states might not have an actual stay at home order, residents of the states are practicing social distancing, according to the president.

Theyre doing a fantastic job. Take a look at where they are, in terms of levels, he told reporters late Monday.

Many of the states without stay at home orders have low case numbers and deaths. Some, including Wyoming, have zero deaths.

Id love not to get involved with that and not from a legal standpoint, just a moral, constitutional standpoint. Because legally, I can, but morally, I believe in our constitution, Trump added.

Id love to be able to let the governors do what they have to do.
A nationwide shortage of face masks has forced some doctors to source their own personal protective equipment from Bunnings.

Victorian emergency doctor Steve Parnis revealed supplies are so limited among medical professionals they're having to buy their own equipment.

'I've seen department directors going to Bunnings and seen people look and hope they might have contacts overseas,' Dr Parnis said on ABC's Q&A on Monday night.

Nurses have also been asked to ration face masks to two per shift, according to a leaked email from a private hospital operator obtained by the Australian.

A nationwide shortage of face masks has forced some doctors to source their own from Bunnings Warehouse

Dr Panris said the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) is the 'number one concern for health workers' across the country at the moment.

The doctor's claim was backed up by Victorian GP Vyom Sharma, who said his practice is limiting face to face consultations because they're running so low on supplies.

'We are rationing probably down to 10 or something like that, and we're trying to save them for when we really need them,' Dr Sharma said.

Pictured: a nurse conducts screening at an Adelaide COVID-19 clinic

PICTURED: Victorian Emergency Doctor Steve Parnis revealed supplies are so limited among medical professionals they're having to buy their own equipment

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

'And the concern is it's actually affecting the nature of care we can provide.'

The shortage has also resulted in directives from Australia's second-biggest private hospital operator, Healthscope for frontline workers to ration supplies.

Employees working in emergency departments, intensive care units, and respiratory wards are required to wear surgical masks to protect themselves from COVID-19.

But a leaked email from the group's administration has revealed they are struggling to manage supplies.

'People in these environments are asked to limit your use to two masks per shift,' Healthscope Chief Executive Steven Rubic wrote.

New South Wales government guidelines require healthcare professionals to change surgical masks if they become moist, soiled or removed to eat or drink (PICTURED: Health care workers at the Sydney Local Health District)

The company's head of human resources Katherine MacHutchison said while the company had 'ample stock' there was a need to 'use resources prudently' in the same email.

New South Wales government guidelines require healthcare professionals to change surgical masks if they become moist, soiled or removed to eat or drink.

The directive to ration face masks by medical professionals has raised concerns about the impact on worker's safety.

Australian businesses have started looking for innovative ways to resolve the crisis, while the federal government has secured a further 30million masks for the nation's healthcare sector.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Healthscope for comment.
Some employees of a major Port Arthur refinery have questioned their companys efforts to prevent infection during the COVID-19 outbreak, a conflict the United Steelworkers Union says is becoming common across the industry.

Reuters reported Tuesday that some employees at the Valero Energy refinery had voiced concerns about the companys slow response to prevent further infections after two workers tested positive. The news agency cited unnamed sources in a story datelined Houston.

Valero did not confirm or deny the claims of confirmed cases at the refinery, but company spokeswoman Lillian Riojas gave a similar statement to one delivered last week to The Enterprise after other companies in southern Jefferson County confirmed cases at their work sites.

RELATED: Motiva confirms coronavirus case at Port Arthur chemical plant

We dont publicize individual cases of COVID-19, but we have procedures in place as outlined by the CDC and are communicating with all personnel at the site to keep them informed, Riojas said in an email to the Enterprise on March 31.

On Tuesday, she reiterated to The Enterprise that the company was protecting employee privacy. She said the company is performing deep cleaning and sterilization to any work area that may have been used by an infected worker and is staying in close contact with other employees who might have come in contact with an infected person.

Riojas also said the company was working under guidance from and cooperation with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health authorities, but didnt identify which local agencies would be contacted if a confirmed case was reported.

RELATED: Contractor at Nederland Sunoco site tests positive for coronavirus

Also on Tuesday, Total Petrochemicals and Refining USA confirmed that an employee at its Port Arthur refinery had tested positive for COVID-19, but said the worker had not been on the site since March 26. Affected employees who may have came into contact were directed to self-quarantine, the company said in a statement.

Case numbers continue to grow in Southeast Texas and in the petrochemical base of Jefferson County, but most companies have continued to have production employees on-site and few have publicly reported slow-downs on processing units.

Michael Wright, director of health, safety and environment for the Steelworkers, said the desire of some companies to keep revenue coming in during the national economic slowdown, coupled with some state governments giving exceptions to key industries, has created some labor conflicts across several industries.

There is a lot of fear, not just in our union, but anywhere workers are still being asked to come in large groups together, he said. The concern is companies that are still working and focusing on keeping up production may not be doing the best practices to protect employees.

The Steelworkers provided a constantly updating fact sheet on its website to help guide union locals struggling with informing members on how to proceed.

RELATED: Exxon Mobil cuts continue

Wright said the first question on the fact sheet locals are asked to consider is whether their employer is an essential need for the public or if they have other motives for staying open.

By essential, we define that as work or production of an item that is protecting peoples lives, Wright said. If it does have to stay open, a company has to ask what can we do to keep people as safe as they can be but thats with the understanding all the mitigation measures in the workplace put together are not as good as people staying at home.

jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/jdickjournalism
Delhi Labour Minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday said he would donate one month's salary to the 'CM Relief Fund' to support the AAP government's five-point action plan to contain the spread of coronavirus in the national capital.

As part of tha plan, one lakh random rapid COVID-19 tests will be conducted in the city's hotspot areas.

"I am giving one month's salary to the 'CM Relief Fund' for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's five-point action plan for the fight against COVID-19.#DelhiFightsCorona," Rai tweeted in Hindi.

Announcing the plan earlier in the day, Kejriwal said Delhi government will take over private hospitals and 12,000 rooms of hotels in a phased manner if coronavirus cases constantly rise and reach up to active 30,000 cases in the city.

The chief minister said that the government has earmarked 400 beds in three private hospitals - Max Saket (318 beds), Apollo (50 beds) and Gangaram Colemet (42 beds).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 3, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Navy Secretary Resigns Over Carrier Remarks, Pentagon Names Replacement

Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly submitted his resignation on Tuesday, according to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who said he accepted it and nominated Under Secretary of the Army James McPherson as his replacement.

Modly resigned after he made controversial remarks to the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt about their dismissed captain, Brett Crozier, whom he called too stupid and too naive in a speech, which was later leaked to the press, calling on the Navy to use stronger efforts to try and curb the spread of COVID-19 on the ship.

This morning I accepted Secretary Modlys resignation. He resigned on his own accord, putting the Navy and the Sailors above self so that the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, and the Navy, as an institution, can move forward, Esper said in a statement on Tuesday in confirming the move.

This morning I accepted Secretary Modlys resignation. With the approval of the President, I am appointing current Army Undersecretary Jim McPherson as acting Secretary of the Navy. pic.twitter.com/FvfgOwuXw4  @EsperDoD (@EsperDoD) April 7, 2020

Esper added that with President Donald Trumps approval, McPherson would take over as the acting Navy Secretary.

In an email sent to Navy leadership, Crozier said he was concerned about there not being enough anti-COVID-19 measures for his crew on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which had dozens of cases of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus on board. Crozier later tested positive for the virus, according to reports.

If he didnt think, in my opinion, that this information wasnt going to get out to the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either A. Too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this, Modly allegedly told crew members on the ship, adding that the alternative is that he did this on purpose.

On Monday morning, Modly said in a statement that he stands by his comments but apologized later in the day. Let me be clear: I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive or stupid, he said. I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) is seen while entering into the port in Da Nang, Vietnam, on March 5, 2020.(Reuters/Kham/File Photo)

In his letter, Crozier sought action from the Navy to remove most personnel from the carrier.

We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die, Crozier wrote. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset  our sailors.

Trump on Monday said he doesnt believe Croziers career should end over the letter, adding that he might get involved.
Lieutenant general BS Raju, Commander of Srinagar based 15 Corps, has highlighted how the army fought back hard and showed a lot of grit and valour during the fight against the terrorists who had infiltrated into India. The Indian Army neutralised five terrorists in an encounter in the Keran area of Kashmirs Kupwara district on Sunday.

READ: Keran Ops: Army Thwarts Pak Infiltration Bid In Kashmir; 5 Terrorists Killed

'Soldiers fought for the country'

Describing the attack and the steps taken to neutralise the terrorists, ANI quoted him as saying, "As this column was approaching the target area, one of the terrorists, who probably was a guide, started to return back towards the LC and he was neutralised immediately," he said.

Lt Gen Raju said that the special forces, who were approaching the target area, were traversing an extremely challenging terrain in very high snow levels and over extremely steep slopes. He said the special forces were able to neutralise the remaining four terrorists. "In this operation, we were able to recover 5 AK-47 rifles along with its ammunition, two pistols, satellite radio communication equipment, VHF equipment along with a large quantity of administrative stores," he said.

READ: J&K: Army Foils Infiltration Bid By Terrorists Along LoC, Five Martyred

The Army commander went on to add that the soldiers of the Indian Army were martyred in defence of the nation and paid his tributes for their sacrifice. "I would also like to take this opportunity on all behalf of all ranks of Chinar Corps to pay my tribute to these five men and their families and the sacrifice they have made is in the true spirit and highest traditions of Indian Army. I would like to assure countrymen that while you are busy fighting COVID, we deployed along LOC will guard it and allow no mischief by Pakistan," he said.

"The continuous pursuit led to the neutralization of five hard-core terrorists. We remain committed in our resolve to guard our border and also ensure zero infiltration," he added.

The encounter occurred in Shalbatoo Jumgund area after the militants from Pakistan crossed over to India's side of the line of control. Five soldiers of the elite 4 Parachute unit engaged the infiltrators at point-blank range amidst heavy snow, neutralising the entire batch before succumbing to injuries in the fierce combat.

READ: 90-yr-old Ex-Army Officer Donates 2 Months Pension To PM CARES; Showers Praises For PM

The elite soldiers were airdropped near the LoC as a part of the Keran operation, which began on April 1 upon receiving information that Pakistan is pushing terrorists infected with COVID-19 in India to weaken its battle against the pandemic.

As per sources, a group of terrorists crossed LoC during the night of April 1 along the Gulab Post in Keran Sector. However, they were blocked by a patrolling party of 8 JAT regiment deployed in Shalbutoo Jumgund. After the initial exchange of fire, the terrorists managed to take shelter in the dense forests.

However, a massive search operation was launched with additional reinforcement of elite 4-Para soldiers. On Saturday evening during searches by 8 JAT and 4 Para, a contact was established again. A heavy exchange of fire continued throughout the night during which five militants were killed.

Five soldiers of the army who sources say belonged to the special forces laid down their lives while fighting these terrorists in close combat. The bodies and the terrorists and the mortal remains of five soldiers were found at the distance of one-two meters from each other

READ: Army Extends Pre-mature Retirement Dates Of Officers Till June 30 Amid Coronavirus Fight
Group says it will no longer participate in fruitless meetings on prisoner exchange, a key part of deal with the US.

The Taliban have broken off talks with the Afghan government on a prisoner exchange, a main step in peace talks being brokered by the United States after it agreed on a troop withdrawal pact with the armed group.

In a tweet first sent in Pashto around midnight on Tuesday (19:30 GMT Monday), the Talibans political spokesman Suhail Shaheen said its technical team would not participate in fruitless meetings, and the release of their prisoners was being delayed under one pretext or another.

Therefore, our technical team will not participate in fruitless meetings with relevant sides starting from tomorrow, Shaheen, who is based in Doha, said in a subsequent tweet in English.

Washington signed a deal with the Taliban in late February that required the Afghan government  which was not a signatory to the accord  to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners, and for the armed group to release 1,000 pro-government captives in return.

The pact between the United States and the Taliban, under which US-led international forces will withdraw in exchange for Taliban security guarantees, is seen as the best chance yet of ending the 18-year war.

But peace hinges on talks between the US-backed Afghan government and the armed group. A prisoner exchange is meant to build confidence on both sides for those talks.

Taliban and Afghan government representatives have been holding talks in Kabul since last week to try to finalise the prisoner swap that was originally supposed to have happened by March 10.

(2/2)

But, unfortunately, their release has been delayed under one pretext or another till now. Therefore, our technical team will not participate in fruitless meetings with relevant sides starting from tomorrow.  Suhail Shaheen (@suhailshaheen1) April 6, 2020

Matin Bek, a member of the governments negotiating team, said the release had been delayed because the Taliban are demanding the release of 15 top commanders.

We cannot release the killers of our people, Bek told reporters on Monday. We dont want them to go back to the battlefield and capture a whole province.

Bek added that the government was ready to release up to 400 low-threat Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture in return for a considerable reduction in violence, but the Taliban rejected that offer.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Pompeo last month travelled to Kabul and the Qatari capital of Doha in a bid to nudge the prisoner exchange process forward.

Political turmoil

On Sunday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced his new cabinet even as he squabbles with his main political challenger over last years election results.

Ghanis move came as Afghan mediators  including former President Hamid Karzai  shuttled between the president and his opponent, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who has also declared himself Afghanistans president.

The countrys Independent Election Commission has declared Ghani a winner, but Abdullah and the Elections Complaint Commission have charged widespread irregularities.

Attempts to negotiate an end to the political turmoil roiling Kabul have made little progress, frustrating the US and potentially derailing the next stage in the Afghan peace process.

Washington has threatened to withhold $1bn in aid this year if Ghani and Abdullah cant reach a compromise.
New Delhi, April 7 : Insolvent German wind turbine maker Senvion GmbH has finally decided to exit India operations by selling its local manufacturing operation to a strategic investor.

The company on Tuesday announced that it has entered into a binding agreement with a strategic investor to sell and transfer its fully operational Indian entity.

This is further to company's announcement last year where Senvion India was made an independent entity to manufacture, supply and operate Senvion turbines.

"The parties have now entered in the final closure stage where legal documentations and agreements are being discussed. We expect, subject to any regulatory approvals, the transaction to close before June 2020. Further details will be published in due course," the German turbine maker said in a statement.

Thorsten Bieg, Partner at GA-RG who joined the Management Board of Senvion GmbH as a restructuring expert, said: "This is a positive outcome for our Indian entity to find a safe harbour and continue to serve one of the largest Renewable Energy market. We have started working towards an earliest closure and transfer of the Indian business to the new shareholders." "As announced earlier, Senvion India is fully independent entity of Senvion GmbH. Now, we have also signed legally binding agreements to transfer the relevant Intellectual Property and knowhow to Senvion India, which will be effective upon the closure." Senvion India makes 85 per cent of its turbines in India and has created over 1,000 jobs directly and indirectly. "We will continue to provide world class wind energy solution to projects in India. Looking ahead to the weeks to come, the management team will continue to put all efforts in concluding the transaction at the earliest," Amit Kansal, CEO & MD of Senvion India, said.

Senvion India has been operational since 2016 and has a fully manufacturing set-up in India along with full end-to-end delivery of Turnkey solutions and after-market service. It has localized its turbines upto 85% thus creating jobs in India and opportunity to ancillary industry related to wind power.

Senvion recently installed a prototype of its 130m rotor turbine which is one of the finest technologies for Indian wind regime. Senvion has as a world class R&D centre in India, which will serve the emerging Senvion India independent entity to develop and deploy new and future technologies.
BOSTON, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Since the early warnings around COVID-19, Emeritus has been on the front lines offering expertise to educators who need to maintain a connection with students forced into remote learning. To meet the needs of their university partners, including Columbia Business School and Imperial College Business School, Emeritus is shifting face-to-face executive education courses to online formats.

Professors will deliver the coursework live online, so students experience lectures and work in real time. Emeritus conducts more than 4,000 live online teaching events each year for students from more than 70 countries. Once a school gives the go-ahead, Emeritus has the capacity to quickly enable such programs, and it will be easy for students to gain access and join.

Pierre Yared, Vice Dean for Executive Education and MUTB Professor of International Business at Columbia Business School says, "Thanks to our longstanding partnership with EMERITUS, we are well-positioned to deliver the type of high-quality professional development that executives have come to expect from Columbia Business School. Our wealth of experience creating impactful online content has allowed us to quickly transition in-person learning opportunities to a virtual environment, ensuring that our clients can continue to benefit from our world-renowned faculty in a convenient and safe manner."

Emeritus remains committed to providing education that is accessible and affordable to students around the world. Its online programs are practical and allow organizations  both universities and businesses  to continue educating and training their workforces.

"In these challenging times, we are happy to pivot from our existing partnerships to be able to provide quick and easy online solutions to our university partners. We are enabling them to continue to educate professionals and executives for whatever the future holds," says Lisa Rohrer, Director of University Partnerships for Emeritus.

About Emeritus ( www.Emeritus.org )

Emeritus offers professional education courses in collaboration with top-ranked universities: MIT, Columbia, Dartmouth, Wharton, UC Berkeley, Cambridge, London Business School and others. Using technology and curriculum innovation, Emeritus enables working professionals who cannot enroll in full-time courses to access a top-tier, affordable education that will give them the skills needed to be the business leaders of tomorrow. Emeritus' global team includes 550+ employees located in Boston, Dubai, Mexico City, Mumbai, New Delhi, Shanghai and Singapore.

Contact Kiki Keating

+1-603-858-2733

[email protected]

SOURCE Emeritus
A woman was airlifted to a trauma center after suffering a gunshot wound to a leg in an unincorporated part of Contra Costa County on Monday night, according to the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District.

The shooting was reported at 8:44 p.m. in the 2600 block of Dutch Slough Road, which is just east of Oakley city limits, fire officials said. A 35-year-old woman was transported via helicopter to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek. The severity of her injury wasn't immediately provided.
EUGENE, Ore.  If youve got the skills, theres work waiting for you.

Hamilton Construction is working on several large projects right now. One of the biggest is the Delta Highway and Beltline interchange.

With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the company said theyve made some changes, including moving morning meetings outside. Many are working from home.

And at the work sites, field safety manager Rich Carden said like everyone else, theyre having to maintain six feet of distance.

Its going to be a little slower than our typical production rates, but it is what it is, and our guys are complying well and understand the seriousness of the situation, he said.

There was some concern the project would be slowed because of trouble getting materials out of Canada, but he said it all worked out and the project is rolling right along.

As part of our Skilled to Work initiative, we partner with employers in our area to address the lack of workers for skilled jobs.
YEREVAN, APRIL 7, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian addressed a congratulatory message on the Motherhood and Beauty Day, the Presidents Office told Armenpress.

The message reads:

Dear women,

This year I want to congratulate you on the Motherhood and Beauty Day with a special warmth and love.

I want to address my special congratulations, wishes and words of gratitude to female doctors, nurses which during these difficult days are providing care in line with the medical care to the patients in hospitals.

I also want to express my gratitude to all those women, be they police officer, military officer, rescuer or serviceman, who endanger their life and health these days for us all due to their work, profession, to those women whose husbands do not come back home these days from hospitals, service and workplace as they are fulfilling their duties.

A woman, and especially the Armenian woman, has always been the pillar of the family, taking the whole burden and difficulties. Now, when most of the people have to stay at home due to the current situation, a womans burden and housework has further increased conditioned with the organization of daily family life, remote learning of kids and grandchildren, economic issues, etc. But the Armenian woman has never been depressed and has always managed to stay firm, believing that each difficulty is passing.

Dear women,

Spring is always full of expectations and hopes. But in this years holiday congratulations, maybe the external shine and form are a little more restrained. But believe that our love and gratitude to you never change.

Because, dear women, life starts from you and continues with you.

Be healthy, happy and live long.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip on tour in Australia in 2006. (Getty Images)

The Queen has shared special messages with some Commonwealth nations as they battle the coronavirus pandemic.

The monarch gave a rare address on Sunday evening, which was to the UK and to the Commonwealth, but she followed it up with additional messages to the Commonwealth nations.

The Queen is particularly passionate about the 54 Commonwealth nations and keeps abreast of developments in all of them on a regular basis.

Here are some of her messages to her Commonwealth.

Canada

The Queens message said: As the people of Canada experience profound and rapid changes to their lives, we are all concerned about the future. It may be difficult to remain hopeful when faced with loss and uncertainty, but Canadians have many reasons for optimism, even in the most trying times.

OQueen Elizabeth II is greeted by members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police musical ride in Ottawa in 2002. (Getty Images)

Across Canada, countless people continue to care for the most vulnerable and to provide essential services for their fellow citizens. I am thankful for their dedication and for the hope it offers.

In the coming weeks and months, the people of Canada will need to continue to work together to ensure the health and vitality of our communities. I know that Canadians will remain optimistic and will rise to the challenges ahead.

My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Canada at this time.

Read more: Queen's historic coronavirus speech prompts outpouring of praise for monarch

Julie Payette, the governor general of Canada, responded by saying: One cannot choose when hardship comes, but one can choose how to respond to it in times of crisis. Canadians are grateful for the incredible dedication and care Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II continues to show to all. Like many around the world, we listened to her inspiring words as she addressed the nation about the coronavirus outbreak.

Australia

The Queens message said: At a time when people across the Commonwealth are experiencing a profound and rapid change to their lives, the pain of lost loved ones, and an understandable concern about the future, my thoughts are with all Australians.

Story continues

While it can be difficult to remain hopeful in such challenging times, especially following the summer's devastating bushfires and recent flooding, I am confident that the stoic and resilient nature of the Australian people will rise to the challenge.

I extend my sincere admiration to the many Australians who work tirelessly to help those affected, provide essential services for their fellow citizens and continue to care for the most vulnerable.

Read more: Queen's message: Four other times the Queen gave a special address

Queen Elizabeth II tours the grounds of Admiralty House in 2006 in Sydney, Australia. (Getty Images)

You will remain in my prayers in the coming months, with the resolute knowledge that with hard work, faith and unity, we will rise to the challenges ahead and ensure the health and vitality of all Australia's communities.

The message was sent to the people of Australia via the governor-general David Hurley.

The messages came after her televised address to the UK and the Commonwealth, which was broadcast across several networks on Sunday evening.

Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice

Live: Follow all the latest updates from the UK and around the world

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In it, she said: The moments when the United Kingdom has come together to applaud its care and essential workers will be remembered as an expression of our national spirit; and its symbol will be the rainbows drawn by children.

Across the Commonwealth and around the world, we have seen heart-warming stories of people coming together to help others, be it through delivering food parcels and medicines, checking on neighbours, or converting businesses to help the relief effort.

And though self-isolating may at times be hard, many people of all faiths, and of none, are discovering that it presents an opportunity to slow down, pause and reflect, in prayer or meditation.
Judge Rinder has refused to be tested for COVID-19, despite his symptoms, as he feels the NHS should be the first in line for testing.

The 41-year-old TV personality, told Lorraine Kelly on Tuesday: 'I refuse to take [a test] until NHS staff have access to them. I don't want to buy myself out of this.'

Of his symptoms, he described suffering from 'a blazing temperature, a grim cough' and being 'immersed in lethargy'.

'I don't want to buy myself out of this!' Judge Rinder has refused to be tested for COVID-19, despite his symptoms, as he feels the NHS should be the first in line for testing

'There's this moment after seven/eight days where you feel you're turning a corner and you realise your body is relapsing,' he recounted. 'I think that's what's happened to Boris [Johnson]. After about 11 days I was just left with a bit of sinus pain.

'I'm convinced that a good deal of anxiety is how people feel, but these symptoms are very real.

'But tens of thousands are recovering every day. NHS staff are working on the front line brilliantly.'

The TV presenter and criminal barrister - whose real name is Robert Rinder - confirmed his grandfather died at the age of 92 after contracting coronavirus last week.

The 41-year-old TV personality, told Lorraine Kelly on Tuesday: 'I refuse to take [a test] until NHS staff have access to them. I don't want to buy myself out of this' [picture shows staff waiting to test NHS workers for coronavirus at a drive through testing site on Tuesday]

Fake it til you bake it: Judge Rinder also told Lorraine about his appearance on The Great British Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer

Of this, he said: 'It's the most painful thing in the world. I loved him very much. What a privilege to be in my 40s and have a grandparent for as long as I was gifted him.

'Whenever i saw him he just wanted to speak of the good news and how people were reacting to the crisis.

'He was delighted by everyone around him and the community response to help him. He was enraptured by what the NHS were doing.'

Judge Rinder announced the sad news during Friday's This Morning, as he urged viewers to try and remain optimistic in the nationwide lockdown.

Robert branded COVID-19 'a terrible disease' as he told show hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford that his elderly relative passed away on Wednesday evening after having lived through World War II.

Staying strong: The criminal barrister and TV presenter urged viewers to stay positive during the pandemic, and said he vows to remember his grandfather for his optimism

Robert fought back tears as he spoke about his grandfather's death during the video link, saying: 'My grandfather was 92, and he passed away two nights ago of this terrible disease.

'He survived the Second World War, and he was a man that conspired and determined to see joy in the world.

'As much as there is terrible and appealing news out there we must as a community and neighbours see that there are thousands of people that are recovering fro this disease every single day, that we as a nation are responding positively.'

'That's absolutely the message I know he would've wanted to share, whenever I saw him which was very often he'd say, ''what good news is there son?'''

Judge Rinder also told Lorraine about his appearance on The Great British Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer.

Optimistic: The criminal barrister said it had been a 'challenging time' but he's choosing to remember his grandfather in a positive light

'I don't think Paul Hollywood has ever looked at anyone the way he looked at me,' he teased. 'I don't know if he loved my soggy bottom, or if he was just in love with me!

'I don't think people will ever have seen baking done in the same way, it's like being at the birth of a new culinary moment.'

He also added that he got a bit too merry on the show.

'I brought some wine to decorate my cake, but I thought it might go to waste, so I drunk most of it - they won't be allowed to show quite how drunk I was. But it might explain the state of my creation.'
A star-studded lineup -- including Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Billie Eilish and John Legend -- has been assembled for One World: Together at Home, an April 18 telecast organized by Global Citizen and the World Health Organization.

Other participants will include Elton John, Alanis Morissette, Chris Martin, Stevie Wonder, Eddie Vedder, Kacey Musgraves, Lizzo, Keith Urban, Billie Joe Armstrong and Andrea Bocelli. Three late-night talk-show hosts -- Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert -- will oversee the proceedings.

The two-hour special, which aims to celebrate and support health-care workers on the front lines during the coronavirus pandemic, will air on a host of TV networks and digital platforms. These will include ABC, NBC, CBS, iHeartMedia, Amazon Prime Video, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Start time is 7 p.m. CT.

Although the One World telecast isnt billed as a telethon or fundraiser, it is linked to the World Health Organizations COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and presumably will spur donations to the fund, along with increased awareness of its mission.

As well as driving combined action to support the WHOs COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, the broadcast will highlight stories from the worlds health care heroes, as well as messages of gratitude and appreciation from those who theyve treated, the Global Citizen website says.

The talent lineup has been curated in collaboration with Lady Gaga, Global Citizen says.

Global Citizen is the organization behind the Together At Home webcast series, which has featured performances by Chris Martin, John Legend, Common, Hozier, Rufus Wainwright, Jennifer Hudson, Miguel, H.E.R., Rufus Wainwright, Anthony Hamilton and more. Each installment is a virtual no-contact concert that aims to encourage everyone to take action and help stop the spread of COVID-19."

During a Monday press conference announcing the One World: Together at Home special, Gaga said $35 million had been raised to support Global CItizens COVID-19 relief efforts over the past seven days.

The pop star also paid tribute to health-care workers who are putting their lives at risk and working under difficult conditions during the pandemic.

My heart is very, very aching and warm for those who are -- for ER doctors as well as nurses who are sleeping in cars to make sure they dont infect their families or other patients. What you are doing is putting yourselves in harms way to help the world, and we all salute you, Gaga said. And you are a triumph, truly.

Money raised by the Solidarity Response Fund will be used for personal protective equipment, supplies and testing equipment, research and development efforts and more, Gaga said.

The World Health Organization is committed to defeating the coronavirus pandemic with science and public health measures, and supporting the health workers who are on the frontlines of the response, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the organization, said in a statement. We may have to be apart physically for a while, but we can still come together virtually to enjoy great music. The One World: Together At Home concert represents a powerful show of solidarity against a common threat.

Coronavirus resources: Follow AL.coms live updates of coronavirus in Alabama. Find all of our coronavirus stories. Heres a continuously updated vital information post. A free text-messaging service so you can receive the most urgent coronavirus updates on your cellphone. And ask questions. To sign up, subscribe to Alabama Coronavirus Urgent Alerts. A new weekday newsletter is available. You can subscribe here. Also, download our mobile app where you can receive on-the-go notifications.
[April 07, 2020] pMD Sees Record Telemedicine Adoption During COVID-19 Outbreak

SAN FRANCISCO, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Amid the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, pMD , the innovation leader in health care technology and free secure communication tools, announced record adoption of their telehealth platform during the month of March. The use of telemedicine is going to be critical for management of this pandemic, said Dr. Stephen Parodi , an infectious disease specialist and executive with The Permanente Medical Group, the physician group associated with Kaiser Permanente. pMD was founded over 20 years ago with the mission to reduce medical errors and save patient lives; and in the midst of a global health crisis, the company finds itself able to do just that by offering free, reliable, and secure communication tools to health care practitioners and patients. Record Adoption Telehealth has emerged as a viable option to help slow the spread of the virus while continuing to provide patients with easy access to care and a high level of reassurance. pMD is such a blessing for us. My husband has severe heart and lung issues, said a patients wife. If he gets this bug it will be fatal, so we feel much relieved to be able to talk and see the doctor without the challenges of getting him out of the house and lifting the wheelchair, as well as the exposure [to the virus]. This is literally helping to save my husband's life. pMD reported significant telehealth adoption by both patients and providers in March, including more than: 36,000 new patients added to pMD,

A 12x growth in patients engaged in telehealth services on the platform,

An average of 2,000 unique video callers using pMD per day,

383 hours of video calls daily on average,

1800 unique practices video calling each day,

76 percent increase in total pMD users. To view the pMD telehealth growth infographic please click on the following link: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/80fb8b29-3a2e-4d77-b4f1-8143e7498ed0 In light of the profound disruption caused by the pandemic, we are hearing from practices around the country that have a need to offer telehealth services and are scrambling to do so, said Ted Ranney, vice president o business development at pMD. We are committed to supporting the health care industry and those fighting on the front line to flatten the curve by making it easier provide routine care, safely triage patients with symptoms, and keep vulnerable populations or those with mild symptoms in their homes; all while maintaining access to the care they need.



pMD Customers Using Telehealth Different specialties and practices often require unique workflow considerations. As such, there are many ways to implement telemedicine services depending on the practice and patient population. pMD works with all specialties and provides a comprehensive analysis and consultation to customize the workflow in the best interest of the practice. Example telemedicine workflows implemented by pMD groups include:

Renal Hypertension Center, a 25+ provider nephrology practice headquartered in Hudson, Florida is letting patients opt for, and often encouraging, a virtual visit via pMD in lieu of an office or home dialysis visit. Patients who opt-in are invited by the staff to download the pMD app. At their scheduled appointment time, a staff member messages the patient to check them in and document their self-taken vitals. A physician then initiates a secure video call with the patient from either their mobile device or computer. Once the visit is over, the staff member completes the checkout, schedules the next visit, and follows up through pMD Secure Messaging regarding labs and prescriptions. Using pMD for telehealth has not only made care accessible, safe, and easy for our patients but for our physicians as well, said Nickolas Picardi, billing manager at Renal Hypertension Center. Nephrology patients are already at higher risk to COVID-19 because of underlying chronic conditions. pMD makes it easy for us to conduct virtual telehealth visits on our phones, tablets, and computers. Patients really appreciate having the option to stay at home while still receiving the same level of care they are accustomed to. In fact, their family members frequently join, which makes the visit so much better! Our number one priority as a community is to keep our patients as safe as possible during these uncertain times, and pMD has an amazing, user-friendly interface to make it happen, adds Dr. Mrinalini Matcha, a physician at Renal Hypertension Center. Some practices have also made the tough decision to close their offices completely, relying solely on virtual visits for their patients. Such is the case for CritAcuity Medical Group, a pulmonology practice in East Norriton, Pennsylvania. Having pMD is giving us the ability to do telemedicine quickly in a time when we have to close our office to appointments due to COVID-19, says Joseph Spanier, COO of CritAcuity Medical Group in Pennsylvania. We are planning for longer-term telehealth, especially with the CMS restrictions being lifted, and I cant say enough how much of a lifesaver this will be. Its allowing us to not only continue to provide care to a very vulnerable population [pulmonary patients], but also helping us maintain revenue. Telehealth can also be used in a physical hospital setting to allow physicians to evaluate patients while limiting the dangerous exposure to providers. The Alaska Hospitalist Group, a 75+ provider hospitalist group in Anchorage, Alaska is using pMD to conduct virtual visits with patients exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 in the hospital. A nurse equipped with protective gear uses a tablet loaded with pMD at the patients bedside to launch a video call with a physician who evaluates the patient remotely. No matter the size or specialty, pMD Secure Messaging and telehealth functionality enables practices to facilitate timely communication when it matters most through secure text, video, and voice calling. In addition to being HIPAA-compliant, pMDs app-to-app communication allows physicians to continue to provide top-notch care without exposing their personal contact information and sacrificing their privacy. About pMD

pMD gives health care professionals powerful, intuitive mobile software that improves patient care. With pMD's mobile communication, data capture, and care navigation platforms, health care teams finally have an elegant and simple technology to maximize efficiency and collaboration, capturing everything right at the point of care. pMD interfaces with all major electronic medical records, hospital systems, and medical billing systems, enabling the efficient sharing of data and cutting down on medical errors. pMD is committed to developing the best solution and providing superior customer service. For more information, contact pMD or visit www.pmd.com . Media Contact

Ari Brosowsky

PR Manager

[email protected]

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ELKO  With the COVID-19 pandemic upon us, Elko County and more specifically, the Friends In Service Helping Food Bank (FISH), has been struggling to meet the exponential increase in demand for food needs of our community during this difficult time. Nevada Gold Mines recently stepped in to provide a very generous donation of $25,000, which will go directly towards purchasing food and goods.

It is amazing and unbelievable, said Executive Director Sherry Smith of the outpouring from the community and Nevada Gold Mines. We would like to thank Nevada Gold Mines for their very kind and thoughtful generosity. When we receive a check like this, we are beyond grateful.

These organizations are not only our benefactors, they are our friends, and we know they care about the communities theyre in and want to see us succeed in providing for families in need, especially now, she added.

The support is particularly appreciated during this difficult time, as the food bank is currently unable to accept private food donations due to COVID-19 precautions.

Greg Walker, Nevada Gold Mines executive managing director, reflected on the community investment saying, The world is facing unprecedented challenges due to the growing COVID-19 situation and now, more than ever, it is critical that we come together and support each other. NGM is a committed integral partner of the community, region and state. I hope that our contribution encourages others to give, as every donation makes a difference.

FISH is currently providing food to families in a drive-thru pick-up on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Soup Kitchen is serving to-go meals on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

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Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has delivered a State of the Nation address on how he plans to lift the country's desperate economy out of the coronavirus crisis. But as world governments unveil unprecedented spending packages to limit the damage to their economies, his message of fiscal discipline has sparked sharp criticism.

In the nearly deserted National Palace, Lopez Obrador delivered his speech in the heart of Mexico City, where he's chosen to live as well as work, during the six years of his presidency.

A maverick by nature, Lopez Obrador has eschewed the plush presidential palace of Los Pinos, slashed his salary by 60 percent, and scrapped the previous government's plans for a new airport at Texcoco in favour of upgrading an air force base at Santa Lucia.

He's put the presidential plane up for auction, preferring to fly on commercial airlines.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (a.k.a. AMLO), who's from the southern state of Tabasco, won the presidency on his third attempt. After 18 long years of trying, now he's determined to enjoy the fruits of his lifelong labour.

With his country under a loosely defined lockdown, he has refused to go into self-isolation, saying his political rivals will take over the country if he does.

Until recently, AMLO has elected to conduct daily business, including tours across the country, almost as normal. The 66-year-old suffered a suffered a heart attack in 2013, which puts him in the appreciably higher end of the risk barometer during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nevertheless, a couple of weekends ago, he visited the northwestern state of Sinaloa. He set aside social distancing and shook hands with Maria Consuelo Loera Perez, the 92-year-old mother of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, the former leader of the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel, who is serving a life sentence the United States.

Chapo, or Shorty in English, long proved a law and order liability due to his knack for jail-breaking. His extradition and incarceration far from Mexico was deemed necessary -- he had escaped from two of Mexico's so-called Laximum Security Prisons.

During his brief encounter with El Chapo's mother, the president assured her that he had received her request for help in order to visit her son in the US.

Helping the vulnerable

Even before his State of the Nation address, Obrador let it be known that during this crisis, his efforts will be focused on helping the poor, elderly and needy, with the greedy left to fend for themselves. He insisted: Wealth isn't contagious. We need to ensure a better income distribution.

AMLO often spits out the word "neoliberal" as the sum of all evil, stressing it must be combated and counterbalanced at all costs.

He pledged to create two million jobs during the next nine months. But the business sector and employers organisations warned that the coronavirus has put 18 eighteen million jobs in serious jeopardy.

Mexico heavily depends upon its tourism and service industries, which are already under intense strain. The national currency the peso has lost ten percent of its value in as many days.

Big plans, big promises, big challenges

The president says he's earmarking the equivalent of 13 billion dollars for the energy sector. But the State Petroleum Company PEMEX, a cash cow for umpteen administrations due to the lack of an effective taxation system, is almost literally upside-down. It needs at least seven times as much as this, or more.

Lopez Obrador's ever-present ambition to build a new oil refinery by the mid-point of his term, now looks a lot further away than it did at Christmas.

He's promising generous loans for small and family businesses as well as pensions for more than eight million elderly people. But experts warn that the Mexican economy could shrink by as much as 10 percent this year.

However, the president remains confident: This crisis is temporary. Normality will soon return. We will defeat the coronavirus, and revitalise the Mexican economy.

Depending on how long it takes, the loss of life involved and the loss of jobs which will follow, a re-evaluation might well be needed.
[April 07, 2020] Open-Source Healthcare App Released Globally for Free

Traction on Demand and Thrive Health announced free, global availability for a new open-source mobile application for healthcare providers that are fighting the COVID-19 outbreak, available here on Salesforce AppExchange-the world's leading enterprise cloud marketplace. The Traction Thrive Critical Care Resource Management application, built on the Salesforce platform, is designed to view, track and allocate critical healthcare personnel, personal protective equipment, ventilator availability, and other critical supplies in real-time. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005770/en/ "Our partner community is making available an open-source mobile solution to help scale the ability to respond to the crisis with critical resources," said Rob Acker, CEO of Salesforce.org. "Our hope is that nonprofits, governments, and health systems around the world will benefit from this platform designed to offer agility and flexibility for their individual needs during this crucial time." The app is designed to enable governments and healthcare providers to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 virus at a local level, and to allocate resources to save lives and ease pressure on healthcare workers. Whereas hospitals can install their own independent version, the app can also be implemented by healthcare systems enabling them to get an at-a-glance view of their full network's utilization and capacity. "This app helps healthcare workers to be better armed with what they need to save lives and stay protected," said Greg Malpass, Founder and CEO of Traction on Demand, which designed and built the system. "After a successful engagement of 26 hospitals within the first week of launch, we've decide to make this app available globally on AppExchange free of charge. It's the right thing to do."



The app was built on the Salesforce platform, enabling health organizations to implement and scale rapidly. Traction Thrive is customizable by healthcare providers, scalable without any new data centers, accessible from permanent and temporary facilities worldwide, and portable by practitioners across devices. Canadian healthcare technology firm Thrive Health identified the need for real-time worker and equipment tracking, and conceptualized the solution in partnership with Traction on Demand.

"In a time of crisis, it is crucial to be able to track your people and critical supplies in real time, so they can be allocated efficiently and effectively to save lives and ease pressure on the system," says David Helliwell, Co-Founder and CEO of Thrive Health. The Traction Thrive Critical Care Resource Management app has three functions: ? Enables healthcare workers to specify which workers, ventilators and personal protective equipment they have while also showing each facility's current occupancy and resource capacity. ? Serves as a communication hub between healthcare providers within a site or across regions. ? Offers advanced reporting capabilities for hospitals and regional health leadership. "The severity of outcomes for this outbreak now largely depends on ensuring that hospitals and healthcare workers have the resources they need to treat all infected patients while keeping themselves safe," said Dr. Ashwini Zenooz,Chief Medical Officer of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Salesforce. " We're operating in real-time. This means organizations need hyper-local insight into the COVID-19 outbreak so they can allocate supplies and resources accordingly." The Traction Thrive Critical Resource Management app was built by Traction on Demand and Thrive Health. To learn more, visit https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000FMvlIUAT. Salesforce, AppExchange, Salesforce.org and others are among the trademarks of salesforce.com, inc. About Traction on Demand Traction on Demand is one of North America's largest dedicated Salesforce consulting and app development firms. The company helps commercial and nonprofit organizations design, develop and implement Salesforce technology. Traction on Demand is a proud B Corporation. Visit tractionondemand.com for more information. About Thrive Health Thrive Health is a software company founded with a mission to improve the delivery of healthcare in Canada and around the world. The company is helping millions of Canadians to track their COVID-19 symptoms at thrive.health/covid19-app using the #1 medical app in Google (News - Alert) Play and Apple App Store. Visit thrive.health for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005770/en/

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AVERILL PARK  I know I'm not the only one having crazy coronavirus dreams and feeling completely out of sync with my normal sleep cycle. My wife, Mary, is experiencing wild coronavirus-fueled dreams, too.

Friends have confided that their fear and anxiety about COVID-19 is producing not only vivid dreams, but insomnia, all manner of sleep disruption and even nightmares.

This comes as no surprise to Leonard Perlmutter, founder and director of the American Meditation Institute, based at a renovated 19th-century farmhouse and five-acres in Rensselaer County.

He has been observing how fear and anxiety have been creating a panoply of coronavirus-influenced sleep disturbances and he has a way to address it. As an experienced practitioner and teacher of meditation and yoga science, Perlmutter, 73, believes he has found a reliable method to help relieve the insomnia and nightmares induced by COVID-19.

"We can't deny the intense fear we are feeling about the coronavirus pandemic. That is a very powerful emotion that leads to a sense of helplessness, sadness and anger," Perlmutter said. "We need to learn how to take that negative energy from the unconscious mind and turn it into a positive force in the conscious mind."

Accomplishing that energy transformation is a matter of self-assessment, daily practice and a commitment to a deeper understanding of what Perlmutter calls the mind-body-sense complex. "We know that fear is powerful and negative energy and it poisons our entire physiology," Perlmutter said.

"Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be transformed the way that water can be turned into gas or ice. We can choose to turn this coronavirus fear into a reliable source of creative energy."

Perlmutter referenced J.R.R. Tolkien, author of "The Lord of the Rings," and a word the writer coined: eucatastrophe (good catastrophe).

Tolkien used it to describe what he believed was the essence and highest function of fairy stories  the sudden, unexpected joyous turn.

Perlmutter noted that this positive resolution comes not from an outside intervention, but from within.

"Tolkien gives a name to a profound truth," Perlmutter said. "The mechanism for this transformation is sacrifice, which means to make sacred and beautiful in Latin. Through meditation and yoga, we can choose to make that debilitating force into something sacred and beautiful instead of letting it poison your body and immune system."

Perlmutter and his wife, Jenness Cortez Perlmutter, co-founded the American Meditation Institute in 1996 after Perlmutter's extended study with the late Shri Swami Rama of the Himalayas. The couple co-authored "The Heart and Science of Yoga" in 2005, a thick compendium of Eastern philosophy, mysticism and world religions.

Their goal is to demystify yoga and meditation and to make it accessible as a daily exercise routine. "Meditation is nothing more than concentration of the mind," Perlmutter said.

When fear and anxiety from the coronavirus pandemic take hold, Perlmutter suggests finding a name or phrase you grew up with, feel a kinship with and find comforting. This is a mantra.

Perlmutter has chosen a phrase that he also engraved on a silver bracelet he wears on his wrist: "aum namaha shivay" which translates to "nothing is mine. Everything is thine."

Perlmutter noted that every faith tradition has a mantra. Praying the rosary for Roman Catholics, "Rama nama" is a mantra for Hindus and Jews have "Baruch Atah Adonai."

"Reciting a mantra repeatedly can create an attention to the vibration of those syllables and that sound can help transform fear and anxiety into love, fearlessness and strength," Perlmutter said. "That's not magic. You can experiment and try it for yourself and assess how you feel. Yoga science is about teaching self-reliance and establishing an intimate relationship with what dwells within both your unconscious and conscious mind."

Perlmutter's journey to guruhood was unconventional. His father was an Austrian Jew who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1920s, ran movie theaters in Lake George and Glens Falls and later operated cafeterias. Raised in an Orthodox Jewish family in Albany, Perlmutter graduated from Albany High School in 1964. He earned degrees in political science and international relations from American University and dropped out of George Washington University School of Law after two years.

"It was my father's dream that I become a lawyer, not mine," he said.

He moved back to Albany in 1971 and started an alternative newspaper, Washington Park Spirit. Perlmutter was editor and publisher and the paper published for four years with a group of talented, idealist young staffers united in their desire to defeat the entrenched Albany Democratic machine and to foster grass-roots activism.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Jenness Cortez was the paper's illustrator and she and Perlmutter became a couple. The back-to-the-land bohemians bought a ramshackle property in Averill Park in 1975. It came with a tractor. The seller was a former tractor salesman who had a religious conversion in the house, quit his job and became a missionary for a fundamentalist church.

The couple's transformation has been less dramatic. Jenness Cortez Perlmutter became a noted equine artist. Perlmutter became spiritual guide Ram Lev.

He grew a full beard and began wearing an Eastern-styled, loose-fitting ensemble of white cotton slacks and collarless shirt.

The couple rises at 5:30 a.m., offer prayers, stretch through various yoga positions and meditate. They take a long walk along their country road, a potent way to combat coronavirus anxiety.

Although they had to postpone in-person classes and retreats due to COVID-19 protocols, they have pivoted to online teaching. Their free Sunday morning meditation is now being streamed online and has tripled from 15 to 45 attendees.

Perlmutter himself has been dreaming more vividly in the time of coronavirus, too, and writes down what he remembers the next morning.

"I'm not as interested in the contents of the dream, but what emotional residue remains when I wake up," he said.

He conceded even a guru succumbs to fear and anxiety in this unprecedented time.

"I use it as a pre-battle intelligence briefing. My notes prepare me for when I'm triggered to be fearful during the day," he said. "Forewarned is forearmed. I sacrifice that fear and turn it into energy that expands my creative capacity."

Tolkien would call that a eucatastrophe in the making.

Paul Grondahl is director of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany and a former Times Union reporter. He can be reached at grondahlpual@gmail.com






Laboratory workers at the Southern National Influenza Center of the HCM City Pasteur Institute are busy working with thousands of specimen lots from 22 provinces.

At 11.30 pm on January 22, the institute received two specimens from two patients  Li Ding and Li ZhiChao  from Cho Ray Hospital. Vietnamese doctors began their close combat with the coronavirus. At that time, information about the virus was modest.





At 3 pm on January 23, they discovered that the two Chinese patients were infected with novel coronavirus (nCoV).



The specimens of father and son Li Ding and Li Zhichao tested positive for coronavirus after two testing steps, Cao Minh Thang, head of the Immune Microbiology Department, said.



The leaders of the institute also believed that the two patients had coronavirus. However, because of the lack of biological products, it was impossible to do the third step for confirmation.



Thang then contacted WHOs representative through email and asked for help to confirm the results.

Laboratory workers at the Southern National Influenza Center of the HCM City Pasteur Institute are busy working with thousands of specimen lots from 22 provinces.

They introduced a German expert to us. The expert also thought the two specimens were positive for coronavirus, but advised us to carry out the third affirmative step, Thang said.



Thang then asked for help from Germany. On the fourth day of the New Year of the Rat, biological products for testing arrived in Vietnam. And the third test confirmed what they thought: the patients were infected with nCoV.



When I saw the virus wearing a crown through a microscope, I couldn't think anymore, I was really worried. The epidemic had hit the Vietnamese door, he said.



On the afternoon of the same day, the epidemiologists and clinical experts met. In the evening, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced the first two patients who had infected with the nCoV virus in Vietnam. Necessary measures were taken to prevent the spread of the virus.



Since that day, the HCM City Pasteur Institute has never had a day of rest. For the last three months, it has been serving as the command center that instructs 22 southern provinces and cities to draw up plans to fight against Covid-19.



Just one week after the first cases were discovered, the institute transferred the process of testing for coronavirus to the Tay Nguyen and Nha Trang Institutes of Hygiene and Epidemiology.



The workers at the institutes are even busier than three months ago, because the number of cases has exceeded 100. As the epidemic hotbed in Europe was discovered, the institute sent one quick-reaction team to the airport where they took specimens directly from passengers.

Mai Lan
RACINE COUNTY  Margaret Cavan had been told all week that she would have until April 13 to vote. The 59-year-old Mount Pleasant resident had requested her absentee ballot via MyVote.Wi.Gov on March 30, more than a week before the election.

I was told: You have until the 13th. Dont worry, Cavan said.

But the ballot never showed up in Cavans mailbox, even though the Mount Pleasant Village Clerks Office told her it had been mailed on March 31. Then, on Monday evening, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled a federal judges decision that had been followed statewide for a week, declaring that absentee voters had to get their ballots turned in on Tuesday the seventh, not the 13th.

Cavan ended up waiting in line to vote Tuesday. Her absentee ballot never showed up.

Voting went fine, she said after her 10 minute wait at Mount Pleasant Village Hall, but was so unnecessary.

While, Cavan was able to vote, others were not able to vote or not willing to put their health or a loved ones health at risk.

More than 1.28 million people requested absentee ballots in Wisconsins spring 2020 election, a record six times greater than the states prior record. Many of the new mail-in voters did so because they wanted to avoid polling places due to COVID-19, as advised by state health officials.

Most people who requested absentee ballots for Tuesdays spring election received their ballot within a matter of days. But many never received a ballot at all.

As of Monday morning, 43,526 absentee ballots in Racine County had been requested, but 231 of them had not even been sent to voters and 25,487 ballots had been returned. That left 18,039 total ballots unaccounted for, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Its impossible to tell the exact scope of how many of those 18,039 ballots never actually got delivered to voters homes because of being lost in the mail, being delayed or some other error. But many of them never showed up by Election Day.

This is not strictly a Racine County problem. Of 1,282,762 ballots requested across the state, 9,388 had not been sent to voters by Election Day. And of the 1,273,374 ballots that did get mailed, 408,624 still had not been received at clerks offices as of Tuesday morning, meaning each of those 408,624 ballots had fewer than 12 hours to get them back to clerks offices to be counted in the presidential primary, Wisconsin Supreme Court race, local elections and school referendums.

Voters would have to get their ballots in the mail Tuesday, delivered to the post office before the end of the day, or delivered to a polling place before 8 p.m.

But if their ballot never arrived, they had two options: Go to their polling place or dont vote.

Clerk explains the situation

Everyone who requested a ballot in Mount Pleasant was sent one, according to Village Clerk Stephanie Kohlhagen. But she added that voters should not be surprised if the ballot didnt arrive in time for the election if they requested one as late as a week before Election Day.

They dont process the mail locally anymore ... mail does not take two days anymore. And thats unfortunate, Kohlhagen said.

Even with her staff consistently working overtime to process all of the requests, Kohlhagen said its out of our hands and up to the postmaster to deliver the mail. I dont know what else I could do.

His vote is being suppressed

Michelle Raineys husband is in the hospital. Rainey said her husband, a 54-year-old retired sheriffs deputy, doesnt have COVID-19 but his symptoms are similar. Hes on a respirator at Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa.

The Raineys, who live in Mount Pleasant, requested their ballots online two weeks ago but it never arrived. And Michelle Rainey has not left her home in three weeks. They are self-quarantining because, if her husband comes home, they dont want to risk getting him sick. She has not even been going to the grocery store, instead getting groceries delivered to minimize the risk to her husband when he comes home. But she has been checking her mailbox and through Tuesday it had not contained her absentee ballot, even though Kohlhagen told her it was mailed on March 23.

Rainey called the Mount Pleasant Clerks Office on Tuesday morning to find out their options.

Your only option is to vote in person, Rainey was told.

Thats ridiculous, she said. We have literally not left our house for three weeks. We dont want to make my husband any worse. Even if the ballots had shown up Tuesday, it would have been almost impossible for Rainey to get it postmarked before the end of the day. And she isnt going to go to a polling place to cast her vote.

Her husband could not vote from the hospital, considering the risk of breaking quarantine to bring him a ballot while hes in the hospital.

His vote is being suppressed, Rainey said.

Vote in scrubs or not at all

Aeri Cooper is a Racine resident and a health care worker who was scheduled to work a 12-hour shift in the emergency room on Election Day, from 7 a.m., the time that polls open, until 7:30 p.m., a half-hour before polls closed. She requested her absentee ballot on March 30 but it never arrived.

I could still vote in person, Cooper said via text to The Journal Times Monday evening, but my problem is I am a health care worker  the likelihood of me making it to the polls on time are slim to none. If I do, I will be in my scrubs that I wore all day. The last thing I want to do is go to a public polling place with soiled scrubs on.

The Journal Times had already gone to press by the time Coopers shift was scheduled to end Tuesday.

I want this fixed

When Mary Ann Kehoe, 72, called a Journal Times reporter Tuesday afternoon, she quickly mentioned that she and her husband are independent voters and dont lean toward either major party.

Kehoe is a retired registered nurse and said that regarding COVID-19 Wisconsin is in an emergency.

Her husband, Don, 73, is immunocompromised and has serious lung problems. He has not left their Mount Pleasant home in almost a month.

Four weeks ago, they requested absentee ballots online. After about a week, Kehoe called Mount Pleasant Village Hall and was told that the clerks office was facing a backlog of requests. Kehoe was assured that her request had been received and would be fulfilled.

Then on Monday, March 30, Kehoe called the clerks office again. They finally realized that the request was never received. She then went in person to Village Hall, voted herself, and requested an absentee ballot for her husband. She was told it was in the mail the next day.

Her husbands ballot never showed up.

He cant vote now, she said Tuesday afternoon. Ive never heard of a letter that took a week to get anywhere ... Im upset. Im angry. Im convinced this is an attempt at voter suppression.

Kehoe expressed her discontentment with how the spring election was not extended to accommodate voters like her husband because of the pandemic. Weve made every effort ... I want this fixed, at least before the November election. Thats what I really care about.

Isnt worth the risk

When Cara Bradshaw, a Mount Pleasant resident, checked her mailbox one last time Tuesday afternoon, she was again disappointed that her ballot had not been delivered.

Im not going to vote, she said. It isnt worth the risk to my safety.

Public health comes first

Haley Kroes, a Racine native now living in Wauwatosa, said she requested her ballot in early March, before everything shut down. Her ballot never showed up, and the clerk never reached out if there was an issue with her request  like what had happened the first time she voted absentee during college.

Honestly Im not going to vote, Kroes, 25, said. Public health comes first.

Praying and voting

Deborah Hull, 68, grew up in Racine and her kids and grandkids still live there, but they havent seen each other in months because of COVID-19 concerns. Hull and her husband, 68, now live in Wyeville in Monroe County, between the Wisconsin Dells and La Crosse. They dont have internet access at their home and she said it was not possible for her to easily request absentee ballots.

Im going to vote shortly. I have a mask, Lysol wipes in hand, she told The Journal Times Tuesday morning.

The Hulls both came down with colds that felt like pneumonia over the past week, but tested negative for COVID-19, she said. Were very concerned with our immune systems already battling an awful cold that we cant afford to be near anyone who may be a carrier

I am afraid, but its so important for my husband and I to vote ... (We are) praying were making the right decision to vote.

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Paris, April 7 : France has reported its highest single-day death toll since the coronavirus pandemic started in the country, Health Minister Olivier Veran said.

The 833 deaths registered on Monday include fatalities from hospitals and care homes, bringing the country's overall death toll to 8,911, third highest in the world behind Italy and Spain, reports Efe news.

"This is not over. Far from it. We are not at the end of the ascent of this epidemic," Veran told a press conference. "The path remains long and nothing is over." The figures of those who died in nursing and care homes only started being included in the daily tallies on April 3, which had led to criticisms that officials were not disclosing the full extent of the outbreak.

France has reported 98,984 coronavirus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University, the fifth-highest in the world. The US has the largest number of confirmed infections at 368,241.

Veran praised the efforts of the country's health workers, whom he described as the "heroes of this fight".

While Veran noted how much more work would be needed to overcome the challenges posed by the situation, he said that the overall rate of new infections, an "important indicator of the pressure on hospitals", was falling.

"The need to find new places in hospitals is rising slower than previously," he said.

France imposed severe restrictions on March 17, measures which are likely to be extended, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said last week.

Veran also insisted that the lockdown needs to remain in place for the time being.

The Health Minister also said that a wide reaching coronavirus testing campaign would be rolled out to target the country's most vulnerable people, by prioritizing the elderly and those with disabilities, as well as their caregivers

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
EAST LANSING, MI  Theres a learning curve when it comes to being an adult.

For some, it might mean learning how to cook for themselves every night, and for others, it might mean planning a budget or paying rent. Whatever it may be, Michigan State University is aiming to help 500 high school juniors and seniors learn the ropes to adulting.

The university is hosting Adulting 101, a set of weekly seminars where high school students will learn all things associated with becoming an adult. The courses are aimed at 11th- and 12th-grade high school students who are preparing to go to college or start a career.

There is one 30- to 45-minute course each week for four weeks, tackling topics like budget and finance, how to pay rent, basic cooking and simple household tasks, said Michelle Neff, an MSU extension educator.

Were really not going deep in-depth, but were just kind of giving some tips and tricks, Neff said.

MSU Extension offers classes all the time, but not one like Adulting 101 that offers all of these things in one package, Neff said. The seminars were originally going to be offered to people in mid-Michigan in a face-to-face meeting, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, adjustments were needed, she said.

We kind of had to rethink about it and we thought lets try it virtually, Neff said.

The seminars are for anyone across the state, and Neff said those wanting to attend must pre-register. All the courses are free, and students can choose to attend just one or all four, as long as they pre-register. Up to 500 participants are allowed.

There has been a lot of interest around these courses, and its a possibility MSU Extension may do another course down the road, Neff said. As of 2 p.m. Monday, April 6, Neff said there are 267 people signed up.

The events, which will be conducted through Zoom, include:

Budget and credit, 2 p.m. April 9

Rent Smart, 2 p.m. April 16

Cooking 101, 2 p.m. April 23

Household Tasks, 2 p.m. April 30

More information on the events can be found here.

Full coverage of the Michigan coronavirus outbreak here.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus.

Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible.

Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

Read more on MLive:

Monday, April 6: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

University of Michigan, Michigan State University leading efforts to decontaminate N95 masks for reuse

Michigan State University moving summer courses online, suspending some summer programs

Michigan State University offers drive-thru coronavirus testing

University of Michigan may create field hospital on south campus athletic complex in case of coronavirus case surge
A ventilator at a hospital in Hamburg, Germany. (Axel Heimkin / AFP-Getty Images)

As the number of COVID-19 patients climbs and health officials hunt for ventilators to treat them, nursing homes across the United States have a cache  about 8,200 of the lifesaving machines, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Most of the machines are in use, often by people whove suffered a brain injury or stroke. Some of those residents are in a vegetative state and have remained on a ventilator for years.

State officials are working to consolidate ventilators where they are most urgently needed. But so far, the supply in nursing homes has not drawn the same attention.

Or course, commandeering those units would set up a monumental ethical dilemma: Do you remove life support for a long-term nursing care patient in order to give a COVID-19 patient a better chance of survival?

The highest number of machines, about 2,300, is in California, where the state has created designated nursing home units for people on life support, officially called subacute units but known pejoratively by some doctors as vent farms. New York has the second most, 1,822, according to state officials.

Already, one nursing home on Long Island has lent a nearby hospital 11 ventilators that were not being used, leaving just five for its residents.

The hospital came to us last week and asked, Do you have any ventilators? the nursing home assistant administrator said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

We left ourselves with the bare minimum, he said. In all, three hospitals reached out to the nursing home for ventilators  it had to say no to the other two.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced an executive order that ventilators not in use by hospitals be redeployed to ICUs. And hes calling in the New York National Guard to facilitate the order. We know where every ventilator is, Cuomo said Sunday.

Nursing home ventilators are not included in his order, but they are included in the states tally of the machines.

Story continues

Dr. Michael Kalafer, a pulmonologist and the medical director at two San Diego subacute units, said he cant imagine taking one of his patients off a ventilator because its needed for someone else.

I severely doubt well take [a hypothetical] Mrs. Smith off a ventilator because shes 80 and has been on it for a few years and has not gotten better, Kalafer said.

But these are precisely the decisions bioethicists are being asked to weigh in on as the country confronts the crush of COVID-19 patients overwhelming the healthcare system.

And in some cases, states have already decided to give people who are severely brain-injured a lower priority when it comes to access to ventilators. Disability advocates oppose such guidelines and filed complaints with the Department of Health and Human Services last month, according to ProPublica. And although states and health associations can draw up recommendations, they are not legally binding.

From an ethical point of view, for people who are not conscious, if its a matter of removing people from a [ventilator] who are not going to recover, I think its a hard decision, but one that in an emergency has to be made, said Ronald Bayer, a professor of sociomedical sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

Bayer has been a member of the World Health Organization and in 2011 served on an ethics subcommittee that advised the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the allocation of ventilators in the event of a severe pandemic.

He and several other ethicists said these decisions should not be made at the bedside but by triage committees or people in supervisory roles. And the guidelines ought to be uniform and transparent. Thats why the CDC, the state of New York and medical associations like the American College of Chest Physicians have drafted ethical recommendations for deciding how to ration lifesaving equipment like ventilators in the event of a pandemic.

The California Department of Public Health in 2008 released guidelines to follow during a health care surge: They dont specifically address ventilator allocation, but rather resources in general. Doctors should consider the likelihood of survival and change in the quality of life as opposed to the ability to pay or the perception of a persons worth when there are not enough medical resources to treat everyone in need.

When the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law updated its ventilator allocation guidelines in 2015, it considered the question of withdrawing ventilators from nursing home residents, or chronic ventilator patients, to save the lives of those who becone critically ill during a pandemic.

Are we comfortable sacrificing this group in exchange for saving more lives? asked Stuart Sherman, the executive director of the task force at the time.

That question drew much debate, but the group ultimately decided that chronic vent patients should not be included in the pool when considering how to allocate ventilators during a pandemic. The task force does recommend prioritizing ventilator therapy based on who is likely to survive using a SOFA  Sequential Organ Failure Assessment  score.

Cuomo, whose daily televised news conferences have made ventilators a household word, is not making decisions based on those guidelines. The task force report is not a binding policy document, according to a spokesperson from the governors office.

In the U.S., there are about 62,000 full-featured ventilators, the kind needed to treat the most severe cases of COVID-19. An additional 10,000 to 20,000 ventilators are in the governments National Strategic Stockpile, and there are 98,000 basic models, the kind often seen in nursing homes, that could be used in a crisis.

In the simplest terms, ventilators push oxygen into the lungs. The machines in ICUs are more powerful and have better monitoring systems than those in a nursing home.

Kalafers patients need ventilators to do the work for respiratory muscles. He said they could be used in a pinch during the pandemic. But the real issue is finding enough staff trained to operate and monitor the machines.

Meanwhile, a group of bioethicists, physicians and public health experts are recommending that in a shortage, healthcare workers could disconnect people from ventilators who have little or no chance of recovery to put them in service of those who do.

The recommendation is the first of six listed in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine last month.

It did not consider the people whove been on ventilators long term.

Honestly, before you emailed me, I thought about those patients but never thought about the actual number and how important that might be, said Dr. James Phillips, one of the papers authors and chief of disaster and operational medicine at George Washington University Hospital.

For patients who have devastating neurological injury and are deemed to never recover and who require ventilation for the rest of their lives, I think its an ethical conversation to have with those families to determine if its a more appropriate use of resources, Phillips said.

One ventilator can save multiple lives. The average time that a person sick with COVID-19 needed a ventilator was 11 days, according to an NEJM article that looked at critically ill patients in the Seattle region. Using that number, eight people could potentially be saved over three months.

It is an especially complex moral dilemma when considering the withdrawal of treatment from someone who has lived several years on a ventilator, said Govind Persad, an assistant professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and one of the authors of the NEJM paper.

Persad offered a hypothetical scenario.

A 78-year-old grandmother has been on ventilator support for 5 years in a subacute facility and is expected to remain on it for the foreseeable future. Covid-19 has reached a senior apartment complex nearby, and doctors are looking everywhere for more ventilators, Persad wrote.

They think one more ventilator would give them a chance of saving another 78-year-old grandmother in the senior apartments who is growing worse with viral pneumonia, and, once she is off the ventilator, to save some of her neighbors, who are not yet sick but who they expect to be sick in a few weeks.

Who gets the ventilator?

Persad suggested it should go to the grandmother in the senior apartments because she is likely to need less time on the ventilator, enabling the ventilator to be used to save her neighbors later.

As he put it: We save her in order to save more lives, not because of quality-of-life judgments.

The real-life decision is more problematic and heart-wrenching.

Nancy Curcios daughter Maria, who was born with a disabling form of cerebral palsy, was on a ventilator as an adult in San Diego for about three months in 2004. She was eventually weaned off the machine but lived the remainder of her life in a nursing home with a breathing and feeding tube, unable to walk or talk. She died in 2017 at age 57.

I would be very upset if a doctor said I have to take her ventilator away for someone to live, Curcio said. But I can understand in triage this is what a doctor has to do. Would I like it? No. I would want to run away with the ventilator.

Faryon writes for Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree pardoning 176 prisoners aged over 65.



The Decree says the decision on pardon was made after considering appeals of convicts over the age of 65 who are in need of special care due to their age and health in connection with the spread of coronavirus infection in the world, as well as their family members to the head of state, taking into account the health state of convicts, their behavior during the conviction, and being guided by the principles of humanism.



Under the decree, 176 convicts aged over 65 are released from the unserved part of their prison sentence, Trend reported.
A COVID-19 positive Nepal who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event was on Tuesday caught by police after he escaped from a hospital in Baghpat where he was admitted.

"A COVID-19 positive Nepal who had escaped from a hospital in Baghpat has been caught. He had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi," Praveen Kumar, Inspector General, Meerut said.

"He was found from a place 3 km away from the hospital, the patient has been admitted to the hospital again," he added.

The Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 after several positive cases from across the country have been linked to the gathering including deaths in the capital, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana.

India's tally of total positive cases rose to 4,421, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday.

Out of the 4,421 cases, 3,981 are active cases while 325 cases have been cured or discharged and one has migrated. The total death toll stands at 114.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Great Barrier Reef has suffered the most widespread bleaching ever recorded due to rising temperatures caused by climate change.

It is the third severe coral bleaching event for Australias iconic reef in just five years.

Corals along the entire 1,400-mile stretch have been severely affected, according to surveys by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and James Cook University in Australia.

The bleaching has been caused solely by a summer of extreme heat, unlike in past years when El Ninos  weather patterns caused by warming of the Pacific Ocean close to the Equator  contributed to the conditions.

It is a troubling indicator that climate change caused by human activity is the main factor behind coral reef bleaching.

We surveyed 1,036 reefs from the air during the last two weeks in March, to measure the extent and severity of coral bleaching throughout the Barrier Reef region, said Professor Terry Hughes, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at the university.

For the first time, severe bleaching has struck all three regions of the Great Barrier Reef  the northern, central and now large parts of the southern sectors.

When sea temperatures spike, corals expel the marine algae, called zooxanthellae, which live inside their tissues, giving them vibrant colours and food supply via photosynthesis.

Great Barrier Reef coral bleaching 2020 (ARC Centre of Excellence Coral Reef Studies ) (ARC Centre of Excellence Coral Reef Studies)

Expelling the algae is what turns the coral white and without a food supply they can starve, according to Marine Conservation.

The first recorded mass bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef was in 1998, then the hottest year on record.

Since then, four more bleaching events have occurred, in 2002, 2016, 2017 and 2020, as the temperature records continue to be broken.

As the gap between bleaching events shrinks, it prevents the coral from making a full recovery.

February 2020 hit a record high temperature for that month in the Great Barrier Reef.

Mark Eakin, coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Coral Reef Watch program, described the rate of return of these events as truly disturbing.

Great Barrier Reef coral bleaching 2016 and 2017 (ARC Centre of Excellence Coral Reef Studies ) (ARC Centre of Excellence Coral Reef Studies)

In an email, he told The Independent: In 2016 and 2017, the Great Barrier Reef had their first back-to-back bleaching events. Now we have the third bleaching event in five years. That is unprecedented on the Great Barrier Reef.

However, the most troubling is that this bleaching event happened without any tropical forcing.

In 2016, an El Nino was underway after an almost-El Nino the year before. In 2017, an El Nino had just ended and we had move straight past neutral conditions to a La Nina. Both of these have impacts on heat in the tropical Pacific Ocean, changing the normal patterns.

In 2020, there were neutral conditions with no strong El Nino last year. Its now clear that we can have major bleaching events caused by global climate change alone with no tropical forcing.

On 2 April, Dr David Wachenfeld, chief scientist at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, gave an update on reef health after aerial surveys were done on more than 1,000 reefs that make up the Great Barrier Reef.

Dr Wachenfeld said that in the south, they found reefs that had bleached severely for the first time this year compared to 2016.

He said that bleached coral is stressed and starving but it is not dead.

On reefs where the bleaching was negligible or moderate, he said that it was likely that many of those corals would survive which was essential for their future recovery.

On the reefs that were more severely bleached, there would likely be higher levels of coral death but it was still variable, he said.

The researchers will continue to assess the coral damage throughout the year.
Manuel Bolivars attorney wants him released from federal lockup where he is being held pending trial on drug and gun charges, arguing that his family needs his financial support.

But his own mouth may be his undoing. According to taped telephone conversations with his girlfriend, Bolivar admitted the drugs and guns were his and they talked about who needed to get beat up.

The charges against Bolivar stem from a February raid by the FBI on his home in Southwest Albuquerque.

In Bolivars bedroom, agents found 3 pounds of methamphetamine; 96 blue fentanyl tablets; almost 9 pounds of marijuana; 155 packaged strips of suboxone; almost $16,000 in cash; five firearms, two of which were stolen; a Glock pistol full-auto selector switch; an armored ballistic vest and several high-capacity rifle and pistol magazines.

Agents also found other firearms in the house, along with thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Bolivar, 21, has pleaded not guilty to charges that include possession of a machine gun, possession of more than 3 pounds of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute. He faces a possible sentence of up to life in prison.

Attorney Alexandra Jones filed a motion to reconsider detention for Bolivar, noting that federal pretrial services initially recommended that Bolivar be released to third-party custody because of his strong ties to the community  his family and girlfriend live here  and his lack of prior criminal convictions.

Bolivar worked full-time for his fathers construction company in Albuquerque and was the primary provider for multiple members of his family, including his girlfriend, his mother, his girlfriends mother and siblings, his grandmother and his sisters  many of who suffer from illnesses and disabilities, rendering them unable to work, Jones said in the motion.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jaymie Roybal filed a response opposing release for Bolivar.

The mere possession of these narcotics and firearms, combined with (Bolivars) gang membership that he has maintained since middle school, his ride or die attitude, and his willingness to protect his operation by means of violence, represents a grave danger, Roybal said.

Court documents describe Bolivar as a member of the South Side Locos gang and say his name came up during an investigation of robberies of drug dealers in the Albuquerque area.

Roybal also attached summaries of recorded conversations between Bolivar and his girlfriend.

In one conversation, he complained that the switch that converts a Glock pistol from semiautomatic to fully automatic didnt even work. The selector switch, which is not manufactured by Glock, is the basis for the machine gun charge facing Bolivar, who said he needed the extensive arsenal because Albuquerque is a crazy place.

According to conversation summaries filed by prosecutors, Bolivar and his girlfriend also discussed who needed to get beaten up and who owed him money.

Bolivar promised his girlfriend that he would straighten out and was through with his lifestyle. He also told her that fellow inmates had started calling him Scarface because of the charges he was facing and that paisas  inmates from his neighborhood  had taken him under their wing.

His girlfriend told him that a friend was going to sell some guns, including the Russian one, to raise money for Bolivar.

In another conversation, according to the FBI summary, his girlfriend complimented Bolivar, telling him that he was the littlest one in federal court with the biggest charges.

In several conversations, his girlfriend warned him not to talk to anyone, according to the FBI summaries. Inmates and the people they talk to are warned in advance that all calls from jail are subject to monitoring and recording.

Jones, in response to the prosecution response, has now raised the COVID-19 pandemic as another reason Bolivar should be released.

The case is pending before Chief U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson. No hearing has been set.
[April 07, 2020] Global VoIP Software Markets Industry Growth Assessment, 2020-2025: Growing Popularity of Voice-Based Smart Office Systems

DUBLIN, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "VoIP Software Market Research Report: By Technology, Access Type, Call Type, Medium, End User, Industry - Global Industry Analysis and Forecast to 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. In 2019, the market generated a revenue of $15,114.3 million, which is expected to surge to $30,441.5 million by 2025, at a 13.4% CAGR during 2020-2025 (forecast period).



The major reasons behind the prosperity of the voice over internet protocol (VoIP) software market is the growing demand for the software from small and medium enterprises (SME) and increasing focus of companies on improving their productivity.



Managed private branch exchange (managed PBX), session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking, and hosted private branch exchange (hosted PBX) are the three categories, when the market is segmented by technology. Among these, SIP trunking held the largest share in 2019, as it supports on-premises public switched telephone network (PSTN) connectivity, which results in its high demand. Apart from this, the adoption of hosted PBX is also significant, with companies preferring it over managed PBX. As it is cloud based, it reduces the need for expensive information technology (IT) infrastructure.



Another reason hosted PBX is trending in the VoIP software market is that the feature-rich voice solutions it provides over the cloud are reliable, apart from being cost-effective. Further, it lets organizations manage their communication operations better and scale them up or down as per requirement. Therefore, with businesses aiming to achieve maximum profitability, by reducing their expenditure, while not compromising on their productivity, they are shifting to cloud-based VoIP solutions, particularly hosted PBX.



Based on end user, the VoIP software market is divided into consumers, small and medium enterprises (SME), and large enterprises. In 2019, the market was dominated by large enterprises, which will continue holding the largest share during the forecast period. However, the fastest progress would be witnessed by SMEs, as such solutions can help reduce telecommunication costs by up to 30%. Such technology is easy to deploy, use, maintain, and troubleshoot, which automatically decreases the expenditure. Additionally, calls can be done on VoIP at considerably lower rates compared to traditional telephone lines.



Further, with this technology, the need for separate cabling, which is required for conventional telecommunication systems, is eliminated, as companies can simply procure a software-based softphone. It also declutters the premises, reduces the risk of the cables catching fire, and offers the conenience of adding more components, owing to the flexibility of scalability. Another advantage associated with VoIP is the ease of maintaining and altering the system, since the operations are carried out by the software, instead of hardware.







Another key driver for the VoIP software market is the rising focus on improving the productivity. The funds allocated for procuring telecommunication equipment, including hard phones and hardware-based IP phones, as well as for phone bills, can be utilized for other purposes. Further, VoIP allows companies to bring together employees in different parts of the world together, by facilitating video conferencing. Additionally, the voice clarity offered by this technology is significantly better than that received via conventional phones, which is another reason for its growing adoption.



Geographically, Asia-Pacific was the largest VoIP software market during the historical period (2014-2019), and it is expected to maintain its dominance till 2025. Within the region, India witnesses the widest adoption of this technology, owing to the fact that it is home to more than 1 billion people with a smartphone. Similarly, the number of WeChat users in China has already breached the 800 million mark. With a high number of contact centers, increasing IT spending, and internet and smartphone penetration in APAC, the regional market will continue progressing.





Hence, with SMEs adopting VoIP to cut down on operational expenditure and large organizations looking at ways to improve their productivity, the market for the technology has a bright future.



Key Topics Covered



Chapter 1. Research Background



Chapter 2. Research Methodology



Chapter 3. Executive Summary



Chapter 4. Introduction

4.1 Definition of Market Segments

4.1.1 By Technology

4.1.1.1 SIP trunking

4.1.1.2 Managed PBX

4.1.1.3 Hosted PBX

4.1.2 By Access Type

4.1.2.1 Computer to phone

4.1.2.2 Phone to phone

4.1.2.3 Computer to computer

4.1.3 By Call Type

4.1.3.1 Domestic VoIP call

4.1.3.2 International VoIP call

4.1.4 By Medium

4.1.4.1 Fixed

4.1.4.2 Mobile

4.1.5 By End User

4.1.5.1 Large enterprises

4.1.5.2 SMEs

4.1.5.3 Consumers

4.1.6 By Industry

4.1.6.1 IT & telecom

4.1.6.2 BFSI

4.1.6.3 Government

4.1.6.4 Healthcare

4.1.6.5 Retail

4.1.6.6 Education

4.1.6.7 Residential

4.1.6.8 Others

4.2 Value Chain Analysis

4.3 Market Dynamics

4.3.1 Trends

4.3.1.1 Emergence of 5G technology pushing back the frontiers of VoIP

4.3.1.2 Shift in preference toward hosted cloud-based VoIP solutions

4.3.2 Drivers

4.3.2.1 Increasing demand from SMEs

4.3.2.2 Growing focus of organizations on enhancing productivity

4.3.2.3 Impact analysis of drivers on market forecast

4.3.3 Restraints

4.3.3.1 Low service quality as compared to traditional telephony

4.3.3.2 Interoperability issues in VoIP implementation

4.3.3.3 Impact analysis of restraints on market forecast

4.3.4 Opportunities

4.3.4.1 Growing popularity of voice-based smart office systems

4.4 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

4.4.1 Bargaining Power of Buyers

4.4.2 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.4.3 Threat of New Entrants

4.4.4 Intensity of Rivalry

4.4.5 Threat of Substitutes



Chapter 5. Global Market Size and Forecast

5.1 By Technology

5.2 By Access Type

5.3 By Call Type

5.4 By Medium

5.5 By End User

5.6 By Industry

5.7 By Region



Chapter 6. North America Market Size and Forecast

6.1 By Technology

6.2 By Access Type

6.3 By Call Type

6.4 By Medium

6.5 By End User

6.6 By Industry

6.7 By Country



Chapter 7. Europe Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 8. APAC Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 9. LATAM Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 10. MEA Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 11. Competitive Landscape

11.1 List of Key Players and Their Offerings

11.2 Market Share Analysis of Key Players

11.3 Competitive Benchmarking of Key Players

11.4 Strategic Developments of Key Players

11.4.1 Mergers and Acquisitions

11.4.2 Partnerships

11.4.3 Product Launches

11.4.4 Geographic Expansions

11.4.5 Client Wins



Chapter 12. Company Profiles

12.1 Cisco Systems Inc.

12.1.1 Business Overview

12.1.2 Product and Service Offerings

12.1.3 Key Financial Summary

12.2 Alphabet Inc.

12.3 Microsoft Corporation

12.4 Comcast Corporation

12.5 AT&T Inc.

12.6 Verizon Communications Inc.

12.7 Avaya Holdings Corporation

12.8 Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.

12.9 Deutsche Telekom AG

12.10 Orange S.A.



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/9a7t1h Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

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Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-voip-software-markets-industry-growth-assessment-2020-2025-growing-popularity-of-voice-based-smart-office-systems-301036711.html SOURCE Research and Markets

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The Telangana governments Public Health and Family Welfare Department has launched a new real-time app for tracking and monitoring coronavirus patients.

Called 'COVID-19 Monitoring System App', the app enables health workers to manage over 50,000 calls and chatbot queries per month. These calls/ queries will be done to ensure that the coronavirus positive or symptomatic patient is under quarantine and under treatment, thus curbing the spread.

Nearly 2,000 Asha and Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) workers will use the app to forward information to around 4,800 Public Health Care (PHC) sub-centres from where it will be shared with one of the 886 PHCs in Telangana. The real-time app will also be used to give reminders on maintaining social distance and staying at home.



Extremely excited to announce our collaboration with Government of Telangana to track and monitor #covid19 cases in #telangana state. @VeraHealthCare will be responsible to screen every passenger at international airports and also be part of 14/28 days monitoring process pic.twitter.com/xCF8pDuHed

 Dharma Teja Nukarapu (@dharmanukarupu) March 17, 2020

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The COVID-19 Monitoring System App uses geotagging and GPS tracking to locate the home-quarantined. If the rules are not being followed and the patient is found breaching home-quarantine rules, the tracking information is shared with the concerned authorities for further action.

The app has been developed by the Hyderabad-based startup Vera Smart Healthcare, which had earlier helped the Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu government to create a detailed health profile of over 50,000 individuals across the three states.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
Former President Barack Obama is handing out an endorsement of sorts.

Even though she ended her presidential campaign a month ago, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has continued to crank out plans for how she'd like the government to be run. They've continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and, on Monday, got a stamp of approval from Obama.

Linking to Warren's appearance on the Vox podcast The Ezra Klein Show, Obama described Warren as providing a "cogent summary of how federal policymakers should be thinking about the pandemic in the coming months." In the discussion, Warren outlined plans for protecting health care workers and stemming disease spread, federal deficit spending to save the economy, and collecting data to improve future response measures.

As she often does, @SenWarren provides a cogent summary of how federal policymakers should be thinking about the pandemic in the coming months. https://t.co/zkX0E7ncK5  Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 6, 2020

To some observers, it looked like an endorsement of Warren's policy agenda. And to NBC News' Mike Memoli, it looked like a wholesale endorsement for former Vice President Joe Biden's potential 2020 vice presidential pick.

More stories from theweek.com

What America needs to do before lockdown can end

YouTube bans coronavirus conspiracy videos after livestreamer falsely links virus to 5G networks

Trump just ousted the inspector general overseeing coronavirus relief spending


By Aisha Jabbarova

The so-called elections organized in Azerbaijans occupied Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region on March 31 pose a threat to regional security and stability and amount to outright violations of the UN Resolutions and international law, Pakistani expert, director at Centre for Central Asia and Eurasian Studies of Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies Muhammad Asif Noor told Azernews.

These elections rekindled tensions between two Caucasian nations [Armenia and Azerbaijan]. Armenians and their puppet regime in the Nagorno-Karabakh region organized the elections also at the time when the world is battling the novel COVID-19 deadly outbreak, creating further condemnation for endangering the lives of the innocent people in such times. Hence falsifying the raisond'etre of these elections during such times, Asif Noor said.

The expert added that the international community, including regional and international organizations have denounced the unlawful elections in Nagorno-Karabakh. The election has drawn condemnation form the European Union, NATO, GUAM, the GUAM, organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Turkic Council, he said, adding that a number of countries have urged Armenia to refrain from creating such conflicting situations that can cause further escalation of the conflict. He reminded that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs that mediate the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict, have also condemned the elections.

In their joint statement, the co-chairs said that the final status of the region and the ongoing peace negotiations will not be affected by these elections and their outcomes. These elections are a threat to the entire peace negotiation process and undermine the efforts of the Minsk Group. Often an aggressor undertakes acts in a rush to seek maximum favors, but these acts backfire, the expert said.

The expert explained that Armenia sought to legitimize Karabakhs occupation by holding elections there.

This has again exposed Armenia in front of the international community as this is a gross violation of the human rights of Azerbaijanis expelled from the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Furthermore, the expert said that illegal elections held in Azerbaijans occupied Nagorno-Karabkh region on March 31 that marks the anniversary of the genocide of Azerbaijanis in 1918, put more salt on the wounds of the Azerbaijani people.

The Armenian authorities chose 31 March as the date of elections to put salt on the wounds of Azerbaijanis when Azerbaijanis across the globe were mourning and paying homage to tens of thousands of people killed ruthlessly in a genocide by the Armenians on the same date in 1918. Huge mass graves was excavated in 2007 and thereafter in 2013 a Genocide Memorial Complex raised on the site, Noor said.
By Jeff Lewis and Rod Nickel

TORONTO/WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Steep Canadian oil production cuts are expected due to a crash in prices, three of the country's major energy companies said on Tuesday, as the Alberta provincial government prepared to join a meeting this week with OPEC on reducing supply.

Some 20-25% of Western Canada's production could be shut in during the second quarter, said Enbridge Inc Chief Executive Al Monaco at a virtual investor conference held by Bank of Nova Scotia and Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Western Canada produced an estimated 4.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in March.

Enbridge's prediction is in line with a forecast of 1.1 million to 1.7 million bpd from Royal Bank of Canada. About 135,000 bpd has already been cut in just the oil sands, according to TD Securities.

Saudi Arabia, Russia and allied oil producers will only agree to deep cuts to their output if the United States and others join in with curbs to prop up prices that have been hammered by the pandemic, an OPEC source told Reuters. [nL8N2BV3C5]

Oil sands producer Cenovus Energy has reduced output at its Christina Lake oil sands operation by 40,000 to 45,000 bpd and can cut more if needed, Chief Executive Alex Pourbaix said at the investor conference. The company could suspend more than 100,000 bpd across its operations without damaging bitumen reservoirs, he said.

"We think we could go beyond that if we need to and we could keep that up for many months, he said. Pourbaix reiterated support for further Alberta government curtailments to avoid a storage crunch and said global coordination on reductions may be required to ensure the industry's viability.

But Imperial Oil, majority-owned by Exxon Mobil Corp, opposes any government-ordered curtailments, said Daniel Lyons, Senior Vice-President Finance and Administration.

"Anything is on the table" for the scale of Imperial's future curtailments, and they would occur at its Kearl, Alberta mine, which can modulate production more easily than its Cold Lake in situ site, he said.

Story continues

Oil sands expansion projects have stalled in recent years due to congested pipelines, a problem now being solved with three projects proceeding, including Enbridge's Line 3, Monaco said.

"Once demand normalizes ... we're going to see a good resurgence in volume."

The Alberta government is in regular contact with OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo about solutions to bring the oil market back into balance, Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage said.

"There is a worldwide recognition that this is not sustainable," she said.

(This story corrects to show that cuts in oil sands production in third paragraph.)

(Reporting by Jeff Lewis in Toronto and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)
Representational picture

Mavia Creado and Hetal Dalal

The outbreak of COVID-19, which was declared a pandemic on March 11 by the World Health Organization (WHO), has sent shock waves across global markets and has forced unprecedented measures on the movement of people within and across the country. The Government of Indias directives of a 21-day lockdown and social distancing to avoid large public gatherings are likely to have an impact on the format of shareholder meetings (AGMs, EGMs, and NCLT convened meetings).

Retail shareholders are likely to be the most affected. Institutional investors have numerous platforms to engage with company managements, but for small and retail investors, shareholder meetings are the only opportunity for shareholder engagement.

The inability to hold shareholder meetings will likely lead to a delay in transacting urgent business and to the adjournment or postponing of AGMs.

Delays in holding shareholder meetings can have a material impact on business, where there is an urgent need for shareholder approval. Although the board of directors can take all the crucial decisions relating to the working of a company, a set of critical decisions require shareholders approval (and in some instances, lenders approval). These include appointment/re-appointment of directors, undertaking related party and inter-corporate transactions exceeding regulatory thresholds, issue of securities, schemes of arrangement, etc. Not obtaining shareholder approval in time might lead to non-compliance with the provisions of law or perhaps, even failed transactions.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

The only remaining option for shareholder approval is via the postal ballot. Even within the current constraints this is an easy execution  yet only a defined set of items that can be approved via postal ballot. For example, the adoption of accounts and dividend declaration resolutions need, per force, to be approved in only the AGM and cannot be approved by shareholders via postal ballot.

AGMs are required to be held within six months of the close of the financial year, and the time between two consecutive AGMs cannot exceed 15 months. Financial year for most companies in India closes on March 31, unless the companies have got a separate dispensation from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to have another year end (MNCs typically close their financial year on December 31 to align with global practices).

Some companies that have already sent out notices for shareholder meetings where the meetings were earlier scheduled to be held during the lockdown phase, are being postponed. Although most Indian companies do not include such a provision in their Articles of Association (AoA), during such unforeseen times, it is generally possible for a board to decide to postpone a meeting.

If postponement is not possible, a companys AoA will likely allow adjournment of a meeting, which will have the same practical effect. The AoAs usually allow meetings to be adjourned either by the chairperson with the consent of a quorate meeting or by the chairperson unilaterally if no quorum is present.

Companies can also choose to delay holding their AGMs, but they must put in place a concrete plan on how they propose to manage during the delays. The COVID-19 pandemic may significantly reduce accessibility, communication and physical meetings to conduct statutory audits. It may cause delays to audit-related activities, including the impossibility to conduct on-site audits and inspections, and exercising the relevant access rights.

Virtual or hybrid AGMs

We have long advocated that companies must allow shareholders to participate via a two-way teleconferencing or webex. This would enable a discerning set of investors to participate and address several concerns companies have raised about the quality of discourse at AGMs. Currently, the top 100 companies (by market capitalisation) are required to have a webcast of their AGMs, but this is a one-way transmission.

Although the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has allowed board meetings and board committee meetings to be held via video conferencing, it has not extended this to shareholder meetings. The Companies Act, 2013, requires physical quorum to constitute a valid meeting. UK-incorporated listed companies are permitted to hold hybrid (a combination of physical and electronic) or virtual AGMs. The US Securities and Exchange Commission has also released a guidance, which permits US-based companies to opt for virtual or hybrid meetings.

Allowing companies to hold virtual meetings, especially for listed companies where the shareholder base is large, is now a necessary requirement for social distancing. The regulators  both SEBI and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs  need to allow companies to do so.

Companies offering an entirely virtual meeting will need to put in place shareholder voting and identification procedures. Companies too need to address the infrastructure and technology requirement of setting up such a large-scale virtual meeting, and training shareholders on how to log into the meeting.

To ensure greater shareholder participation, companies can establish an online shareholder Q&A for the AGM where shareholders can post questions related to the business of the AGM. In addition to the mandatory remote e-voting provided by listed companies, they may provide a web-based polling system to ensure shareholders participating through electronic means an opportunity to cast their votes.

The other option would be for companies to conduct a hybrid AGM. This would mean ensuring the presence of a physical quorum as well as allowing shareholders to participate through digital means. For a steady-state or business-as-usual basis, this is an ideal way to increase shareholder participation. However, for the meanwhile regulators must allow companies to hold meeting virtually only.

Conclusion

Regulators, with their reforms, have been embracing technology. E-voting, digital payments, and XBRL filings are several steps ahead of the earlier paper-driven economy. Allowing companies to hold shareholder meetings virtually needs to be the next step. This, along with relaxations in compliance deadlines, would have ensured that businesses would continue on their course, despite the challenges of lockdowns  thus reducing the economic impact of delays.

Companies too need to step up on building their technology infrastructure. COVID-19 has compelled businesses to change the way they operate and challenged several companies that need to operate with employees working from home. For services (not manufacturing) industry, the move towards virtual offices and virtual meetings is easier, if they have the infrastructure for it. This will be the new area of focus for boards, along with the focus on business continuity planning and disaster recovery.
The ill-fated Ruby Princess cruise ship will stay in Australian waters despite the Border Force ordering all vessels to leave due to the coronavirus pandemic.

ABF Commissioner Michael Outram said all foreign cruise ships which asked for permission to stay in local waters had their requests knocked back on Saturday.

But the Ruby Princess in Sydney and Artania in Perth will be allowed to stay in the short-term as hundreds of crew members fight illness following a COVID-19 outbreak on board.

Commissioner Outram said on Tuesday: 'On the 4th of April, I responded to all of the cruise ship operators having considered their request for permission to remain in Australian waters and I advised them that their requests were all denied.

The ill-fated Ruby Princess cruise ship (pictured at Port Kembla, south of Sydney) will stay in Australian waters for at least 10 days

ABF Commissioner Michael Outram said all foreign cruise ships who asked for permission to stay in local waters had their requests knocked back on Saturday. Pictured: The West Australian passengers aboard the Vaso Da Gama cruise ship board the Rottnest Expressahead of their quarantine on March 30

'As a result, they were all to direct their vessels to leave Australian waters as soon as they'd be able to refuel and resupply.'

There were 20 ships in Australian waters at the time and 13 will have left by the end of Tuesday, after restocking and refuelling, with another four expected to be gone by Thursday.

The ships have about 13,500 crew members.

'Had those crew become sick, it's a big strain on the Australian health system,' Commissioner Outram said.

'There will be a couple cruise shifts left in Australia... the Ruby Princess in Sydney and the Artania in Perth.'

Commissioner Outram is hopeful Ruby Princess will leave Sydney in 10 days.

The Ruby Princess in Sydney and Artania in Perth (pictured) will be allowed to stay in the short-term as hundreds of crew members fight illness following a COVID-19 outbreak on board

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

He did not know the exact number of COVID-19 cases on the vessel but said about 200 crew members are 'mildly ill'.

'We are reasonably confident we can get the ship into a position where it can safely depart Australian waters with its crew on board,' he said.

'10 days is what we're aiming for.'

The vessel, which docked in Sydney on March 19, has been linked to hundreds of virus cases across the country and is now the subject of a police probe.

NSW Police Force on Sunday announced they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the docking and disembarking of the Ruby Princess last month.

The investigation will involve interviewing thousands of witnesses, including the Ruby Princess' captain and doctors, the crew and passengers; and staff from various Commonwealth and NSW Government offices and agencies.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said: 'This is a complex issue and we will need information from many witnesses to answer all the questions about how this ship ended up docking last month.'

So far 48 people have died from coronavirus in Australia, including seven deaths confirmed on Tuesday

ABF are also working with crew on the Artania docked in Perth.

'We're working now with the crew and with medical experts in Fremantle to get the crew of the Artania fit and well so that ship can depart and take it and its crew back to Europe,' he said.

'That's what everyone wants.'

Seven Australians died of COVID-19 on Tuesday, taking the nation's death toll to 48.

The latest casualties included an international traveller in his 70s who caught the deadly respiratory infection on the Artania cruise ship, and a woman in the same age bracket who is believed to have contracted the virus overseas.

Thirteen of Australia's fatalities were passengers on the Ruby Princess.
In context: Facebook has a history of mishaps related to exercising poor control over the information disseminated on its platforms. Now that WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, it has found a new problem - the company can't see what people forward to each other in chats, allowing misinformation to become viral and fly under the radar.

Messaging apps with the sheer scale of Messenger and WhatsApp are the platforms of choice for malicious actors looking to spread misinformation around Covid-19. Messages can be forwarded and spread like wildfires, persuading people to treat conspiracy theories and medical quackery as facts.

To some, these are great sources for a laugh, but for others it fuels outrage and irresponsible behaviour. In the UK, several 5G towers were set on fire as a direct result of people falling prey to misinformation. And with an estimated 40+ percent increase in WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram usage since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, there's an increased chance of leading to tragic events like those that happened in India in 2019.

Facebook today introduced a more restrictive policy on message forwarding in a bid to limit the ability of people to spread fake news and conspiracy theories. The way it works is that once you receive a message that has been forwarded more than five times, you'll only be able to forward it yourself to one chat at a time.

You'll be able to recognize these messages quite easily, as they'll be marked with a double arrow icon. If you see such a message, the best thing you can do for yourself and everyone else is to fact-check it before sending it to others. You can also use a bot made by the World Health Organization to get easy access to information that has been carefully vetted by healthcare professionals.

As noted by Facebook, the new policy won't stop people from spreading viral messages around. This is because messages are end-to-end encrypted which means the company can't implement an outright ban on specific content.

The current decision to restrict everyone's ability to forward messages strikes a balance between allowing people to connect privately and adding enough friction to prevent harmful content from becoming viral as quickly as before.

Before 2018, WhatsApp users were able to forward a message to 250 groups at once. That year, Facebook reduced that number to 20, and then further reduced that to five in 2019. The company says last year's restrictions alone resulted in a 25 percent reduction of message forwarding globally.
The majority of coronavirus patients were infected by someone who wasn't showing any symptoms of the deadly virus, a new study of cases in China found.

Researchers from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine estimated how long it was taking for someone to become infected with COVID-19.

Using mathematical modelling, the team found that 79.7 per cent of people with the deadly virus caught it from someone not showing any symptoms.

The team also found that the average time someone has the virus and can pass it on before showing symptoms is 3.8 days - earlier than previously assumed.

Weituo Zhang and colleagues say their results show that isolation alone isn't enough, it has to be coupled with rigorous testing and tracing of the virus.

Weituo Zhang and colleagues say their results show that isolation alone isn't enough, it has to be coupled with rigorous testing and tracing of the virus

The Shanghai team estimated the infection time distribution of the virus - that is the time of the secondary case relative to the first person showing symptoms.

There have been several reports estimating the incubation period of COVID-19 with the most recent estimates putting it at about 2.5 days.

Based on these reports and looking at people's movements, the team calculated the average infection time in Wuhan and outside the city after the lockdown.

'Through several different approaches, we achieve largely consistent results: a large portion of COVID19 transmissions may happen presymptomatically.'

The team discovered that the vast majority of people will catch the virus from someone that appears perfectly healthy but has already been infected.

Someone could also have the virus for 3.8 days before showing any symptoms and still be able to pass the virus on to another person.

'Patients is likely to become infectious in the early stage of their infections instead of just before their symptom onsets,' the team wrote.

They described their model of combining the incubation period with time to transmission data as a 'novel approach' to estimate the disease spread.

'The infection time distribution investigated in this study is closely related to the biologically infectious period of patients during the course of disease.

'Both provide insights of the transmissibility of COVID-19, but from two different aspects,' they wrote.

The findings mirror already available data on viral shedding studies in close contact areas - particularly from confirmed cases.

'However, a difference should be noticed that the infection time distribution is more likely to be affected by the sociological factors and non-pharmaceutical interventions performed by local public health authorities,' the team wrote.

'Our findings should be interpreted with caution. The epidemic data of COVID19 patients that describing the time and tracing details is very limited.

The majority of coronavirus patients were infected by someone who wasn't showing any symptoms of the deadly virus, a new study into cases in China found

'Therefore both estimations of the incubation period and the serial interval of COVID19 have considerable uncertainty.'

Their data had limitations in the fact cases with severe symptoms are more likely to be detected and cases with clearly reported tracing details are likely to be from areas with plenty of public health resources.

'Another important concern of COVID19 is the transmissions induced by the true asymptomatic carrier, which refers to the infected person who keep asymptomatic during the entire course of disease,' they wrote.

'Our study is based on data of confirmed cases which did not include the true asymptomatic carrier.

The team say that isolating people based on studying symptoms alone may not be enough to slow the spread of the virus.

'Aggressive testing, isolation of close contacts and social distancing to prevent presymptomatic or asymptomatic transmissions are crucial to combat COVID19.'
Hargrove said neither Evans nor Thomas had been at the store in over a week prior to their deaths, but that Walmart had taken action to deep clean key areas of the super center, located at 2500 W. 95th St., near Western Avenue, and brought in an outside firm to further clean all of its high-touch surfaces.
In 2018, the cardinal was sentenced to 6 years in prison. As soon as he was acquitted he said he had "suffered from a profound injustice", but also that he had no "ill will" towards his accuser and that he did not want to add to the "hurt and bitterness" so many feel. In all these years, the Vatican has always maintained the presumption of innocence for Card. Pell.

Brisbane (AsiaNews) - Card. George Pell has been released from Barwon Prison, where he was serving a 6-year sentence for sexual abuse. Today the Supreme Court of Australia has declared him innocent of the crimes attributed to him.

The 78-year-old cardinal, former secretary of the economy at the Vatican, is the highest ranking personality in the Catholic hierarchy to have faced such allegations.

In a statement made public shortly after the Court's judgment, Card. Pell stressed that he had "suffered from a profound injustice", repaired today by the unanimous decision of the Court. He also said that he did not bear any "ill will" towards his accuser and did not want to add to the "hurt and bitterness" that so many feel.

The trial of Card. Pell took place as countless accusations and complaints emerged in Australia against priests and nuns involved in abuse, including sexual abuse. For many of the cardinals supporters, it appeared as if he were a scapegoat. Others point out that on the backs of these accusations he was marginalized by the group that was to reform the economy in the Vatican, leaving free hand to those who instead wanted to use the financial structures of the Holy See for less noble purposes.

In the declaration, Card. Pell says: However my trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church; nor a referendum on how Church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of paedophilia in the Church. The point was only if I had committed those horrible crimes or not, and I did not commit them.

Card. Pell was charged in 2017 and convicted two years ago of an crime dating back to the 1990s: he allegedly abused two altar boys in the sacristy, immediately after Sunday mass in St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne. The only accuser was one of the two former altar boys; the other had died in 2014 and retracted the charges before he died.

In 2018, the Victoria Court sentenced the cardinal, not unanimously. But the cardinal's lawyers wanted to appeal saying that this court had not taken into consideration the evidence that exonerated their client.

Finally, today, the Supreme Court, almost a month after the hearing, has pronounced a unanimous sentence. It highlighted that the Victoria Court did not take into consideration "the reasonable possibility that the offense had not taken place" and did not look at the contradictions that existed between some of the testimonies and the accuser's report. This is why Card. Pell has been totally cleared of the charges.

In all these years, the Vatican has always maintained the presumption of innocence for Card. Pell, until the conclusion of all the stages of justice.
With oil prices sinking and unemployment rising because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Houston-area residents are uncertain about their personal finances. Arete Advisors President David Tolson discusses some common questions.

With a 19-year career in financial advising and an office in the Memorial area, Tolson said people should absolutely keep saving right now, preferably monthly.

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Equities are on sale right now, said Tolson. Volatility will continue, and the market may swoon again as a reaction to bad news, but maintaining disciplined savings habits in good times and in tough times is critical for most people to meet their long-term financial goals.

Thinking about touching investments, he said as counterintuitive and it may appear, turn off the financial news for your own good.

We will get through this  even though it may take a while, Tolson said. If you sell your stocks or mutual funds now, you are locking in a loss, which then begs the question, How will I know when to get back in?

Tolson recommended some priorities for this time and said above all, people should take care of themselves and their families and try not to focus on the day-to-day markets. The market is down for now and it is volatile, but while it will take a while, the economy and the market will recover, Tolson said. Do not try to time this market.

He encouraged cutting costs where possible and being kind to check on people in your life like clients, co-workers, friends and family members to see how you can lend them a hand or encourage them. Working on planning and other projects that you typically would not do when you had less time on your hands is also a great idea, he said. His final priority was focusing on the things that you are able to manage.

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Tolson urged those that are struggling financially to reach out to landlords, mortgage companies and lenders, checking what rules apply and then having a conversation. My sense is folks generally are trying to make reasonable accommodations, he said.

If you are laid off, he suggested cutting as many expenses as possible, talking with your landlord or lenders and familiarizing yourself with Texas unemployment benefits and stimulus benefits that are due to come from Washington. Also, he recommended looking into short-term employment with companies that are hiring, like delivery and distribution.

He also voiced concerns about Americans retirement savings, saying that many are woefully behind.

Because of that, I would avoid the temptation to withdraw funds from my retirement plan as strenuously as humanly possible, Tolson explained. Again, everyones situation is different but, taking money out of investments, particularly retirement accounts, now may be trading relief for an acute, present, short term pain for a long term, chronic problem in the future for which you will have no alternatives.

For the next financial downtown, Tolson recommends building a highly liquid emergency fund of three to six months because it buys a person flexibility and time to provide during health issues, job loss and unforeseen expenses.

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Comparing this economic decline to others of the past five decades (1973/1974, 1987, 2001, 2007/2008), Tolson said the others were largely driven by an excess in the financial market and that this market move is much the same in depth. However, this one happened much faster. The major difference, he said, was that this downturn was a result of a pandemic on global economic output and how long the economies of the world will take to recover.

Tolson said the COVID-19 downturn has been hard on many, but he does see some silver linings. One is that the virus has caused people to slow down a bit, make time with their families and think about what is important in life. Also, he said these troubling times usually lead to progress.

As painful as this is, we will get through it, and it will be interesting to see what innovations in medicine, work practices, distribution, dining, technology and a host of other things will have been birthed from the dreadful experience, Tolson said.

For more information about Tolson and his financial services, visit www.arete-advisors.net or call 832-910-8437.

tracy.maness@hcnonline.com
Michael Croke, a criminal lawyer based in Sydney's Kings Cross, "regrettably" used and abused his knowledge of the law to pervert the course of justice, a District Court jury heard.

Finishing his closing address to the jury on Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Chris Taylor said a single call made on November 8, 2014, told the jury everything they needed to know about Mr Crokes role in "rorting" the justice system to help a criminal group recover a bag of cash.

Sydney criminal lawyer Michael Croke is standing trial for perverting the course of justice. Credit:Peter Rae

Mr Croke, 69, has pleaded not guilty to numerous charges including perverting the course of justice, knowingly helping a criminal group and providing the police with false statements.

The charges stem from the night of August 11, 2011, when police seized a suitcase containing $702,000 in cash from personal trainer Sean Carolan, a guest at the Hilton Hotel.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 04/06/2020



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star Zach Justice says he tended to talk in circles while speaking with his wife Mindy Shiben because his direct comments got misconstrued.The Season 10 couple's relationship was caught in a downward spiral ever since their honeymoon in Panama when Zach told Mindy on several occasions he wasn't attracted to her and they lacked intangible chemistry.Mindy never gave up on her marriage despite her bruised ego, but Zach threw his walls up and kept his distance from his wife. He even refused to move in with Mindy in Washington, D.C.After catching Zach in lies and growing tired of being the only one to put effort into their relationship, Mindy decided to end her marriage to Zach once and for all in last week's episode of ."Have you learned anything about yourself and how you handle conflict?" host Jamie Otis asked Zach on the Wednesday, April 1 episode of : Unfiltered."Yeah, I think with Mindy being so opposite of me -- like, very opposite -- I didn't know how to address things head on," Zach explained."So a lot of the reasons I do talk in circles is because, in previous conversations, the direct words were misconstrued.""And so, I was super cautious about what I was saying all the time," Zach added.In a late February episode of Unfiltered, Zach explained that Mindy had "a really tough response" to him being honest with her about his feelings -- or lack thereof, in this case -- and so she blurted out, "I want a divorce." "And then the next day, she was like, 'I think we should see other people,' which was kind of alarming for me ," Zach claimed at the time.Zach had said he never anticipated Mindy would take his words so personally and straight to her heart."I can't assume everyone has a thick skin and can handle that crucial conversation so easily," Zach said in February."And obviously Mindy is the complete opposite of that when it comes to these type of interpretations for sure."Throughout 's tenth season, Mindy often accused Zach of talking a lot and providing long-winded explanations without saying much at all."What did he just say? I have no idea," Mindy once vented about Zach.But Mindy wasn't the only one who noticed Zach's tendency to talk in circles.star Austin Hurd previously admitted he "zoned out" when Zach spoke to him because Zach struggled to make a point, and co-star Derek Sherman once vented to the cameras that Zach was "confusing as f-ck."Mindy believed Zach was an intelligent guy while they were married, but it was clear Zach struggled to express himself in a clear and concise manner.Zach and Mindy were not even featured in the latest episode on Wednesday night given their marriage was already over. Mindy called it quits on their relationship with about two weeks left until "Decision Day."Mindy disapproved of Zach starting a friendship with her close friend Lindsay behind her back, and then she caught Zach in a lie when he was trying to protect Lindsay."I told myself I was only going to let myself be disappointed like that one more time and that's it, so I can't subject myself to that. I'm sorry to say but I don't want to be in this marriage anymore," Mindy told Zach in last week's broadcast."I don't know what to say. I feel like I have a lot to say but I don't know what to say," Zach replied. "I feel with the lack of transparency, it put you in a position where you had to make this decision, but I don't think I expected it."Mindy said she wanted to make her marriage work so badly that she had been willing to pretty much do anything."But what I've learned is no matter how much I wanted it, a marriage is not about one person and my husband did not show up to be any kind of decent partner," Mindy griped.also stars Jessica Studer Taylor Dunklin , and Brandon Reid Interested in more news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Group
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Linkedin Alya Nurbaiti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 17:21 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd055217 1 City COVID-19-in-Indonesia,coronavirus,virus-corona,virus-korona-indonesia,burial,Jakarta-administration,victim,dead,protocols-COVID-19 Free

The Jakarta administration has revealed it has buried more than 600 people according to the protocols for burial of people either suspected of or confirmed as having been infected with COVID-19.

Jakarta Parks and Forestry Agency head Suzi Marsitawati said 639 people had been buried following the special protocols as of Monday noon, with their bodies wrapped in plastic, put inside coffins wrapped in another layer of plastic and interred less than four hours after death.

The agency, however, did not have data on which of the 639 people were confirmed COVID-19 cases or only suspected of having the disease.

Our job is to transport and bury the bodies. We arent told by the hospitals whether a body is a COVID-19 patient or simply someone put under general monitoring or surveillance. All we know is those bodies need to undergo special protocols, Suzy said during a press briefing on Monday.

Read also: 'Extremely disturbing': Jump in Jakarta funerals raises fears of unreported COVID-19 deaths

Jakarta COVID-19 task force head Catur Laswanto said most of the cases were under surveillance or general monitoring and had died before their test results came back.

We have to adhere to the protocols as if they were [confirmed] COVID-19 cases, even though their status is not yet confirmed for the disease, he said.

Workers preparing the funeral must also use personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves, masks and protective coveralls. These workers also have a high risk of COVID-19 infection, Catur said.

Most of the PPE for mortuary workers has been donated by the Jakarta branch of the National Zakat Board of Indonesia (Baznas) through the city parks and forestry agency.

The administration is burying people suspected of or confirmed as having COVID-19 in Pondok Rangon cemetery in East Jakarta as well as Tegal Alur cemetery in West Jakarta.

As of Tuesday, the capital city recorded 106 deaths as a result of COVID-19 of the total of 221 deaths recorded nationwide. Jakarta, the epicenter of COVID-19 in the country, has also confirmed 1,369 cases out of 2,738 total cases across the country.

Jakarta has also seen a jump in funerals at the city whereby 4,377 people were buried in March, much higher than any month since 2010 with an average of 2,500. The data suggests that deaths from COVID-19 in the capital may be much higher than reported.
The Department of Health announced that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa has increased to 1,749.

This is an increase of 63 cases over the last day, with one more death being recorded, bringing the total number of deaths due to the virus in the country up to 13.

The patient who died was also suffering from prostate cancer, the department said.

There is also another death, bringing the total to 13 deaths. It was a male who had stage 4 prostate cancer at Parklands Hospital.

As of 7 April 2020, 58,098 tests have been conducted in South Africa and 45 people who tested positive have recovered from the virus.

As at today, the total number of confirmed #COVID19 cases is 1749. There is also another death, bringing the total to 13 deaths. It was a male who had stage 4 prostrate cancer at Parklands Hospital. We convey our condolences to the family of the deceased #ZweliMkhize  Department of Health: COVID-19 (@COVID_19_ZA) April 7, 2020

Strange case number trends

What stands out about the number of COVID-19 cases in South Africa is they do not follow the same trend as those in other countries.

In countries like the United States, Spain, and Italy, for example, there is a consistent increase in cases until they reach a plateau.

None of these countries showed a rapid increase in cases and then a sudden decline  as observed in South Africa.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said last week they expected between 4,000 and 5,000 cases by around 2 April. This makes sense if South Africa followed the same infection pattern as other countries.

The number of cases has remained under control, however, with new cases reported each day falling sharply after the implementation of the lockdown.

Mkhize put the lower-than-expected infection rate down to closing South Africas borders quickly, quarantining of inbound travellers, enforcing a lockdown, and preventing mass gatherings.

While the measures which the government implemented to fight the virus outbreak are most likely effective, the minister said South Africa needs to remain alert to prevent a mass outbreak.

He explained that coronavirus testing in South Africa has to date been reactive and restrictive, which means we may not have the full picture of the problem.
Read on for the most recent top news you may have missed in Baltimore. Man hosting online party killed moments after Facebook Live video shows intruder entering house Read the full story on New York Daily News. Third Baltimore County officer tests positive for COVID-19; 30 officers in quarantine Read the full story on CBS Baltimore. Advocates calling for mayor to rehouse homeless from shelters to protect against COVID-19 Read the full story on Baltimore Fishbowl. 21-year-old man shot, injured Read the full story on CBS Baltimore. Large amount of oxycodone stolen from Baltimore pharmacy Read the full story on CBS Baltimore. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.

A Baltimore man who was shot and killed while hosting a "game night" party over the weekend livestreamed the moment when one of the intruders scaled a fence to get into the house and told him to "get on the ground."

More than 4,000 people in Maryland have tested positive for the virus, and more than 90 people have died.

Housing advocates are calling on Mayor Bernard C. "Jack" Young to rehouse homeless individuals from shelters to protect them against COVID-19.

Around 2:39 a.m. Monday, officers responded to the 400 block of North Montford Avenue for a report of a shooting.
Ready for blast-off with Penetron: The local Penetron experts were asked to provide a waterproofing solution for the construction of the concrete foundation at the Gokmen Space & Aviation Center. With many successfully completed projects in the Bursa area, Penetron crystalline technology enjoys a solid reputation with the design and construction community. This caught the attention of the project contractor.

The December 2019 inauguration of the Gokmen Space and Aviation Center in Bursa, Turkey, marks an aerospace milestone for Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean region. This state-of-the-art educational center relied on Penetron waterproofing technology for a durable concrete foundation.

Located in northwestern Turkey, about 150 km south of Istanbul, Bursa is the countrys largest manufacturing center and fourth largest city, with a population of just under two million inhabitants.

Bursa is already the industrial capital of the country, thanks to its automotive, machinery and textile sectors, says Jozef Van Beeck, International Sales & Marketing Director of The Penetron Group. Beginning now, with the opening of the new Gokmen Space and Aviation Center, the region is set to also become the leader in the aerospace and defense industries in Turkey.

The Gokmen Space and Aviation Center (GUHEM), part of the Bursa Technology Organized Industrial Zone (TEKNOSAB), was developed by the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality and Turkeys Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology (TUBITAK).

Raising Interest in Aerospace

GUHEM is aimed primarily at raising public awareness of space exploration and the possibility of careers in aerospace. The Center features 154 interactive installations, aerospace learning centers, space innovation centers and vertical wind tunnels. Lectures on atmospheric events, the planets of the solar system and galaxies, and even a gravity-free zone are all specifically designed to attract a young audience and motivate them to consider a future in the aerospace industry.

The US $40 million GUHEM project is the largest space and aviation center in Europe and one of the five largest such facilities in the world, with a total area of approximately 13,000 m2. During the planning phase, the local Penetron experts were asked to advise on the construction of the concrete foundation planned for GUHEM.

Question of Experience

The areas high-water table demanded a waterproofing solution that would provide a durable below-grade structure for the new education center, adds Haluk Taylan, Managing Partner of PENEKIM Turkey. With many successfully completed projects in the Bursa area, Penetron crystalline technology enjoys a solid reputation with the design and construction community. This caught the attention of the project contractor.

The PENETRON System was specified to treat GUHEMs foundation slab. Bursa Beton, the ready-mix supplier, provided the 3,000 m3 of concrete needed for the pour. PENEBAR SW waterstops were installed to seal all non-moving construction joints.

The Penetron Group is a leading manufacturer of specialty construction products for concrete waterproofing, concrete repairs and floor preparation systems. The Group operates through a global network, offering support to the design and construction community through its regional offices, representatives and distribution channels.

For more information on PENETRON waterproofing solutions, please visit penetron(dot)com or Facebook(dot)com/ThePenetronGroup, email CRDept(at)penetron(dot)com, or contact the Corporate Relations Department at 631-941-9700.
economy Exclusive | Full economic activity may resume only by September: Mark Matthews, Julius Baer In an exclusive interview with Moneycontrol, he said the government will accelerate the reforms process to tackle the slowdown.
For the last few weeks, Bay Area chef Greg Clausen has kept busy preparing homemade dishes to share with thousands of people.

No one can taste or smell his meals because they exist only online on Clausens Facebook group, Shelter in Place Cooking, where everyone from budding cooks to professional chefs have joined to also share the dishes theyve made at home since shelter-in-place orders took effect on March 17.

Since he created the group on March 18, the list of members has grown to more than 2,100  no one who requests to join has been turned away.

ALSO: De-pressure cooking: Check out the food coming out of sheltering in place

I just did it on a whim and it is kind of taken off, Clausen said. [People] can post what they're cooking, maybe ask questions or be inspired by what other people are cooking. If they belong to [the] group, they [can] have a group of friends through their computer.

Members of Shelter in Place Cooking, have posted daily photographs of simple breakfast dishes to meals that bring back memories from childhood. The group has even opened up the opportunity for members to interact with professional chefs and ask for guidance.

It's a good resource for the general public to maybe ask a chef in the group an idea or recipe, which is something they might not be able to do most often, Clausen said.

Suzanne LaFleur, a production team manager at Dandelion Chocolate, is one of the groups members. She said she joined because she saw the value in sharing some of the tricks of the trade shes picked up throughout her long career.

ALSO: Searching for sourdough starter in SF? Check the telephone pole

LaFleur, a former pastry of more than 20 years, said some of the tips shes given members have ranged from how to extend herb and vegetable shelf life, to how to make risotto in a pressure cooker, to how to properly smoke onions.

So many people are at home cooking and experimenting with different things now, [and] they want some advice, LaFleur said. I enjoy helping people learn different ways of doing things that save time, are more efficient and ending up with an even better product.

Shes also showed off some of her own baking chops. Her latest post was a short video clip of a fluffy souffle served with vanilla creme Anglaise.

Shelter in Place Cooking Facebook Group/ screengrab

Clausens own career has spanned 40 years in the culinary industry. The last 30 of them have been spent in San Francisco where hes had stints at One Market, Boulevard and Fleur de Lys, among others.

ALSO: This San Francisco Michelin star restaurant converts its dining room into a wine shop

Clausens current gig at Elaine Bell Catering in Napa Valley has been placed on hold due to the ongoing pandemic, but hes hopeful that he can get back to work with the catering company by the summer.

For now, Clausen will continue to share photos of his latest dishes and contribute to the growing Facebook group. Clausen adds that besides helping form a bond during the pandemic, he thinks the group will help members gain confidence in their own cooking skills and perhaps be less scared to cook at home once shelter-in-place orders have lifted.

Susana Guerrero is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: Susana.Guerrero@sfgate.com | Twitter: @SusyGuerrero3

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The UN Security Council will on Thursday hold its first meeting on the coronavirus pandemic by video conference after weeks of divisions among its five permanent members, diplomats said Monday.



Last week, exasperated by the back-and-forth that has paralyzed the council, including between China and the United States, nine of the 10 non-permanent members formally requested a meeting featuring a presentation by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.



"Meeting confirmed for Thursday," one diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity. It was to be held behind closed doors at 3:00 pm (1900 GMT).



It's not yet clear what form the meeting will take, or what could be accomplished: will the member nations show unity in the fact of a global crisis and a willingness to cooperate, or proceed with a settling of scores?



The New York-based Security Council has been teleworking since March 12 as the new coronavirus spreads rapidly in the city.



Last week, the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution calling for "international cooperation" and "multilateralism" in the fight against COVID-19, the first text to come out of the world body since the outbreak began.



Russia has tried to oppose the text, but only four other countries backed its parallel draft.



The United States has long demanded that any meeting or text specify that the virus first emerged in China, to Beijing's consternation.



Diplomats said Monday that opposition to holding a council meeting was coming from the Chinese and the Russians.



Moscow and Beijing say they only believe the council should consider the pandemic when they are talking about a country experiencing conflict, the diplomats said.



According to several diplomats, France been trying since last week to organize a video conference with leaders of the five permanent member countries to try to iron out differences, and would prefer that is done before a meeting of the 15-member council.



Along with France, the permanent members are Britain, China, Russia and the US.



The nine countries that requested the meeting are Germany, which spearheaded the effort, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Indonesia, Niger, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam.



The final non-permanent member, South Africa, did not support the move, saying the council's remit was peace and security, not health and economic issues.



For those nine countries, it's "really irresponsible to block" a council meeting and to "paralyze" the institution since the start of the crisis, a diplomat from one of them said.

Source: France24









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YEREVAN, APRIL 7, ARMENPRESS. Mayor of Yerevan Hayk Marutyan congratulated women on the occasion of the Motherhood and Beauty Day.

Dear residents of Yerevan, today is the feast of Annunciation of the Holy Virgin Mary, the Motherhood and Beauty Day. I warmly congratulate all mothers and sisters waiting for the joy of motherhood. Be healthy, the Mayor said on Facebook.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Downing Street said he was moved to the unit on the advice of his medical team and was receiving "excellent care."

Prime Minister for the United Kingdom Boris Johnson has spent the night in intensive care at a central London hospital after his coronavirus symptoms worsened.

Downing Street said he was moved to the unit on the advice of his medical team and was receiving "excellent care," according to the BBC.

Mr. Johnson has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputise "where necessary," a spokesman added.

The prime minister, 55, was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital with "persistent symptoms" on Sunday evening.

Read alsoBritish PM Johnson admitted to hospital over virus symptoms  media

The Queen has been kept informed about Mr. Johnson's health by No 10, according to Buckingham Palace.

World leaders  including U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron  have expressed their support for Mr. Johnson.

BBC political correspondent Chris Mason said the prime minister was given oxygen late on Monday afternoon, before being taken to intensive care.

He was moved as a precaution so he could be close to a ventilator  which takes over the body's breathing process, our correspondent said.

A No 10 statement read: "The prime minister has been under the care of doctors at St Thomas' Hospital, in London, after being admitted with persistent symptoms of coronavirus.

"Over the course of [Monday] afternoon, the condition of the prime minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the intensive care unit at the hospital."

It continued: "The PM is receiving excellent care, and thanks all NHS staff for their hard work and dedication."

Mr. Raab  who will later chair the government's daily Covid-19 meeting  said there was an "incredibly strong team spirit" behind the prime minister.

He added that he and his colleagues were making sure they implemented plans Mr. Johnson had instructed them to deliver "as soon as possible."

"That's the way we'll bring the whole country through the coronavirus challenge," he said.
Spain's health ministry said Monday the spread of the coronavirus in that country has continued to slow, indicating the emergency measures put in place by the government are working.

At a news briefing in Madrid, the ministry reported the number of new cases from Sunday to Monday stood at 4,273, an increase of 3 percent, compared to a daily rate of increase of 22 percent March 14, when emergency measures were put in place.
An empty street in New York (Source: VNA)

Talking to Vietnam News Agency correspondents in Washington DC, Ngoc said there are nearly 30,000 Vietnamese students living in the US, who are among the groups most vulnerable to the disease.

The embassy has provided updated information about the disease for Vietnamese citizens, especially students, and recommended they take preventive meausres and follow regulations on entry and exit procedures and quarantine in both countries, while helping those who were stuck at US airports to fly home.

In addition to maintaining information channels and hotlines around the clock to provide timely assistance for needy students, the embassy has also coordinated with the Vietnamese Youth and Student Association in the US and its chapters in different states to disseminate information to students and help them in the fight against COVID-19.

Concerns have recently been raised about the overload of the host country's health and social security systems as well as changes to policies which would be disadvantageous for foreign citizens. However, the Vietnamese embassy has proactively worked with local authorised offices and asked the US side to take necessary measures to ensure the rights and legitimate interests of Vietnamese citizens living in the country, including the extension of their stays and the granting of new visas, Ngoc stated.

Sharing the concerns of Vietnamese parents and students in the US at present, the embassy is continuing to strictly implement instructions from the Government, and helping Vietnamese citizens to book commercial flights organized by Vietnam to return home, he added

Amid the complicated developments of the pandemic, the diplomat noted that students should strictly comply with local regulations on COVID-19 prevention, practise social distancing, and limit road and air travel to avoid the risk of infection.

The embassy will do its utmost to stand side by side with and support Vietnamese citizens, particularly students, he asserted.

Regarding the export of medical equipment, protective gear and face masks to the US, the ambassador said it will countribute to strengthening bilateral cooperation, including in the health sector.

In the context that the disease is spreading out on a global scale, the US has huge demand for medical products. Vietnams supply of these products shows its assistance for partners, including the US, as well as its participation in global efforts to fight the disease, Ngoc stated.

However, he noted that the US side has strict quality requirements for imported medical products. Therefore, he asked Vietnamese businesses to follow instructions from the Government and related ministries, especially the Ministries of Public Health, and Industry and Trade, on regulations related to the export of medical equipment and face masks, and at the same time discuss carefully with US partners about production and export contracts.

For its part, the embassy will continue updating information on the disease as well as the US sides requirements for Vietnamese offices and enterprises, Ngoc added.
Police have arrested one man and are seeking others after a pair of shootings Sunday night in Salem City left bullet holes in two houses, but no reported injuries.

Authorities believe the incidents are gang-related and potentially tied to two recent shootings in Salem that killed three.

Police responded to Olive Street just before 9 p.m. on Sunday for a report of a shooting in which a home and vehicle parked in front of it were riddled with bullets.

Cops pursued a vehicle seen fleeing the scene, according to Salem Police Chief John Pelura III.

The suspect, identified as Hakeem Walls, 23, of Atlantic City, ran from his car a few blocks away on North Elm Street. That chased ended in a swampy area behind Anderson Drive, where Walls was taken into custody without incident.

In his vehicle, police found an assault-style rifle and a fully automatic rifle, both with high-capacity magazines, according to his criminal complaint. Whether he fired those weapons during the incident remains under investigation.

While chasing Wells, another shooting was reported on Carpenter Street around 10 p.m., Pelura said. More than 10 rounds were fired into a home in that incident. At least 10 shots were fired on Olive Street, too.

Wells was charged with various weapons offenses and eluding, and placed in Salem County Correctional Facility.

Police officers from several Salem County towns responded to assist Salem police during the incidents, as did the Salem County Prosecutors Office, Salem County Sheriffs Department K-9 Unit, and aviation and K-9 resources from the New Jersey State Police.

The year got off to a violent start in Salem.

Isa Hallman and Kapri Taylor, both 28-year-old Salem residents, were killed in a Jan. 2 shooting at Salem Motor Lodge.

Tajmire Clark, 23, of Salem, was shot to death on Olive Street on March 21.

No arrests have been made in those killings, but another man wounded in the motor lodge shooting, Rakwan Adams, 25, of Salem, was charged with two counts of attempted murder in that case.

Based on what police know so far, there seems to be a connection between the earlier killings and the violence on Sunday.

The limited information we are hearing is that this may be related to the murder on Olive Street, Pelura said. As for a link to the motor lodge case, I think that is safe to assume, the chief added.

Police are counting on cooperation from the public.

We have some people who are working with us, he said. But we suspect there are many more who have information that can help us charge and bring these reckless and violent offenders to justice. Until that happens, we ask that the public continue to notify us of suspicious behavior in their neighborhoods.

Anyone with information about these incidents is asked to contact police at 856-935-0033, 856-935-2TIP or email tips@salemcitypd.com.

Authorities are also investigating Salems fourth homicide, which occurred last week when Darlene Pennewell, 55, was found stabbed to death in her apartment on Seventh Street.

Anyone with information about that killing is asked to contact Salem Police Detective Sgt. Sean Simpkins at 856-935-0033 or prosecutors office Detective Pat Vengenock at 856-935-7510, ext 8333.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.
A blow to sexual abuse victims I am horrified at the High Court's decision regarding George Pell. The law has now basically said even if accusers are credible, the accused can be acquitted. Robyn Westwood, Heidelberg Heights Truth and justice prevail Our High Court has decided in favour of truth and justice. Victorians are blessed that we are part of the Commonwealth of Australia. After the destruction of justice at three levels of the state courts, Cardinal Pell has been rescued from an unjust conviction and imprisonment. Faith in the federal justice system has been vindicated by the High Court.

Eugene Ahern, Templestowe Court Scrutiny needed of state legal system The Victorian legal system must now come under serious discussion. A man who has served more than 400 days in jail had to wait for a High Court decision to set him free. John Capel, Black Rock Right in law, but is it justice?

The High Court verdict in the Pell case was not entirely unexpected. It might be right in law but it does not deliver justice to accusers and it does not protect children and the community. Peter Bonett, Oak Park Evidence considered must be broader So now we know: it is almost impossible for anyone accused of a sexual offence done in private, as Cardinal Pell was, to be found guilty in the absence of further evidence. With no eye-witnesses and lack of forensic evidence, legally it seems that a plea of innocence and an accusation of guilt are of equal weight and so cancel each out. A presumption of innocence then tips the scales to not guilty. But in many circumstances a plea of innocence and an accusation of guilt are not equal in weight. Past examples tell us even the truthful accuser will suffer by accusing. Justice in cases of this kind are not best met by the narrow legalism that works elsewhere. The evidence considered must be broader, otherwise the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has taught us nothing. Donald Newgreen, Brunswick West

THE FORUM Time to top up reserves Under International Energy Agency obligations, Australia is required to hold 90 days of fuel reserves. Due to coronavirus movement restrictions, national demand for fuel is plummeting, at least one oil refinery is to be mothballed. Yet international oil prices are low. The federal government could move to build reserves from their low levels to meet international obligations, do it at low cost, and at the same time provide an economic stimulus and preserve valuable jobs. John Margetts, Grovedale Forests under threat

It is hard to believe the government has approved the resumption of logging in fire-damaged areas of Victorian native forests ("Logging in fire zones approved", 2/4). This will set back forest recovery severely. The work of forestry researchers has discovered how important the burnt detritus is for forest renewal: the burnt logs and branches provide shelter for animals, protection for newly emerging native seedlings, as well as cover for the bare soil beneath. Logging will inevitably destroy all this. Freya Headlam, Glen Waverley Learning to trust As a VicRoads volunteer L2P mentor I would have thought that a mother supervising her learner-driver daughter in pursuit of logging more hours of driving experience was exactly the kind of thing the authorities should be encouraging. With the roads quieter and social distancing being adhered to this is a constructive way for parents and young people to use their time while schools are closed. Fining people under these circumstances undermines efforts to gain public compliance with the distancing requirements needed to stop this virus from spreading. Hans Paas, Castlemaine

Q&A illuminating Hamish Macdonald presented the best of Q&A "events" (ABC TV, 6/4). The medical professional's informed answers were comforting knowing that we have these people risking their health and lives for every Australian. Respiratory physician Dr Lucy Morgan's description of ICU patient treatment and the effects of the virus on us was a "transparent" look into the sobering effect of the pandemic. The understanding and appreciation of why we are isolated and why our lives and "personal world" have been upended is apparent. Ross Kroger, Barwon Heads Concern warranted Bill Matthew (Letters, 7/4) says we shouldn't be concerned about China's communist government. Is he saying we shouldn't be concerned about communist China's history of jailing and executing dissidents? Of suppressing non-Han cultures such as the Uighur and Tibetan? Of using its clout to undermine Taiwan? Concern about any brutal, bullying or manipulative methods of a totalitarian regime is always justified.

Indra Liepins, Glenroy Oversight needs weight Prime Minister Morrison aims to create a powerful committee to monitor the government's performance in response to coronavirus. Countries such as New Zealand and the UK use parliamentary committees for this purpose. At a time when informed scrutiny of government actions and policies are required, I support the call from members of Parliament and retired judges for a New Zealand-style oversight committee to ensure proper scrutiny and accountability for the government's COVID-19 decisions. Dr Nancy Hudson-Rodd, North Hobart, Tas. Dangerous data

I must strongly disagree with The Age editorial ("Phone tracking should be used to stop virus", 6/4). Once the genie of phone tracking gets out of the bottle it will be impossible to get it back in again. We risk the dominance of the state over our democracy. Plus, a rather obvious way to avoid being tracked is to leave your phone at home. It is useless to fine our friends who ski in Aspen. They have enough money to cope with any fine. Isolating in a prison cell for two weeks would be a deterrent to them and everyone else. Peter Ramadge, Newport Denialism on two fronts So well put, Peter Thomson (Letters, 6/4). The parallels between pandemics and climate disasters are salutary. The science has shown both were expected. What we are up against has been exemplified by the blatant denialism of some leaders as well as commentators about the pandemic: Trump (every day), Johnson (proudly shaking hands "with everyone"), Alan Jones until recently (it is the "health version of global warming") and Andrew Bolt. Will we see coal and other damaging activities fired up when things "get back to normal"? Fiona Colin, Malvern East

Anti-vaxers quiet Where are the anti-vaxers in this new world of coronavirus? Maybe they can now see how herd immunity has protected them in the past. Or, when the COVID-19 vaccination is available, will they refuse it? Lesley Garton, Northcote Kindness lauded Thank you to the Chinese Community Council of Australia, who (Letters, 7/4), raise the issue of racism emanating from a well-known NSW radio and TV personality. I am an older woman living in a unit in inner-city Melbourne. My neighbours include Australians of Asian descent. These neighbours have been more than kind and supportive to me in recent weeks. As I have three of the vulnerability markers (age, asthma, cancer) that may make me a candidate for COVID-19, their help in putting out my garbage and delivering groceries has enabled me to self isolate. Humans looking after humans.

Mary Walker, Richmond Our police state The response of Police Minister Lisa Neville to fining a learner driver and her mother is another Andrews government-sanctioned step down the road to a police state. The restrictions on movement and assembly are meant to minimise contact between people and therefore the spread of COVID-19. It is illogical to suggest that two people from the same family, symptom-free and in their own car constitute a threat to catching or spreading the virus. Unfortunately the frequency of such decisions is increasing, each sanctioned and supported by the government under the guise of "saving lives". The restrictions need to be administered in accordance with their objective. They also provide a convenient cover for the government from having to explain why our state health system is so fragile. Robert Boffey, Macleod Confusing approach

It is difficult to understand how the COVID-19 risk associated with trips to holiday homes can be characterised as "manageable and acceptable", when other vehicular journeys, such as those undertaken by learner drivers for educative purposes, are apparently so much more dangerous and "non-essential" that they warrant a fine ("No fines for Easter trip to holiday home"; "Learner fined in police blitz", 7/4). While it is important that travel is minimised, I feel for those on the receiving end of such a confusing and non-discretionary approach to law enforcement. Christopher Thomson, Mont Albert North What's better than this? So Christian Porter wants Parliament shut down during this crisis because of having "better things to do". I would have thought that assisting in the future of Australia and its people during this epidemic would have been paramount. Sack him now so that he is able to pursue his "better things to do". John Cain, McCrae

Principle at stake As far back as the 1600s, nations have accepted parens patriae (parent of the nation) responsibility towards their citizens who cannot care for themselves; generally children, the sick, the elderly and people with disabilities. As we debate the difficult public policy questions of how to meet the health care needs of vulnerable people during this pandemic while trying to preserve the economy, we should remember that civilisation is anchored in this fundamental ethical principle. Naturally, if COVID-19 overwhelms our health system and decisions have to be made about who receives medical resources, those decisions must be made by doctors on established medical ethics principles of who is most likely to medically benefit. However, we should be aware that if public policy decisions are made in the interests of the economy that will predictably lead to the death of thousands of people, we would be abandoning a principle that has held societies together for hundreds of years. Barbara Carter, Blackburn A learning experience So glad to hear Jeff Kennett is hunkered down in isolation at home. Can I suggest a bit of reading: Fever Hospital: A History of Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital by W.K. Anderson. That's the hospital he closed in 1996.

David Fry, Moonee Ponds Stay at home, please In Bass Coast we have seen a substantial increase in the local population over recent weeks. If there is a COVID-19 outbreak our local medical services will struggle to cope with the permanent resident population, let alone the influx of holiday home owners and holiday makers. We have a low incidence of COVID-19 infection in our community. Holiday home owners state that they pay their rates and so should be allowed to travel here. The situation is not about their wants or perceived rights. It is about the health, safety and needs of the entire Victorian community. In the current times, travelling to a rural community with limited medical facilities is selfish. Please understand the limitations of rural medical services and do not travel to holiday homes or holiday rentals. Jim Murphy, Bass Coast Exam stance a fair call

I agree with the school principals association which recommends the abandonment of VCE exams to be replaced with teachers' assignments and assessments endorsed by principals. The function of exams is to verify knowledge acquired during the academic year. Teachers are qualified professionals who can be trusted to give accurate reports on the year's work. Graeme Lee, Fitzroy AND ANOTHER THING Coronavirus Thank God hot cross buns came out just after Christmas. Imagine the panic-buying and hysteria on those now if they hadn't!

Nick Jensen, Canterbury When this is over, let's not judge the success of Australia by having the most people passing down the most assets but having the most people raising children with the least financial hassles. Pete Sands, Monbulk It might be a good time to get our petrol stock up to the 90-day supply amount and the government could assist refineries to stay in Australia. Bruno Cappelli, Pascoe Vale

I saw the Queen's speech before the news on Monday. I must say I still prefer Sammy J. Emilio Bedin, Narre Warren Hmm, traffic numbers are down. Next to no revenue from speeding fines. How to make up the shortfall? Let's fine teenagers for taking a driving lesson with their mum. David Allen, Bayswater North Trump recommends dangerous, unproven treatments for COVID-19. Meanwhile in Ireland, its Prime Minister is re-registering as a GP. Does anyone need a clearer explanation of leadership?

Brandon Mack, Deepdene The government could appoint Alan Jones as our special envoy to China or Britain or anywhere. Bruce Dudon, Woodend How many politicians does it take to run a country in lockdown? Time to stand most of them down. It will give them a dose of reality and the rest of us a reasonable cost saving. Rob Willis, Wheelers Hill

It's not asylum seekers in tiny boats we should fear. It's the middle class in large, shiny cruise ships. James Henshall, Richmond Does Christian Porter realise Dunkirk was a defeat? Julie Carrick, Leopold How galling for the xenophobes to see so many people of Asian descent among the health experts giving us the benefit of their knowledge on TV each night. Patrice McCarthy, Bendigo
The grieving mother of a London bus driver who died of coronavirus after warning that his vehicle was unsafe has revealed that her son's heartbreaking final words were 'I'm not going to make it, mum.'

Emeka Nyack, 36, who drove the number four bus from Blackfriars to Archway, succumbed to the disease on Saturday after fighting it for more than two weeks.

His mother, Anne, told MailOnline that Mr Nyack, a father-of-one, had stayed at home as much as possible to try to avoid coronavirus, and was worried about the lack of protection he was given while driving.

Mrs Nyack was unable to say goodbye to her son as paramedics ordered her to leave the room when he collapsed. But she recalled that Mr Nyack's last words showed that he knew he was going to die.

Describing her son's tragic final moments, the 62-year-old said: 'My son sat on the floor and was in a really bad way.

'He was really scared and breathing fast. I held his head in my hands and he kept asking when the ambulance would be there. The last thing he said to me was, "I'm not going to make it, mum".

'Then the medics arrived and they told me to leave the room. That was the last time I saw him.'

Mr Nyack is one of 10 London Transport workers who have died from covid-19, Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, announced last night.

His mother launched a stinging attack on City Hall for failing to provide adequate safety equipment to protect workers from the disease.

Emeka Nyack, 36, sits in the cab of a bus with his son, Makiah, who is now seven years old

Mr Nyack sits on a bus with his son, left, and is himself pictured as a child, right

Mr Nyack, right, is pictured with his partner, school catering assistant Tamara Carrick, 30

She told MailOnline: 'Sadiq Khan should have protected my son. I hold him responsible for what happened. I want to state that quite clearly, in bold letters.

'It's just devastating that these drivers work so hard serving the public, taking NHS staff to work, and they are sent to risk their lives in dirty buses with no protection.

'The mayor's own father was a bus driver. I just don't understand how he can fail to protect the people who keep our country going.'

Loved ones of other transport staff who have succumbed to the virus also criticised the lack of protective gear issued to essential workers.

London bus driver Nadir Nur, 48, was described by his widow Bishara Maye as a 'dedicated, hardworking father' who took his duty as an essential worker seriously but she said that he was not protected.

She said: 'Nadir and his colleagues had no PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) whatsoever. They worked in the front line without any protection from this aggressive deadly virus.

'PPE should be made available for bus drivers who are putting their life at risk daily, in order to put food on the table and pay bills. Bus drivers are doing their part for the country, we should be protecting them.'

Mr Khan released a video last night where he announced 10 deaths, including eight bus workers, one TfL employee and one member of London Underground staff.

The mayor acknowledged that these front line workers had not been issued with PPE, but said that City Hall was following advice from Public Health England (PHE).

Before his death, Mr Nyack  who suffered from mild asthma  had told colleagues that he was worried about the poor hygiene on the buses and the lack of protection for staff.

Drivers were sent to work with no masks or gloves and the vehicles were not cleaned properly, he said.

Mrs Nyack, 62, wrote to her son's employers, Metroline, last month, warning them of the danger and begging them to address these concerns. But although she received a supportive reply, no action was taken.

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, she said: 'My son didn't go out anywhere that was risky. He just went from home to work and back again. It was a mundane routine but he loved it, and did it in a professional way.

'He didn't choose to be out there risking his life like some idiots who ignore the warnings. He was doing the job he loved to help the country get through this.'

She said the family had been desperate to stay with him in his last moments, but were not allowed.

'He died on his own, with nobody to hold his hand,' she said. 'When he collapsed the paramedics threw us out of the room, we weren't even able to say goodbye. My son's not going to have parents' evening any more. It's just so sad.'

The floor of the driver's cab of a bus which has apparently not been cleaned for some time

Vinyl has been added to the buses to function as a barrier but appeared to be peeling off

One of the drivers is cleaning the bus himself and has pictured the dirt on the wipes afterwards

A driver has shared with MailOnline a photograph of rubbish left on buses inside sticky receptacles, allegedly due to inadequate cleaning

Mr Nyack was rushed to hospital last month with coronavirus and put into an induced coma. He appeared to recover and was released to recuperate at home, but collapsed and died on Saturday.

Eight bus drivers have died of coronavirus so far in London, as well as another in Bristol.

The victims included Said Musse and garage supervisor Paul Aheto, both of whom were employed by Metroline, which has been widely criticised for its poor safety provisions, though the company disputes this.

Father-of-five Nadir Nur, 48, of HCT Group, who drove the 394 bus between Islington and Hackney, and Rodolfo Silva, who was employed by Go-Ahead London, were also among the dead.

A Metroline spokesman said that the holes in the screens around the driver's cab had been covered with protective vinyl, making masks unnecessary.

But exclusive pictures obtained by MailOnline of another bus in Mr Nyack's fleet showed the vinyl peeling off  though the holes were still covered  and buses' floors, surfaces and rails thick with dust and dirt.

One driver working for Metroline, who asked to remain anonymous, said Mr Nyack would often complain about the risky state of his bus before he died.

'He talked all the time about how the buses were not being cleaned and how there wasn't even enough cleaning staff to get the job done,' he told MailOnline.

Mr Nyack, right, had loved buses and wanted to be a bus driver ever since he was a little boy

Mr Nyack, left, his partner Tamara Carrick, right, and their son Makiah, centre, in London

Before his death, Mr Nyack complained about dirty buses and inadequate safety equipment

Mr Nyack, left, was so worried that his mother wrote to his bosses to cite safety concerns

'Emeke used to say he thought bus drivers should be given masks and gloves, especially him as he was asthmatic. It would play on his mind a lot. And he was right.'

The hand sanitiser dispensers in the depot have been empty since February, the driver said, adding that he now washes the dirty bus himself before and after work.

A Metroline source acknowledged that the dispensers were empty, but said that this was due to nationwide shortages.

Mr Nyack was first taken ill on March 17. His partner Tamara Carrick, 30, who is mother to their seven-year-old son Makiah, said Mr Nyack was worried about money, so had gone to work even though he was concerned about covid-19.

'He woke up with a temperature and said he felt a bit ill,' she said. 'In the next few days his temperature went up and down and he started to get really breathless.'

Mr Nyack was taken to Lister hospital in Stevenage on March 21. Hospital records reveal he was categorised as 'high risk for covid-19 due to his occupation (London bus driver).'

Over the following days his condition worsened, and on the 24th he was placed in an induced coma. Three days later he seemed to recover and was discharged from hospital.

'He was doing fine,' Ms Carrick told MailOnline. 'Last Saturday, four days after he was discharged, he was having a bath and talking and chatting through the door. Then he suddenly felt light-headed and tired.

'He went into the bedroom and lay on the bed, getting really worked up and scared. He said he needed to go back to hospital so an ambulance was called.

Mr Nyack, right, died four days after being discharged from hospital in Stevenage

Mr Nyack used to drive the number four bus and enjoyed taking his grandmother on it

Paying tribute to her son, right, his mother Anne, 62, said: 'He was doing the job he loved to help the country get through this'

Mr Nyack, top, was one of eight London bus drivers to have died of coronavirus so far

'The paramedics arrived and tried to calm him down and get his heart rate lower. Then he just collapsed and passed away.'

Paying tribute, the Mayor of London said he would write to the families of all TfL workers who lost their lives and insisted he was doing everything he could to keep driver safe.

'I'm absolutely devastated to hear Emeka Nyack has lost his life after testing positive for coronavirus,' he said. 'My thoughts are with his loved ones at this awful time.

'My top priority is keeping Londoners safe and City Hall and TfL are working with Unite the Union to do everything we can to protect bus workers and passengers, in line with PHE advice.

'All drivers are shielded by a clear screen and TfL have enhanced cleaning, are stopping passengers from sitting near drivers and boosting social distancing at stations and stops.'

A Metroline spokesman also insisted safety was the company's main priority and that all Public Health England (PHE) guidelines had been followed.

'It is with immense sadness that we can confirm that 3 of our colleagues have passed away after contracting coronavirus,' he said. 'We are devastated by this loss and we offer our support and condolences to the families at this incredibly difficult time.

'We continue to do everything we can to make sure our workforce is as protected and as safe as possible during this unprecedented time. The Department for Transport and Public Health England do not recommend the use of face masks for transport staff.

'All of our vehicles are fitted with assault screens which are effective barriers against transmission. We have reinforced this screen as a barrier to viral transmission by applying vinyl to cover small holes that are present to aid communication between our drivers and passengers.'
UPDATE: Is it safe to make a DIY mask out of a vacuum bag? Debate erupts

Although the federal government has recommended them, bandanas do a bad job of protecting the people wearing them from the new coronavirus  filtering out about 19 percent of infectious airborne particles, according to one study.

If you want the gold standard material for homemade masks, scour your closets for a HEPA vacuum bag.

Researchers at Cambridge University found that vacuum bags filtered out 94 percent of tiny particles that spread many diseases.

Dr. Ryan Southworth, an emergency medicine physician in Casa Grande, Ariz., posted a YouTube video viewed more than 5 million times since March 22 showing a tight-fitting homemade mask sewed by his wife out of a vacuum bag.

It worked so well that Southworth said he couldnt smell the bacon he was cooking when he gave it a trial run. He also noted no problems breathing through the thick material.

The video has gained traction in the wake of last Fridays federal call for us all to start wearing masks while out in public to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

To make the Arizona doctors mask, youll need a vacuum bag (one bag makes four masks), a hot glue gun, some elastic bands, a pipe cleaner and a sewing machine.

There has been some concern expressed on the internet that HEPA vacuum bags are a dangerous material for masks because they might contain fiberglass particles that shouldnt be inhaled. No mask should be made from materials containing fiberglass. Josh Wolcott, a member of the vacuum industry near Denver, Colo., denounced the idea that vacuum bags contain fiberglass as a myth in a YouTube video and said in his extensive research hes found no vacuum bags that contain fiberglass particles.

Read more about the debate here.

In addition to vacuum bags, the Cambridge researchers found that other common household items that worked well, in their 2013 study, which was inspired by the H1N1 pandemic several years earlier.

The study said a tea towel also performed remarkably well -- filtering out 83 percent of airborne particles. When it was folded into two layers, it did even better: filtering out 96 percent of particles.

Study participants, however, complained about trouble they had breathing through the vacuum bags and tea towels. The study concluded that a T-shirt -- which filtered out 69 percent of particles -- and a pillowcase -- which filtered out 61 percent -- were good choices because they were easy to breathe through.

The Cambridge study didnt specify the T-shirts thickness or the pillowcases thread count.

Out of curiosity, we tested non-medical materials for filtration. A scarf is NOT helpful for filtering aerosols, which may carry coronavirus. Instead, what about furnace filter/pillowcase? Thanks, @linseymarr for the filtration test doc! @MissouriSandT @JGB_Burken @aaqrl_wustl https://t.co/nm4j1WA3ct pic.twitter.com/5RkzYdYdnt  Yang Wang (@carlwangyang) April 3, 2020

But Yang Wang, an assistant professor at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, is just wrapping up a new study that found a 600-count pillowcase performs notably better than a 400-count one. The 600-count case filtered out 22 percent of particles when folded over twice, but with four layers it blocked nearly 60 percent.

President Trump said last week that a scarf is highly recommended and is actually better than a mask. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams also recommend a scarf, bandana or T-shirt.

Wangs research, however, found that a scarf would have to be quite thick to do much good. Two layers of a chunky, wool scarf filtered out 21 percent of particles. When it was folded into four layers, its performance jumped to 49 percent.

Cotton bandanas performed the worst -- shielding the wearers from only about 18 percent of particles when folded into two layers. Four layers hardly improved the bandanas performance, with 19.5 percent blocked.

But any face covering is better than nothing, say experts who study the spread of disease through the air. And heres why: When folded over a few times, even thin pieces of fabric can do a decent job of catching large droplets of mucus and saliva that the person wearing them expels while coughing, sneezing or talking. Thats great from a public health point of view: Itll protect others from being infected.

That said, thin pieces of fabric such as bandanas do little to protect the person wearing them from inhaling microscopic particles that other people might have expelled into the air.

Some Los Angeles clothing makers found that they could drastically increase the effectiveness of masks made out of cotton fabric by tucking two blue shop towels into them and making sure they fit tightly. Although they werent scientists, the clothing makers built a testing facility and found that their improvised shop towel masks filtered out 95 percent of particles, compared with 20 to 60 percent using cotton fabrics they tested, according to Business Insider.

Homemade mask: Using hydro knit shop towel filters better, designers find - Business Insider https://t.co/yi4Z38kOLA  Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) April 3, 2020

After a story posted last week, the shop towels became a much sought-after item at home improvement and tool stores.

Tuesday, Gov. Kate Brown advised Oregonians to wear homemade masks as a precaution when they go out, but stressed once again that people should stay home to the maximum extent possible and that they should still keep a good distance from others.

If youre planning on making a homemade mask, here are some tips from the experts:

-- Remember, N95 masks are excellent performers -- filtering out 95 percent of airborne particles -- but public health officials have stressed how important it is for the general public to refrain from buying them on the open market so these pieces of personal protective equipment can make their way to the hands of frontline medical workers.

-- To be cautious, wear your mask for relatively short amounts of time to avoid the potential for carbon dioxide build-up. This could be a concern with masks made out of less permeable materials, such as those constructed from vacuum bags.

-- Dont run out to your local store to buy materials. That could put you and others at more risk of exposure. Instead, search your home for items you already have.

-- Just as important as the type of material you use is the seal of the mask. If its not tight on your face, contaminated air will come in through the sides and into your mouth, nose and lungs.

-- Masks should have two elastic straps -- one that goes above your ears and one that goes below.

-- Follow this general rule: If you can shine a flashlight through the fabric, its probably not a good candidate for a mask.

-- For more protection, wear a face shield to protect your face from a blast of spray from a cough or a sneeze. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend medical providers wear a field shield and a homemade mask as a last resort if proper personal protective gear isnt available. There are many tutorials on YouTube about how to make face shields.

-- Be careful not to touch the potentially contaminated parts of the mask when youre removing it. The mask could have captured airborne particles on its outer surface. Pull it off from the back by the elastic straps, then wash your hands afterward.

-- Wash your mask between uses if youre going to wear it frequently. Soap should kill the virus, experts say. Or, if you dont need to wear the mask often, put it in a paper bag and label it with the date. The virus should die off after several days -- one expert recommends waiting five days to be safe.

-- Wearing a mask shouldnt encourage you to venture outside and into confined, indoor spaces with other people. Public health officials stress the importance of staying home as often as possible and limiting essential trips, such as going to the grocery store, so they are made as infrequently as possible.

-- Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
The Florida pastor arrested for defying restrictions put in place to slow the spread of coronavirus has agreed to suspend public services at his church for now.

Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, leader of Revival International Ministries, continued to hold services at The River, the church he leads in Tampa Bay, despite a 'safer-at-home' order banning large gatherings.

But after the authorities received a tip off about a service held at the church last Sunday, the pastor was arrested and charged with unlawful assembly and violation of a public health emergency order.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said at the time of his arrest that the pastor had been "reckless" in continuing to hold public worship.

Howard-Browne has since agreed to suspend services at the church but has appointed Liberty Counsel to defend him in a legal challenge over his arrest.

In a Facebook broadcast on Wednesday, the pastor said: "No one's expecting me to make this announcement but I actually have no choice.

"What people don't know is from Monday I actually shut the whole church down. I shut the ministry down.

"And so we probably had no more than nine people there at any time, just with the essential services from the food ministry. ... So there's been nothing there the whole week."

The decision was made despite Florida Governor Ron DeSantis the same day reclassifying attending religious services as an essential activity, meaning that it is exempt from restrictions on movement.

In a statement released through Liberty Counsel on Thursday, Howard-Browne said that the church would remain closed this Sunday.

"As my wife and I prayed about what we should do this weekend, we have decided to close the church for this upcoming Sunday service, for the protection of our people in this antagonistic climate, in large part created by media hype and misrepresentations, which have undoubtedly been exacerbated by Sheriff Chronister's exaggerated and outright false accounts of the situation," he said.

"We do not make this decision lightly. This is Palm Sunday. We are entering the time of year that is most important to Christians around the world in which we remember and celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."

He continued: "We did not hold church to defy any order; nor did we hold church to send a political message. We did not hold church for self-promotion or financial motives, as some have wrongly accused. We held church because it is our mission to save souls and help people."

He added: "At this point, we believe it is prudent to take a pause by not opening the church doors this Sunday. This will allow an opportunity for people to take a deep breath and calm down."

In one video broadcast on Facebook earlier this week, Howard-Browne claimed to have received death threats and said that the church has been shot at following his arrest.

He said that keeping churches open during the pandemic was a First Amendment issue.

"We have forced a national debate on the subject of the First Amendment," he said.

"Again, it's not about a virus. It's about the church being an essential service to the community, where the church can meet and take care of the people."

He added: "I'm not ashamed to be arrested for the First Amendment of the United States."

Reposted with permission from Christian Today
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters following a meeting of the coronavirus task force in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington on April 7, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

US to Place Hold on Funding to World Health Organization

The United States plans to place a hold on funding for the World Health Organization (WHO), President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday.

The president said the WHO is too China-centric and criticized the organization for opposing his early decision to place a ban on travel from China aimed at preventing the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, to the United States.

Were going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. Were going to put a very powerful hold on it. And were going to see, Trump said.

The president also claimed that the WHO may have known about the threat from the CCP virus but did not inform the world on time.

They called it wrong. They missed the call. They could have called it months earlier. They would have known. They should have known. And they probably did know. So well be looking into that very carefully, the president said.

Trump later added that the WHO called every aspect of the CCP virus pandemic wrong.

They said theres no big deal, theres no problem, theres nothing, the president said.

Trump hinted at cutting funding to the WHO in a Twitter post earlier in the day, pointing out that the organization is closely aligned with China despite the United States contributing the largest portion of WHOs funding. U.S. contributions to the United Nations organization last year exceeded $400 million, according to the State Department.

They seem to err always on the side of China. And we fund it, Trump said.

The WHO has repeatedly praised Chinas leaders despite experts and unearthed evidence showing how officials manipulated the true situation in the country where the CCP virus emerged last year.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (R) and WHO Health Emergencies Program Director Michael Ryan attend a press briefing on COVID-19 in Geneva on March 6, 2020. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

American lawmakers have called on Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, to resign amid accusations of helping the Chinese Communist Party cover up the outbreak and probing whether WHO is complicit in the manipulation.

We know communist China is lying about how many cases and deaths they have, what they knew and when they knew itand the WHO never bothered to investigate further. Their inaction cost lives, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said in a statement.

We could cut funding or we could tie future funding to certain changes, Scott added to the Daily Signal. It is supposed to be the World Health Organization, world health, but it panders to China.

Reporters have regularly pressed WHO officials on Chinas role in the CCP virus spreading around the world but each time the officials have deflected answering directly, often saying things similar to statements from top Chinese officials. The WHO has also faced questions on its dealings with Taiwan.

WHO officials said during a briefing after Trumps remarks that funding should not be cut.

We are still in the acute phase of a pandemic so now is not the time to cut back on funding, Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, told a virtual briefing in response to a question about Trumps remarks.

Dr. Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the WHO director-general, also defended the U.N. agencys relationship with China, saying its work with Beijing authorities was important to understand the outbreak which began in Wuhan.

It was absolutely critical in the early part of this outbreak to have full access to everything possible, to get on the ground and work with the Chinese to understand this, he told reporters.

This is what we did with every other hard-hit country like Spain and had nothing to do with China specifically.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Halverson will support the Company's financial and business strategy as it continues to grow its Ann Arbor office location.

ANN ARBOR, MI / ACCESSWIRE / April 7, 2020 / The Coretec Group, Inc., (OTC PINK:CRTG) (the "Company"), a company developing a portfolio of silicon-based materials utilizing Cyclohexasilane ("CHS") to pursue commercial development of products in energy-focused verticals, announced today it has hired Eric Halverson as its Director of Financial Operations to review and manage the Company's financial business development activities and support Coretec's Chief Financial Officer, Ronald W. Robinson.

Halverson is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with over 20 years of experience in the financial industry. He is the founder and Managing Member of Diag Ventures, an Ann Arbor-based financial advisory firm focused on the strategic development of early-stage ventures. Halverson has worked with early-stage companies to support their needs for financial modeling, business plan preparation, fundraising, and operational planning. He holds an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Halverson has long-standing ties to the Ann Arbor community, previously holding financial leadership positions within local life science and technology companies including Millendo Therapeutics, Swift Biosciences, and ONL Therapeutics. In these roles, he built financial systems and business processes to facilitate commercial growth and secure financing. At Coretec, Halverson will drive the financial and business development strategy as the Company continues to secure funding and strategic partnerships for its CHS liquid silicon technology.

"We are excited to bring Eric on-board to support our financial operations as we continue to build out the Coretec team in Ann Arbor," said Michael Kraft, CEO of The Coretec Group. "Eric's experience with raising funds and developing strategic plans for early-stage ventures makes him a perfect fit for the team as we continue on the path towards commercial development of our CHS technology. Furthermore, his deep understanding of the local Ann Arbor market will be a helpful resource for us as we identify potential partners, funding and applications for CHS technology."



To learn more about The Coretec Group, please visit www.thecoretecgroup.com .

About The Coretec Group, Inc.

The Coretec Group, Inc. (the "Company") utilizes a portfolio of silicon-based and volumetric display materials to pursue commercial development of products in energy-focused verticals such as energy storage, solar, and solid-state lighting, as well as printable electronics and 3D volumetric displays. For more information, visit www.thecoretecgroup.com. Follow The Coretec Group on Twitter and Facebook.

Forward-Looking Statements:

The statements in this press release that relate to the company's expectations with regard to the future impact on the company's results from operations are forward-looking statements, and may involve risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control. Such risks and uncertainties are described in greater detail in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Since the information in this press release may contain statements that involve risk and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, the company's actual results may differ materially from expected results. We make no commitment to disclose any subsequent revisions to forward-looking statements. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of offers to buy any securities of any entity.

Corporate contact:

The Coretec Group, Inc.

Judy Keating

918-494-0509



Media contact:

FischTank Marketing and PR

coretec@fischtankpr.com

646-699-1414

SOURCE: The Coretec Group Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/584252/The-Coretec-Group-Hires-Eric-Halverson-as-Director-of-Financial-Operations
Jailed 'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli has asked for a three-month furlough from his seven-year prison sentence, so he can help the pharmaceuticals industry in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

Shkreli, 37, was jailed in 2018 for looting $11million of stock from his own firm to pay investors in two failed hedge funds he ran. His scheduled release date from a low-security federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania is September 2023.

He explains in an 11-page paper published by biotech company Prospero Pharma, that his bid for release has nothing to do with earning money and boasts of being a 'successful two-time biopharma entrepreneur' with unique experience to contribute in the field.

'I am asking for a brief furlough (3 months) to assist in research work on COVID-19,' Shkreli writes in his author statement. 'Being released to the post-COVID world is no solace to even the incarcerated.

Martin Shkreli, 37, wrote in a manuscript published by biotech company Prospero Pharma: 'I am asking for a brief furlough (3 months) to assist in research work on COVID-19'

In the new manuscript Shkreli boasted he is a 'successful two-time biopharma entrepreneur', having purchased multiple companies and 'filed numerous INDs'

'As a successful two-time biopharma entrepreneur, having purchased multiple companies, invented multiple new drug candidates, filed numerous INDs and clinical trial applications, I am one of the few executives experienced in ALL aspects of drug development from molecule creation and hypothesis generation, to preclinical assessments and clinical trial design/target engagement demonstration, and manufacturing/synthesis and global logistics and deployment of medicines.'

Shkreli was sued by federal and state authorities in February for using unscrupulous tactics to stop competitors making versions of Daraprim and raising the cost from $13.50 a pill to $750 (5,000 per cent).

The drug is used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be deadly for people with HIV or other immune-system problems, and can cause serious problems for children born to women infected while pregnant.

'For the avoidance of doubt, I have not been paid for any work on this matter or any other matter while incarcerated,' Shkreli continues. 'I do not expect to profit in any way, shape or form from coronavirus-related treatments.

'I believe any company developing a coronavirus drug should seek to recoup its cost at most and be willing to perform the work as a civil service at the least.'

Shkreli called the current response to the pandemic 'inadequate' and wrote that there's a 'large braintrust of talent' not working on the project

He adds: 'If the government is willing to reward industry for their work on this catastrophic situation, it will be at each company's discretion to accept, negotiate or deny such funding, including bulk purchases, cost reimbursement, tax credits and other benefits.'

The manuscript is co-authored by Kevin Mulleady an unindicted co-conspirator in his convicted case, as well as Maureen Lohry, and Jason Sommer. Shkreli and Mulleady are named as having designed and managed the project. Alongside Sommer, Shkreli engineered the in silico workflow and performed the screening, while James Rondina provided high-performance computing assistance and research.

The manuscript is co-authored by Kevin Mulleady (pictured) an unindicted co-conspirator in his convicted case

In the new paper, Shkreli blasts the current handling of the pandemic.

'The industry response to COVID-19 is inadequate. All biopharmaceutical companies should be responding with all resources to combat this health emergency. Donations from these very valuable companies do not go far enough,' he writes in his author statement.

'The biopharmaceutical industry has a large braintrust of talent that is not working on this problem as companies have deprioritized or even abandoned infectious disease research. Medicinal chemists, structural biologists, enzymologists and assay development and research biology departments at EVERY pharmaceutical company should be put to work until COVID-19 is no more.'

The manuscript notes that 'because of temporary communication restrictions aimed at curtailing the spread of COVID-19' Shkreli, was unable to have final review over the paper, titled 'In silico screening for potential COVID-19 beta-coronavirus non-nucleoside RdRp inhibitors'.

Shkreli's lawyer said he would be filing the furlough request 'shortly' to the Bureau of Prisons and Brooklyn federal Judge Kiyo Matsumot, who over saw his case.

'I have often said that left to his own devices, I believe Martin could cure cancer,' Benjamin Brafman told The New York Post.

'Feel the same about coronavirus. Warehousing this genius instead of letting him help with the research, makes no sense whatsoever.'

The manuscript author statement claims Shkreli is not in it for the money but reimbursements should be made at individual discretion

Above shows the number of coronavirus cases and death in the US as of Tuesday, as well as the country's hotspots
Arbind Ray BHPian



Join Date: Sep 2019 Location: London Posts: 50 Thanked: 440 Times

Re: Exporting a car from India UK registration for the Endeavour from DVLA received earlier this week with number plates from Ford on Friday 3rd April at last! Had decided to import the SUV to England in May 2019. After getting a fair grasp of the procedure required for its export I flew from London to Bhubaneswar, Odisha to start the process. Thought mistakenly it could be completed within four weeks as I had prior appointments in L.A.



With public holidays and unforeseen delays in between, I had to fly out from India to the U.S. for a week, returning 3 weeks ahead of the Endeavour being transported out of Odisha on a flatbed for Port Customs Clearance. The following steps were taken to successfully export the car out of India. Note: my experience is limited to a Transfer of Residence basis and interaction with the RTO office in Bhubaneswar as well as HMRC in England.



 Engage a freight-forwarder with its established counterpart in the destination port of embarkation depending on which Shipping Agent you are comfortable working with. Nobody I spoke to could provide a definitive list of tasks needed to be completed before the vehicle could be loaded onto the ship. It took me four months to narrow it down to a UK firm who decided to act as the Destination Agent (DA) to its Indian counterpart.



 Having confirmed my flight ticket from London Heathrow I was advised RTO offices in Odisha were experiencing a four-week backlog as govt ruled no Agents/middlemen were permitted to engage their services and instead, clients are to deal with RTO officers directly. I wont go into granular details on here however am happy to share these directly with anyone in the process of moving to the UK with a vehicle owned by them for at least six months prior to travel.



 You do not need to obtain a transfer of residence [ToR] if you are willing to pay import duty on the vehicle of 10% of its market value plus shipping and insurance costs in addition to 20% VAT of total cost (market value + shipping + insurance) upon arrival in the UK. The Indian car insurance renewal quotation letter is what was relied on for its value in my case. It is also useful in illustrating owners use and possession of the vehicle prior to exporting. With its exemption it just about made financial sense. Personal opinion: if youre planning to return to India in the not too distant future you need to ask yourself is it worth the hassle and expense. Plus the price of vehicle would need to be substantive enough to make the approximate cost of INR 5 lacs to bring it over viable. Other motivator includes the availability of a similar model variant for purpose of parts, service and repairs which provide immeasurable peace of mind. My vehicle is the only full sized 7 seater 4x4 Endeavour in the UK its uniqueness is a separate value proposition which works if the move is permanent. Prior to exporting the SUV, I had met with the local UK main dealer Service Centre management who welcomed my intentions and have been incredibly helpful in ensuring my needs were met during vehicle approvals which is expanded on further below.



 Make sure every single item of available document is shared with all parties. You will require most if not all items listed below for the DA, HMRC, Indian Shipping Agent, Destination freight-forwarder;



1. Vehicle Brochure (though not mandatory is helpful for reference material e.g. dimensions etc) with images of the car



2. RC  Registration Document and Smartcard



3. Airline Tickets  has to match person in whose name/s Transfer of Residence is to be applied.



4. PUC  Valid Pollution Certificate



5. Valid Insurance Certificate. If this has run out before application of RC cancellation you will need to renew despite having no need for it as soon as vehicle RC is cancelled which also applies to the PUC.



6. Sales Invoice



7. ID  passport, driving licence



8. Utility Bills (in our case Indian and British)  showing name address matching rest of docs. Mobile, Electricity, Landline



9. Residence (owned or rented) Property address proof (India/UK)





Once all parties were satisfied relevant documents were in order, I had the confidence to board the plane for India on 17th September 2019 albeit with a niggling feeling I would face inertia amidst the backlog gradually building up at the RTO.



Having arrived at Bhubaneswar within the same week I received a call from my local Indian Ford dealership asking if I wished to book the Endeavour in for a service on Saturday. I thought why not after all it had been a year even though low mileage (total 18k km) so I drove the Endy to the Ford garage on Saturday and parked it on their forecourt. To everybodys surprise, their driver was unable to start it as at that precise moment (post diagnostic) the electronic junction box had burnt out and had to be replaced! Ten days later at a cost in excess of INR 50k I was able to collect it. Thank goodness I had taken out the extended warranty that too at the behest of a persistent staff member at Ford who contacted me via WhatsApp with one day for the existing warranty to expire. I had transferred INR 35k to Ford while I was in England so had nothing to pay in this instance beyond the 9k for the service.



The same day I drove straight to a PUC centre (these too were scarce since the local govt had suspended (rightly so) non-approved test centres. I was battling against time. Note: there are two time sensitive issues, one is twelve months from the time you left India, this being the time matching airline tickets you would have submitted during your application to HMRC for ToR duty/tax exemption. The other relates to your airline ticket out of India. Neither the airline ticket itself nor the boarding pass proves that you actually boarded the aircraft. Verification needs to be obtained from the airline itself. They will issue a Departure Certificate which validates you were on that plane. Your shipping agent can obtain this for you which they then submit to Customs along with the original RC cancellation certificate stamped and signed by the officer concerned on RTO letterhead.



Application for RC cancellation was made with a self-declaration of why I was taking the vehicle out of the country along with copy of valid Insurance Cert, PUC, surrender of Original RC document and smartcard and self attested copies of driving licence and passport after they see the original IDs. They genuinely couldnt understand why anyone would want to take a car from India to the West. Having established it was an item of personal belonging the problem we faced was an administrative technicality. This caused a further week delay which was a hopeless situation. According to the rule book RTO relies on, it asks that I furnish them with proof that the vehicle has already been shipped outside of India before they could cancel the registration. I pointed out this would be impossible since Customs officials had made it abundantly clear they would not permit boarding of the container in which the vehicle was to be shipped onto the vessel without the RC first being cancelled. I directed their attention to a preceding ruling which mandates the original RTO to cancel said RC. I was told the latter superseded its previous ruling. It was a matter of interpretation as well as the RTO being accountable for cancelling registration on just grounds. They are accustomed to vehicle Transfers. Cancellations usually applied in the case of accidental write-offs. Discretion also lies with the senior RTO officer as I still needed to convince the dept I was genuinely exporting the Endeavour. So as requested, I asked the shipping agent to forward all documentation to the RTO officer including screenshots of payment transactions made to the shipping agent on account and correspondence with destination freight-forwarder. I had ample documentary evidence of my intentions. Eventually it was agreed and with merely a couple days ahead of the Endeavours insurance expiring, the RC was cancelled with certificate confirming the same which I couriered immediately to the shipping agent.



By this time everything was ready for the vehicle to be shipped however the UK agent advised avoidance of the containers arrival in England between 18th of December 2019 to the 1st of January 2020 due to Xmas holidays. Demurrage charges could be as high as USD 150 per day. So I flew to Los Angels on the 25th of Oct to keep my prior appointments and returned to India on November 3rd. As I was now unable to drive the Endeavour, I was very fortunate to have been provided with a brand new Mercedes GLE for as long as I remained in India by a friend who was bemused at my efforts to bring the Endy to England while he himself relied on his other ride, an old Fortuner. Respect for having faith in me...quite a humbling experience.



November 18th staff from the shipping agent reached Bhubaneswar with the transporter. Having taken pictures with a vehicle condition report they loaded the Endy onto the flatbed and left.



By 27th November the vehicle was still in a container at Kolkata docks waiting to be lifted onto the ship. I decided to fly back to England the same day as I was satisfied knowing the Endeavour had been cleared by Customs and there was nothing left for me to do. Just as well, having arrived back home I learnt the 20ft container carrying the Endy boarded the ship on the 30th of November.



I felt like a kid waiting for my self-gifted present to arrive on British shores. The wait was gruelling. I kept abreast of the maritime map which charts movement of sea-going vessels by the minute, while theyre within reach of a signal. Millimeter by millimeter. In the interim I must have (re)watched numerous Endeavour reviews on YouTube including what dashcam to get and how to update Fords sync 2 to include UK maps for satellite navigation. The day finally arrived 15th of January 2020. The ship had moored at Felixstow. Three days later I received confirmation it had cleared customs awaiting transportation to my chosen address. I had nominated my local Ford main dealers Service Centre which focused on Rangers with its own MOT testing bay for larger vehicles. This was the best decision I had made. Having kept the staff regularly updated on the Endeavours ETA, when it was delivered on the 20th of January and signed for by Ford, it was extremely dusty inside and out, even missing passengers side floor mat which the Ford dealership were kind enough to replace complimentary with a Wildtrack black luxury carpet version they had in stock. Once it was jump-started, I drove it across the road to have it refuelled since it was showing 0km to Empty a pre-requisite before loading it onto the container and disconnecting the terminals from the battery.



Once back in the workshop it went straight on the ramp for its MOT which it passed. I had earlier in the day arranged fully comprehensive insurance based on the chassis number since I had yet to begin the process of obtaining GB number plates once the registration process was complete. Although the MOT certificate displays mileage in kilometres, at its anniversary the next certificate will show miles as measurements can be changed in the settings menu which I realised later. It was handed over to me after it had been thoroughly washed and vacuumed. This was the first time I took it on the longer North Circular ring road in East London to charge the battery en-route to its final destination .for now.



The next day I contacted DVSA to book the Endeavour for its Individual Vehicle Approval. This certificate is necessary in order to obtain UK registration from DVLA. Had I known precise date of arrival I could have pre-booked this as I found out there was a 2-4 weeks waiting time. In hindsight I could have rescheduled the booking without charge with minimum three days notice.



26th February 2020. IVA testing at DVSA in Southampton. I booked a hotel nearby to arrive the evening before so I didnt miss the noon appointment. Before the booking I had confirmed with DVSA technical dept that it was acceptable not to change the kilometre dial as long as it had a digital speedometer showing mph. The 3.2 Titanium also has rear fog lights so these were items I didnt need to upgrade. The application process for the IVA was a bit more in depth including piston firing sequence, horse power @ x RPMs, laden/kerb weight etc and the test itself in comparison to the MOT was more rigorous. It failed!



I was disappointed but not disheartened. The DVSA listed a couple of items which needed to be addressed;



1. Passenger side wheel arch flap. There is a rubber lining which divides the wheel arches from the engine area which had come loose where two clips had been dislodged when jet-sprayed by local car cleaning service as the car had to be presented in a clean condition for the IVA inspection.



2. Chassis plate. Although the vehicle chassis number was located in three different locations, there was nothing on the vehicle that indicated the vehicles laden / front/rear/combined axle weights. So I had to look for a plate manufacturer that would do this for me. Having paid gbp 199.00 for the IVA, the re-test would cost gbp 40.00 as a full examination would not be required if re-presented within six months. The next day I took it to my local Ford who secured the rubber flap under the wheel arches and referred me to a Company which manufactures VIN tags. This was the easy part. Obtaining empirical values was going to be a challenge of obtuse proportions. After being sent pillar to post by Ford Customer Services in India, eventually a senior customer relations handled my query when I asked for the matter to be escalated. Problem is Ford India did not have this information!



A team BHPian had reached out to me enquiring on progress and whether I had managed to ship the Endeavour over, having read my post on TBHP. Whilst my own dealer in Bhubaneswar was unable to assist, Mr Vidya had contacted his dealer who got in touch with the engineering team at Ford Australia who came through with the precise information. This is crucial since absence of the chassis plate in the first place necessitated verifiable link...in this case email thread including Ford letterhead containing data values stamped on new VIN tags detailing laden / front/rear/combined axle weights, manufacturer, engine size etc. I placed the order with the VIN tag company for aluminium plate (to be affixed by Ford in the engine bay area) for next day express delivery and for good measure ordered UV protected vinyl labels from local printer for the door sill where the information would be more visible.



Within a week of having visited DVSA in Southampton, I booked the re-test for 5th of March, this time in Norwich as I wanted the two hour drive to be along a different scenic route. I booked the hotel this time to stay the evening as Id visited Norwich before and apart from places of architectural beauty, some good eateries deserved a revisit. The appointment with Norwich DVSA was for noon and although I arrived an hour early, was seen straight away. They looked at the written conditions from previous IVA report, inspected the metallic chassis plate which the team at Ford had professionally tapped onto the engine bay as well as the labelling on the door sill, checked underneath the wheel arch and left as he asked me to wait in Reception while he prepared the Certificate YES!!



I enjoyed dining that evening with my wife, cautiously rejoicing with mild sense of achievement as I accomplished tasks inch by inch before I had left the hotel for dinner, I completed the DVLA application form, included all the documents including original IVA certificate and NOVA (notice of vehicles arrival) and posted it Special Next day delivery.



A week later I received a rejection notice in the post! Since I didnt have the original Indian Vehicle Registration Certificate, DVLA wanted me to obtain hard copy confirmation on letterhead from Ford India confirming Date of Manufacture. I contacted the senior Relationship manager at Ford India who after discussing the requirement with Mr Vidya whom I nominated as my local contact, agreed to oblige. Regrettably the hard copy was not forthcoming although the letter confirming date of manufacture was scan/emailed to me before Lockdown. These are unprecedented times we find ourselves in. I wrote to DVLA explaining it was physically impossible to obtain hard copy couriered within time during the pandemic. DVLA management reviewed my file and agreed to make an exception on this occasion due to extenuating circumstances and were prepared to accept my imported vehicle registration application on the basis of documents that were available to me. Just when I thought everything was going smoothly I was informed that the MOT certificate I had submitted was missing last few digits of the chassis number. This was Monday 23rd of March 2020. I rushed straight to my local Ford Service Centre who without hesitation booked the Endeavour for an immediate re-test on a priority basis complimentary. As soon as I had the new certificate in my hand I posted it special next day delivery. That evening Boris Johnson announced the Lockdown. Fortunately the mail was delivered in time



As I wrote this article today [5/4/20] I was mindful of its limited appeal, as a narrative it took me back 3 years when I had first stumbled on this forum and read thoughts shared by others some more daring in their quest to traverse rough terrain and weather conditions across continents. I feel like a newbie again.



Mission accomplished with arrival of Endeavours new registration document. The number plates from Ford were fitted to the SUV on Friday 3rd of April. I have so many places I wish to explore. Once nationwide restrictions currently in place are lifted my adventure begins. Attached Thumbnails
















































The Business Council of Alabama is partnering with Alabama Public Television to help small businesses apply for federal stimulus funding under the near CARES Act.

The Small Business Exchange program airs Thursday on APT at 7 p.m. BCA experts will be available to answer questions from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Experts will be available for consultation from 9 a.m. to noon Friday.

The program will feature experts in business, banking, accounting and law to answer phone calls from Alabama business owners and employers as they grapple with the impact of the coronavirus on the states economy. New federal loans are now available for small businesses, but funding is limited in some cases and quick action is required.

BCA President and CEO Katie Boyd Britt said the first step in getting Alabama back to work is to get this loan money flowing to our businesses.

Our team of experts is donating their time and resources because this is a critical time for small businesses, Britt said. This federal funding can and will save companies and save jobs, so the BCA is facilitating this process in any way we can.

Among stimulus measures are $10 billion in Economic Injury disaster loans and $349 billion in Paycheck Protection loans available to help the nations small businesses. Each program has different eligibility criteria, financing, and application processes. For the most part, small businesses of fewer than 500 employees, sole proprietors, freelancers and the self-employed, independent contractors, and 501(c)(6) organizations are eligible for one or both programs.

Because there has been confusion about the programs, too many business owners are uncertain about availability, qualifications, requirements and deadlines for each loan program.

To ask a question or consult with our BCA experts during these times, the phone number is 1-833-BCA4BIZ (1-833-222-4249).
It was almost as if I was taking care of a relative with the flu instead of [being] someone who had a parent who was in the process of dying, she said. I would be in the middle of an appointment with his nurse, or I would be giving him his medication [when] they would literally email me . . . about things that I didnt think were really important, like address changes or What do you think of this layout for the website? It was never How are you? or I hope things are going well, which was hurtful, because Id worked there since I was 19.
This news segment from WSAV-TV in Savannah, Georgia, reports on fraudulent coronavirus tests being hawked at pop-up drive-through sites. Both worried patients and medicaid are being defrauded.

[Taylor Durden WSAV-TV] Broadway Metro Council President David James says it's a scam. [Tara Bassett, Activist] If they're your insurance was not on the list  they charged them two hundred and forty dollars. [Durden] There are two companies running these BXK Marketing and Community Outreach Marketing Group. When we called a Florida number supposedly associated with BCK Marketing the woman who answered said she'd never heard of BCK Marketing. We talked to two men from Community Outreach Marketing Group who said they were overseeing this pop-up test site on 17th and Broadway.  When they were confronted, they tore everything down and left.

The venture capitalist Paul Graham recently wrote a blog post marveling at Fox News hosts who had no idea their lies about coronavirus would be exposed.

They didn't realize there was any danger in making false predictions. These people constantly make false predictions, and get away with it, because the things they make predictions about either have mushy enough outcomes that they can bluster their way out of trouble, or happen so far in the future that few remember what they said. An epidemic is different. It falsifies your predictions rapidly and unequivocally.

There's a moment in this footage when they're interviewing the scammers and you can see something flicker in the interviewee's eyes. A sudden awareness that the consequence of the thing he's doing is about to move from "LLC gets sued" to "beaten to death in the street."

P.S. Can't help but wonder what reporter Taylor Durden's parents' favorite movie is.
No written, oral or practical assessments will be physically held in an exam or test centre until coronavirus restrictions have been lifted

Students in higher and further education are being assured that they will not be penalised if they cannot take part in an alternative assessment that is replacing a traditional exam this year.

New guidelines make clear that such students can progress, as expected, and will have opportunities to complete assessments at a later point.

Because of the Covid-19 crisis, no written, oral or practical assessments in the sectors will be physically held in an exam or test centre until restrictions have been lifted.

Instead, assessment options across the tertiary education sector include online exams, written assignments or rescheduling.

But, there is a concern, for instance, that students who do not have access to technology or internet connectivity may not be able to complete online assessments.

A students access to broadband is one of the issues that new guidance on the exams asks college to take into account in their arrangements.

Another issue that has arisen for some students is the cancellation of work placements, completion of which is a prerequisite for graduation or progression to the following year.

Last week, the Irish Universities Association and the Technological Higher Education Association, representing TU Dublin and the institutes of technology, announced that they had finalised alternative exam arrangements.

Now Higher Education Minister Mary Mitchell OConnor has confirmed that the same work had been completed for all colleges in the higher and further education sectors.

Guidelines published by the educational standards agency, Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) set out the broad principles underpinning what has been agreed.

The minister said she wanted to reassure students that even though alternative arrangements have been put in place standards will be upheld. We can all be confident that qualifications achieved this year will be valued and regarded exactly as in any other year.

The guidance document states that students expecting to graduate this year were a top priority, although it acknowledges that completion of programmes or graduations may not all to be the original timescale.

The guidelines also addresses the issue of students who may not be in a position to complete a work placement or an assessment component because of the new circumstances.

These students will not be penalised, the document states. They may progress as expected and will have opportunities to complete their studies at later point in time.

As well as students who have issues around broadband access, QQI has also urged colleges to be aware of the particular needs of students who are more vulnerable, those who contract Covid-19 or are caring for others, students from overseas, work-based learners and students with disabilities or those with mental health issues.

The Union of Students in Ireland has endorsed the QQI guidance, but its president Lorna Fitzpatrick said these were sectoral guidelines and there was a need for individual colleges to work with their student unions to develop policies that mitigate any disadvantages that students may face.

Thousands of students in Irish universities have signed a petition seeking a no detriment policy to act as a safety net to ensure students obtain at least their average grade so far in the year, provided they pass the semester.
A high-profile supporter of Cardinal George Pell has accused the ABC of acting as a 'cheer squad' to have him jailed over child abuse claims.

In a fiery interview with ABC News presenter Karina Carvalho, vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University Greg Craven claimed the ABC 'tried to drown out' arguments pointing to Cardinal Pell's innocence.

Carvalho asked Mr Craven if he thought the case was turned into a 'referendum' about how the Catholic Church had dealt with abuse claims.

'I think that's very much what happened in this case... the ABC, did its very best to be part of the cheer squad that made that happen,' he responded.

Australia's High Court ordered Pell's five convictions for child sexual abuse be quashed and he was released from prison on Tuesday

'It wasn't a case whether you liked George Pell or whether you would like George Pell to be in jail... it was a case about whether it happened... the ABC and a group of journalists did everything they could to put as much pressure to drown out any possible contraventions.'

He then went on to argue the ABC was on Tuesday focusing on redacted sections of two Royal Commission reports rather than the High Court quashing the convictions.

Certain sections of the reports from The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse were supressed because they could affect Pell's case.

The convictions being overturned paves the way for the sections, which include findings about Cardinal George Pell's handling of child sexual abuse complaints, to be released.

'But isn't that just stating the facts of the developments,' Carvelho questioned.

'No, with great respect, it's not,' Craven said, adding in his view the news of the day was that the High Court unanimously 7-0 overturned the Victorian justice system's ruling.

Carvelho noted that in her opinion ABC management would 'vigorously deny those claims' before she pushed the interview along.

Vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University Greg Craven (pictured) claimed the ABC 'tried to drown out' arguments against the case

This week, Australia's High Court ordered Pell's five convictions for child sexual abuse be quashed.

After 405 days behind bars, Cardinal Pell was driven from Barwon Prison, near Geelong, early on Tuesday afternoon.

Roads were closed to allow the cardinal's convoy to make his way to the Carmelite Monastery in Kew, in east Melbourne where he was greeted by a nun and a case of wine.

The timing of the court's decision is significant, coming in Holy Week - the most significant week on the Christian calendar, marking the end of Lent and the celebration of Christ's resurrection on Easter Sunday this weekend.

Karina Carvalho (pictured) spoke to Mr Craven on ABC News on Tuesday with the interview quickly turning fiery

It's not clear what Cardinal Pell's immediate plans are. Any thoughts of a quick return to Rome are on hold because of international travel bans.

Cardinal Pell did not stop to speak as he left the prison and instead issued a statement saying the serious injustice he has suffered had been remedied by the court's findings.

'I hold no ill will to my accuser, I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough,' he said.

Cardinal Pell said his trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church or how Australian church authorities dealt with paedophilia.

'The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not,' he said.

Cardinal Pell was charged by Victoria Police officers after a man came forward in 2014 alleging he and another choirboy had been sexually abused at St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne in 1996.

That boy, now in his 30s, gave evidence in court, revealing he felt compelled to come forward after the death of the other boy.

A jury convicted Cardinal Pell of five charges in December 2018 after an earlier jury was unable to reach a verdict.

Victoria's Court of Appeal upheld the convictions last year.

With coronavirus sending Queensland into lockdown, the forecourt and road outside the High Court in Brisbane were empty for the handing down of Tuesday's decision.

Only three journalists were allowed in the courtroom as Chief Justice Susan Kiefel handed down the decision.

'There is a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof,' the full bench of seven judges said in their judgment.

Unlike the decision in Victoria's Court of Appeal last year, the judgment was not live streamed.

Instead the High Court posted the judgment online and tweeted the news to the world.

The father of the choirboy who died in 2014 was shocked by the court's decision and his lawyer Lisa Flynn said in a statement he was heartbroken for the surviving boy.

Cardinal Pell did not stop to speak as he left the prison and instead issued a statement saying the serious injustice he has suffered had been remedied by the court's findings

'Our client says this man, who the jury believed, is an upstanding citizen who had nothing to gain from speaking out other than to protect other children from the pain and suffering he has to live with on a daily basis,' Ms Flynn said.

The father will continue to pursue a civil case against Cardinal Pell.

Lawyers for the surviving complainant are expected to speak on Wednesday.
Kit Colbert hadn't planned on cutting his own hair with dog grooming shears.

But as hair salons and barber shops were forced to shut down after being deemed non-essential businesses, he decided to take matters into his own hands. The problem was, he found that most of the professional grooming kits on Amazon were backordered for at least a month.

On the contrary, dog grooming shears were "plentifully available"  and could be on his doorstep in the Mission District by Friday of that week.

With the help of his girlfriend, Colbert used clippers to trim off some of the longer hair on the sides of his head and thinning shears to take a little off the top. The end result? Not as bad as he was anticipating.

"Its not as good as my normal barber but generally still looks good, especially over Zoom calls," joked Colbert.

At the same time, others are taking to YouTube tutorials, or giving their kids permission to do the trimming. Some are even going all out, creating makeshift salons in their own homes (click through the gallery for some of the DIY haircuts we've seen).

There are certainly some creative alternatives out there for those who aren't willing to wait for a haircut, but meanwhile, orders to shelter in place and practice social distancing have rendered an entire industry  one that largely relies on commission-based income and physical contact with their clientele  jobless.

"Obviously I have no income and no real prospects for it until this is over. That's terrifying," said Jeannette Farrell, a stylist for Patrick Evan Salon in Union Square and At The Top Salon in Mill Valley. She's worked on the same block in San Francisco since 2004, seeing many of her clients for about the same amount of time.

That's what she misses most.

"Being a hair stylist, I'm inherently social," said Farrell. "I don't think people realize that what we do is just as therapeutic for us as it is for them."

But even before she learned her salon in Marin would close on March 17, Farrell had already made the decision she decided to stop working for at least two weeks. Many of her family members work in the medical field and expressed concern that salons were "vector locations," which caused Farrell to question whether she should work at all.

During that last appointment, a news alert popped up on her client's phone  the Bay Area's first shelter-in-place orders had been issued.

"To be honest, I was quite relieved that I didnt have to make that call by myself," said Farrell. "I think I knew it was the right thing."

She sent a text to salon owner Patrick Evan in San Francisco  would they be closing too?

Yes, he responded. They already had, and planned to stay that way for the next two weeks.

"That looks naive," Evan said with a wry chuckle. "We're in such a different space today."

He's hoping to re-open his salon on May 4, though Evan was quick to add that might still be a naive projection. Last week, he had to furlough his staff, though he said he's still compensating them with either sick pay or unemployment benefits.

Most clients have been understanding of the closure  some are even paying in advance for the services they'll receive when they're able to return to the salon, said Evan.

Patrick's wife Melissa Evan, who owns Artisan Eyelashes and SF Microblading in Union Square, says she's hearing from a lot of people that they consider salons an essential service. "However, we do know that we are a choice. People are spending their well earned money on our service, its a luxury."

Patrick is currently in the process of creating hair color kits to send to clients, and the salon will follow up with video chat consultations. They've also partnered up with the haircare brands whose products they normally sell in the salon  a percentage of proceeds from those products purchased online will go directly back to the salon.

Chri Longstreet/@chri_edosalon

"We'll figure it out. The most important thing right now is for everyone to stay safe and do our part; to slow the spread of this and try to help mitigate the potential damage that is occurring." said Evan. "It's hopeful. But we have a long road ahead of us."

He's unsure of what the end will look like. So is Samantha Nicolosi, a stylist at Cinta Salon, also located on Grant Avenue.

"Will people be afraid to come back, or will we jump back in like normal?" she asked aloud during our conversation. Like many in her profession, Nicolosi has recently filed for unemployment. The job is innately tactile, leaving her unable to work from home while practicing appropriate social distancing.

"If you come in, I'm touching your head, I'm shampooing you," said Nicolosi. She usually greets most of her guests with a hug. "But that last week we were open, people were afraid to touch."

With her hands free, she's been staying in touch with clients on Instagram, answering questions and offering haircare tips. The future feels uncertain, but the precaution of safety is the main concern for all of the salon professionals I spoke to.

"The faster we get this all shut down, the faster we get ahead of the curve and dont overwhelm healthcare professionals," said Farrell.

And while most of them would prefer it if their clients waited it out before deciding to cut or color their hair, they're beginning to embrace that many will likely do it themselves anyway.

"If it works for them, it works for them. Understand that if you make a mistake, well be here at the end of this to fix it," said Farrell.

In the meantime, here's some advice from the stylists themselves  on how to take care of your own hair, and how to show some love to your salon, too.

Reach out to your stylist or barber





The person regularly cutting your hair probably knows it best, so consider reaching out to them before making any rash decisions. "They know how to guide you, and it'll make their day," said Nicolosi.

Before you grab your scissors and go the YouTube route: several stylists are offering tutorials via FaceTime and Zoom  including Jayne Matthews at Edo Salon, which became famous for the San Francisco shag cut that took over Instagram. Depending on the salon you go to, stylists are starting to offer virtual consultations, though Matthews' run up to $300 specifically for a FaceTime haircut tutorial.

There's definitely a demand for it: she's fully booked up for April, but will open up her schedule in May if the current climate ensues. Other likeminded stylists at Edo are offering tutorials that are also filling up.

Julia Patton/@jpattonsalon

"Please keep in mind this is a teaching experience, youre investing in a skill that you can use over and over again between visits to your stylist for hopefully for the rest of your life," wrote Matthews. "Imagine, free bang trims forever!"

(A few days ago, she shared a free bang trim tutorial to Instagram anyway.)

"It may not be perfect but its what weve got and I think its important to adapt and grow with whatever situation were in."

Clip carefully





Have short hair and intend on cutting for the first time with clippers? "I would try few different guards for size, starting with a longer attachment first," said Chuyko. "Once you find a comfortable length, use a clipper to create a uniform length."

Be cautious using color





"We can do our best to touch you up, but some amount of damage may take years to fix," said Farrell. "Hair grows at an average rate of half inch a month. Whatever you do now may be with you for longer than you want. Proceed with caution."

Instead of opting for box dye, there are several other alternatives for a temporary fix. For gray hair at the roots, Nicolosi recommends trying powders, root sprays or crayons. They'll wash out with shampoo and won't hurt your hair in the long run.

Below is a tutorial from Irina Chuyko, a lead mentor and network educator for Bumble & Bumble working at Cinta Salon.

Don't book your stylist to do an at-home call





"This defeats the whole point of social distancing," said a representative from People's Barber Shop. It may seem like a no-brainer, but it's a request clients are still making.

"People all over the country are saying that by working through this pandemic, youre showing that you dont understand how to control disease and bacteria... to keep everything clean and safe," said Farrell. "We dont deserve the license we hold if we dont know that."

Instead...

Buy a gift certificate now for an appointment later





"Ive had a few clients who have just sent me tips via Venmo, which is amazing," said Farrell. "But the main thing we ask is to just be there when this is all over. We'll do whatever we can do from our own homes. Reach out and let us know what you need or want. Were creative people, well make something work."

Write a review for your stylist





"Yelp and Google reviews really do have an impact," said Nicolosi. "At the end of the day, the best thing you can do for your stylist is offer referrals. That's what drives our business  word-of-mouth."

Take this time to strengthen your hair





If you have a lot of breakage and/or split ends, you probably think you're overdue for a trim. "No product is going to replace a haircut, but there are products that can make the time between a bit more bearable," said Nicolosi. While you're at home, try a deep conditioning treatment  some of them you can leave in for less than an hour, or you can try an overnight option. All of the stylists recommended Oribe's Split End Seal, though apple cider vinegar can be used as an at-home remedy in a pinch, said Evan.

Also, now's the time to go longer between washes, said Nicolosi. "Youre depleting your scalp of the natural oils so its reproducing more oil if your hair is being washed every day." If you wash your hair every day, she recommends washing every 2-3 days. Your hair might feel a little oily for a couple of weeks while you wait for your scalp to adjust, she said, but it'll make your hair healthier in the long run. (And, bonus: No one is looking at you right now.)

When you do wash your hair, comb or brush it out beforehand, massage your scalp when shampooing and thoroughly condition your hair, said Chuyko. Do both for a few minutes longer than usual and rinse your hair out with cooler water  your hair will thank you.

Have any additional questions for the stylists? You can reach out to them for a consultation here:

Irina Chuyko: IrinaVChuyko@gmail.com

Patrick Evan: hello@patrickevansalon.com

Jeannette Farrell: bayareacolorist.com

Samantha Nicolosi: samanthajnicolosi@gmail.com

Edo Salon: contact a stylist here

Want to support your salon? Bumble and bumble, Oribe & Aveda are some of the brands giving proceeds from their products to a salon of the buyer's choice.

Amanda Bartlett is an SFGATE associate digital reporter. Email: amanda.bartlett@sfgate.com | Twitter: @byabartlett
Ghanas President, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has wished Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK), Boris Johnson, a speedy recovery from the Coronavirus infection.



Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care in the hospital after his symptoms worsened, Downing Street indicated.



A Spokesman said he was moved on the advice of his medical team and is receiving excellent care.



Mr Johnson has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputise where necessary, the spokesman added.



The Prime Minister, 55, was admitted to hospital in London with persistent symptoms on Sunday.



A No 10 statement read: Since Sunday evening, the prime minister has been under the care of doctors at St Thomas Hospital, in London, after being admitted with persistent symptoms of coronavirus.



Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the prime minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the intensive care unit at the hospital.



The statement added: The PM is receiving excellent care, and thanks all NHS staff for their hard work and dedication.



President Akufo Addo wishing the British PM well tweeted; our thoughts and prayers are with him and the British people at the critical time.

















Wishing British Prime Minister, @BorisJohnson, a speedy recovery and Gods blessings. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and the British people at this critical time.





 Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) April 6, 2020

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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When it comes to enforcing social distancing and self-isolation rules, property managers are feeling like their hands are tied.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/4/2020 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When it comes to enforcing social distancing and self-isolation rules, property managers are feeling like their hands are tied.

Brydges Property Management, one of the larger property management companies in Manitoba with more than 10,000 condo residents and apartment tenants, is asking the province and Winnipeg Police Service for help.

Brenda Brydges

Brenda Brydges, the president of the company, says property managers are constantly getting complaints from tenants who are reporting residents in their properties who are ignoring the rules and having gatherings of more than 10 people.

The manager assigned to the property then phones the person who is hosting the gathering and demands the visitors leave the unit immediately. The phone call is also followed up by an email or a letter. Brydges said the approach has been incredibly ineffective, but its all they can do.

"Theyre (tenants) basically telling us to go fly a kite, that this is their place and they can do whatever they want," Brydges told the Free Press.

"Its the same response whether its a tenant or an owner. They say I pay my fees, I own this place, I can do whatever I want. And to tell you the truth, theyre right. There is nothing I can do."

There was a case where one individual had a party with 30 people. Brydges took it upon herself to make the call, but it made no difference.

"He just basically told me to do whatever I want because I have no power and hes just going to continue on. I thought Wow, youre right. Theres nothing I can do," Brydges said.

In a news conference Monday, Premier Brian Pallister spoke about potentially disciplining those who host gatherings and dont self-isolate when its required.

"Manitobans expect now that there should be consequences for people that are being disrespectful to them, and to their friends and family, and to the battle against COVID-19," Pallister said.

"Were definitely taking a look at some additional steps, sadly,"

Mayor Brian Bowman also spoke about the issue on Monday, as he was asked by a reporter if theres a chance the city could step in and enforce social distancing rules more strictly.

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"I think that would be less than ideal. Right now, there are provincial health orders. Provincial health orders being enforced by the province would be option one. If we can work to support their efforts and compliment their efforts as weve seen in other cities with respect to some of the municipal enforcement, thats something obviously the city is going to do what it can to support the provinces efforts," Bowman said.

Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Rob Carver said they have "no legal authority to enforce limits on the size of social gatherings at this time."

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec have authorized law enforcement officers to enforce provincial health orders.

As of now, the only thing Manitobans can do if they see a gathering larger than 10 people is to call the provincial government inquiry number 204-945-3744 or email healthprotection@gov.mb.ca.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31
To be eligible, small businesses must have less than $3 million in annual revenue and fewer than 25 workers. Independent contractors like hair stylists, nail technicians, service repair workers, and freelance writers must have less than $100,000 in gross annual income and earn at least half of their income from contract work. Small business, gig workers and contractors must have locations or reside outside of Chicago in Cook County to be considered for those loans.
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Dominic Raab arrives at Downing Street this morning

Downing Street scrambled to ease fears over a power vacuum at the heart of government today with Boris Johnson in intensive care battling coronavirus.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been officially 'deputised' by the PM to fill in while he tries to recover from the potentially deadly disease.

However, there are doubts about how long Whitehall can function without an active PM, especially with claims of tensions between ministers.

Mr Johnson has not resigned and so continues to be the formal leader of the government, but doctors have warned he faces a long recovery process.

Cabinet minister Michael Gove played down concerns about paralysis this morning, saying Mr Raab was 'in charge', while added: 'The Cabinet is the supreme decision making body.'

Mr Raab will not be able to hire and fire colleagues. But asked who will be in control of the nuclear deterrent and armed forces, the PM's spokesman said: 'In relation to national security matters the First Secretary of State and the Cabinet have the authority and the ability to respond in the Prime Minister's absence.'

New PMs usually write 'letters of last resort' to nuclear submarine captains, setting out instructions if government is wiped out by an enemy strike.

But No10 said Mr Johnson's existing letters will continue to apply, rather than Mr Raab writing new ones.

MPs have raised alarm that hostile states such as Russia - which has already been accused of spreading disinformation about Mr Johnson's condition - could try to exploit Britain's 'weakness'.

General Sir Nick Carter, chief of the defence staff, said the armed forces 'work straight through to the Prime Minister', although he suggested the National Security Council (NSC) will now fill the gap.

The Queen is being kept informed about Mr Johnson's condition, but she will not grant audiences to Mr Raab while he is standing in for the premier. The monarch appoints the PM, choosing the individual who is best placed to carry a majority in the Commons.

The UK does not have a written constitution and the chain of command is largely based on convention.

Since the end of the Tory-Lib Dem Coalition in 2015 there has not been a deputy PM.

Instead Mr Cameron, Theresa May and now Mr Johnson appointed First Secretaries of State to denote who was second in line.

Downing Street is said to have drawn up plans to ensure the continuation of government in all circumstances but details have not been divulged publicly.

The Prime Minister (pictured on Thursday evening), who was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in London last night, was taken to intensive care at 7pm this evening

New Prime Ministers usually write 'letters of last resort' to nuclear submarine captains, setting out instructions if government is wiped out by an enemy strike. However, it is not clear whether Mr Johnson's letters will still apply, or Mr Raab will pen new versions. Pictured is HMS Vanguard, one of the submarines that carry the UK deterrent

Mr Raab raised concerns as he was seen coughing leaving the Foreign Office to go to Downing Street this morning

Mr Gove revealed today that he has gone into self-isolation after a family member started showing coronavirus symptoms

Downing Street infection timeline March 10: Health minister Nadine Dorries became the first MP to test positive for coronavirus, shortly after attending a Downing Street reception. March 27: Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock both release Twitter videos saying they have coronavirus and are self-isolating. Hours later, chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty revealed he was self-isolating with symptoms. March 30: The PM's top adviser Dominic Cummings was revealed to be self-isolating with coronavirus symptoms. April 2: Matt Hancock returns to work after seven dies in isolation and making a recovery. April 3: Boris Johnson releases a video from his Number 11 flat saying he is continuing to self-isolate as he is still suffering a temperature. April 4: Carrie Symonds, the PM's pregnant fiancee reveals she has been self-isolating at her Camberwell flat. April 5: The PM is taken to St Thomas' Hospital as a precaution. April 6: The PM is moved to intensive care after his condition spiralled. Advertisement

It is not immediately clear what would happen if Mr Raab also became incapacitated, with the UK not having a formal system of succession like other countries, for example the US.

There is a formal ranking of ministers by seniority, but the arrangements have not been tested in practice for decades.

Mr Raab's status as the person waiting in the wings reportedly sparked furious rows within the government a fortnight ago, with other ministers adamant Mr Gove should be the one to take over.

Number 10 is likely to face intense pressure in the coming days to set out exactly what would happen if Mr Johnson and other senior ministers can no longer work.

If Mr Johnson is forced to resign, the Cabinet would in the first instance choose a successor.

They would need to carry the support of the Conservative MPs and potentially the party members - although it seems unlikely anyone would force a full leadership contest at a time of massive national crisis.

Asked about Mr Raab's authority and whether he would have the same power as the PM to hire and fire people in Cabinet, Mr Gove replied: 'The Prime Minister always remains the Prime Minister but I don't think there's any suggestion of anything other than a great team spirit in government as we all work together at this time.'

Mr Gove said he could not comment about national security matters when asked if responsibilities connected to nuclear attack had been passed on to Foreign Secretary Mr Raab.

'Dominic is in charge. I won't go into the details of the different national security decisions and protocols that there are but there are appropriate ways in which decisions can be taken in order to keep this country safe,' he said,

'The ultimate decisions are always taken by politicians and in this case the PM has asked Dominic to deputise for him, so it's Dominic as Foreign Secretary who's in charge.'

He also said any decisions about the lockdown would be 'taken collectively following appropriate advice', dismissing the idea there would be a delay.

He told Good Morning Britain: 'No it won't be delayed. It will be the case that we will take that decision collectively as a Cabinet.

'The person who will chair that Cabinet, the person who will make the final decision of course is, as I mentioned earlier, the Foreign Secretary.'

On the issue of a national government he added: 'I don't think anyone is talking in those terms, no.'

Conservative MP and defence committee chairman Tobias Ellwood underlined the concerns about the nuclear deterrent.

'It is important to have 100% clarity as to where responsibility for UK national security decisions now lies. We must anticipate adversaries attempting to exploit any perceived weakness,' he tweeted.

General Sir Nick said all the thoughts and prayers of the armed forces are with the Prime Minister.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'We wish him well for a very, very speedy recovery.'

Asked if there is a clear chain of command for the armed forces in such a situation, Sir Nick replied: 'Yes, it's very clear I think. We work straight through to the Prime Minister but of course there's the National Security Council (NSC) that's wrapped around him and formed of many of the Cabinet ministers and supported by the National Security Adviser.

'I think on that basis we're pretty confident it's business as usual as far as the operations are concerned.'

Sir Nick said he believed Mr Raab would chair the NSC and be supported by others.

But former Cabinet minister Lord Heseltine said there 'isn't a clarity' about what Mr Raab can do as deputy, noting: 'I was deputy prime minister but I was never prime minister, if you know what I mean.

'In other words, John Major was always in good health and in touch so the questions never really arose.

'There must come a time when a deputy is effectively prime minister, I don't think we've probably quite got to that now but the present urgency of the situation and the potential decisions that may need to be taken quickly does mean that Dominic Raab will have to use his discretion and know when to act.

How are ministers ranked? 1. Boris Johnson, Prime Minister 2. Dominic Raab, Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State 3. Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer 4. Priti Patel, Home Secretary 5. Michael Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 6. Robert Buckland, Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary 7. Ben Wallace, Defence Secretary 8. Matt Hancock, Health Secretary 9. Alok Sharma, Business Secretary 10. Liz Truss, International Trade Secretary 11. Therese Coffey, Work and Pensions Secretary 12. Gavin Williamson, Education Secretary 13. George Eustice, Environment Secretary 14. Robert Jenrick, Communities Secretary 15. Brandon Lewis, Northern Ireland Secretary 16. Alister Jack, Scotland Secretary 17. Simon Hart, Wales Secretary 18. Baroness Evans, Leader of the House of Lords 19. Oliver Dowden, Culture Secretary 20. Anne-Marie Trevelyan, International Development Secretary 21. Amanda Milling, Minister without Portfolio (Conservative Party chairwoman) Advertisement

'This is a very difficult thing to do because he will be surrounded by lots of people who know what Boris Johnson said, believe Boris will be quickly back and have their own personal agendas anyway, so it's a very difficult personal position and the man will be tested by the loneliness of the job.'

At the weekend it was revealed that two of the most senior Ministers leading the Government response to the coronavirus crisis are locked in battle over when to lift the economically devastating lockdown.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has made 'robust' representations to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, arguing that unless a path is mapped now for a swift return to normal economic activity it could cause lasting damage to the country.

Government critics of Mr Hancock argue his 'careerist' fear of being personally blamed for a collapse in the NHS is blinding him to the dangers of a protracted lockdown.

Mr Johnson was moved to ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in central London and given oxygen after his health deteriorated sharply over just two hours, leaving doctors fearing he will need a ventilator.

The 55-year-old was transferred to intensive care at 7pm because of breathing difficulties - forcing him to 'deputise' Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to take the reins of government.

In a round of broadcast interviews this morning, Cabinet minister Michael Gove said Mr Johnson was getting the 'best care'.

'As we speak the PM is in intensive care being looked after by his medical team receiving the very, very best care from the team in St Thomas's and our hopes and prayers are with him and with his family,' he told BBC Breakfast.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump revealed he has offered to send Mr Johnson experimental drugs to treat his coronavirus.

'I've asked two of the leading companies ... They've come with the solutions and just have done incredible jobs  and I've asked him to contact London immediately,' Mr Trump said. 'The London office has whatever they need. We'll see if we can be of help. We've contacted all of Boris's doctors, and we'll see what is going to take place, but they are ready to go.'

The PM's sharp downturn came 11 days after he first suffered coronavirus symptoms and went into isolation. He looked increasingly unwell when glimpsed in public and in 'selfie' videos posted on on social media, and ministers were then shocked by his grim appearance at a Zoom conference on Sunday.

Downing Street sources confirmed Mr Johnson is not yet on a ventilator - but was moved to intensive care to be near one if needed. Some medical experts forecasting this course of action is now 'very likely'.

Two thirds of patients in intensive care with coronavirus are sedated and put on a ventilator within 24 hours of arriving as the illness attacks their lungs.

But last night one doctor told The Times Mr Johnson was conscious and had not been intubated - the process of putting a tube in the windpipe to aid breathing. He was said to have required around four litres of oxygen rather than the 15 litres used by an average Covid-19 ICU patient.

Only two hours before his move to intensive care, No10 was insisting Mr Johnson was still spearheading the government's coronavirus response, despite de facto deputy Mr Raab chairing the morning crisis meeting.

Dominic Raab, a karate black belt, is married without any children to Erika (together), a Brazilian-born marketing executive

Self-styled 'tough guy' with just one year's Cabinet experience: Ex-Foreign Office lawyer Dominic Raab is a relative new kid on the block - but is no stranger to controversy

Dominic Raab is now the UK's de facto prime minister after Boris Johnson was hospitalised, with the running of the country placed in the hands of a man who has just one year of Cabinet experience.

Mr Johnson has asked the Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State to deputise for him while he fights coronavirus in a London intensive care unit.

The elevation of Mr Raab to the top political job in the country completes what has been a meteoric rise for the former Foreign Office lawyer, karate black belt and Oxford University boxing blue who is no stranger to controversy.

Dominic Raab, pictured in Westminster today, is now the de facto prime minister after Boris Johnson was hospitalised with coronavirus

Mr Raab's bulging muscles and athletic frame leap out of a photo taken during his days as an Oxford University boxing blue in 1995

Westminster was stunned last July when Mr Johnson became Prime Minister and chose to select Mr Raab, a self-styled Tory 'tough guy', as his future stand-in.

Many were expecting the 46-year-old to be rewarded with a big job after he backed the PM in the Tory leadership contest having seen his own bid fall flat.

But few had anticipated Mr Raab being awarded one of the four great offices of state while even fewer predicted he would be designated Mr Johnson's deputy.

However, the appointment made political sense for the new premier given Mr Raab's hardline Brexit credentials.

Mr Raab was one of the most vocal supporters of the UK leaving the EU and his appointment to the highest echelons of government reassured Eurosceptic Tory MPs that the PM was not going to go soft on Brussels after winning power.

Becoming Foreign Secretary represented a massive step up for Mr Raab in terms of government responsibility having only held one Cabinet role prior to his major promotion.

Mr Raab, first elected as the Conservative MP for Esher and Walton in 2010, had to wait five years before getting a proper ministerial job.

And after slowly climbing the Whitehall ladder he finally broke into the Cabinet in July 2018 after receiving the call from Theresa May to be her new Brexit Secretary following the resignation of David Davis.

However, he would only last until November of the same year as he also quit in protest at the then-PM's Brexit plans - just like his predecessor.

Having entered the Tory leadership contest in late May 2019, he was quickly eliminated but swiftly announced he was supporting Mr Johnson's candidacy.

He was then subsequently appointed Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State on July 24, 2019.

That means that as of today, Mr Raab has just over one year of Cabinet experience under his belt - eight months in Mr Johnson's administration and five in Mrs May's.

The designation of Mr Raab as Mr Johnson's deputy has not been without controversy with some ministers unhappy at the prospect of the Foreign Office chief being put in charge.

Some members of the government had recently been pushing for Michael Gove, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, to be given the responsibility.

Mr Raab, pictured with his wife Erika in June 2019 during his Tory leadership run, was first elected as an MP in 2010

Mr Raab, pictured alongside Mr Johnson in the House of Commons in December last year, will now be tasked with overseeing the UK's coronavirus response

One minister said a few weeks ago that 'a lot of people think that Michael should be running the show' if Mr Johnson became incapacitated and that 'one of these people is Michael, of course'.

But Downing Street has been clear for weeks that Mr Raab would take over if the situation demanded it.

Mr Raab has dealt with a number of political controversies since becoming an MP and later a Cabinet minister.

Upon being appointed Foreign Secretary, Mr Raab was soon thrust into handling the Transatlantic fall-out over the death of British teenager Harry Dunn, who was killed when his motorbike crashed into a car outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on August 27 last year.

The fact Mr Dunn's parents tried to heckle Mr Raab at a constituency hustings event was indicative of how well the family felt he dealt with obtaining justice for their son as the government tried and failed to persuade the US to extradite the teenager's alleged killer.

Mr Raab also had to manage the thorny issue of repatriating children of British jihadis.

Early on in his parliamentary career Mr Raab sparked a furious row after he wrote an article in which he argued 'feminists are now amongst the most obnoxious bigots'.

He refused to apologise and stuck by his comments, defending them last year when he was challenged on them during the Tory leadership battle.

He said he stood by what he had said because he believed it is 'really important that in the debate on equality we have a consistency and not double standards and hypocrisy'.

Mr Raab, who is married to a Brazilian called Erika who he has two children with, has also said he is 'probably not' a feminist.

He found himself again at the centre of a storm of controversy in May 2017 after claiming that people who use food banks are not typically in poverty but have an occasional 'cashflow problem'.

The Foreign Secretary first made it to the Cabinet in 2018 when he was appointed Brexit Secretary. He is pictured with Michel Barnier in Brussels in August of that year

Critics labelled the remarks 'stupid and deeply offensive'.

He also got into hot water last year after he said he would keep open the option of suspending Parliament in order to prevent MPs blocking Brexit.

His past comments, and his hardline stance on Brexit, have not endeared Mr Raab to his political opponents.

At the 2019 general election he was relentlessly targeted by the Liberal Democrats in his Surrey constituency and came relatively close to being ousted.

He had previously held the seat with majorities of more than 20,000 votes but in December he held on with a majority of just under 3,000 as the Lib Dems surged, capitalising on the pro-Remain vote.

Mr Raab has sought to create something of a 'hard man' image in Westminster, with his website boasting that he 'holds a black belt 3rd dan in karate and is a former UK Southern Regions champion and British squad member'.

He captained the karate club at Oxford University where he studied law and was also a boxing blue.

Mr Raab is clearly proud of his time as a university boxer, having previously handed a picture of him in his shorts and vest to a TV company to use for their profile of him.

He still trains at a boxing club in Thames Ditton and has a poster of Muhammad Ali in his Commons office.

In 2006, he was appointed chief of staff to fellow Tory Mr Davis. The former Special Forces reservist said Mr Raab's karate black belt impressed him more than his two Oxbridge degrees - the second came in a form of a Masters from Cambridge.

Mr Raab said karate helped him cope with the premature death of his father, who had fled to the UK from Czechoslovakia at the age of six in 1938 to escape the Nazis.

Mr Raab was just 12 when his father died. 'Sport helped restore my confidence, and that hugely benefited my attitude to school and life,' he said in May last year.

'There were strong role models, camaraderie and an ethos of respect. I take the discipline and focus I learnt from sport into my professional life  and I believe that approach is vital to making a success of the Brexit negotiations and delivering a fairer deal from Brussels.'

Despite his karate black belt, Mr Raab is known for his courtesy and was upset when civil servants who worked for him as Brexit Secretary anonymously described him as a bully.

Mr Raab, who previously worked at the Foreign Office as a lawyer, denied claims, made by his former diary secretary, that he insisted on the same Pret a Manger lunch every day.

The 'Dom Raab special' apparently consists of a chicken Caesar and bacon baguette, superfruit pot and a vitamin volcano smoothie.
The scene at Clanbrassil street in Dundalk, Co Louth, where two ATMs where stolen in a late night raid (Niall Carson/PA)

Two men have been remanded in custody accused of handling stolen goods in connection with the theft of two ATMs in the Irish Republic.

Fearghal Nolan, 24, of Bonds Road, Silverbridge, Co Armagh and Michael Muckian, 29, of Carrive Road, Silverbridge are charged with handling stolen property and possession of criminal property.

It is in connection with the robbery of two ATMs in Dundalk, Co Louth, in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Craigavon Magistrates Court heard there was approximately 240,000 euro (210,451) in the two ATMs, but that they have not yet been opened.

Expand Close Two ATMs were stolen in a late night raid (Niall Carson/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Two ATMs were stolen in a late night raid (Niall Carson/PA)

It also heard that Muckian has been displaying suspected symptoms of coronavirus and is being held in the Covid-19 section of Musgrave custody suite.

Nolan appeared in court via videolink from Lurgan police station and indicated he understood the charges.

A police officer said they believed they could connect both men to the charges.

The prosecution detailed to the court that in the early hours of Saturday morning vehicles previously stolen in Co Monaghan were driven to the Garda station in Dundalk where they were set alight, blocking the exit.

Expand Close Craigavon Magistrates court heard there was approximately 240,000 euro in the two ATMs (Niall Carson/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Craigavon Magistrates court heard there was approximately 240,000 euro in the two ATMs (Niall Carson/PA)

At twenty past three that morning the Garda observed via their CCTV system an ATM theft taking place on Clanbrassil Street in Dundalk, she told the court.

A lorry with a low loader holding a digger drove into the street followed by a white car, we say which was towing a trailer, a male exits the vehicle, gets on to the digger and a number of suspects were seen, all covered faces but appearing to communicate via walkie talkie.

The lorry is then driven to the bottom of Clanbrassil Street to block the road and the suspect in the digger then proceeds to take the two ATMS, one from the Ulster Bank, one from the AIB, and place them on the trailer.

The Garda arrives within seconds of the suspects leaving the scene and a pursuit of the two vehicles ensued. The red Mercedes was lost early in the pursuit but they were able to follow the trailer on which the two ATMs were observed, until it crossed into Northern Ireland on the Edenappa Road in Jonesborough.

She said the Garda helicopter monitored the vehicle to an address in Mullaghbawn, and saw two suspects.

The PSNI then located the trailer before arriving at the address where arrests were made.

She said the defendants initially denied involvement when interviewed at Lurgan police station, before adopting a no comment approach to questions.

The prosecution objected to bail contending they may commit further offences and might fail to surrender with addresses so close to the Irish border.

A defence lawyer confirmed there was an application for bail on behalf of both men.

We're in the middle of an island-wide lockdown, so where would he go if he were to go over the border?Defence lawyer

He contended at a first hearing there is no real opportunity for the defence to challenge the facts as they are set out.

But there is a presumption of innocence, and more importantly there is a presumption in favour of bail, he told the court.

He challenged the arguments against bail, contending no basis for the claim they may reoffend had been set out, and that an electronic tag could be used.

He also said it would make no sense to go to the Republic of Ireland.

Were in the middle of an island-wide lockdown, so where would he go if he were to go over the border? He couldnt leave the island of Ireland, the only place he could go would be the Republic of Ireland where he is wanted on more serious charges, he added.

The case against Muckian was heard without him appearing with similar arguments set forward.

District Judge Eamonn King said the details of events around the ATM thefts seems to be like a military operation, before a hot pursuit by police in the Republic of Ireland and police in Northern Ireland.

The court has been told there could be a sum of 240,000 euro involved in this alleged offence and with the degree of organisation and the manner in which the operation was carried out, this is a sophisticated operation, he said.

I am not satisfied that there can be any grounds or conditions that the court could attach to bail that would allay the concerns of the prosecution in this matter so therefore bail is refused.

The defendants are due to appear on April 29.
Rodney-based Labour MP Marja Lubeck has summarised a raft of government measures designed to help New Zealand weather the Covid-19 storm.

To begin with, new arrangements for those in essential work who require sick leave due to Covid-19 come into effect this week.

Ms Lubeck says the goal of the scheme is to ensure essential workers dont feel pressured to come to work if they are vulnerable or sick.

The scheme covers essential workers who need to self-isolate because they're at higher risk or because they live with someone who is at higher risk. It also covers essential workers who need to self-isolate because they catch Covid-19 or come into contact with someone who has the virus.

The government will pay those taking sick leave at the same rate as those on the wage subsidy scheme. The scheme subsidises the wages of employees working for businesses whose operations have partially or entirely shut down.

The subsidy amounts to $585.80 for people working 20 hours or more per week and $350 for people working less than 20 hours per week. Businesses accessing the scheme must endeavour to top this up so that employees are paid at least 80 per cent of their pre-Covid-19 income.

Ms Lubeck says there is no longer a cap on the overall subsidy that a business can apply for.

Every affected business in New Zealand can get help paying the wages of all of their workers, no matter how big or small they are, she says.

Ms Lubeck summarised other government initiatives in relation to Covid-19 as follows:

Rents

The government has frozen all residential rent increases and prohibited no-cause terminations of rental agreements. Ms Lubeck says the government is considering options for commercial rent relief and plans to announce these soon.

Insolvent businesses

Ms Lubeck says the Government will make changes to the Companies Act to help businesses facing insolvency. The temporary changes will allow businesses affected by Covid-19 to place existing debts into hibernation until they can start trading normally again.

Non-profits

The Government has announced a $27 million package to ensure that non-profits can continue to provide essential support to communities. The package will help non-profits assisting people with access to food and other essential goods, providing a place for people to live, and supporting the disabled and those in crisis.

Spending

In addition to $12 billion in wage subsidies, the government has allocated a further:

$500 million in health spending

$126 million in Covid-19 leave and self-isolation support

$2.8 billion for an income support package for the most vulnerable, including a $25 per week benefit increase and doubling of the Winter Energy Payment for 2020

$100 million for a redeployment package, to keep more New Zealanders in work

$2.8 billion in business tax relief

$600 million for aviation to protect New Zealands supply chains

$6.25 billion for a Business Finance Guarantee scheme to help banks support firms to stay in business.

Ms Lubeck says these initiatives are not a one-off package, but are just the beginning.

It does involve hard decisions, but we know the best protection for the economy is containing this virus, she says.

We will support Kiwi firms and families to make it through this shock so that they can bounce back on the other side.
G20 countries are set to send their oil minister for an emergency meeting on Friday, a sign that there is a chance that OPEC and Russia can pull in other oil-producing countries into a global production cut. Sentiment around the odds of a massive production cut deal have seemingly gyrated just as much as oil prices. Last week, President Trumps tweet was met with euphoria by oil traders but skepticism by analysts. A day later, the odds seemed to improve dramatically and OPEC+ agreed to hold a meeting on Monday after Russia voiced some degree of support. But Trump dashed hopes again after he emerged from a meeting with American oil executives and said that the free market would sort things out.

That statement may have caused OPEC+ to delay a meeting until the end of this week. Saudi Arabia delayed the release of its monthly pricing list, an influential data point that offers both a pricing benchmark and also offers a window into Saudi strategy. The delay suggests that Riyadh will wait and see if there is any progress on OPEC+ talks before taking action one way or another.

The odds of success vary depending on who you ask.

On the bullish side of the ledger is the fact that an emergency meeting of the G20 oil ministers has been called, signaling potential participation in global production cuts beyond just OPEC+ countries. It is coming to a level where it will have significant implications for the stability of the global economy and millions of workers employed in the oil and gas industry, Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) told the FT. The main task [of the G20] is to provide and maintain the financial and economic stability of global markets so it is perfectly in-line with their remit.

Saudi Arabia and Russia are very, very close to an historic deal to cut production, but success likely hinges on whether or not the U.S. and other non-OPEC countries join.

Related: Big Oil Raises Debt To Ride Out Price Crash



Still, several analysts voiced skepticism that a production deal was imminent.

The meeting delay is a fresh sign that working out a deal of this magnitude will take time, JBC Energy wrote in a note on Monday. Defining the right size for it will be very difficult, and of course, there is good reason to wonder if it will materialise at all. The fact that Brent was trading at around $34 on Monday suggests that a large part of the market still appears to be holding onto the hope of a better future, the firm concluded.

However, even if they do, a global production cut  even one as large as 10 million barrels per day (mb/d)  may only buy time as the oil market continues to collapse.

Estimates of demand destruction now top 20 mb/d. Some estimates even put the global glut at 35 mb/d.

A supply cut would delay the time at which global inventories fill to the brim, but as long as the pandemic continues to keep a few billion people on lockdown, the oil surplus will remain.

Related: This Gulf State Faces An Impossible Decision As Oil War Rages On



Even if there was 10m b/d of cuts in our view we could still see a building of stocks of 15m b/d, Mr Birol said. I see that there is a growing consensus that this is the forum to address this problem.

The cuts of around 10 mb/d would also likely occur against a baseline of todays rate of output, which is 3 mb/d or so higher than it was a month ago on the eve of the OPEC+ meeting. Since then, Saudi Arabia has ramped up production and may offer cuts against that new, higher level of output.

That means the proposed 10 mb/d of cuts is more like 6.5 mb/d of cuts, Commerzbank says. Under these circumstances, it is likely to prove difficult to reach any agreement, Commerzbank analysts said, referring to the negotiations between multiple parties, including the mercurial U.S. president. And in any case, a reduction of 6.5 million barrels would do little to help in view of an oversupply of over 20 million barrels per day, Commerzbank wrote in a report on Monday.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
KABUL, Afghanistan  A week of talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban on a prisoner swap  seen as crucial to preserving a fragile peace deal between the insurgents and the United States  appeared to be collapsing on Tuesday, as Taliban leaders ordered their team to pull out of the discussions.

An agreement signed between the United States and the Taliban in February that started the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan calls for the swap of thousands of prisoners before the two Afghan sides sit together for talks over a future power-sharing. But the prisoner swap, which was to be done in batches, has faced opposition and hurdles all along, threatening the unraveling of a deal that the Trump administration hoped would signal the end of Americas longest war.

After weeks of pressure from American diplomats, the government of President Ashraf Ghani agreed to a phased release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners. In an unprecedented move, a small technical team of the insurgents arrived in Kabul for discussions with Afghan officials over verification of identities before the release. But those technical discussions now appear to have collapsed after a week as each side accused the other of insincerity.
NASA photo of the eruption of Klyuchevsky volcano on 30 September, 1994, the volcano's largest explosion in 40 years. The large

Background:

Kliuchevskoi is Kamchatka's highest and most active volcano. Since its origin about 6000 years ago, the beautifully symmetrical, 4835-m-high basaltic stratovolcano has produced frequent moderate-volume explosive and effusive eruptions without major periods of inactivity. Kliuchevskoi rises above a saddle NE of sharp-peaked Kamen volcano and lies SE of the broad Ushkovsky massif. More than 100 flank eruptions have occurred at Kliuchevskoi during the past roughly 3000 years, with most lateral craters and cones occurring along radial fissures between the unconfined NE-to-SE flanks of the conical volcano between 500 m and 3600 m elevation. The morphology of its 700-m-wide summit crater has been frequently modified by historical eruptions, which have been recorded since the late-17th century. Historical eruptions have originated primarily from the summit crater, but have also included numerous major explosive and effusive eruptions from flank craters.

---

Source: Klyuchevsky information by the GVP (Smithsonian Institution)
The website, created by medical professionals from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and St Olavs Hospital can be found at: https://sars-coronavirus-2.info/. It will be updated weekly, with a focus on research and development of antiviral options for the disease.

We made the website in honor of Dr.Li Wenliang, the Chinese doctor who tried to warn us about the coronavirus, and in honor of all the people who have suffered and died because of COVID-19." Denis Kainov, associate professor at NTNU's Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, who studies treatments for viral diseases

The target audience for the website is the general public, as well as researchers, clinicians and decision makers, Kainov said.

The website allows interactive exploration of available and emerging options against COVID-19. It is a free tool with a feedback form.

The research network is initially planning on translating the website into Norwegian, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Finnish, Estonian and Lithuanian. Content will initially be reviewed by Kainov's colleagues at NTNU and St. Olavs, but the hope is that as time goes on, the network will expand.

"We will ask researchers and clinicians outside of Norway to provide their feedback on the website content," he said.

Aleksandr Ianevski, a PhD candidate in Kainov's lab, developed the website. He and Rouan Yao, a master's student in the lab, will be monitoring research developments and updating the website.
Turkey has launched an ambitious programme to get free surgical masks into the hands of all the nations 82 million residents in an effort to combat the spread of coronavirus while allowing the countrys tattered economy to recover.

This week Turkey launched a website where both citizens and official residents can register to receive five free surgical masks per week delivered by the national postal service. On Friday Turkeys president Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced new rules requiring all those in workplaces or markets to wear masks. He later banned the sale of the masks amid accusations of price-gouging.

Videos posted on social media showed bus drivers handing out free masks to passengers as they boarded. In an extraordinary moment on Tuesday, Turkeys parliament in Ankara convened to discuss a coronavirus prisoner release law with lawmakers, journalists and council staff all wearing masks.

We have enough mask stock and production plans for all of our citizens until the outbreak ends, Mr Erdogan has been quoted as saying late Monday. As the state, we are determined to provide free masks to all our citizens.

Covid-19 has killed at least 725 people in Turkey, a death toll second only to Iran in the Middle East. At least 34,000 people have tested positive for the virus.

Recommended Hundreds of thousands of fake coronavirus masks flooding markets

Strong anecdotal evidence suggests three-ply surgical masks that include a layer of bonded material reduce the rate of coronavirus infection in Asian cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore. Austria ordered all shoppers to wear masks, and Morocco recently made it mandatory to wear masks in public, selling them at a subsidised rate.

Turkey has shut down schools and ordered all residents over 65-years-old or under 20 to remain confined to their homes. But Mr Erdogan has vowed to keep the wheels of production turning, and many businesses, factories and construction sites remain operating -- to the chagrin of some opposition politicians who have demanded a more stringent lock down.

Every factory that can work will continue to work, he said on Monday. "Our farmers will not leave their land uncultivated.

The ban on sales of the masks potentially kills off a lucrative source of income for pharmacies and medical supply companies which have jacked up prices for the products amid unprecedented global demand. Turkey is one of the worlds leading producers of medical personal protective equipment.

Mr Erdogan has also announced the construction of two 1,000-bed hospitals to treat pandemic patients in Istanbul, the city hardest hit by the virus.

Opposition figures claimed credit for both the free masks programme and the hospitals, but nonetheless praised the government for taking up the ideas. Canan Kaftancoglu, head of the Istanbul branch of the opposition Peoples Republican Party, wrote on Twitter that the countrys 13,000 to 14,000 postal delivery people werent enough to distribute the masks.
WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday asked congressional leaders to swiftly commit another $250 billion to replenish the new $349 billion small business coronavirus program that is being overwhelmed by surging demand.

President Trump said banks have processed $70 billion in taxpayer-backed loans for 250,000 small businesses since Friday, as companies seek emergency help to deal with the enormous business disruption caused by the pandemic.

He did not say, though, how many of those loans have been approved or how many firms have received any of the money. And his data suggest the program has so far reached only a small fraction of U.S. companies, as there are 30 million small businesses in the United States that employ a total of 60 million people.

"We'll be running out of money pretty quickly, which is a good thing in this case, not a bad thing," Trump told reporters.

Republicans will try to advance the matter through Congress immediately. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he hoped to pass the cash infusion through the Senate on Thursday. The program allows companies with fewer than 500 employees to seek taxpayer-backed loans from banks, and these loans are forgivable if the companies meet certain worker-retention metrics, among other things. The federal government would then reimburse the banks for making the loans.

Democrats haven't rejected the White House request but they have said they want to include other emergency aid, such as hazard pay for workers, as part of any new deal.

The Small Business Administration initiative, called the Paycheck Protection Program, was created as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus rescue bill enacted late last month. Many companies are scrambling for assistance, as the entire U.S. economy has been upended because of rolling shutdowns ordered by state and local governments. As Americans stay home and many of these companies close their doors, their revenue has fallen sharply. Many have laid off workers but still face rent and utility payments, among other things.

The surge in demand for these loans overwhelmed the loan systems at many banks and a number of firms found the process impossible to navigate on Friday. Some 250,000 companies have had their applications processed, according to Trump, but it could not be learned how many had actually applied.

The White House has made numerous adjustments to the program in the past week to expand it for applicants and make it more attractive to banks originating the taxpayer-backed loans. They have raised the processing fee that banks can charge and ensured that churches and faith-based firms can apply, among other things.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. - who spearheaded the program - has led the charge in demanding more money.

McConnell said he would speak with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and would "hope to approve further funding for the Paycheck Protection Program by unanimous consent or voice vote during the next scheduled Senate session on Thursday."

That would require Democrats to agree. Schumer declined to answer questions during a conference call with reporters Tuesday about how Democrats planned to proceed, but he made clear they were pushing for other priorities, including ensuring the payment of hazard pay equivalent to $25,000 yearly for workers who have been forced to remain on the job during the pandemic.

Democrats could try to use the GOP demand for small business funding as leverage to advance other priorities as well. Tuesday evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a conference call with other Democratic leaders where she indicated she plans to work with House and Senate Democratic leaders to compile a list of their priorities to guide negotiations with Mnuchin, according to a person familiar with the call who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss it.

The White House and Treasury Department have devoted enormous resources to get the PPP up and running, spending less time on other elements of the rescue law - including an expansion of unemployment insurance and $1,200 direct payments to individuals.

As part of the PPP, businesses with fewer than 500 employees are eligible for loans of up to $10 million. The loans will be forgiven, meaning business owners will not have to pay them back, if they meet certain requirements, including using 75% of the money to retain or rehire employees. Businesses can receive a $10,000 loan advance that does not have to be repaid, SBA has said. It's unclear if the Treasury Department or SBA will ever disclose the identities of the companies receiving the taxpayer-funded loans.

Bank of America said Monday it had received 178,000 applications from firms seeking $32.9 billion in loans as companies clamor to qualify for the $349 billion SBA program.

Wells Fargo did not begin taking applications until Saturday and by Monday morning said it had reached the $10 billion cap it had set for loans under the program. To deal with the crushing demand, the Federal Reserve launched a system for banks to offload these assets so they could originate more loans.

Democrats and Republicans have commented in recent days that the $349 billion program would probably need to be expanded, but Democrats have called for other extensions too, such as more unemployment insurance benefits for laid off workers. Senate Democrats on Tuesday asked Mnuchin and SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza to ensure that a portion of the PPP funding was directed toward companies owned by women, minorities, and veterans, among others, particularly in rural and underserved areas.

In an interview Tuesday with CNN, Pelosi said Democrats would want to ensure "certain considerations" were in place before agreeing to Mnuchin's request for more funding for the program.

"We want to make sure that the program is administered in a way that does not solidify inequality in how people have access to capital, but instead (is a) benefit to everyone who qualifies for it," Pelosi said.

At the same time, some Democrats said the program might have to grow even more. In an interview with The Washington Post, House Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., said he, Pelosi and other lawmakers had spoken with Mnuchin, and urged the secretary to relax the limits on the program so businesses with up to 1,000 employees can apply. Neal said Democrats also told Mnuchin he might have to ask for even more than $250 billion.

"We urged him to go higher," Neal said Democrats told Mnuchin. "You might need to get it up to a trillion."

The discussions over the small business program come in the context of wider talks over a follow-up piece of rescue legislation that would inject more funding on multiple fronts. Less than two weeks after enactment of the $2 trillion relief bill, the largest such economic rescue in U.S. history, lawmakers of both parties and the administration have come to view another rescue bill as inevitable as the coronavirus brutalizes the economy. But they differ on the details, with Democrats pushing for more help for health care workers, unemployed workers and others, as Republicans focus in more on business relief.

Many businesses and bankers have expressed confusion - and exasperation - at how the small business program was rolled out, with some fearing that they had to make monumental decisions immediately or risk their company's future.

Todd Ahlberg, who co-owns a San Francisco-based dog grooming company called Mudpuppy's Tub & Scrub, said he has had to furlough all of his employees with the hope of eventually bringing them back when businesses reopen. He said he faces the predicament of deciding whether to rehire all of his employees even though there is no business just to apply for the loan, even though the terms of the loan - and whether he will have to repay it - are confusing.

"It would be a disaster to reopen with debt," he said. "We wouldn't be able to hang on."

While some lawmakers have pressed the Treasury Department and SBA for more guidance on how the program works, the loudest calls have been for an expansion of the program. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tweeted on Tuesday that "the demand for the Paycheck Protection Program has been overwhelming."

He wrote that he had spoken with Mnuchin on Tuesday morning and "support his request for more money for America's small businesses. Following the Senate's approval, the House should move swiftly to do the same."

The program is supposed to encourage small businesses to stop laying off employees, after 10 million workers sought unemployment claims late last month. The unemployment rate is expected to surge far beyond 10% this spring, and it could stay there into next year. White House officials have said they want to help enact policies that will lead to a sharp economic rebound this year, but economists have predicted that is unlikely to occur.

Small businesses, which employ nearly half of the United States' private-sector workers, have said they are facing long waits, confusing rules and rejection as they scramble to secure loans through the fund. Many banks have restricted access to their existing customers and say that while they have begun processing the loans, they lack the proper SBA paperwork to finish the process and turn the money over to the businesses.

There are still some unanswered questions about how the program works, including what kind of documentation they need to collect from the small businesses, banking industry officials say.

"It's a throughput issue. How much volume you can get through the system," said Paul Merski, an executive vice president at the Independent Community Bankers of America. It's currently a "trickle," he said.

Community bankers have been particularly concerned that once more big banks begin processing loans - Citigroup went online Monday - the money would quickly be exhausted. "The small business borrower demand is overwhelming," Merski said.

Amanda Ballantyne, executive director of Main Street Alliance, which includes 30,000 small business owners said the program needs more than just more money. "The rollout was a train wreck," she said.

Small business owners are already in various stages of desperation, she said. Some closed their doors last month, while others are days away from laying off employees, said Ballantyne. "We don't have weeks to wait to save these businesses," she said.

The program suffers from design flaws that still need to be addressed, she said. The money should be distributed by the Treasury Department, perhaps in partnership with local or state governments, instead of banks, she said. And business owners should be given grants not loans, she said.

"That could move money more quickly. Take out this administrative layer of thousands of banks trying to disperse the money," she said.

- - -

The Washington Post's Seung Min Kim, Aaron Gregg and Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.
Laptop makers and data centres are asking for more chips as the coronavirus drives people to work from home.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Tuesday its first-quarter operating profit likely managed to rise slightly from a slump a year earlier, as solid chip sales helped cushion the blow from the coronavirus pandemic on smartphones and TVs.

The global leader in semiconductors is benefiting from higher demand for chips from laptop makers and data centres amid the coronavirus-driven shift to working from home.

But at the same time, the South Korean tech giant is also expecting a bigger hit to its mobile and consumer electronics sales in the current quarter as the novel coronavirus sweeps through Europe and the United States  key markets for its premium smartphones and TVs.

Samsung said operating profit was expected to be 6.4 trillion won ($5.2bn) in the quarter which ended in March, compared with 6.2 trillion won ($5.07bn) a year ago.

Revenue likely rose 5 percent to 55 trillion ($45bn) won from a year ago, in line with the 55.6 trillion won ($45.5bn) estimate.

Samsung Electronics shares were up 1.6 percent in morning trade, compared to a 1.3 percent rise of the broader market.

The maker of smartphones, TVs, appliances, memory chips and displays is the first global tech company to report its January-to-March quarter earnings estimates.

Samsung Electronics said in March the coronavirus pandemic would hurt the sales of smartphones and consumer electronics this year, while demand from data centres would fuel a recovery in memory chip markets.

The first-quarter results are smaller than Samsungs internal forecast from early March, and the company is expecting a bigger hit from the virus in the second quarter, a person familiar with Samsungs operations said.

Even though Samsungs mobile business was hit by the coronavirus outbreak this quarter, it will likely face bigger challenges in the second quarter  now that the United States and Europe have become the hardest-hit countries, Kim Sun-woo, an analyst at Meritz Securities, said.

Hana Financial Investment recently cut its forecast for Samsungs smartphone shipments to 260 million, from an initial forecast of 300 million because of slower demand for its high-end smartphones, which will also erode its mobile margins.

Taiwans Foxconn, a key supplier of Apple Incs products, said on Monday that its January-March revenue declined 12 percent from the previous year after Apple warned it was unlikely to meet its March-quarter sales guidance.

When the outbreak first started in China last year, Samsungs strategy of spreading out its production base to countries including Vietnam and India seemed to pay off as supply disruptions in China hit rivals such as Apple.

But as the virus spread across the globe, Samsung too has had to close factories and retail stores in Europe, India and the United States.

Chip buffer

The company did not provide a breakdown on expected earnings for each division in its guidance released on Tuesday.

Analysts say the companys memory chip business, which generated more than 50 percent of its operating profit in 2019, would likely report better-than-expected results in the first quarter.

Memory chip prices are rising as work-from-home requirements boost demand from the data centres that support internet services such as streaming and cloud computing, analysts have said.

Prices for DRAM memory chips are up more than 3.5 percent since January, according to industry tracker DRAMeXchange.

Many analysts had expected Samsung to rebound strongly from its worst operating profit in four years in 2019, but the pandemic has forced some to lower their earnings estimates for this year due to pressure on smartphone sales.

A more prolonged coronavirus crisis could also spill over into the chip sector, analysts say.
Ten days after Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered a halt to evictions of tenants unable to pay rent because of the coronavirus, state judicial leaders went a step further Monday and barred courts from enforcing any eviction orders against renters.

Eviction orders threaten to remove people from the very homes they have been instructed to remain in, the state Judicial Council said in a summary of the rent issue on the agenda at an emergency teleconference.

Newsom first issued an executive order March 16 authorizing local governments to halt evictions through May 31. Finding that only about 30 cities or counties, including San Francisco and San Jose, had responded, the governor issued another order March 27 requiring a statewide, two-month halt on evictions of tenants who could not afford to pay rent because of the pandemic.

Tenant advocates said it was a step in the right direction but did not go far enough, leaving renters unprotected if they could not prove a connection between their financial shortage and the virus or who were being evicted for other reasons, such as the owners intention to move into the unit.

The Judicial Councils action, approved by unanimous vote Monday, applies to all evictions, regardless of cause, and will remain in effect until 90 days after Newsom declares an end to the current state of emergency. The only exceptions are evictions that are found to be necessary for the public health or safety.

The action halts legal procedures used by property owners to initiate and enforce evictions.

Owners begin by obtaining a summons from a court and serving it on the tenant, who under state law has been required to respond within five days or face a default. The councils action prohibits courts from issuing summonses. For those already issued, tenants cannot be penalized for failing to respond, unless they pose a public danger. For tenants who have already responded, trials are postponed for at least 60 days.

This is the type of action we really need to give tenants comfort that they are not at any risk, said Sasha Harnden, a policy advocate for the Western Center on Law and Poverty. This gets us the breathing room.

His organization said the state Legislature, now in recess, could address issues of financial assistance for tenants when it returns.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

This means no CA tenant will be evicted unless it's necessary to protect public health & safety, Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, said by Twitter after the vote.

Marsha Slough, a state appeals court justice in Riverside and a Judicial Council member, said in presenting the proposal Monday that Newsoms order may not be enough to prevent the potential crisis of eviction, which could remove tenants at the very time those tenants need to remain safe.:

Shortly before the governors order, the California Apartment Association urged its members to halt evictions for tenants affected by the coronavirus and waive late fees through May 31.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Alexei Koseff contributed to this report.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
The commander in chief said Monday that he will be calling the defense secretary to learn more about a Navy commanding officer's sudden relief, because he doesn't want an otherwise outstanding captain's life destroyed by one mistake.

President Donald Trump told reporters that he reviewed Capt. Brett Crozier's personnel records after acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly removed him as commanding officer of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. Crozier sent a letter outside classified channels requesting help as coronavirus cases spread on his ship, which acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said might have broken military law.

Trump said Crozier "did a bad thing" by sending the letter, but added that "people have bad days."

"We'll take a look at it," Trump said during a White House press conference on the global pandemic. "... I like to solve problems -- it's a problem. I don't want to see men hurt, women hurt, I don't want to see people hurt unnecessarily. Maybe we can solve it easily where, you know, it's not a life-changing thing."

Related: 'Too Naive or Too Stupid:' Acting SecNav Slams Fired Captain in Speech to Crew

Trump did not say whether he would consider reinstating Crozier as the carrier's commanding officer, which more than 277,000 people have called on him to do in a Change.org petition. Being relieved of command is typically a career-ending move for military officers, since they're unlikely to be promoted again.

Modly's handling of the situation has thrust the Navy into the spotlight as the military faces questions about how it's handling the coronavirus crisis. Several veterans in Congress have called for Modly to be removed from his post, not only for the controversial firing, but also for the language he used in an address to the carrier's crew about the situation. He implied to the crew that Crozier was "too naive or too stupid" to lead the ship.

The president said he hasn't read Crozier's Letter, which was published a week ago by the San Francisco Chronicle. In his letter, Crozier pleaded with Navy leaders to evacuate his aircraft carrier as dozens of sailors tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.

Crozier said not doing so would risk sailors' lives and cause Navy families to lose faith with the service.

Trump said on Monday that Crozier "shouldn't be writing letters like that." But then the president, known for his candor and bluntness, added that he could relate.

"It happens," Trump said. "Sometimes I'll write a letter and then I'll say, 'Well, we can't even send that.' Not too often, but it happens."

About the same time Trump was addressing the situation in his press conference, the Navy released a new opinion piece Modly wrote for The New York Times. In it, the secretary again defended his decision to relieve Crozier of command.

Modly was responding to another opinion piece in the Times titled "Captain Crozier Is a Hero," by Tweed Roosevelt, the great grandson of Theodore Roosevelt, for whom the carrier is named. He again stressed that Crozier's letter unnecessarily created a public panic when the situation called for calm.

For that, Crozier "bears responsibility," Modly wrote, calling the letter a lapse of judgement in a moment of adversity.

"Sensitive information about the material condition of our biggest and most powerful warship made its way out into the public arena, in the hands of our adversaries," Modly said. "So did statements about political decisions outside the purview of the military. It was my determination that the Navy could not afford to wait to see if this lapse of judgement was just an aberration, or even the Captain's new normal in the midst of a challenge. The stakes of our national security are simply much too high for that."

Modly went on to say that he's certain Tweed Roosevelt's great grandfather, the 26th president "would have demanded much more under pressure."

"I certainly do, and we all must," Modly added.

Trump in his press conference laid out some of the career milestones Crozier, a rotary- and fixed-wing pilot, hit before becoming the Roosevelt's commanding officer. He called Crozier an outstanding person with an exemplary military career.

He noted how Crozier transitioned from flying SH-60B Seahawk helicopters at the start of his career to flying FA-18 Hornet fighter jets.

"His name was 'Chopper' and he was a great helicopter pilot," Trump said. "It's a tremendous skill. I know a lot about helicopters."

About four years ago, Crozier completed the naval nuclear-power training program, according to his official biography, and served as executive officer on the carrier Ronald Reagan.

"He's very smart," Trump said. "He studied nuclear energy and he was fantastic. And very few people have the aptitude, the mentality to do that. Nuclear energy is very complex. It's very hard. Very few people could do it and he did it well.

"... So he made a mistake, he made a mistake," Trump added. "And maybe we're going to make that mistake not destroy his life."

-- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins.

Read more: Veterans in Congress Call for Acting SecNav's Resignation After Controversial Firing
Even though alcoholism is a serious health condition, suddenly depriving those addicted of liquor could pose another major problem to their lives. With the lockdown in place--and only essential services active--incidents of people committing suicide and facing health problems due to withdrawal have been coming to light.

To prevent this from worsening, the Karnataka government is planning to sell alcohol for a stipulated amount of time in case the nationwide lockdown is extended.

According to TOI, officials of the excise department have taken this decision to prevent anyone from facing health issues or committing suicide. There have also been reports of wine shops being looted ever since the lockdown came into place.

The report further adds that the excise department has come up with a proposal which will allow the sale of liquor between 10 AM and 1 PM if the lockdown is extended beyond April 14.

AFP

The Karnataka government had put a stop to the sale of liquor four days before the lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Another reason for taking this step is to take financial matters into consideration given the sudden stop in sales since it is the second highest way the state governments earns money after commercial tax.

The report says that going by the excise earnings for 2019-20, the government has an earning of Rs 1,800 crore every month. Taking the current year budget into consideration, the government was expecting to earn Rs 22,700 and exceed its target by Rs 450 crore.

AFP

An excise official said, The government is cashstrapped since the lockdown has hampered revenue collection. Its short of the revenue target by about Rs 5,000 crore. So it has to find ways to better its revenue collection by allowing sale of liquor."

The Chief Minister of Karnataka, BS Yediyurappa said that they will only make a decision once the update on the lockdown is released. There will also be strict guidelines which will come into play if the state resumes the sale of liquor.

AFP

The Central Indian government is expected to end its COVID-19-related nationwide lockdown on April 14.
Annamaria Brivio, founder of Italian footwear brand, Paris Texas, has been impacted by coronavirus.

I know many, many people who are suffering. Most of them are okay in their homes, but it is a scary time for Italy, Brivio ruminates from her home in Monza, Northern Italy. If youd have told me last year that this would happen, I couldnt have even imagined it."

Monza is the third largest city in Lombardy, which - at the time of publishing - accounts for 8,656 or 56.3 per cent of Italy's total declared deaths from coronavirus. The factories in Tuscany where all of Paris Texas shoes are made are closed for the foreseeable, which has caused concern for Brivio.

Im nervous that when the stores can re-open, they will still have so much of our current season shoes to sell, that they wont have space for our new season boots, Brivio muses (she is the midst of finishing the designs for pre-fall.) But our supply chain is stuck, so what can we do?

In a bid to use Paris Texas as a conduit for aid, Brivio has recently announced that her boutique Norrgatan (which stocks covetable labels Alessandra Rich and Amina Muaddi among others) has donated an undisclosed sum (she wouldn't disclose figures) to the citys main hospital, the San Gerardo Hospital.

Head of Fashion Partnerships at Instagram, Eva Chen, wearing Paris Texas boots during NYFW in September 2019 / IMAXtree

It was through Brivios Monza-based store that Paris Texas came to life in 2015. Similarly to the genesis of many small brands, Paris Texas was born out of 35-year-old Brivios apathy for the then-trend of vertiginous heels and beige colour palettes.

After struggling to find footwear which offered style, support and the stamina to transcend trends, Brivio stocked a few pairs of mules in Norrgatan - which she opened in 2012 - and they sold out instantaneously. Economics graduate Brivio who had, until this point, earned her stripes working in buying for various Italian brands, noted that there was clearly a gap in the market for wearable and fashion-focussed footwear at an accessible pricepoint. Enter, Paris Texas.

I noticed this gap for beautiful, fashionable shoes which you can wear from breakfast to aperitivo time, she recalls. "Shoes which were chic and fun but also really, really comfortable."

And just like that, Brivios bellissima boots were born, swiftly followed by snakeskin slingbacks and various other feather-adorned friends. The kind of shoes that take you for a walk, rather than the other way around.

Paris Texas designs have been championed by the likes of Emily Ratajowski, Eva Chen and Chiara Ferragni, and were a staple on many of the street style sets feet during the most recent autumn/ winter 2020 fashion month.

Annamaria Brivio / Norrgatan

Indeed it was when Ratajowski posted an image to her Instagram of her wearing a pair of Paris Texas snakeskin boots in September 2018 that the label was properly plotted on the fashion map. The social buzz this created perhaps offers an explanation to the labels turnover, which rose fivefold between 2018 to 2019.

The beauty of Paris Texas aesthetic lies in the power of juxtaposition and contrast: bold patterns and colours designed in a slew of sleek, yet comfortable styles. Its in this vein that the brands contradictory moniker was conceived (rather than a reference to the 1984 Wim Wenders film.)

I love that in Paris style is elegant and sophisticated and nonchalant, while in Texas its a little bit edgier and rougher, but together they manage to complement each other, Brivio states. Thats what I feel Paris Texas embodies as a brand.

Contrast is a key theme for Brivio, who announces that their ability to clash their fashion is what she appreciates most about Londoners sense of style.

Londoners can be rock n roll and quite grungy but also elegant and conservative at the same time and I just love that contrast. The miniskirts, the hair, I love the attitude of being very proper and British but also being very .. Kate Moss, she laughs.

Paris Texas' boots were seen everywhere during fashion month / IMAXtree

Perhaps heady ambitions are difficult to cultivate while Brivio is having to weather an epidemiological storm in her native country, but whats next for a brand so delicately straddling the cusp of achieving cult-status?

She modestly announces, When were eventually back to normality - and who knows how long that will be? - our plan is to grow our website and improve our interaction with our customers online and perhaps also organise a digital campaign.

Regardless of what the future holds for the brand, Brivio is adamant about one thing: she does not design shoes to be merely a "trend."

I love the idea of women who love fashion, but dont just buy into trends," she explains. "The women who love dressing for themselves and wear fashion to please themselves."

The ultimate invitation to take a pair of her boots for a spin, as if you needed persuading.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Wed, April 8, 2020 02:05 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd0604cf 2 Business Boeing,aerospace,plane,producer,factory,shut-down,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic Free

Boeing has said it will indefinitely extend a shutdown at its factories in Washington state because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The aerospace giant had already halted production at its Puget Sound facility near Seattle, where the company builds the long-range 777 jet and other models, after announcing a two-week stoppage last month.

It had also shut its other major state factory at Moses Lake because of the 737 MAX grounding.

Boeing announced Sunday that the shutdown would continue indefinitely in an effort to protect staff from COVID-19, which has already claimed the life of one employee at the company's Everett facility.

"The health and safety of our employees, their families and our communities is our shared priority," Boeing's commercial airplanes division president Stan Deal said in a statement.

Boeing was already facing significant headwinds prior to the coronavirus pandemic because of the crisis surrounding the 737 MAX, which has been grounded for more than a year following two fatal crashes.

But the pandemic has further hit the company's outlook with most commercial airline travel suspended and major carriers thrust into a life-or-death fight.

The company is seeking more than $60 billion in federal support for the US aerospace industry in the wake of the two crises.

It announced a voluntary worker layoff plan on Thursday and said it expected "several thousand employees" to take a severance package or retire.

Boeing currently employs around 70,000 people in Washington state.
Former six-time chief minister and senior Congress leader Virbhadra Singh on Tuesday supported the Central Governments decision to cut 30% of salary of MPs salaries but suggested that the Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds be continued so that development works are not affected.

In a statement, Singh said the Central and state governments should come up with a long-term plan as the coming days will be very challenging. Coronavirus has affected the economy of our country. Himachal Pradesh is a small state and most of the people are involved in horticulture, agriculture, tourism and other small and medium businesses. All of these sectors have been badly affected due to the ongoing lockdown and curfew.

Singh also demanded a financial package for horticulturist and agriculturists of the state.Singh also asked the state government to provide a Public Distribution System (PDS) to provide cheaper ration to poor people.

He alerted people about the coronavirus pandemic and urged them to fully cooperate with the government to prevent it from spreading.
A UN board of inquiry investigating attacks on civilian establishments in Syria, including hospitals, has refrained from directly holding Russia responsible, according to a summary of its report published Monday.

The coordinates of the sites had been communicated to the belligerents by the United Nations to protect them from air strikes.

Without mentioning Russia, the investigation concluded that in four out of the seven cases studied by the board  a school, a health center, a surgical hospital and a protection center  the government of Syria and/or its allies had carried out the airstrike.

In 2019, The New York Times published an exhaustive investigation, notably including recordings of Russian pilots, that directly incriminated Russia in attacks on hospitals in Syria.

The refusal to explicitly name Russia as a responsible party working alongside the Syrian government is deeply disappointing, Human Rights Watch said after the summary was published.

The UN commission chose seven cases, but its investigators were unable to visit the sites because the Syrian government did not grant visas.

The cases included the Martyr Akram Ali Ibrahim Al-Ahmad school in Madiq Castle on April 2018, 2019, and the Rakaya Sijneh health center on May 3.

There were no victims in either case. The report said it was highly likely the raids were conducted by Syria or its allies.

The commission also looked at the Kafr Nabutha health center (May 7), which had no victims and was also likely conducted by Syria and its allies.

 Denials from Moscow 

A May 14 raid on the Nayrab Palestinian refugee camp, in Aleppo, resulted in 10 deaths and about 30 people injured, and was likely carried out by the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, the report said.

The Kafr Nobol surgical center (July 4) attack had no victims, and its coordinates were given to Russia. The Ariha protection center attack (July 28) resulted in a few people injured, and its coordinates were also given to Russia.

The report found it was highly likely that both raids were conducted by Syria or its allies.

Moscow, the Damascus regimes main political and military supporter, has denied that its aircraft targeted civilian sites.

The summary was prepared by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the basis of a 185-page confidential internal report, with 200 annexes.

The summary was submitted to the UN Security Councils 15 members.

Guterres attributed the small number of incidents examined to the absence of UN personnel on the ground, which made it difficult to determine what had happened.

At the end of July 2019, 10 Security Council members issued a rare demarche  a formal diplomatic petition  demanding that Guterres open an investigation into air strikes on medical installations, infuriating Russia.

The board of inquiry was established in September and its report was supposed to have been submitted by the end of 2019, but was delayed until March.

Western countries for months have demanded that a summary of the report be published, but that too was delayed until now.

Guterres stressed that the board of inquiry was not a criminal investigation and that its aim was to improve UN procedures and prevent attacks of this kind in the future.

Several western countries and NGOs have argued that air strikes on civilian targets in Syria should be prosecuted as war crimes.

The summary added that multiple member states agreed to provide crucial information for the report, including military sources.

But only four states actually provided such information, which was limited in scope. The report did not identify which states had offered to cooperate or actually participated.
Chennai, April 7 : Worried about the social alienation of their community because of anti-Muslim messages in the social media and 'categorisation by the government and the media as `Tablighi Jamaat cluster' while reporting the number of people affected by Covid-19 in the state, Muslim political leaders say there will not be any political fallout in the 2021 assembly elections due to this.

They also said the economical fall out of the Coronavirus and the action taken by the government -- state and the Centre -- would be the electoral issue in the next year's assembly elections in the state.

"The manner in which the state government classified the Covid-19 patients and the reporting by a section of the media has resulted in the people maintaining 'community distance' instead of social distance," MMK party leader M.H. Jawahirullah told IANS.

"The whole Muslim community is being shown in a wrong way by the media. Members of other communities are looking at Muslims with suspicion - whether they had attended the Delhi conference and could they be silent carriers of Coronavirus," K. Navas Kani, Member of Parliament from Ramanathapuram belonging to IUML told IANS.

As on Monday, 671 persons have been tested positive for Coronavirus infection in Tamil Nadu.

Out of which 570 persons are those who had attended the conference organised by Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi. Close relatives and contacts of those have be infected by the virus.

According to the government, about 1,500 people from Tamil Nadu had attended the Tablighi Jamaat conference while majority of them have returned the remaining have been quarantined in Delhi.

Kani said a general fear psychosis has been created against Muslims in many rural areas.

With many Muslims into business such an attitude will lead to loss of business for them.

Condemning some Muslims for trying to organise large number people for Friday prayers, Jawahirullah said if any foreigner has violated the Indian visa rules then action be taken against him.

According to Kani, the police and health officials can act in a better manner when they visit the homes of a Coronavirus infected person to check the family members.

"They health officials accompanied by police come in vehicles and act as if they are catching an accused. The already suffering family will face the stigma," Kani said.

Citing the withdrawal of anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests by the community mainly to prevent the spread of Coronavirus Kani said the community leaders had asked those who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat conference to self-report to the health authorities for medical tests.

Though the Coronavirus impact will be there in the state for next couple of months, Muslim political leaders are of the view the virus spread will slow down and there will be no political fallout in terms of alliance parties looking at them as an electoral liability and consolidation of Hindu votes in the state.

"The economic impact of the lockdown -- job losses, business shutdowns- and the measures taken by the government in helping out the poor and others would be the focus point during the 2021 elections,a Kani said.

"The general anger will be against the government," he added.

Meanwhile political analyst Kohala Srenivaas said the Tablighi Jamaat connection may result in the polarization of Hindu votes in a small way.

"There will not be any change in the DMK-led alliance. The DMK after losing the assembly elections twice in succession will not take any risks. Similarly, there will not be any change in AIADMK alliance. Only if Rajinikanth floats his party there may be changes in alliance," Srenivaas told IANS.

Citing Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami's appeal not to give communal colour and detest Covid-19 patients and their family members but extend love and warmth Jawahirullah said it for the political parties to take this message to its cadres.

He does not see any negative impact in the assembly elections.
If it were any other year, you could imagine New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio grandstanding about the state budget that passed in Albany on April 3. After all, the states multibillion-dollar spending plan cuts $138 million from New York Citys public hospitals, leaves the city without an increase in education funding for the first time in seven years, and mandates that the city contribute $3 billion to the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It forces the city to hand over the NYPDs Manhattan tow pound to the state by the end of the year  a deadline City Hall called unrealistic. The state also didnt authorize judges to consider a defendants risk to public safety  something de Blasio has long been demanding  and it didnt raise taxes on the rich to raise revenue, another trademark de Blasio demand.

Many downstate Democratic lawmakers did make their disappointment heard loud and clear. State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, a de Blasio ally, called the budget one of the most difficult in this state's history. State Sen. Jessica Ramos, who used to work for the mayor, called it an austerity budget filled with regressive legislation that will starve our neighbors and fill our jails.

But in the days since the budget passed, the leaders of city government have been uncharacteristically quiet about it. De Blasio hasnt released a statement about it, and his comments the week before the budget passed were mostly conciliatory. New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who negotiates the city budget with the mayor, hasnt released any statements or posted any tweets about the state budget either, and his office didnt respond to a request for comment. Same for New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, the citys fiscal watchdog.

But can you blame them? Theres a were-all-in-this-together vibe in New Yorks halls of government these days. Governors and mayors who used to rail against Trump are now praising the White House, hoping to keep the flow of life saving equipment moving. And even as Gov. Andrew Cuomo has preempted de Blasio on matters like school calendars and closing playgrounds, the mayor has largely accepted it.

The state budget is just the latest example. In January, de Blasio was saying the city had never seen this kind of threat from the state budget. In February, de Blasio went up to Albany, where he said the governors proposed cuts to the city would be nothing less than devastating for everyday New Yorkers. At the end of March, while the budget was being negotiated, the mayor told NY1 that it was wrong to even think about cutting Medicaid dollars from localities. But when City & State asked the mayor for his thoughts on the budget on April 2, when nearly all of the details had been settled, his tone was more resigned.

The governor and the Legislature in their wisdom did what they did. We will deal with it, he said. I think in a perfect world, (the budget) would have been the state holding the city harmless. We were not held harmless. But we will live to fight another day.

The only thing the mayor singled out that day was the state increasing the citys obligations to the MTAs much-maligned Access-a-Ride paratransit program  a hot issue, but not nearly on the level of state Medicaid or education funding.

De Blasio may have other reasons for his subdued tone, explained George Sweeting, deputy director of the New York City Independent Budget Office, a watchdog agency for the city budget. For one, its too early to assess the budgets overall fiscal impact on the city. The state budget is always complex, and a new provision that allows Cuomo to make mid-year adjustments further complicates it. Theres even more than usual to sort out this year, Sweeting said.

Medicaid spending, one of the matters of greatest importance to the city, still isnt sorted out either, even though the budget has been signed. The state slashed spending, which would require the city to make up some of the difference, but that change will likely be delayed. Thats because the federal governments latest stimulus bill prevents states from cutting Medicaid if they want to receive any funding. And while the city will be receiving .02% less money for education than it did last year, even though City Hall was expecting an increase of around $350 million to last years $11.4 billion haul, de Blasio understands that increases arent likely in this economy. The states fiscal outlook is far worse than it was just one month ago. State and city alike are expecting massive revenue shortfalls because of the sputtering economy and increased spending to deal with the coronavirus crisis. Cuomo has said the state is looking at anywhere from a $9 billion to $15 billion shortfall. De Blasio himself announced in March that the city would be looking to cut at least $1.3 billion from its planned $95 billion budget.

Obviously, the world is entirely different, de Blasio said at an April press conference. I gave my (budget) testimony up in February, up in Albany. That seems like a century ago.

And the citys fiscal picture may be different yet a month from now. The mayor is holding out hope that the federal government will pass another stimulus bill that would contain direct help for states and municipalities that have been spending big during the crisis.

There could be a lot of help out there, de Blasio said at an April press conference. If you take every single dollar that New York state needs to make up its budget deficit, to make it 100% whole, every dollar that New York City needs to make us 100% whole, the federal government could achieve that in a heartbeat.

The state budget is even more complex this year, and federal funding remains a big question mark. So while de Blasio has been relatively quiet in regards to the budget, Sweeting from the IBO said hes sure that the citys budget team is working hard to analyze everything before the mayor releases his own executive budget for the city on April 24.

If hes being quiet because (City Hall) is trying to figure all this out, it doesnt surprise me, Sweeting said.

On Monday, a de Blasio spokeswoman said as much. Our focus is very much on COVID, said Julia Arredondo, deputy press secretary for de Blasio, but of course we are continuing to assess how the budget will impact the City.
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Linkedin Made Anthony Iswara (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, April 7, 2020 19:01 643 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd05ad2f 1 Business industry-ministry,manufacturing-industry,protective-gears,medical-supplies,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,coronavirus,factory Free

Indonesian industries are ramping up their capacity to produce the medical equipment required to combat COVID-19 and will potentially export the products to other countries if there is an excess, a minister has said.

Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said on Monday that 35 companies were preparing produce, together, about 18.3 million pieces of protective gear by early May, consisting of 1.2 million medical-grade pieces of gear made of polypropylene plastics and over 17 million pieces of non-medical grade gear made of cotton, nylon and polyester.

If we assume that national needs are about 5 to 10 million pieces of protective gear every month, then Insya Allah [God willing], we can export the leftovers, as the items are much needed in the world, he said during a meeting with the House of Representatives. Certain types of items, like ventilators, have yet to be produced locally. [Protective gear] could be our bargaining item with countries that produce ventilators.

Agus added that industries would diversify their raw materials to make the gear. PT Pan Brothers has shifted its usual production to manufacture 10 million cloth masks every month, and garment manufacturer PT Sritex plans to increase its protective gear production to a monthly 1 million pieces from the current 150,000 units.

There is a global shortage of medical equipment, including masks, protective gear, test kits and ventilators, as countries around the world struggle to contain the rapid spread of COVID-19. Exporting such items would fulfill Indonesias promise to join in global efforts to produce medical supplies crucial for the fight against COVID-19.

Involving more sectors in the production of medical supplies could also keep factories running. Indonesian manufacturing output slumped to an all-time low in March, according to IHS Markits Purchasing Managers Index (PMI).

A least 198 companies are able to produce items required to fight COVID-19, a ministry survey shows. Those include 17 companies producing 318.4 million masks every month, six companies producing 8.6 billion rubber gloves every month and 104 companies producing 16,400 kiloliters of hand sanitizer every month, among other products.

Read also: Indonesian manufacturers step up as G20 nations coordinate global medical supply

Lawmaker Andre Rosiade from House Commission VI said in the meeting that despite the ministry's optimistic figures, almost every hospital in his electoral district of West Sumatra was struggling to obtain protective gear.

I ask all government officials to stop giving false statements because we are still lacking protective gear, said Andre, condemning initiatives to export such items.

Indonesia Association of Medical Device Manufacturers (Aspaki) Division I head overseeing domestic product promotion Erwin Hermanto said on Tuesday that producers would be able to supply domestic demand for masks. The countrys 22 surgical mask producers could produce 200 million masks monthly, he said. The Health Ministry estimates that the country needs only about 50 million masks over the next four months.

Even though domestic mask production capacity is sufficient [to supply needs], local producers are currently facing significant problems with raw materials, and thus, production activities are unable to run optimally, he wrote in a statement.

Read also: COVID-19: Textile factories face hurdles as they switch to producing medical gear

Erwin added that the countrys capacity to produce protective gear was limited as the product was not in significant demand before the pandemic. Currently, six identified manufacturers in the country can produce 400,000 pieces of protective gear every month. The Health Ministry estimates it will need 3 million pieces in the next four months.

Indonesia did not have the capacity to export medical gear in April, he said. However, he saw potential for exporting masks and protective gear in the upcoming months if the government initiative to mobilize the textile industry and contain the virus went as planned.

ASPAKI supports government policies to prioritize domestic needs and develop domestic production to meet needs during the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

He suggested the government subsidize raw materials, stabilize the rupiah exchange rate and ensure that transportation, logistics and import flows were undisrupted by the governments large-scale social distancing policy.

ASPAKI also proposed that the government relax its import tax and duties on machinery and raw materials needed to produce protective gear and masks. The government could also, according to ASPAKI, push state banks to facilitate low-interest loans for the purchase of machinery and expand the necessary facilities to produce such items.
Syracuse, N.Y.  Spectrum is raising its minimum hourly wage from $15 to $20, in part because of the challenges faced by its frontline workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

In an email to employees, Tom Rutledge, CEO of Spectrums parent, Charter Communications, said the cable company will give pay raises in increments so that all current and future employees will be paid $20 an hour or more in 2022.

An initial increase of $1.50 an hour will be implemented immediately for frontline field technicians and customer service call center employees who are the face of our company to our nearly 30 million customers and who are providing critical services to our communities, emergency relief workers and government entities, he said.

Workers who already earn more than $20 an hour will also see the $1.50 increase, he said. Employees will receive another $1.50 increase in addition to their normal wage increase in March 2021, he said.

The current situation is very challenging for us personally, our families, and the communities we serve, Rutledge said. Our customers are becoming unemployed and wont always be able to pay us. We serve millions of small businesses who are closed.

However, he said the company was well prepared financially with cash on hand and that the raises are permanent, not a short-term move during the health crisis.

I am confident that the economic recovery will be quick, but if it isnt, we are well prepared to manage through a longer-term poor economy because we have great, reasonably priced, highly desirable, quality product and service that people will want even in the worst of times, he said.

Lara Pritchard, a spokesperson for Spectrum, said the company had begun discussions around raising its existing $15 minimum wage late last year.

However, in light of the current environment and the challenges many are facing, Charter is beginning that process today, she said in a statement to syracuse.com | The Post-Standard.

The raises come as Spectrum has faced criticism from employees for their working conditions during the coronavirus outbreak.

In the Syracuse area and elsewhere, call center employees expressed anger last month at not being allowed to work from home instead of at crowded offices. Many said they feared they were at increased risk of becoming infected with the contagion by working at the offices.

In response, the company changed its policy and said it would allow some employees to work from home. It said it expected that up to 40% of its call center employees would eventually be working off-site.

In addition, Spectrum field technicians have alleged that the company has not provided them with personal protective equipment, putting themselves and customers at risk when they enter peoples homes, according to Buzzfeed. The company responded by telling employees it had secured access to hand sanitizer and gloves" for them, Buzzfeed reported.

As a telecommunications company, Spectrum is exempt from state-mandated lockdowns of on-site work facilities during the coronavirus outbreak. The company has said it has implemented social distancing practices among employees and has provided all its workers with an additional three weeks of flexible paid time off to be used for any reason related to the coronavirus.

Spectrum, which has 95,000 employees, is the largest cable operator in New York and the second largest in the U.S. It provides cable television, high-speed internet and digital phone service.

Spectrum is not alone in raising worker pay during the pandemic. Many grocery stores, as well as big retailers such as Target, Walmart and Amazon, have handed out raises, but most of them are temporary increases.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Coronavirus in NY: Cuomo extends school, business closures until April 29

Behind the Onondaga County execs latest move: Hes frustrated with coronavirus and some slackers

Instead of coronavirus patients, Syracuse hospitals swamped with empty beds

Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com

Rick Moriarty covers business news and consumer issues. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact him anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148
The devastating economic impact of these new restrictions will greatly diminish our ability to generate revenue we need to operate for weeks and perhaps months to come," the groups email said. We will not be able to navigate these unchartered waters alone."
[April 07, 2020] Axway Software Suspends Its Annual Objectives and Will Propose to the Next General Meeting That No Dividend Be Paid in Respect Of 2019

Regulatory News: The Board of Directors of Axway Software (Paris:AXW) (Euronext: AXW.PA), meeting today under the chairmanship of Pierre Pasquier, reviewed the Company's action plan to address the COVID-19 global crisis. Business continuity plan From mid-March, Axway has ensured strict compliance with local regulations and recommendations in each of the countries where it operates. The Company has continued to deliver the solutions, subscriptions and services required by its customers. The following steps were taken immediately: Creation of a committee to monitor developments in the health and economic situation, capable of making immediate decisions.

Implementation of appropriate and secure remote working procedures for all employees.

Close monitoring of cash management and the Company's financial position. Remote work is part of Axway's international culture, and the solutions the Company develops facilitate this way of working. The rapid transition of all employees to remote working was therefore carried out seamlessly and Axway's teams are currently fully mobilized. 2020 targets The 2020 targets, announced by Axay on 19 February based on information available at the time, have been called into question by the uncertainties surrounding the current crisis.



It is worth recalling that 70% of Axway's annual revenues are recurring business and, to date, the Company has not encountered any particular accounts receivable issues. Dividend for fiscal year 2019

At its meeting today, Axway's Board of Directors decided to propose to the next General Meeting that no dividend be paid in respect of fiscal year 2019. This decision allows Axway to preserve its resources and ensure that, in a context of prolonged uncertainty, the Company will be able to protect its employees, customers and shareholders under the best conditions. The Company benefits from a sound financial position and positive cash flow and has readily available financing capacity. Financial calendar Tuesday, 14 April 2020: Publication of the 2019 Universal Registration Document Thursday, 23 April 2020, after close of trading: Publication of Q1 2020 Revenue About Axway Axway (Euronext: AXW.PA) empowers customers to succeed using hybrid integration to connect people, systems, businesses and digital ecosystems. Axway's hybrid integration platform, AMPLIFY, helps enterprise power users, IT specialists, developers, and partners accelerate digital transformation, create captivating experiences, and innovate new services. AMPLIFY speeds integration by combining traditional integration patterns with API Management and Application Integration (providing over 150 prebuilt connectors). 11,000 organizations in 100 countries rely on Axway for their data integration challenges. To learn more, visit www.investors.axway.com/en. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200407005708/en/

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The grieving mother of a London bus driver who died alone of Covid-19 said her son had taken no risks but was simply doing the job he loved to help people get to work.

Emeka Nyack, 36, who drove the number four bus from Blackfriars to Archway succumbed to the disease at the end of March after fighting it for two weeks.

His mother Anne said Mr Nyack, a father-of-one, had stayed at home as much as possible to try to avoid coronavirus, but was worried about the lack of protection he was given while driving.

In an interview with MailOnline, she said: My son didnt go out anywhere that was risky. He just went from home to work and back again. It was a mundane routine but he loved it, and did it in a professional way.

He didnt choose to be out there risking his life like some idiots who ignore the warnings. He was doing the job he loved to help the country get through this.

Emeka Nyack, 36, sits in the cab of a bus with his son, Makiah, who is now seven years old

Mr Nyack sits on a bus with his son, left, and is himself pictured as a child, right

Mr Nyack, right, is pictured with his partner, school catering assistant Tamara Carrick, 30

She said the family had been desperate to stay with him in his last moments, but were not allowed.

He died on his own, with nobody to hold his hand, she said. When he collapsed the paramedics threw us out of the room, we werent even able to say goodbye. My sons not going to have parents evening any more. Its just so sad.

Before his death, Mr Nyack  who suffered from mild asthma  had told colleagues that he was worried about the poor hygiene on the buses and the lack of protection for staff.

Drivers were sent to work with no masks or gloves and the vehicles were not cleaned properly, he claimed.

Mrs Nyack, 62, said she wrote to her sons employers, Metroline, last month, warning them of the danger and begging them to address these concerns. But although she received a supportive reply, no action was taken.

And she claimed London Mayor Sadiq Khan should have done more to offer protective equipment to drivers  and had not even been in touch to offer his condolences.

Sadiq Khan should have protected my son. I hold him responsible for what happened,' she said. 'I want to state that quite clearly, in bold letters.

Its just devastating that these drivers work so hard serving the public, taking NHS staff to work, and they are sent to risk their lives in dirty buses with no protection.

The floor of the driver's cab of a bus which has apparently not been cleaned for some time

Vinyl has been added to the buses to function as a barrier but appeared to be peeling off

One of the drivers is cleaning the bus himself and has pictured the dirt on the wipes afterwards

A driver has shared with MailOnline a photograph of rubbish left on buses inside sticky receptacles, allegedly due to inadequate cleaning

The mayors own father was a bus driver. I just dont understand how he can fail to protect the people who keep our country going.

Mr Nyack was rushed to hospital last month with coronavirus and put into an induced coma. He appeared to recover and was released to recuperate at home, but collapsed and died on Saturday.

Eight bus drivers have died of coronavirus so far in London, as well as another in Bristol.

The victims included Said Musse and garage supervisor Paul Aheto, both of whom were employed by Metroline, which has been criticised for its poor safety provisions.

Father-of-five Nadir Nur, 48, of HCT Group, who drove the 394 bus between Islington and Hackney, and Rodolfo Silva, who was employed by Go-Ahead London, were also among the dead.

A Metroline spokesman said that the holes in the screens around the drivers cab had been covered with protective vinyl, making masks unnecessary.

But exclusive pictures obtained by MailOnline of another bus in the fleet showed the vinyl peeling off  though the holes were still covered  and buses floors, surfaces and rails thick with dust and dirt.

One driver working for Metroline, who asked to remain anonymous, said Mr Nyack would often complain about the risky state of his bus before he died.

He talked all the time about how the buses were not being cleaned and how there wasnt even enough cleaning staff to get the job done, he told MailOnline.

Mr Nyack, right, had loved buses and wanted to be a bus driver ever since he was a little boy

Mr Nyack, left, his partner Tamara Carrick, right, and their son Makiah, centre, in London

Before his death, Mr Nyack complained about dirty buses and inadequate safety equipment

Mr Nyack, left, was so worried that his mother wrote to his bosses to cite safety concerns

Emeke used to say he thought bus drivers should be given masks and gloves, especially him as he was asthmatic. It would play on his mind a lot. And he was right.

The hand sanitiser dispensers in the depot have been empty since February, the driver said, adding that he now washes the dirty bus himself before and after work.

A Metroline source acknowledged that the dispensers were empty, but said that this was due to nationwide shortages.

Mr Nyack was first taken ill on March 17.

His partner Tamara Carrick, 30, who is mother to their seven-year-old son Makiah, said Mr Nyack was worried about money, so had gone to work even though he was concerned about covid-19.

He woke up with a temperature and said he felt a bit ill,' she said. 'In the next few days his temperature went up and down and he started to get really breathless.

Mr Nyack was taken to Lister hospital in Stevenage on March 21. Hospital records reveal he was categorised as high risk for covid-19 due to his occupation (London bus driver).

Over the following days his condition worsened, and on the 24th he was placed in an induced coma. Three days later he seemed to recover and was discharged from hospital.

He was doing fine, Ms Carrick recalled. Last Saturday, four days after he was discharged, he was having a bath and talking and chatting through the door. Then he suddenly felt light-headed and tired.

He went into the bedroom and lay on the bed, getting really worked up and scared. He said he needed to go back to hospital so an ambulance was called.

Mr Nyack, right, died four days after being discharged from hospital in Stevenage

Mr Nyack used to drive the number four bus and enjoyed taking his grandmother on it

Paying tribute to her son, right, his mother Anne, 62, said: 'He was doing the job he loved to help the country get through this'

Mr Nyack, top, was one of eight London bus drivers to have died of coronavirus so far

The paramedics arrived and tried to calm him down and get his heart rate lower. Then he just collapsed and passed away.

Paying tribute, the Mayor of London said he would write to the families of all TfL workers who lost their lives and insisted he was doing everything he could to keep driver safe.

Im absolutely devastated to hear Emeka Nyack has lost his life after testing positive for coronavirus,' he said. 'My thoughts are with his loved ones at this awful time.

My top priority is keeping Londoners safe and City Hall and TfL are working with Unite the Union to do everything we can to protect bus workers and passengers, in line with PHE advice.

All drivers are shielded by a clear screen and TfL have enhanced cleaning, are stopping passengers from sitting near drivers and boosting social distancing at stations and stops.

A Metroline spokesman also insisted safety was the companys main priority and that all Public Health England (PHE) guidelines had been followed.

It is with immense sadness that we can confirm that 3 of our colleagues have passed away after contracting coronavirus, he said. We are devastated by this loss and we offer our support and condolences to the families at this incredibly difficult time.

We continue to do everything we can to make sure our workforce is as protected and as safe as possible during this unprecedented time. The Department for Transport and Public Health England do not recommend the use of face masks for transport staff.

All of our vehicles are fitted with assault screens which are effective barriers against transmission. We have reinforced this screen as a barrier to viral transmission by applying vinyl to cover small holes that are present to aid communication between our drivers and passengers.
Our first coronavirus live briefing was published by the Hong Kong bureau on Jan. 23, in the early days of the outbreak. It has been running every day, all day since, managed in shifts among Times newsrooms in Hong Kong and London and the headquarters in New York.

Its the longest-running live thing The Times has ever done, said Rebecca Blumenstein, a deputy managing editor. Weve never done anything of this scale before.

Editors and reporters from nearly every desk have volunteered to help lighten that workload. Others were drafted to serve on the digital front lines.

Michael Cooper, who normally covers classical music and dance for the Culture desk, has been working on our International briefing, which requires him to swiftly process and report on a deluge of information.

Its like drinking from a fire hose, Mr. Cooper said. And on top of the constantly shifting story lines, Times employees have mostly been working from home since March 13.

Were pretty used to improvising, Mr. Cooper said. When I used to cover plane crashes, you would make a little bureau on a folding table at some disaster site and work from there. Were used to doing things from strange places.

Thats it for this briefing. See you next time.  Isabella

Thank you

Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh provided the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.

 Were listening to The Daily. Our latest episode is about job losses in the U.S.

 Heres todays Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: cup of joe (four letters). You can find all our puzzles here.

The Times invites readers to join live calls, streams and virtual events with our journalists to help you better understand the world and make the most of your time at home. See the calendar and R.S.V.P. here.
A second person has died in Nuevo Laredo due to the novel coronavirus, municipal and state officials said on Tuesday.

READ MORE: Laredo order to cover nose and mouth about to get stricter

She was hospitalized at the IMSS Hospital, commonly known as El hospital de la bandera.

With deep sorrow but with the responsibility to inform, I regret to communicate, with official information, the second death by coronavirus in Nuevo Laredo. This terrible virus is already a local and lethal contagion  My heart goes out to the family. rest in peace, said Nuevo Laredo Mayor in a statement.

Nuevo Laredo now has five confirmed COVID-19 cases, nine suspected cases and two deaths.

With those numbers, Tamaulipas records 46 confirmed cases, 87 suspected cases, five recovered and three deaths.

Tamaulipas Secretary of Health Dr. Gloria Molina Gamboa stressed to the community to stay home, avoid greeting by shaking hands, hugging or kissing.

People should also take extreme hygiene measures such as washing hands, disinfecting commonly used surfaces and protecting adults older than 60 years, Molina Gamboa said.

Currently, people who go out in public must wear face masks or mouth covers. Some local stores are limiting the access to one person per family and prohibiting access to children.

READ MORE: Three coronavirus cases confirmed, including first at Laredo PD, 125 total

These are difficult days, but we can still avoid more tragedies if we stay home and take hygienic precautions, Rivas Cuellar stated.
Chip-maker Intel on Tuesday pledged an additional USD 50 million for a pandemic response technology initiative to combat global coronavirus crisis.

The initiative aims to provide greater access to technology for patient care, speeding scientific research as well as online learning for students.

Previously, Intel had announced USD 10 million in donations that are supporting local communities.

"Intel is committed to accelerating access to technology that can combat the current pandemic and enable new technology and scientific discovery that better prepares society for future crises.

"We hope that by sharing our expertise, resources and technology, we can help to accelerate work that saves lives and expands access to critical services around the world during this challenging time," Intel chief executive officer Bob Swan said.

Of the USD 50 million, about USD 40 million will fund the Intel COVID-19 Response and Readiness and Online Learning initiatives. The remaining will be allocated for an innovation fund that supports requests from external partners and employee-led relief projects, addressing critical needs in their communities, the company said in a statement.

The Intel COVID-19 Response and Readiness Initiative will provide funding to accelerate customer and partner advances in diagnosis, treatment and vaccine development, leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and edge-to-cloud service delivery.

The Intel Online Learning Initiative will support education-focused non-profit organisations and business partners to provide students without access to technology with devices and online learning resources. It will enable PC donations, online virtual resources, study-at-home guides and device connectivity assistance.

The up to USD 10 million amount allocated for innovation fund will supports various initiatives.

The statement said Intel is working with India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad.

Intel is also collaborating with industry body Nasscom to build an application ecosystem and multi-cloud back end to enable population-scale COVID-19 diagnostics, to predict outbreaks and to improve medical care management and administration.

"Intel technology underpins critical products and services that global communities, governments and healthcare organizations depend on every day. We hope that by harnessing our expertise, resources, technology and talents, we can help save and enrich lives by solving the world's greatest challenges through the creation and development of new technology-based innovations and approaches," the company said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Zamfara State Commissioner of Police, Usman Nagogo, has said names of senior political appointees in the state were discovered on the list obtained from a cultists hideout demolished by the state government on Monday evening.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the house, situated near Gusau new Motor Park in Unguwar Dallatu, Gusau, was raided by the police and later demolished by the state Urban and Regional Planning Board.

Mr Nagogo said on Tuesday while briefing journalists in Gusau that though no arrest was made, the police had recovered some fetish materials including a calabash filled with blood and a list containing names of prominent politicians in the state.

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I cannot confirm to you at this moment the names, but they are senior political appointees in the state and to assure you that the truth will soon suffice in the course of our investigations, the police commissioner said.

The Special Adviser to Zamfara State governor on Media and Public Enlightenment, Zailani Bappa said the governor was shocked to have heard the news of these evil minded people still existing in our society.

Let me reassure you truly and sincerely that the Governor Matawalle led administration will not leave any stone unturned in its effort to overturn criminality and all criminal activities in the state.

(NAN)
Wisconsin voters faced long lines at limited polling locations on Tuesday, as the states presidential primary and local elections moved ahead despite mounting fears about the coronavirus pandemic.

The election is taking place even though Wisconsin, like most US states, has imposed a stay-at-home order on its residents. More than a dozen other states have postponed their elections in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has transformed Americans daily lives and plunged the economy into an apparent recession.

More than half of Wisconsins municipalities reported shortages of poll workers, prompting the Midwestern state to call up 2,400 National Guard troops to assist.

A flurry of 11th-hour legal wrangling failed to stop the balloting, as two late court rulings on Monday put the election, which will include Democratic and Republican presidential primaries and voting for thousands of state and local offices, back on track after days of uncertainty.

In deciding separate lawsuits brought by Republicans, the state Supreme Court blocked Democratic Governor Tony Everss order to delay the election until June. The US Supreme Court earlier overturned a federal judges decision extending absentee voting, ruling that ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday to be counted.

Milwaukee resident Jennifer Taff requested an absentee ballot almost three weeks ago, never got it. She has a father dying from lung disease and then waited hours in line to vote at Washington High School. Photo from Patricia McKnight. More: https://t.co/i7weo2xdfv pic.twitter.com/ceHb2i8zpC  JR Radcliffe (@JRRadcliffe) April 7, 2020

A late-night meeting on Monday, the Wisconsin Elections Commission said no results of Tuesdays voting would be released until April 13, the deadline for absentee ballots postmarked by Tuesday to be received.

In Milwaukee, the health commissioner in Wisconsins biggest city, Jeanette Kowalik, asked voters to wear masks, avoid reusing pens and stand at least six feet apart.

Im sorry, I wish I had the authority to protect us from this, she wrote on Twitter.

If you vote in person today please be careful knowing that were battling a pandemic & COVID-19 is in our community. Again, Im sorry, I wish I had the authority to protect us from this. pic.twitter.com/fBnccRC9tT  jlkowalik (@jlkowalik) April 7, 2020

The legal manoeuvring overshadowed the Democratic presidential primary in Wisconsin, the first nominating contest held since March 17 in the race to pick a challenger to Republican President Donald Trump in the November 3 election. The outbreak has pushed frontrunner Joe Biden and rival Bernie Sanders off the campaign trail.

Former Vice President Biden has built a nearly insurmountable lead over Senator Sanders in the number of delegates who will pick the nominee at the national convention. The convention, scheduled to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has been postponed to August from July because of the pandemic.

Beyond the shifts in the primary calendar, Biden and Trump have not been able to hold in-person campaign events and have moved most of their operations online. Sanders called Tuesdays election dangerous and said his campaign would not engage in any traditional get-out-the-vote efforts.

Hello from Madison, Wisconsin. It's Election Day. pic.twitter.com/U7X7AmPzTm  Shawn Johnson (@SJohnsonWPR) April 7, 2020

Before the Wisconsin primary, thousands of poll workers said they would not work, leading Milwaukee to reduce its planned number of polling sites from 180 to just five. More than 2,500 National Guard troops were dispatched to staff the polls. They were also distributing supplies, including hand sanitiser, to polling sites across the state. In Madison, city workers were erecting Plexiglas barriers to protect poll workers, and voters were encouraged to bring their own pens to mark the ballots.

In Wisconsin, there are 2,440 confirmed coronavirus cases and 77 deaths related to COVID-19, according to state data.

Good morning and welcome to the Shit Show! Todays episode has been produced by the Supreme Court and directed by the incomparable Speaker and Senate Majority leader duo. Buckle up, this ones sure to disappoint!  Mandela Barnes (@TheOtherMandela) April 7, 2020

Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes called Tuesdays primary election a s*** show as reports of long lines were forming at polling locations after Democrats in the state fought to postpone the election amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Buckle up, this ones sure to disappoint!, he added.
Long before the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, Sen. Marco Rubio and a coterie of eggheads were firing salvos at unfettered capitalism  as if that described the status quo at any point in the last century of American politics  and offering a blueprint for common good capitalism. Meanwhile, Nikki Haley, Trumps former U.N. ambassador (for whom my wife worked), resigned from the board of Boeing last month in protest over its request for a federal bailout. It was a principled stand, but its anyones guess whether corporate bailouts will be as unpopular on the right as they were before the pandemic.
Rice will continue to remain a strength in Vietnamese exports, Photo: Le Toan

In Document No.2237/BCT-XNK, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) proposed to the prime minister at the end of last week showed that after satisfying domestic consumption needs and reservation, Vietnam would still have around 13.5 million tonnes of rice, which would make 6.5-6.7 million tonnes of milled rice to export. The country could export three million tonnes of milled rice from the winter-spring crop during November-April.

The calculations in the document were based on the production and consumption plans of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Accordingly, in 2020, Vietnams rice output is estimated at 43.5 million tonnes. Meanwhile, the domestic demand, including reservation, is 29.96 million tonnes. Some 14.26 million tonnes of this would go for consumption, 7.5 million tonnes for processing, 3.4 million tonnes for feeding animals, one million tonnes for breeding, and 3.8 million tonnes for reservation.

For the winter-spring crop, the area damaged by drought and salt intrusion is negligible. After deducting the amounts needed for storage and consumption, the volume of rice for export is about three million tonnes. Based on the data, after careful calculations to ensure food security, the MoIT proposed to allow rice exports subject to a monthly quota. In April and May, the 2020 purchase plan of the General Department of State Reserves will require about 300,000 tonnes of rice while an additional 400,000 tonnes would be required for backup. Thus, the amount of exported rice retained for domestic demand in the two months is 700,000 tonnes while the estimated export volume is about 800,000 tonnes. Therefore in April, 400,000 tonnes of rice would be allowed to be exported.

At last weeks government meeting on food security, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc agreed with the suggestion of controlled

rice exports. The good winter-spring crop has been a boon to rice farmers, thanks to planting one month earlier to avoid the harsh weather. Rice export remains a strength of Vietnam, but in the context of the pandemic, it is necessary to make some adjustments to ensure food security for our 100 million people, he said.

Vu Kim Hanh, CEO of the Business Studies and Assistance Centre, said that ensuring food security is important, but she urged the government to consider this issue on a longer time-scale of five or 10 years.

According to a survey on Vietnamese peoples food needs, nearly 20 per cent of respondents use products made from rice. Besides, there are huge amounts of rice stored in the stocks of private companies, she said.

Pham Thai Binh, general director of Trung An Hi-tech Farming JSC said that in two months, farmers in the Mekong Delta region will harvest the next summer-autumn crop lasting from April to August, while currently the rice reserves of enterprises are quite big already. However, to ensure food security, businesses will follow the directions of the government, Binh said.

Meanwhile, Huynh Thanh Ngan, founder of Hapi Agricultural Organic Trading and Production Co., Ltd., told VIR that while the volume of rice left for export is still quite large, there are far fewer export contracts. Vietnam does not have to worry about a food shortage, she said and also suggested that restrictions should not apply to organic rice because this goods category is in little demand in the domestic market.

According to the Vietnam Food Association, its 92 members contribute about 75 per cent of the nations total rice exports. By March 27, the association had contracts to deliver a total of 1.574 million tonnes of rice, 1.385 million tonnes of which are due by May 31. There are currently 1.651 million tonnes of rice in their stores.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh told VIR that the ministry has prepared for all scenarios. Vietnams rice crop harvest is due in a short time. Our stocks can recover to meet the needs of the people and businesses alike. If the pandemic is prolonged, the national food security will still be ensured, Khanh said.
The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 75,000 people people worldwide, the majority of them in Europe, since it emerged in China in December, according to a tally compiled by AFP from official sources at 0945 GMT Tuesday.

A total of 75,538 deaths have been recorded, including 53,928 in Europe, the continent worst hit by the virus. The official tallies probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of cases.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least two Lehigh Valley area ShopRite grocery store employees have tested positive for the new coronavirus.

The nations COVID-19 pandemic has put grocery store workers on the frontline of the health crisis as they keep store shelves stocked and checkout lines moving.

The ShopRite of Bethlehem, located in the Madison Farms shopping center on Freemansburg Avenue, notified customers of its first employee case on March 31 via a Facebook post. The Greenwich Township store, 1207 Route 22, notified its customers that its first associate tested positive on April 5 via a Facebook post. The company confirmed the Bethlehem Township case via a spokesman.

Diagnosed employees are no longer working in the store and any colleagues who may have been in close contact with that person are self-quarantining at home for 14 days.

ShopRite has been upfront when its employees test positive for COVID-19, posting announcements to store Facebook pages. Employees working in at least 36 different ShopRites in New Jersey have been sickened with the coronavirus, the company says.

ShopRite is declining to provide details about when sickened employees last worked or in what department, citing federal health privacy laws.

Its important that you know we remain committed to transparency and we think sharing this information with you is the right thing to do, ShopRite says each time it announces a case on one of its store Facebook pages. We also feel its important to protect the privacy of our hardworking colleagues; should we learn of additional associates who have been affected, well continue to implement the CDC protocols.

Stores have implemented deep cleaning procedures, including sanitizing all workspaces used by the affected employees. All stores are taking extra steps to deep clean food contact surfaces and high-touch areas. Plexiglass shields have been installed in checkout lanes as well.

Starting April 5, ShopRite is now promoting social distancing by limiting the number of customers into its stores. Security guards track customers entering and leaving the building. Once a store reaches capacity, customers line up outside in a designated area where theyre encouraged to practice social distancing.

ShopRite advises its busiest hours are 7 a.m. until 11 a.m. and urges customers to shop at off-peak times.

Wakefern, a member-owned cooperative, owns the ShopRite brand. Fifty different members own and operate ShopRite stores in six different states. Wakefern directly owns and operates 28 stores.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email her. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
China could face trillions of dollars in international lawsuits for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which first emerged in Wuhan as early as November, according to a London-based think-tank.

Nations who are part of the G7 and other governments could sue the ruling Chinese Communist Party for damages to their economies and national infrastructure after the country breached the International Health Regulations, a legally binding international treaty to which China is a signatory, the Henry Jackson Society said in a report published this week.



"These breaches allowed the outbreak to rapidly spread outside Wuhan, its place of origin," the report said, citing the failure to disclose evidence of human to-human transmission for as long as three weeks after first becoming aware of it.



Beijing also provided the World Health Organization (WHO) with "erroneous information" about the number of infections in early January, while failing to ban the trade in "dangerous viral host species for human consumption," it said.



Chinese health authorities also allowed five million people to leave Wuhan by announcing a lockdown but not immediately implementing it, while also being aware that the coronavirus was spreading between people, the report found.



It cited a University of Southampton study which found that the spread of COVID-19 could have been reduced by around 95 percent if the authorities had acted three weeks earlier.



"Potential damages liable against China at the time of writing could run to ... U.S.$4 trillion from just the G7 nations," the report said, citing 10 potential legal avenues for action against China.



International Health Regulations

The Society recommended claimants use the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Hong Kong courts, dispute resolutions through bilateral investment treaties and the World Trade Organization (WTO).



The International Health Regulations bind member states in their handling of health issues in general and highly transmissible diseases in particular, and were adopted in the wake of the 2003 SARS epidemic during which China was also criticized over an attempted cover-up.



They require signatory states facing potential outbreaks to monitor and share all information including clinical descriptions, laboratory results, sources of infection and type of risk, numbers of human cases and deaths, conditions affecting the spread of the disease, and the health measures employed to tackle it.



The report came as one of Asia's leading religious figures said China should compensate the rest of the world for its handling of the coronavirus epidemic, which is now a pandemic.



"The Chinese regime led by the all-powerful [Chinese President Xi Jinping] and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)--not its people--owes us all an apology, and compensation for the destruction it has caused," Myanmar's Cardinal Charles Bo, the president of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, said.



"At a minimum it should write off the debts of other countries, to cover the cost of COVID-19," Bo said. "For the sake of our common humanity, we must not be afraid to hold this regime to account."



"Its failure has unleashed a global contagion killing thousands," he said, also citing the University of Southampton study.

Li Wenliang Global Public Health Accountability Act

In Washington last week, a group of Senators and Representatives said they planned to introduce the "Li Wenliang Global Public Health Accountability Act," which would authorize the president to sanction foreign officials who suppress or distort information about international public health crises, including the Wuhan coronavirus. Li was the whistle-blowing doctor who was disciplined for sharing warnings of the pandemic on social media an later died of COVID-19.

Dr. Li tried to warn his country and the world about the Wuhan coronavirus, but he was silenced by the Chinese Communist Party. By hiding the truth about the virus, the CCP turned a regional health problem into a global catastrophe. In honor of Dr. Li, our bill seeks to punish foreign officials responsible for suppressing information about international health crises, including the Wuhan virus, said Republican Senator Tom Cotton.

The Chinese Communist Party must be held accountable for misleading the world about the scope and danger of the coronavirus. Dr. Li Wenliang bravely tried to warn his country and the world about the spread and seriousness of this virus. We should honor his legacy and do our part to hold the CCP accountable for this pandemic, said Josh Hawley, a fellow Republican senator and co-sponsor of the bill.

Yip Fun-yau of Hong Kong's Human Rights Monitor said there are also concerns that widespread surveillance used by China to monitor citizens under the aegis of disease prevention could remain in place after the pandemic subsides.



Yip said the United Nations has begun collecting evidence of rights violations from around the world, specifically linked to the pandemic.



"Even if one wave of epidemic ends, the government could use the pretext that it needs to prevent the next wave, and take every possible measure to monitor people's health and actions," Yip said.



Hong Kong current affairs commentator Sang Pu said the rest of the world could be left reviewing the level of globalization in the supply chain.



"When the epidemic subsides, the world will review the situation, but the focus won't be so much on surveillance and democracy ... as on whether key industries should be localized," Sang told RFA.

Reported by Man Hoi-tsan, Zheng Chongsheng and Tseng Yat-yiu for RFA's Mandarin and Cantonese Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame is pleased to announce the people and horses being recognized as inductees in 2020. Five people and five horses have been elected from a very deep ballot of candidates.

Representing Standardbreds in the Class of 2020 are Driver Paul MacDonell, Trainer Ben Wallace, Female Horse Amour Angus, Male Horse McWicked and Veteran Horse Rambling Willie.

Paul MacDonells driving career is highlighted by both consistency and superstars, with earnings surpassing $1 million for 33 consecutive years, due in part to piloting such horses as Hall of Fame honoured members Somebeachsomewhere, Admirals Express and Invitro. He has also been the primary pilot for millionaires Village Jiffy, Village Connection, Elusive Desire, Bigtime Ball and Laddie. The Guelph residents major stakes victories include three Metro Paces, five Confederation Cups, and eight Breeders Crowns as well as a record 16 Ontario Sires Stakes Super Finals to his credit. The popular and affable driver was awarded an OBrien Award as the 2008 Canadian Driver of the Year and to date has chalked up more than 15,000 top three finishes, 5,623 wins and has driven horses to in excess of $122 million in purse earnings.

Ben Wallace of Puslinch, Ont., honed his training skills working for Hall of Famers Keith Waples and the late Bill Wellwood before striking out on his own. He trained 1999 Pacing Triple Crown Winner and Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Member Blissfull Hall, Breeders Crown winners Totally Western (2002), Pans Culottes (2003), as well as a list of million dollar plus winners including Apprentice Hanover, Easy Lover Hanover, Zooka, Cam Swifty, Camotion and Lookout Victory. Awarded an OBrien as Canadas Trainer of the Year in 1999, Wallace has current career stats of 1,947 wins and more than $38 million in purses, surpassing the million dollar mark in 18 consecutive seasons (1996-2013).

Bred by Pierre Levesques Fermes Angus of Bedford, Quebec, Amour Angus made her mark on the Standardbred industry as a broodmare. Eleven of her 15 foals raced, earning in excess of $3.5 million. Of her eight foals sired by Garland Lobell, three went on to be top trotting sires in North America following successful race careers -- Andover Hall 3, 1:51.3 ($870,510), CHRHF 2019 inductee Angus Hall 3, 1:54.3 ($830,654) and Conway Hall 3, 1:53.4 ($818,884). Her daughter Emilie Cas El (also by Garland Lobell) was the winner of the 1994 OBrien Award for Horse of the Year following her flawless 13-for-13 two-year-old race season before going on to be the dam of Hambletonian winner Trixton. Amour Angus is the grand dam of such horses as Nuncio, Peaceful Way, Donato Hanover, Pampered Princess, Majestic Son, Wishing Stone and Windsongs Legacy.

Recently retired from racing, McWicked earned $5.1 million during a race career that began in 2013 and included 40 wins in 110 starts while setting his lifetime mark of 1:46.2 at age seven. The ungelded son of McArdle - Western Sahara was purchased as a two-year-old by Ed James SSG Stables and trained for the majority of his career by Casie Coleman. McWickeds stakes wins include the Max Hempt, Adios, Progress, Ben Franklin, TVG Open, William Haughton, Canadian Pacing Derby, Dan Rooney - twice; Roll With Joe, Breeders Crown - twice, Joe Gerrity, Jr - twice, PASS Finals, and the Jim Ewart - twice. He was the recipient of four OBrien Awards -- Three-Year-Old Pacing Colt/Gelding (2014), Older Pacing Horse of the Year (2018 & 2019) and Horse of the Year (2018). His 2018 bankroll of $1.662 million made him the oldest horse to top North American harness racing's earnings standings at the age of seven, and his $5.1 million in career earnings makes him the richest pacing stallion in the history of the sport.

The winner of 128 races in 305 starts during the 1970s and early 1980s, Rambling Willie was a three-time winner of the Canadian Pacing Derby -- 1975 in a dead heat with Pickwick Baron, 1976 and 1977. At the time of his retirement in 1983 he was the leading Standardbred money winner of all time earning more than $2 million, with most of his wins coming from overnight and invitational races. A $15,000 purchase by trainer/driver Bob Farrington, ownership was later split between Bobs wife Vivian and Paul Seibert. Mrs. Farrington in turn pledged 10% of Willies earnings to the church where her father served as pastor, earning the gelding the nickname The Horse That God Loved. In 1981 a book titled with that nickname was published. Willie and his connections did a promotional tour that included races in 17 cities and appearances on television shows including 60 Minutes. Following his retirement from racing in 1983, Willie moved to the Kentucky Horse Park where he resided until his passing in 1995, when he was buried near his paddock at the Hall of Champions. Rambling Willie was inducted into the United States Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 1997 and into the Indiana Standardbred Hall of Fame in 2003.

Thoroughbred inductees include Builder Sue Leslie, Jockey Gary Boulanger, Trainer Michael Keogh along with horses Tepin and Play the King.

Sue Leslie has dedicated the better part of her life to the sport of horse racing -- breeding, owning and training thoroughbred horses in Ontario for almost 40 years. Positions she has held, both past and current include President/Chair of the Horsemens Benevolent and Protection Society of Ontario, President/Chair of Ontario Horse Racing Industry Alliance, Director on the Avelino Gomez Memorial Foundation, Director of LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society, as well as being a member of the Jockey Club of Canada and Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society. Leslie has been a proponent for horsepeople across all facets of the industry. She was involved in establishing Ontario Racing, with which she is currently a Director and member of the Executive. Her years of experience and knowledge have proven vital in programs and initiatives to sustain the industry -- ranging from assistance with government negotiations following the cancellation of the slots-at-racetrack program to ensuring the viability of racing at Fort Erie Race Track. In 2011 Leslie was honoured with a special Sovereign Award for her dedicated work and she continues to be a strong leader and a devoted advocate.

Born in Drayton Valley, Alberta, Gary Boulanger began his riding career in 1987, spending his early years at tracks in the U.S. and earning leading jockey status at Longacres Racetrack (1989, 1990, 1991) and Calder Race Course (1994, 1995). In 2000 Boulanger returned to Canada, riding primarily at Woodbine, he would frequently get the call to ride for Hall of Fame trainer Mark Frostad. In 2001, the top money-winning year of his career, he rode Sam-Son Farms Hall of Fame filly Dancethruthedawn to wins in the Canadian Oaks and The Queens Plate Stakes. In 2005 Boulanger suffered what could have been a career-ending injury in a racing accident at Gulfstream Park. His return to the track came in 2013 when he began to pick up rides for Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse. Gary continues to ride, splitting his time between Florida and Woodbine, and is considered an elder statesman in the jockeys room. The 2017 Avelino Gomez Memorial Award recipient has to date won 3,610 races, including 41 grades stakes, and earnings just shy of $80 million (U.S.).

As longtime private trainer for Hall of Fame Builder Gus Schickedanz, Mike Keogh is a two-time Queens Plate winning trainer, first with Woodcarver in 1999 and then with Triple Crown champion Wando in 2003. During that Triple Crown winning season, Keogh was also training stablemate Mobil who would earn a Sovereign Award at age four. Hall of Fame horse Langfuhr, also trained by Keogh, won three G1 Stakes and received the Sovereign in 1996 as Champion Sprinter. As an assistant to Hall of Fame Trainer Roger Attfield from 1986-1993, Keogh worked with a long list of Hall of Fame inductees including Alywow, Peteski, Carotene, Izvestia and With Approval. Among the many Attfield-trained horses Keogh traveled with was one of his favourites, the multiple graded stakes winning sprinter and 2008 Horse of the Year Play the King, who will also be inducted as part of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Class of 2020. Since 1993, Mike Keoghs stats include 2,689 starts with 330 wins and more than $21.5 million in earnings.

Tepin, given the moniker Queen of the Turf, spent most of her race career under the direction of trainer Mark Casse and the ownership of Robert Masterson. Racing from age three to six, the striking bay filly accumulated a record of 13-5-1, including nine Grade 1/Group 1 wins or placings in three countries -- Canada, England and the U.S. In 2015 she won the Breeders Cup Mile (G1) against the boys. The following year, In what would be her final year of racing, she travelled to England and captured the prestigious Group One Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot. Her final career win came in the 2016 Woodbine Mile (G1) when she put an exclamation mark on her career with a half-length win, again over the boys. Tepin was twice presented with the Eclipse Award as American Champion Female Turf Horse; 2015 and 2016.

Play the King, was conditioned throughout his four year race career by Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield for breeder/owner Kinghaven Farms of King City, Ontario. In 29 starts, he made 19 trips to the winners circle and earned just shy of $1 million. Play the Kings stakes success began at age four with a win in the Toboggan Handicap (G3) at Aqueduct, and was followed by wins in the Jacques Cartier, Vigil Handicap and the Toronto Budweiser Breeders Cup Handicap at Woodbine, as well as wins in the Highlander Handicap, the Suffolk Sprint in Boston (G3) and finally the Nearctic Stakes (G3), to earn him the 1987 Sovereign Award for Champion Older Male Horse and Champion Sprinter. The following year brought repeat wins in the Nearctic Stakes (G3) at Woodbine and the Toronto Budweiser Breeders Cup before making his most noted performance, the Breeders Cup Sprint (G1) at Churchill Downs. A strong 49-1 second-place finish contributed to him being presented Sovereign Awards as Champion Sprinter, Older Horse and Horse of the Year in 1988.

Details about 2020 Induction Ceremonies will be announced in the coming weeks.

Additional information about the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame may be found at www.canadianhorseracinghalloffame.com

(CHRHF)
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern shared a special message with the children of her country on Monday, explaining to them why the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy might not be able to stop by their houses during the coronavirus pandemic.

New Zealand has been on a national lockdown since March 25, with only essential workers able to leave their homes. On Monday, Ardern said the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny are both considered essential, adding, "as you can imagine, at this time they're going to be potentially quite busy at home with their family as well and their own bunnies. I say to the children of New Zealand, if the Easter Bunny doesn't make it to your household, we have to understand that it's a bit difficult at the moment for the bunny to perhaps get everywhere."

Ardern also suggested that kids and their parents get creative and draw eggs to put up in their windows, so people walking by can go on an egg hunt.

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Eight civilians were killed when two suicide bombers, suspected to be members of Nigeria's Boko Haram jihadist group, attacked a village in northern Cameroon on Sunday, the government said.

The suicide bombers were "two young boys" carrying explosives which they "immediately activated" in Amchide village near the Nigerian border, Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said in a statement.

As well as the two boys and the eight killed, 14 people were injured, 10 seriously.

"Two Boko Haram bombers blew themselves up at around 8:00 pm" in the attack, a policeman said, while a local official said a village chief and two teenagers were among the dead.

The attack took place as the villagers were returning home though a zone that the authorities have said is dangerous after 6:00 pm, the official said.

Amchide is a small trading village in Cameroon's Far North province, a tongue of land that lies between Chad to the east and Nigeria to the west.

The province has been hit since 2014 by Boko Haram fighters making incursions from northeast Nigeria.

The jihadists' campaign has killed more than 27,000 people since 2009, several thousand of them in Cameroon, and displaced more than two million, sparking a dire humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad region.

According to Amnesty International, at least 275 people were killed in the Far North last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A midday police chase ended in a violent rollover crash involving an innocent bystander Tuesday in Houstons southeast side.

Houston police officers attempted to pull over the driver of a gray Mazda SUV near South Loop 610 near South Wayside shortly after 11:30 a.m. when the driver allegedly refused to stop, according to Houston Police Sgt. Daniel Huber. The driver sped north along Wayside before coming to the three-way intersection with Old Spanish Trail and Telephone Road.

MORE FROM JAY R. JORDAN: Police capture Houston man accused in deadly shooting at ex's apartment

Thats where the driver collided with a small pickup, sending the Mazda careening into a light pole. The force of the crash flipped the SUV on its roof.

Officers swarmed the vehicle, helping the driver and a passenger out and into custody. Neither were seriously injured.

Both had warrants for their arrest, police said. The driver will likely face an additional charge of evading in a motor vehicle, a felony.

Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com
KALAMAZOO, MI  Residents age 60 and older are adapting to a new normal during the coronavirus outbreak as health officials recommend self-isolation and after the governor issued a stay at home order in March.

So, with the push to stay home, a number of newly homebound seniors have chosen to use meal delivery services from the Senior Services of Southwest Michigan Meals on Wheels program in Kalamazoo and Calhoun counties, Director of Operations Dan Pontius said.

Were still getting nutritious meals out to people, Pontius said. Thats very important during this time.

The number of seniors utilizing the program significantly increased after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued the stay at home order in late March, Pontius said. In March, the program had 165 new clients.

To put that in perspective, Pontius said, typically in a month like January when people isolate due to weather, the local Meals on Wheels program sees an influx of around 30-40 people.

Because of the stay at home order, seniors may no longer receive in-home services or may not be able to get assistance from family.

Lots of things are changing for seniors, he said. Some seniors who are now homebound may not have been before.

Meals on Wheels delivers prepared meals to residents who are age 60 or older and are homebound or unable to leave without assistance. Those who qualify can receive up to two meals daily, seven days per week, Pontius said.

Local residents interested in receiving meals can sign up online or by calling 269-382-0515. After signing up, residents usually can get on the delivery route within two days.

Community partners have helped Meals on Wheels keep up with the demand for the program. United Way and the Battle Creek Community Foundation gave the program an emergency grant of roughly $80,000, and the Meals on Wheels Association gave a $25,000 grant.

More work requires more hands, but Pontius said finding volunteers to work the meal delivery program has not been an issue.

Many of the regular volunteers have been unable to help out during the pandemic, but nearly 100 new volunteers have stepped up. A lot of people are out of work now and looking for ways to help out. Volunteers play an important role in daily programming. It takes 20 volunteers to run the daily routes in Kalamazoo and 18 more to run the Calhoun County routes, he added.

While the meal delivery services have remained the same, congregate meals, or meals where seniors can gather and eat together as a group, have switched to takeout service, Pontius said.

We are still continuing the program but the congregate dining program is being held much differently," he said.

The interaction and social aspect of that may be lost, but there are other ways staff and volunteers are staying in touch with diners.

In addition to meals, volunteers are also helping out with a telephone reassurance program. During the time of isolation, loneliness is a concern for seniors, Pontius said. The telephone program allows for time to check-up on residents who utilize the program.

Senior Services of Southwest Michigan has been working with seniors in Kalamazoo since 1960.

Weve been dedicated to serving the community for 60 years and are going to do whatever it takes to maintain those services, Pontius said.

Complete coverage of coronavirus in Michigan.

PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus.

Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible.

Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

Also on MLive:

Kalamazoo brownfield board gives chairperson added authority during coronavirus emergency

Michigan seniors can get free meal delivery, daily wellness checks during coronavirus outbreak

After weeks of mixed messages, Michiganders urged to wear masks to prevent coronavirus
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IN THE NEWS TODAY

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Slack Technologies (WORK) increased the size of its planned convertible debt offering to $750 million from its originally planned $600 million. The debt is due in 2025 and can be converted to cash, stock, or a combination of the two. The offering has an interest rate of 0.5 percent. Wells Fargo (WFC) reduced its portfolio of mortgage products offered to consumers, according to a memo seen by Reuters. The bank is trying to stay under a $1.95 trillion dollar balance sheet cap imposed by regulators, an effort that has become more difficult amid the coronavirus outbreak and the loan programs announced by the government. Kraft Heinz (KHC) said it expected a rise in first quarter sales, as demand for its food products jumps due to consumers staying at home during the virus outbreak. Analysts had been expecting a sales decline. Beazer Homes (BZH) reported a 3.9 % increase in net new orders for its most recent quarter, but did note a significant slowdown in customer traffic and sales amid the coronavirus outbreak. The home builder also said it is taking steps to boost liquidity as it deals with the impact of COVID-19.

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The streets of Bali that were once bustling with tourists are now empty as Indonesia struggles during the coronavirus pandemic.

Thousands of Bali residents have been left jobless after the Indonesian government declared a total state of emergency banning all non-citizens from entering the country.

Last year, more than one million Australians visited the island with many holidaying at hot spots like Kuta, Seminyak and Canggu.

But since no more tourists are flooding in, Bali has become a ghost town with tour guides, hotel workers and shop owners struggling with the hit to the economy.

The streets of Bali that were once bustling with tourists are now unrecognisable as Indonesia struggles to keep afloat amid the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus (pictured: empty street in Bali)

A sunset is captured on a Bali beach before the travel ban kicked in stopping all non-residents from entering the country

A fisherman is seen at Pandawa Beach after it was closed to tourists amid spread of coronavirus

Mangku Nyoman Kandia has run tours on the island for more than 35 years and said the outbreak of the virus has been worse for the economy than the Bali Bombings.

'The coronavirus has collapsed the Balinese economy  it's been a steep drop since [mid-March] when social-distancing measures were put in place,' Mr Kandia told the ABC.

Mr Kandia has now been forced to take up odd jobs like construction and driving, and has been digging into his savings to survive.

He said he was just one in 7,000 tour guides that had to stop work.

Harrowing photos have shown the busy streets of Seminyak almost empty and beaches in Kuta deserted.

Wedding photographer, Govinda Rumi, said it was unlikely he would have anymore weddings to shoot this year.

'There's zero income  I cannot see another wedding for me this year, because even if it gets better, people aren't really spending that much money,' Mr Rumi said.

Mangku Nyoman Kandia (pictured) has run tours on the island for more than 35 years and said the outbreak of the virus has been worse for the economy than the Bali Bombings

A motorist is seen passing through the deserted streets around Ground Zero Memorial in Bali

Kuta that is usually full of tourists and travellers is seen nearly empty since the outbreak of the deadly disease

The boardwalk of Pandawa Beach is empty in the wake of coronavirus in South Kuta, Bali at the end of March

'Photographers are staying alive by setting up home kitchens, or delivering food so it's time to get creative to survive.'

Some tourists were lucky enough to holiday in Bali before the travel ban kicked in.

Jean Louise Courtney shared a photo of a sunset in Bali at the end of March and said she saw staff with tears in their eyes as the last herd of tourists left the country.

'We were quite possibly the last people to use our nanny, our driver and the last in our resort as they closed business when we left,' she wrote on the Facebook.

'I just wanted to say our last encounter with our Bali helpers (nanny & driver) we left them behind both standing watching us and they had tears in their eyes as we would be likely their last job for quite some time.

Shops are seen closed in streets of Kuta, Bali after tourists were banned from entering into Indonesia

Closed souvenir shops are seen in Kuta, a hot spot for tourists in the Indonesian city. The city has since been left scarce of any tourists

Tourists are seen breaking rules to sit on Jimbaran Beach after the beach was closed on March 31

'Neither knew each other but both spoke to us about how Bali survived the bombings and grew again but think it is going to be much harder this time. Both had families to feed and I could feel their sadness and anxiety.'

Around 12 million people in Indonesia work in tourism based roles.

The government announced a total of $40billion would be used to help the Indonesian economy in three different stimulus packages.

It includes tax breaks and subsidies for individuals and businesses, along with an online upskill and training programs that can help out those financially impacted from coronavirus

But not everyone can access these programs and are forced to instead rely on their own councils to provide food and support.

There are more than 2,400 cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia and 209 people have died.

Some of the last tourists are seen enjoying Jimbaran Beach on March 31 before travel bans were issued

A deserted beach in Bali. Thousands of workers have been left jobless after tourists were banned from entering Indonesia

The Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport is almost empty after the virus spread throughout Indonesia, infecting more than 2,400 people
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Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano and Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, April 8 2020

The growing number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia has reignited the debate on reducing overcrowding in the countrys prisons, prompting lawmakers to consider overhauling the correctional system.

The government has moved fast to rally the support of the House of Representatives, which agreed to resume deliberating controversial revisions to the Criminal Code (KUHP) and the 1995 Correctional Facilities Law, potentially paving the way to the end of prison overcrowding.

The countrys 524 prisons and detention centers hold 268,919 inmates, including some 60,000 detainees, more than double the maximum capacity of 132,107 inmates, according to February data from the Law and Human Rights Ministry.

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Fox News Steve Hilton had a message Sunday for governors who have yet to issue a stay-at-home order in their states as the coronavirus spreads: Do it now.

Last week I said, Open where possible, close where necessary. Shutdowns do slow the spread. Look at the difference between the Bay Area which had the nations first stay-at-home orders and New York City, said the host of The Next Revolution.

Also Read: Fox News' Brit Hume: Peter Alexander Threw Trump a 'Bullsh*t Gotcha Question' About Coronavirus

So, right now, in the absence of a better antivirus policy, it is necessary to shut things down everywhere, and that includes Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, South Carolina, where there are no statewide stay-at-home orders, he went on. Tonight, Im asking those governors  including a great friend of this show, Iowas Kim Reynolds  to put in place a stay-at-home order at least for the duration of President Trumps Slow the Spread guidelines.

His comments come at a time when other notable figures are calling for the opposite. On March 24, Hiltons Fox News colleague Brit Hume defended comments from Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, saying it is entirely reasonable that elderly Americans could be fine with dying amid the coronavirus outbreak to save the U.S. economy.

The utter collapse of the countrys economy  which many think will happen if this goes on much longer  is an intolerable result, the 76-year-old told primetime host Tucker Carlson at the time [Patrick] is saying, for his own part, that he would be willing to take a risk of getting the disease if thats what it took to allow the economy to move forward. He said that because he is late in life, that he would be perhaps more willing than he might have been at a younger age, which seems to me to be an entirely reasonable viewpoint.

Read original story Fox News Host Pleads With Governors: Put in Place a Stay-at-Home Order (Video) At TheWrap
Schools in USA are being actively urged to not use Zoom for online video lessons, and instead switch to Microsoft Teams in light of the former's soaring privacy issues. A report by The Washington Post states that the New York City Department of Education has urged schools to follow the same directive, since many online classes attended by students across America were recently breached, causing untoward issues of racism and other forms of online abuses.

Earlier last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had issued a public warning against the "hijacking" of online video conferences. With lockdown protocol put in place across the world due to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, schools across USA and the rest of the world have been shut down, exams have been postponed, and all of this has led to the initiation of online classes through video conferencing.

It is Zoom that succeeded in getting an early share of the suddenly increasing demand for online video conferencing. By offering a free service that allowed for live video conferencing with up to 50 participants as well as screen sharing, Zoom saw an unprecedented rise in the number of users of its service. However, soon enough, its myriad privacy issues started coming to light. With the drastic escalation of privacy issues, it appeared that Zoom did not just have one or two, but an ever-increasing number of security issues.

This led to Zoom attempting to justify the reason behind its security concerns, and go on overdrive mode to attempt to get the situation under control. However, instances of zoombombing, coupled with a wide range of other security problems, have continued to rise for the service, as a result of which schools in USA are now being advised against using the service. More established and secure services, such as Microsoft Teams or Google Hangouts, are being recommended as the best alternatives keeping security in mind.

Going forward, it remains to be seen how schools in India react to the situation. While Indian organisations have typically been slow to react to online privacy and data security concerns, it remains to be seen how schools in the country act on the regularly evolving times.
WASHINGTON  U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz wants the federal government to start distributing blood tests to find who has already been infected with the coronavirus  potentially without knowing it  and identify parts of the country heading toward herd immunity so people can return to work as soon as possible.

The Texas Republican is urging Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to tap into the Strategic National Stockpile and start distributing serology tests to look for the presence of coronavirus antibodies.

Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

Positive test results may mean the patient contracted coronavirus and is recovering or has recovered. Those patients could donate blood to help find treatments for COVID-19, and the tests could help find parts of the country where swaths of the population are developing immunity to the disease, Cruz wrote in a letter to Azar this week.

Without a sufficient level of serological tests, we cannot understand the full scope of the coronavirus pandemic, and we cannot identify if and when parts of the country approach herd immunity, Cruz wrote. Americas recovery from this virus depends on citizens eventually returning to work  once it is safe. Serological testing is a critical way to quickly and accurately assess coronavirus risk."

Cruz said the U.S. should begin purchasing the tests, as well, to encourage needed mass production now. The United Kingdom recently ordered 3.5 million serological tests, Cruz wrote, noting the U.K. is one fifth the size of the U.S.

For subscribers: Houston Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, Sylvia Garcia plead with Trump for more test kits

A purchase along this magnitude would encourage mass production by sending a clear signal to commercial manufacturers and laboratories that there is strong and growing demand for these tests, he wrote. Moreover, it would help stabilize the supply chain against hoarding and price-gouging.

A recent University of Texas at Austin study found that COVID-19 is largely spreading undetected, because a large number of cases are asymptomatic and there is still limited laboratory testing capacity. The study estimated that only one in 10 cases are actually tested and reported.

Cruzs push for serological tests comes as several Houston Democratic members of Congress have pressed the Trump administration for more coronavirus testing, writing that the current availability of tests in Houston and Harris County is woefully inadequate.

Even with FEMA-procured kits and supplies, Harris County can only conduct 1,000 tests each day, U.S. Reps. Lizzie Fletcher, Sylvia Garcia and Al Green wrote in a letter last week to Azar and FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor.

The lack of testing means that the number of infected individuals is certainly being underestimated and those people could be unknowingly transmitting the virus to others, they wrote.

ben.wermund@chron.com
Votes cast exclusively through the independent proxy in line with COVID-19 Ordinance 2 of the Swiss government to combat the pandemic



Increase in the dividend from CHF 2.10 to CHF 2.20 per share

Lukas Braunschweiler, Heinrich Fischer, Oliver Fetzer, Lars Holmqvist, Karen Huebscher, Christa Kreuzburg and Daniel R. Marshak re-elected as members of the Board of Directors

Lukas Braunschweiler confirmed by shareholders as Chairman of the Board

Christa Kreuzburg, Oliver Fetzer and Daniel R. Marshak confirmed as members of the Compensation Committee

Amendment to the Articles of Incorporation on renewal of the authorized capital approved

All proposals relating to compensation approved

Mannedorf, Switzerland, April 7, 2020 - The Annual General Meeting of the Tecan Group (SIX Swiss Exchange: TECN) endorsed all motions proposed by the Board of Directors on April 7, 2020.

The Annual General Meeting was thus held on the announced date but at the headquarters of the company, without personal attendance by shareholders. Voting rights could only be exercised through the independent proxy in line with COVID-19 Ordinance 2 of the Swiss government to combat the pandemic. Shareholders were informed of the procedure by Tecan on March 23, 2020.

Shareholders approved the Annual Report, the financial statements and the consolidated financial statements, and granted discharge to the Board of Directors and the Management Board. They agreed to an increase in the dividend from CHF 2.10 to CHF 2.20 per registered share. Half of the dividend, i.e. CHF 1.10, will be paid out from the available capital contribution reserve and is therefore not subject to withholding tax. The payout will take place on April 15, 2020.

All members of the Tecan Board of Directors were confirmed by the shareholders for a term of one year: Heinrich Fischer, Dr. Oliver Fetzer, Lars Holmqvist, Dr. Karen Huebscher, Dr. Christa Kreuzburg, Dr. Daniel R. Marshak and Dr. Lukas Braunschweiler. Lukas Braunschweiler was re-elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors. The shareholders also confirmed Christa Kreuzburg, Oliver Fetzer and Daniel R. Marshak as members of the Compensation Committee.

Amendment to the Articles of Incorporation on renewal of the authorized capital approved

The Annual General Meeting also approved an amendment to the Articles of Incorporation to renew the authorized capital. The shareholders had most recently approved the creation of authorized capital at the Annual General Meeting on April 17, 2018, with validity for the two years up to the 2020 Annual General Meeting. At this year's Annual General Meeting, the Board of Directors proposed the extension of the authorized capital to April 17, 2022. Subscription rights will be ruled out for just under 10% of the newly issued shares only. As a general rule, extending the authorized capitals enables Tecan to retain additional entrepreneurial freedom and flexibility to exploit external growth opportunities.

Other proposals also approved

The shareholders voted on the conditions governing the compensation of the Board of Directors and Management Board for the following fiscal year, according to the Ordinance Against Excessive Compensation in Listed Stock Companies of the Swiss government (OaEC). They made a binding decision to endorse the proposed maximum total amount of compensation for fiscal year 2021 and also, for the Board of Directors, for the period until the 2021 Annual General Meeting. The 2019 Compensation Report, which was submitted for an advisory vote, was also accepted by shareholders.

Ernst & Young AG, Zurich, was reappointed as the statutory auditors for fiscal year 2020.

Shareholders approved the motion proposed by the Board of Directors to appoint Proxy Voting Services GmbH, Zurich, as the independent proxy for the period up to the close of the Tecan Group 35th Annual General Meeting in 2021.

Key upcoming date

Tecan will publish the 2020 Interim Report on August 12, 2020.

About Tecan

Tecan (www.tecan.com) is a leading global provider of laboratory instruments and solutions in biopharmaceuticals, forensics and clinical diagnostics. The company specializes in the development, production and distribution of automation solutions for laboratories in the life sciences sector. Its clients include pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, university research departments, forensic and diagnostic laboratories. As an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), Tecan is also a leader in developing and manufacturing OEM instruments and components that are then distributed by partner companies. Founded in Switzerland in 1980, the company has manufacturing, research and development sites in both Europe and North America and maintains a sales and service network in 52 countries. In 2019, Tecan generated sales of CHF 637 million (USD 643 million; EUR 574 million). Registered shares of Tecan Group are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange (TECN; ISIN CH0012100191).

For further information:

Tecan Group

Martin Brandle

Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications & IR

Tel. +41 (0) 44 922 84 30

Fax +41 (0) 44 922 88 89

investor@tecan.com

www.tecan.com

Attachment
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: An Assam MLA, who claimed through an audio clip that people being quarantined will be killed with injection, was arrested by the police on Tuesday morning.

The MLA, Aminul Islam of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) who represents Dhing constituency in Nagaon district, had also said that the quarantine centres in Assam were worse than detention camps for illegal immigrants.

He was booked under IPC Sections 120b, 153a, 124a and 295a and would be produced in a court, the police said.

The communal statements in the audio clip have the potential to cause enmity between two communities. The clip raises question marks on Government of India, Constitution and the secular fabrics of the country. There is a lot of wrong information in the clip, Nagaon Superintendent of Police Gaurav Abhijit Dileep told journalists.

The SP said the MLA had admitted he made the audio, forwarded it to others and it was his voice.

We have seized his mobile phone. He had forwarded the clip to many people. We will bring all of those in the gamut of our investigation and find out how many people were involved and if it was a conspiracy, the SP said, adding the Speaker of the Assembly was informed prior to making the arrest.

In the audio clip, the MLA had said people were kept at the quarantine centres to be killed.

The quarantine centres have been taken to a stage worse than the detention centres. In each room of the quarantine centres, there are 5-10 people. There is no mosquito repellent or mosquito net. Food is not served. There is no drinking water either. The health workers there said the persons dont need these. They may be considered dead bodies, Islam had said.

Three people from Jagiroad (in Morigaon district) were taken to a hospital in Sonapur. I doubt they will be killed there with injection and they (government) will say they died of coronavirus. The persons are healthy and they are not infected with any virus. Such a conspiracy is going on, he had said.

The three persons in questions, all of them linked to Tablighi Markaz congregation in Delhi, had tested positive for COVID-19, the government had said.

Islam had also said, They (government) have not been able to kill people in the detention camps. They will do this here. People will be killed with injection and there wont be any reaction. They came a month ago and none is a coronavirus patient.

Earlier, he had claimed that only 1 per cent of the positive cases in India were linked to Tablighi Markaz. He had asserted that none from Assam attended the congregation. Of the 27 positive cases in the state, 26 were linked to the congregation.
We know that the novel coronavirus can be spread by an infected person coughing and sneezing near others. But can the disease also be spread by just talking to people or breathing near them?

Thats one question scientists and health experts were grappling with Monday as the number of COVID-19 deaths passed the 10,000 mark in the United States.

Through most of March, health officials said the virus is transported only through droplets that are coughed or sneezed out  either directly, or on surfaces. But on Wednesday, Dr. Harvey Fineberg with the National Academy of Sciences told the White House, "While the current [coronavirus] specific research is limited, the results of available studies are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing.

Some scientists, however, maintain that infection by airborne SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is relatively rare.

Weve seen no evidence that aerosolized virus is the primary transmission risk for everyday people in everyday settings, said Dylan Morris of Princeton University. Morris is a co-author of a recent National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases study that investigated the properties of aerosolized coronavirus under laboratory conditions.

If it could easily exist as an aerosol, we would be seeing much greater levels of transmission, adds epidemiologist Michael LeVasseur of Drexel University.

Dr. Robert Quigley, senior vice president and regional medical director of the medical and travel security services firm International SOS, told SFGATE on Monday that we dont have the answers yet.

I have the utmost respect for all my colleagues that are making statements and certainly those that have been publishing literature, but I also have an air of caution: Weve only seen this virus since the middle of December, said Quigley, who has a Ph.D in immunology. So there are so many features of its behavior that we dont fully comprehend. And obviously the whole issue of transmissibility is one that remains to be seen.

Quigley explained were experiencing a logarithmic expansion in cases because of the complicated method of transmission. It can be spread by aerosol spray, which means coughing and sneezing; it can be transmitted after surviving for days on inanimate objects under the right conditions; and it can be spread by asymptomatic patients who cough or simply exhale near others.

Suffice to say, when it is airborne, its airborne, he said. What I want to dispel is the myth that it sits out there in the environment waiting for someone to walk through like a cloud of smoke for hours on end. There are so many other variables  whats the wind, whats the ambient temperature?

Simply being exposed to the virus does not mean youll get sick.



You need to inhale a certain load, a viral threshold you need to inhale to be contaminated. But we dont know what the threshold is yet, Quigley said.



If people maintain social distancing, keep their hands out of their mouth and disinfect their hands after touching an inanimate object, we will be able to get ahead of this curve, Quigley said. The problem is compliance by the public at large.

Quigley also addressed the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions new guidance on covering ones face.

The CDC by recommending cloth masks be worn is making the assumption that we all are infected, which is not an outrageous statement, Quigley said. If an asymptomatic patient  or a symptomatic patient for that matter  were to cough into a mask, the virus could make its way through the mask, but with difficulty.

He said the coronavirus family cannot penetrate an N95 mask that is properly fitted. But surgical masks and home-made masks are not intended to keep the virus out.

Its main purpose is to keep your hands out of your mouth We all do it, its a subconscious movement, he said.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus here.



Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate
Got a question or tip? Contact us at bizmojoidaho@gmail.com.
By Trend

In line with the rules of the quarantine regime and according to the resolution of the Operational Headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers, since April 5, non-working people may go outside only with special permission, Spokesperson for the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the President of Azerbaijan Elnur Niftaliyev told Trend.

Till April 20, a citizen without special permission for movement may leave his or her place of residence once a day upon a weighty reason, in accordance with the resolution, the spokesperson said. For this purpose, it is necessary to send the number and series of identification card, as well as a pre-set index to 8103.

However, the resolution does not reflect the clauses on the need to obtain permission for minors and adolescents, Niftaliyev added. It is not recommended for minors to go outside during the quarantine period.

We are currently experiencing a period of spreading coronavirus, the spokesperson said. Children are more susceptible to infection. Therefore, parents must not take young children with them to the stores or other places. If a parent must go outside, a child may temporarily stay with relatives or family members. We should take into account that these are temporary difficulties."

The spokesperson stressed that people older 65 are forbidden to go out upon the resolution.

There are no other age restrictions, Niftaliyev added. "There are no restrictions, but it is not recommended to go out with small children or teenagers.

No parent wants his or her child to get the virus. Therefore, during the quarantine period, minors and teenagers must not go out," the spokesperson said.

As part of a special quarantine regime, which is used to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), movement restrictions have been imposed in the country.

The Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan has made such a decision in connection with the movement restriction in the country from 00:00 (GMT+4) April 5, 2020 to 00:00 April 20, 2020 to protect life and health of the population, ensure uninterrupted operation of state structures and life support facilities, as well as activity of economic entities in the current situation at the appropriate level.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
A crisis can expose and exacerbate fault lines. The greater the crisis, the deeper the fissures. By the time an infectious disease reaches pandemic-level, the opportunity to build tested and trusted systems and relationships has long passed. Any novel structures implemented at this point are ad-hoc, but not necessarily ineffective.

Globally, there were many opportunities to foresee a major pandemic. As a consequence of accelerated globalisation, there have been infectious diseases with major regional and global impacts. The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 impacted Asian countries, H1N1 in 2009 showed the scope and impact of pandemic influenza and the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa showed how disease spreads in weak health systems.

Future pandemics should be anticipated, as humans continue to adversely impact biodiversity and as the global movement of people and goods accelerates. But in the inter-pandemic years, we have the opportunity to build systems, structures and relationships to meet the next pandemic with a measure of preparedness.

Building cooperation across sectors

As we are observing at a global level in real-time, pandemic preparedness and response require a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach, since it is not just the health sector that is affected but also the economic, educational and social welfare sectors  among others.

The WHO had been encouraging countries to ensure that they met minimum standards for pandemic preparedness long before this pandemic. How these recommendations were received ultimately depended on priorities and political decisions at regional and national levels.

For example, the importance that the Trump administration has placed on pandemic preparedness was evidenced by the decision to disband the White House pandemic response team two years ago. Today, amid a growing outbreak in the country, tensions are increasing between federal and state levels of government, as the US health care system struggles to cope with the influx of COVID-19-infected patients.

In contrast, several Asian countries like Singapore and Taiwan have been more successful in handling coronavirus outbreaks. Both countries had experience with SARS and H1N1 epidemics which allowed them to develop emergency plans and gear up their pandemic preparedness with intragovernmental cooperation.

Singapore has even held regular drills for governmental agencies, health facilities and transportation hubs to test and build preparedness for an epidemic. Thus, the country not only had a prepared health care system, but also mechanisms to control the movement of people, monitor the spread of the disease, and ensure proper information-sharing and cooperation between institutions, all while continuing essential services and the provision of social support services.

Of course, the ability of these Asian countries to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus depends on a range of factors including modes of governance and varying levels of citizen surveillance, but ultimately there were crisis plans in place which spanned various levels of government and society.

Building health systems

In the time between pandemics, there needs to be an urgent push toward building health systems which can withstand and mitigate outbreaks of infectious disease while maintaining their core functions.

This type of policy is in line with a resilience framework which has been increasingly discussed after the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, where local health care systems were caught unprepared for the outbreak.

Building blocks of resilient health systems include well-trained healthcare workers, the provision of needed equipment and infrastructure to existing health facilities, enabling them to handle infectious patients; and the adequate supply of medical materials, including protective gear and proper remuneration for health staff.

The resilience framework and its purely technocratic approach to building solid health systems, however, may ignore local socio-economic contexts and power dynamics which influence how national health systems are structured, particularly in the global south. Building resilience, therefore, should not be divorced from important work on equity and human rights.

It also has to be recognised that not all countries have the capacity or the financial means to build resilient healthcare sectors. That is why an international mechanism needs to be developed to assist such nations.

Having well-prepared healthcare systems across the world is in the interests of the entire international community, given the fact that diseases know no borders.

Building trust

Building trust is an important element when it comes to pandemics. Studies around the Ebola epidemic show that compliance with public health messaging was low when trust in government or official structures was low.

According to one study, information alone may not generate compliance if citizens do not trust the source of that information in the first place. This is important when it comes to issues like self-quarantine and social distancing.

This is why political leaders need to focus on creating public trust. In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, some heads of state seem to have understood that while others have not.

So far both President Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, for instance, have been criticised for their contradictory messaging and unconvincing rhetoric. Others, like South Africas President Cyril Ramaphosa have been more successful in inspiring public trust, delivering clear, regular, well-timed public messaging (of course depending on the news source), which was described as powerful and on point.

Trust also has to be built in the international arena. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only showcased traditional fissures but has also created new ones.

In some places, political disputes have stood in the way of pandemic action. In Iran, for example, the US sanctions have affected the ability of the government to cope with the virus by preventing it from purchasing much-needed medical supplies and equipment. In Syria, medical staff in opposition-held Idlib province have accused Damascus of not forwarding WHO-provided testing kits for the virus.

Elsewhere, countries have accused each other of stealing medical supplies. Italian media, for instance, reported that the Czech government had seized a shipment of medical supplies from China intended for Italy. France accused the US of intercepting consignments of masks in Shanghai and paying a higher price in order to redirect them to the US.

Mistrust has also dominated information-sharing on COVID-19 between countries. China, for example, has been accused of not reporting on time the outbreak in Wuhan and even underreporting its scope. Taiwan, which China does not recognise as an independent state, has also accused the WHO of not sharing information on COVID-19 or passing on information that the country has reported on its prevention methods and cases.

This level of mistrust and self-interest in international relations is particularly dangerous in times of a pandemic. Each country has to realise that it alone cannot defeat the outbreak; it needs the cooperation and help of everyone else.

Hard lessons will have to be learned from this pandemic so we do not repeat the same mistakes next time around. We have to build solid public health systems, build multi and trans-sectoral infrastructure as well as enhance local, international and transnational relationships, to ensure that there is enough preparedness across all of society to cope with future outbreaks.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
LineageOS is a popular OS amongst custom ROM enthusiasts. LineageOS team recently announced LineageOS 17.1, which uses Android 10 as the base and dropped LineageOS 17.1 for quite a few devices including POCO F1, OnePlus 6, OnePlus 6T and OnePlus 7Pro. We managed to install it on our device and here is the overview and first impression of LineageOS 17.1 on POCO F1.

LineageOS offers a clean bloat-free experience, you will find only a handful of apps pre-installed, most of which can be easily uninstalled/disabled.

LineageOS 17.1 is in the nightly stage, the maintainer rolls out update for POCO F1 every day.

LineageOS 17.1 offers all the Android 10 features such as system-wide Dark mode, Night Light and Adaptive Brightness. It has a reading more for long reading sessions which turns the display greyscale. Apart from these, LineageOS 17.1 also offers a few nifty gestures such as double-tap to wake, and double-tap to sleep.

LineageOS team has also adapted AOSPs ThemePicker app, so users have an option to select accent color, font style, icon shape, and others.

LineageOS 17.1 also offers a few customizations.

Similar to any other Android 10 ROM, you will find various options for navigation including gesture-based navigation.

On the security front, LineageOS 17.1 offers Trust which helps you keep your device secure and protect privacy.

LineageOS 17.1 is ready for day-to-day usage and everything works fine on the ROM as per the XDA post. You can download LineageOS for POCO F1 from here, but make sure to use Lineage Recovery to flash it on your device. LineageOS team has provided detailed installation instructions for flashing the ROM, so check out this page before you start with the flashing procedure.

LineageOS 17.1 changelog,

A new partial screenshot UI was implemented that lets you hand select smaller parts of your screen and edit the screenshots. So, feel free to go give it a shot!

We know many of you have been waiting for news on themes since the CyanogenMod Theme Engines deprecation in CyanogenMod 13.0, and those of you in this boat are in for a treat!

AOSPs new ThemePicker app was adapted to have the range of accents youve become used to with our old implementation, Styles.

We also opted to enable support for font change, icon shape (both QuickSettings and Launcher) and icon style changes (eg. changing the style of the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth icons).

Trebuchet has long been able to hide apps from the Launcher and protect them with a passcode/password, but now you can also use your biometric sensor to authenticate as well!

October, November, December 2019 and January, February, March 2020 security patches have been merged. Builds are currently based on the android-10.0.0_r31 tag, which is the Pixel 4/4 XLs tag.

Wi-Fi display is available once again.

Support for on-screen fingerprint sensors (FOD) has been added.

Support for pop-up and rotating cameras has been added.

Support for Australian English, Lithuanian, Latvian, Dutch, Romanian, Slovenian, Serbian and Turkish spell checking has been added to AOSP keyboard.

AOSP keyboard available emojis have been updated to Emoji 12.0.

WebView has been updated to Chromium 80.0.3987.132.

Follow Pocophone Updates on telegram for more Custom ROMs and Mods.
The launch of the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture programme in Galway, Ireland (Eamon Ward/PA)

The organisers of the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture event are to temporarily lay off the majority of their staff due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The event is implementing a three-week temporary lay-off programme for all but a skeleton staff effective from Tuesday.

In a statement, organisers said: We are very disappointed to have had to make these decisions.

The Board of Galway 2020 have issued an updated statement in relation to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Please see full statement here:https://t.co/WMyn7lVO3n#Galway2020#StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/JVRgEEm93I  Galway 2020 (@galway2020) April 7, 2020

Galway 2020 wishes to acknowledge and thank all staff and in particular creative director Helen Marriage and the team at Artichoke for their hard work and commitment to Galway 2020.

Helen, working with the Galway 2020 team, had curated an extraordinary cultural programme of events, which would have provided many amazing cultural moments and experiences for local people across Galway city and county.

Galway 2020 Chairman Arthur Lappin said: We are mindful of the mission which has underpinned Galway 2020 from its inception, to mount a programme that will celebrate the creativity for which Galway is renowned.

Circumstances arising from the coronavirus emergency pose us significant new challenges, financial and temporal, which will inevitably give rise to undesired and painful alterations to our plans.

We will exercise our responsibilities in a conscientious and effective manner within the resources and constraints imposed on us.

I share the disappointment of everyone that @galway2020 will not proceed to original scale. I look forward to much of the programme being delivered when public health guidelines permit. #StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/0D4oJgvMXa  Josepha Madigan  (@josephamadigan) April 7, 2020

It is important to state that decisions we take now are the only course of action we can responsibly take in the current circumstances.

Culture Minister Josepha Madigan said: I know the work that has gone into planning a truly memorable and life enhancing European Capital of Culture for the public this year and I want to thank the Board and team at Galway 2020 for the huge contribution they have made to this.

I share the disappointment of everyone that Galway 2020 will not proceed to the scale envisaged but I also know that the team and the cultural partners will do their utmost to deliver as much of the programme as possible when public health guidelines permit them to do so.

We look forward to the events that will bring us together again once it is safe for all in our communities to do so.
COVID-19 has impacted nearly every aspect of our daily lives, but one thing has stayed the same  our American spirit to persevere even during the toughest of times.

As secretaries of state we are natural risk managers, with 40 of us serving as our states chief election official. In this capacity, we routinely plan for countless scenarios, from cybersecurity incidents, tornadoes and even cars crashing into polling places (yes, this does actually happen).

Elections in the United States are decentralized, meaning they are carried out at the state and local level. When drafting the Constitution, our Founding Fathers understood states were in the best position to determine the methods of voting to fit the needs of their citizens. For instance, people in Iowa dont vote the same way as they do in New Mexico; and New Mexicans dont vote like Texans or Vermonters.

We have been closely monitoring COVID-19 public health alerts, working with our state public health departments and assessing our state emergency preparedness plans accordingly. We will continue to do so in upcoming elections and for the general election in November.

So how will we successfully prepare? There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but instead a 50-state solution. In particular, states may increase their vote-by-mail presence, extend absentee mail ballot request deadlines, increase drive-up curbside voting, and/or expand absentee voting eligibility.

If you would like to learn more about current measures states are taking around this issue, the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) has compiled a brief addressing these evolving actions. Many nonpartisan organizations like NASS and our colleagues at the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) are working to keep state election officials connected and sharing information regularly.

Additionally, as Congress debates COVID-19 responses, there have been discussions about providing resources to election officials. We ask Congress to recognize the necessity for flexible funding to meet each of our specific needs. We would also encourage them to aid the U.S. Postal Service, as they are absolutely necessary for sending and receiving mail ballots from absentee, military and overseas voters.

Rest assured, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve in the United States and globally, secretaries of state are continuously monitoring developments to determine the potential impact on upcoming elections and are taking steps to help ensure the safety of voters. You can help us by getting your information from state and local election officials to ensure you are receiving timely, accurate election updates.

Stay safe, healthy and be sure to vote when the time comes.

Paul Pate is president of the National Association of Secretaries of State. Maggie Toulouse Oliver is the president-elect of the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Paul Pate is Iowa secretary of state and president of the National Association of Secretaries of State. Maggie Toulouse Oliver is New Mexico secretary of state and president-elect of the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Editor's note: Tuesday Topic is a weekly Opinion page feature. Each Tuesday in this space, local, regional and state writers will discuss issues in the news. If you have an idea for a Tuesday Topic, please contact Editorial Page Editor Michael Gors at 712-293-4223 or mike.gors@lee.net.

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As the majority of the US continue to see a decrease in fevers during the coronavirus pandemic, states in the West are seeing increases.

Kinsa Health, a medical technology company based in San Francisco, has been tracking daily fever readings using data from smart thermometers connected to the Internet.

One of the company's maps, which tracks 'trends' in fevers, counties are colored in four shades of blue to indicate a high or low percentage of decrease.

But at least 50 counties in Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Utah are colored yellow, orange and red to show a surge in fevers over the last seven days.

There's been a 32 percent increase in temperatures above 99F, leading many to fear that the West will be come the next coronavirus hotspot.

A map of daily temperature readings show that fevers are increasing in at least 50 counties in Western states (above)

There was a 32% rise in temperatures above 99F in at least five states: Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Utah

The data comes from Kinsa Health, which has been collecting at least 162,000 daily temperature readings from smart thermometers. Pictured: A woman arrives by ambulance to Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, April 5

Kinsa has distributed more than one million thermometers and get about 162,000 temperature readings a day.

The thermometers upload the temperatures to a database (similar to Apple iCloud) and users can add other symptoms into an app.

Nita Nehru, head of communications at Kinsa, told DailyMail.com the company is completely sold out of its smart thermometers and are currently taking backorders on its website.

'The most important thing right now is to get more thermometers distributed so that we may improve our ability to understand where illness is starting,' she wrote in an email.

Last week, Kinsa's maps showed that fevers across the nation were dropping except for a county here and there.

In fact, fevers are about 79 percent lower than expected at this time of year. Only about 0.58 percent have temperatures above 99F.

'Social distancing is slowing the spread of feverish illnesses across the country,' Kinsa wrote on its website on April 1.

'Note: This does not mean that COVID-19 cases are declining. In fact, we expect to see reported cases continue to surge in the near term.'

HOW DOES KINSA ANALYZE READINGS? Kinsa has distributed one million smart thermometers from across the country Users take their temperatures, which are then uploaded to a database The company has received about 162,000 daily readings People can then add other symptoms they are experiencing into an app The app will offer advice on whether or not the person should consult their physician Advertisement

But today, on April 6, 50 counties in Arizona, Idaho, Montana and Washington were shaded in yellow, orange and red depicting fevers increasing by a small to large percentage.

Fevers increased anywhere from 1.8 percent and 434.1 percent - surprising because these four states have had low numbers of cases and deaths.

In fact, none are supposed to see their peaks in hospital resource use or deaths until the second half of April compared to other states such as New York and Ohio,

Additionally, with the coronavirus pandemic a new feature has been added to the map, which the company calls 'atypical' illnesses.

This tracks illnesses that don't match up with typical flu patterns and are likely due to the novel coronavirus.

Influenza-like illness levels are depicted in orange and red and where they are expected to be depicted in blue.

Most counties in most states have 'low', 'mild', or 'moderate' rates of illness.

As of Tuesday, Florida is the only state with counties colored red showing 'high' rates of flu-like illnesses including Orange County, Palm Beach County, Broward County and Miami-Dade County.

Experts have suggested that the Sunshine State is on track to become the next coronavirus epicenter in the US.

With millions of Americans heading down south to escape winter or for spring break - and drive-thru testing sites running out of kits - it could be a perfect storm for a rise in infections.

What's more, nearly four million senior citizens live in Florida, a huge concern considering the elderly are the most vulnerable to contract the virus.

Kinsa doesn't have a state-by-state breakdown of where its thermometers are, but they do reveal the demographics behind their users.

About 30 percent of users are under age 18 and far more women, particularly between ages 25 and 54, use the thermometers than men.

As for rural compared to urban, Kinsa has more active users in higher populated urban areas than in less populated rural areas.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  New Mexicos spring of social distancing might stretch into the summer.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday extended a public health emergency order through the end of this month, with a coronavirus outbreak rippling through nearly all parts of New Mexico and hitting some regions particularly hard.

The extension, which Lujan Grisham had previously telegraphed, means a ban on public gatherings of five people or more will remain in place and all businesses not deemed essential will stay closed at least until May 1  and perhaps even longer.

We must carry on undaunted in our fight against COVID-19, the governor said in a statement. These measures will help us prevent a sudden spike in infections that would overwhelm our health care system. This virus is still spreading, and we must remain vigilant about physical distancing from one another.

She also said state agencies will ramp up their enforcement efforts in an attempt to ensure residents and businesses comply with the orders.

Lujan Grishams initial emergency order was issued March 11, the same day the states first confirmed cases were announced, and had been scheduled to expire Friday. Several other orders issued by Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel were also tied to that date and were also extended Monday.

Meanwhile, the governors amended order issued Monday also levies several new requirements and mandates additional closures.

Specifically, it stipulates that retailers allowed to remain open as essential businesses  including grocery stores  limit the number of customers inside their stores to no more than 20% of maximum occupancy. The governor said last week some big-box stores were not heeding state officials call to follow social distancing measures.

In addition, hotels and other lodging places are, as of Tuesday, ordered to operate at no more than 25% of capacity  down from the previous 50% threshold.

And payday lenders, automobile dealers and liquor stores, which had all been allowed to stay open, will have to cease in-person business today under the governors amended order.

The governor acknowledged the measures represented an enormous sacrifice for New Mexicans, but she called them a necessary part of a social contract to slow the spread of coronavirus.

These orders are not friendly suggestions; heed them and protect yourselves, your families and your communities, Lujan Grisham said. If these directives are not heeded, further restrictions will be enacted. The difference between a worst-case scenario and a best-case scenario for our state depends on your actions and the actions of those around you.

Dangerous increase

The coronavirus has spread rapidly in New Mexico  and much of the rest of the country  during the past month.

Top state health officials announced 62 additional confirmed cases on Monday, bringing the statewide total to 686 cases. Of the new cases, 25 were in northwestern New Mexicos San Juan County, where state officials have been warning of a spike in positive test results.

And three of the new positive test results  one resident and two staffers  came from La Vida Llena, a retirement community in Albuquerques Northeast Heights where two elderly residents died of COVID-19 last week after a rapid flare-up of infections.

In all, 12 people have died in New Mexico of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, with most of them being elderly individuals with underlying health issues.

However, no new deaths were reported Monday, and the Department of Health said 133 individuals are now designated as having recovered.

Forty-eight people are hospitalized, though state officials did not provide a county-by-county breakdown of hospitalizations.

Despite proactive measures taken by the state and our citizens, these numbers are increasing at a dangerous rate and COVID-19 is expected to continue its spread in New Mexico, Lujan Grisham wrote in her Monday extension order.

Despite the ominous forecasts, the governor and other state officials have said social distancing strategies  including the ban on large public gatherings and the closure of businesses  appear to be helping slow the spread.

The state has also ramped up its testing capacity and last week expanded testing to certain individuals with no symptoms, including all nursing home residents.

Up to 4,700 deaths

Most people who test positive for coronavirus have only mild to moderate symptoms  including fever, cough, fatigue and shortness of breath  and do not require hospitalization.

Some develop more severe symptoms, and Lujan Grisham has said the states death tally will increase in the coming days and weeks.

Human Services Secretary Dr. David Scrase said last week that COVID-19 will kill between 2,100 and 4,700 New Mexicans over the next 12 months, depending on how well people heed state instructions to stay home and engage in social distancing.

On Monday, six mobile morgues were parked next to the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque, serving as a morbid reminder of the potential toll of the virus.

Similar refrigerated trailers have been used outside hospitals in other places around the country, including New York.

Two such trailers were parked south of OMI, which is a program within the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, and four more were in an adjacent parking lot.

UNM Health Sciences is operating under its pandemic influenza plan, Mark Rudi, a UNM Hospital spokesman, said in an email. As part of this plan, we are making adjustments should we need extra space at (OMI) for decedents.

BY THE NUMBERS Number of negative tests 21,139 Number of positive tests 686 Number of reported recoveries 133 Number of deaths

12 SOURCE: NMDOH

Journal staff writer Ryan Boetel contributed to this report.
A top scientist and expert in pandemic preparedness and response has issued a stark warning to the American public: 'Normal life won't resume until 2021.'

Ali Nouri, President of the Federation of American Scientists, told DailyMail.com that the public may not be 'going back to our daily lives' until a vaccine against coronavirus is in circulation, which could take over a year.

Dr Nouri, an expert in virology, cell biology, and developmental biology, cautioned anyone hoping for social distancing or lockdown precautions to be dropped before summer that the virus was 'unprecedented' in living memory and could resurge in several waves.

'We will certainly have to continue these stay at home orders for I suspect at least through the end of May, or perhaps some time in June,' the leading scientist said.

'There's not going to be a time when there is a magic date and then everybody goes back to their lives as normal. That's not going to happen for a long time.

'Once June comes around, once July comes around, it's not going to be the kind of situation where people are going to be going to crowded restaurants and movie theaters. Things are going to be different, I suspect, until we have the vaccine.'

Ali Nouri, President of the Federation of American Scientists, told DailyMail.com that the public may not be 'going back to our daily lives' for another year

'If we do really do a good job of flattening that curve and reducing the number of transmissions from person to person, we still have to be very careful while we lift those restrictions,' Nouri says

'There's not going to be a time when there is a magic date and then everybody goes back to their lives as normal,' Nouri says

More than a million have been infected around the world and the virus has killed over 51,400.

Nouri said that the US is currently far from 'flattening the curve', a mantra of public health officials meaning reducing the rate of infection enough to keep hospitals from becoming overwhelmed.

He said even though the ground zero of the crisis, Wuhan, China, had cracked down hard on the virus and was several weeks further along in their containment process than the US, it was still enforcing some lockdown measures.

Despite reporting no new domestic cases of the virus, the Chinese government is still telling residents of the city to stay indoors where possible.

'That really tells you that this virus has the potential to really flare up again, even in places that have flattened the curve,' Nouri added.

'If we do really do a good job of flattening that curve and reducing the number of transmissions from person to person, we still have to be very careful while we lift those restrictions.

'What's really different about this novel coronavirus is that it's this combination of both being very contagious and then also at the same time being about 10 times more lethal than the flu.'

Current data suggests each person with coronavirus infects more than two others, on average.

More than 3,000 people died from the virus in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, accounting for the majority of the deaths in mainland China.

A Lancet study published earlier this month by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that extending the lockdown through April could buy crucial time for hospitals and delay a second wave of infections from late August to October.

'The city now needs to be really careful to avoid prematurely lifting physical-distancing measures, because that could lead to an earlier secondary peak in cases,' said study co-author Kiesha Prem.

The number of cases nationwide Monday shot to 368,254, with at least 11,000 dead, according to data compiled by John Hopkins University

Nouri says normal life cannot resume until a vaccine against coronavirus is in circulation, which could take over a year to produce

Nouri has been the head of the FAS since 2018, prior to that he served in Congress advising Senators Jim Webb and Al Franken for over a decade.

He served in various positions including as legislative director, national security advisor, energy and environment advisor, and as a science and technology advisor. He began his Senate career as a AAAS Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow.

Nouri is co-chair of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicines New Voices initiative; serves on the upcoming National Academys Global Science Diplomacy Roundtable; and chairs the AAAS Science and Engineering Fellowship Advisory Committee.

He has also served as an advisor in the office of then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and as a research associate at Princeton Universitys Woodrow Wilson School where he developed initiatives to bolster global health, while working to reduce the risk of deliberate biological weapon attacks.

He holds a B.A. in Biology from Reed College and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University.

Dr Nouri, who has previously served in Congress advising Senators Jim Webb and Al Franken, said that to effectively tackle COVID-19, America needs to have far more widespread testing, not only to detect who has the virus but also who has since become immune.

'The really challenging part of this is that the virus can be passed on asymptomatically. As high as 25% of infections turn out to be coming from people who don't even know that they themselves are infected,' the infectious disease expert said.

Dr Nouri says that the US is far from flattening the curve of coronavirus infections

'We need a lot more diagnostic testing. We need to really have a really good idea of the dynamics of the infection; who's infected, who's not infected. So when we actually do leave our homes, when we do identify new cases, we can quickly introduce mitigation measures again on areas that are impacted.

'We'll probably also need to expand serological tests where we can detect antibodies in individuals that already succumbed to the virus and have recovered and therefore are more likely to have a level of immunity that others may not have.'

The number of cases nationwide Monday shot to 368,254, with at least 11,000 dead, according to data compiled by John Hopkins University.

Dr Nouri warned against a 'patchwork system' where some states are stricter than others, which he blamed on indecision by the White House.

'The White House is essentially saying ''we're gonna leave it to you to decide'',' he said.

'In Virginia the governor has issued stay at home orders until June 10th which I think was the right thing to do, but in Florida you don't have anything in place.

'You could end up creating a patchwork system where some states are doing a better job than others. This is a global pandemic that doesn't recognize those state lines. There has to be more uniformity across the board.'
A new COVID-19 positive case



related to Nizamuddin Tablighi Jamaat congregation was reported in Assam on Tuesday, taking the number to 26, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

The new coronavirus positive case has been reported from Dhubri and the person attended the Nizamuddin Markaz event in Delhi, the minister tweeted.

Among the 26 positive cases so far, 25 are in some way linked to the Markaz event, including five women.

The Health minister has held discussions with the Tablighi Jamaat leaders in the state and urged them to submit a list of people who attended the event.

The Tablighi leaders have appealed to the people who attended the meet to come forward for test and the minister has warned of action, if despite several appeals, they do not come forward for examination.

The Health department has identified 617 people who attended the event and the samples of 128 of them are yet to be collected.

The health minister had said on Monday that the state government was considering introducing entry permits for those who wanted to return after the lockdown has ended to regulate the inflow of people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Initial estimates of job data show that the coronavirus pandemic could have caused unemployment to rise to 23.4 percent, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) stated.

The business information company tracks unemployment data on a weekly basis. According to its estimates, unemployment has risen from 8.4 percent in the week ended March 22 to 23.4 percent as of the week ended April 5.

The nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 began on March 24. Many states had imposed a lockdown in some districts even before the nationwide lockdown was announced.

In the week ended March 29, the unemployment rate had shot up to 23.8 percent, according to CMIE data.

India's employment rate plunged to a record low of 38.2 percent in March 2020, the CMIE added, calling it a "precipitous fall".

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Follow our LIVE updates on the COVID-19 pandemic

"The fall since January 2020 is particularly steep - almost spectacular. It seems to have nosedived in March after having struggled to remain stable over the past two years," the CMIE said about the employment rate.

(Source: CMIE)

Pronab Sen, a former chief statistician of India, as quoted by Mint, estimates that roughly 50 million people lost their jobs two weeks after the lockdown began.

Since some may have just been sent home for now, the actual scope of unemployment may be even higher and may show up a little later," Sen said.

This (the unemployment number) is also somewhat expected," said Himanshu, associate professor of economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, told the publication.

Follow our full coverage here
An NHS doctor has apologised so he can return to the profession four years after he was banned for the 'forceful' examination of a pregnant woman.

Dr Abdelkarim Mohamed had been suspended for 21 months after he carried on manhandling the patient despite her screaming for him to stop.

The 68-year-old had not been wearing ID and pulled the covers off the woman without washing his hands or introducing himself at Northampton General Hospital in June 2016.

The 68-year-old had not been wearing ID and pulled the covers off the woman without washing his hands or introducing himself at Northampton General Hospital (pictured) in June 2016

He wore his gloves over his shirt cuffs and carried out the 'rough' vaginal exam before a midwife moved his hand away.

Mohamed pulled off his gloves, threw them on the bed and stormed out of the maternity unit.

The woman, known as Patient B, reported Mohamed to police but no criminal action was taken against him.

Sudan-born Mohamed, who specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology, was in 2018 found guilty of misconduct towards the women and two other female patients.

But the doctor refused to engage with the investigation or say sorry and was suspended for nine months from practising.

It was increased by 12 months last year after he failed to show any insight into his behaviour.

He emailed the General Medical Council last year to express regret ahead of a review hearing last week.

In a statement he said: 'Ensuring these events do not reoccur in addition to improving the quality of patient care I provide is essential.

His conduct was also called into question when he worked at the maternity unit at Altnagelvin Hospital (pictured) in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, the previous February

'The first and most important step in doing so is through apologising to all those affected by my actions but most importantly to the patients, whose well-being continues to be the priority.'

At the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester, Mohammed's fitness to practise was found to be impaired.

But a disciplinary panel allowed him to return to work under supervision for the next 18 months.

Tribunal chairman Robert Ward said: 'Whilst the Tribunal acknowledged that Dr Mohamed has attended some recent courses, it noted it has not received any detailed reflection from Dr Mohamed on what he has learnt.

'In answer to a question from the Tribunal about what communication he would undertake with a female patient when he was about to perform an intimate vaginal examination, he omitted to mention obtaining her consent.

'This was a cause for concern because it is a fundamental aspect of communication between a doctor.

'However, although Dr Mohamed has not yet demonstrated full insight, he has made positive progress since the 2019 Tribunal.

'His insight has developed to the extent that he would able to comply with a period of conditions which would be sufficient to address any skills deficit and the causes of his previous misconduct could be adequately managed.

'The Tribunal considered that being back at work with the appropriate restrictions and support in place would be the most appropriate and proportionate conclusion.

'It did deliberate on imposing a further period of suspension but this would be disproportionate in the light of his recent positive engagement with the regulatory process and his improved level of insight and remediation.

'There was also a risk that Dr Mohamed would be deskilled further if he does not have the opportunity to return to practise.'

The inquiry began after complaints were made about Mohammed when he worked at Northampton General Hospital from June 13 and 22 in 2016.

His conduct was also called into question when he worked at the maternity unit at Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, the previous February.

In the June 22 incident, he did not wear an ID badge or introduce himself properly and failed to explain why he was carrying out a vaginal exam to Patient A.

On the same day, he did not comply with the hand hygiene policy and performed the vaginal examination with 'excessive force' and 'in a rough manner' on Patient B.

The doctor did not stop the examination when requested by Patient B despite her being in so much pain she had to move up the bed to escape him.

He pushed against the midwife as she intervened and failed to apologise to Patient B after the examination.

In a statement the midwife said: 'There was no need for him to do that. I grabbed hold of him and I pulled his hand back.'

During the incident at Altnagelvin, Mohamed retrospectively amended a pregnant woman's signed consent form.

The doctor added the words 'Trial of forceps delivery', knowing she had not consented to an assisted delivery.

Mohammed engaged with the General Medical Council inquiry to start with but refused to answer questions from April 2018 to December 23, 2019.

Lawyer for the GMC Victoria Gainza said: 'Dr Mohamed's willingness to engage in these proceedings now is a marked improvement from the previous hearings.

'It is clear that he now accepts responsibility and has offered an apology for his misconduct.

'However, there is a lack of specificity in Dr Mohamed's reflective statement in that he has not provided any examples of how his future practise will differ.

'Although Dr Mohamed is clearly remorseful in his reflective statement, he does not address the facts of the underlying misconduct.'

Mohamed claimed he had carried out 'clinical attachments' since November 2018 and attended meetings at the Royal College of Physicians in the Republic of Ireland.

His lawyer Jayesh Jotangia said: 'Dr Mohamed has had plenty of time to reflect and now takes full responsibility for his conduct.

'He plans to enrol on further courses to ensure that he is maintaining his skills.

'Whilst he has not personally contacted the patients involved to apologise to them, if he was given the opportunity to do so then he would.

'A positive testimonial provided makes it clear Dr Mohamed was well liked by patients and there were no concerns with his clinical ability.'
Iran's Sanctions Relief Scam

Fact Sheet

Office of the Spokesperson

April 6, 2020



"I think the Iranian [people] love America. I think they'd love to be freeThey love what we stand forif they need help with respect to the virus, we have the greatest medical professionals in the world. We'd love to send them over."

-President Trump, Remarks to the Press April 2, 2020

Iran's slick foreign influence campaign to obtain sanctions relief is not intended for the relief or health of the Iranian people but to raise funds for its terror operations.

Since 2012, the regime has spent over $16 billion to fund its terror proxies abroad while Iranian healthcare services have remained woefully underfunded. This led the Iranian Health Minister to resign in January 2019 in protest of repeated health budget cuts.

S. sanctions are not preventing aid from getting to Iran. The United States maintains broad authorizations that allow for the sale of food, agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices by U.S persons or from the United States to Iran.

On April 1, 2020, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the U.S. sanctions "have failed to hamper our efforts to fight against the coronavirus." Iranian documents show their healthcare companies have been able to import testing kits since January.

Iran refused the United States' offer of humanitarian assistance and medical supplies to the Iranian people to help address the coronavirus outbreak. On March 23, the Iranian Ministry of Health kicked out a Doctors Without Borders team, which was setting up a treatment facility in Esfahan. However, the regime is still calling for sanctions relief. Clearly, their priority is access to cash, not medicine.

In late March, President Rouhani inadvertently revealed this during a government cabinet meeting when he applauded the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their "concerted effort to influence public opinion and say 'no' to sanctions." He described that "our efforts are aimed at bringing back our money seized in other countries."

The Iranian government created a website in early March to coordinate Iranian government propaganda about coronavirus and efforts to end U.S. sanctions. Multiple Iranian diplomatic missions amplified this site's content encouraging foreign publics to defy U.S. sanctions.

Iran also possesses sufficient funds on hand to fight against the coronavirus outbreak. Iran controls hundreds of billions of dollars in its National Development Fund as well as Supreme Leader Khamenei's many hedge funds flush with assets originally confiscated from the Iranian people. These funds can be used for government spending.

In 2018, Iran withdrew an estimated $2.5 billion from its National Development Fund for increased defense spending. In 2019, Iran withdrew $1.5 billion from the fund for other military expenses.

On March 9, 2020, five Iranian parliamentarians requested that the government transfer assets from these funds for the coronavirus response, and on March 26, President Rouhani requested that Khamenei approve a one-billion-dollar transfer from the National Defense Fund.

While sitting on the request for coronavirus relief, Iran reportedly transferred $400 million from the fund to pay for government salaries. Khamenei also found the time to intervene in the parliamentary budget process and on March 19 increased funding for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) by 33% over Rouhani's original budget request.

Khamenei also more than doubled the funding for the Basij, the regime's brute squad responsible for killing around 1,500 Iranians in the November 2019 protests.

For years, the Iranian regime has prioritized its proxies over the Iranian people and stolen money the Iranian people deserve and expect to go towards their healthcare. In July 2019, 1 billion Euros intended for medical supplies "disappeared" and another $170 million dollars allocated for medical goods were instead spent by the regime on tobacco.

In 2018, an Iranian "humanitarian" company was sanctioned by the United States for masking payments that provided hundreds of millions of dollars to Hizballah and Hamas through the IRGC's Qods Force.

After decades of experience, the Iranian people are the first to reject the regime's excuses. New graffiti in a Tehran suburb reads "The Islamic Republic in Iran is the real coronavirus." After Khamenei accused the United States of using coronavirus as a biological weapon, the most prominent hashtags used in Iran were #KhameneiVirus and #IslamicRepublicVirus.

The United States will continue to support the needs and aspirations of the Iranian people, who are the longest suffering victims of the Iranian regime.

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An all party meeting called by the Prime Minister on Wednesday may see opposition parties pushing back against the central governments decision to suspend the Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme for two years, transferring the funds to the Consolidated Fund of India to help with the fight against Covid-19.

Some opposition MPs have already gone public with their criticism of the move, but members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party say they are merely politicising the issue.

MPLADS money usually goes towards development work in the constituency of MPs, each of whom receive Rs 5 crore a year towards this. On Monday, the union cabinet decided to suspend the scheme for two years and transfer the amount, around Rs 7900 to the CFI.

While Congress president Sonia Gandhi was silent on the issue in her letter to the Prime Minister, many of her partys leaders have expressed disappointment at the suspension of the scheme. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari on Tuesday shot off a letter to the Prime Minister, requesting him to reconsider the decision.

Many MPs said the funds helped them provide immediate relief to people in their constituencies and said they will not be able to fulfil their duties as elected representatives if the scheme is suspended.

Sonia Gandhi on March 27, offered her MPLADS fund to the Rae Bareli district magistrate towards fighting the coronavirus in her constituency. .

CPIM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said that if the government diverted MPLADS money to the Consolidated Fund of India, it will be used to clean up the economic mess.

The states and the MPs at the local level need the fund as they know where to use it. The government is denying the states and the MPs the opportunity, he said, adding that the issue will be raised in the all-party meeting.

Trinamool Congress Sudip Bandopadhyay said that in addition to raising this, his partys MPs would demand more funds be given to the states and the clearance of the dues the Centre owes the states. We will also talk about the MPLADS order as it hampers important work at the ground level against Covid-19.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president MK Stalin termed the move undemocratic and argued that MPLADS is not an allowance for parliamentarians but funds for projects that are needed by the people in a constituency.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule expressed the hope that the entire amount of MPLAD funds contributed by all Maharashtra MPs of both houses will be used for the welfare of the people of the state.

Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena said the Prime Minister should have consulted the leaders of all political parties before taking such a decision.

Two BJP MPs said all ruing party MPs support the decision to donate MPLADs as well deductions from their salary for the PMCARES Fund.

BJP leader Prabhat Jha, whose term as a Rajya Sabha MP ends this week, said the Congress was politicising an issue that concerns all. This is a global war and everyone has to fight it. The issue of not donating their MPLADS funds is inappropriate at the moment..

Another BJP MP from Chhattisgarh who did not wish to be named said the bickering over the funds is misplaced: When the country is fighting an enemy that has brought the whole world to its knees, what can be more important; small works using the MPLADS funds or the bigger necessity of building hospitals, researching vaccines and helping people?

...
If the COVID-19 quarantine has you tired of your usual cinematic menu, here's our guide to watching more adventurous films at home. (David Goldman / Associated Press)

In an earlier article, we offered an intro to the video-on-demand marketplace for novices, who might be confused about how to buy or rent recent theatrical releases like Emma, Birds of Prey or The Invisible Man. In that article, we pointed readers to the major digital retailers: Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube and Apples iTunes (or Apple TV).

But these arent the only options for consumers who want to buy or rent much-buzzed-about recent movies. And buying or renting arent your only options. Heres a little more about the world of watching movies at home, including some boutique retailers  and subscription streamers  you may want to explore.

Kris Hitchen and Katie Proctor in "Sorry We Missed You." (Zeitgeist / Kino Lorber)

I prefer art films. Where can I find them?



Generally speaking, once a movie is made available digitally, its available widely. For example, if you want to rent or buy the Oscar-winning Parasite  which hit home video in January  you can find it at whatever your favorite major digital retailer may be. (It will be on Hulu beginning Wednesday.)

But if youre interested in foreign and art-house cinema, you may have heard that some of the acclaimed movies that were playing before the COVID-19 crisis hit  like the stylish and strange Brazilian genre film Bacurau, or Ken Loachs urgent U.K. working class drama Sorry We Missed You  are being made available online earlier than planned. And for now, those titles arent on the likes of iTunes.

Thanks to a program called "Kino Marquee" that shares revenue with independent cinemas, both "Bacurau" (Laemmle Theaters) and "Sorry We Missed You" (Film Forum) are streaming. Powered by venerable art-house distributor and home video company Kino Lorber's digital retailing arm, Kino Now, Marquee charges consumers $12 for a five-day rental. Viewers pick the movie and their favorite theater  which will then receive some of the rental fee.

Grasshopper Film has a similar program in place for Pedro Costas new film Vitalina Varela. Grasshopper distributes some of the most adventurous feature films and documentaries from around the world and is a good gateway to some superb cinema.

Story continues

Vitalina Varela in the movie "Vitalina Varela." (Grasshopper Film)

What if I want to watch a bunch of arty movies for one set price?



You mean like a subscription? No problem. If youre not looking for any particular film  and if youre willing to pay a monthly fee for a curated selection of some of the best movies past and present  you have multiple options.

The most obvious place to start is the Criterion Channel, which offers a robust cinema education in a single streaming service. Classic films, foreign films, contemporary classics, experimental shorts, special interviews, video essays . Criterion is a gift that keeps on giving.

But its not the only choice. IFC Films, Fandor, Mubi, Magnolia Selects, Shudder, Cohen, Indiepix, Strand, Docurama, Shout! Factory . There are almost too many superb boutique subscription services to list them all. If youre an Amazon Prime Video subscriber, go to the Channels page and poke around some of these services to see what they have. You can easily add a subscription via Amazon Prime, and some of the best services are also available as add-ons to Apple TV  including the highly recommended art-film streamer the Arrow Video Channel.

And dont neglect Kanopy, a service that partners with local libraries and universities to offer new and classic movies and TV series to stream  for free  via an app that works with set-top boxes and mobile devices, just like any other subscription streamer. If you have a library card or a student ID, you may already have access to Kanopy and not realize it. It costs nothing to give it a try.

Jimmie Fails in "The Last Black Man in San Francisco." (Peter Prato / A24)

Can't I just wait until the movie I want to see is on Netflix?



This depends on the movie. Some studios and distributors have preexisting relationships with certain subscription streaming services; and some cut short-term deals for certain films. Some movies  most movies, really  will never be on Netflix. Even the films that do make it to Netflix dont necessarily stay there forever.

That said, Netflix doesnt get as much credit as it deserves for buying and distributing excellent foreign and independent films and documentaries, many of which premiered at the top international film festivals. Netflix original movies like The Irishman, Roma or Dolemite Is My Name rightly get a lot of attention; but if youre a subscriber, do dig deeper for movies such as Atlantics, My Happy Family, The Edge of Democracy and others.

The same could be said of Hulu, which is currently streaming last years beloved film Portrait of a Lady on Fire, or Amazon Prime, which has critics faves like The Last Black Man in San Francisco and The Report. Even the relative newcomer Disney+ has been aggressive in the early going about making available its parent companys recent theatrical releases such as Onward and Frozen 2.

Granted, subscriptions require commitment and a bit of faith theyll be worth your money in the months ahead. But as the multiplexes remain closed, you should stream however you choose, provided you can afford it. Thats one of the best ways to ensure the kind of films you like will still be an option once the cinemas reopen.
WASHINGTON  In a rare move, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he will attempt to swiftly pass additional funds for small businesses to keep making payroll as Congress rushes to provide more aid during the coronavirus crisis.

The Republican leader plans a vote this week to supplement the $350 billion approved for companies in the just-passed $2.2 trillion rescue package with an immediate additional $250 billion or so, according to GOP operatives. The so-called Paycheck Protection Program may run dry without it, McConnell said. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is expected to outline the request later Tuesday.

The aid is the top GOP priority for an expected fourth coronavirus relief bill. But trying to jam it through a nearly abandoned Capitol without elements sought by Democrats could threaten the fragile political peace going forward. The action is set for Thursday.

Thursday's vote requires unanimous agreement since it's planned for a pro formasession that wouldn't typically involve Senate business.

This program has become overwhelmingly popular, McConnell said in a statement.

Jobs are literally being saved as we speak. But it is quickly becoming clear that Congress will need to provide more funding or this crucial program may run dry. That cannot happen, he said.

The overture as jobless claims soar to record highs sets up a showdown with Democrats led by Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York who on Tuesday called for up to $25,000 heroes pay for frontline health care and service industry workers.

The political lines being drawn threaten a fragile consensus that was emerging between congressional leaders and President Donald Trump on the need for more aid amid the pandemic and its stark economic shutdown.

Were going to take good care of our people, Trump said Monday at his daily White House briefing. It was not their fault.

McConnell's move leaps ahead of a broader package that is still being debated but it's unclear if it could win passage in both the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-run House.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants the boost in small business fund as part of much broader aid package topping at least $1 trillion.

But House minority leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Ca., backed McConnell's effort for a smaller, discrete infusion for the small business program.

The House should move swiftly to do the same, he said in a statement.

Already, small businesses can tap forgivable loans of up to $10 million from the federal government to keep making payroll while workers are told to stay home.

The coronavirus crisis has brought the economy to a standstill as businesses shutter under public health efforts to keep people home and prevent the spread of the virus. The economic fallout that is ransacking communities nationwide, a crisis on par with a war effort or the Great Depression.

Schumer's proposal would provide up to $25,000 in hazard pay for the rest of the year for the frontline workers.

Bigger corporations would be expected to foot the bill for the pay hike, he said, while the federal government would provide funding for smaller firms.

Schumer declared the pay hike for nurses, truck drivers grocery store clerks and others the highest priority.

Pelosi said Monday she wants another round of direct payments to Americans and is pressing for greater help for state and local governments.

Any votes in Congress remain a logistical conundrum. The House and Senate adjourned for most of the month, as part of strict stay-at-home orders from public health officials to prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus.

The California Democrat has vowed to put the next package together in time for a House vote this month.

Pelosi told House Democrats on a Monday conference call at least another $1 trillion would be needed, according to a person unauthorized to discuss the call and granted anonymity.

Former Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen joined the private call and warned Democrats the economic fallout will depend on the public health response to the pandemic, the person said. As businesses shutter to stop the virus spread, it has hurled the U.S. economy toward a recession.

Yellen said it was impossible to know how deep and long the recession would be, and added that it would depend on the health response.

The former Fed chair also told them the nations unemployment rate is now at least 13% and this weeks jobless report will show higher numbers than last weeks.

Yellen said she expects a 30 percent contraction of GDP this quarter, but has seen models as high as 50 percent, according to a Democratic aide unauthorized to discuss the call and granted anonymity.

The earlier relief package, approved in late March, included one-time $1,200 direct payments to Americans, along with forgivable small business loans for companies to keep making payroll. It also included a boost of unemployment pay, money for hospitals and a $500 billion fund for bigger corporations and industries.

Pelosi told Democrats said the $1,200 direct payments to Americans and the paycheck protection program for small businesses are not enough and more needs to be done, the person said.

She also said there needs to be more aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps.

The shifts from the political leaders are stark amid what officials warn could be one of the toughest weeks for the country, as the number of confirmed cases and deaths climbs.

Pelosi, D-Calif., last week also backed off her more sweeping proposals for an infrastructure package to put people back to work, focusing on the more immediate health care and economic needs.

This would be the fourth package from Congress since the start of the virus outbreak. Two initial efforts were followed by the third last month, which was by far the largest, the most ambitious of its kind in U.S. history.

___

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Laurie Kellman contributed to this report.
While the whole world is trying to fight the coronavirus (COVID-19) Google Doodle has decided to send a positive message to everyone involved in this fight. Google is now using a new doodle in order to pay tribute to those health workers as well as researchers who are fighting the coronavirus.

The search engine's famed logo has now been turned into an animation with a heart that hops right over the letters turning the "e" into one of the academics the brand is giving tribute to. This is apparently only the beginning of a series that aims to pay tribute to those people who are working to fight the pandemic.

Google's statements on the situation.

According to Google, "Covid-19 continues to impact communities around the world, people are coming together to help one another now more than ever." Later on expressing that in the weeks to come, the company is launching a special Doodle series which recognizes and honors the many people on the front lines.

Google further on said that "Today, we'd like to say: 'To all the public health workers and to researchers in the scientific community, thank you.'" Showing both their recognition and gratitude to those who have been sacrificing a lot in the battle of this coronavirus pandemic.

There are many different Google Doodles that are to be shown in specific regions but there is one that has a significantly high global reach. On Monday, April 6, the new Google Doodle will be visible in browsers worldwide, including New Zealand, Russia, Brazil, and also the UAE.

Google's dos and don'ts

Google has released their own dos and don'ts for their readers to avoid COVID-19 saying that readers should wash their hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and of course water or maybe even an alcohol-based hand rub. Another step from Google is to always cover both your mouth and nose using a disposable tissue or even your flexed elbow whenever you cough or sneeze.

Another critical tip is to avoid close contact with people who are unwell staying at least a meter away from them. The last tip from Google is to as much as possible remain indoors and practice self-isolation from others in the household especially if you are feeling unwell.

A very critical No-No which Google has been adamant about is to avoid touching your eyes, nose, and also your mouth when your hands are not clean.

Read Also: Japanese Simulation Shows The Next Mt. Fuji Volcanic Eruption Could Cover Tokyo With Ashes 10X the Debris Cleared During The 2011 Tsunami!

Google's tribute

The first time Google paid tribute was on Friday, April 4, with a simple animation that had a simple message, for people to stay home in order to save lives. Friday, March 20 was the day the search engine paid tribute to Ignaz Semmelweis, who is a Hungarian known for discovering the importance of clean hands to our health.

The physician as well as scientist is known as Semmelweis who was born in 1818 and is easily recognized as one of the pioneers of these antiseptic procedures.

Read Also: RIP Dame Jean Macnamara: Google Doodle Honors the Polio Doctor in a Creative Way Despite April Fools' Day
Officials describe slight fluctuation in the statistics as normal, and say overall trend remains positive.

Spains pace of coronavirus deaths ticked up for the first time in five days on Tuesday, with 743 people succumbing overnight, but there was still hope the national lockdown might be eased soon.

Tuesdays toll from the health ministry compared with 637 deaths registered during the previous 24 hours, taking the total to 13,798, the second-highest in the world after Italy.

Still, the proportional daily increase of 5.7 percent was about half that reported a week ago.

It is normal to have some oscillations  What matters is to see the trend and the cumulative data, said Maria Jose Sierra, deputy chief of health emergencies, adding that latest data included some delayed notifications from the weekend.

Total cases rose to 140,510  the highest in Europe and second in the world after the United States.





As officials worked on a plan to lift some of the tough restrictions in place that have shut down non-core firms, the Spanish unit of Germanys Volkswagen said it may partially reopen a plant in the Navarra region on April 20.

Employment rules for farms were eased to bring in temporarily up to 80,000 migrants and jobless people to cover a shortfall of foreign seasonal labourers. That, officials hope, will prevent food shortages and preserve Spains status as the European Unions biggest exporter of fruit and vegetables.

Questions over numbers

For lockdown restrictions to be lifted, officials say testing has to be widened, to find carriers who may have mild or no symptoms.

The government is planning mass, quick antibody tests in the coming days. Cadena Ser radio said about 62,000 people would be tested twice, with an interval of 21 days, to see the effect of any easing of measures on contagion.

Some Spanish media have reported recently that insufficient testing means the real death toll could be much higher.

Asked about that, government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero told a news conference it was possible there could be time lags between the report of a death and its attribution to the virus, but that she had no further information.

Thirteen of Spains 17 regions have registered more deaths than usual, and in 11 of those, the number of extra fatalities is higher than the number confirmed to have died from the coronavirus, according to Reuters calculations based on data collected by the health and justice ministries.

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In the central region of Castilla-La Mancha, around 2,000 more people died than usual between March 15 and April 3, but fewer than 1,000 coronavirus deaths were registered during those three weeks.

Care homes for the elderly have been among the worst-hit by the pandemic, accounting for a third of all deaths, according to some estimates. But not all were the source of bad news.

In the northern Basque city of Guernica, relatives, neighbours and the local fire brigade applauded care staff at the Juan Calzado nursing home, dancing to the sound of loud pop music played via loudspeakers. The staff decided to move in with its virus-free residents for 15 days so as not to expose them to contagion from the outside, Reuters footage showed.

I am staying home, with my other family! said home director Visi Garcia.
GUELPH, ON, April 7, 2020 /CNW/ - PlantForm Corporation is working with Canadian and international partners on two initiatives that will use the company's plant-based biopharmaceutical platform to address the global COVID-19 crisis, including the development of Canada's first antibody test for COVID-19 immunity, and the production of antibodies to treat patients and protect first responders.

The company has applied to the National Research Council Canada (NRC) for funding to develop diagnostic reagents for serology (blood) tests to determine if people have developed antibodies that indicate immunity to the virus. PlantForm has also submitted an NRC funding application for another collaboration to produce therapeutic and prophylactic antibodies in the company's vivoXPRESS manufacturing platform, which uses a proprietary strain of tobacco plants to produce target molecules.

PlantForm's vivoXPRESS manufacturing system provides a trio of crucial benefits for such applications: rapid development and manufacturing timelines (weeks instead of months), unlimited scalability, and ultra-low-cost production.

Developing a blood test for COVID-19 immunity

PlantForm has joined forces with Cape Bio Pharms in South Africa and Canadian partners Inno-3B and Microbix Biosystems Inc. to develop serology tests to detect antibodies specific to COVID-19.

Unlike most COVID-19 diagnostic tests, which test for genetic material to see if someone has been exposed to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the PlantForm collaboration is focused on producing reagents for serology tests that will identify antibodies in the blood that indicate immunity to the virus.

"Canada does not currently have a blood test to detect COVID-19 immunity," said PlantForm CEO Dr. Don Stewart. "We are developing a test that will identify the convalescent immune population, which is critical to disease monitoring and control. It will increase the reliability of data about the progression of COVID-19 and allow public health agencies to accurately determine when people have become immune to the disease and are therefore able to return to work and other social care duties."

Cape Bio Pharms will provided the genetic constructs in their proprietary vector to enable immediate production of SARS-COV-2 antigen. Inno-3B will provide expertise to rapidly scale up plant-growth capacity using the latest state-of-the art technology. Microbix Biosystems will provide analytical assessment of the reagents, leading to their potential use in proprietary kit systems.

Developing antibodies to treat patients and protect health-care personnel

PlantForm is also collaborating with Inno-3B and other national and international partners to produce therapeutic antibodies for infected patients and in prophylactic applications for first responders and other health care personnel who require immediate protection.

About PlantForm Corporation (www.plantformcorp.com)

PlantForm Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the rapid development and production of biosimilar and specialty antibodies and proteins using the company's proprietary vivoXPRESS platform. The plant-based vivoXPRESS system makes it easier, faster and less expensive to produce biologics for approved and novel indications. PlantForm has an expanding portfolio of patents in seven families to protect both the core platform technology and products in development.

About Cape Bio Pharms (www.capebiopharms.com)

Cape Bio Pharms is a spin-off company of the University of Cape Town, Africa's leading University. The company uses its disruptive plant-based expression platform to produce a range of recombinant proteins for life scientists in bio medical research. Cape Bio Pharms' response to COVID-19 has been to develop a package of SARS-COV-2 Spike Proteins, critical for rapid diagnostic test kits, and to collaborate with other plant-based platforms to increase production capacity world-wide.

About Inno-3B (www.inno-3b.com)

Inno-3B is a Quebec-based vertical farming equipment design company that has over the last year been developing a turnkey solution for plant-based pharmaceutical companies. The solution involves our closed environment production tower that has been specifically tailored to growing N. benthamania, with automation for materials handling, traceability of crop units and uniformity of environmental conditions for light and temperature, which will allow for consistency in plant growth.

SOURCE PlantForm

For further information: Don Stewart, President and CEO, PlantForm Corp., [email protected], +1 416-452-7242; Stacey Curry Gunn, Director of Communications, PlantForm Corp., [email protected], +1 519-827-1131
Ohio food banks got some needed relief April 7 after the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved a waiver that will protect staff, volunteers and clients.

The USDA Food and Nutrition Service approved Ohios request to run a Disaster Household Distribution Program through the Emergency Food Assistance Program.

What that means is paperwork required to verify eligibility for the emergency food program is temporarily waived.

It will allow us to serve the large number of first-time clients seeking our help during this crisis without requiring close person-to person contact to collect items like name, address, household demographics and income verification, the Ohio Association of Foodbanks said in a statement.

The Disaster Household Distribution Program allows USDA commodity foods to be included in distributions to families impacted by COVID-19 mitigation efforts.

Pennsylvania received approval for the Disaster Household Distribution program March 27, after Gov. Tom Wolf wrote a strongly worded letter to the Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.

Food banks and pantries in Ohio and Pennsylvania have seen overwhelming demand the past month since many people found themselves suddenly jobless because of COVID-19 measures.

The Ohio Association of Foodbanks requested $25 million in emergency funding from Ohio to help them meet the immediate and unprecedented demand for food, said Lisa Hamlet-Fugitt, executive director of the association.

We have no choice but to sound the alarm, Hamler-Fugitt said, during a media call April 3. Our inventories are extremely low. We are running out of food faster than we ever imagined three weeks ago.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported 468,414 initial unemployment claims from March 15-28. Thats more than all of the claims filed in 2019. Pennsylvanias Office of Unemployment Compensation reported more than 1.1 million new unemployment claims since March 15.

Hamler-Fugitt said the coronavirus relief legislation recently passed by Congress is good, but those foods wont make it to them until its too late.

It takes 60-90 days for USDA commodities to get secured and delivered to our docks, she said.

The Ohio Dairy Producers Association sent a letter to Gov. Mike DeWine April 6 in support of the ask for emergency funding.

Milk is one of the most requested items for food banks, and this funding would allow the association to immediately procure nutritious milk and dairy products, as well as other food and essential items, needed by their 12 Feeding America Foodbanks and its pantry network of 3,600 local organizations throughout Ohio. the letter read.

(Reporter Rachel Wagoner can be contacted at 800-837-3419 or rachel@farmanddairy.com.)
The Maharashtra health department said on Tuesday that the total number of Covid-19 positive cases is inching towards 900.

The health department officials said that 23 more people tested positive for coronavirus disease on Tuesday, taking the total number to 891.

Giving the break-up of the 23 new cases, health officials said that 10 are in Mumbai, four in Pune, three in Ahmednagar, two in Buldhana, two in Nagpur and one each in Sangli and Thane. Seventy people have been cured of the disease, the officials said.

So far, 52 Covid-19 linked deaths have been reported in the state.

With these new cases, the total number of Covid-19 cases in Mumbai has reached 536, the health department officials said.

On Monday, a tea vendor had tested positive in Kalanagar in Bandra (East), home to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, after which the police had sealed off the area.

The tea seller tested positive after showing symptoms like cough, fever and cold for the last four days. He was admitted at the Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Trauma Care Municipal Hospital in Jogeshwari.

News agency ANI reported on Tuesday that four people who live in the same building where the tea seller lives, have been placed under quarantine. ANI further reported that some security personnel deployed at Thacekrays residence Matoshree, who visited the tea stall, have been kept in isolation as a precautionary measure.

According to the Union health ministry, Maharashtra is worst-affected by the coronavirus disease.

With an increase of 354 Covid-19 cases, Indias tally of total positive cases rose to 4,421 on Tuesday, said the ministry. Out of the 4,421 cases, 3,981 are active cases while 325 cases have been cured or discharged and one migrated. The total death toll stands at 114.
MEDFORD, Ore.  Jackson County has done more testing for COVID-19 per capita than any other county in the state of Oregon, county officials confirmed on Monday.

More than 2,200 tests had been completed in Jackson County by Monday. Though Multnomah and Washington counties have tested a higher number of people, they also have comparatively much larger populations.

"Asante, Providence Medford Medical Center, La Clinica, Mercy Flights and others in the medical community have done an amazing job getting people tested," shares Mark Orndoff, Jackson County Health and Human Services Director. "They are outstanding partners in keeping the people of Jackson County as safe as possible during this COVID-19 pandemic."

According to a report from the Oregonian/OregonLive, Jackson County has tested more people per capita than any state in the U.S. except for New York, Washington, and Louisiana, which have each experienced serious outbreaks of COVID-19.

Orndoff attributed the high testing volume in part to an "all-hands-on-deck" approach at Jackson County, particularly from the Communicable Disease staff, Public Health division, and some other county departments.

"The tests come in via an Electronic Lab Reporting (ELR) system at all hours of the day and night," Orndoff said of the Communicable Disease program. "Many of these staff members have worked for more than two months straight processing these tests and taking appropriate actions.

Orndoff credited healthcare providers at Asante, Providence, La Clinica, and Mercy Flights for testing people early and promoting social distancing measures.

Having local medical providers identifying those who are most at risk or who have been exposed and subsequently recommending their patients limit their movement and exposure throughout our community has, frankly, saved lives, Orndoff said.

Asante established a drive-up testing station in Medford by midway through March. The same week, Providence announced that its own lab in Portland would begin assisting the Oregon public health lab in processing COVID-19 tests, greatly enhancing the state's ability to quickly expand testing.
A female flight instructor smiles before taking off with a pilot cadet. (Photo by Yuan Xi)

By Rui Hai and Li Jianwen

BEIJING, April 7 -- The first batch of female flight instructors of the PLA Air Force and the pilot cadets they instructed leap into the blue sky together in China's primary trainer aircraft CJ-6 at the training base of a regiment under the PLA Air Force Aviation University in late March.

It is learnt that this is the first time for the Air Force to select female pilots from aviation units to assume flight instructors. They have had training courses at the Aviation University, the Harbin Flight Academy and an aviation brigade under the PLA Air Force successively, accumulating flight experience with different types of aircraft including primary trainers, advanced trainers and fighter jets.

In August last year, they finished the conversion training for flight instructors, which strictly followed the guideline of latest CJ-6 flight instructor training program and aimed to comprehensively improve their teaching capability.

As the first batch of female flight instructors assigned to the PLA Air Force, they have passed 36 theoretical and practical examinations with excellent performance at the end of February this year, completing the transition from combatants to instructors successfully.
National Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sammy Awuku has described the decisions taken by government to fight against COVID-19 as best and highly commendable.



Speaking in an interview on Asempa Fms Ekosii-sen, Sammy Awuku said the President was meticulous in going through suggestions, advice and ideas and eventually came out with best solutions to contain the situation.



Two health experts and researchers told me the President acted just at the right time and that if he had acted too early he could have posed a problem. If acted too late too, had its own ramifications but, in all; the President acted on time and with precision, he said.



Sammy Awuku lauded the President saying he has shown courage and must be supported any day.



He noted that if the government had heeded to the pressure from the minority to ferry Ghanaians in Wuhan in China to Ghana, we would have gone down the abyss of COVID-19.



He argued that countries like Italy, Spain, Germany, UK and France who went for their citizens and students from China to their respective countries have suffered worse cases of the pandemic.



Ghanas recent COVID-19 case stands at 287 with 5 deaths and 3 recoveries.



The President has shown courage and determination in the face of the pandemic. This is no time for politics but a time for sacrifices to be made in the supreme interest of the country. The President has proven beyond reasonably doubt that he knows the job, Mr. Awuku said.

Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The Rotary Club of Staten Island, one of five Rotary Clubs on Staten Island, with the matching assistance of the office of the borough president, donated 1,200 Tyvek protective jumpsuits for health aides working with the home bound population on Staten Island.

Past president Michael K. Behar, who had a limited supply of the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), asked that they be donated via the Rotary Club to organizations in need.

The Rotary Club of Staten Island packs vehicles with 1,200 Tyvek protective jumpsuits for health aides working with home bound populations on Staten Island. (Courtesy/Marylee Montalvo)Staten Island Advance

Members of the organization have been gathering via Zoom to connect and work on projects that can assist through this coronavirus crisis.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

Drivers from the Visiting Nurse Association of Staten Island and A Very Special Place worked together to move the boxes of Tyvek suits. The agencies were limited on supplies and wanted to not only provide PPE for the safety of their consumers but also for the safety of those providing care.

Thanks to the ongoing efforts of the borough presidents office to match resources with need, a match was made and split between A Very Special Place and the Visiting Nurse Association of Staten Island.

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Sanders was outspoken in urging the state to postpone the election, saying last week that people should not be forced to put their lives on the line to vote. Biden, who in recent days had said it was up state officials, said Tuesday night on CNN that the election should have been mail-in only and not conducted in person.
Deputy Inspector General K.V Mohan Rao visited COVID-19 red zones in Tangellamudi and Ponangi areas of Eluru town and directed police at the check posts not to allow any movement of public through these points.

He said that arrangements have been made for door-to-door delivery of daily essentials in the red zone areas and himself delivered commodities, supplied by the local organization Manam Foundation, to the houses in Tangellamudi.

According to the DIG, ten COVID-19 positive cases were detected in Tangellamudi and Ponangi areas of Eluru; hence, red zones were formed to contain the deadly virus.

He further instructed the public to follow all rules and regulations, and follow social distancing.

Later, DIG visited the local quarantine centre and enquired whether enough supplies were present for the 144 individuals quarantined there.

With an increase of 354 COVID-19 cases, India's tally of total positive cases rose to 4,421 on Tuesday, as stated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Out of the 4,421 cases, 3,981 are active cases, while 325 cases have been cured or discharged. The total death toll at present stands at 114.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat. (PHOTO: YouTube screengrab)

SINGAPORE  Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat slammed opposition leader Pritam Singh for repeatedly asking about the size of Singapores reserves, claiming that it goes against the national interest to do so.

Addressing supplementary questions from Members of Parliament on the Solidarity Budget on Tuesday (7 April), Heng told the House, It is neither in the interest of Singapore, or Singaporeans, to repeatedly ask about the size of our reserves. We are in the middle of a storm, and I'm very disappointed that Mr Pritam Singh has used this occasion to raise this question again.

He added, We do not disclose the total size of our reserves, for the sake of national security and strategic interests.

Heng noted that Singapores reserves comprise assets invested by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Government Investment Corporation (GIC) and Temasek Holdings. While MAS and Temasek publish the size of the funds that they invest, GIC does not. Our current and past reserves have been so carefully built up, invested and managed. This has allowed us to respond to the crisis, without having to borrow, and without burdening our future generations with repayment obligations.

Drawing an analogy with the Singapore Armed Forces arsenal, the designated successor to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said, No country's armed forces will ever tell you exactly how much ammunition and weaponry they really have. To do so is to betray valuable intelligence to potential adversaries.

This is obviously not a wise defence strategy, and likewise, should not be adopted for our financial reserves.

Heng urged Members to instead focus on other policies and programs, especially those which may require the use of reserves, and to debate the merits of these programs, including the expenditure required for them.

Opposition also a steward

Singh, the Workers Party chief and an MP for Aljunied GRC, responded to Hengs remarks by noting that the opposition is also a steward of the reserves and expenditure priorities of the government.

Story continues

But we seek these numbers because when the government introduces policies where reserves have to be employed, the question we have to ask ourselves is: is it enough? Or is it too much also, because that's a relevant question too. Or is it too little?

He stressed that it is the oppositions duty to ask questions of the government on such issues, not because it wants to make life difficult for the Ministry of Finance.

Singh asked if there might be scope to reveal information on the reserves in a nuanced manner: keeping certain aspects of the reserves secret, while revealing some aspects such as the amount which can be spent on improving the livelihood of Singaporeans.

In response, Heng referred Singh to the net investment returns contribution (NIRC),which is the single largest component of spending and which sets out spending rules. He added that the Elected Presidency serves as a key check and balance on the usage of the reserves.

Heng noted that President Halimah Yacob and the Council of Presidential Advisors asked very, very good questions on the drawing down of the reserves to fund the supplementary Budgets that address the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. He concluded, So the checks and balance that we have in our system has been very rigorously designed and very well observed.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

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It was a year ago that the U.S. Department of Justice notified Gov. Kay Ivey that its two-year investigation of mens prisons in Alabama found so much violence, sexual abuse, and death that it alleged the conditions violated the U.S. Constitutions prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

The blistering report started negotiations between the DOJ and the state toward an agreement on how to make prisons safer and forestall a lawsuit against the state by the federal government.

Jay Town, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, whose office is leading the negotiations for the DOJ, said Monday those talks are not moving satisfactorily.

I cant comment on what the states belief in its progress is or what it has done or not done, Town said. Thats not for me to say. What I can say is that I am not satisfied with the pace at which this has played out over the last year.

Town said he believes state officials are taking the matter seriously and that progress is being made. He said it remains his preference to reach an agreement without a lawsuit, which would come under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, or CRIPA.

My disappointment is only in the pace at which we are able to agree on how to accommodate arresting these 8th Amendment issues inside of our Alabama prisons, Town said.

The governor, state lawmakers, and the Alabama Department of Corrections have said from the outset they intend fix the problems without waiting on mandates from a federal court, such as orders to release prisoners. Ivey called the situation a crisis that demanded an Alabama solution.

No one promised a quick fix. But are Alabamas prisons any safer 12 months after the grim findings by the DOJ?

Prisons are more crowded than a year ago, with an occupancy rate of 170% and rising.

I do believe the crowding in Alabamas prisons remains a very serious issue which leads to a number of 8th Amendment issues as it relates to the safety and well being of the inmates in a Department of Corrections facility, Town said.

The rate of paroles granted has fallen sharply. The state closed most of Holman Correctional Facility because of deterioration and transferred 600 inmates to other prisons. Those factors have helped make overcrowding worse.

Violence continues

Inmates continue to die from violence at a rate that far exceeds the national average.

Monthly reports from the Alabama Department of Corrections showed 13 inmate-on-inmate homicides last year. Two other inmate deaths that came after use of force by correctional officers are under investigation.

The most recent: Dennis Benson, 40, serving a three-year sentence for drug possession and receiving stolen property, died from what the prison system said was an inmate-on-inmate assault at Ventress Correctional Facility on March 30. Just six days earlier, an assault at Fountain Correctional Facility claimed the life of inmate Kenneth Locke.

In December, the coalition Alabamians for Fair Justice placed on empty chairs in the Alabama State House the names of 21 inmates who had died in Alabama prisons until that point in 2019 from homicide, suicide, or drug overdoses. (Mike Cason/mcason@al.com)

The Equal Justice Initiative, which has a track record of exposing problems in the Alabama prison system, issued a report in November that gave some perspective to the numbers, showing that the rate of homicides for the year was nine times the national average reported by the Bureau of Justice Statistics from 2012 to 2014.

The violence has not been abated, said Charlotte Morrison, a senior attorney at EJI. These reports call for more action we are disappointed that we havent seen.

The coronavirus pandemic has added a deadly set of new risks and challenges for a system in crisis.

The Alabama Department of Corrections said Commissioner Jeff Dunn was not available for an interview for this story because he was devoting all his time to dealing with the COVID-19 threat.

Related: Alabama prison systems COVID-19 plan anticipates widespread infection, deaths, National Guard intervention

Improving Alabamas prison system remains a top priority of the Ivey Administration, but we are currently amidst a pandemic, Ivey Press Secretary Gina Maiola said in an email in response to a question about Towns comments. This, by no means, is reflective of the state shifting focus away from this important issue.

Dunn has said repeatedly since the DOJ report that the prison system is committed to making the prisons safer and announced in December a task force to examine inmate-on-inmate violence and alleged excessive use of force by staff.

The ADOC released a statement in response to this article after it was published:

"As mentioned in previous correspondence, achieving resolution and agreement to the issues raised by the Department of Justice in its findings letter remains a priority for the ADOC, and we are working in good faith with the DOJ to achieve this end as quickly as possible. We believe we are making appropriate progress.

The Department continues to make significant progress on the initiatives outlined in our strategic plan to transform the correctional system in Alabama. With that said, our current focus and resources are directed toward mitigating the potential spread of COVID-19 in our facilities and to protecting the safety and well-being of our inmate population and staff.

Forgotten?

Elizabeth Hardeman Gunn, whose husband is serving a life without parole sentence at St. Clair Correctional Facility, said she cannot see where much has changed in the year since the DOJ report. Gunn said conditions remain ripe for violence, with no useful ways for men to pass their days in prisons packed to almost twice their capacities.

They dont have anything to do, Gunn said. They dont have any motivation, some of these guys. They dont have any motivation to do anything, so they get bored. And so they start taking these synthetic drugs and everything that is brought in there. And thats where the violence comes in. Because youve got young guys with a lot of energy who dont care.

Carla Crowder, executive director of the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, said theres little or no progress to show in the year since the DOJ report. Alabama Appleseed is part of Alabamians for Fair Justice, a coalition of inmates family members and advocates who showed up in force at legislative committee meetings.

Calling the situation a crisis is a long way from fixing it, Crowder said in an email. I would love to see evidence that the Alabama Legislature or the Ivey Administration has implemented something, anything, after a full year of promising, planning, and studying. But there has been no action. They dragged their feet and now with COVID-19, weve got another crisis and prisons are no longer even a priority. Is anyone in Montgomery talking about fixing prisons this month?

The DOJ report did trigger new activity from state officials after it was issued.

Legislature

Ivey appointed a study group chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Champ Lyons. In a final report from the group, Lyons stressed the urgent need for action and the need to reduce prison recidivism. The groups work led to legislation endorsed by the governor, including measures to improve rehabilitation, increase oversight of prisons, and make some nonviolent offenders eligible for new sentences.

Lawmakers have not passed any of the bills. The coronavirus pandemic has brought the legislative session to a halt until at least April 28.

Rep. Connie Rowe, R-Jasper, a member of the study group, said she believes some of the reform bills were on track to become law before the pandemic struck.

The Governor has the ability to call a special session if needed and include prison legislation in the call, Rowe said in an email. "But, we dont yet know if the legislature will be able to reconvene and potentially move any legislation. All pending legislation is up in the air until we clear this public health circumstance.

"Id prefer to act sooner than later on prison issues, but I wouldnt advocate for that today or tomorrow. Shes got a full plate. In fact, I think shes spinning several full plates. The right time will come, but the situation is too fluid for us to start putting dates on any issues. First things first, and public health and safety come first."

Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, also a member of the study group and a leader in criminal justice reform efforts for years, said he believes lawmakers were in position to pass important reforms before the pandemic halted the session.

We had a very aggressive package of bills ready to go, Ward said. "In fact several of them moved out of committee before the coronavirus set in and basically shut everything down. So, I think the legislative branch of government, weve made some progress. But circumstances have kind of tied our hands."

The legislative session cant go past May 18 because of a constitutional limit of 105 days. Lawmakers figure to have their hands full just passing state budgets if they are able to resume work April 28.

Once this pandemic goes away, I think the question is going to be do we get back in a special session, Ward said. I hope the governor does call us back in. But thats her call.

The Ivey administration says its false to say the states response to the DOJ report has been all talk and no action.

In fact, it is literally the opposite, Press Secretary Maiola said in a statement. Alabama for years, decades even, neglected the challenges facing our prison system. Governor Ivey was not OK with that, and upon taking office, made the decision that this was a can the state would no longer be kicking down the road.

"As the governor has stated, there are multifaceted challenges facing the system that require a multifaceted approach. In the last year, her Study Group on Criminal Justice Policy worked with her, using data and facts, to produce a cluster of new legislation aimed to reform the states current criminal justice policy.

Crowder said the proposed legislation from the study group is a start but said it falls short of the fundamental changes needed. Alabamians for Fair Justice has called for a repeal or changes to the states habitual offender act. About 500 Alabama inmates are serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole for non-homicide crimes.

Theres nothing wrong with those bills. But they wont fix the deadliest prison system in the country," Crowder said.

New Prisons

The Ivey administration is awaiting proposals from companies to finance and build three mens prisons and lease them to the state. That plan was in the works before the DOJ report. The proposals are due April 30.

ADOC Commissioner Dunn has said new prisons will be designed to accommodate education, training, and treatment programs far better than the states aging prisons.

The DOJ report noted the poor condition of Alabama prisons. It also said new facilities alone would not fix the problems. Crowder says there are better ways to invest the money than in new prisons.

Its increasingly clear that the States plan rests entirely on the same failed strategies of the 1970s and 1980s, building new prisons that will quickly fall into disrepair and wasting billions of tax dollars that could have better been invested in education, health care, and rehabilitation, Crowder said.

Dunn and state lawmakers involved in the process have not said new prisons will fix everything, but they believe they are part of a broader solution.

The Legislature has increased the prison budget by about 25% over the last four years, to about $520 million. The governor requested a $42 million increase for next year, although the economic fallout from the pandemic puts that in doubt.

Much of the increased funding for prisons has been aimed at trying to fix a severe shortage of correctional officers and constitutional violations over mental health care cited by a federal judge in 2017. That lawsuit is ongoing.

In an interview last May about the Department of Corrections three-year strategic plan, Dunn said Alabamas spending on prisons per inmate was only about half the national average and less than other southern states.

The Legislature passed sentencing guidelines for nonviolent offenders that started in 2013 and reforms in 2015 that reduced the prison population from about 26,000 to about 21,000 over a five-year period ending in 2018. But that trend has stopped and the population is rising again.

Thrown away

Renee Aldrup of Huntsville said her son is about 13 months away from being released on a marijuana trafficking conviction. He received a 10-year sentence, with three years to serve in prison. He spent time at Limestone Correctional Facility and is now at the North Alabama Community Work Center in Decatur. Aldrup said she printed and read the DOJ report a year ago but doesnt think it has made any difference.

Its like the men and women in the prison system in Alabama are just thrown away," Aldrup said. "My son made one mistake. He is the kind of person that will give you the shirt off his back. He made a mistake. He got caught. Hes manned up and hes paying for it, doing his time.

Aldrup said the state should pass sentencing reforms that allow more flexibility to consider cases individually. She said the prison population has to be reduced.

You get all these guys in there and theyre practically on top of one another, Aldrup said. "Theres barely 40 inches between beds. A grown man cant even spread his arms out and not be touching another persons bed. And thats one thing that needs to be done.

And the sooner its done, the better. Because there are people there that can be released safely into society without posing any risk or threat."

Like Gunn, Aldrup said the idleness leads to violence.

Theyre angry, theyre tired, theyre hungry, theyre scared, Aldrup said. "And with a lot of them, thats the way they express how theyre feeling is they resort to violence. And thats got to stop. Thats got to stop. So many people have died at the hands of other inmates inside our Alabama prisons.

Updated at 2:42 p.m. to add statement from the Alabama Department of Corrections.
07.04.2020 LISTEN

The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) says it has noted with grave concern Government's proposal to amend Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) to access the Ghana Heritage Fund (GHF) as part of proposed fiscal measures to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a press statement, the Chairman of the committee, Mr Noble Wadzah, acknowledged the threat the COVID-19 pandemic poses to the Ghanaian society and the world at large, in which he commends the efforts of government and citizens on containing the pandemic.

He however stated that there have been previous attempts by successive governments to access the Heritage Fund for various reasons, to which PIAC objected.

He stated that the proposals put forward by Government would involve an amendment of the PRMA. Hence, any amendment of the PRMA would come across as reactionary and a risky option, which when unchecked could provide a recipe for abuse of the intent of the law at the least opportunity.

He stated that accessing the Heritage Fund will not only dim the spirit of the law but derail the Countrys intended purpose of applying international best governance practises to our Hydrocarbon Resources therefore PIAC posits that, the country risks slipping back into the very terrain that necessitated the promulgation of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act in 2011.

Mr Noble Wadzah urges Government not to disturb the arrangements that underpin the PRMA.

Read full statement below:

PRESS RELEASE

Utilisation Of The Ghana Heritage Fund For COVID-19 Alleviation Programme

PIACs Position

The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) notes with grave concern Governments proposal to amend the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) to access the Ghana Heritage Fund (GHF) as part of proposed fiscal measures to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a body whose membership represents a broad spectrum of the Ghanaian society, the Committees position articulated in this statement is informed by its mandate under Act 815, to provide independent assessment on the management and use of Ghanas petroleum revenues; by faithfully adhering to the principles and philosophy that informed the passage of the PRMA in the first place.

It is worth noting that there have been previous attempts by successive governments to access the Heritage Fund for various reasons, to which PIAC objected. The Committees position is consistent with its understanding of the spirit of the PRMA on the management and use of the Ghana Heritage Fund (GHF)  to cater for the intergenerational ownership of the petroleum resource as well as the shared compensation on the adverse effects of petroleum extraction.

The Committee acknowledges the threat the COVID-19 pandemic poses to the Ghanaian society and the world at large, in which regard the Committee commends the efforts of government and citizens focused on containing the pandemic.

Governments search for resources to address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is in the right direction.

PIAC observes with interest, governments intention to lower the cap on the Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF) to US$100 million in order to use the excess for contingency purposes.

The PRMA is not oblivious of national emergencies, and made provision for transfers from the Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF) into the Contingency Fund. However, governments over the years have made limited petroleum revenue transfers to the Contingency Fund thereby depriving it of the needed resources for addressing emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF) is meant for shoring up the ABFA in times of budget shortfalls, providing for contingency, and debt servicing. However, withdrawals from the Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF) over the years have been heavily tilted in favour of debt servicing, as against a balance between the budget, debt servicing, and contingency purposes.

Again, the Committee notes that, although the Heritage Fund is primarily future generation-oriented, it equally provides opportunity for the current generation to benefit from the interest earned on the Funds investment after 15 years of coming into force of the PRMA, to be determined by a two-third majority vote of Parliament.

It is worth emphasising that, the Heritage Fund receives ONLY nine (9) percent of the countrys petroleum revenues in a given fiscal year. This makes available a whopping 91 percent of petroleum revenue for government spending.

The Committee is also concerned that, although the Health Sector has featured in the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) expenditure since 2011, yet allocations to the Sector have been paltry, even after its selection (Health sector) as a priority area for the period 2017 - 2019. This pattern has translated into the poor state of the countrys health system, as exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recommendations

The proposals put forward by Government would involve an amendment of the PRMA. Any amendment of the PRMA would come across as reactionary and a risky option, which when unchecked could provide a recipe for abuse of the intent of the law at the least opportunity.

Accessing the Heritage Fund will not only dim the spirit of the law but derail the Countrys intended purpose of applying international best governance practises to our Hydrocarbon Resources. PIAC posits that, the country risks slipping back into the very terrain that necessitated the promulgation of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act in 2011.

 For the short term, government must review and reduce planned 2020 ABFA expenditure, and apply the savings to the COVID-19 Alleviation Programme (CAP). Reduce the capital expenditure focusing on roads and infrastructure.

 Considering that in the best of times since 2011, petroleum revenue constitutes just 10 percent of total government revenues, PIAC recommends that other domestic revenue sources such as cocoa and minerals should be explored, given that these sectors are still in active operation.

 Going forward, there must be a balance in allocating funds to the budget, the Sinking and Contingency Funds, as skewed withdrawals towards debt servicing have not prepared the country for national emergencies.

 Even though the Health Sector is a priority area for ABFA expenditure, the pandemic has reinforced the critical nature of the Sector, with its interconnections to economic development, national security, food security, and the survival of the citizenry. Government must therefore review allocations to the sector vis-a-vis allocations to other priority areas (Roads & Rail, Education and Agriculture).

 PIAC supports the use of part of the Stabilisation Fund for Covid-19 but is against the utilisation of the Heritage Fund for Covid-19.

Therefore having made these recommendations, PIAC strongly urges Government not to disturb the arrangements that underpin the PRMA.

Signed

Mr Noble Wadzah

Chairman, PIAC

Interview Contacts:

1. Mr. Noble Wadzah  0242257972

2. Prof. Akosua Darkwah  0208141466

3. Mr. Mark O.A. Agyemang  0268469445
India is capable of producing 40 metric tons of HCQ every month

India has eased restrictions on the export of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) that is now being used as a possible treatment for COVID-19.

In order to ensure adequate domestic supplies of the drug, India had initially banned its exports. Later on, when more than 10 countries requested the supply of HCQ, India had to make a decision.

US President Trump had called Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to supply the anti-malaria drug as the number of cases continue to rise in the US.

According to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), India is capable of producing 40 metric tons of HCQ every month. The Department of Pharmaceuticals and Ministry of External Affairs is yet to decide on the allocations of the drug to different countries. Meanwhile, the government has placed orders for the drug supply to Ipca laboratories and Zydus Cadila.

On the other hand, the industry is appealing to the government to reconsider this lifting of the ban. Eventually, an escalation in domestic demand might lead to a shortage in the drug supply in India.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-08 00:36:45|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, April 8 (Xinhua) -- A spokesperson of the Commissioner's Office of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Tuesday slammed some U.S. politicians for their arbitrary interference with Hong Kong affairs, saying it is the real threat to the principle of "one country, two systems" and Hong Kong's Basic Law.

The commissioner's office issued a statement in reply to the unwarranted remarks targeting Hong Kong and China as a whole made by members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

The spokesperson pointed out that since Hong Kong's return, the central government has stayed committed to the policies of "one country, two systems" and "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" with a high degree of autonomy, strictly abided by the Constitution and the Basic Law, and ensured unprecedented rights and freedoms for the Hong Kong people.

Hong Kong outperforms the U.S. in terms of both the rule of law and freedom, ranking 16th, up from below 60 before its return, and the third respectively. Therefore, the U.S. lawmakers are in no position to point fingers at human rights, freedoms and the rule of law in Hong Kong, said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson pointed out that he who keeps blaming others is exactly the one who is to blame. External forces, including the U. S. lawmakers in question, have long colluded with local activists trying to sow trouble in Hong Kong and China at large, applied blatant double standards, and deliberately distorted the policy of "one country, two systems" and the principles of the Basic Law on the pretext of championing human rights and freedoms, in a bid to obstruct the comprehensive and accurate implementation of the Basic Law.

These forces now have gone even further, and attempted to shift the blame by accusing the central and the SAR governments of violating the Basic Law and the policy of "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" and eroding Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy, said the spokesperson.

Their true motive is to turn Hong Kong into an independent or semi-independent political entity, and a base for infiltration, sabotage, secession and subversion against China as a whole, which is the real threat to the principle of "one country, two systems" and the Basic Law, and a menace to China's sovereignty and security and Hong Kong's prosperity and stability, said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson emphasized that all Chinese people, including compatriots in Hong Kong, are firmly against U.S. interference in Hong Kong affairs under the so-called Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

"We will hit back at and take firm countermeasures against any attempt to undermine China's sovereignty and security and Hong Kong's prosperity and stability." Enditem
A group of European privacy experts has proposed a decentralized system for Bluetooth-based COVID-19 contacts tracing which they argue offers greater protection against abuse and misuse of people's data than apps which pull data into centralized pots.

The protocol -- which they're calling Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (DP-PPT) -- has been designed by around 25 academics from at least seven research institutions across Europe, including the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich and KU Leuven in Belgium.

They've published a White Paper detailing their approach here.

The key element is that the design entails local processing of contacts tracing and risk on the user's device, based on devices generating and sharing ephemeral Bluetooth identifiers (referred to as EphIDs in the paper).

A backend server is used to push data out to devices -- i.e. when an infected person is diagnosed with COVID-19 a health authority would sanction the upload from the person's device of a compact representation of EphIDs over the infectious period which would be sent to other devices so they could locally compute whether there is a risk and notify the user accordingly.

Under this design there's no requirement for pseudonymized IDs to be centralized, where the pooled data would pose a privacy risk. Which in turn should make it easier to persuade EU citizens to trust the system -- and voluntarily download contacts tracing app using this protocol -- given it's architected to resist being repurposed for individual-level state surveillance.

The group does discuss some other potential threats -- such as posed by tech savvy users who could eavesdrop on data exchanged locally, and decompile/recompile the app to modify elements -- but the overarching contention is such risks are small and more manageable vs creating centralized pots of data that risk paving the way for 'surveillance creep', i.e. if states use a public health crisis as an opportunity to establish and retain citizen-level tracking infrastructure.

Story continues

The DP-PPT has been designed with its own purpose-limited dismantling in mind, once the public health crisis is over.

"Our protocol is demonstrative of the fact that privacy-preserving approaches to proximity tracing are possible, and that countries or organisations do not need to accept methods that support risk and misuse," writes professor Carmela Troncoso, of EPFL. "Where the law requires strict necessity and proportionality, and societal support is behind proximity tracing, this decentralized design provides an abuse-resistant way to carry it out."

In recent weeks governments all over Europe have been leaning on data controllers to hand over user data for a variety of coronavirus tracking purposes. Apps are also being scrambled to market by the private sector -- including symptom reporting apps that claim to help researchers fight the disease. While tech giants spy PR opportunities to repackage persistent tracking of Internet users for a claimed public healthcare cause, however vague the actual utility.

The next big coronavirus tech push looks likely to be contacts-tracing apps: Aka apps that use proximity-tracking Bluetooth technology to map contacts between infected individuals and others.

This is because without some form of contacts tracing there's a risk that hard-won gains to reduce the rate of infections by curtailing people's movements will be reversed, i.e. once economic and social activity is opened up again. Although whether contacts tracing apps can be as effective at helping to contain COVID-19 as policymakers and technologists hope remains an open question.

What's crystal clear right now, though, is that without a thoughtfully designed protocol that bakes in privacy by design contacts-tracing apps present a real risk to privacy -- and, where they exist, to hard-won human rights.

Torching rights in the name of combating COVID-19 is neither good nor necessary is the message from the group backing the DP-PPT protocol.

"One of the major concerns around centralisation is that the system can be expanded, that states can reconstruct a social graph of who-has-been-close-to-who, and may then expand profiling and other provisions on that basis. The data can be co-opted and used by law enforcement and intelligence for non-public health purposes," explains University College London's Dr Michael Veale, another backer of the decentralized design.

"While some countries may be able to put in place effective legal safeguards against this, by setting up a centralised protocol in Europe, neighbouring countries become forced to interoperate with it, and use centralised rather than decentralised systems too. The inverse is true: A decentralised system puts hard technical limits on surveillance abuses from COVID-19 bluetooth tracking across the world, by ensuring other countries use privacy-protective approaches."

"It is also simply not necessary," he adds of centralizing proximity data. "Data protection by design obliges the minimisation of data to that which is necessary for the purpose. Collecting and centralising data is simply not technically necessary for Bluetooth contact tracing."

Last week we reported on another EU effort -- by a different coalition of technologists and scientists, led by by Germanys Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute for telecoms (HHI) -- which has said it's working on a "privacy preserving" standard for Covid-19 contacts tracing which they've dubbed: Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT).

At the time it wasn't clear whether or not the approach was locked to a centralized model of handling the pseudoanonymized IDs. Speaking to TechCrunch today, Hans-Christian Boos, one of the PEPP-PT projects co-initiators, confirmed the standardization effort will support both centralized and decentralized approaches to handling contacts tracing.

The effort had faced criticizm from some in the EU privacy community for appearing to favor a centralized rather than decentralized approach -- thereby, its critics contend, undermining the core claim to preserve user privacy. But, per Boos, it will in fact support both approaches -- in a bid to maximize uptake around the world.

He also said it will be interoperable regardless of whether data is centralized or decentralized. (In the centralized scenario, he said the hope is that the not-for-profit that's being set up to oversee PEPP-PT will be able to manage the centralized servers itself, pending proper financing -- a step intended to further shrink the risk of data centralization in regions that lacks a human rights frameworks, for example.)

"We will have both options -- centralized and decentralized," Boos told TechCrunch. "We will offer both solutions, depending on who wants to use what, and we'll make them operable. But I'm telling you that both solutions have their merits. I know that in the crypto community there is a lot of people who want decentraliztion -- and I can tell you that in the health community there's a lot of people who hate decentralization because they're afraid that too many people have information about infected people."

"In a decentralized system you have the simple problem that you would broadcast the anonymous IDs of infected people to everybody -- so some countries' health legislation will absolutely forbid that. Even though you have a cryptographic method, you're broadcasting the IDs to all over the place -- that's the only way your local phone can find out have I been in contact or no," Boos went on.

"That's the drawback of a decentralized solution. Other than that it's a very good thing. On a centralized solution you have the drawback that there is a single operator, whom you can choose to trust or not to trust -- has access to anonymized IDs, just the same as if they were broadcast. So the question is you can have one party with access to anonymized IDs or do you have everybody with access to anonymized IDs because in the end you're broadcasting them over the network [because] it's spoofable."

"If your assumption is that someone could hack the centralized service... then you have to also assume that someone could hack a router, which stuff goes through," he added. "Same problem.

"That's why we offer both solutions. We're not religious. Both solutions offer good privacy. Your question is who would you trust more and who would you un-trust more? Would you trust more a lot of users that you broadcast something to or would you trust more someone who operates a server? Or would you trust more that someone can hack a router or that someone can hack the server? Both is possible, right. Both of these options are totally valid options -- and it's a religious discussion between crypto people... but we have to balance it between what crypto wants and what healthcare wants. And because we can't make that decision we will end up offering both solutions.

"I think there has to be choice because if we are trying to build an international standard we should try and not be part of a religious war."

Boos also said the project aims to conduct research into the respective protocols (centralized vs decentralized) to compare and conduct risk assessments based on access to the respective data.

"From a data protection point of view that data is completely anonymized because there's no attachment to location, there's no attachment to time, there's no attachment to phone number, MAC address, SIM number, any of those. The only thing you know there is a contact -- a relevant contact between two anonymous IDs. That's the only thing you have," he said. "The question that we gave the computer scientists and the hackers is if we give you this list -- or if we give you this graph, what could you derive from it? In the graph they are just numbers connected to each other, the question is how can you derive anything from it? They are trying -- let's see what's coming out."

"There are lots of people trying to be right about this discussion. It's not about being right; it's about doing the right thing -- and we will supply, from the initiative, whatever good options there are. And if each of them have drawbacks we will make those drawbacks public and we will try to get as much confirmation and research in on these as we can. And we will put this out so people can make their choices which type of the system they want in their geography," he added.

"If it turns out that one is doable and one is completely not doable then we will drop one -- but so far both look doable, in terms of 'privacy preserving', so we will offer both. If one turns out to be not doable because it's hackable or you could derive meta-information at an unacceptable risk then we would drop it completely and stop offering the option."

On the interoperability point Boos described it as "a challenge" which he said boils down to how the systems calculate their respective IDs -- but he emphasized it's being worked on and is an essential piece.

"Without that the whole thing doesn't make sense," he told us. "It's a challenge why the option isn't out yet but we're solving that challenge and it'll definitely work... There's multiple ideas how to make that work."

"If every country does this by itself we won't have open borders again," he added. "And if in a country there's multiple applications that don't share data then we won't have a large enough set of people participating who can actually make infection tracing possible -- and if there's not a single place where we can have discussions about what's the right thing to do about privacy well then probably everybody will do something else and half of them will use phone numbers and location information."

The PEPP-PT coalition has not yet published its protocol or any code. Which means external experts wanting to chip in with informed feedback on specific design choices related to the proposed standard haven't been able to get their hands on the necessary data to carry out a review.

Boos said they intend to open source the code this week, under a Mozilla licence. He also said the project is willing to take on "any good suggestions" as contributions.

"Currently only beta members have access to it because those have committed to us that they will update to the newest version," he said. "We want to make sure that when we publish the first release of code it should have gone through data privacy validation and security validation -- so we are as sure as we can be that there's no major change that someone on an open source system might skip."

The lack of transparency around the protocol had caused concern among privacy experts -- and led to calls for developers to withhold support pending more detail. And even to speculation that European governments may be intervening to push the effort towards a centralized model -- and away from core EU principles of data protection by design and default.

I read this as saying that the PEPP-PT enables different configurations, depending on what the user (government, platform) prefers. That is not DPbDD. Also I got no answer to the question who are the partners, what NDAs are involved and what downstream data-flows are enabled.  Mireille Hildebrandt (@mireillemoret) April 6, 2020

As it stands, the EU's long-standing data protection law bakes in principles such as data minimization. Transparency is another core requirement. And just last week the bloc's lead privacy regulator, the EDPS, told us it's monitoring developments around COVID-19 contacts tracing apps.

"The EDPS supports the development of technology and digital applications for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and is monitoring these developments closely in cooperation with other national Data Protection Supervisory Authorities. It is firmly of the view that the GDPR is not an obstacle for the processing of personal data which is considered necessary by the Health Authorities to fight the pandemic," a spokesman told us.

"All technology developers currently working on effective measures in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic should ensure data protection from the start, e.g. by applying apply data protection by design principles. The EDPS and the data protection community stand ready to assist technology developers in this collective endeavour. Guidance from data protection authorities is available here: EDPB Guidelines 4/2019 on Article 25 Data Protection by Design and by Default; and EDPS Preliminary Opinion on Privacy by Design."

We also understand the European Commission is paying attention to the sudden crop of coronavirus apps and tools -- with effectiveness and compliance with European data standards on its radar.

However, at the same time, the Commission has been pushing a big data agenda as part of a reboot of the bloc's industrial strategy that puts digitization, data and AI at the core. And just today Euroactiv reported on leaked documents from the EU Council which say EU Member States and the Commission should "thoroughly analyse the experiences gained from the COVID-19 pandemic" in order to inform future policies across the entire spectrum of the digital domain.

So even in the EU there is a high level appetite for data that risks intersecting with the coronavirus crisis to drive developments in a direction that might undermine individual privacy rights. Hence the fierce push back from certain pro-privacy quarters for contacts tracing to be decentralized -- to guard against any state data grabs.

For his part Boos argues that what counts as best practice 'data minimization' boils down to a point of view on who you trust more. "You could make an argument [for] both [deccentralized and centralized approaches] that they're data minimizing -- just because there's data minimization at one point doesn't mean you have data minimization overall in a decentralized system," he suggests.

"It's a question who do you trust? It's who would you trust more -- that's the real question. I see the critical point of data as not the list of anonymized contacts -- the critical data is the confirmed infected.

"A lot of this is an old, religious discussion between centralization and decentralization," he added. "Generally IT oscillates between those tools; total distribution, total centralization... Because none of those is a perfect solution. But here in this case I think both offer valid security options, and then they have both different implications on what you're willing to do or not willing to do with medical data. And then you've got to make a decision.

"What we have to do is we've got to make sure that the options are available. And we've got to make sure there's sound research, not just conjecture, in heavyweight discussions: How does what work, how do they compare, and what are the risks?"

In terms of who's involved in PEPP-PT discussions, beyond direct project participants, Boos said governments and health ministries are involved for the practical reason that they "have to include this in their health processes". "A lot of countries now create their official tracing apps and of course those should be connected to the PEPP-PT," he said.

"We also talk to the people in the health systems -- whatever is the health system in the respective countries -- because this needs to in the end interface with the health system, it needs to interface with testing... it should interface with infectious disease laws so people could get in touch with the local CDCs without revealing their privacy to us or their contact information to us, so that's the conversation we're also having."

Developers with early (beta) access are kicking the tyres of the system already. Asked when the first apps making use of PEPP-PT technologies might be in general circulation Boos suggested it could be as soon as a couple of weeks.

"Most of them just have to put this into their tracing layer and we've already given them enough information so that they know how they can connect this to their health processes. I don't think this will take long," he said, noting the project is also providing a tracing reference app to help countries that haven't got developer resource on tap.

"For user engagement you'll have to do more than just tracing -- you'll have to include, for example, the information from the CDC... but we will offer the skeletal implementation of an app to make starting this as a project [easier]," he said.

"If all the people that have emailed us since last week put it in their apps [we'll get widespread uptake]," Boos added. "Let's say 50% do I think we get a very good start. I would say that the influx from countries and I would say companies especially who want their workforce back -- there's a high pressure especially to go on a system that allows international exchange and interoperability."

On the wider point of whether contacts tracing apps is a useful tool to help control the spread of this novel coronavirus -- which has shown itself to be highly infectious, more so than flu, for example -- Boos said: "I don't think there's much argument that isolating infection is important, the problem with this disease is there's zero symptoms while you're already contagious. Which means that you can't just go and measure the temperature of people and be fine. You actually need that look into the past. And I don't think that can be done accurately without digital help.

"So if the theory that you need to isolate infection chains is true at all, which many diseases have shown that it is -- but each disease is different, so there's no 100% guarantee, but all the data speaks for it -- then that is definitely something that we need to do... The argument [boils down to] if we have so many infected as we currently have, does this make sense -- do we not end up very quickly, because the world is so interconnected, with the same type of lockdown mechanism?

"This is why it only makes sense to come out with an app like this when you have broken these R0 values [i.e how many other people one infected person can infect] -- once you've got it under 1 and got the number of cases in your country down to a good level. And I think that in the language of an infectious disease person this means going back to the approach of containing the disease, rather than mitigating the disease -- what we're doing now."

"The approach of contact chain evaluation allows you to put better priorities on testing -- but currently people don't have the real priority question, they have a resource question on testing," he added. "Testing and tracing are independent of each other. You need both; because if you're tracing contacts and you can't get tested what's that good for? So yes you definitely [also] need the testing infrastructure for sure."

This article was updated with a correction -- we originally stated KU Leuven is in the Netherlands; in fact it's in Belgium
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Tommy Larsen of Randall Manor reached out to the Advance/SILive.com and noted the quietness in the neighborhood.

Its so quiet on Forest Avenue at night I can hear the fish swimming in Clove Lakes, he joked.

Well, at least we can hear the church bells in West Brighton with so few airplanes, no landscaping or construction noises and little vehicular traffic. And it just became more quiet with some temporary closures of food places on the North Shore as of this weekend -- Dicks Deli, Project Brunch and Bella Famiglia, each of West Brighton, plus Bootleg Mannings in Mariners Harbor. Add that to all the Asian restaurants closed now since mid-March plus reduced hours at Pastosa, CVS and Key Food and youve got yourself a relatively still neighborhood.

A "thank you" to the staff at Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton, Sunday, April 5, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)

Jordan Berber of Rossville Delivery travels through the South Shore on food service deliveries. He also notes how quiet things are along his regular routes. He was stunned that My Brothers Deli closed, a 24/7 outfit next to the Sunoco gas station at Arthur Kill and Bloomingdale roads.

Woodrow Plaza at 6:50 p.m. on Monday, April 6, 2020 during the coronavirus crisis. (Courtesy of Rossville Delivery)

I never saw them closed, Berber admits.

One of the busiest places, Woodrow plaza is empty," Berber added, pointing to EAT Italian and Heartland Bagels II now shut, among other formerly busy spots like Starbucks.

Rossville: at 6:53 p.m. on Monday, April 6, 2020 during the coronavirus crisis. (Courtesy of Rossville Delivery)

He nods to other closures like Sals Bakery in Richmond Valley, Belli Baci in Tottenville and Annadale Bakery.

Rossville Plaza at 6:50 p.m. on Monday, April 6, 2020.

And on the topic of bakeries: it is remarkable how many have halted business at such a prime time of the year. Gone from the options for Easter week are Buono Bakery in Grasmere, Heartland Bagels in New Springville, Royal Crown Bakery in Dongan Hills, Filoncino Cafe and Bakery in Eltingville, Bagel Depot in Richmond, Piece A Cake in New Dorp plus Cookie Jar in West Brighton.

But well see. Some restaurant owners are taking things day-by-day, seeing what the news brings and what employees show up to work.

And there is good news today.

Maurizio Asperti of Basilio Inn in South Beach was elated when a customer gave hime $500 for a hospital food order today. The goodness of Staten Islanders is encouraging, he said, and it motivates him to get his Easter specials together when he reopens on Wednesday after a two-day respite. Hes thinking lamb osso buco and other Northern Italian meat dishes as the centerpieces to the holiday to-go menu.

Alex Dushkin, owner of WhereYouEat.com, says his busiest accounts for delivery were pizzerias -- Brooklyns Finest (Grasmere), Frank & Dannys (Eltingville), Mr. Pizza Pasta House (New Springville), Crust Pizza (Grasmere), Tonys Brick Oven (Rosebank), Towne Deli (Tottenville), Via Napoli (Sunnyside), Ginos Pizza (Port Richmond) and Restaurant on the Plaza (New Dorp). He said they all had great runs last week.

The finer places with brisk business this first week in April, according to Dushkins stats, are Richmond Republic of Eltingville, Lobster House Joes in Dongan Hills, Blue in Livingston and Bin 5 in Rosebank.

Two phenoms in the business mix so far this month for WhereYouEat.com are 494 Chicken of Travis and Oriental Plaza. The latter restaurant, one of only two Chinese restaurants as of this weekend, was so busy that Dushkin had to disable its online ordering system periodically to allow the Willowbrook eatery to catch up.

Thats what its like day-by-day on Staten Island, covering the food business in such wild times-- a crazy world of whos up, whos down, whos switching gears -- where things change moment to moment.

Well see what happens tomorrow.

In the meantime, back at the ranch, youve asked about our rabbits. We had a peek on Palm Sunday -- it looks like five little ones in that furry nest. Our boys are skeptical of whos bringing chocolates this Sunday. It is true that bunnies will be at our house on Easter. Despite so much in flux around us, it is a sure thing that some Easter Bunny will deliver the goods.

Keep in touch.

A fur nest with a guess of five bunnies inside. The mother is particularly protective of her babies in the first week of birth (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)

Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@sidadvance.com.

**** FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE IN NEW YORK *****

FOR MORE STORIES:

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Easter 2020: Grocery stores hours on Staten Island

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ShopRite: New store hours in coronavirus crisis starting April 1

Some good news: Owner of Jimmy Max receives Outstanding Community Service Award

Restaurants open for business

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Pamelas Food Service Diary: Saturday, March 28, 2020. Staten Island, NY.

What Stop & Shop looked like in Port Richmond on Saturday, March 28, 2020

Coronavirus crisis on the restaurant business: Where has all the Chinese food and sushi gone?

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Cake Chef bakes for a world without parties

Partys cancelled: Does this mean the deposit is, too?

Health Department suspends restaurant inspections, and thats A-OK with a lot of restaurateurs

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Hippo developed a compete brand identity for the new company. Incorporating a camouflage look, Hippo designed the brand to stand out on the shelf and reflect the veteran-centric essence of the company. Hippo also created the packaging for Military Meds' full line of products, and incorporated a "soft-touch" premium paper that conveys the exceptional quality of the product.

"The packaging is beautiful," said Danny Nunan, CEO of Military Meds. "We couldn't be more pleased."

Kary Radestock, Co-Founder and CEO of Hippo Premium Packaging, said that it was an honor to work with Military Meds.

"I am thrilled to be able to help create this brand," Radestock said. "My father is a veteran, so this cause is very close to my heart."

Military Meds will initially roll out a product line of premium quality vape cartridges, tinctures, and oils. The products will be available at finer California dispensaries in early April.

"We look forward to introducing the public to our brand," Nunan said. "My father was in Vietnam and got cancer from exposure to Agent Orange. Had cannabis been legal back then, it could have helped ease his pain. I want to make sure that today's vets have access to quality, tested products that meet their specific needs."

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Car dealership business Inchcape has scrapped its dividend as part of measures to preserve cash after being hurt by the coronavirus outbreak.

The motor retailer said trading in a large number of its markets has been impacted by closures or significantly lower business activity as a result of the virus.

The UK-based firm said its global expansion is supporting its performance, with 14 markets still operating, including in Australia, Hong Kong and Ethiopia.

Inchcape said it has taken swift action to reduce its cost base and capital expenditure to mitigate the impact of the virus.

It said its board and senior management have opted to take a 20% cut in salary and fees during the second quarter in order to support the business.

UK new car registrations fall -44.4% in March as coronavirus crisis hits markethttps://t.co/yMiEU5dfuz pic.twitter.com/BNsAtD2HM6  SMMT (@SMMT) April 6, 2020

The company has also scrapped its plan to payout a 17.9p final dividend as it looks to preserve more cash.

Inchcape said it is comfortable that it has sufficient financial resources to get through the crisis, following stress testing.

However, it said it is exploring other debt options to increase its liquidity and flexibility.

Inchcape stressed to investors that it has a strong balance sheet, with the group having liquidity of around 600 million.

On Monday, industry figures revealed that the number of new cars sold in the UK in March fell by 44% compared with last year as the pandemic weighed on demand.

In a statement, Inchcape said: The safety of our colleagues and customers is of paramount importance and we are taking all necessary precautions to safeguard them.

Looking beyond the current environment, we believe Inchcape remains well placed given our strong relationships with equipment manufacture partners, focus on distribution, exposure to markets with a structural growth opportunity and supported by a strong balance sheet.

Shares in the company were up 6.7% at 465.4p in early trading.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 11:04:17|Editor: Liu

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JAKARTA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto has approved the proposal of Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan on large-scale social distancing to prevent further spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

After that, the Jakarta administration can take any restrictive measures deemed necessary to prevent further spread of COVID-19, an official said here on Tuesday.

"It was signed by the Health Minister last night (Monday)," the Head of Media and Public Opinion at the Health Ministry, Busroni, was quoted by online media Detik.com as saying.

Busroni pointed out that the Health Ministry does not have specific directives on the policy and the primary concern must the safety of the people.

"Regarding the guidelines on the large-scale social distancing, number one is a matter of human safety, and the others are adjusted to the conditions in Jakarta," Busroni said.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: On the occasion of Mahaveer Jayanti, the Jain community in Bengaluru sent out 51,000 food packets to the needy, while the Jain Temple Trust handed over a cheque of Rs 51 lakh to the Chief Minister Relief Fund towards tackling the coronavirus pandemic.

The Jain International Trade Organisation (JITO) has partnered with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, police and labour department to feed migrant labourers, contract labourers and the destitute. They began supplying cooked food since March 29 with funds collected from the Jain community and plan to distribute over seven lakh food packets by April 15.

Sajjan Raj Mehta, joint secretary, Jito, told The New Indian Express that arrangements have been made to prepare fresh food near Mekri Circle and package it hygienically. Vehicles have been arranged to distribute food packets across the city.

It is our duty to help the needy during a time of crisis and that is exactly what is being done. In the last eight days, we have distributed 3,42,000 meals, he said.
First Majestic Silver Corp. AG recently announced that it is temporarily suspending operations at all of its three mines in Mexico  San Dimas, Santa Elena and La Encantada, in accordance with Mexicos Ministry of Healths Decree to curb the spread of coronavirus. The company stated it cannot ascertain the impact of the suspension at present and consequently revoked its fiscal 2020 production and cost guidance.



Per the Decree issued by Mexicos Ministry of Health, non-essential businesses (which include mining) have to temporarily suspend activities until Apr 30, 2020. Since the announcement of the Decree on Mar 31, 2020, First Majestic, along with local and state officials, industry task force groups and other mining companies has been trying to convince the Federal Government that silver mining is essential and critical to the medical industry. This is due to silvers antibacterial properties that are proven to reduce the spread of viruses. Discussions to support silver mining as an essential business continue to be held in Mexico City. However, the Ministry of Healths has remained firm on its decision.



Meanwhile, in compliance with the Decree, First Majestic is in the process of reducing its workforce on sites and will implement care and maintenance activities during the suspension. Appropriate security and environmental procedures will remain fully functional. The company has already been following several control measures including social distancing, the cancellation of any non-essential visit to the mines, sanitation measures and pre-screening for virus symptoms. Further, access restrictions to limit travel in and out of the local communities have been implemented.



This suspension will impact First Majestics production and results this year considering that the companys operations are focused only in Mexico. In 2019, the company had produced 25.6 million silver equivalent ounces from the San Dimas, Santa Elena and La Encantada mines.

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For 2020, the company had projected that the production from San Dimas, Santa Elena and La Encantada mines will be between 11.8 to 13.2 million silver ounces or 21.5 to 24.0 million silver equivalent ounces in 2020. However, this guidance now stands withdrawn.



Another silver miner, Pan American Silver Corp. PAAS announced that it has decided to suspend its La Colorada and Dolores mining operations to comply with Mexicos Ministry of Health mandate. Newmont Corporation also planned to ramp down operations at Penasquito mine in Mexico.



Metal producers worldwide are temporarily halting their operations and suspending production as several governments are imposing restrictions to combat the spread of coronavirus. Many countries have imposed travel and border restrictions, and other measures such as constrained movement and quarantines to limit the spread.



Silver prices have slumped 19% so far this year. This decline can primarily be attributed to the coronavirus pandemic, which has disrupted global economic activity consequently weakening consumption of industrial raw materials. The metals unrivaled characteristics make it indispensable for many industrial products. In fact, industrial applications account for roughly 60% of the global silver consumption.

So far this year, First Majestics shares have fallen 50.6% compared with the industrys decline of 46.5%.



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First Majestic currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).



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DRDGOLD has an expected earnings growth rate of 562.5% for the current year. The stock has appreciated 14% so far this year.



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Delhi High Court has dismissed the interim bail plea of Shivinder Mohan Singh, the former promoter Ranbaxy Laboratories, in connection with a case related to cheating and money laundering.

Justice Mukta Gupta observed that the petitioner is allegedly involved in offence punishable with more than seven years of imprisonment, in more than one case and that too under PMLA and hence does not qualify to be released pursuant to the norms set by a High-Powered Committee, which was set up to decongest jails in the capital.

The court, in its order released on Tuesday, said that in view of the facts noted, it finds no ground to grant interim bail to the petitioner.

Singh, in his plea, had sought directions to the Superintendent of Tihar Jail to release him on interim bail for a period of 60 days due to the outbreak of coronavirus.

He is facing two cases under various charges dealing with criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy being probed by Economic Offences Wing. Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also registered a case against him under charges dealing with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Singh has sought bail on the ground related to the over-crowding in the jails, no social distancing can be maintained and thus, there is every likelihood of the petitioner being infected with COVID-19.

He also sought bail on the ground of his experience in the health sector, particularly, his experience after having worked when the Uttarakhand was flooded.

He had requested the court to allow to give him an opportunity to do community service by the grant of interim bail so that his efforts can result in an all India outreach and he will be able to initiate utilisation of available infrastructure with the Government and the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) after interacting with officers of the various Ministries and hospitals including private hospitals.

EOW opposed the interim bail application contending that the present petition is not maintainable as there was no prayer challenging the criteria of the High Powered Committee.

The ED also opposed the bail plea saying that the allegations against Singh are serious in nature and as per the charge sheet, a sum of approximately Rs 2,400 crores has been siphoned off by the petitioner and the co-accused in the shell companies and to themselves.

In a status report filed by the Superintendent, Prisons (Headquarters), jail authority said that steps are taken for reducing the over-crowding in the jail and the petitioner Singh in his cell is in isolation and thus, is maintaining social distancing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-08 02:31:23|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- After several rounds of back-and-forth court fight between the Democratic governor and the Republican-controlled legislature, presidential primaries went as scheduled Tuesday in Wisconsin, the first U.S. state where voters cast their ballots in person amid the coronavirus outbreak.

In light of the pandemic, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers issued an executive order Monday to postpone the election until June 9 and extend the deadline for absentee ballots until "the fifth day immediately preceding the new in-person election date."

The Wisconsin Supreme Court blocked the governor's executive order on the same day, keeping the primaries as planned and rendering a victory to the state's Republicans who control both the state Senate and Assembly.

"Thousands will wake up and have to choose between exercising their right to vote and staying healthy and safe," Evers said after the state Supreme Court ruling on Monday.

Shortly after the ruling, U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-to-4 along ideological lines to reverse a lower court ruling last Friday that allowed Wisconsinites to turn in their absentee ballots until April 13.

The conservative justices in the U.S. Supreme Court wrote in an opinion that they viewed the case debated in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit as a "narrow, technical question."

However, liberal-minded Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in her dissent signed by three other Democratic appointees that the Supreme Court's order would cause "massive disenfranchisement."

Wisconsin is one of the most contentiously-fought battlegrounds in the U.S. election. Polls will closes at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time Tuesday, and the state's elections commission has ordered municipal clerks not to release any results until April 13.

Due to COVID-19's unabated spread across the nation, 15 states and one territory -- Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Puerto Rico -- have either delayed their presidential primaries or canceled in-person voting, instead switching to mail-in votes with extended deadlines.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is now leading Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, his sole rival in the party's nominating contest. Incumbent President Donald Trump has already secured the Republican nomination.
Pokimane and Cizzorz will live stream Tuesday, April 7 as part of Verizon's Pay It Forward Live. (Photo: Getty Images)

Pokimane and Cizzorz of FaZe Clan team up to play Fortnite Tuesday, April 7 for the latest installment of Verizons twice-weekly Pay It Forward Live streaming series to support small businesses affected by COVID-19.

The streamers have notably crossed paths before, when Cizzorz challenged Poki to complete his now infamous escape-room-like Fortnite obstacle course, resulting in an entertaining rage quit  but tonight the two high-level players will be teaming up to chase Victory Royales together in support of a great cause.

The two superstar streamers will not only be gaming live, but they will also engage with viewers, encouraging fans to support businesses in their own communities by doing what they can to support them  shop online, make a purchase in advance for when the crisis is over and the businesses reopen, or order a meal. Verizon will also donate $10 to support small businesses, up to $2.5 million, when the hashtag #PayItForwardLive is used on Twitter.

I am honored to be included in the second #PayItForwardLIVE gaming event with Verizon, said Cizzorz. Small businesses are such an important part of my life and they are struggling right now due to the COVID crisis. I want to bring the FaZe Clan community and my voice to support this important initiative. Last weeks first Pay It Forward game streaming event featured Cizzorzs FaZe Clan colleague Nate Hill and Marshmello.

"I am proud to be a part of #PayItForwardLIVE with Verizon in support of their important initiative to help small businesses, said Pokimane. I'm so fortunate to still be able to do my job but others aren't as lucky and I hope that our efforts can help some of those in need through this crisis."

Cizzorz has been on the scene since 2011, starting his career by releasing Call of Duty: Black Ops videos on YouTube. Over the years he's set several top 50 records in various Call of Duty installments but more recently has been focused on Fortnite. Cizzorz has more than 4 million YouTube subscribers and in addition to his stellar gameplay, is known for creating uber-tough Fortnite obstacle courses, well known to be nearly impossible to complete even for pro-level players.

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Pokimane has been live streaming on Twitch since 2013 and has grown to be one of the most popular streamers on the platform, amassing more than 100 million views there. Initially starting out by playing and commentating the super popular MOBA (multiplayer online battle areana) game League of Legends, Poki hopped on the Fortnite train in 2018. In addition to being one of the most popular streamers on Twitch, she also runs two extremely successful YouTube channels with a combined subscriber count topping 5 million.

To find out more about what Verizon is doing to help customers and small businesses, visit verizon.com/about/news/our-response-coronavirus.

Verizon is the parent company of Yahoo.

For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow along at https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference the CDC and WHOs resource guides.
Patna: Police in Patna on Monday had to resort to lathi charge at many places to stop people from blatantly flouting the coronavirus lockdown order. Throughout the day, police carried out spot checks of areas known for drawing crowd like grocery shops and vegetable markets.

Authorities confiscated dozens of private vehicles, mostly two-wheelers, that were found to be in violation of the mandated curfew and fined thousands of people to the tune of Rs. 4 lakh.

Police, after a few days of remaining out of sight, sprung to action on Monday and set road blockades in many areas including Kankarbagh, Gardanibagh, Patrakar Nagar, Gandhi Maidan, Dak Bungalow Crossing, Boring Road, Bailey Road, SK Puri, and Ashok Rajpath where they stopped nearly 250 bikers and motorists and collected fines from them before allowing them to leave with a stern warning.

The worst case of defiance of social distancing rule was witnessed in Sheikhpura where hundreds of people, nearly rubbing shoulder to shoulder, came out of their homes to fill the local shopping areas for food and other essential items.

When people refused to follow police order to return home, authorities used light force to disperse the crowd. As reported, similar force was used in other areas including Raja Bazaar and Kankarbagh where people had gathered in large numbers.
In the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Washington Speakers Bureau will be hosting a series of free virtual events and discussions with some of our top experts aiming to help organizations face the challenges ahead. Discussions will focus on health, the economy, resilience, crisis management, adaptability, leadership, and other key topics in this unprecedented time.

On Wednesday, April 8, at 2 p.m. EDT, WSB will host an hourlong virtual discussion on Leadership and a New World Order: The Need for Resilience, featuring retired U.S. Navy four-star admirals William H. McRaven and James Stavridis, moderated by Fox News @ Night Anchor Shannon Bream. The wide-ranging conversation will cover leadership, resilience, our military's role in the war against COVID-19, and America in a post-pandemic world.

McRaven is a recognized national authority on U.S. foreign policy and has advised Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and other U.S. leaders on defense issues. During his time in the military, he commanded special operations forces at every level, eventually taking charge of the U.S. Special Operations Command. He commanded the troops that captured Saddam Hussein and rescued Captain Phillips. McRaven, who explores resilient leadership through crisis for organizational leaders, is also credited with developing the plan and leading the Osama bin Laden mission in 2011.

Stavridis is a retired 4-star admiral in the U.S. Navy who led the NATO Alliance in global operations from 2009 to 2013 as Supreme Allied Commander with responsibility for Afghanistan, Libya, the Balkans, Syria, counter piracy, and cyber security. Subsequently, he served for five years as the 12th dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Earlier in his naval career, he also served as Commander of U.S. Southern Command, with responsibility for all military operations in Latin America from 2006-2009. He holds more than 50 medals, including 28 from foreign nations. Stavridis draws on his expertise in US-China relations and innovation to discuss leadership, supply chain, and cybersecurity on the global stage.

Bream is the anchor of Fox News @ Night and Chief Legal Correspondent for the Fox News Channel. She's covered numerous political campaigns, landmark Supreme Court decisions, and Washington scandals. Prior to landing at Fox News, Shannon worked at local affiliates WFTS (ABC) in Tampa, FL, WBTV (CBS) in Charlotte, NC and WRC-TV (NBC) in Washington, DC. Before entering the world of media, she was a lawyer specializing in race discrimination and sexual harassment cases.

Previously, as part of the series, WSB hosted a revealing and authentic conversation featuring world-renowned photographer, Platon, and Emergency Medicine Physician and Netflix series Pandemic co-creator Ryan McGarry, M.D. In a prophetic warning, Dr. McGarry had created the series that was released just months before the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic of 2019-2020 became known.

At WSB, we understand the transformative power of real-world human connections. We aim to create experiences that spark engagement, enable change, and enrich lives.

Please contact us for more information:

Washington Speakers Bureau

833.972.8255 | [email protected]

www.wsb.com

SOURCE Washington Speakers Bureau

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http://www.wsb.com


She won the hearts of the nation when she was crowned the Queen of the Jungle on I'm A Celebrity last year

And Jacqueline Jossa has revealed the reason behind why she signed up to the show after years of thinking the ITV reality competition could potentially ruin her acting career.

The mum-of-two, 27, spoke to TOWIE's Bobby Norris via an Instagram Live on Tuesday, where Jacqueline explained she took part in the show to 'gain control' over the constant speculation her marriage with Dan Osborne was on the rocks.

Revelations: Jacqueline Jossa has revealed the reason behind why she signed up to I'm A Celeb after years of thinking the ITV reality competition could potentially ruin her acting career

Jacqueline married former TOWIE star Dan, 28, in 2017 and has had to deal with numerous allegations he has cheated on her during their three year marriage.

The former EastEnders star told Bobby: 'If you'd ask me four years ago would you ever do the jungle I would say no.

'Back then people would judge you if you were to do it, it would ruin your career. I've never done anything like that before. I was an actress and I thought if I do this "will I ever work again? Will I be in the reality world?"

Personal life: The mum-of-two, 27 explained she took part in the show to 'gain control' over the constant speculation her marriage with Dan Osborne was on the rocks

Discussion: Jacqueline spoke to TOWIE's Bobby Norris via an Instagram Live on Tuesday

'But then I was sort of already in that world in my reality TV life. All I've ever done before the jungle was EastEnders, Good Morning Britain and Loose Women interviews, that is literally it. Ive never done anything like that before.

After departing EastEnders, Jacqueline said she was determined to take the narrative back on her personal life following Dan's cheating rumours.

She said: 'My life was already getting ripped to shreds already and I thought this is almost a way of gaining control back and being like this is me", who I am as a person. I thought this is time now.

Change of heart: The former EastEnders star told Bobby: 'If you'd ask me four years ago would you ever do the jungle I would say no'

'I kind of just want to be able to be myself and not to keep walking about judging in they are a different version of me.'

Jacqueline, who previously said she has a new found confidence since winning the show, admitted she has 'no regrets at all' in taking part.

During her time in the jungle, rumours surfaced that Dan had a threesome with Celebrity Big Brother co-stars Chloe Ayling and Natalie Nunn in 2018.

After endless denials, Dan finally admitted last year he had been unfaithful and then referenced his misgivings in a post showing him in 2010 and now while surrounded by his three children.

Dan and Jacqueline share daughters Ella, four, and Mia, 18 months, while Dan is father to six-year-old son Teddy from a previous relationship.
Dutch Bros Coffee will donate 100% of its April profits to medical first responders, the company announced this week.

The coffee shop chain plans to give those profits to #FirstRespondersFirst, a fundraising organization that seeks to provide essential supplies, equipment and resources including gowns, gloves, and masks to front-line medical workers.

Dutch Bros previously committed $1 million in relief through its affiliated Dutch Bros Foundation, with half of those funds earmarked for the United Ways Safety Net fund in each of the seven Western states where Dutch Bros does business. The company operates nearly 400 cafes, with more than 150 in Oregon.

On March 25, the Grants Pass-based company announced it would stop accepting cash payments, serve drinks exclusively through its drive-thru windows and pay its broistas an additional $3 per hour in thank you pay through April 24. But the company has also struggled to implement social distancing within each locations tight quarters. On April 2, Willamette Week reported that a dozen Dutch Bros employees in Oregon had filed COVID-19-related complaints with Oregon Occupational Safety & Health.

-- Michael Russell, mrussell@oregonian.com, @tdmrussell

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Two men who have survived the coronavirus infection and spent time on intensive care wards have shared their experience of fighting the disease as Boris Johnson battles the killer infection in hospital.

Matt Dockray, 39, described the illness as 'the most horrible experience you will go through,' when he appeared on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday.

The father-of-one said: 'It's a horrible, horrible experience. You're very lonely. You don't have any friends or family there so you don't have that emotional, personal support you rely on in your hardest times.'

Choosing to offer a message of hope, father-of-two Andrew Hodge said: 'I want people to realise they can survive this'.

Andrew Hodge, 54, from Laleham, near Staines, who has recovered from coronavirus, celebrating his birthday back home on April 3

Mr Hodge, an electrical engineer who spent six days in intensive care, said: 'I dont want to dilute the seriousness of it, but I want people to realise they can survive this.

'There is so much negative communication about how many people have died, as opposed to how many have survived.

He praised the treatment and care he received during 10 days at St Peters Hospital in Chertsey, describing the team there as 'phenomenal and attentive'.

Mr Hodge, husband to Dawn and father to Isabella, 17, and Genevieve, 11, also paid tribute to one nurse on Aspen ward at the hospital who simply held his hand for a while, the trust said.

The team at St Peters are 'delighted' to see Mr Hodge recovering so well back at home, and wish him all the best, the trust added.

Boris Johnson was rushed to intensive care at St Thomas' Hospital in London on Monday, he was last seen in public on the steps of Number 10 Downing Street during the nationwide clap for the NHS

Matt Dockray spent a week in intensive care fighting the coronavirus infection. He said his time in hospital was a 'horrible, horrible experience'

His comments came after Michael Gove revealed Boris Johnson had received oxygen support but had not yet been placed on a ventilator.

Mark Dockray, from Marlow, Buckinghamshire, told Good Morning Britain about the kind of treatment he received while in the ICU for a week.

He said: 'The main thing is getting oxygen in your system, I'm assuming Boris is at that stage now, they register your oxygen levels and they start getting critically low so they've got to get as much oxygen in you as possible.

'They start with a regular mask, then they try all sorts of different contraptions and ways to get 100% of oxygen into you.'

Now recovering at home, Mr Dockray spent a week in an isolated room, where he said he saw patients of all ages being admitted.

He admitted he had dark moments as he struggled to overcome the life threatening virus, saying: 'There was a point where you sort of started to lose hope and thought that was it, because you've seen this on the TV, you've seen the pictures of Italy.

'In my head that was the time to say "You've just got to fight as much as you can,"

He added: 'To go from that extreme a couple of weeks ago, ICU for a week and come out breathing, talking is a testament you can get to that point.

'There's people who have been on those ventilators for a lot longer and they've come out and lived to tell the tale.There's quite a few of us getting clapped out of the hospital that prove you can get back to normal.

'There's still a long road of recovery, it takes about six to eight weeks, but you can sit here and tell the tale and fight this.'

When he arrived back at his Marlow home, Mr Dockray said there were 'a lot of tears and emotions' as he hugged his wife and child, while celebrity chef Tom Kerridge sent him a special gift package to help him get on the mend.
Deer hunter success in North Dakota last fall fell below the states threshold for a good season for the 11th consecutive year, though state wildlife officials say its a result of changes in the hunting landscape and theyre not concerned.

Nearly 58,000 deer hunters killed about 37,250 deer during last falls gun season in North Dakota, according to a survey conducted by the state Game and Fish Department.

The state made available 65,500 deer gun licenses last year. Success for white-tailed bucks was 64%, and for does 58%. Overall hunter success was 64%.

State wildlife officials consider 70% overall success to be indicative of a quality season. Last years overall success rate was unchanged from 2018. The high in recent years was 68% in 2015, with a low of 55% in 2013.

We have other issues now that perhaps we didnt have a number of years ago which make it a little harder to reach that 70%, State Wildlife Chief Jeb Williams said.

The farming landscape has changed, with more row crops that create access issues and reduce success rates, he said. North Dakota also has experienced a loss of wildlife habitat in recent years due to oil development and reduced grassland areas resulting from changes in farming practices.

Gone are the days when deer were so plentiful that the state issued up to 150,000 licenses. Game and Fish the past four years has been steadily moving toward a new goal of 75,000 annual licenses.

I think there is more willingness now than in previous years for folks to eat their tag versus shooting a deer just to do so, Williams said. Many folks take advantage of out-of-state big game opportunities, so they dont necessarily need to harvest a deer in North Dakota to have venison in the freezer."

Hunters last fall spent an average of 4.3 days in the field. Resident hunters spend $136 per day and nonresident hunters $226 daily, according to state Tourism Division data -- meaning deer hunting contributes millions of dollars to the states economy each year.

More survey results

Hunter success for antlered white-tailed deer was 64%, and for antlerless whitetail 58%. Mule deer buck success was 78%, and for mule deer does it was 79%.

Hunters with any-antlered or any-antlerless licenses generally harvest white-tailed deer, as those licenses are predominantly in units with mostly whitetails. Buck hunters had a success rate of 68%, while doe hunters had a success rate of 65%.

Game and Fish issued 11,981 landowner gratis licenses in 2019, and 9,767 hunters harvested 5,416 deer, for a success rate of 56%.

A total of 1,206 muzzleloader licenses were issued last year, and 1,040 hunters harvested 426 white-tailed deer -- 222 antlered and 204 antlerless -- for a success rate of 41%.

A total of 27,582 archery licenses were issued, with 21,960 bow hunters harvesting 8,978 deer -- 7,988 whitetails and 990 mule deer -- for a 41% success rate.

The department is in the process of determining recommendations for 2020 licenses. Harvest rates are one of many factors in the decision, along with winter population surveys; depredation reports; hunter observations; input at advisory board meetings; and comments from the public, landowners and department field staff.

License numbers typically are announced in early May.

Reach Blake Nicholson at 701-250-8266 or blake.nicholson@bismarcktribune.com.

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This is the shocking moment a woman is kicked in the stomach as she confronts a biker for flouting the coronavirus lockdown after a thug attacked police officers who asked if his journey was essential in a separate incident.

The woman in her 50s was assaulted on Bradley Park Golf Course in Huddersfield on Sunday evening.

Jo Binns appears to try to confront the motorbike rider, who drives directly towards her in the footage.

The yob kicks out as he approaches Jo, hitting her in the chest and sending her flying backwards onto the ground.

Posting a plea on social media, Jo said: 'If anyone comes across these s***s riding motorbikes on Bradley golf course please do not approach them.'

West Yorkshire Police confirmed they are investigating the incident. Residents have previously reported off-road bikers 'terrorising' walkers and damaging conservation work in woodland near Bradley Park Golf Course during the coronavirus lockdown.

Footage surfaced after a thug knocked out a police woman and assaulted two other officers after they asked him whether his journey was 'essential' amid the coronavirus lockdown.

Nelson Nelson, 29, tried to board a train at Nottingham station on Saturday but was stopped by two police officers who asked why he was travelling.

After he threatened to 'knock them out' he was escorted off the train and told he wouldn't be allowed back on.

He flew into a rage and punched the two British Transport Police officers in the face so hard they fell to the ground, with one knocked unconscious and the other managing to get back up and chase after him.

When the police man caught up with Nelson he dragged him into the path of an oncoming bus before running off towards a building site.

A dog handler from Nottinghamshire Police was drafted in to help, but Nelson charged at him with a plank of wood studded with nails, hurting the officer and the animal.

He today pleaded guilty to a string of offences and was remanded in custody for sentencing.

Nelson Nelson, 29, of Aldridge, attacked a British Transport policewoman and man when they asked him whether his journey was essential during a routine patrol on Saturday

When officers finally arrested him, he was also found to be in possession of a lock knife.

Both BTP officers were taken to hospital for treatment.

The female officer was confirmed to have severe concussion and bruising to her face, while the male one suffered ligament damage to his jaw and thumb, as well as bruising and swelling across his body.

The Nottinghamshire Police officer and police dog thankfully were not seriously injured and didn't require treatment.

Nelson, of Aldridge, appeared at Nottingham Magistrates' Court this morning.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of Actual Bodily Harm, assault with intent to resist arrest, assault of an emergency worker, possession of an offensive weapon, possession of a bladed article, and causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

The incident happened at Nottingham train station (pictured)

Chief Inspector Gareth Davies said: 'This was a truly horrifying incident which involved a sustained attack on multiple officers and a police dog, all just trying to do their jobs.

'There is never an excuse for this sort of behaviour, but it's all the more shocking to think this violent rampage began after Nelson was simply asked if his journey was essential.

'Thankfully, no one was more seriously injured, and the officers involved are receiving the support they need.

'Let me be absolutely clear, we simply will not tolerate aggression or violence towards police officers and we will do everything in our power to ensure offenders like Nelson are brought before the courts to face justice.'

Nelson will appear for sentencing on April 27.
Airbnbs business has been hobbled during a shutdown in global travel caused by the spread of the coronavirus. It is a delicate time for the company, one of the largest and most prominent startups to emerge from Silicon Valley in the last decade. Airbnb had said that it plans to go public this year. But that may be in limbo because of stock market volatility and uncertainty caused by the virus.
Now Sen. David Purdue, a Georgia Republican, is facing questions over a flurry of stock transactions he made in March as the coronanvirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the stock market.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday that Purdue's trading went up nearly threefold in March, as he made 112 transactions throughout the month, purchasing 76 stocks worth up to $1.8 million and selling off 34 stocks worth up to $825,000.

Purdue follows in the footsteps of Sen. Kelly Loeffler, whose stock dumps following a closed door Senate coronavirus briefing have ignited calls for her resignation and potentially tanked her chances for re-election, new polling shows.

Sen. David Purdue (left) is facing questions over a flurry of stock transactions in the month of March, while Sen. Kelly Loeffler's (right) February stock dump has led to calls for her resignation

New polling shows that Sen. Kelly Loeffler (pictured) is behind Rep. Doug Collins and Democrat Raphael Warnock in the run-off Senate race scheduled as the same day as the general election in November

Rep. Doug Collins is 20 points ahead of Democrat Raphael Wamock and 23 points ahead of Sen. Kelly Loeffler, the incumbent, in a new poll of Georgia voters

Both Purdue and Loeffler are up for re-election in November.

Purdue will compete for a fresh six-year term.

Loeffler, who was appointed to the Senate in December by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, will have to run in a special election to earn the final two years of retiring Sen. Johnny Isakson's term.

The special election will be held the same day as the general election, November 3, with a run-off election planned for January 5, 2021, if no candidates wins a majority.

A poll conducted by Battleground Connect on behalf of Loeffler's Republican rival Rep. Doug Collins - and first reported on by Politico - finds that Loeffler has slipped into third place behind Collins and Raphael Warnock, a Democratic contender.

Collins receives 36 per cent of the votes, followed by Warnock with 16 per cent and Loeffler with 13 per cent.

Another Democrat, Matt Lieberman, receives 11 per cent of the vote.

Collins' lead over Loeffler had previously been at 8 points, now it's at 23 points.

And when pollsters looked at potential run-off situations, they found that Collins beat Democrat Warnock 49 per cent to 36 per cent, while Loeffler lost to Warnock by one point - 40 per cent to 41 per cent.

Additionally, Collins' image amongst likely voters is a net 41 points more favorable than Loeffler's, the survey found.

Collins, of course, has been taking advantage of the stock dumping scandal to benefit his campaign.

'It was really horrible for all of us who are trying to work to help the American people at a time at which it appears likely that something was used to make a personal gain,' the Georgia lawmaker said in a recent interview with the Washington Post.

Loeffler has gone on television to defend herself and said that she's not in charge of her financial portfolio.

Purdue has said the same.

'Since coming to the U.S. Senate in 2015, Sen. Purdue has always had an outside adviser managing his personal finances, and he is not involved in day-to-day decisions,' his spokeswoman Cherie Gillan told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 'For the past five years, the senator has fully complied with federal law and all Senate ethics requirements.'

Lawmakers are prevented from using information they glean on Capitol Hill to buy and sell stocks, as outlined in the STOCK act.
The United States opposes Irans request for a $5 billion emergency loan request from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help it cope with the coronavirus pandemic, Al-Monitor has learned.

The worlds leading state sponsor of terrorism is seeking cash to fund its adventurism abroad, not to buy medicine for Iranians, a State Department spokesperson told Al-Monitor. The regimes corrupt officials have a long history of diverting funds allocated for humanitarian goods into their own pockets and to their terrorist proxies. Iranians themselves know this best, which is why many dissidents and former political prisoners have written to the IMF requesting that they deny providing direct financial support to the regime, which would not go to help the Iranian people.

Why it matters: Iran requested the $5 billion IMF loan last month to help it fight the coronavirus, which has infected nearly 63,000 Iranians and killed more than 3,800 people to date. The secretary of Irans Supreme National Security Council, Rear Adm. Ali Shamkhani, accused the United States over the weekend of using its clout within the IMF to stonewall the loan request. The United States has by far the largest number of shares within the IMF, giving it 16.5% of the bodys total votes. Conversely, the European Union has come out in favorite of the loan.

Whats next: Iran sanctions are quickly becoming a presidential campaign issue, with Vice President Joe Biden  the likely Democratic presidential nominee  calling on the Trump administration to expand humanitarian exemptions within the US sanctions regime to help fight COVID-19. His primary opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wants the Trump administration to go even further and lift all financial sanctions on Iran amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Know more: Keep an eye on Al-Monitor tomorrow for an in-depth piece on the IMF loan request and Iran sanctions in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic from Congressional Correspondent Bryant Harris. In the meantime, Al-Monitor has the story on President Hassan Rouhanis push to open certain sectors of the economy by Wednesday despite warnings from health officials.
Unnikrishnan S By

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Given a choice, James Netto and Sherly of Puthuval Purayidam in Pozhiyoor, a fishing village in Thiruvananthapuram, would opt to erase this Palm Sunday from their memories. For the first time ever, they had to spent the auspicious day without their eldest son Jagajeevan, who is among the over 1,000 Indians stranded in Iran since February 29.

Jagajeevan has always been at the forefront of their celebrations -- from the Palm Sunday march to the beach to the sumptuous family meal that followed, said James. Now, with the news coming from Iran less than pleasant, a celebration was the last thing on the couples mind. So, though the rituals this year were already limited due to the lockdown, they also decided to opt for a rather simple meal.

My son is not even getting enough food at the camp. He has become very thin, said an aggrieved Sherly. The parents keep in touch with their son through video calls. The fisher couple still rues the decision to send their son to a foreign country on the words of their neighbour. When he decided to take up the offer to go to Iran on a fishing visa on October 30 last year, Jagajeevan was just 21. The family had pawned Sherlys gold jewellery to arrange the visa.

Jagajeevan is the youngest among the 17 fishermen from Pozhiyoor stranded in Iran at the moment. As many as 80 fishermen from the state and many more from other states are stuck in the southern provinces of Iran, primarily in the cities of Assalouyeh, Chiruyeh and Kish. The Indian consulate in Bandar Abbas had reached out to the fishermen and offered them food items for survival. However, the fishermen complain that their Iranian employers were turning hostile.

They first cut the water supply and now they want the fishermen to shift to boats. But it is going to be difficult in the hot weather, said James. He added that they were also forced to go out for fishing on April 1, only for the employer to take away the catch they brought back. The food given by the consulate is also running out fast. So, the group is only eating a minimal amount of food each day. I request the government to intervene and ensure better living conditions for them, until they are airlifted after the lockdown, appealed James. The government has so far airlifted 389 Indians from Iran.

80 fishers from state stuck abroad

As many as 80 fishermen from the state and many more from other states are stuck in the southern provinces of Iran, primarily in the cities of Assalouyeh, Chiruyeh and Kish. The Indian consulate in Bandar Abbas had reached out to the fishermen and offered them food items for survival.
Trevor Noah has come up with what he believes is a crafty way of getting Donald Trump to wear a face mask.

The Daily Show host, who is presenting segments from his home due to the coronavirus quarantine, criticised Trump for refusing to wear something over his mouth in public despite the Centre for Disease Controls latest guidelines that all citizens should.

President Trump has said that these guidelines are voluntary and he will probably not wear a mask, which lets be honest doesnt surprise anyone, Noah said, adding: He doesnt care about safety.

In fact, the only way they can get him to wear a mask is to trick him like hes a child  No, Mr President, its not a mask. Its a border wall for your face.

Mimicking Trump, Noah adds: So, viruses are like the Mexicans of germs? I got it.

Noah also condemned Trumps inability to let medical professionals speak during his press briefings.

He said his advice relating to the illness, which has proved inaccurate in the past, is akin to some random dude standing behind your doctor giving his opinion.
A Mexican government official who tested positive for the coronavirus was fired from his post after he allegedly spat and coughed on the medical treating him.

Dr. Daniel Lopez Regalado visited Presidente C. Juarez General Hospital in Oaxaca de Juarez, Oaxaca, on Thursday and received ambulatory care after complaining that he was ill, according to a complaint report filed by the hospital.

Dr. Lopez Regalado, who oversaw the state health board, returned later in the afternoon and told doctors that he was experiencing a cough, fever, diarrhea, and was having difficulty breathing.

He was subsequently administered a test for COVID-19 which came back positive, requiring that be hospitalized and placed in observation.

Hospital staff reported a change in the doctor's mood that night said they were not providing him with special treatment. Dr. Lopez Regalado complained that he should have had his own personal physician.

Dr. Daniel Lopez Regalado was removed from his title as Oaxaca state health director Monday after he flew into a rage over the weekend and reportedly spat and coughed on doctors and nurses at a hospital after testing positive for the coronavirus

Staff at Presidente C. Juarez General Hospital in Oaxaca de Juarez filed a formal complaint with federal Mexican authorities after several doctors and nurses where attacked by a doctor who tested positive for COVID-19

The report said that Dr. Lopez Regalado became more aggressive towards the nurses and doctors at Presidente C. Juarez General Hospital on Friday.

He repeatedly requested to be granted his voluntary discharge but it was eventually denied by a medical intern despite the threatening behavior that he exhibited towards his counterparts.

Dr. Lopez Regalado was detained Monday and was placed under medical and psychological observation.

A medical intern treated Dr. Lopez Regalado at 1:15am Saturday and took his vitals but declined to appease his requests to be released from isolation.

It was until 7:25am when the staff granted the doctor his voluntary discharge after he reportedly couched and spat at them.

Dr. Lopez Regalado was detained Monday and was placed under medical and psychological observation. He has been charged with risk of infection.

The Mexican government has reported 125 deaths and 2,439 sickened patients due to the coronavirus pandemic as of Tuesday.

The global epidemic has killed 81,200 people and infected 1,413,415 throughout the world.
The world will be reeling from the impact of COVID-19 long after the pandemic subsides. Kawashima Shin explores some of the implications for the Xi Jinping regime, international relations, and the world order.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis first and foremost, but the response to that crisis in China and the rest of the world is raising questions with profound implications for the world order.

A Global Turning Point?

The first of these issues stems from the weakness of the global response, despite the high priority that global governance has placed on collaboration in the control of infectious disease. With the World Health Organization under scrutiny for its leadership, international cooperation has retreated instead of advancing, as national governments tackle the crisis individually. Even in the visa-free Schengen Area of Europe, where regional unification has made such progress over the past few decades, countries are closing their borders. After a period of general progress toward regional integration and global governance in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, we seem to be returning to a world in which states are the dominant players.

The second issue is the impact on liberal democracy. Effective measures to contain dangerous pandemics like this one involve the curtailment of people's fundamental constitutional rights; considerations of due process are an impediment to timely action. Democratic governments are obliged to act within the confines of the law, as by formally declaring a state of emergency, and to seek the public's understanding for their actions. And since the measures adopted will affect election outcomes, they are bound to be driven at least in part by political as well as medical considerations. Meanwhile, lockdowns and social distancing have made divisions of race and class clearly visible. In places like New York, the streets have become the domain of people of color, as low-income workers who cannot afford to stay at home deliver groceries to well-heeled citizens who can.

A third issue is the pandemic's implications for the world economy. Over the past few decades, national economies have been largely subsumed within a network of global supply chains based on an international division of labor. To be sure, the crisis has affected the movement of people more than the flow of goods. But restrictions on human movement and cutbacks in air transportation have inevitably curtailed the movement of goods as well. Will the global economy stage a comeback? Or will the COVID-19 pandemic mark a historical turning point, as countries back away from globalization and embrace economic nationalism and protectionism?

Implications for China's Regime

China's prominent role in the crisis has brought these issues into especially sharp focus.

Beijing's engagement with the global communitywhether through international agencies or through its own programs, such as the Belt and Road Initiativehas always been focused on advancing China's national power and prestige. In recent years, China has pursued this self-aggrandizing global agenda ever more energetically, even while Washington, under President Donald Trump's America-first policies, has distanced itself from the kind of global collaboration that President Barack Obama led in response to the 2009 Ebola virus outbreak.

The COVID-19 pandemic has become part and parcel of Beijing's tireless campaign to boost its international prestige and influence. In the early stages, when the virus was spreading out from Wuhan in Hubei province, the official narrative centered on the international community's support for China and Beijing's countermeasures. Now that the domestic crisis appears to be subsiding, the focus has shifted to China's assistance to the rest of the world. Integral to this campaign to control the narrative is Chinese government's all-out support for the WHO's geographically neutral designation COVID-19 and its strident opposition to any name referencing China or Wuhan.

At the heart of the narrative is the efficacy of China's tough domestic measures to contain the virus. After the initial coverup in Wuhan and the early administrative missteps that allowed the outbreak to spread, the central government launched a wide-ranging coordinated response on January 20. It put Wuhan and other cities in Hubei under effective quarantine and imposed restrictions on travel and movement elsewhere. Army units and the militia were used to seal off cities. Digital devices, neighborhood committees, and state-owned enterprises were mobilized to control the movement of individuals. Even Chinese scholars doing research overseas were required to stay at home, report their daily activities to their home institutions in China, and avoid contact with other people. The government also worked at a furious pace to build new hospital facilities, where large numbers of patients were tested and those infected by the virus were isolated.

Although Beijing rehabilitated the reputations of doctors who had been punished by local authorities for telling the truth, it exercised tight centralized control over the flow of information concerning the epidemic, silencing or detaining intellectuals who publicly challenged the government's handling of the outbreak while gearing up its propaganda machinery.

Taken together, these tough, uncompromising measures had their effect. Indeed, a number of experts outside the country have praised them as a rational response to a virulent epidemic. Viewed purely from the standpoint of efficacy, it is possible to view the "Chinese way" as the appropriate approach to containing COVID-19.

China can also boast that, despite bottlenecks in the domestic distribution of certain goods, the epidemic has had substantially less impact on China's international trade and the global supply chain than initially feared.

The "Chinese Way" and the Recovery Phase

The COVID-19 pandemic originated in China, but the number of new cases in that country began to fall off in mid-February. By the beginning of March, the Chinese government was preparing to return the nation to a normal footing, albeit gradually. On March 10, President Xi Jinping traveled to Wuhan for the first time since the outbreak (although Premier Li Keqiang had visited at the end of January) to show China and the world how well recovery was proceeding. From March 18 to 22, Wuhan reported no new cases of the virus through domestic transmission. Having been hit first, China was bound to recover first, and it is eager to use that time differential to impress on the nation and the world the wisdom of the "Chinese way," while offering the kind of aid appropriate to a great power. In this way it hopes not merely to salvage its reputation (damaged by early mishandling) but actually to enhance its international prestige.

Beijing is also using the recovery phase to rewrite the early history of the epidemic. The initial failure of local and central authorities to respond appropriately to the outbreak exposed the government of Xi Jinping and the Communist Party to a wave of domestic criticism. Now, in the recovery phase, the government is denouncing and detaining critics of its handling and retroactively justifying the government's and party's actions. Some officials have even gone so far as to suggest that a foreign power brought the disease to Wuhan.

Notwithstanding its early missteps, the Xi Jinping regime has doubtless benefited politically from the recent exhibition of its ability to mobilize vast human and organizational resources and control behavior at the group and individual level. Of course, given the government's early failure to stem the outbreak and the fact that the economic slowdown could put the national targets for 2021 (the centennial of the Communist Party of China) out of reach, one could easily see the epidemic as a setback for Xi Jinping and a threat to the long-term continuity of the regime. But for now, it would appear that the government has emerged from the crisis more convinced than ever of the "correctness" of its own approach to governance and will only tighten its hold over Chinese society going forward.

There is a danger that Beijing's propaganda regarding the success of its response to the COVID-19 epidemic could backfire. Many Chinese citizens took refuge overseas during the height of the domestic crisis, believing other countries to be safer. Now that Xi Jinping has declared China safe, they are returning from overseas in considerable numbers. There are serious concerns that these returnees, some of whom were doubtless infected abroad, could cause a second wave of COVID-19 within China. There are also lingering doubts as to the reliability of Chinese statistics regarding new cases. If the numbers have been doctored, and the Chinese government lifts restrictions on travel on the basis of incorrect information, Xi's declaration of victory could ring hollow.

Even if that happens, Beijing is unlikely to back down from its stance of self-justification. The question for the Xi Jinping regime is whether the strength of its assertion of correctness can stand up to the weight of harsh reality. Once the balance tips, the government will have no choice but to take action, just as it did in late January, when the harsh reality that doctors were reporting could no longer be ignored.

Chinese Diplomacy in the Time of COVID

How will the pandemic affect China's relations with other countries, including Japan?

As of this writing, COVID-19 is still in the process of spreading across the globe, but in the weeks or months ahead, the rate of infection will subside, and the pandemic will come under control. Barring a second wave, China will be positioned at the forefront of the recovery phase. From this position, it will be able to provide certain forms of assistance to other countries, whose "gratitude" will provide much fodder for domestic and external propaganda, as we have already seen in respect to Italy.

What happens next is key. Beijing will be eager to lift all remaining emergency measures domestically and resume normal interactions with countries where the epidemic has subsided. Because the pandemic started in China, the countries closest to China appear to be reaching the post-peak period, although a new wave of infections cannot be ruled out. Barring another outbreak, China will in all probability move first to normalize economic ties with those countries, along with certain participants in the Belt and Road initiative, before it does so with the West, establishing a kind of quasi-bloc for the normal movement of people and goods. This bloc could well become a mechanism for decoupling from Western economies.

Japan and Singapore, which have been relatively successful in controlling the epidemic, may be two top candidates for early normalization of relations. Such a move might occur in conjunction with Xi Jinping's postponed visit to Japan. Beijing will have no inclination, of course, to soften its stance toward Tokyo on security and territorial issues. How will Japan engage with China in the altered landscape of the postCOVID-19 world? The answer could have profound repercussions not just for the bilateral relationship but for the region and the world order as a whole.

(Originally Published in Japanese. Banner photo: Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects Huoshenshan Hospital, an emergency facility built in response to the COVID-19 epidemic, during his first visit to Wuhan since the outbreak began there in late 2019.  Xinhua/Aflo.)
MBABANE  Eswatini has reached double figures of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus.

The figure 10 was revealed by the Minister of Health, Lizzie Nkosi, during a press conference yesterday at the Cabinet Offices.

Nkosi said the ministry had yesterday received a 10th confirmed case of COVID-19.



The latest patient, according to the minister, is a 31-year-old female from the Manzini Region.

The minister said the latest patient had arrived in Eswatini on March 24, 2020 from the Republic of South Africa, Gauteng Province, where she is employed.

Nkosi said the latest patient had presented with a mild case of the disease and the admission process was ongoing.

The minister revealed that patient No.10 had been tested after she entered the country on March 26, 2020, but that her results were only received yesterday.



Delay



She said the delay in getting the results could be attributed to the fact that Eswatini was currently unable to conduct its own tests and therefore the results had still not been returned to Eswatini over the 10 days which she had tested.



The last time the ministry announced a positive COVID-19 patient was about 10 days ago; that of the 33-year-old male, who is a Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) member, who had travelled to the KwaZulu-Natal Province in SA.



According to the minister, patient number nine was still admitted to the Lubombo Referral Hospital and was awaiting further results.

The minister said of the 10 confirmed cases, three had been discharged.



She said one patient was undergoing processes for discharge.

Three of the patients are admitted to the Isolation Facility in Siteki, while two remain under home care, said Nkosi.

The latest confirmed case, according to the minister, was still undergoing processes of admission for care.

All patients have presented with a mild case of the disease and are recovering well, she said.



Cooperating



The ministry further emphasised the importance of cooperating with health advice, especially on self-isolation.

She said all those given this advice (including suspected and confirmed cases) were expected to stay alone in their rooms, away from the rest of the family and maintain strict hand hygiene and cough etiquette.



Visitors should not be allowed into the room of the COVID-19 suspect or confirmed case until discharged, submitted Nkosi.

She further said families and the patient should use dedicated linen and eating utensils for the patient and those items should be cleaned with soap and water after use and may be re-used instead of being discarded.



The minister emphasised that patients were not expected to travel to societal gatherings and public places.

She reminded the nation on the importance of washing hands with soap and running water and the use of alcohol-based hand sanitisers.
Kwara State Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has said that the state would not shut its boundaries over the COVID-19 emergency, to avoid cutting food supply from the northern part of the country to Kwara and neighbouring states.

Mr AbdulRazaq said this on Tuesday at a press briefing on the first two cases of coronavirus virus recorded in the state.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how two cases of the disease was discovered on Monday.

Related to the development, the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital suspended a senior consultant, Kazeem Salami, a professor of medicine who kept vital information from his colleagues at the hospital about the first suspected case, Muideen Obanimomo, who later died at the facility.

The two cases of COVID-19 in the state, which were earlier confirmed by the governors media aide, Rafiu Ajakaye, and the state Technical Committee on the disease, include the wife of Mr Obanimomo, who along with her husband just returned from the UK when he died.

The second infected person was also revealed as a UK returnee.

However, speaking at the press briefing at the Government House, Ilorin, Mr AbdulRazaq told the residents that Coronavirus is real and that the two cases earlier announced are true and urged them to keep safe by adhering to basic precautions announced by the federal government and health agencies.

On why entry points to the the state are still open, Mr Abdulrasaq said they, especially the highway to Lagos, cannot be shut down at the moment because of people transporting food through the route from the northern part of the country to to Kwara and other states.

He also explained why the markets are still operating in the state.

As you all know that the government cannot provide food for everyone, therefore, the market may not be totally shut down as people may need to get some foodstuff for themselves, he added.

Mr AbdulRazaq also disclosed plans of the federal government to set up testing centres across the country.

He said the only COVID-19 testing centre close to the state is in Ibadan, adding that the federal government would establish a testing centre in Kwara as part of the third phase for the national project.

Contact tracing

The governor said 75 contacts of the infected patients had been traced and are being monitored by the Rapid Response Team of the medical advisory committee.

Our job is cut out for us and we are definitely not dropping the ball. Contact tracing by the Rapid Response Team of the medical advisory committee has so far netted 75 persons who have had contacts with the cases and the suspected case at UITH.

Fellow Kwarans, this is a trying moment for the whole of mankind. But we are definitely not helpless or without reasonable preparation in Kwara State. We are also blessed with committed professionals who are up to the task and willing to stand up and be counted at this time  while also taking all precautions.

He said in a bid to flatten the curve of transmission, he signed the newly prepared Kwara State Infectious Diseases (Emergency Prevention) Regulation 2020 on Monday April 6th to provide legal backings for the local management of the global health situation.

This is an emergency and the regulation, built around some enabling laws like the Quarantine Act of 2004, empowers us to invoke various drastic measures in the days ahead, if occasion calls for it. 

Highlights of the regulation include sanctions for anyone caught endangering public safety in whatever form or seeking to unfairly profit from our collective vulnerability and need for essential commodities at this time, the governor said.

As at the time of filing this report, 238 Covid-19 cases have been recorded so far across 14 states in Nigeria.
Frontline doctors and nurses may suffer post-traumatic stress disorder during the coronavirus pandemic, Stormonts first minister said (Kelvin Boyes/PA)

Some doctors and nurses may suffer post-traumatic stress disorder due to the coronavirus pandemic, Stormonts first minister warned.

Arlene Foster said official measures were being considered to help them through mental health problems caused by the deadly impact of the infection.

They could face over-crowded hospital wards and rapidly mounting numbers of fatalities over coming weeks.

Many medics are also frightened over protective equipment supply issues.

Mrs Foster said: There will be mental health issues, not least for our front line staff, who will have to see things that they probably would never want to see.

She added that ministers did not condone asking the elderly to sign do not resuscitate notices, as the NHS juggles difficult ethical issues about who to ventilate.

That is wrong and should not be happening.

The First Minister added: People are dying alone, never mind having the wake for comfort for the family.

It is a hugely difficult time for everyone. The grieving process has been very badly interrupted.

Good progress is being made in acquiring more protective equipment for those tackling the coronavirus pandemic, deputy first minister Michelle ONeill added.

An order of 5.5 million items of clothing began arriving in Belfast on Monday.

We see you, we hear you, and we are working night and day to make sure you get the protection that you deserveMichelle O'Neill

Mrs ONeill said: I have spoken with many frontline healthcare workers.

You have told me you are frightened. You have told me you are worried about being able to do your job safely. You have told me that you are worried for your families.

We see you, we hear you, and we are working night and day to make sure you get the protection that you deserve.

The grieving process has been very badly interruptedArlene Foster

Prospects for a joint order of kit from China placed with the Republic of Ireland have fallen through.

A formal memorandum of understanding has been devised by the health ministers north and south of the Irish border.

Mrs ONeill added: While we have two jurisdictions, we are one island and this means its sensible that we have common action to combat this deadly virus.

Welcome official sign off by CMOs North & South formalising common action you combat COVID-19 pandemic on the island of Ireland. https://t.co/3iVtPZiZtS  Michelle ONeill (@moneillsf) April 7, 2020

The Covid-19 pandemic does not respect borders, so there must be a common approach to action in both jurisdictions on this island.

The leaders of the devolved powersharing Executive appeared before an ad hoc committee of Assembly members at Stormont on Tuesday.

DUP leader Mrs Foster said: We are doing everything we can to get the right PPE to those who need it at the right time.

We will continue to expand the testing of healthcare staff as quickly as possible.

We fully understand the frustration that more staff have not yet been tested, both in the healthcare sector and across other sectors.

We will continue to expand the testing of healthcare staff as quickly as possibleArlene Foster

Meanwhile, Stormont health minister Robin Swann has been subjected to online threats which have been roundly condemned by Mrs Foster and Mrs ONeill.

Former UUP leader Mike Nesbitt campaigned with Mr Swann for election to the Assembly in 2011.

He said his childrens lives were in the hands of his colleague, who leads the NHS response to coronavirus, and appealed for greater courtesy.

He said: Loving each other may be a bit of a stretch but for Gods sake we need to show each other a bit of respect.
Junior in physics is university's newest Goldwater scholar

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Kansas State University undergraduate researcher Blaine Fry, junior in physics, has received a 2020 Goldwater scholarship. | Download this photo.





MANHATTAN  Kansas State University's Blaine Fry, junior in physics, Topeka, has received a 2020 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.

Established by Congress in 1986 to honor Sen. Barry M. Goldwater from Arizona, the Goldwater scholarship is the premier undergraduate scholarship for students interested in research careers in engineering, mathematics or the natural sciences. Awardees receive up to $7,500 annually for college-related expenses. For the 2020-2021 academic year, it was awarded to 396 students across the nation.



Fry is mentored by Chris Sorensen, Cortelyou-Rust university distinguished professor of physics, and is researching light scattering from fractal aggregates.



"Fractal aggregates are funny shapes that form when small bits of stuff collide randomly, which happens frequently in nature," Fry said. "Soot  from candles, forest fires and car engines  is a common example. Understanding how these aggregates scatter light is useful for climate science and remote sensing applications, besides being a fascinating step forward in describing scattering from arbitrary particles."



Fry's work is specifically researching backscattering: the light that scatters back toward the source. It can be very dim, making it hard to measure.



"Through his research and our personal interactions, I can attest to the fact that Blaine is very bright," Sorensen said. "He learns quickly and interacts with intelligence. He is a self-starter and self-reliant. He is inventive. He has terrific experimental intuition. His background as a kid is full of science; he has science in his bones!"



Fry is the vice president of Physics Club, a member of Astronomy Club, a participant in the University Honors Program and an avid pianist. In addition to the Goldwater scholarship, Fry is an Ellis Foundation Scholar and has received the Putnam Scholarship, A.B. Cardwell Fund Scholarship, Richard Horning Physics Scholarship, J.O. Hamilton Physics Memorial Scholarship, National Merit Scholarship, and the Al and Darline Peterson Scholarship from the Topeka Community Foundation. In addition, he was a finalist for the K-State Civic Leadership Scholarship, winner of the American Association for Aerosol Research Student Poster Competition and an Eagle Scout for Troop 59 in the Jayhawk Area Council.



A graduate of Topeka West High School, Fry is the son of Clint Fry and Cassandra Immenschuh, both of Topeka.






Installation view of David Ostrowski's solo exhibition "Menschen, Bilder, Emotionen" at Leeahn Gallery Seoul / Courtesy of Leeahn Gallery



By Kwon Mee-yoo



German artist David Ostrowski pursues "meaninglessness" and "worthlessness" in his abstract paintings, denying perfectionism in conventional oil painting.



Ostrowski's first exhibition in Korea, titled "Menschen, Bilder, Emotionen" (People, Pictures, Emotions) is being held at the Leeahn Gallery Seoul in downtown Seoul through May 18.



"The artist wanted to go by this exhibition title as he wants viewers to get into communications through his works," the exhibit's curator Sung Shin-young said.



Studied at Kunstakademie Dusseldorf, Ostrowski's early works were figurative paintings, but his style diverted drastically in 2014.



"Ideas are completely overrated," Ostrowski is quoted saying. "I try to get to ground zero  to start at the beginning. Knowledge can be annoying and has to be suppressed sometimes."



Traditionally, figurative oil painting pursues perfection and artists paint over to remedy mistakes. Ostrowski objected to such perfectionism and brought errors, mistakes, accidents and incompleteness to his canvas.



Abstract lines or planes are often interpreted as the artist's spirituality, but Ostrowski is opposed to such a pedantic take as well.





David Ostrowski's "F (-)" (2019) / Courtesy of the artist and Leeahn Gallery



His signature "F" series comes from German word "fehler," which translates into failure or error. Lines drawn quickly with blue spray paint or pencils do not express the artist's intentions but records momentary mistakes.



"Ostrowski wants to convey the energy of mistakes to the viewers. He minimizes the artist's intervention and leaves room for interpretation," the curator said. "However, we can observe some variations in his works with change of strokes or attached materials such as cotton and paper on canvas."



He even draws with his left hand, making the lines appear more amateurish.



"This hints that Ostrowski wants to step out of traditional art history. It could relate to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring's works which evolved from graffiti but eventually were incorporated in the history of fine art," Sung said.





David Ostrowski's "F (Bauleere)" (2019) / Courtesy of the artist and Leeahn Gallery




Coronavirus

As the number people killed by the coronavirus in the United States topped 10,000 by Monday night, the countrys top medical officials warned that the worst was yet to come.

The number of cases has ballooned to at least 364,167  nearly three times higher than in the second-worst hit country, Spain  with 10,772 people killed as of 7:30 p.m. ET, according to NBC News tracker.

At the center of the outbreak in the U.S., New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said critical medical supplies and personnel have been secured but warned that the magnitude of the crisis equals that of the 1918-19 flu and the Great Depression.

As of Monday night, the city had recorded at least 2,738 deaths due to the virus, according to the Health Department.

While 2,865 ventilators and 1,780 more breathing assistance machines had been distributed through the city, de Blasio said, it needs 1,000 to 1,500 more ventilators by Sunday.

Surgeon General Jerome Adams urged the nation to stay home and practice social distancing Sunday, saying this week would be this generations Pearl Harbor moment.

Its going to be the hardest moment for many Americans in their entire lives, Adams said NBC News Meet the Press, adding: And we really need to understand that if we want to flatten that curve and get through the other side, everyone needs to do their part.

Meanwhile, the countrys top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, acknowledged that the nation is struggling to get the outbreak under control.

In an interview Sunday on CBS News Face the Nation, Fauci said: Things are going to get bad, and we need to be prepared for that.

Veterans across the country are also losing their lives to the virus, accounting for 103 deaths as of Sunday evening, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Nearly 25,000 tests have been administered to veterans, revealing 2,699 confirmed cases  an increase of 183 from the previous day.

Overseas, Japan is also bracing for the worst. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was expected to declare a state of emergency as early as Tuesday morning as the number of cases surpasses 3,600, according to local media reports.

The Tokyo Medical Association issued a statement Monday calling on Abe to issue the declaration to make necessary resources available for the countrys medical system. The statement follows mounting criticism from business owners and politicians that the country has not reacted quickly enough.

U.S. Forces Japan, meanwhile, declared a health emergency Monday for its bases in the Kanto region, which includes Tokyo, in response to the rise in cases.

In Italy  where 15,887 people have died, the most in the world  the latest data showed signs that a peak may have been reached with three days of declining daily death tolls. The country reported 525 more deaths Sunday, a big drop from the height of 969 on March 27.

The countrys health minister, Roberto Speranza, said that Italy is exploring options to ease lockdown restrictions but that a return to normal life is still far off and social distancing rules will likely remain to prevent a rebound in cases.

Also appearing on Meet the Press, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte discussed the devastating pain tge country has experienced through the loss of life and the weeks of social isolation.

We are asking our people a great sacrifice. Im aware of it. But it is the only way to defeat the pandemic altogether. The more we respect the rules, the sooner we will get out, he said.

The number of new cases in Spain also appears to be slowing, according to Health Minister Salvador Illa. Sunday saw a 5 percent increase in new cases, compared to a daily rate of 22 percent three weeks ago.

Spain is among the hardest-hit countries, with 12,641 deaths and 131,646 cases. Illa said the country continues to face very tough weeks ahead as the number of patients going into intensive care reaches especially worrying levels.
Cobham has become the latest business to join the effort to make ventilators for the NHS.

The British defence firm has adapted the technology it uses for oxygen systems in fighter jets to build air pressure regulators  a key component used in desperately needed ventilator systems.

The group is working with an unnamed UK consortium and, if it gets the go-ahead from regulators, will be able to make 1,000 air pressure regulator units a day.

British defence firm Cobham has adapted the technology it uses for oxygen systems in fighter jets to build air pressure regulators  a key component used in medical ventilator systems

The Government has called for manufacturers to help with efforts to design and build ventilators for the NHS, which it is worried could be over-run with a flood of vulnerable patients during the coronavirus pandemic.

There are several projects on the go in case one or more should fail. Two weeks ago technology group Dyson said it had won a contract for 10,000 ventilators.

Yesterday, engineer Smiths, which already makes the Para PAC Plus ventilator at its site in Luton, said it was switching several of its other production lines to ramp up production, going from '0 to 100' in a matter of weeks and aiming to produce 'thousands' a month to help the national effort.

Babcock, which maintains the UK's fleet of nuclear submarines, confirmed it will be manufacturing 10,000 ventilators.

Manufacturers and engineers worldwide are chipping in to provide medical equipment amid fears that doctors, nurses and other frontline staff could be needlessly exposed to the deadly virus while at work.

Apple has designed a protective mask for healthcare workers battling the coronavirus.

Chief executive Tim Cook said the iPhone maker plans to make more than 1m face shields a week.

These will be shipped to US medical workers first and later distributed globally.

It has also bought 20m face masks which will be donated worldwide.
NEW HAVEN - Police have identified the pedestrian who was struck and killed Saturday as Anthony Little, 31, of New Haven

Capt. Anthony Duff said investigators have learned Little was driving on Ella Grasso Boulevard when he stopped his motor vehicle and exited the car to retrieve a tablet or similar electronic device which had been left on the roof of his car and had fallen onto the roadway.
Racing SpaceX to become the first private company to put astronauts in orbit for NASA, late last year Boeing (NYSE:BA) launched an uncrewed, remotely piloted Starliner spacecraft atop an Atlas V rocket on a mission to demonstrate capability to safely travel to and from the International Space Station (ISS).

It did not go well.

Although the United Launch Alliance Atlas rocket performed as expected (Boeing is a part owner of ULA), the Starliner spacecraft failed to fire its engines at the correct time to achieve the "insertion" orbit necessary to reach ISS. Ultimately, Boeing was forced to call off the mission, and bring Starliner home, landing by parachute in the desert at White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico without ever reaching ISS.

Now, Boeing says it is going to try again.

Late Monday, Boeing and NASA announced that Boeing will conduct a second uncrewed flight test of Starliner sometime later this year "to demonstrate the Starliner system [can] perform as designed to fly to the space station prior to having a crew onboard." No exact date for the test has been set, but The Washington Post reports that it will probably take place sometime in October of November.

Meanwhile SpaceX, which successfully flew its unmanned Crew Dragon to ISS in March 2019, is scheduled to send a crewed mission to ISS next month.

Boeing previously took a $410 million re-tax charge to earnings to account for having to do additional test flights. As such, the financial liability of the recent news has presumably already been baked into analyst forecasts for the company. What's new, and certainly disappointing for Boeing, is that the need to redo its uncrewed test flight means Boeing will almost certainly not send astronauts to space before SpaceX.

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C ardinal George Pell is to walk free from jail after Australias highest court overturned his conviction for sexually assaulting two teenage choirboys in the 1990s.

In a unanimous ruling on Tuesday, the High Court found that the jury in Pell's trial "ought to have entertained a doubt" as to his guilt.

The court's seven judges ordered 78-year-old former Vatican treasurers convictions be quashed and verdicts of acquittal be entered in their place.

Pell has maintained his innocence throughout the lengthy court process.

George Pell, the most senior Catholic cleric to face sex charges / AP

He cannot be retried on the charges, ending the most high profile case globally of alleged sexual abuse by priests to have rocked the Roman Catholic Church.

Pell, a polarising figure in Australia for his conservative views, was the highest ranked Catholic official worldwide to have been jailed for child sex offences when he began serving a six-year sentence a year ago.

The cardinal was charged in 2017 with one charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16 and four charges of an indecent act with a child under 16, which the plaintiff said took place when Pell was archbishop of the city of Melbourne.

The judgment was delivered during Holy Week, the period leading up to Easter which is the most important day in the Christian calendar, following two days of hearings a month ago.

The decision was delivered to a largely empty courtroom in Brisbane because of national restrictions on travel and public gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Pell's first trial ended in a hung jury, before the jury in a second trial unanimously found him guilty in 2018. Pell did not take the stand at either trial.

Under Australia's court system, his first appeal went to a court in Victoria, where a majority of two judges against one upheld his conviction.

Pell's lawyers then took the case to the High Court, arguing that the Victoria appeals court had erred in shifting the onus of proof to the defence and in finding that it was open to the jury to find Pell guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

The High Court said the lower court of appeal had "failed to engage with the question of whether there remained a reasonable possibility that the offending had not taken place, such that there ought to have bene a reasonable doubt as to the applicant's guilt."

The cardinal was appointed by Pope Francis in 2014 to overhaul the Vatican's vast finances but lost his role last year after being jailed. Pope Francis has said he would only comment on the case after Pell exhausted all avenues of appeal.
It appears that most Midland and H.H. Dow high school graduating seniors and their families and friends are willing to wait until later in the summer to still have a traditional in-person commencement ceremony, and Midland Public Schools will do its best to honor that desire.

Another annual event anticipated by many high school students, the prom held jointly by the two high schools, is in doubt due to the coronavirus outbreak. Prom is currently scheduled for Saturday, May 9, at the Great Hall at Valley Plaza, and MPS Superintendent Michael Sharrow said the principals of the two schools will make an announcement about the event on Thursday.

In regard to commencement, Sharrow said on Tuesday afternoon that a great majority of the initial responses to a survey  emailed out in an MPS communique on Monday  favor having a traditional commencement ceremony in July or August as opposed to a virtual ceremony around the end of the school year.

The two MPS high schools' commencement ceremonies, originally scheduled at two separate times on Tuesday, June 2 on Dow Diamond, have been postponed.

All MPS schools, like all schools in Michigan, have been closed since March 16 and will be closed for the remainder of the current school year under an order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The intent of potentially scheduling commencement for later in the summer is to ensure that public health conditions would be safe enough at that point for a large crowd of people to gather in one place.

"About 1,400 or 1,500 people responded (on Monday)," Sharrow said of the one-question survey, which specified that it only be answered by graduating seniors of the class of 2020 and their family members and friends who planned to attend commencement.

"(The response was) very, very dominant to have us delay and try to hold a traditional (commencement), which is what we kind of thought (the response) would be," Sharrow continued. "So that's probably the likely scenario."

This week's survey asked respondents to choose from three options: "I prefer a formal graduation ceremony in late July/early August," "I prefer an earlier date via a virtual graduation with student recognition, pictures and video," or "Either option is okay with me."

MPS is asking that everyone who wishes to respond to the survey do so by the end of this week.

Seniors at Midland and Dow high schools are scheduled to have their final day of school on Friday, May 22. Sharrow said that MPS is still working out possible dates and locations for rescheduling commencement.

He noted the principals of the two schools are working with their staff and students on the idea of possibly recognizing some of the seniors' achievements and honors on social media in the time leading up to commencement.
Gov. Kay Ivey is giving developer teams an extra two weeks to submit proposals to finance and build three new mens prisons that the state would lease and operate.

Ivey extended the deadline from April 30 to May 14 because the coronavirus pandemic is hindering the companies as they work to finalize their proposals, the governors office said in a press release.

The deadline extension came after discussions with the participating developer teams  Alabama Prison Transformation Partners (Star America; BL Harbert International; Butler-Cohen; Arrington Watkins Architects; and Johnson Controls, Inc.) and CoreCivic (CoreCivic; Caddell Construction; DLR Group; and R&N Systems Design), according to Iveys office.

I am steadfastly committed to the strategic effort to build three new mens correctional facilities  this Alabama solution is a direct result of our dedication to implement actionable solutions that address long-standing challenges facing our prison system, Ivey said. Given the unforeseen circumstances associated with COVID-19, it is in the best interest of the state of Alabama to grant this extension so that the developer teams have adequate time to perform required due diligence and to prepare thorough and thoughtful proposals.

Ivey announced the prison construction plan last year. The three prisons would house a total of about 10,000 inmates. Some of the current prisons would close. Alabamas prisons are filled to 170% of capacity.

The Ivey administration said new prisons are part of an overall solution to a crisis facing the prison system that includes the overcrowding, understaffing, and violent conditions that the Department of Justice has alleged violate the Constitution.
[April 07, 2020] Toronto law firm Wildeboer Dellelce spearheads $100,000 fundraising initiative to connect hospitalized patients at Sunnybrook to their loved ones

TORONTO, April 7, 2020 /CNW/ - At a time when physical distancing has become necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19, people are turning to new and creative ways to connect while staying apart. Sunnybrook Foundation is pleased to announce that Toronto-based corporate law firm Wildeboer Dellelce LLP and the WD Group of Companies have created a special initiative to bring iPads and tablets to patients receiving care at Sunnybrook. Through the use of technology, these iPads and tablets will allow hospitalized patients to communicate "face-to-face" over video with loved ones. Each iPad and tablet will have a waterproof cover that will be cleaned and sterilized between uses. Finding new ways to keep patients connected is essential as in recent weeks Ontario hospitals  including Sunnybrook  have taken the necessary step of restricting visitors. "It is critical that we do everything in our power to support our patients through these difficult, but necessary isolation measures due to COVID-19," says Dr. Andy Smith, Sunnybrook's President & CEO. "These are people who are already adapting to a new environment in the hospital. Connecting them to their loved ones through video technology will encourage the social support that is so important for healing." "Knowing that patients can no longer see their loved ones is heartbreaking," says Perry Dellelce, founder and Managing Partner of Wildeboer Dellelce LLP and Chair of the WD Group of Companies. "We believe that ensuring patients can connect with loved ones is critically important. No one should be left alone at this difficult time, especially when they are battling illness. We are thrilled to support this initiative." A social worker in Sunnybrook's Schulich Heart Program was recently able to use an iPad to connect one of her patients with his spouse so the couple ould celebrate their 49th wedding anniversary. The couple was thrilled to be able to see each other and communicate on screen.



"This kind act was made possible through the generosity of a group of donors who saw a need and came together to help," says Jon Dellandrea, Sunnybrook Foundation's President and CEO. "I am deeply grateful to Wildeboer Dellelce LLP and the WD Group of Companies for supporting such a meaningful initiative for our patients and their families." Members of Wildeboer Dellelce LLP and the WD Group of Companies have committed $50,000 to this project. With the assistance of friends and clients, they have committed to raise an additional $50,000 to purchase even more iPads and tablets to connect patients at Sunnybrook to their families and friends.

About Wildeboer Dellelce LLP and WD Group of Companies Based in Toronto, Wildeboer Dellelce LLP (wildlaw.ca) is one of Canada's premier corporate, securities and business transactional law firms. With over 50 professionals, Wildeboer Dellelce offers private and public clients services in the areas of Corporate Finance and Securities, Mergers and Acquisitions, Tax, Corporate Governance & Investor Activism, Corporate and Commercial Law, Commercial Real Estate, Debt Products and Structured Finance and Asset Management. The firm works across all traditional industries including financial services, real estate, technology, life sciences and biotechnology, industrial and consumer products and mining and natural resources and is also recognized for its work in new and emerging markets including cannabis, fintech and esports. Wildeboer Dellelce is part of the WD Group of Companies which also includes WD Capital Markets Inc. (wdcapital.ca), a corporate finance and M&A advisory firm with registrations in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec, and WD Numeric Corporate Services Inc. (wdnumeric.ca), an established corporate services and bookkeeping company providing clients with a full portfolio of services including payroll, accounting, tax filings and compliance, controllership, financial strategies, audit prepping and outsourced CFO services. About Sunnybrook Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is inventing the future of health care for the 1.3 million patients the hospital cares for each year through the dedication of its more than 10,000 staff and volunteers. An internationally recognized leader in research and education and a full affiliation with the University of Toronto distinguishes Sunnybrook as one of Canada's premier academic health sciences centres. Sunnybrook specializes in caring for high-risk pregnancies, critically ill newborns and adults, offering specialized rehabilitation, and treating and preventing cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological and psychiatric disorders, orthopaedic and arthritic conditions and traumatic injuries. The hospital also has a unique and national leading program for the care of Canada's war veterans. SOURCE Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

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" " Just because you had a particularly rainy summer doesnt mean your winter will look like this. MarianVejcik/iStock/Thinkstock

Here's the good news: You can correctly predict an entire season of weather, months in advance, based on just about anything. The Old Farmer's Almanac will tell you all sorts of excellent ways to determine whether a winter is going to be difficult. For instance, just check the nape of your cow's neck. Is the hair thicker than normal? Uh-oh, get ready for snow! Oh, you don't have a cow's neck handy? Just check out whether you notice pigs gathering sticks [source: Geiger]. That's right! Pigs. Gathering sticks. The universal sign of a rough winter  or a sign they're building a porcine army to destroy your culture and all you hold dear.

The bad news? Even if you do experience a harsh winter after the Great Piggy Uprising, that correct prediction you read is still a result of chance. Because while climatologists and meteorologists use fancy science and climate data to see if we're in for a bad winter, it's not at all based on our summer months. There simply is no pattern that predicts a summer-to-winter conversion. In fact, even autumn calculations for a winter forecast are, by the forecasters' own admission, full of variables that prevent a reliably surefire prediction [source: Rudd "Cool"; Samenow].

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That doesn't mean that people don't try. Lots of companies need to know information about the weather as soon as they can get their hands on it. Think about super weather-dependent industries, like viniculture or even utilities (power companies have a vested interest in knowing whether they're going to be facing a ton of downed power lines that winter).

So companies might hire meteorologists to predict a long-range forecast, but the scientists are going to be careful to point out the variables involved and to present several likely scenarios [source: Cohen; Samenow]. In other words, they're probably not going to say anything like, "Based on the fact that I spent the Fourth of July locked in my house waiting out a thunderstorm, I'm totally unwaveringly certain that a mild winter is written in the stars."

The National Weather Service has debunked the theory that a mild, wet summer equals a cold, snowy winter. After studying almost 100 years of data, experts found no evidence that a lame summer equals a gangbusters winter [source: NWS]. So, sorry, the long-term weather forecast will remain a surprise. But if you do see any pigs brandishing branches, might as well dig the snow shovel out from storage. Doesn't hurt to be prepared.
Open source

Facebook is ready to provide the maps of movement of the users for the fight against coronavirus pandemic as the company stated.

This data is gathered within Data for Good program; it is already used by scientists and non-profit organizations for the fight against coronavirus. Facebook will provide maps of three types: co-location, movement range trends and social connectedness index.

The maps of the co-location reveal the probability that people in one area will come in contact with people in another, helping illuminate where COVID-19 cases may appear next.

The social connectedness index shows friendships across states and countries, which can help to forecast the likelihood of disease spread.

Movement range trends show at a regional level whether people are staying near home or visiting many parts of town, which can provide insights into whether preventive measures are headed in the right direction.

As we reported, Google company allocated a $500,000 grant to Ukraines Healthcare Ministry for information campaigns against panic amid coronavirus spread. These funds will help to put the sources of the Healthcare Ministry to top results of the search.

Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases in Ukraine has increased to 1,462 cases. Ukraine observed 45 deaths, 28 patients successfully recovered. Over the last 24 hours, 143 new cases have been recorded.
Xerox, the brand well known for making photocopy machines, has confirmed that it is now mass-producing disposable ventilators. This could come in handy as hospitals around the world are facing a significant shortfall of ventilators in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. Xerox confirms that it is working with medical device manufacturer Vortran Medical to scale up production of the Go2Vent. This is a low-cost resuscitation device that is used by first responders in case of emergencies and disasters. In the case of Coronavirus patients, this could be used for those with milder or more controlled symptoms of the COVID-19, thereby freeing the ICU-grade ventilators for the more critical patients.

It takes off the overload on the system," says Naresh Shankar, Xeroxs chief technology officer, while speaking with NBC News. The partnership with Xerox has one clear goal  to help save as many lives as possible. For all of us, this will be the most important thing we ever do, says Vortran's co-founder and CEO, Gordon A. Wong, MD, in a statement. It is expected that this partnership will result in the production of as many as 150,000 to 200,000 ventilators every month by June, with the hope to ramp it up to 1 million ventilators sometime in the coming months. The report suggests that Xerox will charge hospitals $120 for each ventilator.

Vortan Medical describes the Go2Vent as a hands-free ventilator that offers a secure airway using a continuous gas source. It can be operated on a compressor, oxygen or air with a minimum of 10 liters per minute flow rates. They say this device does not require power from electricity or batteries, which adds to the versatility in complex medical situations such as disease outbreaks when power sources may not be available for everyone. The company makes ventilators in Sacramento, California.

At this time, the US Government has asked a lot of companies, including auto makers such as the Ford Motor Company, to produce ventilators at their factories to help reduce the shortfall of these critical medical devices as the Coronavirus cases continue to increase.
The management of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) has suspended Kazeem Salami, the professor and senior consultant accused of concealing vital information about a suspected COVID-19 in Kwara State.

COVID-19 is the deadly respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. It has infected over a million people globally and caused over 60,000 deaths.

PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday, reported how the hospital authorities accused Mr Salami of concealing from his colleagues vital information on a suspected case who died at the hospital last Thursday.

The federal facility said the deceased had been on self-isolation on arrival to Ilorin prior to his presentation at the Accident and Emergency unit of the hospital on the advice of the professor who brought him.

It said the information of self isolation was concealed from the frontline medical personnel at first contact in the A&E, an act that the hospital management considered unethical.

The death of Muhideen Obanimomo, a 57-year-old UK returnee, generated controversies among Kwara residents, particularly in Offa, where he hailed from.

Although the state government earlier denied that it was a COVID-19 related case, the result of the samples taken showed that the wife of the deceased is positive for COVID-19.

READ ALSO:

The state government announced that it recorded two cases, which were its index cases, on Monday evening.

According to the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, one of the infected persons is the wife of a patient, a UK returnee who died last Thursday, and the other is another UK returnee.

Suspension

Meanwhile, in a statement issued by the hospital on Monday evening, David Odaibo, UITH director of administration, said the management approved Mr Salamis suspension sequel to his conduct in the management of the COVID-19 patient.

The Management of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital hereby suspends Prof A.K. Salami as a Senior Consultant in the hospital.

This is as a result of his unethical conduct in the admission, management and eventual release of the corpse of a suspected COVID-19 patient who died in the hospital on the 3rd of April, 2020, the statement read in parts.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the suspended professor, who is in his late fifties, specialises in Infectious and non-infectious pulmonary diseases, which strikes out the possibility of being ignorant of the deadly respiratory disease.

As at the time of filing this report, Nigeria has recorded 238 COVID-19 cases with 35 persons discharged and five deaths.
FLINT, MI  A Genesee Circuit Court judge has reinstated charges against a former mid-Michigan police chief that were previously dropped.

In an April 2 ruling, Genesee Circuit Judge David J. Newblatt overruled the decision of District Judge Vikki Bayeh Haley regarding former Thetford Township police Chief Robert Kenny.

Obviously, I am in agreement with the circuit courts ruling on this matter, said Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton in a Monday, April 6 statement. We will be continuing the fight in this case to see that justice is served, corruption in local government does not go unheeded, and Robert Kenny is held accountable for his actions.

Newblatt heard arguments from both sides in February following an appeal by Leyton after Bayeh Haley dropped the embezzlement and obstruction of justice charges in September 2019, citing a lack of evidence in the case.

The charges were originally filed against Kenny in August 2018 after an investigation was started by the Genesee County Sheriffs Office into allegations that hed received more than $5,000 for scrapping items received through the federal Law Enforcement Support Office, or LESO, program.

Prosecutors say police chief pocketed more than $5K from sale of military equipment

It was alleged in court testimony that Kenny cashed a check made out to him for $1,779 hed received for scrapping metal storage containers in 2012 and 2013 at a local scrap yard, but the check was made in his name after an employee phoned then-Thetford Township Supervisor Eileen Kerr.

The now-former scrapyard employee testified Kerr said the check could be made out to Kenny.

Larry Goerge, the states LESO program coordinator, testified that items obtained through the program can be sold off after one years time from when theyre received if the money is used toward improving the police department.

Genesee County Sheriffs Office Capt. William Lanning testified Monday, Sept 9 some of the money from the check went into a personal account held by Kenny when questioned by Assistant Prosecutor Lia Perryman about where some of the money had gone.

When interviewed about the process, Lanning testified Kenny told him, Hindsight is 20/20. He should have taken the money to the township.

Case continues against police chief accused in military equipment scam

Lanning testified Kenny offered three explanations for what some of the money was used for including renovations at the police station, a mobile home unit at the police station and training for a department recruit which raised some suspicion in his mind.

I would say it shows untruthfulness, said Lanning on the witness stand.

But Frank Manley, Kennys attorney, rebutted there was no evidence his client ever used the money for himself and the check in question was made out to him at the request of his superior in the township.

He also questioned the number of times Thetford Township Supervisor Gary Stevens contacted the sheriffs office about the issue before and after a complaint was filed, insinuating the issue was potentially a personal one as Stevens had been arrested for a trespassing complaint in the past.

In rendering her decision, Bayeh Haley said, In this situation there is no evidence as to why it was done, but there is evidence that Eileen Kerr told the salvage people to issue it to the defendant.

Investigation started into rural townships $1 million of military surplus gear

By doing so, what he does with that money after that the court finds its his decision. Its up to him. She gave him the money. Had she wanted it to go to township funds, its only logical she would have said write it to Thetford Township, said Bayeh Haley. Theres no evidence that anything that was done was done without her knowledge. Now, if she has to go to her board for approval, thats really not Mr. Kennys problem. Theres no evidence that he knew she didnt follow the proper procedures.

An additional $4,700 found in a trailer in June 2018 among LESO program items was not in his personal possession, Bayeh Haley said. The money was turned into the township.

It may be bad bookkeeping, but not probable cause for embezzlement, said Bayeh Haley.

The judge also noted there is no evidence of obstruction of justice because Kenny came forward on his own volition when asked to speak with officers.

Charges dropped against police chief accused of embezzlement

Kenny faces up to five years in prison on each charge.

He was fired in February by Thetford Township, with Steven citing multiple violations by Kenny -- including disposal of township property and incomplete forms.

The decision came after an employment attorney was hired in late 2019 to look through the townships policy and procedures.

Manley told MLive-The Flint Journal Monday that court rulings are part of the process in this case.

We won at the lower court level. The district judge felt it was a very weak case, he said. We look forward to taking the case to trial.

Citing multiple violations, Thetford Township fires police chief
After reports of a tiger testing positive for COVID-19 in the US set alarm bells ringing across the globe, wildlife experts in the country have dismissed the possibility of the big cats contracting the disease at Sundarbans on account of the forest's geographical location.

As per the latest tiger census report, the biosphere reserve in south Bengal has 88 Royal Bengal Tigers.

Pranav Chanchani, the coordinator of WWF-India's Tiger Conservation Programme, said the unique geographical location and the topography of the reserve is an advantage that the Sundarbans' big cats have over other tiger populations.

"Poaching and climate change continue to pose threats, but tigers in Sundarbans are not exactly vulnerable to coronavirus infection. That said, it's always wise to take precautions," Chanchani noted.

The reserve authorities, however, are not taking chances and were monitoring the behaviour of all 88 tigers round the clock.

The NTCA, in view of the reports from Bronx zoo in the US, has sounded alerts for all tiger habitats in India, advising isolation for sick animals and personal protection equipment for keepers.

"Given the topography of Sundarbans, we know that the tigers are safe. Nonetheless, we have enhanced our 24x7 vigil as we do not want to take risks. All entry and exit points have been sealed," S Kulandivel, the joint director of the biosphere reserve, told PTI.

The noted tiger expert also said that human activities and interactions are a rarity at the Sundarbans -- the largest single block of tidal, halophytic mangrove forests in the world -- and that would definitely act as a deterrent against the disease.

"One can only enter the mangrove forests via a creek or a narrow water channel. Common people or for that matter wildlife officials would not want to go near a wild animal. So the question of getting into Sundarbans and transmission of the virus from humans is unlikely. Still, we aren't taking any chances and have beefed up security," he said.

The forest officials along with the BSF's water patrol unit have tightened vigil across the reserve, with boats guarding the entry and exits points of the estuaries.

According to Ravi Kant Sinha, the principal conservator of forests and wildlife, West Bengal, dedicated teams are continuously analysing photographs and footages from the trap cameras set up in various parts of the jungle.

"Officers have been advised to take immediate steps, if they spot any wild animal exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms. All field officials have been asked to take wear protective suits while visiting the jungles," Sinha told PTI.

A task force, comprising field managers, forest personnel and veterinary doctors, has been constituted to manage crisis situations, if any, he said.

Bengal tigers - one of the most endangered species in the world had been battling loss of habitat, poaching and climate change for several decades now, despite its one-of-a- kind ecosystem.

According to state forest minister Rajib Banerjee, steps have been taken to set up facilities for emergency treatment of animals and guidelines have been laid down regarding the movement of staff and villagers in and around the Sundarbans.

Spread over 10,000 sqkm - 4000 sqkm in West Bengal, the rest in Bangladesh -- Sundarbans was declared UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

Apart from tigers, the mangrove reserve is also home to a variety of birds and reptiles, including the salt-water crocodile.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police have identified the victim of a weekend shooting in East York.

On Sunday, at approximately 10:45 p.m., police received reports of gunfire at 5 Leaside Park Dr.

Officers found a boy with gunshot wounds inside a car. Paramedics tried to save him, but he died at the scene, according to police.

On Monday, police identified him as 16-year-old Nazirullah Abdul-Rashid.

Police are asking that anyone who was in the area between 10 and 11 p.m. on Sunday night contact them to speak with investigators.

This is Torontos 19th homicide of 2020.
MATSAPHA  Some men of the cloth were arrested for being defiant to the COVID-19 Regulations of 2020.



Four pastors appeared at the Matsapha Circuit Court for contravening Section 25 of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Regulations, 2020. These pastors are: Sipho Ngomane from the Grace/ Maranatha Church, Vusumuzi Major V Dlamini of the Mountain of Salvation Church, Ludzeludze Prophetic Voice Churchs Phumlani Zikalala and Joel Makhosini Dlamini of the Mahlabatsini Church of God.



The section states that in order to contain the spread of COVID-19, a gathering of more than 20 people is prohibited and based on these regulations, the police arrested the pastors from four different church denominations.

First to appear before Magistrate Lucia Lukhele was Ngomane, 44 of Nkamanzi. The pastor hosted a church service wherein the congregants exceeded the number stipulated by the regulations.



Gathered



The charge sheet reads: (The) accused person is charged with the offence of contravening Section 25 (1) as read with Section 33 (1) of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Regulations of 2020 in that upon April 5, 2020 and at Ludzeludze, Grace/ Maranatha Church, in the Manzini District, the said accused person did wrongfully and unlawfully gather more than 20 people at his church despite being warned by law enforcement agencies  the police  to disperse and failed to take appropriate actions and thus contravened the said regulations.



To these charges, Ngomane pleaded guilty but disputed that he had been warned by the police to disperse the gathering leading to his apprehension. Following his plea, the pastor mitigated by saying they apologised as a church to have breached the said regulations.



He said they had tried to adhere to the regulations by deploying a congregant at the gate to sanitise incoming congregants and also making sure that they did not surpass 20, which was what the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO) were advocating.



We did not see that there were four other church members who had been seated within the church premises but outside the church structure as we had reached 20 inside the building, Ngomane said.



The man of God said he only saw that the congregants were over 20 when the service ended and they were exiting the church structure. After saying this, Magistrate Lukhele interjected and sought to establish why the pastor did not heed to the police officers warning to disperse the gathering as they were more than the permitted number.



To this, Ngomane said: They did not warn us. They informed me to come to Matsapha Police Station and I obliged.

He said upon arrival at the police station, the police recorded his statement. To this, the magistrate said: I think there are warnings about the sickness (COVID -19); and given the warnings, some have ways of telling members to register. That is the unfortunate situation we live in now and being hard-headed wont help us as there are warnings.



Explanation



The magistrate further sought an explanation on why the police did not warn the congregants first, to which the prosecutor said: As much as I would agree with the court that they were to be warned first, there are warnings everywhere propagated by the media.

The prosecutor said the police should have chucked out the four and to this, Magistrate Lukhele sought from the pastor why the person sanitising the congregants permited the quartet entry into the premises.

Ngomane said: We had said the additional numbers should sit outside the church structure in the shade.



Congregants



But this answer begged the question from the magistrate on whether the pastor lacked foresight in that when the church service ended, the congregants would meet despite that the others were seated outside the church.

The cleric said: It was an oversight and we sincerely apologise for that.



Magistrate Lukhele then sentenced Ngomane to one year in jail or E2 000 fine, of which half the sentence was suspended for 12 months.

On the other hand, another pastor who was sentenced as similar to Dlamini was Ludzeludze Prophetic Voice Churchs Zikalala, 52, of Ngwane Park.

Zikalala also pleaded guilty to contravening the aforementioned sections of the regulations.

The cleric apologised that his church surpassed the number as he said: We added four people who were members of the praise team when the service ended.

He said during the sermon, the praise team had excused themselves from the proceedings so that the stipulated number could not be surpassed.
Doctors and nurses are being 'bullied and shamed' into treating coronavirus patients and are told to hold their breath due to a lack of masks, Doctors' Association UK Ltd has said.

The government remains under pressure to order enough personal protective equipment as NHS staff continue to battle on the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic.

'Lack of personal protective equipment continues to be a critical issue. It is heartbreaking to hear that some staff have been told to simply "hold their breath," due to a lack of masks,' Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, president of the Doctors' Association UK, told The Guardian.

Paramedics can be seen wearing PPE in the back of an ambulance on Tuesday, but many staff struggle to find essential masks, goggles and gowns while they work in NHS hospitals

On Monday DAUK joined other doctors' unions in criticising the government over a lack of PPE. A letter signed by various unions read: 'There have been repeated assurances from the government that there is plenty of appropriate PPE.

'However it is widely reported from the front line that PPE is in very short supply, and that what is available does not adequately protect from infection. Deliveries do not arrive and hotlines that have been set up do not work.

'In desperation many health and social care workers have taken it upon themselves to source their own equipment from DIY stores, and some have made agreements with local secondary schools to make visors on 3D printers. This situation is wholly unacceptable.'

Yesterday it was revealed Aintree University Hospital staff nurse Liz Glanister, 68, had died after testing positive for Covid-19.

She was the latest health care worker to die, after she passed away at Royal Liverpool University Hospital on Friday.

According to the Guardian, a report from DAUK found 72% of doctors cannot get hold of a protective mask when they need one, while almost half of medics cannot access a gown.

'Doctors are dying. Nurses are dying. We are devastated, and can no longer stand by and watch as more dedicated colleagues lose their life,' Dr Batt-Rawden told The Guardian.
George Poikayil By

Express News Service

KASARAGOD: FFor Gafoor Pallikkal (54) -- a watch seller in Dubai -- time ticked the slowest in the last two weeks. He was quarantined in a single room at the General Hospital after testing positive for coronavirus disease on March 21.

He never got to see the face of a human in the past 14 days. Once every day, a doctor and a clean staff came to his room -- but both covered from head to toe in the white personal protective equipment.

The nurses never entered the room because he suffered from no symptoms. They would place food at a chair outside the room, knock the door and leave. He would take the food in, and replace the plate after cleaning it.

"It was the loneliest period of my life," said Gafoor, who worked in Dubai for 32 years.

On Friday, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced in his daily evening bulletin that 14 persons in Kerala recovered from COVID-19 infection. Gafoor was one of them. "I want to tell everybody now in quarantine and hospital. If I survived at this age, you all will. Just hang on," he said.

Gafoor said there was a lot to do in the 8ft by 8ft room. He spent a considerable amount of time scrubbing the glass tumbler. The stubborn stains held on to the glass for 14 days, said Gafoor, a stickler for cleanliness. He also kept cleaning the loo attached to his room. He did it despite the cleaning staff coming every day. "I did not want to give any space for the virus," he said.

When he was not clean, he found solace in the company of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer. "I finished reading his Pathummayude Aadu," he said. 'Pathumma's Goat' is a humorous novel written by Basheer in 1959. He also read up T Padmanabhan's 'Prakasam Parathunna Oru Penkutty, a collection of 12 short stories.

He also tried out the exercises recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). "I used to do a lot of pushups and squats in the room," he said. He used the mobile phone only to check WHO videos.

Gafoor created a scare in the town before testing positive, but the district administration is partially to be blamed.

He sells watches and other electronic gadgets in Al Sabkha, neighboring Naif, in the Deira region of Dubai. He returned home on March 10.

On March 11, he went to the General Hosptial because he had a fever. The COVID help desk took his number and asked him to go home. The staff said an executive would get in touch with him.

No one did for two days.

During these days, he attended the engagement ceremony of his niece at Malik Dinar Mosque. "He shook hands with almost all his guests," said a prominent politician. "But none of them tested positive," he said.

To be sure, neither Gafoor's wife or his daughter, a microbiologist, or his son, an aviation management executive, tested positive for COVID. "His is lucky. So are we," said the leader.

Gafoor, a bronchitis patient, then went to Mangaluru to meet his regular doctor. "It was the doctor who insisted I test for coronavirus," he said.

He gave his samples at a private hospital on March 18. On March 21, he got a call from the Mangaluru Hospital saying there was a problem. "The person did not elaborate. In 30 minutes, I got another call. The person asked me to come to General Hospital," he said.

When he reached there, he was quarantined. Now he is back home, but still quarantined in his room. "I can get out only on April 15," he said. "But now at least I am home. I will survive," he said
Falun Gong practitioners gather in a park in Chengdu City, China, for morning exercises some time in the 1990s, before the persecution against the meditation practice began. (Faluninfo.net)

Despite the Epidemic, Chinese Regime Organizations Continue to Persecute Falun Gong

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organizations in some parts of mainland China have carried on with the 20-year campaign against adherents of Falun Gong, even as people around the country continue to contract and succumb to the CCP virus, commonly known as COVID-19.

Practitioners of Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline, have been subjected to a relentless persecution that began in 1999, and which some scholars have described as a cold genocide, as well as the playbook for the current repression of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region.

Two of the CCP organizations, as highlighted in internal documents recently obtained by The Epoch Times, are the Harbin City School for Education and Transformationa brainwashing centerand the citys Anti-Heretical Religion Research Association, which was under the direction of the Partys Central Leading Group on Preventing and Dealing with Heretical Religions, informally known as the 610 Office.

Heretical religion, or xie jiao in Chinese, is a term used by the Communist Party to refer to all faiths in China that lie outside of the five officially recognized, state-controlled religions. The Party misleadingly translates the term into English as cult to lend legitimacy to its repression of faith.

Transformation

First taught in 1992, Falun Gong consists of slow-moving, meditative exercises and moral self-improvement based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. By the end of the 1990s, an estimated 100 million people were practicing Falun Gong in China for its reported health benefits.

The persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999 under the leadership of then-CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin. More than 1 million practitioners are believed to have been held in Chinas prisons and labor camps, and thousands have been confirmed to have died from torture and other forms of abuse.

Last June, in reviewing evidence gathered by human rights organizations and investigative researchers, the independent London-based China Tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, ruled that the CCP had been harvesting the organs of those incarcerated for their faith, the majority of whom were Falun Gong practitioners.

One of the documents obtained by The Epoch Times was a legal certificate from the Harbin City School for Education and Transformation. The certificate indicates that the School is a brainwashing center, where personnel attempt to compel Falun Gong adherents to recant their faith in a process known as transformation.

Transformation is one of the most common experiences of detained Falun Gong practitioners. According to accounts by persecution survivors, practitioners are subjected to a wide range of torture and abuse in order to force them to sign written repentances giving up the practice. Many Falun Gong practitioners have died or disappeared for refusing to sign the documents; according to some reports, practitioners deemed impossible to transform were later murdered for their organs.

According to the certificate, which is dated March 31, 2015 and effective through March 31 of this year, the facility was run under the direction of the 610 Office.

Another document is a report concerning bonuses awarded to personnel at the Harbin brainwashing center in 2017. A review of the individuals listed in the document shows that one of the staff, Sun Peng, served as acting vice-director of the School from June to September 2019.

Dont Let Up the Repression

From what can be inferred from the documents, and in consideration of recent institutional changes in the Chinese regimes security forces, there is some unclarity as to the current status of the 610 Office.

Named for its founding date on June 10, 1999, the 610 Office was created on Jiang Zemins orders to direct and coordinate the persecution of Falun Gong.

Since 2012, when current Chinese leader Xi Jinping came to power, many officials and other prominent figures associated with Jiang have been arrested and purged in Xis anti-corruption campaign. The 610 Office, once a bastion of political forces loyal to the Jiang faction, lost prominence throughout the decade, with multiple personnel removed. In 2013, its director Li Dongsheng was placed under investigation and sentenced in 2016.

In March 2018, the CCP published a plan for a series of structural reforms intended to further centralize state and Party institutions under Xis central leadership. The plan called for the functions of the 610 Office to be folded into another Party organizationthe Political and Legal Affairs Commissionand the Ministry of Public Security.

Previous analysis by The Epoch Times has examined the role that the persecution of Falun Gong played in Jiang Zemins political legacy, as well as how those in his faction have a stake in ensuring the campaigns continuation.

Apart from the anti-heretical religion organizations in Harbin, similar groups around the country have been specifically holding training sessions for security personnel tasked with persecuting Falun Gong.

Some of the organizations have even compared the political importance of persecuting Falun Gong and other banned faiths to that of fighting the ongoing epidemic.

On Feb. 11, the Anti-Heretical Religion Association of Guangdong Province started an initiative titled The Masses Are United in Fighting Heretical Religions, Form a Bastion of Collective Will to Fight the Epidemic.

In March, the Anti-Heretical Religion Association in Guyang County of Inner Mongolias Baotou City ordered residents to be on guard against Falun Gong and other faiths. A report from the local authorities said, Dont let up stopping heretical religions during the counterattack against the epidemic.

According to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website that tracks the persecution of Falun Gong, 10 of the practices adherents were unlawfully detained throughout March in southern Chinas Hunan Province. Some of the Falun Gong practitioners had their homes ransacked. The same month, in Hebei, the northern province that surrounds Beijing, Huaian County authorities set up a brainwashing center to transform Falun Gong practitioners, and several were reportedly detained.
Newark Liberty Airport Liberty

AP

United Airlines and American Airlines announced major cuts to their New York metropolitan area flights over the weekend, just as the COVID-19 outbreak in the region is expected to near its apex.

United, which operates out of Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and LaGuardia Airport in Queens, planned to significantly pare down operations for "at least the next three weeks," United's Chief Operations Officer Greg Hart said in a memo to employees in the region.

Starting on Sunday, the airline reduced the total number of flights from Newark to just 15 per day, to a total of nine destinations. LaGuardia operations were cut to just two flights per day to one destination. In April 2019, the airline flew around 420 daily flights from Newark, and 40 from LaGuardia.

In the memo, Hart emphasized that customers still traveling to and from New York could still access virtually all of United's domestic network through connections. The airline is working with several nonprofit organizations to provide free flights for medical volunteers.

American Airlines similarly cut most of its New York services  the airline operates out of Newark and LaGuardia, as well as New York's JFK Airport.

Starting Tuesday, the airline will only operate eight flights from LaGuardia, three flights from JFK, and three flights from Newark, one of which will be suspended on Thursday. In a memo to staff, American's senior vice president of operations, David Seymour, wrote that the cuts would remain in effect through May 6.

Story continues

In April 2019, the airline ran about 270 flights per day from the three airports.

Both airlines said in the memos that staff would receive pay and benefits if they lost work hours because of the cancellations.

Delta Air Lines operates heavily out of New York as well, and also cut flights for April beyond previous plans.

Delta will fly 15 departures from LaGuardia in April  down 90% from the airline's originally planned schedule for the month  27 total departures from JFK, down 80% from the original schedule.

The CARES Act, the federal stimulus package, offers airlines payroll grants and loans. By accepting aid, airlines must commit to not laying off or furloughing staff before September 30. The law also requires airlines to maintain certain levels of connectivity.

New York State has more than 122,000 cases of COVID-19, and at least 4,159 deaths, making it the epicenter of the outbreak in the US as of April 6. The bulk of these cases are in New York City and surrounding areas.

The novel coronavirus outbreak has decimated the airline industry. Airlines have been forced to suspend routes, cancel flights, and ground planes as travel restrictions, border closures, and stay-at-home advisories lead to a near halt in air travel.

Read the original article on Business Insider
As the Department of Health and Human Services warned Monday of severe shortages of vital protective equipment throughout the country, healthcare workers are demanding safe working conditions and the provision of the equipment necessary to keep them safe while treating COVID-19 patients.

Around midnight Monday morning, seven night shift nurses at Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit carried out a sit-in to protest working under unsafe and understaffed conditions. This action has evoked a powerful response from nurses and other healthcare workers. It is the latest in a wave of protests and strikes launched by healthcare and other workers internationally to oppose the deplorable, hazardous conditions they face amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and the complete absence of preparation and planning by the ruling elites.

After spreading throughout the country for weeks without any testing, as the Trump administration downplayed and denied the dangers involved, the virus has taken hold in every major city in the US, with the epicenter located in the New York City metropolitan area, and major hot spots growing in Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, and Los Angeles.

This week the pandemic entered into its surge phase in the US, with the number of cases and deaths forecast to grow rapidly, quickly overwhelming the dilapidated healthcare infrastructure across the country. By Monday evening, there were 367,507 cases and 10,908 deaths in the US, an increase of 29,500 cases and 1,165 deaths throughout the day.

Across Europe and the US, the lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) has caused thousands of healthcare workers to become infected with COVID-19. In Italy, roughly nine percent of all COVID-19 patients are healthcare workers. In the US, hundreds of healthcare workers in New York City have become infected, while in Detroit 734 employees at the Henry Ford Health System have tested positive for COVID-19, and another 1,500 employees at Beaumont Health are currently ill, with hundreds likely infected with COVID-19.

At around 7:00 pm Sunday, the incoming night shift at Sinai-Gracethe largest of eight hospitals in the for-profit Detroit Medical Center, which has been inundated with COVID-19 cases for weeksrefused to leave their break room and begin work until management had brought in additional staff to support them. Management balked, and eventually told the nurses to leave the premises. In the days leading up to Sundays events, at least seven night shift nurses had quit their jobs at Sinai-Grace over the deplorable conditions.

A video recorded by one of the nurses involved in the protest, Sal, filmed as the nurses left the hospital, has been viewed over 160,000 times, shared over 7,500 times, and has received over 5,200 comments and over 4,400 reactions. A separate post of the video has been viewed over 85,000 times, shared over 1,900 times, and has received over 600 comments and over 800 reactions.

In the video, Sal stated, Sinai-Grace is like the epicenter for this coronavirus. Weve had three straight weeks with over 110 patients, and an average of 12-14 nurses. At night, that drops down to about eight nurses, and weve been accepting that and working hard. But tonight, it was the breaking point for us, because we cannot safely take care of your loved ones out here with just six, seven nurses, with multiple people on [ventilators], multiple people on drips. Its not right.

Another nurse stated emphatically, Something needs to change. You have to make a stand at some point to get a change.

Nurses on the previous day shift, who began working at 7:00 a.m. Sunday, were kept on the job after the night shift workers were told to leave, working 24 hours straight. Raina, a day shift nurse at Sinai-Grace, later posted a message of solidarity with the night shift workers, while highlighting the horrible conditions faced at the hospital.

Raina wrote, The dayshift ER nurses just worked 24 hours straight with no lunch break [] night shift was right to refuse to come out because help NEVER came!!!! Now Im home. Shaking inside at the fact I was just trapped in a COVID-filled area wearing the same PPE for 24 hours!!!! [] My immune system is low because my body is running on empty. Myself at risk for catching this deadly virus now more than ever.

Her comment continued, Im so angry. I cant believe during a pandemic with a deadly virus killing so many people I have been forced to endure this. We support our night shift fully. [] They asked for help. They were told no help was coming and to leave or accept the assignment. It makes me so sad to know that so many years of combined experience walked out that door on night shift. It wasnt a group of new nurses. It WAS THE CORE OF NIGHTSHIFT!!!! [] Why wasnt everyone with RN next to their name working!!!! We are gonna have the worst PTSD from this. [] Detroit, Michigan needs help.

Rainas comments have gone viral, having been shared over 900 times by nurses and workers internationally. The flood of comments posted on Sals video are overwhelmingly supportive of the nurses, with many condemning management for not donning medical gear and helping staff the hospital themselves, given that most are qualified to provide care as well.

Victorria, a nurse from Texas, wrote, 25 patients! There is absolutely NO way 1 nurse can take care of 25 patients. That is insane! All of the nurse managers, assistant nurse managers, directors, educators, supervisors, case managers, anyone with an RN license in that hospital should be in scrubs with a patient assignment BEFORE any nurse is given a double-digit patient assignment!

Leilani wrote, Sorry to see it come down to this but any nurse who works ICU knew it was coming! I support you in Wisconsin.

The conditions nurses face in Detroit mirror those faced across the country and internationally.

Later on Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General released a report detailing the utter lack of preparation of hospitals across the US for the anticipated surge in cases.

Based on a survey conducted with hospital administrators from 323 hospitals across 46 states from March 23-27, Hospitals reported that severe shortages of testing supplies and extended waits for test results limited hospitals ability to monitor the health of patients and staff, with wait times for test results lasting seven days or longer.

Further, Hospitals reported that widespread shortages of PPE put staff and patients at risk, [] and that the lack of a robust supply chain was delaying or preventing them from restocking PPE needed to protect staff. Hospitals also expressed uncertainty about availability of PPE from Federal and State sources and noted sharp increases in prices for PPE from some vendors.

Unsurprisingly, the survey found that hospitals were not always able to maintain adequate staffing levels or offer staff adequate support and anticipated being overwhelmed if they experienced a surge of patients, who may require special beds and rooms to treat and contain infection. A major concern is the anticipated shortages of ventilators, which would pose difficult decisions about ethical allocation and liability.

Asked about this damning indictment of his administrations response to the COVID-19 pandemic at Mondays White House press conference, Trump lashed out at reporters, repeatedly saying, its just wrong, and asked for the name of the inspector general. He claimed that the report was a politically-motivated attack, even though it was authored by a nonpartisan office, and sought to deflect blame for the crisis created by his administration, saying, States can be doing their own testing. Hospitals are supposed to be doing testing. Were the federal government, were not supposed to be standing on street corners doing testing.

Healthcare workers determination to fight for their own safety and the well-being of their patients is a sharp expression of the growing radicalization taking place within the working class. The unprecedented catastrophe of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the complete inability of capitalism to provide for the needs of society, and to secure the most basic right to life itself.

As the virus wreaks ever-greater havoc, growing numbers of workers recognize the need for a vast expansion of the ranks of nurses and support staff, and the mobilization of the economy to produce the necessary PPE, ventilators, test kits and other equipment required to fight the pandemic. Only through the nationalization of the healthcare industry and workers control over the major industries, to retool them to produce essential medical supplies, can the working class fight to prevent the mass deaths and social catastrophe threatened by the pandemic.
Dominos Pizza and Little Caesars are stepping up to feed millions of essential workers and others in need of meals amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Ann Arbor-based Dominos has committed to donate 10 million slices nationwide. Simultaneously, Detroit-based Little Caesars will give away 1 million pizzas.

Little Caesars will focus its efforts on healthcare workers and first responders with pizzas going to hospitals, and police and fire departments. The first donation went to Detroit Medical Center today, April 7.

Detroit is the hardest hit area of Michigan with 5,023 confirmed coronavirus cases and 193 related deaths as of Monday, April 6. The disproportionate number of cases in the metro Detroit area is a result of multiple factors, including the large population, more aggressive testing and community spread of the virus, according to experts.

"Hospital staff and first responders are working around the clock to help keep us safe and healthy, and they are true heroes," said Dave Scrivano, president and CEO of Little Caesars. "As a family company, we want to thank all of them in the best way we know how - by delivering a wholesome meal."

The company is also asking its customers to Pie it Forward. Starting Monday, April 13, customers who order through the Little Caesars app or website will have to option to donate a pizza to a local hospital, or police or fire departments.

Domino's will donate 10 million slices of pizza to people in the communities it serves across the United States during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.Domino's Pizza

Dominos franchisees will begin feeding the need in their communities this week. The pizza could go to hospitals and medical centers, children and families, health departments, grocery store workers or others. All 6,126 stores nationwide are expected to take part. Store managers and employees are looking for who they can help. Many stores have committed to donating 1,000 pizzas in their community.

"We have franchisees and company-owned stores all over the country already doing amazing work in their communities and we know that by amplifying those efforts together we will be able to help even more people who are struggling right now, said Russell Weiner, Dominos chief operating officer and president of the Americas.

As of Monday, April 6, Michigan had 17,221 confirmed cases and 727 related deaths. Seventy-one of Michigans 83 counties now have at least one case. Michigan remains under a stay-at-home order through April 13. The order closed all non-essential businesses while telling residents to stay home except for essential trips.

Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

READ MORE:

Tuesday, April 7: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Michigan State Police troopers are delivering groceries in this U.P. town

Its been four weeks since Michigans first confirmed coronavirus cases. We mapped its spread through the state
The Trump administration approved the state of Michigans request to loosen requirements to access Medicaid programs during the coronavirus pandemic.

The waiver gives health care providers more flexibility to administer Medicaid programs while the national emergency disrupts normal compliance with federal Medicaid requirements. Michigans request asserted a commitment from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun to keep 2.5 million Medicaid beneficiaries safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Public health officials say the infectious respiratory illness, which infected at least 17,221 people and killed 727 as of Monday, can cause serious and even fatal complications for people with underlying medical conditions. Khaldun said the flexibility is essential to ensure Medicaid beneficiaries have access to health care while also preventing potentially dangerous face-to-face interactions.

The Trump administration issued blanket waivers to temporarily relax Medicaid, Medicare and Childrens Health Insurance Program regulations during the pandemic. Nearly every state in the country has sought a waiver.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued its request on April 1 and received approval on Monday, April 6. Michigan received federal approval to allow its Medicaid program to do the following:

Suspend the need for new prior authorization requests for medical services

Extend existing prior authorization agreements

Streamline enrollment for Medicaid providers and allowing approved out-of-state providers to begin serving beneficiaries quickly

Allow telephonic healthcare services as part of telehealth/telemedicine delivery

Waive quantity limits on durable medical equipment, medical supplies and pharmaceuticals

Remove limitations on providers to allow qualified physician assistants and nurses to treat COVID-19 patients

Waivers will expire at the same time the public health emergency is declared over by the federal government.

Vice President Mike Pence said the Trump administration will continue to explore ways to improve access to health care during the coronavirus pandemic.

Well make sure that Medicare has the flexibility to meet this moment for seniors -- when we remember that seniors with underlying health conditions are the most vulnerable to serious outcomes from the coronavirus, Pence said at an April 1 press conference.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus.

Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

Read more on MLive:

Tuesday, April 7: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Its been four weeks since Michigans first confirmed coronavirus cases. We mapped its spread through the state

Michigan coronavirus timeline: Its been four weeks since states first confirmed case

The eerie streets of a deserted downtown Detroit amid the coronavirus stay-at-home order

Michigan police relax enforcement of speeding, other minor violations during coronavirus pandemic

Conoravirus upends Michigans Class of 2020: This isnt the senior year that anyone wanted'

MichMash: Medical supply shortage has businesses stepping up amid coronavirus pandemic
Although she is a pediatric nurse and will be working in a pediatric intensive care unit, she said she anticipates helping patients diagnosed with COVID-19 at some point, as childrens hospitals are beginning to treat young adults to help with caseloads, or because she is used to being floated to different units.
michael barbaro

From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[music]

Against the advice of public health officials and the wishes of its own governor, Wisconsin will hold its democratic primary today in the middle of a pandemic. Astead Herndon on how that happened. Its Tuesday, April 7.

astead herndon

March was always going to be one of the most consequential months of the presidential election. By the time we get to the middle of March, though 

archived recording So heres what were watching. Breaking news. Louisiana officially could become the first state to postpone its Democratic primary election over the coronavirus pandemic.

astead herndon

 it becomes clear that the coronavirus global health pandemic has really upended the race completely.

[music]

astead herndon

After Super Tuesday, states that are scheduled to vote start postponing and sometimes outright canceling their scheduled primaries.

archived recording 1 Georgia becoming the second state to delay its presidential primary. archived recording 2 Kentucky announced that theyd delay their contest as well. archived recording 3 Ohios governor pushed back its primary just hours before polls were set to open. archived recording 4 Other states  Connecticut, Indiana and Maryland.

astead herndon

These are all states that said that the public health crisis was too great for them to hold in-person elections in March. But theres one state that refuses to budge, even as public health officials are urging them and states across the country have taken that drastic step. Its Wisconsin.

michael barbaro

And what explains that? Whats happening in Wisconsin?

astead herndon

Well, when most people look at these presidential primaries, particularly in a state like Wisconsin, they think that this is just about the two candidates at the top  Joe Biden versus Bernie Sanders, and who gets the delegates out of that. But the reason why Wisconsin was holding out and keeping its primary schedule was really to do with more state and local concerns. Initially, the Democratic governor, Tony Evers, and state Republican leaders were on the same page. They both agreed that the April 7 election should go forward. And they said so for a couple reasons. Not only had the virus not really ravaged the state in the same way that we have seen in other parts of the country at the initial time in March when they were making this decision, but they agreed on the importance of the state and local races that would be decided down ballot on the same day of the presidential primary.

archived recording (tony evers) I just want to make sure people understand the complexity of our spring general election. Its not a primary election. Its only a primary election for the presidential candidates.

astead herndon

Races like sheriffs and mayors and court judges. Theres a particularly important Supreme Court race thats happening in the state. And both sides agreed that filling these roles was important for the continuance of state government.

archived recording (tony evers) How long do we potentially leave offices not filled because were into July and August and we havent held a general election?

astead herndon

And thats why they proceeded with the primary.

archived recording (robin vos) You know, I want to give credit to Governor Evers. I agree with his decision to say that we are going to hold this election.

michael barbaro

Hm. So despite the risks of holding an in-person primary in the middle of a pandemic, despite the fact that many states are postponing these primaries, the Republican and Democratic officials in Wisconsin say that this is necessary for the functioning of their government?

astead herndon

Right. And thats the position they held for about a week.

michael barbaro

And what happens after a week?

astead herndon

Well, kind of most clearly, the factors around the decision changed.

archived recording (tony evers) We need an all-hands-on-deck approach to stop the spread of Covid-19 in Wisconsin.

astead herndon

The pandemic becomes more acutely felt in the Midwest and particularly in Wisconsin.

archived recording (tony evers) And here is the bottom line  folks need to start taking this seriously. So today Im asking for your help.

astead herndon

And the governor issues a stay-at-home order like many other governors did across the country and closes all non-essential businesses.

archived recording (tony evers) Its not something I wanted to do, and its not something I take lightly.

astead herndon

And people across the state are starting to say, well, if we cant leave our houses, how are we supposed to vote?

michael barbaro

Right. And whats the answer?

astead herndon

The governor and state Republicans keep holding this line that voting was something that was so essential, that the primary was something that was so important, that they would try to find some workarounds that included expanding access to absentee ballots and encouraging people to use that measure. It included counties taking precautionary measures which include maybe drive-through voting or socially distanced lines. But besides all of these creative measures, there is an increasing fear, particularly among poll workers, that the election would be unsafe for them to staff. These are people who, 90 percent of them are senior citizens.

michael barbaro

Poll workers?

astead herndon

Mm-hmm. One of the most vulnerable population to this deadly virus. And they start dropping off, informing their local jurisdictions that they dont think that they want to participate in the scheduled election. A survey from the Election Commission in the state showed that more than a hundred jurisdictions cannot adequately staff their polling locations, because they wouldnt have the right poll workers to do so.

michael barbaro

Wow.

astead herndon

That becomes the first real point of pressure to say, how can this election go forward?

michael barbaro

So what do officials do in response to this severe shortage of poll workers?

astead herndon

Well, they go back to trying to find creative workarounds. So the first thing that some of the local jurisdictions do is close and limit their polling locations. Some of the more drastic examples include Milwaukee, the biggest city in the state, going from 180 polling locations, typically, down to just five or seven.

michael barbaro

And yet everyone still seems committed to holding this election?

astead herndon

They were, until the virus intensifies in the state and cases increase. As the deaths increase, thats when you see a real shift from the governor.

archived recording (tony evers) Hi there, folks. Governor Evers here.

astead herndon

And its a big one.

archived recording (tony evers) So today, Im asking the legislature to come together to take bipartisan action to ensure that every registered voter receives an absentee ballot to vote in the upcoming election.

astead herndon

He proposes a dramatic expansion in the states absentee ballot voting system, essentially making it a universal vote-by-mail system.

archived recording (tony evers) So I hope that the legislature will act swiftly to send absentee ballots to every single registered voter living in Wisconsin.

astead herndon

The state would mail 3.3 million eligible voters a ballot, whether they requested it or not. And that represents a real change in how kind of the electoral process would work throughout the state.

archived recording (tony evers) This is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. This is an issue of democracy. I dont care who gets the credit. I just want to make sure that everyone has a chance to cast their ballot this April. Thanks for watching, and lets get it done, folks.

astead herndon

And thats when we really see the partisan pushback start.

[music]

What began as a Democratic governor and a Republican state legislature that were basically on the same page has now devolved into what is, by all accounts, a partisan bloodbath. From the moment that Evers proposes that every person would be mailed a ballot whether they ask for it or not, Republicans go haywire.

archived recording Right now, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald is calling this idea a fantasy. archived recording (scott fitzgerald) Yeah, this has probably been my biggest disappointment so far in working with the administration since this all happened.

astead herndon

They say that this is not only logistically impractical 

archived recording (scott fitzgerald) It was completely disingenuous for the governor to tape a video and post it as if this was reality. To float the idea that they were going to find enough outer envelopes, ballots themselves, inner envelopes with first class postage, and mail it out to 3.3 million people in Wisconsin is completely made up.

astead herndon

 but also kind of morally and democratically wrong.

archived recording (scott fitzgerald) You know, that happens sometimes, I guess, if youre feeling pressure from one of your own special interests or from the party themselves. But 

astead herndon

And Evers knows that state law does not allow him to kind of unilaterally make huge changes in how Wisconsin runs the election.

archived recording (tony evers) Folks, I cant move this election or change the rules on my own. My hands are tied.

astead herndon

He needs the help of the legislature. And so one of the measures he tries to do is call a special session of the legislature, and encourage them to delay the election and implement changes that would allow every person to be able to vote without going in person.

archived recording (tony evers) I urge the legislators to take this call for a special session seriously.

astead herndon

It doesnt go well. The legislature gavels in a session this past Saturday.

archived recording (legislature) April 2020, special session of the Senate will come to order. With no objection, the April 2020 special session will stand adjourned until Monday, April 6.

astead herndon

And less than a minute later 

archived recording (legislature) April 2020, special session is adjourned.

astead herndon

 gavels out.

michael barbaro

Whoa.

astead herndon

This is kind of an extraordinary move by the legislature to really thumb their nose at the power of the executive and the governor. The biggest elected official in the state has called them into session and said, take up this issue. And they basically start the session and end it without doing what he asked.

michael barbaro

So the Republicans do not grant the governor his wish for a mail-in balloting system?

astead herndon

Right.

[music]

michael barbaro

Astead, why is it that Wisconsin has so quickly erupted into a really nasty partisan battle over something as seemingly basic as making sure people can vote safely in a primary election? I mean, that would seem to be in everyones bipartisan interest to protect life, right? I mean, Democrats and Republicans will be casting ballots.

astead herndon

It would seem as if safe voting and public health would be an issue in which partisanship would be left to the side and that Democrats and Republicans can agree on the best way to move forward. But in Wisconsin, there is no issue in which that can be left aside. What we see is a state that has become so deeply wrested by Republican control that even something like safe voting turns into a mud fest. And for this governor, for the Democratic governor Tony Evers, thats been clear since the day he was elected.

michael barbaro

Well be right back.

[music]

michael barbaro

Astead, where does this political dysfunction that youre describing in Wisconsin, where does that start?

astead herndon

Well, the state is one that is unique in its political history.

[music]

archived recording Few places reflect the growing political chasm in the U.S. as does the state of Wisconsin.

astead herndon

Wisconsin was a united Republican government under Scott Walker 

archived recording Republicans won everything in Wisconsin in 2010.

astead herndon

 from 2010 until 2018.

archived recording They won the legislature. They won this Republican majority in Wisconsin.

astead herndon

And this wasnt just a Republican government that passed kind of conventional conservative bills. This was seen as really a laboratory of conservative ideas.

archived recording Governor Scott Walker is the man at the center of a bitter fight that has cleaved Wisconsin like a block of its best cheddar cheese.

astead herndon

And so we saw a government that targeted teachers unions, that seized power on key boards, and really kind of had a wish list of conservative ideas nationally playing out in the state.

archived recording He proposed slashing spending, raising no taxes, and most controversial of all, sharply curtailing public employees right to collective bargaining.

[music]

astead herndon

Even as the state voted for Barack Obama twice 

archived recording Incumbent Republican Governor Scott Walker has won his re-election bid.

astead herndon

 they kept winning.

archived recording For the third time in four years, Republican Scott Walker has won a statewide election for governor.

astead herndon

So by the time you get to 2018 

archived recording Major shift happened overnight. Wisconsin voters, youve elected a Democrat as governor.

astead herndon

 when Walker loses his re-election bid to Tony Evers 

archived recording The race was almost too close to call. But overnight, Democrat Tony Evers narrowly beat out G.O.P. incumbent Scott Walker, denying him a third term.

astead herndon

 Republicans in the state legislature have already learned a lesson from the years prior, that its more important to wield power than it is to be seen as a political compromiser.

michael barbaro

So how does that play out when all of a sudden there is a Democratic governor in Evers, who I assume wants to start making compromises with the Republican legislature?

astead herndon

The Republicans make clear that that is not what theyre interested in.

archived recording 1 Republicans, stung by their losses in the midterms, are moving forward with last ditch efforts to hang onto power. Its happening in at least two swing states, Wisconsin and Michigan. archived recording 2 The country is really watching this morning as lawmakers here in Wisconsin work through the night to amend and vote on a number of bills.

astead herndon

So in a special session that happens before Evers takes office, Republicans do a kind of classic power grab.

archived recording Wisconsins Republican-controlled legislature passed a series of bills late Wednesday night that would limit the powers of incoming Democratic governor Tony Evers.

astead herndon

They pass a number of bills that limit the power of the incoming Democratic governor and take away things that were available to his Republican predecessor.

archived recording Now the bills would put lawmakers in charge of litigation, which would effectively block incoming Democratic Governor Tony Evers and the Democratic Attorney General-elect from withdrawing the state from a lawsuit to overturn Obamacare.

astead herndon

So Evers would not have the power to make key appointments.

archived recording And another bill would require the governor to get permission from the legislature to ban guns.

astead herndon

Evers would not have the power to regulate guns in the same way that existed for his predecessor. They also limit early voting, which is a kind of tool of access to the ballot box that has sometimes helped Democrats, because more people in bigger areas can get to the polls. These were all really nakedly partisan, and Republicans didnt really even try to hide it.

archived recording (robin vos) We dont want to usurp his power. Thats never been our goal. Our goal is just to guarantee that we have an opportunity to sit at the table, negotiate and do it fairly. archived recording It puts us on an equal playing field as the legislature, and I think thats a positive step for the state of Wisconsin.

michael barbaro

So that is the political backdrop, youre saying, for this current battle over how to hold a primary in the middle of a pandemic?

astead herndon

Yeah. It is that sense of affirmation, the sense of rightness that Republicans enter into Everss administration with, and it allows them to openly flout the typical means of political pressure that the governor tries to put on them around the election.

[music]

archived recording The legislature  they came in, the gaveled in for about 10 seconds, gaveled out and they moved on. They said that was not a serious proposal and said the time for proposals like that was several weeks ago when the crisis began.

michael barbaro

So what happens after that special session, that minute-long special session about the election?

astead herndon

Well, theres been a significant amount of legal legislation that has surrounded all of this political action.

archived recording 1 So much going on here at the State Capitol today. archived recording 2 Lets break down and give you a brief summary of what happened today, because its been a wild day politically.

astead herndon

There was a court ruling that basically affirmed that the Republicans probably have control over when the election should be held, but the ruling expanded access to absentee voting. Republicans appealed that straight to the U.S. Supreme Court. And then on Monday 

archived recording 1 It started with Governor Evers issuing an executive order, pushing back the spring election from tomorrow to June 9. archived recording 2 This morning, Governor Tony Evers issued an executive order to postpone tomorrows election due to Covid-19 concerns. archived recording (tony evers) The bottom line is that I have an obligation to keep people safe.

astead herndon

 the governor makes his most drastic step, unilaterally postponing Tuesdays election until June, claiming that he has the emergency powers to do so. This is a affront to the Republicans.

archived recording Republican legislators mounted a legal challenge immediately.

astead herndon

And they immediately initiate emergency legislation, going straight to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, saying that the governor does not have the right to do this.

archived recording And just about an hour ago, the State Supreme Court issued its ruling, saying that indeed, the election will happen tomorrow.

astead herndon

And the court agreed with him, ruling just hours later that the governor did not have the power to postpone the Tuesday primary, meaning the election will go on in person today.

michael barbaro

You know, Astead, Im struck by the fact that earlier on, you told us that Democrats and Republicans in the state, they had basically been on the same page about this primary until the virus gets worse and the governor advocates for a different kind of voting system through absentee ballots. And then it all breaks down, and Republicans are attempting at every turn to block him now in court. And how do you explain that? I mean, how do Republicans in the state legislature explain that?

astead herndon

Republican county chairs and folks in the state legislature say a couple things. The first is that their position hasnt changed. They thought the governor didnt have the power then, and they dont think he has the power now to change how the election is run. The other point is that they see Wisconsin, again, as a microcosm of the conservative fight that could happen largely, and what could be a new reality of how American elections are run in this pandemic era. And in that view, dramatically expanding the electorate in these ways are not something that Republicans are all that keen on. Because what theyre worried about is an election in which people who may not have participated, or may not have come out, all of a sudden have the opportunity to do so and to cast a ballot. And that kind of changes the center of power within the state.

michael barbaro

What do you mean?

astead herndon

If people participate in different numbers, in bigger numbers, if it changes the type of people who want to participate in the spring election thats not necessarily always seen the biggest turnout, that changes who can win.

michael barbaro

And who has benefited from those systems in the past, and who might benefit if they were to change along the lines of what Governor Evers is asking for?

astead herndon

Its hard to say exactly, because were talking about an unprecedented situation. But we do know that the people who are typically benefited from early voting, from early registration, from online registration, or a vote-by-mail are people who usually dont participate in the process  younger voters, minority voters, people that lean Democratic. And just in the ways that Republicans limited early voting in that special session they had after Evers won, its the same thought process. That when more people get involved, when people who typically sit out get involved, that helps Democrats.

michael barbaro

Mm. Do Democrats acknowledge that an absentee balloting system that is suddenly much more widespread than it has been in the past would be advantageous to them in Wisconsin?

astead herndon

They principally try to appeal to voters using small d democratic ideals  the general, basic American principle that everyone should be given the easiest access to vote. They try to appeal to people through public health measures, noting how unsafe it is for people to gather at polls. But when you ask folks in Democratic circles, they know that when the electorate expands, particularly in national and statewide elections, thats usually good news for Democrats.

michael barbaro

Its interesting. This is not just a debate about how to vote in a pandemic, although clearly thats whats driving a lot of this. But in the background, from what youre saying, is this other question, which is whether the systems needed to vote during a pandemic may fundamentally change who votes, how many people vote and which party wins.

astead herndon

Exactly. This is not just about public health. This is about access to power and the kind of most basic fundamental principles of democracy. If the system that we have been traditionally used to cant hold, what replaces it? And weve seen real resistance to that in this state, and we may see that resistance all across the country.

michael barbaro

Well, why would you say that? Because its very tempting to see this story as an anomaly, right, in that the governor of Wisconsin waited a very long time to try to postpone the states primary  perhaps too long  and the state legislature is this hyper-partisan, conservative, activist body that is trying to use its power for political advantage. So all those factors would seem to make Wisconsin a bit of an outlier.

astead herndon

Well, what may seem like an anomaly right now might actually just be a pacesetter. And this could be a preview as to what comes for state after state. If you are a place like Georgia or Louisiana or Ohio that has functionally delayed its election by three, four weeks, and if this virus persists to that time, there will still be questions about whether it is safe to hold in-person balloting then.

michael barbaro

Right.

astead herndon

And when those questions come and the remedies are proposed, whether its online or vote-by-mail or the like, these same struggles of power will persist. And we will see factions emerge that question whether the new systems are fair and who politically benefits from them.

[music]

michael barbaro

Astead, thank you very much.

astead herndon

Thank you.

michael barbaro

On Monday night, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin, who had opposed extending the deadline for absentee ballots in todays election. In a 5-to-4 ruling, the courts conservative justices wrote that such an extension, quote, fundamentally alters the nature of the election, and said that all absentee ballots must be postmarked by 8:00 p.m. Tuesday night. Polls in Wisconsin are scheduled to open at 7:00 a.m. this morning, but its unclear how many poll workers will show up, how many polling stations will be open, and what kinds of protections will be in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus during in-person voting. Meanwhile, the virus continues to spread across Wisconsin. As of Monday, the state reported nearly 2,500 infections and 77 deaths. Well be right back.

[music]

michael barbaro

Heres what else you need to know today.

archived recording (donald trump) I also want to send best wishes to a very good friend of mine and a friend to our nation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Were very saddened to hear that he was taken into intensive care this afternoon, a little while ago.

michael barbaro

On Monday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who tested positive for Covid-19 10 days ago, was moved into the intensive care unit of a London hospital after his condition worsened.

archived recording (donald trump) Americans are all praying for his recovery. Hes been a really good friend. Hes been really something very special  strong, resolute, doesnt quit, doesnt give up.

michael barbaro

In a statement, Johnson insisted he remained in charge of the British government, but said he had deputized his foreign minister to act in his place when necessary. Meanwhile, Iran, an epicenter of the virus in the Middle East, said it would lift a nationwide shutdown of businesses and allow the majority of its workforce to return to work later this week.

archived recording (hassan rouhani) [SPEAKING FARSI]

michael barbaro

Irans president, Hassan Rouhani, said it was important for economic activity to resume 

archived recording (hassan rouhani) [SPEAKING FARSI]

michael barbaro

 despite fears that it could lead to greater levels of infection.

archived recording (hassan rouhani) [SPEAKING FARSI]

michael barbaro

And in the U.S., the death toll surpassed 10,000 people and congressional leaders began talks about a second economic relief package that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi predicted could cost more than $1 trillion.

[music]
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7) - Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corporation has assured that its support for the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine for the duration of its extension until the end of April.

A unit of the conglomerate, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) Infrastructure, said it will continue to provide military and police personnel at tollway checkpoints with essential equipment and supplies to aid in the effective implementation of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.

SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang assured the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines of the business giant's continued support to personnel assigned at checkpoints.

"Apart from our medical practitioners, our law enforcement and security forces are providing an invaluable service and are also sacrificing a lot to make sure that we are all safe," Ang said in a statement.

The company provided portalets, motorcycles and riders, tents, passenger vehicles, generator sets, tower lights, traffic cones, and barriers, as well as drinking water, disinfection teams and supplies.

This has been distributed to checkpoints at various key areas on the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR), Southern Luzon Expressway, the Skyway system, NAIAX, and the Tarlac- Pangasinan-La Union Expressway.

Meanwhile, SMC Tollways announced that more than 2,000 medical practitioners availed of its toll-free RFID stickers for doctors and nurses.

In less than a week of implementation, more than 1 million worth of toll fees have been waived for medical front liners.

The company also set up priority lanes at the SLEX to ensure the unimpeded flow of medical personnel and equipment, as well as essential goods like food and raw materials for production.
VANCOUVER, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Equinox Gold Corp. (TSX: EQX, NYSE American: EQX) ("Equinox Gold" or the "Company") will hold its annual general meeting ("AGM") of shareholders on Friday, May 15, 2020 commencing at 1:30 pm Vancouver time. This year, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Equinox Gold will hold its AGM in a virtual format via live audiocast.

All interested investors are invited to participate in the AGM using the login details below and to submit questions during the live audiocast.

AGM commencing at 1:30 pm Vancouver time

Login: https://web.lumiagm.com/289444004 Password: equinox2020

Information regarding how to participate in the virtual meeting has been distributed to shareholders and is also available for download on Equinox Gold's website at www.equinoxgold.com.

Meeting Materials

To further its commitment to environmental sustainability and to reduce its printing and mailing costs, Equinox Gold uses the Notice and Access process for the delivery of meeting materials. Under Notice and Access, instead of receiving printed copies of the meeting materials shareholders receive a Notice and Access Notification containing details of the AGM date and purpose, how to access the live audiocast, and information on how to access the meeting materials electronically. Shareholders with existing instructions on their account to receive printed materials have been mailed a printed copy of the meeting materials. All of the meeting materials can be downloaded from Equinox Gold's website at www.equinoxgold.com and from Equinox Gold's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Shareholders may request that printed copies of the meeting materials be mailed to them at no cost by contacting the Company at [email protected] or by phone at 1-833-EQX-GOLD (1-833-379-4653) (North America) or +1-604-558-0560 (International).

Corporate Update

As in previous years, Equinox Gold will host a live conference call and webcast after the AGM commencing at 2:00 pm Vancouver time to discuss the Company's business strategy and objectives and to provide an update on activities underway at the Company's projects. All participants will have the opportunity to ask questions of Equinox Gold's executive team.

Corporate Update commencing at 2:00 pm Vancouver time



Conference call Toll-free in U.S. and Canada: 1-800-319-4610 International callers: +1 604-638-5340



Webcast www.equinoxgold.com

The webcast will be archived on Equinox Gold's website until August 15, 2020.

About Equinox Gold

Equinox Gold is a Canadian mining company with six producing gold mines, a multi-million-ounce gold reserve base and a strong growth profile from two development projects and two expansion projects. Equinox Gold operates entirely in the Americas, with two properties in the United States, one in Mexico and five in Brazil. Equinox Gold's common shares are listed on the TSX and the NYSE American under the trading symbol EQX. Further information about Equinox Gold's portfolio of assets and long-term growth strategy is available at www.equinoxgold.com or by email at [email protected].

Cautionary Notes & Forward-looking Statements

This news release includes certain statements that constitute "forward-looking statements", and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws collectively "forward-looking statements". These include statements regarding the growth potential of the Company. When used in this news release, words such as "will", "growth", "strategy", "objectives" and similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements as well as phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation of such terms. As well, forward-looking statements may relate to future outlook and anticipated events, such as the Company's strategy to help keep its workforce and local communities safe, the Company's ability to successfully resume operations at mines should there be temporary restrictions, and the Company's ability to advance its development and expansion projects and achieve its growth objectives. These forward-looking statements involve assumptions, numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the Company's control including risks associated with or related to the volatility of metal prices and the Company's shares, there being no significant disruptions affecting the Company's operations or projects, risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic including government and health authority responses and increased regulations and restrictions regarding the flow of labour, materials and impact on the Company's business, projects and operations, as well as the risk factors identified in Equinox Gold's year-end MD&A dated February 28, 2020, which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made and/or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date those statements are made. The COVID-19 situation is changing rapidly and Equinox Gold will continue to review and adapt its response protocols as the situation unfolds, applying guidelines outlined by the World Health Organization and governments of countries within which the Company operates. The extent to which COVID-19 (or any other disease, epidemic or pandemic) impacts business activity, operations or financial results, and the duration of any such impact, will depend on future developments that are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information that may emerge concerning COVID-19 and the actions required to contain or treat its impact, among others. Except as required by applicable law, Equinox Gold assumes no obligation to update or to publicly announce the results of any change to any forward-looking statement contained or incorporated by reference herein to reflect actual results, future events or developments, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting the forward-looking statements. If Equinox Gold updates any one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that the company will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

SOURCE Equinox Gold Corp.
The Moroccan government lifted the threshold on foreign debt as it braces for dwindling foreign exchange reserves due to the impact of coronavirus on the flow of hard currency to the country.

The move aims at addressing the needs in terms of foreign exchange reserves as the coronavirus repercussions are expected to hit tourism revenues, foreign investments and exports and remittances of Moroccans abroad, the government said in a statement. The 2020 appropriation bill limits foreign debt at 31 billion dirhams.

The government also said that priority will be given to spending on health services and on mitigating the social and economic consequences of the measures to contain the virus.

The government also vowed to speed up paying bills due to SMEs in order to help maintain jobs and maintain spending on social services.

Morocco has put in place a plan to pay households whose main provider works in the informal sector and had to stop activity due to coronavirus with stipends of up to 1200 dirhams.

Workers of the private sector affiliated to pension fund CNSS will receive 1000 in March and 2000 in the next three months.

Earlier, the government ordered the first measure to rationalize spending by putting off promotions of employees and hiring new staff in the public administration except in health and security areas.

Morocco has imposed a nationwide quarantine and banned travel between cities. Only critical businesses such as shops and supermarkets selling foodstuff, pharmacies and banks and other essential businesses were allowed to operate.

Morocco has set up a special national response committee to the coronavirus as well as an economic committee to meet the challenges relating to the pandemic.

The King ordered the creation of a special fund to offset the economic and social impact of the virus and upgrade health service. So far, generous donations from the Moroccan public and private sector flowed to the fund, which now garnered more than $3 billion.
A new COVID-19 vaccine candidate is entering Phase 1 clinical human testing today, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted an application from Inovio Pharmaceuticals under the regulator's Investigational New Drug program. Inovio plans to inject its first volunteer test subject with the INO-4800 DNA vaccine candidate it has developed, following promising results from preclinical studies performed on animals that did indicate increased immune response.

The Inovio DNA vaccine candidate works by injecting a specifically engineered plasmid (a small, independent genetic structure) into a patient so that their cells can produce a desired, targeted antibody to fight off a specific infection. DNA vaccines, while available and approved for a variety of animal infections in veterinary medicine, have not yet been approved for human use.

That said, Inovio's work isn't starting from scratch: The company previously completed a Phase 1 study for a DNA vaccine candidate for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), where it showed promising results and a high level of antibodies produced in subjects that persisted for an extended period of time.

Inovio has been able to scale up quickly, developing and producing "thousands of doses" of INO-4800 in just a few short weeks in order to support its Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials. The company has done so in part thanks to backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as funding from other nonprofits and organizations. If clinical trials are successful, Inovio says it will be able to have up to one million doses of the vaccine ready by the end of the year, for use both in additional trials and for potential emergency use pending authorization.

This is the second vaccine to undertake Phase 1 clinical testing on human subjects: Moderna began its trial in mid-March. Inovio's trial will be made up of 40 volunteers, all healthy adults selected via screening conducted at either Philadelphia's Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, or the Center for Pharmaceutical Research in Kansas City. It'll span the next several weeks, and the company expects data around the immune responses from test subjects, as well as info pertaining to the safety of the treatment for humans, to be available by late this summer.

Any broad clearance or approval for use is still likely at least a year to 18 months away, but the pace with which human trials are beginning is still exceptional, so hopefully we won't have to wait too much longer than that.
Chahid El Hafed, April 02, 2020 (SPS) - Political personalities, diplomats and national organizations have expressed their sincere condolences to all the Saharawi people following the death of Mhamad Jadad, member of the National Secretariat of the Frente POLISARIO (head of international relations ) and coordinator with the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).

The Italian diplomat, former Special Representative of the United Nations and Head of the Referendum Mission in Western Sahara, Mr. Francesco Bastagli has expressed, in a message sent to the President of the Republic, FPS Secretary General, Brahim Gali, his sincere condolences to the Sahrawi people, POLISARIO, and the family of the deceased for the death of Mhamad Jadad, after a long struggle against a terminal illness.

In the same context, Western Sahara Resources Watch (WSRW) and the Saharawi National Commission on Human Rights expressed their heartfelt condolences to the Saharawi people for the death of Mhamad Jadad, highlighting his figure as one of the fighters and leaders of the Frente POLISARIO who accompanied the Saharawi struggle from its beginnings with sincerity, sacrifice and generosity.

For his part, the FPs representative to UN, Dr. Sidi Mohamed Omar, has expressed his condolences to the Saharawi people following the physical loss of Mhamad Jadad, stressing that he received with great sadness the news of the death of the comrade who dedicated his life. at the service of the national cause, an indefatigable fighter for the rights of the Sahrawi people, a man with strength and conviction, loyal to his principles, firm in his decisions, a great diplomat and negotiator who defended the Sahrawi cause in the United Nations and in different international organizations. SPS

125/090/TRA
When the government appealed recently for 250,000 people to help the National Health Service, more than 750,000 signed up. It was forced to temporarily stop taking applicants so it could process the flood. In addition to the national program, hundreds of community-based aid groups have sprung up around the country, enrolling tens of thousands of volunteers, like Ms. Sellars.

All told, it is a stirring display of British national solidarity  a good-news story amid a grim tide of bulletins about overwhelmed hospitals, inadequate testing, a rising death toll, and a depleted political establishment, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in intensive care and several of his aides still struggling after contracting the virus.

[Analysis: Coronavirus puts to the fore an improbable U.K. leader: Dominic Raab.]

It is also a welcome balm, coming after three and a half years of bitter divisions over Brexit, a debate that cleaved the country socially, culturally and generationally. Coronavirus, many commentators have noted, is an equal-opportunity scourge: It strikes both Leavers and Remainers.

During the Brexit debate, people used to say what we really need is a common enemy  and now weve got it, said David Goodhart, a writer whose last book, The Road to Somewhere, explored the divide in British society between the rooted and the rootless. Except this is an invisible enemy.
Charter raises minimum wages

Charter raises minimum wages  statement and information

Charter has announced a plan to permanently raise its minimum wage to $20 per hour over the next two years for all employees. Charter had begun discussions around raising its existing $15 minimum wage, however in light of the current environment and the challenges many are facing, Charter is beginning that process now.

An initial retroactive $1.50 increase will be implemented immediately for our hourly frontline employees in the field and customer operation groups, who are the face of our company to our nearly 30 million customers. These employees provide essential communications services to our residential and business communities, including hospitals, first responder and government facilities, which help flatten the curve and protect the country. Additionally, these same field and customer operations hourly workers will receive another permanent $1.50 per hour raise on top of their March 2021 merit increase. Charter has committed that in 2022 all hourly employees will have a minimum starting rate of $20 per hour.

See full story: Why Charter is Raising Minimum Wage to $20 an Hour

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WASHINGTONA friend of mine was living in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. After the twin towers fell, in the grip of the fear and anger and grief, he followed his impulses: he made his way on foot to Lower Manhattan, looking to help.

There, he was told that the best way for a writer to help was to stay out of the way. Thousands of other people who didnt have emergency-response training but followed the same urge were told the same thing. When things fell apart, they wanted to do something helpful.

One thing many fictional epidemic stories have in common is a scene of angry people rioting outside a hospital or a government disease control centre. But thats not what were seeing in real life, as the coronavirus exacts a worsening toll, and its something disaster research tells us we shouldnt expect.

David DeSteno, a psychology professor at Northeastern University, says that when a disaster strikes, its rare to see panic, looting or other anti-social behaviour. What we find is that in general, the greater percentage of people tend to engage in a kind of co-operative altruism. The phenomenon is called altruism born of suffering.

While there have been instances of anti-social behaviour during crises, the opposite is much more common. Whatever the extent of the looting, it always pales in significance to the widespread altruism that leads to free and massive giving and sharing of goods and services, a 2008 study from the University of Delaware Disaster Research Center concluded.

DeStenos research suggests that such a reaction to adversity is built into human psychology: people who experience disaster or illness become more altruistic. On average, those people become more compassionate and are willing to actually step up and engage with other individuals and help them when theyre in need, he said.

This impulse to assist, rather than to lash out in panic when an emergency arises, can even cause problems of its own. Dr. Claude de Ville de Goyet, who wrote an influential paper entitled Stop propagating disaster myths, says natural disasters often provoke a rush to provide the wrong kinds of help. In a 2016 interview, he cited the flood of foreign volunteers without any medical skills that frequently arrive unexpectedly and without advance notice.

In a crisis like COVID-19, when weve been told the best way we can help is to stay home, its easy to see how the impulse to do take action can be counterproductive. Some churches in the U.S. have continued holding services, convinced group prayer is a solution. Social media is filled with stories of people holding street parties to rally spirits, raising the risk of infection. Even funerals, our great collective ceremonial responses to dealing with grief, have been sparks that ignite COVID-19 outbreaks.

We naturally want to get together and help in a crisis, even at a time when staying away from each other is essential.

The normal way that we would want to help each other, or even compete with each other, is usually through social connection. Thats the thing we do typically to help people, DeSteno said. And that is part of the psychological difficulty of isolation in this crisis.

One solution is surprisingly simple: Provide people with different ways to be involved.

This, DeSteno says, this is where being innovative can help. People in Florida are placing pictures of Easters eggs in their front windows to help kids hunt from a distance. Crowdfunding campaigns have sprung up to aid small businesses. DeSteno points to a Yale student who started an Invisible Hands delivery service in New York City, which delivers groceries to those who are most at risk.

Whats important now is for innovators to find ways to open those channels, because people have those impulses to help, he says. COVID isnt preventing those impulses from being there, but its keeping them bottled up. And I think thats making people feel more helpless.

Another outlet may be to channel those impulses forward. As urgent as the situation is now, its catastrophic effects will be with us for quite some time. Another of the disaster myths that de Ville de Goyet has addressed is the idea that things go back to normal in a few weeks. What we really see is that people dont get back to normal in months and they dont get back to normal (many times) even in years, he said.

With experts predicting that pandemics fallout might continue for a year or more, that strong human impulse to help could be useful later  and for quite a while. Well continue have lots of time now to think of ways to help others, and a long time after the pandemic recedes when that help will still be needed.

Read more about:
LIMERICK City and County Council has indicated its intention to grant planning permission for a controversial development at a prime site in the city centre.

Milan Gaming Ltd has is seeking to demolish an existing two-storey building and the attached gable wall front at 37 Thomas Street.

The works will also see the construction of a new entrance gate to Thomas Street Car Park.

Additional security fencing will be installed along with signage at the new entrance to the car park.

The proposed demolition of the derelict building, which is located adjacent to the existing car park, has sparked some criticism on social media  with some calling for the building to be restored.

In correspondence with Limerick City and County Council, representatives of the applicant said they are seeking to demolish the building  which dates back more than 80 years  on health and safety grounds.

Our client is conscious of their responsibilities as a property owner with respect to health and safety, and it is with this in mind that they have decided to demolish the existing building to protect both the users of the adjoining car park and the general public passing on the nearby footpath, states the correspondence which adds tha the increased frequency of storms and very strong winds was also a factor in the decision.

In response to a query from the local authority, representatives of the applicant said there are no plans to expand the current car park into the footprint of the building after it is demolished.

Internal reports from planners have confirmed the building, which is not a listed or protected structure, is visibly in a poor state of repair.

Conditional planning permission was granted at the end of March.
Fake: Govt is not using ArogyaSetu app for surveillance

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Apr 07: The government recently launched an application ArogyaSetu to help assess and also alert people about coronavirus patients. The application would alert authorities people have come in close contact with an infected person.

The app will detect only fresh cases and will send out alerts to only those who have been nearby the infected person.

Fake: No joint initiative launched to collect information on Indians stuck in Brazil

However there is a message that is doing the rounds on both chat groups and the social media that the government is using this application for surveillance. The message started doing the rounds after a newspaper claimed in an Op-Ed that the application would be used for surveillance.

It has been clarified that this news is fake. The government says that this allegation is baseless. The application does not link user location and date with any sensitive personal data. Further the application has enough safeguards to ensure that the user is not vulnerable to hacking.

Fake News Buster

The app will detect only fresh cases and will send out alerts to only those who have been nearby the infected person.

"The App, called 'AarogyaSetu', joins Digital India for the health and well-being of every Indian. It will enable people to assess themselves the risk of getting infected with coronavirus. It will calculate this based on their interaction with others, using a cutting edge bluetooth technology, algorithms and artificial intelligence," an official statement said.

If a person is clinically tested positive with coronavirus infection, the mobile number of the infected person is included in the register maintained by the Health Ministry and will be updated on the app as well.

Beware of these fake ids in the name of PM Cares Fund

Once installed in a smartphone through an easy and user-friendly process, the app detects other devices with AarogyaSetu installed that come in the proximity of that phone. The app can then calculate the risk of infection based on sophisticated parameters if any of these contacts are tested positive.

The App will help the government take necessary- and timely steps for assessing the risk of spread of COVID-19 infection, and ensuring isolation where required.

The government said that privacy is priority for the app users and the personal data collected by the app is encrypted and will stay secure on the phone till it is needed for facilitating medical intervention.

Available in 11 languages, the App was ready for pan-India use from day-1 and has highly scalable architecture.

#Stayathome and send us your selfie

The mobile app has been developed in a public-private partnership to bring the people of India together in a resolute fight against COVID-19, the IT Ministry said.
On March 26, the United States Department of Justice charged Venezuela's former President, Nicolas Maduro, and 14 members of his inner circle with narco-terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, and corruption. During a press conference to announce the charges, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said that For more than 20 years, Maduro and a number of high-ranking colleagues allegedly conspired with the [The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a terrorist group also known as] FARC, causing tons of cocaine to enter and devastate American communities.

At the same time, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced a 15-million-dollar reward for information leading to Nicolas Maduro's arrest and/or conviction through the Department of States Narcotics Rewards Program.

Venezuela, under the former and now illegitimate regime of Nicolas Maduro, has for many years been a major drug transit country and is still one of the preferred trafficking routes in the Western Hemisphere for illegal drugs, according to the 2019 State Department International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.

The narcotics report cited Venezuelas porous border with Colombia, weak judicial system, almost nonexistent international drug control cooperation, and permissive and corrupt environment as providing ideal conditions for drug trafficking operations and associated violence.

The scope and magnitude of the drug trafficking alleged was made possible only because Maduro and others corrupted the institutions of Venezuela and provided political and military protection for the rampant narco-terrorism crimes described in our charges, said U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman:

As alleged, Maduro and the other defendants expressly intended to flood the United States with cocaine in order to undermine the health and wellbeing of our nation. Maduro very deliberately deployed cocaine as a weapon. While Maduro and other cartel members held lofty titles in Venezuelas political and military leadership, the conduct described in the Indictment wasnt statecraft or service to the Venezuelan people. As alleged, the defendants betrayed the Venezuelan people and corrupted Venezuelan institutions to line their pockets with drug money.

Todays announcement is focused on rooting out the extensive corruption within the Venezuelan government  a system constructed and controlled to enrich those at the highest levels of the government, said Attorney General Barr. The United States will not allow these corrupt Venezuelan officials to use the U.S. banking system to move their illicit proceeds from South America nor further their criminal schemes.
12 new positive coronavirus cases reported in the state of Karnataka, informed the Karnataka Government here on Tuesday.

Of the 12 new cases, 4 people were returnees from the Tablighi Jamaat event in the capital, 3 were in contact and 5 were others.

Till now, there are 175 COVID-19 positive cases in the state including 4 deaths and 25 discharge/cured.

India's tally of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 4,421, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday. Out of the 4,421 cases, 3,981 are active cases while 325 have been cured or discharged and one has migrated. The total death toll stands at 114.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

Boris Johnson in intensive care

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was being treated for worsening coronavirus symptoms in an intensive care unit on Tuesday, with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab deputising for him as the country is in a state of virtual lockdown, a situation due to be reviewed early next week.

Johnson, 55, was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital late on Sunday after 10 days of persistent symptoms, including a high temperature. His condition deteriorated rapidly over the next 24 hours, and he has received oxygen.

Johnson's pregnant 32-year-old fiancee, Carrie Symonds, also had symptoms but said on Saturday that she was feeling better.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

Focus on anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine

In a matter of weeks, the decades-old anti-malaria drug that President Donald Trump has persistently promoted as a potential weapon against COVID-19 has become a standard of care in areas of the United States hit hard by the pandemic though doctors prescribing it have no idea whether it works.

Scientists have detailed biochemical properties of chloroquine that indicate it could be used against some viral infections, as it blocks steps in the replication of certain viruses, and can suppress production and release of proteins involved in inflammatory complications of several viral diseases.

India will allow some exports of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday, after U.S. President Donald Trump urged New Delhi to release supplies of the drug seen as a possible treatment for COVID-19.

India could face retaliation for its decision to ban exports of the drug, Trump said late on Monday in Washington.

Tentative signs of plateauing

The governors of New York, New Jersey and Louisiana pointed to tentative signs on Monday that the coronavirus outbreak may be starting to plateau in their states, but warned against complacency as the death toll approached 11,000 nationwide.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said statewide deaths from COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory illness caused by the virus, were up 599 from Sunday, on par with an increase of 594 during the previous 24 hours and 630 on Friday.

In neighboring New Jersey, the state with the second-highest number of cases and deaths, Governor Phil Murphy cited a 12% daily growth rate in confirmed positive cases on Monday, half the rate from March 30.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards similarly expressed cautious optimism. "New hospital admissions are trending downward," he told a news conference.

World's tallest statue for sale? Not likely

Police in India lodged a case this week against an unknown online fraudster who tried selling the world's largest statue, the Statue for Unity in Gujarat, for $4 billion, claiming the proceeds would be used to help the government of the western state fund its coronavirus fight.

Police say cybercrimes have surged 86% in the four weeks since the virus scare gripped India, with scams ranging from free mobile recharges to offers of free Netflix subscriptions.
07.04.2020 LISTEN

Former President John Dramani Mahama is asking government to subsidise electricity tariff amid the Coronavirus outbreak in Ghana.

Mr. Mahama in a statement suggested that a subsidy payment from the Stabilization Fund to the ECG and other generating companies can provide some temporary relief, however small, to consumers in this difficult period.

The former President also acknowledged that although governments decision to provide a relief from water tariffs is commendable, the lack of water in many parts of the specified areas make the three-month cancellation of tariffs meaningless for some.

Mr. Mahama thus emphasized the need for the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to be supported to increase the supply of water to make this gesture meaningful to all.

Our people are also urged not to waste water at this critical time, Mr. Mahama added.

---citinewsroom
"Collaborative Response Graphics (CRGs) offer straight-forward, standardized mapping, which is essential to the effective deployment of first responder assets in a crisis. Were proud to be their partner in keeping Minnesota communities safe."

The State of Minnesota has joined the quickly growing ranks of states across the country in recognizing that the lack of a standardized common operating picture being available to first responders continues to slow response times and needlessly complicates the coordination of emergency resources. Collaborative Response Graphics (CRGs) were specifically designed to fix this recurring problem.

Known as "America's Common Operating Picture", CRGs are sophisticated, yet simple to use visual communication and collaboration tools that are useable under stress to coordinate emergency response efforts both inside and outside a building. CRGs enhance response time and improve command and control efforts during any emergency.

The Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association values strong private-public sector partnerships with organizations that provide real value to the improvement of public safety and the Critical Response Group, Inc. does just that," said Andy Skoogman, Executive Director of Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association. "Collaborative Response Graphics (CRGs) offer straight-forward, standardized mapping, which is essential to the effective deployment of first responder assets in a crisis. Were proud to be their partner in keeping Minnesota communities safe."

CRGs were born from lessons learned by the United States Military Special Operations community overseas. Like domestic first responders, our military faced the challenge of communicating about unfamiliar locations while under stress. To solve this problem, they developed a visual communication tool that combined a gridded overlay with high-resolution overhead imagery so that field operators could easily and effectively communicate about unfamiliar locations.

Critical Response Group enhanced that communication technique by creating CRGs to solve the same problems encountered here at home. CRGs are designed to be standardized common operating pictures that combine geo-rectified and accurate floor plans, up to date site-specific labeling, high-resolution imagery and a gridded overlay. They allow everyone at an incident to easily communicate locations and coordinate their response during life-saving efforts.

We are proud to be working with the MCPA and are fully committed to introducing a solution that is not based on theory, but instead is mission proven. CRGs enhance situational awareness and better prepare first responders when responding to unfamiliar locations. Thousands of CRGs are currently deployed to a widely diverse group of facilities and they are in the hands of thousands of public safety professionals across the country, said Phil Coyne, President of Critical Response Group, Inc.

For more information on the Critical Response Group, Inc. and Collaborative Response Graphics (CRGs) visit their website at https://crgplans.com. You can find additional information here: https://youtu.be/10aghbY3AKI
Judge John G. Davies, an Olympic swimming gold medalist whose discipline, independence and Down Under drollery was credited with helping to prevent more riots in Los Angeles after he presided over the second trial of four officers in the Rodney King police brutality case, died on March 24 in Pasadena. He was 90.

The cause was cancer, his son, Jack, said.

Applying the same command and composure that swept him to a world record at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki when he was 23, the Australian-born Judge Davies presided over the 1993 federal civil rights trial of the officers accused of beating Rodney King, a motorist whom they had seized after a 117-mile-an-hour-chase that began when he was driving erratically on March 3, 1991.

When the four were initially acquitted by an all-white state jury in 1992 despite an amateur videotape that vividly confirmed the violent beating of Mr. King, a black construction worker, Los Angeles erupted in rampages that left scores dead and a billion dollars in property damaged.

The officers were tried again before Judge Davies on civil rights charges in Federal District Court in Los Angeles before a racially mixed jury. Two of the officers were acquitted. Under federal sentencing guidelines, the two others faced up to 10 years in prison. But while Judge Davies described the videotape as shocking, violent and painful, he also cautioned that it was partial, ambiguous and incomplete. He said the evidence demonstrated that Mr. King had, in part, provoked the violence by fleeing from the police and resisting arrest while intoxicated.
For every soldier, donning the uniform comes with the ultimate vow to protect the motherland until their dying breath. No fear is big enough for them, no task more superior than to serve their country and no death better than being killed in action.

But as much as we would want our soldiers to live long and strong, fate often holds other plans for them. Just like in the case of Paratrooper Amit Kumar and four other brave soldiers from the Indian Special Forces who were killed in action during a close quarter fight with five Pakistani terrorists who had infiltrated the Indian borders in North Kashmirs Jumgund area.

 Twitter

Reportedly, one of them, Paratrooper Amit Kumar, a young man in his twenties took 15 bullets to his chest during the altercation. But that couldnt stop him and he kept going after the terrorists until he killed one of them, before laying down his life in service of his motherland.



Heres What Happened

It was claimed that an infiltration across the LoC had happened last week and upon confirmation search parties were launched. However, throughout the week, the Pakistani terrorists managed to get away despite multiple face-offs with Indian soldiers stationed in the area. It was later on Saturday that two 4 Para (Special Forces) squads were launched, of which Paratrooper Amit Kumar, Subedar Sanjeev Kumar, Paratrooper Bal Krishan, Havildar Davendra Singh and Paratrooper Chhatrapal Singh were a part.

The Final Face-Off

 Twitter

Late Saturday evening the SF troops were able to close in on the terrorists in the forest near the Jumgund village. According to journalist Shiv Aroor, Subedar Sanjiv along with Paratroopers Amit and Chhatrpal tried to corner the terrorists by tracking footsteps in the snow only to later realise they had moved over to a cornice along the mountain.



 Twitter

When the snow mass gave way under their weight, the troops found themselves face to face with the terrorists who were hiding in a frozen nallah. A close quarter fight ensued during which Paratrooper Amit took 15 bullet shots while Subedar Sanjiv and Paratrooper Chhatarpal were also gravely injured. Together they took down two terrorists. On the other hand, Havildar Davender and Paratrooper Balkishan stepped forward to rescue their wounded comrades and came under direct fire from the terrorists. They too managed to eliminate another two terrorists. The fifth terrorist who succeeded to flee the scene was later killed by troops from 8 Jat.



 Twitter

According to Aroors report, an officer has been quoted as saying, As luck would have it, where they fell, the militants were sitting right there. This led to a firefight at virtually point blank range. I have to give it to the training standards of the SF guys. In spite of the fall, all five terrorists were killed. The complete squad was lost.



We salute the 5 SF troops bravado and daredevilry when it came to standing guard over their motherland. It is their sacrifice and selfless passion to serve the country and its people that allows us to enjoy the kind of safe and fun life we lead, day after day and yet we crib about petty inconveniences all the time.

Source: Shiv Aroor's Report
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Snow showers this morning. Becoming sunny later. High 26F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 40%..

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Partly to mostly cloudy. Low near 25F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
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Linkedin Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja (The Straits Times/Asia News Network) Jakarta, Indonesia  Tue, April 7, 2020 11:11 644 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd033265 2 World Indonesia,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-rapid-test,COVID-19-test,pandemic,health Free

Only 36 in every million people are being tested for the coronavirus in Indonesia, making it the fourth worst in testing rate among countries with a 50 million population or above, pandemic data site Worldometer has revealed.

The world's fourth-most populous country of 270 million performed better than only Ethiopia, Nigeria and Bangladesh, according to the site, which has introduced a new feature showing testing rates relative to the respective country's population.

The three worst-preforming are Ethiopia, with 16 tests for every million people, Bangladesh (18), and Nigeria (19). In comparison, South Korea tests 8,996 for every million people, Singapore 6,666, and Malaysia 1,605.

Asked by The Straits Times on Monday about Indonesia's very low rate, Achmad Yurianto, a government spokesman for Covid-19 management, said: "We don't test based on the size of population, but based on contact tracing of positive cases as well as based on the visits to health facilities by people with Covid-19 symptoms."

He added that Indonesia is also doing rapid tests, but the number of such tests - and the number of any confirmation tests after this procedure - do not add to the Covid-19 national tallies.

He stressed that such rapid tests, which are not as reliable as the standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, are used only to help with early "screening" of people who may have contracted the virus.

Any close contact who is tested negative using a rapid test kit must redo the procedure after a period of time, while anyone testing positive would have to be confirmed by a PCR test.

Rapid tests are antibody tests, which determines whether a person has developed immunity to the coronavirus. These tests, however, have a limited role in diagnosis, according to experts, as it takes the body four days or longer after infection to produce antibodies, which would be too late for the purpose of quick detection and contact tracing.

Indonesia's ranking among the likes of Ethiopia comes as a surprise as the South-east Asia's largest economy has a GDP that is at least three times larger than any of the three bottom-ranked countries. Indonesias GDP per capita, often used as an indicator of a countrys standard of living, is at least double.

Indonesia has a GDP of USD$1.1 trillion (S$ 1.58 trillion), while Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Nigeria has a GDP of US$81 billion, US$250 billion, and US$375 billion, respectively.

Indonesia's health ministry has been widely criticised for red tape in bringing in test kits, as well as equipment to read the PCR test samples.

Recent media reports have also pointed out that the ministry's official Covid-19 death toll nationwide, currently at 209, is an understated figure contradicted by separate announcements by local governments in West Java and the Jakarta municipal government, which indicate a higher toll. This has raised questions about the health ministry's transparency and credibility in disclosing data, the local media has reported.

Jakarta, where about half of the national confirmed cases are from, issued a monthly figure on burials in the capital for March at 4,377, well above the monthly average of 2,745 burials last year and 2,774 burials the year before.

On April 2, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said 401 burials were conducted following the Covid-19 protocol. The national tally shows the fatality in Jakarta as only 99.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian rupiah is among currencies that have weakened sharply against the US dollar as the coronavirus crisis deepened. The rupiah fell 15 per cent year on year on April 6, while other currencies that have seen sharp falls in the same period include the Mexican peso, which dropped 26 per cent, and the Russian ruble, 19 per cent.

Some of these countries have spent a lot of their foreign exchange reserves to intervene in the currency markets. Experts, however, have argued that uncertainty and a lack of credibility pose the greatest threat to these countries' currency values, and improving transparency in their Covid-19 data and boosting testing rates would be the most effective measures to address their currency depreciation woes.
A senior health department official allegedly refused to get hospitalised after being tested positive for the novel coronavirus and instead stayed at the hostel of a premier bureaucrats' training academy here, sparking allegations of certain officers misusing the facility for self-quarantine.

Dr Ruby Khan, the Deputy Director in the state's Health Department, was finally admitted to a hospital on Monday after authorities at the training academy sought the help of the Bhopal district collector, according to official documents.

The academy shot off a letter to the city administration on Monday.

"She got admitted to Chirayu hospital on Monday then she sought time for packing her belongings at the academy's guest house and within two hours (of receiving the letter) she was shifted to the hospital," Joint Collector Rajesh Gupta told PTI.

Besides Dr Khan, some other senior health department officials including Principal Secretary Pallavi Jain Govil have tested positive for the virus,



Social activist Ajay Dubey, in his tweet to the local administration and police, claimed unauthorised use of the academy's guest house for quarantine purpose by certain civil servants.

"Some of the officers are misusing facilities at the academy for self-quarantine, thus posing a danger to the lives of staff working there. The government has not declared the academy's guest house and its hostel as a quarantine facility," Dubey said.

As many as four officials of the state government -- Anurag Jain, Additional Chief Secretary; Arvind Dubey, Deputy Secretary in the Chief Secretary's office; Sudam Khande, Chief Executive Officer, State Road Authority; and Abhishek Dubey, Additional Director, Health Department -- have been quarantined on their request at the academy's guest house, according to a letter written by R C V P Noronha Academy of Administration to the Bhopal Collector.

Also, Dr Ruby Khan was quarantined at the academy's hostel on the basis of "oral instruction" of Principal Secretary Govil, according to the letter.

"Today, I came to know that Dr Ruby Khan has been diagnosed with the Covid-19 symptoms and she has been tested positive. After that I spoke to Dr (Sudhir) Dehariya, Chief medical and Health Officer (CMHO), Bhopal. But Dr Ruby Khan was not ready to get admitted to the hospital. CMHO said that Dr Ruby Khan is not listening to him, hence you talk to senior officials," said the letter, written in Hindi, by OSD of the academy.

Hence, you are requested to direct the officials concerned to shift Dr Ruby Khan to a hospital with necessary facilities and also to get the academy and hostel sanitised, it said.

The academy is the premier training institute for the state and central civil services officers, among others.

Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha has tweeted alleging casualness in the MP government's approach.

"Sr IAS and other officers instead of hospitalisation after being tested positive issuing health bulletins and @ChouhanShivraj tragically applauds it as courageous act-risking theirs and others lives. So callous," he tweeted.

Tankha, a Congress MP, in another tweet asked the state government to "reign in Sr officers to follow #COVID2019india guidelines. They are patients and not officers. State Human Rights Commission must take cognisance".

His tweet cited a report that said that some of the health department officers including Govil got themselves admitted into a hospital two days after tests report confirmed coronavirus infection in them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The coronavirus pandemic is beginning to show signs that it is nearing a peak in New Jersey, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., told CNBC on Tuesday.

"What we're doing is working," Gottheimer said on "Squawk Box." "Our death toll is still way too high, and it's just awful the number of people who are sick. ... But the good news is it seems there is some light on the horizon."

More than 41,000 cases have been confirmed in New Jersey, including more than 1,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Gottheimer said about 20% of the state's cases have been in his northern New Jersey district, which includes Bergen and Sussex counties.

Earlier Tuesday, the head of New Jersey's largest health-care network told "Squawk Box" he's "certainly encouraged" by recent COVID-19 data.

"The number of new cases each day were in the double digits. They were about 35% increase every 24 hours about a week ago," Hackensack Meridian Health CEO Robert Garrett said. "These last few days, they've been in the single digits."

"We're hoping but we're not getting too happy quite yet. But we're hoping that we're starting to see that top of the curve."

Gov. Phil Murphy also expressed optimism Monday on CNBC: "Too early to tell, but we are seeing the positive cases that are coming out each day continue to show a little bit of a sign of flattening, and that's a good thing,"

New Jersey has the nation's second highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths, behind New York state's over 131,830 infections and 4,758 fatalities. The U.S. has the most cases of any country with over 368,400 infections and the third highest number of deaths, 10,993. Global cases topped 1.36 million with 75,972 deaths and over 265,400 recoveries.
President Donald Trump, flanked by officials and business leaders, announces a national emergency with regard to the CCP virus in the White House Rose Garden in Washington on March 13, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Trump Hints at Cutting WHO Funding Over Handling of Pandemic

President Donald Trump hinted at cutting funding for the World Health Organization on Tuesday, over the groups handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The W.H.O. really blew it, the president said in a statement on social media, using the acronym for the United Nations organization.

For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look, he added.

WHO is closely aligned with the Chinese communist regime and has repeatedly praised Chinas leaders despite experts and unearthed evidence showing how officials manipulated the true situation in the country, where the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, emerged last year.

The United States provides 14.67 percent of WHOs funding. Its the largest source of funding for the group. U.S. contributions to WHO last year exceeded $400 million, according to the State Department.

American lawmakers have called on Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, to resign amid accusations of helping the Chinese Communist Party cover up the outbreak and probing whether WHO is complicit in the manipulation.

We know Communist China is lying about how many cases and deaths they have, what they knew and when they knew itand the WHO never bothered to investigate further. Their inaction cost lives, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said in a statement.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, right, and WHO Health Emergencies Program Director Michael Ryan attend a press briefing on COVID-19 in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 6, 2020. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

We could cut funding or we could tie future funding to certain changes, Scott added to the Daily Signal. It is supposed to be the World Health Organization, world health, but it panders to China.

A spokeswoman for the WHO told The Epoch Times in an email that the organization expects all its Member States to report data in a timely and accurate manner under the international protocols that have been agreed by the Member States of WHO.

Membership in WHO and signing up to the International Health Regulations both carry with it the responsibility to prioritize public health, nationally and internationally, not only because global health norms say so, but because the two are inextricably linked, as this global pandemic has made clear to the world, she said in the email sent last week, pointing to WHO official Dr. Mike Ryan telling reporters that people should be very careful not to be profiling certain parts of the world as being uncooperative or nontransparent.

WHO didnt immediately respond to a request for a response to Trump.

Reporters have regularly pressed WHO officials on Chinas role in the CCP virus spreading around the world but each time the officials have deflected answering directly. They often end up saying things similar to the statements from top Chinese officials. WHO has also faced questions on its dealings with Taiwan.

Trump on Tuesday noted that WHO officials earlier this year denounced travel restrictions that countries began implementing to try to curb the spread of the virus, saying, Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on.

Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation? he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-08 05:51:23|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Feb. 19, 2020 shows the Pentagon seen from an airplane over Washington D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Acting Secretary of U.S. Navy Thomas Modly has been under mounting pressure from Democrats to step down, after he made profanity-laced comments on Brett Crozier, captain of aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt who was recently dismissed.

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Acting Secretary of the U.S. Navy Thomas Modly reportedly resigned Tuesday after being forced to do so over his firing an aircraft carrier captain, who alarmed high-ranking officials about a novel coronavirus outbreak on board and pleaded for help.

Multiple U.S. media reported about Modly's resignation, which was accepted by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and which took effect immediately.

Modly has been under mounting pressure from Democratic lawmakers -- including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- to step down, after he made profanity-laced comments on Brett Crozier, captain of aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt who was recently dismissed.

Addressing the crew of the Roosevelt in Guam, where the ship now docks, Modly called Crozier either "too naive or too stupid" to command the nuclear-powered warship, remarks he apologized for late Monday at Esper's request.

"I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused," he wrote in a written apology. "I also want to apologize directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused."

Crozier sent a five-page internal letter last week to higher-ranking officials in the chain of command, pleading for help from the Pentagon to contain a COVID-19 outbreak aboard the Roosevelt by transferring 90 percent of the crew onto Guam for quarantine. The letter led to his removal announced last Thursday by Modly.

"I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship," Modly wrote Monday, backtracking from his previous assertions.

"Sadly, Acting Secretary Modly's actions and words demonstrate his failure to prioritize the force protection of our troops," Pelosi said in a written statement Tuesday. "He showed a serious lack of the sound judgment and strong leadership needed during this time. Acting Secretary Modly must be removed from his position or resign."

Some 173 sailors on board the Roosevelt tested positive for the novel coronavirus as of Monday, including Crozier himself, according to media reports. Approximately 2,000 of the roughly 5,000 crew members have disembarked the ship, nearing the 2,700 tally planned for evacuation due to the virus outbreak.

Acting Undersecretary of the Army James McPherson has been tapped to succeed Modly in an acting capacity, several media outlets reported. 
TORONTO, April 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Firm Capital Mortgage Investment Corporation (the Corporation), (FC.TO) discloses that, with the passing of the April 1st payment due dates on its Investment Portfolio, there have been no material increases in terms of arrears since March 1, 2020.



We would like to assure shareholders that the Corporation has been taking proactive action to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 situation and that at present, even during these challenging times, loan arrears in the Corporations Investment Portfolio are not materially different than as at March 1, 2020, and that new defaults after January 1, 2020 are part of normal business operations and not as a result of the COVID-19 situation:

Of the 111 pre-authorized payments submitted on April 1, 2020; six payments were returned NSF, of which five were replaced, leaving one outstanding payment relating to an investment representing 0.4% of the Investment Portfolio. Management has been in negotiations to resolve it;



Three payments were not received, all relating to one borrower on three investments, representing 1.4% of the Investment Portfolio. That same borrower has historically always paid by month end. Management is not concerned given the loan-to-value exposure; and



Management has been managing and addressing seven loans which are currently under legal workouts initiated before April 1, 2020, with one loan being sold under enforcement proceedings, closing April 30, 2020 with the full repayment of principal and interest.

The Corporations Mortgage Banker minimizes risks associated with defaulting mortgages through diligent monitoring of the Investment Portfolio, active communication with borrowers and the implementation of appropriate and timely enforcement procedures on defaulted mortgages. The Mortgage Banker has substantial experience in servicing mortgage loans, including the implementation of enforcement proceedings.

Thank you for your continued support!

Story continues

ABOUT THE CORPORATION



Where Mortgage Deals Get Done

The Corporation, through its mortgage banker, Firm Capital Corporation, is a non-bank lender providing residential and commercial short-term bridge and conventional real estate financing, including construction, mezzanine and equity investments. The Corporation's investment objective is the preservation of shareholders' equity, while providing shareholders with a stable stream of monthly dividends from investments. The Corporation achieves its investment objectives through investments in selected niche markets that are under-serviced by large lending institutions. The Corporation is a Mortgage Investment Corporation (MIC) as defined in the Income Tax Act (Canada). Accordingly, The Corporation is not taxed on income provided that its taxable income is paid to its shareholders in the form of dividends within 90 days after December 31 each year. Such dividends are generally treated by shareholders as interest income, so that each shareholder is in the same position as if the mortgage investments made by the company had been made directly by the shareholder. Full reports of the financial results of the Corporation for the year are outlined in the audited financial statements and the related management discussion and analysis of Corporation, available on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. In addition, supplemental information is available on Corporations website at www.firmcapital.com .

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT

The Corporation has provided the above information in response to various enquiries received from shareholders and other stakeholders. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, the Corporation does not intend, nor does the Corporation undertake any obligation, to update or revise any information contained in this press release or to provide any additional information, similar or otherwise, to reflect subsequent periods, information, events or circumstances, or otherwise.

For further information, please contact:

Firm Capital Mortgage Investment Corporation

Eli Dadouch

President & Chief Executive Officer

(416) 635-0221
In Kyiv, police opened 574 administrative protocols for violators of the restrictive measures. 91,800 hryvnia ($3,338) were recovered to the budget on five protocols as 112 Ukraine TV channel reported citing Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko.

One criminal proceeding was opened for endangering person of infection with coronavirus. Three criminal proceedings opened for violation of quarantine restrictions, the Kyiv mayor underlined.

The Coronavirus Spread Counteraction Monitoring Center, which was created by the city authority, works in Kyiv. Almost 40,000 Kyiv citizens entered the risk group; they came from countries with a high spread of the virus and contacted people who came from such countries.

The Monitoring center on counteraction spread of coronavirus has held already almost 1,500 effective contacts to get information. The phone calls and surveys about the state of health, stay in the self-isolation, contacts during the last days. Then, the specialists of the center provide recommendations or necessary help. Particularly, emotional support and psychological assistancePeople, who refuse to contact the center, will have to deal with the law enforcers, Klitschko noted.

Information about Kyiv citizens collected in the database by the Coronavirus Spread Counteraction Monitoring Center is protected.

It concerns pseudo-lists published on the social networks, Klitschko noted.

As we reported, during the past 24 hours, the number of people infected with coronavirus increased by 12 people in Kyiv. One person died. Totally, there are 279 diseased in the capital

Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases in Ukraine has increased to 1,462 cases. Ukraine observed 45 deaths, 28 patients successfully recovered. Over the last 24 hours, 143 new cases have been recorded.
Members of the Muslim community



helped in performing the last rites of their Hindu neighbour in Madhya Pradesh's Indore city as relatives of the deceased could not reach the place due to the nationwide lockdown.

Senior Congress leader and former state chief minister Kamal Nath lauded the gesture of the Muslim community members, saying they have set an example in society. Draupadi Bai, 65, a poor woman who was suffering from paralysis and living with her elder son, died at her residence in South Toda area of Indore on Monday.

Due to the lockdown, the deceased's relatives could not reach the place for her funeral and no vehicle was available to carry the body to the cremation ground.

When some Muslim community members residing in the neighbourhood came to know about it, they came forward to help the grief-stricken family.

Wearing masks as a precaution against coronavirus, they helped in making arrangements for the deceased's last rites and carried the body on their shoulders to the cremation ground located about 2.5 km away from the area, state Congress spokesman Narendra Saluja said.

A picture of the Muslim men carrying the Hindu woman's body on their shoulders went viral on social media and their gesture was widely appreciated by netizens.

The Muslim men later said they considered it their duty as the woman used to shower lot of affection on them during their childhood.

Lauding them, Kamal Nath in a tweet said, "It is really praiseworthy that Muslim community persons along with the old woman's two sons carried the body on their shoulders for her last rites. This has set an example in society."



"It reflects our Ganga-Jamumi culture and such scenes enhance mutual love and brotherhood," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US intends to assassinate Iraqi PMU commanders: Iraqi MP

Iran Press TV

Monday, 06 April 2020 1:34 PM

A member of the Iraqi parliament's security and defense committee has warned against the ulterior objectives behind redeployment of US troops to various military sites across the Arab country, saying Washington is drawing up plans to target commanders of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha'abi.

"The withdrawal of US forces from a number of military bases does not come in line with the parliamentary resolution calling on the government to push out foreign troops from the country. It is rather part of redeployment plans for American forces inside Iraq," Karim al-Muhammadawi told Arabic-language al-Masalah news agency in an exclusive interview on Monday.

He added, "The real intention behind the redeployment of US soldiers in Iraq remains unknown. But it is assumed to be related to the deployment of the forces to fortified bases, especially after the installation of Patriot missile systems there. The US is purportedly seeking to launch precision strikes against Hashd al-Sha'abi positions and intends to assassinate commanders associated with them."

Muhammadawi further highlighted that the US has moved its troops to fortified bases in Iraq amid considerable concerns over potential public uproar if any Hashd al-Sha'abi commander targeted.

"What has happened lately could not be described as troop withdrawal. It could be simply defined as a military tactic," the Iraqi legislator pointed out.

On March 27, the New York Times reported that the Pentagon had ordered a secret directive, which called on US military commanders to prepare a campaign against Kata'ib Hezbollah, which is part of Hashd al-Sha'abi.

But the United States' top commander in Iraq has warned that such a campaign could be bloody and counterproductive.

Lieutenant General Robert P. White wrote in a blunt memo that a new military campaign would also require that thousands more American troops be sent to Iraq and divert resources from the so-called fight against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

Iraqi lawmakers unanimously approved a bill on January 5, demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the United States from the country following the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of Hashd al-Sha'abi, and their companions in a US airstrike authorized by President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport two days earlier.

Later on January 9, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the former Iraqi prime minister, called on the United States to dispatch a delegation to Baghdad tasked with formulating a mechanism for the move.

The 78-year-old politician said Iraq rejects any violation of its sovereignty, particularly the US military's violation of Iraqi airspace in the assassination airstrike.

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The Supreme Courts refusal to extend absentee voting in Wisconsin ahead of the states election on Tuesday would lead to massive disenfranchisement, Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in a fiery dissent aimed at her conservative colleagues.

The liberal justice said the courts 5-4 ruling on Monday puts public health at further risk as the state grapples with an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The Supreme Court ruled against Democratic efforts to extend absentee voting by six days and also overruled Governor Tony Evers executive order earlier in the day to delay the state elections to June in a separate 4-2 decision.

The question here is whether tens of thousands of Wisconsin citizens can vote safely in the midst of a pandemic, Ms Ginsburg wrote in her dissent, joined by the courts three other liberal justices. With the majoritys stay in place, that will not be possible. Either they will have to brave the polls, endangering their own and others safety. Or they will lose their right to vote, through no fault of their own.

That is a matter of utmost importance  to the constitutional rights of Wisconsins citizens, the integrity of the States election process, and in this most extraordinary time, the health of the Nation, she continued. While I do not doubt the good faith of my colleagues, the Courts order, I fear, will result in massive disenfranchisement.

Ms Ginsburg also acknowledged the states failure to mail out absentee ballots to all of its residents who are registered to vote  another Democratic effort blocked by Wisconsin Republicans.

A voter cannot deliver for postmarking a ballot she has not received, she wrote. Yet tens of thousands of voters who timely requested ballots are unlikely to receive them by [7 April], the Courts postmark deadline.

Democrats at the state and national level have meanwhile lambasted Republicans over their efforts to go forward with the in-person state election, which includes the 2020 Democratic presidential primary vote. 

In a statement, Wisconsins Democratic Party chairman Ben Wikler said the Supreme Courts decision was made following Trump teams orders and would ultimately disenfranchise untold thousands of Wisconsin voters.

By having voters partake in the in-person election on Tuesday, the court was consigning an unknown number of Wisconsinites to their deaths, Mr Wikler wrote.

Donald Trump has encouraged voters to partake in Tuesdays elections, posting an endorsement on Tuesday for a Republican candidate for the states Supreme Court. He also previously suggested the states Democratic governor was attempting to delay the elections because he had endorsed a Republican in the race.

Recommended Crew member on New York hospital ship tests positive for coronavirus

Bernie Sanders also slammed Republicans in the state for allowing the vote to proceed, saying in a statement that the decision may very well prove deadly.

It's outrageous that the Republican legislative leaders and the conservative majority on the Supreme Court in Wisconsin are willing to risk the health and safety of many thousands of Wisconsin voters tomorrow for their own political gain, the Vermont senator and 2020 presidential candidate wrote in a tweet.

Over 10,000 people in the US have died due to the novel virus, according to data published on Monday, as state officials continued battling over the imminent in-person vote. The back-and-forth inevitably caused chaos and confusion for voters, as poll workers reported concerns of putting their health at risk by partaking in the state elections.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Grand Rapids leaders likely violated the Michigan Open Meetings Act by not allowing public comment during a public meeting Tuesday, according to the state Attorney Generals Office.

A spokesperson for the Attorney Generals Office said the public comment portion is a requirement during virtual and in-person public meetings. MLive/The Grand Rapids Press contacted the Attorney Generals Office after covering Tuesdays meeting.

The Grand Rapids City Commission held a virtual special meeting Tuesday, April 7, to have the city manager and department leaders brief the commissioners on the latest actions in the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The meeting on video chat platform WebEx was advertised beforehand, livestreamed and available to view afterward, but it did not allow for public comment.

No action will be taken during Tuesdays special meeting, so there will not be a public comment period, city officials wrote in an email advertising the meeting.

Grand Rapids officials did not immediately return calls for comment about the apparent violation after the meeting.

Regardless of whether any actions took place, a quorum of commissioners is in most cases defined as a public meeting, and public meetings require public comment, said Kelly Rossman-McKinney, head spokesperson for the Michigan Attorney Generals Office.

This body met. It met as a public meeting and it should have ensured that every element of a public meeting was adhered to, including public comment, Rossman-McKinney said.

Rossman-McKinney said the suspension of public comment during a public meeting is not allowed by either the Open Meetings Act or the temporary changes Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made to it to allow virtual meetings while also facilitating public participation during the coronavirus pandemic.

Related: Michigan Gov. Whitmer suspends Open Meetings Act during coronavirus crisis to allow virtual meetings by government bodies

She further added that the offices Open Meetings Act expert, Thomas Quasarano, reiterated that the decision by the commission to not make any decisions is itself a decision.

Grand Rapids does plan to allow public comment during its regularly scheduled commission meeting on Tuesday, April 14, in which city business is being voted on.

The citys likely violation appears to be an unfortunate oversight, Rossman-McKinney said.

The meeting Tuesday lasted about two-and-a-half hours and provided updates on the response so far by the city, state and federal government to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

While no resolutions and votes were taken up by the commissioners, they did ask questions of city leaders on response efforts.

The meeting was streamed, and remains available to see, on the citys Facebook and YouTube pages.

The Attorney Generals Office oversees OMA violations. If a complaint is filed, the office investigates.

If a violation is found to have occurred, the office compels the municipality to not do so again at their following meeting.

Grand Rapids, like other municipalities in the state and across the United States, is attempting to conduct its public meetings virtually so that the meetings dont promote the spread of coronavirus.

Rossman-McKinney said the office, to her knowledge, has received no OMA complaints since the coronavirus pandemic and changes allowing virtual meetings.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus.

Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible.

Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

Read more:

Grand Rapids parks remain open but basketball courts, playgrounds and more to close

Conoravirus upends Michigans Class of 2020: This isnt the senior year that anyone wanted'

Construction halts on Muskegon convention center because of coronavirus

Kalamazoo nurses concerned about reassignment to Detroit, a COVID-19 hotspot
The COVID-19 pandemic has reportedly infected fewer than a dozen men among Californias 122,000 state prison inmates. These cases, all in Southern California, represent a remarkably low number, which is bound to grow dramatically very soon, when the prison system begins to do more testing.

The former director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Scott Kernan, has called state prison a tinderbox of potential infection.

California is not alone. The United States is suffering a hangover from the mass incarceration boom of the past 30 years. Along with Texas, California leads the nation in the number of persons behind bars in state prison.

Former federal prisoner Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black, warned in the Washington Post, Our nations prisons and jails will soon become uncontrollable super spreaders of this pandemic, and the reach will extend beyond the walls and barbed wire fences.

Social distance is impossible when two men share a cell the size of a walk-in closet, as thousands do at San Quentin.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has moved cautiously to defuse the tinderbox by sending more people home. Heres why that wont be easy.

Behind every inmate lies a crime. Victims and their families have long memories, and so do district attorneys who dont like to see their work undone. The governor will have to convince Californians to put aside their desire for punishment in order to protect the public health. Its a worthwhile goal, but once Newsom tries to put an effective prison-release program into effect, hes bound to run into an emotional outcry.

At the end of April, Newsom faces a clear test of his determination to send felons home. San Quentin inmate C88440 Harry Sassounian, who killed the Turkish consul general in Los Angeles in 1982, will be eligible to walk free from San Quentin, unless Newsom cancels his parole, which was issued to him Dec. 27. The governor has 120 days to veto a lifers parole.

Although just one man, Sassounian will be a symbol of just how determined Newsom is to deal with what many see as a pending disaster behind bars.

The scale of the present problem is daunting. Thanks to the incarceration binge, Californias 35 adult institutions have been operating at 137.5% capacity for the past six years. Bringing the system to its official capacity would mean releasing 32,000 inmates.

Beginning last Friday, Newsom took the initial steps to trim the crowded prisons. He issued commutations to 21 felons, whose paperwork was already in the system before the virus struck. Then, on Monday came the announcement that CDCR was accelerating the departure of 3,494 inmates who already had been given parole dates. CDCR also blocked the counties from sending the state more felons sentenced by the Superior Courts. This move was expected to freeze in place another 3,000 county jail prisoners in the coming weeks and months.

Meanwhile, activist attorneys asked a three-judge federal panel to order CDCR to release the entire cohort of at least 5,000 elderly or infirm inmates who would be most vulnerable to the virus infection. But last Thursday the panel turned down the request. Instead the judges said the lawyers must seek relief by going first to individual US District Court Judges.

Though significant, the measures the CDCR has promised to implement would still not produce big enough reductions to achieve meaningful social distancing. To make a difference, Gov. Newsom would have to dig deeper and thereby undertake additional risks.

What does he have to fear? His every move is likely to be carefully scrutinized by some powerful interests. First, victims rights groups are well organized and vocal. In addition, the right wing nationally has long seen California as anathema and is waiting for Newsom to stumble.

And on top of all this, the mainstream media often sensationalize prison releases.

Many of the released prisoners are notorious, and reporters scan the list and publish stories repeating the most shocking details of crimes from decades ago. Thats when writers are allowed to infuse their copy with descriptive, gratuitous phrases like brutal. In fact, prisoners paroled after serving life sentences have the lowest recidivism rate of any class of incarcerated people.

In the Sassounian case, the Turkish government has already registered a sharp protest against his parole. We strongly condemn and reject this decision which is subject to the approval of the Governor of California and is open to appeal. This decision paving the way for the release of the murderer of our martyred diplomat is not only against universal principles of law and justice, but also contradicts the spirit of cooperation in the fight against terrorism, the statement said.

Sassounian was found suitable for parole once before in 2017. Then-Gov. Jerry Brown used his veto power to block his release after an outcry from the Turks and from the Trump administration.

William Drummond teaches journalism at UC Berkeley and is author of Prison Truth: The Story of the San Quentin News.
NEW YORK  Oprah Winfreys new book club pick is Robert Kolkers Hidden Valley Road, an in-depth account of a 1950s family in which six of 12 children were diagnosed with schizophrenia. Winfrey says she will continue picking books during the coronavirus outbreak, and will seek new ways to engage readers.

In announcing her choice Tuesday, Winfrey called Hidden Valley Road a a riveting true story of an American family that reads like a medical detective journey. It reveals the shame, denial, shock, confusion and misunderstanding of mental illness at a time when no one was really sure what schizophrenia was or how to treat it.

Hidden Valley Road, tells the story of the Galvins, an attractive, high-achieving Colorado family that was devastated by the illness. Kolker learned about them four years ago through a mutual friend and received extensive cooperation, speaking with nine of the siblings and their mother, and also drawing upon family letters, diaries and medical records.

In a review that ran last weekend in The New York Times, Sam Dolnick praised Kolker as a gifted storyteller and a restrained and unshowy writer who is able to effectively set a mood. Kolker has written for New York magazine and Bloomberg and is the author of Lost Girls, which has been adapted into a Netflix film starring Amy Ryan.

Kolkers new book, released this week, is Winfreys fourth selection since starting a partnership with Apple last fall. She usually tapes a live appearance with the author that runs on Apple TV Plus. Because of the coronavirus, she will interview Kolker and Galvin family members remotely for a program expected to air in May.

Winfrey spoke to The Associated Press recently from her home in Santa Barbara, California, where she has been sheltering in place since early March, She said she had chosen Hidden Valley Road before the virus became widespread, but says its even timelier now, because of its story of a baffling and horrifying illness. She was also personally drawn to the narrative, explaining that a young student from the school she runs in South Africa has three siblings diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Ive watched the ways that mental illness can rampage a family, and how they deal with the stigma of it and overcoming the shame of it, Winfrey said.

Winfrey has helped generate millions of sales over the years, but her announcement comes at a time of deep declines in book sales and widespread industry layoffs, from bookstores to the publisher Macmillan, where Winfrey has an imprint. She began her club in 1996, and has never had a year of such unexpected and troubling challenges.

Her previous selection, Jeanine Cummins American Dirt, had received widespread early praise and seemed set to be a critical and commercial hit. But a month before its January release date, some Mexican-American writers faulted the novel about a Mexican mother and son fleeing north as uninformed and exploitative. What Winfrey had thought would be a show about immigration ended up being a forum about the lack of Latino representation in publishing, and in Winfreys club. (Winfrey reiterated that she plans to choose books by Latinos in coming months).

Not long after the Cummins show aired, in early March, the coronavirus spread around the country and Winfrey briefly wondered whether she should delay further choices. She decided instead that books, and conversations about books, were needed more than ever. In addition to her programs on Apple, Winfrey hopes to organize what she is calling literary pajama parties on Instagram.

You have virtual dance parties, says Winfrey, who took part in an all-star online gathering hosted by DJ D-Nice. So I was thinking of doing the same thing for books, trying to see how many people you get for a pajama party where you talk about a book.
Tata Starbucks has written to the landlords of its outlets for a three-month waiver on rent amid the coronavirus lockdown. The coffee giant has written to the landlords of 185 outlets in India and said that the situation can be reassessed after the period of three months.

In the letter Tata Starbucks said that they would be unable to bear rental and maintenance charges and asked for the waiver from March 1. According to a report in The Economic Times, the coffee giant said that future terms can be decided depending on any improvement. Since the company has already paid the rent for the month of March, it has asked landlords to adjust this against future obligations.

Also read: Coronavirus Live Updates: Bhopal reports 12 new COVID-19 cases; include health workers, cops

As mentioned in the report, the letter stated that the company has implemented efficiencies in its manpower planning and other processes to bring down operational overheads. The lockdown has impacted consumer sentiment, the letter stated. It added that the only way to brave this onslaught is by reducing its fixed operating expenses in the immediate term till consumption improves.

Industry experts told the daily that if the landlords do not agree to the waiver, then the company might implement 'force majeure' clauses that prevent businesses from fulfilling a contract in case of rare and unanticipated events that are beyond the control of the party.

Also read: Coronavirus fallout: Unemployment rate spikes to 23% after lockdown, says CMIE

Several restaurants including McDonald's, Domino's Pizza and Speciality restaurants have also sought similar waivers from their landlords.

Currently, there are 3,981 active cases in the country, according to data from the Health Ministry. So far, 325 people have been cured or discharged, while 114 people have died.

INDIA CORONAVIRUS TRACKER: BusinessToday.In brings you a daily tracker as coronavirus cases continue to spread. Here is the state-wise data on total cases, fatalities and recoveries in one comprehensive graphic.
The Taliban has broken off talks with the Afghan government on a prisoner exchange, a main step in peace talks being brokered by the United States.

Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Talibans political office in Qatar, tweeted on April 7 that a technical team would not participate in "fruitless meetings."

Shaheen blamed the administration of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani for delaying the prisoner release "under one pretext or another."

Javid Faisal, a spokesman for the Afghan National Security Council in Kabul, called on the Taliban not to "sabotage the process by making excuses."

The two sides had been holding talks in Kabul since last week to try to finalize the prisoner swap originally set to happen by March 10.

Afghan government officials have said the Taliban was demanding the release of senior commanders involved in some of the most violent attacks in recent years.

The suspension of the talks could lead to an escalation of violence, which in turn could threaten the plan to withdraw U.S. troops under a pact signed by the United States and the Taliban in the Qatari capital, Doha, on February 29.

Ghani's adviser Waheed Omar said Kabul considers the release of the prisoners to be part of wider negotiations.

The government would not agree to release Taliban prisoners "until the Taliban take a step forward," Omar told reporters.

Afghan government officials have said the Taliban were demanding the release of senior commanders involved in some of the most violent attacks in recent years.

The Doha deal calls for the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban fighters as a confidence-building measure ahead of formal peace talks aimed at ending the 18-year conflict.

The Taliban has vowed to release some 1,000 Afghan government troops and civilian workers it is holding.

The U.S.-led international forces are to withdraw in exchange for Taliban security guarantees, but peace hinges on talks between the Afghan government and the militants.

On April 5, the Taliban claimed they had reduced their attacks compared with last year and warned that continued violations of the terms of the Doha deal by the United States and the Afghan government would create "an atmosphere of mistrust" that would "damage the agreements" and "increase the level of fighting."

A U.S. military spokesman rejected the militants accusations as baseless."



The peace talks have also been jeopardized by political infighting in Afghanistan, between Ghani and his opponent, Abdullah Abdullah.

Last week, after Ghani announced his 21-member team to negotiate peace with the Taliban, Abdullah rejected it as not inclusive enough.



In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the U.S. administration hoped that Ghani and Abdullah would work out their differences.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan
A physician has been placed on administrative leave after an altercation with a group of teenage girls who were not social distancing in which he appears to choke one of them: WHAS ABC 11

A physician has been placed on administrative leave after being involved in an altercation over social distancing.

Police in Kentucky have not yet charged the man who was caught on video shoving three young women and choking another because they were gathered together in a park, despite advice not to socialise in groups to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) is investigating him on a possible charge of strangulation after the incident in Norton Commons on Friday. First degree strangulation is a felony charge in Kentucky.

A police report says that an 18-year-old woman suffered minor injuries after the suspect applied pressure to victims throat and impeded her breathing.

The video of the incident shows the man, who was accompanied by a woman, confronting the group of young women at the Norton Commons amphitheatre.

The person who posted the video says the man and woman, who identified themselves as physicians, approached the group for failing to follow social distancing guidelines.

In the video the man shoves the teenage girls, and WHAS ABC 11 reports that he grabbed a girl who allegedly took the phone of the woman with him.

Obviously, we do not advise individuals concerned about social distancing to take matters into their own hands and confront people about it, especially in any physical way, LMPD said. We ask people who are concerned about large gatherings to call 311 or 911 to report their concerns.

The physician's employer, Southern Indiana Anesthesia Consultants (SIAC) released a statement on Monday through a PR agency.

SIAC, a division of One Anesthesia PLLC is aware of the incident that occurred in Norton Commons with one of its physicians, who was not on official call or due to report to the hospital in any official capacity. With that said, the partners of SIAC, a division of One Anesthesia PLLC have decided to place the physician that appeared in the video on administrative leave as of April 5th pending further investigation. Our well wishes extend to all parties involved and we will continue to monitor this situation as new information develops, said the statement from Boxcar PR.

Story continues

Kentucky has a total of 1,057 cases as of Tuesday, and has recorded 52 deaths.

Read more

Listen to the latest episode of The Independent Coronavirus Podcast
The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has called on the Akufo-Addo government to learn from Togo as they put measures in place to fight the COVID-19.

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

According to Mahama, just like Togo, Akufo-Addo should include the provision of free electricity for all Ghanaians in these times.

The Togo government, in a bid, reduce the burden of its citizens while finding ways to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, decided to supply its citizens with free utility for three months.

READ ALSO: COVID-19: There will be no water for customers who owe us - GWCL to Ghanaians

President Akufo-Addo in his 5th address to the nation announced that Ghanaians would enjoy uninterrupted water and electricity supply through the coronavirus period.

Akufo-Addo also added that the government would relieve all Ghanaians from paying water bills for the next 3 months.

Mahama however, is of the view that the social interventions made by the president are not enough until the Communication Service Tax(CST) is scrapped and electricity is also made free.

He says free electricity is as important as any of the interventions so far.

READ ALSO: Free Water: Woman creates tap outside her house for neighbours without taps at home

In other news, despite President Nana Akufo-Addos directive on Sunday, April 5, 2020, that government will foot the water bills of Ghanaians for the next three months, the service provider, Ghana Water Company Limited, says otherwise.

According to the GWCL, customers who have defaulted in payment and have been disconnected will not enjoy the free water supply announced by President Akufo-Addo.

In an interview with Citi FM on Monday, April 6, 2020, the CEO of the company, Dr. Clifford Braimah, customers who owe the company must settle their debts before they can expect to enjoy the free water.

READ ALSO: COVID-19: No taxes on salaries for 3 months for all health workers; 50% bonus for frontline health workers

Mad rush for gas in Accra following lockdown order| #Yencomgh

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Here are the worst infected states that account for over 70 per cent of India's active COVID-19 cases

COVID-19: These 10 states account for over 71 per cent of new infections

States plan staggered lockdown exit strategy

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Apr 07: At least 7 states have indicated that they are in no hurry to completely ease the lockdown even after April 14.

States like Telangana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand indicated that some restrictions would be in place even after the 21 day lockdown ends.

Maharashtra has recorded the maximum number of cases (748) so far. The state is likely to extend the lockdown in the Mumbai and Pune regions. Other hotspots too would continue to remain under lockdown in the state.

Telangana govt requests PM Modi to extend coronavirus lockdown from April 14 till June 3

In Assam, where 26 cases have been reported, there are plans afloat to introduce a registration system to regulate those who wish to enter the state after the lockdown. In Uttar Pradesh too there is uncertainty over lifting the lockdown.

Chattisgarh Chief Minister, Bhupesh Baghel has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against lifting inter-state travel. Rajasthan is also working on a staggered exit strategy to lift the lockdown. In Rajasthan a committee has been set up to formulate a state-specific exit strategy. This would be based on sealing high-risk areas.

Fake News Buster

Telangana Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao told reporters on Monday that they do not have any other weapon other than a lockdown to control the spread of the virus. Our economy may recover after a year, but if lives are lost they cannot be brought back he said.

Coronavirus: Assam considering regulating entry of people into state after lockdown ends

In Madhya Pradesh, plans are afloat to allow the procurement of wheat after the lockdown.

Maharashtra health minister, Rajesh Tope said that the highest cases have been reported in Mumbai and Pune. Nobody should assume that the lockdown will be lifted completely after April 14, he said.
author: Jennifer Chan

China Three Gorges Renewables Group is aiming to hit the mark as the second-largest IPO in China in an offering of up to $3.5 billion.

The state-owned China Three Gorges plans to sell up to 8.57 billion shares in its renewable energy generation business on the Shanghai exchange.

The company operates plants that generate wind power, photovoltaic power, hydropower, and solar power. The assets to be listed have a capacity of about 10 gigawatts (GW), according to a report from the South China Morning Post.

If the company hit its target, the China Three Gorges' listing would be second in market cap only to Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway, whose IPO raised $4.3 billion. CTG's IPO would also further cement the Shanghai Stock Exchange as the preferred IPO exchange in the region, having recently surpassed Hong Kong as the top listing destination.

The company intends to use the proceeds of the sale for seven offshore wind farms.

China Three Gorges launched the construction of two offshore wind projects of 2.2 GW capacity in late February and expects to start operations by 2021.
Hundreds of well-wishers have spoken out to send their best to the UK Prime Minister, including his Conservative colleagues, opposition MPs, world leaders and other official figures.

US President Trump was among them, telling a White House press briefing on Monday night: I want to send best wishes to a great friend of mine, and a great friend of our nation, Boris Johnson.

We are very saddened to hear that he was taken into intensive car this afternoon, a little while ago. Americans are all praying for him. Hes been a really good friend.

Donald Trump has shown support for his 'good friend' Boris Johnson, who is fighting coronavirus in intensive care / POOL/AFP via Getty Images

He's very strong, resolute. Doesnt quit, doesnt give up.

He added: When you get brought into intensive care, that gets very, very serious with this particular disease."

French President Emmanuel Macron also wished Mr Johnson well.

He said: All my support for Boris Johnson, his family and the British people at this difficult time.

"I wish him to overcome this ordeal quickly.

And Canadian leader Justin Trudeau said: "Sending my best wishes to Prime Minister Boris Johnson for a full and speedy recovery. My thoughts are with you and your family right now. Hope to see you back at Number 10 soon.

Pedro Sanchez, the Prime Minister of Spain, which has also suffered a high number of cases of coronavirus, tweeted: "My solidarity and wishes for a speedy recovery for the Prime Minister BorisJohnson.

"These are difficult days for our countries, but from strength and unity, we will be able to win this battle. A hug to all the British people.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has sent a tweet saying his thoughts and prayers are with Mr Johnson.

He said: "To my dear friend BorisJohnson , my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family, as you fight for a swift recovery.

"The people of Japan stand with the British people at this difficult time."

Ivanka Trump, the daughter of the US leader, also shared some words of support.

She said: My thoughts and prayers are with @BorisJohnson and his family. Godspeed Mr Prime Minister!

Well-wishes came from across the political spectrum in the UK, with new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer quickly throwing his support to the PM.

He said: "Terribly sad news. All the country's thoughts are with the Prime Minister and his family during this incredibly difficult time."

Boris Johnson in intensive care: The key questions

Members of the newly-formed shadow cabinet also offered their support for Mr Johnson.

Shadow justice secretary David Lammy tweeted: "Awful news. My very best wishes to the Prime Minister, as well as his partner Carrie, family and friends. Get well soon Boris Johnson."

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner posted: "Sending my best wishes at this worrying time to the PM BorisJohnson and Carrie Symonds and hoping that his condition stabilises in his battle with coronavirus."

Mr Johnson's predecessor Theresa May tweeted: "My thoughts and prayers are with BorisJohnson and his family as he continues to receive treatment in hospital. This horrific virus does not discriminate. Anyone can get it. Anyone can spread it. Please #StayHomeSaveLives.

Former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron also sent a message of support to Mr Johnson.

Mr Johnson's predecessor Theresa May tweeted: "My thoughts and prayers are with BorisJohnson and his family as he continues to receive treatment in hospital. This horrific virus does not discriminate. Anyone can get it. Anyone can spread it. Please #StayHomeSaveLives.

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Former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron also sent a message of support to Mr Johnson.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will deputise where necessary while he is in intensive care, a No 10 spokesman said.

The news came just a few hours after Mr Raab told a press briefing that the PM remained in charge of the Government despite remaining under observation.

Mr Raab later said there was an "incredibly strong team spirit behind" Mr Johnson and that ministers were determined to carry out his direction".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson Moved To Intensive Care

"The Government's business will continue," he said.

"The Prime Minister is in safe hands with that brilliant team at St Thomas' hospital, and the focus of the Government will continue to be on making sure that the Prime Minister's direction, all the plans for making sure that we can defeat coronavirus and can pull the country through this challenge, will be taken forward."

He added: "There's an incredibly strong team spirit behind the Prime Minister, and making sure that we get all of the plans the Prime Minister's instructed us to deliver, to get them implemented as soon as possible.

The Conservative Party leader is understood to be conscious and has been moved to the ICU at about 7pm as a precaution should he require ventilation to aid his recovery.

Two uniformed police officers were stationed at the entrance to the hospital on Monday evening.

Earlier on Monday afternoon, Mr Johnson had tweeted: "Last night, on the advice of my doctor, I went into hospital for some routine tests as I'm still experiencing coronavirus symptoms. I'm in good spirits and keeping in touch with my team, as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe."

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Mr Johnson's fiancee Carrie Symonds previously said she had been suffering Covid-19 symptoms, but is "on the mend". Ms Symonds, who is expecting the couple's first baby in early summer, said she was not tested for the virus.

Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast

Health Secretary Matt Hancock is already back at work after having tested positive for coronavirus.
UNODC training programme Treatnet Family shows positive impact in reducing substance use and related problems in Indonesia

 Nick Danziger for UNODC

Jakarta (Indonesia) - Cannabis is the most commonly used drug among adolescents. Drugs and other substance use disorders are often associated with co-morbid health disorders such as anxiety, depression and disruptive behaviour disorders in adolescents. In low- and middle-income countries, adolescents with drug and other substance use disorders and their families have little or no access to effective treatment for drug use disorders.

In response, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has developed and field tested the Treatnet Family training materials on elements of family therapy for adolescents with drug use disorders including those in contact with the criminal justice system.

During a pilot study in Indonesia, which ended in March 2020, 25 community treatment practitioners in Jakarta were trained and then supported families with substance use problems for several weeks. Initial results demonstrate that the intervention can be effectively used by practitioners in community settings. Moreover, participating adolescents showed a significant reduction in substance use and substance-use related problems, improved family communication and reduction in mental health problems.

A similar feasibility study is about to start in Viet Nam and measures are being taken to prepare for the remote provision of Treatnet Family psychosocial support in line with UNODCs related guidance for treatment, care and rehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Further Information

Treatnet Family training materials

Guidance for treatment, care and rehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) - UNODC updates
Nigerian Bishop, David Oyedepo has said the root of Coronavirus disease has been cursed and that Nigeria will soon experience a liberation.

In one of his preaching, Oyedepo, Presiding Bishop, Living Faith Church Worldwide said The root of coronavirus is cursed. It took 24 hours but when they came, they saw it dried up from the roots Mark 11:21. Every curse we have inflicted on that virus is established.

We will see it wither now in the name of Jesus. Isaiah 62:6-7 We will keep engaging in fervent declarations of Faith and indepth thanksgiving for answered prayers as individuals, as family members. With the lock down, we have the time to be with the Lord, he said.

Oyedepo said he expected every family to have at least a prayer hour in the course of the day and also expected every prayer partnership that we have here and there to engage. Dont let us give any place to the devil. You keep giving thanks, the prayer is answered.



You keep reminding Him that You have answered us, now confirm it, now establish it. We will be feeding you with prayer lines to ensure you are on course, to see to the end of this evil wave.

The good news is life will be restored back to our streets, market places will flourish again, our government offices will be serving us again, the economy will start thriving again, the health of mankind shall be gloriously restored and the name of our God shall be glorified, he said.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
As of now, about 1,000 tests are conducted per day in Ukraine

Deputy Minister of Health and Chief Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Viktor Lyashko said that the Ministry of Health was ready to conduct 30,000 coronavirus tests weekly. He made such a statement on the air of ICTV TV channel, Ukranews reports.

"As of now, Ukraine is ready to carry out 30,000 tests a week, in the future our development strategy will allow us to do 80,000 tests," Lyashko said.

Chief Sanitary Doctor also added that about one thousand tests were conducted per day and there was no need for more.

According to Segodnya, free tests are conducted only under a doctors order and only in public clinics. Speaking on private ones  such procedure is not required, but there are tests from 29 to 110 dollars.

As we reported earlier, Ukraine's Healthcare Ministry will receive a batch of Ukrainian PCR tests next week.

According to Deputy Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko, the Ukrainian manufacturer is expected to provide 20 thousand PCR systems, which will allow testing about two million people.
COVID-19 patient count in Kyiv up by 12, including four children, one medic  Klitschko

A number of coronavirus (COVID-19) patients in Kyiv grew by 12 persons, city mayor Vitali Klitschko reported.

"A number of Kyiv citizens, who fell ill with COVID-19, grew by 12 persons for past 24 hours. There are four children and one medic. One case for past 24 hours is a fatal one. In total, there are 279 already confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kyiv," he said during an online briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Among the sick, there are three women aged 34 to 41 years, two girls three years old, five men: from 31 to 67 years old, and two boys: six and fifteen years old.
KALAMAZOO, MI  Five new coronavirus cases were announced in Kalamazoo County Monday afternoon, bringing the countys total to 58, nearly double the total on the first day of the month.

The county stood at 30 reported cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday, April 1.

While no new deaths were reported in Kalamazoo County or its surrounding counties on April 6, statewide 110 deaths were announced Monday  the largest single-day spike since the pandemic began. The statewide death toll now stands at 727.

RELATED: Michigan has deadliest day from coronavirus with 110 new deaths

The total number of coronavirus cases in Michigan, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, increased by 1,503 overnight, bringing the total to 17,221 as of Monday afternoon.

Van Buren, Berrien, Eaton and Branch counties all reported two new cases Monday, while St. Joseph, Barry and Allegan counties each reported one new case. There were no new cases reported in Calhoun or Cass counties on Monday.

Bronson Healthcare reported Monday that 10 COVID-19 positive patients are being treated at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo and eight at Bronson Battle Creek Hospital.

Three deaths as a result of the virus have occurred at the Kalamazoo hospital and one in Battle Creek, according to the data provided on Bronsons website.

RELATED: Two additional coronavirus deaths reported in Kalamazoo County, total at 3

Kalamazoos other major hospital, Ascension Borgess, declined again on Monday to disclose the number of COVID-19 patients being treated at its facilities, citing privacy reasons.

Out of respect for patient privacy, we will not be releasing data on the number of patients who are being tested or treated for COVID-19 at our facilities, Ascension Borgess said in a statement.

RELATED: Monday, April 6: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Sorry, but your browser does not support frames.

Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus. Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus.

Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible.

Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

Also on MLive:

Monday, April 6: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

WMU uses 3D printers to make face shields for health care workers

Parks in Kalamazoo to close Tuesday, state trails remain open

Kalamazoo brownfield board gives chairperson added authority during coronavirus emergency

$500 grants available to Michigan restaurant employees out of work due to coronavirus

After weeks of mixed messages, Michiganders urged to wear masks to prevent coronavirus

$7M economic impact predicted after coronavirus cancels dozens of sports events in Kalamazoo

Whitmer says federal partnership is improving, but Michigan hospitals dangerously low on coronavirus supplies
A couple of months ago, Nicole Larriviere and her daughter, Julia, found the perfect prom dress. Julia, a senior at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in Mobile, was looking forward to wearing it this past Saturday night, the night of her schools prom.

She was understandably disappointed that the prom was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

At McGill, the annual spring dance is steeped with tradition. After eating dinner together at a local country club, the couples arrive at the University of South Alabama Mitchell Center, where the stage is decorated with a theme  this year was Roarin Twenties  and each senior is called out, walking into a spotlight as their parents and grandparents watch. For the first dance, the boys dance with their moms and the girls dance with their dads. Then the families leave, and the students continue with the prom before changing clothes and heading to an after-party at a skating rink.

For Julia, the prom was going to be one of many rites of passage she and other members of the Class of 2020 will miss during this strange spring semester of her senior year, with schools closed because of the pandemic. Obviously, she misses her friends, says Nicole. Thats the hardest part, not getting to be with her friends.

Last week, Nicole came up with an idea that she hoped would make the evening a little less painful for her daughter. I wanted her to go through the process of mourning that it didnt happen, and to have all those emotions associated with it, she says

And so, on Saturday  the day of the canceled prom  Nicole told Julia she was going to have a spa day at home, complete with a pedicure from Mom as a lavender diffuser scented the air.

While Julia did her hair and makeup, her brother Nicolas, a sophomore at Auburn University whose school year was also cut short, made dinner with some help from their dad, James. They grilled chicken and made chicken breasts stuffed with broccoli and cheese, hash-browned potatoes (at Julias request) and zucchini. A candlelight dinner was served on china plates with crystal glasses. Later, for dessert, they had brownies with strawberries and hot fudge sauce.

Wearing her halter-style, pale-blue dress, Julia and her dates, James and Nicolas, who were both wearing tuxedoes (they live in Mobile, after all), posed for photos along their white picket fence. Julia held a huge bouquet of flowers in her arms.

Nicole didnt even notice their choice of footwear  Nicolas wore Crocs, while James sported brown loafers  until she saw the pictures shed taken outside their Midtown home.

Thats part of the reality, she says. It was not a perfect night, not a perfect anything. The reality is that this is a different time for everyone. The shoes were perfect because thats where were at.

After dinner, they Facetimed with family members to show them how pretty Julia looked in her dress, and her dad spun her around a couple of times.

It was sweet, Nicole says. I think as she goes forward, shell appreciate it more.

Nicole posted three of the photos on her Facebook page, and her friends and family immediately reacted, commenting on how beautiful Julia looked and what a great idea it was to acknowledge prom night that way. One friend commented: The funnest part of prom is picking out the dress, getting ready and having the pictures to look back on, so yall covered the important part.

The photos from that night will always tell a bittersweet story. Sure, Julia missed a special event. But, in their isolation, in the midst of a global pandemic, her family came together to make sure she will always have something to remember from that soft April night spent at home.
Presidente @MartinVizcarraC : A partir de manana, se entregara el bono economico para trabajadores independientes o informales, medida que alcanza a 780 mil hogares vulnerables.

#PeruEstaEnNuestrasManos El presidente Martin Vizcarra informa sobre la situacion del Estado de Emergencia en el #Dia23 y las acciones que realiza el Gobierno para contener la propagacion del COVID-19. En vivo: https://t.co/g9wms89N5U https://t.co/5IOLgpdpHm
Maxym Stepanov Open source

Healthcare Minister of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov assured that patients in moderate and serious conditions would be provided with free treatment from coronavirus as Ukrainian News reported.

As for today, the issue of treatment, especially of diseased in moderate and severe patients, should be implemented by the state. And we urgently reconsider it. We review the health packages, medical guarantees to ensure the presence of Covid-19 in them to treat it, Stepanov said.

Concerning the free treatment of people who lost their jobs during the quarantine, the minister said that the state would cover the costs if their state is moderate or severe.

As we reported, the number of coronavirus cases in Ukraine has increased to 1,462 cases. Ukraine observed 45 deaths, 28 patients successfully recovered. Over the last 24 hours, 143 new cases have been recorded.

On March 13, the government closed the border for foreigners. Starting from midnight on March 17, Ukraine closed all types of movement through the state border within the measures on the fight against coronavirus pandemic. The ban was introduced for the international railway, air and bus traffic. However, the evacuation of the Ukrainians continued. On March 25, the Cabinet of Ministers extended quarantine for 30 days, up to April 24. Besides, the state border was completely closed on March 28.
Over the last two weeks, the novel coronavirus has killed more than 10,000 Americans and required much of the country to shut down. So, it was a jarring Tuesday for Americans hunkered down across the country to see long lines of voters waiting at the polls in Wisconsin, potentially risking their lives and the lives of others in order to participate in self-government.

Here was the scene in predominantly Republican Waukesha County, which consolidated its normal 15 polling places into one:

Polls open in minutes. Heres a look at the line in Waukesha, the citys only polling location pic.twitter.com/Uqg08gannt  Matt Smith (@mattsmith_news) April 7, 2020

And this was the scene in the predominantly Democratic city of Milwaukee, which consolidated its normal 180 polling places into five:

Lines forming just 30 minutes after polls open in Milwaukee, people trying to space. Almost everyone has a mask pic.twitter.com/KVCJ7Ik0Xe  Steadman (@AsteadWesley) April 7, 2020

Why did Wisconsin refuse to follow other states in postponing its election amid the pandemic? Here is what the states Democratic governor and Republican legislative leaders have said over the past two weeks.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Governor Tony Evers ordered Wisconsins schools closed on March 17, and issued a stay-at-home order to state residents on March 24 that is scheduled to last until the end of April. As recently as five days ago , Evers supported proceeding with todays elections for the Democratic presidential primary, a state supreme court race, and many municipal races, though he had proposed changes that he said would protect the lives of Wisconsin voters: He wanted all voters to receive ballots by mail, and he wanted absentee ballots that were sent after Election Day to count.

Story continues

On March 27, the Republican leader of the state Senate, Scott Fitzgerald, rejected Everss all-mail proposal, arguing that procuring, printing, verifying, and mandating the mailing of millions of ballots within ten days was not logistically feasible. That same day, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the state doesnt have enough ballots to meet Evers request, [according to] Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe.

Evers has said he wants all voters to receive an absentee ballot to be able to mail in their vote, and does not want to move the election, the Journal Sentinel reported on April 1. If I could have changed the election on my own I would have but I cant without violating state law, Evers tweeted that day.

In an April 2 report on Wisconsin Democrats anger at Everss handling of the issue, Politico described his thinking:

Our democracy is essential, it must go on. Keeping people safe is the governors top priority but we want people to participate in this election. We want as many people as possible to vote from home, Evers spokeswoman Melissa Baldauff told POLITICO. We hope the Legislature would work with the governor to extend the time for [ballots] to be counted and to be received. She dismissed the possibility of the governor attempting to halt the election like DeWine did. Its not going to happen, Baldauff said. He doesnt want to do it and he also doesnt have the authority to do it. The governors office has argued that theres no certain future date when the health crisis would relent. Officials also said that a delay would put at risk hundreds of nonpartisan positions on the ballot  including the mayor of Milwaukee  that under statute would be vacant if the election does not take place on Tuesday. That scenario, the governors office said, would create even more chaos amid a public health emergency. But critics say it is a gray area that Evers could have exploited through the Legislature or the courts to find a bridge solution until the health crisis abates.

In its April 1 report, the Journal Sentinel noted that Evers planned on using the National Guard to fill in at polling locations that were short of volunteers, but that news reportedly came as a surprise to some local election officials, who subsequently said it was too late to integrate many guardsmen. According to reports, the state was down some 7,000 election workers; the National Guard issued a statement on Monday saying 2,400 guardsmen were ready to work the polls.

The city of Milwaukee reported that instead of its 180 polling places, it would be reduced to five polling centers because of a lack of poll workers, forcing thousands of Wisconsinites to form long lines in order to vote. Robin Vos, the Republican leader of the state assembly, said city-government workers in Milwaukee should work the polls; the citys top elections official invited Vos to work at one of the citys hot spots himself. (There have been 45 COVID-19 deaths reported in Milwaukee County so far.)

Last Friday, four days before the election, Evers finally called for it to be postponed until May. Under pressure from mayors, he asked the legislature to agree to send absentee ballots to all voters by May 19 and extend the deadline for ballots to be turned to May 26. I cant move this election or change the rules on my own, he said. The legislatures leaders again rejected his request, gaveling in and out of its special session in seconds the next day, and proposed no alternative to Everss plan.

Hundreds of thousands of workers are going to their jobs every day, serving in essential roles in our society. Theres no question that an election is just as important as getting take-out food, the GOPs legislative leaders said in a statement. Our Republic must continue to function, and the many local government positions on the ballot must be filled so that municipalities can swiftly respond to the crisis at hand. We continue to support what Governor Evers has supported for weeks: the election should continue as planned on Tuesday.

Yesterday, Evers did what hed said all along he had no legal authority to do: He issued an executive order that both postponed in-person voting until June and extended the terms of municipal leaders, including the mayor of Milwaukee, whose term is set to expire on April 20.

The legislatures leaders immediately sued, challenging the order as an unconstitutional overreach, and the state Supreme Court ruled 42 along ideological lines in their favor. Daniel Kelly, the justice seeking a fresh ten-year term in Tuesdays election, did not participate in the ruling.

People have bled, fought, and died for the right to vote in this country. But tomorrow in Wisconsin, thousands will wake up and have to choose between exercising their right to vote and staying healthy and safe, Evers said in a statement responding to the ruling.

The states highest court has spoken: The governor cant unilaterally move the date of the election, Republican legislative leaders Fitzgerald and Vos said in their own statement. The safety and health of our citizens have always been our highest concern; thats why we advocated for everyone to vote absentee. Wisconsin has responded in droves.

Just how many voters were effectively shut out of the election remains unclear. In the spring 2019 Supreme Court election, 1.2 million Wisconsinites voted. In the 2016 spring primary that featured competitive Democratic and Republican presidential races, 2.1 million votes were cast.

The Journal Sentinels Craig Gilbert reported Tuesday that a record 1.3 million absentee ballots have been requested and 865,000 have been returned. Ballots postmarked today and received by April 13 will be counted. On April 2, a federal district-court judge ruled that, although state law requires absentee ballots to arrive by Election Day, ballots received by April 13 would be accepted even if they were postmarked after election day. On Monday night, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 54 that ballots must be postmarked by Election Day to be counted.

Over the last three weeks, Everss leadership has been feckless and erratic: He opposed postponing the election until the last-minute, pushed for the type of all-mail election that Republicans have staunchly opposed, and then issued an order hed previously said he didnt have the lawful authority to issue. The Republican legislature, meanwhile, wouldnt budge from its position that Tuesdays vote should go forward as planned, and refused to propose or entertain any alternatives. That left many voters who didnt request or receive an absentee ballot early enough with a difficult, dangerous choice on Tuesday. According to city officials, 20,000 voters are expected to show up at Milwaukees five polling places, and their experience passing through the same location as thousands of others wont be anything like that of picking up takeout food.

Given the incubation period of the virus and delays in testing, we wont know for at least a few weeks how many people were sickened or died in order to vote.

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A retailer who allegedly warned a deli assistant that she would be fired if she didnt end her relationship with her boyfriend has been ordered to pay 11,000 for the womans unfair dismissal.

The deli assistant worked at the butchers shop for 10 years before her summary dismissal on April 27th 2019 due to her relationship with her boyfriend.

In the lead up to the womans dismissal, she celebrated her birthday and at her birthday celebrations, her boyfriend and her employer had an altercation.

The woman stated that she apologised for the incident to her employer and that her partner did so also and replaced goods damaged during the altercation.

The woman stated that on April 27, 2019, she attended her workplace to collect her wages.

However, her employer told her that she would not be getting paid.

The deli assistant alleged that her employer further told her that as long as you are with him there is no job here for you.

The woman further alleged that her boss grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her out the door.

The worker said that her boss later went to her home and returned the replacement goods which had been given to him by her partner.

She claimed that her boss was aggressive and shouting during this encounter.

The worker claimed that her employer did not hold any investigation into matters which gave rise to the dismissal nor did he convene any disciplinary hearing.

The woman sued for unfair dismissal at the WRC and the employer didnt turn up for the WRC hearing.

WRC Adjudication Officer, Patricia Owens found that the deli workers unfair dismissal complaint was well founded.

Along with the 11,000 awarded for the unfair dismissal, Ms Owens has ordered the owner of the butcher shop to pay the former deli assistant an additional 4,400 for other workplace legislation breaches.
Dear listeners, readers, fellow Western Cape residents and citizens, media colleagues and talk radio fans,

Tessa van Staden

As South Africa passes the halfway mark of the current lockdown period our Mother City-based station, CapeTalk, has intensified efforts to make sure we are providing you with the most relevant, practical and important information related to Covid-19.Radio remains to be among the most immediate of mediums. Thanks to the incorporation of digital platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp the communication with you, the audience, is seldom static. Talk radio not only reports what is happening but reflects on the impact of developments by airing calls, WhatsApps and emails from audience members describing their circumstances, challenges and views. Interaction on all our platforms has increased noticeably since we started reporting on Covid-19. Our audiences want to know more and, at the same time, seem to need to share more. The station is their trusted source of information as well as their confidante. Thats a powerful combination.Our committed team of well-read hosts and dogged producers, not to mention the intrepid Eyewitness News crew, have been diligently following and reporting on the now massive coronavirus story for months. Four months ago, we were agog at the pace at which Chinese officials erected hospitals and deployed resources to flatten the curve. In February the focus changed to dispelling fake news when Covid-19 became more of a reality for South Africans. Our listeners were - and still are - central in enabling us to fulfil this role by calling in when theyve heard about developments or when they want to query rumours. Often, they are our eyes and ears.Many of the on-air interviews are turned into articles and shared on our website. It is these staggering statistics that show the true power of a trusted brand. One week in March the CapeTalk website received over 480,000 unique users, making it the most popular and most visited website of all radio stations in the country. In the same month over 1.7 million users visited the website which is impressive if you consider that that is more than 16 times the size of our terrestrial audience.Some of the best performing articles included a profile interview with a Cape Town businesswoman and mom whod been diagnosed with Covid-19 in early March and was recounting her experience in isolation.In a world where, as they say, talk is cheap, we are proud to be a platform that encourages brave, relevant, interesting and insightful conversations involving our audience: they are the real heroes.To quote the irreverent Bruce Whitfield: In times of crisis those with the clearest messaging and strongest brand identities emerge in a better position than those that retreat into the shadows when times get tough.CapeTalk is here for the long haul; to accompany you and to guide you through this lockdown and beyond. We are committed to using our microphones, website and social media platforms to make a tangible difference.Tune into CapeTalk on 567AM or via DSTV Channel 885 Monday - visit: www.capetalk.co.za for the latest COVID 19 news and updates.
SPRINGFIELD  Boston donors have swelled the COVID-19 Response Fund for the Pioneer Valley to more than $3 million, the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts announced Tuesday.

The foundation, which started the fund only in March to help nonprofits in Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire counties meet unexpected needs brought on by the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes.

Those needs have ranged from improved cleaning at homeless shelters to mental health care to diapers for families facing financial hardship, according to a news release issued Tuesday.

The most recent donations to the Fund include:

$250,000 from the Barr Foundation in Boston

$107,000 from the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts

$100,000 from the Vertex Foundation, affiliated with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. located in Boston

$75,000 from an anonymous foundation based in Boston

$25,000 from Delta Dental of Massachusetts

$25,000 from Berkshire Bank Foundation

The Community Foundation announced more than two weeks ago that it had raised $2.48 million from local philanthropic and business organizations, as well as 50 individuals.

On March 18, MassMutual donated $1 million to the fund with an announcement that helped set fundraising in motion.

In addition to donations from business and philanthropic organizations, over 120 individuals have made donations to the CFWM Response Fund, according to the news release.

This weeks grants to nonprofits support health and other urgent services for vulnerable and underserved populations including people with limited proficiency to speak English, according to a news release.

The Foundation also announced another $255,000 in emergency grants, bringing the total to $1 million awarded from the Response Fund to local nonprofits.

This latest round of grants went to Gandara Center, ServiceNet, Behavioral Health Network, Clinical and Support Options, Center for New Americans, New North Citizen Council and Enlace de Familias.

Clinical Support Options (for Springfield) and ServiceNet (for Greenfield and Northampton) also received grants to cover costs associated with social distancing in shelters they manage.

Grow Food Northampton also received a grant for food distribution in Greater Northampton.

I am awed that $3 million has been donated in the mere three weeks that the fund as been in existence," said Katie Allan Zobel, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, in a news release. "This outpouring of generosity from across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a testimony to the goodness and generosity of our people. These donations go directly into the Response Fund and are quickly deployed into the community. Donors can feel confident that their gifts are supporting the critical work in our region of helping those most impacted by the crisis. Together, and working in collaboration with so many on the ground doing the work, we will get through this historic period of need.

Monday, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and his wife, Lauren Baker,announced the start of a statewide relief fund for residents negatively affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Massachusetts COVID-19 Relief Fund started with $13 million from donations from private donors, the first lady said. The One8 Foundation in Boston donated $1.8 million.

The two funds will work together and continue bringing more money from Boston-area donors and funding sources to Western Massachusetts and other areas of the state, Zobel said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. She wanted to dispell any confusion that they would compete.

Its to be additive, she said. The idea here is that this new fund will partner with community foundations. We dont have as many funders in the western part of the state."

Coronavirus has philanthropists and funders thinking beyond strict geographic boundaries, she said.

What I see as different this time around is that people are looking beyond the familiar to say 'who else needs this help, Zobel said. Is the philanthropy being equitable with all the needs?

Those needs, she said, boil down to basic human needs for health care, shelter and food. And getting all three are complicated by the need to have physical distance and reduce travel. Seniors can;t pick up food at a food bank, she said. So the food bank sets up delivery and thats an expense.

People cant get cpounsling in person, so there is an expense. Homelss shelters can;t operate as normal becuse they cant have people too close together. Thats an expense.

Donors are encouraged to make donations directly to nonprofit organizations working to support populations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.

How to give

Donations may be made online at: www.communityfoundation.org/covid19.or by mail to The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, 333 Bridge St., Springfield, MA 01103

Related Content:
Feed The Heroes, a national fundraising effort set up just three weeks ago to raise money to provide Irelands critical frontline workers with nutritious meals as they front Irelands response to the Covid-19 emergency, has raised over 754,000.

To date, more than 36,000 meals have been delivered nationwide with a large portion now outside of the hospital setting in areas like Covid-19 testing centres, contact tracing units, paramedic services, fire brigade and Gardai.

The Irish business community has stepped up to support the campaign. In addition to the local restaurants, takeaways and catering facilities, Microsoft Ireland, KSG and Connection Logistics Ltd has joined the effort to deliver 2,700 meals weekly to Microbiology Departments in Dublin Hospitals in the weeks ahead while Avolon is supplying 160 meals a day for five days every other seven.

Easter week will also see Mars Ireland and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Ireland team up with the Feed The Heroes to deliver over 21,000 Mars Ireland Easter Eggs donated to critical frontline workers across the country. The generosity shown by Irish businesses and the general public is a further demonstration of the solidarity and gratitude of the Irish people to our essential heroes of the frontline currently working long shifts in very challenging circumstances as they combat Ireland's biggest ever public health emergency.

Each meal costs approximately 7 to prepare and deliver. The more funds that are raised will allow Feed The Heroes to deliver even more meals to Irelands critical frontline heroes. Individuals wanting to make a donation can contribute using the Feed The Heroes Go Fund Me page through the website www.feedtheheroes.com. Corporate donations can be made by contacting corporatedonations@feedtheheroes.com.

Speaking today, Feed The Heroes Fund founder, Cian OFlaherty said: "We are lucky enough to see the messages from the teams on the ground; to see how food and meals can be a small glimmer of positivity. How the connection with us all makes some small dent in the otherwise endless pressure of fighting a deadly virus. Your support is keeping our heroes healthy, linked to the world around them, and it is uniting us all. Ultimately, in three short weeks, we have been left in no doubt that the work matters where you want it to matter most  at the frontline.

"I would also like to thank the nearly 13,500 individuals who have donated an incredible 754,000 to the Feed The Heroes fund over the last three weeks. We are now working on the challenge of expanding our response as much as its needed to ensure we continue to provide food and meals to our critical frontline workers as they deal with the pressure of fighting this virus.

June Molloy, Communication Manager, RCSI Hospitals also commented: On behalf of the RCSI Hospital Group, we would like to give a big thank you to Feed The Heroes for their delivery of Easter Eggs to the hospitals. We really appreciate their ongoing support and generosity.
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The number of coronavirus deaths across New York State rose by the highest number yet in 24 hours, with 731 people dying from the disease between Monday and Tuesday.

The number, while staggering, is another indicator that the virus spread is starting to slow down across the 'epicenter' of America. It represents people who were admitted to the hospital weeks ago and were put on ventilators but never recovered.

Now, the total number of dead across New York state is 5,489 deaths (up from 4,758). The total number of cases is 138,836 (up from 130,689). That increase - of 8,147 - is smaller than the previous day's, which was 8,568.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the numbers at a press conference on Tuesday where he also announced the state Department of Health had approved an antibody test to determine whether or not a person has had coronavirus and recovered from it. If they are found to have, it will allow them to get back to work because they are immune to it.

Now, he is asking the FDA to help the state's Department of Health in scaling it up to allow millions to be tested and restart the economy.

He did not give a time scale for the mass-release of the test but is warning the state still has some way to go before it can slowly start to return to a sense of normal. The lockdown on non-essential businesses remains in place until April 29.

Cuomo, in an effort to boost morale, reminded residents that it had 'only' been 37 days since- the virus arrived in New York. By comparison, the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic lasted six months, he said.

Scroll down for video

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo giving his daily briefing on the state's response to the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday

'I know it's been a frustrating 37 days but it's only been 37 days. I know it feels like a lifetime. It's been so disruptive, so abrupt, so disorienting, but it's only been 37 days.

'Everything in context, everything in perspective. I know it's hard to get up every day. This is like groundhog day, living through this bizarre reality that we're in.

'But it's only been 37 days... the 1918 pandemic that we talk about peaked in New York for six months,' he said.

He also told the public that the reason the number of new cases is coming down is because social distancing is 'working' and that it is not a coincidence or 'act of God'.

'We are changing the curve in that virus growth. If we don't do what we're doing, that is a much different curve.

This is not an act of god - it's an act of what society actually does... social distancing is working. It is working.

'Social distancing is working. It is working,' he said firmly, adding: 'This is not an act of god - it's an act of what society actually does.'

The test the state department has developed will determine whether or not a person has had the virus and recovered from it which is key in restarting the economy.

It is separate to the antibody test the FDA has discussed which, according to commissioner Dr. Zucker, determines if a person still has the virus.

Cuomo said we will not be able to stamp out the virus entirely before re-starting the economy, adding: 'We do not have that luxury.'

He is looking at strategies involving getting younger people back to work first or only allowing people back to work if they have taken the antibody test or test negative for the virus.

'How do we, when we get to that point - which we are not at - but how do we restart our economy? It's going to come down to how good we are with testing.

'You're not going to end the virus before you start restarting life. You don't have that luxury. It's going to come down to testing.

'You're going to have to know who had the virus and resolved and who never had it and that's going to be testing.

'That's an entirely new field that we're just developing now. New York state has developed an antibody testing regiment that the Department of Health has approved for use in New York state.

'That has to be brought to scale and the department of health is going to be working with the FDA to do just that,' he said.

SAILOR ON USNS COMFORT BECOMES INFECTED WITH CORONAVIRUS A crew member of a Navy hospital ship sent to New York City for the coronavirus outbreak has tested positive for the disease. The USNS Comfort crew member tested positive Monday and was being isolated, the Navy said in a prepared statement. The positive test will not affect the 1,000-bed hospital ships mission to receive patients, according to the Navy. The Comfort has treated about 40 non-COVID-19 patients since arriving in the city last week, prompting complaints it was doing little to help overburdened hospitals in the area. President Donald Trump said Monday he agreed to take COVID-19 patients aboard the ship after speaking with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Federal officials say emergency patients will now be seen on the ship, whether or not they have the virus, though the ship can only isolate only a small number of patients. Advertisement

Another element was 'rapid' testing which is already in use, which involves 15-minute, same-day diagnosis.

The challenge will be combining those two efforts and getting them to the mass public quickly.

'You have 19 million people in the state of New York. Just think of how many people you would need to test and test quickly,' he said.

Cuomo added that he was working with the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut to come up with a partnership plan where they could work with private companies to ramp up the tests.

He also said that while the hospital system continues to be overstretched, with nurses and doctors working round the clock to save lives, they all have the equipment they need to get by.

'What they have done is just incredible,' he said, in tribute to medical frontliners.

'Think of the mindset to walk into an ER every morning, put on all this protective clothing, having to changet hat clothing several times a day.

'Seeing people pass away then go to their own homes.'

While the death toll was staggering, he said he takes 'solace' in knowing anyone who could have been saved has been.

He had been asked if he struggles not becoming numb to the incomprehensible number of deaths and infections and said decisively that he had not.

'I guess one could get numb to the numbers. That's why I've been saying, remember every number, there's a human being behind that and a family.

'For myself, I can tell you, the last thing I do is get numb. I can tell you for the hospital staff, they are not getting numb. Families suffering, they're not getting numb.

'The pain is increasing. The grief is increasing. When you see pictures of bodies being put in trucks in parking lots. How could you get numb to any of this? I can't imagine, especially New Yorkers, that we lose the humanity of this.

'It's something I struggle with every day. I try to think of the opposite - that we are doing good. Because you can't save everyone. This virus is very good at what it does. It kills vulnerable people; that's what it does. We can't stop that.

Medical workers wheel bodies out of the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, on Monday

An Orthodox Jewish man talks on a mobile phone as another man removes personal protective equipment (PPE) outside Maimonides Medical Center

Paramedics take a patient into emergency center at Maimonides Medical Center during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease

U.S. Navy personnel unload their gear from a bus as they arrive in Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease

'The question is are you saving everyone you can save. There, the answer is yes. I take some solace in that fact.

'Our healthcare system is operating. People we lost, we couldn't we save despite our best efforts,' he said.

He repeated his instruction to people to stay at home and reminded them there would be fines if they did not comply.

'We all talk about "life is bigger than us". Now is the time to live that. So when you feel the need of, "I have to do this", think "it's not about me. it's about we."

'My health is in your hands. Your health is in my hands. The health of those healthcare workers and first responders and people who have to show up to work every day. We are responsible for them.

'Let's not get complacent. We have to stay disciplined and smart and we do that by staying home. We will get through this together,' he said.

He also thanked the president for moving 'expeditiously' to turn the USNS Comfort from a non-COVID hospital into one that was accepting coronavirus patients.

The transition has halved the ship's capacity from 1,000 patients to 500, but it is a 'tremendous' relief on the hospital system, Cuomo said.

The Javits Center also has capacity for 2,500 beds and it is in use.

Drone footage captures prisoners digging graves in hazmat suits on Hart Island as NYC eyes it as a mass temporary burial site for coronavirus victims after 437 die in a day, bringing city death toll to 3,485

Drone footage shows inmates in hazmat suits digging graves on NYC's Hart Island suggesting that coronavirus victims could already be being temporarily buried there, as morgues across the city continue to overflow and the death toll ticks up.

Drone footage taken on Thursday - which is the day bodies are buried there every week - by The Hart Island Project shows inmates in hazmat suits digging graves on the island, possibly for victims of the virus which has claimed more than 3,400 lives across New York City and sickened more than 72,000. Ordinarily prisoners are seen digging in their prison uniforms.

Mayor Bill de Blasio did not confirm whether burials for coronavirus victims had been or would take place there but told reporters Monday: 'We may well be dealing with temporary burials so we can then deal with each family later.

Rikers Island inmates in hazmat suits dig graves on Hart Island on April 2. The island is where unidentified or unclaimed bodies have been buried for years. Now, the city is suggesting it could become a mass burial site for coronavirus victims. Burials ordinarily take place on Thursdays, which is when this video was filmed overhead

Bodies are buried three deep in wooden, unmarked caskets. Normally, 25 are buried a week. In the last week of March, however, 72 were buried. It is not known if any or all were coronavirus patients or whether or not the bodies, once in the medical examiner's office, were tested for COVID-19

A wider view of the operation on Hart Island which has been used to bury unclaimed bodies in New York City for decades

'Obviously, the place we have used historically is Hart Island.'

In a normal week, 25 bodies are buried there. According to Jason Kersten, a spokesman at the Department of Correction, which oversees the island, that number has risen to 72 since the end of March, when the virus exploded in New York City.

Hart Island is ordinarily used to bury unidentified or unclaimed bodies. It was used for bodies after the Spanish Flu.

Public officials sparked panic and disgust this week by claiming some of the dead would be temporarily buried in public parks across the city.

That suggestion, made by councilman Mark Levine, has since been dismissed but the question of what to do with the escalating body count remains pertinent.

THE GRISLY HISTORY OF HART ISLAND WHICH IS THE FINAL RESTING PLACE FOR MORE THAN ONE MILLION BODIES Hart Island, sometimes referred to as Hart's Island, has a grisly history and started being used as a cemetery during the civil war in 1868 and there are now more than a million bodies buried there. Since then it has been used as a women's psychiatric institution, a tuberculosis sanatorium, a potter's field burial site and storage for Cold War anti-aircraft missiles. After its first use as a cemetery in 1868, the island started to be used as a potter's field for unmarked graves and accounts from the time describe bodies piling up on the island after being transported from hospitals in the city. By 1958, burials there exceeded 500,000 and it has been used to house the bodies of victims of the 1870 yellow fever epidemic and the 1919 Spanish Flu outbreak. During the Spanish Flu, when more than 500,000 Americans died, thousands were buried at Hart Island as city burial sites were overwhelmed. It is estimated they would be asked to remove between 50 and 5,000 victims a day during the epidemic. In more recent times, thousands of unclaimed AIDs victims have been buried on the island. The first were buried in 1985 away from other graves, in the belief that AIDs could infect dead bodies. In one 200-foot trench the remains of 8,904 babies were buried between 1988 and 1999. The island in Long Island Sound has also been the site of a homeless shelter, a boys' reformatory, a jail and a drug rehabilitation center. During the Cold War, Project Nike anti aircraft missiles were stationed on the island. An amusement park was planned for the site in the 1970s, but it was never built as it was too close to a prison. During World War II the island was used as a correctional facility when the population of Rikers Island was moved there. The island was also used as a homeless shelter which operated from 1951 to 1954 and an alcohol treatment facility in 1955, before returning to being used as a common grave in the 1980s. It is still used to bury unknown or unclaimed people with bodies from across New York taken to the site every Thursday and laid to rest by inmates at Rikers Island. Advertisement

Mark Levine, a Manhattan council representative, tweeted on Monday: 'Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line. It will be done in a dignified, orderly and temporary manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take.'

The comments caused a stir, prompting Levine to clarify his remarks by saying he understood any temporary burials would be carried out on Hart Island rather than public parks.

He added: 'I have spoken to many folks in City gov't today, and received unequivocal assurance that there will be *no* burials in NYC Parks.

'All have stated clearly that if temporary interment should be needed it will be done on Hart Island.'

The mayor's spokeswoman, Freddi Goldstein, stressed that the city government was not considering using local parks as cemeteries. But she added that Hart Island, where around one million New Yorkers are already buried in mass graves, may be used 'for temporary burials, if the need grows'.

Interments of coronavirus fatalities on the island may already have taken place.

Melinda Hunt, the founder of the Hart Island Project, said drone video footage shot last week appears to show burials of COVID-19 patients who passed away.

She told CBS New York: 'Within an hour they've buried 25 bodies, so it's a very efficient system of burials.

'Hart Island has been used during the 1918 flu epidemic. Thousands of New Yorkers were buried there, diphtheria, tuberculosis.'

One former Rikers Island inmate who spent five months working on the island until February this year has also told of the grim operation that goes on there.

Vincent Mingalone said in a voiceover of the video that he worked as a team of around seven men who formed a supply chain to move the bodies from a truck to the mass grave every Thursday.

They were stacked three deep and then covered with sand and soil.

Mingalone said that he is now worried about whether there will actually be enough inmates willing to do the job. When he was incarcerated, he said no one else volunteered to do the work because they viewed it as 'ghoulish' or 'dirty' and because it was low paid compared to other prison jobs.

Since the pandemic erupted, 1,000 inmates have been released from Riker's Island, leaving fewer people to bury the bodies when they keep piling up.

Mingalone said: 'My concern was, they released a lot of sentenced inmates. So I don't know if they're going to get the inmate labor.

'Even when it was a full house, a lot didn't volunteer. They thought it was ghoulish, they thought it was a dirty job.

'It was one of the lower paying jobs compared to maybe working the car wash or cleaning or any of the other outside clearance jobs. A lot of people didn't want that job.

'Now it's going to be slim pickings because a lot of inmates have all been released because of this pandemic,' he said.

The island is home to the city's potter's field, a cemetery for people with no next of kin or whose families cannot arrange funerals.

A department of corrections vehicle on Hart Island on Tuesday along with trucks and a back-hoe digging mass graves

Over the last 160 years Hart Island has been a Union Civil War prisoner-of-war camp, a psychiatric institution, tuberculosis sanatorium and a potter's field burial site.

Since 1861 more than a million people have been buried there, with trucks still arriving at the site twice a week from morgues across New York.

One there inmates from Rikers Island are paid 50c an hour to act as pallbearers and bury the dead.

The dead are interred in trenches, with babies placed in coffins, which are stacked in groups of 1,000, measuring five coffins deep and usually in 20 rows.

Adults are placed in larger pine boxes arranged according to size and stacked in sections of 150, measuring three coffins deep in two rows.

Since the first decade of the 21st century there are fewer than 1,500 burials a year at Hart Island.

Hunt, who has documented Hart Island, added that help would be needed from the military when it came time to reunite families with the deceased.

On Monday morning, nine bodies were seen being loaded into trucks outside Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn.

Several undertakers interviewed said they were struggling to deal with New York state's coronavirus death toll of more than 500 a day.

Between Friday and Saturday, a high of 630 deaths were recorded.

Ken Brewster, owner of Crowe's Funeral Homes in Queens, said: 'The majority of funeral homes do not have refrigeration or [have] limited refrigeration.

'If you don't have the space...you need those trucks,' added Brewster, whose small business has been bombarded with requests for funeral services for COVID-19 patients over the past week.

Pat Marmo manages five funeral homes across the city.

He is finding it difficult to cope with the stress generated by influx of bodies, particularly because he himself just lost a cousin and close friend to the pandemic.

Marmo said: 'The hospitals are pushing [us]. They want the people picked up [as quickly as possible] and the funeral homes don't have the facilities to handle these bodies.'

Marmo estimates that his homes are currently dealing with three times more bodies that normal and that burials will last well into next month.

'It's almost like 9/11, going on for days and days and days,' he said, referring to the worst terror strikes on US soil back on September 11, 2001, that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that the number of deaths across New York state had flattened out since Saturday's high, below 600 a day.

He suggested the state may be at the peak of its pandemic, but extended stay-at-home measures until April 29, saying now was not the time to end social distancing.


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Two drivers suffered major injuries in separate crashes at the same spot along state Highway 24 on Monday night and early Tuesday morning, with the latter crash involving a fire engine, the California Highway Patrol said.

Both of those drivers were subsequently arrested on suspicion of felony DUI, according to the CHP.

The first crash happened at about 9 p.m. Monday, when a Lexus sedan crashed into the back of a Safeway tractor-trailer rig on westbound Highway 24 near the Acalanes Road off-ramp. The driver of the Lexus, 22-year-old Konstantin Vodyanov of Pinole, was hospitalized with major injuries, as were three passengers in the Lexus, the CHP said.

Vodyanov was arrested at the hospital on suspicion of felony DUI, according to the CHP, The big-rig driver was not injured.

About four hours later, shortly before 1 a.m. Tuesday, at that same Highway 24 location, three Contra Costa County Fire Protection District firefighters suffered minor injuries when the driver of a Honda sedan struck their truck at high speed.

The fire crew was there to block traffic lanes to allow CHP officers to more safely investigate the earlier crash.

The driver of the Honda, Suallah Hatari Lloyd, 30, of Oakland, was hospitalized for treatment of major injuries, according to the CHP. Lloyd was later arrested at the hospital on suspicion of felony DUI.

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MIAMI  Joslyn Jane and friends are getting busy to help fans keep busy while stuck in lockdown.

I absolutely love shooting taboo scenes with Rachael, said Jane. We both really enjoy shooting twisted content, and were good friends. When you add in the explosive chemistry Rachael and I have with JMac, theres no doubt that the scene is going to be incredible.

Another way to keep occupied during the COVID-19 lockdown is to check out Janes sapphic sex scene, Getting To Know The Very Sexy Gia Paige .

Thats probably one of the most passionate girl/girl gonzo scenes that Ive shot for myself, Jane stated. Its us getting to know each other on an intimate level, yet its also very sensual, featuring lots of kissing and playing with each other's boobs and lush, round asses. I cant wait to shoot more scenes with Gia in the future.

Earlier this month, Jane took part in the ManyVids World Party Contest in celebration of April 3rds World Party Day, which aims to synchronize a massive, world-wide party to celebrate everything thats good, fun and optimistic. Her pic placed her in the top three out of hundreds of finalists.
New Delhi, April 7 : A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Centre to evacuate Indian students stranded in the UK without delay, and until their evacuation provide them accommodation, health and medical support.

The plea, filed by the mother of a student stranded in the UK through advocate Astha Sharma, contended that amidst the global pandemic, the Centre with effect from March 22 has imposed travel ban on all international flights from any foreign airport for any airport in India till April 14. As a result, many Indian students, who had booked tickets and reached various airports in the UK, were stranded and unable to take their onward journey to India.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde has sought a response from the Centre by next week.

"There are hundreds of Indian students who have valid student visas and are enrolled as students in the Universities across the United Kingdom and who were required to get letters from the High Commission in order to board flights to India, which could is not possible due to the lockdown," said the petition.

The petitioner seeks direction from the apex court to Centre to immediately evacuate all the stranded Indian students, through flights scheduled to drop back British nationals from India. Sharma urged the apex court to issue directions to the Centre to evacuate students without any delay.

"Students are exposed to greater risk of contracting COVID-19 due to being crammed into packed hostels with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities during the current lockdown imposed in the UK and are fighting for their survival", said the petition.

India is probably the only country that has imposed an embargo on the return of its own citizens, and where other countries are making all possible efforts to repatriate their citizens stranded in various countries, India with its travel bans has made it impossible for its own citizens to come back home. It is also pertinent to note that countries with far greater incidence of mortality like China, Spain, Italy, Iran, South Korea and United States of America too have not imposed any embargo on the return of their nationals from foreign shores.

The petition contended a group of around 380 students from India stranded in the United Kingdom had even started a data chain with their passport details to create a collective voice to lobby the Indian government for action, but, to no avail.
Here in Maningrida, 500 kilometres east of Darwin, the COVID-19 pandemic seems a long way away. But it would only take one infected person coming into this Arnhem Land community to spread the virus and trigger a crisis so the clinic and the town have put a lot of energy into our pandemic planning.

Emma Skowronski helped plan a pandemic response.

Maningrida has a reputation as a town with problems. Positioned awkwardly near multiple clans and language groups, there is plenty of infighting. Yet when I met the traditional elders and owners and explained to them the severity of the situation, every single one of them was invested in understanding the problem and constructively addressing it.

I had to clarify what a virus was and how it might spread. I had to dispel myths: the virus did not arrive on the wind, was not a result of black magic and could definitely be carried into the town by people of any race, not just by white people. But the single biggest issue was burial rites.

"Sorry time" is the most important of the traditional rituals. The elders had to accept it would be dangerous for people to handle bodies and keep them in their homes. And how could the people commemorate if they could not come together? The morgue has only six bays and people usually bury their dead in the backyard, but what if we accumulated multiple bodies? The elders worked together to resolve these issues.
The nonprofit West Houston Assistance Ministries typically relies on about 300 active volunteers to accomplish its mission: providing a place where the needy can pick up fresh food and receive other services.

Now, as the group seeks to comply with social-distancing requirements in response to the coronavirus crisis, only about 22 people can help out at a time. The staff members and volunteers all have their temperatures checked and follow recommendations on personal hygiene.

CEO Mark Brown noted that if they all get sick, some 9,000 people a day wouldnt get fed.

If one of us gets the virus, we quarantine everyone else  thats it, Brown said of the importance of keeping the team healthy. We dont want that. Thats why Im so careful.

Now Playing: As coronavirus cases have surged to more than 2,700 in greater Houston and stay-at-home orders have been issued for most of the region, nonprofits whose mission is to help others have had to change the way they conduct business. Faced with both a public health crisis and more people needing help than at any time in recent memory, nonprofits have had to limit gatherings of volunteers to comply with social-distancing rules and also to make sure team members dont fall ill to the virus. This comes as some deal with an increased demand for food service due to families suffering job losses. One nonprofit taking on a heavier load is Kids Meals Inc., which serves poverty-stricken children across the city. Video: Steve Gonzales, Houston Chronicle

With coronaviruses cases on the rise  topping 3,000 in the Houston region this week  and stay-at-home orders issued for most of the region, nonprofits whose mission is to help others have had to change the way they do business. Faced with both a public health crisis and more people needing help than at any time in recent memory, nonprofits have had to limit gatherings of volunteers to comply with social-distancing rules and also to make sure team members dont fall ill to the virus. Nonprofits are also looking for new ways to raise money as they cancel key fundraising events. This comes as some deal with an increased demand for food service due to families suffering job losses.

More Information How to help To volunteer or donate to one of these nonprofits, visit their websites: Houston Food Bank: houstonfoodbank.org/ West Houston Assistance Ministries: whamministries.org/corona-virus-crisis Salvation Army Houston: salvationarmytexas.org/ Kids' Meals: kidsmealsinc.org/ See More Collapse

The irony of the situation isnt lost on Major Zach Bell, area commander for the Greater Houston Salvation Army.

Whether it was Hurricane Harvey, whatever we go through, youll see the Salvation Army show up and do its best to meet human needs, Bell observed. How do we show up when were supposed to be social distancing?

People are afraid

The Houston region has more than 600 nonprofits, according to DonorHouston, a database set up by the Greater Houston Community Foundation to help educate donors about the groups respective roles.

Last month, the foundation, in partnership with other organizations, administered a survey to nonprofits across the region accessing their organizational capacity and needs in the wake of COVID-19. Of the 76 organizations that responded, 75 percent said they needed funding to offset lost revenue for general operations. Eighty percent said community members were requesting basic needs such as food assistance, household and cleaning supplies, and other items.

One nonprofit taking on a heavier load is Kids Meals Inc., which serves poverty-stricken children across the city.

Normally, the nonprofit delivers about 3,000 meals each weekday to children age 5 and under. The nonprofit recently dropped off nearly 7,000 meals in one day.

To qualify for the program, an individual must have a preschooler in the home and have an income at or below poverty level, which is $26,200 or less for a family of four. In one day, the nonprofit received 200 applications.

People are afraid. Theyre panicking, said the groups CEO, Beth Harp. How am I going to feed my kids?

Harp said the demand for meals rose in part because Houston ISD and the YMCA shut down some food distribution sites temporarily to assess safety protocols. (The district reopened them at five campuses April 6 and the YMCA said it has been providing food since the start of the pandemic, including at a new site that also opened this month).

Parents were running up to a Kids Meal delivery van on its daily route, asking how they could get food service.

Harp said her team is hoping to raise funds so they can hire more drivers and obtain two more vans to serve additional children in need.

Delivery van drivers are wearing masks and gloves to reduce the risk of becoming infected or spreading the virus. Theyre also asking parents and children to keep their distance from vans during food drop-off. As another precaution, the group has split up its staff into two teams, so the same people arent working each day.

Another concern, Harp said, is the sustainability of the food supply.

Well do that for as long as we have food, said Harp. Some of the food sources are drying up, so were doing the best we can with what we have.

The Houston Food Bank, which serves as the main supplier for Kids Meals, is also worried about rising demand.

Normally, the group distributes about 460,000 pounds of food a day, but during the coronavirus crisis, the amount has shot up to 750,000 pounds. Brian Greene, the president and CEO of the food bank, noted that it is still in need of shelf-stable items, which dropped due to people overstocking up at grocery stores.

Itll take the food industry a while to recover from that because, basically, the stocks got depleted, said Greene. They cant just suddenly make it all up in a couple weeks.

Demand for food continues to increase at certain distribution sites as others shut down.

The food bank is also limiting volunteers to comply with social-distancing recommendations. Typically, 200 to 300 people volunteer at a time. Now, theyre relying on about 60 people per shift on a weekday  volunteers who are spread out across the warehouse.

Catholic Charities reported Tuesday that for the last two weeks of March, it took more than 2,400 calls and provided 79,000 pounds of food to nearly 9,000 people using drive-thru distribution.

All of our programs have been up and running without interruption since the coronavirus was first identified as a threat to our community, said Cynthia Colbert, the president of Catholic Charities, in a written statement. What has changed is how were providing help. Our primary concern is protecting the safety of our clients, volunteers and staff while we serve.

The agency also set up a crisis hotline for calls related to the pandemic, 713-874-6521, or email covidassistance@

CatholicCharities.org.

Financial strains

As nonprofits deal with the new realities of a greater need and limits on how they function, many are also feeling a financial pinch.

At the Houston branch of the Salvation Army, staff had to cancel its largest fundraising event of the year this month. A scheduled May event is on hold, as well.

Those (are) our dollars that we all budget for and we count on, said Bell, of the Salvation Army. The community always responds so well, but how do you do that if youre not able (to) have those events in the same fashion or when were all uncertain about the economy  and our own well-being?

The nonprofit is also grappling with how to safely provide shelter to some 450 people, including seniors, children and the homeless. Those who are housed in the shelters are fed three times a day, but now theyre receiving to-go meals instead of being served in a big hall. Communal areas are also off-limits, and people must stay in their individual family rooms to follow social distancing.

People also usually stop by their local Salvation Army branch to find out about services, but because of social distancing recommendations, the nonprofit has redesigned its website to serve as an information hub. Now, people can go to the website to find out about getting groceries dropped off, locating housing, receiving prayer or other services.

West Houston Assistance Ministries is also figuring out new ways to raise money outside of normal events and luncheons.

Brown said he is using social media to help with fundraising, taking part in Facebook Live events and making a documentary about the groups work to raise awareness within the community.

Despite the odds, Bell remains optimistic.

People stand up for each other here, said Bell. I believe that will still be true. I believe that we will be able to get through this together.

Editor's note: This article has been revised to note that the YMCA only temporarily stopped distributing food at certain sites to assess safety protocols.

brooke.lewis@chron.com
As she awaits yet another ruling in her murder case, the future remains in limbo for Brittany Smith, an Alabama woman who says she killed her rapist in self-defense.

The longer this goes on, the longer Im away from my kids, Brittany said in a phone interview this week. The longer my life is still on hold.

Its been more than two years since Brittany was charged with murder  for which she could face up to life in prison, if convicted  in the killing of Todd Smith (no relation) at her home in Stevenson, Alabama.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Jenifer Holt earlier this year declined to dismiss Brittanys case or grant immunity under Alabamas Stand Your Ground self-defense law. Now, the case is in the hands of the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.

[Read more: Alabama woman says she killed her rapist in self-defense. She could spend life in prison.]

New evidence that was shared with Brittanys defense on Monday wont be considered by the appellate court.

Todds DNA has been found on Brittanys fingernail clippings that were taken as evidence shortly after the deadly shooting, said Brittanys defense attorney Ron Smith (no relation). Brittany has testified that she scratched and clawed at Todd, an acquaintance, during the violent assault.

At a Stand Your Ground hearing in January, two years after the shooting, the clippings still hadnt been tested.

Initially, the state forensic lab incorrectly reported that no materials had been found on the clippings. But, after an internal review, an amended report said debris was found on the clippings. Prosecutors and Brittanys defense in January agreed to have the samples tested. The defense received the results on Monday, too late to include in the appeal which was filed March 16.

AL.com obtained a copy of the appeal  whats known as a petition for writ of mandamus  after writing to the judges of the Court of Criminal Appeals. AL.com was initially denied access to the filing, when a court representative cited a rule that prohibits the release of some records regarding sex crimes.

The court agreed to release the records after AL.com argued that the rule didnt apply to Brittanys case, the details of which had already been made public in open court hearings and records, and through Brittanys interviews with news media, including AL.com, The Appeal and The New Yorker.

The Jackson County Courthouse in Scottsboro, Ala., where Brittany Smith has argued that she killed her rapist in self-defense. Circuit Judge Jenifer Holt has granted a motion to put the case on hold while Brittany appeals to a higher court.

In the appellate petition, Brittanys defense attorney has asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to determine whether Judge Holt abused her discretion. In a 22-page appeal, the attorney argued that the Court should order Holt to dismiss Brittanys murder case and grant immunity under Stand Your Ground. That would end the case and let Brittany walk free.

Jason Pierce, the Jackson County District Attorney, who is prosecuting Brittanys case, declined to comment.

Alabamas Stand Your Ground law outlines circumstances in which a person is legally justified in using deadly force against another person. In Brittanys case, her attorneys have said she was justified in killing Todd because he was committing a burglary and because he was using or about to use unlawful physical force. Both of those are justifications under Stand Your Ground.

Brittany shot and killed a man who was in the process of attacking her brother, the petition says. This was the same man who had strangled, beaten and raped her only hours earlier.

The deadly shooting happened during the early morning hours of Jan. 16, 2018 in the kitchen of Brittanys home in Stevenson.

At a Stand Your Ground hearing earlier this year, Brittany testified that she fatally shot Todd while he was holding her brother, Chris McCallie, in a headlock and threatening to kill them all. McCallie was at the house to confront Todd, who was accused of raping, strangling and assaulting Brittany earlier in the night.

The night before the shooting, Brittany agreed to let Todd sleep on her couch because he called her from a park in a nearby Tennessee town and said he was stranded in the snow.

During a conversation in the living room, Brittany later testified, Todd became violent. Brittany testified that Todd chased her into the bedroom where he choked her to the point of unconsciousness and raped her.

A nurse documented more than 30 injuries  including bruises, bite marks and signs of strangulation  on Brittanys body during a rape kit examination. Brittany had been strangled, hit multiple times and held down, the sexual assault nurse examiner Jeanine Suermann concluded.

Despite that evidence and testimony, Judge Holt ruled that Brittany hadnt credibly shown that she acted in defense of herself or her brother.

The defendant had many opportunities to seek protection from Todd if she was afraid he was going to kill or harm her, the judge wrote. " She could have alerted the deputy that was in MAPCO. She could have called the police. She could have called 911.

Brittany went to a nearby gas station during the time between when she says Todd assaulted her and the deadly shooting, according to court testimony. The judge saw a note that Brittany slipped to the clerk that night. Brittany wrote down Todds name and said he had raped her, the clerk testified. Brittanys neck was red, there appeared to be blood on her chin, and her finger was bloody from a broken nail, said the clerk, Paige Painter, under oath.

Brittany testified that she asked the clerk not to call for help because Todd had threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the rape.

The Mapco store in Stevenson, Ala., where Brittany Smith passed a note to the clerk on the night of the deadly shooting.

The judge also took issue with inconsistent accounts of the situation, such as a 911 call in which Brittany said she had not been raped and the initial report that her brother, McCallie, was the shooter. In her testimony, Brittany said she didnt remember the call, likely because she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Suermann, the sexual assault nurse examiner testified that confusion is a common reaction to trauma. In the months after the shooting, Brittany suffered a mental breakdown in jail and was sent to the Alabama Department of Mental Health to regain competency.

In the appellate petition, Brittanys lawyer cited case law which says a judge cant disregard testimony just because it comes from the accused. The defense attorney also wrote in the appeal that the judge cant wholly ignore undisputed testimony.

...the state offered no evidence to rebut Brittanys testimony that Todd was attacking her brother and choking him at the time of the shooting and that she only acted in defense of her self and her brother, the appeal states.

The appeal also says Judge Holt made findings of fact that are not supported by the record.

Holt wrote in her order that McCallie fired his revolver once and placed it on the kitchen counter before Brittany took the gun and fatally shot Todd. The judge concluded that McCallie didnt believe deadly force was necessary.

This finding is based purely on speculation, Brittanys lawyer wrote in the petition. There was no testimony indicating how the revolver ended up on the kitchen counter, and McCallie didnt testify in court.

In her ruling, Holt also discounted the defenses argument that Brittany was justified in killing Todd because he was committing a burglary, which according to Alabama law, includes remaining on a persons property with the intent to commit a crime.

The judge wrote in her ruling that Todd had Brittanys permission to be in the home. But, Brittany testified that she and her brother told Todd to leave.

Further, any permission to stay in the home would certainly have been revoked after the initial attack on Brittany, and even more so after the subsequent suffocation of Chris, the appeal says.

Brittanys attorney wrote that Judge Holts ruling should be overturned because the majority of the evidence proves that Brittany was justified in killing Todd. To be granted immunity, Brittany needed to show that a preponderance of the evidence  more than half  proved she acted in defense of herself or her brother.

The evidence in this case is undisputed that Brittany was physically assaulted by Todd, the appeal says. The evidence is also undisputed that Todd and Chris were fighting in Brittanys home immediately prior to the shooting. The great weigh of the evidence also clearly showed that Todd Smith had committed the act of strangulation/suffocation upon Brittany and was also choking Chris when he was shot.

Its unclear how long it could take for the court of criminal appeals to rule. On average, mandamus petitions are decided by the Court of Criminal Appeals within about three-six months.

Brittany said shes hopeful now that her case is in the hands of a court outside Jackson County.

But Brittany worries if the appellate court doesnt rule in her favor, it could be months longer before she gets a trial. With courthouses around Alabama closed because of the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, trial dockets are on hold and falling farther and farther behind schedule.

Brittany Smith's Stand Your Ground explainer Brittany Smith is charged with murder for killing Todd Smith in 2018 after she says he raped her and was threatening to kill her family. Now, shes up facing life in prison. Posted by al.com on Thursday, February 6, 2020

While indicted for murder, Brittany cant spend time with her four children, get a job, move into a new home or travel out of state. Shes out on bail and living in northeast Alabama, just south of the Tennessee state line. Family members, including her ailing father, live on the other side.

I just want this to be over, Brittany told AL.com by phone this week. Even though things take a long time, we cant give up hope.
HOLYOKE  U.S. Army Air Corps veteran John J. MacKay survived the Burma Theater during World War II, went on to marry and have five daughters, and spent most of his career as a beloved high school guidance counselor in a hilltown in Western Massachusetts.

Now, just a month shy of his 100th birthday, family members say he is fighting for his life and fear he is virtually alone in the battle.

MacKay is among dozens of veterans confined to the Soldiers Home in Holyoke who have contracted the novel coronavirus. Family members are gripped with mounting concern as the number of confirmed cases among residents and staff climbs and the death toll rises.

Relatives say they have been stymied by a family hotline number that often rings with no answer, and newly introduced state caseworkers unable to provide detailed updates on his condition as MacKay shuttles between the Soldiers Home and Holyoke Medical Center.

He remains among the living, but his family feels his life hangs in the balance in an unsettled management landscape  and as information becomes harder and harder to come by.

Its the not knowing thats absolutely mind-boggling. We cant get to him, so hes in this alone, said Betsy Crupi, of Scituate, one of MacKays four surviving daughters.

The latest figures provided from the state: 22 veterans have died in recent weeks, with 18 testing positive for the virus; an additional 65 of the roughly 200 residents were also infected. Meanwhile, 67 staff have tested positive  an increase from 18 on Sunday. Another 210 tested negative.

The Soldiers Home, one of two state-run nursing homes for veterans, is among a number of assisted living facilities and nursing homes nationwide that have been pummeled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first to make headlines was the Life Care Center outside Seattle, which yielded 37 deaths and now faces a $600,000 fine for mishandling the outbreak.

The Holyoke Soldiers Home has historically been a respected veterans and elder care facility since opening in 1952, with a long waiting list for its nursing care wing. However, Superintendent Bennett Walsh was put on paid leave in the wake of the outbreak, facing accusations he was slow to react to the first diagnosis on March 21, and that initially kept state and local officials in the dark.

Walsh denied those allegations in a public statement two days after the outbreak came to light, calling them outrageous.

Interim administrators and workers from the states Executive Office of Health and Human Services swept in about a week ago, but MacKays family say they dont feel the level of care, attention or communication with relatives paralyzed with worry has improved.

Susan Regensburger, a retired schoolteacher from Westfield, is one of MacKays middle daughters. She has struggled to monitor her fathers plight from a resort in Mexico, where she and her husband spend every winter. In every practical sense, they have become reluctantly trapped in a tropical paradise by border closings and travel restrictions. They are among about a dozen guests allowed to remain on the premises at a timeshare in Playa del Carmen.

Regensburger said her family was thrilled when her father gained entrance to the Soldiers Home in 2016. Her mother had died three years before while the couple were living together at Providence Place, an independent living community in Holyoke. The couple were so close that family members feared MacKay would not survive long without his wife of more than 60 years.

But MacKay thrived at the Soldiers Home, she said  he was up early for meals, engaged in activities and a staff favorite.

There was never that terrible odor there that most nursing homes have. The staff was wonderful. ... They loved him like he was their own family member. ... I had no complaints. He had no complaints. He was very happy there, Regensburger said. This just feels surreal.

At 99, her father still dresses himself each morning as if he is going to work at his former job as a Gateway Regional High School guidance counselor.

Im talking corduroys, a button-up shirt. Some days hell go for the sport coat and a tie," Regensburger recounted.

While Walsh said in his only public statement that the facility called each family with news of the first coronavirus diagnosis on March 21, Regensburger said she didnt hear of the percolating crisis until a friend texted her after reading a news article. She asked how MacKay was doing. Regensburger responded that she speaks to her father nearly every day and thought he was fine.

I called the nurses station immediately, and they said: Yes, we have two cases. The paper said one, but they said two. And she said they werent on my fathers floor, Regensburger recalled.

Since then, she said it has been rather difficult to get information. Her father was transferred to a new room with three other patients, so his phone line has been disconnected. A staffer set up a Zoom video call last week, but herself fell ill. The family hotline often went unanswered last week, according to MacKays daughters.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged the family hotline became overwhelmed and the state sent in reinforcements on Monday.

A clinical team comprised of an additional nurse case manager and care coordinators was deployed to provide immediate support for family communications at the Holyoke Soldiers Home, said Brooke Karanovich, a spokeswoman for that state agency, which oversees the facility.

During this COVID-19 outbreak, families are understandably very eager to receive frequent updates about their loved ones. The voicemail box for the hotline is listened to and cleared daily, and family members who leave voicemails receive a call about their veteran resident, Karanovich added. This ongoing support has also allowed staff time to make proactive calls to health care proxies to give updates on veteran residents.

As the crisis continued to bloom, patients were separated between the sick and the well. MacKay was taken to Holyoke Medical Center, where well patients were being quarantined and critically ill patients were being treated.

Her father found himself in a difficult limbo. He fell in neither category after having tested positive on April 2.

To complicate matters, a do not resuscitate order had been put in place by MacKays family, after another relative had languished on life support for years after a stroke. For that reason, MacKay was transferred back to the Soldiers Home over the weekend, according to Regensburger.

The DNR was not in place for that reason. We just didnt want him to be connected to a machine for years if he became a vegetable after a stroke or something, she said.

She and her husband, MacKays health care proxy, rescinded that order, and MacKay went back to Holyoke Medical Center on Monday. Michael Regensburger said he spoke with a physician in the emergency room, who said his father-in-law wasnt symptomatic enough for an admission, with oxygen levels in the low 90s. MacKay appeared to be fighting the virus off on his own, the doctor said.

Michael Regensburger said they were advised by staff not to have a barrage of separate family members calling the hotline, and to appoint the health care proxy as a single point of contact.

I called this morning, and explained to them that I didnt expect to have a long conversation with them and Id be very concise, so as not to offer them an excuse not to call me back, he said. Once someone called me back hours later, he identified himself as a caseworker and said my father-in-laws condition had not changed ... but it had, significantly. His oxygen levels had dropped into the 80s.

Im just so upset about him potentially dying alone," Susan Regensburger said. This is criminal, I think ... and I never thought those words would come out of my mouth about the Holyoke Soldiers Home.

Related Content:
You are here: China















Speakers:



Jiang Fan, first-level inspector of the Department of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Commerce

Jin Hai, chief of the Department of General Operation at the General Administration of Customs

Liu Weijun, head of the Department of Certification Regulation at the State Administration for Market Regulation

Zhang Qi, deputy head of the Department of Medical Device Regulation at the National Medical Products Administration

Chairperson:

Mi Feng, spokesperson of the National Health Commission

Date:

April 5, 2020
BAMAKO (Reuters) - Unidentified gunmen killed 25 soldiers and wounded six others in an attack in the Gao region of northern Mali on Monday morning, army spokesman Diarran Kone told Reuters. No other details were available

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Unidentified gunmen killed 25 soldiers and wounded six others in an attack in the Gao region of northern Mali on Monday morning, army spokesman Diarran Kone told Reuters.

No other details were available. Northern Mali is under siege from armed jihadist groups with links to Islamic State and al Qaeda that have carried out frequent deadly attacks on the military in recent years.

(Reporting By Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Chris Reese)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.


By Joschka Fischer





BERLIN  The asteroid has hit, and suddenly everything has changed. But the asteroid that has crashed into our planet is invisible. One needs a microscope, rather than a telescope, to see it.







With COVID-19, the world faces several crises in one: a global health crisis has triggered crises in the economy, civil society, and daily life. It remains to be seen whether political instability will follow, either within countries or internationally. But, clearly, the pandemic has drastically changed life as we know it. While the end of the crisis and its consequences can't be predicted, certain significant changes can be anticipated.







The crisis is not just complex, far-reaching, and threatening to the foundations of individual societies and the global economy. It is also many times more dangerous and extensive than the 2008 global financial crisis. Unlike that episode, the coronavirus threatens millions of lives around the world, and its effects on the economy are not centered in only one sector.







Around the world, most economic activity has been frozen, setting the stage for a global recession. Apart from the death toll and the stability of health systems, the big question right now is how severe the economic downturn will be, and what permanent consequences it will have.







Similarly, we can only guess what effects the virus will have on already-fragile regions, and particularly on refugee camps. Iran seems to be heading for a major humanitarian crisis, in which the poorest and most vulnerable will be the most affected. Beyond that, it is still too early for any remotely realistic assessment of COVID-19's humanitarian consequences.







But past experience tells us that major shocks such as this do tend to disrupt political systems and international relations. Western democracies, in particular, may find their governance called into question. The principles of human rights may be pitted against economic imperatives. The pandemic also invites a generational conflict between young and old, and between authoritarianism and liberal democracy.







And yet an alternative scenario is possible, in which the COVID-19 crisis gives rise to a new solidarity. Lest we forget, an earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean in December 2004 created the conditions for ending the civil war in Aceh, North Sumatra.







In the short term, the countries most affected by the pandemic will become crisis economies: Governments will pursue enormous levels of spending and other unconventional measures to prevent a total collapse. The effectiveness of the response remains to be seen. But it is clear that the relationship between the economy and the state will undergo a fundamental change.







In a marked departure from the prevailing wisdom of recent decades, we are already witnessing the return of "big government." Everyone is looking to the state to inject huge sums of money into the economy, and to rescue (or take over) imperiled companies and sectors that are deemed essential. The state's massively increased role will have to be scaled back after the crisis has passed, but how to do so is up for debate. Ideally, governments will transfer the returns that come from re-privatization into a sovereign wealth fund, thus giving the public a share in the post-crisis settlement.







Until then, "big government"  whether the European Commission or national authorities  will be expected to prepare for the next disaster. Rather than being caught completely off guard again, it will need to ensure the provision of as essential medical supplies, personal protective equipment, disinfectants, adequate laboratory capacity, intensive-care units, and so forth.







But that isn't all. The stability, efficiency, capacity, and costs of existing health-care systems will remain a salient issue. The COVID-19 crisis has shown that it isn't really possible to privatize health care. In fact, public health is a basic public good, and a critical factor in strategic security.







There will also be increased, sustained attention to the pharmaceutical sector, particularly the domestic provision of critical drugs and development of new ones. Many countries will no longer be willing to rely on international supply chains that can easily break down in an emergency.







This is not to suggest that the market economy will be abolished. But the state absolutely will assert itself vis-a-vis the business community, at least when it comes to strategic issues. For example, the crisis will invite a major policy push for digital sovereignty in Europe. Its model will not be that of authoritarian China, but that of democratic South Korea, which has established a digital edge.







So far, however, the EU has not played a prominent role in the global response to COVID-19. This is not surprising. In existential crises, people tend to revert to what they know best, and what they know best is the nation-state. But while Europe's nation-states certainly can play an immediate crisis-management role, they cannot resolve the crisis.







After all, the single market, the joint currency, and the European Central Bank are the only mechanisms that can prevent an economic collapse and enable an eventual recovery in Europe. The COVID-19 crisis is thus likely to force Europeans "ever closer" together, requiring even deeper solidarity.







What is the alternative? A return to the world where everyone fends for themselves? For EU member-state governments, that would amount to political and economic suicide.







The COVID-19 pandemic is the first crisis of the 21st century that truly affects all of humankind. But more crises will follow, and they will not all come in the form of a virus. Indeed, the fast-forward crisis we are now experiencing is a preview of what is yet to come if we do not address climate change.







The only way to manage generalized threats to humanity is through more intensive cooperation and coordination among governments and multilateral institutions. To name but one, the World Health Organization  and the United Nations more generally  must be strengthened at all costs. COVID-19 is a reminder that all eight billion of us are in the same boat.







).







Joschka Fischer, Germany's foreign minister and vice chancellor from 1998 to 2005, was a leader of the German Green Party for almost 20 years. His commentary was distributed by Project Syndicate ( www.project-syndicate.org
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 20:00:29|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said Tuesday it has approved a plan to build an innovation center for the research and development of new rare earths materials.

The innovation center will focus on the R&D and manufacturing of new rare earths materials and high-tech rare earths functional materials, MIIT said in a statement on its website.

MIIT did not say where the innovation center will be headquartered but said it will be operated by the Guorui Sci-tech Rare-earth Functional Materials Co., which was jointly formed by 16 entities, including the country's two rare earths giants, universities and scientific research institutes.

The company, with a registered capital of 100 million yuan (about 14.08 million U.S. dollars), was registered in the city of Baotou in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, one of the country's rare earths mining bases, according to the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.

China is one of the world's major suppliers of rare earths, a group of 17 elements that are widely used in high-tech products ranging from flat-screen TVs to lasers and hybrid cars. The country has been striving to develop its downstream rare earths industries and boost the high-quality development of the rare earths sector.
This is the heartwarming moment a coronavirus survivor was greeted by a chorus of applause as she left a Texas hospital after 16 days of treatment.

A video filmed from inside St David's South Austin Medical Center shows the 44-year-old woman being pushed out of an elevator in a wheelchair by a carer on Thursday.

As she emerges into the lobby the patient is surprised to see the area decorated with celebratory bunting and dozens of nurses clapping for her exit.

'Thank you,' she says, waving. 'Oh my goodness.'

The woman was finally leaving after 10 days on a ventilator.

Video filmed from inside St David's South Austin Medical Center shows the 44-year-old woman leaving on Thursday to a huge round of applause

In the clip shared online, the patient's reaction is disguised by her medical mask but it's clear she is overwhelmed about the reception she got from staff when leaving the hospital.

She pinches the top of her mask at her nose while a medical worker rubs her shoulder to comfort her.

As she makes it outside, another team member thanks the woman whose life they helped save.

'Thank you so much for trusting us with your care,' the woman says from the behind the camera. 'Wish you a speedy recovery, let us know if there's anything we can do for you. Take care of yourself.'

As she emerges into the lobby the patient is surprised to see the area decorated with celebratory bunting and dozens of nurses clapping for her exit

She is overwhelmed about the reception she got from staff when leaving the hospital. But the patient's reaction is disguised by her medical mask

'OK I will. Thank you,' the patient replies as she is led to her transfer.

The patient has not been named but gave the hospital permission to share clips.

The woman went into the facility in the middle of March after developing cough and a fever.

In a Lancet Respiratory Medicine study out of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, only three in 22 patients (15 percent) who had invasive mechanical ventilation survived.

However this patient was sitting up and feeding herself Jell-O and chips one day after her breathing tube was removed.

The woman is seen holding back tears after staff wish her well and thank her for trusting them

Above shows the number of coronavirus cases and death in the US as of Tuesday, as well as the country's hotspots
Amaravati, April 7 : In a bit of a relief for Andhra Pradesh, only one new case was reported from the tests conducted overnight in the state.

As per the media bulletin issued by the state nodal officer on Tuesday morning, one sample tested positive in the tests conducted between 6 p.m. on Monday and 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

The lone case was reported from Guntur district. With this AP's tally of COVID-19 patients has climbed to 304.

On Monday morning, Andhra had reported 14 new cases, while in the evening the state had reported 37 new cases.

The spike has been attributed to the return of hundreds of people to the state from Delhi, after they had attended the Tablighi Jamaat between March 15-17. Most of these people returned by March 20 and many of them were found to have contracted the virus from foreign participants at the Delhi congregation. By Monday morning, of the 266 positive cases in the state, 243 cases were found to be Tablighi Jamaatis.

On Tuesday, the state nodal officer also confirmed that the death, on April 3, of a Kurnool man is also due to COVID-19. With this, the death toll in the state stands at 4.
By SCOTT BAUER and STEVE PEOPLES Associated Press

MADISON, Wis.  Thousands of Wisconsin voters waited hours in line to cast ballots and the National Guard staffed overcrowded polling stations on Tuesday, straining the states ability to hold a presidential primary election in the grip of an escalating pandemic.

At the same time, many voters said they did not receive their requested absentee ballots and, unwilling to violate a stay-at-home order to vote in person, accepted their votes would not be counted.

Some Twitter users Oregon, where vote-by-mail is a well-established two-decade tradition, went ballistic, noting that casting a ballot should not be a life-endangering activity in an advanced democracy.

A woman in Wisconsin said this of today's vote: I have a father dying from lung disease and I have to risk my life and his just to exercise my right to vote.



It is unconscionable that people are being forced to make this choice. https://t.co/ECKtctpgXD  Suzanne Bonamici (@RepBonamici) April 7, 2020

"We have moved forward with an election, but we have not moved forward with democracy in the state of Wisconsin," warned Neil Albrecht, executive director of the Milwaukee election commission.

The states largest city opened just five of its 180 traditional polling places. It was forced to downsize after hundreds of poll workers stepped down because of health risks. The resulting logjam forced voters to wait together in lines spanning several blocks in some cases. Many did not have facial coverings.

The chaos in Wisconsin, a premiere general-election battleground, underscored the lengths to which the coronavirus outbreak has upended politics as Democrats seek a nominee to take on President Donald Trump this fall. As the first state to hold a presidential primary contest in three weeks, Wisconsin becomes a test case for dozens of states struggling to balance public health concerns with voting rights in the turbulent 2020 election season.

Joe Biden hopes the state will help deliver a knockout blow against Bernie Sanders in the nomination fight, but the winner of Tuesday's contest may be less significant than Wisconsin's decision to allow voting at all. Its ability to host an election during a growing pandemic could have significant implications for upcoming primaries and even the fall general election.

Results were not expected Tuesday night. A court ruling appeared to prevent results from being made public earlier than next Monday.

Democrats in and out of Wisconsin screamed for the contest to be postponed, yet Republicans  and the conservative-majority state Supreme Court  would not give in. The fight over whether to postpone the election, as more than a dozen states have done, was colored by a state Supreme Court election also being held Tuesday. A lower turnout was thought to benefit the conservative candidate.

There were particular concerns that minority voters, who tend to live in the areas with the most significant wait times and the highest health risks, were disproportionately affected.

Lest there be any doubt about the GOP's motivation, Trump on Tuesday broke from health experts who have encouraged all Americans to stay home by calling on his supporters to show up for the conservative judicial candidate.

"Wisconsin, get out and vote NOW for Justice Daniel Kelly. Protect your 2nd Amendment!" Trump tweeted.

Sanders said that holding the election was "dangerous" and "may very well prove deadly." He did not encourage his supporters to vote in person. Biden has largely avoided discussion of the Wisconsin contest in recent days, instructing his supporters only to "follow the science."

Wisconsin has reported more than 2,500 coronavirus infections and 92 related deaths  49 of them in Milwaukee County, where the voting lines were longest.

Poll worker Patty Piek-Groth, left, helps fellow poll worker Jerry Moore, center, put on a mask to prevent the spread of coronavirus, as the polls open for the presidential primary election at the Janesville Mall in Janesville, Wis., on Tuesday. Hundreds of voters in Wisconsin are waiting in line to cast ballots at polling places for the state's presidential primary election, ignoring a stay-at-home order over the coronavirus threat. (Angela Major/The Janesville Gazette via AP)AP

The unprecedented challenge created a chaotic scenes across the state  and a variety of health risks for voters and the elected officials who fought to keep polls open.

They included Robin Vos, the Republican speaker of the state Assembly, who joined more than 2,500 National Guard troops dispatched to help staff voting stations. While many voters stranded in lines for more than an hour did not have any protective equipment, Vos donned a face mask, safety glasses, gloves and a full protective gown.

In Madison, city workers erected Plexiglas barriers to protect poll workers, and voters were encouraged to bring their own pens to mark the ballots.

State GOP Chairman Andrew Hitt downplayed the health concerns: "This isn't New York City."

He noted that Wisconsin residents are still going to the grocery store, the liquor store and even boating stores classified as essential businesses. "I can't really think of something more essential than voting," he said.

As of midday Tuesday, most voting sites in Milwaukee were reporting wait times between one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half hours, according to Albrecht. Lines stretched several blocks outside buildings as workers tried to maintain social distancing recommendations that everyone stand at least six feet apart.

Tens of thousands of voters who received absentee ballots had not returned them as of Tuesday, Albrecht said, noting that his office received hundreds of calls from people who didn't get an absentee ballot or were concerned theirs hadn't been delivered to election officials.

Hannah Gleeson, 34, who works in an assisted-living center in Milwaukee, was hoping Tuesday's mail would bring the absentee ballot that she requested last week. Voting in person is not an option for Gleeson, who is in quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19. She is also 17 weeks pregnant.

"It seems really unfair and undemocratic and unconstitutional, obviously," said Gleeson, who described herself as liberal. "I think it's voter suppression at its finest."

On the eve of the election, it was unclear whether in-person voting would happen at all.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers issued an executive order Monday afternoon to postpone the election. Less than four hours later, the state Supreme Court sided with Republicans who said Evers didn't have the authority to reschedule the race on his own.

Conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court quickly followed with a 5-4 ruling that overturned a lower court's decision expanding absentee voting.

Evers himself had questioned whether he had the power to reschedule the election, but said the worsening situation, including an increase in COVID-19 deaths, made clear there was no way to safely move forward. The first-term Democrat said he sought the delay because he was motivated by protecting public health, not politics.

With the U.S. Supreme Court decision, voters were given no extra time for absentee voting. The court said absentee ballots must be hand-delivered by Tuesday evening or postmarked by Tuesday, although they can arrive at clerks' offices as late as Monday. Wisconsin election officials said the high court's order left intact a provision of the lower-court order that no returns be reported until that day.

Meanwhile, voters shared what one called an "eerie" experience at the polls.

Christopher Sullivan, a 35-year-old high school business teacher from western Wisconsin, said two police officers greeted voters outside of his polling site in Holmen. Inside, two members of the county health department instructed him to wash his hands in a makeshift sink.

In another room, Sullivan was told to take one of the pens on a table spaced 6 inches apart and not give it back. He was given his ballot by "an elderly lady wearing a mask and gloves sitting behind a glass wall."

"I have voted many times in my life (and at this location) and have never experienced something so eerie," Sullivan said.

___

Peoples reported from Montclair, New Jersey. AP writers Gretchen Ehlke and Carrie Antlfinger in Milwaukee, and Amy Forliti in Minneapolis contributed.
Whatsapp is finally cracking down on fake viral messages that spread made-up rumours about the pandemic.

The Facebook-owned service will limit everyones ability to send highly forwarded messages. From now on, well only be able to share such messages or videos with one person or group at a time, instead of five at a time.

The move is to slow the spread of misinformation, a Whatsapp Ireland spokeswoman said.

We believe its important to slow the spread of these messages. Weve seen a significant increase in the amount of forwarding which users have told us can feel overwhelming and can contribute to the spread of misinformation.

Read More

Three weeks ago, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had to appeal to the nation to stop forwarding unfounded rumours related to Covid-19 measures on Whatsapp.

These messages are scaring and confusing people and causing real damage, he said. Please get your info from official, trusted sources.

Whatsapp messages are private and encrypted, meaning that Facebook  which owns Whatsapp  cannot see what is being sent.

However, it can detect when a message has been forwarded many times.

Previous misinformation on Whatsapp in Ireland included a mass-circulated Whatsapp message claimed that an Irish hospital was treating young patients for Covid-19 whose symptoms were exacerbated by taking anti-inflammatory drugs. The message was disowned by the hospital and medical authorities.

Other fake Whatsapp messages claimed that army officials were to take to the streets to enforce the lockdown.

Whatsapp messages are encrypted, meaning the company cannot monitor what is being said in them. However, it does use some technology in other ways to limit it virality.

It also says that it has advanced machine learning technology which identifies and bans accounts engaging in bulk or automated messaging, claiming that it bans two million accounts from WhatsApp per month, 75 percent of them without a recent user report.
When the Michigan legislature last convened session three weeks ago, it was nearly business as usual at the Michigan Capitol, albeit with more aggressive cleaning, social distancing measures and fewer onlookers.

On Tuesday, lawmakers and members of the public entering the Capitol for session went through a temperature check and screening for COVID-19 symptoms at the door.

The House and Senate convened session Tuesday to approve a 23-day extension of Gov. Gretchen Whitmers initial state of emergency declaration, extending the order through April 30. The Senate approved the resolution in a voice vote Tuesday morning, and the House did the same later that afternoon after an hours-long attendance process.

Not everyone was in attendance, although both the House and Senate achieved a quorum.

Only lawmakers, the presiding officer and essential staff were present on the floor at any given time, and many wore face masks and gloves. In the House, lawmakers came in one at a time to take attendance in a chamber that holds well over 100 people on a normal session day.

Signs of COVID-19 were everywhere, from the hand sanitizer stations to the Everybody vs. COVID-19 shirt Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist wore as he presided over the Senate.

In his invocation, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, blessed Michigan residents and lawmakers as we wrestle with very important, life-threatening, incredibly challenging decisions.

Ahead of session, there was disagreement over how long the state of emergency should be extended without additional legislative review, as well as whether a 23-day extension of the initial order was even necessary.

Whitmer and legislative Democrats contend a followup April 1 order from Whitmer that put a state of disaster in place runs through April 29, making a short extension of the initial emergency unnecessary.

These are legislators that come from all parts of our state, so to congregate and go back to all parts of the state is contrary to all the best advice were getting from epidemiologists, Whitmer said during a Monday morning press conference.

An effort from Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich to amend the resolution and extend the state of emergency the requested 70 days was rejected. Many Republicans, including Shirkey, have said 70 days is too long to proceed without legislative review.

Although the Capitol was quieter than usual without lobbyists, tour groups or many other public onlookers, several protesters were present to share their concerns about the ongoing stay-at-home order.

Toting signs bearing messages like More will die from economic fallout than COVID-19! and My freedom is essential," members of the group walked around in front of the Capitol, keeping social distancing with the help of measuring tape.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops) and when you go into places like stores.

Complete coverage of coronavirus in Michigan.

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(TNS)  Police across Minnesota are asking state authorities to share the location of people infected with COVID-19 with them to prevent the virus' spread among first responders and the public.The state's three largest professional law enforcement associations  the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, the Minnesota Sheriffs Association and the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association  appealed directly to Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm."Sadly, each day our associations are receiving more reports of peace officers testing positive for the virus, presenting symptoms of COVID-19 or self-quarantining after coming in contact with Minnesotans on routine calls-for-service," the three groups jointly wrote Malcolm in an April 1 letter. "More troubling perhaps is the fact that law enforcement could have essential healthcare information that would allow them to better prepare for these encounters, limit their exposure to the deadly virus and contain the spread of COVID-19 in our communities."Andy Skoogman, executive director of the police chiefs association, said Monday that a statewide survey last week of all police and sheriffs offices yielded 229 responses.Of the agencies reporting, 15% had officers who self-quarantined with COVID-19 symptoms. About 10% said that was due to officers coming into contact with someone who tested positive for the virus or someone awaiting test results, Skoogman said.Exact numbers were not available, including actual infections among officers, but at least two St. Paul police officers have been infected.Department of Health officials could not be immediately reached for comment.Skoogman said the groups have not heard back from Malcolm's office or Gov. Tim Walz, who was copied on the letter."We're collectively concerned about the safety of police officers when they come in contact with citizens and also concerned about officers unknowingly spreading the COVID-19 virus in communities across the state," Skoogman said.The groups, representing more than 300 police chiefs, 87 county sheriffs and about 10,400 officers, are asking the department of health to share COVID-19 infection locations so they can take precautions in responding to calls at the addresses and manage the use of limited protective gear."Unfortunately, we don't have enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), gloves, masks, etc., to suit up properly for every call," Skoogman said.The letter included a copy of a memo from the Ohio health commissioner authorizing sharing such information with first responders, and highlighted recommendations from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights The federal recommendations said that patient privacy protections allowed divulging information about COVID-19 infections to first responders for a number of reasons: to prevent spread of the disease, "when first responders may be at risk of infection" and to lessen the threat to public health, among others."Most frustrating of all is the fact that your agency has the authority to release such information but is refusing to do so," said the groups' letter.Skoogman said that Wisconsin, Virginia and Florida are other states sharing the information with first responders.The three professional associations are in ongoing conversations with Minnesota Commissioner of Public Safety John Harrington about the issue, Skoogman said."[Harrington] has told us that discussions are taking place, but as each day passes, we're becoming more and more concerned," he said.State Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, wrote Malcolm on April 3 supporting the groups' effort."Due to limited information available to them, they must face the extremely likely possibility of being infected by making the critical decision to don garments and masks for their own protection for nearly every call," Limmer wrote.Limmer, chair of the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee and the Legislative Commission on Data Practices, said state law allows the department of health to share location information in some circumstances."We understand there are [privacy] concerns, however, we're confident we can work with officials from the health community to create procedures that will protect this data," Skoogman said.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Former Vice President Joe Biden snagged arguably the biggest Democratic endorsement in the state Tuesday as Sen. Sherrod Brown threw his support behind the presidential hopeful.

Brown, who flirted with running for president himself, said he planned to stay out of the race until the primary was over. But with a worsening economy and the coronavirus outbreak growing, Brown said Biden offered the best choice for leadership during crisis.

"Dignity of Work isn't a slogan  it's who we are, and how we govern; Joe Biden understands that, Brown said in a statement. And as we face both a public health crisis and an economy in turmoil, we need a steady hand more than ever. Joe Biden has the experience, the tenacity, and the empathy to lead in a crisis, and the hope to bring us together, and steer us toward brighter days ahead."

Browns endorsement solidifies support for Biden among most of Ohios top elected Democrats who view Biden as the most competitive candidate to take on Republican President Donald Trump in November. Reps. Marcia Fudge of Warrensville Heights, Marcy Kaptur of Toledo and Tim Ryan of Niles  who also ran for president  have all backed Biden in the primary.

Brown, a vocal critic of Trumps, has the potential to be a powerful surrogate for Biden as the standard bearer for Democrats in the state.

In 2018, the senator won re-election against then-Rep. Jim Renacci, a Republican and Trumps hand-picked candidate after former Treasurer Josh Mandel dropped out, during what was otherwise an across-the-board victory by Ohio Republicans at the top of the ballot.

Ohios March 17 primary election was already trending toward Biden when it was abruptly postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. The Legislature moved the date to April 28, canceling in-person voting in favor of a vote-by-mail ballot.

A March 26 poll of Ohio voters from Baldwin Wallace University, Oakland University and Ohio Northern University showed Biden as the favorite over Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the primary.

Biden trailed Trump in a hypothetical general election matchup in the state by 4 percentage points. Trump won Ohio in 2016 by 8 percentage points.

Read more cleveland.com politics coverage:

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Shimla, April 7 : Four more members of the Tablighi Jamaat, who returned from the congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz in March, have tested positive for the coronavirus in Himachal Pradesh, taking their total number to 11.

A health official on Tuesday said with the four new cases, the total number of positive cases rose to 18. One patient has been discharged.

He said 11 swab samples of the Tablighi Jamaat members belonging to Chamba's Tissa region were collected. Out of these four tested positive on Monday.

Making the law stringent to prevent the virus spread, the state has made a provision to book the corona patients for attempt to murder if they spit on someone.

"And in case any person gets infected thus and dies of COVID-19, a case of murder would be registered against the accused patient," Director General of Police S.R. Mardi said.

He had warned that concealing such information, especially by members of the Tablighi Jamaat after return from Nizamuddin, would lead to a criminal case on attempt to murder or murder charge.

The state has also prohibited the sale and use of chewing gum for three months.
HEALTH Minister Simon Harris has reassured children that he has given the Easter bunny permission to work this weekend.

The Health Minister took to social media to make the important announcement after receiving a flood of letters from concerned youngsters querying if they will receive their Easter eggs.

Mr Harris said he has referred the issue to the country's top health care professionals who have given the Easter bunny the go ahead to make the special deliveries.

However, the Easter bunny must comply with all HSE guidelines regarding social distancing and regular hand washing.

"Important news for children: Many of you contacted me and asked me to if the Easter Bunny was allowed work this weekend. I have checked with our top doctors and the good news is he can," Mr Harris wrote.

"But he has been contacted to remind him about washing his hands regularly and keeping his distance."

The announcement comes as companies are working to donate Easter eggs to frontline staff and health care professionals across the country.

Charity Feed The Heroes have delivered 21,000 Easter eggs to frontline workers across Ireland today, as well as 36,000 meals.

A national fundraising effort set up by the charity to raise money to provide frontline workers with nutritious meals has raised over 754,000.

More than 36,000 meals have been delivered nationwide across Covid-10 testing centres, contact tracing units, paramedic services, fire brigade and Gardai.

Irish businesses such as Microsoft Ireland, KSG and Connection Logistics Ltd, and local restaurants, takeaways and catering facilities joined the effort to deliver 2,700 meals weekly to Microbiology Departments in Dublin Hospitals in the weeks ahead while Avolon is supplying 160 meals a day for five days every other seven.

Mars Ireland and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Ireland have also team up with the Feed The Heroes to deliver over 21,000 Mars Ireland Easter Eggs to health care workers across the country.

Meanwhile, a nursing home in Co Cork yesterday were surprised with a special Easter treat as local gardai took time out of policing duties today to deliver chocolate eggs to residents.

Elderly residents and staff at Cramers Court Nursing Home in Belgooly, Kinsale, Co Cork, were thrilled to see a group of community gardai show up with a batch of Easter Eggs and a special delivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), donated by Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Activities co-ordinator at Cramers Court Nursing Home, Teresa ODonovan said the delivery lifted the spirits of all 66 residents at a time where family visits are restricted due to the ongoing health crisis.

There was great excitement across the home, from both staff and residents, to see the community Gardai arrive up with their sirens on, delivering the essential PPE equipment and an assortment of Easter Eggs," Ms Donovan told Independent.ie.

"It was such an incredibly kind gesture and showed such community spirit."


YMCA Norfolk supports the vulnerable during crisis YMCA Norfolk supports the vulnerable during crisis

YMCA Norfolk is continuing to provide essential support to vulnerable young people and families across the county during the current Covid-19 outbreak.
United Future Party Chairman Hwang Kyo-ahn, center, urges the government to provide 500,000 won per person in Korea to help cushion the financial shock stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, during his election campaign in Seoul, Sunday. / Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun



By Kang Seung-woo



Major political parties are now unanimously backing a plan to provide emergency disaster relief money to every household to help them deal with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, a more aggressive scheme than the government's earlier plan to provide it to the bottom 70 percent of households.



For some parties, this is a change from their initial stance when they called the government's cash relief plan a "vote-seeking, populist move" ahead of the April 15 general election. Now they are also apparently seeking votes from the upper 30 percent.



However, it remains to be seen if such a plan is feasible as the finance ministry is worried about financial soundness following the expanded allowance.



On March 30, President Moon Jae-in announced that the government would pay emergency disaster relief money to households in the bottom 70 percent income bracket, under which 1 million won ($816) would be given to a four-person household. To finance it, he said the government would push for a second extra budget.



The selective cash relief, however, drew backlash from the upper 30 percent, who claim they were also suffering from the COVID-19 crisis. The plan to determine the 70 percent based on last year's health insurance payments was also criticized for not reflecting people's current financial circumstances and for taking too much time to sort out the beneficiaries.



Then, the opposition parties began to appeal to the upper 30 percent.



Main opposition United Future Party (UFP) Chairman Hwang Kyo-ahn suggested Sunday that the government give 500,000 won to every citizen for disaster relief. He said, without the time required for sorting out the recipients, it would be the most help to those in urgent need. Previously, the conservative party denounced the government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) for pandering to voters by creating the disaster fund.



Other minor parties  the Minsaeng Party and the Justice Party  also called on the government to expand the scope of the recipients, although they had differences over the size of the payout and whether it should be given on an individual or household basis.



The DPK, which hesitated to suggest the expansion of the relief beneficiaries out of concerns over a possible attack from opposition parties, welcomed the move.



"It is important to show that the country protects everyone regardless of region and income," DPK Chairman Rep. Lee Hae-chan said during a party meeting in Busan, Monday.



"As soon as the general election is over, the party will seek measures to offer the disaster fund to the whole country."



The DPK said it requires 9.1 trillion won to carry out the government's initial plan to provide between 400,000 won to 1 million won according to the number of members of a household in the bottom 70 percent, and if it is expanded to include the upper 30 percent, it will need an additional 4 trillion won.



DPK floor leader Lee In-young said, Tuesday, he welcomed Hwang's changed stance, saying it will clear the hurdle of political strife between the rival parties. He suggested an emergency meeting between floor leaders of all parties to allocate the relevant budget swiftly and provide money within this month.



A Cheong Wa Dae official also said the government would submit a second extra budget bill as soon as possible and have deep discussions with the ruling and opposition parties in the process.



However, the Ministry of Economy and Finance remains cautious about the proposal, citing financial stability concerns.



"At this point, the priority is for the government to submit an extra budget bill to the National Assembly for approval of paying those in the bottom 70 percent income bracket," a finance ministry official said.



"Following the general election, if there is another call for expanding the scope of recipients, we will review whether to increase the amount."



In addition, some are skeptical about whether the plan will go as planned after the election as parties may postpone approving the bill for one reason or another once their need to woo voters is fulfilled.


The residents of Harinagar in Ramnagar division were in for a shock after a plate with eggs, lemon and a stick figure made of dough covered with chilli and turmeric powder was found on the middle of the road. (Deccan Chronicle)

Hyderabad: While the whole world, country, state and city have been facing the Coronavirus crisis, a small-time political leader conducted Kshudra puja (black magic) on Sunday night. He even mixed by-products like lemons, turmeric and kunkum on an overhead tank of one lakh litre of water at Risala Khurshid in Harinagar in Ramnagar division.

Alerted locals took the local neta to task and handed over him to Musheerabad police.

According to locals, Ravi Chary, a local BJP leader, performed the Kshudra puja in Ramnagar division at midnight on Sunday. After completing the ritual, he mixed the ingredients of the puja into the overhead water tank.

Suspecting his actions, local took him to task and handed him over to Musheerabad police. He tried to manage the police, but public and local leaders from other political parties mounted pressure on police to book a case against Ravi Chary.

T. Murali Krishna, station house officer, Musheerabad police station, said that police have registered a case and investigation is on. However, the cops did not reveal the sections under which he was booked.
When the coronavirus pandemic started to take hold in the United States and people across the country started staying and working home, consumer groups called for car insurance companies to reduce or return insurance premiums to drivers because people are driving less.

Its starting to happen with Allstate.

In a press release, Allstate said customers would receive what its calling Shelter-In Place Paybacks, promising up to $600 million returned over the next two months.

This is fair because less driving means fewer accidents, said Tom Wilson, the companys chair, president and chief executive officer.

The statement said most customers will receive 15% of their monthly premiums in both April and May through a credit to their bank account, credit card or Allstate account.

Allstate is one of the largest auto insurers in New Jersey. It had about 12 percent of the states policies as of last August, trailing only Geico and New Jersey Manufacturers, according to a survey by ValuePenguin.

The Division of Banking and Insurance (DOBI) said Allstate had 641,242 total insured vehicles in the state as of June 30, 2019, including companies listed under Allstate, Encompass, and Esurance.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage

American Family Insurance, which operates in 19 states but not New Jersey, said it will return about $200 million to drivers, also because theyre driving less during the coronavirus crisis, the companys chief operating officer said.

It said it will make a payment of $50 for each car covered by a policy.

The call for a return of premiums came two weeks ago from the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and the Center for Economic Justice (CEJ).

Allstate and American Family deserve praise for their industry leadership on this vital first step, said J. Robert Hunter, CFAs director of insurance.

While its too early to tell if the amounts promised are enough to reflect the big drop in auto accidents, the actions by American Family and Allstate are the right thing to do to help policyholders beleaguered by COVID-19 restrictions and job loss.

The groups are calling on other insurers to provide similar relief to policyholders.

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